Strawberry Orange Ginger Smoothie

Fresh ginger gives this smoothie a refreshing and delicious taste.

The healing properties of ginger are similar to non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), therefore, it can regulate biochemical pathways which are activated with chronic inflammation. Adding ginger to your daily diet can soothe the aches and pain associated with aging. If you wake up with stiff joints or sore hands, this smoothie in the morning may put a smile on your face.

Ingredients

~1 cup orange juice.

~1 cup Vanilla Almond Milk

~1 tsp grated ginger root

~1 cup fresh or frozen strawberries

In a blender, combine orange juice, milk, ginger root and berries. Puree until smooth. Serve cold.

Excellent source of vitamin C, potassium and anthocyanins (antioxidants in berries).

Tip: turn this into your daily serving of Omega-3 by adding a teaspoon of Carlson’s The Very Finest Fish Oil, Orange or Lemon Flavor. Adding the Omega-3 EPA/DHA rich oil boosts the ginger's inflammation balancing power and you'll be supporting heart, brain, and vision health too! And I assure you this taste award winning oil is never fishy. Try it you'll be hooked!

When life gives you lemons....

Lemon, which adds such welcome zest to food and cocktails, is also a mild but highly effective cleaning agent. What makes lemon such a powerful cleanser?

Its high acid content, which enables the fruit to work as a powerful antibacterial sanitizer that combats common household bacteria. The acid in lemon juice removes dirt and rust stains. It’s especially effective when mixed with salt, which makes an excellent scouring paste.

How to use lemons to clean your:

Countertops: Dip the cut side of a lemon half in baking soda to tackle countertops; wipe with a wet sponge and dry. Don’t use on delicate stone, like marble, or stainless steel (it may discolor stainless steel.)

Cutting boards: To remove tough food stains from light wood and plastic cutting boards, slice a lemon in half, squeeze onto the soiled surface, rub, and let sit for 20 minutes before rinsing.

Dishes: To increase the grease-cutting power of your dishwashing detergent, add a teaspoon of lemon juice.

Faucets: Combat lime scale by rubbing lemon juice onto the taps and letting it sit overnight. Wipe with a damp cloth.

Garbage disposal: Cut a lemon in half, then run both pieces through the disposal.

Grout: Spilled morning coffee on your tile countertop or backsplash? Here’s how to tackle grout stains: Add lemon juice to 1 or 2 teaspoons cream of tartar (an acidic salt that acts as a natural bleaching agent) to make a paste. Apply with a toothbrush, then rinse.

Hands: When you touch raw fish, the smell can linger on your fingers. Rub your hands with lemon juice, which will neutralize the odor.

Laundry: To brighten whites, add 1/2 cup lemon juice to the rinse cycle for a normal-size load.

Plastic food-storage containers: To bleach stains from tomato soup and other acidic foods on dishwasher-safe items, rub lemon juice on the spots, let dry in a sunny place, then wash as usual.
  

  

Think yourself happy!

Is becoming happier as easy as trying to become happier? The latest research by two US academics suggests it might be. 

Writing in The Journal of Positive Psychology, Yuna L. Ferguson and Kennon M. Sheldon present the results of their recent experiments into ‘trying to become happier’.

In the first study, two sets of participants listened to ‘happy’ music. Those who actively tried to feel happier reported the highest level of positive mood afterwards. In the second study, participants listened to a range of ‘positive’ music over a two-week period; those who were instructed to focus on improving their happiness experienced a greater increase in happiness than those who were told just to focus on the music.

What seems to have made one group so much happier than the other in their respective studies was a combination of actively trying to become happier and using the right methods – in this case, listening to happy music.

Ferguson and Sheldon’s important findings challenge earlier studies suggesting that actually trying to become happier was, in fact, counterproductive. “[Our] results suggest that without trying, individuals may not experience higher positive changes in their well-being,” they write. “Thus, practitioners and individuals interested in happiness interventions might consider the motivational mindset as an important facet of improving well-being.”

And that’s definitely something worth thinking about. View the study abstract or download the full study here.

Brain saving Tocotrienol: Vitamin E supplement helps 'redirect' blood during stroke.

Strokes are a leading cause of death and long term disability in the US. With the failure of more than 1,000 experimental neuroprotective drugs, one scientist has stopped trying to discover the next new stroke treatment, and instead is trying to prevent strokes from happening in the first place. Dr Cameron Rink thinks he may have found the answer in a little known member of the vitamin E family, which appears to remodel the brain’s circulatory system and provide protection the instant a stroke strikes.

