Alternative Headache Relief?

Below are some drug-free headache relievers that might help the next time your head is pounding and you don’t have access to aspirin. While these techniques have more to do with easing stress, they can’t hurt you and might actually help you to relax and feel better when a tension headache hits.

Massage: Gently rubbing your head, neck, and shoulders can help relieve tension.

Deep breaths: Breathing deeply and slowly from the abdomen can be done while sitting or lying down (works like that blood pressure machine above).

Decrease sensory clutter: Turning off (or tuning out) extra noises, lights, and activities can decrease sensory stress and other things that might be causing your headache.

Use temperature: Taking a hot or cold shower or applying a hot or cold towel or pack to your neck, head, and shoulders can help to relieve pain and stress (depending on the cause).

Thought exercises: Image you’re in a calm, serene, and quiet place.

Stretching: Can help to relax the muscles.

Use relaxation techniques: Meditation and activities like yoga or Tai Chi can help relax your body, calm your mind, and take your thoughts off the pain.

Exercise: Taking a brisk walk or doing some other vigorous activity for at least 5 to 10 minutes might help.

Find a soothing rhythm: Closing your eyes and repeating calm words or phrases, listening to calm music or ocean rhythms, and rocking or moving to a steady rhythm can bring about relaxation (hey, learn to dance through life!). J

Examine your diet: Dehydration, certain foods, or allergies can be the culprits in chronic headaches. Get enough fluids and explore which foods might give you headaches (alcohol is notorious for causing headaches, as is a smoky atmosphere, etc.).

Take a break: Looking at a computer or being in the same position for long periods can cause muscle tension. Take a short break every hour and remember to focus your eyes away from the computer screen at least once every 15 minutes.

And my personal favorite: rub a little lavender essential oil (straight from the bottle) gently into each temple.

Note: Talk to your doctor if you continue to have severe headache pain. It could be the symptom of a more serious problem.

Hastening Biological Aging?

According to U.S. and British researchers, who examined the white blood cells of 1,100 women, those who smoked cigarettes or were obese had shorter telomeres (the tips of chromosomes, which apparently get shorter as you get older) than did the non-smokers or lean women.

Somehow, as a result of this study, they concluded that if you smoke a pack of cigarettes a day for 40 years, your body will have aged 7.4 years more than your indicated calendar age. And if you are obese, you will have added 8.8 years to that calendar age.

When I was a kid, the warning about being fat or smoking was simply that you wouldn’t live as long. I had heard that each cigarette takes a minute off your lifespan, but if you work the above numbers into that concept, each cigarette will cost you about 13 minutes off your normal life.

The part I’m not so sure about is that short telomeres do not necessarily imply a shorter life (insufficient data for scientists to draw that sort of conclusion). So maybe what these researchers have discovered (whether they know it or not) is that smoking and obesity just makes you look older. J

Hype to Break Your Heart

Mosquitoes brought West Nile virus to New York and all the newspapers said it was going to be the next big deadly epidemic. Do you let articles like that flip you out? Well, you shouldn’t. All the epidemiologists said the coverage was “media hype.” The same is true for the old stories about “The Impending Mad Cow Disease Epidemic” and “The Return of Bubonic Plague” – the sad part is that the general public reads this crap, panics, and none of those articles were true to science.

Nothing changes with the media. Remember last February (and probably again in a few more months) everyone that went online or watched TV or picked up a newspaper read/heard some variation on this theme: “In a study published just in time for Valentine’s Day… doctors reported how a tragic or shocking event can stun your heart.” And thus was born Deadly Broken Heart Syndrome!

Some dweeb at Johns Hopkins University let out a news release saying that the shock of a surprise party or the death of a loved one can cause a surge of adrenaline, which can, essentially, poison the heart muscle and cause something that resembles a heart attack. You should all know that hype builds on itself and it wasn’t long before ABC’s World News Tonight claimed, “There is no way to predict who is most likely to suffer Broken Heart syndrome” and “It may be more common than most doctors know.” They make life seem too scary to go on living sometimes… any one of us could lose a loved one or walk into a room full of people who all yell, “Surprise!” and they make it sound like every one of us is at risk of dropping dead from this.

