New research is revealing many things about how our bodies work. It now appears that age-related memory loss is due, in part, to a loss of flexibility in your brain. You probably think of flexibility in terms of muscles and joints. That's certainly true. Stretching or yoga will help your body stay young. But you can also keep your brain young by keeping it flexible. If your brain remains flexible and supple, it helps maintain a good memory as you age. Researchers call it "plasticity," and loss of plasticity causes those annoying short-term memory losses we think of as "senior moments." Fortunately, there are some dietary changes you can make to increase brain flexibility and improve your memory.

I've talked about this mineral before. A deficiency can cause muscle cramps, heart disease, anxiety, asthma, allergies, and a host of other complaints. But until recently, it hasn't been associated with memory loss. Now we're seeing that if we can get enough of this mineral, it could actually improve our memory. What's more, it's found in many healthy foods. You may only need to make some dietary changes, not take another pill, to experience its benefits.

The mineral that can help restore your memory is our old friend magnesium. You need enough magnesium in your cerebrospinal fluid to keep communications moving freely across your nerve cells. And magnesium is responsible for much of their plasticity. A loss of suppleness in the hippocampus, the area of your brain where short-term memories are stored, typically causes those "senior moments."

How magnesium helps memory

Nerve cells send communications to one another, but these messages are not always clear. They're dulled by background noise. When this background noise is reduced, the nerve cells become more elastic and better able to send clearer messages.

Magnesium helps the messages get through and reduces some of the background noise. In fact, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology discovered something amazing about magnesium. They found that when magnesium levels increase, they reduce the background noise in nerve cells. The suppleness that resulted was the greatest amount that has ever been reported in scientific literature!

Decrease calcium

The more calcium and calcium-rich foods you get, the greater your need for magnesium becomes for strong bones, a healthy heart, and a good memory. Some foods contain a balance of calcium and magnesium. Others, like dairy, are nearly pure calcium. The more dairy you eat, the more likely you are to suffer from a mild to moderate magnesium deficiency. Unfortunately, routine serum blood tests don't measure magnesium levels accurately. Newer tests, such as RBC (red blood cell) magnesium, do. But not only is the RBC magnesium test expensive, not a lot of labs perform it.

Instead of taking another blood test, you should reduce your total calcium intake and increase magnesium-rich foods. In addition to supporting good memory, it will enhance calcium absorption. This means that the calcium you do take will get into your bones where it belongs, not in your arteries and joints where it can contribute to heart disease and arthritis.

Begin by modifying your diet and reduce your dairy intake. Think of cheese as having around 200 mg of calcium and around 10 mg of magnesium. Not good for your memory. Milk is no better. One cup contains around 300 mg of calcium with 50 mg or so of magnesium. Soy milk, on the other hand, has 10 mg of calcium and 45 mg of magnesium per cup. Use it on your cereal instead of cow's milk and you improve your calcium-to-magnesium ratio instead of making it worse.

Increase magnesium

Many foods high in magnesium are the foods you may be avoiding. Either they're high in fats (e.g., nuts and seeds) and you think — erroneously — that they'll contribute to weight gain, or they're hard to digest. The fats in nuts, seeds, and other plant products (soy, for instance) actually help burn calories faster. Eaten in small quantities, an ounce or two at a time, they help you feel satisfied and provide you with more magnesium — and a little calcium as well. If nuts are difficult for you to digest, grind them in a seed grinder or chew them well, and take a digestive enzyme with them.

Other foods you may not think of as being magnesium-rich include shrimp, dried apricots, oats, and brown rice. All beans contain good amounts of magnesium without raising calcium levels. Spinach, chard, and beet greens do, as well.

Meal ideas

Let me give you a few suggestions for meals that emphasize magnesium over calcium to make it easier for you to get enough dietary magnesium. You don't have to eat these foods every day, but if you replace dairy products with some of them, you'll improve your magnesium-to-calcium ratio ... and possibly your memory as well.

Breakfast: Whole grain cereal (oatmeal, granola, etc.) with soymilk and a few chopped almonds or walnuts. A whole-wheat muffin with coconut or dried apricots.

Snacks: Sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, a few dried figs, edamame (green soybeans), or bean dip with baked corn chips or whole grain crackers.

