Posts Tagged ‘disease’
The Truth About Antibiotics and Yeast Infections
Antibiotics have become a way of life, instead of fighting off infections and disease naturally, we constantly use antibiotics to make life easier and the suffering not as long. However antibiotics can become overused causing resistant strains.
To add to the situation, we face the problem of lowering our own immune system with the use of antibiotics, since antibiotics will kill off the helper bacteria which our bodies use to defend us against all kinds of infections and disease. It is obvious that by weakening our own defences, and strengthening the bad bacteria we are bound to run into problems further down the track.
We may benefit short term by destroying the current problem, but is it right to sacrifice the future for this short term gain.
Candida is so common and widespread throughout the body that using antibiotics may stop an infection and seriously weaken the yeast, but cannot completely remove it. Since all the yeast does not die, what is left starts to develop a resistance to the antibiotics, and with a low count of helper bacteria to stop the Candida, the yeast is allowed to spread and strengthen until it changes into a fungal state that creates hooks to latch into our intestines and begin causing cramps and digestive problems.
When it latches into the intestinal wall it can simple spor into your blood stream and get passed around your body, and end up wherever it wants. Since it can now affect and infect all organs of your body you may notice a vast variety of symptoms, such as a skin problems, gas, bloating, sensitivity to smoke, perfume or petrol, as well an increase in other health problems or allergies.
With a weakened body trying to fight infection all over the body, the spreading infections can manifest all kinds of illness from cancer to eczema.
Unfortunately even avoiding antibiotics is rarely an option, sometimes we need them for more serious cases, but when we do really need them, be sure to take acidophilus and replace the good bacteria that is destroyed.
Even if have managed to avoid taking antibiotics, you may still exposed to them in the foods that you consume. Most meats are injected with antibiotics to kill of any bacteria and disease. It is not considered dangerous to consume these meats, but the problem lies in that the small amounts of antibiotics slowly contribute to suppressing your immune system.
A great way to avoid suppressing your immune system is to buy organic meats, but we still may need antibiotics for other reasons, so just be aware of the problem and do what you can when you can.
Avoid letting antibiotics be the root of all your problems, perhaps all you need is a little understanding so you can make better informed decisions.
Tags: Candida, disease, Health, illness, medicine, Women, yeast infections
Siberian Chaga Used in Russia as Cancer Drug
If you discover a black, cancerous mass on a birch, you may be looking at a Siberian chaga mushroom. It can also, less commonly, be found growing ash, beech, elm or hornbeam.
In Europe and Asia, chaga has been used for centuries to treat cancers of the heart and liver, digestive ailments, and tuberculosis. [121]
The traditional use was to peel the black skin of the mushroom and then boil it into a tea. Being a compact and easily portable medicinal made it very valuable to healers throughout history.
Modern research on chaga has mainly focused on its potential application as an anti-cancer remedy. In Russia, this usage was already approved as early as 1955 to treat lung, stomach, breast and cervical cancers. [122]
One modern study from 1998 showed that chaga extract did in fact inhibit growth of cervical cancer cell lines under lab conditions. [123] Another study from 1995 reported that an isolate of the active compound betulin first inhibited growth of melanoma cells in a lab, and then killed them. [124, 25]
Other research papers also confirm that some of the active compounds of chaga help retard the growth of cancer cells. [125, 126]
Although traditional healers used to peel off the black outside (probably because it looked unappetizing), the skin actually contains 30% betulin, a highly prized medicinal compound, [127] while the inside is rich in fungal lanostanes. So both parts would be valuable in preparing the tea.
Even better are chaga extracts that are made with not only the whole mushroom but also the mycelium, because the mycelium contains higher levels of medicinal proteins than the fruit body of the mushroom.
Other researchers have found chaga extract to be potently anti-viral. Two studies in 1996 found it to have an inhibitory effect on both influenza [127] and HIV. [128] Perhaps it does so by helping to stimulate the body’s natural immune functions, something that was first confirmed in 2002 and then again in 2005, [25, 129] and which may also help explain the historical use of chaga mushroom as an anti-inflammatory. [130]
Furthermore, alcohol extract of chaga mushroom has been found to lower blood sugar levels. [131] Chaga also demonstrates significant antioxidant properties that help protect the genetic integrity of the cells. [132, 133]
As an interesting aside unrelated to human health, a Quebec arborist uses a chaga poultice to cure chestnut blight. The trees later even become immune to the blight and resistant to future infections. [134]
Note: The statements on this page have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This article is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Never use any medicinal mushroom or herb without prior approval by medical doctor.
