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About a year ago, I started thinking I needed to do something about my neck. After all I am over 55 years of age and getting closer to sixty every year. I wasn't excited about having any surgery no matter how minor since I had had surgeries in the past that didn't work out the way they were supposed to. Hesitate to submit to liposuction I asked around about any other treatment that might help my sagging neck and, need I say it, double chin. No sooner had I put out this thought then Carol Cifelli, Director of Nursing at LipoNOW came into my office and asked about coming on my radio show to talk about this new and exciting technique of ridding the body of that unwanted fat that no matter how much exercise you do or how many diets you go on it still stubbornly remains on your frame. This was May of 2006. I was intrigued about the procedure LipoNOW was offering their clients and Carol suggested I come in for a free consultation. Naturally I did my homework and looked the company up on the internet at LipoNOW.com. There were some convincing photographs depicting the results with her patients, so I decided to take the plunge.

I was decidedly nervous before my first treatment because I don't like needles but Carol put me at ease with her wonderful explanations of what I was about to experience. And although I was still tense the treatment went smoothly. I initially experienced some minor burning sensation at the injection site but within a short period of time, 10 minutes, that was over. The treated area swells somewhat and that is a good sign and it stays swollen for several days at which time the swelling disappears and people who see you ask, "What are you doing? Have you lost weight? You are looking younger. Have you done something with your hair?" At least that was my experience. The treatments continue to work depending on your own body for up to eight weeks and you continue to show signs of improvement, in other words, loss of inches. And this treatment is good for many areas of the body, tummy, saddle bags, inner thighs, love handles, all the areas that are resistant to exercise and diet.

I opted to have two treatments and without a doubt I look 15 to 20 years younger than when I first underwent the treatment. The other pleasant part is the cost. Compared to liposuction or, in my case, a potential face lift, the pricing is much less for the Injection Lipolysis and because it doesn't involve surgery you are not putting yourself at an additional risk. LipoNOW treats patients as far away as Michigan to the East and California to the West. They offer a free in house consultation to determine if you are a good candidate for the treatment and the highly trained staff can discuss your treatment options with you on the telephone. For more details give them a call at 480.947.1200 or visit their website at LipoNOW.com. What have you got to lose except some unwanted fat?]]> General http://docwatsonshealthstuff.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=46 Mon, 10 Mar 2008 14:14:35 -0700 http://docwatsonshealthstuff.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=45
That is a pretty strong statement! But, I happen to agree with him. Before I became interested in natural medicine I believed everything my doctors told me. If they said I needed an operation, I had it. If I needed to take a medication, I took it. If they thought I needed to have a diagnostic test that shot a radioactive isotope into my vein, I let them. I was “in the medical model”. I believed in medicine, “better living through chemistry” an old DuPont advertising slogan from 1935 to 1982 when they changed it to “The miracles of science”. I believed it all. In 1982 I still believed in doctors and medicine but was having doubts about what they were doing to me. By the time I was 44 years old I had had 6 breast biopsies, a hysterectomy, jaw surgery, a broken foot, a bout of pneumonia, and suffered from Fibrositis, a disease which was eventually named Fibromyalgia.

I became convinced that doctors were slowly poisoning me with the medications they were prescribing and unless I did something drastic I was not going to live to old age. From the time I was 35 I had been reading about natural remedies. Friends, who cared about me, encouraged me to change my diet, start eating organic, stop smoking, reduce my stress, detoxify, and exercise. You know how it is! I was doing just about everything wrong, or at least not healthy. One of the first things I looked into was mammography and decided it wasn’t doing me any good and probably a great deal of harm. Two of the last breast tumors I detected from self breast exams weren’t pickedup by mammography, only sonograms identified the mass in my breast. After the second time a mammogram didn’t pick up the tumor I decided no more mammograms for me. I know at the time it was going against “conventional medical wisdom” but now information has surfaced that ten times more women are harmed from mammograms than are helped.

