Avoid type II Diabetes, part 3:

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In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.

Today's post: Monday, 7-31-2006

Avoid type II Diabetes, part 3:

Author Jean Carper, PhD says that diets high in saturated fat from animal sources tend to trigger type II diabetes.

Large studies of whole countries & other population groups show that people who eat diets of 5 to 7 percent saturated fat by calories tend to have much lower rates of heart disease than those with more or much more saturated fat in their diet.

So, to avoid type II diabetes & heart disease, we suggest cutting the amount of saturated fat in your diet.

Today & tomorrow’s post have ideas on how to do that.

One way is to substitute beans & nuts & wild caught fish & some whole grains & nonfat & 1% fat dairy products for all meat & poultry.

Another is to only eat meat & poultry that is 100 percent grass or range fed. (If the animal or bird is grass or range fed most of their life & then fattened up or “finished” by feeding it grain just before it’s killed & made into food, it is more humane for them; but the health benefits to you drop sharply as the saturated fat content will rise as they are grain-fattened.)

And, eating grass fed & range food meat & poultry works best to cut your saturated fat intake if you eat meat or poultry twice a week or less instead of once a day or more.

Another strategy that works is to substitute extra virgin olive oil for butter all or 95 percent of the time.

Extra virgin olive oil has other health benefits & is about 14% saturated fat by calories. Butter & butterfat is about 70 to 75% saturated fat by calories -- or about five times as high.

If you remove baked potatoes, which are high glycemic index foods, & french fries, which are a higher glycemic index food & are often cooked in transfats, from the average American’s diet, the average American eats one serving of vegetables a day or less.

If you stop eating baked potatoes & french fries & eat two or more servings of nonstarchy, low glycemic index, vegetables each day, you’ll be less fat & the percentage of your diet that’s high in saturated fat will fall as you’ll tend to be full enough you’ll eat less of the foods that are high in saturated fat.

In addition, eating that many “real” vegetables each day cuts your risk of heart disease according to a recently reported study.

Avoid type II Diabetes, part 2:

Welcome to our health & self help blog.

In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.

Today's post: Friday, 7-28-2006

Avoid type II Diabetes, part 2:

1. Recent research confirms that eating mostly or all low glycemic foods is the best diet to use to lose excess fat & keep it off.

This is also the best way to eat to avoid type II diabetes -- both because being fat tends to produce it as we listed in yesterday’s post & because these foods place the lowest demands on your body’s glucose processing system. They don’t tend to overload it like eating a lot of foods that have high glycemic indexes.

So, what’s low? Low is 40 or less. 40 to 66 is somewhat low to medium. 66 to 79 is moderately high to high. And, 80 or more is very high.

What foods are 40 or less?

Low starch vegetables. Beans. (Lentils are very low.) Nuts. Fish. Other seafoods. Eggs. Grass fed beef & buffalo. Avocados. Extra virgin olive oil.

Even with their lactose (carbs) skim & 1 percent lowfat milk are low.

And, some fruit. (Cherries are quite low. Peaches, nectarines, & plums are also low.)

Also, you can make a meal low in two ways. By eating your lowest glycemic index foods first & in larger quantity than the higher ones.

And, you can also mix lower glycemic foods with higher ones.:

Oatmeal is somewhat higher than 40 & the easy to fix or “Quick” kind is in the 60’s. But you can add a bit of 1 percent lowfat milk; some unsweetened, pitted sour cherries; & some walnut halves -- & it not only tastes better & has more nutrients, this mix has quite a bit lower glycemic index (likely below 40 even for “Quick” oatmeal.)

PS: If 60 to 80 percent of your food has a glycemic index of 40 or less & you do enough of both aerobic exercise & strength training each week, AND your blood glucose & HBA1C readings are in the desirable range, adding some whole grains & higher glycemic index fruits & vegetables & even occasional treats, it’s quite likely you can add these foods & still escape triggering type II diabetes.

2. Simply permanently delete high fructose corn syrup & transfats from your diet.

They are directly bad for you & both of them may directly trigger type II on its own.

In addition to that, people who drink & eat foods with high fructose corn syrup take in a lot more calories they wear as excess fat.

And, the foods like pastries & crackers etc that tend to have transfats are also high or quite high in their glycemic index.

So by deleting these two food categories, you’ll be less fat. And being fat tends to trigger type II diabetes as indicated in yesterday’s post.

Avoid type II Diabetes:

Welcome to our health & self help blog.

In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.

Today's post: Thursday, 7-27-2006

Avoid type II Diabetes:

Treating your muscles well can get the job done by itself in many cases. And it always helps if you do it right.

Recently, Medscape had a report about developing drugs to build muscle mass & keep your muscles healthy as a way to lose excess fat & stay healthy.

Here’s a quote from that article.:

“Skeletal muscle has been a potential target for antiobesity therapies because it constitutes about 40% of body mass and is an important site for uptake and oxidation of both glucose and fatty acids.

In obesity, fatty acid metabolism in skeletal muscle is compromised, culminating in the accumulation of intramyocellular lipid, which is associated with insulin resistance and is a marker for the development of type 2 diabetes.”

Simply put or translated into layperson’s terms:

Healthy muscles help you process sugars & other carbs & fats of all kinds.

The more muscle mass you have & the healthier your muscles are, the better that works.

And, getting too fat tends to screw that up at the cellular level within your muscles.

Who knows? Maybe the researchers at the drug companies will come up with something that works, is safe, keeps working even if you take it a long time, & at a price you can afford.

But, WHY WAIT ???

Strength or weight training already does that job & does it well.

Even a single set of a list of ten or so basic weight training exercises done in 20 minutes twice a week with a day of rest in between can sharply increase your muscle mass if you make a moderate effort or greater each time.

And, doing that & some aerobic exercise each week will make your muscles much healthier even if you are still fat.

(Of course if you do regular strength training & cardio each week & keep doing it & start eating only health-enhancing foods & eliminate transfats & high fructose corn syrup & cut back on animal based saturated fat foods, being fat can & will be temporary.)

Studies do show that fat people who exercise are much healthier than skinny people who don’t.

And strength training does help normalize your body’s blood sugars.

In fact, one man found that when he did strength training three days a week with some intensity for about an hour, his blood glucose measures went from a level indicating type II diabetes to normal. And, they remained there as long as he continued his strength training.

It’s my understanding that people with advanced or severe type II diabetes should get their blood glucose levels under control with monitoring, eating better, & drugs -- before adding strength training or intense or prolonged aerobic or cardio exercise.

Since such blood sugar levels are damaging to the body & at such severe levels your body stops responding normally to exercise & since taking appropriate drugs & going from a horrible eating style to a healthy one work so fast, that seems reasonable to me.

But if you don’t yet have that level of problem blood sugars yet or you’ve gotten them under control with drugs, etc, one of the best ways to keep your insulin resistance & blood sugars in the healthy range is exercise and particularly strength training.

If you want to avoid type II diabetes & stay healthy in many other ways, be sure to do strength training every week.

And, if your life is hectic, or during the weeks it’s very hectic, remember, even 20 minutes twice a week of strength training makes a huge difference to your health.

An informed & useful view of soy foods:

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In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.

Today's post: Wednesday, 7-26-2006

An informed & useful view of soy foods:

Most of today’s post is by UltraMetabolism author Dr. Mark Hyman.

He does NOT address the two objections that I raised in saying why I did not include it as a Superfood as others have done.

But he does make quite a number of points I think you should know if you already like or eat soy foods or are considering it.

In fact, his points about what kinds of soy foods to eat & why are extremely valuable.

So if you eat soy foods or think you might, here’s his article.

(I edited out a few things that were not soy related from his email that I got. But all of his key points about soy are here & are exactly as they were in his email.):

**************

Scan some media reports and surf the Internet…. and
you're bound to come across scary claims like:

- Soy will give you breast cancer...
- Soy formula is dangerous to babies...
- Genetically modified soy foods may modify you...
- Soy foods block your thyroid function...
- Soy prevents the absorption of minerals and blocks
digestion...
- Tofu causes Alzheimer's disease.

Let me clear things up for you.

I have reviewed reams of research and many claims for and
against soy foods.

What have I discovered?

