| Herb | Flaxseed |
| Parts Used | Seeds |
| Chemical and Nutrient Content | Glycosides, gum, linamarin, linoleic acid, linolenic acid, mucilage, oleic acid, proten, saturated acids, tannins, and wax. |
| Actions and Uses | Used for female disorders, colon problems, inflammation, and tumors. Promotes strong nails, bones, and teeth and healthy skin. |
| Excerpt | All of the above was taken from an excerpt from Prescription For Nutritional Healing by James F. Balch, M.D. – Phyllis A. Balch, C.N.C. - $11.75. page52. |
Sunday 30 October 2011
Elements Of Health - Flaxseed
Elements Of Health
Is a high-sugar, low-fiber diet really harmful to a person’s health?
Eating Right
Is a high-sugar, low-fiber diet really harmful to a person’s health?
In his classic book Eat Right – To Keep Healthy and Enjoy Life More (New York: Arco, 1979), Dr. Dennis Burkitt points out the absence of a certain group of diseases in third world countries where a high-fiber, low-sugar diet is the norm. He contrasts that with the astoundingly high incidence of this same group of diseases in the western world. The author makes these observations as a researcher who worked for twenty years as a surgeon in Africa. Dr. Burkitt found several interesting facts about the following problems.
Heart attacks. This is one of the most common diseases in America, killing about one man in four and becoming more common in older women who are no longer protected by natural estrogen. This health problem is almost completely unknown in rural areas of third world countries.
Gallstones. The operation for removal of the gallbladder is one of the most common operations in America. Gallstones almost never occur in rural areas of third world countries.
Diverticulitis of the colon. This problem causes untold misery and pain for older people, necessitating operations, for removal of parts of the colon and often mandating colostomies. It occurs in our country in about one in then people over the age of forty and one in three over the age of sixty. This disease is almost unknown in third world communities.
Appendicitis. An appendectomy is the most common emergency operation done in the United States. Appendicitis almost never occurs in rural countries.
Hiatus hernia. The herniation of the stomach up through the diaphragm causes burning indigestion, and discomfort in the upper abdomen. It is quite common in the United States, and it can be so severe that major surgery is necessary. It almost never occurs in rural Africa.
Varicose veins. Most women naively assume that varicose veins are a result of having been pregnant, and it is reported that as many as 44 percent of women between the ages of thirty and fifty have varicose veins. In rural societies, however, varicose veins occur in less than 5 percent of the population.
Hermorrhoids. The American who does not have haemorrhoids is fortunate. At least 50 percent of the people in the United States do, and many of those victims have had surgery because of this problem. Although it is assumed by most American women that haemorrhoids occur only as a result of pregnancy and labor this problem is rear in rural parts of third world countries.
Cancer of the colon. This cancer is the most common cause of cancer deaths in the western world, but it is unusual in rural and agrarian societies.
Diabetes. Diabetes is quite common in our society, occurring in as many as 15 percent of adults over the age of fifty. This disease is very uncommon in all rural and agrarian societies.
Obesity. This is an extremely common problem in this country, where at least 40 percent of middle-aged adults are over-weight. Yet obesity is almost never a problem for rural people who feed themselves by growing their own food.
History indicates that these diseases occurred infrequently in the Western world until the last hundred years, and that they all seem to be associated with the change in our dietary habits. One of the examples that Dr. Buritt uses is that although all these diseases are among black South Africans, they affect white South Africans to approximately the same extent as they do Americas – and in the United States they affect blacks and whites alike. His explanation is that in South Africa the blacks still exist on an agrarian diet, while the whites eat the traditional over-refined Western foods.
