P values of .008 in a group this small (91 people) means that this effect is HUGE. Many clinical trials require thousands of participants to obtain statistically significant results, with p values of only .05   — .008 is HIGHLY significant.  Of course, skeletal muscle in professional athletes and elderly people, who are prone to falls and hip fractures, is made of the same stuff. Studies from years ago have shown that vitamin D supplementation reduces falls in the elderly. Muscle is muscle. Muscle, indeed EVERY tissue in the human body functions better with blood levels of 25 hydroxy vitamin D above 40 ng/ml (I prefer 50 ng/ml, for optimum health, and in my cancer patients, I aim for 70-80 ng/ml). Any athlete, trainer, or owner of professional sports team who is not measuring blood vitamin D levels and supplementing vitamin D to be sure their blood levels are >40 ng/ml is missing a very significant competitive edge. And if you have elderly parents who are looking frail, ask their doctor to measure their blood levels as well, and see that they are corrected if low. This will not only reduce the risk of falls, but of many many negative health consequences. Vitamin D is not only a ‘vitamin’— it is the most potent steroid hormone in the human body. Before the industrial revolution when people started working inside, humans got it from the sun in the summer, and stored enough in body fat to make it through the winter. These days, most people require 4000 to 5000 IU per day for optimum function, during the winter months in temperate regions, and all the time for people who don’t get regular sun exposure without sunscreen in the summer months. An hour of sun exposure in mid summer produces 10 to 20 thousand IUs of vitamin D, which was discovered for the first time by Dr.  Michael Holick and his team in the late 1980s. Up till then everyone assumed that 400 IU of vitamin D (the amount in a teaspoon of cod liver oil, which has been known for 100 years to prevent rickets in a baby), was all that healthy adults needed. We were only off by a power of 10…….

To quote detailed results from the study: “The levels of asthma control in the 6 interventional months as compared to the same period in the previous year were compared. In the Pycnogenol® group, night-awakenings were less frequent, the number of days with PEF<80% were decreased, days with asthma score >1 were lower, requirement for salbutamol and additional asthma medication less frequent, and consultation of general practitioner and specialist required less commonly. All these parameters were statistical significantly improved in Pycnogenol® + ICS (inhaled corticosteroid) group versus the ICS control group where no considerable changes were observed. Various common signs and symptoms were evaluated by visual analog scale, (dry) cough, severity of chest symptoms, wheezing, dyspnea and daytime symptoms. In the ICS-only group values did not improve while they did improve significantly in the ICS + Pycnogenol® group (P<0.05 vs. ICS only group). A decrease by 15.2% of the specific IgE titer was found in the Pycnogenol® + ICS group, whereas the titer increased by 13.4% in the ICS-only group.”

All that means that the group that received 50 mg of OPC from pine bark supplement twice daily for 6 months experienced very significant clinical improvement in their asthma symptoms, and were able to decrease dependence on medication. That fact that the results were statistically significant with only 76 patients in the whole study indicate that this was a very large effect. Many clinical trials require thousands of patients to demonstrate a statistically significant improvement.

Having grown up with pretty severe asthma myself (I recall one of my professors in medical school telling me that I could expect to develop chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD, also known as emphysema), by the time I would be 60, which I am now well past)– I’ve learned that many nutritional factors can help to heal asthma. In addition to OPCs,  Fish oil (and keeping dietary intake of omega-6 fatty acids low), Evening Primrose oil (or other source of gamma-linolenic acid, an omega-6 fatty acid that is actually anti-inflammatory) vitamin D (5000 IU per day), lipid extract of New Zealand Green lipped mussel,  recognition of food sensitivities (and avoiding those foods) all have helped to the point, that, except for several weeks after the occasional viral upper respiratory infection, I can exercise, even in cold air, without wheezing, be around cats without the asthma attacks that only 25 years ago were predictable after exposure to cats, and generally live an active and for the most part asthma free life. So the only surprise to me about this study, was how little Pine Bark OPC it took to make a very significant clinical difference in this group of people with moderately severe asthma. Personally I have experienced and also seen similar effects in other people with asthma, from supplementation with grape seed derived OPC, and with combinations of grape seed and pine bark OPC concentrates. The important thing is that they be high quality, high purity concentrates, as is the case with Pycnogenol®.

I’m also glad that my medical school professor (who was a specialist in pulmonology, ie study of lung diseases) turned out to be quite wrong about me!

Working memory is the memory that we use to hold a number of different tasks in mind–such as when we ask our kids to ‘go upstairs, put on your pajamas, wash your face, brush your teeth, then get get a book, get in bed, and then I’ll come up and read to you”. Until this becomes a routine, it requires working memory to keep all those steps in mind. We need it a lot working with computers, to follow a set of complex sequential tasks–the better our working memory, the less often we have to refer back to the directions.

There were a number of very surprising things about this study. First, they found that baseline working memory correlated rather well with the level of DHA found in each participant’s red blood cell membranes (a convenient place to test, since DHA and EPA are taken up in cell membranes). Further, at the end of the study, all 11 subjects had an improvement in working memory, which again correlated with the increase in DHA content of their red blood cell membranes.Researchers were a bit disappointed that the sophisticated brain imaging that they also did could not discern the mechanism by which this improvement in working memory occurred.

