India's Waterways A Toxic Stew of Pharmaceutical Chemicals Dumped from Big Pharma Factories

by Mike Adams, NaturalNews Editor

(NaturalNews) Many of the pharmaceuticals consumed in the United States are made in India, where labor is cheap and environmental laws are lenient on powerful corporations. U.S. drug companies are exploiting this situation to manufacture hundreds of millions of doses of high-profit pharmaceuticals in India, where ingredients purchased for a few cents can be re-sold to U.S. health patients for hundreds of dollars (the markup on some drugs is literally over 500,000%).

There's something else Big Pharma doesn't want you to know about its drug operations in India: Big Pharma's manufacturing facilities dump millions of doses of toxic pharmaceutical chemicals directly into India's waterways.

Researchers were recently stunned to discover that 100 pounds of a powerful antibiotic called ciprofloxacin was being dumped into a local stream every day! That's a quantity of antibiotics that could treat an entire city of 90,000 people every day.

But that's not all: The same waterway contained an astonishing 21 pharmaceutical chemicals reports the Associated Press, some at levels that were 150 times the highest levels of contamination found in U.S. waterways. (And even the levels found in the U.S. were quite alarming.)

Big Pharma as a major chemical polluter

These findings are now added to the revelations of pharmaceutical contamination unveiled by the Associated Press last year, which found that the public water supplies in virtually all U.S. cities tested were contaminated with pharmaceutical chemicals.

What's emerging from these disturbing discoveries is a picture of Big Pharma as a global corporate polluter that's dumping chemicals into the world's sensitive waterways, polluting villages, cities and aquatic ecosystems around the world.

Under the Bush Administration, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency outright refused to regulate pharmaceuticals as environmental hazards. With Obama in the White House, it remains to be seen whether the new administration will clamp down on pharmaceutical pollution.

Big Pharma now has something in common with Exxon, Cargill, Alcoa and Chevron: The outrageous pollution of the environment with toxic chemicals. But in many ways, Big Pharma's chemicals are far more dangerous. HRT drugs, for example, are toxic at parts per billion, and they're now being found in public water supplies around the world.

Municipal water treatment facilities, by the way, don't remove pharmaceutical chemicals from the water! Whatever HRT drugs, psychiatric drugs or other chemicals that exist in the water are passed right through the water treatment centers which unwisely add yet more chemicals (fluoride and chlorine, typically) to the toxic brew. Citizens drinking public water supplies in India, the U.K., Canada and the United States are now verifiably participating in a grand experiment involving the mass medication of the population with low levels of utterly untested pharmaceutical combinations.

How long will this be allowed to continue before the environmental protection authorities clamp down on pharmaceutical dumping?

So far, environmental regulators have done nothing to stop the dumping of drugs into public water supplies. This is true even in America, where hospitals routinely dispose of drugs by simply flushing them down the toilet (injecting them directly into the water supply consumed downstream).

Consumers also need to realize that the drugs you swallow are also environmental pollutants. Many drugs pass right through the human body unaltered, where they are flushed back into the water supply that's consumed downstream. (Yes, the toilet water from one city becomes the drinking water of the next city down the river. If you didn't know this, you have a LOT to learn about the water supply, and you probably won't like what you learn... especially if you live downstream...)

Big Pharma is contaminating our planet

It's becoming quite clear that the pharmaceutical industry is now directly contributing to the mass chemical contamination of our planet. By allowing factories to dump drugs into local waterways, by tolerating a "flush it" mentality at hospitals and pharmacies, and by drugging consumers with an endless brew of vaccines, medications and toxic substances such as chemotherapy agents, the pharmaceutical industry has "achieved" the distinction as a major world polluter.

Those who take pharmaceuticals are, in fact, directly contributing to the chemical contamination of the planet. That's why getting off medications is not only good for your health; it's also good for the planet.

You can't be "green" if you're taking medications. Consuming pharmaceuticals is simply incompatible with sustainable life on Earth. And the more drugs are manufactured and consumed, the worse this problem will become.

Let me put it this way: The survival of our planet depends on the demise of Big Pharma.

You can save the planet, or you can save Big Pharma. But not both.

Which would you rather have around for future generations? Living oceans, blue skies, clean water and healthy species? Or sterile oceans, dwindling aquatic life, mutant human babies and widespread cancer, infertility and shortened lifespans?

It's your choice: Mother Nature, or Big Pharma.

Centuries of the chemical destruction of our planet

The devastating long-term effects of this chemical contamination of our world's waterways have yet to be truly understood at all. The chemicals being dumped into our environment by Big Pharma today may pollute our planet for hundreds of years, destroying aquatic ecosystems, killing fish populations and causing widespread physical deformities across many species. Combine this with all the pesticide runoff already being used across the planet and it becomes quite clear that the human race has set itself on a path of self destruction.

How's that? Because humans don't exist in isolation from the natural world. When we destroy or disrupt the planet's delicate ecosystems through chemical contamination, we unleash a backlash of effects that put the entire human race in jeopardy: Outbreaks of infectious disease, plummeting fish stocks in ocean waters, rising risks of superbugs across the population and even long-term disruptions in the food supply due to pharmaceutical contamination of food crops and soil microorganisms. (Irrigation water being sprayed on crops is now also contaminated with pharmaceuticals...)

Stated bluntly, what's happening is that the pharmaceutical industry is poisoning our world -- and it's doing it for profit. While their factories in India are dumping millions of doses of antibiotics (and a brew of twenty other drugs) into the water supply each year, they're importing those drugs into the U.S. and selling them at monopoly prices to gullible consumers, all while pretending they're on some sort of humanitarian mission to help people.

The truth is that Big Pharma is committing crimes against Nature, and we'll all end up paying the price for allowing these crimes to continue under our watch. Every living thing in our world is interconnected: You can't poison the waterways with a toxic brew of dangerous chemicals and expect to be insulated from the effects of that forever.

Sometimes I stand back in sheer astonishment at how short-sighted human civilization truly is. Today our population demonstrates a striking lack of understanding about the web of life on our planet combined with an outright abandonment of ethics and morals. Companies (and many people) simply do whatever benefits them at the moment, regardless of the long-term consequences. The pharmaceutical industry exemplifies this destructive philosophy best, as it actually works to trap people in a cycle of disease treatment, all while raking in obscene profits for poisoning the people and the planet.

What a shameful business model. It's beyond shame, really. It's a crime. And it's time we put an end to these crimes against the People and against the planet.

Once again, I call for the arrest and prosecution of Big Pharma CEOs and executives for their role in planning and executing these crimes against humanity and Nature. In the U.S., this must be pursued by the Dept. of Justice, since the FDA, EPA and FTC remain in a tight conspiracy with the drug industry and will do nothing to bring their protected corporations to justice.

You can help support the effort to bring these criminals to justice (and end the chemical contamination of our planet by Big Pharma) by contacting your elected representatives (in any country) and letting them know how outraged you are about the widespread chemical pollution caused by the pharmaceutical industry.

Save the planet. End the era of Big Pharma.

Genetically Modified Pigs to be Bred for Organ Transplant Harvesting

(NaturalNews) A British lord and fertility researcher has announced plans to breed genetically engineered pigs, for the purpose of harvesting their organs for transplant into humans.

"Pigs' organs are the right size for human transplantation, and they work similarly to human organs," said Lord Winston, head of the Institute of Reproductive and Developmental Biology at Hammersmith Hospital in London.

Health professionals have attempted to transplant organs from animals into humans before, but research in the field dropped off in the late 1990s when early transplant attempts were rejected and attacked by recipients' bodies as foreign tissue. Concerns over the possibility that transplants could facilitate the spread of diseases from animals to humans also contributed to a drop in the field's popularity.

Now Winston and colleagues from Imperial College want to revive the idea by breeding pigs that contain six human genes, in order to decrease the chances that the pigs' organs will be rejected by human bodies. They have formed a company called Atazoa that has successfully created transgenic pig sperm, but their research stalled due to strict British regulations over transgenic animals.

"One of the biggest problems in Britain is the regulatory framework. It's been very difficult to get this sort of animal work going," Winston said.

The researchers initially had to wait 13 months before they were licensed to genetically modify the pigs, then were told that regulations prohibited breeding genetically modified animals on agricultural land.

In response, Atazoa has moved its research to the United States, which has drastically fewer regulations concerning genetic research on animals. The researchers will breed the pigs with genetically modified sperm in Missouri, and hope to produce a fully modified animal within the next two years. After that, they hope to begin clinical trials to demonstrate that the genetically engineered organs are safe for human transplant.

http://www.naturalnews.com/025414.html

Root Canals Can Have Devastating Effects on Health

(NaturalNews) Is it wise and prudent to have a root canal? There are issues with root canal therapy that everyone should know before deciding to have one.

