April 3, 2011

Can Milk Prevent Diabetes?


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April 4, 2011 
Tap Away Fears and Phobias
How To Get An Instant Intimacy Boost!
Spit Test for Scoliosis
Tumors Dried Up and Gone in 2 Months
Does Whole Milk Help Prevent Diabetes?
  The Best of Mainstream and Natural Medicine
Tamara Eberlein, Editor

Tap Away Fears and Phobias

One rainy night last year, a drunk driver crossed the centerline in a narrow construction zone and smashed nearly head-on into the car my husband, kids and I were in. Though our car was totaled, miraculously no one was badly hurt. But now whenever I drive through construction, even in broad daylight, I feel unduly anxious and afraid.

I would like to get over this -- and I recently learned about a fascinating method that may help. Called Thought Field Therapy (TFT), the technique is designed to help people permanently free themselves from phobias (strong, irrational fears of things that pose little or no actual danger), such as fear of spiders or of public speaking... and even from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), an anxiety disorder that can develop after a terrifying event in which grave harm occurred or was threatened. No medications are used, so there are no side effects. TFT falls within the field of energy psychology (as does the similar Emotional Freedom Technique, or EFT, discussed in the January 13, 2011, issue of HealthyWoman from Bottom Line). TFT involves thinking about the feared object or event while tapping specific points on the face and body and humming, counting or moving the eyes.

Since TFT sounded almost too good to be true, I interviewed psychologist Shoshana Garfield, PhD, who uses TFT to help patients overcome phobias and PTSD. She told me that TFT has roots in acupuncture, in that you tap on points that correspond to energy meridians. This helps unblock the body’s energy system, which can become overwhelmed by fear, Dr. Garfield said. TFT also simultaneously provides sensory data to the right brain (the emotional side) and left brain (the logical side). This stimulates activity of both brain hemispheres and of the corpus callosum that connects them... deactivates signals associated with fear-triggered hyperarousal of the limbic system... and "rewires" cognitive function, releasing distress.

Evidence: In a 2010 study, PTSD patients treated with TFT showed dramatic decreases in nightmares, flashbacks, concentration problems, jumpiness, aggression and isolation. Other studies have demonstrated TFT’s effectiveness in reducing depression... and in patients with anxiety disorder, EEG scans showed that abnormal brain wave patterns associated with anxiety normalized after TFT treatment.

Citing the classic example from TFT founder Roger Callahan, PhD, Dr. Garfield described a woman who had a lifelong fear of water. After more than a year of ineffective conventional treatment, Dr. Callahan instructed the woman to tap a spot under each eye while looking at a swimming pool. After a few minutes of tapping, she said that she no longer felt any fear, then ran to the pool and splashed water on her face -- something she could not do previously.

TRYING TFT FOR YOURSELF

For best results, Dr. Garfield recommended working with a psychologist trained in TFT who can provide testimonials from other patients with phobias similar to yours. Referrals: Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology (visit www.EnergyPsych.org and click on "membership" and then "member directory")... or Association for the Advancement of Meridian Energy Techniques (visit www.aamet.org and click on "search members and events")... or Dr. Roger Callahan (www.RogerCallahan.com). Results might be seen after just one treatment for a simple phobia or might take nine months or longer for PTSD. Are you skeptical? That’s OK -- because TFT works even if you don’t believe in it, Dr. Garfield noted.

For simple fears that are not deeply interwoven with complex traumas, you may find relief on your own with the tapping sequence below. Practice it several times until you know the steps... then do the sequence whenever you anticipate or encounter the feared object or event. (Use common sense, of course -- for instance, by tapping before you get behind the wheel, rather than while you are driving.) The routine takes just a few minutes and, though it may seem complicated at first, it soon becomes second nature, Dr. Garfield said. Demo: www.YouTube.com/watch?v=ntWUsL5hZJ0.

Step 1: Focus attention on the thing you fear. For instance, visualize a spider or imagine driving through a construction zone. Important: Keep thinking about the object of your fear throughout your TFT session.

Step 2: Rate your fear level on a scale of zero to 10. Zero would indicate no distress whatsoever and 10 would be the worst it could possibly be. Remember this number.

Step 3: Tap. Use the tips of the index and middle fingers of either hand to tap firmly (but not hard enough to hurt) five to 10 times, at a moderately fast pace. First tap four inches below either armpit (about at the center of the band on your bra)... then tap one inch below the center of either eye.

Step 4: Perform the nine-step "gamut sequence." Make a loose fist with your nondominant hand and locate what TFT practitioners call the gamut spot on the back of that hand, in the hollow an inch below the knuckles of the ring and little fingers. Start tapping this gamut spot with the index and middle fingers of your dominant hand.

