Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Less Than 1 Tsp Ginger and Cinnamon Daily Relieves Muscle Soreness In Athletes

Many well-intentioned workout resolutions have been thwarted by the first signs of sore, stiff muscles in the days following a visit to the gym.  A new study finds that two common kitchen spices help relieve that post-workout muscle pain.
Researchers at Iran's Isfahan University of Medical Sciences studied the effects of ginger and cinnamon on the muscle pain of 60 fit female competitive Taekwondo players, aged 13-25 years.  The women were divided into three groups. For six weeks, each group took three grams (1 tsp = 4 grams) of either powdered ginger, cinnamon or placebo every day.
During the study, the women were tested for an indicator of inflammation and for muscle soreness.  The results, published in the International Journal of Preventive Medicine, showed that women in both the ginger and cinnamon groups had significantly less muscle soreness after exercising than the placebo group.  A similar study from the University of Georgia, also confirmed ginger's ability to relieve muscle soreness after strenuous exercise.    
The researchers did not find any difference in the inflammation marker among the three groups despite other studies showing strong anti-inflammatory qualities of ginger and cinnamon.  They speculated that the three gram dose may have been insufficient to make a measurable difference.      
Both ginger and cinnamon have been used medicinally for thousands of years.  Each contains a wide range of compounds shown to curb inflammation, reduce oxidative stress and modulate other healing mechanisms within the body. 
Ginger has a long list of amazing health benefits.  It's been proven more effective against bacterial staph infections than antibiotics; can kill cancer cells; eases ulcerative colitis and acid reflux; and alleviates the effects of gamma radiation. 
Ginger has been shown to be helpful in a relieving stomach upset, diarrhea, and nausea due to seasickness, motion sickness, morning sickness and chemotherapy.  It also relieves pain, swelling, and reduced mobility in those suffering from osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.  Its anti-viral properties help in the prevention and treatment of the common cold.
Cinnamon, the most popular spice, has been used for millennia both for its flavoring and medicinal qualities. The many health benefits of cinnamon include lowering blood sugar levels; improving insulin sensitivity; relieving inflammation from arthritis; alleviating menstrual cramps; supporting healthy blood clotting; fighting the overgrowth of bacteria, fungus and yeast; preventing colds and flu; boosting memory; and improving digestion.       
Ginger and cinnamon go together naturally, sharing the ingredient list in many healthy recipes.  Add fresh ginger to teas, marinades, stir-fries and salad dressings. 
Add cinnamon to a daily smoothie, applesauce or yogurt.  You can also drop a cinnamon stick into your steeping tea or a pot of coffee. 
Then hit the gym.

