Research: Pomegranate May Reverse Blocked Arteries


Sayer Ji, Contributor
Activist Post

While technically a berry, pomegranate "fruit" may be nature's answer to turning the tide against the #1 cause of death in the industrialized world: heart disease. Let's start with what it tells us simply through experiencing it...

Pomegranate has a remarkable astringency, giving your mouth and gums that dry, puckering mouth feel. This cleansing sensation is technically caused, as with all astringents, by shrinking and disinfecting your mucous membranes.

Anyone who drinks pomegranate juice, or is lucky enough to eat one fresh, can understand why it is so effective at cleansing the circulatory system. Nature certainly planted enough poetic visual clues there for us: its juice looks like blood, and it does resemble a multi-chambered heart, at least when you consider its appearance in comparison to most other fruits.

But sometimes the obvious (in appearance and effect) is not compelling enough – certainly not for the hyper-rational, "evidence-based" folks in positions of medical and regulatory power today – so we have science to lend additional support and credibility, and perhaps even keep some of us from being fined or going to jail for stating the obvious, e.g. "This juice may be beneficial to your health."

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Study: Cherries Fight Gout

A pair of cherries from the same stalk. Prunus...
A pair of cherries from the same stalk. Prunus avium 'Stella'. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Cherries may no longer be for just topping off ice cream sundaes; in a new study of people with gout, eating the fruit was linked with a 35 percent to 75 percent lower risk of having an attack. 

While adopting a cherry regimen sounds pleasant enough, the study's lead author warns that the new study does not prove cherries prevent gout attacks, and he said patients should stick with their current gout medications. 

"They can go out and eat the cherries, but they shouldn't abandon their medical treatment at all," said Yuqing Zhang, a professor at the Boston University School of Medicine.

Read more: Study: Cherries Fight Gout
Important: At Risk For A Heart Attack? Find Out Now.
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New Supplement Provides Energy Shot to the Brain

of (cytidine diphosphate choline). Created usi...
of (cytidine diphosphate choline). Created using ACD/ChemSketch 10.0 and . (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
It sounds almost too good to be true: a dietary supplement that makes people feel more energetic and alert, boosts memory and mood, and has almost no side effects. 

Those are the reports from scientists about citicoline, a naturally occurring compound in the body that scientists believe enhances the brain’s ability to make brain cell membranes and the neurotransmitters involving attention, memory, alertness, and sense of well-being. Citicoline is a new ingredient in supplement drinks and is being sold in capsules.

Read more: New Supplement Provides Energy Shot to the Brain
Important: At Risk For A Heart Attack? Find Out Now.
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Six cups of coffee a day 'cuts risk of both womb and prostate cancer'

Women who drink four to six cups of coffee a day are less likely to suffer from womb cancer, while men who drink this amount are less likely to suffer prostate cancer, according to a study using 117,000 volunteers.

The effects were seen regardless of whether they drank regular or decaffeinated coffee, suggesting the effects are not linked to caffeine.

Although many people limit the amount of coffee they consume because it can cause a spike in blood pressure, recent studies suggest the drink may also offer health benefits.

Regular coffee drinkers also appear to have a lower risk of Type-2 diabetes, gallstones, colon cancer and even Parkinson’s disease.
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A heart surgeon tells all... including the patient who woke up and tried to move with her chest open

It sounds like the stuff of nightmares. Or perhaps a far-fetched Halloween spook-fest blockbuster. 

Waking up half way through major surgery, inadequate amounts of anesthetic having been administered.

In a candid Ask Me Anything question-and-answer Reddit feed a heart surgeon openly discussed some of his most harrowing experiences, including one when a woman awoke on the operating table, her chest wide open.
Asked by user 'MechaLincoln' to describe the strangest thing to have happened during his medical career, 'eternal_wait' wrote: 'A patient waking up and trying to move with her chest opened, a really bad mistake from the anesthesiologist that day.

Casual attitude: The unnamed surgeon posted a photograph of himself giving the thumbs-up as he gets ready to assist in a bypass operation
Casual attitude: The unnamed surgeon posted a photograph of himself giving the thumbs-up as he gets ready to assist in a bypass operation

'Cardiac surgery patients are at the highest risk of waking up during surgery because of the use of the artificial heart-lung machine, their drug distribution volume get really big so they need much more drugs to remain sleep.
 
