c r e a t i n g h e a l t h n o w

Poor nutrition, junk foods lead directly to pharmaceutical industry profits

If nutrition is so good at preventing and even reversing chronic disease, why isn't it taught by the practitioners of conventional medicine? Why isn't your doctor giving you the fundamentals of nutrition? Why don't you see television ads promoting nutrition?

The reason is quite simple. There's no profit in it. Let's face it, conventional medicine is a commercial entity. Pharmaceutical companies are in business to make money. They want to maximize their profits. Their mission statement should read "Our goal is to maximize profits, no matter what it takes, as long as we can get away with it."

By their behavior, you can see that pharmaceutical companies are far more interested in generating profits than actually improving human health on a global scale. Drug companies are in business to make money, not make people healthy You see this in many ways including the price gouging of American consumers, attempts to block the importation of prescription drugs from Canada, the refusal of companies to fund AIDS drugs initiatives in Africa, and so on. You especially see it in the suppression of prevention by conventional medicine at the FDA. There is actually an effort underway to minimize any discussion of disease prevention and instead focus on disease symptom treatments -- especially those involving pharmaceuticals and surgical procedures.

There is really no money in disease prevention. Or put another way, if you find a way to be extremely healthy, it doesn't create profits for anybody except you. In fact, if you used to be diseased, and you changed your lifestyle and started consuming outstanding foods giving you optimum nutrition, the pharmaceutical industry is now losing a customer. You have just cost conventional medicine a paying customer. And given the sky-high cost of most prescription drugs these days, they might have been counting on you to generate a hundred thousand or two hundred thousand dollars in revenues over the next few years. But now, by taking control of your own health and using disease prevention coupled with nutritional fundamentals, you are a healthy human being who has eliminated a measurable profit from the pharmaceutical companies.

So it's not hard to understand why the pharmaceutical companies are not interested in promoting nutrition. And since most of conventional medicine today is really just an extension of "Big Pharma," the whole system has little or no interest in teaching prevention. Hospitals don't earn money when you're healthy either. Surgeons certainly don't benefit when you take care of your own cardiovascular health and no longer need heart bypass surgery. In one case after another, when you take control of your health and practice outstanding nutrition, you are actually taking money away from a for-profit industry.

Healing foods cannot be patented and, therefore, cannot be exploited for profit Another important point to note here is that food cannot be patented by the pharmaceutical companies. You can't take a tomato and patent that tomato, then restrict it from the population and make sure it can only be prescribed through pharmacies. Of course, certain hybrid tomatoes can be patented, but those are more along the lines of scientific experiments than ordinary, everyday garden tomatoes that I'm talking about here. The point is that these healing foods -- like broccoli, garlic and onions -- can't be patented. So the pharmaceutical companies cannot own the intellectual property that's at stake here. As a result, they can't make money by selling these foods and promoting their disease prevention abilities.

We have a medical system that suppresses information about the correlation between foods and disease prevention. The system is designed to make sure that the only information you, as a consumer, receive is information about synthetic pharmaceuticals, surgical procedures or other things that generate profits. And foods don't generate profits. At least, not on the scale that would be expected by pharmaceutical companies.

Another reason you don't hear much discussion on the correlation between nutrition and chronic disease in the popular press these days, or among practitioners of conventional medicine, is because most of the revenues generated from conventional medicine actually come from the treatment of the symptoms caused by nutritional imbalances and deficiencies. In other words, the big money makers for conventional medicine are diseases that are in fact caused by nutritional deficiencies and nutritional imbalances in the first place. If poor nutrition wasn't so widespread, the lucrative disease treatment industry would collapse due to lack of customers.

This article is an excerpt from the book, The 7 Laws of Nutrition by Mike Adams.

Overview:

Poor nutrition, junk foods lead directly to pharmaceutical industry profits

Source: http://www.newstarget.com/002688.html

Dietary fat is necessary for absorption of vitamins, nutrients and phytochemicals from fruits and vegetables

A fascinating new study published by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition shows that dietary fat is necessary for the absorption of nutrients from fruits and vegetables. In the study, people who consumed salads with fat-free salad dressing absorbed far less of the helpful phytonutrients and vitamins from spinach, lettuce, tomatoes and carrots than those who consumed their salads with a salad dressing containing fat.

This is interesting research, but not necessarily all that surprising. We've known for a long time that healthy fats are a critical part of a healthy diet, and that avoiding fats actually causes chronic disease. The key is in choosing the right kind of fats for your diet and making sure you don't overdo the fats, because fats have a very high caloric density and can add far more calories to your meal than you might expect.

In this study, the focus was on eating salads with either fat-free salad dressing or regular salad dressing containing fat in the form of canola oil. However, these findings apply to far more than just eating salads. Every meal that you consume should contain healthy fats, even if only in small portions. What are the healthy fats? Canola oil is what I consider a neutral fat, meaning it's not necessarily a bad fat, but neither is it considered one of the healthier fats. The healthy fats include extra-virgin olive oil, flax seed oil, and fats from plant sources such as nuts, seeds, avocados, and coconuts. These healthy fats should be consumed with every meal. Failure to include these fats in a meal will result in many of the nutrients consumed during the meal not being absorbed by the body. That's because many nutrients are fat-soluble nutrients. Beta carotene, Vitamin D, and Vitamin E are three such nutrients that require fat in order to be absorbed and used by the human body, but there are many other nutrients that also need fats for human metabolism.

It doesn't take much fat, by the way, to aid the absorption of these important vitamins and nutrients. Eating just 5 or 10 nuts, or one-fourth of an avocado, provides plenty of dietary fat for transporting these nutrients and aiding their absorption. On another note, it's interesting to remember that for decades the American Heart Association insisted that heart patients should avoid nearly all dietary fat. This was during the low-fat craze of the 1980's and 1990's, when people were running scared from all dietary sources of fat and instead consuming massive quantities of sugar and refined carbohydrates.

We now know that this advice from the American Heart Association was, in effect, causing extreme nutritional deficiencies and actually reducing the life span of heart patients rather than helping them. Such is the case with information from many so-called disease organizations, such as the American Heart Association and the American Diabetes Association. Personally, I wouldn't listen to nutritional advice from any association that is so politically motivated and receives funding from pharmaceutical companies, as both of those organizations do.

The other thing to keep in mind with this finding is that if you are supplementing your diet with nutritional supplements or superfoods like the ones I frequently recommend, it's a good idea to do so in combination with a few nuts, seeds, or a tablespoon of flax oil or olive oil. One tablespoon of flax oil will give you about 100 calories, so keep that in mind in terms of keeping your total daily calorie intake under control. By consuming fats as you take these nutritional supplements, you will multiply the effectiveness of the phytonutrients found in those supplements, thereby giving your body far greater nutritional help from the very same capsules and pills.

In other words, if you take superfood supplements without fat, you're not getting the same benefit as taking the same supplements with a little bit of fat. So keep some nuts handy, as I always do, and eat a few nuts with each meal. I highly recommend macadamias, cashews, pecans, peanuts, and almonds, and all nuts should be purchased and consumed in their raw form, without absolutely no added salt or flavors, and with no roasting or cooking. Raw nuts are the healthiest way to go, and will provide you with all sorts of additional beneficial nutrients that go beyond what you're getting in your food.

One more bit of advice about all of this -- if you're thinking that you should start eating your salads with salad dressing because of this new research, be sure to double-check the kind of fat that is in your salad dressing. Most of the cheaper salad dressings are made with soybean oil, and there's nothing necessarily wrong with soybean oil, but it is not the healthiest oil you can choose. It is used by the food manufacturing industry primarily because it's cheap -- it's a cheap source of calories, and it tastes the same as any other fat to most people. But canola oil is better than soybean oil, and olive oil is better yet.

