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Green Tea Cholesterol
Green Tea: Neutralize Your Cholesterol Naturally
By HeartHawk
Medical science has learned a great deal about cholesterol in the last five years. For decades the whole conversation revolved around drugs like statins to reduce your LDL cholesterol. Now, researchers have found that the amount of cholesterol in your bloodstream is not nearly as important as the type – large or small – and what happens to it while it’s in your arteries. New evidence suggests cholesterol becomes particularly harmful when it is oxidized in your bloodstream, but that these harmful effects may be partially neutralized with powerful anti-oxidants.
Green tea is known to possess some of the most powerful natural anti-oxidants known to man. Let’s take a look at the science behind using green tea to “neutralize” your cholesterol and why it might be an important addition to your heart disease prevention diet and lifestyle.
What exactly is green tea?
True teas (not the various herbal and spice teas that proliferate the store shelves) all come from the leaves of the Camellia Sinensis plant. What differentiates the various teas is how the plant is processed after harvesting.
Like most plants, tea leaves are naturally green. However, the common black teas are dried and subjected to processes that essentially oxidizes the leaves and turns them “black.” For example, Oolong tea is a popular type of black tea often associated with Chinese or Japanese restaurants.
Unfortunately, this oxidation process radically changes the natural chemical make-up of the tea. Green teas are prepared by heating or steaming the leaves in order to inactivate the enzyme responsible for oxidizing them.
What is so special about green tea?
The health effects of green tea are from a special group of natural substances called flavonoids. Flavonoids have been shown to exhibit numerous healthful qualities such as anti-allergic, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, anti-cancer and anti-diarrhea properties. But perhaps its most powerful effect in humans is due to its anti-oxidant properties. Flavonoids exhibit anti-oxidant capabilities far greater than more well-known natural anti-oxidants such as Vitamin C.
But what makes green tea so special is that it is especially rich in catechins – the most powerful anti-oxidant of all the flavonoid compounds. Catechins are also the most readily absorbed flavonoid and account for approximately one-third of the dry weight of green tea leaves.
Compare the total flavonoid content per 100 gram serving of green tea versus many other popular natural sources:
Blueberries: 224 mg
Red Wine: 28 mg
Green tea: 133 mg
But, consider that a typical 8oz “serving” of green tea contains 227g of tea that yields a whopping 302 mg per cup of brewed product. Green tea does contain caffeine – about 25 mg per 8oz cup, or roughly 25 percent that of coffee. It should be noted that flavonoid content for decaffeinated green tea is less than half this amount as many flavonoids are lost in the decaffeinating process. An alternative for those who want a lower caffeine product, but still want to benefit from the health benefit of catechins, is white teas. White teas contain nearly the same catechin content but are much lower in caffeine.
Heart health benefits of green tea
There are numerous studies that tout the benefits of tea consumption of any kind.
One 2001 study associated an 11 percent reduction in risk for cardiovascular mortality over 11 years of consumption.
A study of 40,530 Japanese found that that those who drank five 3-4oz servings of green tea per day had a 31 percent reduced risk for cardiovascular mortality compared to those who did not.
A recent combined analysis of multiple clinical studies suggests that those who consumer 5 cups per day or more of green tea reduce their risk for cardiovascular events by 28 percent with those who drank the most enjoying the greatest benefit. No such effect was seen with black tea.
I asked my friend and cardiologist Dr. William R. Davis if he could help explain some of the science behind why green tea seems to provide such an outsized cardiovascular benefit. He provided the following observations from several studies he was familiar with.
500 mg per day of green tea catechins can reduce oxidized LDL by 18 percent. Interestingly, after reaction with oxidative free radicals, the antioxidant properties of the phenolic ring structures in catechins yield an anthocyanin-like class of compounds.
Green tea extract has been shown to reduce LDL (calculated), triglycerides, and increase HDL, though effects are modest. There may be a more prominent effect in reducing postprandial lipoproteins; one small study demonstrated 28.7 percent reduction in postprandial triglycerides after 674 mg total green tea catechins. These effects likely derive from green tea catechins’ capacity to inhibit micellization in the intestinal tract (i.e. formation of absorbable forms of dietary fats, and bind cholesterol and increase liver uptake of LDL particles).
