Dear Healthy Friend,

The seasons are changing... And in just over 2 weeks' time, Spring will be here! Wonderful! The beautiful hot summer days that South Africa is known for, are just around the corner... But for allergy sufferers, this is a troubling, unpleasant time...

Hayfever, sneezing, sinus headaches, colds, flu... But not to worry, I'm sure you'll just swallow some anti-histamine, a couple of painkillers and possibly a sleeping tablet.

But what if I told you that these meds could make more than just your symptoms disappear?

In the name of good health,

Taryn Strugnell
Managing Editor of Nutrition & Healing

P.S: Deteriorating eyesight is scary! It's a trying time for anyone who is trying to absorb each and every picture they see, in case they never see it again... But Dr Wright has a natural solution that could help you!

P.P.S: Send to a friend! Please send your friends and family these health tips and advice! And if they want to subscribe all they need to do is click here!

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Is your medicine destroying your mind?
Christine O'Brien
Contributor, Nutrition & Healing

Most people think nothing of popping a couple of pills at the first sign of, hayfever, a cold or when they can't get a good night's sleep. Allergy meds, headache pills, sleeping tables, painkillers... They've all become medicine-cabinet staples.

Considered perfectly safe after years of successful marketing campaigns, these drugs hardly raise an eyebrow.

This complacency, though, could be costing us our minds.

A six-year study out of Indiana University School of Medicine just wrapped up and the results are downright scary.

At the beginning of the study, all 1,652 participants (all over the age of 70) had normal cognitive function.

The researchers found that regularly taking one anticholinergic (a substance that blocks the neurotransmitter acetylcholine in the central and the peripheral nervous system) significantly increased the risk of cognitive impairment. Taking two of them doubled the risk. We're talking long-term cognitive impairment including gradual loss of memory.

Want some scary perspective on this? More than half of the study participants were using anticholinergics.

So it seems these medications aren't nearly as harmless as their makers' marketing departments would have you believe.

About this time last year, I wrote to you about another risk associated with this type of medication ("Your medication could be deadly... And not for the reasons that you're thinking..." 22/09/2009). A four-year study had just been released and it showed that older people taking anticholinergics were at greater risk of falling, which could lead to long-term hospitalisation or even death.

The lead author of the study, who is a clinical pharmacist and geriatrician, decided these results were enough. He tells his patients at the Wishard Healthy Ageing Brain Centre not to take the drugs.

The next step is to find out whether this effect is reversible. Researchers are hopeful on this point, since the drug has been linked to memory loss and mild impairment, but not Alzheimer's disease. In the meantime, the best we can do is spread the word and ban anticholinergics from the medicine cabinet.

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Eliminating cataracts naturally

Q: My husband suffers from cataracts. Are there any natural treatments we can try?

Dr. Wright: In a study published in 2002, researchers enrolled 49 cataracts patients. 26 of the participants used eyedrops containing 1% N-acetylcarnosine twice daily, 13 research volunteers used a placebo eyedrop twice daily and the other 10 individuals got no eyedrops at all.

After six months, 90% of the N-acetylcarnosine-treated eyes showed improvement ranging from 7 to 100% in visual acuity and 88.9% showed a 27 to 100% improvement in glare sensitivity. And what makes these results even more impressive is that the improvements were sustained over the entire two-year study period - not a single patient taking the N-acetylcarnosine eyedrops had any worsening of vision!

By contrast, the control groups showed significant worsening after both six and 24 months. All the patients taking the N-acetylcarnosine eyedrops tolerated them well and there were no reports of side effects in the eyes or anywhere else in the body.

Even though the research is technically in the "preliminary" stages, if you have early or moderate cataracts, you might want to consider trying N-acetylcarnosine anyway, for two important reasons: It may work for you and it's safe. None of the individuals I have worked with have had even minor side effects and no adverse effects have been discovered by researchers.

It's always a good idea to have your eyes checked before starting and perhaps six months to a year later, if for no other reason than to help you decide whether to continue using it if you haven't noticed a significant difference by then. (But keep in mind that since cataracts naturally gets worse over time, if yours stay the same, that's still progress - although obviously not as much as actual reversal would be.)

Of course, as safe as N-acetylcarnosine is, it's important to work with a physician skilled in natural medicine anytime you're interested in trying a new therapy.

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More health hot topics and recent rants...

Take a look at some of the most popular past articles:

• Diabetics... Pay close attention to this!
• Men: Protect your manhood... Don't swallow that pill!
• Painkillers? Hearing killers!
• Drug- free solution to gout

Email me at taryn@fsp.co.za and let me know which articles are your favourites.