If you do a search on vitamin C on my site, or if you read my Antioxidant Article, you will find a great deal of evidence that high levels of supplemental vitamins can be harmful to your health.  A new study adds to this evidence.  The study followed 35,000 women for 9.5 years, and the women that regularly used multivitamins were 19% more likely to develop breast cancer.

We have developed "pill consciousness", and feel that we can pop a pill and get that nutrients we need to stay healthy.  This is just not the case.  We have seen that supplemental vitamin C, especially, increases risk of cancer, heart disease, and fatigue.  The vitamins themselves, in the form of food are health giving, it is the notion that we can manufacture one molecule in high dosages in a lab and have it perform the same as food that is faulty.

If you read my site you will see that I am not anti-supplement (read the vitamin D blog below), but I am against supplements that either don't work or cause harm! 

Read the study here.

A new study demonstrates the detriments of high-heat cooking.  The study compared the effects of 2 diets--one based on "mild steam cooking", and the other on "high-temperature cooking".  The following was observed after only one month:

In comparison with the mild-steam group, the high-heat group had;

Lower insulin sensitivity (the beginning of the type 2 diabetes process)

Lower blood levels of omega-3's (read my omega-3 paper)

Lower blood levels of vitamins C and E

Higher levels of triglycerides

This study demonstrates that in addition to the quality of ingredients that you buy, how you cook your food makes a HUGE difference.  The authors of the study blame the negative effects of high-heat cooking primarily on "MRP's", which are formed as carbohydrates and amino acids interact; "Upon heat treatment of foods, a characteristic browning and taste compounds are generated by the so-called Maillard reaction. The Maillard reaction is any reaction between a reducing carbohydrate and an amino acid and occurs in foods during storage and heat treatment, with the rate and diversity of chemical reactions accelerating as the temperature increases. Maillard reaction products (MRPs) are chemically highly diverse and comprise taste- and flavor-active molecules and health-beneficial compounds. In contrast, potent carcinogens are also generated, such as acrylamide or heterocyclic amines."

How do you know if you are producing MRP's?  If your food is browning as you cook it, you're creating them!  Consider having a baked potato or mashed potatoes instead of hash browns, chips, and french fries, consider steaming instead of frying your vegetables, and turn your toaster down so that your bread gets warm without turning brown.

Read the abstract of the study here.

A new study shows that people with high blood levels have a 40% reduction in colorectal cancer risk.  This is a very interesting study because it measured blood levels of vitamin D directly.  This creates several questions; was it just the high levels of vitamin D or was it other factors related to vitamin D such as time outdoors in the sun, exercise, food sources of vitamin D such as fish that are high in other nutrients such as omega-3's. 

Hopefully further research will shed light on these questions.  In the meantime, get a vitamin D test.  I'm surprised at how many of my patients who eat well and are out in the sun regularly have low levels of D.  If you are low be sure that you are getiing exposed to sunlight on a regular basis, and supplement with a high quality vitamin D until your levels are normal.  You may then want to supplement with 2,000IU per day periodically as a maintinance dose.  I have an excellent vitamin D product available at my office.

Read the study here.

Vitamin D has been getting a lot of press lately, and rightly so.  If your read my blog you know that supplementing with some vitamins increases your chance of disease--specifically, supplemental vitamin C has been shown to increase cancer and cardiovascular death, vitamin E increases death rates in smokers, and vitamin A is toxic at high levels.  Vitamin D, however, is coming out looking like a gem--supplementation boosts the immune system, builds bone, decreases cancer, gives resistance to the flu, and decreases death rates significantly (read this study).

Further, we now know that vitamin D requirements are higher than we once thought.   New research shows that "the actual observations in both younger and older adults show that to ensure the goal of a vitamin D of 80 nmol/L in almost all adults, 100 mcg/d is required."  This dosage in I.U. (which is how most vitamin D supplements are labled), is 4,000 I.U.

For these reasons I now carry an excellent vitamin D supplement in my office.  In addition to a high dose of emulsified vitamin D, it contains Cod Liver oil, Genistein, and cofactors for absorption.  Check it out!

Researchers recently found some suckers to eat potato chips.  They fed 160 grams of chips to 14 healthy volunteers for 4 weeks.  At the end of 4 weeks every marker of inflammation was significantly increased.  These included oxidized LDL cholesterol (remember from my Cholesterol Article that the oxidized LDL is the problem), IL-6 (a marker of inflammation and immune system dysregulation), and C-reactive protein (a marker of inflammation linked to cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and dementia).  After 28 days of not eating chips these levels dropped, but not back to normal!

