Marc Joseph Nutrition - Blog

Excellent article in last week’s Toronto Globe and Mail discussing vitamin D. Covers a lot of ground, including a preview of a forthcoming study with amazing findings:

[P]erhaps the biggest bombshell about vitamin D’s effects is about to go off. In June, U.S. researchers will announce the first direct link between cancer prevention and the sunshine vitamin. Their results are nothing short of astounding.

A four-year clinical trial involving 1,200 women found those taking the vitamin had about a 60-percent reduction in cancer incidence, compared with those who didn’t take it, a drop so large — twice the impact on cancer attributed to smoking — it almost looks like a typographical error.

There are some great segments in the article, e.g.:

Those studying the vitamin say the hide-from-sunlight advice has amounted to the health equivalent of a foolish poker trade. Anyone practising sun avoidance has traded the benefit of a reduced risk of skin cancer — which is easy to detect and treat and seldom fatal — for an increased risk of the scary, high-body-count cancers, such as breast, prostate and colon, that appear linked to vitamin D shortages.

The sun advice has been misguided information “of just breathtaking proportions,” said John Cannell, head of the Vitamin D Council, a non-profit, California-based organization.

“Fifteen hundred Americans die every year from [skin cancers]. Fifteen hundred Americans die every day from the serious cancers.”

The whole thing is really worth reading.

Not Just Cancer

Vitamin D has also been linked to many other conditions, including multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, autoimmune diseases, influenza (the flu), and, of course, osteoporosis. Not too surprising given that vitamin D is actually a hormone (i.e., a chemical produced in one area of the body with effects on cells and tissues elsewhere in the body).

The results of the study above could potentially have far-reaching implications:

One of the researchers who made the discovery, professor of medicine Robert Heaney of Creighton University in Nebraska, says vitamin D deficiency is showing up in so many illnesses besides cancer that nearly all disease figures in Canada and the U.S. will need to be re-evaluated. “We don’t really know what the status of chronic disease is in the North American population,” he said, “until we normalize vitamin D status.”

What You Can Do

The primary source for vitamin D is the sun hitting exposed skin. Foods contain little vitamin D. People who spend most of their time indoors (e.g., office-workers, elderly), always wear sunblock, and/or who live in northern latitudes where even mid-day sun is not strong enough to generate adequate vitamin D are at high risk for deficiency.

Best bets to ensure adequate vitamin D levels:

• Get your vitamin D level checked once per year, preferably at a time that it is likely to be low (e.g., winter). The correct test is 25-hydroxyvitamin D. Target a level of 45-50 ng/mL (110-125 nmol/mL). One day this test will be included as a standard part of annual checkups.
• If getting vitamin D through mid-day sun exposure, 10-15 minutes 3 to 4 days a week for fair skinned people is typically adequate. Darker skinned people may need twice as much time in the sun. The pigment in the skin acts as sun-screen. You do NOT want the skin to change color; that means you’ve gotten more exposure than you need.
• Supplement with 1000 IU vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) per day as a baseline year-round. As noted above, vitamin D costs only pennies a day. Always take vitamin D supplements with a meal containing fat for best absorption.
• In the winter, or if you’re not getting regular mid-day sun 10-15 minutes 3 to 4 days a week, increase daily supplementation to 2000 IU per day.
• Note that even 2000 IU per day may not be sufficient to reach target levels. Some research suggests the body may use as much as 3000 to 5000 IU per day or more.

Again, your best first step is getting your vitamin D level tested to make sure the combination of sun exposure and supplementation that you’re getting/using is keeping your body’s level at the high-end of the normal range year-round. Don’t guess.

Related Links

Vitamin D Deficiency Common Among Pregnant Women, Newborns

Researchers Call for Increase in Vitamin D Levels

Higher Vitamin D Levels May Greatly Lower Breast, Colon Cancer Risk

Epidemic Influenza and Vitamin D

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Discover How Nutrition Can Make a Difference in Your Life …

Marc Joseph Nutrition

In a study published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine, researchers at Ohio State found that individuals with the highest blood levels of Omega-6 fats relative to Omega-3 fats were more likely to suffer from depression and to have higher levels of inflammation-promoting compounds in their bodies.

