Cranberries – Not just for sauce

For many of us, cranberries are forever associated with turkey and Christmas, but this small red berry has a range of health benefits. Research conducted by Tel Aviv University professor Itzhak Ofek and his colleagues is revealing a surprising array of benefits beyond their well-known role in helping prevent urinary tract infections, Dr Ofek has discovered that cranberry juice can help prevent cavities, fight influenza, and reduce the recurrence of gastric ulcers. However, the berries appear to provide a greater benefit to women than men. Apparently it is a compound known as non-dialyzable material or NDM in the berries that appears to coat some of the body’s surfaces which prevents the adherence of infectious agents while not affecting the body’s beneficial bacteria.

In simple terms what this means is that there is specific inhibitor in cranberry juice that doesn’t let infections adhere to a woman’s bladder. Many women drink cranberry juice as a precaution against bladder infections, and if you can find it then try to get one without artificial sweeteners or an unsweetened one and add honey to taste.

A trial at Tel Aviv University’s School of Dental Medicine has revealed other benefits as they found that NDM inhibits oral bacteria from sticking to tooth surfaces and this helped reduce the number of cavities in the mouth, and therefore the number of fillings too.

Last June in the journal of Molecular Nutrition & Food Research, an article coauthored by Dr Ofek described how effect of cranberries helped reduce or get rid of H. Pylori, the bacteria that causes ulcers. Though again the benefits only seem to apply to women – sorry chaps.

Celebrate Sardines!

Although National Sardine Day falls on the 25th of November 2008, yes really, I thought I would encourage you to look ahead and plan for later in the year to celebrate this remarkable fish. The humble sardine isn’t something people usually rave about, but in terms of the health benefits per square inch they really are quite something. Whether you opt for the fresh fish, delicious grilled and stuffed with lemon, or the tinned variety in oil – not sauce – they are packed with inexpensive, high- yielding health benefits and nutritional value.

For such a small fish they can have a big impact as they contain substances that are proven to benefit your skin, joints, memory, and even boost your energy. Sardines are rich in omega 3 fatty acids — the crucial long chain variety you can only find in seafood, not vegetable matter high – and also have good levels of calcium and vitamin D.

Sardines also contain high levels of Coenzyme Q10 which is essential for so many important functions in the body. It is a supernutrient that’s great for heart health, energy, immune support, and healthy brain function. It is also an effective antioxidant and has been used for decades in Cancer treatment.

CoQ10 is also very important for cardiovascular health as it has many of the antioxidant properties of vitamin E. Inadequate levels of CoQ10 have been linked to heart attacks, strokes, high blood pressure, atherosclerosis and arrhythmias. In addition, CoQ10 is believed to lower blood pressure, prevent the oxidation of low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL), and help with irregular heartbeat. CoQ10 is also good for the teeth and gums, helping to fight oral infection.

Sardine sandwich anyone?

Lets hear it for nuts!

This is another natural food that can get a bad press. They are shunned because people – particularly those on a diet – believe that they are bad for you as they are high in natural fats and oils, but this is far from being the case. Raw, not processed or salted, nuts can help fight depression, heart disease and bad cholesterol. That last one may be a bit of a shock, but although it is true that nuts in general contain as much as 80 per cent fat, but there are good fats and bad ones. The type of fat found in nuts is unsaturated fat – specifically monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat and both of these unsaturated fats are known for their ability to reduce low-density lipoprotein (LDL), also called “bad” cholesterol, when consumed in moderation.

A few months ago in the USA, a survey examined and reported on the diets of more than 31,000 Seventh Day Adventists – chosen for the similarity of their lifestyle choices – and it was found tha t those who ate nuts more than four times per week experienced 51% fewer heart attacks compared to those who ate nuts less than once per week.

If you want to stick to the most healthy nuts around, these are the top 5 to go for:

1 Pistachios can produce a 10 point drop in your triglycerides and a 16 point decline in your LDL (bad) cholesterol, according to the Journal of the American College of Nutrition.

2 Walnuts Contains omega 3s which may help ward off depression and heart attack, according to Harvard research. Maybe you should stuff those sardines with lemon and walnuts for extra benefit!

3 Brazil nuts contain selenium, a mineral linked to prostate cancer protection, according to scientists at the University of Arizona.

4 Pecans have the most antioxidants of any nut. Could help reduce the risk of cancer, heart disease and Alzheimer’s disease.

5 Hazelnuts a handful daily boosts HDL (good) cholesterol levels by 12 percent, according to a study in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Tape Measure Predictor

Identifying children most likely to have an early form of metabolic syndrome needs only a scale and a tape measure, researchers at the University of Verona in Italy have recently discovered during a long study of just under 1500 Italian children. Metabolic syndrome is the term they used to describe the combination of excess weight, hypertension, and high cholesterol and plasma glucose found in children and adolescents.

We know that childhood obesity is a growing problem, but if parents were to monitor the waist-to-height ratio of those aged 5-15 they could help prevent their child developing serious conditions later in life that are linked to obesity such as cardiovascular disease and risk of diabetes.

