Category Archives: Disease

Overeating and Liver Damage

In an article published in the March 31-April 1 issue of New Scientist, writer James Kingsland talks about how overeating and the obesity epidemic are causing more and more people to be diagnosed with liver disease. If I asked you what the leading cause of cirrhosis of the liver was you would likely say alcohol. Guess again. Some may say hepatitis but that would be wrong also. Obesity is the leading cause of a diseased liver in most affluent nations.

Other interesting tidbits include:

  • 5-10 percent of Americans have liver disease.
  • 2/3rds of them have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).
  • Four cups of coffee a day seems to reduce the risk of NAFLD!
  • Children are now being diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver.

One interesting finding is that liver disease, in early stages can be reversed by changing dietary habits. The key is to eat healthy (less fat and simple carbohydrates) and exercise. I would add that taking the herb milk thistle and the amino acid glycine (1-3 grams daily) would greatly improve liver health.

The one thing that annoyed me about the article was the talk of developing drugs to fight off liver disease. I can see it being critical in late-stage disease where liver transplantation is the only option but you know that pharmaceutical industry will market the hell out of the drug instead of making people change their lifestyle. What I did like was the last quote of the article from Dr. David Jones is “I put the fear of God into them, then I send them off to buy a heart rate monitor and to exercise. I tell them it’s the best £50 they’ll ever spend. And patient after patient comes back with normalised liver function tests. They feel a lot better, the tiredness goes away. It’s quite extraordinary.”  Advice well given.

Heart Attacks – Where You Live May Impact Your Heart

My friend James Larsen sent me a article from the HealthDay website which reports that where you live may have an impact on the chance of having a heart attack. Coming from the February 16th, 2007 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, researchers looking at the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System found that living in West Virginia had a three-fold higher rate of heart attacks than living in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Other findings included:

  • Men had higher rates of coronary heart disease and non-fatal heart attack and angina than women (8.2 percent vs. 5 percent).
  • Asians had the lowest rates of heart disease (4.7 percent), while American Indians/Alaska Natives had the highest rates (11.2 percent).
  • People with less than 12 years of education had a higher heart attack rate than those with a college degree.
  • The states with the highest heart attack rate were – Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia.
  • The states with the lowest heart attack rate were – , District of Columbia, Hawaii, Montana, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, Utah, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
  • People with type 2 diabetes, smokers, hypertension, were physically inactive or obese were also more likely to have a heart attack.

While not earth shattering news, hopefully this data will help public health officials focus on heart health issues in those states with the highest incidence. Another real good idea to lower someones risk is to get checked out by you physician or if you are up to it, get a cardiovascular risk assessment done through Direct Lab Services. Ask them for the LabAssist Interpretive report as well to get the most information possible. Bottom line though, take an active role in your health and you’ll live a happier and healthier life.

Adult versus Embryonic Stem Cells – Is there a difference?

I know this is a volatile issue but I think we need to at least clarify why there is a need for embryonic stem cells (ESC) versus adult stem cells (ASC). Whether you feel that it is a moral issue or not, the bottom line is that ESC is superior because you can generate vastly more cells with them as opposed to ASC.

Human embryonic stem cells are known as pluripotent, which means they can become any type of cell in the body. The same cannot be said for adult stem cells. You may object to using ESC due to religious or personal beliefs but it is wrong to delude the public, which the present administration has done, that ASC is just as good. It isn’t.

My concern is that other nations, more scientifically enlightened than the U.S. will further the research, come up with the technology to make ESC work, and we will be left behind. The present administration has continually thwarted real science advancement because of religion. I am not in any way, shape, or form an atheist but I do believe in a separation of church and state. If our country is to continue to be the leader of the free-world, we need to change the way we approach science.

If you believe that we should not use ESC, then I respect your opinion. If the majority of people in this country believe that we should not use ESC, then we should not use them. That is simply not the case though as the majority of Americans are for the use of embryonic stem cells. What we should not do is lie to the American people and tell them ASCs are as good. It isn’t true, and it isn’t science.