Credit to Paul Stamets for research and source material.
Dr. Markho Rafael has worked in the natural health field since finishing Chiropractic College in 1996. He currently specializes in medicinal fungi in partnership with Cordyceps Reishi Extracts, LLC, a U.S. business offering Siberian Chaga Mushroom Extract and much more. For the scientific references to this article, go to the Chaga Extract page and click on any number indicating a reference.
Tags: AIDS, breast cancer, cancer, diabetes, disease, herbal, Herbs, hiv, medicine, Nutrition, skin cancer, Supplements, wellness, women's
Anxiety – Therapy and Counseling
It is not easy to deal with panic attacks or anxiety. These are problems that have a deep affect on the quality of your life. Seeking the right treatment to turn around the damaging effects is essential. Help from a qualified professional in the mental health field is one of the most common ways.
Therapy and counseling are utilized to get to the psychological roots of the anxiety. The goal here is once the root of the problem is discovered it can be possible to reverse the ravages of the problem. However, one needs to have realistic expectations about these sessions in order to get the most out of them.
First of all, you need to realize that a counseling session is simply not able to deliver an immediate cure for anxiety. Strangely enough, many seem to think that a counselor will somehow reveal magic secret that will eliminate anxiety once and for all. To the contrary, it simply doesn’t work that way. Instead, a counseling session will attempt to reverse any problems which are associated with anxiety and this will be done in different steps. Given enough time and patience, a phenomenal amount of progress can be achieved with regards to excessive anxiety.
How will the counselor or therapist approach the sessions? There really is no single, unitary answer to this. There are standardized psychological tests that can be administered in order to arrive at an accurate diagnosis. The specific questions and approached that might be employed during the actual therapy session will vary among the many mental health professionals in the field.
Another aspect to the testing is there are no correct or incorrect answers to the therapist’s questions. The questions should be answered to the best of your ability. It is very important to be completely honest with your answers and do not keep anything to yourself. This will interfere with the success of the sessions.
The counseling sessions are not just the series of questions that you must answer. You may also ask questions of the counselor in an attempt to understand your problems and to help in the reduction of the problems you are having with anxiety.
During times when you’re not undergoing counseling or therapy, it’s always advisable to maintain a personal log book in which to make notes with regards to your progress since starting with therapy. One of the biggest benefits of a log book is that it will often allow you to establish what triggers an anxiety and panic attack. The bottom line is, by keeping a log book; you’ll be in a position to gauge how well you’re responding to therapy.
Considering the remarkable results which are achieved through therapy, it’s hardly surprising that counseling and therapy remain the single most common treatment for anxiety. Furthermore, counseling can also often help to determine other psychological problems, which then too can be dealt with. If you suffer from anxiety and panic attacks, you’d be well advised to try this approach in order to take control of your life again.
Tags: anxiety, depression, disease, Disorders, education, happiness, Health, medicine, Meditation, mental health, Product Reviews, reference, self improvement, well being
Medical Breakthroughs on Obesity
WHO reported that there are presently 1 billion adults who are overweight and 300, 000 of them are considered obese. The growing number of heavy weight and obese people has increased at an disturbing speed; it has even reached worldwide epidemic proportions. Reasons of obesity have been connected to over consumption of food that are high in sugar and saturated fats that are animal-based, sedentary way of life, and the altered eating guides among cultures in highly modernized areas around the globe.
Obesity is one of the many forces of hypertension, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and some type of cancer. Today obesity has become one of the most public medical concerns especially in developing countries.
If this issue is not addressed to quickly, people will be at risk of deadly diseases because of obesity. Medical science around the world has continuously in research of scientific breakthroughs regarding obesity. This is in response to the global requirement to stop health-connected risk of obesity. A study in Albert Einstein College of Medicine’s medical researchers has yet to be confirmed as one of the medical breakthroughs on obesity.
According to the study that keeping the level of fatty acids in the brain can be the treatment for obesity. Furthermore the study aims to modify the effects of molecular substance malonyl CoA. This molecule is supposed to have been an influence on the performance of the hypothalamus, which in effect enhances the appetite of an individual.
If the scientist can found a way to change the amount of malonyl CoA in the brain, people will not crave anymore for so much food. This study is posing promise to treat obesity to children and adults in a similar way, although it is still to be tested on humans.