There has been recent research that presents valid proof of systemic illnesses that are a direct result from latent infections lingering in filled roots. These conclusions are based on research performed by Dr. Weston Price over a 25 year period in the beginning of the twentieth century.

The research done by Dr. Weston Price discusses how root canals can cause bacteria to become trapped inside the structure of teeth. This can be the cause of many diseases that can be traced to one single source.

A high percentage of chronic degenerative diseases may actually originate from root canals. The most common diseases are circulatory and heart disease. The next common diseases are those involving joints and arthritis.

The allegation is that there was a series of events that led to important information being hidden about seventy years ago by a group of doctors who didn't fully understand the "focal infection theory."
What is the focal infection theory…and how is it connected to root canals?

The focal infection theory says that germs from a central focal infection (decaying teeth, roots, inflamed gum tissues, and tonsils, can metastasize to the heart, eyes, kidneys, lungs, or other organs and tissues. This then spreads the same infection to these new areas. This theory has been proven extensively and is regarded as fact.

Focal infection states that the bacteria can move into surrounding tissues and travel to other locations in the body through the bloodstream. This new location may be an organ or tissue and the new colony will be a new infection for the body.

Currently, however, patients and doctors have been led into complacency by believing that infections are not as serious because of antibiotics. This is simply not true. In the situation of root-filled teeth, the no longer alive tooth does not have blood being supplied to its interior. This means that antibiotics will not reach this area and will not fight any bacteria that exist there.

Dr. Price performed many experiments while conducting his research. One such experiment involved removing an infected tooth from a woman who had severe arthritis. Dr. Price took the infected tooth and implanted it under the skin of a healthy rabbit. Incredibly, within 48 hours the rabbit had severe arthritis as well.

The claim is that all root-filled teeth contain bacteria or other infective agents. It doesn't matter what technique is used or what material is used.

Another important point is that the main part of teeth that appear solid is called "dentin." While this appears solid, it is actually made up of tiny "tubules." In healthy teeth, these tubules will transport a fluid that nourishes the inside of the tooth. A root-filled tooth does not have any fluid circulating through it anymore, but the tubules remain. The bacteria that are present in this area of the root-filled tooth seem to be out of reach of antibiotics. The tiny organisms hiding in the tubules move further in to the interior of the tooth to stay and then multiply.

One more factor that plays an important role in this situation is the fact that large bacteria are common in the mouth. These bacteria will change and adapt to changing conditions. They can shrink to fit small areas and they can also survive on small amounts of food. The organisms that must have oxygen are able to mutate and then survive without oxygen. Because of this adaptation, these organisms can become pathogenic and are able to produce serious disease.

Today's scientists are able to confirm the research conducted by Dr. Price all those years ago. Recent research has shown strains of "streptococcus," "staphylococcus," and "spirochetes" existing in root canals.

Root canals will not make everyone sick. However, current belief is that every root canal filling will leak and this leakage will allow bacteria to invade the structure. The variable between those who become sick with a degenerative disease and those who do not seems to be the strength of a person's immune system. People who are in good health will be able to control the organisms that escape from their teeth and infiltrate other areas of the body.

This is because the white blood cells and other fighters are not constantly busy with other diseases. The immune system is able to prevent new bacterial colonies from taking over other tissues in the body. Over time, however, most people who have had root canals seem to develop various types of systemic symptoms that were not previously present.

If an extraction is necessary, it is now apparent that merely extracting the tooth is not enough. It has been determined that bacteria are present in the tissues and bone just adjacent to a tooth's root. The new recommendation is slow-speed drilling with a burr to remove 1 millimeter of the entire bony socket.

If the tooth is dead and can't be saved, then the best course of action would be to have a root canal with a material called "Biocalex." "Biocalex" eliminates many of the dangerous bacteria and will cause fewer complications. If this fails, it may be necessary to extract the tooth. It would be best to find a biological dentist for this procedure. Many biological dentists have alternative methods that can save a tooth in some cases.

http://www.naturalnews.com/025412.html

HPV Vaccine Shot Causes 500 Percent Increase in Allergic Reactions Compared to Other Vaccines

(NaturalNews) The "cervical cancer" vaccine against the human papillomavirus (HPV) is between 5 and 26 times more likely to cause severe, potentially fatal allergic reactions in young women than other vaccines, according to a study conducted by researchers from the Children's Hospital at Westmead in Sydney, Australia, and published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

Researchers compared the occurrence of severe allergic reactions among 114,000 young women who had received Merck's Gardasil vaccine in 2007 with the rate among women of similar age who had received other vaccines.

Gardasil protects against four HPV strains associated with cervical cancer and genital warts.

The researchers found eight confirmed and four suspected cases of anaphylaxis among women who had received Gardasil, which translated into 2.6 cases per 100,000 vaccines. In contrast, there were only 0.1 anaphylaxis cases per 100,000 women who received a meningitis vaccine in 2003.

Anaphylaxis is a severe allergic reaction that can cause rash, nausea and breathing problems, and can be fatal in the most extreme cases.

HPV vaccines have come under increased scrutiny recently, with a recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine calling their effectiveness into question. The authors noted that while the vaccines have only ever been tested on women between the ages of 15 and 24, they are regularly given to younger girls - even though there is no knowledge of how those patients might be affected. In addition, because the vaccines are so new, it is also impossible to know how long their protective effects will last, or how they might affect women's natural defenses against other strains of HPV.

The authors concluded that HPV vaccination is not cost-effective for women over the age of 17.

Because HPV vaccines do not protect against all strains of the virus that cause cervical cancer and because a woman who has previously been exposed to the virus receives no protection from the vaccine, even vaccinated women are advised to continue receiving regular Pap smear tests.

http://www.naturalnews.com/025411.html

Hypnosis Improves Quality of Life for People With Dementia

(NaturalNews) Hypnosis therapy can significantly increase the quality of life for dementia patients by slowing the decline of their cognitive, physical and social abilities, according to a study conducted by researchers from the University of Liverpool and the Abacus Clinic in Newark, N.J.

Researchers split a number of dementia patients into three groups: one continuing with regular mainstream treatment, one participating in group therapy sessions that encouraged patients to discuss current events with each other, and one undergoing hypnosis therapy.

Participants in the hypnosis group showed significant improvements in measures of concentration, memory, motivation, socialization, relaxation and daily living activities, while participants in the other groups either held steady or declined in those measures.

"Over a nine-month period of weekly sessions, it became clear that the participants attending the discussion group remained the same throughout," said researcher Simon Duff. "The group who received 'treatment as usual' showed a small decline over the assessment period, yet those having regular hypnosis sessions showed real improvement across all of the areas that we looked at."

Further research will be needed to see if hypnosis therapy remains effective over the long term and in more severe cases of the disease, the researchers said. It was also not clear from the current study exactly how hypnosis slowed the progression of dementia; Duff suggested that its ability to induce relaxation might play a role.

"Participants who are aware of the onset of dementia may become depressed and anxious at their gradual loss of cognitive ability, and so hypnosis - which is a tool for relaxation - can really help the mind concentrate on positive activity like socialization," he said.

Co-author Dan Nightingale said that the hypnosis therapy used in the study could be employed clinically.

"Evidence to date has shown that we can enhance the quality of life for people living with dementia through the correct use of hypnosis," he said. "We have now developed a course for clinicians who wish to incorporate hypnosis into health care plans."

http://www.naturalnews.com/025406.html

Insulin, Leptin, and Blood Sugar – Why Diabetic Medication Fails

(NaturalNews) Type II diabetes is a difficult metabolic problem. It is a national embarrassment that so many of our young people are becoming type II diabetic. It is a national disgrace that millions of type II diabetic patients are being injured with commonly used diabetic medications that are known to make their metabolic situation worse.

An overwhelming body of science demonstrates that insulin resistance leads to obesity and vice versa. Once this problem sets in a person heads down a path of ever-worsening metabolic control as diabetes-related issues, cholesterol problems, and heart disease risk factors pile up. If nothing is done, very poor health and early death are certain.

However, the Big Pharma blood-sugar remedies turn out to be really bad for health – and actually complicate rather than improve the patient's health. Even when the drugs aren't directly damaging in a major way, they fail to address the actual reasons for diabetes and typically have the net result of making the factors causing diabetes worse. I know that may seem hard to believe – but it is true, and I will explain it shortly.

On December 17, 2008 the New England Journal of Medicine put the nail in the coffin on another dismal year for the theory of drugs to treat disease, reporting that aggressive use of blood-sugar-lowering medication to prevent heart disease was a complete failure. Its not that lowering blood sugar in this patient population didn't do anything: it made the patients heavier and more hypoglycemic. This newer study followed equally dismal results from the ACCORD trial (Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes), which earlier in 2008 found a 22% increased rate of death in diabetic patients who were aggressively treated with medications.

