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Immune System and Immunity Enhancement Articles
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- ***The Potency of Parsley - by Submitted on Dec 21, 2010 from Bette DowdellParsley is the Rodney Dangerfield of herbs; it gets no respect. Probably not even from Rodney Dangerfield. We’re talking NO respect. Once upon a time, most restaurants used parsley as a perky, colorful accompaniment on your plate, whatever you ordered. Most eaters ignored it, though, pretty ...
Views: 3152 - ***The Problem With Medicine - by Submitted on Dec 10, 2010 from Bette DowdellSenator Patrick Lehman and Representative Henry Waxman rush about, day after day, year after year, to do Big Pharma’s bidding. Let’s talk about where this takes us. Big Pharma, the major pharmaceutical companies, is about money. They advertise their wares as wonders created especially to ...
Views: 1150 - ***Vote For Your Health - by Submitted on Oct 27, 2010 from Bette DowdellBette Dowdell Medicine is a mess. Doctors don’t even try to heal chronic illnesses, content to treat symptoms instead. Probably because that’s all they learned in medical school. But it means their patients--that's us--drag through life, out of gas, running on fumes. Even worse, while some ...
Views: 1256(1 vote) - How To Relieve Aching Muscles - by Submitted on Oct 26, 2010 from Bette DowdellOne of the many miseries that can accompany a whacked-out thyroid–or any member of the endocrine system, for that matter–is muscle pain. Your muscles knot up. They lose flexibility. You creak like you’re 102. And through it all, you ache. One thing for sure, you don’t want to learn to live ...
Views: 2359(1 vote) - ***6 Reasons to Love Saturated Fat - by Submitted on Sep 14, 2010 from Bette DowdellWe’ve probably all heard about Omega 3 and Omega 6 fats. And a lot of what we’ve heard is wrong. Not just a little bit wrong, but standing-on-its head wrong. Let’s check this out. With some exceptions, Omega 6 fats come from plants and Omega 3 fats come from animals. Omega 6, the ...
Views: 1981(1 vote) - Enzymes Mean Health - by Submitted on Aug 27, 2010 from Bette DowdellDisease rates are rocketing to the moon, with no slowdown in sight, because we don’t know how our bodies work. Most of what we’ve been taught is wrong, and doctors, cornered by insurance companies into ten-minute office visits, simply don’t have time to offer instruction. When it comes to ...
Views: 1485(1 vote) - Natural Killers - by Submitted on Aug 12, 2010 from Bette DowdellI’m talking killers, and I’m talking about you. You have natural killers in you. And these natural killers are a good thing. A very good thing. Which is why I’m going to talk about how to keep your natural killers in top shape, ready for action. First, let’s talk about the company ...
Views: 1360 - The Bread Problem - by Submitted on Jul 15, 2010 from Bette DowdellPeople used to call bread “the staff of life.” But those days seem to be gone forever. Bread is now a problem of life. Let me count the ways. • Celiac disease: Caused by an intolerance to gluten–part and parcel of grains–celiac disease gets diagnosed a lot as irritable bowel syndrome, ...
Views: 2251 - Poison Soy - by Submitted on Jul 14, 2010 from Bette DowdellI study health issues for many hours a day. While I focus on endocrine health (thyroid, etc.), I have to cover the health waterfront because the body insists on living as an integrated whole. A balanced, integrated whole. If one part of the body suffers, they all suffer as the body balances ...
Views: 1717 - How Your Body Gets Out Of Whack - by Submitted on Jun 29, 2010 from Bette DowdellCarve this in stone: Your body will balance itself no matter what you think, do or say. This is one of the many things they don’t teach us in school. And I’ve never seen a headline about it on a magazine cover, either. It seems to be somebody’s secret, but we need to let that cat out ...
Views: 2313 - Your Immunity Department Memo - by Submitted on Jun 02, 2010 from Elaine CorreiaWhat if there was a part of you that was in charge of your Immunity? What if there was a 'department', like an internal post office, whose sole purpose was sorting out what belongs to you and is part of your Self, and what does not belong there? The Immune System's primary job is to sort what ...
Views: 1818(1 vote) - They've Gone And Messed With Popcorn - by Submitted on May 17, 2010 from Bette DowdellYou know the world’s upside down when you have to cast a wary at popcorn. Popcorn! What in the world could be wrong with good old popcorn? Well, they’ve gone and messed with it, that’s what. It’s not the simple, innocent, family treat of yesteryear. First off, corn ranks number two in ...
Views: 2098(2 votes) - Silent, Good-looking Help For Allergies - by Submitted on May 06, 2010 from Bette DowdellHalf of us have thyroid problems, mostly undiagnosed or misdiagnosed. A whacked out thyroid tends to drag down the whole endocrine system, of which it is a part. In turn, a misbehaving endocrine system can drag along all kinds of stuff. Stuff you’d never in a million years figure out had ...