The bottom line was that the media was reporting on research that did not prove anything. So get on with your life and don’t make any decisions about your life based on what the media tells you. For them, it’s all about headlines, ratings, and making more money. I can only wish that one day it will be about truth. Sigh....

More NSAID News

An analysis of 20 years of data on the health of over 900 adults has found that long-term use of traditional non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as ibuprofen and naproxen, cuts the risk for oral cancer in smokers by half.

However, use of these pain relievers (with the exception of aspirin) for 6 months or more also doubled users’ risks for cardiovascular death, according to collaborative research published online by The Lancet.

The study was conducted by researchers at the Norwegian Radium Hospital and The National Hospital in Oslo; University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway; NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City; The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston; and the University of Helsinki.

“Our findings highlight how a commonly used drug can have a benefit from the standpoint of cancer prevention but can also have side effects - in this case, an increased risk for cardiovascular death,” said co-researcher Dr. Andrew Dannenberg, the Henry R. Erle, M.D., Professor of Medicine at Weill Medical College of Cornell University and Director of Cancer Prevention at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell.

The research team took a retrospective look at data collected prospectively from 1975 to 1995 on more than 123,000 adults participating in the Norwegian Health Survey. The survey tracks participant lifestyles, habits, and long-term health outcomes, and is one of the richest such databases in the world.

Dr. Sudbo and colleagues narrowed their focus to 454 people with oral cancer and 454 others without such malignancies matched for age and sex. All of the individuals had a history of heavy smoking.

“Specifically, we were looking for associations between the long-term use of traditional, non-COX-2-specific NSAIDs and the risk of oral cancer, since previous work has suggested that these drugs can lower risks for other malignancies, such as colon cancer,” explained co-researcher Dr. Scott M. Lippman, Ellen F. Knisely Distinguished Chair and Chairman of the Department of Clinical Cancer Prevention at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.

In fact, the researchers did find a correlation: Adults who were prescribed NSAIDs such as aspirin, ibuprofen, naproxen, indomethacin, piroxicam, and ketoprofen for 6 months or more (most of them for much longer periods, with 88 percent taking NSAIDs for 5 years or more) were at a 53 percent lowered risk for oral malignancies compared with those who did not take the drugs over the long-term.

“But there was a puzzling finding,” Dr. Sudbo said. “Even though the drugs appeared to protect users from oral cancer, we saw no added benefit overall in terms of prolongation of life or reduced mortality. So something was potentially tipping the balance the other way.”

Digging deeper, they identified that “something” as cardiovascular disease: According to the study, long-term use of traditional NSAIDs, except for cardiovascular-dose aspirin, doubled users’ risk for cardiovascular death.

This type of elevated heart risk had already been noted with a subclass of NSAIDs called COX-2 inhibitors, drugs like the now-recalled Vioxx and Bextra and a third (still available) painkiller, Celebrex, which target a specific enzyme linked to inflammation.

The investigators stressed that the study does have its limitations. First, the NSAIDs used in the study were available to Norwegians via prescription only, and it’s not clear whether dosages used by the survey participants were similar in strength to popular American over-the-counter products like Aleve (naproxen), Motrin (ibuprofen), or Advil (ibuprofen).

In addition, Dr. Dannenberg and co-author Dr. J. Jack Lee, Professor of Biostatistics at the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, stressed that although the data themselves were collected prospectively, the study remains a relatively small, retrospective effort. “It’s tough to make sweeping generalizations until the results are confirmed by much larger, prospective trials,” they said.

So, might long-term use of traditional NSAIDs still be right for some people? According to the study investigators, a careful risk-benefit assessment is required, and that’s a question best left to a patient and his or her doctor.

So the gist of this is that if you take NSAIDs long-term, you might reduce your cancer risk, but likely will increase your heart attack risk. I have found other negatives to long-term NSAID use, such as cartilage degradation, which really is the pits for those who are taking it for arthritis inflammation pains because they are only making their own situation worse in the long run. Remember in the last issue that I reported my neurosurgeon stated emphatically that NSAIDs were indicated for short-term temporary use only? I agree with him. If your doctor suggests otherwise, ask him/her why they think it is OK. Do not accept answers based on the assumption of “because I’m the doctor and I say so.” It is your life, your body, and your responsibility.