Well, there's some good news and some bad news.

From the studies available, I can tell you that soy is
neither as good as the proponents say, nor as evil as the
critics claim. I wish we had more convincing science to
report, but we don't.

The key is to take all the available evidence together and
see what shakes out. I have done that for you.

If you want an excellent, unbiased, scientifically sound
review of all the relevant human data on soy, I recommend
reading the 100-page report from the Agency for HealthCare
Research and Quality entitled, "The Effects of Soy on Health
Outcomes" (www.ahrq.gov), which reviewed thousands of
studies based on rigorous criteria for scientific validity.

Its conclusion was this: There is no evidence of
significant benefit or harm based on the quality of evidence
that exists today.

So what's a confused consumer to do? Give up on soy until
we know for sure? Or chow down on soy nuts?

Don't panic.

To me, there ARE some things we do know about soy, both good
and bad.

First, you should know that the amount of soy used in many
of these studies was much higher than what we normally
consume -- the average dose of soy was equivalent to 1 pound
of tofu or 3 soy protein shakes a day.

That's a lot of soy!

Most people just don't eat like that. So when you read
negative things about soy, remember that many of those
claims are based on poorly designed studies that don't apply
to real-world consumption.

You could apply that thinking to other studies, too -- like
those that show that broccoli contains natural pesticides or
that celery is high in toxins. Sure, those foods might cause
you some problems -- but not in the amounts that most of us
eat. The same is true for soy.

Now I'd like to talk to you about 4 common claims about soy.

==> "Soy causes breast cancer."

Because soy foods contain natural plant compounds (called
isoflavones) that appear to work like hormones, some people
worry that they could increase hormonally driven conditions
like breast cancer.

But that doesn't seem to be the case.

In fact, research findings suggest just the opposite:

- All population studies (studies of groups of people) of
soy either show reduced breast cancer risk or no effect.

- The only studies to show increased cancer risk are on mice
with no ovaries or damaged immune systems and who eat high
amounts of processed soy.

- Studies in mice WITH ovaries and functioning immune
systems show inhibition of tumor growth.

- Mice studies may not reflect the effect of soy on humans
(in case you didn't notice, mice and humans are not the same
species).

- High breast tissue density is linked to a higher risk of
breast cancer. Breast tissue density increases with estrogen
replacement, but decreases with isoflavone consumption in
postmenopausal women. That's a good thing.

- Eating soy foods at an early age (childhood and the teen
years) appears to have a significant protective effect
against breast cancer.

If you really want to reduce your risk of breast cancer,
drink less alcohol and eat less trans and saturated fats -
all of these compounds may raise risk in high amounts.

If it's a choice between chicken nuggets and tofu, I
recommend tofu!

==> "Soy formula could harm a baby's development."

Some 20 million infants have used soy formula since the
1960s -- but some people are concerned that the isoflavones
it contains could affect a child's growth and reproductive
development.

Yet the only large, long-term study on humans, published in
the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that
there were no major health differences in 811 men and women
between the ages of 20 and 34 who had been fed either soy or
milk formula as infants.

More recently, a report issued this year by the National
Toxicology Program Center for the Evaluation of Risks to
Human Reproduction concluded that there just isn't enough
human or animal data to say for sure whether soy formula
harms a baby's developmental or reproductive health.

So what should a mother do?

First, breastfeed if at all possible, for as long as
possible -- ideally until your child is one year old.

If that's not possible and you have to use soy- or dairy-
based formula, don't beat yourself up about it. If there are
any risks, they are likely to be very small. Hopefully,
continuing research will shed more light on this question.

==> "Soy is a thyroid poison."

I think this claim makes a mountain out of a molehill. Yes,
there's no doubt that soy can affect your thyroid gland --
the real question is, how much does it take?

If you've read that soy is bad for your thyroid, you're
probably reading claims based on a few poorly-designed
studies that have been blown out of proportion.

Instead, consider this:

A recent review of the research published in the journal
Thyroid found no significant effects of soy on the thyroid -
- except in people who are iodine deficient, which is rare
in this country.

Another well-designed study in the American Journal of
Clinical Nutrition studied the effect of realistic amounts
of soy protein on hormones, including thyroid hormone. It
found that soy had no significant effects on these hormones.

Based on my assessment of this and other research, I am
convinced that normal amounts of traditional soy foods pose
no risk to thyroid function.

==> "Fermented soy is better than non-fermented soy."

Now here's a claim that DOES have some basis in fact.

That's because soybeans -- along with other beans, nuts, and
seeds -- contain compounds called phytates, which bind to
minerals inside your body and contain some potentially
harmful compounds.

The Asian cultures that have traditionally consumed soy
typically ferment it first. This process breaks soy down and
makes it easier to digest. Plus, fermentation adds extra
nutrients and probiotics ("good" bacteria) to soy.

For these reasons, I prefer fermented soy foods, like miso,
natto, tempeh, tofu and some brands of soy milk.

So, should you eat soy?

My answer is YES -- but with two very important guidelines:

Guideline #1: Say YES to whole, real soy.

The Okinawans are the world's longest-lived people, probably
in part because of their diet. For more than 5 millennia,
they've eaten whole, organic and fermented soy foods like
miso, tempeh, tofu, soy milk, and edamame (young soybeans in
the pod). One to two servings a day are fine.

Guideline #2: Say NO to processed soy.

That includes soy protein isolate and concentrates,
genetically engineered soy foods (typically made from
Monsanto's Roundup soybeans), soy supplements, and soy junk
foods like soy cheese, soy ice cream, soy oil, and soy
burgers. They don't have the thousands of years of
traditional use that whole soy foods do, are processed, and
contain unhealthy fats and other compounds.

I have real concerns about THESE types of soy.

Yes, good human studies on soy are limited -- but those we
do have suggest that soy may help lower cholesterol, prevent
cancer, increase bone density, protect the kidneys of people
with diabetes, and relieve menopausal symptoms like hot
flashes.

Here are some things I want you to remember about soy:

1. The dangers of soy are overstated (and the benefits may
be, too).

2. We eat FAR too much processed soy (and processed foods in
general). Stay away from those in your diet including soy
protein concentrates or isolates, hydrolyzed or textured
vegetable protein, hydrogenated soy bean oil, non-organic
sources of soy, and soy junk food like soy cheese and ice
cream. Don't eat them.

3. Whole soy foods can be a source of good quality protein
and plant compounds that help promote health.

4. Eat only organic soy -- stay away from genetically
modified versions.

5. Replace soy oil with olive oil, fish oil, nuts, and
seeds.

6. Breastfeed your child. I prefer that no one feed dairy
or soy formula to their babies, but if you have to, try not
to worry about it.

7. Don't worry about soy's effect and breast cancer if you
eat it in the forms and amounts I recommend. It has even
shown to protect against breast cancer if you start eating
it at a young age.

8. The effects on the thyroid are not significant or
relevant unless you are deficient in iodine (which you can
easily get from eating fish, seaweed or sea vegetables, or
iodized salt).

I'm eager to see more research on the effects of soy on our
health. But as we wait for more studies, there's no need to
pass up this healthful and delicious food.

To your good health,

Mark Hyman, MD

UltraMetabolism Media LLC
45 Walker Street
P.O. Box 1810
Lenox, MA 01240
http://www.ultrametabolism.com

2 Ways to turn off migraines:

Welcome to our health & self help blog.

In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.

Today's post: Monday, 7-24-2006

Ways to turn off migraines:

Here are two ways to do it. And, one of them can work almost instantly in many cases !!

1. Get regular exercise.

2. Physically relieve excess stress.

Each one by itself has worked for many people. My strong suspicion is that doing both will work or improve things a lot for almost everyone who now has migraines.

1. Why do people who exercise regularly tend to not get migraines?

As we’ve covered, regular cardio or aerobic exercise in particular tends to both increase your ability to be stressed without reacting or over-reacting to it & to physically relieve stress that is excessive.

So, doing cardio or aerobic exercise several times a week each week tends to help do the second of these two things.

In addition, it tends strongly to keep your blood vessels healthy, strong, & flexible & able to respond to changes without distress.

And, it provides your brain & its cells or neurons with an optimum supply of oxygen.

