Friday, July 2, 2010

Thought Fructose was the Good Sugar? Think again

Dr. Harriott's Comments: 

In general, a good rule of thumb is that anything real sweet is not something you want to eat a lot of.  Tone it down or turn it down... for good health.

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Fructose Linked to High Blood Pressure

By Todd Neale, Staff Writer, MedPage Today
Published: July 01, 2010
Reviewed by Dori F. Zaleznik, MD; Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston and
Dorothy Caputo, MA, RN, BC-ADM, CDE, Nurse Planner
People who consume the amount of fructose found in two-and-a-half regular soft drinks a day appear to have a higher risk of hypertension, a cross-sectional study showed.


Consumption of at least 74 grams per day was associated with 26% to 77% greater odds of crossing various thresholds of elevated blood pressure (P<0.05 for all), compared with lower levels of consumption, according to Diana Jalal, MD, of the University of Colorado Denver, and colleagues.


"Limiting fructose intake is readily feasible, and, in light of our results, prospective studies are needed to assess whether decreased intake of fructose from added sugars will reduce the incidence of hypertension and the burden of cardiovascular disease in the U.S. adult population," they wrote online in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.
Action Points  

  • Explain to interested patients that this cross-sectional study could not establish a causal relationship between fructose consumption and hypertension.
  • Point out that not all previous studies exploring the link between fructose and blood pressure have identified a significant association.
There has been a recent increase in the consumption of fructose in developed nations due primarily to the addition of table sugar or high fructose corn syrup to soft drinks, bakery products, fruit drinks, dairy desserts, and candies.
At the same time, the prevalence of hypertension has been rising. However, epidemiological studies have yielded conflicting results as to an association between the two trends.
To explore the issue, Jalal and her colleagues used data from 4,528 adults without a history of hypertension included in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 2003 to 2006.
The majority (61%) had a systolic blood pressure of less than 120 mm Hg. Another 30% were prehypertensive (systolic pressure of 120 to 139 mm Hg).
The rest of the participants had either stage 1 or stage 2 hypertension (6% and 2%, respectively).
Fructose intake was determined through a self-administered dietary questionnaire. Consumption of natural fruits was excluded to isolate intake of added sugar.
Median intake was 74 grams a day. Increasing systolic blood pressure was associated with increasing fructose intake, a trend that reached borderline statistical significance (P=0.05).
After adjustment for demographics, comorbidities, physical activity, smoking, total kilocalorie intake, and dietary confounders including total carbohydrate, alcohol, salt, potassium, and vitamin C intake, as well as other factors, fructose intake of 74 grams per day or higher was associated with higher odds of elevated blood pressure at the following thresholds (P<0.05 for all):
  • 135/85 mm Hg: OR 1.26
  • 140/90 mm Hg: OR 1.30
  • 160/100 mm Hg: OR 1.77
Additional analyses showed that fructose intake was associated with systolic -- but not diastolic -- blood pressure.
The reason this study, and not some previous studies, found an association between fructose consumption and hypertension could be because of the high level of consumption in the current study, according to Jalal and her colleagues.
In addition, some previous studies looked only at soft drink consumption or included naturally occurring fructose from fruit in their analyses.
There are several possible mechanisms that might explain the positive association between fructose and blood pressure, the authors wrote, "including stimulation of uric acid, inhibition of [the] endothelial nitric oxide synthase system, and stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system, or by directly increasing sodium absorption in the gut."
The study was limited, they wrote, by the inability to establish a causal relationship between fructose and blood pressure using cross-sectional data, the reliance on self-reports, and the possibility of confounding by glucose in the foods assessed on the dietary questionnaire.
The study was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health.
Jalal reported no conflicts of interest. One of her co-authors is listed as an inventor on several patent applications for lowering uric acid as it relates to blood pressure and metabolic syndrome. He is also author of The Sugar Fix.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Got Colic? Here's a Natural Treatment that really helps

Probiotic Reduces Crying Time in Infants With Colic
/www.Medscape.com

June 17, 2010 (Stockholm, Sweden) — One week of supplementation with the probiotic Lactobacillus reuteri Protectis reduced crying time in colicky babies by 74%, compared with 38% with placebo, according to a double-blind study presented here at the 43rd Annual Meeting of the European Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition in Istanbul, Turkey.