Researcher Bita Moghaddam commented “Before seeing this data, I would have said it was impossible to move young healthy individuals above their cognitive best. We found that members of this population can enhance their working memory performance even further, despite their already being at the top of their cognitive game.” Coauthor Matthew Muldoon noted “So many of the previous studies have been done with the elderly or people with medical conditions, leaving this unique population of young adults unaddressed. But what about our highest-functioning periods? Can we help the brain achieve its full potential by adapting our healthy behaviors in our young adult life? We found that we absolutely can.”

These levels of EPA and DHA can be achieved with 2 capsules of any high quality fish oil that is concentrated to at least 2/3 EPA+DHA (standard fish oil is 1/3 EPA+DHA). Be sure that it is from small ocean fish, such as sardines, which have lower levels of environmental contaminants to begin with, is protected from oxidation during processing, which should include molecular distillation to remove residual contaminants such as PCBs, and dioxins, and is preserved with potent antioxidants. So if you or your kids want to do well in school, 2 capsules a day of high quality fish oil appears to definitely provide a benefit.

Although not stated in the paper, it still seems to me like the safest way to get your EPA and DHA is from high quality fish oils–those that have been molecularly distilled to remove environmental contaminants, such as PCBs and dioxins–mercury is never an issue, even in low quality fish oils, as it stays in the fish protein, and does not come out in the oil. But many low quality fish oils are also oxidized (rancid), which can increase oxidative stress in the body significantly. As noted in a recent post about the meta-analysis (desk research) which stated that fish oils supplements were of ‘no value’–see that post for all the reasons that this was a very poor ‘study of studies’–not the least of which reasons is that many of those studies used over the counter fish oils and didn’t analyze them for content, rancidity, or toxins. Not all fish oils are created equal. When you do eat fish, choose small fish, like sardines, herring (pickled is fine if you like them), anchovies, mackerel. And NEVER farmed fish–unless the are certified organic, with a natural food chain established, rather then feeding them pellets of grain (which are often GMO corn and soy). Virtually all tilapia (a marketing term for perch) are farm raised, and their fatty acid profile is closer to that of bacon than to that of fish. Caveat Emptor!

enough said.

My other favorite saying is “a curry a day, keeps the oncologist away”..

Happy eating!

I have collected an enormous amount of data that strongly suggest multiple benefits from the consumption of omega-3 fatty acids for cardiovascular disease, cancer, neurological disease, auto-immune diseases, and even in bone, skin and lung health. There is no question that the dietary ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fats is a major factor in how susceptible people are to chronic inflammation, which underlies most chronic modern maladies. Good quality (molecularly distilled, preserved by potent fat soluble antioxidants) fish oil is, in my opinion, much safer than actually eating fish, as it contains many fewer environmental contaminants, such as mercury, PCBs, dioxins, etc.  It also takes a long time for it to be incorporated into cell membranes and other body structures, so it is not something that produces dramatic effects in less than a year, and many of the studies analyzed in this meta-analysis, were shorter than one year–and these were not separated out from the analysis of longer studies.

Another key point is that there was some heterogeneity in study design, including in dosage of omega-3 fatty acid used and patient populations. There is much uncertainty regarding the potency and purity of the over-the-counter supplements.  The majority of people taking omega-3 supplements are taking cheap, poor-quality, low-potency, and often even rancid products.  The public doesn’t know any different, and unfortunately very few of these studies actually analyzed the products that were used. Moreover, the control groups were exposed to varying amounts of fish oils, and this could account for a lack of effect seen between experimental and control groups. Another issue is that when placebo controls were used, due to the fish odor of omega-3 fatty acid supplements, complete blinding of fish oil studies may not be feasible. This imperfect blinding was not considered in the quality assessment of the studies.

Most of the restenosis studies only presented data among those who completed their follow-up angiogram. Consequently, restenosis data were generally analyzed using a modified intention-to-treat, which may result in biased results (in other words, if someone felt great and didn’t come back for their folowup angiogram, they were counted as a non-responder).

Finally, due to the lack of individual-level data, they did not estimate the change in risk of mortality or cardiovascular outcomes over time. In other words did the folks taking a therapeutic dosage get better results?  How much EPA and DHA were people consuming?  Of course this is essential information.  Availability of individual-level data would also have allowed us to examine which subgroups may derive the greatest benefit from the use of these agents. This study adds nothing to our understanding of the role of omega-3 fatty acids in reducing risk of heart disease, and creates a lot of confusion in the minds of consumers (and doctors), who don’t understand research design. Remember the old adage about computers, which applies equally to meta-analysis studies: “GIGO”.  Garbage in, Garbage out. Oh, and you can’t compare completely different types of studies and draw any valid conclusions. Better to go do an actual study. But that requires a lot more money, a lot more thought, and a lot more work. There seems to have been a spate of “supplements don’t work” publications in scientific journals lately, which this one adds to. But the people who experience benefits of high quality supplements in their own bodies over time are not likely to believe them.

