Results from a clinical trial conducted by Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles, CA using stem cells derived from the hearts of heart attack patients shows that the process helps them re-grow healthy heart muscle.
The 25 participants involved in the study, with an average age of 53, had all suffered heart attacks which had damaged their heart muscle. Doctors pinpointed the exact location and severity of the heart muscle damage by having each patient undergo extensive imaging scans. There was a control group of 8 people who received standard medical treatment but no stem cells, who did not experience an improvement in the damaged tissue. The 17 patients who received the stem cell treatment experienced a 50 percent reduction (on average) of the heart muscle scars 12 months after the stem cell infusion. Additionally, those patients also experienced a significant increase in healthy heart muscle following the experimental treatment.
The remarkable results of this study will certainly change the landscape of treatment and outcomes for heart attack survivors.
For more information about this study, visit the Science Daily website.
Photo credit: healthcarenewsblog.com
Throughout many countries in the world, February 14th is a day of exchanging candy, cards, flowers and gifts amongst loved ones in the name of St. Valentine. There are many stories about St. Valentine and the history of this holiday. Here is the low-down from History.com.
The Legend of St. Valentine
The history of Valentine's Day--and the story of its patron saint--is shrouded in mystery. We do know that February has long been celebrated as a month of romance, and that St. Valentine's Day, as we know it today, contains vestiges of both Christian and ancient Roman tradition. But who was Saint Valentine, and how did he become associated with this ancient rite?
The Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred. One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine's actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death.
Other stories suggest that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons, where they were often beaten and tortured. According to one legend, an imprisoned Valentine actually sent the first "valentine" greeting himself after he fell in love with a young girl--possibly his jailor's daughter--who visited him during his confinement. Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter signed "From your Valentine," an expression that is still in use today. Although the truth behind the Valentine legends is murky, the stories all emphasize his appeal as a sympathetic, heroic and--most importantly--romantic figure. By the Middle Ages, perhaps thanks to this reputation, Valentine would become one of the most popular saints in England and France.
Origins of Valentine's Day: A Pagan Festival in February
While some believe that Valentine's Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine's death or burial--which probably occurred around A.D. 270--others claim that the Christian church may have decided to place St. Valentine's feast day in the middle of February in an effort to "Christianize" the pagan celebration of Lupercalia. Celebrated at the ides of February, or February 15, Lupercalia was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus.
To begin the festival, members of the Luperci, an order of Roman priests, would gather at a sacred cave where the infants Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were believed to have been cared for by a she-wolf or lupa. The priests would sacrifice a goat, for fertility, and a dog, for purification. They would then strip the goat's hide into strips, dip them into the sacrificial blood and take to the streets, gently slapping both women and crop fields with the goat hide. Far from being fearful, Roman women welcomed the touch of the hides because it was believed to make them more fertile in the coming year. Later in the day, according to legend, all the young women in the city would place their names in a big urn. The city's bachelors would each choose a name and become paired for the year with his chosen woman. These matches often ended in marriage.
Valentine's Day: A Day of Romance
Lupercalia survived the initial rise of Christianity and but was outlawed—as it was deemed “un-Christian”--at the end of the 5th century, when Pope Gelasius declared February 14 St. Valentine's Day. It was not until much later, however, that the day became definitively associated with love. During the Middle Ages, it was commonly believed in France and England that February 14 was the beginning of birds' mating season, which added to the idea that the middle of Valentine's Day should be a day for romance.
Valentine greetings were popular as far back as the Middle Ages, though written Valentine's didn't begin to appear until after 1400. The oldest known valentine still in existence today was a poem written in 1415 by Charles, Duke of Orleans, to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt. (The greeting is now part of the manuscript collection of the British Library in London, England.) Several years later, it is believed that King Henry V hired a writer named John Lydgate to compose a valentine note to Catherine of Valois.
Typical Valentine's Day Greetings
In addition to the United States, Valentine's Day is celebrated in Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, France and Australia. In Great Britain, Valentine's Day began to be popularly celebrated around the 17th century. By the middle of the 18th, it was common for friends and lovers of all social classes to exchange small tokens of affection or handwritten notes, and by 1900 printed cards began to replace written letters due to improvements in printing technology. Ready-made cards were an easy way for people to express their emotions in a time when direct expression of one's feelings was discouraged. Cheaper postage rates also contributed to an increase in the popularity of sending Valentine's Day greetings.
