Health & WellnessS


Cheesecake

Study: Sugar availability linked to type 2 diabetes

Nanci Hellmich
USA Today
Sat, 09 Mar 2013 13:14 UTC
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© Photo: Spencer Platt, Getty ImagesA new study raises concerns about the availability of products with sugar, such as soda.
New study doesn't prove cause and effect but raises questions about sugar's role in diabetes.

Sugar is under the microscope again.

A recent study looked at sugar and type 2 diabetes rates in 175 countries including the USA over the past 10 years and found that increased sugar availability in the food supply was associated with higher rates of type 2 diabetes.

The research showed that for every additional 150 calories of sugar (the amount in a 12-ounce can of soda) available per person per day, the incidence of type 2 diabetes rose by 1%. Although the study doesn't directly prove cause and effect, it has raised new concerns about sugar.

Almost 26 million U.S. adults and children have diabetes. In diabetes, the body does not make enough of the hormone insulin, or it doesn't use it properly. Insulin helps glucose (sugar) get into cells, where it is used for energy. If there's an insulin problem, sugar builds up in the blood, damaging nerves and blood vessels.
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Health

Gluten goodbye: One-third of Americans say they're trying to shun it

Nancy Shute
NPR.org
Sat, 09 Mar 2013 12:50 UTC
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© NPR
Sure, we know that gluten-free is the Jennifer Lawrence of food trends. But we were still startled to hear that one-third of Americans say they're trying to avoid gluten. Really?

So we checked in with Harry Balzer, the food numbers king for consumer survey firm NPD Group. He said that not only is that number for real, but he thinks it's a little low.

"Around the beginning of 2012 this thing starts to rise, and it has yet to peak," Balzer says. "Right now 29 percent of the adult population says, 'I'd like to cut back or avoid gluten completely.' "

Comment: Further research into the many ill health effects of a gluten-based diet clearly demonstrates that people are beginning to realize that gluten is not the 'staff of life' or the basis of a healthy diet:

Gluten - The Hidden Killer
The Many Heads of Gluten Sensitivity
Is gluten from grains making you sick?
Do You Have Gluten Whiplash?
Gluten: What You Don't Know Might Kill You
Why is Wheat Gluten Disorder on the Rise
Wheat gluten newly confirmed to promote weight gain
How Long Does That Tiny Bit of Gluten Affect Your Body?
Leaky Gut - Leaky Brain - Gluten is an Equal Opportunity Destroyer
New England Journal of Medicine: Gluten Can Cause 55 Diseases
Headaches, Depression, Nerve Damage, and Seizures...Is Gluten to Blame?
Gluten & Your Nervous System - Depression, Brain Abnormalities, and Neuropathy
Sensitivity To Gluten May Result In Neurological Dysfunction; Independent Of Symptoms
The Hidden Link Between Gluten Intolerance and PMS, Infertility and Miscarriage

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Cow

If you liked Bovine Growth Hormone, you'll love Beta Agonists

Martha Rosenberg
Counter Punch
Fri, 01 Feb 2013 18:03 UTC
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© a4cgr.wordpress.com
While researchers and scientists investigate the cause of our diabetes, obesity, asthma and ADHD epidemics, they should ask why the FDA approved a livestock drug banned in 160 nations and responsible for hyperactivity, muscle breakdown and 10 percent mortality in pigs, according to angry farmers who phoned the manufacturer.

The beta agonist ractopamine, a repartitioning agent that increases protein synthesis, was recruited for livestock use when researchers found the drug, used in asthma, made mice more muscular says Beef magazine.

But unlike the growth promoting antibiotics and hormones used in livestock which are withdrawn as the animal nears slaughter, ractopamine is started as the animal nears slaughter.

As much as twenty percent of Paylean, given to pigs for their last 28 days, Optaflexx, given to cattle their last 28 to 42 days and Tomax, given to turkeys their last 7 to 14 days, remains in consumer meat says author and well known veterinarian Michael W. Fox.
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Beaker

How BPA may disrupt brain development

Alexandra Sifferlin
Healthland.time.com
Tue, 26 Feb 2013 17:53 UTC
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© Roel Smart / Getty Images
The chemical, found in many plastic products, can interfere with normal brain development.

