Can your personality affect the likelihood that you’ll develop a health condition? Some scientists believe that may be the case with fibromyalgia.
There is no known cause for fibromyalgia, a condition that is characterized by chronic widespread pain for unknown reasons. A new study investigated the behavioral and psychological factors of the disorder.
The researchers discovered common ground in the personalities and behaviors of patients who suffer from the condition.
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Filed under: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, Stress Management on January 24th, 2012 | No Comments »
Over the last 30 years there has been a dramatic increase in the incidence of obesity in the United States and around the world. Check this site out to see the trends of obesity from 1985 -2006 in the United States. The causes of obesity are complex and likely multifold. It would be easier if we could just point the finger at increasing portion sizes, consuming too much fast food, too much fat, or our inactive lifestyles. Those are contributing culprits, but they aren’t the only ones.
In the United States this increase in obesity also has paralleled a shift away from the use of sucrose (table sugar) toward the use of High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS). The consumption had increased >1000% from 1970 to 1990 and continues to increase today. Why the increase in consumption? Is it healthier? No, HFCS is more sweet, prolongs shelf life and is cheaper to produce when compared to sucrose (table sugar), making it a good choice for food and beverage manufacturers.
This association led to a hypothesis that an increase in fructose intake from HFCS is a causative factor for obesity. HFCS is substantially higher in fructose content than sucrose; HFCS bypasses physiological processes that regulate satiety (decrease in hunger). Soft drinks are sweetened with HFCS; Soft drink consumption has increased.
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Filed under: depression, diabetes, Food Additives, Hypertension / High Blood Pressure, Hypoglycemia, Uncategorized, Weight & Wellness on December 16th, 2011 | No Comments »
Waking up in the middle of the night?
How well are you sleeping lately? Do you wake up between 1:00 and 3:00 a.m. on a regular basis? This is a common symptom I hear from clients who are struggling with low energy and don’t understand why. Functional wellness gives us a clear understanding of the physiology behind what is typically going on in this instance:
If we look at the typical American diet that is full of refined carbohydrates and simple sugars we can then see the chain reaction this leads to in our bodies. When you flood your bloodstream with these refined and simple sugars, your body increases its insulin production to force all that sugar into your cells. For a moment, your cells have a quick source of energy. But that energy is used up very quickly and because of the large increase in insulin, your bloodstream is left in a state of hypoglycemia.
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Filed under: Fibromyalgia, Food & Nutrition, Hypoglycemia, Sleep, Stress Management on December 3rd, 2011 | No Comments »
Scientifically Speaking…
The National Academy of Sciences reported that Americans are critically lacking in adequate amounts of magnesium; men receive only 80% of the recommended daily allowance and women only 70%.
Most people basically associated magnesium only as an important mineral necessary for proper utilization of calcium. What they don’t know is that magnesium is required for well over 350 different enzymes, not to mention the hundreds of other essential functions within the body.
How the Depletion Happened…
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Filed under: Chronic Disease, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, depression, Energy & Vitality, Fibromyalgia, Vitamins & minerals on November 30th, 2011 | No Comments »
When a physician recommends the latest drug for your medical problem, you both rely on the quality of the research that produced that drug and the integrity of the researcher. If the research has been skewed because of commercial funding or academic politics, the drug may not work, or even have serious harmful side effects. Health research can be inaccurate because of a mistake that wasn’t caught, but sadly more often research results are inaccurate because they’ve been spun so that negative results take on a positive cast, or simply to be misleading.
Researchers sometimes fabricate data, or medical journals that report research results may not check the facts. However, one of the biggest problems with health care research is the increasing monetary support from interested parties such as drug companies, both to fund the research and universities that perform it. Research that’s industry-sponsored is over three times more likely to result in outcomes favorable to the company that paid for the research.
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Filed under: Detoxification, Health & Healing, Uncategorized on November 3rd, 2011 | No Comments »
Patients with hypertension may have to start watching their sugar as well as their salt, new research suggests.
Data from more than 2,600 patients found that those with the highest intakes of sugar-sweetened beverages like soda and fruit juices seemed to have higher blood pressure readings, Ian J. Brown, MD, of Imperial College London, and colleagues reported in Hypertension.
The data “suggest that individuals who consume more soda and other sugar-sweetened soft drinks may have higher blood pressure levels than those who consume less, and the problem may be exacerbated by higher salt intake,” Brown said in an e-mail to MedPage Today and ABC News.
