Archived News of the Week

GMO's, Walking, Exercise and Dementia and Calcium Supplements

Dr. Fraankenschteen meets Luther Burbank: GMO's or genetically modified organisms are really scary bastards and apparently, we've been innocently eating them since 1996. It's another big plot, folks: The drug and chemical company's hallowed bottom line against us, the poor unsuspecting, trusting American public. GM ingredients - which are by and large insect resistant ergo cost effective - are now in soybeans, corn, cottonseed, canola, some Hawaiian papaya and a small amount of zucchini and yellow crookneck squash, and we can't just say, "Well, harrumph, I will just not eat them." These GMO's travel far and wide and hither and yon and to parts unknown. They are everywhere and you and I don't even know when we are eating them, because guess what? There is no way to truthfully label GMO's.

You can try not eating GMO's, but it's impossible. For the following four reasons: There are many accidental spreads of GMO seeds, there is illegal distribution of GMO seeds, there are dishonest people (what?) and lastly, inadvertent cross pollination. Even the "good" companies dealing in soy and corn have no idea what they are buying to make their products. At Whole Foods, the package may be labeled non-GMO, but now there is absolutely no way to know for sure. About the cross-pollination: Do you think we could try putting a skull and crossbones on the GMO plant fields so the bees won't sip from their tainted nectar? No, you can't stop the pollination process, unless you kill the bees. Oh, wait...

Here's what can happen to people who eat GMO's: For one thing the 'organism' part of the GMO is a bacteria. And the "genetic material inserted into the GM soy (or any other GM food) transfers into the bacteria living inside our intestines and continues to function." Now, that's gross. I wonder if we could eventually (way far away in that bleak dystopian future where generations upon generations have been eating GMO's) turn into that robot chick in Terminator III - the one who keeps getting shot, run over, blown up, hacked up, melted and crushed but reconstitutes and still keeps going after Arnie.

If it's an antibiotic gene inserted into the GM crops, then it could create super diseases, resistant to antibiotics. Yeah, check that one off already. Two, if the gene that creates the Bt-toxin (prevalent in GM corn) were to transfer into the bacteria living in our intestines, then we could become a sick pesticide factory and three, animal studies show that DNA in food can travel into organs throughout the body, including a fetus. It's genetic roulette and Monsanto et al are playing with our very future as a civilization. And no, I don't think this is hyperbole.

I don't know what to do about this either. There is no supplement for this one. I guess for now, just avoid all corn and soy, cottonseed and canola. Buy organic cotton if you can, and try to buy vegetables from farmer's markets. Read your labels and for what it's worth, buy non-GMO foods.

Walking: Many years ago, when I was a young lassie, I jogged at quite a clip. A few years ago, I decided to run-walk, then to walk really fast, then to just walk and now I am down to sort of a stroll-walk. I have felt guilty lately as I stroll-walk, that I am not as speedy as I once was and still think that I have to be breathless and uncomfortable with major leg cramps and a side stitch before I can call what I am doing a healthy and useful endeavor. Well, according to a recent JAMA article, while a faster gait is associated with higher survival rates in older adults, I won't start jogging again just yet. Think of your joints, people! You don't want joint replacement surgery. It can be nasty.

Researchers have found that everyone has her own best natural walking speed as they age and a person will burn about 120 calories per mile no matter how quickly she covers that mile. So that means this: If you can walk three miles at a moderate pace, it will take you about an hour and you will burn about 360 calories. But if you walk at a very brisk pace for only two miles, you will spend only 30 minutes walking and will burn just 240 calories.

Exercise and Dementia: There are six risk factors for Alzheimer's dementia, and here they are in descending order of magnitude: Low education, smoking, physical inactivity, depression, mid-life hypertension, diabetes and mid-life obesity. (Lancet Neurology) See how preventable most of these risk factors are? If you have all of them knocked, you have a 54% less chance of ending up drooling in a wheel chair in the back ward of the state-run Home for the Tedious and that translates to 2.9 million of us. Exercise seems to be key here and as the participants (in a research program through the Archives of Internal Medicine) energy expenditures increased, the rate of cognitive decline decreased. And this is done by walking briskly for only 30 minutes per day. I have been begging on bended knee for you to do this for years so maybe you will now?

What? Calcium supplements in post-menopausal women cause heart attacks? I have been asked so many times about this, here is my opinion from what I have read: There is nothing proven that calcium supplements do much to 1) prevent bone loss and 2) extend your lifespan so I am certainly against taking the usual 1,200 mgs of any-old-calcium-from-Safeway that the MD's suggest. This does not mean that any calcium you can get from food is bad: Eat all you want of that, but calcium from elemental calcium, sometimes called calcium carbonate is bad stuff.

The carbonated form of calcium is hard and acts like rocks in your system. It throws the body into a tizzy and the body starts throwing these tiny rocks everywhere but in your bones. It will deposit these little calcium rocks in the inside of your arteries and your heart (atherosclerosis) your kidneys (stones) and your joints (arthritis). So in this respect, yes, the WRONG calcium supplements can create the milieu in which a heart attack could happen. Certainly not a done deal, but a possibility. I have always said get your calcium from food and you will just be fine. And if you want to take a supplement, I recommend either the citrate or the lactate form of calcium and no more than 700 mgs per day, the rest (to reach 1200 mgs) from food. Google "Calcium from foods" and see what you get. To insure that all that calcium gets to the bones where it belongs, make sure that your D levels are at least 60 and maybe take a vitamin K supplement as well.

Here's a scary stat for you: "47% of all meat and poultry from U.S. grocery stores are contaminated with staphylococcus aureus, a bacterium linked to various diseases in humans, including pneumonia and heart infection. If you must eat meat and poultry, then know how to handle and cook it. Source: Translational Genomics Research Institute.

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