Copy typed by Shirley-Ann Pearman
An excerpt from page 808 of “1250 Health-Care Questions Women Ask With Straightforward Answers by an Obstetrician/Gynecologist” (by Joe S. McIlhaney, Jr., M.D. with Susan Nethery)
Water
Water
Water has no caloric value, but it contributes about 65% of body weight and is essential to the body’s normal functioning. In general, water helps provide the body with other nutrients it needs and helps rid the body of what it does not need. Water has many functions, including these:
1. Helping to maintain the balance of all the fluids in the body
2. Lubricating the body’s moving parts
3. Dissolving chemicals and nutrients
4. Aiding in digestion
5. Helping to transport nutrients and secretions throughout the body
6. Flushing out wastes
7. Regulating body temperature through perspiration
The amount of water in the body directly affects the concentration and distribution of body fluids and all the functions related to them. The body maintains a careful balance between water consumed (in foods and beverages) and water lost (through urination, perspiration, and respiration). In a healthy fluid balance, water input equals water output. Measuring an ill person’s level of water intake and output can help determine the best fluid replacement regiment to use.
People obtain most of their water from beverages such as tap water, milk, and fruit juices as well as coffee, tea, and soft drinks. On average, a person needs to drink six to eight glasses of water a day to maintain a healthy water balance. The daily need for water varies with size and age, the temperatures to which someone is exposed, the degree of physical exertion, and the water content of the foods one eats. Someone who is eating mostly foods with a high water content, such a fruits and vegetables, can drink a little less water than someone who is eating mostly foods with a low water content.
If people get too little water or lose too much water through vomiting, diarrhea, burns, or perspiration, they become dehydrated. Signs and symptoms of dehydration include dry lips and mucous membranes, weakness, lethargy, decreased urine output, and increased thirst. Severe dehydration can lead to hypovolemia, a reduction in result in inadequate blood pressure that affects the functioning of the heart, central nervous system, and various organs – a condition known as hypovolemic shock. If dehydration progresses so that water is lost from body cells, death usually occurs within a few days.
Procedure 49-1 explains how to educate patients to drink the right amount of water each day to prevent dehydration. Make sure patients know whether they are to drink extra fluids to replace fluids lost in an illness or to help rid the body of waste.
Copy typed by Shirley-Ann Pearman
Book: Medical Assisting – Administrative and Clinical Procedures – Including Anatomy and Physiology by Booth Whicker Wyman Pugh Thompson (Third Edition)
Chapter 49 – Nutrition and Special Diets
Fiber
Fiber
Fiber is in a separate category, although it is a type of complex carbohydrate. Fiber does not supply energy of heat to the body. It is the tough, stringy part of vegetables and grains. Fiber is not absorbed by the body, but it serves these important digestive functions:
1. Increasing and softening the bulk of the stool, thus promoting normal defacation
2. Absorbing organic wastes and toxins in the body so that they can be expelled
3. Decreasing the rate of carbohydrate breakdown and absorption
Therapeutically, fiber can help treat and prevent constipation, hemorrhoids, diverticular disease, and irritable bowel syndrome. It is linked to reduced blood cholesterol level, reduction of gallstone formation, control of diabetes, and reduction in the risk of certain types of cancer and other diseases. Too little fiber can result in an increased risk of colon cancer, hypercholesterolemia (high blood cholesterol), and increased blood glucose levels after eating. Too much fiber can cause constipation, diarrhea, and other gastrointestinal disorders and can impair mineral absorption.
The recommended amount of fiber for adults is 20 to 35 grams a day. Because fiber works in conjunction with other substances and nutrients, it is advisable to get dietary fiber from a variety of food sources (Figure 49-4). Adequate water intake is especially important for fiber to work properly.
Fiber can be classified as soluble or insoluble. Soluble fiber, found in foods such as oats, dry beans, barley, and some fruits and vegetables, is the type that tends to absorb fluid and swell when eaten. It slows the absorption of food from the digestive tract, helps control the blood sugar level of diabetics, lowers blood cholesterol levels, and softens and increases the bulk of stools. Insoluble fiber, found in the bran in whole wheat bread and brown rice, for example, promotes regular bowel movements by contributing to stool bulk.
