Why is Vitamin D Important?

Calcium Magnesium D

The hottest topic in medicine isn't the newest drug or the latest surgical device: It's vitamin D.

What brought the simmering debate to a boil was a 2007 study showing that people taking normal vitamin D supplements were 7% less likely to die than those who didn't take the daily supplements.

A year later, a major study found that when women with low vitamin D levels get breast cancer, they have a much higher chance of dying from their cancer than women with normal vitamin D levels.

That was surprising news. But just as surprising is the fact that many men, women, and children have insufficient blood levels of this important vitamin.

How many? Data suggest many of us don't get the vitamin D we need. For example, a 2007 study of childbearing women found insufficient vitamin D levels in about 50% of women.

These findings recommend doubling the amount of vitamin D a child should take, is also advised for adults to increase their vitamin D intake also.

Vitamin D Overview

Vitamin D can be found in small amounts in a few foods, including fatty fish such as herring, mackerel, sardines and tuna. To make vitamin D more available, it is added to dairy products, juices, and cereals that are then said to be “fortified with vitamin D.” But most vitamin D – 80% to 90% of what the body gets – is obtained through exposure to sunlight. Vitamin D can also be made in the laboratory as medicine.

Vitamin D is used for preventing and treating rickets, a disease that is caused by not having enough vitamin D (vitamin D deficiency). Vitamin D is also used for treating weak bones (osteoporosis), bone pain (osteomalacia), bone loss in people with a condition called hyperparathyroidism, and an inherited disease (osteogenesis imperfecta) in which the bones are especially brittle and easily broken. It is also used for preventing falls and fractures in people at risk for osteoporosis, and preventing low calcium and bone loss (renal osteodystrophy) in people with kidney failure.

Vitamin D is used for conditions of the heart and blood vessels, including high blood pressure and high cholesterol. It is also used for diabetes, obesity, muscle weakness, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, bronchitis, premenstrual syndrome (PMS), and tooth and gum disease.

Some people use vitamin D for skin conditions including vitiligo, scleroderma, psoriasis, actinic keratosis, and lupus vulgaris.

It is also used for boosting the immune system, preventing autoimmune diseases, and preventing cancer.

Because vitamin D is involved in regulating the levels of minerals such as phosphorous and calcium, it is used for conditions caused by low levels of phosphorous (familial hypophosphatemia and Fanconi syndrome) and low levels of calcium (hypoparathyroidism and pseudohypoparathyroidism).

Vitamin D in forms known as calcitriol or calcipotriene is applied directly to the skin for a particular type of psoriasis.

If you travel to Canada, you may have noticed that Canada recognizes the importance of vitamin D in the prevention of osteoporosis. It allows this health claim for foods that contain calcium: "A healthy diet with adequate calcium and vitamin D, and regular physical activity, help to achieve strong bones and may reduce the risk of osteoporosis.” But the US version of this osteoporosis health claim does not yet include vitamin D.

How does Vitamin D work?

Vitamin D is required for the regulation of the minerals calcium and phosphorus found in the body. It also plays an important role in maintaining proper bone structure.

Sun exposure is an easy, reliable way for most people to get vitamin D. Exposure of the hands, face, arms, and legs to sunlight two to three times a week for about one-fourth of the time it would take to develop a mild sunburn will cause the skin to produce enough vitamin D. The necessary exposure time varies with age, skin type, season, time of day, etc.

It’s amazing how quickly adequate levels of vitamin D can be restored by sunlight. Just 6 days of casual sunlight exposure without sunscreen can make up for 49 days of no sunlight exposure. Body fat acts like a kind of storage battery for vitamin D. During periods of sunlight, vitamin D is stored in fatty fat and then released when sunlight is gone.

Nevertheless, vitamin D deficiency is more common than you might expect. People who don’t get enough sun, especially people living in Canada and the northern half of the US, are especially at risk. Vitamin D deficiency also occurs even in sunny climates, possibly because people are staying indoors more, covering up when outside, or using sunscreens consistently these days to reduce skin cancer risk.

