Coenzyme Q10 Less CoQ10 has been observed in some people with cardiac failure due to different causes. Much of the research has been done in patients with congestive heart failure. Some of these studies have shown positive results and others haven't. With one exception, these studies have been done with small numbers of patients for relatively short periods. It's important to note that CoQ10 was given in addition to traditional drug treatments. This makes it hard to know which treatment was the effective one. The ACC/AHA publication "Guidelines for the Evaluation and Management of Chronic Heart Failure in the Adult" reviewed the available data. It concluded that until more data are available, nutritional supplements such as coenzyme Q10 cannot be recommended to treat heart failure. The ACC/AHA publication "2002 Guideline Update for the Management of Patients with Chronic Stable Angina" also lists coenzyme Q10 as a treatment that's not useful or effective for patients with angina. The safety and effectiveness of CoQ10 need to be further evaluated. This requires conducting well-designed clinical trials involving large numbers of patients over a long time. Until that happens, the American Heart Association cannot recommend taking coenzyme Q10 regularly.
Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) is a fat-soluble, vitamin-like substance in every human cell. It's involved in key biochemical reactions that produce energy in cells. It also acts as an antioxidant (an"tih-OK'sih-dant). CoQ10 is naturally present in a variety of foods. Organ meats such as heart, liver and kidney as well as in beef, soybean oil, sardines, mackerel and peanuts are particularly high in CoQ10.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Coenzyme Q10
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Organic Evening Primrose Oil
Other Names: Common Evening Primrose, Photo by Karen Bergeron Copyright 2001 | |
| Description Evening Primrose is a North American native biennial plant. The plants are very tall, often 4 to 5 feet or more in height. The stem is erect, stout, soft-hairy, reddish and branching forming a shrub. Leaves are alternate, rough-hairy, lanceolate, about 3 to 6 inches long and lemon-scented. The taproot is elongated, fibrous, yellow on the outside and whitish within. The flower spikes grow on auxiliary branches all along the stalk. They are about 2-1/2 inched in diameter, bright yellow and have four petals, a cross shaped stigma and a refluxed calyx (leaves under petals). The flowers open in the evening and close up during the day and are strongly scented with a delicious sweet perfume which attracts pollinating moths. The fruit is an oblong 1 in. capsule containing many tiny reddish seeds. Properties Evening Primrose is edible and medicinal and has a long history of use as an alternative medicine . The leaves are cooked and eaten as greens and the roots are said to be sweet succulent and delicious when boiled like potatoes. Flowers are a sweet addition to salads or as a garnish and young seedpods are Steamed. This plant was a staple food for many Native American tribes. Formerly cultivated for its nutritious edible roots, it is being increasingly cultivated for the oil contained in its seeds which contains certain the essential gamma-linoleinc acid (GLA), a very valuable fatty acid that is not found in many plants and has numerous vital functions in the body. GLA is an essential fatty acid that the body does not manufacture. This fatty acid is known to help prevent hardening of the arteries, heart disease, eczema, cirrhosis, rheumatoid arthritis, menopause, PMS, multiple sclerosis, and high blood pressure. It has a positive effect on sex hormone response including the hormones estrogen and testosterone, aids in lowering cholesterol levels, and is important in treating cirrhosis of the liver. Research also demonstrates that primrose oil helps relieve pain and inflammation. The oil also has a positive effect on the uterine muscles, nervous system and metabolism. The bark and the leaves are astringent and sedative. They have proved of use in the treatment of gastro-intestinal disorders, whooping cough and asthma. A tea made from the roots is used in the treatment of obesity. A finely ground powder made from the flowering stems is used cosmetically in face-masks to counteract reddened skins. Recipe Article by Deb Jackson & Karen Bergeron | |
Friday, October 26, 2007
BlackMore Vitamin C
Bio C® 1000mg
May reduce the severity and duration of colds and allergic reactions. May also assist wound healing via its role in collagen production.
Features and benefits
- Contains citrus bioflavonoids extract that helps increase the uptake and utilisation of vitamin C in the body.
- Buffered with mineral ascorbates making it gentle on the stomach.
- Contains the natural sources of vitamin C, rosehips and acerola.
How it works
Vitamin C is involved in hundreds of biological process, the most important being in the manufacture of collagen, the major protein in the body. Collagen is a structural protein found in tissue, cartilage and tendons, and it helps to support blood vessels. Due to its structural role in collagen synthesis vitamin C is necessary for wound repair, healthy gums, minimising of bruising and to replace the risk of infection.
Vitamin C is water-soluble and only small amounts are stored in the body after it is absorbed from the intestine. It is an antioxidant in water, and therefore helps to neutralise potentially harmful reactions in the blood and the watery fluid inside and outside the body’s cells.
Dosage
Adults - Take 1 tablet per day, preferably with main meal or as professionally prescribed. At the early onset of symptoms, this dose may be increased to three tablets per day.
