Health & WellnessS


Bacon n Eggs

Low carb diet 'should be first line of approach to tackle type 2 diabetes' and prolong lifespan

Paul Gallagher
iNews
Fri, 14 Sep 2018 00:01 UTC
fat guys
© GettyBritain has some of the world’s worst adult obesity rates.
A low carbohydrate diet should be the first line approach to manage patients with type 2 diabetes and most likely prolong lifespan, according to a group of experts.

A large-scale review of randomised controlled trials of a moderate low carbohydrate diet, where up to 40 per cent of calories come from carbohydrates, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, reveals how it is significant superiority over a low fat diet, where up to 30 per cent of calories come from fat, in the short term for glucose control and cardiovascular risk factors type 2 diabetics. The results show the former diet also has a marginal long term benefit in the same areas.

Study co-author Professor Hanno Pijl, from Leiden University in the Netherlands, said: "There is no plausible explanation for recent media reports that average carb consumption prolongs healthspan in all of us. Indeed, minimally processed, low carb (starch and sugar restricted) food should be the first line dietary approach in the management of type 2 diabetes and the metabolic syndrome."

Comment: See also:

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Muffin

Are carbs good for you? Fat chance!

Nina Teicholz
The Wall Street Journal
Tue, 11 Sep 2018 18:36 UTC
salad bar
© robyn beck/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Dietary dogma's defenders continue to mislead the public and put Americans' health at risk.

The U.S. government's nutrition advice since 1980 has mainly been to increase consumption of carbohydrates and avoid fats. Despite following this advice for nearly four decades, Americans are sicker and fatter than ever. Such a record of failure should have discredited the nutrition establishment. Yet defenders of the nutrition status quo continue to mislead the public and put Americans' health at risk.

A widely reported study last month purported to show that carbohydrates are essential to longevity and that low-carb diets are "linked to early death," as a USA Today headline put it. The study, published in the Lancet Public Health journal, is the nutrition elite's response to the challenge coming from a fast-growing body of evidence demonstrating the health benefits of low-carb eating.

Comment: Amen! The Lancet study has been rather thoroughly debunked by actual experts. And Teicholz is right: it does seem "the paper's purpose was not to help people eat better and live longer but rather to quash public interest in low-carb, high-fat diets." The control of public perception is rarely, if ever, about the public's health. It's about protecting entrenched institutions, making sure the money river doesn't dry up.

See also:

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Life Preserver

Study suggests lutein-rich diets may help preserve cognitive function as the brain ages

Jeremy Dean
PsyBlog
Tue, 18 Sep 2018 00:00 UTC
broccoli brain food
People with more lutein in their blood did better on intelligence tests.
Eating leafy greens helps preserve intelligence over the lifetime, research finds.

Leafy greens and other foods contain lutein, a plant pigment that protects the brain from aging.

People with more lutein in their blood did better on intelligence tests, the study found.

Lutein collects in the cell membranes of the brain, playing a 'neuroprotective' role.

Foods that contain high levels of lutein include leafy green vegetables like kale and spinach as well as broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage.

Comment: More tips on how to keep your brain functioning optimally:

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Water

Why does bottled water have an expiration date?

Sara Tipton
Ready Nutrition
Wed, 12 Sep 2018 14:57 UTC
bottled water
Bottled water is a popular item to store in case of an emergency, and for good reason. It is normally readily available and water should be able to be stored forever, right? So then why is there an expiration date on bottled water?

Of course, water doesn't expire, but you should still check the expiration date on the bottle before you drink it. According to Live Science, there a few different reasons why water bottles come with expiration dates, and the first one, you shouldn't worry too much about, but the second one should make you think twice.

Since water is a consumable product, regulations and laws require bottles to be stamped with an expiration date even though water doesn't ever "expire." Rational people understand this, but the government feels the need to step in and protect us from ourselves anyway. The only reason they were put there in the first place was that a 1987 New Jersey state law required all food products to display an expiration date, including water, according to Mental Floss. Since it wasn't very cost effective for companies to label and ship batches of expiration-dated water to one state alone, most bottled water producers simply started giving every bottle a two-year sell-by date-no matter where it was going. Because the law is rather arbitrary, don't worry too much about drinking expired water just because a law demands a company stamp the bottle. However, the expiration date serves more of a warning about the bottle itself than the water contained inside.

Comment: The Health & Wellness Show: Bottled water: A surprising tale of waste and greed

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Pills

'Time to abandon statins': Doctors conclude no link between cholesterol and heart disease after data review of 1.3M patients


The Irish Times
Thu, 13 Sep 2018 17:00 UTC
statins big pharma
BigPharma and its shills won't be happy - The paper disputes recommendations in a number of reviews of statin use and claims those are "based on misleading statistics, exclusion of unsuccessful trials and ignoring numerous contradictory observations".
There is no evidence that high levels of total cholesterol or of "bad" cholesterol cause heart disease, according to a new paper by 17 international physicians based on a review of patient data of almost 1.3 million people.

The authors also say their review shows the use of statins - cholesterol lowering drugs - is "of doubtful benefit" when used as primary prevention of cardiovascular disease.

The authors include Galway-based Prof Sherif Sultan, professor of the International Society for Vascular Surgery; Scottish-based Dr Malcolm Kendrick, author of The Great Cholesterol Con; and Dr David M Diamond, a US-based neuroscientist and cardiovascular disease researcher.

Prof Sultan said millions of people all over the world, including many with no history of heart disease, are taking statins "despite unproven benefits and serious side effects".

He was also concerned that inhibitors to further lower LDL cholesterol (LDL-C), referred to as "bad" cholesterol, are being promoted. The cost of that medication is about €20,000 annually, he said.

