Doctor B's Botanicals
Hand-Crafted Botanical Self-Care Products, Organic Spices & Teas, Herbal Formulas and Supplements.
Doctor B's Botanical self-care products are produced locally in small batches from high quality, all-natural, mostly organic, and sustainable ingredients using environmentally sound techniques. We make every effort to produce high-quality, hypoallergenic personal care products. Ingredients that may cause reactions in consumers with hypersensitive skin are noted on the label of each product.
17/03/2024
Happy St Paddy's Day
11/03/2024
An excellent article from a very reliable and informed source regarding a controversial subject.
Routine vaccination lowers risk of Alzheimer’s disease March 11, 2024 Jacob Schor, ND, FABNO Friday is my hiking day. I meet up with a local hiking group at a nearby church and we go somewhere together. New Hampshire’s White Mountains are w…
25/12/2023
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQPuIswwO2A
Jackson Browne performs "The Rebel Jesus" on @StevieVanZandt @TeachRock's #StandWithTeachers 2020 Jackson Browne performs "The Rebel Jesus" for & ’s event which also featured new performances by , @...
07/12/2023
Lidocaine Kills Cancer Cells by Activating Bitter Taste Receptor Lidocaine has long been suggested to have some anti-cancer effects, but it wasn’t known how or why. A new preclinical study reveals the drug activates a bitter taste receptor through two unique mechanisms that result in cancer cell death.
12/10/2023
Ready to cold plunge? We dive into the science to see if it's worth it When it comes to the health benefits of cold water dips, the hype is ahead of the science. NPR talked to researchers about what's true, what's not, and the latest on how to get the most out of it.
30/05/2023
https://www.bonappetit.com/story/vegetarians-eat-meat-again?utm_source=pocket-newtab
Confessions of the Ex-Vegetarians Many Americans who stay vegetarian for years—even decades—eventually eat animals again. And usually for reasons they can't anticipate.
02/04/2023
Very interesting article from one of my favorite writers.
Evolutionary Pressures March 2023 I went out last week to look for a tree, a rather specific tree, in the forest behind our home. I hoped to see this tree again. I first saw it last summer when the trees were still in l…
14/02/2023
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36660878/
Active compound from edible mushrooms boosts nerve growth and enhances memory |
11/02/2023
With Valentine's Day approaching ......
Dark chocolate and red dye can be a problem in some Valentine's Day treats With Valentine’s Day on its way, thoughts are turning to love . . . and chocolate. For many, dark chocolate is the chocolate of choice, and those who
18/01/2023
This is NOT good news ...
Locally caught freshwater fish across the United States are likely a significant source of exposure to PFOS and other perfluorinated compounds Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, gained significant public and regulatory attention due to widespread contamination and health harms asso…
01/01/2023
Foods to Eat on New Year’s Day
Black-Eyed Peas (Hoppin John) for Southern Prosperity
Break a Wishbone for Luck
Cabbage symbolize riches, prosperity and a long life
Donuts (Circular Foods) for the New Year’s Luck
Grapes (12) (or Champagne) at the stroke of midnight brings good luck
Greens of any sort bring riches, prosperity and a long life
King Cake (sweet, circular and has a prize) for New Year’s Luck
Lentils for Prosperity and Success
Pickled Herring symbolize fertility, long life and bounty
Pomegranates for Good Fortune
Pork for Prosperity (pigs root forward - move ahead)
Pretzel brings good luck for the coming year
Soba (or any) Noodles for Longevity
Tamales bring good fortune to families and future generations
Foods NOT to Eat on New Year’s Day
White is an unlucky color because it symbolizes death, so all white foods are out for the celebration.
