Herbal Sugar Options – Choices You Should Know About

Posted by Cathy on with 1 Comment

Have you seen the TV ad on sugar?  It says the body can’t tell the difference between cane sugar and corn sugar.  Well if you were ever going to trust a TV commercial, I would not choose this one.  

Want to know what’s safe and what’s dangerous in the sweetener world?  Looking for a natural alternative to satisfy your sweet tooth?

High Fructose corn syrup (HRCS)  is made by processing some of its glucose into fructose to produce a desired level of sweetness. But because of its processing, some brands can contain mercury  a known neurotoxin.  What’s worse, is studies show it suppresses the “full sensation”  causing people to over eat.  Studies in rats proved this theory. 

Fructose comes from the sugar in fruits. .. but it also contains glucose and fiber and other nutrients. 

Today, some 70% of packaged foods contain sugar, most of it the HFCS type.   According to the Journal of the American Medical Association,  sugar and simple carbohydrates like refined grains and HFCS may increase your risk for heart disease and stroke through fat accumulation, metabolic syndrome, obesity, premature aging, and type 2 diabetes.  This is nothing new.  We’ve all heard that sugar is bad for us. 

Here are some better natural choices when it comes to satisfying  that sweet taste you love. 

Stevia is a South American herb that is estimated to be some 150 to 400 times sweeter than sugar.  Coca-Cola is even using it for a few of their low calorie drinks now.  We added a little to our Menopause Relief after 100% of our taste testing women loved it with stevia.  Sometimes Chinese herbs can be just a little off, but with stevia everybody can drink and enjoy Menopause Relief Herb Pack.

Xylitol and Erythritol:   They look like sugar and taste like cane sugar, though some people find that xylitol has a laxative effect. Xylitol was originally isolated from birch sap. Erythritol occurs naturally in fruits and fermented foods.

Inulin:  Isolated from Jerusalem artichoke, it is available as a powder or as artichoke syrup. Inulin is a long-chain polysaccharide that is mostly too long a sugar to absorb into the blood stream.

Lo Han Guo: Made from a Chinese herb.  It’s a fantastic non-glycemic sweetener  It is used in Traditional Chinese Medicine to treat cough and laryngitis and is a common tea in parts of Asia. Because it can be difficult to find and it’s great for my diabetic patients.

Honey (raw, organic) is always the natural sweetener of choice. Look for wild honey because it is lower in free fructose and higher in trace mineral content, especially the richer dark varieties.

Maple syrup:  Love it, always have. As a kid I worked harvesting and cooking the sap.  It’s  the only sustainably-harvested, large-scale, forest sweetener in the world. Maple is one of the richest source of minerals found in any sweetener. Look for organic maple syrup and maple crystals as an ingredient. YUM

Unsulfured, organic sugarcane molasses:  It’s rich in vitamins and minerals and has been purported (like fresh sugar cane) to have “anti-stiffness factors” that break down detrimental calcification.

Coconut palm sugar:  Now available as a sweetener. It is usually heat-processed, so try to find raw coconut palm sugar.

 

 

 

 

Chemical Additives in Your Herbs. To Sulfur or Not to Sulfur

Posted by Cathy on

When purchasing dried fruit, 9 out of 10 people will pick the bag that looks prettier than the one that has fruit turned brown.  Go beyond the beautiful color because that beautiful color is deceiving,  it may even carry toxins. Sulfur dioxide is used to prevent discoloration in dried fruit and has significant side effects on some people. The most common reactions are diarrhea, allergies, headaches and asthma.  

Now what about the herbs you buy? 

Do your herbs contain sulfur dioxide (SD)  and does SD effect the fundamental quality of the herbs? 

Chinese herbs are derived from natural plant and mineral products.  Like any natural product, they are vulnerable to mold and insect infestation. To control the decay and mold many herbal products and natural supplements are sprayed with sulfur based fumigation. This process kills bacteria, mold, insects and may also be used for bleaching/ cleaning raw herbs.  

But can it change the chemical constituents of a particular herb?  In some cases we know for a fact the answer is YES!  Pac Herbs products are not fumigated with SD!  We believe the byproduct of fumigation is unacceptable as it often changes the nature of the herb. 

