Let them eat grass – Wheatgrass

Wheatgrass seems to be the hot health idea at the moment and you can’t go into a trendy juice bar – as I am sure you do every other day – without being offered an expensive shot of green liquid. Like all ‘hot’ ideas it has actually been around for some time. In fact it has been something of a cottage industry, rather the old sprouters on the windowsill that were seen in all healthy homes in the 1970′s, you now find trays of wheatgrass or, if they are flat dwellers like me, it’s probably ‘grow your own grass’ for the cats.

However, wheatgrass has many great qualities as a supplement to your diet but unlike the sprouts, you don’t eat it – you juice it to get the maximum benefit. So what are these benefits? Well, increasing numbers of people are turning to it in their fight against cancer, to boost their immune system, and as an essential part of any detox programme. Wheatgrass first earned its reputation from people with terminal illnesses, who took it at the eleventh hour after conventional medicine left them with no hope. In the 1970s, Dr Ann Wigmore opened the Hippocrates Health Institute, in Boston, nourishing terminally ill patients back to health with fresh squeezed wheatgrass and from then on it has been an underground health story passed on by word of mouth.

Wheat grass has been called one of nature’s finest medicines. It is perhaps the most nutritious and cleansing juice there is. In its natural state, wheat grass is indigestible for humans; so don’t go plucking it straight out of the field. However, wheatgrass juice is easily digested and its nutrients and enzymes are quickly absorbed into the bloodstream, providing an instant boost of energy and ongoing nourishment. It is high in chlorophyll, potassium, calcium, and magnesium and is a highly effective detoxifier, especially for the liver and gallbladder. Wheat grass has nearly a gram of protein per teaspoon, and includes all eight of the essential amino acids, as well as 13 of the remaining 16. It contains Vitamins A, B1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, and 12; C, E and K. A teaspoon of wheat grass contains around 15mg of Calcium, 8mcg Iodine, 3.5mcg Selenium, 870mcg Iron, 62mcg Zinc, and many other minerals.

There is another good reason to take a daily shot of wheatgrass: it contains Superoxide Dismutase (SOD), and it has been found that cancerous cells have a deficiency, or a complete lack of, SOD. Anti-oxidants have the ability to mop up free radicals and so reduce or avoid cell mutation. Mutation is part of the first stage of cancer formation so, if you supplement your diet with wheat grass you will almost certainly be helping your body to avoid, or deal with, cancerous conditions.

You don’t have to drink gallons of the stuff either, the intense green juice is best taken in ‘shots’ of about 1tbsp at a time. Like all fresh juices it needs to be drunk immediately, it goes off in about 30 minutes, so cut from the tray and juice, or cut the shoots and keep in a plastic bag in the refrigerator where they will retain their nutrients for up to seven days after cutting.

For those with an intolerance to gluten, do not be put off because the grain metamorphoses completely into a vegetable, with none of the allergic proteins common to the glutenous grains. You can indeed follow the advice of Hippocrates, the father of medicine, who said “our food is our medicine and our medicine is our food”

Oh, and if you are not a gardener, even of the windowsill variety, then you will be delighted to learn you can actually buy the stuff ready grown, cut and ready to stuff in your juicer. Ask at your local health store as it can often be found as tablets or powder supplements and in bags in the chiller cabinet, or you can order trays of wheat, barley, oat and rye grass from this site: www.browfarmwheatproducts.co.uk

Whatever you do, start with small amounts as it is a powerful detoxifier and you can mix it with juice if you find the taste not to your liking.

Bees need your help!

Many people are afraid of them, or rather their sting, but the humble bee brings us many benefits. Pollen to help with hayfever, delicious honey for our bread, and they are absolutely vital to the pollination of orchards and various food crops.

You may not have heard of Colony Collapse Disorder, a disease which has affected hives in the US, France, Germany and Italy, but it could see the complete wiping out of bee colonies in 10 years. It hasn’t arrived in the UK yet, but it is only a matter of time, and the British Beekeeping Association wants the Government to fund a research project into this potential disaster.

