Anti ageing cell therapy

There are literally thousands of nutritional supplements and new ones appear every week. Some are interesting enough for me to try them and if, like me, you don’t like taking a handful of pills every day then this new product might be the answer. It is a complete mineral, oxygen and nutritional supplement that has been used by people with chronic illness to maximize the uptake of nutrients, particularly antioxidants, and it also helps improve cell health which is a key anti-ageing factor. Cell Therapy RejuvenateT with Fulvic Acid is a highly effective detoxifier and helps boost energy, reverse cell damage and rejuvenates the natural production of enzymes. As it contains 136 essential nutrients including: 74 electrically charged minerals, 16 trace minerals,28 metabolic enzymes, and 18 amino acids, its no surprise that it also supports the immune system through its role as both a powerful antioxidant and free-radical scavenger.

We all need at least 90 growth and maintenance nutrients throughout our lives to support our cells. If our bodies don’t get that support, then the cells break down, and that leads to degenerative diseases that are directly or indirectly related to mineral deficiencies such as arthritis, osteoporosis heart disease, cataracts and of course cancer. One cause of this deficiency has been the deterioration in soil quality and the fact that because of that plants are not producing the minerals they once did. The causes are well known; intensive farming, industrial fertilizers and pesticides and even the growth of the organic market doesn’t help the vast majority of people to get the nutrients they need from their everyday diet.

The key element Of all the factors that make a difference to the reversal and prevention of disease, as well as the maintenance of good health, is Fulvic which was abundantly present in plants but now has to be supplemented for maximum effect. Scientists have found that Fulvic is the element that makes minerals absorbable, and without maximum absorption you do not get the maximum effect from the food you eat. Fulvic is a supercharged electrolyte, and cellular electrical energy is the life force of the body. Cells disintegrate and die when electrical energy is reduced. It is believed that electrical and chemical balances within the cell can be created and controlled by electrolytes – the body’s mini battery chargers. Fulvic is one of the most powerful natural electrolytes known to man and the Fulvic molecule prepares nutrients to interact with each other and makes vitamins and elemental trace minerals more absorbable so that are easily transported into and through membranes and cell walls. It also increases the metabolism of proteins, which contributes to DNA/RNA synthesis, and chelates heavy metals and body toxins, removing them from the system.

Cell Therapy Rejuvenate’s utilizes this unique ability so that when it is mixed with water it immediately releases oxygen to the body releases its natural minerals, enzymes, electrolytes and amino acids to go to work on the deepest cellular level. It is very simple to take as you stir 8 drops into 250 ml (8 oz) of water, 3 times per day. It is best taken between meals (30 minutes before or 1 hour after) but personally I prefer to just put the drops straight into a water bottle and sip through the day for continuous benefit – and then I don’t have to remember to take it!

Because it contains organic enzymes it is not suitable for pregnant or nursing mothers and if you are under medical care, do talk to your doctor about it. A month’s supply cost £34.97 from Pro Active Healthcare, and if you want to know more then call them on 08707 650 304.

Transscleral light therapy – New way to maintain vision

As we get older small print on labels and that annoying habit magazines have of printing in white on a black background all become more difficult to read. The official term is presbyopia and it occurs at middle age when our eyes lose their ability to focus.

It can start with just a slight blurring and our close vision usually continues to deteriorate due to loss of elasticity of the crystalline lens so we are less able to focus on objects at various distances. At this point most people surrender and get glasses, a pair for close work, a pair for reading and a pair for distance, or combine them into bi or varifocal lenses. Now, a new treatment from America could change all that.

If you don’t want to wear glasses all the time, and don’t like the idea of laser surgery – which I confess I find rather more frightening than standing on the edge of Beachy Head in a force 10 gale – then three cheers for a new treatment called the transscleral light therapy system. Not a catchy name, I must admit, and it is still in the trial stage with the USA Food and Drug Administration but patient experience over the two years it has been monitored has been positive.

