Archive for December, 2009

If alternative practitioners are looking for validation that nutrition is the key to both preventing and turning around disease they can now find it. The role of both telomeres and nutrition in human aging is an exciting new area of research.

If allopathic medical practitioners are saying eat what you want it doesn’t make a difference in disease, this makes them ineffective as healers.

Proof Positive                                     

A recent review of evidence and two new studies from the Unites States and Canada / France looked at nutrients from food. The conclusions support the cancer protective role of antioxidants, whilst the US study results support the role of vitamin and mineral supplements in maintaining the health of DNA (telomere length within DNA may be a marker for biological ageing).

Antioxidant vitamins and minerals are known to play various crucial roles in modulating oxidative stress and chronic inflammation, and this appears to be a key factor in the rate at which cells age. Vitamins and minerals are what lengthen telomeres.

Elisa Bandera and a team of researchers from the Cancer Institute on New Jersey in the US, have reviewed one recently completed ‘cohort’ study (tracking the same people over time) and 12 recent ‘case-control’ studies (comparing subjects with controls, to find cause and effect relationships) to investigate the association between antioxidant vitamins C, E and beta-carotene intake from food sources, and endometrial (womb) cancer. The results found that as dietary antioxidant intake increased, endometrial cancer risk decreased.

There is a recent US study that provides the first epidemiological evidence that multivitamin use is associated with longer telomere length among women. In the study, led by Qun Xu, Ph.D. of the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences in North Carolina, multivitamin use and nutrient intakes were assessed in a cross-sectional analysis of data from 586 participants. The researchers found that multivitamin use was associated with longer (5.1%) telomeres. This was also the case for higher intakes of vitamins C and E from food. Also, intakes of vitamins C and E were associated with telomere length among those who did not take multivitamins.

Telomeres and Aging

Chromosomes are long strands of DNA with a telomere at the end. The telomere is something like the shoelace end or a bookend. They protect chromosomes from fusing or binding with other DNA.

When a cell divides and copies the DNA, the strands of DNA get snipped in the copying process. The part that is snipped is the telomeres. Each time a cell divides, the telomeres become shorter.

When telomeres get too short, parts of the DNA get damaged. Cells stop replicating when this happens. In humans, a cell replicates around 50 times before this occurs.

The cell’s telomeres determine the cell’s age. This is the frontier of anti-aging research. When the cell stops replicating it is a period of decline called “cell senescence,” which is cell aging.

What This Means

The incidence of cancer is higher in the aging population. Telomere length determines the rate of aging. Antioxidants from fruits, vegetables, along with their supply of vitamins and minerals are responsible for the cells health and age. Telemeres and nutrition are both a factor in human aging.

The length of the telomeres seems to determine how fast aging occurs. If you already have a chronic condition, than the key to turning it around will be to lengthen the telomeres through a healthy lifestyle.

Alternative practitioners understand the crucial roll of nutrition and treat with that premise. While allopathic physician’s treatment usually deplete vitamins and minerals at a time they are crucial.  

The evidence that people cured conditions by diet is very strong. While science keeps doing more and more research this is proving to be the case. Waiting for more evidence isn’t necessary because a good diet is a safe investment in your future.

Longevity is tied to a youthful appearance. People who look younger then their years have a healthy advantage. Perceived age is recognized by doctors as a general indicator of a patient’s health.

Study

Research published online in the British medical journal backs this up.

In 2001, Danish researchers conducted physical and cognitive tests on more than 1,800 pairs of twins over aged 70, as well as taking photos of their faces. Three groups of people who didn’t know the twins’ real ages guessed how old they were. The researchers then tracked how long the twins survived over 7 years.

The experts found that people who looked younger than their actual age were far more likely to survive, even after they adjusted for other factors like gender and environment. The bigger the difference in perceived age the more accurate the forecast was.

Biological Explanation

They also found a possible biological explanation: people who looked younger also tended to have longer telomeres, a key DNA component that is linked to aging. People with shorter telomeres are thought to age faster. In the Danish study, the more fresh-faced people had longer telomeres.

The telomere is the tip of the DNA, something like the tip to a shoelace. People that are over 60 that had the shortest DNA tip were three times more likely to succome to heart disease, and eight times more likely not to be able to fight off infectious diseases. People with younger and longer telomeres do better.

Shorter-than-usual telomeres also have been found in many cancers, including those of the pancreas, prostate, bladder, lung, kidney and head and neck.