You can also count on any salad dressing you find at national restaurant chains or fast food restaurants to be made with the cheapest oils possible, which would include soybean oil and partially hydrogenated oils, which of course, should be avoided at all costs.

Overview:

• July 27, 2004 -- Eating your salad or carrot sticks with a little fatty salad dressing may actually be better for your health than pouring on the fat-free stuff.
• A new study shows that eating fresh vegetables with a little fat, such as oil-based salad dressings or cheese, helps the body absorb valuable nutrients found in vegetables, such as lycopene and beta-carotene, which have been shown to help prevent heart disease and cancer.
• In contrast, eating a salad without any fat in it may deprive your body of these healthy nutrients, which are known as carotenoids.
• "We're certainly not advocating a high-fat diet, or one filled with full-fat salad dressing," says researcher Wendy White, associate professor of food science and nutrition at Iowa State University, in a news release.
• "Our findings are actually consistent with U.S. dietary guidelines, which support a moderate diet, rather than one very low, in fat."
• "But what we found compelling was that some of our more popular healthful snacks, like baby carrots, really need to be eaten with a source of fat for us to absorb the beta carotene," says White.
• In order for these carotenoids to be absorbed by the human digestive system, fat is needed.
• But researchers say exactly how much fat is needed to provide optimal absorption of these nutrients is not clearly defined.
• Seven healthy men and women ate salads of spinach, romaine lettuce, cherry tomatoes, and carrots topped with Italian dressings containing 0, 6 (0.2 ounces), or 28 grams (almost 1 ounce) of canola oil on different occasions during a 12-week period.
• The study found that only negligible amounts of alpha- and beta-carotene and lycopene were detected in the blood after eating a salad with fat-free dressing.

Source: http://my.webmd.com/content/article/91/101131.htm?lastselectedguid=%7B5FE84E90-BC77-4056-A91C-9531713CA348%7D

Dietary fat is necessary for absorption of vitamins, nutrients and phytochemicals from fruits and vegetables

A fascinating new study published by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition shows that dietary fat is necessary for the absorption of nutrients from fruits and vegetables. In the study, people who consumed salads with fat-free salad dressing absorbed far less of the helpful phytonutrients and vitamins from spinach, lettuce, tomatoes and carrots than those who consumed their salads with a salad dressing containing fat.

This is interesting research, but not necessarily all that surprising. We've known for a long time that healthy fats are a critical part of a healthy diet, and that avoiding fats actually causes chronic disease. The key is in choosing the right kind of fats for your diet and making sure you don't overdo the fats, because fats have a very high caloric density and can add far more calories to your meal than you might expect.

In this study, the focus was on eating salads with either fat-free salad dressing or regular salad dressing containing fat in the form of canola oil. However, these findings apply to far more than just eating salads. Every meal that you consume should contain healthy fats, even if only in small portions. What are the healthy fats? Canola oil is what I consider a neutral fat, meaning it's not necessarily a bad fat, but neither is it considered one of the healthier fats. The healthy fats include extra-virgin olive oil, flax seed oil, and fats from plant sources such as nuts, seeds, avocados, and coconuts. These healthy fats should be consumed with every meal. Failure to include these fats in a meal will result in many of the nutrients consumed during the meal not being absorbed by the body. That's because many nutrients are fat-soluble nutrients. Beta carotene, Vitamin D, and Vitamin E are three such nutrients that require fat in order to be absorbed and used by the human body, but there are many other nutrients that also need fats for human metabolism.

It doesn't take much fat, by the way, to aid the absorption of these important vitamins and nutrients. Eating just 5 or 10 nuts, or one-fourth of an avocado, provides plenty of dietary fat for transporting these nutrients and aiding their absorption. On another note, it's interesting to remember that for decades the American Heart Association insisted that heart patients should avoid nearly all dietary fat. This was during the low-fat craze of the 1980's and 1990's, when people were running scared from all dietary sources of fat and instead consuming massive quantities of sugar and refined carbohydrates.

We now know that this advice from the American Heart Association was, in effect, causing extreme nutritional deficiencies and actually reducing the life span of heart patients rather than helping them. Such is the case with information from many so-called disease organizations, such as the American Heart Association and the American Diabetes Association. Personally, I wouldn't listen to nutritional advice from any association that is so politically motivated and receives funding from pharmaceutical companies, as both of those organizations do.

The other thing to keep in mind with this finding is that if you are supplementing your diet with nutritional supplements or superfoods like the ones I frequently recommend, it's a good idea to do so in combination with a few nuts, seeds, or a tablespoon of flax oil or olive oil. One tablespoon of flax oil will give you about 100 calories, so keep that in mind in terms of keeping your total daily calorie intake under control. By consuming fats as you take these nutritional supplements, you will multiply the effectiveness of the phytonutrients found in those supplements, thereby giving your body far greater nutritional help from the very same capsules and pills.

In other words, if you take superfood supplements without fat, you're not getting the same benefit as taking the same supplements with a little bit of fat. So keep some nuts handy, as I always do, and eat a few nuts with each meal. I highly recommend macadamias, cashews, pecans, peanuts, and almonds, and all nuts should be purchased and consumed in their raw form, without absolutely no added salt or flavors, and with no roasting or cooking. Raw nuts are the healthiest way to go, and will provide you with all sorts of additional beneficial nutrients that go beyond what you're getting in your food.

One more bit of advice about all of this -- if you're thinking that you should start eating your salads with salad dressing because of this new research, be sure to double-check the kind of fat that is in your salad dressing. Most of the cheaper salad dressings are made with soybean oil, and there's nothing necessarily wrong with soybean oil, but it is not the healthiest oil you can choose. It is used by the food manufacturing industry primarily because it's cheap -- it's a cheap source of calories, and it tastes the same as any other fat to most people. But canola oil is better than soybean oil, and olive oil is better yet.

You can also count on any salad dressing you find at national restaurant chains or fast food restaurants to be made with the cheapest oils possible, which would include soybean oil and partially hydrogenated oils, which of course, should be avoided at all costs.

Overview:

• July 27, 2004 -- Eating your salad or carrot sticks with a little fatty salad dressing may actually be better for your health than pouring on the fat-free stuff.
• A new study shows that eating fresh vegetables with a little fat, such as oil-based salad dressings or cheese, helps the body absorb valuable nutrients found in vegetables, such as lycopene and beta-carotene, which have been shown to help prevent heart disease and cancer.
• In contrast, eating a salad without any fat in it may deprive your body of these healthy nutrients, which are known as carotenoids.
• "We're certainly not advocating a high-fat diet, or one filled with full-fat salad dressing," says researcher Wendy White, associate professor of food science and nutrition at Iowa State University, in a news release.
• "Our findings are actually consistent with U.S. dietary guidelines, which support a moderate diet, rather than one very low, in fat."
• "But what we found compelling was that some of our more popular healthful snacks, like baby carrots, really need to be eaten with a source of fat for us to absorb the beta carotene," says White.
• In order for these carotenoids to be absorbed by the human digestive system, fat is needed.
• But researchers say exactly how much fat is needed to provide optimal absorption of these nutrients is not clearly defined.
• Seven healthy men and women ate salads of spinach, romaine lettuce, cherry tomatoes, and carrots topped with Italian dressings containing 0, 6 (0.2 ounces), or 28 grams (almost 1 ounce) of canola oil on different occasions during a 12-week period.
• The study found that only negligible amounts of alpha- and beta-carotene and lycopene were detected in the blood after eating a salad with fat-free dressing.

