Feb
05
2013

News About Your Heart Health

Introduction

Notably, this article is regarding news about your heart health. Specifically, February is heart month every year. So I thought why not review what is new regarding heart health in the last 15 years. In addition, this review also puts all the facts into perspective. I will start with a review of the older teaching about heart disease. First thing to remember, there was a paradigm shift in medical thinking. I will explain how this has changed the approach to heart disease prevention. The anatomy of the heart including coronary arteries and the heart valves has not changed over the years. The heart has always been at the center of life and will remain there.

A heart attack can develop from closing of one of the coronary arteries

It used to be thought that when a person ages one should expect to get problems with high cholesterol, which would be the cause of hardening of coronary arteries of the heart until one day the person would experience a heart attack from the closing of one or more of the three coronary arteries. Certainly, cardiologists can then offer an arteriogram, place a stent to reopen any blocked coronary artery and the patient would be OK for another 5 to 10 years. Alternatively, coronary bypass surgery can be offered by a cardiovascular surgeon to revascularize the coronary arteries.

Apart from cholesterol patients can get heart attacks from chronic inflammation

In contrast, in the mid 1990’s all this changed with the realization that 50% of heart attacks happened in patients who had normal cholesterol levels. In fact, research showed that inflammation of the heart vessels starts the process of subsequent blockage that causes heart attacks. A great deal of research in animal models and with humans took place. Indeed, this showed that a lot can be done in the area of prevention of heart attacks. Cure rates can only change very little when damage to the heart muscle has already occurred. The paradigm shift is in the understanding of what leads to a heart attack.

Too much sugar, starchy food and fat cause inflammation of the coronary arteries

We now know that too much sugar, too many starchy foods and too much animal fat will lead to inflammation of the arteries including the coronary arteries. The reason is that faulty nutrition leads to a lack of omega-3 fatty acids and a surplus of omega-6 fatty acids. This starts the inflammatory cycle, which causes inflammation in the arterial walls. Rising LDL cholesterol levels (that’s the bad cholesterol) follow and HDL cholesterol levels (that’s the good cholesterol) fall.

Nitric oxide production necessary to keep coronary arteries open

Associated with this is a lowering of nitric oxide production in the lining of the arterial walls, which leads to a narrowing of the arterial opening and simultaneous development of high blood pressure. Research of the metabolism of cells, particularly the subunits of cells called mitochondria, shed a new light on the heart as well. Mitochondria are the energy producing subunits of the cells. They are abundantly present in those organs that have a high metabolism. These organs are the heart, brain, liver and kidneys.

News About Your Heart Health

News About Your Heart Health

Life prolonging steps to prevent heart attacks

This newer knowledge allows the prevention-oriented physician to help patients not to get heart disease on the first place. The key is to prevent inflammation of the arteries and to add nitric oxide as a supplement. Also, the physician wants to change the food composition that the patient consumes. In addition, the physician wants to  intervene at the mitochondrial level. The patient achieves this with the help of supplements and by a regular exercise program. Over the years there have been impressive clinical trials that show that these preventative means when taken together can add 10 to 20 years of productive life without any disability. In the following I am going to describe the rationale for each of these life-prolonging steps:

Preventing inflammation of the arteries

Preventing inflammation of the arteries: at the moment many people eat the standard North American diet consisting of foods with too much sugar, processed foods with animal fat and lots of pasta. People need to eat a lot of leafy-green vegetables (kale, spinach, Swiss chard) and lean pork, turkey and chicken.  this will change the omega-3 to omega-6 ratio in favor of omega-3 fatty acids. This has a powerful effect on your body, as the surplus omega-3 fatty acids will suppress any inflammation in your blood vessels, which prevents heart attacks.

Eat organic foods

If you also eat as much organic food as possible, you will in addition reduce the toxic load in your body from heavy metals like lead and mercury and chemicals like herbicides and insecticides that often are contained in regular non-organic foods. By cutting out sugar and refined carbohydrates fasting insulin levels and triglyceride levels fall. This prevents diabetes and keeps your arteries open longer.

Adding nitric oxide and doing intermittent chelation therapy

By adding nitric oxide as a supplement such as “Neo40” (this supplement has hawthorn and red beet extract in it) the lining of the arteries gets a boost of nitric oxide production.  This lowers your blood pressure and widens the arteries in your body including the coronary arteries. The result is more oxygen and nutrients for your heart cells. By intervening at the mitochondrial level with the help of supplements and by doing occasional intravenous chelation therapyto remove heavy metals you can revive the sluggish metabolism of the mitochondria of your major organs. It’s like you are recharging the battery of your car, just here we are dealing with the microscopic energy packages, the mitochondria, in the cells of your vital organs including your heart.

