Vitamin C

May

2013

Ten Ways to Lower Blood Pressure without Medication

Top Ten non-medical Tools to lower to lower blood pressure quickly:
#1 Reduce intake of foods that raise blood sugar and insulin. Potatoes, flour, cereal, pastries desserts are probably best avoided. Fruit juices and fruits aren’t so great either.

#2 Use insulin supporting nutritional supplements. The B-Complex is important and B3, Niacin is especially so. Consider taking several B-100 capsules daily; using the Beyond Tangy Tangerine and taking 100-20mg of TIMED RELEASE Niacin daily.

#3 Vitamin C not only has blood pressure lowering properties, but it plays a key role in strengthening blood vessels. Take 1000 to 5000 mg daily powdered in water; best to sip slowly

#4 Magnesium has multiple benefits for the cardiovascular system, not to mention the liver lungs brain and adrenal glands. Use 1000-2000 mg of Magnesium glycinate daily. All green leafy vegetables have magnesium

#5 Speaking of green leafys, make sure you’re eating lots of veggies. Veggie juices can be helpful too. Use a vitamix type blender so you don’t lose the fiber. Vegetables contain electrolytes that play a key role in keeping the blood pressure healthy. Think 1 pound of vegetables for every 50 pounds of body weight

#7 Coenzyme Q-10 is one of the most important of all cardiovascular supplements. I would be doing 100-200mg of the oil soluble capsules. They’re a bit pricey but well worth it. It’s great for the heart and liver and if you’re on a statin drug you’re ability take your own CoQ10 will be compromised. CoQ10 levels drop with age, so everyone should be supplementing as they get older.

#8 Lay out in the sun, (but don’t even come close to burning). Vitamin D can have a significant effect on lowering blood pressure.

#9 Omega-3s can be helpful and both fish oil and seed oils have their benefits. Both can thin the blood which will reduce pressure and help maintain fluidity. And lignins from flax have blood pressure lowering properties while Vitamin D from fish oil can support anti hypertension.

#10 And don’t forget to breathe. Slow deep breathing can have a rapid affect on lowering blood pressure. High blood pressure is a manifestation of the body’s generic response to stress. It indicates activation of the sympathetic (stress) nervous system. Deep breathing is the fastest way to attenuate to attenuate this sympathetic (stress) response. That means in addition to lowering blood pressure it support blood pressure health indirectly via other mechanisms. It can relieve anxiety and psychological stress. It can help you fall asleep too. And if you have issues with constipation it’s a great way to relax your bowels. All of these benefits can provide anti-hypertensive benefits. Make sure you’re breathing SLOWLY and DEEPLY into the lower part of your belly. If you can do three or 4 breaths a minute, 7 second inhale 7 second exhale or 10 second inhale and 10 second exhale.

Omron 7 Series Wrist Blood Pressure Monitor

Hypertension is a chronic elevation of blood pressure that affects at least 80 million Americans and increases their risk for strokes, aneurysms (burst blood vessels), and heart attacks. And that’s not all. Every single one of the 100 trillion cells in the human body is intimately dependent of the movement of blood through circulatory vessels. That means increases in blood pressure can have deleterious effects on the health of the brain, the kidney, the liver and the lungs among other organs and systems. . According to Dr. Sherry Rogers, writing in the book The Blood Pressure Hoax, 53 percent of deaths can be attributed at least in part to hypertension and high blood pressure triples the chances of an early demise.

Normal blood pressure which can be defined as the pressure or tension exerted on arterial walls as the blood circulates through the vessels is measures in a binary reading where the first number (the systolic measurement) indicates the arterial wall pressure as the heart is pumping and the second number refers to the pressure on the artery wall as the heart is relaxed (the diastolic measurement). Blood pressure readings are considered to be one of the most vital indicators of health and visit to a medical professional that will not include one. The standard unit of measurement is done millimeters of mercury and the desired range for normal adult is around 90-119 mm Hg (systolic) over 60-79 (diastole).

