Curcumin and saffron are effective for the treatment of depression and in reducing anxiety

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Studies have found  many people with Depression have chronic inflammation. Anti-inflammatory medicine could be an effective treatment alternative to generally ineffective anti-depressant medications.

A recent study reported that Curcumin (from Tumeric) and/or saffron relieves the symptoms of depression including anxiety , now often experience by people suffering from depression.

Curcumin has strong anti-inflammatory properties and increase levels of BDNF  – an important  protein found in neuron cells that protects the cells from premature death and also improves their function.

But before you rush to the pharmacy or health food store to buy some Curcumin supplements consult an expert who knows about bioavailability of the supplement or see your local herbalist or Integrative heath practitioner.

 

Efficacy of curcumin, and a saffron/curcumin combination for the treatment of major depression: A randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165032716310217?dgcid=raven_sd_via_email

Abstract

Several studies have supported the antidepressant effects of curcumin (from the spice turmeric) and saffron for people with major depressive disorder. However, these studies have been hampered by poor designs, small sample sizes, short treatment duration, and similar intervention dosages. Furthermore, the antidepressant effects of combined curcumin and saffron administration are unknown.

Methods

In a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study, 123 individuals with major depressive disorder were allocated to one of four treatment conditions, comprising placebo, low-dose curcumin extract (250 mg b.i.d.), high-dose curcumin extract (500 mg b.i.d.), or combined low-dose curcumin extract plus saffron (15 mg b.i.d.) for 12 weeks. The outcome measures were the Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology self-rated version (IDS-SR30) and Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI).

Results

The active drug treatments (combined) were associated with significantly greater improvements in depressive symptoms compared to placebo (p=.031), and superior improvements in STAI-state (p<.001) and STAI-trait scores (p=.001). Active drug treatments also had greater efficacy in people with atypical depression compared to the remainder of patients (response rates of 65% versus 35% respectively, p=.012). No differences were found between the differing doses of curcumin or the curcumin/saffron combination.

Limitations

Investigations with larger sample sizes are required to examine the efficacy of differing doses of curcumin and saffron/curcumin combination. Its effects in people with atypical depression also require examination in larger scale studies.

Conclusions

Active drug treatments comprising differing doses of curcumin and combined curcumin/saffron were effective in reducing depressive and anxiolytic symptoms in people with major depressive disorder.

Resistance Training relieves fatigue in Breast Cancer Survivors

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A news  study shows how regular resistance training improved fatigue and  quality of life in breast cancer survivors who were previously  sedentary.  Fatigue is common for women breast cancer survivors and it can be debilitating. If you feel fatigued it is hard to motivate yourself to do any exercise, but this can be the very activity that will give you more energy and motivation. This study proves that doing resistance exercise three times a week relieves the fatigue often experienced by breast cancer survivors.

Abstract 

The primary aim of this study was to evaluate the benefits of resistance training (RT) on quality of life (QOL) and fatigue in breast cancer survivors as an adjunct to usual care. We recruited 39 women who had survived breast cancer [mean age (y) 51.9 ± 8.8; time since diagnosis (m) 11.6 ± 13.2]. Primary outcomes were fatigue as assessed by the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy – Fatigue (FACIT) scale and QOL as assessed by the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy – General (FACT-G) scale. ANCOVA was used to assess the change in the primary outcomes while controlling for baseline values, with effect sizes (ES) displayed as partial Eta squared. The experimental group received supervised RT 3 days per week in a university clinic for 16 weeks. Perceptions of fatigue improved significantly in the RT group compared to controls [mean (SD) 6.7 (7.5) points vs. 1.5 (3.7) points], (P = 0.006, ES = 0.20) as did QOL [6.9 (8.5) points vs. 1.6 (4.4) points], (P = 0.015, ES = 0.16). We demonstrated both statistically and clinically important improvements in fatigue and QOL in response to RT in breast cancer survivors.

Authors :Hagstrom A.D., Marshall P.W.M., Lonsdale C., Cheema B.S., Fiatarone Singh M.A. & Green S. (2016)European Journal of Cancer Care 25: 784–794 Resistance training improves fatigue and quality of life in previously sedentary breast cancer survivors: a randomised controlled trial

 

Is working in an office really as unhealthy as smoking?

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Well yes sitting down for eight hours a day is slowly killing you and shortening your lifespan equivalent to being a smoker.

