At last there's a holistic health column about integrative medicine and natural remedies written by two Sacramento physicians in the Sacramento Bee's health section. See the February 9, 2012 column by Drs. Kay Judge and Maxine Barish-Wreden, "Integrative Medicine: Over-the-counter remedies to consider."
It's about time for a column on integrative health. Check out their other article, Menopause and Hot Flashes: Prescription and "natural" treatments. At last it's here, a column by doctors on complementary and integrative medicine in the Sacramento Bee for us holistic family health enthusiasts.
The two doctors are medical directors of Sutter Downtown Integrative Medicine program. Have a question related to alternative medicine? Email the doctors at adrenaline@sacbee.com. Check out the site, Complementary Medicine - Sutter Health.
Not many people realized that there's an Integrative Medicine program at Sutter Health. Check out today's column which lists over-the-counter remedies that are supplements made from various plant extracts. For once, you're not hearing only about prescription drugs for common problems most of us experience one time or another. And you can learn a lot about when to self-medicate and with what herbs, plant extracts, or minerals.
For example, the column also notes that those who have no insurance or who are underinsured have an alternative in looking up common medical issues online where individuals can locate over-the-counter remedies to try just to see whether any of them help the individual feel better before going to a physician.
Of course, if someone has symptoms requiring a physical exam, you need to see your doctor. But what if you're not insured and have vague problems that already have been diagnosed by your regular doctor, for example, mild menopausal symptoms, some anxiety, a little depression, PMS that's not way off the charts, or diabetes that you already have been treated for. Can any plant-based over-the-counter remedy help? And which are safe?
Check out the column. Some over-the counter remedies for common medical concerns noted include for depression and anxiety SAMEe, Kava Nakamal (See the Eclectic Institute), ashwaganda, holy basic (Ayurvedic herb), rhodiola (arctic root), lemon balm, lavender oil (external aromatherapy or external topical on the skin--just a drop on your temples). Note all of these remedies are plant-based. Check out the article for the dosages noted.
Some of the suggestions include Ayrvedic herbs. For PMS or menopause, other herbs are mentioned such as chaste tree (vitex), Siberian rhubarb (Estrovera), and a note says that if you have breast cancer, you may not want this herb (Siberan rhubarb). The suggestion also mentions vitamin E oil, coconut oil, and calendula oil for vaginal dryness (topical).
Interestingly, there are herbs and supplements for type 2 diabetes that may help reduce the blood sugar spikes such as cinnamon and chromium piccolinate. A new study mentioned shows that magnesium supplements (get the right dose for you) may dely or prevent the onset of type 2 diabetes. Recommendations to avoid diabetes include a plant-based diet and exercise daily as well as keeping your weight healthy for you.
Interestingly, a food product, vinegar is mentioned in the column to slow digestion in order to reduce blood sugar spikes after eating carbs. If you're eating bread, dip your bread or crackers in extra virgin olive oil mixed with balsalmic vinegar instead of butter for better blood sugar control and to get a better handle on your cholesterol management.
The column mentions eating fish for lowering your risk of inflammation and pain or getting your EPA/DHA from fish oil about 1,000 mg daily and adding a teaspoon of turmeric to your liquid such as soup. Mentioned also are ginger capsules or ginger tea and tart 12 ounces of cherry juice for anti-inflammatory properties.
If you look at each ingredient online, you'll notice that sometimes cherry juice is recommended for better sleep and also to lower the risk of gout. Football players sometimes drink cherry juice to relieve pain from injuries or arthritis.
So check out the column as there are headache remedies ranging from magnesium at bedtime (unless you have impaired kidney function) to aromatherapy sniff the scent of lavender or applying a drop of peppermint oil at the temples for headaches that you already have had diagnosed by your doctor, such as migraines.
It's important to find out what the cause of your headache is before you self-medicate with herbs or minerals. The column also mentions priobiotics such as lactobacilli blended with bifidobacteria for irritable bowel syndrome.
And there are suggestions for coughs and colds such as dark honey or the over-the-counter supplement product called Umcka. There are more suggestions for colds. So check out that column. About cherry juice, it's worked wonders for some with arthritis and similar pain or with gout.
How cherry juice may help arthritis pain, football injury aches, sleeplessness, or gout
Why do so many major league football players drink tart cherry juice for pain relief? They're told by nutritionists that eating 45 cherries could take away arthritis pain, reduce crystal deposits around arthritic joints, lower high blood pressure, and the LDL (bad) form of cholesterol calcium levels. Almost every natural food treatments book mentions cherry juice and cherries as a pain reliever for arthritis, gout, some sports injuries, and even headaches.
