Why baggy jeans are healthier

The term ‘fashion victim’ is all too apt if you have fallen for the latest skin tight jeans as doctors are reporting patients with ‘tingling’ in their legs and a feeling of disorientation. It’s a condition called meralgia paresthetica, that occurs when constant pressure cuts off the lateral femoral subcutaneous nerve, causing a numb, tingling or burning sensation along the thigh. It’s more usually seen in construction workers or police officers with heavy, low-slung belts, pregnant women or obese people and also can result from a pulled-tight seat belt in a car accident. However, the new cases are self inflicted as skin tight jeans compress the nerve and if you team your jeans with high heels you are increasing the risk of this numbing as the heels tilt the pelvis forward, increasing the pressure on the nerve.Luckily the damage is rarely permanent, but swapping for something less restricting would be a good health – if not fashion – move. Time to get those baggy jeans out of the wardrobe?

What caused Swine flu?

The World Health Organization (WHO) has been saying for years that ‘a new pandemic is inevitable’and experts from the European Commission and the FAO have cautioned that one reason for this could be that the rapid move from small holdings to industrial pig production is in fact increasing the risk of development and transmission of disease epidemics. The current outbreak started on a large pig factory farm run by the US Smithfield Corporation, the largest pig producer in the world. Conditions for factory farmed animals, whether pigs, chickens or anything else are rarely ideal and usually involve large amounts of drugs such as antibiotics and growth promoters.

Although the company denies any connection between their pigs and the flu the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warn that scientists still do not know the extent that infectious compounds produced in factory farms affect human health. Smithfield has already been fined $12.6m and is currently under another federal investigation in the US for toxic environmental damage from pig excrement lakes. Avaaz.org is an independent, not-for-profit global campaigning organization that is asking concerned consumers to sign a petition asking the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organisation to investigate and develop regulations for these farms to protect global health. If you would like to add your voice to that, then visit www.avaaz.org/en/swine_flu_pandemic

Prostate and pomegranates

There’s new hope for men with prostate cancer when their disease doesn’t respond adequately to standard medical care. According to the results of a six year study just published in the Journal of Urology, pomegranate juice can lower PSA levels and slow down the progress of prostate cancer.

This was a two-stage clinical trial where each research subject had a rising prostate specific antigen (PSA) level after surgery or radiation therapy greater than 0.2 ng/ml and less than 5 ng/ml. The study participants were given eight ounces of pomegranate juice to drink daily for several years. Then patients who remained in the study and drinking pomegranate juice were compared to those no longer participating in the juice regimen.

Though both these groups of men with prostate cancer had demonstrated similar mean PSA doubling times at baseline when the study began, there was a clear and important difference in the groups after 56 months. The researchers are cautious about suggesting pomegranate juice could prevent prostate cancer, but anyone receiving treatment could add it to their diet and be getting a range of other health benefits.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the UK and over the last 30 years rates in Great Britain have almost tripled, although much of the increase is due to increased detection through widespread use of the PSA test. Prostate cancer is the second most common cause of cancer death in UK men, after lung cancer, though happily the survival rate has more than doubled. Around 7 in 10 newly diagnosed prostate cancer patients now survive beyond five years whereas in the 1970s it was only 3 in 10.

Pomegranate juice benefits for everyone As it has very good antioxidant properties, it has been evaluated for its usefulness in fighting certain forms of cancer and been tentatively shown to reduce incidence of breast and skin cancer. It has many health benefits particularly for heart disease, heart attacks and stroke.

These include:

• it works well as a blood thinner
• is an agent for promoting blood flow to the heart
• reduces plaque in the arteries
• raises “good” levels of cholesterol
• helps lower “bad” cholesterol

Acupuncture can help radiotherapy patients

An uncomfortable and unpleasant side effect of radiotherapy for patients being treated for head and neck cancer can be xerostomia; a severely dry mouth. A new study in Texas at the M.D.Anderson Cancer Center has proved that twice weekly acupuncture treatments can help relieve this debilitating side effect.

People who have cancers of the head and neck typically receive large cumulative doses of radiation which affect the salivary glands, so that they are then not able to produce adequate amounts of saliva to lubricate the mouth and this is when xerostomia develops. This is not a trivial matter, as symptoms can include an altered ability to taste, dental decay, infections of the tissues of the mouth, and difficulty with speaking, eating and swallowing.

