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Every doctor eventually realizes how difficult it is to treat sinusitis. Most of you who have been diagnosed as having sinusitis, and have sought help from allergists, ear-nose-and-throat-doctors, internists or surgeons, know that you still have sinusitis, even though you may have had surgery, allergy shots, all kinds of medications and shots or any other treatment.

Many people find relief with saline irrigation, using various devices that are readily available in drugstores; check with your doctor or pharmacist for their recommendations.

If your nose is stuffy most of the time and your mucous is clear, you could have an allergy, an irritation from smoking or air pollution or from some unknown cause. If thick yellow-green mucous drips from your nose, you probably have a sinus infection. Your doctor should order a sinus cat scan X ray. If the X ray shows that you have fluid levels in your sinuses, you have sinusitis.

Nobody really knows how to treat sinusitis. Allergy injections are almost always a complete waste of time, unless you get a stuffy nose every spring and fall when the tree, grass and ragweed pollen are in the air. People who have a chronic stuffy noses all year round rarely benefit from allergy shots. Sinus surgery usually is ineffective and costs a lot of money and pain for no benefit whatever. A couple of years ago, a study from the Mayo Clinic showed that people with chronic sinusitis usually carry fungi in their noses, but multiple efforts to treat sinusitis with long-term anti-fungal medications have failed.

A study in Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery showed that long-term low-dose erythromycin therapy helps to control persistent chronic sinusitis after sinus surgery. This study could help the millions of people who go from doctor to doctor for help in treating their chronic stuffy noses, headaches, pressure in their faces and usually thick yellow-green mucous coming from their noses.

Doctors usually prescribe cortisone-type steroids which make a person with sinusitis feel better, but cortisones have never cured anyone and they can cause horrible side effects such as osteoporosis, obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and so forth. Taking antibiotics for one week almost never cures a sinus infection. Many previous studies show that you have to take antibiotics for a long time to cure sinusitis. What is encouraging about this paper is that the authors treated their patients, each day, for more than a year with 250 mg of Biaxin, a potent erythromycin antibiotic, and 12 out of 17 patients improved dramatically. The doctors checked their patients every three months for a year. After each patient had been treated with Biaxin for one year, their saccharine transit time, a measure of mucociliary transport, improved. This test measures the ability of the cilia lining their noses to clear mucous and pollution from the nose. Also an endoscopic nasal examination showed that there was marked improvement in the linings of their noses. They also had an improvement in being less stuffy, clearing their sticky secretions faster, and having far less mucous dripping from their noses. They also had far fewer and less severe headaches. The researchers said, “The present study suggests that long-term, low-dose treatment with erythromycin antibiotics is effective in persistent chronic sinusitis that does not respond to sinus surgery or systemic steroid/antibiotic treatment.” However, this treatment is controversial and is not accepted by most doctors. Discuss it with your doctor.

Gabe Mirkin, M.D.

If you are afraid to exercise because you think that after you stop, your muscles turn to fat, you are out-of-shape for the wrong reason.

Quick Gym’s program burns fat and builds, not turns fat into muscle.

Muscles can’t possibly turn to fat. When you exercise, your muscles become larger and stronger because exercise causes extra protein building blocks, called amino acids, to deposit in muscles. All day long, amino acids pass from your muscles into your bloodstream and then back into muscles, with exercise as the major stimulus to force amino acids back into muscles. When you stop exercising, fewer amino acids go back into muscles and they become smaller. Amino acids that do not go back into muscles, are picked up by your liver. Since your body has no way to store extra protein, your liver uses them for energy or converts them into fat. So if you stop exercising, you have to eat less or you will become fat, but muscles never turn into fat.

Gabe Mirkin, M.D.

Are you bothered by aches and pains?

You may be surprised to know a common ingredient in your food may be the culprit…

I’m talking about gluten.

A surprising number of people walk around each day, unaware that gluten is the cause of their joint pain.

In one study, researchers followed a group of people with rheumatoid arthritis. They were put on a gluten-free diet.

After just 14 weeks, most of the patients reported dramatic improvements in their symptoms.1

Gluten is found in wheat, barley, and rye. It’s also found in nearly all processed foods, since it’s often used as a texture enhancer and a thickening agent. You’ll also find it in places you may not even expect, like:

• Salad dressings
• Deli meats
• Beer
• Potato chips
• Soy sauce
• Envelope glue

People who are gluten-sensitive normally don’t produce the enzyme that breaks down wheat protein. That’s why, when they eat anything with gluten in it, their body sees it as a foreign substance.

To deal with it, the body produces cytokines and other inflammatory agents. This can then inflame the joints and make them sore.