My strong suspicion is that both of these benefits of exercise work directly to prevent or minimize migraines.

2. Physically unrelieved excess stress tends to produce over-tightened & “clenched” blood vessels that tendsto not wear off or relax normally.

So, when extra stress or something that affects your blood vessels in a way that causes them to expand quickly or to tighten even more, it’s small wonder that pain results.

I accidentally found out that people who take beta blockers to relieve high blood pressure often simply stop having migraines.

In later posts I’ll cover a way to get this result without drugs that has been proven to work.

And, that method can help people who have blood pressure too low to take beta blockers &, unlike beta blockers, it doesn’t keep you from strongly responding when that’s actually desirable.

Beta blockers work by relaxing your blood vessels & acting like a shock absorber & governor to mellow out & calm your heart rate.

So, if you are too tense & have unrelieved stress, it can help a lot. But it can also hold you back at times when you prefer it didn’t since the effect is basically “always on.”

But if you do have slightly high or higher blood pressure & have problems with migraines, consider asking your doctor about trying a low dose or a full dose of a beta blocker.

The low dose is less likely to produce side-effects & may be enough to get the job done for you, so try that first, unless your doctor recommends more.

(If your blood pressure is high enough, he or she may so recommend & prescribe a second kind of blood pressure reducing medicine also.)

Taking a beta blocker can be a fast way to get started & get fast relief for your migraines.

Then, you can begin to do the things that make the drug unnecessary but which take longer to work.

Or, if you hate drugs, be sure to exercise & work to relieve your stress in other ways.

More: Why & how to avoid high homocysteine....

Welcome to our health & self help blog.

In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.

Today's post: Friday, 7-21-2006

More: Why & how to avoid high homocysteine levels:

Dr Allen Josephs is one of the best-informed of the current eNewsletter writers on supplements & nutrition.

In addition to high blood levels of homocysteine speeding aging & triggering or causing cardiovascular disease, he includes here that high blood levels of homocysteine also play a role in causing:
1. pregnancy problems;
2. “neurodegenerative disorders” – including Alzheimer’s disease;
3. depression;
4. & and “even vision problems.”

Sounds like something you’d like to stay well away from right?

In addition to recommending you get your levels tested once a year, he also includes what he recommends to his patients who find they have high or above optimum homocysteine levels.

Here’s his article from his www.vitacost.com newsletter.

(I deleted his paragraph about the history of our discovering that high homocysteine levels were damaging. And, I added some extra paragraphing to make some key points easier to read. But the words are otherwise exactly as they appeared in his article.)

How's Your Homocysteine? Get Levels Checked to Protect Heart Health

By Allen S. Josephs, M.D.
President, Vitacost.com

May 25, 2006 - Homocysteine is an amino acid naturally produced by the body as a byproduct of the digestion process. Elevated blood levels of homocysteine are believed to be linked to complications in cardiovascular, and other areas, of health. Proper nutrition, with vitamins B6, B12 and folic acid, are important for maintaining healthy homocysteine levels (and improving cellular metabolism). You should also be sure to have your levels checked by a health care provider every year.

This week's newsletter concerns the amino acid, homocysteine.

There has been a large body of medical literature in the last 15 years documenting that moderately elevated homocysteine levels appear to be an independent risk factor for not only occlusive arterial disease, but also venous thrombosis as well.

Elevations of homocysteine have also been associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes including spontaneous early abortion and birth defects.

Additionally, elevations in blood homocysteine appear to be an independent risk factor for neurodegenerative disorders, actually functioning as a neurotoxin.

It should be noted that the formation of homocysteine is part of normal cellular metabolism of the amino acid, methionine.

Homocysteine is then further metabolized, either by attaching additional methyl groups or by a process known as trans-sulphuration. The remethylation of homocysteine is directly dependent on vitamin B12 as a co-factor and folic acid as a substrate. The trans-sulphuration pathway leading to cysteine involves two reactions that both require vitamin B6 as a co-factor.

The reason homocysteine levels increase is related to several factors. It appears that as we age, homocysteine levels increase.

Other factors that can lead to elevation in homocysteine levels include: lower nutritional intake, reduced kidney function, smoking and high alcohol intake. There are certain individuals who have a predisposition toward elevations in homocysteine level.

In an article published in the May-June 2006 edition of the American Journal of Geriatric Cardiology, 172 elderly individuals underwent coronary angiography to investigate the influence of age and coronary artery disease on homocysteine levels1. The subjects were divided into three groups, those between 65 and 74 years old, 75 to 79 years old and 80 years and older. It was found that for each mmol per liter increase in homocysteine level there was a 7% increase in risk of coronary artery disease. Hyper-homocysteinemia (with levels over 14) were said to constitute an independent risk factor for coronary artery disease with a risk ratio of over 100%. There was a relative progression of homocysteine levels between the young old and the oldest old.

In the June 2006 edition of the Journal of Nutrition, Dr. Selhub, from the Vitamin Metabolism Aging Laboratory of Tufts University, discussed the many facets of hyper-homocysteinemia looking at studies from the Framingham data2. It is indicated that data from several studies suggest mild elevations of homocysteine in plasma were risk factors for occlusive vascular disease and that total plasma homocysteine concentrations were inversely related to the intake of plasma levels of folate and vitamin B6 as well as vitamin B12 plasma levels.

Almost two-thirds of the prevalence of high homocysteine was attributable to low vitamin status or intake.

In another article published in FEBS Letters from May 2006, it was noted that numerous studies in recent years investigated the role of homocysteine as a cause of brain damage3. It appears that homocysteine or folic or vitamin B12 deficiency can cause disturbed methylation and/or redox potentials, thus promoting calcium influx, amyloid and other abnormal protein accumulation leading to neuronal death.

In another study published in the journal Coronary Artery Disease June 2006, 88 patients with typical/atypical symptoms of angina underwent coronary angiography4. Half of these patients had angiographically proven coronary slow flow and 44 individuals had normal coronary flow patterns. It was found that plasma homocysteine levels and thickness of the carotid arteries in patients with coronary slow flow were found to be significantly higher to that of controls. Authors of this study suggested that the findings suggested possible disturbance in metabolism of homocysteine in patients with coronary slow flow may have a role in the pathogenesis of this phenomenon by causing generalized atherosclerosis.

Other studies have linked elevated homocysteine to depression and even vision problems.

There have been some recent studies in the medical literature questioning whether homocysteine is a true independent marker and risk factor for cardiovascular disease or something that develops after-the-fact. The debate is ongoing. There does seem to be more evidence suggesting that elevations in homocysteine do act as an independent neurotoxin to the brain.

Proper nutrition, with vitamins B6, B12 and folic acid at much higher than RDA/DV levels, will help promote healthy homocysteine levels and improve cellular metabolism. Other nutrients that have shown benefit for producing healthy homocysteine levels include trimethyl glycine (TMG) and N-acetyl cysteine (NAC).

I strongly recommend you have your doctor test your homocysteine levels on an annual basis. The ideal level is under 7 mmol/L.

I recommend folic acid at 800 mcg to 10 mg per day, B6 at 50 to 100 mg per day and B12 in the active methylcobalamin form at 500 mcg to 5 mg per day range. Contrary to popular belief, using this form and dosage of B12 in capsules will provide blood levels similar to a B12 injection without the need for a sublingual.

If this combo is not sufficient to reach your desired homocysteine level, I recommend adding 600 mg of NAC and 2,000 to 3,000 mg of TMG per day.



(Dr Josephs doesn’t mention that taking B6 of over 100 mg a day as a total from all sources produces nerve problems in some people. My suggestion is to limit B6 to 50 mg a day from all sources.

And, at www.wholhealthmd.com in their library section I found some info that suggests it may be a good idea to use higher doses of NAC only as a temporary measure.)

More on why to avoid high fructose corn syrup:

Welcome to our health & self help blog.

In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.

Today's post: Thursday, 7-20-2006

More on why to avoid high fructose corn syrup:

Dr Mark Hyman is an expert on how to eat to stay well & has a new book, Ultrametabolism, which has his take on how to use eating foods like the Superfoods we listed to take off excess fat & keep it off.

Yesterday, he sent an email to me as someone on his list with some great info & additional reasons to avoid high fructose corn syrup.

