Herbal Tea Recipes To Relieve A Cold

Some of nature's best natural remedies to keep the winter bugs at bay
are herbal teas that are made from common herbs that you may use in
cooking every day. Sage, thyme, oregano, and rosemary are herbs that
have all been used traditionally by herbalists in herbal tea recipes to
treat the symptoms of colds & flu.

These herbs contain strong essential oils that can potentially fight
against colds and flu. They are powerful antioxidants as well. So
instead of rushing out to buy expensive over the counter cold remedies
look in your garden or kitchen cupboard for the herbal cold cures.

Here are some herbal tea recipes:

Sage

Sage, whose Latin name salvia means to heal, was considered to be one of
four sacred plants by Native Americans . For irritations or inflammation
of the throat try gargling with a mixture of sage and apple cider
vinegar sweetened, if you must, with a little good quality honey or sip
a soothing hot infusion.

Recipe for a herbal tea infusion:

Pour a pint of boiling water onto 1oz of dried sage leaves or 1 tbsp of
fresh and leave for 5 - 10 minutes. Drink a small glassful of the
strained tea throughout the day. Sage can help to restore appetite as well.

Thyme

There are many varieties of thyme but common garden thyme will be
effective for helping you fight off sore throats and colds. Try it when
you have a cough or to clear mucus from your chest. It was once used on
bandages to prevent infection and is even reputed to be a hangover cure
and can lift your spirits.

Thymol the active ingredient in thyme is one of the strongest
antiseptics known. It has also been used to treat fungal problems such
as athletes' foot and is reputed to be a hangover cure.

Thyme herbal tea recipe:

Use 1 tsp of dried leaves or a couple of sprigs of fresh leaves for each
cup of boiling water. The time you leave it to infuse is a matter of
personal taste and can be from 5 - 15 minutes. Strain and slowly sip 3
cups a day inhaling the vapors until your symptoms improve. You can also
crush some fresh leaves gently in your hands and inhale the vapors.

Oregano

Oregano also known as pot marjoram has a high thymol content too. It is
one of Nature's most powerful natural health remedies against bacteria,
viruses, yeast and fungi and has been used as a natural herbal remedy
since ancient times. It can be used to treat sore throat, coughs and
colds as as well as loosening phlegm in the bronchial tubes.

Oregano is used extensively in cooking throughout the Mediterranean
especially as an ingredient of pizza and combines well with thyme and
rosemary.

Oregano herbal tea recipe:

Infuse 1 tsp dried oregano or 3 tbsp fresh leaves in 8 oz boiling water
for 10 minutes, strain and sweeten with a little good quality honey if
wanted.

Rosemary

Rosemary or Rosmarinus officinalis is related to the mint family of
plants and is one of the oldest Mediterranean aromatic shrubs in
cultivation. With it's attractive leaves and pretty blue flowers it is a
favorite for kitchen gardens.

Rosemary tea can help bring relief for colds, catarrh, wheezing and
bronchitis clearing phlegm from the chest. good as a gargle for a sore
throat. Infuse sage with rosemary and use as a gargle for a sore throat.

Rosemary herbal tea recipe:

Use 2 tsp of dried rosemary to a cup of boiling water. The addition of
fresh ginger root and lemon peel makes this a delicious healthy herbal
drink.

Here is the recipe:

1 small bunch of rosemary, leaves gently bruised with a spoon.
1 inch thumb of ginger, sliced into rounds
The peel of two unwaxed or organic lemons
6-8 cups of boiling water

Place the rosemary, ginger and lemon peel in a large teapot. Add the
boiling water and leave to infuse for approximately five minutes. Strain
and sip slowly. You can add a little good quality honey or stevia if you
need to sweeten.

While modern medicine is still searching for a cure for a cold the
history of healing herbs goes back thousands of years. Give these herbal
tea recipes a try next time you are trying to shake off the winter bugs.

Posted Dec 20 2008 6:50pm on
http://www.wellsphere.com/complementary-alternative-medicine-article/herbal-tea-recipes-to-cure-a-cold/537003

Preliminary Study Shows Fish Oil Favourably Affects Prostate Cancer Cells

From Nutri Newsletter, Jan 3 2011

A new study, published in Cancer Prevention Research has found that a low fat diet supplemented with fish oil may help to slow the growth of prostate cancer cells compared to a traditional high-fat Western diet.