Suggested aids are things like chewing gum or lozenges to encourage saliva production, but these can only bring very temporary short-term relief. The most commonly prescribed medication, pilocarpine, has short-lived benefits and side effects including sweating, stomach upset, runny nose, flushing, chills, dizziness, weakness, and frequent urination. This drug may also affect vision, especially at night.

This pilot study was set up to see if acupuncture could reverse this, and although it is frequently used to manage pain and restore health it had never been tried for this particular condition. The patients in the study had xerostomia and had completed radiotherapy at least four weeks earlier. They were given two acupuncture treatments each week for four weeks and the acupuncture points used in the treatment were located on the ears, chin, index finger, forearm and lateral surface of the leg. All patients were tested for saliva flow and asked to complete self-assessments and questionnaires related to their symptoms and quality of life before the first treatment, after completion of four weeks of acupuncture, and again four weeks later.

The twice weekly acupuncture treatments produced highly statistically significant improvements in symptoms and a quality-of-life assessment conducted at weeks five and eight showed significant improvements over quality-of-life scores recorded at the outset of the study. Further studies are underway at Fudan University Cancer Hospital in Shanghai, China, to see if having acupuncture treatments on the same day as the radiotherapy will produce the same results.

If you know anyone who is suffering from this condition, do share this article with them and suggest they seek a qualified acupuncturist if they wish to try it for themselves.

Health problems your dog can smell out

Dogs are wonderful friends, supports, playmates but they could also be an early diagnostic tool for your health as they can apparently smell cancer and low blood sugar. The Pine Street Foundation, a cancer-education and research centre in San Anselmo, California has just published a study showing it was possible to train dogs to identify, based on breath samples, which patients had lung and breast cancer. They are now recruiting for a second trial using dogs to diagnose ovarian cancer.

I have heard of dolphins diagnosing tumours and cancers through sonar, and certainly Chinese herbal practitioners often smell your skin to diagnose certain conditions but using dogs is a new one to me. In diabetics, the presence of ketones – substances made by the body during the metabolic process – can be smelled in urine and on the breath when blood sugars are high. Dogs can pick up on other smells that humans can’t when glucose levels drop.

Maybe you want to buy your dog a healthy treat and keep his nose in tip top shape as a form of health insurance?

p.s – If you are looking for a place to compare dog insurance visit a great little site we foun recently: www.whatdoginsurance.co.uk

Sour cherries have a sweet effect

One fruit I particularly love are dark, sweet cherries, but for maximum health effect it is the tart, sour, cherries that bring most benefit. Available as juice or powder, not suitable for eating raw, they have powerful antioxidant qualities but a new benefit has just been announced by researchers from the University of Michigan.

They have found that regularly including tart cherries in the diet can reduce the symptoms of metabolic syndrome and the risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of symptoms including high blood pressure, high triglycerides, high fasting blood sugar, low HDL (“good”) cholesterol and obesity (particularly around the stomach). The study found that cholesterol levels and stomach fat were both reduced in the trial and, more importantly perhaps, that the cherries were found to reduce inflammation at a systemic level. Our body’s natural response to injury is inflammation as it seeks to heal the affected part, but as I mentioned in last week’s Health News, chronic inflammation has been linked to increased risk for many diseases including depression.

If you are interested in finding out more, or for the name of your local stockist or ordering online, then a good website is www.cherryactive.co.uk or call them on 08451 705 705

Depression triggered by chronic inflammation

It’s well known to doctors that patients with chronic inflammation, such as that linked to coronary heart disease or rheumatoid arthritis, are more likely than others to become depressed. Some pro-inflammatory drugs, such as interferon-alpha, which is used to treat Hepatitis C and a cancer known as malignant melanoma, also induce symptoms of depression in a significant number of patients, as does treatment with antibiotics.

What they haven’t known is why, but now researchers at the University of Illinois have discovered that IDO (indoleamine 2,3 dioxygenase), an enzyme found throughout the body and long suspected of playing a role in depression, seems to act as a molecular switch and is in fact essential to the onset of depressive symptoms sparked by chronic inflammation.

The researchers knew that infection causes immune cells to produce cytokines, signaling proteins that help the body fight infection. These proteins also activate IDO in the body and brain. IDO degrades the amino acid tryptophan, which is the precursor of serotonin, a brain chemical known to positively influence mood. The researchers suspect that the metabolites produced when IDO degrades tryptophan are in some way promoting depression and this opens the way to research further into how to inhibit this behaviour and pre-empt depression.

For years, no one considered that an infection somewhere in the body could affect the brain, but we now know that the immune system is a sensory organ and is perfectly adapted to ‘see’ infectious agents. It then communicates that information to the brain so proving that there is a clear link between the immune system and the nervous system.

