The secrets of longevity – Part 2

If you found last week’s item on the longevity of the Okinawans of Japan, then hopefully this week’s contribution will give you even more ideas on how to prolong your life as healthily and actively as possible. To do that we are heading off to Ovodda in Sardinia. In stark contrast to the Okinawans, the residents of Ovodda don’t count calories and meat is very firmly on the menu, while tofu and soya are not. That may seem like a more typical western diet, but this small town of just over 1,700 residents boasts five centenarians and even more remarkably, as many men live to 100 as women and that certainly bucks the statistical norm. The benefits of a Mediterranean diet are well known, and certainly the consumption of olive oil, more fruit, vegetables and fish is well-accepted as being a health basis for longevity, but this still does not account for the number in Ovodda and other parts of Sardinia. It apparently still applies when residents have actually emigrated between the ages of 20-40 as they still regularly get to be 100 years of age, according to the researchers. Chiefly responsible for this information is Professor Luca Deiana who has tested every single Sardinian centenarian and has come up with a surprising theory about why there are so many.

For hundreds of years families in Ovodda have lived in relative isolation from the rest of the living in the town today are descended from only a few original settlers. “Marriage among relatives is not the rule but there are some cases of this taking place,” says Professor Deiana. “From a genetic point of view, when this happens, there’s a higher probability of having genetic diseases, but also of having positive results like centenarians”. In Ovodda, this interbreeding actually seems to have enabled people to live longer. The limited gene pool has provided a unique opportunity to discover specific genes that are associated with long life. Professor Deiana has detected a number of unusual genetic characteristics that seem to link the centenarians of Ovodda. “One particular gene on the X chromosome seems to be faulty, failing to produce an enzyme known as G6PD. This can often have a negative impact on health, but in Ovodda it may well have had a positive effect. The role G6PD may play in living longer is now being researched further, but the professor is convinced the genetic elixir of life lies with the families of Ovodda. I am not suggesting you start thinking of marrying your cousin, but marrying into the Ovodda gene pool might not be a bad idea.

Statins – Children next?

Last week I raised concerns about the routine prescribing of statins, and now from the USA comes news that the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee has recommended routine screening of children, from 2 years old, for “high cholesterol”. Given the deterioration in children’s’ diets you may think that a good idea, but not when it is accompanied by the news that they are also recommending giving children as young as eight years old statin drugs. These drugs have never even been tested on children, never mind approved for their use – in fact not one single safety test has ever been conducted with children taking these powerful chemicals.

I am not going to repeat the side effects that I gave last week, but if they have such an impact on adults, can you imagine what they will do to children? Schools are having enough disciplinary problems as it is, without adding in children on drugs that can cause homicidal impulses and mental confusion. No one denies that more children are now presenting with high cholesterol levels, but surely the answer lies in controlling their diet and ensuring enough exercise? The main ‘culprits’ if a child is diagnosed with high cholesterol at the age of eight are the consumption of too great a quantity of these:

* Milk and dairy products
* Fried foods and trans fatty acids
* Processed meats and animal products

Nutritionists believe that virtually any child can be cured of high cholesterol in a matter of weeks by being fed a 100% plant-based diet, comprised entirely of non-processed foods, and including fresh, raw vegetable and fruit juices along with numerous superfoods such as apples, broccoli, wholemeal bread, salmon, bananas and brazil nuts. Simple, yes, and certainly better than putting a child on a drug regime that they could be kept on for years.

Statins – Saint or sinner?

Many of you will have heard of Patrick Holford, the UK’s leading nutrition expert, and I have known him for many years. Indeed I edited his Optimum Nutrition magazine for a while and always find what he has to say of interest.

The topic of statins has come up a lot recently, particularly when I have been giving talks on natural health, and there seems to be a lot of confusion. This is not surprising because every year there is always a ‘new’ wonder thing that will help us stay health without much willpower on our part, but will bring fairly large profits to the people manufacturing it.

