Maybe I Need to Re-Think This Green Tea Thing

Posted on July 18, 2016 | Comments Off on Maybe I Need to Re-Think This Green Tea Thing

“I have friends who attend matcha tea ceremonies, hire doulas, and go to shaman-led sweat lodges in Tulum.”

Source: American Digest

PS: “Match tea” is a term I ran across in my quest for green tea that’s actually green.

Comments Off on Maybe I Need to Re-Think This Green Tea Thing

Posted in green tea

The Mediterranean Diet Is Dying Out In Its Homeland

Posted on July 16, 2016 | Comments Off on The Mediterranean Diet Is Dying Out In Its Homeland

Click the link below for details. Some snippets:

“Found to varying degrees in all countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea, [the Mediterranean diet] was named in 2010 onto UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list for seven countries, from Croatia to Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Morocco, Spain and Portugal.

But the diet, which the United Nations also praises for promoting hospitality, neighbourliness, intercultural dialogue and creativity, is going rapidly out of fashion.

“In Greece, it has decreased by 70 percent over the last 30 years, in Spain 50 percent,” Lluis Serra-Majem, head of the International Foundation of Mediterranean Diet, told AFP at a recent conference in Milan.

Less than 15 percent of the Spanish population still eats a Mediterranean diet, while 50 to 60 percent do so sometimes. Between 20 to 30 percent have ditched it altogether, Serra-Majem said.

And it’s the same in Greece, says Antonia Trichopoulou from the Hellenic Health Foundation. Unsurprisingly, over 65-year-olds are the best at eating traditional dishes, while the youngest generations have succumbed to the lure of fast food.

“The decline has various causes. We are witnessing a globalization of eating habits, with [the spread of] the ‘Western diet’,” said Serra-Majem, pointing a finger of blame at the growth of the tourism sector in particular.

It has been more marked in coastal areas, particularly in Spain or on Italy’s Adriatic coast.

“Uncontrolled tourism leads to high urbanization and… increased consumption of meat, refined flours and a reduction of the traditional diet, ” he said.

Source: Global push to make Mediterranean diet sexy again | Lifestyle | GMA News Online

Parker here. I doubt tourism is the major reason for the decline of the diet’s popularity.

Steve Parker MD, Advanced Mediterranean Diet

Two diet books in one

Comments Off on The Mediterranean Diet Is Dying Out In Its Homeland

Posted in Uncategorized

Monster In the Mind: A New Documentary From Jean Carper Looks Interesting

Posted on July 16, 2016 | Comments Off on Monster In the Mind: A New Documentary From Jean Carper Looks Interesting

Monster in the Mind (2016) Trailer from jean carper on Vimeo.

Comments Off on Monster In the Mind: A New Documentary From Jean Carper Looks Interesting

Posted in Alzheimer Disease

Tagged , , , ,

Told You So…

Posted on July 15, 2016 | 1 comment

OK, so I got the spelling wrong.

1 Comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Eating Pork May Increase Risk of Kidney Failure

Posted on July 15, 2016 | Comments Off on Eating Pork May Increase Risk of Kidney Failure
I don't know about these, but some fish have white meat (flesh), too

:Lobster meat is white, too

If you hear elsewhere about a recent study blaming red meat for kidney failure, be aware that the headline should read “pork.” Read on for details.

Wait, what? I thought pork was “the other white meat.”

First they told us red meat caused cancer. Then cardiovascular disease. Then diabetes. And now kidney failure. Why eat it at all? I still do, but in moderation.

You have to take studies like this with a grain of salt. There are numerous confounding factors that may invalidate results. For instance, if you’re not Chinese and living in Singapore, results of this study may not apply to you. For another instance, Chinese pork may be different from English, Indian, Canadian, and U.S. pork.

A quote from the article at MNT:

“Researcher Woon-Puay Koh and her team delved into data from the Singapore Chinese Health Study, which included more than 63,000 adults, aged 45-74. They linked the data with the Singapore Renal Registry, which holds the records of all Singapore ESRD patients. The overall aim was to uncover the role of different protein sources on kidney health outcomes.

“We embarked on our study to see what advice should be given to chronic kidney disease patients or to the general population worried about their kidney health regarding types or sources of protein intake,” explains Koh.

In China, the primary red meat is pork, accounting for 97 percent of red meat intake. Other popular protein sources included eggs, dairy, shellfish, fish, soy, legumes, and poultry.

The participants were followed up for an average of 15.5 years. During that time, 951 cases of ESRD [end-stage renal disease] occurred; the resultant data showed a clear trend.

Red meat intake was associated with a dose-dependent increased ESRD risk. Individuals who consumed the highest amounts of red meat – the top 25 percent – showed a 40 percent higher risk of developing ESRD than those who consumed the least red meat – the bottom 25 percent.”

