News
February/March 2013
Research
Have a Heart for Vegetarians
Most naturopaths are vigorous promoters of a vegetarian diet, particularly for people suffering from or at risk of heart disease or chronic inflammatory disease. There’s lots of evidence to support this but recent research from a University of Oxford study looking at the health and dietary habits of 45 thousand people, has found that the risk of hospitalisation or death from heart disease is 32% lower in vegetarians than in people who eat meat and fish. The reason for this, according to the authors of the study, is related to the risk that’s caused by the effects of the different diets on cholesterol and blood pressure. The study also noted that vegetarians typically had lower body mass indices and fewer cases of diabetes as a result of their diets.
Low Magnesium Linked To Heart Disease
It’s traditionally been the view that cholesterol or saturated fats play the biggest roles in predicting heart disease, but new research shows that low magnesium levels are a better indicator. A US study looking at over 80 years of cardiovascular disease data found that a low level of magnesium is potentially linked to high blood pressure, arterial plaque build-up, calcification of soft tissues, high blood cholesterol and a hardening of the arteries. The authors cite the reasons for this as a high dietary calcium intake, a focus on cholesterol rather than magnesium status, and a diet low in magnesium, particularly where there’s a high intake of processed foods and high stress lifestyles that increase the need for magnesium.
Move with the Sun
Routine exposure to the sun, especially ultraviolet B (UVB) rays, is associated with a decrease in the risk of rheumatoid arthritis, according to a new study published in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases. The positive outcomes of UVB exposure were demonstrated in mostly older women, possibly because younger females are educated on the dangers of sunlight and protect themselves with sunscreen, the authors suggest. The authors drew their conclusions from two phases of the U.S. Nurses' Health Study (NHS). The first phase followed the health of over 120,000 nurses starting in 1976, when they were between the ages of 30 and 55, until 2008, and the second phase followed the health of an additional 115,500 nurses starting in 1989, between the ages of 25 and 42, until the year 2009. Throughout the duration of the study, 1314 women developed rheumatoid arthritis. Among nurses in the NHS group, higher cumulative exposure to UVB was linked with a decreased risk of developing the disease, with the finding that those nurses with the most elevated rates of exposure were 21 percent less inclined to develop rheumatoid arthritis than those with the least.
Don’t Stop Moving
There’s abundant evidence that exercise is essential for good health and if you needed more proof of this, a recent US study from the Annals of Internal Medicine reports that people who exercise and have higher physical fitness levels during middle age have a significantly reduced risk of developing dementia later in life. In this work, over 19 thousand non-elderly adults were asked to take a regular exercise treadmill test between 1971 and 2009, so that the researchers could evaluate their baseline and subsequent fitness levels. The data showed that the individuals who were physically fit earlier in life had a significantly reduced chance of developing dementia, compared to those were not as physically fit.
Remember the Green Tea and Red Wine
Natural chemicals found in green tea and red wine may disrupt a key step of the Alzheimer’s Disease pathway, according to new research from the University of Leeds. This research is only in its early stages but the researchers identified the process which allows harmful clumps of protein, known as amyloid, to latch on to brain cells, causing them to die. They were able to interrupt this pathway using the purified extracts of EGCG from green tea and resveratrol from red wine. The findings, published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, offer potential new solutions to treat Alzheimer's disease, which affects a sizeable portion of the Australian population.
Organic Pollutants and Diabetes
Naturopaths are well known for their promotion of detoxification products and protocols to assist in the removal of accumulated heavy metals, chemical and pesticide residues, and there are sound reasons for doing this. Recent research conducted at the University of Granada and published in the journal,Environmental Research, has revealed that there is a direct relationship between exposure to pesticides (Persistent Organic Pollutants or POPs) in food, air and water and the prevalence of type 2 diabetes in adults, regardless of age, gender and body mass index. These substances tend to concentrate in body fat, and they might be one of the reasons why obese people are more likely to develop diabetes, since the more fat the higher the POP concentrations in the body. Researchers demonstrated that people with higher concentrations of DDE - the main metabolite in the pesticide DDT, are four times more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than other people. In addition, the risk of type 2 diabetes is also associated with exposure to β-HCH (beta-Hexachlorocyclohexane), which is present in the formula of the pesticide Lindane.
Zinc, Infection and Inflammation
Zinc has numerous complex jobs to do in the body and interacts with thousands of proteins to sustain human life. It’s one of the key nutrients required to deal with infections and lots of research has been done to confirm its activity in this area. New evidence published in the journal Cell Reports suggests that zinc helps control infections by gently tapping the brakes on the immune response in a way that prevents out-of-control inflammation that can be damaging to health and even deadly. Scientists determined in human cell culture and animal studies that a protein lures zinc into key cells that are first-responders against infection. The zinc then interacts with a process that is vital to the fight against infection and by doing so helps balance the immune response. This study revealed for the first time that zinc homes in on this pathway and helps shut it down, effectively ensuring that the immune response does not spiral out of control.
More D Benefits
News on the benefits of vitamin D just keep on coming, and in more on this, results of a University of Nebraska Medical Center research study published in the Journal of Biochemical and Molecular Toxicology suggest that vitamin D may be important for humans exposed to agricultural organic dust. In the study, mice were exposed to pig barn dust. One group received a high vitamin D diet and the other a low vitamin D diet, and researchers found a significant decrease in lung inflammation in mice exposed to hog barn dust that received high doses of vitamin D. Agricultural workers on today's farms are exposed to a variety of high levels of agricultural organic dust - dust that comes from feed, bedding and livestock, which includes moulds, pollen, bacteria, pesticides, and chemicals. Exposure can lead to inflammation in the lungs and a risk of developing chronic airways diseases and over time, exposure to organic dust can result in serious respiratory illnesses, such as organic dust toxic syndrome (ODTS) and Farmer's lung.
Exercise Reduces Prostate Cancer Risk
Recent research from the journal, Cancer, adds to earlier work done in this area by concluding that exercise is linked to a lower risk of prostate cancer. Specifically, the study showed that men who were moderately or highly active were 53% less likely to have prostate cancer compared to males who were sedentary or mildly active. In addition, it was found that men affected by prostate cancer who exercised had a 13% lower chance of having high grade disease - when cancer cells look especially abnormal and can rapidly grow and spread.
Vitamin C and the Common Cold
Debate has raged for decades about the worth of Vitamin C and whether or not it can help with the common cold. Now, an updated review from The Cochrane Library of placebo-controlled trials on Vitamin C and the common cold finds the vitamin may help people under heavy physical stress, such as marathon runners and skiers, to reduce their risk of catching a cold and that it can help to reduce the duration and severity of illness. I’d add to this the fact that for anyone suffering from any degree of stress who catches lots of colds, that you don’t have to be a marathon runner or skier to derive great benefit from Vitamin C in reducing the duration and severity of viral respiratory diseases such as the common cold.
Stressed Kids Eat More
Children who overreact to stressors may be at risk of becoming overweight or obese by increasing their calorie intake, according to researchers at Penn State and Johns Hopkins University, writing in a recent issue of the journal, Appetite. 43 children aged 5 to 9 years, and their parents, participated in this study using the Trier Social Stress Test for Children, which consists of a five-minute anticipation period followed by a 10-minute stress period. During the stress period, the children were asked to deliver a speech and perform a mathematics task. The team measured the children's responses to these stressors by comparing the cortisol content of their saliva before and after the procedure. The researchers also measured the extent to which the children ate after saying they were not hungry using a protocol known as the Free Access Procedure. The team provided the children with lunch, asked them to indicate their hunger level and then gave them free access to generous portions of 10 snack foods, along with a variety of toys and activities. The children were told they could play or eat while the researchers were out of the room. The researchers found that children who exhibited greater cortisol release over the course of the procedure had significantly higher body-mass indices and consumed significantly more calories in the absence of hunger than kids whose cortisol levels rose only slightly in response to the stressor. This suggests that children who have poor responses to stressors already are or are at risk of becoming overweight or obese.
Don’t Just Sit There- Do Something
It makes perfect sense but in case we needed proof, research from Kansas State University published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity has shown that compared with people who reported sitting four hours or less per day, those who sat for more than four hours per day were significantly more likely to report having a chronic disease such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease and hypertension..The reporting of chronic diseases rose as participants indicated they sat more. Those sitting for at least six hours were significantly more likely to report having diabetes. The study used data from over 63 thousand males aged 45-65 from New South Wales.
Organic Is Best
There’s always been fierce debate over whether or not it’s better to eat organic produce that to eat produce from modern conventional farming techniques. I see the advantages of organic produce in clients I deal with every day but recent research has gone some way to validating this practice in at least one area- tomatoes. Tomatoes grown on organic farms accumulate higher concentrations of sugars, vitamin C and compounds associated with oxidative stress, compared to those grown on conventional farms, according to new research published in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Brazilian researchers. In this study, the researchers compared the weights and biochemical properties of tomatoes from organic and conventional farms. They found that tomatoes grown on organic farms were approximately 40% smaller than those grown by conventional techniques, and they also accumulated more compounds linked to stress resistance. According to the authors, organic farming exposes plants to greater stress than conventional farming. They suggest that this increased stress may be the reason organic tomatoes had higher levels sugars, vitamin C and pigment molecules like lycopene, an anti-oxidant compound - all of which are associated with the biological response to stress.
Omega-3 Fats and Stroke Recovery
A new study carried out on mice by researchers at Columbia University Medical Center published in the journal PLoS One may have relevance for people recovering from stroke. The researchers report that a triglyceride lipid emulsions rich in the omega-3 fatty acid, DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), given within a few hours of an ischemic stroke can decrease the amount of damaged brain tissue by 50 percent or more. Omega-3 fatty acids may also have potential as neuroprotectants because they affect multiple biochemical processes in the brain that are disturbed by stroke. The effects of the omega-3 fatty acids include increasing the production of natural neuroprotectants in the brain, reducing inflammation and cell death, and activating genes that may protect brain cells. Omega-3 fatty acids also markedly reduce the release of harmful oxidants into the brain after stroke.
January/February 2013
Research
Fruit And Veg Help Smokers Quit
According to a new study published in the journal Nicotine & Tobacco Research and conducted by researchers at the University of Buffalo, eating fruits and veggies may curb the urge to smoke, making it easier to kick the habit and keep it away. The study involved 1,000 smokers from around the U.S who were aged 25 or older. The researchers conducted a survey using an over-the-phone method, and did a follow-up interview with the volunteers 14 months after the original study to find out if the smokers had remained strong in their quest to quit smoking. The outcome of the study showed that the people who ate the most fruit and veggies had a 3-fold increased chance of not smoking, when questioned at follow up, than the people who ate the least amount of fruits and veg. Other results of the study showed that those who ate the most fruits and veggies did not smoke their first cigarette until later in the day, smoked fewer cigarettes throughout the day and had had lower scores on a nicotine dependance test.
To Dress or Not to Dress
Vegetables are loaded with fat-soluble carotenoids - compounds, such as lutein, beta-carotene, lycopene, and zeaxanthin. Carotenoids are associated with a lower risk of developing diseases, such as heart disease, cancer, and macular degeneration. Salads without the right type and amount of salad dressing could leave you missing out on several disease-fighting vitamins and nutrients, according to researchers at Purdue University in a study published recently in the Journal Molecular Nutrition & Food Research. The researchers fed 29 study participants salads with different types of dressings in order to determine which kinds and amounts increased carotenoid levels in the bloodstream. The dressings used were butter-based dressings (as a saturated fat), canola oil-based dressings (as a monounsaturated fat) and corn oil-based dressings (as a polyunsaturated fat) Each salad was served with 3 grams, 8 grams or 20 grams of fat from the dressing. They discovered that dressings rich in monounsaturated fat required the least amount of fat to get the most carotenoid absorption and that dressings rich in saturated and polyunsaturated fat required higher amounts of fat to produce the same benefit. They also found that fat-free dressings do not enhance carotenoid absorption. In addition, the researchers found that both corn oil and butter, with higher amounts of fat in the dressing, led to better absorption of carotenoids. However, canola and olive oil-based dressings led to the same absorption of carotenoids at 3 grams of fat as it did 20 grams. What does all this mean? Salad dressings with monounsaturated fat may be a good choice for individuals' craving lower fat options, but still wanting to optimize absorption of health-promoting carotenoids from fresh vegetables.
Smart Tai Chi and a Chat
Scientists from the University of South Florida and Fudan University in Shanghai found increases in brain volume and improvements on tests of memory and thinking in Chinese seniors who practiced Tai Chi three times a week, reports a recent article in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease. These findings were based on an 8-month trial comparing those who practiced Tai Chi to a group who received no intervention. The same trial showed increases in brain volume and more limited cognitive improvements in a group that participated in lively discussions three times per week over the same time period. The group that did not participate in either intervention showed brain shrinkage over the same time period, consistent with what generally has been observed for persons in their 60s and 70s. A number of studies have shown that dementia and the syndrome of gradual cognitive deterioration that precedes it is associated with increasing shrinkage of the brain as nerve cells and their connections are gradually lost.
