Spring Cleanse Your Liver: 6 Foods, Nutrients, and Herbs - Planet Green

Image via WikipediaSpring Cleanse Your Liver: 6 Foods, Nutrients, and Herbs - Planet Green

Few of us give our liver a second thought. Yet this overworked organ is responsible for over 500 different functions, including: detoxifying environmental chemicals, storing certain vitamins, controlling cholesterol levels, metabolizing fat, and even regulating hormones. Now, more than ever, your liver may need cleansing to help it detoxify alcohol, tobacco smoke, environmental pollutants, food additives, pesticides, and hidden chemicals in your personal care products. Here are some of my top food and herb picks for liver cleansing:

1. Drink plenty of water with the juice of one-half to one lemon squeezed into it. Your body needs water to flush out toxins in your bowel movements and urine. The addition of fresh lemon juice helps to stimulate your liver to produce bile that helps flush out toxins.

2. Eat lots of garlic and onions. Your friends might stay away but your liver will love you for it. Garlic and Onions contain important phytonutrients that break down fatty deposits in the body. As a bonus: they kill viruses, bacteria, and fungi and protect against heart disease too.

3. Supplement with milk thistle extract. Milk thistle contains a potent substance called silymarin that protects the liver by inhibiting damaging substances that can cause liver cell damage. Silymarin also prevents the depletion of the nutrient glutathione-one of the most critical nutrients for liver detoxification. Both alcohol consumption and exposure to various types of synthetic chemicals can deplete glutathione in the liver. A typical dose for liver cleansing is about 140 mg of silymarin.

4. Take 1000 mg of vitamin C. While glutathione supplements are available, the best way to boost this important nutrient is to supplement with vitamin C. Give your liver an extra boost of glutathione by supplementing with vitamin C.

5. Take dandelion extract. Most people are obsessed with removing one of Nature's medicinal powerhouses-dandelion-from their lawns. The Australian Journal of Medical Herbalism cites research supporting the liver-regenerating properties of dandelion. Due to pesticides and pollutants I don't recommend picking dandelion root from your lawn. You can take one to two teaspoons of dandelion root extract or supplement with 500 to 2000 mg daily in capsules for two weeks to help cleanse your liver.

6. Eat Indian curries. Turmeric, one of the main spices used in Indian cuisine, adds a yellow-orange color to curry dishes along with a potent healing boost. Turmeric decreases cholesterol levels, lowers inflammation in the body, and protects the liver from free radical damage. Free radicals are highly reactive molecules that can damage healthy cells. Add turmeric powder to soups, stews, and curries or supplement with 50 mg of curcumin, turmeric's active ingredient to bolster your liver's cleansing abilities.

Related articles

• Heal Your Liver Naturally With Food (ideagreenshop.com)
• How functioning of brain depends on the liver (wiki.answers.com)
• My Liver Thanks You Milk Thistle! (bestofmotherearth.com)
• Natural Solutions for Cirrhosis of the Liver (brighthub.com)
• Herbs for Healthy Digestion (brighthub.com)
• Can I Give My Cat Milk Thistle? (brighthub.com)
• Certain types of gut bacteria linked to fatty liver (news.bioscholar.com)
• full body cleanse detox (ask.metafilter.com)
• Herbal Medicine to Treat Hypothyroid (brighthub.com)
• Drinking Herbal Tea for Acne (brighthub.com)

Image via Wikipedia50 Incredibly Weird Facts About the Human Body

50 Incredibly Weird Facts About the Human Body

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

As long as we make efforts to take care of ourselves and live healthy, there is a good chance that our bodies will serve us well for a long time. Our bodies truly are amazing. You might be surprised at what your body is capable of after reading these 50 weird facts about the human body:

The Brain

Complex and poorly understood, the brain is what makes everything work properly. The body may be kept alive, but without the brain, a person can’t truly live. Here are some interesting and weird facts about the brain.

1. The brain doesn’t feel pain: Even though the brain processes pain signals, the brain itself does not actually feel pain.
2. Your brain has huge oxygen needs: Your brain requires 20 percent of the oxygen and calories your body needs — even though your brain only makes up two percent of your total body weight.
3. 80% of the brain is water: Instead of being relatively solid, your brain 80% water. This means that it is important that you remain properlyhydrated for the sake of your mind.
4. Your brain comes out to play at night: You’d think that your brain is more active during the day, when the rest of your body is. But it’s not. Your brain is more activewhen you sleep.
5. Your brain operates on 10 watts of power: It’s true: The amazing computational power of your brain only requires about 10 watts of power to operate.
6. A higher I.Q. equals more dreams: The smarter you are, the more you dream. A high I.Q. can alsofight mental illness. Some people even believe they are smarter in their dreams than when they are awake.
7. The brain changes shapes during puberty: Your teenage years do more than just change how you feel; the very structure of your brain changes during the teen years, and it even affects impulsive, risky behavior.
8. Your brain can store everything: Technically, your brain has the capacity to store everything you experience, see, read or hear. However, the real issue is recall — whether you can access that information.
9. Information in your brain travels at different speeds: The neurons in your brain are built differently, and information travels along them at different speeds. This is why sometimes you can recall information instantly, and sometimes it takes a little longer.

