Take Fish Oil to Fight Mental Illness
February 3, 2010
Natural News
By Mike Adams
An important new study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry reveals that fish oil supplements beat mental illness. The study involved 81 people deemed to be at high risk for psychosis. The randomized, placebo-controlled study provided fish oil supplements to half the study subjects for just 12 weeks (the other half received placebo supplements). The results? While 11 people in the placebo group developed a psychotic disorder, only 2 in the fish oil group did.
Although the study was relatively small, it helps demonstrate the wide-ranging benefits of omega-3 fatty acids, which are thought to be the key nutritional factor in fish oils. We already know that omega-3 fatty acids / polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) help protect people against cardiovascular disease. We also know they can play a role in preventing diabetes and cancer. It’s little surprise that they also protect against mental illness, given the importance of healthy fatty acids for the functioning of the nervous system.
As the BBC reports, Alison Cobb, from the mental health charity Mind, said in response to this study: “If young people can be treated successfully with fish oils, this is hugely preferable to treating them with antipsychotics, which come with a range of problems from weight gain to sexual dysfunction, whereas omega-3s are actually beneficial to their general state of health.”
She’s exactly right: Antipsychotic drugs actually cause diabetes. They promote blood sugar disorders and weight gain, among other problems. Some psychiatric drugs have also been linked to school shootings and violent outbursts (suicides, murders, etc.). They’re also expensive and they pose an environmental hazard, since many of the chemicals used in those drugs pass right through the body and end up in waters downstream.
Fish oils have none of these negative side effects. In fact, they have positive effects throughout the body. That’s why fish oils are such a remarkable solution to replace antipsychotic drugs: They’re safer, cheaper and they work better!
You’re supposed to keep taking drugs, says Big Pharma
The drug companies, of course, are terrified that people might learn this truth. They want to keep patients on expensive, patented antipsychotic drugs while discrediting “natural remedies” like fish oils or nutritional supplements. The entire war being waged against nutrition and supplements is, of course, nothing more than the pharmaceutical industry trying to protect its own turf by destroying the competition.
Because, let’s face it: For (virtually) every popular pharmaceutical on the market, there’s a nutritional supplement that works better (and that’s also safer and more affordable). Antipsychotic drugs can be replaced with fish oils. Cholesterol drugs can be replaced with B vitamins. Anti-cancer drugs can be replaced with vitamin D and medicinal mushrooms. Diabetes drugs can be replaced with a healthy plant-based diet and targeted supplements. The list goes on and on…
Nutrition works so well that in this study, subjects experienced a protective effect from fish oils for an entire year even though they only took those fish oils for 12 weeks! Imagine how much better the outcome might have been if they continued on the fish oils for the entire year…
Get quality fish oils
Of course, when it comes to fish oils, don’t settle for just any cheap fish oil supplement. Many of the cheaper store-bought brands are largely made of olive oil filler combined with a tiny amount of fish oil extract. Search out quality supplements or oils from companies like Moxxor, Nordic Naturals or Carlson Labs.
Make sure your supplements are free from heavy metals, pesticides and other residues. Make sure they are harvested in a truly sustainable way, and make sure you can trust the source to provide consistent quality.
Fish oils can provide astonishing health benefits. If the medical industry were truly honest about researching what works for patients rather than what makes money for drug companies, they would have openly prescribed fish oils long ago (and abandoned many of the antipsychotic drugs they still push).
But as you already know, the pharmaceutical industry isn’t interested in what works for people unless it’s something they can sell at monopoly prices. They don’t want people to know about natural remedies, nutritional cures or healing foods. They would much rather see people stay ignorant about those things while pumping their minds full of advertisements and propaganda that ridiculously suggests the human brain is somehow deficient in Big Pharma’s patented chemicals and that the only way you’ll ever be truly healthy, happy or sane is to keep swallowing their pills for the rest of your life.
The real insanity in the world is not in the minds of mental patients; it’s in the evil plans of the FDA, the WHO and the pharmaceutical cartel — all of whom conspire to peddle dangerous medications when far safer, more natural and more effective alternatives are readily available.
Abstract of study from the Archives of General Psychiatry
Long-Chain Omega-3 Fatty Acids for Indicated Prevention of Psychotic Disorders
http://archpsyc.ama-assn.org/cgi/co…
A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial
G. Paul Amminger, MD; Miriam R. Sch�fer, MD; Konstantinos Papageorgiou, MD; Claudia M. Klier, MD; Sue M. Cotton, PhD; Susan M. Harrigan, MSc; Andrew Mackinnon, PhD; Patrick D. McGorry, MD, PhD; Gregor E. Berger, MD
Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2010;67(2):146-154.
