Healthy by Nature radio show this week: We have a double header this week . I’ll talk with pharmacist / fitness instructor Sherry Torkos. H er book is Saving Women’s Hearts: How You Can Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease With Natural and Conventional Strategies -I’ll bet you can guess what we’ll talk about. Constantine Kotsanis, MD will be in studio to talk about his approach to cancer treatment. We should have time for some calls at 1 -800-281-8255. Click here to find podcasts, show archives and ways to listen nationwide .

Recent Studies I Find Interesting

Depression helped by a component of green tea . The component is an amino acid, L-theanine. The study was done on mice.¹  

My 2 Cents: The finding isn’t too surprising since this amino has been shown to help with stress and memory. Kyolic even uses it in their Blood Pressure Formula (#109). What did surprise me was that they could tell when the mice were depressed.

Cholesterol lowered by Tocotrienols . Study participants received 300 mg a day for 6 months, by which time total cholesterol was reduced by 10.8% and LDL cholesterol by 17.3%.²

My 2 Cents: What is neat about this is that the Tocotrienols did not force cholesterol down like statin drugs do. Because Tocotrienols are antioxidants, they reduced the need for cholesterol . It is too often forgotten that the body produces cholesterol in response to threats like oxidants (also known as free radicals). That’s why, when cholesterol gets too low (e.g. below 160), deaths from all causes increase. Tocotrienols are members of the Vitamin E family. When you take the d-alpha tocopherol form of Vitamin E by itself (or worse yet, the dl-alpha synthetic ) you not only miss supplementing the Tocotrienols, you may actually interfere with them. You can buy supplements of Tocotrienols.

Vitamin C Lowers Blood Pressure in Obese Kids . Overweight adolescents were supplemented with 500 mg of Vitamin C per day for 45 days. Blood pressure was lowered to near that of the normal control group. The subject’s blood vessel response to mental stress was also normalized.³

My 2 Cents : Again, blood pressure wasn’t lowered by forcing it down. The Vitamin C helped solve a problem thereby allowing the blood pressure to go down naturally. It is also noteworthy that this study was done in Brazil . So much of research in the US is dominated by drug companies just like the practice of medicine is.  

Multiple Sclerosis patients low in Vitamin D . Blood levels of fifty patients and 50 controls were compared. Those with MS had significantly lower levels of Vitamin D.⁴

My 2 Cents : This doesn’t show that low Vitamin D is a cause of MS, but what could it hurt to bring MS patient blood levels up into the optimum range of 50-80? Vitamin D, of course, is the “sunshine vitamin”. (Since most of the subjects were female and the study was done in Iran , I hope they allowed for the fact that Muslim women stay covered in public.) This study came to the same conclusion as earlier studies in Europe and elsewhere-being in an area with lots of sunshine is apparently no guarantee of having sufficient D in your body. Reliable information on Vitamin D .

My first book : Natural Alternatives to Nexium, Maalox, Tagamet, Prilosec & Other Acid Blockers. Subtitle: What to Use to Relieve Acid Reflux, Heartburn, and Gastric Ailments.

My latest book : Aloe Vera-Modern Science Sheds Light on an Ancient Herbal Remedy

Copyright 2011 Martie Whittekin, CCN

¹Yin, C. Antidepressant-like Effects of L-theanine in the Forced Swim and Tail Suspension Tests in Mice. Phytother Res. 2011 Mar 21. doi: 10.1002/ptr.3456. [Epub ahead of print]

²Yuen , K. Effect of Mixed-Tocotrienols in Hypercholesterolemic Subjects Functional Foods in Health and Disease : 3:106-117

³Fernandes, PR. Vitamin C restores blood pressure and vasodilator response during mental stress in obese children. Arq Bras Cardiol. 2011 May 6. pii: S0066-782X2011005000057. [Epub ahead of print]

⁴Shaygannejad, V. A Comparative Study of 25 (OH) Vitamin D Serum Levels in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis and Control Group in Isfahan , Iran . Int J Prev Med. 2010 Summer;1(3):195-201.