Views: 1429(2 votes) - Detox: Friend or Foe? - by Submitted on Apr 28, 2010 from Bette DowdellThe short answer is, for people with endocrine problems, detoxing is a foe. Let’s talk about it. Our endocrine system and our gastrointestinal system–that part of us we’re thinking of detoxing–are joined, in a manner of speaking, at the hip. You can’t affect one without affecting the ...
Views: 1393(1 vote) - It's Not Your Grandmother's Chicken Anymore! - by Submitted on Apr 21, 2010 from Bette DowdellDoesn’t just about everybody like chicken? And doesn’t it bring up memories of the family around the table, enjoying a wholesome meal and good family time? Chicken’s the inexpensive choice, with thousands upon thousands of recipes singing its praises. Well, those were the good old days. I ...
Views: 1290(2 votes) - “Expert” Claims Cure For Thyroid Disease! - by Submitted on Apr 23, 2010 from Bette DowdellSo there I was, standing in line at Walmart, waiting to pay for my hair spray. As I checked out the scenery, such as it was, a Woman’s World magazine leapt to my attention. Oh, it wasn’t the cover picture of Oprah. I mean, the magazine rack looked like an Oprah retrospective, or family album ...
Views: 1548(2 votes) - This Is Your Endocrine System: Pancreas - by Submitted on Apr 05, 2010 from Bette DowdellThe pancreas is below our stomach, front and center, near the bottom of the rib cage. It may be the busiest twelve inches going. First off, just to make things more complicated (and who in the world thought that was necessary?), the pancreas is both an exocrine and an endocrine organ. The ...
Views: 1418(2 votes) - This Is Your Endocrine System: Gonads - by Submitted on Mar 26, 2010 from Bette DowdellThe gonads, testes and ovaries, play a huge role in how the endocrine system works. And we seem to be doing everything we can to put them on the disabled list. We need to talk about this. Everybody has–and needs–estrogen, progesterone and testosterone. Now, obviously men and women, boys and ...
Views: 2151(1 vote) - This Is Your Endocrine System: Adrenals - by Submitted on Mar 09, 2010 from Bette DowdellWe have two adrenal glands, each perched atop a kidney. With your spine dividing your back in two, you can locate a kidney in the middle of each half, with the bottom of the kidney right around the bottom of your rib cage. A few inches above that sits an adrenal gland, topping the kidney like a ...
Views: 1380(2 votes) - This Is Your Endocrine System: Thyroid - by Submitted on Mar 04, 2010 from Bette DowdellOur most well-known endocrine gland is the thyroid. Not nearly as well known is the fact that half the population has thyroid problems, mostly undiagnosed or mistreated. The thyroid, a butterfly-shaped gland located by your Adam’s apple, controls metabolism and affects everything else. You ...
Views: 1144(4 votes) - This Is Your Endocrine System - Pituitary - by Submitted on Mar 02, 2010 from Bette DowdellThe pituitary gland is King of the endocrine hill. A tiny teardrop sort of arrangement, the pituitary hangs from the base of the hypothalamus portion of the brain, not too far behind the bridge of the nose, a vulnerable location for such an important actor. Studies link concussions to ...
Views: 2093(2 votes) - This Is Your Endocrine System - Hypothalamus - by Submitted on Feb 25, 2010 from Bette DowdellThe hypothalamus controls both our nervous system and our endocrine system. Which adds up to pretty much everything that goes on. It’s the tiny king of a vast realm. About the size of an almond and the shape of a little, lumpy pancake, the hypothalamus tucks up under the base of the brain, ...
Views: 3155(2 votes) - This Is Your Endocrine System - by Submitted on Feb 23, 2010 from Bette DowdellGather round as I tell you about something so important that it controls almost everything that goes on inside your body, but so secret that almost nobody knows about it. Oh, a few may know the name of it, but they couldn’t explain it to you–even if you offered them a million dollars. What is ...
Views: 1489(2 votes) - Why Do Doctors Ignore 500-Pound Gorillas? - by Submitted on Feb 19, 2010 from Bette DowdellMedical research is beginning to look more and more like an old Judy Garland/Mickey Rooney movie. A problem rears its ugly head, our plucky protagonists put on a show, the amazingly talented cast of friends and neighbors sings and dances its way to the finale–after which everybody lives happily ...
Views: 982(1 vote) - How Big Pharma Controls Medicine - by Submitted on Jan 20, 2010 from Bette DowdellThe large pharmaceutical companies–Big Pharma–control medicine in the U.S. And they stand between us and good medical care. Let’s be blunt about it. Big Pharma is all about money. First, last and always, it’s about the money. They dress it up with talk about the frontiers of science, ...