Let's look for evidence and validation. An excellent article online at the Natural Health Remedies & Detox site (run by a former nurse) remarks how well cherry juice takes away the pain of gout. The site notes that, "Drinking large quantities of tart cherry juice can relieve the pain and inflammation of a gout attack in a few days."
The article states that, "In fact one report found that this simple natural health remedy may relieve pain better than aspirin or other anti-inflammatory drugs that can cause ulceration and bleeding of the lining of the digestive system." But what's the name of the report?
I'd like to validate information in that report on cherry juice by actually reading the it, but I couldn't find it's name or publication of origin mentioned in any footnotes. Where can I read the study?
I did find a link to an e-book on relieving gout pain. And the article warned that plumbers exposed to lead may suffer from gout. The kidneys aren't able to excrete uric acid because the toxic lead as a heavy metal interferes with the ability of the kidneys to work normally.
What did get my attention is that it noted, "Sufferers find that drinking 2 or 3 pints of concentrated cherry juice or eating half a pound of fresh or canned cherries a day can relieve a gout attack in a few days. But as too much fruit consumption or the use of fructose is thought to aggravate some types of gout it may be better to use cherry extract capsules."
It's important to learn that too much fruit can aggravate some types of gout because fruit is half fructose. So I decided to look at more sources. But the article is excellent because it informed me how cherries halt the pain of arthritis and gout by lowering uric acid levels. It's the anthocyanins which are the red pigments in cherries that reduce inflammation. And arthritis begins with inflammation.
The SteadyHealth.com site, notes that cherry juice concentrate (made of tart cherries) "contains anthocyanins and antioxidants in tart cherries that are ten times stronger than aspirin or ibuprofen." The article states that cherry juice concentrate "can reduce headaches, gout, pain of arthritis, chance of kidney stones, tooth decay, and gallbladder ailments."
The article at the site mentions... "It can even reduce cholesterol and decrease the chance of heart attack by 30%." It is also believed that..."Cherry Juice Concentrate lowers chances of cancer by 50%." The article also says... "to be able to work, this product needs to be taken daily."
The recommended dose is "two spoons of Cherry Juice Concentrate mixed with eight ounces of beverage is a direction for use of this product." But the article did not specify whether the two spoons are teaspoons or tablespoons. Ads for black cherry juice and concentrate appear at the bottom of the site. (I'm still searching for cited research studies on cherry juice.)
The CherryPharm site does have a table comparing cherry juice (not concentrate) to other juices such as blueberry, pomegranate, grape, and exotic juices. Their table shows that (with the 50 cherries per juice bottle) the CherryPharm bottled cherry juice contains more antioxidant 'Orac' and anthocyanins per eight once bottle than any of the bottled juices, including other cherry juices compared.
On their "Medical Experts Agree" link, the statement notes, "CherryPharm is currently in use by elite athletes and pro teams around the world. Four of the top 10 ranked NCAA D-1 football teams, including the national champions, drank CherryPharm during the 2008-2009 season."
Then I found a uTube video link on the CherryPharm site that noted beneath the video link that "The British Journal of Sports Medicine reports that a tart cherry juice (CherryPharm), packed with antioxidants and natural anti-inflammatories, significantly speeds up muscle recovery. Drink a cup daily, starting one day before a big workout.”
Great, I just wish some of those juice links would have a footnote somewhere on their sites giving the name and date of the study or report so I could look at the findings in a scientific or medical journal. But the video helped. Another uTube video on how cherry juice improves sleep also appears on uTube.
At the Seniors Network, an article, "Cherry juice reduces muscle pain induced by exercise," summarizes the study done by the British Journal of Sports Medicine. Researchers compared cherry juice to commercial apple juice. The article noted that, "There was a significant difference in the degree of muscle strength loss between those drinking the cherry juice blend and those taking the dummy mixture."
Also, that article reports, "Pain also peaked at 24 hours for those drinking cherry juice, but continued to increase for those on the dummy mixture for the subsequent 48 hours." The news article didn't mention the date of the study.
The What's Cooking America site has an article on cherry juice, also noting that flavanols improve blood flow, heart and brain health, and lower blood pressure. Cherry juice has been featured on the CNBC TV show “Mike on America”, in Oprah magazine, the New York Post, Newsweek, In Touch, Escape, Vogue and on other media.
