Saturated fats from carbs harm others do NOT....

Thursday, 8-28-2014

Saturated fats from dairy have odd numbers of carbons and tested to not cause diabetes problems and in and of themselves may not cause heart disease either.

However, when people eat too many carbs or fast ones, their bodies turn the sugars into saturated fats with even numbers of carbons.

Given the source, no surprise, those tend to go with type 2 risk.  And eating sugars and other high glycemic carbs boosts triglycerides which DO cause an increase in small particle LDL and heart disease.

I have seen some other evidence of this from other sources.  But that the two kinds of fats have different kinds of molecules is new information I’d not seen before.

Here’s the link to the Medical News Today story with that study.

Saturated fats' impact on type 2 diabetes risk 'varies across acids'

http://mnt.to/l/4pTt

The influence different fatty acids may have on type 2 diabetes risk may depend 

on whether they contain odd or even numbers of carbon atoms, according to a new 

study.

My comments and other related information:

I’m a bit conservative where high saturated fat intake from animals is concerned compared to some Paleo advocates.  So, I still eat beans and wild caught fish and nuts and mushrooms for much of my protein intake if not the majority of it. And, I’m in the process of adding enough greens which are high protein per calorie to boost my protein intake that way.

1.  But it is beginning to look as if much to most to maybe even ALL of the harm initially attributed to the saturated fat from animals was real enough.  BUT it came from the horribly inflammatory omega 6 oils from animals fed grains instead of their natural diets.  That means to avoid such foods or to only eat the most fat removed versions of them and NOT eat them often.   And, it looks likely that the saturated fats got a bad rap.  They were there; but they didn’t cause the bad effects it now looks like.

2.  Animal fats from animals fed grains that are high in omega 6; oils like soy, corn, and canola; eating a lot of or any significant amount of grains combined with low intake of omega 3 oils – particularly those from fish and other seafood causes dreadfully high inflammation which in turn causes heart disease and Alzheimer’s disease and contributes to causing cancer and making cancers more harmful.

3.  Both the DASH and Mediterranean diets avoid such fats from animals fed grains and get good health results.  The DASH diet uses nonfat dairy and light intake of things like skinless chicken breast and very lean cuts of meat from which all visible fats have been removed.

The more health producing versions of the Mediterranean diet tend to use nuts and fish and seafood and vegetables as their protein sources primarily and besides nuts and the omega 3 oils in wild caught fish to use extra virgin olive oil for their oil.

Both eating styles also stress eating LOTS of vegetables which have high protein per calorie and which have been shown to slash the death rate from all causes for those who eat enough of them every day.

4. Also, eating saturated fats in eggs from pastured hens and butter and cheese from cattle fed only grass and organic sprouts or hay and NEVER fed grains only boosts the protective HDL cholesterol.

That has certainly been my experience.  My HDL has gone from the 80’s to over 100 by adding these foods.  And, though I did do other things to get there, my triglycerides and LDL cholesterol dropped dramatically.  Clearly adding animal fats from animals fed their natural diet did NOT boost my heart risk!

5.  Also the health results of the Paleo people who eat far more meats than I do but only from naturally fed sources while slashing grains and sugars and eating a lot of vegetables have been quite good.

6.   The very worst track record for harming health is by eating processed meats often.  Most such meats sold currently are double harmful and their track record of producing harm reflects that.

They are high in fat from animals fed grains that is very high in omega 6 oils. And the very high levels of salt and other preservatives in them is also harmful

Most unfortunately, this includes bacon and sausage and pepperoni and salami and most hot dogs and lunch meats.  (I do allow myself bacon from time to time but just a few times a year! And, I hardly ever eat the others now that I know better.)

Omega 3 protects against too much alcohol....

Tuesday, 8-26-2014

If you drink at all or sometimes, you may drink way too much on occasion.

Some people do that at weddings and many do on New Year's Eve. (That's a great reason to stay home or at a motel so you are NOT driving then!)

But that can fry your brain enough to cause some lasting damage.

Wouldn't it be nice if you could have a way to cut that damage by 95%?

It seems that the same ways to get omega 3 in high enough amounts for good health do exactly that!

(This Medical News Today article was linked to another one that showed getting enough omega 3 oils for good health helped prevent all mental decline.

The way to get enough omega 3 includes eating wild caught fish or algae or plankton that is otherwise safe to eat and take purified omega 3 supplements from fish oil and DHA supplements. Eating walnuts is the best way to get the plant version of omega 3 if you aren't allergic.

To avoid excess inflammation, it also helps to avoid all oils high in omega 6 and as many sources of animal fats from animals fed grains instead of their natural diets because the grains are high in omega 6 oils.  And, for the same reason, it helps to avoid all GMO wheat,  refined grain foods; and eat nuts, beans, and vegetables for fiber; and eat far less of even whole grains.  Lastly, using extra virgin olive oil and eating raw, unsalted nuts and eating avocados, which contain the neutral monosaturated fats and each have their own health benefits too, works well to replace oils high in omega 6.

High inflammation is one of the biggest causes of brain and nerve damage; and lowering omega 6 in this way boosts the anti-inflammatory effects of getting enough omega 3 oils.)

The Medical News Today article featured today essentially says that moderate drinking nets out a benefit to the brain.  Excessive drinking harms the brain.  But if you drink excessively often or just on occasion, you can avoid much of the damage if you have a high enough omega 3 intake.

The solution is to always be getting enough omega 3 for good health, protection from excessive inflammation, and because it helps the exercise you do grow new nerve and brain cells to replace any you damaged.

Then, no matter when you drink overmuch, you have your protection already in place!

Here’s the link to the Medical News Today article and following it some key quotes from the article.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/265852.php?nx

“Fish oil could prevent alcohol-related dementia   Wednesday 11 September 2013

Omega-3 fish oil could help protect against alcohol-related dementia, according to a study presented at the 14th Congress of the European Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism in Warsaw, Poland.

The study, conducted by researchers from Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, analyzed brain cell cultures of rats who had been exposed to large quantities of alcohol.

In a previous study carried out by the same research team, it was discovered that moderate social drinking, defined as two alcoholic drinks a day for men and one for women, could reduce the risk of neuronal degeneration, a condition that frequently underlies dementia.

The research showed that small amounts of alcohol could improve the fitness of brain cells, by "toughening them up" to cope with stress later in life that could lead to dementia.

However, high amounts of alcohol were found to "overwhelm" the cells, leading to inflammation and cell death.

