Health Habits

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Posts Tagged ‘cholesterol’

Weight Loss & Breakfast: Eggs are Better

April 20th, 2009

image: blogchef

Need to lose a few pounds?

Try this…

Tomorrow morning, instead of wolfing down a bagel as you run out the door, scramble up a few eggs with some cheddar cheese and black forest ham.

According to a bunch of new studies, this high protein breakfast will help you manage your hunger while also reducing the amount of calories that you pack away throughout the day.

The Science

University of Conneticut researchers found that adult men who consumed eggs for breakfast:

consumed fewer calories following the egg breakfast compared to the bagel breakfast
consumed fewer total calories in the 24-hour period after the egg breakfast compared to the bagel breakfast
reported feeling less hungry and more satisfied three hours after the egg breakfast compared to the bagel breakfast

This study was presented at Experimental Biology 2009. This research builds upon previous work by Dr. Fernandez which showed how the cholesterol from egg yolks improves the level of good (HDL) cholesterol.

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A second study, published in the International Journal of Obesity, concluded that eating eggs for breakfast as part of a reduced-calorie diet helped overweight dieters lose 65 percent more weight and feel more energetic than dieters who ate a bagel breakfast of equal calories and volume.

And if that isn’t enough proof, you can check out this study which showed that getting your protein with breakfast was more effective at controlling hunger.

But what about the cholesterol?

For years, we have been told to avoid eating too many whole eggs.

We’ve been warned by the experts that the cholesterol found in those egg yolks are going to clog our arteries.

Maybe the experts are wrong.

New research (presented at Experimental Biology 2009) out of the University of Florida State examined the relationship between cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors such as body mass index, serum lipids and levels of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), and the degree to which these factors are influenced by dietary intake of fiber, fat and eggs. The study found:

no relationship between egg consumption and serum lipid profiles, especially serum total cholesterol, as well as no relationship between egg consumption and hs-CRP
a positive correlation between dietary trans-fat intake (the margarine on your bagel) and CVD risk factors, as well as a negative correlation between fiber and vitamin C intake and CVD risk factors(6)

In additional research presented at Experimental Biology, investigators with Exponent, Inc. evaluated egg consumption data from the NHANES III Follow-Up Survey to determine the association between egg consumption and heart health. The researchers developed a statistical model which showed:

no increased risk of death from coronary heart disease with increased egg consumption
a reduced risk of mortality among men who consumed one to six eggs/week compared to less than one egg/week
a significant reduction in risk of stroke among women who consumed one to six eggs/week and one or more eggs/day

So, while I am not advocating that you chug back a dozen raw eggs at breakfast a la Rocky, I am suggesting that you replace your morning toast with an omelette.

Your shrinking love handles will thank you.

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Fat Britannia

March 14th, 2009

Back in the 90s, the U.K. was Cool Britannia.

No longer.

Today, I re-brand the U.K. as Fat Britannia.

And before any of you Brits start dropping F-Bombs and trying to head butt me through your computer, give me a chance to prove my point.

Fat Britannia: The Proof is in the Pudding…and chips and curries and…

According to the new EuroAspire survey,

Britons at high risk of heart attack are ‘in denial’ and ignoring doctors’ advice to change their lifestyle.
More than three-quarters are obese or overweight – with dangerously big stomachs – and most smokers have refused to give up.
More than half have out-of-control blood pressure and 40 per cent have high cholesterol levels.
Two out of three refuse to accept they are more at risk than other people their age – despite being given warnings by their GP and lots of prescription drugs.

This means they have a one in five chance of suffering a fatal heart attack unless they change their lifestyle.

But, they’re not changing their lifestyles.

Almost 80 per cent of those who were smokers at the time had not given up despite smoking being a major cause of heart disease.

Four out of five high risk patients were overweight or obese with dangerously large waists containing deposits of abdominal fat that raise the chances of diabetes and heart problems.

Two out of five patients said they did not exercise and had no plans to do so.

Around half had diabetes, including seven per cent whose condition was detected when they were taking part in the survey and having various tests.

57 per cent of patients had raised blood pressure despite three-quarters of them being on anti-hypertensive drugs.

And last but not least, 40 per cent of patients had high blood cholesterol, even though the UK uses more statin drugs than any other European country except Italy.