Cynical? Maybe, but when you have written about health for as long as I have you see the cycle of celebration, doubt, debunking and then quietly disappearing for many so called ‘miracle’ cures.

New health guidelines issued recently say all adults aged 40 to 75 should be assessed for risks, including smoking, weight and blood pressure and those with at least a 20 per cent increased chance of a heart attack over the next 10 years should be offered treatment, usually statins. Patrick Holford takes a different view and completely disagrees with the routine prescribing of these drugs. I think what he has to say is important so I am quoting him directly here, and leaving you to make up your own mind.

“Statins work by blocking the production of cholesterol, which is a perfectly normal substance, and in the process, stops the body producing Co-Q10, a vital heart nutrient, causing harmful side effects. This was confirmed in research published last month in the journal Nature. As a consequence, statins are far from harmless.

The notion that cholesterol is linked with heart disease goes back over fifty years, along with the idea of bringing cholesterol levels down with a low fat diet to protect the heart. But both of these ideas have been strongly challenged. For example, plenty of studies show that only 50% of people who develop heart problems have high cholesterol, while a study in the BMJ in 2001 found no link between changing fat in the diet and heart disease.

The best known side-effect of statins involves muscles problems. The probable reason for this is that they stop the production of Co-Q10 which is found in all cells (especially those of the heart muscle) and is vital to energy production. In one study of 14 healthy people, 10 developed heart rhythm abnormalities when given statins. This, say some researchers, could explain the muscle weakness and also the memory loss some people experience.

Some practitioners recommend that anyone taking statins should also supplement with Co-Q10 and a warning on statin packets is now mandatory in Canada, saying that CoQ10 reduction ‘could lead to impaired cardiac function’.

In fact the closer you look, the more questionable the benefits become. You might assume that taking prophylactic statins would mean that you would live longer overall. But that isn’t what the studies show. The total number of heart attacks drops slightly but then the risk of dying from other things goes up slightly, so overall life expectancy stays the same.

How can you avoid statins? By doing everything you can to keep your heart healthy. You do that by the well- known – but little enough practiced – regime of eating well with plenty of fruit, vegetables and wholegrains in your everyday diet. Make sure you also include foods that are high in heart-protective Vitamin E, such as beans, olive oil and eggs and reduce the amount of sugary foods, refined carbohydrates and keep your stress levels as low as you can.

Instead of an expensive drug, try lowering your cholesterol levels and heart disease risk by raising your ‘good’ HDL cholesterol and lowering ‘bad’ LDL cholesterol. A simple, inexpensive way to do that is take a supplement of niacin (vitamin B3), and to further help prevent cardiovascular disease it is suggested that you include a CoQ10 supplement of around 90mg a day. The COQ10 will also help those who are already on statin drugs and wish to stay on them.

If you would like to know more about Patrick Holford’s work, his new book ‘Food is Better Medicine Than Drugs’ would be a good place to start. You can read about it here: Food Is Better Medicine Than Drugs: Your Prescription for Drug-free Health

Cola companies under pressure worldwide

The UK has led the way for a group of consumer organisations from 20 different countries to issue a public call for soft drink giants Coca-Cola and Pepsi to stop marketing directly to children. With 24% of the US population now defined as obese, this is clearly a problem and sugared, carbonated drinks add sweet fuel to the fire.

Letters pointing out the dangers of products containing high amounts of sugar or caffeine to children under the age of 16 have been sent out worldwide to the drinks giants and their subsidiaries. The products being targeted include not just colas but also sweetened juices, sports drinks and teas and they want them also removed from being offered or sold in schools.

In addition, they want the companies to prominently label the front of all such products with the number of calories per serving, and to limit their sponsorship of sports and health programmes.

New regulations in the UK have banned the advertising of junk food on television to children under the age of 16, and there is agreement on a voluntary pledge by major food companies to stop advertising those foods to children under the age of 12. Ten companies have signed up to this so far,including Coke and Pepsi,in an effort to avoid being faced with potentially stricter compulsory regulations.

