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Research Finds Sugar Changes Metabolism in Even the Healthiest of People

Inscription sugar made into pile of white granulated sugar

Sugar is likely one of the most dangerous products you can ingest and may trigger an addiction that is difficult to break. What is so terrifying is that you can find it in almost every processed food you purchase. It hides under a number of different names and affects your body in ways that scientists are continuing to discover. While the media and medical associations have warned about overeating fat and salt, there has been relatively little said about the overabundance of sugar in the American diet.

The sad truth is there are copious numbers of studies spanning decades that demonstrate the damage sugar does to your health, but the industry has managed to bury the evidence, and claim sugar has little to no effect on your health or your weight.

Related: Candida, Gut Flora, Allergies, and Disease

According to one recent study, consumption of sugar is responsible for as much as 40 percent of health care dollars spent each year.¹In the U.S. more than $1 trillion is spent fighting obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. All of these diseases are related to the excessive consumption of sugar.

The foods you eat have an immense impact on your brain, gut health and cellular metabolism, all which impact your health and daily ability to be productive at home and work. Historically, sugar was a treat enjoyed only on special occasions. Today, it’s found in almost everything you eat, short of whole foods. It’s in processed foods of all kinds, snacks, drinks, sauces, breads, condiments and deli meats. Even infant formula and baby food is loaded with sugar, which triggers the brain’s reward center, increasing desire for more.

Research quite clearly shows that refined sugar in excessive amounts promotes mitochondrial dysfunction. These little powerhouses provide the energy for your cells, so when they cease to function normally, any number of functions throughout your body may be disrupted. Now, researchers have confirmed that sugar damages cellular function no matter how healthy you were before you began eating poorly.

Sugar Triggers Metabolic Changes That Damage Your Health

In a study from the University of Surrey, researchers asked two groups of men to change their eating habits for three months.² In the beginning, one group had evidence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD); the other group did not. Each man went through a 12-week period when he ate 650 calories from sugar each day or no more than 140 calories from sugar each day. The researchers measured levels of fat in the participant’s blood and liver.³

What they discovered was not surprising. Those who ate 650 calories of sugar per day for 12 weeks had much higher levels of fat in their blood and liver. The research was designed as a randomized-crossover study, meaning each participant followed both diets and the order they followed the diet was randomly assigned. Lead researcher Bruce Griffin, Ph.D., professor of nutritional metabolism at the University of Surrey, commented on the results, saying:

“Our findings provide new evidence that consuming high amounts of sugar can alter your fat metabolism in ways that could increase your risk of cardiovascular disease.”

Fat metabolism is the process fats undergo to be broken down and transported in the blood to cells around your body. The results also showed that when men who began the study with low levels of liver fat ate a diet high in sugar, their blood and liver measurements and fat metabolism became similar to that of men suffering from NAFLD.⁴ This condition is tied to obesity and affects up to 25 percent of Americans.⁵

Related: Gluten, Candida, Leaky Gut Syndrome, and Autoimmune Diseases

The researchers’ goal was to determine the role sugar has on the metabolism of the liver and how it influences cardiovascular health. What they found was that both groups of men, those with and without NAFLD, showed changes in fat metabolism linked to cardiovascular disease.⁶

In the past, NAFLD occurred almost exclusively in adults. However, there is evidence to suggest it now occurs in up to 10 percent of children⁷ ages 2 to 19, and the reason for this is a high-sugar diet, starting in infancy. Sadly, these children are at a significantly increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease unless their diet is changed.

Sugar — A Driving Force Behind the Leading Causes of Death

In the video above, investigative journalist and author, Gary Taubes, discusses how the sugar industry has manipulated information and perpetrated a fraud on the public across the world. At the start of his book, “The Case Against Sugar,” he makes the comparison between the sparse number of individuals who were diagnosed with diabetes in the late 1800s when sugar was not a staple in the diet, and the rate of 1 in 3 individuals who suffer from diabetes and prediabetes today.

The sugar added to one 6-ounce soda is enough to increase your risk of obesity, Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease if you drink it every day.⁸ The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) estimates the average American gets 16 percent of their daily calories from sugar,⁹ or as much as 30 teaspoons a day, which is three times the recommended amount.¹⁰ This is equal to eating 35 5-pound bags of sugar every year.

