Keep Your Liver Clean and You Won't Have Many Problems

UPDATE: January 2011

2011: Participate in our healthy detoxification program

Original post, January 2008

UPDATE: March 2009 - It is very sad that Professor Ernst is so ignorant about herbs, especially since he has the title of complementary medicine professor.

In a country that is the home of Culpeper and Maud Grieve it amazes me that there is such a lack of academic prowess. The information in regard to dandelion and artichoke for liver health is rather extensive. Both herbs are ones I often use for people who have liver related health concerns, including Hepatitis.

Now that spring is about to arrive in the northern hemisphere it is time to focus on detoxification and liver health. If you'd like a copy of our liver cleansing program, just send a donation to CHI and put detox in the note, and you'll receive it promptly in an email.

You most likely won't do anything better for improving your health than periodic detoxifying with foods and herbs.

In this case I've got to side with Charles.

Prince Charles detox 'quackery' Prince Charles has been accused of exploiting the public in times of hardship by launching what a leading scientist calls a "dodgy" detox mix.

Edzard Ernst, the UK's first professor of complementary medicine, said the Duchy Originals herbal detox tincture was based on "outright quackery".

There was no scientific evidence to show that detox products work, he said.

Launching the product in January, Duchy Originals' herbalist said each mix had been meticulously researched.

Michael McIntyre added they were "manufactured to the highest standards after exhaustive lab testing".

But Professor Ernst of Peninsula Medical School said Prince Charles and his advisers appeared to be deliberately ignoring science, preferring "to rely on 'make-believe' and superstition".

He added: "Prince Charles thus financially exploits a gullible public in a time of financial hardship."

Marketed as Duchy Herbals' Detox Tincture, the artichoke and dandelion mix is described as "a food supplement to help eliminate toxins and aid digestion".

It costs £10 (about $14 USD at current exchange rates) for a 50ml bottle.

Detox doubts

Professor Ernst said the suggestion that such products remove toxins from the body was "implausible, unproven and dangerous".

“ Prince Charles and his advisors seem to deliberately ignore science and prefer to rely on ‘make believe' and superstition ”
Professor Edzard Ernst

"Nothing would, of course, be easier than to demonstrate that detox products work. All one needed to do is to take a few blood samples from volunteers and test whether this or that toxin is eliminated from the body faster than normal," he said.

"But where are the studies that demonstrate efficacy? They do not exist, and the reason is simple: these products have no real detoxification effects."

Earlier this year the charitable trust Sense About Science produced a report seeking to debunk claims made about detox products.

Its researchers reviewed a series of products, from bottled water to face scrub, and found the detox assertions to be overwhelmingly meaningless.

It is not the first time Professor Ernst has criticised Prince Charles.

His 2008 book Trick or treatment? Alternative Medicine on Trial is dedicated with irony to the prince, who has long been a supporter of complementary medicine - and particularly homeopathy.

Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/health/7934568.stm
Published: 2009/03/10 © BBC MMIX

ORIGINAL POST, Jan 08 Dr. Russell Blaylock offers you Five Nutrients to Protect Your Liver
The liver is the largest organ in the body and one of the most important for survival. It has three major functions: metabolizing nutrients, generating bile acids, and detoxifying poisons from both within and outside the body.

Bile acids are produced by liver cells and stored in the gallbladder until needed. They are critical to the digestion and absorption of fats. When fats enter the upper small bowel (which is composed of two sections — the duodenum and jejunum), the gallbladder releases bile acids that mix with the fats. This reaction forms a special chemical structure that can be further broken down by enzymes (lipases) to allow for better absorption.

When bile stagnates in the gallbladder, gallstones can form, leading to possible bacteria growth. This situation often triggers gallbladder attacks that spur severe cramping and pain, particularly if the gallstones block the bile duct — the tube connecting the gallbladder to the small intestine.

You can effectively prevent such attacks by regularly using the herb curcumin, which stimulates the gallbladder to release its bile. Curcumin also has antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties that help prevent infections and inflammation in the organ.

The liver itself can be damaged by a variety of medications, as well as alcohol and viruses. One of the most common medications known to destroy liver cells is acetaminophen (as found in Tylenol™). Even when taken in recommended amounts, this drug can do great harm to the liver. In fact, acetaminophen damage is the underlying cause of many liver transplants.

