It’s Keeping You?

July 10, 2013 | By Anna Hunt | Reply

Ida Lawrence, Contributor
Waking Times
What’s keeping you? Normally this question would be answered with something like… “I took the wrong road…”, “I had to deal with something…”, “I’ll need to get more money…”, “I have to think about it…”. You are what’s keeping you.

I want to talk about the deeper ‘what’s keeping you’ question. What’s keeping you when the answer to your inner prayer – your spiritual need – is one step away, and you see it but you pause before taking the step? Maybe you think I’m going to encourage you to jump in there and take the leap of faith, but no. I’m inquiring about the space between you and the fulfillment. What is in that space?

Recalling a dream that I had several years ago: in the dream I looked through a window and saw a scene of rolling hills and natural beauty… but it was far more than a scene that I saw. My body took in the feeling of it and a moan escaped my lips. The place was my home… where I had left the greater part of me. In that moment I experienced the intensity of spiritual need: being in this 3D world, and not being where my heart ached to be. In the dream I tried to walk through the window and into it. Then the message came through that it was a simulation I was seeing, and not a real place.

What can I conclude? There was in front of me the vast ‘feeling’ difference between far away from home, and home. That was the gift of the dream… awareness of the separation from ourselves that we experience just by being born into the world – a body that restricts us and a life that conditions and programs us until we are lost in obligation, guilt and fear. We are still ourselves… just not home. And here’s the interesting part… our separation from that which is within us is an illusion. An even more interesting part… the sages tell us that we agreed to experience this: illusion, friction, evolution… we chose it!

So what’s in the space between the awareness of the spiritual need, and the fulfillment of it? A journey of remembering and return. It’s not a quick journey, I can assure you. Conditioning and programming, obligation, guilt and fear… these are biggies!
I’ve talked quite a bit about conditioning and programming in previous articles. When you become aware of your conditioned, trained and adaptive behavior and your programmed thoughts and opinions, it’s like a fish becoming aware that it’s swimming in water. This is our environment… a pattern laid upon us as children. Maybe we struggled with it back then until, slowly but surely, we were persuaded to give up on that liberated, love myself, expansive, ‘I can do anything’ feeling. For remembering and return to take place, there must be an awakening to the situation.

The situation: within us there is now a schism. Spiritual need pulls at us from the heart and conditioning and programming of the mind keeps us in place.
There can be any number of things that a person can be called toward by spiritual need: a different, more ‘you’ type of work; more liberating, supportive personal relationships; a change in your belief system; a down-sized life in a more natural setting; engaging in spiritual training and practice that takes you toward yourself; a big move to another country. It could be a small life change, or a radical one… in any case it’s your need to return that is calling you.

Some of us long ago recognized the calling of the spirit and the urge toward a certain direction. Stuart Wilde coined the phrase ‘fringe dwellers’ to describe us. But even a fringe dweller can pause within that space of doubt and listen to obligation, guilt, and fear voices. Those voices are what’s keeping you. So let’s just firm up the ground you stand on so that you can make your decision.
Ask yourself: the change that my spiritual need calls upon me to make… is it harmful to myself or others? I don’t mean challenging to your emotions or harmful to their opinions… I mean actually harmful. If the answer is no, then stand upon your ground.

What about obligations? Well, let’s look at it this way. Obligations = placed upon you by others. Responsibility = placed upon you by yourself. You are responsible, but chances are you’re not really obligated except by guilt and the need to be approved of by others. Repeat after me: it is not unkind for me to be myself. It is not destructive of myself and others. I need not explain it. My loved ones can handle it… or not. They are responsible for themselves.
Sounds cold, but it actually can be respectful and warm. Respect them, allow them to be, and love them enough to know that deep within, they can handle it. Dealing with you may have a place in their evolution… who knows.

Let’s enjoy a little quote on healing guilt, from Stuart – it’s a boost: “Don’t forget, the way people perceive you is clouded by their own program and by what is often an extreme lack of perception. They see you in whatever terms benefit and confirm their opinion. How you actually are is mostly a secret. It lies deep within your spiritual self and often is not seen by others. Cling to that reality, and never mind what people think.”
In the ‘civilized’ world, in particular, the most firmly programmed emotion within us is fear. It’s actually so programmed that we can hardly call it an emotion… it’s more like a bona fide prison. Many of us have removed the inner walls of that prison simply by turning off the TV and filtering incoming messages. It’s necessary and beneficial to know the truth, but it has to be as close to actual truth as possible, minus the fear, plus the trust in ourselves… that we can actually create a way through this onslaught.
Trust: can we create a way through this onslaught? I’m not immune to self-doubt voices. Three of them actually came in this morning in the time it took to get from my bed to the coffee pot. The good thing is that I saw them rising, back again like gerbils on the wheel of thought, and I sent them a message. “We’re going in this direction now guys… the energy is headed here… so cool out with the repetition.”
A few days ago I enjoyed an article by a fellow traveler, Zen. He wrote about following his spiritual need. He left the U.S., and moved his family to what we like to call a 3^rd world country. Maybe the 3^rd world is not so 3^rd world after all. I picked up on what he wrote about fear. “Most striking is the lack of fear. Children play freely in the streets and walk to their destinations without all the staged paranoia of the west. Even the dogs are happier, roaming freely and going about their business of playing with each other and their owners. The contrast to hyper controlled and regimented America is stunning and takes some easing into, but is oh so welcoming.”

