If you have chronic inflammation anywhere in your body, you’re at risk for health problems. This is because inflammation is the foundation of most chronic illnesses. This includes cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and every disease that ends in “itis” (arthritis, etc.). So one way you can significantly reduce your risk for a myriad of health problems is to reduce inflammation.

But that’s easier said than done!

Numerous factors trigger inflammation, and you need to examine and treat each of them. I’ve talked before about various causes and solutions in past articles that you can read on my website. They include parasites and food sensitivities, such as gluten intolerance.

I’ve also told you about nutrients that put out the body’s fires safer and more effectively than NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs). These natural anti-inflammatory substances include turmeric, green tea, and rosemary. They are vital in supporting a healthy immune system and lowering the inflammatory response.

But there’s more you can do at little or no cost. There are two major causes of inflammation that are closely linked together. And you can treat both causes.
I’m talking about stress and a lack of sleep.

If you think they play only a minor role in inflammation and chronic diseases you’re mistaken. They set up a vicious cycle that must be broken before you can lower inflammation — and with it, your risk for chronic illnesses.

The stress/inflammation connection

All stress has a physiological effect. Even emotional and mental stresses. I’m not just talking about “monkey mind,” where you can’t stop thinking about something that triggers anxiety. Anxiety and worry change your chemical makeup. They produce high quantities of a pro-inflammatory protein called interleukin 6 (IL-6).

A little IL-6 caused by a bruise or brief infection won’t hurt you. In fact, it’s part of your body’s healing process. The problem comes when stress produces this and other pro-inflammatory proteins over a long period of time — even when your body doesn’t need them to fight biological infections. That’s when they become chronic and contribute to serious illnesses.

“Chronic” means anything that lasts three months or longer. When your body produces IL-6 over months or years, it affects your health negatively ... whether you’re aware of it or not.

The sleep/inflammation connection

Lack of sleep doesn’t sound like a sexy cause of disease. But it is. In fact, the figures are staggering.

Nearly one-third of all people in this country fail to get a good night’s sleep. Aside from being tired during the day, they are at an increased risk for getting heart disease and other chronic inflammatory illnesses.

Researchers out of UCLA found that when you lose sleep — even for part of a single night — your body often triggers a tissue-damaging inflammatory response. This causes your body to turn on your immune system’s response to inflammation inappropriately. The more often this response is triggered, the more inflammation occurs. And, again, chronic inflammation leads to chronic illnesses.

Now, here’s the bad news. This sleep/inflammation connection doesn’t affect everyone. The UCLA study found that an increase in inflammation from lack of sleep occurred only in women.

I’m not surprised. You probably know that inflammation is a major component of heart disease. And heart disease is the most common health problem in postmenopausal women. As we get older, we have more difficulty sleeping. The reasons are many. They include hormone imbalances, anxiety, pain, deteriorating health, and grief. You may have others. Your solution to stress and chronic inflammatory illnesses may be to simply get a better night’s sleep.

The sleep solution

In past issues, I’ve suggested you take herbal teas to help you get to sleep. I’ve told you about melatonin and the LiteBook, a device that helps your body make more melatonin naturally by shining the right type of light on your face each morning. You can read more about these and other suggestions on my website, or call 800-791-3395 for more information on the LiteBook.

Today I’m talking about a different approach that costs almost nothing but a little time. And if you’re not sleeping well, you’ve got the time to invest.

An overlooked inflammation solution

Simple solutions are not always easy. This one requires a bit of work. However, the rewards can be tremendous because it really works.

Your sleep patterns hold the answer to getting a good night’s restful sleep. If you can identify what’s getting in your way, you can effectively treat it. Jan Sadler, British author of A Good Night’s Sleep: A drug-free solution (Healing Arts Press, 2008), has organized sleep patterns and their solutions in a way that’s extremely effective. So effective, in fact, that hospitals around the world now use her programs. It begins with a sleep diary. This simply makes you more aware of what’s causing your problems.

A sleep diary can help you identify the underlying patterns that prevent you from sleeping deeply without interruption: difficulty falling asleep, waking up at night, and waking up too early. Once you understand your particular patterns you can begin to retrain yourself with some of Sadler’s solutions.

Reading this book is like having your own personal sleep specialist. It guides you through simple exercises designed to address specific problems that prevent restful sleep. They include body scans and breathing exercises, as well as relaxation and visualization techniques. The good news is that six of her most powerful techniques are on a CD that’s included with the book. All you have to do is pop it in your CD player and follow along. This makes reducing stress and lowering inflammation both simple and easy.

