Archive for June, 2008
Sunday, June 29th, 2008
Is vitamin D a possible treatment for Autism? John Cannell, MD from the Vitamin D Council reports on a possible treatment effect of Vitamin D for Autism.
First, a brief case report and then a more detailed exchange of emails between the mother and me (John Cannell).
John is a seven-year old boy living in the northeastern U.S. with a long-standing diagnosis of autism. Symptoms include temper tantrums, repetitive self-stimulatory behavior, impaired ...
Filed under Autism Spectrum Disorders, Vitamin D Benefits | No Comments yet, your thoughts are welcome »
Saturday, June 28th, 2008
Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy is an innovative treatment program for relapse prevention of depression and the treatment of anxiety disorders.
Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) may be seen by patients more along the lines of adult education rather than a mental health intervention, thus helping to de-stigmatise depression and anxiety.
Preconceptions, motivations and expectations.
While the majority of participants had past experience of some form of psychological intervention (10/13), ranging from counselling to ...
Filed under Depression, Anxiety, Stress | No Comments yet, your thoughts are welcome »
Friday, June 27th, 2008
Study compares the relative merits of four of the most popular weight-loss diets and concludes that the key to weight loss is sticking with a diet rather than the type of a diet.
With over 1,000 diet books available on bookstore shelves, popular diets clearly have become increasingly prevalent. At the same time, they have also become increasingly controversial, because some depart substantially from mainstream medical advice or have been criticized ...
Filed under Weight Loss | No Comments yet, your thoughts are welcome »
Thursday, June 26th, 2008
When people go on weight-loss diets, they often lose calcium from their bones. Copper helps to retain more calcium during the process of losing weight.
Part of the overall efforts of researchers to help reduce obesity rates in the United States is to look carefully at the physiological changes that take place during weight loss.
A human study headed by scientists at ARS’s Grand Forks ( North Dakota) Human Nutrition Research Center ...
Filed under Weight Loss | No Comments yet, your thoughts are welcome »
Wednesday, June 25th, 2008
Several studies, including the present, demonstrate that exercise raises HDL cholesterol levels. Some researchers suggest that the way to avoid a decline in HDL cholesterol levels that occurs with dieting is to combine diet with exercise.
It has been shown that those who decrease their fat intake while dieting, but maintain an active exercise program, note an increase in HDL cholesterol levels. (Arteriosclerosis 1988, 8:737-741, Arch Intern Med 1995, 155:415-420).
Using the ...
Filed under Cholesterol Lowering | No Comments yet, your thoughts are welcome »
Tuesday, June 24th, 2008
When dieting and your leptin levels go down, you may find you are more hungry. Researchers found that during the first week of the weight-loss diet, volunteers' leptin levels dropped by an average of 54 percent.
This is accouding to Agricultural Research Service (ARS) researchers in Davis, California, who are studying the effects of the hormone leptin.
Their investigation at the ARS Western Human Nutrition Research Center is among the first long-term ...
Filed under Leptin Hormone | No Comments yet, your thoughts are welcome »
Monday, June 23rd, 2008
Market America announced that it is in the development and testing stages of a new line of nutraceutical products that will support the health of children with autism and related neurodevelopmental challenges.
Specialized laboratory testing often demonstrates sub-optimal levels of vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and fatty acids in people with autism, which can be addressed with nutritional supplements.
Despite these findings, Market America found in its research that parents and ...
Filed under Autism Spectrum Disorders | No Comments yet, your thoughts are welcome »
Sunday, June 22nd, 2008
Among Hispanics, type 2 diabetes prevalence is about double that of non-Hispanic whites. Hispanic men and women over 55 with an average 9-year history of type-2 diabetes were reported to gain significant benefits from exercise (resistance training) in a study by researchers at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA) at Tufts University in Boston.
The researchers asked half the volunteers to serve as controls and the ...
Filed under Diabetes | No Comments yet, your thoughts are welcome »
Saturday, June 21st, 2008
Depression and anxiety are amongst the commonest reasons for consultation in UK general practice. Participants with a history of depression who had depression or depression and anxiety were recruited from a single practice in Ayrshire, Scotland to take part in a study using Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT).
Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) is an 8-week course developed for patients with relapsing depression that integrates mindfulness meditation practices and cognitive theory.
Previous ...
Filed under Depression, Anxiety, Stress | No Comments yet, your thoughts are welcome »
Friday, June 20th, 2008
Higher levels of dietary trans fats have been linked to higher blood levels of small, unhealthy particles of LDL cholesterol. Trans fats (trans fatty acids) are formed during hydrogenation, the process by which oil is transformed from a liquid state to a more versatile, solid fat for use in thousands of processed foods.
