Strawberries protect stomach from alcohol

In an experiment on rats, European researchers have proved that eating strawberries reduces the harm that alcohol can cause to the stomach mucous membrane. Published in the open access journal Plos One, the study may contribute to improving the treatment of stomach ulcers.
A team of Italian, Serbian and Spanish researchers has confirmed the protecting effect that strawberries have in a mammal stomach that has been damaged by alcohol. Scientists gave ethanol (ethyl alcohol) to laboratory rats and, according to the study published in the journal Plos One, have thus proved that the stomach mucous membrane of those that had previously eaten strawberry extract suffered less damage.
Sara Tulipani, researcher at the University of Barcelona (UB) and co-author of the study explains that “the positive effects of strawberries are not only linked to their antioxidant capacity and high content of phenolic compounds (anthocyans) but also to the fact that they activate the antioxidant defences and enzymes of the body.”
The conclusions of the study state that a diet rich in strawberries can have a beneficial effect when it comes to preventing gastric illnesses that are related to the generation of free radicals or other reactive oxygen species. This fruit could slow down the formation of stomach ulcers in humans.
Gastritis or inflammation of the stomach mucous membrane is related to alcohol consumption but can also be caused by viral infections or by nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medication (such as aspirin) or medication used to treat against the Helicobacter pylori bacteria.
Maurizio Battino, coordinator of the research group at the Marche Polytechnic University (UNIVPM, Italy) suggests that “in these cases, the consumption of strawberries during or after pathology could lessen stomach mucous membrane damage.”
The team found less ulcerations in the stomachs of those rats which had eaten strawberry extract (40 milligrams/day per kilo of weight) for 10 days before being given alcohol.
Battino emphasises that “this study was not conceived as a way of mitigating the effects of getting drunk but rather as a way of discovering molecules in the stomach membrane that protect against the damaging effects of differing agents.”
Treatments for ulcers and other gastric pathologies are currently in need of new protective medicines with antioxidant properties. The compounds found within strawberries could be the answer.

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Health/Daily Ginger Dose May Reduce Risk of Colorectal Cancer

A daily dose of ginger could reduce colon inflammation and ultimately help reduce the risk of colorectal cancer, a new study suggests.

Researchers found that study participants who took ginger supplements had a 28 percent decrease in one measure of colorectal inflammation, compared with those who took a placebo. Studies have shown that people with higher levels of rectal inflammation are more likely to develop lesions, which can develop into cancer.
The researchers noted that the study was small — it had only 30 participants — and more research is needed into ginger's effect on cancer risk.
Still, "the results look promising," said Patricia Thompson, a professor of cellular and molecular medicine at the University of Arizona Cancer Center, who was not involved in the study.
The second-deadliest cancer
Colorectal cancer, which can grow in both the colon and the rectum, kills more people annually in the U.S. than any other cancer except lung cancer. The National Cancer Institute estimated that 142,000 people in the U.S. were diagnosed with colon cancer in 2010, and 51,000 died from the disease.
Other research has examined ways to lower the risk of developing colorectal cancer. For example, regularly taking aspirin can reduce your colorectal cancer risk, but it can also lead to gastrointestinal bleeding. And some studies suggest certain foods, such as cherries and black raspberries, lower colorectal cancer risk, but none have tested ginger in people, Thompson said.
So far, the best way to prevent colorectal cancer is to get screened, she said.
In the new study, the researchers looked at how levels of a substance called PGE2 changed, along with other signs of inflammation in the colon, when people took daily doses of ginger extract.The researchers randomly assigned the 30 participants to take either two grams of ginger root supplements or a placebo once a day for 28 days.
PGE2 is a hormone-like molecule your body releases when an area of the body becomes inflamed.
The study participants were all healthy people, who had a "normal" risk of developing colorectal cancer, said study researcher Suzanna Zick, an assistant research professor at the University of Michigan Medical School.
When Zick and her team compared rectal biopsies of the participants they took at the beginning and end of the study, they found that PGE2 levels decreased an average of 28 percent in those taking ginger, but were nearly unchanged in those taking the placebo. Side effects for the two treatments were mild and included headache, fatigue and gastrointestinal problems, such as bloating, gas and nausea, the researchers said. [7 Side Effects of Cancer Treatment, and How to Cope With Them]
Many questions remain
Zick said that another, larger trial is needed to corroborate her study's findings and to answer the host of questions the study raised.
In particular, future research will need to figure out how ginger might reduce rectal PGE2 levels. If ginger acts to reduce inflammation the same way as a class of drugs called COX-2 inhibitors, then it may also share the drugs’ downside of increasing a person’s risk for cardiovascular disease, Zick said.
We also don't know how much ginger a person would need to take to possibly reduce their cancer risk, Thompson said. In the study, the researchers chose two grams of ginger extract, which equates to about 20 grams of raw ginger root, because past trials showed that this dose is the highest a healthy person can tolerate — more ginger would increase gastrointestinal problems.
Despite the unknowns, "the research is very exciting," said Thompson. “Given the effect seen in such a small study suggests that this effect is very big — more research will show just how big.”
The study was published Oct. 11 in the journal Cancer Prevention Research.
Pass it on: Eating ginger may reduce your risk of developing colorectal cancer, but don’t go stocking up on ginger root just yet — more research is still needed.

