Nutrition, Supplements, Herbs and Spices Remedies and Articles

Natural Health Remedies - Nutrition, Supplements, Herbs and Spices Information.


Coenzyme Q10: Exercise Duration Is Increased
Coenzyme Q10 appears to increase the duration of exercise to exhaustion in healthy untrained and trained individuals. Coenzyme Q10 is a vitamin like, fat-soluble substance existing in all cells. Coenzyme Q10 acts as an essential antioxidant and supports the regeneration of other antioxidants...Read full article


Foods High in Antioxidants
We’ve all read about the foods high in antioxidants but few studies have been aimed at investigating how well our bodies use these antioxidant-rich foods, and whether or not their ORAC (oxygen radical absorbance capacity) scores really translate into practical, disease-fighting capabilities in humans...Read full article


Facts about Chocolate & Antioxidants & Cocoa
Cocoa powder contains more beneficial antioxidants than other chocolate products, but processing decreases their contents. Those are the results of a study by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists and their cooperators interested in the total antioxidant capacity and procyanidin levels of six chocolate and cocoa products: natural (unsweetened) cocoa powders, Dutch processed (alkalinized) cocoa powders, unsweetened baking chocolates, semi-sweet chocolate baking chips, dark chocolates, and milk chocolates...Read full article


Portobello and Other Mushroom Facts
Americans love mushrooms, now more than ever. Per capita mushroom consumption in the United States increased from 3.7 pounds in 1993 to 4.2 pounds in 2000. Sales of the U.S. mushroom crop totalled 851 million pounds, and consumers spent $912 million on them. Mushrooms are a good source of...Read full article


Facts about Food Irradiation
The irradiation process involves passing food through an irradiation field; however, the food itself never contacts a radioactive substance. Also, the ionizing radiation used by irradiators is not strong enough to disintegrate the nucleus of even one atom of a food molecule. In the 1920's, a French scientist discovered that irradiation could preserve food. During World War II, the U.S. Army tested irradiation on fruits, vegetables, dairy products and meat...Read full article


Natural & Healthy Anti-Aging Foods
Natural Anti Aging: Foods naturally high in antioxidant absorbance capacity protect against diseases that come with aging according to studies at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston. These studies suggest that consuming fruits and vegetables with a high Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) value may help slow the aging process in both body and brain. Getting plenty of the foods with a high Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity activity, such as spinach, strawberries, and blueberries, has so far:...Read full article


Nutrition - Watermelon is an excellent source of arginine
Nutritional Benefits of Watermelon - Watermelon is an excellent food source of the amino acid citrulline, which the human body uses to make the amino acid arginine, which helps cells divide, wounds heal, and ammonia to be removed from the body. Watermelon also contains plentiful amounts of the health-promoting antioxidant lycopene as an added bonus...Read full article


Lowering Triglycerides: DHA Lowers Triglycerides
High blood levels of fats known as triglycerides may increase risk of heart disease. So may an unhealthy ratio of the good HDL cholesterol to the bad LDL cholesterol. Volunteers on a DHA-enriched regimen also showed an increase in HDL cholesterol, the kind known to protect against heart disease. Triglycerides in blood decreased by about 26 percent in volunteers on the DHA regimen. Their HDL cholesterol-the good kind-rose an average of 9 percent...Read full article

Vitamin E and Heart Disease
This news release was issued in July 2005. I am posting it together with some of my own comments to possibly help clarify the Vitamin E issue. Women’s Health Study Finds Vitamin E does not Protect Women from Heart Attack, Stroke, or Cancer: Vitamin E supplements do not protect healthy women against heart attacks and stroke, according to new results from the Women’s Health Study, a long-term clinical trial of the effect of vitamin E and aspirin on both the prevention of cardiovascular disease and of cancer...Read full article


Mushrooms Nutrition Facts
Culinary mushrooms provide consumers key nutrients like copper, potassium, folate, and niacin. That’s what nutrient analysis of seven varieties of mushrooms - crimini, enoki, maitake, oyster, portabella, shiitake, and white button - has shown. Samples gathered from markets countrywide have been analyzed for their carbohydrate, fat, fiber, protein, vitamin, and mineral contents, along with ergosterol, a precursor to vitamin D...Read full article