A new study came to an alarming result. Researchers at the Nordic Cochrane Center in Denmark studied seven breast cancer screening programs on 500,000 women in United States, Canada, Scotland and Sweden to determine the results over a ten year period. They found that for every one woman helped by breast screening, ten were harmed through false diagnosis or unnecessary treatments that devastated their health.

It isn’t early detection as a prevention that we need but real honest “authentic” prevention. We know what causes cancer and what prevents it. So in the spirit of the New Year, let’s make this year the best year and help ourselves prevent an almost total preventable disease.

Things that cause cancer: (in no particular order)
1. Cosmetics and personal care products (see website, www.ewg.org)
2. Perfumes and fragrance products
3. Home cleaning products, these include laundry detergent, dryer sheets, etc
4. Smoking cigarettes
5. Dry cleaning chemicals
6. Hydrogenated oils and trans fatty acids
7. Plastic food containers – includes plastic lining inside food cans.
8. Sodium nitrite – found in most processed meats.
9. Acrylamides – formed during high-heat food processing such as frying.
10. Mammography radiation
11. Chemotherapy and radiation
12. Pesticides, PCBs, chlorine and other chemicals
13. Refined sugars/refined grains
14. Severe emotional distress or relationship stress
15. Drinking non-organic milk or eating non-organic dairy products
16. Nail polish remover
17. Hair color chemicals
18. Lack of exercise/couch potato


Things that Prevent Cancer:
1. Vitamin D and sunshine
2. Anti-cancer foods
3. Medicinal mushrooms, reishi, shiitake, agaricus blazei, etc
4. Green tea
5. Broccoli and cruciferous vegetables
6. Lycopene and tomatoes
7. Infra-red sauna and sweat lodges – sweating expels toxins
8. Chlorella
9. Pomegranate seeds
10. Omega-3 oils / chia seeds
11. Rainforest herbs, graviola and Cat’s Claw
12. Juice detoxification, Dr Gabriel Cousens
13. Acupuncture – helps move the blood and qi
14. Sprouts
15. Red clover
16. Deep breathing / oxygenation / stress reduction
17. Yoga, Tai Chi or Pilates – boost lymph circulation
18. Cacao (real chocolate)
19. Therapeutic massage
20. Mint
21. Apricot pits
22. Blackberries

Let’s make 2008 our banner year and do more things for ourselves that truly prevent cancer instead of waking up one day and learning we have it and now what! Start on a program today to achieve optimal health instead of chasing symptoms. This is a reminder to all of you to take the road less traveled, that can make all the difference. Take the healthier path and let the journey begin.

Deborah Doc Watson is an author, entrepreneur, and health talk radio show host with 20 years experience in the natural field. She can be heard weekdays from 9am to noon EST on www.healthytalkradio.com with America’s Wellness Doctor, Dr Julian Whitaker, MD and on Sundays from 4pm to 7pm EST. You can write to her at docwatson@docwatson.com.

]]> General http://docwatsonshealthstuff.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=45 Sat, 16 Feb 2008 19:08:03 -0700 http://docwatsonshealthstuff.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=43 Symptoms of candidiasis
* Chronic fatigue, especially after eating
* Depression
* Gastrointestinal problems like bloating, gas, intestinal cramps, chronic diarrhea, constipation or heartburn.
* Rectal itching
* Allergies (including both food and airborne)
* Severe premenstrual syndrome
* Impotence
* Memory loss, severe mood swings, and feeling mentally "disturbed"
* Recurrent fungal infections like althlete's foot, nail fungus, ringworm
* Extreme sensitivity to chemicals, perfumes, smoke or other odors.
* Recurrent vaginal or urinary infections
* Prostatitis
* Feelilng of being lightheaded or drunk after minimal wine, beer or certain foods.
These symptoms can worsen in damp climates and after eating or drinking yeast or foods containing sugar.

What to do if you are experiencing any or all of these symptoms?

1. Support your immune system. Take a combination product that incorporates several nutritional supplements that support your immune system. Source Naturals Wellness Formula or Priority One Bio Vegetarian are two of the best on the market that contain everything you need to help your immune system.

