Study Says Beta-Carotene May Help Reduce Breast Cancer Risk in Women that Smoke

For women that can't (or won't) stop smoking, beta carotene may reduce their risk for breast cancer.

There are so many reasons not to smoke.  From the yellowish-green hue it leaves on your teeth, the smell it leaves on your breath, the aging it does to your skin, the negative health effects are hardly hard to spot.

Yet as long as the list of negative physical effects are, it pales in comparison to the negative health effects of cancer.

Smoking increases your risk for cancer more than any other behavior.  Lung cancer, the most prevalent cancer of them all, is almost entirely attributable to smoking, whether that smoke is inhaled directly from a cigarette or second hand.  It’s the cause of 90 percent of lung cancer deaths in men and 80 percent of lung cancer deaths in women.  And if you compare people’s risk for lung cancer based on whether or not they smoke, the smoker is 23 times more likely to develop lung cancer than the non-smoker.

Lung cancer isn’t the only cancer risk that increases with smoking.  A 2005 study from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center found that cigarettes increased a woman’s risk for breast cancer by 40 percent (compared to those who never smoked).

Of course, the best way to avoid this risk is to stop smoking.  But for those who can’t—or won’t—stop smoking, there are some nutrients that may reduce their risk for breast cancer.

According to a new study published in the European Journal of Cancer, a woman that can’t—or won’t—quit smoking can decrease her risk for breast cancer by increasing her beta-carotene intake.

The study followed over 36,600 women for 10 years and they found that women that consumed the highest amount of beta-carotene were about 60 percent less likely to develop breast cancer among fellow female smokers that were comparatively low in beta-carotene.

Further study hopes to determine whether increasing beta-carotene among non-smoking women can similarly decrease breast cancer risk.  If so, then researchers can look into supplementation amounts, or how much beta-carotene is needed to decrease breast cancer risk among both non-smoking and smoking women.

In the meantime, there are lots of great supplements for beta-carotene.  You’ll typically find them paired with vitamin A, as beta-carotene is converted into vitamin A in the body.  Consumer Lab gives the green light to several beta-carotene supplements, including Nature’s Way Beta Carotene, Puritan’s Pride Beta-Carotene, and Vitamin Shoppe’s Beta-Carotene.  Each supplement contains 25,000 international units of beta-carotene per capsule.

You can also go to food sources for beta-carotene.  Deep-colored vegetables are the best sources.  By “deep-colored” I mean vegetables that are intensely one particular color, like spinach is green and carrots and sweet potatoes are orange.

Make sure that they’re fresh sources, too, as the bioavailability of beta-carotene is higher in fresh vegetables compared to canned or frozen (fresh carrots contain 100 percent all-trans beta-carotene, but in canned carrots, that amount goes down to 73 percent).

Sources:
nutraingredients.com
quitsmoking.about.com
foxnews.com
whfoods.com

Wrestle Away Wrinkles with Dark Chocolate

Wrinkle-resistant skin is just a square (OK, maybe two) away.

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, many of my procrastination-prone readers, I’m sure, are wondering what to get for their sweetheart.

Well, if you want to keep your baby-faced beau or gal pal looking as great tomorrow as he or she does today, dark chocolate may be just what the dermatologist ordered.

Sure, it’s not the most original idea, but here’s my reasoning (and yes, it is health related):

According to scientists from the European Dermatology Association in London, the flavonol content of dark chocolate can help prevent the formation of unsightly wrinkles that result from overexposure to the sun’s UV rays.

The health benefits of dark chocolate are well documented, here and elsewhere.  Here, the emphasis has been on eating small amounts of dark chocolate (ounces, not pounds) to improve heart health and prevent heart disease.  But for more than 3,000 years, dark chocolate has been used for an array of conditions, like constipation, fevers and dysentery.

Assertions like these—that chocolate is good for our skin—seems to contradict what many of us have experienced when eating chocolate.  For most of us, when we satisfy our chocolate craving, zits and pimples aren’t far behind—despite being well beyond our teenage years.

