• Menopause Revisited

    Menopause Revisited

    January 19, 2025 by · Leave a Comment

    At the 32nd Anti-aging Conference in Las Vegas menopause was reviewed, which I call “menopause revisited”. The presenter was Dr. Sara Gottfried who is the director of Precision Medicine. She is also affiliated with the Marcus Institute of Integrative Health, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, … [Read More...]

  • Anti-Inflammatory Diets Improve Inflammation

    Anti-Inflammatory Diets Improve Inflammation

    December 28, 2024 by · Leave a Comment

    A CNN review article noted that anti-inflammatory diets improve inflammation. This is important for medical conditions that also have inflammation attached to it. For instance, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes or chronic kidney disease all carry inflammation with them. But according to a 2019 study more than 50% of … [Read More...]

  • Ultraprocessed Food Leads to Premature Aging

    Ultraprocessed Food Leads to Premature Aging

    November 24, 2024 by · Comments Off on Ultraprocessed Food Leads to Premature Aging

    An article in the medical journal “Medical News Today” found that ultraprocessed food leads to premature aging. What are ultraprocessed foods? The NOVA Food Classification System explains what ultraprocessed foods (UPFs) are and what other ones are not. Examples of ultraprocessed foods are: fatty, sweet, savory … [Read More...]

  • Vital Information about Cholesterol Drugs

    Vital Information about Cholesterol Drugs

    November 9, 2024 by · Comments Off on Vital Information about Cholesterol Drugs

    Most people know about statins to treat high cholesterol, but they do not have vital information about cholesterol drugs. Recently an article appeared in CNN, which was very informative. In the following I will review what is new about cholesterol lowering drugs. PCSK9 inhibitors, which are monoclonal … [Read More...]

  • Common Chemicals Affecting your Health

    Common Chemicals Affecting your Health

    October 26, 2024 by · Comments Off on Common Chemicals Affecting your Health

    There are common chemicals affecting your health that have been known since the 1950’s. They have the name PFAS, which stands for perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances. There was a review article recently in CNN describing the complexity of PFAS, the toxicity, and what you can do to improve your risk. People … [Read More...]

  • Cardiovascular Risk Markers Predict Heart Attacks and Strokes

    Cardiovascular Risk Markers Predict Heart Attacks and Strokes

    October 12, 2024 by · Comments Off on Cardiovascular Risk Markers Predict Heart Attacks and Strokes

    An article in The New England Journal of Medicine stated that cardiovascular risk markers predict heart attacks and strokes. A summary of this study was also published by NBC News. 30-year follow-up of the Women’s Health Study This is based on a 30-year follow-up study of the Women’s Health Study. In the beginning … [Read More...]

    Nov
    01
    2002

    New Research Shows That Coffee Drinking Is Healthy

    By | Diabetes, Health, Heart Disease, Prevention

    Forget what somebody may have whispered into your ear in the past,namely that coffee drinking would be bad for you. Dr. Rob M. van Dam and Dr.Edith J. M. Feskens from the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment in Bilthoven, theNetherlands, have recently completed a prospective study with a large number of participants.

    The results were published in the Lancet 2002;360:1477-1478. The goal of the study was to see whether coffee consumption would have a positive or negative effect on the development of diabetes (type 2 or mature onset diabetes). Approximately 17,000 men and women were followed along over a period of time and 306 new cases of diabetes were detected. The average consumption of coffee was 5 cups per day. There was a striking difference between those who drank 7 cups of coffee per day and those who drank 2 cups or less per day: With 7 cups per day there was a 50 % LESSER risk of developing diabetes. The authors pointed out that it is known that some of the active ingredients in coffee are: the bioflavonoids, chlorogenic acid, the minerals magnesium and potassium, and vitamin B3.

    New Research Shows That Coffee Drinking Is Healthy

    New Research Shows That Coffee Drinking Is Healthy

    Chlorogenic acid and magnesium have been known in the past to have a stabilizing effect on glucose metabolism thus preventing diabetes.The authors were surprised though about the magnitude of the diabetes protective effect. They suggested that
    other authors should do further studies to confirm their findings and to attempt to pinpoint the mechanism of action. In the meantime they cautioned that it would be premature to recommend to increase coffee consumption for everybody.