Alcoholics are notorious for having bad livers because alcohol is a powerful liver toxin. Over time, heavy drinkers can develop severe scarring of the liver and loss of cells in that vital organ. Chronic heavy drinkers with damaged, poorly functioning alcoholic livers are also at high risk of liver cancer. This is a result of the chronic scarring, inflammation and exposure to toxins.

But several powerful nutrients have been shown to help protect liver cells from damage inflicted by toxins and toxic medications: grapefruit, quercetin, curcumin, N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC), and methionine.

Grapefruit, quercetin and curcumin all reduce the toxicity of acetaminophen as well as a number of other toxins. N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC) and methionine are also both effective in treating acetaminophen poisoning.

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Posted in: 2009,artichoke,dandelion,detoxification,Edzard Ernst,liver health,natural health news,natural news,Prince Charles,protect your liver

Finally, science agrees with herbalYODA on fructose

Food sweetener could be 'fuelling' childhood diabetes, study finds


The sweetener fructose, a cheap sugar substitute found in thousands of processed foods and soft drinks, may be increasing childhood diabetes and the obesity crisis, new findings suggest.

Fructose


By Amy Willis, Daily Telegraph, 13 Dec 2009

In a study by researchers at the University of California, 16 volunteers were put on a controlled diet with high-levels of fructose – a sweetener derived from corn.

After 10 weeks, the volunteers had developed more fat cells around the heart, liver and other major organs as well as showing signs of food processing abnormalities linked to diabetes and heart disease.

Another group of volunteers, who were also on a controlled diet but without the fructose, did not show the fat cell increase or the food processing abnormalities.

Both groups put on the same amount of weight.

Children are said to be in a higher risk group as they are more likely to eat products with high-levels of sweeteners over longer periods of time.

"This is the first evidence we have that fructose increases diabetes and heart disease independently from causing simple weight gain," Kimber Stanhope, a molecular biologist who led the study, told a Sunday newspaper.

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Posted in: diabetes,fructose,heart disease,liver health,obesity,the leaflady

More problems for Women's Health

The difficulty here from my perspective is that you aren't being told that anyone treated for any type of cancer can later develop other cancers. Usually people are told that if they achieve the 5 year window successfully following treatment they are cancer free. The other side of this is that if you do develop cancer again after the end of the 5 year window, it is statistically interpreted as a "new"cancer, although that may not in fact be the case.

What I wonder is why don't more women get told about the real and effective benefits from herbs and other nutritional supplements along with diet that will off set menopausal symptoms bone loss concerns. At time is is important to consider liver health because of its role in recycling neurotransmitters and detoxification, all interfered with by chemotherapy and other synthetic hormone pharmaceuticals.

Menopause drug linked to breast cancer relapse
Tue Feb 17, 2009
PARIS (AFP) – A synthetic steroid used to treat menopause symptoms and prevent osteoporosis significantly increases the risk of a relapse in breast cancer patients, according to a study released Tuesday.

The steroid, called tibolone, should not be prescribed to a woman who has had or is suspected of having breast cancer, concluded the study, published in the British medical journal The Lancet Oncology.

Women with breast cancer undergoing chemotherapy are often beset with the debilitating symptoms of menopause, including hot flushes, night sweats, and bone loss.

Tibolone is licensed for use in 90 countries for alleviating these symptoms, and 55 countries have approved its use in treating osteoporosis, according to the study.

But concern that the drugs might also cause a recurrence of cancer have led to their being ruled out for patients with breast cancer.

Still, many patients with breast cancer use the drug -- often available without prescription -- to counteract the effects of menopause.

In clinical trials led by Peter Kenemans of the VU University Medical Centre in Amsterdam, 3,098 women who had been surgically treated for breast cancer and who were experiencing hot flushes along with other related symptoms were divided into two groups.

The first was given a daily dose of 2.5 milligrammes of tibolone, and the second a look-alike placebo.

Just over 10 percent of the women who had taken the dummy medication suffered a cancer relapse, compared to more than 15 percent of the women who had taken the steroid -- an increased risk of 40 percent.

Seventy percent of the recurrences among the tibolone group were so-called "distant metastatses," which are invariably fatal.

The increased risk was so pronounced that the trial was stopped six months early.

"Although the trial was intended to show the non-inferiority of tibolone compared with placebo, the findings clearly show that -- although effective against hot flushes -- tibolone does increase the risk of breast-cancer recurrence," the study said.

Copyright © 2009 Agence France Presse.

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Posted in: 2009,cancer relapse,chemotherapy,consumer health,detoxification,herbs help menopause,liver health,natural health news,women's health