Empowered Pathways Newsletter

Empowered Pathways Newsletter

June 2, 2003

Gen Abrams, Publisher
Gen@empoweredpathways.com

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Welcome!
.. to your "Empowered Pathways" newsletter!

It is my hope that through this newsletter, you will receive
information that will improve the quality of your life.
Included in each issue is information about health,
nutrition, herbals and supplements, simplifying life, living
more frugally, fun, faith, and joy!

It's all about empowerment, stuff that helps you be
in control of your life, your own pathway to better living!

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Health, Nutrition and Supplements
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Bits, Pieces, News,
and Information

The three new studies -- all involving women enrolled in the
Women's Health Initiative -- look at HRT's effects on disorders
affecting the brain, such as stroke, dementia, and milder forms
of impaired thinking. Among the accumulated findings, the WHI
found that for most women, combination hormone therapy provides
no meaningful improvement in such quality-of-life measures as
sleep, emotional health, general health, physical functioning
and sexual satisfaction. Among women with moderate or severe
hot flashes, though, the study found that combination hormone
therapy did provide benefit for hot flashes, night sweats and
sleep disturbance.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/invoke.cfm?id=WO00046&si=1915

Findings of the studies included:
HRT doubled the likelihood of dementia, and the effects were
evident early on -- just one year after the women began taking
HRT.
More women taking HRT had a substantial and important decline
in thinking and memory -- 7% of the HRT group, compared with
5% of the comparison group.
The third study looked at a wider group of women, including
younger women just entering menopause. More than 16,000 women
-- between ages 50 and 79 -- were followed for an average of
five years. As in the other studies, half were taking estrogen-
plus-progestin HRT; half were taking a placebo pill.
"We found that HRT increased risk of ischemic stroke by 44%
-- alarmingly high." Sylvia Wassertheil-Smoller, PhD, head of
epidemiology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New
York. The finding was true regardless of the women's weight.
An ischemic stroke is caused by a clot in the brain and is
the most common type of stroke. Risk of stroke was higher
in the HRT group, even among women in their 50s, she reports.
(WebMD Health)

There have been several recent studies in the medical literature
indicating the beneficial effects of soy phytoestrogens. In one
study published in October 2002 in the journal Diabetes Care, a
group of post-menopausal women with Type II diabetes mellitus
were randomized to receive 132 mg daily of soy isoflavones
versus placebo for twelve weeks. At the end of the study, those
women on the dietary supplementation favorably altered insulin
resistance and blood sugar control along with improving the
ratio of total cholesterol to HDL cholesterol.

In another study published last year, genistein (a natural
isoflavone phytoestrogen) showed positive effects on bone loss.
There was even a small study published in 2001 indicating that
foods rich in isoflavone phytoestrogens could have a beneficial
effect on memory. Student volunteers were randomly assigned to
receive either 100 mg a day of isoflavones or 0.5 mg isoflavones
daily for ten weeks. Students receiving the high isoflavone diet
showed significant improvement in short term and long term
memory. These improvements were noted in both males and
females.
(Allen S. Josephs, M.D.)

If you thought eating five servings of fruits and vegetables
a day was pretty much impossible, here is some bad news: The
National Cancer Institute wants men to increase their consump-
tion to nine servings a day.
The agency this week is launching a publicity campaign to
dramatically boost men's fruit and vegetable consumption.
Although past campaigns have touted the need for five servings
a day, health experts now say five is just the bare minimum.
They say U.S. dietary guidelines have always called for men to
eat nine servings -- but many haven't gotten the message.
(Tara Parker-Pope, The Wall Street Journal)

Ask American women what disease they're most scared of, and
the vast majority will answer without hesitation: breast cancer.
They may even cite the ominous statistic that 1 in 8 women will
develop breast cancer at some point in her life. But what most
women don't realize is that they actually have far more to fear
from heart disease, which will strike 1 out of every 3. More
than 500,000 women die in the U.S. each year of cardiovascular
disease, making it, not breast cancer (40,000 deaths annually),
their No. 1 killer. Women and heart disease? Better believe it.
(Apr. 28, 2003 Time magazine)

The Journal of Biological Chemistry a recent study and findings
appeared concerning the nutrient coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) and apop-
tosis. The condition of preprogrammed cell death is known as
apoptosis. The theory is that our cells can only reproduce so
long with a set number of replications, that our cells are
preprogrammed at birth to stop replicating at a certain point
in time and to commit suicide, as it were. Scientists have
been doing much research in the area of apoptosis hoping
against hope that there is away to offset this biological
clock. If this could be done, theoretically, people could live
a lot longer.
Previous studies in both the test tube and animals have
demonstrated that CoQ10 can prevent apoptosis in certain
situations. Scientists speculated that it could be related to
the free radical scavenging ability of CoQ10 or in some way
directly related to mitochondrial function. The mithochondria
produce the energy molecule called ATP and adequate levels
of ATP are required for cells to stay healthy and function
properly. In this study out of Italy, researchers showed that
CoQ10 had some direct effect on the mitochondrial membrane
leading to inhibition of apoptosis (cell death).