Weekly Nutrition Update

Beneficial Effect of Green Tea Extract on Serum and Cardiac Lipids – Aside from its known benefits in protecting you against cancer, turns out green tea extract (GTE) helps improve your lipid makeup which may help reduce the risk of developing cardiovascular disease.

Policosanol Supplement Found Ineffective in Altering Serum Lipid Profile – While other studies have suggested that policosanol was as effective as statin drugs in improving serum lipids, this study suggested otherwise. A few possible reasons that the results were different

  • is that this study only looked at individuals with mild hypercholesteremia
  • the doses (20 mg/d) were too low
  • the study was too short (8 weeks)

Reduced Form of Coenzyme Q10 – Ubiquinol – Found to be Highly Bioavailable and Safe at Doses up to 300 mg – A complaint from traditional medicine is that nutrients are not tested for safety at high doses. Here is yet another study that begs to differ with that assessment. I have always recommended 100 mg per day of CoQ10 in split doses and here we see safety at three times that amount. Taking CoQ10 should be part of everyone over the age of 40’s regular regime and 100-200 mg’s minimum if you are taking stating drugs.

Dietary Supplementation with Flaxseed Oil May Lower Blood Pressure in Dyslipidemic Men – If you have high blood pressure and have a poor LDL to Total Cholesterol ratio, start taking flaxseed oil. Of course this shouldn’t be the only thing you do (lower your weight, exercise and eat better) but it seems to be a good step in the right direction based on this study.

Dietary Treatments that Raise Low HDL Cholesterol Levels – While this study suggests that soy protein isoflavones are beneficial in raising low LDL levels, it was the additional mention of adding multivitamins to the mix that caught my attention.

Consumption of Trans Unsaturated Fats may Increase the Risk of Ovulatory Infertility – As if we needed another reason to ban trans fats, here is yet another. Given the fact that infertility is at an all time high, is it any wonder that trans fats are being implicated. Taste over sanity I guess.

Low Levels of Coenzyme Q10 May Be Linked to Migraine Headaches in Children and Adolescents – Supplementation with CoQ10 May Help – This one caught me off guard but it did suggest that CoQ10 may be beneficial in treating children with migraines. From what the earlier study showed, adding 50-100 mg’s of CoQ10 is a safe protocol to try out.

Thioctic Acid (Lipoic Acid) May Be Effective in Preventing Migraine Headaches – In this small study lipoic acid was shown to be beneficial in preventing migraine headaches. One interesting thought is that according to Dr. Andrew Cutler , lipoic acid is a good chelator of mercury from the brain which may explain its benefits here.

Supplementation with Omega-3 Essential Fatty Acids May Improve Psychological Well-Being in Patients with Recurrent Self-Harm – Long known for psychological benefits, this is just another in a long string of positive studies on the benefits of Omega-3 fatty acids.

Supplementation with Calcium + Vitamin D during a Weight-Loss Intervention May Enhance the Beneficial Effect of Weight Loss – You should know my opinion of vitamin D by now so if you need more information and research on its benefits, here is yet another study showing additional benefits not reported previously.

Childhood Trauma and Adult Disease – The Link

Many of us in the healing arts know that trauma suffered while a child, like beatings and molestation can have ramifications down the road. What this study done by researchers at King’s College in London shows is a real definitive link between childhood trauma and adult diseases like heart disease.

What these researchers found was people who were physically or sexually abused, or physically rejected by their mothers at a young age had significantly higher levels of the inflammatory marker C-reactive protein in their blood. What Dr. Andrea Danese said was “Inflammation is a natural response to physical trauma such as cutting yourself or getting an infection, but psychological stress can also trigger inflammation, because stress is really the anticipation of pain.” What constant stress seems to do is inhibit a child’s ability to produce the hormone glucocorticoid which helps the body turn off the inflammatory response.

As Andrew Steptoe noted about the study: “They have elegantly connected childhood stress to a real adult risk of disease.”

