Dr. John's Health Matters
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The articles posted here are from various sources who are duly acknowledged. I would appreciate being immediately notified, if any copywritten material needs to be removed. This blog is not intended to replace the qualified advice of a licensed health practitioner. Readers should exercise their own judgment. Enjoy, subscribe, participate and tell others :)
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Posts tagged "amino"
Monday, Aug 31st, 2009 ↓Wild lupins’ protein could rival soy, say Spanish researchers →
Aug 31, 2009 (Foodnavigator.com)—Wild varieties of lupin seeds could be tapped for their high quality protein content, report researchers in Spain, and could reduce the need to import soybean to Europe from places such as the US, Brazil and China.
Lupin, or lupinus, is an ancient legume cultivated in the Mediterranean and the South American Andes. Amongst the major cultivated species are Lupin albus (white lupin), L. mutabilis (pearl lupin) and L, angustifolius (blue lupin). One of the major uses of lupin seeds is in animal feed, but they can be eaten by humans if the bitterness is removed.
Lupin seed flours can also be used for making protein isolates; and a lupin seed derived ingredient from German firm Hochdorf is geared to the soy-free and lactose-free markets, as well as fat replacement for meat and bakery products.
While cultivated lupins have been seen to have a nutritional value comparable to soy beans – but suitable for quite different climates and soils – areas under cultivation have decreased in the last century, Javier Vioque of the Instituto de la Grasa in Seville and colleagues report.
They set out to evaluate the nutritional characteristics of seed proteins from six lupin species that grow in Southern Spain: L. angustifolius, L. consentinii, L. gredensis, L. luteus and L. micranthus. The seeds were collected from wild populations.
For full article, see link above.
Natural Therapies: Simple Solutions for Complex Problems →
Aug 31, 2009 (NaturalNews.com)— One question I’m routinely asked is “If you had to recommend just one supplement for __________ (fill in the blank), what would it be?” I could easily spout off a laundry list of safe, natural therapies for virtually all common health concerns. Narrowing it down to only one therapy per condition is much more of a challenge, but based on recent patient and subscriber feedback, here goes.
Manage Pain With MSM
For joint and muscle pain, I’ve been hearing great things about MSM (methylsulfonylmethane), a naturally occurring sulfur compound and close chemical cousin of DMSO-that doesn’t have DMSO’s obnoxious smell. MSM relieves pain by several mechanisms. It’s a powerful anti-inflammatory, it blocks the pain response in nerve fibers, and its sulfur may help with cartilage regeneration.
One of our patients, the mother of a Whitaker Wellness doctor, was bothered by nagging pain in her neck and shoulders- until she started taking MSM. Another patient, who is an actor, used to have such excruciating pain in his knees that he’d have to take Vicodin before going on stage and was considering arthroscopic surgery. He reported miraculous results with MSM and no longer requires painkillers. The suggested daily dose of MSM ranges between 1,200 and 6,000 mg. Start low and increase as needed.
How to Get a Good Night’s Sleep
Occasional sleeplessness is a very common concern. I used to recommend melatonin, a hormone that helps regulate your “body clock”; valerian, an herb with mild sedative effects; or L-theanine, an amino acid with profound relaxing properties. Each of these worked for some people, but not everyone. Then I tried them in combination, and bingo! For the majority of patients and subscribers, this combo engenders a good night’s sleep.
Tom, a VP at the company that publishes Health & Healing, shared his story. He was eating right, exercising, and taking vitamins, but when it came time for bed, despite the fact he was physically and mentally drained, he still sometimes had trouble falling or staying asleep. Since he started taking this supplement, however, he sleeps like a baby.
Look for combination sleep products in your health food store. Suggested doses are 1,000 mcg melatonin, 500 mg valerian extract, and 200 mg L-theanine 30 minutes to an hour before bedtime.
V8 Gives Hypertension the Boot
Experts predict that an astounding 90 percent of middle-aged Americans will develop hypertension at some point in their lives. This sounds extreme, but I have to admit that many of the patients who come to my clinic have high blood pressure. Fortunately, we are very successful at getting them off drugs with diet changes, exercise, and a handful of supplements. But if I had to select just one thing for high blood pressure it would be Low Sodium V8 Juice.
Low Sodium V8 has a slight blood-thinning effect, which reduces pressure on the arteries, and it’s loaded with potassium, which balances sodium and helps lower blood pressure. One of the many patients who has benefited from this therapy is Ted, an old friend of mine. After struggling with hypertension for years, Ted took me up on my suggestion to drink 12 ounces of this juice every day. Much to his surprise, this simple step worked to normalize his blood pressure.
For full article, see link above.