Consider this: One study found that up to 66% of folks with celiac disease (a severe form of gluten-sensitivity) displayed symptoms of joint inflammation.2

The best way to know if your join pain is caused by gluten sensitivity is to avoid foods that contain it.

That means avoiding grains, wheat, and most processed foods.

Instead, get your carbs from natural sources like fruits, veggies, and legumes like kidney beans and chick peas.

If your symptoms do improve, you should consult your doctor and find out how severe your allergic reaction to gluten is. In severe cases, you may have celiac disease. (As many as 3 million Americans suffer from this disease, but many go by undiagnosed.)

Either way, avoiding grains, wheat, and anything else containing gluten may be one more step you can take to cooling the fire in your joints naturally.

This is just one of the great tips you’ll find in a plan from my good friend Dr. Stephen Sinatra. I’ve known him personally for years. In “The Arthritis Interrupted Plan,” Dr. Sinatra reveals dozens of natural remedies that work to eliminate arthritis pain – without drugs or surgery.

Doctor Oz brought Dr. Maoshing Ni on the Dr Oz show to teach Chinese Medicine remedies and techniques. Dr. Maoshing Ni (or Dr. Mao) said that this allergy remedy from his book Secrets of Self-Healing: Harness Nature’s Power to Heal Common Ailments, Boost Your Vitality,and Achieve Optimum Wellness, is extremely effective to get rid of nasal congestion and allergies. So next time you need a nasal decongestant, need to clear your sinuses or are having a bad case of allergies, reach for the Peppermint Oil!

1. In a Nasal Spray Bottle, mix together a few drops of Peppermint Oil in a container of warm saline solution or salt water.
2. Spray the allergy home remedy up each nostril and breathe in.
3. You will get allergy relief / sinus relief and become uncongested almost immediately! Goodbye allergy season!

Follow this link for more info. http://bit.ly/SinusAlergies

We’re most familiar with olive oil in relation to cooking, but there’s so many other ways it can be used; often avoiding the need to use chemicals, compounds and substances that aren’t very environmentally friendly. For these tips, you don’t need to use the best grade of olive oil.

- After polishing copper or brass, rub it with a little olive oil to slow down the reocurrence of tarnish

- Can be used as a stainless steel cleaner; apply sparingly

- Rub olive oil into wooden cutting boards to help prevent cracking, repel staining and marking

- Remove paint from hair or skin by dabbing a cotton ball dipped in olive to the affected area

- Use it as an alternative for de-squeaking hinges

- Olive oil can help unjam zippers - use a cotton bud to apply

- Apply a little olive oil to your shoes to restore their shine

- Old leather can be made more supple by rubbing in olive oil (spot test first)

- Coat garden tool blades with a thin layer of olive oil to prevent dirt sticking to them and to help prevent rusting. This works really well!

- Mix one part lemon juice with 3 parts olive oil to make a wooden furniture polish

- Rub into to fingernails before and after manicuring

- A small amount of olive oil applied after shampooing can substitute hair conditioner.

- Extra light olive oil can be used as a massage oil

- Olive oil can replace shaving cream or shaving oil

- Dip a razor into olive oil after use to prevent the blade rusting

- Can be applied to chapped lips to to relieve the dryness

- Use as a makeup remover

A teaspoon of olive oil can help soothe a tickling or sore throat (I’ve just tried that out and it has provided some relief) and in some cases if taken just before bed, can alleviate snoring :).

http://bit.ly/OliveOiluses

The three most nutritionally beneficial omega-3 fatty acids are eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), and alpha-linolenic acid (ALA). Research suggests these omega-3 fatty acids are BETTER ABSORBED BY THE BODY WHEN OBTAINED FROM FOOD rather than omega-3 supplements. Although fatty fish is known as the best source of omega-3s, there are many other foods that contain these health boosting fatty acids.

By Dr Mercola http://bit.ly/NaturalPainReliever

In this double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized study, the participants were given either two grams of raw or heat-treated ginger supplements, or a placebo, for 11 consecutive days. They then performed a strenuous exercise with a heavy weight to induce “moderate muscle injury” to the arm. Pain- and inflammation levels were assessed prior to the exercise and for three days afterward.

While both types of ginger produced good results compared to the placebo, the raw ginger was slightly more effective, reducing exercise-induced pain by 25 percent within 24 hours. The heat-treated form reduced pain by 23 percent.

Part of the explanation for ginger’s pain relieving properties is its potent antioxidant content, which includes gingerols, shogaols and zingerones. It is believed that these compounds have particular anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties similar to nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).