'I've had other interesting moments,' the doctor added, 'but its really impressive to see a person with no heart trying to move.'
Fortunately for the patient in question she had no memory of the botched surgery after it was through, but others have been less lucky, as Reddit users were quick to point out.
In response the surgeon went onto explain that a drug named Midazolam is given in cases such as the woman's, 'that causes amnesia so the patient doesn't remember this traumatic experience.'
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Mediterranean, low-carb diets show long-term benefits

(LifeNews) Even if people have regained some weight several years after going on a healthful Mediterranean or low-carbohydrate diet, they can enjoy lasting beneficial effects, according to a follow-up study at Dimona’s Nuclear Research Center and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beersheba.

The study, published last week as a peer-reviewed letter in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, updates the landmark diet study carried out on 322 moderately obese personnel in the workplace over a period of two years, and followed up four years after the end of the intervention. The original study was called DIRECT, for Dietary Intervention Randomized Controlled Trial.
Dr. Dan Schwarzfuchs of the Dimona center, where employees were put on diets and the results observed, said: “Our follow- up subsequent data shows lasting, positive effects of Mediterranean and low-carbohydrate diets six years later.”

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Excess exercise 'hurts the heart' and cause dangerous long-term harm, say scientists

Extreme exercise such as marathons may permanently damage the heart and trigger rhythm abnormalities, warn researchers.
They say the safe ‘upper limit’ for heart health is a maximum of an hour a day - after which there is little benefit to the individual.
A review of research evidence by US physicians says intensive training schedules and extreme endurance competitions can cause long-term harm to people’s hearts.
Damage: Excessive endurance exercise can do long-term harm to the cardiovascular system, U.S. scientists say
Damage: Excessive endurance exercise can do long-term harm to the cardiovascular system, U.S. scientists say
Activities such as marathons, iron man distance triathlons, and very long distance bicycle races may cause structural changes to the heart and large arteries, leading to lasting injury.
Lead author Dr James O’Keefe, of Saint Luke’s Hospital of Kansas City, said exercise was generally beneficial for health but could tip into becoming harmful when taken to excessive lengths.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2154267/Excess-exercise-hurts-heart-cause-dangerous-long-term-harm-say-scientists.html#ixzz1wv0D9dQL

Swedes Lob Dynamite Into a Controversy: High-Fat Diet Improves Blood Sugars

May 20, 2012

The slow backlash against low-fat, relatively high-carb diets as the ideal for everyone with type 2 diabetes has received a boost from a team of Swedish researchers at Linkoping University, about 100 miles southwest of Stockholm.
In a study that involved 61 patients, the Swedish scientists concluded that high-fat, low-carb foods had a better effect on blood sugar and blood lipids than foods in traditional low-fat diets. Their findings run counter to an almost 60-year-old theory that says dietary fat is the major culprit in the development of cardiovascular disease-a disease that people with diabetes are at a higher risk of developing.
For the one-year study, the patients, all with type 2 diabetes, were randomly divided into two groups. One group went on a low-carb, high-fat diet, while the other went on a low-fat diet.
Patients in both groups lost an average of four kilograms (8.8 pounds) of weight. However, the group on the high-fat diet enjoyed a drop in blood sugar levels, going from 58.5 mmol/mol to 53.7 mmol/mol (mmol/mol stands for millimoles per mole, a unit of measure often used outside the United States to express blood sugar volumes.) The low-fat group did not register a statistically certain improvement in blood sugar levels.
While both groups experienced similar weight loss, the high-fat group saw their "good" cholesterol levels go up and their lipoproteins stay stable. The low-fat group saw no improvement in lipoprotein counts.
In the high-fat/low-carb diet, 50 percent of caloric intake came from fat, 30 percent from protein, and 20 percent from carbohydrates. The low-fat diet derived 55 to 60 percent of its energy intake from carbohydrates, 30 percent from fat, and 15 to 20 percent from protein. The latter diet was based on recommendations of the Swedish National Food Agency and was similar to diets currently recommended in United States for type 2 patients.
While high fat intake has long been regarded as a big factor in the development of heart disease, more recent research-including this Swedish study-has challenged that theory. Some scientists now conclude that carbohydrates are a greater threat to cardiovascular health than fat. Their reasoning is that high carb intake leads to high blood sugar, which has an inflammatory effect that damages blood vessels and heart tissue.
The Swedish results were published in the journal Diabetologia.

Categories: ACCORD/Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes, Body Weight, Cardiovascular, Cholesterol, Cholesterol Control, Cholesterol Levels, Diabetes, Diabetes, Diabetes Health, Food, Health Research, Low Carb, Low Carb Diet, Research, Type 2 Issues, Weight Loss, Weight Loss/Lose Weight