Life prolonging supplements

Certain vitamins and supplements help in this process as follows: D-ribose, alpha-lipoic acid and CoQ10 support mitochondria; niacin lowers triglycerides and LDL cholesterol and elevates HDL-cholesterol (the good cholesterol); magnesium is an important cofactor of many enzymatic reactions in your cells and it also lowers blood pressure by widening the arteries making it easier for your heart to pump blood through them. Omega-3 and vitamin D3 both are anti-inflammatories, which makes these two important supplements for heart attack prevention. Vitamin D3 is also important for your immune system and helps to absorb calcium from the gut. Vitamin K2 has been found to be important to help transport the calcium into your bones preventing osteoporosis, so that it does not stay in your vascular system and cause hardening of your arteries by getting into your arterial walls.

Bioidentical hormone replacement

Bio-identical hormone replacement therapy is a powerful stimulus for the metabolism of your whole body, but particularly your heart. The heart needs adequate amounts of thyroid hormones and sex hormones (testosterone in males, balanced estrogen and progesterone in females). DHEA is a precursor hormone from your adrenal glands that your hormone balance requires for support of your heart muscle. The physician can order hormone tests and replace what is missing with bio-identical hormones.

Regular exercise program

A regular exercise program rounds up your heart support program. A regular exercise program by itself has been shown to be powerful heart attack prevention by cutting heart attack rates into half when compared to a non-exercise control group. Exercise builds up your heart muscle reserves and prevents clogging up of coronary arteries.

Lifestyle changes

Lifestyle changes can have a powerful effect in terms of preventing heart attacks. Everybody knows that those who smoke will not live as long as those who don’t. Smoking accelerates hardening of the arteries and causes not only heart attacks, but also cancer. Perhaps less known is the fact that alcohol can poison mitochondria. The fact that wine contains bioflavonoids is what prevents heart attacks.  Statistics show that 1 glass of wine for women and two glasses of wine for men prolong life. The wine industry was quick to exploit these statistics for the benefit of their sales. Fact is that even small doses of alcohol are a cell poison. Bioflavonoids are much more effective when taken as part of your daily supplements (resveratrol capsules) and it is much healthier for your heart and other body parts, if you do not consume any alcohol at all.

Apart from the Framingham Heart Study what we know

Originally the Framingham study showed that high LDL cholesterol was associated with heart attacks. But now we know that it is the overconsumption of sugar, high fructose corn syrup and refined carbohydrates in processed foods as well as animal fat overconsumption (mostly omega-6 fatty acids) that lead to inflammation of the lining of the arteries including LDL cholesterol overproduction from the liver. The focus has switched from lowering cholesterol and triglycerides to reducing and preventing inflammation and to supporting the mitochondria of the heart muscle cells.

Preventing 85% of heart attacks

Simple steps as outlined above have the power to prevent about 85% or more of heart attacks. They work by treating insulin resistance through the diet changes, which in turn lowers fasting insulin levels, blood sugars and triglycerides as well as cholesterol. Inflammation is kept at bay. You prevent heart disease and in addition also arthritis, high blood pressure, strokes and Alzheimer’s disease. One of the side effects is weight loss, extra energy and a sense of wellbeing.

More information on heart disease: http://nethealthbook.com/cardiovascular-disease/heart-disease/

Jan
22
2013

Long-Term Multistep Weight Management

In February of 2001 my wife and I attended an anti-aging conference in San Diego. The keynote speaker was Dr. Barry Sears who is the inventor of the zone diet. We had read a book from him before the conference and were excited to hear him speak in person. We liked the book; we liked the talk, so we cut out sugar, starchy foods and stuck to a diet where the calories derived 50% from low-glycemic, complex carbohydrates, 25-30% from lean meat, poultry and fish. Calories derived from fat were reduced to about 15-20% (there is hidden fat even in lean meat). No butter, but instead some lean cheeses and olive oil for cooking and in salad dressings. We shed both 50 pounds within 3 months without any hunger pangs. Our energy increased and this has stayed  this way ever since. There was no problem getting down with our BMI’s (body mass index) to 23.5 or 24.0, which is usually viewed as normal by the medical profession. We noticed, however, that when we did not exercise, there was a problem maintaining our normal weight.  We are under the care of an anti-aging physician who did special tests like fasting insulin, C- reactive protein, and hormone tests. They were all normal. We took up ballroom dancing really seriously having been inspired by “Dancing With the Stars”. This was 6 years ago. What started innocently with only a few basic ballroom lessons three times per week has now blossomed into dancing more than 10 different dance styles 5 times per week.

