Mediterranean Diet: Proof It Works

English: WHO Food Guidelines Summary Pyramid (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Food Pyramid has nothing on the Mediterranean diet, when it comes to clinical nutrition. A new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine is only the latest evidence that the diet — heavy on olive oil, fish, nuts, fruit, veggies and other staples of Mediterranean cultures for centuries — prevents cancer and heart disease.

The NEJM findings come as no surprise to top cardiologist Chauncey Crandall, M.D., who has seen firsthand the health benefits of the Mediterranean diet in his heart patients and his practice.

Read Latest Breaking News from Newsmax.com http://www.newsmaxhealth.com/Headline/Mediterranean-Diet-Proof-It-Works/2013/04/10/id/498837#ixzz2QAbrNFas
Alert: What Is Your Risk for a Heart Attack? Find Out Now

Egg Whites Lower High Blood Pressure: Study

Here’s a new reason to choose eggs for breakfast: Researchers have found a substance in egg whites — known scientifically as RVPSL — can lower blood pressure as effectively as some anti-hypertensive medications.

The findings, presented a scientific meeting of the American Chemical Society in New Orleans this week, indicate RVPSL has the ability to inhibit or block the action of ACE, a substance produced in the body that raises blood pressure and is a target of many drug therapies.

Read Latest Breaking News from Newsmax.com http://www.newsmaxhealth.com/Heart/Egg-Whites-Lower-High-Blood-Pressure-Study/2013/04/10/id/498860#ixzz2QAbaT52S
Alert: What Is Your Risk for a Heart Attack? Find Out Now

Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Transmits from Livestock to Humans

Wiki image

Activist Post

Congresswoman Louise Slaughter (NY-25), the only microbiologist in Congress, reacted to a new study that conclusively identified transmission of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) from livestock to humans. Currently, MRSA kills more Americans each year than HIV/AIDS.

The groundbreaking study was conducted by genetics researchers who analyzed the genomes of MRSA bacteria from patients and their farm animals, and found the samples to be genetically identical. Published on Tuesday in EMBO Molecular Medicine, the study confirms animal-to-human transmission of MRSA.

You’ve Been Lied to About Calcium and Cholesterol

Paul Fassa
Activist Post

The big lie pertains to unbalanced calcium supplementation.

Calcium from raw whole foods is beneficial and necessary. But all those processed foods fortified with calcium or supplements high in elemental calcium are likely to do more harm than good.

Elemental calcium is the calcium apart from the compound in which it normally appears. For example, if you remove the calcium from calcium carbonate, you are left with elemental calcium.

Prostate Cancer: Is the Cure Worse Than the Disease?

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Prostate Cancer: Is the Cure Worse Than the Disease?

A study on prostate cancer patients, most of whom had problems having sex 15 years after being treated with surgery or radiation, underscores the importance for men to carefully weigh treatment options for early-stage disease, Dr. David Samadi, one of the nation’s top prostate cancer authorities, tells Newsmax Health. [Full Story]

Can you please explain the dawn phenomenon, and how best to manage it?

English: Diagram shows insulin release from the Pancreas and how this lowers blood sugar leves. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Can you please explain the dawn phenomenon, and how best to manage it?

Q&A With Dr. Richard Bernstein

Dr. Richard K. Bernstein

Mar 21, 2013

Dawn phenomenon is the situation where the liver removes insulin from the blood in the morning hours, which causes morning blood sugars to go up, even if breakfast is skipped.
Non-diabetics make insulin in little squirts about a minute apart. They make it whenever they need it and they make less of it if their blood sugar drops. What would happen if the insulin that they'd been making remains in the bloodstream when they don't need it? Their blood sugars would drop eventually to zero, and they'd be dead. Humanity would no longer exist. Humanity is still here so something else is happening.

The liver clears insulin out of the bloodstream very rapidly. In fact, thanks to the liver, the half-life of insulin in the bloodstream is only about 6 minutes. The dawn phenomenon happens during the first few hours when you get up in the morning. It starts at about nine hours after you go to bed. The liver is working extra hard at clearing away insulin. This doesn't make any difference to non-diabetics. They're capable of tripling their insulin production, whereas a diabetic doesn't have this capacity and he's likely to experience an elevated blood sugar shortly after rising in the morning.
On top of that, if he exercises during those first three hours when the dawn phenomenon is acting, his blood sugar might go up instead of down when he exercises. For this reason, we give diabetics half as much carbohydrate at breakfast as at other meals. That's number one, so they won't have to take excessive amounts of insulin. MORE>>>>>>>>>

Flushing Away High Blood Sugar

Linda von Wartburg

Jan 17, 2011

Every time the heart beats, about 20 percent of the blood it pumps out goes to the kidneys to be cleaned.