"The data with L reuteri are convincing and confirm, in a placebo-controlled study, our earlier data with this probiotic [Pediatrics. 2007;119:e124-e130]. We believe these results will have an impact on the treatment of infants with colic," study presenter Francesco Savino, MD, PhD, from the Department of Paediatrics, Regina Margherita Children's Hospital, University of Turin, Italy, noted in a statement issued by Swedish biotechnology firm BioGaia AB, the developer and marketer of the probiotic.

In the study, 50 infants with confirmed infantile colic were randomly assigned to L reuteri Protectis (5 drops, 108 colony forming units/day) or placebo drops for 21 consecutive days. The primary outcome was a reduction (by day 21) in average crying time to less than 3 hours per day, which is the limit of colic, Dr. Savino noted.

With L reuteri, "we saw improvement after 1 week, and at the end of the study there really was a significant effect," he told conference attendees. In addition, 84% of the L reuteri–supplemented infants reached the primary outcome by day 21, compared with 43% of infants in the placebo group (P < .05), he reported.

At baseline, median crying time per day was 370 minutes in the probiotic group and 300 minutes in the placebo group. On day 7, crying time had been reduced to 95 minutes in the L reuteri group and to 185 minutes in the placebo group (P = .082).

At the study's end (day 21), there was a significant difference in median daily crying time between the groups; it was 35 minutes in the L reuteri group and 90 minutes in the placebo group (P < .05), Dr. Savino reported.

He also noted that on days 7, 14, and 21, the proportion of infants responding to the supplementation, defined as a 50% or greater reduction in median crying time, was significantly greater in the probiotic group than in the placebo group.

In an email to Medscape Gastroenterology, Eamonn Connolly, PhD, senior vice president of research for BioGaia, in Stockholm, Sweden, said complete data from the study are scheduled to be published in a medical journal shortly.

Mechanism of Action Not Clearly Established

The effects of L reuteri noted in the study "could be due to a change in the intestinal commensal bacteria," Flavia Indrio, MD, PhD, who has studied the gastrointestinal effects of probiotics extensively, noted in an email to Medscape Gastroenterology. Dr. Indrio is a pediatric gastroenterologist in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Bari in Italy, and was not involved in this study.

"The crying infant who received L reuteri showed a reduction in Escherichia coli in the intestinal microflora, compared with the infant treated with placebo," said Dr. Indrio.

She added that "the target of the L reuteri action could be the intestinal motility pattern, as shown in the study published by me and my coworker in the Journal of Pediatrics in 2008. Another study is running in newborns to confirm this effect."

"Definitely, treatment with probiotics could open a new therapeutic approach in some gastrointestinal diseases," Dr. Indrio concluded.

The study was sponsored by BioGaia, which develops and markets probiotic products. Dr. Savino reports being an independent investigator with no relationship with BioGaia. Dr. Indrio has disclosed no relevant financial relationships.

43rd Annual Meeting of the European Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition. Presented June 10, 2010.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Do you WANT IT? Then, PROVE IT!

Dr. Harriott's Comments:

Dr. Regina Benjamin is currently the Attorney General of the United States. She just announced a new initiative called, "Exercise is Medicine". Nice try Dr. Benjamin, but the problem is that we want people to exercise MORE and take Medicine LESS, right? In what universe can you then say that they can be seen similarly? And how are they similar?

Is everyone ready for the answer? - pause - pause pause.....

The answer is that the powers that be want us to continue to see Medicine as Healthy. This is a transparent effort to shift the population to a healthy lifestyle (because medicine is making our society sicker) while shizophrenically hoping that we will retain our faith in Medicine as a reasonable approach to health.  Pardon my stating the obvious here -

Medicine is NOT HEALTHY..., no, not by a long shot.