The length of our telomeres–the little caps that protect the end of our chromosomes, is what allows our stem cells to continue to populate the 50-100 trillion cells that make up each of our bodies. How we live, in terms of our nutrition, our environment, our physical activity levels, how much stress we’re under, and how we manage it, and to a minor extent, our genetic heritage, all influence how rapidly our telomere’s shorten. Ground breaking research by Maria Blasco in Spain, and many others, have indicated that the % of our cells with critically short telomeres is an excellent indicator of our risk for cancer and other degenerative diseases, as well as our likely health span and lifespan. I’ll have a lot more to say about this emerging field over the next few months and years.  Its good to be back!

Glucosamine + fish oil omega-3’s has been shown to begin the process of reversing osteoarthritis, as published by Gruenwald et al in the Sept 2009 issue of the journal Advances in Therapy. (link) Though this is not a big surprise,  its nice to see as a new addition to the scientific literature. I’ve been recommending glucosamine/chondroitin + fish oil/vitamin D + green lipped mussel oil + MSM + proteolytic enzymes, for years, and now have added to the repertoire concentrated anthocyanins from all the major “super fruits”,  for all manner of inflammatory problems. With just 1500 mg of glucosamine, and 200 mg of EPA+DHA (a wimpy dose of omega-3) 44% of the group receiving both glucosamine and omega-3 showed at least an 80% reduction in pain over 26 weeks time, as compared with only 32% of those who received only glucosamine. Just think what they might find if they added vitamin D, green lipped mussel oil, MSM, proteolytic enzymes, and fruit anthocyanins…

It is projected that raising the minimum year- round serum 25(OH)D level to 40 to 60 ng/mL (100–150 nmol/L) would prevent approximately 58,000 new cases of breast cancer and 49,000 new cases of colorectal cancer each year, and three fourths of deaths from these diseases in the United States and Canada, based on observational studies combined with a randomized trial. Such intakes also are expected to reduce case-fatality rates of patients who have breast, colorectal, or prostate cancer by half. There are no unreasonable risks from intake of 2000 IU per day of vitamin D₃, or from a population serum 25(OH)D level of 40 to 60 ng/mL. The time has arrived for nationally coordinated action to substantially increaseintake of vitamin D and calcium.

Insufficient levels of vitamin D puts elderly at increased risk of dying from heart disease

A new study by researchers at the University of Colorado Denver and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) shows vitamin D plays a vital role in reducing the risk of death associated with older age. The research, just published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, evaluated the association between vitamin D levels in the blood and the death rates of those 65 and older. The study found that older adults with insufficient levels of vitamin D die from heart disease at greater rates that those with adequate levels of the vitamin.

Read more about the University of Colorado study at ScienceDaily.com.

A new study in the Journal of Nutrition research showed:

Higher vitamin D levels associated with increased survival among older women over a 6 year period

Vitamin D deficiency is associated with osteoporosis, poor muscle strength, falls, and fractures. The relationship between serum vitamin D concentrations and mortality in older community-dwelling women has not been well characterized. We hypothesized that women with lower 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) concentrations were at higher risk of mortality. We examined the association between serum 25[OH]D concentrations and all-cause mortality in a prospective, population-based study of 714 community-dwelling women, aged 70 to 79 years, the Women’s Health and Aging Studies I and II in Baltimore, Md. The studies were originally designed to evaluate the causes and course of physical disability in older women living in the community. Vital status was determined through follow-up interviews and matching with the National Death Index. During a median of 72 months of follow-up, 100 (14%) of 714 women died. Women in the lowest quartile of 25(OH)D (<15.3 ng/mL or 38.2 nmol/L) were at higher risk of death (hazards ratio, 2.45; 95% confidence interval, 1.12-5.36; P = .02) compared to women in the highest quartile (>27.0 ng/mL or 67.4 nmol/L) of 25(OH)D in a multivariate Cox proportional hazards model adjusting for demographics, season, and conventional risk factors. Older community-dwelling women with low 25(OH)D levels are at an increased risk of death.

A recent study found:

Higher blood levels of omega-3 fatty acids may help reduce obesity, according to a new study from Australia’s University of Newcastle.

Omega-3 levels in people who are a healthy weight are 15 percent higher than in those who are overweight, the researchers reported in the British Journal of Nutrition.

A question of balance… and prejudice?  Recent publication of a research article from Germany has created lots more controversy around antioxidant supplements, though vitamin C and vitamin E were the only compounds studied, and there are a great many more antioxidants both in foods and in supplements that have not been looked at in this context.

The article, published in the on-line version of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2009/05/11/0903485106 showed that 500 mg of vitamin C twice daily and 400 IU of d-alpha tocopherol (1 of the 8 forms of the vitamin E complex) taken once daily by 20 young healthy men who performed supervised exercise for 85 minutes Monday thru Friday for 4 weeks, decreased the beneficial effects that this exercise program had on insulin sensitivity in the 20 unsupplemented men (control group). What this study appears to have discovered is that the oxygen free radicals produced by exercise produce beneficial effects on glucose metabolism, and may help decrease development of diabetes. However, the title of the article “Antioxidants prevent health-promoting effects of physical exercise in humans” overstates the case quite a bit, since their findings related ONLY to insulin sensitivity, and did not at all investigate the other known benefits of exercise, such as improving cardiovascular function, immune response, stress handling, mood, cognitive function, etc. etc. There was also no detriment shown in the supplemented group

Antioxidant vitamins such as vitamin C and E are different from many of the other antioxidants found in foods, herbs, spices, and teas, in that they can become free radicals themselves, if the diet is low in antioxidants and the individuals are under high oxidative stress. The “burst” of oxygen free radicals associated with an hour of exercise are quite different from the continuous barrage of free radicals associated with smoking for instance. So this study tells us only about the effect of 2 specific vitamin antioxidants, in a group of healthy young men, in terms of markers of insulin sensitivity, 1 of many known positive benefits of exercise.

