Green Drink Reviews

Thyroid Imbalance: An American Epidemic

The number of Americans suffering from thyroid imbalance is reaching epidemic proportions. An estimated 15 million individuals are living with this imbalance, but the number is probably much higher. The most common imbalance is Hypothyroidism, which is an under-active thyroid. Symptoms include low energy, sensitivity to cold, slow digestion and elimination, weight gain, slow heartbeat, and even depression.

Sound like you?

Maybe you should pamper your thyroid a bit. The first step is to stop drinking caffeinated beverages. The caffeine causes your adrenal gland to secrete adrenaline, which increases blood sugar levels and therefore energy. But this has negative effects on the thyroid. With the increased energy, the thyroid re-regulates the metabolism and, if repeated every day (from your daily pot of coffee?) then the thyroid goes into hibernation. Take Panax ginseng to help counter this. Ginseng is reported to mitigate the effects of caffeine and stress on the system, including the adrenal gland and thyroid.

Another way to support the thyroid is with sea kelp. Kelp is rich in natural iodine, which supports your thyroid. Another excellent source of natural iodine is in walnuts.

The thyroid is the regulator of metabolism, which is like the gas pedal of the car. No matter what kind of fuel you put into the car, it won’t go well if the throttle is broken. Use kelp, ginseng, and walnuts to help it out…and go easy on the caffeine.

walnut photo by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Fir0002
Kelp phot by http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Lyzzy

2 comments October 13th, 2006

Stop Colds Before They Start

Colds are caused primarily by inhaled germs and bacteria. These airborne molecules first come into contact with the tissues in your throat, which is why most colds begin with minor itching or soreness in the throat. From there, the bacteria grows and descends to your chest and lungs…or rises up to the mucus membranes in your nasal cavities. By then the game is over. You lose.

If you eradicate the bacteria when it first attempts to take hold in your throat, you can avoid colds before they start. Here is a recipe for an antiseptic, antibacterial throat spray. Keep it handy at all times and spray the back of your throat the minute you begin to feel itching or irritation. Continue applications every few hours until the sensation disappears. You may also want to spray before you go to sleep.

Natural Antiseptic Throat Spray
1 fluid ounce St. John’s Wort
½ fluid ounce liquid Echinacea extract
20 drops Grapefruit Seed Extract
5 drops tea tree oil

Combine all these ingredients into a 2-ounce tincture bottle with a pump spray top. Shake well before using. If you can’t find a pump spray top, then use an eye dropper to apply four or five drops onto the back of your throat and use your tongue to spread the solution around.

1 comment October 7th, 2006

Papaya for Blisters, Burns & Bites

Researchers have found that papaya pulp not only tastes good, but has curative powers for minor wounds like blisters, burns and bee stings. The powerful papain enzymes in the fruit have antisceptic properties while helping break down poisons in bee stings and bug bites. For burns, the pulp also cleans the burned area and hydrates the wounded skin tissue, which speeds healing and minimizes blistering and scarring. Doctors in Africa and Indonesia have been using papaya with success in cleaning and dressing open wounds.

Putting the fruit into your mouth isn’t so bad either. Papaya is rich in beta carotine, a powerful antioxidant, vitamins, and enzymes to help with digestion.

Add comment October 3rd, 2006

My Favorite Power Foods & Superfoods

There are many great foods that are high in nutrients, antioxidants, or other substances and they all deserve their day in the sun. But these are my all-time favorites, foods that are really special—not just for health, but for many reasons. Check up on these power foods:

Bee Pollen

Pollen is one of the natures most amazing products. These little globules contain more nutrients than almost any other food source. They have many times more protein than meat, being almost 30% protein. Pollen contains over 16 different vitamins and minerals (including trace minerals), and is rich in enzymes and amino acids. It is also extremely low in fat. In fact, pollen enhances the production of HDL cholesterol (the good fat) and decreases the production of LDL cholesterol (the bad fat). It acts as a powerful antioxidant (containing flavonoids, rutin in particular), has antibacterial and antiviral qualities, and helps to increase the production of blood cells (both white and red), while balancing white/red blood counts. Is it even necessary to go on?

Bee pollen goes great in so many things. Sprinkle it on your cereal or peanut butter toast, add it to juices or just eat it plain. I do.

Pure Cocoa

Cocoa is primarily a powerful antioxidant, being extremely high in flavonoids. Flavonoids reduce risk of heart disease and help clean the bloodstream and arteries of fat and other toxins. Cocoa also helps keep blood pressure down and regulates blood flow, not unlike a low dose of aspirin. One of its sexier qualities is that it helps the body process nitric oxide, which give it its famous aphrodisiac qualities. For a comparison, Viagra achieves its special erectile effects by blocking a chemical that inhibits nitric oxide in the system. Cocoa encourages production of nitric oxide. Either way, you end up with the right substance in the right place. Plus, cocoa is found to promote the brain’s production of endorphins and natural opiates.