This would fall within the existing farming research budget at DEFRA, and the Government says there is no money for such research, although there is a contingency fund that they have no plans to dip into.

It would seem to make sense to research how to avoid this catastrophe before it hits us, so if you feel strongly then there is an online petition on the Downing Street website. Buzz of there and register your support for the bees at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/BeeResearch

Computer vision – A new disease?

We are all spending more and more time in front of a computer; shopping online, checking emails, reading our horoscope (or is t hat just me?). It is easy to forget the time, but your eyes will remind you because hours spent staring at a computer screen means you risk suffering tired, dry eyes, blurred vision, eye strain, headache, and sensitivity to light. This has led to a new ‘disease’ being recognised, collectively those symptoms are becoming known as “computer vision syndrome.”

The American Optometric Association certainly has recognised it as a growing problem with an estimated 10 million people visiting their optometrist annually for computer eye-related difficulties. Apparently, according to the Optometric Association, a computer is a challenging environment for the eyes because the imagery is not as clear as it seems to be, and because of that it’s harder for the eye to focus than it would be on ordinary print on a page.

First step is to get your eyes checked and if you spend more than a couple of hours a day in front of the computer you should mention it to your optician so they can see whether you need separate glasses for that, or a screen filter to help reduce glare and eye discomfort. If you wear bifocals, or varifocals, you can also suffer from neck and shoulder problems because these glasses are often not set for the computer so you end up having to move your head closer to the computer while at the same time tipping your head back to see the screen. That’s an awkward position and if you have been suffering from a stiff neck it could be the reason why.

One simple tip that helps is to blink more often because that lubricates your eyes. When we concentrate, our blink rate goes down, leading to dry eyes. Try adopting the 20/20 rule – every 20 minutes look away from your computer for about 20 seconds; this will minimize the development of eye-focusing problems and eye irritation caused by not blinking enough.

Check the lighting, you don’t want too much bright overhead light or any kind of glare or reflection off your computer screen. Finally, is your monitor at the right height? Experts advise that for maximum ergonomic comfort, the screen should be right in front of you so you don’t have to twist to see it and the monitor should be at eye level, or a little below it.

Probiotics benefit runners

Planning on running in a marathon this year? As well as having the right shoes and a positive attitude, you might also want to consider adding probiotic supplements to your diet. Strenuous training can affect the immune system and make athletes more vulnerable to coughs and colds, but an Australian study has shown that taking probiotic supplements, which contain ‘friendly bacteria’, more than halves the days that runners show symptoms and also reduces both the number and length of infections they experienced.

The study focused on 20 top-level endurance runners during their intensive winter training programme, when colds and other respiratory infections can be disruptive. The athletes were given a two month-long course of pills containing the bacterium Lactobacillus fermentum and then a dummy placebo for the same length of time. During the ‘probiotic phase’ the number of infections and days lost through illness was dramatically reduced. It may not have quite the same effect on people who are less active, but if you are given to sprinting round the living room you never know it might stop you catching a last-ditch winter cold.

Smoothies go green

Breakfast is always a difficult meal for me as I don’t like cereals and am not mad about yoghurt or fruit or vegetables. It is a miracle I am as healthy as I am, and part of that miracle is that I take in my daily 5 in liquid form from my juicer or blender. Now in colder weather I am not so keen on chilled fruit smoothies, but I have found a way to have a healthy breakfast in minutes that gives me healthy carbohydrates, fibre, vitamins, minerals and chlorophyll – sound dreadful but it can be made to taste great with the addition of fruit.

I also find as I have got older I need protein in a morning so I add a scoop of protein powder for a complete meal. If you want to get out the blender this recipe could help you be bright eyed and bushy tailed whatever time of day you drink it – in fact it is a great pick me up for that mid-afternoon slump too.