Statins and Telomere’s – A Study Worth Listening To

As many of my readers may know by now, I am not the biggest fan of statin drugs, especially in light of the excellent book by Dr. John Abramson, Overdo$ed America . But I must admit there is some data showing benefits of taking this drug in some cases. Now, researchers may have found a key indicator which can target the drug use to the right people and not just trying it on everyone.

Published in the January 13, 2007 issue of the British medical journal The Lancet , authors Brouilette, Moore, and McMahon, et al, report that middle aged men with shorter telomere lengths benefit the most from statin treatment. Telomeres are the ends of chromosomal DNA. While not fully understood, these strands seemingly are involved in the maintenance of cellular stability. As they get shorter, your cellular biologic clock winds down and your cells begin to die.

Basically the authors propose that testing for leukocyte telomere length is advisable given the data they uncovered. I would not oppose such an idea but I’m sure the harmaceutical (spelling is intentional) industry would object because it might lower the number of users and cut back on their ridiculous profit margins.

One side note; wouldn’t it be smarter and more logical to lead a healthier life in the first place, taking adequate supplements, especially omega-3 fatty acids, b-complex nutrients and other life enriching compounds that to wait until you need artificial drugs to prop up an unhealthy body?

Imagine a Cancer Drug That Kills All Cancers. Too Bad You Can’t Get It.

Imagine if you will that there is a drug that would kill almost any type of cancer, has very few side-effects and is relatively cheap. Actually, you don’t need to imagine it as it does exist and it’s called dichloroacetate or DCA. The problem is no pharmaceutical company will touch it because they can’t patent it and they can’t make ridiculous amounts of money on it. So much for compassionate corporations eh?

What DCA does is cause cancer cells to switch from using glycolysis to generate energy back to using the mitochondria for energy production. This causes the cells to revert from their immortal cancerous state where they commit suicide (apoptosis).

One problem with the drug is that it changes the way researchers need to look at cancer. Instead of being caused by a genetic mutation, they would have to change their point of way and admit that metabolism can spark cancer. My old mentor told me that the real definition of cancer is the abnormal growth and rate of growth of cells. Nothing more, nothing less. Unfortunately, cancer research is a big business and imagine the problem that would arise if we had a simple and inexpensive answer to many cancers? Lots of jobless researchers I guess.

After reading about this drug in the British journal New Scientist last week I think we need to change the name of drug companies from pharmaceuticals to harmaceuticals. The tag fits them better.

Followup – Your Cat May Make Your Schizophrenic

A recent posting of mine talks about the link between behavior, particularly schizophrenia and infection by the parasite Toxoplasma gondii. Modern psychiatry has long thought the schizophrenia was either an imbalance of chemicals in the brain or something your mother did to you as a child. In a special edition of Forbes Magazine out now, Dr. E. Fuller Torrey associate director for laboratory research at the Stanley Medical Research in Chevy Chase, Maryland, talks about how this nasty parasite may be the cause of schizophrenia in a large number of cases.

What truly amazes me is that the idea of a microbe causing this devastating brain disorder is not recent. A matter of fact the journal Scientific American published an article entitled “Is Insanity Due to a Microbe?” in 1896. Yes, 1896, over 111 years ago! Very few medical journals are publishing this kind of information which is a shame.

For people suffering with this disease, you need to demand that your physician look into the possibility of Toxoplasma gondii as being the cause of your disorder. Make them look at an antibody test for the parasite. This could be the breakthrough many people have been looking for.

Monthly Nutrition Update

Starting today, I will be reviewing the most important papers each month (in my opinion) from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition . The first issue, Volume 85, Number 1, has a number of excellent studies.

Risk Assessment for vitamin D by Hathcock, Shao, Vieth, and Heaney – In this review article, the authors believe that vitamin D is much safer than previously thought. While high doses are dangerous, 800 I.U.’s daily for adults and 400 for children seem to be safe (higher levels were deemed safe but I like to keep things a little saner).