In addition take making you fat & maybe triggering type II diabetes, his information indicates high fructose corn syrup also causes heart disease !!

Ouch !!

He also has some ideas on avoiding it that may include some you can use.

His email was so well done, I’ve decided to post the key part of it here for you to read.

(He has a website, www.ultrametabolism.com if you’d like to find out more about him & his book.)

Here’s his info:

"…. on high fructose
corn syrup (HFCS)….":

"Even if you've never heard of HFCS, you've almost certainly eaten it. This highly processed, chemically altered sweetener was created by a Japanese scientist in a lab in
1971 and has been used in almost all processed and prepackaged foods ever since.

HFCS consumption has skyrocketed in the last 25 years, up a whopping 1,000 percent since its creation. And no wonder! You'll find it in everything from soft drinks and yogurt to cookies and crackers. In fact, HFCS now represents more than 40 percent of the caloric sweeteners added to foods and beverages.

Is it a coincidence that this country's obesity rates have more than doubled during that time period? I don't think so!

HFCS is bad for your health -- and your weight -- in several ways.

First, you'll usually find large amounts of HFCS in energy dense foods -- those that are high in calories but not much else. That's just another name for foods that are processed,
junk, and high in refined carbohydrates and sugar.

And we know that when people eat energy dense food, they tend to take in more calories than people who eat higher amounts of what I call nutrient dense food.

That's because nutrient dense food gives you more bang for your nutritional buck. For example, the classic energy dense beverage, a soft drink, weighs far less than a pound of
asparagus but has a lot more calories.

So if you eat a plant-based, whole-food diet of fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, seeds and whole grains, you can eat a lot more and weigh a lot less! (Not to mention avoid nearly all the age-related diseases like heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and dementia.)

Of course, the obesity epidemic has many causes, including reduced levels of physical activity, increased portion sizes, eating outside the home and at fast-food restaurants,
and our overall "toxic food environment." But we do know that the introduction of HFCS into the food supply is associated with the beginning of the obesity epidemic.

Don't believe it?

Well, consider this: Even a slight difference of an extra 100 calories a day can add up to a 10-pound weight gain in just one year. And the average American drinks 440 12-ounce
cans of HFCS-laced soda each year!

The second reason that HCFS is bad news for your waistline and your health?

It makes you eat MORE!

Yes, you read that right. HFCS actually increases your appetite. Here's how.

Regular table sugar is 50 percent glucose and 50 percent fructose, while -- as its name implies -- HFCS is 55 percent fructose and 45 percent glucose. Doesn't seem like a big difference, but it can have HUGE effects on your appetite.

When you eat fructose, it doesn't set into motion the chemical reactions and hormones that tell your brain you are full. For instance, fructose doesn't stimulate insulin
secretion or the increase in leptin (the hormone that makes you feel full). While glucose is transported into the brain, affecting brain signals that control or limit
appetite, fructose is not.

Plus, fructose doesn't reduce ghrelin, a stomach hormone
that stimulates appetite. And fructose may also decrease
adiponectin levels, which is a hormone made by fat cells
that helps make you more sensitive to insulin and helps
control your weight and appetite.

What does all that mean? Simply put, when you eat more
fructose you don't feel full -- so you keep eating!

Finally, HFCS isn't just bad for your weight, it's bad for
your health in general.

Here's an undisputed medical fact: You can survive on an
intravenous drip of glucose. But replace the glucose with
fructose, and you'd get a fatty liver.

That's because fructose is the source the chemical building
blocks of cholesterol and triglyceride production. And
fructose just isn't digested, absorbed, or metabolized in
the same way as glucose. Instead, it goes right to your
cells without the help of insulin.

The result? Fructose moves right into fat production -- so
it spikes your triglycerides but lowers your HDL ("good")
cholesterol. It also increases your levels of small, dense
LDL (called LDL-B) cholesterol, which is much more dangerous
than regular LDL ("bad") cholesterol.

The science is clear: Fructose consumption is associated
with insulin resistance, increased calorie intake, impaired
metabolism, weight gain, high cholesterol, and high blood
pressure.

And there's one more problem: The corn used in HFCS is
typically genetically altered -- it has 13 carbon molecules,
not 12. And we have no good long-term data on the effects of
eating all that altered corn!

By now, you can probably guess my bottom line: Avoid high
fructose corn syrup!

Easier said than done? Not necessarily.

Take these steps to reduce your intake:

1. Minimize your intake of all sugars, whatever the source.

2. Remove sweetened drinks ("liquid candy"), including sodas
and sweetened fruit drinks.

3. Eat a whole-food, real-food diet with plenty of
vegetables, fruits, beans, whole grains, nuts, and seeds and
healthy fats like olive oil and fish oil.

4. When you do use sugar, choose natural sweeteners such as
those found in fruit. (Yes, fruit contains fructose, but
it's also rich in antioxidants, fiber, and other healthy
compounds.) Or try agave nectar, a natural sugar that your
body may metabolize better.

5. If you see a food with "high fructose corn-syrup" on the
label, put it back on the shelf. You will be doing yourself
a favor.

If you weren't aware of HFCS and its potential risks before,
you certainly are now. I hope you'll use this new awareness
to improve your diet -- and your health.

To you and your good health,

Mark Hyman, MD

Aim for LOTs of Cardio.

Welcome to our health & self help blog.

In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.

Today's post: Wednesday, 7-19-2006

Aim for LOTs of Cardio....

There are three reasons to aim for LOTs of cardio or aerobic exercise each week.

1. People who get over about 1200 to 1500 calories of it each week, have much higher levels of the most heart protecting fraction of HDL than people who don’t.

2. People who get over about 1200 to 1500 calories of it each week begin to lose -- or never gain -- excess tummy or abdominal fat, which is the most health threatening or damaging kind.

3. If you usually get that much, on a bad week where events outside your control keep you from most of your aerobic exercise, you’ll still likely do more than the more modest amount Dr Ken Cooper found protective against stress & to make you more stress resistant.

In addition, you’ll be fit enough from your previous aerobic exercise of that amount each week, that some of it will carry over even if you completely lose that week’s exercise in a real emergency situation.

1. Dr Peter Wood at Stanford investigated the effect of exercise on the beneficial fraction of HDL & found that people who got over 1200 to 1500 calories each week of aerobic exercise got that boost. And, that people who got 1,000 or less got far less of this benefit.

He studied runners. But I can attest to this effect for people who use more sustainable kinds of aerobic exercise as I got very high HDL levels in large part from doing that much exercise on my NordicTrack each week.

2. More recently, I read a report of a study that showed that that much aerobic or cardio exercise each week trimmed off abdominal fat.

This is very health protective. And, this is one of the few reports I’ve read of anything that does that successfully.

Would you like to be less fat? This will help.

Welcome to our health & self help blog.

In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.

Today's post: Tuesday, 7-18-2006

Would you like to be less fat? This will help.

Stress is a proven fattener.

Make it your highest priority to keep your perceived level of stress in the low to low moderate range most of the time.

Research shows that people who feel stressed tend to eat more & more often; eat more sugar; eat more fats; & eat more "treat" foods than people who enjoy lower stress levels.

(And, recent studies have been released showing that this is particularly true for women.)

People who lose fat & keep it off successfully know this & do something about it.

There are three ways to do this.:

1. Cut the amount of stress in your life:

Overcome the challenges that stress you that can be overcome; & take massive action to escape severe challenges that you cannot overcome.

Prevent new stresses.: Make prudent choices; & always take safety precautions to escape horrible stresses IN ADVANCE, when you possibly can.

2. Improve your stress tolerance.: Find & use everything you can to increase the level of challenge & hassle you can handle without feeling stressed.

3. Physically relieve & turn off your stress reactions even when you are stressed.

All the effective ways to do these three things would fill many books. And they do. Find some & read them.

But here’s a secret few know that will help you.

THE single most doable & effective method known to do parts 2 & 3 - increase your ability to throw off & endure stress -- & to physically relieve stress, is to do regular exercise every week.

This was one of the key findings of Dr Kenneth Cooper, when the U.S. Air Force commissioned him, as an MD with an expert knowledge of exercise its affect on physiology, to study why exercise benefits people.