Sulfer dioxide is commonly used by some farmers to cosmetically improve the appearance of the herb Dioscorea, (Shan Yao) Pueraria Root ( Ge Gen) and dried ginger (Gan Jiang).  In high sugar content raw herbs SD causes the herbs to taste more acidic, in herbs containing fatty oils such as persica (tao ren) used in our PMS Relief, fumigation leaves a pungent oil odor.  Fragile herbs such as Chrysanthemum (Ju Hua) should never be fumigated with sulfur dioxide because it damages Chrysanthemum's fundamental qualities.

As a preservative, sulfur dioxide is often used in dried fruit because it's antimicrobial properties preserve freshness, reduce rotting and help maintain the appearance of the fruit.  Sulfur dioxide is an important compound in wine making. It serves as an antibiotic and antioxidant, protecting wine from spoilage by bacteria and oxidation.  The Center for Science in the Public Interest  lists  two food preservatives, sulfur dioxide and sodium bisulfate as being safe for human consumption except for certain individuals who may be sensitive to it, even in small amounts.

Our labs conduct sulfur dioxide residue tests before our herbs are processed to insure the our natural herbal products are sulfur free. When I visited wholesale herb markets in China, the un-sulfured herbs were noticeable different  in color and price  (see above picture)  from the same herbs treated with sulfur.  Untreated herbs were always more expensive, what does that tell you?   
 

 Center for Science in the Public Interest.. http://www.cspinet.org/reports/chemcuisine.htm#sulfites

Tackling Sleep Disorders in The Work Place

Posted by Cathy on

Pac Herbs natural sleep aid iSleepNeed something to keep you from dragging through your day? Want something to inspire you so the boss will notice what a great asset you really are?    We all have those days where we are just dragging our butts to the office and sleep walking through our work day.

Here are a few tips I use to keep me going when the all I really want to do is go back to bed.

#1.  Coffee works for a while, but I prefer natures superfuel, a straight up ginseng drink. It perks up my mental focus and gives me the energy to make it through the evening commute.  Ginseng is one of the most studied Chinese herbs, it’s used world wide for treating stress, helps improve mental clarity and alertness.

#2.  Fresh Air! Get your butt outside at lunch time and walk. It’s sounds easy when the weathers nice but no one’s going out there in the middle of winter.  So hit the stairwell’s or the company gym treadmill if you have one. No-body is meant to stay sitting all day.

#3.   Power Nap on your break!  Take 15 minutes with an ipod and a eye mask and get away from it all.  If you don’t have an ipod there’s plenty of great meditations on line or find some soothing music on Pandora.  If all that fails, ear plugs are easy and cheap.

#4.  Early to bed, early to rise, may not fit everyone’s lifestyle, but it does make for good advice if you’re trying to impress the boss and stay awake on the job.  Try it a couple of times, you never know, it might just grow on you. 

#5.   Stay hydrated. Don’t reach for a soft drink or another cup of coffee which will dehydrate you even more.  Your best bet is green tea.  Green tea contains natural catechin polyphenols, particularly epigallocatechin gallate  (say that one 5x fast)   (EGCG) a powerful anti-oxidant.  What sets green tea apart is the way it is processed. Green tea leaves are steamed, which prevents the EGCG compound from being oxidized.

Thanks for reading!! Drop us a comment with your suggestions.


Managing Menopause Treatment

Posted by Cathy on

Menopause Treatment with Chinese herbsAn article recently posted in  Time Magazine has me a bit bent out of shape.  It's titled, "Why Those Agonizing Hot Flashes May Not Be All Bad".  It tells women having hot flashes is not a bad thing because it's going to reduce their risk for breast cancer. 

Yet,  if you take a look at the study, that is not what it says.  The researchers were examining associations between menopausal symptoms and risks of different types of breast cancer among postmenopausal women.  This is yet another study for media to latch onto a claim, even when it's a wrong claim, it hangs around like a deadbeat renter you can’t evict.

That's not the only part Time misrepresented. The researchers even stressed that the implications of their findings, are far from certain.  “This is the first study to look at this,” said the senior author, Dr. Christopher Li of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. “We tried to do the best we could. We want to see a replication of the results to see if they hold up before we can make any strong inferences.”

Oops. the Time article failed to mention that! 

When you are looking for a menopause treatment for those hot flashes, night sweats and anxiety feelings, look at natural remedies that have stood the test of time.  Proven effective through centuries of use, Chinese herbal formulas have been used longer than any other herbal medicine in the world.