Normal-weight obese syndrome: early inflammation? by De Lorenzo, et al – The authors of this study propose that people with normal weight but high fat content (>30%) are at a higher risk of becoming obese than those with lower fat levels. They further report that adipose tissue (fat tissue) harbors more pro-inflammatory cytokeines which leads to a greater risk of being obese later in life. This seemingly makes the case that an increase in exercise and a lowering of body fat is protective against obesity especially among younger people.

Supplementation with calcium + vitamin D enhances the beneficial effect of weight loss on plasma lipid and lipoprotein concentrations by Major, et al – When going on a weight loss program, the addition of calcium and vitamin D helps to improve your lipid profile (cholesterol, HDL and LDL).

Folate and vitamin B-12 status in relation to anemia, macrocytosis, and cognitive impairment in older Americans in the age of folic acid fortification by Morris, Jacques, Rosenberg and Selhub – This excellent study shows that when vitamin B-12 is deficient, high folic acid was associated with anemia and cognitive impairment. When B-12 was normal, folic acid was associated with protection against cognitive impairment. This means that a balance between the two nutrients is as important as having enough of either one. Two assess your levels of these two nutrients, I suggest a urine Organix test from MetaMetrix . The two markers are FIGLU (folic acid marker) and Methylmalonate (B-12).

Carbohydrate intake and HDL in a multiethnic population by Merchant, et al – Basically, the bottom line of this study was the suggestion that decreasing the intake of sugar-containing soft drinks and juices as well as snacks would be highly beneficial to improving you blood fat profile.

This Weeks Nutrition Update

Inverse Association between Serum Methylmalonic Acid Levels and Cognitive Function in the Elderly – Elevated methylmalonate in urine is a strong marker for vitamin B12 deficiency. In this study, there was a strong relationship between vitamin B12 deficiency and poor cognitive function in elderly subjects. Due to poor gut performance as we get older, it is not surprising to see this outcome. Supplementation with a good multivitamin/mineral is recommended.

Higher Total Folate Intake May Reduce the Risk of Alzheimer’s Disease in Older Persons – This study looked at the relationship between dietary intake of vitamins B6, B12, and folic acid and found that only folate intake was related to an increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. While there may be no causative relationship, I would certainly hedge my bet by supplementing with a high-quality B-complex.

Long-Term Folic Acid Supplementation Improves Cognitive Function in Older Subjects – Another well done study that seems to suggest the real value of folic acid and brain function in the elderly.

Higher Dietary Intake of Heme Iron and Red Meat May Increase Risk of Coronary Heart Disease in Women with Type 2 Diabetes – Women with Type 2 Diabetes should think twice before having that steak or hamburger. Lowering your dietary intake or red meat to once or twice a week seems highly prudent. Also, make sure any supplements you take contain less than 15 mg of iron in a daily dose. In addition, the next time you go to your physician for a checkup, make sure he looks at your iron level when he orders a blood test for you.

High Dose Zinc Supplementation May Negatively Affect Certain Aspects of Urinary Physiology – While zinc is an important trace mineral, this study suggests, and I concur, that over supplementation may not be beneficial. 40 milligrams a day is adequate but testing your levels would be the smartest thing to do. an RBC mineral test from Doctor’s Data or MetaMetrix is the best way to assess your mineral levels.

Serum Uric Acid Levels Associated with Risk of Incidence of Hypertension – Uric acid is one of your body’s top antioxidant compounds. When it becomes elevated, I believe that your body is telling you it needs help in protecting itself from oxidative stress which can lead to hypertension. Adding a broad spectrum of antioxidants like vitamin C, E, selenium or Acai (OptiAcai only) is the best way to go.

Supplementation with the Probiotic Lactobacillus Reuteri May Improve Colicky Symptoms in Breastfed Infants – Adding probiotics are an excellent way of helping colicky babies get relief. You can get it in a powder form from your local health food store (make sure it is refrigerated).

For more information about these studies and others like it, go to the Clinical Pearls Database .