Sodium Nitrite in Your Dinner?

Have you ever wondered why the consumption of processed meats is claimed to be so strongly linked to cancers of the colon, breast, prostate, and pancreas? The evidence apparently continues to mount, as claimed by a recent study showing a 67% increase in pancreatic cancer for people consuming moderate amounts of “processed” meat on a frequent basis. (Pulse; 4/23/2005, Vol. 65 Issue 16, p10).

Conventional medical doctors and nutrition researchers tend to put the bulk of the blame on the saturated fat content of processed meats, but that ignores two notable culprits that I think are far worse offenders when it comes to human health.

The first problem is found in the fats of these processed meats. The problem isn’t the fat molecules themselves, but rather the toxic chemicals, heavy metals, environmental pollutants that are found inside those fat molecules. Fat is also the place in the animal’s body with the heaviest concentration of mycotoxins.

Fat tissues, whether in cattle or humans, tend to concentrate whatever pollutants are found in the mainstay diet of that animal. A cow eats literally tons of grass in its lifetime, and in doing so, it collects and concentrates low-level pollutants found in its diet. For non-organic beef, it’s quite common to find trace amounts of heavy metals (e.g., mercury, cadmium), pesticides, and even PCBs. That’s because, for non-organic beef, feed practices are rather horrifying. You’d be shocked to learn what’s perfectly legal to feed to cattle intended for human consumption. While conventional doctors tend to put the health risk blame on the saturated fat found in meat products, I think it has a lot more to do with the toxic substances concentrated in those fat tissues.

These toxins, when consumed, are clearly and unquestionably linked to cancers as well as nervous system disorders that can accelerate things like Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. They also stress the liver and impair immune system function. The human body should never be exposed to mercury, PCBs or the “rocket fuel” chemicals that are now almost universally found in cows’ milk products across the country (in a 2005 Texas Tech University study, perchlorate was detected in 46 of 47 store-bought samples of cows’ milk across 11 states). More at:

(http://environmentcalifornia.org/envirocalif.asp?id2=15344&id3=CE&)

The second reason processed meats are so strongly correlated with cancer is, I believe, the continued use of a cancer-promoting additive called sodium nitrite.

This ingredient, which sounds harmless, is actually highly carcinogenic once it enters your digestive system. Once there, it forms a variety of nitrosamine compounds that enter the bloodstream and wreak havoc with a number of internal organs: the liver and pancreas in particular. Sodium nitrite is widely regarded as a toxic ingredient, and the USDA actually tried to ban this additive in the 1970s, but was vetoed by food manufacturers who complained they had no alternative for preserving packaged meat products.

You can find sodium nitrite in nearly every packaged meat product imaginable. It’s listed right on the label of products like bacon, breakfast sausage, beef jerky, pepperoni, sandwich meat, ham, hot dogs, and even the meats found in canned soups. If you walk into any grocery store in this country, and actually read those labels, you will find hundreds of products that contain this ingredient. I think this sodium nitrite is the primary cause of pancreatic cancer in humans who consume even moderate quantities of “processed” meats.

If sodium nitrite is so dangerous, why does the food industry use it?

Simple: this chemical just happens to turn meats bright red. It’s actually a color fixer, and it makes old dead meats appear fresh and vibrant. Thus, food manufacturers insist on using sodium nitrite for the simple reason that it sells more meat products (it’s always about money, isn’t it?). Consumers are strongly influenced by the color of groceries (which is why Florida oranges are often dipped in red dye, by the way), and when meat products look fresh, people will buy them, even if the true color of the months-old meat is putrid gray.

There is a way to minimize the damage from sodium nitrite, however. You won’t hear this from the USDA these days, because they don’t really want to discuss sodium nitrite at all. Since the 1970s, the USDA has shifted into protection mode of the very industries it was supposed to regulate... to the point where it now acts as more of a marketing branch of the beef, milk, and grain industries.

