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Resveratrol Basics

Resveratrol is a polyphenol most commonly found in red wine and grapes. It is also found in peanuts, certain berries, some pines, and the roots and stalks of Japanese knotweed.  

Resveratrol plays an important role in the plant’s natural defense system against injury, infection, and disease. Researchers became interested in exploring the health benefits of resveratrol after they observed the surprisingly low rates of heart disease found in populations that consume a diet high in saturated fat and red wine.

Today, resveratrol is attracting attention for its unique ability to mimic the gene expression effects of caloric restriction, the only intervention that has been shown in peer-reviewed studies to prolong maximum life span and/or produce anti-aging effects in a variety of organisms, including mice, rats, dogs, and monkeys. These studies suggest that resveratrol may have similar health and longevity benefits in humans.

Many people find the prospect of long-term caloric restriction too difficult and uncomfortable. A better option would be to find a means to mimic the beneficial effects of caloric restriction through a healthy, convenient dietary supplement such as resveratrol.

Resveratrol: A Caloric-Restriction Mimetic

A 2003 study at Harvard University found that resveratrol mimics the effects of caloric restriction in yeast cells, boosting their life spans by as much as 70%.3 The following year the researchers went on to demonstrate that resveratrol slows aging in two standard laboratory animals, roundworms and fruit flies.4 That made resveratrol the first compound to show anti-aging effects in widely divergent species. Then in 2006, scientists in Pisa, Italy, showed that resveratrol’s magic could be applied to more advanced animals— large doses of resveratrol extended the life span by more than 50% in a species of fish, Nothobranchius furzeri, which typically lives just nine weeks.

In a study published in 2006 in the journal Cell, researchers in France found that resveratrol protects mice against diet-induced insulin resistance and obesity.6 Furthermore, mice given the resveratrol supplement demonstrated improved endurance levels during exercise. The researchers also studied the cell-signaling pathway in the mitochondria of these mice. Mitochondria are the power plants of cells, which are responsible for intracellular energy production. Resveratrol activated a protein in the sirtuin family (SIRT1), which then stimulated the activity of another protein involved in mitochondrial function. Other recent studies, including one conducted at the Joslin Diabetes Center, have found another member of the sirtuin family of cellular proteins that may play a major role in how fat is produced and stored, offering a new target for treatments to prevent obesity and reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes.

The French researchers surmised that resveratrol helped control weight gain by enhancing energy expenditure.   Since the study found a link between sirtuins and energy utilization, the researchers concluded that resveratrol may be helpful in the prevention and treatment of certain metabolic disorders, especially those related to mitochondrial dysfunction, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease—two neurodegenerative conditions that become more prevalent with aging.

Resveratrol Supports Endothelial Health

Recent experiments have shown that the benefits of resveratrol include improvements in the health of the endothelial tissue lining blood vessels. This holds special significance for long-term cardiovascular health, as atherosclerosis is believed to begin when damage to specialized endothelial cells goes unchecked, leading to an inflammatory condition that culminates in endothelial dysfunction and possible vessel blockage.

Resveratrol also benefits the circulatory system by eliciting a decrease in the oxidation of low-density lipoprotein (LDL); by fostering decreases in platelet aggregation; and by promoting relaxation of small blood vessels called arterioles.   Collectively, these mechanisms benefit the overall health of the cardiovascular system by decreasing factors that contribute to the development of atherosclerosis, and by decreasing the likelihood of undesirable clotting, which, in turn, decreases the risk of stroke.   Furthermore, new data indicate that resveratrol decreases the incidence of dangerous heart arrhythmias.

One of the most intriguing of resveratrol’s heart-healthy mechanisms involves the upregulation of endothelial progenitor cells (adult stem cells). There is emerging recognition by medical professionals that these adult stem cells are crucial components of cardiovascular health. In fact, scientists now believe that endothelial progenitor cells may serve as a key indicator of overall circulatory function and predict that levels of these specialized stem cells may one day supplant the lipid profile as the biomarker of choice for cardiovascular disease risk.

Research within the past five years has shown that the number and functionality of endothelial progenitor cells, which are critically involved in blood vessel repair, are directly correlated with current and future cardiovascular wellness. To put it simply; the more of these endothelial progenitor cells one has in the general circulation, the more robust one’s cardiovascular health is likely to be. Manufactured in the bone marrow, endothelial progenitor cells are low in patients with diabetes, hypertension, and/or cardiovascular disease, and their functionality decreases significantly with advancing age.