Bananas
Bottom Feeders (Seafood like cod, halibut, oysters, scallops, shrimp,)
Cauliflower
Crabs and other Crustaceans
Eggs
Hollow Bread
Rice
Tofu
White Cheeses
Winged Fowl
*Whatever You Eat, Don't Eat It All – Leave some food on your plate
*Don't Do Those Dishes or take out the trash, or wash your clothes, or sweep your house
*Passing a knife to someone on New Year's is as good as saying that you want to cut ties with them going forward
01/01/2023
31/07/2022
Dole recalls Simply Nature and Marketside salad mixes over toxic nightshade In May Dole Fresh Vegetables Inc. recalled Simply Nature Organic Spring Mix 16 oz., and Walmart's Marketside Spring Mix 11 oz. and 5 oz. because of its
14/07/2022
Warnings about honey with ingredients that are not disclosed, including ED drugs The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday issued warning letters to four companies for illegally selling honey-based products that may pose a
14/07/2022
Are Financial Barriers Affecting the Health Care Habits of American Men? This brief compares health care accessibility, affordability, and health status for adult men in the United States with those in 10 other high-income countries.
In that I've recently noticed a plethora of articles spewing misinformation regarding "Monkeypox", I thought that I might share what appears to be the best information available on the subject.
Monkeypox is a rare disease that is caused by infection with monkeypox virus. Monkeypox virus belongs to the Orthopoxvirus genus in the family Poxviridae. The Orthopoxvirus genus also includes variola virus (which causes smallpox), vaccinia virus (used in the smallpox vaccine), and cowpox virus. The first human case of monkeypox was recorded in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) during a period of intensified effort to eliminate smallpox. Monkeypox cases in people have occurred outside of Africa linked to international travel or imported animals, including cases in the United States, as well as Israel, Singapore, and the United Kingdom. There is now one confirmed case and four suspected cases of the monkeypox virus in the U.S., according to the CDC. The confirmed case in the U.S. is a male in Massachusetts who had recently traveled to Canada. The four suspected cases – one in Florida, one in New York City, and two in Utah – were all identified in males.
Transmission of monkeypox virus occurs when a person comes into contact with the virus from an animal, human, or materials contaminated with the virus. The virus enters the body through broken skin (even if not visible), respiratory tract, or the mucous membranes (eyes, nose, or mouth). Animal-to-human transmission may occur by bite or scratch, bush meat preparation, direct contact with body fluids or lesion material, or indirect contact with lesion material, such as through contaminated bedding. Human-to-human transmission is thought to occur primarily through large respiratory droplets. Respiratory droplets generally cannot travel more than a few feet, so prolonged face-to-face contact is required. Other human-to-human methods of transmission include direct contact with body fluids or lesion material, and indirect contact with lesion material, such as through contaminated clothing or linens.
There are number of measures that can be taken to prevent infection with monkeypox virus: (1) Avoid contact with those that could harbor the virus. (2) Isolate infected patients from others who could be at risk for infection. (3) Practice good hand hygiene. (4) Use personal protective equipment (PPE) when caring for patients.
JYNNEOSTM (also known as Imvamune or Imvanex) is an attenuated live virus vaccine which has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the prevention of monkeypox.
In humans, the symptoms of monkeypox are similar to but milder than the symptoms of smallpox. Monkeypox begins with fever, headache, muscle aches, and exhaustion. The main difference between symptoms of smallpox and monkeypox is that monkeypox causes lymph nodes to swell (lymphadenopathy) while smallpox does not. The incubation period (time from infection to symptoms) for monkeypox is usually 7−14 days but can range from 5−21 days.
Currently, there is no proven, safe treatment for monkeypox virus infection. For purposes of controlling a monkeypox outbreak in the United States, smallpox vaccine, antivirals, and vaccinia immune globulin (VIG) can be used.
02/05/2022
Raw milk still isn't safe, no matter how many legislatures debate its alleged benefits - OPINION - By Sara Bratager Food Traceability and Food Safety Scientist at the Institute of Food Technologists According to a 2017 study in Emerging
02/04/2022
17/03/2022
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.821208/full
Behavioral Psychedelics: Integrating Mind and Behavior to Improve Health and Resilience One of the most recent and potentially promising advancements in the health sciences has involved the attempted use of psychedelics for treating mental and behavioral health problems, such as anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and addiction. Despite surging scientific and public int...
