Menopausal Women on Antidepressant Have Increased Risk of a Stroke

A recent study by researchers from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine was recently published in the Archives of Internal Medicine and sounds a warning for menopausal women who are subject to depression.

Depression is already a known risk factor for cardiovascular disease but it seems that taking antidepressants may significantly increase the risk of stroke for women who are post menopause. The study is based on data from the well respected Women’s Health Initiative which was responsible for proving that hormone replacement therapy significantly increased the risk of heart attack, stroke, cancer and death in postmenopausal women.

This was a long term six year study of over 136,000 women between the ages of 50 and 79. They found that those taking antidepressants were 45 percent more likely to suffer from a stroke in that time than women not taking the drugs, and 32 percent more likely to die from any cause. The risk of stroke for a postmenopausal woman taking an antidepressant was roughly one in 200 in each given year and the increased stroke risk from antidepressants remained the same regardless of which drug class women were taking, whether they were selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) or tricyclics. However SSRIs appeared to pose a higher risk for a hemorrhagic stroke caused by brain bleeding.

The Stroke Association are currently funding further studies to look into the links between depression and the risk of stroke. If you want to reduce your own risk then simple measures to take are to make lifestyle changes such as reducing your blood pressure, giving up smoking, reducing alcohol intake, improving your diet and getting plenty of exercise.

Avoiding Aspartame? Read the Label!

I know I do go on about artificial sweeteners, but they carry health risks and as long as you are aware that you are taking them that is your choice. Artificial sweeteners do have a significant effect on the body’s reaction to other food according to a study conducted by researchers from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. They found they may cause metabolic changes in how the body reacts to real sugar.

If you have decided to avoid aspartame you need to know that those clever marketing chaps have rebranded it and given it a new name – could be all that negative publicity is paying off?

AminoSweet sounds quite healthy doesn’t it with the link to amino acids, vital things that they are, and sweet which of course what we all want from our diet in some form or other.

Their website at www.aminosweet.info tells you that it is a low calorie sweetener that tastes exactly like sugar. True enough, and they reinforce the healthy image by mentioning that it is made from two building blocks of protein just like those found naturally in many everyday foods such as meat, fish, cheese, eggs and milk.

I think this is called health by association, but what they don’t mention is that AminoSweet is aspartame under another name. In case you haven’t heard my rants before, could I remind you that a 2008 study found that aspartame disturbed amino acid metabolism, as well as protein structure and metabolism and neuronal function in the brain. The authors wrote: “Aspartame and its breakdown products cause nerves to fire excessively, which indirectly causes a very high rate of neuron depolarization.”

Another study three years earlier stated even more strongly that aspartame is a multi-potential carcinogenic agent, even at a daily dose of 20 mg/kg body weight, which is much less than the current acceptable daily intake.

Giving up sugar and replacing it with sweeteners is not a healthy option, yes it has few calories but a lot more chemicals so use the sweet options from nature like honey, maple syrup and sugar, just use less of them.

The Health Risks of That Fizzy Drink

In warm weather we turn to a nice cold drink, and often we want one with a bit of fizz to it. But there is mounting research that links carbonated drinks to serious health problems such as cancer and less serious, but debilitating conditions like gout.

US researchers at Georgetown University Medical Centre examined evidence gathered from the Singapore Chinese Health Study where more than 60,000 subjects were followed for as much as 14 years. They came to a startling conclusion: carbonated drinks increase a man’s pancreatic cancer risk.

The really worrying part is that this is not massive consumption, but even drinking just two such beverages a week increased their risk of pancreatic cancer by nearly 90 per cent. Most fizzy drinks are sweetened with high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and that in itself has raised some health concerns in the US recently where they are big consumers of it.

If you are looking for a healthy addition to the diet to lower the risk of prostate cancer then add in some walnuts. They are a rich plant source of omega-3s, the fatty acids also found in cold water fish like salmon and new research reported in April 2010 reported that they should be part of a prostate-healthy diet.

The other problem with carbonated drinks was discovered by the well respected Framingham Heart researchers in the USA who found that subjects who drank one or more fizzy drinks each day were nearly 45 per cent more likely to develop symptoms of metabolic syndrome, including obesity, increased waist circumference, impaired fasting glucose, higher blood pressure, high triglycerides, and higher LDL cholesterol. These drinks also expose the gastrointestinal tract to a high level of acid and that can lead to gastric distension and acid reflux with a possible potential link to oesophageal cancer.