Lunch: Salad with garbanzo beans, lentil or black bean soup, hummus sandwich on whole wheat bread or wrapped in a whole wheat or corn tortilla.

Dinner: Many of these foods have a moderate amount of magnesium and are low in calcium: chicken, turkey, or fish with a spinach/avocado salad or cole slaw, and brown rice or a baked potato with skin.

Get a 1:1 supplement

Make sure that any supplements you take have at least equal amounts of calcium and magnesium. Many emphasize calcium and don't take into account the fact that our diets already are too low in magnesium. Look for a multivitamin/mineral formula with at least 500 mg of each of these two minerals. You can find these multis in many health food stores or order either Vitality Plus (800-728-2288) or MultiThera (888-488-2488).

Combined with a healthy diet that includes small quantities of dairy, you should be able to achieve a better mineral balance that supports good mental function.

Kirschmann and Kirschmann, Nutrition Almanac, Fourth Edition, McGraw-Hill, 1996.

Liu, et al. "Magnesium and memory function," Neuron, December 2, 2004, and MIT news release.

Seelig, M.S. "Increased need for magnesium with the use of combined estrogen and calcium for osteoporosis treatment," Magnesium Resources, September 1990.

Seelig, M.S., et al. "Benefits and risks of sex hormone replacement in postmenopausal women," J Am Coll Nutr, October 2004.

What to Do When You Can't Find the Right Doctor and You're Not Getting Well

If you're sick and not getting well, the natural place to turn is your doctor. But what should you do if your doctor doesn't seem to help? What else can you do to get well?

The first step for many is to subscribe to this newsletter. I hear from many people who just can't get well and their doctors don't offer any help. So, in these pages, I try to help you look beyond what your doctor says and take control of your own health. Unfortunately, that can be difficult at times.

Doctors base some of their treatment decisions on their patients' symptoms combined with the results of blood and other diagnostic tests. If only you knew what all of the symptoms and test results meant, you might come up with some possible solutions they missed. After all, you live in your body and know it better than anyone else.

Blood test interpretation, and ordering diagnostic tests, has always been in a doctor's domain. No longer. Now you can learn what these tests mean and add your input. Ordering tests and understanding them is particularly valuable when you're not improving.

If you're not making progress with your doctor and can't find another one to work with, start by getting routine blood tests and learn how to interpret them.

Which tests to get and what they mean

If you haven't had any blood tests within the past six to 12 months, ask your doctor to order them. Your insurance should pay for most of these. You want a lipid panel (cholesterol and triglycerides), liver function panel, and a chem (chemistry) panel. The chem panel could be a chem-7, chem-27, or something in between. The higher the number, the more tests they run. The more tests you get, the more information. You also want a CBC (complete blood count) to rule out anemia and infections — two reasons for fatigue.

Ask for laboratory copies of all your tests. You may find that your blood tests fall within normal ranges, but you're still not well. Let me explain why. The normal ranges used in blood test interpretations were established decades ago when the majority of people who were tested were sick. When you fall within a laboratory's norms, it just means you may not have a defined illness. It doesn't mean you're well. Optimal ranges are narrower ranges of good health. The optimal ranges of good health fall somewhere in the middle of the lab's norms. The closer you are to either the high or low numbers, the more likely you are to be "not well."

You can learn how to interpret your own blood tests from a book written by a good friend of mine, Hyla Cass, MD. In 8 Weeks to Vibrant Health (McGraw-Hill, 2005), Dr. Cass explains what each commonly ordered blood test means.

For instance, if your CBC indicates you have an infection, your immune system is compromised and needs rest and nutritional support. At the very least, you can stop exercising for a few days, stop eating sugar, take natural antibacterial herbs, and get more rest.

If, on the other hand, your serum sodium (part of your chem panel) is low, it indicates low adrenal function (a sign of extreme stress). Rest and adaptogenic herbs, such as Rhodiola or Eleutheroccus, could help.

Do-It-Yourself Lab Tests

You need a doctor's order to get any of these laboratory tests. But I've found a way around it — at least if you want to evaluate your endocrine glands. When your endocrine system is working properly, many symptoms disappear and the need for medications is often greatly decreased.