Medical researchers from Imperial College have found a way to reduce the craving for food among people. Injecting a medicine that increases the oxyntomodulin content in the abdomen was being conducted among diabetic patients. This hormone, which is produced naturally by the body sends out anote to the brain that the stomach is full.
Jason Myers is a professional writer and he writes mostly about medical research information online. He’s also interested in medical research news.
Tags: alternative medicine, cure, disease, Health, illness, infection, medical, medical research, natural, research, treatment
Cat’s Claw Extract Supplement: Take That Natural Approach
Within your body there is an amazing protection mechanism–a system that protects you from all kinds bacteria, viruses, and toxins. It’s your immune system.
Your immune system works around the clock in so many different ways. It is a very intricate and complex system for eliminating and incapacitating any foreign invader. Sometimes the immune system overreacts to a certain stimuli, and you get an allergic response.
There are a number of herbs that contain substances that enhance the activity of the immune system. These botanical products include echinacea, garlic, astragalus, ginseng, licorice, and cat’s claw.
The active constituents are quite variable and depend upon the time of the year when the plant is harvested. While the stem bark has some activity, the root is three to four times more active than the stem bark. Some of the known active compounds in cat’s claw include alkaloids, triterpenes, phytosterols, and proanthocyanidins.
Cat’s claw has become very popular in North America over the past decade. It’s known for its ability to stimulate the immune system and for its anti-inflammatory properties.
But what are cat’s claw benefits? Helps the body fight off infections by helping the body’s immune system, helps Protect the body against degenerative diseases and aging. Seen to reduce the risk of strokes and heart attacks by reducing the heart rate lowering blood pressure, improving circulation as well as controlling cholesterol
A tea can be made by boiling the root bark of cat’s claw in water for five to 10 minutes and then straining the water. Tablets and capsules containing cat’s claw are available in many strengths, ranging from 250 milligrams up to one gram. A typical dose would be 300-milligram capsules taken three times a day. Extracts of cat’s claw are often standardized to 4 percent alkaloid content for effective results.
The name cat’s claw refers to the small pair of woody, curved, thornlike spines that occur on the leaf stem at the leaf junction. Uncaria has a long history of use in South America as an anti-inflammatory agent, for contraceptive activity, and to treat rheumatism, tumors, and intestinal ailments.
Tags: alternative, anxiety, Detox, disease, Health, Herbs, impotence, libido, medicine, sex, stress, yoga
Reishi Extract and Cancer
Reishi is frequently prescribed in Traditional Chinese Medicine as a panacea. It is widely used by both laymen and professionals in the Orient as a treatment for things as innocuous as stress or weight loss to more serious conditions such as arthritis and even cancer.
One of the strongest proponents for the use of reishi as a medicinal mushroom is Dr. Fukumi Morishige. He works with the Linus Pauling Institute of Science & Medicine on treating cancer with reishi.
Re-printed in the Chinese Traditional Medicine Part III was a speech by Dr. Morishige that included the case studies listed below.
Growing up in Japan as Dr. Morishige did, it was impossible not to have heard of reishi. But he dismissed it as a mild herbal remedy to be used with limited results for non-terminal illnesses, not as a viable option for treating terminal conditions such as cancer. His curiosity arose when two of his cancer patients showed signs of remission, which they themselves claimed were due to their use of reishi.
First was a 39-year-old woman with lung carcinoma. The hospitals she had visited all told her she was too far gone and there was nothing they could do to help her. As a serious secondary complication, she also exhibited chest cavity edema. None-the-less, by the time she had her first appointment with Dr. Morishige, the symptoms of her illness had disappeared. The woman credited her recovery to the use of reishi, which her husband had administered to her at 4 grams per day.
The second case was a young boy suffering from congenital liver cancer. At the age of 5, his attending physician determined that the condition was terminal and discontinued any further treatment. At 9 years of age, the boy’s parents brought him to see Dr. Morishige who could then find no remaining traces of the cancer. The parents explained to Dr. Morishige that they had been feeding their son reishi via a naso-gastric tube. It was at this point Dr. Morishige determined that reishi’s effect on cancer deserved further study.
Below are five cases using reishi in combination with Vitamin C (to prevent side effects):
Case 1: A patient with a 5 cm (2 in.) brain tumor who had lost consciousness was placed on 6 gm of reishi per day in June of ‘86. By September, this 70-year-old-male patient had emerged from his comatose state. The reishi was decreased to 3 gm per day. Another three months later, December of 1986, scans showed diminishing size of the tumor. After it shrunk to 1 cm (0.4 in.), the hospital released the man to return home and live with his family.