The groups involved in issuing the new set of demands say that Coke and Pepsi’s marketing efforts contribute to increasing obesity levels, especially in children. The Mexican group, El Poder del Consumidor, are particularly concerned that many of the drink company ads are misleading. For instance, in Mexico a campaign was run for a Coca Cola-sponsored nutrition campaign that promoted drinking Coca-Cola as a good way to rehydrate after exercise.

St John’s Wort – Does it work?

Get ready – this is the rant! As someone who has been writing about health for 20 years, I thought I had become anaesthetised to the ‘false information’ syndrome that seems to accompany most natural medicines. Linus Pauling is a fine example. He was one of the first scientists to work in the fields of quantum chemistry, molecular biology and orthomolecular medicine, was awarded two Nobel Prizes in different fields which you would have thought was enough qualification for anyone. However, his research into the benefits of vitamin C on health were systematically rubbished for years, and now a natural supplement that has been proven to help thousands cope with depression is getting similarly clobbered.

In the best Parliamentary tradition, I have to declare an ‘interest’ in the subject as I have been subject to depression since childhood and have tried virtually every form of treatment, both chemical and natural, over the years. St John’s Wort works for many people – but not for everyone, so I am never surprised to read research that shows it hasn’t been effective within certain parameters.

What I am surprised, and horrified, to discover is that the latest round of ‘St John’ bashing has come from a group of medical men who concluded “that the St.John’s Wort herb is useless in treating ADHD in children”.

That it is true I don’t doubt, because what they didn’t disclose at the time was that all the children used in the study were given inactive forms of the herb, where the active ingredients had been oxidized and rendered useless. Even the Journal of American Medicine admitted that:

“The product used in this trial was tested for hypericin and hyperforin content at the end of the trial and contained only 0.13% hypericin and 0.14% hyperforin.”

That constitutes a sub-clinical dose, barely containing any usable St. John’s Wort at all. It is in fact barely one-tenth of one percent of the active chemical constituents in the herb, and any decent supplement typically contain up to five percent hyperforin, or thirty-five times the amount of active ingredient used in this trial. JAMA felt obliged to point out:

“Hyperforin is a very unstable constituent that quickly oxidizes and then becomes inactive, which is likely what happened to the product used in this clinical trial.”

In other words, they admitted that it was an inactive, ineffective, form that had been used.

Even more worrying is the fact that there were only 54 children used in the results of the trial, with 27 receiving a placebo and 27 receiving St. John’s Wort. This is a very small sample size to justify any declaration that it doesn’t work, especially given the fact that it has been safely and effectively used by tens of millions of people around the world in just the last decade or so.

Incredibly, more than 40 percent of the children used in the study had previously also used psychiatric medications, and we already know that such drugs actually cause behavioural disorders, shown by the fact that so many children commit violent acts against themselves and others after taking psychiatric medications.

This trial was set up to fail on so many levels; for example, six children who displayed a large response to the placebo were supposed to have been dropped from the study to isolate the herb’s effects from placebo effects. However, they were ‘accidentally’ randomized and their results put into the final conclusion, which had the effect of distorting the final results in favour of placebo responders, and reducing the numbers who responded positively to the St John’sWort.

Another example of the study’s bias is that young boys are far more susceptible to the kinds of behaviours that are labelled as “ADHD,” compared to young girls, and yet in this study, the placebo group consisted of only about 50% boys while the herb treatment group consisted of nearly 75% boys. In other words, the placebo group was predisposed to a positive outcome simply due to its composition of girls vs. boys, while the herb treatment group was predisposed to a less-than-favourable response.