Since the publication in 2003 of an article in the influential New England Journal of Medicine, scientists have increasingly focused on the activities of endothelial progenitor cells. In that landmark report, researchers from the National Institutes of Health noted that there is a “strong correlation” between the number of circulating endothelial progenitor cells and a patient’s Framingham risk factor score.13 The Framingham score is a commonly accepted method of assessing an individual’s 10-year risk of developing coronary heart disease. It takes into account risk factors such as LDL, HDL, and triglyceride levels, age, gender, history of smoking, and other factors.

Interestingly, research by Chinese investigators indicates that the influence of cholesterol levels on the development of atherosclerosis (and thus heart disease) may actually relate to the relationship between endothelial progenitor cells and cholesterol. On the heels of the New England Journal of Medicine article, Chinese researchers published a report, which concluded that high LDL may be damaging precisely because it reduces the number and functionality of endothelial progenitor cells.

Experiments showed, “the number of endothelial progenitor cells was significantly reduced in patients with hypercholesteroemia (extremely high cholesterol levels) compared with that in control subjects.”12 In patients with high total cholesterol and LDL, the ability of endothelial progenitor cells to proliferate, migrate, adhere to vessel walls, and induce the regeneration of vessels was impaired. As cholesterol levels increased, they found, endothelial  progenitor cell levels declined. Other investigators found that endothelial progenitor cell levels are depressed among patients with elevated homocysteine.29 Resveratrol, on the other hand, has been shown in the past year to increase the number of these crucial cells in the peripheral circulation, even at doses achievable by moderate red wine intake or through dietary supplementation.

Resveratrol Produces Favorable Metabolic Changes

In a landmark mouse study published in the journal Nature, resveratrol countered some effects of a high-calorie diet, improving the health of the mice and increasing their life span, even though they did not lose any weight.32 These mice shared many of the problems of humans on an equivalent diet, including obesity, insulin resistance, and heart disease.

The study compared middle-aged mice fed a standard diet with those on a high-fat (60% of daily calories) diet, with and without high-dose resveratrol supplements. Over a two-year period, the resveratrol-fed mice on the high-fat diet lived as long as the ones on a standard diet and at least 15% longer than their untreated, obese peers. How much better off were the treated mice? The resveratrol-treated mice demonstrated improved insulin sensitivity compared with their obese counterparts who did not receive resveratrol, suggesting that resveratrol conferred important benefits for longevity and diabetes prevention.32 Additionally, the resveratrol-treated animals displayed greater numbers of liver mitochondria than animals who consumed a high-fat diet that did not contain resveratrol. The study further suggested that resveratrol might lead to better health and endurance than is usually seen in obese mice. Resveratrol’s exact working mechanism is not yet known with certainty, but the researchers believe it may be activating SIRT1, a sirtuin protein that is thought to be involved with longevity.

The mouse studies also hinted that resveratrol induces basic metabolic changes akin to those produced by caloric restriction.6,32 Gene-expression analysis in livers of these aged and overweight mice indicated that resveratrol favorably modified some of the known metabolic pathways that are also affected by caloric restriction.32 Perhaps the most intriguing result of the recent mouse studies was resveratrol’s ability to increase the number of mitochondria, the key cell components that serve as energy producers.

Resveratrol’s ability to restore function to mitochondria is especially exciting because it seems that restored mitochondria are more efficient than the aging mitochondria they replace, are less prone to churn out free radicals, and are more efficient at ridding the body of damaged cells that induce chronic inflammatory reactions. Caloric restriction appears to do the same thing, but is much more difficult to implement and maintain in humans.

Resveratrol’s effect on mitochondria may be enough by itself to account for much of the compound’s demonstrable effects in the mouse studies. It may account for the enhanced running abilities observed in the overweight mice treated with resveratrol. What makes the findings of these recent mouse studies so potentially significant to researchers is that humans have genes similar to those linked to resveratrol intake in the mice.

Resveratrol and Cancer

In addition to its anti-aging and anti-heart disease effects, resveratrol may promote longevity through another avenue—that of fighting cancer, one of the chief causes of death in older adults.

When added to cells cultured in media, resveratrol has been found to inhibit the proliferation of a variety of human cancer cell lines, including those from breast, prostate, stomach, colon, pancreatic, and thyroid cancers.

