Chinese Study:  Obese Women May Lose More Weight by Supplementing with Multi

Obese women that supplemented with a multivitamin lost an average of seven pounds more than women using a placebo.

I’m a firm believer that there’s no such thing as a diet drink or diet pill that will help you lose weight.  There are only two things that will help you lose weight and that’s moving more and eating less.

Yet as much as I believe diet and exercise to be the most important elements to any weight loss program, a new study finds that women—obese women, to be specific—are able to lose more weight if they supplement with a multivitamin as well.

Researchers found this to be the case after a conducting a six-month study that involved 87 Chinese women.  All of the women were obese and were randomly assigned to one of three groups:  a placebo group, a multivitamin group, or a calcium group, where they supplemented with 162 milligrams of calcium every day.

After 26 weeks of observation, the researchers found distinct differences among the women.  For starters, the women taking the multivitamin lost an average of seven pounds more than women taking a calcium supplement and about 7.5 pounds more than women taking the placebo.  What’s more, there were distinct differences in the women’s measurements, as the multivitamin supplementing women had more significant reductions in waist circumference.

Commenting on their study, the Harbin Medical University researchers said, “The results suggest that, in obese individuals, multivitamin and mineral supplementation could reduce body weight and fatness and improve serum lipid profiles, possibly through increased energy expenditure and fat oxidation.”

Their study will be published in the print version of the International Journal of Obesity.

Now, notice the researchers’ word choice:  They say that the results “suggest” multivitamins “could” help people lose weight and that the weight loss was observed among “obese individuals.”  That wasn’t by mistake.  Because if they were to say definitively that multivitamins help all people lose weight, that would be a huge story and would be the top story of evening news broadcasts and news disseminating websites everywhere.

They’re merely stating that a multivitamin “may” help certain people lose weight by initiating greater energy expenditure.  This may be because the cells have the nutrients they need to stoke the body’s metabolism that they didn’t have before.

But the importance of taking a multivitamin daily is important for other things as well.  On the go lifestyles tend to adversely affect our nutrition, so multivitamins give our bodies the vitamins and nutrients they need that we’re not getting from high quality food (sadly, only one in five people get at least five to seven servings of fruits and vegetables a day).  Even people who are extremely conscientious about what they’re feeding they’re body every day fall short here and there.  Multivitamins pick up the slack.

There are many great multivitamins out there, but the one I’m taking currently is Ola Loa (It’s a good idea to switch up your multivitamins now and again).  Unlike most multivitamins, which are pill-form, Ola Loa is a drink mix.  I prefer drinking my multivitamins because 1) it tastes good and 2) the vitamins and nutrients are better absorbed by the body’s cells when in liquid form as opposed to tablet form.

But as LeVar Burton of “Reading Rainbow” likes to say, you don’t have to take my word for it.  Go to Ola Loa’s web site and send away for a free sample.  I know you’ll go back to them again and again for all your multivitamin needs.

I’m in no way affiliated with Ola Loa and I don’t earn any commissions from my recommendation.

Sources:
swansonvitamins.com
energeticnutrition.com

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Study:  COPD Prevalence Low Among People Consuming High Fiber Diets

Your lung health may be another reason to eat a diet that's high in fiber.

The benefits of eating a diet high in fiber are pretty well established.  For instance, people with high fiber diets tend to weigh less; they’re rarely to never constipated; they tend to have lower blood cholesterol levels and blood sugar levels; and they tend to be—all together now—regular!

All that’s well known.  What isn’t so well known, though, is how beneficial fiber is for your lungs.

Now, I know what you’re thinking—how could fiber in any way affect someone’s lungs?  Well, truth be told, researchers are loath to suggest that fiber consumption directly affects lung health, but based on a review of 834 people with COPD, fiber consumption is at least partially linked.

Researchers say this because of the 832 people they reviewed with COPD, 234 of them consumed fiber in extremely low amounts.  Meanwhile, the people with the highest consumption of fiber were one-third less likely to develop COPD—even after taking into account contributing factors like weight, age, exercise and whether or not the individuals smoked.