To say nothing of the sheer cynicism of this research, and trying not to boil over at them using young children to test something for a serious condition that they absolutely had guaranteed in advance would not work, they then sent numerous press releases out that warned parents not to use the herb. Some of the headlines included:

St. John’s Wort Doesn’t Work for ADHD Washington Post

St. John’s wort no better than placebo for ADHD, Bastyr study finds Seattle Times St. John’s wort doesn’t help ADHD, study finds Reuters That would certainly put most parents off, but it is not really so surprising when you know that one of the study’s authors, Dr. Joseph Biederman, secretly took $1.6 million from drug companies while conducting psychotropic drug experiments on children, and is currently on the payroll of several drug pharmacies selling ADHD medications – a fact he did not disclose when publishing the study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. So he was not likely to want to find that St John’s Wort, or any other natural alternatives, had any effect on treating a condition cheaply and without recourse to drugs. The whole point of the study of course was to make natural medicines look bad. I had thought after Linus Pauling’s hard battle to get his views accredited that it might have got a bit easier – but clearly the agenda is still a commercial, rather than a medical one.

In case you were wondering, St. John’s Wort has been clinically proven to be even more effective than antidepressant drugs for treating mild to moderate depression. That is a much better track record than all the SSRI drugs ever invented, whether it works for ADHD I don’t know, but I would want to see much better research before it is so cavalierly dismissed.

8 ways to prevent heartburn

Heartburn can be mildly unpleasant to really distressing, and although most people experience it occasionally it is when it is more frequent that you need to take action. If you are always carrying a packet of Rennies in your pocket, or some other over- the-counter medicine, then it is time start tackling the probable cause. Symptoms of heartburn include:

- Chest pain, especially while lying down at night
- Sour taste in the mouth
- Coughing, wheezing, hoarseness
- Aggravation of asthma
- Sore throat
- Regurgitation of food or liquid

If you suffer from it frequently – twice a week or more – then first visit your doctor to rule out any other issues, such as angina, which has similar symptoms. What you may be suffering from is gastroesophageal reflux disease, or GERD. This condition occurs in people whose lower oesophageal sphincter doesn’t close properly, and that means that the acid from your stomach is able to flow back into the oesophagus, which can irritate its delicate lining, and that is what causes the pain.

The condition can also be triggered, or made worse, by a number of factors, perhaps something in your diet, stress, smoking, some medications and pregnancy can all trigger or worsen symptoms.

An alternative approach is to take some responsibility for the condition yourself and try the following approaches:

1 Keep a food and beverage journal. It can help you track and avoid triggers.

2 Eat small, frequent meals, not one huge one

3 Wear loose clothing and maintain a healthy weight to prevent stomach constriction and help reduce GERD

4 Avoiding lying down after eating, a gentle stroll or doing the washing up is a much better idea

5 Practice relaxation techniques such as breathing exercises or meditation

6 Sip chamomile tea as it can help soothe inflamed tissue in the oesophagus – adding some honey could improve the taste and give you extra immune support

7 If you usually sleep on your back, or on your right, try switching to sleeping on your left side. This may help move acid away from the entrance of the oesophagus and be enough to prevent it backing up

8 Experiment with DGL (deglycyrrhizinated liquorice), this is a supplement proven to be effective against GERD – but not if you have high blood pressure as liquorice can raise it

Ovarian cancer risk from food

There is news this month of a surprising finding from the results of an eleven year study on diet and cancer occurrence in the Netherlands. This was a long-term study of nearly 63,000 women who faithfully filled in dietary questionnaires for the whole of that period and what researchers found was a link between a greatly increased risk of ovarian and endometrial cancers with certain dietary habits.

The ‘guilty party’ is Acrylamide, which is a chemical produced when starchy foods like potatoes are baked, fried or roasted, but does not occur with boiling. It was first detected in food in 2002; prior to that, acrylamide was believed to be a solely industrial chemical and a number of previous studies have implicated it as a carcinogen.

Unusually, the problem is compounded if the women had never smoked as statistically the non-smokers from the women in the study were even more susceptible. They had a 99 percent higher risk of endometrial cancer and a 122 percent higher risk of ovarian cancer among those with the highest acrylamide intake. By contrast, the smokers had a 29 percent higher risk of endometrial cancer and a 78 percent higher risk of ovarian cancer, though why this should be the case the research hasn’t yet thrown up.

