October 2006 Newsletter

 

by Beth Ley, Ph.D.
www.blpublications.com
NHL Ministries
 

IN THE NEWS

Whole Grains Lower Blood Pressure
A small study into the effects of soluble and insoluble fibre on blood pressure indicates that individuals with slightly high cholesterol levels may benefit from including plenty of whole grains in their diets.

High blood pressure is known to increase the risk of coronary heart disease, stroke, and other cardiovascular diseases. Amongst other factors, elevated cholesterol can contributed to high blood pressure since the latter is caused by a narrowing of the arteries or loss of elasticity.

The study, conducted by researchers at the US Department of Agriculture and published in the September issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, found evidence to suggest that whole grain fibre – be it the in soluble form from whole wheat and brown rice or soluble from barley – could significantly lower blood pressure levels in people with slightly elevated cholesterol.

Systolic blood pressure went down an average of 2.2 mm Hg, and as much as 6.7 mm Hg on the whole grain diets. Diastolic blood pressure went down by an average of 2 mm Hg and as much as 3.7 mm Hg with the whole-grains. The men showed the greatest decline in blood pressure when they were following the combined wheat, rice and barley diet, whereas for the women, taken as a whole group, the greatest effect was seen with barley.

Overall, the researchers concluded: “In a healthful diet, increasing whole-grain foods, whether high in soluble or insoluble fiber, can reduce blood pressure and may help to control weight.”

Beth's additional suggestions for healthy blood pressure:
Coral Calcium (enough to keep urine pH at 7.4) Lots of fresh celery (5 stalks a day) and other veggies like cucumbers and CoQ10 - 200-300 mg daily

More Support for CoQ10’s Benefits for Heart Health/ Take your CoQ10 with meals (fat is needed for optimal absorption) Researchers from Italy have reported that daily oral supplements of coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) improved the cardiovascular health of people with heart failure.

This study adds significantly to a growing body of evidence that CoQ10 supplementation may be an efficacious complementary method for improving cardiac function in heart failure patients. The heart tissue contains the highest concentration of CoQ10 in the human body (about 132 nanomoles per gram), and there is evidence, said the researchers of the new study, that plasma CoQ10 levels decrease in patients with advanced chronic heart failure (CHF).

Participants with stable CHF for a double-blind, placebo-controlled cross-over study, were randomly assigned to one of four four-week intervention groups: oral supplements of CoQ10 (100 mg three times per day); CoQ10 plus supervised exercise training (ET) five times a week; placebo; or placebo plus ET. The results in the European Heart Journal (doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehl158), show that the heart's functional capacity improved significantly by nine per cent, as measured by the peak volume of oxygen consumed (VO2), for the CoQ10 compared to placebo. Similar results were observed for the CoQ10 plus exercise groups. Blood flow also increased, as measured by endothelium-dependent dilation of the brachial artery (EDDBA) by 38 per cent after CoQ10 supplementation. Supplementation with CoQ10 tripled plasma CoQ10 levels, and CoQ10 plus exercise further increased levels.

Since the coenzyme is lipophilic (fat-loving) its absorption is enhanced in the presence of fats. However, when taken as a supplement apart from meals, the absorption of some formulations is lower.

CoQ10 is found in the mitochondia (our energy producers) of each of our cells in the body, But a role beyond the mitochondria is also acknowledged, with CoQ10 acting as a potent antioxidant it reduces free radicals, which helps widen blood vessels (vasodilation). While the majority of research has focussed on the role of CoQ10 in cardiovascular health, research also links coenzyme Q10 to benefits for Parkinson's and other mitochondrial diseases, diabetes, cancer (breast, lung and prostate), male infertility, and kidney failure.

Nitrites in Cured Meat Linked to Lung Disease
People who regularly eat cured meats are 71 percent more likely to have symptoms of lung disease than people who never eat this type of meat, says a new US study.

Nitrites are added to meat to retard rancidity, stabilise flavour, and establish the characteristic pink colour of cured meat (bacon, salami, cured ham, luncheon meats, meat within ready meals, etc.). They are known to increase risk for colorectal cancer, but the damage they cause now seems to be more widespread.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) mainly affects smokers, and is the number four cause of death worldwide. It is characterised by chronic inflammation in the small airways of the lung and leads to excessive mucus production, excessive fibrous connective tissue development (fibrosis), and degradation of proteins (proteolysis). There is no cure. Yet a reported 10 percent of people who die from COPD are said to have never smoked in their lives, a statistic that suggests that other factors beyond smoking may play a role in the development of the disease.

One such factor may be nitrites in cured meat, animal studies have now shown that nitrites in food can produce reactive forms of nitrogen that can damage the lungs, causing alterations in lung structure similar to those that characterise emphysema. Following adjustment for age, sex, ethnic group and smoking habits, the data show that subjects who consume cured meat at least once in two days on average (at least 14 times a month) have significantly more lung obstruction than those who never eat it at all: 71 percent more likely!