Prostate Cancer May Not Be Your Cup of Tea
A new study from the University of Glasgow published in the journal, Nutrition and Cancer, has found that men who are heavy tea drinkers may be at higher risk for prostate cancer. However, the researchers point out their study was not designed to find causes, so all they can say is that heavy tea drinking is linked to a higher risk for prostate cancer and is not necessarily the cause of it. The data they used covered 6,016 Scottish men aged from 21 to 75 years who were enrolled on the Midspan Collaborative Study between 1970 and 1973 and were followed for up to 37 years. The men had filled in questionnaires about their general health, smoking habits, and usual consumption of tea, coffee, and alcohol, and they also attended a screening examination. When they analysed the data the researchers found a statistically significant link between tea drinking and overall risk of developing prostate cancer. They found the men who drank the most tea (more than seven cups a day, just under a quarter of all the men) had a 50% higher risk of developing prostate cancer than those who drank the least (0 to 3 cups a day). Overall, 6.4% of the men who drank the most tea developed prostate cancer during the study period, compared with 4.6% of those who consumed the least.
Alcohol During Early Pregnancy
A new Danish study showed that low and moderate drinking during early pregnancy does not have noticeable adverse effects on children after they are born. The study looked at neuropsychological differences in children age five, compared with their mothers drinking habits while pregnant. Researchers did note, however, that higher amounts of alcohol resulted in lower attention spans amongst five year olds, and since one drink often leads to another, expectant mothers still need to be cautious about their drinking habits. Researchers recruited women from the Danish National Birth Cohort during their first antenatal visit and gathered information from over 1,600 participants. They defined low drinking as 1-4 drinks per week, moderate at 5-8 drinks per week and high level consumption as 9 or more drinks per week. Binge drinking was defined as more than 5 drinks during a single occasion. Mothers who chose to abstain entirely were included in the group and were used as a reference point for comparison. Having gathered data in regard to the mothers’ drinking habits while pregnant, the researchers then went on to test the children at the age of five to determine any adverse effects from their mothers’ alcohol consumption. It’s important to note that the definition of a drink in this study comes from the Danish National Board of Health, which states one standard drink is equal to 12 grams of pure alcohol. The level of alcohol in one standard drink in Australia is 10 grams.
Fight Obesity and Diabetes with Nectarines, Plums and Peaches
Stone fruits, also known as drupes, such as nectarines, plums and peaches, may contain useful compounds that help fight-off metabolic syndrome, a condition that can lead to diabetes, heart attack and stroke, say researchers presenting their findings at the American Chemical Society in Philadelphia. The team showed that compounds that exist in stone fruits could be useful in the fight against metabolic syndrome, in which inflammation and obesity eventually lead to serious illnesses and health problems. Metabolic syndrome is a collection of conditions, including high blood sugar levels, hypertension (high blood pressure), too much fat around the waist, and excessively high cholesterol levels - together, they considerably raise the risk of developing diabetes, having a stroke, or a heart attack. The compounds in question are referred to as bioactive phenolics and include anthocyanins, chlorogenic acids, quercetin derivatives and catechins. These appear to work on different cells - fat cells, macrophages and vascular endothelial cells and modulate different expressions of genes and proteins, depending on the type of compound.
Death From Stroke More Likely If You Suffer From Psychological Distress
While it’s been known for some time that psychological distress is linked to coronary artery disease, psychological distress is also associated with a higher risk of death from stroke, according to a study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. Psychological distress includes factors such as anxiety, depression, sleeping problems and loss of confidence, and is common in approximately 15%-20% of the general population. The study used data from over 68 thousand men and women who participated in the Health Survey for England. To measure psychological distress, the researchers used the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), a widely used measure in population studies. Psychological distress was evident in 14.7% of participants, and those reporting distress were younger and more likely to be female, to be from lower income groups, to smoke and to use anti-hypertension medications. Over an average of 8.1 years' follow-up, there were 2367 deaths from cardiovascular disease (1010 from ischemic heart disease, 562 from cerebrovascular disease and 795 from other cardiovascular-related deaths). The study authors stated that "Psychological distress was associated with death from cardiovascular disease, and the relation remained consistent for specific disease outcomes, including ischemic heart disease and cerebrovascular disease,"
Aussies Low on D
Almost one in three Australian adults has inadequate vitamin D status, according to a recent study published in the Medical Journal of Australia. According to the authors, inadequate vitamin D status occurred in more than 50% of women during winter and spring, and in people residing in southern states. They said for that people with moderately fair skin, adequate vitamin D levels are likely to be maintained in summer by a walk outside with arms (or equivalent area) exposed for 6-7 minutes mid morning or mid afternoon on most days. "Short UV radiation exposures (of a few minutes) may be more efficient at producing vitamin D and cause less skin damage", they wrote. "In winter, the task is more difficult, and in many parts of the country, there is only sufficient UVB radiation to produce vitamin D around noon." The authors cautioned that vitamin D supplementation may be more appropriate than sun exposure for people at high risk of skin cancer. Most adults are unlikely to obtain more than 5%-10% of their vitamin D requirement from dietary sources, according to the authors.
Kids’ Diets Found Wanting
The dietary intake of Australian preschoolers may lead to poor long term health outcomes according to research published in the Medical Journal of Australia earlier this year. The study authors concluded that dietary intakes among the 300 children who participated in the study were adequate in macronutrients (like energy, protein and carbohydrate) and in most micronutrients (like iron, zinc and calcium). However, the authors found that the children were not getting enough fibre or omega 3 fatty acids and they ate too much saturated fat, a dietary pattern that they said is associated with health problems in adults. The researchers also found that 14% of the children studied were obese - but they found no association between BMI and energy intake. "These data suggest that in this age group physical activity may be a main determinant of weight and BMI status", the authors wrote.
Play It Again
Studies by the University Hospital San Raffaele in Italy presented at a recent meeting of the European Neurological Society (ENS) in Prague demonstrated that people with no musical background were not only visibly more skilled after completing two weeks of regular exercise on a piano keyboard, but their brains also changed measurably and that practicing music drastically and effectively accelerates self-optimization of certain brain activities. The study also provides evidence that even a short period of ambidextrous training leads to better coordination and more balanced action between the left and right brain hemisphere. The training also leads to enhanced responses to the nerve impulses in the muscles of the fingers. Furthermore, the musical stimuli also prompted a structural reconstruction of gray matter in those brain regions that are involved in coordinated movement. The study revealed that the more complex the task was, the better. Scientists have only recently researched the brains 'neuroplasticity' a process in which the brain automatically reconstructs itself in response to a given task so that its internal structure and organization are best suited to a demand. Neuroplasticity functions by automatically establishing better interconnection of frequently used areas of the brain, whilst resources are drawn down from those less used.
Stress, Concentration, Multitasking and Meditation
A study by researchers from the University of Washington published recently in Proceedings of Graphics Interface suggests that meditation training can help people working with information stay on tasks longer with fewer distractions and also improves memory and reduces stress. The researchers recruited three groups of 12-15 human resource managers for the study. One group received eight weeks of mindfulness-based meditation training and another received eight weeks of body relaxation training. Members of the third, a control group, received no training at first, then after eight weeks were given the same training as the first group. Before and after each eight-week period, the participants were given a stressful test of their multitasking abilities, requiring them to use email, calendars, instant-messaging, telephone and word-processing tools to perform common office tasks. Researchers measured the participants' speed, accuracy and the extent to which they switched tasks. The participants' self-reported levels of stress and memory while performing the tasks were also noted. The results were significant: The meditation group reported lower levels of stress during the multitasking test while those in the control group or who received only relaxation training did not. When the control group was given meditation training, however, its members reported lower stress during the test just as had the original meditation group. The meditation training seemed to help participants concentrate longer without their attention being diverted.
Fishy Vision
Loss of vision due to advancing age can potentially be prevented by DHA, an omega-3 fatty acid found in fish according to a recent study. The study, which was published in the journal, Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science, demonstrated that lab models fed with DHA did not accumulate the toxic molecule that usually builds up in the retina with age and therefore preventing age-related loss of vision.
Stress May Delay Development in Kids
Research published recently in the Journal of Neuroscience from workers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has shown that stress may affect brain development in children, altering growth of a specific piece of the brain and the abilities associated with it. The researchers determined stress levels through interviews with children ages 9 to 14 and their parents. Exposure to excessive stress is appears to affect issues with involving certain kinds of cognitive processes such as holding on to important information for quick recall and use. Children who had experienced more intense and lasting stressful events in their lives posted lower scores on tests of what the researchers refer to as spatial working memory. They had more trouble navigating tests of short-term memory such as finding a token in a series of boxes, according to the study. Brain scans revealed that the anterior cingulate, a portion of the prefrontal cortex believed to play key roles in spatial working memory, takes up less space in children with greater exposure to very stressful situations.
December 2012/January 2013
Research
Remember the Fish- but Why?
In a study published in the journal, Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, researchers at the University of Alberta say they have discovered a potential explanation for why a diet high in DHA, an omega-3 fatty acid found in fish, improves memory. DHA stands for Docosahexaenoic acid – it’s an omega-3 fatty acid that is a main structural component of the retina, sperm, testicles, and human brain cerebral cortex. Lead researcher Yves Sauve explained: "We wanted to find out how fish intake improves memory. What we discovered is that memory cells in the hippocampus could communicate better with each other and better relay messages when DHA levels in that region of the brain were higher”. This could explain why memory improves on a high-DHA diet. Cold-water oceanic fish oils are rich in DHA. There are a number of foods that are rich in DHA. These include algae, anchovies, bluefin or albacore tuna, breast milk (also infant formula milk), caviar or fish roe, herring, salmon, sardines, and swordfish.
Vitamin D Gets You Out of Hospital Sooner
In the United States, hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) are the leading cause of death in the health care arena, with over 1.7 million cases per year and 100,000 deaths. Now, new research shows that the risk of hospital-acquired infections could be significantly reduced by increasing vitamin D concentrations among hospital patients. According to the study, published by Dermato-Endocrinology, HAIs generate around $US28.4 billion to $US45 billion in excess health care costs each year in the US.
Why is Vitamin D important here? Low vitamin D concentrations are associated with diseases such as fractures, respiratory infections, heart disease, and cancer. Pneumonia, bacteremias, urinary tract infections, surgical site infections, and sepsis are the most common hospital-acquired infections. Vitamin D plays a significant antimicrobial role. According to the researchers, vitamin D strengthens the innate immune response by overcoming the antibiotic resistance of many bacteria encountered in hospitals.
Not So Fast with the Fast Food
The dangers of fast food are well documented; the portions are often larger than a regular meal and the food is generally high in calories and low in nutrients. University of Minnesota School of Public Health researchers have examined the eating habits of 52,000 Chinese residents of Singapore and found new evidence that a diet heavy in fast food increases the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease. To arrive at their results, researchers worked alongside researchers from the National University of Singapore. Together, they examined results of a study conducted over a period of 16 years beginning in 1993, which looked at the eating habits of people who have experienced a recent and sudden transition from traditional foods to Western-style fast food. The research, which was published the journal, Circulation, found that people who consume fast food even once a week increase their risk of dying from coronary heart disease by 20 percent in comparison to people who avoid fast food. For people eating fast food two to three times each week, the risk increases by 50 percent, and the risk climbs to nearly 80 percent for people who consume fast food items four or more times each week. Eating fast food two or more times a week was also found to increase the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes by 27 percent.
Sleep and Immunity
Animal tudies in this area have found a link between lack of sleep and the development of certain diseases and conditions, such as high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity. Other studies have demonstrated that adequate sleep helps keep the immune system working properly, and that long-term sleep loss is a major risk factor for immune system problems. Now, researchers from the Netherlands and the United Kingdom reported in the journal, Sleep, that sleep deprivation and physical stress have similar effects on the immune system of human beings. Both physical stress and severe sleep loss jolt the immune system into action, the authors explained. To get to this conclusion they compared the number of white blood cells in 15 healthy young adult males who were subjected to normal sleep and severe sleep loss. The scientist compared the participants' white cell counts during their normal sleep/wake cycle week to the count during the second part of the experiment when the subjects were made to spend 29 hours without any sleep at all. They found the greatest impact was on granulocytes (types of white blood cells) which lost their day-to-night time rhythmicity as numbers shot up, especially during night time.
Is Sleep Deprivation Associated with Health Risks?
Absolutely. Here’s a quick rundown on the health issues associated with poor sleep. The results of research done published this year from the University of California demonstrated how sleep deprivation can undermine regions in the brain which are responsible for making food choices. They said that their findings might explain why sleep deprivation is linked to a higher risk of becoming obese. Normal weight adults who sleep less than six hours per night have a much greater risk of stroke symptoms during middle-to-older age than normal weight people who sleep more hours, researchers from the University of Alabama reported. Scientists from the Sleep and Neuroimaging Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, showed that sleep deprivation considerably exaggerates how much we anticipate impending emotional events, especially among those who are already highly anxious individuals. People who have not had enough sleep and have "tired brains" are more likely to find junk foods appealing, researchers from Columbia University in New York, revealed. In addition to all of these issues, a lack of adequate sleep is associated with an increased risk of workplace and other accidents, memory lapses, growth retardation, heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and a range of digestive disorders.
