Sambong – Herbal Medicine for Kidney Stones

Sambong is a remarkable medicinal plant that is commonly found in the Philippines, from Luzon to Mindanao. It usually grows in open grasslands.

Sambong are half-woody plant with soft hairs on its leaves. It has a strong aromatic smell and grows up to 3 centimeters in diameter.

Sambong is known for its remarkable treatment for kidney stones or nephrolithiases, urolithiases, a diuretic and other diseases. It can also be used for heart diseases and hypertension. Leaves of sambong can be infused and used as a substitute for tea and also used for colds. It is also high in essential oils and contains considerable amounts of camphor oil.

Sambong is commonly used in the Philippines and it is actually one of the top 10 medicinal herbs that have been approved by the Department of Health. Sambong products are now available tablet form in the Philippines.

When I have a kidney stone before, my doctors prescribed me this sambong forte. And I can say that it’s effective. My grandma told me to boil the leaves and drink it because it’s far more effective than the tablet form. But I can’t take it and every time I try to drink the infusion, I vomit because of the taste and I don’t like the smell, so I opt to drinking the tablet form.

Of course, drinking this medicinal herb alone can’t help you cure your illness. You need proper diet and self discipline to be successful in treating your ill health.

Lagundi - Herbal Medicine from the Philippines

Lagundi is a medicinal plant, actually a shrub that grows in the Philippines. Its scientific name is Vitex Negundo and comes from the family of Verbenaceae.

This medicinal plant normally grows wild in many places or along watercourses and other humid spaces and mixed open forest like Mt. Banahaw in the Philippines.
You can usually see it as a small tree about 8 meters tall with a pale reddish brown bark. Lagundi's distinctive features are the pointed leaves with five leaflets set like a hand.

The parts of this plant that is widely used are the leaves and the flowering tops. The roots along with the leaves of lagundi are used for pain, expectorant and also a diuretic. Also, the root is used in a great variety of diseases: dyspepsia, colic, rheumatism, worms, boils, and leprosy. In Indo-China a decoction of the root is prescribed for intermittent fevers (30 grams of roots in 1 liter of water). The saps from the crushed leaves are used for colds and sore throat. Leaf decoction of lagundi are used for wounds, ulcers, treat gastric colic, flatulence and it can also help those lactating mothers to produce more milk for their babies. The seeds are boiled and eaten to prevent the spread of toxins from the poisonous bites of animals. The flowers are used for diarrhea, cholera and liver disorders.

In the Philippines, it is now promoted and endorsed by the Philippine Department of Health as an effective herbal medicine with proven therapeutic value. It has been clinically tested and studied to be effective for colds, flu, asthma and chronic bronchitis. It is now available on capsule and syrup form because before, you have to boil it and take it orally. But I guess the natural decoction of this herbal medicine is better than its new form.

Green Tea: Weight Loss Supplement

A penny for your thoughts. A pill for your fats. Who here wouldn’t love a pill to melt away their fats?

Although weight loss supplements are not likely to work miracles, dieticians and weight-loss experts alike agree that most weight loss supplements greatly helps the dieter in his continuing battle for curves and muscles. Of the three commonly used weight loss supplements in the market today, green tea extract seems the most promising. (The other two weight loss supplements are protein and ephedra.)

Green tea is the common name for Camellia sinensis, a plant cultivated by the Ancient Chinese as a remedy for headaches, indigestion, and depression. In recent studies, it was found that green tea can be a potential cure for cancer and several other major diseases as well.

However, the merits of green tea is not only restricted to medicine. It has been found that certain properties found in green tea makes it an excellent organic alternative to weight loss supplements.

The use of green tea extract in weigh loss supplements was spurred by the recently concluded study by American and Swiss scientists at the University of Geneva. Published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, their study showed that green tea has a lot of antioxidants that can cause an increase in energy expenditure of the body. This led them to surmise that green tea extract can become a potential weight loss supplement.

Green tea weight loss supplements contain both caffeine and the chemical epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). When these two substances in green tea react to each other, metabolism rates increase along with the body’s 24-hour energy expenditure. Green tea’s EGCG also triggers the release of the hormone noradrenaline, an appetite-suppressant.

Green tea weight loss supplements can boost the body’s metabolic rates, thereby increasing the rate by which fat and calories are burned. Green tea weight loss supplements can also stimulate the body into burning fats faster, leading to more fats being turned into energy. According to a recent study published in Phytomedicine, a journal on the health benefits of plants, people who take in green tea extract as weight loss supplement ideally lose about two-and-a-half pounds a month.

Green tea weight loss supplements come in standardized tablets or capsule forms. For best results, choose a green tea weight loss supplement that contains ninety milligrams of EGCG and fifty milligrams of caffeine. Green tea weight loss supplement is normally taken three times a day before meals. Even though green tea weight loss supplements have no adverse side-effects, it is still advisable to consult medical advice before taking them.

Green Tea Weight Loss Pill

People have always been known to want to do and achieve things instantly. The same thing can be said in diets and weight loss. Impatience usually leads a dieter to resort to taking supplements or weight loss pills to try to get rid of those fats faster.

But recent controversies on the use of diet and weight loss pills have made several people hesitate at using them. Several weight loss pills are based on certain substances, like ephedra, that may be harmful for the body. This is why researchers are trying to come up with other potential resources to make weight loss pills that are safer to use.

A study conducted at the University of Geneva was recently published and it concerned itself with the weight loss benefits of green tea extract. It said that green tea has certain antioxidants in them like catechin polyphenols and flavonoids that help in increasing metabolic rates of the body. The publication of the study’s results prompted several pharmaceutical companies to incorporate green tea extract into their weight loss pills.

