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By CP Staff
A new study examined the effect of supplementing flaxseed oil on the development of osteoporosis in diabetic rats. Diabetes currently affects 23.6 million children and adults in the United States, totaling almost 8 percent of the population. Furthermore, an astounding 23.1 percent of Americans over the age of 60 have diabetes. Additionally, it is estimated that 10 million Americans have osteoporosis and nearly 34 million more individuals have low bone mass, placing them at increased risk for developing osteoporosis.
In this new study, rats with experimentally induced diabetes were supplemented with flaxseed oil or a placebo in the diet for 2 months. Some of these rats had their ovaries removed (ovariectomy) to simulate post-menopause, which would increase the risk of developing osteoporosis. After 2 months, the rats were evaluated using blood and urine tests, and were assessed for bone mineral density.
The results showed that in the rats without ovaries, there was an increase in serum insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), a hormone stimulated by growth hormone that plays a role in cell growth and proliferation in most cell types including bone. This group of rats with their ovaries removed also had lower levels of osteocalcin, which is a hormone involved in bone metabolism as well as stimulating the release of insulin from the pancreas. The rats without ovaries and induced diabetes had lower levels of IGF-1 and osteocalcin compared to the control group. Supplementation with flaxseed oil normalized both of the hormone levels in the diabetic rats.
Additionally, deoxypyridinoline, a maker of bone resorption measured in the urine to evaluate suspected osteoporosis, was increased in the diabetic rats, but decreased with supplementation of flaxseed oil. Also, bone mineral density and content was reduced in the diabetic rats compared to the controls, and normalized with flaxseed oil supplementation.
The study authors stated, “So, diabetes has more pronounced effect on bone health than ovariectomy, and flaxseed oil has beneficial effect on the prevention of osteoporosis.”
Reference:
Elwassef M, Anwar M, Harvi M, Abd El-Moneim MM, EL-Saeed GS, Salem SI, Wafay H. Impact of feeding flaxseed oil on delaying the development of osteoporosis in ovariectomised diabetic rats. Int. J. Food Safety, Nutrition and Public Health. 2009; 2(2):189-201.

Healthy Eating for the Holiday Season

As the majority of us know only too well, any attempt at healthy eating goes sailing out of the window during the holiday season. We tend to conveniently forget about our health and diet, and instead, take the opportunity to over-indulge in every way possible.
start quoteAccording to a recent Weight Watchers report, the average American gains around 7-10 pounds between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day.end quote
According to a recent Weight Watchers report, the average American gains around 7-10 pounds between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day. This is through pure over-indulgence and gluttony. Moreover, much of this weight is maintained from thereon despite our promises (as we help ourselves to another dollop of pudding) to go on a diet in January.

It is not hard to understand why people fall into such bad habits during the holiday season. Everywhere you go there is somebody waiting to thrust a glass of wine or a box of chocolates in front of you. Surely it would be rude to refuse? And, anyway, it is the holidays... Your trip to the local supermarket turns into an adventure. You find yourself in a maze of aisles displaying a range of colorful, tempting goodies that are excitingly packaged and screaming at you to buy them and eat them... Even visits to friends and family are unsafe. You suddenly find the table laden with all manner of goodies, and as you hear the wine bottle cork being popped in the kitchen you resign yourself to the fact that you might as well give in.

All this, coupled with the huge dinners, parties, and festivities of the holiday season makes maintaining control a huge challenge. Healthy eating is a national obsession for the better part of the year. Yet, as soon as Thanksgiving rears its over-indulgent head, the obsession swings the other way as the nation attempts to buy and eat as much unhealthy, rich food as possible.

Food and festivity will always be a major part of the holiday season - and there is certainly nothing wrong in that. However, the holiday season is also a stressful time for many of us, and we need plenty of energy and stamina to cope with it. It is therefore essential that we eat the right type of food with the necessary nutrients to give us energy and reduce stress levels. This is not to say that we shouldn't allow ourselves to indulge a little, but we should eat in moderation and maintain a varied diet.