When it comes to research, Chinese herbs have been the most researched natural drugs.  In fact, many pharmaceutical companies use the plant compounds from Chinese herbs to create new drugs.  

Menopause Relief is a simple easy way to manage your hot flashes and other uncomfortable symptoms. Drink a cup of tea each day and start feeling the natural relief from this time tested menopause treatment.  It taste good and it works.  Thousands of years of history stand behind our natural menopause remedy.  But if you need studies to tell you it works, we have those too.


Link to the study published in the Journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention

http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/content/early/2011/01/14/1055-9965.EPI-10-0998.abstract?sid=ea773297-c910-4e33-9878-bdc99b1d5da7

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References/Studies on Traditional Chinese Herbs in our Menopause Relief formula

1, Tsuda T, Sugaya A, Ohguchi H, et al. Protective effects of peony root extract and its components on neuron damage in the hippocampus induced by the cobalt focus epilepsy model. Exp Neurol 1997;146:518-25. 

2,  Chen LC, Chou MH, Lin MF, Yang LL. Effects of Paeoniae Radix, a traditional Chinese medicine, on the pharmacokinetics of phenytoin. J Clin Pharm Ther 2001;26:271-8. 11015   Guo TL, Zhou XW. [Clinical observations on the treatment of the gestational hypertension syndrome with Angelica and Paeonia powder]. Zhong Xi Yi Jie He Za Zhi 1986;6:714-6, 707. 

 3.  Xie HJ, Yasar U, Sandberg M, Rane A. Paeoniae Radix, a traditional Chinese medicine, and CYP2C9 activity. J Clin Pharm Ther 2002;27:229-30. 

 4.  He X, Xing D, Ding Y, et al. Effects of cerebral ischemia-reperfusion on pharmacokinetic fate of paeoniflorin after intravenous administration of Paeoniae Radix extract in rats. J Ethnopharmacol 2004;94:339-44. 

5.  Harada M, Suzuki M, Ozaki Y. Effect of Japanese Angelica root and peony root on uterine contraction in the rabbit in situ. J Pharmacobiodyn 1984;7:304-11.

 6.  Anon. Monograph. Peony (Paeonia spp). Alt Med Rev 2001;6:495-9. 

 7.   Liang Xiao, Wang YZ, Jing Liu, et al. Effects of paeoniflorin on the cerebral infarction, behavioral and cognitive impairments at the chronic stage of transient middle cerebral artery occlusion in rats. Life Sci 2005;78:413-20 . 

8.  Maeda T, Shinozuka K, Baba K, et al. Effect of shakuyaku-kanzoh-toh, a prescription composed of shakuyaku (Paeoniae Radix) and kanzoh (Glycyrrhizae Radix) on guinea pig ileum. J Pharmacobiodyn 1983;6:153-60.

9.  Ohta H, Ni JW, Matsumoto K, et al. Peony and its major constituent, paeoniflorin, improve radial maze performance impaired by scopolamine in rats. Pharmacol Biochem Behav 1993;45:719-23.

10.   Okubo T, Nagai F, Seto T, et al. The inhibition of phenylhydroquinone-induced oxidative DNA cleavage by constituents of Moutan Cortex and Paeoniae Radix.

11.  Biol Pharm Bull 2000;23:199-203.  Wang H, Wei W, Wang NP, et al. Effects of total glucosides of peony on immunological hepatic fibrosis in rats.

12.  World J Gastroenterol 2005;11:2124-9.    Qi XG. [Protective mechanism of Salvia miltiorrhiza and Paeonia lactiflora for experimental liver damage]. [Article in Chinese].

14.  Zhongguo Zhong Xi Yi Jie He Za Zhi. 1994;14:207-9, 195.  Liu C, Wang J, Yang J. [Study on activating blood and eliminating stasis of total paeony glycoside(TPG)]. [Article in Chinese].

15.  Zhong Yao Cai 2000;23:557-60.    Liapina LA, Ammosova IaM, Novikov VS, et al. [The nature of an anticoagulant isolated from peonies in the central zone of Russia]. [Article in Russian].

 16.  Zhong Xi Yi Jie He Za Zhi 1990;10:101-2, 70. Kumada T, et al. Effect of Shakuyaku-kanzo-to (Tsumura TJ-68) on muscle cramps accompanying cirrhosis in a placebo-controlled double-blind parallel study. J Clin Ther Med 1999;15:499-523. 