You may recall a previous blog (read it here) where every serving of french fries that preschool girls eat per week increased the risk of breast cancer by 27%.  The mechanism is probably the same: when starches are browned a carcinogen called acrylamide is formed.  Additionally, most french frie and potato chip products are laden with omega-6 oils and trans fats--oils known to increase cancer risk and inflammation.

Read the study here.

Agaricus blazei is a medicinal mushroom that has an impressive record as an anti-cancer agent.  The mushroom appears to be more effective at fighting cancer than cordyceps or mitaake. 

Part the anti-cancer effect may be due to the mushroom's modulating effect on a type of immune cells called T-cells.  T-cells can mature to become Th1 or Th2 cells--we know that some people develop a "skewing" towards overproduction of Th2 cells.  This results in immune system "dysregulation" and increases in autoimminue diseases and certain cancers (read more about Th1/Th2 balance in my article on Immune Dysfunction).  Research has shown that supplementing with Agaricus blazei corrects this "skewing" and normalizes immune function (read the evidence here).

There is an excellent Agaricus Extract available from www.immunesystemsgo.com (I have no finacial relationship with this product--I only recommend it because it's excellent!)

 

"BPA Blocks Effects of Breast Cancer Chemotherapy Drugs" says a new study from the National Institutes of Health.  Previous studies have shown that BPA, a chemical that is almost certainly circulating in your body right now, causes cancer.  This new study shows that in addition to BPA giving you cancer, it reduces the efficacy of the chemotherapy used to treat the cancer.  The authors concluded "BPA at environmentally relevant doses reduces the efficacy of chemotherapeutic agents. These data provide considerable support to the accumulating evidence that BPA is hazardous to human health."

The number one source of BPA is plastics.  I recommend not using plastic to store your food or water, and cutting down on purchasing food in plastic containers.  Here is a list of other BPA sources that you may not think of; recycled paper and pizza boxes, organic food cans, soda cans, wine and beer fermented in BPA lined vats, the blue-tinted hard plastic water dispensor at your doctor's office!

Read the study here.

If you've been reading my blog, you know that fermented foods deliver a variety of health benefits.  A new study shows that eating cultured milk (yogurt, sour milk, kefir, etc) lowers bladder cancer risk by nearly 40%! 

In 2008 alone there were 68,810 new cases of bladder cancer and 14,100 deaths due to the disease.  According to this research, simply eating a fermented milk product daily could save 5,600 lives per year due to bladder cancer alone!  Factoring in other health benefits the lives saved are probably much higher.  Maybe a National Health program should include yogurt?

The study followed 82,000 Swedes for 9.4 years to reach its conclusions.  Researchers found that people eating at least 2 servings of cultured milk per day had the greatest benefit.  You can read the study here.

A new study demonstrates powerful benefits of strength training in cancer patients after chemotherapy.  The authors of the study, published in the British Journal of Cancer, concluded "High-intensity resistance training has persistent effects on muscle strength, cardiopulmonary function, quality of life, and fatigue. Rehabilitation programmes for patients treated with chemotherapy with a curative intention should include high-intensity resistance training in their programme."

Just having a diagnosis of cancer can prove both psychologically challenging and tiring.  Chemotherapy itself, while sometimes necessary, is toxic to the body.  This study demonstrates that high intensity strength training helps to rebuild the body after the trials of chemotherapy.  I believe that this happens for three reasons; most obviously, strength training builds muscle--that alone is associated with a higher quality of life.  Less obviously, the demands of strength training require your body to create more energy--that process requires your cells to produce more mitochondria.  Mitochondria not only supply your muscles with more energy, but also your nervous system and immune system.  Third, strength training produces lasting hormonal changes including higher levels of human growth hormone (HGH).  You've probably read about HGH's role in antiaging medicine.  The most healthful way to increase HGH is not going down a back alley and buying it off a guy named "Bubba" or going to a Beverly Hills antiaging specialist and paying thousands of dollars for a therapy that will probably shorten your life---the best way is to push heavy iron hard!

If you read that last paragraph again I hope that you'll agree that its not only cancer survivors that should be lifting weights--it's everyone!

Link to the research. 

Sons of women who are exposed to pesticides during pregnancy have impaired reproductive development.  You'll recall from my article on organic foods that this has been shown before--this new study from the National Institutes of health once again demonstrates the importance of eating organic!

The authors state "Boys of pesticide-exposed mothers showed decreased penile length, testicular volume, serum concentrations of testosterone, and inhibin B."

Given increases in cancer, degenerative diseases such as Parkinson's, decreased fertility and altered sex organs and hormones, organic is the only way to go!  You are not only taking proper care of yourself, but of generations to come.

Read the study here.