LDL cholesterol circulates in the bloodstream as constellations of small, medium, or large particles.
Since they carry around most ...
Filed under Cholesterol Lowering | No Comments yet, your thoughts are welcome »
Thursday, June 19th, 2008
Studies show that Gymnema is a natural treatment for type 2 diabetes. Gymnema has also been shown to be an effective treatment for type 1 diabetes.
Case reports and studies involving both humans and animals suggest that it may work in several ways to help control both type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes.
Gymnema sylvestre seem to decrease the amounts of sugar that is absorbed from foods therefore blood sugar levels ...
Filed under Diabetes | No Comments yet, your thoughts are welcome »
Wednesday, June 18th, 2008
Heart disease may be reversible in adults with type 2 diabetes. Aggressively lowering cholesterol and blood pressure levels below current targets in adults with type 2 diabetes may help to prevent – and possibly reverse – hardening of the arteries, according to new research supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health.
Hardening of the arteries, also known as atherosclerosis, is the number ...
Filed under Diabetes | No Comments yet, your thoughts are welcome »
Monday, June 16th, 2008
Relaxation training is a common treatment for anxiety disorders, both as a stand-alone treatment for anxiety disorders or included in a more complex therapy. The prevalence of anxiety is approximately twice among women compared with men.
Anxiety is common among healthy individuals and has been associated with numerous negative health consequences and absenteeism and decreased work productivity.
Studies have persistently shown that anxiety disorders result in ill health, utilization of health care ...
Filed under Depression, Anxiety, Stress | 1 Comment »
Sunday, June 15th, 2008
Consumption of chocolate has been often thought to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease due to chocolate's high levels of antioxidant flavonoids and stearic acid.
In the American diet, fruits, vegetables, tea, wine and chocolate are major sources of antioxidants, which have been shown to have protective effects against coronary heart disease and strokes.
One type of antioxidants, flavonoids, commonly found in these foods, have attracted interest in potentially lowering risk of cardiovascular ...
Filed under Heart Disease | No Comments yet, your thoughts are welcome »
Friday, June 13th, 2008
Folic acid (folate) deficiency is an established risk factor for the development of certain types of cancer, cardiovascular disease, developmental defects (e.g. neural tube defects), and neurological or psychiatric disorders. Folic acid's health benefits make it a key nutrient for optimising health.
Folic acid (folate) is involved in homocysteine metabolism and inadequate folic acid has been characterized as a major cause of hyperhomocysteinaemia (higl levels of homocystein).
Although most of the adverse ...
Filed under Nutrition/Herbs/Spices/ Supplements | No Comments yet, your thoughts are welcome »
Thursday, June 12th, 2008
Laboratory and animal research has demonstrated anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and anti-cancer properties of the spice turmeric and its constituent curcumin.
Alzheimer's Disease.
Curcumin, extracted from turmeric, has been shown to have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties and to reduce beta-amyloid and plaque burden in lab studies. Beta-amyloid is a component of the amyloid plaques that accumulate in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease.
Cancer.
A number of animal and laboratory studies have reported anti-cancer (colon, ...
Filed under Nutrition/Herbs/Spices/ Supplements | No Comments yet, your thoughts are welcome »
Wednesday, June 11th, 2008
Prior to the discovery of medical treatments for diabetes, limiting carbohydrates was the predominant treatment recommendation to treat diabetes mellitus (type 2). Researchers at Duke University Medical Center argue that carbohydrate-restriction should be reincorporated into contemporary treatment studies for diabetes mellitus.
In the early 20th century, before any medications were available for the treatment of diabetes mellitus, experts recommended dietary carbohydrate-restriction.
The dietary recommendation for diabetes in a prominent internal medicine textbook ...
Filed under Diabetes | No Comments yet, your thoughts are welcome »
Monday, June 9th, 2008
Study shows a diet high in soy protein lowers cholesterol. Soy protein can be an important addition to a diet to lower cholesterol, according to new findings from a study conducted at the Children's Nutrition Research Center in Houston, Texas.
The research, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, may also explain why previous studies have produced conflicting evidence concerning the merits of soy protein.
Filed under Cholesterol Lowering | No Comments yet, your thoughts are welcome »
Friday, June 6th, 2008
Researchers wanted to see if extra vitamin C would or would not raise HDL cholesterol levels. The higher your HDL cholesterol, the less bad cholesterol you'll have in your blood. Many doctors are now beginning to pay more attention to HDL cholesterol.
HDL cholesterol takes up excess cholesterol from cells and returns it to the liver, making the cells more receptive to the LDL cholestorol particles. This prevents the LDL cholesterol ...
Filed under Cholesterol Lowering | No Comments yet, your thoughts are welcome »