Context: The use of antipsychotic medication for the prevention of psychotic disorders is controversial. Long-chain omega-3 (omega-3) polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) may be beneficial in a range of psychiatric conditions, including schizophrenia. Given that omega-3 PUFAs are generally beneficial to health and without clinically relevant adverse effects, their preventive use in psychosis merits investigation.
Objective: To determine whether omega-3 PUFAs reduce the rate of progression to first-episode psychotic disorder in adolescents and young adults aged 13 to 25 years with subthreshold psychosis.
Design: Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial conducted between 2004 and 2007.
Setting: Psychosis detection unit of a large public hospital in Vienna, Austria.
Participants: Eighty-one individuals at ultra-high risk of psychotic disorder.
Interventions: A 12-week intervention period of 1.2-g/d omega-3 PUFA or placebo was followed by a 40-week monitoring period; the total study period was 12 months.
Main Outcome Measures: The primary outcome measure was transition to psychotic disorder. Secondary outcomes included symptomatic and functional changes. The ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids in erythrocytes was used to index pretreatment vs posttreatment fatty acid composition.
Results: Seventy-six of 81 participants (93.8%) completed the intervention. By study’s end (12 months), 2 of 41 individuals (4.9%) in the omega-3 group and 11 of 40 (27.5%) in the placebo group had transitioned to psychotic disorder (P = .007). The difference between the groups in the cumulative risk of progression to full-threshold psychosis was 22.6% (95% confidence interval, 4.8-40.4). Omega-3 Polyunsaturated fatty acids also significantly reduced positive symptoms (P = .01), negative symptoms (P = .02), and general symptoms (P = .01) and improved functioning (P = .002) compared with placebo. The incidence of adverse effects did not differ between the treatment groups.
Conclusions: Long-chain omega-3 PUFAs reduce the risk of progression to psychotic disorder and may offer a safe and efficacious strategy for indicated prevention in young people with subthreshold psychotic states.
Click here for the full report.
Selenium and Omega-3s Prevent Colon Cancer
January 25, 2010
Natural News
By S.L. Baker
When scientists gathered in Houston recently for the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research Conference, they heard groundbreaking evidence about how colon cancer can be prevented. The new data wasn’t about drugs or surgery, either. Instead, two separate research groups concluded natural substances appear to protect from often deadly colon malignancies.
Colon cancer, which the American Cancer Society estimates is diagnosed in over 108,000 Americans each year, is intricately linked to adenomas, also called polyps. These lesions grow in the large bowel and start off as benign. However, they can turn into cancerous tumors and 70 to 80% of all cancers of the colon (the longest part of the large intestine) and rectum result from adenomas-turned-malignant.
So, in hopes of preventing future cancerous growths, polyps found during colonoscopies are snipped off and biopsied. Unfortunately though, pre-cancerous polyps often return. But scientists at the National Institute for Cancer Research in Genoa, Italy, conducted a long term study that shows the risk of pre-cancerous polyps (dubbed colorectal metachronous adenomas) coming back after they’ve been removed can be greatly reduced. The key? Taking specific antioxidants, including a selenium-based compound.
“Our study is the first intervention trial specifically designed to evaluate the efficacy of the selenium-based antioxidant compound on the risk of developing metachronous adenomas,” said Luigina Bonelli, M.D., head of the unit of secondary prevention and screening at the National Institute for Cancer Research, in a statement to the media.
40% reduced risk
The research team studied volunteers between the ages of 25 and 75 who had already had one or more colorectal adenomas removed. None of the participants were diagnosed with any additional colorectal disease, cancer or other life-threatening illness and none were taking vitamins or mineral supplements when the study began. The scientists randomly divided the 411 participants into two groups: those in one group received an inactive placebo and those in the second group took a daily antioxidant supplement containing a selenium compound (selenomethionnine 200 ug), zinc 30 mg, vitamin A 6,000 IU, vitamin C 180 mg and vitamin E 30 mg.
“Our results indicated that individuals who consumed antioxidants had a 40% reduction in the incidence of metachronous adenomas of the large bowel,” Bonelli said. “It is noteworthy that the benefit observed after the conclusion of the trial persisted through 13 years of follow up.”
