Food or Medicine Cure for Heart Disease, Cancer, Parkinsons or Stroke Symptoms?

• Researchers were shocked to find that by snacking on apples for 6 months, people lowered their cholesterol on average by 23%.

Their “bad” LDL cholesterol dropped by 23% while their “good” cholesterol, which helps remover fatty deposits from blood vessels, increased by 4%.

• A pleasant surprise, according to Dr. Bahram Arjmandi, because “I never expected apple consumption to reduce bad cholesterol to this extent.”

This was an accidental finding, because Dr. Arjmandi had given a group of women a snack of 75 grams (2.6 oz) of dried apple per day. This snack was for a “control group” in a study on the effect of eating prunes for bone density.

He explains that he knows of no other single food that can lower LDL by such a large amount! Dried apples were used to ensure that everyone ate exactly the same amount.

Dr. Arjamandi speculates that it was the apple pectin, a soluble fiber, that also caused weight loss of 3.3 lbs, or 1.49 kilograms per person, on average.

If you need to reduce your cholesterol as a heart disease symptom -- eating an apple or two per day would be the equivalent of the dried fruit used in the study!

(Florida State University study presented at the Experimental Biology Annual meeting in Washington DC, 2011).

Add a GRATED APPLE to your OATMEAL in the morning, or look up a recipe for MEUSLI, and you are on your way to lowering your cholesterol with FOOD rather than medicine!

Cancer Medicine or Cancer Nutrition?

• For instance, the cancer drug Avastin (bevacizumab), used for colon cancer, brain cancer, and breast cancer, can at best buy you a few extra months of life.

The UK does not fund the use of Avastin, arguing that extending a patient’s life for only a short time is not worth the price tag of $30,000 for the 8 months of treatment.

• Best to add proven anti tumor nutrition that’s been clinically shown to reverse the muscle wasting of cancer, strengthen the immune, and improve your chances for recovery.

Nutrition Cure for Stroke?

Dr. Paula Bickford, a researcher at the USF Center for Aging and Brain Repair reported that the size of the stroke was 50 to 75 percent less in rats treated with diets supplemented with blueberries, spinach or spirulina before the stroke.

The antioxidants and anti-inflammatory substances in these fruits and vegetables reduce the nerve cell injury and death triggered by a stroke, the researchers suggest.

• They conclude that ongoing treatment with blueberry, spinach, or spirulina reduces cell death (ischemia/reperfusion-induced apoptosis) and cell death due to stroke. (cerebral infarction).

• This is an easy, readily available, inexpensive and safe way to benefit stroke patients, and can help you avoid dangerous blood thinner medication Warfarin side effects

Food Cures AFTER a Heart Attack?

Filled with omega-3 fatty acids, any doctor's advice would be to start eating fish multiple times a week and consider supplements. Which is best?

• Fish oil carries great benefits for people whose history includes a heart attack.

The first major trial regarding the role of fish oil in patients with previous heart attacks involved 2,033 men, divided into three groups of dietary factors:

(1) a reduction in fat intake and an increase in the ratio of polyunsaturated to saturated fat (according to the American Heart Association)

(2) an increase in fatty fish intake (e.g. eat fatty fish two to three times per week or take fish oil capsules with 450 mg omega-3 fatty acids per day)

The health advice on reducing fat intake was not associated with any difference in death rates, since it led to only a three to four percent reduction in cholesterol levels.

People who were advised to eat more fatty fish (approximately 500 to 800 mg a day of omega 3 fatty acids) had a 29% reduction in all-cause death rates, as compared with those not accepting this advice.

• Those who chose to take fish oil capsules (450 mg EPA and DHA per day) instead of eating fatty fish experienced a 62% reduction in heart-related deaths and a 56% reduction in the overall risk of death.

(Burr, M.I., et al., "Effects of changes in fat, fish, and fibre intakes on death and myocardial reinfarction: diet and reinfarction trial (DART)," Lancet, 1989; 2: 757-61.)

Others studied the effectiveness of omega-3 fatty acids, alone or in combination with vitamin E, versus vitamin E alone or placebo for those who'd had heart attacks.

For five years, 11,323 patients who had suffered a heart attack within the previous three months received: (1) 1,000 mg/day of omega-3 fatty acids; (2) 1,000 mg of omega-3 fatty acids and 300 mg of vitamin E per day; or (3) 300 mg/day of vitamin E; (4) or placebo.

Patients were predominantly male (85%). The mean age was 59.4 years, with 16% aged 70 years or over.

At baseline, ACE inhibitors, antiplatelet agents, beta-blockers, and lipid-lowering drugs were taken by 46.9%, 91.7%, 44.3%, and 4.7% of patients, respectively. They remained on these same drugs throughout the entire study.