The 20-minute Peaceful Sleep Bedtime Routine is particularly effective. It includes deep breathing, an affirmation, visualizing your own personal secret space, and a body scan. Do these and you’ll drift off to sleep.

Getting enough sleep reduces stress. And reducing stress lowers inflammation. Less inflammation means greater health. But there’s another way to fight inflammation that few people ever use.

This herb has little-known
anti-inflammatory properties

You’ve heard of this herb before, but not for inflammation. It’s best known for its ability to reduce depression as effectively as many pharmaceutical drugs. Now there’s evidence from a number of studies that it has powerful anti-inflammatory properties, as well.

If you know you have inflammation anywhere in your body, especially if you’re depressed, you may want to try taking 300 mg of a standardized extract of St. John’s wort (0.3% hypericin) three times a day with food. Check with your pharmacist first if you’re taking any medications to make sure there are no interactions. Never take St. John’s wort if you’re already taking a pharmaceutical antidepressant.

Fighting inflammation is one of the smartest things you can do to stay healthy. And sleep, reducing stress, eating right, and taking the right nutrients are some of the most effective ways to fight it.

“Chronic inflammation: the silent enemy burning within,” Women’s Health Connections, Women’s Int’l Pharmacy.

CAM at the NIH, October 2008.

Irwin, et al, Biological Psychiatry, September 15, 2008.

Olumayokun, A.O., “Inhibitory effects of St. John’s Wort on inflammation: Ignored potential of a popular herb,” Journal of Dietary Supplements, March 2009.

A Change in Your Diet Can Lower Your Risk for Going Blind

There are two things I remember about my Uncle Ben. First, he loved to eat rich foods. He would drive for hours just to go to a fine restaurant. Eating gourmet meals — heavy on the meat — was his favorite recreation.

Second, in his later years, Uncle Ben developed age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and went blind. Once fiercely independent, he suddenly had to rely on others for some of his simplest daily functions.

At that time, no one knew there was a connection between the two. Not even my father who was an optometrist. My brother Hal and I grew up hearing him say, “Take good care of your eyes. They’re the only ones you’ll ever have.”

What he meant was that we shouldn’t read without adequate light. Aside from reading comic books under the covers at night with a flashlight, we listened to him. But he never mentioned protecting our eyes with our diets. At that time, no one knew that foods could dramatically affect our vision.

Now we know that a change of diet could very well have slowed down Uncle Ben’s deteriorating vision. It might even have been able to save his eyesight if it had been caught early.

AMD is the leading cause of poor vision and blindness in older adults. It’s a condition where the middle of the retina breaks down. You don’t go blind immediately. Rather, you start losing vision in the center of your eye. This begins with a blurring, then colors fade. Eventually, many people become blind.

Add foods rich in these nutrients

If your eyes are healthy, you may be able to prevent AMD. If you already have this condition, it’s possible to stop its progression. Here’s what happens in your eyes as you age:

As we get older, some of our vision cells die. Debris accumulates in the retina. When your retina and its underlying pigment begin to deteriorate, AMD begins. Once the macula deteriorates, that’s it. There’s no way to restore your sight.

The macula contains high amounts of protective yellow pigments from two carotenoids, lutein and zeaxanthin. They are part of the vitamin A complex that feeds the macula. These pigments neutralize damaging ultraviolet rays that harm the retina. They filter out blue-violet rays that cause the most damage to the retina. This is why you should always wear sunglasses to protect your eyes when you’re outdoors. And these carotenoids stabilize the pigment under the retina. When you increase these nutrients you slow down the progression of AMD.

It’s vital that your diet and supplements contain these nutrients every day. Fortunately, you can get a lot of them from your diet. Lutein and zeaxanthin are found in abundance in carrots, sweet potatoes, winter squashes, kale, spinach, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts.

How well can these vegetables work to preserve your eyesight? A report in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) found that eating five servings of spinach a week reduced the risk of developing AMD by 57%! This is because a lutein-rich diet thickens the macular pigment, and thicker pigments reduce your risk for AMD.

Reduce this protein

The idea is to increase the foods that are beneficial to your eyes and decrease those that can cause deterioration. A new study suggests that a simple change in your diet can reduce your risk for AMD.

This Australian study spanned three years and had over 6,000 participants. It found that people who ate red meat 10 times a week or more had a 50% increased risk of developing early age-related macular degeneration (AMD) than people who ate meat less than five times a week. The more red meat they ate, the higher their risk for developing this vision problem.