If you go to a physician and he determines that you have an elevated blood pressure, chances are pretty good you’re going to end up on medication and that is not a good thing. Blood pressure medicines do not address the causes of high blood pressure and come with potential for serious side effects. In fact anti-hypertensive, while among the most prescribed of all classes of medications is also among the most toxic. Even the most benign of blood pressure lowering medications, the diuretics (e.g. Hydrochlorothiazide or HCTZ), can increase risk for electrolyte loss, elevations in blood cholesterol and fats and heart arrhythmia, which are all interesting and ironic risks for a drug that’s supposed to protect the cardiovascular system. The more powerful of the anti hypertensives, the so called calcium channel blockers and beta blockers are even worse. Lethargy, digestive health issues, hypoglycemia and sexual problems are all common side affects as well arrhythmia, slow heart beat. Heart failure is not an unheard adverse reaction for these supposedly heart cardiac benefiting medicines. And, some raise the risk of cancer. In 2010, researchers form Case University Western Reserve university announced a …”modest but significant increase” in the risk of new cancer occurrences in patients taking so- called ACE inhibitor drugs, among the most popular of all anti hypertensive’s.

If you’ve been diagnosed with high blood pressure, it’s important to recognize that drugs are not your best treatment option. In fact given the many healthful alternatives drugs shouldn’t be a Treatment option at all. As we’ve said drugs do not address the cause of the hype4rtension. And they do not come without health or dollar cost. If you have been diagnoses as hypertensive, your best is to start to employ some nutritional, dietary and even lifestyle changes immediately.

Blood pressure is typically recorded as two numbers, written as a ratio like this:

Read as “117 over 76 millimeters of mercury”		SystolicThe top number, which is also the higher of the two numbers, measures the pressure in the arteries when the heart beats (when the heart muscle contracts).
		DiastolicThe bottom number, which is also the lower of the two numbers, measures the pressure in the arteries between heartbeats (when the heart muscle is resting between beats and refilling with blood).

What is the AHA recommendation for healthy blood pressure?

This chart reflects blood pressure categories defined by the American Heart Association.

Blood Pressure Category	Systolic mm Hg (upper #)		Diastolic mm Hg (lower #)
Normal	less than 120	and	less than 80
Prehypertension	120 – 139	or	80 – 89
High Blood Pressure (Hypertension) Stage 1	140 – 159	or	90 – 99
High Blood Pressure (Hypertension) Stage 2	160 or higher	or	100 or higher
Hypertensive Crisis (Emergency care needed)	Higher than 180	or	Higher than 110

Apr

2013

Treating Dry Skin From the Inside Out

By Ben Fuchs | Pharmacist Ben

Human skin is not supposed to be dry. Yet despite this biochemical fact, billions of consumer dollars are spent every year on product that are supposed to moisturize the skin.

As someone who has been formulating skin care products a skin products for over 25 years, I can tell you there is no possible way a topically applied product, which is typically composed of water, oil, wax and some miscellaneous chemicals, can cause any changes in skin moisture content. Miniaturization is strictly the job of nutrients that are found in foods and supplements.

If you have dry skin, you’re better off spending your hard-earned dollars on Essential Fatty Acids, Vitamin A and Vitamin C instead of topical skin care products. You’ll be helping improve your skin’s condition the way nature nature intended you to and you’ll get the additional benefits that come along with strategic nutritional supplementation.

Apr

2013

Some Thoughts on Vitamins

By Ben Fuchs | Pharmacist Ben

When the subject of nutrition comes up, oftentimes the conversational spotlight gets focused on the term vitamins, which gets tossed around as an all-inclusive, catch-all term for all nutritional supplements. In the interests of accuracy, it’s important to keep in mind that the term vitamins refers only a single component of the nutritional supplement world, which includes protein, essential fats, minerals, water, fiber, and carbohydrates, and accessory nutrients like NAC and alpha lipoic acid and probiotics.