Specifically, as depressive symptoms increased in the study participants, higher Omega-6/Omega-3 ratios were associated with higher levels of inflammatory cytokines (immune system messengers) TNF-alpha and IL-6. Conversely, Omega-3 fats help promote the production of anti-inflammatory substances, such as prostaglandin PGE-3, and are linked to lower rates of depression.

Omega-3 fats are found primarily in fish oil and flaxseed oil (although only fish oil has the Omega-3 fats EPA and DHA in their final bioavailable forms). Omega-6 fats are found primarily in the diet in vegetable oils, such as soybean, corn, sunflower, and safflower oil, and also in the form of arachidonic acid in meat, dairy, and eggs.

* An exception to the primarily pro-inflammatory Omega-6 fats is gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), which is found in borage, evening primrose, and black currant oils, and helps to promote the production of anti-inflammatory prostaglandin PGE-1.

Changing Fat Intake Patterns & Implications

Historically, people eating a hunter-gatherer type of diet consumed about 2 to 3 times the amount of Omega-6 fats relative to Omega-3 fats. Today, in most Western diets, largely as the result of higher intake of refined vegetable oils in packaged and restaurant-prepared foods, that ratio is more like 15 to 20 to one.

The pro-inflammatory state that results from eating such a diet has negative implications not only for conditions such as depression as highlighted in this study, but also for many other conditions, such as diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, allergies and asthma, prostate cancer, skin disorders, and more.

Diet-wise, this imbalance in Omega-6/Omega-3 fat intake is likely one of the biggest factors contributing to chronic disease. Taking a fish oil supplement that has been tested for contaminants and reducing the consumption of foods prepared using vegetable oils are two ways to help improve this balance and restore a more normal immune response.

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Discover How Nutrition Can Make a Difference in Your Life …

Marc Joseph Nutrition

Fidelity Investments just put out a report showing that a 65-year old couple retiring in 2007, with no employer sponsored coverage and a life expectancy of 85 years (women) and 82 years (men), will need $215,000 to cover health care expenses over the rest of their lives. That’s up 7 percent from last year.

The primary reasons cited for the cost increase are familiar ones:

• Demographics - more older people living longer
• Greater use of expensive medical technologies and drugs

The breakdown of the $215,000 estimate is:

• 32% for Medicare coverage premiums for expenses from doctors’ visits, outpatient hospital care and prescription drugs
• 35% for cost-sharing provisions of Medicare, including co-payments and deductibles
• 33% for out-of-pocket prescription drug costs

And, the estimate doesn’t even include:

• Over-the-counter (OTC) drugs
• Dental services
• And most importantly, long-term care

Fidelity forecasts that 50% of pre-tax Social Security benefits will be consumed by health care costs within the next 16 to 18 years.

Not Retiring Anytime Soon?

Remember, that $215,000 estimate for health care costs in retirement is for a couple retiring in 2007. At a 7% annual rate of increase, that estimate will double to over $425,000 ten years from now.

If you haven’t yet seen the 60 Minutes piece linked in this post discussing Medicare and the financial future of this country:

Why Everyone - Both Young and Old - Should Care Now About the Big Changes Coming to Medicare

it’s definitely worth checking out. There is no bigger domestic issue facing us (and most industrialized countries).

Good nutrition is the key to staying healthy and avoiding the expensive chronic conditions that account for the vast majority of health care costs. Fortunately, it’s a factor you can control. Those people who take preventive action now will definitely be in better shape, both physically and financially, as the changes in the health care system unfold.

(Image: Sheffield Estate Planning)

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Discover How Nutrition Can Make a Difference in Your Life …

Marc Joseph Nutrition

In a study published in the journal Diabetes Care, researchers found that individuals exposed to higher levels of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), such as organochlorine (OC) pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), had a significantly greater likelihood of having insulin resistance, which, in turn, may be associated with higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes. The strongest relationship was observed with OC pesticides.

