Propolis The natural antibiotic

Propolis is yet another nutrient, and is hailed as a natural antibiotic. Propolis is a resinous substance collected by bees from plants and trees, it is mostly resins, balsams and waxes, and partly of pollen and essential oils, which are mixed by the bees salivary glands and used in the construction of the hive. It has been used thoughout history for a wide range of conditions.
Propolis contains a great variety of amino acids, vitamins, minerals and bioflavonoids. The Greeks used to use it to treat wounds. During the past twenty years, scientific studies have rediscovered Propolis and found it to be a great booster of the immune system, enhancing the immune response and resisitance against disease.
A recent study at Oxford University has revealed that Propolis can help to cure inflammatiions, while a Chinese research has found Propolis effective in treating hypertension and arteriosclerosis, and Soviet scientist's have shown that Propolis can prevent ulcers.
It is now used for a wide range of conditions such as colds, sore throats, coughs, allergies, vaginal infections, acne, and herpes. I have been asked if it would cure a chest infection, but I am sorry I have no idea.

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My First Public Health Book

In 1995, as a high school student, I read the first edition of Joan Ryan's book "Little Girls in Pretty Boxes".  I picked it up because I figure skated for many years (from age 2-14).  Little did I know that I was starting my first exploration into public health.

The book examined public health issues like eating disorders and sports injuries.  It argued for policies that would protect young figure skaters and gymnasts from injury and from exploitation by their coaches, families, and industry.  Ryan conducted intensive interviews for the book, which allowed her to highlight several cases like that of Christy Henrich.  Henrich was a talented and promising U.S. gymnast who died from anorexia at the age of twenty-two.

I thought of this book today when I read a beautiful and honest blog post by Jennifer Kirk called, "An Unrealized Dream".  Jennifer Kirk is a decorated, elite U.S. figure skater who retired from competitive skating in August 2005.  She retired in order to focus on her health and to recover from bulimia, alcoholism, and cutting.  Her post highlights the complexities of these health problems.  They were influenced by her sport, her family, her support system, her early independence, and the pressure that was put on her to have a successful career.

While some safeguards for elite skaters and gymnasts have been put in place since "Little Girls in Pretty Boxes" (e.g., the hotly debated minimum age standards for competition), we still have improvements to make.  Jennifer talks about the strong influence of family and coaches regarding athlete safety and self esteem:

"A few months before I quit skating, my dad and coaches found out about my eating disorder, but nothing was done to get me the help I needed.  This reinforced my belief that skating and my career held paramount importance over other aspects of my life."  

Recently, much of the discussion of elite athlete safety has been focused on the National Football League (NFL), but the same questions are applicable here.  Are athletes putting themselves at risk by playing with injuries (e.g., concussions)?  What is the current organizational culture and does it support an intervention to protect athletes?  Do the coaches and trainers really have the athletes' best interests at heart or are they focused on winning and protecting their investment?

What do you think?  What more can we do to protect athletes at all levels (from recreational to elite)?

Energy therapies

The body's subtle or hidden "energy field" or "life force" is addressed through energy therapies. The energy is said to be channelled in pathways, meridians in Chinese medicine, and in yoga there are energy centres, called chakras, which are used to focus different sorts of energy.
Energy therapies are often based on Eastern ideas of health and disease and work on the basis that illness is the result of an imbalance or interruption of the body's natural energy or life force at a very fine or subtle level. Oriental ideas of energy are increasingly being used in the treatment of pain. These therapies include acupuncture, acupressure and faith healing,

Why Kale is being labled a superfood

Kale is now being labled as a new superfood. It has lots of vitamins and minerals essential for a healthy body.

(NaturalNews) While there's no official definition of the term superfood, the generally implied idea is a fruit or vegetable that is particularly nutritious and beneficial to your overall health and wellness, with high phytonutrient content. By that definition, kale should have a spot in the top ten. If you want to be healthy, there's no avoiding the leafy green vegetables, and kale is one of the most nourishing. It is a good source of calcium, magnesium, vitamin A, vitamin C, fiber, iron, folic acid, amino acids, antioxidant flavonoids, and lutein. It is easy to prepare, versatile, and delicious.