And still, they continue to live in denial.

Two-thirds of those surveyed said they did not think their risk of heart disease was higher than a person in the general population of the same age and sex, including 16 per cent who thought it was lower.

Note: …ALL of these people have been told by their doctors that they ARE at high risk of dying because of their lifestyles.

Professor David Wood, an expert in cardiovascular medicine at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College, London, said the survey raised concerns that many Britons were in denial about their heart health.

“This is high risk population, diagnosed by their GPs and started on treatment”.

“They should be managed much more rigorously and their lifestyle should be changing”.

Should be changing…but it isn’t.

And here’s where it gets interesting…for me at least.

Do the non-fat Brits have a moral/fiscal responsibility to help/coerce/force the fat Brits into changing their obesity-inducing lifestyles?

Do we have the moral obligation to look after others who can’t or won’t look after themselves?

When it comes to mental health issues, we have already accepted that obligation.

The Mental health Act of 1983 instructed British doctors to force feed anorexics over the age of 18.

It should be noted that, for force feeding to occur, the anorexic patient must be shown to be incapable of making rational decisions about their condition.

So, is it rational to live in a manner that causes:

Hypertension
Diabetes
Elevated cholesterol
Metabolic Syndrome
Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD)
High Triglycerides
Stroke

And what about the cost of obesity to the rest of society?

Does the British taxpayer have to sit back and watch their taxes skyrocket as obesity drives up the cost of their nationalized health care spending?

Around the world, governments have taxed and legislated cigarette smokers almost to the point of extinction.

Why not obesity?

So, here’s my question to you?

What do we do to stop obesity?

Tax it to death?
Free gym memberships?
Legislate it to death?
Promote a healthy lifestyle?
Subsidize health food?
Free weight loss surgeries?
Nothing, it’s none of our damn business?

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Booming Global Obesity Drug Market

March 7th, 2009

Booming Global Obesity Drug Market is the title of the new market research report published by RNCOS, a market research consulting services company specializing in BioPharma, IT, Telecom, Retail and Service industries.

According to the fine folks at RNCOS:

The prevalence of obesity is increasing globally at alarming rates

The Obesity drug market has shown a radical growth in recent times, but in contrast,

The market for Weight Loss drugs has failed to match this growth

Note: I am not sure what the difference between the Obesity Drug Market and the Weight Loss Drug Market is, but according to RNCOS, the Weight Loss drug manufacturers had better step up their game.

By 2012, it’s expected that more than two billion people will be overweight and 600 million will be obese, representing immense opportunities for both markets.

Unfortunately, the market for weight loss drugs is characterized by numerous failures.

A number of drugs have failed to get approval, some have been recalled, and those that have entered the market either suffer from serious side effects or have just failed to give the desired results consumers expected from them.

Maybe that’s why the weight loss drug manufacturers aren’t doing so well – Unapproved drugs, recalled drugs, drugs that don’t work and drugs with serious side effects.

Refusal of healthcare authorities to grant reimbursement to these drugs has also impeded the growth.

Why would governments or insurance companies reimburse drug companies for costs incurred developing weight loss drugs that don’t work or have serious side effects?

One of the most recent examples can be taken from Sanofi’s Acomplia; the drug was hailed as a multimillion blockbuster before it was launched. But Acomplia, like most of its predecessors, failed to have a sufficient benefit to risk ratio and was taken off the market just two and a half years after its launch.

The future of the obesity drugs market, however, may not be so gloomy.

This is because the market has high unmet demand and any drug that manages to provide a high benefit to risk ratio can easily achieve blockbuster status.

Note: What the hell is a high benefit to risk ratio???

Moreover, despite some of its recent failures, the obesity drug pipeline is rich and a large number of drugs are in phase 3 and late phase 2 trials. If some of these drugs manage to reach the market and possess a strong efficacy and safety profile, they can quickly become billion dollar blockbusters.

Country-wise, the U.S. is presently the biggest market for weight loss drugs with around 68% of its population either overweight or obese.

The U.S. is followed by the U.K. and other European countries. In the future, emerging economies such as china, Russia, India and Brazil are also expected to become huge markets for weight loss products.

