Restless legs – Peace at last?

The headline may be mildly amusing, but Restl(RLS) certainly is no joke for sufferers. The name is highly apt because this is a condition in which you have very unpleasant sensations of tingling or itching in the calves, thighs, feet or arms and feel extremely uncomfortable while you’re sitting or lying down. It seems to help if you get up and move around to alleviate it – in other words it makes you restless.

It affects both sexes, can begin at any age and may get worse as you get older. Because it is often worse at night, restless leg syndrome can disrupt sleep so you start taking siestas and are less alert during the day, It certainly makes any form of confined travel, such as in an aeroplane, extremely difficult. Now there is news from the USA of a skin patch, which although intended for use on those with Parkinson’s disease, has in trials proved helpful for Restless Legs Syndrome. The rotigotine patch, a dopamine agonist, improved the trial subject’s condition by about 36%. The researchers are optimistic that this once-a-day application will be easier for patients than the current 2-3 times a day for oral medicine. The patch is FDA approved for Parkinson’s but not yet for Restless Leg Syndrome, but it may be worth talking to your doctor about to see if it is available here yet.

Update on teenagers

Do you remember in a recent article, (yet another ‘would you believe it’), I reported on the ‘news’ that teenagers who lounge about watching television and undertake very little physical activity probably developed the habit when they were younger? Well I have an update on those teenage couch potatoes, this time from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. Apparently, the common practice of putting a TV in your teenager’s bedroom actually increases the amount of television they watch.

Would you believe it? Their study, to be published in the May issue of Pediatrics Journal, was of nearly 800 teenagers and revealed that twice as many 15-18 year-olds who had a TV in their bedrooms said they watched at least five hours of TV a day, compared with those who did not have a television in their bedroom at all. And they are more likely to have unsatisfactory eating and study habits – and a tendency to weight gain and hypertension.A previous study found that having a television in the bedroom is a stronger predictor of obesity than the amount of time spent actually watching it. Perhaps it beams out fat rays, even when switched off – wonder if Dr Who would be interested in that as a storyline?

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that parents refrain from putting a television in a child’s room. But despite the recommendation, about two-thirds of children ages eight to 18 have a television in their bedroom, the study found, and good luck to any parent who tries to remove it is what I say.

Mercury fillings – Safe or not?

Mercury is the third most toxic poison in the world, and you may not be aware of it, but it has been used in amalgam dental fillings since the 1830′s and most amalgams composed of at least 50% mercury. The debate over its use has been ongoing for some time; I certainly had all my amalgam fillings removed and replaced some ten years ago when I first started reading, and writing, about the potential health risks. The situation now seems to be polarising, and so I offer you both sides of the argument so you can make up your own mind.

In the red corner are the Scandinavians: on January 1st this year, Norway became the first nation to impose a total ban on the use of amalgam fillings in dental work. Previous laws forbid the use of mercury-containing fillings in more vulnerable segments of the population, such as pregnant women and children, but the new law is the first to forbid the use of the toxic metal without exemption. Mercury has also been banned from all other products produced, imported, exported, sold, and used in the country. Minister of Environment and Development, Erik Solheim, stated that “Mercury is among the most dangerous environmental toxins. Satisfactory alternatives to mercury in products are available, and it is therefore fitting to introduce a ban.” Sweden has now followed suit with a ban on mercury fillings that came into place on April 1st (2008), this year and Denmark and other EU countries are now contemplating similar moves.

In the Blue corner are Britain and the USA who do not accept that there is any problem with the mercury and say that all the negative claims are either unsubstantiated by rigorous scientific data or simply not significant enough to be of concern. They are backed up by a European Union scientific committee study which has claimed that amalgam fillings containing mercury pose no health risk to the human nervous system. The Committee said it had investigated claims of a link between amalgams and a variety of systemic conditions, particularly neurological and psychological or psychiatric effects.

They concluded that no risks of adverse systemic effects exist and the current use of dental amalgam does not pose a risk of systemic disease.