He found that the people he studied who got regular exercise each week & who included a minimum of cardio exercise, or aerobic exercise (to use his term for it) each week, simply felt less stressed when stressful things happened & handled it better than those people who did not get the regular exercise.

And, this was true for both sudden stress & for chronic stress over longer periods of time.

There are several reasons for this.

1. Many people find that their mind gets unplugged from focusing on small & medium sized stress when they do an aerobic exercise like walking or running or swimming or exercising on a Nordic Track. And, they do these things long enough each time, this often turns off their physical stress reaction & temporarily relieves it.

(And, the people who don’t do the exercise, don’t get the stress relief.)

2. People who get this kind of exercise regularly have lower resting heart rates & have trained their hearts to recover from extra work much more quickly than people who don’t get the exercise.

So, when the people who exercise are stressed their heart rate goes up less or recovers to normal faster, likely both. And, these two things help the people who exercise to feel less stress & think better when stressed & also help them recover from stress more easily.

3. And, regular exercise also has two easy to miss but profound affects on your self- esteem.

If you exercise regularly, every week, then every week, you do something on purpose that you set yourself to do; & you usually do it successfully.

In addition, you always have recent memories that you have overcome mild or moderate difficulties successfully. And, in the case of cardio or aerobic exercise, you’ve often done so for a somewhat prolonged period of time & successfully persisted as long as the time or distance you set.

So, even without you realizing it, you are much more likely to see yourself as proactive, able, & able to persist in the face of difficulty.

This increases your self confidence at least somewhat that you can find solutions to, & succeed in overcoming, the stresses you face. So you see them as more manageable & feel less stress.

(And, it also helps that people who exercise regularly are more likely to remove or escape from the things that stress them since they are more likely to try solutions & persist in doing so than people who don’t exercise, precisely because of this shift in self-esteem.)

4. People who do a minimum of aerobic exercise each week have better blood flow to their brains. So, not only do they think better most of the time, when they are under stress, they tend to think a LOT better than people who don’t exercise.

Why? Because perceived stress tends to reduce blood flow to exactly the thinking & creative parts of your brain you most need to think clearly & overcome the challenges that are stressing you.

So what seems to happen is that in people who exercise regularly, they are more likely to have some ability to think clearly & solve problems even when under stress than people who don’t because they have enough better blood flow they can still think at least some while the people who don’t exercise, get enough less blood flow, they have less self-control & problem solving ability.

**************

In future posts, we’ll have information on ways to get into exercise, how exercise effectively & safely; & how to succeed in continuing to exercise regularly.

And, we’ll have a LOT more about how incredibly beneficial to you it is to exercise.

A powerful new way to protect your health.

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In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.
Today's post: Friday, 7-14-2006

A powerful, & as yet under-used, way to protect your health.

*Are you yet aware that there are now multiple & measurable indicators of your current & future health available to you?

Do you know that getting these measured at least once a year & taking action to put those not in the desirable zone where they should be, is often critical to your continued good health?

If your readings on one of these measures is in the danger zone, your doctor very probably knows to work with you to get your reading out of the danger zone. But, too often in today’s system, that measurement may not happen until your health has already been harmed.

Even worse, such readings really do justify prescribing effective drugs to get you out of the danger zone. But these drugs have side effects. Some people even die from the drugs they take. And, their real dollar cost is very high even if you don’t seem to be paying full price.

And, the follow up doctor visits many people taking these drugs then do multiple times a year, cost money & eat up a lot of your time.

What is not common knowledge yet is that getting a battery of these measurements done regularly & knowing how to improve your less desirable readings without drugs -- & doing it -- will both profoundly protect your health & help you avoid getting into the danger zone with all its dollar costs & inconvenience & real risks.

Your blood level of homocysteine that we discussed in yesterday’s post is one of these measurements.

(Here’s a correction & addition to that post.:

First, here’s the actual study title of the article I read on Medscape.

Heart Outcomes Prevention Evaluation (HOPE) 2 -- Homocysteine Lowering in Stable Chronic Vascular Disease
ACC 2006:

And, here is their technical version of the fact that the researchers are totally convinced that higher homocysteine levels tend to cause heart disease & that the higher the level of homocysteine, the greater the damage.:

"Homocysteine continues to be regarded as a possible marker of CVD risk -- and one of the follow-up studies from HOPE explores whether lowering serum homocysteine levels will have beneficial effects on that risk."

"Numerous experimental studies have shown that homocysteine increases oxidative stress, causes endothelial dysfunction and vascular injury, and enhances thrombogenicity. They have also demonstrated that there is an independent and graded association between homocysteine and cardiovascular risk. Epidemiologic studies suggest that mild-to-moderate elevations in plasma homocysteine concentrations are associated with increased risk of atherothrombotic cardiovascular disease."

This study reported the group given extra B vitamin supplements B6, B12, & folic acid, had 12.9 homocysteine levels vs 13.2 for the placebo group.

This is a correction since I had remembered that the group given the B vitamins still had above 13.0 & so stated in yesterday’s post.

My point in yesterday’s post is still accurate since the 12.9 is a reduction of 0.3 when to get out of the danger zone, to 9.9 say, a reduction of 3.0 on top of that is needed.

And, to get to a clearly safe level of 7.9 from the initial 13.2 a reduction of 5.3 was needed.

These reductions are 11 & almost 18 times as much as the reduction they found.

But, to get back to today’s theme, I think the quote from their study shows well that if your homocysteine level is high, you could be having your heart & blood vessels damaged by it.

And, if you are over 30 years old, or follow less than an almost perfectly healthful lifestyle with plenty of vegetables, exercise, & relief from higher levels of stress, it’s very probably over 10.0 now.

And, that level is NOT safe.

And, you have my very best wishes that you do not smoke & very rarely are exposed to second hand smoke. Both of these things sharply boost your homocysteine levels.

Why not have your homocysteine level measured?

If yours is high, you can take action to lower it. Next week we’ll post a bit more on how that can be done to add to the ideas in yesterday’s post.

The really expensive multiple testing that some people get each year does tell you & your doctor more than just the few most basic measures. And, it includes over 30 different readings.

But if you do the things that put the smaller number of key indicators we’ll list here solidly into the desirable zone, for almost all of you the important measures in the longer list will improve by that much also.

1. We’ve listed homocysteine & a bit about why it’s important in today’s & yesterday’s posts.

Here are some of the other most important key things to measure as they are indicators of good health or of potential future problems or current problems depending on whether or not they are in the desirable range, in the moderately dangerous range, or in the danger zone.:

These include:

2. HDL cholesterol. (High is better, well over 60. Readings under 40 are risky as are those much less than one fourth of your total cholesterol.)

3. LDL cholesterol. (Low is better, under 100. 130, where I discovered mine was, is moderately dangerous. And, readings over 160 are in the danger zone & will almost always get you a prescription for statin drugs if your doctor knows yours is that high.)

Bad readings on these first 3, homocysteine, HDL cholesterol, & LDL cholesterol are leading indicators you have or are getting cardiovascular disease. And, that can & does lead to high blood pressure, strokes, heart attacks, impotence, & peripheral artery disease bad enough to make walking too painful to do or amputation.

4. Fasting blood glucose.

& 5. Hb a1 c or HBA1C (which indicates your over-all average glucose level over the past 60 to 90 days.)

Keep your readings on these two indicators below the danger zone, below 110 & 6.0 abtwxzrbrespectively. Readings in the eighties or slightly lower & 5.5 or less are desirable.

These two readings can tell you if you are headed to or have type II diabetes. And, if you catch slightly high readings early, you can take action without drugs to escape getting type II diabetes. In addition, if you already are in the early stages of it & bring these readings down successfully with nondrug & drug methods, you may avoid the horrible effects that untreated type II diabetes causes.

Getting these two measured, if you do have type II diabetes & didn’t yet know it, can literally be life saving & can spare you things like going blind or having a foot amputated or getting fatal kidney damage or having a massive & fatal heart attack.

6. And, have your blood pressure measured every so often.

About 115 over 75 or 110 over 70 are close to ideal. Very low readings & a bit too high, like 138 over 86 & a LOT too high, over 160 over 100, are not

Readings of 160 over 100 & higher damage your heart & health & are very definitely danger zone readings.

