WebMD had several articles on probiotics and their uses for holistic health and wellness. Here is that article:

Probiotics are microorganisms such as bacteria or yeast that are believed to improve health. They are available in supplements and foods. The idea of taking live bacteria or yeast may seem strange at first. After all, we take antibiotics and use antibacterial substances to fight bacteria. But  our bodies naturally teem with such organisms.

The digestive system is home to more than 500 different bacterial species. They help keep intestinal linings healthy and assist in breaking down food. Beneficial organisms are also believed to help regulate healthy immune response.

How Do Probiotics Work?

Researchers believe that some digestive disorders result when the balance of friendly bacteria in the intestines becomes disturbed.  This can happen after an infection or after taking antibiotics. Intestinal problems can also arise when the lining of the intestines is damaged. Introducing new beneficial organisms in the form of probiotics may help.

“Probiotics can improve intestinal function and maintain the integrity of the lining of the intestines,” says Stefano Guandalini, MD, professor of pediatrics and gastroenterology at the University of Chicago Medical Center. These friendly bugs may also help fight off diarrhea-causing organisms.

Probiotics and the Immune System

There’s also evidence that probiotics assist in maintaining a strong immune system. “In societies with very good hygiene, we’ve seen a sharp increase in autoimmune and allergic diseases,” Guandalini tells WebMD. “That may be because the immune system isn’t being properly challenged by pathogenic organisms. Introducing friendly bacteria in the form of probiotics is believed to challenge the immune system in healthy ways.”

Probiotics May Benefit an Array of Ailments

Although evidence is still being gathered, researchers say there are enough data to rate the effectiveness of probiotics for several specific illnesses. In 2008, a panel of experts at Yale University reviewed the latest findings. They concluded that probiotics are most effective for:

• Acute childhood diarrhea
• Preventing antibiotic-associated diarrhea
• Preventing pouchitis, an intestinal inflammation that can follow serious intestinal surgery
• Regulating immune response
• Treating and preventing eczema associated with cow’s milk allergy

The Yale University panel of experts concluded that probiotics may be helpful in other ways, although the evidence so far is less convincing. These include:

• Easing symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome
• Preventing childhood diarrhea
• Treating diarrhea caused by Clostridium difficile bacteria, which can infect the colon

Probiotics may also be useful in unexpected ways. A study published in 2010 suggests that probiotics may decrease the risk of common childhood problems such as ear infections, strep throat, colds, and diarrheal illness. The study included 638 children aged 3 to 6 in day care centers/schools. The children who drank a yogurt drink containing a probiotic were 19% less likely to come down with a common infection.

Cautions About Probiotics

For the most part, taking probiotics is very safe and causes few side effects. “People in cultures around the world have been eating yogurt, cheeses, and other foods containing live cultures for centuries,” says Martin Floch, MD, a professor of gastroenterology at Yale University, co-author of Probiotics: A Clinical Guide, and a consultant for the Dannon Company.

Still, probiotic supplements may be dangerous for people with weakened immune systems or serious illnesses.  One study found that patients with severe pancreatitis who were given probiotics had a higher risk of death. More studies of probiotic use in young children and the elderly are needed.

Are Probiotic Supplements or Foods Best?

Probiotics come in many forms, including powders, tablets, capsules, and foods such as yogurts and dairy drinks. The form you take them in doesn’t matter, experts say, as long as it contains enough live organisms to begin growing in the intestines. Experts say the effective dose varies widely, from as little as 50 million to as many as 1 trillion live cells per dose.

Specific probiotic organisms appear to be useful for particular illnesses, however. The bacteria Lactobacillus GG and the yeast Saccharomyces boulardii have been shown to be helpful for infectious diarrhea in children, for example. “But there’s no evidence that Lactobacillus acidophilus, which is used in many commercial yogurts, has any benefits for diarrhea,” says Floch.

Advice on Choosing a Probiotic Supplement

The FDA does not regulate probiotics  as it does prescription medications because probiotics are in the same category as food and supplements. With growing evidence for their effectiveness, however, the FDA is reviewing their status and may regulate them more closely in the future.

“For now, the best advice is to choose products from well-known companies, especially those that have been tested in research studies,” Guandalini says. Reliable products should indicate the name of the precise probiotic organisms they contain, as well as how many organisms a single dose provides. Many products also provide information on the scientific studies they use for their recommendations.

Many thanks to WebMD for this highly informative article. For further reading:

http://www.webmd.com/digestive-disorders/features/what-are-probiotics?

http://www.webmd.com/digestive-disorders/features/best-probiotics-use

http://www.webmd.com/digestive-disorders/features/probiotics-benefits

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Some more quick health tips I picked up from TRICARE Communications.