The findings reflect the opinions of some dentists and governments, who have insisted the material is safer and more durable than alternatives, but patients’ organisations have disputed the results, claiming amalgam is dangerous and that anyone carrying an average of 2.5 grams in their mouths is at risk. Another patient organisation in Spain said it rejected the provisional report because it was partial and ignored the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other scientists’ recommendations.

What do I think? Well, many European countries, including Britain, advise against the use of amalgam for children and pregnant women, due to its impact on brain development. In fact, research published in March 2006 shows neurodevelopmental disorders in children have decreased following the removal of thimerosal, a preservative containing mercury, from American childhood vaccines. This led to the World Health Organization urging that Thimerosal be banned in U.S. vaccines.

Amalgam fillings raise the level of mercury circulating in the blood as the mercury leaches from the filling into the body and it is believed to harm children’s normal development. Relatively low doses of mercury have been linked to adverse neuro-development and many people who have displayed sensitivity to the substance have reported improvements in health upon removal of the toxic fillings. It is often recommended that is removed in those with compromised immune systems and sufferering from immune responsive disorders such as ME.

As other types of composite fillings have become strong enough to replace amalgams under practically any circumstance, it would seem time to look realistically at phasing mercury out as a potential health hazard. If the health angle doesn’t convince you, perhaps the environmental one might do so. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, medical waste incinerators emit 70,000 pounds of mercury into the biosphere each year, making medical use of the metal one of the leading contributors to mercury pollution. If you are thinking of having a tooth filling replaced, talk to your dentist and if you are having mercury fillings replaced that needs to be done with great care to avoid dust from the filling being absorbed back into your body. Ask your dentist if they are experienced in this type of removal and if they are not, it would be sensible to seek out someone who does this as a regular part of their practice work.

Yet Another ‘would you believe it’

Let’s hear it for Robert McMurray, Ph.D., and colleagues at the University of North Carolina, who managed to get a grant to show that teenagers who lounge about watching television and undertake very little physical activity probably developed the habit when they were younger. I wish I had thought of applying for a grant to study that, who would have guessed that kids who were couch potatoes at age 7-10 were unlikely to turn into star athletes when they hit their teens?

It is actually a serious subject as lack of physical activity and poor aerobic fitness is usually combined with poor eating habits to produce a child at risk of metabolic syndrome. That is a cluster of risk factors that in combination certainly appear to increase the risk of heart disease and other chronic illnesses later in life.

According to Dr Murray, “This is the first study to examine the importance of childhood fitness levels on your metabolism as a teenager. Previously we didn’t know if low fitness levels were an influence. It’s obvious now that there is a link and this is something which we need to pay attention to by encouraging our kids to keep fit, or suffer the consequences later in life.”

The study showed that the unfit kids already had a higher body mass index, higher blood pressure, and a greater total cholesterol level than the children who undertook more exercise and that second group would not go on to develop metabolic syndrome risk factors. In fact the unfit teenagers were six times more likely to have had poor aerobic fitness as children and five times more likely to have had overall low levels of physical activity.

I would guess that if you asked most adults if there was link between low physical activity in children and how they behaved as teenagers, then certainly most parents would not be surprised at the findings.

Anyone know the contact details for the National Lottery Research Funding Applications? I have a great idea for studying the health benefits of breathing on a daily basis, as opposed to only once a week, and I am sure I could show some benefit from it.

How to lower stroke risk

Do you have plenty of asparagus, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, spinach, chick peas, oranges, wheat germ and kidney beans in your diet? If so, then you are naturally getting high levels of folate, which is a water soluble member of the B vitamin family, B9 to be exact. Folate is vital in protecting you against the risk of a cerebral infarction, the most common kind of stroke. In fact it accounts for 80% of all strokes, and so a recent study wanted to look at whether supplementing with vitamins, or increased intake of foods high in , could make a difference.

