The Nutri Centre

In the Belly of Africa
By Allan Richter

Among the poverty-stricken, nutrition efforts are being stepped up to combat disease.

In the bush north of the Ugandan capital Kampala, Ndiito Okumu proudly displayed the mud chicken coop he built. He pointed to its stick-and-twine door—a kind of sturdy vertical blind, really, to keep small predatory animals at bay. The coop, set between jackfruit and avocado trees on a sliver of land, was not entirely up to specifications, however. Visiting veterinarian James Matovu gently advised Okumu, 42, to create ventilation about three feet from the dirt floor so any gathering moisture could evaporate before it begins to harbor disease-carrying bacteria.

For Okumu, who two years ago was diagnosed as HIV positive, an epidemic on this continent, the 10 chickens that a charitable foundation gave him are just about as vital as the antiretroviral medication he receives at the Bishop Asili health clinic in nearby Luwero. The foundation, Just Like My Child, is Bishop Asili’s main benefactor and donates the animals—either a dozen or so chickens or a pair of pigs for each recipient to raise, sell and eat—to help the clinic’s patients fend for themselves.

In the past few years, the foundation has raised about $350,000 to help Bishop Asili build an obstetrical surgical suite, hire two doctors, install a generator, and buy sonogram equipment and incubators for its maternity ward. The clinic also received a donation of what foundation officials say is one of only three CD4-count machines in the country. The machines determine the strength of the immune system.
But it is the foundation and clinic’s efforts to raise the nutritional IQ of patients, coupled with the chicken and pigs program, and the funding of new schools in area villages, that are central to the chief goal of the clinic and its benefactors—making both the clinic and its patients self-sufficient. “Just saving a life isn’t enough,” says Vivian Glyck, a former marketing executive who runs San Diego-based Just Like My Child, “so we developed the education and the microfinance initiatives and are working very hard to make this place sustainable.” Children At Risk Uganda is a study in contradictions.

Sun-drenched, emerald fields of sugar cane, green beans and lush mango trees blanket the countryside. In Kampala and its outskirts, petrol fumes mix with the smell of charcoal and grilled meat as African rhythms and hip-hop beats blare from boom boxes. Roadside marketplaces are filled with sweet pineapple, green plantains and cages of squawking chickens. Yet within a few hours drive of these scenes, half-naked children, many malnourished and with only one surviving parent, the other lost to AIDS, tend goats or play in front of huts made of mud, dung and straw. The sight of children walking with jerry cans atop their heads or on bicycles they push is a constant reminder of the scarcity of clean water.

Blindness, caused by a lack of vitamin A, is still found in Africa, as are diseases long gone from Western shores: rickets, from a calcium deficiency; scurvy, from a vitamin C shortfall; and pellagra, an affliction marked by skin lesions, weakness, insomnia and other symptoms, brought on when niacin is missing from diets.
At Bishop Asili, newborn children of anemic and malnourished mothers have weighed in at as little as 800 grams, or under 2 pounds, said Sister Teresa Akulu, a longtime midwife at the clinic. “There are so many babies with low birth weight,” she said as she folded wool blankets stored by the incubators. The equipment, used when birth weights are under 2 kilograms, or about 4½ pounds, have helped. “Many babies have survived through it,” says Sister Teresa.

A range of challenges stifle the population’s nutritional needs. Many people are too weak for the labor-intensive tasks involved with keeping cattle and goats, says Josephus Walulya, a veterinarian and farmer who helps train villagers who receive chickens or pigs under the Just Like My Child program. And smaller, more manageable livestock often die, Walulya adds, before they have a chance to reproduce or otherwise benefit the owners and their families.

Okumu, the man in the bush with the mud chicken coop, had kept chickens earlier but they all died. He was seeking guidance from Just Like My Child’s Ugandan experts on raising the birds that the foundation had just donated to him. On another visit with the charitable foundation in the bush, veterinarian Matovu was advising Mohammed Kiwuuwak, a single father who is HIV positive and who is supporting a 13-year-old girl and 11-year-old boy.

As the vet doled out medicine and advice on feeding pigs a pulp of fish and maize, Kiwuuwak’s male pig, shivering with fever, nestled itself under a blanket of cassava and yam leaves in its pen. Pigs play an important role in helping the villagers who receive them become self-sufficient; their urine is used as both a pesticide and fertilizer. Kiwuuwak and other villagers who receive the pigs place their pens close to their crops and build cement channels to funnel the urine toward the plants.

When they do grow more nourishing crops, such as vitamin C-laden green beans or protein-rich peanuts (called groundnuts in Uganda), villagers often sell rather than eat them. Drought may strike or plots of land are too small to provide enough of the crops through the year. Seeds are expensive and there are few farming advancements. “People here still use a hoe,” Walulya says. “The problems are so many.” Hunger Versus Nutrition In these impoverished communities, filling stomachs trumps nutritional value. “When a child is hungry the parent will buy bread instead of an egg so the child will feel more full,” says Walulya.