Views: 2188(4 votes) - Moobs, PMS And Other Disasters - by Submitted on Nov 23, 2009 from Bette DowdellIf you’ve read much of my stuff, you know that I do go on–and on–about the evils of soy. Why is soy bad? Besides stealing all your minerals, giving you kidney stones and depressing your thyroid function something fierce, soy is, among other things, estrogenic. That is, it adds bogus estrogen ...
Views: 1412(3 votes) - Meeting Your Protein Needs - by Submitted on Nov 17, 2009 from Bette DowdellGood health requires protein. It’s protein that repairs the cells in our body, builds and maintains our muscles and bones, gives us energy and rides herd over a lot of what goes on inside us. And it’s protein that keeps our endocrine system chugging along. Diets with inadequate protein lead down ...
Views: 1602(1 vote) - Is It Leptin That Won't Let You Lose Weight? - by Submitted on Nov 05, 2009 from Bette DowdellThe old curse says “May you live in interesting times.” Well, ‘interesting’ is one way to describe the times we live in. ‘Mind boggling’ might be another. In either case, I think my head’s going to explode. Let’s talk about the new ugly of body fat. Researchers discovered leptin in 1994, ...
Views: 1506(1 vote) - Understanding Hormones - by Submitted on Oct 22, 2009 from Bette DowdellTo most of us, talking about hormones means estrogen, progesterone and testosterone. True enough, they’re hormones, and we all have all of them. Men, women and children have them, in different proportions of course, but none of us can make it without all three working together. But these ...
Views: 1488(2 votes) - Is It Endocrine Problems? - by Submitted on Oct 15, 2009 from Bette DowdellChances that you have endocrine problems are fifty-fifty. It could well be that’s why you feel lower than a snake’s belly. How can that be? How do endocrine problems happen? Let me count the ways. First, let’s look at the pituitary, the master of the endocrine system. The Pituitary Society ...
Views: 1139 - The Danger In Baby Shampoo - by Submitted on Oct 08, 2009 from Bette DowdellThe labels on baby shampoos sure sound good. Gentle. Non-irritating. Everything a good mother could want. And some have pictures of smiling, happy babies to seal the deal. Most of those labels don’t tell the truth. They can’t, because if moms knew the truth, they wouldn’t buy the shampoo. ...
Views: 2035 - The Nutrition Powerhouse We Laugh At - by Submitted on Oct 02, 2009 from Bette DowdellSuper foods, by definition, have more nutrition per ounce than your average health food. Most health foods strut around, proud as a peacock of their power and glory, but when a super food shows up, they fold up their tails and take a back seat. Now, I’m talking a real super food. Some people ...
Views: 1248(1 vote) - Thyroid Treatment Problems - by Submitted on Sep 24, 2009 from Bette DowdellThyroid treatment fell apart in the 1960s. That’s when thyroid blood tests and Synthroid first appeared. Doctors hailed the blood tests as a means of making thyroid treatment scientific. Blood tests eliminated the need to deal with symptoms, which, as any thyroid patient can tell you, are ...
Views: 1463 - Everyday Life With Hypothyroidism - by Submitted on Sep 22, 2009 from Bette DowdellSo, there you are, dragging your patooty through one grey day after another, wondering where your brain went, why your body aches and if you’ll ever feel good again. Even doctors who test for thyroid problems typically prescribe the ineffective medicine Synthroid or its generic equivalent. It ...
Views: 2203 - If You Wanna Get Pregnant, Don't Eat Canned Food - by Submitted on Sep 18, 2009 from Bette DowdellWhat in the world, you might ask, does eating canned food have to do with getting pregnant? Well, it’s a risk. As is drinking anything that comes in a can. You see, to prevent corrosion, companies coat the inside of food and beverage cans with the plastic Bisphenol A (BPA), which, despite ...
Views: 1599 - One Size Never Fits All--Especially in Medicine - by Submitted on Sep 15, 2009 from Bette DowdellI’m one of five siblings, and we’ve all had heart surgery. Like most people with heart problems, none of us ever had any of the so-called risk factors. No high cholesterol. No high triglycerides. No high blood pressure. Nothing. My ‘turn’ arrived on Christmas Eve, 2005. Of course, nobody ...
Views: 1258 - Rejected By A Doctor - by Submitted on Sep 10, 2009 from Bette DowdellMy doctor no longer practices medicine, so I had to find another. Like most long-time thyroid patients, I’ve been through the proverbial mill. I knew for sure I didn’t want to be bullied into taking Synthroid, which most doctors prefer–even though it doesn’t work. I found a listing for ...