While some scientists have hypothesized that the human body may detoxify acrylamide when it is ingested in food, or that human intake is too low to pose health risks, the current study suggests that even at dietary doses, acrylamide is a human carcinogen.

What can you do? As ever, balance is the answer. If it is frying, baking and roasting are the culprits then reduce the amount of times you have potatoes, or other starchy foods, done in this way. Enjoy your new potatoes steamed or boiled with some herb butter and keep the roasties and chips to an occasional treat.

Make your own summer sunshine

Lazy summer days call for a long, cool drink and home made lemonade really sums up the essence of summer. Full of vitamin C, it will top up your immune system, and with the addition of some organic honey and stimulating ginger you will get a good dose of B vitamins too so make up a jugful and head for the garden.

Honey Ginger Lemonade – Ingredients

1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup peeled fresh ginger slices
2 sprigs fresh mint
2 cups still water 4 cups ice cubes

Instructions:

Put the juice, honey, ginger, and chopped sprigs of the mint in a large jug and stir, pressing the mint and ginger down to break them up and release lots of their flavour. Add the water, stir until the honey dissolves, then add the ice, strain into long glasses, add a sprig of mint for decoration, sit back and relax.

By the way, if you suffer from hayfever then use a locally produced honey to help build up your resistance – it really will make a difference.

Salad days

One good thing about hot weather is that it encourages us to eat more healthily. Even if you are not a fan of what my father persistently referred to as ‘rabbit food’, once the temperature rises it is an option that many people look on more favourably. If it’s not one of your personal favourites, could you learn to at least look on it with kindliness as eating just one salad a day really is amazingly good for you.

A study conducted by the UCLA School of Public Health and Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center has just revealed that those who eat salads and raw vegetables have considerably higher levels of vitamins C, E, B6, and folic acid — key nutrients in promoting a healthy immune system and reducing the risk of obesity, heart disease and other chronic illnesses.

Just one salad a day goes a long way to meeting the Government’s recommended daily allowance of vitamins and minerals – and that RDA is well below what any nutritionist would recommend so maybe two salads a day? In the USA, less than 50% of the population meets the daily recommendation for vegetables, and I suspect the Brits are not too far behind them. What is particularly deficient in the average diet are the vital water-soluble vitamins C and B complex which need to be ingested daily as the body does not store them. The raw vegetables in salads provide a good source of these vitamins, plus you get fibre for better digestion and antioxidants for boosting immunity.

Interestingly, clinical trials have shown that adding salad dressing increases the absorption of certain nutrients which require oil to be fully metabolised – these include A, D, E and K. Choose olive oil or omega 3 and 6 oils from flax seed or a similar source for the most benefit.

Yet more benefits of green tea

As I have now trailed so many benefits of this ‘wonder’ tea, I am amazed the supermarket shelves haven’t been stripped bare, and yet here is another one. You know that it is packed with powerful antioxidants with lots of great health bonuses, but recently scientists discovered that green tea increased the effectiveness of certain antibiotics by as much as 99.99%…even when pitted against antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria.

This was a 12-month study at Alexandria University in Egypt and the results show that green tea boosted the performance of several antibiotics used in the treatment of 28 different disease-causing bacteria — including several strains of Staphylococcus. For example, 20 percent of previously drug-resistant bacteria were killed when green tea was combined with cephalosporin. This is good news because Cephalosporin is a widely used antibiotic – however many strains of bacteria have developed immunity against it.

Green tea was also shown to effectively support the antibiotics tetracycline, cefuroxime and it helped prevent the production of beta-lactamases-substances produced by bacteria allowing them to develop resistance to antibiotics.

So if you combine drinking green tea when on antibiotics you will help them be more effective and if you are drinking it regularly anyway then hopefully you won’t need the antibiotics at all, or in such quantity.

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