Sitting for hours without any activity in the office and then coming home and slumping in front of the television is a ticket to an early grave so the experts are telling us. Good news is physical activity doesn’t mean high intensity training in the gym or running 5km every day. It means movement. but with some exertion e.g. do some chair squats, lunges, chair push-ups,  – who cares what your coworkers think they’ll be pushing up daises whilst you are reaping the benefits of a your office exercises.

Why not walk to a cafe that is a 10 min round trip , find some stairs and walk up and down them 5 times. Do something for a few minutes until you can feel your heart pumping.  This is more or less what the research is saying: do something for 5 minutes every hour in the office. I recommend  including real exercise in your weekly routine where you break a sweat and get your heart racing to 70% of your maximum. However the good news is that recent research says low intensity  frequent activity that adds up to an hour of movement seems to cancel out the deadly consequences of not moving at all.

Here’s some highlights from the article and a link to it

Office workers must exercise for an hour a day to combat the “deadly” risk of modern working life, a major study has found.

Sitting for at least eight hours a day could increase the risk of premature death by up to 60 per cent, the study of more than one million adults published in The Lancet found, with sedentary lifestyles now posing as great a threat to public health as smoking and causing more deaths than obesity.

Workers who spend several hours each day at their desk should change their routine to include a five-minute break every hour, as well as take exercise at lunchtimes and evenings, the study recommended.

An hour of brisk walking or cycling spread over a day was enough to combat the dangers of eight hours sitting in the office, the researchers said.

Current public health advice recommends just half this level of activity – yet almost half of women and one third of men fail to achieve even this.

Prof Ulf Ekelund, the lead scientist, from Cambridge University and the Norwegian School of Sports Sciences, said: “We found that at least one hour of physical activity per day, for example brisk walking or cycling, eliminates the association between sitting time and death.”

He added: “You don’t need to do sport, you don’t need to go to the gym, it’s OK doing some brisk walking maybe in the morning, during your lunchtime, after dinner in the evening. You can split it up over the day but you need to do at least one hour.”

Researchers said the typical modern routine of spending a day in front of a computer, followed by an evening slumped in front of the television was proving fatal.

http://www.smh.com.au/business/workplace-relations/working-in-the-office-is-as-bad-as-smoking-study-finds-20160727-gqfcjz.html

Five life-changing reasons to loose your belly fat

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Five life-changing reasons to loose your belly fat

Belly fat gets a bad rap, but why? Well the fat around your belly is not  inert. Every fat cell is busy communicating with the rest of our body reinforcing a poor state of health that has implications on your future and what you die from. Belly fat causes low grade inflammation; it produces hormones that affect appetite and fat storage,  it impairs  energy metabolism  and belly fat is associated with insulin resistance, depressed mood and chronic stress to name a few. A little belly fat is probably ok, but how much belly fat is considered a health risk?

 

 

The Waist to hip ratio

The waist to hip ratio (WHR) has become a strong indicator of predicting a number of chronic debilitating illnesses including Type II diabetes, depression , chronic stress,  heart disease and increase your risk of many cancers. Evidence suggests the WHR is more reliable way to predict chronic disease like depression and type II diabetes. Another way to look at WHR is that
 people with “apple-shaped” bodies (with more weight around the waist) face more health risks than those with “pear-shaped” bodies who carry more weight around the hips. For women this means they can be less concerned about their thighs and buttocks , but keeping the belly fat off is critical for a long healthy life.

The currently accepted guidelines for a healthy WHR and therefore better health and longevity is as follows: –

Men who have a WHR of more than 0.9  and Women who have a WHR ratio of more than 0.8 are at greater risk of chronic diseases and a shorter life.

 

So to recap there are many reasons to loose that excess belly fat, here’s five big one

  1. You are less likely to feel depressed, stressed or anxious.
  2. You are less likely to to develop Type II diabetes
  3. You reduce you risk of many cancers
  4. Your fertility is improved significantly
  5. You will live longer, have a greater vitality and have a healthier heart.

Do you suffer from morning sickness? Chinese herbs can really help

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Well over half of all women experience morning sickness during pregnancy, usually beginning around the 6th week and ending after the twelfth week of pregnancy.

Some Chinese herbs commonly used to relieve vomiting, nausea and morning sickness are:-

Ginger (Sheng Jiang)– Fresh ginger is a common herb used in Chinese medicine to help digestion and it can help alleviate symptoms of morning sickness.

