I have been a huge enthusiast of bone broth especially when cooked with Chinese herbs to enhance immune and endocrine function, strengthen connective tissue, improve digestive function, strengthen blood, qi and bones.
ingredients: ren shen, dong quai, huang qi, hong zao, lycii berry, chuan xiong, and dang shen.
Soon to come, I will be making ginseng (with other essential herbs) bone broth for order. Will be available in quart sizes.

A staple of the human diet for thousands of years, bone broth is enjoying a resurgence of interest due to its powerful health benefits. Bone broth is easy to incorporate in your diet as a base for soups, stews and legumes. Follow our recipe below to make your own fortifying and replenishing broth.

Top 5 Reasons to Eat Bone Broth:
1. Nourish Your Gut
Bone broth is full of gelatin and collagen, which soothes the intestinal tract and helps heal leaky gut, aka intestinal permeability. With stress, diet, alcohol, caffeine and NSAIDS wreaking havoc on our intestines, anything and everything we can do to help repair the gut is beneficial, as a healthy intestinal tract is essential to overall good health.

2. Boost Your Immune System
Yes, Grandma was right about chicken soup. A traditional folk remedy for colds and flus, bone broth provides a rich array of nutrients (especially gelatin) which support your immune system. Cysteine, an amino acid found in chicken, helps to thin mucus so it can be expelled more easily. When fighting a cold, make a chicken broth with added spices or peppers to make it spicy to help keep the mucus moving.

3. Increase Bio-available Minerals
As a result of soil degradation, the mineral content of our foods is reduced, and many of us have compromised absorption due to poor gut health. Yet minerals are critical to so many bodily functions and impact everything from our bones to our mood and our sleep. Supplying calcium, magnesium, potassium, silicon, sulfur and phosphorous, bone broth provides an excellent means of boosting your mineral intake. 

4. Promote Healthy Skin
A rich source of skin-supporting amino acids glycine and proline, along with collagen, the ultimate skin food, bone broth can improve skin elasticity and fight wrinkles.

5. Reduce Inflammation
Glucosamine, chondroitin, collagen, and gelatin support your joints, bones, and reduce inflammation throughout your body.

How to Make Bone Broth
Broth is forgiving so exact measurements are not required for success. The essential ingredients are simply bones, water and vinegar, which draws the minerals out from the bones. Vegetables (carrots, garlic, onion), sea salt and herbs improve the flavor and can be added towards the end of the cooking time, if desired.

Ingredients:

• 2 – 4 lbs bones – from poultry, fish, shellfish, beef or lamb (pastured, organic, and grass-fed)
• 1 gallon water or enough to cover bones (approx. 2 cups of water per 1 pound of bones)
• 3 – 4 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar (or other natural vinegar)  

Pour water and vinegar over raw or cooked bones in a large pot (e.g. the remains of a roasted chicken) and let sit for 30 – 60 minutes. Heat the pot and bring the water to a boil. Skim any scum that rises to the top. Reduce heat and allow the broth to simmer gently. Cook on low for at least 6 hours or overnight, to extract the most gelatin and nutrients from the bones. Use your slow cooker if you have one. After several hours of barely simmering, remove from heat and strain through a fine mesh sieve, strainer or cheesecloth. Use as a base for any type of soup, or drink one cup a day for a health-promoting tonic.


