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Vitamin D is appearing in the news a lot recently, mostly due to deficiency of it. There have been several opinions abounding on what is the correct recommended daily amount of Vitamin D and also what is the best source of vitamin D.

Professor emeritus of biochemistry and biomedical sciences, Anthony Norman is an internationally recognised expert on vitamin D. He says that there is insufficient Vitamin D intake for over half the people of Western Europe and North America.

Professor Norman described his fears about vitamin D lack, saying, “Elsewhere, it is worse. Given that two-thirds of the people are vitamin D-insufficient or deficient. It is clear that merely eating vitamin D-rich foods is not adequate to solve the problem for most adults.”

Vitamin intake is measured in ‘IUs’ (international units) and the daily recommendation fro vitamin D is 200 for people up to 50 years old, 400 for those between 51 and 70, and 600 for those over 70.

Norman wants to up those recommendations considerably. He said: “There is a wide consensus among scientists that the relative daily intake of vitamin D should be increased to 2,000 to 4,000 IU for most adults.”
Norman described how it could be done, saying “A 2000 IU daily intake can be achieved by a combination of sunshine, food, supplements, and possibly even limited tanning exposure.”

There are some very pressing reasons why an increase in the dosage of vitamin D would be beneficial to health, or at least getting the majority of people up to the current RDA. Norman revealed that “Several studies have reported substantial reductions in incidence of breast cancer, colon cancer and type 1 diabetes in association with adequate intake of vitamin D, the positive effect generally occurring within five years of initiation of adequate vitamin D intake.

Even though economic conditions are far from good, the sales of alternative medicines are rising. The Daily Mail, a UK newspaper reported a study that revealed how the alternative medicine market in the UK has grown by 18% in the last two years making it worth £213 million yearly. In the next four years that is forecast to rise to £282 million.

What is especially interesting in the study is that the rise in purchases of alternative medicines also includes categories that are not so well known such as Indian ayurvedic medicine.The U.S. has also experienced a rise in sales to the tune of $639 million but at a lower percentage rate of 10%. As some sources were not included in the figures they could be higher still.
The reasons for the growth in spending on alternative medicines according to the study group Mintel, is that governments and the people have greater acceptance of alternative treatments and medicines than only a few years ago. Acupuncture is even available via the National Health for example.

Another reason is that in many cases alternative medicines or treatments are less expensive, particularly in the U.S. than seeing a doctor and getting a prescription. From a study paper conducted by the Associated Press it was stated that, “climbing sales of herbal medicines have paralleled the tanking economy.”

One more reason is that with an increasing number of people having mood disorders but not wanting to depend on potentially harmful psychiatric drugs, they are looking to homeopathy treatments like St John’s Wort which is being used to help relieve depression. In 2008 in the UK 1.5 million people bought this remedy.

In December the U.S. National Institutes of Health released the results of their study which revealed that 18% of American study respondents said they had use nonvitamin, nonmineral products for their health care, with 25% foregoing or delaying conventional medical treatment due to the cost.

Self-employed bookkeeper, Cathy Birleffi said “The doctors are so much higher [in cost]; the insurance isn’t paying as much.” She and her husband now look to herbal remedies to treat their health problems.

A remote Welsh village called Myddfai is to revive its centuries old tradition of herbal treatments. Myddfai is a tiny village with a parish population of about 400, but in recent years the fortunes of the village have been steadily dwindling as the younger generations are forced to go elsewhere to find work.

The “terminal decline” as one parisher put it, is set to be reversed with the help of £400,000 from the Big Lottery Fund’s Village SOS scheme. The money is to be used to re-establish Myddfai as a centre for herbal remedies and other branded goods
From medieval times, the village was renown across Europe as a source of potions, oils and unguents all derived from herbal plants. Prince Charles who owns a holiday home in the area is bound to approve of the venture.

Project leader is Jo Gideon, who sees the project as a “lifeline” for the Carmarthenshire village. She said, “The absence of any amenities has meant it is in danger of terminal decline as younger generations are forced to leave to find employment.” She also voiced her concerns that the traditions and knowledge that had been passed down could be lost.

The legend of the village is that a lady rose from the lake, married a local man and had 3 sons. Before returning to the lake, she imparted her knowledge about the medicinal properties of herbs and plants to her eldest son. The son and his following generations were the physicians of Myddfai who were renowned across Europe. The son certainly existed, but the lady of the lake is not so certain.

Local hill farmer, Lewis Jones, shared his thoughts about the village: “It has been known for centuries for its physicians. We want life here again.” The money is to be spent on building a hall and café and the refurbishment of an adjacent old building in which the herbal Myddfai treatments will be sold.

A study has revealed that women with breast cancer are able to extend cancer survival by learning to relax. The study conducted in the U.S. examined the survival rates of women who had their cancer return after their initial treatment. The group of women volunteers worked with psychologists to come up with ways to reduce stress; stress being one of the main causes of cancer complications.