Lung function was measured by the volume of air that could be forcibly blown out in one second, the so-called forced expiratory volume (FEV1). The researchers reported that people who ate cured meat at least once every other day had a FEV1 that was 115 ml lower lower than subjects who never ate cured meats.

READ YOUR LABELS!!! KNOW WHAT YOU ARE EATING!!!

Pine Bark Extract Could Speed Diabetic Ulcer Healing
Park bark extract, Pycnogenol, could speed the healing of diabetic foot ulcers by 75 per cent.

Impaired blood circulation in diabetics may cause tissue damage and discolouration (necrobiosis) which leads to development of ulcers, which can be prone to infection and difficult to heal (and cause gangrene and amputation), said study researcher, Dr. Gianni Belcaro from Chieti-Pescara University in Italy.

“In this pilot study, oral Pycnogenol improved microcirculatory parameters and, consequently, ulcer healing, as indicated by the reduction in ulcer area and symptoms compared with the control group,” wrote Belcaro in the the journal Clinical and Applied Thrombosis/Hemostasis (Vol. 12, No. 3, pp. 318-323, doi: 10.1177/1076029606290133).

The researchers randomly assigned diabetic patients suffering from severe damage of blood vessels associated with their diabetes (microangiopathy) to one of four groups for six weeks.
Group 1 received 150 mg Pycnogenol as oral treatment and 100 mg from capsules as powder placed on the ulcerated area (local);
Group 2 received oral treatment Pycnogenol with 150 mg;
Group 3 received 100 mg of local treatment and
Group 4 received no medical care, other then the same ulcer care as the other subjects (washed and cleaned with warm water and local disinfectant).

At the end of the study group 1 experienced a 74.4 percent decrease in leg ulcer size. Groups 2 and 3 experienced a 41.3 and 33 percent decrease in ulcer size, respectively, while the control group's ulcers (Group 4) decreased by only 22 percent. No adverse effects were reported.

The mechanism behind the effects was not investigated fully but the researchers proposed a role for the extract in improving glucose metabolism, anti-inflammatory effects, or improved circulation, which appeared to be the reason favoured by the researchers. “The Pycnogenol groups all showed a significantly increased oxygen presence in the skin and a significantly lowered carbon dioxide level,” noted Dr. Belcaro. “Better circulation decreases the chance of developing ulcers.If left untreated, damage to blood vessels from diabetes then manifests in typical circulatory problems such as hypertension, from which 50 percent of type II diabetics suffer,” he said.

Higher Protein Diet Helps Keep Hunger Away
Animal studies show hunger-fighting hormone that boosts weight control
HealthDay By Robert Preidt

Eating more protein can help increase levels of a hunger-fighting hormone called peptide YY (PYY), British scientists report. Previous research found that injections of PYY could reduce food intake by a third in both normal-weight and obese people.

In research with obese and normal-weight people, boosting the amount of protein in the diet stimulated greater release of PYY in the body than either high-fat or high-carbohydrate meals, resulting in a greater reduction of hunger. Further investigation in mice found that high-protein diets increased the rodents' PYY levels and reduced the number of calories they consumed. Mice fed a high-protein diet also produced more PYY and gained less weight than mice fed the usual amount of protein. Genetically modified mice were unable to produce PYY ate more and became extremely obese. These mice were resistant to the effects of a high-protein diet, which demonstrates a direct link between protein and PYY, the scientists concluded. When the genetically modified mice were treated with PYY, they lost weight.

"The findings show that PYY deficiency can cause obesity and that PYY appears to mediate the beneficial effects of increased protein-content diets," the researchers said. "One potential weight-loss strategy is therefore to increase the satiating power of the diet and promote weight loss through the addition of dietary protein -- harnessing our own satiety system."

More research is needed before any particular high-protein diet could be recommended. The researchers emphasized that any such diet would not resemble the Atkins diet, which is high in both saturated fat and protein.
The findings were published in the September 2006 issue of Cell Metabolism.

People Often Underestimate Calories in Big Portions
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - While people have a good sense of the calories contained in smaller portions of fast food, they sharply underestimate the calories in "super size" servings, research hints.

In the study, people who chose a smaller-size fast food meal guessed it contained 419 calories, on average, which was not far off the mark, given that the actual calorie content was 514. However, people who picked a larger serving estimated its calorie content at 675 calories, when in reality the calorie count was 1,188.

Almost everyone underestimates the amount of calories they consume, and people who weigh more do so to a greater degree, but it's not clear why, Dr. Brian Wansink of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York and Pierre Chandon of the graduate business school INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France.

To investigate, they performed two experiments. In the first, they asked 105 people eating in a fast food restaurant to estimate the amount of calories contained in the meal they had just eaten. In the second, 40 students were asked to gauge the calorie content of 15 different portion sizes of a meal of chicken nuggets, French fries and cola.