Older people are also at risk for vitamin D deficiency. They are less likely to spend time in the sun, have fewer “receptors” in their skin that convert sunlight to vitamin D, may not get vitamin D in their diet, may have trouble absorbing vitamin D even if they do get it in their diet, and may have more trouble converting dietary vitamin D to a useful form due to aging kidneys. In fact, the risk for vitamin D deficiency in people over 65 years of age is very high. Surprisingly, as many as 40% of older people even in sunny climates such as South Florida don’t have enough vitamin D in their systems.

Vitamin D supplements may be necessary for older people, people living in northern latitudes, and for dark-skinned people who need extra time in the sun, but don’t get it.

(source: http://www.vitamins-ph.com/2010/03/are-you-taking-todays-most-popular.html)

Cancer the Shocking Truth

1. Every person has cancer cells in the body. These cancer cells do not show up in the standard tests until they have multiplied to a few billion.When doctors tell cancer patients that there are no more cancer cells in their bodies after treatment, it just means the tests are unable to detect the cancer cells because they have not reached the detectable size.

2. Cancer cells occur between 6 to more than 10 times in a person's lifetime.

3. When the person's immune system is strong the cancer cells will be destroyed and prevented from multiplying and forming tumours.

4. When a person has cancer it indicates the person has multiple nutritional deficiencies. These could be due to genetic, environmental, food and lifestyle factors.

5. To overcome the multiple nutritional deficiencies, changing diet and including supplements will strengthen the immune system.

6. Chemotherapy involves poisoning the rapidly-growing cancer cells and also destroys rapidly-growing healthy cells in the bone marrow,gastro-intestinaltract etc, and can cause organ damage, like liver, kidneys, heart, lungs etc.

7. Radiation while destroying cancer cells also burns, scars and damages healthy cells, tissues and organs.

8. Initial treatment with chemotherapy and radiation will often reduce tumour size. However prolonged use of chemotherapy and radiation do not result in more tumour destruction.

9. When the body has too much toxic burden from chemotherapy and radiation the immune system is either compromised or destroyed, hence the person can succumb to various kinds of infections and complications.

10. Chemotherapy and radiation can cause cancer cells to mutate and become resistant and difficult to destroy. Surgery can also cause cancer cells to spread to other sites.

11. An effective way to battle cancer is to starve the cancer cells by not feeding it with the foods it needs to multiply.

CANCER CELLS FEED ON:
a. Sugar is a cancer-feeder. By cutting off sugar it cuts off one important food supply to the cancer cells. Sugar substitutes like NutraSweet, Equal,Spoonful, etc are made with Aspartame and it is harmful. A better natural substitute would be Mänuka honey or molasses but only in very small amounts.Table salt has a chemical added to make it white in colour. Better alternative is Bragg's aminos or sea salt.

b. Milk causes the body to produce mucus, especially in the gastro-intestinal tract. Cancer feeds on mucus. By cutting off milk and substituting with unsweetened Soya milk cancer cells are being starved.

c. Cancer cells thrive in an acid environment. A meat-based diet is acidic and Meat also contains live stock antibiotics, growth hormones and parasites,which are all harmful, especially to people with cancer.

d. A diet made of 80% fresh vegetables and juice, whole grains, seeds,nuts and a little fruits help put the body into an alkaline environment. About20% can be from cooked food including beans.

Fresh vegetable juices provide live enzymes that are easily absorbed and reach down to cellular levels within 15 minutes to nourish and enhance growth of healthy cells. To obtain live enzymes for building healthy cells try and drink fresh vegetable juice (most vegetables including beansprouts)and eat some raw vegetables 2 or 3 times a day. Enzymes are destroyed at temperatures of 104 degrees F (40 degrees C).

e. Avoid coffee, tea, and chocolate, which have high caffeine. Green tea is a better alternative and has cancer-fighting properties. Water-best to drink purified water, or filtered, to avoid known toxins and heavy metals in tap water. Distilled water is acidic, avoid it.