Omega-3s help prevent colorectal cancer
Another study just released at the Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research Conference — this one from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina — found that omega-3 fatty acids, which are primarily found in cold water fish such as salmon, may be able to prevent colorectal cancer.
The scientists recruited 1,509 Caucasian participants (716 cancer cases and 787 controls) and 369 African-American participants (213 cancer cases and 156 controls). A validated food questionnaire was used to collect information on the frequency and amount of foods typically consumed by the research subjects in the past 12 months. Those who ate more long-chain omega-3 fatty acids had a significantly reduced risk of large bowel cancer. In fact, the highest intake was linked to an almost 40% decreased cancer risk. Unfortunately, the greatly reduced risk was only seen in white research subjects and the scientists are trying to figure out what might account for the racial disparity.
“Experimental data have shown benefits of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids in colorectal carcinogenesis, ranging from reduced tumor growth, suppression of angiogenesis and inhibition of metastasis,” research leader Sangmi Kim, Ph.D., said in a statement to the press. “Our finding of inverse association between dietary intakes of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids and distal large bowel cancer in white participants adds additional support to the hypothesis.”
These new studies linking natural substances to colon cancer prevention are part of a growing body of evidence indicating dietary measures can fight this kind of cancer successfully. For example, as NaturalNews has previously reported, the disease is primarily linked to the typical Western diet so avoiding processed food and trans fats can go far to prevent it. What’s more, blueberries have been shown to slash the risk of colon cancer by 57% and apples contain natural phytochemicals that have a protective effect against colon cancer too.
Click here for the full report
Walnuts Cut Cholesterol
December 10, 2009
NaturalNews
by David Gutierrez
Eating a diet high in walnuts may decrease cholesterol and fight inflammation, two major risk factors for cardiovascular disease, according to a study conducted by researchers from Harvard University and published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
“Consumption of nuts has been associated with a decreased risk of cardiovascular disease events and death,” the researchers wrote. “Walnuts in particular have a unique profile: they are rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids, which may improve blood lipids and other cardiovascular disease risk factors.”
Walnuts are also considered good dietary sources of fiber, magnesium, B vitamins, vitamin E and other antioxidants.
Researchers analyzed the results of 13 different studies conducted on a total of 365 participants who had obtained between 10 and 24 percent of their calories from walnuts for four to 24 weeks. They found that participants on a high-walnut diet underwent significant decreases in total and LDL (“bad”) cholesterol.
“When compared with control diets, diets supplemented with walnuts resulted in a significantly greater decrease in total cholesterol and in LDL-cholesterol concentrations,” the researchers wrote.
The researchers also found other indicators that even though a high-walnut diet is high in fat, it seems to lower the risk of cardiovascular disease rather than raising it.
“Other results reported in the trials indicated that walnuts provided significant benefits for certain antioxidant capacity and inflammatory markers and had no adverse effects on body weight,” the researchers wrote.
The researchers called for “larger and longer-term trials” to further understand the heart benefits of nut-rich diets.
Prior studies have linked diets high in nuts and berries to a reduced risk of metabolic syndrome, a cluster of symptoms related to cardiovascular disease. Other nuts previously linked to improved cardiovascular health include macadamia nuts and almonds.
Ice Cream and Burgers Can Control Your Brain
September 15, 2009
Reuters
By Belinda Goldsmith
A U.S. study by UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas has found that fat from certain foods such ice-cream and burgers heads to the brain.
Once there, the fat molecules trigger the brain to send messages to the body’s cells, warning them to ignore the appetite-suppressing signals from leptin and insulin, hormones involved in weight regulation — for up to three days.
“Normally, our body is primed to say when we’ve had enough, but that doesn’t always happen when we’re eating something good,” said researcher Deborah Clegg in a statement.
“What we’ve shown in this study is that someone’s entire brain chemistry can change in a very short period of time. Our findings suggest that when you eat something high in fat, your brain gets “hit” with the fatty acids, and you become resistant to insulin and leptin.
“Since you’re not being told by the brain to stop eating, you overeat.”
The researchers also found that one particular type of fat — palmitic acid which is found in beef, butter, cheese and milk, — is particularly effective at instigating this mechanism.
The study was performed on rats and mice but the scientists say their results, published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation, reinforced common dietary recommendations to limit saturated fat intake as “it causes you to eat more.”
The study was conducted by exposing rats and mice to fat in different ways — by injecting various types of fat directly into the brain, infusing fat through the carotid artery or feeding the animals through a stomach tube three times a day.