Source: Red meat consumption linked to kidney failure – Medical News Today

Comments Off on Eating Pork May Increase Risk of Kidney Failure

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged , , , ,

Food Scams All Around Us

Posted on July 14, 2016 | Comments Off on Food Scams All Around Us

This is troubling…

“Among the many things New Yorkers pride ourselves on is food: making it, selling it and consuming only the best, from single-slice pizza to four-star sushi. We have fish markets, Shake Shacks and, as of this year, 74 Michelin-starred restaurants.

Yet most everything we eat is fraudulent.In his new book, “Real Food Fake Food,” author Larry Olmsted exposes the breadth of counterfeit foods we’re unknowingly eating. After reading it, you’ll want to be fed intravenously for the rest of your life.

Click the link for details.

Source: Everything we love to eat is a scam | New York Post

Comments Off on Food Scams All Around Us

Posted in Uncategorized

Magnesium Supplementation Lowers Blood Pressure 

Posted on July 12, 2016 | 2 comments

The effect is not great, but magnesium supplements are relatively cheap and safe. Excessive magnesium blood levels are prevented by healthy kidneys. If you have kidney impairment, you might develop magnesium toxicity when you take a supplement. Even if magnesium supplementation reduces average systolic blood pressure by only 2 points, half of supplementers will see a drop over 2 points.

Source: Magnesium Lowers Blood Pressure | Medpage Today:

“Magnesium supplementation leads to decreases in blood pressure among both hypertensive and normotensive adults, according to the findings of a meta-analysis.Taking 368-mg magnesium per day for 3 months led to 2.00 mm Hg reductions in systolic blood pressure (95% CI 0.43-3.58) and 1.78 mm Hg reductions in diastolic blood pressure (95% CI 0.73-2.82), Yiqing Song, MD, ScD, of the Indiana University School of Public Health in Indianapolis, and colleagues reported in a meta-analysis of 34 separate trials, published online in Hypertension.

“Our findings indicate a causal effect of magnesium supplementation on lowering blood pressures in adults,” the researchers concluded. “Our findings suggested that oral magnesium supplements can be recommended for the prevention of hypertension or as adjuvant antihypertensive therapy, although future rigorously designed randomized controlled trials with blood pressure assessment as primary outcomes are warranted to yield confirmatory evidence.”

 

2 Comments

Posted in High Blood Pressure

Tagged , ,

QOTD: Jack Donovan Favors Hillary Clinton for President

Posted on July 11, 2016 | 3 comments

I think most middle and lower class white American men know on some semi-conscious level that America is never going to be great again—at least not for them—but it is going to take Hillary Clinton’s cold, Reptilian resting bitch-face on a Presidential portrait to make them accept it and start working through the rest of the stages of grief, so they can finally move on. So they can finally start imagining a post-American future for themselves and begin developing tribal alternatives, before it is too late. Before there are too few of them left to matter.

Jack Donovan, July 7, 2016

3 Comments

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged ,

Finally Some Good News: Major Diseases Are in Decline 

Posted on July 10, 2016 | 1 comment

I wonder if it’s related to lower smoking rates.

U.S Smoking Rate Over Time

U.S Smoking Rate Over Time

(graph from Centers for Disease Control)

For details and further conjecture, read the New York Times article:

“Something strange is going on in medicine. Major diseases, like colon cancer, dementia and heart disease, are waning in wealthy countries, and improved diagnosis and treatment cannot fully explain it.

Scientists marvel at this good news, a medical mystery of the best sort and one that is often overlooked as advocacy groups emphasize the toll of diseases and the need for more funds. Still, many are puzzled.”

Source: A Medical Mystery of the Best Kind: Major Diseases Are in Decline – The New York Times

1 Comment

Posted in Longevity

Telomere length and the cancer-atherosclerosis trade-off 

Posted on July 10, 2016 | Comments Off on Telomere length and the cancer-atherosclerosis trade-off 

Telomeres are a hot research area now. If you can keep your telomeres long, you may live longer. But that may be an oversimplification. Click the link below for details. A teaser:

“Telomeres are caps of tandem repeats of DNA that protect the ends of all chromosomes. They are implicated in ageing because, with successive bouts of cell division, they are gradually whittled away to expose chromosomes to damage and, eventually, an inability to replicate any further. Sarah Tishkoff, together with co-authors Rivka Stone and Abraham Aviv, from the New Jersey Med School, and several others, have been taking a hard look at the evolution of telomere length across species and human groups and argue that there is a direct relationship between telomere length and susceptibility to cancer and atherosclerosis (and other diseases of ageing). Specifically, they describe evidence for an evolutionary trade-off whereby shorter telomeres in some human groups protect against cancer but expose individuals to a greater risk of other diseases in later life.”

Source: Telomere length and the cancer – atherosclerosis trade-off – The Evolution and Medicine Review

Comments Off on Telomere length and the cancer-atherosclerosis trade-off 

Posted in Longevity

Tagged , , , ,