For this most recent study, the researchers assessed hippocampal and cortical brain cultures from rats that had been exposed to large quantities of alcohol - the equivalent to a human being four times over the legal alcohol limit for driving. [Mercifully few people drink that much and very few do it often.]

The cells were then compared with brain cells that had been exposed to the fish oil - omega-3 docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) - alongside the same large quantity of alcohol.

Results showed that the brain cells exposed to the combination of fish oil and alcohol showed as much as 95% less neuroinflammation and neuronal death in the brain cells, compared with the brain cells that were exposed to alcohol alone.

Michael Collins, of Loyola University Chicago and study author, explained the findings to Medical News Today:

"We quantitate the neuronal death caused by the binge alcohol, and find that the presence of DHA significantly reduces or suppresses the neuronal death as much as 95%.

The brain contains substantial levels of endogenous DHA in membranes that is reduced by the binge alcohol, and the supplementation prevents this loss. Also, there are certain critical 'neuroinflammatory' enzymatic steps that are thought to lead to the neuronal death, possibly by increasing oxygen free radicals, and while these are increased by the alcohol treatment, they are greatly reduced by the DHA cotreatment."  

Ways to be happier and less stressed....

Thursday, 8-21-2014

Medical News Today had two articles recently that listed doable ways to feel better and less stressed.

And, an article on Linkedin found that there were ways to lower stress that increased your ability to control what you do and be more effective at work!

No surprise, there is a good bit of overlap between them.  But I’ve listed each of them here with my comments and experience in using them.

1.  The first one had the information that doing things that help you feel good and focusing your mind on them and doing other things that boost the resulting dopamine helps you feel better.

Doing these two things gives you more of a feeling and the reality of having more resources to deal with the stresses and threats in your life.

a)  Periodically make plans and take actions that you expect will or might have good outcomes.

Anticipating good outcomes triggers good feelings.  So do this often.  (This tends to release the feel good neurotransmitter, dopamine.)

And, people who do this and try the actions often solve the problems and remove the stresses too!

b)   Take enough tyrosine, two 500 mg capsules first thing each morning seems to work, and eat well enough protein foods overall.  This was found to increase average levels of dopamine; and a study by the military found their people who did this were more resilient and able to deal with stress than those who did not!

c)  Watch for and be thankful for every time things go better than expected.  So do this often. 

Recently I read of a study that found people who did this in writing once a day cut their cortisol, an indicator of stress levels and a cause of adding belly fat by 23%.

(I finally did this myself today.

I wrote the big reasons I have to be thankful in a Word document.

Now, starting today, I list things going well today with the date and did a save as with the date.

That way I can review the big things and my last entry even if I’m too rushed to do more.

Some days that will have to be very brief or I may only have time to read the last entry.

But if I just open it almost every day, read the previous entries, and enter new things when I can, I think this will work!

Using the feel better routine, list reasons I am Thankful -- at least daily, and getting enough good sleep do the double of better performance AND less belly fat!

“Taking time to contemplate what you’re grateful for isn’t merely the “right” thing to do. It also improves your mood, because it reduces the stress hormone cortisol by 23%.”

[I find I know what I have to be thankful for and can easily write it down but had NOT yet made a daily habit of it.

That much cortisol reduction might help me lose an inch or two of belly fat!]

2.  I’ve listed the article from Linkedin and bolded some parts:

[My comments are in these kind of brakets.]

(That way as Linkedin did, I’ll give the author some positive exposure.)

How Successful People Stay Calm  August 05, 2014

The ability to manage your emotions and remain calm under pressure has a direct link to your performance. TalentSmart has conducted research with more than a million people, and we’ve found that 90% of top performers are skilled at managing their emotions in times of stress in order to remain calm and in control.

If you follow our newsletter, you’ve read some startling research summaries that explore the havoc stress can wreak on one’s physical and mental health (such as the Yale study, which found that prolonged stress causes degeneration in the area of the brain responsible for self-control).

The tricky thing about stress (and the anxiety that comes with it) is that it’s an absolutely necessary emotion. Our brains are wired such that it’s difficult to take action until we feel at least some level of this emotional state.

In fact, performance peaks under the heightened activation that comes with moderate levels of stress. As long as the stress isn’t prolonged, it’s harmless.

(Here a chart shows boredom, interest, excitement, optimum performance, a bit anxious, stressed, very anxious, and meltdown as a spectrum.)  

[So you want some stress, work to be mostly in the middle of that spectrum and have the more stressful stuff be intermittent with forced rest breaks if needed or add resources or help or manage a successful task to dial down the level at times.]

....research from the University of California, Berkeley, reveals an upside to experiencing moderate levels of stress. But it also reinforces how important it is to keep stress under control. 

The study, led by post-doctoral fellow Elizabeth Kirby, found that the onset of stress entices the brain into growing new cells responsible for improved memory. 

However, this effect is only seen when stress is intermittent. 

As soon as the stress continues beyond a few moments into a prolonged state, it suppresses the brain’s ability to develop new cells.

“I think intermittent stressful events are probably what keeps the brain more alert, and you perform better when you are alert,” Kirby says. For animals, intermittent stress is the bulk of what they experience, in the form of physical threats in their immediate environment. Long ago, this was also the case for humans. As the human brain evolved and increased in complexity, we’ve developed the ability to worry and perseverate on events, which creates frequent experiences of prolonged stress.

Besides increasing your risk of heart disease, depression, and obesity, stress decreases your cognitive performance. Fortunately, though, unless a lion is chasing you, the bulk of your stress is subjective and under your control. 

Top performers have well-honed coping strategies that they employ under stressful circumstances. This lowers their stress levels regardless of what’s happening in their environment, ensuring that the stress they experience is intermittent and not prolonged.

While I’ve run across numerous effective strategies that successful people employ when faced with stress, what follows are ten of the best. Some of these strategies may seem obvious, but the real challenge lies in recognizing when you need to use them and having the wherewithal to actually do so in spite of your stress.

1.  They Appreciate What They Have

Taking time to contemplate what you’re grateful for isn’t merely the “right” thing to do. It also improves your mood, because it reduces the stress hormone cortisol by 23%. 

Research conducted at the University of California, Davis found that people who worked daily to cultivate an attitude of gratitude experienced improved mood, energy, and physical well-being. It’s likely that lower levels of cortisol played a major role in this.