Conversely, environmentalists cite meat production as one of the top ten contributors to climate change. There are 7 billion people on the planet and 55 billion large animals that are raised for food each year making lots of waste and stretching resources. Which is why the famous author of The Omnivore's Dilemma, Michael Pollan, suggested "Meatless Mondays" in the first place. He says, "By departing even modestly from the Western diet, we could reduce our chances of getting coronary heart disease by 80%, type 2 diabetes by 90%, and colon cancer by 70%."

So eating meat sparingly, as a side-dish, is good for your body, your pocketbook, and the environment.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/035986_kale_beef_plants.html#ixzz1w96CPS8P

The health benefits of Gladioli

This is an image of a Gladioli I took today. They look a lovely colour don't they?. Now I am not suggesting that you should take hold of a Gladioli plant and start to eat it for health benefits!. No far from it., but Gladioli does have some health benefits if prepared as a flower remedy.

I. Definition
Gladiolus also known as sword lily, is a flower plant belongs to the genus Gladiolus containing about 260 species and native to South Africa. It has been used in traditional medicine in treating diarrhoea and stomach upsets.

II. How gladiolus effects women with endometriosis
1. Digestive system
It is said that gladiolus has been used in traditional South Africa medicine to improve function of digestive system in absorbing the variety of nutrients which are necessary for women with endometriosis because for what ever reasons, most of them are found to have some kinds of nutrients deficiency during menstrual cycle.

2. Secretion system
Gladiolus also helps to improve the contraction of the large intestine and movement of stool that decrease the risk of constipation resulting in lessening the menstrual cramps for some women if endometrial implants and adhesion attached to the secretion organs.

3. Nervous system
It also helps the liver in fat and protein metabolism resulting in lessening the tension of nervous system including symptoms of fatigue, emotional and physical stress, anxiety and depression.

4. Menstrual cramps
It is said the plant also helps in regulating the function of certain hormone in the prostaglandins family as resulting of liver function in balancing the levels of fatty acids. As we know unbalancing of fatty acids causes over production of some members in the prostaglandins hormone resulting in over active uterine muscles and menstrual cramps.

5. Sexual desire
Gladiolus is said contains substance that helps to stimulate the production of testosterone which is essential for some women who have had symptoms of libido during menstrual cycle caused by low levels of testosterone in the body.

 

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My search for a cure for Bronchiectasis

I just thought I would update you on this post on how my search is going for a natural cure for Bronchiectasis. Doctors will say that bronchiectasis is irreversible and will get worse in time. However I found a forum http://www.bronchiectasis.info and there is an article about using strong Manuka honey to kill any infection>

I was reading on here about
manuka honey and how it made a big difference to someone on here
(sorry I can't find the posts now but think it may have been sparrow) I
did some research on this wonderful stuff and my package of medicinal
strength manuka has arrived today. I have put it in my saline this
morning and am going to continue with it as it makes sense that this
stuff with its wonderful anti bacterial properties will shift it. It is also
effective against other bugs too

So Manuka honey ( very strong ) as well as antibiotics may shift any infections associated with Bronchiectasis, but it will not cure it. So Manuka honey would be very useful in clearing any infection, the search still goes on for the cure of bronchiectasis.

Seaweed and a cure for acne

Seaweed may be a natural answer to being able to kill the bugs that cause acne. An ingredient unique to a type of brown seaweed found off the coast of Brittany in France, can cut spots by about two thirds. The ingredient called phycosaccharide ACP, showed in a clinical trial that the amount of blackheads fell by 62% after eight weeks.Of 60 young men aged between 14 to 21 years  with mild acne, half used the seaweed based  oxy skin wash, while the other half used a dummy skin wash. By eight weeks Oxy users had nearly twice the reduction of blackheads.

Healthy Tip >



Wash your hair with sea salt and it cures dandruff!

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Take part in this TV treatment with food

Are you looking for an alternative way to treat your illness or disease,? Then take part in this>

Would you like your condition treated with food?

