Low Vitamin D in Childhood Linked to Heart Risks Later in Life, and Raises Adults’ Risk of Severe Stroke and Cancer

By Dr. Mercola

Researchers such as Dr. Robert Heaney, who I previously interviewed in the above video, have now realized that vitamin D is involved in the biochemical “machinery” of all cells and tissues in your body, which is why it has such a potent impact on health and disease.
When you don’t have enough, your entire body will end up struggling to function properly, because all cells need the active form of vitamin D to open up the genome and access the information retained within its genetic plans.
When you’re deficient in vitamin D, your health can deteriorate in any number of ways from this lack of access to the cells’ genetic blueprint.

Researchers have previously pointed out that increasing levels of vitamin D3 among the general population could prevent chronic diseases that claim nearly one million lives throughout the world each year.
Chances are this number would reach even higher if more recent research were to be taken into account. Either way, compelling evidence suggests that optimizing your vitamin D can reduce your risk of death from any cause,¹ making it a foundational component of optimal health.

Childhood Vitamin D Deficiency Can Be Costly in Terms of Health

For years, it’s been known that children born to vitamin D-deficient mothers are at increased risk for type 1 diabetes. Vitamin D deficiency in childhood is also associated with more severe asthma and allergies.

Read the rest of this article at - http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2015/02/23/childhood-vitamin-d-deficiency.aspx?e_cid=20150223Z1_DNL_B_art_1&utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art1&utm_campaign=20150223Z1_DNL_B&et_cid=DM69932&et_rid=852502699 

Vitamin D Deficiency Linked to Neurological Diseases; Also Raises Risk of Asthma Attacks, and More...

By Dr. Mercola

If there ever was a Top Nutrient competition, vitamin D just might nab the title. It affects your DNA through vitamin D receptors (VDRs) that bind to specific locations on the human genome.
So far, scientists have identified nearly 3,000 genes that are influenced by vitamin D status, and a robust and growing body of research clearly shows that vitamin D is critical for optimal health and disease prevention.
This includes some of the more difficult-to-treat conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease,¹ Parkinson’s, and multiple sclerosis² (MS).

Vitamin D Deficiency Is Prevalent in MS

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, neurodegenerative disease of the nerves in your brain and spinal column, caused through a demyelization process. It has long been considered a “hopeless” disease with few treatment options.

The typical prescription for MS focuses on highly toxic medications like prednisone and interferon. However, research over the past few years suggests MS may be improved using a number of natural methods—including vitamin D.

Most recently, a study^{3, 4} presented at this year’s annual meeting of the American Association of Neuromuscular and Electrodiagnostic Medicine⁵ (AANEM) shows that vitamin D deficiency is surprisingly prevalent both among those diagnosed with MS, and patients suffering other neuromuscular conditions.

Here, vitamin D deficiency was defined as a 25(OH)D3 level of 30ng/ml or less. Of patients diagnosed with a neuromuscular condition, 48 percent were deficient in vitamin D. Only 14 percent were above “normal,” which here constituted a vitamin D level of 40 ng/ml. According to one of the authors:

“While the connection between vitamin D deficiency and neurologic disease is likely complex and not yet fully understood, this study may prompt physicians to consider checking vitamin D levels in their patients with neurologic conditions and supplementing when necessary.”

Besides this one, about a dozen other studies⁶ have also noted a strong link between MS and vitamin D deficiency. For example, a number of studies have confirmed that your risk of MS increases the farther away you live from the equator, suggesting lack of sun exposure amplifies your risk.

I believe optimizing your vitamin D level is of great importance if you have MS, but it’s not the only factor. For additional treatment suggestions, please see my previous article discussing natural MS treatment guidelines.

 

Read more at - http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/11/17/vitamin-d-deficiency-asthma-multiple-sclerosis.aspx?e_cid=20141117Z1_DNL_art_1&utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art1&utm_campaign=20141117Z1&et_cid=DM60535&et_rid=731305630

Improve your mood by changing the way you walk

It’s well-known that when we’re in a good mood, our style of walking tends to reflect how we feel: we bounce along, shoulders back, swinging our arms in style.

Now, a new study finds that it also works the other way around: people who imitate a happy style of walking, even without realising it, find themselves feeling happier (Michalak et al., 2015).
The study had participants walking on a treadmill after looking at a list of positive and negative words.

While on the treadmill each person’s gait and posture was continuously measured and fed back to them visually.

On the screen they had to try and move a bar either one way or the other by changing their walking style.

Although they didn’t realise it, walking in a happy way made the bar move in one direction and walking in a depressed way moved it the other.