Green Tea, the Plant

Green tea is the common name for the herb Carmellia sinensis. The green tea plant came from China originally where it was cultivated specifically for its various health and medicinal benefits. Today, green tea is known to possess certain substances that can cure several diseases such as cancer, arthritis, and even ulcers. Because of its thermogenic properties, pharmaceutical companies are also using extracts of the green tea plant as one of the main ingredients in weight loss pills.

Green Tea, the Weight Loss Pill

The theory of weight loss pills is based on the fact that losing weight is done in two ways: retard fat intake or expedite its burning. Weight loss pills are known to do both these things.

Ingredients in weight loss pills such as Hoodia Gordonii can suppress hunger and stop food cravings. Another important ingredient in weight loss pills is glucosamine which can delay the effect of insulin, thus directly transforming sugar into energy instead of fat. Other components of a typical weight loss pill include cocoa extract (a diuretic), citrus fiber, vanadium, and glucomannan, all of which have anti-hunger properties.

The addition of green tea extract into weight loss pills has become common practice among pharmaceutical companies. Like cocoa extract, green tea is also an effective natural diuretic. Green tea can help rid the body of extra water that contributes to bloat and puffiness of the body.

But aside from being a diuretic, green tea is also a major contributor to fat-burning. The catechin polyphenols found in green tea effectively increases the metabolic rates of the body and also reduce food intake. Green tea also contains the substance flavanoid that fight free radicals that might be harmful for the body.
Because of these properties, green tea therefore makes for an excellent and healthy component of weight loss pills.

Green Tea Weight Loss Patch

In the mood for a sticky diet?

The hysteria on low carb diet has brought the onset of several dieting products that are based on low carb approaches. One of the newest products to hit the dieting market are weight loss patches.

Inspired by the success of nicotine patches marketers struck on the idea that weight loss patches may work the same way. Weight loss patches are basically designed for people who forget to take their regular dosage of weight loss supplements or capsules. With weight loss patches, a person will no longer need to take pills as he will have a 24-hour supply of weight loss substance stuck to his skin.

Weight loss patches are commonly made from such ingredients as algae and seaweed which are known appetite-suppressants. Later studies on weight loss and diets led to the use of green tea as a weight loss patch.

Green Tea as Weight Loss Patches

As far back as the Ming dynasty and perhaps even earlier than that, green tea has been used as herbal remedy and overall health drink in China. In recent times, speculations on the use of green tea as a possible remedy for cancer have arisen due to the discovery that the polyphenol substance found in green tea can stop cancer cells from growing.

The polyphenols in green tea weight loss patches also have other uses. A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition shows that green tea polyphenols can speed up the metabolic rate of the body. With this recent discovery, several companies specializing in pharmaceutical products have started introducing green tea into the market as a supplement either in the form of diet pills or weight loss patches.

Green tea weight loss patches are a better alternative to other products since they have no adverse side-effects. Other substances that induce weight loss like ephedra may increase heart rates which could lead to cardiovascular complications.

Green tea weight loss patches are good for people with high LDL, the bad cholesterol found in the body. Because the antioxidants in green tea weight loss patches destroy LDL cholesterols while at the same time enhancing the good cholesterol levels in the body, a balance in the body is achieved which could only lead to overall good health and well-being.

Green tea weight loss patches works in two ways. First, they suppress appetite naturally and safely. A study at the University of Chicago showed that rats when injected with green tea can lose up to 21% of their bodyweight. This is due to the fact that a substance present in green tea acts as a natural appetite-suppressant that staves off hunger.

Green tea weight loss patches also increase metabolism. With their high epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) content, green tea weight loss patches have a distinct advantage over stimulant diet drugs which can be harmful to individuals with hypertension and heart complications.

Green Tea Extract and Weight Loss

Green tea has always been known to have several health benefits, but who knew that it could contribute to weight loss as well?

A recent study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition show that green tea extract can increase metabolism and fat oxidation of the body. In theory, scientists believe that the weight loss benefits of green tea extracts are due to their caffeine content but the results of the study show otherwise as they discovered that green tea extracts have weight loss benefits beyond that of caffeine.

In their study, the researchers administered alone the same amount of caffeine as that in green tea extracts but found that it did not make any significant changes in the body’s overall energy expenditure. This led them to conclude that green tea extracts have ingredients in them that actively interact with each other, promoting increased metabolism and fat oxidation that lead to weight loss.

Further findings indicated that a certain compound found in green tea extracts might be the ingredient that causes weight loss. These green tea extract compounds called Flavonoids may alter the way the body uses norepinephrine, a hormone that monitors how calories are burned. When flavonoids interact with other green tea extract ingredients, more calories are burned thus contributing to weight loss.

Another ingredient that actively contributes to the weight loss benefits of green tea extracts is the compound catechin polyphenols. These compounds also interact with other green tea extract ingredients in order to promote weight loss by fat burning and thermogenesis (a process of losing energy by daytime heat).

The great thing about the weight loss benefit of green tea extracts is that it does not have any adverse side-effects. Unlike other herbal products like ephedra and prescription drugs for obesity, green tea extract does not increase the speed of heart rates or raise blood pressure. In this regard, green tea extract is an effective and safer alternative to other weight loss products which may cause harm to the user.

The study conducted by the University of Geneva on the weight loss benefit of green tea extract implicated that green tea extract can also help thyroid patients. According to dietitian Lynn Moss, M.S., R.D., green tea extract is a healthier choice for people with thyroid who may be too sensitive to stimulants. Green tea extract can promote weight loss by increasing metabolism without over stimulating the adrenal glands.

A common beverage all throughout Asia, green tea has recently gained popularity in the West. Further researches were conducted to identify other health benefits of green tea extracts aside from weight loss. It was found that certain green tea extract compounds can significantly reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer, and even ulcers.