• Those individuals who took the fish oil capsules, but not vitamin E, had a reduction in the risk of death, myocardial infarction (MI) and stroke by 15%, a significant lowering of the risk of cardiovascular-event-related death by 30%, and a reduction in the risk of sudden death by 45%.

• The effect of fish oil in reducing the risk of sudden death was observed after four months of treatment.

• The effect of fish oil in reducing cardiovascular, cardiac, and coronary deaths was seen after six to eight months of treatment.

• Taking one gram of fish oil containing 850 mg of omega 3 daily could save five to seven out of 1,000 patients with previous MI per year.

• THESE RESULTS ARE COMPARABLE TO LOWERING SERUM CHOLESTEROL LEVELS WITH A COMMONLY PRESCRIBED DRUG FOR ONE YEAR.

(Kromhout, D., et al., "n-3Fatty Acids and Cardiovascular Events after Myocardial Infarction," New Engl. J. Med., Aug. 29, 2010.)

Food or Vitamin Supplements for Best Health?

• What about the confusing reports in the media about the benefits of vitamin E?

Doctors and scientists have since the 1920's reported the benefits of vitamin E, showing fewer miscarriages in pregnant women, and dramatic improvements in heart function and blood flow. (Drs. Evan Shute, obstetrician and William Shute, cardiologist)

There is a volume of research that shows that antioxidants protect not only against heart disease and cancers, but also against Parkinsons, Macular Degeneration, Alzheimers Disease -- and the aging process itself.

• But, while supplementing is recommended, more's not always better -- anti oxidants can sometimes act as pro-oxidants, say scientists.

Scientists are still writing the book on the benefits of food versus isolated antioxidants in vitamin supplements.

• Researchers continue to discover how antioxidants protect and are finding that balance is essential, which is difficult to get by taking a hand full of pills!

Vitamin Supplements? Yes - Just Don't Count On Pills Alone

For instance, in the Framington study of nurses, those taking folic acid and vitamin B supplements had less heart disease, along with those who had a higher than average dietary intake of folate and vitamin B6.

• A good multiple vitamin/mineral as "insurance" has definitely been shown to be preventive, as is taking extra calcium and Vitamin D3.

The Vitamin E Debate

• The vitamin E debate heated up in 2005 when a report of a meta-analysis of 19 studies suggested that taking daily doses exceeding 400 IU's, slightly increased risk of death.

The analysis was criticized because the subjects in these studies had a history of heart disease, were on a variety of meds, and the studies failed to distinguish between synthetic and natural vitamin E.

• More recent research is showing that vitamin E in its natural form is actually a family of 8 related compounds, and that each of these compounds have unique functions including being anti inflammatory, cardio protective and anti cancer.

• One fact is emerging – that when an antioxidant is taken out of a food and isolated by being put into a supplement form, it may not work as well, and there is also no guarantee that it will continue to act as an antioxidant.

It could in fact turn into a pro-oxidant, having the opposite effect. Why is that?

Too Much of A Good Thing?

It came as a shock to the scientific community that high dose supplements of beta carotene went hand in hand with a higher risk of developing lung cancer in those at risk for the disease.

Also, a study out of the University of California at Berkeley showed that while flavonoids in foods may act as cancer-fighters, high levels could lead to cancer-causing changes to chromosomes.

Researchers also report that the body’s antioxidant capacity seems to level off at about ten to twelve fruit and vegetable servings a day.

Vitamins as Supplements Not As Good as Food?

Researchers tested two groups of people, and measured them for oxidation damage, antioxidant nutrients and defense systems after 25 days. Everyone ate the same basic diet, but the one got about six servings of fruits and vegetables a day, while the other got a vitamin and mineral supplement.

• The group that ate vegetables and fruits showed significantly less oxidation damage than the others, and only that group showed an increased level of an enzyme system that is vital for antioxidant defense.

• The group that took supplements also showed a reduction in oxidation damage, but not as much.

• And, when the amount of fruits and vegetables was doubled, from five fruits and vegetables a day to ten servings a day, the results were even more pronounced, so that participants' antioxidant intake and capacity measured by blood tests, increased substantially.

Other research shows that this increased effect levels off at about ten to twelve fruit and vegetable servings a day. After that, adding more does not really seem to matter.

