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fpa has commissioned NOP Research to test people's knowledge about reproduction, including a sex quiz on the website and lots more. Contraceptive Awareness Week runs from 12-14 Feb. To find out more, go to www.fpa.org.uk. For confidential advice on any aspect of sexual health fpa’s national helpline is open Monday to Friday 9am - 6pm. Phone 0845 310 1334. A failure to enjoy full intercourse is more common than most people think - affecting a significant number of men and women at some time in their life. It can be very distressing and people are hesitant to get support because they feel embarrassed. National Impotence Day (14th February) aims to raise public and medical profession awareness of this stigmatised but common condition. Contact www.impotence.org.uk for support and information.
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by
Susan E. Brown, Ph.D., CCN The health of our bones is no exception to this "rule of balance" and bone wellness clearly depends on one's ability to maintain a dynamic state of symmetry. In the simplest terms, bone health depends upon a balance between two forces: those forces which stimulate new bone formation (carried out by the bone building osteoblast cells), and those forces which promote bone breakdown (a task done by specialised cells known as osteoclasts). When osteoclastic bone breakdown activity is greater than osteoblastic bone formation activity, bone density is lost and if prolonged, osteoporosis develops. THE
DELICATE BALANCE OF ACID AND ALKALINE The most important of all bone-affecting balances, however, is the least well known. This equilibrium involves the delicate chemical balance of acid and alkaline within our bodies. It is rarely is it recognized that the body is "alkaline by design, but acid by function", as Dr. Ted Morter emphasizes in his book, An Apple A Day - Is It Enough? Minute by minute, the body is challenged with balancing and neutralising the enormous quantity of acids created through energy production. Minute by minute, the body employs various mechanisms to regain the life-supporting, slightly alkaline environment required for human physiological functioning. THE
CALCIUM PARADOX How could people in Sri Lanka, Peru, Africa or China maintain life-long healthy bones on 200 to 500 mgs of calcium a day, while many of us developed brittle bones on 1,500 mgs of calcium or more per day? The answer is largely because Westernised populations have overburdened our bodies with an excessive acid load, throwing our all-important acid-alkaline equilibrium way out of balance. In less than a century, we have unwittingly developed a diet and lifestyle which wastes calcium and other alkalinising minerals to the great detriment of our bone health. Let's briefly explore just how this chemical mishap occurs, and what we can do to regain a bone enhancing, acid-alkaline balance. THE
BUFFER ZONE The net renal urine acid load is largely determined by the amount of protein - particularly meat protein - in the diet. Proteins are high in sulphur-containing amino acids (cysteine, cystine and methionine) which are metabolised to produce sulphuric acid. The metabolism of three other amino acids - lysine, arginine and histadine - also results in an accumulation of hydrogen ions, which is an increased acidity. These acids must be buffered to maintain a slightly alkaline chemistry overall for life to continue. It is the alkali reserves created from the metabolism of fruits and vegetables that allow us to buffer the excess acids produced by protein metabolism. Therefore, if you have plenty of alkalising mineral reserves of organic sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium and iron you can neutralise the acids produced by moderate meat consumption.
BONE-ROBBING
PROTEIN For example, a study of elderly meat-eaters showed that the loss of calcium in the urine nearly doubled when moving from a moderate to high protein diet. Study subjects on the moderate protein diet had a positive calcium balance (+40 mg), but they were in negative calcium balance when eating the high protein diet (-64 mg), resulting in a 64 mg daily loss of calcium in the urine. And just how consequential would a long-term, 64 mg daily loss of calcium turn out to be? According to bone health researchers Barzel and Massey, a 50 mg increase in urinary calcium loss per day would result in a 18.25 gram loss per year, or a loss of 365 grams calcium over 20 years. This would translate into a loss of one-half total skeletal calcium stores of the average female and a one-third loss for the average male's. GRAB
AN UN-COLA On
the positive side, we protect ourselves from the bone-depleting
effects of an acidogenic diet through increased intake of fruits,
vegetables and other alkalinizing foods. For example, urinary calcium
losses were reduced from 157 mg a day to 110 mgs when fruit and
vegetable consumption was raised from a 3.6 to 9.5 servings a day. It doesn't take a Ph.D. in anthropology or nutrition to see that our grandmothers were right - an apple a day, plus several other servings of fruits and vegetables, will help keep the doctor away by optimising our internal acid-alkaline balance. MONITORING
YOUR pH
Biographical
note:
The
digestive system takes quite a hammering during the winter months
with the liver and the
Unlike many other red clover products available on the high street, which are made from dried leaves, and have a variable isoflavone content, Novogen Redclover contains a standardised 40mg extract of isoflavones from the red clover plant, providing in one tablet the sort of level available in a traditional healthy legume based diet. Tracey Foster who experienced an early menopause said, "I'd get horrendous mood swings. Inevitably this put a huge strain on my marriage. I developed acne and began getting hot flushes from my chest to my cheeks." Eventually having rejected conventional HRT, Tracey discovered Novogen Redclover through a support organisation for young women going through the menopause. Tracey found that, "In a matter of weeks I felt like my old self again: The black cloud hanging over me totally lifted and I was my usual bubbly, chatty self again." Novogen Redclover is available from The Nutri Centre online at www.nutricentre.com. Novogen Redclover tablets cost £18.99 for 30 tablets or £39.99 for 90.