I’m sure he had to overcome it all in making the move, and who knows… there may be more steps to come for him. But in the end, that’s what fringe dwellers do… listen to spirit, experience the need, create the intention and take the steps. The journey of remembering and returning to self takes as many forms as there are individuals taking the journey.

We call it transformation and renewal, and we’re in this thing together. Some of us are pretty connected in spirit and we whisper these encouragements to each other. It’s really such a beautiful thing… and there’s love in it, and truth in it, and redemption, and grace. The journey really is from the head to the heart… it’s a remembering home, and then coming home, step by step.

About the Author

Ida Lawrence is an author, blogger, copywriter and editor based in Atlanta, Georgia. She has authored two books on racial justice and human rights, and numerous articles on human rights, self-empowerment and related subjects. Ida is also a certified Tai Chi instructor with a special interest in helping seniors and the disabled with Tai Chi and Chi Kung practices modified for their use. Her goal in life has been to find answers to the question of ‘why’ and then to explore the question of ‘what is’. More of her work is available at her personal blog, http://talk2momz.com/.

This article is offered under Creative Commons license. It’s okay to republish it anywhere as long as attribution bio is included and all links remain intact.

Yet more evidence of the amazingly versatile power of probiotics: Probiotic microflora found effective in weight loss efforts

Tuesday, May 28, 2013 by: Zach C. Miller
Tags: probiotics, weight loss, gut health


Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/040516_probiotics_weight_loss_gut_health.html#ixzz2YsUKsVMW(NaturalNews) Much has been made of the amazing power of probiotics in not only boosting the digestive and immune systems but in whole-body health. Now it appears that those symbiotic, friendly little bacteria have the ability to help us lose fat, particularly from the abdominal region. They do this by regulating the hormones in our bodies that send signals to our brain relating to being hungry or full, by destroying fat calorie absorption in the intestines, and by boosting our energy levels, giving us the motivation to power through a workout or just everyday activities that keep our metabolisms churning and burning fat.

Regulating hormones: How probiotic microflora normalize appetite

The hormones that control these "hungry" or "full" signals are called leptin and ghrelin. When the gut has the correct balance of microflora, these hormones function normally. But when our gut is devoid of "friendly" bacteria, specifically H. Pylori, the hormones don't function correctly and we can't regulate our appetites, and we are apt to overeat. Thus, probiotics can help us regulate our appetites, preventing obesity. Unfortunately, there are many things in our modern world that destroy our populations of microflora, such as antibiotics, pesticides, chlorine exposure, coffee, carbonated beverages, and food additives and preservatives, for example. Thus it is important to regularly supplement our diets with probiotic-rich foods such as yogurt, kiefer and sauerkraut (or probiotic flora-food supplements).

How the presence of microflora curbs abdominal weight gain

When our systems lack a healthy microfloral population, we digest all the food we eat and absorb all the calories. Certain microfloral bacteria (such as lactobacillus fermentum and lactobacillus amylovorus) interfere with the absorption of calories when present in the gut. This equates to some of the ingested calories being excreted from our systems, and less calories being converted into abdominal fat.

The way microflora accomplish this is by preventing the intestines from absorbing fat calories. During the digestive process, the liver comes into play by secreting soapy chemicals called bile salts which mix with fat to help digest it. The microflora bacteria eat up and destroy the bile salt, thereby interfering with absorption of fat.

Probiotics and their role in energy production: How our energy levels affect weight loss or gain

The presence of probiotics in our systems has a critical role to play in digestion and energy production. When our systems are devoid of "friendly" bacteria, our digestion is impaired significantly and our bodies must use extra energy to digest food, resulting in decreased energy levels. Decreased energy levels is connected to lower levels of motivation to exercise or engage in activities that would burn fat and help us lose weight. Thus it is critical to tune up our systems by regularly supplementing with a good source of probiotic microflora to maintain our bodies in tip-top fat-burning shape.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.livescience.com/24917-probiotics-burn-fat.html

http://www.chron.com

http://www.stepintomygreenworld.com

About the author:
Zach C. Miller was raised from an early age to believe in the power and value of healthy-conscious living. He later found in himself a talent for writing, and it only made sense to put two & two together! He has written and published articles about health & wellness and other topics on ehow.com and here on NaturalNews. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Applied Science.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/040516_probiotics_weight_loss_gut_health.html#ixzz2YsUDchaO

Meditation Stimulates Long-Lasting Brain Changes

July 8, 2013 | By Dylan Charles | Reply

David Wilder, Reality Sandwich
Waking Times

The effects gained from meditation continue to affect brain function for a long time after meditation is over, according to new research.

“This is the first time meditation training has been shown to affect emotional processing in the brain outside of a meditative state,” said Gaelle Desbordes, Ph.D., a research fellow at the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital and at the Boston University Center for Computational Neuroscience and Neural Technology.

“Overall, these results are consistent with the overarching hypothesis that meditation may result in enduring, beneficial changes in brain function, especially in the area of emotional processing.”

Before beginning the study, the researchers hypothesized that meditation assists in controlling emotional responses, even in a non-meditative state.

During meditation, the area of the brain that contains the amygdala showed decreased activity. The amygdala is a mass of gray matter inside of each cerebral hemisphere that is involved with the experiencing of emotions.