2. They Avoid Asking “What If?”

“What if?” statements throw fuel on the fire of stress and worry. Things can go in a million different directions, and the more time you spend worrying about the possibilities, the less time you’ll spend focusing on taking action that will calm you down and keep your stress under control. Calm people know that asking “what if? will only take them to a place they don’t want—or need—to go.

[This is where knowing Chess is so helpful.  To stay safe, you need to do some what if thinking.  Then if something could be damaging and may be likely or could be a horrible, below the water line kind of damage even if unlikely --  You do NOT say OMG, I couldn't handle that and stress over it, you say given that threat, 

I'll make this play to avoid it; 

and I'll make that one to minimize or recover from the damage if it happens.  

Then take action or mentally file it and go on to the next useful or enjoyable thing to do. 

Next!     is a great self-talk word when you get that done because you get more done and stop the worry and stress immediately once you get that far.  (Clint Eastwood as a director consistently produces movies on time and often under budget by knowing to say Next! at the right times!)

The worst case is to go to the OMG version and keep repeating it. Because doing that makes you ineffective, the stress continuous, and wears you out -- and can often cause depression.]

3. They Stay Positive

Positive thoughts help make stress intermittent by focusing your brain’s attention onto something that is completely stress-free. 

You have to give your wandering brain a little help by consciously selecting something positive to think about. Any positive thought will do to refocus your attention. 

When things are going well, and your mood is good, this is relatively easy. 

When things are going poorly, and your mind is flooded with negative thoughts, this can be a challenge. 

In these moments, think about your day and identify one positive thing that happened, no matter how small. 

If you can't think of something from the current day, reflect on the previous day or even the previous week. Or perhaps you’re looking forward to an exciting event that you can focus your attention on. 

The point here is that you must have something positive that you're ready to shift your attention to when your thoughts turn negative.

[If earlier in the day or later the day before, you did a things I'm grateful or Thankful for list, you already have that ready to go.  This may be how it cuts stress.]

4. They Disconnect

Given the importance of keeping stress intermittent, it’s easy to see how taking regular time off the grid can help keep your stress under control. 

{Reading something you once enjoyed or by the same author or good sex or putting on music you like can do the double of the stress break AND it recharges you.  Doing a chore you do well with your hands is also a great way to do this.  Getting vigorous exercise you have to focus on to do is protective in part because it does this.]

When you make yourself available to your work 24/7, you expose yourself to a constant barrage of stressors. 

Forcing yourself offline and even—gulp!—turning off your phone gives your body a break from a constant source of stress. Studies have shown that something as simple as an email break can lower stress levels.

Technology enables constant communication and the expectation that you should be available 24/7. It is extremely difficult to enjoy a stress-free moment outside of work when an email that will change your train of thought and get you thinking (read: stressing) about work can drop onto your phone at any moment. If detaching yourself from work-related communication on weekday evenings is too big a challenge, then how about the weekend? Choose blocks of time where you cut the cord and go offline. You’ll be amazed at how refreshing these breaks are and how they reduce stress by putting a mental recharge into your weekly schedule. If you’re worried about the negative repercussions of taking this step, first try doing it at times when you’re unlikely to be contacted—maybe Sunday morning. As you grow more comfortable with it, and as your coworkers begin to accept the time you spend offline, gradually expand the amount of time you spend away from technology.

[Reading a favorite and upbeat book that ends with the good guys winning may be a bit “politically incorrect” these days. But research found it lifts stress and restores your brain’s supply of positive neurotransmitters and revives your will power and self control when you began at a burned out level initially.]

5. They Limit Their Caffeine Intake

Drinking caffeine triggers the release of adrenaline. Adrenaline is the source of the “fight-or-flight” response, a survival mechanism that forces you to stand up and fight or run for the hills when faced with a threat. The fight-or-flight mechanism sidesteps rational thinking in favor of a faster response. This is great when a bear is chasing you, but not so great when you’re responding to a curt email. When caffeine puts your brain and body into this hyperaroused state of stress, your emotions overrun your behavior. The stress that caffeine creates is far from intermittent, as its long half-life ensures that it takes its sweet time working its way out of your body.

[This like, stress itself, is a balancing act.  Drinking tea and green tea are great for this once you have some coffee because you can take action to feel more awake right away each day but get the caffeine in small enough doses after that to help you avoid overdoing caffeine.

Too much caffeine also harms sleep. And it causes the feeling of anxiety adding to any legitimate worry a physical feeling of panic you have to deal with on top of dealing with the actual threat!]

6. They Sleep

I’ve beaten this one to death over the years and can’t say enough about the importance of sleep to increasing your emotional intelligence and managing your stress levels. When you sleep, your brain literally recharges, shuffling through the day’s memories and storing or discarding them (which causes dreams), so that you wake up alert and clear-headed. Your self-control, attention, and memory are all reduced when you don’t get enough—or the right kind—of sleep. Sleep deprivation raises stress hormone levels on its own, even without a stressor present. Stressful projects often make you feel as if you have no time to sleep, but taking the time to get a decent night’s sleep is often the one thing keeping you from getting things under control.

[Getting more than 6 hours of sleep and having a life is extremely challenging.  

But if you do vigorous morning exercise, wind down a bit in the last hour before bed, have a decent place to sleep -- DARK, cool, and quiet, eat right, almost always sleep the same core 6 hours and get up at or very close to the exact same time each day, that helps. Adding blue light or intense blue light once you get up and turning it off a hour before bed also can work well.  (Fixing sleep apnea if any is critical if you have it.)]

7. They Squash Negative Self-Talk

[Using the precise, scientific, and careful style of an engineer or a scientist as the "optimistic" people do when things do go wrong or might go wrong is critical.

People who don't, routinely stress about things that are NOT facts or may be temporary.

If it's not real or need not stay real, harming your ability to think and wearing yourself down over it is a total and avoidable loss!]

A big step in managing stress involves stopping negative self-talk in its tracks. The more you ruminate on negative thoughts, the more power you give them. 

Most of our negative thoughts are just that—thoughts, not facts. 

When you find yourself believing the negative and pessimistic things, your inner voice says, “It's time to stop and write them down.” 

Literally stop what you're doing and write down what you're thinking. 

Once you've taken a moment to slow down the negative momentum of your thoughts, you will be more rational and clear-headed in evaluating their veracity.

You can bet that your statements aren’t true any time you use words like “never,” “worst,” “ever,” etc. If your statements still look like facts once they’re on paper, take them to a friend or colleague you trust and see if he or she agrees with you. Then the truth will surely come out. When it feels like something always or never happens, this is just your brain’s natural threat tendency inflating the perceived frequency or severity of an event. 