The animals received the same amount of calories and fat and only the type of fat differed. The types included palmitic acid, monounsaturated fatty acid and unsaturated oleic acid which is found in olive and grapeseed oils.
“The action was very specific to palmitic acid, which is very high in foods that are rich in saturated-fat,” said Clegg.
Click here for the full report
Trans Fats and Partially Hydrogenated poison
November 10, 2009
NaturalNews
by: Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Of all the poisons in the food supply, trans fats are perhaps the most frequently overlooked. They’re hidden in all sorts of foods, from crackers and baked goods to breakfast cereals. And thanks to intentionally deceptive FDA-approved labeling laws, food products that contain sizable amounts of trans fatty acids can still declare “trans fats free” right on their labels (this clever trick involves reducing serving sizes until the trans fat level drops to 0.5 grams per serving, at which point the FDA says companies can just “round down” to zero).
But just how damaging are trans fats, really? Here, we’ve gathered an important collection of information that helps answer that question. Read this before you take another bite of a cookie, cracker or other baked food item. Keep trans fats out of your body and you’ll be far healthier and more mentally alert!
The true dangers of trans fats
Shortening consists of almost one-fifth trans fats, and some brands of margarine contain almost one-fourth trans fats. The oils used to cook French fries and fried chicken in the United States consist of about 40 percent trans fats, and the amount increases when the cooking oil is heated. Trans fats now account for about 7.5 percent of the fat calories consumed in the United States, and the average American eats nearly five pounds of trans fats each year.
- Stop Prediabetes Now: The Ultimate Plan to Lose Weight and Prevent Diabetes by Jack Challem
The downside for consumers is the dangerous trans fats that are formed with hydrogenation. The ingestion of partially hydrogenated vegetable oils and the trans fats that are formed with this process has been linked to increases in cancer, heart disease, and many other chronic degenerative disorders. What is wrong with trans fats? Trans fats, formed during hydrogenation, are actually toxic substances for our cell membranes. When our cells contain an overabundance of trans fats, the cells become leaky and distorted. This can promote vitamin and mineral deficiencies.
- The Guide to Healthy Eating by M.D. David Brownstein
The amount of trans fats consumed daily in the United States varies tremendously from person to person. Trans fats are so common in processed foods that the average consumer does not know how much he or she is consuming. Trans fats have no cholesterol. Trans fats have no trace compounds that may be beneficial to health. Trans fats are very useful to the food industry and, if replaced, a proper substitute must be found. Suggestions have been made for partial replacements to keep their level low. Palm oil could be a good choice.
- The Trans Fats Dilemma and Natural Palm Oil by Gene A. Spiller
It is not always easy to make sense of the research on trans fats but here’s the short answer: if you can avoid trans fats, you should. These fatty acids may be only a small part of your total dietary fat, but small changes in your diet can add up to significant health benefits, and this is one change that is well worth making.
- What to Eat by Marion Nestle
Although the amount of trans fatty acids appearing in margarine and shortening has been reduced in the United States, these damaging fats are still found in many other foods such as bakery items and fast food products. Trans fats become a major part of American diets when the 30 pounds of French fries consumed per capita are factored into dietary analysis. Trans fats often hide on dietary labels as partially hydrogenated fats. Learn to read labels and avoid trans fats. Growing public awareness regarding the dangers imposed by trans fats has prompted a reduction in their consumption.
- Disease Prevention and Treatment by The Life Extension Editorial Staff
Given the overwhelming evidence of the link between trans fats and diseases like cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes – all of which will be discussed in more detail – you might wonder what sort of bizarre justification the FDA could come up with for protecting the food industry by not requiring the listing of trans fats on these nutrition facts labels years ago. Hold on to your seat, because here it is: The FDA has decided that since trans fats should be entirely avoided in the diets of all human beings, there is consequently no recommended daily allowance of trans fats.
- Grocery Warning: How to recognize and avoid the groceries that cause cancer, diabetes, heart disease, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and other common diseases by Mike Adams
Finally, in the United States, the FDA has ruled that, by 2006, all trans fats must be listed on food labels, thus allowing shoppers to make informed decisions about what they put in their bodies. Trans fats are often found in processed and convenience foods. Read labels carefully to avoid products containing them. If the ingredient list contains partially hydrogenated vegetable (or corn, soybean, or canola) oil or vegetable shortening, the product contains trans fats. Here are a few common culprits – they may surprise you.
