Transscleral light therapy – New way to maintain vision

As we get older small print on labels and that annoying habit magazines have of printing in white on a black background all become more difficult to read. The official term is presbyopia and it occurs at middle age when our eyes lose their ability to focus.

It can start with just a slight blurring and our close vision usually continues to deteriorate due to loss of elasticity of the crystalline lens so we are less able to focus on objects at various distances. At this point most people surrender and get glasses, a pair for close work, a pair for reading and a pair for distance, or combine them into bi or varifocal lenses. Now, a new treatment from America could change all that.

If you don’t want to wear glasses all the time, and don’t like the idea of laser surgery – which I confess I find rather more frightening than standing on the edge of Beachy Head in a force 10 gale – then three cheers for a new treatment called the transscleral light therapy system. Not a catchy name, I must admit, and it is still in the trial stage with the USA Food and Drug Administration but patient experience over the two years it has been monitored has been positive.

What happens is that a laser device emits a low level of light aimed at strengthening the ciliary muscle (which bends and straightens the lens) under the whites of the eyes. The key phrase here is ‘low level’ and consists of weekly 10-minute sessions at an optician’s office for five consecutive weeks, followed by periodic tune-up sessions about every six months. So no hospital visits, and one satisfied participant has thrown away his 8 pairs of glasses and just kept one distance pair which he only occasionally uses for driving at night.

If you think that sounds like a good option to you, and I would love to get rid of the permanent dent on the side of my nose from my glasses, then it should be widely available with 1-2 years – but not, I suspect, on the NHS.

Disability can strengthen older marriages

It can be a daunting thought in a relationship that if one partner is incapacitated or disabled in some way we may wonder about how we would cope. Well there is very good news from new research – particularly for older couples. An encouraging new study from Professor Jeremy Yorgason at Brigham Young University was reported in the academic journal ‘Research on Aging’ and showed that both men and women – regardless of age – reported being happier in their marriage after they themselves became physically disabled. It may seem strange that when one partner loses the ability to perform routine daily activities it improves the state of their relationship: finds that the onset of physical disability boosts marital happiness more often than not. It seems to apply more to men who are looking after their wives, rather than the other way round, but exactly why physical limitations boost marital happiness is not fully understood.

One theory is that by taking on a more active and caring role for their partner the couple experience more interaction with each other than they did before. The situation seemed to provide the men in the study an opportunity to support and spend more time with their wives and ultimately enhanced their appreciation of their relationship.

This is not of course to say that looking after a less able partner does not have its own stresses and strains, but it is good to know that there is also a bonus to be found there for many people in this situation.

The blessing of a senior memory

If you tend to see the past as having hotter summers, more fun and fewer problems then that’s a benefit of ageing. At least it is according to Neuroscientists from Duke University Medical Center in the USA as they have reported in the online issue of ‘Psychological Science’. They have discovered activity in the brain that causes us to remember fewer of life’s negative events than younger people – presumably because they are nearer in time to the bad events.

It seems that as our brains get older then they allow negative memories to fade away. It’s because older people use their brains differently than younger people when it comes to storing memories, particularly those associated with negative emotions. The study focused on two groups; over 70′s and under 25′s who were shown a series of 30 photographs while their brains were imaged in a functional MRI (fMRI) machine. The pictures varied from neutral to having very strong negative images such as attacking snakes, mutilated bodies and acts of violence. While in the fMRI machine, the subjects looked at the photos and ranked them on a pleasantness scale.

Later, they were then asked to recall the pictures while being scanned again and the results found that the older adults had less connectivity between areas of the brain that generate emotions and those of memory and learning, but had stronger connections with the frontal cortex, the higher thinking area of the brain that controls these lower-order parts of the brain.

In contrast, the young adults used more of the brain regions typically involved in emotion and recalling memories. This meant that they were able to recall more of the negative photos and that because the older adults were using more thinking than feeling, that they didn’t recall the more emotive, negative, pictures nearly so well.

The conclusion was that although the emotional centres of the older people were just as active as those of younger subjects, their brain connections were different. For older subjects the benefit is that they had over their lifetime learned to be less affected by negative information in order to maintain their well being and emotional state. So the summers may not have been hotter, but how nice to remember them that way and shut out all those days spent huddling under an umbrella on the sands.

Selenium has role in preventing high risk bladder cancer

Selenium is an essential trace element that we need for health, and now it seems it could play an important role in preventing high risk-bladder cancer for certain groups of people. Researchers from Dartmouth Medical School this month reported in a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research that although not true for everyone some groups who had been newly diagnosed with bladder cancer showed significant reductions in their cancer when they were found to have higher rates of selenium than average in their bodies. The groups affected were women, moderate smokers and those with p53 positive cancer. While other studies have shown a similar association between selenium and bladder cancer among women, this study is one of the first to show an association between selenium and p53 positive bladder cancer. Selenium is a trace element found widely in the environment and good food sources include Brazil nuts, bread, fish, meat and eggs Christmas excess – be prepared!.

