Green Tea: A New Weapon Against Prostate Cancer?

Many medical “discoveries” have occurred quite by happenstance. For instance, consider the story of Green Tea which began some 5,000 years ago when, as Chinese legend has it, leaves from a nearby Camellia sinensis tree fell into an emperor’s boiling pot of water. The leaves turned the water a light-brown color and gave off a delightful aroma. The emperor, upon taking a sip, found it also had an excellent taste and proclaimed it as “heaven sent.” Since then, the delectable brew has been considered a health-promoting beverage in China; used to treat everything from headaches to depression.

Today, a wealth of studies has provided hard evidence for its positive effects on health. Drinking green tea is reputed to promote heart health, lower high cholesterol levels, lessen free radical damage to cells, fight obesity, inhibit the abnormal formation of blood clots, and slow the progression of age-related cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers now say that certain compounds in green tea may actually slow the progression of prostate cancer, a disease that kills more men each year in the United States than any cancer other than lung cancer.

Previous studies have shown that green tea may be linked to a reduced incidence of prostate cancer, and its polyphenols have been regarded as a potential cancer therapy. But last year, the FDA announced that the evidence for green tea benefits was inconclusive, because people consume relatively small quantities. So, Dr. James Cardelli, and his colleagues at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in Shreveport, carried out a clinical trial to determine the effects of short-term supplementation with increased amounts of the active compounds in green tea on the progression of prostate cancer.

The small study consisted of 26 men between 41 and 68 years of age who had been diagnosed with prostate cancer and were scheduled for radical prostatectomy. The men were put on a daily dose of four capsules containing a total of 1.3 grams of polyphenon E, equivalent to about 12 cups of normally brewed concentrated green tea, for 12 to 73 days (with an average time of 34.5 days), until the day before surgery. Blood tests showed a significant reduction in serum levels of three biomarkers associated with the growth and spread of prostate cancer: hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and prostate specific antigen (PSA).

On an average, HGF decreased 18.9 percent, VEGF decreased by 9.9 percent and PSA dropped by 10.4 percent. Some patients demonstrated reductions of more than 30 percent. The researchers said that in vitro, EGCG (the main catechin in polyphenon E) swiftly blocked the production of HGF, and the block “seems to be at the level of transcription.” EGCG also blocked the production of VEGF, which plays a critical role in the angiogenic process in cancer-associated fibroblasts, they noted. Age, race, and time on the drug did not have a significant effect on the changes in serum biomarkers.

Previous studies have suggested that high levels of EGCG may have adverse effects on liver function, but in this study the liver function of the patients remained normal. “Our results show a significant reduction in serum levels of PSA, HGF, and VEGF in men with prostate cancer after brief treatment with EGCG (Polyphenon E), with no elevation of liver enzymes. These findings support a potential role for Polyphenon E in the treatment or prevention of prostate cancer,” the researchers concluded.

Dr. Cardelli admits that the study is still in an early stage and that the findings need to be verified by larger, placebo-controlled trials. “Green tea can keep cancer from growing very fast, but it may not be able to shrink tumors,” he said. “But it can be a good addition to traditional therapies, like chemotherapy or radiation.”

“We think that the use of tea polyphenols alone or in combination with other compounds currently used for cancer therapy should be explored as an approach to prevent cancer progression and recurrence," Dr. Cardelli said. “There is reasonably good evidence that many cancers are preventable, and our studies using plant-derived substances support the idea that plant compounds found in a healthy diet can play a role in preventing cancer development and progression.”

John Neate, chief executive of the Prostate Cancer Charity, says though there have been a number of studies into the potential benefits of green tea, there is no conclusive evidence. “The results of this study do suggest that there is merit in further research into the effects of extracts of green tea, both in relation to its impact on the prevention of prostate cancer and in controlling progression in men already diagnosed with the disease, as was investigated in this instance,” he said. “These initial positive findings could indicate that green tea could have a place in ‘active surveillance’, where a slow-growing, low risk tumor is monitored for changes and men want to take something which could help keep progression at bay.”

