Abstract:

Background

The global pattern of varying prevalence of diseases of affluence, such as obesity, cardiovascular disease and diabetes, suggests that some environmental factor specific to agrarian societies could initiate these diseases.

Presentation of the Hypothesis

We propose that a cereal-based diet could be such an environmental factor. Through previous studies in archaeology and molecular evolution we conclude that humans and the human leptin system are not specifically adapted to a cereal-based diet, and that leptin resistance associated with diseases of affluence could be a sign of insufficient adaptation to such a diet.

We further propose lectins as a cereal constituent with sufficient properties to cause leptin resistance, either through effects on metabolism central to the proper functions of the leptin system, and/or directly through binding to human leptin or human leptin receptor, thereby affecting the function.

Testing the Hypothesis

Dietary interventions should compare effects of agrarian and non-agrarian diets on incidence of diseases of affluence, related risk factors and leptin resistance. A non-significant (p = 0.10) increase of cardiovascular mortality was noted in patients advised to eat more whole-grain cereals. Our lab conducted a study on 24 domestic pigs in which a cereal-free hunter-gatherer diet promoted significantly higher insulin sensitivity, lower diastolic blood pressure and lower C-reactive protein as compared to a cereal-based swine feed. Testing should also evaluate the effects of grass lectins on the leptin system in vivo by diet interventions, and in vitro in various leptin and leptin receptor models. Our group currently conducts such studies.

Implications of the Hypothesis

If an agrarian diet initiates diseases of affluence it should be possible to identify the responsible constituents and modify or remove them so as to make an agrarian diet healthier.

It's 1 p.m. on a Thursday and Dianne Bates, 40, juggles three screens. She listens to a few songs on her iPod, then taps out a quick e-mail on her iPhone and turns her attention to the high-definition television.

Just another day at the gym.

As Ms. Bates multitasks, she is also churning her legs in fast loops on an elliptical machine in a downtown fitness center. She is in good company. In gyms and elsewhere, people use phones and other electronic devices to get work done - and as a reliable antidote to boredom.

Cellphones, which in the last few years have become full-fledged computers with high-speed Internet connections, let people relieve the tedium of exercising, the grocery store line, stoplights or lulls in the dinner conversation.

A new era of "intelligent medicines" is heralded today with the disclosure that the NHS is about to begin trials of pills that contain a microchip, reminding patients when to take them.

When the pills are swallowed the "edible" microchips react with the acid in the stomach sending a message to a sticking plaster containing a sensor strapped to the shoulder. If the patient has forgotten a dose, the sensor delivers a text message to the patient's phone reminding them to take their pills.

Even after leaving a violent or controlling relationship, the mental health of mothers may actually get worse before it gets better, a new study suggests.

Researchers found that in the two years after the end of an abusive relationship, mothers showed poorer mental health, became more depressed and maintained high levels of anxiety. In those areas, they were no better off than women who stayed in abusive relationships.

However, abused mothers who had more social support fared better after the end of their relationship than did similar mothers with less help from friends and family.

"Our findings really help us understand how unstable those first few years are for mothers who leave violent or controlling relationships," said Kate Adkins, lead author of the study, who did the work as a doctoral student at Ohio State University.

"Even though getting out of the relationship may be good in the long run, they first have to deal with multiple sources of stress, including financial problems, single parenting and sharing custody with the abuser."

Adkins conducted the study with Claire Kamp Dush, assistant professor of human development and family science at Ohio State. Their results appear online in the journal Social Science Research and will be published in a future print edition.

The findings don't suggest that women shouldn't leave abusive partners, Kamp Dush emphasized.

Forget global warming and the inevitable ice age destined to follow it. Don't waste time worrying about a nuclear apocalypse or 2012. The end of human life on earth will be caused by something very different. When archaeologists in the distant future unearth the ruins of the last few dilapidated, abandoned bookstores and college presses left standing before the apocalypse, from amongst the rubble of forgotten strip-clubs, movie theaters and mega-churches, the answer to the demise of the previous supreme beings will become clear: They stopped reading.

Such premonitions are nothing new: In 2007 The Washington Post reported that one in four adults had not read one book that year, and in 2003 the Jenkins Group, an independent publishing firm, reported that 70 percent of adults had not entered a bookstore for five years. What should really be unnerving is the following: On Aug. 19, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported that Rice University will close its campus press in September, consequently dismantling an essential medium for community and communication amongst the student body. Its closure obstructs a vital, time-honored bridge of correspondence between student and institution.

The World Health Organization is projecting that this year cancer will become the world's leading cause of death. Why the epidemic of cancer? Death certificates in United States show cancer as being the eighth leading cause of death in 1900.

Why has it skyrocketed to now surpass heart disease as number one?

Is it because people live longer and have to die of something? That's a factor, but not the prime reason as reflected by the jump in age-adjusted cancer being far above what could be expected from increased longevity. And it certainly doesn't explain the steep hike in childhood cancers. Is it lifestyle, diet and genetics, as we have often been told? They are factors, but not key reasons.

The cause of the cancer epidemic, as numerous studies have now documented, is largely environmental - the result of toxic substances in the water we drink, the food we eat, the consumer products we use, the air we breathe.

Tea companies like to brag about the antioxidants in their bottled tea beverages.

Some even put the amount of antioxidants on the label. But if you think that you're getting a big dose of these natural chemicals from your favorite bottled brew, think again.

Reseachers tested bottled teas for antioxidants called polyphenols and found that most brands contain very little of them.

"Out of 49 samples, half of the bottle teas contain less then 10 milligrams of polyphenols," says Shiming Li, a natural products chemist at WellGen, a company that's working to develop foods for medical use.

Family meals often descend into ritual battles over healthy greens: how many children must consume, and how many treats they will earn as a result. The stakes may be higher than parents realize. According to a study published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a sugary, fat-laden Western diet wreaks profound changes on children's gut bacteria, and could even promote the risk of asthma, allergies and other inflammatory diseases.

Rates of inflammatory disease have been rising for decades among adults and children alike. Puzzlingly, this increase has occurred largely in developed countries, bypassing poorer places. (Rural poverty brings many hardships; inflammatory bowel disease is not among them.) This has left scientists struggling to pinpoint exactly what about the rich world is making people sick. New data from Paolo Lionetti, of the University of Florence in Italy, supports the view that diet may be the culprit.

Remember margarine? That was touted as healthier than butter several years ago. Though many have since caught on to that lie, it still persists somewhat. Margarine is as healthy as melted plastic. But it sure is cheap to produce! That was then, this is now. Could Canola oil's health claims compare with margarine's fraud?

There is evidence to support health food fraud with canola oil. Not buying it by the bottle is easy enough, but it appears in many prepared or processed foods, even those in health food stores. Because of Canola's marketing itself as a healthy option, it is recommended by many health food experts. Meanwhile, the health food industry sells and uses it as a healthy alternative despite growing evidence of toxic dangers.

If you want to know how people become addicted and why they keep using drugs, ask the people who are addicted.

Thirty-one of 75 patients hospitalized for opioid detoxification told University at Buffalo physicians they first got hooked on drugs legitimately prescribed for pain.

Another 24 began with a friend's left-over prescription pills or pilfered from a parent's
medicine cabinet. The remaining 20 patients said they got hooked on street drugs.

However, 92 percent of the patients in the study said they eventually bought drugs off the street, primarily heroin, because it is less expensive and more effective than prescriptions.

They continued using drugs because they "helped to take away my emotional pain and stress," "to feel normal," "to feel like a better person."