12. Meat protein is difficult to digest and requires a lot of digestive enzymes. Undigested meat remaining in the intestines become putrefied and leads to more toxic build-up.

13. Cancer cell walls have a tough protein covering. By refraining from or eating less meat it frees more enzymes to attack the protein walls of cancer cells and allows the body's killer cells to destroy the cancer cells.

14. Some supplements build up the immune system (IP6, Flor-ssence,Essiac,anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals, EFAs etc.) to enable the body's own killer cells to destroy cancer cells. Other supplements like vitamin E are known to cause apoptosis, or programmed cell death, the body's normal method of disposing of damaged, unwanted, or unneeded cells.

15. Cancer is a disease of the mind, body, and spirit. A proactive and positive spirit will help the cancer warrior be a survivor. Anger,unforgiveness and bitterness put the body into a stressful and acidic environment. Learn to have a loving and forgiving spirit. Learn to relax and enjoy life.

16. Cancer cells cannot thrive in an oxygenated environment. Exercising daily, and deep breathing help to get more oxygen down to the cellular level. Oxygen therapy is another means employed to destroy cancer cells.

 (Source: http://www.myhomeremedies.com/topic.cgi?topicid=43)

The Miracle Fruit in the Philippines

The Miracle Fruit in the Philippines

Sa unang tingin mo palang you will think na it's a big grape fruit or kabugaw in our dialect. I have seen this a year ago infront of a house of a friend. I thought this is just a nonsense plant. Yon pala it's what they called the "Miracle Fruit".  Others still dont know the medicinal uses of this plant. The fruit sells at about 300 in other places but I can buy it in our town for just 50 pesos or they can give it to you freely if you know them. All I do is to open the fruit with a big knife then scrape the contents of the fruit and cook it 45 minutes. The white pulp will turn dark. Then when its cool I get the juice, put it in the ref and there I have my own miracle fruit juice. I drink half a cup everyday in the evening. I've tried to search it in the internet and I have found what this fruit is.

 Uses
Folkloric
• In India, used as a pectoral, the poulticed pulp applied to the chest.
• In the West Indies, syrup prepared from the pulp used for dysentery and as pectoral.
• In Rio de Janeiro, the alcoholic extract of the not-quite ripe fruit used to relieve constipation
• For erysipelas, the fresh pulp is boiled in water to form a black paste, mixed and boiled with vinegar, spread on linen for dermatologic application.
• The bark is used for mucoid diarrhea.
• Fruit pulp used as laxative and expectorant.
• In the Antilles and Western Africa, fruit pulp macerated in water is considered depurative, cooling and febrifuge, and applied to burns and headaches.
• In West Africa, fruit roasted in ashes is purgative and diuretic.
• In Sumatra, bark decoction used to clean wounds and pounded leaves used as poultice for headaches.
• Internally, leaves used as diuretic.
• In the Antilles, fresh tops and leaves are ground and used as topicals for wounds and as cicatrizant.
• In Venezuela, decoction of bark used for diarrhea. Also, used to treat hematomas and tumors.
• In Costa Rica, used as purgative.
• In Cote-d'Ivoire, used for hypertension because of its diuretic effect.
• In Columbia, used for respiratory afflictions.
• In Vietnam, used as expectorant, antitussive, laxative and stomachic.
• In Haiti, the fruit of Crescentia cujete is part of the herbal mixtures reported in its traditional medicine. In the province of Camaguey in Cuba, is considered a panacea.
• In Panama, where it is called totumo, the fruit is used for diarrhea and stomachaches. Also for respiratory ailments, bronchitis, cough, colds, toothaches. headaches, menstrual irregularities; as laxative, antiinflammatory, febrifuge. The leaves are used for hypertension.
 (Source: http://www.stuartxchange.org/Cujete.html)


If you want to know more check this out http://www.stuartxchange.org/Cujete.html

Do Fresh Lemon Grass Drinks Cause Apoptosis to Cancer Cells?