2. Take grapefruit seed extract or caprylic acid to kill the candida. Do an internal cleanse! Make sure your bowels are working well. When the candida starts dying off, if your bowels aren't working well you will feel worse than you need to feel so doing an internal cleanse is important. Genesis Today has an excellent one and it is economical, 4 Total Cleanse.

3. Take a probiotic supplement. Lactobacillius acidophilus and bifidobacterium are two strains of probiotics that are critical for proper bowel function. When we take to many antibiotics, eat too much sugar or otherwise compromise our intestinal tract we lose precious probiotics that feed on micro-organisms that would otherwise be problematic to us, they provide us with vitamins and enzymes that help to keep us healthy. Without these friendly bacteria we could experience gas, bloating, distention, diarrhea or constipation.

4. Make sure you are getting adequate amounts of food in the three categories available to you, proteins, vegetables and fat. Eliminate sugar in all its forms from your diet, including fruit. The fruit you can put back in your diet in 10 to 14 days if you are feeling better. For a complete list of the best foods to choose from email me at info@docwatson.com and I will send you a copy of the food list. Once you start feeling better you can add back the foods you were avoiding starting with some berries.

You should know that often times we eat foods we are very sensitive to and we eat them often. When we eat foods we are sensitive to we compromise our intestinal tract and our immune system. As you start adding the foods back you will discover that some of the foods you ate before are now bothering you. The chances are very good that you are sensitive to those foods and you should avoid them in future.

]]> NGFY http://docwatsonshealthstuff.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=43 Sat, 23 Sep 2006 15:19:33 -0700 http://docwatsonshealthstuff.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=42
You've got to find what you love,' Jobs says

This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005.

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much. ]]> General http://docwatsonshealthstuff.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=42 Thu, 17 Aug 2006 14:36:22 -0700 http://docwatsonshealthstuff.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=41
8oz of Fluid (4oz fruit juice, 4oz chilled water)
1 Serv Protein Powder
1 Serv Essential Blend
1 Tbsp Essential Fatty Acids (Flax Oil)
Handful of Frozen Fruit (optional)

My favorite juices are tangerine and pineapple juice. Best tasting proteins are Source Naturals Whey to Health or Peaceful Planet Rice Protein. Number one Essential Fatty Acid combination is Udo's Choice Oil Blend in liquid form. The best blend of green superfoods and herbs is Circle of Life Essential Blend. Essential Blend combination can give you much needed nutrients you are not getting in your daily diet, especially if you are not eating 5 to 8 servings of vegetables per day, which most of us are not.

Blend up all the ingredients listed until smooth and enjoy something refreshing and tasty. Just the ticket for these hot days of summer. Great for an after workout pick-me-up, too. If you like ice cream, but don't eat it much, think about adding some plain yogurt to the recipe and whip it up until frothy then fold the contents into a container and place in the freezer for several hours. The results are delicious. Try orange juice and peaches with small pieces of peach added after the blending just before freezing. Be prepared for ambrosia.]]> NGFY Recipes http://docwatsonshealthstuff.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=41 Thu, 17 Aug 2006 01:27:25 -0700 http://docwatsonshealthstuff.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=40 Life Extension Foundation and scroll down to the lead story Condemned to Death by Medicine. The other great article in this month's Life Extension Magazine is Health Freedom Under Attack. It pays to stay informed about natural remedies and how they can help you lead a healthier lifestyle.]]> Published http://docwatsonshealthstuff.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=40 Wed, 16 Aug 2006 01:19:14 -0700 http://docwatsonshealthstuff.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=37 General http://docwatsonshealthstuff.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=37 Mon, 14 Aug 2006 00:07:15 -0700 http://docwatsonshealthstuff.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=36
So who is most susceptible to stress? The degree of stress in our lives is dependent upon a number of individual factors such as our physical wellness, the number of traumatic events or changes that have recently taken place in our lives, the quality of our interpersonal relationships, the degree to which others are dependent upon us or their expectations of us, and the amount of support we receive from others. We can make some generalizations such as, persons with adequate social support networks report less stress and overall improved mental health in comparison to those without these social contacts. Individuals with poor nutrition, inadequate sleep, or illness also have a reduced ability to handle pressure and stresses of everyday life and may report higher stress levels. Often times, the transitional periods of our life cycle, children to teens, adults to seniors can have stressors peculiar to that group.