With China’s obesity and overweight levels touch 665-670 million in 2015, the country will emerge as the most potential weight loss market

Way to go China!!!

And, just in case you are one of the lucky few who still have some extra money laying around that you would like to invest:

The RNCOS report gives an extensive and objective analysis on the global market for obesity drugs. It…blah, blah, blah…can give valuable information to investors planning to foray (I don’t think I have ever forayed before) into the obesity drug market…blah, blah, blah…

Interesting isn’t it?

If I was a cynical type of person, I just might think that:

Obesity is seen by drug manufacturers as a growth industry, and
The fatter we get, the more money they make, and
Their need for profit might motivate them to lobby for gov’t policies that result in higher numbers of obesity, and
Since a lot of money can be made with drugs that “possess a strong efficacy and safety profile”,
They have no motivation to find a cure, because
Chronic diseases keep people popping pills for the rest of their lives

Damn, maybe I am cynical…gotta work on that.

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A Better Way to Health and Weight Loss

March 4th, 2009

In yesterday’s post, I talked about how our Western diet and lifestyle has caused an explosion of obesity, diabetes and various cardio-respiratory diseases.

I also talked about how the health experts of the last 50 years have continued to feed us the same advice even in the face of our growing obesity and chronic disease epidemic.

And after looking at all of that data, I wondered: why do we continue to listen to these experts with their food pyramids and low fat diets and aerobic exercise programs?

We must be insane.

Albert Einsten once said that the definition of insanity is “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

And that’s what we have been doing.

The same advice year in and year out. Even as we get fatter and fatter…we listen to the same advice.

I ended yesterday’s post by saying that there had to be a better way.

Here’s my idea.

A Better Way to Health and Weight Loss

In the past few years, web 2.0 technology has allowed large groups of people to collaborate and combine their talents to develop new technology, carry out a specific design task , or help capture, systematize or analyze large amounts of data.

This phenomena has a variety of names: crowdsourcing, open source, collective intelligence, wikinomics, social commerce and crowdcasting.

Examples of this activity include:

InnoCentive
reCAPTCHA
Shutterstock
Threadless,
and everybody’s favorite – Wikipedia

So, what does this have to do with losing weight and getting fit?

Imagine if you could harness the collective intelligence and experience of each and every dieter, obesity expert, personal trainer, weight loss guru, bariatric doctor, psychiatrist, behavioral therapist and obesity researcher.
And imagine if you could direct all of that intelligence and experience towards finding a better solution to our twin dilemmas of obesity and chronic disease.

Instead of an environment where snake oil salesmen and government approved health experts sell false hope to the fat and desperate, imagine an environment where all concerned parties can come together to find a solution.

I know, I know, it sounds a little socialist to me too.

But, in fact, we are already seeing the first steps toward this concept.

Websites like SparkPeople have created massive communities of people interesting in getting fit, lean and healthy.

And those communities are getting larger by the day.

If you look at the numbers, SparkPeople sees 2.1 million American viewers per month.

By comparison, my teeny tiny little blog sees almost 40,000 Global viewers per month.

Obviously, SparkPeople is doing something right

In fact, they’re doing lots right.

But, they’re not perfect.

Earlier today, I entered an imaginary client into their system

The client was a 255lb. man who wanted to lose 40 lbs. He was also concerned about type two diabetes and hypertension.

This is what they recommended:

A diet high in starchy carbs & low in fat
A bodybuilding style resistance program
A moderate cardio-vascular program
Stretching at the end of the workout

Same old, same old.

Repeating the same diet & fitness advice that hasn’t been working for decades.

Can someone please stop the insanity!!!

Where’s the HIIT training?
Where’s the Paleo or Mediterranean or Zone eating philosophies?
Where’s the mental/emotional strategies designed to keep people from breaking their diets or skipping their workouts?
Where’s the discussion of supplements?

I don’t think that the folks at SparkPeople have any idea of what their site could be.

Anyway, that’s my two cents.

Anyone out there have any suggestions?

Any website gurus out there eager to build a kick ass health and fitness community/wiki?

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Fat AND Healthy?

March 2nd, 2009

Image: Threadless: The Last Piece

Fat and Healthy?

Well, sort of.