Part of the reason why researchers don’t want to make a causal link to fiber and lung health is because the likelihood of developing COPD waxed and waned based on what specific food groups they ate.  For instance, even though the overwhelming majority of people on high fiber diets did not have COPD—111,473 of them, to be precise—about 107 of the COPD cases had the chronic lung condition despite their high fiber diets.  But when the researchers looked into whether these individuals consumed high amounts of fiber from vegetables or grain sources, only the grain sources were associated with lower COPD prevalence.

We tend to forget about the importance of consuming whole grains.  And that’s easy to do in our “low-carb” society.  But high quality carbohydrates are as important as high quality proteins, if not more so.

Some of the best whole grain sources for fiber include oatmeal (opt for the old-fashioned kind, if you can), 100 percent whole wheat bread, oat bran and rye.  So ignore those people who say that all carbs are bad.  They’re not!  In fact, our body needs carbs, as carbohydrates are what the body prefers to use for energy conversion.

That said, as researchers from the French National Health Institute say, one’s diet is not a panacea for COPD avoidance, nor is it the biggest factor in assessing your risk for COPD.  The most significant factor is—you guessed it—smoking.  Statistics indicate that approximately 90 percent of all COPD cases result from a history of tobacco use.  That’s nine in every 10 smokers!!

COPD—or chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder—is an umbrella term for the lung conditions emphysema and chronic bronchitis.  It’s characterized by shortness of breath, chest tightness and wheezing.

Besides barely being able to breathe, other complications resulting from COPD include high blood pressure, lung cancer and recurrent respiratory infections.

Sources:
everydayhealth.com
newsmaxhealth.com

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The Power of Song for Stroke Victims

A form of music therapy may improve stroke victims' ability to speak

I can’t say I’m the next Pavarotti, but I enjoy belting out a good tune now and again.  Whether I’m in the car, around the house, in the shower, or listening to tunes on my iPod, singing has a very therapeutic effect on my psyche.

But according to a recent study performed by researchers from Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, singing has a physically therapeutic effect as well.

Professors from Beth Israel and Harvard Medical School’s medical center revealed music’s profound effects by using a form of music therapy that’s worked wonders for people who’ve suffered brain damage.  It’s called Music Intonation Therapy, and researchers say that the therapy has enabled stroke victims to talk again after years of being rendered voiceless.

Researchers presented the effects of MIT at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.  There, researchers showed a video presentation of a stroke victim going through speech therapy with both word therapy and singing therapy.

Right away, the assemblage of viewers were able to see the distinct difference in results when the researchers taught the stroke victim to sing the words to the song “Happy Birthday” rather than to say the words.

Researchers don’t know how or why MIT works so effectively, but they believe it has something to do with music’s ability to tap into regions of the brain that aren’t engaged when someone speaks or utters words.

Stroke is the third leading cause of death in the country behind heart disease and cancer.  It occurs when there’s an interruption of blood flow from the heart to the brain, typically due to a clot that’s formed inside a blood vessel.  How adversely someone is affected largely depends on the nature of the stroke, which portion of the brain it effects, and how early it is treated (classic examples include stroke victim and baseball writer Peter Gammons, who’s been able to continue his broadcasting and writing career unscathed, and stroke-victim and Rock and Roll legend Dick Clark, whose speech has been profoundly effected).

In addition to speech problems, a stroke that affects the left side of the brain may also cause memory loss, and paralysis on the right side of the body.

This study piggybacks on something I reported about in the fall of 2008 regarding exercise’s ability to improve stroke victims’ mobility.

Now, it bears mentioning that MIT does not lead to immediate results.  Researchers say it can take years before measurable improvements are made manifest.  Typically, Music Intonation Therapy is done five days a week for one and a half hours at a time.

For more information on the various forms of treatment for stroke victims and how to reduce further cardiovascular risk, please read about the power of isoflavones.  Please look at my section on keeping your blood pressure down as well, as hypertension is a significant risk factor for stroke.  Even better, pick up my book.

