QualityCounts.com Newsletter of 7/31/02

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It’s Not the Carbs, Stupid - Newsweek, 8/5/02 - "These signals are produced by peptides, which are regulated by a number of hormones, namely insulin, leptin and ghrenlin. Under normal conditions these hormones help maintain a stable body weight by adjusting levels of the peptides that control eating. But a diet loaded with fat and fructose hampers the regulation of these hormones. Complicating matters still further, Schwartz says, is that the brain loses its ability to respond to these hormones as body fat increases—so the obese are doubly penalized ... Other researchers are finding evidence that constant exposure to fat and sugar can cause some humans to crave them as they do an addictive drug ... By submitting ourselves to a steady dose of highly processed, sweet, high-fat foods, we have unwittingly entered into a dangerous experiment, the long-term consequences of which are only now beginning to surface"

Sex And Age Influence Hormone Relationships In Acromegaly - Doctor's Guide, 7/31/02 - "Healthy females secreted three times more growth hormone than males but had similar serum IGF-I levels. In those with growth hormone deficiency, women needed 30-50 percent more exogenous growth hormone to maintain the same serum IGF-I as men"

Yohimbine Plus L-Arginine Potential Therapy For Mild To Moderate Erectile Dysfunction - Doctor's Guide, 7/31/02 - "randomly assigned 45 men with erectile dysfunction to treatment with 6 mg of L-arginine glutamate combined with 6 mg of yohimbine hydrochloride, to 6 mg of yohimbine hydrochloride alone, or to placebo ... They took the drugs orally one to two hours before intended sexual intercourse ... Changes in this score [Index of Erectile Function (IIEF)] were significantly greater among patients taking yohimbine plus L-arginine compared to those taking placebo" - Note: That "6 mg of L-arginine glutamate" has to be a misprint. It probably should have been 6 grams as in a U. of Texas study on postmenopausal women.

Red Wine May Cut Heart Disease Risk in Obese - ABC News, 7/30/02 - "High levels of homocysteine have been linked to an increase in cardiovascular disease risk ... red wine consumers had blood homocysteine concentrations that were 17% lower than those consuming no alcohol and 13% lower than individuals who reported primarily drinking beer or spirits"

US Senate Bill Aims to Reduce Obesity - ABC News, 7/30/02 - "Calling obesity the second most preventable cause of death after tobacco use, a group of US Senators Tuesday introduced a bill they said could start to put a dent in the nation's growing waistline ... formally unveiled the "Improved Nutrition and Physical Activity Act," ... This bill addresses head on a nationwide epidemic...that is contributing substantially to more than 300,000 deaths a year"

Caffeine Boosts Stress Level All Day Long - ABC News, 7/30/02 - "any condition influenced by stress could also be aggravated by caffeine ... For example, in people with the type 2 form of diabetes--often associated with obesity--stress can worsen the condition by influencing how well the body regulates blood sugar ... people with stress-related disorders, such as post-traumatic stress disorder or social anxiety, could also experience adverse effects from caffeine consumption"

Trans Fat Silently Lurking in Foods - ABC News, 7/30/02 - "If you want to avoid trans fat, there's no way to do it, because it's not required by food labels ... recent evidence suggests that trans fatty acids can increase blood levels of low density lipoprotein (LDL), so-called "bad" cholesterol, while lowering levels of high density lipoprotein (HDL), known as "good" cholesterol. A blood profile containing high LDL and low HDL is a strong risk factor for heart disease ... including the amount of trans fat on food labels could save between 2,100 and 5,600 people from dying prematurely, most likely as a result of company's modifying their products so that the labels would report less trans fat"

Whole Grains Can Help Cut Insulin, Cholesterol - ABC News, 7/29/02 - "People who consumed the most whole-grain foods also had a lower body mass index (BMI), a measure of weight in relation to height that is considered a more reliable gauge of overweight than weight alone. Indeed, adults who were overweight or obese had the highest insulin levels and consumed the least amount of whole-grain foods ... Those with the highest intake of whole grains also tended to have healthier lifestyle habits such as moderate alcohol and meat consumption, not smoking, taking a multivitamin pill and eating lots of fruits and vegetables"

Low Levels of Insulin-like Growth Factor I Linked to Cognitive Decline - Doctor's Guide, 7/29/02 - "low levels of insulin-like growth factor (IGF-I) impair information-processing speed ... IGF-I levels below a certain threshold (<9.39 nmol/L) affect both the level and rate of decline of information-processing speed ... increasing the level of IGF-I by improving nutritional status in elderly with low IGF-I levels may prevent cognitive decline" - Note: Growth hormone also increases IGF-1.

