Emerging evidence shows that insulin resistance is the most important predictor of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.
Aggressive lowering of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) has been the cornerstone of preventative cardiology for decades. Statins are widely used as the go-to solution for the prevention of heart disease owing to their ability to slash LDL-C levels, a 'surrogate marker' of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Indeed, statins are one of the most widely prescribed class of drugs in the world. But this phenomenon begs two questions: is the enthusiasm for aggressive lowering of LDL-C justified; and is pharmacotherapy superior to lifestyle intervention?

Over the years, medical guidelines have continually expanded the number of individuals for whom statin therapy is recommended. Proponents argue that statins are 'life-savers' and that 'people will die' if they discontinue their medicine^[1],[2]. Prominent researchers from reputable universities have declared that 'everyone over 50' should be on a statin to reduce their risk of CVD and that even children with high LDL-C as young as 8 years should be afforded statin therapy^[3].

However, the true benefit of statins in altering risk of CVD is increasingly being questioned by respected members of the medical community, creating bitter divisions within the ranks. Several cardiologists have countered that the benefits of statins have been grossly exaggerated (especially as primary prevention), while their risks have been consistently underemphasised. In some quarters, the scepticism about statins has reached fever pitch. Some say that the preponderance of statin trials has been tainted by 'industry sponsorship', influenced by 'statistical deception', and riddled with 'flawed methodology'^[4],[5],[6].

Are you trying to lose weight? Or keep weight off? You've tried exercising more and eating less right? You've tried other fad 'quick fix' diets? But they don't work do they? Sure these are short term fixes, but they're not long term solutions to a leaner slimmer healthier body. I have a saying that I use a lot in my Program, it goes "Calories matter but hormones matter more".

You see, hormones play a pivotal role in whether one increases or decreases fat loss. More than the total amount of calories your consume (or burn).

It's never been done before. The first-of-its-kind study of vaccinated vs. unvaccinated American homeschooled children shows who is really ailing...and parents should be worried

Something is wrong with America's children. They are sick - allergic, asthmatic, anxious, autoimmune, autistic, hyperactive, distracted and learning disabled. Thirty-two million American children - a full 43% of them - suffer from at least one of 20 chronic illnesses not including obesity.

Across the board, once rare pediatric disorders from autism and ADD to Type 1 diabetes and Tourette's syndrome are soaring, though few studies pool the data. Compared to their parents, children today are four times more likely to have a chronic illness. And while their grandparents might never have swallowed a pill as children, the current generation of kids is a pharmaceutical sales rep's dream come true: More than one million American children under five years old takes a psychiatric drug. More than 8.3 million kids under 17 have consumed psychiatric drugs, and in any given month one in four is taking at least one prescription drug for something.

Once the brain is dead, it's dead, right? Especially the more the time moves on after an accident such as drowning... Or so we think. And what of the initial loss of oxygen? A person deprived of oxygen for four minutes might be all right, but what about an hour? What about two?

After two-year-old Eden Carlson of Arkansas nearly reached complete death by drowning in 2016, her parents were told she'd be in a vegetative state for the rest of her life. She was even ensconced at home with her own feeding tube.

We are happy to report that the now three-year-old girl is now enjoying a happy, energetic and talkative childhood thanks to the alternative treatment called hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT).

You may have heard of this treatment being used for Lyme disease, autoimmune disease, mystery illness, sepsis and more. Oxygen therapy is being hailed as a regenerative approach to speed recovery.

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a contagious neurological disease that is part of the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) disease family - the most notable member of which is bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also known as mad cow disease. Unlike BSE, which infects cattle, CWD affects deer, elk and moose.

"It causes a characteristic spongy degeneration of the brains of infected animals resulting in emaciation, abnormal behavior, loss of bodily functions and death," The Chronic Wasting Disease Alliance reports.¹ The symptoms are similar to those of mad cow disease, scrapie (a similar disease found in sheep and goats) and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans. The infectious agent thought to cause CWD and other TSEs is prions - an infectious type of protein known to cause neurodegeneration.

A human version of mad cow disease, known as variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), can be caused by eating beef contaminated with brain, spinal cord or other central nervous system tissue from infected cattle.² This can occur in ground meat (including hot dogs, bologna, taco fillings and more), as it may become contaminated during the "extraction of the last bits of meat from cow carcasses," the Center for Food Safety stated.³

The question then, as CWD continues to spread across the U.S., is whether this disease may also jump to humans - and the Canadian government has recently issued a warning based on new research suggesting the answer is yes.

People living with HIV may one day be able to replace their daily pills with just a few injections a year, according to a new study. It comes amid reports that a South African girl has shown no signs of the virus rebounding despite being taken off drugs years ago.

The study results were published in the journal The Lancet on Monday, to coincide with an HIV science conference being held by the International Aids Society in Paris.

The research involved nearly 300 HIV positive people who were given a course of daily pills to bring the virus under control. Participants were located in the US, Germany, Canada, Spain, France, and Germany.

Daily oral pills are currently the only option available to HIV patients, and those who forget their medication run the risk of the virus rebounding to make them ill, or developing a resistance to the drugs they were using.

O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!
It wad frae mony a blunder free us,
An' foolish notion:
What airs in dress an' gait wad lea'e us,
An' ev'n devotion!

"To A Louse, On Seeing One on a Lady's Bonnet at Church" by Robert Burns

Over the last few years an increasing number of publications have absolved saturated fat from being implicated in cardiovascular disease. I've lost count of how many studies I've read on this subject, but perhaps the most straightforward recent paper was written by Gerhard Spiteller of the University of Bayreuth (Germany) and Mohammad Afzal of the Biological Sciences department of Kuwait University.

Spiteller has a PhD in organic chemistry, a basic science, knowledge of which is a fundamental prerequisite for entering any medical school. In a most fascinating study, Spiteller shows why a basic understanding of organic chemistry explains why the Lipid Hypothesis - where a high intake of saturated fat and elevated LDL ("bad") cholesterol are the most important causes of atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease - doesn't make sense from a chemical point of view. In other words, if doctors and nutritionists would only apply their basic training in organic chemistry, they would be embarrassed to support the cholesterol myth.

A molecule previously used as an antibiotic could be key in combating the effects of the Zika virus, according to new research from a Spanish university.

The San Antonio Catholic University of Murcia announced Saturday that researchers from its Bioinformatics and High-Performance Computing research group discovered that the 'novobiocin' compound in a now defunct antibiotic countered the symptoms of the mosquito-borne disease.

"It's a drug that had been withdrawn from the market because it lost its potency as an antibiotic, but we know it can be administered to humans," said Jose Pedro Cerón, a member of the research team, reported RTVE.

"Astounding" new evidence suggests 'party drug' Ketamine can cure/end depression in the elderly.

Australian researchers at the Black Dog Institute completed the world's first randomized control trial (RCT), assessing the efficacy and safety of ketamine as a treatment for depression in elderly patients.

A total of 16 patients over the age of 60, many of whom had suffered from depression for years and found other treatments ineffective, were given low doses of the drug.

Increasing doses of ketamine were given over a period of five weeks, with doses tailored for each individual participant.

New research is exploding into scientific journals detailing exciting ways in which foods interact with the expression of our genes. In fact, there is a whole new field of study known as "nutrigenomics" researching the effects of foods and food constituents on gene expression.

Recently, there have been major development in nutrigenomics that opens the possibility that successfully preventing and treating many diseases may be as simple as administering vegetables and medicinal herbs to deliver specific factors known as microRNAs.