Identifying and labeling your thoughts as thoughts by separating them from the facts will help you escape the cycle of negativity and move toward a positive new outlook.

8. They Reframe Their Perspective

Stress and worry are fueled by our own skewed perception of events. It’s easy to think that unrealistic deadlines, unforgiving bosses, and out-of-control traffic are the reasons we’re so stressed all the time. 

You can’t control your circumstances, but you can control how you respond to them. 

So before you spend too much time dwelling on something, take a minute to put the situation in perspective. 

If you aren’t sure when you need to do this, try looking for clues that your anxiety may not be proportional to the stressor. 

If you’re thinking in broad, sweeping statements such as “Everything is going wrong” or “Nothing will work out,” then you need to reframe the situation. 

A great way to correct this unproductive thought pattern is to list the specific things that actually are going wrong or not working out. Most likely you will come up with just some things—not everything—and the scope of these stressors will look much more limited than it initially appeared.

9. They Breathe

The easiest way to make stress intermittent lies in something that you have to do everyday anyway: breathing. The practice of being in the moment with your breathing will begin to train your brain to focus solely on the task at hand and get the stress monkey off your back. When you’re feeling stressed, take a couple of minutes to focus on your breathing. Close the door, put away all other distractions, and just sit in a chair and breathe. The goal is to spend the entire time focused only on your breathing, which will prevent your mind from wandering. Think about how it feels to breathe in and out. This sounds simple, but it’s hard to do for more than a minute or two. It’s all right if you get sidetracked by another thought; this is sure to happen at the beginning, and you just need to bring your focus back to your breathing. If staying focused on your breathing proves to be a real struggle, try counting each breath in and out until you get to 20, and then start again from 1. Don’t worry if you lose count; you can always just start over.

This task may seem too easy or even a little silly, but you’ll be surprised by how calm you feel afterward and how much easier it is to let go of distracting thoughts that otherwise seem to have lodged permanently inside your brain.

[You don’t always have time to be fancy with this or spend a lot of time on it. 

But, there IS a hard wired instant fix!  If you remember to use it when you need it, it simply turns off stress close to 100 % if only for a minute or two.  Yawning has been  proven to do this.  If you yawn and do an arm stretch it boosts the effect.  You can even stand up, stretch, and yawn for even more of an effect.

So, if you feel as if you MUST have a stress break when the threat is still there, remember to YAWN.  It helps!  And it’s so hard wired, newborn babies have it already!]

10.  They Use Their Support System

It’s tempting, yet entirely ineffective, to attempt tackling everything by yourself. To be calm and productive, you need to recognize your weaknesses and ask for help when you need it. This means tapping into your support system when a situation is challenging enough for you to feel overwhelmed. Everyone has someone at work and/or outside work who is on their team, rooting for them, and ready to help them get the best from a difficult situation. Identify these individuals in your life and make an effort to seek their insight and assistance when you need it. Something as simple as talking about your worries will provide an outlet for your anxiety and stress and supply you with a new perspective on the situation. Most of the time, other people can see a solution that you can’t because they are not as emotionally invested in the situation. Asking for help will mitigate your stress and strengthen your relationships with those you rely upon. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:     Travis Bradberry, Ph.D.

Dr. Travis Bradberry is the award-winning co-author of the #1 bestselling book, Emotional Intelligence 2.0, and the cofounder of TalentSmart, the world's leading provider of emotional intelligence tests, emotional intelligence training, and emotional intelligence certification, serving more than 75% of Fortune 500 companies. His bestselling books have been translated into 25 languages and are available in more than 150 countries. Dr. Bradberry has written for, or been covered by, Newsweek, BusinessWeek, Fortune, Forbes, Fast Company, Inc., USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and The Harvard Business Review.

3.  Then there was this article on Medical News Today with how well college students can use very similar techniques:

“University of Cincinnati research on perceived happiness shows that many college students are stressed out and aren't coping.

This is despite the fact that there are simple ways for students to relieve stress and feel happier, says Keith King, professor and coordinator of UC's Health Promotion and Education Program. The trouble is, they don't use them enough.

"We have a whole array of different stress-management techniques college students can use and that we teach, but they're not using them. 

That contributes to their stress levels, which contributes to their unhappiness," King says.

The research led by King, "A Study of Stress, Social Support, and Perceived Happiness Among College Students," was recently published in the Journal of Happiness & Well-Being, an online international peer-reviewed journal.

King says many simple and effective techniques exist for managing stress. He suggests a few immediate and long-term methods for soothing frayed nerves.

IMMEDIATE ACTIONS

Stop, pause and breathe: "In the moment when you're stressed, you need to slow down, you pause, you take some deep breaths. Maybe you count backwards from 10. Those types of things calm everything down and slow it down." [Yawning and stretching are the fastest, effective way to do this.]

See the bigger picture: "Try to see the bigger picture. Is what you're experiencing really that big of a deal or not?"

Contact a friend: "Everyone has phones on them. Call your buddy and let him know what's going on so you can express those feelings and get them off you as quickly as possible."

LONG-TERM ACTIONS

Diet and exercise: "People who eat healthy and exercise tend to have lower stress levels. Exercise allows for some of that negative energy to get burned off. Eating healthy helps individuals avoid feeling weighted down."

Daily "me time": "Take time out of the day that's your time. It could be just 10 minutes. Go outside and walk, just enjoy something for you. If you hate exercising, then do something you enjoy. That's paramount."

Remember to H.A.L.T.:

 "Make sure you're not Hungry,  [Eat something that is OK to eat but turns off that much hunger.]

 you're not Angry, [Decide it's too little to stress over and leave it.  Or make constructive plans to do.]

 you're not Lonely   [Call somebody or email somebody.  Best is to give THEM good news.]

and you're not Tired.  [Call somebody; get brief exercise; drink coffee or tea; take a nap.]

If you can take care of those four things, you're significantly more likely to be unstressed."

King and fellow UC researchers Ashley Merianos, Rebecca Vidourek and Meha Singh based their study on an anonymous, voluntary survey taken by 498 students assessing their overall happiness and stress level. 

Results showed that students who reported low perceived happiness felt higher stress levels and lower emotional closeness to others. Many reported they felt stressed but weren't doing anything about it: 61 percent reported having high stress and 72 percent reported low frequency in using stress-management techniques.

