Words: Dr Richard FIRSHEIN A strange thing happened in the late 1970s. An extract from hamburger was found to inhibit tumours in mice. In 1987, this extract was identified as conjugated linoleic acid [CLA]. CLA belongs to the omega-6 fatty acid family. After over forty years of research on this ‘designer fat,’ we’ve found out
Words: Dr Richard FIRSHEIN Jane was silent for a moment, and then looked at me with a mixture of hope, surprise, and bitterness. “You mean there are things I could have been taking all along to stop my premenstrual syndrome [PMS]?” she asked. “I’m not sure I believe you.” Like Jane, most women aren’t told
Words: Dr Richard FIRSHEIN When was the last time you heard the words nutrition and asthma in the same sentence? Probably never. Many physicians still think diet has no effect on asthma. Nothing could be further from the truth. A study from Saudi Arabia made headlines, because researchers discovered that junk-food-eating city kids had a
Words: Dr Richard FIRSHEIN Many news journalists will tell you that their job is their life. Hopping from story to story, from scandal to scoop, leaves little time for romance, or family — not to mention eating, or sleeping. Steve was the highly paid, highly acclaimed, highly stressed producer of a popular New York TV
Words: Dr Richard FIRSHEIN Why are food allergies and particularly peanut allergy on the rise? Researchers have been trying to understand why peanut allergies are on the ascendance and their exact causes are still mysterious. Studies show that the possible factors for food allergies, specifically peanuts, may include foods being introduced too early in life,
Words: Dr Richard FIRSHEIN Does your food talk to you? Maybe, it doesn’t audibly yell at you, or whisper sweet nothings, in your ear; but, the fruit, meats, and vegetables that we eat every day have a message to tell us. We are only now beginning to realise what birds, bees, and even other cultures
Words: Dr Richard FIRSHEIN Recent medical research indicates that specific antioxidants, such as lutein, can lower the risk of eye disease, and prevent macular degeneration, cataracts, and glaucoma from occurring. Macular degeneration is a process that obstructs vision by damaging the fragile capillaries in the eye. It is the leading cause of blindness among people
Words: Dr Ryan N HARRISON When most people think of the term ‘health,’ they relate it to how well they are feeling, whether or not they are sick, or how quickly they recover from the ‘bugs’ that get passed around between friends, family, and co-workers. Each of these aspects is connected, of course, to the
Words: Dr Richard FIRSHEIN Much research is being conducted on the value of nutritional and preventative medicine, giving us new insights into the body’s innate healing abilities, as well as ways to build up and create natural defences to ward off illness. We are learning how vitamins co-operate with one another, and the way they
Words: Dr Richard FIRSHEIN Traditional Chinese medicine [TCM] considers the ginkgo leaf as one of its prized medicinal treasures. This tree dates back to the time of the dinosaurs and has been found among fossils over 200 million years old. Its ancestry makes it a mix of a fern and a modern-day tree. Today, there
