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.

What do you have in common with a racehorse?

Naturally, I assume you are a high stepper with a glossy coat and a fine turn of speed, but if your point of similarity is excessive wear and tear on the joints then there is good news for both of you.

Cortaflex is a supplement that was first developed in the USA in 1997 for racehorses, whose joints are continually under huge strain and it has become a staple product for vets. Research trials have vindicated its effectiveness and it is now used for many types of animals including working dogs, elderly dogs and cats with less than ideal mobility and for young animals in those breeds that have associated weaknesses in their joints. In fact it even works on elephants – just ask the vets at Dudley Zoo and the London Zoo! hey of course buy it in 5 gallon drums, but it is available in rather more modest quantities as a liquid, or tablet supplement.

How can it help you? For the same reasons as the animals: the developer of the supplement, Bruce Snipes, suffered from crippling arthritis, and when he could no longer tolerate anti- inflammatory drugs he developed this natural product instead. He now plays golf again, and among regular users of the product are premier league football clubs, jockeys like Richard Quinn swear by it and it has the semi-royal seal of approval from Zara Phillips for herself and her horses who claims that ‘it’s the best joint supplement on the market’. It is now recommended by many osteopaths, physiotherapists and doctors.

If you have been taking glucosamine and chondroitin for joint problems then this could be the next step up. Cortaflex has a unique formulation of the smaller key active isolates of both these substances as they are absorbed more effectively through cell walls and into the joints. Research indicates that when taken orally, only 2.5% of normal glucosamine supplements are actually absorbed through the digestive tract, making them relatively low penetration. Cortaflex comes in two strengths, and the higher strength version also has aleuronic acid which boosts the fluid retention around the joints which cushion them from impact and makes them better able to act as ‘shock absorbers’.

I met the UK importer at a recent health fair and was impressed by the many endorsements they have from grateful customers (animal and human both) – you would be amazed how well an elderly Labrador can write!I tried it myself for a week, which is the time they suggest you ought to be able to see a difference, and I certainly found my knees were less creaky though still not able to emulate Red Rum. If you would like to know more please visit the website at www.cortaflex.co.uk

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

Cholesterol – Keeping the balance naturally

If you watch television, or read magazines, you cannot miss the constant bombardment on the ‘evils’ of high cholesterol. Certainly, out of control levels of high cholesterol are to be avoided, but so too is low cholesterol. It is not the cholesterol itself that is ‘evil’; we actually require normal levels for the production of the hormones testosterone and oestrogen, and it is found in our cell membranes as part of the structure to keep them waterproof.

Without cholesterol, we could not have a different biochemistry on the inside and the outside of the cell. When cholesterol levels are not adequate, the cell membrane becomes leaky or porous, a situation the body interprets as an emergency, and then releases a flood of corticoid hormones to repair the damage.

Cholesterol is therefore essential as it is the body’s chief repair substance: scar tissue contains high levels of cholesterol, including scar tissue in the arteries. So you can see that so cutting out all cholesterol is actually a bad idea. Studies have shown that there is an increased risk of strokes and a compromised immune system when cholesterol drops too low, but as always the answer lies in balance.

If you do have high cholesterol then it can lead to hardening of the arteries and heart disease, but statin drugs, given for the inhibition of cholesterol, – as I have reported before – have their problems too. They have been associated with side effects such as muscle pain and weakness, memory loss, nerve problems and interference with production of Co-Q10.

Natural Solutions?

So, if you don’t want to take drugs to lower your cholesterol, what can you do? Back to the advertisers, who imply that by switching to their margarine, or yoghurt product, you can lower your levels naturally. Well, that depends on what you mean by ‘naturally’. If you read the labels on those products, they contain many chemical compounds, and the ‘healthy’ yoghurt drinks contain not only sugar but sweeteners as well.

So what else is left? Enter the humble grapefruit, wholly natural and a lot cheaper than buying the aforementioned products.

