Wellness for Life

Climate change is "the biggest global health threat of the 21st Century", according to a leading medical journal.
The Lancet, together with University College London researchers, has published a report outlining how public health services will need to adapt.

Foods rich in cocoa may improve performance on challenging mental tasks like arithmetic. This is the finding of a study presented as part of a symposium highlighting the potential of plant-based treatments presented at the British Psychological Society Annual Conference 2009 in Brighton.

Crystal Haskell from the Brain, Performance and Nutrition Research Centre at Northumbria University said: "Foods containing high levels of cocoa flavanols, found in chocolate, have been shown to increase cerebral blood flow, and it has also been proven that consumption of plants that have these properties improves performance on mentally demanding tasks. We wanted to discover whether cocoa flavanols produced the same effect.

Scientists in Canada reviewing the research so far on links between different diets and heart disease found strong evidence that diets high in vegetables and nuts, and those that follow a Mediterranean pattern rich in fruit, vegetables and fish were strongly associated with lower heart disease risk than those that rely on food with a high glycemic index or high in trans-fatty acids. High glycemic index food includes rice, pasta and refined carbohydrates like white bread, and foods high in trans-fatty acids include fried foods, baked goods and snacks.

According to a recent study in the Archives of Internal Medicine, 75 percent of Americans do not get enough Vitamin D. Researchers have found that the deficiency may negatively impact immune function and cardiovascular health and increase cancer risk. Now, a University of Missouri nutritional sciences researcher has found that vitamin D deficiency is associated with inflammation, a negative response of the immune system, in healthy women.

Eating healthy sounds like a good idea in theory, but when sticking to your budget is as important as it is during this economic crisis, it's often easier to pick up the cheapest foods at the store. These 50 foods, however, prove that nutrition doesn't have to be as expensive as you think.

What can we expect from omega-3 fatty acids?
Chan EJ, Cho L.
Cleve Clin J Med. 2009 Apr;76(4):245-51.
PMID: 19339640
doi: 10.3949/ccjm.76a.08042

Dietary cholesterol from eggs increases plasma HDL cholesterol in overweight men consuming a carbohydrate-restricted diet.
Mutungi G, Ratliff J, Puglisi M, Torres-Gonzalez M, Vaishnav U, Leite JO, Quann E, Volek JS, Fernandez ML.
J Nutr. 2008 Feb;138(2):272-6.
PMID: 18203890

Carbohydrate-restricted diets (CRD) significantly decrease body weight and independently improve plasma triglycerides (TG) and HDL cholesterol (HDL-C) .

[..]

Eighteen subjects were classified as having the metabolic syndrome (MetS) at the beginning of the study, whereas 3 subjects had that classification at the end. These results suggest that including eggs in a CRD results in increased HDL-C while decreasing the risk factors associated with MetS.

Nut consumption and risk of hypertension in US male physicians.
Djoussé L, Rudich T, Gaziano JM.
Clin Nutr. 2009 Feb;28(1):10-4. Epub 2008 Oct 2.
PMID: 18834651
doi:10.1016/j.clnu.2008.08.005

CONCLUSION: Our data suggest that nut consumption is associated with a lower risk of hypertension in US male physicians and that such relation may be influenced by adiposity.

High-density lipoprotein cholesterol changes after continuous egg consumption in healthy adults.
Mayurasakorn K, Srisura W, Sitphahul P, Hongto PO.
J Med Assoc Thai. 2008 Mar;91(3):400-7.
PMID: 18575296

CONCLUSION: In the majority of healthy adults, an addition of one egg per day to a normal fat diet could raise HDL-c levels and decreased the ratio of TC toHDL-c. Therefore, egg consumption might benefit blood cholesterol.

Egg breakfast enhances weight loss.
Vander Wal JS, Gupta A, Khosla P, Dhurandhar NV.
Int J Obes (Lond). 2008 Oct;32(10):1545-51. Epub 2008 Aug 5.
PMID: 18679412
doi:10.1038/ijo.2008.130

Conclusions: The egg breakfast enhances weight loss, when combined with an energy-deficit diet, but does not induce weight loss in a free-living condition. The inclusion of eggs in a weight management program may offer a nutritious supplement to enhance weight loss.

Biochemical effects of consumption of eggs containing omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids.
Ohman M, Akerfeldt T, Nilsson I, Rosen C, Hansson LO, Carlsson M, Larsson A.
Ups J Med Sci. 2008;113(3):315-23.
PMID: 18991244

Addition of one regular egg per day to the normal diet had no negative impact on blood lipids or inflammation markers. Consumption of omega-3 enriched eggs resulted in higher levels of ApoA1, lower ApoB/ApoA1 ratio and lower plasma glucose. These effects have been associated in previous studies with a reduced risk for cardiovascular mortality and diabetes.

A comparison of egg consumption with other modifiable coronary heart disease lifestyle risk factors: a relative risk apportionment study.
Barraj L, Tran N, Mink P.
Risk Anal. 2009 Mar;29(3):401-15. Epub 2008 Nov 4.
PMID: 19000074
DOI: 10.1111/j.1539-6924.2008.01149.x

Our analysis shows that the combination of modifiable lifestyle risk factors accounts for less than 40% of the population CHD mortality. For the majority of U.S. adults age 25+, consuming one egg a day accounts for <1% of CHD risk. Hence, focusing on decreasing egg intake as an approach to modify CHD risk would be expected to yield minimal results relative to changing other behaviors such as smoking and other dietary habits.

