Medical News: RSNA: A Fish a Week Keeps the Brain at Its Peak – in Meeting Coverage, RSNA from MedPage Today.

Supplements linked to riskier behavior

http://tinyurl.com/6oh63z6 

I posted recently about the FDA’s interest in handing the supplement industry over to the pharmaceutical industry’s capable hands and the risk that posed for the consumers.

What I pointed out was the relentless news coming out about all the dangers of supplement use, essentially priming our legislators to take the power to take care of ourselves naturally away from us.  Well, finally, this news has surfaced which explains a likely reason why it may appear that those taking the supplements are less healthy.

What can I say….  Duh.  We all knew this already, but at least it is nice to see it in print.

http://missionviejochiropractic.com/?p=349

Well, I just received an email from a reader in Germany who found just the application I was looking for in the Android Marketplace and was so kind as to write back to me about his find.

This app is called “AMon” and has a trial ad-supported version as well as a paid version.  I tried the app and it works very well.  Originally, the app would dial out to a specified phone number after a threshhold noise volume level is triggered, however it was updated to now record the audio event to the onboard SD Card storage.

I urge anyone interested in knowing whether they are grinding or snoring or halting their breathing in their sleep to try this out.

By the way, sleep apnea is a serious situation requiring medical consultation, since it causes you to stop breathing in your sleep, then your heart races to try to keep the body oxygenated before you finally start breathing again.  When you are affected by this sleep behavior, you will do this repeatedly through the night, leaving you tired, mentally foggy, irritable, etc.  Worse yet is the potential damage that occurs over time to your heart (cardiomyopathy)

It is important to be vigilant in detecting breast cancer because early treatment correlates with a greater chance of beating it.  But some simple lifestyle changes will go a long way to avoiding cancer of all types. Things we all can do include:

Things to avoid:

• Avoid exposure to Plastics (xenoestrogens, such as phthalates and BPA). These chemicals mimic natural estrogen, which is a breast cancer promoter. So, stay away from food heated in the microwave in plastic containers. Switch to stainless steel and/or cast iron cookware and get rid of those coated non-stick surfaces and plastic cooking tools.

• Avoid Sugar. Stable insulin levels are critical in the prevention of cancer. A primary way to lower your insulin levels is to avoid sugar, especially fructose, as well as grains (even organic grains). Aside from causing insulin resistance, all forms of sugar also promote cancer. Fructose, however, is clearly one of the most harmful and should be avoided as much as possible.

• Avoid charred Meats. Charcoal or flame broiled meat is linked with increased breast cancer risk.  Acrylamide—a carcinogen created when starchy foods are baked, roasted or fried—has been found to increase breast cancer risk as well.

• Avoid unfermented soy products. Unfermented soy is high in plant estrogens, or phytoestrogens, also known as isoflavones. In some studies, soy appears to work in concert with human estrogen to increase breast cell proliferation, which increases the chances for mutations and cancerous cells.

Things to Add:

• Optimize your vitamin D levels. Vitamin D influences virtually every cell in your body and is one of nature’s most potent cancer fighters. Vitamin D is actually able to enter cancer cells and trigger apoptosis (normal cell death by “natural causes” and/or in accordance with the “normal cell aging schedule”). When JoEllen Welsh, a researcher with the State University of New York at Albany, injected a potent form of vitamin D into human breast cancer cells, half of them shriveled up and died within days. It was as effective as the toxic breast cancer drug Tamoxifen, without any of the detrimental side effects and at a tiny fraction of the cost. If you have cancer, your vitamin D level (plasma level, aka “blood level”) should be between 70 and 100 ng/ml. Vitamin D works synergistically with every cancer treatment I’m aware of, with no adverse effects.The best source of Vitamin D is by exposing your skin to safe amounts sunshine every day.

• Get plenty of natural vitamin A. There is evidence that vitamin A also plays a roll in helping prevent breast cancer.Beware of using oral supplements as there’s some evidence that vitamin A can negate the benefits of vitamin D. Since appropriate vitamin D levels are crucial for your health in general, not to mention cancer prevention, this means that it’s essential to have the proper ratio of vitamin D to vitamin A in your body.Ideally, you’ll want to provide all the vitamin A and vitamin D substrates your body needs in such a way that your body can regulate both systems naturally. It’s best to obtain Vitamin A from vitamin A-rich foods, such as  colorful vegetables, organic egg yolks, raw butter, raw whole milk, and beef or chicken liver, rather than a supplement.

• Drink a quart of organic green vegetable juice daily.

• Get plenty of high quality animal-based omega-3 fats, such as krill oil. Omega-3 deficiency is a common underlying factor for cancer.