Sources:
newsmaxhealth.com
strokeassociation.org

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Study:  IBS More Common Among People with Rotating Shifts

The unpredictability of your job may affect your risk for irritable bowel syndrome.

It’s said that the only constant thing people can expect in life is change, a frustrating fact of life for we are creatures of habit.

While change is almost always uncomfortable, change, for the most part, is a good thing.  It enables us to grow.  It enables us to adapt to circumstances both within and beyond our control.

Knowing that change is a good thing doesn’t make it any easier to deal with, though.  In fact, even small changes, like never having a consistent work schedule, can really throw off the body’s body clock.

All of us have an internal body clock.  We all develop patterns of behavior that our body remembers, where we wake around the same time every morning, go to bed around the same time every night, and eat around the same time for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Where we also develop patterns is in our bowel habits.

If you’re anything like me, you tend to use the facilities around the same time every day (yes, I know that’s too much information, but there’s a point to my mentioning this).   Here, a lack of change is a good thing because it indicates that you’re getting a good amount of fiber in your diet and that you’re staying “regular.”

But according to researchers, a work schedule that’s constantly in flux spells bad news for your bowels by putting you at risk for irritable bowel syndrome.

Researchers from the University of Michigan discovered this after evaluating 400 people whose profession epitomizes unpredictability:  nurses.

About half of the participating nurses had the fortune of working pretty consistent schedules, but 75 of them had very irregular schedules.

After taking into account potential contributing factors for IBS diagnosis (e.g. gender, stress levels, age, etc.), they found that the nurses whose schedules were constantly in flux were far more likely to have IBS.

They found that about 50 percent of the nurses who had rotating shifts reported symptoms indicative of IBS, which is a stark contrast to the 40 percent of nurses with IBS on the graveyard shift and the 31 percent that work dayside.

This is an interesting finding because even though the rate is highest among those working the unpredictable shift, it’s a high rate of IBS among all three groupings, especially when you compare their rate of IBS to the country at large (about 20 percent of the population has IBS, or 1 in 5).

Then again it’s not too surprising the rate of IBS was high among all the groupings when you factor into the equation that most of the participants were young women (IBS is more common among women, especially those who are in their 20s and 30s).

The study was published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology.

If these nurses’ situation is in anyway similar to yours, ask your boss if you can work a more regular schedule.  It may be embarrassing for you to explain why you want a regular schedule, but keep in mind that IBS is an extremely common condition that LOTS of people have.  Plus, if your work schedule is causing your IBS, a steadier work schedule will enable you to work more effectively and efficiently—a win-win for your employer!  A 1995 Mayo Clinic study found that IBS costs the economy $20 billion every year in lost work productivity.

If your work schedule isn’t the cause of your IBS, it may be your diet.  There’s no such thing as a food that fixes or causes IBS, as the cause of IBS flare-ups tend to vary from person to person.  It may be because your diet’s too low in fiber or you’ve started to eat a food that you haven’t eaten in a while.   Take inventory of your diet.

Then again, your IBS may be a result of your emotional state.  Have you been feeling a lot of stress at work lately?  How’s life been at home with your spouse or your kids?  Stress plays a significant role in IBS onset, so do everything you can to de-stress your life (e.g. start an exercise routine, do yoga, or get a massage).

A gastroenterologist will be able to identify if you have IBS, but there are some all-natural supplements you should consider if you’d rather not deal with the doc.  You can learn all about those here.

Sources:
health.google.com
newsmaxhealth.com
webmd.com
reuters.com

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Bitter Melon Extract Shown to Block Cancer Cell Formation

St. Louis researchers say bitter melon can differentiate between healthy cells and cancerous cells.

If the findings regarding the anti-cancer benefits of bitter melon are accurate, bitterness may be the new sweetness.

Bitter melon isn’t widely known here in the states, but it’s long been a natural health staple for South Americans and Asians alike.