Green tea catechins, 455 mg per day, have been shown to reduce expression of multiple inflammatory markers such as phosphatidylcholine hydro-peroxide (oxidation of phosphatidylcholine leads to oxidized LDL particles), CRP, sICAM-1, MCP-1, and TNF-α. Green tea has been associated with reduced urinary and serum measures of oxidative phenomena.
Green tea has been associated with reduced body weight and visceral fat, both of which can result in improved insulin responsiveness and lipoprotein patterns.
Green tea improves endothelial function (i.e., increased dilation of the brachial artery) at doses equivalent to two 8 oz cups per day.
Green tea inhibits the action of inflammatory enzymes, metalloproteinase-2 and metalloproteinase-9 that erode atherosclerotic plaque supportive tissue and are believed to lead to the plaque ruptures of heart attack. Blocking metalloproteinase enzymes may also reduce the growth of smooth muscle cells that underlie plaque growth.
Green tea modestly reduces blood glucose and hemoglobin A1c (a reflection of prior 60-90 days blood glucose). Green tea inhibits platelet aggregation via reduced arachidonic acid and thromboxane release.
Weight loss can result with green tea. Pooled data from seven trials demonstrated modest effects, including reduction in BMI of 0.38, reduction in body weight of 0.44 kg (1 lb.), and reduction in waist circumference of 0.49 cm. Total green tea catechin doses ranged from 583 to 714 mg/day administered over 12 weeks, usually with caffeine 21-23 mg. Green tea without caffeine showed no effect on any measure.
Green tea has been shown to increase energy expenditure.
A carefully conducted study of energy usage in young slender males demonstrated that 150 mg caffeine and 375 mg green tea catechins. Again it was noted that caffeinated green tea was necessary for full effect. Neither green tea nor caffeine by itself was as effective.
Beyond increased energy expenditure, there may be effects on satiety that contribute to the weight loss effect. The protective cytokine adiponectin has been shown to increase modestly with consumption of green tea extract. The activity of fat digesting enzymes, pancreatic lipase and phospholipase A2, are reduced by the high concentrations of green tea catechins in the intestinal tract, slowing or reducing fat digestion. Carbohydrate absorption is also reduced 25 percent by 400 mg of tea catechins.
Whew, that certainly is a mouthful and I’ll leave it to those who want to really dig in to look up all the three-letter acronyms and six-syllable words! But, it is safe to say there is plenty of hard science to back up the health benefit claims of green tea.
What is the best way to enjoy green tea?
As you might imagine, the best way to enjoy the full advantages of green tea is to drink it freshly brewed and caffeinated as decaffeination reduces the flavonoid content nearly 50 percent. Unfortunately, bottled (or canned) green tea available in most supermarkets typically has negligible quantities of flavonoids. If you choose instant teas make certain they are not black teas, which have far lesser quantities of flavonoids.
When brewing your own tea many tea manufacturers recommend steeping the tea for one to three minutes at 150-190° F. However, to maximize flavonoid extraction for heart health purposes three to five minutes may be necessary. There is a trade-off as longer steeping times will also increase bitterness. It is recommended that you adjust steeping time and temperature to match your personal tastes in an effort to achieve both flavor and effectiveness.
Dr. Davis further noted that loose green tea is preferable to most teabags sold in grocery stores since loose tea is made from tea leaves while bags often contain the less desirable fragments. He also suggests that a good alternative to brewing green tea is to grind loose tea in a coffee grinder or food processor to yield an edible green tea powder that contains high levels of catechins as well as the other constituents of the whole tea leaf. However, only small quantities should be consumed as a tablespoon of green tea powder can contain somewhere around 1,000 mg green tea catechins. Green tea powder is easily added to smoothies, spinach dips, condiments, sauces, and other recipes.