Unfortunately, at this writing, doctors tend to mostly, & in some cases only, suggest these tests, if you develop scary disease symptoms.

This is quite literally being penny wise & pound (or ten dollar bill) foolish.

It’s a bit like only letting a driver see out of his or her windshield AFTER they’ve driven over a cliff.

My suggestion is to get these key factors measured once a year.

They are not like the shape of your foot or the length of your arm, where, barring serious injury, they stay the same indefinitely.

They tend to get worse as you get older unless you prevent it. And eating worse or exercising less, or being under more stress can cause them to get worse. Just like doing the reverse as we suggest here, tends to improve them.

The wonderful thing is that if the readings are bad & you take action that should help, you can then test after doing those things for two or three months & see if you are getting results.

Problem Solving -- for your good health:

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In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.

Today's post: Thursday, 7-13-2006

Problem Solving -- for your good health:

The right supplements can help & really good doctors can help a lot if you work with them right.

But these three practices are the foundation of good health:

*Eating right:

Many of you know that eating right virtually all the time helps keep you healthy & that eating the wrong foods will make you fat & sick if you do it enough.

(I hope the series we’ve run from 4-14 to 7-11, Tuesday earlier this week, on foods that actually help your health to eat & foods to eat less of or not eat & why has been useful to you & given you some ideas you’ve tried or will try.
And, this blog will keep covering news & ideas & resources to help you eat right.)

*Exercising & being physically active every week:

Many of you know that doing regular exercise & physical activities each week is incredibly beneficial in literally dozens of ways. Some of you know that doing NO regular exercise will tend to make you sick if you do no exercise long enough. And, most of you know that people who exercise enough are a lot less fat than similar people who do no exercise.

(Soon, we plan to do a post almost every week on some benefit of exercise or a new study confirming its health benefits & access to resources to help you exercise successfully.)

*Escaping & relieving excessive stress
-- & WITHOUT smoking, overeating, or over-using alcohol:

Do you feel more stressed out than you’d like? Most of us do.

What you may not know are the many reasons it protects your health to be able to turn down your level of stress when it gets too high &/or to physically relieve your stress if it is affecting you physically or emotionally.

And, most people do not know or never use the most effective techniques for doing these things.

(Soon, we plan to do a post almost every week with that information & tools that might work well for you to help you escape excessive stress or physically relieve it successfully & do it WITHOUT smoking, overeating, or over-using alcohol.)

The good news is that many, or even most, of you reading this know these things; but the bad news is you aren’t yet doing them.

Problem Solving.

In our future posts, we plan to keep making it easier & more likely for you to do these 3 things & reap the benefits.

But, if you aren’t yet doing them or doing them effectively enough to work well, something, an obstacle or problem of some kind, is holding you back.

Here’s a tip to get started. Ignore what you cannot yet do. Find things in that area you CAN already do & the ones you CAN already do to start removing the obstacle.

Do the ones most likely to work & the ones easiest for you to do that will clearly be helpful to get you started.

Then do those & keep expanding the things you are already actually doing.

One world-class expert who studied some of the most effective people in the world found exactly this.

He found the ineffective people saw the things they couldn’t do -- & then stopped there.
Ouch !!

The effective people saw the same obstacles & were just as unhappy with them.
Then they made a list or thought through what they could already do to get the results they wanted. Then they picked the ones most likely to work & the ones that were clearly helpful & easiest to do & did those.

That said, sometimes it can be incredibly helpful to know how other people have solved the problems you face & did it successfully. And, in many cases it can be critically helpful to know what techniques they used.

>>> What is holding YOU back?

If any of you reading this post have problems that are holding you back from eating right, exercising, or relieving stress,
please post a comment saying what they are.

I may know how to overcome them, & even if not, can likely point you in the right direction.

The value for me is that I can write future posts that you will find useful by knowing what is holding you back.

For your health, keep your homocysteine level LOW.

Welcome to our health & self help blog.

In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.

Today's post: Wednesday, 7-12-2006

To protect your health, keep your homocysteine level LOW.

Recently the Wall Street Journal said that B vitamins (folic acid, B-12, B-6, etc.) are "touted" for heart health, as they lower levels of the toxic amino acid homocysteine.

Then they mentioned a study that concluded that although the vitamins did indeed lower homocysteine, they did not lower heart attack risk.

This certainly sounds authoritative.

I t seems to suggest that homocysteine is not really that bad for your heart or that the vitamins are ineffective in lowering it or that homocysteine is more like smoke than a central component & that lowering it is like thinking that blowing away just the smoke will put out a fire.

Mercifully, thanks to my Medscape eNewsletter, I saw the actual study.

Every single one of the seeming implications of the study as the Wall Street Journal reported it is totally wrong.

Simply put, this reporting (& the editing of it) was not the Journal’s finest hour.

Suppose that you had a blood pressure reading of 230 over 110. (If you aren’t aware, this is about as dangerous as having your arm covered with gasoline & having it on fire. You can die of a stroke at almost any moment with blood pressure that high when you are at rest & not just temporarily exercising.)

Then suppose you saw doctor who put you on some medication that usually lowers blood pressure well in other people; but it only dropped YOUR blood pressure to 220 over 100.

What would you think if your doctor then announced that maybe this drug didn’t really lower blood pressure after all or that when you had a severe stroke it was because lowering blood pressure didn’t really help prevent them?

In fact, you, or your family’s attorney – if the stroke killed or incapacitated you, would have excellent ground for a massive malpractice suit !!

The reason is simple. Lowering blood pressure this high by enough to put it into even the high normal range of 140 over 90 IS protective. And, the drug was fine for the purpose it was prescribed. The real problem was two-fold. You were in enough jeopardy, you very likely should have had more done than just the one drug even initially. And, when your blood pressure failed to come down enough, more drugs or treatments were not only indicated, your survival depended on that being done for you.

In your case, the drug did work some; but you needed a LOT more done to put you into the safe zone.

The attorney would bring forth doctors who pointed out that the job of that doctor was to keep adding & experimenting until the blood pressure was low enough to be safe. And, that increasing the dose of the first drug & adding other drugs that lower blood pressure right away is what a competent & responsible doctor does in such situations. And, the attorney would stress that this doctor failed to do that.

This is exactly what happened in the study with homocysteine.

The doctors who did it, performed it because of the other studies that DO show that homocysteine does directly cause harm to your heart; & they say so right in the text describing the study. High levels of homocysteine are not a “secondary” indicator of problems. They help CAUSE the problems. (They also help trigger Alzheimer’s disease & age related mental decline, quite likely in part because the tend to trigger reduced blood flow to the brain.)

The group that was studied already had existing heart disease & homocysteine levels over 13.0.

(The level that seems to be safe & trouble free is 6.0 to 8.0. 10.0 or above begins to be harmful. And, levels above 13.0, as this group had, is clearly NOT likely to lead to freedom from heart attacks.)

The control group took the B vitamins OK it was reported. And, they still had virtually the same number of heart attacks, yes.

But what did they expect? In this group, their homocysteine levels were STILL over 13.0 !!

What the researchers ACTUALLY found, is that despite the fact that people with somewhat lower levels &/or who were initially in good health who add the B vitamins get a decent homocysteine levels decrease, in THIS group, there were enough other causes for the high level of homocysteine that were not yet being addressed, that the B vitamins alone were not enough to lower the level enough to be protective—or lower it very much at all.

One of the most important reasons to NEVER smoke cigarettes & make a strong effort to avoid second hand smoke is that cigarette smoke strongly INCREASES homocysteine levels.

To lower the levels in this group, you may well have needed to ensure they all no longer smoked or were around second hand smoke.

In addition, one of the causes of high homocysteine levels is that homocysteine is a byproduct of processing an amino acid that’s unusually high in meat & very low in plant sources of protein.

To lower the levels of this group initially you may well have needed to put them on a nearly 100 percent vegetarian diet or at least cut back their meat consumption by 90 percent.

Of the B vitamins, the most effective homocysteine lowering of the B vitamins is folic acid. The researchers did NOT double its dose & ensure the control group also ate a diet high in greens & other fruits and vegetables that are high in the natural form of folic acid & have other phytonutrients that may well be needed to make it most effective for lowering homocysteine.

