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April 8, 2004 Research Update |
James Bogash, D.C. Mesa, AZ
info@lifecarechiro.com
www.lifecarechiro.com
Hypofibrinolysis in insulin resistance: implication in cardiovascular diseases
The research linking poor insulin sensitivity is now so strong as to be unquestionable. One of the problems, however, is a good, solid lab test that can be used to diagnosis and monitor insulin resistance. Plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) may turn out to be the marker we are looking for. Stay tuned...
Hypofibrinolysis in the insulin resistance syndrome: implication in cardiovascular diseases - J Intern Med, Vol 255, Issue 4,..
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Incidence and Severity of Potential Drug–Dietary Supplement Interactions in Primary Care Patients
This article pretty much says it all. In this study of 458 veterens, 43% were using at least one supplement. Of these, the "potential" for interaction was present in 45%. Of these, most were determined not serious. And the authors admit that, in the medical literature, actual evidence of interaction was "sparse." I have brought up this seeming disparity between actual, documented interactions and the actual press that drug-nutrient interactions get. Try finding actual cases of birth defects from Vitamin A taken in pregnancy. Try finding actual cases of death from St. John's Wort and heart meds. I'm not saying that they don't exists and that patients should not be aware and conscious of potential interactions, but there have been several times I have had patients told they should not take a supplement that would clearly benefit their health because of the over-percieved danger of interaction. In reality, drug-drug interactions are much more common, well founded in the medical literature, and result in a large number of deaths per year.
Arch Intern Med -- Abstracts: Peng et al. 164 (6): 630
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Acupuncture for chronic headache in primary care
This was a relatively large study of patients with headaches being treated with acupuncture 12 times over the course of 3 months. Results were strong in favor of acupuncture. Just add this to the list of effective, non-drug, safe approaches to headache. Manipulation, soft tissue approaches, feverfew are just a few others shown to be effective.
bmj.com Abstracts: Vickers et al. 328 (7442): 744
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Modulation of Resistin Expression by Retinoic Acid and Vitamin A Status
Speaking of Vit A's bad rap...Resistin is a hormone secreted by the fat cells that has been shown to worsen insulin resistance and overall make the obesity problem worse. In this interesting article we see that retinoic acid (the acid form of Vit A) and Vitamin A given to mice actually lowers the genetic expression of resistin, thus improving insulin resistance and resulting in weight loss. What I would consider interesting here is that, given that Vitamin A is a fat soluble vitamin, it's absorption would be impaired with gastric bypass surgery as well as patients will non-surgical digestion problems. Might poor digestion contribute to weight gain at least in part by reducing Vit A absoprtion? Just some food for thought...
Diabetes -- Abstracts: Felipe et al. 53 (4): 882
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Activation of methionine synthase by insulin-like growth factor-1 and dopamine: a target for neurodevelopmental toxins and thimerosal
For those of us that are not biochemists and our eyes glazed over at the title to this one--basically, environmental toxins can have their negative effects by inhibiting the methylation of DNA. Remember that methylation reactions are incredibly important and effect such a basic role in human physiology. Thus, problems with methylation can lead to problems in many organ systems. In this study, the authors found that environmental toxins such as mercury-containing thimerosal inhibit DNA methylation. For the life of me, I cannot see how anyone in the pharmaceutical industry could have even considered the use of mercury as a preservative. I can see it now..."I need something to extend the shelf live of this vaccine so we can make a larger profit on vaccines given to infants. Hey--how about that potent neurotoxin mercury?"
Activation of methionine synthase by insulin-like growth factor-1 and dopamine: a target for neurodevelopmental toxins and th..
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Extra Virgin Olive Oil Biophenols Inhibit Cell-Mediated Oxidation of LDL
Two comments here. First, I frequently remind patients that LDL cholesterol by itself does not cause damage. It only causes damage to our blood vessels after IT gets damaged. So, protecting that LDL is very important. Lifestyles that include high levels of antioxidants, and now, with this study, high levels of olive oil, can help protect the LDL and prevent it from leading to atherosclerosis. Second comment, the closer the olive oil is to fresh off the tree, the more antioxidants the olive oil contains. So always go for the extra extra cold pressed virgin, unless you plan on cooking with it in which case it doesn't matter because the heat will destroy the antioxidants.
nutrition.org -- Abstracts: Masella et al. 134 (4): 785
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CRP, Homocysteine Related to Frequent Fruit and Vegetable Intake
All this fuss trying to find a drug to lower CRP levels. It's almost laughable. And you know when they find that some drug (most likely front runner is the statins) lowers CRP it'll be all over the news with recommendations to have CRP levels checked and drugs used to manage levels.
nutrition.org -- Abstracts: Gao et al. 134 (4): 913
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Consumption of high-fructose corn syrup in beverages may play a role in the epidemic of obesity
The first line in this abstract says "Obesity is a major epidemic, but its causes are still unclear." Huh?? Unclear? How about an increase in processed, high refined carb, high trans/sat fat foods? Sometimes researchers can be so disconnected from reality as to make the results of their studies pointless. Do you think any high school student out there doesn't think increased consumption of soda pop can make you overweight?
AJCN -- Abstracts: Bray et al. 79 (4): 537
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Increase in intranuclear nuclear factor kappa B and decrease in inhibitor kappa B in mononuclear cells after a mixed meal: evidence for a proinflammatory effect
Sorry for the long title--I left it that way for effect. This is something that we need to come to grips with and understand. The food we put in our bodies is not just carbs, protein and fat--it is composed of hundreds of messages that tell our genes how to react. Next time you're about to shove that double quarter pound burger with all the fixins into your mouth, think the message all these molecules will send to your genes. This article focuses on another fact of meals--they tend to be proinflammatory in nature. Eating actually raises your level of inflammation. The question here, however, is do different foods have differing effects on level of inflammaiton produced? I would postulate that it does.
AJCN -- Abstracts: Aljada et al. 79 (4): 682
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Modulation of neonatal immunological tolerance to ovalbumin by maternal essential fatty acid intake
The basic question is, does the diet of a pregnant and nursing mother have long term consequences on the health of the infant? Of course the answer is yes. This study was done in rats but should transfer to humans as well; it confirms that poorer quality fats lead to a increase in allergy to ovalbumin (egg whites). Once again, however, we venture into the tricky world of liablity. As much as we try to avoid it, the big pink elephant in the room is the fact that parents are almost wholly to blame for the health of their children. Sure, there are genetic conditions that are not due to environment, but these are rare. As soon as we break down and start blaming the parents, then we can move on to educating them and hopefully changing behaviors.
Modulation of neonatal immunological tolerance to ovalbumin by maternal essential fatty acid intake - Pediatr Allergy Immunol..
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