Most type 2 meds work by increasing insulin production in one way or another. The extra insulin lowers blood sugar by ushering it out of your bloodstream and into your cells, where it may, unfortunately, make you fat. Wouldn't it be nice if instead, you could lower your high blood sugar by just flushing it right down the toilet?

A couple of pharma companies are working on a therapy that may do just that. Their treatment, called an SGLT2 inhibitor, causes your extra blood sugar to flow harmlessly away in your urine. To understand how an SGLT2 (sodium glucose transporter 2) inhibitor works, you have to know a little about what the kidneys do.

Every time the heart beats, about 20 percent of the blood it pumps out goes to the kidneys to be cleaned. The blood ends up in a tuft of tiny blood vessels, called a glomerulus, which is surrounded by a cup-like sac, called a Bowman's capsule. Each kidney has a million or so of these little arrangements.

High blood pressure in the glomerulus forces all the small molecules in the blood right through the blood vessel walls and into the Bowman's capsule, where they begin their journey down a little tubule toward the bladder. This liquid filtrate contains not only waste products, which the body wants to get rid of, but also a lot of useful molecules, which the body doesn't want to lose. One of those useful molecules is glucose. More>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Why you could be living longer, but you're not

Years ago I used to build desktop PCs and made a beautiful unit for my husband. It ran well for a number of years, then unbeknownst to me developed a problem in the main CPR cooling fan. My husband started hearing a small noise but didn’t let me know. When the $5 fan quit, the CPU overheated and the whole computer stopped working, necessetating a complete rebuild. Had I detected the fan problem and electively replaced that cheap component, all would have been well for years more.

There is an implication in all this for the practice of medicine. In standard medicine, we wait till the body begins to fail in order to repair it – but then it is too late. If, during the years when things are running well, we look under the case at the guts of the computer or body, and see what components are starting to go bad, we can avoid or at least lessen later catastrophic failure.

Conventional Doctors Now Standing Against ADHD "Study Drugs"

Dees Illustration

Heather Callaghan
Activist Post

ADHD* is a way to describe a group of symptoms resulting from impaired uptake of dopamine to the pre-frontal cortex of the brain. How much of that is genetic or lifestyle is debatable. In 20 years, there has been a 20 percent increase in diagnoses.

But non-ADHD kids trying to make it through the rigors of study are increasingly given ADHD meds to give them a mental boost. A new report from the American Academy of Neurology declares that the increasing use of ADHD drugs - often termed 'study drugs' - on healthy kids is unjustifiable. Whether it be parent requests, doctors over-prescribing, young people taking them without prescriptions, or substance abuse. Their study abstract stated:

Neurodevelopmental issues include the importance of evolving personal authenticity during childhood and adolescence, the emergence of individual decision-making capacities, and the process of developing autonomy.

Just an observation: it seems that it is much, much easier for children and teens to be placed on narcotics like Ritalin and Adderall than it is for adults - why do you think that is?

How Olive Oil Stops Alzheimer’s

Health researchers say they have cracked the mystery of how extra virgin olive oil can help reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease.

In a new report in the American Chemical Society journal ACS Chemical Neuroscience, the researchers said they have determined a key component of olive oil helps remove abnormal proteins tied to Alzheimer’s from the brain.

Amal Kaddoumi and colleagues said their research indicates a substance called oleocanthal appears to protect nerve cells from the kind of damage that typically occurs in Alzheimer’s patients.

Kaddoumi's team noted Alzheimer’s affects about 30 million people worldwide, but the prevalence is lower in Mediterranean countries. Scientists have suspected the high concentration of healthful monounsaturated fats in olive oil — consumed in large amounts in the Mediterranean diet — may be a factor, but had not determined precisely why or how.

ALERT: 5 Signs You’ll Get Alzheimer’s Disease

To solve the mystery, Kaddoumi's team studied the impact of oleocanthal on the accumulation of beta-amyloid proteins that clump together in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s, causing memory loss and other mental declines.