Monthly Archives: June 2013

Study Shows Flax Seed a Remedy for Hot Flashes

Posted on by

remedy for hot flashesStudy Shows Flax Seed a Remedy for Hot Flashes

The North American Menopause Society (NAMS) reports that an estimated 6,000 US women reach menopause each day, which translates to over 2 million women every year.

Hot flashes and night sweats are a frequent symptom of menopause.  Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) drugs can provide some relief for hot flashes, but at a considerable price.

The Women’s Health Initiative study, which followed 16,608 women being given hormone replacement therapy (HRT), discovered a high risk of breast cancer, coronary heart disease and stroke from the use of these drugs.

As a result, more and more women today are seeking the use of natural remedies for menopause symptoms such as hot flashes, night sweats, migraine headaches, anxiety, fatigue, and insomnia.

A hot flash, also called hot flush, is a sudden feeling of warmth and often a breakout of sweating in the upper half of the body. When these occur at night, they are called night sweats.  Hot flashes are caused by a reduced function in the body’s temperature regulation, which is brought about by changing hormone levels.

When estrogen in women, or testosterone in men is depleted, a rapid increase in skin temperature can occur due to dilatation (widening) of the skin blood vessels — and it can become frequent.  This process of blood vessel dilation is the body’s way to release the heat.

One natural remedy for hot flashes has been making headlines lately. Mayo Clinic breast health specialist Sandhya Pruthi, M.D., recently conducted a study on crushed flaxseed. The 29 participants in Mayo’s clinical trial were women with hot flashes who did not want to take estrogen because they perceived they had an increased risk of breast cancer.

Flaxseed was selected by Dr. Pruthi’s team as it is a phytoestrogen (plant-based estrogen source). The women were given six weeks of flaxseed therapy, consisting of 40 grams (one and a half ounces) of crushed flaxseed eaten daily. Study participants were asked questions that were translated into their individual hot flash scores.

The result was that their frequency of hot flashes decreased fifty percent.  There was also an average fifty-seven percent decrease in the overall hot flash scores for the women who completed the trial.  Participants also reported good improvements in mood, joint and muscle pain, chills, and sweating. This was a significant benefit to their health and quality of life.

Dr. Pruthi said: “We are quite pleased with the improvements noted by these women in their quality of life. Not only does flaxseed seem to alleviate hot flashes, but it appears to have overall health and psychological benefits as well.”

Other natural remedies for hot flashes are the well-known relaxing minerals, calcium and magnesium.  Regarding mineral deficiency at the time of menopause, nutritionist Adelle Davis says, “The amount of calcium in a woman’s blood parallels the activity of the ovaries.  During the menopause, the lack of ovarian hormones (estrogen and progesterone) can cause severe calcium deficiency symptoms to occur, including irritability, hot flashes, night sweats, leg cramps, and insomnia. These problems can be easily overcome if the intakes of calcium, magnesium, and vitamin D are all generously increased and are well absorbed.”

One insomnia remedy increasing in popularity among menopausal women is Sleep Minerals II from Nutrition Breakthroughs.  This natural sleep aid contains highly absorbable forms of calcium and magnesium, the best minerals for sleeplessness and insomnia, as well as for heart health, restless legs syndrome, bone strength, and menopause insomnia.

The formula also includes vitamin D and zinc and is delivered in a softgel form with healthy carrier oils, making it more quickly and fully assimilated than tablets or capsules and providing a deeper, longer-lasting sleep.

Anita L. of New Caney, Texas says: “I was having hot flashes every 30 minutes to an hour through the night and was so miserable.  After about two weeks of taking the Sleep Minerals, I noticed an incredible difference with my sleep.  I have much less interruption from flashes, I’m sleeping much better, and I’m a lot more comfortable.”

For more information on Sleep Minerals II visit this link.

Bone health: Beyond calcium and vitamin D

Posted on by

bone healthBy: Jay Cao, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Human Nutrition Research Center

You probably know that women after menopause are more likely than men to lose bone and develop osteoporosis, a disease in which bones become porous and easy to break.

