Ginseng - an expensive herb in the world

Ginseng is one of the most popular herbal medicines in the world.

There are two main types of ginseng: Asian or Korean ginseng (Panax ginseng) and American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius). In traditional Chinese medicine, American ginseng is considered less stimulating than the Asian variety.

Studies have found that the different types have different benefits. These benefits include the following: 

• Boosting the immune system – researchers found the immunological effects and anti-inflammatory effects of ginseng. There were cases that it could decrease the number and severity of colds in adults.
• Lowering blood sugar levels.
• Providing energy and preventing fatigue - Ginseng stimulates physical and mental activity among people who are weak and tired.
• Improving cognitive and mental performance – it might temporarily and modestly improve concentration and learning.
• Improving mood and boosting endurance as well as treating cancer, heart disease, fatigue, erectile dysfunction, hepatitis C, high blood pressure, menopausal symptoms, and other conditions.

Because ginseng may affect blood sugar levels and can interact with warfarin and with some medicines for depression, people should consult doctor first using ginseng. 

In addition, since ginseng can act as a stimulant in some people, it might cause nervousness and insomnia.

Long-term use or high doses of ginseng may cause headaches, dizziness, stomach upset, and other symptoms. Women who use ginseng regularly may develop breast tenderness and menstrual changes. There have also been some reports of allergic reactions to ginseng.

Plant pigments make you young and healthy

In a meta-analysis published in the British Journal of Nutrition, researchers found that there was a relative risk reduction of cardiovascular disease of 11% for anthocyanidins, 10% for proanthocyanidins, 12% for flavones, 12% for flavanones, 13% for flavan-3-ols as well as 5% for flavonol for every 10 mg per day increment of flavonol intake.

In fact, all these belong to the flavonoid group which contains isoflavones, proanthocyanidins, anthocyanins, flavonols, flavones, flavanols and flavanones. Within each fall hundreds, and sometimes thousands of different flavonoids. For example, flavonols include quercetin, rutin, and hesperidin, while flavones include apigenin and luteolin.

Most flavonoids function in the human body as antioxidants to help neutralize overly reactive oxygen-containing molecules and prevent these overly reactive molecules from damaging parts of cells. In some cases, flavonoids can act directly as antibiotics by disrupting the function of microorganisms like viruses or bacteria. The antiviral function of flavonoids has been demonstrated with the HIV virus.

Besides playing a cardio-protective role, flavonoids also play a role in the prevention and/or treatment of the following health conditions:

• Allergy
• Asthma
• Atopic dermatitis
• Candida infection
• Cataracts
• Diabetes
• Gout
• Hemorrhoids
• Macular degeneration
• Migraine
• Periodontal disease
• Stomach ulcer
• Varicose veins

In addition, many of the vitamin-related functions of vitamin C also appear to require the presence of flavonoids. And many different chemical categories of flavonoids can prevent excessive inflammation.

Flavonoids are found widely in fruits and vegetables—often as the pigments that give these foods their distinctive colors—and in other foods such as tea, coffee, wine and chocolate.

However, heat, degree of acidity (pH), and degree of processing can have a dramatic impact on the flavonoid content of food. And so next time when you prepare your meal, don’t overcook vegetables.

 

Intake more polyphenols = Increased longevity

A  12-year study of 807 men and women aged 65 years and older published in The Journal of Nutrition found that polyphenol intake is an independent risk factor for mortality and that high dietary polyphenol intakes may help people live longer.

Polyphenols have been termed “lifespan essentials”. They actively work in the body to prevent certain disease mechanisms from occurring.

Polyphenols are antioxidants from plant foods that work in the body to enhance health in complex ways. They can reduce the risk factors for cardiovascular disease and basically help to protect many body systems from the risks or ravages of many types of chronic disease. 

The main source of polyphenols is dietary, since they are found in a wide array of phytochemical-bearing foods. For example, honey; most legumes; fruits (such as apples, blackberries, blueberries, cantaloupe, pomegranate, cherries, cranberries, grapes, pears, plums, raspberries, aronia berries, and strawberries) and vegetables (such as broccoli, cabbage, celery, onion and parsley) are rich in polyphenols. Red wine, chocolate, white tea, green tea, olive oil, argan oil, bee pollen and many grains are also sources of polyphenols.

However, refining of foods removes polyphenols, so eat fresh or freshly cooked fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes. Polyphenols tend not to be destroyed by moderate cooking or heating, and cooked foods may offer a more bioavailable source of polyphenols. 

Whenever possible, choose richly hued fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Rich colors such as reds and purples or black indicate that plant foods are excellent sources of polyphenols.

 

How to reduce stress

Our mental, emotional and physical well-being are closely interrelated. For example, stress can trigger a cascade of physiological effects with a broad range of negative health implications. It can raise blood pressure, increase the risk of heart attack and stroke, increase vulnerability to anxiety and depression, weaken the immune system, leaving us more susceptible to viral and bacterial infections and accelerates the aging process. Thus managing stress is essential to our health and wellness.

 

To turn the other way round, we can use physical and mental ways to reduce our stress level.

 

Physiologically, stress triggers a number of neuroendocrine responses including increases in serum concentrations of corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) and cortisol. And so we can use this as an indicator whether our way to reduce stress level is effective or not.

 

In a recent study published in The Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine, it was found that saponins, an  extract from Tribulus terrestris, which is a herb used in traditional Chinese medicine as a tonic to combat the effects of stress, can change the behavior and neuroendocrine responses in laboratory rats which had been subjected to chronic mild stress. All of the behavioral and neuroendocrine changes caused by chronic stress were significantly reduced. This indicates saponins might have the same effect on human being as well.

