Algae News You Can Use
The notion of sprinkling algae into a protein shake or spreading it on toast probably seems foreign or just plain bizarre to most people. But, fortunately, many fresh and sea water dwellers have no problem using algae as an essential food source. And, in a roundabout way, humans end up deriving some of the benefits of algae by consuming the fish that feast on it.
Matcha Tea
It’s frothy. It’s green. It’s a type of tea, but decidedly different looking and tasting than most brews. It’s matcha! Whether you’ve tried it or not, you’ve probably seen matcha-based drinks being sold in coffee shops and health food stores from Los Angeles to Tokyo. The claim is that matcha is essentially an elevated form of green tea. But, is this assertion backed up by anything more than historical accounts and slick advertisements?
Shirodhara at The Hale Clinic
During my last trip to London, I had the pleasure of visiting The Hale Clinic – a 25 year old institution that offers a wide assortment of alternative and complementary therapies and resources. The primary objective of this world renowned center of healing is to integrate holistic principles into the conventional medical paradigm. In addition to providing access to holistic practitioners, Hale also has a natural pharmacy and reading room on premises.
Anti-Aging Travel Tips
If you’re a frequent traveler, you know how challenging it can be to remain on a healthy diet. Often times you don’t have control over what time you eat, where you eat or your dining companions. Changes in time zones, exposure to recirculated air on planes and the general stress of being in unfamiliar circumstances and locations add to the pressure many business travelers experience. In short, travel can contribute to the aging process and lower your defenses, unless you prepare a game plan ahead of time that will help you cope with the uncertainty of life on the road.
A New Prebiotic Ingredient
There’s an old adage that says to avoid foods that contain ingredients you can’t easily pronounce. The purest interpretation might lead one to steer clear of processed foods altogether. I’m fully supportive of this philosophy provided that it works for you. However, in my experience, most people eat at least some pre-packaged or refined foods. And, much to the chagrin of purists, sometimes hard to pronounce ingredients are actually quite good for you.
Sea Buckthorn for Healthy Skin
A few weeks ago, I was listening to a podcast about natural skin care. One of the callers inquired about products featuring sea buckthorn. “What is sea buckthorn anyway? Is it a seaweed? How is it different than krill oil?”. Whenever I hear this sort of exchange, whether in a health food store or on TV, I have an impulse to interject and answer the question myself. I guess it’s an impulse still with me from my days working as a health food store consultant. I always loved answering questions posed by customers and employees alike. That enthusiasm and passion to share information about natural medicine remains within me. These days, I just have a different venue for sharing what I know.
New Heart Disease Test
Cholesterol, C-reactive protein, homocysteine and triglycerides are probably the best known biomarkers used to assess cardiovascular risk. Uric acid typically isn’t included in this group of heart disease indicators. In the coming years, this may very well change. However, you and your doctors don’t have to wait for an official stamp of approval from the American Heart Association or any other organization in order to benefit from what’s currently known about uric acid.
Natural Dandruff Solutions
There isn’t much information available in the scientific literature about how to address dandruff in a holistic manner. Up to this point, researchers have mostly looked for natural alternatives to conventional treatments that are currently available. This means they’re primarily seeking out topical solutions that are applied directly to the scalp. What scientists haven’t spent much time on is considering whether or not diet, environmental factors and supplements may also have a role to play. This leaves a huge gap for health care consumers who are interested in approaching this dry, flaking skin disorder in a comprehensive manner.
Better Burgers
The other night we had dinner at a restaurant where you build your own burger. Diners choose the type of meat they’d prefer, an extensive array of toppings and whether they want their burger on a bun or a bed of organic lettuce. You’re even in luck if you have special dietary needs as they offer gluten-free buns and vegetarian patties. These types of options are becoming more and more common these days as restaurateurs hope to reinvent hamburgers in a creative and, sometimes, healthier way. The latest trend in the attempt to “healthify” burgers is to add certain unexpected and, often, undetectable ingredients to the ground meat itself.
Happy, Healthy and Wise
Happiness seems like it has little to do with the modern health care system. But, in medicine, as in life, appearances can be deceiving. Statistics reveal that people who have a positive outlook are more likely to be in better physical health. Now, some theorize that happy people are healthier because they take better care of themselves. Simply put, they have more of a reason to want to live longer. There’s certainly some truth to that assertion. However, recent developments in the field of psychology explain that the link between contentment and wellness may very well be a two way street.
Oil Pulling Research
When investigating natural healing techniques, one must frequently consult with two disparate camps: scientists and traditional healers. Generally speaking, scientists attempt to debunk or explain how a practice works (or doesn’t) via established mechanisms and objective data. Traditional healers tend to offer an alternative view about how the body functions and historical accounts of success. When these two groups come together, quite often some degree of common ground can be found. A case in point is the ancient Indian practice known as oil pulling.
Candy Supplements
Walk down the supplement isles of most health food stores and pharmacies and you’ll undoubtedly see bottles that are seemingly filled with enticing candies. These days, calcium, fish oil, multivitamins and other dietary aids are often being sold in the form of chocolates, gummy bears and even jelly beans. Some of these products are 100% natural – after all, corn syrup and glucose are natural. Others are loaded with the same types of artificial ingredients you’d expect to find in conventional candy. The one common denominator is the attempt to popularize supplement use in segments of the population that don’t normally buy them.
Caffeine Brain
For the next few moments, I’d like you to conjure up an image of what you think caffeine does to the brain. Did you come up with negative or positive imagery? When I think of caffeinated beverages such as coffee, hot cocoa or tea, I associate them with the promotion of brain health. I know this goes against the common stereotype of caffeine as overly stimulating. However, modern science is starting to show a consistently positive trend in trials investigating the role of caffeine consumption and neuroprotection.
Is Grape Juice Healthy?
Fruit juice isn’t something that I normally recommend. Most bottled and fresh juices simply contain too much sugar – a dietary component that is already too plentiful in many diets. Then, there’s the issue of dietary fiber. The process of making juice removes the fibrous portion of fruits and vegetables, and concentrates the sweet liquid contained therein. This yields both negative and positive effects. On the one hand, the antioxidants, nutrients and phytochemicals that naturally occur in juice are often better absorbed when fiber is absent from the equation. But, without fiber, fruits and vegetable juices become more concentrated reservoirs of high glycemic carbohydrates which generally result in large fluctuations in blood sugar and insulin.
Toxic Sugar Alternatives
A recent segment on 60 Minutes, the popular news program, examined the health implications of eating large amounts of sugar. According to current estimates, the average U.S. citizen consumes upwards of 130 lbs. of processed sugar per year. Not only is this shocking, but it’s also relevant because experts in the field of nutritional biology claim that up to 75% of all diseases can be prevented by drastically reducing refined food and sugar intake.
Seaweed and Breast Cancer
Seaweed is a familiar component in traditional Asian diets. Historical accounts indicate that the use of seaweeds such as gim (Porphyra sp.), kombu (Laminaria japonica) and miyeok (Undaria pinnatifida) in Japanese and Korean recipes have both a culinary and medicinal rationale. In recent years, scientists in the U.S. and abroad have begun to investigate the potential of edible seaweeds in relation to disease risk. In particular, cancer specialists and epidemiologists are investigating how and why seaweed may reduce the incidence of the most common malignancy among women: breast cancer.