This is not to minimize the importance of these findings, but simply to put them in context. Unfortunately, a controversy loving and science undereducated press will generalize and draw unwarranted conclusions, and the anti-supplement folks will point and say, see we told you so—supplements are no good….

It is important to document that at least in this context, the oxygen free radicals generated by an hour of intensive exercise have some beneficial effects that we would be better off not to block. We don’t know if other antioxidants such as co-q-10, alpha lipoic acid, OPCs, and other polyphenolic compounds would have similar effects or not. We also don’t know if a high antioxidant diet vs a low antioxidant diet has impact on the system they studied (diet is a major confounding influence on any studies of antioxidant supplements, and notoriously difficult to control for). But its probably the case that if you’re a young healthy man who exercises, or someone with risk factors for metabolic syndrome or diabetes who exercises, its probably best not to take vitamins C and E along with your exercise.

In biology there is always a question of balance. Its almost always possible to have too much of a good thing, whether that be oxygen free radicals or antioxidants—having the RIGHT AMOUNT is key, which probably varies with age, sex, state of health, environment, diet, level of physical activity, etc. I would predict that if the investigators studied antioxidants (optimally a much larger number in much smaller amounts, because that is how nutrients work) in people training for marathons and triathlons, where the oxidative stress is much greater, they would find a net BENEFIT for antioxidants supplements. My rule of thumb in 35 years of experience prescribing and formulating nutritional supplements has been to use many nutrients together, and avoid megadoses of any one, as that is most likely to create imbalances. My hope is that before too many more decades scientists will develop a model to study nutritional supplements in humans as networks of many interacting compounds that support and supplement the diet to support health, rather than as a few compounds in large doses and in isolation.

Below are some quotes from other experts that illustrate the points I’m making (borrowed from www.nutraingredients.com)

The design of randomized clinical trials to study isolated nutrient factors, following the drug- or evidence-based model in general has received much criticism.

Andrew Shao, PhD, vice president of scientific & regulatory affairs for the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN), a trade association, said: “The current drug-based approach used in randomized clinical trials may not be the best approach to assess the health benefits of antioxidants, or other nutrients for that matter, and that researchers need to rethink how to design and execute such trials.”

“I do think more clinical trials are needed for antioxidants, but it is critical that they are designed and conducted to truly test the question(s) of interest, with the results interpreted and communicated appropriately,” added Dr Shao.

Jeff Blumberg, professor of nutrition science and policy at Tufts University said: “I think that when we look at  the idea of a single gold standard, like the randomized clinical trial, for evaluating nutrients, foods and diets, it  just doesn’t work.

“Sometimes it’s useful for answering for some very specific questions, but I think at other times we must go and use the approach that we have been using for the last generation or two, of looking at all of the research strategies and the information they can give us, from basic research using cell cultures and animal models, from clinical experience looking at how patients respond in the clinic, to observational studies of large populations followed for long times consuming different types of diets, as well as the intervention clinical trials.”

Understanding antioxidants

The criticisms of the drug-model for testing nutrients highlight fundamental issues with the understanding of antioxidants, and nutrients in general. Professor Blumberg added that it was important to understand how nutrients work.

“When we look at nutrients, nutrients are distributed throughout the body. Essential nutrients like vitamins and minerals have to be in every cell in every tissue in our body,” he said. “But in fact the body concentrates those nutrients in higher amounts in some tissues and in lower amounts in other tissues, it uses them in combination with other nutrients. They are designed in a system of synergies and networks.”

Taking a DHEA supplement combined with vitamin D and calcium can significantly improve spinal bone density in older women, according to a new study from a Saint Louis University scientist and his colleagues at Washington University.

In my experience that dose is a bit high for women, about right for most men, though some need up to 100 mg to normalize their blood level. Its really best to ask your doctor to test your blood levels of both “free” (unbound) DHEA, and DHEA sulfate (its storage form). If either one is low, you’re a good candidate for supplementing this “supplement”. Your body can turn DHEA into any adrenal or sex hormone that it decides it needs—DHEA is a so-called “precursor” hormone.

They also went a little bit light on the vitamin D in this study (700 IU). Most adults who work indoors need 1000 IU of vitamin D for every 30 pounds of body weight, and 50% more than that if they are dark skinned, overweight, or obese. Again, after you’ve supplemented vitamin D for 3 or 4 months, it’s a good idea to ask your doctor to measure your blood level of 25 hydroxy vitamin D. You want it to be between 50 and 100 ng/ml (be sure its in ng/ml units, not nmoles/L units, or it needs to be between 80 and 140).

