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healthbriefs


Acupuncture Helps Heart Patients R


The needles did not increase the heart’s pumping function, but they seemed to have an influence on skeletal muscle strength, and in-


creased the distance that the heart patients were able to walk in a given time. The acupuncture patients also recovered more quickly from the exercise and tended to feel less general exhaustion.


This finding could provide a useful option in the future if relatively low-cost acupuncture treatment can work to improve the prognosis for cardiac patients over the long term.


Grapefruit’s Bitter-Sweet Secret G


rapefruit’s piquant combination of sweet and slightly bitter tastes comes with a newly discovered benefit. Researchers have discovered that naringenin, an antioxidant derived from the bitter flavor of grapefruit and other citrus, may be of help to people with diabetes. Naringenin, the researchers explain, causes the liver to break down fats instead of storing them, while increasing insulin sensi- tivity, two processes that natu- rally occur during long periods of fasting. The natural compound, the scientists suggest, seems to mimic some lipid-lowering and anti-diabetics


drugs; it holds promise for aiding weight control, as well as regulation of blood-sugar levels, both vital components in treatment of Type 2 diabetes.


“It is a process that is similar to the Atkins diet, without many of the side effects,” notes Martin L. Yarmush, Ph.D., a physician who is the director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Engineering in Medicine and a study author. Earlier evidence has shown that naringenin also has cholesterol- lowering properties and may ameliorate some of the symptoms associated with diabetes.


Source: Public Library of Science 20 Collier/Lee Counties swfl.naturalawakeningsmag.com


esearch news from Germany reports that acupuncture can improve exercise tolerance in patients suffering from chronic heart failure. The researchers gave such patients—who were on conventional medication and stable—10 sessions of acupuncture, focusing on the healing method’s pressure points that boost general strength, and according to traditional Chinese medicine, influ- ence the nervous system and inflammation. The control group was treated with placebo needles that did not break the skin.


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