t’s normal for our muscles to lose tone and become flabby as we age. But just because it’s normal doesn’t mean it’s good. Not only are flabby muscles unsightly, they’re an indication that we’re losing strength. And all of us would like to stay strong and vital as long as possible.

To stop or reverse this progression, many of us turn to exercise. While a consistent weight lifting program or workouts at a gym is important, it’s not enough. In addition to exercising our muscles, we need to feed them. The best food for muscles is protein. The older we get, the more we need to eat sufficient protein to keep muscles from atrophying, and the harder it is to get enough.

The problem is twofold. We tend to eat less protein as we get older, and the protein we do eat is not digested as well as it was when we were younger. Poor digestion means poor absorption. So you may be eating plenty of protein and still not get enough into your muscle tissues.

That’s why I suggest you add a protein shake to your daily diet and exercise program.

However, not all protein shakes are created equal. And trying to choose the right protein powder can drive you crazy. So I did the work for you. I did a lot of digging. And what I found can end your confusion – and help restore some of your lost muscle tone.

When it comes to building or retaining muscles, you need a well-absorbed complete protein with all the necessary beneficial fats and amino acids. The top two sources are eggs and dairy. And of these two, whey protein from milk is my top pick.

It’s also the top pick of athletes and bodybuilders, who have to keep their muscles toned. So we know it works. And I can tell you it’s the best absorbed.

But just as protein shakes aren’t equal, neither are all whey products. Most whey protein powders don’t pass my criteria. That’s because not all whey protein powder is safe and effective.

Most contain hormones

To increase milk production, the majority of dairy farmers give their cows injections of rBST (recombinant bovine somatotropin, an artificial growth hormone). The FDA insists that rBST is safe. But Samuel S. Epstein, MD, in his excellent book What’s in Your Milk? (Trafford Publishing, 2006), documents the dangers of growth hormones. They include increasing our risk of various cancers and compromising the health of dairy cows. We know that rBST increases infections in cows’ udders and results in a shorter lifespan. If a dairy product — including whey — is organic, it contains no rBST. So use only rBST-free whey products.

But even organic whey doesn’t mean it’s good for you. Conventional whey proteins can be toxic and low in valuable nutrients. One manufacturer of whey products explains, “Cheap whey protein is like eating a wall. You’ll get some minerals from it, but it’s not a good source of nutrition.”

The best whey protein…

So what should you look for in your whey protein? These are the most important factors in healthy whey:

Should be a concentrate, not an isolate. Bodybuilders will argue with me. They prefer whey protein isolate because it’s slightly better absorbed. But only slightly. And the isolate form is less balanced. Whey protein concentrate, on the other hand, is less processed and contains all the co-factors that make it a complete and more natural immune-boosting product. I choose less processing over slightly better absorption. Whey protein concentrate is a whole food, not an over-processed supplement ingredient.

Should be cold processed (undenatured). Cheap whey protein lacks some of the important nutrients you want from your whey protein powder because they’re heated. Heat destroys toxins and bacteria. But it also destroys some of the most important nutrients whey has to offer. These include ALA and CLA (beneficial fats) and l-cysteine, an amino acid that prevents your muscles from wasting. These are nutrients that promote muscle growth and muscle tissue repair.

Should be from grass-fed cows. Most dairy cows live in crowded, unsanitary conditions spending their days walking around on dirt and manure “pastures.” They eat hay, not grass. No wonder they’re given antibiotics to prevent diseases. Grass-fed whey, on the other hand, contains higher amounts of immune-supporting nutrients like alpha and beta lactalbumin.

Should be free from toxins including pesticides and chemicals. It’s impossible to escape environmental pollution. But cold-processed whey should undergo microfiltration. This will remove impurities and preserve those fragile immune-supporting fats and proteins I mentioned earlier. The filtration used in whey processing should remove all impurities. Manufacturers of cheaper products process their whey with acids. The residue from the acid filtration can be toxic. Only buy products guaranteed to be toxin-free and, whenever possible, organic.

Should come from A2 cows ONLY. This is where most whey protein products fail my scrutiny. And it separates the most beneficial from other forms of whey that are less effective and even harmful. I explained some of the problems with A1 dairy products and the benefits of A2 dairy in my September 2009 article. This is a “must read” article if you want to understand how critical it is to avoid A1 products. You can read it on my website.