Looking out for your health,
Heart Hawk
Newsletter 31 – No Sleep = Alzheimer’s
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Chemistry of Essential Oils
by Dr. David Stewart, Ph.D. The Chemistry of Essential Oils
If you tell most medical doctors that essential oils bring about healing with no negative side effects, they won’t believe you. This is because in medical school, students are repeatedly told by their professors that all effective medicines have negative side effects, and if they don’t then they can’t be effective.
When I was in medical school one professor emphasized this point in a colorful, graphic manner with specially prepared slides. In each slide specific drugs were depicted as evil looking demons or goblins. As he presented each picture, he explained, “Although ugly and capable of doing harm, these ‘demons’ are also the bearers of some good. So long as the benefits outweigh the risks, we use them,” he summarized. “We have no choice,” he continued, “because if a drug has no dangers, then it can have no benefits. That’s just the way it is. And that’s why it is essential that only qualified physicians be allowed to prescribe medicines,” he concluded.
Actually, the professor was telling the truth. Within the restricted practice of allopathy (MDs) the only real medicines are physician prescribed pharmaceuticals. Such medicines always do have negative side effects. All of them. No exceptions. Hence, doctors are trained to accept the bad with the good as the price of effective medicine.
The Danger is in the Drug Itself
The dangers of prescription drugs are intrinsic to the drugs themselves, not in how they are administered. No matter how careful the physician in prescribing and how compliant the patient in following doctor’s orders, even then deaths and damages occur. In fact, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, more than 100,000 Americans die every year, not from illegal drugs, not from drug overdoses, not from over-the-counter drugs, and not from drug abuses, but from properly prescribed, properly taken prescriptions. In this country, more people die from doctor’s prescriptions every ten days than were killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Why is this so? Why do allopathic drugs always have undesirable effects (along with their apparent benefits) while one can find healing with natural products, such as essential oils, with no undesirable effects? Here is why.
Why Companies Deliberately Sell Dangerous Products
It is illegal to patent any natural product. The way to big profits in the medicine industry is to create an unnatural substance that never before existed in nature, then patent it, and obtain a monopoly. Hence, the molecules of pharmaceutical drugs are all strange to the human body. In all the history of humankind, such molecules were never encountered or taken into any human body. Hence, the body does not easily metabolize them. God never made your body to accept and deal with these chemicals and antibiotics.
Non-toxic natural organic substances are usually easily eliminated by the body when their usefulness has run their course. Up to a point, your body can even deal with and eliminate natural toxic substances. But when your body receives a synthetic substance, even one that may seem benign or inert (like plastic), your body does not know how to metabolize and eliminate it. If sent to the liver to break it down into disposable compounds, the liver says, “Hey. What is this? I don’t know what to do with it. Here kidneys, you take it.” Then the kidneys react saying, “Hey liver, don’t send it to us. We don’t know what it is either. Send it to the pancreas. Maybe it will have an enzyme that can deal with it.” Then the pancreas objects, “Hey guys, what do you think you are doing? I don’t want this stuff. Dump it in the blood or the lymph or try the spleen. Maybe the spleen can filter this thing out or something.” Finally, the substance ends up in the long term waste holding area of the body (usually fat tissue, including the brain) where it can remain for years and even for a lifetime, perturbing normal body functions as long as it remains. That’s why you can find traces of prescription drugs in your body taken in childhood, decades ago.
On the other hand, natural molecules, such as those found in essential oils, are easily metabolized by the body. In fact, your body was created to handle them. When an essential oil molecule finds the receptor sites it was designed to fit and conveys its information to the cell, or participates in other therapeutic functions, it then goes on its way to the liver and the kidneys and moves out of the body. Its benefits have been conveyed and its job is complete.
By contrast, the unnatural molecules of man-made drugs attach themselves to various tissues, disrupting normal function for years while the body tries to figure out what to do with them. Meanwhile, they wreak mischief with our bodily functions and even our minds.
Who is in Control?
Another reason commercial drug companies don’t want to sell natural products is that they are not in complete control of their production. When you synthesize everything in a laboratory, you are in control. You can produce your medicines at will, in any quantity, whenever you choose. This way you can meet market demands as they materialize.
