ANTRAC WELLNESS NewsLetter 034

ANTRAC WELLNESS News Letter_034

In this edition: p1 - Acupuncture may benefit Parkinson’s patients; p2 - Hospital errors kill well over 180,000 Americans annually – why are super-safe supplements and natural health under attack? Fish oil may correct traumatic brain injury; How tumors exploit gut flora to fuel growth, and the surprising finding that chemotherapy boosts resistant cancer; Good news: dark chocolate is good for your heart; p3 - Could blue light replace antibiotics? This is yukky, but, it might be healthy to eat boogers.

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“I aim to get my patients as WELL as possible, as quickly as possible, and then to keep them WELL”.

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ACUPUNCTURE MAY BENEFIT PARKINSON’S PATIENTS

Acupuncture may help relieve some of the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, researchers from the University, Seoul, Korea, reported in CNS Neuroscience & Therapeutics. It appears that acupuncture reactivates parts of the brain that have become too deactivated, the authors added. The scientists explained that several studies had shown that acupuncture treatment relieved symptoms of patients with Parkinson’s disease in human and animal subjects. Some studies using fMRI had found that neural responses in extensive brain regions were much lower among Parkinson’s patients compared to healthy individuals. Brain areas particularly affected by Parkinson’s include the thalamus, putamen, and the supplementary motor area.

Scientists have been carrying out more and more studies on the possible therapeutic benefits of acupuncture. An article published in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) in September 2012 found that acupuncture may help in the treatment of chronic pain. Yeo, S., Lim and team used fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) to measure what the specific effects of needling acupuncture point GB34 (Yanglinqquan) were on parts of the brain that are affected by Parkinson’s Disease. Certain brain centers become too inactive in people with Parkinson’s disease. The authors explained that acupuncture seems to reactivate them. The authors divided the participants into two groups:

• The control group - consisting of 12 “healthy” subjects. None of them had Parkinson’s disease.

• The Parkinson’s group - consisting of 12 patients with Parkinson’s disease.

They found that acupuncture encourages better neural responses in the following brain regions: the basal ganglia, putamen, thalamus, caudate, and substantia nigra – all associated with Parkinson’s disease. What is Parkinson’s Disease? Parkinson’s disease is a progressive disorder of the nervous system which affects how people move, including how they write and speak. Symptoms typically develop over time. The patient may notice some ever so slight tremors in one hand. Gradually the stiffness becomes a prominent symptom, which slows down movements

considerably - this is known as bradykinesia. The muscles of a PD (Parkinson’s disease) patient become progressive weaker. Often sufferers adopt an unusual posture. PD is a movement disorder. Examples of other movement disorder which have a neurological basis include cerebral palsy, ataxia, and Tourette syndrome. http://bit.ly/13thDsu

HOSPITAL ERRORS KILL WELL OVER 180,000 AMERICANS ANNUALLY – WHY ARE SUPER-SAFE SUPPLEMENTS AND NATURAL HEALTH UNDER ATTACK?

Consumer Reports' investigation into hospital safety shows some of the most well-known hospitals in the USA received the worst ratings. Sacred Heart of Chicago was ranked the most dangerous in the country. A clinic in Billings, Montana was ranked the safest, based on six criteria, including hospital-acquired infections, over-treatment, and death rates. More than 2.25 million Americans will likely die from medical harm in this decade – the equivalent of wiping out the entire populations of North Dakota, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Recent data from the UK shows that compared to supplements, you are 900 times more likely to die from food poisoning, and 300,000 times more likely to die from a preventable medical injury during a hospital stay in the UK. Adverse reactions to pharmaceutical drugs are 62,000 times more likely to kill you than nutritional supplements. http://bit.ly/17VuTJU

FISH OIL MAY CORRECT TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY

17-year-old Bobby Ghassemi, a former high school football player who was left in a coma after a devastating car accident, regained his health after physicians administered high-dose omega-3 fats through a feeding tube. Your brain is 60 percent fat and DHA (docosahexanoic acid, a type of omega-3 fat) alone makes up about 15 percent to 20 percent of your brain's cerebral cortex; it's found in high levels in your neurons -- the cells of your central nervous system, where it provides structural support. Animal studies as well as another documented case in a coal miner with severe brain damage suggest omega-3 fats are highly beneficial for helping to trigger the brain’s healing process after traumatic brain injury. Despite the apparent benefits, high-dose omega-3 therapy is still considered an “unorthodox” treatment for traumatic brain injury, and is not routinely ordered as a standard of care; if a family member suffers from a traumatic brain injury, you may have to be their advocate to have this treatment administered.

