Sunday, April 19, 2009

Quercetin Combined with Green Tea and Curcumin

The articles I have already posted have been a challenge, because they open the door to such amazing possibilities for improving our health. But it is obvious to me that we are only looking at what I believe will become real in the future. So I have been taking a look at what is being done in research and I have found two research projects that I believe are important and a good way to close this exploration of quercetin.

A green tea component, epicatechin, has been combined with quercetin flavonoids to improve endothelial function; this is an important marker of cardiovascular health, in a new human trial.

The cells lining blood vessels are called endothelial. Normally endothelial cells lose their flexibility as we age. It was the object of one research study to learn if green tea component could improve the endothelial function in 12 healthy men. Each member of this group was given 200 mg quercetin, epicatechin, epigallocatechin gallate or a placebo. Nitric oxide was used to determine if the flavonoids were having a beneficial effect on the blood vessel endothelial cells. Nitric oxide was used because it causes the cells to become more flexible and will only work if the rigidity of the cells has been reduced, giving them the ability to expand. Without getting into the technical details of the study, the conclusion was that quercetin and epicatechin, can boost nitric oxide status and reduce endothelin-1 concentrations, improving endothelial function.

Quercetin and Curcumin Found Important for Colon Health

Research is indicating that when quercetin and curcumin, a turmeric-derived component, could possibly reduce precancerous polyps in people who have an inherited tendency to develop colon cancer.

The current study worked to evaluate the effect of the combination of curcumin and quercetin to retard adenomas in patients with FAP. The study had five FAP patients with prior colectomy; each received 480 mg of curcumin and 20 mg of quercetin. The study found the number of polyps were reduced from the start of the project by a mean of 60.4 percent and the size of the polyps were reduced by 50.9 percent. There were minimal negative side effects and no laboratory abnormalities were noted.

In conclusion, it was found that curcumin and quercetin acted to reduce the number and size of ileal and rectal adenomas in patients with FAP without any appreciable toxicity. The researchers are trying to develop and operate randomized controlled trials to validate their findings.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

My Goals for this Blog

Hi, my name is Dick Miller, and I am just a normal guy that is over 70 years old. I work a full time job and of course I am very concerned about my health. Yes, there are a number of things that frustrate me a great deal about standard, conventional medicine. In many ways it is very corrupt. Yet there are real doctors and others that are trying to clean up the mess and create systems that are so much more successful. In my opinion we have a number of problems that everyone seems to be afraid of. Ignorance on the part of the public at large is one of the major problems and there are those that take advantage of this ignorance to make very large amounts of money by herding the ignorant into health care programs that increase the sales of the drug companies, and treatment methodologies that are very expensive, do not cure the medical problems or they just kill the patients. If we could freely use all of the technologies out there, the average person would be amazed at how they could live a more robust life with out expensive drugs. Heart Disease, Cancer, and Diabetes are serious and very dangerous medical problems. Today these medical problems are multibillion dollar industries that have no intent to find a cure. But fantastic advances have been developed in the field of Alternative Medicine and they are not allowed to make the public aware of these advances.

Today, when I see people sitting in a doctor’s waiting room I get very up set. I doubt if any of those individuals have any real understanding of why they are sick. The majority just accept what ever the doctor tells them to do; buy a prescription, accept the prescribed surgery or what ever medical methodology that is prescribed. Most doctors will not take any time to explain in detail what the problem is, or what the causative factors are. Very few will explain how to control the causative factors; assuming that all that is solved when the prescription is followed.

