Brenda Watson and Leonard Smith
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 In all likelihood, the detoxification from the herbal supplements alone will inspire you to make healthier food choices. You will find yourself automatically gravitating toward healthier options, and moving away from the unhealthy items that can sabotage your detox and your quest for vibrant health. As you begin to feel better and experience a shift in your body's energy level and sense of well-being, you'll want to continue to support that newfound health with a cleaner diet. |
Hyla Cass, M.D.
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 Take herbal supplements and high-powered antioxidants. Some supplements appear to be effective at lowering blood pressure. See the recommendations at the end of the chapter for a list of specific supplements and dosage recommendations. Check with your pharmacist before adding garlic or hawthorn to your daily supplements.
• Cram your diet full of antioxidants, anti-inflammatory herbs, and antioxidant-rich foods. |
Herbert Ross, DC with Keri Brenner, L.Ac.
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 Supplementing with minerals is a good choice for treating insomnia during pregnancy, when women need to avoid taking drugs and must also be careful with herbal supplements.
That night, Lynn fell asleep within 20 minutes without any medications, which was an unusually short time for her, and she slept for 4 hours straight. Thereafter, Lynn slept through the night, aided by the herbs and supplements and, initially, acupuncture treatments three times a week. After the first few weeks, Lynn continued once-a-week acupuncture treatments until her baby was born. |
Ann M. Coulston and Carol J. Boushey
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 Several herbal supplements, such as those containing ginkgo biloba and bilberry, have been promoted to benefit the health of the retina. However, there are no scientific studies that support their benefit except one very small (20 persons) study of ginkgo biloba in patients with AMD, in which improvement in visual acuity was indicated in a preliminary report (recently reviewed [233]).
IV. DIABETIC RETINOPATHY
A. Overview
Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a disease among people with diabetes that is considered to be the result of damage to the microvasculature of the retina. |
Ron Garner
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 The same stimulative situation applies to some herbal supplements and treatments. The body cannot use, and does not accept, isolated nutrients. It requires specific combinations working together synergistically before they can be recognized as food.
Bottom line—synthetic vitamins are harmful. Tests with rats fed synthetic vitamins found that they died sooner than rats given nothing to eat.3 The synthetic, incomplete supplements stimulated the animals' systems, increasing their metabolic rates and literally causing them to "burn up" or wear out at a faster rate. |
by Michael Murray, N.D. and Joseph Pizzorno, N.D.
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| Enhance immune function through high-quality nutrition and, if necessary, herbal supplements such as astragalus, Siberian ginseng, and medicinal mushrooms, including shiitake, maitake, and reishi mushrooms.
5. Enhance liver function by eating a high-fiber, low-fat diet.
6. Use nutritional and herbal supplements that help control against yeast overgrowth and promote a healthy bacterial flora, such as oregano oil, thyme oil, lauric acid, Lactobacillus acidophilus, and Bifidobacteria.
7. |
Ron Garner
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| CODEX ALIMENTARIUS
In recent years, there has been an upsurge of interest in "alternative" medicine, with its preference for non-invasive and natural therapies, including herbal supplements. The pharmaceutical cartel saw this coming many years ago. In 1962, a commission called Codex Alimentarius (Latin for "food code") was established by the World Health Organization and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. Its directive was to develop international food standards to protect consumer health and to facilitate fair trading practices in foods. |
Roberta Bivins
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 Chances are that you'll see ads for meditation, acupuncture, herbal supplements, and T'ai Chi classes, alongside the business cards of homeopaths and naturopaths, faith healers and Chinese herbalists. Prominent medical and scientific journals begrudge what they see as ill-considered enthusiasm for such 'heterodox' or 'alternative' therapies, and mourn the lost lustre of orthodox medicine.1 Many orthodox practitioners berate patients for their 'flight from reason', while a smaller group adopts aspects or styles of alternative practice themselves. |
Herbert Ross, DC with Keri Brenner, L.Ac.
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| If you're taking prescription medications, make sure you discuss herbal supplements with your doctor.
Acupuncture for Stress Reduction
To help patients cope with stress, as well as correct other imbalances that may be contributing to sleep disorders, practitioners of mind-body medicine often adjust a patient's energy fields. These fields, generally ignored by mainstream practitioners, link the emotions, consciousness, and physical body. "Other cultures recognize that there is a kind of energy that animates us," says Kristy Fassler, ND, a practitioner of both homeopathy and naturopathy. |
Gary Null and Amy McDonald
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 Also, tell your doctor if you are taking or plan to take any vitamins, herbal supplements or alcohol.
Be sure to tell your doctor if you are taking PROZAC and are taking or plan to take non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or aspirin since combined use of these drug products have been associated with an increased risk of bleeding.