Related: Healthy Sugar Alternative and More

Manufacturers have used the addictive property of sugar to drive sales of their products, and the use of high fructose corn syrup to get more bang for their buck. High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is not only cheaper for manufacturers to use, it also gives your body a bigger sugar jolt. Dr. Yulia Johnson, family medicine physician with the Iowa Clinic, comments on the use of HFCS:¹¹

“Your body processes high fructose corn syrup differently than it does ordinary sugar. The burden falls on your liver, which is not capable of keeping up with how quickly corn syrup breaks down. As a result, blood sugar spikes quicker. It’s stored as fat, so you can become obese and develop other health problems, such as diabetes, much faster.”

The danger to growing children is even greater as their bodies cannot handle the amount of sugar they get from candy, processed foods and sugary drinks, and they have many more years of sugar consumption during which they damage their mitochondria and cellular metabolism — damage that has been linked to many of the leading causes of death, including:¹²

Heart disease	Hypertension
Atherosclerosis	Cancer
Stroke	Diabetes
Chronic liver disease	Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease¹³

Sugar Associated With an Increased Risk of Depression

Sugar is also associated with an increased risk of depression. It stands to reason that as sugar adversely affects your brain, it may trigger damage that affects your mood and behavior. Several studies have found an association between rising sugar intake and an increase in depression rates.^14,^15,¹⁶

There are several ways sugar contributes to mood changes. For starters, sugar increases insulin resistance, which plays a significant role in your mental health. Over the long term, this creates a chronic inflammatory response in your body. In one cross-cultural analysis,¹⁷ the researchers concluded the dietary predictors of outcome for depression and schizophrenia are very similar to those that predict diabetes and heart disease. They all involve a chronic inflammatory response, of which sugar is a primary driver.

Researchers have also found a significant association between addiction and mood disorders, including depression. In a study¹⁸ that tracked the dietary habits and medical conditions of 8,000 people over 22 years, researchers found that men who consumed 67 grams or more of sugar per day were 23 percent more likely to be diagnosed with depression in five years than those consuming 40 grams or less.¹⁹ None of the participants had been treated for mental illness at the start of the study.

The effect of sugar on mental health appeared to be independent of socioeconomic status, physical activity, drinking, smoking or other eating habits. The findings from this study are noteworthy. Although the methodology didn’t allow researchers to find cause and effect, the results line up well with previous studies that suggest over-consumption of sugar may trigger an imbalance in neurological chemicals that affect your mood, raising your risk for depression and anxiety.

Related: Natural Remedies for Depression

Sugar impacts the function of dopamine in your brain, the neurotransmitter that triggers your reward system, in the same way narcotics affect your brain, and may trigger a strong addictive response. Since addiction and mood disorders have been linked, and sugar fuels powerful mood changes associated with addiction, researchers who have analyzed the biochemical and neurological effects of sugar concluded it may be as addictive as cocaine for some people.²⁰

Excessive Sugar Is Toxic

In the video above, Dr. Robert Lustig, professor of pediatric endocrinology at the University of California in San Francisco (USCF), discusses the role of sugar in society’s diet over past decades and how it can poison your body. Sugar stimulates the release of dopamine,²¹ a neurotransmitter that plays a role in many important pathways, most notably the mesolimbic pathway.

The way dopamine affects your brain in this area changes with addiction and spikes your perception of motivation or pleasure.²² These chemicals are what makes sugar feel so good to you, and why manufacturers use it to drive your behavior. But, just like other addictive drugs, sugar is not healthy for you. Lacking any nutritional value, added sugar is one of the most toxic ingredients in a Western diet.

Processed fructose such as HFCS is another form of added sugar in processed foods that has demonstrated greater damage than simple glucose or table sugar, which is a mixture of glucose and fructose. A study led by Kimber Stanhope, Ph.D., research nutritional biologist from the University of California Davis, demonstrated that fructose does not act like glucose in your body.²³

Individuals were randomized to consume drinks sweetened with glucose or fructose over a 10-week period. Even though the drinks contained the same number of calories, the fructose group experienced an increase in lipids associated with cardiovascular disease, increased resistance to insulin and greater visceral fat associated with metabolic disease.

The glucose group did not experience these adverse changes. According to the authors, “These data suggest that dietary fructose specifically increases DNL [hepatic de novo lipogenesis], promotes dyslipidemia, decreases insulin sensitivity, and increases visceral adiposity in overweight/obese adults.”

Related: Start Eating Like That and Start Eating Like This – Your Guide to Homeostasis Through Diet

Sugar Addiction Has Been Manipulated by the Industry

There are a significant number of studies detailing the damage sugar causes your body that spans many decades. The cost of consumption drives up insurance rates and number of hospitalizations, and is linked to eight of the leading causes of death. However, unlike tobacco products that are sold with severe cancer and respiratory warnings, the sugar industry and processed food manufacturers are free to use sugar to feed the consumer’s addiction without any warning whatsoever.