How Much Folate is in Our Foods?
Accuracy in measuring the folate content in foods is important to experts who establish and reexamine the nationally recommended folate levels and who monitor the folate fortification program. Nutrition scientists need sophisticated technologies to distinguish quantities of key nutrients in foods. Indeed, sound nutritional advice is based on good food analysis...Read full article


Cholesterol Lowered with a Diet High in Soy Protein
Study shows the cholesterol lowering effects of soy protein in men’s diets. Soy protein can be an important ally in lowering cholesterol, according to new findings from a study conducted at the Children's Nutrition Research Center in Houston, Texas. This research, published in the October issue of American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, may also explain why previous studies have produced conflicting evidence concerning the merits of soy protein...Read full article


Blueberry Skins Lower Cholesterol Naturally
According to a Agricultural Research Service (ARS) study announced at the American Chemical Society's (ACS) national meeting in Chicago, blueberry skins could be a key to controlling cholesterol. ARS chemist Agnes Rimando and collaborators found that feeding hamsters a diet extremely high in cholesterol, but supplemented with freeze-dried skins of rabbiteye blueberries, produced plasma total cholesterol levels 37 percent lower than those of hamsters fed a control diet...Read full article


Heart Disease - Red Wine Reduces Risk
Red wine contains a rich source of a large number of antioxidants, namely the phenolic acids and polyphenols, which provide it with its protective oxidation reduction potential thereby reducing heart disease risk. Epidemiological (population) studies have shown that despite the high intake of saturated fatty acids within the diets of some populations, a reduced mortality rate from cardiovascular (heart) disease is attributed to the high consumption of red wine, independent of its alcohol content, the 'French Paradox'...Read full article


Omega 3 Fish Oil and Depression
This article includes the effects of omega-3 eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) in depressive symptoms, premenstrual syndrome, anorexia nervosa syndrome, bipolar depression, borderline personality disorder and agoraphobia...Read full article


The Benefits of Beta Carotene & Lutein – From Cancer to Macular Degeneration
Carotenoids are fat-soluble pigments responsible for many of the colorful hues of plant leaves, fruits, and flowers. They also act as biological antioxidants, protecting cells and tissues from damage...Read full article


Natural health range Australian Products



The Multitude of Health Benefits from Natural Sunlight and Vitamin D
John Cannell, MD, Executive Director of The Vitamin D Council, reports on the Vitamin D Conference in Victoria.

The group from San Diego presented evidence that vitamin D deficiency is intimately involved in breast, colon, and ovarian cancer.

Dr. Chen presented evidence that plain old vitamin D should prevent prostate cancer.

Dr. Bischoff-Ferrari then presented Dr. Giovannucci's data that one reduces your risk of all cancers about 17% for every 10 ng/ml of vitamin D in your blood.

Dr. Dixon presented fascinating evidence that high vitamin D blood levels prevent sunburn!...Read full article


Orange Peels Lower Cholesterol and Triglycerides
Research shows that orange peels, traditionally discarded as non-value waste, lower cholesterol and triglycerides naturally. Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists have recently learned that a compound found in orange oil decreases blood serum levels of the protein responsible for low-density lipoprotein (LDL) that's a major cholesterol carrier...Read full article


Natural vitamin E has roughly twice the availability of synthetic vitamin E
Most vitamin E supplements contain synthetic alpha-tocopherol, but unlike some other vitamins, synthetic vitamin E is not identical to natural. Vitamin E supplements are labelled d-alpha for natural and dl-alpha for synthetic. If the label lists “dl-alpha-tocopherol”, it’s not the real thing...Read full article


Vitamin E – Cancer, Alzheimer’s and Heart Disease - Alpha or Gamma?
Nearly all of the clinical research on vitamin E has used alpha-tocopherol. The results have shown that alpha-tocopherol is useful as a heart-protective nutrient. Gamma-tocopherol has been shown to have a greater effect than alpha-tocopherol...Read full article


Taurine restores active and passive smokers blood vessels to normal
By Kevin Flatt
While the use of taurine, an amino acid in fish, will not help a person quit smoking, it can help reverse the damage done by continued smoking. Please note I do not advocate or support smoking. However, as many people find it very difficult to quit, any information that may help prevent damage caused by smoking should be presented. Also one has to think about passive smoking...Read full article


Milk counteracts the health benefits of tea
A surprising study by German scientists has revealed that adding milk to tea stops its ability to dilate blood vessels and give antioxidant benefits, two protective factors for a healthy heart and cardiovascular system, Catharine Paddock reported for Medical News Today on 9 Jan 2007...Read full article


