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Drink Away Your Diabetes Risk with Green Tea

admin — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 01:48:39 +0000

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – A compound found in green tea could slow or even prevent the development of type 1 diabetes, new research in mice suggests.

Green tea contains several antioxidants that have been shown to curb inflammation, prevent cell death, and possibly even ward off cancer.

In the current study, Dr. Stephen D. Hsu of the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta and colleagues tested the effects of green tea’s predominate antioxidant known as EGCG in laboratory mice with type 1 diabetes and Sjogren’s syndrome, which damages moisture-producing glands causing dry mouth and eyes.

They fed the mice plain water or water spiked with 0.2 percent EGCG.

EGCG, the investigators found, reduced the severity and delayed the onset of salivary gland damage associated with Sjogren’s syndrome — a condition with no known cure.

EGCG also dramatically slowed the development of type 1 diabetes in the rodents. At 16 weeks, they found, 25 percent of the mice given the green tea compound had developed diabetes, compared to 67 percent of the mice given water. At 22 weeks, 45 percent of the EGCG group had diabetes, while 78 percent of the control group did.

“Our study focused on Sjogren’s syndrome, so learning that EGCG also can prevent and delay insulin-dependent type 1 diabetes was a big surprise,” Hsu said in a statement.

Both type 1 diabetes and Sjogren’s syndrome are autoimmune diseases, which cause the body to attack itself.

Hsu and his team also found that the salivary gland cells that were under autoimmune attack were actually multiplying, but EGCG slowed this proliferation. Such rapid cell division has also been shown to occur in psoriasis.

The current study supports earlier research showing EGCG’s impact on helping prevent autoimmune disease, the researchers conclude.

SOURCE: Life Sciences, October 24, 2008.

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Ayurvedic medicines often contaminated by toxic metals, study says

admin — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 14:47:20 +0000

Who would think Ayurvedic medicine would contain toxic metals such as Arsenic? I have written a post about Arsenic being found in chicken and wrote about the possible detrimental effects.

I came across this story in the Los Angeles Times about arsenic and other metals being found in Ayurvedic medicine. Just goes to show to do more research about what you are putting in your bodies? This is a disturbing article for Ayurvedic users and goes to show what people are doing these days to make a buck.

Lead, mercury and arsenic were found in the traditionally Indian herbal mixtures at levels that would surpass California safety guidelines, says a researcher who is calling for FDA curbs.

By Alan Zarembo, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
August 27, 2008

Ayurvedic medicines — herbal mixtures dating back thousands of years in India and increasingly popular in the West — are frequently contaminated with lead, mercury or arsenic, according to a study published today.

A fifth of the nearly 200 concoctions tested contained levels of the toxic metals that, if taken at the maximum recommended doses, would surpass California’s safety guidelines.

Dr. Robert Saper, a Boston University professor of family medicine who led the study, said the findings should spur the Food and Drug Administration to start clamping down on the largely unregulated world of pills, herbs and powders classified as dietary supplements.

“It shouldn’t be me trying to figure this out,” Saper said.

Ayurveda is a traditional Indian practice that takes a holistic approach to wellness, employing herbal medicine, meditation and exercise to promote good health. It exists alongside modern medicine in India, with its own network of clinics, hospitals and colleges serving hundreds of millions of patients.

It has spread to the U.S. and Europe with the migration of South Asians around the world and been popularized by figures such as bestselling author Deepak Chopra.

There are about two dozen ayurvedic training programs in the United States. A 2002 survey estimated that 750,000 U.S. residents have used the herbal preparations, sold under both traditional Indian names and more marketable labels such as GlucoRite and Ezi Slim.

Saper got interested in the supplements in 2003 after a man of Indian origin showed up at a Boston-area emergency room with seizures. The culprit turned out to be lead in the man’s ayurvedic medicines. In an initial study published in 2004, Saper bought 70 ayurvedic products imported from India and found that toxic metals were common components.

It was an unsettling finding, because most of the preparations are intended to be taken as part of a daily regimen to improve health.

“Many, many studies are showing that even small levels of lead in the blood can increase the risk of high blood pressure, kidney dysfunction and decreased IQ,” Saper said.

Ayurvedic practitioners lashed out at the research as alarmist, saying that it only showed there were problems with mixtures from India, not with U.S.-made products.

They pointed out that in India, many of these metals are purposely blended with herbs as part of the medicinal recipe. Those metallic mixtures are rarely used in the United States, they said.

In the new study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Assn., Saper and his team analyzed 193 products purchased from 25 websites for Indian and U.S. manufacturers. The vast majority supposedly contained only herbs and no metals.

About 80% of the samples showed no detectable metal content. But among the remaining samples, the toxic metals showed up at similar rates in both U.S. and Indian-made products. Of the U.S. products, 21% contained lead, 3% contained mercury and 3% had arsenic. Among the Indian-made medicines, 17% had lead, 7% had mercury and none contained arsenic.