Reducing stress levels enabled the immune system to remain strong and resulted in Improvements in the quality of the women’s lives. The women who were part of the support group that helped them deal with stress lived on average 6 months longer than those that did not.

From Ohio State University, Columbus psychology professor Barbara Andersen said, “If you have someone who can provide effective, research-supported ways to reduce your stress, not only will that affect your mental health. It will likely affect your symptoms and your recovery.”

The 227 women who volunteered for the study were newly diagnosed with Stage II or III breast cancer. Some of the women received therapy to enable them to understand their stress, cope with it, stick to the cancer treatment prescribed to them and develop an over all better emotional state. The other women received a psychological assessment.

What was unusual about the results was that the therapy enhanced the women’s survival rates which had not been known before in other studies.

Andersen further explained the details of the study, saying: “It was far more than the popular notion of support groups of patients in a room talking about their troubles,” adding that “Certain patients talked about things that were stressful to them, but they also learned really effective ways to cope with that stress.”

Previous parts of the study showed that 45% of women who had attended the support group had less likelihood of their breast cancer returning after 11 years of follow ups.
The enhanced survival rates revealed in this last phase of the study were above and beyond any drug treatment improvements.

From Washington University in St. Louis, Sarah Gehlert stated that “An intervention that increased survival would be incredibly valuable. It represents a new tool for improving the lives of women with breast cancer.” She had no connection with the study.

More and more experts are agreeing that seaweed can be categorized as a superfood. That claim is being supported by investigations that reveal that seaweed, which is a variety of algae, contains more calcium than cheese, more fibre than you will find in prunes and more iron than a sirloin steak. All these comparisons are weight for weight.

Other important vitamins and minerals contained in seaweed are potassium and iodine and it is the sole plant that is a source of vitamin B12. The most recent studies on seaweed revealed that its bioactive substances aid in reducing blood pressure and cholesterol, plus its ability to deal with free radicals that are the cause of cancer.

The American Association for Cancer Research has recently published their initial research that revealed how extracts of seaweed was able to inhibit cancer cell growth that would otherwise lead to lymphoma. They were interested to know the connection between seaweed and cancer reduction on account of the Japanese who eat more seaweed per capita than any other nation and have low cancer rates in their women.

The University of Newcastle conducted research that showed how seaweed fibres (alginates) were responsible for reducing the absorption of fat by the body and could thus be considered a viable weightloss ingredient.

From Newcastle University, research associate in human nutrition, Dr Iain Brownlee said: “We’ve found that by adding these natural fibres to food products, up to 75 per cent of the fat we consume could simply pass through the body – so in theory it could be used to fight obesity. Alginates could be used in place of the fat that gives food its flavour. In tests, people have actually preferred bread with small levels of alginate in it – so it’s not something you have to force yourself to eat.

Stress killing you?

Stress is recognised as the biggest killer in modern society.
It can be argues that stress is what allows your body to be susceptible to diseases such as cancer and arthritis, immune system problems and many physical disorders.
It will also effect you mentally and cause you problems in how you conduct your life with respect to relationships and general decisions and choices that you have to make.

It can make you tired, irritable, depressed, nervous, hyper, hungry, overweight, underweight, lethargic, controlling, indecisive, tearful, have bad skin, bad hair, bad nails, ……

It can make you snappy and cause you to hurt those that you love and care for.

Stress can ruin your life.

People suffer stress for a multitude of reasons, life is stressful, there is no way around that, but you can help minimise your stress levels and learn to minimise the detrimental effects that stress has on you, your body and your family.

I can help you do this. I work as problem solver and stress management consultant. I can help you identify the reasons that you feel stressed, work out how to stop them, or work with you to help you control the effect that it has on your life.

I work as a nutritionist, personal trainer and sports massage therapist so can physically help to to counteract the bad effects that stress my have had on you such as comfort eating, nutrition deficiencies, over or under your optimum weight or fitness level or muscular tensions.

espite the powerful influence of genetics, studies show that exercise can enable children to reduce obesity. According to a person’s physical makeup and metabolism, some will find it easy to remain slim whereas other people find it a constant battle to keep off the pounds.

A recent study has revealed that the correct diet, good will power but most of all regular exercise can enable those people genetically predisposed towards obesity can lose weight and keep it off. The study especially focused on teenagers.

The study was carried out in 10 European countries over a 14 month period. 753 teenagers with a variety of genetic makeups took part. 16% of the group possessed 2 FTO mutations, 47% possessed one mutation and 37% did not possess any mutation. (An FTO mutation is fat mass-and-obesity-associated gene and one FTO mutation is equal to an average 3.3 pounds weight gain.)

Of all the teenagers in the group who had at least 1 hour of daily exercise, it was found that the body mass index was very close in both the group with gene mutations and those without. The difference was only 0.17 points higher. On comparing the ones who did no exercise the difference was greater at 0.65 points higher in the gene mutation teenagers.