Men in particular should be careful before popping the top off a can of fizzy drink, as researchers at the University of British Columbia found that men who drank one fizzy drink a day increased their risk of developing gout by 45 per cent and two or more a day nearly doubled the risk.

Babies at Risk from Exposure to Bisphenol A in Plastic Feeding Bottles

The hormonally active substance bisphenol A is contained in many synthetic and packaging materials and can disrupt the body’s endocrine system. It can find its way into the food chain and the human organism and a new study appears to show that babies who are fed with polycarbonate bottles are especially at risk.

Bisphenol A (BPA) is the key element in polycarbonate synthetics and epoxy resins and you will find it in most plastic everyday objects from baby bottles and food packaging to the coating used in food and drink cans and to seal drinking water pipelines and can be harmful even in small doses

BPA acts like the natural hormone estrogen and as an anti-androgen and it can affect sexual development, especially in boys. Based on toxicological studies, the European Food Safety Authority has established a limit for the acceptable daily intake of BPA: currently 50 micrograms per kilogram of body weight. “However, the limit doesn’t include the studies on the hormonal impact of bisphenol A, which are often difficult to interpret,” says Natalie von Götz, a scientist from the Institute of Chemistry and Bioengineering.

Her studies indicated that babies and infants absorb the most BPA and that those fed using PC bottles are the worst affected. On average they were taking in 0.8 micrograms of BPA per kilogram of body weight via bottles and although this amount is well below the statutory minimum, von Götz says that the latest studies on rats have shown that even low doses can have a harmful impact on their development.

The exposure declines with age, although the study also shows that it depends on the kind of diet or lifestyle you have. If your diet includes a lot of canned food, or ready meals in PC containers reheated n the microwave then you are being exposed to a comparatively higher dosage of BPA.

There is no need to panic, as more research is certainly needed in the packaging field, but keeping an eye on your personal intake would be a good move and if bottle feeding a baby then old fashioned glass and heating milk outside the microwave would seem to be a safer option.

How Juice Can Help Prevent Alzheimer’s

Well I told you how orange juice can help make that fast food meal healthier, and now it seems that drinking juice more than three times a week can lower your Alzheimer’s risk by76 percent. This comes from a ten-year study named the Kame Project where researchers followed 2,000 Japanese Americans in Hiroshima, Japan; Oahu, Hawaii; and Seattle. Participants underwent a physical examination beginning in 1992, and their mental function was tested every two years.

Those who drank juice three or more times per week experienced a 76 percent reduced risk for Alzheimer’s whereas those who drank juice once or twice a week experienced a 16 percent reduced risk. They don’t say whether the juices were commercial, or freshly made, but certainly the skins of fruit and vegetables are high in phenols, the chemicals that “mop up” free radicals that are believed to cause the damage seen in Alzheimer’s. These results suggested to researchers that polyphenols, a type of anti-oxidant, might have a protective effect on the brain, preventing or reducing dementia or Alzheimer’s.

Certainly we already know that there are certain dietary factors that are high risk for the onset of Alzheimer’s such as high fat and high calorie diets, alcohol, salt and refined carbohydrates. The top three recommendations from the US Alzheimer’s Society for reducing your risk are to increase fruit and vegetable juice consumption to at least two or three times per week (and I would be juicing organic fruit and vegetables for the maximum benefit), increasing vitamins, minerals and fluids, and increasing fibre to reduce constipation.

Painkillers, Deafness and Arthritis

Not your usual sort of headline, but although most of us take painkillers occasionally, or regularly for chronic conditions, there are some well-established downsides such as gastric problems.

However, a new in the American Journal of Medicine alerted me to something I didn’t know, and that is that regular use of painkillers is linked to an increased risk of hearing loss. Even small amounts, such as for example taking paracetamol at least twice a week, can put you at risk of a massive 99 per cent increase in the chance of you having mild to severe deafness before the age of 50. If you regularly take ibuprofen or aspirin then that is not as high a risk, but is still a staggering 61 per cent increase over those who never take painkillers.

So that is something to think about, and particularly for those who take painkillers regularly for chronic conditions such as arthritis. If you suffer in this way you are more than likely to be prescribed non-steroidal-anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) by your doctor, and these include aspirin and ibuprofen.