Well, the European Dermatology researchers aren’t talking your typical Hershey’s Kiss or Chocolate Bar.  They’re talking about the high flavonol variety of dark chocolate, or to be more specific, the chocolate that’s more bitter than it is sweet.

(In case you were curious, it isn’t chocolate that leads to zits; it’s how much sugar those chocolates have that leads to zits).

So as you go about looking for the dark chocolate that’s best for your love’s skin, the higher the cocoa percentage is, the better (70 percent cocoa content and up).  Or if you’d rather taste than read, the bitterer it is, the higher the flavonol content (remember, bitter does not mean it should taste bad; it just shouldn’t be overly sweet).  Your typical candy bar is low in flavonols simply because people would rather eat a sweet than bitter chocolate bar.

Fortunately, there are well-known commercial varieties of high flavonol content dark chocolate.  Dove and Lindt are two chocolate companies that offer high flavonol dark chocolate.   In fact, these are the same kinds of chocolate used by researchers from the European Dermatology, according to Newsmax.

Sources:
newsmaxhealth.com
newsweek.com

Study:  Two Sodas per Week Increases Pancreatic Cancer Risk 87 Percent

What will it take to stop soda pop's popularity?

The facts and figures on the amount of soda consumed in the world are eye-popping.  Consider these mind-numbing numbers from bellybytes.com:

• The soft drink industry makes an estimated $40 billion per year
• 40 percent of toddlers drink at least one can of soda per day
• 10 percent of soft drinks are consumed in the morning hours
• Soft drink consumption has increased 200 percent since the 1950s
• The average person consumes 500 cans of soda per year

With numbers like these, it’s little wonder that Coca-Cola purchases more sugar than any other company in the world.

Yet with all the negative things we know about soda and its impact on our health, it remains grocery stores most sold item.

What will it take to knock soda pop off its perch?  Perhaps the latest study slamming soda will do the trick.

A new study published in the pages of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention has found that soda dramatically increases a person’s risk for pancreatic cancer.

The University of Minnesota researchers followed over 60,500 volunteers who took part in the Singapore Chinese Health Study.

When they looked into the rate of pancreatic cancer, a very low number was diagnosed with the disease, a mere 140 people out of 60,524.

But what really took the researchers aback was how prevalent it was among men and women that consumed soda regularly.

They found that among those who consumed at least two soft drinks a week (not a day, a week) were 87 percent more likely to be among those with pancreatic cancer.

Pancreatic cancer is fairly rare compared to lung cancer and breast cancer, but it’s no less deadly.  There are about 37,680 diagnoses in the United States alone per year, and another 34,290 who die from it per year.  Patrick Swayze put a face to pancreatic cancer after he died from it mid-September 2009.  He was diagnosed in March 2008.

The researchers are quick to note that their findings don’t prove a causal connection.  Their analysis didn’t take into account other foods and behaviors believed to increase a person’s risk for pancreatic cancer, like consuming red meat (particularly charred red meat) or smoking.

Nevertheless, that 87 percent is high enough to turn heads.  Certainly this head.

Soda is the most frequently purchased grocery store item.  Could this latest study be soda’s swan song?  One can only hope.

Sources:
bellybytes.com
msnbc.msn.com

Should the RDA of Saturated Fat Be Increased?

Saturated Fat: Not so bad after all?

For years, scientists, nutritionists and natural health advocates (myself included) have been telling you to avoid saturated fat like the plague.  The reasoning for the ban was justified, as researchers at the time said saturated fat increased a person’s risk for obesity and heart disease.  Since then, it’s come to be known as the “bad fat.”

But new research indicates saturated fat may not be so bad after all—even among butter and beef sources.

The health world has really come around on saturated fat.  With all the studies done on coconut oil’s healthful properties—an oil that’s absolutely loaded with saturated fat—it’s not hard to understand why.  For instance, a study just recently published in the journal Diabetes found that a diet high in coconut oil was great for decreasing insulin resistance and keeping weight levels in check.

But could it really be true that all forms of saturated fat aren’t so bad?  Well, if the review of 21 separate studies is accurate, then yes.