Football Deaths May Be Linked to Supplements - ABC News, 7/29/02 - "Ephedrine, sold as a weight-loss supplement and energy enhancer; and creatine, promoted to build muscles, can both increase the risk of dehydration, particularly during the hot summer season"

Finnish Study Links Pollution with Heart Disease - ABC News, 7/29/02 - "The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 60,000 people a year die in the United States alone from particulate air pollution -- the kind caused when small particles of smoke pervade the air"

Aging Attitudes Impact Longevity - ABC News, 7/29/02 - "people who had positive attitudes about aging lived more than seven years longer than those with negative attitudes ... What's more, the effect of a positive attitude seemed to outweigh other known influences on survival such as loneliness, gender, tobacco use and even exercise"

Doctors working to clear the fog - MSNBC, 7/28/02 - "the results of the study were overblown and that each woman must analyze the individual risks and benefits herself ... Lost in the recent report was evidence that estrogen coupled with progestin reduced colorectal cancer and hip fractures and made no difference with respect to death rates ... the raw numbers — eight additional cases out of 10,000 women — are not nearly as terrifying ... many vowed they would not trade in the energy, sex drive and clearheadedness they have now for a return to hot flashes, vaginal dryness and memory loss"

Even Light Drinking Can Hurt Health - ABC News, 7/26/02 - "the amount of alcohol consumption associated with the lowest death rates was no alcohol at all for men and women under 35, and 3 and 8 drinks per week for women and men, respectively, older than 65 ... Women would be advised to limit their drinking to 1 unit a day up to age 44, 2 units a day up to age 74, and 3 units a day over age 75 ... Men would be advised to limit their drinking to 1 unit a day up to age 34, 2 units a day up to age 44, 3 units a day up to age 54, 4 units a day up to age 84, and 5 units a day over age 85"

Hawthorn Extract Improves Exercise Tolerance in People with Congestive Heart Failure - New Hope Natural Media, 7/25/02 - "Hawthorn may be a safer substance to consider in cases of mild to moderate heart failure, as an alternative to, or in addition to, prescription medications ... German scientists studied the effect of 240 mg per day of a hawthorn extract or placebo for three months in 39 people with moderate heart failure ... In the group taking hawthorn, exercise tolerance on a stationary bicycle improved by almost 11%, but decreased by about 17% in those taking a placebo. Those taking hawthorn also reported feeling better overall" - see iHerb (5% discount code "qc"), Vitacost and VitaminShoppe hawthorn products.

Want to Reduce Your Diabetes Risk? - WebMD, 7/25/02 - "those who reported eating the most servings of whole grain foods tended to have lower insulin levels, lower body weights, and lower cholesterol levels ... The study is just the latest to find that foods such as slow-cooking oatmeal, popcorn, brown rice, and certain processed whole grain breads and cereals are protective against type 2 diabetes. Eating whole grain foods has also been shown to lower the risk of cardiovascular disease ... the wildly popular weight-loss programs that restrict or eliminate carbohydrates from the diet are delivering the false message that all carbohydrates are bad"

Omega-3 Fatty Acids May Prevent Heart Disease By Improving Arterial Elasticity - Intelihealth, 7/25/02 - "The research focused on the effects of two forms of omega-3 fatty acid--eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)--on systemic arterial compliance, a measure of the degree of large artery elasticity. Increased stiffness in the large arteries can lead to systolic hypertension and increased pulse pressure (the difference between diastolic and systolic pressure), both factors that may contribute to increased coronary risk. Thirty-eight middle-aged men and women with elevated plasma total cholesterol consumed an EPA supplement, a DHA supplement, or a placebo during a 7-week dietary intervention. In contrast to the placebo group who showed no change, systemic arterial compliance rose 36% in the EPA group and 27% in the DHA group, while there was a trend toward reduced systolic and pulse pressure. Both omega-3 fatty acid supplement groups experienced significant declines in plasma total triacylglycerol concentrations" - See my recommendation, TwinLab TwinEPA. The omega-3 in a supplement is the total of the eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), docosapentaenoic acid (DPA) and docosahexaenoic acids (DHA), not the total fish oil that is says on the label.

