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to your Address Book or Safe List. Learn how here. | June 23, 2011 | |  |  | "Celery Therapy" Reduces Blood Pressure | | | Take Your Skin from "Okay" to Fabulous in Less Than 30 Days | | | Shingles Shot... Or Not? | | | Blast Away High Cholesterol. Lose 67 Points in Just 28 Days | | | Recent Diabetes Diagnosis? Watch Out for This Cancer Risk | | | |  |  | |  | |
 | | "Celery Therapy" Reduces Blood Pressure If you have hypertension (high blood pressure), you know it can be tricky to find the right drug or combination of drugs to bring blood pressure back under control. Often the meds do not reduce blood pressure enough... or they become less effective over time, so you have to keep increasing the dose. Mao Shing Ni, PhD, DOM, LAc, author of Secrets of Longevity: Dr. Mao’s 8-Week Program—Simple Steps that Add Years to Your Life, told me about a simple way to help solve such problems—by drinking celery juice. Used as a complement to hypertension medication, "celery juice therapy" can aid in normalizing blood pressure and even can allow some patients to eventually reduce or discontinue their medication. (Of course, it is important not to alter dosages or discontinue medication without a doctor’s approval.) Celery juice also can be a useful preventive measure for people at risk for hypertension. Dr. Mao explained that celery contains compounds that relax the smooth muscles lining the arteries and also reduce the stress hormones that constrict the arteries. Both these mechanisms cause the blood vessels to dilate, thus improving blood flow and reducing blood pressure. Who can be helped: Talk to your doctor about trying celery juice if you have hypertension (blood pressure of 140/90 mmHg or higher)... have prehypertension (blood pressure between 120/80 mmHg and 139/89 mmHg)... take medication that may elevate blood pressure (for instance, certain decongestants or antidepressants)... or have a family history of hypertension. If you decide to go ahead, have your doctor take a baseline reading of your blood pressure for later comparison. Celery juice generally is safe for everyone except people with a celery allergy. What to do: The first goal is to consume the equivalent of 12 to 16 celery stalks per day for one month. You could just chomp on the stalks, but that’s a lot of celery to eat—so it’s more efficient to make juice. Dr. Mao recommended using a juicer because you won’t have to dilute the juice or strain out any fibrous strands. Three to four times per day, drink the juice of four stalks—each serving is about eight ounces. If you don’t have a juicer, you can use a blender instead. Cut four celery stalks into chunks and place in the blender... add enough water to cover the chunks (about four ounces)... blend well. Strain out the fibers before drinking, because otherwise the fibers would be "too much to bear," Dr. Mao said. For this diluted juice, the dose is three to four 12-ounce servings daily. After one month: Visit your doctor and discuss how your original baseline blood pressure reading compares with your current blood pressure as indicated on a home blood pressure monitor or a new reading taken at your doctor’s office. If your blood pressure has dropped, the celery therapy is working! Continue drinking the juice daily until your blood pressure is under control. At that point, Dr. Mao advised, ask your doctor whether you can try lowering your hypertension medication dosage—do not reduce or discontinue medication on your own. When your blood pressure is completely stable, try gradually reducing your celery juice dosage to one glass daily as a maintenance dose. You may even be able to halt celery juice therapy if your blood pressure completely returns to normal and you are able to go off your blood pressure medication, Dr. Mao said. Source: Mao Shing Ni, PhD, DOM (doctor of Oriental medicine), LAc (licensed acupuncturist), is chancellor and cofounder of Yo San University in Los Angeles and cofounder of Tao of Wellness, an acupuncture and Chinese medicine clinic in Santa Monica and Newport Beach, California. He is the author of 12 books, including Secrets of Longevity: Dr. Mao’s 8-Week Program—Simple Steps that Add Years to Your Life (Chronicle). www.TaoOfWellness.com
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 | | Take Your Skin from "Okay" to Fabulous in Less Than 30 Days And do it without the risks of Botox, plastic surgery, lasers, peels, or countless day and night cream applications... Picture this: You meet your friends for lunch, and before you can even sit down at the table one of them exclaims, "Wow! You look amazing! Have you had work done?" Now it can happen, and faster than you think—thanks to an incredible new beauty breakthrough that delivers you results in a completely new way. | |