Symptoms of poorly managed stress can manifest themselves in a number of ways. Many individuals report that stress induces headaches, sleep disturbances, feelings of anxiety or tension. Anger, depression or lack of concentration can also be indicative of stress related problems. Lack of interest in food or increased appetite can both be signals of increased intolerance to stress. In severe cases individuals can experience overwhelming stress and then “burnout” results with a loss of interest in normal activities. All of this can have a negative impact on our immune system so we are more likely to experience frequent colds or other infections. Overall, chronic stress can lead to decreased quality of life; mentally, physically, and spiritually

So what is a person to do? The first thing we need to recognize is that stress is hazardous to our health. Most people are unaware that serious chronic stress can lead to serious illness and that stress, although not considered a disease process, is worthy of consideration. A 2001 study reported that treatments that reduce psychological distress after a heart attack appeared to improve long-term outlooks. Some evidence exists that stress management programs may reduce the risk of heart events (ex: heart attack) by up to 75% in people with heart disease.

• Here are some recommendations to help reduce stress. As in all areas of stress management, making a plan and executing it successfully develops feelings of mastery and control, which are very beneficial in and of themselves.
• Eat a Healthy Diet. A healthy lifestyle is an essential companion to any stress-reduction program. A diet rich in a variety of whole grains, vegetables, and fruits, and by avoiding excessive alcohol, caffeine, and tobacco.
• Exercise. Exercise in combination with stress management techniques is extremely important for many reasons. Exercise is an effective distraction from stressful events. And most importantly, stress itself poses significantly less danger to overall health in the physically active individual. The heart and circulation are able to work harder for longer stretches of time, and the muscles, ligaments, bones, and joints become stronger and more flexible
• Identifying Sources of Stress. It is useful to start the process of stress reduction with a diary that keeps an informal inventory of daily events and activities. A few words accompanying a time and date will usually be enough to serve as reminders of significant events or activities.
• Restructuring Priorities: Adding Stress Reducing Activities. Eliminating stress is rarely practical or feasible, but there are many ways to reduce its impact. One study indicated, in fact, that adding daily pleasant events has more positive effects on the immune system than reducing stressful or negative ones. In most cases, small daily decisions for improvement accumulate and reconstruct a stressed existence into a pleasant and productive one.
• Discuss Feelings. Feelings of anger or frustration that are not expressed in an acceptable way may lead to hostility, a sense of helplessness, and depression.
• Keep Perspective and Look for the Positive. Reversing negative ideas and learning to focus on positive outcomes helps reduce tension and achieve goals.
• Use Humor. Research has shown that humor is a very effective mechanism for coping with acute stress. Laughter not only releases the tension of pent-up feelings and helps keep perspective, but it appears to have actual physical effects that reduce stress hormone levels.
• Use Natural Remedies to Nourish the Body’s Systems Nutritional supplements can be helpful additions to any program dealing with stress. You can gently soothe away tension with a preventive wellness approach. L-Theanine is an amazing amino acid that promotes non-drowsy relaxation by crossing the blood-brain barrier to increase levels of relaxation neurotransmitters, dopamine and GABA, in the brain. This increases alpha-brain wave activity associated with alert relaxation. L-Theanine also protects your body by supporting your immune system. It also helps lower cortisol levels in the body. Cortisol is a critical hormone secreted by the adrenal glands in the body in response to stress. Many experts now theorize that high cortisol levels from ongoing stress can contribute to imbalances in our body’s systems. Along with Theanine taking a good multi vitamin will help the body with general good health. And, Omega 3 Essential Fatty Acids can help the brain with cognition and development of proper cell membranes throughout the body.

