U.S. Life Expectancy Decreasing – Why?

You would expect that as we have become ever more ingenious at saving lives through surgery and medication that our life expectancy would be increasing, but in fact the reverse is true. The latest report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may be about America, but we would do well to heed its warning as this is the second recent drop and they also found a surge of deaths from chronic lower respiratory diseases.

The U.S. health care system is the most expensive in the world, but like in the UK it is focused on dealing with the fire, not how to prevent it. Like all western medical systems it is based entirely on treating symptoms of disease, managing it, rather than teaching people how to avoid disease through nutrition, foods and natural remedies.

If I were of a cynical turn of mind, which occasionally I am, then I would point out to you that only in China was there a system for paying your doctor to keep you well and that the minute you got sick you stopped paying. There is so much money to be made out of illness, from simple over the counter remedies for colds and headaches to expensive surgeries, drugs and consultations. There is simply no incentive in telling you how to avoid diabetes or through diet and exercise

The only way to be certain of enjoying a healthy, long, life is to be proactive about your own healthcare. There is nothing mysterious about this, and goodness knows I have mentioned it often enough, but following some very simple rules will pay huge dividends in terms of being, and staying, healthy.

The key word is moderation: some exercise, a healthy diet, and managing your stress are where you start.

Three quarters of Hip Fracture Patients Deficient in vitamin D

The International Osteoporosis Foundation reported last week on an Indian study that could prove to be a useful index for the assessment of hip fracture risk in elderly people.

There has been much in the press recently about a recent report from the US Institute of Medicine which found that most people in the U.S. and Canada do not need vitamin D supplements as they are getting enough from their diets. Previous research has shown that low vitamin D levels increase the risk of cancer and heart disease and strokes, diabetes, breast and colon cancer, auto-immune diseases, infections and depression, and to play a role in muscle strength and multiple sclerosis. Studies have suggested many Americans don’t get enough vitamin D because they spend long periods indoors and wear sunscreen when outside which prevents vitamin D being absorbed.

This study from New Delhi India has revealed high rates of vitamin D deficiency among hip fracture patients, confirming the conclusions of similar international studies which point to vitamin D deficiency as a risk factor for hip fracture. It may be that Indians in general have low levels due to skin pigmentation, traditional clothing and the avoidance of sunlight.
Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to development.

The US study recommended amount is 600 international units of vitamin D daily and good food sources are oily fish and eggs but the main source is from sunlight on the skin.

The Benefits of Chocolate for Older Women

Now how could I resist telling you about this, particularly as we approach Christmas when you are bound to be given the odd box or two? My mother used to give me a tin of Roses, a ‘chest’ of Terry’s Old Gold and a box of Black Magic which started me on the road to a sweet tooth, but from which she also got to eat more chocolate than my father approved as she was only helping me out by eating at least half!

So in that spirit back to the benefits of chocolate for older women, which was studied in a controlled trial over 10-years by researchers at the University of Western Australia. Their findings were that women over 70 are less likely to die or be hospitalized due to heart disease if they are regular chocolate eaters. This is the first study in older women that demonstrates a link between chocolate intake and reduced atherosclerotic plaque, which causes ASVD (Arteriosclerotic Vascular Disease).

Of the subjects involved in the research, more than 47% had less than a serving of chocolate per week; about 36% consumed one to six servings per week; and the remaining 17% had more than seven servings. A single serving in this case was equivalent to the amount of cocoa found in one cup of hot raw cocoa – or perhaps a tenth of the top tray of Black Magic (dark chocolate being healthier than milk).

The group that consumed the most chocolate had the least incidence of heart-related death or hospitalization (42 incidents); the group that had six servings or fewer had 90 incidents of cardiovascular-related problems; and the group that rarely consumed chocolate had the highest rate of heart-related problems (158 incidents).

Everyone in the trial regardless of how often they ate chocolate had similar overall results, which suggests that one serving per week could have significant benefits – if you can manage to keep it to that level!

This is not the only study to extol the benefits of chocolate: raw cocoa, the principal ingredient in chocolate, is rich in flavonoids. Previous studies have found that flavonoids have been associated with a 50% lower risk of heart-related deaths and in 2008 Italian researchers found that regular consumption of dark chocolate may reduce inflammation linked to heart and blood vessel disease.

If chocolate isn’t to your taste, then you can get the same benefit from foods rich in flavonoids, such as apples, apricots, blueberries, pears, raspberries, strawberries, cabbage, onions, parsley, and of course red wine as all have been shown to be helpful in postmenopausal women to prevent coronary heart disease, cardiovascular disease, and stroke.