Your Senses

You might be surprised at the amazing things your various senses can accomplish.

10. Your smell is unique: Your body odor is unique to you — unless you have an identical twin. Even babies recognize the individual scents of their mothers.
11. Humans use echolocation: Humans can use sound to sense objects in their area using echolocation. It is thought that those who are blinddevelop this ability to heightened effectiveness.
12. Adrenaline gives you super strength: Yes, with the proper response in certain situations, you really can lift a car.
13. Women smell better than men: Women are better than men atidentifying smells.
14. Your nose remembers 50,000 scents: It is possible for your nose to identify and remember more than 50,000 smells.
15. Your hearing decreases when you overeat: When you eat too much food, it actually reduces your ability to hear. So consider eating healthy — and only until you are full.
16. Your sense of time is in your head: How you experience time is all about your perception. Some speculate that stress can help you experience time dilation. Apparently, time manipulation isn’t just for superheroes.

Reproduction

How we as a species reproduce offers all sorts of interesting weird facts. Here are some of the weirder things you might not know.

17. Your teeth are growing before birth: Even though it takes months after you are born to see teeth, they start growing about six months before you are born.
18. Babies are stronger than oxen: On a pound for pound basis, that is. For their size, babies are quite powerful and strong.
19. Babies always have blue eyes when they are born: Melanin and exposure to ultraviolet light are needed to bring out the true color of babies’ eyes. Until then they all have blue eyes.
20. Women might be intrinsically bi: There are sex studies that indicate that women might bisexual intrinsically, no matter how they class themselves, while men are usually either gay or straight.
21. Most men have regular erections while asleep: Every hour to hour and a half, sleeping men have erections — though they may not be aware of it.
22. Sex can be a pain reliever: Even though the “headache” excuse is often used to avoid sex, the truth is that intercourse can provide pain relief. Sex can also help you reduce stress.
23. Chocolate is better than sex: In some studies, women claim they would rather have chocolate than sex. But does it really cause orgasm? Probably not on its own.

Body Functions

The things our bodies do are often strange and sometimes gross. Here are some weird facts about the way your body functions.

24. Earwax is necessary: If you want healthy ears, you need some earwax in there.
25. Your feet can produce a pint of sweat a day: There are 500,000 (250,000 for each) sweat glands in your feet, and that can mean a great deal of stinky sweat.
26. Throughout your life, the amount of saliva you have could fill two swimming pools: Since saliva is a vital part of digestion, it is little surprise that your mouth makes so much of it.
27. A full bladder is about the size of a soft ball: When your bladder is full, holding up to 800 cc of fluid, it is large enough to be noticeable.
28. You probably pass gas 14 times a day: On average, you will expel flatulence several times as part of digestion.
29. A sneeze can exceed 100 mph: When a sneeze leaves your body, it does so at high speeds — so you should avoid suppressing it and causing damage to your body.
30. Coughs leave at 60 mph: A cough is much less dangerous, leaving the body at 60 mph. That’s still highway speed, though.

Musculoskeletal System

Find out what you didn’t know about your muscles and bones.

31. Bones can self-destruct: It is possible for your bones to destruct without enough calcium intake.
32. You are taller in the morning: Throughout the day, the cartilagebetween your bones is compressed, making you about 1 cm shorter by day’s end.
33. 1/4 of your bones are in your feet: There are 26 bones in each foot, meaning that the 52 bones in account for 25 percent of your body’s 206 bones.
34. It takes more muscles to frown than to smile: Scientists can’t agree on the exact number, but more muscles are required to frown than to smile.
35. When you take a step, you are using up to 200 muscles: Walking uses a great deal of musclepower — especially if you take your 10,000 steps.
36. Your tongue is the strongest muscle in your body: Compared to its size, the tongue is thestrongest muscle. But I doubt you’ll be lifting weights with it.
37. Bone can be stronger than steel: Once again, this is a pound for pound comparison, since steel is denser and has a higher tensile strength.

Unnecessary Body Parts

We have a number of body parts that are, well, useless. Here are some facts about the body parts we don’t actually need.

38. Coccyx: This collection of fused vertebrae have no purpose these days, although scientists believe it’s what’s left of the mammal tail humans used to have. It may be useless, but when you break your coccyx, it’s still painful.
39. Pinkie toe: There is speculation that since we no longer have to run for our dinner, and we wear sneakers, the pinkie toe’s evolutionary purpose is disappearing — and maybe the pinkie itself will go the way of the dodo.
40. Wisdom teeth: This third set of molars is largely useless, doing little beyond crowding the mouth and sometimes causing pain.
41. Vomeronasal organ: There are tiny (and useless) chemoreceptors lining the inside of the nose.
42. Most body hair: While facial hair serves some purposes, the hair found on the rest of body is practically useless and can be removed with few ill effects.
43. Female vas deferens: A cluster of dead end tubules near the ovaries are the remains of what could have turned into sperm ducts.
44. Male Uterus: Yeah, men have one too — sort of. The remains of this undeveloped female reproductive organ hangs on one side of the male prostate gland
45. Appendix: Yep, your appendix is basically useless. While it does produce some white blood cells, most people are fine with an appendectomy.

