New research from the UK shows that a daily beetroot juice can help lower your blood pressure. Apparently it’s the nitrate content that does the trick.

Study results show that the daily serving of beetroot juice worked just as well as nitrate capsules to increase nitric oxide levels and lower blood pressure. Nitric oxide helps maintain elasticity of blood vessels, and protects cells that line blood vessels and the heart.

Researchers say that about 8.5 ounces is all you need for an effective daily dose. Personally, I’m not a big fan of the pungent taste of beet juice, so 8.5 ounces every day seems like a lot! If you feel the same way, you might add a little pineapple or orange juice to help smooth out the taste.

And if you just can’t get past that powerful flavor, Solaray offers a beetroot extract.

One word of warning, though: If you have a history of kidney stones, the beetroot therapy may not be the best way for you. Beets contain a lot of oxalic acid, which can prompt formation of kidney stones.

To Your Good Health,

Jenny Thompson

Source:
“Beet Juice Beats High Blood Pressure” Ivanhoe Newswire, 6/29/10, ivanhoe.com

The World Health Organization wants to get into the supplement business.

That’s right–they want to put calcium and magnesium in water supplies all over the world. Why? Well, for your own good, of course!

Last year, WHO officials published a report promoting the enhancement of worldwide water supplies with calcium and magnesium. The primary issue: Mass supplementation with these two minerals might reduce heart disease deaths. Additional benefits in reduction of osteoporosis and type 2 diabetes would just be smiley frosting on a happy cake.

On one hand, I like it that WHO seems to be embracing dietary supplementation. And I’ll also give them a nod for including magnesium with calcium. As Dr. Spreen has pointed out, calcium taken without magnesium can actually harm arterial walls.

Unfortunately, there’s a lot more than that to the calcium story.

Dr. Spreen: “Calcium requires more than just magnesium: It also needs manganese, boron, silica, strontium, usually digestive enzymes, often additional betaine hydrochloride, and ALWAYS vitamin D.”

But more important: What form of calcium will be used?

If someone at WHO has been watching too much television, he might get it in his head that the inexpensive calcium in antacids would be a perfect choice.

Yeah…bad idea.

Dr. Spreen cautions that the calcium form used in antacids lowers the acid level (pH) in the stomach. And that acid is necessary for digestion of many nutrients and proteins.

Worldwide? That could turn into kind of a HUGE problem.

Out of control

Meanwhile, back at WHO headquarters, you know some expert has got to be saying, “Why stop at calcium and magnesium? Let’s include vitamin D and prevent millions of cases of cancer.”

And that just gets another WHO official going: “Well we might as well put vitamin C in there too. And then some E and A will make it a powerful antioxidant cocktail.”

And by the time they’ve formed a committee to start the ball rolling, B complex has been added, along with vitamin K, omega-3 fatty acids, selenium, zinc, copper, etc.

Crazy idea? No crazier than putting calcium and magnesium in the water. Because it comes down to one glaring problem: You can’t control your dose.

One-size-fits-all is a great idea for baseball caps, but a really bad idea for vitamin and mineral intake.

To Your Good Health,

Jenny Thompson

Source:
“Calcium and Magnesium in Drinking-Water: Public health significance” World Health Organization, 2009, whqlibdoc.who.int

Get urgent health alerts, warnings and insights delivered straight to your inbox

But it turns out that a bunch of septuagenarians rooting on their 10-year-old kids at Little League is the least of our concerns with the revived friskiness that ED drugs bring.

New research in the Annals of Internal Medicine shows a sharp rise in the number of cases of sexually transmitted disease among men over the age of 40.

And my guess is that that’s at least partly because of another finding of the study–that men in their 50s are six times LESS likely to use a condom compared to men in their 20s.

The lead researcher, Anupam B. Jena, M.D., gave Reuters Health this theory, which I’m sure he didn’t intend to be humorous: “We are typically unaccustomed to practice safe sex over the age of 50, because the risk of pregnancy is eliminated.”

Eliminated? Ummm…Doc, you may need a few more days in sex ed–or at least you should read up on Pablo Picasso a bit.

And men…unless you’re in a monogamous relationship where you’ve both been tested, don’t assume sex is safe, regardless of the risk of pregnancy. This is one case where you can clearly learn from the 20-somethings.