Americans probably began exchanging hand-made valentines in the early 1700s. In the 1840s, Esther A. Howland began selling the first mass-produced valentines in America. Howland, known as the “Mother of the Valentine,” made elaborate creations with real lace, ribbons and colorful pictures known as "scrap." Today, according to the Greeting Card Association, an estimated 1 billion Valentine’s Day cards are sent each year, making Valentine's Day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year. (An estimated 2.6 billion cards are sent for Christmas.) Women purchase approximately 85 percent of all valentines.
And to help explain why we get all giddy and silly over people we are attracted to, here is an interesting video on the "science of love" .
Happy Valentine's Day All!
Cellular Trauma Causes Inflammation and Pain, Interfering with Surgical Recovery
When the cells of our body become traumatized by injury, infection, surgical incision, or even strong emotions, they often go into shock (cellular trauma) and start producing inflammatory chemicals in a desperate call for help. These chemicals often cause pain and interfere with the healing process.
The unpredictable sound waves of the Infratonic effectively dissolve cellular trauma, helping to stop excess inflammation and promote chronic pain relief. As the cells stop producing inflammatory chemicals, they begin generating healing chemicals that pave the way toward accelerated recovery.
Here is a powerful testimonial submitted by one of our customers:
"In September of 1971, my client was run over by a truck. In addition to losing his right leg below the knee, it left him with constant pain in his left knee and right hip and phantom pain where his leg used to be when a low-pressure weather front moves through. When he would get up first thing in the morning the pain (on a scale of 1-10) would be 10+++++.
After using the Infratonic 9 all night for several weeks, his pain levels have dropped dramatically. Before the I-9, the pain levels in his right knee and left hip (on a 24/7 basis) were 8 and 10 respectively (on a scale of 1-10) on a good day and frequently were higher many days. After several weeks using the I-9, his pain level is down to 2 and 3 most of the time.
The pain is so much less that he can now sleep on his right side, which he hasn't been able to do since the accident.
When phantom pains would flare up due to a low-pressure weather front, the pain would be agonizing for hours. Now when they start, he immediately applies the I-9 and within a few minutes the phantom pain is gone. The phantom pains do not return as quickly as they did previously either, he reports.
The accident also left him with a pinched nerve on the left side, which caused loss of much feeling in his left foot and sciatic pain down his left leg. After several weeks using the Infratonic 9, the pain level is down by half and much of the feeling has returned to his foot. He states that it continues improving with continued use of the Infratonic 9.
My client stated that before the Infratonic 9 his quality of life was very low and now since using the I-9 just for a few weeks, his quality of life is very high. This wonderful technology has given him much of the life back that he lost in that accident forty years ago and he couldn't be happier."
Treatment
For all surgery solutions, we recommend using the "Traumatic Injury" protocol for accelerated surgical recovery:
Apply the Infratonic transducer to the thymus, as well as to the area of surgery/injury or pain. Immediately after surgery, there is often intense cellular trauma and it is uncomfortable to apply the Infratonic directly. If increased discomfort is sensed as the therapy gets close to the body, hold the transducer a foot or two away and sweep from head to toe, gradually moving the transducer closer to the injury over a period of several minutes as the cellular trauma gradually diminishes. Alternatively, place the Infratonic a foot or more away from the body, aiming at the site of injury or incision, and leave it for an hour a day, to allow the cellular trauma to diminish more gradually.
For more testimonials, click here.
For product information, click here.
If someone offered you a “miracle” drug that reportedly caused you to enjoy the taste of your food more, would you consider taking it? If they made it in the form of powdered granules that you could add to virtually any food you prepared for your family, getting even your fussiest eaters to eat, would you use it? Now, suppose that drug had a side-effect, such as depleting your energy slightly after consumption – would that discourage you from using it? What if it had several side effects? Let’s say that it caused inflammation of your joints, changed your metabolism, raised blood pressure, affected your immune system or damaged your liver? Would you still weigh the benefits versus the risks? Let’s give that “miracle” drug a name. Let’s call it sugar. And yes, it can create ALL of those side effects (and many more).