 17.  Hyodo T, Taira T, Kumakura M, et al. The immediate effect of Shakuyaku-kanzo-to, traditional Japanese herbal medicine, for muscular cramps during maintenance hemodialysis.

18.  Am J Chin Med 2003;31:445-53.    Liu J. [Effect of Paeonia obovata 801 on metabolism of thromboxane B2 and arachidonic acid and on platelet aggregation in patients with coronary heart disease and cerebral thrombosis]. [Article in Chinese].

19.   Zhonghua Yi Xue Za Zhi 1983;63:477-81. \  Yang HO, Ko WK, Kim JY, Ro HS. Paeoniflorin: an antihyperlipidemic agent from Paeonia lactiflora.

TCM Directory Produced “We Are Acupuncture”

Posted by Cathy on

Our medicine has survived 2000 years.  Beginning with Chinese herbs and expanding into points on the body connected to pathways we call meridians, or highways, Acupuncture  and Oriental Medicine has a rich past of healing mankind.  

This short video gives you a little insight as to what Acupuncture can treat.

Sexy New Natural Products like Sleep Aids through Science

Posted by Cathy on

We can create better nutrition through science, right?  We can isolate green tea extract and mix it into our processed cereal to create a heart healthy product, right?  We can remove the curcuminoids from curcumin (which originates in herbs like turmeric) and add it to a chocolate bar to help reduce cholesterol, right?  Through chemistry we can isolate every health polysaccarides, saponin, polyphenol and trace mineral and put them into a drink, a food bar or any other new product formulation and call it a "natural product", right?

Technically speaking the answers to the above questions are yes.  But are we missing the forest from the trees.  We have no long term historical use that eating chemically extracted and combined super foods is actually good for the human body. 

Scientists/product developers are continually trying to improve upon nature for new natural product formulations for sleep, energy, hot flashes, well being, or … you fill in the blank.    But maybe, just maybe, our bodies don't know how to handle this new nutrition.  Does anybody stop and consider this is the first time in the history of man's diet that people are eating this way? 

Do our genetics change overnight to process these nutritional supplements which we've never ingested before?

What's lost in the process is the human bodies response to this myriad of natural chemical components that maybe, just maybe were never meant to be together in the first place.  Maybe a blueberry was never meant to cross paths with a chemically created biotin because the chemical components would never be found together in nature.

What I love about Chinese herbal medicine natural supplements is the lack of artificially created chemicals.  Chinese herbs combined together with other Chinese herbs, have already passed the test of mans digestive system.  The record books on Traditional Chinese herbal medicine far exceeds anything Guiness Books can duplicate, Chinese herbs are proven effective sleep aids, energy boosters, immune enhancers, the list goes on.  They don't need science to extract their individual active components and marry them off to a vitamin supplement or other extracted ingredient.  They have already been proven effective, no need for science to tell us which individual active ingredient works best with another. Natural ingredients work best synergistically together as whole foods for the whole body.

Before the microscope and before chemistry could explain which flavonol worked best with which gingerol, Chinese herbal medicine perfected the marriage of combining whole roots, barks, fruits, seeds etc. through thousands of years of use. They learned which plants worked best with each other. Not as a single ingredient extract, because nature never intended for us to use just one small chemical in the apple. Nature provides us the whole apple to eat and enjoy as a whole. When we piece meal the phyto-nutrients from the juice or the skin, we no longer have what nature intended.  How can our bodies possibly know what to do with a single chemical when it's spent millions of years eating it whole.

The message here is easy, when your looking for a natural sleep aid, energy drink or hot flash natural treatment, look for ALL natural ingredients that contain plant names.. not chemical names.

What’s Eating You? Rantings on Diets and Chinese Herbs

Posted by Cathy on with 2 Comments

Three weeks into the new year and you've got it figured out right?  I'm talking about your weight loss diet plan of course!!

Judging by the calls and emails, lots of folks are looking for that proverbial Chinese herb or herbal remedy that will  help them lose weight. No matter how many millions of weight lose web sites and diet plans you read, this simple fact remains.

What's eating you, is much more important, than what you're eating. 