When the subjects were shown images of other people that were good, bad, or neutral for a mindfulness technique known as “compassion meditation,” the amygdala was extraordinarily responsive.

The participants were able to focus their attention and significantly reduce their emotional reactions. The study found that they were able to retain this ability for eight weeks after the testing concluded. The subjects demonstrated subdued emotional response and increased compassion for others when faced with disturbing images, even when they were no longer in the meditative state.

Another group of Harvard Medical School researchers studied the effect of meditation on retaining information. Their hypothesis was that meditators have more intentional influence over alpha rhythm – a brain wave believed to screen out everyday distractions.

“Mindfulness meditation has been reported to enhance numerous mental abilities, including rapid memory recall,” said Catherine Kerr of the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging and the Osher Research Center, both at Harvard Medical School.

“Our discovery that mindfulness meditators more quickly adjusted the brain wave that screens out distraction could explain their superior ability to rapidly remember and incorporate new facts.”

Both studies used participants that did not have prior experience with meditation. Over the course of a two-month period and a three-month period, both groups showed significant change in their daily normal brain function.

This research supports a belief held by some researchers – that meditation may help reduce dependency on pharmaceutical drugs.

“The implications extend far beyond meditation,” said Kerr. “They give us clues about possible ways to help people better regulate a brain rhythm that is deregulated in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and other conditions.”

Minds Beyond Brains: New Experimental Evidence

July 9, 2013 | By Dylan Charles | 2 Replies

Rupert Sheldrake, New Dawn
Waking Times

Where are our minds located? We have been brought up to believe that they are inside our heads, that mental activity is nothing but brain activity. Instead, I suggest that our minds extend far beyond our brains; they stretch out through fields that link us to our environment and to each other.

Mental fields are rooted in brains, just as magnetic fields around magnets are rooted in the magnets themselves, or just as the fields of transmission around mobile phones are rooted in the phones and their internal electrical activities. As magnetic fields extend around magnets, and electromagnetic fields around mobile phones, so mental fields extend around brains.

Mental fields help to explain telepathy, the sense of being stared at and other widespread but unexplained abilities. Above all, mental fields underlie normal perception. They are an essential part of vision.

Look around you now. Are the images of what you see inside your brain? Or are they outside you – just where they seem to be?

According to the conventional theory, there is a one-way process: light moves in, but nothing is projected out. The inward movement of light is familiar enough. As you look at this page, reflected light moves from the page through the electromagnetic field into your eyes. The lenses of your eyes focus the light to form upside-down images on your retinas. This light falling on your retinal rod and cone cells causes electrical changes within them, which trigger off patterned changes in the nerves of the retina. Nerve impulses move up your optic nerves and into the brain, where they give rise to complex patterns of electrical and chemical activity. So far, so good. All these processes can be, and have been, studied in great detail by neurophysiologists and other experts on vision and brain activity.

But then something very mysterious happens. You consciously experience what you are seeing, the page in front of you. You also become conscious of the printed words and their meanings. From the point of view of the standard theory, there is no reason why you should be conscious at all. Brain mechanisms ought to go on just as well without consciousness.

Then comes a further problem. When you see this page, you do not experience your image of it as being inside your brain, where it is supposed to be. Instead, you experience its image as being located about two feet in front of you. The image is outside your body.

For all its physiological sophistication, the standard theory has no explanation for your most immediate and direct experience. All your experience is supposed to be inside your brain, a kind of virtual reality show inside your head. That means your skull must lie beyond everything you are seeing: if you look at the sky, your skull must be beyond the sky! This seems an absurd idea, but it seems to be a necessary implication of the mind-in-brain theory.

The idea I am proposing is so simple that it is hard to grasp. Your image of this page is just where it seems to be, in front of your eyes, not behind your eyes. It is not inside your brain, but outside your brain.

Thus vision involves both an inward movement of light, and an outward projection of images. Through mental fields our minds reach out to touch what we are looking at. If we look at a mountain ten miles away, our minds stretch out ten miles. If we gaze at distant stars our minds reach out into the heavens, over literally astronomical distances.

Sometimes when I look at someone from behind, he or she turns and looks straight at me. And sometimes I suddenly turn around and find someone staring at me. Surveys show that more than 90% of people have had experiences such as these. The sense of being stared at should not occur if attention is all inside the head. But if it stretches out and links us to what we are looking at, then our looking could affect what we look at. Is this just an illusion, or does the sense of being stared at really exist?

This question can be explored through simple, inexpensive experiments. People work in pairs. One person, the subject, sits with his or her back to the other, wearing a blind-fold. The other person, the looker, sits behind the subject, and in a random series of trials either looks at the subject’s neck, or looks away and thinks of something else. The beginning of each trial is signalled by a mechanical clicker or bleeper. Each trial lasts about ten seconds and the subject guesses out loud ‘looking’ or ‘not looking’. Detailed instructions are given on my website,www.sheldrake.org/Onlineexp/offline/staring_experiment.html.

More than 100,000 trials have now been carried out, and the results are overwhelmingly positive and hugely significant statistically, with odds against chance of quadrillions to one. The sense of being stared at even works when people are looked at through closed-circuit TV.

Animals are also sensitive to being looked at by people, and people by animals. This sensitivity to looks seems widespread in the animal kingdom and may well have evolved in the context of predator-prey relationships: an animal that sensed when an unseen predator was staring would stand a better chance of surviving than an animal without this sense.

