Alzheimers  treatment with Curcumin in CURRY

Curcumin is a powerful antioxidant that is found in curry powder and used in traditional Indian cooking. The blending of curcumin with other spices has made this seasoning appeal more to the European pallet and has made the ingredient a popular and healthy choice for seasoning many different dishes. However, more than just your taste buds will benefit from curry. Curry, and more specifically curcumin, has been found to help prevent Alzheimer’s disease.

The preventative quality of curry goes beyond its basic antioxidant function. Curcumin has been found effective in slowing or stopping the formation of protein fragments in brain cells. It is able to do this so effectively because it has such a low molecular weight. This enables it to seep into the blood stream better and bind to the beta amyloid plaque that forms on the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. So curry is good at not only preventing Alzheimer’s disease, but it removing some plaques of those already in the early stages.

If you don’t think that curry can do all that it claims, consider the fact that adults between the ages of 70-79 in India had a four times lower rate of Alzheimer’s disease in one 2003 study. The conclusion that researcher drew is that the difference is in the curry. The yellow, powdery food preservative, curcumin, found in curry, is found in abundance in the traditional Indian diet.

Here are some great uses for curry that will spice up your diet and put this strong antioxidant to work in cleaning up brain plaque that may already be forming. Curry can be a very strong flavor that some people just don’t like. For those who don’t care for it, the flavor can be played down as in the following recipes, keeping all of the nutritional benefits in.

1. Sprinkle some curry powder on your chicken salad. Adding halved red grapes and green onions balances the strength of the curry flavor. It’s also great with toasted almond slivers. You can serve it on a bed of dark green spinach or in half a tomato to add to the nutritional value.
2. Vitamins A and C are abundant in a traditional Bombay rice dish that has both curry powder and cumin. Use brown rice as your base adding chick peas, apricots, zucchini, onion, and any other vegetables you like such as carrots and red pepper. This can be cooked in a vegetable or fat-free chicken broth until the rice is cooked through. Just a tablespoon of curry powder and a teaspoon of cumin to 1 ½ cups uncooked rice balances the recipe.
3. Try adding 1/8 teaspoon of curry powder to low-fat or fat-free mayonnaise to spice up your next turkey sandwich. Load on the fresh lettuce, raw spinach, tomatoes, and peppers and put the balanced meal into a whole-wheat pita pocket.
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   Curry can be added subtly into many different recipes eliminating the need for salt. Check to be sure that your curry seasoning does not have added salt, or use just plain cumin in its place. You’ll spice up your meals while protecting your brain.

Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 17th March 2010

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Home > High Blood Pressure > Tomatoes

5 Easy Ways to Lower Blood Pressure Using 1 Great Fruit

Have you had your lycopene today? If you ate a green salad with fresh chopped tomatoes, then you not only got a healthy dose of this powerful antioxidant, but you have also taken significant action toward lowering your blood pressure. A recent double-blind study conducted in Israel has confirmed what hearth-healthy Italians have enjoyed for centuries – tomatoes (and tomato sauce) lower blood pressure and the risk of heart disease.

The Israeli study was led up by Dr. Esther Paran, head of the hypertension division of Soroka Medical Center. It involved patients who were already being treated for hypertension, but were not responding well to the medications. Dr. Paran had patients take a supplement of tomato extract. The results were a significant drop in blood pressure after just four weeks.

Tomatoes are so effective at lowering blood pressure because they contain lycopene. This potent antioxidant is even the focus of some hybrid tomatoes grown by the Israeli company, Lycomato, in order to have higher concentrations of lycopene in each piece of fruit. Other antioxidants found in tomatoes make this one super-food in the prevention of heart disease. It can even help keep LDL cholesterol from oxidizing which makes it stick to the arteries and narrow the passage way causing blood pressure to increase.

Even during the peak growing season it can be difficult to consume four whole tomatoes each day, which is the recommended amount for having a positive impact on blood pressure. Here are some ways to get the benefits of tomatoes without having to eat them straight off the vine.

1. Make Chili. Using tomato puree, which is a concentrated form of tomatoes, as the base for your chili utilizes the antioxidants without the bulk of a whole tomato. Add some ultra-lean and high protein ground bison and kidney beans with minced garlic and onions, and cayenne pepper and you have a heart-healthy main course and a full day’s allowance of tomato.
2. Since using olive oil with the tomatoes enhances the curative quality, make your pasta sauce red with tomatoes, tomato paste and olive oil to sauté the garlic and onion. Tomato paste used in making sauce contains more than 10 times the nutrients of a single tomato.
3. Have a fresh salad as a side dish to either of these entrees and cut one whole tomato on top. You’ll get one-quarter of you tomato intake right there.
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5. Drink tomato juice. It is better to make your own fresh juice so that you can control the sodium. Store bought juices can be high in sugar and sodium-based preservatives. If you have a juicer, you can make some incredible veggie juices to suit your own tastes by adding carrots, celery and some low-sodium seasonings.
6. Take a tomato supplement. If you just can’t stomach tomatoes, then a 200 mg supplement provides the equivalent of more than the recommended four tomatoes.
7. 

Adding tomatoes to your diet can reduce systolic blood pressure by 10 points and diastolic pressure by 4 points as was evident in the Israel study. Whatever way you slice it, tomatoes will  strengthen your immune system and lower blood pressure.