Some of the newer diabetes medications like Avandia are quite deadly and likely to injure in multiple ways (such as doubling the risk for bone fractures). Scientists at the FDA were so concerned this drug would cause heart failure that they wanted a black box warning on it from the start. However, Von Eschenbach and his band of FDA management goons forced FDA scientists to not warn anyone! As Avandia-treated bodies starting showing up on the doorsteps of morgues around the country, Congress started asking questions. Eventually scientists reported a 43% increase in the risk for heart failure from Avandia; however, the FDA had this data from the start and didn't tell anyone. The FDA allowed Avandia sales to reach 3.2 billion per year – while killing and injuring a lot of patients. Even when the high-profile type II diabetic Tim Russert keeled over dead from a heart attack, nobody in the media seemed interested to know if he was taking Avandia.

At the same time that the FDA was helping to create a market for deadly Avandia sales, they sent out twenty-four warning letters to small dietary supplement companies telling them that their promotion of various products to lower blood sugar, correct insulin resistance, or improve diabetes is against the law. Against whose law? Certainly not the first amendment.

The Blood Sugar Con Job

The FDA and Big Pharma get away with this nonsense because they set the standard for drug effectiveness on a surrogate endpoint or biomarker, in this case the blood sugar level. Their logic is that if blood sugar levels are better than health must be better. This means that any drug that takes a toxic sledgehammer to blood sugar levels, knocking them down, is just fine in the eyes of the FDA even though the drug leaves a trail of damage around the body – even killing the person!

On a lesser scale, but using similar logic, doctors think that any medication that helps lower blood sugar is doing the patient a favor. Never do they ask the most obvious question: If you are lowering blood sugar with a drug where is the sugar going? The answer is: most often to stored fat. Or the sugar is simply forced into cells and kills them because the cells couldn't use the sugar.

What is a diabetes patient to do? And how does anyone whose blood sugar is beginning to rise get the problem under control? Answering these questions requires that you understand something about the subject, as it is rather obvious most doctors, even those who treat diabetes patients as their primary business, don't have adequate practical knowledge to fix the great majority of people coming to them for help.

Blood Sugar 101

First off, your blood is not a very sweet beverage. Normal fasting blood sugar is slightly less than one teaspoon of sugar in your five or so quarts of blood. What happens when you drink a sugar-sweetened Coke that contains ten teaspoons of sugar?

When you eat any food, even fat, your insulin level will rise. Higher amounts of refined carbohydrates or simple sugars will raise your insulin faster and in higher amounts. The greater the fiber content of your diet, the slower insulin is raised and the more controlled the process. When you eat a large meal, regardless of the type of calories, it causes a large and difficult to manage surge in insulin.

Insulin is a taxicab for calories. Its goal is to take blood sugar, as its passenger, to various locations in your body that want it. It helps if you are active, as some of the sugar is more likely to be wanted by cells in your body, including your many muscle cells.

Blood sugar is fuel, like gasoline is to a car. Your brain must have a regular supply or your head conks out. Thus, following a meal your insulin taxis are busy transporting sugar through your circulation and out to your cells, hoping to find cells that need some sugar.

In a healthy person, insulin drops off a whopping sixty percent of the sugar at your liver – which acts as a warehouse, converting the blood sugar to glycogen for storage.

Insulin is released by your pancreas in two phases. The first phase is from insulin that is already made and stored in your pancreas, which is just waiting for some food to come along. This is your first wave of taxis coming to pick up the first set of blood-sugar passengers. The release of this insulin triggers your pancreas's beta cells to start making more insulin to deal with the rest of the meal.

As you are eating, some of the insulin transports blood sugar to your white adipose tissue or stored fat. The blood sugar is taken up by fat cells, activating their metabolism, in turn producing the hormone leptin. Leptin now enters your blood and begins traveling up to your brain. The more you eat, the more insulin you make, and the more leptin you make.

When leptin levels get high enough, meaning you have eaten enough, then leptin permeates into your brain and tells your subconscious brain you are full. At the same time the higher levels of leptin are also telling your pancreas that you are full, which turns off the beta cell production of insulin, as no more taxis are needed.

If you ate the right amount of food for your physical activity level then blood sugar always has some place healthy to go, insulin rises and falls in a controlled manner, as does leptin.

When insulin has too many blood sugar passengers and cells don't need any sugar, then insulin stimulates the production of triglycerides (which can become stored fat). This is how you gain weight. Unfortunately, as triglycerides elevate in your blood they get in the way of leptin getting into your brain. This keeps you eating more than you need to because you don't have a full signal yet, a problem called leptin resistance. This encourages even further insulin-driven triglyceride formation, making it more likely you will gain weight.

If you stop eating so much and start exercising more, then this simple-case issue can improve and will often bounce back to normal function – thus the basic idea of eating less and exercising more to lose weight.

If you continually eat too much and are gaining weight, then cells get tired of seeing insulin taxis driving up. In fact, they shutter their windows and lock their doors, insulin becomes persona non grata. The reason for this rejection of insulin is rather simple – if the cells took in blood sugar when they can't use it, because they already have enough, then the extra sugar will caramelize and kill the cell. Rejecting insulin is a self defense measure. This is the mechanism behind basic insulin resistance at the cellular level.

If this problem keeps going, blood sugar levels continue to rise, insulin resistance gets worse, leptin resistance gets worse, cholesterol levels go up, blood pressure goes up, triglyceride levels go up, and inflammation really starts heating up. Eventually this leads to type II diabetes, along with many risk factors for heart disease, and then heart and kidney disease lock into place.

The problem for any kind of blood sugar medication is that it only addresses one of many mechanisms that aren't working right, while creating its own side effect complications. At best, it is a temporary solution with a narrow scope of benefit - and does not address the true source of the problem.

Furthermore, when more drugs are added in an effort to more comprehensively address the multiple aspects of the problem, then side effects really pile up in a hurry and injure the patient. This means the risk of multiple drug treatment far outweighs the benefits, even though one or two drugs can't get the job done.

More often, the medication either forces sugar into cells – killing or injuring them or it transfers the sugar into fat, making leptin problems worse that in turn make insulin problems almost impossible to solve. The shortcoming of these medications is openly acknowledged in the scientific literature, yet this is what passes for standard medical care. It is a disgrace.

Basic Diet Adjustments for Insulin Improvement

The absolute worst possible dietary pattern of eating for a type II diabetic IS THE STANDARD DIET ADVICE GIVEN BY DIETICIANS AND DOCTORS ACROSS THIS COUNTRY FOR ALMOST ALL TYPE II DIABETIC PATIENTS, helping to lock in a national epidemic of type II diabetes. They routinely tell individuals to snack in order to maintain their blood sugar levels and to "stoke" their metabolism with fuel.

In normal health, when you haven't eaten for three hours, insulin levels return to a baseline. Now your pancreas makes a different hormone called glucagon. This hormone tells your liver to release the sugar it has stored (glycogen) to sustain your blood sugar levels, and as it does this it turns on your liver's fat burning system. Thus, under the influence of glucagon your liver simultaneously uses sugar and fat to sustain your blood sugar – a true fat burning time that helps to clear up stagnating levels of triglycerides in your blood.

If you snack on anything surpassing thirty calories you will raise insulin, which automatically turns off glucagon, causes fat burning to stop, and blunts the use of sugar that has been stored in your liver. However, since you haven't used the stored sugar in your liver, then insulin can't put more sugar back in your liver as it normally would, meaning it will readily turn blood sugar into fat (even if you snacked on something with no fat).

You are supposed to get a snack between meals – but it is supposed to come from your liver, not from eating.

The worst things for leptin and insulin are eating between meals, eating large meals, eating low fiber, eating high refined sugar or refined carbohydrates, not eating enough quality protein, and not exercising.

If you eat anything after dinner you make matters even worse, because now you reduce the optimal access into your stored fat during sleep, a prime opportunity to burn fat.

When this system is abused and weight is gained, then fat begins to accumulate in excess in your liver. The fat clogs your liver's metabolism and reduces the ability of sugar to store in your liver following a meal. This is liver insulin resistance caused by fatty build up. This means that you are much more likely to become hypoglycemic or low blood sugar between meals – as you don't have enough sugar in your warehouse to use for blood sugar between meals.

This same fatty liver problem also gets in the way of how glucagon would burn fat between meals, causing glucagon to synthesize sugar in an inappropriate and out-of-control manner, making blood sugar go high even though you haven't eaten. This is why diabetics wake up with very high fasting blood sugar levels. These are complicated metabolic problems that are more difficult to fix than simple case insulin resistance.

Furthermore, your pancreas starts to tune out leptin, meaning that leptin resistance is occurring at the level of beta cells and the beta cells aren't getting the leptin message to stop making insulin in a timely manner. This causes extra insulin to be made, which excessively lowers blood sugar by turning sugar to fat, while simultaneously inducing hypoglycemia or low blood sugar symptoms. This makes a person want to eat again two to three hours after the previous meal, in turn making the whole problem worse.