Preventing Breast and Colon Cancer with your Feet

Whatever ‘new’ discovery about cancer prevention comes along (like a daily aspirin), there are certain well-established principles that we need to remember first. Once you have sorted out a healthy diet that you will stick with and reduced environmental and emotional stresses in your life then 10,000 cancers a year could be prevented in the United Kingdom alone if people took several brisk walks a week, according to a report from the World Cancer Research Fund.

“You don’t have to be an athlete to reduce your cancer risk,” said Henry Scowcroft of Cancer Research UK. “There’s solid evidence that certain cancers — including breast and bowel cancer — are less common in people who do regular, moderate exercise such as brisk walking.”

Nor are we talking about marathon effort here as the report found that an average of just 45 minutes of moderate exercise per day could prevent roughly 4,500 cases of bowel cancer in the United Kingdom each year and approximately 5,500 cases of breast cancer. That is more than 10 percent of the current cancer figures so that has to be worth paying attention to.

Walking is something everyone can fit into their life, whether it’s not taking the car down to the local shop for the paper, or getting off the bus a stop early and walking the rest of the way. If walking doesn’t appeal then any moderate exercise that you enjoy will fit the bill so dust off the dancing shoes, set to in the garden, go for a swim and it even includes vigorous housework like vacuuming. Just ten minutes a time, done regularly is better than slogging away for an hour every other week, and surely such a simple change to reduce your cancer risk has got to be worth it.

Exercise is effective for cancer prevention because cancer cells are typically oxygen-deprived, and exercise is a direct way to deliver extra oxygen to cells throughout the body and to improve the immune response. Exercise can also regulate the production of certain hormones that, unregulated, may spur tumour growth.

Get out those walking shoes, and if it’s still too slippy out there put on some music and dance!

Natural Help for Infant Colic

There is no doubt that coping with infant colic causes tremendous distress for parents who have to cope with a suffering baby in obvious pain and hours of daily screaming. There are many suggested ways of dealing with it, but a study in the September 2010 issue of Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, provides a simple remedy for these symptoms.

We know that probiotics are hugely helpful in helping adults with digestive problems and it seems that a probiotic, Lactobacillus reuteri has been shown to significantly relieve symptoms of colic when compared to placebo in a double-blind study and this also confirms the findings of a previous study that compared the effect of L reuteri to a frequently prescribed colic medicine, simethicone in 2007.

The researcher must have used earplugs because this study was conducted on 50 breastfed infants who cried for at least three hours per day at the beginning of the study. After giving them L reuteri in a dose of ten billion colony-forming units per day they had at least a 50 percent improvement in crying time – to say nothing of the stress on the parents who must have been almost crying themselves with relief. The treatment group also showed an increase in healthy lactobacilli in the stools and a decrease in E coli, a bacterium associated with colic. Even better, no side effects occurred as a result of the treatment.

Other natural Colic treatments:
Probiotics are a simple solution to treat colic in babies and when combined with other natural solutions can substantially reduce the distressing crying and pain. One very old –fashioned but highly effective method is to swaddle the baby by wrapping them tightly in a blanket – science has got in here too as they tested this in 2006 and found it reduced crying times significantly.

Diet too is important as by eliminating certain items from the diet of breastfeeding mothers it had the knock on effect of reducing crying – but no use if you are bottle feeding. Getting rid of common potential allergenic foods such as cow’s milk, eggs, peanuts, wheat, soy, and fish also reduced crying in a trial in 2005.

As stress in the mother can be a factor in baby colic it makes sense to tackle that and maybe try out some soothing herbal teas. Ingredients to look for include chamomile, fennel, vervain, liquorice, and lemon balm.

If the colic does not respond to any of these then it may be time to consider other treatments found effective such as cranial osteopathy, which is very gentle, and both homeopathy and acupuncture have seen good results.

New Supplement for Joint Health Help

I went to a press conference last week that along with some staggering statistics (80% of over 70’s have osteoarthritis) provided a very splendid lunch – just getting my ‘expenses’ up front, unlike our MP’s- and news of a new and unique formulation designed for maintenance of joint health.

Two doctors fronted the information, and although frankly I don’t find the medical profession to be the best informed on supplements, or nutrition, they set the case out fairly clearly. If you can avoid getting old, you can probably avoid osteoarthritis – any takers?

Osteoarthritis is a painful, often crippling, condition and the main news from the press conference was that prevention was a darn sight better than cure which involves either pain ful injections into the joint or replacement surgery.