The word vitamin is actually a slang term for nutritional substances that are more technically called “co-enzymes”. These being biomolecules that assist enzymes in their work of making biological chemistry happen.

The body is a seething, bubbling factory of chemical reactions. Every cell in the body, of which there are many trillions is capable of producing somewhere on the order of 10 thousand to 100 thousand chemical reactions per second!! To put it in even more dramatic, (if incomprehensible) terms there are quadrillions (!) of individual chemical reactions occurring in our bodies every minute we are alive. And each one of these chemical reactions depends on the action of enzymes and, in-turn, each one of these enzymes requires the assistance of coenzymes some of which are the vitamins. Considering most of our vitamin needs are met by foods or supplementation, in other words, they are not made by the body, the stupendous importance of making sure we are giving our body generous quantities of these critical molecules through the diet and through nutritional supplements become obvious.

There are two classes of vitamins, those that dissolve in water and those that dissolve in oil, the so-called water soluble vitamins, which are the B-complex and Vitamin C and the fat soluble vitamins, D, E, A and K. The water soluble vitamins critical as they may be are easier to work with than the fat soluble vitamins. You can and should take a lot of B-complex and vitamin C, they are multi-functional and used and excreted rapidly. The best way to make sure your getting enough of the water soluble vitamins is to take generous amounts, in water all day long, i.e. by drinking them. The fat soluble vitamins, D, E, A and K are much trickier to work with. Optimal assimilation of the substances requires a healthy and well-functioning digestive system including especially the liver and gall bladder. And, because they are transported around the body in the lymphatic system if things aren’t moving well in the lymph, fatty vitamin activity may be impaired. The same is true if you have liver problems or gall bladder problems, especially if you’ve had your gall bladder removed or if you have pancreatic health issues. If this is the case, you’re going to want to take the fatty vitamins with meals that include fatty foods. Digestive enzymes can help so can apple cider vinegar and perhaps pancreatin which contains digestive enzymes. You can also use se bile salts, maybe lecithin and you might want to consider including some choline which the body can use to make lecithin.

Take home message:

Use generous amounts of the B-complex and Vitamin C throughout the day. Put them in water or some other liquid medium and drink them down slowly for best results

Take fatty vitamin D, E, A and K supplements with meals that contain some kind of fatty foods. If you are dealing with digestive health issues i.e. those that involve the stomach, small intestine, liver, gall bladder or pancreas, you can improve the absorption of these fatty vitamins by taking them with digestive enzymes, pancreatin, bile salts, apple cider vinegar, lecithin and choline.

