July 16, 2004 Research Update

James Bogash, D.C. Mesa, AZ
info@lifecarechiropractic.com
www.lifecarechiropractic.com

Prevalence of the Metabolic Syndrome and Its Relation to All-Cause and Cardiovascular Mortality in Nondiabetic European Men and Women

15%. That is the number this study found in normal, everyday people. I would guarantee that this number is much higher in physicians office's because they're there for the signs--hypertension, obesity, heart disease. So why do I yet to EVER have a patient come in that told me their PCP or internists told them they had insulin resistance issues?

(I did have one patient come in, but she had figured it out for herself) I am totally stumped on the incredible lack of attention given to this major risk factor for just about everything. I wish I had an answer, but I don't.

Arch Intern Med -- Abstracts: Hu et al. 164 (10): 1066

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Benefits of 2 Years of Intense Exercise on Bone Density, Physical Fitness, and Blood Lipids in Early Postmenopausal Osteopenic Women

While this study does kind of fall into the "how much did we pay for this??" category, the numbers found are interesting. And considering that in the last Updates, there was an article about biphosphonates NOT fixing microtrauma damage (the repair of which would occur in this current study and produce, in my opinion, a stronger bone), the percentage increase in bone density was pretty substantial. The increases in other indexes of health (muscle strength, triglycerides...) were also pretty impressive.

Arch Intern Med -- Abstracts: Kemmler et al. 164 (10): 1084

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Cardiorespiratory Fitness Attenuates the Effects of the Metabolic Syndrome on All-Cause and Cardiovascular Disease Mortality in Men

For those of you that read the first article in this Updates and thought, "geez--I hope they come out with a drug soon to help me manage my insulin resistance..." --- get up from the computer and go exercise...

Arch Intern Med -- Abstracts: Katzmarzyk et al. 164 (10): 1092

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Increased prevalence of fatty liver in arterial hypertensive patients with normal liver enzymes: role of insulin resistance

See--I'm really NOT making this insulin resistance stuff up!! You would think so because it's still ignored. Let me put it this way--in my opinion, there is no other condition that even comes close to causing the widespread damage to the human body and increases risk of death and morbidity like insulin resistance. There is no other disease with a prevalance as high as insulin resistance that is so grossly ignored. The medical literature is loaded with info and research on insulin resistance. The condition is very, very amenable to lifestyle changes. As a summary, if the CDC, the American Diabetic Association, the American Cancer Society and the American Heart Association wanted to have the most dramatic effect on their respective diseases that they have every seen, they would make a huge martketing push to educate the general population on this condition.

Gut -- Abstracts: Donati et al. 53 (7): 1020

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Prenatal exposure to bisphenol A up-regulates immune responses, including T helper 1 and T helper 2 responses, in mice

In English, this article basically re-affirms how important the prenatal and natal periods are in determining the long term health of the child. Sources of BPA are all around us (see http://www.ourstolenfuture.org/NewScience/oncompounds/bisphenola/bpauses.htm ) and our risk of exposure are high. According to this study (which was done on mice), BPA really messes with the immune system--upregulating BOTH TH1 and TH2 immune response (TH1 upregulation = autoimmune diseases, TH2 = allergies/asthma) although the TH1 response was greater. With chronic diseases (like asthma, allergies, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, MS, etc...) being such as issue in the health of our nation today, anything we can do to lower the risk is important, and it needs to start in pregnancy.

Prenatal exposure to bisphenol A up-regulates immune responses, including T helper 1 and T helper 2 responses, in mice - Immu..

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Rosmarinic acid in perilla extract inhibits allergic inflammation

And, just in case you were exposed to BPA in the womb, there is hope. Perilla extract has been used for some time now and is found in many natural anti-allergy formulations. Once again, this was a study done in mice.

Rosmarinic acid in perilla extract inhibits allergic inflammation induced by mite allergen, in a mouse model - Clin Exp Aller..

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Effects of Aerobic Exercise on Inflammation and Atherosclerosis in Men

So everyone out there is looking at this saying, "duh--of course exercise will lower inflammation and slow progress of atherosclerosis." So what's so special about this study? THE BENEFICIAL EFFECT OF EXERCISE (on progression of atherosclerosis) WAS NOT PRESENT IN THOSE TAKING STATIN DRUGS. Wow. Didn't hear this one in the news. Might this be from the inhibition of Coenzyme Q10 production via mevonolate somehow? Stay tuned....

Ann Intern Med -- Abstracts: Rauramaa et al. 140 (12): 1007

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addendum...

on theheart.org website, the title to this summary said exercise ineffective on slowing atherosclerosis. This is the first paragraph on their review...

"Results from a recent Finnish trial have shown that aerobic physical exercise did not halt the progression of atherosclerosis in a population of middle-aged men.[1] Physical activity also failed to statistically lower C-reactive protein (CRP) compared with a control group of nonexercising subjects, report investigators."

This is very inappropriate and makes one wonder the motivation of this AHA website. No mention of the statins until later in the article, and this effect was sort of glossed over. I feel that the fact that the statins interfered with exercise's protective effect is the huge news to cover. We will never progress if this bias towards pharmaceutical intervention does not change.

Flunarizine effects on oxidative stress in migraine patients

This is interesting and ties in with an article several weeks back in the Updates. In this study, flunarizine, used for migraines, lowers the levels of oxidative damage (as measured by TBARS, a functional marker for lipid peroxidation from oxidative stress) in migraine patients. Couple this with the finding several weeks ago that patients with a heart defect (patent foramen ovale) that was surgically repaired had 50% less migraines. I am starting to see a pattern developing for migraines where oxidative stress or lack of protective factors leads to the disruptions in cellular machinary via the mitachondria, subsequent damage to the lipid membrane and then increased neuronal excitability leading to seizures (of which migraine is a part of).

Flunarizine effects on oxidative stress in migraine patients - Cephalalgia, Vol 24, Issue 7, pp. 528-532 (Abstract)

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Metabolic Syndrome: Time for Action

Hallelujah!!! Actually, the time was about a decade ago, but we'll take what we can get.... Besides, articles like this hopefully help prove I'm not just being melodramatic about the serious impact this condition has on health in the US.

Metabolic Syndrome: Time for Action - June 15, 2004 - American Family Physician

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PPAR gamma and delta Require Zinc for Their Anti-inflammatory Properties

PPAR nuclear orphan receptors are still somewhat cutting edge in the research and we are only now beginning to fully understand their role in our health. Some of the new high powered (and liver damaging...) diabetic drugs act on this pathway. This porcine studied adds another important role for zinc as a cofactor for this pathway to produce its anti-inflammatory compounds. Remember also that CLA and EFAs act on this pathway, so supplementation of zinc along with these two supplements might bring about even better results.

nutrition.org -- Abstracts: Reiterer et al. 134 (7): 1711

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Percutaneous Coronary Intervention Results in Acute Increases in Oxidized Phospholipids and Lipoprotein(a)

While there is no question that, should I have a choice between PCI and open heart surgery, I would pick PCI anyday. But this procedure is done on many patients as a screening tool with chest pain. Many negative tests are done without thought to the long term consequences other than healing of the incision. This study finds that there is a long term elevation of oxidized LDL (remember--LDL cannot damage our vessels until it gets damaged via oxidation) after PCI. This might be a willing trade off to the patient that avoided open heart surgery. But to the patient that was scoped to "rule out" obstructive lesions, this is not a good trade off. Maybe these findings will push a greater use of the non-invasive ultra fast CT, which does a nice job of ruling out cardiac involement in patients with chest pain.

Circulation -- Abstracts: Tsimikas et al. 109 (25): 3164

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