Continuing tapping, giving five to 10 taps for each of the following actions. Gamut sequence: Open eyes wide... close eyes... open eyes and (keeping head still) look down and to the left... look down and to the right... roll eyes around counterclockwise... roll eyes around clockwise... hum a few bars of any song (activating the right brain)... count aloud from one to five (activating the left brain)... hum again. When finished, repeat the gamut sequence a second time.

Step 5: Rate your fear again, from zero to 10. If your score has dropped to zero, terrific! If it has not, repeat all the TFT steps one or more times, continuing to visualize the object of your phobia. Then, again rate your fear level -- which may now be much lower.

Source: Shoshana Garfield, PhD, is a psychologist, Registered Trauma Specialist and Neurolinguistic Programming Master Practitioner in practice in Uplands, Wales. www.UnlimitedEmotionalFreedom.com


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How To Get An Instant Intimacy Boost!

According to Dr. Harry Fisch, leading fertility expert and regular contributor on The Dr. Oz Show, one of the top complaints from his female patients is that they experience occasional dryness, which creates pain and reduces desire for intercourse. In fact, "The Journal of Sexual Medicine" states that nearly one out of every three women experience some form of pain during intercourse.

As a result, Dr. Fisch, in collaboration with Dr. Andrew L. Rubman, natural medicine expert, has created the new Sexual Health Formula-Lubricating Warming Gel as the perfect solution. Its all natural formula contains L-Arginine and Niacin which promote increased blood flow supporting sensitivity, satisfaction and response. There is:

  • No petroleum of oil-based ingredients
  • No hormones or paraben
  • No irritating alcohol, dyes or other artificial ingredients
  • No anesthetics -- who wants those!

And, it won’t stain!

This is the most advanced, completely natural vaginal lubricating gel on the market today. It’s safe, fast-acting, natural, and easy!

Click here to learn more.

 
 

Spit Test for Scoliosis

Q: My 12-year-old granddaughter was just diagnosed with scoliosis. I heard that a saliva test can determine whether she needs to wear a brace to straighten her spine. Is that true?

A: The test does exist -- and it can save some children from the unnecessary hardship of wearing a brace through their early adolescent years. Called ScoliScore, the test looks at various chromosomal markers in saliva and uses a formula to assess a patient’s chance of developing severe scoliosis. Possible scores range from zero to 200, with a score of 200 signaling a very high likelihood that a patient’s scoliosis will become severe.

Right now, the test is approved only for use in a narrow subset of patients -- Caucasian girls and boys ages nine to 13 who have adolescent idiopathic scoliosis and whose curves are currently between 10° and 25°. Children with very low scores on the test can skip bracing because their spinal curves are unlikely to progress. Those with midrange scores may indeed benefit from bracing. Those with high scores do not need to wear a brace because it would offer no benefit -- their curves are very likely to progress within a few years to the point where surgery is necessary. Bracing would not simplify or delay surgery, so it is best to spare these children the emotional impact of wearing a brace.

The ScoliScore test is now widely available. It is usually covered by insurance.

Source: Barbara Kreski is a registered licensed occupational therapist and director of horticultural therapy services at the Chicago Botanic Garden. www.ChicagoBotanic.org/therapy


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Tumors Dried Up and Gone in 2 Months

"Within two months, every tumor had shrunk, dried up and fallen off," said Tom to Dr. Gary Null about the miraculous disappearance of his rapidly spreading cancer.

Tom had already gone through surgery once for skin cancer on his forehead. Unfortunately, his skin cancer was melanoma. Just 10 days after the operation, the cancer was back with a vengeance. It reappeared on his forehead, and quickly spread to his arm, upper body and chest.

Four doctors all agreed: There was nothing they could do to cure this cancer. They all still wanted to operate. But Tom wanted to live -- not just get sliced up.


Read on...

Does Whole Milk Help
Prevent Diabetes?

We’re often told to forgo whole milk, cheese and yogurt in favor of low-fat or skim -- but recent research suggests that the higher-fat dairy foods may provide significant protection against diabetes. Background: Dairy products naturally contain a fatty acid called trans-palmitoleic acid. The higher the dairy fat content, the more trans-palmitoleic acid. People who consume whole-fat dairy foods tend to have higher blood levels of trans-palmitoleic acid.

New study: In 1992, researchers took blood samples from 3,736 adults, then followed the participants for 14 years. Results: Compared with people whose blood levels of trans-palmitoleic acid were lowest, those whose blood levels were highest were 62% less likely to develop diabetes... and they also had more healthful levels of cholesterol, triglycerides, insulin and C-reactive protein (a marker of inflammation) and slightly less body fat. Theory: Trans-palmitoleic acid affects metabolism in beneficial ways.

