| The Monday Edition | December 10, 2007 |
Find out why doctors are pouring “fire” into open wounds! - Issue 33
- Find out why doctors are pouring “fire” into open wounds!
- A new disturbing side effect of cholesterol-lowering drugs…
- What’s 1,000 times sweeter than sugar—with ZERO calories?!
- This natural disease fighter is simply NUTS!
Dear Health-Conscious Friend,
When it comes to improving your health—sometimes the best solutions you’ll find are right in Nature’s pantry!
For example, did you know that peanuts can help keep you safe from dangerous diseases? New scientific research says it’s true!
And did you know some surgeons think chili peppers are a “hot” new way to provide relief during painful surgeries? Doctors say it actually reduced morphine use in many patients!
You might know it—but there’s a West African fruit being used to develop a natural sweetener. It’s 1,000 times sweeter than sugar—and has no bitter aftertaste like artificial sweeteners!
You’ll find more information about these natural solutions to healthy living in today’s Monday Edition of Health News Weekly™!
Founder & President
Health Resources
Doctors Try Red-Hot Chili Peppers for Pain Relief!
It might sound crazy, but the searing heat of chili peppers may actually provide comfort during painful surgery!
Doctors are dripping capsaicin—the chemical that gives chili peppers their punch—directly into open wounds. They want to see if this fiery substance can dull the pain of knee replacement and other highly painful surgeries.
According to an Associated Press report, these experiments use an ultra-purified version of capsaicin to avoid infection. Volunteers are under anesthesia—so they don’t scream at the initial burn.
Researchers think higher doses could numb surgically exposed nerves for weeks. As a result, patients could suffer less pain and require fewer narcotic painkillers as they heal.
Chili peppers have been part of folk remedies for centuries. And heat-inducing capsaicin creams are popular drugstore remedies for aching muscles.
But the chili-pepper spice is hotter than ever—especially now that research shows capsaicin targets key pain-sensing cells in a unique way.
In a pilot U.S. study of 50 knee replacements, the half treated with capsaicin used less morphine in the 48 hours after surgery. The patients also reported less pain for two weeks. Ongoing studies are testing larger doses in more patients to see if the effect is real.
There’s a huge need for better surgical pain relief, says Dr. Eugene Viscusi, director of acute pain management at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, one of the test sites.
Morphine and other opioid painkillers are typically used for many surgeries. But these drugs also have serious side effects.
Specialists are watching the capsaicin research because it can act inside the wound, not body-wide.
“It’s in and it’s done,” Viscusi explains. “You can’t abuse it. You can’t misuse it.”
Editor’s Choice
A real pain ERASER!
Imagine eliminating your nagging neck… shoulder… hand… joint… back… elbow… knee… hip… or wrist pain as easy as erasing writing on a chalk board.
It’s not a dream, it’s an amazing balm that contains 7 of the most powerful, all natural pain fighters known to mankind.
In seconds, you can help erase pain and stiffness in your joints and muscles and experience long lasting relief… Click here
Cholesterol Drugs May Cause Insomnia
A new report from the U.S. National Institutes of Health found the statin drug Zocor® disrupts sleep patterns in some users.
Thousands of Americans take statin drugs to reduce their cholesterol levels. They also hope the drugs can help prevent heart attack or stroke.
Study author Dr. Beatrice Golomb of the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine’s Department of Medicine said concerns about statins adversely affecting sleep date back to at least 1990—just after the drugs were released.
Golomb said these early studies used tiny sample sizes and follow-ups of only 4 to 6 weeks. “The sample sizes were less than 20 or 30—not enough typically to show an effect unless the effect was huge,” Golomb noted.
The new study is the largest of its kind—involving 1,106 healthy adult men and women.
Participants were randomly chosen to receive 20 milligrams of Zocor® (simvastatin), 40 milligrams of Pravachol® (pravastatin), or a placebo for six months. The two dosages of the two statins are considered approximately equivalent.
Golomb said researchers noted less sleep quality and more sleep problems in patients taking simvastatin.
Participants who had worse sleep also showed a worsening in their aggression scores, compared to people in the other two study groups.