Advertising and Impulse Eating
In case you weren’t convinced that junk food advertising works, researchers have discovered that looking at images of high-calorie foods stimulates the brain's appetite control centre, which leads to an elevated desire for food. This research, conducted at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, found that stimulating of the brain's reward areas may contribute to overeating and obesity. The research was done by examining brain responses in 13 obese, Hispanic women via the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), as obese, Hispanic young women are at "high risk for continued weight gain and obesity." The researchers performed two fMRIs in each participant whilst they looked at a series of high- and low-calorie food images and non-food items. The participants were asked to rate their hunger and desire for sweet or savoury foods on a scale from 1 to 10 after each series of similar images, and were asked to drink 50 grams of glucose halfway through the scans on one occasion and the equivalent amount of fructose on another occasion. The amount of glucose was based on sugar content in a can of soft drink, and both sugars represent table sugar and high-fructose corn syrup. The team used fMRI to measure the blood flow in the brain, given that areas with increased blood flow suggest greater activity. They discovered the areas of the brain that were activated in response to viewing the images and how sugar consumption impacted activation in the brain as well as the participants' rating of appetite and hunger.
Coffee Power for the Elderly
The results of a study presented at the Society for Experimental Biology earlier this year have shown that caffeine boosts power in older muscles, suggesting the stimulant could aid elderly people to maintain their strength, reducing the incidence of falls and injuries. The decline in muscle strength that occurs as we age contributes to injuries and reduces quality of life and while the process is not well understood, it is clear that preserving muscle tone is very important. The researchers isolated muscles from mice ranging in age from juvenile to elderly, then tested their performance before and after caffeine treatment. They looked at two different skeletal muscles, which are the muscles we can control voluntarily. The first was the diaphragm, a core muscle used for respiration; the second was a leg muscle called the extensor digitorum longus (EDL), used for locomotion.
Live Better with Moderate Drinking
In more on the vexed issue of alcohol consumption, recent research has found that middle-aged people who consume alcohol in moderation appear to have a better quality of life than those who abstain. The study, which involved 5,404 Canadians aged 50 years or more, found that those who drank in moderation - no more than 14 drinks per week with no more than three a day for women and four a day for men - had a better quality of life than those who abstained from alcohol. The researchers assessed health quality of life with the Health Utilities Index Mark 3 (HUI3.) According to the researchers, those who consumed alcohol in moderation had the highest quality of life at baseline. They found that those who reduced their alcohol intake from moderate levels showed the greatest reduction in their level of health-related quality of life than those who consumed alcohol in moderation on a regular basis.
You’re Happier with Vitamin D
Research reported recently at the Endocrine Society's annual meeting in Houston, Texas, has shown that providing treatment for Vitamin D deficiency considerably improves depression in moderate and even severe cases. The clinically depressed women who participated in the study received treatment for their vitamin D deficiency without changing any of their antidepressant medication regimes or any other influential factors in their environment. The authors of the study stated that fixing the deficiency of vitamin D alone might have beneficial effects on depression. The lead study author said that, "Screening at-risk depressed patients for vitamin D deficiency and treating it appropriately may be an easy and cost-effective adjunct to mainstream therapies for depression."
Eating Vegetables Reduces the Risk of Pancreatic Disease
A recent piece of research published in the journal, Gut, examined 80,000 adults in Sweden in order to determine if an imbalance in antioxidant levels, associated with dietary factors, increased the risk of developing acute pancreatitis. Pancreatitis refers to inflammation of the pancreas. The pancreas releases hormones as well as digestive enzymes to break down food. However, these enzymes can sometimes activate inside the pancreas, and start to digest the gland itself. Symptoms of acute pancreatitis can be severe and potentially life threatening. Earlier studies have associated acute pancreatitis with excessive production of free radicals. In addition, levels of antioxidant enzymes, which remove free radicals, are increased during an attack. The consumption of vegetables, which contain antioxidants, appear to assist in the free radical removal process and while consuming more vegetables appeared to reduce the risk of acute pancreatitis in this study, consuming more fruit did not, possibly because the fructose in fruit offsets the benefits of the antioxidants that they contain. According to the researchers, individuals who consumed more than 4 servings of vegetables per day were 44% less likely to develop acute pancreatitis than people who ate 1 serving per day and the risk of developing acute pancreatic decreased by 71% among drinkers and by 51% among those who were overweight.
Dietary Fibre Keeps Gut Bugs Happy
A recent University of Illinois study has shown that dietary fibre promotes a shift in the gut toward different types of beneficial bacteria. The microbes that live in the gut, scientists now believe, can support a healthy gastrointestinal tract as well as affect our susceptibility to conditions as varied as type 2 diabetes, obesity, inflammatory bowel disease, colon cancer, and autoimmune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis. As these microbes ferment fibre in the intestine, short-chain fatty acids and other metabolites are produced, resulting in many health benefits. In the study, 20 healthy men with an average fibre intake of 14 grams per day were given snack bars to supplement their diet. The control group received bars that contained no fibre; a second group ate bars that contained 21 grams of polydextrose, which is a common fibre food additive; and a third group received bars with 21 grams of soluble corn fibre. On days 16-21, faecal samples were collected from the participants, and researchers used the microbial DNA they obtained to identify which bacteria were present. This information was then cross-referenced with the known health benefits associated with those specific microbes to generate the conclusions arrived at by the researchers.
Stress Can Help The Immune System
Chronic stress is known to have a suppressive effect on the immune system. But, a new study on rats published in the Journal of Psychoneuroendocrinology and conducted by researchers from the Stanford University School of Medicine and two other universities, adds weight to evidence that immune responsiveness is heightened by the so-called "fight or flight" response and that short-term stress actually stimulates immune activity. The immune system plays a vital role in protecting our bodies against diseases, fighting infection and in healing wounds. According to the researchers, the findings describe the body's finely coordinated system to detect danger and prepare to protect itself. The lead researcher stated that, "You don't want to keep your immune system on high alert at all times. So nature uses the brain, the organ most capable of detecting an approaching challenge, to signal that detection to the rest of the body by directing the release of stress hormones. Without them, a lion couldn't kill, and an impala couldn't escape."
Spinach Power
If you’re old enough to remember the cartoon character Popeye, you might recall that he used spinach to boost his strength in times of crisis. Popeye wasn’t the first to think of this and it’s been known for some time that spinach is associated with an increase in muscle strength. Recent research from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden has found that nitrate, found naturally in spinach and several other vegetables such as beetroot and to a lesser degree in lettuce, significantly increases muscle strength. In the study, the researchers placed nitrate directly into the drinking water of a group of mice for seven days and then compared their muscle strength to a control group. The amount of nitrate given to the mice was roughly the equivalent to that which a human would obtain by consuming 200 to 300 grams of fresh spinach or 2 to 3 beetroots a day. The researchers found that after 7 days, the mice given nitrate had significantly stronger muscles than mice in the control group. The research team found that the nitrate mice had higher concentrations of two different proteins, CASQ1 and DHPR, found naturally in the muscles. These proteins are used for storing and releasing calcium, which is essential for making muscles contract and this may explain the greater muscle strength seen in the mice given nitrite.
November/December 2012
Research
Vitamin C Intake, Heart Disease, Stroke and Cancer
There are things called RDA’s or Recommended Daily Allowances listed for most human nutrients such as vitamins and minerals. They’re also occasionally called RDI’s (Recommended Daily Intakes) and indicate the quantities that our bodies require of these nutrients for normal health. These are usually set by government bodies after the subject has been discussed with dieticians and medical specialists, and the quantities recommended often vary from country to country. They’re normally very conservative and decided upon based on two assumptions- that we can get most of what we need from the food and drink that we consume, and that we all have the same level of need for these nutrients at all times. I, and most other people working in this area, have large problems with both of these assumptions. The nutrient levels in our foods are a long way from being what they should be, and the need for these nutrients vary from person to person and from week to week. Breakthroughs do occasionally occur in this area though that give some of us hope that RDA’s will one day be revised to better reflect the needs of the people using them. The latest breakthrough occurred with the recent publication of research showing a need to increase the RDA for Vitamin C. The researchers, writing in the journal, Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, say there's compelling evidence that the RDA for Vitamin C should be raised to 200 milligrams per day for adults, up from its current levels in the United States of 75 milligrams for women and 90 for men. The reason that they’re suggesting this is that a large body of evidence now exists to show that higher levels of Vitamin C could help to reduce the chronic diseases that today kill most people in the developed world, heart disease, stroke, cancer, and the underlying issues that lead to them, such as high blood pressure, chronic inflammation, poor immune response and atherosclerosis. I personally think that an RDA of 200mg a day of Vitamin C is still too low, but this is certainly a step in the right direction.
Reduce Stress to Relieve MS
In what looks like good news for those with Multiple Sclerosis (MS), US researchers writing in the journal, Neurology, have discovered that a weekly stress management program for people with MS prevented the development of new brain lesions, which often precede a flare-up of MS symptoms, like pain, loss of vision or .loss of the use of limbs. This discovery is important because these brain lesions are a marker of the disease's activity in the brain. 121 people suffering from MS were enrolled in the study, which ran for 26 weeks and the stress management program involved training that helped patients to more realistically evaluate potentially stressful events but also involved meditation, and other relaxation techniques.
Relax and Get Older Later
There’s lots to be gained by avoiding anxiety. Researchers from the Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) and Harvard Medical School in the US writing in the journal, PLoS ONE, have identified yet another. Using data from over 5000 women aged between 42 and 69 years, the research suggests that middle-aged and older women who experience high levels of a common form of anxiety known as phobic anxiety, such as being unreasonably fearful of crowds and heights, are more likely to carry a risk factor tied to premature aging: The effects of this form of anxiety are such that it appears to add the equivalent to another six years of age compared to a person with no phobic symptoms.
Breathe Easier with D
In yet another addition to the things we currently know about Vitamin D, scientists at Harvard Medical School recently released research showing that children with asthma who have particularly poor lung function, often have a deficiency of this vitamin. These findings were derived from the observations of over one thousand 5 to 12 year old children diagnosed with asthma and it was shown that those children who were deficient in Vitamin D had a much lower response to conventional inhaled steroid medication than those children who were Vitamin D replete. The authors of the study didn’t go so far as to recommend that children with asthma may benefit from Vitamin D supplementation, but at the very least it’d sensible to have the levels of this vitamin assessed to determine if it’s required.
Water Quality and Pregnancy
There’s lots of information around on the things to do and not to do when pregnant, and diet is a significant consideration. Recent research from the Boston University School of Public Health highlights more useful things to know in the form of water quality. What they’ve found is that prenatal and early childhood exposure to the chemical solvent tetrachloroethylene (PCE) found in drinking water may be associated with long-term visual impairments, particularly in the area of colour discrimination. The primary sources of tetrachloroethylene are the industries that manufacture it or use it in dry-cleaning, chemical production, rubber manufacturing, heavy equipment manufacturing (for degreasing), electroplating (for degreasing), pulp and paper manufacturing (for de-inking paper), and ink manufacturing. It’s also found in degreasing agents, paint, varnish and lacquer removal agents, aerosol paints, agricultural chemicals, automotive chemicals, furniture polish and cleaners, hard surface cleaners, rug, carpet and upholstery cleaners, lubricating greases and oils, thinners, textile finishes, typewriter correction fluids and waterproofing compounds.
Low Fat Diet and Menopause
In case you haven’t seen it, there’s an entire medical journal dedicated to research on menopause, which is a great idea. In a recent edition of this journal, Menopause, workers from a Californian medical research institute called Kaiser Permanente, report that weight loss that occurs in conjunction with a low-fat, high fruit and vegetable diet may help to reduce or eliminate hot flashes and night sweats associated with menopause. This builds on previous work done in this area and was based on a large amount of data was that collected over 5 years from more than 17 thousand women. It specifically found that women who used a diet low in fat and high in whole grains, fruit and vegetables, who had menopausal symptoms, who were not taking hormone replacement therapy, and who lost weight (10 or more pounds or 10 or more percent of their baseline body weight) were more likely to reduce or eliminate hot flashes and night sweats after one year, compared to those in a control group who maintained their weight.
Alcohol and Bone Loss
You could be forgiven if you’re confused about the advice on alcohol consumption for humans. Some sources say that we should be consuming a certain amount, some say that this should only be in the form of red wine, others say that the best level to consume is zero. My own view on this is that unless there’s a medical reason not to use it, then alcohol use in moderation is fine (with a preference for red wine). However, scientists at the Oregon State University had more to say on this recently in the journal, Menopause. What they’ve concluded after reviewing the bone density of 40 menopausal women and cross-referencing this with their diet and lifestyle histories, is that drinking a moderate amount of alcohol as part of a healthy lifestyle may benefit women's bone health, lowering their risk of developing osteoporosis.
Alcohol and Arthritis
There’s lots of different information coming through the medical journals that indicates that in many cases, alcohol consumption isn’t as bad for humans as it was once thought to be. The British Medical Journal carried an article in a recent edition outlining the benefits, particularly for women with rheumatoid arthritis, of alcohol consumption. According to the study results, taken over 10 years from over 34 thousand Swedish women, the risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis in women with an alcohol consumption of over three alcoholic drinks per week, for a minimum period of 10 years, is 50% lower than that of women who drink no alcohol. However, the researchers warn that the impact of higher alcohol doses on the risk of rheumatoid arthritis has not yet been established.
