Traditional Naturopath

Our old friend Vitamin D is getting some more good press! It seems that is helps curb breast cancer!

Vitamin D May Help Curb Breast Cancer Progression

“Vitamin D may help curb breast cancer progression, suggests a small study published ahead of print in the Journal of Clinical Pathology. The authors reach their conclusion from a study of 279 women with invasive breast cancer. The disease was in the early stages in 204 women, and advanced in the remainder. Serum levels of vitamin D, parathyroid hormone, and calcium were measured in both groups of women. The results showed that women with early stage disease had significantly higher levels of vitamin D and significantly lower levels of parathyroid hormone than did the women with advanced disease.”

“Laboratory studies have also shown that vitamin D stops cancer cells from dividing and that it enhances cell death. And the epidemiological evidence points to a link between rates of, and deaths from, breast cancer and exposure to sunlight.”

Once again, I repeat, 20 minutes of direct sunlight per day can help your body naturally produce Vitamin D, and you can enjoy the benefits of better health!

“Considering vitamin D deficiencies are common among type 2 diabetics, I’m not at all surprised to learn the same connection also applies to atherosclerosis, the disease process leading to heart attack and stroke. Italian scientists compared the vitamin D levels of 390 type 2 diabetics to an equal number of healthy patients in addition to measuring the amount of atherosclerotic plaque (cartoid artery intimal thickness) during the winter. Like the earlier study (also conducted by some of the same researchers), scientists found low vitamin D levels were an independent, strong predicator of atherosclerosis, further evidence Prof. Robert Scragg of the University of Auckland was right some 16 years ago, when he discovered diminished vitamin D levels were strongly associated with heart disease.”

Low Vitamin D Levels a Marker for Atherosclerosis

Have you noticed the way that Vitamin D deficiency keeps coming up as an issue? It is because we have become “sun-avoiders” due to the barrage of hype we have had to avoid the sun at all costs! We need solar exposure every day to produce Vitamin D!

Studies with mice seem to indicate that a component in red wine my increase the lifespan of obese mice.

Red wine molecule helps mice live longer

“A compound found in red wine and grapes can extend the lifespan of obese mice and help them enjoy a healthier old age, scientists said on Wednesday. The molecule known as resveratrol not only enabled the mice to live longer than other overweight rodents, it also reduced the negative health effects of eating a high-calorie diet. Resveratrol has been shown to have same effect in studies on yeast, flies and worms but the scientists said their research is the first to show it works in mammals. ‘It is possible to find a molecule that activates the body’s natural defenses against aging. You can use it to enhance the health of a mouse or mammal. That is unprecedented,’ said David Sinclair, of Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. He added that the study, reported in the journal Nature, is proof of the principle that it works in mammals. But the real test will be to develop formulations or find other molecules to treat age-related illnesses such as diabetes, Alzheimer’s, heart disease and cancer in humans. ‘The goal here is within the next few years to know it is possible to treat diseases in man,’ he told Reuters.”

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.”