Just as well I love cashew nuts!

Jun 16 (Reuters Health) - Eating a diet rich in cashew nuts improves the sensitivity of a key reflex for maintaining healthy blood pressure known as the baroreflex, South African researchers report.

However, Dr. Aletta E. Schutte of North-West University, Potchefstroom and colleagues found that eating a diet rich in walnuts actually impaired baroreflex sensitivity. They call for more research into the effects of eating large quantities of nuts on heart health.

The baroreflex becomes less sensitive as heart disease develops. People with metabolic syndrome, a constellation of symptoms including obesity, high cholesterol and high blood sugar, have an increased risk of heart disease and diabetes, and also have impaired baroreflex sensitivity.

Cashews are high in monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA), while walnuts contain polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA). To investigate the effect of the nuts in people with the metabolic syndrome, Schutte and her colleagues divided 62 people with the syndrome into three groups. One followed a normal diet, the second ate a diet with 20% of calories from walnuts, and the third got 20% of their calories from unsalted cashews.

After eight weeks, there was no change in baroreflex sensitivity among people on the control diet. Those on the walnut-rich diet showed significant impairment in baroreflex sensitivity, while baroreflex sensitivity improved among those eating the cashew-heavy diet. No other significant changes were seen in other components of the metabolic syndrome, and neither diet produced changes in levels of cholesterol and other blood fats. However, the people on the cashew diet showed higher blood sugar levels.

The most obvious interpretation of the findings is to attribute them to differing effects of MUFA and PUFA on baroreflex sensitivity, Schutte and her team note. However, the nuts also contain a wide variety of other ingredients that can benefit blood vessel function such as fiber and folic acid, they add.

"An overwhelming body of evidence has demonstrated the beneficial effects of nuts, but this study suggests that intake of large quantities of walnuts and cashews may have detrimental effects on the baroreflex sensitivity and glycemia, respectively, at least in individuals with metabolic syndrome," the researchers write.

"Further research defining the potential benefits and harmful effects of nuts, especially when consumed in large quantities, is therefore needed," they conclude.

SOURCE: American Journal of Hypertension, June 2006.

Oxygen Problem:

There are many ways people become oxygen deficient, and over time, each way can lead directly to illness and disease. The effects of oxygen deficiency on the body are well known to astronauts and submariners. The ongoing oxygen depletion of the atmosphere is by no means the only cause of oxygen deficiency in the human body. Diet is also an important factor. Few people realize that “junk food” is low in oxygen content and high in toxic preservatives. Eating junk foods ends up forcing the body to use up more of its precious oxygen than usual in order to oxidize the chemical preservatives and metabolize what few nutrients that may be left. Dense compounds like fat and proteins are not only low in oxygen themselves but also require extra oxygen from the body to convert them into energy.

Other oxygen-robbing foods include processed sugar, white flour, alcohol, and caffeine-loaded drinks such as coffee and colas. These foods require tremendous amounts of oxygen in order to be metabolized. Since they are so low in oxygen content and so high in caloric content, the body has to divert needed oxygen from primary metabolic functions (like proper heartbeat, blood flow, brain function, immune response and the like) just to oxidative metabolize them! This is one reason why so many people get tired after eating. Both physical and emotional stress robs the body of huge amount of much-needed oxygen. Any form of stress can cause oxygen deficiency. This researcher in the 1970’s, by altering the partial pressure of oxygen (quantity of oxygen per volume breathed), was able to induce a transient glucose intolerance (diabetes) in anesthetize humans and dogs. A residual hemoconcentration occurred and a greater intolerance to toxic or noxious substances was noted for periods of time up to six months. This should sound familiar in today’s world.

Researchers have now discovered that a chronically acidic system, which is practically a “given” for most people in today’s society, also causes the body to deplete its precious oxygen supplies. This often leads to a vicious cycle of toxin accumulation and oxygen depletion, which eventually results in serious illness and disease. This explains the explosion of diabetes diagnoses. Here’s why: One way in which the body combats excess acidity is by trying to neutralize it with oxygen. To do so, it must continually divert oxygen away from its primary metabolic functions and direct it to the acidic cells and acidic tissues throughout the body, instead. In essence, this depletes the body’s ability to dispose of excess wastes and toxins.

This results in a growing accumulation of poisons. The body then begins to oxidize them also by diverting even more oxygen from primary metabolic functions to the toxins accumulating throughout the body’s fluids, cells and tissues. This even further slows the body’s metabolism, resulting in a never-ending repetition of the above cycle. Finally, fatigue, chronic illness and disease take hold as the metabolism goes into a nosedive due to the “triple assault” of excess acidity, toxic overload and cellular oxygen starvation. With half the world running around complaining of chronic “acid stomach” it’s no wonder that doctors are finding so many patients to be severely oxygen-deficient.


Oxygen At The Cellular Level:
Optimal health begins at the cellular level. The reactions required to produce these astonishing cellular materials cause increases (improvements) when in the presence of, and reaction with, hydrogen. When more hydrogen is present, the surface tension of water (or any other liquid or solution) is reduced. When ingesting and absorbing any liquid with a reduced surface tension of the water molecule itself, the result is a reduction in the surface tension of our cellular walls. This allows a greater influx of oxygen, which disperses carbon dioxide trapped within the cells.