Cranberries For Urinary Tract Infections
Cranberries have been a medicine of choice for naturopaths in the treatment and prevention of urinary tract infections for a very long time. As always, it’s good to see these kinds of practices validated by orthodox medicine and in the case of cranberries, and there’s now a significant body of evidence for their use in this area. In recent research that adds to this, scientists from the National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine, writing in Archives of Internal Medicine, presented the results of a review of most of the more robust clinical trials that had been carried out on the use of cranberries for urinary tract infections and found that (with some cautions regarding the quality of the evidence they studied) the research supported the notion that the consumption of cranberry-containing products may protect against urinary tract infections in certain populations.
High Fat Diets Associated with Poor Sleep
There are lots of reasons why a diet that’s high in saturated fats is bad for you. Scientists from the Tubningen University, the University of Lubek in Germany, and Uppsala University in Sweden, presenting research findings at a recent meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior, have given us another one. They’ve been doing work with mice to show that prolonged exposure to a high-fat diet reduces the quality of sleep in rats. Using radio-telemetry, the scientists measured 24-hour sleep and waking states after rats consumed a high fat diet for 8 weeks. Compared to rats that consumed a standard laboratory chow, the rats on the high-fat diet slept more but sleep was fragmented. The increased sleep time of the rats on the high-fat diet occurred mainly during the normally active phase of the day, resembling excessive daytime sleepiness observed in obese humans and while these results have yet to be duplicated in human research, they indicate the possibility that the situation will be similar in humans.
Coffee- Good, Bad or In Between?
The news on coffee is mixed. Historically, the view has been that coffee is generally bad for us. However, a number of different studies have been done over the last decade or so on the potential benefits of this substance and while this isn’t an ad for coffee, the results make interesting reading. Many of the benefits attributed to coffee may have more to do with its antioxidant levels than anything else.
A 2005 trial from the Harvard School of Public Health found that participants who reported drinking more than 6 or 7 cups of coffee a day were 35% less likely to have type 2 diabetes, compared with those who reported drinking under 2 cups a day. For those drinking 4 to 6 cups a day, the risk was reduced by 28%. This was echoed in 2009, when an international study led by researchers in Australia, reviewed 18 studies covering nearly 458,000 people and found that for every extra daily cup of coffee consumed, there was a 7% reduction in risk for developing type 2 diabetes.
In 2007, an Italian study that used a pooled analysis of ten other studies that included observations from over 2,200 people with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), reported that among coffee drinkers overall, there was a 41% reduction in the risk of developing HCC compared to those who never drank coffee. HCC is the most common liver cancer and accounts for about 90% of them. But the researchers concluded that while they found this link, they could not say if it was coffee that was reducing the risk of liver cancer, or if it was that people with liver cancer tended to drink less coffee for other reasons. Again in 2008, a study involving over 60,000 Finns followed for an average of 19 years, confirmed that higher coffee consumption was linked to lower risk of developing liver cancer.
In 2008, workers writing in the Annals of Internal Medicine released the results of a 20 year study that found that regularly consuming up to 6 cups of coffee per day (containing around 100 mg caffeine per 8 oz cup) was not linked with increased deaths in either men or women, from any cause, including death from cancer, or from cardiovascular disease.
In 2009, researchers in Finland and Sweden released the results of a study that followed over 1,400 people over 20 years, finding that those who drank 3 to 5 cups of coffee a day in their midlife years had a 65% lower chance of developing dementia and Alzheimer's disease compared with those who reported drinking no coffee at all or only occasionally.
A 2009 US study and a 2011 Swedish study showed that coffee consumption may lower the risk of heart disease and stroke. Further work in 2012 in the US found that drinking coffee in moderation, may also protect slightly against heart failure.
Other research released in 2010 found that coffee drinkers were less likely to be hospitalized for heart rhythm disturbances than non-coffee drinkers. The researchers examined data on more than 130,000 health plan members and found that people who reported drinking between 1 and 3 cups of coffee a day had a lower risk of developing these diseases than non-drinkers, regardless of other risk factors.
In 2010, workers from the University of Lisbon, writing in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease Portugal, presented an analysis of 26 studies that suggests an inverse association between coffee drinking and the chance of developing Parkinson's disease. They found that for every increase of 300 mg per day in caffeine intake, there was a drop of 24% in the relative risk of developing Parkinson's. Among those who regularly drank two to three cups of coffee a day, there was a 25% lower chance of developing the disease compared to non-coffee drinkers. However, among women coffee drinkers only, this fell to 14%. In another 2010 study on caffeine and the risk of developing Parkinson’s Disease, published in Journal of Alzheimer's Disease by researchers from the University of North Dakota in the US suggest that the connection between coffee and this disorder might be something to do with a protective effect that caffeine has in preserving the blood-brain-barrier.
In 2011, researchers working at the Harvard School of Public Health, writing in the journal, Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, presented data from a large body of research called the Nurses' Health Study published findings that showed that coffee drinkers who consumed more than 4 cups a day had a 25% lower risk of developing endometrial cancer.
Another 2011 study from the Journal of the National Cancer Institute found that men who regularly drink coffee appear to have a lower risk of developing an aggressive and lethal form of prostate cancer. They also found the lower risk was the same for caffeinated as it was for decaffeinated coffee.
A 2011 study by workers at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute found that women who drank coffee had a lower incidence of breast cancer than women who rarely drank coffee, although when they took into account other risk factors, including lifestyle and age, they found the lower risk was only measurable for estrogen-negative breast cancer.
In February 2012, researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine who did a study on mice, found that mice given decaffeinated coffee showed a reduced risk for dementia and other neurodegenerative disorders, which was interesting because it indicates that the benefits that may be gained from the use of coffee may be related to something other than the caffeine in the coffee.
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In June 2012, researchers from the University of South Florida and the University of Miami, published a paper describing how they monitored the memory and thinking processes of 124 people, aged 65 to 88, and found all those with higher blood levels of caffeine (mostly from drinking coffee) avoided the onset of Alzheimer's disease in the 2-4 year follow up. This was even true of those who had mild cognitive impairment; a precursor of Alzheimer's.
In a final 2012 paper published in the journal, Cancer Research, a review of the lifestyle habits and health issues experienced by 110,000 people in the US, found that the more caffeine there was in their diets, the lower their risk of developing basal cell carcinoma, the most common type of skin cancer.
Babies Breath Easier with Pets
While it may seem counter-intuitive from some angles, researchers from the Kuopio University Hospital, Finland, writing in the journal. Pediatrics, report that babies who are in close contact with dogs or cats during their first twelve months of life were found to enjoy better health and were less likely to suffer from respiratory infections, than those without any pets in the house or no close contact with these animals. These researchers came to this conclusion after an analysis of the health and lifestyle histories from 397 children from birth up to 12 months of age. The study found an overall reduction in the susceptibility to illness, and the more contact there was, the lower the morbidity. In particular, the babies were found to have fewer infections and it appeared that the protective effect from dogs was greater than that from cats.
October/November 2012
Research
Choline During Pregnancy May Prevent Stress-Related Problems In Kids
Choline has been used as a dietary tool by healthcare practitioners for quite a while. It has a beneficial impact on the functions of the adrenal glands, the cardiovascular system, as well as the nervous and reproductive systems. Scientists from New York’s Cornell University, writing in the FASEB Journal, have documented another potential benefit provided by this valuable nutrient. This research suggests that choline supplementation in pregnant women lowers cortisol in the foetus by changing epigenetic expression of genes involved in cortisol production and by doing this it reduces the potential for the development of stress related disease after birth. Epigenetic changes affect how a gene functions, even if the gene itself is not changed. Lowering cortisol is important as high levels of cortisol are linked to a wide range of problems ranging from stress, mental health issues, metabolic and cardiovascular disorders. The participants in the 12 week study, involving pregnant women in their third trimester, consumed either a control diet providing 480 mg choline per day, a level that approximates current dietary recommendations, or the treatment diet which provided 930 mg of choline per day. Maternal blood, cord blood and placenta tissue were collected to measure the blood levels of cortisol, the expression levels of genes that regulate cortisol, and the number of methyl groups attached to the DNA of the cortisol regulating genes (the epigenetic changes). Those from mothers who consumed the higher levels of choline showed reduced levels of cortisol.
Exercise Gives Heart Failure Patients a Lift
It’s hard to oversell the benefits of regular exercise and scientists writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association recently released findings confirming yet another potential benefit, in this case for people suffering from heart failure. Heart failure and many other serious illnesses are often complicated by depression and in this study, the authors enrolled over 2000 stable patients that were being treated for heart failure at 82 different medical centres in the U.S., Canada, and France to participate in the randomized control trial. The experts measured the patients' depressive symptoms by a questionnaire. The patients were chosen randomly to receive either supervised aerobic exercise (goal of 90 min/week for months 1-3 followed by home exercise with a goal of greater than or equal to 120 min/week for months 4-12) or to education and usual guideline-based heart failure care. After 12 months, it was shown that the patients participating in the exercise program had a statistically significant reduction in depression when compared to those who didn’t exercise.
Raisin Energy
Energy gels or chews are fast becoming the popular choice as a source of carbohydrates for runners and other endurance athletes. As an alternative, raisins provide a good alternative to sport chews or gels as they also provide fibre and micronutrients, such as potassium and iron and are free from artificial flavour or colours. As an added bonus, raisins are the most economical dried fruit according to the United States Department of Agriculture, so they are cost effective and convenient for use during exercise. In a recent study designed to investigate this, researchers from the from California-Davis University writing in the Journal of The International Society of Sports Nutrition performed three randomized trials on runners, with a 7-day break between trials. The participants were assigned to consume raisins, chews or water as a supplement. In the first trial, they depleted their glycogen (fuel reserve) stores in an 80-minute (75%VO2max) run followed by a 5k time-trial. The trial was repeated twice with a 7-day interval in between trials. The results showed that the participants who consumed raisins or sports chews were on average 1 minute faster in the 5k run compared with those who drank just water.
Live Longer with D
Over the last few years there’s been lots of good research done on Vitamin D. Some of the recent highlights are reported in various areas on this page and scientists from the Oregon State University have just published more on this in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. What they found was that older adults - especially those who are frail, have a much greater risk of death when their Vitamin D levels are low. The study used data from more than 4000 US adults older than 60 and divided them into four groups, depending on their Vitamin D levels. The low group had levels less than 50 nanograms per millilitre; the highest group had vitamin D of 84 or higher. The low group had the highest mortality rate and the highest had the lowest rate. The authors of this study at Oregon State University's Linus Pauling Institute recommends adults take 2,000 IU of supplemental vitamin D daily. The US dietary intake guidelines advise 600 IU for most adults, and 800 for those older than 70. Here in Australia the recommended daily allowance of Vitamin D is 200IU for those under 60 years of age and 600IU for those over 60. It would seem from this study and other research done on this vitamin that these recommendations may be a little low.
Bugs Protect the Skin
Since bird flu and several other viral diseases have become more widely publicised, people are washing their skin more than ever. While it’s good policy not to give viruses and other potential agents of infection too much of a free ride, it’s possible that some of us may be keeping our skin too clean. Researchers from the US National Institutes of Health reported recently in the journal Science that the bacteria that normally inhabit the skin have a significant role to play in protecting us against infection from potentially dangerous micro-organisms. To determine this they colonized germ-free mice (mice bred with no naturally occurring microbes in the gut or skin) with a bacteria normally found on human skin (Staphylococcus epidermidis). The team observed that colonizing the mice with this one species of good bacteria enabled an immune cell in the mouse skin to produce a cell-signalling molecule needed to protect against harmful microbes. The researchers subsequently infected both colonized and non-colonized germ-free mice with a parasite. Mice that were not colonized with the bacteria did not mount an effective immune response to the parasite; mice that were colonized did.
Pregnancy, Low-Protein Diets and Hypertension
There’s lots of data around now that highlights the influence that a mother’s diet has on the health of her child in later life. In a recent addition to this, scientists from the University of Texas released news of work done with rats showing that a low protein diet in pregnancy may increase the risk of the child developing hypertension in adult life. Protein restriction increases plasma testosterone levels. Elevated testosterone levels are associated with pregnancy-related complications such as preeclampsia and polycystic ovarian syndrome in humans, and emerging evidence suggests that testosterone may play a role in foetal programming for hypertension by reducing the activity of an enzyme that inactivates testosterone, allowing more testosterone to reach the foetus.
Tap Water May Not Be So Smart
If you’re one of the people drinking tap water that’s been treated with fluoride, it may be useful to be aware of research from Harvard University published recently in the journal, Environmental Health Perspectives. This research suggests that fluoride may lower IQ, and adds to doubt already cast on the public health benefits of its inclusion in water supplies. The researchers involved in this study performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of previous research to examine the effects of increased fluoride exposure and delayed neurobehavioral development and as a result made the statement that, "our results support the possibility of adverse effects of fluoride exposures on children's neurodevelopment." The paper also states that according to the US Environment Protection Agency, fluoride is a chemical "with substantial evidence of developmental neurotoxicity".