Of course, sweetened cocoa, or chocolate, contains much of these benefits, but pure cocoa is, by far, the best. You can add pure, unsweetened cocoa to your breakfast oatmeal, or hot coffee. Try adding it to the already chocolaty Mexican Mole sauce.

Spirulina & Chlorella

I put these together, because they are often sold together. But it’s important to note that spirulina is “blue-green algae” and chlorella is “green algae.” Spirulina is rich in carotenoids (including beta-carotene), which are among the most important antioxidants around, and high in vitamins and minerals (including B vitamins and iron). Chlorophyll is just one of the many phyto-chemicals found in spirulina and it is high in protein and essential fatty acids (particularly GLA, a fatty acid that is more difficult to find). Chlorella, also rich in enzymes, minerals and chlorophyll, is also found to chelate certain heavy metals from the blood, liver and intestines, including aluminum and mercury. The combination of spirulina and chlorella is a winner!

2 comments September 27th, 2006

5 Things You Should Know About Liver Detoxification

1. Everyone has gallstones! They are essentially hardened bile caused by too much cholesterol in the diet. They obstruct the normal production of bile in the liver and gallbladder, which results in impaired digestion, reduced ability to process fats and proteins, poor elimination, and poor blood health. They generally go unnoticed until they present a major problem. But the “minor” problems they cause include low energy, allergies, low immunity, weight gain, IBS, and other bowel problems.
2. One of the best detoxifying foods is raw garlic, which is high in methionine (helpful for cleansing) and selenium (an excellent antioxidant).
3. Combine a salad of alfalfa (loaded with vitamins, minerals, and enzymes and helps remove toxins from the liver), milk thistle leaves (you can eat the fresh leaves, an excellent liver tonic and antioxidant), spinach (a source of lipoic acid, known for its chelation properties), broccoli, and tomatoes. Use olive oil, minced garlic, apple cider vinegar, salt and pepper as a dressing. Your liver will love you for it.
4. Lipoic acid is one of natures great antioxidants. But what’s more, studies show that it helps chelate (bind to and remove) certain heavy metals from the liver, including copper and iron and improves the body’s metabolism of glucose to the cells by activating insulin receptors, good news for Diabetes Mellitus Type 2 patients.
5. EDTA is recognized by many medical professionals as the best chelation around. It is available as a dietary supplement and is found to remove heavy metals from the body with no side effects and without the high cost of normal chelation. Many doctors are reluctant to accept it because it poses a challenge to conventional wisdom on chelation.

1 comment September 23rd, 2006

Masturbation is the Best Prevention

Research indicates that masturbation may be the single best preventative medicine for prostate disorders, such as infection and prostatitis, which can lead to prostate cancer. Not only will masturbation NOT make you go blind, it serves as the best and cleanest way to cleanse the prostate of toxins. Frequent ejaculation is known to enhance prostate health, since the prostate empties itself of fluids (including toxins) upon ejaculation. But ejaculation through sexual intercourse exposes the prostate to bacteria. Studies show that in terms of bacteria, the mouth is the “dirtiest” of the three main cavities. The anus is the second cleanest and the vagina is the cleanest. But all of these contain bacteria that can enter the urethra and infect the prostate. Only masturbation provides bacteria free cleansing of the prostate—and an excellent “do it yourself” preventative treatment.

2 comments September 22nd, 2006

Best Practices to Boost the Immune System

With all the noise about the immune system and its importance to our health and longevity, it can be difficult to boil things down to the best practices, therapies and supplements for giving our immunity a bump and keeping it healthy. So I’ve compiled this little list of best practices to make it easier. Remember that these are just a few of the most noteworthy practices and supplements I’ve come across in my studies and that these should probably be done in concert to assist the immune system on various levels.

Immune system support has a few main components: Insuring proper nutrition, assisting the thymus, restoring proper homone levels, stimulating blood health (especially the production of T-cell and B-cells), and combating damage to cells from excess oxidation. So here are some great ways to do those things:

1. Increase the antioxidants in your diet by taking vitamins C and E and by eating plenty of deeply colored berries, fruits and vegetables.
2. Supplement your diet with one or more superfoods, such as pure, unsweetened cocao; spirulina with chlorella; and bee pollen with royal jelly.
3. Take DHEA supplements to restore hormone depletion from excess cortisol (caused by stress, and stimulants like caffeine).
4. Take one or more of these herbal remedies: Echinacea/goldenseal; olive leaf extract; Panax ginseng; astragalus; mistletoe extract.

Well, that really boils it down to the essentials, doesn’t it? That’s what I’m here for.

Next topic.