Help for hormone headaches

If you have ever suffered from hormone headaches triggered by periods then you know how badly they can affect you – and those around you. Resorting to painkillers is not always the best answer and if you are looking for a more natural treatment then there is one that has been clinically proven to effectively deal with the pain for 96% of hormone headache sufferers.

It may be put down to your ‘moods’ but in reality it’s those fluctuating hormones that can cause the problem and they can occur at any point in a woman’s life from puberty to menopause. Hormone headaches generally affect only one side of the head, and the pain is often described as throbbing and can be accompanied by nausea and vomiting and may be made worse by bright light and loud noise.

A small study of 50 women aged 18 to 45 who reported regularly having hormone headaches were asked to test 4head, a natural plant-based, licensed medicine, to see if it helped reduce their headaches. On average, the volunteers had regularly suffered from hormonal headaches for more than 12 years, with a minimum of one year and a maximum of 30 years. An amazing 96% of the women in the study reported that the treatment relieved the pain, and in most cases the headache began to ease within 15 minutes. A previous clinical trial found it could begin working in just two minutes, and this was backed by this latest study.

Another point in 4head’s favour is the fact that up to a third of women don’t like taking tablets for headaches, and this product is applied directly to the forehead either as a stick or a patch. The active ingredient is pure levomenthol, which gives it a minty aroma when applied to the skin and the cooling/tingling effect effectively diverts the body’s attention away from the less bearable painful stimulus of the headache and blocks the pain signals. At the same time, the levomenthol helps to relax tense muscles in the head that are associated with tension type headaches.

Given the symptoms of hormone headaches, it ought to prove helpful for migraines as well. Available at pharmacies and many supermarkets.

Important new finding on bone health

For the first time ever, a link has been made between the body’s production of serotonin in the gut and the production of osteoblasts, the cells that create new bone. Normally we associate serotonin with the brain and its role in our ‘feel good’ moods, but apparently a new study has found that 95% of the body’s supply of this molecule is produced in the gut and it is acting as a hormone to regulate bone mass,”

In an online paper published in the Journal Cell, a team led by Dr. Gerard Karsenty, chairman of the department of genetics and development at Columbia University in the USA have uncovered what could be a new way to control bone formation and treat could osteoporosis. Dr. Karsenty has found that gut serotonin is released into the blood, and the more serotonin that reaches bone, the more bone is lost. The reverse also applies; the less serotinin in the bloodstream then the denser and stronger bones become. As part of his study Dr. Karsenty was able to prevent menopause-induced osteoporosis in mice by slowing serotonin production. Osteoporosis is often dubbed ‘the silent killer’ because it is rarely diagnosed until the condition is established and bones start to break and fracture under little pressure. Conventional osteoporosis treatment has focused on preventing bone loss, such as with bisphosphonate drugs like Didronel, Fosamax and HRT, but unless action is taken to build bone then the situation eventually deteriorates. There are two more natural alternatives to such osteoporosis drugs, one of which is made known to us through this new study. Its findings have huge implications for osteoporosis treatment, as it could be a simple matter of regulating your diet. The basic building block for serotonin in the body is the amino acid tryptophan, which is found in red meat and turkey and in chocolate, oats, bananas, milk, yogurt, eggs, fish, poultry, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, and peanuts. So if you have a tendency to osteoporosis in your family, which is one of the biggest risk factors, then aim for a diet low in tryptophan foods to help minimise your bone loss.

The other approach, that has been tried and tested by many osteoporosis sufferers, is to use the hormone that is essential for bone-building and that is progesterone. Its levels decline with age and it is a simple matter to supplement with natural progesterone cream, patches or tablets. Though notionally available on the NHS in the UK, it is more likely to be offered as a private prescription and it cannot be bought over the counter in the UK, though it is perfectly legal to import it for your own use. If you want to know more about this hormone, the book Natural Progesterone by Dr Shirley Bond and myself will answer all your questions (you will find it on my website) and you can find plenty of suppliers of the cream that Dr John Lee recommended including Wellspring who operate out of Guernsey and have a helpful website at www.progesterone.co.uk

Natural help for eyes

As we get older our eyes become vulnerable, and around 1 in 7 over 55 year olds will suffer from macular degeneration. This is the leading cause of blindness and severe vision impairment worldwide, and a study in the Archives of Ophthalmology reports on the benefits of Omega-3 for reducing the risk.

Macular degeneration (MD) affects central vision and this gradually deteriorates causing functional blindness. Peripheral vision is not at first greatly affected; but over time peripheral vision is also reduced. A study of 8,000 people in the Netherlands found that those who developed the disease were more likely to be smokers and have high cholesterol and that because free radical damage has been linked to MD that antioxidants can reduce the disease’s progress.

