Anemia and Heavy Menstrual Flow by Susan M. Lark;

Encyclopedia of Natural Healing by Zoltan Rona;
Nutritional Herbology by Mark Pedersen;
Prescription for Nutritional Healing by Balch and Balch

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I-X FOR AN ABSORBABLE SOURCE OF HERBAL IRON

I-X
Stock #1218-4 (100 capsules)

I-X is an herbal iron source frequently used for anemia and chronic inflammatory conditions such as lymphatic infections and skin problems. I-X cleans and detoxifies the liver, purifies the blood, induces perspiration to promote the elimination of toxins, soothes inflamed tissues, stimulates urine flow, and provides a mild laxative effect.

I-X is recommended for iron-deficiency anemia, arthritis, chronic constipation, fatigue, hemorrhage, hemorrhoids, inflammatory skin conditions, liver problems, lymphatic infection, menorrhagia, rheumatism, and urinary dysfunction.

Burdock is especially useful for treating conditions related to chronic toxicity, as it stimulates elimination of wastes via the colon, kidneys, and skin. Burdock is particularly well-known as a blood purifier, and has also been used to soothe inflammation in both internal and external tissues. Clinical studies have shown burdock improves liver and gallbladder function. Research indicates burdock is helpful for treating inflammatory conditions resulting from chronic toxicity, including arthritis, gout, heavy metal poisoning, infection, rheumatism, and sore throat, as well as chronic skin conditions such as abscesses, acne, boils, burns, carbuncles, eczema, psoriasis, rashes, skin infections, and benign skin tumors.

Chickweed provides ample amounts of viscous fiber and stimulates digestion due to the presence of triterpenoid saponins. Chickweed is believed to help break up fat and fatty deposits in the body, perhaps due to these same saponins. Chickweed has been shown to help gastrointestinal problems such as constipation, hemorrhoids, intestinal toxicity, and ulcers, as well as balance intestinal flora, provide bulk to the stool, and reduce bowel transit time. Chickweed also helps reduce inflammation and acts as a blood purifier and anti-rheumatic agent. Chickweed also promotes a cleansing, soothing, tonic effect on the urinary system for relieving cystitis and urinary tract inflammation. Chickweed has been found beneficial for iron-deficiency anemia due to its high iron content, as well as debility and weakness because of its combined nutrient profile and ability to enhance assimilation and absorption of dietary nutrients.

Mullein contains mucilaginous substances, called polysaccharides, which protect mucous membranes and prevent them from absorbing toxins. The cooling, soothing properties of the mucilage lubricates tissues, reduces inflammation, and enhances healing. Mullein relaxes muscle spasms which helps relieve chronic coughing and abdominal cramping. Mullein also provides diuretic, analgesic (pain-relieving), antiseptic, and antibacterial benefits. Such properties support mullein's use for treating allergies and hayfever, dysuria, glandular swelling, hemorrhoids, inflammatory skin conditions, influenza, nephritis, ulcers, urinary tract infections, and even nervous tension and insomnia. Mullein is very rich in iron, and is a good source of vitamins A, B2, B12, niacin, pantothenic acid, and C, as well as the minerals calcium, magnesium, manganese, and silicon.

Nettle provides a cleansing, detoxifying action on the body, stimulating urine flow and enhancing elimination. Nettle slows or completely stops bleeding (nosebleeds and wounds) and acts as an astringent, making it beneficial for excessive menstrual bleeding. Nettle is anti-allergenic, and has been shown to be helpful for asthma, hay fever, and itching. Studies show nettle slightly lowers blood pressure and blood sugar levels. Nettle is especially rich in iron, as well as vitamins A and C, iodine, magnesium, potassium, silicon, sodium, chlorophyll, and indoles. Nettle is useful for anemia, arthritis, breast-milk production, edema, gout, hemorrhage (especially of the uterus), hemorrhoids, menorrhagia, poor kidney function, rheumatism, and skin problems such as eczema and insect bites.

