Migraine headaches are among the most disabling conditions in the world with the pounding pain, the pressure, fatigue and nausea or vomiting. They can incapacitate you anywhere from a few hours to a few days.

Here are some natural treatments to prevent or alleviate migraine headaches.

• Feverfew - Inhibits the blood vessel dilating substances and stops the narrowing of blood capillaries that supply the brain. It has been proven to reduce the duration of the headache, severity and frequency.

• Cayenne Pepper - An excellent source of magnesium and makes nerve endings less sensitive to pain.

• Camomile - An anti-inflammatory and antihistaminic that helps prevent migraines.

• Gingko (Gingko Biloba) - Increases blood circulation to the brain and reduces the formation of platelet-activating factor.

• White Willow - a safe and natural pain reliever.

Here is a list of foods that you may want to consider adding to your grocery cart, if you don’t already. They will help you to instantly upgrade your health.

• Beets - Naturally sweeter than other vegetables with tons of flavor, beets are an ex cellent source of both folate and betaine which work together to lower your blood levels of homocystein, an inflammatory compound that can damage arteries and increase the risk of heart disease.

• Cabbage - This vegetable is a major player in European and Asian diets, although, North Americans avoid it. One cup has just 22 calories and is loaded with sulforaphane, a chemical that increases your body’s production of enzymes that disarm cell-damaging free radicals and reduce your risk of cancer.

• Guava - An obscure tropical fruit with a flavor that is a combination of acidic and sweet. It has the highest concentration of lycopene, an antioxidant that fights prostate cancer, of any other plant food, including tomatoes and watermelon. One cup provides 688 mg of potassium, which is 63 per cent more than a medium banana, and 9 grams of fiber.

• Swiss Chard - Found in with the leafy greens in the grocery store, it is a slightly bitter and salty vegetable. A half cup provides 10 grams each of lutein and zeaxanthin. these plant chemicals are known as carotenoids and protect the retina from the damage of aging.

• Cinnamon - Cinnamon helps control your blood sugar, helping to reduce the risk of heart disease. Researchers have found that people with type-2 diabetes who consumed about 1/4 teaspo0on of cinnamon a day for 6 weeks reduced their blood sugar as well as their triglycerides and bad cholesterol.

• Purslane - A broad-leafed weed, it is a popular vegetable and herb in countries like China, Mexico and Greece. It has the highest amount of hearhealthy omega-3 fats of any edible plant and 10 to 20 times more melatonin, an antioxidant that may inhibit cancer growth, than any other fruit or vegetable.

• Goji Berries - Raisin-size fruit that are chewy and taste like a cross between a cranberry and a cherry. They have one of the highest ORAC ratings - a method of gauging antioxidant power - of any fruit.

• Dried Plums - Better known as prunes they contain high amounts of neochlorogenic and chlorogenic acids, antioxidants that are effective in comhbaint the superoxide anion radicalwhich causes structural damage to cells which is considered to contribute to certain cancers.

• Pumpkin Seeds - Pumpkin seeds contain a large amount of magnesium which can lower the risk of early death.

As we become more aware of our increasing girth, we look for a diet that will restore our trim figures and we quickly realize there is a wide range of weight loss programs to help us achieve our goal. While there are some good plans, there are certainly some that produce less than the desired effect or even a lasting effect.

Some diets promise quick results, some require little effort on our part and some require eliminating some healthy foods or healthy food combinations from the daily routine.

The right way to diet and lose weight is slowly, over time, while eating a balanced diet with plenty of healthy foods, according to the American Heart Association. Diets that encourage eating only one type of food or encourage rapid weight loss can be dangerous to your health.

The Association offers this list of the possible risks posed by fad diets:

• Nutritional deficiencies caused by a lack of a balanced diet.
• Lack of physical activity from emphasis on diet only can increase the risk of heart disease.
• Lack of variety in foods can cause boredom and frustration, and make it difficult to maintain the diet for more than a brief period.
• Severe restrictions on the foods you can eat may make it difficult to establish and maintain a healthy diet in the future.

Many quick weight-loss diets are based on unfounded claims that may do more harm than good.

Probiotics, live bacteria that can benefit health, might soon take a place alongside vegetables, legumes, whole grains and regular exercise in the list of strategies to lower the risk of colon cancer.

In a small study conducted recently in Ireland, researchers focused on probiotics and colon cancer and the various signs of its early development. The study included 80 people who either had colon cancer tumors or non-cancerous colon polyps (precursors to cancerous turmors) recently removed.

Participants in the study randomly received either a probiotic or a placebo. The probiotic contained two types of bacteria that are often considered protective of colon health - Lactobacillus rhamnosus and Bifidobacterium - combined with a prebiotic. Prebiotics are non-digestible food ingredients that feed the growth of healthful bacteria in the colon. The combination of probiotics and previotics is call synbiotics.

