Medical Health

Most of us prefer green tea, not Wu-Yi.

I think we hear about obesity daily, how it contributes to heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and shorter lifespans. And we are bombarded by news and advertisements of diet plans and exercises and even surgical techniques. Not only are a vast number of adults fighting weight gain, our children are overweight too.

But what if you could achieve weight loss without embarking on a major diet or an extensive exercise routine? (Personally I think the Zone diet coupled with exercise will take the pounds off.) What if you could simply add one food/drink to a low calorie diet supplemented with light exercise? I am sure you have heard of green tea diets, but how about Wu-Yi tea?

Salesmen say that Wu-Yi tea helps activate enzymes that dissolve and burn fat, that the tea speeds up metabolism (just like muscle does). The active ingredients in Wu-Yi are called polyphenols. According to some research, as well as anecdotal accounts, drinking two cups of Wu-Yi tea per day helps people lose weight, and the tea also helps block the carbohydrate cascade that leads to rapid weight gain. (Personally I drink green tea. Scientists say green tea is less processed than Wu-Yi and therefore contains more antioxidants.)

I imagine that as the baby boomers retire and grow older a great number of them will not only access medical and pharmaceutical systems more often but also health spas and gyms. Baby boomers are staying active longer (resulting in more sports injuries, and then follow ups with physical therapists) and many of them have quite a bit of money to spend (wealth that they earned on the stock market and inherited from their parents). Consequently, I see that we will experience a continued growth in spas, salons, retreats, and gyms, and with that growth (and subsequent competition) we will see the spa owners and managers searching for better ways to strengthen their bottom lines. Given the fact that we live in the age of technology, many of these businesses will buy spa software.

Milano Systems offers a well-respected software solution. Their Spa & Salon 2007 package helps health centers remain effective and competitive. This salon software reduces the time it takes to complete accounting tasks and identifies best-selling products as well as productive staff. Milano Systems saves buyers thousands of dollars by offering software/hardware/training bundles tailored to companies of various sizes.

If you are unable to eat milk products or if you are taking a medication such as prednisone, you should definitely take calcium supplements — at least 1000 mg of calcium per day, divided into 2 to 4 doses. Never take more that 500 mg of calcium at one sitting during the day: your body has a hard time utilizing more that 500 mg at a time. And I have heard that among people supplementing with calcium, cranberry juice causes kidney stones. So avoid cranberries.

You might want to take a look at EZorbOnline.com. EZorb is a “new generation” calcium supplement — it has a very high absorption rate. I believe that I can feel the effects of EZorb on my muscle tone and skeletal strength.

The manufacturer states that “EZorb does not need participation of Vitamin D or magnesium for better calcium absorption,” but I still take 1000 IU of Vitamin D every day, and I continue to include old-style calcium-magnesium-zinc supplements in my daily regimen.

Recent research shows that while supplementing with calcium, you should take 1000 IU of Vitamin D every day. The old standard was 400 IU, but now it’s 1000 IU.

In A Cure for Crohn’s Disease, Dr. Weil says,

To address inflammation, increase your dietary omega-3 fatty acids by taking supplemental fish oil, start with one gram a day and increase slowly to two to four grams a day. watch for any increase in diarrhea, and cut back the dose if necessary.

In his recent books, Dr. Sears recommends high-dose (that is, ultra-refined and concentrated) fish oil for inflammation but warns that taking more than 7.5 grams of EPA plus DHA will increase your risk of hemorrhagic stroke. EPA and DHA are the active ingredients in fish oil and you will find the amounts contained per dose on the product label.

And remember, if your inflammation is still causing you to bleed, you should probably avoid fish oils and other blood thinners until your bleeding slows down.

For more from Dr. Weil, see gastrointestinal problems. And definitely buy Dr. Steinhart’s book Crohn’s and Colitis (Toronto: Robert Rose Inc., 2006).

Related Post

If you suffer from colitis and you still have problems with bleeding, you should consider removing chocolate, green tea, fish oil, garlic, turmeric, ginger, and cinnamon from your diet — they thin your blood, making you more prone to bleed. (And if you exercise, you should probably lift less weight for awhile. Strength training puts pressure on your guts.)

Once you have the bleeding back in control you can reintroduce small amounts of these foods and spices back into your diet.

P.S. If you are taking vitamin E capsules (at dosages of 200 IU and up), you should probably discontinue those for awhile, too. Vitamin E thins the blood. (And I suppose you have already quit aspirin and ibuprofen.)

The media keeps saying that today’s kids are obese and that today’s parents may be the first generation in history to outlive their children. Yet, in the United States and Canada, smoking and lung cancer are on the decline, which makes me wonder whether cigarettes would keep our teenagers and twenty-somethings slim, allowing them to outlive their parents (rather than the other way around), even though they eventually die of smoking-related illnesses.

I’m being sarcastic, of course. You really do not want to take up smoking in order to fit into one or more 2008 prom dresses. At www.talkpromdresses.com you can join in on the discussions and window shop for almost any type of wedding dress, from formal to gothic.

If you are looking for dietary methods for toning down the symptoms of ulcerative colitis, read Dr. Barry Sears’ book The Anti-Inflammation Zone, where he explains how to remove grains from your meals and how to balance protein, good fat, and favorable carbohydrate.

If you are to the point of recovery where you can again tolerate spices, be sure to try adding organic tumeric and organic ginger to your meals. Both spices fight inflammation and ginger alleviates gas and diarrhea. (But don’t go overboard: these spices can thin your blood and increase bleeding. SEE the “Colitis, fish oil, chocolate, tea, and spices” post.)

You might have a problem finding organic fresh ginger, but Frontier brand organic ground ginger root works just fine. Their Web site is www.frontiercoop.com.

Dr. Barry Sear’s Zone Diet shows you how to balance lean protein with favorable carbohydrates and heart-heathy fats. In fact while taking a medication that often causes dangerous weight gains, I actually lost pounds thanks to the Zone Diet.

Take a look for yourself on http://drsears.com.