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September 12, 2011  In This Issue... - Breakthrough in Retaining & Regaining Memory
- What You Should Eat After Exercise
- Scientists Awed By Nature’s FOOD PHARMACY
- Can a Chinese Herbal Paste Help COPD?
Breakthrough in Retaining & Regaining Memory In Henry V, Shakespeare said: "Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot, But he’ll remember with advantages what feats he did that day." With great sadness, I realized my dad was no longer remembering the feats he did on any particular day. For as long as I can remember, my dad would quote Shakespeare and challenge me to keep up with him. He also loved to tell stories and play memory games with me and his grandchildren. But at a certain point his memory began to betray him, and it not only affected his memory but his mood and our relationship. This problem set me on quest and led to a remarkable discovery that saved my special relationship with my father and can now help anyone with memory problems... Read on...
What You Should Eat After Exercise Gym rats are forever comparing notes on the best ways to maximize the benefits of their workouts -- whether the goal is to increase endurance, get stronger or simply stay flexible. Doctors, wanting to see their patients use exercise as efficiently as possible, also want to know more. The result? Researchers are kept steadily busy studying what does and does not change the way the body responds to exercise. Sometimes, as with the study I am about to tell you about, they’re surprised at what they learn. Shaking Up Expectations In this small study from Colorado State University, 16 sedentary adults (ages 37 to 64) were asked to do 45 minutes of aerobic activity (all at the same intensity) three times a week for six weeks and then, immediately after each exercise session, to consume either a drink packed with protein and carbohydrates or one containing just carbohydrates. Each participant drank the same kind of drink for the whole study. The results were surprising in three different ways... Protein drinks weren’t better at building muscle. Both drinks were equally effective at what the researchers were measuring, which was production of new proteins in the muscle (and that leads to the building of muscle). Previous studies had led researchers to believe that the protein drink would have brought greater results. Protein drinks were better at boosting oxygen intake. Consuming protein increased the maximum volume of oxygen participants were able to use. This oxygen intake is called VO2 max and is a measure of cardiovascular health -- the more oxygen your body can use, the fitter you are aerobically and the healthier your cardiovascular system. Lead researcher Benjamin Miller, PhD, told me that the after-exercise protein drink helped boost oxygen volume by increasing the manufacture of proteins in the mitochondria (the cells that produce energy). Exercise brought new DNA to everyone’s muscles. People in both groups also experienced an increase in the amount of new DNA (the body’s instructions for building living tissue) in their muscle. Dr. Miller called this finding the "coolest of all" because it indicates that exercise helps the body repair old damaged DNA and, he theorizes, the muscle cells likely recruit new DNA from regenerative cells outside the muscle. Dr. Miller said that it was previously thought that skeletal muscle did not replicate at all, noting that this finding may yield new insights on how exercise helps to slow the aging process. The takeaway message for all of us? It’s helpful for us exercisers to consume protein soon after we exercise -- not for building muscles, as we had thought, but to maximize our oxygen intake and build a stronger cardiovascular system. Source(s):
Benjamin F. Miller, PhD, assistant professor, department of health and science, and director, skeletal muscle laboratory, Colorado State University, Fort Collins.
Scientists Awed By Nature’s FOOD PHARMACY Newly identified MICRONUTRIENTS have astonishing healing powers and protect you from the ravages of aging—turn your kitchen into a "food pharmacy" that can be far more potent than drugs or surgery. Proven in thousands of clinical studies! Click here to read more...
Can a Chinese Herbal Paste Help COPD? Eastern and Western medicine often seem to take very different approaches to the concept of wellness -- a perfect example is an herbal paste that has been used by the Chinese for thousands of years for treating asthma, emphysema and other kinds of breathing disorders. Is this a treatment that is applied in the way we Westerners would expect? No, not at all. In fact, it turns out that the healing paste is typically applied as a preventive during the summer season to relieve symptoms that appear in the winter! (For patients with acute problems, however, the paste can be used at any time of the year.) Another surprise, it’s applied to various points on the patient’s back -- in order to bring relief to the chest! Like I said, East and West do seem to work in different directions. And yet just as often, they complement each other very effectively. I spoke with Hong Jin, DAOM, LAc, chair of Oriental medicine at the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine in Portland, for more information. She explained that it is tradition for Chinese people with respiratory difficulties to turn to the herbal paste known as xiao chuan (XCP) to help them breathe easier. While anecdotal evidence and tradition are one thing, hard science is quite another. Dr. Jin told me that researchers have recently put XCP through the rigors of controlled studies, applauding it as it came through with flying colors. Breathing Easier In the first randomized, controlled study of XCP, medical investigators in Beijing assigned 142 people with chronic pulmonary obstructive disease (COPD) to receive treatment with either XCP or a placebo paste. XCP contains Chinese botanicals including ephedra. Because ephedra is banned here in the US, Dr. Jin explained, doctors substitute other herbs (Fang Feng and Gui Zhi) when XCP is used here. For the purposes of the study, practitioners applied the paste to specific acupuncture points on participants’ backs a total of four times during the eight-week period of July and August, leaving it on for four to six hours each time, as has been the practice with XCP for many generations. The scientists then monitored the patients from November through February and discovered that those treated with XCP fared significantly better than those treated with the placebo. The XCP group... - Experienced fewer winter "exacerbations" of their COPD, such as shortness of breath, wheezing and/or chest tightness, that required steroid or antibiotic prescriptions... and they needed fewer hospitalizations for respiratory problems.
- Reduced their reliance on steroid medications (which have side effects such as fluid retention, weight gain, increased blood pressure and mood swings) compared with the placebo group.
Not surprisingly, given these changes for better health, people who received XCP also reported an improved quality of life. Researchers shared these results at the American Thoracic Society’s 2011 International Conference in Denver. Not a One-Size-Fits-All Remedy According to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), when doctors apply XCP paste to acupuncture points for lung disorders, it passes directly to the organs, said Dr. Jin. She finds the paste to be safe and effective, she told me, adding that it is also inexpensive. On the other hand, Dr. Jin cautions that XCP is not a one-size-fits-all remedy, especially given that asthma and COPD are serious and potentially life-threatening illnesses. It’s best to consult a practitioner who is formally trained and licensed in the practice of TCM. To find a practitioner in your area, visit the Web site of the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine at www.nccaom.org/find-an-acupuncture-practitioner-directory. To make sure you receive safe and coordinated care, be sure to tell all your health-care providers about all types of treatment you undergo for lung disease. Source(s):
Hong Jin, DAOM, MD (PRC), LAc, chair of Oriental Medicine, Oregon College of Oriental Medicine (OCOM), Portland, Oregon. Dr. Jin teaches in both the master and doctoral programs at OCOM as well as in the doctoral program at the American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine in San Francisco.
Be well, 
Carole Jackson
Bottom Line's Daily Health News
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