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Showing posts with label medical. Show all posts
Showing posts with label medical. Show all posts

Saturday, May 31, 2025

Low dose Naltrexone - anticancer

.Low dose ( below 4.5mg, standard dose is 200mg ) of anti-opiod addiction drug Naltrexone found to have also anti-cancer property!

Professor of Oncology, Angus Dalgleish gives vital information on a repurposed drug he uses for his cancer patients, given at a very low dose. This is Low Dose Naltrexone.

Dr. James Campbell's video


Wednesday, February 3, 2021

Thapsigargin study, anti-viral





Interesting quote:
Quote: Since inhibition of SERCA is a mechanism of action that has been used to target solid tumors, thapsigargin has attracted research interest. A prodrug of thapsigargin, mipsagargin, is currently undergoing clinical trials for the treatment of glioblastoma.

Quote:
... The task has been taken on by Samuel Denmeade, an oncologist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. He and his team spent 15 years engineering an analogue of thapsigargin, the active ingredient in the plant, to fight cancer cells exclusively. Thapsigargin typically works by passing through cell membranes and shutting down calcium pumps – essential for cell survival – on the inside of cells. Denmeade’s team modified the thapsigargin molecule by adding an extra peptide chain which prevents the toxin from entering cells. That is, until it encounters PSMA – an enzyme commonly found on the surface of many prostate cancer cells. PSMA cleaves the extra chain off the toxin, setting it free to do its devastating business. Precision killer While traditional chemotherapy drugs only target cells undergoing rapid growth, this new toxin is a generalist, destroying not just the cancer cells currently growing, but also those lying dormant as well as non-cancer cells recruited to help the tumour grow. ...

Saturday, August 29, 2020

Polish study: half of diabetics on HF LC diet declared themselves cured

.
"The effects of so called 'optimal diet' on health status, physical activity
and selected civilization diseases", by Przemysław Fabijański et al., Hygeia Public Health 2011, 46(1): 51-56, www.h-ph.pl, 28.01.2011


"HF LC diet" = High Fat Low Carbohydrate diet (dr. Jan Kwasniewski's "Optimal Diet")

Quotes:

Introduction. So called “optimal diet” – a low-carbohydrate, high-fat
diet, different from Atkins diet – has become very popular in Poland
during the last 20 years. It is very controversial; official dietetics in
Poland claim it is extremely noxious.


Aim [Objectives]. To check what are the effects of so-called “optimal diet” on
health status, frame of mind of people, their physical activity and
diseases including type 2 diabetes.

Material and methods. 436 persons aged 20-75 years, both
women (247) and men (189) were examined. 231 of them applied
“optimal diet” and 205 did not. 86 confirmed they suffered from
type 2 diabetes. All examined persons were inquired with our own
questionnaire.

Results. Quite a lot of statistically significant dependencies were
found to exist. They show us that persons applying the “optimal
diet” might be physically active longer than the persons not applying
it. The majority of the “optimal diet” users claim they got rid of
overweight owing to this diet. Quite many of them claim they
cured themselves of the diabetes or at least the diabetes distress
has distinctly diminished.


Conclusions. The persons applying the “optimal diet” claim they
got rid of overweight or even cured themselves of the diabetes
owing to the diet. Our data do seem to confirm the last reports

(Al-Khalifa et al. 2009).



Fig.1 and Fig.2




Explanations to Fig.1:

"stosujący DO" = Using Optimal Diet,
"nie stosujący OD" = Not using Optimal Diet.

Horizontal axis:

Answers to the question: “Are you suffering from diabetes at present?”

 "Tak" = Yes,
 "Nie, ale kiedyś chorowałem/łam" =  No but I used to suffer from it.