In the study, 48 men undergoing prostatectomy were randomly assigned to receive either a low fat diet with 5g fish oil daily – a dietary omega 6: omega 3 ratio of 2:1, or a control Western diet, with an omega 6: omega 3 ratio of 15:1, for 4 – 6 weeks prior to the operation.

The researchers found that:

• Although serum markers of prostate cancer were unaltered, the fish oil supplementation reduced benign and malignant prostate tissue omega 6: omega 3 ratios and was shown to reduce and slow cell growth proliferation in vivo.
  
  
• Results also showed that blood from patients receiving fish oil slowed the growth of prostate cancer cells in vivo when compared to blood from men assigned to the Western diet, which did not slow cancer growth.
  

Study author, Dr William Aronson commented, “The finding that the low-fat, fish oil diet reduced the number of rapidly dividing cells in the prostate cancer tissue is important because the rate at which the cells are dividing can be predictive of future cancer progression.”

“The lower the rate of proliferation, the lesser the chances that the cancer will spread outside the prostate, where it is much harder to treat.”

He added, “You truly are what you eat, we are extremely pleased about our findings, which suggest that by altering the diet, we may favourably affect the biology of prostate cancer.”

The researchers added that because of the short duration and small sample size of the study, further research was needed before dietary changes could be fully recommended.  A larger study following 100 men over the course of a year is now planned.

by Rachel Bartholomew Dip ION MBANT

 

References:

Cancer Prevention Research
Published online ahead of print, doi: 10.1158/1940-6207.CAPR-11-0298
Aronson, W.J. Kobayashi, N. et al. Phase II Prospective Randomised Trial of a Low-Fat Diet with Fish Oil Supplementation in Men Undergoing Radical Prostatectomy

Prevent a Heart Attack: Know Your Triglyceride/HDL Ratio

The published evidence is quite clear in documenting that the actual total cholesterol level itself is not the most important risk factor of cardiovascular disease.

 

It is the ratio between the level of HDL-"good" cholesterol and total cholesterol that we need to be concerned about.

 

Therefore, in adults, the HDL-"good" cholesterol/total cholesterol ratio should be higher than 0.24 (just divide your HDL level by your cholesterol).

 

Or more precisely, the HDL/total cholesterol ratio:

• 0.24 or higher is considered ideal
• under 0.24 - low
• less than 0.10 - very dangerous.

Generally speaking, the higher the ratio, the better (the lower your risk of a heart attack).

 

However, HDL is closely related to triglycerides. 

 

It appears common for people with high triglycerides to have low HDL's, and these same people also tend to have high levels of clotting factors in their blood stream, which is unhealthy in protecting against heart disease.

Therefore, in adults, the triglyceride/HDL-"good" cholesterol ratio should be below 2  (just divide your triglycerides level by your HDL).

 

Or more precisely, the triglyceride/HDL ratio:

• 2 or less is considered ideal
• 4 - high
• 6 - much too high

And, since HDL (high density lipoprotein) is protective against heart disease, the lower the ratio, the better. In other words, the lower your triglycerides, or the higher your HDL, the smaller this ratio becomes.

 

It is now believed that the triglycerides/HDL ratio is one of the most potent predictors of heart disease. 

 

A Harvard-lead study author reported:

 

"High triglycerides alone increased the risk of heart attack nearly three-fold.

And people with the highest ratio of triglycerides to HDL -- the "good" cholesterol -- had 16 times the risk of heart attack as those with the lowest ratio of triglycerides to HDL in the study of 340 heart attack patients and 340 of their healthy, same age counterparts.

The ratio of triglycerides to HDL was the strongest predictor of a heart attack, even more accurate than the LDL/HDL ratio (Circulation 1997;96:2520-2525)."

 

 

Taken from http://www.functionalmedicineuniversity.com/public/796.cfm on Jan 3 2011.

Is now the time to target sweet foodstuffs in your diet?

From Dr John Briffa
Posted on 30 December 2011

For some time now evidence has linked the consumption of sugar and adverse health effects including raised blood pressure, increased inflammation, weight gain, and unhealthy changes in blood fats. The three most plentiful sugars in the diet are fructose, glucose and sucrose. A molecule of sucrose – table sugar – contains one molecule each of glucose and fructose. Another common sweetening agent is ‘high fructose corn syrup’, which contains roughly equal amounts of fructose and glucose, but free floating (as opposed to joined together as in sucrose).