Researchers reviewed the data compilations of some 350,000 participants.  The information on the participants concerned their eating habits and whether or not they developed heart complications.  They were followed for between five and 23 years, depending on the study’s depth, and all of the participants were healthy at the start.

By the end, 11,000 experienced a stroke or were diagnosed with heart disease.

But when researchers looked at their diets (the participants completed food frequency questionnaires), they found a negligible difference between heart health and saturated fat.  In other words, a person whose diet that was high in saturated fat was no more likely to have heart disease than a person whose diet was low in saturated fat.

Now, does this mean that 16-ounce steaks and sticks of butter will now be brandished as “health foods”?  Probably not.  There’s still something to be said for balance and moderation.  But with the results of this and other studies, it’s becoming increasingly apparent that the recommended daily allowance for saturated fat be increased from its current mark of less than16 grams per day (for the typical 2,000 calorie a day diet).

What do you think?  Is saturated fat something that ought to be avoided, or do you buy the fact that it doesn’t contribute to heart disease?

Source:
zeenews.com
newsmaxhealth.com

Study: Certain Vitamins, Minerals Associated with Decreased Risk for Eczema

Need another reason for kids to take their vitamins? It can help prevent eczema.

According to the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, 15 million people have eczema.  As surprising as this is, perhaps more surprising is the fact that 20 percent of eczema sufferers—1 in 5—are children.

But parents can reduce this common condition in childhood by seeing to it that their kids get a hefty dose of vitamins and minerals every day.

Researchers from Seoul, South Korea enlisted 180 five-year-olds, all of them having the most common form of eczema (i.e. atopic dermatitis).  About 250 other five-year-olds also took part in the study, only they did not have atopic dermatitis.

But what these kids did have was a healthy dose of vitamins and minerals coursing through their blood, and researchers believe this fact was associated with their not having eczema.

After evaluating food frequency questionnaires and blood work samples, they found that the kids without eczema had high levels of beta-carotene in their blood.  This was associated with a 56 percent reduced risk of atopic dermatitis.

Three other vitamins and minerals associated with reduced risk for eczema were vitamin E, folic acid and iron.  Kids high in these nutrients were 67 percent, (vitamin E) 63 percent (folic acid), and 61 percent (iron) less likely to have eczema.

The study was published ahead of print in the online edition of the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

This study piggybacks on a study I reported about earlier this year regarding eczema prevention through the fatty acids found in fish.  That study found that kids whose diets were replete in omega-3 fatty acids were 25 percent less likely to develop eczema.

About half of all kids with eczema—a skin condition that causes severe itchiness and redness—grow out of it by the age of 15, but that leaves 50 percent who are afflicted with it all their lives.  And while eczema is neither deadly nor contagious, it’s a constant irritant that causes the skin to thicken and turn leathery—a source of frustration and embarrassment for sure.

Eczema can occur anywhere on the body, but it most frequently rears its ugly head on the face, arms and legs.  A good friend of mine had eczema in the upper corner of his forearm and on his head.  Fortunately, though, he was one of the 50 percent of kids that grew out of it.

The point of all this is to make sure your kids are getting their vitamins and minerals.  Few kids get their vitamins and minerals from fresh fruits and vegetables, so a great alternative option is through multivitamin supplementation.

I recommend Ola Loa.   It’s a fun way to make sure they’re loaded with the vitamins and minerals they need, in a delicious cranberry-raspberry flavor (my personal favorite is Mango Tangerine, but the Cran Raspberry is good as well).

Sources:
yourtotalhealth.ivillage.com
nutraingredients.com

Researchers Find a Link Between Dementia and High Blood Pressure

High blood pressure numbers can do a real number on your brain health.

If you’ve read my book The Blood Pressure Miracle, then you know what a devastating impact high blood pressure has on heart health. But what you may not know is that high blood pressure jeopardizes our mental health as well.

Over the years, multiple studies have shown links between deteriorating brain health and high blood pressure.  One such study recently published in the journal Stroke found that older people with high blood pressure tended to have a greater accumulation of white matter on their brains.  Past studies on people with various forms of dementia—including Alzheimer’s disease—have found that people with the most severe forms of dementia have this so-called white matter.  White matter is basically scarring that’s formed on the brain.