If you want to have a go, the rule of thumb when making green smoothies is to use slightly more vegetables than fruits, say about 60/40 in favour of the green stuff. What goes in it? Well good greens to use might be romaine lettuce, kale, spinach, and chard. For the sweetness you might add fruit peeled and chopped fruit such bananas, pears, apples, blueberries, mangos, papayas, and pineapples.

Put your favoured fruit and veg into a good blender and add just enough water to allow the blender to bring vegetables and fruits together into a smoothie-like consistency. Personally I don’t use water, but cranberry juice as its slight tartness seems to bring out the flavour and I don’t like my drinks too thick so I add a good glug – personal taste so experiment to see what you like.

If you feel you need some extra antioxidants in your diet then you could also add a teaspoon or so of acerola cherry powder and then just drink it down. Don’t let it stand as the ingredients will separate and you get the most goodness immediately it has blended. If you do like a cold drink, then add some ice.

Key point: If you don’t have any problems digesting fruits and vegetables, you can mix and match any combination of the vegetables and fruits listed above. If you have a sensitive digestive tract, it is best to combine only one vegetable and one fruit at a time.

Avoid a visit to casualty – sweep the room!

Naturally I am not insinuating that your house needs cleaning, but it’s a visual sweep I am talking about. If you have small children, or visiting grandchildren, there is a potential hazard that often goes unmissed. Babies and toddlers love to put things in their mouths so I thought it might be useful to list the apparently most frequent things that Casualty departments are called on to remove so you can avoid a visit to them.

Naturally you keep the floor and coffee clear of small items that can be swallowed or pushed into a nose or ear – the favourite places – but things fall on the floor or they are so natural to see in that place that you actually don’t notice them and these three fall into that category:

1. Pieces of lego, beads, caps for pens, and coins. If you have older children, Lego pieces are probably the most common things left around or they fall out of pockets behind cushions. Coins creep between magazine covers and down the sides of chairs. Never underestimate the tenacity of a toddler to root out something unsuitable so include these items when doing a scan of the room.

2. Batteries. Everything nowadays seems to require them and in the process of changing them or opening the device to check them they can go missing. These are potentially fatal to children so always dispose of used batteries immediately and safely.

3. Leaves that have fallen from indoor or outdoor houseplants can be too big for small throats and cause choking or an allergic reaction. As my cats will try and eat every fallen houseplant leaf I have got this one cracked, as they are usually violently sick afterwards I make sure I remove them as soon as I see them.

Can imaginary exercise make you fit?

As I firmly believe I will become a great cook merely by owning cookbooks, then this piece of research really intrigued me. Breakthrough research in the field of exercise physiology has yielded stunning revelations about the way we get fit. The big surprise, though, is not what we “have” to do, but what we might “not” have to do. Apparently this is part of the metaphysical belief system that your thoughts create your reality, certainly something I agree with though whether it can improve my fitness I remain to be convinced.

For decades, exercise scientists have worked to discover how we get fit. Getting stronger, we were told, was about creating enough resistance in a muscle to create millions of micro-tears that would, over days, weeks and months, rebuild themselves, bigger, leaner and stronger. So when we lift weights, sprint or engage in pretty much any kind of exercise, we set this whole process in motion. The entire cycle is known as hypertrophy and it’s always been considered a pretty mechanical experience.

Now it appears, that building muscle is not nearly as mechanical as everyone thought. A recent study at Bishop’s University, Quebec, reveals you may be able to make nearly identical gains in strength and fitness without any effort. That study measured the strength gains in three different groups of people two lots did different types of exercise and the third control group did nothing but think about exercising. The end result? The ‘thinkers’ had a 24% increase in strength, almost the same as the group that trained three times a week.

SO HOW DOES THIS WORK?
Actually, nobody knows exactly, but your mind is the key to the conundrum. Through it’s connection to the endocrine system (the body’s chemical plant), different thoughts and mental states release hormones that can dramatically accelerate or retard muscle growth. Other chemicals work on different organs to either fire-up or slow-down your metabolism – think of the ‘fight or flight’ response’ – and how fast your body responds to a perceived threat.