The significant figure is when a child has a waist-to-height ratio greater than 0.5 and may seem overweight, but not obese so that warning signals are not raised in time. Such children were found to have a 95% chance of meeting the criteria for metabolic syndrome. As with adults, having a high waist measurement is a red flag, although of course there are more high-tech tools available to assess the risk in such children.

The chief researcher, Dr. Maffeis, says that waist-to-height ratio is easier for parents to monitor and interpret before the stage of intervention may be required.

Avoid a visit to casualty – sweep the room!

Naturally I am not insinuating that your house needs cleaning, but it’s a visual sweep I am talking about. If you have small children, or visiting grandchildren, there is a potential hazard that often goes unmissed. Babies and toddlers love to put things in their mouths so I thought it might be useful to list the apparently most frequent things that Casualty departments are called on to remove so you can avoid a visit to them.

Naturally you keep the floor and coffee clear of small items that can be swallowed or pushed into a nose or ear – the favourite places – but things fall on the floor or they are so natural to see in that place that you actually don’t notice them and these three fall into that category:

1. Pieces of lego, beads, caps for pens, and coins. If you have older children, Lego pieces are probably the most common things left around or they fall out of pockets behind cushions. Coins creep between magazine covers and down the sides of chairs. Never underestimate the tenacity of a toddler to root out something unsuitable so include these items when doing a scan of the room.

2. Batteries. Everything nowadays seems to require them and in the process of changing them or opening the device to check them they can go missing. These are potentially fatal to children so always dispose of used batteries immediately and safely.

3. Leaves that have fallen from indoor or outdoor houseplants can be too big for small throats and cause choking or an allergic reaction. As my cats will try and eat every fallen houseplant leaf I have got this one cracked, as they are usually violently sick afterwards I make sure I remove them as soon as I see them.

Warning on Osteoporosis drugs

As the woman who set up the Natural Progesterone Information Service many years ago to alert women to the benefits of progesterone for osteoporosis I used to talk to lots of women who were on drug medication for their condition. I, and others, were concerned about the long-term effects of these drugs and just how effective they actually were.

Now according to a report in the January 19 2008 issue of the British Medical Journal it appears that pharmaceutical companies exaggerate the benefits and downplay the risks of prescribing osteoporosis drugs for women whose bones appear to be slightly weakened. This condition (osteopenia) is not full blown osteoporosis but the pre-stage and this new report says that pharmaceutical companies are pushing doctors to prescribe osteoporosis drugs for this group of women.

The problem with this is that women with osteopenia have such a low risk of experiencing fractures that taking osteoporosis drugs would provide almost no benefit. The study co-author Dr. Pablo Alonso-Coello, a family physician at Hospital Sant-Pau in Barcelona, contends that four studies that found benefits to giving osteoporosis drugs to women with osteopenia exaggerated those benefits.

Statistics can be tricky things, but Dr. Alonso-Coello gives the following example:

** The absolute risk of a woman with osteoporosis having a fracture in a given year might be 10 percent so the effect of an osteoporosis drug is to lower that risk by half, so the absolute benefit is a 5 percent reduction.

** But in women with pre-osteoporosis (osteopenia), the risk of fracture is very low, say 1 percent a year, so if you lower that by half, you go down to 0.5 percent absolute reduction.

One study cited in Dr. Alonso-Coello’s paper claimed a 75% relative reduction in risk of fracture. The absolute risk reduction was 0.9 percent, which, from a statistical perspective, means that up to 270 women with pre-osteoporosis would have to take osteoporosis drugs for three years to avoid a single fracture. Risks of Taking Osteoporosis Drugs These drugs are not risk-free and the pioneering work of the late Dr John Lee alerted many women to the potential hazard to their health they were risking by taking them. Just this month, researchers at the University of British Columbia and McGill University issued a warning on a class of osteoporosis drugs (bisphosphonates) taken by millions of women around the world that can lead to bone necrosis, a painful and disfiguring condition. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration also issued an alert on bisphosphonates, including alendronate and risedronate, warning that these medications can cause severe bone pain.

Testosterone for women?

Testosterone for women may seem like a strange idea, but it is being used increasingly to help women improve their sex drive and perk up their libido. You may be surprised to learn that women have testosterone, but it is one of the three main hormones in our bodies along with oestrogen and progesterone.
When women reach menopause, their progesterone and testosterone levels may drop by as much as 50 percent but before you rush to talk to your doctor about it (though your partner may try and beat you to it) remember that all hormones are powerful substances and not to be taken lightly.

The method of taking testestorone currently is orally in pill form, but the medical authorities have recently declined approval of a testosterone patch designed for women. The product was found to be only slightly more effective than a placebo patch, while the side effects included liver dysfunction, acne and unwanted hair growth. You might want to try some more natural, and safer, ways of boosting your sex drive first.