Co-author Patrick O’Connor is quoted as saying:

“The economic and personal costs of pain are extremely high. Muscle pain generally is one of the most common types of pain and eccentric exercise-induced muscle pain specifically is a common type of injury related to sports and/or recreation, like gardening.

Anything that can truly relieve this type of pain will be greatly welcomed by the many people who are experiencing it.”

Yes, knowing that there are far safer options out there that cost a fraction of conventional painkillers is indeed a very valuable piece of information.

I’ve written extensively about the health dangers of NSAIDs such as Vioxx, Celebrex, and even common over-the-counter painkillers. The short- and long-term side effects of these types of drugs can cause far more suffering than the pain you’re trying to get rid of.

Other Natural Pain Relievers

Aside from ginger, there are several other natural products and strategies that can offer pain relief, including:

• Boswellia: Also known as boswellin or “Indian frankincense,” this herb contains specific active anti-inflammatory ingredients.
• Krill oil: The omega-3 fats EPA and DHA found in krill oil have been found, by many animal and clinical studies, to have anti-inflammatory properties that reduce joint inflammation and promote joint lubrication.
• Bromelain: This enzyme, found in pineapples, is a natural anti-inflammatory. It can be taken in supplement form, but eating fresh pineapple may also be helpful.
• Cetyl Myristoleate (CMO): This oil, found in fish and dairy butter, acts as a “joint lubricant” and an anti-inflammatory. I have also used this for myself to relieve ganglion cysts and a mild annoying carpal tunnel syndrome that pops up when I type too much on non-ergonomic keyboards. I used a topical preparation for this.
• Evening Primrose, Black Currant and Borage Oils: These contain the essential fatty acid gamma linolenic acid (GLA), which is particularly useful for treating arthritic pain. I personally prefer the use of GLA supplements from evening primrose oil but borage oil contains a higher concentration of GLA, which means you need fewer capsules, and it tends to be less expensive.
• Cayenne Cream: Also called capsaicin cream, this spice comes from dried hot peppers. It alleviates pain by depleting the body’s supply of substance P, a chemical component of nerve cells that transmits pain signals to your brain.

Another pain relieving strategy that includes neither drugs nor supplements or creams of any kind, is to use an energy tool such as the Meridian Tapping Technique/Emotional Freedom Technique (MTT/EFT).

Many types of pain, especially chronic pain, can be the result of a disruption in your body’s subtle energy system, caused by unresolved emotions or emotional trauma.

Granted, emotional trauma may have little to do with the pain you experience after straining your muscles from vigorous exercise. However, if you suffer from chronic or other hard-to-treat pains, MTT/EFT may be something you’ll want to look into as this simple do-it-yourself technique has been shown to provide effective pain relief about 80 percent of the time — on everything from headaches to cancer pain.

By Dr. Mercola. http://bit.ly/NaturalPainReliever

One of the most common traditional uses of ginger, a medicinal tuber, is for nausea, including the morning sickness experienced by about 80 percent of pregnant women.

Ginger has been proven to be more effective in reducing nausea and vomiting in pregnant women than a placebo, and it also works just as well as vitamin B6, which can also improve morning sickness symptoms in pregnant women.

I believe it’s one of the absolute best therapies for nausea of any kind, and can even work on motion sickness as well.

However, last year NutraIngredients reported that the Finnish food safety agency, Evira, “recommended warning labels for ginger supplements, after its Risk Assessment Unit highlighted dangers for consuming them for pregnant women.”

“The assessment found that ginger food supplements, teas and drinking powders should be limited in pregnant women because elements in ginger may be harmful to fetal development if consumed in great enough quantities.” [Emphasis mine]

The warning label issued in Finland was not necessarily due to scientific evidence of harm, but rather implemented as a precaution.

I’ve previously stated that ginger is safe for consumption during pregnancy, and I still believe it is safe in moderation.

It’s worth considering that whole ginger root contains a variety of synergistic compounds. This natural synergy typically ensures that one compound in the food doesn’t “overtake” the others to inflict harm. It is rare for any type of whole food to be dangerous enough to not eat during pregnancy.

That is typically only a concern that arises when you extract individual ingredients or compounds from a food or plant source, which is done in drug development, and to a more limited extent for certain supplements.

That said, whole ginger can be consumed in a variety of ways, including:

• My favorite way of using it is to cut off about a teaspoon worth, dicing it very fine and swallowing it with water. This is far more potent, inexpensive and effective than any other way I know of.
• Cooking with it: Ginger tastes great lightly sautéed with other vegetables, meat, sesame oil, and a pinch of natural, unprocessed salt.
• As a tea: Simply put a couple of thin slices into hot water. A little bit of raw honey can sweeten the otherwise “hot and spicy” flavor of the tea.