Tags: natural remedy supplement prevention treatment pain MSM joint muscle sulfur anti-inflammatory cartilage regeneration sleep melatonin valerian amino acid V8 hypertension blood pressure blood cardiovascular flaxseed cholesterol zinc lutein energy ribose fatique
Juice Health Benefits →
(NaturalNews.com)— Some mornings on my way to work, I drop by the local Jamba Juice store a block from my office and down 16 ounces of carrot juice and four ounces each of wheatgrass juice and a green tea energy drink. I drink this cocktail for overall health and vitality. The wheatgrass is full of vitamin K and amino acids, the carrot juice is packed with beta-carotene, and the green tea gives me a boost of caffeine and antioxidants to get my day started.
However, this is not a story about general health maintenance. It is about “targeted” juices that have predictable and rapid therapeutic effects on specific health conditions. Let’s start with a very common problem: high blood pressure.
Celery Juice Lowers Blood Pressure
When you think about lowering blood pressure, celery probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. But this crunchy vegetable deserves some serious attention. Loaded with potassium and magnesium, celery contains something even more important: 3-n-butyl-phthalide, a compound that relaxes the smooth muscle cells in the arterial walls, allowing the arteries to dilate and effectively lowering blood pressure.
One of the physicians at Whitaker Wellness decided to put celery to the test. Every day for a month, she and her father juiced and drank one bunch of celery, mixed with a little orange juice for flavor (it’s somewhat bitter on its own). Her father’s systolic blood pressure went from 148 to 128 and hers went from 120 to 105. Imagine results this dramatic without dangerous prescription drugs!
Another great juice for people with hypertension is Low-Sodium V8 Juice. It works on two fronts to lower blood pressure. First, it contains a particularly high dose of potassium (840 mg per eight ounces) that helps keep blood pressure in check. Second, according to a study recently published in JAMA, it is an effective blood thinner, which further contributes to its antihypertensive effects. For Ted, one of my longtime patients, simply drinking 12 ounces of Low-Sodium V8 Juice daily was enough to keep his blood pressure in the normal range.
For full article, see link above.
Tags: juice antioxidant vitamin amino acid celery cabbage stomach blood pressure cardiovascular therapeutic vegetable digestion cherry cranberry pain relief anthocyanin flavonoid gout uric acid urinary tract infection mannose prevention
Tags: hangover asparagus extract function enzyme liver metabloism alcohol leaf bioactive A. officinalis toxic shoot toxicity hydrogen peroxide nutrition amino acid mineral
Component Of Vegetable Protein May Be Linked To Lower Blood Pressure →
July 6, 2009 (Sciencedaily.com)—Consuming an amino acid commonly found in vegetable protein may be associated with lower blood pressure, researchers report in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
Researchers found that a 4.72 percent higher dietary intake of the amino acid glutamic acid as a percent of total dietary protein correlated with lower group average systolic blood pressure, lower by 1.5 to 3.0 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg). Group average diastolic blood pressure was lower by 1.0 to 1.6 mm Hg.
Systolic blood pressure is the force when the heart beats; diastolic pressure is the pressure when the heart rests between beats.
This average lower blood pressure seems small from an individual perspective. But, on a population scale, it represents a potentially important reduction, said Jeremiah Stamler, M.D., lead author of the study.
“It is estimated that reducing a population’s average systolic blood pressure by 2 mm Hg could cut stroke death rates by 6 percent and reduce mortality from coronary heart disease by 4 percent,” said Stamler, professor emeritus of the Department of Preventive Medicine in the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago, Ill.
For full article see link above.
Tags: vegetables glutamic hypertension heart circulatory blood pressure amino acid stroke prevention coronary disease
Health Food Supplement May Curb Compulsive Hair Pulling →
July 6, 2009 (Sciencedaily.com)—University of Minnesota Medical School researchers have discovered that a common antioxidant, widely available as a health food supplement, may help stop the urges of those with trichotillomania, a disorder characterized by compulsive hair-pulling.
Fifty people enrolled in a double-blind 12 week study; half were given N-Acetylcysteine, an amino acid commonly found in health food supplements. The average age of patients who enrolled was about 34, and most started pulling hair compulsively by the age of 12. Patients were given 1,200 mg of N-Acetylcysteine every day for six weeks. For the following six weeks, the dosage was increased to 2,400 mg per day. After nine weeks, those on supplement had significantly reduced hair-pulling. By the end of the 12 week study, 56 percent reported feeling much or very much improved, while only 16 percent on the placebo reported less pulling.
“Trichotillomania is compulsive in the sense that people can’t control it. People feel unable to stop the behavior even though they know it is causing negative consequences,” said Jon Grant, M.D., J.D., a University of Minnesota associate professor of psychiatry and principal investigator of the study. “Some people don’t even know they are doing it.”