Photo by iStock| Story by MyHealthNewsDaily

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Super Broccoli to Fight Cancer

A "super broccoli" developed by British scientists to fight cancer and heart disease goes on sale Tuesday.

The vegetable contains high levels of a nutrient thought to protect against the life-threatening diseases.

The broccoli - called Beneforte - will be sold at the UK retailer Marks & Spencer starting Tuesday and will be on the shelves of other supermarkets next year.

Studies have shown men with broccoli-rich diets have a reduced risk of prostate and bowel cancer. Other research suggests it can also help prevent heart attacks and strokes.

Beneforte contains three times the amount of the beneficial plant chemical glucoraphanin than normal strains of broccoli.

It was created using conventional methods at the Institute of Food Research and John Innes Center in the UK. Work on the project began after a wild broccoli variety was discovered in 1983 with raised levels of glucoraphanin.

The nutrient is converted in the stomach into sulphoraphane, which scientists believe will stop the uncontrolled cell division associated with early-stage cancer.

"Our research gives insight into broccoli's role in promoting health," said Professor Richard Mithen of the IFR.

Science minister David Willetts said the research would give "a real boost to agriculture, personal health and the economy."

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The Relaxing Power of Kava

The vitamin and supplement market is full of remedies that claim to help with anxiety and stress. Medicine Hunter Chris Kilham visited the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx to share a potent and natural remedy, which relieves stress and enhances overall well-being.
The kava plant isn’t common to most people’s gardens, but Michael Balick, vice president for botanical science and philecology curator of the Institute of Economic Botany at the New York Botanical Garden, told FoxNews.com that people in the South Pacific have been using it for thousands of years as an anti-anxiety tonic.
“The roots are pounded, mixed with hibiscus, and made into a sort of slimy beverage that immediately reduces your anxiety, makes you want to talk to everybody in the room. It's an anxiolytic, similar to Valium, and so you lose your inhibitions; everybody's your friend, you're chatting away, and they use it to resolve conflict,” Balick said.
Kilham, who calls the plant one of his favorites, has also experienced the effects of kava.
“It's really an agent of kinship and community. You know people get together in the afternoon, they drink kava, they talk. It really seems to be an agent of community cohesion every bit as much as it's a medicinal plant,” Kilham said.
Balick explained how kava helps hold culture together in the South Pacific. While families in the U.S. may spend time with their children and spouses around the television in the evenings, on the island of Vonuatu, families sit around a stone, pound kava and drink it. It is a time for storytelling and to resolve problems.
Kilham said the effects of kava are immediate, and Balick warned that the plant should be used with caution.
“You wouldn't want to drive a car under the influence of kava, because everything would just seem funny and happy,” Balick said.

