Complementary and integrative approaches

not the adress uspharmacopeia - I wouldn't recommend it.

look at the addres http://www.usp.org.  

Luan, try this link:

http://www.usp.org/USPVerified/dietarySupplements/supplements.html 

Rainbowpony, that is an extremely important distinction to make, thanks

Boy SherriG I can so relate about the white cell count. Mine has gone down over the last 6 months. Just barely normal range.

Sherri, Kira, these will help boost immune system:

Carrots and other red, yellow, orange, and dark-green leafy vegetables contain beta carotene which helps protect the immune system, especially the thymus gland. Beta carotene and other carotenes also strengthen white blood cell production, and foods rich in beta-carotene help the body better fight off infection.

Yogurt can be very beneficial for the immune system. It helps the body produce antibodies and strengthens white blood cells.

A cup of kale will give you your daily requirement of vitamin A. This is an antioxidant that helps your body fight cancer cells and is essential in the formation of white blood cells. Vitamin A also increases the ability of antibodies to respond to invaders.

People who eat more garlic have more natural killer white blood cells.

Other helpful foods include chicken, kale, almonds, guava, crab, dark grapes and navy beans.

Supplements can play a big role in boosting immune function and white blood cell counts. Some examples:

- Oleander extract in herbal supplement form. One herbal oleander based supplement was 100% effective in a clinical trial of raising white blood cell counts in HIV/AIDS patients with extremely compromised immune systems.

- Astragalus root helps stimulate white blood cells and protects against invading organisms. It also enhances production of the important natural compound interferon to fight against viruses.

- Zinc is necessary for white blood cell function and it acts as a catalyst in the immune system's killer response to foreign bodies.

- Vitamin C is an immune enhancer that helps white blood cells perform at their peak and quickens the immune system response.

- The trace mineral selenium is vital to the development and movement of white blood cells.

- Both Siberian ginseng (eleuthero) and Asian ginseng provide support for the immune system.

- Echinacea helps stimulate the immune system in a variety of ways, including increased white blood cell production.

- Green Tea also stimulates production of white blood cells.

Some other potent immune boosters are pau d arco, suma, medicinal mushrooms, beta glucans and aloe vera.

http://www.naturalnews.com/028275_white_blood_cells_immune_function.html 

Germ warfare moves to the gym

Our visits to the gym seem to be a lot more dangerous lately. Forget battling only boredom and feeling the pain. Now the fight is us against them -- and the enemy is germs.

To properly fight back you need a three-tiered approach, or so says extra-fit YMCA Group Vice President Kristin McEwen. "The time to de-germ and get yourself primed to fight off gym germs is actually before you work out."

http://articles.cnn.com/2008-07-10/health/hfh.fighting.germs_1_germ-fighting-sanitizer-gym?_s=PM:HEALTH

In vivo enhancement of natural killer cell activity through tea fortified with Ayurvedic herbs

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19504465

Detoxification Recipe to Remove Heavy Metals

Coriander has been proven to chelate toxic metals from our bodies in a relatively short period of time. Combined with the benefits of the other ingredients, this recipe is a powerful tissue cleanser. Two teaspoons of this pesto daily for three weeks is purportedly enough to increase the urinary excretion of mercury, lead and aluminum, thus effectively removing these toxic metals from our bodies. We can consider doing this cleanse for three weeks at least once a year. It is delicious on toast, baked potatoes and pasta.

4 cloves garlic

1/3 cup Brazil nuts (selenium)

1/3 cup sunflower seeds (cysteine)

1/3 cup pumpkin seeds (zinc, magnesium)

2 cups packed fresh coriander / cilantro (Chinese parsley). (Vitamin A)

2/3 cup flaxseed oil

4 tablespoons lemon juice (Vitamin C)

2 tsp. Dulse powder

Bragg's liquid aminos.

Process the coriander and flaxseed oil in a blender until the coriander is chipped. Add the garlic, nuts, and seeds, dulse and lemon juice and mix until the mixture is finely blended into a paste. Add a squirt of Braggs's liquid aminos to taste and blend again. Store in dark glass jars if possible. It freezes well, so purchase coriander in season and fill enough jars to last through the year.

http://www.4optimallife.com/Detoxification-Recipe-to-Remove-Heavy-Metals.html

"Depression and Mental Disorders Helped by Healing Foods

A new study published in the February 15, 2005 issue of Biological Psychiatry shows that certain foods are better at treating depression than antidepressant drugs. The study found that omega-3 fatty acids and foods high in a compound called uridine were able to reduce the symptoms of depression as well as or better than three different antidepressant drugs that were tested. This research was conducted at the McLean Hospital, which is affiliated with Harvard. It's very exciting to see this kind of study, because it shows yet more scientific evidence for the healing effects of food as well as the relative uselessness of prescription drugs.

In addition to the omega-3 fatty acids, these health enhancing substances are found in walnuts, molasses, and fish, according to researchers.

All of this also goes to show why people who pursue healthy diets tend to have such a positive outlook and outstanding mental health -- it's the foods, because the food greatly affects your mental state, and if you eat healing foods, and foods rich in vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients, then you're going to have healthy mental function and will probably never experience depression, especially if you combine these foods with natural sunlight.

General practitioners are some of the most nutritionally illiterate professionals in our country. But that's changing. If you're a GP reading this, you probably understand how important it is to integrate nutrition into your practice. But it's the old school medical doctors who refuse to learn nutrition, who refuse to believe that food has any effect whatsoever on healing, and who continue to stick to drugs, surgery, and radiation as the only modalities for treating patients. And that is a mindset that I think belongs in the dark ages of medicine. It's time to move beyond that. It's time to get back to the foods that can enhance quality of life and that can create healthy mental statesin our population.

It's time for the doctors to take a stand and insist that their patients follow good lifestyle habits -- that's what's going to create healthy patients in the long run. The responsible doctors out there are doing that already today. That's how you know you're working with a good doctor, by the way -- when they take the time to tell you about nutrition and teach you about lifestyle changes that can help eliminate disease in your body. If you have a doctor like that, stick with her!"

http://www.4optimallife.com/Depression-and-Mental-Disorders.html

LOL, I am kinda slow sometimes.  Well if the Big O is suppose to help WBC mine should be raising quickly as this tamoxifen has caused my sex drive to go banana's.  DH is not complaining, he is trying to figure out how I can stay on it forever.

JESUS !! just came from the Budwig thread:

"Wow, am on Tamoxifen, HOW COME NOBODY EVER WARNED ABOUT THE INTERACTION WITH GRAPEFRUITS, am really upset with the onco now "

http://healingpastures.com/2009/08/24/grapefruit-breast-cancer-risk/

Luan, Your funny Jesus just came from the Budwig thread.

So we shouldn't have pomegranate either?

Sherri, thanks , wow, quite a story, I believe you, must means it works, i mean what human tissue wouldn't respond to the red devil. ouf .....!  While one of the nurses, a cute male by the way, Jonas was his name, was injecting it, he looked me straight in the eye telling me:  IT WORKS, I believed and believe him to this day 

Re sensitivity issue, here's something, not found anything about Tamox yet though, that was in 2005 !!!!!

"Gene Expression Profiles to Predict Response or Resistance to Therapy

The second issue is specific to oncology and relates to development of genetic prediction tests-somewhat like a urine culture and sensitivity. One aspect of this is simply to know whether a patient has the metabolic machinery to activate specific drugs. Petros et al¹⁴ looked at this issue of drug-metabolism genotype and chemotherapy pharmacokinetics and correlated these with overall survival in breast"

http://jop.ascopubs.org/content/1/4/155.full