And it's about this time, with metabolism clogged and broken, that a young overweight person goes to the doctor and finds out he or she is type II diabetic.

If the problem continues, then inflammation begins to damage the insulin-secreting beta cells. Not only are these beta cells now leptin resistant, causing them to overproduce insulin and get tired out, but they are getting damaged and their numbers are declining – meaning now they can't make insulin either. This sends a person down a path of a mixture of type I and type II diabetes - with an autoimmune component sometimes thrown in for good measure, a problem that is seen progressively more often in today's older type II diabetics.

The Complexity of Insulin and Leptin Problems

Well, if you thought that was hard to understand, then realize that the previous description was the rather simple explanation of the problem (and worth reading over again until you understand it). The metabolic problems of a diabetic patient are actually far more complex. To prevent yourself from becoming diabetic or to get over the problem, it is very important to understand even more information.

As your fat cells expand and cram into each other, a highly inflammatory state occurs within your white adipose tissue. These inflammatory signals aggravate and lock in the various problems discussed in previous sections. Another hormone made in fat, adiponectin, is a major player in this equation.

In health, leptin and adiponectin elevate in harmony, side by side. When leptin resistance occurs, which is common anytime someone starts gaining weight, then adiponectin levels begin to fall. The fall in adiponectin is caused by the inflammation in white adipose tissue. Interestingly, adiponectin is a primary anti-inflammatory hormone within white adipose tissue. Thus, the inflammation of progressive weight gain eventually overwhelms adiponectin, at which point serious problems really set in.

Once adiponectin levels fall too much, then inflammation in fat cells really ramps up. The greater the weight gain and leptin resistance, the farther adiponectin levels fall. When adiponectin levels fall your liver's ability to process sugar and insulin dramatically worsen, and your muscles become resistant to insulin – speeding the onset of type II diabetes.

And that's not all – your brain becomes insulin resistant which is actually caused by the leptin resistance, and this problem is now found to lock in all problems of insulin resistance around your body. A great deal of research indicates that the failure of insulin and leptin to register properly in your brain, along with falling adiponectin levels, creates a highly inflammatory state of affairs that is the prime cause of worsening blood sugar regulation and eventual type II diabetes.

Diabetic medication does not address these issues, and often makes them worse over time – even if blood sugar numbers appear better for a period of time. Treating blood sugar numbers is not treating the cause of anything. It's like saying the cause of a house fire is because the Fire Department didn't show up fast enough – so now let's put a fire hydrant in everyone's house so we can put out fires faster. That is an accurate analogy of how the Big Pharma-trained medical profession manages the type II diabetic population in our country. Even worse, their monopoly and inept care is sanctioned by the FDA and FTC as law, who act as police force bullies to stamp out any competing interests.

How to Solve the Diabetes Problem

There is no quick fix for type II diabetes, or even fasting blood sugar levels that are on the rise. To be healthy, your fasting blood sugar should never be above 90. However, real health is determined by achieving this number because your body is working properly.

There is no vitamin, mineral, or miracle pill that can automatically prevent or treat diabetes. What you are trying to do is create a nutritional environment that supports your body working normally.

Individuals with simple-case insulin and leptin resistance, who cut back on junk, exercise more, make appropriate dietary adjustments, and use some basic dietary supplement support can typically bring these smaller problems in line relatively quickly.

When problems are more serious they are complicated by the fact that the liver, pancreas, white adipose tissue, circulatory system, and subconscious brain have been irritated and even damaged by inflammatory compounds. This fact alone takes time to heal – it is not a simple nutritional deficiency – it is more like a badly sprained ankle.

Additionally, the liver, muscles, and circulation are clogged with accumulating fat. This is like trying to cook a meal in a filthy kitchen, it is going to be challenging. This problem will only gradually improve as weight is lost, it never improves until the weight is lost, and it is always getting worse if weight is being gained.

The solution is to create a pattern of health, rooted in a good diet and exercise, wherein these more advanced problems can begin to correct themselves. Type II diabetes is completely reversible for almost everyone – if only diabetics knew what to do.

Dietary Basics to Correct Type II Diabetes

Dietary fiber, especially soluble fiber, is critical for the repair of blood sugar problems. Soluble fiber is vital for slowing the rate at which sugar enters your blood, thus enabling your insulin system to function with less stress. It also helps you maintain healthier levels of triglycerides and cholesterol. Individuals struggling with blood sugar issues need 35 to 50 grams of fiber per day, much of it as soluble fiber (a higher level than the 25 grams the government recommends for general health). Higher amounts are also very helpful to curb appetite and support weight loss.

A serving of fruit or vegetables or a cup of oatmeal average about 4 grams of soluble fiber per serving. Legumes have about 8 grams of soluble fiber per serving (avoid soy). It is really easy to get higher amounts of soluble fiber with high quality fiber drinks. Pysllium, oat beta glucan concentrates, arabinogalactan, and partially hydrolyzed guar gum are just a few of the many fiber options available for consumers to easily boost soluble fiber intake.

Protein is vital in the repair of blood sugar metabolism. A minimal objective for protein intake is three-fourths of your ideal weight in grams of protein per day. To improve insulin function, the key proteins that help are rich in branch chain amino acids – especially leucine. Unlike any other amino acids, leucine directly communicates to insulin, instructing it to work efficiently in muscle. This not only helps preserve your muscle mass as you lose weight, it helps your muscles use glucose as fuel, in turn supporting healthy insulin function. Whey protein also helps leptin enter your brain more efficiently, supporting normal insulin function in your nervous system.

The highest sources of leucine-containing foods are animal and dairy sources. Cottage cheese and red meat top the list; other sources include milk, cheese, eggs, pork, fish, chicken, legumes, peanuts, nuts, and seeds. If you avoid red meat and dairy products, it is harder it is to get leucine-containing foods in higher amounts – though not impossible. Using whey protein makes it easy. I always recommend individuals stay away from processed soy protein (like soy protein drinks), as it is anti-thyroid in higher amounts.

The key foods to eliminate are refined carbohydrates, refined sugar, and high fructose corn syrup. Complex carbohydrates and fruit should be eaten at meals, several servings of each per day. Saturated fat and cholesterol-containing foods do not need to be avoided – just don't eat them in excess. A bite or two of dessert is permissible at a dinner meal, but never between meals or as a snack. Avoid adding any sweetener to food, whether natural or artificial, as they skew your taste buds to be addicted to food in larger amounts than you truly need. Soda drinks should be completely avoided. Coffee or tea in moderation. Eat organic whenever possible. Raw foods and vegetable juicing is great – go easy on the carrots and apples/fruit.
The Five Rules of the Leptin Diet

As I have explained in my books, Mastering Leptin and The Leptin Diet, there are five basic rules for eating that help correct leptin and insulin problems. They are:

Rule 1: Never eat after dinner.
Rule 2: Eat three meals a day (do not snack).
Rule 3: Do not eat large meals.
Rule 4: Eat a breakfast containing protein.
Rule 5: Reduce the amount of carbohydrates eaten.

While these rules are fairly simple, they are backed by considerable cutting-edge science. They help you extract more energy from less food. They form the foundation for a healthy style of eating that you can follow for a lifetime without any feeling of deprivation.

Some individuals who are type II diabetic may struggle a bit to go five hours between meals or make it through the night. This does not mean the rules are wrong, it simply means that liver and pancreatic fitness need to be restored. You can eat four smaller meals four hours apart to get started, or gradually implement rules until you can do them all. As you improve, work towards the three meals a day. You will be surprised how easy and effective it actually is. Numerous type II diabetic patients have made dramatic improvement by following the Leptin Diet.

How Dietary Supplements Can Help Correct Type II Diabetes

Many people will be able to correct type II diabetes simply by increasing exercise, following the Five Rules of The Leptin Diet, and improving the quality of food they are eating. Because type II diabetic patients have significant issues with inflammatory tissue damage and fat that is accumulating in all the wrong places, dietary supplements generally make the process of improvement easier. For some people they make the process possible. Choose a level of supplement support that makes sense to you. Add to it, or adjust it, so as to help yourself stay on track. It is the consistency of your entire program over a number of months that is your path to getting better.

The following list of supplement ingredients is by no means complete, as many other nutrients positively influence blood sugar and insulin. These are nutrients I have used in clinical nutrition practice with outstanding results. My point is to illustrate the many options and ways nutrition can help support healthy blood sugar metabolism.

Nutrients that have a positive influence on blood sugar and insulin:

DHA fish oil – It is now clear that patients with higher levels of DHA have lower amounts of insulin resistance. DHA is known to reduce the inflammation associated with blood sugar and insulin problems. It is also clear that DHA directly boosts the production of adiponectin by white adipose tissue, a hormone that may be key to the prevention of type II diabetes.