Originally, many people believed that all cows gave good quality A2 milk. Then, some of the cows mutated and produced A1 milk. Now, almost all dairy cows in this country give A1 milk. The herds producing milk containing the beneficial A2 casein are limited to a small number of cows in Asia, Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. Whey from Australia or New Zealand commonly comes from A2 cows.

Today, A1 dairy products are common in most parts of the world. But A2 dairy is rare — and more expensive. The A1 protein has been linked to diabetes, heart disease, and digestive problems. The A2 protein has not been associated with any illnesses.

Most — but not all — Guernsey cows (the beautiful brown ones) produce A2 milk. Holsteins (black and white) produce A1 milk.

If you can’t find A2 milk, there’s another source — sheep and goats. Both animals give A2 milk, as well. So in addition to the whey protein you buy, make sure any yogurt or cheese you eat comes from sheep or goats.

Buy quality whey protein powders

If you want to stop the flab of aging muscles and increase your strength, you want undenatured whey from grass-fed cows from A2 milk. The best quality whey protein powder I’ve found is the Fat Flush Whey Protein from UniKey (800-888-4353). It’s a whey concentrate that comes from grass-fed New Zealand cows. While not all cows from New Zealand are guaranteed to give A2 milk — unless they have been certified through expensive DNA testing — 90% are.

If you want to feed your muscles and lose weight, have a protein drink instead of a meal. Need to gain weight? Have a drink in addition to your meals. And if you simply want to preserve your muscles, have a protein shake after you exercise — preferably every day.

Unraveling the Mammogram Controversy Can Help You Make the Best Decisions

Two months ago, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, a government agency, made headlines in the news when it announced new guidelines for mammograms. These recommendations set off a firestorm of controversy among doctors, cancer organizations, and breast cancer survivors causing mass confusion.

Now that the dust has settled a little, let’s look at the task force recommendations and bring some reason to the madness. Then I’ll have some recommendations for what you should do.

The task force said that women in their 40s no longer needed any mammograms unless they were at high risk for breast cancer. And women over 50 just needed a mammogram every other year rather than yearly (standard practice throughout Europe). According to these new guidelines, anyone over 74 didn’t need mammograms at all.

Why all these changes? Because statistically, this task force concluded that the risks from mammograms outweigh the benefits.

Mammogram risks

False positive results. Younger women tend to have more dense breasts, and their breasts look white on a mammogram. So do tumors. Older women’s breasts “read” gray, contrasting more with tumors and making them easier to see. The number of mammograms for women in their 40s have resulted in a 50% increase in false-positive results.

Mammograms in younger women often result in false alarms resulting in more biopsies: When a mammogram isn’t definitive, doctors often order a biopsy. In many cases, a wait-and-see approach is both safe and effective.

Unnecessary radiation exposure. Any amount of radiation is cumulative and harmful. If a 40-year-old woman has one mammogram a year until she turns 50, those mammograms will bombard her with unnecessary radiation 10 times. This amount of exposure is more than enough to cause breast cancer.

This isn’t news to my long-time subscribers. I told you all of this more than seven years ago!

Here’s the shocking truth about mammograms. To prevent one death from breast cancer, you need to screen 1,900 women in their 40s for 10 years. These screenings will result in more than1,000 false-positives — and all the unnecessary associated treatments that follow. Mammograms for women 40 to 49 do not appear to be the answer we were led to believe they were.

What about those of us over 50? Here’s the bad news. As we get older, everything slows down. Healing takes longer. You don’t digest your food as well, or as quickly. But that’s actually good news when it comes to cancer. Why? Tumor growth also slows down. So having some kind of screening every two years is sufficient for many women.

We’ve relied too much on mammograms partly because it’s a billion-dollar business that has heavily influenced doctors. It’s time to admit that mammography is not the only game in town. We need more effective and less toxic screening tools to choose from. At best, mammograms are part of the solution. But let’s be honest. Mammograms are imperfect, and they’re not your only option.

What about self-exams?

I know women who discovered their breast cancer in the shower. Like most of us, doctors and public service announcements drilled them for decades to perform regular breast self-examinations. So they did — and it worked.