I went through this type of routine when I had my heart attack. I lay in that parking lot for 2 hours before I had regained the strength to crawl over to my car. I pulled myself into the driver’s seat, by this time I was soaking wet from sweating and hurt like hell. I had to gasp to breath. I drove to a medical center down the street and went into the Emergency room and asked for help. A nurse checked me over and told me there was nothing wrong. I went out to my car and sat there until the pain in my chest and my back stopped and I could breathe without effort. Several months later my regular doctor ordered an electrocardiogram for me. She told me I had a heart attack and I told her what happened. She called a Cardiologist and made an appointment for me. In short, I went through a series of very dangerous and painful tests, which resulted in my diagnosis. The Cardiologist gave me a fist full of prescriptions and restrictions on my life style. He would not answer any of my questions. I went back to my regular doctor and explained what had happen. My doctor got very angry and called the Cardiologist’s office. From that point on my education started on heart disease. She put me on a number of supplements and herbs. I did not understand how the supplements like Coenzyme Q10, L-Carnitine, D-Ribose, or Magnesium did anything to help my heart, but I faithfully did as the doctor directed, and guess what, my pain disappeared, I did not get dizzy, I had more stamina and strength. I was not totally healed, but I was a hell of a lot better. I knew I had to know what exactly was wrong with my heart and why I had the problem. So I had a lot of questions. My doctor was a practitioner of Alternative medicine. She answered most of my questions and agreed that I needed to learn more. I asked a lot of questions and I will admit it was not easy. But I was fortunate and started getting more and more answers. One day I called a company that had a top quality D-Ribose supplement and I was asking a lot of pointed questions, because I was not a believer in what this supplement was supposed to do. Finally, the lady I was talking to told me about a book written by Stephen T. Sinatra, a practicing cardiologist in Connecticut. The Sinatra Solution, is a fantastic book. It is written for laymen, not doctors; it explained what was wrong with my heart, why I had the problems I had; very clearly explained why the supplements worked to solve my problems. Dr. Sinatra spends a lot of time explaining how each supplement works, what the good points are and bad points. The toughest chapter is where he actually explains the different conditions that can affect the heart. It took me a lot more time to understand what he was trying to get across to the reader. When I finished it I knew how to put a plan together to save my life. I say this because the only person that can be responsible for my life and good health is myself. This is one example of what I mean when I say we have to become informed and responsible before we can improve our health. Doctors can only assist us, but we have to know what they are attempting and why they are going in the direction they have chosen.

I would recommend that you check out two magazines. Life Extension magazine, at www.lifeextension.com; they will send you a copy of the magazine for free. It is a terrific publication. I subscribe to the magazine and I am also a member of the Life Extension Foundation. There are a lot of benefits that they have to offer.
Total Health Magazine is another terrific publication. Go to www.totalhealthmagazine.com

I would also like to recommend a book written by Suzanne Somers, BREAKTHROUGH, EIGHT STEPS TO WELLNESS.
I started reading this book in August. It completely stopped me. I had never given Suzanne Somers any real attention. Man was I wrong. She is an accomplished author and really knows the problems of medicine. In the book she interviews some very accomplished doctors and does not hide the shocking details she learns from the doctors. The first doctor she interviewed was one of my heroes, Dr. Jonathan Wright. This is a book that every one has to read before they can really put their health plans together.

I hope you found some of my thoughts valuable and useful. This is a new adventure for me and I am very excited about how I may be able to help people.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

QUERCETIN & CANCER SURVIVAL

QUERCETIN & CANCER SURVIVAL

No, I have never had cancer, but members of my family have gone through the hell of cancer. I saw nothing to impress me in the way western medicine cared for the family member. I did not see any thought of innovative care or interest in finding a way to fight the cancer. What I saw was a group of robots that treated every cancer patient the same way; patients and their families were no different. There was absolute acceptance of their doom. The fatalistic depression gave these so-called doctors total freedom to do anything they chose to do. All of their brilliant treatments centered on the same series of treatment; chemotherapy, surgery, or exposure to radiation. All of these procedures are extremely dangerous. They destroy the body’s immune system, and many patients do not die because of the cancer, they die because their body cannot survive an infection, which they would not have if their immune system was close to being healthy. My family member survived and is still alive and healthy, but still lives in fear of cancer.