Something as simple and inexpensive as beans can help with diabetes control.

Beans digest slowly, resulting in only a small rise in blood glucose levels. Several studies have shown that eating 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 cups of cooked beans daily improves diabetes control.

Beans also are an excellent source of folate, which is linked to a lower risk of cardiovascular disease, a common diabetes complication. Eating 1-3 cups of cooked beans a day will lower total cholesterol 5%-19%.

Put beans in soups and salads, or eat them as a side dish, but introduce them gradually into your diet, the American Diabetes Association says. Chew thoroughly, drink plenty of liquids to aid digestion and take enzyme products such as “Beano” to avoid gastrointestinal distress.

For convenience, go for canned beans, which require less preparation time and, although have higher salt content, are as healthy as dried.

Pistachios: This green nut is full of gamma-tocopherol, a potentially cancer-fighting type of vitamin E.

People who ate 2 ounces of pistachios a day showed higher blood levels of gamma-tocopherol than those who did not eat pistachios, according to a recent study by the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.

But that’s not all: They’re also rich in phytosterols, which give a double boost with its anti-cancer and heart-health properties. Plus, they provide a hefty amount of fiber and blood pressure-loving potassium.

Don’t go nuts for them, though. Pistachios are high in calories, so account for that in your diet.

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Lately, vitamin D is showing up in the news more often. It used to be the ho-hum vitamin that you got from drinking your milk and playing out in the sunshine. Apparently, this vitamin is much more important to our health and has many previously unknown attributes that can enhance your holistic wellness. Vitamin D is naturally produced by the human body when exposed to direct sunlight. Many factors including season, skin coloration, cloud cover, smog, and sunscreen affect UV ray exposure and vitamin D synthesis in the skin, and it is important for individuals with limited sun exposure to include good sources of vitamin D in their diet.

As civilization and the industrialization enabled humans to work indoors and wear more clothes when outdoors, these cultural changes reduced natural production of vitamin D and caused deficiency diseases. In many countries, foods such as milk, yogurt, margarine, oil spreads, breakfast cereal, pastries, and bread are fortified with vitamin D₂ and/or vitamin D₃, to minimize the risk of vitamin D deficiency. In the United States and Canada, for example, fortified milk typically provides 100 IU per glass, or a quarter of the estimated adequate intake for adults over age 50. Fatty fish, such as salmon, herring, catfish and sardines are natural sources of vitamin D. Other natural sources include: fish liver oils, such as cod liver oil, whole eggs, cooked beef liver, and UV-irradiated mushrooms. In the United States (U.S.), the 100% Daily Value used for product labels is 400 IU/day.

The easiest way to tell if you are getting enough of the vitamin is have a blood calcidiol level test at the doctor’s office. If the test results are not in specification, then you can increase your level with a higher dose of supplementation. Your doctor can recommend an appropriate level.

Deficiency of vitamin D can result from a number of factors: inadequate intake along with inadequate sunlight (UVB) exposure, disorders that limit its absorption from the gastrointestinal tract, conditions that impair conversion of vitamin D into active metabolites, such as liver or kidney disorders and body characteristics such as skin color and body fat. Rarely, deficiency can result from a number of hereditary disorders. Deficiency results in impaired bone mineralization, and leads to bone softening diseases including:

• Rickets, a childhood disease characterized by slowed growth, and deformity, of the long bones. Rickets was first described in the 17th century. Prior to fortifying milk products with vitamin D, rickets was a major public health problem. In the United States, the fortification of milk with 10 micrograms (400 IU) of vitamin D per quart in the 1930s led to a dramatic decline in the number of rickets cases.

• Osteoporosis, a condition characterized by reduced bone mineral density and increased bone fragility.

New research is showing low levels of vitamin D may also be linked to an increased susceptibility to several chronic diseases, such as high blood pressure, tuberculosis, cancer, periodontal disease, multiple sclerosis, chronic pain, seasonal affective disorder , elevated VLDL triglycerides, peripheral artery disease, cognitive impairment which includes memory loss, and several autoimmune diseases including type 1 diabetes. There is also an association between low vitamin D levels and Parkinson’s disease, but whether Parkinson’s causes low vitamin D levels, or whether low vitamin D levels play a role in the development of Parkinson’s disease has not been established.

Research indicates that vitamin D may play a role in preventing or reversing coronary disease. Vitamin D deficiency is associated with an increase in high blood pressure and cardiovascular risk. Numerous observational studies show this link, but no randomized trial has proven the impact of vitamin D supplementation. When researchers looked at the vitamin D levels, blood pressure and other cardiovascular risk factors of  people, of an average age of 59 years for 5 years, they found that those people with low levels of vitamin D had a 62% higher risk of a cardiovascular event than those with normal vitamin D levels. The issue of vitamin D in heart health has not yet been settled. Exercise may account for some of the benefit attributed to vitamin D, since vitamin D levels are generally higher in physically active persons.