Apr

2013

Your Heart

By Ben Fuchs | Pharmacist Ben

The human heart beats over 100,000 times a day, 40 million times a year 3.5 billion times in a typical lifetime, pumping blood over 60,000 miles of circulatory highway. It generates an electrical field 50 times stronger than the brain, that can be measured several feet outside the body. It’s got brain cells in it, it produces hormones and most of us never even give this incredible biological system a thought. That is, unless it gets sick. And, unfortunately, the odds of that happening are higher than you may think. Heart disease, is now the leading cause of death in America and as of 2006, 81 million people had some form of it, whether it be hypertension, angina, stroke, MI or heart failure. That’s almost one out of 4 Americans. Over 1/3 of deaths are caused by heart disease, so clearly this is something we want to be looking at. The good news is overall mortality has been declining as we begin to understand the impact of our lifestyle choices on our circulatory systems and our heart. The good news is that as our understandings around improve, so can our overall mortality. In a study of almost 43,000 men that was published in the journal “Circulation” it was found that men who adopted all of the low-risk behaviors were 87 percent less likely to develop coronary heart disease during the study period compared to men who adopted none of the behaviors. Furthermore researchers estimated that 62 percent of all “coronary events” that occurred during the study period may have been prevented if all members of the study population adopted the lifestyle factors. Now folks we don’t need research and we don’t need studies to prove to us that the health of the heart as with the health of the body can be enhanced by lifestyle choices. That means exercise, watching what we eat, no smoking, relaxation and of course nutritional supplementation. With an emphasis on nutritional supplementation! Indeed, there’s no organ system in the body that has evidenced the powers of nutritional supplementation more than the cardiovascular system. You want some tips for your ticker? OK well, here ya’ go! There’s probably no more important group of nutrients for your heart than the B-complex. Now probably most of you have heard about the B-complex, but here’s a couple of things you probably didn’t know. You never want to take individual B vitamins without taking the group. The B-complex is, as the name implies a complex. They work together. While sometimes it’s instructive to talk about each of the B-vitamins and their roles individually, it important to never lose track of the fact that they appear in nature together, and they work together. They each support each other. So if , for example you want to work with blood fats, triglycerides and cholesterol and your taking Vitamin B3, niacin which has been shown to have some dramatic effects on lowering cholesterol and triglycerides, that doesn’t mean that you don’t need Vitamins B1 Thiamine, Folic acid and Vitamin B12 and Vitamin B5 among others of the of the B complex. They all work together as a team. Same idea if you’re taking Vitamin B12 for energy or as anti depressant or Vitamin B5 for treating acne. Each component of the complex acts to support each of the other components. And here’ another point to keep in mind. When your body attempts to excrete a particular B-vitamin it tends to do it in a complex. So if, for example, you’re taking Vitamin B3 for your triglycerides, when your body excretes the B#, it will do it with any B1, B2, B5, B12 etc that’s in the system. If you’re not taking additional amounts of these vitamins, you can actually cause deficiencies. So make sure you’re taking the entire B-complex. And taking it in generous amounts. It’s water soluble so you’re gonna be urinating out what’s not used right away, so you’re levels may not be where you need them to be if you’re only taking a B-vitamin pill once or twice a day. That’s why I like my patients to be using B-complex powders and liquids that can be sipped on throughout the day. We want to be careful about using nutrients like we use pharmaceuticals. Oh you have arthritis, take niacin. Menstrual cramps take B6, you’re depressed take B12. That’s called allopathic nutrition and it’s just another way we try to monetize good nutrition. Sure Thiamin, Vitamin B1 helps with insulin and blood sugar. Riboflavin, Vitamin B2 deficiency is associated with migraine headaches. B6, pantothenic acid is great for stabilizing excess skin oils, B6 is well known for helping woman who are experiencing female problems, be they estrogenic cancers, premenstrual breakout or morning sickness. And of course the well documented link between mood and energy levels and Vitamin B12. But remember friends, they’re all working together as a complex and they are excreted together as a complex. And they are found in nature as a complex. So, you want to make sure, even if you’re taking high doses of one B-vitamin for a specific reason, that you’re taking generous amount of the entire complex.

