Health Shelter

THE BENEFITS OF THE SUN-RAYS

If the exposure to sun light is moderate, the benefits outnumber the dangers. First of all sunshine has a good effect upon the mental health and well-being, both due to the visible light and to the warming effect.
The UVA rays in the sunlight stimulates the skin to produce vitamin D. This vitamin is necessary for the normal composition, growth and regeneration of bone tissue. By to low levels of vitamin D in the body, the bones tend to loose calcium and get thinner and weaker. Newer findings suggest that many people do not get enough of this vitamin through the diet or do not absorb enough from the intestines, and need this stimulation to get good enough levels of vitamin D.

Newer findings also suggest that moderate amount of sunshine does not promote the occurence of skin cancer. On the contrary, in moderate amounts, exposure to sunshine seems to help prevent cancers of several types., especially breast cancer, colon cancer and prostate cancer.

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A free-radical is a molecule or atom that is missing an electron. Free-radicals attack healthy cells within your body trying to steal an electron from them. Free-radicals are nothing more than thugs. All cancer is caused by free-radicals and the damage they do to your DNA. Your DNA holds the blue print for every cell that is created. All cancer is caused by mutated DNA. This is how DNA mutation happens; free-radicals attack your DNA trying to steal an electron, this attack continues and changes the blue print within your DNA, now the cells that are being created by your DNA are mutated with this changed blue print. The cells that are produced are cancer cells and the body no longer recognizes them as you; but they are not cancer yet, one more condition is needed to begin the growth of true cancer and that is inflammation. Inflammation appears when there is an injury to our body; even cell injury. Inflammation is there to help heal but it can not heal a mutation so it feeds the cell and within a few years you have some form of cancer.

We can not avoid free-radicals, they are a part of life; they are found in air and water pollution, the processed foods we eat and are caused by trauma and exercise as well as any medication you may take. Medications have a free-radical nature due to laboratory production and doctors call theses free-radicals and the damage they do; side effects.

The only thing that stops free-radicals is antioxidants; they are molecules that have a spare electron. The only place to find antioxidants is in natural sources. Dietary supplements are needed for optimum health and contain some antioxidants, eating natural foods that are un-processed is very important. Processing foods kills the antioxidants and they will not help you. Most plants have around 1,000 to 1,500 antioxidants each, which does not seem like a lot compared to the amount of free-radicals you are taking into your body every single day; about a billion.

With the discovery of a fruit from South East Asia called the Mangosteen, scientists have been in a buzz about the amount of antioxidants this fruit contains. The Mangosteen fruit has an amazing 25,000 antioxidants. This fruit has been studied in Universities and by scientists for the last 20 years; they have proved that this fruit has the most powerful and the largest number of antioxidants in nature to date. You can read all the studies by going to pubmed at dot gov and typing in Mangosteen. The Mangosteen fruit has also been providing thousands of people with pain relief as well as other medicinal benefits, due to super charged antioxidants called Xanthones. Two hundred Xanthones have been identified in nature, 41 are in the Mangosteen fruit alone and you can compare that to the Aloe Vera plant that contains only one Xanthone. One thing about Xanthones you need to know is that they must be consumed in their natural form.

Cancer and other serious illnesses are on the rise in this country. Cancer is a plague; but we have become so accustomed to the word and the disease that we don’t take it as seriously as we should. Cancer destroys not only the body and our cells; it can destroy our families and devastate our financial situation. pubmed at dot gov is a source that can be used as a guide to help in your recovery; there are links to several informational pages, done by doctors and scientists.

Alternative health care is also on the rise due to medications that cause so many side effects because of their free-radical nature that you can end up in worse health than when you first went into see the doctor. Medications on top of medications will break down your immune system and the free-radicals end up on a rampage through your body, causing mayhem and destruction, and then you need more medication. All medications carry a risk of side effects. Alternatives such as fruits and veggies do not carry these types of risks. You can call toll free 1-888-374-4148 and listen to a message about the amazing power of Xanthones.

According to the latest medical theory, chronic inflammation is the root cause of almost every disease suffered by human beings.

That’s right. Many doctors believe persistent, low-level inflammation paves the way for chronic disease, including those we usually experience late in life, e.g. arthritis, heart and kidney disease, and cancer.

As a part of our immune response system, inflammation occurs when the body is fighting germs that enter the body through a variety of ways, e.g. injury or inhalation. When you experience redness, swelling, heat, infection, and pain from a variety of ailments, it’s a sign of inflammation. Normally, the inflammation goes away when the body has conquered the infection or injury, but if the body fails to shut off the inflammation process, a more serious condition can occur.

It is generally recognized that heart attacks occur when the blood vessels become clogged with “plaque” (what we usually refer to as the bad LDL cholesterol) that is deposited on the vessel walls. This bad cholesterol also gets embedded inside arteries and our immune system “attacks” it. Persistent inflammation in the arteries can eventually cause plaque to burst. Now many doctors use a simple blood test for inflammation called CRP (short for C-reactive Protein) to help assess a person’s cardiac risk. CRP is an index of inflammation in the arteries and the CRP increases as inflammation increases. For example, test have shown that middle aged men with high CRP levels in their blood were three times more likely to suffer a heart attack in the next 6 years than men with normal levels. Medical experts say that a CRP of 3.0 mg/L or higher triples your heart attack risk. People with CRP less than 0.5 mg/L rarely have heart attacks.

