Saturday, October 29, 2011

Muscle wasting in the elderly and other at risk populations

Many of our elderly parents and relatives struggle with weakening muscle strength and sarcopenia (muscle wasting). This is also of great concern for patients with forms of cancer or other autoimmune diseases. A new study suggests that the RDA for daily protein intake should actually be greater than that for younger populations. This is because "Aging muscle is less sensitive to lower doses of amino acids than the young and may require higher quantities of protein to acutely stimulate equivalent muscle protein synthesis above rest and accrue muscle proteins."

This study also recommends that the elderly may benefit from eating protein evenly throughout the day, so as to promote an optimal per meal stimulation of MPS. The branched-chain amino acid Lucine (see list of foods rich in this amino acid below) is thought to play a central role in mediating mRNA translation for muscle protein synthesis. The amino acid Lucine also needs to be in greater supply in elderly populations. The study goes on to note that; "Thus, older adults should distribute their daily protein equally across three or more daily meals. For example, given our findings that the elderly require more protein to increase MPS above rest than the young, in a 75 kg individual consuming ~60 g of protein daily (based on the RDA of 0.8 g·kg-1), this would mean consuming ~20 g of protein with each meal, as opposed to a typical feeding regimen in which the elderly typically ingest smaller amounts of protein with breakfast (~8 g) and lunch (~12 g) and the majority of dietary protein with dinner (~40 g) [73]."

With regard to exercise the research advises "resistance exercise in the elderly to induce hypertrophy, improve strength and improve physical function. In older adults who are not restricted by physical disability, frequent high-intensity weight lifting will increase lean muscle mass. Alternatively, low-intensity high volume weight lifting may also promote an adaptive response in the elderly provided the working muscle is sufficiently 'stressed' (i.e. via blood flow restriction to the muscle or lifting to failure)."

You can read the entire study here:Skeletal muscle protein metabolism in the elderly: Interventions to counteract the 'anabolic resistance' of ageing
Leigh Breen and Stuart M Phillips* http://www.nutritionandmetabolism.com/content/8/1/68

A note about amino acids supplementation - it is best to try and get any amino acid from food sources first. Supplementation with amino acids should be with full spectrum supplement because supplementing with only one amino can cause health concerns unless strictly supervised by a physician.

Lucine rich food sources:
cottage cheese
beef - be sure to get grass fed
eggs - be sure to get free range omega 3 enriched
legumes - especially lentils, chick peas, sesame seeds
peanuts
fish - especially salmon
chicken - free range please!

Here is another link to Lucine rich foods:
http://www.altarofamps.com/PDFS/195.pdf

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Get it on the ballot in Michigan - mandatory GMO labeling

We have chance here in the great state of Michigan to get GMO's out in the open and clearly marked on food products. It is on the ballot.

What is a GMO?



A GMO is a Genetically Modified Organism. It is a plant or an animal in which the genetic material has been unnaturally altered, often by using the DNA molecules of other plants, animals, or bacteria, which are then combined to create a new set of genes.



In food crops, plants are engineered to carry a herbicide-tolerant gene, which was developed so farmers could spray their fields to eliminate weeds without damaging the crops. These plants can be sprayed with twice the amount of herbicides than other conventional crops, and they will not die.



One of the most common non-plant organisms inserted into plants is the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt., which is used as a pesticide. When bugs eat the plant containing Bt., their stomachs split open and they die.



Crop plants are also engineered to be cold or drought tolerant. An example of this is the transgenic tomato, which contains the DNA of the cold tolerant winter flounder fish.



Food animals are also being biologically engineered and then cloned to grow quickly and require less feed.



Dairy cows are injected with a bio-engineered synthetic hormone known as rBGH, which greatly increases the production of the cow's milk, allowing the farmer to obtain from each cow up to 55 gallons of milk every day instead of the average 5 to 15 gallons a day.

About 80% of the food supplied at a typical grocery store in the United States contains genetically modified ingredients. This usually is any non-organic product that contains the direct ingredient or derivative of soy, corn, canola, sugar beets, rice, dairy, aspartame, and non-organic meat. According to the USDA, the majority of commercially farmed animals are fed genetically modified feed.