Eating meat 10 times a week may sound like a lot. But for many people — like Uncle Ben — it’s the norm. He often ate meat two or three times every day. If you eat eggs with sausage or bacon for breakfast, a burger or beef taco for lunch, and a beef stir-fry for dinner, it’s easy to see how this can happen.

Chicken, on the other hand, was found to have the opposite effect. Eating chicken four times a week actually lowered the risk for developing AMD later in life by 50%.

The best diet for your eyes

Eat plenty of fresh, organic fruits and vegetables — especially orange and green foods high in vision-saving nutrients. If you eat red meat, limit your intake to small amounts once a day at most. Eat more chicken. Better yet, eat more fish and vegetarian meals. The omega-3 fats found in fish and flaxseed oil lubricate the tissues in your eyes keeping them healthy.

There’s more you can do

If you’re willing to do more, pick up a copy of Healing the Eye the Natural Way by ophthalmologist Edward C. Kondrot, MD (Nutritional Research Press, 2000, 877-341-2703). It contains information on specific nutrients in addition to carotenes that protect the eye. And it’s packed with informative exercises, homeopathic remedies, and stimulation of acupressure points around the eyes. The book is well researched and the modalities Dr. Kondrot talks about are safe. So if you have any amount of AMD, or if you want to protect your eyes, know there are a number of natural steps that work. If only Uncle Ben had eaten a healthier diet, he may have been able to preserve some of his vision and enjoy his later years.

Chong, Elaine W-T., Julie A. Simpson , Luibov D. Robman , Allison M. Hodge , Khin Zaw Aung , Dallas R. English , Graham G. Giles , and Robyn H. Guymer. “Red Meat and Chicken Consumption and Its Association With Age-related Macular Degeneration, “ American Journal of Epidemiology, 2009 169(7):867-876.

Green Tea Helps You Fight Cancer ... But It Can Kill You if You Take It With This Drug

It turns out that green tea isn’t safe for everyone. Fortunately, most people can still drink this fantastic beverage without concern. Let me explain.

I’ve told you before that it’s extremely important for you to talk to your pharmacist about all of your supplements and drugs. Your pharmacist can help you rule out any drug/drug and drug/nutrient interactions. When you combine some drugs with certain foods or nutrients, you may get unexpected and undesirable results.

For example, we’ve seen before that grapefruit can cause certain medications to be either dangerously more or less potent. Now we’re hearing that green tea may cause a serious problem for some cancer patients. In fact, it could cost them their lives.

This may surprise you as much as it did me, for green tea has become well known for its cancer-fighting properties. Numerous studies have found that one of its antioxidants, EGCG (Epigallocatechin 3-gallate), helps shrink tumors and decreases some of the side effects of chemotherapy. But this very same antioxidant causes a dangerous interaction with a class of chemotherapy drugs.
A team of researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) found that EGCG cancels out the anti-cancer action of Velcade (bortezomib), a chemotherapy drug used primarily to treat multiple myeloma, rendering it useless. The last thing any cancer patient wants to do is to take a drug that doesn’t work.

The research that came to this conclusion used both cell and animal studies. At this time, there have been no human trials. But the authors of this research say “Green tea polyphenols may have the potential to negate the therapeutic efficacy of bortezomib (i.e. Velcade) and suggest that consumption of green tea products may be contraindicated during cancer therapy with bortezomib.”
Cancer expert Ralph W Moss, PhD agrees that even though we lack human studies, women taking Velcade should avoid green tea and supplements containing ECGC.

As far as we know, green tea is safe when taken with other chemotherapy drugs. And a recent study concluded that when you combine green tea with medicinal mushrooms, this combination is more protective than when you take mushrooms alone.

Check your drugs and supplements today

These two studies point out that when you combine two or more substances you can have unexpected (and sometimes unwanted) effects.

Now we know that there can be dangerous drug and food interactions between seemingly safe substances – like green tea. Don’t wait until you hear about unsafe interactions. Be pro-active and check all of your medications and nutrients with your family pharmacist at least once every year. This is the person on your health team who is most likely to have up-to-date information on interactions. Make sure that everything you’re taking is working for, not against, you.

Next, pick up a copy of Drug Muggers, a book by pharmacist Suzy Cohen, R.Ph (DPI, 2008). It contains information on nutrients that various medications rob from your body, as well as some undesirable drug-nutrient interactions.
If you can’t find what you’re looking for, check Suzy’s website: www.dearpharmacist.com. It’s packed with the latest information on nutrient depletion and dangerous drug-food interactions. If you have no computer or computer skills, your librarian will help you get on their website.