A Harvard study reported in February 2007 appears to also confirm this theory when they looked at the impact of your thoughts on calories burned. In that study, the housekeeping staff in a major hotel were told that what they did on a daily basis qualified as the amount of exercise needed to be fit and healthy. They didn’t change their routine, did nothing differently and just kept on with their jobs. However, armed with this new knowledge, within four weeks the group had lost weight and lowered their blood pressure, body-fat percentage, waist-hip ratio and Body Mass Index, all without going near a gym. A control group, doing the same job, were not told that their job qualified as exercise and none of that group saw any of those health or fitness improvements.

Another factor that comes into play is your body’s nervous system. The signal that makes a muscle contract begins as an electrical impulse in your brain. That impulse is transmitted through your body’s electrical circuitry or nerves to the muscle. How efficiently that impulse is delivered and how receptive your muscle is to that impulse determines, in large part, how forcefully that muscle can contract. The more fully and the faster it contracts, the stronger we say it is. We call this process neuromuscular facilitation and you can repeatedly ‘visualise’ a muscle contracting, without ever actually contracting it and that’s how many sports coaches teach injured players to slow down the inevitable loss of strength during recovery from an injury.

So it appears that simply visualising an exercise may provide a nearly equivalent strength-building benefit as actually working-out. Anyone want to join me in a ‘keep fit’ routine that involves visualising yourself taking a brisk walk? Time to get out my own meditation CD and starting a daily meditation which I intend taking in my recliner with my two cats for company. They may as well get the benefits too, don’t you think? If you want to know more about my meditation CD please visit my website here:  www.catalystonline.co.uk/potential.htm

Magnetic powers?

Many people do believe in the power of magnets and wear jewellery containing them, or drink magnetised water and swear by the health benefits. This has always been one of those areas where those who benefit believe absolutely that magnets help their condition and many in themedical establishment thinks it’s all in their mind.

Magnets are used to treat joint pains, sports injuries, backache, muscle soreness and period pain. Magnets have also been popular with pet owners to help reduce pain in arthritic joints and Cherie Blair is one of many celebrities who extol their virtues. Indeed the NHS accountants were so impressed by the cost-effectiveness of a “magnetic leg wrap” with the catchy name of ’4UlcerCare’ that they recommended that doctors be allowed to prescribe it to patients.

However, cost is not the real issue, it is effectiveness, and sceptics may now have to eat their words as a new study has found that magnets can reduce swelling when applied immediately after an inflammatory injury. As many people use magnets to treat arthritis, which is certainly an inflammatory condition, then they can wave the following study at their Doctor.

Scientist magazine reported this month on work done at the University of Virginia. In their initial study, researchers set out to investigate the effect of magnetic therapy on microcirculation, which is blood flow through tiny blood vessels. They placed magnets of 70 milliTesla (mT) field strength, which is about 10 times the strength of the common refrigerator magnet, near blood vessels and found that they dilated constricted blood vessels, and constricted vessels that were dilated. The results suggested that the magnetic field could relax blood vessels and increase blood flow. In a second, more recent, study they used magnets on simulated tissue injury and found that the magnets significantly reduced swelling by up to 50 percent when applied immediately after the injury.

Muscle bruising and joint sprains are the most common injuries we suffer from, and since injuries that don’t swell heal faster, then magnet therapy could have widespread applications. It could mean an end to ice packs and compression to treat injuries because it is the dilation of blood vessels that is the major cause of swelling, and research confirms that magnets work by limiting blood flow.

MAGNETS FOR PAIN RELIEF

However, most of the commercial ‘costume jewellery’ type of magnets on sale commercially do not have the strength to impact conditions such as arthritis and you may need to do some research for yourself to find out what works for you.