If you have been relying on chondroitin for your joint health then the other surprising fact to emerge was that current research does not show it to be that effective and Regenovex® contains no glucosamine or chondroitin but depends instead on two natural ingredients – Natural Marine Bionovex Oil and Hyaluronic Acid.

Natural Marine Bionovex® Oil may be more familiar to you as Green Lipped Mussels (GLM) which has been popular for joint health for a number of years as it contains polyunsaturated fatty acids, including omega-3s, and is particularly rich in eicosatetraenoic acid (ETA), an omega-3 unique to GLM. ETA has been scientifically shown to have special properties to help maintain joint health and the Bionovex Oil in Regenovex has a concentration of ETA that is up to 40 times greater than in conventional GLM powders.

Marine lipids have been shown to have anti-inflammatory activity in laboratory studies and , of benefit to joint health in various clinical studies. Marine lipids have been shown in studies to inhibit both the cyclooxygenase (COX) and lipoxygenase (LOX) inflammatory pathways, which means they support your body’s normal processes to relieve discomfort. Unlike non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs – a common painkiller prescribed for osteoarthritis) marine-derived lipids do not seem to have any of the stomach or digestive problems associated with NSAID’s such as bleeding.

The other key ingredient is hyaluronic acid® (HA) and it works in a different way. It is naturally found in the body in a wide range of tissues, to cushion joints and supplementing fluid within the joint, which helps to stimulating the joints’ own HA production, supporting the strengthening of cartilage structure, and generally maintaining joint health. In people with joint problems, particularly osteoarthritis, as the cartilage becomes more and more damaged both the amount and molecular weight (or structure) of HA in the joint changes. This results in further cartilage damage, increased inflammation and a reduction in the synovial fluid function and Regenovex® helps maintain joint health by providing the joint with the type of HA it needs to supplement the synovial fluid,.

As well as helping maintain the health of joints and the supplement claims to also tackle the two main causes of joint wear and tear:

• Physical Damage
• Internally released harmful chemicals which affect joint comfort, which can happen after physical damage, wear and tear or aging.

Glucosamine and chondroitin can be helpful for joint health but they are only effective with one aspect of joint discomfort. The combination of Bionovex oil and Hyaluronic in Regenovex® help to harness the nutritional benefits of both hyaluronic acid and omega-3 fatty acids to help maintain joint health.

In a recent trial, 74% of users who took the one-a-day capsules who noticed a difference did so within 30 days and further trials and a scientific study are currently being undertaken It comes in three forms: one-a-day capsules, . a gel for targeted application to individual joints and a flexible patch which continues to work for up to 12 hours and is ideal for day and night time use.

CAUTION: because it contains marine oil it should not be used by anyone who has an allergy to shellfish.

Preparing Your Body for Christmas the Mediterranean Way

Whatever we tell ourselves there is no doubt that Christmas – and indeed all of December – is a time for over-indulgence and it might be sensible to give your body an MOT in preparation.

Detoxing has long been a favoured naturopathic tool and Vital Detox has taken the principles of the Mediterranean diet and applied them in a very convenient way. The traditional Mediterranean detox is based on three things:

1. Reducing the amount of food consumed in order to give the digestive system a rest and allow energy to be diverted to cleansing rather than digesting.
2. Introducinge extra greens to provide the important additional nutrients needed to help quell the accumulated winter toxins being thrown from the cells
3. Take traditional herbal recipes to ensure the natural, seasonal detoxification process works efficiently.

Developed by a Naturopathic Physician in Italy, vitalDETOX is based on this herboristic tradition to allow a gentler detox approach and ensure the effectiveness of the immune system during the process and so prepare you for the festive season.

Some of the herbs included are well known to us such as Milk Thistle which has a beneficial effect on the liver, and Artichoke which improves digestion. Less common in the UK are ingredients such as Rosemary which stimulates the adrenal cortex and is diuretic, Boldo leaves, traditionally used to produce the bile needed for the breakdown of dietary fats, and Radish roots and Agrimony, used for centuries to support the liver. The plant extracts arethen dissolved in an organic solution of the juice extracted from the Mexican cactus Agave salmiana, which is rich in calcium, iron, magnesium and potassium.

During December, instead of having a glass of sherry as an aperitif, you can add one 5ml spoonful of vitalDETOX to a small glass of water with an added a dash of lemon juice before your meal. You should find it in health stores, but if not then visit the website at www.simplyvital.com.

Passive Smoking – Still A Real Danger to Children says W.H.O.

Smoking is now so restricted, you would think the issue of passive smoking had gone away – but it certainly has not. It causes 1% of all deaths globally – 603,000 a year – of which about 165,000 are in children, according to a study, from the World Health Organization’s Tobacco-Free Initiative in Geneva.