Researchers also noted that the link between OC pesticides and insulin resistance strengthened as waist circumference increased. Not too surprising, as pesticides are thought to be stored in fatty tissue.

Note, though, that the study was a cross-sectional analysis, so it couldn’t prove cause and effect. It may be the case that insulin resistance reduces the body’s ability to excrete pesticides and other pollutants, rather than exposure to the pollutants necessarily causing insulin resistance.

What You Can Do

Nevertheless, it seems prudent to try to reduce exposure to pesticides, PCBs, and other pollutants whenever possible. You can read more about reducing pesticide exposure in produce here:

Which Vegetables & Fruits Are Highest and Lowest in Pesticides?

And you can reduce exposure to PCBs and other pollutants in fish by getting healthy Omega-3 fats from supplements that have undergone molecular distillation processing. There’s a link to a good list of safe products in this post:

Safe Fish or “Just Trying to Make Consumers Feel Good”?

There are other safe, tested fish oil supplements out there, too. Just be sure to check with the manufacturer to confirm the processing method and tested residual contaminant levels.

(Image: EPA)

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Discover How Nutrition Can Make a Difference in Your Life …

Marc Joseph Nutrition

In a five-year study published in the top journal Neurology, researchers found that individuals who developed mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or Alzheimer’s disease had observable changes in brain structure long before the onset of cognitive decline.

Compared to the group that didn’t develop memory problems, the 23 people who developed MCI or Alzheimer’s disease had less gray matter in key memory processing areas of their brains even at the beginning of the study when they were cognitively normal.

“We found that changes in brain structure are present in clinically normal people an average of four years before MCI diagnosis,” said study author Charles D. Smith, MD, with the University of Kentucky Medical Center in Lexington and member of the American Academy of Neurology. “We knew that people with MCI or Alzheimer’s disease had less brain volume, but before now we didn’t know if these brain structure changes existed, and to what degree, before memory loss begins.”

The findings are definitely interesting, but not too surprising. As shown in the video below, it is known that exposing nerve cells to toxins may lead to damage consistent with that observed in Alzheimer’s disease:

How Mercury causes Neurodegeneration (brain degeneration)

Toxin exposure is, of course, not the only potential cause of cognitive decline. Nutritional deficiencies, stress, genetics, and other factors may also be involved.

Waiting Not a Good Option

As someone who experienced and recovered from MCI at a relatively young age, I can’t emphasize enough the importance of not ignoring minor cognitive changes (e.g., ability to think, focus, remember). MCI and Alzheimer’s disease are NOT a normal part of aging.

Each person has an internal reference point to their own cognitive abilities and usually is capable of recognizing changes in function long before friends, family, and co-workers may be aware there is an issue. It’s important to be self-aware and try to compare your current capabilities with where they’ve been and where you’d like them to be.

As this study suggests, if you suspect a decline in cognitive function, the time to act is now, as such change may be preceded by years of structural changes.

There are many preventive and therapeutic steps that may help prevent, slow, and possibly even help to reverse the development of conditions like MCI and AD. You can read an overview of my approach to helping people here. Diet, supplementation, lifestyle changes, and in some cases, low/frequent-dose chelation, may each play a role.

Cognitive decline is not inevitable. Don’t believe anyone who says it is.

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Discover How Nutrition Can Make a Difference in Your Life …

Marc Joseph Nutrition

There is recent research published in the journal Molecular Cancer Therapeutics that suggests low-level exposure to the plastic molecule bisphenol-A may accelerate the growth of prostate cancer cells and interfere with a common treatment called androgen ablation therapy (also known as androgen deprivation therapy).

This article from Environmental Health News provides an excellent summary:

A common plastic molecule to which virtually all Americans are exposed may interfere with the standard medical treatment for prostate cancer, according to new experiments with human prostate tumors implanted into mice. The doses of the plastic molecule, bisphenol A, were chosen specifically to be within the range of common human exposures. Tumor size and PSA levels were significantly greater in exposed animals just one month after treatment.

One of the principal known sources of exposure to bisphenol A in the U.S. is through its use to make a resin that lines the majority of food cans sold in markets. These new results by Wetherill et al. suggest men concerned about prostate cancer may want to reduce their consumption of canned goods and their use of polycarbonate water bottles, another common source of exposure.