Explanations to Fig.2:

"stan cukrzycy nie zmienił się" = diabetes status hasn't changed

"cukrzyca zaczęła spadać" = diabetes started to recede

"praktycznie cukrzyca zniknęła" = diabetes practically disappeared


Translation of the text between Fig.1 and Fig.2:

"Over half of the respondents were able (in their opinion)
to heal themselves of diabetes using the so-called optimal diet [OD], but it was not possible for anyone (according to respondents' opinions) who did not follow the OD."
-----




Friday, September 21, 2018

No benefit in LDL-C lowering, trend toward harm.

.



Quote

No beneficial relationship was found between LDL-C lowering and cardiovascular events explored by meta-regression; instead, there was a trend toward harm.

The systematic review ...,Battaggia A, et al. Curr Med Res Opin. 2018.

Quote

CONCLUSIONS: The relationship between LDL-C lowering and cardiovascular events has not showed any significant association (and even a tendency toward harm), challenging the "lower the better" theory. A separate meta-analysis of trials recruiting familial hypercholesterolemia patients has showed a tendency to harm for all outcomes with PCSK9 antibodies. Therefore, at the moment, the data available from randomized trials does not clearly support the use of these antibodies.

Tuesday, August 29, 2017

Low fat diet rises risk of early death by a quarter

.

New study reported here:



Low-fat diets could raise the risk of early death by almost one quarter, a major study has found.
The Lancet study of 135,000 adults found those who cut back on fats had far shorter lives than those enjoying plenty of butter, cheese and meats.
Researchers said the study was at odds with repeated health advice to cut down on fats.


Reference:

Associations of fats and carbohydrate intake with cardiovascular disease and mortality in 18 countries from five continents (PURE): a prospective cohort study

Quote:

Findings
During follow-up, we documented 5796 deaths and 4784 major cardiovascular disease events. Higher carbohydrate intake was associated with an increased risk of total mortality (highest [quintile 5] vs lowest quintile [quintile 1] category, HR 1.28 [95% CI 1.12–1.46], ptrend=0.0001) but not with the risk of cardiovascular disease or cardiovascular disease mortality. Intake of total fat and each type of fat was associated with lower risk of total mortality (quintile 5 vs quintile 1, total fat: HR 0.77 [95% CI 0.67–0.87], ptrend<0.0001; saturated fat, HR 0.86 [0.76–0.99], ptrend=0.0088; monounsaturated fat: HR 0.81 [0.71–0.92], ptrend<0.0001; and polyunsaturated fat: HR 0.80 [0.71–0.89], ptrend<0.0001). Higher saturated fat intake was associated with lower risk of stroke (quintile 5 vs quintile 1, HR 0.79 [95% CI 0.64–0.98], ptrend=0.0498). Total fat and saturated and unsaturated fats were not significantly associated with risk of myocardial infarction or cardiovascular disease mortality.

----- Update 8/09/2017 -----
Another article, from the NYT, commenting on that study:

New Study Favors Fat Over Carbs

Quote:

Compared with people who ate the lowest 20 percent of carbohydrates, those who ate the highest 20 percent had a 28 percent increased risk of death. But high carbohydrate intake was not associated with cardiovascular death.
People with the highest 20 percent in total fat intake - an average of 35.3 percent of calories from fat - had about a 23 percent reduced risk of death compared with the lowest 20 percent (an average of 10.6 percent of calories from fat). Consuming higher saturated fat, polyunsaturated fat and monounsaturated fat were all associated with lower mortality. Higher fat diets were also associated with a lower risk of stroke.




Thursday, August 10, 2017

Study finds vegetarians have twice the rate of depression

.


A new study by Bristol University of almost 10,000 men in the south west of England:

Vegetarian diets and depressive symptoms among men

The study full text is paywalled but a Daily Mail article describing the study says this:

Quote:

A study by Bristol University of almost 10,000 men in the south west of England found that those who gave up meat were almost twice as likely to suffer depression as those on a conventional balanced diet. It found the 350 committed vegetarians had a higher average depression score compared to others.