Low thyroid function is at the core of many illnesses, from chronic fatigue and depression to brain fog and fibromyalgia. You may think that the thyroid gland works on its own, but it doesn't. It works in concert with the adrenal glands and ovaries (in men, with their testes). If your thyroid is low (hypothyroidism), it's very likely that these other glands will need support, as well. Their functions affect many aspects of your physical and emotional health. Often, the best way to get to the root of your problem is through laboratory tests.

The first test I suggest to evaluate your thyroid function is a spot iodine test, and an iodine-loading test. These are urine tests available only through FFP Laboratory (877-900-5556). The cost for both is $100 (a $50 discount when you do both), which includes shipping and a consultation with a medical doctor after you receive your results.

Next, you can order saliva tests to check your thyroid, adrenal glands, and sex hormones. Richard Shames, MD, and Karilee Shames, RN, explain just which tests to get and where to get them in their new book, Feeling Fat, Fuzzy, or Frazzled? (Hudson Street Press, 2005). What's more, the Shames' walk you through steps to help you decide which glands may need support. Then they offer therapies and lifestyle changes that will help balance them.

Cooperating labs

Several laboratories have agreed to help readers of the Shames' book by running these diagnostic tests without a doctor's prescription. Some of these labs have doctors who will work with you. Check with each facility to find out their current protocols. The labs are BioHealth Diagnostics (www.biodia.com or 800-570-2000), and Diagnos-Techs Inc. (www.diagnostechs.com or 800-878-3787). You can join the Canary Club, a patient advocacy group (www.canaryclub.org), and order your tests through them via Diagnos-Techs without a doctor's orders and at a reduced fee.

You should know that these tests cannot be reimbursed by insurance without a doctor's diagnosis and the correct medical codes. Still, when you're out there all alone, trying to decipher the cause of your health problem, it's worth a great deal to get accurate information. In the long run, it could save you both time and money.

The books I've listed can help explain lab tests in more detail than I have room for in these pages. But for more on solutions to your health problems, a whole library of my past articles are available on my website (www.womenshealthletter.com). The user name and password you need to log in is in every issue of the newsletter.

Get monitored

After you've had your tests, please make an appointment with your doctor to discuss them. Always have a qualified health care practitioner monitor you. Even a doctor who doesn't "believe" in vitamins or herbs can re-test your blood and make sure you're not hurting yourself.

Does This Tropical Fruit Cure Cancer?

A growing number of companies are playing on your fears to convince you to use their products to fight cancer. A diagnosis of cancer is so terrifying that some people jump into buying herbs or other nutritional supplements without understanding whether or not they're appropriate for them. Some of these product claims are based on good, solid science. Others, however, are based more on wishful thinking.

One of the latest nutritional products to hit the cancer therapy market is mangosteen juice (Garcinia mangostana L.). Mangosteen is a tropical fruit that grows throughout Asia. One mangosteen drink on the market is called XanGo, sold through multi-level marketing companies. The companies that sell mangosteen provide plenty of testimonials, but what's behind their carefully worded claims? Is mangosteen really effective in fighting cancer?

Maybe.

As I say so often, "Show me the studies!"

There are a few studies on mangosteen and cancer. But all of them involve putting mangosteen, or extracts of mangosteen, in petri dishes that contain cancer cells. Then, scientists watch to see whether or not anything in the fruit kills the cancer cells or keeps them from reproducing. Mangosteen seems to be effective in some preliminary lab tests, but I wouldn't go out and buy a high-priced product based on cell cultures alone.

Show me some preliminary studies on animals that indicate how and when mangosteen fights cancer. Show me double-blinded studies on humans when mangosteen stopped or reversed tumor growth. Show me something to help me understand whether or not it's worth more than $20 for a 24-ounce bottle — an eight day supply — containing only 40% pure mangosteen (the rest is pear and other fruit juices).

What's in mangosteen?

Like all fruits, mangosteen is high in antioxidants. It also contains other chemicals that have yet unknown biochemical activities. It contains mangostin, a chemical that is antibacterial, antiseptic, and antifungal – properties shared by numerous other fruits, vegetables, and herbs.