Another study linking high blood pressure to dementia was published in the online issue of the Journal of Clinical Hypertension (December 2009).  Among the 1,400 elderly women studied over the eight-year study, a certain segment had “significantly more” lesions by study’s end.  What portion?  You guessed it—the ones with high blood pressure.

Not surprisingly, researchers believe that the longer high blood pressure goes unchecked, the greater risk there is for dementia.  And since high blood pressure is known as “the silent killer,” this is a serious concern that happens all the time.

Researchers are so sure of this hypertension/dementia link that the big dog on campus, the National Institutes of Health, is recruiting thousands of elderly people with high blood pressure to take part in their study.

The manner in which the recruits will be treated is not yet known, but I’d be willing to bet that they’ll be treated with some kind of statin.

You already know how I feel about statins, but if statins are the way the researchers go for treatment, fine by me.   The natural method is the ideal method, but when people have dangerously high blood pressure levels, desperate times call for desperate measures.

High blood pressure is one of the leading health risk factors for heart disease, which is the leading cause of death in America.  According to the CDC, approximately 630,000 people died from heart disease in 2006 (the latest year available with this kind of information).   Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia, is the seventh most common cause of death in the country.  Approximately 72,450 people died from Alzheimer’s in 2006.

If you want to know how to get your blood pressure under control naturally, then you’re in the right place. Natural Health On The Web is an ideal place to begin your research.  There is plenty of free information on high blood pressure available to you on this website.  I suggest starting in the following section: High Blood Pressure.

Sources:
newsmaxhealth.com
cdc.gov

Researchers Say Expensive Running Shoes Can Cause Damage to Joints, Knees

People running in high performance shoes put more torque on their knees than people running bare foot.

As something of a gym rat, I take my sneakers pretty seriously.  They have to be comfortable, they have to look cool, but more than anything else, they have to relieve stress.

Let’s face it:  When we exercise, we’re putting a lot of stress on our bones, joints and muscles.  Of course, our muscles and joints become stronger after proper rest (one of the many reasons why rest is crucial to every exercise regimen) but the activity itself—depending on the intensity—is no walk in the park for our bodies (unless it is, in fact, a walk in the park).

Over the years, I’ve been fortunate enough to purchase far more good sneakers than bad ones.  But the bad ones I’ve purchased have been REAL bad.  One pair was so bad that my knees actually started to hurt whenever I ran or used an elliptical after a few months of wearing them.  At the time, I thought it was a mild case of tendonitis.  But I knew it was the shoes when I ditched those for a new pair.

With all the advances in sneaker technology, you’d think this wouldn’t be much of a problem, as sneakers surely are more packed with padding and support than they used to be.  But a new study says that some of these sneakers are causing more pain than pleasure.

A study published in the December 2009 issue of the Journal of American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation found that some of the premiere sneakers on the market today put more torque on the knees than running barefoot or walking with high heels!

The study used several different indicators to determine how much of an impact runners were putting on their joints.  For example, electronic markers were placed on their knees so the researchers could actually see and measure what was happening as they were running (this, of course, required some highly sophisticated technology).

In addition to watching the participants run in a traditional setting, they also observed them running on what the researchers call a “glorified bathroom scale” in their bare feet.  This also measured the amount of torque that was placed on the knees and joints.

Surprisingly, they found that people running with shoes—the very shoes that are supposed to minimize torque and resistance—actually brought on more torque than running bare foot.  For example, in the part of the knee that often become arthritic in people with osteoarthritis, there was about 40 percent more torque among those running in sneakers than those running bare foot.

So, does this mean that you should kick off your sneaks and bare it all?  Not necessarily.

“I think people should run in what they feel most comfortable running in,” said the study’s lead researcher to LiveScience.  “Whether that’s in a pair of running shoes or in a minimum kind of running shoe, that’s fine.”

In other words, don’t get snookered into believing that if your shoe isn’t at least $150, you shouldn’t buy it.  Pay attention to how the shoe feels on your foot and mimic as best you can the way in which you run right there in the store.