Aloe vera: a natural food preservative
Researchers in Spain say they have developed a gel from the tropical aloe vera plant that can be used as an edible coating to prolong the quality and safety of fresh produce...Read full article


Cholesterol Lowering Benefits of Plant Sterols
A recent study shows that plant extracts containing sterols are one of many natural remedies for high cholesterol. People who already eat a low-fat diet to reduce cholesterol might lower it more by consuming a soybean extract with high levels of substances called plant sterols, according to preliminary new research, Agricultural Research Service Administrator Floyd P. Horn said today. Volunteers in the research study ate the soybean sterols as an ingredient in low and reduced-fat salad dressings...Read full article


Natural Cholesterol Remedies – Fruit and Veggies
A natural remedy to raise HDL cholesterol levels may be a higher consumption of fruit and vegetables, which are high in vitamin C. The higher your HDL cholesterol, the less bad cholesterol you'll have in your blood. Many doctors are now beginning to pay more attention to HDL cholesterol. HDL cholesterol takes up excess cholesterol from cells and returns it to the liver, making the cells more receptive to the LDL cholestorol particles. This prevents the LDL cholesterol particles from staying in the arteries and joining with bad company - the oxidizers. When that happens, an artery-clogging plaque may form...Read full article


Tea in Your Diet Lowers Cholesterol
Drinking tea lowered low-density lipoprotein, the LDL "bad" cholesterol, in a small group of volunteers in an Agricultural Research Service study reported the Journal of Nutrition. Seven men and eight women were given five servings of black tea per day for three weeks, and a tea-flavored water for another three-week period. In a third study period, caffeine was added to the tea-flavored water in an amount similar to that found in the tea. "Overall, we found a 6 to 10 percent reduction in...Read full article


Bean Consumption Lowers Cholesterol
Study shows that cooked dry pinto beans added to a regular daily diet lowers cholesterol. Researchers tested 80 volunteers aged 18 to 55 years. Half were healthy, while half had at least two symptoms that lead to metabolic syndrome, a combination of conditions that signal a risk for cardiovascular disease. Those with "pre-metabolic-syndrome" had abdominal obesity and either high triglyceride levels, low HDL "good" cholesterol, high blood sugar, or high blood pressure...Read full article


Creatine Side Effects: Myths and Safety Profile - Part 1 of 5
No serious side effects from creatine have ever been recorded in research. A common misconception is that creatine is an abusive steroid-like substance that can kill you. With a little education, most people can realize the falsity of their claims. Media reports have often claimed that creatine usage is a dangerous and unnecessary practice; often linking creatine use to anabolic steroid abuse. This is the International Society of Sports Nutrition Position Statement on the use of creatine and exercise:...Read full article


Facts and Benefits of Creatine - Part 2 of 5
Creatine has become one of the most extensively studied and scientifically validated nutritional ergogenic aids for athletes. Additionally, creatine has been evaluated as a potential therapeutic agent in a variety of medical conditions such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases...Read full article


The Best Creatine? Creatine Monohydrate Effectiveness - Part 3 of 5
Many forms of creatine exist in the marketplace, and these choices can be very confusing for the consumer. Most of these forms of creatine have been reported to be no better than traditional creatine monohydrate in terms of increasing strength or performance...Read full article


Medical Safety of Creatine Supplementation - Part 4 of 5
While the only clinically significant side effect reported in the research literature is that of weight gain, many anecdotal claims of side effects including dehydration, cramping, kidney and liver damage, musculoskeletal injury, gastrointestinal distress, and anterior (leg) compartment syndrome still exist in the media and popular literature. While athletes who are taking creatine monohydrate may experience these symptoms, the scientific literature suggests that these athletes have no greater, and a possibly lower, risk of these symptoms than those not supplementing with creatine monohydrate...Read full article


Should Creatine Supplements be Banned? - Part 5 of 5
Opponents of creatine supplementation have claimed that it is not safe for children and adolescents. While fewer investigations have been conducted in using younger participants, no study has shown creatine monohydrate to have adverse effects in children. In fact, long-term creatine monohydrate supplementation (e.g., 4 – 8 grams/day for up to 3 years) has been used as an adjunctive therapy for a number of creatine synthesis deficiencies and neuromuscular disorders in children. Clinical trials are also being conducted in children with Duschenne muscular dystrophy...Read full article