 

Mentally, it has long been shown that meditation lowers the cortisol level in the blood, suggesting that it can lower stress and hence decrease the risk of diseases that arise from stress.

 

Other ways to reduce stress include doing exercises, positive thinking and sharing your worries with your friends.

Have a good sleep!

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley found that there is a link between sleep and obesity.

 

The study, published in the August issue of Nature Communications, uses functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine brain activity in relation to food choices among sleep-deprived individuals.

 

They found an increased activity in the amygdala, which spurs the urge to eat and a decreased activity in the frontal cortex, the region of the brain responsible for the rational processing of decisions and consequences. These changes in brain activity were associated with a significant increase in the desire for weight-gain promoting, high-calorie foods following sleep deprivation. Moreover, the effects were more pronounced in participants with the most severe sleep deprivation.

 

What’s especially interesting about this study is that the brain activity observed in sleep-deprived individuals was not merely associated with an increase in appetite, but a specific increase in desire for high-calorie foods, “resulting in the selection of foods most capable of triggering weight gain.”

 

Hence losing sleep can lead to gaining weight. And how to get enough sleep should be included into the program for healthy weight loss!

 

Besides sleep, vitamin D deficiency is also closely linked with obesity, although it appears that obesity causes the deficiency and not the other way around. Low vitamin D levels have been linked with disturbances in glucose metabolism and dyslipidemia.

Be careful about sunbath

Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States. More than 3.5 million skin cancers in over two million people are diagnosed annually. In Asians, skin cancer represents approximately two to four percent of all cancers.

There are 3 types of skin cancer - basal cell carcinoma (BCC), squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and melanoma.

Basal cell carcinoma is the most common form of skin cancer, an estimated 2.8 million are diagnosed annually in the US. BCCs are rarely fatal, but can be highly disfiguring if allowed to grow.

Squamous cell carcinoma is the second most common form of skin cancer. An estimated 700,000 cases of SCC are diagnosed each year in the US.

Amongst the three, melanoma has the lowest incidence, accounts for less than five percent of skin cancer cases. But from 1970 to 2009, the incidence of melanoma increased by 800 percent among young women and 400 percent among young men in the US. And it is also the most dangerous. It is easy to spread to other organs and has the highest mortality. Although melanoma accounts for less than five percent of skin cancer cases but the vast majority of skin cancer deaths.

The overall 5-year survival rate for patients whose melanoma is detected early, before the tumor has spread to regional lymph nodes or other organs, is about 98 percent in the US. The survival rate falls to 62 percent when the disease reaches the lymph nodes, and 15 percent when the disease metastasizes to distant organs.

More than 85 percent of skin cancers are associated with exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun. The sun's ultraviolet rays can induce skin cells undergo gene mutations. And the longer the exposure to UV, the higher the chance of suffering from skin cancer. One or more blistering sunburns in childhood or adolescence can cause more than double a person's chances of developing melanoma later in life.

There are two wavelengths for UV, UVA and UVB. UVA can cause skin aging, wrinkles skin tanning and also inducing skin cancer while absorbing excess UVB can burn skin and this is also one of the main causes of skin cancer. In short, more than 90 percent of the visible changes commonly attributed to skin aging are caused by the sun. And so be careful when you are sunbathing!

Why not cook foods at high temperature?

Researchers in Europe and the United States found that when certain foods heated to a temperature above 120 degrees Celsius (248 degrees Fahrenheit), a chemical substance called acrylamide produced. Moreover, the level of it appears to increase with the duration of heating. The highest levels found so far were in starchy foods (potato and cereal products such as potato chips and French fries). And this is not found when foods prepared below this temperature.

The reason for this might be due to asparagine (a kind of amino acid) which is found in many vegetables, with higher concentrations in some varieties of potatoes. When heated to high temperatures in the presence of certain sugars (reducing sugars such as fructose and glucose), asparagine can form acrylamide, especially when we use such cooking methods as frying, baking or broiling, while boiling and microwaving appear less likely to have such effect. Longer cooking times can also increase acrylamide production when the cooking temperature is above 120 degrees Celsius.

Decreasing cooking time, blanching potatoes before frying and postdrying (drying in a hot air oven after frying) have been shown to decrease the acrylamide content of some foods.

Acrylamide has so far not been found in food prepared at temperatures below 120 degrees Celsius, including boiled foods. Thus foods should not be cooked excessively, i.e. for too long or at too high a temperature.

Acrylamide is known to cause cancer in animals.  Besides, it has toxic effects on the nervous system and on fertility. But a June 2002 report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Health Organization concluded the intake level required to observe neuropathy (0.5 mg/kg body weight/day) was 500 times higher than the average dietary intake of acrylamide (1 μg/kg body weight/day). In our daily diet, for example, zucchini produces only 360 micrograms per kilogram of acrylamide, garlic 200 micrograms while cabbage and Chinese lettuce less than 50 micrograms.

For effects on fertility, the level is 2,000 times higher than the average intake. From this, they concluded acrylamide levels in food were safe in terms of neuropathy, but raised concerns over human carcinogenicity based on known carcinogenicity in laboratory animals.

Thus whenever possible, we should eat foods raw. But in this case, we should be careful about the harmful effect caused by bacteria inside all foods when they have not been cooked sufficiently.