Long before a conflict of interest statement was required on research studies, the sugar industry sponsored research that promoted dietary fat as the culprit behind cardiovascular disease and weight gain.²⁴ However, there was evidence that sugar was linked to heart disease in studies dating to the 1950s. Following the deaths of organic chemist Roger Adams, University of Illinois, and nutritionist David Mark Hegsted, Harvard University, their personal correspondence and materials were gifted to their respective universities.

It was in this correspondence that Cristin Kearns, postdoctoral researcher at USCF, discovered references to research conclusions that were influenced by the sugar industry in an effort to hide the damaging effects sugar has on health.²⁵ Historical analysis has provided proof the sugar industry has guided nutritional research, impacting public policy and shifting the blame for chronic disease to saturated fat.

Recent reports show the food industry is still influencing nutritional science.²⁶ In the end, the combination of flawed science, poor governmental oversight, and the natural effects sugar has on your brain has led many into an addictive relationship with a substance that is fueling heart disease, obesity and diabetes.

As Health Insurance Rates Rise, Your Best Insurance May Be to Avoid Sugar

Research from many of the most respected institutions around the world confirms sugar is a primary factor driving the development of chronic diseases and contributes to the leading causes of death,²⁷ including cancer and heart disease. It stands to reason, if you want to reduce your health care costs, it is best to avoid sugar as much as possible, if not eliminate it from your diet completely.

While eating whole, organic foods is the best thing you can do for your health, when you do pick up packaged foods, read the labels carefully so you can make an informed decision about the amount of sugar you are adding to your diet. Keep in mind there are many different types of sugars that may go unnoticed on labels. Below is a list of some of the more common sugars, but there are more names for sugar than are listed here.

Related: Hypothyroidism – Natural Remedies, Causes, and How To Heal the Thyroid

Also, remember food labels list ingredients in order of the amount in the product. In other words, there is more of the first ingredient in the product than the second, and so forth. When looking at the amount of sugar in the product you’re considering, remember if sugar is in the fourth, sixth, ninth and 11th positions, the combined total may well put it in the first or second position. You’ll notice that some of these names end with “syrup” or “ose,” which identifies them as sugars.²⁸

Fruit juice concentrate	Evaporated cane juice	Cane juice crystals	Blackstrap molasses
Buttered syrup	Fruit juice	Honey	Carob syrup
Caramel	Brown rice syrup	Corn syrup solids	Florida crystal
Golden syrup	Maple syrup	Molasses	Refiner’s syrup
Sorghum syrup	Sucanat	Treacle	Turbinado
Barley malt	Corn syrup	Dextrin	Dextrose
Diastatic malt	Ethyl maltol	Glucose	Glucose solids
Lactose	Malt syrup	Maltose	D-ribose
Rice syrup	Galactose	Maltodextrin	Castor

Does Sickness Smell?

(Dr. Mercola) Your olfactory sense, or the ability to smell, is integral to your health. Inside your nasal passages are two patches of cells designed to detect odors. They are made up of nearly 6 million olfactory receptor cells that allow you to detect and differentiate thousands of different scents. Although impressive, other animals have an even more acute sense of smell as often their survival is dependent on being able to smell enemies or their food.¹

Your sense of smell is also intimately tied to your emotions, memories, ability to taste and even to sexual attraction. Research demonstrates that your ability to smell may peak at age 8. According to different studies, you may begin to lose sensitivity to scent between age 15 and your early 20s.² However, that loss in sensitivity to scent is not consistent from person to person as some 80-year-olds have a sense of smell as keen as that of a young adult.

Some degradation of your sense of smell, and therefore your ability to taste food, may be related to air pollution.³ A combination of solvents, pesticides, disinfectants, pharmaceuticals, and perfumes may have a negative effect over the years on your ability to discern scent and on your sensitivity to smell.⁴ Loss of this ability may affect your capacity to pull up memories from the past.

Research shows odors are an effective reminder of experience,⁵ which may be tied to the way your brain processes odors and memories. Researchers have also found your sense of smell may predict your longevity, and you may be able to smell the scent of illness. In other words, the relationship between your sense of smell and your health is a two-way street.

