QualityCounts.com Newsletter of 6/12/02

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Potassium Iodide A Hot Seller - Intelihealth, 6/12/02 - "It's a cheap tablet that does one thing: protect the thyroid gland from one type of radioactive fallout ... Potassium iodide would be helpful only if a dirty bomb used radioactive iodine instead of other radioactive substances, and then only for people close to the explosion ... radioactive iodine is likely to be released during a serious reactor accident or attack"

Kidney Stones, a Warm Weather Risk - ABC News, 6/12/02 - "Dehydration is one of the leading causes of kidney stones ... Renal cholic, which is the pain from kidney stones, is among the worst pains anyone will experience ... the key modality in preventing new stones from forming is to be very well hydrated. Drink approximately three liters of fluid per day"

An Indian Spice for Alzheimer’s? - Dr. Weil, 6/12/02 - "Curcumin blocked the accumulation of beta-amaloid plaque and also appeared to reduce inflammation related to Alzheimer’s disease in neurologic tissue. The rats fed curcumin also performed better on memory tests than rats on normal diets ... Researchers at the University of Illinois have also found that it helps prevent plaque formation. And preliminary studies at Vanderbilt University suggest that curcumin may block the progression of multiple sclerosis ... only low dose curcumin reduced plaque in the Alzheimer’s disease studies ... Turmeric appears to have significant anti-inflammatory and cancer-protective effects as well"

Don't Delay Arthritis Treatment, Researchers Warn - ABC News, 6/12/02 - "Even short delays in prescribing drugs to patients with rheumatoid arthritis can result in significantly worse outcomes ... 70% of patients in the early-treatment group fulfilled American College of Rheumatology criteria for a 20% improvement in disease symptoms, while 40% of those in the later treatment group did. Three years after treatment began, 7 people in the early-treatment group showed evidence of bone damage on x-rays, versus 15 of the later-treatment group patients"

Toxic Chemicals Seen Contributing To Increased Childhood Illness - Intelihealth, 6/12/02 - "There are 85,000 chemicals registered with the Environmental Protection Agency for commercial use in America ... Virtually all of them did not exist before the 1960s ... There has been a 25 percent rise in the incidence of childhood leukemia since the 1960s and a 21 percent increase in brain cancer ... In addition to cancer-causing substances, Landrigan warned of "endocrine disrupting" chemicals, which he said may be linked to premature puberty in girls, growing numbers of testicular cancer in boys and penis malformation"

Solvent Exposure At Work An Important Issue - Doctor's Guide, 6/11/02 - "Increasing exposure to organic solvents is linked with increasing risk of cognitive impairment ... Solvent exposure and reduction in grip strength were also found to be linked"

Energy Drink Gives Cancer Patients a Boost - ABC News, 6/11/02 - "a pineapple-flavored drink containing a compound called levocarnitine, which is converted into carnitine in the body, helped most patients recover from their fatigue ... After one week their fatigue diminished and their levels of carnitine improved" - some feel that acetyl-l-carnitine is a better form. See Jarrow ALC at iHerb (discount code "qc")

Wiping Out Ulcer Bug May Help Glaucoma Patients - ABC News, 6/11/02 - "many patients with glaucoma are infected with the ulcer-causing bacterium Helicobacter pylori, and that treating the infection improved their vision ... he and his colleagues discuss several possible mechanisms by which H. pylori might contribute to glaucoma. They suggest that activation and aggregation of platelets, cells in blood that are essential for clotting, may be a factor. The release of inflammation-promoting chemicals already implicated in several types of blood vessel disease could also underlie the association"

Low Levels of 'Good' Cholesterol Linked to Dementia - ABC News, 6/11/02 - "But the new study, published in the June issue of the Annals of Neurology, found that low HDL levels were associated with mental impairment and dementia even in patients who showed no signs of cardiovascular disease ... In the average man, HDL cholesterol levels range from 40 to 50 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL) of blood, according to the American Heart Association. In the average woman, they range from 50 to 60 mg/dL. An HDL level below 40 mg/dL is considered low" - I raised my HDL from 34 to 67 with 2 grams of inositol hexanicotinate (no-flush niacin). On 1500 mg, it went down to 48. See inositol hexanicotinate at iHerb (discount code "qc"), or Vitacost. I tried the prescription "Niaspan" but couldn't tolerate the flush. Niacinamide is also called no-flush niacin but see (it didn't work for me either):

Researchers Analyze Centenarians - ABC News, 6/10/02 - "Perls said research, involving groups whose religion forbids smoking, drinking or overeating, suggests that nearly everyone has the genetic structure to live to about age 85. After that, he said, there appears to be a particular gene arrangement that permits people to live for 10 decades or more ... To live to 100, he said, people have to spend most of their lives in good health ... Some studies already have shown the children of centenarians tend, in their 60s and 70s, to have high levels of "good" cholesterol and low levels of "bad" cholesterol"

