It may come as a surprise to some, especially those with conventional medical training, but the default state of the body is one of ceaseless regeneration. Without the flame-like persistence of continual cell turnover within the body - life and death ceaselessly intertwined - the miracle of the human body would not exist.
The future of cardiovascular disease prevention and treatment will not be found in your medicine cabinet, rather in your kitchen cupboard or in your back yard growing on a tree...
The fact is that refined white salt, such as commercial table salt is bad, very bad stuff. Unrefined natural salt on the other hand is good, very good stuff providing many health benefits.
New research published this week in the journal Heart has confirmed the findings of two controversial studies on calcium supplementation and heart attack risk published in the British Medical Journal last year, and which found a 24-27% increased risk of heart attack for those who took 500 mg of elemental calcium a day.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture says that about 60% of adults in the United States do not consume the estimated average requirement for magnesium.
With the cholesterol-lowering class of drugs known as statins being widely promoted for the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease, despite their having over 300 documented adverse health effects (including heart failure!), how does chocolate sound as a viable, heart-friendly alternative?
In a 2008 study published in the journal Food Chemistry & Toxicology titled, "Comparative evaluation of the hypolipidemic effects of coconut water and lovastatin in rats fed fat-cholesterol enriched diet," the beverage coconut water was as effective as Merck's original cholesterol-lowering drug in positively modulating blood lipid levels in rats.
Chocolate is clearly one of the most enjoyed foods on the planet, and has one of the oldest documented histories of use going back to 1100 BC. And yet, many still harbor guilt about consuming it because they associate it with "candy," having never been exposed to the growing body of research indicating it may actually be closer to a "medicine."
As far back as the 5th century BC the Greek physician Hippocrates wrote about the use of a bitter powder extracted from willow bark that reduced fevers and eased aches and pains. Native Americans also used an infusion of willow bark for similar purposes. What was this remarkable "healing" principle within the bark that relieved dis-ease?
The "diseases of affluence," as they are known, include diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, osteoporosis and cancer, and are sometimes referred to as the "Western disease" paradigm. They emerge largely in response to the type of overnourishment that occurs in relatively wealthy societies, and particularly the overconsumption of certain biologically incompatible foods that have become the nutritional centerpiece of agrarian and largely grain-based cultures.