Case 2: A patient with lung cancer, a 50-year-old female, was coughing up blood. Dr. Morishige put her on a daily dose of 6 gm of reishi. In six months, the tumor vanished. The woman, among other things, had regained her ability to climb stairs without suffering shortness of breath.
Case 3: A woman with breast cancer and metastatic bone cancer suffered excruciating pain and an inability to move below the neck. Dr. Morishige started her out on 9 gm/day of reishi and then increased it to 20 gm/day. In two months, the patient was free from pain, able to walk, and was released from the hospital.
Case 4: A man with rectal cancer metastasized to the liver was placed on 6 grams per day of reishi. Six months later, CT scans revealed that the tumor had shrunk. The patient showed improved health.
Case 5: A male patient aged 60 was diagnosed as having terminal pancreatic cancer and short life expectancy. Dr. Morishige placed him on 9 gm/day of reishi plus 30 gm/day of Vitamin C. A year later, the man was free of any symptoms and back working. After leaving the hospital, he continued taking 5 gm of reishi per day.
Note: This article is provided for scientific and informational purposes only. This product has not been tested by the FDA and should not be used for self-treatment of tumors. Never use any herb for medicinal purposes without consulting a licensed medical doctor.
Reference: Morishige, Fukumi, 1987. Chinese Traditional Medicine Part III, Page 12 – 23, ISBN4-88580-053-6 C-0077
About the author: Markho Rafael has worked in natural health for over 15 years, specializing in medicinal mushrooms such as reishi and cordyceps. Click Reishi Extract / Cordyceps for additional free articles about reishi and how it works individually or in combination such as in Stamets 7. You may also request free unique copy of articles for your web-site or other publication.
Tags: breast cancer, cancer, disease, fitness, healing, herbal, Herbs, lung cancer, medicine, Nutrition, self help, Supplements, wellness, women's
Health Benefits of Aloe Vera for IBS
When you hear the words “aloe vera,” you probably think of an ugly, spiny plant. But while aloe vera is a spiny plant and some people don’t find it particularly attractive, it’s also one of the oldest medicinal plants in the world.
One use of aloe vera is in treating intestinal upsets. Dr. Jeffrey Bland of the Linus Pauling Institute has done research on the benefits of aloe vera on the intestinal tract. The doctor found several beneficial effects, including increased protein digestion/absorption, and a greater volume of water in the stool, which is an important factor in reducing irritable bowel symptoms.
The gel in aloe vera is a natural substance and can gently correct problems in the intestinal tract that may cause irritable bowel and other intestinal disorders. This is empowering news for those who suffer from the often debilitating and always inconvenient and embarrassing conditions.
Irritable bowel syndrome can be very difficult to treat. Many sufferers of IBS turn to an oral aloe vera supplement for relief. Aloe vera supplements can provide you with a simple and natural solution to your IBS symptoms.
It is important to note: If you are currently experiencing abdominal pain, it is very important that you see a doctor to have your pain evaluated. Many relatively minor disorders can cause abdominal pain, but so can several potentially fatal conditions, including appendicitis. Never try to diagnose your own abdominal pain; always get it checked out by a medical professional.
The symptoms you may experience with irribitable bowel sydrome include constipation, diarrhea, urgent bowel movements, and lower back pain. Sufferers of IBS often find their lifestyles controlled by their illness, and find that some days their IBS rules their life.
Should you consider a natural treatment for IBS? Aloe Vera supplements work on several levels. By helping to cleanse and repair the lining of your digestive tract, Aloe Vera supplements restore natural function to your digestive/absorptive processes. Restoring natural function means that you get all the proper nutrition from your food. This also allows your digestive system to use your food properly to nourish your body, without harmful toxins getting into your bloodstream.
Aloe Vera supplements have given many irritable bowel syndrome sufferers dramatic relief. Over at AloeVeraHealthBenefits.info you can find a lot of free and valuable information regarding the health benefits of the aloe vera plant.
Questions about the health benefits of aloe vera? Stop by www.AloeVeraHealthBenefits.info and get information about the healing effects of the aloe vera plant.
Tags: aloe, Aloe Vera, aloe vera plant, digestive, disease, Health, health benefits of aloe vera, IBS, illness, irritable bowel syndrome, natural cure, supplement, Supplements