For many years, fructose was touted as a relatively healthy sugar, mainly on account of the fact that it did not raise blood sugar levels directly. It was therefore promoted by some as safe for diabetics. The fact that a lot of sugar found in fruit is fruct se helped give it a health image too. However, a growing amount of research points to the fact that , overall, fructose is actually more toxic to the body than glucose. See here for an example of some relevant research.

The sugar industry is a huge industry, and massive sums of money stand to be won and lost on the public’s perceived beliefs about the health effects of sugar. Not surprisingly, the sugar industry has been concerned with the negative press sugar has been getting, and trade organisations representing manufacturers of high fructose corn syrup seem to have been particularly active. See here for a piece about how the industry is attempting to rebrand high fructose corn syrup with a name the omits the word ‘fructose’.

The heat the fructose has (I think) rightfully attracted has, in some sense, detracted from the potential hazardous effects of sucrose which is still commonly used as a sweetening agent. Half of sucrose is fructose, remember, and the other half – glucose – still has the capacity to damage the body. If nothing else, glucose causes the secretion of the hormone insulin, which can ultimately drive fat accumulation in the body as well as changes that predispose to type 2 diabetes, heart disease and possibly cancer too.

I was therefore interested in a study published earlier this week which tested the effects of the following beverages on a variety of parameters:

1. sucrose-sweetened cola
2. aspartame-sweetened cola
3. semi-skimmed milk
4. water

Each was consumed by overweight and obese men and women at a ‘dose’ of 1 litre a day for six months. The sucrose sweetened cola provided 430 calories a day (about 30 teaspoons of sugar), while the milk provided 454 calories a day.

At the end of the study, those individuals drinking the sucrose-sweetened cola saw the following changes compared to their baseline values that were not seen in the other groups:

• A significant rise in levels of ‘visceral’ fat (fat in and around the abdominal organs that is particularly strongly linked with conditions such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease).
• A significant rise is deposition of fat in the liver (‘fatty liver’ is often seen as part of ‘metabolic syndrome’ and can progress to irreversible liver damage in the long term).
• A significant rise is deposition of fat in the muscle.
• A significant rise in unhealthy blood fats known as ‘triglycerides’.
• A significant rise in total cholesterol levels.

A range of other parameters did not change significantly between the groups including body weight, fat mass and fasting insulin levels. However, the study was somewhat hampered by its small size (9-12 individuals in each group) which means that, generally speaking, large differences would need to be observed between groups for those differences to be deemed ‘statistically significant’.

Whatever the relative attributes of glucose, fructose, high fructose corn syrup and sucrose are, I suggest that doing our best to avoid all these things as much as possible is the best way forward. While all of us will likely have some tolerance of these substances without ill-effect, as a general rule, the less we consume of these things, the better, I reckon.

Also, one of the problems with foods rich in sugar (whatever the form) is that they tend to be sweet. For many of us, eating and drinking intensely sweet foods drives a desire for more of the same. I wrote a little about this recently here. For some of us, leaving sweet foods alone makes it easier to leave sweet foods alone, if that makes sense.

I’ve been out of the country for a week and it’s not been easy controlling my diet. I haven’t gone mad, but I’ve eaten a fair quantity of food I wouldn’t ordinarily eat (like a meat-filled roll on a long road and train journey yesterday). However, one thing I have been mindful of is keeping my sweet foodstuff intake to a minimum, lest it triggers some uncontrolled eating.

I have eschewed all the cakes, croissants and other sweet fare available in huge amounts at breakfast, instead opting for cold meats, cheese, full fat yoghurt and nuts. When two days ago I ate a lovingly made tiramisu-like dessert, I found it almost impossible to resist a second portion. This experience reminded me of need for some of us just to keep away from intensely sweet and ‘rewarding’ foods.

If, at this current time, you think your diet could do with some tidying up, you might think now or in the New Year by starting by targeting sweet foods. For many people, this can be a useful and potent first step in progressing to a far healthier ‘primal’ diet lower not just in sugar, but starchy carbohydrate too.

References:

1. Maersk M, et al. Sucrose-sweetened beverages increase fat storage in the liver, muscle, and visceral fat depot: a 6-mo randomized intervention study. Am J Clin Nutr 28 December 2011 [epub ahead of print]

Is your child’s absence from school due to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome?

An interesting revelation from the BMJ this week was that children with the greatest absence from school may benefit from screening for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS).

Researchers from the University of Bristol set out to discover whether it would be worth setting up clinics within schools to help identify CFS by looking at the absence records of nearly 3000 school children and they turned out some interesting results.

