Can a common nut slow Lou Gehrig’s disease?

One of the more devastating diseases I see is Lou Gehrig’s disease or ALS. This disease slowly destroys your motor function and leads to a long drawn- out death. In my book, anything you can do to prevent or even slow the decline is a godsend. Now there’s evidence that what you eat can help protect you.

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Lowell found that feeding mice pecans slows decline in motor function. The researchers bred the mice specifically to demonstrate a decline in their motor function similar to ALS. The mice that ate the most pecans fared the best.

The insomnia cure that works better
the longer you take it

One of the problems with sleeping pills is that their effectiveness tends to wear off the longer you take them. Your body adjusts to the drugs and they don’t work as well, if at all. But a new study reveals how a common natural sleep aide actually works better the longer you take it.

The study, a double-blinded, placebo-controlled study, looked at 791 men and women aged 18 to 80, all of whom suffered from insomnia. The researchers used questionnaires to evaluate how well each of the people slept. 

Lower your blood pressure with an ancient symbol for peace

If you take blood pressure medication, there’s new evidence that an extract from an ancient tree could help.

According to a new study, the leaf of the olive tree can lower your blood pressure as effectively as the drug Captopril. As you may know, the olive branch is an ancient symbol for peace. But this study shows that it has medicinal uses as well.

In the study, researchers gave the participants either an extract of the olive leaf or 12.5 mg of Captopril twice daily. In some cases, when needed, they increased the Captopril to 25 mg twice daily.