Want to avoid getting a stroke?

Avoiding ten risk factors can substantially improve your odds of not getting a stroke.

A recent published study in The Lancet, one the most respected medical journals in the world documented 10 risk factors associated with 90% of the risk of stroke (O’Donnell MJ, et al. 2010).

The study included patients from 22 countries and data was collected for three years. The stroke cases were categorized as ischemic stroke (stroke due to lack of blood supply to an area of the brain) and intracerebral hemorrhage stroke (stroke due to rupture of a blood vessel).

The risk factors significant for ischemic stroke were a history of hypertension (blood pressure more than 160/90 mmHg), smoking, high waist-to-hip ratio (fat around the waist), high diet risk score, low regular physical activity, diabetes, alcohol intake (more than 30 drinks per month or binge drinking), psychological stress and depression, cardiac causes (heart problems), and a high ratio of apolipoproteins B to A1 (blood markers of cardiovascular risk).

Hypertension, smoking, high waist-to-hip ratio and alcohol intake were significant risk factors for intracerebral hemorrhage stroke.

If you for the most part follow the food plan, recipes in the book, “The Food Connection,” you will reduce many of these risks. Your blood pressure would most likely be better and so would your waist-to-hip ratio. It would be unlikely that you would get diabetes, your cardiovascular risk would be reduced, your ratio of apolipoproteins B to A1 would be better and your diet risk score would be excellent.

The only other things would be to avoid smoking, not drink too much and get some physical activity.

Physical activity would also most likely make you feel less stressed and depressed.

It does not have to be that difficult to reduce your risks and it certainly would be worth it. Added benefits would be that you will feel better and also have more energy.

To read about “The Food Connection,” click here.

To read the original abstract, click on the reference below.


Reference:

O'Donnell MJ, Xavier D, Liu L, Zhang H, Chin SL, Rao-Melacini P, Rangarajan S, Islam S, Pais P, McQueen MJ, Mondo C, Damasceno A, Lopez-Jaramillo P, Hankey GJ, Dans AL, Yusoff K, Truelsen T, Diener HC, Sacco RL, Ryglewicz D, Czlonkowska A, Weimar C, Wang X, Yusuf S; INTERSTROKE investigators. Risk factors for ischaemic and intracerebral haemorrhagic stroke in 22 countries (the INTERSTROKE study): a case-control study. Lancet. 2010 Jul 10;376(9735):112-23. Epub 2010 Jun 17.

Interesting relationship between HDL-cholesterol and cancer risk

HDL-cholesterol (high density lipoprotein) the so called good cholesterol has for a long time been used as one of the risk factors for cardiovascular disease. High HDL is considered to be good and reduce cardiovascular risk.

A recent study investigated the relationship between HDL and cancer in large randomized controlled trials (Jafri H, et al. 2010). 24 trials were included in this study with 625, 477 person-years of follow up.

The results showed that it was an inverse relationship between HDL and the incidence of cancer. For every 10 mg/dl increment in HDL, there was a 36% relative lower rate of the development of cancer. This was independent of other risk factors like age, body mass index, diabetes and smoking.

Dietary habits and a lifestyle that will increase HDL-cholesterol are not only beneficial for the cardiovascular system, but it can also reduce the risk of cancer.

To learn how to implement the right foods to raise your HDL, read the book, “The Food Connection.” This book includes both explanations and a lot of recipes.

To read the original abstract, click on the reference below.


Reference:

Baseline and on-treatment high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and the risk of cancer in randomized controlled trials of lipid-altering therapy. Jafri H, Alsheikh-Ali AA, Karas RH. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2010 Jun 22;55(25):2846-54.

Simple way to avoid the immediate negative effect from a high fat meal on blood vessel function

Most people believe that high fat meals are not healthy. What is not that well known are the immediate effects of a high fat meal on the function of blood vessels.

The study reviewed is very interesting because it investigated the acute impairments of a high fat meal on endothelial function (Fahs CA, et al. 2010). The endothelium is the inner lining of the blood vessels.

The researchers measured several factors related to the endothelial function and arterial stiffness at rest and also 4 hours after a high fat meal supplemented either with a placebo or 1 gram of EPA and DHA, which are the active ingredients of omega 3 fish oil.


After the high fat meal supplemented with the placebo, the brachial artery flow-mediated dilation normalized for shear rate, was significantly impaired, but it remained unchanged when the high fat meal was supplemented with the fish oil.

Impaired flow-mediated dilation has been demonstrated many years before the appearance of plague and is a way to detect dysfunctional changes in blood vessels.

Omega 3 fish oil does not only provide a variety of long term benefits, but it also provides an immediate benefit.

To read more about the benefits of omega 3 fish oil, click here.

To read the original abstract, click on the reference below.



Reference:

The effect of acute fish-oil supplementation on endothelial function and arterial stiffness following a high-fat meal. Fahs CA, Yan H, Ranadive S, Rossow LM, Agiovlasitis S, Wilund KR, Fernhall B. Appl Physiol Nutr Metab. 2010 Jun;35(3):294-302.