Study Raises Concern About Human Growth Hormones - ABC News, 7/25/02 - "In a study of 1,848 people who had received the treatment as children or young adults Swerdlow and his team discovered that the patients had a threefold increased risk of dying from cancer overall and were 11 time more likely than normal to be killed by colorectal cancer or by Hodgkin's disease, a cancer of the lymphatic tissue ... Our data do not show conclusively whether cancer incidence is increased by growth hormone treatment, but they do suggest the need for increased awareness of the possibility of cancer risks, and for surveillance of growth-hormone-treated patients ... the study covered patients treated between 1959 and 1985 and that current treatments are very different ... The growth hormone used at the time under consideration was natural growth hormone (taken from cadavers)"

Niacin May Be Effective Therapy For Broad Range Of Diabetes-Associated Dyslipidaemias - Doctor's Guide, 7/25/02 - "After niacin treatment, the patients' LDL peak particle diameter increased from 252 +/- 7 Å to 263 +/- 7, the researchers reported. Their small, dense LDLc particle mass decreased from 27 +/- 11 mg/dL to 15 +/- 4 mg/dL. Total HDLc increased from 39 +/- 7 mg/dL to 51 +/- 11 mg/dL. Their HDL2, as the percentage of total HDLc mass, increased from 29 +/- 8 percent to 45 +/- 10 percent, and their Lp(a) decreased from 43 +/- 17 mg/dL to 25 +/- 10 mg/dL ... Twenty-one percent of the patients were unable to tolerate niacin because of reversible adverse effects. Another 14 percent were unable to adhere to the niacin dosing regimen of three times daily" - I think they will find that inositol hexanicotinate (no-flush niacin) does the same thing without the side effects. See iHerb (5% discount code "qc"), Vitacost and VitaminShoppe inositol hexanicotinate products.- Ben

Soy Protein In The Diet Produces Health Benefits, Regardless Of Isoflavone Content - Intelihealth, 7/25/02 - "After each soy diet, total cholesterol, the ratio of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) to high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, homocysteine concentrations, and estimated overall cardiovascular risk were lower than they were after the control diet. Additionally, serum concentrations of LDL were lower after the high-isoflavone diet. The only significant difference between the sexes was a tendency toward reduced blood pressure in men after the high-soy isoflavone diet ... the soy diets continued to improve the subjects' blood lipid profiles even after dietary saturated fat consumption was maximally reduced"

Eat Your Way to a Healthy Brain - WebMD, 7/25/02 - "carrots, broccoli, and fish really are good for your brain, especially if you want to protect it from Alzheimer's disease ... High fat and high salt are two components of a brain-unhealthy diet, but the main problem is "eating too much meat," ... Trying to eliminate all fat from the diet is a mistake, says Petot, because both mind and body need a diet that gets 25-30% of its calories from fat ... people who have the Alzheimer's gene and eat a high-fat diet during their 40s are seven times more likely to develop Alzheimer's than people who don't have the gene. When these same genetically predisposed people ate a low-fat diet in midlife, their risk of developing Alzheimer's dropped to four and a half times that of people without the ApoE gene" - Something for the Atkin's diet people to think about. - Ben

Dog's tale of survival opens door in cancer research - USA Today, 7/24/02 - "The treatment is a cocktail of so-called anti-angiogenic drugs, which have been widely researched for more than a decade and work by starving tumors of their blood supply. Researchers say the three-drug combination, which Haber mixed into Navy's regular dog food, targets the cancer from many angles ... When researchers heard that Navy was cancer-free after receiving a cocktail of drugs already approved by the Food and Drug Administration — Celebrex, tamoxifen (sold as Nolvadex) and doxycycline — the treatment became known as the Navy Protocol ... Navy's treatment, though experimental, cost $2,000"

A reader pointed out that there is a new product called Relora that claims to reduce cortisol by 37%. If it works as advertised, that's significant. I started a web page on it. There are a lot of web sites on Relora but they all copied the www.Relora.com web site. Some researchers feel that cortisol is the cause, not the result of depression. Some researchers also blame cortisol on pot bellies. Others blame cortisol for "Alzheimer's, memory loss, shrinkage of the brain and aging." Cortisol also increases blood sugar, which can contribute to diabetes and it increases blood pressure contributing to memory loss and heart disease. I feel it's one of the most important areas of anti-aging yet most people don't even worry about cortisol because it isn't in the news that much and so they've never heard of it.

Dr. Leonid A. Gavrilov, from the Center on Aging, NORC/University of Chicago, emailed me his web site http://www.src.uchicago.edu/~gavr1/. It looked like most of his studies were on the effect of birth month on longevity.