You might continue to search online for a site that actually cites or offers footnotes or a link to view at least abstracts of any research studies published in medical or scientific journals. It would help validate what cherry juice can do, what's in it, and how it works.
When my back pain prevented me from standing up straight each morning, I did try frozen cherries and cherry juice, about two glasses of juice a day and a few cherries mixed with mangos, strawberries, and blueberries in a cup of soy milk and cherry juice mixed and two tablespoons of lecithin granules.
After a week on this breakfast (along with a bowl of steamed whole oat groats and sunflower seeds) my back feels fine, and I can straigthen up in the mornings. It used to take until noon for the pain to disappear for the day and grew worse on rainy, cold days. The cherries were the new ingredient added to my usual berry combinations at breakfast or for dessert after lunch. It worked. The added cherries did keep me pain free so far.
The most informative actual research studies site I found on cherry juice is, the article, "Effects of sour cherry juice on blood glucose and some cardiovascular risk factors improvements in diabetic women: A pilot study by authors, Asal Ataie-Jafari, Saeed Hosseini, Farzaneh Karimi, and Mohammad Pajouhi, in the Nutrition & Food Science journal, year: 2008, volume: 38, issue 4.
See the Nutrition & Food Science journal site. and read the article based on the study, titled: Effects of sour cherry juice on blood glucose and some cardiovascular risk factors improvements in diabetic women: A pilot study, (pp. 355-360). Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing Limited. The only obstacle is that to see the article in its entirety online, you have to buy the article from the journal. But you can look at the findings of the study and the method used at the article's link by clicking here.
To read the article for free in print, your local university library might have a copy for you to read in the library if you telephone them. There's also interlibrary loan for various journal studies articles from university libraries to your public library branch. But for my purpose, reading the findings and method in abstract form is sufficient to see whether the cherries helped the patients.
Prior studies on anthocyanins in cherries did show their "antioxidant activity and beneficial effects for diabetes control and reducing the risk of coronary heart diseases." And so the findings revealed that, "It has been found that sour cherries contain high levels of anthocyanins that possess insulin-releasing stimulatory properties on pancreatic ß-cells in vitro." But the average reader goes to the news articles first because it would take time to look up what "pancreatic ß-cells in vitro" means.
You have to tell health news readers in plain language what beta cells in a lab dish is supposed to reveal about how cherries affect the pancreas in a good way in your study. That's why news articles are read more than journal articles. People want to hear the findings: does it work or not? Yes. It works...for me. But how does it work for your individual situation and genes?
The journal article's purpose investigated "whether concentrated sour cherry juice (CSCJ) beneficially alters serum glucose and some cardiovascular risk factors in diabetes type 2 subjects." What the study found revealed that "After six weeks' consumption of CSCJ, significant reductions in body weight was seen. Total cholesterol and LDL-C decreased significantly in a sub-group of patients as well."
The value of the study and article found that "Based on the results of this study, consuming 40g/day of CSCJ decreases body weight, blood pressure and HbA1c in diabetes type 2 women after 6 weeks and improves blood lipids in diabetic patients with hyperlipidemia." In news articles, media doesn't always want to use the word, 'lipid' because some readers would have to look up the meaning. So it's easier to write 'fats' instead of 'lipids.'
That may be the reason why so many news articles say "based on a report" instead of citing the report's details in limited media space available. The big picture is drinking cherry juice in moderation did lower blood pressure, weight, improved blood fats and cholesterol, and helped diabetic patients with too much fat in their bloodstream.
For those looking for pain relief, yes, cherries and cherry juice did get rid of my back pain and stiffness. And it tastes great put in a blender with a handful of almonds. Will it work for you? That depends upon your body's response to a particular food item.
For more information, check out my other Examiner.com article, Major league football players offered cherry juice for pain, arthritis, headaches, and gout - Examiner.com. Beware of fruit juices that interact with prescription drugs. Check one more of my Examiner.com articles on this topic, Which fruits & juices could interact with prescription medicines? - Examiner.com. And see my Examiner.com article, Which has more health benefits apples or cherries?
Be sure to check out the two Sacramento Sutter physicians' columns. The doctors explain what herbs work for some people and how much you may need, unless you have health issues where such herbs mentioned in the column are not recommended.
These are excellent columns that the Sacramento Bee has needed to offer readers for a long time. Be sure to find out the cause of your symptoms before you self-medicate with herbs or other plant extracts. It's about time more holistic and integrative health information became available to the general public in a mainstream newspaper here in Sacramento.
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