Source: http://my.webmd.com/content/article/91/101131.htm?lastselectedguid=%7B5FE84E90-BC77-4056-A91C-9531713CA348%7D

A brief history of nutritional deficiencies and chronic disease

There is a long history of discovering relationships between nutritional deficiencies and chronic disease. One of the most well known is probably scurvy -- a disease where your bones lose their rigidity due to a deficiency of vitamin C. The historical accounts of this mostly involve sailors who, on long sailing voyages, were overcome by this nutritional disease. And it actually took hundreds of years before the right scientist came along and discovered that this was caused by a simple nutritional deficiency that could be cured by eating fruits high in vitamin C such as limes. Hence the name 'limeys' for sailors.

That's just one example of a disease caused by nutritional deficiencies. There are many other diseases such as rickets and beriberi caused by nutritional deficiencies. Asian people who historically ate polished, processed rice (white rice) frequently got beriberi, a disease caused by a deficiency in vitamin B1 (thiamin). Until the nutritional causes of beriberi were established, however, physicians of ancient Asia thought the disease was some sort of plague.

In America, the term 'redneck' actually comes from a vitamin B deficiency that caused heightened susceptibility to sunburns. Interestingly, most Americans are, today, deficient in B vitamins as well, making them technically rednecks. It also explains why many people are so easily sunburned. As explained in Staying Healthy With Nutrition by Dr. Elson Haas, M.D.:

For a long period of history, the niacin deficiency disease, pellagra, was a very serious and fatal problem. Characterized as the disease of the "three Ds," pellagra causes its victims to experience dermatitis, diarrhea, and dementia. The fourth D was death. As described previously, the classic B3 deficiency occurs mainly in cultures whose diets rely heavily on corn and where the corn is not prepared in a way that releases its niacin. One of the first signs of pellagra, or niacin deficiency, is the skin's sensitivity to light, and the skin becomes rough, thick, and dry (pellagra means "skin that is rough" in Italian). The skin then becomes darkly pigmented, especially in areas of the body prone to be hot and sweaty or those exposed to sun. The first stage of this condition is extreme redness and sensitivity of those exposed areas, and it was from this symptom that the term "redneck," describing the bright red necks of eighteenth-and nineteenth-century niacin-deficient fieldworkers, came into being.

The early colonial settlers in America, by the way, didn’t know how to properly process corn as the American Indians did. The American Indians processed corn using potash (which is highly alkaline) that makes the B vitamins in corn available for assimilation during digestion. But the American settlers, not understanding how to prepare corn, would simply grind up their corn and consume it as corn flour (corn meal). By the way, that's how most people eat corn today: as ground up cornmeal ingredients in chips and foods.

In more modern times, we know very well about what happens when you're deficient in folic acid and you are a pregnant woman: your baby may be born with serious spinal cord defects or even be stillborn. In fact, birth defects are almost always explained by nutritional deficiencies or the consumption of foods and beverages by the mother that interfere with good nutrition.

We also know that iodine is absolutely essential for human health, which is why salt is enriched with iodine. That's in an effort to prevent goiter, a disease that was quite common in the United States until iodine was finally mandated as a salt supplement (enrichment) by the FDA.

As a nation we have managed to force a handful of minerals and vitamins into the food supply that prevent only the most grotesque and physically obvious disorders and diseases caused by nutritional deficiencies. And by the way, those are the only ones that really get addressed through the food supply.

If there is an obvious and immediate link between nutrition and a particular disease such as birth defects caused by a lack of folic acid, then of course this gets recognized and addressed very quickly. But other metabolic disorders such as cancer and diabetes are more complex and so the cause/effect relationship is not so easy to see from the point of view of scientists, the FDA, and even the public. So these don't get addressed.

And that, frankly, is why the public is still not being taught the correlation between nutrition and chronic diseases like cancer, diabetes, heart disease, osteoporosis and even mental disorders like clinical depression.

This article is an excerpt from the book, The 7 Laws of Nutrition by Mike Adams.

Disease names like diabetes and osteoporosis are misleading and misinform patients about disease prevention

There is a curious tendency in conventional medicine to name a set of symptoms a disease. I was recently at a compounding pharmacy having my bone mineral density measured to update my health stats. I spotted a poster touting a new drug for osteoporosis. It was written by a drug company and it said exactly this: "Osteoporosis is a disease that causes weak and fragile bones." Then, the poster went on to say that you need a particular drug to counteract this "disease."

Yet the language is all backwards. Osteoporosis isn't a disease that causes weak bones, osteoporosis is the name given to a diagnosis of weak bones. In other words, the weak bones happened first, and then the diagnosis of osteoporosis followed.

The drug poster makes it sound like osteoporosis strikes first, and then you get weak bones. The cause and effect is all backwards. And that's how drug companies want people to think about diseases and symptoms: first you "get" the disease, then you are "diagnosed" just in time to take a new drug for the rest of your life.

But it's all hogwash. There is no such disease as osteoporosis. It's just a made-up name given to a pattern of symptoms that indicate you've let your bones get fragile.

As another example, when a person follows an unhealthy lifestyle that results in a symptom such as high blood pressure, that symptom is actually be assumed to be a disease all by itself and it will be given a disease name. What disease? The disease is, of course, "high blood pressure." Doctors throw this phrase around as if it were an actual disease and not merely descriptive of patient physiology.

This may all seem silly, right? But there's actually a very important point to all this.

When we look at symptoms and give them disease names, we automatically distort the selection of available treatments for such a disease. If the disease is, by itself, high cholesterol, then the cure for the disease must be nothing other than lowering the high cholesterol. And that's how we end up with all these pharmaceuticals treating high cholesterol in order to "prevent" this disease and lower the levels of LDL cholesterol in the human patient.

By lowering only the cholesterol, the doctor can rest assured that he is, in fact, treating this "disease," since the definition of this "disease" is high cholesterol and nothing else.

But there is a fatal flaw in this approach to disease treatment: the symptom is not the cause of the disease. There is another cause, and this deeper cause is routinely ignored by conventional medicine, doctors, drug companies, and even patients.

Let's take a closer look at high blood pressure. What actually causes high blood pressure? Many doctors would say high blood pressure is caused by a specific, measurable interaction between circulating chemicals in the human body. Thus, the ill-behaved chemical compounds are the cause of the high blood pressure, and therefore the solution is to regulate these chemicals. That's exactly what pharmaceuticals do -- they attempt to manipulate the chemicals in the body to adjust the symptoms of high blood pressure. Thus, they only treat the symptoms, not the root cause.

Or take a look at high cholesterol. The conventional medicine approach says that high cholesterol is caused by a chemical imbalance in the liver, which is the organ that produces cholesterol. Thus the treatment for high cholesterol is a prescription drug that inhibits the liver's production of cholesterol (statin drugs). Upon taking these drugs, the high cholesterol (the "disease") is regulated, but what was causing the liver to overproduce cholesterol in the first place? That causative factor remains ignored.

The root cause of high cholesterol, as it turns out, is primarily dietary. A person who eats foods that are high in saturated fats and hydrogenated oils will inevitably produce more bad cholesterol and will show the symptoms of this so-called disease of high cholesterol. It's simple cause and effect. Eat the wrong foods, and you'll produce too much bad cholesterol in the liver which can be detected and diagnosed by conventional medical procedures.

Yet the root cause of all this is actually poor food choice, not some bizarre behavior by the liver. If the disease were to be accurately named, then, it would be called Fatty Food Choice Disease, or simply FFCD.