I’ve previously also recommended ginger syrup, which you can easily make on your own or purchase in most health food stores. However, knowing what we now know about the massively negative health ramifications of fructose consumption, I’d recommend avoiding this alternative and just stick to eating or drinking the ginger without loading up on unnecessary sugar.

Using a ginger syrup, which consists of about twice the amount of sugar to ginger, doesn’t make much sense in terms of overall health – especially if you’re drinking it regularly.

Added Boon: Ginger May Also Help Prevent Heart Disease

In the past decade, researchers have also discovered that ginger may benefit your cardiovascular health, including:

• Preventing atherosclerosis
• Lowering cholesterol levels
• Preventing oxidation of low density lipoprotein (LDL)

One animal study found that mice who received 250 micrograms of ginger extract daily experienced:

• 44 percent reduction in aortic atherosclerotic lesion
• 27 percent reduction in triglycerides
• 29 percent reduction in cholesterol
• 53 percent reduction in VLDL cholesterol
• 33 percent reductions in LDL (bad) cholesterol, and
• Reduced LDL oxidation and aggregation

As you can see, there are plenty of reasons to make sure you’re eating (or drinking) fresh herbs and spices such as ginger on a regular basis.

Want even more tips on how to use ginger in your cooking?

Check out About.com’s Home Cooking section for a long list of recipes that include ginger.

Many body builders and weight lifters are overly concerned about what they eat and what food supplements they take. If you want to grow larger and stronger muscles, you should concentrate on lifting weights, but you can help muscles grow larger by understanding how what you eat affects how you recover from hard exercise. Just exercising will not make you strong and it will not help you to grow large muscles. If exercise made you strong, marathon runners would have the largest muscles. The only stimulus to make muscles larger and stronger is to stretch them while they contract. When you lift a heavy weight, your muscles start to stretch before they start to contract. This tears the muscle and causes soreness on the next day and beyond. If you rest and let the muscle heal, it will be stronger than before you stretched it lifting weights.

The training principle of stress-and-recover is so strong that you can enlarge a muscle by lifting weights even if you are fasting, losing weight and all your other muscles are getting smaller. In one study, obese, un-athletic women were instructed to restrict food and lift weights. They averaged a weight loss of more than 35 pounds in three months and gained a lot of muscle.

Training for sports is done by taking a hard workout and then having sore muscles on the next day. Then you take easy workouts or you take off until the muscle soreness disappears. You improve by taking hard workouts and your muscles grow and heal while you recover on your easy days. Of course, if you could recover faster from a hard workout, you could do more work and be a better athlete. Scientists have known for years that you recover faster by eating carbohydrates immediately after you finish your hard workout (2). Other studies show that eating extra protein on the day that you take hard workouts helps you recover even faster. Eating extra protein reduces muscle damage during hard exercise (3). Eating carbohydrates along with a protein building block called leucine helps you to recover even faster (4).

Chronic muscle fatigue in athletes can be associated with low blood levels of amino acids, the building blocks of proteins (1). The sooner you eat protein after you finish your hard workout, the quicker you will recover. The benefits of eating protein soon after you lift weights does not apply just to elite athletes. A study from the University of Arkansas showed that eating meat helps older people grow large muscles when they also lift weights(5). Muscles are made primarily from protein building blocks called amino acids. Muscles heal from a hard workout when amino acids and other nutrients travel from your bloodstream into the muscles. Eating food, particularly protein, immediately after you finish your workout helps muscles heal faster. This study showed that men between the ages of 51 and 69 recover faster and grow larger muscles when they include meat than when they eat only dairy, fruits, vegetable, whole grains, beans, seeds and nuts.

1) JE Donnelly, T Sharp, J Houmard, MG Carlson, JO Hill, JE Whatley, RG Israel American Journal of Clinical Nutrition OCT 1993;58(4) .

2) KJ Kingsbury, L Kay, M Hjelm. Contrasting plasma free amino acid patterns in elite athletes: association with fatigue and infection. British Journal of Sports Medicine 32: 1 (MAR 1998):25-32.

3) Nancy Rodriquez. The Journal of Nutrition July, 1999.

4) Hayward R et al. Effects of dietary protein on enzyme activity follwoiing exercise-induced muscle injury. Med Sci Sprts Exerc. March, 1999. 31(3):414-420.

5) WW Campbell, ML Barton, D CyrCampbell, SL Davey, JL Beard, G Parise, WJ Evans. Effects of an omnivorous diet compared with a lactoovovegetarian diet on resistance-training-induced changes in body composition and skeletal muscle in older men. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 1999, Vol 70, Iss 6, pp 1032-1039.