What is this Plant?

What is this plant?
It is a mystery.
It is native to North Queensland.
It has been used by many people, at least one of whom I personally know, to get rid of a skin cancer.
It does not leave a scar, unlike surgery.
At least on the people I know.
But don't get any sap onto healthy skin or it will burn.
But I don't know its name.
That's why I am not making claims.

Wheat May Be Bad For Everyone

Source

Is wheat bad for everyone, not just those with coeliac disease or NCGS?

Possibly.

Conventional dietary advice instructs the world to increase consumption of "complex carbohydrates", or "whole grains", and then champions wholegrain bread and other wheat products as a solution to many health problems.

However, in the original 1981 study from The University of Toronto, that which began the concept of Glycaemic Index, paints a much more negative picture. This original study showed that the GI of sucrose (table sugar) was 59, while the GIs of white bread and wholegrain bread respectively were 69 and 72. A Mars Bar has a GI of 68, and a Snickers bar has a GI of 41, also beating bread. A dramatic rise in blood sugar levels will also trigger a dramatic rise in insulin, which encourages energy storage: first to glycogen (stored sugar) in the liver, then to fat if glycogen stores are plentiful. Excessive fat can also lead to chronic inflammation, as fat tissue produces pro-inflammatory cytokines known as adipokines, as well as tumour necrosis factor-alpha, and interleukins1, 1-RA, 6, 8 and 10. One adipokine, called adiponectin, can be anti-inflammatory in the blood vessels, but is pro-inflammatory in the skeletal joints and is associated with rheumatoid arthritis and degradation.

This inflammation contributes to the pancreatic injury described in the main source of this post. Even if consistently high blood sugar levels do not cause insulin resistance and then diabetes, you do not want them. It is the consistently high blood sugar levels in diabetic people that is the cause of retinopathy (eye damage), neuropathy (nerve damage) and nephropathy (kidney damage); in fact it is said that diabetes is a model for accelerated aging, with the "age-related diseases" often appearing years earlier than "expected" in non-diabetics! Unabsorbed blood sugar has a tendency towards getting tangled in cells and tissues and forming advanced glycation end products, or AGEs. These are useless, disrupt normal functions and have no currently known method of removal. Their only "function" is to cause even more oxidation and inflammation, adding to the already existent tissue damage, with the most visible result being wrinkling and sagging of the skin! (then you age and die, and I am expected to have babies to replace you. Ain't the "circle of life" wonderful(!?))

Fortunately, there are now known substances that can impair AGE formation, and a way to clear them may be discovered. AGE levels in the red blood cells do have the ability to decrease because these are recycled every 120 days; this is what gets measured in the HbA1c blood tests that are recommended for diabetics. Also fortunately, gluten-free and blood sugar-friendly recipes (such as those from the Palaeo diets) taste great and can encourage you to be creative in cooking.

Fermented Soy and Inflammation

Many of my friends are aware of the fact that I absolutely love Dr Ursula Jacob of Munich in Germany. Although she is known for being one of Farrah Fawcett's (better) doctors, she no longer works with localised chemo and now runs her own clinic specialising in prevention and regeneration, using natural medicines. This includes antiaging and autoimmune disease, so we basically have the same interests.

One of the things that caught my attention on her website was the article "Autoimmune Disease - New Therapy Approaches". Of course I want to use her ideas. Part of this article is a case study of a man on the edge of autoimmune disease, with prediabetes and a chronic high viral load. Besides prescribing coenzyme Q10 (which is great for energy) and mineral supplementation, as a specific treatment for inflammation and immune dysregulation he was also given.....fermented soybean extract. Soy has a very mixed reputation, as different soy products can be beneficial or harmful depending on whether it is fermented, chemically processed etc etc, so confusion often ensues and soy has been rarely mentioned in my nutritional medicine subjects. Despite some views on soy, this patient did not spontaneously combust. Instead, his levels of interleukin-6 and -8; tumour necrosis factor-alpha and C-reactive protein, which are markers of inflammation, all decreased to healthy levels. His count of natural killer cells, a type of immune cell, nearly doubled into the healthy range. Dr Jacob also wrote that there were no side effects and that his levels of anti-nuclear antibodies also fell.

Fermented soy, this time as miso soup, has also been the only thing to solve my dysmenorrhoea, when nothing else worked. Turmeric is partially effective, but only miso soup has fully eliminated my need for painkillers. So I declare that the potential benefits of fermented soy must be known to all, not hidden from those who may need it by the problems surrounding chemically processed soy.

Note: this is not a sponsored post, I wanted to work with Dr Jacob but couldn't, and she is just so nice!

So Who Am I?

Who am I, you ask?

I am a student  of naturopathy beginning her career, and eventually I want to go into the field of antiaging. In fact, I have been following the Life Extension Foundation since I was 15 :-) I tutor for students of natural health (both in person and Skype), proofread assignments and I want to go into editing and writing publications and presentations for other natural health practitioners.

I am also a semi-professional belly dancer, and last month I had the privilege of being taught by the wonderful Marta Korzun from Ukraine :-)

So this is my blogging debut.....


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