Hi, John, am still on coumadin but am fighting to get off, have informed the medical personnel that I will get back on Arthriphase since my hands are very bad and I am hurting in general to the point of taking steroids just to survive. I have sent the ingredients to the medical facility and have told them to figure out how to accomodate this or take me off coumadin. Am curious to see what they will do but I am DETERMINED to stop this suffering by getting back on your product. Thanks again for your answer and your product.

Heidi

Dieting postmenopausal women who want to avoid losing muscle as they lose fat should pay attention to a new University of Illinois study. Adding protein throughout the day not only holds hunger pangs at bay so that dieters lose more weight, it keeps body composition — the amount of fat relative to muscle — in better proportion.

“A higher-protein weight-loss diet is more protective of muscle,” said Ellen Evans, a former U of I associate professor of kinesiology and community health and member of the university’s Division of Nutritional Sciences.

Scientists in Evans’s Illinois lab wanted to study the way body composition relates to physical function because older women who diet risk losing muscle as well as fat.

“That loss can affect their strength, balance, and how well they perform everyday tasks, such as climbing stairs and getting up out of a chair,” said Mina Mojtahedi, a researcher in Evans’s laboratory.

The study shows that higher protein intake during weight loss can offset negative effects on muscle mass by maintaining more muscle relative to the amount of weight lost. Women who ate more protein lost 3.9 percent more weight and had a relative gain of 5.8 percent more thigh muscle volume than woman who did not, she said.

“When a woman has less weight to carry, even if she’s lost a bit of lean mass in her legs, the effect is that she has better physical function,” she said.

It’s likely that such women will be better able to maintain their mobility and independence as they age, she added.

In the six-month double-blind study, 31 healthy, postmenopausal obese women were divided into two groups. Each group followed a 1,400-calorie weight-loss diet based on USDA’s My Pyramid, but one group received a powdered whey protein supplement in the morning and again in the afternoon or evening; the other received a placebo that contained carbohydrates.

“We believe it’s important to eat protein in the morning and through the day so those amino acids are always available. Unfortunately, American women tend not to eat much protein, especially when they’re trying to cut calories. But it’s easy to add protein powder into a smoothie or eat a high-protein snack and incorporate a healthier diet into a busy lifestyle,” she said.

Both groups were encouraged to engage in light exercise (walking and stretching) and given diet education, including examples of healthy daily menus and a scale to measure portion size.

Before and after the study, participants were assessed for strength, balance, and the ability to perform such physical tasks as walking 50 feet, standing up five times from a chair, and lifting a book 12 inches above shoulder height.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used at the beginning and end of the study to measure muscle volume of the right thigh, the amount of fat around the thigh, and the amount of fat within the thigh muscle.

In both groups, strength decreased as weight decreased. However, the study suggests that an increase in the amount of muscle relative to fat had beneficial effects on balance and performance, Evans noted.

And, even though weight loss in these older women had a negative effect on strength, their reduced weight helped with other aspects of physical function, she said.

“We hypothesize that more vigorous exercise – in particular, resistance training – would preserve even more muscle,” she said.

Source: University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (2011, August 10). Eating protein throughout the day preserves muscle and physical function in dieting postmenopausal women, study suggests. ScienceDaily. Retrieved August 11, 2011

I live in the beautiful Northwest where there is much mold and pollen, plus I often pet-sit for people and am allergic to animals (especially during allergy season). This year the pollen hit suddenly and I was much in need of some relief! Thankfully, I still had some AllerPhase from last year’s allergy season and it helped almost immediately. It is the only thing that works for me, as I am also one that does not rush to the doctor for meds. Plus, not only does it relieve allergy symptoms from mold, pollen and animals, but it also helps me breathe, as I have had asthma issues as well. I definitely recommend this product to anyone and everyone with allergies.

C.V.

July 23, 2009

My husband took ProstaPhase. He has had problems with the prostate for the last 10 years. He took multiple medications before, but I can say that ProstaPhase gave him the most relief in such a short time. The biggest improvement was that he could sleep peacefully at night instead of getting up every 1.5 or 2 hours. I am confident that prolonged use of ProstaPhase will bring him even more relief. (Tabulations after 5 weeks show that his nocturia reduced from 3-4 times per night down to 1 time per night. Other symptoms essentially unchanged.)