King notes that people tend to over-complicate their lives and to ignore the potential benefit a five-minute walk outside or a quick water break could have on their emotional state. Just because these techniques are simple, he says, doesn't mean they are ineffective.

"It's not rocket science, but the reality of it is a lot of people aren't doing the positive to get happy. 

People don't really know or they think some of the basics to happiness that we suggest are too fluffy. They're not. They're research-supported. Do these things and you'll feel happier," King says.

It's something he says everyone could benefit from.

"This study is looking at college students, but it is generalizable to all people. We recommend the students take this information and share it with their families. Let them know if they want to be happier, they need to focus on reducing their stress and get some social support and care."”

 May you remember and use the techniques here that will help you the most.

Prevent strokes and even recover from them....

Tuesday, 8-19-2014

In part two of this post we cover several ways to prevent having a stroke.

But the BIG news in this post is that there looks to be something you can simply go do ahead of time to make your recovery more likely if you do have a stroke or a TIA!

Part One:  Medical News Today had the news that it’s possible that taking ginkgo EVEN AFTER a stroke caused more repair and less net damage!

This has several exciting and desirable implications:

A.  It works by causing the creation of new brain cells.  Moreover, it does so by itself!

B.  But this also likely means that people already taking Ginkgo will be less damaged and recover faster from strokes!

1.  This could be huge for people unable to exercise or to exercise yet after a stroke.

2.   Repair of damaged areas in the brain is a key to depression and PTSD recovery too. It also helps stop or even reverse early mental decline.

3.  Since it takes about 12 weeks to build up the full effect of ginkgo, this may also mean that people who begin taking ginkgo regularly have some protection against badly damaging strokes should they get one.  That’s because after the 12 weeks, they will start out with this protection already in place even before they have a stroke if they do.  It’s like wearing a bullet proof vest in combat as you do have some protection.

4.  And, for people who have TIA's and repeated small strokes, in addition to exercise, taking DHA, and taking bacopa, also taking Ginkgo may minimize or reverse the damage AND offer some protection if that person gets a bigger stroke!

5.  It also may mean that taking Ginkgo in addition to exercise and taking DHA or eating fish high in it and taking bacopa would aid people trying to repair their brains from PTSD or explosion damage or the minimum brain damage that causes depression and/or mental decline.

Medical News Today had the news that it’s possible that taking ginkgo EVEN AFTER a stroke caused more repair and less net damage!

In the quote below, I provided the bolding on the points I think most significant.

“Led by Dr. Zahoor A. Shah, Dr. Shadia E. Nada and Jatin Tulsulkar (graduate student), researchers at the University of Toledo, Toledo, OH, have discovered that mice treated with Ginkgo biloba 4 hours after inducing experimental stroke and then daily for seven days had improved recovery and less brain damage than the control mice.

It was also observed that Ginkgo biloba-treated mice had enhanced neurogenesis, partly due to the increased protein expression of hemeoxygenase 1, an antioxidant gene that also has a role in neurogenesis. Pertinently, mice lacking the hemeoxygenase 1 gene were observed to have reduced neurogenesis after stroke.

Besides prevention, improving recovery following a stroke should become the prime focus of current stroke research. We now know that neurogenesis is not only an ongoing process in adults, but can also be induced by pathological conditions like traumatic brain injury and ischemic stroke, and strategies that promote endogenous neurogenesis as part of repair and regeneration process should be prioritized.

Neurogenesis in the adult brain involves not only the proliferation and migration of precursor cells known as stem cells/neural progenitor cells (NSCs) but also their functional integration into the neural network.

Ischemia, though a potent inducer of proliferation and migration of NSCs, does not provide an environment conducive to their survival, differentiation and integration, and creating an environment with exogenous drugs is paramount to improving the number of NSCs that can result in improved brain repair and regeneration.

The study, first reported in Molecular Neurobiology (Vol. 49, 2014) and then reviewed in Neural Regeneration Research (Vol. 9, No.11, 2014), confirmed that Ginkgo biloba, in addition to its antioxidant, neuritogenic and angiogenic properties, provides a conducive environment for the survival and functional integration of NSCs into neural system.”

Here’s the link to the original story in Medical News Today:

Neurogenesis and recovery following stroke enhanced by Ginkgo biloba in mouse 

model

http://mnt.to/l/4pD5

Led by Dr. Zahoor A. Shah, Dr. Shadia E. Nada and Jatin Tulsulkar (graduate 

student), researchers at the University of Toledo, Toledo, OH, have discovered 

that mice treated with Ginkgo biloba 4...

Note that even though this study was on mice, the processes and effects sound like they would operate just as well in people!

Part II:  Ways to prevent strokes:

1.  Avoid tobacco smoke completely if you can; don’t smoke or quit as soon as possible; and avoid second hand smoke as close to 100% as you can!

Despite how very many do get cancer, some smokers don’t.  But ALL smokers and those exposed often to second hand smoke get plaque buildup in their blood vessels.

And, guess what studies find? 

This if often worst in the carotid artery that supplies your brain!

That also is likely the case inside your brain and is another reason far more smokers than nonsmokers get vascular dementia or Alzheimer’s than nonsmokers.

2.  Follow all the methods that protect your heart that don’t require drugs. 

Avoid eating and drinking foods and drinks that, like smoking, directly cause heart disease.  Eat lots of organic vegetables every day.  And, once those ways of eating are in place build up to vigorous exercise most days of every week even if for only 10 to 20 minutes a day.

3.  If you have moderately high blood pressure from 140 over 90 to 159 over 99, research finds that doing step 2 well is every bit as protective as taking the hypertension drugs AND, for such people, adding the drugs adds zero increased protection.

In addition to that, following this way of eating in the DASH II diet or the Furhman diet or the Wahls Protocol, has been shown to lower high blood pressure.

And, just today I saw research showing that while slow, long cardio has no effect,

doing vigorous variable or interval cardio for 10 to 20 minutes each day at least 3 days a week  with several sections with much higher speed and effort with rests or much easier efforts in between DOES lower systolic blood pressure.

4.  The vegetable intake in step 3 provides a good intake of natural vitamin C.  But taking at least 500 mg a day more plus eating organic wild blueberries several times a week makes you less likely to get a stroke and maintains the health of your blood vessels.

5.  Avoiding a high salt intake and all refined grains and high fructose corn syrup and far less sugar plus the exercise strongly prevents blood vessel damage from high salt levels and excessive blood sugar levels – as these eating plans all do -- prevents strokes. 