A 22-y prospective study of fish intake in relation to prostate cancer incidence and mortality.
Chavarro JE, Stampfer MJ, Hall MN, Sesso HD, Ma J.
Am J Clin Nutr. 2008 Nov;88(5):1297-303.
PMID: 18996866

Conclusion: These results suggest that fish intake is unrelated to prostate cancer incidence but may improve prostate cancer survival.

Why is it that vitamin D deficiency can manifest in so many different ways in different people? One big reason is something called vitamin D receptor (VDR) genotypes, the variation in the receptor for vitamin D.

Why is it that the dose of vitamin D necessary to reach a specific level differs so widely from one person to the next? VDR genotype, again. Variation in blood levels of 25-hydroxy vitamin D from a specific dose of vitamin D can vary three-fold, as shown by a University of Toronto study. In other words, a dose of 4000 units per day may yield a 25-hydroxy vitamin D blood level of 30 ng/ml in Mary, 60 ng/ml in Paul, and 90 ng/ml in Pete--same dose, different blood levels.

Prevention of nonvertebral fractures with oral vitamin D and dose dependency: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
Bischoff-Ferrari HA, Willett WC, Wong JB, Stuck AE, Staehelin HB, Orav EJ, Thoma A, Kiel DP, Henschkowski J.
Arch Intern Med. 2009 Mar 23;169(6):551-61.
PMID: 19307517

Conclusion Nonvertebral fracture prevention with vitamin D is dose dependent, and a higher dose should reduce fractures by at least 20% for individuals aged 65 years or older.

March 27, 2009 - A significant decrease in serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) levels has led to an increase in vitamin D insufficiency in the US population, especially in racial and ethnic groups, according to results of a population-based study reported in the March 23 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

"Vitamin D insufficiency has been associated with increases in cardiovascular disease, cancer, and infection," write Adit A. Ginde, MD, from the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine, Aurora, Colorado, and colleagues. "Vitamin D supplementation appears to mitigate the incidence and adverse outcomes of these diseases and may reduce all-cause mortality."

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"These findings have important implications for health disparities and public health," the study authors conclude. "Our data provide additional evidence that current recommendations for vitamin D supplementation (200-600 IU/d) are inadequate to achieve optimal serum 25(OH)D levels in most of the US population." They add that large, randomized controlled trials of higher doses of vitamin D supplementation are needed to evaluate their effect on general health and mortality.

Sulbutiamine is a centrally acting cholinergic vitamin B analogue. One study shows sulbutiamine improve memory in rats. At this time I prefer using a combination of several B vitamins rather than relying on one vitamin B analogue. For more information on B vitamins or to purchase Vitamin B Coenzyme. Even better is to take a multivitamin that has a combination of the B vitamins along with a couple of dozen vitamins and nutrients. In most cases I think it is better to take a small amount of a number of different nutrients as opposed to a large amount of just one. Consider a very popular product that I have formulated called MultiVit-Rx.

Sulbutiamine (brand name: Arcalion) is a precursor to thiamine (i.e., vitamin B1). As a dimer of two structurally modified thiamine residues, sulbutiamine retains many of the features of thiamine. However, the thiazole rings are open, the alcohol groups are esterified, and a disulfide bridge connects the two thiamine analogues.

Sulbutiamine is indicated for the treatment of asthenia.[1] Its ability to reduce fatigue is also considered desirable by athletes, and it is available for over-the-counter sale as a nutritional supplement. In one study of chronic fatigue patients, sulbutiamine did not demonstrate sustained benefits over the placebo, which raises doubts about its clinical efficacy.[2] However, the authors of that study suggest that additional research is needed to evalulate the potential usefulness of sulbutiamine in the treatment of chronic fatigue.
Sulbutiamine may be beneficial for cognition. Indeed, the demonstrated ability of sulbutiamine to improve memory in rats[3] and patients of schizophrenia[3] suggests that it is a nootropic.
Recent research also shows support for the use of sulbutiamine in the treatment of erectile dysfunction

Benfotiamine, a synthetic S-acyl thiamine derivative, has different mechanisms of action and a different pharmacological profile than lipid-soluble thiamine disulfide derivatives.
Volvert ML, Seyen S, Piette M, Evrard B, Gangolf M, Plumier JC, Bettendorff L.
BMC Pharmacol. 2008 Jun 12;8:10.
PMID: 18549472
doi:10.1186/1471-2210-8-10

Conclusion
Our results show that, though benfotiamine strongly increases thiamine levels in blood and liver, it has no significant effect in the brain. This would explain why beneficial effects of benfotiamine have only been observed in peripheral tissues, while sulbutiamine, a lipid-soluble thiamine disulfide derivative, that increases thiamine derivatives in the brain as well as in cultured cells, acts as a central nervous system drug. We propose that benfotiamine only penetrates the cells after dephosphorylation by intestinal alkaline phosphatases. It then enters the bloodstream as S-benzoylthiamine that is converted to thiamine in erythrocytes and in the liver. Benfotiamine, an S-acyl derivative practically insoluble in organic solvents, should therefore be differentiated from truly lipid-soluble thiamine disulfide derivatives (allithiamine and the synthetic sulbutiamine and fursultiamine) with a different mechanism of absorption and different pharmacological properties.

A popular vitamin supplement is being advertised with claims that are demonstrably untrue, as revealed by research published in the open access journal BMC Pharmacology.

Benfotiamine is a synthetic derivative of thiamine (vitamin B1). It is marketed heavily as a dietary supplement using a selection of unsubstantiated, 'not-quite-medical' claims that tend to characterize this field. A large part of this campaign has been built around the belief that benfotiamine is lipid-soluble and, therefore, more physiologically active. Scientific research led by Dr Lucien Bettendorff of the Center for Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology at the University of Liège, Belgium, has entirely disproved these claims.