In 2004, a team of biochemists at the University of Virginia looked at resveratrol’s role in blocking cancer growth and progression. Resveratrol appears to reduce the activation of nuclear factor-kappab (NF-kb), a protein that has been implicated in cancer by acting like a switch to turn on inflammatory processes.34,35 Resveratrol also enhances cancer cell sensitivity to certain immune cell-induced death mechanisms.   Nuclear factor-kappab inhibitors like resveratrol may thus have important implications for increasing the effectiveness of anticancer therapies in humans.

Researchers from the State University of New York at Stony Brook looked at the drinking habits of 360 red and white wine drinkers with similar lifestyles. White wine consumption had no association with colorectal cancer incidence. On the other hand, regular red wine consumption was linked to a 68% reduced risk of the cancer. The researchers believe that resveratrol was most likely the component in wine that was behind the apparent benefits.37 The findings confirmed results from an earlier study conducted by the same group showing that wine consumption reduced colorectal cancer risk by 45%.38

Last year, researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham examined resveratrol’s potential in preventing prostate tumors. In the study, published in Carcinogenesis, the mice were given the resveratrol found in one liter of red wine per day. Mice who consumed a diet supplemented with resveratrol had a dramatic eight-fold reduced incidence of poorly differentiated prostatic adenocarcinoma, a type of prostate cancer with a poor prognosis. The mice that experienced the greatest cancer-protection effect consumed resveratrol in a powdered formula mixed with their food for seven months.    Since it is medically inadvisable to consume one liter of red wine every day, this study points to the importance of resveratrol supplementation as part of prostate cancer defense.

An earlier study published in the Journal of Carcinogenesis found that dietary resveratrol helped prevent breast cancer in female rats. Starting at birth, rats were fed either a control diet or a diet supplemented with resveratrol. At the age of 50 days, both groups were exposed to a cancer-inducing chemical. The resveratrol-fed rats were significantly protected against breast cancer, demonstrating fewer tumors per animal and longer tumor latency (an asymptomatic period in this disease process). The researchers concluded, “our work supports the previous reports that resveratrol in the diet is effective at inhibiting…mammary cancer. We have shown that resveratrol can enhance maturation of the mammary gland as well as reduce cellular prolifer-ation and increase apoptosis (programmed cell death) in mammary epithelial cells, in a manner that is protective against mammary carcinogenesis.”

What if I told you could live to be age one hundred in as healthy and vigorous condition as you are now?

Or if you are already suffering the ill effects of aging, you could turn back the clock twenty years and stay that way until the century mark? Would you be interested?

And what if that extra thirty years added to the average life span allowed you to live long enough to take advantage of new scientific breakthroughs so that your healthy functional life span could be extended to 120 or 130 years and beyond?

And what if the launching pad to that wonderful prospect involved taking a substance that caused your body to lose unwanted fat and build muscle, renew your organs, improved your heart and lung activity, made studs out of men, increased sexual pleasure in women, and gave you the energy, sleep, and wonderful sense that the world is your oyster? Would you say, “What is this substance and how can I get some?”

There is such a substance. It is an Alice-in-Wonderland kind of hormone. Too little of it makes us dwarfs and too much of it turns us into giants. But the right amount of it at the right time promises to bring about the most fundamental revolution in society today–the beginning of the end of aging.

The “Fountain of Youth” Hormone

On July 5, 1990, the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine published a clinical study on a drug that sent shock waves throughout the world. It was instantly hailed as a fountain of youth.

In a scene that seemed like something out of the movie Cocoon, injections of synthetic human growth hormone–a substance naturally

produced by the pituitary gland–had turned twelve men, ages sixty-one to eighty-one, with flabby, frail, fat-bulging bodies, into their sleeker, stronger, younger selves.

In language rarely used in conservative medical journals, Daniel Rudman, M.D., and his colleagues at the Medical College of Wisconsin wrote: “The effects of six months of human growth hormone on lean body mass and adipose-tissue mass were equivalent in magnitude to the changes incurred during 10 to 20 years of aging.”

In interviews with reporters, the men in the study and their wives reported other startling changes. The gray hair of a sixty-five-year-old man was turning black. The wife of another man had trouble keeping up with her newly energized husband even though she was fifteen years younger. A third man, who saw the wrinkles disappear on his face and hands, was now opening jars with ease, passing younger people on the street, and gardening for hours on end.

