Category: Disease Conditions

Skipping Breakfast Associated with Increased Cardiovascular Disease and Death

Written by Rob on . Posted in Anti-aging, Blood Sugar, Brain Health / Conditions, Cardiovascular Health, Diet, Digestion / Gut Health, Disease Conditions, Female Conditions / Issues, Health News, Male Conditions / Issues, Pain / Inflammation. Leave a Comment

The published research is quite definitive in that there are health benefits associated with intermittent fasting.

Most individuals who engage in intermittent fasting will typically skip breakfast and some will also skip lunch and eat later in the day.

For myself, I have found that skipping dinner – the evening meal seems to work better, so when I am intermittent fasting I will fast from lunch until breakfast the next morning.

There has been some discussion on this topic in our forum and it has been suggested by some that skipping breakfast may have negative effects on health.

I have reviewed some published research which supports this concept.

Following is an article written by Jacob Schor, ND, FABNO published in the Natural Medicine Journal which suggests that skipping breakfast may increase the risk of cardiovascular issues as well as all-cause mortality.

Perhaps it is time that we reconsider our personal protocols and patient recommendations regarding which meals to skip for intermittent fasting.

Results of a prospective cohort study

By Jacob Schor, ND, FABNO

Reference

Rong S, Snetselaar LG, Xu G, et al. Association of skipping breakfast with cardiovascular and all-cause mortality. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2019;73(16):2025-2032.

Study Objective

The authors examined the association of skipping breakfast with cardiovascular and all-cause mortality.

Design

This is a prospective cohort study. Frequency of eating breakfast was compared to cardiovascular and all-cause mortality risk using weighted Cox proportional hazards regression models.

Participants

The study followed a cohort of 6,550 US adults, 40 to 75 years of age, who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III 1988 to 1994. Frequency of breakfast eating was recorded during an in-house interview. Death and underlying causes of death were ascertained by linkage to death records through December 31, 2011.

Key Findings

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Of note with these types of studies:

Observational studies are of course problematic and despite the fact that the authors of the study took into consideration many potential confounders there are lots that were left out which could influence the outcomes and the list would be long: SNPs (polymorphisms), environmental toxins, hormone dysregulation, what kind of foods individuals were eating, circadian rhythm disturbances, exposure to blue light in the evening etc.

Issues such as this make nutrition/diet studies difficult to draw definitive conclusions from.

Chronic Marijuana Use: 35% Increase in Testicular Cancer

Written by Rob on . Posted in Brain Health / Conditions, Cardiovascular Health, Digestion / Gut Health, Disease Conditions, Female Conditions / Issues, Health News, Male Conditions / Issues, Pain / Inflammation, Sexual Health, Toxins, Vitamins, Minerals, Herbs. Leave a Comment

Well here we are in Canada over one year now since marijuana was legalized.

The potential medical benefits of marijuana consumption are significant however due to the historic U.S. government attitude towards drugs published research has not been very extensive.

Here are a couple of good resources which I use when discussing the potential medical benefits of marijuana:

Project CBD is an excellent research oriented resource on the science and application of CBD:

ProjectCBD

Here is a link to their Science page

NORML– National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Legislation

This is a U.S. based lobbying organization which has for over 40 years been working to change legislation relating to marijuana – both for recreational use as well as medical use.

There is one particular pageon this website which does a good job of outlining the potential medical applications of marijuana – copied below.

I am not consuming any marijuana compounds currently however I have personally used marijuana products at certain times  over the past 15 years to help to manage a chronic pain condition.

I don’t currently need it as I am able to manage this condition with my own developed pain/inflammation formulation.

When I was using it in recent years, I would use a CBD tincture which worked quite well without any psychoactive effects from THC.

Before CBD fractions became available, I tried using a THC/CBD tincture formulation for my pain condition.  I was hoping that by being able to titrate the dosage that I could manage the psychoactive effects while achieving the pain/inflammation benefits but I had to abandon this strategy as I found the psychoactive effects too profound when I was working (something about trying to work on complex spreadsheets while feeling “buzzed” did not work!)

Today I want to share with you an article and a new study that suggests that chronic smoking of marijuana over a protracted period of time can increase the potential of developing testicular cancer in men by some 36%.

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Weight Watchers: Unlimited Pasta, Rice, Oatmeal & Potatoes

Written by Rob on . Posted in Anti-aging, Blood Sugar, Brain Health / Conditions, Cardiovascular Health, Diet, Digestion / Gut Health, Disease Conditions, Health News. Leave a Comment

Weight Watchers has just announced new meal plan with “more choice”- including unlimited pasta, rice, oatmeal and potatoes!

Eating unlimited amounts of the wrong types of carbohydrates is a recipe for Diabesity – and a spectrum of other health issues!