If you have been taking such drugs in the belief that they will help with the pain, the evidence does not support it. One trial that looked at the long-term effects of NSAIDs versus placebo on pain showed “no significant effect of NSAIDs compared with placebo at one to four years” and over six years the British Medical Journal published a review of 23 studies that reinforced this view. They concluded that “NSAIDs can reduce short term pain in osteoarthritis of the knee slightly better than placebo, but the current analysis does not support long term use of NSAIDs for this condition. As serious adverse effects are associated with oral NSAIDs, only limited use can be recommended.”

All very well, but what can you do about the pain from arthritis? Natural alternatives such as white willow bark (the natural substance that aspirin was synthesised from) and many find acupuncture of great help in relieving long term and chronic pain. Personally I recommend you get hold of Patrick Holford’s excellent book ‘Say No To Arthritis’ for a thorough look at all the options from anti-inflammatory essential fats from oily fish to plant extracts such as boswellia, bromelain and ginger.

Low Vegetable Intake During Pregnancy Can Increase Baby’s Diabetes Risk by 70%

Diabetes UK estimate that seven million people in the UK are at risk of developing diabetes, which can lead to other significant health problems by affecting the nerves, kidneys, eyes, and heart. It can lead to greater susceptibility to strokes and cause blood clots in the vessels in the legs which may result in amputation. Diabetes is the leading cause of blindness in the working population as it can affect the blood vessels at the back of the eye [retinopathy] and this can lead to visual impairment or blindness.

With this in mind, it makes sense to start early prevention and new research published in the journal Pediatric Diabetes undertaken by the University of Gothenburg and Linkoping University in Sweden offers some hope for that. It seems that women who eat more vegetables while pregnant significantly reduce their children’s risk of developing Type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disease that develops when the immune system produces antibodies that attack the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas.

Researchers tested the blood of 6,000 five-year-old children for these antibodies, and compared the results to their mothers’ self-reported vegetable intakes (excluding root vegetables such as potatoes, beets and carrots) during their pregnancy. They found children whose mothers had eaten vegetables only three to five times a week while pregnant were 70 percent more likely to have elevated antibody levels than children whose mothers ate vegetables every day. In this study the most frequently consumed vegetables were tomatoes, cabbage, onions, lettuce and cucumbers.

The researchers found that this positive effect remained after researchers adjusted for other Type 1 diabetes risk factors, such as mother’s education level. The reason lies yet again with those vital flavonoids in fruit and vegetables as these powerful antioxidants have previously been suggested to be potentially therapeutic agents for Type 1 diabetes. Vegetables also containing vitamin C and vitamin E have also been shown to reduce the risk of Type 1 diabetes.

If you are pregnant, or planning to start a family, or know someone who is then it would be a good deed to encourage them to up their fruit and vegetable intake not only for their own wellbeing but for the long term health of their baby.

For more information on diabetes, please visit www.diabetes.org.uk

How OJ Helps You Through A Fast Food Meal

Ever wondered why fast food places also sell healthy orange juice along with their high fat, high-carbohydrate fast-food meals? They may not know it, but by eating foods containing flavonoids, particularly orange juice, with such meals it helps neutralise the oxidative and inflammatory stress generated by the such food and helps prevent blood vessel damage.

Endocrinologists at the University at Buffalo, the State University of New York, studied the effect of the preventative effect of orange juice on the risk of heart attack and stroke. Free radicals are known to induce inflammation in blood vessel linings and contribute to those conditions and they believed orange juice might be a key as it is heavily loaded with the flavonoids naringenin and hesperidin, which are major antioxidants.

They found that drinking orange juice with a meal high in fat and carbohydrates prevented the marked increases in inflammatory agents and that did not happen when study participants drank water or a sugary drink with the meal. The high dose of free radicals in fast food meals are a risk because the resultant high glucose and high triglycerides are known to be related to the development of cardiovascular events.

So what did the study subjects eat? It was based it on a typical fast food 900-calorie breakfast composed of an egg “muffin” sandwich, a sausage “muffin” sandwich and a serving of hash browns. The meal contained 81 grams of carbohydrates, 51 grams of fat and 32 grams protein.

Along with the breakfast, one group drank 300 calories of “not-from-concentrate” orange juice, a second group drank a 300-calorie glucose drink and the third group drank an equal amount of water. All participants were given 15 minutes to finish their food and drink. Blood samples were collected before the meal and at 1, 3 and 5 hours afterwards.

Analysis of the samples after the meal showed that oxygen free radicals increased an average of 62 percent with water, 63 percent with the glucose and 47 percent with orange juice. There also was an increase in blood components known as toll-like receptors, which play an important role in the development of inflammation, atherosclerosis, obesity, insulin resistance, and injury to cardiac cells than can occur after a blocked vessel is reopened. Orange juice also prevented a significant increase in SOCS-3, an important mediator of insulin resistance, which contributes to development of type 2 diabetes.

