Walnuts Keep Your Blood Flowing
It’s no secret that nuts are good for your heart. We know that consuming nuts can dramatically reduce cardiovascular disease risk, but scientists are just beginning to figure out how this works. Scientists recently learned that almonds have a potent antioxidant effect, leading to decreases in circulating oxidized LDL, helping to keep the arteries clear of atherosclerotic plaque.
Like all nuts, walnuts are rich in fiber, minerals, micronutrients, phytosterols, antioxidants, and monounsaturated fats, but walnuts stand out because of their distinctively high levels of ALA, an omega-3 fatty acid and precursor to EPA and DHA.
Researchers tested whether walnuts would have beneficial effects on blood vessel function in individuals at risk for cardiovascular disease – those with type 2 diabetes.
After 8 weeks of daily walnut consumption, flow-mediated dilatation (FMD), which is a measure of how well the endothelial cells (the cells that line all blood vessels) are working to keep blood pressure in a favorable range, was improved. The blood vessels were able to dilate more in the subjects who ate walnuts. This is good news for overall cardiovascular disease risk since loss of endothelial function is one of the initiating events in atherosclerotic plaque development.
Want another reason to eat some walnuts? They may also protect against breast cancer and prostate cancer, according to animal studies.
It is recommended including a variety of nuts and seeds in a health-promoting diet. Year after year science is providing us more and more health-promoting properties of nuts and seeds.
Its All in Your Head – The Placebo Effect
The term placebo (meaning “I shall please”) was used in Prayer-Placebo Domino (“I shall please the Lord”). The phrase originated from a biblical translation of the fifth century AD.7 During the 18th century, the term was adopted by medicine and was used to imply preparations of no therapeutic value that were administered to patients as “decoy drugs”.
Henry K. Beecher, in his 1955 paper “The Powerful Placebo”, attributed a rough percentage of 30 per cent of the overall therapeutic benefit to the placebo effect. In later studies, the placebo effect was estimated at even higher, at 60 per cent of the overall therapeutic outcome.
In a recent review of 39 studies regarding the effectiveness of antidepressant drugs, psychologist Guy Sapirstein concluded that 50 per cent of the therapeutic benefits came from the placebo effect, with a poor percentage of 27 per cent attributed to drug intervention (fluoxetine, sertaline and paroxetine). Three years later Sapirstein, along with a fellow psychologist Irving Kirsch, processed the data from 19 double-blind studies regarding depression and reached an even higher percentage of therapeutic results attributed to the placebo effect: 75 per cent of depression therapies or ameliorations were placebo induced!
“Be not afraid of going slowly, be only afraid of standing still.”
— Chinese Proverb
“It’s never too late to be what you might have been.”
— George Elliot
The Health Benefits of Coenzyme 10 (CoQ10)
Discovered by researchers at the University of Wisconsin in 1957, Coenzyme -Q10 (CoQ10), also known as ubiquinone, is a powerful antioxidant .Its name comes from the word ubiquitous, which means “found everywhere.” Indeed, CoQ10 is found in every cell in the body. This fat-soluble, vitamin-like, enzyme is more abundant in some cells and organs than in others. It tends to congregate in the organs, which need the most energy, especially the heart, brain and liver.
The primary function of CoQ10 is to provide cellular energy. In each cell there are organelles (small organ cells) known as mitochondria. Mitochondria are similar to a car’s cylinders. They allow a chain of chemical reactions to create a spark, which generates 95 percent of the body’s energy.
CoQ10 is the spark that helps ignite adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the molecule that serves as the cell’s major energy source.
Low, or deficient levels of CoQ10 create lowered cellular and bodily energy. A decrease in bodily energy causes a decrease in various systems of the body including brain function (brain fog, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s), nerve transmission (tingling, numbness, pain), muscle function (achy muscles), immune function (depressed number of immune boosting cells), heart and blood vessel function (MVP, irregular heart beat, high blood pressure, arteriosclerosis, congestive heart failure), as well as over all metabolism (weight gain, depression, and fatigue).
New Fibromyalgia Study Shows CoQ10 May Be Helpful
Discovered by researchers at the University of Wisconsin in 1957, Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), also known as ubiquinone, is a powerful antioxidant. Its name comes from the word ubiquitous, which means, “found everywhere.” Indeed, CoQ10 is found in every cell of the body. This fat-soluble, vitamin-like enzyme is more abundant in some cells and organs than in others. It tends to congregate in the organs, which need the most energy, especially the heart, brain, and liver…. (READ MORE)
If so you need to read this!
