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Dodge dementia with red grapes

Dodge dementia with red grapes

It’s the second leading cause of dementia in older folks… trailing right behind Alzheimer’s… yet chances are you’ve never even heard of vascular dementia before.

It’s caused when parts of your brain don’t get enough blood flow because of blocked and narrowed arteries. As a result, those areas of the brain don’t get enough of the oxygen and nutrients they need, and when the supply of blood to the brain is suddenly cut off, “silent” strokes can occur.

Symptoms of vascular dementia can include forgetfulness, short term memory loss, concentration problems, getting lost, money management issues, and even a loss of your control over your bladder or bowels. And sadly, there isn’t much that can be done for the condition once you have it except try to prevent further damage.

But now some breakthrough research out of China is providing new hope, and it comes to us in the form of an old friend. For years now, in Health Breakthroughs, I’ve been telling you about the power of superstar antioxidant resveratrol.

Resveratrol is often referred to as the “red wine antioxidant,” and this nutrient’s powers lie in its ability to drive down inflammation. And it’s this ability that’s likely at the heart of its potential to fight hearing loss, Parkinson’s, pancreatic cancer, Alzheimer’s, and even the slippery slope of aging.

According to Chinese researchers, resveratrol might turn out to be our best hope for beating the devastating symptoms of this disease. The powerful antioxidant improved both learning and memory abilities in rats with vascular dementia.

But the super nutrient didn’t stop there. It also decreased the levels of an important marker for oxidative stress while at the same time increasing levels of a powerful antioxidant enzyme as well as the “master antioxidant” glutathione.

According to the study, published in the journal Neural Regeneration Research, these findings are enough to clear resveratrol for experimental clinical use in treating vascular dementia sufferers. But there’s really no reason to wait around for more experiments to be completed to start reaping the many rewards of resveratrol.

You can easily raise the levels of this nutrient in your own diet by eating more red grapes, blueberries, and lingonberries, as well as by sipping on an occasional glass of red wine. Resveratrol can also be found in many comprehensive anti-aging formulas, as well as in stand-alone supplements.

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Could this vitamin keep you out of the nursing home

Getting older happens to everyone, including you. It starts to seem like you have more candles than cake every year. You move around more slowly. Routine tasks like cleaning, gardening and DIY become more and more challenging.

The pundits will tell you there is nothing that can be done about aging. But is that really true? Do we really have to just “learn to live with” aging. The second we resign ourselves to getting old is the second closer to complete inactivity, and given we are encouraged to remain active throughout our lives, if you suddenly find yourself getting exhausted from routine tasks like going upstairs or taking a short walk, it could be that you are running low on a particularly critical vitamin, according to an in depth six-year study from the Netherlands.

You could be running low on Vitamin D

The study followed 1,300 people aged 55 to 88 and had their vitamin D levels checked at various times throughout the study. Participants were questioned about their ability to do a range of activities. The tasks were simple in nature, such as sitting down or getting up from a chair, or taking a five minute stroll without resting.

Participants in the 65 to 88 age group who had the lowest vitamin D levels were 1.7 times as likely to have at least one physical limitation when compared to those with high levels. Shockingly, a staggering 70 percent of those with the lowest D levels in the older group had at least one mobility issue.

If you are in the 55 to 65 age range, don’t think you somehow dodged the bullet. You may find that your prognosis is worse than for older age groups. If you’re between those ages and have low vitamin D levels you’re twice as likely to have at least one limitation.

And the news doesn’t get any better as you age. Your physical functionality is likely to worsen over time. Older study participants with low vitamin D levels declined much more more rapidly than their cohorts who had high levels.

Seniors tend to be deficient in vitamin D

That is corroborated by the Guide to Good Health. Vitamin D levels, in fact, are declining across all age groups, and seniors are particularly vulnerable. In fact, there is some evidence to indicate that vitamin D levels are dangerously low for several age groups. Up to 90 percent of the senior citizens walking around have extremely low vitamin D levels.

Regardless of age, it is important to ensure you maintain high vitamin D levels. It is a critical part of staying healthy, as it plays an important role in countless bodily functions. It also is a key player in the maintenance of muscle and bone health. The study from the Netherlands, published in the Journal of Clincial Endocrinology and Metabolism, clearly indicates just how critical it is to prevent your vitamin D levels from falling.

So unless you want to spend the last few years of your life in a nursing home make sure you’re getting plenty of vitamin D. I cannot stress this enough. It could make the difference of continuing to enjoy your freedom and independence instead of depending on others for your daily needs.

