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.

Why Butter Is Best

I have bored people frequently by going on about why they should eat butter, the natural product, and not margarine which is a fascinating compound of colours and chemicals. Now the Kiwis are backing me up with a new piece of research from the University of Auckland.

Margarine can affect your intelligence, and it starts early as children who ate margarine every day had significantly lower IQ scores by the age of three-and-a-half than those who did not. Even more interestingly, those children who were underweight at birth had scores that were even lower by the time they were seven. The problem here is that the vegetable oils used in most margarine are hydrogenated to make them solid which is what turns them into the dangerously unhealthy trans-fatty acids.

If they can affect children in this way you can be sure that adults are affected just as badly, particularly when it comes to heart disease. This is because of the way that trans fats can raise LDL – the bad cholesterol – and lower HDL -the good cholesterol (HDL) and have been linked to inflammation, which is one of the major causes of heart disease.

If heart disease is a concern, then another piece of research to encourage you off margarine – particularly for men – comes from the respected Framingham Heart Study carried out in the US. Over a 20 year period they tracked and recorded the number of heart attacks and found that as margarine consumption increased, heart attacks went up. As butter consumption increased, heart attacks declined.

In the latter part of the study, over the final ten years they found that the group eating the most margarine had 77% more heart attacks than the group eating none.

Why is butter better? It contains short- and medium-chain fatty acids, which are easily converted to energy so that the fat in butter is less likely to be stored as fat in your body. It contains heart healthy vitamins A and E (in fact it has more vitamin A than carrots) and the essential mineral selenium, all of which protect your heart from free radical damage. Oh, and it tastes much better too.

Portable Probiotics for Travellers

Well the clocks have sprung forward and if you are thinking ahead to your holidays then these days, sadly, that means preparing yourself to cope with possible tummy upsets whether from food or your surroundings.

I am a big believer in probiotics for helping prepare your gut to deal with any problems and have tried many forms and packed pills, liquids and powders for that purpose. The main problem for travlleers is we want lightweight and portablilty in our remedies and Lifeplan have come up with Culture Care which should help you do that.

I recently had to have a course of antibiotics for a severe bacterial infection which made me face resemble that of a particularly pitiable adolescent. The redness I couild cope with but the itching drove me insane so I finally succumbed, but it’s an automatic reflex to take a probiotic with any antibiotic to help repopulate the gut with the beneficial flora that the drug wipes out.

When going on holiday, prepare your stomach similarly by taking Lifeplan Culture Care every day for two weeks before you go and that takes care of your health insurance at the gut level. If you then continue to take it for the two weeks of your holiday you will help maintain and protect the digestive tract from any upsets, such as holiday diarrhoea. Taking probiotics have been shown to cut the risk of contracting travellers’ diarrhoea by as much as 50% by eliminating unwanted bacteria from the body.

The main advantage to me though is the convenience as each pack of Culture Care contains 14 one-a-day sachets of dried powder, which are small and easy to pack and don’t need to be kept in the fridge. Add water to dissolve, or I prefer fruit juice as then I can ignore the fact it never seems to completely dissolve, and drink. Doesn’t have any discernible taste I could find and it is certainly convenient.

If you have any questions about probiotics or health-related questions then you can call Lifeplan’s nutritionists free of charge on 01455 556281. Culture Care is available from health stores or direct from their website at: www.lifeplan.co.uk/products/Culture-Care-x-14.htm?prodID=750

Flip Flops and Osteoarthritis

If you suffer from osteoarthritis in your knees then there may be no need to spend a lot of money on expensive specialist shoes. A study by Rush University Medical Center has found that flip-flops and sneakers with flexible soles are easier on the knees than clogs or even special walking shoes.

Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis and a significant source of disability and impaired quality of life. A higher-than-normal load on the knees during walking is a hallmark of the disease, associated with both the severity of osteoarthritis and its progression.

Dr. Najia Shakoor, a rheumatologist at Rush and the primary author of the study, said “Traditionally, footwear has been engineered to provide maximum support and comfort for the foot, with little attention paid to the biomechanical effects on the rest of the leg but the shoes we wear have a substantial impact on the load on the knee joints, particularly when we walk.” They analyzed the gait of patients with symptoms of osteoarthritis while they walked barefoot and with four popular shoe types: Dansko clogs, which are often worn by those who have to be on their feet much of the day; stability shoes; Puma sneakers; and flip-flops.

The loads on the knee joints differed significantly depending on the footwear. For the clogs and stability shoes, the loads on the knee joints were up to 15 percent greater than with the flat walking shoes, flip-flops or barefoot walking. Knee loading was roughly the same whether the subject wore flips-flops or walked barefoot.

Several aspects of footwear affect the joint loading: heel height and stiffness of the sole being the most important. Earlier studies have shown that barefoot walking is associated with lower knee loads than walking with conventional footwear. Flip-flops and sneakers are flat, flexible and lightweight and seem to mimic the mechanics of walking with bare feet.

Clogs and stability shoes that are usually suggested to provide appropriate cushioning and support were shown to actually increase the loading on the knee joints, as opposed to shoes with less ‘support,’ flatter heels and more flexibility. But, bear in mind that flip flops could contribute to falls because of their loose-fitting design so maybe seek out some fancy sneakers instead.

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