This is because it lowers existing high blood pressure, makes future increases less likely, and prevents excessively high salt and blood sugar from damaging your blood vessels. 

My monthly fatloss progress report....

Monday, 8-18-2014

This month’s report is a mixed review with some positive and some negative.

I both gained some leverage and lost some. 

1.  Here’s my immediate progress section first:

I gained a half pound on the scale.  Not too bad and close to the same and at the lower end of the range I’ve been in over the last year --- about 4 pounds over my goal weight.

Considering that I went on a minivacation over a three day weekend the previous weekend and ate differently and more I think and with a few more treats than usual that’s actually GOOD news!  I’ve gained 6 pounds in similar situations before.

BUT my waist measured a half inch more.

On the 3 day weekend, I WAS able to eat well for protein foods and vegetables and I avoided the bread and cold cereals everyone else ate and ate the rolled outs I brought from home instead and ate vegetables and the almond butter I brought along instead of bread.

Also, I did burn a bit more calories with two short hikes and one of over 5 miles. (At home I would have burned about 500 calories instead of the 700 to 900 I burned on the 3 hikes.)

So the extra stress and treats may have added a bit of belly fat but for a 3 day vacation I did well I think!

The rest of the month because I was able to maintain some of the recent increase with faster to fix and less expensive vegetables and DID make some progress on my strength training, I maintained my progress basically.

(I’m now at 4 pounds over my goal weight; but my waist measurement still shows I need to either lose below that or add muscle or both.)

2.  Because of extra stress, I did let my number of drinks per week go from about 9 last month to 9 and a half to about 10 this month also which was a likely cause of the added half inch on my waist also.

3.  I maintained my vegetable upgrades but not the drink totals.

4.  The continuing good news is on strength training.  The progress is still VERY slow but if I continue getting stronger every week or two AS I HAVE BEEN for another few years and am able to add back more safe to do leg exercises and make that progress with them, I will keep adding muscle when most people 15 years younger than I lose that much muscle or even more in the same time period!

I now do two sessions a week for upper body strength training.  At one, I am doing more reps at the slightly faster slow speed and fewer reps with a heavier weight than I was using. The progress is a bit slow; but it IS happening.  At the second session two days later, I use a couple of notches less weight BUT I do more reps and at the slower slow speed.  In that session, I just did 18 reps with each hand in an exercise that was MUCH harder for just 9 reps not long ago.  I’m at the point I can jump the weight for those sets!

At my last session, I made progress on two exercises.

THAT is encouraging!

My leg strength training is mostly better.  My two substitutes for the leg press on the machine are gradually doing better.  They involve using my bodyweight for only one leg at a time.  Best of all, neither one is making the injury I seemed to get act up the way it was before on my leg press substitute super slow squats holding dumbbell in each hand.

I’m now at the point I can add weights to my hands while I do the lunge style one legged squats.  If increasing the weight is as easy as I expect it to be and I get no recurrence of my left leg injury limitation, that will be great! That’s because I’ll be working my legs harder with a heavier weight one leg a time than when I was doing both sides at once.

And, as I get stronger that way, I believe I’ll be able to begin to do complete one legged squats in my other weekly session.  I can only go about a third of the way down to almost a half and do two of those now with each leg.

Once I can do 7 complete reps at a superslow speed all the way down and up with each leg, I think I’ll add enough muscle in my legs, lower back, and butt to cut my belly fat a bit.

(These are called “pistol squats” and the leg not lifting does get exercise as you hold it straight as you do them.)

My one leg at a time calf exercises are still making excellent progress on my right leg. 

I had to scale all the way back to zero and more on my injured left Achilles tendon.

I had to drop from holding a 35 or 37 pound dumbbell for 12 superslow reps to doing ONE with no dumbbell at all for my left leg.  BUT now that I do that and do 12 where I use both legs to go up and go down slow with just my left leg after reading that was a successful treatment, I can now exercise it without it hurting right then OR after the workout!

Now I can finally start adding reps and weight without re-injuring it and will do so! 

Since I  am likely close to still strong enough to do what I was before with my left leg (and I’ve maintained my right leg exercises) by simply adding as fast as my Achilles will allow with my left leg, it’s now just a matter of a few weeks to be back to where I was!  And knowing what to no longer do away from exercise that caused the injury initially I think I can then resume progress!

So, I just keep my right leg exercises the same until I can gradually build back my left leg to do that weight again -- 35 to 37 pounds plus all my bodyweight for 12 superslow reps.

By doing the similar style with the lighter weight with my injured leg and doing the same weight with my right leg, the studies show that by doing those two things,  once the injury heals the strength will build back just fine relatively quickly.  So even though it’s irritating to have to wait a few weeks for that to happen, my confidence in the method is as good as it was before.

And, now I’ve reached a point where the injury to my left Achilles is healing, I believe I’ll be able to do that in about another 3 or 4 months.

Then if all keeps going well, I’ll need to buy a new 40 pound dumbbell as the 35 pound with the 2 pound wrist weight will not be enough to be challenging if this keeps up.

Overall, my muscles LOOK a bit bigger, particularly my arms and shoulders; and though my middle is still fat, my thighs have definition and are clearly hard and toned.

So even though I’ve not gained enough muscles in size or weight to increase how much they weigh and the calories they burn as I’d like to do  ---  After another year or so, I may gain a pound or two of muscle at an age when most people lose 5 pounds of muscle instead!

4.  The two sessions of progressive short sets of high intensity, interval cardio have been a mixed review.  But the overall news is good.

(I kept my weekly session of 4 sets of back to back abdominal exercises and my weekly 10 minute session of intense variable cardio on my Nordic track where I was already at a high level I’d worked up to gradually.)

I hope to be able to do two sets of jump rope to replace one of the two abdominal exercises sessions in a way that increases my calories burned by 100 calories a week or more at some point.

Clearly, I’ll have to get a better jump rope and one on one coaching to do it and of course wait until a few weeks after my left Achilles tendon heals.  AND I’ll have to get coaching to ensure this no longer injures my shoulders!

But until I do that and get to superbly fit and a bit less fat, I’ll do what I have been and keep my very good level of fitness and NOT gain the fat that people my age normally do.

I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing now.

5.  It’s just a matter of time too to the day I can get and use the Vitamix to boost my vegetable intake enough to lose some fat that way.  

Possible cure for migraines....

Today's Post:  Thursday, 8-14-2014

1.  Most migraines are painful and some are almost or are incapacitating.   They can make you feel powerless when they happen on top of other stresses &/or keep you from dealing with the demands of your life.