For this reason, it’s best to shop at a store that has space for you to run in place or ideally around the store itself.  Stores that allow this usually employ specialists that can evaluate your gait and whether you over-pronate when you run.

Source:
msnbc.msn.com

Study: Deep Breaths Can Relieve Pain

Something as simple as deep breaths can relieve symptoms of fibromyalgia, according to researchers.

If there’s anything that I do a lot more of now than I did when I was younger it’s breathe.  Of course we ALL breathe, but what I mean by “breathing” is taking a few moments out of my day to take a deep, deep breath in, and a deep, deep breath out.

In…out…in…out.

Deep breaths are a real catharsis for me.  I’ll go over one of my favorite deep breaths in a moment, but before I do that, did you know that deep breaths can actually help relieve pain?

According to a study recently published in the eponymous journal Pain, people suffering from fibromyalgia experienced less pain when they were instructed to breathe in slow, controlled patterns.

The studied worked like this.  Half of the participants were dubbed “healthy controls,” which basically means that they didn’t have fibromyalgia symptoms.  Symptoms of fibromyalgia, to be really general, are feeling pangs of pain all over your body incessantly.  The other half of the participants had all been previously diagnosed as fibromyalgia sufferers.

To mimic the effects of fibromyalgia, researchers had the participants place their hands over heat sensors.  These heat sensors emitted slightly painful bursts of heat, and the participants were to gauge their pain based on three criteria:  intensity, uncomfortability, and how the pain changed their mood, if at all.

Overall, the researchers found that both fibromyalgia sufferers and the healthy controls experienced less pain when they were instructed to breathe in slow, controlled ways.

That wasn’t a universal finding, however.  A lot of people who had fibromyalgia had depression as well (a common function of fibromyalgia).  If that was the case, the slow breathing didn’t have much of an impact one way or the other.

For everyone else, though, slow breathing actually lessened the severity of physical pain.

Fibromyalgia is a fairly common condition in America, as approximately 1 in every 50 adults has an at least mild form of it.  It’s much more common among women than men (about seven times more common), as 80 to 90 percent of fibromyalgia sufferers are female.

There are, of course, many different kinds of breathing techniques to slow down and relax.  One of my favorites uses your nose to breathe air in and out.  It goes like this:

• Close your right nostril with one finger
• Breathe in deeply through your left nostril
• Hold for a second
• Now, open your right nostril and close the left nostril (the nostril you just breathed in from)
• Breathe out through the right nostril
• Keeping your finger on your left nostril, breathe in through your right nostril
• Hold for a second
• Now open your left nostril and close the right nostril (the nostril you just breathed in from)
• Breathe out through the left nostril
• Repeat

The slower and longer you breathe in and out, the better.

This breathing technique may not decrease your feelings of physical pain, but it will increase your feelings of contentment and satisfaction—two things we could all use a little more of.

Sources:
fibromyalgia-symptoms.org
sciencedaily.com

Study:  Effects of Parkinson’s May Be Diminished with Treadmill Training

While it may not cure peoples' Parkinson's disease, a treadmill may improve their gait.

Every once in a while, I like to mix up my aerobic activity by walking or jogging on the good ol’ treadmill.  It’s not the most exciting piece of workout equipment, but it is alleviating, as a treadmill gives my knees the relief they need after weeks of pounding the pavement (i.e. I prefer to run outdoors, but the ground is not exactly forgiving on the joints).

But besides runners, there’s another group of people that may come to treasure the treadmill:  People with Parkinson’s.

According to a study recently published in the Cochrane Library, training performed on a treadmill can work wonders in improving the gait of people with Parkinson’s.  A person’s “gait” is just a fancy way of describing how a person walks or the ease with which a person walks.  And as anyone who has Parkinson’s knows, walking is just one of the many functional casualties that affects them.

Researchers discovered the treatment a treadmill can provide after observing people with Parkinson’s, approximately 203 of them.  When they compared those who went through the training versus those who did not train, virtually every aspect of walking improved compared to those that did not train.  In measurements of the participants’ stride length, steps per minute, walking speed and distance, movement improved in everyone that trained.  There were no such improvements in those that did not train.