Jeffrey Rubin, M.D. at the University of Arizona's College of Medicine, states: "The main rule to remember is moderation..." With regards to the rich foods that we consume over this period, he adds: "...Try to balance these items with regular servings of fruit and vegetables..."

If we allow ourselves to lose control completely over the holiday season, there is a high risk that we will continue to eat unhealthily long after the holiday season has gone. Falling into the trap of unhealthy eating is a hard habit to break. Despite millions of New Year's resolutions that are made each year regarding our diets, many people never get around to breaking the habit at all.

In fact, researchers at Washington University have reported that only around 22% of New Year's diet resolutions make it to February. Tips on eating healthily during the holiday season Being health-conscious doesn't necessarily mean that you can't enjoy the holiday season and have a little bit of what you fancy. It simply means that you should continue to be vigilant and be prepared for the festivities.

There are many ways in which you can help to strike a balance between maintaining a healthy diet and joining in with the fun and festivities.

For 12 ways to stay healthy during the holidays go to:www.betterhealthusa.com/public/273.cfm

Seven Tips to Help You Eat Healthy During the Holidays...Without Alienating Yourself from the People You Love!

By Lori Lipinski

Imagine walking into your parents' house to find your entire family poisoning themselves. Mom and Dad are sitting on the couch munching dioxin. Grandma is in the kitchen doing a shot of formaldehyde. And Aunt Betty is stuffing her face with antifreeze. But just when you think you're shocked and horrified, it gets worse. Before you can yell out the words, "Stop, you're killing yourselves!" Your family approaches you and offers you some of their poison. So what do you do? If you say no, you won't be part of the group and you'll feel left out. If you say yes, you'll be poisoning yourself just to fit in and be accepted.

Sounds like a scary scene from a science fiction film or a really bad dream. But it's not—it's Christmas!

Don't the holidays look just a little different from the eyes of those who know where their food comes from? And once you know, it's hard not to want to share it with anyone who'll listen. The problem is that most often that does not include your own family. So no matter how badly you want them to be aware of good nutrition, informing them over the holiday meal is probably not a good idea.

Let's face it, most of your family probably already feels a little annoyed by your healthy eating habits, whether you talk to them about it or not. Anytime you make a choice that is different from the mainstream, it challenges others' belief systems. For instance, just by choosing to eat organic foods, you raise the question for others, "What's wrong with the regular produce from the grocery store?" The problem is that most people don't want to know the answer to that question. So the conscious choices you make about the foods you eat challenge people to think about things they would rather not think about. Unfortunately, some people would rather not know the truth about certain things, especially when it comes to food.

But when you know, there's no going back, is there? So the question is, do you join them in celebrating the holidays by pigging out on foods that destroy your health? Fortunately, you don't have to. Here are seven tips to help you eat healthy this holiday season—without alienating yourself from the people you love:

For the seven tips go towww.westonaprice.org/transition/seventips.html

Sweet Potatoe Flax Muffin

 2 cups whole wheat flour
¼ cup ground flaxseed meal
4 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 egg, beaten
¼ cup maple syrup
¼ cup butter, softened
1 ripe banana, mashed
1 sweet potato, flesh only, mashed
½ cup milk

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and lightly grease a 12 muffin pan. In a large bowl mix together the flour, flaxseed, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl mix together the egg, maple syrup and butter. Combine well and add in the mashed banana, sweet potato and milk. Slowly incorporate the dry ingredients mixing gently just until they are incorporated into the batter. Divide the batter evenly into each muffin tin. Bake 15 to 18 minutes.

