By: Cat Ebeling, RN, MSN-PHN, co-author of the best-sellers:  The Fat Burning Kitchen, The Top 101 Foods that Fight Aging & The Diabetes Fix

We’ve all experienced the jarring effects of hard rock, screamo, head-banger music on our moods and our bodies. I know when I hear music like that, I can’t think straight and feel anxious, irritable and aggravated. On the other hand, think about the type of music that plays in a spa, during a massage—or even the music playing at the doctor’s office. It’s usually slow, melodic and very relaxing.

It’s obvious that music can have a real effect on our moods, our thought processes and even our physical bodies.

Musical therapy is more than a trendy ‘feel-good’ therapy. It can actually improve medical outcomes, ease moods and improve the quality of life in a variety of ways. Here are a few of the ways musical therapy helps:

Easing anxiety and pain–People who listen to music in the operating room reported less discomfort during their procedure. Post-operative music helped patients avoid opioid medication for pain.

Restoring lost speech–Musical therapy helps people who are recovering from a stroke or traumatic brain injury to help them speak again.

Helping with physical therapy or fitness—You may have noticed that working out to music helps your workout. Studies show that music therapy enhances people’s ability to perform during physical therapy programs as well.

Aiding pain relief–Music therapy has worked well in people with intense short-term pain all the way to those with chronic pain.

Improving quality of life for people with dementia—People with dementia or Alzheimer’s often are able to relate to music, and music therapy helps with memory, soothing agitation, helping with speech and communication, and even improving physical coordination.

What type of music works?

A couple of types of music have been identified to have healing, restorative properties.

Frequencies of music can occur in a range of wavelengths . Each of these different frequencies actually affect us in a specific way. An alpha frequency can bring about relaxation, a sense of calm and mindfulness. A theta frequency helps to inspire creativity and imagery.

Sound frequencies can affect our hormones and trigger endorphins, our feel-good chemical that relieves stress, helps us think and reason better, and even strengthens the immune system.

Consider this scientific study on positive effects of music: College students from University of California at Irvine were assigned to three groups. The first group listened to one of Mozart’s sonatas. The second group listened to a relaxation tape. The third group listened to nothing. The results were very clear—those who listened to Mozart improve their Stanford-Binet test results significantly.

In the 1950’s, Germain physicists studied electromagnetic resonance in the earth’s atmosphere. These electromagnetic waves or ‘heartbeat of the earth’ as they were called, were coined the “Schumann Resonance”. Schumann’s successor, Dr. Konig was able to match the resonance of the earth with various levels of brain activity by comparing EEG recording with the earth’s electromagnetic fields.

Dr. Konig later discovered that the resonances matched natural brainwave states. These are the brainwave states that occur during all normal daily activities from sleeping to creating to learning.

Specific tones of sound that help promote positive health are often called Solfeggio frequencies. These sounds can be traced back to ancient history and were said to be fundamental sounds in Christianity, as well as Eastern Indian religions. Solfeggio frequencies were found to profoundly affect both the conscious and subconscious to stimulate healing. These studies led to discovering the value of music at 432 Hz. Music at this frequency is more healing, meditative and relaxing.

432 Hz has been proven to be in harmony with human physiology.

The Benefits of the Different Solfeggio Frequencies

432 Hz

Many ancient musical instruments were constructed for 432 Hz tuning, and this was standard for instrumental tuning. The 432 Hz frequency is known for its deeply calming and soothing effects. A recent double-blind study from Italy showed that music tuned to 432 Hz slows down the heartrate compared to 440 Hz. This frequency works well for yoga, meditation, or sleep.

528 Hz

A 2018 study from Japan showed that music at 528Hz had a strong ability to reduce stress in the endocrine system and autonomic nervous systems–even after only five minutes of listening. This study in the Journal of Addiction Research & Therapy found that 528Hz music reduces the toxic effects of alcohol. Early research indicates that this frequency has the ability to heal and repair the body.

396 Hz

Music tuned in at 396Hz helps get rid of subconscious fear and anxiety. It also helps to eliminate feelings of guilt and subconscious negative beliefs that get in the way of achieving personal goals.

639 Hz

The frequency of 639 Hz helps balance emotions and elevate the mood. It also promotes communication, love, understanding, and harmony into interpersonal relationships.

741 Hz

Music tuned to the frequency of 741 Hz helps with problem-solving, cleansing the body, and self-expression. It also helps one to tune into intuition and decision-making.

852 Hz

The 852 Hz frequency helps to replace negative thoughts with positive ones, making it ideal when nervousness or anxiety is bringing you down.

Binaural Beats

When you combine specific soundwaves with a certain beat, the music has even more powerful benefits to humans.