17/03/2022
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abl6989
Trips and neurotransmitters: Discovering principled patterns across 6850 hallucinogenic experiences Natural language–processing tools mine 6850 real-world narratives about 27 different psychedelic drugs.
17/03/2022
Is fearr an tsláinte ná na táinte
10/03/2022
Music combined with auditory beat stimulation may reduce anxiety for some Combined treatments appear to help people with moderate trait anxiety better than music alone
March 9, 2022, PLOS
Treatments integrating music and auditory beat stimulation are effective in reducing state anxiety in some patients, according to a new study published this week in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Adiel Mallik and Frank Russo of the Ryerson University, Canada.
Anxiety has been steadily increasing, particularly in the adolescent and young adult populations, over recent decades. Studies have previously shown that listening to music can reduce anxiety, perhaps even more effectively than some anti-anxiety medications. However, quantitative data on the effects of personalized music on anxiety has been lacking.
In the new study, the researchers randomized 163 patients taking anti-anxiety medications to participate in an at-home treatment session involving music, auditory beat stimulation, both, or pink noise -- background sounds similar to white noise. The music was selected for each patient using LUCID's artificial intelligence which curates music based on the patient's emotional state and music preferences. Auditory beat stimulation involves combinations of tones, played in one or both ears, designed to trigger changes to brain activity. In all groups, patients were asked to download a customized application on their smart phone for the treatment, close their eyes, and listen to a 24-minute session.
Among people with moderate anxiety before the treatment session, greater reductions in somatic anxiety -- the physical symptoms of anxiety -- were seen in people who listened to both music and ABS (p=0.04, effect size=0.83), or those who listened to music alone (p=0.05, effect size=0.52), compared to those who listened to pink noise. The greatest reductions in cognitive state anxiety -- the aspect of anxiety related to thoughts and feelings -- were also seen in moderate trait anxiety participants who listened to both music and ABS. Among people with high trait anxiety before the session, the music-alone group had significantly higher reductions in anxiety compared to the ABS-alone group (p=0.04, effect size=0.72).
The authors conclude that sound-based treatments can be effective in reducing state anxiety and potentially offer a simple and easily distributable method of treating anxiety in a segment of the population.
Drs. Russo and Malik add: "With the pandemic and remote work, there has been a remarkable uptick in the use of digital health tools to support mental health. The results of this clinical trial indicate great promise for the use of digital health tools, such as LUCID's digital music therapy, in the management of anxiety and other mental health conditions."
"The findings from this research are exciting as they indicate that personalized music shows great promise in effectively reducing anxiety in specific segments of the population that suffer from anxiety. Hopefully, with additional research, we can help build a solid evidence base which further supports the use of personalized music as an additional tool in the clinician's toolbox that can be used to help reduce anxiety in the patient population."
Journal Reference:
Adiel Mallik, Frank A. Russo. The effects of music & auditory beat stimulation on anxiety: A randomized clinical trial. PLOS ONE, 2022; 17 (3): e0259312 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0259312
03/02/2022
Interesting article from Science.org ....
https://www.science.org/content/article/this-scientist-accused-supplement-industry-of-fraud-now-his-own-work-is-under-fire?utm_source=sfmc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DailyLatestNews&utm_content=alert&et_rid=706725353&et_cid=4097465
This scientist accused the supplement industry of fraud. Now, his own work is under fire DNA barcoding brought botanist Steven Newmaster scientific fame and entrepreneurial success. Was it all based on lies?