As a result, poor villagers pursue convenience and cost savings over nutritional diversity—evidenced by the widespread reliance different regions of Uganda have on a single food.

In the east, potato-like cassava tubers dominate, offering variety only in the ways they are ground, sliced, mashed, grilled and otherwise prepared. Traveling eastward toward Kenya, it is common to see people laying out cassava pieces along the roadside to dry in the sun. Near the eastern town of Mbale, cassava mill workers are covered in the white powder of the plant’s ground flesh.

Cassava is hardy and resists drought. The dominant food in eastern Uganda, it is also highly popular throughout Africa, Asia and South America—a big reason many who grow, consume and study it are raising eyebrows over a new virus, brown streak, that has infected cassava crops around Lake Victoria and elsewhere in East Africa. Cassava is the world’s third-biggest source of calories, after rice and wheat. The new blight underscores the risks of over-reliance on one food.

If cassava is the primary food of choice in eastern Uganda, plantains—like cassava, potassium-rich and carb-heavy—are omnipresent in the area around Luwero and other central points. While unripe and still green, the fruits, which resemble large bananas and grow in bunches, are peeled, wrapped in their leaves, cooked and mashed while still in their leaves. The resulting pulp, which turns a Day-Glo yellow from its original white during cooking, is formed into a basketball-size starchy loaf called matoke and sliced. Nary a lunch or dinner plate is without it.

“If you go to the north, nutrition is so different,” observes Sister Ernestine Akulu, Bishop Asili’s general administrator. “In the north they eat a lot of cereals. They have a lot of grains, beans, millet. And they work the land a lot. The same in the southwest; they have varieties, they have beans, they get a lot of protein. Here, we are called the matoke region.”

A New Path Until the Bishop Asili clinic can help ease its patients to more balanced diets, it supplies dietary supplements that it receives through donation. Sister Ernestine, petite and soft-spoken, oversees a model garden at Bishop Asili to teach the clinic’s patients about crop diversity and how to cultivate plants under different conditions. Corn stalks grow cramped in a 10’ x 10’ patch of dirt; in other small plots, beans and groundnuts grow. Mango, banana and papaya trees dot the property. “The idea,” she says, “is to show the patients that you don’t need huge, huge land.” In the villages surrounding Bishop Asili, as elsewhere in largely agrarian Uganda, plots of land are so small people bring their cattle and goats to graze along public roads.

Just Like My Child’s strategy for sustainability extends to the village schools it is building. The foundation hires promising locals who show responsibility, like Judith Akware, a teacher who bucked convention by waiting until she turned 30 to become a mother. The foundation hired Akware as headmistress of a new school it funded several miles from Bishop Asili.

“In Uganda most girls produce babies when they are 15, 16, 17. But for me when I looked at them, I said, ‘I will be different.’ So I studied and studied, and I finished my [primary schooling],” Akware said as she nursed her newborn, Enoch, with her school behind them. “After finishing, still I said, ‘No. I have to study.’ After studying, I will be producing. My fellow teachers asked me what I am doing. They thought it was abnormal. But I told them, no, I have my goal. After my studies, I need a good husband who will take care of me, who will love me instead of being a single mother. Most of them are single mothers. After they get pregnant, the men usually abandon them.”

Akware plans to have no more than two children. One of seven siblings whose father died young, she recalled that her mother fasted to feed the children. “When my dad passed away, my mother used to suffer very much,” she said. “I said, ‘No, I won’t be like that. I will have few children and love them, shelter them, give them food.’ My colleagues who I studied with at university said, ‘Wow, Judith, you have challenged us.’ They said, ‘You have planned.’ Most of them didn’t plan.”
Back at Bishop Asili, Sister Ernestine’s latest project to help make the clinic self-sufficient is raising rabbits whose meat she hopes to sell to hotels. And near the clinic’s gate, builders worked feverishly to finish a new staff cafeteria where doctors and midwives can buy tea and snacks, helping to fill the clinic’s coffers.

But she says it is the focus on a more balanced, vitamin-rich diet that will ultimately keep area residents healthy and clinic costs in check. “When they have good nutrition, they don’t fall sick,” Sister Ernestine said. “We have seen that children with malnutrition don’t thrive. They are dull. Their brains do not work. They are susceptible to diseases. And when they come, they take a long time in the hospital. You need to treat them in so many ways. Nutrition is a big, big preventative.”

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When Sleep is Elusive By Susan Weiner

Simple changes can eliminate restless nights.