Written by Be Well Health Coach Laura Kraber.
For educational purposes only. This information has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Fibromyalgia affects an estimated 5 million Americans, 80-90% of whom are women. The disorder is characterized by widespread pain and diffuse tenderness. Although there is no cure, tailored acupuncture might provide some welcome respite, according to a new study.
New research shows that tailored acupuncture might relieve fibromyalgia symptoms.Although difficult to categorize, fibromyalgia is considered a rheumatic condition because it impairs soft tissue and joints and causes pain.
Fibromyalgia carries with it a number of other life-disrupting symptoms that vary from individual to individual.
These symptoms can include muscle stiffness, headaches, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and sensitivity to temperature, sounds and bright lights.
The exact causes of fibromyalgia are not well understood; however, hypothesized culprits include traumatic or stressful life events and repetitive injuries.
There might also be links to other diseases such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis; some researchers believe there is a genetic component at work, too. Because there are no known biological markers, diagnosing fibromyalgia can be problematic. To reach a conclusive decision, other overlapping disorders must first be ruled out.
Because of these questions surrounding genesis and diagnosis, effective treatments for fibromyalgia are not forthcoming.
A recent study conducted at Doňa Mercedes Primary Health Centre, in Seville, Spain, looked at the potential use of acupuncture to ease fibromyalgia's symptoms.
Complementary medicine and fibromyalgiaPerhaps because of the lack of medical treatments for fibromyalgia, one study found that 91% of sufferers seek solace in complementary medicine such as hydrotherapy, massage and acupuncture.
Acupuncture is used by 1 in 5 fibromyalgia patients within 2 years of diagnosis.
Previous clinical trials testing acupuncture's efficacy have been inconclusive, but these studies did not tailor the course of acupuncture to suit the individual needs of each fibromyalgia patient.
To investigate whether this might make a difference, the research team, led by Dr. Teresa Leiva, compared tailored acupuncture against sham acupuncture in 153 patients. Sham acupuncture involved using the same guide tubes as the genuine acupuncture group, but without inserting needles. The sham treatment solely focused on the dorsal and lumbar regions.
Each patient (sham and tailored) received 20-minute-long treatments, every week for 9 weeks. During the trial, the patients continued taking any prescription drugs they were already using.
The participants completed questionnaires rating various parameters such as levels of pain, depression and the overall impact of the disease on their lives. These reviews were carried out before the trial, at 10 weeks, 6 months and 12 months.
Sham vs. tailored acupuncture in fibromyalgiaAt the 10-week mark, the tailored acupuncture group reported a 41% drop in pain, whereas the sham acupuncture group reported a 27% reduction.
Twelve months later, the effect was still apparent. The tailored group and sham group reported 20% and 6% reductions in pain, respectively.
The questions that rated the overall impact of fibromyalgia on participant quality of life told the same story across all three time points. The tailored group reported reductions in the disease's negative impact of 35%, 25% and 22%; the sham acupuncture group, at the same points in time, registered reductions of 24.5%, 11% and 5%.
Also, general measures of anxiety, fatigue and depression were significantly better at the 10-week mark for the tailored acupuncture group. The differences were still evident after a year, but the researchers note that antidepressant usage in the group had also risen, making the results difficult to interpret.
The authors of the report, published in Acupuncture in Medicine, a BMJ journal, concluded:
"This treatment produced an improvement in the participants' condition [...] Such an outcome has not been reported by previous studies following the application of standardized treatments: therefore, our results suggest that applying individualized treatment algorithms when starting a course of acupuncture may be important."
As the authors are quick to mention, this is the first time such a positive result has been found; additional, large-scale work will need to be carried out before solid conclusions are drawn. Because current medication only deals with the symptoms of fibromyalgia, any intervention that can ease the suffering will be a welcome advance.