21/01/2022
Supplement appears to boost muscle, mitochondria health
January 20, 2022, Univ. of Wa. School of Medicine/UW Medicine
An oral supplement intended to stimulate a natural body process appears to promote muscle endurance and mitochondrial health in humans. New research suggests that the supplement, urolithin A, may help improve or prolong muscle activity in people who are aging or who have diseases that make exercise difficult.
The paper was published in JAMA Network Open.
"This is relevant both to people with chronic diseases and people who want to be more active later in life," said the lead author, David Marcinek, a professor of radiology at the University of Washington School of Medicine. His research has focused on the role of mitochondria in aging and chronic disease.
Urolithin A is a byproduct of a person's gut bacteria and a diet comprising polyphenols found in pomegranates, berries and nuts. Because diet, age, genetics and disease affect the makeup of the gut microbiome, people produce urolithin A at variable rates. The compound also is produced and sold by dietary supplement companies.
Supplemental urolithin A has been shown in animal tests and molecular studies of humans to stimulate mitophagy, a process that Marcinek explained as "mitochondrial quality control."
"Mitochondria are like batteries that power the cells in your body," he said. "But over time they break down. The process of mitophagy recognizes this failure and proactively tears down the mitochondria, reducing it to elemental components that a cell can reuse. But with aging, mitophagy becomes less efficient and your body accumulates this pool of failing mitochondria. It's one way that muscles become less functional as we age."
The researchers studied a small cohort of people over age 65 who were randomized to receive a placebo or a daily supplement of 1,000 mg urolithin A for four months. Each of the 66 subjects was confirmed at the outset to have average or subpar capacity to produce adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which mitochondria produce to help cells perform myriad functions.
The investigators hypothesized that, if the urolithin A supplement indeed boosted mitophagy, the test cohort would experience improved muscle function and greater ATP output.
Across both cohorts, two comparisons of muscle function were found to support the thesis, but two others did not:
Two measures of muscle endurance were improved in the supplemented group compared to the placebo group. Endurance was measured with exercises involving the hand (first dorsal interosseous, between thumb and forefinger) and leg (tibialis anterior, alongside the shinbone.) Researchers measured the increase in the number of muscle contractions until fatigue between a baseline test and the final test four months later.
Measures of distance covered during a six-minute walk improved markedly between tests at baseline and four months in both the supplement and placebo groups. However, researchers saw no significant effect of the supplement compared with the placebo.
Measures (via magnetic resonance spectroscopy) of improvement of maximal ATP production did not change significantly between baseline and four months in either group.
"Even though we did not observe an effect of the supplement in whole body function (via six-minute measure and ATP production)," Marcinek said, "these results are still exciting because they demonstrate that just taking a supplement for a short duration actually improved muscle endurance. Fatigue resistance got better in the absence of exercise."
Plasma samples also were collected from study participants at the outset, at two months and four months. The purpose was to assess supplement's potential effect on urolithin A bioavailability and on biomarkers of mitochondrial health and inflammation. In the test cohort, Urolithin A was associated with a significant reduction in several acylcarnitines and ceramides implicated for their roles in metabolic disorders involving mitochondria, the investigators reported.
"I think these changes suggest that the treatment affects the metabolic condition of people. Even though it didn't affect the maximum ATP production, it improved test subjects' general metabolism," Marcinek said.
He added that urolithin A supplements could have potential to benefit people who cannot get the exercise they want due to poor muscle health or disease.
"Just getting them over that point where exercise is possible -- a walk around the block or climbing some stairs -- might help a person build their own health."
The study's funder, Amazentis, of Lausanne, Switzerland, manufactures the urolithin A supplement used in the trial.
special promotion
Journal Reference:
Sophia Liu, Davide D’Amico, Eric Shankland, Saakshi Bhayana, Jose M. Garcia, Patrick Aebischer, Chris Rinsch, Anurag Singh, David J. Marcinek. Effect of Urolithin A Supplementation on Muscle Endurance and Mitochondrial Health in Older Adults. JAMA Network Open, 2022; 5 (1): e2144279 DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.44279
14/01/2022
Dried goji berries may provide protection against age-related vision loss
January 13, 2022, University of California - Davis
Regularly eating a small serving of dried goji berries may help prevent or delay the development of age-related macular degeneration, or AMD, in healthy middle-aged people, according to a small, randomized trial conducted at the University of California, Davis.