Medicine is about sickness, pathology, pain, weakness, inability to function well enough to heal from or prevent illness or injury, or about just being overcome by a traumatic injury or an invading organism your immune system was unable to repel. In adverse functional states like this, at this level of  a loss of health... this is when you might reach for medication to give yourself a helping hand. But ultimately, it is still up to you and your body to restore your health, because I guarantee you,  medicine will NOT create or restore health.

At best, medicine gives your body a temporary "unfair advantage". In most cases, it gives you a crutch so you don't have to heal if you aren't willing to make the changes necessary.  At it's worst, medicine will KILL you.

You see, that "advantage" that medicine gives a person comes at a cost in other aspects of our physiology.  The costs vary from medicine to medicine, disease to disease, person to person, heck, even day to day......   Sometimes the costs are reasonable, sometimes they are not. Most of the time, we can't predict. But this is our health care business...This is our system... Convince the population that you will be there for them, so live your life without worry or concern.  Then, once the person gets sick, he's all alone now. The health team players all dance and behave as though the King Medicine actually is wearing the most amazing clothes and that if you can't see it, well, clearly the problem is with you.

Too late, too sick, too unhealthy, too far gone,...

too bad     :(

Exercise, Good Nutrition, Positive Mental Attitude, a good hug once in a while, a regular adjustment... That is  HEALTH, my friends!!!!!


So, Ms. Attorney General, Dr. Regina Benjamin... let's just leave medicine where it belongs, in the hospitals, the pharmacies and the MD's offices. Please don't associate Medicine with anything healthy because it is confusing.  Dump the "Medicine is Health" program name.  Rename the campaign to something like

Exercise the Health Out of Yourself!!!

or how about a slogan like...

Health IS Exercise
Do you Really Want Health?
Then Prove It....

  • Exercise Daily
  • Eat well... lots of veggies, less meat, smaller portion sizes on maximum 9 inch plate
  • Get enough sleep
  • Get adjusted regularly.  A chiropractic adjustment helps to re-boot your awareness of your physical status, your position in space, and allows your brain to re-evaluate it's functional strategies toward emotional stress, movement, posture, healing, gravity, and physical limitations.
  • Have fun... do this well and often.
Dr. Harriott

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Maps Listings II

I have just added link files to my website for my Google Maps listings to help people find me when they search on Google... You needn't click these now. If you want to see the listing, go to
http://tinyurl.com/2eczcyt


These are the actual links to the files:

Mission Viejo Chiropractor

Mission Viejo Chiropractor

Maps Listing

I have just added link files to my website for my Google Maps listings to help people find me when they search on Google... You needn't click these now. If you want to see the listing, go to
http://tinyurl.com/2eczcyt


These are the actual links to the files:

Mission Viejo Chiropractic

Mission Viejo Chiropractic

Saturday, May 8, 2010

32.5 Million US Infants Innoculated with Pig Virus DNA

Dr. Harriott's Comment:

Great... how many years later and now we learn that we have been innoculating our infants with pig virus DNA.

Oops!

But don't worry, folks... we have no proof that the 32.5 MILLION infants dosed in the U.S. will have any long term negative effects from the pig virus DNA.

Wow, I feel so much better :(

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Original Publication:

http://www.medpagetoday.com/PublicHealthPolicy/PublicHealth/19986?utm_content=GroupCL&utm_medium=email&impressionId=1273307416380&utm_campaign=DailyHeadlines&utm_source=mSpoke&userid=241758
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Visit us online at www.MedPageToday.com

FDA Says Viral Contamination Found in Second Rotavirus Vaccine

By Emily P. Walker, Washington Correspondent, MedPage Today
Reviewed by
May 07, 2010


Review
GAITHERSBURG, Md. -- DNA from a pig virus has been detected in Merck's RotaTeq rotavirus vaccine, an FDA official announced during the opening session of a hearing on rotavirus vaccines.

The announcement means that both rotavirus vaccines on the market have been found to harbor the contaminant, although officials said there was no immediate health hazard.

Merck researchers detected "very low levels" of porcine circovirus 1 and 2 (PCV1 and PCV2) DNA in RotaTeq and immediately shared the results with the FDA, according to Merck and the FDA.