With that in mind, Ideal Bite was created in early 2005 as the ultimate online source of clever ideas that are good for both people and the planet. Idea Bite empowers readers through tips, opinionated editorial and lively interaction. Facts and suggestions on green food, travel, products, services, and more are spoon-fed daily via email, and editors' personal stories about using those tips are found in daily blog postings. The mission is to create a sustainable economy. The approach is real, and really fun. Ideal Bite is a sassier shade of green. Check out www.idealbite.com for more information or to sign up for daily email tips.
National
Work Your Proper Hours Day is
February 23rd, 2007. This is one day in the year Over five million people at work in the UK regularly do unpaid overtime, giving their employers £23 billion of free work every year. If you're one of them, why not take some time to reflect on how well (or badly) you're balancing your life? Long hours are not good for us - they cause stress, they're bad for our health, they wreck relationships, they make caring for children or dependents more difficult - and tired, burnt-out staff are bad for business. People do long hours for a variety of very different reasons. The workSMART website offers an online quiz to identify the root of the problem for you, tips on tackling unpaid overtime, and information about the UK's long hours culture. Click here to visit the Work Your Proper Hours Day website.
If you are receiving this newsletter as text only, you can now view the full online version by clicking here. You can also access our entire archive of newsletters by clicking here. * Disclaimer: The advice in this newsletter should not be taken as a substitute for medical advice or treatment, especially if you know you have a specific health complaint. Our advice is that you find a GP who is sympathetic to the usefulness of natural medicine. |
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With
Valentine's Day only two weeks away, it's a good time to talk openly
about sexual health. There is much myth and misinformation
surrounding how men's and women's bodies actually work - especially
when trying to avoid pregnancy. These myths can affect how well
people use contraception and what to do when it fails. This year
fpa (Family Planning Association) is going to expose
some of these fairytales and set some records straight. 
It
pays to work on your reproductive health before you even start trying
for a baby. In about 40% of cases, the male partner is reckoned
to be grossly deficient in the nutrients that nourish healthy sperm,
especially zinc - which affects every aspect of reproductive health,
and especially the longevity of sperm in the vaginal tract. It is
lost during ejaculation and also has a kind of domino effect in
the body so that levels of other minerals, especially magnesium
-which influences how sperm clumps together - will also be low verging
on deficient. In both partners, the main issue is usually malabsorption
- so the first thing both partners need to do is to get the body
back to optimum health so it can absorb the nutrients you do eat
and to then keep it free of toxins. For further information
on 
My
personal awareness of the importance of this acid-alkaline balance
developed as I began rethinking osteoporosis from the perspectives
of both an anthropologist and a nutritionist. I quickly noticed
what appeared to be a "calcium paradox" in that populations
around the world with the lowest calcium intakes also had the lowest
rates of osteoporosis.
SEARCHING
FOR BONE
So,
how much protein is too much and how much damage can really be done?
The RDA for protein ranges roughly from 46-58 grams per day, which
varies according to sex and weight. Higher protein consumption has
been associated with increased acid excretion, increased urine calcium
loss and decreased bone density.
While excessive protein taxes our acid-alkaline balance, it is not
the only problematic dietary item. Acid forms of phosphate are also
great bone robbers. Colas, for example, contain phosphoric acid
and have a pH ranging from 2.8 to 3.2. As our kidneys cannot excrete
urine with a pH lower (more acid) than 5, the cola would have to
be diluted 100-fold to achieve an
The
next step is to alkalise your diet as needed by eating more alkalising
foods. Many good-for-you fruits, vegetables and spices are alkalising.
Some of the most alkaline foods include umeboshi plums,
pumpkin seeds, lentils, yams, mineral water, cinnamon, limes, nectarines,
persimmons, raspberry, watermelon, tangerines, and pineapples.
Eat more of these if your first morning urine has a pH of less than
6.5. On the other end of the spectrum, some of the most acidic (and
detrimental) foods include processed cheese, table salt,
cottonseed oil, fried foods, coffee, and aspartame. 
pancreas suffering the most. A.Vogel has two products
that will support the gut and enable it to get maximum benefit from
the nutrients in the diet. Easy-to-take Milk Thistle Complex
and Molkosan Vitality help get the body ready for
Spring.
Novogen
Redclover
food supplement is one of the richest sources of natural isoflavones
and the result of over fifteen years of research. It offers relief
from menopause symptoms such as hot flushes, night sweats
and mood swings, making it an ideal natural alternative
to 
The
concept behind this US-based website is an easy one - if we all
knew what to do in our day-to-day lives to help impact the planet
and our communities positively and painlessly (and without preachiness),
we would all do it. And if that know-how came to us in a fun, pithy,
sometimes irreverent way - so much the better.
to make the most of your own time. Take a proper lunchbreak and
leave work on time to enjoy your Friday evening - You deserve it!