The good news is that we can do something to reduce the risks of persistent inflammation, including losing weight, exercising regularly, and eating the right foods. According to the Center for Human Nutrition at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, some foods can cause inflammation while others can decrease it. Diets that are rich in fruits and vegetables, and foods that offer lots of Omega-3 fatty acids (such as salmon, tuna, mackerel, and walnuts) are best. Further, a diet of such foods has been shown to be instrumental in weight reduction, and lowering CRP and insulin resistance.

You can also take prescription or over-the-counter NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as Vioxx, Celebrex, and Bextra), which reduce inflammation but can have dangerous side effects. While these drugs are effective COX-2 inhibitors, the life-threatening side effects from prolonged uninterrupted use (such as gastro-intestinal hemorrhage and kidney and liver failure) make them both dangerous and controversial. One has only to read the literature produced by the companies manufacturing these drugs to know how dangerous they are. In fact, in the United States in the year 2000, more people died from the complications of NSAIDs than died from AIDS! Further, Vioxx was recently withdrawn from the marketplace because it caused heart attacks.

Inflammation is “one of the bad guys.” You need to get it under control, but don’t jump from the “frying pan into the fire” by treating your condition with a “badder guy.” Eat right, exercise regularly, have your blood work done once a year, and listen to your doctor’s advice. May I also suggest you find a natural food supplement to treat your inflammation, rather than just reaching for the pill bottle?

Bruce Bailey, Ph.D.

Gardasil:
Cervical cancer is caused by a virus many people get in their teens and 20s. Now there is a vaccine available to protect women from the most common cause of cervical cancer: a virus called HPV.
What is HPV?
HPV (human papillomavirus) is a common virus that affects both females and males. There are actually more than 100 types of HPV. Most of them are relatively harmless, like the ones that cause common warts on the hands and feet. For most people, the body’s own defense system will clear the virus. However, there are a few types of HPV you should really know about.
Genital HPV:
About 30 types of HPV affect the genital area.
- Some are “high-risk” types (such as HPV Types 16 and 18) that can cause abnormal cervical cells and cervical cancer
– Others are “low-risk” types (such as HPV Types 6 and 11) that can cause genital warts.
Genital Warts:
Genital warts are usually flesh-colored growths that are most often caused by certain “low-risk” types of HPV. Anyone who has any kind of sexual activity involving genital contact can get HPV and genital warts – intercourse isn’t necessary. And many people with HPV do not have genital warts or any other symptoms, so they can pass the virus without even knowing it. The warts may appear within weeks, months – or sometimes not at all.
More common than you might think:
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that 80% of women will have had genital HPV by age 50. It’s estimated that most people get HPV within their first 2 to 3 years of becoming sexually active.
A cancer vaccine?
Gardasil is a vaccine that helps protect against the following diseases (these are diseases caused by the HPV Types in the vaccine (6, 11, 16, and 18)):
- Cervical cancer
- Abnormal and precancerous cervical lesions
- Abnormal and precancerous vaginal lesions
- Genital warts
Gardasil is indicated for girls and women ages 9 through 26. The vaccine is given as a series of three injections at 0, 2, and 6 months. Gardasil is intended to prevent, not treat, the above mentioned diseases. However, you may benefit from Gardasil if you already have HPV. This is because most people are not infected with all four types of HPV contained in the vaccine. In clinical trials, individuals with one or more vaccine-related HPV types prior to vaccination were protected from disease caused by the remaining vaccine HPV types.
What about women of other ages and men?
The main purpose Gardasil is to protect women against the HPV types that cause cervical cancer. Men are obviously not at risk for cervical cancer so, at this time, there are no efforts to vaccinate men. Some men may choose, however, to get the vaccine simply for the partial protection it will give them against contracting genital warts. How effective the vaccine is at protecting men from genital warts has not yet been sufficiently studied.
The age range for women is based on the fact that HPV is a sexually transmitted virus that most women encounter within the first 2 to 3 years of being sexually active.

At first, a chalazion looks and feels like a stye, swollen eyelid, pain, and irritation. The term chalazion refers to a cystic swelling with chronic inflammation in an eyelid. Sometimes the bump on your eyelid is actually a chalazion, which looks similar to a stye. A chalazion is sometimes confused with a stye which also appears as a lump in the eyelid.

In rare cases, cancerous tumors of the eyelid can appear like a stye or chalazion. Do not wear eye makeup or contact lenses until the stye or chalazion heals. Granulomas are inflammatory growths on the inside or outside of the eyelid, and can occur after a stye, or chalazion.

In some cases of staph blepharitis, a red eye may develop or a sty may form. Inflammation of an eyelash follicle with a lump called a sty or hordeolum is usually caused by staph.