Long-term Multistep Weight Management

Long-term Multistep Weight Management

3 ½ years ago both of our energy levels were slowly going down, particularly after a long night of dancing. Hormone tests revealed the initial stages of age-related hormone deficiencies which did not come as a surprise , as  decreasing hormone levels was a topic discussed  in detail at the conference in San Diego in 2001 (we also attended several other anti-aging conferences on a yearly basis from 2009 onwards). With bioidentical hormone replacements these levels normalized within one year, our energy was back and our weight stayed normal. We enjoy travelling, but there can be problems with our multistep weight management program. We need to watch our diet (no toxins, preferably only organic food), and physical exercise may be less regimented. In 2008 we read Suzanne Somers’ book “Breakthrough”. We ordered urine tests for toxic metals and we were shocked that we had noticeable levels of mercury and lead. Since then we started to cut our salmon consumption from 3 to 4 times per week down to once or twice per week. To get rid of the heavy metals we started intravenous chelation treatments with vitamin C (10 Gm) and Glutathione (1250 mg) every two weeks. In July 2012 there were reports of radioactive salmon from the Japan nuclear disaster earlier that year in the Canadian media. After this news we stopped eating all fish and other seafood, not only because of radioactivity, but also because of other toxins like mercury, cadmium, PBC’s etc.  We do take high doses of molecularly distilled omega-3 fatty acids along with our other supplements. We also started eating mostly organic foods as we do not want to ingest insecticides, herbicides and other toxins.

We acquired body composition scales, which give information about fat percentage including visceral fat percentage, muscle mass percentage, BMI, weight and the basic metabolic rate. We wanted to define the end point of what our ideal body weight would be. We noticed that our dance program was not good enough to lower the BMI below about 23.5; using the body composition scales we noted that our body fat content was still too high and the visceral fat percentage was still in the 6% range. It took a prolonged trip to the US where we could not find enough dance events to decide that we would introduce a one hour gym program consisting of 30 minutes of treadmill, 15 minutes of upper body circuits, and 15 minutes of lower body circuits every day as a basis to our exercise program. Any dance activity would be just an additional exercise on top of the base exercise from the gym. It took only about 2 months before our fat composition decreased, our muscle mass increased, the visceral fat went to a normal at 5% and the BMI was now stabilized at the 21.5 to 22.0 range. We feel a lot more confident in managing our weight long-term without really thinking much about the weight. It is now a routine we follow, like an athlete would do to stay in shape. While nobody has a permanent guarantee to everlasting health, we do it to prevent the diseases we do not need in our retirement like diabetes, arthritis, heart attacks, strokes, cancer or Alzheimer’s.

What we did not know until after the 20th A4M Anti-Aging Conference in Las Vegas (mid December 2012) was that inadvertently we were protected from exposure to chemically modified wheat from 2001 onwards as we had cut out all refined carbohydrates and starchy foods (including wheat) since then. Unfortunately many Americans still expose themselves unknowingly to larger or smaller quantities of wheat, suffer from leaky gut syndrome with the associated changes in the immune system and the development of autoimmune diseases.

Personally, I believe that long term weight management is possible: you can turn older and hopefully wiser…not wider. The good news: it can be done. The bad news: this is not an instant fix, but a program that needs to be part of your lifestyle package.

More information on weight loss: http://nethealthbook.com/health-nutrition-and-fitness/weight-loss-and-diet/

Last updated Nov. 6, 2014

Jan
03
2013

Thinking Of Health In The New Year

The following article is about thinking of health in the New Year. As we start a New Year (2013) it is a good time to reflect on our health, what makes us healthy, what keeps us healthy and what makes us age less quickly.
Here are a few thoughts, partially my own, partially influenced by the 20th Anti-aging conference in Las Vegas in December of 2012.

Stay away from cigarettes

1. In particular, we know that cigarettes are no longer in. But in the casinos of Las Vegas and outside of restaurants a lot of people are still smoking! Here is a website that tells you why you should quit.  Notably, cigarettes cause lung cancer, hardening of the arteries, strokes, and often reduce life expectancy by 10 to 15 years. To emphasize, if you are smoking do anything to quit this habit! Acupuncture helps, Nicorette assists you in overcoming the addiction part of smoking. In addition, self hypnosis discs are also helpful.

Reducing toxins

2. Reduce toxins in your life: you may think that toxins consist of lead, mercury and other heavy metals and that only people in certain industries would be exposed to those. Not so. It is in the air we breathe. Your tooth fillings (silver amalgam fillings) may leech out mercury, old paints at home could still expose you to lead, as would fashion jewelry made in China. Various foods contain toxins in them in form of residues from herbicides and insecticides. How do we detoxify? Vitamin C is a good start. It can be taken as a daily vitamin supplement (see below).