Educated people have been brought up to believe that telepathy does not exist. Like other so-called psychic phenomena, it is dismissed as an illusion. Most people who espouse these opinions, which I used to myself, do not do so on the basis of a close examination of the evidence. They do so because there is a taboo against taking telepathy seriously. This taboo is related to the prevailing paradigm or model of reality within institutional science, namely the mind-inside-the-brain theory, according to which telepathy and other psychic phenomena, which seem to imply mysterious kinds of ‘action at a distance’, cannot possibly exist.

This taboo dates back at least as far as the Enlightenment at the end of the eighteenth century. But this is not the place to examine its history (which I discuss in my book The Sense of Being Stared At). Rather I want to summarise some recent experiments, which suggest that telepathy not only exists, but that it is a normal part of animal communication.

I first became interested in the subject of telepathy some fifteen years ago, and started looking at evidence for telepathy in the animals we know best, namely pets. I soon came across numerous stories from owners of dogs, cats, parrots, horses and other animals that suggested that these animals seemed able to read their minds and intentions.

Through public appeals I have built up a large database of such stories, currently containing more than 3,500 case histories. These stories fall into several categories. For example, many cat owners say that their animal seems to sense when they are planning to take them to the vet, even before they have taken out the carrying basket or given any apparent clue as to their intention.

Some people say their dogs know when they are going to be taken for a walk, even when they are in a different room, out of sight or hearing, and when the person is merely thinking about taking them for a walk. Of course, no one finds this behaviour surprising if it happens at a routine time, or if the dogs see the person getting ready to go out, or hear the word ‘walk’. They think it is telepathic because it seems to happen in the absence of such clues.

One of the commonest and most testable claims about dogs and cats is that they know when their owners are coming home, in some cases anticipating their arrival by ten minutes or more.

In random household surveys in Britain and America, my colleagues and I have found that approximately 50% of dog owners and 30% of cat owners believe that their animals anticipate the arrival of a member of the household. Through hundreds of videotaped experiments, my colleagues and I have shown that dogs react to their owners’ intentions to come home even when they are many miles away, even when they return at randomly-chosen times, and even when they travel in unfamiliar vehicles such as taxis.

Telepathy seems the only hypothesis that can account for the facts. (For more details, see my book Dogs that Know When their Owners Are Coming Home, and Other Unexplained Powers of Animals.)

In the course of my research on unexplained powers of animals, I heard of dozens of dogs and cats that seemed to anticipate telephone calls from their owners. For example, when the telephone rings in the household of a noted professor at the University of California at Berkeley, his wife knows when her husband is on the other end of the line because Whiskins, their silver tabby cat, rushes to the telephone and paws at the receiver.

“Many times he succeeds in taking it off the hook and makes appreciative miaws that are clearly audible to my husband at the other end,” she says. “If someone else telephones, Whiskins takes no notice.” The cat responds even when he telephones home from field trips in Africa or South America.

This led me to reflect that I myself had had this kind of experience, in that I had thought of people for no apparent reason who shortly there afterwards called. I asked my family and friends if they had ever had this experience, and I soon found the majority were very familiar with it. Some said they knew when their mother or boyfriend or other significant person was calling because the phone sounded different!

Through extensive surveys, my colleagues and I have found that most people have had seemingly telepathic experiences with telephone calls. Indeed this is the commonest kind of apparent telepathy in the modern world.

Is this all a matter of coincidence, and selective memory, whereby people only remember when someone they were thinking about rang, and forget all the times they were wrong? Most sceptics assume that this is the case, but until recently there had never been any scientific research on the subject at all.

I have developed a simple experiment to test for telephone telepathy. Participants receive a call from one of four different callers at a prearranged time, and they themselves choose the callers, usually close friends or family members. For each test, the caller is picked at random by the experimenter by throwing a die. The participant has to say who the caller is before the caller says anything. If people were just guessing, they would be right about one time in four, or 25% of the time.

We have so far conducted more than 800 such trials, and the average success rate is 42%, very significantly above the chance level of 25%, with astronomical odds against chance (1026 to 1).

We have also carried out a series of trials in which two of the four callers were familiar, while the other two were strangers, whose names the participants knew, but whom they had not met. With familiar callers, the success rate was 56%, highly significant statistically. With strangers it was at the chance level, in agreement with the observation that telepathy typically takes place between people who share emotional or social bonds.

In addition, we have found that these effects do not fall off with distance. Some of our participants were from Australia or New Zealand, and they could identify who was calling just as well as with people down under as with people only a few miles away.

Laboratory studies by parapsychologists have already provided significant statistical evidence for telepathy (well reviewed by Dean Radin in his book The Conscious Universe). But most laboratory research has given rather weak effects, probably because most participants and ‘senders’ were strangers to each other, and telepathy normally depends on social bonds.

The results of telephone telepathy experiments give much stronger and more repeatable effects because they involve people who know each other well. I have also found that there are striking telepathic links between nursing mothers and their babies. Likewise, the telepathic reactions of pets to their owners depend on strong social bonds.

I suggest that these bonds are aspects of the fields that link together members of social groups (which I call morphic fields) and which act as channels for the transfer of information between separated members of the group. Telepathy literally means ‘distant feeling’, and typically involves the communication of needs, intentions and distress.

Sometimes the telepathic reactions are experienced as feelings, sometimes as visions or the hearing of voices, and sometimes in dreams. Many people and pets have reacted when people they are bonded to have had an accident, or are dying, even if this is happening many miles away.

