Acupuncture and herbs may slow breast cancer metastases
A new study found that distal metastases for breast cancer tumors occurs through the action of a molecule called Transforming Growth Factor beta or TGFb. It turns out that when TGFb is expressed, single cells break off of the tumor and can metastasize through the blood stream. However, without TGFb, only chunks of cells can […]
Lifestyle changes better than medical treatment for infertility due to PCOS
In this study researchers looked at 4 groups of women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS): (1) treatment with clomid, (2) treatment with metformin, (3) clomid + metformin (4) lifestyle modification. The results were that the lifestyle modification group achieved the highest clinical pregnancy rates (20%). The next best was clomid + metformin (14.8%). Our patients […]
Too much exercise can cause infertility
This is yet another study demonstrating that the wrong kind of exercise can cause fertility problems. Researchers did a population based health survey in Norway examining close to 4,000 women and found that after adjusting for age, parity, smoking, and marital status, women who exercised on most days were over 3 times more likely to […]
Orgasm reduces mortality in men
While not a new study, I just came across it. It turns out that men who had 100 orgasms per year had significantly lower mortality (50% lower!). This was especially the case for coronary heart disease. There is a caveat here though. The study only looked at men aged 45-59. So this turns out to […]
Echinacea powerful against h1n1 swine flu
In a frantic race to find substances to combat the most recent H1N1 outbreak, scientists have been looking to botanicals. In this study they found that Echinacea pupurea not only inhibited H1N1 by preventing its ability to enter cells (in vitro), but inactivated the virus as well. In addition, Echinacea inhibited the highly pathogenic avian […]
Plastics make boys less violent
A very interesting study that examined the effects of phthalate exposure during pregnancy on behavioral characteristics of boys found that they were much less aggressive due to the anti-androgen effects of some phthalates (i.e., they block testosterone). We’ve been warning our patients for years to minimize the use of plastics, however now I’m rethinking that. […]
Essential oil kills drug resistant candida (yeast infections)
Drug resistance is a huge problem. As you can imagine, if you get a drug resistant strain of anything … as the name implies, it’s quite difficult to get rid of. If that happens to be a candida infection it can cause many problems from allergies to infertility. E. Coli infections can also be extremely […]
Another Chinese herb very effective against H1N1
Compounds from yet another Chinese herb (Ai Wei/F. Assafoetida) were found to be potent inhibitors of the H1N1 class of viruses. They were also shown to kill breast cancer and liver cancer cells as well. Chinese herbs have been used for millenia to help fight off a wide variety of epidemics. In fact, there are […]
Local and seasonal cooking workshop recipes
For those of you who missed our workshop today in our LA office, here are the recipes in PDF form. We wanted to highlight seasonal produce that we can find in our local farmers markets (which we should ALL be shopping at) put into side dishes to serve at our holiday table that are less […]
Viruses found to be a major cause of obesity
A number of studies have now shown that certain viruses (adenoviruses such as Ad-36 and SMAM-1) can cause obesity in humans. This is not new to Chinese Medicine and, in fact, they have herbs that can kill adenoviruses (e.g., Ocimum basilicum). Therefore, if you are overweight and trying everything to lose weight (unsuccessfully), then it […]