Cardamon Seed  (Shan Za) – Cardamon is a very effective herb for treating morning sickness and is an ideal herb for morning sickness due to the additional function of “calming the fetus”, which means it is often used in formulas for the prevention of miscarriage.

Tangerine peel (Chen Pi) – Tangerine peel is commonly prescribed for relieving stomach bloating, nausea , vomiting and loss of appetite

Pinellia (Ban Xia)  –  Pinellia is a powerful anti-nausea herb that is used often in combination with ginger to relieve morning sickness.

I recommend a formula that contain all of these plus other herbs that when combined together provide a powerful synergistic effect on relieving morning sickness.

Do you think holistically about your health?

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Looking at your health holistically emphasises the important of the whole body and the interdependence of its parts. This perspective changes our how we talk about ourselves. Instead of saying body and mind, we can say mind-body accepting there is no separation of these two concepts. Some might say they think holistically about their health when in fact they  still  see their  body and mind as separate. Most of us accept distress and mood affect our health, but we might overlook that the internal state of our body can affect our mind,  our feelings and behaviour. The Gut-brain-axis  is an example of the interdependency of many life-sustaining systems that are influenced  by the  constant bi-directional communication between our gut and our brain. It is a reminder we are not in control of our bodies , our bodies are often in control of our minds.

Here’s a some examples of how our body affects our mind/brain.

When you get a cold or flu , the immune system sends messages (cytokines) to the brain to tell you are sick .The brain then does numerous things to protect the body from infection including turning up  the body temperature to create a fever to kill the virus. The brain activates many immune functions  and research has shown these cause behaviours that are characteristic with feeling depressed, for example: – withdrawing from people, fatigue, irritability, and feeling flat.

There are thousands of species of bacteria in your body and some thrive on certain types of food and will perish when deprived of its favourite diet. Bacteria cause cravings for certain foods that it needs. So is it you who craves sugary drinks or your tiny friends/foes? When you change your diet your bacteria population changes and the craving for food will change. When I find some good studies on this I will share them with you.

Food and drink can make you feel anxious, restless, irritable and even depressed. Your gut is constantly communicating to your brain about how it is.  When your gut is under attack from toxic substances from processed foods or drinks it informs the brain so you are aware you have  something inside that probably shouldn’t have. This process activates the immune system and stress system to protect you from the toxic chemicals. These changes affect your mood. There is  research that up to 60% of people who are diagnosed with a gut complaint (e.g. IBS, IBD, SIBO, Gastritis) also suffer from mood disorders (anxiety, depression, OCD). This is more than coincidence. Our guts produce many hormones that influence our mood. One prime example if serotonin . An hormone associated with the brain, which is true to some extend , but serotonin is key to gut motility and most of it is produced in our gastrointestinal tract. When our gut doesn’t work well it can have a profound affect on production of serotonin and this affects our mood.

Don’t underestimate the profound influence your gastrointestinal tract has on how you feel. The reward for giving up junk food is that you are going to feel happier and have more energy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Green tea extract EGCG reduces size of uterine fibroids.

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Yes it is green tea extract EGCG again. An amazing antioxidant that does much more than protect us from the free radical oxidative damage we read so much about. In this interesting study Women find  that a daily 800 mg supplementation of EGCG for a 4 months reduced the volume of uterine fibroids aswell as reducing symptoms such as heavy bleeding. Uterine fibroids are not easy to eliminate and it takes time to reduce size. In many cases surgery may be recommended and this is fine except it does not change what was happening in the body to cause fibroid growth.  As with all chronic conditions we look at the whole person and what is happening in their body. I will prescribe Chinese herbs because they are excellent at disrupting the pathways involved in fibroid growth. It is also necessary to look at estrogen levels and what environmental factors maybe creating high levels of estrogen. Estrogen metabolism could also be impaired and if so this will need to be corrected. However adding EGCG could it seems improve outcomes as this great study below reports. However we must be cautious with EGCG’s may affect iron absorption. Studies have found that green tea  inhibits iron absorption.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3742155/

Roshdy E, Rajaratnam V, Maitra S, Sabry M, Allah ASA, Al-Hendy A. Treatment of symptomatic uterine fibroids with green tea extract: a pilot randomized controlled clinical study. International Journal of Women’s Health. 2013;5:477-486. doi:10.2147/IJWH.S41021.