There is an analogy for this process in quantum physics: if two particles have been part of the same quantum system and are separated in space, they retain a mysterious connectedness. When Einstein first realised this implication of quantum theory, he thought quantum theory must be wrong because it implied what he called a “spooky action at a distance.”

Experiments have shown that quantum theory is right and Einstein wrong. A change in one separated part of a system can affect another instantaneously. This phenomenon is known as quantum non-locality or non-separability.

Telepathy, like the sense of being stared at, is only paranormal if we define as ‘normal’ the theory that the mind is confined to the brain. But if our minds reach out beyond our brains, just as they seem to, and connect with other minds, just as they seem to, then phenomena like telepathy and the sense of being stared at seem normal. They are not spooky and weird, on the margins of abnormal human psychology, but are part of our biological nature.

Of course, I am not saying that the brain is irrelevant to our understanding of the mind. It is very relevant, andrecent advances in brain research have much to tell us. Our minds are centred in our bodies, and in our brains in particular. However, that they are not confined to our brains, but extend beyond them. This extension occurs through the fields of the mind, or mental fields, which exist both within and beyond our brains.

The idea of the extended mind makes better sense of our experience than the mind-in-brain theory. Above all, it liberates us. We are no longer imprisoned within the narrow compass of our skulls, our minds separated and isolated from each other. We are no longer alienated from our bodies, from our environment and from other people. We are interconnected.

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About the Author

RUPERT SHELDRAKE is an English biologist and author. He is known for his work on plant hormones, crop physiology, and for having proposed a non-standard account of morphogenesis and for his research into parapsychology. His books and papers stem from his hypothesis of morphic resonance, and cover topics such as animal and plant development and behaviour, memory, telepathy, perception and cognition in general. Sheldrake’s publications include A New Science of Life (1981), Seven Experiments That Could Change the World (1994), Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home(1999), The Sense of Being Stared At (2003), and The Science Delusion: Freeing the Spirit of Enquiry, called Science Set Free in the US (2012).

The above article appeared in New Dawn No. 110 (September-October 2008).

© Copyright New Dawn Magazine, http://www.newdawnmagazine.com. Permission granted to freely distribute this article for non-commercial purposes if unedited and copied in full, including this notice.

© Copyright New Dawn Magazine, http://www.newdawnmagazine.com. Permission to re-send, post and place on web sites for non-commercial purposes, and if shown only in its entirety with no changes or additions. This notice must accompany all re-posting.

Is Apple Cider Vinegar That Powerful of a Health Tonic? Science Says Yes

July 11, 2013 | By Dylan Charles | 3 Replies

John Summerly, Prevent Disease
Waking Times

One of the most traditional cures for almost anything is apple cider vinegar. Over the centuries, the ancient folk remedy is touted to relieve just about any ailment you can think of including diabetes, obesity and even cancer. Here’s what science has found.

Apple cider vinegar (ACV) became well known in the U.S. in the late 1950s, when it was promoted in the best-selling book Folk Medicine: A Vermont Doctor’s Guide to Good Health by D. C. Jarvis. During the alternative medicine boom of recent years, apple cider vinegar and apple cider vinegar pills have become a popular dietary supplement.

Unpasteurized or organic ACV contains mother of vinegar, which has a cobweb-like appearance and can make the vinegar look slightly congealed. It’s the only way apple cider vinegar should be consumed.

ACV is used in salad dressings, marinades, vinaigrettes, food preservatives, and chutneys, among other things. It is made by crushing apples and squeezing out the liquid. Bacteria and Yeast are added to the liquid to start the alcoholic fermentation process, and the sugars are turned into alcohol. In a second fermentation process, the alcohol is converted into vinegar by acetic acid-forming bacteria (acetobacter). Acetic acid and malic acid give vinegar its sour taste.

Apple cider vinegar is purported to treat numerous diseases, health conditions, and annoyances. To name a few, it kills head lice, reverses aging, eases digestion, prevents flu, prevents acne, lowers blood pressure, reduces inflammation, kills fungus, regulate pH balance, dissolves kidney stones and helps relieve allergies, migraines, asthma, nausea, heart burn and wash toxins from the body. Can it really do all these things? You bet it can and more! But what does science say?