Red beet stimulates the production of digestive fluids and enzymes, shrinks inflamed tissues, and promotes urine flow. Red beet also enhances immunity due to the presence of the anthocyanin, betanin. Red beet is a good source of potassium and has been used as part of an herbal cleansing regimen for treating cancer. Red beet has been found helpful for frequent urination, inflammatory skin conditions, liver congestion, and menorrhagia.

Red raspberry contains high amounts of the minerals iron, manganese, and pantothenic acid, as well as calcium, magnesium, selenium, and vitamins A, B1 and C. Raspberry leaves also contain flavonoids, polypeptides and tannins, which are especially beneficial for their astringent action, to shrink swollen tissues. Raspberry tannins are believed to be responsible for the herb's ability to combat diarrhea, hemorrhoids, morning sickness, nausea, and vomiting, making the herb especially useful for dysentery and intestinal flu. Raspberry also reduces postpartum bleeding and uterine swelling, promotes tissue repair, and increases lactation. Of course, red raspberry is also beneficial for the abdominal pain, constipation, cramping, and heavy bleeding.

Yellow dock has become favored as a tonic for the liver and gall bladder, due to its astringent purification of the blood supply to the glands. Compared to other herbs, yellow dock has one of the most prominent reputations for clearing skin problems, relieving glandular inflammation and swelling, and curing a variety of bladder ailments and liver diseases, including jaundice. Many Native American medicine men were quite competent in using yellow dock for treating jaundice. Yellow dock also works as a laxative, encouraging the production of bile and digestive fluids and easing inflammatory bowel conditions.

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Inflammation: A Common Denominator of Disease
by Raymond Francis

Inflammation is one of the common denominators of disease. Every chronic disease is an inflammatory disease. No matter what so-called disease you have, from cancer to the common cold, inflammation is a major part of your problem.

Learning how to prevent and reverse inflammation will go a long way toward preventing and reversing almost any disease, as well as slowing the aging process, keeping us healthy, biologically young and vigorous for a lifetime.

Unfortunately, most Americans suffer from chronic inflammation, caused by a variety of factors that seriously undermine health and ages us prematurely. Resulting from an "inflammatory cascade," common inflammatory diseases include allergies, Alzheimer's, asthma, arthritis, autoimmune diseases, bursitis, cancer, cervicitis, colitis, cystitis, diabetes, gastritis, heart disease, hepatitis, infections, myocarditis, nephritis, neuritis, osteoporosis, prostatitis, sinusitis, tendonitis, vaginitis and aging. Even our children are increasingly suffering from "diseases of aging" in epidemic numbers. To put an end to this tragedy, we must learn how to prevent and reverse chronic inflammation.

What is inflammation? It is the body's response to injury, irritation or infection, a natural and healthy process. If you cut your finger, the body immediately begins an inflammatory process that neutralizes harmful microorganisms, helps to repair the wound, and cleans up the debris resulting from the injury.

Inflammation is beneficial when needed, but it is disastrous when chronic. Chronic inflammation generates a constant supply of free radicals that overwhelm our anti-oxidant defenses and damage DNA, aging us and causing disease of every description.

What causes inflammation? Most importantly, the standard American diet causes inflammation. Most of us suffer from chronic inflammation and disease because the American diet is pro-inflammatory. It is rich in pro-inflammatory compounds, while lacking antioxidants and other nutrients that help to prevent and control inflammation.

How does our diet cause inflammation? One way is our excessive consumption of refined carbohydrates. Sugar and white flour are deadly poisons that have an inflammatory effect on the body. Unaware of this, the average American consumes more than 160 pounds of sugar and 200 pounds of white flour per year. Sugar and white flour increase blood sugar, and even a modest increase in blood sugar generates pro-inflammatory chemicals. Most people eat these poisons daily in the form of bread, pasta, breakfast cereal, cookies, cakes, soft drinks, candy, etc.

In addition, sugar and white flour cause inflammation and disease by forming AGEs. AGEs are produced when a protein reacts with sugar, resulting in damaged, cross-linked proteins. As the body tries to protect you by breaking these AGEs apart, immune cells secrete large amounts of inflammatory chemicals. Many of the diseases that we think of as part of aging are actually caused by this process. Depending on where the AGEs occur, the result can be arthritis, heart disease, cataracts, memory loss, wrinkled skin or diabetes complications, to name a few.