The paper, in the Journal of Affective Disorders, said a veggie diet led to lower intake of vitamin B12 and greater consumption of nuts rich in omega-6 fatty acids, which may be linked with greater risk of mental health problems. The report added: ‘Other potential factors include high blood levels of phytoestrogens – consequent mainly on diets rich in vegetables and soya. Another potential contributing factor is that lower intakes of seafood are thought to be associated with greater risk of depressive symptoms.’ Around one in 20 Britons are committed vegetarians and the majority are women.

Wednesday, July 5, 2017

Study: chemotherapy may spread cancer and trigger more aggressive tumours

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/07/05/chemotherapy-may-spread-cancer-trigger-aggressive-tumours-warn/

Researchers in the US studied the impact of drugs on patients with breast cancer and found medication increases the chance of cancer cells migrating to other parts of the body, where they are almost always lethal.

Many are given chemotherapy before surgery, but the new research suggests that, although it shrinks tumours in the short term, it could trigger the spread of cancer cells around the body.

It is thought the toxic medication switches on a repair mechanism in the body which ultimately allows tumours to grow back stronger. It also increases the number of ‘doorways’ on blood vessels which allow cancer to spread throughout the body.

Dr George Karagiannis, of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, New York, found the number of doorways was increased in 20 patients receiving two common chemotherapy drugs.

Saturday, May 21, 2016

Eating too little salt may increase your risk of a heart attack or stroke claims new research

.
Daily Mail On-Line article:

Eating too LITTLE salt may INCREASE your risk of a heart attack or stroke, claims controversial new research


Wiki Salt



Nutritional heresy strikes back, some quotes:

The research was carried out by investigators at McMaster University and Hamilton Health Sciences.
They analyzed more than 130,000 people across 49 countries, focusing on whether the relationship between sodium (salt) intake and death, heart disease and stroke differs in people with high blood pressure compared to those with normal blood pressure.
Their findings showed that regardless of whether people have high blood pressure, low-salt intake is linked to a greater incidence of heart attacks, stroke, and deaths compared to average intake.
...

Dr Mente said that this suggests that the majority of individuals in Canada and most countries are consuming the right amount of salt.
He added that targeted salt reduction in those who are most susceptible because of hypertension and high salt consumption may be preferable to a population-wide approach to reducing sodium intake in most countries except those where the average sodium intake is very high, such as parts of central Asia or China.

He added that what is now generally recommended as a healthy daily ceiling for sodium consumption appears to be set too low, regardless of a person's blood pressure level.
'Low sodium intake reduces blood pressure modestly, compared to average intake, but low sodium intake also has other effects, including adverse elevations of certain hormones which may outweigh any benefits,' Dr Mente said.

'The key question is not whether blood pressure is lower with very low salt intake, instead it is whether it improves health.'

Dr Martin O'Donnell, a co-author on the study and an associate clinical professor at McMaster University and National University of Ireland Galway, said: 'This study adds to our understanding of the relationship between salt intake and health, and questions the appropriateness of current guidelines that recommend low sodium intake in the entire population.'

The study was funded from more than 50 sources, including the PHRI, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

-----

Reference:

A.Mente et al., The Lancet, 20/05/2016, "Associations of urinary sodium excretion with cardiovascular events in individuals with and without hypertension: a pooled analysis of data from four studies"


Please note that the medical authorities have again been caught issuing inaccurate, perhaps harmful nutritional guidelines for half a century based on what appears to be the "treating the numbers" paradigm and experts' opinions rather than based on science. Is nobody responsible for the misconduct?

Thursday, February 4, 2016

Zika virus, GM mosquitoes or TDAP vaccine?

.

More controversies and more "known unknowns"...

Zika Virus – What They Are Not Telling You


While the Brazilian government rushes to blame the Zika virus for this huge rise in abnormal birth defects, causation remains unclear. Only a small number of babies with birth defects, who died, had the virus in their brain or in the mother’s placenta. This means a large number of the babies who died had no Zika virus in their brain. Hard to blame Zika then, which has been around since before 1948 and has never been known to cause birth defects and/or death. In fact, Zika makes only one in five people get “mildly” sick with flu-like symptoms, with no symptoms at all in 4 out of 5 people. So why are they quick to blame a generally benign Zika virus?