Grown primarily in warm climates like the Caribbean and parts of sub-Saharan Africa, bitter melon (which looks an awful lot like an English cucumber) may sound gross and inedible.  After all, it has “bitter” in its name.  How good could it taste?

But you may be surprised to know that bitter melon is a frequent accompaniment to savory stir-fries, seafood salads, and in Indian cuisine like thoran.

Where bitter melon really makes its hay, though, is in the medicinal realm, as it’s long been touted for helping relieve digestive problems like heartburn, ulcers, dyspepsia and constipation.  It’s also known for having some cholesterol and blood sugar-lowering properties as well.

All that’s impressive, but I’m willing to bet that bitter melon’s claim to fame will eventually be for its cancer-fighting properties.

Researchers from St. Louis University discovered this after treating human breast cancer cells with bitter melon extract.  Their results?  Well, unlike chemotherapy, which kills all cells—including the healthy ones—bitter melon extract was able to differentiate between cancerous cells and healthy cells.  In other words, it left the healthy cells untouched and killed the malignant cells.

In a statement, the study’s lead researcher, Dr. Ratna Ray, said, “To our knowledge, this is the first report describing the effect of bitter melon extract on cancer cells.  We have shown that bitter melon extract significantly [emphasis added] induced death in breast cancer cells and decreased their growth and spread.”

Now, as Ray would go on to say, this finding should not suggest that bitter melon is a cure for cancer.  Just as other therapies don’t ensure curing someone from disease, neither does bitter melon.  So this finding is a small step in that respect.

Where it’s a giant step, though, is with regards to future research.  With information like this, researchers can perhaps use other natural herbs to make a truly potent cancer fighter so we can finally be rid of a disease that’s affected millions upon millions of lives.

The study’s published in the March 1^st 2010 issue of the journal Cancer Research.

If bitter melon sounds familiar to you, there’s a reason for it.  I wrote about bitter melon in 2008, as researchers at the time found it to be an effective treatment for type II diabetes.

Now, if you want to add bitter melon to your next stir-fry, you’re not likely to find it in your grocer’s produce aisle.  But you will find it in pill form at virtually any supplement and vitamin store that’s out there.

There are lots of options to choose from, but I like to stick with what I know.  And one company I know well is Nature’s Way.

Nature’s Way doesn’t have a bitter melon supplement specifically, but they do have a product called Blood Sugar with Gymnema.  Among other blood-sugar lowering ingredients, it contains 150 milligrams of bitter melon, which is a good amount of bitter melon.

Remember, just as can get too many vitamins, you can get too much bitter melon.  Side effects are generally minor (e.g. diarrhea, stomach pain) but if you’re pregnant, it’s best to avoid bitter melon altogether (some pregnant women taking bitter melon have experienced premature labor).  As always, use bitter melon as directed.

Sources:
newsmaxhealth.com
nydailynews.com
herbreference.com

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Study:  Aspirin Supplementation May Increase Risk of Hearing Loss in Men

Taking aspirin regularly is not without it's risks. For men, hearing loss is one of them.

Every once in a while I’m asked about aspirin and whether or not I’m on board with people taking them as a supplement.

“Hear’s” my answer: I’m against it.  And “hear’s” one of the reasons why:  It can significantly increase a man’s risk for hearing loss.

According to a study recently published in the American Journal of Medicine, aspirin supplementation is highly associated with eventual hearing loss among young and middle-aged men that supplemented with aspirin regularly over 18 years.

Researchers determined this after culling data from a much larger study that included 26,000 men.  Their health was followed for 18 years, two years at a time.  Among the bevy of health statistics tracked was whether they had any sensory loss over those 18 years.

Through the use of questionnaires that tracked the men’s use of certain supplements and medications, they found a linkage between the regular use of aspirin and hearing loss.

For instance, among younger men and 50-year-old men who regularly used aspirin, they were 33 percent more likely to have hearing loss than their contemporaries who rarely used aspirin.