Intravenous chelation therapy

Detoxification can be done intravenously, if urine and blood tests show high levels of toxins.

This is something an anti-aging doctor or a naturopathic doctor can help you with. Glutathione and vitamin C can be given intravenously for chelation treatment with the least side-effects. Here is a link that tells you more about chelation in general.

Staying away from modern wheat and genetically modified foods

3. Cut out wheat and other genetically modified foods: What’s the thing about wheat? Read my blog about this.
All of the wheat we get today in bread, cereals, pasta, pizzas etc. has been genetically modified and has about 7 times the gliadin concentration that the original wheat species had before BASF did the chemical modification of  wheat in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Today practically all of the commercial wheat is this type.
As a result I have avoided wheat in my food intake since 2001. When you avoid wheat and sugar, which is another culprit (sugar is simply too strong for your body to handle and leads to hyperinsulinism and diabetes) you will likely loose whatever weight is too much for you without any effort.

Thinking Of Health In The New Year

Thinking Of Health In The New Year

Eat mostly organic food

4. Eat only organic food , if you can afford it. Or grow your own vegetables and lettuce in your vegetable garden, if you can. Because of what I said under point 2 above, I stay away from regular vegetables and lettuce that are sold in super markets as they contain residues of round-up (herbicides) and insecticides on them. Organic food nowadays is affordable as enough of us demand it. Even Wal-Mart has some organic foods! Keep an eye on your body weight and aim for a body mass index between 21.5 and 23.0. Several long-term studies have shown that the BMI is worth observing in order to reduce mortality.

The Singapore Chinese Health Study: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0014000

The Buffalo Health Study:  http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/146/11/919.full.pdf+html

Regular exercise

5. Exercise regularly 5 to 7 times per week. Perhaps one of the most important points is regular exercise. Engaging in ½ hour of vigorous exercise three times per week reduces your probability of coming down with a serious illness that could kill you by 15%. If you exercise 5 to 7 days per week for 30 minutes or more this percentage goes up to about 40%. If you exercise 60 minutes 6 to 7 times per week in a gym, you reduce mortality by about 50 to 60%. Here is an interesting graph that shows that older adults benefit more from exercise than younger adults do.

Have your hormone status checked yearly

6. Have a yearly check-up including a check-up of your hormone status: As we age, our hormones reduce in a characteristic patterns with melatonin and growth hormone production going on a downhill slope after the age of 30, followed soon by DHEA and cortisol. Often by the time a woman reaches menopause at the age of 35 to 50, there is a lack of estrogens, progesterone, and often also of thyroid hormones. In a man this decline (andropause) may take longer until the age of 55 to 65 before he experiences a lack of energy, erectile dysfunction and muscle weakness from testosterone deficiency. Sex hormones are best measured in saliva samples, the remaining hormones in blood samples. Here is a website that describes the various hormones that often need replacement (note that I am not endorsing this website, just citing it as an example of what to look out for).

Bioidentical hormone replacement

  1. Replace hormones only with bioidentical hormones: When there is a hormone deficiency, a doctor would usually replace the deficiency with synthetic hormones from Big Pharma. This was good for the profits of the companies, but bad for people as the Women’s Health Initiative has shown.
    As a result of this study (showing heart attacks, strokes, breast cancer) a lot of American women and women around the world were unjustly horrified of hormone replacement.

Bioidentical hormone replacement safe

However, many trials with bioidentical hormones around the world have proven that bioidentical hormone replacement with hormone creams from compounding pharmacies add years of life expectancy as these hormones restore all body functions back to normal. No breast cancer, no heart attacks and no strokes were noted on these natural hormones. The key is to replace with low doses and slowly under the supervision of a naturopathic physician or anti-aging physician.
Here is a site that explains bioidentical hormone replacement (note that I am not endorsing this center, just citing it as an example of what to look out for).

Friendships and hobbies

8. Have hobbies, cherish friendships. Social networking is good for your emotional health. It reduces stress, re-balances your hormones, reduces your risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Cherish your spiritual life

9. Don‘t neglect your spirituality. Be part of a church community that builds you up, if you are religious. For those who no longer belong to a church group, meditate instead, use yoga, do self hypnosis or read an inspiring book. Music can energize you or contribute to relaxation.

Vitamin and mineral supplementation

10. Use vitamin and mineral supplements. There are a number of vitamins and minerals that have anti-oxidative effects. They help to detoxify your body and protect you from some of the environmental challenges. I have discussed them elsewhere in more detail under this link.