In a study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers report that bisphenol A (BPA) may suppress genes that are critical to early development of the central nervous system, which may predispose both animals and humans to neurodevelopmental disorders.

People can absorb BPA when it seeps from plastic bottles or the lining of metal cans into the food or drinks we consume. In previous studies, higher levels of BPA in people's urine have been linked to behavioral problems as well as reproductive disorders, heart disease and obesity, which prompted the Food and Drug Administration to ban the compound from baby bottles in 2012. In the current research, scientists from Duke Medicine in Durham, North Carolina tried to understand how BPA can harm health, and focused on its ability to interfere with developing nervous systems in both animals and humans.
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Magnify

Virus and genes involved in causation of schizophrenia

Anders Borglum
Aarhus University
Fri, 08 Mar 2013 17:27 UTC
For the first time, an international team of researchers has found that a combination of a particular virus in the mother and a specific gene variant in the child increases the risk of the child developing schizophrenia

Viruses and genes interact in a way that may increase the risk of developing schizophrenia significantly. This happens already in the developing foetus.

An international team of scientists led by Aarhus University, Denmark, has made this discovery. As the first in the world, they scanned the entire genome of hundreds of sick and healthy people to see if there is an interaction between genes and a very common virus - cytomegalovirus - and to see whether the interaction influences the risk of developing schizophrenia.

And it does.

Women that have been infected by the virus - and around 70 % has - will have a statistically significant increased risk of giving birth to a child who later develops schizophrenia if the child also has the aforementioned gene variant. This variant is found in 15 percent. The risk is five times higher than usual, the researchers report in Molecular Psychiatry.

No cause for alarm

People infected with cytomegalovirus most often do not know it, as the infection by the virus, which belongs to the herpes virus family, is usually very mild. But the researchers stress that there is no cause for alarm - even if both risk factors are present in mother and child, there may be a variety of other factors that prevents disease development in the child.
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Bulb

Schizophrenia: A disorder of neurodevelopment and accelerated aging?


Elsevier
Wed, 06 Mar 2013 13:15 UTC
Suggests a new study in Biological Psychiatry.

Philadelphia, PA, March 6, 2013 - Many lines of evidence indicate that schizophrenia is a disorder of neurodevelopment. For example, genes implicated in the heritable risk for schizophrenia are also implicated in the development of nerve cells and their connections. Numerous findings in brain imaging studies describe the changes in brain structure and function associated with schizophrenia as emerging early in the course of the disorder. Some early brain imaging studies even found little or no evidence of progression of structural deficits.

Yet, a new generation of studies now also describes degenerative processes in schizophrenia that resemble accelerated aging. Schizophrenia is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular illnesses and persons with schizophrenia have shorter average lifespans. Studies have also found that individuals with schizophrenia have shortened telomeres, a marker of aging. Structural imaging studies describe enhanced reductions in gray and white matter volumes and increased cortical thinning with age associated with schizophrenia. Similar findings have also emerged for individuals diagnosed with major depressive disorder.

This evidence led researchers of a new study in Biological Psychiatry to specifically examine age-related decline in cerebral white matter in schizophrenia and major depressive disorder, using a measure of microstructural integrity called fractional anisotropy. For comparison, they recruited two normal control groups, one for each cohort.
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Ambulance

Terrifying meningitis outbreak in NYC among gay men


CBS New York
Wed, 06 Mar 2013 18:38 UTC
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© www.doctortipster.com
17 Confirmed Cases Since 2012; 7 Reported Deaths Since 2010

The New York City Department of Health has issued a new vaccination recommendation for men at risk of contracting a serious and potentially deadly strain of meningitis.

The outbreak of meningitis among gay men has sickened four people already this year, increasing the number of cases to 17 since 2012, according to city health officials. Seven fatalities have been reported in the city since 2010.

"Once you get infected the time from being infected to being horribly sick and possibly dying is very short," Deputy Health Commissioner Dr. Jay Varma told WCBS 880′s Alex Silverman on Wednesday. "We've had several cases who have been actually found dead in their apartment before they'd even gone to see a medical provider. So that is, to us, absolutely terrifying."