mmking

Baking Soda is Proving to be an Effective Treatment For Cancer

‘For baking, cleaning and deodorizing..’ and SO much more. It used to be common knowledge that baking soda could easily cure a common cold, as well as assist in numerous other ailments. What happened to all that information? This was not the first time I heard that baking soda was being used to cure cancer. I have come across people who have used it to rid their cancer and then I came across this written piece that was quite intriguing.
“When taken orally with water, especially water with high magnesium content, and when used transdermally in medicinal baths, sodium bicarbonate becomes a first-line medicinal for the treatment of cancer, kidney disease, diabetes, influenza and even the common cold. And importantly, it is also a powerful buffer against radiation exposure, so everyone should be up to speed on its use.”
Below is an article written from the book ‘Sodium Bicarbonate – Rich Man’s Poor Man’s Cancer Treatment – Second Edition’ by Mark Sircus, AC., OMD. I felt it was a good idea to share this information so please be sure to check it out -with an open mind of course. It is understandable how this can seem fa fetched but there are a number of well known natural cancer treatments that are working today that mainstream medicine refuses to talk about.
“There are many reasons to use baking soda but one overall reason is that sodium bicarbonate is a natural substance that will not harm us, our children or the environment because is it not a chemical compound that effects nature in any kind of negative sense. Baking soda is actually a compound that is found throughout nature, in the ocean, in the soil, in our foods, and in our bodies. Baking soda is a neutralizer of many other compounds, which makes it extremely helpful as a medicine in the age of toxicity, which we are all presently passing through.
Life-threatening asthma in children is often resistant to treatment with bronchodilators and systemic corticosteroids. Recent research suggests that administering sodium bicarbonate—an ingredient commonly found in kitchens—in intravenous (IV) form can significantly improve pH and PCO2 in children with life-threatening asthma. Sodium bicarbonate can save the day when nothing else can. The only other substance we can say the same is with magnesium chloride, which when injected will save a person during cardiac arrest and pull one out of a stroke if given soon enough.
There has been work going on at the University of Arizona, using bicarbonate (baking soda) as a potential treatment for cancer. Robert J. Gillies and his colleagues have demonstrated that pre-treatment of mice with sodium bicarbonate results in the alkalinization of the area around tumors. (Raghunand 2003) This type of treatment has been found to “enhance the anti-tumor activity” of other anticancer drugs. This is very similar to the recently published research of injecting O2 directly into tumors where such direct administration of Oxygen also facilitated the action of chemotherapy.
This year these same researchers reported that bicarbonate increases tumor pH (i.e., make it more alkaline) and also inhibits spontaneous metastases (Robey 2009). They showed that oral sodium bicarbonate increased the pH of tumors and also reduced the formation of spontaneous metastases in mice with breast cancer. It also reduced the rate of lymph node involvement.
When it comes to sodium bicarbonate it is an open and shut case. It is already in wide use and has been for decades, even by oncologists who do not want their patients dropping dead too quickly because of the tremendous toxicity of their treatments. Sodium bicarbonate is used routinely to keep the toxicity of chemotherapy agents and radiation from killing people or from destroying their kidneys. In relation to bicarbonate, millions of people in the world either consume bicarbonate ions in drinking water or have been treated clinically with bicarbonate in hospitals, medical centers, or emergency. Sodium bicarbonate helps to save countless lives every day.
Dr. Boris Veysman specialist in emergency medicine at the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Jersey describes one emergency room experience: “The emergency department is always noisy, but today the triage nurse is yelling “not breathing,” as she runs toward us pushing a wheelchair. A pale, thin woman is slumped over and looking gray. Without concrete proof of a “Do Not Resuscitate” order, there’s no hesitation. Click, klang, and the patient has a tube down her throat within seconds. I do the chest compressions. On the monitor, she is flat-lining — no heartbeat. I synchronize my words with the compressions and call out for an external pacemaker. Pumping … thinking: Cardiac standstill … after walking in … with cancer … on chemo. This resuscitation isn’t by the book. “Get two amps of bicarbonate,” I say to the intern. The jugular line takes seconds, and I flush it with sodium bicarbonate. This probably will correct the blood’s extreme acidity, which I suspect is driving up the potassium. The external pacemaker finally arrives. Potent electric shocks at 80 beats per minute begin to stimulate her heart. The vitals stabilize.
Baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) lives up to the image on the Arm and Hammers box, it is the ultimate heavy weight work horse medicine that every healthcare professional and parent should be knowledgeable about and routinely using. When combined with other strong but basic natural substances like magnesium chloride and iodine one has at ones fingertips a trinity of medical super heroes ready to perform scientific medical miracles in a single bound.
We are talking about serious medicine when we talk about sodium bicarbonate. Earlier and more frequent use of sodium bicarbonate is associated with higher early resuscitability rates and with better long-term neurological outcomes in emergency units. Sodium bicarbonate is very beneficial during CPR.
Bicarbonate is present in all body fluids
and organs and plays a major role in
the acid-base balances in the human body.
Bicarbonate deficiency is the most unrecognized medical condition on earth even though it is extraordinarily common.Problems from acid pH levels (relative deficiency in bicarbonate ions) take a large toll from human physiology and the more acid a person gets the larger the problem for cell physiology. Every biochemical reaction is pH sensitive with enzymes being especially sensitive. Our diet plays an important role in maintaining appropriate pH levels in the body.
Most modern diets give rise to unhealthy acidic pH conditions. An imbalanced pH will interrupt cellular activities and functions to extreme levels as ph drops further. Excessive acidic pH leads to cellular deterioration which eventually brings on serious health problems such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, osteoporosis and heartburn. The fact that the biological life functions best in a non-acidic (alkaline) environment speaks miles about the usefulness of baking soda.
“I have used intravenous sodium bicarbonate therapy mostly as a naturopathic treatment for patients who consistently react to allergens or that have chemical sensitivities. This is a great therapy during the Vancouver allergy seasons of spring and fall. The alkalinizing sodium bicarbonate IV can often immediately stop an allergic reaction, or asthmatic attack, since such reactions cannot persist in an alkaline environment. Some of my patients also get benefit from taking an alkalinizing drink every night to reduce their chemical sensitivity symptoms,” writes Dr Eric Chan. “All of my Vancouver and Richmond patients have tolerated this therapy markedly well.”
Uniformly, in ill patients, increasing the alkaline buffer of the tissues makes patients feel better. As mentioned above, this is particularly true in chemically sensitive patients, and can actually be a “cure” in the sense that we are increasing the body’s ability to react in a healthy way to noxious stimuli. If I use the intravenous sodium bicarbonate in such patients, it is usually given twice a week for a period of 4-5 weeks. Sodium bicarbonate is a very effective way of directly improving celllular health by making the tissue more alkaline,” concludes Dr. Chan.
Sodium bicarbonate loading and continuous infusion was
associated with a lower incidence of acute renal dysfunction in
cardiac surgical patients undergoing cardiopulmonary bypass.
Sodium bicarbonate is the time honored method to ‘speed up’ the return of the body’s bicarbonate levels to normal. Bicarbonate is inorganic, very alkaline and like other mineral type substances supports an extensive list of biological functions. Sodium bicarbonate happens to be one of our most useful medicines because bicarbonate physiology is fundamental to life and health. So helpful and elementary it’s even instrumental in helping sperm swim up and enter the cervical canal.
It is not possible to be a fully educated medical professional without coming up to speed on vital medical information about sodium bicarbonate. This book is full of contributions from universities, hospitals and clinicians who have for decades been researching and using sodium bicarbonate for many medical applications. Baking soda is an essential medicine, which no emergency room or intensive care ward would be caught without. This book represents a full medical review that combs through all corners of the medical universe to lay bare the full knowledge and scope of sodium bicarbonates use in medicine.
Everything I know about bicarbonate you should know and when you do, you will know more than anyone else who has not taken the time or has had the interest to fully research the subject or read this book. It’s an experience to know much more about such a basic vital substance than your doctors. Take the journey and sail through bicarbonate seas. Read and learn and then begin to think of what is the medical truth about sodium bicarbonate as a treatment for cancer.
This book also gives the keys to understanding that vast fraud and the intended rip off of labeling Carbon Dioxide (CO2) a poisonous gas. In these pages you will find the truth about CO2 because it is a great part of the secret about sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), which turns to CO2 in the stomach when mixed with water. As we shall see sodium bicarbonate, CO2 and Oxygen (O2) are all tied together. All three are essential for biological existence on planet earth. CO2 is no more of a poison than water.
Sodium bicarbonate (Baking Soda) is probably one of the most useful substances in the world; no wonder the pharmaceutical companies don’t want doctors or anyone else to know much about it. Sodium Bicarbonate is an important medicine – of the safest kind – and it is essential when treating cancer, kidney and other diseases.”
Source:

Monday, June 24, 2013

Heart attacks and Water !

How many folks do you know who say they don't want to drink anything before going to bed because they'll have to get up during the night.
Heart Attack and Water - I never knew all of this ! Interesting.......
Something else I didn't know ... I asked my Doctor why people need to urinate so much at night time. Answer from my Cardiac Doctor - Gravity holds water in the lower part of your body when you are upright (legs swell). When you lie down and the lower body (legs and etc) seeks level with the kidneys, it is then that the kidneys remove the water because it is easier. This then ties in with the last statement!
I knew you need your minimum water to help flush the toxins out of your body, but this was news to me. Correct time to drink water...
Very Important. From A Cardiac Specialist!
Drinking water at a certain time maximizes its effectiveness on the body
2 glasses of water after waking up - helps activate internal organs
1 glass of water 30 minutes before a meal - helps digestion
1 glass of water before taking a bath - helps lower blood pressure
1 glass of water before going to bed - avoids stroke or heart attack
I can also add to this... My Physician told me that water at bed time will also help prevent night time leg cramps. Your leg muscles are seeking hydration when they cramp and wake you up with a Charlie Horse.
Mayo Clinic Aspirin Dr. Virend Somers, is a Cardiologist from the Mayo Clinic, who is lead author of the report in the July 29, 2008 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Most heart attacks occur in the day, generally between 6 A.M. and noon. Having one during the night, when the heart should be most at rest, means that something unusual happened. Somers and his colleagues have been working for a decade to show that sleep apnea is to blame.
1. If you take an aspirin or a baby aspirin once a day, take it at night.
The reason: Aspirin has a 24-hour "half-life"; therefore, if most heart attacks happen in the wee hours of the morning, the Aspirin would be strongest in your system.
2. FYI, Aspirin lasts a really long time in your medicine chest, for years, (when it gets old, it smells like vinegar).
Please read on...
Something that we can do to help ourselves - nice to know. Bayer is making crystal aspirin to dissolve instantly on the tongue.
They work much faster than the tablets.
Why keep Aspirin by your bedside? It's about Heart Attacks.
There are other symptoms of a heart attack, besides the pain on the left arm. One must also be aware of an intense pain on the chin, as well as nausea and lots of sweating; however, these symptoms may also occur less frequently.
Note: There may be NO pain in the chest during a heart attack.
The majority of people (about 60%) who had a heart attack during their sleep did not wake up. However, if it occurs, the chest pain may wake you up from your deep sleep.
If that happens, immediately dissolve two aspirins in your mouth and swallow them with a bit of water.
Afterwards: - Call 911. - Phone a neighbor or a family member who lives very close by.- Say "heart attack!" - Say that you have taken 2 Aspirins.
Take a seat on a chair or sofa near the front door, and wait for their arrival and ...DO NOT LIE DOWN!
A Cardiologist has stated that if each person after receiving this e-mail, sends it to 10 people, probably one life could be saved!
I have already shared this information. What about you?
Do forward this message. It may save lives!
"Life is a one time gift"