So, understandably, most people who have them would like them to happen less or be milder or both.  

And, if they could manage it, they’d like to never have another one!

Worse, migraines are mostly vascular and people who have them seem to be at added risk of heart attack and stroke.  So, despite being little known, that’s another reason to want to turn them off!

2.  The much better news is that:

a)  Almost for sure you can have fewer migraines, have milder ones, and even possibly stop them.  And, making heart disease and stroke less likely without drugs is quite doable we now know. 

b) There’s a report of a new medical procedure that has tested to be able to turn off almost all the remaining migraines!  (For people with migraines too severe to try the other things, you might even want to start with the procedure.)

This post has both listed below:

c) By doing both, we now look to have a very robust cure for migraines!

3.  How you can have fewer migraines, have milder ones, and even possibly stop them –

-- and do it without drugs or the new procedure:

1.  Since migraines are vascular and correlated with heart disease the first steps should be those that make the blood vessels healthy.

This may reverse the migraines in some people and people who have had problematic migraines need the protection.

(Things that do turn off heart disease whether or no they help migraines include

*Stopping ALL heart attack starters in your diet such as:

No longer eating hybrid, GMO wheat and most grains; stopping ALL high fructose corn syrup, all artificial sweeteners, and soft drinks – and cutting way back on real sugar and fruit juices;

Stopping ALL hydrogenated oils -- which means stopping most commercial baked goods and many packaged desserts and movie popcorn and margarine and nondairy creamer and shortening;

*Stopping all cheap oils high in omega 6 such as corn, soy, canola, and safflower oil – and using only extra virgin olive oil or nuts such as almonds, walnuts, and pecans and avocados and fats from wild caught fish instead and maybe coconut oil and dairy such as butter from cows fed only grass instead;

*Eating 6 or more servings of organic vegetables a day.

*And taking the supplements shown to cut LDL cholesterol and small particle LDL such as sterol supplements, real niacin, and turmeric with black pepper, and ginger.

*Getting regular vigorous exercise that you start super easy and build up to more very gradually and having slower parts or complete rest breaks to avoid continuous stress on your heart. 

The first set of things WILL cut your heart attack and stroke risk and may help with reducing migraines.  And many people switching to that lifestyle will lose a lot of the fat poor eating has added to them without any hunger problems.

But the regular vigorous exercise has often stopped migraines!

a) In particular, regular vigorous exercise and taking extra of all the B complex vitamins has stopped migraines, reduced their severity, or reduced their frequency and  should be tried every time for those reasons.

The exercise does the double of added heart protection and has a track record of slashing migraines too!  And, the B vitamins are brain protective and have a track record of reducing migraines

b) The same is true for taking magnesium supplements and eating abundantly of health supporting foods containing magnesium. Those include the nuts that are heart protective which are best eaten raw and without salt of heart damaging oils and eating or drinking organic, dark green vegetables.  People who take in abundant magnesium have fewer migraines, better health of all kinds, and stronger bones!

c) Most of the actions that prevent heart disease and keep the blood vessels healthy have empowering physical and mental effects and give migraine sufferers better health and more ability to deal with the migraines they do have.

2.  For some people, cutting back on coffee a bit or drinking tea in part or switching to tea may help. Coffee and its caffeine tend to tighten blood vessels a bit much.  So doing this may help.  Drinking coffee at first and then switching to tea or green tea after that each day can help you cut this effect without cutting your mental sharpness.

3. The herb with the best track record of turning down or preventing migraines is butterbur.  So people who do the first two things who still have migraines or who want to do everything right away should try it.

Many people who do the first 3 things have no more bothersome migraines.

But for those who do or want more leverage and faster results, you can add the next one right away:

4.  Some chiropractors have found that their techniques relieve pressure on the neck and facial nerves and stop migraines.  Since this has apparently worked for many people, it's worth trying.

Note that as many as 70 to 85% of people who do all these first 5 things can stop having migraines or stop having the ones bad enough to be disruptive to their life close to 100%.

BUT, what about people who want even more reduction and HATE migraines--even short and mild ones that don't happen often?

What about the 15 to 30% who still have problematic migraines?

We now have a way to double the effect of all of the above that works differently!

In fact, combined with this first set of things, we now have close to a 100 % cure for migraines!

5.  Since botulism treatment of facial nerves has stopped migraines, a cosmetic surgeon thought more carefully targeted and individualized facial cosmetic surgery might help really bad migraines or those these other methods hadn't helped or stopped.

It tested to stop the vast majority of migraines in the people who had it done

This technique tested as so effective that when added to these other methods, we now have close to a 100 % cure for migraines.

Here’s the Medical News Today article and link: 

Symptom relief following non-endoscopic migraine surgery

http://mnt.to/l/4pLC

A revised version of a surgical procedure to treat severe chronic migraine 

headaches led to significant symptom relief more than 90 percent of the time in 

patients treated at Massachusetts...

 At this time, you might have to travel to Massachusetts and be able to have that surgeon do the surgery.  And even if he does an excellent job with the hand washing and other techniques to avoid infection, today with bacteria highly resistant to most antibiotics, there is a risk that did not exist before to this degree.

So, if you are well to do and your migraines are so bad, you are more than willing to take that risk, you might want to get this procedure done first.

For everyone else, turning off most migraines with the first set of things and waiting for the technique to be learned and practiced by doctors local to you and covered by your insurance might make more sense.

Based on the studies, most people who do all the first set of things will have no migraines or almost none that art bothersome.

Still, for people who want something FAST right now who can afford it and those who still have bothersome migraines even if less severe and less often, this new technique looks to be a huge advance!  

You CAN protect yourself from stress....

Tuesday, 8-12-2014

One way severe or lasting stress can age you and harm you is by reducing the length of your telomeres.  Not only does this tend to turn your hair grey or white, it makes diseases like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and cancer more likely.

But following a good health lifestyle anyway has just been found to largely prevent this:

(People"....who exercised, slept well and ate well had less telomere shortening than the ones who didn't maintain healthy lifestyles, even when they had similar levels of stress,"

In this research, both groups were badly stressed; but the ones who kept eating right and exercising and getting regular sleep were far less harmed by it.

And, it’s even more valuable than the research suggests:

Donald Trump and Trammel Crow, a Texas Real Estate developer, and business entrepreneur James Altucher each had periods of dreadful financial reverses but insisted on continuing to eat right and exercise to enable them to keep trying new solutions or work intensely to get ahead of the problem to reverse it before it harmed them.