In late 2014, the Brazilian minister of health announced that a new Tdap shot would be mandatory for all expectant mothers starting in 2015. Since it’s mandatory, mothers with birth defect babies received this newly formulated vaccine while pregnant. The timeliness of the Tdap vaccine and the sudden rise in birth defects is more than just a little coincidental. The consequences of this untested vaccine is being swept under the rug.

More links (far out warning - not for mainstream believer types!):

The CDC / Its agents run global covert ops / The virus hunters

Zika Outbreak Epicenter ... in Same Area where GM Mosquitoes were Released in 2015

Is the Dreaded Zika Virus Another Giant Scam?


Update 13/02/2016

A dissenting voice of reason. By Anonymous:

-------------------------

Zika virus damages babies when pregnant women initially become infected for the FIRST time. A mother who was previously exposed to Zika has natural immunity. Zika is native to West Africa, NOT to South America. Women in west Africa have natural immunity since they are exposed to it as children. But Zika was brought to Brazil by the World Cup a few years ago and introduced to a population that was not exposed to it before, leading to a LARGE number of first infections, many of whom were pregnant women.

In other words, a West African woman is unlikely to have her first Zika exposure while she is pregnant and her children will be protected by her already-developed immunity. However, South American women are NOT exposed to Zika endemically and therefore a first infection for them is catastrophic. Zika does its damage in the first 1-2 weeks of exposure, after which the body develops antibodies and fights it off so it is undetectable. This is why many pregnant women and children with microcephaly will not show signs of active Zika infection; the damage has already been done during the initial course of infection, which has resolved and been cleared by the immune system by the time of testing (testing for ANY virus outside of its initial symptomatic outbreak is not very effective, e.g. herpes simplex). Zika causes microcephaly through widespread clotting in the brain during the early weeks of fetal development. Infection with Zika resolves quickly for the mother.

TDAP has never been associated with these specific birth defects. It is in fact a very well tested vaccine which has never demonstrated an increase in microcephaly anywhere it has been used, e.g. in the Western world where it has been administered routinely for decades. Additionally, a 2015 rollout of TDAP would not have produced the massive increase in microcephaly incidence in time for it to be noticed this year (the data that showed the increase in microcephaly is from 2014 onwards).

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2819875/ - paper from 2009 detailing difficulty of accurately assessing Zika infection r/t cross-reactivity of tests with other dengue fever viruses. Also contains data on antibodies vs. Zika in endemic populations.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4593454/  - paper from 2015 detailing clinical cases of Zika in women in Rio. Interestingly, many pts positive for Zika had not been exposed to dengue, an endemic cousin of Zika which may have granted partial cross-immunity?

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/65/wr/mm6502e1.htm  - the CDC has a great, sourced write-up on guidelines for pregnant women concerned about Zika.

Added 20/02/2016:
Zika Virus Associated with Microcephaly

--------------------------


My comments:

There are still some doubts about TDAP vaccine in pregnancy, although the risk may be presumed but not proven.

For example this:

http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/tdap-vaccine-pushed-on-pregnant-women-despite-fetal-risks/

Quote:

The truth is that the Tdap shot has never been proven safe for use during pregnancy. In fact, Tdap is classified by the FDA as a Class C drug.

The definition of a Class C drug which is how the Tdap shot is classified:

Animal reproduction studies have shown an adverse effect on the fetus and there are no adequate and well-controlled studies in humans, but potential benefits may warrant use of the drug in pregnant women despite potential risks.