To Your Good Health,

Jenny Thompson

Source:
“Viagra-popping seniors lead the pack for STDs” Frederick Joelving, Reuters Health, 7/5/10, reutershealth.com

Let’s say you have a couple of health issues that raise your risk of heart disease. But you tell your doctor the good news: You’re being proactive. You’re taking antioxidant supplements.

Many conventional doctors might humor you and say something like, “Well, it probably can’t hurt.”

Others might actually scoff and come right out and tell you supplement benefits are unproven–just a bunch of pseudoscience.

In that case, you can hand over a copy of this e-Alert and tell him it’s time to wake up and smell the science.

No “pseudo” added.

Surprise ending

Researchers at a medical center in Israel recruited 70 subjects with an average age of 62.

Subjects were divided into two groups. One group received placebos and the other received a four-part antioxidant intervention:

• Vitamin C–1,000 mg daily
• Vitamin E–400 IU daily
• Selenium–200 mcg daily
• CoQ10–120 mg daily

Each patient was screened with a general physical exam, blood test, a urinalysis, and an electrocardiogram at baseline, again at three months and finally at six months when the study concluded.

Results were just about everything you could hope for in a study like this.

Overall, in the antioxidant group, blood pressure was reduced, large and small artery elasticity increased significantly. HDL cholesterol increased significantly. HbA1C (a measure of high blood sugar) declined significantly. And triglycerides declined…a little.

But I saved the best for last: At the outset of the study, each of the 70 subjects had at least TWO of these cardiovascular risk factors: cigarette smoking, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, low HDL cholesterol, or high triglycerides.

THAT’S putting antioxidants to the test! And THAT’S antioxidants kicking risk factors and taking names!

Be sure to tell your doctor all about it.

To Your Good Health,

Jenny Thompson

Source:
“Effect of long-term treatment with antioxidants (vitamin C, vitamin E, coenzyme Q10 and selenium) on arterial compliance, humoral factors and inflammatory markers in patients with multiple cardiovascular risk factors” Nutrition & Metabolism, 7/6/10, nutritionandmetabolism.com

It’s become a favorite joke at dinner parties: “Another glass? Sure. But only because it’s good for my heart.”

Yes, when the news of resveratrol’s heart-healthy benefits came out, the red wine started to flow a little more freely.

Well, watch out! Because new research is giving us even more excuses…eh, reasons…to pour another glass.

Looking good

Resveratrol’s heart-healthy benefits are due mostly to improved circulation. And that improvement may also help you avoid one of the most common sources of vision loss: age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

There are two varieties of age-related macular degeneration: dry and wet. You don’t want either, but you especially don’t want wet, which progresses faster and creates a much higher risk of vision loss.

In wet AMD, the retina is damaged by tiny blood vessels that develop behind it–a process called angiogenesis.

Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis wondered if resveratrol might inhibit angiogenesis. They began by using a laser to prompt microcapillary formation in the eyes of mice.

Then, when they fed the mice resveratrol, two things happened: Microcapillary formation was inhibited, and blood vessels that had already formed were diminished.

Of course, more research is needed before we can say resveratrol has the same effect on humans with AMD. Hopefully that will prove to be the case because angiogenesis also plays a role in diabetic retinopathy (another common cause of vision loss), heart disease, and cancer tumor growth.

With potential benefits like that, all I can say is: Pour me another glass!

And, if red wine doesn’t have you raising your glass, try blueberries and peanuts, two more excellent sources of resveratrol.

To Your Good Health,

Jenny Thompson

Source:
“Resveratrol Regulates Pathologic Angiogenesis by a Eukaryotic Elongation Factor-2 Kinase-Regulated Pathway” American Journal of Pathology, Vol. 177, No. 1, July 2010, ajm.amjpathol.org

Get urgent health alerts, warnings and insights delivered straight to your inbox

The four tocopherol forms of the vitamin are generally more common. But in 2003, Dr. Spreen described the four tocotrienol forms as “icing on the cake.”

And now we know that adding that icing just might help you avoid Alzheimer’s disease (AD).

In a new study from Sweden, researchers took blood samples from more than 230 subjects over the age of 80. None had any signs of dementia.