High Sodium and Low Calcium
Sodium is one of several essential elements that our bodies need to function. Without it we have a very limited future. As with most things though, we can have too much of it and this is the case for people with many different illnesses from hypertension, PMT, cataracts and lots of other problems that can be exacerbated by excessive amounts of sodium. It’s been known for some time that excess sodium is also associated with kidney stones and osteoporosis but the reason why this happens has, up until now, been a mystery. Scientists from the University of Alberta writing in the American Journal of Physiology - Renal Physiology may have come up with the answer. It seems that both calcium and sodium are regulated by the same molecule in the body. When sodium intake becomes too high, the body gets rid of sodium via the urine, taking calcium with it, which depletes calcium stores in the body. High levels of calcium in the urine lead to the development of kidney stones, while inadequate levels of calcium in the body lead to thin bones and osteoporosis.
Lights Out for a Lift
Sunlight, day and night light cycles, and the way our bodies work are all connected and scientists are constantly verifying these connections. A team from Ohio State University writing in the journal, Molecular Psychiatry, recently came up with moire evidence of another connection. What they’ve confirmed is that chronic exposure to artificial light at night may play a role in the rising rates of depression. They’ve also found that depression from this cause can be reversed simply by returning to a standard light-dark cycle over a 2 week period. So for the people who stay up late in front of a television or computer, some of the harmful effects that this can cause can be corrected just by going back to a regular light-dark cycle and minimizing their exposure to artificial light at night.
Salt and Stomach Cancer
Salt is essential for lots of the normal functions carried out within the human body. Consuming too little can be a bad thing but so can consuming too much. A high salt intake in some people has been found to aggravate or increase the risk of high blood pressure, which in itself is a risk factor for stroke and heart disease, and salt is also associated with osteoporosis and kidney disease. Lots of research has been done in this area over the last few decades and in a recent addition to this, cancer researchers in the UK released data that links salt to stomach cancer. What they’ve found is a statistically significant connection between high salt intake (more than 6 grams per day) and a risk increase of approximately 14% above what would normally be expected.
Live Longer with Antioxidants
One of the most popular theories doing the rounds at the moment regarding why we age is the accumulation of oxygen “radicals” in our bodies. Oxygen radicals are chemically reactive molecules that can damage cellular components such as fats, proteins and nucleic acids, resulting in "oxidative stress." The possible link between oxidative stress and aging has led to the proliferation of antioxidant products ranging from dietary supplements to anti-aging creams. In recent research published in the journal Molecular Cell, University of Michigan researchers used worms to find out whether there was any truth to this proposed link. In doing so, they found something quite remarkable, which was that the exposure to antioxidants in early life led to a significant increase in life span. It’ll be interesting to see if further research confirms that this discovery has a parallel in humans.
Vitamin E and Liver Cancer
Vitamin E does some great things and performs several essential functions in the body. Chinese scientists writing in a recent edition of theJournal of the National Cancer Institute have contributed to our knowledge of Vitamin E by adding to work done over the last 15 years that shows a connection between this vitamin and liver cancer. To do this, the researchers analysed the diet and health data from nearly 133 thousand people. What they found was an inverse dose-response relationship that showed that consuming adequate levels of Vitamin E in the diet or via supplements, was strongly associated with a reduction in the risk of developing liver cancer.
Ancient Medicine
It’s been well documented that herbal medicine has been used by humans for a long time, its use dating back in China for example for at least 5000 years. This history has now been extended significantly thanks to the work of scientists from universities in Spain, Australia and the UK writing in the German journal Naturwissenschaften recently. This team managed to analyse the calcified food deposits (dental calculus) found around the teeth of Neanderthals living in caves in Northern Spain between 30,000 and 24,000 years ago. In these deposits they found evidence of the use of medicinal plants that were probably chamomile or yarrow.
Obesity, Vitamin D and Diabetes Risk
In most cases Vitamin D is thought of as a vitamin that needs sunlight to work and it’s necessary for bone formation, and that’s the extent of most people’s knowledge of it. Lots of research has been done on this valuable nutrient over the last couple of decades that shows that it’s capable of very much more than this. Recently, scientists from Drexel University reporting in the journal Diabetes Care have added to this by confirming a link between obesity, low levels of Vitamin D and an increase in the risk of insulin resistance and diabetes. It’s long been known that obesity can increase the risk of diabetes by around 20 times, but this team, using data from nearly 6,000 people, found that when obesity is coupled with low levels of Vitamin D, the level of risk jumps to a 32 fold increase.
Couch Potatoes Might As Well Be Smoking
It’s probably obvious from this column that I’m a big believer in exercise. There are lots of reasons for this belief and just about every function of the body and mind gets enormous benefit from regular exercise. To find out exactly how much we benefit isn’t an easy thing to do but US researchers writing in the Lancet recently have come close to this by examining the increase in potential fatalities from coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes and colon and breast cancer associated with low levels of exercise. What they found was that people not spending at least 150 minutes a week doing moderate exercise (walking for 30 minutes 5 times a week), is causing from approximately 6% to 10% of deaths from these four conditions. They also reported findings confirmed in 2008 that showed that a lack of exercise was responsible for the deaths of 5.3 million of the 57 million people who died that year globally. In addition, the researchers compared this to the increased mortality from smoking tobacco, and found that the mortality increase from this was pretty much the same as the mortality increase associated with low levels of exercise.
September/October 2012
Research
Walnuts and Reproduction
In the never ending search for aids to human reproduction, scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles have turned to walnuts and in doing so have found a friend. What they discovered was that healthy men in their 20’s and 30’s who ate at least 75g of walnuts a day exhibited a significant increase in the vitality, motility and structure of their sperm, as well as fewer chromosomal abnormalities, compared to men who did not eat walnuts. The study ran for 12 weeks and while they’re not completely sure, the scientists suggested that these benefits may be due to the polyunsaturated fatty acids in the nuts.
Red Wine May Help To Keep You Standing
Mention has been made in earlier entries in this page of the benefits of a compound found in red wine, nuts and dark skinned fruits, known as resveratrol. Research presented at a recent American Chemical Society conference claimed that experiments using this substance with mice exhibited improved mobility and a fewer falls. Old and young mice were given either resveratrol or a placebo over a period of 8 weeks and tested for their ability to remain upright. By the fourth week into the trial it was shown that the older mice given resveratrol performed as well as the younger mice in mobility and balance tests, while those given the placebo performed as old mice would be expected to perform.
Turmeric and Viruses
Modern science can be very good at validating the therapeutic use of natural products and often what it’s validating is a capacity it’s been known for for thousands of years. This has occurred recently with Turmeric, a culinary herb that’s been used in India for a very long time not only as an ingredient in curry but as a means of fighting colds and flu. Scientists writing in the Journal of Biological Chemistry released research recently showing that curcumin, one of the major componants of turmeric, may provide a significant boost to our defence capacity against number of viruses including things such as Rift Valley Fever virus and several other viruses that are associated with serious and often life threatening diseases.
Easy on the Heat
Research from the University of Southern California and Cancer Prevention Institute of California found that eating red meat cooked at high temperatures, especially pan-fried red meat, may increase the risk of advanced prostate cancer by as much as 40 percent. For “pan-fried” we can also read, barbeque. Researchers cross-referenced prostate cancer development data from nearly 2000 American men with their eating and cooking habits and found that any cooking of any type of meat that involves this sort of heat appears to be implicated. The research showed that men who ate more than 1.5 servings of pan-fried red meat per week increased their risk of prostate cancer by 30 percent and that men who ate more than 2.5 servings of red meat cooked at high temperatures were 40 percent more likely to have prostate cancer. When considering specific types of red meats involved here, hamburgers rather than steak were linked to the highest increase in the risk of prostate cancer. The reason for the connection between these factors is still obscure but it’s thought to be associated with DNA-damaging carcinogens, heterocyclic amines (HCAs), formed during the cooking of red meat and poultry. HCAs are formed when sugars and amino acids are cooked at higher temperatures for longer periods of time. Other carcinogens, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are formed during the grilling or smoking of meat. When fat from the meat drips on an open flame, the rising smoke leaves deposits of PAHs on the meat. There is strong experimental evidence that HCAs and PAHs contribute to certain cancers, including prostate cancer.
Couch Drivers are Clumsier
In case we needed to be told this, a study published in a recent edition of the American Journal of Human Biology shows that children who are sedentary for over three-quarters of their time, watching TV or spending time in front of the computer have up to nine times poorer motor coordination than those children who are active. Researchers collected data from 110 girls and 103 boys, between the ages of 9 and 10 years, from 13 urban Portuguese elementary schools, and objectively measured the children's sedentary behaviour and physical activity over 5 consecutive days. The data showed that the children spent an average of 75.6% of their time being sedentary and that it doesn’t take much of a shift in behaviour to increase the risk factors. Girls who spent 77.3% or more time being sedentary had a 4 to 5 times higher risk of not having normal motor coordination compared with girls that were more active, yet the risk for boys who were sedentary for over 76% is 5 to 9 times higher of having normal motor coordination compared with boys who are active.
Meditation Relieves Loneliness
It’s difficult to overstate the negative health effects of loneliness, particularly for the elderly. Meditation has been used for a long time as a means of relieving loneliness and a recent study published in the journal, Brain, Behaviour and Immunity, has gone some way towards providing scientific validation for this practice. Researchers enrolled 40 adults aged between 55 and 85 and randomly assigned them to either a mindfulness meditation group or a control group that did not meditate, for 8 weeks. All the participants were evaluated at the start and the end of the study using an established loneliness scale. In addition, the researchers took blood samples at the beginning and the end of the study to measure gene expression and levels of any inflammation present in their bodies, to assess the effects of meditation on the development of inflammatory diseases. The results of the study showed a strong association between meditation and a reduction in loneliness, and a reduction in the potential development of inflammatory as well as cardiovascular diseases.
Gut Bugs, Obesity and Metabolic Syndrome
Naturopaths have long been proponents of the use of probiotics; friendly gut micro-organisms such as Lactobacillus acidophilus and others, as a means of dealing with various illness and assisting in the return of good health. Recent research published in PLOS ONE, the online journal from the US Public Library of Science, adds to its already well established scientific validation. The research involved the analysis of the bacteria in faecal samples of 310 members of the Old Order Amish community in the US, using a process that enabled researchers to identify a marker gene that serves as a something similar to a bar code for each type of bacteria. Participants in the study ranged from lean to overweight to obese; some of the obese participants also had features of metabolic syndrome. Researchers found a strong association between 26 specific bacteria and obesity, inflammation and metabolic syndrome. The use of probiotics may play a role in controlling the proliferation of these specific bacteria.
Mediterraneans Have Good Bones
There are numerous examples of the benefits of the traditional Mediterranean diet and scientists writing in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism have identified another one. The traditional Mediterranean diet tends to be high in fruits and vegetables, monosaturated fat and dietary fibre, and low in saturated fats. It also uses liberal amounts of olive oil and it’s this last factor that has been shown to increase the levels of osteocalcin, a protein produced by bone building cells called osteoblasts, as well as other bone-formation factors that are important in the prevention of osteoporosis.
Remember the Cocoa
A new study published online in the journal, Hypertension, brings us the good news that cognitive function in elderly people with early memory decline can be improved by the regular consumption of cocoa, or more specifically by the dietary flavonols contained within it. The improvements in cognitive function found in the study were seen over a relatively short period of time; and, while further research is required to confirm these findings, this provides encouraging evidence that a natural product may be helpful in dealing with this issue.
The Indirect Effects of Exercise on Cancer
The benefits of exercise for everybody are obvious and research has found that those benefits extend to most people with mild or even severe illness. This has been highlighted again recently in two reviews of all of the research carried out to date on the effects of exercise such as walking, cycling, yoga, Qigong, resistance training and strength training carried out by people who are undergoing or have completed treatment for cancer. These 2 reviews looked at the results from 96 individual studies that comprised data from over 8000 people. The results show that exercise can improve health-related quality of life for people with cancer. In addition, results from both reviews showed that exercise improved social functioning and tiredness. Benefits were also seen in the physical well-being of participants undergoing treatment and in self-esteem, emotional well-being, sleep, anxiety and pain in people who had completed treatment.
Depressurise with Cocoa
Mention has been made elsewhere on this page of the benefits of the group of componants in cocoa called flavonols. A review of the effects of cocoa on blood pressure was carried out recently and once again, the news is good. The flavonols that appear to be useful in reducing the slide into age-related cognitive and memory decline also, according to the review, help to reduce blood pressure. The way that this occurs appears to be via nitric oxide molecules formed by the cocoa flavonols, which cause a relaxation of blood vessels and a corresponding fall in blood pressure.
Nutrition and Physical Fitness
Given the vital roles that vitamins and minerals play in our health, it’ll probably come as no surprise that the levels of these nutrients in our blood will have a strong association with our general level of physical fitness. Spanish researchers reporting in the Journal of Applied Physiology recently set out to investigate this with a large group of adolescents and found that blood levels of certain micronutrients were intimately connected with performance in physical fitness tests. For cardio-respiratory fitness, concentrations of iron, vitamin A, and vitamin C in males and beta-carotene and vitamin D in females were associated with VO2max. For muscular fitness, concentrations of iron, vitamin A and vitamin E in males and beta-carotene and vitamin D in females was associated with performing better on the standing long jump test.