These new guidelines say we should stop self-exams because they don’t reduce mortality. Even the benefits from breast exams performed by trained health-care professionals are unknown and may not save lives, they say.

This recommendation is just plain stupid. Breast self-exams are a non-toxic test that should be included in our routine screenings.

Basically, these new task force guidelines say that we should rely on a screening tool that isn’t accurate and has side effects, and not use safer methods of screening. All screening tests are imperfect, so look at your options, your health, and any family history of breast cancer. Then discuss your options with your doctor and put together a plan that best suits you. Let him or her know that you want to explore more of your options. Seriously consider performing breast self-exams every month and getting yearly exams by your health practitioner. But that’s not all.

Take another look at thermography

Breast thermography, or infrared imaging, is a diagnostic tool that identifies and measures heat changes in the body. It misses finding only 5-10% of cancers and has fewer false positives than mammograms.

Before pre-cancerous cells become malignant, the tissues around them produce more blood vessels. They do this to get ready to feed hungry cancer cells. These additional blood vessels appear on thermograms as heat long before your doctor can see anything on a mammogram. You can get more information on thermography and find a thermography center near you by contacting www.breastthermography.com (650-361-8908) or www.breastthermography.org.

Bottom line

Recognize that any test can be inaccurate. Don’t rely on a single one when others are affordable and accessible. Design an individualized plan to meet your needs. And expect to hear more debates about mammograms. After all, they’re a billion dollar business.

Breast Cancer Action, “US Panel Ups Age for Routine Breast Cancer Screening From 40 to 50,” Annals of Internal Medicine, November 17, 2009.

Radiological Society of North America. “Targeted breast ultrasound can reduce biopsies for women under 40.” ScienceDaily, 2009, December 2.

This Beverage Reduces Wrinkles, and You Don’t Need to Drink Much of It

f you want to stop your skin from sagging and reduce facial wrinkles, you can, and should always use good quality skin-care products, stop smoking (if you still do), drink plenty of pure water, and eat a healthful diet. If you’re already doing this and it’s not enough, you can always see a plastic surgeon or dermatologist for expensive and sometimes painful treatments.

Or you can drink a cup or two of a pleasant-tasting, easy-to-find beverage.

That’s what a group of British researchers recently found when they tested the properties of 21 plant extracts for their healthful benefits. They found that one of them outperformed all the rest when it came to improving aging skin.

You can find this beverage, which is high in antioxidants, in any health food store and in many supermarkets. The particular antioxidants it contains are known to protect against cancer and rheumatoid arthritis. But you may want to drink it for its newly found anti-wrinkle properties.

The beverage is white tea — a tea from the same plant as black and green teas. But white tea has different properties. It reduces wrinkles by making enzymes that protect against inflammation. And it prevents two proteins in the skin from breaking down. These proteins help keep your skin young and supple. The more of them you have in your skin — and the less inflammation — the fewer wrinkles you’re likely to have. These proteins are elastin and collagen.

Elastin does just what you’d think it does from its name: it helps keep skin elastic. Elastin not only reduces wrinkles associated with aging, it stimulates wound healing and stops skin from sagging.

Collagen, a substance common in connective tissues throughout the body, also helps skin retain its strength and elasticity. As you probably know, aging skin loses its elasticity and becomes thinner and more brittle.

What is white tea?

As I said before, white, green, and black teas all come from the same plant, Camellia sinensis. All of these teas contain beneficial plant-based chemicals, but to varying degrees. The difference is in whether or not the leaves are cured and if so, to what extent. The more they’re cured, the more oxidizing that takes place — and the lower they are in protective antioxidants.

White tea leaves are harvested in the spring when the leaves are young and covered in delicate white fuzz, hence the name. The leaves are just gently dried and packaged — not cured at all. This is why white tea contains the strongest concentration of antioxidants of all teas from the tea plant.

The fresher the white tea leaves, the more antioxidants it contains. If you’re drinking tea for any of its therapeutic properties, you’ll want the freshest white tea you can find.

It doesn’t take large quantities of white tea to protect and nourish your skin from the inside out. These British researchers were amazed to find that the amount they used in their tests was less than what you’d find in a single cup. So if you want to improve your skin or protect it from future signs of aging, begin your morning with a cup of white tea. Then follow it with green or black tea if you’d like something with a stronger taste.