Absence of 1 day a week or more could indicate CFS

All of the children with unexplained absences of greater than 20% (equivalent to 1 day per week or more) were screened and it was found that 6.1% were identified as having CFS (1% of the total school population). This is widely believed to be a conservative figure but has set alarm bells ringing nonetheless. The real beauty of this research is what this early detection system means for the outcome of these children.   

Unexplained absence may be a good early detection system

Of the children with unexplained absence those diagnosed through school surveillance had a lesser degree of symptoms, pain and fatigue than those who had sought medical assistance outside of the researchers school clinic. Furthermore, some children who were diagnosed through school surveillance improved within 6 weeks and some in 6 months once they had received diagnosis. This equated to more than half the children with unexplained absence were back at school full time within 6 months.   

Reduced school attendance is associated with worse educational attainment and may increase the risk of unemployment so it is in the interest of the long-term future of the child as well as the short-term improvements in their health to implement systems that can return unwell children to full time education.

by Sarah Gill BSc (Hons)

 

Reference: BMJ Open 2011;1:e000252 doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2011-000252

Over 40% of cancers attributable to just 14 lifestyle factors

The British Journal of Cancer has published a report which evaluates the percentage of cancers in the UK that were the result of exposure to 14 common, and for the most part, modifiable lifestyle, dietary and environmental factors. Researchers calculated that some 43% of all new cases of cancer in the UK (approximately 134,000 new cases in 2010) and about 50% of all cancer deaths could be attributed to these lifestyle factors. This is something that many nutritionists and health care practitioners have of course been talking about for quite some time but this report makes for interesting reading as well as providing further scientific validation to this matter.

Risky lifestyle habits to try and avoid

For men and women the top risky behaviours also had a few surprises in the data. Although tobacco smoking was by far the most important risk factor for cancer in the UK, the relative importance of other exposures differs by sex. For example, in men they found that deficient intake of fruit and vegetables, occupational exposures and alcohol consumption are next in importance, whereas in women, it is overweight and obesity, followed by infectious agents (including HPV virus).

The next step

Quantifying the impact of preventative interventions requires complex and detailed further analysis and must allow for how realistic it is that the population achieve these changes.  Obviously, it is difficult to expect the population to live perfect healthy lives but certainly this gives important data to suggest a shift in habits may help to prevent certain cancers.

Top 14 Lifestyle and Environmental Factors

1.    Tobacco use
2.    Alcohol consumption
3.    Fruit and vegetables intake/deficiency
4.    Red meat consumption
5.    Fibre intake/deficiency  
6.    Salt intake
7.    Overweight and Obesity
8.    Physical exercise
9.    Exogenous hormone use (HRT)
10.   Infections (including H.Pylori and HPV virus)
11.   Radiation exposure
12.   Sun/sunbed exposure  
13.   Occupational exposure
14.   Reproduction: not breastfeeding

To see a full copy of the open access supplement you can visit:

http://info.cancerresearchuk.org/groups/cr_common/@nre/@new/@pre/documents/generalcontent/cr_080626.pdf  

Or for an overview of the results you can visit:

http://info.cancerresearchuk.org/cancerstats/causes/comparing-causes-of-cancer/results/

Reference:
British Journal of Cancer (2011) 105, S2-S5

Nutri News, No.283, 12 Dec 2012

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Omega-3 for bipolar disorder

Reviewed by Benjamin Brown N.D.

Studies of omega-3 for bipolar disorder have produced mixed results. A new analysis of the collective evidence has found that overall there is strong evidence of a beneficial effect.

 

After pooling data from 5 independent studies with a total number of some 291 participants it was revealed that omega-3 supplementation as a complement to treatment significantly reduces depressive symptoms. However, while some trials have suggested benefit of omega-3 in mania the pooled data suggested no effect.

 

“The meta-analytic findings provide strong evidence that bipolar depressive symptoms may be improved by adjunctive use of omega-3” concluded the authors.

 

Comment:

Some, but not all studies of omega-3 for bipolar have shown benefit, however as this report suggest, the totality of data to date suggests omega-3 may be a useful addition to treatment.  Dosages and treatment durations across studies vary considerably, but it has been suggested that a minimum of 1000 mg equivalent of EPA per day would be beneficial.

 

References: 

Sarris J, Mischoulon D, Schweitzer I. Omega-3 for bipolar disorder: meta-analyses of use in mania and bipolar depression. J Clin Psychiatry. 2011 Aug 9. [Epub ahead of print]