Health News

Green tea catechins may inhibit the loss of reference and working memory linked to plaque formation in the brain, say research from Japan, adding to claims that the beverage may help ward off Alzheimer's.

The study focused on the role of antioxidant potential of green tea and its constituents to counter the oxidative stress induced by a build up of beta-amyloid protein.

The build-up of plaque from beta-amyloid deposits is associated with an increase in brain cell damage and death from oxidative stress. This is related to a loss of cognitive function and an increased risk of Alzheimer's, the most common form of dementia and currently affects over 13 million people worldwide.

The direct and indirect cost of Alzheimer care is over $100 bn (€ 81 bn) in the US, while direct costs in the UK are estimated at £15 bn (€ 22 bn).

The new study, published in the April issue of the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, reports the effects of green tea extracts in the form of Mitsui Norin's commercial Polyphenon E (PE) on the cognitive learning ability of rats.

The concentration of catechins was classified as 63 per cent EGCG, 11 per cent epicatechin (EC), six per cent epigallocatechin (EGC), and six per cent epicatechin gallate (ECG).

"Our results suggest that long-term administration of PE prevents cognitive deficits caused by oxidative stress, beta-amyloid-induced and/or otherwise, at least by facilitating antioxidative defences," wrote lead author Abdul Haque from Shimane University Faculty of Medicine

Despite the promising results, as well as a substantial body of epidemiological studies reporting a protective effect of green tea for Alzheimer's, the researchers stressed that further research was required, particularly to clarify the mechanism. Moreover, it is not known if such results would be repeatable in humans.

Study details

Haque and co-workers took five-week old Wistar rats and randomly assigned them to one of two groups - one acted as the control group and received no tea extract, while the other group has its drinking water supplemented with 0.5 per cent PE. After 26 weeks, an eight-arm radial maze was used to test the animals' learning ability.

Twenty weeks later, the two groups were divided again into two, one to continue as before, while the other groups were infused with beta-amyloid protein to induce oxidative stress.

The animals receiving the green tea extract should significantly decreased beta-amyloid-induced changes to the reference and working memory, while levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) were 42 per cent less than the controls animals infused with the protein.

"In this study, the intake volume of PE-mixed water was approximately 60 ml/kg/day in the 0.5 per cent PE group," explained the researchers. "Based on this water volume intake, a person (with a body weight of 50 kg) would have to drink about three litres of PE per day to get similar effects.

"However, humans consume antioxidants (including vitamins A, B, C and E as well as polyphenols, etc.) from various food sources everyday. Therefore, a lower amount (less than three litres) of 0.5 per cent PE-mixed water volume intake may be effective in humans to ensure the similar effects.

"However, detailed investigation is certainly required to understand the fate of catechins in humans."

Global tea market

The global tea market is worth about €790 (£540, $941) million, with green tea accounting for about 20 per cent of total global production, while black tea accounts for about 78 per cent.

Green tea is said to contain over four times the concentration of antioxidant catechins than black tea (green tea leaves that have been oxidized by fermentation), about 70 mg catechins per 100 mL compared to 15 mg per 100 mL for black tea.

Consumer awareness of the benefits of green tea and green tea extracts continues to rise with growing numbers of studies, from 430 papers in 2000 to almost 1500 in 2003, reporting benefits of the main compounds, catechins.

This has seen European demand surge, having reached 500 metric tonnes in 2003. Companies such as DSM, with its Teavigo boasting 95 per cent purity of epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), and Taiyo International, with its Sunphenon claiming more than 90 per cent purity, position themselves firmly in specific catechin markets.

Source: Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry
Published online ahead of print, doi:
"Green tea catechins prevent cognitive deficits caused by A-beta-1-40 in rats"
Authors: Abdul M. Haque, M. Hashimoto, M. Katakura, Y. Hara, O. Shido

Latest Industry Backed "Study" Seriously Flawed and Biased

A "new" study condemning the use of vitamins and ineffective and potentially dangerous is generating headlines throughout the mainstream media in the United States and Europe. Apparently generating headlines was the sole intention, as the study is neither new, scientific nor objective.

The "study" was led by Serbian scientist and "visiting researcher" at Copenhagen University Hospital, Goran Bjelakovic, whose name is now synonymous with vitamin meta-analyses (studies of other studies) which appear to show that vitamin supplements either don´t work or end up increasing your risk of death. Two similar Bjelakovic "studies" on vitamin supplements, in October 2004 and February 2007, resulted in similar outbursts of negative international headlines.

Upon closer examination, the flaws in the so-called study are apparent. First of all, in evaluating studies for inclusion, the authors omitted a massive 405 potentially eligible studies because there were no deaths in the studies and another 69 studies were excluded because they weren´t randomized controlled trials.

In other words, instead of conducting an honest review of all the studies, the authors arbitrarily eliminated all studies in which vitamins prevented mortality and kept people alive - leaving only the studies in which people died from various causes. Most of the trials used pertain to already sick people being given very high dose, synthetic, isolated nutrients for relatively short periods – they therefore have no relevance to the vast majority of vitamin consumers.