Many recent studies are showing a relationship between cancer and the vitamin D hormone, calcitriol. A search of primary and review medical literature published between 1970 and 2009 found an increasing amount of research that seems to support the idea that vitamin D has significant protective effects against the development of cancer. This research looked at the association between sun exposure, serum levels of 25(OH)D, and consumption of vitamin D and risk of developing and/or surviving cancer. All of the studies looked at show a beneficial correlation between vitamin D intake and prevention of many cancers; colon, breast and ovarian, pancreatic, and prostate.

So vitamin D is much more important to our health and wellness than we thought. All of the recent findings are mostly of a preliminary nature and with more studies we may find more benefits to taking an adequate amount of vitamin D every day. I usually take a 1000IU supplemental tablet a day. Please consult your medical specialist on how much is healthy for you.

Be well.

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My last post talked about changing your life using some research , some planning and some determination. This post is just a list of healthy foods that you can use to move toward that goal of holistic wellness and some reasons why you might want to choose them.

Whole Grains

• Whole wheat bread, wheat bran cereals, and whole wheat pasta contain high levels of insoluble fiber for gastrointestinal health.
• Oatmeal is rich in soluble fiber to help lower cholesterol levels.

Nuts

• High in monounsaturated fat to help maintain healthy cholesterol levels.

Tomatoes – fresh, canned, juice or sauce

• Lycopene is an antioxidant found in tomatoes that may decrease the risk of cancers — particularly prostate cancer and, more recently, breast cancer.
• Lycopene is most able to be used by your body when it has been cooked.

Salmon and Tuna – fresh or canned

• Rich in omega-3 fatty acids that may decrease the risk of heart disease and stroke.

Olive Oil

• Rich in monounsaturated fats to help maintain healthy cholesterol levels.

Green Leafy Vegetables – fresh or frozen (spinach, kale, chard, green leafy lettuce)

• Contain flavonoids to help prevent memory loss.
• Rich in carotenoids which help to ward off macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness.
• Eat these greens with avocado to help your body absorb these nutrients better.

Garlic

• Can help decrease cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure and perhaps prevent cancer.
• Acts as an antibiotic.

Dried Beans and Peas – dry, canned or frozen

• Loaded with soluble fiber to lower cholesterol, and help maintain healthy blood sugar levels.

Broccoli — fresh or frozen

• May decrease the risk of breast cancer.
• Extremely rich in antioxidants to help protect body cells from disease and aging.
• Excellent source of vitamin C, an antioxidant that helps maintain a strong immune system and may reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer.
• Good source of potassium, an important mineral for healthy blood pressure.
• Steam your broccoli lightly to help your body absorb these nutrients

Fruits of various colors – fresh or frozen

• Loaded with vitamin C, an antioxidant that may reduce the risk of heart disease.
• Loaded with soluble fiber to lower cholesterol, and help maintain healthy blood sugar levels.
• Extremely rich in antioxidants to help protect body cells from disease and aging. Each color is indicative of the different kinds of antioxidants.
• Good source of potassium, an important mineral for healthy blood pressure.
• Eat the whole fruit not just the juice. The solid part of the fruit has fiber that helps regulate your blood sugar and many of the nutrients are in the pulp.

Hopefully this will give you some starting information for your research toward better health.

Be well.

Related Posts:

http://www.northof50.us/holistic-wellness/change-your-life-your-way

http://www.northof50.us/health-and-wellness/something-fishy-in-our-diet

http://www.northof50.us/holistic-wellness/truth-about-juice

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Recently, I was watching an episode of Good Eats on the Food Channel. Apparently the host, Alton Brown, had lost some weight (about 50 pounds). His feeling (which echoes mine) is that diets usually don’t work in the long run and don’t make you feel better. His idea was to make a life change in the way he eats and thereby produce a positive effect in his health. He came up with his own plan and in the process lost 50 pounds, lowered his cholesterol and improved his self image.

The system that he concocted to produce this life change is brilliant in it’s simplicity. Using his knowledge about food and working with the premise of eating nutrient dense food instead of energy (calorie) dense food, he was able to lower his overall intake. He made four (4) lists to use as his daily outline. The lists split various foods into daily, 3x weekly, 1x weekly and finally 0 (zero)x weekly. The daily list had items like fruits , nuts, and whole grains. The 3x weekly had oily fish sweetpotato and avocado. 1x weekly had red meat, dessert and alcohol . And the never (0x) list included fast food, canned soup and “diet anything.” His one big rule is always eat breakfast which helps prevent bingeing later in the day. A few lists and some rules, what could be simpler.