According to a new study, these sumo wrestlers have got a great reason to fight for that last piece of sushi.

Researchers have found that diets rich in Omega 3 fatty acids helped to protect their obese test subjects from the liver damage and insulin resistance that goes hand in hand with their bulging waistlines.

More specifically, it was two specific Omega 3s – protectins and resolvins—that provided the protective effects.

In the study, the researchers studied four groups of mice with an altered gene making them obese and diabetic.

Group One was given an Omega-3-enriched diet
Group Two was given a control diet.
Group Three was given docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)
Group Four received only the lipid resolvin.

After five weeks, blood serum and liver samples from the test mice were examined.

The mice given the omega-3-rich diet exhibited:

reduced hepatic (liver) inflammation
an improvement of their fatty liver disease – NAFLD
reduced insulin resistance/ improved insulin tolerance
improved glucose (blood sugar) transport
improved insulin receptor signaling
increased production of the anti-inflammatory adipokine – adiponectin
a decrease in the formation of Omega-6-PUFA-derived eicosanoids – PGE2 and 5-HETE

And all of improvements were due to the formation of protectins and resolvins from omega-3 fatty acids.

Conclusion

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If you are fat, you need to increase your consumption of Omega 3 fatty acids.

Man Eats Wild - Bear Grylls gets his Omega 3s

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National Heart Health Strategy

February 24th, 2009

Canada may be on the verge of something revolutionary in the annals of Western Medicine.

Today, in Ottawa, Dr. Eldon R. Smith, chairman of the Canadian Heart Health Strategy and Action Plan steering committee, presented the federal government with a new nationwide strategy aimed at combating heart disease and stroke.

The CHHS-AP plan would cost an estimated$700 million to implement over the next seven years.

However, by 2020, the plan could save Canada’s health care system over$22 billion in direct and indirect costs.

That’s over $30 of savings for every $1 invested in the plan.

And just how do they plan on saving all of those health care dollars?

According to Dr. Smith, “”We need to find ways to have people eat healthier foods, do more exercise, and we need to have less people smoking.”

“We think that with a combination of education, legislation, regulation, as we did for smoking in the past, and perhaps some incentives, that we’ll be able to create better environments for heart health in Canada.”

Whaaaattt?

Promote a healthy lifestyle in order to prevent disease.

What a truly shocking and inspired idea!

The Plan

The plan makes six key recommendations to fight heart disease and stroke, including:

Creating “heart-healthy” environments through education, legislation, regulation and policy.
Helping Canadians lead healthier lives.
Ending the cardiovascular disease crisis within Aboriginal communities.
Continuing to reform health care with improved delivery of patient-centered services.
Improving the surveillance and electronic medical records system to enhance prevention, care and research into vascular diseases.
Developing the right number of health-care service providers with the right education and skills.

Okay, sounds good….a little vague, but good.

“The CHHS-AP will allow us to focus more on prevention, among other key areas, and tackle this health challenge head-on,” said Sally Brown, CEO of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, one of three lead organizations involved of the plan.

Still vague.

Seriously, we need some details.

Details

According to the CHHS-AP, implementing this strategy will result in the following benefits:

Health

By 2015, working with partners,
- 20% more Canadians eating at least five servings of vegetables and fruit per day
- 20% more physically-active Canadians
- 20% fewer obese or overweight adults
- fewer obese children (from 8% to 5%)
By 2020,
- decrease annual rate of CV deaths by 25%
- bring CV diseases burden among Aboriginal/indigenous populations in line with other Canadians
- decrease prevalence of hypertension in adults by 32%
  - increase awareness by 64% among adults with hypertension
  - Increase by six-fold those hypertension treated to recommended targets
- decrease (risk adjusted 30-day) hospital mortality rate
  - from heart attacks by 32%
  - from stroke by 25%
- decrease hospitalizations for treatment of heart failure by 25
- decrease hospitalizations for treatment of acute stroke by 25%
- have 90% of Canadians aged 45+ with CV risk assessments
- decrease (by working with partners) the smoking rate by 25%

The Economy

Significant savings in costs of CV diseases by 2020,
- decrease $7.6 billion in direct costs (2008 dollars)
- decrease $14.6 billion in indirect costs (2008 dollars)

Canadians and our Country

Canadians will know their CV risk and how to reduce it to lead longer, healthier lives.
All regions of the country benefit from more sustainable health care systems.
Governments, the health care system, the private sector, communities and individuals work together, making a long-term commitment to change.
Patients will be partners in their own health and care.
Interprofessional health teams are well equipped to promote health, prevent CV disease, and provide timely, comprehensive, patient-centred care.
Canada is internationally recognized as a productive, economically competitive and heart healthy nation.