Read the rest of this article at - http://www.spring.org.uk/2014/10/how-to-feel-happy-just-by-walking-differently.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PsychologyBlog+%28PsyBlog%29

Your brain learns, processes complex information while you sleep

 

(Thomas Andrillon)  The idea that during sleep our minds shut down from the outside world is ancient and one that is still deeply anchored in our view of sleep today, despite some everyday life experiences and recent scientific discoveries that would tend to prove that our brains don’t completely switch off from our environment.

On the contrary, our brains can keep the gate slightly open. For example, we wake up more easily when we hear our own name or a particularly salient sound such as an alarm clock or a fire alarm compared to equally loud but less relevant sounds.

In research published in Current Biology, we went one step further to show that complex stimuli can not only be processed while we sleep but that this information can be used to make decisions, similarly as when we’re awake.

Our approach was simple: We built on knowledge about how the brain quickly automates complex chores. Driving a car, for example, requires integrating a lot of information at the same time, making rapid decisions and putting them into action through complex motor sequences. And you can drive all the way home without remembering anything, as we do when we say we’re on “automatic pilot.”
When we’re asleep, the brain regions critical for paying attention to or implementing instructions are deactivated, of course, which makes it impossible to start performing a task. But we wanted to see whether any processes continued in the brain after sleep onset if participants in an experiment were given an automatized task just before.

To do this, we carried out experiments in which we got participants to categorize spoken words that were separated into two categories: words that referred to animals or objects — for example “cat” or “hat,” in a first experiment; then real words like “hammer” vs. pseudo-words (words that can be pronounced but are found nowhere in the dictionary) like “fabu” in a second one.

Participants were asked to indicate the category of the word that they heard by pressing a left or right button. Once the task became more automatic, we asked them to continue to respond to the words, but they were also allowed to fall asleep. Since they were lying down in a dark room, most of them fell asleep while words were being played.

Read the rest of this article at - http://healthydebates.com/brain-actually-makes-decisions-sleep/

B vitamins, your mental health & your wellbeing

(NaturalNews) B vitamins are essential to many functions of the body. They aid in breaking down simple carbohydrates into glucose, the fuel for the brain and the body. They help manufacture new red blood cells and help them carry iron and create hemoglobin. And although these functions are vital to life, the most dramatic benefits of B vitamins are seen in relation to the brain and nervous system.

Deficiencies in B vitamins run the gamut from simple fatigue all the way to death. In between these extremes lie a host of symptoms and diseases including many mental health issues from depression, anxiety, mood swings, and irritability to paranoia, dementia, delusions, and psychosis.

B vitamins help you sleep, calm you down, help you think, and improve your mood.

How to improve mood and mental health with B vitamins

If you are dealing with any of these issues, diet is the first solution. B vitamins in their natural form are destroyed by processing foods. There is no place for processed foods in a truly healthy diet. Processed foods are generally filled with trans fats, GMOs, sugar or high fructose corn syrup, artificial flavors, colors, and preservatives. If you are dealing with any mental health issue, a clean, healthy diet is the first and most important treatment.

Clean out your cupboard, your pantry, and your freezer. Get rid of your processed foods. Buy real food and buy organic as much as possible. All of your meat should be organic. When you are eating at the top of the food chain, you are ingesting the product of that animal's diet. If the cow was raised on GMO feed, do you really want to eat it? Also, avoid all farm raised fish. Their feed is garbage as well. Animal protein is the only food source for B12, which is vital for the brain and nervous system. Make sure you buy food that is top quality, not from tortured animals raised on adulterated foods and antibiotics.

Fill your refrigerator and pantry with raw, organic fruits and vegetables. Beans and lentils are high in B vitamins. Grains must be whole. White rice, for instance, has had the outer layer removed--the outer layer filled with B vitamins.

Too often we rely on few foods, our favorites, to make up our diet. Experiment. Broaden your horizons and include new, nutrient dense foods. Eighty percent of your diet should consist of raw, organic, fruits and vegetables. This means eating one big salad a day with as many different veggies as you can cram into it or you can snack on lots of cut up veggies. Green smoothies are good, too, as long as they do not replace whole foods. You need the fiber for digestion and for promoting healthy bacteria in the gut.

B vitamins are water soluble, which means we do not store them in our fat tissues the way we store fat soluble vitamins. B12 is the only exception; it is stored in the liver. Since we do not store the other B vitamins, we need to eat good sources of B vitamins each day.


Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/046890_b_vitamins_mood_depression.html#ixzz3DXtHsU8v

To Protect Your Heart, Your Sodium to Potassium Ratio Is More Important Than Your Overall Salt Intake

Salt is the latest health/food villain that has been magically uncovered by the massive food establishment here in the US. While salt is being mandated out of foods in grocery stores and restaurants, chemicals unknown take it's place. And yet the body needs salt to function correctly, the brain needs salt so we can think clearly, so what is the truth?
By Dr. Mercola

The vilification of salt is similar to that of fat. Just as there are healthy fats that are necessary for optimal health and unhealthy fats that cause health problems, there are healthy and unhealthy types of salt. The devil’s in the details, as they say, and this is definitely true when it comes to salt and fat.
Salt provides two elements – sodium and chloride – both of which are essential for life. Your body cannot make these elements on its own, so you must get them from your diet. However, not all salts are created equal.