Right after my family member’s surgery and before her release from the hospital, I found myself in a serious discussion with a doctor who told me about a German Biochemist, named Dr. Otto Warburg. He discovered the “cause of cancer back in 1923”. The doctor wrote a book titled, “The Metabolism of Tumors”, and in the book he demonstrated the primary cause of cancer as the replacement of oxygen in the respiratory chemistry of normal cells by the fermentation of sugar. The doctor’s finding was that the fermentation process can only be initiated in the relative absence of oxygen. Today there is no recognition of Dr. Warburg’s work by western medicine. But in alternative medicine there is a growing movement pushing such things as keeping the body in an alkaline state, rather than in an acidic state.

Quercetin is a major breakthrough. Research has demonstrated that it has a large number of qualities that protect a person from cancer, and at the same time will act to help cure a cancer patient. These qualities are becoming even more evident as researchers combine quercetin with other natural compounds to

Quercetin has demonstrated a number of qualities that have caused researchers to not to question its ability to prevent cancer. Quercetin has the ability to stifle cell proliferation, and improve programmed cell death; minimizing DNA damage. These qualities have created an interest as a cancer-preventive nutrient. There is also evidence from epidemiologic studies that strongly recommend quercetin and resveratrol correlate a reduced risk of certain cancers. Research studies have shown quercetin’s ability to prevent or slow tumor development including cancers of the brain, liver, colon, and other tissues.

Research and Clinical evidence of quercetin’s effective usefulness in preventing cancer as well as use in therapy is quickly building up. There was an early Phase I clinical trial of quercetin in patients with a variety of cancer types. Nine patients out of the total eleven patients in the study experienced a decrease in enzymes activity needed for tumor growth. There were also two patients suffering from advanced cancer that had not responded to chemotherapy. Both of the patients responded to the quercetin with important drops in chemical tumor markers during the period of the study.

The Cleveland Clinic oncologists recently examined the use of quercetin in patients with familial adenomatous polyposis (an inherited condition that produces hundreds of colonic polyps which become cancerous). Quercetin was combined with curcumin, curcumin is also known as anti-inflammatory and tumor blocking nutrient. They treated five patients with this combination and followed them for six months. At the end of six months all five patients had a reduction in both tumor size (60%) and the number of polyps (51%). There were minimal adverse effects and no evidence of laboratory abnormalities. Because the study results were so successful the researchers are trying to develop a larger controlled trial to explore the use of the supplements potential cancer prevention and fighting abilities.

I hope this information will give the reader reason to ask their doctor direct questions if they are facing a problem involving cancer. Today we know the drug companies do not have any drugs that prevent or cure cancer. We know that today there are natural compounds that will give effective help in preventing and caring for cancer. At the top of my list are quercetin, resveratrol, curcumin, and vitamin D3.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Quercetin - Improves Heart Health

When I decided to write my blog I had one fundamental reason, and it was a very personally selfish reason. I wanted to learn how to stay healthy. I was really tired of being sick. I have had a heart attack and laid on that blacktop in a parking lot for a very long time before I was able to do anything but cough and force myself to breath. When I finally crawled to my car and pulled myself inside I could not believe how much my back and chest hurt. It felt like I had been shot several times. About five or six weeks later my doctor agreed to see me and told me I had a bad heart. I lost my temper and decided I had to find a way to take care of myself. It has now been several years since the attack, and in my last physical I was told my heart is really strong & healthy. I accomplished this by refusing to take any drugs. It has been a constant search for alternative methods that have given me the good health I have today. I hope you can see why quercetin is so important to me. This is a quick examination of how it helps the heart and eliminates the use of drugs, whose side effects are many times more dangerous than if you take no medication. It is also a lot more affordable.

Heart disease is a major killer in America. Research has found that quercetin and resveratrol can have a direct link to the solving of this horrible problem. Researchers have found that if an individual increases the dietary intake of quercetin-rich foods he should experience a reduction in the risk of heart disease being the cause of death. Spanish researchers found in 2000, red wine carrying quercetin and related antioxidants, restricted activity of inflammation-promoting NF-kappa in human volunteers, furnishing a large part of the explanation of how red wine lowers heart disease mortality.