Study participants gauged calorie content of smaller meals much more accurately, with guesses within 3 percent of the actual calorie content. In contrast, they underestimated larger meals' calorie content by 38 percent in the first part of the study, and by about 23 percent in the second.

The findings disprove the idea that overweight people underestimate the amount of calories they eat because they are in denial or want to hide their eating habits from others, Wansink and Chandon conclude. Instead, both normal- and overweight people misperceive calories contained in larger portions, and heavier people are more likely to choose big portions.
SOURCE: Annals of Internal Medicine, September 5, 2006.

Curcumin Could Block Colorectal Cancer Hormone
By Clarisse Douaud
Curcumin blocks activity of a hormone implicated in the development of colorectal cancer – results which contribute to a growing body of evidence pointing to the spice's cancer-fighting potential.

Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) worked with curcumin, the yellow pigment found in the curry spice turmeric, and cell cultures to link a gastrointestinal hormone to the production of an inflammatory protein that accelerates the growth of a variety of cancer cells. The study, entitled “Curcumin inhibits neurotensin-mediated interleukin-8 production and migration of HCT116 human colon cancer cells”, is published in September 2006 issue of Clinical Cancer Research.

The anti-cancer effects of spices from curcumin to red chili pepper capsaicin have been consistently researched, but this new study hopes to open the possibility of gastrointentestinal cancer prevention and therapy involving the blocking of hormones.

"Our findings suggest that curcumin may be useful for colon cancer treatment, as well as potential colon cancer suppression, in cells that respond to this gastrointestinal hormone, neurotensin," said senior author and director of UTMB's Sealy Center for Cancer Cell Biology, Mark Evers. "About a third of all colorectal cancer cells have the receptor for neurotensin.”

The UTMB researchers found the gastrointestinal hormone neurotensin, which is generated in response to fat consumption, reduced production of IL-8, a potent inflammatory protein that accelerates the growth and spread of a variety of human cancer cells, including colorectal and pancreatic tumor cells. "We found that in colon cancer cells, neurotensin increases not just the rate of growth but also other critical things, including cell migration and metastasis," said Evers. "The fact that all that can be turned off by this natural product, curcumin, was really remarkable."

According to the scientists involved, neurotensin's influence depends on biochemical signaling pathways inside the cell. They claim their experiments showed curcumin diminished those signals and thereby decreased the production of IL-8. Experiments also showed neurotensin increased the migration of colorectal cancer cells, and that curcumin could suppress this migration -- possibly reducing the ability of colorectal cancer to spread to other locations in the body.

Reference: Xiaofu Wang et al. "Curcumin inhibits neurotensin- mediated interleukin-8 production and migration of HCT116 human colon cancer cells." Clinical Cancer Research. Sep 15, 2006; 12 (18)

American Diets Lack Fruit & Vegetables, says USDA
Most Americans are not consuming enough of the daily recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables, according to research by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the National Cancer Institute. Published in the September 2006 Journal of the American Dietetic Association, the latest findings reveal that only 40 percent of Americans have been consuming at least five servings of fruits and vegetables per day. Dark green and orange vegetables and legumes were the most lacking from people's diets, with current intake of these being less than a third of the recommended amounts.

Fruit and vegetable consumption has been linked to a reduced risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease, and is also said to play a role in weight management by helping to promote satiety and decrease energy intakes. Such science is partly what prompted the USDA to increase its recommendations for fruit and vegetable consumption in its new 2005 MyPyramid guidelines.

MyPyramid recommends 1-2.5 cups of fruit and 1-4 cups of vegetables per day, depending on age, sex and activity level, for a total of 2-6.5 cups. In both the 1992 Food Guide Pyramid and the 5 A Day Program, a ‘serving' of most fruits and vegetables is half a cup. So when the new recommendations are combined, they are equivalent to about 4 to 13 servings.

But the latest research reveals that the average intake currently stands at 4.7 servings per day.

Mean intakes by all age and sex groups are below the recommended amounts for fruits, total vegetables, and all subgroups of vegetables with one exception: 12-15 year-olds are currently consuming more than the recommended levels of starchy vegetables, mainly white potatoes, corn and peas. Based on single food intake data for 8,070 people participating in a 1999-2000 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, the research indicated that adequate intake of fruits and vegetables ranged from a low of 0.7 percent of boys aged 14-18, whose combined recommendation is five cups, to a high of 48 percent of children aged 2-3, whose combined recommendation is one cup.

Among women aged 51-70, only 17 percent met their combined recommendation. Among all other sex-age groups, fewer than 11 percent met their goals.

New article posted on my website:
How to Prevent Deaths from E. Coli

In Beth's Kitchen!!!

SCRIPTURE