Cinnamon – Cinnamon is known to improve insulin resistance by activating gene-related metabolic signaling. It individuals with metabolic syndrome it has been shown to have improved fasting blood glucose, systolic blood pressure, percentage body fat and increased lean body mass. Cinnamon directly inhibits excess sugar from caramelizing body cells and tissues (AGEs –advanced glycation end products).

Banaba leaf – The active component in banaba leaf, corosolic acid, has been shown to support weight loss while lowering levels of blood sugar, insulin, and triglycerides. This helped prevent fatty build up in the liver while raising the very important level of diabetes-preventing adiponectin. Banaba is a traditional remedy for diabetes in the Philippines – and new studies are showing it to have a powerfully helpful influence on white adipose tissue – a mechanism unlike any drug.

Coffee berry – Coffee is well known to decrease the incidence of type II diabetes. Green coffee berries contain polyphenols and chlorogenic acid, a nutrient that helps your liver metabolize sugar effectively by modulating the enzyme glucose-6-phosphatase. It has been shown to improve glucose tolerance, while reducing cholesterol and triglycerides. It has also been shown to be effective for reducing mildly elevated blood pressure.

Chromium – Chromium helps blood sugar enter cells by supporting the natural function of insulin at the cell membrane. The nutrient is commonly lacking in individuals with type II diabetes. In type II diabetic patients chromium is found to improve glucose, insulin, cholesterol and Hemoglobin A1c.

Vanadium – Vanadium is a mineral with insulin-like properties that has been found to improve the metabolism of carbohydrates and fats, even in diabetics. It helps promote better blood sugar metabolism in both muscle and liver.

Inula racemosa – Inula has been found to increase the sensitivity of insulin. In combination with Gymnema sylvestre it was found to guard against steroid induced blood sugar problems, indicating that it helps offset the effects of high stress on blood sugar metabolism.

Gymnema sylvestre – Gymnema sylvestre is widely regarded as a top herb to help combat the problem of type II diabetes. This herb has even been shown to boost the number of pancreatic beta cells – a really unique and helpful support nutrient.

Pterocarpus marsupium - Pterocarpus marsupium is a traditional remedy for diabetes from India. It has insulin-like properties and it has a regenerative effect on the beta cells of the pancreas (cells that make insulin).

Bitter melon – Bitter melon is another Eastern traditional remedy for diabetes, showing improved blood sugar and insulin function, improved lipids, protection for beta cells, and reduced oxidative stress.

Grape seed extract - Grape seed extracts also turns down inflammation in fat cells while boosting the highly protective adiponectin. They have been shown to assist blood sugar entry to cells with insulin-like activity. They also directly inhibit the advanced glycation end products (AGEs) that form in the circulatory system from excess sugar.

Resveratrol – Resveratrol activates the SIRT1 gene, turning on other genes that directly influence insulin function and fat burning, leading researchers to conclude it may be helpful for diabetics. It reduces inflammation in fat cells and boosts adiponectin, a key problem for diabetics.

R-Alpha Lipoic Acid – A nutrient that assists in carbohydrate metabolism and insulin sensitivity, while acting as an antioxidant in nerves to help diabetic neuropathy. A lack of ability to make lipoic acid during aging increases inflammation and insulin resistance. Lipoic acid also protects against the formation of AGEs.

Carnosine – Carnosine is a potent reducer of AGEs and can even reduce the glycation of LDL cholesterol, leading researchers to conclude that carnosine may have therapeutic potential in preventing diabetes-induced atherosclerosis.

It is clear that nature's toolbox offers an impressive array of nutrients that support healthy blood glucose and insulin metabolism. While no person should ever consider these as a treatment in and of themselves, they are a potent array of natural options that can be plugged in, as desired, to an overall diet, exercise, and medical treatment plan to help address the very difficult problem of type II diabetes.

Summary

Type II diabetes is at epidemic levels in America, reaching down to teenagers and young adults in startling numbers. This problem signifies that key regulatory systems have lost their natural balance – meaning that homeostasis has been compromised. Unfortunately, this locks in a path to poor quality health, the early onset of many serious disease, and early death. The medical profession, relying on Big Pharma drugs, has not been able to solve this problem and actually makes it worse on a routine basis.

In order to make progress an overall program of lifestyle improvement must be undertaken on a consistent basis. There are no shortcuts. There is little margin for error. Weight must be lost in a gradual and consistent way. Weight gain during any "treatment" means the "treatment" is an utter failure. A healthy program requires making dietary adjustments that have been explained in this article. Consistent exercise is mandatory, the more the better. Dietary supplements can be plugged into an overall program to help the program of recovery go easier – and in some cases may be the key to getting the program on track or keeping it from getting derailed. There are many options. Type II diabetes can be prevented and in many people it can be completely reversed.

http://www.naturalnews.com/025405.html

Eating Apples Benefits the Heart

(NaturalNews) A team of researchers who looked at data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 1999 to 2004 has found that eating apples can offer protective effects against metabolic syndrome, which is a cluster of symptoms related to increased heart disease risk.

People who had reported eating any form of apples within the past 24 hours had 27% lower chance of having the symptoms of metabolic syndrome. These include high blood pressure, or a large waist measurement (over 40 inches for men or over 35 inches for women). They also had lower blood levels of C-reactive protein, which is a marker for inflammation signifying heightened risk for diabetes and heart disease.

This recent study led by Victor Fulgoni, PhD, adds to increasing evidence that apples are good for the heart. The recent Iowa Women's Health Study, for example, tracked over 34,000 women for close to two decades and found a link between the consumption of apples and lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease as well as coronary heart disease.

Prior to that, research in Finland using data of 9,208 people and carried out over a period of 28 years found that those who ate apples frequently had lower risk of getting a stroke.

Some beneficial compounds in apples include antioxidant flavonoid compounds such as epicatechin, epigallocatechin, kaempferol and quercetin, which play an important role in inhibiting inflammation and preventing low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol from oxidizing, which in turn triggers a series of processes which then cause the buildup of plaque in arteries; pectin, a soluble fiber which helps lower cholesterol levels; and vitamin C, another important antioxidant and immune boosting nutrient.

And antioxidants are just one part of the entire picture. Rui Hai Liu, PhD, a Cornell University food scientist who is an apple expert and who had in other research identified anti-cancer elements in extracts of whole apples, feels that there is still a lot to learn about how the various constituents in apples "work together additively and synergistically to provide health benefits".

This point was echoed by one of the team members of the Iowa Women's Health Study, David Jacobs, PhD, a University of Minnesota researcher. "There are probably thousands of compounds in apples that we haven't yet identified and maybe won't identify for a long time, but we really don't need to know all that, because we can eat whole apples," he said.

This piece of advice from Jacobs really applies to all food in general - eat them in their natural, whole forms, as provided by Nature, and we will reap the maximum benefits. Unfortunately, most of us today eat processed material which, while edible, barely even passes off for food in the truest sense of the word.

Much of the useful phytochemicals in apples can be found in its skin, and you may want to eat that, too. Afraid of pesticides? Buy organic apples. If you cannot afford them or they are not available in your area, you may want to use a natural vegetable cleaning liquid to help remove as much of the chemicals from the skin as possible before consumption.

http://www.naturalnews.com/025401.html

Apple Juice Can Delay Onset Of Alzheimer's Disease, Study Suggests

ScienceDaily (Jan. 24, 2009) — A growing body of evidence demonstrates that we can take steps to delay age-related cognitive decline, including in some cases that which accompanies Alzheimer's disease, according to a study published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.
Thomas B. Shea, PhD, of the Center for Cellular Neurobiology; Neurodegeneration Research University of Massachusetts, Lowell and his research team have carried out a number of laboratory studies demonstrating that drinking apple juice helped mice perform better than normal in maze trials, and prevented the decline in performance that was otherwise observed as these mice aged.
In the most recent study Shea and his team demonstrated that mice receiving the human equivalent of 2 glasses of apple juice per day for 1 month produced less of a small protein fragment, called "beta-amyloid" that is responsible for forming the "senile plaques" that are commonly found in brains of individuals suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
Dr. Shea commented that "These findings provide further evidence linking nutritional and genetic risk factors for age-related neurodegeneration and suggest that regular consumption of apple juice can not only help to keep one's mind functioning at its best, but may also be able to delay key aspects of Alzheimer's disease and augment therapeutic approaches."
Amy Chan and Thomas B. Shea. Dietary Supplementation with Apple Juice Decreases Endogenous Amyloid-%u03B2 Levels in Murine Brain. Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, 16:1 (January 2009)

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090122100826.htm

High Omega-6 Fatty Acid Intake Linked to Breast Cancer

(NaturalNews) Researchers from Lund University in Malmo, Sweden, have discovered a connection between a higher intake of omega-6 fatty acids and an increased risk of breast cancer, in a study published in the International Journal of Cancer.