V. R.

Sept. 1, 2010

You’ve got one good product. Results started slowly, but after the first 5-week period, I’m very happy with it. My night-time need to urinate (nocturia) went from 3-4 times per night to 1-2 at the end of my five-week trial.

Tom G.

Sept. 9, 2010

For the first several weeks, I took 2 caps, 2 times per day. I increased the dosage to 3 caps, 2 times daily after week 4. I was not sure if it was helping and I stopped taking ProstaPhase and several other new supplements for a period of time. Note: Benefit of ProstaPhase lasted at least 1 week at 100% (or close) before diminishing [after stopping]. That’s great! No other product has done that. My improvements were steady, but particularly reduced daytime frequency over my 5-week trial.

M.C.

A blood protein known as surfactant protein-D (SP-D), which is mainly synthesised in the lungs, has been described as “a good predictor” of cardiovascular disease following a large study in North America. Reporting the study online June 8 in the European Heart Journal, the investigators said that circulating SP-D levels were clearly associated with CVD and total mortality in patients with angiographically diagnosed coronary artery disease independent of other well established risk factors (such as age, smoking, cholesterol and C-reactive protein levels).

In the lungs SP-D has a role in the body’s defensive response tot the many microorganisms and antigens inhaled each day, by binding to their surface and promting their clearance from the body. Blood levels of SP-D increase when the lungs are inflamed and not working well — for example, when someone catches a cold, flu or other respiratory tract infection. Blood levels also increase in those who smoke or develop a chronic lung condition such as asthma, emphysema or obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

In healthy people with normal lung function blood levels of SP-D are low, but when lung function is impaired (as with infections, smoking or COPD), SP-D leaks from the lungs into the blood and then into the circulation, increasing the risk of atherosclerosis.

This study aimed to determine whether or not circulating SP-D is related to cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in two independent cohorts: first, a large cohort of patients having coronary angiography for suspected coronary artery disease (CAD); and second, a “replication” cohort of ex- and current smokers with mild airflow restriction but without a known history of CVD.

“We’ve known for a long time that chronic lung inflammation is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular and total mortality,” said investigator Dr Don Sin from the Providence Heart and Lung Institute at St Paul’s Hospital, and University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. “However, apart from lung function tests, there are no universally accepted biomarkers that could clearly predict these events. Recent studies have identified SP-D as a promising biomarker of lung inflammation and injury — for example, circulating SP-D levels are nearly 40% higher in active smokers than in lifetime non-smokers, and rise further in subjects with impaired lung function. It was our hypothesis that in the systemic circulation SP-D may promote atherosclerosis.”

Plasma SP-D levels were measured in 806 patients having coronary angiography. These patients were derived from the Vancouver Coronary Angiography Cohort referred for angiography between 1992 and 1995. Coronary artery disease (CAD) was defined as any lesion causing at least 20% stenosis (and severe CAD at least 50%). Follow-up continued until 2007, with primary outcome defined as CVD mortality. The replication cohort was derived from the Lung Health Study and included subjects with mild or moderate COPD.

The angiography patients who died during follow-up (30% of the cohort) had significantly higher plasma SP-D levels than those who survived (median 85.4 vs. 64.8 ng/mL; P < 0.0001). Those in the highest quintile of SP-D had a 4.4-fold higher risk of CVD mortality than those in the lowest quintile, independent of age, sex, and plasma lipid levels.

Eight per cent of the patients in this group had CAD (verified by angiography), 71% had severe CAD, and 29% had angiographic evidence of triple vessel disease. CVD accounted for 45% of the total deaths in this group.

In the group of current and ex-smokers serum SP-D levels were higher in those who died or were hospitalised for CVD than in those who did not (median 99.8 vs. 90.6 ng/mL; P = 0.0001).

Dr Sin described the association between circulating SP-D levels and CVD as “strong” but emphasised that the study was designed to determine causality. “Based on our data,” he said, “we cannot determine whether SP-D was intrinsically involved in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular events or an epiphenomenon of lung inflammation.”

However, he agreed that circulating SP-D levels were a strong predictor of future CVD mortality, independent of other risk factors. “Our data certainly implicate lung inflammation in the pathogenesis of heart and blood vessel disease and raise the possibility of using this protein as a biomarker for risk stratification in CVD patients above and beyond the traditional biomarkers of serum cholesterol and C-reactive protein. SP-D may provide a simple blood test to determine who has lung disease and is also at high risk of heart and blood vessel disease. Such patients could be targeted for interventions such as smoking cessation and drug therapy to lower their heart disease risk.”