Binaural beats mean that the music plays at a slightly different frequency for each ear, although the brain perceives it as a single tone. Binaural beats have become a new type of sound wave therapy for the treatment of anxiety, stress, and related disorders. This musical treatment is utilized with stereo headphones so that each ear will hear the different frequencies.

The findings of this 2018 study on pre-operative patients suggest that listening to binaural beats for a recommended period can affect a person’s subsequent relaxation, behavior and even their sleep cycle.

These Five different categories of frequency have been studied

• Delta pattern: Binaural beats in the delta pattern are at a frequency of 0.5–4 Hz that helps with deeper sleep.
• Theta pattern: Binaural beats in the theta pattern at a frequency of 4–7 Hz help with improved meditation, creativity, and REM sleep.
• Alpha pattern: Binaural beats in the alpha pattern are at a frequency of 7–13 Hz and encourage relaxation.
• Beta pattern: Binaural beats in the beta pattern at a frequency of 13–30 Hz help promote concentration and alertness.
• Gamma pattern: Binaural beats in this pattern occur at a range of 30–50 Hz and promote stimulation while a person is awake.

What Do Binaural Beats Do?

Using binaural beat therapy is beneficial to many people. Some believe it helps decrease anxiety and others increase concentration, focus, sleep and meditation. Other benefits include:

• Reduced stress, anxiety and nervousness
• Increase in focus and motivation
• Improved confidence
• Improved moods
• Better long term memory
• Enhanced psychomotor performance

Research from 2001 suggests binaural beat therapy suggests that it helps people with mild anxiety, although the authors stated that it warranted further study as a therapeutic measure to support conventional treatments for anxiety.

A 2005 study reported a decrease in preoperative anxiety after exposure to a delta wave binaural beat.

Scientists from the National College of Natural Medicine in Oregon conducted a study in 2007. Study participants listened to delta wave binaural beat therapy every day for 60 days. Results showed a variety of benefits: A decrease in anxiety, insulin-like growth factor (a factor in cancer), and dopamine, a feel-good brain chemical. Participants also reported an increase in quality of life.

Another 2019 review of 22 studies found a significant link between longer exposure to binaural beat tapes and reduced anxiety. It also found that practitioners did not need to mask the beats with white noise for the treatment to have an effect.

Some researchers have even suggested that only 10 minutes of exposure to a 6 Hz frequency brought on a brain state normally only achieved through meditation.

Binaural beats therapy report few, if any, negative effects but further research is necessary.

Music therapy has the ability to promote a healing, relaxed, more creative state of mind. It’s a proven fact that music has a definite effect on people’s moods, physical state, and health and its history as a healing, restorative factor in health and well-being is well documented.

Both Solfeggio frequencies and binaural beats are easy to try. All they require is a decent set of stereo headphones and music, which can be found easily on YouTube, Spotify or Pandora.

Notes from The Nutrition Watchdog:

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References
http://www.japanupdate.com/2016/08/sound-frequencies-in-music-heal-our-bodies-and-minds/
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/320019#takeaway
https://www.relaxmelodies.com/blog/science-behind-solfeggio-frequencies/
https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/how-music-can-help-you-heal

The post THIS ‘Off Beat’ Music Has Massive Health Benefits appeared first on thenutritionwatchdog.com.

Earlier this year, a judge in California ruled that coffee should carry a cancer warning label. The ruling says that Starbucks, 7-11, and other coffee retailers must carry a warning label on every cup of coffee sold, due to the acrylamide content in the coffee.

This seems like an ODD ruling since we know of dozens of studies that show decreased cancer risks among coffee drinkers.

So, what exactly is acrylamide? Acrylamide is a compound that results from the roasting process of coffee and many other foods that are baked or roasted.  Acrylamides are present in many of our foods including: french fries, potato chips, corn chips, cereal, breads, cookies, crackers, beer and more.

Starchy carbohydrates cooked at high temperatures, especially those that are cooked to a golden brown or dark brown color usually contain the highest amounts of acrylamides. Potato chips and french fries are, by far, some of the worst offenders. Take a look at some of these levels (amounts are approximate, and depend on cooking time and heat):

• Potato chips – 546 micrograms/kg
• French fries – 698 micrograms/kg
• Breakfast cereal – 131 micrograms/kg
• Coffee – 8 micrograms/kg

Check out this FDA website for a more complete listing of tested foods and acrylamide levels. You will see that coffee contains very low levels of acrylamide compared to many other foods.