Among her friends, Ann Muldoon is likely to be voted most drowsy. A former university research scientist, Muldoon is a full-time mom to 11-year-old twins, works two part-time jobs when the girls are at school, and helps run the family homestead, a self-built log cabin on 56 acres in Hector, New York. Overrun with daily responsibilities, Muldoon wrestles with menopausal symptoms and her husband’s degenerative disc disease, which often keeps him sidelined. As a result, these days she tends to feel frustrated, forgetful and sleepy.

“It was supposed to be a hobby farm but neither one of us has the energy to farm,” says Muldoon, 49, who gets the kids to the bus stop by 6:30 a.m., then feeds and cleans up after 10 goats, 11 cats, 2 dogs, more than 20 chickens and 2 ducks before heading off to work. While the challenging schedule never concerned Muldoon in the past, recent stressors have affected her ability to sleep through the night.
“When I lie down at night, I think about what happens tomorrow, what happened today,” explains Muldoon. “I have nervous sleep interruptions. My stomach cramps up and I get intestinal distress. I usually go to the bathroom once or twice and then try to work through things in my head.”

Like Muldoon, most people will experience insomnia at some point. Simply defined, insomnia is the inability to get high-quality sleep. The inability to fall or stay asleep, in addition to waking up early and awakening throughout the night, are all forms of insomnia. It can last a day, a week, a month or even years.

Only one-third of adults say they are getting enough sleep every night, reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in a 2008 study. An estimated 50 to 70 million Americans suffer from chronic sleep and wakefulness disorders, with sleep loss tied to mental distress, depression, anxiety, obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol and risky behaviors such as cigarette smoking, physical inactivity and heavy drinking. One in 10 adults reported not getting enough sleep every day for the past month, and women were more likely than men to report not getting sufficient sleep.

Sleep 101 Prompted by natural cycles of activity in the brain, sleep is composed of two basic states: REM, or rapid eye movement, and NREM, or non-rapid eye movement. The body cycles between non-REM and REM sleep, with dreams occurring during the REM stage. NREM sleep is made up of stages 1 to 4. A person can be awakened easily from Stage 1 and may feel as though he or she hasn’t slept. During Stage 2, a period of light sleep, the heart rate slows and body temperature decreases. Stages 3 and 4 are deep sleep stages, known as slow-wave or delta sleep, and are the stages when the immune system strengthens and the body repairs and regenerates tissue.

“Without proper deep sleep, the body doesn’t have the opportunity to restore itself,” says Linda Klein, MD, of Oregon City Family Practice Clinic in Oregon. “So all functions could break down, including immune response, cognitive function and motor coordination. Sleep is the body’s way of recharging. If you don’t plug in your cell phone, the battery is going to die.”

With sleep increasingly losing out to late-night television and Internet surfing, scientific evidence suggests that sleep deprivation is taking its toll on America’s health. The Harvard-run Nurses’ Health Study links insufficient or irregular sleep to greater risk for heart disease, diabetes, colon cancer and breast cancer, since sleep disruption affects hormones and proteins that play a role in these diseases. Moreover, sleep-deprived people often develop problems regulating their blood sugar, increasing the risk for diabetes.

When treating her patients, Klein first tries to rule out underlying psychiatric and metabolic disorders, including conditions such as sleep apnea and restless legs syndrome. She then reviews the medications and emotional status of her sleepless patients. “What I most commonly hear is, ‘I get into bed and I’m thinking about the stressors in my life,’” says Klein. “They’re running a list in their mind and, when they get to the bottom of the list, they start again at the top.” Before going into the bedroom to sleep, Klein asks patients to write down their thoughts. “Journaling the list is a way of purging it out of their brain.

It seems to really help.” Late-Night Antics The primary reason Americans are tired is because they want to be. That’s the view of Michael Breus, PhD, a specialist in clinical sleep disorders and author of Good Night: The Sleep Doctor’s 4 Week Program to Better Sleep and Better Health (Penguin). “Sleep as a main concern really seems to move down the priority list rapidly,” says Breus, who practices in Scottsdale, Arizona. “People say, ‘I don’t have enough time to sleep,’ or ‘I’ll sleep when I’m dead.’ You never hear people say, ‘I’ll eat when I’m dead.’” Along with the usual suspects—caffeine, nicotine, alcohol, exercise and certain medications too close to bedtime—stress is a primary sleeplessness trigger, Breus reports. “Probably 75% of my patients who come through the door with some form of insomnia usually have either depression or anxiety as a major factor in their ability to fall asleep and stay asleep,” he says.

Even a patient who sleeps through the night may still feel rundown and exhausted. “If you sleep eight hours, but it’s a restless sleep, it could be the equivalent of three,” explains Breus. “There’s the physical act of sleeping and there’s the perception of sleep. One person’s six hours may be great for one person and a nightmare for someone else. There’s no scale for sleep. You can’t go in the bedroom and step on a scale to see how well you sleep.”