Some of the users and their spouses made sly references to reinvigorated sex lives. What happened to the control group? In group 2, as they were called in the study, “there was no significant change in lean body mass, the mass of adipose tissue, skin thickness, or bone density during treatment.” In other words, they continued aging on schedule.

Double-Blind Clinical Proof

Drugs and therapies that claim to reverse aging are nothing new. For decades youth seekers have trekked to the four corners of the world seeking youth and immortality. Recent examples include Ana Aslan’s clinic in Rumania for injections of Gerovital H3, which is essentially the same Novocain your dentist uses. Konrad Adenauer, Gloria Swanson, Groucho Marx, and more than 50,000 lesser-known patients have had their buttocks shot with fresh fetal lamb cells at Clinique La Prairie in Switzerland.

Others swear by ginseng or placental extract or nucleic acid therapy, which unleashed a craze for eating RNA-rich sardines.

While some of these therapies might have genuine merit, none of them has passed the gold standard of drug testing: controlled, randomized, double-blind clinical study.

Today there is immense interest in the hormone melatonin, released by the pineal gland in the brain. But melatonin has yet to be tested in double-blind trials in human beings. The only age-reversing drug that has passed placebo-controlled double-blind clinical trials with flying colors is human growth hormone. Not once, but many times over.

HGH Today Following up his own work, Rudman found that HGH given to twenty-six elderly men re-grew the livers, spleens, and muscles that had shrunken with age back to their youthful sizes.

Improved muscle strength, he pointed out, could make the difference between someone’s being on his feet or being confined to a wheelchair, between being spoon-fed or cooking a meal, between living independently or living in a nursing home.

“The overall deterioration of the body that comes with growing old is not inevitable,” he concluded. “We now realize that some aspects of it can be prevented or reversed.” Rudman’s landmark discovery opened the floodgates to the point that there are now thousands of studies in the world medical literature documenting the benefits of growth hormone therapy.

The National Institute on Aging has funded a multimillion-dollar effort in nine medical centers that will run for five years to test whether human growth hormone and other trophic factors–defined as substances that promote growth or maintenance of tissues–can reverse or retard the aging process. In 1992 medical researchers at Stanford University stated, “It is possible that physiologic growth hormone replacement might reverse or prevent some of the ‘inevitable’ sequelae of aging.”

But many people are not waiting for the results of these studies. In this country and abroad, doctors at dozens of clinics are treating thousands of old and middle-aged people who wish to erase the effects of aging. Hundreds of case histories have now become available, some of which you will read about in the coming chapters.

The FDA has just approved HGH for use in adults. Until now the only indication had been for treatment of children who failed to grow due to lack of growth hormone. The adult indication is for somatotrophin (growth hormone) deficiency syndrome (SDS). Signs of SDS include decreased physical mobility, socialization and energy levels, along with a greater risk of cardiovascular disease and lower life expectancy.

More Research Needed

Today more than ever if you decide to take HGH you face a multitude of choices. We believe the final research is early. HGH works. That is conclusive and it is the Fountain of Youth. How you improve your amount is the choice you make. The only problem is HGH injections cost approx. $1500 plus monthly. They require a doctor’s prescription and should be used only if medically approved within the scope of the FDA guidelines.

Jun. 18–It’s hard to miss all the buzz about omega-3 fatty acids. In the grocery store the other day, I noticed that omega-3 fatty acids have been added to some brands of orange juice. Consumers now also have the choice of buying eggs and peanut butter fortified with omega-3 fatty acids.

In general, fats are described based on the predominant fatty acid present. Fatty acids are of two basic types: saturated (such as in butter) or unsaturated (such as in liquid vegetable oils). Unsaturated fatty acids, in turn, are classified as monounsaturated or polyunsaturated. Omega-3s are a type of polyunsaturated fatty acid.

The most common omega-3 fatty acids are eicosapentaenoic (EPA), docosahexaenoic (DHA) and alpha-linolenic (ALA) acids. At this time, the national dietary standards known as the Dietary Reference Intakes do not include recommended intakes for all omega-3 fatty acids. But an adequate intake has been set for ALA at 1.6 and 1.1 grams per day for men and women, respectively.