Power of Water and Thought

Water. One of the most powerful elements our Creator put on this earth. Water can be gentle and soft, as when it is cradling a babe in the womb. It can be powerful and strong, like when it created the mighty Grand Canyon. How wonderful it feels to relax into a nice hot bath, ahhh, peace. How awe inspiring to look at the mighty ocean, and feel the warm sand beneath our feet. Sand made, by the way from the incredible force the waves have with their crushing power against rock. It is amazing how the same element can give life and comfort or death and pain. How interesting it is to look at it's properties. Try to hold it with all of your strength in a tight fisted grip, and you will lose it. Open your hand and gently cup it in your palm and you will keep it.

I live a few minutes away from Zion National Park. It is amazing to look at the deep goughes water has made in the earth. Though it always flows in a path of least resistance, the degree of change it executes in making deep furrows in the earth is a wonder to look upon.

Did you know your thoughts, like water, cut channels in your brain? Our brain runs on 10 watts of electricity 24/7. The more you have a thought, the deeper the channel will be. This is why it can be a challenge to change thinking habits. Thinking habits lead to doing habits and can make your life miserable. So, how do we fix this predicatment? Well first, let's look at what should be controlled by what or who, and who has the power to fix this.

We all have a Spirit, a mind, and a brain. One of the challenges we face as we live on this planet, is to make sure the control goes down the line in that order. Remember, we are Spirits having a human or earthly experience, not the other way around.  Our Spirit has been given the gift and responsibility of creating our life here.  Too many times people just do not know that fact or have forgotten who should be in control, and so they give away their power.

Let's talk about a common way people give away their power. Victimism. Most of us like to blame parts of our life on others. "If it wasn't for" our parents, siblings, teachers, in-laws, religious leaders, and the list can go on and on. So what is this really saying? It is saying that somewhere in our life movie we have been wronged! Those people caused us pain! We even gather strong evidence to back up our accusations that WE ARE VICTIMS IN LIFE! We play these thoughts over and over in our brains. The more we think the thought, the deeper the channel gets. Now electricity flows with the path of the least amount of resistance, just like water, so the more we let that thought proceed, the more we believe- we are a victim. So, let's look at that perspective for a minute. Just who created our life here? AAAHHH let's look at the bigger picture. Did we not set this up for ourselves so we could take every opportunity to grow and progress? Now, this is true power. We need to except our place in the planning of these so called abuses. Once we can do that, we can move forward with the power to EMBRACE EVERYTHING that has happened in our lives, and recieve the resulting gifts.

So, what are we getting from being the victim? Where is the pay-off? Most of us like being able to place the blame on someone else. It is a very satisfying feeling to point your finger and say "It's all your fault!" I know people who have lived their whole lives and died still assigning blame and holding on to the pain that comes with that. If we cannot get to the point of forgiving these people and realizing and accepting our own role in the movie, we can never be free. You will always be attached to the person and event you so resent. People will then find ways to sabotage themselves and create results in their lives that prove they are a victim. They will find ways to justify their resentment. Isn't this exhausting to even read about? The end result is- You stay a victim, you give up your freedom."

The only way our of this snare is to TAKE RESPONSIBILITY. Accept your role in everything that has happened in your life. FORGIVE. FORGIVE. FORGIVE. I know I have people say to me, " but if I forgive them, then they just get way with something. They are off the hook!" I can promise you, no-one is ever off the hook. We all live surrounded by a common law- Karma. But, you also have to realize, when you look at the big pictue, you and that person or persons, planned this before you even came here! God knows, your Angels and your Guides know, your Master knows what is really going on. They get to watch the whole movie on the biggest screen you could ever imagine.

I know it is especially hard to see a loved one go through challenges and pain. We want to rush in and Save them. Well, who are we to mess up their plan? We need to let loved ones know that we are here for them if they ever need us or need advice, but don't take their learning away from them. We need to feel happy for all the gifts they will take away from the difficult, and complicated challenges that they have co-created for themselves! Of course there are times you have to step in to protect a loved one if their life is in danger. But, even then, they might tell you to "mind your own business." They know instinctively what they are needing to learn. So do you, about your own life.