Children (from 4 years to 12 years) - We recommend Blackmores Bio C Chewable.
Children (under 4 years) - Only as professionally prescribed.
Cautions
- If symptoms persist, see your healthcare professional.
- Consult your healthcare professional before use if you have had renal calculi (kidney stones). Ascorbic acid may increase the risk of recurrence of calcium oxalate calculi.
- Always read the label. Use only as directed.
Side Effects
None noted in the literature at recommended dosage.
Active Ingredients Per Tablet
| Ascorbic acid | 400 mg |
| Sodium ascorbate | 350 mg |
| Calcium ascorbate (equiv. to vitamin C 1000mg) | 400 mg |
| Citrus bioflavonoids extract | 25 mg |
| Rutin | 50 mg |
| Hesperidin | 50 mg |
| Rosa canina (Rosehips) extract equivalent to dry fruit | 250 mg |
| Malpighia punicifolia (Acerola) extract equivalent to dry fruit | 50 mg |
Medicine interactions
- In kidney failure should be separated by at least 2 hours from doses of aluminium-containing preparations. Ascorbic acid may increase the absorption of aluminium.
- If taking propranolol, separate doses by at least two hours. Ascorbic acid may decrease the absorption and efficacy of this medication
Physical description
A mustard, large oval shaped tablet with opaque coating.
The Cookie Diet : Can You Lose Weight on a Cookie Diet?
Dr. Sanford Siegal makes a weight-loss offer that sounds hard to refuse: the Cookie Diet, a pound-shedding program that he says has helped thousands of his patients drop an average of 15 pounds per month.
The key is a carefully crafted cookie recipe, which suppresses hunger, paired with very specific dinner menu, said Siegal of Siegal Medical Group in Miami.
"On this diet, you have one meal only: dinner," Siegal said. "The dinner consists of 6 ounces of chicken, turkey, fish or seafood."
Along with the lean meat choices, the diet allows one cup of vegetables with dinner. Red meats are discouraged because of their high fat content. The rest of the diet consists of exactly six hunger-suppressing cookies per day, which are baked in Siegal's own bakery in Miami and available only to patients in Siegal's clinics (five in Florida, and one in Montreal.)
The cookies are not for breakfast or for lunch, but rather for whenever the dieter is hungry, though they must eat six a day. The six cookies, plus the one dinner, adds up to 800 calories. Dieters should also consume eight glasses of liquid a day, which includes coffee and tea, Siegal says.
Too Few Calories?
Critics say the diet's requirement of 800 calories a day is too low, and that it lacks nutritional staples that give us the vitamins and minerals we need.
"It's really just another fad diet that will hook people in with the gimmick of being able to eat cookies all day," said Amy Campbell, a nutrition and diabetes educator at the Joslin Clinic in Boston. "While this sounds appealing, a closer look at the details reveals that this is not a nutritious eating plan at all."
The 800 calories a day is below that which is recommended for safe and effective weight loss, and the diet is woefully lacking in fruits and vegetables, as well as calcium, vitamin D4 and fiber, she said.
Siegal says that there have been no problems with the diet in terms of patient safety, and that it is supplemented with vitamins.
Unlike diet pills designed to suppress your appetite, the cookies do not have drugs in them, Siegal said. Instead, the cookies contain amino-acids in the form of hunger-suppressing proteins: oats, rice, whole wheat flour, bran.
"We've worked with this mixture over the years to the point it works quite well as an appetite suppressant," Siegal said. "And it enables someone to eat an 800-calories-a-day diet and not get hungry."
Ela Prieto, a 39-year-old bank executive, lost 51 pounds, shrinking from a size 14 to a size 4. She was on the cookie diet for four and a half months, and then went off the diet and onto a maintenance program for the last two years, on which she eats about 1,200 calories a day, and exercises.
"The first five days, like on every diet, it's not easy," Prieto said. But instead of toting around a salad or a TV dinner, she just put her cookies in a Ziploc bag and kept them with her.
"And I'm not hungry," she said. "The cookies do satisfy."
They cookies are available in chocolate, raisin or coconut — but flavorful, they're not.
"They're not the world's best cookies — but they weren't intended to be," Siegal said. The makers or Oreos and Mrs. Fields shouldn't lose any sleep, he said.
The cookies themselves are low in fiber and two of the flavors are high in saturated fat, which can raise the risk of heart disease, Campbell said.
"Practically anyone who consumes only 800 calories per day will lose weight — the point is that, again, it's not a healthful way to lose weight," she said.
Not Enough Carbs?
Connie Diekman, the director of university nutrition at Washington University in St. Louis, was similarly unimpressed.