Eating oily fish like salmon, tuna or bluefish at least twice
a week can prevent sudden cardiac death because fatty acids
in the fish block dangerous irregular heart rhythms, experts
say in a review article in Circulation: Journal of the American
Heart Association. For patients with coronary artery disease,
the dose of omega-3 (about one gram per day) may be greater
than what can readily be achieved through diet alone.

New research has shown that dietary antioxidant treatments
of rats improve high blood pressure. The antioxidants used
were vitamin E, vitamin C, zinc and selenium. The researchers
conclude that their "data provide convincing evidence for the
role of antioxidants in the maintenance of hypertension."

April 4, 2003 -- First, Public Citizen warned the FDA not to
approve Forteo, a new kind of drug for osteoporosis. Now the
consumer group is warning patients not to take it. The reason:
The drug appears to cause a kind of bone cancer in lab rats.
No such cancers were seen in human tests of the drug. But
Larry Sasich, PharmD, MPH, research analyst for the Public
Citizen Health Research Group, worries this may be only a
matter of time.

April 2, 2003 -- We need calcium for good bones, but vitamin
D is equally important -- it helps the body with calcium
absorption. In fact, calcium supplements plus vitamin D can
increase calcium absorption by up to 65%. The finding appears
in the latest Journal of the American College of Nutrition.
It points to the increased need for people to take daily
vitamin D supplements, says lead researcher Robert P. Heaney,
MD, of Creighton University in Nebraska.
Americans up to age 50 are advised to take 200 IU (interna-
tional units) of vitamin D daily. From age 51 to 70, the advised
dose is 400 IU. For people over age 70, it's 600 IU.

April 15, 2003 -- University of Tennessee scientist Michael
Zemel, PhD, put 34 obese people on a low-calorie diet. Sixteen
of them got pills with 400 to 500 mg of calcium per day. The
other 18 people ate a higher calcium diet -- enough yogurt to
give them 1,100 mg of calcium per day. After 12 weeks, everybody
lost a lot of fat. The comparison group had six pounds less
fat, and the yogurt group lost about 10 pounds of fat. But
those who ate Yoplait Light yogurt in the General Mills-
sponsored study looked different from those who didn't. The
yogurt eaters' waists shrank by more than an inch and a half.
The comparison subjects lost about a quarter of an inch from
their waist size.
Zemel's earlier research shows that calcium -- especially
dairy calcium -- slows down the body's fat-making process.

In a recent Dutch study, researchers compared the levels of
antioxidant catechins in chocolate (Theobroma cacao L.,
Sterculiaceae ) and black tea (Camellia sinensis [L.] Kuntze,
Theaceae). Catechins (a type of flavonoid or polyphenol) are
commonly associated with tea, but are also found in red wine
and a variety of other foods. Based on research with green
tea, scientists believe that these compounds may play an
important role in protecting against heart disease, cancer,
and other health conditions. In this study, a team of research-
ers analyzed levels of six major catechins in dark chocolate,
milk chocolate, and freshly brewed black tea (Arts et al.,
1999). They found the highest level of total catechins in
dark chocolate (53.5 mg per 100 g). Levels were much lower
in milk chocolate (15.9 mg of catechins per 100 g) and black
tea (13.9 mg per 100 ml). Based on these results, the Dutch
team declared, "the antioxidant catechin content of chocolate
is four times that of [black] tea."

Recent studies have suggested that tea may increase metabolism,
and perhaps promote weight loss. One study from the U.S.
Department of Agriculture found that men who drank five cups
of oolong tea burned 2.9 percent more calories in a 24-hour
period than when they drank plain water (they burned 3.4
percent more calories when they drank five cups of water laced
with caffeine). Another study, from Switzerland found that men
who took green tea extract plus caffeine burned 3-4 percent
more calories than those who took caffeine alone or a placebo.
Although only a total of 22 men took part in the two studies
combined and results can't be considered conclusive, several
manufacturers have already added tea extracts to supplements
which claim to boost metabolism.

*These statements has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
This product is not intended to diagnose, treat or cure or prevent any disease.
This notice is required by the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.

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Tips for Frugal Living
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    He is the Rock, and his work is perfect:
    for all his ways are judgement:
    a God of truth and without iniquity,
    just and right is he.

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Remarkable Quote
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smiling pig

I like pigs.
Dogs look up to us.
Cats look down on us.
Pigs treat us as equals.

- Winston Churchill

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Disclaimers:
*These statements have not been approved by the Food and
Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose,
treat or cure or prevent any disease. This notice is required
by the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.
The purpose of this newsletter is informational only, and
the publisher cannot be held responsible for actions taken
as a result of the information provided herein.
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