The entire article is worth checking out, including the other cited references at the end.

Importance of Prevention

Prostate cancer is the most common type of cancer and the second leading cause of cancer-related death in U.S. men. Although 1 in 6 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during their lifetimes, only 1 in 34 will die from it. Nevertheless, it is important to regularly screen for prostate cancer and take preventive steps to avoid its development and progression, as later-stage forms are much more difficult to treat successfully.

Nutrition can play a big role in helping to prevent and/or slow the development of prostate-related issues, including cancer. You can read an overview of my approach to helping people with prostate issues here.

Related articles:

Popular Baby Bottles, Plastic Containers, and Canned Foods Leach Toxic Chemical Bisphenol-A

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Discover How Nutrition Can Make a Difference in Your Life …

Marc Joseph Nutrition

There’s quite a bit of research that suggests calorie restriction (CR), as long as essential nutrient needs are met, may help to significantly reduce disease risk and improve longevity. There are even organizations focused solely on the topic.

Researchers at the University of California and Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute note in a paper in the 2007 Annual Review of Nutrition that even reducing calorie intake later in life may lead to beneficial effects (e.g., preventing or slowing the growth of cancer).

The article mentioning the paper discusses some of the possible ways CR may work:

Physiological changes associated with aging include cell damage and the emergence of cancer cells. The most important effects of low calorie diets and longevity therapeutics given late in life may not be to prevent this damage, but instead to stimulate the body to eliminate damaged cells that may become cancerous, and to stimulate repair in damaged cells like neurons and heart cells. Low calorie diets drive the body to replace and repair damaged cells. This process usually slows down as we age, but low calorie diets make the body re-synthesize and turn over more cells - a situation associated with youth and good health. Dr. Spindler and his colleagues used their screening method to search for drugs which cause pre-cancerous and cancerous cells to commit suicide and to replace those cells with new, healthy cells. It is thought that the body does this because it normally kills some cells like damaged and rogue cancer cells to provide energy when it is starving. Then it replaces these cells when a meal is eaten.

A more detailed overview of the potential biochemical mechanisms behind CR’s beneficial health effects can be found in this March 2006 Scientific American article:

(more…)

More insight into the story behind the HPV vaccine:

A lead researcher who spent 20 years developing the vaccine for humanpapilloma virus says the HPV vaccine is not for younger girls, and that it is “silly” for states to be mandating it for them.

Not only that, she says it’s not been tested for effectiveness in younger girls, and administering the vaccine to girls as young as 9 may not even protect them at all. And, in the worst-case scenario, instead of serving to reduce the numbers of cervical cancers within 25 years, such a vaccination crusade actually could cause the numbers to go up.

“Giving it to 11-year-olds is a great big public health experiment,” said Diane M. Harper, who is a scientist, physician, professor and the director of the Gynecologic Cancer Prevention Research Group at the Norris Cotton Cancer Center at Dartmouth Medical School in New Hampshire.

“It is silly to mandate vaccination of 11- to 12-year-old girls There also is not enough evidence gathered on side effects to know that safety is not an issue.”

Internationally recognized as a pioneer in the field, Harper has been studying HPV and a possible vaccine for several of the more than 100 strains of HPV for 20 years - most of her adult life.

Harper goes on to note that all of her tests have been with women ages 15 to 25. Her recommended approach would be test women ages 18 and up for the presence of HPV and then provide the vaccine to those for whom the test result is negative.

For those who test positive for HPV?

“Then we don’t know squat, because medically we don’t know how to respond to that,” Harper said.

The rest of the story

Check out the end of the article for a succinct and useful set of facts about the vaccine.

For months Harper has been trying to get the word out and convince media outlets to report the entire story, but no one would do so. Not too surprising.

Good thing she didn’t give up trying:

“I want to be able to sleep with myself when I go to bed at night,” Harper said. “My concern is still, let’s get women’s health better. It is still a good vaccine. But let’s be honest. Don’t over-promise.”