A dual study in Sweden and Finland have been looking at the relationship between folate, vitamin B6, vitamin B12 and the amino acid methionine – all of which are involved with homocysteine production. Why should they be interested in that? Because high levels of blood homocysteine are linked to increased stroke risk, and much interest is being shown in how to use supplements, and diet, in a more preventive way in healthcare.

The findings of the study are encouraging if you are at risk of a stroke: those with the highest intake of folate had a 20% lower risk of stroke than those with the lowest levels.

These findings are based on the subjects’ normal, everyday, diet. They were not given any supplements or asked to eat any differently with special foods. So if you have any incidence of strokes in your family, it makes sense to include as many of these foods as possible in your diet. I certainly have a family history and much as I dislike Brussels sprouts, I must try to love them – although I think it will be my asparagus intake that goes up first!

Flu vaccine not as effective for heart patients

Obviously if you have heart disease, or cardiac problems, then the focus is solely on keeping the heart healthy. However, a report presented at a meeting of the American College of Cardiology by Dr Orly Vardeny, of the University of Wisconsin seems to imply that “heart failure goes beyond the heart, that there are other systems challenged by the condition.” This arose from his study which indicated heart failure patients may not have as strong an immune response to flu vaccine as healthy patients. This is not the time of year to be thinking of flu vaccines, but I am a great believer in looking ahead and being prepared. The report showed that patients with heart failure had a significantly lower antibody response to one of the three influenza virus strains found in the flu vaccine used for the study, compared with healthy patients. It has been previously established that heart failure patients are at an increased risk for developing influenza, which is why yearly vaccination is recommended for them, but it was reported by Dr. Vardeny that there are still high numbers of hospitalisations and deaths from influenza in heart failure patients, They do not yet know why the impaired response happens but believe it may be due to increased neurohormone levels, such as norepinephrine and angiotensin II. Further study is being done on the specific effects of norepinephrine or beta-adrenergic mechanisms in response to vaccines, but they do not suggest that patients with heart failure should stop getting immunised just yet.

The answer might lie in more preventive measures such as boosting the immune system through natural means by methods such as meditation, exercise and supplements such as additional vitamin C and immune boosters like ginseng and Echinacea. Belt and braces has always been good advice if you are vulnerable to infections and if in any doubt, please talk to your doctor about how a flu vaccine might affect you.

Antioxidants for ‘airport ears’

Do you live near to an airport or are you often exposed to loud noise on a regular basis? Are you suffering from hearing loss because of it? If so, you may be interested to hear of some new research, at present only being carried out on guinea pigs, that seems to show that having a good level of antioxidants might just make all the difference. The University of Michigan Hearing Research Institute carried out the study and they gave the guinea pigs a mix of antioxidants: vitamins A, C, and E, and magnesium one hour before they were exposed to the equivalent decibel level comparable to a jet engine taking off. The guinea pigs continued to be given the same amount of the antioxidant mix for a further five days after that single event. A test group were also exposed to the same decibel level, but with no antioxidants given.

When they compared the hearing levels of the two groups at the end of the five-day period, the group that had taken antioxidants experienced a significantly lower loss of hearing. So could it help us too? I will pass on information on phase two of the research, where the Michigan researchers are testing the same antioxidants on soldiers who are exposed to high decibel levels during training, and indeed often very frequently afterwards.

HRT and cancer again

It was widely reported in March 2008 that breast cancer survivors, who were afterwards treated with HRT, had a more than two-fold increased risk of a recurrence. According to long-term follow-up data from a randomised clinical trial, after five years women with previous breast cancer had a recurrence rate of 22.2% compared with 8% in women who received no hormone therapy. The study was undertaken at King’s College London, and scary though it is, I would suggest any woman with follow up care for breast cancer examines her options carefully.

This study does not, sadly, stand alone as more recently, data from the Women’s Health Initiative and the Million Women Study provided additional compelling evidence of an increased risk of breast cancer among HRT users, according to the King’s College researchers and authors of the above study.

