Tag: Osteoporosis

New Study: Turmeric Extract Puts Drugs to Shame

Published on by OrganicREADY8 Comments

Millions turn to non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs) and analgesics, like Tylenol, for pain relief, but the regular, chronic use of these types of medications is associated with significant, and very serious, side effects such as cardiovascular problems, gastrointestinal harm and kidney and/or liver damage. There are natural alternative that already exist that are as easily accessible and inexpensive as the spices found in your kitchen cupboard.

20121221-125209.jpg

    Turmeric (Curcuma longa), is a bright yellow spice. Even more potent than its volatile oil is the yellow or orange pigment of turmeric, which is called curcumin. It’s a powerful natural spice that has long been used in the Chinese and Indian systems of medicine as an anti-inflammatory agent to treat a variety of conditions, including flatulence, jaundice, menstrual difficulties, bloody urine, hemorrhage, toothache, bruises, chest pain, and colic.

Despite many years of investigation as a lead drug compound, and the availability of thousands of preclinical studies indicating turmeric’s therapeutic value, many people haven’t realize that this common kitchen spice may offer a suitable drug alternative for common health conditions.

We’re living in a world that depends on popping pills to treat illnesses and it’s also affecting how investors spend their money.

Not many companies are willing to do the human research on the health benefits of turmeric, mainly due to lack of capital available to fund expensive clinical trials. A study that confirm turmeric’s medicinal value was published in the Indonesian Journal of Internal Medicine in April, 2012. The study found the curcuminoid extract of turmeric was able to reduce inflammation in patients suffering from knee osteoarthritis.

To read the entire study click here! The results are astonishing and very promising. I urge you to pass this article on and reblogg. It’s very important to spread the word about this Super-spice.

Numerous studies have looked into this potential cancer-fighting link with curcumin, and promising results. For instance, curcumin has been found to:

    Inhibit the proliferation of tumor cells
    Inhibit the transformation of cells from normal to tumor
    Help your body destroy mutated cancer cells so they cannot spread throughout your body
    Decrease inflammation
    Enhance liver function
    Inhibit the synthesis of a protein thought to be instrumental in tumor formation
    Prevent the development of additional blood supply necessary for cancer cell growth

Other readings on Turmeric:

Food Fact: Turmeric
Research conducted on Curcumin/Turmeric
Dr. Andrew Weil/Huffington Post
Nagabhushan M, Bhide SV. Curcumin as an inhibitor of cancer. J Am Coll Nutr. 1992 Apr;11(2):192-8. 1992. PMID:1578097.

How Too Much Calcium Can Break Your Bones

Published on by OrganicREADY3 Comments

ImageDid you know that most calcium supplements on the market today are basically limestone? Yes, that’s chalk. Conceal it within a capsule, a slickly glazed tablet, or in the form of a silky smooth liquid, and it is magically transformed into a “calcium supplement”: easy to swallow, “good for the bones” and a very profitable commodity for both the dietary supplement and mining industries. After all, a sizable portion of the Earth’s crust is composed of the stuff.

Calcium carbonate comes very cheap. But does it work?  A review published in Osteoporosis International Aug. 2008 concluded that calcium monotherapy (without vitamin d) actually increases the rate of fracture in women.  If we believe the results of this study, it would appear that calcium alone may do nothing to prevent bone fracture or the loss of bone quality. Were this the end of the story, we might write off the $100 or more we spend on calcium supplements every year as a loss, and start drinking more milk. Not so quick!

In the Harvard Nurses’ Health Study, a review tracking 78,000 nurses for 12 years found that the more cow’s milk they consumed, the higher rate of bone fracture they experienced; in the study, the relative risk of hip fracture was 45% higher in those women who drank two or more glasses of milk per day versus those who drank one glass or less.

In fact, in countries where both dairy consumption and overall calcium levels in the diet are the lowest, bone fracture rates are also the lowest; conversely, in cultures like the United States where calcium consumption is among the highest in the world, so too are the fracture rates among the highest (see: The China Study).

Osteoporosis, after all, is a complex disease process, involving lack of strenuous exercise, chronic inflammation, multiple mineral and vitamin deficiencies, inadequate production of steroid hormones, dietary incompatibilites and many other known and unknown factors, the least of which is in any probability related to a lack of elemental calcium in the diet. Also, osteoporosis, as defined by X-ray analysis, e.g. Dual-emission X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scans, can only directly measure bone mineral density and not structural integrity/strength, which is the real-world indicator of whether your bone will resist breaking when under the trauma, say, of a serious fall.

If we rule out drug (e.g. steroids, synthroid, acid-blockers) and hyperparathyroidism-induced osteoporosis, arguably the two main contributing factors associated with lower-than-normal bone mineral density are:

1) Dietary Acidosis: caused by the excessive consumption of acid forming foods like starchy grains, dairy (excluding goat’s milk) and meat, all of which result in the leaching of the alkaline mineral stores in our bones. (Additionally, the consumption of highly acidic substances like coffee, alcohol, sugar, over the counter and prescribed drugs, and even the metabolic byproducts of chronic stress can all put the acid/alkaline balance beyond the tipping point).  The flip-side is the under-consumption of alkalinizing fruits and vegetables, which disburden the mineral stores within the skeletal system of their sacrificial, acid-neutralizing role.

2) Malabsorption Syndrome: caused in large part by the excessive consumption of wheat, cow’s milk products, soy (non-fermented) and corn.* All four of these foods, in fact, can be used to produce industrial adhesives, e.g .wheat = book binding glue, cow’s milk protein (casein) = Elmer’s glue, soy = plywood glue, corn = cardboard glue, and while not a problem for everyone, for many, their ingestion leads to a disruption of the absorptive capacity of the villi in the intestines by producing a “gluey coating,” contributing to inflammation and atrophy of the villi. Other causes include dysbiosis, an overgrowth of unfriendly and undergrowth of friendly bacteria in the alimentary canal, as well as acute and/or chronic stress which depletes the glutamine without which the intestinal villi die (villi cell turnover occurs within 2 days, indicating even acute bouts of stress of short duration can cause profound damage). You don’t see a lack of calcium or Boniva in this picture, do you?

Fortunately these two factors are completely preventable and treatable through dietary and lifestyle changes. It is increasingly clear that osteoporosis is not caused by a lack of calcium; to the contrary, it appears that excessive calcium intake may actually cause greater bone fracture rates, especially later in life! After all, the traditional Chinese peasant diet, based as it is on eating a calcium-poor, plant-based diet, included approximately 250 mg of food calcium a day – not the 1200 mg (or more!) a day the National Osteoporosis Foundation claims is necessary for women and men over 40 to maintain strong bones. 

To read more click here: http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/how-too-much-calcium-can-break-your-bones