"[A diet] very high in omega-6 ... may promote breast cancer development," they wrote.

The researchers were investigating the connection between breast cancer, omega-6s, and chemicals called heterocyclic amines (HAs), which form in animal flesh that is cooked at high temperatures. Previous research has implicated HAs as carcinogens, and rats consuming HAs as part of a diet that is also high in omega-6s have been found to have an even higher or risk of breast cancer than rats eating HAs alone.

In the current study, researchers evaluated the diets of 11,699 women over the age of 49 who were taking part in the Malmo Diet and Cancer Study, then followed those women for ten years. Contrary to expectations, women who consumed the highest levels of HAs did not have a breast cancer risk significantly different than women who consumed the lowest levels. Women who had both a low HA consumption and a high intake of omega-6s, however, did demonstrate a significantly elevated breast cancer risk.

"The interaction in the present study between omega-6 PUFAs and HAs is not easily explained, and points toward the importance of examining the impact of food patterns rather than the influence of single dietary factors," the researchers wrote.

The researchers suggested that one explanation for the findings might come from the fact that women with a high consumption of low-fiber bread products also had elevated levels of blood fats and insulin, both of which are risk factors for breast cancer. In the current analysis, low intake of HAs was correlated with a higher intake of bread, cakes and cookies, suggesting that some factor other than HA intake itself might have led to the increased vulnerability to omega-6s.

Hospital Sued for Charging Patients 18% Interest

Wall Street Journal  January 23, 2009, 9:17 am
 Jacob Goldstein
More news today from the turbulent world of medical debt. Minnesota’s attorney general is suing the biggest hospital system in the Twin Cities, alleging that Allina Hospitals & Clinics is violating a state law by charging patients excessive interest on unpaid bills.
“Allina has dug a deeper financial hole for patients facing tough economic times by charging usurious interest rates of up to 18 percent on medical bills,” AG Lori Swanson said in a statement.
The hospital system says it told the AG in December it had decided to lower the maximum interest rate to 8%. The nonprofit pointed out that it offers free care to those with incomes less than 2.75 times the federal poverty line, and argued that it never violated state law.
The AG wants the hospital to give a refund to patients who paid interest she says is excessive. The legal debate turns on whether the hospital’s debt program constitutes an “open-ended credit plan” under state law, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports. The law allows such plans to charge 18% interest.

Vitamin D 'is mental health aid'
Vitamin D, found in fish and produced by sun exposure, can help stave off the mental decline that can affect people in old age, a study has suggested.
UK and US researchers looked at 2,000 people aged 65 and over.
They found that compared to those with the highest vitamin D levels, those with the lowest were more than twice as likely to have impaired understanding.
Alzheimer's charities said the research was interesting, but more work was needed to understand vitamin D's role.
Vitamin D is important in maintaining bone health, in the absorption of calcium and phosphorus, and in helping the immune system.
The body makes vitamin D when it is exposed to the sun, or it can be obtained from foods such as oily fish, and those fortified with vitamin D, such as milk, cereals, and soya drinks.
But older people's skin is less able to absorb vitamin D from sunlight so they are more reliant on obtaining it from other sources.
Supplements
Animal and lab studies have previously suggested that the vitamin can have a beneficial effect on cognitive function.
The team from the Peninsula Medical School in Exeter, the University of Cambridge and the University of Michigan, assessed people's cognition, or comprehension skills.
People who have impaired cognitive function are more likely to develop dementia.
The researchers looked at people who had taken part in the Health Survey for England in 2000.
Just over 200 had significant cognitive impairment, assessed by looking at people's attention, orientation in time and space and memory.
The study found that as levels of vitamin D went down, levels of cognitive impairment went up.
The paper will appear in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Geriatric Psychology and Neurology.
Dr Iain Lang from the Peninsula Medical School, who worked on the study, said: "For those of us who live in countries where there are dark winters without much sunlight, like the UK, getting enough vitamin D can be a real problem - particularly for older people, who absorb less vitamin D from sunlight.
"One way to address this might be to provide older adults with vitamin D supplements.
"This has been proposed in the past as a way of improving bone health in older people, but our results suggest it might also have other benefits.
"We need to investigate whether vitamin D supplementation is a cost-effective and low-risk way of reducing older people's risks of developing cognitive impairment and dementia."
Risk factor?
Rebecca Wood, chief executive of the Alzheimer's Research Trust, said: "Many foods that contain vitamin D, such as oily fish, eggs and breakfast cereals, are also good sources of vitamin B12, which, as previous studies have shown, can help protect the brain.
"Diet is known to influence dementia risk. The best way of reducing your risk of developing dementia is to maintain a balanced diet with regular exercise and frequent social interactions."
She added: "These findings may be significant, but much more research is needed."
Dr Susanne Sorensen, head of research at the Alzheimer's Society, added: "One in three people over 65 will die with dementia so research into how we can reduce risk is to be encouraged.
"There was some previous evidence to suggest that people with dementia may have a lower level of vitamin D in their blood but it was not clear if this happened after the onset of disease.
"It would be interesting if a low level of vitamin D was found to be a risk factor for cognitive problems as it is cheap and easy to remedy.
"We look forward to seeing the published results of this new research to help us better understand the potential role of vitamin D in reducing risk."

Midlife Coffee and Tea Drinking and the Risk of Late-Life Dementia

NewsRx.com  01-23-09
Midlife coffee drinking can decrease the risk of dementia/Alzheimer's disease (AD) later in life. This conclusion is made in a Finnish Cardiovascular Risk Factors, Aging and Dementia (CAIDE) Study published in the January 2009 issue of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease (Volume 16:1) (see also Dementia).
This study has been conducted at the University of Kuopio, Finland in collaboration with Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, and the National Public Health Institute, Helsinki, Finland. The study included participants from the survivors of population-based cohorts previously surveyed within the North Karelia Project and the FINMONICA study in 1972, 1977, 1982 or 1987 (midlife visit). After an average follow-up of 21 years, 1409 individuals (71%) aged 65 to 79 completed the re-examination in 1998. A total of 61 cases were identified as demented (48 with AD).
"We aimed to study the association between coffee and tea consumption at midlife and dementia/AD risk in late-life, because the long-term impact of caffeine on the central nervous system was still unknown, and as the pathologic processes leading to Alzheimer's disease may start decades before the clinical manifestation of the disease," says lead researcher, associate professor Miia Kivipelto, from the University of Kuopio, Finland and Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
At the midlife examination, the consumption of coffee and tea was assessed with a previously validated semi-quantitative food-frequency questionnaire. Coffee drinking was categorized into three groups: 0-2 cups (low), 3-5 cups (moderate) and >5 cups (high) per day. Further, the question concerning tea consumption was dichotomized into those not drinking tea (0 cup/day) vs. those drinking tea ( & #8805;1 cup/day).
The study found that coffee drinkers at midlife had lower risk for dementia and AD later in life compared to those drinking no or only little coffee. The lowest risk (65% decreased) was found among moderate coffee drinkers (drinking 3-5 cups of coffee/day). Adjustments for various confounders did not change the results. Tea drinking was relatively uncommon and was not associated with dementia/AD.
Kivipelto also notes that, "Given the large amount of coffee consumption globally, the results might have important implications for the prevention of or delaying the onset of dementia/AD. The finding needs to be confirmed by other studies, but it opens the possibility that dietary interventions could modify the risk of dementia/AD. Also, identification of mechanisms of how coffee exerts its protection against dementia/AD might help in the development of new therapies for these diseases."
http://www.lef.org/news/LefDailyNews.htm?NewsID=7821&Section=Aging