Random Weird Body Facts

Here are a few final weird facts about the human body.

46. Your head creates inner noises: It’s rare, but exploding head syndromeexists.
47. Memory is affected by body position: Where you are and how you are placed in your environment triggers memory.
48. You can’t tickle yourself: Go ahead. Try to tickle yourself.
49. Being right-handed can prolong your life: If you’re right-handed, you could live up to nine years longer than a lefty.
50. Only humans shed emotional tears: Every other animal that producestears has a physiological reason for doing so.

Tagged as: anatomy, body facts, Brain, Human, Human body

Related articles

• 28 Odd Facts About The Human Body (presurfer.blogspot.com)
• Giffords' brain benefits from benign route of bullet (reuters.com)
• You Are Here (dendritictrees.wordpress.com)
• What is the difference between the human body and a house since their both structures? (greenanswers.com)
• Gluttony: the sin in the brain (neurocuisine.wordpress.com)
• 6 Virtual Tours Of The Human Body For Free Interactive Anatomy Lessons (makeuseof.com)
• Brain Teaser - The Human Body (librarianbrain.wordpress.com)
• Body Browser: Think Google Earth for the Human Body! (healthcarebloglaw.blogspot.com)
• Isn't Real Steel missing the point? [Movies] (io9.com)
• Anatomy Books for Preschoolers (brighthub.com)

Next big thing? Big cholesterol drop with new drug - Health - Heart health - msnbc.com

Image via WikipediaNext big thing? Big cholesterol drop with new drug - Health - Heart health - msnbc.com

By MARILYNN MARCHIONE

updated 11/17/2010 11:48:14 AM ET

• Share
• Print
• Font:

CHICAGO — An experimental Merck drug safely boosted good cholesterol to record highs while dropping bad cholesterol to unprecedented lows in a study that stunned researchers and renewed hopes for an entirely new way of lowering heart risks.

"We are the most excited we have been in decades" about a novel drug, said the study's leader, Dr. Christopher Cannon, of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. "This could really be the next big thing."

The drug, anacetrapib, won't be on the market anytime soon. It needs more testing to see if its dramatic effects on cholesterol will translate into fewer heart attacks, strokes and deaths. Merck & Co. announced a 30,000-patient study to answer that question and it will take several years.

1. Health highlights
   1. 

      Getty images
      Autism risk rises in closely spaced pregnancies
      A new, large study shows that the risk of autism rose three-fold when a child was conceived within 12 months of the birth of a first baby.
   2. Latin lovers? Frigid Brits? Mythbusting sexy stereotypes
   3. Number of young people in nursing homes rising
   4. Holding a grudge can be good for your marriage
   5. Children of rape: Latest legacy of Haiti quake

But the sheer magnitude of its effects so far caused big excitement at an American Heart Association conference in Chicago, where results were presented on Wednesday.

Story: Why dark chocolate boosts heart health

"The data look spectacular, beyond what anybody would have expected," said Dr. Robert Eckel, a University of Colorado cardiologist and past president of the heart association. "It's like a rocket to Jupiter versus one to the moon. I can think of many of my patients who could use the drug right now."

Merck's Dr. Luciano Rossetti agreed.

"We are trying not to be too giddy. The potential benefit is enormous," said Rossetti, senior vice president of global scientific strategy at the company, based in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey.

For years, doctors have focused on lowering LDL, or bad cholesterol, to cut heart risks. Statin medicines, sold as Lipitor, Zocor and in generic form, do this. But many statin users still suffer heart attacks, so doctors have been trying to get LDL to very low levels and to boost HDL, or good cholesterol.

Related articles

• Cholesterol Diet for Hypercholestremia (justslimming.com)
• Added Sugar May Raise Cholesterol in Teensv (webmd.com)
• Cholesterol Worries? Order Your Own Tests (online.wsj.com)
• Worried About Cholesterol? Order Your Own Tests (online.wsj.com)
• How Long to Improve Cholesterol Levels? (everydayhealth.com)
• Are Cholesterol Meds Necessary? (everydayhealth.com)
• Next big thing? New drug drops cholesterol (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Heart Health: 11 Tips To Keep Your Heart Healthy (PHOTOS) (huffingtonpost.com)
• Next big thing? Big cholesterol drop with new drug (sfgate.com)
• Next Big Thing? Big Cholesterol Drop With New Drug (abcnews.go.com)