When you select or reject studies on criteria that only mean something to statisticians, and ignore important things like duration, how long the study ran for — which ranged from 28 days to 14 years — your findings are immediately meaningless. Even the huge difference in dose of supplements between different studies was not deemed important - for example, Vitamin E ranging from 10 to 5000 units daily.

The studies in the latest meta-analysis not only relied on synthetic forms of vitamins, in most instances they relied on very high dosages of pharmaceutical-grade, synthetic forms of supplements manufactured by the pharmaceutical industry. The dosages used are typically much greater than those recommended on the labels of food or dietary supplement products. In most countries, the dosages used in the trials would be considered ´medicinal´ by regulatory authorities and therefore would not legally be allowed for food or dietary supplements.

As a result, these studies actually apply only to synthetic forms of vitamins produced by the pharmaceutical industry in amounts much larger than most consumers would ever take. The authors of this latest Cochrane review state: "The present review does not assess antioxidant supplements for treatment of specific diseases (tertiary prevention), antioxidant supplements for patients with demonstrated specific needs of antioxidants, or the effects of antioxidants contained in fruits or vegetables." This shows that the study has no relevance to natural sources of vitamins and minerals or antioxidants sourced from plants (e.g. flavonoids, anthocyanins, sulforaphanes, salvestrols/resveratrol, etc.), which are included in many of the leading-edge natural health supplements claiming potent antioxidant activity.

Make no mistake, this isn´t research. This is a re-analysis of studies that have been conducted and reported on previously, by a group of men with a known axe to grind, who have never produced a study favorable to supplements, which is itself statistically unlikely unless you have a bias.

There is extensive scientific evidence that higher intakes of vitamins in the forms and combinations consumed in the diet substantially reduce risk of killer diseases such as cancer and heart disease. In fact, it is this research (some of which is referenced in the introduction to both the JAMA and Cochrane papers) that has stimulated pharmaceutical companies to undertake research on pharmaceutical-grade, synthetic forms of supplements, which they manufacture. As is often the case when pharmaceutical companies try to synthesize or unnaturally isolate compounds found in nature so they can patent and profit from them, their synthetic version have been largely disappointing.

A good source to see why their results have largely failed can be seen in this paper by the Alliance for Natural Health:

http://www.alliance-natural-health.org/_docs/ANHwebsiteDoc_231.pdf

As a final note on the study: although presented as a "new", the study is really no more than a rehash of a paper by the very same authors, published last year (February 2007) in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Extensive international media followed the 2007 JAMA paper, including a front page articles in major newspapers telling consumers that vitamin pills could cause early death. The "new" study review relies on 67 of the 68 studies used in the JAMA paper.

The world pharmaceutical empire is a trillion dollar juggernaut whose continued profits depends on continued illness as well as a continued monopoly on approved medications and suppression of any alternatives which might provide prevention and treatment more effectively, more safely and less expensively – such as those found in nature. And so there are a trillion reasons why we see the repeated headlines about misleading and flawed studies like this one on vitamins, minerals and other natural supplements that represent billions of dollars in potential lost profits due to improved health and competition with patented drugs.

The best possible model for profits would be a monopoly on side-effect laden drugs which lead to complications requiring yet more side effect laden drugs in a never ending cycle so that by the time a person reaches the age of 65 they take an average of 15 prescribed and over the counter medications daily when it all started with one or two conditions that could have been treated naturally. A great model for profits and a horrible one for health and humanity.

The bottom line for all those who reject such a model: don´t stop taking your vitamins, minerals and other supplements - especially those derived from natural sources which insure adequate amounts of daily nutrition vital to your optimum health.

Sources:

Alliance for Natural Health
Natural News
JAMA
Lancet

This attracted the attention of Los Angeles network affiliate, "KNBC" which aired a report entitled, "Toxic Sky?", see video here (http://www.knbc.com/video/9265818/detail.html) .

Someone once said (And I am sure they were right), "You can find just about anything you want on the internet". There are, of course, endless websites on the internet about chemtrails. I assume most of them are 75-100% factual. However, you can't help but let some speculation be a part of this "so hard to believe, so concealed in its facts, and yet so right-in-your-face" undeniable subject.

In 1993, Dr. Shyh-Ching Lo, senior researcher at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, patented several virulent strains of mycoplasma. He stated in his own patents that they cause chronic fatigue syndrome. The Institute is currently reconstructing the 1918 Spanish Flu, inserting it into contemporary flu strains and enhancing its lethality. The Spanish Flu killed 675,000 Americans in the 1918-1919 interval. Many of the dead were vaccinated soldiers. Anyone born after 1918 has no immunity to the Spanish Flu.