Figure 49-4 Dietary fiber serves many functions in the human body and is considered a basic food component.
Copy typed by Shirley-Ann Pearman
Book: Medical Assisting – Administrative and Clinical Procedures – Including Anatomy and Physiology by Booth Whicker Wyman Pugh Thompson (Third Edition)
Chapter 49 – Nutrition and Special Diets
What does “eating right” mean, and why is it so important?
What does “eating right” mean, and why is it so important?
The primary problem with the American diet is that during the past hundred years we have started eating much more animal fat, fewer high-fiber carbohydrate foods (such as whole-grain bread and cereals), and more concentrated, non-nutritive sugar. The carbohydrate foods that we normally eat either have had most of their natural fiber content removed or they are sugar carbohydrates,” which are almost completely without fiber.
I picture food as being one a balance scale – fiber-rich cereals on one end and sugar on the other. In America today sugar weighs far heavier in what we eat then fiber-containing cereals. It should be the other way around. I now think of fiber as being similar to vitamins – and essential element the body continually needs to maintain health.
The human body was designed to function on a diet high in fiber and low in sugar, just as your new car engine was designed to run on gasoline high in octane and low in lead. If you run it on leaded gasoline, the engine will become gummed up and start functioning poorly. In the same way your body will function poorly and deteriorate if you persist in eating a diet that is low in fiber and high in sugar.
It now seems that many of the common diseases and healthy problems we always thought were a natural part of growing older are instead due to the foods we have been eating. This is exciting news, because it means that if we establish new habits of eating we can eliminate many of the diseases always assumed to be part of old age.
Copy typed by Shirley-Ann Pearman
An excerpt from page 808 of “1250 Health-Care Questions Women Ask With Straightforward Answers by an Obstetrician/Gynecologist” (by Joe S. McIlhaney, Jr., M.D. with Susan Nethery)
Wednesday 5 October 2011
Fiber
Fiber
Fiber is in a separate category, although it is a type of complex carbohydrate. Fiber does not supply energy of heat to the body. It is the tough, stringy part of vegetables and grains. Fiber is not absorbed by the body, but it serves these important digestive functions:
1. Increasing and softening the bulk of the stool, thus promoting normal defacation
2. Absorbing organic wastes and toxins in the body so that they can be expelled
3. Decreasing the rate of carbohydrate breakdown and absorption
Therapeutically, fiber can help treat and prevent constipation, hemorrhoids, diverticular disease, and irritable bowel syndrome. It is linked to reduced blood cholesterol level, reduction of gallstone formation, control of diabetes, and reduction in the risk of certain types of cancer and other diseases. Too little fiber can result in an increased risk of colon cancer, hypercholesterolemia (high blood cholesterol), and increased blood glucose levels after eating. Too much fiber can cause constipation, diarrhea, and other gastrointestinal disorders and can impair mineral absorption.
The recommended amount of fiber for adults is 20 to 35 grams a day. Because fiber works in conjunction with other substances and nutrients, it is advisable to get dietary fiber from a variety of food sources (Figure 49-4). Adequate water intake is especially important for fiber to work properly.
Fiber can be classified as soluble or insoluble. Soluble fiber, found in foods such as oats, dry beans, barley, and some fruits and vegetables, is the type that tends to absorb fluid and swell when eaten. It slows the absorption of food from the digestive tract, helps control the blood sugar level of diabetics, lowers blood cholesterol levels, and softens and increases the bulk of stools. Insoluble fiber, found in the bran in whole wheat bread and brown rice, for example, promotes regular bowel movements by contributing to stool bulk.
Figure 49-4 Dietary fiber serves many functions in the human body and is considered a basic food component.