FFCD would be a far more accurate name that would make sense to people. If it's a fatty foods choice disease, then it seems that the obvious solution to the disease would be to choose foods that aren't so fatty. Of course that may be a bit of simplification since you have to distinguish between healthy fats and unhealthy fats. But at least the name FFCD gives patients a better idea of what's actually going on rather than naming the disease after a symptom, such as high cholesterol. You see, the symptom is not the disease, but conventional medicine insists on calling the symptom the disease because that way it can treat the symptom and claim success without actually addressing the underlying cause, which remains a mystery to modern medicine.

But let's move on to some other diseases so you get a clearer picture of how this actually works. Another disease that's caused by poor food choice is diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is the natural physiological and metabolic result of a person consuming refined carbohydrates and added sugars in large quantities without engaging in regular physical exercise that would compensate for such dietary practices.

The name "diabetes" is meaningless to the average person. The disease should be called Excessive Sugar Disease, or ESD. If it were called Excessive Sugar Disease, the solution to it would be rather apparent; simply eat less sugar, drink fewer soft drinks and so on. But of course that would be far too simple for the medical community, so the disease must be given a complex name such as diabetes that puts its solution out of reach of the average patient.

Another disease that is named after its symptom is cancer. In fact, to this day, most doctors and many patients still believe that cancer is a physical thing: a tumor. In reality, a tumor is only a side effect of cancer, not its cause. A tumor is simply a physical manifestation of a cancer pattern that is expressed by the body. When a person "has cancer," what they really have is a sluggish immune system. And that would a far better name for the disease: Sluggish Immune System Disease or SISD.

If cancer were actually called Sluggish Immune System Disease, it would seem ridiculous to try to cure cancer by cutting out tumors through surgery and by destroying the immune system with chemotherapy. And yet these are precisely the most popular treatments for cancer offered by conventional medicine. These treatments do absolutely nothing to support the patient's immune system and prevent further occurrences of cancer. That's exactly why most people who undergo chemotherapy or the removal of tumors through surgical procedures end up with yet more cancer a few months or a few years later. It's also another reason why survival rates of cancer have barely budged over the last twenty years. (In other words, conventional medicine's treatments for cancer simply don't work.)

This whole situation stems from the fact that the disease is misnamed. It isn't cancer, it isn't a tumor and it certainly isn't a disease caused by having too strong of an immune system that needs to be destroyed through chemotherapy. It is simply a sluggish immune system or a suppressed immune system. And if it were called a sluggish immune system disease or a suppressed immune system disorder, the effective treatment for cancer would be apparent.

There are many other diseases that are given misleading names by western medicine. But if you look around the world and take a look at how diseases are named elsewhere, you will find many countries have disease names that actually make sense.

For example, in Chinese medicine, Alzheimer's disease is given a name that means, when translated, "feeble mind disease." In Chinese medicine, the name of the disease more accurately describes the actual cause of the disease, whereas in western medicine, the name of the disease seems to be intended to obscure the root cause of the disease, thereby making all diseases sound far more complex and mysterious than they really are.

This is one way in which doctors and practitioners of western medicine keep medical treatments out of the reach of the average citizen. Because, by God, they sure don't want people thinking for themselves about the causes of disease!

By creating a whole new vocabulary for medical conditions, they can speak their own secret language and make sure that people who aren't schooled in medicine don't understand what they're saying. That's a shame, because the treatments and cures for virtually all chronic diseases are actually quite simple and can be described in plain language, such as making different food choices, getting more natural sunlight, drinking more water, engaging in regular physical exercise, avoiding specific food toxins, supplementing your diet with superfoods and nutritional supplements and so on.

See, western medicine prefers to describe diseases in terms of chemistry. When you're depressed, you aren't suffering from a lack of natural sunlight; you are suffering from a "brain chemistry imbalance" that can only be regulated, they claim, by ingesting toxic chemicals to alter your brain chemistry. When your bones are brittle, it's not brittle bones disease; it's called osteoporosis, something that sounds very technical and complicated. And to treat it, western doctors and physicians will give you prescriptions for expensive drugs that somehow claim to make your bones less brittle. But in fact, the real treatment for this can be described in plain language once again: regular physical exercise, vitamin D supplementation, mineral supplements that include calcium and strontium, natural sunlight, and avoidance of acidic foods such as soft drinks, white flour and added sugars.

In fact, virtually every disease that’s prominent in modern society -- diabetes, cancer, heart disease, osteoporosis, clinical depression, irritable bowel syndrome and so on -- can be easily described in plain language without using complex terms at all. These diseases are simply misnamed. And I believe that they are intentionally misnamed to put the jargon out of reach of everyday citizens. As a result, there's a great deal of arrogance in the language of western medicine, and this arrogance furthers the language of separation. Separation never results in healing. In order to effect healing, we must bring together the language of healers and patients using plain language that real people understand and that real people can act upon.

We need to start describing diseases in terms of their root causes, not in terms of their arcane, biochemical actions. When someone suffers from seasonal affective disorder or clinical depression, for example, let's call it what it is: Sunlight Deficiency Disorder. To treat it, the person simply needs to get more sunlight. This isn't rocket science, it's not complex, and it doesn't require a prescription.

If someone is suffering from osteoporosis, let's get realistic about the words we use to describe the condition: it's really Brittle Bones Disease. And it should be treated with things that will enhance bone density, such as nutrition, physical exercise and avoidance of foods and drinks that strip away bone mass from the human body.

All of this information, of course, is rather shocking to old-school doctors and practitioners of western medicine, and the bigger their egos are, the more they hate the idea of naming diseases in plain language that patients can actually comprehend. That's because if the simple truths about diseases and the causes of health were readily available to everyday people, that would lessen the importance of physicians and medical researchers.

There's a great deal of ego invested in the medical community, and they sure don't want to make health sound attainable to the average person without their expert advice. It's sort of the same way that some ultra-conservative churches don't want their members talking to God unless it all goes through their priest first. Doctors and priests all want to serve as the translators of "truth" and will balk at any attempts to educate the public to either practice medicine or talk to God on their own.

But in reality, health (and a connection with spirit) is attainable by every single person. Health is easy, it is straightforward, it is direct and, for the most part, it is available free of charge.

Don't believe the names of diseases given to you by your doctor. Those names are designed to obscure, not to inform. They are designed to separate you from self-healing, not to put you in touch with your own inner healer. And thus, they are nothing more than bad medicine masquerading as modern medical practice.

Overview:

Disease names like diabetes and osteoporosis are misleading and misinform patients about disease prevention

Source: http://www.newstarget.com/002800.html

Weight Loss........

The bad news? The number of people with weight loss issues is growing every year. Results of a Harris Poll conducted in 2002 show that 80 percent of people over 25 are overweight based on the body mass index (BMI), a guideline computed through a combination of weight and height.

The good news? Sixty percent of the people surveyed in this poll said they would like to start a weight loss program, including 72 percent of those who are overweight.

North Americans want to lose weight to feel better and prevent disease, and they’re willing to invest their time and their money to do so. Between 1990 and 1997, for example, there was an 85% increase in the number of Americans who work out at home. And with 10,000 baby boomers reaching middle age every day, the weight loss battle is being waged in homes across the United States.

Being overweight or obese is associated with some very serious health consequences: cardiovascular disease, certain types of cancer, type 2 diabetes, stroke, arthritis, breathing problems, and psychological disorders such as depression. So a decision to lose weight is not just a matter of appearance, it’s a matter of good health.

With the Internet and other sources of information, consumers now have the resources to educate themselves about their health and are becoming empowered to take control. They’re trying to improve their nutrition and lose weight…naturally.

HTN's  line of health-promoting products are one of the sources people are turning to for increased weight loss and increased vitality, because HTNs products have science and good sense in their corner. This is not just a trend. It’s a change for the better.  Confront all the issues that contribute to weight-gain in 1 affordable, complete, safe product. Recomposize™ was made with you in mind!