    Useful related link to a chapter of my free Internet based Nethealthbook: http://nethealthbook.com/health-nutrition-and-fitness/

    Last edited October 25, 2014

    Oct
    18
    2002

    Work Stress Is A Killer…More Than 2-Fold Over A Period Of 25 Years

    By | Diabetes, Heart Disease, Obesity, Stroke

    In mid October 2002 the British Medical Journal(BMJ 2002;325:p.857-860) published a paper by Dr. Mika Kivimäki from the University of Helsinki where 812 healthy factory workers were followed for about 25 years. The issue was whether stress from work would have negative consequences, which could be measured in terms of cardiovascular disease. Various risk groups were defined from low stress to high stress.

    Low stress jobs were classified as people who often had more training, more responsibilities, better salaries, physically less strenuous jobs with more job security. High stress jobs involved the opposite(high demand/low job control/low salary/no job security). Depending on which subgroups of high versus low risks were compared, the investigators found a 2.2 to 2.4-fold increase of strokes and heart attacks due to cardiovascular disease.The team measured other cardiovascular risk factors. They found a significant increase of cholesterol in the high stress job group after 5 years. After 10 years there was a marked weight gain in the stressed group with obesity becoming much more frequent. The authors noted that this likely led to a change of metabolism in the sense of hyperinsulinism, which is known to cause high cholesterol levels and leads to hardening of the arteries with heart attacks and strokes.

    Work Stress Is A Killer...More Than 2-Fold Over A Period Of 25 Years

    Work Stress Is A Killer…More Than 2-Fold Over A Period Of 25 Years

    Visit these useful related links to chapters of my free Internet based Nethealthbook:
    Hyperinsulinism or syndrome of insulin resistance:
    http://www.nethealthbook.com/articles/hormonalproblems_diabetesmellitus.php

    Heart disease:
    http://www.nethealthbook.com/articles/cardiovasculardisease_heartdisease.php

    Stroke:
    http://nethealthbook.com/cardiovascular-disease/stroke-and-brain-aneurysm/hemorrhagic-stroke/

    Last edited October 25, 2014

    Oct
    01
    2002

    Harp Music After Heart Or Chest Surgery Reduces Pain By Seventy Percent

    By | Heart Disease, Pain, Prevention, Stress management, Stroke

    Believe it or not: Harp music following serious chest or heart surgery in 17 patients leads to pain relief according to Aragon and colleagues. They reported this mid September 2002 (Altern Ther Health Med 2002;8:p.52-60) and they were measuring blood pressure, pulse, respiratory rate as well as pain and anxiety by psychological assessments to measure the effect on pain perception after listening to 20 minutes of harp music. The pain reduction was about 70% at the end of a 20 minute session and lasted at least 10 minutes (when the 20 minute and 30 minute point from the beginning of the harp music session were compared). This experiment documents the relaxation response, which is known from hypnotherapy as well and can also be brought on by meditation, yoga or prayer. The authors suggest that music therapy following surgeries could be utilized to promote healing and to reduce complications. Other health care settings where such a therapy might be useful would be in the treatment of anxiety disorders, where a reduction in anti-anxiety drugs under psychiatric guidance may be achievable.

    Harp Music After Heart Or Chest Surgery Reduces Pain By Seventy Percent

    Harp Music After Heart Or Chest Surgery Reduces Pain By Seventy Percent

    Self hypnosis tapes can play an integral part of the mental readiness for an exercise program or a weight loss program as this site explains: On self hypnosis (nethealthbook.com)

    Last edited October 25, 2014

    Oct
    01
    2002

    Smog From City Roads Reduces Your Life Expectancy 2-Fold

    By | Cancer, Heart Disease, Prevention

    Our ancestors already knew the benefits of fresh air and the fact that your grandmother likely knew: country living is healthier than city living. Let me qualify this somewhat: A recent study from the Netherlands showed that smog in cities has a detrimental effect on a person’s health (based on Lancet 2002;360:p.1203-1209). Dr. Gerard Hoek and his team from the Utrecht University revisited a group of about 5000 patients 15 years after the completion of a lung cancer study that was done in 1986 on these patients.

