Month: May 2017

 

Warm, summer weather has finally arrived! What better way to enjoy it than eating a sumptuous meal outdoors with a group of your friends, an alcoholic beverage in hand? After all, red wine is good for you, right?

Unfortunately, it appears not. Previous studies have declared a daily glass of red wine to be beneficial for your health, but a closer examination of those results reveals that the group of people most likely to be drinking that glass of red wine were of high socioeconomic status. That means they also ate more vegetables, were more likely to exercise daily, and be of a healthy weight. These are the most likely causes of their longevity as a group, not the red wine.

 

Freud was wrong. People who suffer from depression don’t do so as a result of past trauma, but because they have a bleak view of the future.

Difficult life experiences make most people stronger. But those who suffer from depression continue to struggle with past events because they over-predict failure and rejection in the future.

The key to resolving feelings of depression then, is to train sufferers to imagine positive outcomes more often than they dwell on what might go wrong.

 

In a new study of 3.5 million people, those whose BMI classified them as obese were 50% more likely to suffer from coronary heart disease and 7% more likely to suffer from cerebrovascular disease than people of normal weight, even if there was no evidence of these diseases at the start of the study.

This suggests that the idea of being “fat but fit” is wrong.

Dr Rishi Caleyachetty, who led the study, states: “The priority of health professionals should be to promote and facilitate weight loss among obese persons, regardless of the presence or absence of metabolic abnormalities”.

 

A recent study published in the journal Radiology has revealed that people who suffer from insomnia have damaged white matter tracts in their brains. White matter tracts are bundles of axons that connect different parts of the brain.

Researchers suspect that these white matter tracts become damaged due to loss of myelin, the insulating, protective coating around nerve fibres which helps them to function more optimally.

In Chinese medicine, this decrease in thickness or effectiveness of myelin sheaths is said to be caused by “yin deficiency”, and interestingly, yin deficiency is also known to be a common cause of insomnia. This may be why yin tonics have been so effective at improving sleep over the thousands of years that they have been in use.

 

According to Chinese medicine, too much salt weakens the kidneys. This theory has gone hand in hand with Western thinking, since salt is known to increase urinary output so that excess sodium is excreted, and the proper amount can be maintained in the blood.  This increase in urination places greater stress on the kidneys and can weaken them over time.

However, a new study testing Russian cosmonauts for their ability to handle long-term space travel has shown that this thinking is faulty. While there is increased urinary output when high amounts of sodium are eaten, it’s not because you drink more fluids. You may -feel- thirsty when you eat too much salt, but this study shows that you do not actually drink more water – you eat more food.

 

Berberine is a plant extract known for its strong yellow colour and bitter taste.  It’s present in high quantity in many well known bitter yellow herbs, like goldenseal, barberry, Oregon grape root, Chinese scutellaria, and phellodendron.  Herbalists all over the world recommend plants containing berberine for their potent digestive effects.

In scientific studies, berberine has been proven to lower blood sugar, reduce cholesterol and triglycerides, and aid with weight loss.  Because berberine strongly stimulates the flow of bile, it can also be used to help relieve constipation and aid in the removal of excess hormones from the body, thereby relieving symptoms of conditions caused by hormone imbalances.

Our Coptis tincture contains the Chinese herb coptis, also known as goldthread, which has one of the highest amounts of berberine of any herb in the Chinese medicinal pharmacopia.

Excerpt:  “Several studies show a benefit of berberine in resetting PCOS. Taking berberine 500 mg three times daily for 3 months can reduce fasting plasma glucose, markers of insulin resistance, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides, testosterone levels, and waist-to-hip ratios. Furthermore, berberine can increase high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and sex hormone binding globulin in women compared with placebo. In addition, berberine is superior to metformin, a common prescription for PCOS, at improving lipid parameters, reducing waist-to-hip ratio, and increasing SHBG in PCOS patients”.

http://www.saragottfriedmd.com/for-the-love-of-berberine-what-it-is-and-why-i-take-it-to-lower-blood-sugar-bad-cholesterol-and-weight-plus-5-faqs/

 

Negative emotions are painful. They’re also frightening. Even though everyone has experienced emotional pain, we’ll do virtually anything to avoid it.

A recent study done by social psychologists at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville found that 67% of men and 25% of women would chose to electrically shock themselves rather than sit quietly by themselves.  It’s when we sit quietly by ourselves that painful thoughts and emotions become hardest to avoid.

It’s understandable to want to avoid our thoughts and feelings, but by preventing them from being felt, we create a lot of stagnation in our bodies. This stagnation occurs particularly in our liver, which is the most emotion sensitive organ.  Prolonged denial of our emotions can make us sick.

 

Judging by the long morning line-ups at coffee shops like Starbucks or Tim Horton’s, there’s a society-wide coffee addiction going on.

And while coffee has recently been shown to have some health benefits, like a lowered risk of developing dementia, type II diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, it’s wise not to overdo it.  Drinking too much coffee, particularly late in the day, can cause sleep problems and many people don’t like it’s addictive qualities.

According to Chinese medicine, caffeine is known to increase congestion in the liver, and if you have adrenal weakness, caffeine can cause over-stimulation of the adrenals that may eventually lead to adrenal exhaustion, and burn-out.  If you suffer from liver congestion or adrenal weakness, you should find other ways to boost your energy level.