(A more recently reported study did show that adding more vegetables to the diet DID reduce the incidence of heart disease, so this may very well be the case.)

They also didn’t check with the people knowledgeable about supplements for other supplements that lower homocysteine, or if they did, they didn’t add those to the B vitamins to get the homocysteine levels down enough to be protective in this group.

Methyl group donors seem to get the job done. The methyl form of B12 works better than the form in most vitamins, & the one likely used in this study. And, trimethylglycine, known as betaine, also works well.

They also didn’t add N-acetylcysteine (often called NAC), a form of the amino acid cysteine.

Here’s what is on www.wholehealthmd.com about N-acetylcysteine.:

“In some studies, NAC appears to significantly lower levels of Homocysteine and possibly lipoprotein(a), substances associated with an increased risk of heart disease.”

Lastly, they don’t seem to have addressed the stress levels the control group was experiencing or helped to lower it.

Dr Dean Ornish found that doing so IS heart protective; & it may well be that unrelieved stress above a certain threshold is harmful in part because it raises
homocysteine levels.

Clearly, if the researchers had added all these steps, they likely would have lowered the homocysteine levels in the control group below 10.0 or even lower; & even more certainly, the rate of heart attacks would have dropped sharply as many of these steps have that effect in addition to their homocysteine lowering effects.

The conclusion is that measuring your homocysteine levels is important. And continuing to take action until it’s 8.0 or below or 9.9 or below at worst is extremely important.

The Wall Street Journal reported this study in a way that many got the exact opposite impression.

To protect your health, it’s very important for you to know that those impressions are totally false.

And, as you’ve seen, a careful reading of the study by someone who is knowledgeable, indicates just that.

Get your homocysteine level measured & take action if it’s high.

(Unfortunately for your health it may well be too high. Check it & see.)

Foods NOT to eat -- part 3 D

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In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.

Today's post: Tuesday, 7-11-2006

Foods NOT to eat -- part 3 D

Foods to hardly ever eat or stop eating, part D

Your best choice is to simply substitute a Superfood you like for this group of foods.

But, if you are in good health & getting enough exercise, it’s probably OK to eat some of them a few times a year.

D. Full fat milk (sometimes called whole milk); Cream; & Butter.

Though not nearly as bad as transfats, these foods do tend to increase your bad LDL levels.

And, they cause other problems & tend even more to cause heart disease when they are subjected to high or prolonged heat.

Unfortunately many of the foods & recipes the United States inherited culturally came from Nothern Europe. And, when these foods were developed, many people died young before they could develop noticeble health problems; and people got a LOT more exercise including lots of daily walking; there was no summer air conditioning & the winter heating, which was badly needed in that climate, was of poor quality in most cases. Even worse, these populations had survived several hundred years of periodic famines.

And, they had a dairy cattle to draw from for fat calories & protein in their food.

With the partial exceptions of people who get an hour or more of vigorous exercise almost every day and those who are too poor to get decent heating in the winter, none of these conditions apply now.

But the foods & the recipes are still with us. Even worse, they are great recipes for making foods taste good.

To prevent uneccessary & avoidable heart & other cardiovascular disease, don’t eat these foods or don’t eat them more than about once a month. Never eat them in large quantities or more than twice a week.

And, make a strong effort to avoid cooking with Full fat milk (sometimes called whole milk); Cream; & Butter with high heat or for long periods of time.

Drink skim milk or 1 percent fat lowfat milk or eat another kind of food with protein & drink water instead of drinking Full fat milk.

Use 1 percent fat lowfat milk instead of half & half. (Most of the half & half I’ve seen sold recently is not half & half really as it has no milk in it & is simply light cream only.)

Then, in cooking, where you can at all do so, subtitute extra virgin olive oil for butter or cream.

And, if you need the taste of butter, use much less & add it melted quickly at a low heat AFTER the main cooking has been done if at all possible.

The second reason not to eat Full fat milk; Cream; & Butter is that they simply don’t have the health benefits of the health-enhancing Superfoods that do have some oils & fats.

Eat Superfood sources of fats & oils including nuts like Almonds, Walnuts, & Pecans as they are high in monosaturated oils, or the ALA precursor to Omega 3 oils; they are low in saturated fats; & they are low in other Omega 6 oils. In addition, they are high in sterols & fiber & heart health enhanching minerals like magnesium & in the amino acid l-arginine.

Extra virgin olive oil is a superfood since it is very high in monosaturated oil, low in saturated fats; & very low in Omega 6 & very high in antioxidants.

Avocados have a similar profile to nuts & extra virgin olive oil plus many other vitamins & minerals.

Wild caught salmon & sardines are high in Omega 3 oils. (They also tend to be lowest in mercury & other pollutants.) Properly refined fish oil supplements have Omega 3 oils & no pollutants as do DHA supplements sdrived directly from algae.

Each of these superfoods have multiple & proven health benefits.

Foods NOT to eat -- part 3 C

Welcome to our health & self help blog.

In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.

Today's post: Monday, 7-10-2006

Foods NOT to eat -- part 3 C

Foods to hardly ever eat or stop eating, part C

Your best choice is to simply substitute a Superfood you like for this group of foods.

But, if you are in good health & getting enough exercise, it’s probably OK to eat some of them a few times a year.

C. Non-Superfood oils that are high Omega 6 oils or have other problems.

Eat Superfood sources of fats & oils include nuts like Almonds, Walnuts, & Pecans as they are high in monosaturated oils, or the ALA precursor to Omega 3 oils; they are low in saturated fats; & they are low in other Omega 6 oils. In addition, they are high in sterols & fiber & heart health enhanching minerals like magnesium & in the amino acid l-arginine.

Extra virgin olive oil is a superfood since it is very high in monosaturated oil, low in saturated fats; & very low in Omega 6 & very high in antioxidants.

Avocados have a similar profile to nuts & extra virgin olive oil plus many other vitamins & minerals.

Wild caught salmon & sardines are high in Omega 3 oils. (They also tend to be lowest in mercury & other pollutants.) Properly refined fish oil supplements have Omega 3 oils & no pollutants as do DHA supplements sdrived directly from algae.

Each of these superfoods have multiple & proven health benefits.

So the first reason not to eat Non-Superfood oils that are high Omega 6 oils or have other problems is that they simply don’t have those health benefits.

Since most American’s now eat too much Omega 6 oils & too little Omega 3 oils, there is evidence they tend to be depressed more frequently than people who limit Omega 6 oils & get plenty of Omega 3 oils.

In addition, oils high in Omega 6 oils tend to lower HDL levels & produce dangerous byproducts, which I think include transfats, when they are heated.

So, oils like soy, corn, peanut, & safflower are simply not as good for you or will lower your HDL levels or tend to make you depressed.

And, when heated, they tend to cause other problems.

Cotton seed oils, in addition, are derived from a plant not intended for human consumption so they may contain pollutants more than the Superfood oil sources.

Canola oil is a special case as it has some ALA & is somewhat high in monosatured oils. But it is too high in Omega 6 oils in my opininion. But, if you use a small amount as a salad oil & never cook with it, it’s probably somewhat OK.

My recommendation is to stick with Superfood oils only—or at least 98 pecent of the time.

Foods NOT to eat -- part 3 B

Welcome to our health & self help blog.

In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.

Today's post: Friday, 7-7-2006

Foods NOT to eat -- part 3 B

Foods to hardly ever eat or stop eating, part B

Your best choice is to simply substitute a Supefood you like for this group of foods.

But, if you are in good health & getting enough exercise, it’s probably OK to eat some of them a few times a year.

B. Refined Grains.

People who eat a lot of refined grains tend to get a lot of illnesses & health problems.

Conversely, people who virtually only eat whole grains tend to not get these same problems.

Refined grains have their fiber, & often most of their nutrients & micronutrients, removed.

As a result, people who eat refined grain foods don’t feel full; & the sugar boosting effects of eating the refined grain foods tend to happen too quickly. (Their glycemic index is high.)

Then, unless the person eating the refined grains has also eaten a lot of vegetables & whole fruit at that meal & is getting a lot of regular exercise currently, the person will likely be fat & tend to develop type II diabetes & then heart disease etc.