Are You Feeling Rundown? Has your Get Up and Go Got Up and Went?
Over the last twenty years, the pharmaceutical companies have promoted cholesterol-lowering statin drugs with such fervor that they’ve become household names: Lipitor, Crestor, Vytorin, Zocor, and others. Accounting for 6.5% of the total market share, statin drugs are the most widely sold pharmaceutical drugs in history… (READ MORE)
Coffee May Help Prevent Diabetes
Scientists are reporting new evidence that drinking coffee may help prevent diabetes and that caffeine may be the ingredient largely responsible for this effect. Their findings, among the first animal studies to demonstrate this apparent link, appear in ACS’ bi-weekly Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
Fumihiko Horio and colleagues note that past studies have suggested that regular coffee drinking may reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes. The disease affects millions in the United States and is on the rise worldwide. However, little of that evidence comes from studies on lab animals used to do research that cannot be done in humans.
The scientists fed either water or coffee to a group of laboratory mice commonly used to study diabetes. Coffee consumption prevented the development of high-blood sugar and also improved insulin sensitivity in the mice, thereby reducing the risk of diabetes. Coffee also caused a cascade of other beneficial changes in the fatty liver and inflammatory adipocytokines related to a reduced diabetes risk. Additional lab studies showed that caffeine may be “one of the most effective anti-diabetic compounds in coffee,” the scientists say.
Mediterranean Diet and Exercise Can Reduce Sleep Apnea Symptoms
Eating a Mediterranean diet combined with physical activity can help to improve some of the symptoms of sleep apnea, according to new research. The study, which is published online in the European Respiratory Journal, looked at the impact a Mediterranean diet can have on obese people with sleep apnea, compared to those on a prudent diet.
Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) causes frequent pauses of breathing to occur during sleep, which disrupts a person’s normal sleeping pattern. It is one of the most prevalent sleep-related breathing disorders with approximately 2-4% of the adult population experiencing the condition. This percentage can increase up to 20-40% with obesity, and weight loss is an essential part of the recommended treatment plan.
The researchers examined 40 obese patients suffering from OSAS. 20 patients were given a prudent diet to follow, while the other 20 followed a Mediterranean diet. Both groups were also encouraged to increase their physical activity, mostly involving walking for at least 30 minutes each day, and both still received continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy which involves wearing a mask that generates an air stream, keeping the upper airway open during sleep.
The researchers monitored the patients’ electrical activity in the brain, eye movements and snoring. The patients were examined at the start of the study and again 6 months later.
The results showed that people following the Mediterranean diet had a reduced number of disturbances, known as apneas, during the rapid eye movement (REM) stage of sleep, which usually accounts for approximately 25% of total sleep during the night. Secodnly, the findings revealed that they also showed a greater adherence to the calorie restricted diet, an increase in physical activity and a greater decrease in abdominal fat.
The results of this small sample did show an improvement during one stage of sleep for people with sleep apnea, however it did not show an overall improvement in severity of the condition. The authors suggest that further studies in a larger sample are required to fully understand the benefits of this diet.
Since this study was done on a small scale, they were not able to conclude their findings. More studies are needed to examine the effect of the above diet on this sleep-related breathing disorder.
Kids say the darndest things …
A mother and her young son returned from the grocery store and began putting away the groceries. The boy opened the box of animal crackers and spread them all over the table. “What are you doing?” his mother asked. “The box says not to eat them if the seal is broken” the boy explained. “I’m looking for the seal.”
A father was at the beach with his children when his four-year-old son ran up to him, grabbed his hand, and led him to the shore, where a seagull lay dead in the sand. “Daddy, what happened to him?” the son asked. “He died and went to Heaven,” the dad replied. The boy thought a moment and then said, “Did God throw him back down?”
TEACHER: Now, Sam, tell me frankly, do you say prayers before eating?
SAM: No sir, I don’t have to, my Mom is a good cook.
It was the end of the day when a K-9 officer parked his police van in front of the station. While he was gathering his equipment, his K-9 partner started barking at a little boy staring into the van. “Is that a dog you got back there?” he asked the officer. “It sure is,” the officer replied. Puzzled, the boy looked at him and then towards the dog. Finally the boy said, “What’d he do?”