1 comment September 19th, 2006

Trans-Fatty Acids: There’s no Debate

Margarine producers would love for you to think that the butter vs. margarine debate is still alive and well. But the debate was over some time ago. The discovery of trans fatty acids in margarine (which coat your arteries with fat deposits) delivered the final blow. Even if you once thought it was worth eating a semi-plastic hydrogenated oil (and all the poinsonous yellow dye added to it to mask its normally dark color) in order to save a whopping 3 grams of fat per tablespoon over butter, it should now be clear that since 2 of those 5 grams of fat in margarine are trans fats (responsible for all kinds of horrible stoppages in the body), you’re better off just getting the flavor and fat of butter.

But the margarine chemists have now come out with “zero-trans-fat margarine.” What up with that? Should we go back to eating soft plastic? Well, not if you consider how they achieve the zero mark for their labels. In short, they dilute the hydrogenated oil with water or liquid oil, thus reducing the amount of trans fats per tablespoon. If you were to dilute your butter with olive oil in the same way, you could reduce its percentage of saturated fat per tablespoon too. And keep the taste.

But here. Let’s just remove ourselves from this debate with the following all-natural, great tasting butter substitute. Ok, it doesn’t taste exactly like butter, but give it a chance. You might actually prefer it to butter after you get over your butter withdrawal.

Flaxseed Butter Substitute
1/2 cup flaxseed oil
1/8 cup brewer’s yeast flakes
1/4 cup lecithin granules
1/2 teaspoon honey

Mix the yeast in a spice grinder or coffee grinder until it turns to a powder, then stir it into the flaxseed oil and lecithin. Mix in honey. Use as a spread, just like butter. It works especially well on steemed veggies (cabbage, mmmm!). Store in the refrigerator.

NOTE: If you don’t like the taste of flaxseed oil, experiment with walnut and sesame oils — perhaps mixed with olive oil.

1 comment September 17th, 2006

Cure for ADHD: Eliminate Dysfunction at Home

Scientific studies into the causes of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) remain inconclusive as to a neurological origin for the disorder. Although allergic reactions to environmental and food toxins continue to warrant study in their connection with ADD and other behavioral and cognitive disorders in children (and adults for that matter), there is still some mystery as to why some children exhibit ADHD symptoms and others do not. We remain with no conclusive evidence that food allergies or heavy metal poisoning actually cause ADHD.

Many researchers conclude, therefore, that ADHD is not a neurological disorder, but a psychological one, stemming from dysfunction in a primary environment, such as school, home, or church. Hyperactivity can be diagnosed as a coping mechanism for certain children to deal with fear or anxiety caused by their environments. Sometimes the dysfunction is clear, such as in the case of violence or substance abuse. In other cases, children may be magnifying a specific fear or anxiety that parents may not be fully aware of.

In any case, one of the brain’s mechanisms for coping with stress is to slow down, thus “shutting out” the stressful input. The brain enters the low, theta wave ranges. These slow brainwave patterns mirror brainwave frequencies of ADHD children. Some experts see hyperactivity and ADHD in children as a cry for “peace” and recommend quality time, sanctuary and even therapy in the place of medications, like Ritalin.

Add comment September 13th, 2006

Coffee Drinkers Take DHEA to Combat Adrenal Depletion

Did you know that drinking excess caffeine can cause your adrenal glands to over-produce and wear themselves out? Excessive caffeine intake causes the adrenal glands to react much like they do with chronic stress – by producing adrenalin. If you don’t give your adrenal glands a break, you’re likely to require more and more coffee to get the same energy effects. In other words, you are in a state of adrenal depletion.

Studies now show that intake of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) can help balance out the adrenal over production. DHEA assists in proper cardiovascular, immune system, and nervous system functioning and it counter-balances the hormone imbalance caused by excess cortisol in the system.

Add comment September 8th, 2006

Everyone Needs Antioxidants

Antioxidants are not just for older adults trying to slow the aging process. Antioxidants combat the negative effects of oxidation in your system — a chemical process that occurs when your body converts food into energy. The negative effects include the production of free radicals, electrons that fly off of atoms and into cell walls, causing diminished cell functioning which leads to aging, sickness, heart disease, and countless types of ailments. If you smoke, drink, eat too much, or consume or breathe harmful toxins (such as those in many food products and household chemicals), you increase the amount of free radicals and speed up the damage they do.

Antioxidants buffer the cell walls from free radicals and even inhibit the creation of certain free radicals. Used in combination, they are perhaps the single most important natural cure in existence. Everyone should increase their intake of antioxidants! Here’s how:

1. Drink more green tea.
2. Drink an antioxidant-rich juice. You can make your own from berries and carrots or buy one of the pre-mixed concoctions, such as “Berry Young Juice” from Young Living. There are others.
3. Eat more antioxidant-rich foods, such as tomatoes, dark green leafy vegetables, deep-colored fruit, nuts (especially walnuts and hazelnuts), and pure cocoa powder (not sweetened or processed). An excellent pre-mixed antioxidant-rich food is “Maharishi Amrit Kalash.” Other combinations of Indian and Ayurvedic herbs are also available.

1 comment September 7th, 2006