So, here they are, the 10 steps to a healthier 2013. Review what you are doing in your life . You may need to only modify the one or the other point. Otherwise, if you have identified several points you want to change, just start with the ones you feel can be achieved the easiest first and then gradually tackle the rest. Your reward is more energy and you will probably find it difficult to hide your successes from your friends.

Dec
17
2012

From Wheat to Autoimmune Disease and Obesity

Introduction

This is a summary of the lessons from the 2012 Anti-Aging Conference in Las Vegas…from wheat to autoimmune disease and obesity. It is not possible to summarize all the multitude of lectures from a three day conference on one page. However, what was striking was that several topics developed into a common thread. These were the topics of autoimmunity, obesity, diabetes, hormone disbalances and more. Dr. William Davis, the author of the book “Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back to Health” explained how the BASF, a major chemical company from Germany was able to chemically modify the genes of wheat in the 1960’s and 1970’s.

Clearfield wheat has much more gluten

The farmers liked that the new wheat (called Clearfield wheat) grew with stronger roots, shorter final stems and much larger grains so the yield per acre was higher. The developers of this type of wheat patented it under the name of Clearfield wheat. They did not publicize at the time that there was a significant increase of the gliadin content. Clearfield wheat contains much more gliadin in comparison to the old wheat strains people consumed for thousands of years. Gliadin gets rid of the glue like substance between the gut cells. This causes leaky gut syndrome, something that came out in many other lectures throughout the conference. This exposes the immune cells to foreign proteins from the gut.  The immune system in turn hyper react with the production of autoimmune antibodies.

Stages of autoimmune diseases

Dr. Aristo Vojdani explained in his lecture that there are three stages of autoimmune disease. First, there is the silent stage where there are no symptoms, but the immune system is starting to react. Next there is autoimmune reactivity, which is the second stage. The third stage is autoimmune disease where there are signs of loss of body function. Autoimmunity develops in about 1/3 of identical twins in families who are prone to this. When the researchers examined non-identical twins as a control group, only 2% to 5% of twins developed it.

Autoimmune diseases due to genetics and the environment

This tells us that genetics are responsible for only about 1/3 of the cases of autoimmunity. The other 2/3 come from the environment such as genetically modified foods. In addition, fat cells secrete toxic chemicals and inflammatory cytokines.  Dr. Vojdani emphasized that gliadin in our foods has become one of the major factors of driving autoimmune diseases up in the last few decades. The immune cells with the name of T cells determine whether they accept our own cells as “self”.  Alternatively, they consider other cells as “foreign” and attack them. This occurs in autoimmune diseases such as Celiac disease, ulcerative colitis, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, MS and others.

Las Vegas December 15, 2012v

Las Vegas, December 15, 2012

There are regulatory T cells, which are good. But there are also T cells whose genetic material underwent a change and became Th17 cells. These cells are a kind of “Pac Man” cells that attacks body cells. Altered gut flora (called gut dysbiosis) in connection with a leaky gut syndrome contributes to the formation of these aggressive Th17 cells. It is the combination of gliadin with bowel dysbiosis that drives the development of autoimmune diseases. Behind this is the fact that the gut plays a major role in the normal functioning of the immune system. Normally there is a tight connection between the gut cells that form the lining of the gut so that there is no exposure of immune cells from the blood to the contents of the gut flora.

Antibody titer tests

We are fortunate that researchers have developed antibody titer tests for the major food groups and these can be valuable pointers that can be used as a tool during the first two stages of autoimmunity before autoimmune disease causes permanent damage. Using these tests on large population groups researchers have found that common food allergies develop against wheat, dairy products, soy and eggs (as Dr. Pamela Smith remarked and Dr. Thomas Alexander explained in detail). A few blood drops suffice to determine IGG, IGA and IGE antibodies.  The test includes a whole battery of antibodies against common foods. This helps the physician to monitor the development and treatment of autoimmune diseases.

Obesity wave

Back to the leaky gut and obesity. The obesity wave in North America and the rest of the world started when the newly patented Clearfield wheat was introduced. With the higher gliadin in wheat products the balance in the gut was changed, more gliadin entered the body, it bound to the opiate receptors of the appetite center (although it is structurally differently from opium) and caused a hunger for more of the same product. The excess calories –in this case from wheat products- are stored as fat.

Aromatase in fat cells causes estrogen dominance

Fat cells by themselves have their own hormones and inflammatory substances causing various diseases. Diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, strokes and even cancer are among these. Add to this that with obesity the enzyme aromatase from fat cells causes elevated estrogen production. This causes estrogen dominance and results in heart disease and breast cancer in females. In males too much estrogen causes heart disease and prostate cancer.