This is the first assessment made of passive smoking’s impact worldwide and is based on data analyses from 192 countries. They found that worldwide, 40% of children, 33% of male non-smokers and 35% of female non-smokers were subjected to passive smoking and the deaths related to that are not insignificant. They estimated that that one year this caused:

• 379,000 deaths from ischemic heart disease
• 165,000 deaths from lower respiratory infections
• 36,900 deaths from asthma
• 21,400 deaths from lung cancer

Almost half (48%) of all passive smoking deaths were in women and more than a quarter (28%) in children, with only 26% in men because research showed that men are more likely to be active smokers themselves.

Most deaths in children caused by passive smoking occurred in low- or middle-income but adult deaths from passive smoking were fairly evenly spread across all countries, irrespective of income. Children suffer heavier exposure to second-hand smoke than any other age-group, and are also the group for which there is strongest evidence of harm from passive smoking.

Although much has been done to cut smoking in public places such as bars and restaurants there is still the problem of smoking in the home, or around children outdoors. There are currently estimated to be around 1.2 billion smokers in the world and they are exposing billions of non-smokers to second-hand smoke. I know giving up can be hard, but if you are spending time around children, please do think about it.

Lower Risk of Breast Cancer Linked to Reduced Hormone Therapy

For the first time scientists can show a direct link between reduced hormone therapy and declines in breast cancer. The researchers saw such a striking decrease, they believe they also have uncovered indirect evidence that hormones promote breast tumour growth. The declines occurred in the age groups that most widely embraced then abandoned hormone therapy.

The use of hormone therapy surged in the 1980s and ’90s but at the same time, there was a steady increase in the rate of breast cancer. In mid-2002, following a landmark report of the Women’s Health Initiative indicating that the risks of oestrogen plus progestin therapy outweighed its benefits, hormone therapy fell into widespread disfavour with millions of women either giving it up or looking for alternatives.

So HRT has long been associated with a high breast cancer risk and the best advice if you are taking it is to use the lowest dose possible for the shortest time you can in order to relieve hot flashes and night sweats. Many doctors assume that women can safely take hormones for four or five years but Dr. Rowan T. Chlebowski, first author of an article published this week in The Journal of the American Medical Association and an oncologist at U.C.L.A. Medical Center said “I don’t think you can say that now. I know some people have to take it because they can’t function, but the message now is that you really should try to stop after a year or two.”

If you are taking HRT for osteoporosis prevention, or want more information on natural hormone alternatives, then can I suggest you study the articles on my other health site at www.bio-hormone-health for a fuller picture.

The study has been published online by the Journal of Clinical Oncology and senior author Karla Kerlikowske, MD said “We show that the incidence of breast cancer decreases if you take the hormones away. The fact that we’re continuing to see a decrease in invasive cancer means that the effects of stopping the hormones may be long-lasting.”
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The study uncovered a clear pattern: women 50 to 69 years old had the highest level of hormone usage — and showed the biggest reduction in invasive breast cancer when they stopped, from 40 cancers per 10,000 mammograms in 2002 to 31 cases in 2005, 35 cancers in 2006. There was a parallel drop in cancer among women older than age 70.

Strikingly, the scientists found that among women 40 to 49 years old, who were less likely to have been on hormone therapy, breast cancer rates did not change over the course of the decade studied. The study supports the idea that in giving such artificial hormones it was also promoting tumour growths.

Previous research has found that hormone treatment can cause delays in diagnosis by increasing breast density, making tumours harder to see on mammograms. Delayed diagnosis may increase the risk of successful treatment and it is also possible that hormones may feed the growth of some breast cancers or the blood vessels that tumours need to grow and spread.

Jet Lag Is Not All In The Mind – Though It Does Affect It!

Returning from a long flight can leave you feeling tired and disoriented and this disturbance to your internal body clock and disruption of circadian rhythms can cause you to feel out of sorts and often means an upset stomach because the body’s hunger cycle is out of sync with meal times.

It usually also means your memory is less than reliable which most of us put down to the combination of the time zone shift and the tiredness, but it seems that chronic jet lag alters the brain in ways that cause memory and learning problems long after you get back. Knowing how this can affect your body can help you plan your recovery time and reduce the level of stress and anxiety that you might be subject to as you forget to order the milk or even what your own last name is.

Each of us has an internal, 24-hour clock that drives our circadian rhythm, which is reset every day by small amounts. When a person enters a time zone that is not synched with his or her internal clock, it takes much longer to reset this daily rhythm, causing jet lag until the internal clock gets re-synched.