• Natural unprocessed salt, such as sea salt and Himalayan salt, contains about 84 percent sodium chloride (just under 37 percent of which is pure sodium^{1, 2}). The remaining 16 percent are naturally-occurring trace minerals, including silicon, phosphorus, and vanadium 
• Processed (table) salt contains 97.5 percent sodium chloride (just over 39 percent of which is sodium^{3, 4}). The rest is man-made chemicals, such as moisture absorbents and flow agents, such as ferrocyanide and aluminosilicate.
Besides the basic differences in nutritional content, the processing—which involves drying the salt above 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit—also radically and detrimentally alters the chemical structure of the salt

Appropriate vs. Inappropriate Salt Restriction

In the United States and many other developed countries, salt has been vilified as a primary cause of high blood pressure and heart disease. According to research presented at last year’s American Heart Association meeting,⁵ excessive salt consumption contributed to 2.3 million heart-related deaths worldwide in 2010.
However, it’s important to realize that most Americans and other Westerners get the majority of their sodium from commercially available table salt and processed foods—not from natural unprocessed salt.
This is likely to have a significant bearing on the health value of salt, just as dangerous trans fats in processed foods turned out to be responsible for the adverse health effects previously (and wrongfully) blamed on healthy saturated fats.
Current dietary guidelines in the US recommend limiting your salt intake to anywhere from 1.5 to 2.4 grams of sodium per day, depending on which organization you ask. The American Heart Association suggests a 1.5 gram limit.
For a frame of reference, one teaspoon of regular table salt contains about 2.3 grams of sodium.⁶ According to some estimates, Americans get roughly four grams of sodium per day, which has long been thought to be too much for heart health.
But recent research, which has been widely publicized,^{7, 8, 9, 10, 11} suggests that too little salt in your diet may be just as hazardous as too much.  Moreover, the balance between sodium and potassium may be a deciding factor in whether your salt consumption will ultimately be harmful or helpful.

Too Little Salt Raises Heart Risks Too, Researchers Find

One four-year long observational study (the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study), which included more than 100,000 people in 17 countries, found that while higher sodium levels correlate with an increased risk for high blood pressure, potassium helps offset sodium’s adverse effects.
The results were published in two articles: "Association of Urinary Sodium and Potassium Excretion with Blood Pressure"¹² and "Urinary Sodium and Potassium Excretion, Mortality, and Cardiovascular Events."¹³
I’ve discussed the importance of getting these two nutrients—sodium and potassium—in the appropriate ratios before, and I’ll review it again in just a moment.
In this study, those with the lowest risk for heart problems or death from any cause were consuming three to six grams of sodium a day—far more than US daily recommended limits.
Not only did more than six grams of sodium a day raise the risk for heart disease, so did levels lower than three grams per day. In short, while there is a relationship between sodium and blood pressure, it’s not a linear relationship.¹⁴ As noted by the Associated Press:¹⁵

"‘These are now the best data available,’ Dr. Brian Strom said of the new study. Strom, the chancellor of Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences, led an Institute of Medicine panel last year that found little evidence to support very low sodium levels.
"‘Too-high sodium is bad. Too low also may be bad, and sodium isn't the whole story,’ Strom said. ‘People should go for moderation.’

The authors propose an alternative approach; instead of recommending aggressive sodium reduction across the board, it might be wiser to recommend high-quality diets rich in potassium instead. This, they surmise, might achieve greater public health benefits, including blood-pressure reduction.
As noted by one of the researchers, Dr. Martin O'Donnell¹⁶ of McMaster University, “Potatoes, bananas, avocados, leafy greens, nuts, apricots, salmon, and mushrooms are high in potassium, and it's easier for people to add things to their diet than to take away something like salt.”

Read the full article at -  http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/08/25/sodium-potassium-ratio.aspx

Are You Allergic to Rain?

Dr. Mercola essentially presents the establishment case here for the causes of these reactions, but it's a fairly recent phenomenon, which means something is in the air and rain now that wasn't there in the past.  The most obvious answer is chemtrails, which has to be building up in the atmosphere after so many years of use...