Copy typed by Shirley-Ann Pearman
Book: Medical Assisting – Administrative and Clinical Procedures – Including Anatomy and Physiology by Booth Whicker Wyman Pugh Thompson (Third Edition)
Chapter 49 – Nutrition and Special Diets
Water
Water
Water has no caloric value, but it contributes about 65% of body weight and is essential to the body’s normal functioning. In general, water helps provide the body with other nutrients it needs and helps rid the body of what it does not need. Water has many functions, including these:
1. Helping to maintain the balance of all the fluids in the body
2. Lubricating the body’s moving parts
3. Dissolving chemicals and nutrients
4. Aiding in digestion
5. Helping to transport nutrients and secretions throughout the body
6. Flushing out wastes
7. Regulating body temperature through perspiration
The amount of water in the body directly affects the concentration and distribution of body fluids and all the functions related to them. The body maintains a careful balance between water consumed (in foods and beverages) and water lost (through urination, perspiration, and respiration). In a healthy fluid balance, water input equals water output. Measuring an ill person’s level of water intake and output can help determine the best fluid replacement regiment to use.
People obtain most of their water from beverages such as tap water, milk, and fruit juices as well as coffee, tea, and soft drinks. On average, a person needs to drink six to eight glasses of water a day to maintain a healthy water balance. The daily need for water varies with size and age, the temperatures to which someone is exposed, the degree of physical exertion, and the water content of the foods one eats. Someone who is eating mostly foods with a high water content, such a fruits and vegetables, can drink a little less water than someone who is eating mostly foods with a low water content.
If people get too little water or lose too much water through vomiting, diarrhea, burns, or perspiration, they become dehydrated. Signs and symptoms of dehydration include dry lips and mucous membranes, weakness, lethargy, decreased urine output, and increased thirst. Severe dehydration can lead to hypovolemia, a reduction in result in inadequate blood pressure that affects the functioning of the heart, central nervous system, and various organs – a condition known as hypovolemic shock. If dehydration progresses so that water is lost from body cells, death usually occurs within a few days.
Procedure 49-1 explains how to educate patients to drink the right amount of water each day to prevent dehydration. Make sure patients know whether they are to drink extra fluids to replace fluids lost in an illness or to help rid the body of waste.
Copy typed by Shirley-Ann Pearman
Book: Medical Assisting – Administrative and Clinical Procedures – Including Anatomy and Physiology by Booth Whicker Wyman Pugh Thompson (Third Edition)
Chapter 49 – Nutrition and Special Diets
Saturday 1 October 2011
What does "eating right" mean, and why is it so important?
What does “eating right” mean, and why is it so important?
The primary problem with the American diet is that during the past hundred years we have started eating much more animal fat, fewer high-fiber carbohydrate foods (such as whole-grain bread and cereals), and more concentrated, non-nutritive sugar. The carbohydrate foods that we normally eat either have had most of their natural fiber content removed or they are sugar carbohydrates,” which are almost completely without fiber.
I picture food as being one a balance scale – fiber-rich cereals on one end and sugar on the other. In America today sugar weighs far heavier in what we eat then fiber-containing cereals. It should be the other way around. I now think of fiber as being similar to vitamins – and essential element the body continually needs to maintain health.
The human body was designed to function on a diet high in fiber and low in sugar, just as your new car engine was designed to run on gasoline high in octane and low in lead. If you run it on leaded gasoline, the engine will become gummed up and start functioning poorly. In the same way your body will function poorly and deteriorate if you persist in eating a diet that is low in fiber and high in sugar.
It now seems that many of the common diseases and healthy problems we always thought were a natural part of growing older are instead due to the foods we have been eating. This is exciting news, because it means that if we establish new habits of eating we can eliminate many of the diseases always assumed to be part of old age.
Copy typed by Shirley-Ann Pearman
An excerpt from page 808 of “1250 Health-Care Questions Women Ask With Straightforward Answers by an Obstetrician/Gynecologist” (by Joe S. McIlhaney, Jr., M.D. with Susan Nethery)
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