Pine Needles Are An Excellent Source of Vitamin C

Foragers like to make tea from White pine. It is reported that a cup of pine needle tea has the same amount of vitamin C as half a dozen lemons.  It also contains a healthy dose of Vitamin A.

Several other varieties of pine work just as well. Each does have its own flavor. I use honey or sugar as a sweetener.

A couple of warnings:

Some people may be allergic to this tea..

Pregnant women should avoid this tea. It can cause abortions to take place within a day.

Some evergreens like yews are poisonous. Make sure you have the right tree's needles. The people working at health stores are trained to sell the products they have on their shelves. Or if you hook up with a forager, they'll know about this pine needle tea. They'll know plenty of places nearby to pick more than you could drink in a life time.

Too much vitamin C causes some people to have loose bowels.

Source(s):  Forager. Master Gardener. Metzger, Gibbons or the Foxfire books should contain some additional information..

How to Make Tea From Pine Needles

Grab some fresh pine needles. You do not need very many needles for one cup, just one small bundle will do. Make sure that you grab needles that are fresh and green; the brown needles will not have many nutrients left in them.  (Depending how many needles you used in your water the tea will range any where from a yellow to reddish tinge. The darker the more vitamin C.)

Boil water and place the pine needles in the tea pot. Allow it to steep for 30 minutes. The more that the pine needles steep, the more nutrients will leech out into the tea.

Pour your pine needle tea and enjoy. You now have a cup of herbal tea that is high in vitamin C and other beneficial nutrients, tasty, and free.

Source:  How to Make Tea From Pine Needles | eHow.com

Candy with a Jolt

A friend of mine named Amy has uncovered a new trend: candy, all hopped up on caffeine.

In an e-mail, she wrote: "Butterfinger Buzz...all the caffeine of leading energy drinks. I kid you not..."

Amy provided a link that took me to a candy review on a website called Candyblog. According to candy-lover Cybele May, Butterfinger Buzz doesn't have quite the same flaky peanut center as a normal Butterfinger, but it does deliver what the wrapper promises: the same amount of caffeine as the leading energy drink. That's 80 mg of caffeine – same as an 8-ounce Red Bull.

Other caffeinated candies reviewed on Candyblog include Snickers Charged and Twix Java. And if you're willing to venture away from familiar brand names, there are plenty of juiced up confections:

• Coffeebeat
• Pocket Coffee
• Trader Joe's Espresso Chocolate
• Caffe Acapella
• Theo 3400 Phinney Bars
• Green & Black's Espresso Chocolate
• Black Black gum

The caffeine candy I find most intriguing is Loud Truck Energy Gummies. The packaging carries a photo of a truck decked out with giant loudspeakers. Inside, honey-colored gummy bears pack 32 mg of caffeine, along with vitamins C, B, and taurine (an amino acid found in many energy drinks).

Loud Truck just might take you where you want to go.

To Your Good Health,
Jenny Thompson – HSI

Posted:  True Health Is True Wealth

The Essentials You Need To Keep Yours Eyes Healthy

• Lutein and Zeaxanthin are used by your body to produce the macular pigment that absorbs UV rays before they can damage your retina
• Bilberry promotes the strength and elasticity of microcapillaries in the eyes and optic nerve, and supports the millions of nerve cells and blood vessels in the retina
• Vitamin C protects the eye from sunlight-induced diminutions of photoreceptor cells, rod deterioration, and loss of rhodopsin
• Vitamin A helps maintain a crystal-clear cornea and prevent clouding over, and also helps improve night vision
• Vitamin E and Selenium flush out toxic heavy metals like cadmium from eye tissue--levels of which have been found to be higher in the lenses of cataract patients
• Taurine is vitally needed in the retina where it blocks UV rays and helps protect the lens
• Riboflavin is part of the enzyme system that maintains the lens' supply of glutathione -- a major free radical fighter in the eye
• Zinc -- so essential to a normally functioning retina that deficiencies of it can lead to vision loss and inability to see clearly at night.
• Copper attacks free radicals and protects optic nerve fiber by maintaining myelin, the insulating sheath that surrounds nerve cell

It's never too late to begin protecting your eyes against the ravages of free radicals.

Source: HSI

Posted: True Health Is True Wealth

Antioxidants Save Trauma Patients

Antioxidants like vitamin C can make the difference between life and death in critically injured patients, according to a new study from Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. The study showed that antioxidants can heavily influence whether patients suffer potentially lethal major multiple organ failure after surgery for traumatic injuries.