• Take curcumin. This is the active ingredient in turmeric and in high concentrations can be very useful in the treatment of breast cancer. It shows immense therapeutic potential in preventing breast cancer metastasis. It’s important to know that curcumin is generally not absorbed that well, so to get the best benefit, add 1 tablespoon of pure turmeric (not curry powder as some have been shown to cntain very little curcumin) to 1 quart of boiling water and asslo it to continue to boil for 10 minutes.  Drink the cooled emulsion , but don’t store it as the turmeric falls out of solution over time.

Lifestyle changes:

• Exercise.  Getting regular exercise is crucial to overall health and is a known preventive factor in avoiding cancer.  In addition to helping to lower your insulin levels, exercise will improve the function of all body systems, including reduction of depression,  anxiety and improved ability to handle stress in healthy way.

• Maintain a healthy body weight. This will come naturally once you cut out sugar, fructose and grains, and start to exercise. It’s important to lose excess body weight because fat produces estrogen.

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much of the information above was borrowed from and  first presented in:
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/10/16/even-computer-technology-cant-help-mammograms.aspx?e_cid=20111016_SNL_Art_1

There are many in this economy that are taking their health into their own hands these days. It is important that we all consider keeping professionals involved, even if at a consultation level. There are mistakes that will be made so it is important that we are vigilant to recognize when such mistakes have serious negative potential. That said then, even as we filter such news for ulterior political motivation, we should be listening to the reports and news releases and take heed. For example, the quote below was part of a recent story and tries to indict supplements as being a big health threat. Truth is, it is as much an indictment of the medicines as the supplements – it just depends on which side you are on…

The review noted that many of the most popular herbal supplements in use today can result in serious side effects when used in conjunction with prescription medications.

Feverfew, ginger, cranberry, St. John’s Wort and ginseng, for example, reportedly interact with warfarin.

Other examples cited in the release include:

• Feverfew, ginger and gingko, which can interact with aspirin;
• Valerian, which can intensify anesthetics;
• St. John’s Wort, which can reportedly interact with immunosuppressive drugs and potentially lead to transplant rejection;
• Glucosamine, chondroitin and flavocoxid, which can affect clotting agents;
• Black cohosh, which can interact with tamoxifen; and
• Cat’s claw, which can interact with clotting agents.

Bottom line: You shouldn’t try to wing it. Keep the professionals on board with what you are doing, taking, etc.  It is for your own good. If too many of us ignore this responsibility, then the right to make these personal health decisons will be removed through legislaiton the way a parent disposes of a dangerous toy.

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As published in Nutrition, metabolism, and cardiovascular diseases : NMCD, 2011 Jul 27…
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Adding fiber may decrease the blood lipids after eating a meal as well as suppress the appetite. A great source of fiber is fresh ground flax seed. Not only does it have the general benefits of supplemental fiber, but it is a great source of Omega 3 fatty acids known to help reduce inflammatory response.

Different people will spin this news in different directions, of course, but I’d like to point out the basic chiropractic problem here. Why would one supplement with vitamin E?

Insurance? Already sick? Because you have a bad diet? Because you “heard it was good for…”

We already know what truly results in increased vitality and health. Let’s stop chasing shortcuts…

Instead, follow the tried and true healthy lifestyle approach:

1. Get appropriate sleep – too much or too little are both a problem

2. Eat a healthy diet – Get professional advice from Alison Hopkins at SOCMW.com on this subject.

3. Get regular exercise – Get some professional direction on getting the most out of your valuable exercise time from Morgan Gerhart at SOCMW.com

4. Maintenance – You don’t drive your car into the ground without maintaining it, and doing that to your body makes even less sense. Get an adjustment, massage, dental etc. (We don’t have a dentist in the SOCMW.com group yet, but I’m working on it.)

See me, Edward Harriott for chiropractic to restore your innate musculoskeletal balance and reset your neurologic “awareness of your position in space”. This is a known factor in maximizing and maintaining performance and function.

And, of course, Laurie Halperin or Peter Neurad (also at SOCMW.com) will both provide the most healthful massage you will find in South OC. The health benefits of “healing touch” have never been challenged.

5. Positive attitude – This requires some homework in learning how to manage stress in healthy ways, but Richard can certainly help with managing stress by using acupuncture to properly re-channel your inner life energy energy, what they call “Qi” in Chinese Medicine, for better healing and function.

These basic elements of a healthy lifestyle depend on one another. You need all of them.

This study looked at outcomes of the use of joint manipulation under anaesthesia  when post operative range of motion is severely limited after a total knee replacement.  In this procedure,  the scar tissue is torn free (but with no surgical incision) while the patient is unconscious.  The statistics reveal very good results.

