I recently wrote a paper summing up the negative effects of vitamin C supplements.  This morning I read a new study on vitamin C and cataracts.  The study found that women age 65 and up who supplement with vitamin C has a 38% increased risk for developing cataracts!

Eat food!  That is the secret to optimum nutrition.  Supplements should be food based.  Taking labratory produced antioxidants to try and substitute for nature's bounty just doesn't work. 

Read the study here.

There has been a tremendous amount of research on the natural compound icariin in recent years.  The substance is usually isolated from Horny Goat Weed (what a name) also known as yin yang huo.  I'll highlight the research by category here:

Osteoporosis

Several studies indicate that icariin both stimulates the growth of new bone, and slows the destruction of old bone.  As a result a recent 2-year study on menopausal women showed that using the supplement increased bone mass in the hip and low back by 1.6 and 1.3 percent, where as the placebo group lost bone by 1.8 and 2.4 percent.  These percentages make a big difference in fracture risk.  Several other studies in rats have further demonstrated the benefits of icariin.

Alzheimer's

New research in rats shows that icariin improves learning and memory in rat-models of Alzheimer's.  Author's in one of these studies concluded "In the space probing test, icariin increased remarkably the searching time and searching distance in the quadrant where the platform was originally located. All tests indicated icariin improved the ability of spatial learning and memory in Alzheimer's disease model rats."

Stroke

Rats supplemented with icariin and deprived of oxygen have less damage than non-supplemented rats.  Icariin improved blood flow, decreases oxidative "collateral damage" after a stroke, and promotes acetylcholine-- a neurotransmitter tightly linked to memory.  Read the study.

The strong, consistent research on this herb in building bone and protecting the brain, as well as an excellent safety profile, make it worth giving a try for individuals with osteopenia or osteoporosis.

 I recently posted an article on the benefits of vitamin D, and the recent realization that a high percentage of people are deficient.  Research is showing that among other functions, vitamin D has the ability to up-regulate and down-regulate genes.  In other words, when we have suboptimal levels of vitamin D our genes are not turned and off appropriately.  Genes are used to create proteins which are the building blocks of nearly everything in our body--from our structure (bone, ligament, tendon, etc) to neurotransmitters, hormones, blood, etc.  

This wide range of effects translates a host of problems linked to vitamin D deficiency including poor immune function, less vitality, and decreased athletic function.   Specific to athletic function, a recent New York Times article highlighted the following:

"In one of the studies, four Russian sprinters were doused with artificial, ultraviolet light. Another group wasn’t. Both trained identically for the 100-meter dash. The control group lowered their sprint times by 1.7 percent. The radiated runners, in comparison, improved by an impressive 7.4 percent." (**note that ultraviolet light causes the formation of vitamin D).

"when researchers tested the vertical jumping ability of a small group of adolescent athletes, Larson-Meyer says, “they found that those who had the lowest levels of Vitamin D tended not to jump as high,” intimating that too little of the nutrient may impair muscle power. Low levels might also contribute to sports injuries, in part because Vitamin D is so important for bone and muscle health. In a Creighton University study of female naval recruits, stress fractures were reduced significantly after the women started taking supplements of Vitamin D and calcium."

I highly recommend having your vitamin D level checked with your next blood work.  If it is low supplement with 2,000IU of vitamin D for 6 weeks and recheck.  With my family I have everyone supplement with about 1,000IU for about three weeks, then we take about a three week break.  WE also get plenty of sunshine!  If you are local, I have an excellent product in my office.

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!

I was amazed to see an article posing as a study recently titled "Can dietary Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) Improve the Health of the Elderly?"  The article makes the case that since MSG excites taste buds and parts of the gut, it will make the elderly eat more and solve their health problems!  It is not a study, but a hypothesis.  My favorite part of the article is the financial disclosure "Supported in part by the Ajinomoto Company, a manufacturer of food and amino acids, including glutamate."  

It amazing me that journals continue to accept such industry sponsored hogwash.  Rather than focusing efforts on publishing manuscripts with the aim of advancing scientific knowledge or decreasing human suffering, scientific journals are bowing to industry.  Remember that whenever you read research that is contrary to reason, read the financial disclosure! 

MSG and aspartame are known to be potent carcinogens and brain toxins.  Additionally, research shows that MSG is bad for the liver--as evidenced by the wonderfully-titled study "Monosodium glutamate (MSG): a villain and promoter of liver inflammation and dysplasia.".

Read the rediculous abstract here.

Another study shows cardiovascular benefits from milk.  The study followed 2,225 people over age 55 for 6 years.  By the end, high dairy consumption was associated with a 20% reduction in the risk of hypertension.  If you have read my raw milk page, you know that raw milk is full of benefits including cancer prevention, weight loss, improved gut function, improved immune systems, bone building, and cardiovascular benefit. 

This new study is the last chink in the armor of the "low fat, less dairy" argument for heart disease prevention.  High blood pressure is one of the greatest risk factors for both heart disease and stroke, and for decades it's been preached that a low-fat diet was the answer.  Unfortunately, despite the implementation of guidelines for less saturated fat and increased consumption of such dead foods as canola oil and aspartame, hypertension is incredibly prevalent.  It is time that we quit following "expert" guidelines and ate a healthy, whole-food, non-processed diet. 

Remember too, that chiropractic care has been proven to be more effective than medication--the following is a quote from WebMD:   ""This procedure (chiropractic adjustment) has the effect of not one, but two blood-pressure medications given in combination," study leader George Bakris, MD, tells WebMD. "And it seems to be adverse-event free. We saw no side effects and no problems," adds Bakris, director of the University of Chicago hypertension center.  Eight weeks after undergoing the procedure, 25 patients with early-stage high blood pressure had significantly lower blood pressure than 25 similar patients who underwent a sham chiropractic adjustment. Because patients can't feel the technique, they were unable to tell which group they were in."

Read the study here.

It's in everything--high fructose corn syrup.  This is a sugar that exists in nature which man has figured out how to produce cheaply in large quantities, and at a great expense.  One new study shows that the more high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) you eat, the more food you want to eat.  The authors concluded that "The fact that fructose metabolism by the brain increases food intake and obesity risk raises health concerns in view of the large and increasing per capita consumption of high fructose sweeteners, especially by youth."  It is likely that soda makers and other marketer's of HFCS know that the products make you eat more, and that is precisely why they use them--the more you eat, the more you want.  Read the study here.

Another study that just came out demonstrates that consuming a diet high in fructose for just seven days causes "ectopic lipid deposition in liver and muscle and fasting VLDL-triacylglycerols and decreased hepatic insulin sensitivity."  This means that fat is deposited in the liver and in muscle where it shouldn't be, and that the riskiest type of cholesterol changes occur, and that insulin resistance begins.  This is the beginning of the road to diabetes, heart disease, fatigue, and other chronic illness.  Read the study here.

I suggest eating sugars in moderation, and only in there natural form; agave nectar, molasses, maple syrup, and fruits are good alternatives to precessed sugars.  And, quit eating high fructose corn syrup! 

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!)

 

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.