Month: October 2006

Have you noticed that kids are entering puberty earlier and earlier? What is causing this change? Some new research is yielding interesting connections.

Preschool Puberty, and a Search for the Causes

“Parents often think their children grow up too quickly, but few are prepared for the problem that Dr. Michael Dedekian and his colleagues at the University of Massachusetts Medical School reported recently. At the annual Pediatric Academic Society meeting in May in San Francisco, they presented a report that described how a preschool-age girl, and then her kindergarten-age brother, mysteriously began growing pubic hair. These cases were not isolated; in 2004, pediatric endocrinologists from San Diego reported a similar cluster of five children. It turns out that there have been clusters of cases in which children have prematurely developed signs of puberty, outbreaks similar to epidemics of influenza or environmental poisonings. In 1979, the medical journal The Lancet described an outbreak of breast enlargement among hundreds of Italian schoolchildren, probably caused by estrogen contamination of beef and poultry. Similar epidemics in Puerto Rico and Haiti were tracked by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the 1980s. Increasingly though the science is still far from definitive and the precise number of such cases is highly speculative some physicians worry that children are at higher risk of early puberty as a result of the increasing prevalence of certain drugs, cosmetics and environmental contaminants, called endocrine disruptors, that can cause breast growth, pubic hair development and other symptoms of puberty.”

Hormones and additives in our food have been slowly increasing the onset of puberty. What are the long term effects? I would imagine that they are not good! Again, we need to be aware of what we, and our children eat and drink… as there can be long term consequences to contamination of our food!

A recent study suggests that the diabetes drug marketed as “Actos” has no benefits, and may cause serious problems!

Popular diabetes drug useless, even harmful, for diabetics, study suggests

“A recent study notes the diabetes drug pioglitazone (Actos) has no clear-cut benefit for patients with type 2 diabetes, and may even be harmful to users. The scientists analyzed data from 22 clinical trials involving 6,200 patients who were prescribed pioglitazone — a member of the thiazolidinediones class of drugs, which theoretically increase the body’s natural insulin supply — for type 2 diabetes. The authors reported no evidence that the drug had a positive impact on patients, but they did note an increase in edema and heart failure among pioglitazone users. ‘The kernel from this review is that pioglitazone is effective in glucose-lowering, has some other beneficial and potentially harmful associated features, and just has not been evaluated in the right way to prove that it will help people lead longer and more productive lives,’ said Dr. John Buse, director of the Diabetes Care Center at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill. ‘This is true for essentially every drug available for the treatment of diabetes. I am fairly certain that we are better off with pioglitazone than without it.’ Buse said that, while the report’s findings are not incorrect, more data would be required to truly assess the drug. The report recommended that pioglitazone only be prescribed to patients showing real benefit from the therapy.”

Although seniors did worse on memory tests as time passed, patients who ate more than two servings of vegetables daily performed about 40 percent better on memory tests. And, the test results of vegetable eaters mirrored those of other patients five years younger!

Associations of vegetable and fruit consumption with age-related cognitive change

The conclusion of the study? “High vegetable but not fruit consumption may be associated with slower rate of cognitive decline with older age.”

Highly refined foods are less natural and have terrible consequences to your health! Highly refined sugars and highly refined breads are NOT at all healthy, and this study shows that high bread consumption does more than just guarantee weight gain, it also can result in cancer risk!

High bread consumption tied to kidney cancer

“A diet high in refined cereals, and bread in particular, is associated with an elevated risk of renal cell carcinoma (RCC), the main type of kidney cancer, according to a study in Italy. Diet and nutrition are thought to play a role in the development of RCC, but the effect of specific food groups on the risk of this malignancy is controversial, explain Dr. Francesca Bravi and colleagues in the International Journal of Cancer. Bravi, from Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche “Mario Negri” in Milan, and associates elsewhere in Italy, used food frequency questionnaires to compare the diets of 767 patients with RCC in the 2 years prior to diagnosis to those of 1534 ‘controls’ who were admitted to the same hospitals for acute, non-cancer disorders. Comparing the highest with the lowest intakes, consumption of bread increased the risk of RCC by 94 percent, pasta and rice by 29 percent, and milk and yogurt by 27 percent. Conversely, high intake of poultry, processed meat, and vegetables appeared to reduce the risk by 26 percent, 36 percent, and 35 percent, respectively. ‘To our knowledge, no other study investigated the role of cereals on RCC,’ the researchers state. Their findings confirm that ‘moderate cereal and high vegetables consumption may have a favorable effect on this (cancer).'”

So, lean, natural meat and vegetable consumption REDUCES cancer risk and high bread consumption INCREASES it!

Grape Seed Extract has long been thought to be a benefit against cancer. Now reseach into the effects of Grape Seed Extract flavonoids leads credence to this position!