Alongside a greater likelihood of depression, fatigued individuals are more likely to pack on the pounds, since even mild sleep deficits disrupt levels of the appetite-regulating hormones ghrelin and leptin. Researchers found that over a 16-year period, women sleeping five or fewer hours per night were 32% more likely to experience a significant weight gain of 33 pounds or more, with another 12% increasingly prone to becoming obese, according to a study presented at the American Thoracic Society 2006 International Conference.

Women face another challenge: About 61% of menopausal women lie awake at night, according to the National Sleep Foundation. “Hot flashes, anxiety and depression can interfere with sleep,” says Breus. “A lot of these have to do with hormone fluctuations happening on a regular basis and disrupting sleep.” To help ease menopause symptoms, Breus suggests banishing heat-holding memory foam mattress toppers, increasing soy intake, wearing pajamas made from dry-weave material and trading in down for a cool-feeling wool comforter.

Sleep Hygiene Helpers Anyone can engage in healthy practices and behaviors that can improve sleep. Many commonsense points include avoiding big meals, exercise and stimulants such as nicotine, alcohol and caffeine before turning in. Habits such as sleeping odd hours, napping during the day, sleeping with pets, eating junk food, paying bills in bed, using the Internet and even watching television in the bedroom can also lead to tossing and turning late into the night.

“When thinking about sleep, you should think about all five senses,” says Breus, who suggests creating your own unique sleep sanctuary that incorporates darkness, peaceful quiet or soothing sounds, aromatherapy and a comfortable, quality bed. By avoiding spicy foods and stimulants, you can also avoid any unpleasant aftertastes or heartburn that may affect you during the night.

“Consider your environment,” adds Klein. “Lights should be off, air should be comfortable and soft music might be helpful. Reading a novel in bed, if it makes you sleepy, is okay, but not studying or working. If you’re taking medications for other conditions, you may want to take them in the morning instead of before going to bed. And you want to incorporate healthy foods into your diet.”

Keep your sleeping sanctuary dark, since exposure to light at night reduces levels of melatonin, a protective hormone believed to shield against cancer by affecting levels of other hormones, including estrogen, according to a series of sleep laboratory studies conducted at Harvard Medical School. Proper doses of a melatonin supplement may enhance sleep while reducing the risk of developing breast and prostate cancer. At any age, sleeping well is essential to your physical and emotional well-being. Faced with the stresses of daily living and the physical and hormonal changes of aging, however, bouts of insomnia may be inevitable. How we approach those sleepless nights makes all the difference. By creating a comfortable environment and making healthy changes, trying to get to sleep doesn’t have to be a nightmarish experience.

Sidebar
Supplemental Sleep Aids
People have been fascinated by sleep—and plagued by insomnia—since the beginning of recorded time: The Greek physician Hippocrates wrote about sleep often and used sleeping patterns to help diagnose illness. Today, although sleep medicine has become a recognized medical specialty, many people still rely on time-tested natural remedies for mild cases of insomnia.

Valerian is an herb that has been used by European healers for more than a thousand years to promote restful slumber. Scientists aren’t sure how it works, but research suggests that valerian may affect GABA, a brain chemical that is the target of many prescription sleep aids. It is particularly helpful for insomnia related to nervous tension. Lemon balm (also known as melissa) also appears to affect GABA levels; it helps ease restlessness while also encouraging sound sleep.

Chamomile and passionflower are two other herbs long known for their relaxing and sleep-inducing properties. Aromatherapy offers its own remedies for insomnia. They include lavender, which also helps ease pain and depression; marjoram, a natural stress fighter; and ylang ylang, often used to enhance intimacy.

In addition to herbal remedies, modern science has discovered a number of supplements that help overcome insomnia. The best known of these is melatonin, which helps regulate the body’s sleep/wake cycle. A popular remedy for jet lag, melatonin has improved sleep quality in older people and helped night shift workers adapt to different sleeping schedules (Journal of Sleep Research 12/07, Sleep Medicine Reviews 10/02). Lactium, a protein found in milk, has shown an ability to support a healthy response to stress (European Journal of Clinical Nutrition 4/07). 5-HTP (5-hydroxytryptophan) is an amino acid used as both an antidepressant and a sleep aid. It may help ease hot flashes, which can cause early-morning wakefulness in menopausal women (Alternative Medicine Review 9/05).

Some remedies work well together because they affect different stages of sleep. For example, melatonin produces drowsiness at the beginning of the cycle, lactium promotes night-long slumber and 5-HTP helps prevent early morning awakening.

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Menopausal Transformations By Claire Sykes

Instead of seeing the “change of life” as a string of symptoms, many women today treat menopause as a chance to consider new possibilities.