So, back to our brains. Once you have forgiven someone, and realized the gift that has been given you in the holistic sense of the life challenge, you can then change your brain pathway. You have the power to change that deeply cut channel. There are different ways you can do this. One way is to go to a quiet place and get in a calm thought state. You are now going to be a creator of your life, a movie director so to speak. You need to go back to the time and instance in your life that you felt a victim. Now, change your movie. Your Spirit will be in control of your mind. Your mind doesn't care if something happened that way or not. It just does as it is told. The mind will then change the pathway in the physical brain. Here is a for instance-

Let's say you are little, and your Mom and Dad are fighting. You are standing there and they don't even know you exist at that moment. People can take away from that instance as a child that they are not important. That they don't matter. Of course, the adults are so caught up in their own drama, they probably didn't even know the child was there, and would have felt badly to know that their fight was witnessed and had frightened their child. Then there are some adults that wouldn't have cared even if they knew the child was there. Whatever your circumstance, you can change history. Whenever that old thought srtarts to flow down its channel, change over to the new thought you have made. You could have, for instance, have the new thought that the parents see the child and stop fighting. They then come over to the child and comfort the child and give talk and action of love towards the child. Reinforcing the fact that the child is loved and wanted, even if that was not a truth then. Like I said, your mind doesn't care if it is a fact or not. It will just think what the Spirit tells it to. It then transfers the information into the brain to make a channel for electricity to flow through. The more you think the new thought, and let go of the old thought, the more the old thought will just die away. It is wonderful that we have been given so much power! We just have to use it!

So remember, your Spirit should stay in control of the mind and brain. Your thoughts, like water, and the channels they create, are very powerful and can give you a quiet peaceful existance or drive you into an early grave. Please. Take your power back. Forgive someone. Change your movie. Rejoice in the freedom of being your own creator. Your life will be so much happier. You will be so much stronger. Accept your gifts and go and do something wonderful.

Remember to eat right, exercise, and think your highest thoughts, Namaste, Kathy

I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving! Have you had the experience of someone in your life having memory problems? Perhaps yourself? It is so interesting that you can gather with your parents and siblings and we all can remember things that others cannot! Some times it is just what made the biggest impression on our brain at that time, and sometimes our brains need a little help to work at peak performance.

Keeping Your Brain Healthy At Any Age

by Joi on March 5, 2008

Healthy Brain

It’s bad enough to decline physically. Mental decline is even worse. The idea of losing cognitive ability frightens everyone. It’s especially frightening if you’ve witnessed anyone descend into the abyss of Alzheimer’s. Our ability to think makes us human. Our memories are the record of our life. When dementia robs a person of these, they’ve lost something truly precious.

Take the case of Edith, one of my elderly patients. She had a shuffling gait and a vacant gaze. Because of her live-in caregiver, she was neatly dressed and groomed. As she sat, she looked at the woman next to her, her daughter, and asked: “Where’s Kate? Do you know where Kate is?” “I’m here Mom. I’m Kate.” “No you’re not, my Kate is a little girl. Where’s Kate?”

Sadly, I’ve seen too many people like Edith. But it doesn’t have to happen. You can stay mentally clear and crisp well into old age. You know this to be true — you’ve seen it. I’m sure at some point you’ve met a person with plenty of years under his or her belt who was still sharp as anything. Aren’t those people a delight? Don’t they exude life?

It’s possible to grow old and age minimally. But it doesn’t happen by accident. Habitual choices carry long term consequences. Research gives us some pretty strong suggestions on how to stay sharp as we grow old.

Here’s a quick rundown of some ways to maintain your mental edge over time. You’ll see some familiar recommendations. A healthy lifestyle benefits all of you, including your brain.

To read the rest of this article go to:

www.thementalfitnesscenter.com/blog/keeping-your-brain-healthy-at-any-age/