MCT Fats Found In Coconut Oil Boost Brain Function In Only One Dose

Medium Chain Triglycerides (MCTs), the primary type of fat found within coconut oil, have been found to boost cognitive performance in older adults suffering from memory disorders as serious as Alzheimer's -- and not after months or even days of treatment, but after a single 40 ml dose!
A groundbreaking 2004 study published in the journal Neurobiology of Aging found that the administration of medium chain triglycerides (MCTs), the primary fat type found in coconut oil, almost immediately improved cognitive function in older adults with memory disorders.   
The study involved 20 subjects with Alzheimer's disease or mild cognitive impairment who, on separate days, were given either emulsified MCTs or a placebo.  The researchers observed a significant increase in blood plasma levels of the ketone body beta-hydroxylutyrate (beta-OHB) after only 90 minutes of treatment, and depending on the apolipoprotein E genotype of the subject tested, beta-OHB levels either continued to rise or held constant between the 90 and 120 minute blood draws in the treatment condition. Remarkably, cognitive testing revealed that this brief MCT treatment facilitated improved performance on the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive Subscale (ADAS-cog) in 4 subjects within the study group. Moreover, "higher ketone values were associated with greater improvement in paragraph recall with MCT treatment relative to placebo across all subjects (P=0.02)."[i]
The details of the study procedure was described as follows:
The study was conducted with a double-blind placebo controlled design with two study visits. During each visit, subjects received one of two isocaloric conditions (690calories) in a randomized order: emulsified MCTs, or emulsified long chain triglycerides as a placebo. NeoBee 895 (Stepan, Inc.) was used for MCTs. To increase palatability, heavy whipping cream was used as a source of long chain triglycerides and as a source of long chain mono- and di-glycerides for emulsification. MCTs (40ml) were blended with 152ml heavy whipping cream to create the emulsified test sample. Heavy whipping cream alone (232ml) was blended to create the placebo.
Subjects fasted from 8:00 p.m. on the night prior to the study visit. They arrived in the morning and blood was drawn to determine plasma β-OHB levels and APOE genotyping (first visit only). Subjects then consumed the test beverage and rested quietly for 90min, after which blood was drawn and a 30-min cognitive testing session ensued. After testing, a final blood draw was taken.
How Medium Chain Triglycerides Work
How could a single dose of MCTs (40 ml or 2.7 tablespoons) cause an almost immediate improvement in cognitive performance in those suffering from cognitive impairments as serious as Alzheimer's disease? The explanation is found both in the unique metabolic needs of the brain and in the configuration of MCTs themselves. Whereas the primary fuel source for the energy-hungry brain is glucose, when insulin resistance and suboptimal metabolism (hypometabolism) develops in the brain, both the brain's structure and function are compromised. Ketone bodies provide a much needed alternative fuel source to glucose that can recharge metabolic processes within the brain, resulting in an almost immediate improvement in cognitive function.  
MCTs are not like most fats we consume. For instance, due to their smaller size they do not form micelles and are not stored in adipose tissue. Whereas up to 97% of the dietary fats we ingest are made up of long-chain triglycerides (LCTs) which have been 14 and 18 carbons,[ii] MCTs have relatively shorter chain lengths of 5 to 12 carbons, making them easier to absorb and utilize. They are preferentially oxidized by the liver, and when provided in large enough quantities, they give rise to ketone bodies.[iii]
What is the best way to take MCTs? As we are advocates of whole food nutrition, coconut oil is our preferred source of these triglycerides, containing approximately 2/3rds MCTs by volume. Coconut oil also has a broad spectrum of other health benefits, which we highlighted in our previous article "13 Evidence-Based Medicinal Properties of Coconut Oil."
Also, instead of treating coconut oil or MCTs as some new nutraceutical "magic bullet," almost as if we are just loading natural bullets into the same old outdated allopathic gun, try incorporating it into your diet in a way that displaces less healthy fats. For instance, replace that rancid, pro-inflammatory 'vegetable oil' (e.g. soy, grape seed, peanut, canola oil) you are using to fry an egg or bake with, with sublimely saturated, rancidity-resistant coconut oil.
Or, enjoy a delicious curry with coconut milk as a base. Because 25% of coconut milk is fat, and about 66% of that fat is MCT, you are still getting a healthy dose. It is always better to eat smaller amounts of truly therapeutic foods, enjoyed in the context of sharing, preparing and enjoying good food, so that you will ideally never have to use the heroic "food as medicine" approach after a serious disease has had the opportunity to set in. Think: use food so that medicine never becomes necessary.   
For additional information view the testimonial of Dr. Mary Newport who discovered the benefits of using coconut oil to treat her husband's Alzheimer's Disease.

Resources

  • [ii] Anonymous: Medium chain triglycerides.  Alt Med Rev 2002, 7:418-420.

Eight Ingredients You Never Want to See on Your Nutrition Label


The year was 1950, and The Magic 8-Ball had just arrived in stores. It looked like a toy, but it wasn’t. It was a future-telling device, powered by the unknown superpowers that lived inside its cheap plastic shell. Despite a bit of an attitude—”Don’t count on it,” “My reply is no”—it was a huge success. Americans, apparently, want to see their futures.
A few decades later, Congress passed the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act that, among other things, turned the 45,000 food products in the average supermarket into fortune-telling devices. Americans inexplicably yawned. I’m trying to change that. Why? The nutrition label can predict the future size of your pants and health care bills.
Unfortunately, these labels aren’t as clear and direct as the Magic 8-Ball. Consider the list of ingredients: The Food and Drug Administration has approved more than 3,000 additives, most of which you’ve never heard of. But the truth is, you don’t have to know them all. You just need to be able to parse out the bad stuff. Do that and you’ll have a pretty good idea how your future will shape up—whether you’ll end up overweight and unhealthy or turn out to be fit, happy, and energized.
While researching the new Eat This, Not That! 2013: The No-Diet Weight Loss Solution, I identified 8 ingredients you never want to see on the nutrition label. Should you put down products that contain them? As the Magic 8-Ball would say: Signs point to yes.