Millions of women worldwide, right this minute, suddenly are feeling a rush of heat rising through their bodies, their necks and faces glowing red. Is it anger? Is it ecstasy? Or is it something else?

Hot flash. Hot flush. Power surge. Whatever you call it, this sensation is one of the many signs from your body, mind and emotions during your menopausal years. Every woman’s experience is different—from debilitating night sweats to annoying memory loss to liberating lifestyle choices. Holistic healthcare, natural remedies and the right attitude can help make this very natural
“change of life” nothing less than life-changing.

“The menopausal years are about the self coming to the forefront,” says Christiane Northrup, MD, author of The Wisdom of Menopause (Bantam). “Your changing biology is enabling you to be more attentive to the dictates of your soul, instead of focusing so much on others. It’s asking you to wake up.”

The events typical of this life stage may last years, but menopause itself is a mere moment, the time you have your final menstrual period. However, by definition, you won’t know that until 12 months have passed. After that, you’re postmenopausal. Hormonal Fluctuations It all begins six to 13 years before menopause, at perimenopause (meaning “around menopause”), when hormone levels begin to change. As you age, your body gradually shuts down the baby-making machine (versus the immediate off switch that comes with surgical removal of the ovaries), sometimes years before any outward menopausal signs occur.

Contrary to popular belief, the first hormone that decreases is progesterone, not estrogen. Estrogen often stays the same or even increases, sometimes fluctuating widely. It often waits until less than a year before menopause to ebb, though it never completely runs out. Meanwhile, testosterone levels usually don’t decline, and can actually climb. Because your menstrual cycles depend on estrogen and progesterone counterbalancing each other (taking turns rising while the other falls), an overall drop in progesterone results in a relative excess of estrogen—a condition called estrogen dominance.

These hormones, produced mainly in the ovaries, interact with three others. During perimenopause, the hypothalamus’s GnRH (gonadotropin-releasing hormone), and the pituitary gland’s FSH (follicle-stimulating hormone) and LH (luteinizing hormone) prepare your brain for this new life phase. “Then, a couple of years after menopause, your hormones return to where they were before you got your first period,” says Northrup. Perimenopausal hormonal upheaval first appears, commonly, as irregular periods, like those of Kimberly Windstar, ND, an associate professor at the National College of Natural Medicine, in Portland, Oregon. “Since age 40, my periods came monthly, and then got closer together and further apart,” says Windstar, 52. “Then, after eight months without one, boom, I got another period.” Unstable Thermostat Once periods end, most menopausal signs dissipate within one to two years.

Meanwhile, some women go through perimenopause with few or no felt indications, but 70% to 85% struggle with mild to severe hot flashes. They last from several seconds to half an hour, often followed by a chill. Joni Corby, 54, of Black Canyon City, Arizona, sometimes feels three a day. “It’s like someone turned up the thermometer in me,” Corby says. Some women also experience night sweats that leave them drenched.

Hot flashes and night sweats happen when surface blood vessels in your head and neck flare open, inviting more blood—and therefore heat and redness—into those areas. But Chinese medicine sees it another way. “During menopause, yin begins to wane, and cannot properly store yang, internally. This allows yang to float outward, giving a sensation of heat, that is, hot flashes,” says Michael Berletich, LAc of Blue Sky Wellness Studio in Portland.

Night sweats often means insomnia; Windstar is sometimes up for hours. PMS-like signs such as mood swings and bloating are not uncommon, and migraine headaches, swollen breasts and painful joints may also occur. Heart palpitations are also common, though rarely dangerous. As hormone levels dip, skin becomes dryer and thinner. So does the vaginal lining, which can cause painful intercourse, while low testosterone levels can take a toll on sex drive.

On top of this, fuzzy thinking may make you forget names or where you put your keys. “You’re not losing your mind,” assures Northrup. “The logical, linear thought process of the left brain is no longer so dominant, and the right brain is becoming more active. Hormonal changes also affect the temporal lobes, the part of the brain associated with intuition, and you begin to shift your attention inward.

That’s where the wisdom comes in.” The Inner Woman Emerges Don’t be surprised if menopause arrives as anger and frustration, insecurity and fear—all possible catalysts for positive change. As you cope with your own bodily and emotional changes, you may also be facing an empty nest, aging parents, divorce or thoughts of your own mortality. “I’ve felt more emotionally sensitive than ever,” says Corby. “But I’m also more compassionate toward people.”

Menopause can be downright exciting. Your reproductive hormones have done their job. Even if you never had children, you may have put more energy into others than yourself. Now it’s time to explore your inner hidden treasures and rekindle your creativity. Meanwhile, those perimenopausal signs may be flashing in bright-red neon. The worse your PMS experience, the higher your stress level and the less healthy your diet and lifestyle, the more likely you’ll have a difficult menopause. But remember, meno­pause is not a disease; it’s a normal stage of life. Says Windstar, “If you can get through it naturally, instead of being medicated, you can grow.”