You can do the same thing. If you feel the need for a change, a little research, a simple plan and a little determination and you can do the same thing. There’s plenty books andauthoritative online information to pick from. People like Andrew Weil, Dean Ornish and Jorge Cruise all have books and informative websites to gather information from about holistic wellness. Then put your plan together and go forward to a better life. Not a diet but life change for the better. Good Luck and…

Be well.

Take the initiative, and you will create your own opportunities.
There is no substitute for action backed up by a well-thought-out plan. -Napoleon Hill

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Wishing you and yours a happy, healthy and prosperous new year.

Be well.

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ScienceDaily (2009-12-16) — How do we know that certain combinations of letters have certain meanings? Reading and spelling are complex processes, involving several different areas of the brain, but researchers have now identified a specific part of the brain — named the left fusiform gyrus — which is necessary for normal, rapid understanding of the meaning of written text as well as correct word spelling.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091216103600.htm#

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Twitter

Social networking has become a big part of life on the internet. It allows us to extend our circle of friends and contacts beyond our usual area of business and the cities we live in. This also increases our immediacy of knowledge which can be beneficial to our health and wellness. Keeping up with food alerts and new trends in health can help make our lives richer and fuller. One of those services is Twitter. If you use Twitter, whether on your computer or on your mobile phone, there are various government agencies that post alerts and current information on the social networking site. All you have to do is click on the link below and login in or join and click on the follow button to follow them You will receive the information as it is posted. Here are some that may be worth following:

MedlinePlus will direct you to information to help answer health questions. MedlinePlus brings together authoritative information from NLM, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), several government agencies and health-related organizations. Preformulated MEDLINE searches are included in MedlinePlus and allow easy access to medical journal articles. MedlinePlus also has extensive information about drugs, an illustrated medical encyclopedia, interactive patient tutorials, and latest health news.

The Food Safety Information Center (FSIC) specializes in providing food safety information to educators, the industry, researchers and the general public. Using available technology, the FSIC staff develop solutions that disseminate information on a variety of food safety topics.

USDA’s Team Nutrition is an integrated, behavior based, comprehensive plan for promoting the nutritional health of our Nation’s children. This plan involves schools, parents, and the community in an effort to continuously improve school meals, and to promote the health and education of 50 million school children in more than 96,000 schools nationwide.

Nutrition.gov provides easy access to the best food and nutrition information from across the federal government. It serves as a gateway to reliable information on nutrition, healthy eating, physical activity, and food safety for consumers.

CDC.gov is the CDC’s primary online communication channel. Annually, there are close to 500 million page views to the site, averaging 41 million page views per month. The CDC.gov website provides users with credible, reliable health information on:

And more…

Disability.gov is a federal web site that contains disability-related resources for programs, services, laws and regulations to help people with disabilities lead full, independent lives. With just a few clicks, visitors can find critical information on a variety of topics, including benefits, civil rights, community life, education, emergency preparedness, employment, housing, health, technology and transportation. For help on how to find resources on this site, visit the How to Use this Site section of Disability.gov.

Natural Standard is an international research collaboration that aggregates and synthesizes data on complementary and alternative therapies. Using a comprehensive methodology and reproducible grading scales, information is created that is evidence-based, consensus-based, and peer-reviewed, tapping into the collective expertise of a multidisciplinary Editorial Board. The mission of this collaboration is to provide objective, reliable information that aids clinicians, patients, and healthcare institutions to make more informed and safer therapeutic decisions. Natural Standard is one of the world’s premier sources of information in this area.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is charged with protecting the public from unreasonable risks of serious injury or death from thousands of types of consumer products under the agency’s jurisdiction. The CPSC is committed to protecting consumers and families from products that pose a fire, electrical, chemical, or mechanical hazard or can injure children. The CPSC’s work to ensure the safety of consumer products – such as toys, cribs, power tools, cigarette lighters, and household chemicals – contributed significantly to the 30 percent decline in the rate of deaths and injuries associated with consumer products over the past 30 years.

Established in 1997, the National Diabetes Education Program is a federally-funded program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and includes over 200 partners at the federal, state and local levels, working together to improve the treatment and outcome for people with diabetes, promote early diagnosis, and prevent or delay the onset of type 2 diabetes.

And last, but certainly not least is AARP , which was founded in 1958. This is not a government site. AARP is a nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organizationthat helps people 50 and over improve the quality of their life If you are over 50, this is a great organization for a variety of topics, resources, information and discounts.

We have such wonderful technology available these days to assist us in maximizing our quality and longevity of life, I hope you utilize and implement these social networks and reap the benefits to holistic wellness they have to offer.

Be well

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