Control Body Fat and Diabetes with Chlorella
January 25, 2010
Natural News
By David Gutierrez
A superfood known as chlorella has caught on like wildfire in the United Kingdom, and studies continue to emerge linking the algae to improvement in symptoms of people with everything from diabetes and high blood pressure to digestive or immune problems.
Chlorella is a single-celled algae that naturally occurs in freshwater rivers and ponds in East Asia, tinting those bodies of water green. It is gathered from these natural sources, dried, crushed into a powder, and then packed into tablet form for sale as a dietary supplement. It has twice the protein density of spinach, 38 times that of soy beans and 55 times that of rice, providing nine essential amino acids along with a number of vitamins and minerals.
The algae has shown effectiveness at improving the symptoms of metabolic syndrome — a collection of symptoms linked with cardiovascular disease and diabetes, including high fasting blood sugar, high blood pressure and cholesterol, and central obesity. Studies have found chlorella supplements to reduce blood pressure in 50 percent of hypertension patients, as well as significantly reduce body fat, blood cholesterol and blood sugar levels.
“It seems that chlorella turns on the genes that control the way insulin is normally used by the cells in the body,” said researcher Randall Merchant of Virginia Commonwealth University. “This research shows that chlorella could in theory help correct the problems of metabolic syndrome. It is not a magic bullet, but taking it is one other preventive thing you can do, like exercise or watching your diet.”
Other studies have shown that chlorella encourages the growth of “good bacteria,” absorbs toxins from the intestines, improves digestion, and eases the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome, ulcerative colitis and fibromyalgia. Chlorella supporters claim that it also increases energy levels and fights depression.
After studies showed that chlorella boosts the immune system, preventing secondary infections in people with brain tumors, some British doctors have started using it to complement cancer treatments.
Because chlorella is high in vitamin K1, it can interfere with the effects of blood thinning medications.
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Remove Heavy Metals in the Body With Cilantro
November 09, 2009
Natural News
By Mike Adams
Heavy metals are extremely toxic to human neurology. Mercury, lead and cadmium all contribute aggressively to the deterioration of neurological function. Fortunately, there’s a simple, natural way to detox your body and remove these toxic substances from your tissues.
The solution is cilantro. It’s that magical-tasting herb often used in Mexican food recipes. As it turns out, cilantro not only taste great, it also binds to heavy metals and helps remove them from your body.
Below, we’re collected some important research on this remarkable ability of the cilantro herb. Read them all to learn more, then whip up your own delicious recipes using raw cilantro in your own kitchen!
Food, after all, is really potent medicine. You can also purchase cilantro liquid extracts from places like Baseline Nutritionals (their product is called “Metal Magic”) or other vendors of quality superfood supplements.
Cilantro removes heavy metals
Supplements helpful in the detoxification process include: cilantro, Vitamin C, selenium, garlic and others. Eating a clean diet, free of pesticides and hormones, is a must for a detoxification program. I encourage my patients to eat whole foods, with adequate amounts of protein. Eliminating the “whites”– refined sugar, refined flour, and refined salt will help any health condition and help any detoxification program. The glycemic index of carbohydrates can be a helpful guide on which carbohydrates to eat and which to avoid.
- The Miracle of Natural Hormones by David Brownstein
Add cilantro to meals; it can help remove heavy metals. Add dark green leafy vegetables, which contain chlorophyll, a helpful detoxifier. Get curcuminoids from spices such as turmeric. Try herbal detoxification teas containing mixtures of burdock root, dandelion root, ginger root, licorice root, sarsaparilla root, cardamom seed, cinnamon bark, and other herbs.
- Ultraprevention : The 6-Week Plan That Will Make You Healthy for Life by Mark Hyman, M.D.
There are several natural chelation products that use only the cilantro and chlorella to extremely positive effect supporting the basic premises being put forth here. The addition of ALA brings in the leading work of Dr. Andrew Hall Cutler, who is one of the world’s leading experts on mercury detoxification. His extensive and successful use of ALA has won him a large devoted audience.
- Transdermal Magnesium Therapy by Mark Sircus
Metal Magic is made from two simple herbs: cilantro and chlorella. Alone, each of these has the ability to bind with heavy metals, and together they make a very powerful metal detoxification substance that can literally pull mercury, lead, cadmium, and other heavy metals right out of your body, thereby sparing your body the damage that would normally be caused by those heavy metals. This is potentially a life-saving product, and it can certainly save the health of a fetus, if you happen to be pregnant or you plan to have a pregnancy in the near future.
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Super Food Chlorella to Remove Mercury and Other Metals
October 30, 2009
Natural News
By Mike Adams
There’s mercury everywhere around us, it seems. It’s in the food (seafood), the medicines (vaccines) and even the lights (compact fluorescent lights). And that doesn’t even cover mercury fillings still used by crazed dentists who insist mercury is “perfectly safe” to chew on!
All the sane people have already figured out that mercury is highly toxic to human health, but how do you get mercury out of your body once you’ve ingested it?
That’s where chlorella enters the picture. This amazing microalgae superfood binds to mercury and helps remove it from your body, safely and naturally. It doesn’t get 100% of the mercury out (chelation can help with that), but it does an amazingly good job for a natural, food-based dietary supplement.
I’ve taken chlorella for over a decade. It’s one of the mainstays of my nutritional supplementation (which also includes spirulina and astaxanthin). Learn more about chlorella in this collection of supporting quotes we’ve compiled for you.