British researchers demonstrated in 2004, that when human’s ingested quercetin supplements there was substantial lessening of platelet aggregation, indicating another of quercetin’s cardiovascular health benefits is related to lowering the risk of clotting. Later, this same group of researchers demonstrated that dietary intake of quercetin from onion soup also helped stop platelet aggregation. In another study of 30 men with heart disease, Greek cardiologists demonstrated that a red grape polyphenol extract rich in quercetin produced an increasing flow-mediated dilation of the major arteries, this was a potent indicator of improved endothelial health.

What happens if a person uses quercetin supplements alone and how would they affect their blood pressure? The University of Utah created a study in 2007 to answer this question. Nineteen students in the study had pre-hypertension and then there were twenty two more students with stage 1 hypertension. Each student was supplemented with either a placebo or 730 mg quercetin per day for a total of 28 days. Pre-hypertensive patients were not affected by the supplements. However, the hypertensive group experienced a reduction in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure; averaging 7mmHg and 5mmHg reductions, these changes were meaningful changes that lowered the vascular disease risk.

A second study, in 2008, a randomized, placebo-controlled cross over trial in 12 healthy men showed biochemical evidence of improved endothelial function with as little as 200 mg/day quercetin.

When you put these studies together, the study results point to how quercetin can carry out an important role in protecting cardiovascular health.

I just found another point I would like to make you aware of. I found this information when I checked with Vitamin Research Products and found this information prepared by their Staff.

In short they have found research that shows quercetin is involved in regulating a gene that protects against LDL cholesterol oxidation. Paraoxonase 1 (PON1) protects low – density lipoprotein (LD) cholesterol from the oxidation process. PON 1 is a major anti-atherosclerotic protein component of the “good” cholesterol, high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol.

In one study the researchers investigated the role quercetin played in regulating PON1 expression in rats. In short, the researchers found that quercetin increased the rats receiving quercetin had an increased expression of PON1 by 35%, and serum PON1 increase of 29 percent.
The study authors concluded, “Our data suggest that quercetin has antiatherogenic effect by up regulating PON1 gene expression and its protective capacity against LDL oxidation”

Let me add one other thought. Quercetin is an anti-inflammatory supplement. Inflammation has a direct affect on the total coronary and will kill you if it is not controlled. But the inflammation does not limit it self to just the coronary system. If you have sore joints it is because of inflammation. So quercetin has a very broad impact on the body.

Yes this is another reason why I am using quercetin. I have a sore back and really bad knee. So I had a lot of inflammation and the quercetin has really helped cut the pain.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Quercetin : Anti-Infection & Anti-Obesity

I found Quercetin to be an amazing compound when I explored its capabilities as an anti-inflammatory and anti-allergic compound. This became very important to me because of its function to control infection and obesity. I am over seventy years old and I have fought the battle trying to get my hormones, especially testosterone, up to a healthy level. I have built up a good quantity of belly fat, and I have tried a lot of products that were supposed to help me lose weight, but the fat accumulated in the stomach area, is really hard to get rid of. I have put together a brand new health program for myself. The program will combine a number of different elements, but basically it will use a body building program with a gym called NIFTY after FIFTY; which I think is a terrific program for seniors. Quercetin will fit into this program because of the many things it does to help the body grow and stay healthy. I think the one element of Quercetin that is important for me is its ability to control infection. Nifty after Fifty is a very clean facility, but there is constant turnover of people as they come and go from their workout sessions. So there is always a chance of being exposed to a viral contaminate that Quercetin will give me protection.

Garlic has almost 200 compounds. Garlic has been used for centuries to treat and prevent infectious diseases and viral complication. Quercetin is one of the 200 compounds in garlic. Modern science has verified quercetin benefits in preventing viral diseases. Laboratory research on quercetin has acted to reduce reproduction and infection of many viruses, including respiratory syncytial virus (a common causative agent of children’s upper respiratory infection).