The researchers and other experts surmised that the contamination had less to do with the manufacturing process than with the soils in which the herbs were grown.

“The raw material is all coming from India,” said Kush Khanna, who runs Bazaar of India in Berkeley, a manufacturer of ayurvedic medicines started by his father in 1971.

Heavy metals showed up in 17 of the products the researchers ordered from his company.

Khanna said two labs in India routinely tested the 80 or so ingredients he imported.

The problem is that there are no unified standards for what is considered safe.

Lead levels allowed by the World Health Organization are 500 times the California limits.

“Based on WHO standards, our products are perfect,” Khanna said. “They have not exceeded any limits.”

The researchers found only two products that exceeded the WHO standards for lead content. Both mixtures were from India and purposely prepared with metals as ingredients.

In California, the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 requires that products containing certain levels of toxic metals carry warning labels. But the act has no power to ban products, and companies with fewer than 10 employees, such as Khanna’s, are exempt from the labeling requirements.

The FDA does not specify any limits for metal content in dietary supplements, leaving it to the manufacturers to ensure that their products are safe.

Jennifer Rioux, a medical anthropologist who runs the Integral Ayurveda clinic in Chapel Hill, N.C., said the research underscored the need for consumers to consult with ayurvedic experts instead of buying and taking products on their own.

She noted that the study showed many medicines to be perfectly safe, but she worried that its conclusions would tar her profession.

“All people need is one study to provoke fear about an entire system of medicine,” she said.

alan.zarembo@latimes.com

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The Chicken and Arsenic Connection

admin — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 22:02:26 +0000

Chicken loved by many and is used in so many dishes worldwide. Here, at medicinenewsonline.com we are dedicated to bringing information to our readers that we feel they will find important.

The problem is that chicken that is not certified organic may have arsenic in it. Arsenic is a known carcinogen which means that it can cause cancer. The amount of arsenic is not enough to kill you but it is troubling to think about a dangerous chemical being present in your chicken. Some experts say that no level of arsenic is safe. Furthermore, arsenic is present in water also.

The problem is that the chicken industry is in the business to maximize profits and in a capitalistic society we cannot blame them. So, they add this chemical arsenic to reduce the amount of parasitic infections and to promote growth in chickens. The more dead parasitic ridden chicken and the skinnier the chickens less money for the industry.

Currently, the FDA allows 500 parts per billion of arsenic in chicken. These guidelines were put in place decades ago. The troubling part of all this is that the amount of chicken consumption has skyrocketed. According to a Foodreference.com chart, the amount of chicken consumption has exploded.

U.S. PER CAPITA CHICKEN CONSUMPTION

Year

Pounds of Chicken

Year

Pounds of Chicken

1960

1961

1962

1963

1964

1965

1966

1967

1968

1969

1970

1971

1972

1973

1974

1975

1976

1977

1978

1979

1980

1981

1982

1983

28.0

29.9

30.1

30.9

31.4

33.7

35.6

36.6

37.1

38.5

40.3

40.2

41.7

39.9

39.7

39.0

39.1

42.8

44.9

48.3

48.0

49.4

49.6

49.8

1984

1985

1986

1987

1988

1989

1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005*

2006*

2007*

51.6

53.1

54.3

57.4

57.5

59.3

61.5

64.0

67.8

70.3

71.1

70.4

71.3

72.4

72.9

77.5

77.9

77.6

81.9

83.0

85.4

87.4

89.1

90.6

*estimates or forcasts
Source: ERS/USDA

Look at that explosion of chicken consumption. Where is the FDA in revising the standards? So, people are eating more of the arsenic and the levels from the FDA have not changed. As more and more toxins such as arsenic are accumulating in our bodies, no wonder cancer cases are increasing.

So what can we do? So, we have two choices either we need to eat certified organic chicken or not eat chicken at all. I am with the camp that will go for the certified organic chicken. Fast food places are all out to maximize profits so we know that most of them will have levels of arsenic in them. The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy did a study in 2006, and found that Foster Farms, Gold’n Plump, Perdue, Tyson Foods, Smart Chicken and Trader Joe’s. The Trader Joe’s entry surprised me but you need to do your research simply because its from Trader Joe’s does not mean all of the items sold there are completely safe.

Please purchase certified organic chicken. Organic chicken does not contain arsenic. Studies conducted failed to show levels of arsenic in chicken. Don’t buy into the hype. Many in the chicken industry will be devious in their marketing. If you go on goldnplump.com, the company’s main line is “All Natural Chicken”. I do not consider arsenic natural in chicken.

Do your homework. Look for the certified organic stamp or read online about the brand of chicken you are going to purchase. Feel free in the comments section below to discuss what you have found searching the internet about specific companies and their arsenic practices.

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