reference: by Tim Newman

For educational purposes only. This information has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Acupuncture is effective for the treatment of osteoporotic compression fractures of the spine. Researchers tested the efficacy of a specialized form of acupuncture and found it effective for enhancing pain reduction for patients with spinal compression fractures due to osteoporosis. Acupuncture combined with medications produced significantly greater positive patient outcomes including pain reduction and improvements in activities of daily living over medications only as a standalone therapy.
Kim et al. from The Boston Spine Group at Tufts University Medical School (Boston, Massachusetts) and the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Thomas Jefferson University (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) note, “Vertebral compression fractures affect at least one-fourth of all postmenopausal women. The most significant risk factor is osteoporosis, most commonly seen among Caucasian women a decade or so after menopause.” Kim et al. document that osteoporotic metabolic disorders are often treated with calcium, vitamin D, bisphosphonates, or calcitonin. They add, “Routine hormone replacement therapy has fallen out of favor because of concerns regarding adverse effects….” Kim et al. also note, “Open surgical management with decompression and stabilization should be reserved for the rare patient with neural compression and progressive deformity with neurologic deficits.”
Zhang et al. from the Suining Municipal Hospital of TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) conducted a clinical trial comparing the efficacy of acupuncture combined with drug therapy versus drug therapy as a standalone protocol. They document that adding abdominal acupuncture to the regimen of care significantly reduces pain levels and improves the quality of life for patients with osteoporotic compression fractures of the spine. 
The protocol for abdominal acupuncture for the treatment of osteoarthritis and osteoporosis was innovated by Professor Bo Zhi-yun. The TCM treatment principle is to regulate the Zang-fu organs and acupuncture meridians. Acupuncture points Qihai (CV6) and Guanyuan (CV4) were needled for their ability to tonify the kidney qi and therefore benefit the bones. To regulate the spleen qi, Zhongwan (CV12) and Xiawan (CV10) were added. 
Supplementary points were added. Huaroumen (ST24) was selected for its ability to benefit the meridians and collaterals. Shuifen (CV9) was selected to ease pain by regulating meridian qi. The treatment strategy was to needle the anterior to benefit the corresponding region on the posterior aspect of the body. All acupuncture points were used to promote the generation and circulation of qi and blood and to cease pain by unblocking collaterals. Acupuncture needles were 0.22 x 40 mm. After the arrival of deqi, the needling depth was regulated to ensure a mild, painless sensation often characterized as a mild pulling or dull sensation. Results were analysed at one, two, and three week follow-up clinical assessments.
In the randomized study, a body style acupuncture group was compared with an abdominal acupuncture group. Body style acupuncture included local Jiaji and Ashi acupoints. Weizhong (BL40) and Chengshan (BL57) were also applied. Reinforcing and reducing manual acupuncture techniques were applied after the arrival of deqi.
Diclofenac, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), was used as part of the medication regimen. Diclofenac is used for its anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties. An injection of ossotide with saline was applied intravenously and daily. A calcium supplement and alfacalcidol, a vitamin D analogue, were orally administered once per day. In addition, a muscular injection of salcatonin, a calcitonin hormone found in salmon, was applied daily.
The researchers discovered that the group receiving medications had significantly greater positive patient outcomes when combined with abdominal acupuncture over body style acupuncture. However, body style acupuncture combined with medications is significantly more effective than medications as a standalone therapy. The results indicate that an integrative model of patient care produces superior patient outcomes for patients with osteoporotic compression fractures of the spine. The results indicate that medications combined with abdominal acupuncture achieves optimum results.

References:
Zhang, W., Qiu, X. Y. & Wang, J. (2015). Clinical study on abdominal acupuncture for osteoporotic vertebral compression fracture. Journal of Acupuncture and Tuina Science. 13(4).
Lei J, Dong XJ. Research progress of conservative treatment for thoracic and lumbar vertebral compression fracture. Zhongxiyi Jiehe Yanjiu, 2013, 5(6): 320-321.
Mirovsky Y, Anekstein Y, Shalmon E, Blankstein A, Peer A. Intradiscal cement leak following percutaneous vertebroplasty. Spine (Phila Pa 1976), 2006, 31(10): 1120-1124.
Wei ZC, Cai DZ, Rong LM, Wang K, Dong JW, Jin WT, Lu HD. Treatment analysis of osteoporotic vertebral compression fracture. Zhongshan Daxue Xuebao: Yixue Kexue Ban, 2003, 24(Suppl 1): 130-132.
Kim, David H., and Alexander R. Vaccaro. "Osteoporotic compression fractures of the spine; current options and considerations for treatment." The spine journal 6, no. 5 (2006): 479-487.

For educational purposes only. This information has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Proper diet is vital in keeping your joints problem free, but it also has a crucial role in revitalizing hip, knee and spine cartilage.

Moreover, maintaining optimal weight reducing excessive physical strain every day will keep things on track to keep your knee cartilage healthy.

Symptoms of Damaged Knee Cartilage
In order for you to fully understand the importance of cartilage, especially in the knees, where it holds most of our weight, we need to explain its structure and function.

The cartilage is a type of connective tissue which prevents the bones from grinding against each other and helps their mobility. This means its role is to keep our bones from damaging.