Within six years, nearly 60 cases of Alzheimer’s were diagnosed. Comparing blood analysis to AD cases, researchers found that subjects with the highest levels of all eight vitamin E forms reduced their risk of AD by about half compared to subjects with low E levels.

Here’s what Dr. Spreen had to say back in 2003: “There has been considerable peer-review research concerning the benefit of tocotrienols in even more than just cardiovascular disease, to include aging, Alzheimer’s disease, breast disease and others.”

Alzheimer’s disease? You heard it here first.

To Your Good Health,

Jenny Thompson

Source:
“All forms of vitamin E count in Alzheimer’s protection, finds study” Lorraine Heller, NutraIngredients-USA, 7/8/10, nutraingredients-usa.com

Okay, I get it–the FDA is a bureauracy so it moves as slow as mud. But here’s a message from Earth to the FDA: PEOPLE ARE DYING OUT HERE!

I’m talking about Avandia, of course–the type 2 diabetes drug that makes jumping over canyons on a motorcycle seem like a safe career choice.

I’m sure you heard that the FDA’s panel of experts “came down hard” on GlaxoSmithKline, the company that makes Avandia. Their recommendation: Take this dangerous drug off the market or severely restrict its sale.

That’s coming down hard? No. This is coming down hard: Don’t wait for the official decision from the higher-ups at the FDA, suspend sales TODAY.

Think of 9/11. When jets started crashing, did the FAA convene a panel to make a recommendation? No. They didn’t allow a single commercial jet off the ground until they were confident the immediate risk had passed.

Or look at the way the FDA handled a few cases of sickness due to E. coli contamination of spinach. They located the probable sources and shut them down. They didn’t allow those sources to put spinach on the market while agency officials carefully weighed their options.

Meanwhile, what’s the FDA response to Avandia? After YEARS of obvious heart risks, some officials still have to be dragged to a decision kicking and screaming as if they were sending their own mothers to the electric chair.

Drop that gun!

Recently I told you about an FDA report that produced this shocking estimate: Over the past decade, 48,000 people experienced stroke, heart failure, or death because they used Avandia instead of Actos, another type 2 diabetes drug.

48,000! That’s intolerable! I mean, what does it take to get a drug taken off the market? Do pills have to explode in your mouth? Does a drug company executive have to be caught holding a smoking gun?

Well, here’s the gun…

In a 2001 e-mail sent within the company, one executive made this comment about a study that linked Avandia to serious heart problems: “These data should not see the light of day to anyone outside of GSK.”

The New York Times reports that this e-mail was just business as usual. Apparently some GSK executives knew about Avandia heart risks and suppressed the data for more than a DECADE!

So why in the world should the FDA play nice with GSK? At the very LEAST, the agency should, you know, ACT like it’s their job to protect the public, and advise everyone who’s taking Avandia to see their doctor immediately to discuss getting off this drug NOW!

To Your Good Health,

Jenny Thompson

Sources:
“F.D.A. Panel Votes to Restrict Avandia” Gardiner Harris, New York Times, 7/14/10, prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com
“Diabetes Drug Maker Hid Test Data, Files Indicate” Gardiner Harris, New York Times, 7/12/10, nytimes.com

Sometime during the second day, a GlaxoSmithKline VP was given a chance to support the results of an Avandia trial called Record. He stated that the trial had been well designed, and GSK conduct in reporting the trial was “appropriate.”

Thing is, just two days earlier, the New York Times reported that Record had been roundly criticized by the FDA, and “at least a dozen” serious heart problems that occurred among Avandia users in the trial were not included in the reporting of adverse events.

So if this were a movie, an FDA official would have jumped to his feet and shouted at the GSK exec: “Appropriate!? Given the choice between protecting patients and making billions in profits, GSK chose profits! And everyone who participated in that deception is a criminal!”

But Hollywood didn’t script this one, so here’s what an FDA official actually said: “It’s not a supposition that GlaxoSmithKline intervened with the adjudication–it’s documented.”

For those of you who haven’t graduated law school or prepared for a career in “vague” that’s just a fancy “this is what you pay my salary for” way of saying, “We’re not just guessing that you altered the results. The facts are right here in black and white!”

But he didn’t stop there.