These, along with good weight bearing exercise and resistance exercise, are BASIC things that should be done in everyone before considering drugs like Fosamax, Actonel, or Boniva. You can build a lot of your bone back, no matter what the reason that you lost it in the first place. And be sure your kids and grandkids are getting enough vitamin D, calcium, magnesium and trace minerals—they’re building the bone they’ll live off for a lifetime during their teens and early 20s.

–In February, researchers reported a link between vitamin D levels in the blood and upper respiratory infections in a group of nearly 19,000 people ages 12 and older.
–A 2006 review article in the journal Epidemiology of Infection laid out a detailed case for vitamin D and its protective effect against the flu.

Best thing you can do for you and your families to protect them from the flu, swine, avian, or otherwise, is to take 1,000 IU vitamin D per 30 pounds body weight (if you’re not getting summer sun exposure without sunscreen—if you are, start supplementing when the time of year comes that your shadow is taller than you are—a rule of thumb for whether or not the sun is strong enough to produce vitamin D in your skin. I predict that once studies are done, they will show that having a 25-OH vitamin D level between 50 and 100 ng/ml is better at preventing flu than any vaccine—not to mention reducing the risk of many common and deadly forms of cancer.

To read the abstract of the study about vitamin D levels and influenza visit PubMed.

During hysterectomy operations, surgeons often remove a woman’s ovaries as well as her uterus. But new research suggests that for women are not at high risk for ovarian cancer, removing the ovaries during hysterectomy may adversely impact long-term health.

For decades gynecologists have taken them out with the idea that after menopause ovaries no longer functioned, and were just laying around waiting for ovarian cancer to develop. Well, turns out, as it seemed reasonable to me, that ovaries DO function after menopause, they just function differently than before, making less estrogen and progesterone, but they continue to contribute to health—in fact, it would appear that they play a role in preventing heart disease, stroke, and death from many causes, including lung and other cancers.

Taking them out does indeed reduce the risk of ovarian and breast cancer, but this benefit is far outweighed by the detriment. For women who survive 35 years after hysterectomy, there is 1 premature death for every 9 cases where healthy ovaries are removed. I think its generally a good policy to assume that all the parts we arrive with on this planet have a purpose throughout life, even if we haven’t figured out yet what it is. Just because we can survive without an appendix, tonsils, or ovaries, doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to surgically remove it unless it is irreversibly damaged, infected, containing cancer, or otherwise a serious liability and beyond repair.

We speculate that symptomatic myalgia in statin-treated patients with concurrent vitamin D deficiency may reflect a reversible interaction between vitamin D deficiency and statins on skeletal muscle

What it says is that people with low vitamin D levels who take statins can get really sore muscles. We used to think that this was due to the fact that statins prevent the body from making co-q-10 (which they do), so I’ve always advised people taking statins to take co-q-10 supplements as well. But some of them STILL got sore muscles.

Of course, I advise EVERYONE who is not getting at least 30 min of full body summer sun exposure (or its equivalent) to supplement with 1000 IU of vitamin D3 for every 15 kg (33 lb) of body weight, twice that if they are also obese, and to measure their blood level of 25-hydroxy vitamin D at least twice yearly (this may be more important to your overall health  than checking your cholesterol).

So if you’re on a statin, you should not only take co-q-10 supplements (50-100 mg if enough for most people), but also ask your doctor to check your 25-hydroxy vitamin D level. You want that number to be between 50 and 100 ng/ml.

Docosahexanoic acid (DHA), an omega-3 fatty acid found in fish oils, has been shown to reduce the size of tumours and enhance the positive effects of the chemotherapy drug cisplatin, while limiting its harmful side effects.

Ever since a case report was published in the journal Nutrition and Cancer in 2005 in which an elderly man with a large and inoperable lung sarcoma went into complete remission with high dose fish oils, predominantly DHA, I’ve been emphasizing DHA (and vitamin D) in my nutritional recommendations for people facing cancer challenges.

In the case report, the intake of EPA+DHA was in the range of 15-18 grams per day, about the amount that the Innuit on their traditional diet of seal, fish, and whale blubber used to consume. That’s a lot of omega 3, and should be supervised by a nutritionally knowledgeable physician, but even 4-6 grams per day, especially with a high DHA product can be a big help.

Read Full Article at PR Newswire: Health / Biotech

Vitamin K slowed the development of insulin resistance in elderly men in a study of 355 non-diabetic men and women ages 60 to 80 who completed a three-year clinical trial at the Jean Mayer Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University (USDA HNRCA). “Men who received vitamin K supplementation had less progression in their insulin resistance by the end of the clinical trial,” said Sarah Booth, senior author and director of the Vitamin K Laboratory at the USDA HNRCA.

Read Full Article at Nutrition / Diet News From Medical News Today

With up to half of a person’s body mass consisting of skeletal muscle, chronic inflammation of those muscles – which include those found in the limbs – can result in significant physical impairment. According to University of Illinois

Read Full Article at Nutrition / Diet News From Medical News Today

Nicotinamide (VitB3), a vitamin found in common foods like meats, nuts, grains and cereals, may provide the next advance in skin cancer prevention, according to new research from the University of Sydney. Presenting the results of a trial to the Clinical Oncological Society of Australia’s Annual Scientific Meeting today (19 Nov), Associate Professor Diona Damian said tests had shown the vitamin prevented damage from ultraviolet (UV) radiation by protecting the immune system.