Recommended: Candida, Gut Flora, Allergies, and Disease

Illness Has a Smell

From the early days of medical practice, doctors have used smell and taste to determine if their patients had a disease. Examples may be found from the late 1600s when English physician Thomas Willis observed the relationship between sweet-tasting urine and diabetes,⁶ to physicians today who may note a fruity scent on the breath of a diabetic whose blood sugar is too high.⁷ Over the years physicians have moved away from smell and taste to using more reliable methods of diagnosis.

However, a sensitive sense of smell may still give physicians a unique advantage. Some diseases have a particular scent. You may have even detected the scent of a sinus infection on the breath of a loved one. Researchers have described several scents related to diseases,⁸ including the smell of baked bread on someone with typhoid fever, boiled cabbage in someone unable to metabolize methionine, and the scent of a butcher’s shop on someone who suffers from yellow fever.

It appears that animals use this ability to maintain the health of the group.⁹ For instance, mice can determine through scent if another is sick, thus avoiding them. After testing this behavior, researchers concluded an inflammatory process in the body of a mouse had a profound impact on social behavior of the individual, reducing the motivation to engage in social interaction. At the same time, illness-related odor cues from a sick mouse inhibited social investigation by healthy members, thus impacting the transmission of disease.

Researchers tested this same response in human behavior and found you likely can smell if an immune response was activated.¹⁰Researchers injected participants with an endotoxin and found within a few hours they had a more aversive body odor compared to when they were exposed to a placebo. The researchers believed this chemosensory detection may represent the first experimental evidence that sickness smells.

Recommended: How to Detoxify and Heal the Lymphatic System

The researchers also noted the individuals who were sick did not sweat more. The smell from their body was not only stronger but also had a different odor.¹¹ The smell coming from your body emanates from a variety of different areas, not just sweat or your breath. The scent that is “normal” for you will depend on your age, diet, metabolism, health and gender.¹²

Mats Olsson, Ph.D., lead researcher evaluating scent change in humans after exposure to an endotoxin, continued this work and found the feelings of disgust individuals experienced after smelling unpleasant smells activated a mild immune reaction.¹³ This, in turn, may help protect you from getting sick. He also explored other sources of scent, such as breath and urine, and found an inflammatory process was indicated by these odors and was a good indicator of some diseases.

How Does Illness Affect Body Odor?

In the original research, Olsson’s participants rated the scent of body odor, or the scent your body produces after bacteria on your skin breaks down proteins from your sweat into acids.¹⁴ Your sweat alone is virtually odorless, but the bacteria on your skin that multiply rapidly in the presence of sweat, and the subsequent breakdown of sweat into acids is what triggers the odor. Your sweat is specific to the individual, which is how dogs and other animals can identify different people.

Recommended: Holistic Guide to Healing the Endocrine System and Balancing Our Hormones

The genes that control your immune response also influence your body odor and scent production. An activated immune response may also change your excretion of metabolic byproducts that may also change your body odor.¹⁵ For instance, during stress your cortisol levels are higher, and during an immune response your androgen excretion is lower.¹⁶

Another example of body odor changing with different levels of hormones in your body is stress sweat. You likely have experienced this phenomenon at some point in your life — your body odor becomes strikingly different and worse when you are stressed. As cortisol and adrenaline, released when you’re stressed, flood your body, they may cause an increase in sweat production.¹⁷

However, this type of sweat is released from two different types of glands under your arms. Eccrine glands secrete sweat when you’re overheated, while apocrine glands contribute sweat when you’re stressed.

The difference is that sweat secreted from your apocrine glands contain more of the nutrients bacteria on your skin require to grow and multiply. These added nutrients increase the byproduct of the bacterial metabolism and change the smell and strength of the odor coming from your sweat. In the same way that a “sick smell” triggers an immune response in others, this type of sweat changes the way you’re perceived.¹⁸

Man’s Best Friend May Help Detect Disease

Dogs have been used to help people with diabetes detect abnormally high or low blood sugar before they can feel it and predict seizures before they happen. Today, researchers are working with canines to help detect the scent of cancer. Several demonstrations of how dogs are being used to detect medical changes, including the diagnosis of cancer, are shown in this short news video.