Kids, Nutrition and Adult IQ
Researchers from the University of Adelaide recently released the results of research that tracked the diets of 7000 children and compared a range of dietary patterns, including traditional and contemporary home-prepared food, ready-prepared baby foods, breastfeeding, and 'discretionary' or junk foods. What they found was that children who were breastfed up to six months and had a healthy diet regularly including foods such as legumes, cheese, fruit and vegetables at 15 and 24 months, had an IQ up to two points higher by age eight than they otherwise would have had. In addition, the children who had a diet regularly involving biscuits, chocolate, sweets, soft drinks and chips in the first two years of life had IQs up to two points lower by age eight.
Iced Tea, Summer and Kidney Stones
During the warmer weather, iced tea is a popular drink. Unfortunately though, it can cause problems, particularly for males who have a history of kidney stone formation and are dehydrated. The combination of these two factors and iced tea mean that chemicals called oxalates, present in tea, may cause an increase in the formation of kidney stones, many of which are formed from calcium and those same oxalates. If you’re thirsty and have a personal or family history of kidney stone formation, water is a far better choice.
Caffeine for Motor Impairment in Parkinson's Disease
Elsewhere on this page you’ll find mention of the benefits of caffeine for people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Additional news on this was recently published in the journal, Neurology, and the news is good for people with Parkinson’s disease. Caffeine, which is widely consumed around the world in coffee, tea and soft drinks, may help control aberrant movement in people suffering from Parkinson's. The published study involved 61 people suffering from Parkinson’s disease; half were given a placebo and the other half were given 100mg of caffeine twice a day for 3 weeks and then 200mg twice a day for 3 weeks. The trial ran for 6 weeks and on analysis of the results it was shown that the people who received caffeine supplements experienced an improvement in their motor symptoms over those who received the placebo, specifically in their speed of movement and reduction in stiffness.
Calm Mums Have Healthier Kids
There are lots of reasons why the stress levels experienced by pregnant women should be as low as possible. Scientists from the University of Minnesota have reported on another one recently in the FASEB Journal. Using pregnant mice as subjects, they found that that those mice that were exposed to stressful situations had offspring that developed a statistically significant increase in abdominal obesity, and were at higher risk of diabetes and metabolic syndrome, when compared to the offspring born from calmer mice. These findings have yet to be confirmed in humans but the results from this study tend to indicate that this is something we should certainly be aware of.
August/September 2012
Research
Which D?
For the uninitiated, there are a couple of different types of Vitamin D. There’s Vitamins D1, D2, D3, D4 and D5. D2 (also known as ergocalciferol) and Vitamin D3 (cholacalciferol) are the common forms used as supplements and D5 is the biologically active form. Vitamin D can be ingested or made by the body from cholesterol but either way, light, specifically UVB, is needed for the vitamin to become active. There’s been some debate about which is the best of the D2 and D3 forms, and recent UK research published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition has clarified this and has found that our bodies react slightly differently to D2 versus D3 when converting to the active form and the reaction to D3 appears to be superior.
Get Up and Ginseng
The powers of ginseng have been known for thousands of years but it’s only recently that scientists have put these powers to the test. Scientists at the cancer centre at the famous Mayo Clinic in the US reported on the results of trials using American Ginseng (Panax quinquefolium) with people suffering from fatigue related to the treatment of their cancers. For anyone familiar with the actions of this plant it’d probably come as no surprise that when compared to placebo, the people who’d taken the ginseng had a significant reduction in the perceived levels of fatigue, with the added benefit of an absence of side effects. The scientists involved in the study wisely cautioned that while their study produced this result, it doesn’t necessarily mean that all ginsengs will have this property and ginseng preparations made by using ethanol as an extraction solvent may have oestrogenic properties, making them problematic for anyone suffering from active breast cancer.
Exercising Restraint
The benefits of exercise are well known but what was less well known is that fact that too much exercise can be less than beneficial. Recent research from the Mayo Clinic in the US has found that while regular exercise is highly effective for the prevention and treatment of many common chronic diseases, the more extreme forms of exercise such as marathons, long distance triathlons and other forms of extended endurance exercise may cause structural changes to the heart and large arteries such as scarring and enlargement, leading to heart injury, heart rhythm disorders and an increased risk of coronary heart disease. The article’s authors pointed out that exercising for 30-60 minutes a day provides the greatest benefits and these benefits diminish once this duration is extended.
Keeping it Simple
Popular healthcare journal, the American Journal of Medicine, recently reported on the benefits of sticking to several simple healthy habits as a means of retaining good health and prolonging a healthy life. Regular teeth cleaning is one that seems obvious but the authors of this study were able to show a direct association between this practice and a significant reduction in stroke and heart disease. Also shown was a clear connection between the regular consumption of fish and a significant reduction in colorectal cancer.
Antioxidants and Autism
The journal Biological Psychiatry brings us results of research on the use of an antioxidant called N-Acetylcysteine. Scientists using this nutrient with 3 to 12 year old children diagnosed with autism found that it was associated with a marked reduction in the irritability, aggression and repetitive behaviour often experienced by the children suffering from this condition. While this was only a pilot study and larger trials will be required to verify these findings, it’s a significant piece of research as the current pharmaceutical drugs used to control these problems have serious adverse effects and while N-Acetylcysteine has been used for some time by naturopaths treating children with autism, there’s been little research to validate this practice.
Early Eating Habits Predict Later Eating Disorders
In rarely performed research, scientists from the US Cincinnati Children’s Hospital have found a way to predict adult women’s eating disorders by monitoring the eating habits of young girls. These scientists followed the eating habits of 800 girls from the age of 9 to 20 years. What they found was that girls whose eating habits were driven by an obsession to be “skinny”, had a higher risk of developing eating habits that were associated with obesity, later in life. Those particularly at risk of this were girls whose obsession was taken to the point of perfectionism. The study overall provides valuable insights for parents, carers and counsellors and serves as a useful predictor of outcomes that can be avoided by some timely guidance.
High Fibre Teens
Most of us probably don’t need to be reminded of the benefits of fibre, but these benefits are generally understood to relate to bowel habits. US researchers writing in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism report on the effects of fibre, or a lack of it, in 14-18 year olds. What they found was a strong correlation between a low level of dietary fibre from foods such as fruits, vegetables and whole grains, and an increased risk of diabetes, inflammatory diseases and cardiovascular disease, and higher levels of abdominal fat. Of the nearly 600 teenagers surveyed for the report, only about 1% were consuming the recommended daily intake of fibre, leaving much of the rest of the population studied at risk for these diseases.
Cherries for Osteoarthritis
Few of us need an excuse to eat cherries and scientists from Oregon Health and Science University have given us a good one, particularly if we have osteoarthritis. A study carried out at this University with 20 women aged 40-70 suffering from inflammatory osteoarthritis found that drinking tart cherry juice twice a day for 3 weeks was associated with a significant reduction in inflammatory markers. In addition, researchers noted that endurance runners who consumed good quantities of tart cherry juice while training experienced less pain than normal.
Yet More Reasons to Eat Chocolate
Do we need more? Probably- and here’s another. If you’d like an additional weapon against heart disease apart from the regular diet, smoking, exercise and stress advice, Australian scientists writing in the British Medical Journal suggest you think about dark chocolate. Using mathematic models to predict outcomes and using a group they recruited of 2013 people at risk for heart disease, it seems that regular consumption of dark chocolate (the one with 60-70% cocoa solids) would have been associated with the prevention of 70 non-fatal and 15 fatal stroke or heart attack events per 100,000 people.
Kids Need Zinc
Most naturopaths will include zinc in a prescription for a patient suffering from an infection and researchers in India have provided us with some nice validation for this. In a study published recently in The Lancet, 700 Indian children suffering from a bacterial infection who’d been given antibiotics for it were randomly assigned to receive either 10mg of zinc per day or a placebo and monitored for 21 days. An analysis of the results showed that the use of zinc was associated with a 40% reduction in failure of the antibiotic treatment.
Gout Foods
In more validation of routine naturopathic practice, researchers writing in the Annals of Rheumatic Diseases have validated the established practice of advising people with gout to avoid the sources of purines; chemicals in some foods that are converted in the body to uric acid that can trigger an attack of gout. To do this, the researchers followed the dietary habits of 633 people suffering from gout for 12 months and mapped these against their gout attacks. After crunching the numbers they found a strong association between these two factors. The foods with the highest levels of these chemicals are kidneys, liver, sardines, anchovies and caviar.
Seeing Fish
The list of benefits to be gained from eating fish gets longer every day. In this latest piece of research, published in the journal, Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science, scientists from the University of Alberta looked at the capacity of a component in fish oil called Docosahexaenoic Acid (DHA) to prevent age-related vision loss. This loss is normally associated with the development of a toxin that builds up in the retina as we age and test subjects given DHA demonstrated a statistically significant reduction in the accumulation of this toxin.
Mediterraneans Smarter and Healthier
Well, at least those using the Mediterranean diet appear to be. It’s been known for quite a while now that the Mediterranean diet, typically one that’s high in fish, olive oil, nuts, beans, vegetables, water and fruit, is associated with a lower mortality and less chronic illness. A recent study published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition looked at the impact of this type of diet on the health and wellbeing of 11,000 Spanish university students over a period of 4 years, after which time the researchers found that participants who stuck more closely to the diet had better physical and mental well-being and a significantly better physical quality of life.
July/August 2012
Research
D Keeps You Moving
If you’re one of the people using Vitamin D for its role in the health of bones, you might be happy to learn that as you age, it’ll probably also help to keep you mobile. US research from the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center’s Department of Geriatrics and Gerontology has found a strong association between low levels of Vitamin D and mobility limitations and disability, mainly due to its role in muscle strength. They found after analysing the results of a 6 year study of the health and habits of more than 2000 70-79 years olds’, those whose Vitamin D levels were low had a two-fold higher risk of mobility disability and a 30% increased risk of mobility limitations.
Too Much Vitamin D?
Too much of a good thing can often become a bad thing and this seems to apply to Vitamin D. While it’s got a vital role to play in bone and muscle health, and the health of the cardiovascular, nervous, digestive and many other systems in the body, researchers at the University of Copenhagen looking at the mortality data from nearly 248,000 Copenhagens have identified an association between high levels of Vitamin D in the blood and an increased general risk of mortality. At this stage, the specific cause for that mortality has yet to be determined but it has been known for some time that an excess of Vitamin D, known as Hypervitaminosis D, is associated with a number of issues such as muscle weakness, diarrhoea, vomiting and headaches.
D Stroke
It’s been quite a month for Vitamin D research. In more on this interesting nutrient, a 34 year study, reported in the journal, Stroke, followed the Vitamin D intake history of nearly 8000 45-68 year old Japanese-American men living in Hawaii. After accounting for every possible variable that could influence their calculations, the researchers determined that the men who had the lowest intake of foods that contained high levels of the vitamin had a 22% higher risk of succumbing to cerebral stroke in later life.
Vitamin D Cover-Up
We’re all pretty familiar with the campaign that’s gone on for years now about covering up when we’re out in the sun. Sensible advice since Australia’s one of the world’s leaders in sun-related skin cancers. It seems that the campaign may have become too successful though as research from several sources now indicates that the cover-up has left many of us deficient in Vitamin D, which needs our skin to be exposed to UV-B light from the sun for its activation. This has been noted most recently by organisers of the Sunlight Campaign from the UK National Osteoporosis Society, who are now advising people to spend a few minutes of each day in the sun without sunscreens and encouraging an awareness of the need for regular sun exposure.
Skin Exercises
There are very few chronic health problems that don’t benefit from exercise, but chronic skin diseases may not be the first thing you think of here. Researchers writing in a recent edition of the Archives of Dermatology have been thinking about this and have put some good work together to confirm the connection. They obtained data from over 86,000 women over a 10 year period and analysed heir exercise output and development of psoriasis. After correcting the results for as many external variables as possible, what they found was a strong association between the performance of at least 105-180 minutes of vigorous exercise per week, and a 25-30% reduction in the risk of developing psoriasis.
Exercise and ADHD
Exercise clearly has a lot going for it. It’s performance is associated with a reduction in the risk of numerous health problems and a significant improvement in the quality of life. We also know that it has a significant impact on brain and nerve function and US researchers writing in the journal, Neuroscience, recently have added to this knowledge. A team from Dartmouth College’s Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences set out to determine the effects of exercise on memory in children by analysing observations taken from summer camps in Vermont. From an analysis of these observation they found that the more children with ADHD participated in athletics or team sports events, the better they responded to behavioural intervention therapy for their ADHD.