This information may help you make a start:

Magnet therapy uses “static” magnets, which are called static because the resulting magnetic field is unchanging. DO NOT confuse these with electromagnets, which produce magnetic fields when an electric current is applied and SHOULD NOT be used without consultation with a qualified therapist.

To use static magnets for pain relief, you must find a magnet of sufficient strength to provide a benefit. In the USA a natural medicine specialist, Dr Mercola, suggests you can test this out yourself by placing the magnet next to a piece of clothing or sock, then placing a paper clip on the other side. If the magnet is not strong enough to hold the paper clip through your sock, then it will not penetrate your body either.

Alternatively, you should check out the strength of the magnet before you buy it. They are typically measured in units called gauss (G). Simple refrigerator magnets range from 35 to 200 G, but the magnets that may treat your pain range from 300 to 5,000 G. Some practitioners start with a lower gauss and gradually move up to a more intense level as necessary.

One of the oldest established family companies dealing in magnets is Magnopulse who designed the original magnetic dog collar and besides pets and horses they have a range of products for humans too. If you want to contact them they have a freephone number at 0800 977 50 70 or via their website www.magno-pulse.com where there is a wealth of information for you to download – or if you have a holistically minded Doctor then ask them if they prescribe magnets on the NHS.

Vitamin D reduces fall risk in older women

Australia is a country with no shortage of sunshine, but even there in the winter months there may not be enough to keep the body adequately supplied so you can imagine that the situation is even more pronounced in more northern climes. Sunshine is the main source of vitamin D, and one very specific element of that – Vitamin D2 – appeared to reduce the risk of falls, especially during the winter months. This is important news for women at high-risk, such as those with osteoporosis, and the simplest advice is to get as much natural sunlight as you possibly can, and make sure you have adequate amounts of calcium in your diet as that helps vitamin D to be best utilized by the body.

Approximately one-third of women over 65 fall each year, and if a woman has a vitamin D deficiency then she is at greater risk of fracture. Those women given a vitamin D2 and calcium supplement in a trial at the University of Western Australia had a 19% lower risk of falls compared with patients given calcium alone. The trial studied 300 women over the age of 70 living in Perth, Australia who had a history of falling in the previous year. Older people who fall frequently do tend to have more risk factors for falling, including greater degrees of disability and poorer levels of physical function, so supplementing with D2 is only one factor to be considered. Taking any one vitamin in isolation can cause problems so before you decide to supplement please talk first to a qualified nutritionist, or treat yourself to a couple of weeks in the sun during the darkest days of winter. If you can’t get away, then take advantage if every ray of sunshine you can find and get outdoors as often as possible.

Beating the Winter blues

If the dark days of winter make you feel gloomy, then take heart because there are some very simple things you can do to make yourself feel better. One that certainly attracted me came from a new study that reveals fresh flowers can be a natural remedy to winter affective disorder. The behavioural research study, conducted by Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, found that people feel more compassionate toward others, have less worry and anxiety and feel less depressed when fresh-cut flowers are present in the home. Say it with flowers in this case is something I would heartily endorse! Here are some other tips that can help:

*** Start your day with a high-protein breakfast and end it with a whole grain-rich dinner. This combination will help balance mood-regulating hormones.

*** Increase your intake of omega-3 fatty acids by adding some cold water fish like salmon, or flaxseeds to your diet.

*** Try light therapy. Research has shown that exposure to light is an effective treatment for winter depression. Light therapy is administered by a 10,000-lux light box which mimics outdoor light and causes a biochemical change in the brain to lift your mood.

*** Regular use of relaxation techniques such as meditation, breathing exercises, and yoga can help promote emotional balance. There are many available, and my own meditation CD ‘Relax, Renew and Revitalise’ might help you. For more information on it visit the website at www.catalystonline.co.uk/health.htm

Finally, one of the simplest, and cheapest, things you can do is to be outdoors in the fresh air and daylight as much as possible. Have a thirty-minute walk and you will improve your health and boost your serotonin levels, which in turn will help improve your mood.

« Previous Page — Next Page »