According to one credible source, there is a sub rosa project known as 'Cloverleaf' that uses domestic air carriers retrofitted with special tanks to spray civilian populations with a variety of chemicals. This retired government scientist goes on to say that reconstructed versions of the flu could be inserted into vaccines along with a more benign strain of the inoculum in order to slow the progression of its more deadly component. Chemicals in the "chemtrails" reported nationwide over the preceding decade, may assist the viral envelope to fuse with lung cells, guaranteeing ease of penetration and infection. People will pass along the flu to others and then start dropping like flies. This will cause a panic demand for more flu shots, thus accelerating the cycle. Persons not so inoculated will be blamed for spreading the disease.

The above photo was somehow obtained by Tim and is most likely the genuine article. This is the inside of a retro fitted domestic "Chemtrail" Sprayer.

According to Tim White, "The CIA front, Evergreen Air, located at Pinal Air Park in Marana, Arizona is a longtime CIA/NSA secret facility for more than 40 years. This is the prime modification center that modifies a wide range of aircraft types to conduct the covert "chemtrail" spray operations that began in 1998.

Prior to this, selected areas of the U.S. had Chemtrail operations to test all the technology employed in these Chemtrail operations and to determine the operating parameters related to aircraft performance envelopes and optimum atmospheric conditions. Once this was accomplished, the nationwide program began and is being conducted under more than one program code name. The two names most often discussed are "Operation Clover Leaf" and "Operation Rain Dance".

Within months of the operation over the United States, Chemtrail spray operations began over wide parts of dozens of countries with the most notable exception being China.

Some thoughts from Christopher Gussa, "The Herb Doc", about Chemtrails and the "Conspiracy Theory":

I live "just down the road" (about 50 miles) from the Pinal Air Park in Tucson/Marana and I have seen these aircraft in action way too much to deny they are doing anything less than spraying away at us! I also have personally heard from our local MDs that their flu business is always up after a major spraying. Yes, It is very, very real and it does major harm to our health.

So why aren't the major news media networks having a hay day with this? (The short answer is, "Big Pharma is their sponsor".) Chemtrails need to be brought up on local TV news shows (Everyone is always willing to look at the evils of our government) and then finally forced onto the major media networks. (As KSLA in Shreveport did.) It needs to quit being an "internet only" subject. The problem with the whole subject of Chemtrails as presented on many websites is that everyone looks at you like you are one of "Them" when you bring it up... One of those "Paranoid Loonies". If you look at the speculation of why this chemtrail thing is going on, it's always reasons like: "It's 80% population decrease", "It's the Illuminati with Henry Kissinger at the helm -- Kill the useless eaters", and "They are secretly controlling our minds". Even if this is all true (which it may be in part), you are not going to hold anyone's attention except the choir's.

Hmm... The Illuminati. If 80% population decrease is their motive, I can tell you the numbers just aren't right. They aren't killing anyone off fast enough but they are helping Big Pharma and the "Vaccine Vixens" out in a big way! I would think that war would be the best population control tool. It's easy to start and you can always blame someone else.

Are you as sick of this as I am? Do you want this evil truth exposed? Then call your local TV news stations on a daily basis and demand this be looked into! Have different people call with different return phone numbers. Get away from your computer for a while (as soon as you finish reading this).

Thank you all and best of health.

About the author
Christopher Gussa, Is a TCM practitioner and Certified Master / Clinical Herbalist for 25 years. He is certified in both Western Herbal Therapy and Traditional Chinese Herbal Medicine with over 20 years experience. Chris founded Plant Cures Inc. which handcrafts over 150 Serious Herbal Medicine Products for Specific Disorders all created through clinical application. Their products are for Serious Disease and also Powerful Tonic Health. Please visit Plant Cures at WWW.PLANTCURES.COM or call them at 1-800 979 2027

Natural Remedies for Treating Arthritis

(NaturalNews) Arthritis is a disease that causes pain and loss of movement of the joints. The word arthritis literally means joint inflammation (arth=joint, ritis=inflammation), and refers to more than 100 different diseases.

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A grapefruit may be all it takes to fight chronic hepatitis C. Currently sufferers have to take a powerful drug such as pegylated interferon, which comes with a range of side effects from nausea, anaemia, depression and skin rash.

But researchers reckon that a grapefruit or another citrus fruit could be just as effective, if not more so. The fruit contains the flavonoid, naringenin, which is responsible for the fruit’s bitter taste.

Naringenin has the ability to block a pathway in the life cycle of the hepatitis C virus, researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston have discovered.

Vitamin E could be the ‘X factor’ in determining how long and well we live. People with low levels of the nutrient decline more rapidly, researchers have found.

In a study of 698 men and women aged over 65, those with low serum levels of vitamin E showed a decline in physical abilities over a three-year period compared with those with higher levels.

It was the only vitamin that seemed to make a difference to physical decline. Lower levels of folate, vitamin D, iron or the B vitamins didn’t affect physical ability.

Researchers believe that the vitamin, an antioxidant, prevents damage to our DNA, muscles and neurones.