What happens is that a laser device emits a low level of light aimed at strengthening the ciliary muscle (which bends and straightens the lens) under the whites of the eyes. The key phrase here is ‘low level’ and consists of weekly 10-minute sessions at an optician’s office for five consecutive weeks, followed by periodic tune-up sessions about every six months. So no hospital visits, and one satisfied participant has thrown away his 8 pairs of glasses and just kept one distance pair which he only occasionally uses for driving at night.

If you think that sounds like a good option to you, and I would love to get rid of the permanent dent on the side of my nose from my glasses, then it should be widely available with 1-2 years – but not, I suspect, on the NHS.

Two Cancer Breakthroughs

The first breakthrough refers to women who have had breast cancer. The survival rate after treatment has improved, and it always helps to know about anything extra you can do to make those odds even better. One of the risk areas post breast cancer is that survivors have a lifetime risk for developing lymphedema as a result of surgery or radiotherapy. This is a chronic condition that occurs when lymphatic fluid builds up in the soft tissues of the body, usually in an arm or leg, as a result of damage or blockage in the lymph nodes and results in swelling of the affected limbs. Lymphedema is a risk for approximately two-thirds of breast cancer survivors in the 30 months after surgery and those who develop post-op swelling have a significantly higher risk of up to 40 percent. It is the second biggest concern, after the recurrence of the cancer itself, and if you are unfortunate enough to develop chronic lymphedema it can be difficult to treat. The swollen limbs can become vulnerable to infection from even a minor injury to the skin, such as a cut, scratch, insect bite, or even athlete’s foot. This condition is called lymphangitis and affects the connective tissue under the skin. Repeated infections can cause scarring that makes the tissue vulnerable to more swelling and infection. Unfortunately lymphedema can lay dormant and symptoms can occur 15 or more years following an injury to your lymphatic system. The good news is that one way to combat this problem is to ensure that there is no risk of seriously being overweight or obese after cancer treatment as a new study from the University of Missouri-Columbia, published on 2 January, found that the risk of developing lymphedema is 40-60 percent higher in women with a high BMI (Body Mass Index).

Breakthrough two is not ready to launch yet, but there is a way you can take action by utilising that old hospital visitor standby and taking a cancer patient a large bunch of grapes. Make sure they are white grapes, as The American Cancer Association has reported that researchers from the University of Kentucky have been feeding grape-seed extract to laboratory mice and found that it kills leukemia cells. Apparently it forces the damaged cells to commit cell suicide and does it effectively as the researchers found within 24 hours, 76 percent of such cells had died after being exposed to the extract. This isn’t the first time that grape seed extract has been tested for various types of cancer, but this is the first time it has been looked at in relation the blood and bone marrow cancer cells. The key factor is that the grape seed extract affects the cancer cells, but leaves normal cells alone.This research is at its early stages, but it’s a good reason to include grapes in your healthy five a day – just don’t peel them Beulah, eat them skin, seed and all.

Yawning isnt always about feeling sleepy

It’s your body’s way of keeping you cool. Andrew Gallup, a researcher in the Department of Biology at Binghamton University led a study which has shown that if your head is overheated, there’s a good chance you’ll yawn soon, because the primary purpose of yawning is to control brain temperature.

Your brain operates best when cool and we have cleverly adapted our bodies to ensure we make sure it has the right temperature. If you find yourself yawning over a book or a piece of work, we naturally tend to go for fresh air, it’s not just the extra oxygen we need, but the drop in temperature that usually accompanies it. Bertie Wooster, the PG Wodehouse character who certainly had trouble thinking, would call on the faithful Jeeves for a wet flannel to soothe his overheated brain and indeed it’s a good remedy along with taking deep breaths in through the nose and making sure a room is properly ventilated and not stuffy.

Yawning can also be an early warning signal, because if done excessively it precedes the onset of seizures in epileptic patients, and predict the onset of headaches in people who suffer from migraines.

Is gardening the new gym workout?