DETAILS!!!…for the love of god, less rhetoric and more details.

Seriously, two years and $2.5 million to come up with this?

So, where do we go from here?

According to the experts:

What needs to happen?

Work with federal Health Minister Aglukkaq to maintain momentum to:

Initiate the processes for change.
Develop effective partnerships, within and outside the health sector, to engage citizens, care providers, their professional organizations, non-governmental organizations, industry and the media to enable Canadians to become international leaders in heart health.

ARRRGGGHHHH!!!!!

Please, somebody give me some details.

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Oh, forget it. I ‘ll do it myself.

Here are some of my suggestions for how to spend the $700 million:

Tax refunds for participating regularly in exercise programs
Tax credits to private health clubs for administrating these exercise programs
Tax credits for private individuals organizing fitness clubs
Eliminate inequalities in federal food subsidy programs – quit subsidizing grains and soy at the expense of fruits and vegetables
Promote local and organic farming practices
Promote exercise and fitness – advertising, contests, athletes, amateur competitions
Tax credits to grocery chains to supply local and organic foods

Also, let’s stop listening to the same “experts” who have been telling us to follow those stupid healthy food pyramids all these years. Let’s talk to the fitness experts in the “real world” who get “real” changes out of their “real” clients in order to pay their “real” bills and keep “real” food on their “real” tables.

We should also structure the funding of these programs to encourage results. There will be lots and lots of experts lining up to collect their share of the $700 million. How many of them are willing to guarantee their work? How about we structure the contracts with a balloon payment to be paid at the end of the contract. The amount of that payment could be directly tied to the results that their program achieves.

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Any other bright ideas?

And not just my Canadian readers.

Us Canucks are not the only overweight, diabetic, just waiting to have a heart attack, couch potatoes out there.

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Zucchini Wrapped Wild Halibut

February 6th, 2009

This is one for all you healthy romantics who want to make a big impression. Though this recipe isn’t difficult you may need to put on your patience cap. Believe me, it looks harder than it really is, but the ‘wow’ factor will definitely earn you brownie points.

Serves 4

RECIPE:
4 x 6oz portions wild halibut
2-3 large zucchini – thinly sliced lengthwise 1/8″ thick
1/2 lemon – zested
S&P
olive oil

DIRECTIONS:
Begin by washing and drying the zucchini. Top and tail them and very carefully slice them lengthwise either with a sharp knife or, as I have, a Chinese mandoline. You can pick one up in an Asian market or a kitchen/home supply store. It’ll make this task a lot easier. Once all the zucchini are sliced, set aside.

Lay the fish on a cutting board and season with S&P and sprinkle of lemon zest. Rub the seasonings into the fish very gently.
To assemble halibut:

On a clean surface lay 4-5 zucchini slices, slightly over lapping and parallel with each other. Place seasoned halibut on one end perpendicular, across the zucchini. The idea here is to wrap the fish in the zucchini. Fold one end of the zucchini under the fish and roll the halibut over thus keeping the halibut neatly wrapped so that the ends of the zucchini overlap each other making that side the bottom.

Preheat large non-stick pan on medium high heat for 2-3 minutes. Add 1 tbsp olive oil. Holding the halibut securely, lay the bottom of the fish in the pan first. The objective here is to seal the bottom thus fastening the zucchini around the halibut. Sear for 2 minutes or until golden brown. Gently flip fish over on all sides until nicely browned. Remove to foiled oven tray.

Preheat oven to 420F.
To finish, pop fish in oven for 4-5 minutes to cook through.

This can be done slightly ahead of time and refrigerated until your significant other arrives, just be sure to remove the fish from the fridge 1 hour head of cooking so it comes up to room temperature.