But the likelihood of hearing loss was not relegated to those supplementing with aspirin.  For example, among men who used NSAIDs regularly, they were 61 percent more likely to have hearing problems if in their younger years and 33 percent more likely to have hearing problems if they were in their 50s.  And among regular users of acetaminophen, they were 99 percent more likely to have hearing problems than their contemporaries (for those younger than 50; 38 percent more likely for 50-year-old men).

Among the five senses, hearing loss is the sense that’s most frequently lost or impaired in the U.S.

It’s unclear what the age connection is to hearing loss development and analgesic supplementation, but given the pervasiveness of analgesic use, the results alone are worthy of worry.

The study was written and conducted by researchers from a veritable who’s who of hospitals and medical centers, including Harvard University, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary.

Now, let me just state for the record that I know many doctors recommend their patients take aspirin regularly.  Aspirin has a blood-thinning effect, so for people who are at serious risk for a heart attack or stroke, this may be their best option.

But that’s not to suggest I approve of taking aspirin regularly.  On the contrary, aspirin supplementation has more negatives than positives.

For starters, because aspirin has a blood-thinning effect, it shouldn’t be taken cavalierly or by just anyone.  The only people that should consider taking it are those people who are in serious jeopardy for a heart attack.  But for anyone else—especially those who have a bleeding disorder, asthma, or stomach ulcers—aspirin should not be taken regularly.

This is especially important if you take any natural health supplements like primrose oil, ginkgo biloba, fish oil, or willow bark.  These dietary supplements (and several others) increase the risk of excessive bleeding.

Another reason why I’m generally against aspirin supplementation is because once you stop taking it, you increase your risk for heart attack.  The longer it’s taken, the more you’re blood acclimates to aspirin’s blood-thinning effect.  So should you stop taking it, your blood may clot when it doesn’t need to.

For these and many other reasons, I’m against aspirin supplementation.  If you’re at imminent risk for a heart attack or stroke (or if you’re specifically told to take it every day by your primary care physician), then that’s another story.  But if you’re otherwise healthy, put the aspirin aside.

Sources:
sciencedaily.com
mayoclinic.com

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Taste Testers:  Little Difference After Replacing Trans Fat in Cake with Olive Oil

With little difference in taste, bakeries should replace traditional shortening with olive oil. It's trans-fat free!

File this one under “What took them so long?”

According to a recent study published in the journal Food Science and Technology, the artery-clogging trans fats that mire our food supply can be replaced with olive oil without affecting the food’s consistency, palatability or aroma.

Researchers from Greece discovered this after replacing margarine—which is almost pure trans-fat—with the more healthful extra virgin olive oil to be used as a shortening in Madeira cake.

Having no knowledge of what the researchers used for shortening, 20 taste testers sampled three different Madeira cake offerings.  One of them used only olive oil, another used a margarine/olive oil mixture, and the other one used only margarine.

Rating the cakes on mouth feel, and taste, “the cake prepared with extra virgin olive oil/margarine was the most highly preferred by the panelists,” writes Adamantini Paraskevopoulou, the study’s lead researcher.

While the least favored cake was the one that used only olive oil for shortening, the researchers said that the olive oil-based cake was “very close to those obtained for the control cake.”  That’s probably because the extra virgin olive oil gave the cake the volume and density that sponge cake often lacks.

Praskevopoulou and his other researchers come from the University of Thessaloniki.

Now, don’t construe this report as a tacit endorsement for eating sponge cake.  Cake by its very nature is high in calories and sugar, and is certainly not something that should be eaten on a regular basis.

My point in mentioning this study is simply to show that healthier oils can replace partially hydrogenated oils, without having to compromising on its taste and consistency.  Because let’s face it—one of life’s many joys is eating food.  Enjoying it for the nutrition that it provides our bodies, and enjoying it for the good taste and smell it provides our senses.

Our health should be the primary reason why we eat, but every once in a while, it’s OK to eat because it’s fun and we deserve to treat ourselves.  But studies like this demonstrate that we can, in fact, have our cake and eat it too.  At least sometimes we can.

With any luck, other cities and municipalities will follow in the footsteps of New York City and Chicago and ban trans fat from restaurants.  Let’s hope bakeries will follow suit.