Leaky gut syndrome

The story of the A4M conference 2012 in a nutshell: Wheat products with the increased gliadin (gluten) content caused increased leaky gut syndrome in the population since the 1970’s. This is the cause of the wheat addiction, which was further fueled by the obsession of the regulatory bodies to recommend eating according to the food pyramid (a splendid marketing pyramid for wheat consumption, as one of the recommended products are cereals and wheat). With these findings the cause of the obesity wave can be clearly seen. Along with obesity comes the flood of autoimmune diseases, which have developed from the action of the Pac Man type TH17 immune cells that attack various tissues in the body. The common denominator in the body is a low-grade chronic inflammation that Dr. Vojdani explained in more detail. This causes blood vessel diseases culminating in high blood pressure, heart attacks, strokes and cancer.

There were many other lectures that I attended. Some dealt with bio-identical hormone replacement. Others discussed telomere health and the effect of fitness on an ongoing basis to achieve longevity. In almost every lecture various speakers discussed the importance of lifestyle issues. This went through the conference lectures like a red thread. Nutrition is not the only factor in longevity. Exercise on a regular basis has a powerful healing effect. It can be instrumental in preventing about 50% of diseases, especially the main killers like heart attacks, strokes and cancer.

More info

More information on celiac disease: http://nethealthbook.com/digestive-system-and-gastrointestinal-disorders/celiac-disease/

Nov
01
2008

Low Testosterone And Heart Disease

More men than women seem to be affected by cardiovascular illness, and the reasons have been manifold. At one time work stress was cited for the prevalence of heart disease in men. Other lifestyle factors, lack of exercise, being overweight, poor dietary choices and smoking have been found to play significant roles. The risk for cardiovascular disease increases with age, as does the likelihood for hypertension, elevated cholesterol levels and glucose intolerance.

Some attention has been paid to the fact that hormones can also play a role, and research has now shown that testosterone has some direct cardiovascular effects. Testosterone has been found to dilate blood vessels. The effect can be likened to the calcium channel blocker Nifedipine. It has also been substantiated that males with coronary artery disease and heart failure tend to have low levels of testosterone. If testosterone deficient men receive replacement therapy, vasodilatation (dilation of blood vessels) has been demonstrated in males who have received testosterone replacement for a few months. Male hormone replacement therapy has also been found to relieve the symptoms of angina in patients with heart failure. The question, how testosterone fits into the concept of disease prevention, comes up in this context. Researchers have found enough evidence that a low testosterone blood level has an independent association with accelerated atherosclerosis (hardening of arteries).

Low Testosterone And Heart Disease

Testosterone in men prevents heart disease

Animal experiments have shown that the development of fatty streaks in blood vessels happens at a higher rate in castrated animals. The more encouraging finding is the fact that this condition is reversible by replacement of testosterone. Male hormone therapy has received a lot of bad press in the case of overtreatment with androgens to achieve muscle growth in body building. However, in this case there was no testosterone deficiency and athletes and their coaches were using doses that were too high. This type of administration entails grave health risks and has nothing to do with good medicine. In case of hormone deficiency replacement the normal body function of a younger male is restored with bioidentical testosterone, which can be a tool to better health for the aging male. Anti-aging physicians are very familiar with this treatment modality.

More on the heart vessel protecting effect of bio-identical hormones:

http://nethealthbook.com/cardiovascular-disease/heart-disease/atherosclerosis-the-missing-link-between-strokes-and-heart-attacks/

Journal of Men’s Health – Volume 5, Issue Suppl (September 2008)

Last updated Nov. 6, 2014

Nov
01
2008

Hormone Dependency of Prostate Cancer

In this month’s Lancet Oncology Manit Arya et al. have reviewed the research and clinical achievements of Harvard Medical School trained Charles Huggins. This Canadian-born American surgeon won the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 1966 for his outstanding research on treatment of prostate cancer. Here are the key findings of a publication in 1941 by Huggins and Hodges: 1. Prostate cancer is a cancer that is hormone controlled 2. Prostate cancer that has spread to other organs can be inhibited in growth by removal of testosterone production (surgical removal of testicles or orchiectomy) or by treating with female hormones (estrogens). 3. Prostate cancer that has spread to other organs is made to grow faster, if testosterone is injected. The authors of this review pointed out that despite hundreds of further research papers these “original studies have withstood the test of time”.

