Female Fertility Diet..?

Extracted from CM News

Reuters - Women trying to get pregnant could boost their chances by adopting a “fertility diet” high in nuts and avocadoes while cutting down on coffee and alcohol, according to U.S researchers.Boston-based researchers found the majority of cases of infertility due to ovulation disorders in otherwise healthy women could be prevented through diet and lifestyle changes.
“The dietary and lifestyle choices women make as they try to get pregnant can impact profoundly their fertility,” Dr. Jorge E. Chavarro of Harvard School of Public Health, who worked on the study, told Reuters Health.
The fertility diet is characterized by higher consumption of monounsaturated fat, which is found in natural foods like nuts and avocadoes, and olive oil, rather than trans fats.
Women should also opt for vegetable protein rather than animal protein, low-glycemic carbohydrates like whole grains, moderate consumption of high-fat dairy, multivitamins, and iron from plants and supplements, Chavarro’s team reports.
Other changes women can make to their lifestyle promote fertility include cutting back on coffee and alcohol, increasing physically activity, and staying away from cigarettes.
The research was based on 8 years of Chavarro and colleagues tracking the diet and lifestyle patterns of 17,544 women as they tried to get pregnant or became pregnant. None of them had a history of infertility.
According to the team, greater adherence to the fertility diet pattern was associated with a lower risk of infertility due to ovulation disturbances and, to a lesser extent, of infertility due to other causes. Women with the highest fertility diet score, compared with those with the lowest, had a 66-per cent lower risk of infertility due to ovulation problems and a 27-per cent lower risk of infertility due to other causes, Chavarro and colleagues report in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology.
The combination of five or more low-risk lifestyle factors, including weight control, physical activity and diet, was associated with a 69-per cent lower risk of ovulation-related infertility.
The researchers also found, consistent with earlier reports, that increased body weight raises the risk of infertility due to ovulation disorders.
“Women trying to become pregnant could consider following these lifestyle practices because they are consistent with an overall healthy lifestyle and may also help them become pregnant,” the researchers said.

Posted
Chris Eddy

Gingers role in ovarian cancer

CM NEWS - Ginger inhibits growth and modulates secretion of angiogenic factors in ovarian cancer cells, according to a recent study published in the BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine.
Ginger (Zingiber officinale Rosc) is a natural dietary component with antioxidant and anticarcinogenic properties. The ginger component — gingerol has been shown to exert anti-inflammatory effects through mediation of NF-KB. NF-KB can be constitutively activated in epithelial ovarian cancer cells and may contribute towards increased transcription and translation of angiogenic factors.

From an article by

Susanna Ng

Via Chinese Medicine News (Google Reader)

Chinese Herbs facing extinction

Around 50% of drugs are made with the use of plant extracts, traditional chinese herbs making up some of these. With the discovery of the usefulness of folk and traditional medicines of different cultures, drug companies are finding demand out numbering supply in some cases. Anti-cancer drugs such as paclitaxel take extracts from the yew tree, however for one dose it takes around 6 trees, you can imagine the supply for this.
He Huan Pi has always been known to TCM practitioners as the happy bark herb, which is very useful to treat depression and emotional conditions. In recent discoveries it also has been shown to treat cancer, dementia and heart disease.
Here is a BBC extract from google reader:

MIRACLE CURES MOST AT RISK
Yew tree - Cancer drug paclitaxel is derived from the bark, but it takes six trees to create a single dose so growers are struggling to keep up
Hoodia - Plant has sparked interest for its ability to suppress appetite, but vast quantities have already been “ripped from the wild” as the search for the miracle weight drug continues
Magnolia - Has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for 5,000 years as it is believed to help fight cancer, dementia and heart disease. Half the world’s species threatened, mostly due to deforestation
Autumn crocus - Romans and Greeks used it as poison, but now one of the most effective treatments for gout. Under threat from horticulture trade

Over Eating Again!

It seems such a simple thing, but many of us do it all the time...it becomes a habit.... Eating too quickly and over eating.

If we want to improve our digestion, this is a really important fundamental that we often over look.

Take a patient that came into my clinic a few months ago, we'll call him John Fullbelly. Complaining of constant loose stools and diarrhoea after almost every meal.
"I've been to Chinese Medicine Dr's before and it helped for a little while, but then just came back again".
Oh challenge I thought, 'i can make a better formula than the other Dr and he'll be really impressed!' Ha ha, little did I know. I tried so many formulas: shen ling bai zhu san, wu ling san, li zhong wan...combinations of everything, plus abdominal moxa, acupuncture...nothing really worked. So then I re-assessed.
OK, so now we're going to try an elimination diet. Cut out all the possible foods that could cause a reaction. This seemed to have a great result for a week, but there were still times when the diarrhoea would come back. Right, so what happened at those times I asked John. "Well, nothing really it was still the bland diet, potato mash, sweet potato and rice with salt, with some lamb and cooking oil". Did you enjoy it? "Yeah, I loved it, I ate it so fast and got really full, this diet has been so boring".
So after more questioning and observation, the times when John is most in trouble with his bowels is when he has lots of oil, eats fast and overeats.

So for Johns treatment now:
Long dan xie gan tang tabs 3-4 before meals to help the liver and gallbladder to produce bile to break down fats.
Lemon juice for digestive enzymes and bile
1 table spoon of sauerkraut to re-introduce healthy bowel flora
Acidophillus powder/ tablespoon culture yogurt

Then:
Eat slowly and chew!! As Steven Clavey, one of my mentor's always mentions: 'your stomach doesn't have teeth', so do the work for it in your mouth. Also, chewing prepares your stomach to produce digestive enzymes.
And the golden rule of 75 - 80%: Don't eat anymore than 80% of your total capacity. In other words, stop just before you feel full. This is really important!

John has been doing much better. But we'll keep you posted on his progress.

For those of you interested, I also recommend reading 'Healing with whole foods' for a well rounded view of dietary therapy and digestive health.

Chris Eddy

Welcome!!

Welcome to everyday Chinese Medicine!!

This is a blog I have created to work like a traditional web-log. To record day to day thoughts, books read and little helpful tips relating to health and Chinese medicine.

I hope you enjoy these logs and find something helpful and interesting.

Thank you!

Dr Chris Eddy