You should tell your doctor if you are pregnant, plan to become pregnant, or are breast-feeding while you are taking PROZAC.
Tell your doctor if you have diabetes. The dose of diabetes medicine may change when you start or stop taking PROZAC. |
Paul D. Blanc, M.D.
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 This scrutiny is consistent with the FDA's primary jurisdictional responsibility for medications, but its recent track record hasn't indicated any better control of other substances in our environment that we are liable to ingest, such as herbal supplements and chemical additives.
The story of ephedra serves as one example of another such substance. Widely marketed in consumer goods, especially in herbal teas marketed as asthma self-treatments (as the Chinese remedy "ma-huang") and in over-the-counter stimulant aids, ephedra is a product over which the FDA claimed it had no jurisdiction. |
Peter J. Whitehouse and Daniel George
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 A wide range of alternative treatments, including diet, nutritional products, herbal supplements, and other interventions, are providing therapeutic options. CAM approaches are so entrenched that, in 2006, The New York Times reported that 48 percent of adults in America used at least one alternative or complementary therapy during 2004. Billions of dollars are spent each year out of pocket since medical insurance often does not cover these nonconventional approaches. |
Herbert Ross, DC with Keri Brenner, L.Ac.
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| In addition to a healthy lifestyle, Chinese herbal supplements can be very helpful in strengthening the kidney essence, says Harriet Beinfeld, L.Ac. She recommends the herbs ginseng, lotus seed, and longan fruit for a woman with a kidney essence weakness that results in a heart yin deficiency. Symptoms of this condition are insomnia, hot flashes, anxiety, palpitations, emotional instability, unusual thirst or perspiration, and premenstrual buildup with scanty, bright flow. For women with a kidney essence deficiency that results in a liver weakness, Dr. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 Of course, when it comes to quality control of herbal supplements, it's important to source your herbs and supplements from trusted companies who have stringent quality control standards. For example, if you are buying spirulina from a company that sources it from Cyanotech in Kona, Hawaii, you know that you're getting spirulina without any heavy metals whatsoever, because it's grown in pristine waters pumped up from the depths of the Pacific Ocean, unaffected by modern industrial run-off or other sources of contamination. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 Mike: Sure, do you also cover any nutritional supplements or herbal supplements?
Simontacchi: I do. I also cover lifestyle and stress, for example. Stress actually causes the body to miss the message to shut down the inflammation, so it just keeps it going. I talk about that, and also about supplements.
Mike: In the past few months, we've seen the FDA advisory panel make some rather precarious decisions on Vioxx, and part of the apparent reasoning of the panel was that they need to keep Vioxx and other Cox-2 inhibitors legal because people don't have alternatives. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 If you took a biological measurement of your age, you can actually reverse that biological age through outstanding nutrition, physical exercise, brain exercise, herbal supplements and so on. You can't do that with cosmetics. All you can do is cover up your age, and the older you get the more you have to cover up. In fact, popular cosmetics are made with such dangerous ingredients that they actually impair your health, can create liver toxicity, clog up skin pores and introduce a lot of toxic chemicals into your system causing you to age faster. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 Every single one of these diseases is preventable through nutrition, through herbal supplements, through lifestyle changes, and through the avoidance of toxic ingredients in the food supply like hydrogenated oils and refined sugars.
Every person I talked to backed this up. They said we do not need to live in this kind of society, as we have the technology, the products, and the knowledge available right now. Right now, people can go out and get things that can prevent all of these diseases, if not outright reverse many of them. |
by Michael Murray, N.D. and Joseph Pizzorno, N.D.
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| Use nutritional and herbal supplements that help control against yeast overgrowth and promote a healthy bacterial flora, such as oregano oil, thyme oil, lauric acid, Lactobacillus acidophilus, and Bifidobacteria.
7. Eliminate Candida toxins by using a water-soluble fiber source, such as guar gum, psyllium seed, or pectin, which can bind to toxins in the gut and promote their excretion.
Canker Sores
Canker sores (aphthous stomatitis) are single or clustered shallow, painful ulcers found anywhere in the oral cavity. |
Mark Hyman, M.D.
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 And some of the herbal supplements are downright dangerous; they are often grown in countries with no controls. herbal supplements grown or manufactured in countries such as China or India may have measurable levels of mercury or arsenic. Soils in China are highly contaminated with mercury. No oversight, analysis, or government regulation of these products is required, so it's hard to know if any specific product is clean and safe. Reports of Chinese herbs actually containing prescription medications, including stimulants, steroids, or sedatives, are not uncommon. |
The Editors of FC&A
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| And since herbal supplements are not regulated in the United States, you could take bogus herbs and put yourself at risk without even knowing it. You really don't know if the product is what it says it is or not.