Comment: Statins have been a blockbuster revenue generator for BigPharma which is why they have been so heavily promoted, and the nasty side effects seriously downplayed:

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Life Preserver

Fasting triggers production of molecule that delays the aging of our arteries

Ana Sandoiu
Medical News Today
Tue, 11 Sep 2018 00:00 UTC
cardiovascular system
New research has found that fasting triggers a molecule that can delay the aging of our arteries. The findings could help prevent age-related chronic diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, and Alzheimer's.

The search for eternal youth has preoccupied the human imagination since the times of Ancient Greece.

In fact, a quick look at Greek mythology shows that youth was more prized than immortality, as some myths tell the story of how futile the latter is if it's not accompanied by the former.

In this regard, modern medicine has recently been catching up with ancient mythology.

Emerging scientific breakthroughs encourage us to hope that the myth of eternal youth will soon become a reality.

In a recent study, researchers were able to reverse signs of aging such as hair loss and wrinkles in mice; and, perhaps more impressively, another team of researchers managed to rejuvenate aging human cells.

Now, a new study adds to the evidence that aging can indeed be reversed. Scientists led by Dr. Ming-Hui Zou - the director of the Center for Molecular and Translational Medicine at Georgia State University in Atlanta - showed that fasting, or restricting calorie intake, can produce a molecule that delays vascular aging.

Comment: Why wait for the development of a drug that will likely produce a number of undesirable (if not downright dangerous) side effects? There are alternatives to fasting, such as time-restricted eating that can produce similar benefits. More information on fasting:

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Info

Can genetic variation raise the risk of post-traumatic pain?

Sarah Linnstaedt
The Conversation
Mon, 27 Aug 2018 13:31 UTC
post traumatic pain
Although the majority of individuals recover from a traumatic incident, a substantial proportion will develop chronic problems.

Unfortunately, almost every individual in the world will experience at least one traumatic event, such as a car crash, assault, exposure to war combat or a natural disaster during their lifetime. Many will endure more than one.

Although the majority of individuals recover from a traumatic incident, a substantial proportion will develop chronic problems, including post-traumatic stress symptoms, depression and chronic pain.
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Hotdog

Vegetarian propaganda working?: Americans consuming more fake meat & dairy than ever


RT
Sun, 16 Sep 2018 00:00 UTC
vegan hotdog
© Thomas White / ReutersA Veganburg vegan hotdog
A new study by the Good Food Institute (GFI), which represents the plant-based foods industry, found that sales of substitutes for animal products have exceeded $3.7 billion.

While total US retail food sales grew just two percent over the last 12 months, retail sales of plant-based foods grew 17 percent during the same time period.

"The plant-based foods industry has gone from being a relatively niche market to fully mainstream," said Michele Simon, Executive Director of the Plant Based Foods Association (PBFA).

Comment: Scientists are now saying that eating red meat and cheese is good for your heart

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Info

Separating the wheat from the chaff: Fructan molecules & gluten intolerance

Alice Klein
Prevent Disease
Thu, 23 Aug 2018 13:03 UTC
fructan
Gluten might not be the bad guy after all. Evidence suggests it may be the fructan molecules in wheat that cause stomach problems in people with an intolerance.

Thousands of years ago - we find that humans regularly ate breads that were baked with wheat, rye, barley, spelt and other grains. So why is there so much attention now being put upon gluten sensitivities? Why is celiac disease growing and why do many people say they feel better when they don't eat gluten?

About 1 percent of people have celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder that makes them react badly to gluten proteins in wheat. But a further 12 percent feel ill after eating wheat-based foods like bread and pasta, despite not having celiac disorder.

Now it looks like it may not actually be gluten that causes problems for these people with "gluten sensitivity".

Comment: Also consider the following: We're not gluten intolerant, we're glyphosate intolerant:
Study blames Roundup herbicide for gluten intolerance and celiac disease epidemic

"Celiac disease, and, more generally, gluten intolerance, is a growing problem worldwide, but especially in North America and Europe, where an estimated 5% of the population now suffers from it," researchers wrote in a meta-analysis of nearly 300 studies.

"Here, we propose that glyphosate, the active ingredient in the herbicide, Roundup®, is the most important causal factor in this epidemic," they add.


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Life Preserver

Suffering from depression and anxiety? Studies show acupuncture can help

Heather Callaghan
Waking Times
Mon, 10 Sep 2018 10:13 UTC
acupuncture
More than 300 million people suffer from depression and anxiety worldwide. That's approximately the entire US population.

There are simply no words to describe the level of anguish that people - many needlessly - endure.

The good news is that among many holistic methods of addressing this epidemic, there is acupuncture.

Several scientific studies addressing depression have come to light recently which prove this ancient technique of healing can be very effective for addressing such as wide-spread issue.

Comment: Why acupuncture works
With documented use dating back more than 2,500 years, acupuncture is based on the premise that there are more than 2,000 acupuncture points in the human body, which are connected by bioenergetic pathways known as meridians.

According to traditional medicine, it is through these pathways that Qi, or energy, flows, and when the pathway is blocked the disruptions can lead to imbalances and chronic disease.

Acupuncture is proven to impact a number of chronic health conditions, and it may work, in part, by stimulating your central nervous system to release natural chemicals that alter bodily systems, pain and other biological processes. Evidence suggests that acupuncture may also work by:7
  • Stimulating the conduction of electromagnetic signals, which may release immune system cells or pain-killing chemicals
  • Activation of your body's natural opioid system, which may help reduce pain or induce sleep
  • Stimulation of your hypothalamus and pituitary gland, which impact numerous body systems
  • Change in the secretion of neurotransmitters and neurohormones, which may positively influence brain chemistry


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