Views: 1383 - Death by Doctor - by Submitted on Sep 03, 2009 from Bette DowdellI ran into an acquaintance at a conference the other day. We got to talking about vitamins. (Somehow I always end up talking about vitamins; I could bore a stone.) Doctors recently installed her second pacemaker. She said her ejection fraction–the force with which her heart pumps blood–was ...
Views: 1337(2 votes) - Vaccinate or Else! The Vendetta Against Health - by Submitted on Sep 01, 2009 from Bette DowdellI read that the Massachusetts Senate passed a bill mandating vaccinations of all sorts. And if the good citizens of Massachusetts decline the honor, they get smacked with a $1000 a day fine. Now, Massachusetts proudly passed socialized medicine statutes a few years back, so the Senators ...
Views: 1263 - Thyroid or Adrenal? - by Submitted on Aug 26, 2009 from Bette DowdellSo, there you are, dragging your patooty and wondering what in the world happened to you. A friend suggests that you probably have thyroid problems. Another friend jumps in to say, no, you probably have adrenal problems. So you poke around the internet, getting nowhere. When they talk about ...
Views: 1883(1 vote) - Why Thyroid Meds Don't Work - by Submitted on Aug 16, 2009 from Bette DowdellSo, you go to the doctor and spill your bucket of symptoms–fatigue, weight gain, hair loss, etc. If you happened upon an alert doctor, you’ll get a thyroid test. And you’ll celebrate that help is on the way. Well, maybe. While doctors love blood tests–and disdain symptoms–thyroid tests aren’t ...
Views: 2497(2 votes) - What Causes Thyroid Problems? - by Submitted on Aug 09, 2009 from Bette Dowdell50% of the U.S. population has thyroid problems, most of which go undiagnosed. I don’t have worldwide statistics, but I can’t imagine they differ by much, if at all. And the numbers keep heading up! Yikes! And the thyroid never suffers alone. When one endocrine gland, such as the thyroid, ...
Views: 1435 - Thyroid Tests and Vaccines - by Submitted on Aug 05, 2009 from Bette DowdellThe latest thing in medicine is the ‘fact’ that all medicine is based on solid, scientific evidence. Excuse me? At least 70% of all medical practice has no scientific basis, relying instead on tradition, rumor and best guess. Meanwhile, doctors, according to the latest statistics available, ...
Views: 1327 - Busybodies Can Literally Make You Sick - by Submitted on Jul 29, 2009 from Bette DowdellSome years ago, self-appointed busybodies screamed and yelled and hollered about McDonalds using beef fat to cook their fries. Deciding ahead of time that McDonalds was evil incarnate, they accused McDonalds of purposely risking our very lives with saturated fat. And so it was in 1990 that ...
Views: 1853 - The Case of the Sun Screen Killer - by Submitted on Jul 20, 2009 from Bette DowdellSome years back, about thirty or so, the medicos labeled the sun an enemy agent. We all needed to slather on sun screen all day, every day, or risk dying of melanoma in slightly more than a trice. If, like me, you’ve lost a loved one to melanoma, you reacted quickly and positively, making sun ...
Views: 1262 - Get Off That Treadmill! - by Submitted on Jul 16, 2009 from Bette DowdellIf you belong to the longer-is-better treadmill school of thought, you might want to reconsider. And if long distance running takes your time, you really need to think it through. Especially if you buy into the idea of high carb fueling. High carb fueling burns the fire hotter, that’s for ...
Views: 1685(2 votes) - Talking About Aging and Disease - by Submitted on Jul 08, 2009 from Bette DowdellPeople in the health biz throw around the lingo as if everybody has a clue. Well, some do, but some don’t. And even those that do may recognize the word without understanding its meaning. So, lets talk some terminology. Especially about things that drag us down–including body parts that ...
Views: 1317(2 votes) - How Much Exercise is Good Exercise? - by Submitted on Jul 06, 2009 from Bette DowdellExercise can kill you. Well, so can lots of other things, but people tout exercise as all good, all the time. Before couch potatoes get excited here, life as an inanimate object doesn’t get excellent results either. Well, then, obviously, some middle ground exists. However, since slugs ...
Views: 1434 - Ice Your Muscle Pain Away - by Submitted on Jun 25, 2009 from Bette DowdellMuscle problems tend to accompany endocrine issues, especially adrenal glands that can’t or won’t keep up. Of course, they also tend to accompany life as a jock or a do-it-yourselfer. But with endocrine people, muscles act up without a cause. As the song says, that’s life. Our muscles get ...
Views: 1262 - Coffee: The Health Drink - by Submitted on Jun 16, 2009 from Bette DowdellConventional wisdom says coffee’s bad. Doctors agree. Magazines second the motion. You can hardly find a kind word about coffee. Which is just a tad bizarre because coffee is a health drink. Since nearly 90% of the U. S. population drinks the stuff, this comes under the heading of good ...
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