ALA is found in plant oils, including flax, canola and soybean. DHA and EPA are found in the tissues of cold-water fish such as salmon, mackerel, tuna, herring, sardines and even oysters. Cod liver also is a rich source of these omega-3s. My mother may have been right in forcing us to choke down that spoonful of cod liver oil each day.

Strong evidence exists that consumption of fish oil reduces serum lipid levels and reduces inflammation, which are both associated with cardiovascular disease risk.

In fact, many health problems are linked to chronic inflammation: cardiovascular disease, asthma, at least some types of cancer, type 2 diabetes and obesity. The anti-inflammatory effects of omega-3s are mediated by changes in the production of bioactive substances called cytokines by our white blood cells.

Evidence also suggests that consuming omega-3s may improve the body’s sensitivity to its own insulin, thus helping to maintain a healthy body weight and reducing risk for type 2 diabetes. Recent studies conducted by French researchers found that consuming 1.8 grams of EPA/DHA per day resulted in a significant loss of body fat after just two months.

While DRIs have not been established for all of the omega-3s, several expert groups have recommended increases in the amounts and types of omega-3s in the diet. Recommendations have varied from 0.5 to 1.6 grams per day (combined EPA/DHA), to 1 percent to 2 percent of total calories a day (for total omega-3’s). For a person consuming a 2,000-calorie-a-day diet, this would translate to 20 to 40 calories or 2 to 4 grams of omega-3s each day. This level of omega-3 intake can be achieved using fish oil supplements. Since a single 1-gram capsule of fish oil contains about 30 percent EPA/DHA, this would require consuming two to six capsules each day.

Another approach is to include plant sources of ALA in your diet. One of the richest sources of ALA is flax — grown right here in North Dakota. Flax oil is about half ALA. Other edible seed oils contain lesser amounts of ALA. For example, canola (also grown in North Dakota) oil has about 12 percent ALA, and soybean (again, produced here) oil contains about 7 percent.

ALA can be converted to EPA by our tissues, but that conversion provides only small amounts of EPA. One study indicated that one would need to consume 7 grams of ALA to get the same effect as 1 gram of EPA/DHA. This means one would have to consume 14 grams (1 tablespoon) of flax oil (50 percent ALA) to get the same effect.

Unlike fish oil, flax and flax oil can be incorporated into many foods without great effects on flavor, texture and other characteristics. For this reason, consumers are being presented choices of foods fortified with omega-3s from plant oils. This trend is bound to continue as more evidence emerges about the health benefits of ALA.

Each month, scientists at the Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center write a column about their work and how their work affects people’s lives on a daily basis. This month’s column is written by Wesley Canfield, research medical officer, who received his medical degree from the State University of New York Health Sciences Center at Upstate.

The June 23, 2008 issue of the American Medical Association journal Archives of Internal Medicine published the discovery of Austrian and German researchers that men and women with higher serum levels of vitamin D have a reduced risk of dying from all causes as well as specifically from cardiovascular disease over a seven year period, compared with individuals whose blood levels are low.

Harald Dobnig, MD, of Medical University of Graz, Austria, and colleagues evaluated data from 3,258 participants scheduled for coronary angiography who enrolled in the Ludwigshafen Risk and Cardiovascular Health Study between 1997 and 2000. Serum levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D and 1,25-dihydroxyvitamn D, which is converted from 25-hydroxyvitamin D in the body, were measured in blood samples collected prior to the angiographic procedure.

Over an average 7.7 years of follow-up, 737 deaths occurred, of which 62.8 percent were from cardiovascular causes. Approximately two-thirds of the patients were found to have low serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels of under 20 nanograms per milliliter. Cardiovascular risk markers, including C-reactive protein levels and interleukin 6 levels (which evaluate inflammation), oxidative burden, and cell adhesion markers, were greater among individuals with lower serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels than in those whose levels were higher. Participants whose serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels were among the lowest one-fourth of participants, at a median of 7.6 nanograms per milliliter, had an adjusted risk of dying from all causes or cardiovascular disease that was twice that of subjects whose levels were among the highest fourth at 28.4 ng/mL. When 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D levels were evaluated, similar associations were found.

