Ginger helps cancer patients battle nausea

As I've proven to you time and again, you just can't keep a good remedy down - even if it's not a Big Pharma product. And that's certainly the case for a ginger, a natural remedy that a new study says can be a particularly useful ally in the battle against cancer.

This is not a shock to me. I've written many times about the many abilities of ginger. Ginger is one of those ancient remedies that people relied on centuries before Big Pharma came to our rescue with expensive "solutions" for an upset stomach or nausea. The new study says this multitalented herb is particularly useful for helping chemotherapy patients quell intense feelings of nausea.

And like a lot of ancient healing secrets, no one needed to know how it worked - the fact that it did was good enough for them. For centuries, people have turned to ginger to help settle their upset stomachs.

And there's more good news: the study also shows that ginger could be even more effective than anti-vomiting drugs produced by Big Pharma… and you know I love that!

The study, led by Dr. Julie L. Ryan of the University of Rochester in New York, tested more than 600 breast cancer patients undergoing a variety of chemotherapy treatments across the country. Each of the patients was given pills with ginger root or a placebo three days prior to receiving their chemo treatments. In addition, the patients also took the usual doses of anti-vomiting drugs that they would normally take on the day of their treatments.

According to Dr. Ryan, patients taking the ginger root rated their nausea severity at about 45 percent of its usual intensity (based on a patient-rated scale of one to five). The placebo group reported no change in the severity of their nausea.

Perhaps the timing of the administration of the ginger also played a role in preparing the patients for the onslaught of nausea that results from chemo. Dr. Ryan emphasized that in her study, the ginger was given before the chemotherapy treatments. In past studies, this was not the case.

Of course, the use of ginger to get over nausea should be familiar to an entire generation of kids whose mothers plied them with copious amounts of flat ginger ale whenever they became sick. But don't think you can grab a handful of ginger cookies or sip some ginger tea to do the trick. For the best anti-nausea results, take a quarter to half a teaspoon of ground ginger.

You know I'm no fan of chemotherapy. To me, it's often a race against time to see which will kill you first: the cancer of the "cure." But I also know that, when push comes to shove, it's tough for most people to choose an alternative form of treatment when they're staring cancer in the face.

If you're one of those people - or if you know someone who is - this little tidbit of information could make your life a little easier.

Irregular heartbeat linked to dementia

Alzheimer's researchers are leaving no stone unturned in their quest to find the cause for Alzheimer's disease. The latest study links Alzheimer's disease to the incidence of abnormal heartbeat.

After studying the medical records of a 37,000 patients treated in Wyoming, Dr. T. Jared Bunch, an electrophysicist, uncovered a frightening statistic: atrial fibrillation sufferers under the age of 70 were 130 percent more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease.

Bunch thinks this insight into the link between atrial fibrillation and dementia could very well be a new path to a cure.

It's a staggering figure, to be sure. But right now it's only a statistical measure. Bunch and his team can't determine what the exact link is between irregular heartbeat and dementia. It's thought that heart beat issues lead to blood flow issues, which, in turn, can deny oxygen to certain areas of the brain.

Whether or not this link turns out to be valid, an irregular heartbeat is nothing to mess around with. Irregular heartbeats (also called arrhythmias) greatly increase the risk of cardiac arrest or sudden cardiac death.

Symptoms of an irregular heartbeat can include palpitations, dizziness, shortness of breath, chest discomfort, or even fatigue. If you begin to notice signs of these signs, be sure to go to your doctor.