• Diabetes. The effect of apple cider vinegar on blood sugar levels is perhaps the best researched and the most promising of APV’s health benefits. Several studies have found that vinegar may help lower glucose levels. For instance, a study (White, A. Diabetes Care, November 2007) of 11 people with type 2 diabetes found that taking two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar before bed lowered glucose levels in the morning by 4%-6%. In another study from Arizona State University, subjects took a drink of 20 grams of apple cider vinegarand 40 grams of water. Those with insulin resistance who drank the vinegar had 34% lower postprandial (after-meal) glucose compared to controls. Vinegar may be the most cost-effective medicine in history, but most people with diabetes still aren’t taking it.
• High Cholesterol. A 2006 study reported in Medscape General Medicine, showed evidence that ACV could lower cholesterol. In a study published in a foreign medical journal, scientists found an apple cider vinegar-enhanced diet may increase in HDL (good cholesterol), and reduce levels of triglycerides. Research in rats suggests that apple-cider vinegar can help control triglycerides and cholesterol (Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, June 22, 2011).
• Blood Pressure and Heart Health. Another study in rats found that vinegar could lower high blood pressure. A large observational study also found that people who ate oil and vinegar dressing on salads five to six times a week had lower rates of heart disease than people who didn’t. Researchers have suggested that ‘this reduction in blood pressure may be caused by the significant reduction in renin activity and the subsequent decrease in angiotensin II’. Potassium in the vinegar ‘balances sodium levels in the body, which aids in maintaining blood pressure within healthy limits’ and ‘apple cider vinegar also contains magnesium, a mineral that works to relax blood vessel walls and thus lower high blood pressure’.
• Cancer. A few laboratory studies have found that vinegar may be able to kill cancer cells or slow their growth. One study found that eating vinegar was associated with a decreased risk of esophageal cancer. Another associated it with an increased risk of bladder cancer. In recent trials, pectin, which can be found in ACV, has shown promise in helping to slow the growth of cancerous cells within the prostate (http://www.news-medical.net/news/20100702/Modified-Citrus-Pectin-holds-promise-against-prostate-cancer.aspx). In addition, apple cider vinegar’s acidity aids in detoxifying and cleansing the digestive tract and cleaning out the colon, which supports the health of the prostate as well.
• Weight Loss. For thousands of years, vinegar has been used for weight loss. White vinegar (and perhaps other types) might help people feel full. A study (Ostman, E. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2005) of 12 people found that those who ate a piece of bread along with small amounts of vinegar felt fuller and more satisfied than those who just ate the bread. A 2009 study on mice showed that consuming acetic acid (the active component in ACV), upregulates the expression of genes for fatty acid oxidation enzymes in the liver causing a suppression in body fat accumulation. In a double-blind experiment, obese Japanese were assigned to three different groups based on similar body weights, body mass indexes (BMI), and waist circumference. Each group drank a 500 ml drink containing either 30ml, 15ml, or 0ml of vinegar daily for 12 weeks. Those in the 30ml and 15ml groups had lower BMI, visceral fat area, waist circumference, serum triglyceride, and body weight to the control group of 0ml. The 12-week weight losses were modest: 1.2kg in the 15ml group and 1.7kg in the 30ml group. These two groups consumed a similar number of calories to the control group and also performed a similar amount of exercise, so the effect is not likely to have been due to an impact on appetite or other lifestyle changes. It was concluded that consumption of vinegar might reduce obesity.

Apple cider vinegar is chosen over white vinegar for many processes involving the elimination of fungus. Although they both have highly acidic properties; apple cider also contains detoxifying qualities that will clear up other skin allergies. No side effects have been found when treating the skin with apple cider vinegar, making it a cost effective and safe remedy.

Here are many other benefits of apple cider vinegar that can be applied to your lifestyle. Read the list below.

Hair: It is widely known that apple cider vinegar can be used as a rinse for your hair after shampooing to add healthy body and shine. Recycle an old shampoo bottle and fill it with 1/2 a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar and a cup of cold water. Pour through your hair after shampooing several times a week.

Face: Did you know that apple cider vinegar can help regulate the pH of your skin? Dilute apple cider vinegar with two parts water, and spread the concoction over your face with a cotton ball as a toner. You can do this at night after washing, and in the morning before you apply your moisturizer. You can also dab apple cider vinegar directly onto age spots and leave them on overnight to lighten their color.

Hands and Feet: Are your hands and feet feeling tired and swollen after a long day? Treat yourself to a personal spa massage by rubbing apple cider vinegar onto them.

Sunburn: Suffering from a bad sunburn? Add a cup of apple cider vinegar to your bath and soak for 10 minutes.

Teeth: Did you know that apple cider vinegar can help remove stains from teeth? Rub teeth directly with apple cider vinegar and rinse out.

Aftershave: Fill a bottle with equal parts apple cider vinegar and water and shake to blend.

Detox: Add 2 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar to a 1 or 2 liter filtered water bottle. Drink this throughout the day to cleanse your body and kidneys all day long.

Drain Cleaner: Baking soda and apple cider vinegar is an amazing bubbly combination that has many uses. As a drain cleaner, sprinkle baking soda down the drain then add apple cider vinegar and let it bubble for 15 minutes, then rinse with hot water. This is a safer alternative to dangerous drain cleaners.

Digestion: A small amount of apple cider vinegar, taken just prior to a meal, will stimulate production of digestive juices.

Dandruff: A home remedy for dandruff is to mix 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar with 1/4 cup water. The vinegar solution is thought to restore the restore the pH balance of the scalp and discourage the overgrowth of malassezia furfur, the yeast-like fungus thought to trigger dandruff. 

Mosquito and Insect Bites: Using as little as 1/4 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar will relieve insect bites instantly. 

Stomach Aches: Mix 1 tablespoon of organic apple cider vinegar with 12 ounces of warm water, and drink in the morning on empty stomach. Feel free to add a little honey or maple syrup.

Alkaline Acid Balance: Some alternative practitioners recommend using apple cider vinegar to restore alkaline acid balance. The theory behind the alkaline diet is that our blood is slightly alkaline (with a normal pH level of between 7.35 and 7.45) and that our diet should reflect this pH level. Proponents of the alkaline-acid theory believe that a diet high in acid-producing foods leads to lack of energy, excessive mucous production, infections, anxiety, irritability, headache, sore throat, nasal and sinus congestion, allergic reactions, and increased risk of conditions such as arthritis and gout.