This is particularly true among those who have followed the pioneering research of Nobel Prize winning German biochemist, Dr. Otto Warburg. Dr. Warburg, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for his research into the cause of cancer, was convinced that cancer cells can only begin to proliferate in the human body when the cells become oxygen deficient. Furthermore, his research showed that cancer cells cannot proliferate at all when exposed to an oxygen-rich environment or induced enhanced partial pressure of oxygen.

Oxidation occurs at the cellular level of the body. It is part of that vital and complex process by which the body chemically converts nutrients into energy, and by which the body rids itself of toxins and other harmful materials. Without sufficiently high levels of oxygen oxidation cannot take place. And without oxidation, metabolic function – and therefore life itself – ceases.

Oxidation is the key to proper metabolic function, correct circulation, assimilation, digestion and elimination. It helps purify the blood, keeping it free from cellular waste build-up. Sufficient oxygen gives the body the ability to rebuild itself and strengthen its immune system, our natural defense against disease. It also has a calming and stabilizing effect on the function of the nervous system.

Cord Blood Banking

Currently there are 2 companies in Malaysia offering cord blood banking services - StemLife & Chirocord.

Article from Netdoctor.co.uk

"Parents hoping to preserve their newborn baby's stem cells in case of future illness have been warned of the possible dangers associated with collecting the cells by health experts.

It is possible to collect stem cells from the umbilical cord blood immediately after birth, and these cells can then be stored with the possibility of being used in life-saving blood transplants in conditions such as leukaemia in later life.

Although the NHS will store the cord blood of those children known to be at a high genetic risk of developing certain illnesses, private companies are now offering the service to all parents, charging fees of up to £1,500.

This has drawn criticism from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), who argue that the benefits of stem cell storage are minimal in the vast majority of cases, and the process of cell collection – usually done immediately after birth – potentially dangerous.

A RCOG report released this week claimed that there was "insufficient evidence" to recommend the practice to parents at a low risk of passing on blood disorders like leukaemia.

It also pointed out that cells were collected immediately after birth, "where there is a risk of post-partum haemorrhage", putting both mother and baby at risk."

Mirena IUS

Ideal contraceptive for women who have completed their family. No systemic hormonal side effects compared to oral contraceptives. Fertility is restored upon removal. Better than normal IUD as has less infections and less bleeding problems.

A Woman's Beauty

Slide I got from an O&G Professor

Unwanted Pregnancies

Male Contraceptive

Who is going to take the Pill? You or your husband/wife?

Trials already underway

Contraceptive Methods

Efficacy of contraceptive methods is reflected in the Pearl Index, which is the number of pregnancies per 100 woman years of usage (the lower the better the contraceptive).

4000 Years of Female Contraception

G.Pincus







Instructions from Egyptianpapyri (1850 B.C.)
- Vaginal application of crocodile dung aspessary or paste.....
- Cotton tampons or sponges filled with honey,
sodium bicarbonate, fluid from pomegranate


384-322 B.C.
The Greek philosopher Aristotle is thought to be the first person to propose using natural chemicals such as cedar oil, lead ointment or frankincense oil as spermicides.

1901
Physiologist Haberlandt showed that menstruation is regulated by hormones produced centrally in the brain and in a woman’s ovaries.

1923
Haberlandt discovers principle of the pill – injects placenta extracts in fertile animals and makes them temporarily sterile.

1950
Margaret Sanger, founder of the American Planned Parenthood Federation meets biochemist Gregory Pincus on the necessity of hormonal contraceptives, collects $50,000 and funds his research.

1956
Pincus and colleagues conduct trials successfully in US, Peurto Rico and Haiti.

1960
First Pill launched


"Few contributions to medical knowledge have done so much to bring to women everywhere a sense of worth and dignity"
D. E. Cameron, N. Y. T.

Use of abortion pills doubled last year

Actually it is 90-95% effective. Just take 2 oral contraceptives in the morning and two 12 hours later.

The number of women treated with the abortion pill in the UK last year doubled to around 10,000, new figures show. Data from BPAS (the British Pregnancy Advisory Service) reveals that demand for the pill, also known as early medical abortion (EMA), rose from 56 per cent to 65 per cent of the service's caseload in 2005.

BPAS provided 32,000 terminations last year during the first nine weeks of pregnancy, almost a third of which involved the abortion pill, which is taken under supervision, though the abortion occurs at home. The pill, or 'medical abortion', blocks pregnancy hormones and makes the uterus contract and can be used in the first nine weeks of pregnancy, after which time only a surgical abortion is permitted.

Ann Furedi, BPAS chief executive, suggested that earlier access to abortion is benefiting women and reducing the number of surgical terminations that are carried out.

Around 77 per cent of the total BPAS caseload of 50,000 was on behalf of the National Health Service in 2005. In 2003, 3,500 women were treated by BPAS with the abortion pill, rising to 5,000 in 2004 and 10,000 last year.

However, anti-abortion groups have criticised BPAS for welcoming the figures, as the UK should be working to reduce overall abortion rates.

NetDoctor