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 | | Shingles Shot... Or Not? In March, within days after the FDA lowered the approved age for receiving the shingles vaccine to 50 (from 60), I received e-mails from a number of 50-something readers asking me about the change. So I contacted Kristin Englund, MD, an infectious disease specialist at the Cleveland Clinic. She told me, "If you are 50 or older and your immune system is healthy, you should get the vaccine." Here’s why... Shingles is caused by the varicella zoster virus, the same virus that causes chicken pox. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that more than 99% of Americans age 40 and up have had chicken pox, even if they do not remember getting the disease—so you can assume that you are harboring the dormant varicella zoster virus in your system. As you get older and your immune function naturally begins to decline, the virus can get reactivated and cause an outbreak of the painful, blistering shingles rash. The shingles vaccine, called Zostavax, is a live, attenuated (weakened) version of the virus. Benefits: A recent study of 300,000 people age 60 and older, published in The Journal of the American Medical Association, showed that the vaccine reduced the risk for shingles by 55%... and in a new study of 22,000 people ages 50 to 59, conducted in the US and four other countries, the vaccine lowered shingles risk by 70%. Moreover, the CDC reports a 67% reduction in the risk for postherpetic neuralgia (PHN)—intense nerve pain that affects one in five shingles patients and that can persist for months or years. Zostavax also may help prevent vision-threatening shingles involving the eye. Although the vaccine isn’t 100% effective, if you get the shot and later develop shingles anyway, the outbreak is likely to be milder and much less painful than it otherwise would be. And if you have already had shingles, the vaccine may help prevent a recurrence, Dr. Englund said. Note: The vaccine cannot treat an active shingles outbreak or get rid of existing PHN. Side effects of the vaccine may include redness, pain, swelling and/or small chicken pox blisters around the injection site. If blisters do develop, it is best to keep the area covered with a bandage until healed, Dr. Englund said, even though the likelihood of spreading the virus to another person via such blisters is extremely low. Some people get a headache after receiving the vaccine, but there are no significant safety concerns... and there is no upper age limit for vaccination. The vaccine is not for you if your immune system is compromised (for instance, because you are undergoing cancer treatment such as chemotherapy or radiation, have a history of cancer affecting the bone marrow or lymphatic system, are receiving long-term steroid treatment or have HIV/AIDS). The vaccine also should not be used by anyone who is allergic to gelatin, the antibiotic neomycin or other vaccine components. Medicare and some insurance companies cover Zostavax—but if your insurance does not, it is worth paying the $300 or so out of pocket, Dr. Englund said. Though the jury is still out on whether you will need a booster in the future, so far it is a one-shot deal. Source: Kristin Englund, MD, is a staff member in the department of infectious disease at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. She is board certified in internal medicine, with a subspecialty certification in infectious diseases.
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| | | Recent Diabetes Diagnosis? Watch Out for This Cancer Risk If you recently learned that you have diabetes, the last thing you want to hear about is yet another potential health problem—in this case, an increased risk for cancer of the endometrium (uterine lining). But knowledge is power, so please take note of a study in the American Journal of Epidemiology. Researchers analyzed data on 3,082 women ages 45 to 74. Compared with women who did not have diabetes, those who did have diabetes had a 30% higher risk for endometrial cancer if their diabetes had been diagnosed five or more years earlier... and a more than twofold higher risk for endometrial cancer if their diabetes had been diagnosed less than five years earlier. Theory: Like other hormones (such as estrogen), insulin can influence endometrial cancer risk... and in the prediabetic or early diabetic stages, hyperinsulinemia (elevated blood level of insulin) often has not yet been adequately controlled. Diabetes patients: The more recently your diabetes was diagnosed, the more important it is to speak with your doctor about strategies that can lower endometrial cancer risk—including many of the same strategies associated with good cardiovascular and overall health. Helpful: Losing excess weight (obesity is a known risk factor for endometrial cancer)... exercising regularly... and eating a diet low in saturated fats and high in fruits and vegetables. If you are premenopausal, also ask your doctor about birth control pills—according to the National Cancer Institute, endometrial cancer risk decreases by about 50% after five years of oral contraceptive use. Source: Babette S. Saltzman, PhD, is a research assistant at Seattle Children’s Hospital and leader of a study conducted while at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.
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 |  | |  Tamara Eberlein, the editor of HealthyWoman from Bottom Line, has been a health journalist for nearly three decades. An award-winning author or coauthor of four books, she is committed to helping other women in midlife and beyond live healthy, fulfilling lives. Her latest book is the updated, third edition of When You’re Expecting Twins, Triplets, or Quads (HarperCollins). She is also the "chief health adviser" to her husband of 26 years and three college-age children. | |  | | Bottom Line Publications | 281 Tresser Boulevard, 8th Floor | Stamford, CT 06901
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I am finding that four stalks of juiced celery is more like a half of cup.
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