“Potentially, this could mean completely avoiding, in some cases, any of the more usual medical interventions and their associated side effects,” Neate said.

Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death among American men. According to the American Cancer Society, prostate cancer will be diagnosed in 192,280 men and will kill 27,360 in 2009. Men over 50 are urged to get tested for the disease annually, however very few do, putting them at risk of being diagnosed at a later stage rather than earlier in the cancer process.

The study is published in the journal Cancer Prevention Research.
By: Madeline Ellis
Published: Monday, 22 June 2009
http://www.healthnews.com/natural-health/green-tea-a-new-weapon-against-prostate-cancer-3339.html

Color can be a prescription for stress relief and body balance

More Health News 03:25 PM Mountain Standard Time on Wednesday, February 18, 2009 Brandy Aguilar, Special Projects Producer
9 p.m. Extra: Color Therapy

“There's the outside stress which is something I can't control and with the economy and I'm in real estate and there are things I just have to deal with,” admits Kerri Shearer.

She feels like a lot of people these days...stressed out. To help her wind down she turned to Naturopathic Dr. Donese Worden. Shearer says, “I was completely open to it and it didn't scare me. I thought it was actually interesting.”

She is hoping color can conquer her stress. Dr. Worden explains, “Our cells communicate to each other through light frequency. We are literally beings of light and that's how our cells and blood, everything we’re made of, communicates so it makes sense we put in different frequencies and, in this case color, it makes a big difference physiologically to the patient.”

Color therapy can be used to balance energy in areas of our bodies that are lacking vibrance, whether it be physical, emotional, spiritual or mental. Dr. Worden says, “We’re just giving the body the energy it needs to fix itself. If they have depression, we will use orange or red and give them energy and pull them out. If they’re stressed out we don't want to use red. We use blue or green.”

Dr. Worden says blue and green are supposed to give off a relaxing effect. She explains, “The most powerful chemical we've got, even beyond drugs, are what are own brain makes so if we’re ready and receptive for this type of therapy we'll get a better effect then if we have resistance.”

Other tools that can be used in conjunction with color therapy are aromatherapy, lasers, and acupuncture.” Dr. Worden says, “Most people in their first session within just a matter of minutes are feeling it. They can notice it, they feel it and it's not something that takes long periods of time to change the body.”

As for Shearer, she says her stressful days are long gone. “It felt good because I felt like I was on this little journey, emotionally, but physically I know it was helping as well.”

http://www.azfamily.com/news/local/stories/Phoenix-health-news-021809-color-therapy-9pm-extra.2bc45212.html

Alain Parkinson Luminarium at Budapest's Sziget Music Festival

Alain Parkinson is a British artist who designed an inflatable 'Luminarium' to serve as a chillout space during the Budapest Sziget Music Festival. The festival is held on an island on the Danube river running through the city, and has been running since 1993. In 2006 attendance neared 400,000, and this year it seems that it will reach that capacity again.

Circadian math: 1 plus 1 doesn't always equal 2

Researchers have found that the circadian system may be able to distinguish between lights of different colors. Credit: Rensselaer/Lighting Research Center

Like a wristwatch that needs to be wound daily for accurate time-telling, the human circadian system — the biological cycles that repeat approximately every 24 hours — requires daily light exposure to the eye's retina to remain synchronized with the solar day. In a new study published in the June issue of Neuroscience Letters, researchers have demonstrated that when it comes to the circadian system, not all light exposure is created equal.

The findings have profound implications for exploring how lighting can be used to adjust our bodies' clocks, and they could redefine the way lighting is manufactured, according to Mariana Figueiro, lead author of the paper and assistant professor in the Lighting Research Center (LRC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Short-wavelength light, including natural light from the blue sky, is highly effective at stimulating the circadian system. Exposure to other wavelengths — and thus colors — of light may necessitate longer exposure times or require higher exposure levels to be as effective at "winding the watch."