For more information about this and other health issues and supplements that might be helpful, you can write to me at docwatson@docwatson.com or go to my website docwatson.com
]]> Published http://docwatsonshealthstuff.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=36 Wed, 09 Aug 2006 15:04:50 -0700 http://docwatsonshealthstuff.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=34
For years we have been told by experts to take various supplements to improve our health: calcium for bones, lutein for eyes, hawthorne berries for the heart. There are nutrients like gingko, SAMe and choline which have been said to be helpful for the brain. But, there is one stand out. One that is absolutely vital for the brain, and you probably have never heard of it before, it’s phosphatidylserine (PS, for short). What makes experts so sure that phosphatidylserine is what we need? The brain actually produces it. As we age the production of phosphatidylserine slows to sub optimal levels that keep us from functioning at full mental capacity. Phosphatidylserine (PS) is a phospholipid that is found in all cells of the body, but is most highly concentrated in the inner membrane of brain cells, making up to 70% of the nerve tissue mass. It assists in the storage, release and activity of many vital neurotransmitters and their receptors. Phosphatidylserine improves intracellular communication (inside the cell) as well as intercellular communication (cell-to-cell).

Phosphatidylserine has a great many tasks that it performs or assists in performing. Among its list of functions, phosphatidylserine stimulates the release of dopamine (a mood regulator that also controls physical sensations, and movement), increases the production of acetylcholine (necessary for learning and memory), enhances brain glucose metabolism (the fuel used for brain activity), reduces cortisol levels (a stress hormone), and boosts the activity of nerve growth factor (NGF), which oversees the health of cholinergic neurons.

Phosphatidylserine is one of the most researched nutrients in humans and that research has shown that supplementation with phosphatidylserine can slow and even reverse the decline of learning, mood, memory, concentration, word recall related to dementia or age related cognitive impairment in middle-aged and elderly individuals. Scientists are discovering that phosphatidylserine can help bring the bran back to a more youthful level of activity. Study after study has shown that the phosphatidylserine group improved attention, concentration and short-term memory over the placebo group. When it came to behavioral measurements the PS group showed improvement in socialization aspects, such as, daily living, being more engaged with one’s environment and self-sufficiency. More than 45 separate studies have been conducted on phosphatidylserine all with similar results – our brains become more youthful.

With regards to mood and stress, studies have also shown favorable results with phosphatidylserine supplementation. For example, studies in both men and women, old and young, have found that phosphatidylserine can alleviate depressive and stress-induced symptoms.

Phosphatidylserine has been recommended for young people dealing with ADD and ADHD for its ability to help with concentration and learning new things.

At one point is its history phosphatidylserine was derived from a bovine source but now it is from a vegetable source, soybean lecithin. The fact that there have been no reported toxicity issues or adverse effects with phosphatidylserine supplementation speaks to its high safety profile. The only contraindications with other drugs to date are blood thinners, such as Coumadin and heparin-phosphatidylserine may enhance their effects. This means if you are taking Coumadin and phosphatidylserine, your doctor may be able to lower the dose of Coumadin if your coagulation blood tests (Prothrombin and INR) indicate that phosphatidylserine is helping Coumadin work better.

Source Naturals Phosphatidylserine Complex is one of the best PS products on the market. The recommended dosage is 300 mgs per day of PS for a month. This is considered a loading dose. After a month or so you can lower the dose and take a maintenance dose of 1 or 2 Phosphatidylserine Complex per day. It doesn’t take long to experience an improvement in your overall mental performance. If you can’t find Source Naturals Phosphatidylserine Complex at your local health food store go to our website Doc Watson. Don’t delay, get started on a program today to achieve optimal health instead of chasing symptoms. Take the road less traveled, that can make all the difference.

At Doc Watson’s we believe that we should be reducing the body burden so as to maintain better health and to that end we only carry skin care products that contain no chemicals harmful to the body. For more information check out our website. You will be glad you did. We also have a radio show called Naturally Good for You radio show at KXAM.com and healthradionetwork.com on Saturdays. Take the first step to improve you health and “Let the journey begin”.

]]> Published http://docwatsonshealthstuff.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=34 Sat, 05 Aug 2006 11:53:49 -0700 http://docwatsonshealthstuff.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=33 NGFY http://docwatsonshealthstuff.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=33 Sat, 05 Aug 2006 11:02:49 -0700