I love two for one offers, and apparently gardening is not only going to provide you with lots of organic fruit and vegetables, and flowers to brighten your life, but apparently it has now been declared healthy, too.

A report from the American Society for Horticultural Science (30 December 2008), has given us the glad news that being fit is not just about eating fewer calories but it also provides the right amount of recommended physical activity for the over 60′s. It’s generally recommended that for optimum fitness you need at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity on most days of the week – which can be hard to fit into a schedule, and as my readers know I am full of admiration for those who have the discipline to go the gym regularly, but I have no intention of joining them.

But gardening is a pleasurable activity and one that is very popular; previous research has shown that it results in improvement in mental health and depression and a recent study from Kansas State University wanted to find out how it could affect fitness compared to such activities as jogging, swimming, or weight training. They anticipated good results on bone density because of the weight bearing activities related to gardening – mowing the lawn, digging holes, pulling up weeds, pushing the wheelbarrow in case you are interested – because all these tasks involve, using all the muscle groups in the body.

Obviously the time you spend in the garden varies according to the time of year from up to 33 hours a week in May down to 15 hours a week in June and July – and it does depend on what part of the country you live in. As we get older we are risk of having less strength, endurance, flexibility, balance, and a healthy heart but we are also less likely to exercise because we find it boring. Gardening is a year round physical activity that engages our mind and our body and now we can also cite is as our ‘free and natural gym’. No membership required, but I am wondering how I can spend 33 hours a week on a balcony 6 feet by 3 feet – does sitting watching the garden grow count do you think?

Hangover cures

No matter what your good intentions, it can happen that you might have raised a glass too and are faced with the effects of a hangover. If you have then there are some natural remedies that can help, but first let me just suggest that however you feel, before you go to bed do drink a large glass of water, preferably with some vitamin C to counteract the dehydration alcohol can bring. Then in the morning, try these:

** Honey and Lemon may be something you associate with a cold, but it is a wonderful way to get plenty of liquid and the sugars that are also lost when you overindulge. Couldn’t be simpler, just squeeze a lemon into a mug, add honey and hot water then stir and sip. Please don’t substitute sugar for honey, as you need the fructose honey contains as it prevents the rapid change in alcohol levels that results in headaches. Plain sugar contains sucrose, which isn’t absorbed as quickly, so get out the honey jar and make several cups a day to help you recover.

** Rice, Soup, or Toast is what you need to give you some energy, and although you may not feel like eating you do have to give your body some fuel to start the rebuilding process. You don’t want a heavy meal, but some easy to digest foods are just what your body wants so either use an organic vegetable stock cube and make a cup of soup for yourself or if you can manage it have some plain toast, very lightly buttered and with no topping, or some plain boiled rice with just a little miso or soy sauce to flavour it.

** Slippery elm bark was traditionally used by Native Americans as a poultice for boils, ulcers and for wounds in general. If you were caught up in the obligatory hugging and kissing at the stroke of midnight, (on New Years eve for example), then you might have a few bruises if the hugging got too enthusiastic, but generally it’s recommended for that irritated stomach that often follows over indulgence. It has been used to treat IBS because of it’s soothing effect on tissue and will certainly help calm down an upset stomach. It can be obtained in powder or capsule form, and personally I would get the capsules as the texture of the powder when mixed with water is quite gelatinous in nature and some find it difficult to swallow.

Acupuncture with no needles

I am a great fan of acupuncture for pain relief and boosting the immune system, but I appreciate there are people who don’t like needles. Well, good news for you because scientists at Linkoping University in Sweden have shown that it works just as well without using needles.

They were studying 200 cancer patients and using acupuncture to help relieve nausea during radiotherapy, Half received standard acupuncture and half were given pressure on the same acupuncture points with a blunt placebo needle that just touched the skin, but didn’t go in.

An impressive 95 percent of the patients in both groups felt that the treatment had helped relieve their nausea, and 67 percent had experienced other positive effects such as improved sleep, brighter mood, and less pain.

