***Effects of Phytoestrogen Genistein on Bone Metabolism in Osteopenic Postmenopausal Women***
It still surprises me to hear such a strong anti-soy sentiment out there. Clearly, heavy, repeated exposure to any food antigen can lead to sensitivity, but the consistent research supporting the benefits of soy constituents makes any argument against soy sound weak. This study finds the genistein compound from soy helping to increase bone density. However, as with any natural approach, improving bone density is multifactorial. Strong vit D status, calcium, a alkaline diet, exercise, whole body vibration. All these add up to increasing bone density. Sadly, many patients coming through my office are put on anti-resorptive therapy like Fosamax, but the lifestyle recommends rarely exceed "take Tums..."
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***Inflammatory Markers and Incident Fracture Risk in Older Men and Women***
As mentioned above, the approach to increasing bone mass needs to extend far beyond what is the current "standard of care." Despite calcium supplementation showing little benefit in clinical trials for osteoporosis (note that calcium from diet is important, but that additional supplementation to a healthy diet full of calcium will not show much of a benefit) that is all that is ever recommended by mainstream medicine. The bottom line is that inflammation is a major player in bone health. Higher levels of inflammation means more calcium is released into the bloodstream from the osteoclasts. So, any patient diagnosed with osteoporosis is likely demonstrating higher levels of inflammation, which will also increase the risk for any number of other chronic diseases. NOT addressing this aspect of osteoporosis can sentence the patient to an early death from some other cause.
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***Before-birth climatologic data may play a role in the development of allergies in infants***
Quite a forward thinking research study. The researchers looked at whether the season of birth correlated with whether or not the child had allergies by 12 months of age. Spring and summer births fared the best, with the infants being born with 3 months of sunshine topping the list. Given how important vitamin D is for a well balanced immune system, this should come as no surprise. The bottom line is that pregnant women should supplement with relatively high levels of vitamin D in the last trimester or spend some good solid time in the sunshine.
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***Use of Antidepressants and Rates of Hip Bone Loss in Older Women***
There has been much controversy lately when it comes to antidepressants. It turns out that many of the clinical trials done on antidepressants were never published because they did not find a positive effect. What a way to paint your product in a better light--keep running clinical trials until you get one that comes out the way you want it to. The bottom line is that this class of drugs is really effective in only a small percentage of patients. To make this worse, despite widespread availability of neurotransmitter testing to get a much better idea of what's going on to cause someone to feel depressed, this form of testing is almost never used. So, now we have a clinical trial that finds the use of SSRIs almost DOUBLES the rate of bone loss, leading to a greater risk of developing osteoporosis, which is rapidly increasing in incidence.
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***Metabolic Endotoxemia Initiates Obesity and Insulin Resistance***
Got out your dry erase marker and board for this one? A perfect example of just how convoluted physiology is and why dividing human health into specialties just doesn't work. Here's the deal... Regular readers of Updates know how much importance I place on mitochondrial function and dysfunction as it relates to chronic diseases. So the idea that mitochondrial dysfunction will lead to obesity and insulin resistance is no surprise whatsoever. We know from animal studies that high fat diets increase the levels of LPS (lipopolysaccharides--products coming off the cell wells of bacteria, typically from the gut). Higher levels of LPS (called Endotoxemia) leads to interference with mitochondrial function. So, other then high fat diets, how else to we get higher levels of LPS? How about destruction of normal flora with antibiotics leading to overgrowth of bad bacteria in the gut? Couple that with a high fat diet and you've got the circle complete. Just a tad more complicated than an Arkansas family tree..
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***Metabolic syndrome, its preeminent clusters, incident coronary heart disease and all-cause mortality***
Despite the vast amount of research, few give Metabolic Syndrome the respect it deserves. I personally believe that this is because while many physicians are aware of metabolic syndrome, by not reading current literature they may not fully understand the full breadth of this condition. Let's put it in terms of this study. When we talk about relative risk, it gives us an idea of how much something (in this case, having MetS) increases your risk of a disease. Now, if the rates of a particular disease are already pretty high in the general population (such as with heart disease), then the risk becomes more important. In this study, those patients having all 5 components of MetS (high BP, low HDL, high triglycerides, increased blood glucose and increased waist-to-hip ratio) the relative risk was a whopping 6.24 time higher. There's no beating around the bush here. This is a dangerous condition and needs to be treated as such.
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***Use of probiotic Lactobacillus preparation to prevent diarrhoea associated with antibiotics***
Geez, sometimes I feel like all I do is rant and rave about how disconnected mainstream medicine is from the research, but it's hard to see it otherwise. We still view antibiotic overuse as an issue because it can lead to antibiotic resistance. But this concern is greatly overshadowed by what happens to use when we destroy the bacteria that is supposed to be there (our normal flora). Along these same lines, using probiotics therapeutically for certain conditions is well supported in the literature. In this particular study, even using relatively low levels of probiotics (in the 100 million range, where most good quality supplements have 16 BILLION or more..) had a striking effect on the side effects associated with antibiotic use in the hospital and an even greater effect on eliminating C. diff infections with antibiotic use. And compare these outcomes to the safety and cost of using probiotics. It's a no brainer.
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***Alternate-day fasting and chronic disease prevention: a review of human and animal trial***
Calorie restriction without nutrient restriction remains the only method of truly extending lifespan in mammals. While this works great in lab rats, humans do not find calorie restriction acceptable in general. There have been several approaches on this theme, however, that seem to show some positive effects. This article is a review of some of the current research on alternate day calorie restriction, which would be much more acceptable as an approach to lower chronic disease risk. The bottom line is that these approaches seem to trigger some type of survival process in the mitochondria, leading to increased numbers of mitochondria and efficiency of energy production. The perfect combination for health.
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***A low-glycemic-load diet improves symptoms in acne vulgaris patients***
It still surprises me how often we go to great lengths to try to "fix" our skin from the outside. Cremes, washes, scrubs... Then there's the antibiotic approach. Nothing like putting a 15 yr old on long term antibiotics for a skin condition that is most likely mediated by their diet. The bottom line is that in cultures w/ less processed diets (more along the lines of the paleolithic / caveman diet) acne rarely exists. So there is no question that acne comes from inside. The skin is one of the routes of detoxification for the body--increase dysfunction within the GI tract and you will increase the toxic load on the system. More toxins means a harder time getting these compounds out of the body and more visible signs. i.e. acne...
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***Human adrenal glands secrete vitamin C in response to adrenocorticotrophic hormone***
I have to admit, this one caused me to slow down and do a double take. It is well known the adrenals burn through Vit C under stress. I had always just assumed that this meant that Vit C was being used as a cofactor for some enzymatic process. However, this study finds that, when the adrenals are stimulated via ACTH, they actually release high levels of Vit C for a short burst of time, presumably to assist in stress-related adaptations elsewhere in the body. This is a known mechanism in other mammals (humans are one of 4 mammals no longer able to make their own Vit C in the liver) that is used to combat stress, but I had never heard of any comparable process in humans. Maybe we just did..
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James Bogash, DC and Amy Strock, DC
1830 S. Alma School Rd, Bldg 7, Ste 135, Mesa, AZ 85210
(Alma School Road, just south of the Superstition Freeway/Highway 60)
Chiropractic Health Care for Chandler, Mesa and Tempe Arizona
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