During a stroke part of the brain is not getting blood or oxygen and the cells are dying. There’s not much we can do for a patient at this point and that’s frustrating,” says Rink, a professor of surgery at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.

The blood vessel "redirect" is the result of 10 weeks' worth of supplementation with a little-known type of vitamin E called tocotrienol. Tocotrienol appears to stimulate arteriogenesis -- or the remodeling of existing blood vessels that can instantaneously expand in response to a demand for oxygen-rich blood. This collateral blood supply can make a major difference in stroke outcomes.

Tocotrienol, found naturally in palm oil, is a vitamin E variant and currently available in stores as an oral nutritional supplement. Because it doesn't appear to interfere with other stroke therapies like blood thinners, or have any other side effects, Rink thinks that the vitamin could someday become a common stroke prevention strategy, much like low-dose aspirin is currently recommended for cardiac patients.

How does your state plan to expand (or ignore) renewable energy?

Big oil interests are trying to stop the expansion of renewable energy. Does your state have a goal to expand the use of solar and wind energy?

Happy Earth Day!

Inflammation Resolution the Key to Preventing or Reversing Alzheimer's disease Suggests Compelling New Study

Supplementation with omega-3 fatty acids could help to prevent and even reverse the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. 

The connection is resolving inflammation. The beneficial fats may come to the affected person’s rescue by stimulating newly identified ‘resolution pathways’ in the brain, according to research outlining an ‘entirely new’ approach to the condition.

The new study, published in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia, demonstrates a new approach to dementia and Alzheimer’s disease – suggesting that omega-3 fatty acid derivatives stimulate the uptake of amyloid-beta proteins. The proteins are the alleged culprits in the deteriorating health of brains affected by this dreadful disease. They apparently kill brain cells and form Alzheimer's disease hallmark plaques.

Led by Professor Marianne Schultzberg from the Karolinska Institute, Sweden, the team behind the research revealed that normal inflammatory processes should ultimately lead to tissue repair in a process known as restoration. However, with Alzheimer's disease this normal process is interrupted – meaning that rather than repair and restore tissue, debris from dead cells and other microorganisms fails to be cleared away, and instead accumulates in the brain, wreaking havoc.

"Our hypothesis is that stimulation of resolution of inflammation in Alzheimer's disease may result in reduced neuronal death in the brain, and in turn have a beneficial effect in disease progression and cognition,” explained Schultzberg.

“This is an entirely new approach and provides the opportunity to develop new treatment principles for Alzheimer's disease," she said.

The Swedish team found protective compounds formed in the brain from omega-3 fatty acids help to induce the resolution process and stimulate the uptake or clearing away of amyloid-beta proteins that have been linked to the progression of Alzheimer's disease through the development of plaques.

The team will now try to prove the hypothesis by using animal models to see if omega-3 fatty acids can prevent memory loss and further loss of brain cells.

In the study, Dr Schultberg and her group examined cerebrospinal fluid from 15 patients with Alzheimer's disease, 20 patients with mild cognitive impairment and 21 control subjects. They also analyzed brain tissue from 10 Alzheimer's patients and 10 control subjects.

Schultzberg and her team looked for the presence, and comparative levels of several inflammatory molecules and receptors involved in the resolution pathway – including specialised pro-resolving mediators (SPMs), receptors, biosynthetic enzyme, and downstream effectors - in postmortem hippocampal tissue from AD patients and non-AD subjects.

SPMs were also measured in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF).

The team found that SPMs and SPM receptors were detected in the human brain – indicating the resolution pathway does exist in the brain. They also found that levels of the SPM lipoxin A₄ (LXA₄) were reduced in AD patients, both in the CSF and hippocampus.

In addition, an enzyme involved in LXA₄ synthesis and two SPM receptors were elevated in AD brains, said the team, while LXA₄ and RvD1 levels in CSF correlated with Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores.

As a result, the team concluded that the resolution pathway exists in the brain, adding that the alterations identified in the study “strongly suggest” a dysfunction of this pathway in Alzheimer’s disease.

They added that treatment with SPMs, or alternatively, by stimulating the resolution pathway – such as might occur with omega-3 fatty acid supplementation – “is suggested as a new and promising therapy in neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease.”

Source