Recomposize™ is a smart, safe, alternative to the mass advertising of products that are riding the most recent wave of publicity. Simply put, you will not need another product after trying Recomposize™

US FIGHTS DIABETES....

12/9/2004 - The US health department yesterday announced a national action plan to stem the rising tide of diabetes, providing supplement manufacturers with plenty of marketing opportunities.

The HHS is describing the initiative as a “step-by-step guide to activities and resources against a disease that affects more than 18 million Americans”.

"The most effective way to bring this problem under control is for government, business, health care providers, schools, communities and the media, as well as people with diabetes and their families to work together," said HHS secretary Tommy Thompson.

The diabetes action plan focuses on specific, attainable action steps such as reducing fat consumption, taking the stairs instead of the elevator and getting screened for diabetes.

The HHS is putting a certain emphasis on the role of the food industry, suggesting the need, for example, for healthy food in vending machines and cafeterias.

The global incidence of the risk factors that cause diabetes, collectively known as the ‘metabolic syndrome’, is soaring. The clinical conditions linked to the metabolic syndrome are obesity, type 2 diabetes, abnormal blood fats and raised blood pressure. Each of these conditions is a risk-factor for the metabolic syndrome in its own right, but if individuals have more than one of these conditions the risk is multiplied.

In most cases, development of the metabolic syndrome is caused by eating too much of the wrong kind of foods and taking too little exercise.

Further research into the impact of diet on these risk factors could however help supplement and functional food makers offer products designed to reduce risk for some of the thousands forecast to develop the disease.

And while there is little evidence so far to support either the safety or efficacy of nutritional supplements in helping to improve diabetes-related conditions, there are some foods and nutrients, such as dark chocolate and magnesium, that warrant further investigation, Dr Michael Quon, chief of the diabetes unit of the US National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) told NutraIngredients.com earlier this year.

Some supplement companies though are convinced their supplement products do help at least those showing early symptoms of diabetes.

Degussa Food Ingredients, for instance, announced last month that it had created a double-fermented wheat product, to be rolled out in Europe, North America and Asia, will be offered as a powder blend, tablets or as a functional food ingredient for beverages, dairy and dessert-type products.

The company is also waiting for results of a human trial on a new herbal extract, said to improve insulin sensitivity. The herbal could launch in the first half of next year.

And, at the beginning of the year, Nutrition 21 submitted a qualified health claim linking chromium picolinate with a reduced risk of insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes and related disease conditions to the FDA. The FDA extended the review period for the claim by 90 days eralier this week.

Trials by the company have found daily supplementation of up to 1,000 mcg of chromium, as chromium picolinate alone or in combination with other therapies, helps reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes and other health conditions associated with insulin resistance.

The rapidly growing incidence of type 2 diabetes in the US (almost 1 million new cases of diabetes are diagnosed every year) has encouraged Nutrition 21 to focus on chromium's effects on insulin over recent months.

Approximately 95 million Americans have some degree of insulin resistance, according to the firm, which holds patents for the therapeutic use of chromium picolinate in addressing insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.

Pre-diabetes conditions are rising in parallel to the increasing incidence of obesity, now thought to affect more than 1 billion adults overweight, with at least 300 million of them clinically obese. An estimated 24 per cent of the US adult population has metabolic syndrome, a collection of risk factors for type 2 diabetes.

The critical role that calcium plays in our health ......

In the research outlined below, you will find statements, explanations and simple revelations to the amazing properties of the humble mineral Calcium. This truth comes to you though documents created by some of the most well known and prestigious scientists and publications in the world. The critical role that calcium plays in our health is nothing short of astounding. We trust that you will find this collection both helpful and a source of knowledge about biological calcium. The scientific evidence that calcium is the key to good and long health is overwhelming.

New York Times
"Calcium Takes Its Place As a Superstar of Nutrients"
October 13, 1998

"It is the primary building block of our teeth and bones. It provides the electrical energy for the heart to beat and for all muscle movement. It is the calcium ion that is responsible for feeding every cell. Without calcium, DNA cannot replicate itself. As a result, low calcium means low body repair and premature aging. But, most important of all, calcium controls the pH of the body."

"How a Mineral Can Vitalize Your Health", by Dr. James
K. Van Fleet, in the book Magic of Catalytic Health Vitalizers, 1980, Parker Publishing.

"According to nutritional authorities, the American diet is more lacking in calcium than in any other essential food. Dr. Henry C. Sherman, the noted biochemist, has stated in effect that the prime period of human life could be extended by a moderate increase in calcium in the diet. It would also be wise to get at least 400 units of vitamin-D daily to insure proper absorption of the calcium from the tract into the body where it can be utilized."

" When the body does not get enough calcium, it will withdraw what little calcium it has from the bones to make sure there is enough in the bloodstream, then the body does its best to bolster the sagging architecture by building bony deposits and spurs to reduce movement and limit activity."

"Breathing Easy", by Lendon Smith, M.D., in the book
Feed Your Kids Right, Dell Pub. Co. Inc., 1979.

"Calcium is required all our lives for bones, teeth, muscle, nerve function, and for blood clotting. Muscle pains, cramps, twitches and even convulsions may suggest calcium deficiency.” “For asthma, 1000 milligrams of calcium should be given daily along with 1000 units of vitamin-D for intestinal absorption. Calcium can relax the muscle surrounding the bronchial tubes while altering the permeability of the cell walls, allowing the nutrients to get in."

"The Prime Cause and Prevention of Cancer", Otto Warburg,
Lecture at the meeting of Nobel Laureates, June 30, 1966 Director, Max Planck Institute for Cell Physiology Berlin.

"There is no disease whose prime cause is better known, so that today ignorance is no longer an excuse that one cannot do more about prevention of cancer. But how long prevention will be avoided depends on how long the prophets of agnosticism will succeed in inhibiting the application of scientific knowledge in the field of cancer. In the meantime millions of men and women must die of cancer unnecessarily." (Note: in 1966 cancer struck 23% of Americans, whereas today it strikes 39% of Americans).

"The Role of Calcium in Biological Systems", Volume I,
1985, CRC Press Inc.

The Role of Calcium Biological Systems is a compilation of dozens of scientific publications by academically recognized scientists. This book deserves particular note because world class scientists are concluding that there is a link between calcium deficiency and cancer. Also, the hundreds of scientific references contained in this book, as well as the other books quoted, could lead the reader to thousands of scientific publications on the importance of biochemical calcium. Although the first quote is self-explanatory, the second quote may be difficult for the reader to understand. Basically, it says that calcium deficiency in the body fluids outside and inside of the cell stimulates the proliferation of both virus and cell mutation (cancer) by regulating DNA synthesis. Furthermore it concludes that calcium deficiency is the universal property of all cancer cells, the knowledge of which may be the key to understanding cancer.

"Calcium must certainly be the major bioelement of the times. Only a generation ago the calcium ion was known to physiologists and biochemists as a component of bone mineral and as a blood plasma constituent required in heart function and blood coagulation, but little more. But, in the 1970's a crescendo of calcium ion research developed. Today we know dozens if not hundreds of different cellular and extra cellular processes that are regulated by the changes in cytosolic or extra cellular calcium ions. Indeed the calcium ion is emerging as a most important and ubiquitous intracellular messenger" (Forward, Albert Lehniger, Professor of Medical Science, John Hopkins University).