Noting that ailing patients were dropped from the study, he added an edge of sarcasm: “This is a great way to improve your mortality statistics, which everybody tells me can’t be biased.”

Well, it’s a bit dry, but for a government bureaucrat, that just about qualifies as an in-your-face scolding!

To Your Good Health,

Jenny Thompson

If you, or someone you care about, is in constant pain due to surgery or chronic disease, the need for a powerful opioid painkiller may outweigh the risk of adverse side effects.

Most opioid side effects are well known: constipation, dizziness, drowsiness, and confusion.

Less well known–and less obvious–is the effect opioids can have on your testosterone levels.

Fuel to the fire

Opioid use prompts abnormally low testosterone in many patients. And that creates problems–for women as well as men. Typical symptoms include fatigue, depression, osteoporosis, and night sweats. In men, erectile dysfunction and testicular atrophy are also common.

But even worse, animal studies have shown that when your testosterone levels drop, your threshold for pain decreases too, suggesting that testosterone may play a role in reducing pain. So ironically, the painkiller reduces the hormone that may help kill pain, increasing the need for more painkiller.

So the obvious next step is to bring your testosterone levels back up.

A University of California study showed significant benefits when men with opioid-induced low testosterone used a testosterone patch. At a dose of 7.5 mg per day, sexual function, mood, depression, and pain management all improved.

But while the patch might be convenient, it might not be the best choice.

As with hormone replacement therapy for menopause, there are two ways to go with testosterone replacement: synthetic and bio-identical. Synthetic forms are patented and produced by drug companies. The safer bio-identical forms are prepared by compounding pharmacies.

You can search for doctors in your area who have experience in formulating natural hormone replacement in the “Find a Doc” feature on our website at hsibaltimore.com.

If you consult a doctor about testosterone replacement, be sure to also discuss cancer risks. High testosterone levels have been linked to higher rates of prostate cancer and breast cancer.

As I’ve mentioned before, hormones have profound effects on mood, growth, metabolism, the immune system, hunger, and reproduction. Tweak one hormone level, and you’re tweaking a vast web of potential health issues, which is why it’s so important to work with a physician who really knows what they’re doing and monitors your levels regularly.

To Your Good Health,

Jenny Thompson

Sources:
“Open-Label Pilot Study of Testosterone Patch Therapy in Men With Opioid-Induced Androgen Deficiency” The Journal of Pain, Vol. 7, No. 3, March 2006, jpain.org
“Testosterone Replacement Therapy for Men in Pain” Christina Lasich, M.D., Health Central, 6/14/10, healthcentral.com

Get urgent health alerts, warnings and insights delivered straight to your inbox

A member asked that question in “Skull & Bones,” and I had to admit, I didn’t know. I chalked it up to just one of those simple mysteries, like why a yawn prompts another person to yawn.

Then I asked you if anyone else had a theory. And the theories came pouring in…

Bog: “Just guessing here but…. warm water = mothers womb? We had permission to pee there.”

Clyde: “I’m from an old German family. My mother told me they poured water over the privates at bed time to make us urinate so we would not wet the bed. The sound of running water is still effective at age 77.”

Jean: “The sound of water can signal the human body to urinate. That is how diaperless babies in India and Africa (and all babies if given a chance) respond by urinating on cue, to the mother making sshhing sound in the baby’s ear.”

Anita: “I’ve attributed the need to ‘head to the bathroom’ every time I hear running water to the fact that my mother was a nurse who prided herself on the fact that I was toilet-trained by the time I was 9 months old! She told me she took me to the bathroom every two hours, sat me on the potty, and ran the water in the sink until I ‘went’! I still can’t start the dishes without having to ‘go’ beforehand.”

Probably the closest to a real theory comes from JKS: “The yawning response is caused by our mirror neurons in the brain that cause us also to smile when we see someone smile, even babies do this. Could the urge to urinate also be caused by some very primitive ‘preset’ neurons that when we see or hear water we have the urge to ‘mimic’ the sound? That is my theory. See if others agree with more expertise in the area of brain function.”

The “mirror neuron” theory–I like it! Although it does seem outnumbered by the “mother wanting me to go when she said” theories.

To Your Good Health,

Jenny Thompson