by Belinda O’Connell, M.S., R.D., L.D.
More than 1200 plant compounds have been tested for their ability to lower blood sugar levels. Many have been found to contain chemical components that have hypoglycemic activity (the ability to lower blood sugar) when tested in test tubes or in animal models. However, there is very little research on such compounds using human subjects, and what research does exist is generally not of high quality.
A few herbal remedies for diabetes have been tested in humans and have been found to have mild blood-sugar-lowering properties. These compounds have not had very powerful effects and at this time are not felt to be adequate for the management of diabetes alone. The most promising of these botanicals include bitter melon (Momordica charantia), fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum), gurmar (Gymnema sylvestre), goat’s rue (Galega officinalis), bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus), ginseng (chiefly Panax), nopal (Opuntia streptacantha), and garlic and onion (Allium sativum and Allium cepa).
Bitter melon
Also called bitter gourd, bitter cucumber, balsam pear, karela, and charantin, bitter melon is the most widely used traditional remedy for diabetes. It is commonly used in Asia, especially in India, and in Africa. Bitter melon is frequently eaten as a vegetable and looks like a misshapen, bumpy cucumber. As a treatment for diabetes, it is typically the juice or an extract of the unripe fruit that is used. Dried or powdered forms of bitter melon are not believed to have the same activity.
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There is no sure-fire way to prevent all hair loss; however, there are some methods that have been used that work on some people. In addition to the dietary improvements and suggestions already offered, there are some naturopathic remedy suggestions.
Massage and aromatherapy have been used with some success. In minor cases of temporary hair loss, hair growth can be stimulated by massage, since blood and oxygen flow to the scalp must be healthy in order for hair to grow.
A blend of six drops each of lavender and bay essential oils in a base of four ounces of either almond, soybean or sesame oil massaged into the scalp and allowed to sit for 20 minutes has been used by aroma therapists to stimulate the scalp. Once the mixture has been in the scalp for 20 minutes, wash your hair and scalp with your normal shampoo mixed with three drops of bay essential oil. (more…)
One key factor in maintaining a growing protein on a part of one’s biological body is obvious: one must maintain a healthy diet. Although certain factors have been definitely identified as contributors to hair loss, we must keep in mind that hair is part of the complete biological system of the human body.
Being a system, dysfunctions in one part of the system can contribute to dysfunctions in other parts; chain reactions occur when one part of the body malfunctions, causing other parts within the system to falter. To maintain optimum health, it is best to maintain a healthy diet and regular exercise regimen.
Defining exactly what a healthy diet is when it comes to preventing hair loss can be a little more complex. Principally, the main vitamins, minerals, and nutrients that one must ingest in some form to maintain healthy hair are (more…)
More good news for tea lovers — green tea may be as good for your health as it is to your taste buds, according to new study findings.
The data show that Japanese adults who consumed the most green tea over an 11-year period were less likely to die from cardiovascular disease or any other cause, except cancer, than were the less-frequent green tea drinkers.
“Green tea may prolong your life through reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease,” study author Dr. Shinichi Kuriyama, of Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, in Sendai, told Reuters Health.
However, because this was an observational study, the debate on the effects of green tea on heart disease and cancer is not over, Kuriyama added.
Although laboratory and animal studies have shown that the polyphenols in green tea may be protective against cardiovascular disease and cancer, it is not clear if these findings extend to humans. The few clinical trials that have been conducted were small and yielded inconsistent results. (more…)
Diabetes incidence has skyrocketed in recent decades due to our dietary and life-style choices - i.e., we are too fat, eat bad foods, and don’t exercise enough. Unfortunately, due to extensive metabolic, hormonal, body-composition shifts that occur after spinal cord injury (SCI), people with SCI are especially prone to develop diabetes. This article discusses various nutritional or botanical approaches that reduce blood-sugar levels in people with this disease.
Overview
Diabetes is characterized by the body’s inability to properly use glucose, our body’s metabolic energy currency. Under healthy conditions, the hormone insulin controls blood-glucose levels. Produced by the pancreas, insulin flows through our blood to various tissues where they bind to cell-surface receptors. This binding initiates a complex biochemical cascade that culminates in glucose uptake into cells to fuel metabolic processes. As blood-glucose levels decline due to cellular uptake, the pancreas shuts down insulin production to prevent hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) and, in turn, the liver, the body’s nutrient-processing organ, starts releasing glucose back into the blood.
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Bilberry enhances eye health, including improving night vision and preventing cataracts, macular degeneration, and glaucoma.
Cranberry prevents urinary tract infections.
Echinacea (purple coneflower) fights cold, flu, urinary tract and other infections by stimulating the immune system (because multiple sclerosis appears to be an autoimmune disease, some believe that Echinacea should not be used when one has multiple sclerosis).
Garlic fights bacterial, viral, and parasitic infections, reduces high blood pressure, lowers cholesterol, prevents atherosclerosis, and is associated with lower cancer rates.
Ginger treats digestive disorders, such as nausea and vomiting, motion sickness, and rheumatoid arthritis.
Ginko biloba increases blood circulation, especially in the brain, enhancing memory and mental alertness.
Ginseng has stimulant properties useful for chronic fatigue, convalescence, lethargy, depression and chronic infections due to immune weakness. Ginseng can help diabetics by lowering blood sugar.
