Michael van Straten's Healthy and Essential Fact Sheet with Classic ...

Michael van Straten’s
Healthy and Essential Fact Sheet
with Classic Gold Radio
Inflammation
Infection, irritation or injury can all cause pain, swelling, heat or local areas of
redness, all as a result of inflammation. It can be internal or external and present
in an astonishingly wide variety of health problems.
Toothache, joint pain, inflammatory bowel diseases like Crohns' disease,
diverticulitis, ulcerative colitis, irritable bowel syndrome. Period pains,
headaches, eczema, boils, almost any painful or uncomfortable symptom may be
caused by localised or general inflammation.
How you deal with individual conditions varies greatly and many of these
separate symptoms are dealt with in the Healthy and Essential website. As a
general guide inflammatory pain may be helped with cold compresses, icepacks
and anti-inflammatory herbs like Devil's Claw or ginger. Cloves are an effective
treatment for inflammation of the nerve root which causes toothache, whilst a
simple cup of mint tea can relieve the inflammation of acid indigestion.
PAIN PRESCRIPTIONS - IT'S TIME TO THINK NATURAL
Since the thalidomide tragedy the public have become more anxious about the
safety of prescribed drugs. Unfortunately the pharmaceutical industry and the
medical profession don't seem quite so concerned. In the last few months serious
questions have been raised about the safety of unlicensed antidepressants
prescribed for children, one of the most successful of the new medicines for the
treatment of arthritis has been withdrawn and now there are worries about
addiction to a widely prescribed antidepressant. So why aren't doctors using the
natural remedies which are both safe and effective?

All drugs that have a beneficial effect are also likely to have some form of side
effect and this is true whether they are prescribed medicines or
over- the-counter herbal remedies. The prime consideration must always be the
balance of risks and benefits and in almost every single case the risks of using
natural medicines is small and insignificant. No sane person would want to deny
the enormous contribution of the pharmaceutical industry to the treatment and
cure of many life threatening diseases and it's also true that natural doesn’t
necessarily mean safe - some of the most potent poisons are found in plants. But
a recent paper by Professor Munir Pirmohamed, Professor Thomas Walley,
Professor Alasdair Breckenridge and colleagues in the British Medical Journal
last July paints a frightening picture.
The researchers suggest that hospital admissions for the treatment of adverse
drug reactions costs the NHS £466 million per year and was the equivalent of
seven 800 bed hospitals filled with patients because of these drug reactions, at
any one time. They also estimate that around 10,000 people may die annually
because of prescribed drugs with low-dose aspirin and other non-steroidal antiinflammatory
drugs being the most common cause. Over 70% of these reactions
were either possibly or definitely avoidable.
Arthritis and rheumatism sufferers are the biggest users of non-steroidal antiinflammatory
drugs and these are prescribed and bought over-the-counter in
enormous quantities despite the fact that they are responsible for 12,000 hospital
admissions and around 3,000 deaths each year. When the new anti-inflammatory
drugs - Cox-2 inhibitors - were launched here in 1999, they were hailed as the
'super aspirin', more effective and with less side effects than either aspirin or
NSAIDs. In the same year I warned that there were serious concerns amongst
American heart experts that these new pills were causing problems. So, it should
not have been a surprise when Vioxx (rofecoxib) was withdrawn from the market

ecently. In June 2000 the American authorities were warned of the dangers and
in its first year on the English market it was responsible for
11 deaths and 1,000 reports of suspected adverse reactions. Three of the deaths
were caused by heart failure.
NATURAL WAYS TO HELP ARTHRITIS
There's now growing scientific evidence that many of the old wives'
treatments for arthritis and rheumatism are extremely effective, as good at
relieving pain and inflammation as the powerful drugs, but with no risk of
significant side effects.
Fish Oils - Nature's magic
The Vikings used them, Eskimos thrive on them and in the 18th century doctors
at Manchester Infirmary gave them to patients with rheumatism and arthritis. By
the 19th century doctors discovered that they could both prevent and treat the
crippling childhood disease of rickets. Now, Professor Bruce Caterson at Cardiff
University, has unravelled the mystery. "We were amazed to find that natural
components shut down the activity of damaging enzymes which destroy
protective cartilage and cause the inflammation which makes arthritis a
progressive disease", says the professor. His latest studies on damaged knee
cartilage also show that the Omega-3 fatty acids can even reverse the damage
done to inflamed cartilage, so make sure you eat plenty of oily fish if you've got
any form of arthritis or rheumatism, unless it's gout.
The richest source of the Omega essential fatty acids are extracted from the
flesh of oily fish and the most potent of these is MorEPA with more of the
valuable oils and less of the unnecessary fats than other fish oil supplements.
Order at www.healthyandessential.com or by phone on 08700 554 111.

When it comes to dealing with inflammatory problems associated with allergies
and women's hormonal problems, then Barleans Omega Twin combines flax
seed oil, the richest of all sources of alpha-linolenic acid with borage oil, the
richest source of gamma-linolenic acid. This provides the perfect balance of
Omega-3 and Omega-6 fats. Again order at www.healthyandessential.com or by
phone on 08700 554 111.
Comfort from the Kalahari
Devil's Claw is the traditional anti-inflammatory remedy used by the Bushmen
from the Kalahari Desert and it's been a favourite of herbalists and
complementary medicine practitioners for some years. Now scientists at the
University of Keele in Germany have shown that 8 out of 10 patients with
moderate or even severe back pain improved after taking the herb for 14 days.
Ginger up your joints
Ginger has been used in Chinese medicine for 5,000 years. It's a great treatment
for early morning sickness in pregnancy, travel sickness, and circulatory
problems, but some of the inedible Chinese gingers are powerful antiinflammatories.
Professor Roy Altman at the University of Miami has compared
ginger extracts with conventional NSAIDs in a large scale study of patients with
arthritic knees. Almost 70% of the patients had as much, if not more relief from
severe pain using ginger rather than conventional drugs. "Long term use of
NSAIDs can have serious side effects so I'm happy that using ginger as an
alternative treatment produced no untoward reactions."

Pineapple power
Since the early 1900s boxers have known that pineapple reduces pain, swelling
and bruising. Wherever it grows pineapple is used in the relief of pain and Dr.
Ann Walker at Reading University has done large scale double blind trials using
the pineapple enzyme bromelain. The results showed clinical proof that it
reduced swelling and pain, improved mobility and helped repair damaged
tissues, all without side effects.
Foods for Arthritis
Eat lots of oily fish for fatty acids; shellfish for zinc; apricots, peppers, kiwis,
citrus fruits for vitamins A and C; nuts, seeds and olive oil for vitamin B; chillis,
turmeric and ginger to reduce joint pain.
Consume less red meat, game, alcohol and coffee to reduce joint inflammation.
Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis may respond to a reduction of dairy products.
Arthritis Supplements:
MorEPA High Strength Fish Oil capsules
Zinaxin Ginger Capsules
Ortis Devil's Claw Gel
Minalka Danish mineral supplement for joint pain