Channel 4 are looking for people who would be interested in becoming a patient at The Food Hospital.
The Food Hospital is a ground-breaking Channel 4 series exploring the potential health benefits of food in treating a wide range of illnesses and ailments.
Do you have an illness or condition which significantly affects your life?
Would you be interested in new forms of treatment?
Or, have you recently begun to suffer from symptoms that you are keen to address?
Are you willing to follow a scientifically devised diet which might help to improve your conditions and/or symptoms?
Our team of medical experts, including a GP, a specialist medical Consultant and a leading Dietitian will work closely with the patients to devise individual diets targeted at their particular condition and will monitor their progress.
To take part, please complete the questionnaire and email it to Betty at foodhospital@betty.co.uk.
Please note that your email will be received by a member of Betty's production team and they will contact you directly. Betty will process your personal data in accordance with their privacy policy.

Ok so I have Bronchiectasis, what should I do next?. The doctors have told me there is no cure, as the lungs are now damaged. However I can not leave it at that, I have to look for help, perhaps some natural cure that will help me.

. Bronchiectasis is a rare condition where the airways leading to the lungs become damaged. The result of bronchiectasis is enlargement of the bronchial tubes, loss of elasticity, scarring, and destruction of cilia instrumental in protecting the lungs from dust, bacteria, and excess mucus. With these protective mechanisms disabled, severe chronic infections result. Bronchiectasis leads to serious health conditions, such as respiratory failure and congestive heart failure. Although the medical profession can offer no answers other than prescribing the strongest antibiotics available, there are natural remedies that can play a role in reversing this condition.

 

So does diet and nutrition help?. I found this useful article>

Add

Add to your diet lots of fruits and vegetables to ensure that you're getting plenty of nutrients, advises the University of Maryland Medical Center. Many fruits and vegetables contain antioxidants like vitamin C, which also offer anti-inflammatory actions that can reduce your wheezing, says the University of Michigan Health System. A diet enriched with vitamin C-containing fruits may be especially helpful in reducing wheezing among children with asthma.

Avoid

Avoiding caffeine, salt and sugar can help reduce wheezing and other symptoms of asthma, notes the University of Michigan Health System. A vegan diet that excludes dairy, meats and all other animal-derived foods could also help. In some people, food additives like tartrazine, sodium benzoate and sulfites can aggravate asthma symptoms like wheezing as well. If you suspect that your wheezing is due to some kind of allergic reaction, eliminating the food allergens from your diet can alleviate your symptoms. Your doctor or another qualified healthcare professional can help you to determine what foods you're allergic to by following an "allergy elimination diet."

Key Nutrients

Although treating a specific nutrient deficiency by taking supplements will necessarily reduce your wheezing, certain deficiencies may be associated with underlying conditions that cause wheezing, says the University of Maryland Medical Center. You can try taking supplements of choline, vitamin C, quercetin, selenium, magnesium or omega-3 fatty acids like fish oil to help reduce wheezing. Beta-carotene, vitamins B6 and B12, lycopene, pycnogenol, Lyprinol, betaine, bromelain, thymus extract and molybdenum supplements could also help ease wheezing associated with asthma, notes the University of Michigan Health System. Certain herbal supplements could help reduce wheezing as well. These include coleus, boswellia, tylophora, butterbur, picrorhiza, holy basil, ivy leaf, Amrita bindu, hyssop, marshmallow, mullein, licorice, lobelia, onion, ginkgo and elecampane. Don't take any herbal or nutritional supplements without first talking with your doctor about the potential drug interactions and health dangers, however.

Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/303528-wheezing-nutrition/#ixzz1uqP0IEWt

So I can try the above, but none actually offer a cure. I am looking for some natural way to cleanse my lungs. I have not found it yet.