In each case, they got much better results recovering from and reversing the stress than others have.  So this is even more valuable than just keeping your health!

So, this has been field tested to help.

A.  Take effective corrective action right away before the problem becomes too severe to fix if you know how or can find out how. Or keep generating or finding and trying new solutions.

You feel more in control and keep your mind sharp and are less focused on the harmful things and threats so you are under a bit less stress even while your efforts are not working yet.

And, often you WILL hit on something that removes the threat or leads you to a way to have it damage you less or recover from undergoing it!

B. Using this information:

 1.  Insist on eating health OK food regularly even if you sometimes don't feel like making the effort or don't feel hungry.

Maybe have an extra treat sometimes; but avoid tons of them or treats that contain harmful ingredients 100% of the time.  This is important all the time; but when under stress it is critical to do.

2.  Stressful situations may strip you of time and money to do the exercises you prefer or were doing.  Or you may feel unmotivated.  But insist on doing some kind of exercise most days of every week no matter what.

3.  If you have to, sleep a bit less or write potential solutions to clear your mind before going to bed.

But insist on getting regular sleep or lie in bed in a dark room and rest or daydream as you'll often fall asleep while doing so.

Also insist on being in bed as close to your normal pattern as possible and have regular sleeping hours as much as possible.

(Vigorous exercise particularly first thing in the morning, eating right, and doing part A all help you sleep better.  So insist on doing them!)

Here’s the link to the Medical News Today article:

The negative impacts of stress can be mitigated by healthy diet, sleep and 

exercise

http://mnt.to/l/4pLV

A new study from UC San Francisco is the first to show that while the impact of 

life's stressors accumulate overtime and accelerate cellular aging, these 

negative effects may be reduced by...

New way to be less fat and avoid liver disease....

Thursday, 8-7-2014

A.  Sometimes drugs have interaction effects and it can be unsafe to combine such drugs even if either alone is OK.

Sometimes drugs with side effects that are best avoided when combined are even worse!

B.  We now know of two things that are proven heart attack starters; and one of them is an extremely effective fattener.

New research shows that when you ingest both together, the fattening effect is even greater AND you get a serious liver disease called fatty liver which at that level is as serious a disease as Cirrhosis of the liver from very heavy drinking.

Fatty liver can be as deadly for the liver as eating toadstools or cancer of the liver and has a death rate if it’s bad enough.

No problem right?

Knowing this, you’d think no one who knows not to walk across the freeway during the rush hour would ever ingest both together.

Here’s why it IS a problem:  About half of Americans now -- or more -- do exactly that at least once a day.

C.  How and why does that happen?!

So many people grew up thinking these things were OK, normal, and safe that they don’t believe they actually are dreadfully harmful.

Why the disconnect? 

Unlike eating lye or a fast acting poison, you can ingest them for a few years and not feel the harm they are doing or feel sick at all.

Then when the serious diseases they cause strike, until more recent research was done, it seemed random bad luck and that there was no way to prevent it. 

Worse, the products these two ingredients are in often taste good and are enjoyable to eat or drink.

And, worst of all, the companies that provide them didn’t know how harmful they were at first. And now they do, they  make so much money they spend some of it to avoid having to stop using them!

As many of you may have guessed by now these are high fructose corn syrup and trans fats from manmade hydrogenated oils.

1.  High fructose corn syrup with its free fructose and high levels of it has been shown to be a very effective fattener -- even more so than the calories it has in it!

Eating or drinking things that contain high fructose corn syrup boosts triglycerides massively.  This shows it boosts small particle LDL that much.  And high levels of small particle LDL are a direct cause of heart disease.

So soft drinks and any foods that contain high fructose corn syrup are heart attack starters and fatteners.

The solution is simple.  Don’t drink soft drinks.  (The diet ones have tested to be just as fattening.)  Never buy or eat or drink a product that lists high fructose corn syrup as an ingredient.  Mostly avoid eating at fast food places and never get anything sweet if you do.

(The good news is that people who have added some fat who have been doing the reverse stop entirely they lose the fat and get LESS hungry!)

2.  Manmade hydrogenated oils have been found to cause a massive boost to the level of small particle LDL in people who ingest them.  In addition, they are made from oils high in omega 6 oils which cause high levels of chronic inflammation.

So these hydrogenated oils are an unusually effective heart attack starters.

And, worse even than that, because they are not something your body processes at all well, it takes weeks to process one serving. 

And THAT means that cutting back on how much you eat but continuing to eat some every day will build up in you to a level guaranteed to cause heart disease. 

So, the only safe intake of partially hydrogenated oils is zero!

The solution is not as simple because of the huge number of things that still contain hydrogenated oils. 

To the extent you can avoid eating in fast food places as many still use hydrogenated oils and the ones that don’t use canola which is still a high omega 6 oil. 

Almost never buy cookies or other grain based desserts that have no labels and avoid any baked goods not baked in a specialty shop you can trust to only use butter or lard from 100 % grass fed cows.  And always read labels when they are available.  If it has ANY partially hydrogenated oils, do NOT buy or eat it.

Special mention:  Shortening, nondairy creamer, and margarines are made out of hydrogenated oils.  Do NOT eat or drink them.

And movie and microwave popcorn are often loaded with hydrogenated oils.

3.  Now, if you can imagine it, research finds that if you ingest BOTH hydrogenated oils AND high fructose corn syrup, the combination is EVEN MORE FATTENING than just one or the other.  AND it is a direct cause of serious and dangerous levels of fatty liver.

Cutting edge nutrition writer Mike Geary found this and sent it in an email recently”

“A 2010 study performed by researchers at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center highlighted the hazards on the liver caused by ingesting a combination of fructose and trans fats.

During the course of the 16 week study, researchers fed mice either a normal diet, or a diet which included trans fat solids as well as drinking water mixed with fructose and sucrose.

After analyzing the mice at the end of the 16-week period, the researchers found that while the normally-fed mice did not have fatty liver disease, the mice fed trans fats, fructose and sucrose were found to have fatty liver disease, and had become obese.

The researchers also found scar tissue on the livers of these mice.

Fatty liver disease is characterized by fat deposits accumulating in the liver, leading to chronic inflammation. It can also lead to scarring of the liver, and if left unchecked, can progress to liver failure.

This condition has also been found to be a stepping stone to heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and even some forms of cancer.”