Hormone Dependency of Prostate Cancer

Low testosterone causes prostate cancer

Estrogen treatment has caused cardiovascular and thromboembolic complications, which resulted in cessation of this treatment modality. Newer studies attempted to improve prostate cancer survival with synthetic luteinising-hormone-releasing-hormone (LHRH) agonists and various antiandrogens, but nothing compares to the survival success of a simple orchiectomy. The authors concluded that Huggins and Hodges have provided an “epic work”, which will stand out from the myriad of publications in science for “years to come”.

Manit Arya, Dr, FRCS, Iqbal S Shergill, FRCS, Philippe Grange, MD, Mark Emberton, FRCS , The Lancet Oncology – Volume 9, Issue 11 (November 2008)

Comment on Nov. 18, 2012: Unfortunately this type of research has confused the treatment of prostate cancer for decades. I have explained this in detail under this link: http://www.nethealthbook.com/articles/cancer_prostatecancer.php#introduction  It turns out that the precise opposite is true: The aging male who is most prone to develop prostate cancer needs testosterone replacement, as prostate enlargement and prostate cancer is due to a LACK of testosterone, which causes estrogen dominance.  This hormone scenario takes place in the aging male, if not corrected! This type of patient would need an understanding urologist as explained under the link above. Unfortunately many physicians, including famous ones are slow to adapt to new knowledge from their peers (in this case Harvard trained Dr. Abraham Morgentaler, an urologist who is cited under the above mentioned link).

Last updated December 3, 2012

Sep
01
2007

Gene Identification Helps To Screen for Diabetes Risk Of Juvenile Diabetes (type 1 diabetes)

Gene therapy is the new buzzword in a hope for cure of disease, and genetic tests also assist in predicting the risk for disease.

These predictions are reaffirmed by research that comes from McGill University in Montreal under Dr. Constantin Polychronakos, a professor of pediatrics and human genetics. A new DNA chip has been used for testing the genetic makeup that produces diabetes type 1 (also called Juvenile Diabetes). So far the analysis has confirmed four previously identified genetic locations that contribute to the development of diabetes 1, and the test identified a new location occupied by the gene.

With the research team working on the discovery of all the remaining genes, they are confident to develop a test which will predict the risk of developing diabetes. According to Dr. Polychronakos the findings will influence future treatment options. The most promising treatment for those already diagnosed with diabetes1 are stem cell regenerative treatments, such as islet transplantation, since the Langerhans islets are responsible for the production of insulin in the pancreas.

Gene Identification Helps To Screen for Diabetes Risk Of Juvenile Diabetes (type 1 diabetes)

Family tree for inheritance of type 1 diabetes

These therapies will only work if the immune system is also treated, so the patient does not suffer a relapse of the disease. Once all the diabetes genes are identified, there will not only be fast screening but also therapies that can be targeted more effectively.

Reference: The Medical Post, August 7, 2007, page 1 and 60 of the Medical Post

More on genetics and diabertes: http://www.who.int/genomics/about/Diabetis-fin.pdf

Last edited December 5, 2012

Jul
01
2007

Estrogen In Early Menopause Saves Lives

Introduction

In the June 21, 2007 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine a randomized study of  8.7 year duration the question was examined whether postmenopausal women following hysterectomy would have a higher risk with estrogen replacement therapy than controls who did not take estrogen therapy. The lead author was Dr. JoAnn E. Manson of Harvard Medical School and the method chosen to examine the heart disease risk was a CT of the heart to measure calcium  in plaque of coronary arteries.

Previous research had shown a good correlation of calcification of coronary arteries with the degree of hardening of coronary arteries as shown in this image.

Various doses of estrogen were used and overall there was a reduction of calcium scores in all of the groups ranging from 22% to 31% when the calcium scores of the estrogen treated patients were compared to the non treated controls. This translated into 36% to 64% less heart attack rates when the treated groups were compared to the controls not treated with estrogen.

Discussion regarding estrogen replacement therapy

The discussion regarding estrogen replacement therapy following menopause is not finished, but women can be reassured that the cardiovascular risk appears to not be as straight forward as research seemed to suggest in the recent past. There likely was a bias in these retrospective studies and the present prospective study is much stronger having been done over 8.7 years following randomization. As this study was done on patients who had previous hysterectomies, there is no concern about uterine cancer. Breast cancer risk was not examined in this study.

Estrogen In Early Menopause Saves Lives

Estrogen In Early Menopause Saves Lives

The authors concluded that low dose estrogen replacement with 0.625mg of conjugated estrogen (Premarin) appears to be safe and has the most beneficial effect on coronary artery health when taken between the ages of 50 and 59. However, the authors also cautioned that estrogen would have multiple effects and may have negative effects on the cardiovascular system in some other way.