1. BHA

This preservative is used to prevent rancidity in foods that contain oils. Unfortunately, BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole) has been shown to cause cancer in rats, mice, and hamsters. The reason the FDA hasn’t banned it is largely technical—the cancers all occurred in the rodents’ forestomachs, an organ that humans don’t have. Nevertheless, the study, published in the Japanese Journal of Cancer Research, concluded that BHA was “reasonably anticipated to be a carcinogen,” and as far as I’m concerned, that’s reason enough to eliminate it from your diet.

2. Parabens

These synthetic preservatives are used to inhibit mold and yeast in food. The problem is parabens may also disrupt your body’s hormonal balance. A study in Food Chemical Toxicology found that daily ingestion decreased sperm and testosterone production in rats, and parabens have been found present in breast cancer tissues.

3. Partially Hydrogenated Oil

I’ve harped on this before, but it bears repeating: Don’t confuse “0 g trans fat” with being trans fat-free. The FDA allows products to claim zero grams of trans fat as long as they have less than half a gram per serving. That means they can have 0.49 grams per serving and still be labeled a no-trans-fat food. Considering that two grams is the absolute most you ought to consume in a day, those fractions can quickly add up. The telltale sign that your snack is soiled with the stuff? Look for partially hydrogenated oil on the ingredient statement. If it’s anywhere on there, then you’re ingesting artery-clogging trans fat.
FIGHT FAT WITH FAT! Some fats, like trans fat, will pad you with extra pounds, but other types can help you shed unwanted weight. See for yourself—pick up these 5 Fatty Foods that Make You Skinny today!

4. Sodium Nitrite

Nitrites and nitrates are used to inhibit botulism-causing bacteria and to maintain processed meats’ pink hues, which is why the FDA allows their use. Unfortunately, once ingested, nitrite can fuse with amino acids (of which meat is a prime source) to form nitrosamines, powerful carcinogenic compounds. Ascorbic and erythorbic acids—essentially vitamin C—have been shown to decrease the risk, and most manufacturers now add one or both to their products, which has helped. Still, the best way to reduce risk is to limit your intake.

5. Caramel Coloring

This additive would not be dangerous if you made it the old-fashioned way—with water and sugar, on top of a stove. But the food industry follows a different recipe: They treat sugar with ammonia, which can produce some nasty carcinogens. How carcinogenic are these compounds? A Center for Science in the Public Interest report asserted that the high levels of caramel color found in soda account for roughly 15,000 cancers in the U.S. annually. Another good reason to scrap soft drinks? They’re among The 20 Worst Drinks in America.

6. Castoreum

Castoreum is one of the many nebulous “natural ingredients” used to flavor food. Though it isn’t harmful, it is unsettling. Castoreum is a substance made from beavers’ castor sacs, or anal scent glands. These glands produce potent secretions that help the animals mark their territory in the wild. In the food industry, however, 1,000 pounds of the unsavory ingredient are used annually to imbue foods—usually vanilla or raspberry flavored—with a distinctive, musky flavor.

7. Food Dyes

Plenty of fruit-flavored candies and sugary cereals don’t contain a single gram of produce, but instead rely on artificial dyes and flavorings to suggest a relationship with nature. Not only do these dyes allow manufacturers to mask the drab colors of heavily processed foods, but certain hues have been linked to more serious ailments. A Journal of Pediatrics study linked Yellow 5 to hyperactivity in children, Canadian researchers found Yellow 6 and Red 40 to be contaminated with known carcinogens, and Red 3 is known to cause tumors. The bottom line? Avoid artificial dyes as much as possible.
THE DOMINO EFFECT: Sugar doesn’t just come in the form of cookies and candy. Discover the insidious ways it can creep into your diet with 9 Sneaky Sources of Sugar.

8. Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein

Hydrolyzed vegetable protein, used as a flavor enhancer, is plant protein that has been chemically broken down into amino acids. One of these acids, glutamic acid, can release free glutamate. When this glutamate joins with free sodium in your body, they form monosodium glutamate (MSG), an additive known to cause adverse reactions—headaches, nausea, and weakness, among others—in sensitive individuals. When MSG is added to products directly, the FDA requires manufacturers to disclose its inclusion on the ingredient statement. But when it occurs as a byproduct of hydrolyzed protein, the FDA allows it to go unrecognized.

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Chlorophyll is plant blood and functions very close to our own blood:cleans the blood and increases the count.

Although it's not very well known in the world of nutrition, chlorophyll couldn't be more important in the world of biology and plants. All green plants contain at least one type of chlorophyll (chlorophyll a). Plants that evolved at a later point in history ("higher plants") also contain a second type of chlorophyll (chlorophyll b). There are also forms of chlorophyll called chlorophyll c1, c2, and c3, as well as a chlorophyll d, but these forms are much less widely distributed in the plant world. Chlorophyll is the single most critical substance in plants that allows them to absorb light from the sun and convert that light into usable energy. (In biochemistry, it's called the primary photoreceptor pigment).

In many vegetables, there is slightly more chlorophyll a than chlorophyll b, and this slight edge in favor of chlorophyll a tends to decrease as the plant ages. However, research studies have yet to clarify what the exact health significance is of this chlorophyll a-to-chlorophyll b ratio.

The color of chlorophyll

It's usually easy to tell when a food has significant amounts of chlorophyll, because chlorophyll provides the green color that is found in grasses, leaves, and many of the vegetables that we eat. These plants and foods would not be green without their chlorophyll, since chlorophyll pigments reflect sunlight at exact appropriate wavelengths for our eyes to detect them as green. The chlorophyll a molecule actually reflects light in a blue-green range (about 685 nanometer wavelengths), while chlorophyll b reflects light in a more yellow-green color (about 735 nanometer wavelengths). The overall affect, however, is for us to see varying shades of a color we would simply call "green."

Foods that contain chlorophyll

While all green plants contains chlorophyll a, and most vegetables that we eat contain both chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b, some vegetables contain particularly high amounts of total chlorophyll. Best studied of all the vegetables is spinach (Spinacia oleracea in the Latin scientific name), with this vegetable containing about 300-600 milligrams per ounce.

To understand how high in chlorophyll this amount turns out to be, compare the chlorophyll content of spinach to another of the World's Healthiest Foods - olives. Chlorophyll is one of the primary pigments in olives, but olives contain only 30-300 micrograms per ounce (about 1/1000th as much as spinach). Some olive oil producers deliberately allow leaves to be placed in the olive presses to increase the chlorophyll and "grassiness" of the olive oil.

All of the green vegetables in the World's Healthiest Foods - asparagus, bell peppers, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, green cabbage, celery, collard greens, green beans, green peas, kale, leeks, green olives, parsley, romaine lettuce, sea vegetables, spinach, Swiss chard, and turnip greens are concentrated sources of chlorophyll.

Chlorophyll and health

Research on the health benefits of chlorophyll has focused on the area of cancer (including treatment and prevention). This research got underway when damage to genes (or more precisely, to the genes' DNA) by carcinogenic substances called aflatoxins (or more precisely aflatoxin B1, or AFB1), was found to be prevented by chlorophyllin. Chlorophyllin is a derivative of chlorophyll in which the magnesium in its center is removed (usually by placing it in an acid bath in a science lab) and replaced with copper.

Research studies in humans have found that damage to DNA by aflatoxin can be decreased as much as 55% through supplementation with chlorophyllin at 100 milligrams, three times a day, for four months. This amount of chlorophyllin, 300 milligrams per day, is the same amount of chlorophyll found in one weighted ounce of spinach (a little over 1/2 cup of chopped raw spinach). Although research is still in the early stage, prevention and treatment of liver cancer, skin cancer, and colon cancer are all being investigated in relationship to intake of chlorophyll-containing vegetables and supplementation with chlorophyllin.

The effect of cooking on chlorophyll

One of the primary reasons for the change in color when green vegetables are cooked is the change in chlorophyll. What happens during this process is actually quite interesting.