By Dr. Mercola

Dust mites, animal dander, molds, and pollen are among the most common environmental triggers of asthma attacks and allergy symptoms. For some, however, a spring or summer thunderstorm may lead to a flare-up of symptoms.
Research shows an association between thunderstorm activity and worsening of allergy and asthma symptoms; one study found a 3 percent increase in emergency-room visits for asthma attacks in the 24 hours following thunderstorms.¹ As the researchers explained:

"While a three percent increase in risk may seem modest, asthma is quite prevalent… and a modest relative increase could have a significant public health impact in the population."

What Causes Thunderstorm Asthma?

The phenomenon, known as "thunderstorm asthma," isn't so much an issue of people being allergic to rain. Instead, thunderstorms form the "perfect storm," literally, of circumstances to increase breathing difficulties. Researchers wrote in the journal Thorax:²

"The most prominent hypotheses explaining the associations are that pollen grains rupture by osmotic shock in rainwater, releasing allergens, and that gusty winds from thunderstorm downdrafts spread particles and/or aeroallergens, which may ultimately increase the risk of asthma attacks."

In other words, pollen and mold particles that may otherwise be too big to get into your lungs (and instead tend to cause mostly nose-related symptoms) suddenly become broken up by a thunderstorm. This allows entrance into the lungs, potentially leading to an asthmatic reaction, even in some people who have never had asthma before.
It's also been suggested that storms' electrical charge makes tiny pollen and mold particles stickier, increasing the likelihood that they'll cause trouble in your lungs once inhaled.³ As written in Current Allergy and Asthma Reports:⁴

"The weather system of a mature thunderstorm likely entrains grass pollen into the cloud base, where pollen rupture would be enhanced, then transports the respirable-sized fragments of pollen debris to ground level where outflows distribute them ahead of the rain.
The conditions occurring at the onset of a thunderstorm might expose susceptible people to a rapid increase in concentrations of pollen allergens in the air that can readily deposit in the lower airways and initiate asthmatic reactions."

So what can you do? Pay attention to weather reports, especially if you've experienced thunderstorm asthma before. Although the condition is relatively uncommon, it's known to strike without warning, so if a thunderstorm is coming, stay indoors and close up your windows to avoid unnecessary exposure to ruptured pollen grains.

Read the rest of this article here

How To Cleanse With Juicing and Juice Fasting

It's always funny to talk about fasting with Christians here in the U.S.  You should see the frowns and silence come across the people.  Who wants to fast?  Probably no one.  Who needs to fast?  Who can be blessed and enriched from fasting and prayer?  All of us.  Self-discipline is truly a need.  I hope this encourages you to give it a shot today.

I’m often asked to name one thing that can be done right away to get healthier. With respect to food choices, the best suggestion I have is to begin drinking freshly pressed vegetable juices. Drinking just one freshly pressed juice each day is a reliable way of infusing your body with a wide variety of vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients that can protect your cells against premature aging and disease.

 

Making time to drink vegetable juices isn’t a problem for most people. It’s the time that’s needed to wash fresh vegetables, feed them through a good juicer, and clean the juicer afterward that prevents most people from making fresh juices a regular part of their lives.

 

But if you understand how beneficial freshly pressed juices are to your health, it becomes easier to make the time to juice several times a week.

 

The Right Ingredients

The key to creating healthy vegetable juices is to make green vegetables the bulk of every batch. Green vegetables won’t spike your blood sugar and insulin like fruits and sweet vegetables like carrots and red beets will.

 

This isn’t to say that you can’t juice fruits, carrots, and red beets. Fruits and sweet root vegetables can be healthy additions to your drinks, and they’ll definitely add sweetness and flavour. You just want to make sure that they never make up more than one-third of each glass that you drink.

 

And if your blood sugar level tends to be high, you’ll want to use a blood sugar monitor to determine how much is acceptable for you. I’ve worked with many diabetics over the years who haven’t been able to handle even an ounce of fruit, carrot, or red beet juice in their drinks without negative health consequences, so please consider this point before you select your ingredients for juicing.

 

Romaine lettuce is one of the best green vegetables that you can juice. You can also juice other types of leafy lettuce like red or green leaf lettuce.

 

For variety, try adding large handfuls of kale, Swiss chard, collard greens, Bok Choy, and other dark green vegetables that you might steam before eating.

 

For another layer of flavour, you can add a tiny slice of lemon (including the rind for its flavonoids) to your vegetable juices.

 

Some people enjoy adding a clove of raw garlic for even more bite.

 

Be creative and add any vegetables you crave. You really can’t go wrong as long as you make sure not to use too many carrots, red beets, or fruits.

 

Clearly, organic vegetables are better than non-organic vegetables. But my experiences have led me to believe that the health benefits of drinking juices made with well washed, non-organic vegetables far outweigh not juicing at all. If you’re only able to juice non-organic vegetables due to financial or other life circumstances, it’s still well worth doing.

 

Read the full article at - http://worldtruth.tv/how-to-cleanse-with-juicing-and-juice-fasting/