Reference: N Engl. J Med. 2007;356:2591-2602

Comment

Comment on Nov. 18, 2012:  The real problem of this study is that the authors took the wrong “hormone replacement”, namely Premarin, which is a non-bioidentical estrogen concoction from horses, which translates into an ill fitting key. The human body’s estrogen receptors do not fit this “key”. The proper experimental set-up would have been to use bio-identical estrogen hormones, which are usually given as a cream and would be the perfect key for the human estrogen receptors. This would have to be balanced with bio-identical progesterone to achieve a balance the way it is in a younger woman. We know from other studies that this prolongs life by preventing coronary artery disease, prevents Alzheimer’s disease, prevents strokes and does not cause uterine cancer or breast cancer. Women on bio-identical hormone replacement also retain their normal sex drive.

See this chapter on menopause in the Net Health Book.

Jul
01
2007

Waist line reduction scores in health prevention

To women waist measurement has always been of importance. Increased waist measurement and weight gain go hand in hand, and a poor fitting garment in the waist usually signals to cut out the junk food. In the past century extremely tiny waists became an unhealthy obsession, till common sense got the upper hand.

In the past males seemed to be unperturbed by a large girth and often ridiculed the opposite sex about their preoccupation with their waist lines. With more knowledge about the intricate play of metabolism increased waist circumference is a signal to health problems. It may be that a simple measuring tape can be one of the most helpful tools to predict a group of health problems in males. While type 2 diabetes, hypertension and high cholesterol and triglycerides are the problems that would first come to mind, there are more, namely coronary artery disease, prostate enlargement, a high prostate-specific antigen level, erectile dysfunction and ejaculatory dysfunction. Dr. Steven Kaplan, professor of urology at Cornell University, New York presented a study at the American Urological Association. Men with moderate to severe urinary tract symptoms were divided into groups based on their waist sizes, 30 to 36 inches, 36 to 40 inches and greater than 40 inches.

Waist line reduction scores in health prevention

Waist line reduction scores in health prevention

Results surprised even the researchers. Metabolic disorders like diabetes showed an incidence of 11.25% in the first group, 22.3 % in the next higher group and 37.8% in the group with waistlines over 40 inches. Erectile dysfunction was seen in 34.6%, 49.5% and 78.6 % respectively. The percentiles for hypertension showed 12.6% in the first group, versus 24.7% and 37.8 %. The researchers stressed that male pelvic dysfunction and the derailment of metabolic function, also known as the “metabolic syndrome” are closely linked.

More information about metabolic syndrome: http://nethealthbook.com/hormones/metabolic-syndrome/

Last edited November 2, 2014

Jan
01
2007

Prevent Type 2 Diabetes With Diet And Moderate Exercise

The almost epidemic proportions of Type 2 diabetes has raised grave concern, but healthcare providers agree that adult onset diabetes is not just a disease that strikes out of the blue. Patient education remains a basic concern, as there are factors that predispose people to the disease. There are known risks for those who are overweight and when inactivity is the main lifestyle. Family history plays a role and ethnic origin can make the patient more vulnerable to the development of diabetes. Population groups at risk are African-Americans, Native Indians, Pacific Islanders, Hispanic-Americans and Asian-Americans. There is a stage which is known as pre-diabetes. The blood glucose level is elevated, but it is not high enough that the condition is labeled as a full-blown diabetes. The good news is that with screening of the blood sugar the first signs of elevation can be detected with a blood sugar monitor at home. This way this condition can be picked up and the progression to diabetes can be avoided with proper diet and exercise.

In a large study of the Diabetes Prevention Program people who lost 7 % of their body weight and exercised 150 minutes per week cut their risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 58%. For patients in the age group over 60 the risk was reduced by 70%.

Prevent Type 2 Diabetes With Diet And Moderate Exercise

Diabetics need exercise and a proper diet

It is important that all persons who are at risk are screened. The laboratory tests involve fasting overnight, after which the fasting glucose levels are checked. A glucose tolerance test is the second test. After overnight fasting the patient receives a glucose-rich drink and blood sugar levels are monitored afterwards to establish how well the glucose is metabolized. These tests are inexpensive and are usually covered by health insurance.

More information about:

1. Diabetes type 2: http://nethealthbook.com/hormones/diabetes/type-2-diabetes/

2. Exercise (fitness): http://nethealthbook.com/health-nutrition-and-fitness/fitness/

Reference: Dec. 25, 2006/January 1, 2007 issue of U.S. News & World Report, page 55

Last edited November 2, 2014