Developmental biology: Birth of the blood cell. Momoko Yoshimoto & Mervin C. Yoder. Nature 457, 801-803(12 February 2009) doi:10.1038/457801a. (Use of picture)

Two easy ways to help reduce the risk for diabetes

A lot of people know that a low glycemic index diet and exercise is important when it comes to reducing the risk for type 2 diabetes.

The research reviewed here documented two other factors also affecting the risk of diabetes that most people are probably not aware of. One of these studies evaluated if sleep could have a relationship to diabetes (Cappuccio FP, et al. 2010).

The research included 107,756 participants both females and males included in 10 studies. The researchers concluded that both quantity and quality of sleep consistently and significantly predict the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

The other study investigated if vitamin D is involved in the development of type 2 diabetes (Liu E, et al. 2010).

It was found that individuals in the highest tertile of 25-hydroxyvitamin D, the most common way of measuring vitamin D levels, had a 40% lower incidence of type 2 diabetes when compared with individuals in the lowest tertile.

Get enough good quality sleep, some sunshine and take between 1000-2000 IU of vitamin D3 daily.

To read more about the many benefits of vitamin D, click here.

To read the original abstract, click on the references below.



Reference:

Cappuccio FP, D'Elia L, Strazzullo P, Miller MA. Quantity and quality of sleep and incidence of type 2 diabetes: a systematicreview and meta-analysis. Diabetes Care. 2010 Feb;33(2):414-20. Epub 2009 Nov 12.

Liu E, Meigs JB, Pittas AG, Economos CD, McKeown NM, Booth SL, Jacques PF. Predicted 25-hydroxyvitamin D score and incident type 2 diabetes in the Framingham Offspring Study. Am J Clin Nutr. 2010 Jun;91(6):1627-33. Epub 2010 Apr 14.

Amazing new benefit documented from taking glucosamine.

Numerous studies have documented the benefits of glucosamine sulfate when it comes to supporting the cartilage and decreasing pain from osteoarthritis.

Researchers at the University of Washington recently evaluated if glucosamine and chondroitin as well as a number of other supplements were associated with total mortality (Pocobelli G, et al. 2010).

This was a large study looking at the intake of the supplements for an average of 10 years in people aged 50-76 years which included 387,801 person-years of follow up.

The researchers concluded that for most of the supplements examined there was no association with total mortality. However there were some exceptions that was very interesting, the use of glucosamine and chondroitin were each associated with decreased total mortality.

There was also a suggestion of a decreased risk of total mortality with high intake of fish oil supplements, but the evidence was not as strong as for the glucosamine and chondroitin.

To learn more about the benefits of glucosamine sulfate the most researched form of glucosamine, read what is written about the BMJ formula.

The BMJ also provides several other important nutrients as well for added benefits.

To read the original abstract, click on the reference below.



Reference:

Pocobelli G, Kristal AR, Patterson RE, Potter JD, Lampe JW, Kolar A, Evans I, White E. Total mortality risk in relation to use of less-common dietary supplements. Am J Clin Nutr. 2010 Jun;91(6):1791-800. Epub 2010 Apr 21.

The impact of processed meat on your health

The research reviewed here included several studies with specific inclusion criteria and a total of 1,218,380 individuals (Micha R, et al. 2010).

This was a very large study and not only did it include processed meat, but also the relationship of red unprocessed meat and total meat consumption with the incident of cardiovascular disease, stroke and diabetes.

It was documented that red meat intake was not associated with cardiovascular disease or diabetes. Processed meat intake however was associated a 42% higher risk of cardiovascular disease and 19% higher risk of diabetes per 50 grams serving per day.

The researchers did not find any association to stroke, but that may be because very few studies evaluated these relationships.

Processed meat includes cold cuts, salami, sausage and hot dogs. It is meat that has been prepared in some form and is not a plain piece of raw meat.

If you want to know more about foods relationship to health and disease, read the book, "The Food Connection," which also includes a lot of easy to make recipes.

To read the original abstract, click on the reference below.



Reference:

Micha R, Wallace SK, Mozaffarian D. Red and processed meat consumption and risk of incident coronary heart disease, stroke, and diabetes mellitus: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Circulation. 2010 Jun 1;121(21):2271-83. Epub 2010 May 17.

Sleep longer, but not too long and live longer.

We all know that sleep is important, but you may not know how important it is. Something as common as sleep may affect how long you live.

The study reviewed here investigated the relationship between duration of sleep and all-cause mortality (Cappuccio FP, et al. 2010). It was a large study including 1,382,999 male and female participants and the follow up range was from 4 to 25 years.

It is interesting that both short duration and long duration of sleep was associated with a greater risk of death. Short duration of sleep was less than 6 hours and long duration of sleep was more than 9 hours.

7-8 hours would be what most healthy people would need to function their best.

To read the original abstract, click on the reference below.



Reference:

Cappuccio FP, D'Elia L, Strazzullo P, Miller MA. Sleep duration and all-cause mortality: a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective studies. Sleep. 2010 May 1;33(5):585-92.