Health Notes, April 20th 2008, by Sarah Stacey

Little green pills can give you a mini-facelift!

There I was riding up a quiet country lane recently, when a car shuddered to a halt beside me.  The woman passenger leant out and announced emphatically: ‘that Sun Chorella stuff works, you know: I’ve got bags more energy!’  Yes, I do know actually, which is why I ‘ve written about this sea plant before.  It also makes my nails grow,  my skin clearer and better toned, and - I swear - my longish, verging-on-bony face more oval-shaped and plump (possibly by helping stomach digestion which, according to Chinese medicine, correlates with two pairs of meridians running down your face) .  Others have confirmed these effects (thank goodness, because it’s not cheap) but I hadn’t appreciated the potential of chlorella to help a wide range of health conditions until I talked to leading natural health practitioner Nadia Brydon.  She’s used it personally and professionally for over five years: ‘it’s a very important product because it combines so many nutrients’.

Chlorella is a whole plant food from the family which includes seaweed and spirulina.  Writing in a medical journal, Randall E Merchant, professor of anatomy and neurosurgery at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center, explains that ‘Chlorella pyrenoidosa is a unicellular green alga that grows in fresh water, with the highest content of chlorophyll of any known plant… and also high concentrations of important nutrients’.  According to Nadia, ‘chlorophyll balances the levels of acid and alkali in the body, known as the ph balance.  This helps reduce inflammation, which is now believed to be the underlying cause of many diseases, including heart disease and some cancers, arthritis, fibromyalgia, inflammatory bowel conditions, also autoimmune conditions such as lupus, psoriasis and rheumatoid arthritis.’ The ideal ph balance is 7.4, the same as blood and also chlorophyll.

In small studies, Sun Chlorella has helped patients with fibromyalgia, high blood pressure and ulcerative colitis.  Chlorella also contains significant amounts of bio-available iron, so Nadia suggests anaemic patients take it too. She also recommends it to the patients she sees at Breast Cancer Haven in London (breastcancerhaven.org.uk), where she is senior therapist.  As well as nourishing them for the rigours of cancer treatment, chlorella is ‘second to none for constipation’, a frequent side effect of cancer drugs. (Ayurvedic practitioner Sebastian Pole says he too puts his cancer patients on a chlorella product ‘because it makes them feel so much better’.)    Malini Chabba, 33, who is recovering from aggressive breast cancer, sees sun chlorella, which she was first given during a living foods detox program at Hippocrates Institute in America (),  as an essential part of her immune-boosting programme: ‘I need to take really good care of myself and this is my insurance policy.’

Ideally, we’d all be getting our chlorophyll from drinking daily green juices and smoothies, but that’s a tall order for most people.  So chlorella is an easy way of getting green nourishment, which can help as part of an overal lifestyle and dietary approach to enhance your general strength and wellbeing. Malini Chabba, 33, who is recovering from aggressive breast cancer, has been taking it for over two years after it was recommended during a living foods detox program at Hippocrates Health Institute in America (www.hippocratesinst.org): ‘I need to take really good care of myself and this is my insurance policy.’

Sun chorella, £19.95 for 300 tabs (a dose is up to 40 tabs daily), from www.victoriahealth.com, click here, to go straight through to our Summer Collection, featuring Sun Chorella, and remember online orders are post free and you get a 5% discount!

Take care with teeth whitening kits

Some at-home teeth whitening kits, sold on the net, contain dangerous levels of hydrogen peroxide and abrasives, that can burn gums and damage teeth permanently, according to the British Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry (www.bacd.com).  So do check with your dentist.

Website of the week: www.stroke.org

The Stroke Association’s website gives tips on reducing your risk of stroke and also the simple FAST (Face Arm Speech Test), used by paramedics to diagnose stroke.  Getting someone to a centre of excellence within three hours can transform their chances of recovery so do look at it.