Removing heavy metals with chlorella
Chlorella is a single-cell, fresh water algae that is rich in protein, vitamins, minerals, chlorella growth factor, and other beneficial substances. It is about the size of a human erythrocyte (red blood cell) or about 2-8 microns in diameter. Chlorella is high in chlorophyll, giving it a rich green color. For many years, chlorella has been accepted as a detoxifier, and it is commonly used in colon cleansing regimes. Chlorella appears to bind to heavy metals as well as other toxic substances in the bowel and help with the detoxification process.
- Disease Prevention and Treatment by The Life Extension Editorial Staff
There are several species of chlorella. Those most commonly used in nutritional supplements are Chlorella vulgaris and Chlorella pyrenoidosa. Chlorella is rich in protein. In addition, it is rich in chlorophyll, carotenoids, such as astaxanthin, canthaxanthin, flavoxanthin, loraxanthin, neoxanthin and violaxanthin. Chlorella also contains the xanthophyll, echinenone.
- PDR for Nutritional Supplements by Sheldon Saul Hendler and David Rorvik
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Chlorella: The Superfood That Helps Fight Disease
August 17, 2009
Telegraph.co.uk
By Victoria Lambert
You wouldn’t exactly call chlorella an overnight success. The health benefits of the green algae that grows in freshwater ponds in the Far East have so far been limited to those in the know, and its progress to British medicine cabinets has been slow. Since it became available in tablet form in the UK three years ago, it has achieved an almost cultish appreciation as a superfood, but now scientific research could catapult it into the mainstream.
New research from Japan suggests that this green algae could be effective in fighting major lifestyle diseases. It has been shown to reduce body-fat percentage and blood-glucose levels and help those suffering from Type 2 diabetes, obesity or heart disease. Its benefits include boosting energy, aiding digestion and fighting depression.
What excited the scientists, including the notable Carnegie Institute in Washington DC, was that this green algae proved to be almost a dream food. It is packed with protein – twice as much as spinach – and about 38 times the quantity of soybeans, and 55 times that of rice. It also contains nine essential amino acids, as well as vitamins and minerals.
These are the latest in a long line of health claims – ranging from boosting the immune system in cancer patients to improving the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome.
Chlorella is a tiny, unicellular green algae, three to eight micrometres in diameter, which when grown in large quantities in South East Asia and Australia gives lakes and rivers a green tint. Before being used as a supplement, it must be gathered, dried to a paste, crushed to a fine emerald green powder, and converted to tiny, soft, crumbly tablets, which smell vaguely of the sea.
Although chlorella was discovered by a Dutch microbiologist in 1890 and studied as a potential protein source by German scientists, it wasn’t until after the Second World War that the reality of food shortages, combined with the expectation of a population boom, led to bureaucrats globally examining chlorella in the hope that it could be used to feed the masses cheaply – this proved uneconomic. Later, NASA studied it with a view to feeding it to astronauts, and perhaps growing it on space stations.
It is currently being used in the UK to help cancer patients. Nadia Brydon, senior therapist in complementary medicine at Breast Cancer Haven, the charity that supplies integrated health care to support women with breast cancer, is convinced it is an important food source with many health benefits.
“So many of us eat a calorie-dense, nutrionally-deficient diet that it is no wonder we’re all getting sick and tired all the time,” she says.
Nadia says chlorella is a great way of taking on magnesium, which can be found in green vegetables. “Magnesium is one of nature’s antidepressants and helps us cope with stress. One of our best sources is from chlorophyll in green plants – and chlorella is bursting with that,” she says.
Nadia also believes chlorella is highly protective against toxins. “We are bombarded with chemicals in pesticides and fungicides; chlorella helps to get them out of the body. It is a fantastic detoxifier and deodorant.”
Tests have shown that chlorella stimulates the growth of probiotic or friendly bacteria, and its cell walls absorb toxins within the intestine and encourage peristalsis – the muscular contraction that moves material through the bowels – preventing constipation and toxic material in the stool being reabsorbed into the bloodstream.
As it is a natural food, chlorella is safe for most people to take; but one exception seems to be those who are prescribed warfarin. This is because chlorella contains vitamin K1, which is important in helping blood clotting – the very opposite of warfarin, which acts as an anticoagulant.
But it’s not just the alternative medicine fraternity who are fans. Prof Randall Merchant, professor of Neurosurgery and Anatomy at Virginia Commonwealth University, in the US, has been involved in research into brain tumours, traumatic brain injury, and stroke. In 1986, he began clinical trials, funded by chlorella producer Sun Chlorella ‘A’, into whether the algae might boost a patient’s immune system.
“Fascinating,” is how he describes the results. “It didn’t make brain tumours go away or shrink, so it didn’t cure the cancer, but it did help the patients by boosting their immune system so that they resisted opportunistic infections.”
Since then, Prof Merchant has performed clinical trials to test whether chlorella could be useful in helping with chronic conditions such as fibromyalgia, ulcerative colitis and hypertension. In the first two trials, his team found that “patients’ symptoms diminished quite nicely”. For hypertension, the results were more dramatic; while it lowered blood pressure in about 50 per cent of cases, which was promising, the studies showed that it also significantly lowered serum cholesterol.
In 2008, he examined the effects chlorella has on those with metabolic syndrome – the collection of symptoms that often lead to the cells in our bodies becoming less sensitive to insulin, and therefore a precursor to diabetes.
Prof Merchant says: “It seems that chlorella turns on the genes that control the way insulin is normally used by the cells in the body. This research shows that chlorella could in theory help correct the problems of metabolic syndrome. It is not a magic bullet, but taking it is one other preventive thing you can do, like exercise or watching your diet.”
Click here for the full report from Telegraph.co.uk