Acidity is another problem. Most Americans eat an acidic diet caused by too much salt, sugar, white flour, dairy, meat and cola drinks. Many experts consider over-acidity to be one of the major causes of chronic inflammation, with increasing acidity causing increasing amounts of inflammation.

The fats and oils in the American diet are inflammatory because they contain excessive omega-6 fatty acids. Omega-6 fatty acids are pro-inflammatory, while omega-3s are anti-inflammatory. Historically, humans consumed roughly equal amounts of these oils, achieving a balance. Today, we consume 20 to 30 times as much omega-6 as omega-3. The modern processed-food industry fills our stores with pro-inflammatory oils, including corn, safflower, sunflower, soy, canola, and peanut oils. Grain-fed beef, poultry, and farmed fish also contain excessive omega-6. These imbalances create a huge excess of pro-inflammatory chemicals in our diet. It is extremely important that only healthy fish, meats, fats and oils be consumed (Beyond Health supplies healthy oils).

Milk products also cause inflammation. Modern dairy cows eat grain-containing diets producing excessive omega-6 fats, creating a pro-inflammatory imbalance. In addition, a substantial percentage of our population (some estimate 50%) is allergic to dairy, often unknowingly. Frequent consumption of dairy causes chronic allergic reactions, creating chronic inflammation.

Hydrogenated oils are also pro-inflammatory. These oils find their way into a myriad of products including candy, baked goods, margarine, breakfast cereal, and peanut butter. The trans fatty acids contained in hydrogenated oils inhibit the activity of enzymes that make anti-inflammatory compounds, but not those that create pro-inflammatory ones; chronic inflammation is the result.

In addition to diet, infections also contribute to inflammation. It is important to keep your immunity strong and to minimize the number of infections you suffer. Infections trigger powerful inflammatory processes to destroy invading microorganisms. Unfortunately, the inflammation damages you, as well as the invaders. Having one cold after another will do lasting damage, and shorten your life. Repeated infections, as well as chronic infections, lead to chronic inflammation that damages and ages the entire body.

Physical injuries also create inflammation. Nature intended inflammation to subside once an injury is repaired. However, because of our pro-inflammatory diet, injuries are seldom fully healed and often result in chronic low-grade inflammation in the injured tissue. This is why athletes have problems with old injuries as they age. Incompletely healed tissues produce inflammatory chemicals that promote inflammation for the entire body.

Allergies and food sensitivities also create inflammatory responses. Chronic allergic reactions create chronic inflammation. This is why allergic reactions must be minimized by strengthening the immune system and avoiding allergens. Unfortunately, allergies have become epidemic.

Contributing to this epidemic has been the irrational misuse of antibiotics, NSAIDS(non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs), and hormones by our obsolete physicians. These dangerous drugs disrupt gut tissue, causing leakage of undigested food molecules into the blood, thereby promoting food allergies.

A good idea for almost anyone is to stay away from the most common allergens such as dairy and wheat (half the population may be allergic to the casein found in milk and the gluten found in wheat, rye, and barley). Anyone suffering from celiac disease knows how inflammatory gluten can be.

Yet another promoter of chronic, systemic inflammation is fat cells. More than two-out-of-three Americans are overweight, and fat cells, especially those that form around the abdomen, produce large amounts of inflammatory chemicals. This is a huge source of inflammation, and is the reason why overweight people suffer so much more disease and disability.

Environmental toxins are also inflammatory. Synthetic fibers, latex, glues, adhesives, plastics, air fresheners, cleaning products and perfume are examples of everyday chemicals that can trigger an inflammatory response. Chronic exposure, at even low doses, can drive your immune system crazy, resulting in inflammatory autoimmune diseases.

Chronic stress produces hormones that result in chronic inflammation. Stress produces inflammatory chemicals that can make your skin break out or your intestines go into revolt. Likewise, insomnia causes inflammation. People who are sleep deprived have higher levels of inflammatory chemicals.