“This prospective cohort study demonstrates for the first time, to our knowledge, that low 25-hydroxyvitamin D and 1,25-dihyroxyvitamin D levels are associated with increased risk in all-cause and cardiovascular mortality compared with patients with higher serum vitamin D levels,” the authors write. “Apart from the proved effects that vitamin D has on bone metabolism and neuromuscular function, appropriate serum levels (that may also be higher than in the present investigation) are associated with a decrease in mortality. Although not proved, it seems possible that at least part of this effect may be due to lowering of a risk profile promoting atherosclerosis and preventing cardiovascular end points.”

“Based on the findings of this study, a serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D level of 20 nanograms per milliliter or higher may be advised for maintaining general health,” they conclude.

Green tea improves endothelial function

The June, 2008 issue of the European Journal of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation published the results of a trial led by Dr Nikolaos Alexopoulos and colleagues at the Athens Medical School in Greece which found that drinking green tea improved endothelial function in men and women. Dysfunction of the endothelial cells which line the circulatory system is a critical event in the development of atherosclerosis, which leads to heart attack and stroke.

The current study tested the effects of three substances: 6 grams of green tea brewed in 450 milliliters boiled water, 125 milligrams caffeine, and hot water as a placebo, in 14 healthy participants with an average age of 30 years. Half of the subjects were smokers. Flow mediated dilatation of the brachial artery, which evaluates endothelial function by measuring artery diameter after a brief period of restricted blood flow, was assessed before the intake of each substance, and at 30, 90 and 120 minutes (time points when the peak plasma concentration of caffeine and tea flavonoids occur), for each of the three sessions.

While caffeine and hot water failed to demonstrate significant effects, there was a peak increase of 3.9 percent in endothelium-dependent brachial artery dilatation 30 minutes after the subjects consumed green tea. The finding supports the associated observed between green tea drinking and decreased cardiovascular disease risk. Tea flavonoids have antioxidant effects which may be responsible for their benefits; however green tea’s flavonoids may be more potent than those of black tea because the leaves have not undergone oxidation.

“These findings have important clinical implications,” stated study coauthor Dr Charalambos Vlachopoulos. “Tea consumption has been associated with reduced cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in several studies. Green tea is consumed less in the Western world than black tea, but it could be more beneficial because of the way it seems to improve endothelial function. In this same context, recent studies have also shown potent anticarcinogenic effects of green tea, attributed to its antioxidant properties.”

“Green tea consumption has an acute beneficial effect on endothelial function, assessed with flow-mediated dilatation of the brachial artery, in healthy individuals,” the authors conclude. “This may be involved in the beneficial effect of tea on cardiovascular risk.”

Diabetes linked to advanced breast cancer
TONY EASTLEY: An international study has established a link between Type-2 Diabetes and advanced breast cancer.

It’s been known for a while that being overweight puts post-menopausal women at greater risk of breast cancer, but now it’s been found that women who are resistant to insulin, or who are overweight, are 50 per cent more likely to be diagnosed with the cancer and only when it’s in its advanced stages.

The finding comes after an international research team followed more than 60,000 Swedish women over 20 years.

Dr Anne Cust from the University of Melbourne is a collaborator in the study and she is preparing to present the findings at a medical conference in Brisbane today.

Dr Cust is speaking here with AM’s Simon Lauder.

ANNE CUST: We found that women who were overweight or who have signs of insulin resistance which is a precursor to Type-2 Diabetes were more likely to be diagnosed with an advanced breast cancer.

SIMON LAUDER: So if a woman is overweight or has early signs of Type-2 Diabetes, how much more likely is she to get advanced stage breast cancer?

ANNE CUST: About 50 per cent more likely so they are less likely to get an early stage tumour but more likely to get a more advanced stage breast tumour.

SIMON LAUDER: For overweight or diabetic women, it doesn’t necessarily mean they are more likely to get breast cancer but they are less likely to be diagnosed early?

ANNE CUST: Yes, our study was looking particularly about the stage of breast cancer, the diagnosis and we found that they were, women who were overweight or with insulin resistance were more likely to get it, be diagnosed with an advanced stage of breast cancer.

We don’t know the exact reasons why that might be. It might be that the cancer is growing more quickly or that it wasn’t diagnosed early but we need to do more research to find out exactly why that might be.

SIMON LAUDER: Is there a hypothesis as to why overweight or diabetic women aren’t diagnosed earlier with breast cancer?

ANNE CUST: It may be that the hormones that are involved, that are linked with being overweight or having insulin resistance, might be making the tumour grow more quickly but we need to do more research to find out exactly why that might be the case.