AMD is the leading cause of vision loss in older people, and is estimated to affect more than 11 million in the United States and 170 million globally.
"AMD affects your central field of vision and can affect your ability to read or recognize faces," said Glenn Yiu, a co-author of the study and an associate professor in the Department of Ophthalmology and Vision Sciences.
The researchers found that 13 healthy participants aged 45 to 65 who consumed 28 grams (about one ounce, or a handful) of goji berries five times a week for 90 days increased the density of protective pigments in their eyes. In contrast, 14 study participants who consumed a commercial supplement for eye health over the same period did not show an increase.
The pigments that increased in the group that ate goji berries, lutein and zeaxanthin, filter out harmful blue light and provide antioxidant protection. Both help to protect the eyes during aging.
"Lutein and zeaxanthin are like sunscreen for your eyes," said lead author Xiang Li, a doctoral candidate in the Nutritional Biology Program.
"The higher the lutein and zeaxanthin in your retina, the more protection you have. Our study found that even in normal healthy eyes, these optical pigments can be increased with a small daily serving of goji berries," said Li.
Goji berries are the fruit of Lycium chinense and Lycium barbarum, two species of shrubby bushes found in northwest China. The dried berries are a common ingredient in Chinese soups and are popular as herbal tea. They are similar to raisins and eaten as a snack.
In Chinese medicine, goji berries are said to have "eye brightening" qualities. Li grew up in northern China and became curious whether there were any physiological properties to "eye brightening."
"Many types of eye diseases exist, so it is not clear which disease 'eye brightening' is targeting," said Li.
She researched the bioactive compounds in goji berries and found they contain high quantities of lutein and zeaxanthin, which are known to reduce the risk of eye diseases related to AMD. The form of zeaxanthin in goji berries is also a highly bioavailable form, according to Li, meaning it is readily absorbed in the digestive system so the body can use it.
The current treatment for intermediate stages of AMD uses special dietary supplements, called AREDS, that contain vitamins C, E, zinc, copper and lutein and zeaxanthin. No known therapy has yet been shown to impact early stages of AMD.
The cause of AMD is complex and multifactorial, according to Yiu, and involves a mix of genetic risks, age-associated changes, and environmental factors like smoking, diet and sun exposure. Early stages of AMD do not have symptoms; however, physicians can detect AMD and other eye problems during a regular comprehensive eye exam.
"Our study shows goji berries, which are a natural food source, can improve macular pigments of healthy participants beyond taking high-dose nutritional supplements," said Yiu. "The next step for our research will be to examine goji berries in patients with early-stage AMD."
Although the results are promising, the researchers note that the study size was small and more research will be needed.
Additional authors on the study include Roberta R. Holt, Carl L. Keen, Lawrence S. Morse and Robert M. Hackman from the University of California, Davis.
Story Source:
Materials provided by University of California - Davis. Original written by Lisa Howard. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Journal Reference:
Xiang Li, Roberta R. Holt, Carl L. Keen, Lawrence S. Morse, Glenn Yiu, Robert M. Hackman. Goji Berry Intake Increases Macular Pigment Optical Density in Healthy Adults: A Randomized Pilot Trial. Nutrients, 2021; 13 (12): 4409 DOI: 10.3390/nu13124409
04/04/2021
Raw milk recalled; at least five people already sick with campylobacteriosis At least five people in Washington have infections from Campylobactor after drinking unpasteurized, raw milk from Dungeness Valley Creamery. State tests
05/03/2021
Could catnip become the new insect repellent?
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/03/210304145425.htm