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A dog’s ability to smell is far greater than a human’s. While you have 6 million olfactory receptor cells, dogs have 300 million, and the part of the brain that is devoted to analyzing those odors is proportionally 40 times larger than yours.¹⁹ Dogs in the study in Britain detected bladder and prostate cancer 90 percent of the time or greater. In another study, dogs could detect lung cancer with up to 85 percent accuracy.²⁰

In yet another example, a Labrador retriever was trained to detect the scent of colorectal cancer from breath and stool samples with greater than 90 percent accuracy.²¹ Using breath samples, the dog could detect colorectal cancer with 91 percent accuracy and had an amazing 97 percent accuracy with stool samples. The researchers concluded:²²

“This study shows that a specific cancer scent does indeed exist and that cancer-specific chemical compounds may be circulating throughout the body. These odor materials may become effective tools in colorectal cancer screening.”

Even without training, dogs can detect differences in their owners and warn them of impending problems. In a study of 212 dog owners with medically diagnosed Type 1 diabetes, researchers found 65 percent reported their untrained dogs had warned them of an impending hypoglycemic event by barking and growling.²³

Researchers have known that malignant tumors exude tiny amounts of alkanes and benzene derivatives that are not found in healthy tissue.²⁴ In another study using dogs to detect either lung or breast cancers, the researchers found the animals were 88 percent accurate with breast cancer and 99 percent accurate with lung cancer detection, with no false positives.²⁵ However, while the dogs provide a noninvasive way of screening for disease, many medical professionals find the practice controversial.²⁶

Not all studies demonstrate the same accuracy, although the scent may be confounded by other odors present in the area, such as hospital odors when tests are done in the hospital. Accuracy is also slightly different between individual dogs, in much the same way that behaviors between most trained animals occur. Some researchers are interested in isolating the exact compounds detected by the dogs so training may be standardized.

Next-Gen Dog Noses

Since some studies have not been able to replicate the results, and the animals do not perform the same way 100 percent of the time, scientists have been investigating the use of electronic noses. The concept is similar to the devices built to detect explosive components used in bomb making.²⁷ Early use of electronic noses was undertaken by police departments to identify and quantify alcohol use in drivers.

However, for electronic devices to function, researchers must first identify the chemical components of the disease that are causing the smell. Scientists believe this may standardize the process and improve diagnosis using noninvasive methods. Using an electronic method may also overcome skepticism of physicians who may not want dogs participating in the diagnosis of disease, but may be more comfortable with an electronic device similar to one in use since 1967 to test alcohol levels on your breath.²⁸

Recommended: Start Eating Like That and Start Eating Like This – Your Guide to Homeostasis Through Diet

While electronic devices may be more acceptable in the medical community for diagnosis, dogs continue to be an important adjunct to the management of several metabolic and neurological disorders. According to George Preti, Ph.D., organic chemist at Monell Chemical Senses Center:²⁹

“There are groups looking to fund research with dogs as detectors because dogs can pick up the odors in people, particularly children who are not properly regulating themselves, Type 1 diabetic children. They can be trained to pick up this peculiar odor on the breath at an early stage and warn people that they are having a low or going into a high of blood sugar.”

Importance of Smell to Your Health and Predicting Death

Your sense of smell may also have predictive value in determining your longevity, and changes in your sense of smell may indicate the early stages of dementia.³⁰ Smell is inextricably linked to memories formed in the limbic area of your brain. In a study of nearly 3,000 people ages 57 to 85, researchers found that nearly all the participants who could identify only one or two of five different scents had evidence of dementia five years after the test was completed.³¹

The olfactory nerve is located deep in the base of the brain. When you have problems with smell, it may indicate a higher likelihood you may develop Parkinson’s disease or other neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Alzheimer’s is the sixth leading cause of death in the U.S. and has an annual research budget of $480 million.³²

Recommended: Detox Cheap and Easy Without Fasting – Recipes Included

Researchers hope that by using a simple and inexpensive smell test for early identification, patients may be saved the cost of an MRI and offered early intervention to slow the progression of the disease. In an analysis of similar data from the National Social Life, Health and Aging Project,³³ researchers found an inability to perceive odor was associated with a four times greater risk of death in the following five years, compared to those who had a healthy sense of smell.

The researchers took into account potential confounding factors, such as nutrition, smoking, cognitive function and alcohol abuse. The researchers concluded that your olfactory sense was one of the strongest predictors of five-year mortality. As reported in the Guardian:³⁴

“The olfactory nerve is the only part of the nervous system that is exposed to the open air. As such, it offers poisons and pathogens a quick route into the brain, and so losing smell could be an early warning of something that will ultimately cause death.”

The loss of sense of smell is also a symptom of zinc deficiency. You can read more about this deficiency, how to test for it and the foods that may balance your zinc levels in my previous article, “Study Warns That Losing Your Sense of Smell May Mean You May Not Live Much Longer.”