We have a small plantation of lemon grass or we call it Tanglad in the backyard, my mom loves to plant this and we enjoy it's sweet smelling aroma. We always added it in Chicken soup menu which makes it taste great. But is it really beneficial to our health?  

Fact is the health benefits of Lemon grass are countless. First, studies have shown that it has antibacterial and antifungal properties. It is also known to help cleanse and detoxify the liver, pancreas, kidneys, bladder and the digestive tract.

 

WHAT IS LEMON GRASS?

Lemon Grass

Lemon grass (Cymbopogon citratus), a native of India, is widely used in Thai and Vietnamese cooking. Lemon grass is a perennial, which means once you plant it, the grass comes back year after year. Depending on the area you live in the plant will go dormant in the winter. In harsh climates the plant will need to be potted and wintered indoors. This aromatic herb is used in Caribbean and many types of Asian cooking and has become very popular in the United States. Most of the commercial crops for the United States are grown in California and Florida. Lemon grass is also used for medicinal purposes.

French: Citronnelle

German  : Zitronengras

Italian  : erba di limone

Spanish  : hierba de limon

Indian  : bhustrina, sera

Indonesian  : sere, sereh

Lao  : bai mak nao

Malay  : serai

Sinhalese  : sera

Thai  : takrai

Philippines: tanglad 

WHERE YOU CAN GET LEMON GRASS?

At the supermarket - Chinese, English, Italian, Vietnamese, Indian
They are sold in bundles of 6, 8 or more stalks and costs just a few dollars.
For more info, see Wikipedia
Subject: Fresh Lemon Grass Drink Causes Apoptosis to Cancer Cells.doc
 

Properties

Lemongrass, or Cymbopogon citratus, is a tall, perennial aromatic grass, native to tropical Asia. The fresh and dried leaves of the plant contain volatile oils made up of compounds such as citral and myrcene that are responsible for its immense medicinal value. The infusions of the leaves have been used traditionally to treat a variety of conditions including inflammation, fungal infections, insomnia and high blood pressure, reports the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. The recommended dose will vary, based on your age and overall health; your doctor can determine what dosage is right for you. In addition, as a powerful antioxidant, lemongrass protects cells against the harmful effects of unstable free radicals, which interact with the DNA and proteins of cells and damage them, leading to conditions such as cancer.

 

Anti-Cancer Role

Lemongrass extracts inhibit the early phases of liver cancer in laboratory animals and may help slow progression of the disease, according to a study published in the September 2002 journal Cancer Letters. Another study in the October 2009 journal Fundamental and Clinical Pharmacology reveals that citral found in the essential oils of lemongrass inhibits the growth of breast cancer cells in the laboratory and induces apoptosis, or the programmed cell death, of the cancer cells. A chemical compound called isointermedeol, isolated from some lemongrass species, also induces the apoptosis of cancer cells, reports Sloan-Kettering. However, these benefits are only proven in laboratory studies, and more research and clinical trials are needed.

Side Effects

Lemongrass is generally safe to use, although side effects such as dizziness, dry mouth, increased appetite and increased urination have been reported occasionally. Lemongrass may also interfere with certain cancer medications, and high doses of lemongrass essential oils may damage the stomach and liver mucosal lining, warns Sloan-Kettering. Taking lemongrass during pregnancy may lead to birth defects.

Precautions

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration does not regulate production and distribution of lemongrass supplements; make sure the product you intend to use has been tested for safety and efficacy. Find out more about the manufacturer of the supplement, and look for U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention logo indicating it has passed supplement safety tests. Talk to your doctor before using lemongrass to prevent or treat cancer.

Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/532578-lemongrass-cancer/#ixzz1d8Z1HvG9

 

Definition of Apoptosis

In multicellular organisms, the number and type of cells in a tissue or organ is tightly regulated. Slowing or halting cell replication is one way to limit the number of cells. Another way is through regulated "suicide" of existing cells. This process is called programmed cell death or apoptosis. It is distinct from necrosis, in which cells die due to an acute injury. Instead, cells activate specific molecular signals that result in collapse of the cell structure, fragmentation of the nuclear DNA and cell membrane breakdown. The dying cell is rapidly engulfed by macrophage cells of the immune system.

Apoptosis and Cancer

Apoptosis is a key process that maintains healthy tissue function. Throughout our lifetime, normal metabolic processes or environmental exposures cause some cells to become damaged or mutated. These are typically removed through programmed cell death or apoptosis, a process that causes no local inflammation and leaves neighboring cells unaffected. When this regulatory system is altered, such as by a mutation, cells accumulate inappropriately in the tissue. Defective apoptosis is therefore one cause of tumor growth and progression.

Lemon Grass

Cymbopogon citratus is the scientific name for the lemon grass plant. This aromatic tropical grass is used as an herb for flavoring food and drinks in Asian cuisine. When crushed, both the grass and the fragrant yellow flowers produce a lemony scent. Other common names for the plant include fever grass, sereh, citroengras, te limon and zacate limon. The plant has also been applied in traditional medicine as an antiseptic and is now used in the cosmetic industry.

Anticancer Activity of Lemon Grass

In 2009, researchers at the Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine reported that an essential oil from the lemon grass variety Cymbopogon flexuosus was able to induce apoptosis in cancer cells. The lemon grass oil was effective in killing colon cancer cells, neuroblastoma cells and promyelocytic leukemia cells. In addition, the oil caused apoptosis in two types of solid tumors in animal studies. Earlier studies at the Ben Gurion University of the Negev in Israel indicated that citral, an ingredient in lemon-scented essential oils including those from lemon grass Cymbopogon citratus, causes apoptosis in tumor cells grown in the laboratory.

Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/525481-do-fresh-lemon-grass-drinks-cause-apoptosis-to-cancer-cells/#ixzz1d8ZJzhKe

Fresh Lemon Grass Drink Causes Apoptosis to Cancer Cells
Apoptosis - noun: a type of cell death in which the cell uses specialized cellular machinery to kill itself; a cell suicide mechanism that enables metazoans to control cell number and eliminate cells that threaten the animal's survival.

 
Health Benefits of Lemon Grass:

• It contains an antibacterial and antifungal properties
• It helps to detoxify the liver, pancreas, kidney, bladder and the digestive tract.
• Helps boost the immune system
• Helps reduce uric acid, cholesterol, excess fats
• It helps alleviates indigestion and gastroenteritis.
• Helps improve the skin by reducing acne and pimples
• It helps tone the muscle and tissues.

• Helps in menstrual troubles
• Helps reduce blood pressure and improve blood circulation
• Helps reduce cellulite
• Act as sedative for the central nervous system.
• May help prevent colon cancer.
• Helps in reducing fevers
• Help in flatulence and colic
• Relieves arthritic pain and rheumatism

Lemon grass for Cooking: The leaves and base of lemon grass are used as a food flavoring especially in Southeast Asian dishes. The long thin grey-green leaves are tough and fibrous, the outside leaves and the tips are usually chopped very finely or discarded from the dish before it is served.

How to Use Essential Oil: Apply 2 drops of concentrated lemongrass oil per ounce of organic unrefined almond oil, olive oil or any of you favorite oil. You can use the mixture to your skin as massage oil, lotion and moisturizer. As a relaxing scent add 1 - 2 drops in a cloth and inhale to relax your senses.

How to make Lemon grass Herbal Tea:

• Fresh Leaves: Pour 2 cups of water to ¼ cup lemon grass leaves, then boil and simmer for 3minutes. Let is cool and drink.
• Dried Leaves: Pour a cup of boiling water over 2 teaspoons of dried lemon grass leaves. Steep for 5-10 minutes before drinking.