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The Power Herb: Ashwagandha

FoxNews.com | Of all the medicinal plants used in India’s 5,000 year old tradition of ayurveda, ashwagandha, Withania somnifera, is the most highly prized. Use of the root can be traced back as far as 3,000 years. Ashwagandha is classified as a rasayan, a rejuvenating or life extending agent. The rasayan are the most esteemed of ayurveda’s herbs, as they imbue the user with life itself. The root of the plant appears in remedies for cough, rheumatism, gynecological disorders, fatigue, emaciation, inflammation, ulcers, sore eyes, and diminished brain function.

Ashwagandha is also India’s most potent sex-enhancing plant. It is used equally by men and women, and is widely prescribed by physicians to adults with low libido, and to improve sexual function.
A small woody shrub, ashwagandha features elliptical green leaves, small uniform five-petaled flowers, and red seeds. The plant flowers year around. The root of the plant is the prize. A long taproot and a mass of smaller roots held clumps of soil. According to the American Herbal Pharmacopoeia, an acre of cultivated ashwagandha will yield about 500 pounds of root, which when dry reduces to around 150 pounds. It takes a year to bring the plant to maturity. Harvest is usually between January and March. The plant is forgiving too, and requires little attention and no irrigation, even in the parched climate of southern India. Ashwagandha is a strong and vigorous plant, thriving where other plants wither and die.

Researchers throughout India have discovered numerous compounds in ashwagandha. The plant also contains alkaloids such as ashwagandhine, withanine and somniferiene. What accounts for ashwagandha’s seemingly remarkable versatility as a beneficial healer? The plant is rich in potent alkaloids, among which are withamosine, visamine, cuscohygrine, anahygrine, tropine, pseudotropine, anaferine, isopelletierine, and withaferin A. The plant contains a large number of novel compounds known as withanolides, which are novel to the plant and are typically used to standardize the potency of extracts. Whether one or two of these compounds are responsible for the plant’s remarkable health-imbuing versatility, or whether ashwagandha’s value is due to an incredibly complex synergy of all its natural constituents, is a matter which may take a long time to solve by scientific means. According to a large body of research, components in ashwagandha possess tonic, anti-inflammatory, aphrodisiac, immune enhancing, anxiety-relieving and nerve sedative properties.
I would like to say that a plethora of human studies show that ashwagandha is a superior sex-enhancer. As yet there are no studies on this use of ashwagandha. But the root enjoys three thousand years of exactly such an application, by millions of satisfied people. The Indian Materia Medica recommends use of ashwagandha for general debility, impotence, general aphrodisiac purposes, brain fatigue, low sperm count, nervous exhaustion, and in any cases in which general vigor must be restored. For men and women, for the old and the young, ashwagandha builds strength from within. Often, this strength and vitality manifests as newfound or restored sexual vigor and function. One ayurvedic aphrodisiac formula combines one part ashwagandha to ten parts milk and one part ghee (clarified butter). You boil the mixture down until only ghee remains. This end product is called ashwagandha ghrita. You take about a heaping tablespoon of this mixture in the morning and in the evening, and according to ancient texts, you will experience a significant boost in libido and sexual stamina.
Ashwagandha has been studied as an adaptogen, that class of natural plant agents which enhance overall immunity and build non-specific resistance to various stresses. In one human clinical study, ashwagandha improved overall mental aptitude and reaction time.
In animal studies, ashwagandha demonstrates significant stress-fighting power. This is unquestionably the key to the plant’s sex-enhancing powers. Stress factors of all kinds compromise virtually every system of the body, producing stress chemicals which in turn diminish the function of organs and glands. In the domino effect of stress’s ravaging of the human system, fatigue, reduced immunity and sexual debility go hand in hand. The overwhelming stresses of life leave people feeling devitalized. But when you take ashwagandha, that equation begins to turn around. As an adaptogen, the root helps the body to normalize all aspects of healthy function in the face of stress.

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