Since your body is a mirror of all your thoughts, your diet starts in your head.  When you feed your body the wisdom of self love and self respect, you will never eat anything that doesn't match that intention.  Simple as that.  What I find ironic is that most diet /meal plan companies from Weight Watchers, to Jenny Craig to Nutrisystem, spend so much time focusing on what you eat, they often miss out on focusing on what's eating you?   How much food do you consume mindlessly?  All the contestants on the Biggest Loser when asked why they gained so much weight, admit to unconsciously eating their way to their large size.

For the Record:  Healthy weight starts in your head.  We can help you with Chinese herbs which can help clear out the poop chute. ( I know a very cute 8 year old who laughs hysterically at this phrase.)  They won't help suppress your appetite, although drinking herbal tea may help fill you up.  Chinese herbs are commonly used for both constipation and diarrhea.  If either is a problem, call or email us for a phone consultation. 

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) doctors commonly use the ancient formula called  "Run Chang Wan" (Moisten Intestines Pill.)  Our version includes Huo Ma Ren (marijuana seeds), rehmannia, (shu di huang) and unprocessed Chinese rhubarb root (da huang) and a few other herbs.  This herbal remedy for constipation maximizes laxative properties while still being safe and mild. Call us for more information.


Bamboo’s Anti-Oxidants – Herbal Medicine in Asia

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I just finished reading the most interesting article called “Bamboo as Medicine” By Subhuti Dharmananda, Ph.D., Director, Institute for Traditional Medicine, Portland, Oregon.  Asia has over 300 species of bamboo (Also known as Zhu Ru) and many different parts of the plants are used in Chinese Medicine.

The leaves are used for fevers, the inside whitish-greenish middle is used for convulsions and vomiting.  Dried sap from the joints of bamboo are used for fevers and  coughs with phlegm and even epilepsy. The stem of small bamboo are used in Japan for  urinary retention and blood in the urine.  Bamboo leaves can also be made into a beer. (I’m not sure that’s medicinal or not.) Most importantly bamboo contains known antioxidants.

This article has excellent comparisons and characteristics on functions of  different bamboo species, something I never learned in school.

There are several species which are specifically for phlegm misting the brain, a term we generally use when referring to someone who would be diagnosed in Allopathic terms as delusional or schizophrenic.    In Ayurvedic and Tibetan medicine bamboo has many uses including as an aphrodisiac.  Since there’s no shortage of bamboo in the world and chemical constituents in bamboo are known antioxidants, seems like a win-win situation to use bamboo as medicine. One more bamboo fun fact.  In ancient China, bamboo was used for writing tablets.  A wonderful Chinese teacher I had in my Masters program for Oriental Medicine, when faced with a difficult student question on conflicting material, he would always answer with “Bamboo Problem” which always got a laugh. The meaning was, some very old bamboo reeds survived with ancient text about Chinese Medicine but some disintegrated and written words were lost forever. So bamboo as medicine is great but there’s a reason we don’t still use bamboo for writing tablets.

For more information you can check out: http://www.itmonline.org/arts/bamboo.htm

Do Raw Foodies Take Chinese Herbs?

Posted by Cathy on

raw foodies love Chinese herbsIf you are eating a raw food diet, should you be drinking cooked Chinese herbs?  This question seems to come up more often as more people are becoming raw foodies?  

 

My answer is always the same, yes, you should use cooked herbs rather than raw.  (All our products have been cooked, or extracted.)

Here's why.

Many of the herbs used in Traditional Chinese medicine are roots which tend to be very fibrous.  Humans don't necessarily have the enzymes to break down all this fiber.  When the herbs are cooked, the medicinal value can be extracted from them and easily absorbed without eating all the fibrous materials.  

Even though plants do have a enzymes,  they are preserved when cooked at a low temperature.  One fairly common enzyme in plants called protease,  it often begins a chain of reactions for breaking down proteins. 
The best known plant protease is papain, from the latex of the papaya tree, Carica papaya,  is used commercially in the manufacture of meat tenderizers.  I  thought this was a fun fact… maybe not.

Back to our topic.   More importantly, the traditional method of using Chinese herbs for thousands of years is through water based extraction.  This encompasses boiling the herbs in a purified water for about an hour and then straining and drinking.  Recent studies show water based extraction preserves the herbal chemical constituents but it is also provides the body with the fastest method of bio-availability for the active constituents.