That’s because women after menopause produce less estrogen, a hormone that helps prevent bone loss.

In the United States, about 10 million people, 80 percent of them women, aged 50 or older have osteoporosis. There are about 1.5 million people who suffer an osteoporotic-related fracture each year. Osteoporosis is responsible for more than $17 billion in direct annual health care expenditures.

Build healthy bones early

Bone is a living tissue that is constantly built and broken down throughout a person’s lifetime. The speed of building and breaking down determines bone mass. Bone mass is like a bank account in which balance is determined by deposits and withdraws.

During the first two decades of women’s lives, bone formation outpaces breakdown, and bone grows in length and width. Women reach their peak bone mass, or maximum bone strength and density, before the age of 40 years. In general, women with higher peak bone mass achieved before menopause will be at lower risk for developing osteoporosis later in life.

Because almost half of the adult bone mass is acquired during the growth spurt before puberty, maximizing the peak bone mass in early life is crucial for the prevention of osteoporosis.

Although peak bone mass is strongly influenced by genetic factors that we cannot change, there are many other factors that we can modify to increase bone size and strength — such as nutrition, physical activity, and other lifestyle factors.

Calcium and vitamin D

Adequate calcium and vitamin D intakes are vital for normal bone development throughout womens’ lives. Calcium is the most abundant mineral in the human body. Vitamin D is essential for intestinal calcium absorption by the body.

Vitamin D can be synthesized by the skin after exposure to ultraviolet light in sunlight. The Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine recommends adult women should take 1,200 milligrams of calcium a day and 400 IU vitamin D/day. Women older than age 70 years should take 600 IU vitamin D/day.

Fortified cereals and juices and dairy products like milk and yogurt are excellent sources of calcium. Good sources of vitamin D include fatty fish, salmon, or fortified orange juice and cereal.

Other dietary factors

Despite many years of research on the roles of calcium and vitamin D in bone health, we still haven’t been able to prevent osteoporosis. Now, we know many other dietary factors may have equal or more important roles affecting calcium absorption, bone formation and bone resorption as calcium and vitamin D.

For example, inadequate magnesium intake affects calcium metabolism, resulting decreased bone strength and volume. Iron may help bone formation. Zinc is also necessary to bone structure. People with low protein intake usually have low intestinal calcium absorption and low bone mass. Antioxidants in foods can reduce bone loss, increase bone formation, and improve bone quality.

And being obese is bad for your bones — the key to getting enough nutrients necessary for healthy bones is to eat balanced foods.

Physical activity

As with many other health disorders such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension and chronic heart disease, physical activity, especially weight-bearing activity, increases your bone mass and reduces your risk of osteoporosis. No matter how old you are, or whether you are male or female, weight-bearing activity increases bone density.

Women especially should engage in at least 30 minutes physical activity per day, as recommended by MyPyramid, a program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Among the many activities to consider are walking, jogging, running, stair-climbing, dancing, and swimming.

No matter what kind of physical activity you choose and how much physical activity you perform, as long as you are active physically, you are helping your bones.

You can visit the website at MyPyramid.gov for physical activity and dietary recommendations to improve your quality of life. These recommendations should also help you build healthy bones.

Comment from the blog author Nutrition Breakthroughs:  Calcium, magnesium and vitamin D have many beneficial roles in the body. Calcium strengthens bones, improves heart and stomach health, calms our nerves and muscles, and helps with sleeplessness and insomnia.

Magnesium is a co-factor in bone health, it helps remedy migraines, and it also supports healthy blood pressure.  Calcium Supplements should be balanced and contain twice as much calcium as magnesium.

Sleep Minerals II from Nutrition Breakthroughs is an effective sleep remedy for insomnia that contains absorbable forms of calcium and magnesium in a softgel, as well as Vitamin D and zinc.

Lyn K. of Los Angeles, CA. says: “Not only do I sleep much sounder with Sleep Minerals II, it seems to fill in a missing link in my health.  I feel stabilized and I’m carried through my day with a stability from the sound rest.  Also my heart and eyes feel healthier and stronger.”