Grape seed extract halts cell cycle, checking growth of colorectal tumors in mice

“Chemicals found in grape seeds significantly inhibited growth of colorectal tumors in both cell cultures and in mice, according to researchers who have already demonstrated the extract’s anti-cancer effects in other tumor types. Their study, published in the October 18 issue of Clinical Cancer Research, documented a 44 percent reduction of advanced colorectal tumors in the animals, and also revealed, for the first time, the molecular mechanism by which grape seed extract works to inhibit cancer growth. The authors found that it increases availability of a critical protein, Cip1/p21, in tumors that effectively freezes the cell cycle, and often pushes a cancer cell to self destruct. ‘With these results, we are not suggesting that people run out and buy and use grape seed extract. That could be dangerous since so little is known about doses and side effects,’ said Rajesh Agarwal, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver. ‘The value of this preclinical study is that it shows grape seed extract can attack cancer, and how it works, but much more investigation will be needed before these chemicals can be tested as a human cancer treatment and preventive,’ he said. The skin and seeds of grapes are a rich source of proanthocyanidins, a class of antioxidant flavonoids that remove harmful free oxygen radicals from cells. Grape products (juice and red wine) are known for their heart healthy effects, especially in lowering levels of blood cholesterol, Agarwal said, and because grape seeds contain higher concentrations of these chemicals, they are widely marketed as a dietary supplement.”

Can you say, “No thanks!?” Well, the FDA is close.

FDA Close to Approving The Sale of Cloned Milk, Beef

From Dr. Mercola’s Blog: “Over the past three years, there’s been hints here and there about a crazy plan by the FDA to approve the sale of milk and meat made from cloned animals. A final and likely positive decision is expected by year’s end, according to news reports. In the past two weeks, advocacy groups have filed petitions with the FDA asking the agency to review one kind of cloned farm animal at a time in an attempt to slow down the approval process considerably. Many folks fail to realize, however, if the FDA chooses to review cloned animals as it allegedly does prescription drugs — remember the spray-on viruses for processed meats? — it’ll be a ‘rubber stamp’ process at best. So far, American consumers aren’t buying it either, according to the Consumer Federation of America. Surveys by Gallop and the Pew Institute show consumers oppose animal cloning and wouldn’t buy meat and milk from Frankenstein-like creations even if the FDA and the government said it was safe. No wonder, so many more consumers by the day are flocking to healthier organic foods, suppliers are having an increasingly difficult time keeping up with the demand.”

“Older women who take potassium citrate supplements can increase their bone density, reducing the risk of osteoporosis, according to new research appearing in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. Dr. Reto Krapf of the University of Basel in Switzerland and colleagues conducted a study of 161 post-menopausal women whose average age was 59. Krapf split the women into two groups: The first received a daily supplement of potassium citrate for up to 12 months, and the second was given a daily supplement of potassium chloride for up to 12 months. The researchers hoped to prove that potassium citrate — a base chemical — could raise acidic body pH in the participants, which is generally caused by poor lifestyle and dietary choices. Potassium chloride was used in the control group because it is a neutral chemical that does not affect body pH. After six to 12 months, the researchers conducted bone mineral density tests on the participants’ lower spine and hips. The group taking the potassium citrate (base) supplements experienced a one percent increase in bone mineral density in the lumbar spine area, as well as a one percent increase in bone density in the hips. Conversely, the group taking the potassium chloride (neutral) experienced a one percent loss of bone density at both test sites.”

Potassium supplements boost bone density in women, prevent osteoporosis

“The researchers also found that the women taking potassium citrate lost less calcium through their urine than those taking potassium chloride. According to Krapf’s team of researchers, the typical American diet is far too high in acidic foods that lower the body’s pH, including dairy products, refined grains and meat products. An acidic body pH forces the body to pull alkaline calcium from the bones to help buffer the high levels of acid, which results in bone loss and can cause other health disorders such as cancer. Americans also consume too few alkaline foods, such as fresh, raw fruits and vegetables, which raise the body’s pH to healthier levels, Krapf said.”

Chemotherapy is poison that is pumped into a patient in an attempt to kill cancer cells. However, the poison is indiscriminate and kills cells in organs that it is not intented to kill… like the brain. Researchers have found that chemotherapy can affect brain function for ten years after the chemotherapy treatments are completed!

Chemo has long-term impact on brain function

“Chemotherapy causes changes in the brain’s metabolism and blood flow that can last as long as 10 years, a discovery that may explain the mental fog and confusion that affect many cancer survivors, researchers said on Thursday. The researchers, from the University of California, Los Angeles, found that women who had undergone chemotherapy five to 10 years earlier had lower metabolism in a key region of the frontal cortex. Women treated with chemotherapy also showed a spike in blood flow to the frontal cortex and cerebellum while performing memory tests, indicating a rapid jump in activity level, the researchers said in a statement about their study. ‘The same area of the frontal lobe that showed lower resting metabolism displayed a substantial leap in activity when the patients were performing the memory exercise,’ said Daniel Silverman, the UCLA associate professor who led the study. ‘In effect, these women’s brains were working harder than the control subjects’ to recall the same information,’ he said in a statement.”