SIMON LAUDER: Does it mean that women who are at risk of Type-2 Diabetes should be screened for breast cancer more often?

ANNE CUST: Not necessarily I think. The question of screening is something that would need to be looked at separately but I think it is just providing another indication that being overweight is linked to lots of different health problems and this is another reason to get off the couch and try to stay active and maintain a healthy weight.

And also, the link with insulin resistance may provide a new avenue of research for looking at the causes of breast cancer and possibly new treatments.

There is a growing body of scientific research and clinical data to support how natural and holistic supplements consisting of vitamins, minerals, amino acids, herbs, and antioxidants – help delay the onset of disease and help us live more healthy lives.

07-08-08

Dieters who write down everything they eat each day lose twice as much weight as those who don’t, according to one of the largest weight-loss studies ever conducted.

This confirms the importance of keeping a food diary — advice that nutritionists and weight-loss programs have pushed for years.

Scientists at four clinical research centers recruited 1,685 overweight or obese adults who weighed an average 212 pounds. Forty-four percent were African Americans.

The participants were offered 20 weekly group sessions led by nutritionists and behavior counselors and encouraged to try to lose at least 9 pounds in six months. They were told to consume about 500 fewer calories a day, eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, do about 180 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity a week, and keep daily food and exercise records.

The findings reported in the August issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine:

*Dieters who kept their food diary six or more days a week lost an average of about 18 pounds in six months, compared with about 9 pounds for those who didn’t keep food diaries.

*The biggest losers also attended most of the group meetings and did more exercise. Some did 300 minutes or more of physical activity a week, but the average participant in the study did about 117 minutes a week.

*69% of the participants lost 9 pounds or more, which is enough to improve some health measures such as blood pressure, joint pain and pre-diabetes.

*69% of black men and 59% of black women lost at least 9 pounds.

“There is a misconception that nobody can lose weight, but in this study, two-thirds of them lost enough weight to make a difference to their health,” says Victor Stevens, senior investigator at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research in Portland, Ore. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute sponsored the study.

These weight-loss techniques work well with everybody, including African Americans, who are often underrepresented in studies and yet suffer from a high rate of obesity and weight-related illnesses, he says.

Food diaries are a “powerful self-management technique. They help you figure out where the extra calories are coming from,” he says. It works best if someone else looks over your food record. “When you put yourself in a position where you are accountable for your behavior, it changes behavior.”

Many people are getting lots of extra calories by eating large portions at restaurants, Stevens says. He is currently working with a client who was consuming 1,500 calories of fast food at lunch. The dieter is now bringing a 500-calorie lunch to work, saving 1,000 calories a day.

Dawn Jackson Blatner, a registered dietitian in Chicago, tells people that a food diary “is the best way to monitor every crumb, morsel, nibble, sip, swallow and bite you take.”

To significantly reduce disease, we must slow the aging process, according to a team of experts who published their conclusion online in the British Medical Journal on July 8. In an article entitled, “New model of health promotion and disease prevention for the 21st century,” Professor S. Jay Olshansky of the University of Illinois at Chicago and his associates suggest that the current focus on preventing and curing individual diseases will become outmoded as people in developed countries live longer and develop the multiple chronic illnesses that come with aging.

“The change in strategy we are calling for requires a systematic attack on aging itself,” they write. “Evidence in models ranging from invertebrates to mammals suggests that all living things, including humans, possess biochemical mechanisms that influence how quickly we age and that they are adjustable.”

Due to a greater life expectancy in developed countries, the increased incidence of diseases related to aging has resulted in a dramatic rise in health care costs. Dr Olshansky and colleagues note that if an extended life span is combined with health, it could result in a number of economic, social, and other benefits, which they call “the longevity dividend.” They propose increased funding for studies that will increase our knowledge concerning the relationship of aging to such diseases as type 2 diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, and most cancers, in addition to research into the processes that control aging itself.

In an accompanying analysis entitled, “Has the time come to take on time itself?” associate professor Colin Farrelly of the department of political science at Canada’s University of Waterloo notes that the Alliance for Aging Research has called on Congress to invest three billion dollars annually into research that would increase our understanding of the biology of aging. “To those who ask, ‘Can we afford to invest more in such research?’” he writes, “We can reply: ‘Can we really afford not to tackle aging?’ That is the really important question. And the answer clearly is no.”

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