Read Full Article at Nutrition / Diet News From Medical News Today

Researchers from the Peninsula Medical School, the University of Cambridge and the University of Michigan, have for the first time identified a relationship between Vitamin D, the “sunshine vitamin”, and cognitive impairment in a large-scale study of older people. The importance of these findings lies in the connection between cognitive function and dementia: people who have impaired cognitive function are more likely to develop dementia.

Read Full Article at Nutrition / Diet News From Medical News Today

Vitamin D is significantly associated with muscle power and force in adolescent girls, according to a new study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM). Although vitamin D is naturally produced in the body through exposure to direct sunlight, vitamin D deficiency has become widely common in the United States.

Read Full Article at Nutrition / Diet News From Medical News Today

HealthDay – THURSDAY, Feb. 5 (HealthDay News) — A direct interaction between
vitamin D and a common genetic variant may affect a person#39;s risk of
multiple sclerosis, according to British and Canadian researchers who also
said that vitamin D deficiency while in the womb and early in life may
increase the risk of MS later in life.

Read Full Article at Y! Health News Search RSS Feed

Vitamin D may be an important way to arm the immune system against disorders like the common cold, report investigators from the University of Colorado Denver (UC Denver) School of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Children’s Hospital Boston.

Read Full Article at Nutrition / Diet News From Medical News Today

Fish oil supplements may work slightly better than a popular cholesterol-reducing drug to help patients with chronic heart failure, according to new research released Sunday.

Read Full Article at MSNBC.com: Heart health

What really works to make sustainable changes in diet and lifestyle? It’s probably not what you think. In over 30 years of conducting clinical research, I’ve learned that the real keys are pleasure, joy and freedom, not willpower, deprivation and austerity. Joy of living is sustainable; fear of dying is not.

Read the whole article, Heed what it says, and Enjoy the results!!–Dr. McKee

Socially active people who were not easily stressed had a 50 percent lower risk of developing dementia compared withthose who were isolated and prone to distress, researchers said.

Read Full Article at MSNBC.com: Aging

Three-quarters of youths with type 1 diabetes were found to have insufficient levels of vitamin D, according to a study by researchers at the Joslin Diabetes Center – findings that suggest children with the disease may need vitamin D supplementation to prevent bone fragility later in life. “To our surprise, we found extremely high rates of vitamin D inadequacy,” said Lori Laffel, M.D., M.P.H.

Read Full Article at Nutrition / Diet News From Medical News Today

New research indicates that drinking coffee lowers the risk of developing cancer of the oral cavity or throat.

Read Full Article at MSNBC.com: Cancer

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – A study in young adult women links high blood levels of vitamin C with lower blood pressure.div class=”feedflare”
a href=”http://feeds.reuters.com/~f/reuters/healthNews?a=gys3RabT”img src=”http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/healthNews?d=41″ border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.reuters.com/~f/reuters/healthNews?a=qUrwWj0p”img src=”http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/healthNews?i=qUrwWj0p” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.reuters.com/~f/reuters/healthNews?a=QKJZsnNG”img src=”http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/healthNews?i=QKJZsnNG” border=”0″/img/a
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Read Full Article at Reuters: Health News

Reuters – Women with early-stage breast cancer may live longer if they maintain a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains and low-fat dairy, a new study suggests.

Read Full Article at Y! Health News Search RSS Feed

“For richer and for poorer, in sickness and in health,” are some of the most common words heard in wedding vows. But what is often overlooked is the health of the married couple’s future children. With National Folic Acid Awareness Month taking place January 12 through 18, 2009, brides-to-be should start thinking about saying “I do” to taking a daily multivitamin with 400 micrograms (mcg) of folic acid daily–to protect their own health and the health of their children-to-be.

Read Full Article at Nutrition / Diet News From Medical News Today

An extract from grape seeds forces laboratory leukemia cells to commit cell suicide, according to researchers from the University of Kentucky. They found that within 24 hours, 76 percent of leukemia cells had died after being exposed to the extract.

This one is particularly dear to my heart, as I have seen (and experienced) first hand the amazing results of supplementation with high quality grape seed (and pine bark) proanthocyanodins (OPCs). One of the frequent comments/questions I receive is “I heard that OPCs were bad to take if you have leukemia or a high white blood cell count”. My answer has always been that I know of no reason for this. Now we have strong evidence,  even including the molecular mechanism (see full article) for the first time, to the contrary

The main findings do not support a causal relationship between calcium and vitamin D supplement use and reduced breast cancer incidence, despite the association observed in some epidemiological studies

Commentary:  When I see studies like this, its hard to know whether the authors are just uninformed, or actually malicious. OF COURSE there was no difference in breast cancer incidence from taking a gram of calcium and 400 IU of vitamin D (the calcium is mostly irrelevant, its the vitamin D that is important in cancer prevention). There is a very rich scientific literature about vitamin D that has appeared over the past decade, which these authors apparently have not been reading.  Given that somewhere between 50 and 80% of adults in the US are vitamin D deficient or insufficient (levels below 30 ng/ml), and that during the wintertime, taking even 1000 IU of vitamin D a day will not raise the blood level of 25-hydroxy vitamin D above 30 ng/ml (recently published by Dr. Michael Holick), drawing conclusions from a study in which 18,000 women took 400 IU of vitamin D is ludicrous! Now if they had given these women 4,000 IU of vitamin D instead of 400, its very likely that they would have seen very different results. In fact, a study by Lappe et al reported that postmenopausal women who took 1100 IU of vitamin D3 a day for 4 years (along with calcium) showed a 60% reduced risk of developing all cancers compared to a group with similar cancer risk factors that took placebo. So just because a study is in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, don’t assume that its authors know what they’re talking about!