"There is no evidence at this time that DNA from PCV causes any disease in humans," said a statement posted on Merck's website. "We remain confident in the safety profile and quality of RotaTeq."

In March, the FDA reported that PCV1 had been detected in Rotarix, a rotavirus vaccine manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline. Although the FDA said the virus didn't appear to be harmful to humans, with an alternative vaccine available, the agency recommended that clinicians discontinue use of Rotarix.

In the latest action, the FDA did not say whether RotaTeq should be avoided, but a top FDA official again stressed that the virus doesn't appear dangerous to humans.

"There is no evidence PCV1 poses a safety risk," said Norman Baylor, PhD, of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) at a Friday meeting of the FDA's Vaccine and Related Biologics Advisory Committee (VRBAC).

Data on PCV2 is less robust, and the agency only became aware of the PCV2 contamination shortly before Friday's meeting.
Researchers with GlaxoSmithKline said Friday that their data prove the virus is benign, but that the company is committed to revamping its vaccine manufacturing process in order to produce Rotarix that is not contaminated with PCV1.

"This is a complex process and will take time," said Barbara Howe, MD, vice president of North American Vaccine Development.

Howe said the company is prepared to make the vaccine available again in the U.S.

Merck is the main provider of the rotavirus vaccine in the U.S. The company has distributed 30 million doses of RotaTeq here, and another seven million in other parts of the world.

GlaxoSmithKline's Rotarix meanwhile, is twice as widely-used as RotaTeq in foreign countries, but the company has provided just 2.5 million doses in the U.S., according to David Martin, MD, MPH, acting chief of CBER.

The VRBAC, which is a panel of outside experts, is meeting to discuss the contamination in Rotarix and the benefits and drawbacks of using new, more sensitive tests to check for viruses in the human vaccines. Those advanced detection methods were responsible for finding PCV1 in both rotavirus vaccines.

Both rotavirus vaccines are given orally to infants to prevent rotavirus disease, which can cause severe diarrhea and dehydration and is deemed responsible for the deaths of more than 500,000 infants around the world each year, primarily in low- and middle-income countries.

Disclaimer
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Thursday, April 29, 2010

Infant Dies 12 Hrs After Seasonal Flu Vaccine

Sad Story Out of Queensland, Australia...

National Flu shot fatality - toddler dies 12 hours after having vaccination
By Suellen Hinde
From: The Sunday Mail (Qld)
April 25, 2010 1:40AM

Twins given flu job; Ashley dies, Authorities caution jab for under-5s. Girl, 2, was fine 12 hours earlier

A FAMILY is in mourning after their toddler unexpectedly died less than 12 hours after receiving a seasonal flu vaccination.

Two-year-old twin Ashley Jade Epapara had been "perfectly fine" before dying at her Upper Mt Gravatt home, on Brisbane's southside, on April 9. Parents David and Nicole are shattered by the mysterious death of their baby girl. "It's dreadful, it's a very hard time," Mr Epapara said
yesterday.

National health authorities have ordered doctors to stop giving seasonal influenza vaccinations to children under five after dozens of serious reactions, including convulsions. Ashley's death is being investigated by police and the office of the coroner. A spokesman for Brisbane coroner John Lock confirmed yesterday that a report was being prepared.

Mrs Epapara told The Sunday Mail that "tests are being carried out" on her little girl. But the young mother didn't want to comment further as she began shaking and her eyes welled with tears. Ashley's twin sister, Jaime, also received the flu jab at the same time and is believed to have been vomiting the night before her sister died.

Asked whether he or his wife thought the influenza vaccine had anything to do with their child's death, Mr. Epapara said: "It's very coincidental."

More than 45 children experienced convulsions and fever, with some having to be taken to hospital in intensive care after receiving the vaccine in Western Australia. Queensland chief health officer Jeannette Young confirmed 15 children in Queensland had been recorded
as having an adverse reaction to the vaccine. Australia's chief medical officer Professor Jim Bishop said in a statement that the West Australian events were being "urgently investigated by health experts and the Therapeutic Goods Administration".

The World Health Organisation last year said a "small number of deaths" had occurred in people
vaccinated for influenza, with 65 million people vaccinated globally.

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