In fact, scientific research has shown sugar to be not only damaging to our health, but highly addictive as well. According to the American Heart Association, the average U.S. adult consumes a whopping 22 teaspoons of sugar a day! That amounts to an added 355 calories per day in empty, toxic calories. And the healthcare costs associated with this substance are growing exponentially, as are American waistlines.
Last week an article called “The Toxic Truth about Sugar” was published in the journal Nature. Researched and written by a team of researchers at the University of California at San Francisco (Robert Lustig, pediatrics and obesity specialist, and Laura Schmidt and Claire Brindis, health policy researchers), the team says that sugar has a potential for abuse, and with its “toxicity and pervasiveness in the Western diet,” it plays a major role in the world health crisis.
The researchers would like to see a levy imposed on added sugars, and for sales of sweet food and drinks to be restricted during school hours, and possibly setting an age limit for children to be able to buy them. They don’t expect people to stop eating sugar, but hope that some policy changes might discourage people from over-consuming it. At the very least, the money from the taxes collected could go toward meeting the growing costs of health issues related to sugar consumption. France, Greece and Denmark have already implemented a soda tax, and the concept is being considered in at least 20 cities and states in the United States.
Ultimately the research team would like to see people move away from consuming high levels of sugar and to have more healthy food options available which are cheaper and easier to get. And once you get accustomed to eating less sugar, it is amazing how incredibly delicious natural and whole foods taste!
Tomorrow is National Wear Red Day to draw attention to the fact that more women die from heart disease than from all cancers combined!
The American Heart Association has created a short video to lightly dramatize the symptoms women may experience during a heart attack.
Heart disease is too serious an issue to be ignored. To learn more about warning signs and to educate yourself to stay heart-healthy, visit the American Heart Association website.
And for information about using Infratonic Therapy to treat stress, anxiety, problems in the heart area, or other issues, visit the Sound Vitality website.
Photo credit: American Heart Association
ScienceDaily (Jan. 25, 2012) — Scientists now have a better understanding of the way that stress impacts the brain. New research, published by Cell Press in the January 26 issue of the journal Neuron, reveals pioneering evidence for a new mechanism of stress adaptation and may eventually lead to a better understanding of why prolonged and repeated exposure to stress can lead to anxiety disorders and depression.
Most stressful stimuli cause the release of corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) from neurons in the brain. This is typically followed by rapid changes in CRH gene expression. In more practical terms, as soon as the CRH-containing neurons run out of CRH, they are already receiving directions to make more. CRH controls various reactions to stress, including immediate "fight-or-flight" responses as well as more delayed adaptive responses in the brain. Regulation of CRH activity is critical for adaptation to stress, and abnormal regulation of CRH is linked with multiple human psychiatric disorders.
"Despite the wealth of information regarding the physiological role of CRH in mediating the response to stress, the molecular mechanisms that regulate expression of the CRH gene, and thereby CRH synthesis, have remained largely elusive," explains senior study author, Dr. Gil Levkowitz, from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. "In our study, we used mouse and zebrafish model systems to identify a novel intracellular signaling pathway that controls stress-induced CRH gene expression."
Dr. Levkowitz and colleagues discovered that the protein Orthopedia (Otp), which is expressed in parts of the brain associated with stress adaptation, modulated CRH gene expression and was required for stress adaptation. The researchers went on to show that Otp regulates production of two different receptors on the neurons' surface. The receptors, which receive and relay CRH production instructions, essentially function as "ON" and "OFF" switches.
"This regulation of the CRH gene is critical for neuronal adaptation to stress. Failure to activate or terminate the CRH response can lead to chronic over- or under-activation of stress-related brain circuits, leading to pathological conditions," concludes Dr. Levkowitz. "Taken together, our findings identify an evolutionarily conserved biochemical pathway that modulates adaptation to stress."
Infratonic therapy has been found to be highly effective at treating stress. Infusing the cells of the body with chaotic alpha activity, it alters the programming and reduces anxiety on the cellular level. By relieving the anxiety in every cell, a global relaxation is achieved, providing a greater sense of calm.