The original Health Department warning was issued for HIV-positive men.
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Life Preserver

Dying for reform: UK health situation worsens


RT.com
Tue, 05 Mar 2013 14:24 UTC
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© Reuters / Toby MelvilleBritain's Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt, in London February 12, 2013.
Money won't buy you health. This seems to be true for the UK, where substantial financial injections into the NHS do not prevent increasing death rates. A recent report on UK health performance exposed a worsening public health situation.

The report published in The Lancet, a recognized medical journal, revealed that despite a substantial increase in health expenditure, the UK only occupies 12th place in the list of 19 countries including France, the US, Canada and Australia.

"The UK performed significantly worse than the EU15+ for age-standardized death rates, age-standardized YLL rates, and life expectancy in 1990, and its relative position had worsened by 2010," the report from The Lancet magazine said.

The report was based on the data extracted from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2010, which analyzed health figures for the UK and 18 other nations.

According to the findings when it comes to premature mortality the worst rankings were for men and women aged 20-54 years.

Overall life expectancy has improved in the UK by 4.2 years, but other countries have improved faster, with Spain, Italy and Australia leading the list.
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2 + 2 = 4

Are the government's dietary guidelines making us obese?

Margie King
Activist Post
Tue, 26 Feb 2013 14:49 UTC
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© modified from motivatethis.net
Since the early 1980s the USDA Dietary Guidelines for Americans have urged trusting Americans to eat a low-fat high-carbohydrate diet for their health and weight control. Since then, there has been an alarming increase in chronic diseases such as cancer and diabetes. In addition, obesity rates have shot up to 30%, and more than 70% of Americans are overweight.

Can the dietary guidelines be to blame?

Many experts believe that the USDA and other government agencies have stubbornly disregarded the science and continued a 30-year long nutrition experiment on Americans that has had disastrous results.

Nutrition experts from The Healthy Nation Coalition, which includes the Weston A. Price Foundation, the Salt Institute, and the Nutrition and Metabolism Society, have voiced concerns about the current USDA Dietary Guidelines issued in 2010. They criticize the guidelines for perpetuating the wrong-headed advice to eat a low-fat diet, high in processed grains and cereals, which has contributed to the current obesity and health crisis.

Comment: The author is clearly stating (based on well researched data): Enjoy Saturated Fats, They're Good for You! Read more about the numerous benefits of saturated fats:

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Clipboard

Gluten and the autoimmune disease spectrum

Dr. Osborne
Glutenfreesociety.org
Thu, 07 Mar 2013 14:35 UTC
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New Research Links Gluten Sensitivity to Multiple Autoimmune Diseases

Research continues to link the autoimmune spectrum of diseases to gluten sensitivity. In a recent study, gluten intolerance was found to be present in patients with multiple types of autoimmune conditions:
"Results of our studies revealed in the group of 110 patients with diagnosed gluten enteropathy, coexistence of autoimmune disease, such as diabetes mellitus type 1 in 7.2% cases, hyperthyreosis on 1.8% of cases, vitiligo in 0.9% of cases, primary biliary cirrhosis in 2% of cases and rheumatoidal arthritis in 0,9 of cases. In the group of 80 ulcerative colitis patients, coexistence of celiac disease basing on serological histopatological investigation was found in 4 patients (5%)."
A previous post on Gluten Free Society showed the connection between gluten induced liver disease (autoimmune hepatitis). Now another new study points more autoimmune disease overlap in patients with autoimmune hepatitis.
"A total of 111 patients (40%) were diagnosed with additional autoimmune diseases...autoimmune thyroiditis was the most common concurrent disease (28 patients, 10%). Other concurrent autoimmune diseases comprised vitiligo (5 patients), rheumatoid arthritis (5 patients), Sjogren syndrome (4 patients), ulcerative colitis (4 patients), conjunctivitis (4 patients), celiac disease (3 patients), systemic lupus erythematodes (2 patients), type I diabetes (2 patients), multiple sclerosis (2 patients), polymyalgia rheumatica (2 patients), and urticaria (2 patients). One patient each was diagnosed with Crohn's disease, autoimmune gastritis, collagenous colitis, hypophysitis, and sarcoidosis."
Sources

J Clin Gastroenterol. 2010 Jan 15. [Epub ahead of print]
Przegl Lek. 2009;66(7):370-2.
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