The chemical perspective

Chlorophyll has a chemical structure that is quite similar to a chemical structure found within our red blood cells. A basic difference is the fact that this structure (called a porphyrin ring) contains an atom of iron at its center when it is found in our red blood cells, but when it is found in plants, it contains an atom of magnesium at the center. When plants are heated and/or exposed to acid (and when green vegetables are cooked and/or exposed to acid), the magnesium gets removed from the center of this ring structure and replaced by an atom of hydrogen. (In biochemistry, the chlorophyll a gets turned into a molecule called pheophytin a, and the chlorophyll b gets turned into pheophytin b). With this one simple change, the color of the vegetable changes from bright green to olive-gray. (The pheophytin provides a green-gray color, and the pheophytin b provides an olive-green color).

The practical perspective

The jury is definitely still out on the impact of cooking on chlorophyll. At one end of the spectrum, it's totally clear that dramatic loss of chlorophyll occurs after prolonged cooking. In studies on broccoli, for example, about two thirds of the chlorophyll was removed after 20 minutes of boiling. Researchers have also determined that there are steadily increasing losses of both chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b when the boiling time for broccoli is increased from 5 to 20 minutes. However, at cooking times less than five minutes, the research is not as clear, and some studies suggest that brief steaming of vegetables like spinach actually increases the amount of chlorophyll that can be absorbed into our body.

Whenever a vegetable is cooked long enough to cause a change in color from bright green to olive-gray, we know that some of the chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b in the vegetable have been changed to pheophytins a and b. This color change is one of the reasons we have established the relatively short steaming times for green vegetables in the World's Healthiest Cooking techniques! Our cooking methods are designed to preserve the unique concentrations of chlorophyll found in these magnificent vegetables.

Practical tips

Overcooking is particularly important to avoid when it comes to chlorophyll, but with very short steaming times, the chlorophyll content of these foods is preserved, and absorption of chlorophyll from these foods may actually be increased. Consumption of these green vegetables in raw form is also an excellent way to obtain the health benefits of chlorophyll.

Anise or Aniseed - This herb has many benefits including maintaining a healthy digestive system.

Historically, oil has been used for dry, irritable coughs, bronchitis, and whooping cough. These are still applicable uses today. In recent times, Anise oil is also used for arthritis/rheumatism and cancer.

Other uses of Anise oil include alkalosis, blood oxygenation, colitis, constipation, digestion (accelerates), diverticulitis, estrogen (increases), fertility, flatulence, hormonal imbalance, irritable bowel syndrome, menopause, parasites, pms, prostrate cancer (blended with frankincense), and respiratory system (strengthens).

How is all of this possible from one essential oil? It's in the properties. The therapeutic properties of anise are anticoagulant, anesthetic/analgesic, antioxidant, antiseptic, estrogen-like, antispasmodic, antitumoral, diuretic, tonic (heart), and a stimulant (heart).

Fragrant Influence 
Sniff this amazing aromatic oil and it will open emotional blocks and recharges vital energy. If you don't feel like going around with amber bottles close to your nose, simply diffuse it.

Origin 
Good Anise comes from Turkey or Egypt. Pay attention to country of origin when purchasing any aromatherapy oil and know where the best comes from.

Precautions 
Anise can irritate sensitive skin and has been known to cause dermatitis in some individuals. It is best if you use it in moderation.

Application 
Dilute 1 part essential oil to 1 part carrier oil. Apply 1-2 drops on location, on Vita Flex points, directly inhale or diffuse. GRAS (Generally Regarded as Safe to ingest)

Fun Fact 
Anise essential oil was listed in Dioscorides' De Materia Medica (A.D. 78), Europe's first authoritative guide to medicines, that became the standard work for herbal treatments for over 1,700 years.

Companion Oils 
Anise oil can be difficult to use in blending. Use only very small amounts. Blends with Bergamot, Blue tansy, Fennel, Ginger, Juniperberry, Lemongrass, Patchouli, Black pepper, Peppermint, Tangerine, Tarragon, and Ylang ylang.

Inexpensive, yet powerful, Anise essential oil is one of aromatherapy's best kept secrets. Until now, that is!
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