In some instances, exposure to multiple wavelengths (colors) of light simultaneously can result in less total stimulation to the circadian system than would result if either color were viewed separately, a phenomenon known as "spectral opponency." The LRC scientists have shown that the circadian system shares neurons in the retina — which exhibit spectral opponency and form the foundation for our perception of color — with the visual system. Thus, in principle, the circadian system may be able to distinguish between lights of different colors.

More than meets the eye

To demonstrate that the circadian system exhibited spectral opponency formed in the retina, the researchers exposed 10 subjects to three experimental conditions: one unit of blue light to the left eye plus one unit of green light to the right eye; one unit of blue light to the right eye plus one unit of green light to the left eye; and half a unit of blue light plus half a unit of green light to both eyes and then measured each individual's melatonin levels, a natural indicator of the circadian clock.

"The first two conditions — exposure to a single color in each eye — did not result in a significant difference in melatonin suppression, while the third condition — exposure to both colors in both eyes — resulted in significantly less melatonin suppression," said Figueiro. "Even though the amount of light at the eye was the same in all three conditions, when the two colors of light were combined in the same eye, the response of the system was reduced due to spectral opponent mechanisms formed in the retina."

This indicates that spectral opponency is a fundamental characteristic of how the human retina converts light into neural signals in the human circadian system, according to Figueiro.

The findings also verify the accuracy of a new quantification system LRC researchers developed in 2006 to calculate the "circadian efficacy" of different light sources. Called the model of human circadian phototransduction,
the tool correctly predicted the circadian system response demonstrated under each of the three experimental conditions.

The model appears to correctly predict the circadian response to any light source, and can be used as the foundation for a new system of circadian photometry, much like the current system of photometry based on human vision.

Quantification of light as a stimulus for the circadian system provide new scientific insights into how the human body processes light for the circadian system, according to Figueiro.

Nocturnal melatonin, a hormone produced at night and under conditions of darkness, is used as a marker for the circadian clock. Scientific evidence suggests that disruption of the circadian system — and thus the melatonin cycle — may result in increased malignant tumor growth, as well as poor sleep quality, lack of alertness, seasonal depression, and immune deficiencies.

Now that the model can predict circadian efficacy for any light source, Figueiro and her research partners have begun studying the way time of night affects the potency of light exposure. Once complete, the comprehensive model will allow manufacturers to develop light sources that most effectively stimulate and, importantly, do not stimulate the circadian system.

Source: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
http://www.physorg.com/news132055021.html
Published: 10:57 EST, June 07, 2008

Why you need green exercise

It's no wonder that fitness resolutions tend to fizzle in February. Chicagoans vow to get in shape at the worst possible time of the year, just when miserable weather forces us indoors.

We do have health clubs. And winter kicks off the mall-walking season. ("Meet in the food court!"). But some suspect we need more than just physical exercise to stay healthy. We need the emotional healing benefits of green exercise.

Also known as eco-therapy, green exercise simply means doing something, almost anything, outside. You won't necessarily burn more calories in nature's green gym.

But you can get substantial mental health benefits—reduced stress, depression and anger and enhanced mood and self-esteem—simply by seeking out the natural world, according to growing evidence from researchers in the U.S., Scandinavia and Britain.

In fact, in color therapy, green balances the nervous system and is believed to have a calming, soothing effect. It stimulates growth, and exposure to it is said to help those those suffering from depression, anxiety and nervousness.

Reconnecting with the environment could be as simple as viewing nature in a picture or through a window. Studies have shown that prisoners and hospital patients reported better health when living in rooms that face farmland and trees rather than brick walls.

Scenery also made a difference for another group of shut-ins: treadmill runners, according to researchers at the University of Essex in Britain. They found that runners who zoned out on idyllic rural views during a 20-minute run had the most substantial drop in blood pressure and the most improved psychological outcomes. The runners forced to look at gritty city environments, or "urban unpleasant" views, fared the worst.