For full article see link above.
Taurine Keeps Immune Systems Strong and Protects Organs →
July 3, 2009 (NaturalNews.com)— A seldom thought of amino acid called taurine is turning out to have remarkable properties. New research has revealed that taurine deficiency can compromise the immune system, while supplemental taurine can boost white blood cell count even during chemotherapy. Taurine is protective of organs during oxidative stress and injury, and is a powerful protector of the heart.
Scientists in China have found that taurine plays an important role in the functioning of leucocytes, the white cells in blood that are the backbone of the immune system. They investigated the enhancing effect of taurine on leucocytes after the administration of chemotherapy to mice with induced lung cancer. Some of the mice were given a chemotherapy drug alone, and some were given the drug plus supplemental taurine. The researchers studied the results through the use of indexes that included tumor inhibition rate, count of bone marrow nucleate cells, count and classification of white blood cells, spleen, and thymus.
For full article see link above.
Tags: amino acid taurine immunity deficiency supplement blood WBC organ heart injury leucocyte
Amino Acid Supplementation Prevents Heart Malfunction in Adult Onset Diabetes
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Jun 28 04 - In patients with type 2 diabetes who have normal resting left ventricular (LV) function and do not have coronary artery disease (CAD), an increased supply of amino acids prevents myocardial dysfunction and improves metabolic control, according to a report in the June issue of the American Heart Journal.
“Diabetes mellitus is associated with an increased rate of cardiac amino acid catabolism that could interfere with cardiac function,” Dr. Roldano Scognamiglio, of Policlinico Universitario, Padova, Italy, and colleagues write.
The team randomized 65 type 2 diabetic patents who had normal resting left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and no obstructive CAD to receive 12 g/day of an oral amino acid mixture (AAM) or placebo for 12 weeks.
Treatment was then crossed over for another similar period. The investigators performed 2-dimensional echocardiography at rest and during isometric exercise at baseline and at the end of each treatment. Biochemical assays were also performed. Twenty adults matched for age, sex, and BMI served as controls.
Resting left ventricular dimensions and LVEF did not differ between patients and controls at baseline and during AAM or placebo treatment. In diabetic patients, there was a significant decrease in peak handgrip LVEF at baseline (63% versus 56%, p < 0.001) and during placebo treatment (62% versus 55%, p < 0.001) compared with the resting value.
Peak handgrip LVEF did not differ significantly from resting value during treatment with AAM (66% versus 64%, respectively). “Thus, exercise LVEF was higher during AAM treatment than both baseline and placebo treatment (66% versus 56% and versus 55%, p < 0.001),” Dr. Scognamiglio and colleagues write.
Glycated hemoglobin level was decreased after AAM treatment compared with placebo treatment (7.0% versus 7.6%, p < .05).
“Although the precise underlying pathophysiological mechanism(s) is (are) not completely known, these data may eventually be important in designing [an] optimal dietetic approach for patients with [diabetes mellitus type 2] to prevent progressive myocardial dysfunction,” the authors conclude.
Am Heart J 2004;147:1106-1112.
Tryptophan Supplements Treat Depression →
Dec 12 09 (NaturalNews) Anti-depressant medications are widely used to treat depression and anxiety, but the side effects which often arise from the use of such medications cause many people to search for more natural methods of treating their depression. One of the most promising natural treatments for depression is tryptophan supplements.
Abnormalities in serotonin function can result in depression, as noted in the International Journal of Neuroscience in 1992. The study also states tryptophan can stimulate the proper function of serotonin in the brain. Since tryptophan is a naturally occurring amino acid, it is unlikely to produce toxicity or negative side effects. It can be a successful agent in treating disorders such as depression.
For full article, see link above.
Taurine has Many Important Benefits for the Body →
Dec 18 09 (NaturalNews) Taurine, while not an actual part of the human body’s structural proteins, is one of the highest numbering amino-acids. Taurine is found in the heart, the skeletal muscles, white blood cells, and the nervous system. When the body engages in extreme physical activity, it no longer will be able to produce the necessary amounts of Taurine. This may lead to a Taurine deficiency under certain conditions.
In adults, Taurine can be manufactured from methionine in the body and from cysteine in the liver; however, vitamin B6 must be present to enable this. Children cannot manufacture Taurine.
Taurine is a metabolic transmitter and is also beneficial for its detoxifying abilities in the body.
Taurine also is important for brain function. There is even research that points to Taurine being effective for helping people who suffer from bipolar disorder. Taurine is also effective for improving anxiety, hyperactivity, poor brain function and epilepsy. Taurine, along with zinc, is necessary for good eye health and good vision.
For full article, see link above.