Start with a blood test to confirm your hormone levels. You want to check for hypothyroidism, which mimics menopause; and know where you are in the menopausal timeline, so you can take the right action. Many holistic approaches that help may also fend off health risks of the aging female body—heart disease, depression, weight gain, breast cancer and osteoporosis (low bone mass). Healthy Responses A diet rich in phytohormones (natural hormones found in plants), such as soy, calms hot flashes, mood swings, PMS discomfort and migraines, and helps with irregular periods and weight gain. A daily tablespoon of ground flax seeds provides fiber and omega-3 fats (also found in salmon and other fish, egg yolk and certain algae species such as spirulina). Northrup recommends a low-glycemic diet—fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes and no sugar or processed foods—for healthy blood sugar and weight. Also steer clear of bad fats, caffeine, alcohol and tobacco.

Stay physically active. Work out, swim or take up a sport. To help build bone density, “walk every day for 20 minutes with a weighted backpack, to put weight on the spine,” says Marianne Marchese, ND, who practices in Phoenix. She also recommends 1,200 milligrams of calcium and 4,000 to 5,000 IU of vitamin D every day for post-menopausal women.

For mild menopausal signs, try herbs. Amanda McQuade Crawford, medical herbalist and author of The Natural Menopause Handbook (Crossing Press), suggests using chasteberry for irregular periods. “It also increases low progesterone up to a healthier level, normalizing action on the ovaries according to the body’s needs,” she says. Skullcap and passionflower help with irritability and insomnia. And black cohosh, motherwort, sage and evening primrose minimize hot flashes. For hers, Windstar takes maca; and Corby has had good results with St. John’s wort and kava. Eastern medicine also offers menopausal relief. “Ayurvedic herbs such as Indian asparagus root (Shatavari), fennel and licorice root promote natural estrogen production and help balance out the three doshas [body types vata, pita and kapha],” says Nancy Lonsdorf, MD, Ayurvedic physician and author of The Ageless Woman (MCD Century Publications). And acupuncture “helps balance your deepest levels of internal energy, freeing up your body’s natural healing mechanisms,” says Honora Wolfe, LAc, author of Managing Menopause Naturally with Chinese Medicine (Blue Poppy Press). “Acupuncture is especially helpful for women who have memory problems, anxiety, depression and insomnia.” And don’t forget yoga, tai chi and meditation to bring calm and relaxation.

Let hormone replacement therapy (HRT) be your last resort, “but just enough to offer comfort,” says Northrup. Bioidentical hormones, lab-synthesized from natural sources, match those found in the body. They tend to have fewer negative, unpredictable side effects than synthetic, nonbioidentical hormones.

Your own hormones may run amok during menopause, but that doesn’t mean you have to, especially if you keep your head. “[I]t is possible for your expectation of your menopausal experience to become your reality simply because it’s what you believe will happen,” says Northrup. In the end, “it is your attitude, your beliefs, and your daily thought patterns that have the most profound effect on your health.” Menopause calls attention to your older self, with the inevitable wrinkles, gray hair and death. “But you can decide how it’s going to go,” says Northrup. You can let yourself buckle under the weight of age and believe it’s the beginning of the end. Or you can buck up—and know that the best is yet to come.

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CSI: NY’s Melina Kanakaredes Gets Tough
By Allan Richter

To promote wellness, the actress boxes, draws from her Greek heritage and has joined the fight against breast cancer.

In a moment of introspection, Melina Kanakaredes turned the high-beam flashlight she totes on “CSI: NY” on the traits she shares with Detective Stella Bonasera, the forensics sleuth she plays on the hit CBS series. For starters, Bonasera is a science whiz; Kanakaredes won her eighth-grade science fair, albeit for identifying the shampoo that makes greasy hair the cleanest.

“She would probably do her crossword puzzles in ink, and I like to do them in pencil,” Kanakaredes says of Bonasera. “She’s also a lot tougher than I am, but I think we’re both very much the same in our ethical approach to not giving up. If I know something is right there will be no stopping me in getting the right thing done. The biggest difference is this poor woman has no luck in family and love, and fortunately for me I have the biggest Greek family and non-Greek extended family. I’m a very lucky woman that way.” At nearly 5’9”, svelte and sporting signature long brown curls, Kanakaredes, 43, is statuesque and resembles something of a Greek goddess. It is a look that has served her well on both the small screen and in film. Among her television credits are roles in “Providence” and “NYPD Blue” and Emmy-nominated work in the daytime soap “Guiding Light.” In feature films, she has appeared in “Rounders,” “The Long Kiss Goodnight” and “15 Minutes,” the latter opposite Robert De Niro.