The six cookies daily supply a total of 60 grams of carbohydrates, which when added to the 10 from vegetables make the carbohydrate intake a total of 70 grams per day — much below the 100 to 125 grams per day minimum for health, Diekman said. Calorie-wise, each cookie is like a slice of bread, a nutritional mix of several different food types that is probably equivalent to half a serving of lowfat dairy, and half a fruit serving.
"Again, this is a low-carb, low-calorie eating plan that will promote weight loss, but not necessarily body fat change, making it a less-than-healthy choice," she said.
Siegal said that the cookie diet is not something patients would stay on permanently.
"It depends on how much weight you have to lose. Three out of four lose 15 pounds a month," Siegal said. "No one will follow a diet for a lifetime, so we change the method to get them to burn up more calories."
Although five pounds a month is often cited as a sustainable level of weight loss, Siegal says the quicker the better.
"The only people we see who maintain their weight are those who get to the goal set before them," Siegal said.
Credits : http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Story?id=125395&page=1
Friday, October 19, 2007
original apple cider vinegar diet
Apple cider vinegar is an acidic solution produced by fermenting apples. The combination of the acidic vinegar and fruit pectin is supposedly the reason behind this solution's "fat burning effects".
Daily Intake of Apple Cider Vinegar
In order to complete the apple cider vinegar diet, you must take one, two, or three teaspoons of apple vinegar before each meal. While it can be quite difficult to get three teaspoons down initially, after a couple of days most people have no problem working up to it. Any more than three is most likely beyond what your stomach can handle anyway, due to the strongly acidic nature of the vinegar. That said, there are now apple cider vinegar diet pills which are probably far easier to consume if you are set on trying this diet out.
Does the Apple Cider Vinegar Diet Work?
Like many other fad diets , it's not clear as to whether there are any properties in the vinegar that will help you lose weight. In fact, vinegar has been around as a "diet miracle" since Lord Byron popularized it in the 1820's according to the American Dietetic Association's Fad Diet Timeline. The primary reason that this diet would work is that you are told to eat moderate portions, watch the nutritional composition of the food you eat, and get exercise. Just doing those alone is often enough to stimulate your body to maintain a healthy weight, if not lose weight.
Liposomal Glutathione
What is Glutathione? 
Glutathione is a peptide and an anti-oxidant naturally produced in the body. It is important to good health and long life. Levels may drop as a result of oxidative stress due to disease, drugs, aging, toxic chemicals, inflammation, and stress in general. Adequate levels of glutathione are necessary to provide important antioxidant protection needed by the cells, to help eliminate toxic metabolic waste products and to support the immune system.
What is a Liposome? Derived from lecithin, a liposome is a microscopic fluid-filled pouch with walls identical to the phospholipids that make up the human cell membranes. The outer wall of the liposome is fat soluble—while the inside is water-soluble. This combination enables liposomes to be readily absorbed, allowing for systemic availability of the water-soluble materials that would otherwise not be absorbed into the body. The administering of therapeutic compounds via liposomal technology has been effective in many areas.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Vitamin C and skin
While most of us know that Vitamin C is an important part of a healthy diet, we may not be aware of the importance and ubiquity of Vitamin C in our numerous body processes. Since its discovery sixty-five years ago, Vitamin C has come to be known as something of a 'wonder worker.'
Vitamin C reaches every cell of the body. It can be found helping the immune system to fight off foreign invaders and tumor cells, supporting the cardiovascular system, fighting off free-radicals, assisting the nervous system, as well as functioning as a primary ingredient of - the most abundant of the fibers contained in connective tissue. Skin, teeth and bones all benefit from Vitamin C's collagen-forming and invader-resisting properties. Unfortunately, humans are one of the few animals that cannot produce Vitamin C on our own, so we must obtain this vital nutrient through our diet.
Your skin will benefit from ample Vitamin C, obtained through your diet or a supplement, as well as applied topically. When applied to the skin, Vitamin C stimulates cell renewal, collagen and production and increases healthy circulation. Because your skin is your first line of defense, Vitamin C also boosts your skin's natural immune properties and its can help minimize the damage caused by free radicals from the sun, pollution and smoking. Free radicals accelerate skin damage and the wrinkles associated with premature aging. Vitamin C can also help brighten the skin, reducing the discoloration of the skin that can occur from years of sun exposure.
Vitamin A
Vitamin A is an essential human nutrient. It exists not as a single compound, but in several forms. In foods of animal origin, the major form of vitamin A is an alcohol (retinol), but can also exist as an aldehyde (retinal), or as an acid (retinoic acid). Precursors to the vitamin (a provitamin) are present in foods of plant origin as some of the members of the carotenoid family of compounds.
All forms of Vitamin A have a Beta-ionone ring to which an isoprenoid chain is attached. This structure is essential for vitamin activity.
* retinol, the animal form of Vitamin A, is a yellow, fat-soluble, vitamin with importance in vision and bone growth.
* other retinoids, a class of chemical compounds that are related chemically to Vitamin A, are used in medicine.