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Whoever coined the term food additives had it all wrong. Including something new in a food doesn't always add up to more, at least when it comes to your health. Studies that test the safety of additives are based on animal trials. It is difficult to deduce whether the results of an animal study equate to human health, though many of these studies show that some additives could be cancer-causing.

ScienceDaily (Mar. 4, 2009) - Any diet will do? Not if you want to lose fat instead of muscle. Not if you want to lower your triglyceride levels so you'll be less likely to develop diabetes and heart disease. Not if you want to avoid cravings that tempt you to cheat on your diet. And not if you want to keep the weight off long-term. "Our latest study shows you have a better chance of achieving all these goals if you follow a diet that is moderately high in protein," said Donald Layman, a University of Illinois professor emeritus of nutrition. The research was published in the March Journal of Nutrition.

Natural Herbalism, or herbology, will comprehensively cover all the latest news on the best herbal products, informative herbal facts and natural herbal therapy treatments. Natural herbalism is now a growing alternative medicine. More patients with medical conditions are looking towards natural treatments like herbalism to avoid invasive procedures. Please email me at webmaster@naturalherbalism.com if there are any enquires on natural herbalism.

Taking a combination of vitamins B6 and B12 and folic acid appears to decrease the risk of age-related macular degeneration in women, according to a report in the February 23 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a leading cause of vision loss in older Americans, according to background information in the article. Treatment options exist for those with severe cases of the disease, but the only known prevention method is to avoid smoking. Recent studies have drawn a connection between AMD and blood levels of homocysteine, an amino acid. High levels of homocysteine are associated with dysfunction of the blood vessel lining, whereas treatment with vitamin B6, vitamin B12 and folic acid appears to reduce homocysteine levels and may reverse this blood vessel dysfunction.

Choose healthy fats, limit saturated fat, and avoid trans fat.\n\nThe total amount of fat you eat, whether high or low, isn't really linked with disease. What really matters is the type of fat you eat.\n

A seasonal variation of calcitropic hormones, bone turnover and bone mineral density in early and mid-puberty girls - a cross-sectional study. Viljakainen HT, Palssa A, Kärkkäinen M, Jakobsen J, Cashman KD, Mølgaard C, Lamberg-Allardt C. Br J Nutr. 2006 Jul;96(1):124-30. PMID: 16870000 Seasonal variation in S-25-OHD and bone remodelling markers accompanied by negative correlation between S-25-OHD and S-iPTH was seen in this cross-sectional study of adolescent girls. In addition, the seasonal rhythm contributed 7.0-7.6 % difference in the BMD of lumbar vertebrae and left femur in early puberty girls. This variation should be avoided since it could hamper peak bone mass attainment.

I have been inundated with letters asking about Professor Marshall's recent "discovery." Some have written that to say they have stopped their vitamin D and are going to avoid the sun in order to begin the "Marshall protocol." The immediate cause of this angst is two publications, a press article in Science Daily about Professor Marshall's "study" (which is no study but simply an opinion) in BioEssays. Dr. Trevor Marshall has two degrees, both in electrical engineering

The association of solar ultraviolet B (UVB) with reducing risk of cancer: multifactorial ecologic analysis of geographic variation in age-adjusted cancer mortality rates. Grant WB, Garland CF. Anticancer Res. 2006 Jul-Aug;26(4A):2687-99. PMID: 16886679 CONCLUSION: These results provide additional support for the hypothesis that solar UVB, through photosynthesis of vitamin D, is inversely-associated with cancer mortality rates, and that various other cancer risk-modifying factors do not detract from this link. It is thought that sun avoidance practices after 1980, along with improved cancer treatment, led to reduced associations in the latter period. The results regarding solar UVB should be studied further with additional observational and intervention studies of vitamin D indices and cancer incidence, mortality and survival rates.

25(OH)D Serum levels decline with age earlier in women than in men and less efficiently prevent compensatory hyperparathyroidism in older adults. Maggio D, Cherubini A, Lauretani F, Russo RC, Bartali B, Pierandrei M, Ruggiero C, Macchiarulo MC, Giorgino R, Minisola S, Ferrucci L. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2005 Nov;60(11):1414-9. PMID: 16339327 Conclusions. These findings suggest that the age-associated fall of serum 25(OH)D starts earlier in women than in men and that higher levels of 25(OH)D are required in older compared to younger persons to avoid the age-associated compensatory hyperparathyroidism.

If last week's column convinced you that surgery may not be the best way to avoid a heart attack or sudden cardiac death, the next step is finding out what can work as well or better to protect your heart.\n\nMany measures are probably familiar: not smoking, controlling cholesterol and blood pressure, exercising regularly and staying at a healthy weight. But some newer suggestions may surprise you.