An international team of researchers from Israel, Singapore and Poland put grapefruit to an extremely rigorous cholesterol test. Researchers at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, recruited nearly 60 subjects who had several things in common: they all had undergone recent coronary bypass surgery, had high cholesterol levels, and had used a cholesterol-lowering statin drug with no success. At the outset of the study, none of the subjects had taken any statins for at least 30 days and they were divided into three groups. Over the 30-day study, everyone followed the same low-fat diet, but one group ate one yellow grapefruit a day, while another group ate one red grapefruit daily. They all ate their normal, everyday diet and the third group got no grapefruit at all.

At the end of the study, the two groups who had eaten the daily grapefruit had lower levels of both total cholesterol and LDL – and it was even more marked in the group who ate red grapefruit. Another benefit seemed to be that triglyceride levels also dropped in the red grapefruit group, but not in the other groups. Triglycerides are blood fats that can leave deposits in coronary arteries, and so increase the risk of heart disease.

Now my problem is that my local supermarket has red, yellow and pink grapefruit so I might have to ask them for advice on whether ‘pink’ has a diluted effect from the ‘red’ benefits!

More Good Grapefruit News

Oh, and if you are wanting to lose some weight, there was a study at the Scripps Clinic in San Diego four years ago, in which a group of 100 obese subjects were told to stay on their normal diets, and in addition were given either grapefruit or grapefruit juice to have once a day. On average they lost 3lb, and one person lost 10lbs, as opposed to the non-grapefruit trial group who lost less than a 1lb.

Diabetics may also be interested to learn that the subjects in that same study also showed better management of insulin levels. Those in the two grapefruit groups had lower levels of insulin and glucose than they did at the outset, while levels in the non-grapefruit group were unchanged. The Scripps researchers believe that enzymes in grapefruit help control insulin spikes that occur after a meal, which frees the digestive system to process food more efficiently. This means that less nutrients are stored as fat.

Caution

Many foods can interact with the effectiveness or efficiency of drugs, and grapefruit are no exception. Chemicals in grapefruit interfere with the enzymes that break down certain drugs in your digestive system and this can result in excessively high levels of these drugs in your blood, and an increased risk of side effects. The following list is a generic overview of the classes of drugs that may be affected. Bear in mind that it may not be all drugs within a particular group, so consult with your doctor if you are taking any of the following types of medication:

Anti-seizure medication – anti-arrhythmia drugs – antidepressants – erectile dysfunction – Calcium channel blockers -HIV medications – HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors used to treat high cholesterol – Immunosuppressant drugs – Methadone Pain relief – Tranquillisers.

Computer vision – A new disease?

We are all spending more and more time in front of a computer; shopping online, checking emails, reading our horoscope (or is t hat just me?). It is easy to forget the time, but your eyes will remind you because hours spent staring at a computer screen means you risk suffering tired, dry eyes, blurred vision, eye strain, headache, and sensitivity to light. This has led to a new ‘disease’ being recognised, collectively those symptoms are becoming known as “computer vision syndrome.”

The American Optometric Association certainly has recognised it as a growing problem with an estimated 10 million people visiting their optometrist annually for computer eye-related difficulties. Apparently, according to the Optometric Association, a computer is a challenging environment for the eyes because the imagery is not as clear as it seems to be, and because of that it’s harder for the eye to focus than it would be on ordinary print on a page.

First step is to get your eyes checked and if you spend more than a couple of hours a day in front of the computer you should mention it to your optician so they can see whether you need separate glasses for that, or a screen filter to help reduce glare and eye discomfort. If you wear bifocals, or varifocals, you can also suffer from neck and shoulder problems because these glasses are often not set for the computer so you end up having to move your head closer to the computer while at the same time tipping your head back to see the screen. That’s an awkward position and if you have been suffering from a stiff neck it could be the reason why.