 

 

 

 

Soft drinks, including sugar-free, linked to increased risk of early death

Written by Rob on . Posted in Anti-aging, Blood Sugar, Brain Health / Conditions, Cardiovascular Health, Diet, Digestion / Gut Health, Disease Conditions, Health News, Toxins. Leave a Comment

People who regularly consume soft drinks have a higher risk of an early death, researchers have found, with the trend seen for both sugared and artificially sweetened drinks.

While experts say the study cannot prove soft drinks are a driver of an increased risk of death, they say the work – which is the largest study of its kind – supports recent public health efforts to reduce consumption of soft drinks, such as the UK’s sugar tax.

“Our results for sugar-sweetened soft drinks provide further support to limit consumption and to replace them with other healthier beverages, preferably water,” said Dr Neil Murphy, a co-author of the research from the International Agency for Research on Cancer, part of the World Health Organization.

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What’s With the Carnivore Diet?

Written by Rob on . Posted in Blood Sugar, Brain Health / Conditions, Cardiovascular Health, Diet, Digestion / Gut Health, Disease Conditions, Health News, Uncategorized. Leave a Comment

A recent diet “fad”? – craze has been the increasing popularity of the Carnivore Diet.
I think the reaction of most practitioners like myself who work with patients and provide them with guidance on personalized diets is that the Carnivore Diet is probably extreme and potentially unhealthy. I think most individuals think of plant materials as inherently healthy: vegetables and some fruit content are considered to be part of a healthy diet. The fact does remain however that plants incorporate into their make up anti-nutrients which are designed to help prevent animals from eating them. Giving the GI tract a temporary break from exposure to antinutrients can be very beneficial to some individuals who are dealing with GI inflammation, leaky gut and related conditions.
And this seems to be one of the potential benefits of the Carnivore Diet, and it may in fact prove to be a temporary dietary intervention worth considering for individuals dealing with some of the mentioned GI issues.
This is probably also the case with the Ketogenic Diet: there is still some question as to whether long term adoption of the Low Carb / High Fat diet is beneficial: I think what is key with this type of diet is transitioning into keto adaptation so that one’s metabolism is metabolically flexible so it can easily transition between utilizing the sugar as well as the fat – ketone energy burning pathways.
One of the best sources for patient education about the Low Carb / High Fat (Ketogenic) Diet is the website: DietDoctor.com.
Following is a well balanced – and referenced article on the Carnivore Diet from DietDoctor.com.
One of the key issues regarding the Carnivore Diet at this point in time is the fact that there is very little published research on the topic.
Key considerations / takeaways from my perspective include the following:
– organ meats should be included in any diet as part of a healthy diet- deficiencies such as folate and other micronutrients may result from the long term adoption of the Carnivore Diet- there is some question as to what changes might occur in the microbiome by adopting this type of diet- not all people achieve complete success on a low-carb, high-fat ketogenic diet that is rich in vegetables- anecdotal evidence suggests that the Carnivore Diet may be beneficial in reversing or improving challenging health issues such as Rheumatoid Arthritis, depression, migraines and others- “there is no clear scientific proof” that we need to eat vegetables at all- Dr. Steve Phinney is concerned about potential electrolyte deficiencies in sodium, magnesium and potassium in the carnivore diet


Sinking our teeth into the carnivore diet:what’s known, what’s not


1. Why explore carnivore eating?

2. What to eat

3. Potential benefits

4. Experts weigh in

5. Testimonials and advocates

6. Ancient past

7. Paleomedicina in Hungary

8. Intestinal permeability

9. Colon cancer?

10. My one-month trial
Read More:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/po1ggolimjjq8ej/What%27s%20With%20the%20Carnivore%20Diet.docx?dl=0

Glyphosate exposure can impact on future generations

Written by Rob on . Posted in Cardiovascular Health, Digestion / Gut Health, Disease Conditions, Health News, Toxins. Leave a Comment

More alarming news about glyphosate, a key component in Monsanto’s herbicide Roundup: its effects may harm several future generations beyond the individual exposed to it

Health effects of glyphosate can be passed down to other generations, shows new study on rodents

“A new study published today finds a variety of adverse health impacts in second and third generation offspring of rats exposed to glyphosate. It is the first of its kind to look at transgenerational effects and shows how descendants of exposed offspring were more likely to develop prostate, kidney and ovarian diseases, obesity and birth abnormalities [1].

The study suggests that risk assessments need to take into consideration the ability of chemicals to impact future generations through transgenerational effects, instead of only looking at the health impacts of direct exposure [2]”.

“This study provides alarming new evidence supporting our public health call to take glyphosate off the European market,” says Génon Jensen from the Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL). “If a pesticide is showing harm which only occurs generations down the line, surely this is an opportunity for the European Commission to take more precautionary measures to protect our health.”