Dementia, Sleep and H1N1

Poor Rest Linked To Dementia

The latest research links insomnia to Alzheimer's disease. All those late nights aren't just making people tired and crabby -- they're slowly killing us. Researchers at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis studied mice that had been engineered to have an Alzheimer's-like condition. They found that when these mice were awake, levels of amyloid-beta -- a protein linked to the condition -- rose. When the mice slept, those levels fell. But when the mice were forced to stay awake -- like many of us force ourselves to, nearly every night -- those levels really shot up. And the researchers believe this happens in our brains, too, sleepless night after sleepless night.

If that's causing dementia, we're going to see an explosion of Alzheimer's in a few years. Too many grown men and women suffer from sleep disorders, many of their own making. Plenty of us even willingly sacrifice that crucial sleep in a pointless attempt to keep up with the rat race at work. But that big promotion today isn't going to mean much if it costs you your mind tomorrow.

So get your rest! Your mind is depending on it.


Helpful Flu Tips:

Here are a few ideas to help prevent getting the flu from Dr. Vinay Goyal is an MBBS, DRM, DNB (Intensivist and Thyroid specialist), having clinical experience of over 20 years. The following message given by him; makes a lot of sense and is important for all to know.

The only portals of entry are the nostrils and mouth/throat. In a global epidemic of this nature, it's almost impossible not coming into contact with H1N1 in spite of all precautions. Contact with H1N1 is not so much of a problem as proliferation is. While you are still healthy and not showing any symptoms of H1N1 infection, in order to help prevent proliferation, aggravation of symptoms and development of secondary infections, some very simple steps, not fully highlighted in most official communications, may be practiced (instead of focusing on how to stock N95 or Tamiflu):

1. Frequent hand-washing (well highlighted in all official communications).

2. "Hands-off-the-face" approach. Resist all temptations to touch any part of face (unless you want to eat, bathe).

3. *Gargle twice a day with warm salt water (use Listerine if you don't trust salt). *H1N1 takes 2-3 days after initial infection in the throat/nasal cavity to proliferate and show characteristic symptoms. Simple gargling prevents proliferation. In a way, gargling with salt water has the same effect on a healthy individual that Tamiflu has on an infected one. Don't under estimate this simple, inexpensive and powerful preventative method.

4. Similar to 3 above, *clean your nostrils at least once every day with warm salt water. *Not everybody may be good at using a Neti pot, but *blowing the nose hard once a day and swabbing both nostrils with cotton swabs dipped in warm salt water is very effective in bringing down viral population.*

5. *Boost your natural immunity with foods that are rich in Vitamin C. *If you have to supplement with Vitamin C tablets, make sure that it also has Zinc to boost absorption.

6. *Drink as much of warm liquids (tea, coffee, etc) as you can. *Drinking warm liquids has the same effect as gargling, but in the reverse direction. They wash off proliferating viruses from the throat into the stomach where they cannot survive, proliferate or do any harm.

For more information you can visit the following links.

http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/PublicHealthFocus/ucm150305.htmhttp://

www.flu.gov/

And I will add that another effective method to avoid the flu is to strengthen your immune system to better fight off viruses. That can be done by taking the supplement Immuplex by Standard Process Labs along with the other supplements recommended by Dr. Bruce West that I have outlined in my blogs. Good luck, we may need it this flu season.

As always, stay healthy and happy

JD Roma