Medical Health

Ulcerative Colitis Advice

On my earlier post Best of the Web: Ulcerative Colitis, I listed a few websites recommended by health professionals. Now I would like to say that I also like the University of Maryland writeup.

Here are the main lifestyle suggestions I have found on these websites:

1) Exercise.

2) Avoid stress.

3) Avoid milk products.

4) Don’t eat foods that bother you, period.

5) Stay on a low fat diet.

6) Eat lots of vegetables and fruits.

7) If vegetables and fruits bother you, cook them.

And I would add a few additional pointers:

1) Stay away from most fresh vegetables and fruits. Eat frozen produce. (See A Fish and Vegetable Diet.)

2) Avoid all grains. (But you might want to try Quinoa.) Do not eat granola!

3) Do not eat red meat.

4) Do not eat at restaurants.

5) Do not eat processed food (meals, meats, snacks, frozen dinners, cereals, etc.).

6) Fix your own meals. Don’t trust other people to make your meals for you.

7) Take tumeric every day. (See Frontier Turmeric Root Ground and New Chapter Tumericforce.)

8 ) Take a good, pharmaceutical-grade fish oil every day. (I only recommend Nordic Naturals – Ultimate Omega and Ascenta, Nutra Sea HP Fish Oil.)

9) Get out for a hike or walk every day, or use the treadmill.

10) Do not eat whole nuts and seeds. Eat nut butters and seed butters.

11) Get plenty of rest. Do not overwork yourself. Take time off. Relax.

Also see Ulcerative Colitis and Diet and Colitis, Fish Oil, Chocolate, Tea and Spices.

Tags: diet, Digestion, health, prevention

Spinach, Greens, and Eye Health

My optometrist always tells me to eat lots of spinach, that studies conducted in the American Southeast indicate that individuals who eat the most greens are less likely to suffer from macular degeneration later in life. Now The State newspaper has come out with an article called “For eye health, eat spinach like Popeye,” in which they say that a half cup of spinach or three quarters of a cup of collard or turnip greens provides the 10mg of lutein that experts recommend as the daily dose necessary for eye health.

I eat spinach every day. And I take a lutein supplement every day, usually 10mg, but often 20-40mg. (I have read that lutein might also protect the skin.)

Experts say that blueberries, bilberries, vitamin E, vitamin C, and zinc also protect eyesight, and I eat blueberries and take supplements containing bilberries and blueberries, and a calcium supplement containing zinc. But I remember one of the cancer organizations saying that vitamin E and vitamin C seem to protect cancers from being destroyed by our immune systems. I therefore take low doses of vitamin C (20 mg) and vitamin E (100 IU or less) and NOT every day. See the BCcancer web site, where they say, “Water soluble vitamins in megadoses may in some cases be tumor promoters.” And see the HealthDay article “Vitamin E Supplements May Raise Lung Cancer Risk.”

Tags: Cancer, eyes, vision

Increased My Vitamin D to 2000 IU Per Day

I recently read a reputable article that said that we should be taking 1500 to 2300 IU of Vitamin D each day. I think I read the article on a life extension web site: http://www.lef.org/news/.

Mayo Clinic says that the upper limit for vitamin D is 2000 IU per day. See http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/vitamin-d/AN01864. In Canada, doctors often recommend 1000 IU per day as a potential cancer preventative.

Previously, I was taking 1000 to 1300 IU each day, every day, rain, snow, or shine, 365 days per year.

My Anti-Cancer Diet

Also see my post Cancer Prevention Foods and Spices. And search the United States government’s National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine web site and Mayo Clinc.

Daily anti-cancer foods and supplements:

1) I bought one pound of Organic Connections beet powder for $23.80. (That’s the best price I found).

– I take 1 tsp. of beet powder a day in a shake.

2) I bought one pound of Frontier brand organic turmeric powder for $11.80. (I shopped around and that’s the best price I found. You might get Organic Connections turmeric even cheaper.)

– I take 1 heaping teaspoon of turmeric powder a day in a shake.

3) I eat one ounce (28 to 30 grams) of dark chocolate every day. It has to be 70% or better. I most often eat 85%. But do not take it with milk. Milk inactivates the good ingredients in chocolate.

4) I have about 1/2 to 1 cup of fresh cabbage juice every day.

5) I eat spinach every day.

6) I eat cherries every day.

7) I drink a mug of green tea steeped for 15 minutes every day. You have to steep it for 15 minutes to get the most from it.

8 ) I try to eat a red apple almost every day.

9) I eat broccoli or cauliflower most days.

10) The only powdered “greens” I recommend in Canada is Progressive Nutritional PhytoBerry. It does not have the herbs and alfalfa found in many greens products these days. You should be able to purchase 900 grams (60 servings) of Progressive Phytoberry for $57 to $60. Shop around–the price varies. I like it a lot and have it 3 to 6 times a week.

When I am not taking PhytoBerry, I use Rainbow Vibrance Super Food

11) I take pharmaceutical grade fish oil, usually Nordic Naturals Ultimate Omega or Ascenta Nutra Sea HP.

Tags: Cancer, diet, prevention

Cancer Prevention Foods and Spices

As part of your cancer prevention diet consume dark chocolate, cabbage juice, homemade tomato sauce, pharmaceutical grade fish oil, green tea, turmeric, and ginger every day. But don’t overdo it: fish oil, turmeric, ginger, green tea, garlic and cinnamon thin the blood. When you thin the blood too much, you are susceptible to hemorrhagic strokes and other serious health problems. If you already take prescription blood thinners (such as warfarin), you should talk to your doctor about using fish oil, turmeric, ginger, green tea, garlic and cinnamon as health supplements.

Your dark chocolate should be at least 70% cocoa and you should consume 1 ounce (about 30 grams) each day. Eating more than an ounce a day will add to your fat load and make you gain weight.

You should be sure that your fish oil is pharmaceutical grade. Lower quality fish oil products contain contaminants. I take Nordic Naturals fish oil. From what I have read, Dr. Sears and Dr. Weil also market quality fish oil.

My homemade tomato sauce consists of strained Italian tomatoes (from the bottle) slightly simmered with Italian spices. Cooking tomatoes makes the lycopene antioxidant more accessible.

I make cabbage juice every day and drink it immediately after preparing it. I also include a heaping teaspoon of organic turmeric, a half teaspoon of organic powdered ginger, one ounce of 80% – 90% dark chocolate, a mug of green tea (steeped for 15 minutes), and Nordic Naturals fish oil in my daily regimen.

Take turmeric and powdered ginger the easy way: put them in a protein shake at lunch.

Tags: Cancer, diet, prevention

Dr. Weil’s Anti-inflammation Pyramid

I was just looking at the anti-inflammation food pyramid on drweil.com and saw that Dr. Weil included beans, whole grains, and dairy products in his selection. However, I once read that if a food causes you indigestion most times you eat it, then you should cut it from your diet. Repeated bouts of indigestion (and flatulence) can bring on intestinal (and then general) inflammation and ill health. Beans, whole grains, and dairy products cause indigestion in many people, especially as they age.

As a remedy for indigestion and general inflammation, I find that Dr. Sear’s Zone Diet (minus the dairy and soy products) works the best. And since this diet is somewhat restrictive, I take calcium supplements (1000 mg per day, divided into 2 or 3 doses) and Vitamin D (1000 IU per day). I also drink one glass of lactose free skim milk at lunch.

Also see Cancer Prevention Foods and Spices

Weight Loss and Wu-Yi Tea

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.)

Calcium

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.

Dr. Weil and Crohn’s Disease

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

Colitis, Fish Oil, Chocolate, Tea and Spices

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.)