As is the norm with these kinds of studies, the study’s researchers played down the findings.  They said their analysis comes from a very small group of participants.  There’s also some confusion as to how long the improvements last and what training techniques are best.

Parkinson’s disease is a neurological disorder that affects a person’s movement by increasing rigidity, diminishing one’s sense of balance, and causing tremor-like motions.  Muhammad Ali and Michael J. Fox are perhaps the most well known public figures with Parkinson’s disease, but they are two of the 1.2 million living with the condition in the U.S. alone (there are about 50,000 newly diagnosed cases of Parkinson’s each year).  Parkinson’s disease afflicts more men than women.

While there is no known cure for Parkinson’s (don’t trust any natural health web site that claims to “cure” Parkinson’s; they’re selling you a bill of goods) there are things you can do to help ease the symptoms.  Besides treadmill training, creatine can help.  Creatine helps stabilize the muscles by increasing muscle stamina and endurance.  Co-enzyme Q10 may be beneficial as well.  Co-enzyme Q10 does a lot for improving brain function, and since Parkinson’s starts in the brain, it may help slow the progression of the disease.

In a similar vein, glutathione may be beneficial.  Parkinson’s is essentially an indication that a number of important brain cells have been lost; glutathione may help restore what’s been lost.

Sources:
parkinsons-disease.emedtv.com
sciencedaily.com
Balch, Phyllis A.  “Prescription for Nutritional Healing.”  4^th Edition.  2006.  Avery:  New York

Combating Blue Monday through Light Therapy

Consider using light therapy to combat the winter blues.

Has the winter season got you down?  If so, you’re not alone.  Because today, the third Monday in January, is Blue Monday—the most depressing day of the year.

I’m not sure how Blue Monday came to be, but apparently a lot of research has been done on this day, and work absenteeism has historically been high.

When you stop and think about it, I suppose it makes sense that this day is so depressing:  Spring seems like it’s light years away, the Christmas season seems like it was months ago, it’s dark outside when you leave for work and it’s dark outside when you come home from work, and there’s just a general sense of blah about life in general.

Of course this kind of thinking gets us nowhere, and as difficult as it may be, you have to actively seek out the positives in every situation life throws at you.  As the song says, you have to “always look at the lighter side of your life.”

And speaking of light, one way to make this a reality is through light therapy.

Our underexposure to light in the winter months has a serious impact on our overall health, our mental health included.  The sun simply doesn’t appear as often in the winter months as it does the summer months (damn that daylight saving time!), and this lack of light has a serious impact on our moods, our behaviors, our thinking processes and our immunity from diseases (studies show that vitamin D deficiency increases the incidence and severity of osteoporosis, fractures, osteopenia, infectious diseases, and autoimmune diseases).

In light of this (pardon the pun), a new study from the University of California says that the recommended intake for people in the winter months ought to be increased from 200 IUs per day to 2,100 IUs for people with dark complexion and 3,100 IUs for people with light complexions.  The study says that the only way for people to achieve a vitamin D sufficiency is through high doses such as these.

To combat the winter blues and future Blue Mondays, I highly recommend getting at least 20 to 30 minutes of direct sunlight.  This is difficult to do on overcast days, but when the sun does shine, make good use of it.  Spend at least 30 minutes outdoors, preferably between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.  That’s when the sun’s rays are most direct.

Now, obviously, we all have personal and professional lives, and life’s daily tasks don’t always permit our basking in the sun.  If you find that this is the case for you, I highly recommend purchasing a light therapy box.  The light that these boxes emit is obviously not natural sunlight, but it’s as close to the real thing as it gets by mimicking the effects sunlight has on our psyche.

(Note:  Light therapy boxes produce a special kind of light, so don’t think that turning on more lamps and wall switches in your home will solve the problem).

Blue Mondays have to be fought and you can win that battle through the beneficial effects of light therapy.

Sources:
mayoclinic.com
nutraingredients.com
cbc.ca
dailymail.co.uk