Hawthorne strengthens your heart and prevents heart disease. It reduces blood pressure, angina attacks, atherosclerosis, and treat congestive heart failure.
Kava treats anxiety, mild depression, and insomnia.
Saw Palmetto eases symptoms associated with prostate inflammation or enlargement.
St. John’s Wort treats depression and insomnia.
Valerian’s sedative properties promote sleep.
By helping to maintain health, to treat spinal-cord-dysfunction (SCD) aggravated ailments, and to reduce exposure to drug side effects, people with SCD can benefit greatly from herbal medicine. Furthermore, the use of infection-fighting herbal remedies that enhance the body’s inherent healing potential will help preserve the effectiveness of life-saving antibiotics over time. A sampling of the more popular remedies is highlighted in the attached table.
Many herbs specifically support and nourish the nervous system, and, in turn, some of then may be especially relevant to spinal cord dysfunction. For example, studies suggest that the popular ginkgo biloba may alleviate multiple sclerosis (MS) symptoms by interfering with the disease’s inflammatory process.
In another example, the Ayurvedic herb Mimosa pudica (sensitive plant) has been shown to promote neuronal regeneration in animal studies and may benefit some people with spinal cord dysfunction as indicated by a small pilot study carried out by the author.
In addition, Feather Jones, Rocky Mountain Center for Botanical Studies (Boulder, Colo.) director has suggested that several other nerve-nourishing herbs may potentially help in spinal cord dysfunction. For example, she has indicated that a fresh plant extract of skullcap (a member of the mint family) reduces nerve inflammation; a tincture of milky oats (i.e., immature oat seeds) can rebuild the neuronal myelin sheath that is often damaged in both multiple sclerosis and spinal cord injury; an external liniment of Cow Parsnip, (a common weed that is a member of the parsley family) is a traditional Southwestern Hispanic remedy for treating injured nerves and stimulating regeneration; external application of St. John’s Wort can treat neural inflammation; and hawthorn helps to hold collagen fibers in place along the spinal cord.
Given such effects, the potential for these remedies to treat people in the acute phase of spinal cord injury seems especially intriguing and deserving of further research.
When prepared with good quality control, most herbal remedies are gentle and unlikely to cause serious side effects. Nevertheless, because they, like drugs, contain physiologically active agents, such side effects can occur. In practice, however, the most common are allergic reactions, throat irritations, gastrointestinal upsets, and headaches.
When more serious side effects do occur, the medical establishment frequently touts them as a reason why people should stay away from herbal remedies. Because the documented incidence of serious reactions to herbal remedies is much less than that to pharmaceutics, this self-serving criticism is a double standard. In fact, studies suggest that adverse drug reactions account for over a quarter of all hospitalizations and are a major cause of death in this country.
Given such statistics, people with physical disabilities, who often face a heavy medication burden, may be better off using herbal medicine for routine ailments and saving the heavy pharmaceutical artillery for the more serious conditions.
Biological activity can vary substantially between herbal preparations. For example, it depends on the parts harvested (i.e., leaves, roots, flowers, stems, etc.), plant maturity, soil and environmental conditions, and appropriate preparation and storage.
It is truly a healing art, which at times has confounded ethnobiologists, who have been provided exciting new medicinal plants by shamanic medicine men but who could not later duplicate their initial success when they harvested the plants themselves.
The variability in activity among supposedly comparable products is a major criticism of herbal medicine and inhibits its acceptance by doctors, who understandably are more confident prescribing medicines at truly defined doses. Some herbal products have been prepared without good quality control and lack standardization. There have been cases, independent of price or brand name, of products that contain little biologically active agent.
Although many companies now attempt to standardize their products, this process can also be controversial. For example, if a given herbal preparation lacks sufficient activity, it may be spiked with additional active ingredient. Such spiking, however, creates a chemical imbalance that diminishes the natural synergy of plant components, violating herbal medicine’s supposed philosophical foundation.
More than 30% of modern medicine’s drugs have botanical origins. For example, willow tree bark contains salicylic acid, aspirin’s active agent; cinchona bark has malaria-fighting quinine; foxglove digitalis treats congestive heart failure; rosy periwinkle has leukemia-fighting chemicals; and the evergreen ephedra is commonly used in decongestants. Even life-saving penicillin that revolutionized spinal cord injury healthcare was isolated from molds used as folk remedies.
Given such a botanical basis, why does modern medicine struggle so much with herbal remedies? After all, pharmaceutics and herbs mediate their action through physiologically active molecules. Part of the answer is that the acceptance of herbal healing would challenge modern medicine’s belief that it is a scientifically driven instead of an empirically based discipline.
Specifically, modern medicine’s drug use is based on rigorously designed clinical trials, while herbal use is based on centuries’ of experience. Because the pharmaceutical approach focuses on only one molecularly defined drug, scientists can more readily evaluate cause and effect, determine mechanisms of action, and define appropriate dosing. Such assessments are difficult for complex herbal remedies possessing a multitude of biologically active components.
As such, scientists prefer to initially isolate a remedy’s active agents believing that overall activity will be the sum of the component parts. This reductionistic view, however, is rarely true because the plant components act more in concert than individually to create the overall healing effect. In many cases, scientists have been disappointed to discover that the isolated agent had less activity than the crude herb.