Sanofi Pasteur Adacel (TDAP) safety sheet (FDA document):

http://www.fda.gov/downloads/biologicsbloodvaccines/vaccines/approvedproducts/ucm142764.pdf

Quote:

--USE IN SPECIFIC POPULATIONS----
Safety and effectiveness of Adacel vaccine have not been established in pregnant women. (8.1)

http://www.vaxchoicevt.com/whooping-cough-shots-during-pregnancy/

Quote:

* from Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) Summary Report February 23-24, 2011 minutes (p. 34-35)

"From January 1, 2005 through June 30, 2010, of 10,350 reports after Tdap vaccines, 129 involved pregnant women who submitted a report to VAERS. Although there were reports of 20 spontaneous abortions, 2 stillbirths, and 2 congenital anomalies, VAERS is not designed to assess whether a vaccine caused an adverse event. A review of VAERS reports in pregnant women who received Tdap vaccines revealed no elevated frequency or unusual patterns. Both GSK and sanofi pasteur maintain vaccination pregnancy registries to collect data on pregnancy outcomes and newborn health status outcomes following vaccination. Both were kind enough to allow Dr. Liang to present on their behalf. The work group reviewed their data in detail, and she provided the summary points. Boostrix® was licensed in 2005 for 10 through 18 year olds, and in 2008 for adults. GSK maintains a registry to collect data on pregnancy outcomes and newborn health status outcomes following vaccination. From its U.S. market launch in 2005 through August 2, 2010, 33 pregnancies were prospectively registered. Of these pregnancies, 18 were lost to follow-up. Outcomes were reported for seven pregnancies, and consisted of six live infants born without birth defects and one spontaneous abortion at seven weeks gestation. The remaining eight pregnancies were on-going at the time of last contact. In addition to the prospective reports of pregnancy received to the pregnancy registry from the U.S., GSK has received 13 reports from other countries. Just over half of these reported normal outcomes. The rest are on-going or were lost to follow-up. There have been no birth defects after Boostrix® vaccination reported to GSK."

Stan (Heretic)

Thursday, January 28, 2016

They finally proved correlation between saturated fat and heart disease...

.

... and it is inverse!

From Wiki
In case you missed it, see the study link and the post on Diet Doctor.  See also an interesting post on the High Fat Hep-C Diet blog.  In a nutshell:

Each additional 5% of saturated fat (SFA) contents was associated with 17% lower risk of ischemic heart disease (IHD)  : Hazard Ratio 0.83 +/- 0.1.

RESULTS:
During 12 y of follow-up, 1807 IHD events occurred. Total SFA intake was associated with a lower IHD risk (HR per 5% of energy: 0.83; 95% CI: 0.74, 0.93). Substituting SFAs with animal protein, cis monounsaturated fatty acids, polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), or carbohydrates was significantly associated with higher IHD risks (HR per 5% of energy: 1.27-1.37). Slightly lower IHD risks were observed for higher intakes of the sum of butyric (4:0) through capric (10:0) acid (HRSD: 0.93; 95% CI: 0.89, 0.99), myristic acid (14:0) (HRSD: 0.90; 95% CI: 0.83, 0.97), the sum of pentadecylic (15:0) and margaric (17:0) acid (HRSD: 0.91: 95% CI: 0.83, 0.99), and for SFAs from dairy sources, including butter (HRSD: 0.94; 95% CI: 0.90, 0.99), cheese (HRSD: 0.91; 95% CI: 0.86, 0.97), and milk and milk products (HRSD: 0.92; 95% CI: 0.86, 0.97).

Interestingly, equal-caloric substitution of 5% of SFA in the diet with:

  •  any carbohydrate type (low GI, medium GI or high GI),
  •  mono-unsaturated fats,
  •  polyunsaturated fats,
  •  animal protein,

- correlated positively with IHD, while substitution of SFA with vegetable protein correlated negatively! (Correlation calculations were corrected against known confounding factors such as age, sex, BMI, waist circumference, educational level, physical activity level, smoking status, alcohol intake, energy-adjusted intakes of cholesterol, fiber, and vitamin C.