This is a very exciting finding, given the current epidemic of diabetes. However, it is possible that people with low trans-palmitoleic acid were generally consuming foods that were less healthful and that this accounted for their greater diabetes risk. In any event, more research is needed before experts would start suggesting that people routinely choose whole-milk dairy products over low-fat or skim. In the meantime, ask your doctor for guidelines on dairy consumption, especially if you’ve been told that you’re at risk for diabetes.

Source: Dariush Mozaffarian, MD, DrPH, is codirector of the cardiovascular epidemiology program and an associate professor in the division of cardiovascular medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health, all in Boston.


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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 25 years, college-age twins and teenaged son.
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April 2, 2011

What a Purple Waffle Plant Can Do For You?

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April 3, 2011



In This Issue:
  • Drug-Free Treatment Reverses Even Bone-on-Bone Arthritis...
  • Kids Are Getting Their Drugs from You
  • The 10 Biggest and Deadliest Heart Myths
  • Plant Power
  • Delicious 'Wonder Drug' for High Blood Pressure Praised by Harvard Researchers


Dear healthwellness82@gmail.com,

It’s no longer true that most drug addicts get their goods on seedy street corners -- many mine the medicine cabinets of family members, friends and... yes, strangers for painkillers, sleeping pills, anxiety drugs and just about anything they can get their hands on. Sadly, this includes teen drug abusers. If you have any prescription drugs in your home, you’ll want to know what former DEA agent Robert Stutman, consultant on substance abuse for CBS News, has to say about how to guard against this destructive trend.

We all would like to have our homes be healthful environments -- and a good place to start is literally with the air we breathe. Bodie Pennisi, PhD, associate professor of horticulture at the University of Georgia, Griffin campus, has an easy, air-purifying secret that will cleanse the air in your home and make your home lovelier in one fell swoop.

All the best,



Jessica Kent
Editor
BottomLineSecrets.com



Kids Are Getting Their Drugs from You

Robert Stutman


America’s drug problem is staggering. Illegal drug use has climbed to 20 million Americans.

Even more shocking: Many addicts began abusing drugs or alcohol as kids under the watchful eye of well-intentioned parents.

Parents fail to take steps that might steer their kids away from addiction because they don’t understand how much drug use has changed since they were young. Today there are different drugs, different dangers and a different demographic of young people at risk. Here’s what parents need to know now...

Drug abuse begins early. A generation ago, the average age of first drug use among eventual users was 15. Today that average starting age is alarmingly low -- 12 or 13. This is a huge problem because the younger people are when they first try drugs, the greater the odds that they will become addicted.

Important: Start talking with your kids about the dangers of drugs before they set foot in junior high school. By high school, it may be too late.

The drugs teens abuse today are not the ones your generation used. Today young people are much more likely to abuse prescription medications than marijuana or LSD. In fact, one in five high school students have taken a prescription drug that they didn’t get from a doctor. Teens almost always get their pharmaceutical drugs from their parents’ medicine cabinets or the cabinets of friends’ parents.

Dozens of different pharmaceuticals can be abused. As a rule of thumb, if there’s a sticker on a pill bottle warning against driving after use, it’s likely that teens take the drug to get high. Even over-the-counter medications such as cough suppressants are abused.

If anyone in your house is prescribed a medication that has a warning sticker about driving after use, buy a lockbox or a safe and lock up these pills. Do this even if you trust your kids completely -- you don’t want your kids’ friends or your babysitter to be tempted.

Abusing prescription drugs often is riskier than abusing illegal drugs. Many teens -- and even parents -- incorrectly assume that anything prescribed by a doctor can’t be all that dangerous. In truth, many prescription medications are extremely dangerous when not used as intended.

Example: OxyContin is a time-release pill designed to suppress pain over six to eight hours. Drug abusers crush these pills into powder so that the full dose is absorbed at once.

Fact: According to a September 2010 government report, fatalities from misuse of prescription medications are the single leading cause of accidental death in the US.

Drug abuse is not just a problem for cities, minorities, the poor and kids who underachieve in school. Rural and suburban kids are just as likely as city kids to abuse drugs or alcohol -- perhaps even slightly more likely. White kids are as likely as African-American kids to do so. Private school kids are as likely as public school kids. Teens on sports teams are just as likely to use drugs as any other teen. Kids who do well in school are somewhat less likely to abuse drugs and alcohol than those who do poorly, but good grades are not the ironclad evidence of nonuse that many parents imagine them to be. Even smart kids can be drug users, and some of them are smart enough to maintain their grades after they start using.

Those who start drinking as teens are almost twice as likely to become alcoholics. Alcohol is the most socially acceptable drug in our culture, but that doesn’t mean it’s not dangerous. Consuming one or two alcoholic drinks is not a problem for most adults, but when teens drink, they almost never stop at just one or two -- they drink until they are intoxicated.