It is the oestrogen in HRT that is the problem, as it causes proliferation of the cells, so investigate alternatives such as natural progesterone. An excellent book on this is the one by the late John Lee, MD called ‘What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Breast Cancer’, and the straightforward book I co-wrote with Dr Shirley Bond on the applications of the hormone and called simply ‘Natural Progesterone’ and which is available from the website at www.catalystonline.co.uk

Get rid of gout pain

Unfortunately it is seen as a bit of a joke, an old man’s disease caused by too much port, but gout is far from funny. It is in fact a form of arthritis, and the pain in the infected joints can be severe and is caused when the body produces or retains too much uric acid. The acid forms sharp crystals in soft connective tissue around the joints with the big toe being a primary focus. Gout does not appear overnight, it is the result of years of more uric acid being produced than you expel on a daily basis.

Why would you produce excess uric acid? It can be caused by obesity, high intake of diuretic drugs, excessive alcohol consumption, and hereditary factors. Certain foods are recognised as being triggers for an attack of gout so the first step is to eliminate as many as you can.

Common triggers include:

• High protein and diuretic foods such as organ meats
• Asparagus and broccoli
• Coffee, orange juice
• soft drinks**

**Those soft drinks are a new addition to the list of potential triggers. A study done over the past 12 years by researchers at the University of British Columbia has shown that a frequent intake of sugar-sweetened soft drinks was significantly linked to gout risk. If you know someone who drinks just one soft drink a day they are increasing their gout risk by 45%, and two or more a day leaps to 85%. ‘Healthy’ drinks like apple and orange juice are not immune either as they have high levels of fructose. Bizarrely, diet drinks which contain sweeteners do not carry a risk of gout – but they do pose other health problems.

Natural help is available for gout, and the first step would be to cut out all soft drinks and substitute with plain water to help eliminate the uric acid crystals. The next best thing is to eat cherries and drink their juice. Cherries help prompt uric acid excretion and many people have found that adding them to their diet helps relieve the sharp pain associated with gout.

Two other nature’s helpers are celery seed extract and extract of juniper and some sufferers have kept themselves attack free by also taking up yoga. So no need to prop your foot up on a cushion and wait for the pain to go away, have a large bag of cherries and a bottle of still water and you could soon be hopping about again.

Childbirth does it hurt?

I wanted to share another of my ‘whoever gave them money to study this’ stories. Apparently first time mothers’ expectations of a pain-and-drug-free labour differ markedly from the real event. I can practically hear you all falling over in shock, but Joanne Lally of Newcastle University felt it needed a proper study so she undertook a survey to find out what pregnant women think about childbirth before the event.

Preparation is the key, the more information a woman has the more realistic her expectations apparently, but even then it doesn’t always go to plan. It makes you wonder if any of the pregnant women she surveyed had ever talked to a woman who had actually given birth. Given that it is a kindness not to explain in graphic detail why labour is called that for a very good reason, and that whatever you plan for just does not always happen, you think they would have had a better idea of what to expect.

The study recommends that women are given the tools to prepare them for the possibility of their ideal birth plan not happening, but doesn’t appear to suggest that screaming blue murder at the partner involved and invoking the wrath of the gods if they ever come near them again as a method, but it’s certainly one I have seen employed on many an occasion.

The survey also revealed what women want from childbirth – don’t hold your breath here, it’s a real shocker. They want four things: to know what level and type of pain they are going to experience, pain relief, involvement in decision making, and control. On pain: the women wanted access to effective pain relief, no surprise there, and that the majority underestimate the intensity of the pain they will have – which no doubt accounts for the chorus of women screaming for epidurals who only wanted to breathe through the pain before they hit the final wave.

The biggest issue though is around control, and the study found that if women were consulted and had the processes explained to them then they felt more in control. No different from any other situation in life I would have thought, keeping people in the dark and making decisions without their involvement never goes down well in my book. The other big surprise apparently is that going to antenatal preparation classes are not enough to prepare women for the actual experience. A bit like reading an exercise manual and then discovering that doing the routine is a lot more sweaty and painful.

Good to know that someone, somewhere, is always asking the obvious question that most of us already know the answer to.

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