Green tea catechins linked to weight loss: Study

Nutraingredients.com, 26-Jan-2009

Antioxidant compounds in green tea could help promote exercise-induced abdominal fat loss, according to a new study from the American Society of Nutrition.
Cetechins are a sub-class of flavonoids, or antioxidant compounds. Green tea is a rich source of catechins, which are thought to play a beneficial role in reducing the risk of various diseases, including Alzheimer's, certain cancers, cardiovascular and oral health.
Precious studies have also suggested that tea catechins may help promote weight loss. The current study, published in The Journal of Nutrition, found that consuming a beverage containing green tea catechins (625mg/d) may enhance exercise-induced loss of abdominal fat and improve triglyceride levels.
Double-blind
Researchers recruited just over 100 adults between the ages of 21 and 65. The participants were all healthy and “normally sedentary”, with a mean BMI of 32kg/m². Most subjects were of non-Hispanic white ethnicity.
Male participants, who made up about half of the total study group, had a waist circumference of over 90cm, while women had a waist circumference of over 87cm. Cholesterol levels were over 5.2mmol/L.
The subjects were randomly assigned to receive either 500ml per day of a beverage providing 625mg catechins, or a control beverage containing added caffeine to match the caffeine content of the catechin beverage.
Both the active and the control beverage contained water, sodium chloride, artificial citrus flavouring, glucose, erythritol, and sucralose. Each 500ml serving provided 63kj (15 Kcal) of energy. Participants agreed not to consume more than two caffeinated beverages per day, including the study product, during the 12-week study period.
Participants consumed one serving of their assigned beverage per day, at any time of the day, and with or without food. They continued their usual energy intake, and three-day diet records were taken at baseline, six and 12 weeks.
During the study period, the subjects committed to 180 minutes of “moderate-intensity” physical activity per week, and to attend at lease three supervised exercise sessions per week.
Body weight loss
At the end of the study period, people in the catechin group were found to have lost more body weight compared to the control group (P = 0.079).
There were no significant differences between the two groups in changes in waist circumference or fat mass. However, both total abdominal fat area (P = 0.013) and abdominal subcutaneous fat area (P = 0.019) had decreased more in the catechin group.
The researchers concluded: “The findings of this study suggest that consumption of a beverage containing green tea catechins (625mg/d) may enhance exercise-induced loss of abdominal fat and improve circulating FFA and TG levels. Additional research is warranted to further clarify the mechanisms responsible for these effects.”
Source:
Tea catechins and exercise-induced weight loss
The Journal of Nutrition
doi: 10.3945/jn. 108098293
Authors: Kevin C. Maki, Matthew S. Reeves, Mildred Farmer, Koichi Yasunaga, Noboru Matsuo, Yoshihisa Katsuragi, Masanori Komikado, Ichiro Tokimitsu, Donna Wilder, Franz Jones, Jeffrey B. Blumberg and Yolanda Cartwright
http://www.nutraingredients.com/Research/Green-tea-catechins-linked-to-weight-loss-Study

The Total Package: A Skillful, Compassionate Doctor

ScienceDaily (Jan. 26, 2009) — Patients and their families want physicians who are gifted in diagnosis and treatment and who are caring individuals with the interpersonal skills needed to communicate complex information in stressful circumstances.
A new study in the January 2009 issue of Academic Medicine shows training physicians to be humanistic is feasible and produces measurably better communicators.
"Humanism in medicine isn't about sitting and singing Kumbaya, it is about taking the individual patient's concerns and values into account in his or her treatment," said study co-author Richard Frankel, Ph.D. "Those values are clearly linked to higher quality of care and reduction of medical errors yielding safety improvement." Dr. Frankel is a professor of medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine and a Regenstrief Institute research scientist.
The study was conducted at five very different medical schools – Emory University School of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, the University of Rochester School of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Minnesota Medical School – rather than only one institution. The authors believe their findings are generalizeable throughout American medical education.
The 2001 Institute of Medicine report, "Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century," highlighted the benefits of patient-centered humane care that is respectful of and responsive to patients' needs, values and concerns.
The concept of humanism in medicine and patient-centered care predates the 21st century. In the 1920's Francis Peabody, M.D., wrote that "the secret of care of the patient is caring for the patient" a humanistic concept that in the intervening years has become overshadowed by a preoccupation with technological advances in medicine, the same technology that resulted in the development of antibiotics and thousands of other life-saving drugs, sophisticated scanning devices and untold number of vital therapies.
"Traditionally medical school curricula have focused on the pathophysiology of disease while neglecting the very real impact of disease on the patient's social and psychological experience, that is, their illness experience. It is in this intersection that humanism plays a profound role," said Dr. Frankel, who is a medical sociologist.
"As educators, we aim to foster the development of future physicians who are competent both technically and interpersonally. Patients, their families, and the public expect no less of us. This study suggests there are various faculty development processes that will allow us all to pursue these aims more effectively," said study co-author Thomas Inui, M.D., I.U. School of Medicine associate dean for health care research and Sam Regenstrief Professor of Health Services Research. Dr. Inui also is president and CEO of the Regenstrief Institute.
Other authors of the study, which was funded by the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, are William T. Branch, Jr., M.D., of Emory University; Catherine F. Gracey, M.D., of the University of Rochester; Paul M. Haidet, M.D., M.P.H., of Baylor College of Medicine; Peter F. Weissmann, M.D., of the University of Minnesota Medical School; Paul Cantey, M.D, M.P.H., formerly of Emory and now of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; and Gary A. Mitchell, M.D., formerly at the IU School of Medicine, now with the American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090122100822.htm

Sources Of Climate- And Health-afflicting Soot Pollution Over South Asia Identified

ScienceDaily (Jan. 25, 2009) — A gigantic brownish haze from various burning and combustion processes is blanketing India and surrounding land and oceans during the winter season. This soot-laden Brown Cloud is affecting South Asian climate as much or more than carbon dioxide and cause premature deaths of 100 000s annually, yet its sources have been poorly understood.
In the journal Science Örjan Gustafsson and colleagues at Stockholm University and in India use a novel carbon-14 method to determine that two-thirds of the soot particles are from biomass combustion such as in household cooking and in slash-and-burn agriculture.
Brown Clouds, covering large parts of South and East Asia, originate from burning of wood, dung and crop residue as well as from industrial processes and traffic. Previous studies had left it unclear as to the relative source contributions of biomass versus fossil fuel combustion.
Combustion-derived soot particles are key components of the Brown Cloud in Asia. The soot absorbs sunlight and thereby heats the atmosphere while cooling Earth’s surface by shading. The net effect of soot on climate warming in South Asia is rivaling that of carbon dioxide.
The Swedish-Indian team managed to address the uncertainty of the soot sources by the first-ever microscale measurements of natural C-14 (half-life of 5700 years) of atmospheric soot particles intercepted on a mountain top in western India and outside SW India on the Hanimaadhoo island of the Maldives.
Their results, presented in the Science article, demonstrated that the brown cloud soot was persistently about two-thirds from burning of contemporary biomass (C-14 “alive”) and one-third from fossil fuel combustion (C-14 “dead”).
These findings provide a direction for actions to curb emissions of Brown Clouds. Örjan Gustafsson, a professor of biogeochemistry at Stockholm University and leader of the study, says that the clear message is that efforts should not be limited to car traffic and coal-fired power plants but calls on fighting poverty and spreading India-appropriate green technology to limit emissions from small-scale biomass burning. “More households in South Asia need to be given the possibility to cook food and get heating without using open fires of wood and dung” says Gustafsson.
The rewards of decreasing soot emissions from biomass combustion may be rapid and sizeable. Globally, soot accounts for roughly half the warming potential of carbon dioxide. While carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere respond on a sluggish 100 yr timescale to reductions in emissions, Brown Cloud soot particles only reside in the atmosphere for days-weeks raising the hope for a rapid response of the climate system.
Several additional positive effects would result from a reduction on Brown Cloud soot particle emissions. A recent report by the United Nations Environment Program, Atmospheric Brown Clouds: Regional Assessment Report with Focus on Asia (http://www.rrcap.unep.org/abc/impact/) outlines severe effects including melting of the Himalayan glaciers and weather systems becoming more extreme. The Brown Cloud is also having impact on agriculture and air quality in Asia.
Henning Rodhe, a professor of chemical meteorology at Stockholm University, vice-chair of the UNEP Atmospheric Brown Cloud Program and also co-author of the Science article, states that the report finds that 340 000 people in China and India die each year from cardiovascular and respiratory diseases that can be traced to human-induced emissions of combustion particles. “The impact on health alone is a strong reason to reduce these Brown Clouds” says Rodhe.

Global Warming: Tree Deaths Have Doubled Across The Western U.S.