It is part of many other bone structures in the human body, such as the nose, bronchi, ears, chest, and lines and creases of the spine, elbows, knees, hips. It can be almost as hard as bone, however not as elastic as the muscle.

Cartilage distortions can be caused by various factors such as aging process and various degenerative diseases such as osteoarthritis, which commonly affects the joints on your shoulders, neck (impedes the movement of the head and causes dizziness), hip, knee, hand and foot joints.

Furthermore, there can be many other factors that can damage the cartilage, such as excessive physical activity, obesity, mechanical injuries of some kind of impact or carrying heavy loads.

In case of a damage of the cartilage, or its complete disappearance, there are several symptoms that can indicate this health condition, such as pain when moving, as well as swelling and muscle tension.

The following are the best tips and natural remedies for cartilage regeneration on your hips and knees:

Rebuild the Knee Cartilage
In the struggle to preserve or rebuild the knee cartilage, there is one important substance for your body, called Chondroitin which can be of great use. It participates in the preservation of our cartilage and it is also important for the natural regeneration of the cartilage of knee, hip and other joints.

This essential substance absorbs water in connective tissue, which means that it is preserving the elasticity and flexibility of the cartilage. In addition, it can block many enzymes that degrade the connective tissue, but also it can contribute in the construction of new one.

This compound is obtained from shark cartilage, and from pigs and cows, and is optimum amount is from 1000 to 1200 milligrams a day.

Moreover, Chondroitin can enter in an even more favorable combination together Glucosamine, which encourages greater flexibility and mobility of joints, and is also important for the natural regeneration of cartilage. This substance is derived from chitin, which can be found in the shell of sea crabs, crab and lobster.

Latest research has shown that the consumption of foods rich in the amino acid lysine can be extremely beneficial because it participates in the renewal of the collagen. Given that it is not synthesized in the body, it must enter through food. The optimum amount you should is 12 milligrams for every kilogram of your body weight.

The foods that should be your target are: eggs, yogurt, cheese, dried fruit, beans, cod, red meat, and many others.

Recommended Food for Cartilage Regeneration
For the proper formation and renewal of knee cartilage, eating foods rich in vitamins is an essential rule since the largest part of it eventually becomes rigid, so it’s a must to consume as many vitamins to prolong its life and resilience.

• Foods rich in vitamin A stimulate cartilage regeneration on the hip and knee.
• Foods rich in vitamin C for regeneration of cartilage of the hip and knee

Vitamin C is found in onions, peppers, potatoes, lettuce, oranges, tangerines, grapes, citrus fruits, blackberries, as well as many others including and their juices.

Vitamin C is found in onions, peppers, potatoes, lettuce. You also have a wide range of fruits to choose your daily snack:oranges, tangerines, grapes, citrus fruits, blackberries, and their juices.

This kind of a diet, based on fruits and vegetables, can also reduce the risk of gout, accumulation of uric acid in the joints.

• Vitamin D for bones, joints and cartilage
• Vitamin D can be found in milk, bread, cereals, as well as fatty fish such as salmon, herring, and in oysters.

In this respect, a study published under the title “Arthritis and Rheumatism” once more proved that exposure to sunlight and vitamin D directly contributed to better joint mobility. The findings also showed that it’s necessary to bring a sufficient amount of vitamin D in the body in order to prevent the occurrence of osteoarthritis.

Gelatin- A Natural Homemade Remedy for Regenerating Cartilage
Apart from being absolutely tasty as a dessert or when used as a salad dressing, gelatin is also a great natural remedy for regenerating the knee cartilage, hip and other joints.

This beneficial role of gelatin is found to be due to its similar structure to the cartilage. Gelatin is an extremely rich source of proteins and collagen, a substance that participates in tissue, bone, tendon, and cartilage construction. Moreover, it contains 10 essential amino acids, but no fats, nor cholesterol.

The optimal quantity of gelatin is 10 grams a day. Its regular consumption can lead to a complete elimination of osteoarthritis symptoms.

Source: www.healthyfoodteam.com


For educational purposes only. This information has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.