"As we have seen, calcium is central to the ordered progression of replicating cells through their growth-division cycle. Neoplastic epithelia and mesenchymally derived cells can initiate DNA syntheses and proliferate normally in a low calcium medium, which does not support the proliferation of their normal counterparts. Besides needing calcium ions, normal cells must adequately spread out on a solid substrate before they are able to initiate DNA syntheses. Calcium is specifically required for spreading. Lowering the extra cellular calcium and preventing spreading both block the initiation of DNA synthesis, without stopping on-going DNA synthesis. The elimination of extra- cellular calcium requirement for proliferation of viruses can be mimicked by exposing proliferatively inactive calcium-deprived normal cells to calcium-independent-nucleotide protein kinases located in the plasma membrane. Thus, addition of such subunits to the medium of normal cells causes them to behave like neoplastic cells by initiating DNA syntheses in calcium deficient medium. It is clear that the proliferative calcium independence in vitro is a universal property of neoplastic cells, the understanding of which may be the key to understanding cancer." (page 158, Volume #1)

"Calcium in the Action of Growth Factors",
by W.H. Moolenaar, L.K. Defize, and s. W. Delaat, 1986 Calcium and the Cell, 1986, Wiley.

"Proliferation of cells in vivo is regulated by polypeptide growth factors. Binding of growth factors to their specific cell-surface receptors initiates a cascade of biochemical events in the cell which ultimately leads to deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) synthesis and cell division. The immediate consequences of receptor activation include a sustained increase in cytoplasmic pH and a transient rise in cytoplasmic free calcium ions. The platelet derived growth factor induced calcium ion signal is due to calcium ion release from intracellular stores, whereas the epidermal growth factor seems to activate voltage independent calcium channel in the plasma membrane. These results suggest that the rise in calcium ions is indispensable for cell proliferation."

"Calcium and Cell Function", Volume VII, Wai Yui
Cheung, 1987 Academic Press Inc.

"The regulation of mitosis and cell division is one of the fundamental questions of cell biology. Calcium has been implicated as a regulatory factor in both."

"History of Calcium-Binding Proteins", in the book
Calcium Binding Proteins, by Marvin P. Thompson, CRC Press 1988.

"Calcium has been recognized as a major regulatory ion in all living organisms." "Considering the wide variety of calcium binding proteins in the cell, the potential targets of calcium-related disorders are enormous.” "General interest in calcium binding proteins is still in the logarithmic phase with daily discoveries of these proteins.”

"Intracellular Calcium Regulation", Felix Bronner, 1990, Wiley.

"One of the astonishing developments in biological research is the recent widespread interest in the role played by calcium in cellular metabolism." “Intracellular calcium regulation will be of interest to researchers and graduate students in the areas of biochemistry, biophysics, cell rheology and nutrition."

"The Calcium Connection", Dr. Cedric Garland and Dr.
Frank Garland, 1989, Foreside, Simon and Shuster Inc.

"Low cancer areas were far more frequent in the sun belt. (This statement is contrary to the incorrect popular belief that sunshine causes cancer). What was the significance of sunlight with regard to cancer rates? Sunlight reacts with cholesterol inside and on the surface of the skin to create vitamin-D. Vitamin-D helps the body absorb calcium and plays a major role in the body's ability to use the calcium that is available."

"The Calcium Signal",
Scientific American, November 1987, by Emesto Carafoli and John T. Penniston:

"A common trigger precipitates biological events as diverse as the contraction of a muscle and the secretion of a hormone. The trigger is a minute flux of calcium ions."

"To control cellular process effectively, calcium itself must be regulated. Knowledge of these intricacies (elaborate system of proteins that interact with the calcium ion regulating intracellular messages) may lead to greater clinical control over intracellular calcium, a possibility that has broad implications for the treatment of disease."

"Calcium Homeostasis: Hypercalcemia and Hypo-calcemia",
1986, Gregory R. Mundy, Professor and Head, Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, University of Texas.

"A number of important metabolic processes are influenced by small changes in extra cellular ionized calcium concentration. These include,' (a) the excitability of nerve function and neural transmission, (b) the secretion by cells of proteins and hormones, and other mediators such as neurotransmitters, (c) the coupling of cell excitation with cell response (for example, contraction in the case of muscle cells and secretion in the case of secretory cells), (d) cell proliferation, (e) blood coagulation, by acting as a co-factor for the essential enzymes involved in the clotting cascade; (I) maintenance of the stability and permeability of cell members, (g) modulation of activity, in particular those enzymes involved in glycogenolysis, gluconeogenesis, and protein kinases which are calcium dependent; and (h) the mineralization of newly formed bone."

"Calcium in Synaptic Transmission", by Rodolfo R.,Scientific American, October 1982.

"The connection between the electrical activity of the cell and the release of the neurotransmitter is not direct; an essential intermediary is the calcium ion."

THE RIGHT CALCIUM

THE RIGHT CALCIUM

Calcium is the most vital and necessary mineral your body requires to maintain optimum health. It is used by weight and volume, in the human body, more than any other mineral. In the female body, during child-bearing years, the requirement for calcium is seven (7) times greater than that for a male at the same age. Yes, knowledge about calcium‘s function in the human body began to snowball around 1990 and has exponentially accelerated ever since. Just take a look at the food supplement sections of your local pharmacy or health food store. You will find shelves full of all kinds and forms of calcium. Each telling you how they are scientifically formulated and have the best possible absorption rate. Yet, how do you know which calcium is right for you? Which ones should you use and which ones should you avoid? How can you know which is right for you and which is wrong for you? Do you  believe that your body could or should be taking any or all of those hundreds of brands of calcium supplements and that they would all work well for you? For example, is coral calcium, a recent newbie in the calcium supplement field, really as good for everyone as is claimed? Is what you hear about various brands of or types of calcium supplements really true or just so much merchandising hype?

We are here to shed an abundance of light on the "up till now" confusing issues and information surrounding calcium supplementation and health. We want you to know the whys and wherefores about calcium so you can take personal control of your health through proper knowledge not marketing-hype. What you will find on this page is the beginning of vital-to-life information that will be life and health-changing. We will begin to show you what real quality mineral-rich food is all about, because FOOD is the ideal supplement and your body depends upon it.

Questions and Answers

Why Is Calcium So Important?

This is a very big question and it is very important to answer, because I know you may have never realized how your body could be so dependent on one specific mineral to maintain its physical function. Here are some facts that will help you answer this question.

• Calcium is required by your physical body‘s daily function, in weight and volume, more than any other mineral. This fact is even made more significant, because this mineral is so lacking in the majority of foods being consumed today and this is a direct reflection on poor farming practices, which do not address the nutritional needs of the human and animal consumers.
• Calcium determines how other minerals are picked up by the cell. More specifically, when calcium is deficient in a cell, other minerals, including toxic trace minerals, can enter the cell in excessive amounts.
• When the body does not have enough over-all calcium available from the digestion, calcium can appear in excess amounts in some areas of the body. Because calcium is in such great demand by the body's systems, the minute the incoming calcium drops below your body’s daily needs, your body will withdraw calcium from its calcium reserves, primarily stored, in your bones and teeth. This is OK for short intermittent periods of time, but not for prolonged periods. Over prolonged periods, this process will cause calcium reserves to drop too low and will subsequently alter your body‘s ability to control the pH (acid/base relationship) of the fluids that bathe your cells. The end result is that your body becomes unable to control when, where and how much of the mobilized calcium moves into some areas. This can make it appear that your body has too much calcium, when in reality any appearance of calcium excess is acually caused by calcium deficiency.
• Calcium is the only element that has the superior ability to bring in the most nutrient into the cell, because it can bind and bunch-up long proteins better than any other mineral required in the cell.
• Calcium is responsible for the density, color and function of the cell. A change in calcium can mean a change in the density and thus a corresponding change in the function and color of the cell. Have you ver wondered why you see such changes in your skin color when you have felt quite ill?
• Calcium is far more mobile and binds ten thousand times faster and stronger to ligands (biologically important coordination compounds) than does magnesium.
• Calcium takes the least amount of electrical-charging (ionization) to move through cell membranes, therefore, it delivers more energy to the cell than any other single mineral.
• Calcium is the most efficient pH buffer (acid base regulator) for extracellular fluid. This is particularly important to allow the proper building of DNA in the frequency needed by your body.
• Calcium is vital to the release of mineral energy during digestion. The less calcium available during digestion the less overall energy will be released during digestion.