Meal Time
The notion of a circadian rhythm or body clock has been around for about 2500 years and these days there’s a lot of good research that’s been done to confirm it and to confirm lots of its component parts. To add to this, scientists from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California, writing in the journal, Cell Metabolism, looked at the effects of restricting feeding times for mice to 8 hours a day, at a time that suiting the circadian rhythm of their digestive organs, to see how their body weights would compare with mice at liberty to eat whenever they felt like it. An analysis of the results showed that the mice on the restricted feeding time were protected against obesity and other metabolic illnesses, far more so than the mice that were free to eat ad lib. This is useful information for anyone looking to lose weight without necessarily eating less.
Kudzu for Binge Drinking
There’s no doubt that binge drinking by teenagers and young adults causes serious problems and the strategies currently used to deal with it still have a long way to go before they’ll make any significant progress in curbing it. Scientists at the Harvard Medical School in the US may have provided some hope with the recent release of findings from a study of the use of a compound from the Chinese herbal medicine, Kudzu, with binge drinkers. 10 typical binge drinkers were given a fully-stocked fridge and an environment conducive to binge drinking, and given either a placebo or the herbal compound. They were then let loose on the fridge for 90 minutes, and after a wash-out phase the groups were crossed over, with those who’d received the placebo now given the herbal compound and vice versa. After an analysis of the results it was clear that, when compared to the placebo, the use of the compound from Kudzu was associated with a reduced desire for beer.
Don’t Forget the Fat
By now you’re probably familiar with the classification of good and bad fats; the good fat being unsaturated and the bad fat being the saturated. There are lots of sensible reasons for the classification and research from the Brigham and Women's Hospital in the US has confirmed another one. Writing in the Annals of Neurology, they analysed 4 years of data from 6,000 women aged 65 years or more, and confirmed the connection between a diet high in saturated fat and a reduction in cognitive function and memory. The researchers said in part that it wasn’t the volume of fat that was important, but the type of fat.
Weight for Pregnancy
Logic tends to indicate that if you’re pregnant, you need to increase your food intake, but a recent report in the British Medical Journal may have you thinking otherwise. UK researchers, analysing the data from over 7,000 women, looked at the impact of diet, exercise, or both on weight gain during pregnancy and any adverse effects on the expectant mother and their unborn baby. What they found was that serious complications such as pre-eclampsia, diabetes and premature birth can be safely reduced even in overweight and obese pregnant women by following a healthy calorie-controlled diet during pregnancy.
Sweet, Stupid and Something Fishy
Lots of serious illnesses are linked to sugar intake and our general physical and mental wellbeing doesn’t escape the influence of sugar either. Recent research from the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, looked into the effects of dietary sugar on learning capacity and memory. Using rats and their capacity to learn and remember their way through a maze, some were fed a high sugar diet and some a low sugar diet, and their activities in the maze monitored. The rats on the low sugar diet did better in all aspects of the test than the rats on the high sugar diet and this effect by the high sugar diet was significantly mitigated by omega-3 fatty acids, such as those found in fish oil.
Start with an Egg
Participants at a recent conference on obesity in France were greeted with the news that some breakfasts are better at helping you to feel full than others. The scientists from Pennington, Biomedical Research Center, Louisiana presenting this work, were able to show that people who had egg proteins for breakfast had the feelings of hunger delayed far more than people who’d consumed wheat protein in a regular ready-to-eat breakfast cereal. In addition, because the egg protein breakfast was associated with reduced hunger, people who used it instead of a wheat based breakfast tended to want to eat less at lunch.
Waist to Height Ratio Better Than Body Mass Index
While at the same French conference on obesity, the findings of more weighty research were presented, this time on whether waist to height ratios (WTHR) provide a more realistic indicator of obesity or weight status than the more generally used Body mass Index or BMI. The BMI is often used as a partial predictor for the development of cardiovascular disease or diabetes and to test the theory that WHTR is superior to BMI for this purpose, the health details of 300,000 people were tracked for WTHR and BMI and their illness development and on analysis, the superiority of the WTHR as a more reliable predictor for these disorders was confirmed.
Soaking Soy
There’s been lots of interest over the last decade or so in unravelling the health benefits of soy. For several decades it’s been known that it contains a component called Bowman-Birk Protease Inhibitor (BBI), which has been shown to possess anti-cancer properties, particularly against breast, colon and prostate cancer. This information hasn’t made it very far past the research labs because getting BBI out of soy beans is a somewhat complicated process. At least it was until research was published recently in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. What was shown here was that simply soaking soy beans overnight in water, at a temperature of 50 degrees Celsius, causes BBI to be very successfully liberated, allowing the kitchen scientist access to this valuable compound.
June /July 2012
Research
Weighting for Sleep
If you’ve been dieting and exercising without success and you’re looking for the missing link to weight loss, French scientists at the University of Strasbourg may be able to help. It seems weight gain is associated with any damage or disruption of a gene that’s responsible for the proper regulation of our internal body clock. While this doesn’t point to a direct connection yet, it does indicate that there’s an association between adequate night-time sleep and body weight regulation.
Sleeping for Weight
As an extension to the article referred to above, researchers at the University of Washington Medicine Sleep Centre recently put the notion of a sleep and weight association to the test. They compared the bodyweight characteristics of over 1000 human twins and found that the twin who routinely slept longer weighed less; sleeping for more than 9 hours a night minimised the genetic potential for being overweight, and sleeping for less than 7 hours maximised this potential.
Exercise Wins
In a recent edition of the scientific journal, Circulation, researchers described the outcomes of research done on aerobic exercise and its effects of age-related muscle wasting, muscle strength and inflammation. The research compared the effects of exercise in people suffering from heart failure with a similar group undergoing no exercise, and exercise and no exercise groups drawn from healthy volunteers. The results from the study confirmed that regular sessions of aerobic exercise, even in people with heart failure, lead to muscle gain, increased muscle strength and a reduction in inflammation.
Of Bees and Men
Naturopaths have been banging on about the benefits of propolis for quite a while and recently a paper published in the science journal Cancer Prevention Research provides possible evidence for one of them. While human trials have yet to confirm the findings, initial research indicates that a compound found in propolis has the capacity to halt the proliferation of prostate tumours.
Zinc for a Cold
It’s long been recognised that zinc is one of several key nutrients that can be relied on to shorten the duration of a cold. It’s not normally used in isolation for this but a recent article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal has summarised the results of a number of research studies and confirmed that while they were overly enthusiastic about the quality of the studies, they did indicated that when compared to placebo, zinc, in isolation did reduce the duration of cold symptoms.
Sports & Energy Drinks Won’t Help you Smile
The growing popularity of sports and energy drinks, sometimes as a replacement for water, has led to a closer look at the implications of this phenomenon. Researchers in the journal, General Dentistry, noted the acidic nature of these drinks and have reminded us that acids erode tooth enamel, and once this occurs, tooth decay is just around the corner. In fact, what was reported was that using 4 of these drinks per day for 5 days did actually produce visible dental decay and that if people must use these drinks, their mouths should be thoroughly washed out immediately after using them. It was also noted that tooth brushing after using one of these drinks should be avoided as it promotes the decay caused by the drinks.
Would you like Pepper with That?
Black pepper has a long history of use in Eastern medicine for a range of health problems and a recent article in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry highlights some interesting research that’s been done on it. Piperine, the substance that gives pepper its characteristic peppery taste, has the capacity to inhibit the activity of genes responsible for the production of fat cells in the body. As a consequence, black pepper may have a valuable role in the prevention of obesity.
Nature’s Antibiotic
If you’ve been concerned about the growth of antibiotic resistant bacteria that are now spreading through the community, help may be as close as your garden. Researchers at Washington State University have been working on garlic and looking into its anti-microbial properties. What they’ve found is a compound that’s 100 times more effective, and faster acting, than common antibiotics at fighting a bacteria that is often responsible for food poisoning. The compound is diallyl sulphide, one of the things in garlic that’s associated with the typical garlic smell. Previous research has found that it’s very effective against other commonly occurring disease-causing bacteria.
Red Wine Drinkers- Age Doesn’t Weary Them
It’s been known for some time, at least anecdotally, that a component in red wine known as resveratrol has some useful health benefits. Research on mice carried out at the Harvard Medical School recently confirmed this by determining that resveratrol has an impact on a gene that has a specific role in longevity, thereby confirming the belief that this compound has anti-aging properties and possibly also diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Senile Dementia.
Winter and Vitamin D
Bone health is normally what Vitamin D is associated with but a recent report in the Journal of Leucocyte Biology confirms other important uses involved in protection against infections, cancer and auto-immune disease, and highlights an increased need for this vitamin during the colder months. Because the vitamin doesn’t normally become active until it’s exposed to sunlight on the skin, there’s a good argument for supplementation with the active form, Vitamin D3, when our sun exposure is reduced. The authors of the study suggest that a Vitamin D deficiency may be associated with an increase in the rate of infections, particularly viral infections, during the colder weather.
Breast is Best
In case we needed to be reminded that breastfeeding is the way to feed an infant, a new study published in Genome Biology demonstrates substantial differences between the micro-organisms in the bowels of children fed via the two methods. These findings are significant because the range of organisms found in the intestines of breastfed babies supported the development of a healthy digestive system and healthy immune system far better than the range of organisms found in the intestines of formula-fed babies.
Bugs Beat Asthma and Allergies
Living in close proximity to natural environments has lots of advantages. One of these has recently been identified by a team at the University of Helsinki’s Department of Biosciences. This group have found a link to asthma and allergies and the number of different species of micro-organisms living on our skin and it seems that the higher the level of biodiversity of these bugs on our skin, the lower our risk of suffering from asthma or allergy. They also found that the closer you live to a naturally vegetated environment, the greater the biodiversity of micro-organisms on your skin. There’s another important issue here which was noted by the lead researcher in this study- the more frequently we wash our skin, the greater the reduction in the biodiversity of the organisms living on it.
Salute to the Sun
While looking into the sun is definitely not good for your eyes, a lack of sunlight isn’t good for them either. A recent study published in The Lancet looking at the habits of East Asian schoolchildren has found that a lack of sunlight can lead to a reduction in the production of dopamine, a chemical made in the body and used for a number of important functions, one of which is to help maintain the shape of the eyeball. It seems that without adequate levels of dopamine, the eyeball becomes elongated, the light entering it becomes distorted, and the owner of the eyes experiences myopia or short-sightedness.
It’s Green, So It Must Be Good for You
Three billion kilos of green tea are made every year. We’ve built our knowledge of the benefits of green tea quite considerably over the last few years, and recent research from Japan adds nicely to this. They carried out an 11 year study with over 40,000 participants and among other things found conclusive evidence of reduced heart disease risk and reduced stroke risk, although the benefits only started kicking in seriously at 3-4 cups a day for women and 5 a day for men.
Don’t Forget your Coffee
The news on coffee oscillates between good and bad and in a recently published study from scientists at the Universities of South Florida and Miami, there’s good news, at least for coffee drinkers anyway. The group conducting this research found that amongst the people enrolled in the study, who were aged 65 years or older, those with the highest circulating levels of caffeine in their blood had a later onset of Alzheimer’s disease or dementia than those with lower or no circulating caffeine. Coffee appeared to be the major and in most cases only source of caffeine for these individuals and intake averaged 3 cups a day. There’s also early indications that caffeine intake correlates to a reduction in the risk of other disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, stroke, breast cancer and stroke.
May /June 2012
Research
Eating Berries is a Smart Thing to Do
The results of a US study following the eating habits of more than 16,000 women over 26 years was released recently. One of the more interesting discoveries was that women who ate blueberries and strawberries on a regular basis had a marked delay in the onset of age-related mental decline. The components in berries that may be responsible for this effect are antioxidants called flavonoids, and these have a lot to do with the colours exhibited by berries. They’re found in most berries and can also be found in persimmons, passionfruit, cherries, as well as red cabbage, eggplant and even Kiwi fruit. In addition to the effects discovered by this research, antioxidants have proved their worth over many years in reducing the risk of heart disease, diabetes and cancer.
Bugs Fight Back
Infectious diseases experts recently declared that the rate of antibiotic drug usage in Australia has now risen to more than double that of international benchmark countries such as the Netherlands and Denmark. This situation is thought to be responsible for the rampant spread of antibiotic resistant strains of E coli and Staph. How has the rise in resistant bugs happened? Simply because our over-exposure to antibiotics, through medical prescription and some foods that may contain small amounts of antibiotics, knock out the weak bacteria and leave the resistant varieties still standing. GP’s and other medical prescribers treating bacterial infections are then forced to use stronger drugs, and small number of bacteria that are resistant to these drugs remain, and then these proliferate through the community, requiring yet more powerful drugs when they take over in an infection. As the options diminish the situation becomes more serious. Where once the “golden staph” and more virulent forms of E.coli were confined to some hospitals, they’re now spread through the community. We all swap bacteria with each other through physical contact, droplet contact via inhaled air, and other means and if we then get ill and create an internal environment for these bacteria to proliferate, what used to be a relatively easy situation to deal with medically has now become potentially life-threatening. This is one of many reasons why it’s essential to maintain not only a good level of health but also a level of immunity that’s sufficient to protect you against harmful bacteria.