Last year Italian researchers discovered that an extract rich in quercetin has an ability to protect cells infected with herpes viruses. Then an animal study conducted last year showed that when the test animals were supplemented with quercetin, it aided the mice so they were not infected with the influenza after exercise-induced stress. This finding will be used to support future research. Already there are studies using combinations of quercetin and curcumin; another is, of course, quercetin & resveratrol.

Obesity is rapidly becoming one of Earth’s major global health problems. Quercetin has captured the interest of obesity research as they are exploring quercetin’s potential as a method to control fat accumulation. In the past fat was considered inert. Now, it is known and accepted that fat is a beehive of endocrine and metabolic activity producing hormones, inflammatory cytokines and other molecules which influence health both good and bad.

Exciting research shows that this flavonoid can by itself or in combination with resveratrol and genistein have the ability to exert multiple effects directly on fat tissue. Fat accumulation in aging human fat cells is restricted in culture; this will stop the aging of new fat cells and simultaneously begins apoptosis (the programmed destruction of existing fat cells). Quercetin acts to block the intake of glucose from the blood, this prevents fat cells from getting fresh raw materials required to produce and collect fat molecules. A University of Georgia research group published an important report in 2008, in which they reported they could stop fat cell production and increase fat cell death by using either resveratrol or quercetin. When they combined quercetin and resveratrol the lipid accumulation was sharply reduced in cultured fat cells by nearly 70%, and increased fat cell apoptosis by an amazing 310%.

Animal studies have produced evidence to support the potential anti-obesity qualities of quercetin. It is no surprise that quercetin alone or in combination with nutraceuticals is gaining so much attention from researchers hunting for an effective technology to block obesity and its many harmful effects on human health and vigor.

I will be using quercetin and possible combinations of quercetin and other nutraceuticals, as information is published on what is being developed. What excites me is that both quercetin and resveratrol have so much to offer in improving human health, and at the same time they have no dangerous side effects to be afraid of. Oh yes, there is another very important advantage to using these supplements, they are very affordable. I will keep my progress updated in the blog.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

QUERCETIN - AMAZING COMPOUND

I am a lover of good red wine and in the last week or so I got into one of those deep discussions with my wife and several other people regarding wine and of course, this only led to a number of questions I could not answer. This has motivated me to investigate this amazing Enhanced Antioxidant that protects the heart against heart disease, cancer, allergies, obesity and offers elements to increase our longevity.

I am sure almost everyone has heard how the French people are able to eat such rich food and enjoy the benefits of red wine. Scientific revelations have shown red wine has a number of valuable polyphenols, such as resveratrol and quercetin.

Quercetin has long been known for its anti-inflammatory and anti-allergic qualities, and both of these qualities have been supported recently by scientific breakthroughs. These breakthroughs have also brought attention to quercetin’s ability to promote life extension by imitating caloric restriction. It demonstrates the many-sided protective benefits against cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome and even cancer. Quercetin can be found in red wine and other dietary sources, such as apples, onions, grapefruit, tea, green vegetables and beans. A highly-purified supplement makes it possible to get strictly-controlled biological doses showing promise to prevent disease.

The heart of Quercetin’s amazing properties is its abilities to modulate the inflammation. It is understood inflammation is involved in all of the chronic human diseases and most of the acute infections. In 2007 Korean researchers demonstrated how quercetin restricted the production of inflammatory cytokines and blocked effects of a cellular mediator NF-kappa B, which has been long associated with cancer and chronic inflammatory conditions. Pharmaceutical agents will act to block COX enzymes used to manage painful conditions like arthritis, and LOX enzymes are used to manage asthma.

Research has successfully built a solid foundation for the importance of quercetin in treating human medical disorders. New research will use this foundation to further develop a better understanding of what quercetin can do for mankind. I am sure this will bring a brighter and healthier future for the world.

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