Sources:
foodnavigator.com
dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com

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Fumes from Gas Stoves Considered Cancerous by Researchers

Chefs be warned: Your stove may affect your cancer risk.

The next time you’re at a steakhouse, instead of telling your waiter how you’d like your steak done, you may want to ask how they cook their beef in the first place.  Because if chefs are pan-frying steaks with a gas burner, they could be putting themselves—and you—at risk for cancer.

According to a new study published in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine, meat that’s cooked over gas burners give off fumes that have been deemed “probably carcinogenic” by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.

Researchers wanted to discover this for themselves, so they went about mimicking the conditions typically found in a steakhouse kitchen, using both gas burners and electric burners to cook their meat.  They then placed several 14-ounce slabs of beef into margarine-lined frying pans, cooking them for about 15 minutes each on a high heat.

Now, whenever we cook anything, the combination of oil and heat used in the cooking process gives off fumes that waft throughout our home.  These are great smells, but some of the particles within those fumes can be harmful when breathed in in excess.

And that’s what researchers are concerned about.  Because after they measured the air quality and what particles were found in the fumes that the hot stove was giving off, they found a higher concentration of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons when the gas ovens were stoked.  What’s more, the sizes of the particles were smaller.  And when it comes to the particles we breathe in, size does matter—the smaller they are, the more easily the lungs absorb them.

While the researchers note that the PAH level was well below the level considered safe to breathe in, that’s of little consolation to chefs, waiters, and servers who are around these kinds of fumes 8 to 12 hours a day.  True, there haven’t been any broad based studies done on just how adverse PAHs are to our health, but researchers believe that years of regular exposure to these particles can lead to cancer, reproductive problems and organ damage (lungs, liver, skin and kidneys).

And those negative health effects aren’t solely among PAHs.  The researchers detected other particles lurking in fumes, and they have reason to believe they could be every bit as devastating to our health as PAHs can be.

The takeaway from this study is to limit your exposure to these kinds of fumes as much as possible.  Of course, we’re all going to be around PAHs because we’re all going to eat cooked food now and again.  But as is the common theme in the natural health world, raw foods are almost always better than cooked foods from a nutritional standpoint.

It goes without saying that you should never eat undercooked beef, but as a general rule, you shouldn’t be eating a whole lot of meat in the first place.  When you do, though, you’re better off eating meat cooked over an electric burner than a gas burner.

Sources:
sciencedaily.com
dhs.wi.gov

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Researchers Measure the Intelligence Level of Smokers and Non-Smokers

IQ scores of cigarette smokers tend to be lower than non-smokers'.

With all that we now know about the negative health effects of smoking (e.g., compared with non-smokers, smokers are four more times more likely to suffer a stroke, four times more likely to have heart disease, 23 times more likely to develop lung cancer, 13 times more likely to die from lung disease, etc.), you really have to question the intelligence of people who start smoking.

Well, we now have a study that may answer that question.

According to a new study published in the journal Addiction, smokers tend to have lower IQs than non-smokers.

Researchers discovered this through a study that tested the intelligence level of 20,000 Israeli soldiers and recruits.  The overwhelming majority of the 18-year-olds had never smoked in their lives (68 percent), but more than a quarter of them were regular smokers (about 28 percent).  Three percent of them were classified as “ex-smokers.”

After controlling for contributing factors that no doubt influenced the soldiers’ IQ scores (e.g. years of schooling they’d completed, how many years of school their parent had completed), they found that smokers had lower scores than non-smokers (smokers average IQ score=94; non-smokers average IQ score=101).  What’s more, there was an inverse relationship between cigarettes smoked and their IQ scores.  In other words, the more cigarettes smoked per day, the lower their score were.

Now, again, there are a lot of contributing factors to consider in assessing someone’s intelligence.  Further, an IQ test is not exactly a foolproof (pardon the pun) way of measuring someone’s intelligence.  That being said, it’s the best thing we have that gives a snap shot assessment of someone’s mental acuity.