After 12 weeks, researchers found the balance of colon bacteria had changed in those who received the synbiotics and less of the bacteria that is linked with increasing cancer risk. When compared with patients who received placebos after polyp removal, the synbiotics group showed decreased DNA damage in the lining of the colon and decreased growth and reproduction of colon cells (which increase in colon cancer).

More research is expected to be done on the health benefits of probiotics since results may differ with different types of bacteria.

The results of a new U.S. study provide evidence that green tea catechins stimulate production of anti-cancer enzymes in people with low natural levels. This is the first study to demonstrate this effect in humans.

According to the study, people in countries like Japan and China who drink green tea as part of their every day diet tend to have a lower incidence of cancer than people in countries where green tea is not consumed regularly.

Research believe their findings suggest a green tea concentrate could enable some people to strengthen their metabolic defence against carcinogens, providing new evidence to support the green tea category of supplement and food ingredients.

According to recent reports, people with HIV and AIDS are often deficient in selenium resulting in a higher mortality rate in HIV positive people.

A new study has found that giving 200mcg of selenium a day to people who are HIV positive significantly increased their blood levels of selenium. This increase in selenium levels led to decreased HIV viral load and increased CD4 immune cell counts, leading to the concluding that selenium supplementation can supress the progression of HIV.

It is already known that trans fatty acids found in margarines, shortenings as well as packaged, fried and baked foods increase the risk of cholesterol problems, heart disease, cancer, diabetes and prostate disease.

Now a new study that collected blood samples from over 32,000 women confirms that higher trans fatty acids are associated with high levels of the bad LDL cholesterol, low levels of the good HDL cholesterol and increased risk of coronary heart disease. In fact, women with the most trans fats had triple the risk of coronary heart disease.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is reviewing a new proposal that will add 38 ingredients to the current list of non-organic substances permitted for use in organic food products. The U.S. exports a large volume of “organic” products to other countries, including Canada where about 90 per cent of its organic foods are imported from the U.S.

The non-organic ingredients can be found in both U.S. and Canadian organic foods because many organic producers already believe they can legally substitute non-organic ingredients whenever they cannot locate organic versions.

Among the conventional ingredients that are expected to soon be permitted in U.S. organic foods are non-organic vesions of fish oil, beta carotene, coloring, whey protein, seaweed, cornstarch, kelp, grape juice, guar and the casings of processed animal intestines.

Canola (made from the seeds of a yellow-flowered plant) and olive oils are rich in monounsaturated fats—the kind that help reduce “unhealthy” LDL cholesterol and boost “healthy” HDL cholesterol.

New research suggests virgin (and extra-virgin) olive oils have an edge because they contain antioxidants called polyphenols. Naturally found in olives (in red wine and green tea too), polyphenols mop up free radicals before they can oxidize LDL (oxidation makes LDL even more damaging to arteries).

In a three-week study of 200 men published recently in Annals of Internal Medicine, those who consumed just under two tablespoons a day of high-polyphenol virgin olive oil in place of other dietary fats registered larger increases in “good” HDL cholesterol and fewer markers of oxidative stress than men who consumed the same amount of “ordinary” olive oil, which had a very low polyphenol content.

Chemical refining processes remove some polyphenols from “ordinary” olive oils (often labeled as “pure” in the U.S.) and other cooking oils.

While virgin olive oil tastes better than plain old “olive oil,” and is better for you, any olive or canola oil is a heart-healthy choice—assuming you use it as a substitute for (not a complement to) saturated fats in your diet. If cost is a concern, use refined olive oil or canola in cooking and save the virgin oil for cases that call for a high-impact fruity flavor (dipping bread, dressing salads, accenting soups).

Drinking green tea may stop the growth of colon tumors in their infancy, according to a new U.S. study that ran tests on mice. At the same time there was no evidence that green tea offered any benefits against larger tumors.

The researchers who worked on the study believe if the results can be duplicated in humans, then this could have implications for green tea and its extracts as a preventative measure against colon cancer.

Green tea contains between 30 and 40 per cent of water-extractable polyphenols, while black tea (green tea that has been oxidized by fermentation) contains only 3 and 10 per cent. The four primary polyphenols found in fresh tea leaves are epigallocatechin gallate, epigallocatechin, epicatechin gallate, and epicatechin.

In the study, published in the journal Carcinogenesis, the mice were divided into two groups - one to receive water and one to receive green tea as the only beverage source for four to eight weeks. The results indicated that green tea decreased the total levels of the early carcinogenesis biomarker beta-catenin and its downstream target cyclin D1.