New technologies in herbal processing allow for capture of essential oils which tend to evaporate fairly quickly when cooking on the stove top. Which is why your kitchen smells like mint in the first 5 minutes of boiling mint leaves.   Using sophisticated equipment preserves all the active ingredients by re-introducing the captured essential oils after cooking is completed.  Our short video explains it all.  Take a look here, it's only 3 minutes.

Great to be a raw foodie, but when it comes to herbs you're better off with a cooked product.

Ginger after Exercise For Less Pain

Posted by Cathy on

If you ever read about numerology today's date,  1.11.11  is a date which points to new beginnings all around. My new beginning is to get a bit more exercise.  Yes, I know.. we've all said this one before.  Good news though, if you workout and are feeling a bit to sore, ginger can help you feel less pain.  According to a study recently published in the Journal of Pain, people who exercised and took a 2 gram ginger supplement  (about 4 capsules) had 25% less pain than those who took a placebo. 

If you're not into popping the ginger pills, you could also add a little fresh ginger to your diet.  Ginger root has been used in Chinese medicine for several thousand years. It's warming properties are quite famous and it's very good nausea, altitude sickness and overall good digestive health and great if you get a cough or cold with mucus.

Below is a great winter soup recipe which includes ginger!  It's delicious,  warming and super easy to make.  

Whatever and whenever you choose new beginnings, remember your body is constantly changing and evolving so whatever you've done in the past, is reversible in the future.   

 

Butternut Squash Soup with Ginger

Cut one butternut squash in half, bake at 375  for 35 min.

Melt 2 tbs butter in a saucepan  and add cut up veggies you like,  1 leeks  2 carrots, 2 celery stalks and 3 tbs sliced GINGER root!, Saute for 5 min.

Remove squash from oven, scoop out inside flesh and add to saucepan for 10 more min of simmering, add 2 cups of chicken or vegetable broth. 

Add more broth as needed for desired consistency.  Puree all the ingredients in a food processor. Add salt, pepper & garlic to taste.

Some people serve it with a dollop of creme fraiche… I prefer just a little sprinkle of parsley.

The Importance of Rest, Sleep Better Tonight

Posted by Cathy on

herbs for sleepThere's a great website devoted to women over fifty called faboverfifty.com. It's a place for women to share ideas on health, fashion, their changing bodies and well… all the facts of life.  Recently they held a little contest.  They wanted answers from their readers on this question:

"What do you do when you're having trouble falling asleep at night?  

Here's the winning post…(there were about one hundred different answers, many desperately wanting a good nights sleep.)

"When I can't sleep it's always because I have toooo much in my head. I know I should stop working before trying to sleep. But when I don't… a little lavender essential oil drops on my pillow and behind my ears starts the dreamy process. If I wake up with my head buzzing with ideas, deadlines, projects etc. then I visualize. Each thought in my head is released on a kite string as I sit on my favorite beach in Hawaii watching the most beautiful sunset. As the sun sets, so do I. My thoughts that were keeping me up are safely attached to the kite, retrievable if I need them the next day. "

Yours truly won the contest.  I didn't plug iSleep Herb Pac but I love a packet before bed when my head is buzzing with ideas. It's clear a lot of women (and men)  in those posts would also benefit from our natural sleep aid and these Chinese herbs have such a gentle action you just fall asleep naturally.

I couldn't agree more with what my colleague posted about the importance of sleep, see below.

by: Kath Bartlett, MS, LAc,

I am researching lymphoma, a type of cancer. One of the books I am reading discusses the importance of getting enough rest. This issue cannot be overstated, not only for cancer treatment, but for any type of disease or injury prevention.


Getting adequate rest includes resting during an illness, rather than trying to work through it. Overwork impairs detoxification, so that the chemical toxins we are exposed to in our environment accumulate in the body. The build up of toxins can lead not only to cancer formation, but atopic (allergic) and autoimmune conditions.

Sleep is essential for detoxification and for the release of growth hormone needed to repair and rebuild damaged tissues.

Poor or lack of sleep leads to yin deficiency. Yin deficiency is a TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) concept. Yin is a broad category that includes fluids, substance & blood, cool/cold temperature and quiescence. When yin is deficient, heat develops in the body (yin is cool/cold) and the toxins (a heat process) draw deeper in the body. This is why atopic and autoimmune conditions are difficult to treat.