Fortunately, there are a number of plants and herbs that have been shown to enhance sexual drive and enjoyment by helping to maintain balanced hormone levels, including testosterone. For instance, saw palmetto (commonly used to promote prostate health) has been prescribed for centuries as a sexual stimulant for both women and men. The ancient Mayans used an herb called damiana to energize sexual vitality and it is freely on sale in my local health shop, along with Siberian ginseng which has the reputation for arousing sexuality and enhancing stamina in women. Anyone for Nettle tea? This also has been used as an aphrodisiac for centuries though you might want to add some honey to it first!

Ginger up your diet

Ginger may be the single most important ingredient you can add to your diet for maximum health effectiveness. It has proven to be so valuable because it not only has antioxidant and cancer fighting properties, but a new study has also found that the ginger component gingerol exerts anti-inflammatory effects by mediating NF-KB, a protein complex that regulates your immune system’s response to infection.

Not only all that, but it may also prove to be useful for treating and preventing ovarian cancer, according to a new study just reported in the BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine Journal. Chinese researchers tested the effect of ginger on cultivated ovarian tumour cell growth. Ovarian cancer is the most lethal gynaecological malignancy and is the fifth leading cause of cancer death among women. They found that ginger inhibited growth and modulated the secretion of angiogenic factors, which is a fundamental step in the transition of tumours from a dormant to a malignant state.

This is good news and ginger is only one of a number of foods that when found in good quantities in the diet are thought to thought to contribute to the decreased incidence of colon, gastrointestinal, prostate, breast and other cancers. The other cancer-fighting foods are garlic, soy, cumin, chillies and green tea so sounds like switching to cooking up some Asian food might be a healthy option.

McDonalds sponsor school reports

Given the huge fuss about improving the diet of school children and weaning them off fast and junk food diets, there is disturbing news from the USA where McDonald’s have just paid $1,700 to produce the school reports for Seminole County, in Florida. What do they get out of it? The report cards feature a cover jacket with a coupon featuring their trademark Ronald McDonald. Apparently for ‘good grades and attendance’ (undefined), the coupon can be redeemed for a free Happy Meal.

Sounds a bit like bribery to me and certainly would appear to violate the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative, which McDonald’s joined last year which unequivocally states that members are not allowed to advertise at schools and cannot place materials in editorial or entertainment content. It appears that McDonald’s have found a loophole because as the report cards are sent straight to the home they may not be easily classifiable as editorial or entertainment and the school board officials concerned call the report cards a ‘business partnership’ which assist with lack of funding in their school system.

Many parents are unhappy because parents who don’t want their children eating from McDonalds are put under pressure if they won’t take the coupon and the free Happy Meal. The frequent childhood complaint of ‘all my friends are going there’ is being heard and it is hard on parents to feel they are singling their child out of what is seen as a ‘reward’ for doing well at school.

There is certainly no doubt that the type of diet a child has definitely makes a difference to their school performance. A well balanced diet with plenty of fruit, vegetables and whole grains give a child the best chance of developing healthy both physically and mentally.

McDonald’s is no stranger to criticism about the nutritional value of its products and has hit back with high-level advertising and information campaigns scarce on nutritional qualities. McDonald’s defended its Happy Meals, citing that a child could choose a low calorie Happy Meal of Chicken McNuggets, apple dippers, and low fat milk. The combination may be low calorie, but it contains MSG, food colouring, and sodium benzoate.

They have added “healthy” choices to their menus, but who knows a child who goes for the healthy option? The ever popular burger may have traceable-source beef but the bun itself is not a healthy option as McDonald’s still bleaches all of its grains used to create the buns and effectively kills any goodness in the flour. Bleaching most bread creates a poison called alloxon, which has produced diabetes in lab animals so you may want to follow the example of Jack Nicholson in 5 Easy Pieces and tell them to ‘hold the bun.’

Of course an occasional burger will not cause a huge problem, but if you are concerned about what’s in McDonald’s food then you can check the ingredients by typing the words McDonalds ingredients into Google or any search engine and several links will come up to show you exactly what you might be eating.

Is snoring a health risk?

Certainly can be if you are moved to violence by the sound of your partner’s snoring. One friend of mine regularly pushed her husband out of bed and claimed it was a reflex action to thinking she was hearing a burglar breaking in and she was defending herself! Fear not they had a very thick sheepskin rug next to the bed and he occasionally stayed there and carried on sleeping!

Seriously though, the emotional toll of sharing a bed with a chronic snorer has always been clear and if you haven’t managed to persuade the guilty party to take action then maybe this extra health risk might encourage them.

A recent study by Chol Shin, M.D., Ph.D., of Korea University’s Ansan Hospital supported by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Japan hs reported that regularly snoring may significantly increase susceptibility to chronic bronchitis.

The range of risk was a 25% to 68% of getting bronchitis, compared to people who never snored and the combination of smoking and snoring almost tripled the likelihood of chronic bronchitis compared with those who did not smoke or snore. Being overweight was also another risk factor so no more late night snacks, stay away from dairy foods to reduce mucus and try olbas oil to inhale before sleep to open the nasal passages.

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