Anti Cancer Vitamins and Antioxidants

• antioxidants such as the carotenoids (alpha-carotene, beta-carotene, lycopene, lutein, cryptoxanthin), according to a review of the literature at the National Library of Medicine

Biggest Bang for the Bite

Why? Slowly but surely, the evidence is mounting. For instance, The European Journal of Nutrition recently reported findings showing that organic red oranges have:

1) a higher phytochemical content (i. e., phenolics, anthocyanins and ascorbic acid),

These researchers concluded that organic red oranges have a higher protective effect against oxidative damage at the cellular level, than do nonorganic red oranges.

Surprise: What Best Builds the Immune?

Although we have been told to eat more food such as fruits and vegetables for antioxidants, here is a surprise!

Yes, plants contain all kinds of nutrients, but it is the discovery a protein that has shown us how the body builds its OWN master antioxidant -- our primary protection against disease.

It turns out that vitamins such as vitamin C and E HELP our body's own protective system, but it is a cysteine rich protein that DIRECTLY builds our immune system AND our body's MASTER antioxidant.

Eye Vitamins & Vitamin Supplement Confusion: Lutein

High doses of beta carotene supplements, for instance, may have varying effects depending on a person’s intake of other antioxidants:

HIGH DOSES of the supplement seems to DECREASE the absorption of LUTEIN, the yellow pigment or carotenoid associated with a reduced risk of developing cataracts and macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness in the elderly.

But in food, carotenoids enhance each other, so that the LUTEIN found in produce like:

• dark leafy greens• avocados and • kiwis, is a more powerful defender against disease when consumed with lycopene-rich foods like tomatoes.

Food v.s. Pills: Quercetin

BUT when quercetin is taken out of its food environment, it may behave differently.

Quercetin, when taken on its own, was found to act as a PRO-oxidant instead of an ANTI-oxidant in an animal study published in the may 2005 issue of Food and Chemical Toxicology.

The PRO-oxidant effect did not occur when it was taken in food, particularly with the flavonoid daidzain, which comes from soy.

Numerous scientific investigations have pointed in a similar direction and show that the various phytochemical combinations in foods offer a powerful antioxidant arsenal.

But take one of these out on its own, and it may not just be an ineffective weapon, but it may also join forces with the enemy, possibly boosting the risk for disease.

Vitamin Supplements & Vitamin E Confusion?

• The reason that research has shown mixed results with Vitamin E has to do with the biochemical nature of vitamin E.

• First of all, the synthetic vitamin E is different from the natural vitamin E, and, to add to the confusion, the NATURAL one is actually a family of 8 related compounds (the tocopherol group and the tocotrienol group), each with alpha, beta, gamma and delta types.

• EACH of the 8 DIFFERENT natural VITAMIN E GROUPS has a unique function and may contribute an important function such as having a • anti-inflammatory • cardio protective or an • anticancer effect.

Therefore, supplementing with all of these is better than just alpha-tocopherol alone:

• Gamma-TOCOPHEROL, for instance, has the ability to protect against chronic inflammation, including cancer, heart disease and degenerative brain disorders such as Azheimers disease, which Alpha-TOCOPHEROL cannot do.

Researchers at Purdue University also found that gamma-tocopherols induce death in human prostate cancer cells and lung cancer cells while leaving healthy cells alone.

• Research involving TOCOTRIENOLS has shown their ability to reverse atherosclerotic blockages in the carotid artery, significantly reducing risk of strokes.

• Research reporting negative results for vitamin E supplements combined dissimilar studies and pooled data on mixed dosages, and natural and synthetic forms of vitamin E.

• NATURAL vitamin E, labelled as d-alpha-tocopherol, has greater biological activity than synthetic E (dl-alpha-tocopherol). Supplements containing a wide variety of vitamin E are: "MIXED TOCOPHEROLS" or "MIXED TOCOTRIENOLS."

Vitamin E Reduces Child Asthma Risk

At the five-year follow-up, children whose mothers consumed the highest levels of vitamin E during pregnancy had significantly better lung function. (American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care, Sept. 2006)

• Despite the controversy, it is clear that people who eat a wide variety of colorful vegetables and fruit, whole grains, nuts and seeds, healthy oils and lean proteins enjoy better health than those who don't.

Nutrition & Vitamins Links:

Nutrition, Vitamins, Diet & Food to fight Disease: Heart Disease symptom, cancer, Parkinsons symptoms, Macular Degeneration, AMD, Stroke Symptoms, Diabetes

A Note To The Reader:
The ideas contained on this website are for educational purposes only, and are not intended to treat any disease, nor as a substitute for consulting with your physician. All matters regarding your health require medical supervision.

The information provided is not intended to serve as health, medical, or other professional advice related to individual situations.

No therapeutic or medical claims are either implied or made. No particular results are guaranteed.

Does Food Cure? Try These Health Discoveries for Nutrition First! Use Medicine Last