About the Author

John Summerly is nutritionist, herbologist, and homeopathic practitioner. He is a leader in the natural health community and consults athletes, executives and most of all parents of children on the benefits of complementary therapies for health and prevention.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of WakingTimes or its staff.

The bitter truth about MSG

Wednesday, July 10, 2013 by: Nanditha 
Tags: MSG, monosodium glutamate, food labels


Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/041128_MSG_monosodium_glutamate_food_labels.html#ixzz2YqIMco2w(NaturalNews) A bite of that flavored two-minute noodles can be tasty, yet what seems like a harmless quick eat might be anything but that. Monosodium glutamate, known in common parlance as MSG is a flavor enhancing food additive with a dubious reputation for causing many illnesses when eaten regularly. Obesity, hypertension, migraine, asthma to name but a few, are conditions consumers are more than likely to come into contact with. According to studies, an estimated 50 percent of the general population cannot tolerate MSG.

Most processed foods contain MSG either as a direct ingredient or hidden as a by product. Monosodium glutamate can creep in on us through the most innocuous looking coffee powder, or arrive more brazenly through artificially sweetened drinks, cigarettes and colored pediatric suspensions. So processed food or not, it looks like MSG is here to stay.

Why food manufacturers love MSG

MSG tricks the taste buds into getting stimulated and tricks the brain into thinking we are eating protein that is wholesome and nourishing for the body. Nothing could be further from the truth. This salt-like substance creates an insulin explosion in the blood stream even when blood glucose levels are normal. The sudden and unexpected insulin release combined with protein stimulation creates an insatiable appetite. The result naturally will be over eating, and gradually obesity and a host of other illnesses.

MSG demystified

MSG is essentially the amino acid glutamate, with a single salt molecule stuck to it, giving it the name monosodium glutamate. The essential component of MSG is glutamate and is produced by the body in moderate amounts to act as an "excitation" neurotransmitter. However, when consumed over and above what the body naturally produces, it can lead to a condition called "excitotoxicity" which is a term that describes over stimulation of the nervous system, and is the possible cause of neurological disorders such as multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's, stroke, and memory loss. Another concern over the excessive consumption of MSG is the build up of glutamic acid in the blood which then gets converted into the amino acid GABA. This is the viscous cycle where excess GABA creates a craving for more MSG and so on. MSG is known to trigger an addictive reaction and has been dubbed a silent killer because of it's effect on the brain - it overstimulates the brain cells associated with tasting glutamate until the cells die.

Read the label

One way to avoid coming into direct contact with MSG is by scouring the fine print on the cereal box for instance. Obviously food labeling is not transparent, but it will give you a clue into what is not right with that piece of food. The more encoded a label, the more you can expect the manufacturer to be hiding information. Labels only appear to tell all, yet they are Greek and Latin to most of us. And as if to rub salt in the wound, in countries such as the U.S., food labeling laws allow manufacturers to say "natural" for up to 20 percent MSG content.

This leaves us with only one choice: Pick fresh produce (organic where possible or from small local farms) and eat a more balanced and wholesome diet until we learn to read and interpret labels.

That would be the first step.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.truthinlabeling.org/

http://beforeitsnews.com

http://www.msgtruth.org/addiction.htm

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/041128_MSG_monosodium_glutamate_food_labels.html#ixzz2YqIJJeyx

Study - Probiotics reduce obesity and diabetes

Friday, July 12, 2013 by: PF Louis
Tags: probiotics, obesity, diabetes prevention


Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/041157_probiotics_obesity_diabetes_prevention.html#ixzz2YqHpJ9R4(NaturalNews) Probiotics have been covered in the alternative health media, especially Natural News, extensively over the past few years. Yet the mainstream media hardly touches it. And when's the last time your doctor recommended taking probiotics, even after prescribing antibiotics?

One might conclude from doctors' ignorance of probiotic importance and their reluctance to recommend them that there's not enough medical literature available for them to peruse.

But PubMed has recorded almost 10,000 published international probiotic related studies suggesting various treatment modalities since 1954. Nearly 900 have been published in the first half of this year alone, demonstrating the increased interest and awareness of probiotics' health benefits.

Recent study obliquely addresses mainstream medical ignorance

A study published by the peer reviewed Journal of Biological Chemistry (JBC) on July 8, 2013 states the study's background and premise for their research into probiotics for obesity and diabetes: "Prescription of probiotics as obesity and diabetes therapy is limited due to insufficient efficacy data and lack of understanding of their mechanism of action."

The irony of that statement is allopathic medical doctors rarely if ever even advise the use of probiotics for anything, even after mass murdering gut friendly bacteria with antibiotics, despite decades of thousands of published studies.

Nevertheless, this research team took it upon themselves to tackle the ever increasing epidemics of obesity and diabetes with a novel approach - probiotics.

But they didn't use off-the-shelf yogurt. They used a pricey product offered by Sigma-Tau Pharmaceuticals called VSL#3, which offers a variety of bacteria count strengths that can be purchased online or in pharmacies or, at its highest bacteria count, has to be prescribed.

Note: Sigma-Tau is a pharmaceutical company and their online ordering website displays numerous pharmacies that sell their products, yet there's no mention of health food stores.

The clinical trial was done with mice. Their weight gain and insulin resistance was suppressed by VSL3's influence of gut flora, which resulted in the release of hormones that specifically reduce food cravings and promote glucose tolerance, both helpful for preventing obesity and diabetes type 2.