Even those who had "no view" on the treadmill reported better outcomes than the ones looking at the run-down urban scenes.

Or green exercise could mean sitting in a park, biking to work, walking, fishing or digging in the dirt. The stress-reduction benefits of healing gardens in hospitals (which we could now call “green care”) date to the Middle Ages. And some say our modern hospitals, which focus on treating disease, have abandoned the healing properties that the connection to nature can bring.

Even mall walking, which can feel more fatiguing than an hour run, doesn't boost self-esteem as much as strolling through the woods for those diagnosed with mental health problems, according to Jules Pretty, a professor of environment and society at the University of Essex, a hotbed of green-exercise research.

"Clearly nature delivers important health benefits if we reorganize lifestyles and behaviors," Pretty recently wrote in a commentary published in New Scientist.

The biggest challenge, Pretty said, is redesigning cities to get people to walk more during normal working days.

"Fifty years ago, an average adult ran the equivalent of a marathon a week more than an average adult does today—and that was not running, just walking, cycling, being more active in the home," said Pretty, author of "The Earth Only Endures: Reconnecting With Nature and Our Place in It" (Earthscan, $29.95). "No wonder obesity is such a problem."

Locally, groups are working on ways to make green exercise easy and inevitable. Chicago's upcoming daylong Modeshift Conference 2008, to be held Feb. 28 at the Metcalf Federal Building, 77 W. Jackson Blvd., focuses on transforming a community’s transportation habits by teaching participants how to convert car trips to walking, biking and public transit.

This laudable goal is important for both ethical and economic reasons. But Pretty and other green-exercise advocates argue that there is another very good reason for conservation: the psychological and healing benefits of nature.

"Nature and living things, it seems, tend to make most people feel good," Pretty said. "The idea that the quality of nature in people's home neighborhood affects their mental health is not a new one, but it has not greatly affected the planning of our urban and rural environments, nor of public health priorities.

"Establishing emotional connections with the environment also inspires people to think about conservation and climate change," Pretty explained. "That, in turn, is likely to encourage environmentally friendly behaviors, a virtuous cycle of benefit to the environment."

Register for Modeshift, which is presented by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation, at biketraffic.org/modeshift.
http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/features_julieshealthclub/2008/02/the-best-brain.html

Could Color Help You Sleep?

The Role Of Chromatherapy In Finding An Insomnia Cure
Chromatherapy, or color therapy, involves the use of color to promote general health and also to treat particular maladies (including sleep-oriented problems).

Useful in treating both emotional and physical sleep disturbances, chromatherapy may involve exposure to colored lights, massages using color-saturated oils and salves, meditation and visualization of certain colors, or the wearing of certain colors of clothing.

The use of color in the treatment of a wide variety of disorders dates back many centuries. Some 2,500 years ago, Pythagoras applied color light therapeutically and "color halls" were used for healing in ancient Egypt, China and India.

In the days of ancient Egypt, practitioners built solariums with specifically designed glasses and lenses that served to break up the sun's rays into the colors of the spectrum.

In the late 17th century modern-day color theory was born when English mathematician and philosopher Sir Isaac Newton conducted his prism experiments and showed that light is truly a mixture of colors from the visible spectrum.

In India, practitioners of Ayurvedic medicine believe that specific colors correspond with each of the seven chakras - vortices of energy in the body that represent organs, emotions, and aspects of the soul or life force.

But it was not until the late 1800s, when Dr. Edwin D. Babbitt published his book, Principles of Light and Color, that Chromatherapy as we know it was outlined.

In this work, Dr. Babbitt suggests the use of color as a treatment for a variety of ailments, including sleep and anxiety disorders.

In the late 1940s, Russian researcher S.V. Krakov conducted a series of experiments in which he separated the different wavelengths in the light spectrum to show how color affects the nervous system.