GMO Testing

The FDA does not conduct a comprehensive scientific review of genetically modified products. Instead, the FDA considers the safety of the product based on the biotech company’s own evaluation of the product. The FDA only encourages developers to consult with the agency to ensure that any issues within the product are resolved prior to marketing.

Our Wonderful Michigan Agriculture

Michigan is the 2nd most agriculturally diverse state in the nation with

over 55,000 farms. Michigan is the national leader in the production of tart

cherries. We rank 3rd in the nation for our apple and asparagus and 2nd nationally

for beans, carrots, celery, and plums. Agriculture is Michigan's second largest industry, which generates $63.7 billion for the state and employs approximately one million residents.

It is easy to say that Michigan residents are very proud of their farmers markets, cider mills and U- Pick berry farms!

In 2001, GM corn and soy was introduced into Michigan agriculture. By 2004, 33% of our corn crops were GM and 75% of our soy was GM. In 2008, farmers began earnestly planting GM sugar beets.

Are we putting our small Michigan family farms at risk for contamination?

You can read more about what GMO's are and the initiative to get this labeling on the ballot in Michigan here:



For more on the FDA’s GMO regulation guidelines go to tis link:

Friday, October 14, 2011

New Study Trashes Multi-vitamins as unsafe!

You have no doubt seen the coverage on your local and national news regarding the recent Iowa study that showed multi-vitamins to be unsafe. This study was published by the Archives of Internal Medicine. It reports that multivitamins consumed by older women does not increase lifespan. As reported in the main stream media the study's major highlight was that some supplements were shown to slightly increase mortality. Close to 40,000 women were followed over the course of 25 years in what is known as the “Iowa Study”.

Why you should be skeptical of this study -

The information picked up and broadcast by the main stream media was cherry picked.

The following information was re-printed here with permission from Orthomolecular Medicine News

1) The study was observational, in which participants filled out a survey about their eating habits and their use of supplements. It reports only a small increase in overall mortality (1%) from those taking multivitamins. This is a small effect, not much larger than would be expected by chance. Generalizing from such a small effect is not scientific.

2) The study actually reported that taking supplements of B-complex, vitamins C, D, E, and calcium and magnesium were associated with a lower risk of mortality. But this was not emphasized in the abstract, leading the non-specialist to think that all supplements were associated with mortality. The report did not determine the amounts of vitamin and nutrient supplements taken, nor whether they were artificial or natural. Further, most of the association with mortality came from the use of iron and copper supplements, which are known to be potentially inflammatory and toxic when taken by older people, because they tend to accumulate in the body [2,3,4]. The risk from taking iron supplements should not be generalized to imply that all vitamin and nutrient supplements are harmful.

3) The study lacks scientific plausibility for several reasons. It tabulated results from surveys of 38,000 older women, based on their recall of what they ate over an 18-year period. But they were only surveyed 3 times during that period, relying only on their memory of what foods and supplements they took. This factor alone causes the study to be unreliable.

4) Some of these women smoked (~15%) or had previously (~35%), some drank alcohol (~45%), some had high blood pressure (~40%), and many of them developed heart disease and/or cancer. Some preexisting medical conditions were taken into account by adjusting the risk factors, but this caused the study to contradict what we already know about efficacy of supplements. For example, the study reports an increase in mortality from taking vitamin D, when adjusted for several health-relevant factors. However, vitamin D has recently been clearly shown to be helpful in preventing heart disease [5] and many types of cancer [6], which are major causes of death. Furthermore, supplement users were twice as likely to be on hormone replacement therapy, which is a more plausible explanation for increased mortality than taking supplements.

5) The effect of doctor recommendations was not taken into account. By their own repeated admissions, medical doctors and hospital nutritionists are more likely to recommend a daily multivitamin, and only a multivitamin, for their sicker patients. The study did not take this into account. All it did was tabulate deaths and attempt to correct the numbers for some prior health conditions. The numbers reported do not reflect other factors such as developing disease, side effects of pharmaceutical prescriptions, or other possible causes for the mortality. The study only reports statistical correlations, and gives no plausible cause for a claimed increase in mortality from multivitamin supplements.