Do you suppose there is any benefit if we were to do it without prior surgery, pain, hospitals, anaesthesia, rehabilitaiton…

: – )

http://www.orthosupersite.com/view.aspx?rid=87891

Apparently, All I have to do to determine if a person is at risk of becoming diabetic in tthe next five years is ta ask 3 questions:

1)  How much do you weigh?

2) How old are you?

3) Do you have any relatives who have diabetes?

This sounds real.  But the biggest thing I wast my patients to understand is, there is only one asnwer you have the  ability to change.  There are ways to beat this obesity problem.  Call me.  I know people who know people  :-)=====================

Three Questions May Peg Type 2 Diabetes Risk
http://www.medpagetoday.com/clinical-context/Type2Diabetes/28897

By Todd Neale, Senior Staff Writer, MedPage Today
October 05, 2011

MedPage Today Action Points

•    Note that this study was published as an abstract and presented at a conference. These data and conclusions should be considered to be preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.
•    Explain that a study found that being age 55 or older, having a body mass index (BMI) greater than 30, and having a family history of diabetes predicted a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes over five years, compared with those who were under 55 with a BMI less than 25 and no family history of diabetes.
•    Note that although the three-item tool was simpler than the seven-item instrument advocated by the American Diabetes Association, the two instruments were not directly compared in this study.

Review

ORLANDO — A simple, three-item instrument may be enough to accurately identify those individuals who are at high risk for type 2 diabetes in the next five years, researchers found.

Individuals who were 55 or older, were obese — with a body mass index (BMI) greater than 30 — and had a family history of diabetes had a 19.9% risk of developing type 2 diabetes over five years of follow-up, according to Harold Bays, MD, of the Louisville Metabolic and Atherosclerosis Research Center in Kentucky.

Younger individuals with a BMI less than 25 and no family history of the disease, however, had an almost negligible five-year risk (0.3%), Bays reported at the Obesity Society meeting here.

The three-item screener might have advantages over more established tools that use seven or more variables because it might be a less cumbersome way for patients to identify undiagnosed diabetes and start treatment, he said.

The simplified tool emphasizes that weight loss is an option that patients can use to reduce their risk of type 2 diabetes, Bays said.

“I think that’s a crucial message to be sent to patients,” he said. “It’s something that they can proactively address in order to reduce their risk of a serious disease.”

There are several algorithms available to estimate the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, including the American Diabetes Association’s (ADA’s) Diabetes Risk Test, which includes seven variables — age, race, family history of diabetes, obesity, physical activity, hypertension, and gestational diabetes.

To look at whether it would be feasible to simplify that score with just three variables — age, family history, and obesity — Bays and his colleagues turned to the Study to Help Improve Early Evaluation and Management of Risk Factors Leading to Diabetes (SHIELD), a five-year population-based survey.

A baseline survey was sent in 2004 to 22,001 adults in the U.S, with annual follow-up questionnaires sent through 2009.

From the respondents who were free from diabetes at baseline and provided information at the five-year follow-up, the researchers identified high-risk and low-risk groups according to age, family history, and obesity.

Overall, there were 290 high-risk individuals who were 55 or older, were obese, and had a family history of diabetes, and 408 low-risk individuals who were younger than 55, with a BMI less than 25 and no family history of diabetes.

Through five years of follow-up, 19.9% of the high-risk individuals reported developing type 2 diabetes, compared with only 0.3% of the low-risk individuals (P<0.0001).

In an interview, Peter Katzmarzyk, PhD, of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, commented that the simplified algorithm “would certainly expedite the identification of higher-risk patients for type 2 diabetes.”

However, the evidence is still preliminary, he said, and future studies should compare the discriminatory ability of the full ADA algorithm with the three-item tool and also test the proposed instrument in a more diverse patient population, as more than 90% of the participants in SHIELD were white.

“But I do think it’s a very good first step,” Katzmarzyk said.

Bays noted that if a clinician is not currently doing any assessment for type 2 diabetes risk, then whether the simplified tool is inferior or superior to the full algorithm is irrelevant. Those using the full model should probably keep using it, he said, but those who are not using anything might be motivated to start using the simpler option.

Bays and colleagues noted that the analysis was limited in that the diagnosis of diabetes and other conditions was self-reported, and because household panels like SHIELD tend to under-represent very wealthy and very poor populations and do not include military personnel or institutionalized individuals.

The study was supported by AstraZeneca.

Bays reported being an adviser for AstraZeneca.

Katzmarzyk reported that he had no conflicts of interest.

Primary source: The Obesity Society
Source reference:  Bays H, et al “Adiposity, age, and family history as a simplified prediction of future diabetes mellitus from the SHIELD study” OBESITY 2011; Abstract 810-P.