    The authors looked up the addresses and classified two groups based on where these patients lived in 1986, either beside a busy congested road in the city or in a rural country area. 11% of the patient population had died of lung or heart disease during this period of time. When all of the other factors were kept constant and only the area where they lived was different, these authors found a significant 2-fold difference, which was attributed to chronic exposure to air pollution from traffic. The main reasons for this difference, they stated, was due to chronic exposure to black smoke and nitrogen dioxide from the exhaust fumes of cars. This study showed that air pollution by itself can double the death rate over a longer time period such as 15 years. In other words: It matters what you breathe! Useful related links to chapters of my free Internet based Nethealthbook:

    Smog From City Roads Reduces Your Life Expectancy 2-Fold

    Smog From City Roads Reduces Your Life Expectancy 2-Fold

    Cardiovascular Disease:
    http://www.nethealthbook.com/articles/cardiovasculardisease_heartdisease.php

    Lung Cancer: http://www.nethealthbook.com/articles/cancer_lungcancer.php

    Last edited December 10, 2012

    Oct
    01
    2002

    Endometriosis Is A Cause Of Infertility, Even Without Scarring

    By | Abdominal Pain, Women’s Diseases

    When the lining of the womb grows into the Fallopian tubes, this can be a cause of scarring of the tubes and lead to infertility of the woman.

    Up to this point in time medical science had no explanation for cases where the surgeon found only a few spots of endometriosis on the surface of the womb inside the abdominal cavity without any disease in the fallopian tubes. Dr.Ovrang Djahanbakhch and his coworkers from the The Royal London Hospital in London found that there is a factor contained in the abdominal fluid of women who have endometriosis (article published in the Lancet 2002;360:p.1221-1222). These investigators looked at fallopian tubes of hysterectomy samples (=wombs that were surgically removed) and studied the movement of the cells lining them under a special microscope.

    Hair cells can be seen that are lining the Fallopian tubes and are normally responsible for the transport of the released egg at the time of ovulation. They found that when they added abdominal fluids from women who have endometriosis, the wave like pattern of these hair cells (=known as “ciliary movement”) came to almost a standstill. Abdominal fluids of women with no sign of endometriosis did not cause such a slowdown. This finding sheds important new information on our understanding of the nature of endometriosis and may some day lead to the development of new fertility drugs.

    Endometriosis Is A Cause Of Infertility, Even Without Scarring

    Endometriosis Is A Cause Of Infertility, Even Without Scarring

    At this point the chemical factor from patients with endometriosis that is responsible for the slow-down of the normal ciliary movement has not yet been isolated. The authors will pursue this line of research further. Here are some links that are related to this topic:

    Endometriosis: http://www.nethealthbook.com/articles/painfulperiods.php

    Infertility: http://www.nethealthbook.com/articles/infertility.php

    Last edited December 10, 2012

    Oct
    01
    2002

    More Exercise Leads To More Health

    By | Fitness, Heart Disease, Prevention, Stroke

    Based on an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA 2002;288:p.1994-2000) Dr. Mihaela Tanasescu and his group from Loma Linda University in California have followed more than 44,000 health care professionals every 2 years for 12 years.

    He asked the question whether a difference could be found between light, moderate or heavy exercise in the prevention of heart attacks.

    Here is what they found: 1700 new cases of heart attacks as a result from hardening of arteries were mostly found in those who did NOT exercise or were in the LIGHT aerobic category. The more the persons exercised, the more pronounced the heart protective effect was. For instance, the group of men who engaged in a heavy exercise program had developed 17% less heart disease than the group with the light exercise program. Contrary to the marathon runner studies that had reported a detrimental effect at the high end, this study did not find this effect.

    Also, this study is one of the first to show that weight training and other muscle strengthening activities also reduced strokes and heart attacks. Up to now the medical community was of the opinion that body building type muscle training might not prevent strokes or heart attacks.

    More Exercise Leads To More Health

    More Exercise Leads To More Health

    The authors concluded that a combination of aerobic exercises(brisk walking, running, sports etc.) with muscle strengthening exercises(body building, stretching exercises, weight lifting etc.) will give the most beneficial heart protecting health effect. Try these useful related links to chapters of my free Internet based Nethealthbook:

    Hardening of the arteries:
    http://www.nethealthbook.com/articles/cardiovasculardisease_heartdisease.php

    Fitness:
    http://nethealthbook.com/health-nutrition-and-fitness/fitness/

    Last edited October 25, 2014