Pregnant Women Who Receive Flu shots at Increased Risks of miscarriages, CDC-funded study finds

(Natural News) If you were told that obediently getting your flu shot every year would give you a 40 to 60 percent shot at avoiding the flu (or zero, if the experts get it wrong that year), but would double your chances of having a miscarriage one day, would you find those odds acceptable? Many women would be appalled if that were true, and would avoid getting the flu shot at all costs. Well, a recent study, published in the journal Vaccine, has reached exactly that conclusion (though everyone seems to be doing their level best to deny the study’s results).

Related: How To Detoxify and Heal From Vaccinations – For Adults and Children

It is incredibly important to note right at the outset that this study was funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) – the very body that determines the country’s annual vaccination schedule, and the biggest vaccine pusher out there. (Related: Flu facts they don’t want you to know about.)

The Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), which is pro-vaccines, recently reported:

A study published today in Vaccine suggests a strong association between receiving repeated doses of the seasonal influenza vaccine and miscarriage. [Emphasis added]

This is an unambiguous warning about repeated doses of the flu vaccine for women planning to have a baby. Nonetheless, the article’s author very quickly tried to soften the blow and protect vaccine industry interests. (Related: Discover the truth at Vaccines.news)

Related: Influenza Vaccine – A Comprehensive Overview of the Potential Dangers and Effectiveness of the Flu Shot

Almost immediately, Stephanie Soucheray, who wrote the CIDRAP article, quoted the lead author of the study as saying that this is not a “causal relationship.” She then interpreted his comment, claiming that “the data don’t necessarily show that the flu vaccine causes miscarriages.”

This is a direct contradiction of her opening remarks, as quoted above.

The study, which was led by James Donahue, DVM, PhD, MPH, a senior epidemiologist at the Marshfield Clinic in Wisconsin, was conducted over the 2010 to 2012 flu seasons, and compared 485 women who had experienced early miscarriage to a number of women who had carried babies to term (either born alive or stillborn).

The research team’s aim was to investigate whether miscarriage was more likely to occur within 28 days of a woman receiving the flu vaccine.

The results were startling.

Related: The MMR Vaccine – A Comprehensive Overview of the Potential Dangers and Effectiveness

For women who had not received a flu shot in the previous year, there was no increased risk of miscarriage. However, women who received back-to-back shots, one of which was the vaccine against the 2009 H1N1 virus, had an adjusted odds ratio (aOR) of 7.7 compared to an aOR of just 1.3 for women who had not been vaccinated during the previous flu season.

The CIDRAP propaganda piece went on to note, “The overall aOR in the 28-day window was 2.0, or double the risk,” but then went on to claim that these results were “not statistically significant.” [Emphasis added]

Soucheray then claimed that the study should essentially not be taken seriously because:

Previous research into a correlation between the flu vaccine and miscarriage did not find the same link; and
It’s likely that only women who would get the flu shot would report it if they had experienced a miscarriage. This, she claims, would skew the results towards an association that isn’t really there. i.e. If you don’t get the flu shot you’re likely ignorant and uneducated and unlikely to report something as massive as a miscarriage to your attending physician.

The CIDRAP article closed off neatly with an admonition to still get your flu shot, and stressed that there was “no change to recommendations.”

Related: Doctors Against Vaccines – Hear From Those Who Have Done the Research

The thing is, even the CDC, which stresses the need for pregnant women to be vaccinated against the flu because of its myriad complications in pregnancy, only promises:

Studies in young healthy adults show that getting a flu shot reduces the risk of illness by 40% to 60% during seasons when the flu vaccine is well-matched to circulating viruses.

What that essentially means is that getting the flu shot gives a pregnant woman a 50/50 shot at preventing the virus, and then only if the vaccine is “well-matched to circulating viruses.”

Before every flu season, experts have to essentially guess which three flu strains are likely to dominate and create a vaccine accordingly. This process is random at best, and with only a 50/50 chance of success, but a 200 percent risk of increased miscarriage, it is something that those hoping to fall pregnant in the future need to weigh very carefully.

Sources:

Top Five low-impact exercises for overall health

(Natural News) To anyone who doesn’t frequently engage in exercise, just mentioning the word brings up images of exhaustion, pain, and lots of sweat. These are more than enough to turn plenty of us off from physical activity. Yet according to one Harvard doctor, the best exercises may actually be the easiest ones.