When you depend on nature to grow your product, God is in control. You are at the mercy of the seasons. You can only grow so much with a given year’s crop. If a year’s supply runs out before the next crop is ready for harvest, then you and your customers just have to wait. Meanwhile, you lose potential sales and profits.
Drug companies want to be totally in charge of producing their products. They don’t want God to be in charge. By omitting God from the manufacture of their medicines, they have omitted his healing power.
Drugs versus Oils
Drugs and oils work in opposite ways. Drugs toxify. Oils detoxify. Drugs clog and confuse receptor sites. Oils clean receptor sites.
Drugs depress the immune system. Oils strengthen the immune system. Antibiotics attack bacteria indiscriminately, killing both the good and the bad. Oils attack only the harmful bacteria, allowing our body’s friendly flora to flourish.
Drugs are one-dimensional, programmed like robots to carry out certain actions in the body, whether the body can benefit from them or not. When body conditions change, drugs keep on doing what they were doing, even when their actions are no longer beneficial.
Essential oils are multidimensional, filled with homeostatic intelligence to restore the body to a state of healthy balance. When body conditions change, oils adapt, raising or lowering blood pressure as needed, stimulating or repressing enzyme activity as needed, energizing or relaxing as needed. Oils are smart. Drugs are dumb.
Drugs are designed to send misinformation to cells or block certain receptor sites in order to trick the body into giving up symptoms. But drugs never deal with the actual causes of disease. They aren’t designed for that purpose. While they may give prompt relief for certain uncomfortable symptoms, because of their strange, unnatural design, they will always disrupt certain other bodily functions. Thus, you always have some side effects.
Oil molecules send information to cells and cleanse receptor sites so that they bring your body back to natural function. Oils are balancing to the body. Drugs are unbalancing to the body. Oils address the causes of disease at a cellular level by deleting misinformation and reprogramming correct information so that cells function properly and in harmony with one another. With drugs, misinformation is fed into the cells so that some temporary relief may be obtained, but there is never any true healing. Drugs only trade one kind of disease for another.
Because essential oils properly applied always work toward the restoration of proper bodily function, they do not cause undesirable side effects. They are feeding the body with truth. Drugs feed the body with lies. While no amount of truth can contradict itself, it doesn’t take many lies before contradictions occur and the body suffers ill effects.
There are many varieties of Essential Oils. My recommendation is to always use the highest quality.
Newsletter 30 – Adrenal Public Enemy
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Atlanta Dates: Tuesday, October 29th through Friday, November 8th |
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Haint Blue
HAINT BLUE
When I first moved to the South, one of the “little things” that caught my eye was the blue ceiling porches. And not just any blue–it had to be haint blue as was explained to me.
Haint Blue has been around forever-used by many cultures throughout the world. Time has a way of keeping “color records” in its historic archives.
In our American culture it is believed haint blue was brought to the southern coastal region by original slave inhabitants from Africa. Some descendents still there, can speak Gullah– a language scarce but indigenous to that region.
By way of background, ‘haints’ are the restless not-so-friendly spirits of the dead caught between the physical world and the spiritual; and for whatever reason, not so ready to move on.
Since folks did not want these type of “things” hanging around, the myth about haint blue is that it keeps your home free from the influence of these spirits
Haint Blue is a spiritually based color. The original haint blue was created in the way all paints and colors used to be using raw ingredients in the hands of skilled craftspeople.
It is meant to look like water or the endless sky and keeps you safe from the influence of the haints because, legend has it they cannot cross water. The visible spectrum fools them, so they are less likely to cross into your home.
Note: What is great about Haint Blue is that it shows the connection mankind has always had with the etheric or spirit realm.
Newsletter 29 – Alzheimer’s
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Atlanta Dates: Tuesday, October 29th through Friday, November 8th |
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Newsletter 28 – Change Your DNA
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Atlanta Dates: Tuesday, October 29th through Friday, November 8th |
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Newsletter 27 – Super Bugs
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ATLANTA DATES: Tuesday, October 29th through Friday, November 8th |
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Newsletter 26 – Microbiomes
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Atlanta Dates: Tuesday, October 29th through Friday November 11th |
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