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A genetically modified organism (GMO) or genetically engineered organism (GEO) is an organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques. These techniques are generally known as recombinant DNA technology. With recombinant DNA technology, DNA molecules from different sources are combined in vitro into one molecule to create a new gene. This DNA is then transferred into an organism and causes the expression of modified or novel traits.

Genetically modified (GM) foods are foods produced from GMO that have had their DNA altered through genetic engineering. GM foods were first put on the market in the early 1990s. The most common modified foods are derived from plants: soybean, corn, canola cotton seed oil and wheat.


2008-12-19

Diet and Asthma - What Tutwiler Can Teach Us  

No.

community in the United States has more people with more health problems than Tutwiler, Mississippi. A community of about 2000 people located at the intersection of state highways 49 west and 49 east, Tutwiler sits, surrounded by thousands of hectares apartment of genetically modified corn and soybeans, rice and cotton. The treeless landscape of cultures is broken only by walls of razor wire around Tutwiler Women's Prison, home of Mississippi death row. The weather is reliably hot and humid much of the year, and if environmental contamination does not get out of the ground or water, it will fall on you from heaven. Tutwiler deserves its reputation as a cradle of the blues.

That is what the family dealt with by Tutwiler only physician, Dr. Ann Brooks, who is also a Catholic nun in the Sisters of the Holy Names (SJNM). "There are a lot of factors here," said Dr. Brooks. "The factor of overhead pesticide spraying. The budget-smoking. The budget smoke from wood stoves. Cockroaches. Dust mites. Precipitous births of underweight babies with underdeveloped lungs. Lint of the cotton gin."

In our conversation in Tutwiler in April 2004, Dr. Brooks recalled the treatment of a family whose house was often treated amid farm fields. The whole family had asthma. Asthma episodes are often triggered by the sudden fear or arousal, and in one case when a company plane accidentally dumped a load of rice seed directly onto the metal roof of the family's house, "the whole family suffered asthma attacks," she said.

Another factor for the high asthma in Tutwiler is the lack of food choices. There is no grocery store in Tutwiler, although a can buy Fried Chicken at the Shell gas station near the intersection of 49E and 49W, and chips at the Arco station in the northern outskirts of the city (at the time I visited the station, which only the stove was in the wrong order). It is a convenience store five miles (8 km) away, and a market about 20 miles (32 km) away in Clarksdale.

It is interesting that the Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Clarksdale, run by Tutwiler resident Loretta Hill, serves a buffet with exceptionally fresh and delicious fried vegetables as well as his fare, but many residents of Tutwiler never travel that far away from home , because they do not own cars. The great advantage of Tutwiler for the rest of the world is that the conditions are so bad that it is easy to see the greatest results from the smallest change of diet.

One of the questions in nutrition research in Tutwiler is whether the restriction of the consumption of salty foods (in this case only the reduction of the amount of salt used to cook Fried Chicken) reduced the incidence of asthma. For many years, scientists speculated that a high salt diet may actually protect against asthma. There was ample evidence that a high level of sodium in the bloodstream get catecholamines, which means that the stress hormones. These hormones aggravate heart problems, but help open the bronchial passages.

researchers also found that in a test tube, a low-sodium, low-pH environment greatly increased the activation of eosinophils in lung tissue. Eosinophils are the white blood cells that trigger asthmatic attacks.

If the concentration of sodium in the test tube medium was decreased only 25 percent, from 160 mmol to 120 mmol, eosinophils activity increased 1000 percent. If at the same time pH was lowered from 7.6 to 7.0, eosinophils activity increased 2000 percent. These results seemed to indicate that a high salt diet, combined with an alkaline diet (a diet rich in fruits and vegetables and low in sugar and fat), could significantly reduce the activation of white blood cells, leading to asthma.

These results are an example of how laboratory results are not always on the human body. While the human body can be used with sodium levels as low as 120 mmol and as high as 160 mmol, two extremes are associated with serious, life-threatening illness. It is usually not possible to the sodium levels high enough to have an effect on asthma.

In addition, if the blood concentration of sodium in a real, live people could reach the level of the researchers believed would stop immune responses, the excess sodium would cause the pH in the cell to go, no. Excess sodium disables the proton pump normalized, that the acid-base level within the cell.

What you can do about asthma? For asthma and other forms of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a good recommendation is a low-sodium (salt reduced), "Alkaline" (low in sugar and fats), high-potassium (high in fruits and vegetables), diet with plenty of water But it is important that each individual diet plan for asthma on individual considerations. Let's start with the easiest.

asthma and related conditions on the amount of water you drink. While nutritionists usually Recommendation 8 cups (2 liters) of water a day for most conditions, for asthma 8 glasses (4 liters) of water every day is better.

Why drink water, if you have asthma? Some of the medical literature suggests that dehydrated cells in the lining of the bronchial passages are particularly susceptible to inflammation and rupture of white blood cells. Proper hydration will not prevent asthma attacks were not associated with exercise, but it can be very reduce their severity.

What is the salt restriction? There is general consensus in the medical literature that people who exercise-induced asthma benefit from sodium restriction. During heavy exercise, muscle cells burn glucose without oxygen. This means that a building of lactic acid, the "burn" from heavy exercise. Muscle cells get rid of the "burn" through the exchange of protons and sodium. If they contain excessive amounts of sodium, they may not rich of the "burn". Distressed chest muscles May trigger an asthma attack.

If you have a mild asthma and you're not a regular inhaler, you only have your consumption of salty foods, if your asthma is worst when you exercise. If your asthma attacks only seem to come and go without any particular trigger, and you do not use drugs, it is possible that the avoidance of excessive salt consumption, not only with salt to meals. This could reduce wheezing, phlegm, and shortness of breath, even if you eat the same food as the rest of your family.

On the other hand, if you take steroids, limiting your sodium consumption to no more than 2500 mg per day is to prevent side effects of your medication. Three other nutrients but are useful for everyone who has asthma.

magnesium relaxes the muscles. Intravenous magnesium sulphate is a part of the standard treatment for severe asthma in the emergency room, and often begin to alleviate the symptoms once they managed. It is better, of course, intend to take magnesium before emergencies arise.

A large British study of magnesium intake of food and asthma symptoms in 2633 people found that asthmatics, the greater intake of magnesium had a significantly greater lung capacity and significantly less airway hyperreactivity. You could breathe deeply and their airway relaxed.

It is important to remember that the magnesium only for a few weeks will not reduce your need for an inhaler because the body of magnesium pools only very slowly.

 

Read whether Chicken Soup Really Cures a Cold and the truth about Starve a Fever, Feed a Cold. Robert Rister is the author or co-author of nine books on natural health including the critically acclaimed Complete German Commission E Monographs and Healing without Medication.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Robert_Rister

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