The teenage brain is especially prone to addiction, including alcohol addiction, because it is still developing. Those who start drinking as teens or preteens are approximately twice as likely to become alcoholics as those who wait until their 20s.

Do not drink to get drunk in front of your child -- even if your child is still too young to fully understand what drinking means. As early as age two, children begin forming lifelong beliefs and behaviors based on what they see their parents doing.

Certainly never allow your teens to get drunk in your presence. Some parents permit their teens to drink at home because they think this is safer than the teens drinking elsewhere and then driving home. I am somewhat sympathetic to this thinking, though studies suggest that teens who drink with their parents are slightly more likely to become alcoholics than those who do not. I am not sympathetic when parents allow kids to drink to the point of drunkenness at home. That only increases the odds of future drinking problems.

What Every Parent Must Do

Many parents believe that nothing they do or say about drugs gets through to their teens. While it’s true that parents cannot control their teens completely, all kids learn important life lessons from their parents -- even when neither parent nor child realizes that learning is taking place.

Have dinner as a family as often as possible. Families that eat together are much less likely to have kids who become addicts. Children who have dinner with their parents at least three times a week are less likely to develop drug or alcohol problems.

Tell your children regularly and emphatically that you want them to stay away from drugs, including alcohol and prescription medications. Your teens might roll their eyes, but at some level, your words are likely to have an effect -- studies show that kids who know their parents care whether they use drugs are less likely to use them.

Helpful: For information about talking with children about drugs, read How to Raise a Drug-Free Kid by Joseph Califano, Jr. (Fireside)... and explore the links section on my Web site (www.TheStutmanGroup.com, then click "Links").

Confront your teen if you smell cigarette smoke on his/her clothes or discover other evidence of tobacco use. Teens who use tobacco are at greater risk than nontobacco users of becoming drug addicts. If you smoke, quit.

Inform your teens that if one of their peers ever passes out from drinking or drug abuse in their presence, they should immediately roll this person onto his/her side (to prevent suffocation if the person vomits), then call 911. Thousands of lives would be saved if every teen knew this.

Bottom Line/Personal interviewed Robert Stutman, a 25-year veteran of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). He served as special agent in charge of several DEA field divisions, including the New York field division, the nation’s largest. In 1990, Stutman founded The Stutman Group, a consulting company that designs and implements substance-abuse prevention programs, Boca Raton, Florida. He is special consultant on substance abuse for CBS News and speaks to more than 100 groups a year. www.TheStutmanGroup.com

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Plant Power

Bodie Pennisi, PhD
University of Georgia


Houseplants help remove chemicals released into the air by paints, cleaners, glues and other products. The plants’ physiological processes help remove some volatile organic compounds (VOCs) during the day, and tiny organisms in the soil remove VOCs when the plant is not as active at night.

Plants that remove the most VOCs: Purple waffle plant, wax plant, asparagus fern, English ivy and the purple heart plant.


Bottom Line/Personal interviewed Bodie Pennisi, PhD, associate professor, department of horticulture, University of Georgia, Griffin, and leader of a study that tested 28 common houseplants, published in HortScience.

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April 1, 2011

The 10 Deadliest Heart Myths

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April 2, 2011
Bottom Line's Daily Health News

How Many of These Deadly Fairy Tales
Do You (and Your Doctor) Still Believe?

CAUTION: Ignorance may be
very hazardous to your health

Why has the number of heart attacks increased by 27 percent over the past 20 years? What's going on here?

Don't we know more about how to prevent heart attacks than ever?

Haven't we been swallowing our statins, lowering our cholesterol, and eating fat-free foods?

Could we be mistaken about some things?

Dr. Michael Mogadam certainly thinks we are. His research—proven by his amazing success with even high-risk patients—is turning conventional wisdom about heart health upside down.

Word is getting out. But the medical community is slow to change.

That's why, if avoiding a heart attack or stroke is important to you, I want you to be among the first to know...

Click here to read more...


Required Disclaimer: The information published in this Special Report is not intended as a substitute for personal medical advice. Before making any decision regarding your health, please consult a physician or other qualified health-care practitioner.

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Required Disclaimer: The information provided herein should not be construed as a health-care diagnosis, treatment regimen or any other prescribed health-care advice or instruction. The information is provided with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in the practice of medicine or any other health-care profession and does not enter into a health-care practitioner/patient relationship with its readers. The publisher does not advise or recommend to its readers treatment or action with regard to matters relating to their health or well-being other than to suggest that readers consult appropriate health-care professionals in such matters. No action should be taken based solely on the content of this publication. The information and opinions provided herein are believed to be accurate and sound at the time of publication, based on the best judgment available to the authors. However, readers who rely on information in this publication to replace the advice of health-care professionals, or who fail to consult with health-care professionals, assume all risks of such conduct. The publisher is not responsible for errors or omissions.

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