ScienceDaily (Jan. 25, 2009) — A new study led by the U.S. Geological Survey and involving the University of Colorado at Boulder and Oregon State University as well as other research institutes indicates tree deaths in the West's old-growth forests have more than doubled in recent decades, likely from regional warming and related drought conditions.
The study, published in the Jan. 23 issue of Science, documented tree deaths in all tree sizes in the West located at varying elevations, including tree types such as pine, fir and hemlock. Significant die-offs also were documented in the interior West -- including Colorado and Arizona -- as well as Northwest regions like northern California, Oregon, Washington and southern British Columbia.
The researchers speculated higher tree deaths could lead to substantial ecological changes in the West, including cascading effects affecting wildlife populations. The tree deaths also could lead to possible increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels contributing to warming, which could stem from lower CO2 uptake and storage by smaller trees and increased CO2 emissions from more dead trees on the forest floors.
The study shows the establishment of new, replacement trees is not keeping pace with climbing tree mortality in the study plots, said CU-Boulder geography Professor Thomas Veblen, study co-author. The new study is the largest research project based on long-term forest plots ever published on North American forests, said Veblen.
USGS researchers Phil van Mantgem and Nathan Stephenson led the study. Co-authors included Veblen and Jeremy Smith of CU-Boulder, John Byrne of the U.S. Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station, Lori Daniels of the University of British Columbia, Jerry Franklin and Andrew Larson of the University of Washington, Peter Fule of Northern Arizona University and Mark Harmon of Oregon State University.
"This regional warming has contributed to widespread hydrologic changes, such as a declining fraction of precipitation falling as snow, declining water snowpack content, earlier spring snowmelt and runoff, and a consequent lengthening of the summer drought," wrote the researchers in Science.
"The increase in tree mortality rates documented in the study is further compelling evidence of ecosystem responses to recent climate warming," said Veblen. "The findings are consistent with other well documented, climate-induced ecological changes, including increased wildfire activity since the mid-1980s and bark beetle outbreaks that are occurring at unprecedented levels in western North America forests, including Alaska."
Climate records from Colorado's subalpine forests, which are roughly 8,500 to 10,000 feet in elevation, show a marked increase in temperatures over the past 50 years during all seasons of the year, Veblen said. Colorado has experienced drought since the mid-1990s, peaking in 2002 and which became the most severe drought of the past century, he said.
The study's authors ruled out a number of possible sources of the increasing tree deaths, including air pollution, long-term effects of fire suppression, and normal forest dynamics. In contrast, increasing regional temperature was correlated with tree deaths.
"Average temperature in the West rose by more than 1° F over the last few decades," said van Mantgem. "While this may not sound like much, it has been enough to reduce winter snowpack, cause earlier snowmelt, and lengthen the summer drought."
The lengthening summer drought could be stressing trees, leading to higher death rates, he said. Warmer temperatures also might favor insects and diseases that attack trees. Some recent outbreaks of tree-killing bark beetles in the West have already been linked to warming temperatures.
In the Science study, the tree deaths measured in Colorado are all from stands re-measured prior to any stands being attacked in the current bark beetle outbreak, said Veblen. "The previous elevated rates of tree mortality in these forests may have been harbingers of the abrupt increase in tree mortality due to the current bark beetle outbreaks in Colorado."
During the past decade, mountain pine bark beetles have killed roughly 3.5 million acres of lodgepole pine forests in northwestern Colorado, and the outbreak has spread to the study's forest plots on the state's Front Range only within the last year, Veblen said. During the same time period, spruce bark beetles also killed large areas of spruce forest in northern and southwestern Colorado, he said.
"Forest entomologists and ecologists agree that warming temperatures are highly favorable to the population growth and survival of these beetles," said Veblen. "Moisture-stress induced by both warming and reduced snowpack increases tree susceptibility to bark beetle attack."
Veblen said the study suggests increased tree mortality rates may be indicators of climate-induced stress that could increase tree susceptibility to more abrupt causes of tree deaths like bark beetle outbreaks. "Recent events in subalpine forests in Colorado fit that pattern quite well," he said.
Given the evidence that recent climate-induced ecosystem changes are now so abundant, society needs to discuss policies that will help humans adapt to the changes under way, said Veblen. In the context of wildfire management, land managers need to reconsider the effectiveness of both fire suppression and fire mitigation efforts, including fuel reduction projects like timber thinning, he said.
"Instead, we need to consider developing land-use policies that reduce the vulnerability of people and resources to wildfires," Veblen said. "Activities include reducing residential development in or near wildland areas that are naturally fire-prone and where we expect fire risk to increase with continued warming."
Another significant part of the concern, Mark Harmon, professor of forest ecology at Oregon State University said, is that a "feedback loop" appears to be developing. As regional warming causes some trees to die, the diminished forests will absorb less carbon dioxide and then inject more greenhouse gases back to the atmosphere. This in turn could cause even higher levels of atmospheric warming.
"In ecology there's a bias toward understanding how things grow," Harmon said. "But my studies are mostly on how things die and decompose, and that's what's happening here. When trees across the West appear to be dying at twice the rate they used to, that's not a good sign."
The 76 western forest study plots harbored nearly 59,000 living trees. The research team studied the plots during two periods -- from 1955 to 1994 and again from 1998 to 2007, said Veblen. The permanent study plots on Colorado's Front Range were part of a study funded by the Colorado Commission on Higher Education in 1982-83 during a short-lived program when CCHE had a research grant program, Veblen said.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090122141222.htm

Postmenopausal Women's Loss Of Sexual Desire Affects Health, Quality Of Life

ScienceDaily (Jan. 24, 2009) — Women with low levels of sexual desire, often as a result of menopause, are more likely to be depressed and to suffer physical symptoms such as back pain and memory problems than women who report higher levels of desire, according to a new study by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals.
The study, published recently as an online early view article in “Value in Health,” the official journal of the International Society of Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research, found that women with hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD) reported poorer health status and worse health-related quality of life than women without the disorder. For example, those with the disorder were more than twice as likely to report health issues including back pain, fatigue and memory problems. Researchers say the study shows that women with the disorder have a degree of physical and mental impairment comparable to chronic conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, osteoarthritis and asthma.
“Our research shows that HSDD is a significant and clinically relevant problem, and not a normal or inevitable part of the aging process,” said Andrea K. Biddle, Ph.D., associate professor of health policy and management at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health.  “Women with the disorder experience health burdens similar to individuals with serious chronic conditions.”
Hypoactive sexual desire disorder is defined as the persistent lack of sexual desire causing marked stress or interpersonal difficulties. Studies have shown that between nine percent and 26 percent of women in the United States suffer from it, depending on the woman’s current age and menopausal status.
The study was based on telephone interviews with 1,189 postmenopausal women. Using quality of life surveys, researchers asked women about their levels of sexual desire and feelings of physical and emotional well-being or distress. Results showed that women with the disorder were more likely to be depressed and to express dissatisfaction with their home lives and their sexual partners. Surgically menopausal women (women who underwent menopause by having their ovaries removed) were slightly more likely to have the disorder than women who underwent menopause naturally.
Study co-authors are: Suzanne West, Ph.D., formerly UNC associate professor of epidemiology in the public health school, now senior public health researcher at RTI International; Aimee D’Aloisio, Ph.D., former doctoral student in epidemiology; Stephanie B. Wheeler, doctoral student of health policy and management; Natalie Borisov, Ph.D., senior health economist with Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals; and John Thorp, M.D., professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the UNC School of Medicine and professor of maternal and child health at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health.
The study was funded by contract from Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Mason, Ohio.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090121174130.htm

American kids opting out of outdoor play: survey
Last Updated: 2009-01-23 14:15:03 -0400 (Reuters Health)
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - While overall participation in outdoor activities among Americans is increasing, there has been a "troubling" decline in the number of youngsters and teenagers engaging in outdoor sports and recreation, according to results of an annual survey tracking American trends in outdoor recreation.
"Exploring the outdoors has been a childhood right of passage for hundreds of years -- resulting in whole and healthy children and leading to passionate outdoor enthusiasts and committed stewards of our natural resources," reads a report of the survey, available online at www.outdoorfoundation.org.
"Over the past few decades," the report states, "the critical connection between children and nature has faded. This has had a serious impact on the overall health and well-being of our children and country, our population and planet."
The good news contained in the survey, according the report's authors, is that participation in outdoor activities increased in 2007 -- a year in which 50 percent of all Americans participated in outdoor excursions -- either close to home, in a nearby park or an overnight trip. In 2007, 138.4 million Americans took part in outdoor excursions, up from 134.4 million Americans in 2006.
The bad news, however, is that from 2006 to 2007 there was an 11.6 percent drop in participation in outdoor activities among American children ages 6 to 17 years old. The sharpest declines in outdoor recreation occurred among boys and girls ages 6 to 12. Girls had the biggest decline, falling from 77 percent to 61 percent. Boys' participation in outdoor recreation fell from 79 percent to 72 percent.
"Today, children increasingly spend much of their free time indoors or in structured sedentary activity," the report states, which is contributing to skyrocketing rates of childhood obesity.
Participation in outdoor activities is highest among Caucasians for all age groups and lowest among African Americans.
The 2008 Outdoor Recreation Participation Report is based on an online survey of more than 60,000 Americans aged 6 and older and covers 114 different sports and outdoor activities. The survey is a collaborative effort of The Outdoor Foundation, a nonprofit organization established by the Outdoor Industry Association Board of Directors, the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association, National Golf Foundation, and SnowSports Industries America.
American's favorite outdoor activities, according to the survey, include running/jogging, bicycling, fishing, wildlife viewing and skateboarding, camping and hiking.
The trends in outdoor activities will help in the effort to understand and find ways to reverse the growing inactivity crisis among youth and the growing disconnect between youth and the outdoors, the researchers say.
"Children in America are suffering from the effects of obesity and inactivity at unprecedented levels," Chris Fanning, executive director of The Outdoor Foundation, noted in a written statement. "Teaching youth the benefits of a healthy active outdoor lifestyle will ensure healthier children, healthier communities, and healthier businesses."
http://www.reutershealth.com/archive/2009/01/23/eline/links/20090123elin019.html