Archived News of the Week

The Latest Research Tidbits

(And, yes there is a Santa.. ) There is an Upside to Worrying! You guessed right, I have been a worry wart my entire life. I catastrophize everything. I am the champ of inventing the worst case scenario and sometimes (rarely) make myself laugh at my creativity in thinking up what horrible thing could (probably) happen. I worry about the smallest things. For example, I had an abscessed tooth pulled yesterday and not only did I worry about dying in the chair from an "overwhelming infection" but my anxiety ratcheted my pulse up to over 100 (normal: 60) and then I worried about going into atrial fib and dying from that. I think you get the point here.

You can imagine how I glommed on to this latest research paper from Kate Sweeny, psych professor at UC Riverside who says right out loud: "Worry  it does a body good. And the mind as well. In fact, "Worrying the right amount is far better than not worrying at all."

If you think you have a bladder infection, you probably do: Most of us ladies (and the occasional gent) know that feeling  pain and/or urgency on urination. Then you come to me or your Primary Doc. I would muscle test you and give you Uristatin and some bacterial killer that muscle tested perfectly for you. Your Primary might do a culture or just throw some antibiotics at you. Yes, the antibiotics do work, for sure, and I am not in disagreement with them most of the time, but they are not 100% effective. My experience has been that not only might you need to do the antibiotics, but my supplements as well in order to kill 100% of the bugs that are causing your UTI. We don't want even a tiny bit of half-killed bugs wandering around trying to latch on to your bladder wall. We want to get rid of every last one of them.

The other scenario might be that your Primary does the culture and it comes back negative. She won't give you antibiotics, but you still have the annoying, sometimes painful symptoms. According to the latest research, published in Clinical Microbiology and Infection, you are not making your symptoms up and you do have an infection. Symptoms=Infection in their book. Researchers in Belgium used a more sensitive test (it's called a qPCR test.) which can detect tiny quantities of DNA that come from bacteria which can cause UTI's (E.coli, and Staph saprophyticus).

These tests can detect the UTI bacteria in 95.9% of samples rather than the 80.9% of samples in the standard testing. So, persevere and quote this latest research from Belgium next time you have a UTI and your Primary says no dice with the antibiotics. Sometimes you just need a round of antibiotics for the major kill, then a round of my stuff as the "clean up" routine.

High total cholesterol levels in late life and a lowered risk of dementia: This is why I really hate to see older people on statin drugs. First, statins can really affect the brain and how it works. Ten years ago, I caved and took Zocor for 3 days for a cholesterol level of 310 (I have inherited hyperlipidemia) and within three days, I had a scary loss of short term memory. Obviously I stopped and have never looked back. Secondly, apparently a higher cholesterol level actually protects the brain. I am no spring chicken anymore, but I appear to have a decent amount of my thinker left, so I am going full tilt with this latest research and will embrace all of my wonderful and protective cholesterol! (ncbi.nim.nih.gov)

(And moving right along) Most major heart attacks occur in people with normal cholesterol: Here's yet another nail in the coffin of the cholesterol myth and a giant reduction in the coffers of the Big Pharma troglodytes who promulgate this myth. "Heart disease is a multifactorial process, and factors other than cholesterol, like smoking and high blood pressure can raise your risk even if your cholesterol is normal. In fact, we found that the average cholesterol levels in this group of individuals (the research participants) were quite average." Jour Am Heart Assc, 4/17). So what is the cause? As far as what I know right now, that skeletal finger seems to be pointing to inflammation as the cause of most ill health, including heart attacks.

(So, if it is inflammation. ...) Gut microbes contribute to age-associated inflammation, mouse study shows: Inflammation increases with age and is a strong risk factor for death in the elderly. It seems that a leaky gut and the concomitant release of inflammatory particles throughout the body is one cause. The other is due to imbalances in the gut microbiome. So, it seems quite simple to me: Clear up your dysbiosis, a fancy word for bugs in your gut. Fix your leaky gut with digestive enzymes and the honoring of your food sensitivities and then repopulate your new and non-leaky gut with the good guys or probiotics. This will take a while, but if you persevere you will have a very different and much healthier gut within 6 months.

Women are more sensitized than men to metal used in joint replacement: Women are more apt to have complications after total hip and knee replacement as there is an increased rate of hypersensitivity to the metals contained in joint implants. The main symptom is nexplained pain and the blood testing shows allergic reactions to the metals, but it's unclear why women are more sensitive. (Jour Bone and Joint Surg, 2017)

As most of you know by now, I have had two total hip replacements in the last 9 months, luckily, with no side effects or any of the metal intolerance mentioned above, knock on wood. However, I have seen it in a couple of patients, both older women with hip replacements. I determined in both women (by my magical testing methods) that yes, indeed they were reacting to their hip prostheses, and I also found what supplements would help with that. Both patients lost their sensitivity to whatever their hip joints were made of and are as happy as I am with their new hips.

Just for your information, my hip joints  the latest and newest version of the hip prosthesis - and I quote from my surgeon, is made of; "Depuy Corail stem, Biolox Delta ceramic femoral head, Pinnacle Gription acetabular shell with an ALTX polyethylene liner." Or in plainer English, the stem and shell are titanium, the ball ceramic and socket liner polyethylene. And there's some glue involved somewhere. You can see why all of that non-human, strange and lifeless crap might cause problems.

Milk study and age-related diseases: "A new study on UHT (ultra high temperature processing) milk is helping scientists to better understand Alzheimer's Parkinson's and type 2 diabetes. Two unrelated proteins aggregate in UHT milk over a period of months to form clusters called amyloid fibrils, causing milk to transform from a liquid into a gel. The same kind of protein clusters are found in plaque deposits in cases of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's." (Small, 2017) Just so you know, 80% of the organic milk in the US is UHT, so what to do, I'm not sure. Raw is good, but not everyone can acquire a source. I am not just yet eliminating the Organic Valley heavy cream I put in my tea in the morning, but, I will probably worry about it a bit since even my beloved Organic Valley's milk products are UHT.

(That being said) I will be taking my resveratrol, or even my enhanced resveratrol, called pterostilbene, as I just read that by the age of 80, 63% of those with dementia are women. In a recent study published in Nutrients, researchers demonstrated that oral supplementation with resveratrol enhanced both cerebrovascular function and cognition in post-menopausal women. The researchers used a single daily dose of 75 mg/ per day resveratrol in a 14 week randomized, double-blind placebo control of 72 women. Also if you are a cranky pants due to declining hormones the resveratrol seems to help with mood, too.

Cognitive decline is associated with decreased cerebral blood flow and a reduced ability of cerebral arteries to dilate. The lack of estrogen may be to blame for this. To the resveratrol, I would add pterostilbene, gingko, fish oil and an excellent diet plus exercise. Only 40 minutes/3X a week of walking seems to do the trick according to latest research I have read.

By all means, have a cup of tea as... " a recent study by Chinese researchers with 957 Chinese seniors over a 7-year period show that drinking as little as one cup of tea daily significantly reduces (by 50%) the risk of cognitive decline in older adults. Those who are genetically predisposed to developing dementia-related conditions showed an even more significant decrease in risk (86%)" (Jour Nut, Health & Aging, 12/16). It doesn't matter if it's green or black or organic or not. Just drink it.

No statement or content in this web site shall be construed as offering diagnosis, cure, mitigation or prevention of any disease. Anyone having questions regarding the content of this site should contact their own health care provider for verification.