Jonatan R. Ruiz, the lead researcher and scientist in physical activity and fitness epidemiology at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute said, “These findings have important public health implications, and indicate that meeting the physical activity recommendations may offset the genetic predisposition to obesity associated with the FTO [gene variant] in adolescents.”

So once again a study has just confirmed what most of us know to be common sense!!

It has occoured to me that peoples attitude to work differs greatly and I have been trying to determine possible roots to this.

Personally I love to work, I find all aspects of my job fasinating be it sports massage or nutrition or personal training. But I also know that I thrive on being useful, being occupied and being busy. If I am not with a client I am generally baking, or cleaning, walking the dog, cooking- and all these things I actually enjoy. Even cleaning!

After a busy week I can happily spend an afternoon relaxing, but can never just spend more than a day not occupied in some way. I am even happy waiting tables rather than just sitting about with nothing to do……….

I am aware that some people dislike work through, and am wondering if this is due to a negative association that society place on ‘work’ as something that one does only because one needs to in order to survive?

Ask yourself, would you do your job for free?

If not why not? What jobs would you do for free? And why are you not working in this field?

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A study has revealed that people in bereavement can be consoled with soothing massages. The study found that an eight week course in hand and foot massage provides considerable relief to people in grieving.
 
The study involved 18 people from 34 to 78 years of age who had recently lost a relative due to cancer. They were offered foot or hand massages for an 8 week period. The sessions took place once a week at home, work or hospital and lasted 25 minutes. Eight of them selected hand massage, nine selected foot massage and one selected both.
 
Dr Berit S Cronfalk the study author and palliative care provider from the Sjukhem Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden, said “Details about the massage study were included in an information pack provided by the palliative care team when people’s relatives died.”
 
Describing the massage, Dr Cronfalk said, “Soft tissue massage is gentle, but firm. This activates touch receptors which then release oxytocin, a hormone known for its positive effects on well-being and relaxation.” He further explained that “In this study the hand or foot massage was done with slow strokes, light pressure and circling movements using oil lightly scented with citrus or hawthorn.” After which “The relatives were then encouraged to relax for a further 30 minutes.”

Before starting the massage sessions, some baseline information was gained from the volunteers during a 60-minute interview. Another 60-minute interview was carried out a week following the end of the 8 week programme.

During the interviews one of the grieving relatives said, “Honestly, I didn’t know what to expect. I just felt I needed to do something to get rid of that pain and it seemed like a good alternative.”
 
Another one said, “I suddenly realised that I could go through my thoughts in a much calmer way…I was more sensible in my thinking.”
 
The study was published in the Journal of Clinical Nursing’s April edition.

I can’t really say that this is groundbreaking news for me. Massage makes the body feel better and this in turn makes a person feel happier as a whole.

Further to what has already been said on the topic of vitamin D, I have been looking at a report today that again shows just how important this ‘D’ is for diet….

A study that has just been released reveals that 59% of study subjects had insufficient Vitamin D. In the study designed to test for the levels of Vitamin D in the blood stream, it was also found that nearly 25% of volunteers had serious Vitamin D deficiencies.

Not enough Vitamin D leads to reduced muscle strength, more body fat and several other health problems so proper Vitamin D levels are seen as an important indicator of good health.
So basically whatever your mission in life is, muscle gain, weight loss or just overall happiness it would seem that you can be limiting your chances of success by not getting enough D in your diet…
Co-director of the Musculoskeletal Axis of the Research Institute of the MUHC, Dr. Richard Kremer who also led the study said “Vitamin D insufficiency is a risk factor for other diseases,” adding that “Because it is linked to increased body fat, it may affect many different parts of the body. Abnormal levels of Vitamin D are associated with a whole spectrum of diseases, including cancer, osteoporosis and diabetes, as well as cardiovascular and autoimmune disorders.”
Eek!! Get me some quick!!

What amazed the researchers was that the study subjects were all young and healthy women living in California and as such were in a prime location and age group to be getting plenty of exercise, good diet and exposure to the sun, the trigger for Vitamin D production.

Dr. Kremer said “We are not yet sure what is causing Vitamin D insufficiency in this group.” He did suggest that “High levels of Vitamin D could help reduce body fat. Or, fat tissues might absorb or retain Vitamin D, so that people with more fat are likely to also be Vitamin D deficient.”

Further studies are being requested to more fully investigate the phenomena discovered.

The study received funding from several U.S. and Canadian organizations and the results were published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism

The problem with this study is that it seems to rule out the main source of vitamin D- the sun- as a limiting factor as all the participants in the study lived in sunny California, so that suggests that there is more to it than what was before thought. We used to think that get a good quota of ‘safe’ sunlight and you would be ok, but this now seems less so the case. So other good vitamin D sources?

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