A recent study found that a celery seed compound had potent bacteriacidal activity against H. Pylori. H. Pylori is a bacteria which is responsible for a large number of gastric (stomach) ulcers. In this study, the seeds were alcohol extracts, so if you just eat celery seeds it may or may not work, but a tincture of celery will kill H.pylori, but alcohol increases the production of stomach acid which can worsen an ulcer. Steve Gomberg, a former world class chef that is currently a nutritionist at ECCM said that you can cook the celery seeds in a wine reduction which will help extract the compound and burn off the alcohol (brilliant!). Steve will be uploading an ulcer killing recipe to our website in the patient section (requires login).
 
J Pharm Pharmacol. 2009 Aug;61(8):1067-77

New research reported by the BBC found that mice expressing a protein called Galanin were completely resistant to the development of an MS - like disease. This protein is known to be highly neuroprotective. While it may be many years before researchers are able to develop and test pharmaceuticals to take advantage of this new research, you can benefit from it right away. We have known for some time now that acupuncture (actually in the form of moxibustion) can increase Galanin levels and help to repair neurological injury.
 
Am J Chin Med. 1992;20(2):103-14

It seems that more people read our articles on pot than anything else, so I guess we are a market driven blog …. it turns out the latest is that a chemical in cannabis called Cannabidiol, was shown to be a strong anti-oxidant and prevented colitis in mice. In other words, if you have any kind of inflammatory bowel disease, you have a good reason to take a “trip” to your local cannabis prescribing physician. So now the list of reasons to get a cannabis prescription will likely include constipation, diarrhea, etc. However, if you’re targeting the colon, smoking cannabis is unlikely to help as much as eating it. And, in fact, this active ingredient is not psychotropic, so they are looking into making a pharmaceutical out of it.
 
J Mol Med. 2009 Aug 20.

In two separate recent studies, blueberries have been shown to prevent insulin resistance and diabetes. They also prevented degenerative gene changes that induce inflammatory cascades, potentially helping to prevent the development of chronic degenerative diseases. In one of the studies, rats were given a diabetes producing diet. One group was administered blueberries along with the bad diet, the other was not. In the blueberry group, the rats were protected from developing insulin resistance and high blood sugar levels. The rats not fed blueberries developed diabetes and insulin resistance. So if you have a family history of diabetes or metabolic syndrome you should consider adding blueberries to your diet regularly. Also, if you are overweight or already diabetic, you should consider adding blueberries to your regimen.
 
J Nutr. 2009 Aug;139(8):1510-6.
Int J Obes (Lond). 2009 Aug 18.

In a very interesting study (done on mice), researchers found that certain acupuncture points protected the brain from inflammation due to immune system activation (specifically it inhibited microglial activation). Some of the top brain scientists (e.g., Russell Blaylock, MD - neurosurgeon) believe that microglial cell activiation may be one of the causes of the wide variety of neurological disorders attributed to vaccinations. Therefore, if you would like to vaccinate your children but are worried about the risks, acupuncture may be one way to get the benefits of vaccination while minimizing the risk of adverse events. Please note that the timing may be important. In this study, treatments were administered 2 hours post injection and then every 48 hours thereafter for one week. The study used GB34 and Lr3.
 
Brain Research. Feb 2007. Vol. 1131(p.211-219)

Psoriasis can be a really tough disease, with no really great treatments in conventional medicine. HERB medicine may provide some relief. A recent study found that marijuana could substantially help control psoriasis. Psoriasis is a disease of too much skin cell replication (technically called epidermal keratinocyte hyper-proliferation), and involves an inflammatory process. Researchers found that these cells contain Cannabinoid receptors that can help control this growth. So cannabis is known to be both anti-inflammatory AND can activate these receptors. Of course there are a wide variety of side effects that it can cause for many people, like the munchies, uncontrollable laughing, relaxation, etc. Of course researchers are trying to make cannabis analogues that can activate the same receptors, but won’t cause such annoying side effects … oh and of course that is patentable… wait are we being paranoid? … oh yeah, that’s another side effect.
 
J Dermatol Sci. 2007 Feb;45(2):87-92

In a new study in a journal that is considered to be THE authoritative word in Western medicine, Chinese medicine was shown to be superior to conventional treatments for endometriosis. This study reviewed all of the available literature on the subject matter. The study found that Chinese herbal medicine had both better treatment efficacy and fewer side effects than the conventional treatments.
 
Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2009 Jul 8;(3)

Here’s a picture comparing a rotten coconut to a fresh one. Unfortunately, many places will give you rotten coconuts and mix them in with your drinks etc. If you are going to drink coconut juice its better to be able to at least see the meat (e.g., at whole foods some of the coconuts are opened partially so you can see the meat and poke a hole in the top to drink the water). Both of these coconuts were from whole foods. If it hasn’t been partially opened, we find we have about a 40% chance of getting a rotten one.
 

If you’ve ever wondered whether eating fish could impact your fertility the answer is “yes it can.” EPA and DHA, two important fats in fish were found to correlate with fertility. In this study, they found a correlation between infertile patients and low levels of EPA and DHA. However, eating fish is not the best option. This is one of the rare cases where supplements are better than food. Fish tends to be contaminated with heavy metals that can damage your fertility. In this case, taking fish oils is beneficial for many people (note that fish oils are very bad for some people, depending on the inflammation level). Make sure you use a company that checks every batch. There’s a game where cheaper fish oils are claiming to be mercury free, etc. but they only test their fish every so often. It’s not lying but very misleading and can be dangerous. Also, supplementing with DHA only won’t do the trick, you need EPA as well. In our clinic we use Telomere Labs, which we find is also very tolerable for patients in terms of not burping them up. Another company is Ascenta that has good oils and checks every batch.
 
Hum Fertil (Camb). 2009 Mar;12(1):28-33