Ouch !!

And, it’s actually even worse currently -- since the packaged & restaurant & bake shop foods that now contain refined grains also tend to have transfat in them.

And, people who eat lots of refined grain food may also get sick due to lack of key nutrients.

Would you like to avoid being fat & do it without getting hungry?

Would you like to prevent or help reverse type II diabetes & heart & related cadiovascular disease?

Great !!

Slam the door on eating refined grain foods more than once a month or so.

And, always choose foods otherwise that are whole grain foods only.

PS: In breads, cookies, & crackers, if it has wheat flour listed as an ingredient, & particularly if it’s the first ingredient listed, it’s a refined grain food. And, that’s true even if it is brown in color & has a whole wheat or healthy sounding name.

*****

If you prefer to eat refined grains often, then be sure to protect yourself by compensating for them.

Eat plenty of vegetable & fruit Superfoods daily & take a good vitamin-mineral supplement. And, get LOTs of regular exercise; & ONLY eat refined grain foods that are transfat free.

Foods NOT to eat -- part 3

Welcome to our health & self help blog.

In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.

Today's post: Thursday, 7-6-2006

Foods NOT to eat -- part 3

Foods to hardly ever eat or stop eating, part A

Your best choice is to simply substitute a Supefood you like for this group of foods.

But, if you are in good health & getting enough exercise, it’s probably OK to eat some of them a few times a year.

A. Hambuger.

You may have heard of the French paradox. The French eat more cheese & butter than Americans & have half the heart attack rate.

I was privileged to see a list of the total amount of various foods consumed country-wide in France & in the United States over a year’s time.

(The areas in France that ate the most cheese & butter had the highest heart attack rate & the areas that ate the least cheese & butter had the lowest heart attack rates. So, it wasn’t that eating lots of butter & cheese is good for you.)

The French drank a lot less milk & virtually always only drank skim milk & never drank whole milk.

And, they ate quite a bit more vegetables & garlic & drank more red wine.

Those things are all protective & helped to partially cancel out the effect of their higher cheese & butter consumption.

But the other shoe hasn’t dropped yet.

Something else was happening to cut their heart attack rate to half of what it was in the U.S.

It was hamburger. Americans ate huge quantities of the stuff. And, at that time, it hardly showed up at all in the French diet.

Some health writers now believe that grass fed beef in moderate quantities can actually have health benefits, which is why we listed it as an eat in moderation Superfood.

But in that year, virtually 100 percent of the hamburger Americans ate was grain fed to penned cattle.

This data very strongly suggests to me that anyone who wants to avoid heart disease & related diseases should be very moderate in their consumption of cheese & butter & either never eat the grain fed beef hambuger that is now sold in almost every corner of the U.S. – or, they should eat it only once or twice -- or maybe three times a year at most.

What if you really like hamburgers?

In that case, still consider eating them once a week or less.

And, make sure to eat them with lots of onions; use the leanest ground grass fed beef you can find &/or ground turkey breast & substitute some extra virgin olive oil to compensate for the lack of fat; add some diced, dried cherries to the pattie or use quick oatmeal in a meat loaf; & cook at a medium temperature only & NOT over a hot grill.

That set of things makes eating hamburger about five times safer or more according to the reports I’ve read.

So, there is a way if you really love hamburger to eat some. Just avoid overdoing it. And, simply stop eating the kind that that is most harmful.

Since the kind of hamburger that’s most harmful is cheap, that’s why many people have eaten so much of it.

So, if cost is a consideration, eating a lot less hamburger of better quality works well.

But even better are beans & lentils. Those are Superfoods with tons of extra health benefits; & they are far cheaper than the cheapest hamburger.

Foods NOT to eat -- part 2 cont'd/new transfats info

Welcome to our health & self help blog.

In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.

Today's post: Wednesday, 7-5-2006

Foods NOT to eat -- part 2 continued/new information on transfats….

(The foods to virtually never eat & why.)

Transfats, also known as partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.

Yesterday’s post had how they trigger heart disease in people who eat them regularly & some new information on how to avoid foods that have transfats in them.

Today’s news is exciting.

If you are eating lots of transfats now (& most Americans still do as of this writing),

>>> you may well be able to lose over 5 % of your bodyweight as excess fat without eating much differently –
by eliminating transfats & eating healthy oils like extra virgin olive oil instead. <<<<<

From Jon Benson in FitOver40 newsletter recently.:

“Daniel DeNoon from WebMD Medical News wrote a brief review on a Wake Forest University study dealing with trans fats, or partially-hydrogenated fractal oils that have been linked directly to heart disease due to their mutated biological structure.

From the WebMD article:

In the study, researchers fed 51 male vervet monkeys a western-style diet -- that is, 35% of their diet was fat. Half the monkeys got a lot of trans fat, totaling 8% of their diet. The other monkeys were fed unsaturated fats such as olive oil. Both types of diets were calorie-controlled. In theory, the monkeys should not have gained weight.

But they did.

Over six years, what would, in humans, be a 20-year span, the monkeys who ate unsaturated fats upped their body weight by 1.8%.

Those fed trans fats packed on 7.2%. In humans, that would be enough weight gain to significantly increase risk of diabetes and heart disease.”

So, eating transfats, also known as partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, very likely makes you considerably fatter than you otherwise would be.

And, 8 percent of calories as transfats is very close to what Americans who are uninformed about health & nutrition now eat.

So to my advice yesterday, consider adding healthful oils like extra virgin olive oil, nuts, avocados & fish like wild caught salmon to replace the fat you now eat as transfats.

My advice on snack foods yesterday was:

…. to substitute Superfood whole fruit or nuts or dark chocolate for 90 percent of the snack or treat foods you may have been eating that contain partially hydrogenated vegetable oils & with the remaining ten percent, choose only the new transfat & partially hydrogenated vegetable oil free versions.

That will give you snacks & treats without the heart & other diseases than come with eating partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.

Foods NOT to eat -- part 2 cont'd/new transfats info

Welcome to our health & self help blog.

In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.

Today's post: Wednesday, 7-5-2006

Foods NOT to eat -- part 2 continued/new information on transfats….

(The foods to virtually never eat & why.)

Transfats, also known as partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.

Yesterday’s post had how they trigger heart disease in people who eat them regularly & some new information on how to avoid foods that have transfats in them.

Today’s news is exciting.

If you are eating lots of transfats now (& most Americans still do as of this writing),

>>> you may well be able to lose over 5 % of your bodyweight as excess fat without eating much differently –
by eliminating transfats & eating healthy oils like extra virgin olive oil instead. <<<<<

From Jon Benson in FitOver40 newsletter recently.:

“Daniel DeNoon from WebMD Medical News wrote a brief review on a Wake Forest University study dealing with trans fats, or partially-hydrogenated fractal oils that have been linked directly to heart disease due to their mutated biological structure.

From the WebMD article:

In the study, researchers fed 51 male vervet monkeys a western-style diet -- that is, 35% of their diet was fat. Half the monkeys got a lot of trans fat, totaling 8% of their diet. The other monkeys were fed unsaturated fats such as olive oil. Both types of diets were calorie-controlled. In theory, the monkeys should not have gained weight.

But they did.

Over six years, what would, in humans, be a 20-year span, the monkeys who ate unsaturated fats upped their body weight by 1.8%.

Those fed trans fats packed on 7.2%. In humans, that would be enough weight gain to significantly increase risk of diabetes and heart disease.”

So, eating transfats, also known as partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, very likely makes you considerably fatter than you otherwise would be.

And, 8 percent of calories as transfats is very close to what Americans who are uninformed about health & nutrition now eat.

So to my advice yesterday, consider adding healthful oils like extra virgin olive oil, nuts, avocados & fish like wild caught salmon to replace the fat you now eat as transfats.

My advice on snack foods yesterday was:

…. to substitute Superfood whole fruit or nuts or dark chocolate for 90 percent of the snack or treat foods you may have been eating that contain partially hydrogenated vegetable oils & with the remaining ten percent, choose only the new transfat & partially hydrogenated vegetable oil free versions.

That will give you snacks & treats without the heart & other diseases than come with eating partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.