metabolic syndrome | Central Illinois Natural Health Clinic

More Good News for Coffee

By now, you’ve probably heard that coffee is not the no-no that natural health experts used to think it was. True, if you drink a lot of it, it can have negative effects such as disrupting sleep, increasing anxiety, and over the long term, exhausting your adrenal reserves. In fact, you may recall that researchers have even found the cut-off for how much is too much: more than four cups (32 fluid ounces) per day increases the risk of death.

Natural Medicine Myth #2: Cinnamon

Starting with last week’s article about policosanol, I have been outlining five of the most common misperceptions I encounter in the field of natural medicine, and examine some more effective alternatives.

Myth #2: Cinnamon controls blood sugar (or even “cures” diabetes).
T’ype 2 diabetes and “pre-diabetes” (insulin resistance) are on the rise in the U.S.,

More Good News for Chocolate

Ah, how times change. Just a few years ago, chocolate was undoubtedly in the junk food category, yet a flurry of recent research has confirmed its benefits to cardiovascular health. The latest is a study from Sweden published last month (1) that showed that higher chocolate consumption cut men’s stroke risk by 17%.

Great Science on What We Should Eat

In recent years, medical researchers have recognized some common denominators in chronic degenerative diseases: insulin resistance, long-term inflammation, high blood pressure, and cholesterol imbalance (to name a few). In fact, several of these factors have been grouped together to form metabolic syndrome, a constellation of symptoms including at least 3 of the following 5 conditions:

Fasting blood sugar (glucose) ≥100 mg/dL
Blood pressure ≥130/85 mm Hg
Triglycerides ≥150 mg/dL
HDL-C (“good cholesterol”) <

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