Stan (Heretic)

Friday, February 8, 2013

Study: double mortality after replacing animal fats with vegetable fats

.
Also a mystery of some "missing data" etc. I am reposting this quote from Barry Groves' blog:

Quote:

...
The new research, published online in the British Medical Journal, was carried out by experts from the US Government’s National Institutes of Health in Maryland. They recovered missing data from a study in the 1960s involving 458 men aged 30-59 who had suffered a heart attack or angina. Using modern statistical methods to compare death rates, they found there was no evidence of the benefit of replacing saturated fats with omega-6 linoleic acid, found in vegetable fats. In fact, they said replacing the animal fats with polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) from vegetable fats increased risk of death in those patients with cardiovascular disease. Those who increased their intake of the “healthy” fats over three years were almost twice as likely to die. The omega-6 linoleic acid group in the study had a higher risk of death from all causes (62 per cent), as well as from cardiovascular disease (70 per cent) and coronary heart disease (74 per cent), compared to others. Linoleic acid is present in high amounts in some commonly used vegetable oils such as corn, sunflower, safflower and soya bean.
...

The study was published in BMJ on the 5-Februsary 2013: "Use of dietary linoleic acid for secondary prevention of coronary heart disease and death: evaluation of recovered data from the Sydney Diet Heart Study and updated meta-analysis" (pdf)

More quotes (from the study, the highlights and the capitalized comments in [] brackets are mine):

Advice to substitute vegetable oils rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) for animal fats rich in saturated fatty acids (SFAs) has been a cornerstone of worldwide dietary guidelines for the past half century.1 When this advice originated in the 1960s, PUFAs were regarded as a uniform molecular category with one relevant biological mechanism—the reduction in blood cholesterol.1 2 Omega 6 (n-6) linoleic acid (LA) was the best known dietary PUFA at the time.

...

Diet intervention
The intervention group received instructions to increase their PUFA intake to about 15% of food energy, and to reduce their intake of SFA and dietary cholesterol to less than 10% of food energy and 300 mg per day, respectively.10 To achieve these targets, intervention participants were provided with liquid safflower oil and safflower oil polyunsaturated margarine (“Miracle” brand, Marrickville Margarine). Liquid safflower oil was substituted for animal fats, common margarines and shortenings in cooking oils, salad dressings, baked goods, and other products, and was also taken as a supplement. Safflower oil polyunsaturated margarine was used in place of butter and common margarines.

Control
The control group received no specific dietary instruction. However, some participants began substituting polyunsaturated margarine for butter after their coronary event.33 Because the research team made no effort to alter the PUFA or SFA content of control diets, such dietary changes were allowed to continue.
...
In this cohort, substituting dietary linoleic acid in place of saturated fats increased the rates of death from all causes, coronary heart disease, and cardiovascular disease. An updated meta-analysis of linoleic acid intervention trials showed no evidence of cardiovascular benefit. These findings could have important implications for worldwide dietary advice to substitute omega 6 linoleic acid, or polyunsaturated fats in general, for saturated fats.[IF THEY HAD BEEN PUBLISHED RATHER THAN GONE MISSING, AT THE TIME, FOURTY YEARS AGO!]
...
Increased all cause mortality in the safflower oil group was reported in 1978,10 although deaths due to cardiovascular disease and coronary heart disease were not reported by group.[BECAUSE THE DATA WENT MISSING!] Clinical outcomes for cardiovascular disease and coronary heart disease have been considered to be more relevant than all cause mortality when evaluating the evidence base25 and formulating dietary guidelines.26 Therefore, previous meta-analyses of PUFA intervention trials and risk of cardiovascular disease25 27 28 have been incomplete because they were not able to include these missing data from the SDHS. [SDHS=SYDNEY DIET HEART STUDY. CONCIDENTALLY, THE MISSING HEART MORTALITY DATA HAPPENED TO CONTRADICT, BY A LARGE FACTOR, THE EXPECTED OUTCOME! HAD THE HEART MORTALITY DATA NOT GONE "MISSING" FOURTY YEARS AGO, THE ENTIRE VEGETABLE OIL INDUSTRY WOULD PROBABLY NOT EXIST BY NOW!]