So if you are having a fast food meal make sure you get a glass of real orange juice to mitigate the damage, but I have to say that starting the day with a 900 calorie fat and carbohydrate feast is not the best way to stay healthy. Couldn’t they just have suggested halving the calorie count and having orange juice as a better option?

Vitamin E in Contact Lenses Could Treat Glaucoma

Glaucoma is second only to cataracts as the leading cause of vision loss and blindness in the world as it affects almost 67 million people. Eye drops that relieve the abnormal build-up of pressure inside the eye that occurs in glaucoma, are a mainstay treatment but now there may be an alternative.

Research carried out at the University of Florida reports that if vitamin E is added into special medicated contact lenses it can keep the glaucoma medicine near the eye. This means it can more effectively treat the condition, up to nearly 100 times longer than possible with current commercial lenses.

Anuj Chauhan, Ph.D., who headed the research team, explained: “The problem is within about two to five minutes of putting drops in the eye, tears carry the drug away and it doesn’t reach the targeted tissue. Much of the medicine gets absorbed into the bloodstream, which carries it throughout the body where it could cause side effects. Only about one to five percent of drugs in eye drops actually reach the cornea of the eye.”

Chauhan and his colleagues have developed a new extended-release delivery approach by incorporating vitamin E into contact lenses. The vitamin E molecules form a kind of transport barrier that slows down the release of the glaucoma medication from the lens into the eye. The drug molecules can’t go through the vitamin E but must go around it and so get diverted and must find a longer path into the bloodstream. This increases the duration of the drug release from the lenses and so stays in the tears far longer than the 2-5 minutes with eye drops, leading to more effective therapy.

Don’t – please don’t – try adding vitamin E to your own contact lenses as this is very much in the development stage, but it is hoped clinical trials of the new lenses could begin within a year to 2 years.

Massage Helps Deal With Bereavement

Truly it has to be said that nothing can truly help overcome the grief of bereavement, but without doubt there are things that can help. Support and offers of help are top of the list, plus a listening ear, but now it seems there is something practical you can do to help someone through those first dreadful weeks.

The April issue of the Journal of Clinical Nursing has reported on a Swedish study where a 25 minute massage was offered for eight weeks to relatives who had lost a loved one to cancer. Participants ranged from 34 to 78 years of age and included widows, widowers, daughters and sisters. They were offered a choice of foot or hand massage and divided fairly evenly over what they chose. Only three of the participants had previous experience of soft tissue massage.

They reported that having a soothing massage helped provide much-needed consolation during an intense, stressful period of grieving. “Soft tissue massage is gentle, but firm” explains Dr Cronfalk, who carried out the research with colleagues from the Karolinska Institutet. “This activates touch receptors which then release oxytocin, a hormone known for its positive effects on well-being and relaxation. In this study the hand or foot massage was done with slow strokes, light pressure and circling movements using oil lightly scented with citrus or hawthorn.

The use of hawthorn and lemon as the oils is interesting as they would not naturally spring to mind first, lavender would normally hold that place. In fact I believe hawthorn oil is not much used in the UK, so it may be a particularly Scandinavian practice and it’s chief property is that of being sedative in effect. Lemon oil is probably best known for its antiseptic and antimicrobial properties but it reputedly increases concentration and awareness and helps to eliminate emotional confusion, which would fit with the grieving process. The main comments from the participants show just how helpful they felt it was and included:

1) “a helping hand at the right time. I didn’t know what to expect. I just felt I needed to do something to get rid of that pain and it seemed like a good alternative.”

2) “Something to rely on and the massage became something to look forward to. The therapist had cared for him and now she cared for me.”

3) “I could focus on my grief during the massage and that helped me handle the rest of the week. I was just lying there and no one expected me to talk about my feelings.”

All the participants used the word consolation and felt that the massages provide physical touch and closeness and helped to diminish the feelings of empty space and loneliness that people felt. If you wanted to offer practical help during a time of grieving, this could be a very worthwhile present to give if you felt able to do this yourself, and they would accept it.

If you want to give them a present of some massage sessions by a professional, and do not have a recommended aromatherapist in your area, then contact this website for a recommended practitioner, or to check is someone has the correct qualifications: www.aromatherapycouncil.co.uk/index_files/Page435.htm he British Association of Massage Practitioners.

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