If you get styes frequently, see your eye doctor for an examination. Finally, if you suffer from recurring styes, your eye doctor might prescribe a low-dose antibiotic for long-term use. Consult an eye specialist if the inflammation persists for more than 2 weeks, styes recur, or the stye rubs against the eye and irritates it. Bad styes or recurrent styes may need an antibiotic eye ointment as prescribed by your specialist.

Some good prevention method for eye stys are simple things like not sharing make up. Avoid sharing eye makeup, especially if you are prone to recurring styes. Refrain from wearing eye makeup while the stye is active. Although most styes and chalazia are not contagious, best practice should also include not sharing towels, washcloths, or handkerchief.

Your eye doctor may recommend replacing your contact lenses after the stye has healed to prevent recurrence or spread of the infection. If you do not, the infection may spread to the oil glands of the eyelid and cause a stye. Ask an optometrist a question about eye styes when you are purchasing any new contact lenses.

Further study is needed to fully understand relationships between hair dyes and bladder cancer, researchers said. Basically, they found no overall increase in cancer deaths among users of hair dyes. These opinions are concerning the use of permanent hair dyes and bladder cancer in 2005. Because of the widespread use of hair dye, the possibility of a relationship between it and cancer is quite alarming. In this study, the two main criteria were exposure to personal hair dye products and an outcome of cancer at any anatomical site.

“The totality of evidence today is far more reassuring than alarming about any hazards of hair dye use,” Dr. None found evidence of a significant excess among hair dye users overall. A European Commission watchdog has criticized the hair dye industry for failing to provide evidence of the safety of its products. Until definitive evidence come in consumers may want to proceed with caution when selecting a hair dye. A European Commission watchdog criticised the hair dye industry in 2002 for failing to provide evidence of the safety of its products. But there is no strong evidence that hair dyes cause any of these.

Permanent hair dyes, the most popular choice among consumers, come in two categories: oxidation and progressive. Thus it may be concluded that it is hair dye that accidentally spilled over and has taken effect by oxidation. They are called Oxidation hair dyes because they contain Paraphenelenediamine, which is a basic constituent of these dyes.

You might feel good after a chemical hair dye but, if you’re dying your hair in this way frequently, It is belived that you’re killing yourself softly. A chemical free hair dye, use at home hair colour. A compound henna mix is not a chemical free hair dye. Suraiya As with any chemical product, you should always use hair dyes in a well ventilated area. Here are the facts: Hair dye, bleach, perms and relaxing solutions are all absorbed into the bloodstream to some degree.

Can eating your broccoli and cabbage help protect you against lung cancer? According to a study published in the October 29, 2005 issue of the British medical journal, Lancet, the answer is yes.

This isn’t the first time that it’s been suggested that cruciferous vegetables may have a preventive effect against lung cancer, but it is the largest scale study to date. There have been a number of smaller observational studies that reported a possible link between the vegetables and lung cancer prevention, but they were considered to be too small to be definitive. This study, conducted by a group of researchers at the Genetic Epidemiology Group at the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France, compared 2,141 people diagnosed with lung cancer with a group of healthy people in the Czech Republic, Romania, Russia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. They chose countries where the consumption of vegetables like cabbage, broccoli and Brussels sprouts has been traditionally high.

“We found protective effects with at least weekly consumption of cruciferous vegetables,” the research letter in the Lancet stated.

Researchers believe that the beneficial effects of cruciferous vegetables are due to the high content of isothiocyanates, phytonutrients that seem to have a strong anti-cancer effect. They are a more bioavailable form of glucosinolates, which also have been shown to have anti-cancer effects. The research conducted at Lyons takes the knowledge a step further.

Studies have shown that isothiocyanates neutralize cancerous cells by inhibiting cell proliferation. The cycle of a normal cell in the body proceeds from cell division, through specialization, and eventually, when the cell has either become damaged or has finished doing its job, to apoptosis – or cell death. The problem with cancer cells is that they don’t go through apoptosis. For some reason, their mutations make them resistant to the message that it’s time to die. Isothiocyanates appear to be a catalyst that triggers apoptosis. In laboratory experiments, they’ve induced apoptosis in a number of cell lines. They also seem to slow proliferation of a number of types of cancer cells, including lung cancer lines.

The researchers at Lyons found that there is also a correlation between genetics and the preventive effect of cruciferous vegetables. There are two genes that produce an enzyme that remove isothiocyanates from the body. The Lyons study correlated the results from a diet questionnaire with blood tests to determine whether those studied had inactive or active forms of those genes. They found that in people who had an inactive form of one of the two genes had a 37% lower risk of developing lung cancer. Those with an inactive form of the other had a 33% lower risk of developing lung cancer. In those with both genes inactive, there was a 72% reduction in lung cancer risk. In those who had two active gene types, there was no difference in risk at all.

Said Paul Brennan, lead author of the research letter, “…this indicates that there is a specific protective effect against lung cancer from cruciferous vegetables.”

Random trials to absolutely confirm the findings would be expensive and time consuming, Brennan notes. In the meantime, though, including cabbage, kale, Brussels sprouts, broccoli or turnips in your diet at least once a week may help reduce your risk of developing lung cancer.