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by European Society of Cardiology.

1. Hill J, Heslop C, Man SF, et al. Circulating surfactant protein-D and the risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Eur Heart J, 2011 DOI: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehr124

Heart function may be affected in people with Type 2 diabetes as early as adolescence, according to a new study that is being presented at The Endocrine Society’s 93rd Annual Meeting in Boston.

“Past studies in adults with Type 2 diabetes show that their heart and blood vessels’ ability to adapt to exercise may be impaired. Our study shows that these changes in heart function may begin to happen very early after Type 2 diabetes occurs,” said the study’s lead author, Teresa Pinto, MD, a pediatric endocrinologist at the Dalhousie University IWK Health Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Pinto performed the research while at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. The researchers studied how the heart and blood vessels of 13 teenagers with Type 2 diabetes adapted to exercise, compared with 27 overweight or obese subjects who did not have diabetes and 19 nondiabetic and nonobese control subjects. The subjects were ages 12 to 20 and from New Zealand. Their body composition, including percentage of body fat, was determined using dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scans.

All subjects performed an exercise test on a stationary bicycle designed for use in a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine. With MRI, images were taken of each subject’s heart and femoral artery, a large blood vessel in the leg that supplies the leg with blood. MRI took place while the subjects were at rest and during or immediately after exercise on the cycle.

The images of the heart showed that the hearts of subjects with Type 2 diabetes did not expand and fill up with blood between heart beats as well as the hearts of subjects in the other two groups. This occurred during exercise only, the authors found. With exercise, the amount of blood pumped out with each heart beat (the cardiac output) was normal in all three groups, although still lower in the diabetic group.

“We showed that the heart’s pumping function is strong, but it is not filling as well as normal between heart beats. This is known as diastolic dysfunction,” Pinto said. “Although this study did not determine the reason for this, we know that with diabetes, the heart can become stiffer, limiting its ability to stretch and expand.”

In addition, images of the femoral artery showed that the flow of blood through the artery was significantly less in the diabetic group during exercise compared with the other two groups.

“It appears that irrespective of weight, Type 2 diabetes seems to have a negative effect on the heart and blood vessels in adolescents,” Pinto said. “This impaired exercise capacity may be reversible with exercise training however, as some literature in adults suggests, but further studies are required to determine this.”

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by The Endocrine Society, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Dear Tango Nutrition,

I am writing today to comment on one of your formulas, FemmePhase.

I am 52 years old and going through menopause. For the past two years, I have had a pretty rough time with hot flashes. Sometimes, they get so bad that I have to stop what I’m doing and take a break until they pass.

I do not want to try prescription medicine due to the worrisome side effects I’ve read about. So, for a couple of years, I’ve tried several natural, herbal formulas, none of which worked very well. They seem to stop my hot flashes for a day or so, then the hot flashes come back with a vengeance.

My husband and I use your sleep formula, Sleep Cycle, and I also use your allergy formula, AllerPhase, during allergy season. So, at my husband’s urging, I decided to give your FemmePhase formula a try.

Wow, what a difference! The formula stopped my hot flashes in the first 24 hours. Instead of having four or five hot flash attacks a day, I now have maybe one or two attacks in a whole week!

I have recommended your formulas, including FemmePhase, to several friends. Everyone is having good results.

Thank you for creating the best herbal health formulas on the planet. I will always make Tango Nutrition a cornerstone in my personal health regimen.

Sincerely,

Lisa Catherine Higginbotham
Hattiesburg, MS

Dear Pure Tango Company,

Before discovering your fabulous product, GingiPhase, my gums were in critical condition. My dentist had informed me that the pockets were very large, ranging in size up to nine. The cost would be astronomical, not to mention the discomfort and long hours of dentistry to better this condition.

I decided to try GingiPhase instead of the dental procedure. After taking GingiPhase for two and a half weeks, there was noticeable improvement. I asked my dentist to recheck my gums, he was in utter amazement at the remarkable changes that he was seeing; great improvement had taken place. He requested the name of this company. I am so grateful for GingiPhase, it is the remedy to restore and enjoy healthy gums.

Linda C