Serving suggestion:
Saute French Beans and for a little added spice, try some wasabi mash potatoes. Make mash as usual and add enough wasabi paste to your own personal taste. Don’t go nuts with it as you’re having a romantic evening, use with caution.
Now that you’ve made the big splash, why stop there? Go for the gold with some Chocolate dipped strawberries.

Let me know how you get on with this recipe. And if you have any requests or questions, please leave a comment! To see more of my recipes and learn about me and my healthy food philosophies head over to thehealthyirishman.com.

The Healthy Irishman Fueling your body with healthy food. Fueling your mind with the wealth of health.

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HIIT Training: The Cure for Insulin Resistance, Type 2 Diabetes, Metabolic Disease and Obesity?

January 28th, 2009

Art by Bill Hall - billhall.com

It’s official:

HIIT training is AWESOME!!!

Researchers from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland have concluded that:

The efficacy of a high intensity exercise protocol, involving only 250 kcal of work each week, to substantially improve insulin action in young sedentary subjects is remarkable.

This novel time-efficient training paradigm can be used as a strategy to reduce metabolic risk factors in young and middle aged sedentary populations who otherwise would not adhere to time consuming traditional aerobic exercise regimes.

And for those of you that don’t know, here are the risk factors of Metabolic Syndrome that HIIT training is so effective at reducing:

Abdominal obesity (excessive fat tissue in and around the abdomen)

Atherogenic dyslipidemia (blood fat disorders — high triglycerides, low HDL cholesterol and high LDL cholesterol — that foster plaque buildups in artery walls)

Elevated blood pressure

Insulin resistance or glucose intolerance (the body can’t properly use insulin or blood sugar)

Prothrombotic state (e.g., high fibrinogen or plasminogen activator inhibitor–1 in the blood)

Proinflammatory state (e.g., elevated C-reactive protein in the blood)

People with the metabolic syndrome are at increased risk of coronary heart disease and other diseases related to plaque buildups in artery walls (e.g., stroke and peripheral vascular disease) and type 2 diabetes.

It’s estimated that over 50 million Americans have it.

And I am 100% sure that you don’t want it.

So, what do you need to do?

Go to your doctor and get checked out – Max intensity sprints combined with a sky high B.P. is just asking for trouble.
Go through my HIIT resources
Find an exercise bike, set of stairs, outdoor track or even a carpeted area in your home to do burpees
Schedule 3 x 15 minute HIIT workouts per week
Get HIITing

And I am serious about the doctor. I don’t mean to sound like your mother, but a visit to your doctor at least once a year for a check-up is a very, very, very good idea.

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Your Anti-Senility Prescription

December 31st, 2008

This post is for everyone out there with a loved one over the age of 50.

.New research shows that our lifestyle choices (nutrition and physical activity) have a powerful effect on age related cognitive health.

Translation: Senility is mostly preventable with diet and exercise.

And guess what?

The same lifestyle choices that have created an epidemic of obesity in the Western world are also responsible for much of the dementia in today’s senior citizens.

Here’s the science:

Study #1

Researchers from the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer’s Disease and the Aging Brain found that maintaining steady blood sugar levels, even in the absence of disease (diabetes, metabolic syndrome) is an important strategy for preserving cognitive health.

For many of us, senior moments are a normal part of aging. Such lapses in memory, according to this new research, can be blamed, on rising blood glucose levels as we age.

Whether through physical exercise, diet or drugs, our research suggests that improving glucose metabolism could help some of us avert the cognitive slide that occurs in many of us as we age,” reported lead investigator Scott A. Small, M.D.

Although it is widely known that the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease cause damage to the hippocampus, the area of the brain essential for memory and learning, studies have suggested that it is also vulnerable to normal aging.

Until now, the underlying causes of age-related hippocampal dysfunction have remained largely unknown.

In previous studies, Dr. Small et al had discovered that decreasing brain function in the dentate gyrus region of the hippocampus is the main contributor of normal age related cognitive decline.

In this new study, researchers used medical imaging devices to “help us better understand the basic mechanisms behind hippocampal dysfunction in the aged.”

Their research looked at measures that typically change during aging, like:

rising blood sugar,
body mass index,
cholesterol and
insulin levels.