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Discover How Nutrition Can Make a Difference in Your Life …

Marc Joseph Nutrition

In a recent study published in the journal Cell, Canadian scientists identified a breakthrough understanding of the role of pain nerves in insulin-producing (islet) cells, and in turn, learned how to prevent pancreatic cell inflammation and reverse Type 1 diabetes in mice.

The researchers found that the nerve receptors in the islet cells of non-obese diabetic (NOD) mice were not secreting enough neuropeptides, chemical compounds that can help nerve cells to communicate with one another and regulate physiologic processes.

When scientists supplied these diabetic-prone mice with neuropeptide substance P, which acts as both a neurotransmitter and neuromodulator and plays a key role in pain transmission, islet cell inflammation subsided in one day and insulin sensitivity returned to normal for a period of weeks.

Apparently, there is a key “control circuit” between the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas and the associated pain nerves:

“We started to look at nervous system elements that seemed to play a role in Type 1 diabetes and found that specific sensory neurons are critical for islet immune attack in the pancreas,” said Dr. Hans Michael Dosch, the principal investigator. “These nerves secrete insufficient neuropeptides which sustain normal islet function, creating a vicious circle of progressive islet stress.” …

… “The major discovery was that removal of sensory neurons expressing the receptor TRPV1 neurons in NOD mice prevented islet cell inflammation and diabetes in most animals, which led us to fundamentally new insights into the mechanisms of this disease,” said Dr. Michael Salter, co-principal investigator, senior scientist at SickKids, professor of Physiology and director of the Centre for the Study of Pain at the University of Toronto. “Disease protection occurred despite the fact that autoimmunity continues in the animals. This helped us to focus our studies on finding the new control circuit in the islets.”

Potential Future Application in Type 2 Diabetes

This discovery is big news. Researchers are currently looking to test the approach in human trials and also to extend the study to the much more prevalent Type 2 (obesity-associated) diabetes and potentially other autoimmune conditions.

In Type 1 diabetes, islet cells in the pancreas do not produce insulin, and affected individuals must get daily insulin injections to manage blood glucose levels.

In Type 2 diabetes, the body’s cells become insensitive to the action of insulin, and the body may also eventually stop producing sufficient insulin.

You can learn more about Type I and Type II diabetes, their potential causes, and my treatment approaches that focus on addressing nutritional and environmental factors here.

(Image Credit: HowStuffWorks)

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Discover How Nutrition Can Make a Difference in Your Life …

Marc Joseph Nutrition

If this excellent 60 Minutes segment (Under the Influence) discussing the shenanigans surrounding the passage of the Medicare prescription drug bill doesn’t make your blood boil, check for a pulse:

If you have ever wondered why the cost of prescription drugs in the United States are the highest in the world or why it’s illegal to import cheaper drugs from Canada or Mexico, you need look no further than the pharmaceutical lobby and its influence in Washington, D.C.

According to a new report by the Center for Public Integrity, congressmen are outnumbered two to one by lobbyists for an industry that spends roughly a $100 million a year in campaign contributions and lobbying expenses to protect its profits.

One reason those profits have exceeded Wall Street expectations is the Medicare prescription drug bill. It was passed three-and-a-half years ago, but as 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft reports, its effects are still reverberating through the halls of Congress, providing a window into how the lobby works.

Watch the entire video.

The only thing wrong with the segment is that it came out three-and-a-half years after the bill was passed.

Realize that this single piece of legislation added $8 trillion to America’s future financial obligations. That’s more than all the money borrowed by the United States since it was founded 230 years ago. It’s like a gigantic credit card charge put on the backs of future generations.

Financially irresponsible? Clearly. Immoral? One could certainly make that case.

If you’re not aware of the upcoming Medicare crisis and what it may mean for you, check out this earlier post:

Why Everyone - Both Young and Old - Should Care Now About the Big Changes Coming to Medicare

One thing’s for certain: The people who take preventive steps now (e.g., through nutrition and lifestyle changes) are going to be much better positioned both financially and health-wise as the health care system changes.

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Discover How Nutrition Can Make a Difference in Your Life …

Marc Joseph Nutrition