Vitamin B15 or Pangamic acid

Pangamic acid or vitamin B15 is an antioxidant and prevents the formation of destructive superoxide radicals, a major cause of ageing. It is also an antipollutant, eliminating environmental toxins from the body.
Being a lipotropic substance, it lowers cholesterol levels and prevents fat accumulation in the liver. A deficiency of pangamic acid can cause reduced oxygenation of the blood, leading to fatigue and lowered fitness. Its best natural sources are brewers yeast, brown rice, whole grains, pumpkin, and sesame seeds. There are no recommended daily allowances, but a daily intake of 25-100 mg is normal. It is sometimes available as a supplement called calcium pangamate.

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What Vitamin B15 (Pangamic Acid) does and what it has been historically used for:

• Acts to detoxify poisons and free radicals
• Extends the life span of cells in the body
• Helps angina and asthma
• Helps synthesize protein
• Helps to reduce a craving for alcohol
• Lowers cholesterol levels
• Protects against cirrhosis of the liver
• Stimulates the “anti-stress” hormones
• Stimulates the carriage of oxygen to the blood from the lungs, and from the blood to the muscles and vital organs of the body 

So Who Else Caught the Brain Surgery on Twitter Today?

If you were on twitter today, you may have seen the hashtag #MHbrain.  That stood for Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center in Houston (@houstonhospital).  Today they live-tweeted a brain surgery which removed a cavernous angioma tumor from a 21-year-old female patient.

According to the hospital's press release, the goal of the "twittercast" was to (1) educate the public about brain tumors and (2) demystify brain surgery by giving a look inside an operating room.  The surgeon, Dr. Dong Kim, added "Someone may have a loved one who is considering a similar procedure and perhaps they can glean some information from this twittercast that may help them make a decision about whether surgery is the right choice for them."

In authentic social media style, the hospital did not just send out information and images. They also had another neurosurgeon, Dr. Scott Shepard, serve as an online moderator who could respond to questions and comments from twitter followers in real time.

While there was much excitement over this event today, it is not the first time we have heard about surgeons tweeting from the operating room.  Back in 2009, CNN picked up a story about surgeons at Henry Ford Hospital in Michigan tweeting the removal of a cancerous tumor from the kidney of a male patient.  Just last February, Memorial Hermann was in the news for the first live tweeted open heart surgery.

A few thoughts on this trend:

How is Memorial Hermann evaluating their twittercast efforts?  

• Was this a huge marketing event or do they actually have health education goals?
• Are they simply looking at the numbers?  For example, the number of twitter followers (up to 13,400 from 5,100 in the past 3 months).  Or the number of visitors to Storify, a site which archives both the heart and brain surgeries.
• Are the demographics of twitter users reflective of their target audience?
• I would hope that they are thinking about how to evaluate the goals they explicitly laid out in their press release.  How will they show that a twittercast can increase knowledge about brain tumors?  How will they show that the public or potential patients have less anxiety about the procedure or choose it more often?  As always, it is important to state goals (for any public health activity) that are measurable.  

How is social media a benefit/challenge for physicians?

• I read an interesting blog post recently called, "Why social media may not be worth it for doctors."  The author was concerned about already burned-out doctors trying to learn and make time for ever-changing technology...with no guarantee that the technology will give them "return on investment".  Do the challenges outweigh the benefits?
• If physicians view themselves as "educators", how much value could twitter bring?

Are there patient safety or confidentiality issues that should be considered?

• Although the patient's name was protected and she gave permission for the twittercast, is it possible that any confidential information could be accidentally shared during the event?
• Although safeguards are in place, errors do happen in the operating room and throughout the hospital.  With the additional staff/equipment (and possible distraction?) in the operating room to conduct the twittercast, could we face an increased risk of error?

What do you think?

A grapefruit a day.

You know the story about an apple a day keeps the doctor away. Well it may be that also a grapefruit a day a keeps the doctor away. My wife had high cholesterol and was given statins by her GP. The instructions inside said do not take grapefruit at the same time as taking the statins, which asks the question why not add grapefruit to your diet instead of taking statins, would that be a more natural way of lowering high blood cholesterol?.Here is an article I have found.