Oh Really?

This is an area where common sense, your mother’s advice and science have finally met. Having a good cry to relieve your frustration, tension or unhappiness is what we naturally tend to do, usually accompanied – if we are lucky – by someone holding our hand and telling us to ‘let it all out’.

Scientists love to explain the everyday things we have all taken for granted, and reported by the Association for Psychological Science is a joint study by the University of South Florida and Tilburg University in the Netherlands that explores the benefits of crying. Not surprisingly they found that most people in their study reported improvements in their mood following a bout of crying, but that around a third found no difference and a tenth felt worse.

The blessing of a senior memory

If you tend to see the past as having hotter summers, more fun and fewer problems then that’s a benefit of ageing. At least it is according to Neuroscientists from Duke University Medical Center in the USA as they have reported in the online issue of ‘Psychological Science’. They have discovered activity in the brain that causes us to remember fewer of life’s negative events than younger people – presumably because they are nearer in time to the bad events.

It seems that as our brains get older then they allow negative memories to fade away. It’s because older people use their brains differently than younger people when it comes to storing memories, particularly those associated with negative emotions. The study focused on two groups; over 70′s and under 25′s who were shown a series of 30 photographs while their brains were imaged in a functional MRI (fMRI) machine. The pictures varied from neutral to having very strong negative images such as attacking snakes, mutilated bodies and acts of violence. While in the fMRI machine, the subjects looked at the photos and ranked them on a pleasantness scale.

Later, they were then asked to recall the pictures while being scanned again and the results found that the older adults had less connectivity between areas of the brain that generate emotions and those of memory and learning, but had stronger connections with the frontal cortex, the higher thinking area of the brain that controls these lower-order parts of the brain.

In contrast, the young adults used more of the brain regions typically involved in emotion and recalling memories. This meant that they were able to recall more of the negative photos and that because the older adults were using more thinking than feeling, that they didn’t recall the more emotive, negative, pictures nearly so well.

The conclusion was that although the emotional centres of the older people were just as active as those of younger subjects, their brain connections were different. For older subjects the benefit is that they had over their lifetime learned to be less affected by negative information in order to maintain their well being and emotional state. So the summers may not have been hotter, but how nice to remember them that way and shut out all those days spent huddling under an umbrella on the sands.

Get moving in the morning – In 60 seconds

We read a lot about ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder), but mostly in relation to children. However, children grow up and they don’t necessarily grow out of the disorder but they usually learn to manage it. One of the challenges can be the task of getting out of bed in the mornings and getting on with the day.

If this is you, then here’s a simple 60 second plan to overcome this – and it works whether you have ADD or just difficulty getting out of bed! All you have to do is open your eyes, sit up in bed and breathe gently and slowly while giving yourself a gentle face massage just like this:

1 Breathe in and as you slowly breathe out stroke the sides of your nose from your eyebrows downwards, using the knuckle of your thumbs.

2 Next out breath, move your thumbs up to the middle of your forehead and stroke outwards over your brow. Repeat 5 times and on the last time let your knuckles move down to end in that hollow on either side of your temple.

3 Again using your thumb knuckles, take a deep breath and as you breathe out apply some light pressure and massage with a circular motion until you have no breath left. with a bit of pressure, massage that area of your temple, right in the dip. Continue the massage until you’re out of air from that breath.

4 Next breathe in, move your thumbs down to that small hollow just in front of where your ear lies and massage that as you did before.

5 Moving down your face, stop at the next small hollow where the bottom of your ear lies, and near the top of your jawbone. Massage again until you are out of breath. Take another slow even deep breath, and find the last dip just inside the spot the bottom of your ear attaches to your face. This one’s right near the top of the jaw bone at your temple, right in the dip. Massage that dip until you’re out of breath.

6 Final breath in, and now move round to massage the curve of your ears as you breathe out. Repeat once more.

Now you should be ready to face the day.

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