One simple tip that helps is to blink more often because that lubricates your eyes. When we concentrate, our blink rate goes down, leading to dry eyes. Try adopting the 20/20 rule – every 20 minutes look away from your computer for about 20 seconds; this will minimize the development of eye-focusing problems and eye irritation caused by not blinking enough.

Check the lighting, you don’t want too much bright overhead light or any kind of glare or reflection off your computer screen. Finally, is your monitor at the right height? Experts advise that for maximum ergonomic comfort, the screen should be right in front of you so you don’t have to twist to see it and the monitor should be at eye level, or a little below it.

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.

Asthma risk for young children

Two new studies on asthma make for interesting reading, particularly if you have young children. At a recent meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology it was reported that nearly 90% of children who wheezed when they had a cold as early as just one year old, went on to be diagnosed with asthma by the time they were six.

Daniel J. Jackson, M.D., of the University of Wisconsin had studied a group of children from birth to age six and his findings were based on this group, he was at pains to point out that as there is no treatment to prevent common cold infections or asthma, but it will be helpful for parents to be aware of the higher risk their for developing asthma and to be alert for the symptoms so they can take early action.

September and October, as well as March and April, are the primary months for such infections and it is suggested that if you have a child in the first year of life who is wheezing in these months then both the parents and the doctor need to keep a close eye on the child during those periods.

Of course this is not the only risk factor, other significant predictors of asthma included having a dog in the house at the child’s birth, other children in the family with asthma, and showing sensitivity to airborne allergens. Also, according to the National Institute of Environmental Health Science in the USA, the problem of asthma can be made worse if you have mice in the house. Almost 83% of the homes studied were found to have mouse allergens, principally from urine, and one third of those homes were found to have a 50% greater risk of having a family member with asthma.

Again prevention is the best plan, so if you have an asthmatic child or adult it is worth making sure that your home is mouse free to minimise potential allergens. Unfortunately it appears that having a cat is no deterrent as levels were just as high in households with cats as without. What are they doing to earn their daily bowl of Whiskas?

Can’t sleep? Women at risk

Yesterday it was reported in Brain, Behavior, and Immunity that women with sleep problems have higher levels of biomarkers for cardiovascular disease and diabetes than do men who can’t sleep. Poor sleep patterns in this instance is defined as problems falling asleep, taking 30 minutes or more to fall asleep, or awakening frequently. Apparently, researchers at Duke University found that such women also have greater psychological distress than men who sleep poorly. The difference in gender risk is marked, as when comparing men and women with the same poor sleep patterns, they found that the women had high levels of C-reactive protein, interleukin-6, and insulin, leading to higher risks of cardiovascular disease and hypertension.

The women who had the biggest risk were those who took over half an hour to fall asleep, so if this is you it could be time to look at alternative methods to aid sleep such as camomile tea, valerian or a warm, not hot, bath with lavender oil before going to bed. If those simple methods don’t help, then you might also consider looking at these factors:

Are you a late night snacker?
Avoid anything containing grains and sugars (biscuits, cakes, bread, crackers) before bedtime as they will raise your blood sugar and inhibit sleep. Later, when your blood sugar drops back to a lower level then you might wake up and not be able to get back to sleep.

Is your bedroom dark enough?
If there is even the tiniest bit of light in the room it can disrupt your circadian rhythm and your pineal gland’s production of melatonin and seratonin. If you get up in the night to go to the bathroom then try and keep any light to a minimum because as soon as you turn on a light your body responds and immediately ceases all production of the important sleep aid melatonin and doesn’t recommence that night at all.

Late night tv watcher?
Watching tv right before bed is too stimulating to the brain and it will take longer to fall asleep. If you must watch, stay in the living room and don’t have set in your bedroom. Watching tv in bed is also disruptive of pineal gland function for the same reason as light in the bathroom/bedroom.

Cold feet?
Because our feet have the poorest circulation, they often feel cold before the rest of the body. A study has shown that wearing socks to bed reduces the possibility of you waking through feeling cold.

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