6) The effect of education was not taken into account. When a doctor gives advice about illnesses, well-educated people will often respond by trying to be proactive. Some will take drugs prescribed by the doctor, and some will try to eat a better diet, including supplements of vitamins and nutrients. This is suggested by the study itself: the supplement users in the survey had more education than those who did not take supplements. It seems likely, therefore, the participants who got sick were more likely to have taken supplements. Because those who got sick are also more likely to die, it stands to reason that they would also be more likely to have taken supplements. This effect is purely statistical; it does not represent an increase in risk that taking supplements of vitamins and essential nutrients will cause disease or death. This type of statistical correlation is very common in observational health studies and those who are health-conscious should not be confounded by it.

7) The known safety of vitamin and nutrient supplements when taken at appropriate doses was not taken into account. The participants most likely took a simple multivitamin tablet, which contains low doses. Much higher doses are also safe [4,7], implying that the low doses in common multivitamin tablets are very safe. Further, because each individual requires different amounts of vitamins and nutrients, some people must take much higher doses for best health [8].

Orthomolecular Summary:
In an observational study of older women in good health, it was said that those who died were more likely to have taken multivitamin and nutrient supplements than those who did not. The effect was small, and does not indicate any reason for disease or death. Instead, the study's methods suggest that people who have serious health conditions take vitamin and mineral supplements because they know that supplements can help. Indeed, the study showed a benefit from taking B-complex, C, D, and E vitamins, and calcium and magnesium. Therefore, if those wanting better health would take appropriate doses of supplements regularly, they would likely continue to achieve better health and longer life.

http://orthomolecular.org/subscribe.html - subscription link
http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/index.shtml - archive link

(Robert G. Smith is Research Associate Professor, University of Pennsylvania Department of Neuroscience. He is a member of the Institute for Neurological Sciences and the author of several dozen scientific papers and reviews.)

References:
[1] Mursu J, Robien K, Harnack LJ, Park K, Jacobs DR Jr (2011) Dietary supplements and mortality rate in older women. The Iowa Women's Health Study. Arch Intern Med. 171(18):1625-1633.

[2] Emery, T. F. Iron and your Health: Facts and Fallacies. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 1991.

[3] Fairbanks, V. F. "Iron in Medicine and Nutrition." Chapter 10 in Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease, editors M. E. Shils, J. A. Olson, M. Shike, et al., 9th ed. Baltimore, MD: Williams & Wilkins, 1999.

[4] Hoffer, A., A. W. Saul. Orthomolecular Medicine for Everyone: Megavitamin Therapeutics for Families and Physicians. Laguna Beach, CA: Basic Health Publications, 2008.

[5] Parker J, Hashmi O, Dutton D, Mavrodaris A, Stranges S, Kandala NB, Clarke A, Franco OH. Levels of vitamin D and cardiometabolic disorders: systematic review and meta-analysis. Maturitas. 2010 Mar;65(3):225-36.

[6] Lappe JM, Travers-Gustafson D, Davies KM, Recker RR, Heaney RP. Vitamin D and calcium supplementation reduces cancer risk: results of a randomized trial. Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 Jun;85(6):1586-91.

[7] Padayatty SJ, Sun AY, Chen Q, Espey MG, Drisko J, Levine M. Vitamin C: intravenous use by complementary and alternative medicine practitioners and adverse effects. PLoS One. 2010 Jul 7;5(7):e11414.

[8] Williams RJ, Deason G. (1967) Individuality in vitamin C needs. Proc Natl Acad SciUSA.57:16381641.