Background

Uterine fibroids (UFs, also known as leiomyoma) affect 70% of reproductive-age women. Imposing a major burden on health-related quality-of-life (HRQL) of premenopausal women, UF is a public health concern. There are no effective medicinal treatment options currently available for women with symptomatic UF.

Objectives

To evaluate the efficacy and safety of green tea extract (epigallocatechin gallate [EGCG]) on UF burden and quality of life in women with symptomatic UF, in a double-blinded, placebo-controlled randomized clinical trial.

Methods

A total of 39 reproductive-age women (age 18–50 years, day 3 serum follicle-stimulating hormone <10 \U/mL) with symptomatic UF were recruited for this study. All subjects had at least one fibroid lesion 2 cm3 or larger, as confirmed by transvaginal ultrasonography. The subjects were randomized to oral daily treatment with either 800 mg of green tea extract (45% EGCG) or placebo (800 mg of brown rice) for 4 months, and UF volumes were measured at the end, also by transvaginal ultrasonography. The fibroid-specific symptom severity and HRQL of these UF patients were scored at each monthly visit, using the symptom severity and quality-of-life questionnaires. Student’s t-test was used to evaluate statistical significance of treatment effect between the two groups.

Results

Of the final 39 women recruited for the study, 33 were compliant and completed all five visits of the study. In the placebo group (n = 11), fibroid volume increased (24.3%) over the study period; however, patients randomized to green tea extract (n = 22, 800 mg/day) treatment showed significant reduction (32.6%, P = 0.0001) in total UF volume. In addition, EGCG treatment significantly reduced fibroid-specific symptom severity (32.4%, P = 0.0001) and induced significant improvement in HRQL (18.53%, P = 0.01) compared to the placebo group. Anemia also significantly improved by 0.7 g/dL (P = 0.02) in the EGCG treatment group, while average blood loss significantly decreased from 71 mL/month to 45 mL/month (P = 0.001). No adverse effects, endometrial hyperplasia, or other endometrial pathology were observed in either group.

Conclusion

EGCG shows promise as a safe and effective therapeutic agent for women with symptomatic UFs. Such a simple, inexpensive, and orally administered therapy can improve women’s health globally.

Australia has a health crisis.

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This country has a  crisis of chronic preventable disease and chronic unresolved stress. Here one in two people are overweight or obese. There are almost a million people with Type II diabetes and two million  estimated to be pre-diabetic  There are eight million Australians are predicted to be diagnosed with bowel cancer, a preventable condition. There are more than 353,800 Australians living with dementia. This number is expected to increase to 400,000 in less than five years. Without a medical breakthrough, the number of people with dementia is expected to be almost 900,000 by 2050. One million Australia have depression and another two million have a diagnosis of anxiety. Antibiotics are failing, some common bacteria has mutated and can now resist current medications. The top most prescribed 10 medications  in 2014 were for high cholesterol, hypertension,  pain and GERD (stomach acid reflux, heart burn , bloating).

The cost of medicine is increasing. “Expenditure on high cost drugs on the PBS is rising and, to date, it shows no sign of slowing. The growing incidence of diseases such as cancers and Alzheimer’s disease is likely to contribute to increased expenditure as new treatments become available.”  (http://www.aph.gov.au)

Most people in Australia work more than 40 hours a week often skipping a decent meal and  missing essential nutrients.  One and half million Australians don’t get a decent nights  sleep suffering from insomnia and other sleep disorders.  We are subjected to repeated stressors at work and at home and we have little time to truly relax and switch off. We soothe ourselves with junk food, alcohol and recreational drugs.

Despite all the diets people still gain the weight they lost. We are nutritional deficient,  we consume on average 30 tea spoons of sugar a day hidden in diet foods and health snacks, and take-away food. It is estimated as little as  2% of Australians Eat Enough Fruit And Veggies, and even if we did the vegetables and fruit found in our supermarkets   lack the nutrients we need because the over-farmed soil lacks the required minerals. Many people don’t get sufficient exercise. We sit down on average 12 hours or more a day. Sitting down for this long  is now said to be more deadly than smoking.

So what about you? 

Are you getting sufficient sleep?

Do you feel fatigued and stressed?

Are you in pain?

Do you exercise enough?

Do you and your family know how to get the nutrients you need to stay healthy and prevent disease?

Do you know the side effects of your medications?

What are you long term health goals?

How long do you want to live?

