What Is Goji Berry And What Are Its Health Benefits?

The Goji Berry, also known as the Wolfberry is said to be one of the most nutrient dense food available and is also said to have many curative and medicinal properties.
It is said that Chinese medicine has long relied on the Goji berry to cure a variety of ailments such as kidney, liver or eye diseases.
It is rich in Vitamin C and beta-carotene, also making it very useful for general health and wellbeing.
Available in a variety of forms such as dried berries, berry juice, or in the form of herbal tea, this is a popular diet supplement or even used as an ingredient in some dishes.
Goji Berry claims to have many benefits: It is said to have all kinds of benefits from helping you see better to protecting you from cancer, and even helping to recover from cancer.
It is also said to increase stamina and vitality while enhancing sexual prowess and reducing problems related to erectile dysfuntion. There also are claims that the toxic effects of chemotherapy and radiation can be ameliorated by the goji berry.
To this end, the goji berry in its various different forms has become very popular, and is to be found in a variety of products that are usually marketed through multilayered marketing strategies.
Are those claims accurate? When one looks around the internet to find out more about the goji berry, chances are you will be led to one or more of the sites that sell the various formulation of the berry.
Typically, you will also see rather tall sounding claims made: “I added 20 years to my life with the goji berry” “it is a gift of life” and so on. It is routinely referred to as a ‘super food’.
The various goji berry products, the juice in particular, are also fairly expensive. So do benefits actually justify the many rather embellished claims made about this berry?
Studies conducted have not managed to substantiate any of the really tall claims made by the marketers. Goji extracts may prevent the growth of cancer cells, reduce blood glucose, and lower cholesterol levels, in controlled experiments, however it does not follow that Goji juice will have the same beneficial effect.
Goji berries are healthy to eat, no doubt, and their antioxidant and other nutritional factors are certainly beneficial, but to say that is this super food may be a bit of a stretch.
The goji berry is a good source of nutrition, insofar as a lot of berries are packed with nutrients, but to say that it is miracle food; well one would do well to be skeptical.

Vitamin C May Boost Babies' Brain Health

           New research shows that running low on vitamin C may hamper mental development in newborn babies.
           In experiments on newborn guinea pigs, scientists discovered that animals with a moderate vitamin C deficiency had significantly worse spatial memory than guinea pigs fed a normal diet. What's more, the C-deficient animals had 30 percent fewer neurons (nerve cells) in the hippocampus (a region of the brain involved in forming, sorting, and storing memories).
           About five to 10 percent of newborns in Western countries may suffer from vitamin C deficiency, the study's authors estimate. Since vitamin C deficiency may play a role in the development of learning disabilities, the authors add, it may be advisable for high-risk pregnant women to take a vitamin C supplement.
           An antioxidant abundant in citrus fruits and juices, strawberries, tomatoes, and leafy greens, vitamin C has also been found to protect against gum disease and the common cold in previous studies.

Vitamin C May Boost Absorption of Green Tea's Antioxidants

           Adding vitamin C to your green tea could help your body absorb the brew's beneficial compounds, according to a new study.
            In tests on human intestinal cells, scientists discovered that adding vitamin C or table sugar (or a combination of the substances) to green tea increased the absorption of antioxidants by as much as three times. Also found in fruits, vegetables, and other foods, antioxidants help fight free radicals (chemical by-products known to damage DNA).
           Past research suggests that drinking green tea may help prevent tooth erosion, periodontal disease, stroke, and cognitive impairment. However, studies on green's cancer-fighting properties have yielded mixed results. In a 2009 review of 51 studies on the link between green tea consumption and cancer, for instance, researchers found that the tea may decrease prostate cancer risk but might have limited benefits for liver cancer. There was also "limited moderate to strong evidence" for green tea's ability to help prevent lung, pancreatic, and colorectal cancer, and conflicting evidence for cancer of the esophagus

Can Vitamin D Cure African American Ailments?

Harvard Medical School Doctors JoAnn Manson and Jule Buring are launching a study with 20,000 test subjects that aim to explain why African Americans have higher occurrence rates of cancer, strokes, and heart disease when compared to people with pale skin.
Researchers currently think the explanation may lay in skin color, due to the fact that darker skin is not able to absorb as much Vitamin D from natural sunlight.
Thus, the study will include a trial of Vitamin D and fish oil to see if dietary D supplements can help alleviate the problem.
The study will include 5,000 African Americans and 15,000 white skinned individuals all of which will be women over 65 and men over 60 who do not have any past history of cancer or heart disease.
Participants will be split into four groups in which some are given placebos, some are given Vitamin D, and the remaining two groups will be given half of a real supplement and half placebos together.
Manson said that the information needs to be approached with caution and a final word from the test trials as many other Vitamins that were thought to be wonderful disease preventers did not pan out according to plan including Vitamin E, C, and folic acid.
Vitamin D has been tested in a large control group of women previously but it was at a much lower dose and was combined with calcium instead of fish oil.
Fish oil has also been tested previous to this study, but it was in a control group of those who already had a history of cardiovascular disease or diabetes.