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Welcome back from your summer. A lot of
people, myself included, feel as if the beginning of fall
is the real new year. It's the left over/lingering feeling
from being in school, when we all anticipated the new classes,
teachers and challenges of our peers. Now that we create our
own challenges, the timing appears to have stayed in our psyches
as the time to begin accomplishing some things that have been
percolating in the mind over the past year(s). Since my mom
died of breast cancer in 2000, I don't have anyone telling
me that my face is looking a little chubby lately. I haven't
put on that much weight (lie), but I certainly don't like
the photos that come back from the recent weddings I've been
to. (why do they look so different than the mirror?) This
fall, I have a commitment to myself to lose at least 10 lbs
by the time I'm sitting in front of my Thanksgiving dinner
- with the feeling that I've EARNED the calories and fat grams
I'm about to consume. For me, it's Weight Watcher's on line,
(with a few real meetings) I'll let you know how it goes,
but I will tell you that many of the "Fashionistas"
in New York City go and I thought they were all naturally
thin!
LATEST NEWS ABOUT HRT AND BREAST CANCER
With more study results coming in, a lot of the concerns that
halted the Women's Health Initiative Study last year are beginning
to be confirmed. One study involved about one-fourth of the
British women between the ages of 50 and 64 who were invited
to take part at the time they were scheduled to have a regular
mammogram. One-half of these women were taking hormone replacement
therapy. The results were that HRT can double the risk of
breast cancer. One in 50 women who take combined HRT pills
and patches continuously from the age of 50-60 will develop
breast cancer as a result of this therapy. Women who took
hormones since 1996 when the study began had a 66% chance
of developing cancer and a 22% greater risk of dying from
it. The risks increased over time, so the longer a woman is
on it, the greater the risk. Women who took estrogen alone
(it is assumed with a hysterectomy) had less risk at 30%.
To read the study yourself, go to
http://www.thelancet.com/journal/vol362/iss9382/full/llan.362...
LATEST NEWS ABOUT HRT AND HEART ATTACKS
The New England Journal of Medicine reported on an HRT study
that was stopped because the risks outweighed the benefits
of having a heart attack. The biggest concern was in the first
year of treatment, when according to the report, the therapy
increases the risk of heart attack by 81%. It levels off,
so that after 5.6 years, the length of the study the increased
risk is 24%. Since last years news, there's been a lot of
speculation that the heart disease risk may be limited to
older women or that there may be pockets of women (more estrogen
deficient) that may benefit from hormone replacement. The
researchers looked at these and many other factors including
ethnicity, education, use of aspirin etc. and there does not
appear to be any group of women who will benefit from the
therapy for heart protection. For access to the study go to
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/abstract/349/6/523
WE NEED SOME SWEET CHERRIES
after all of this alarming news. Cherries were my favorite
fruit this season because they were so good! I read up on
it and it turns out that cherries grow the best when the seasons
are cool. (makes sense this year) Cool seasons extend the
cell division period and larger fruit results. Hot temperatures
shorten this phase, resulting in smaller fruit. Fruit size
is also determined by crop load. Heavier crop loads result
in smaller fruit. (I'll spare you the graphs). So let's see
what all the cherries did for me:
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I'm happy to hear that in China and Japan cherry flowers
are the symbols of rebirth and youth - I'm all for keeping
the fountain of youth going.
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The three types of cherries include sweet (Prunus avium),
sour (P. cerasus), and wild (P. avium). Sweet cherries
are usually large and heart-shaped. They include the deep-burgundy
colored Bing, Lambert, and Tartarian, common in the United
States. They also include the very expensive yellow varieties,
usually blushed with red, called Royal Ann, Rainier, or
Napoleon. Other sweet cherry varieties include the Bigaroon
and Gean. Sour varieties, favored for use in pies and
preserves, include the brilliant red Montmorency and the
smaller Morello
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One cup of cherries has 84 calories, 1.4 grams of protein,
19.3 carbohydrates, 1.12 grams of fat and 2.7 grams of
fiber. They also have just 2 Weight Watcher's points!