If you've been diagnosed with high blood pressure (a systolic pressure of 140 or above or a diastolic pressure of 90 or above) or with prehypertension (a systolic pressure between 120 and 139 or a diastolic pressure between 80 and 89), you might be worried about taking medication to bring your numbers down. Don't assume medications are the key to controlling your high blood pressure (hypertension). Lifestyle plays an important role in treating your high blood pressure. If you successfully control your blood pressure with a healthy lifestyle, you may avoid, delay or reduce the need for medication.

Note: If you or your loved one has cancer, do not avoid, delay, or abandon conventional treatment due to anything you may see here. Cancer treatment has made great advances since 1990. Most alternatives have little to no value. Nothing you see here has been validated by completed human trials.

Calorie-restricted diets are thought to protect against cancer and slow tumor growth, and a new study published in this week's Nature begins to tease out why the measure works for some tumors, and not for others. For almost a century, researchers have known that fasting helps animals live longer and avoid some cancers, "but which type of cancers would be amenable to this approach, from a therapeutic standpoint, is still an open question," said Pier Paolo Pandolfi, a cancer geneticist at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Cancer Center in Boston, Mass., who was not involved in the study. The study is exciting because it is one of the first to start answering that question at the genetic level, he said.

People with viral diseases can benefit from a diet high in lysine and low in arginine. In the following chart, the foods at the top of the list have higher lysine to arginine ratios. Diet and vitamin supplements may influence viral replication. A total approach to nutrition should be used. Use this chart as a guide or a reference only, and see what happens. Look at the absolute figures for lysine and arginine content. There is no reason to avoid a food if it has a low lysine/arginine ratio and only a few mg of arginine in it. Ratio of Lysine to Arginine in Certain Foods, by James M. Scutero Transcribed and calculated using data from Agricultural Handbook, 1-23, U.S. Department of Agriculture.

An immune system is a collection of biological processes within an organism that protects against disease by identifying and killing pathogens and tumour cells. It detects a wide variety of agents, from viruses to parasitic worms, and needs to distinguish them from the organism's own healthy cells and tissues in order to function properly. Detection is complicated as pathogens can evolve rapidly, producing adaptations that avoid the immune system and allow the pathogens to successfully infect their hosts.

Mercury, fish oils, and risk of acute coronary events and cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease, and all-cause mortality in men in eastern Finland. Virtanen JK, Voutilainen S, Rissanen TH, Mursu J, Tuomainen TP, Korhonen MJ, Valkonen VP, Seppänen K, Laukkanen JA, Salonen JT. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol. 2005 Jan;25(1):228-33. Epub 2004 Nov 11. PMID: 15539625 doi: 10.1161/01.ATV.0000150040.20950.61 Conclusions- High content of mercury in hair may be a risk factor for acute coronary events and CVD, CHD, and all-cause mortality in middle-aged eastern Finnish men. Mercury may also attenuate the protective effects of fish on cardiovascular health. Mercury may increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases. In this study, high mercury content in hair increased the risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in middle-aged Finnish men and attenuated the beneficial effects of fish oils on cardiovascular health. Regular consumption of fish with high mercury content should be avoided.

"Susceptible strains of rodents fed high-fat diets overeat, gain fat and become profoundly insulin resistant. Dr. Jianping Ye's group recently published a paper showing that the harmful metabolic effects of a high-fat diet (lard and soybean oil) on mice can be prevented, and even reversed, using a short-chain saturated fatty acid called butyric acid (hereafter, butyrate). The butyrate-fed mice remained lean and avoided metabolic problems. Butyrate increased their energy expenditure by increasing body heat production and modestly increasing physical activity. It also massively increased the function of their mitochondria, the tiny power plants of the cell."

"This Facts About reviews healthy fats and gives examples of foods to choose from as well as foods to avoid. We provide a guide for selecting an appropriate portion size, and recommendations for incorporating healthy changes into your diet."

"I've always read that you should avoid coconut oil because of its high level of saturated fat. But I recently heard it is actually healthful and can help you lose weight. Is that true? Most nutritionists don't believe consuming coconut oil will help with weight loss -- the evidence is far from conclusive on that point. But most will also concede that the oil may not be the demon many think it is. To be honest, when it comes to nutrition research, the "truth" often seems elusive. Studies pronounce one verdict and then new findings point in another direction. That's simply the nature of the scientific process and the complexity surrounding nutrition and health. As long as we persist in hunting for more precise answers, we'll continue to encounter surprises. "