Then there’s that good old standby Vitamin C. Vitamin C is like that spouse or relationship that you have that you just don’t appreciate, cause it’s there very day. You see most of us get enough Vitamin C to prevent full blown deficiency disease. This makes us take our relationship to Vitamin C for granted. What I mean to say is that while we may have an OK relationship with Vitamin C, a relationship that keeps us out of dramatic trouble, hardly anyone gets the amount of Vitamin C that’s required for optimal functioning of multiple systems in the body. Vitamin C is so critical for the functioning of a cell, that it actually has a doorway on the membrane of a cell so that it can access the inside of cells. That is an amazing fact that underscores the vital nature of this powerful nutrient that most of us don’t appreciate or get nearly enough of. Dr. Mathias Rath has written extensively about this in several books including one with the very catchy title: “Why Animals Don’t Get Heart Attacks, But People Do”. Dr. Rath, who is a highly renowned physician and a colleague of the famous Vitamin C pioneer Dr. Linus Pauling says that animals don’t get heart attacks because they produce large amounts of Vitamin C. That’s right, for some unknown reason only humans, gorillas and certain types of guinea pigs don’t make Vitamin C. All the other creatures in the animal kingdom make large amounts of this vital nutrient. Under normal circumstances the daily amount produced by animals , adjusted for comparison to a 150lb human, is somewhere between 3,000 mg and 15,000 mg, with an average of 5,400 mg. And yet the RDA for adults in this country is 60mg. Are you kidding me??!! 60mg??!! A mouse produces the adjusted equivalent of 2300mg a day and when it’s under stress it produces the equivalent of 20,000 grams a day!!! So now, let me ask you something do you think it’s possible that maybe the typical American who’s not supplementing and getting his Vitamin C from arrange juice (a glass of orange juice, by the way, has around 80 or 90 mg of Vitamin C) may be deficient. And given all the roles Vitamin C plays in the body, especially in cardiovascular health, you can begin to C why we may have a hidden nutritional deficiency going on here. And by way, so much for getting all your nutrients from food! Vitamin C is absolutely critical for the production of collagen. Without it you simply can’t make collagen. And without enough you simply can’t make enough collagen. Collagen is required for vascular health, because blood vessels maintain their strength and elasticity largely on the strength of this vital protein. In fact, when collagen in arteries and veins becomes old or weakened that’s when we’re at highest risk of stroke aneurysms and other cardiovascular issues. Oh, by the way, on of the bodies mechanisms for patching up weak vessels is to use cholesterol as a glue. That’s why elevated cholesterol levels sometimes, not always, but sometimes precede heart attacks. And please pay no attention to the silliness around cholesterol lowering drugs and reduction of heart disease. The facts according to the Framingham study, which is a 50 year study that’s produced over 1000 scientific papers are: now listen up here: for each “1% mg/dL drop in cholesterol there was an 11% increase in coronary and total mortality”. So, don’t be talking to me about lowering cholesterol to protect the heart. I’ve said it many times on this program: to poison the body to stop it from producing chemistry is just plain BAD MEDICINE and BAD SCIENCE!! If you cholesterol levels are high there are simple and natural ways to lowering them that do not involve drugs. Permit me to repeat: You don’t need cholesterol lowering drugs! We’ll address that whole can of worms in a posting to come…

Feb

2012

Top 12 Tips and Tools for Easy Detoxification Part 2

By Ben Fuchs | Pharmacist Ben

While genetic tendencies (and epi-genetic factors) as well as stress and poor nutrition play an important role in illness, underlying almost all manifestations of poor health is toxicity. And I’m talking about both internal and external toxicity which are obviously related. Human beings have been saturating their outer and inner environments with poison since the dawn of history. These days, we actually enter the world as a toxic mess. Even newborn babies have been shown to have high levels of toxic pollutants. In 2005 Greenpeace published a report titled “Hazardous Chemicals in Umbilical Cord Blood” where they concluded that hazardous chemicals are a common occurrence in umbilical cord blood. Newborns tested out at a whopping average of 287 toxins, 180 of which were known carcinogens!

Toxic air can be filled with literally hundreds of deadly and carcinogenic compounds, (some like chemtrails intentionally deposited there for no “known” reason), not to mention radioactive waste from disasters like Chernobyl and Fukushima. When human fat biopsies are performed styrene, dioxins, xylene and dichlorobenzene among other unsavory, unhealthy and potentially carcinogenic chemicals shows up in 100% of cases. There are deadly chemicals in water too, fluoride and chlorine may arguably provide benefits, but no one can discount their truly toxic nature. Water is also a source of other unpleasant drinking material including prescription drugs and industrial (and even human) waste. Pesticides are an especially serious problem. Measurable levels have been found in breast fluid from mother’s milk around the world, including Eskimos living in the North Pole, thousands of miles from source of the nearest farm or fruit orchard. Internally there is no way to know exactly how much toxicity we’re dealing with, but it’s safe to say the average person’s detox system is probably being overloaded. Food, stress, trauma, experiences in addition to interfacing (really integrating) with our toxic external environment can put quite a load on the body’s ability to clean itself out and over time lots of nasty stuff can end up in various bodily fluids and tissues.