Can you tell me what other scientists are saying about calcium?

From the very moment of conception, calcium plays a pivotal role in fetal development. It rushes in as a wave around the egg to herald the sperm‘s arrival, binding to proteins that help kick off the whole development process. From this first influx, calcium continues to play a critical role in how the body’s cells respond to outside signals. Calcium tells muscle to contract and nerves to release neurotransmitters, and is at least part of the signal that helps people form and retain memories. Calcium‘s role comes full circle with its involvement in cell death. Adams, Amy, “Untangling Neuronal Calcium Signaling,” The Scientist, January 21, 2001

Low calcium intake linked to risk of ischemic stroke in women. Iso, H., Stempfer, M. J., Manson, J. E., et al, “Prospective study of calcium, potassium, and magnesium intake and risk of stroke in women,” Stroke 1999; 30 (Sept.):1772-9.
   
…a large number of recent studies have identified a relationship between childhood calcium intake and bone mineralization and the potential relationship of these data to fractures in adolescents and the development of osteoporosis in adulthood. Preboth, Monica, “Calcium Needs of Infants, Children and Adolescents,” American Family Physician, July 15, 2000.

Patients with idiopathic hypercalciuria (excess calcium in urine) and calcium oxalate stones are less likely to develop another stone if they adhere to a normal calcium diet that’s low in animal protein and salt when compared to patients who consume the traditional low-calcium regimen. Borghl, L., Schianchi T., Meschl T., et al.

“Comparison of two diets for the prevention of recurrent stones in Idiopathic hypercalciuria,” N Engl J Med, 2002; 346:77-84

Reported research has shown conclusively that high calcium diets reduce the risk of developing kidney stones contrary to what has been believed. N Engl J Med, January 10, 2004

Calcium has been recognized as a major regulatory ion in all living organisms. Considering the wide variety of calcium-binding proteins, in the cell, the potential targets of calcium-related disorders are enormous. General interest in calcium-binding proteins is still in the logarithmic phase with daily discoveries of these proteins. Thompson, Marvin P., Calcium Binding Proteins, CRC Press 1988., “History of Calcium-Binding Proteins.”

Calcium must certainly be the major bioelement of the times. Only a generation ago the calcium ion was known to physiologists and biochemists as a component of bone mineral and as a blood plasma constituent required in heart function and blood coagulation, but little more. But, in the 1970‘s, a crescendo of calcium ion research developed. Today we know dozens, if not hundreds, of different cellular and extracellular processes that are regulated by the changes in cytosolic or extracellular calcium ions. Indeed, the calcium ion is emerging as a most important and ubiquitous intracellular messenger. (Excerpt from Forward by Albert L. Lehninger, Professor of Medical Science, John Hopkins University.)

As we have seen, calcium is central to the ordered progression of replicating cells through their growth-division cycle. Neoplastic epithelia and mesenchymally derived cells can initiate DNA syntheses and proliferate normally in a low calcium medium, which does not support the proliferation of their normal counterparts. Besides needing calcium ions, normal cells must adequately spread out on a solid substrate before they are able to initiate DNA syntheses. Calcium is specifically required for spreading. Lowering the extracellular calcium and preventing spreading both block the initiation of DNA synthesis, without stopping on-going DNA synthesis. The elimination of extracellular calcium requirement for proliferation of viruses can be mimicked by exposing proliferatively inactive calcium-deprived normal cells to calcium-independent-nucleotides protein kinases located in the plasma membrane. Thus, addition of such subunits to the medium of normal cells cause them to behave like neoplastic cells by initiating DNA syntheses in calcium deficient medium. It is clear that the proliferative calcium independence in vitro is a universal property of neoplastic cells, the understanding of which may be the key to understanding cancer. (see page 158) The Role of Calcium in Biological Systems, Volume I, CRC Press Inc. 1985

A number of important metabolic processes are influenced by small changes in extracellular ionized calcium concentration. These include: (a) the excitability of nerve function and neural transmission; (b) the secretion by cells of proteins and hormones, and other mediators such as neurotransmitters; (c) the coupling of cell excitation with cell response (for example, contraction in the case of muscle cells and secretion in the case of secretory cells); (d) cell proliferation; (e) blood coagulation, by acting as a cofactor for the essential enzymes involved in the clotting cascade; (f) maintenance of the stability and permeability of cell members; (g) modulation of enzyme activity, in particular those enzymes involved in glycogenolysis (the splitting up of glycogen, the chief carbohydrate storage material in man), gluconeogenesis (the formation of carbohydrates from protein and fats), and protein kinases (enzymes that catalyze energy transfer from ATP to proteins) which are calcium dependent; and (h) the mineralization of newly formed bone-Mundy, Gregory R., “Calcium Homeostasis: Hypercalcemia and Hypocalcemia,” University of Texas. (Professor and Head, Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism)

At all ages, females consume less calcium than do males. Pediatrics, Oct, 2001.

Calcium helps keep the weight off. Research suggests that if you don’t get enough calcium in your diet, you‘re likely to be overweight. The reason has  to  do  with  your  body’s response to a calcium deficit. When you‘re low, your body thinks you’re starving and enters emergency mode, releasing parathyroid hormone. This hormone stimulates your bones to release some calcium into your bloodstream. In addition, your kidneys also deliver a dose of hormone called calcitriol, a form of vitamin D, to increase your ability to absorb calcium. The trouble is that parathyroid hormone and calcitriol also stimulate the production of fat and inhibit its breakdown. As a result, your body stores fat and holds on to it stubbornly, even if you‘re on a low-calorie diet. On the other hand, a high calcium intake suppresses these hormones so your body stores less fat and also breaks it down easily. This is according to Michael B. Zemel, Ph.D., head of the department of nutrition at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. Ott, C., “The Surprising Benefits of Calcium,” Natural Health, Jan-Feb, 2002

What is the ideal source of calcium?

The most ideal source of calcium should be our food supply. However, our food today is grossly lacking in mineral, especially calcium, because of the poor farming practices. Back in the mid 80’s one research group sampled over 400 plants from farms across Midwestern America. It found that mineral levels, in the plants had dropped between 8% and 68%. Because of soil mineral depletion and few farmers being aware of how to grow top quality food, calcium supplements are a necessity to supply the calcium actually needed.

To learn how to grow top quality produce at home you need to obtain a copy of Dr. Beddoe's book Nourishment Home Grown.

Aren‘t organically grown foods a good source of calcium?

Unfortunately, purchasing “organically grown” foods does not assure sufficient calcium in your diet either. Don’t get me wrong. I am not against organic foods. However, what is not being addressed by organic growers is the quality of the food they are growing—especially the calcium content. Organic principles of growing are great as far as they have come. The problem is that they have not come far enough. In other words, organic growers are growing clean foods, free of toxic chemicals, but they fall very short when it comes to total mineral quality—80 percent of the missing mineral is calcium. Yes, this is a very serious problem because the most toxic foods are not the ones contaminated with herbicides and pesticides. In reality, the most toxic foods are those that are grown on calcium deficient soil and passed off, to an ignorant public, as clean fresh healthy nutrient rich food. Toxic, because these mineral-energy deficient foods contribute to the perpetuation of the rampant degenerative disease process.