http://bit.ly/17gSCDb

HOW TUMORS EXPLOIT GUT FLORA TO FUEL GROWTH, AND THE SURPRISING FINDING THAT CHEMOTHERAPY BOOSTS RESISTANT CANCER

Researchers have found a microbial-dependent mechanism through which some cancers mount an inflammatory response that fuels their development and growth. They suggest inhibiting the inflammatory cytokines produced might slow cancer progression and improve response to chemotherapy. Probiotics tend to downregulate at least one of several cytokines involved in inflammatory processes, so probiotics may turn out to be an important player in helping to inhibit cytokine production. New research shows chemotherapy can damage healthy cells in such a way that they begin secreting a protein that not only protects cancer cells and promotes their survival, but also causes the tumors to be resistant to further chemotherapy treatment. Despite the 40-year “war on cancer”, drug-based "advances" are not making a dent in the rise of cancer prevalence, as the conventional approach fails to address lifestyle-related issues such as optimizing food intakes, lack of sun exposure, DNA-disrupting wireless technologies, lack of sleep, obesity, and chemical exposures of all kinds. http://bit.ly/ZnEV4z

GOOD NEWS: DARK CHOCOLATE IS GOOD FOR YOUR HEART

Hey chocoholics! You will love this information. In a research paper published in the British Medical Journal, Monash University researchers concluded that "blood pressure and cholesterol lowering effects of dark chocolate consumption are beneficial in the prevention of cardiovascular events" in high risk populations. Since cardiovascular disease is responsible for 29 percent of deaths worldwide, it is safe to say it is something all Australians should be concerned about. The purpose of the Monash University study was not to determine which specific ingredients in dark chocolate were responsible for potentially preventing cardiovascular diseases. Many earlier studies have indicated that polyphenols, particularly a group of polyphenols called flavonoids, which "exhibit antihypertensive, anti-inflammatory, antithrombotic, and metabolic effects" are probably responsible for dark chocolate's effectiveness. In the body, flavanoids (or flavanols) stimulate the production of endothelial nitric oxide, a substance that causes dilation of blood vessels, which in turn lowers blood pressure.

High levels of flavonoids are found in cocoa beans, the main ingredient in high quality chocolate products. This is part of the reason why dark chocolate, which contains more cocoa than milk chocolate, is emphasised. Researchers also recommend "premium quality" dark chocolate with not less than 70 percent cocoa be consumed. While premium quality chocolate is more expensive than cheaper chocolate bars, their research also determined that "chocolate therapy" was a cost-effective form of preventive therapy. http://www.bmj.com/content/344/bmj.e3657

COULD BLUE LIGHT REPLACE ANTIBIOTICS?

In the study, lab animals were infected with P. aeruginosa. Incredibly, ALL of the animals treated with blue light survived, while 82 percent of the controls died. Could this possibly be the beginning of a whole new treatment paradigm for infections? Clearly, we’re nearing the end of the road of the antibiotic era, as antibiotic-resistance spreads. Blue light therapy has also been shown to be effective against MRSA and other resistant bugs, offering new hope for effective treatments.

In a previous study published in 2009, over 90 percent of community acquired and hospital acquired strains of MRSA were successfully eradicated within mere minutes of exposure to blue light. According to the authors: “These significant levels of photo-destruction at low dosages indicate that irradiation with 470nm LED light energy may be a practical, inexpensive alternative to treatment with pharmacological agents, particularly in cases involving cutaneous and subcutaneous MRSA infections that are susceptible to non-invasive types of radiation.”

Here, the word “radiation” does NOT refer to ionizing radiation but rather the emission of energy from an LED light source – here within the blue light spectrum, which has a range of 450-495 nanometers (nm). (The study in question used 470nm blue light). Natural sunlight will expose you to the full light spectrum from 415-660nm light, which encompasses the entire spectrum of colors: violet, blue, green, yellow, orange and red. http://bit.ly/14Nspys

THIS IS YUKKY, BUT, IT MIGHT BE HEALTHY TO EAT BOOGERS

Your nasal mucus might be host to small amounts of contaminants (acting as antigens) that may actually “educate” and boost your immune system when they’re consumed. So contrary to the belief that eating boogers could make you sick, it might actually help your body to fight off illnesses. Wow, is that food for thought? http://tinyurl.com/a5dgtak

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