Green tea is next highest in antioxidants, containing more of them than black tea. There are scores of scientific studies that show the benefits of the antioxidants and other plant-based chemicals in green and black teas. But white tea is stronger — and best for your skin.

If you like the taste of a strong cup of black tea, white tea may disappoint you at first. It has a delicate, subtle flavor without the bitterness of either green or black teas that some people enjoy. But keep drinking it for its beneficial qualities and think of it as a cup of mild-tasting hot water, if you must.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/160431.php.

NUTRITION DETECTIVE

Stop a Sore Throat in Its Tracks

If you’re a long-term reader, you know that I grew up catching every cold and flu that came around. Most often they progressed to bronchitis and pneumonia. Then I found a solution that has worked for me for the past seven years. Recently, I had another opportunity to evaluate its effectiveness.

One afternoon in December, I noticed that when I swallowed, I had a sharp pain in my throat. Oh no, I thought. I don’t want this to become a full-blown sore throat. I immediately took six capsules of MycoPhyto Complex, a medicinal mushroom formula grown on immune-boosting herbs. My sore throat disappeared in half an hour and never returned!

This response reminded me once more that at times all it takes is the strong enough amount of the right supplement to get the results you’re looking for. Flu season is upon us. This is no time to be penny safe and pound foolish. Make sure you have at least one extra bottle of MycoPhyto Complex to take at the earliest sign of a cold or flu.

And protect yourself against colds and flu with 5,000 IU of vitamin D a day. You’ll be glad you did.

LETTERS

Q: Do oat bran, wheat bran, and wheat germ contain gluten? I’m attempting to go on a gluten free diet and these are staples in my diet. — W.R.V., Winlock, WA

A: First of all, since you mention that gluten is a key ingredient in your diet, I strongly encourage you to avoid it in all of its forms. Some sources of gluten are hidden, like wheat bran and wheat germ. And even a trace of gluten prevents you from getting the benefits of a gluten-free diet.

Oats bother some gluten-sensitive people, but not all of them. Its type of gluten is different enough to allow many people to eat them. The problem is that many facilities that process oats also process wheat. There again, you’re faced with cross-contamination. So I’d suggest you avoid all gluten — at least for a month. Since it’s a major ingredient in your diet, I suspect you’ll have a strong negative reaction when you introduce gluten back into your diet.

Q: Why is intravenous EDTA the most commonly used chelation agent to remove lead? — S.K., e-mail

A: EDTA (ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid) is a molecule that binds itself to minerals and heavy metals, removing them from the body. Doctors primarily use it to remove toxic heavy metals and calcium deposits in arteries.

You can get EDTA either orally or intravenously. Oral chelation is less expensive, but it’s also less effective. Intravenous EDTA is effective, but in addition to its price, it can cause side effects like blood clots, racing heart beats, and dozens of other more serious conditions. In addition, it can deplete you of important minerals and redistribute heavy metals. Some of them can even make their way into organs, including the brain.

Modified citrus pectin (MCP), on the other hand, is a safe and effective chelation substance that doesn’t remove essential minerals. And there are dozens of good sound scientific studies that show MCP binds itself to lead and other heavy metals quickly and safely.

However, not all MCP is the same. It needs to be the right molecular size and weight. The MCP used in studies is PectaSol. It’s an ingredient in supplements sold by a variety of companies. My preference is to use PectaSol Chelation Complex (800-791-3395) because it combines two effective oral substances: pectin and sodium alginate. But any product using PectaSol is safer and more effective than oral EDTA, in my opinion.

Q: You wrote that we should take either 5,000 IU/day or 50,000 IU once a week for two months if we're deficient in vitamin D. Isn't that amount toxic? — Nell P., Macon, GA

A: Not according to a recent study conducted at Boston University School of Medicine. In this study, patients who were vitamin D deficient took 50,000 IU of vitamin D once a week for eight weeks. Their levels, which began at 19 ng/ml, rose to 37 ng/ml after two months of weekly supplementation. Then these patients took 50,000 IU every other week. Their 25(OH)D level increased to 47 ng/ml.

This is still low if you're looking for vitamin D's protective effects. But it shows that massive doses of vitamin D are safe.