People Living In Higher Latitudes Require Fall, Winter Vitamin D Supplements - Doctor's Guide, 6/10/02 - "Given that almost every person in our sample had serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] levels below 80 nmol/L at one point in the year, and that more than one-third of subjects had levels below the most conservative definition of vitamin D insufficiency, our findings support a recommendation for more aggressive vitamin D supplementation, particularly for elderly people and especially during the fall and winter months ... Low levels of vitamin D metabolites are associated with malabsorption of calcium, which results in bone loss"

Designer Weight-Loss Drugs on Horizon - WebMD, 6/10/02 - "In mouse studies, it reduces appetite and makes the body burn fat faster. That's supposed to be impossible ... Kuhajda and colleagues at Baltimore's Johns Hopkins University saw obese mice lose 15% of their body weight after only two weeks on C75. Oh, yes, and there's one more thing about it: C75 also kills cancer cells ... But don't run out to the pharmacy looking for the drug. It's years away from any kind of human trial"

Weighing in on Low-Fat Processed Foods - WebMD, 6/10/02 - "Many people don't understand that many of these low-fat products are really very calorie-dense ... There is a tendency to think that if something is low in fat you can eat as much as you want ... The key to losing weight and keeping it off is eating smaller portions and increasing physical activity"

Breast Cancer Rising Among Asian-American Women - Doctor's Guide, 6/10/02 - "The Japanese lifestyle has become increasingly Westernized, study authors note, influencing factors known to increase risk for breast cancer: having fewer children, engaging in less physical activity and experiencing increasing obesity. Japanese are also eating more fats and fewer soy products"

An Anti-Atherosclerosis Aid For Adults With Hyperhomocysteinemia? - Doctor's Guide, 6/7/02 - "One year of folic acid supplementation was found to be linked with a significant increase in the subjects' mean plasma folate levels and a significant decline in their homocysteine levels ... Study authors suggest the findings demonstrate long-term folic acid improves arterial endothelial function and has potential implications for prevention of atherosclerosis in people with hyperhomocysteinemia"

Low Vitamin C Intake Ups Stroke Risk - ABC News, 6/6/02 - "Men who had the lowest levels of vitamin C in their blood--less than half of what was measured in men with the highest amount--were 2.4 times more likely than those with the most vitamin C to experience stroke ... Kurl explained that there are many methods by which vitamin C might reduce the risk of stroke. The vitamin acts as an antioxidant, he said, which neutralizes the free radicals generated in the body during metabolism. Free radicals can be highly damaging to other body cells, and have been implicated in the aging process and atherosclerosis"

Policosanol Helps Reduce High Cholesterol - New Hope Natural Media, 6/6/02 - "In a six-month study, 10 mg per day of policosanol reduced total cholesterol by 16% and LDL cholesterol by 24%, and increased HDL cholesterol by 29%. Several other studies have compared policosanol with some of the conventional medications used for lowering cholesterol and the results have shown policosanol in the amount of 5 to 20 mg per day to be more effective than lovastatin (Mevacor®), pravastatin (Pravachol®), and simvastatin (Zocor®), with fewer reported side effects. While some prescription drugs used to lower cholesterol may cause liver and muscle problems in rare instances, people taking policosanol have not suffered any serious side effects" - Check out the Jarrow brand at iHerb (discount code "qc")

Sertraline Effects Differ in Depressed Women - Doctor's Guide, 6/6/02 - "The investigators say four-week sertraline [Zoloft] therapy increased plasma cortisol levels in the depressed patients" - That's bad. See my cortisol page. Plus some feel that cortisol is the cause not the result of depression.

Pounds Added Over Years Raise Breast Cancer Risk - ABC News, 6/6/02 - "Women who gain the most weight over their lifetime are most likely to develop breast cancer after menopause ... Being overweight after menopause is also a risk factor ... Extra pounds seem to be particularly risky when they are carried around the abdomen"

HDL Too High? - Dr. Weil, 6/6/02 - "each increase of 4 mg/dl in the HDL level results in a 10 percent decrease in risk of adverse coronary events"

Norway Study Backs Risks of Cancer in Chips - ABC News, 6/6/02 - "Norwegian scientists said on Thursday they had confirmed Swedish research indicating that fried and baked foods contained a cancer-causing substance and urged big eaters to cut back ... A similar Swedish study last month also found that potato chips, french fries, biscuits and bread contained alarmingly high amounts of acrylamide, an agent formed in high concentrations when carbohydrate-rich foods are fried or baked"

Ephedra Safe for Healthy Dieters - WebMD, 6/6/02 - "With just diet and exercise, patients lost about 6 pounds. When ephedra/caffeine was added, they lost about 12 pounds ... While this study didn't show a lot of adverse effects, they didn't use an off-the-shelf supplement ... There are many, many other ingredients in these supplements. It is not the same as Metabolife or others. I really don't think you can use this as a study to invoke the safety of dietary supplements. This is just not what people out there are taking"

I just took on an affiliation with GoToMyPC. It allows you to access and use your PC from any Internet browser for as little as $14.95 per month. It has rave reviews from the Wall Street Journal, CNET and the New York Times. Saw an article on it in a ZDNet newsletter also.