Good News

Telomeres are influenced by your everyday choices. Everyone knows unhealthy choices such as smoking ages you. These choices can add anywhere from five to ten years to your appearance. Which we now know can deduct years off your life, while adding years to your looks. 

In a San Francisco study, the men who changed their diets, got regular exercised and cut their stress with meditation increased levels of enzymes that lengthened their telomeres in the immune cells.

Getting off the diet roller-coaster and achieving a consistent lower weight. Eating healthy foods like vegetables, fruit, whole grains, good protein and healthy fats from fish, nuts and avocados are associated with longer telomeres.

Inactive people have shorter telomeres than active people. Smoking two packs a day aged participants in one telomere study by 7.4 years. Telomeres, in one study, were longest in those eating the most vitamin C-rich foods — including citrus fruit, strawberries and red bell peppers, and vitamin E-rich foods such as whole grains.  Also, salmon, trout, and olive oil are healthy choices.  Researchers in Hong Kong found the longest telomeres in men who drank three cups of green tea or sometimes black tea a day.

Action

Longevity is generated by your choices. Reducing risk factors means you have to take action. Scientific validation is playing a role in understanding the favorable modifications that change age-related disease processes. Additionally, prevention brings with it a youthful appearance.  

 What This Means To You

It means a longer healthier life, where you get to look and feel good. With longevity tied to a youthful appearance, it means that looking young has a purpose. The beneficial effect is that you avoid debilitating health conditions. You are afforded the perfect opportunity to take charge of your life. The picture emerging is empowering and offers everyone the opportunity to experience better health. Telomeres are for today and tomorrow, holding a veritable treasure trove of life giving properties

What makes kidney disease a growing menace is fact that there is no cure according to allopathic medicine. Meanwhile, the population of people undergoing dialysis is also exploding, and is projected to pass the 2 million mark worldwide by 2010, according to some studies.  

Kidney Disease

The leading cause of Kidney disease is diabetes. It accounts of 44% of new cases in 2005. The numbers are only on their way up. Nephropathy, kidney failure is a frequent complication of diabetes.

Obesity plays a role by raising blood pressure, and increasing insulin resistance. Both can stress your Kidney’s.

Stress is another factor since it raises blood pressure.

High cholesterol produces a fatty substance that can clog up your kidneys.

Urinary track infections can cause kidney problems.

Drug-Induced kidney Damage

There are prescription, and over-over-the-counter products that can cause kidney damage. This is a list of some of the medications that can cause problems.

Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NAIDs)

• Ibuprofen (example, Advil)
• Aspirin (example, Excedrin)
• Naproxen sodium (example, Aleve)
• Celecoxib (Celebrex)
• Acetaminophen (Tylenol, dose related)

High blood pressure medicines

• Hydralazine
• ACE inhibitors

Some Diuretics

Antibiotics

• Penicillin
• Sulfa drugs
• Cyclosporine

Preventing

Chronic Kidney disease (CKD) is the loss of kidney function. The number of people with kidney failure has doubled from 1990 to 2000. The annual cost of treating kidney failure is over $20 billion. A loss of kidney function ups the risk of heart attacks or strokes.

Prevention is not what the medical field calls for. They want regular checkups to see if you have signs of impaired kidney function. It is obvious that the kidneys are part of an overall picture of health. If the leading cause of this condition is either diabetes or high blood pressure, than you are dealing with something that is lifestyle related.

On the other hand if you are on some medications that can cause kidney failure it is an indicator that you have a host of health related problems. You prevent kidney failure the same way you prevent any chronic condition. By recognizing that changing what you do, will change what is happening within.

Naturally

Naturally it is hard to sell patients the idea of taking charge of their own health. There is dissent in the medical community that creates a climate of distrust. Combating a dangerous health problem with little else then diet, exercise, faith, and determination seems counterintuitive.

It takes tenacity to go against the prevailing logic. Modern medicine offers unpalatable choices. Promising that drugs are and will be the answer leaves us adrift at sea. We wait for a rescue ship to reach us in the nick of time.   

The promised cures are in the pipelines, years away. Research has shown that weight loss helps ward off decline in kidney function. A new study has found that exercise extends the lives of people with kidney disease.

Another interesting fact is that people with kidney disease have conditions not directly related to kidney problems. They in fact usually have compromised health due to other factors.

The dangers is modern medicine doesn’t recognize its limits. They have been wrong for so long that that they have trouble shifting focus. Getting hooked to a machine is not the same as empowering yourself and taking charge of your own health.