the-psoriasis-treatment

This post is based on an analysis of a subset of the China Study II data, using HealthCorrelator for Excel (HCE) , which is publicly available for download and use on a free trial basis. You can access the original data on the HCE web site, under “Sample datasets”. HCE was designed to be used with small and individual personal datasets, but it can also be used with larger datasets for multiple individuals. This analysis focuses on two main variables from the China Study II data: mortality in the 35-69 age range, and mortality in the 70-79 range. The table below shows the coefficients of association calculated by HCE for those two variables. The original variable labels are shown. One advantage of looking at mortality in these ranges is that they are more likely to reflect the impact of degenerative diseases. Infectious diseases likely killed a lot of children in China at the time the data was being collected. Heart disease, on the other hand, is likely to have killed more people in the...

Gallstones are estimated to affect 1 in 10 people in North America. Those who are obese have a higher likelihood of developing gallstones. Most at risk of gallstones as a result of obesity are Native Americans, the elderly, and Caucasian women in their forties who haven’t yet reached menopause. Gallstones are so named because they develop in the gallbladder, a small organ that stores and releases the bile made by the liver. Bile is a dark green fluid containing bile salts and cholesterol. The gallbladder releases bile into the small intestine to assist in digesting fats more efficiently. However, if the bile contains high concentrations of cholesterol, then stones too difficult for the bile salts to dissolve may develop. Because gallstones usually form without any symptoms, most people don’t know they have them or may feel only minor symptoms such as abdominal pain after eating a fatty meal. However, if a stone becomes lodged in a bile duct causing blockage, it can result in sudden pai...

New research has once again confirmed after systematically analyzing 17 studies that there is simply no evidence to substantiate claims of a link between dairy and higher risk of cardiovascular disease or death. The evidence, in fact, shows just the opposite—drinking milk slightly reduces the risk of coronary heart disease (1). In addition, multiple studies show that milk and dairy proteins (whey and casein) may actually protect the heart by helping to maintain lower blood pressure, lower blood sugar, and lead to reduced bodyweight (2-4). The renowned, epidemiologic and nutrition researcher Walter Willet, Ph.D., and his group at Harvard, conducted this huge analysis by looking at various types of dairy intake, ranging from milk intake to total high-fat dairy products and total low-fat dairy products and correlating to risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke and all-cause mortality. This study was a meta-analysis of many prospective cohort studies in ...

HealthCorrelator for Excel (HCE)  is now publicly available for download and use on a free trial basis. For those users who decide to buy it after trying, licenses are available for individuals and organizations. If you are a gym member, consider asking your gym to buy an organizational site license; this would allow the gym to distribute individual licenses at no cost to you and your colleagues. HCE is a user-friendly Excel-based software that unveils important associations among health variables at the click of a button. Here are some of its main features: - Easy to use yet powerful health management software. - Estimates associations among any number of health variables. - Automatically orders associations by decreasing absolute strength. - Graphs relationships between pairs of health variables, for all possible combinations. The beta testing was successfully completed, with fairly positive results. (Thank you beta testers!) Among beta testers were Mac users. The main request fr...

Elderly men and women who supplement Mediterranean-style meals with coenzyme Q10 (coQ10) enjoy greater antioxidant protection and could slow aging, a Spanish study finds (1). In a randomized crossover trial, University of Cordoba researchers assigned 20 healthy adults (ages 65 and older) to one of the three dietary protocols for the duration of four weeks: a traditional Western-style diet rich in saturated fats, a Mediterranean-style diet rich in olive oil, or a Mediterranean-style diet supplemented with coQ10 (200 mg/day in capsules). The scientists found that the combination (Mediterranean-style meals and coQ10) improved antioxidant activity and reduced cellular oxidative stress in the subjects more successfully than the Mediterranean-style or Western-style diet alone. The Mediterranean-style diet protocols also exhibited greater heart-protective benefits in comparison to the Western-style diet. The scientists noticed a significantly greater decrease in HDL cholesterol (the “good” ch...

You’ve probably noticed sugar alcohols before in chewing gum, candies, baked goods, ice cream and diet drinks. These products are also often labeled “sugar free”, “low in calories”, “diabetic-friendly”, and even “tooth-friendly”. Suspicious? We don’t blame you—when you see the words sugar and alcohol together, there’s plenty of reason to start asking questions. However, upon learning a little about these ingredients you’ll find they have unique benefits. Sugar alcohol sounds worse than it is because chemists create names based on structures—it’s not the type of alcohol that makes you drunk! Sugar alcohols are so named because they are little carbon rings with OH (oxygen-hydrogen) groups on them, also called polyols. These polyols are naturally found in many plants and are easily recognized by the human body (in fact, human cells produce their own sugar alcohols such as sorbitol). Fewer calories, greater flavor The truth is that sugar alcohols, when used in correct amounts, can be safe,...