Exterminate 'bug' to protect eyes
Don't look now. Helicobacter pylori is at it again. This time the bacteria could attack your sight.
The stomach bug may have a role in glaucoma, the number two cause of blindness. In an eye-opening study from Greece, H. pylori infected nine out of 10 glaucoma sufferers. That's no coincidence. |
| In addition to exercise, improve your circulation with these foods and herbal supplements.
Revive your arteries with grape juice. New research suggests your damaged blood vessels have hope - grape juice. This natural drink may make them more elastic and your blood less sticky. Experts believe antioxidants called flavonoids explain grape juice's healing powers.
It may, however, take a hearty amount of juice to get the same results as in the study. A 150-pound person, for instance, must drink 12 to 23 ounces of grape juice a day - that amount would fill one to two soda cans. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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| First, there is a whole class of foods and food ingredients you have to avoid to protect your nervous system (ingredients that I call "metabolic disruptors"), and then there is a whole other group of nutritional supplements and herbal supplements that can enhance brain function.
Let's go through these quickly. On the things to avoid list, you certainly want to avoid hydrogenated oils. Those are described as brain poison, and they're terrible for the nervous system. |
Mike Adams
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 Removing mercury with supplements
There are many herbal supplements that can remove mercury and other heavy metals from your body. One supplement that I strongly recommend—in fact my top choice for mercury removal—is called Metal Magic. It's offered by Jon Barron through the Baseline of Health Foundation, found at www.BaselineNutrionals.com. This tincture is one that I regularly use after consuming any kind of seafood, so if I'm eating shrimp, scallops, or even salmon, I make sure to take some Metal Magic afterwards.
Metal Magic is made from two simple herbs: cilantro and chlorella. |
Joe Graedon, M.S. and Teresa Graedon, Ph.D.
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 Black Cohosh
One of the most popular herbal supplements used to alleviate hot flashes is black cohosh. This plant is native to North America and was used by Native Americans for a range of medicinal purposes. The botanical name has been changed in recent years, so some references refer to this plant as Cimicifuga racemosa whereas others use the current term, Actaea racemosa. The famous 19th-century patent medicine promoted for "women's problems," Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound, contained black cohosh as a prominent ingredient. |
Phyllis A. Balch, CNC
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 It contains an extract of black pepper (Piper nigrum), and when taken with food or with vitamin, mineral, or herbal supplements, it helps food to digest and accelerates the distribution of nutrients throughout the body.
Natural Food Supplements
INTRODUCTION
Natural food supplements include a wide variety of products. Almost all health food stores carry them, and a number of drugstores and supermarkets stock them on their shelves as well. In general, natural food supplements are composed of, derived from, or by-products of foods that provide health benefits. |
Leslie Taylor, ND
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 If you are taking prescription drugs, please always check with your doctor before taking any herbal supplements or medicinal plants, including those you learn about in this book.
NEED FOR CARE IN SELF-MEDICATING WITH HERBAL PRODUCTS
This brings us to yet another common and growing problem in what has been termed the "self-medicating herbal product industry" in the United States. What about the person who is tired of paying the high price for Warfarin® at the pharmacy and wants to try a plant like guaco to replace it? |
| They simply don't know enough about them, don't have the time to educate themselves properly, and don't want to be in the legal-liability loop for any negative side effect or drug interaction with the drugs they do prescribe and the many herbal supplements available to patients today.
For these reasons, in Part Three, information about contraindications and drug interaction is provided for each plant; this information may, or may not, be officially substantiated by human clinical research. The guaco plant is still a great example. |
| An excellent example of this possible problem is a very active chemical— coumarin—found in many plants and herbal supplements. Unfortunately, there is not enough consumer awareness of this potential interaction yet. Coumarin is a natural plant chemical found in many species of plants in varying amounts—from trace amounts to highly significant amounts. One coumarin-containing plant is the rainforest plant called guaco. It can contain up to 10 percent coumarin. |
| NEED FOR CONSUMER EDUCATION ABOUT herbal supplements AND DRUGS
Get prepared to do some research, take responsibility for your own health and wellness, and educate yourself about which natural remedies and products might be helpful for you.
While American consumers do have more access to less-expensive natural products, such as cynarin-standardized artichoke products, regulations here prohibit the manufacturers to make any claims as to what the products might treat or even be good for, since they must be sold as "foods," not "medicines. |
Bryan Hanson, PhD
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 You probably know people who regularly use herbal supplements, and you may have used them yourself.
If you have picked up this book and read this far, you are probably the kind of person who has, at one time or another, wondered exactly how drinking an herbal tea can help prevent cancer, or how taking Echinacea capsules can help you beat a cold. |
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