The research found that decreasing activity in the dentate gyrus only correlated with levels of blood glucose.

“Showing for the first time that blood glucose selectively targets the dentate gyrus is not only our most conclusive finding, but it is the most important for ‘normal’ aging- that is hippocampal dysfunction that occurs in the absence of any disease states. There have been many proposed reasons for age-related hippocampal decline; this new study suggests that we may now know one of them,” said Dr. Small.

Conclusion

Control your blood sugar and prevent senility

How?

Read this and this and this and this.

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Study #2

In this study, researchers found that as we age, a slow, chronic starvation of the brain appears to be one of the major triggers of Alzheimer’s disease.

When the brain doesn’t get enough glucose, “a process is launched that ultimately produces the sticky clumps of protein that appear to be a cause of Alzheimer’s”. During this process, a key brain protein (eIF2alpha) increases the production of an enzyme which, in turn, flips a switch that produces the sticky clumps of protein.

And what causes this reduction in blood glucose to the brain?

Cardiovascular Disease

And how do we prevent cardiovascular disease?

But don’t take my word for it.

“This finding is significant because it suggests that improving blood flow to the brain might be an effective therapeutic approach to prevent or treat Alzheimer’s,” said Vassar, a professor of cell and molecular biology at the Feinberg School.

A simple preventive strategy people can follow to improve blood flow to the brain is getting exercise, reducing cholesterol and managing hypertension.

“If people start early enough, maybe they can dodge the bullet,” Vassar said.

For people who already have symptoms, vasodilators, which increase blood flow, may help the delivery of oxygen and glucose to the brain. It also is possible that drugs could be designed to block the eIF2alpha protein that begins the formation of the protein clumps, known as amyloid plaques.

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Resistin: The Best Test for Heart Disease

November 12th, 2008

One of my clients was at the doctor last week for a check-up.

He has been stressed out a lot lately and experiencing some headaches.

The doctor checked him out and found that his blood pressure was running higher than normal.

As a result, she sent him on his way with a requisition for a bunch of blood tests.

Pretty standard stuff:

Glucose
TSH
Creatinine
Sodium
CBC
Potassium
etc, etc, etc…

At this point, the doctor thinks that the blood pressure is caused by his stress levels, but she just wants to keep on top of things.

But what if things aren’t okay?

Will these tests alert the doctor in time?

Maybe they should be checking his levels of Resistin.

Resistin

Researchers at Emory University School of Medicine have found that blood levels of resistin, a hormone produced by fat cells, can independently predict an individual’s risk of heart failure.

“This is one of the strongest predictors of new-onset heart failure we’ve been able to find, and it holds up even when you control for other biomarkers and risk factors including high blood pressure and diabetes,” says Javed Butler, MD, MPH, associate professor of medicine and director of heart failure research at Emory University School of Medicine.

Although scientists don’t know the exact function of resistin, it appears to be associated with both inflammation and insulin resistance.

“Recent laboratory studies have also shown that resistin decreases the ability of rats’ heart muscles to contract,” she adds.

That doesn’t sound good.

In the Health ABC study, the risk of new onset heart failure increased by 38 percent for every 10 nanograms per milliliter increase in resistin levels in blood.

Resistin was a stronger predictor of heart failure risk than other inflammatory markers linked to heart disease, such as C-reactive protein.

“Considering the increasing number of people who are obese or have diabetes, very many of them are going to be at some level of risk for heart failure later in life.

The value of a marker such as resistin may be in accurately identifying among this large population of at-risk individuals who is at the highest risk and then targeting interventions to those people.”

Now, I am sure that my client is going to be okay.

But we are not taking any chances. No matter what the blood tests tell us, he has decided to treat this as a wake up call.

In addition to his healthy eating and thorough fitness program, he is making some lifestyle changes and is about to start a mindfulness meditation program to address his rising levels of stress.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nwwKbM_vJc]

Better safe than sorry.

Too bad he can’t get his resistin levels checked.

Oh well, that’s socialized Canadian medicine for you.

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Posts Tagged ‘cholesterol’

The Science

This study was presented at Experimental Biology 2009. This research builds upon previous work by Dr. Fernandez which showed how the cholesterol from egg yolks improves the level of good (HDL) cholesterol.

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