For some fun, I've decided to take pics of some foods I eat and write a bit about them. For example, these Brussels sprouts in olive oil. I made a bunch of them for my family and me. They all declined, even my grandma. So I ended up eating them for dinner and for breakfast! But seriously, they're not only delicious (an acquired taste, I guess), but they're also packed with fiber, carotenoids, vitamins, and minerals. In addition, like other cruciferous vegetables they do contain some sulfur-rich chemicals that are potentially cancer-protective. These chemicals are called glucosinolates. When they are chewed they end up as hydrolysis products like indole-3-carbinol. The breakdown products appear to stimulate the body to eliminate carcinogens more easily and/or by inhibiting cells from becoming cancerous. They might even induce genomic effects, increasing production of glutathione S-transferases, which metabolize isothiocynates and several other compounds including known carci...

Compensatory adaptation (CA)  is an idea that is useful in the understanding of how the body reacts to inputs like dietary intake of macronutrients and exercise. CA is a complex process, because it involves feedback loops, but it leads to adaptations that are fairly general, applying to a large cross-section of the population. A joke among software developers is that the computer does exactly what you tell it to do, but not necessarily what you want it to do. Similarly, through CA your body responds exactly to the inputs you give it, but not necessarily in the way you would like it to respond. For example, a moderate caloric deficit may lead to slow body fat loss, while a very high caloric deficit may bring body fat loss to a halt. Strength training seems to lead to various adaptations, which can be understood through the lens provided by CA. One of them is a dramatic increase in the ability of the body to store glycogen, in both liver and muscle. Glycogen is the main fuel used by ...

People who are overweight or obese are more likely to have lower circulating levels of vitamin D and may have trouble with conversion to its hormonally active form, a Norwegian study suggests. These findings, published in the Journal of Nutrition , may partially explain why carrying extra pounds raises risk of several poor health outcomes linked to low vitamin D. The hormonally active form is critical for maintaining cell health, strong bones, a strong immune system, and a healthy heart and brain. University of Oslo researchers observed almost 1,800 people for six years—about 62 percent obese and 11 percent morbidly obese as indicated by Body Mass Index (BMI)—and found an inverse relationship between higher BMI and serum concentrations of circulating 25(OH)2D and the hormonally active 1,25(OH)2D. A seasonal variation of both vitamin D metabolites in the obese subjects provided clues that excess weight disturbed the complicated conversion (hydroxylation) of the circulating 25(OH)2D to h...

Genes do not evolve, nor do traits that are coded for our genes. We say that they evolve to facilitate discourse, which is alright. Populations evolve. A new genotype appears in a population and then either spreads or disappears. If it spreads, then the population is said to be evolving with respect to that genotype. A genotype may spread to an entire population; in population genetics, this is called “fixation”. (Human chromosomes capped by telomeres, the white areas at the ends. Telomere shortening is caused by oxidative stress, and seems to be associated with death of cells and organisms. Source: Wikipedia.) Asexual reproduction is very uncommon among animals. The most accepted theory to explain this is that animal populations live in environments that change very quickly, and thus need a great deal of genetic diversity within them to cope with the change. Otherwise they disappear, and so do their genes. Asexual reproduction leads to dramatically less genetic diversity in population...

I am deeply shocked and saddened as I know many of you are by the news of the senseless shooting that happened in Tucson. As a resident of Chandler, Ariz., I also found that the incident hit a little too close to home; so, admittedly, I was quick (as many others were) to turn to news reports that offered possible reasons for the heinous act -- politics of the day often pointed out as a motive. After all, Jared Loughner did target a congresswoman and his Web rantings did wreak of politics. Also, Loughner listed several political books among his favorite reads including Mein Kampf, Animal Farm, and The Communist Manifesto . However, one book not as often mentioned by the media that caught my eye was this one: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest -- this novel, by Ken Kesey, is one I think reveals more about Loughner than the others. In short, here's the novel's plot: the setting is a mental hospital, and the tale (in a nutshell) is of a "sane" patient, McMurphy, who...

This previous post  looks at the amounts of protein needed to maintain a nitrogen balance of zero. It builds on data about individuals doing endurance exercise, which increases the estimates a bit. The post also examines the issue of what happens when more protein than is needed in consumed; including by people doing strength exercise. What that post does not look into is whether strength exercise, performed at the anaerobic range, increases nitrogen balance. If it did, it may lead to a counterintuitive effect: strength exercise, when practiced at a certain level of intensity, might enable individuals in calorie deficit to retain their muscle, and lose primarily body fat. That is, strength exercise might push the body into burning more body fat and less muscle than it would normally do under calorie deficit conditions. (Strength exercise combined with a small calorie deficit may be one of the best approaches for body fat loss in women. Photo source: complete-strength-training.com) ...