And vitamin D can help prevent you from falling. A review of nine clinical trials found that vitamin D supplements help reduce the risk of falling by a whopping 17 percent. The New England Journal of Medicine also found that high doses of vitamin D reduces the risk of hip fractures by up to 30 percent and other types of fractures were lowered by 14 percent.

Your vitamin D levels can naturally increase with sunlight exposure. If your arms and legs are exposed in the sun, you improve your sun exposure by a fair margin. Supplements are also a viable option, and if your vitamin D levels are at critical levels, I think you would benefit from a vitamin D supplement of anywhere from 2,000 to 4,000 IU’s of vitamin D3 daily. Talk with your doctor about what’s best for your specific situation.

In addition, I recommend that vitamin D be combined with a healthy fat, such as olive or fish oil, which are high in Omega 3 and 6 – vitamins which are also of great benefit to you. These fats will help your body absorb the vitamin more effectively.

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Golden Spice Better than Big Name Drug for Fighting Depression

This is the tale of the David and Goliath of anti-depression treatments.

This is the tale of a humble millennia-old natural medication proving to be a lot more effective than a multimillion dollar-backed pharmaceutical medication prescribed worldwide.

Fortunately, this is a tale which, like many other stories in life, has a happy ending with lots of depression sufferers now starting to benefit from a natural treatment that is gentle on the system and free of nasty side-effects.

That Mother Nature knows what she is doing is unquestionable. Unlike synthetic drugs, natural vitamins, spices, herbs and other organic foods are not only kind to us, they are also incredibly effective at multi-tasking.

Take blueberries, for instance. These little indigo warriors are not only capable of warding off the toxins linked to Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, they also work to protect us against diabetes.

What about garlic? If you ingest this unassuming plant found in everyone’s kitchen you will not only be looking after your heart and immune system but you will unwittingly be shielding yourself against the never pleasant effects of food poisoning.

Turmeric – a natural wonder with more than a few tricks up its sleeve

Mother Nature could not have done a better job in producing a natural anti-inflammatory.  I’m talking about the very talented and supreme multi-tasker curcumin, a natural compound that has been used in Indian and Chinese homes for thousands of years. It’s not just responsible for the vibrant, yellow colour of turmeric, but for its many medicinal properties.

This polyphenol-rich spice isn’t just good at protecting us from inflammatory conditions like arthritis. Curcumin also helps us ward off cancer too. And that’s certainly worth a minute or two of your time.

You see, several studies have shown that curcumin is responsible for reawakening the genes that help protect us against cancer and for triggering apoptosis (cell death.)

And those are pretty impressive achievements for a humble spice.

But there’s more:

  • Those very same inflammation-fighting skills found in curcumin have now been shown to come in very handy to soothe swollen and painful joints and tendons.
  • A study conducted in 2013 also established a link between curcumin and better blood vessel function and consequent heart health boost.
  • It is widely known to support our body’s insulin production.
  • Its inflammation-fighting ability makes it very promising as a brain-friendly Alzheimer’s fighter.

Is that it? No.

Curcumin – the type of friend we need to help us fight severe depression

A ground-breaking study published in the journal Phytotherapy Research has recently shown that curcumin is both safe and effective for treating Major Depressive Disorder (MDD).  Designed to compare the effectiveness of a popular depression drug against the spice extract, the study randomly assigned sixty volunteers who had been pre-diagnosed with MDD to take either fluoxetine (Prozac) 20mg daily, curcumin 1000mg daily or a combination of both, for six weeks.

These volunteers were carefully observed during that period of time and evaluated using the standard ‘Hamilton Depression Rating Scale.’

The results? I bet you can guess them.

Curcumin was found to be an anti-depression fighting agent every bit as effective as the big pharma favourite, Prozac.

With just a minuscule non-statistical difference of 2.2% between the two, curcumin proved to work just as well as the heavy duty drug so freely prescribed worldwide.

No, hang on. That’s not quite fair.

If we consider that curcumin takers in the study were effectively treated against depression without suffering  any of the nasty side-effects associated with Prozac, then the golden yellow spice wins hands down. Why? Because it didn’t produce any of the suicidal thoughts, nausea, anxiety, libido loss, headaches, tremors, diarrhoea or any other nasty side effects associated with taking Prozac.

Why are we all not adding this miracle worker to our diet regularly?

Perhaps we are being misinformed. However, now that you know, it’s time you did.

If you’re currently suffering from depression, talk to your healthcare practitioner about introducing this healing spice extract to your diet. And for a little extra help SAMe and St. John’s Wort are both proven blues beaters. Forget those nasty anti-depressants and their even nastier side-effects.

Add a little yellow to your life and stop feeling blue once and for all. (You may be interested to know that the recommended daily dose of Cell Defence — our premium anti-oxidant formula contains 100mg of curcumin.)