Forget long-distance running: Dr. I-Min Lee, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, says that this can do a number on your joints and digestive system. There are five low-impact exercises you can do to lose weight, build muscle, and strengthen your bones, all of which Lee has extensively discussed in a Harvard Medical School report entitled “Starting to Exercise”. These exercises are:

Swimming: Lee has called this “the perfect workout” since it requires you to use all the muscles in your body. Swimming has plenty of other health benefits too, and these run the gamut from improved brain and heart health to decreased risk of chronic illness to better helping you keep your weight under control. Plus, being in water takes a huge load off your joints, so people who have arthritis can easily do swimming and enjoy the benefits it has to offer. Swimming regularly for 30 to 45 minutes is the ideal.
Tai chi: Also known as tai chi chuan, this centuries-old Chinese martial art involves performing a series of slow, rhythmic movements while paying special attention to deep breathing. Although gentle and relaxing in appearance, tai chi can actually enhance your upper- and lower-body strength, boost flexibility, and help you develop a greater sense of balance. Furthermore, practitioners of tai chi typically go at their own pace, so they aren’t left struggling for breath at the end of each session. This makes tai chi perfect for all kinds of people regardless of their fitness level or age. In fact, Lee has gone on to state that tai chi “is particularly good for older people because balance is an important component of fitness, and balance is something we lose as we get older.” (Related: Tai chi benefits people with chronic health problems like Parkinsons, arthritis and fibromyalgia)
Strength training: If your goal is to build muscle and lose weight, then strength training is for you. This type of physical exercise basically involves using weight to create resistance against gravity, resulting in improved strength and endurance. Barbells, dumbbells, elastic bands, weighted ankle bracelets, and even your own body can serve as weights during strength training. You can begin strength training by performing a single set of eight to 12 movement repetitions per session. From here, build up to a greater number of sets and more intense training sessions. Just keep in mind that consistency is the key to getting positive results from strength training.
Walking: Perhaps the easiest exercise to pull off, walking is one of the most beneficial as well. Brisk walking daily for a solid 20 minutes has been found to add years to your life. Even leisurely walking for 30 minutes can do wonders for your brain and body. If you’ve never engaged in walking as an exercise before, then start off with 10- to 15-minute treks around your neighborhood. Gradually build up your walking routine to 30- or 60-minute hikes, and soon enough you’ll be feeling better than before.
Kegel exercises: Doing Kegel exercises will basically have you clenching and releasing the muscles that make up your pelvic floor, which are the muscles that support your pelvic organs. Kegel exercises are usually encouraged as a treatment against urinary stress incontinence, particularly among women. But both men and women can benefit from these exercises since the muscles in our pelvic floor weaken with age and make us more prone to bladder leakage and passing gas at inappropriate moments. To perform Kegel exercise, squeeze the muscles of your pelvic floor in the same way you’d hold in pee and hold these contractions for two to three seconds. Release and repeat 10 more times.

As Lee has shown, you don’t need to push your body until it breaks to be healthy. Making time, putting in the effort, and keeping at it is what exercise is all about. And whether you choose tai chi or brisk walking, you’ll come out looking and feeling your best ever.

Visit Slender.news for more tips and tricks to achieving your best state of health.

Sources include:

DailyMail.co.uk
Independent.co.uk

Do the Healing Benefits of Comfrey Oil Outweigh Its Toxic Effects?

(Dr. Mercola) Comfrey, while considered an important herbal medicine, is controversial due to certain toxic components in it, which led to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to restrict the use of oral comfrey in dietary supplements.¹

The dilemma is how to weigh the virtues of comfrey oil while considering the safety concerns that surround it. It has exhibited the potential to treat skin concerns and pain when used topically. Learn about comfrey oil, its practical applications and potential contribution to skin healing and maintenance, as well as the FDA’s concerns about it.

What Is Comfrey Oil?

Comfrey oil is extracted from comfrey (Symphytum officinale), a perennial herb of the Boraginaceae family with a black, turnip-like root and large, hairy broad leaves bearings small, bell-shaped flowers. The plant is native to Europe and grows in damp, grassy places such as ditches and riverbanks. It is typically found in Ireland and Britain on ditches and riverbanks, but it also grows in profusion in North America and western Asia.

The plant has found widespread use in folk and herbal medicine for its properties as a healing agent. Its oil, for instance, is ideal as a base for salves and has been used in folk medicine to treat wounds and skin infections.

Uses of Comfrey Oil

Many of the beneficial properties of comfrey are attributed to its high content of allantoin, a substance that, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center, helps promote new skin cell growth, along with other substances that may work in reducing inflammation and maintaining healthy skin.² Comfrey ointments have been used to help heal bruises and pulled muscles and ligaments.