Interestingly, since the control group was found also shifting towards substituting all animal fats with vegetable oils and spreads, the degree of dietary change between the study group and the control group was most likely smaller than the nominal goal for PUFA intake increase to 15%. Yet, such a small difference of probably much less than 15% in PUFA (in absolute calories) have created a huge increase in cardiovascular disease, by about 70%. It indicates that the relative risk of cardiovascular disease rises proportionally to the absolute PUFA caloric intake, with a proportionality factor of about 5 or higher! (If the linear interpolation model holds true). Furthermore, an increase due to PUFA was even higher than an increase in cardiovascular mortality due to smoking (see Table 6)!

This high multiple factor seems to be confirm by the data from Table 5 indicating that for every 5% PUFA increase (in absolute energy%) the All cause mortality, the Cardiovascular disease mortality and the Coronary heart disease mortality increased by 31%, 35% and 26% respectively (relative risk factor).  This implies a proportionality factor of about 5-7.

 That is, for every 1% added Poly-Unsaturated Fatty Acids ( PUFA) in absolute calories % of the total, cardiovascular mortality INCREASED  by 5 to 7%. This is big news!

There is an even bigger news: Saturated fat is good for us! Table 5 exonerates the much maligned saturated fats from being implicated in heart disease (Dr. Ornish, please listen). For every 5% added saturated fat (in % of absolute total calories) the risk of mortality defined in the same categories as above DECREASED  by 30%, 28% and 28% respectively!  With the proportionality factor being also about 6, that is for every +1% of absolute saturated fat intake, mortality decreased by 6%!

This study has also neatly killed the second "bird" - the infamous cholesterol-heart disease hypothesis, quote:


As expected, increasing n-6 LA from safflower oil in the SDHS significantly reduced total cholesterol; however, these reductions were not associated with mortality outcomes (results not shown). Moreover, the increased risk of death in the intervention group presented fairly rapidly and persisted throughout the trial. These observations, combined with recent progress in the field of fatty acid metabolism, point to a mechanism of cardiovascular disease pathogenesis independent of our traditional understanding of cholesterol lowering.

It is interesting to observe the exact moment, around year 3.5 into the study on the graph Fig.2c below. I am speculating here, but a dramatic fall of mortality rates in both the intervention and in the control group coincidental with a sudden increase in quitting the study, may indicate a point when the participants and doctors realized that something is wrong and begun reverting to their previous diet. Butter, anyone?

Fig.2 (bottom) from the study.  

Notice how the number of deaths dropped to zero after year 3.5, and a dramatically higher rate of study-quitting by the patients. About 30 people used to leave the intervention group per year (out of which 5-16 were due to death) until year 3.5. Subsequently 49 and 36 patients quit but none died! There is probably more to be told that wasn't discussed in the paper, but the numbers reveal enough...



Monday, June 7, 2010

Synergistic effect of vitamins A and D

.
Very important article by Chris Masterjohn.   Based on the recent Chinese paper using human stem cells in-vitro.  The paper demonstrated that vitamin A acts synergistically in triggering expression of neurogenin-3.  Neurogenin-3 is necessary for activation of stem cells development, in that case - for replacing the damaged insulin-producing islet cells such as in diabetes type 1.

I think that study is important for several reasons:

- Adequate intake of both A and D3 is one of the critcial factors in tissue regeneration, propably not only limited to pancreatic islets but generally to all other organs,

- Supplementation of only one of the vitamins is inadequate because both act synergistically.

- I suspect (speculating) that beta carotene might not be adequate if vitamin D3 level is low, and vice versa - supplementation of D3 might not be effective in the absence of A.  We shall keep in mind that beta carotene (pro-vitamin A)  from plants is NOT the true vitamin A!   This may explain a curious fact of difficult to treat vitamin A or vitamin D3 depletions frequently reported by vegans.