Posts Tagged ‘health’

All things related to health are related to nutrition. Any eye health guide has to emphasize this connection.

Vision 

Your eyes may the window to your soul; they are also a reflection of your health. Many eye problems are a refection of your nutritional status. As people age they may experience vision loss due to cataracts, macular degeneration (AMD) and other sight problems.

Eye Health Study   

Agricultural Research Service (ARS) – funded scientists at the Laboratory for Nutrition and Vision Research are finding that healthy eating can reduce health costs by protecting the vision and the quality of life. The laboratory study directed by Allen Taylor is part of the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutritional Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston. Mass.

One study indicated that regularly consuming a combination of protective nutrients and a low-glycemic-index, or “slow carb,” diet provided an AMD protective effect. A food’s glycemic index is an indicator of how fast the carbohydrate it contains will spike blood sugar levels. The macula is a 3-millimeter-wide yellow spot near the center of the retina responsible for the central field of vision.

For the study, the researchers analyzed dietary intake and other data from more than 4,000 men and women, aged 55 to 80, who had participated in the long-term Age-Related Eye Disease Study, or AREDS. Led by Chung-Jung Chiu, the researchers ranked intake of each of several nutrients consumed during the AREDS study, then calculated a compound score to gauge their combined dietary effect on the risk of AMD. The scoring system allowed them to evaluate associations between individual – and combined – dietary nutrients.

The nutrients that were found to be most protective in combination with the low-glycemic-index diet were vitamins C and E, zinc, lutein, zeaxanthin, and the omega-3 fatty acids known as DHA and EPA. The 2009 study was published in Ophthalmology

No Surprise

It’s no surprise that every cell, function, and organ is dependent on the nutrition that you supply them with. It is simply, disease can’t take root as easily in a healthy body. The way to good vision is by consuming a nutrient rich diet.

Most fruits and vegetables supply vitamin C in ample amounts. This list includes oranges, grapefruit, strawberries, papaya, green peppers, and tomatoes. Vitamin E is found in nuts, seeds, and wheat germ. Lutein and Zeaxanthin are found together in many foods. Dark green leafy vegetables are a good source. It is also found in smaller amounts in broccoli, orange peppers, corn, peas, persimmons, and tangerines.

These are delicious ways to both general health and vision health.  Achieving the benefits of good eyesight supports vascular health within the eye and improves visual acuity. It has been found than carotenoids protect against free-radical induced DNA damage. The density of your macular pigments composed (composed of Lutein, Zeaxanthin, meso-zeaxanthin) is essential to proper vision.

These may be big words, but all one has to know is eating lots lutein and zeaxanthin containing vegetables can help maintain the structural integrity of the macula.

As We See It

Plant compounds halt the progression of both macular degeneration, and cataracts. These are a significant cause of decreased vision. To halt vision loss with nutritional interventions is a very attractive solution.

Prostate cancer no treatment option is the wait and see approach that seems to work well. Researchers in Sweden found that only a small minority of men diagnosed with low risk early stage prostate cancer die from the disease if not treated and suggest that surveillance as opposed to treatment may be a suitable option for such patients.

You can read a report on the study, by Dr Pär Stattin, of the Department of Surgical and Perioperative Science at Umea University, and colleagues, online in the 18 June advanced access issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Prostrate cancer Options

Cancer cells in the prostate glands on older men are a very common occurrence. Probably most men harbor some cancer cells, however only one in six men get a prostate cancer diagnosis. There are natural protections that are in place.

The problem is that for most men eating a typical American diet the body’s natural protection is not up to speed. The diet is the fuel for the cancer cells, and enables them to propagate and metastasize.

The role of diet and specific nutrients arbitrates whether you get a clinically diagnosed disease. The impact of our food choices on cell growth is so strong that it is nearly identical to the initial response to chemo-drugs. This is a powerful statement, because food is a powerful medicine.

The options are so numerous that it is unbelievable that this isn’t first line of defense. From diets that include omega-3 fatty acids, to foods high in anti-inflammatory agents, a diet low in omega 6 fats, Bad omega-6 fats stimulate prostate caner.  High-glycemic carbohydrates increase the risk and the spread of cancer cells. That includes most processed food, white flour, bad oils, and inflammatory type foods.

Lifestyle

In an accompanying editorial, Drs Siu-Long Yao and Grace Lu-Yao of The Cancer Institute of New Jersey, US, point out that this study, like other recent ones, suggest that the survival of patients with low risk cancers who opt for conservative management as opposed to radical treatment is similar to that of control subjects in their age group.

In fact, most men will die of something other than prostate cancer, so perhaps a diagnosis of prostate cancer should be regarded as a warning sign to start taking better care of one’s health, they suggested.

But, this could be easier said than done, because while research shows that many cancer patients are more likely to listen to health advice after diagnosis, “older men, like those with prostate cancer, appear to be less receptive to change”, they added.

Prostate Cancer Breakthrough

Prostate cancer breakthrough is on your dinner plate. Knowing that you can role the dice and continue what you are doing or look for ways to independently safeguard your health.

Cancer and diet the missing link to restoring health. The war on cancer has been going on forever, it turned out as a way to manage corporation’s funds, but it hasn’t done much for the patients.

We wait for an unprecedented breakthrough. Findings that would not just extend lives but rewind the clock turning cancer cells back to normal. Everyone is expecting a new way to kill cancer cells. What is a better approach is turn unhealthy cells back to healthy ones.

This is what you want; the mainstream acceptance of bombarding cancer cells with toxic chemo, and. huge amounts of radiation is counter productive. The secret, nutrients in lieu of drugs, would go a long way to combat this condition.

Analytics                                

An analysis that included nearly 400,000 participants finds that those with higher blood levels of vitamin B6 and the essential amino acid methionine (found in most protein) had an associated lower risk of lung cancer, including participants who were current or former smokers, according to a study in the June 16 issue of JAMA.

Previous research has suggested that deficiencies in B vitamins may increase the probability of DNA damage and subsequent gene mutations. The authors write: “Given their involvement in maintaining DNA integrity and gene expression, these nutrients have a potentially important role in inhibiting cancer development, and offer the possibility of modifying cancer risk through dietary changes,” They add that deficiencies in nutrient levels of B vitamins have been shown to be high in many western populations.

One Step Further

Reversing cancer is also possible with the right lifestyle changes. Most medical doctors will not have the knowledge or courage to buck the system. Many patients have, and had stellar results. Others have taken main stream medicine one step further and combined some conventional treatment with a considerable amount of dietary changes.

Paul Brennan, Ph.D., of the International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France, and colleagues conducted an investigation of B vitamins and methionine status based on serum samples from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohort study, which recruited 519,978 participants from 10 European countries between 1992 and 2000, of whom 385,747 donated blood. By 2006, 899 lung cancer cases were identified and 1,770 control participants were individually matched by country, sex, date of birth, and date of blood collection.

Hello Success

The authors write: “Our results suggest that above-median serum measures of both B6 and methionine, assessed on average 5 years prior to disease onset, are associated with a reduction of at least 50 percent on the risk of developing lung cancer. An additional association for serum levels of folate was present, that when combined with B6 and methionine, was associated with a two-thirds lower risk of lung cancer,”

Now Turn it Around