But it’s important to recognize that indeed we have a detox system. In fact the human body is remarkably well equipped to handle a lot of poison! But it needs certain substances to do its work. In a later post we’ll talk about the liver and what’s known as Phase 1 and Phase 2 detoxification, but for now let’s just say there are some key nutrients we should all be using to keep the poisons our bodies have to deal with the more manageable level. Maybe we’ve done such a number on our planet that there’s no way we can completely clean it up but let’s not forget that the human being grew up in a world filled with natural poisons too. There are chemical processes built into the body to allow it to detoxify and purify itself, but by and large these processes require raw materials in the form of nutrients. Last post we listed Part One of the top 12 Detox supplements, focusing on treatment and non-nutritional approaches. Below is Part two of the Top 12 detoxification nutritional supplements (with apologies to fans of the B-complex, alpha-lipoic acid, probiotics and fiber, which while important for detox, did not make this list) for supporting the body’s ability to detoxify in an unfortunately very toxic world.

1. MSM 500-1000mg daily, NAC 100-500mg daily. both contains sulfur which is a key player in biological detoxification. Sulfur attracts (chelates) heavy metals and is an important component of the glutathione system, perhaps the most powerful detox system in all of biochemistry. Provide protection from lead and mercury poisoning. Sulfur even has anti-inflammatory properties. It’s probably a good idea to use MSM (absorbable sulfur) and the sulfur amino acid cysteine in the form of NAC (so potent a detoxifier that it’s part of the emergency room protocol for liver poisoning) on a daily basis.

2.Selenium 200-400mcg daily – important for activation of the glutathione, the major human biological detoxification molecule. Protects fats from oxidation and is specific for protection from heavy metals like mercury. Selenium is the most important trace mineral for anti-oxidant defense. Powerful anti-cancer protectant, important for cardiovascular and thyroid health too. This is one you can take too much of so keep your daily dose under 800mcg daily. For optimum effects take as selenomethionine. Garlic, onions and cruciferous vegetables are great food sources of this important mineral.

3.Vitamin E 400 iu daily – Important for keeping fats in cell membranes and organs from oxidation and heavy metal assault. Important fro recycling anti-oxidant detox substances like Vitamin C and glutathione. Works synergistically with selenium. Tocotrienol form more protective than tocopherol form.. Especially protective for smokers (lung) and alcoholics (liver). Improves detoxification of pharmaceuticals. May also decrese the effectiveness of medications (which is of course a consequence of their toxicity). This one is difficult to get from foods so supplementation is a must.

4.Glutamine 1-5 grams daily- essential for the production of glutathione, the body’s major detoxification substance. Required for liver detoxification pathways and works synergistically with Vitamin C, E and selenium. Importance for digestive health also support detox functions. Most abundant amino acid in the body, relevant for health of all cells.

5.Vitamin C 1 to 10 grams daily – Spectacularly important nutrient for detoxification and immune system support. Works synergistically with Vitamin E, selenium and glutathione. Protects against cancer and heavy metal poisoning. Provides neutralizing protection from lead. May provide protection from chlorine. Sucrose (sugar) reduces its effectiveness. Especially effective against radiation. Improves elimination of toxins through bowel movements. Non-toxic in even very high doses.

6.Good Minerals– nutritional minerals protect against heavy metal poisoning by minerals with similar electromagnetic properties. Zinc protects against cadmium (smokers are especially at risk from cadmium in tobacco). Calcium, magnesium and zinc provide protection from aluminum. Iron, copper and zinc help may keep lead toxicity at bay. Iodine provides protection from bromine and fluorine and radioactive iodine (e.g. Fukushima). BTW, if you’re interested in testing your nutritional status, ask for an RBC (red blood cell) test. The most accurate measurements for nutrient levels and heavy metal toxicity are done directly on cells NOT plasma, the watery/protein portion of blood.