If you look at those listings above, you can see that cereal has on average 16x more acrylamides than coffee, and potato chips and french fries have almost 100x more acrylamides than coffee!  So why is California picking on coffee, when it appears that french fries are 100x more dangerous than coffee in terms of acrylamide content?  In addition, french fries and potato chips contain inflammatory refined vegetable oils, which would actually ADD to the cancer risk of those foods, whereas coffee is loaded with antioxidants that actually protect us against carcinogens.

Acrylamides were discovered in 2002 and have been found in many foods that are heated above 120 degrees or cooked to a golden brown. Starbucks and many other (dark roast) coffees are often roasted to a deep brown color, thereby increasing their acrylamide content.

The acrylamide controversy has been a part of an eight-year struggle between the Council for Education and Research on Toxics and the big coffee companies like Starbucks. California’s proposition 65, which was passed in 1986, puts cancer warnings on many substances; some of them worthy, some ridiculous.

The World Health Organization, (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) stated that levels of acrylamides in certain foods pose a “major concern” and more research is needed to determine the dangers. Since french fries, potato chips and cereals contain much higher amounts of acrylamides (up to 100x more), it seems a bit silly to have this warning on coffee but no other foods.

A few studies concluded there was an increased cancer risk in mice and rats fed acrylamide, but those studies used levels of acrylamide that was between 1,000 and 10,000 times higher than levels people get from food. Thus far, there have not been very convincing studies in humans to demonstrate that acrylamide is indeed a carcinogen. In fact, a review of more than 1,000 studies failed to find a consistent link between drinking coffee and at least 20 different types of cancer, according to scientists from the International Agency for Research on Cancer, a WHO group.

Len Lichtenfeld, the deputy chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society in Atlanta says, “Most experts are going to look at the risk of acrylamide in coffee and conclude that this is not something that’s going to have a meaningful impact on human health.”

The fact of the matter is, coffee drinking, especially organic coffee, grown at high altitudes, has numerous scientifically supported major health benefits. Cancer prevention is very high on coffee’s list of attributes.

Coffee has been shown to protect the liver against cancer because of its caffeine content, chlorogenic acid and substances called diterpenes. Coffee also protects post-menopausal women against breast cancer. Those women who drank the equivalent of four cups a day actually had a 10% lower risk of breast cancer. Women drinking coffee also had a significantly less risk of endometrial cancer, and uterine cancer, according to the Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers, and Prevention journal.

You can also add oral, gastric, and colon cancer protection to that growing list as well—especially the lighter roasts. While the darker roasts had similar anti-cancer properties, the lighter roasts won out for the highest protective factors.

Coffee contains a variety of powerful antioxidants, as I have written about earlier, that contain a variety of massive health benefits—far greater than any perceived risk of cancer from the acrylamides it contains. Several studies from around the world including France, Japan, Poland and Spain, have concluded that coffee is one of the biggest single sources of antioxidants in our diets. According to the October 2015 issue of Science News, and other important nutrition and scientific journals, coffee protects a wide variety of major health issues. Some of those include:

• Type 2 Diabetes—Studies suggest that drinking 3-4 cups of coffee per day is associated with a 25% lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes, compared to consuming none or less than 2 cups per day. Research suggests a dose responsive relationship with coffee.
• Parkinson’s–In a prospective study, people who drank about four cups of caffeinated coffee daily were one-fourth less likely to develop Parkinson’s disease than those who drank very little, researchers reported in the American Journal of Epidemiology in 2012.
• Dementia–In a 2012 study, researchers monitored 32 older people with mild cognitive impairment. The individuals who had the highest levels of caffeine were less likely to progress to dementia, than those who did not ingest caffeine, scientists reported in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease. It is thought that the poly­phenols, in addition to the caffeine in the coffee helped with brain function.
• Depression–In a 10-year study of 50,000 U.S. women, those drinking four cups of caffeinated coffee a day were 20 percent less likely to have depression than those consuming very little, according to a report in Archives of Internal Medicine in 2011.
• Heart disease and stroke–Demographic studies suggest coffee offers protection against heart disease by helping to prevent blood clots.
• Kidney function–A group of young people drank three cups of coffee a day, and showed significant improved kidney function, according to Japanese researchers reported in 2011 in the Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism.

Coffee helps to activate the NRF2 pathway in the body, a system that fights oxidative stress, neutralizes toxins, and targets cancer cells. The NRF2 pathway has been identified as being one of the most important anti-aging and disease-fighting components in the human body.

In the intestines, coffee helps to encourage the growth of beneficial Bifidobacteria, part of a healthy microbiome. These little critters help to regulate and protect the digestive system, immune function, and mental health.