Mangosteen contains substances called xanthones. But none of more than 200 xanthones have been studied for clinical applications to any human diseases at all. If xanthones are valuable in fighting cancer, this hasn't been proven yet. One test tube study did find that a purified compound made from mangosteen peel killed cancer cells. But this compound is not the same as the juice — which you will remember is not pure mangosteen.

Mangosteen is particularly high in the antioxidant ORAC (oxygen radical absorbance capacity). Distributors of mangosteen juice claim that this fruit is highest in ORAC, but no such information has ever been published in any scientific journal. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. Even if this is true, it doesn't mean anything. We would need to know how much of these — or other — antioxidants are actually absorbed, and what benefits they have.

Cancer researcher Ralph W. Moss, PhD, points out that there's a limit to how much of these high amounts of antioxidants in mangosteen can be absorbed at one time. In fact, whenever you hear about a cancer therapy and you want more information about it, you can't do better than to check it out with Dr. Moss at www.cancerdecisions.com.

Bottom Line

Asian countries, such as Thailand and Indonesia, are looking for ways to boost their economy by taking advantage of the beneficial nutrients found in many tropical plants. I applaud and support this effort. Governments in Asian countries are funding studies to find valuable compounds that can fight diseases. But there's a gap between these studies and some products being touted as the latest and greatest solutions to our health problems.

It's not wise to take products with little testing rather than those that have been studied more closely. It's also not wise to take products because the people who are selling them are providing testimonials. Testimonials are not enough.

It's difficult to resist trying something you can buy in your local health food store or from a friend who claims it could put your cancer in remission. But when it comes to mangosteen, I advise you to save your money and resist the temptation until scientific studies show it fights cancer in people, not just in petri dishes.

If it were the same price as other fruit juices, I'd say feel free to drink it just as you would other juices. After all, fruit juice is rich in vitamins and antioxidants. But mangosteen juice is far too expensive to drink on a regular basis. If the price comes down substantially or properly done studies prove it reverses cancer, then I'll change my position.

Nutrition Detective

Vitamin C Prevents Stroke

The good news is that vitamin C and other antioxidants protect against stroke. The bad news is, you can't rely on your supplements to provide the protection. The antioxidants need to be in your diet.

The authors of a large study conducted in The Netherlands said, "Supplement use and diet are different types of intake of antioxidants, and they may have different effects on cardiovascular disease." They followed more than 5,000 women for over six years before concluding that protective antioxidants need to be included in our diet.

I've talked before about the synergistic activity of nutrients in foods. Mother Nature has more wisdom than the smartest scientists and researchers. It's possible that foods contain minute quantities of a yet-to-be studied nutrient, which activates their protective abilities. There are co-factors in foods that can't be duplicated in supplements. They are one reason why a healthy diet is so important.

This isn't to say that supplements are worthless, but rather that we shouldn't rely on them as our primary source of nutrients. Some women rely on a healthy diet; others take a handful of supplements every day. As for me, I supplement eating foods rich in vitamins, minerals, and essential fats with nutritional supplements.

Breteler, Monique, MD, PhD. "Diet rich in Vitamin C decreases stroke risk," Neurology, November 2003.

Fish Oils Fight Colon Cancer

Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch have discovered how omega-3 fats, found in abundance in fish oils, protect against colon cancer. They do so by blocking the activity of a chemical that increases a person's susceptibility to colon cancer.

Carcinogenic substances cause some cells to grow at a faster-than-usual rate and increase the amount of the chemical PKCbll (protein kinase C beta ll). Omega-3 fats stop this excessive growth and slow the activity of PKCbll. This same phenomenon is seen with other types of cancers, including breast, prostate, esophageal, liver, bladder, stomach, lung, and endometrial.

Eating fish once or twice a week isn't going to give you this protection, however. Some fish are quite low in omega-3 fats, especially those raised in a farm.

You gain the greatest protection when you take a supplement high in omega-3s. These include fish, flax, borage, and primrose oils. Make sure that any fish oils you take are guaranteed to be free from mercury or pesticides, such as the Essential Fatty Acids that are included with Women's Preferred Vitality Plus. You don't want to exchange one problem for another.