That is why this author has seen fit to spend his time in both soil mineral chemistry and human mineral chemistry, to reveal, not only the need for calcium and mineral colloids, but to show how the farmer and gardener, growing foods on soils rich in calcium and other minerals properly regulated, will have a greater effect on health in the world than all of the medical personnel and sick care institutions put together. Dr. Beddoe's garden book Nourishment Home Grown, holds the keys to showing you how to grow nutrient rich foods.

What is the best calcium supplement if the food is deficient?

The best calcium supplement for you depends on what is happening to the pH (acid / base) chemistry of your body's fluids. Evaluating the pH of your urine and saliva is the most direct way to know what is happening with the acid base chemistry of your body's fluids. By determining the average pH of your urine and saliva, you will be able to choose the right calcium supplements, as well as other minerals and vitamins that can assist those calcium supplements in working most efficiently. The Calcium Kit, developed by Dr. Beddoe, is the ideal way to reveal, in a do-it-youself format, exactly what type(s) of calcium supplements your body's chemistry is requiring. In addition, The Calcium Kit reveals what other important vitamins and minerals are vital to work alongside with the calcium(s).

Is magnesium important to take with calcium?

Contrary to what the natural health world teaches, magnesium is not necessary to be a part of calcium supplementation. Magnesium is a very stable element in body chemistry compared to calcium. The best source for magnesium in the diet is any green leafy vegetable. Yes, chlorophyll is a fantastic natural source for magnesium. In a diet that includes sufficient greens, there will be no lack of magnesium.

Yet why does there seem to be so many people who are benefited by magnesium supplements of verious types? Well, it has to do with the excessive protein in the modern diet. Excessive protein in the diet produces an excess of a protein breakdown product known as nitrogen. Nitrogen in the body's chemistry comes from two primary sources. The first is from the wear and tear and breakdown of body tissue protein, which is exagerated by poor health and body chemistry. The second is from excess protein consumption and correspondingly poor protein digestion. Poorly and improperly digested proteins drive up the levels of nitrogen in the blood to excessive amounts. When nitrogen becomes excess, it causes the blood to get thicker. Thicker blood makes the heart work harder, besides being a major contributer to fatique. This excess nitrogen in body chemistry increases the demand for magnesium. Yes, magnesium has a strong affinity for nitrogen. So when nitrogen is excessive, there is a drain on magnesium. In fact, magnesium is an excellant way to deal with the symptoms caused by excess nitrogen from excess and poorly digested proteins in the diet. So people who need, or appear to need, more magnesium, most likely have a problem with excess nitrogen going on.

By the way, excess protein in the diet causes the body to dump calcium. Therefore, excess protein in a diet is making the calcium deficiency problem even more pronounced. Furthermore, when calcium intake is proper, less protein is necessary in the diet.

Yes, calcium is the key mineral in your body's chemistry, bar none.

Copyright©2004 Advanced Ideals Institute
All Rights Reserved

FIGHT CHILDHOOD OBESITY TO HELP PREVENT DIABETES, SAY WHO & IDF

World Health Organization - International Diabetes Federation

Joint Media Release WHO/IDF/81
11 November 2004

Geneva - Worldwide, it is estimated that more than 22 million children under five years old are obese or overweight, and more than 17 million of them are in developing countries. Each of these children is at increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes (which used to be known as mature-onset diabetes), say the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Diabetes Federation (IDF).

"Tackling childhood obesity now is a highly effective way of preventing diabetes in the future," said Dr Catherine Le Galès-Camus, WHO Assistant Director-General for Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health, in the lead-up to World Diabetes Day on 14 November 2004.

Chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer and stroke are a barrier to economic development. While undernutrition continues to be a key concern, particularly in developing countries, governments are also facing up to the fact that many children in all regions of the world have poor eating habits and are not getting enough exercise.

Globally, an estimated 10% of school-aged children, between five and 17 years old, are overweight or obese, and the situation is getting worse. In the United States, for example, the rate of obesity and overweight among children and adolescents aged 6 to 18 years increased to more than 25% in the 1990s from 15% in the 1970s.

Such increases are not restricted to developed countries. In China, the rate of overweight and obesity observed in a study of urban schoolchildren increased from almost 8% in 1991 to more than 12% six years later. In Brazil, the rate of overweight and obesity among children and adolescents 6 to 18 years old more than tripled from 4% in the mid 1970s to over 13% in 1997.

The link between obesity and diabetes is well-established. Around 90% of people with diabetes have type 2 diabetes and of these the vast majority are overweight or obese. "Overweight and obesity increase the risk of many chronic diseases, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke and some cancers. Unless we address the underlying causes of the obesity epidemic it has the potential to overwhelm health systems throughout the world," said Dr Le Galès-Camus. "The direct health care costs of diabetes already account for between 2.5% and 15% of annual health care budgets."

WHO is working with its Member States throughout the world to implement the Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health, which was adopted at the May 2004 World Health Assembly.

The strategy recommends a comprehensive range of changes at the individual, community, national and international levels which, if effectively implemented, have the potential to turn around the obesity epidemic. The strategy addresses changes needed in lifestyles that have been linked to the increase in overweight and obese children over the last twenty years.

Increased availability and promotion of foods high in fat and sugar mean that children no longer eat the way their parents did. Nor do they do the same amount of physical activity. In each country the situation is different, but the reasons why children are less active than a generation ago include increased urbanization and mechanization, changes to transport systems and increased hours spent in front of TVs and computers.

Yet small changes can make a big difference. In Singapore, nutrition education in class, combined with a school environment offering healthy foods and drinks, and special attention for students who were already overweight or obese, resulted in a significant decline in the number of obese students. In the UK, limiting access to sweet, fizzy drinks at a group of primary schools resulted in slimmer children. Other studies have demonstrated success by increasing physical activity in school, making changes to school lunches, limiting hours spent watching TV and providing health education.

Professor Pierre Lefèbvre, President of IDF, underlined the need for urgent action. "Children and adolescents who are overweight tend to grow into overweight adults. Poor habits of nutrition and lack of physical activity are likely to endure, putting today's young people at risk of type 2 diabetes in the future. Even in childhood, overweight and obesity lead to higher levels of blood glucose (sugar), lipid (fat) and blood pressure. In many populations, doctors are seeing increasing numbers of adolescents with type 2 diabetes, a disease that in the past was not normally seen until middle or older age."

Diabetes is a chronic condition that occurs when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin or when the body cannot effectively use the insulin it produces. People who have type 1 diabetes produce very little or no insulin and require daily injections of insulin to survive. People with type 2 diabetes cannot use insulin effectively. They can sometimes manage their condition with lifestyle measures alone, but oral drugs are often required and, less frequently insulin, in order to achieve good metabolic control. Type 2 diabetes used to be known as non-insulin dependent diabetes or mature onset diabetes.

WHO and IDF are working together to raise awareness about diabetes worldwide. Their joint project, Diabetes Action Now, is supported by a World Diabetes Foundation grant to IDF and by WHO funds.

For more information, please contact Amanda Marlin, WHO/Geneva, Telephone: + 41 22 791 2443, Mobile phone: + 41 76 367 1522, email: marlina@who.int, Anne Pierson - or Lorenzo Piemonte, International Diabetes Federation, Brussels, Telephone: + 322 543 1623, Mobile phone: +32 475 343 788

All WHO Press Releases, Fact Sheets and Features as well as other information on this subject can be obtained on Internet on the WHO home page: http://www.who.int/