For more information, visit the Sleep Minerals II page.

via ars.usda.gov

Migraines, Sleeplessness, Heart Attacks – Magnesium?

Posted on by
Reply

magnesium benefitsBy Forrest H. Nielsen, U.S. Dept of Agriculture, Human Nutrition Research Center

Magnesium is the fourth most abundant mineral element in the human body, following calcium, sodium and potassium. Magnesium enables many biochemical reactions necessary for life. However, much attention has been directed recently towards another role of this element: The movement of (small particles) of calcium and potassium, as well as (other) molecules across nerve cell membranes….

These roles are important for nerve conduction, muscle contraction, blood vessel relaxation and tensing and thus blood pressure, and a normal heart beat. Epidemiological (studies of populations) findings and supplementation trials show that people’s magnesium status is associated with the severity and frequency of migraine headaches, some forms of heart attacks, high blood pressure, sleep disorders and mood disturbances. Carefully controlled human studies at the Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center and elsewhere are being done to conclusively show that inadequate magnesium intake can result in these maladies.

For instance, in studies on women past menopause at the Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center, we found that a low magnesium diet resulted in heart rhythm changes, which were halted by a diet providing about 300 mg of magnesium daily. In a much more severe form, some of these changes in heart rhythm or beat can result in heart muscle contractions that do not move blood throughout the body and lead to death. So magnesium is definitely needed for a healthy heart.

The same studies also showed that a diet inadequate in magnesium caused changes in brain waves–electrical activity in the brain–when women were at rest. Other researchers have found in both human and animal studies that magnesium deficiency results in sleep disturbances, such as agitated sleep and frequent periods of awakenings. This has been related to changes in electrical activity in the brain. It looks like magnesium is important for a good night sleep.

Studies show that about half of migraine headache sufferers have a low amount of ionized (particles of) magnesium in the blood, which suggests a low magnesium status. And magnesium supplementation reduces the number and duration of migraines, including menstrual migraines, in some people. The findings suggest that too little magnesium can worsen the suffering from migraine headaches.

The Food and Nutrition Board of the National Academy of Sciences recently provided new recommended intakes for magnesium. The Dietary Reference Intake, or DRI, is the new term for Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA). For magnesium, the DRI is 400 milligrams per day for men aged 19 to 30 years, and 420 milligrams per day for males over age 30. The DRI is 310 milligrams per day for women aged 19 to 30 years and 320 milligrams per day for women over age 30.

Dietary surveys show that the diet of many Americans does not consistently provide the DRI for magnesium. Older people are especially prone to consuming a diet inadequate in magnesium. Good sources of magnesium are leafy vegetables, nuts, skim milk and whole grains.

Comment from the blog author Nutrition Breakthroughs:

Chronic insomnia is one of the main symptoms of magnesium deficiency. Sleep in magnesium deficiency is usually agitated with frequent nighttime awakenings.  On the other hand, a high magnesium diet has been found to be associated with deeper, less interrupted sleep. This was proven in a study done by James Penland at the Human Nutrition Research Center in North Dakota. The study was titled “Effects of trace element nutrition on sleep patterns in adult women.”

Sleep Minerals II is a natural sleep remedy from Nutrition Breakthroughs that contains highly absorbable forms of calcium and magnesium, the best minerals for sleeplessness and insomnia, as well as for heart health, restless legs syndrome, bone strength and menopause insomnia.  The formula also includes vitamin D and zinc and is delivered in a softgel form with healthy carrier oils, making it more fully absorbable and fastger-acting than tablets or capsules.  The oils help the ingredients to provide a deeper, longer-lasting sleep.

Valerie H. of Santa Clarita, California says: “I had such severe menopause insomnia it took me hours to fall asleep even though I was extremely tired.  My legs also had crawling and tingling feelings at night. I got the Sleep Minerals and after a few days, it started to work really well. I fall asleep now within 20 minutes and no more restless legs.”

For more information, visit Sleep Minerals II page.

Source: Human Nutrition Research Center: https://www.ars.usda.gov/news-events/news-archive/