Murray, Nicole R., Capella Weems, Lu Chen, Jessica Leon, Wangsheng Yu, Laurie A. Davidson, Lee Jamieson, Robert S. Chapkin, E. Aubrey Thompson, and Alan P. Fields. "Protein kinase C bII and TGF bRII in w-3 fatty acid-mediated inhibition of colon carcinogenesis," The Journal of Cell Biology, Volume 157, Number 6, June 10, 2002.

Rice Bran Doesn't Lower Cholesterol

If you've been taking rice bran to lower your cholesterol, and it's worked for you, it's not due to the bran. A recent study found that rice bran doesn't lower cholesterol. What does is the oil in rice bran.

That's right! When participants ate a diet high in rice bran, their cholesterol didn't go down. But when they were given rice bran oil — or other oils with a similar fatty acid composition to rice bran oil — their total cholesterol level plummeted in just 10 weeks.

This suggests that if you get old rice bran, it will be lower in oil than if your rice bran is fresh. The same may be true for oat bran — known to reduce cholesterol levels.

So if you're adding bran to your diet to control your cholesterol, make sure you buy fresh bran. And throw out old brown rice that's been stored in your cupboard for more than six months. All the grains you eat should be fresh. Old oils deteriorate and get rancid.

Most, M.M., et al. "Rice bran oil, not fiber, lowers cholesterol in humans," Am J Clin Nutr, January 2005.

Ask Dr. Nan

Q: I'm concerned about iodine testing. No one else talks about needing large quantities. Instead, they warn about its potential to cause the thyroid to lower production on its own if we take too much. How safe is it to take iodine supplements if testing shows I'm low? — K.D., via e-mail

A: Not many health writers know about iodine deficiency. I do because I personally know the researcher. He was generous enough to give me early research information before anyone else. Iodine supplementation is safe. The amount I suggest in my articles is the same amount Japanese adults get. And they have fewer thyroid problems than we do.

Your thyroid doesn't produce iodine, so taking it as a supplement can't lower the production of this trace mineral in your body. David Brownstein, MD has used iodine supplementation with his patients for years and has written a book on the subject. Perhaps you would feel more comfortable taking iodine supplements after reading his book (Iodine: Why you need it, why you can't live without it, $15, 888-647-5616).

Q: I'm taking a powdered fiber drink that's supposed to lower your cholesterol if you take it three times a day. One of its ingredients is citrus pectin. Is this the same form of pectin that keeps cancer cells from clustering? And will this drink lower cholesterol? — N.E.B., Zephyr Cove, NV

A: Unless citrus pectin is modified into a smaller molecular weight and size, it won't keep cancer cells from clustering. The only modified citrus pectin that has studies proving its effectiveness on cancer cells is PectaSol from EcoNugenics. The product you describe contains ordinary citrus pectin, a cheap form of soluble fiber that binds to cholesterol.

All forms of soluble fiber lower cholesterol if you take enough. Oat bran is a cheaper form of soluble fiber found in supermarkets and health food stores. The product you describe should lower cholesterol if you take it frequently enough. But so will the soluble fiber in oatmeal and many fruits or vegetables.

By the way, EcoNugenics has now combined PectaSol with alginate from seaweed. The result is a powerful new supplement that chelates heavy metals from your body. And it does this without removing essential minerals like many other oral chelation products.

This new product is called PectaSol Chelation Complex. It's now available from our sister company, Advanced Bionutritionals. Please see the enclosed insert for more details.

Correction

In the June issue, my story on strontium gave you inaccurate information on how to order supplements. My apologies to any of you who were inconvenienced. Strontium Support, from Advanced Orthomolecular Research in Canada, must be ordered through Global Vitamins in Calgary (866-505-5655, www.globalvitamins.ca) and paid for in Canadian dollars (your credit card company should make the conversion). This supplement contains 227 mg of strontium, not 500 mg. And it costs $30 (that's about $24 U.S.).

However, there's a product that has a similar name — Strontium by Ortho Molecular Products — that's widely available. You can buy strontium citrate through Farmacopia in the U.S. (800-896-1484, www.farmacopia.net). For $22.95 you can get a bottle of 120 capsules of 500 mg each. I've seen it elsewhere on the Internet for less than $20. So shop around and find the best price.