Image Credit: http://www.rxpgonline.com/postt38455.html
New research (Dr. William Jagust & Susan Landau, UC Berkeley), based on brain-imaging, indicates that people who engage in mentally stimulating activities beginning in childhood and continue throughout their lives develop fewer deposits of the destructive beta amyloid protein in the brain, which is associated with Alzheimer’s Disease.
Scientists believe that Alzheimer’s disease may begin 10-15 years before memory problems appear, so by the time we see problems with memory in seniors, there is little that can be done. There are currently no drugs which can prevent the disease, but activities such as reading, writing and game playing, if begun early in life, appear to prevent a build-up of beta amyloid in the brain. Maybe we shouldn’t be quite so worried about those video games our kids are playing.
In a Press Release issued on 1/18/12 by the Alzheimer’s Association, it was stated that “Today as many as 5.4 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s [that number jumps to 36 million worldwide] with nearly 15 million friends and family members often providing exhaustive, around the clock care for them. While the human toll is alarming, the economic costs are also staggering, rising from $183 billion this year to more than $1 trillion by 2050. Alzheimer’s is the sixth leading cause of death and the only one among the top ten without a way to cure, prevent or even slow its progression.”
In an effort to change this course, the National Alzheimer’s Project Act (NAPA), has “unanimously passed with full bipartisan support in Congress and signed into law by President Obama, authorized the process currently underway to develop a national Alzheimer’s plan. The law also created the Advisory Council, which is made up of stakeholders from across the Alzheimer’s community as well as representatives from several federal agencies with Alzheimer’s initiatives and which is charged with providing recommendations to the Secretary of Health and Human Services to inform the development of the national plan.”
While NAPA and the Advisory Council are looking for solutions to the growing problem of Alzheimer’s disease, let’s break out those books and games to prevent that destructive protein buildup in our brains! Checkers anyone?
In a News Release published today by the University of California at Irvine, it was announced that a UCI research team has discovered how a protein in our teardrops is able to destroy dangerous bacteria.
Nobel laureate Alexander Fleming discovered about a century ago antiseptic proteins called lysozymes contained in human tears. Since that time, many scientists have been on a quest to discover how those lysozymes could be used to kill off far larger bacteria.
The UCI research team of Gregory Weiss, molecular biologist, and Philip Collins, associate professor of physics & astronomy (not the musician), spent years building and assembling one of the world’s smallest transistors (picture circuitry 25 times smaller than what we see in smartphones or laptops) and gluing the single-molecule teardrop proteins to the live wire to listen to the behavior of the protein.
They learned that lysozymes function much like PacMen, with jaws that latch onto and chomp through rows of bacteria cell walls which try to get into your eyes and infect them.
Weiss and Collins are hopeful that using similar technology can help with early detection of cancer and other serious illnesses, which can result in improved outcomes for healing, with reduced costs for treatment.
These findings will be published on January 20th in the journal Science.
According to the 2011-2012 APPA (American Pet Products Association) National Pet Owners Survey, 62% of U.S. households own a pet, which translates to 72.9 million homes.
The reasons for having pets vary, but I would venture to say that most people would cite that it is because pets make such wonderful companions. Pets such as dogs and cats provide us with undying love and loyalty (maybe more true for dogs than cats), but many studies have shown that pet ownership also provides us with many health benefits.
One study found that blood pressure was lowered in stressful situations of individuals with hypertension when they adopted a dog or cat. (Dr. Karen Allen, State University of New York at Buffalo)
Stress (especially in males) is often found to be lower in pet owners, as walking with pets can sooth nerves and provide a sense of relaxation. (Josephine M. Wills, Waltham Centre for Pet Nutrition, United Kingdom)
Because they provide faithful companionship, pets may help prevent heart disease by improving psychological stability in their owners. (National Institute of Health Technology Assessment Workshop: Health Benefits of Pets)
Pet owners make fewer trips to the doctor, especially for medical conditions which are not serious, lowering health care costs for the owners (which they apparently then spend on pet care!). (National Institute of Health Technology Assessment Workshop: Health Benefits of Pets)
Pets can ease loneliness and depression in all people, but especially in senior citizens, giving them a sense of security. Dogs have been used very effectively to provide therapy in retirement homes, foster care homes, hospitals, and at locations of traumatic events or disasters.