Coffee is a fat-burning beverage, increasing heart rate, breathing and metabolism—meaning you actually burn more calories. Caffeine is also excellent for keto dieters–breaking down fat cells more efficiently and freeing up fats in the body to burn for energy. In fact, converting fat to energy is 30% more effective with caffeine.

Coffee also elevates your mood, banishes depression, and helps you feel more energetic, but be careful—too much can cause jitteriness and anxiety in some people.

Coffee is known to improve athletic performance as well. Caffeine has been shown repeatedly to increase endurance, speed, power, and shorten recovery time. While part of this is due to the effect of caffeine, another part may be due to the high levels of antioxidants in coffee. So, a cup of ‘joe’ before your workout or competition will help you go harder and longer!

This recent report from Purdue University shows coffee as being one of the richest sources of polyphenols (antioxidants) in the Western diet. Coffee contains abundant levels of phenolics, chlorogenic acid, and caffeic acid. Coffee also helps to decrease inflammatory markers, including interleukin-18 and 8-isoprostane.

Coffee protects your health by reducing adiponectin levels by 6 or more percent. Low levels of adiponectin are associated with obesity, diabetes, inflammation, lipid abnormalities, insulin resistance and NAFLD (non-alcoholic fatty liver disease), heart disease, and cancer.

How to Maximize the Health Benefits of Your Coffee

• Use fresh, whole, ORGANIC beans which maximizes the antioxidants in the coffee and minimizes toxins. Light roast contains slightly higher levels of antioxidants and caffeine than dark roast, but both types still have health benefits. The type of coffee you buy and drink makes a huge difference, as it does for many other foods. Coffee is often highly sprayed with pesticides and herbicides, so it is best to drink organic coffee if at all possible.
• Drink your coffee black, or with organic REAL cream. Avoid adding refined sugar, artificial flavors, artificial sweeteners, or fake non-dairy ‘creamer’.  For natural sweetness, try a small drizzle of maple syrup, stevia, monk fruit, or coconut sugar. Organic, REAL grass-fed cream is divine and is available in most grocery stores in the US under the Organic Valley brand. Coconut cream from a can is also delicious in coffee and loaded with healthy, fat burning medium chain triglycerides, to help you burn fat and boost metabolism.  If you like the idea of “bulletproof coffee”, try adding a dollop of grass-fed butter and coconut oil to your coffee and blend into a froth for a delicious frothy healthy fat coffee that goes perfect if you’re on a keto diet or any low-carb diet.
• Avoid coffee from big chain coffee shops if possible. These coffees are generally NOT organic, and full of pesticides and herbicides. Purchasing organic coffee grown at high altitudes means that it contains the highest levels of antioxidants.  Many smaller coffee shops contain organic coffee more frequently.  Or just buy your own organic beans and make it at home so you know it’s organic and free of pesticides and fungicides.
• Boost the antioxidant power by adding cinnamon, which also helps control blood sugar and has many other benefits. Organic cocoa powder is another delicious and healthy addition to your morning coffee. Cocoa is high in magnesium, antioxidants, and helps lower blood pressure.

The bottom line is that coffee consumption was associated with a lower risk of death, overall. Given all the above scientific studies on coffee and health, don’t you find the California ruling for a warning label on coffee a bit ridiculous? I do.

I can only conclude that this particular judge just does not like coffee. If you are concerned about the (dubious) connection between acrylamides and cancer, avoid french fries, potato and corn chips, cereals, bread, cookies and crackers. They contain much higher levels of acrylamides. Those processed grain-based foods have already been shown to be detrimental to your health, and arylamide is just one more reason to avoid those foods.

Enjoy sipping your organic coffee and worry not! Here’s to your health and wellbeing!

The Death of Black Coffee:

References
Sisson, Mark, 2016. Retrieved from https://www.marksdailyapple.com/10-interesting-predictors-of-longevity/

Authority Nutrition, 2018. Retrieved from https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/coffee-worlds-biggest-source-of-antioxidants#section5

Ebeling, Catherine, 2016. Retrieved from https://thenutritionwatchdog.com/coffee-cancer-diabetes-and-more/

Seppa, Nathan, 2015. Science News. Retrieved from https://www.sciencenews.org/article/coffee-reveals-itself-unlikely-elixir

Englehaupt, Erika, 2018. Science News. Retrieved from https://www.sciencenews.org/article/science-behind-cancer-warnings-coffee-murky-best?tgt=nr

CBS, 2018. Retrieved from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/starbucks-cancer-warning-judge-rules-on-coffee-carcinogen-acrylamide/

The post The TRUTH about Coffee & Cancer (California ruling: Coffee needs a cancer warning label) appeared first on thenutritionwatchdog.com.