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Filed under: diabetes, Food & Nutrition, Hypertension / High Blood Pressure, Uncategorized on October 26th, 2011 | No Comments »
Vitamin E Attacked Again
Of Course. Because It Works.
by Andrew W. Saul
Editor, Orthomolecular Medicine News Service
(OMNS, Oct 14, 2011) The very first Orthomolecular Medicine News Service release was on the clinical benefits of vitamin E. That was seven years ago. (1) In fact, the battle over vitamin E has been going full-tilt for over 60 years. (2)
Well, you can say one thing for vitamin critics: at least they are consistent. Consistently wrong, but consistent.
A recent accusation against vitamin E is that somehow it increases risk of prostate cancer. (3) That is nonsense. If you take close look at the numbers, you will see that “Compared with placebo, the absolute increase in risk of prostate cancer per 1000 person-years was 1.6 for vitamin E, 0.8 for selenium, and 0.4 for the combination.” That works out to be a claimed 0.63% increase risk with vitamin E alone, 0.24% increase in risk with vitamin E and selenium, and 0.15% increase in risk for selenium alone.
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Filed under: Anti-aging, Food & Nutrition, Orthomolecular Nutrition, Vitamins & minerals on October 14th, 2011 | No Comments »
by Robert G. Smith, PhD
(OMNS, Oct 12, 2011) A newly released study suggests that multivitamin and nutrient supplements can increase the mortality rate in older women [1]. However, there are several concerns about the study’s methods and significance.
- The study was observational, in which participants filled out a survey about their eating habits and their use of supplements. It reports only a small increase in overall mortality (1%) from those taking multivitamins. This is a small effect, not much larger than would be expected by chance. Generalizing from such a small effect is not scientific.
- The study actually reported that taking supplements of B-complex, vitamins C, D, E, and calcium and magnesium were associated with a lower risk of mortality. But this was not emphasized in the abstract, leading the non-specialist to think that all supplements were associated with mortality. The report did not determine the amounts of vitamin and nutrient supplements taken, nor whether they were artificial or natural. Further, most of the association with mortality came from the use of iron and copper supplements, which are known to be potentially inflammatory and toxic when taken by older people, because they tend to accumulate in the body [2,3,4]. The risk from taking iron supplements should not be generalized to imply that all vitamin and nutrient supplements are harmful.
- The study lacks scientific plausibility for several reasons. It tabulated results from surveys of 38,000 older women, based on their recall of what they ate over an 18-year period. But they were only surveyed 3 times during that period, relying only on their memory of what foods and supplements they took. This factor alone causes the study to be unreliable.
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Filed under: Food & Nutrition, Vitamins & minerals on October 13th, 2011 | No Comments »
Who Else Wants to End the Battle against Pain and Fatigue Using the Healing Powers of Food and Nutrition So You Can Feel Good Again?
Well today may be your lucky day because…
Deirdre Rawlings, PhD, ND, the creator of The Eat to Beat Fibromyalgia Challenge, is giving away 3 FREE scholarships to 3 people who cannot afford to pay for the program but would love to be a part of it. This is a $297 Value!
Here’s how to participate: Nominate a friend in need or yourself and tell us your circumstances and why you want to be part of this program and what you hope to get out of it. Email your entries to Support@Nutri-Living.com
We will select 3 people by this Sunday, October 9 and help you on your way to feeling lighter, brighter, happier, and healthier!
Learn more about the program here: www.eattobeatfibromyalgia.com
Food Changes Everything!
Filed under: Uncategorized on October 4th, 2011 | No Comments »
Feeling the effects of stress and anxiety? Let’s face it, we are a stressed-out society. And our habits of overwork, not enough sleep, too much coffee, too much sugar, refined foods, junk food that we use to temporarily relieve our stress, exposure to environmental toxins, and silent infections push us to burnout.
Your adrenal glands produce powerful chemicals (cortisol, epinephrine, and norepinephrine) that help you respond to stress. These chemicals are excitatory hormones, neurotransmitters that get our bodies ready for dangerous situations (which is what the anxiety response was originally designed to do).
However, with your foot to the gas pedal like this all the time, you burn out and feel stressed, you get anxious and exhausted, you can’t sleep, and you are either tired or wired constantly.
Thankfully our brains have an antidote to these stress hormones.
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Filed under: Stress Management, Yoga Nidra Deep Relaxation on October 3rd, 2011 | No Comments »
Can your personality affect the likelihood that you’ll develop a health condition? Some scientists believe that may be the case with fibromyalgia.