In his experiments, he observed that red light stimulated the adrenal glands, raising blood pressure and pulse rate, and that blue and white light had a calming, relaxing effect.

Many practitioners still use the results of Krakov's studies today and commonly recommend his brand of color therapy for the treatment of stress and stress-related pain.

Today, many mainstream researchers commonly turn to chromatherapy for the treatment of a variety of ailments - particularly sleep disorders.

Color is a property of light, which comprises many different waves of energy. When light falls upon the photoreceptor cells of the retina, it is converted into electrical impulses that travel to the brain and trigger the release of hormones.

The release of these hormones in controlled bursts can be used to treat your body and mind for many of the medical conditions that hinder sleep as well as to promote conditions that are conducive to sleep and rest.

While many forms of chromatherapy can and should only be practiced by licensed practitioners and/or medical doctors, some forms of color therapy are simple and safe enough to be practiced in the comfort of your own home. These include wearing clothing of particular hues, surrounding yourself with a recommended color, eating certain colorful foods, and concentrating on visualizing a particular color.

Each of the seven colors of the spectrum is associated with specific healing properties.

Violet
Violet promotes enlightenment, revelation, and spiritual awakening. Violet is often used to soothe organs, relax muscles, and calm the nervous system.

Indigo
Indigo is also sedative and calming. It is said to promote intuition. Indigo may be useful in controlling bleeding and abscesses.

Blue
Blue promotes communication and knowledge. It eliminates toxins, and is used to treat liver disorders and jaundice.

Green
Because it falls in the middle of the color spectrum, green is associated with balance. Green is calming, and is used by Ayurvedic practitioners to promote healing of ulcers. It is said to have antiseptic and antibacterial properties and is sometimes used by holistic color therapists to treat bacterial infections.

Yellow
Yellow is a sensory stimulant associated with wisdom and clarity. It is thought to have decongestant and antibacterial properties, and is useful in stimulating both the digestive and lymphatic systems.

Orange
Orange promotes pleasure, enthusiasm, and sexual stimulation. Ayurvedic practitioners believe it has antibacterial properties and may be useful in easing digestive system discomforts such as flatulence and cramps.

Red
Red promotes energy, empowerment, and stimulation. It is thought to improve circulation and stimulate red blood cell production.
http://help-me-to-sleep.com/insomnia/chromatherapy.html

Other Offerings Now Available To Help Induce Sleep
Located in midtown Manhattan, Yelo offers its patrons the opportunity to take 20- to 40-minute naps in YeloCabs, which use a patented YeloNap sleep technology. The YeloCabs are private rooms that use light and color therapies, and also offer a "zero gravity" chair that elevates the legs above the heart to encourage maximum relaxation. Being well rested comes at a price however, and a 20-minute nap costs
$12.

The Transport

The shiny egg-shaped Transport offers a womb-like elliptical opening that aims to evoke a sense of comfort and relaxation. This handmade, custom-ordered piece, which retails for $13,000, is not specifically marketed as a napping device. It does, however, provide a nap-friendly, trance-inducing environment of color, music, and vibration that can be employed in bedrooms and spas. The napper lies on a fluffy cloud-like cushion, set atop a temperature-controlled water bed.

The Many Ways of Applying Color

There are many ways in applying color in a therapeutic way to the body. They would include colored fabrics,
preferably silk or cotton and you can either lay on, drape over the body or wear. Applying light to the body by means of a color torches
or filters, where with the color torch you can stimulate the meridians
and acupuncture points and small areas such as spots, cuts, burns, etc., or by attaching the filters to a lighting device
and shinning over the entire body or taping in a sunny window and creating colored sun spots. As well, you can make solarized water
, the ways on making it are a few post down the blog,and by working with gems
and crystals. And, also by consumption, getting the colors through the foods you choose. These are a few ways to get you started in healing through color therapy.