Inflammation is a common element in virtually all disease. By causing chronic inflammation we are aging ourselves prematurely, causing us to look old, feel tired, and suffer every imaginable disease.

Controlling chronic inflammation takes a combination approach because it arises from a combination of causes, but most of it is under your control. By learning how to prevent and reverse inflammation, you can achieve power over aging and disease. What a wonderful goal -- and so easy to do.

If you want to prevent disease, or if you want to get well, consume a diet high in a variety of fresh, organic vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds. Get rid of those excess pounds. Take high quality anti-inflammatory supplements. If you take these principles to heart, you will be well on your way to a longer, higher quality, disease-free life.

Supplement with antioxidant nutrients: omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins A, B complex (including folic acid, B6 and B12), C, D, and E, plus beta-carotene, CoQ10, curcumin, quercitin, selenium, N-acetylcysteine, and alpha-lipoic acid. And drink our green tea, which is especially high in anti-oxidants.

Reprinted from Beyond Health News
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Body Odor:
All people smell when they don't bathe often enough. Sweat doesn't smell when it first reaches your skin. The odor comes only after bacteria or fungi on the skin's surface break down the fat in sweat to form chemicals that smell.

Most sweat glands produce sweat that contains no fat, but the sweat glands around the breasts, genitals and armpits produce sweat that contains fat. Most people prevent body odor by washing these areas frequently to reduce the number of bacteria on the skin's surface. The vast majority of people can prevent body odor by 1) bathing frequently; 2) changing underwear and socks daily, because underclothes retain skin debris that bacteria break down to cause odors; 3) using deodorants that contain low levels of bacteria-killing metals such as aluminum, zinc or zirconium; and 4) using powder under the armpits and groin to keep the skin dry, which prevents bacteria from growing. Bacteria grow rapidly on wet skin.

If you do all of these things and still have an odor, something is wrong. The most common cause of unusual body odor is a skin infection. An ammonia odor is caused by infection with Helicobacter, the bacteria that causes stomach ulcers, or by eating too much protein. Ask your doctor to draw a blood test for helicobacter. If it is positive, you can be cured with antibiotics. If it is negative, you may need to eat less meat, fish, chicken and dairy products. When you take in more protein than your body can use immediately, your body strips ammonia from protein to make you smell like ammonia. A fish odor is caused by taking choline supplements, by a hereditary condition called trimethylaminuria that requires avoiding fish and other dietary sources of choline, or by a vaginal infection caused by a bacteria called Gardnerella. People who have damaged livers can also develop body odor that smells like fish. Damage to the liver can destroy the chemical that breaks down choline.
Ruocco V, Florio M. Fish-odor syndrome: an olfactory diagnosis. International J of Dermatology 1995(Feb);34(2):92-3.

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Is Your Liver at Risk?

People sometimes complain of feeling "off," a sense of being not quite well, if not exactly sick. This is how it was for 51-year-old "Larry," a business executive in Southern California. Larry had been divorced for several years and whenever his busy work schedule allowed it, he was enjoying the bachelor social life. But now he wasn't feeling right -- at his annual physical his doctor said his tests were fine and maybe he just needed to slow down. That didn't satisfy Larry, who was sure something was amiss. He decided to schedule an appointment with naturopathic physician Mark Stengler, ND, since NDs can often identify illness that MDs overlook in their symptom/disease-focused paradigm.

DR. STENGLER'S ANALYSIS
Dr. Stengler says that when he met Larry, his patient's main complaints were abdominal bloating, being chronically tired and having bad breath. These symptoms, which had gotten worse over the past year, not only worried Larry, they intruded on both his business and personal life. Dr. Stengler reviewed Larry's most recent blood work from his MD and saw that he had mildly elevated liver enzymes. This, plus his symptoms, led Dr. Stengler to believe that moderately compromised liver function might be the root of his patient's problems. He became even more convinced when Larry told him he was taking acetaminophen daily to soothe the arthritis in his knees and pain in his lower back. Larry also drank regularly... he reported having two to four drinks as often as four nights a week. Both acetaminophen and alcohol place strain on the liver.