In spite of modern surgical techniques and the use of the latest antibiotics, many trauma victims who survive their injury frequently die of multiple-organ failure following surgery. According to study leader Bryan Cotton, MD, FACS, such deaths are often the result of “oxidative stress,” which is the result of the release into the body of injured oxygen molecules known as free radicals.

Dr. Cotton said previous research has shown that in critically injured patents the store of antioxidants, which serve to neutralize free radicals, is quickly depleted. While antibiotics are essential following surgery, they are by themselves not enough, according to the study. Antioxidant therapy, in the form of vitamins C and E and the mineral selenium, can quickly replenish the body’s stores and help overcome fatal infections.

“Antioxidant therapy is so simple and that’s what throws people off,” Dr. Cotton said, who became interested in it after seeing results of a trial that showed inflammation in patients who received antioxidants was greatly improved over patients who did not. “When we learned it would cost only $11 a patient for a seven-day course of antioxidants, we decided to give it a try.”

The study tracked over 4,000 patients admitted to the Vanderbilt University Medical Center trauma unit. High-dose antioxidants were administered to all injured patients (about 2,200) between October 1, 2005, and September 30, 2006. Treatment included 1,000 mg. of vitamin C and 1,000 IU of vitamin E every eight hours by mouth, and 200 mcg. of selenium once a day intravenously. Results of the treatment were compared to about 2,000 patients admitted between October 1, 2005 and September 20, 2005, which was in the time period before antioxidant treatment was initiated.

In the patients who received the antioxidant treatment, abdominal compartment syndrome occurrences were reduced from 90 to 31, catheter-related infections were reduced from 75 to 50, surgical site infections from 101 to 44, and pulmonary failure reduced from 721 to 528.

The study team is now trying to determine optimal dosage. Dr. Cotton said, “While we are all looking for that magic bullet to cure some of the horrible things that can happen after someone is injured or has an operation, we have something at our disposal.

It might not be that magic bullet, but it is a very inexpensive and safe way to reduce complications and mortality in the sickest patients.”

Vitamin C Helps Fight Breast Cancer and Lowers Blood Pressure

I need to correct something I said early about the National Breast Cancer Awareness Month or the pink month.   I said the organizer is not forthcoming and does not tell readers who sponsor the campaign. I was wrong! The organizer actually discloses a list of the sponsors in detail.   But I was still right in that the campaign does not mean to encourage women to prevent breast cancer.   Rather it means to have women to receive screening and early detection, which are good, but not the women's best interest.

 

The first on the list of sponsors is American cancer Society or ACS, the richest not-for-profit organization in the world as some critics call.   Sponsors also include American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists representing 51,000 physicians, American College of Radiology representing 32,000 radiologists, American Society of Clinical Oncology, representing 25,000 cancer physicians, and AstraZeneca Healthcare Foundation organized by the drug maker of Arimidex and Tamoxifen.   Some other major medical associations and government agencies are also listed as sponsors for the national Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

 

The campaign organizer seems to act as a service provider to help patients with information on breast cancer, its diagnosis and treatment including early detection and mammograms/screening. There is lots of information on its website for that effort.   But there is nothing about prevention meant to stop the malignancy from developing in the first place, which is understandable. If there is no breast cancer or the incidence is significantly reduced by some effective prevention measures, the cancer business would see a huge dip in revenue.

 

I agree that this campaign gives breast cancer survivors some comfortable. They feel that many people and organizations stand behind them and help them fight the disease that could take their life at any minute.   In a sense, many patients benefit from this breast cancer awareness campaign.

 

But it seems to me that the industry and the government do not seem interested much in research to find out how to prevent the disease in the first place, which unfortunately could disservice the industry.   The best interest for the industry could be to find some treatment that can sustain the patients’ lives, but not cure the disease.

 

Breast cancer is expected to be diagnosed in one in every 8 women in their lifetime in the United States. It is up to women how to act to deal with the risk.   They can wait to get the disease and then resort to doctors and hospitals for treatments that are no cure for the disease or they can be proactive and do something to prevent the disease from developing in the first place.

 

There are many things women can do reduce the risk of breast cancer that vitamizes 182,000 women and kill 40,000 each year in the U.S.   But the most important thing to remember is that no one should wait for her doctors or the government to give her the answers regarding the prevention of breast cancer.