- Creating and Maintaining Balance: A Woman’s Guide to Safe Natural Hormone Health by Holly Lucille
But hydrogenation has serious health consequences because it creates trans fats. Trans fats are polyunsaturated vegetable oils that have been processed to make them remain solid at room temperature. Trans fats also come from frying food in polyunsaturated vegetable oils, such as corn oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, and soy oil, all of which are not bad for you until they are heated. As you may know, trans fats increase the level of bad LDL cholesterol in your bloodstream and lower your level of good HDL cholesterol.
- Spent: Revive: Stop Feeling Spent and Feel Great Again by Frank Lipman, Mollie Doyle
It has been suspected for some years that trans fats may be no better for us than saturated fats, but more evidence is emerging and it now seems that perhaps trans fats can actually be more damaging, for instance in the case of heart disease. It now appears, according to a very large American trial, that trans fats not only raise levels of LDL blood cholesterol (the “baddie”) but also lower levels of the “good” cholesterol, HDL. Trans fats are the only types of fat to do this – natural saturated fats, such as butter or cheese, may raise LDL levels but also raise HDL levels.
- The Food Bible by Judith Wills
They occur naturally at low levels in meat and dairy products, but most of the trans fats in the American diet are formed during a hydrogenation process that renders vegetable oils solid. Trans fatty acids inflict damage akin to the effects of saturated fats, except trans fats hit you with a double whammy – in addition to raising LDL levels, trans fats decrease your HDL levels at the same time. This is one reason many researchers consider trans fats to be a bigger bad boy than saturated fats.
- Food Synergy: Unleash Hundreds of Powerful Healing Food Combinations to Fight Disease and Live Well by Elaine Magee
Trans fats make the coronary arteries more rigid and contribute to the formation of blood clots, which can lead to heart attack or stroke. Trans fats also reduce HDL (“good”) cholesterol levels and increase LDL (“bad”) cholesterol. According to a study by Dr. Walter Willett, chairman of the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, approximately 30,000 premature heart disease deaths each year can be attributed to the consumption of trans fats.
- Bottom Line’s Health Breakthroughs 2007 by Bottom Line Health
Coconuts May Be Nature’s Gatorade
August 16, 2009
ABC News
By Shana Rigby
Dietician: ‘With the Coconut Water, We Actually Have a Mix of Electrolytes’
The word coconut probably brings to mind images of tropical beaches and palm trees. But for hundreds of years the coconut has been a dietary staple for cultures all over the globe.
The coconut has been much maligned in the past for its fat content, but as new information has come out regarding the health benefits of coconuts, products from this functional food have started invading shelves across America.
The coconut is a member of the palm tree family. It’s not a fruit, though it can be found in the produce section — and, despite its name, a coconut is not a tree nut.
Because of that, coconut products are safe for those with tree nut allergies.
The coconut also provides different products at different stages of its gestation.
Young baby coconuts look like green water balloons and are filled with water. Coconut water, unlike coconut milk, contains no fat and more potassium than a banana.
The health benefits of coconut water have been attracting the most attention.
“With the coconut water, we actually have a mix of electrolytes,” says Ashley Koff, a registered dietician. “I like to call coconut water ‘nature’s Gatorade.’”
The electrolytes, with help from the potassium, help the body absorb water better.
“It actually goes straight into our blood stream,” Koff says, “so it’s extremely hydrating.”
Mature coconuts are the kind most consumers are familiar with. They have a hard, hairy shell. They contain milk and oil — and all the fat and protein that have turned people off for years.
“For a long time, when we were hearing about saturated fat, coconut oil was off limits,” says Koff. “But interestingly, the type of fat in here is medium chain fatty acids. And that is a type of fatty acid that goes right through our digestive system, so it’s actually beneficial for us there.”
Because coconut oil has such a higher burn point, higher than olive oil, it is great for cooking.
Though coconuts can be a healthier option, Koff warns, “We do have to be conscious of things like sugar and fat content.”
Coconut water, though it does have sugar, has significantly less sugar than most fruit juices. An 11 oz. container of coconut water contains 15 grams of sugar, but Koff says that’s about as much as in 4 oz. of apple juice.
Coconut products are all over the shelves at the grocery store these days. You can buy raw coconut, coconut water, oil, even yogurt and ice cream.
Coconut milk can be a good alternative for people with dairy allergies.
When buying a raw coconut, check how soft the shell is and give it a good shake. You should hear liquid inside.
Click here for the full report from ABC News
