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

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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

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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.”

 

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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

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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

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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

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Today’s average American woman weighs as much as the average 1960s man 

Posted on July 10, 2016 | Comments Off on Today’s average American woman weighs as much as the average 1960s man 

But women now are also about a half inch (2.2 cm) taller, so that explains it, right? Not by a long shot. The author of the article below blames unhealthy food, too much of it, plus physical inactivity. Since 1960, women’s average weight is up 18.5%, and men’s up 17.6%.

Click the link below for details. I quote:

The average American woman weighs 166.2 pounds, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As reddit recently pointed out, that’s almost exactly as much as the average American man weighed in the early 1960s.

Men, you’re not looking too hot in this scenario either. Over the same time period you gained nearly 30 pounds, from 166.3 in the 60s to 195.5 today.

Source: The average American woman now weighs as much as the average 1960s man – The Washington Post

Steve Parker, M.D.

PS: You wanna do something about it? Send my book to someone you love.

PPS: Men are also a half inch taller.

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Why Not Live to 100? Your extra years are mostly healthy ones

Posted on July 10, 2016 | Comments Off on Why Not Live to 100? Your extra years are mostly healthy ones
dementia, memory loss, Mediterranean diet, low-carb diet, glycemic index, dementia memory loss

“I don’t want to live that long if I’m disabled and a burden to others.”

“An exceptionally long lifespan does not necessarily mean living more years with disease and disability. It seems that centenarians tend to live their extra years in good health, with illness striking decades later in life compared with younger counterparts.The study finds that unlike counterparts decades younger, people who live exceptionally long lives have a much shorter period of illness that is compressed into just months or weeks at the end of their lifespan.

This was the conclusion researchers came to after examining the health status of 3,000 centenarians and near-centenarians taking part in two ongoing longevity studies.”

Source: Centenarians’ extra years are mostly healthy ones – Medical News Today

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P.D. Mangan Says Weight Lifting Is Enough; No Need For Other “Aerobic” Exercise

Posted on July 8, 2016 | 3 comments

 

exercise for weight loss and management, dumbbells

Not P.D. Mangan

A hallmark of aerobic exercise is a fast heart rate and heavy rapid breathing during the activity. “Aerobic exercise” is things like jogging, treadmill work, stair-stepping, rowing, soccer, serious bicycling, etc.

I’ve never checked my breathing rate during a weight-training workout, but I do occasionally check a heart rate right after a set: 140-150 is common.

P.D. Mangan writes at his blog:

“Of all the misconceptions about strength training and weight lifting, one that comes up a lot is that they have no aerobic component. Therefore, the idea goes, if you do only weight training, you won’t build sufficient cardiorespiratory fitness, which you need to protect your heart and get the benefits of exercise. But weight lifting increases aerobic fitness, all on its own.

On at least two occasions, when a doctor has asked me what i do for exercise — after remarking that I was in great shape — and I told them weight lifting, they said I needed to add some aerobic exercise (cardio).

It’s obvious that these doctors never lifted weights. At my weight lifting sessions, I have to catch my breath after a set and my heart is often going at around 160 to 180 beats per minute.

It’s not just a couple doctors either. The view is widespread that you must do a very special form of exercise, called aerobics or cardio, to improve heart and lung function and raise VO2max, the most common measure of cardiorespiratory fitness.

On the contrary, weight lifting raises VO2max.”

Source: The Big Misconception About Weight Lifting – Rogue Health and Fitness

Steve Parker, M.D.

PS: Check out Mangan’s wonderful books.

PPS: Do you ever wonder what’s your theoretical maximum heart rate? The common heuristic is to subtract your age from 220, and that’s your answer. The formula doesn’t work if you take certain drugs, like beta blockers, the limit your heart rate.

PPPS: If you dislike uncommon words like “heuristic,” you won’t find them in my books.

 

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Mission Accomplished: I Found Green “Green Tea”

Posted on July 7, 2016 | Comments Off on Mission Accomplished: I Found Green “Green Tea”
IMG_3517

It’s light green immediately after steeping; five minutes later it’s more yellowish-green

My first two purchases of green tea looked like brown tea. So next I ordered some Kirkland Ito En Matcha Blend Japanese Green Tea from Amazon.com. I think this tea is actually grown in Japan.

Kirkland is a house brand of Costco, so you may find this tea there.

It has a mild and pleasant taste.

I paid $18 (USD) for a box of 100 and got free shipping, so price per cup is 18 cents.

The box

The box

Steve Parker, M.D.

PS: Brown “green tea”:

Mild, pleasant flavor but may not have the phytonutrients I seek

Bigelow Green Tea

Not to me

Twinings Green Tea

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