[overitnow]

Hi, again...Flavonoids, Part 2My journey back to wellness was welcomed; but there are a lot of unanswered questions, here. From my perspective, why would this combination of fruit extracts work for so many different conditions? There are an amazing number of testimonials around grape seed, ginko biloba and ADD/ADHD and similar ones for Fibro and Chronic Fatigue. Mine was the first one I had heard of for digestion/elimination, although as I found out, there have been others. As far as we know, IBS is a collection of symptoms without a definitive cause. Running counter to that is one study out of the University of Adelaide, almost two years old. I know longer have any names; however it was posted on the Fibro Board, I believe by Susan. In any case, the doctors found that out of a body of Fibro patients, about 30% also had IBS. There was no mention of which type. Of that 30%, all of them showed lowered circulation in that part of the brain that controls digestion. Further investigation turns up this same circulatory problem is in the brain stem of ME/CFS sufferers, and a lowered electron exchange rate in the frontal lobes of ADD people. (A local contact from the ADD world tells me that there have been people with Fibro who have also responded to Ritalin.) Do we have a connection, here? Essentially, we may have a number of conditions which all respond to brain circulation enhancements, among which is ours. Our doctors may possibly be looking in the wrong end for the cause. That's my speculation. For myself and at least one other member of this Board, a LynnP, it works.(For macular deterioration, there are a number of lutin based supplements around. I have no idea of what kind of dosage would be good for your nieces; however, for adults, you will need a lot more than you will find in multis like Centrum. Extracts of blueberry, the "vision fruit" of Japan, or its cousin bilberry, have been helpful. The elderly mother of one man I have worked with, using the same combo I use which contains bilberry, had her vision restored from legally blind to sighted, here in Victoria.)Absorption is one of the keys to getting flavonoids to work. The French wine drinkers have a history from a very young age of habitual drinking. Suddenly adding a couple of glasses of red wine every day is not going to be very effective. (There was a study out of Portugal that showed those who have a long history of drinking 2-3 glasses of red wine every day had less colds. I can neither afford nor would I choose to drink that much.) Supplements make more sense. The one I take has absorption enhancers that increase the body's intake by a factor of 4-6 times, and has been proven in published, duplicatible human studies, to work for cardiovascular disease. What percentage of us it will help I really can't say. Just to make the whole exercise more difficult, it is made by a "direct marketed" company. Consequently, I may be lying to you. (But I'm not.)And of course, Lynn P (above) tells me of a local realtor she knows who has twice beaten breast cancer back into remission with an aggressive grape seed regime. (My doctor tells me they are now cooking with it in Italy.)So that's what I know, and what I think I know. Here's to recovery.Mark