Category: Health

Discovery: How Folic Acid is Absorbed

Scientists have discovered how the vitamin folate is absorbed in the intestinal tract.  The discovery may lead to being able to test infants that cannot absorb this important nutrient.folic acid_1.jpg

Folate, also known as folic acid or vitamin B9, is important for growth and gene expression in the fetus.  Babies who are deficient in it, or cannot absorb it, may have mental retardation, seizures, severe infections, or anemia.

Until now, scientists were not sure what mechanism the body used to absorb folate.  This vitamin is water soluble, therefore not easily penetrating fatty cell membranes.  Recent research at the Albert Einstein Cancer Center in New York concludes that a membrane protein called PCFT/HCP1 transports folate into intestinal cells.

This discovery may help cure hereditary folate malabsorption in babies.

Grow Your Own Luffa

Tired of not having your own personalized luffa?

Did you know that you can grow your own luffa in your backyard? Well you can. Groovy Green has not one but two posts on how to grow your own luffa.

“Many people are surprised when they find out I grow my own Luffa sponges. “Don’t those come from the sea?”, is the standard question to which I respond that the Luffa is a vegetable you can grow in your very own garden.”

Safer Homes

A house in West Point, PEI, is the first Canadian home built under the “Designed for safer living” program.  This program is a joint collaboration between the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction, the Canadian insurance industry, and home builders.

This slide show details how the house was rebuilt after being badly damaged by fire last spring.  The Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction says it’s unclear how much the improvements added to the cost of the home, because the program is new.

Five more are expected to be built by December 2007, including one in the Prairies that will withstand wildfires, one in Vancouver that will handle earthquakes, and another in Sudbury to deal with wind and storms.

Colon Cancer Cells Identified

This is groovy that two teams of scientist who worked independently reached the same basic conclusion. Also, they found the cell type that contributes to colon cancer which will make looking for a cure easier.

“Two groups, working independently, showed that a subpopulation of CD133+ cells within the tumor, representing just a small fraction of the overall cancer mass, behave as cancer-initiating cells, with the ability to maintain themselves in culture in an undifferentiated state, initiate tumor growth after xenotransplantation in mice, and differentiate into cancers that are phenotypically indistinguishable from the original human tumor.”

Yoga Is AWESOME!

class_image.gifYoga practioners everywhere are finding amazing improvments in their health and happiness through their weekly yoga classes. More and more research is being done on yoga lovers and are showing that regular yoga classes can help such things as

HEART HEALTH, WEIGHT CONTROL, INSOMNIA, ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION, STAMINA, DIGESTION, FLEXIBILITY and CIRCULATION.

To name a few.

Yoga is also much more than just a physical exercise practice. Yoga, meaning ‘yoke’ in Sanskrit, is a family of ancient spiritual practices originating in India. It is one of the six schools of Hindu Philosophy and has been called a ‘science’ or ‘technology’ of liberation. This is because, unlike purely theoretical philosophies, yoga seeks to provide the student with a practical path (or indeed many possible paths) towards the common goal of liberation.

Feel like getting a little liberated? Or at least a bit more flexible? Try some yoga! It’s good!