If you are a frequent flyer then, unlike occasional travellers who recover in a few days, the risks are much greater and include decreased reaction times, higher incidences of diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, cancer, and reduced fertility. The World Health Organization actually lists shift work as a carcinogen so knowing that it pays to be proactive about your health care and reduce all other known cancer risks as well.

Research by psychologists at the University of California, Berkeley studied the effects of continuous jet lag by exposing female Syrian hamsters to six-hour time shifts — the equivalent of a New York-to-Paris airplane flight. If you are wondering (and why not) why female and Syrian, then it is because their bodily rhythms are so precise that they will produce eggs, or ovulate, every 96 hours to within a window of a few minutes.

Nice to know hamsters at least have a reliable monthly pattern, but why they didn’t just ask frequent flyer air crews is a mystery, but then I am not a scientist – thank goodness.

During the last two weeks of jet lag and a month after recovery from it, the hamsters’ performance on learning and memory tasks was measured and, as expected, during the jet lag period they had trouble learning simple tasks that the hamsters in the control group had no difficulty with.

What did surprise the researchers was that these deficits persisted for a month after the hamsters returned to a regular day-night schedule.

The real discovery was that the jet lag caused persistent changes in the brain, specifically within the hippocampus, a part of the brain that plays an intricate role in memory processing. Compared to the hamsters in the control group, the jet-lagged hamsters had only half the number of new neurons in the hippocampus following the month long exposure to jet lag.

This is important because new neurons are constantly being added to the adult hippocampus and are thought to be important for specific types of learning, and memory problems are associated with a drop in cell maturation and atrophy.

This study shows directly that jet lag decreases neurogenesis in the hippocampus and so this effect means that when you experience jet lag it has a profound effect on brain and memory function, and cognitive function is impaired at that time and for up to a month afterwards.

Anyone experiencing sleep pattern disturbance, whether from jet lag or a working schedule that means repeated disruption of circadian rhythms such as those who undertake shift work, like hospital doctors or call centre operators then they are likely to have a long-term impact on their cognitive behaviour and function.”

A Simple Regime to Help You Cope With Jet Lag:
If you suffer from jet lag, then you are going to be operating under par and a few simple techniques can help you avoid it. The worst effects seem to occur during eastward travel and in general you should allow one day of recovery for every one-hour time zone shift.

These ideas might help too:

1) Melatonin – a hormone secreted by the pineal gland in the brain and one of its key jobs is controlling the body’s circadian rhythm. — Melatonin supplements are thought to help the body quickly adjust to the new surroundings and a low dosage is recommended of 0.5 mg a night for three nights, one hour before a normal bedtime – not before, once you get to your destination.

2) Adjust your watch – so it reflefts your destination time the day before you travel as that can psychologically help you adjust.

3) Homeopathy – a popular homeopathic remedy for Jet Lag is Cocculus Indicus and it can be taken every twelve hours starting two days before the flight until three days after the flight. This is not generally available but can be supplied by any homoepathic chemist. These are more commonly on sale for specific aspects of jet lag:

* Arnica – sleeplessness and restlessness when over-tired

* Bellis perennis – waking mid-sleep and sleep interruptions

* Chamomilla – emotional and mental stress, sleeplessness, impatience, intolerance and disorientation

* Ipecacuanha – intense and constant nausea

* Lycopodium – anxiety, anticipatory fears, apprehension, inability to adapt to new surroundings, digestive problems, especially bloating and gas

4) Valerian – is a natural sleep aid and can help you adjust to new time zones by helping people fall asleep at their desired time. Valerian is not addictive and will not cause grogginess the next morning.

5) Diet – the usual suspects; avoid excess alcohol or caffeine, drink plenty of water, and eat light meals. A new development on this is to start 3 days before departure and on day 1 eat a very high protein breakfast to help stimulate the body’s production of dopamine and then a high-carbohydrate dinner to stimulate the body to produce melatonin. Avoid stimulants like coffee, tea, chocolate and energy drinks.

On day 2 stick to light salads and soups and then on day 3 repeat day 1’s menu.

On day 4, repeat day 2 and get as much sleep as you can until it is breakfast time at your destination. Then have a protein-heavy breakfast without coffee, turn on the overhead reading light and then stay as active as you can afterwards. If this doesn’t fit in with the airline’s scheduled meal delivery, take your own with you in the form of protein bars.
WARNING – this is not a suitable diet plan for anyone with diabetes or eating disorders.

6) Bedtime – when you finally do get to your own bed make sure the room is completely dark and noise free to allow your body to adjust and get a decent amount of sleep.

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