If you are under-employed due to the recession, use this time as an opportunity to improve your health, by getting enough sleep, eating well balanced, home cooked meals and getting adequate exercise.

There was an interesting New York Times article showing that during recessions people are healthier because they work fewer hours, have more time to prepare their own meals & eat less restaurant food and have more time for exercise.

Be careful not to overwork when you are sick. Take the time to nurse your illness and recuperate so that you do not cause the disease to travel deeper in the body.

Breast Cancer Awareness is All Year Long – NY Times Says Prevention Begins With Diet

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Best Food and Herbs to Help Your Breast Cancer FightAs one of the most popular posts of 2011, we feel the need to emphasize this topic and are therefore re-visiting this subject.

Breast Cancer awareness should not be limited to the month of October. Pink ribbons are the constant reminder that breast cancer affects one in every eight woman at sometime during their life.  This is a horribly high statistic and it’s clear from research done by BreastCancerFund.org that the challenges woman face to stay healthy are many.

Our food, water and lifestyles are fraught with chemicals and this bombardment wreaks havoc on our immune and endocrine systems. The overload of estrogen mimicking chemicals in our modern world causes estrogen dominance which perpetuates into hormone imbalances and eventually malignant cells.


This article, written by a guest blogger, originated in the NY Times Science section, and shows that living a healthy life style can actually decrease your cancer risk.  Chinese Herbs have been used for decades to help with diet, digestion and weight loss. If you struggle with maintaining a normal body weight, I highly recommend digestive enzymes and Chinese herbs to your daily routine for proper digestion and restful sleep.  Sleep rejuvenates your body and provides the vital energy that you may otherwise try to compensate for with extra food.  (See this article on how restorative sleep can improve weight loss)


by Kath Bartlett MS. L.Ac. –  Ashville, NC
Obesity dramatically increases a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer by 50-100%, the risk increasing “the older the woman gets and the longer she remains obese.” (1) The reason being is that the abdominal fat cells convert steroid (fat soluble) hormones to estrogen. In the breasts, the additional estrogen created binds to the breast cells, promoting “cell division and potentially tumor growth.” (2) Cancer cells are abnormal cell growth: the additional cell division cause the tumor growth. Adipose tissue (fat) contains an enzyme, aromatase, that converts steroid hormones into estrogen. After menopause, the ovaries and pituitary gland are no longer signaling for estrogen production through the monthly menstrual cycle. To compensate, the amount of aromatase in the adipose tissue increases to step up estrogen production. Obese women have higher levels of estrogen production taking place in the body fat of the hips and stomach, which increases during menopause, which raises the risk of tumors developing in the breast.

“Glucose [blood sugar] is the preferred substrate for cancer cells. . . [In a study] mice injected with aggressive mammary [breast] tumors were placed on 3 diets. After 70 days 95% of the mice on the low-sugar diet were alive. Of the mice on the moderate-sugar diet 67% were alive. And only 33% on a high-sugar diet were alive. Also ‘moderate’ alcohol consumption is associated with elevation in the risk for breast cancer from 50-100%.” (3)

Phytoestrogens have a chemical structure similar to estrogen. They bind to the receptor sites on the breasts, preventing the body’s estrogen from binding and causing tumor cell growth. The phytoestrogens that bind to the breast cell estrogen receptor sites have a weaker influence on breast cell production, so that it is less likely that tumors will form. Common food sources of phytoestrogens include: soy (tofu, tempeh, miso), flax and raw pumpkin seeds, clover and mung bean sprouts. Avoid powdered soy concentrate, these have caused some to develop Hashimoto’s thyroid disease. (4)

Studies have shown that phytoestrogens increase the effectiveness of breast cancer treatments. Borage oil has shown to decrease the growth of breast cancer cells. (5)

Eating an organic diet, and limiting exposure to chemicals, including household cleaners, detergents, pesticides, food packaging (plastics leach into foods, especially when warm foods are put into plastic containers) is also important to reduce cancer risk. Chemicals and pesticides can change the DNA of cells, causing them to mutate into cancer cells. Studies have shown higher levels of pesticides and pollutants in fat and blood of women with breast cancer than in healthy women.

1-6. Lahans, T. Integrating Conventional and Chinese Medicine in Cancer Care. Elsevier 2007; 92-102.