If you have a tendency towards depression, it can help to know how to combat any potential downward spiral if you have a chronic infecitopn, or are taking antibiotics. St John’s Wort is helpful to many, as is taking additional B complex and vitamin C to both help the immune system and help mood elevation. Keeping the immune system healthy and strong is a priority with a good diet, low sugar intake, regular cupuncture and herbs such as Echinacea to keep on top of any potential down swings.

Eyestrain and Avocados

As we seem to be spending more time in front of computers these days, it’s worth paying attention to keeping your eyes fit and healthy and one of the essential ingredients for that is the antioxidant lutein as it acts as a light filter to protect the macula. The primary cause of blindness in people over the age of 50 is macular degeneration and lutein is to support our eye health and helps prevent age-related degeneration.

Although we are born with a small amount of lutein in the macula – the spot on the retina at the back of your eyeball where light is collected and similated for the optic nerve – we can’t produce any more of it in the body. Now a trial involving subjects who have long-term exposure to computer monitor screens has taken place at Peking University in Beijing. Three groups were being assessed for the effects of lutein supplementation, receiving either six or 12 grams daily, or a placebo.

After 12 weeks the results were positive. The two lutein groups had improved their visual function and contrast sensitivity and the placebo group had not. So how can you get the same benefits? Simply by including lutein rich foods in your diet such as spinach, eggs, broccoli, carrots, tomatoes, oranges, lettuce and celery.

If you add in some avocados then you are also getting essential nutrients such as magnesium, folate, vitamins B, E, and K, omega-3fatty acids, and of course lutein. Avocados have one essential benefit; a 2004 study showed that they help your body absorb more than 4 times as much lutein from your food than if they are not present in a meal. The weather is getting warmer, so what about a salad with spinach, lettuce, celery, tomatoes and an avocado?

Beat gum disease with a cuppa

Now you know how fond I am of green tea, and actually I have found a new one in my supermarket made by Dr Stuart which combines green tea and rice. Sounds disgusting but actually it sweetens the green tea, and makes it more palatable and as I have just found another good reason for drinking it, I encourage you to try it. A cup of green tea per day may help keep gum disease at bay, a new study suggests.

A report in the Journal of Periodontology says that researchers at Kyushu University in Fukuoka, Japan found that among middle-aged Japanese men, the odds of having gum disease declined as their intake of green tea went up. For each daily cup they drank, the risk of having signs of gum disease – including receding, easily bleeding gums – went down and this may be because green tea has a high concentration of antioxidant compounds called polyphenols. Much gum disease arises from bacterial infection, and lab research suggests that green tea polyphenols can inhibit those germs and the damage they cause. It is of course no substitute for good oral hygiene and the dentist, but prevention is always better than cure – particularly when green tea has so many other health benefits as well.

Fried eggs can benefit cholesterol!

You can’t entirely blame Edwina Currie, though anyone who writes as badly as she does ought to be blamed for something, but we have steadily been eating fewer and fewer eggs. The dreaded phrase ‘high in cholesterol’ have sealed their fate, but ironically it now seems that new research shows they could actually reduce a risk factor for heart disease.

We have been warned over and over again about the dangers of eggs producing cholesterol that will clog up your arteries – though as cholesterol is essential to our health and wellbeing it has always been a mixed message.

The main target has been those people who have high blood pressure, and instead of a natural regime of exercise and diet many doctors have been prescribing an Angiotensin- Converting Enzyme (ACE) inhibitor drug. How about a couple of fried eggs instead? Two splendid Canadian researchers at the University of Alberta recently ran lab tests to see whether eating fried eggs or boiled eggs would produce greater amounts of ACE inhibitory peptides and the fried eggs were the winners!

They found that cooked eggs could generate a number of potent ACE inhibitory peptides and although I am not advocating you have them every day, do not remove them from your diet because of the cholesterol scare but eat in moderation – as you should do with all things in your diet.

Incidentally, the research that led to the egg/cholesterol scare was done on powdered eggs and the problem has always been cholesterol that has been heated and exposed to air for an extended period. This does not occur with ‘real’ eggs as the yolk sac insulates the cholesterol from oxidation. Many doctors believe that there is no link between eggs and having high cholesterol levels and in fact if you don’t have enough cholesterol from food sources then your body is forced to manufacture it as it is essential for your health. This form of cholesterol that the body produces is more likely to be deposited in blood vessel walls than any form of cholesterol found in eggs.

Egg and chips anyone?

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