Though I’ve sometimes experienced insomnia, the sleep disorder on the other end of the spectrum, narcolepsy, is foreign, though intriguing, to me. I recently came across a new study that sheds some light on the cause of the disorder.
Narcolepsy affects about one in 2,000 people, and researchers are coming closer to understanding this disease characterized by daytime drowsiness, irregular sleep at night and a sudden loss of muscle tone and strength.
According to researchers at Stanford, Narcolepsy is an auto-immune disease.
The new study was published online at Nature Genetics.
The researchers discovered that a specific variation of a gene belonging to T …read more

According to a new study published in Arthritis Research & Therapy, a gluten-free vegan diet may improve symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis, which is not only a debilitating condition on its own, but also associated with an increased risk of atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) and cardiovascular diseases.
A research team at Karolinska Institutet has shown in a new study that a gluten-free vegan diet has a beneficial effect on cardiovascular risk factors in people with rheumatoid arthritis. The effect was seen when a group of patients who kept to a gluten-free vegan diet for a year were compared with a control …read more

Here’s another reason why mulled wines may be considered as health drinks: cinnamon confers a lot of health benefits: lowers LDL cholesterol and blood sugar, prevents leukemia and lymphoma, antimicrobial, anti-blood clotting, anti-arthritis, and many others.
Aside from mulled wine, gingerbreads and other holiday treats, what other recipes do you know of that calls for cinnamon?

Probiotics has been considered to be a powerful tool in helping strengthen immune systems and reduce the effects of allergies, asthma, and other chronic immune-related diseases.
Although I find this article to be a bit too negative on the use of antibiotics, it does explain well how probiotics can put our body microflora into balance, particularly after a long treatment regimen with antibiotics.
“It’s important to remember that the other half of the therapy is to replant the forest with the good bacteria,” Huffnagle says. And while scientists are still trying to determine exactly how the microflora in the digestive tract …read more

My son had dairy allergies as a toddler. He has outgrown them now, thank heavens, but there was a time when I was looking for alternative calcium sources for milk-allergics and found out that sesame seeds can be a suitable option.
Apparently, not only are they rich in calcium (a quarter-cup supplies up to more than a third of the daily value for calcium), it’s also rich in

calcium, and provides pain relief for rheumatoid arthritis
magnesium, which is important for managing asthma, high blood pressure, migraine attacks, and sleep in menopausal women
zinc, a trace element important for bone health and preventing …read more

It seems like for every study that hails coffee, another one comes up extolling the benefits of tea, particularly green tea. Previously demonstrated to help prevent autoimmune diease, scientists have further shown in animal trials that green tea may have be a potential treatment for psoriasis, lupus, dandruff and other autoimmune inflammatory skin diseases.
Researchers studied an animal model for inflammatory skin diseases, which are often characterized by patches of dry, red, flaky skin caused by the inflammation and overproduction of skin cells. Those treated with green tea showed slower growth of skin cells and the …read more

Soon, green tea is going to be a panacea for all diseases, I think. Because of its epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) content, green tea has been demonstrated to have potentials in preventing or treating autoimmune diseases, HIV infection, cancer, and others.
A new study also suggests that EGCG may also provide therapeutic benefits to people with rheumatoid arthritis.
The researchers looked at whether the green tea compound has the capability to block the activity of two potent molecules, IL-6 and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), which also are actively involved in causing bone erosion in the joints of people with rheumatoid arthritis.
[In untreated cells], a sequence …read more

Results from an animal trial suggest that green tea may help prevent autoimmune diseases such as Sjogren’s Syndrome, a chronic disease in which white blood cells attack the moisture-producing glands that produce tears and saliva.
Researchers studied the salivary glands of the water-consuming group and a green tea extract-consuming group to look for inflammation and the number of lymphocytes, a type of white blood cells that gather at sites of inflammation to fend off foreign cells.
The group treated with green tea had significantly fewer lymphocytes, Dr. Hsu says. Their blood also showed lower levels of autoantibodies, …read more