Tag Archives: diet

Lack Of Sleep Linked To Cancer & Alzheimer’s Disease

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Persistent daytime drowsiness may be a warning sign for Alzheimer’s disease, a new study suggests. During sleep, the brain clears away clumps of a sticky protein linked to dementia, called amyloid. It’s well known that people with Alzheimer’s often have trouble sleeping. To examine the link between amyloid deposits and sleep, Mayo Clinic researchers surveyed 283 older people without dementia about their sleep habits and monitored their brains for amyloid buildup over a period of seven years. They found those who reported trouble sleeping, with frequent daytime sleepiness, were more likely to show rapid amyloid plaque accumulation than those who didn’t. Study author Prashanthi Vemuri tells Time​.com that the results highlight the importance of proper sleep. “It can prevent amyloid, which is one of the primary proteins underlying Alzheimer’s disease,” he says. According to the Centers for Disease Control, more than one-third of U.S. adults suffer from lack of sleep, routinely getting (Read More)

Anti-Cancer Properties of Curcumin

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Curcumin has long been known to provide potent anti-cancer benefits. Over 2,000 published studies have shown curcumin combats cancers of the breast, prostate, liver, colon, lung, pancreas and more. Many of these studies have shown curcumin actually stops cancer cells from dividing. Curcumin has also been shown to found to suppress genes that promote cell growth and help induce programmed cell death (apoptosis) which is the body’s natural and necessary way of ridding itself from damaged cells. Studies have suggested that high consumption results in lower cancer rates. We already know the anti-inflammatory benefits of curcumin. Combating chronic inflammation, a known contributing factor to the development of cancer, turmeric promotes the body’s ability to fight the spread of cancerous cells. Its potent antioxidants support the body’s natural immunity to oxidative changes—changes that can cause cancer to develop and progress. A 2007 U.S. study using curcumin along with chemotherapy to treat bowel (Read More)

Could Full-Fat Dairy Be Good For You?

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Health experts have long warned people away from full-fat dairy products because they contain high levels of saturated fat, which is thought to raise levels of LDL—or “bad” cholesterol. But a major new study has concluded that in moderation, whole milk and full-fat yogurt and cheese could in fact help protect against heart disease and stroke. Researchers examined data from more than 130,000 people across 21 countries over nine years and found that participants who ate two or more daily servings of full-fat dairy had a 22 percent lower risk of heart disease, a 34 percent lower risk of stroke, and a 23 percent lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease. (A serving was 8 oz of milk or yogurt, or a half-ounce slice of cheese.) Butter consumption wasn’t linked to similar benefits—though that may have been because most of the study’s subjects ate little of it. Study co-author Mahshid (Read More)

Another Way Sugar Can Kill

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Consuming too much sugar can increase people’s risk for heart disease- even if they’re otherwise healthy, new research reveals. Scientists asked 11 men with fatty-liver disease and 14 healthy men to follow either a high- or low-sugar diet for 12 weeks. All of the men consumed the same number of calories each day, but sugar accounted for 26 percent of the high-sugar accounted for 26 percent of the high-sugar diet (650 calories) and just 6 percent of the low-sugar diet. When the study ended, both the healthy men and those with fatty-liver disease who were on the high-sugar diet showed damaging changes in the way their bodies metabolized the fat linked to heart disease. The healthy men on the high-sugar diet also had more fat in their blood and liver, HealthDay.com reports. Dana Angelo White, a dietitian at Quinnipiac University who was not involved in the study, said its results (Read More)

Less Sleep, Bigger Belly

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People who don’t get enough sleep could be adding inches to their waistline, a new study has shown. Researchers at the University of Lees in the U.K. examined the association between sleep, diet, weight, and overall metabolic health among more than 1,600 adults, who tracked their diet and how long they slept each night. The researchers measured each person’s waist  circumference; factored in variables including age, ethnicity, smoking, and income; and checked the participants’ blood pressure, blood cholesterol, blood sugar, and thyroid function. They found that the waistlines of those who slept an average of six hours each night were about 1.2 inches larger than the waistlines of those who managed nine hours. The participants who slept less also had lower levels of HDL, the “good” cholesterol that helps reduce the risk for heart disease, reports ScienceDaily.com. The importance of sleep should not be underestimated, researcher Laura Hardie said, adding, (Read More)