NATURAL SUPPORT FOR LIVER FUNCTION
Before starting Larry on treatment to strengthen his liver, Dr. Stengler did another blood test to confirm the elevated liver enzyme counts. Larry didn't have liver disease per se, but the enzyme counts showed a liver that was overworked and in turn falling short on its tasks, including those related to cleansing the body. Dr. Stengler prescribed a liver strengthening regimen for Larry as follows:

*A liver tonic formula containing such herbs as milk thistle, dandelion root, chicory, and Bupleurum.

*A greens/fiber powdered formula with such ingredients as chlorella, spirulina, wheatgrass and barley grass.

*A multivitamin.

*Increased water intake, for detoxification. Dr. Stengler recommended Larry drink 48 to 60 ounces of filtered water per day.

*No alcohol.

*A once-weekly sauna using infrared waves (this type of sauna provides deeper heat) to bring on a sweat, flushing out drug metabolites and toxins through the skin.

*A diet rich in fruits, vegetables, nuts and fish.

*Reducing or avoiding fast foods because they are associated with an elevation in liver enzymes.

In addition, Dr. Stengler instructed Larry to take collagen, methylsulfonylmethane (MSM) and glucosamine sulfate, and to have weekly acupuncture treatments to replace the pain medications he had been taking for his arthritis.

THE RESULTS
Larry immediately noticed that the frequency of his bowel movements increased -- from one every few days to two a day, a welcome change. He reported feeling tired for the first four days of his new regimen, which Dr. Stengler says is not unusual when someone first starts a program for liver health... the body must metabolize the substances being released and that's extra work. Soon, though, Larry
began to see his energy and digestion improve and in two weeks time he felt much better overall and had lost four pounds. By the end of the first month, his breath had freshened and blood work at six weeks showed that his liver enzymes had returned to normal. Larry could now change his regimen, stopping the liver support supplements but continuing with the greens formula for ongoing gentle detox, along with the water consumption and his much-improved diet. He could resume moderate drinking – a few drinks a week, including wine -- and will continue to take the supplements for his arthritis.

UNDERSTANDING LIVER FUNCTION
Like Larry, many people suffer from suboptimal liver function, says Dr. Stengler. The liver is an immensely busy organ, with numerous responsibilities, including producing bile for digestion, metabolizing glucose from food and storing it as reserve fuel, processing all types of drugs and alcohol, synthesizing cholesterol for production of hormones, and regulating clotting. When the liver is not operating at its best it is often referred to as being sluggish -- and a sluggish liver, even if enzymes are only mildly elevated, can't function as well as it should.

Just some of the more frequent symptoms of a sluggish liver are lowered energy, poor digestion, moodiness, unhealthy skin, cold hands and feet, constipation, bloating, bad breath and food sensitivities. Many doctors tend to dismiss elevated liver enzymes as unimportant, preferring to take a watch and wait approach to see if matters worsen before taking action. But Dr. Stengler disagrees with that approach, strongly advising a proactive strategy to bring the liver to optimal functioning. He cautions, however, against the popular "liver flushes" you may hear about from friends or read about online or in magazines. Done over one to three days, these so-called cleanses feature limited and strange food and fluid combinations... some of them can actually make people sick. They can trigger higher than normal bile release, possibly causing gallstones to get lodged in bile ducts. Other possible problems include an overload of wastes in the body that it can't eliminate and/or eliminating too much. Extreme cleansing can cause people to experience nausea, rashes, headaches and fatigue.

If your liver could talk, it might sound like the comedian Rodney Dangerfield, protesting "I don't get no respect." It's true that most people focus their health management on avoiding heart disease, stroke and cancer -- but would do well to direct some of that attention to keeping the liver well tuned, since it powers all other systems. Most people can achieve this by practicing good health measures as explained above.

Source(s): Mark A. Stengler, ND, a naturopathic physician and leading authority on the practice of alternative and integrated
medicine. He is director of the La Jolla Whole Health Clinic, La Jolla, California, and associate clinical professor at the National College of Naturopathic Medicine, Portland, Oregon.
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