Kanakaredes’ heritage, through its focus on family, social bonding and a famously healthy ethnic diet, figures prominently in shaping the second-generation Greek American’s approach to wellness. She also still embraces the hybrid endurance sport of synchronized swimming, a combination of swimming, dance and gymnastics, at which she excelled in high school.

Kanakaredes is the youngest of three sisters and is one of seven women first cousins who were raised like sisters. She has two young daughters of her own. As such, she is keenly attuned to women’s health issues, particularly breast cancer, having seen friends both succumb to and win battles with the disease.
After her nanny was diagnosed, Kanakaredes lent her support to the breast cancer advocacy group Susan G. Komen for the Cure; Kanakaredes was impressed that the organization translated medical documents into Greek, the nanny’s primary language. More recently, Kanakaredes has designed breast cancer awareness t-shirts in a partnership between Susan G. Komen and Hanes.

She spoke to us from Los Angeles, where she lives with her chef husband Peter Constantinides and their two daughters.

Energy Times: The Mediterranean diet is a favorite among the health-conscious. How does your Greek heritage shape your diet and health?

Melina Kanakaredes: We eat peasant food, and it’s fantastic—there are olive oils and greens. I probably have the only kids that don’t have pizza Fridays; they have stuffed grape leaves. We have moussaka, which is basically eggplant. It’s a great cuisine for healthy living and fortunately it happens to be one that’s delicious and easy. For me, breakfast is my best meal. I have a Greek grandmother who always used to say, “The breakfast—you break the fast.” I’d always have an egg white omelet, maybe with a little feta cheese and a little spinach and some veggies in there, some fruits. If I’m going to have some carbs I’ll have a little whole wheat toast with that, and that’ll be breakfast.

Lunch is usually a salad and some chicken breast. Somewhere in between in the day I always give myself a sweet because I’m the granddaughter of a chocolate maker. There is no way I’m missing my sweet of the day. And then dinner is something sensible that works, and not too much of it. ET: We’ve reported that the social aspect of the Mediterranean diet is one of the healthiest things about it. It’s not just “eat and run.”

MK: My husband is always cooking, and we have a full house. My parents live with us six months out of the year, my in-laws are here, my cousins. Nobody believes in hotels. They’ve always all stayed with us, whether it was the beginning of my career when I was struggling in a small place or now when things are better. We’re always together. The joke is if you’re nearby our house by six o’clock, stop in—we won’t notice—and just grab a plate. There’s always enough food. The more time you can spend with your family the better, and that’s my motto. That sit-down at the dinner table, that one hour, especially now when the kids are little, is sacred to us. Whether I’m working downtown and we do it in a trailer or we do it in our house, wherever I am we do dinner together.

ET: So on the set the family will come to you?

MK: Yes. When I did the series “Providence” I was pregnant with both babies. I was pregnant all the way through. I thank God everyday that I get to do what I love doing for a living but the nice thing about being offered a series after this is that the precedent has been set, where I had a trailer for myself and a trailer for my children. It didn’t have to be fancy, but I wanted to be a mom. I don’t want to have my kids raised by someone else. When Leslie Moonves, who runs CBS, offered me the job on “CSI: NY,” I said I have an 11-month-old baby, and as long you don’t mind me having a trailer for them I’m happy to go back to work. He said, “Absolutely, not a problem.” It’s in my contract. I wouldn’t have done it otherwise. ET: As a professional chef, your husband must make a big contribution to the family’s dietary health.

MK: His whole thing is that we don’t do fake butter, we don’t do fake sugar, we don’t do fake anything. Anything that isn’t something that can spoil isn’t usually healthy. So we try to live by the idea that if it’s an orange, it’s an orange—not orange-flavored. We try to teach our kids that same sort of mentality. It’s all about portion control. I pretty much eat everything, but I don’t overeat and I try not to eat big meals after seven o’clock at night. Unless it’s a weekend, in which case I treat myself because of my schedule and having fun on the weekends is great. ET: Some nutritionists recommend that people eat five small meals a day rather than three larger meals. Considering what must be long days on set, do you subscribe to that? MK: Some days are 15 hours; some days are only 12. I’m in the makeup chair at 6:30 in the morning. Yesterday, for instance, I got home at 8:30. I do [try to have a number of smaller meals] when I’m working especially if I’m working a 15-hour day and there’s junk food all over the place. I’ll always have something healthy to munch on in between as opposed to grabbing whatever is on the [catering] service table, which isn’t always the best thing. ET: Tell me about the allure of synchronized swimming.

MK: I swam in high school. I just love it. It’s just the best exercise. I’m a singer and I have a lot of breath control, and in Akron, Ohio our high school had a swimming pool. I found it just came second nature to me so I enjoyed it. Then all of a sudden I was kind of good at it, so I started doing synchronized swimming, which sort of combined my love of dance and music.