Potassium Protects the Heart

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People often eat bananas, avocados, and leafy greens for various health benefits. New research adds another benefit: These and other potassium rich foods may help prevent heart disease, ScienceDaily.com reports. Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham found that a high-potassium diet makes arteries more flexible, and thus could reduce the risk for atherosclerosis, or “hardening of the arteries.” For the study, the researchers fed mice with a genetic susceptibility to heart disease a diet with low, normal, high levels of potassium. The mice on the low-potassium diet had more severe narrowing and hardening of the arteries than those with adequate potassium intake. High potassium diets had the opposite effects, suggesting that potassium rich foods – which also include potatoes, spinach, carrots, and artichokes – could also help prevent heart disease in people.   Mineral Depletion. Too little potassium, calcium or magnesium in your diet can contribute to leg (Read More)

Fast Food and Infertility

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Women trying to get pregnant should steer clear of fast foods and eat more fresh fruit instead. That’s the conclusion of a new study that followed the diets of nearly 5,600 women in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and the U.K. Researchers found that participants who ate meals at fast-food restaurants at least four times a week took nearly a month longer to conceive than those who rarely ate fast food. And while women who rarely or never ate fast food had an 8 percent risk of infertility—defined as not being able to get pregnant after a year of trying—the risk was 16 percent among regular fast-food eaters. Meanwhile, women who ate fruit at least three times a day got pregnant two weeks faster on average than women who ate fruit less than once a month. “It shows that healthier foods support conception,” study leader Jessica Grieger tells NBCNews.com. Researchers note that (Read More)

Settling the Egg Debate

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You can safely eat a dozen eggs a week—or possibly more—without increasing your risk of heart disease, according to new research. Like butter and red meat, eggs are high in dietary cholesterol, and for decades many physicians advised patients to cut back on such foods to keep their heart healthy. To test the health effect of eggs, researchers at the University of Sydney put 128 people with prediabetes or type 2 diabetes—a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease—on two different diets for a year. One group ate 12 eggs a week and the other ate two eggs or fewer a week. At the end of the study, the researchers found no adverse changes in cardiovascular risk factors in either group, including in blood pressure, weight, and cholesterol and blood-sugar levels, MedicalDaily.com reports. “Our research indicates people do not need to hold back from eating eggs,” study author Nick Fuller says, “if this (Read More)

Sluggish? Tired? Foggy? Iodine May Hold The Key

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Maybe it’s time to rejuvenate your thyroid – that master of metabolism. When your thyroid is functioning at less than optimum, you can bet that you will feel sluggish, tired and foggy. It is estimated that as high as twenty percent of all adults have hypothyroidism that has not been clinically diagnosed. And when the condition is diagnosed, the drugs used to combat it often yield little or no results. You see, the thyroid produces four different hormones and the drug addresses only one of these by replacing it. If you had four bad tires on your car, would you only replace one? Even worse, the “hormone replacement” drug actually depresses the thyroid from producing any hormones because it begins to feel as if “someone else” is doing its job, so why work?

Diet Linked to Arthritis

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Having a bad diet may increase your chances of developing osteoarthritis. Scientists have long thought the condition was tied to obesity and excessive stress placed on the joints, reports MedicalDaily.com. But in a new study, a team from the University of Rochester Medical Center found that a high-fat Western diet caused mice not only to gain weight but also to develop systemic inflammation and an imbalance in their gut microbiome: Their colons had high levels of harmful bacteria and hardly any beneficial “probiotic” bacteria. When the researchers tore cartilage in the rodents’ knees to trigger osteoarthritis, the disease progressed more rapidly in the obese mice. When they then treated these mice with a probiotic to restore their gut microbiome, the rodents had less inflammation and their joint health improved. Study author Eric Schott says his team’s findings “set the stage to develop therapies that target the microbiome and actually treat (Read More)