The proven protection strategy is to consume fairly large doses of vitamins C and E before dietary exposure to sodium nitrite. This nutritional protection strategy inhibits the conversion of sodium nitrite to cancer-causing nitrosamines. If you choose to consume processed meat products, you can reduce your risk of cancer from sodium nitrite by consuming these antioxidants before your meal.

Consuming chlorella before or during meals containing red meat will also theoretically protect you from various environmental pollutants. Chlorella binds to heavy metals in particular, shepherding them out of your body before they can do much damage.

You can also, of course, turn to fresh, organic, grass-fed beef (beware the term “free-range” because the animals might still be fed corn and antibiotics; basically they are the same as feed lot cattle – just not kept in a stall). That’s the safest approach for any meat consumer. Yes, it is expensive, but last time I checked, treating pancreatic cancer was a bit on the pricey side, too.

There are other problems with processed meats, nutritionally speaking. Meat has zero dietary fiber, for one thing. But in terms of the major causative factors of disease in the human body, I think the two primary culprits are the heavy metals and toxins concentrated in the fat tissues of the livestock, combined with the sodium nitrite additives used by meat processing companies to preserve their products and give them enhanced visual appeal.

I also think that the “saturated fat” argument is a distraction from the real causes of cancer that the U.S. beef industry doesn’t want to talk about. It’s not the saturated fat that causes pancreatic cancer (e.g., coconut oil consumption wouldn’t cause a person’s risk of pancreatic cancer to leap 67%, although it also is saturated fat). The real cause of the cancer, I believe, is what’s found inside the fat, and what’s added to the meat during processing and packaging. Oh, and let’s not forget that cancer (all forms) might actually be fungal in nature and what we feed our cattle is what will be in their meat and fat, which is what will then be in us. But I’ve told that story before…

Bee Barf on Your Toast?

Honey: the name is from the ancient Hebrusi (Hebrew) meaning “enchant.” It has long been used as a culinary sweetener and is valued for its healing properties as well. Treatments using honey are referred to as apitherapy (definition: apis is Latin for “bee”) and supposedly include the replenishing of energy, enhancing physical stamina, and strengthening those weakened by illness or stress. It is also touted as a mind calmer and promoter of rejuvenating sleep. It also relieves indigestion and has been used to treat cardiovascular disease and respiratory complaints. A thin coat of honey, applied to the skin will disinfect and aid in healing minor wounds and chapped lips.

Those environmental toxins mentioned above for your beef just aren’t in honey because bees filter most of them out. Bees will die from things like industrial emissions, automotive exhaust, and agricultural chemicals, so they won’t take them with them into the hive.

The main ingredients in honey are the simple sugars: fructose and glucose. Other constituents include water, pollen, organic acids, enzymes, and various proteins.

There are many kinds of honey. The consistency, fragrance, and taste depend on the type of flowers from which the bees collect nectar. Look for honey that has been produced by beekeepers that do not feed their bees any refined sugars or use any chemical pesticides. The best tasting, in my opinion, are the honey made by bees form hives near blackberry/boysenberry/ marionberry patches.

I also prefer natural honey rather than the mass-produced pasteurized type you get in the typical grocery store. Do not give this type of honey to infants because it contains a type of bacteria that, while harmless to older children and adults (we have built up our immune system balance and babies have not), can be very dangerous to those only a year old or less.

Note: Because honey is a sugar, it should not be used at all if you’re fighting a fungal infection, and only in small amounts otherwise. Three tablespoons per day will give you your daily allotment of anti-oxidants, but more than that and you could be feeding the bad guys.

Misc Notes

A Japanese scientist has shown that human hands, foreheads, and the soles of the feet emit detectable light. – Discover magazine, November 2005

Now, tell me again how crazy the mystics are who claim to be able to see auras, the visible (to some, when in the proper meditative state) manifestation of the human energy which is emitted (by all of us) most intensely at the body extremities (head, hands, feet).

French biologists say parasitic hairworms, which invade grasshoppers, use a brainwashing protein cocktail to drive their hosts to water, where the host drowns and the worms reproduce. – Discover magazine, November 2005