A lot of people like to tease me about this every time I do a talk show interview. They’ll go, “You really think that this should be a sport for the Olympics?” And I do. Until you’ve tried it, don’t make fun of synchronized swimming. It’s tough. And sure enough I’ve gotten all the brutes in my life to try it, the workout guys. My husband is the oldest of twelve first cousins that were raised like brothers and they’re all very close. All these guys come over, and I’m like, “Okay, boys let’s see if you can scull (using continuous hand movements to balance and support the body in the water). I want to see if you guys can do this.” They’re all suffering after a couple of minutes.

So, yes, I enjoy swimming very much. I think it’s a great combo and an awesome exercise especially for anyone who has had any injuries in any way. I fortunately have not, but when I was pregnant, it was a wonderful way to exercise your entire body without hurting anything, without stress. ET: How often do you swim, and what other exercise do you do?

MK: Especially now with the weather being nicer, I try to swim three or four times a week. Sometimes I do it in conjunction with weights. But nothing more then 20 minutes in the sense of the workout; the rest of the exercise is coming from being with the girls. It’s fun if you can do activities that are with your kids and family. We’ll ride bikes together. We’ll put on some music they like and all of a sudden we’re jamming to Hannah Montana. Whatever I can do to multitask, to spend time with my kids and exercise at the same time, it’s much more fun.

I also started doing a little bit of boxing, which is fun and cathartic. I laugh for the first ten minutes when I put the gloves on. I have a trainer who wanted me to get a little cardiovascular activity while I’m doing the weights, so I suggested dancing and that led to boxing. I tell you, I had a blast. I have a big driveway with a hill and he was having me punch and spar. He had these little hand pads on and I was sparring while running up and down the hill. That will do a lot for you.

ET: Based on your work with the Susan G. Komen organization, what is the most important thing for women to know about breast cancer?

MK: Awareness. The most important thing is for people to do self-exams, to go in and do their yearly mammograms. My mom and I and my sisters make it sort of a date. Whatever it takes, just get in there. Preventative medicine is the best medicine. The earlier the detection the better your chances are at fighting this disease and winning. First and foremost the most important would be early detection by you, and the rest is support, understanding and encouragement as a family. And that’s what I like about the Susan G. Komen organization; it’s a support system and team effort.

The organization is run in such a way that it’s a team—it’s the mothers and the daughters and the sisters. This was started by the sister of Susan G. Komen, who died of cancer and fought the fight. Her sister made this organization come to life. The idea is that you’re absolutely not alone. ET: Teamwork is certainly a theme on your television series. I would imagine that you’re very active on the set.

MK: When I’m doing the stunts it’s hilarious. Just recently I had to do a stunt underwater, and it was a little scary. A bad guy was trying to choke me underwater. Usually they have the stunt doubles do this but I was like, “No, I can do this. This will be fine.” It was a blast. I had a great time. Now had I not been a swimmer I probably would have opted out of that, but, yes, definitely there are these moments where we get to run across town and get the bad guy, and it’s hilarious. I like to do some of the stunt work but then I leave some of the flipping over the side of a building to the experts.

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Watch our latest six part video cast on Organic Weight Management

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The Daily Mail today published an article today on "Wild Ways to Get Well" - From deer antlers for arthritis to bee venom for cancer, the hidden power of the animal kingdom.

Silkwork Saliva was mentioned. Silkworms produce an enzyme - serrapeptase - made by their gut bacteria, which is secreted in their saliva. This enzyme has anti-inflammatory properties that have been used to treat arthritis.

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Read the Daily Mail article here.

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“Being the best dad in the world takes more than love”

Dads. They work hard all year dashing to meetings and dabbling in DIY with little time left to really relax. Father’s Day provides the perfect opportunity to say thanks to our dads for all they do and let them know how much we really appreciate them.

With this in mind, The Nutri Centre, specialist in natural health supplements, grooming, has compiled a handy gift-guide of perfect pressies and advice to treat Dad come 20th June.


Shona Wilkinson, Nutri Centre nutritionist throws in a couple of helpful hints to make sure Dad gets the best out of his day.

Dads don’t have to be softies to know that they need to look after their skin with a good sunscreen that will protect him when he is in the garden. A nice funky hat might also be a good idea.

Dads are not renowned for looking after their hair and if yours is an outside ‘bloke’ then make sure he uses a thickening shampoo and conditioner that will keep his locks from looking thin.

Cook your Dad’s favourite treats or meals using healthy ingredients that will help him look after his heart

Challenge your Dad to game of football (not the armchair variety) that will help him get some exercise and lose the excess pounds.

Click here to visit our Father's Day range of products

Also check out our complete range of mens products by clicking the links below

Mens Grooming
Mens Health

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