Reuters – Lower blood levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D, a protein that provides an acquire measure of vitamin D in the blood, are independently associated with an increased risk of developing high blood pressure, according to findings published in Hypertension.

Read Full Article at Y! Health News Search RSS Feed

Middle-aged members of a runner’s club were half as likely to die over a 20-year period as people who did not run, according to a new study.

Read Full Article at MSNBC.com: Fitness

Long-term coffee drinking does not appear to increase a person’s risk of early death and may cut a person’s chances of dying from heart disease, according to a study published on Monday.

Read Full Article at MSNBC.com: Heart health

CHICAGO – New research linking low vitamin D levels with deaths from heart disease and other causes bolsters mounting evidence about the “sunshine” vitamin’s role in good health.

Patients with the lowest blood levels of vitamin D were about two times more likely to die from any cause during the next eight years than those with the highest levels, the study found. The link with heart-related deaths was particularly strong in those with low vitamin D levels.

Science used to believe that vitamin D was simply needed to prevent rickets, a disease of soft bones, and that people needed only 200-400 international units (IUs) for this. In the past decade we’ve learned that vitamin D is crucial to the health of every cell in the body, and that heart health, brain health, immune system health, and cancer prevention all rely heavily on robust levels of this vitamin in our bodies. Not only that, we’re learning that nutrition scientists were off by a factor of 10 in how much is optimal. In other words, we need 2,000 to 4,000 (and in some cases 6,000) IU of vitamin D daily for optimal blood levels (above 50 ng/ml). What wasn’t known for a long time is that a healthy human exposed to summer (or tropical winter) sun for 30 to 60 minutes, depending on how dark or light skinned we are, will make between 10 and 10 THOUSAND IUs of vitamin D. When we started subtracting sun exposure (or using sunscreen) from our lives some 30 years ago, we shut off the tap of the “sunshine vitamin”, and our food “fortifications” and multivitamin pills had far too little vitamin D to make up for it. I recommend to everybody to take at least 2,000 IU daily, and after a few months, to ask their doctor to order a 25-hydroxy vitamin D level–this number may be more important to your health than knowing your cholesterol level or your blood pressure–and for optimal health, you want it to be between 50 and 100 ng/ml, even though 30 is considered “adequate”–and you wouldn’t believe how many millions of people are well below 30!

]]> http://www.dwightmckee.com/2008/10/06/nutrition/those-with-low-vitamin-d-levels-twice-as-likely-to-die/feed/ 0 http://www.dwightmckee.com/2008/10/06/newsfeed/those-with-low-vitamin-d-twice-as-likely-to-die/ http://www.dwightmckee.com/2008/10/06/newsfeed/those-with-low-vitamin-d-twice-as-likely-to-die/#comments Mon, 06 Oct 2008 23:50:13 +0000 Newsfeed http://www.dwightmckee.com/?p=490 Continue reading →]]> Those with low vitamin D twice as likely to die

New research linking low vitamin D levels with deaths from heart disease and other causes bolsters mounting evidence about the “sunshine” vitamin’s role in good health.

Read Full Article at MSNBC.com: Heart health

When Alicia Staley, a 37-year-old systems analyst from Boston got the news that she had cancer, she knew she was in for an emotional rollercoaster. But she assumed she’d be the one riding it, not her friends.

Read Full Article at MSNBC.com: Cancer

Do you always have to max out with weights? And will a week off from the gym wipe out your fitness gains? Smart Fitness answers your workout queries.

Read Full Article at MSNBC.com: Fitness

A slice of cool, fresh watermelon is a juicy way to top off a Fourth of July cookout and one that researchers say has effects similar to Viagra — but don’t necessarily expect it to keep the fireworks all night long.

Read Full Article at MSNBC.com: Men’s health

or, you could take arginine supplements, if watermelon isn’t in season. Watermelon also gives you prostate protecting lycopene, and, although relatively high in glycemic index, the glycemic load is quite low–this is a good thing if you’re watching your weight.

More 70-year-olds are having good sex more often, Swedish researchers said on Tuesday in a finding bound to bring a smile to many an aging baby boomer.

Read Full Article at MSNBC.com: Sexual health

A once-a-day pill significantly shrank tumors in men with advanced prostate cancer who had not responded to other treatments, researchers said on Tuesday.

Read Full Article at MSNBC.com: Men’s health

Diabetic men who struggle with erectile dysfunction are twice as likely to face potentially deadly heart problems and strokes as men who don’t,  according to new research.

Read Full Article at MSNBC.com: Men’s health

Just a few more portions of broccoli each week may protect men from prostate cancer, according to British researchers who examined the biology of the cruciferous veggie.