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They are most noted as an excellent source of vitamin
C, containing about 10mg per cup and 250 mg of potassium
per cup. They also provide vitamins A and E as well as
the antioxidant quercetin.
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If they have any special powers, it may be that they
contain perillyl alcohol, which is a monoterpene. Monoterpenes
have been shown to reduce certain cancers from forming
such as breast, lung, stomach, liver and skin. They are
also apparently good for gout. According to a 1950 study
of 12 people with gout, eating one-half pound (about 227g)
of cherries or drinking an equivalent amount of cherry
juice prevented attacks of gout. Black, sweet yellow,
and red sour cherries were all effective. There have been
many anecdotal reports of cherry juice as an effective
treatment for the pain and inflammation of gout. Doesn't
sound like much of a study, but hey, if you're prone to
gout, it may help.(Be sure to share this information with
the men in your life as they are more prone to gout.)
INDUSTRY NEWS THAT EFFECTS YOU
I'm sure you've read a lot about how herbs are not regulated
through the FDA. In fact, that is not true. Herbs are regulated
as food products. In my opinion, there are more issues in
the herbal industry that include products that contain herbs
that have little or no substance (using stem instead of flower
as an example) or not the correct amount (leaving consumers
ripped off), as opposed to the opposite issue of safety, like
Ephedra, the weight loss supplement. There is no doubt that
safety is of primary concern, but overall the safety record
of herbal use in America is very high, in fact much higher
than food. In 1994, the Dietary Supplement Health and Education
Act (DSHEA) was passed - it states that the well-being of
our nation is a top priority and that the use of supplements
in health promotion and disease reduction is documented and
that consumers should be empowered to have easy access to
these choices. The DSHEA act also outlined good manufacturing
principals and other guidelines for the industry to follow.
Many have argued that the problems with Ephedra came from
the FDA's negligence to remove it from the market quickly,
when they had every power to do so. On the heels of the Ephedra
issue, and it seems like a knee jerk reaction, Sen. Richard
Durbin has proposed a bill "The Dietary Supplement Safety
Act" (S 722) The problem with this bill is that it really
doesn't add any more safety than already exists under the
DSHEA bill as explained above and makes it possible for almost
every supplement to be removed from the market with just one
reported negative reaction. With virtually every vitamin or
supplement, once you stop taking it, any negative reactions
disappear and there are no long term effects. I can tell you
that industry groups, especially AHPA (www.ahpa.org) have
been working for so long and so hard with government to help
establish further guidelines for Good Manufacturing Principals
for herbal products. We all want the bad apples thrown away
and the industry groups are not protecting those firms. They
are working to protect the quality of product on the shelf
and fair choices for you and I. I doubt very much that Sen.
Durbin knows the amount of work that has been going on before
proposing such a sweeping bill. Contrary to popular belief,
this industry does not have powerful lobbyists.
On the other side just before the U.S. Senate recessed, Senator
Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) introduced
legislation to increase funding to enable the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) to fully implement the Dietary Supplement
Health and Education Act (DSHEA) - it has been argued that
the FDA does not have the resources to enforce DSHEA.
The DSHEA Full Implementation and Enforcement Act (S.1538)
would provide the FDA the funding it needs to ensure the 1994
law is carried out as Congress intended. It would also increase
funding for the National Institutes of Health's Office of
Dietary Supplements, which was created by DSHEA to expand
research and provide consumer information on dietary supplements,
from $20 to $30 million annually.
Your voice matters. For more information
go to:
http://www.supplementquality.com/editorials/Senate722.html
http://www.wholefoods.com/takeaction/
http://www.ahpa.org
That's it for this month! As always,
check out our website for lots more information at www.oonahealth.com. In Good Health,
The Oöna Team
Questions or comments? Write valerie@oonahealth.com
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