Acupuncture helps recover menstrual cycles in women with PCOS

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Acupuncture is useful treatment to use for menstrual problems and I recommend it with herbs and supplements when treating PCOS. Here is a meta-analysis of several studies that concludes acupuncture does help treat PCOS.

Abstract

Introduction

A systematic review and meta-analysis was carried out to assess the clinical effectiveness of acupuncture in treating polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS).

Methods

RCTs that compared either acupuncture with no/sham (placebo) acupuncture or a certain therapy with acupuncture added in the treatment of PCOS were included in the review. Measures of treatment effectiveness were the pooled odds ratios (OR) for women with PCOS having acupuncture compared with women in the control group for the recovery of menstrual cycles, standardized mean difference (SMD) for body mass index (BMI), fasting insulin (FINS), fasting plasma glucose (FPG), luteinizing hormone (LH), follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), and the ratio of LH/FSH.

Results

A total of nine RCTs (531 women) met criteria for inclusion into the systematic review. Using the random effects model, pooling of the effect estimates from all RCTs showed recovery of menstrual cycles (OR = 0.20, 95% CI: 0.09–0.41, P < 0.01), BMI (SMD = −0.63, 95% CI: −1.04 to −0.21, P = 0.04), and LH (SMD = −0.39, 95% CI: −0.65 to −0.12, P < 0.01) which favored the acupuncture group. No significant differences were observed for FINS, FPG, FSH and the ratio of LH/FSH between acupuncture and control groups (P > 0.05).

Conclusions

Acupuncture appears to significantly improve the recovery of the menstrual cycles and decrease the levels of BMI and LH in women with PCOS. However, the findings should be interpreted with caution due to the limited methodological quality of included RCTs.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1876382016300087

In response to evidence that previous guidelines of Alcohol consumption increases incidence of bowel cancer the UK revises advice on weekly Alcohol consumption.

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Recently Sally Davies the UK’s Chief Medical Officer issued new guidelines for alcohol consumption. The new guidelines recommend further reducing alcohol consumption to avoid increased risk of cancer, heart disease and overall risk of death.

The new guidelines say that to reduce health risks, men and women should not drink more than 14 units of alcohol in a week, roughly the equivalent of seven glasses of wine, six pints of beer, or half a bottle of whiskey.

Others called the new guidelines alarmist.“The chief medical officer has focused on small increases in cancer risk while ignoring the much larger body of evidence that shows moderate drinking reduces heart disease risk and, most importantly, reduces the overall risk of death,” Christopher Snowdon, head of lifestyle economics at Institute of Economic Affairs, a research group in London that favors free markets, said in a statement.

“Alcohol consumption has been falling for a decade. The change to the guidelines will turn hundreds of thousands of people into hazardous drinkers overnight thereby reviving the moral panic about drinking in Britain and opening the door to yet more nanny state interventions.”

Ms. Davies, the chief medical officer, defended the guidelines as good science based on solid evidence, and said that other countries would follow Britain’s example.
“If you take 1,000 women, 110 will get breast cancer without drinking,” she told the BBC. “Drink up to these guidelines and an extra 20 women will get cancer because of that drinking. Double the guideline limit and an extra 50 women per 1,000 will get cancer.”
“Take bowel cancer in men: If they drink within the guidelines their risk is the same as non drinking,” she added. “But if they drink up to the old guidelines, an extra 20 men per 1,000 will get bowel cancer. That’s not scaremongering, that’s fact and it’s hard science.”

The dietary guidelines for Americans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, define moderate alcohol consumption as consuming up to one drink a day for women and up to two drinks a day for men (a drink is broadly defined as a 12-ounce beer or a 5-ounce glass of wine).

The guidelines note that even “moderate alcohol intake” is associated with “increased risk of breast cancer, violence, drowning, and injuries from falls and motor vehicle crashes.”

In Britain, the Alcohol Health Alliance, which represents over 40 health organizations, said the new guidelines would bring Britain in line with countries such as Canada (10 drinks a week for women; 15 for men) and Australia (for healthy men and women, no more than two drinks on any day is advised).

Comments.

There was a time in Australia and UK when men’s and women’s drinking guidelines were different. For example Men’s guidelines used to be 21 units a week and women’s 14 units a week. Now they are equal. These changes seems to be based on new evidence that the UK’s previous drinking guidelines increase risk of bowel cancer.

Read Full Article Here.