ScienceDaily (Feb. 13, 2006) — A grapefruit a day — particularly the red variety — can help keep heart disease at bay, according to a new study by Israeli researchers. In a controlled study group of patients with heart disease, the scientists found that feeding some patients the equivalent of one grapefruit daily significantly reduced levels of cholesterol in comparison to patients that did not eat grapefruit. Chronic high blood cholesterol is a major risk factor for heart disease.

Web Directory add url

Spirulina

Spirulina is a blue green algae which thrives in warm lakes like Lake Chad in Africa. It has been used in the treatment of Anaemia, weakness, malnutrition, hepatitis, inner inflammations. diabetes,hypoglycaemia and poor skin tone. Spirulina is a versatile food supplement which strengthens the immune system, and increases resistance to disease and inflammations.
It also contains a blue pigment, phycocyanin, which is a protein known to inhibit cancer. Since it is grown and harvested in unpolluted areas totally free of environmental pollutants, spirulina is one of the safest foods available. It is sold in health food shops in both powder and tablet form

Spirulina is also high in vitamin B12, and is known to boost energy and cellular health..

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Facebook Adds Organ Donation To Timeline: Should We "Like" It?

Typically, I post on Wednesdays.  However, with so much chatter about Facebook's announcement, this felt more timely.
Starting today, you can add your organ donation status to your Facebook timeline using the "share life" tool.  If you are already registered, you can share your story about where and why you decided to become an organ donor.  If you are interested in registering, you can follow links to official donor registries.

ABC has been a primary news source for this announcement, interviewing Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, demonstrating how to use the "share life" tool, and discussing myths and facts about organ donation.

Scanning Facebook and Twitter today (especially among my public health colleagues), the response seems to be overwhelmingly positive.  From my perspective, the Facebook tool has the potential to be effective (i.e., increasing the number of registered donors) because it focuses on action.  The tool is not for education.  The tool actually links to registries so that you can sign up.  The tool aims to increase the visibility of already registered donors, which in turn will influence others to sign up.  The tool aims to decrease the stigma and secrecy of talking about end of life decisions by putting it right up there next to your birth date and relationship status.  This may also influence others to sign up.  In previous posts, I have written about public health campaigns that use social media in order to reduce the stigma around an "undesirable" topic (e.g., STD testing).

Although I am 100% supportive of the mission of increasing organ donors and am familiar with the dire need for donations (e.g., 18 people will die each day waiting for an organ), I have a few reservations about "share life":

In today's New York Times coverage of the Facebook announcement, I read a sentence that concerned me (I added the underlining):

"The company announced a plan on Tuesday morning to encourage everyone on Facebook to start advertising their donor status on their pages, along with their birth dates and schools — a move that it hopes will create peer pressure to nudge more people to add their names to the rolls of registered organ donors".

I consider declaration as an organ donor to be a medical decision.  In public health and medicine, we strive for patients and the public to make such decisions from a position that is informed and lacks pressure from physicians or family or friends.  Therefore, I have reservations about people signing up without educating themselves first and/or because they feel pressure on Facebook.  Just a few weeks ago, I posted about "hashtag activism" and how easy it has become to get involved in causes via social media.  Are we as thoughtful when we participate in causes on Facebook as when we participate in real life?

My other ongoing concern is regarding the proper security and use of personal information that is gathered by Facebook.  Will your organ donation status result in particular advertisements being sent your way?  I remember updating my Facebook status to "engaged" 4 years ago and being overwhelmed by the wedding planning advertisements on my page.  There is increasing public outcry regarding privacy settings and the personal information you enter being used for Facebook to attract advertisers and other business opportunities. 

Again, I am 100% supportive of the organ donation mission.  I think the reach of Facebook offers tremendous public health opportunities (including the possible elimination of long wait time for organs).  While that is an attractive outcome, we must always remember to focus on the ethics of the process as well.

What do you think?

•  Facebook has become directly involved with several public health issues (e.g., suicide, bullying, organ donation).  Are their strategies effective?  Why or why not? 
• Do you foresee any unintended consequences from the organ donation tool?
• Will you include your organ donation status on your Facebook timeline?  Why or why not?