Also of Interest:
Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, April 29, 2010. Multivitamins Dangerous? Latest News from the World Headquarters Of Pharmaceutical Politicians, Educators and Reporters. http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v06n15.shtml

Nutritional Medicine is Orthomolecular Medicine
Orthomolecular medicine uses safe, effective nutritional therapy to fight illness. For more information: http://www.orthomolecular.org

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

What to do if your doctor does not believe in supplements

Unless you have switched to an enlightened "functional" doctor you no doubt have been told your wasting you're money on supplements. Why - because medical school still does not teach doctors about the role of 21st century nutrition, nutrients or supplements. Because doctors don't know and most feel they are too busy to learn (or simply too comfortable prescribing pharmaceuticals)they tell patients supplements are worthless.

The next time you have this discussion with your physician you can support your rationale for taking supplements by showing him/her this evidence -

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, October 3, 2011


Free, Peer-Reviewed Nutritional Medicine Information Online
No Evidence, Eh?
(OMNS, Oct 3, 2011) Many of our readers have written to say that when they try to talk to their physician about using nutritional medicine, the subject is promptly dismissed. Furthermore, such dismissal is often accompanied with doctor statements such as, "I have not seen any good research showing that vitamins work therapeutically."

That your doctor has not seen the research is probably true. However, the research has been there all along. The problem is that many health practitioners are often too busy, and sometimes too complacent, to look for it.

It is time to change that. Here are some highly-reliable orthomolecular resources online, for free access.

34 years of peer-reviewed research articles on therapeutic nutrition, including intravenous vitamin C and cancer: http://www.riordanclinic.org/research/journal-articles/ or http://www.riordanclinic.org/research/

Instructional videos for doctors on why and how to use intravenous vitamin C: http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v07n03.shtml . These are also on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4CA531C7A3B0D954&feature=viewall and http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL953B95B3BB977F54&feature=viewall
41 years of nutrition therapy papers (nearly 500 of them) from the peer-reviewed Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine: http://orthomolecular.org/library/jom/ The archive is easily searchable.

Peer-reviewed vitamin C research papers from 1935 to 1999: http://www.seanet.com/~alexs/ascorbate/ Clicking the link in the "subject" index will bring up a title listing by decade (yes, there are that many articles). Then, clicking the title link in the decade listing will bring up the full text paper.

The complete 7-year Orthomolecular Medicine News Service archive of over 100 peer-reviewed articles: http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/index.shtml
You see the phrase "peer-reviewed" above so often because it shows that orthomolecular medicine is well-established as safe and effective. If your doctor still believes that somehow it is not, s/he is behind the times.

And speaking of doctors, another request readers frequently write in with is, "Can you help me find an orthomolecular nutrition doctor near where I live?" OMNS has previously addressed this question, and here is the link to a number of helpful directories: http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v06n09.shtml

Nutritional Medicine is Orthomolecular Medicine
Orthomolecular medicine uses safe, effective nutritional therapy to fight illness. For more information:
http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/index.shtml

The peer-reviewed Orthomolecular Medicine News Service is a non-profit and non-commercial informational resource.

Editorial Review Board:
Ian Brighthope, M.D. (Australia)
Ralph K. Campbell, M.D. (USA)
Carolyn Dean, M.D., N.D. (Canada)
Damien Downing, M.D. (United Kingdom)
Michael Ellis, M.D. (Australia)
Martin P. Gallagher, M.D., D.C. (USA)
Michael Gonzalez, D.Sc., Ph.D. (Puerto Rico)
William B. Grant, Ph.D. (USA)
Steve Hickey, Ph.D. (United Kingdom)
James A. Jackson, Ph.D. (USA)
Michael Janson, M.D. (USA)
Bo H. Jonsson, M.D., Ph.D. (Sweden)
Thomas Levy, M.D., J.D. (USA)
Jorge R. Miranda-Massari, Pharm.D. (Puerto Rico)
Erik Paterson, M.D. (Canada)
W. Todd Penberthy, Ph.D. (USA)
Gert E. Shuitemaker, Ph.D. (Netherlands)
Robert G. Smith, PhD (USA)
Jagan Nathan Vamanan, M.D. (India)

Andrew W. Saul, Ph.D. (USA), Editor and contact person. Email: omns@orthomolecular.org

To Subscribe at no charge: http://www.orthomolecular.org/forms/omns_subscribe.shtml

Share