Category Archives: Uncategorized

I thought close friends would also improve longevity. But not this time:

“It is no secret that being around friends and family in older age can benefit health; loneliness among seniors has been linked to increased risk of depression, heart disease, and more. According to a new study, however, only family can lower mortality risk in later life.

Having more family and feeling closer to relatives in later life may improve longevity.Lead author James Iveniuk, of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, Canada, and colleagues found that older adults who have more family members and who are closer to their family have a lower risk of death, though the same link could not be made with friends.”

Source: Family, not friends, lowers death risk in older age – Medical News Today

Richard David Feinman is raising money for ground-breaking research that may help cure cancer. I think it’s a worthy cause.

Dr. Feinman writes:

“We have a good deal of enthusiasm in the keto/paleo/low-carb community. We have the real sense that we can we use carbohydrate restriction to take advantage of the characteristic metabolic features of cancer — inflexible reliance on glucose. Enthusiasm may have outstripped the data and several groups are trying to fill the gap. The barrier rests with the difficulty for anybody to obtain funding from NIH or other government or private agencies and the long-standing resistance to low-carbohydrate diets makes it particularly difficult.We have some good experiments and a dedicated technician and we can efficiently use limited funds. Your backing can help. A $15 donation gets us several days of supplies for the in vitro experiments that provide the biochemical underpinnings for attacking cancer in the clinic. Our project at experiment.com provides background, a place for discussion and reports from the lab.

The current metabolic point of view in cancer — emphasizing flexibility of fuel choices —  derives from renewed interest in the Warburg effect. Warburg saw that many cancer cells were producing lactic acid, the product of glycolysis. In other words, the tumors were not using the more efficient aerobic metabolism even when oxygen was present in the environment. The tumor cell’s requirement for glucose suggests the possibility of giving the host an advantage by restricting carbohydrate and offering ketone bodies as an alternative fuel.”

Click the link below for a little more info and to make a donation:

Source: Can we target cancer with ketogenic diets? Can you help? | Richard David Feinman

P.D. Mangan has all the pertinent details:

“A recent study found an association between the reading of books and longevity. Compared to people who read no books, those who did experienced a 20% reduction in mortality.”

Source: Book Readers Live Longer – Rogue Health and Fitness

I’ve always thought my books help people live longer.

From Gina Kolata at the New York Times:

“Nearly everything you have been told about the food you eat and the exercise you do and their effects on your health should be met with a raised eyebrow.

Dozens of studies are publicized every week. But those studies hardly slake people’s thirst for answers to questions about how to eat or how much to exercise. Does exercise help you maintain your memory? What kind? Walking? Intense exercise? Does eating carbohydrates make you fat? Can you prevent breast cancer by exercising when you are young? Do vegetables protect you from heart disease?

The problem is one of signal to noise. You can’t discern the signal — a lower risk of dementia, or a longer life, or less obesity, or less cancer — because the noise, the enormous uncertainty in the measurement of such things as how much you exercise or what exactly you eat, is overwhelming. The signal is often weak, meaning if there is an effect of lifestyle it is minuscule, nothing like the link between smoking and lung cancer, for example.”

Source: We’re So Confused: The Problems With Food and Exercise Studies – The New York Times

Gina and the experts she quotes are right about much of this.

I bet he’s right.

“Cupping is no different than acupuncture, bloodletting, phrenology, or any other medical pseudoscience. The treatment is based in pre-scientific superstitions, and has simply been rebranded to more effectively market the treatment to modern customers.

It is now just another alternative treatment, lacking plausibility, lacking any compelling evidence for efficacy, and promoted for the usual array of subjective symptoms with the usual array of handwaving justifications.

It is unfortunate that elite athletics, including the Olympics, is such a hot bed for pseudoscience. The Olympic Games are supposed to celebrate excellence, hard work, dedication, and friendly competition. Now it also represents gullibility and superstition, and spreads that gullibility to the viewing world.”

Source: Cupping – Olympic Pseudoscience « Science-Based Medicine

“Man’s best friend seems to be experiencing a sharp drop in fertility, and research suggests that it could be due to environmental contamination. Authors of a study published in the journal Scientific Reports believe that contaminants have led to a significant decrease in canine sperm quality.

Is our environment damaging canine fertility?

The findings point to a correlation between reduced sperm function and concentrations of chemicals present in the sperm and testes of adult dogs, as well as some commercially available pet foods.”

Source: Drop in canine fertility may be due to environmental contaminants – Medical News Today

I’m astounded that an article fretting about body composition didn’t mention tests of physical fitness, such as Army Physical Fitness Tests. As long as you can perform up to par, does it really matter what is your percentage of body fat?

From Military Times:

“For the first time in 14 years, the military is rewriting its body composition standards and the methods used to determine whether troops are too fat to serve.

Pentagon officials intend to publish a new policy later this year, a document expected to have sweeping effects on how the military defines and measures health and fitness. The review comes amid rising concern about obesity. Among civilians, it is shrinking the pool of qualified prospective recruits. And in the active-duty force, a rising number of overweight troops poses risks to readiness and health care costs.”

Source: Spooked by obesity trends, the U.S. military is redefining its basic fitness standards

PS: If your your body fat percentage is too high, check out my books.

Another healthy sacred cow bites the dust?

The Washington Post has the story:

“When the federal government issued its latest dietary guidelines this year, the flossing recommendation had been removed, without notice. In a letter to the Associated Press (AP), the government acknowledged the effectiveness of flossing had never been researched, as required.

The AP looked at the most rigorous research conducted over the past decade, focusing on 25 studies that generally compared the use of a toothbrush with the combination of toothbrushes and floss. The findings? The evidence for flossing is “weak, very unreliable,” of “very low” quality, and carries “a moderate to large potential for bias.”

“The majority of available studies fail to demonstrate that flossing is generally effective in plaque removal,” said one review conducted last year. Another 2015 review cites “inconsistent/weak evidence” for flossing and a “lack of efficacy.”

Source: Medical benefits of dental floss unproven – The Washington Post

A lot of medical advice isn’t based on sound science. One example is the common suggestion that women with premenstrual syndrome (PMS) cut back on caffeine.

From AJCN:

“Our findings suggest that caffeine intake is not associated with PMS, and that current recommendations for women to reduce caffeine intake may not help prevent the development of PMS.”

Source: A prospective study of caffeine and coffee intake and premenstrual syndrome