Those hormone releases were linked to the increased levels of a short chain fatty acid (SCFA) butyrate created by certain intestinal wall cells from the probiotic supplement's influence.

It's generally understood that certain conditions, such as chronic candida overgrowth, may require a dramatic intervention with more heavily loaded probiotic supplements than what's generally available in fermented foods or even most probiotic supplements. So here's a list of this product's bacteria strains:

• Bifidobacterium breve• Bifidobacterium longum• Bifidobacterium infantis• Lactobacillus acidophilus• Lactobacillus plantarum• Lactobacillus paracasei• Lactobacillus bulgaricus• Streptococcus thermophilus 

As mentioned earlier, the amounts of these strains vary, with the most expensive and highest amount available by prescription only. But who knows enough about probiotics with prescription power?

You could shop your favorite health food store and you will find those eight strains in some probiotic supplements. The amounts of bacteria are a different matter. You can visit the VSL3 site (linked below) and use their stats to compare with what you find with other sources.

In addition to antibiotics, vaccines and the transfer viruses used for GMOs adversely affect beneficial gut flora (bacteria). So do stress and SAD (standard American Diet). Make sure any probiotic supplement you purchase is organic.

Here's why, according to Mike Adams the Health Ranger's research (http://www.naturalnews.com).

According to Dr. Natasha Campbell-Mcbride, author of Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS), more of the population is probiotic deficient from infancy than before. Her book offers a diet to offset these deficiencies, while others online contribute more recipes to the GAPS diet. (GAPS, sources below)

With all the latest data on the gut as our "second brain" and probiotics providing up to 80% of our immune system's capacity, it's wise to check out other methods, including homemade fermentation, for restoring and balancing beneficial gut flora here (http://www.naturalnews.com).

Sources for this article include:

http://www.jbc.org

http://www.vsl3.com

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

http://www.gaps.me

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/041157_probiotics_obesity_diabetes_prevention.html#ixzz2YqHmjYpK

Generic drug companies granted total immunity against all lawsuits from patients harmed by side effects

Wednesday, July 10, 2013 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer
Tags: generic drugs, side effects, legal immunity


Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/041135_generic_drugs_side_effects_legal_immunity.html#ixzz2YqH2wSot(NaturalNews) You may want to think twice before taking any more generic copies of brand-name pharmaceutical drugs, thanks to a recent Supreme Court ruling that effectively eliminates manufacturer liability in injury cases resulting from negative side effects. In a 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court recently overturned a $21 million judgment awarded to a New Hampshire woman injured by a generic pain drug, declaring in the process that generic drug manufacturers cannot be sued when the drugs they produce injure patients.

Since generic drugs are mere replicas of brand-name drugs that, at one time, were approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as "safe," generic drug manufacturers are exempt from being held liable in the event of injuries caused by harmful side effects. This is the opinion of the majority of the Supreme Court anyway, which has now made it that much harder for members of the public to seek remedy for injuries caused by pharmaceutical drugs.

According to Reuters, the ruling affects lawsuits filed under state law, which allegedly conflict with federal regulatory guidelines as they pertain to safety approval for brand-name drugs. When it comes to federal versus state law, federal always tends to win these days, which means the big boys in the drug industry basically get to call all the shots. And if you are injured by a drug, in this case a generic drug, well then tough luck for you.

"The court has left a seriously injured consumer without any remedy," wrote Justice Sonia Sotomayor, along with Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, and Elena Kagan, in a dissent to the ruling.

It all started when Karen L. Bartlett of New Hampshire was prescribed a generic version of Merck & Co.'s anti-inflammatory drug Clinoril by her doctor for shoulder pain. Bartlett quickly developed a condition known as toxic epidermal necrolysis, which left her with burn-like lesions on two-thirds of her body. Bartlett had to be put into a medically-induced coma and be fed out of a tube for over a year while she underwent dozens of eye surgeries.

With the help of her lawyer, Bartlett filed a lawsuit against Mutual Pharmaceutical, the manufacturer of sulindac, the generic version of Clinoril that led to her injuries. The Supreme Court issued a ruling against Bartlett, which was eventually overturned by a Boston-based appeals court, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). But the Supreme Court later overturned the ruling of the appeals court, claiming that federal law prohibits such lawsuits.

Shielding drug companies from liability will only further erode public confidence in Big Pharma

On the surface, the Supreme Court's ruling on this matter appears as though it is just another win for Big Pharma, which as we all know takes every opportunity to leverage control over the federal regulatory scheme for drugs. But in the long run, the decision will end up hurting the drug industry, as the general public will put even less faith in the safety and integrity of drugs.

"Today's court decision provides a disincentive for generic makers of drugs to monitor the safety of their products and to make sure that they have a surveillance system in place to detect adverse events that pose a threat to patients," says Michael Carome, Director of the Public Citizen's Health Research Group, as quoted by Reuters.

In other words, why perform routine and costly safety tests when there are no longer any consequences if patients are harmed by tainted drugs? Official FDA approval of the "parent" drugs is apparently all that is now needed to shield the generic drug industry from future liability for injuries, which means patients are basically being forced to take drugs at their own risk.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.reuters.com

http://online.wsj.com

http://www.newsmax.com

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/041135_generic_drugs_side_effects_legal_immunity.html#ixzz2YqBr0b00