Composition of Comfrey Oil

The comfrey plant contains substances thought to aid skin regrowth, primarily allantoin but also including rosmarinic acid and tannins. As already noted, it also contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs), which can be toxic to your liver.

Benefits of Comfrey Oil

Here are different comfrey oil benefits classified according to skin or health condition:⁶

•For skin rashes —– Comfrey oil can help in treating rashes. However, caution should be taken when it comes to deep wounds – the oil can help heal the skin so quickly that the new tissue may cover the wound before deep healing inside, resulting in an abscess or skin infection. Remember, too, that there are warnings against using comfrey on broken skin because its PAs can still be absorbed by your skin.

•As a poultice — A poultice is a good alternative if you have an infection but don’t want to apply comfrey oil directly. Here’s how to do it: Blend 4 cups of chopped comfrey leaves and stems with 1/4 cup of carrier oil, such as jojoba, almond or olive oil. Without straining out the herb, wrap the comfrey oil paste with a cotton cloth. Freeze this poultice before applying to help reduce pain and inflammation. Otherwise, you may apply it directly on the affected area for at least 30 minutes.

•For bone fractures — Apart from helping treat superficial wounds, comfrey oil has also been used for fractured bones or torn ligaments in areas of the body where it is not possible to place a cast, such as a rib. It can be applied directly onto your skin or in a poultice, potentially promoting faster healing. It is also said to help reconstruct torn muscles that might have been injured.

How to Make Your Own Comfrey Oil Infusion

Create an herbal oil infusion⁷ by infusing 2 cups of cut comfrey leaves in 4 cups of olive oil with a steady low heat (110 degrees) for two to three weeks. Strain and pour into a clean, dry bottle. Here is another comfrey oil infusion recipe, from Wildly Natural Skin Care.⁸

Ingredients

•8 ounces comfrey leaf (70 percent)

•4 ounces comfrey root (30 percent)

•Extra virgin olive oil, to cover, approximately 16 ounces

Procedure

The roots should already be broken down by chopping. Break up the leaves by hand. To make this using the cold infusion method, put all the herbs in a 16-ounce glass jar, cover with olive oil and cap and shake. This can steep for 28 days. To strain, use a clean old shirt lined in a strainer, pour the mix through into a bowl and squeeze the shirt with herbs in it. The strained liquid is your comfrey oil.

Notes:

•If possible, use freshly dried herbs for this purpose.

•To get fresh, dry comfrey root: Dig the root when it is dry weather. Clean by hand or use some water and a vegetable brush. Brush the root gently. Chop finely; lay out on a paper bag overnight.

•To get freshly dry leaves: Harvest, wipe the dirt off with a towel and allow to dry whole overnight.

How Does Comfrey Oil Work?

As an old European folk remedy, comfrey has many traditional and current uses, mostly focused on skin care. It is important to attribute many of these positive impacts to its high amounts of allantoin, a mucilaginous healing substance that causes cell growth.

Being mucilaginous, comfrey is commonly used for helping heal wounds, preventing scars and treating existing ones, along with decreasing dryness and flaking of skin. The oil appears to work as an anti-inflammatory, an analgesic and an aid in the healing of sprains and broken bones. It also demonstrates effectiveness in assisting treatment of atopic dermatitis, psoriasis and eczema.

Is Comfrey Oil Safe?

Comfrey oil appears to be safe when applied to unbroken skin in small amounts. Note that the poisonous chemicals present in comfrey can still pass through the skin, so they can still be absorbed if your skin is broken or if large amounts are administered. It is considered unsafe to take comfrey oil by mouth because of its PAs, which can cause liver damage, lung damage and cancer. The FDA has recommended that supplement manufacturers not sell any oral form of comfrey.

While a Garden Web community forum⁹ argues that the pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) in comfrey are less toxic than those found in known poisonous plants, such as ragwort, and questions whether PAs cause cancer outside of laboratory experiments, I advise that you err on the side of caution: Stick to prudent topical use of comfrey oil and avoid ingesting any comfrey-based product. Pregnant and breastfeeding women, along with the elderly and children, are also better off avoiding the use of this oil.

Side Effects of Comfrey Oil

There are no known scientific reports of interaction between comfrey and conventional drugs.¹⁰ But some herbs that have also been known to cause liver problems — such as kava, skullcap and valerian — should not be used while using comfrey products because of the increased risk for liver damage.