Curing Diseases Through Your Diet

Every week, news stories reveal that taking a particular herb, food or supplement can have a positive effect on our health. Many diseases can be reversed, controlled and cured if we change the way we eat or through other natural means.

Doesn't it make sense to learn how what we eat can help prevent and even cure such diseases. This blog is dedicated to providing such information directly and through valuable links and other resources.

Friday, June 27, 2008

Death By Budget Cuts

If you live in California, be forewarned - there will be fewer nurses and other health care providers around to take care of you, your kids, your parents and your neighbors.

Why? The state of California has cut its Medical budget by 10% - forcing health care agencies to lower salaries paid to nurses, cut out vacation pay and other benefits, and some agencies will just go out of business. There is already a nursing crisis in this state and in the United States as a whole. By a crisis, I mean, there are not enough nurses to take care of everyone who gets sick and needs medical attention. Since we are not paying nurses enough to make a living, this is not a surprise.

If you want more nurses in the health care system, you have to pay them a living wage. Many nurses in the state of California have not had a raise in 4 years! How does that compare with your job. And is that what you really want to have happening?

Nurses are on on the front line of health care, spending more time on average with patients than doctors do. Nurses often pick-up on symptoms that doctors might miss because they are in the room with the patients.

This cut in California's Medical budget comes at a time when there are more people in the state and the population is getting older. Common sense would dictate an increase in the Medical budget. This cut is not only wrong, but it is sick.

Save a life - maybe your own. If you live in California - Talk to you local members of the state legislature and the Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Demand that the 10% cut be restored to the budget and ask them to increase the budget.

If you live outside of California - check on the status of your state's health care budget - you maybe shocked to find that your politicians don't care about you either.

Increase the state sales tax by 1/2 cent, remove all the fraudulent cases from Medical - ask the health agencies, they can tell you about all the cases that should be dropped. Bill Mexico for illegals' health care - there are many ways to pay for this - if the legislature will show some courage.

Don't wait for this health crisis to become your personal tragedy - act today! Let the legislature know that your health is a priority.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Autism and Vaccinations

There is much debate over whether early immunization shots for babies and toddlers can induce Autism in children. Some parents and experts say there is a connection, while other experts refute this claim. Certainly, how your newborn baby is immunized is a topic parents should research and discuss with their doctors. Vaccinations are a great social experiment - some may not be necessary and others can be delayed.

Here are some points to consider:

Does the baby need a particular vaccination immediately?
Today newborns are routinely vaccinated against the Hepatitis B virus before they leave the hospital. But Hepatitis B is normally transferred through sexual contact and by sharing needles and toothbrushes with infected people. Babies don't have sex nor share needles. Consider delaying this vaccination until the child is older...

Not all shots are necessary. Receiving a polio vaccination may be a higher priority than a chicken pox vaccination. Most children's immune system can handle getting chicken pox.

Are Booster Shots Really Required? Booster shots are recommended for some vaccinations, but they may not be necessary. The first shot may have been effective enough to protect the child. Have your doctor test to see if a booster shot is really necessary.

Spread the vaccines out over a longer period of time. Current injection schedules have a baby receiving 5 shots per visit. That is a lot of stuff being injected all at once. Consider fewer shots at a time spread out over more doctor's visits.

For more details about how your child should be immunized, visit Should I vaccinate my baby? - CNN.com.

There is more than one way to schedule how and with what you child is immunized. Adapting a more flexible approach that spreads out the vaccinations may or may not keep your child from becoming Autistic, but it is worth looking into. It certainly seems like commonsense to me, not to overwhelm your baby with a batch of injections over a short period time. Again, of course, this should be discussed with your doctor and probably more than once.

For more on Autism, visit Autism - Breaking the Silence.

On a lighter note, if you are looking for a name for your baby, check out Naming The Baby.

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Red Wine or Starvation Diet?

If you pay any attention to the world news outlets, you have heard that drinking red wine has health benefits. Red wine contains various substances - resveratrol, flavonoids (antioxidants) and other polyphenols. All of these substances are known to help keep you healthy. Antioxidants fight cancer by reducing free radicals in the blood stream and resveratrol helps to unclog arteries fight hearts disease and strokes. The latest research shows that red wine will slow bone and heart muscle aging.

Resveratrol is the main chemical in red wine (comes from the grape skins) that excites scientists and drug companies the most. It is rather unique to red wine and grapes and looks like it will lead to many drug possibilities and high profits... Of course, you could just drink two glass of red wine a day or take resveratrol supplements, instead...

What is interesting about resveratrol is that it causes the body to mimic the conditions that occur when there is not enough food to eat. When food is scarce and daily calorie intake drops, the body switches its routine, taking energy reserved for reproductive uses and instead hypes up the cell maintenance. Bottom line here is that the body cells get healthier and live longer with such a tune-up. Of course, you don't want to starve the body for very long, this is a short term phenomenon when we are talking about "starving."

This is actually called a calorie-restricted diet, which has been proven to retard aging in animals.

So if you want to increase you lifespan and fight various diseases (and not starve) - try drinking red wine. You can trick your body to act in the manner of a calorie-restricted diet and still eat your cake, so to speak.

Everything should be done in moderation, of course. Eat wisely and drink red wine moderately. For more information about the health benefits of red wine, check out "To Your Health" - The Health Benefits of Red Wine.

While I recommend limiting your alcohol intake, if you do over do it, I urge you to get a copy of Get Rid of Hangover Forever.