Given our relationships with our pets, it may not be surprising that Americans spent $48.35 billion dollars on our pets in 2010, and it was estimated that number would increase to $50.84 billion dollars for 2011. Of the $48.35 billion dollars spent on our pets in 2010, $13.01 billion was spent on vet care, and another $10.94 billion was spent on supplies and over the counter medications. All this during a recession! Obviously, we really love our pets!
Many pet owners have found that using Infratonic Therapy on their pets has been really beneficial, helping their pets heal, or at least to ease their suffering. Here are some testimonials from some users of Infratonic Therapy:
"Quest, a 3 year old Labrador with a medial cruc. tear in the left knee was limping for 2 weeks. The scheduling of surgery was due in one week. In five treatments (before the surgery deadline) quest received 30 minutes at several points along the leg and tailbone (Mind). Surgery was postponed. After the first two treatments, the limping vanished; running and walking restored."
Ashley Rowan, LMT
"I have a 13 year old Labrador who was misdiagnosed with hermangiosarcoma, later to discover it was an undiagnosed chronic disease. I have borrowed an Infratonic QGM and used it on my dog for the past 6 weeks, needless to say she is running again, playing, and eating on her own. I thought I was going to lose her because of the cancer, or a stroke - whatever the case may be, but this machine has become my answer. I purchased one and use it on my dog with the transducer placed above her kennel for 4 hours each day. She bounces out of her kennel, her blood work is normal again, all without using any drugs. Thank you, and Shamie thanks you as well."
Valerie
"Recently my neighbor’s dog almost lost an eye in a dogfight. I was amazed how the dog quieted right down when I put the CHI [Infratonic] machine directly on his eye. His eye was slightly infected also. It healed his eye in record time and the infection went away too. A doctor may claim the effect of CHI [Infratonic] is all in people’s heads, but when I saw the amazing effect it had on that dog, any doubt I may of had disappeared at that moment."
William Little
To read more pet owner testimonials, click here.
Each year in the United States, 12,000 women get cervical cancer. Most of those women are over age 30, but even younger women can be affected. All women can be at risk for developing cervical cancer.
What causes cervical cancer?
The most common cause of cervical cancer is the human papillomavirus (HPV); a virus passed from one person to another during sex. Some additional risk factors which can lead to cervical cancer are smoking, having HIV, using birth control pills for five or more years, and giving birth to three or more children.
What are the symptoms of cervical cancer?
In the early stages of cervical cancer, signs and symptoms may not be present. However, in advanced stages, abnormal vaginal discharge or bleeding may appear. Routine screenings will rule out cervical cancer, or at least catch it in the early stages.
What can be done to help prevent cervical cancer?
Screening tests and a vaccine which can prevent some forms of HPV make cervical cancer highly preventable in most Western countries, and when found early, it is highly treatable.
The most important thing to help prevent cervical cancer is to have routine screening tests.
The two tests which can help prevent cervical cancer are the pap test, which looks for precancers (cervical cell changes which may become cancerous if not treated properly), and the HPF test, which looks for the virus which can cause cellular changes in the cervix (and detects more precancerous cells than the standard pap smear test). For women who are 30 or older, normal test results may preclude you from having to retest for up to three years. However, it is important to continue to schedule regular check-ups and pelvic exams.
Many healthcare professionals are recommending that females receive an HPV vaccine. The vaccine is intended to guard against some forms of HPV, though not all. Use your judgment about whether this option feels right to you. Even females who have received the HPV vaccine are encouraged to have routine screenings done to rule out any abnormalities in the cervix.
Additional measures which can be taken to help lower the risk of cervical cancer are 1) not smoking; 2) using condoms during sex (while the effectiveness of condom use in preventing HPV is unknown, they have been associated with lower rates of cervical cancer); and 3) limiting the number of sexual partners.
To read a fact sheet by the CDC on cervical cancer, click here.
If you (or a loved one) are overdue for screenings, please take the time today to schedule an appointment. It could save a life!
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