However, a more recent study has shown a clear link between consumption of Omega-3 and reduction in age-related MD. Dr Chong of the University of Melbourne did a meta-analysis of nine studies which covered 90,000 people, and 3000 of those had age-related MD.

Back to the benefits of fish again, because her study found that eating just one portion of Omega-3 rich fish may reduce the risk of contracting MD by over 50%. In fact increasing your daily intake by 300 mg per day of the Omega-3 fatty acids DHA and EPA, reduces the risk of MD by about 70%.

If fish really isn’t your favourite then you can get Omega-3 from flaxseed oil which is also rich in lutein and that’s one of the antioxidants that boosts eye health and prevents cataracts and macular degeneration. These are the essential elements for good eye health:

BETA-CAROTENE which destroys free radicals and helps keep eye tissue healthy.

VITAMIN C and VITAMIN E are antioxidant and protect the eye from sun damage

ZINC and COPPER are antioxidant and protect our eyes

B VITAMIN complex to fight free radicals in your eyes, particularly the cornea and the myelin sheath around the optic nerve

TAURINE is an essential amino acid for retina health and blocks out UV rays and environmental toxins.

EYEBRIGHT is a herb that been traditionally used to relieve irritated eyes and strengthen blood vessels in the eyes.

Otherwise it’s the usual mix of dark green leafy vegetables, particularly spinach, and a varied daily diet to keep your eyes sparkling.

Osteoporosis and red grapefruit

I have mentioned the health benefits of red grapefruit in a previous issue, and now it seems that the pulp may increase bone strength and reduce the risk of osteoporosis. At present it is estimated there are three million people with osteoporosis in the UK and that half of all women and one in five men over 50 will break a bone from having this condition.

Researchers at Texas A&M University have published the findings of their recent research in the journal Nutrition and it is good news for anyone at risk of osteoporosis or having a family history of it. Their trial was conducted on rats and found that when they divided the group into three and fed them a different diet. The rats given red grapefruit pulp in their diet showed significantly lower calcium loss from their bones and lower levels of urinary deoxypyridinoline.

Rats on the non grapefruit diet showed the exact opposite with higher levels of calcium loss and urinary deoxypyridinoline – both of which are indicators of bone bone breakdown and a greater risk of osteoporosis.

The more grapefruit the rats had, the greater the protection. So follow their example and eat red grapefruit every day to help ward off osteoporosis.

3D images of your arteries now on show!

I love science, it is amazing to see the developments and increase in our knowledge that would have seemed unimaginable a few years ago. You need healthy arteries, and up to now it hasn’t been possible to get an all round view of them to help your doctor and surgeon to get a complete picture of what is going on. Now, it is a reality according to a report this week from Massachusetts General Hospital. They have shown the first 3-D all round view of the lining of a patient’s right coronary artery and it revealed a recently placed stent and lipid deposits. No more guesswork for the surgeon as they will be able to see more clearly and check for areas of inflammation or the calcium or lipid deposits that can cause a heart attack. Mass General developed the optical frequency-domain imaging (OFDI) device to get the 3-D views inside a human artery. The previous imaging device made by the same investigators could only examine tissues one point at a time, but this one can look at more than 1,000 points of artery tissue. The surgeon uses the device to physically probe through the coronary artery and as wavelengths are emitted and reflected back, they can in seconds get the data they need to create the detailed microscopic images.

Dr. Gary Tearney, associate professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School sees very positive benefits for this new technology. “The wealth of information that we can now obtain will undoubtedly improve our ability to understand coronary artery disease and may allow cardiologists to diagnose and treat plaque before it leads to serious problems.” A further development is the combining of the OFDI probe with intravascular ultrasound as it is not able to penetrate deep into tissues. This was the first venture, and it is hoped to have it available to surgeons within 1-2 years.

The power of potted plants

The idea that plants can help your health is not a new one. I can remember everyone in my office in the 1970′s bringing in spider plants as there was a theory that they would help to have near a computer. It’s not just a theory, as many users have claimed they are effective in removing potentially harmful chemicals-including those in paints, varnishes, dry cleaning fluids, car exhaust fumes and tobacco smoke-from the air in your home.

The top 9 Air Purifying Plants are:

Dragon tree
Ivy
Ficus
Philodendrons
Spider plants
Peace lilies
Ferns
Chrysanthemums
Palms

Till now this has been anecdotal evidence – the kind I most like as it means that real people have found real results with it – but now, Japanese scientists are developing genetically engineered plants that can absorb formaldehyde. This is a pungent chemical compound used as adhesive in building materials and furnishing and is seen as a major factor in what is known as sick-house syndrome. This is now more common as people experience headaches, dizziness and other health problems triggered by the chemicals now found in most homes.

Researchers expect the plants to absorb formaldehyde, along with carbon dioxide for photosynthesis, and they found that the level of toxic gas fell to around one-tenth of the original level. They are now trying to apply the technology to common foliage plants, but in the meantime I am going out to buy some more spider plants and a large bunch of chrysanthemums.

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