Read Full Article at MSNBC.com: Men’s health

This is another report from the front, telling us that our genes may have less to do with our health destiny than our diets and behaviors do. Clearly, what we eat has powerful impact on which genes get expressed and which ones don’t. Whether or not we get cancer, heart disease, or diabetes rests in which genes get expressed and which ones don’t–and  a good deal of this rests in what we choose to eat, and whether or not we choose to be physicaly active. i thinkI’m going to go eat some brocolli…..

There is no such thing as a safe tan, U.S. and British researchers said on Thursday.

They said in their review of published studies that tans and skin cancer both begin with DNA damage caused by exposure to ultraviolet light but many people, especially the young, ignore or are unaware of this danger in a quest for a bronzed body.

Humans developed over many centuries working, playing, and living outside, under the sun. About 40 years ago, we went inside, put on sun screen and hats when we’re outside, because science told us we were killing ourselves with skin cancer. But guess what? We’re killing ourselves with all kinds of cancers, because hiding from the sun has created an unprecedented epidemic of vitamin D deficiency–so much so that Rickets has returned in the children of dark skinned mothers (who are also not out in the sun).

Our food supply doesn’t have nearly the sources of vitamin D to make up for what we are not getting from the sun. In an hour of sun exposure, most people (if they get just slightly pink) will make between 10 and 20 THOUSAND units of vitamin D-3. So when you read that you should increase your vitamin D intake from 400 IU per day (which dose nothing to correct D deficiency) to 1000 units a day (which dose just a little to start to correct deficiency), think about how much vitamin D our bodies are designed to make in the summer sun. We’re designed to live off the vitamin D stores in our body fat during the winter months, but most people run low–which many vitamin D experts believe is what’s behind “flu season”.

If you’re going to replace sun with vitamin D supplements, better be thinking more along the line of 4-6 thousand units a day (and 10 thousand if you’re overweight, since vitamin D gets lost in body fat stores). True, too much sun can spoil your fun, and eventually lead to skin cancer for some, but the kinds of cancer caused by cumulative sun exposure are basal cell and squamous cell cancers, which are more “nuisance” cancers–almost nobody dies from them. The deadly one is melanoma. Since the anti-sun campaign was started in Australia, melanoma rates have continued to soar–probably because robust levels of vitamin D in the body help to prevent melanoma, as well as most of the other common skin cancers.

There is some reasonable scientific evidence that antioxidants in diet and supplements, as well as omega-3 fatty acids can protect our skin’s DNA from sun damage, and reduce the risk of the “nuisance” skin cancers, as well as retard skin aging.

You, your kids, and your parents all have surprisingly different requirements when it comes to nutrition. Here’s a guide to help you know who needs what vitamins and when.

Read Full Article at MSNBC.com: Diet and nutrition

In a new and disturbing twist on the obesity epidemic, some overweight teenagers have severe liver damage caused by too much body fat and have even needed liver transplants.

Read Full Article at MSNBC.com: Diet and nutrition

Maybe you CAN blame being fat on your genes. But there’s a way to overcome that family history — just get three to four hours of moderate activity a day.

Read Full Article at MSNBC.com: Diet and nutrition

They ate when they were stressed. They ate when they were lonely or frustrated. Then the guilt set in — for breaking the latest attempt at a diet, for losing the power struggle with a craving.

Read Full Article at MSNBC.com: Diet and nutrition

Researcher W. Elaine Hardman, Ph.D., of Marshall’s Joan C. Edwards
School of Medicine said the study was designed to determine whether mice
that got part of their calories by eating walnuts had slower breast cancer
growth than a group eating a diet more typical of the American diet.

“When we fed the mice the walnuts, the growth rate of the tumors they
had was dramatically suppressed,” Hardman said.

To read the full news report, go to PRNewswire.com

Certain foods can help fight fatigue. Here are three top stamina sappers you may encounter, and what to eat and drink more of to stay sharp, focused, and energized all day.

Read Full Article at MSNBC.com: Diet and nutrition

What is needed are better methods of differentiating the cancer that is truly dangerous and needs to be treated, from the cancer that poses no risk. Such research is underway. Meanwhile, the National Institutes of Health has been running a study of 74,000 men since 1993, trying to determine whether screening saves lives. So far, it has not come to enough of a conclusion that the results have been released.

As with so many other aspects of this disease, men and their doctors must decide for themselves.

I would add to this that Dr. Dean Ornish’s group has shown that drinking 8 oz of pomegranate juice daily doubles the time required for the PSA to double in men with prostate cancer (reflecting slowed growth of the prostate cancer). More recently, laboratory studies have shown that rats fed the equivalent of 2 servings of walnuts per day show a decrease in tumor growth rate by a factor of 2.  So it can’t be a bad idea to eat walnuts and drink pomegranate juice frequently–while you decide whether or not you want a PSA screening test.

New advice that men over 75 should not be screened for prostate cancer won’t quell the long-standing controversy over the usefulness of the blood test for the disease, cancer experts said.

Read Full Article at MSNBC.com: Men’s health

From time to time, I will also post articles on topics like nutrition, exercise, and stress management to name a few.

Check back often.

Dwight