Dads Get Down Too
Postnatal depression is a well recognised and described clinical condition suffered by many mums within the first year after giving birth. While it’s not been recognised as a medical condition, recent Australian research has found that dads are just as likely to suffer from this condition. This is important because on the whole, the average Australian male is unlikely to acknowledge that he’s suffering from a problem such as depression, and even less likely to seek help for it, than his average female partner. The depression rates found in the study showed a 9.7% risk of postnatal depression in males and a 9.4% risk in females. The research also found that new fathers under the age of 30 had a greater chance of developing the problem than those over 30. These findings highlight the need to have fathers involved in all aspects of pre-natal classes and planning as well as early parenting support schemes and post-natal screening for stress and mental health.
Adding Weight to Lead Awareness
A new study has found a link between childhood exposure to atmospheric lead and violent behaviour later in on in the life of the exposed child. Co-ordinated research carried out across several cities in the US noted that for every 1 percent increase in the concentration of lead in the air, the rate of detected assaults increases by nearly half of 1 percent. Researchers in this study also estimated that 90% of the differences between the detected assault rates in different cities could be blamed on lead. This confirms previous research in this area. The primary sources of lead; at least as far as children are concerned, are mining operations and old paint.
A Message from your Baby- Keep Breathing
Results from research released earlier this year have highlighted the importance of the oxygen levels in mothers’ blood for the health and wellbeing of babies. Low foetal oxygen levels were found to be associated with an increased risk of genetic conditions such as scoliosis and heart disease. What kinds of situations contribute to reduced maternal oxygen levels? These can be as diverse as spending inordinate amounts of time at high altitudes and other areas where the oxygen levels in the air may be diminished such as high-rise office buildings, to the use of some prescription drugs or smoking, to living in areas of high air pollution. Health conditions such as anaemia and various respiratory disorders may also be implicated here.
Bursting the Bubble
Research from the University of Sydney published earlier this year has found that kids who had a higher than average intake of fizzy drinks had an increased risk of heart disease and hypertension later in life. This is yet another problem with carbonated drinks. Other considerations in area that have been confirmed by scientific research include an increased risk of diseases such as pancreatic cancer, obesity, insulin resistance and diabetes as well as osteoporosis, to name but a few.
Pitching in for Pistachios
Many of us don’t need a reason to eat pistachio nuts, but if we did, researchers writing for the American Society of Nutrition have just given us one. It appears that pistachios contain a number of componants that promote the growth of healthy gut bacteria, and eating them regularly benefits both our immune system and our digestive system. Need more? Pistachios are also capable of assisting in the reduction of bad cholesterol and serve as good sources of minerals such as iron, potassium, manganese, copper and many of the vitamins that we need for good health.
The Good Egg
Eggs come in for considerable criticism from time to time and some of this has been related to the assumption that eggs increase bad cholesterol So it’s interesting to see news that the opposite is true. In this news snippet, US researchers have discovered that eggs increase HDL cholesterol- the good variety. What they found was that the use of 3 eggs per day for 12 weeks was associated with higher levels of HDL cholesterol. Associated research has also found that the use of high protein foods such as eggs for breakfast was linked to a reduced desire for high-fat snacks throughout the day.
Well Of Course Chocolate is Good for You
Not all chocolate and perhaps not in the quantities you might like, but if you ever needed a reason to feel good about consuming chocolate, researchers from San Diego State University might be able to help. Their research has contributed to previous findings that confirm the presence of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory chemicals called flavonols in dark chocolate. These flavonols have the capacity to benefit sufferers of chronic inflammation, blood vessel disease, hypertension and high cholesterol. The researchers of this study did, however, point out that chocolate should be eaten in moderation due to the risks posed by the fats and sugars present in it.
More Soy Benefits
There are lots of good reasons to consume soy. Its use has been associated with a reduction in the incidence of various cancers, a reduction in bad cholesterol and blood lipids, the prevention of osteoporosis, the relief of some menopause symptoms and even the ageing effects produced by sun exposure. US researchers have now found that the regular use of soy may be associated with an improvement in the liver function of people suffering from fatty liver disease, particularly in those people who may be overweight. Fatty liver disease is a poorly diagnosed condition that can lead to liver failure if untreated.
Vitamin C and Hypertension
In more research to come out of the US, scientists from Johns Hopkins Medical School have recently carried out a large study, collating and analysing previous work done in this area and found a very useful connection between high blood pressure and Vitamin C. Their analysis found that people with high blood pressure using at least 500mg of Vitamin C per day reduced their blood pressure by between about 4 and 6 percent. While this reduction is about half of what you’re expect from routine pharmaceutical blood pressure drugs, the fact that this reduction can be produced by natural means is good news
Smokers Need Fish
Greek scientists looking into the effects of nutrition on the impact of cigarette smoking have come up with some useful information that reinforces work done in this area back in the 1990’s. These researchers found that the use of 2 grams of omega-3 fatty acids (derived from fish) per day for 4 weeks by smokers improved the health of their arteries, and so went some way towards mitigating the cardiovascular effects of tobacco smoking. The only way to protect yourself from the effects of smoking is not to smoke, but if this isn’t an option, a diet high in fish or supplementation with fish oil containing good levels of omega 3 fatty acids, will help to minimise the damage it causes.
Smart Water
Naturopaths make a lot of noise about hydration- the need to supply your body with adequate amounts of good quality water. There are lots of good reasons why we do this and here’s another one. Scientists from the Universities of East London and Westminster have found a strong connection between taking water into university exams and getting good exam marks. This assumes that the students actually drank the water but the scientists presenting the research findings speculated that adequate hydration may be associated with a better ability to think clearly and a reduction in anxiety.
Autism and Diet
The rate of diagnosis of autism or autism spectrum disorders (ASD) has exploded in the last decade. Recent figures in the US indicate that 1 child in 88 will have an ASD. The only good thing about this situation is the amount of research that’s now being carried out on the causes of these conditions and therefore the kinds of things that parents and carers may be able to do to counteract or prevent them. Diet has been identified in the latest US research as a contributing factor. What’s been found is high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), which is found in many processed or “convenience” foods, inhibits the ability of the body to rid itself of things such as pesticides and heavy metals (arsenic, mercury and cadmium) and that these may be contributing to the problem. Te important point for ASD’s is that an accumulation of these heavy metals has been associated with an increased risk of ASD. In addition, the use of HFCS leads to a loss of zinc, which is also required by the body to help eliminate these toxins. HFCS also leads to a loss of calcium, which is essential for brain development and is required for the removal of pesticides.
Food
Cooking Oils- Which One?
There’s been quite a lot of advice around over the last few years about cooking oils, and their superiority over things such as butter or lard. This is largely because most oils have lower levels of saturated fats than their more solid alternatives, and as such are kinder to our hearts and arteries. But the advice has tended to stop long before any informed comment is made about the best type of oil to use. If you were happy to use it for all culinary applications, extra virgin olive oil is the best of them (and cold-pressed is even better) and this is primarily because of the fact that it’s largely unrefined, so the benefits that can be had from the olives used to make it, continue to be found in the oil. These benefits are delivered by the anti-oxidants in the oil, and substances that normalise blood clotting, improve cardiovascular health, enhance immunity, reduce the risk of rheumatoid arthritis, constipation and gallstone formation, help to reduce harmful cholesterol and enhance mental function. The optimum amount of extra virgin olive oil is 2-3 tablespoons daily and it’s useful to bear in mind that oils and their benefits degrade as they age, so fresh is best and local is best because light, heat and exposure to air (all of which are more likely to happen during transport) will hasten the decay of this oil, as with they will with most other cooking oils. One last thing on this- the more cooking heat you apply to olive oil the less benefit you’ll derive from it and if it’s heated to excess, it can become harmful.
Vegetables- Fresh or Frozen?
The answer to this may seem obvious and it is. Fresh is best. But the more important questions to ask may be, why? What is fresh and what are the pro’s and con’s of either?
We rely on vegetables as good sources of vitamins, minerals and fibre and clearly, the freshest veggies are the ones you grow yourself. Given that the soil you’re growing them in is replete in the appropriate minerals and organic material, it’s properly aerated, the soil and air are free from toxins or pollutants, and your plants get the appropriate levels of sun, shade and water, home-grown veggies are unbeatable. The only things that stop most of us from growing our own are the available space and the time to set up and maintain it. If that’s the situation you’re in, you’re generally faced with just 3 other choices; someone else’s fresh veggies, the frozen, or the canned variety.
Although they can be more expensive than frozen or canned, fresh is usually thought of as best, but fresh is a word that’s often used a little loosely when it comes to vegetables and other produce. In most cases, the best you can hope for, even if the veg you’re after is in season, is that it’s a week old and during the time that it takes vegetables to get from the farm to your kitchen, the levels of some of the more important nutrients, particularly the water-soluble vitamins like Vitamin C and the B vitamins, have started to degrade. Vegetables that have been sitting around for a while may also have a thin growth of mould over them, and this can be a problem for anyone with a pre-existing mould problem, such as Candida, or can stir up allergies. Frozen vegetables are snap-frozen soon after picking, so their vitamins remain largely intact, and the mould issue is mostly absent. Canned vegetables are often deficient in vitamins but will still have their fibre and minerals in place, although access to those minerals is only possible if you consume the vegetables as well as the water they’re sitting in. As a result of the way they’re processed, they may have less flavour than fresh or frozen and many contain added salt. On the upside though, canned veggies can be stored for longer than either of the other options and on average, are often the cheapest.
Veggies are great sources of fibre and if they’re grown in good soil, one of our primary sources of minerals. There’s not much difference between fresh or frozen vegetables in these areas. One major area of difference noticed by many people is taste and because freezing can damage the cells in the vegetable, affecting “mouth feel” and flavour, fresh often wins over frozen in the taste department. Finally on this, not all frozen vegetables are alone in the pack. The manufacturer may have added salt or sugar so it’s a good idea to check the pack before you buy.
So there are a few things to think about when choosing which version of vegetable to buy. Once you’ve bought them though, there’s one more really important thing to keep in mind, and that’s how you cook them.
The amount of heat used, the cooking time and the exposure to the water they’re cooked in, will all significantly affect both their taste and their benefits. The best way to eat them is uncooked. The next best method is microwaving vegetables for the minimum time needed, and then finally steaming. If you have to boil them, you may want to save the water and render it down to use as a stock. In this way you’ll still get whatever minerals were removed from the veggies by boiling.
The Cow or the Beans- Cows’ Milk or Soy Milk and are there any Other Options?
For the last couple of decades there’s been furious debate over the merits of cows’ milk. This has been fuelled by a number of things. Primarily, these have been the discovery that saturated fats (such as those found in dairy foods) contribute to disease, the discovery of lactose intolerance and allergies to dairy proteins, and the recognition that dairy foods can increase mucus production.
Both milks are good sources of protein, vitamins and minerals, although one mineral in particular, Calcium, is more likely to be found in cows’ rather than soy milk. Cows’ milk has been linked with aggression and some behavioural disorders and may increase your chances of becoming constipated. Soy milk contains some dietary fibre, some useful amino acids, minerals and vitamins, particularly Vitamin E, although it doesn’t have the range of vitamins found in cows’ milk. Soy also contains components called isoflavones, which help to reduce the risk of some cancers, osteoporosis and some of the symptoms of menopause, as well as lowering bad cholesterol. Soy may also cause flatulence.
So if you have concerns about lactose or saturated fats and don’t want to use low fat dairy, you want the benefits of the isoflavones and you get calcium from other sources, either as a supplement or via foods such as whey powder, or you don’t want to use any animal products, soy may be a good alternative to cows’ milk. If you’re planning on using it to avoid dairy allergies, sadly, you may find that soy causes the same problems. If you don’t want to use either, what’s on offer?
Rice milk may be one way to go. It’s usually made from brown rice and compared to dairy, it doesn’t contain much protein or calcium, although commercial varieties of rice milk are often fortified with these and other useful things. Another option may be goats’ milk. This has lactose in it but it doesn’t have the proteins that may be associated with dairy allergy. It has levels of protein, saturated fats, minerals vitamins that are similar to those found in cows’ milk but less calcium, less saturated fats and less sugar.
Unless you suffer from nut allergies, almond milk is another alternative that’s becoming increasingly popular here although it’s been used in places like Europe and the Middle East for hundreds of years. It has a slightly different colour to cows’ milk, a slightly nutty flavour and a creamy texture. Almond milk is a good source of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, and promotes the growth of good bacteria in the gut. It also contains components that help to reduce blood sugar levels and bad cholesterol and is useful in managing constipation. It’s low in saturated fats and the commercial varieties can last for quite a while out of the fridge. It doesn’t have as much calcium as cows’ milk, so if you want to use it as a substitute, you’ll need to ensure that you’re getting adequate calcium from other sources. You can buy it in health food stores and other places but it’s much more fun to make yourself, and you’ll avoid some of the additives and sweeteners used in the commercial versions if you do.
Here’s how you do it.
Soak 1 cup of fresh, raw almonds in 2 cups of water overnight. Use blanched almonds if you don’t want the almond skins (some people find them a bit gritty) or if you want extra flavour, lightly toast them.
The next morning, tip everything into a blender and blend until creamy.
Feel free to add honey, cinnamon or anything else you like to this while you’re blending to make it more exotic.
Strain through a fine sieve or cheesecloth to remove the pulp. It’s now ready to drink.