Enjoy your tomatoes and live a healthier life

Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 17th March 2010

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Cancer cells are repaired with Bitter Melon

Bitter Melon Extract Shown to Block Cancer Cell Formation

St. Louis researchers say bitter melon can differentiate between healthy cells and cancerous cells.

If the findings regarding the anti-cancer benefits of bitter melon are accurate, bitterness may be the new sweetness.

Bitter melon isn’t widely known here in the states, but it’s long been a natural health staple for South Americans and Asians alike.

Grown primarily in warm climates like the Caribbean and parts of sub-Saharan Africa, bitter melon (which looks an awful lot like an English cucumber) may sound gross and inedible.  After all, it has “bitter” in its name.  How good could it taste?

But you may be surprised to know that bitter melon is a frequent accompaniment to savory stir-fries, seafood salads, and in Indian cuisine like thoran.

Where bitter melon really makes its hay, though, is in the medicinal realm, as it’s long been touted for helping relieve digestive problems like heartburn, ulcers, dyspepsia and constipation.  It’s also known for having some cholesterol and blood sugar-lowering properties as well.

All that’s impressive, but I’m willing to bet that bitter melon’s claim to fame will eventually be for its cancer-fighting properties.

Researchers from St. Louis University discovered this after treating human breast cancer cells with bitter melon extract.  Their results?  Well, unlike chemotherapy, which kills all cells—including the healthy ones—bitter melon extract was able to differentiate between cancerous cells and healthy cells.  In other words, it left the healthy cells untouched and killed the malignant cells.

In a statement, the study’s lead researcher, Dr. Ratna Ray, said, “To our knowledge, this is the first report describing the effect of bitter melon extract on cancer cells.  We have shown that bitter melon extract significantly [emphasis added] induced death in breast cancer cells and decreased their growth and spread.”

Now, as Ray would go on to say, this finding should not suggest that bitter melon is a cure for cancer.  Just as other therapies don’t ensure curing someone from disease, neither does bitter melon.  So this finding is a small step in that respect.

Where it’s a giant step, though, is with regards to future research.  With information like this, researchers can perhaps use other natural herbs to make a truly potent cancer fighter so we can finally be rid of a disease that’s affected millions upon millions of lives.

The study’s published in the March 1^st 2010 issue of the journal Cancer Research.

If bitter melon sounds familiar to you, there’s a reason for it.  I wrote about bitter melon in 2008, as researchers at the time found it to be an effective treatment for type II diabetes.

Now, if you want to add bitter melon to your next stir-fry, you’re not likely to find it in your grocer’s produce aisle.  But you will find it in pill form at virtually any supplement and vitamin store that’s out there.

There are lots of options to choose from, but I like to stick with what I know.  And one company I know well is Nature’s Way.

Nature’s Way doesn’t have a bitter melon supplement specifically, but they do have a product called Blood Sugar with Gymnema.  Among other blood-sugar lowering ingredients, it contains 150 milligrams of bitter melon, which is a good amount of bitter melon.

Remember, just as can get too many vitamins, you can get too much bitter melon.  Side effects are generally minor (e.g. diarrhea, stomach pain) but if you’re pregnant, it’s best to avoid bitter melon altogether (some pregnant women taking bitter melon have experienced premature labor).  As always, use bitter melon as directed

Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 17th March 2010

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1899 : Bayer patents aspirin

On this day in 1899, the Imperial Patent Office in Berlin registers Aspirin, the brand name for acetylsalicylic acid, on behalf of the German pharmaceutical company Friedrich Bayer & Co.

Now the most common drug in household medicine cabinets, acetylsalicylic acid was originally made from a chemical found in the bark of willow trees. In its primitive form, the active ingredient, salicin, was used for centuries in folk medicine, beginning in ancient Greece when Hippocrates used it to relieve pain and fever. Known to doctors since the mid-19thcentury, it was used sparingly due to its unpleasant taste and tendency to damage the stomach.

In 1897, Bayer employee Felix Hoffman found a way to create a stable form of the drug that was easier and more pleasant to take. (Some evidence shows that Hoffman’s work was really done by a Jewish chemist, Arthur Eichengrun, whose contributions were covered up during the Nazi era.) After obtaining the patent rights, Bayer began distributing aspirin in powder form to physicians to give to their patients one gram at a time. The brand name came from “a” for acetyl, “spir” from the spirea plant (a source of salicin) and the suffix “in,” commonly used for medications. It quickly became the number-one drug worldwide.

Aspirin was made available in tablet form and without a prescription in 1915. Two years later, when Bayer’s patent expired during the First World War, the company lost the trademark rights to aspirin in various countries. After the United States entered the war against Germany in April 1917, the Alien Property Custodian, a government agency that administers foreign property, seized Bayer’s U.S. assets. Two years later, the Bayer company name and trademarks for the United States and Canada were auctioned off and purchased by Sterling Products Company, later Sterling Winthrop, for $5.3 million.

Bayer became part of IG Farben, the conglomerate of German chemical industries that formed the financial heart of the Nazi regime. After World War II, the Allies split apart IG Farben, and Bayer again emerged as an individual company. Its purchase of Miles Laboratories in 1978 gave it a product line including Alka-Seltzer and Flintstones and One-A-Day Vitamins. In 1994, Bayer bought Sterling Winthrop’s over-the-counter business, gaining back rights to the Bayer name and logo and allowing the company once again to profit from American sales of its most famous product.

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha 17th March 2010

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