Dr. Sidney Smith, director of the Center for Cardiovascular Science and Medicine at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, said this doesn’t mean that patients experiencing sleep problems should take themselves off Zocor® or another statin.
“The broader benefit of decreasing heart attack and stroke must be taken into account,” he said.
But Shane Ellison, former drug chemist and author of Hidden Truth about Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs, said an analysis of five major statin drug trials showed these medications only prevented heart attacks and strokes by a mere 1.4%.
Ellison said 50% of patients taking cholesterol-lowering drugs quit within the first year due to negative side effects. In considering the damage these drugs can cause, Ellison said “in no way do the benefits outweigh the risks.”
Fast Fact
Did you know drinking too much alcohol can cause high blood pressure? Even if you haven’t been diagnosed with hypertension—you should know that excessive alcohol can still boost your pressure.
Alcohol-related high blood pressure doesn’t respond to medication. Use alcohol very sparingly if you’re trying to keep you blood pressure in check. And for some folks—it could mean you’ll have to just say NO to even one drink!
New Plant-Based Sweetener
Poised to Hit the Market!
A new plant-based sweetener—said to be 1,000 times sweeter than cane sugar—may be the first natural product to rival artificial aspartame and sucralose sweeteners!
The substance brazzein, which is derived from a West African fruit, will be marketed globally under the brand name Cweet™. The sweetener has zero calories… is heat stable… and has no aftertaste.
According to a Natur Research Ingredients press statement, the California company with exclusive rights to manufacture and distribute the sweetener, scientists have long been aware of brazzein’s potential. But other distributors previously lacked a practical manufacturing process to bring the product to market.
Natur Research chief executive officer Loren Miles says his company has overcome this obstacle due to a production breakthrough achieved by a scientist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Dr. Fariba Assadi-Porter is said to have developed an expression and purification system that will aid mass production of the product.
Natur Research Ingredients—which has obtained the exclusive worldwide manufacturing and distribution license for the ingredient from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF)—claims this new product has no connection to previous versions of brazzein that failed to reach the market.
The ingredient will not be available commercially for another 12 to 18 months, pending approval of GRAS (generally recognized as safe) status from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The company said its GRAS approval should coincide with customer testing of the product, and the sweetener should be ready to hit the market when testing phases have been completed.
Editor’s Choice
It’s an OUTRAGE You Haven’t Heard About This—
Until Now!
By the time you finish reading this, someone in your home state—maybe even your neighbor will suffer from a heart… lung… or brain attack! And sadly, that unfortunate soul won’t even know their health—and their life—was in serious danger!
Because while their cholesterol levels were normal… their blood pressure was a bit elevated, but not abnormally high… and they weren’t even overweight. But they did have some hidden symptoms of this health hazard:
- Numbness in their hands and feet…
- Forgetfulness… mental fuzziness… and “senior moments”…
- Blurry vision that would come and go…
- Nightly muscle spasms…
- Varicose veins that throbbed constantly…
- And not to mention the painful hemorrhoids!
They ignored these problems and blamed them on “getting old” because no one ever told them they were symptoms of the #1 sinister health threat facing folks over 50… Click here
Health E-Hints
A “Nutty” Solution for Clobbering Diseases!
Here’s a new peanut discovery that would surely make George Washington Carver proud!
A group of researchers in Huntsville, AL found that boiling peanuts boosts production of natural antioxidant chemicals. The study findings are reported in the October 31 edition of the American Chemical Society’s Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
According to study co-author Lloyd Walker—chair of Alabama A&M University’s Department of Food and Animal Sciences—these phytochemicals help protect cells against degenerative diseases. This includes killer diseases such as cancer… diabetes… and heart disease.
Walker said when water and heat penetrate the nuts, they release beneficial chemicals. Overcooking the nuts destroys the useful elements.
Posted in Blood Pressure, Blood Sugar, Cholesterol, General Health, Heart Health, Joint Pain or Stiffness, Monday Edition Archive, Muscle Pain.
Email this to a friend · Subscribe to this feed · Bookmark This!