Golden, E.B., et al. “Green tea polyphenols block the anticancer effects of bortezomib and other boronic acid-based proteasome inhibitors,” Blood, February 3, 2009.

Zhang, M., et al. “Dietary intakes of mushrooms and green tea combine to reduce the risk of cancer in Chinese women,” Int’l Journ of Cancer, October 1, 2008.

NUTRITION DETECTIVE

When Friendly Bacteria Becomes Harmful

Your intestines have both friendly and harmful bacteria. They should keep one another in check. But when you have too many pathogenic (harmful) bacteria, you’re at risk for disease. You may get a bacterial infection, diarrhea, or have other intestinal problems. Most bacteria are either “good” or “bad.” Except for Clostridium difficile.

All of us have C. difficile in our colons. They don’t produce toxins and are usually no problem. However, when you take antibiotics to kill off bad bacteria, C. difficile survives. And changes. In fact, it begins to produce toxins. The problem is that this strain of bacteria doesn’t respond to antibiotics. Then you can have a bacterium in your intestines that was once safe and is now causing problems, such as diarrhea, stomach aches, and a high fever.

You can keep C. difficile from multiplying. But you have to keep enough friendly bacteria in your digestive tract. For general everyday use, you can certainly use an inexpensive (but very powerful) probiotic formula like Advanced Probiotic Formula (see enclosed insert for details). But if you get an overgrowth, you may need something that’s even stronger. In that case, take a lactic acid probiotic like Dr. Ohhira’s Probiotics 12 Plus. Lactic acid probiotics stop C. difficile, as well as other bacteria.

I’ve talked about Dr. Ohhira’s probiotic in past issues. As a subscriber, you can read these articles on-line at www.womenshealthletter.com. If you have no access to a computer, use one at your local library.

If you’re not sure whether or not you have C. difficile or any other pathogenic bacteria overgrowth, take a probiotic formula for three to six months. The one I take is Advanced Probiotic Formula by Advanced Bionutritionals. It’s the strongest general-use probiotic I’ve found. And I rarely need anything stronger.

LETTERS

Q:: After reading one of your letters, I followed the instructions given for a Pyrilinks urine test. It was abnormal. After taking Ultimate Bone Support for few months, a new test showed it was normal. How long do I have to take the supplement? Can I lower it to once a day? With other supplements I take and not getting help from insurance, it’s becoming harder to afford alternatives. — A.P., e-mail

A: I’m delighted, and not surprised, to hear that Ultimate Bone Support worked so well for you. Bone is always breaking down and being rebuilt. This is why you saw an improvement so quickly. And it’s precisely why it’s best to take this supplement twice a day on an empty stomach away from other competing nutrients.

However, if you can’t do this for any reason, taking it once a day would certainly be better than not taking it at all. You may want to try this approach for three or four months and then repeat your Pyrilinks test. If you have Medicare, they might pay for this re-test. If, however, you have to pay for the test out of pocket, consider how many bottles of Ultimate Bone Support that one test will buy.

Another possibility is to re-evaluate all of your supplements to see if it might be more appropriate to reduce others. In these challenging financial times, it’s a good idea to re-look at all your health expenses to make sure you’re not duplicating nutrients and that you’re doing everything else possible to stay healthy. This includes eating fruits and vegetables high in antioxidants, practicing stress-reducing techniques, getting extra sleep, and exercising daily. All of these will support good bone health.

And remember that we design all of the Advanced Bionutritionals supplements to work together without any overlap. This helps you reduce the number of supplements you have to take and the overall cost.

Q: Is Integrative Digestive Formula safe for children? — J.K., e-mail

A: You can solve most childhood digestive problems simply by teaching them to chew well, drink more water, eat high-fiber foods, and limit their intake of sugar. If that isn’t enough, eliminate all foods with gluten. Sensitivity to wheat or other foods could be the culprit. There are several articles on gluten on my website.

That said, I spoke with the researcher at EcoNugenics, the company that formulated and manufactures Integrative Digestive Formula (IDF). Based on studies of the individual ingredients, they suggest limiting IDF to children over the age of two, and giving them no more than one capsule twice a day for a week or two. I’d start with one capsule a day.

Here’s why I’d limit the amount and duration of IDF: You may have heard that soy contains plant estrogens (phytoestrogens) that can affect the hormone balance in young children. Well, so does the pomegranate seed powder in this digestive formula. The difference is that the amount of phytoestrogens it contains is minimal. There are more phytoestrogens in soy milk or tofu. So, use IDF with children only when all else fails. Limit the amount to one or two capsules a day, and use it only for a short period of time.