A question that remains unanswered, however, is whether smoking leads to lower IQ scores, or if less intelligent people are just more likely to smoke.  Despite the inverse relationship between IQ and cigarettes smoked per day, the researchers think it’s the latter.

Be that as it may, if you do smoke, the smartest thing you can do is to quit…and quit now.  The withdrawal symptoms you’ll no doubt experience will probably make this process the hardest thing you’ve ever done, but the benefits far outweigh the negatives.  You’ll notice an improvement in your breathing within a week.  Within 24 hours, your blood pressure rate will normalize.  And in a matter of days, smells and flavors will become more distinct.

As you work on quitting—and there are LOADS of smoking cessation programs to choose from—you’ll want to supply your body with key nutrients that you’re likely deficient in.  For that and more, check out this.

Sources:
newsmaxhealth.com
cdc.gov

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Poor Eyesight in Later Years May Be Precursor to Alzheimer’s Development

Ignoring your eye problems may be one of the worst things you can do for your brain, never mind your eyes.

The problem with Alzheimer’s disease is that once it’s identified, the damage has already been done.  Treatments exist that slow its debilitating effects, but precious little can be done to reverse them.

As such, much of Alzheimer’s research is devoted to identifying Alzheimer’s disease before the symptoms are made manifest.  Well, researchers think they may—emphasis on may—have found a symptom that’s predictive of Alzheimer’s development.

According to a study published in the online edition of the American Journal of Epidemiology, a striking number of people who go on to develop Alzheimer’s have poor eyesight years ahead of diagnosis.  And people particularly vulnerable to its onset are those that don’t have it treated.

Researchers discovered this link after looking at the results of a 1992 health study involving 625 people approaching their senior citizen years.  Among other findings, the researchers found that 27 percent of them developed Alzheimer’s over an eight and a half year period.

Now, 27 percent is a pretty high figure all by itself, but what really took the researchers by surprise was how high the correlation was between a person’s eye health and Alzheimer’s development.

For example, 25 percent of people who said their vision was “fair” or “poor” at the start of the study eventually developed Alzheimer’s, while only 10 percent of the 168 with Alzheimer’s had “excellent” eyesight throughout.

But where things really got interesting was when researchers looked at whether those with poor eyesight ever got their eyes checked out by an opthamologist.  Of course, many did, but those that didn’t were nine times (!!) more likely to develop Alzheimer’s than those who sought and received treatment.

Researchers aren’t sure what it is about eyesight that portends Alzheimer’s development, but Dr. Mary A.M. Rogers, the study’s lead researcher, believes it may have something to do with the fact that untreated eyesight is a crippling condition in and of itself.  In other words, if you can’t see, you’re probably not going to be doing the things that keep your mind active, like travelling, reading, exercising.

Research has shown that an active brain can help prevent Alzheimer’s.

Now, as the University of Michigan researchers themselves say, this study does not definitively link eyesight trouble to Alzheimer’s development.  After all, a fairly high percentage (11 percent) of the participants had poor eyesight and maintained normal brain function throughout.  But the correlation is certainly intriguing and gives researchers something to further dissect regarding the physiological signs that point to Alzheimer’s development.

Further research will settle the findings, but this study points to the importance of eye health. It goes without saying that you should schedule annual visits with your opthamologist, but there are things you can take to maintain your eye health.

There are many different eye ailments (e.g., eye strain, astigmatisms, blurred vision, bloodshot eyes, etc.), but for the general maintenance of healthy eyes, take N-acetylcysteine, as it helps protect the eyes’ lenses; a multivitamin with selenium (selenium helps the body absorb antioxidants that fight eye-damaging free radicals); and vitamin A.  Vitamin A helps the eyes’ rods and cones adjust to contrasting conditions (i.e., transitioning from a light room to a dark room) and is fuel for the retina.

Sources:
reuters.com
newsmaxhealth.com
Balch, Phyllis A.  “Prescription for Nutritional Healing.”  4^th Edition. 2006.  Avery:  New York

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