Super Human Radio

Two new studies show that carbohydrates - especially the high glycemic index carbohydrates touted by the FDA as being the cornerstone of a healthy diet – may contribute a greater risk of heart disease than fats.

I've been saying this all along and now its playing out in science. First Professor Jennie Brand-Miller of the School of Molecular Biosciences at the University of Sydney showed that the rise in blood glucose levels experienced when one eats the so-called healthy cereals, breads, potatoes and such is actually toxic to arteries and veins. Brand-Miller explains. "Not only do they encourage plaque to form in the artery walls, they also cause inflammation that ages arteries, making them stiffer and less elastic, while also increasing the formation of blood clots."

A second study shows that the damage from high carbohydrate diet may effect women more than men. Recently published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, this study shows that women eating a high GI carbohydrate diet more than doubled their risk of heart disease over an eight year period.

Scientist speculate why high glycemic index carbohydrates effect women more than men. I have my own theories. Men produce more creatine in muscle than women and creatine causes a shift in substrate utilization towards carbohydrates making men more efficient at burning up the excess energy source and thus better regulating blood glucose levels. On the other side of eth coin - women have fluctuations in hormones throughout their menstrual cycles and these fluctuations make for wild blood glucose swings as seen in the development of hot flushes, anxiety and mood swings that women experience at different times of the month.

Taken together this predisposes women to greater sensitivity to carbohydrates. Sorry girls.

.

I've been without a car for about the past three and a half months now. My '94 Volvo 940 self destructed after 264,638 miles. Due to some personal circumstances I'm just not in a position to make a new purchase. I've been walking everywhere... literally. I walk 2 miles to the gym in the morning and train and then 2 miles back home - its brutal on leg day. Then I walk 2 miles to the studio - with most nights getting a ride home. If I have to go to the bank I walk. Shopping for small items.. I walk.

When I told my friend John about this he said "you're living the  European lifestyle" and I shot back that here in Phoenix places are much more spread out. In Europe neighborhoods are more compact. People work closer to home. Its doable. Nothing is close in Phoenix.

Add to that the blistering hot sun. Most days I leave for the gym by 7:30 AM and its a pleasant 80+ degrees. By the time I'm done training and heading home its creeping up to the high 90's and by the time I head into the studio which is generally around 11:00AM its hitting the 100's.

Sometime I use that time to make phone calls. I was talking to Eric from Muscel Pharm yesterday while walking to the studio. It was 113 degrees and I was carrying  two laptops, six cans of tuna, a nearly full gallon of water and various materials in my briefcase over my shoulder as we talked. Eric asked if I was doing cardio and when I told him that I was walking in the Phoenix sun to the studio and what I was carrying he showed some concern. He knows I'm 52 years old. I actually enjoy my time walking.

I started to look to see if the Europeans actually do walk more than we Americans. Here's what I discovered. Both Rutgers University and the University of Tennessee looked at the rate Europeans walk -vs- Americans. They found that on average we Americans walk about 87 miles a year while our European counterparts walk 237! Europeans also bike more - 116 miles per year -vs- Americans 24.

Researchers looked at "active transportation" data - the combination of walking and biking -  from the Netherlands (Holland), Sweden, Latvia, Switzerland and Italy as well as data from Australia and the U.S. When compared to the rates of obesity the number played out as one would expect. Americans topped the charts in obesity at 23.9%. Sweden had the lowest rates of obesity at 8%.

Maybe the secret of the Mediterranean Diet has nothing to do with the food at all. Maybe its the walk to the restaurant and the walk home afterwards that bestows the health and longevity benefits!

Generations ago we spent most of our time outdoors toiling beneath the hot sun. Adults worked and children played. I remember visiting Abraham Lincoln's birth-home. It was a small log cabin, perhaps ten feet by ten feet in diameter. I remember realizing at that moment that, in that era,  people used their homes as places to sleep. Once awake, staying inside a cramped little cabin was probably not something anyone did unless they were ill.

Fast forward to today's culture. We sit indoors beneath artificial light sources, stationary in front of a computer or TV. Few of us spend any time outdoors except to walk to our car from our home.

We've learned as part of the Framinham Study, older adults who exercised moderately to heavily have a lower risk of developing Alzheimer's Disease and Dementia -

"The physical activity levels of the 1,200 participants were assessed in 1986-1987. Over two decades of follow-up, 242 of the participants developed dementia, including 193 cases of Alzheimer's. Those who did moderate to heavy amounts of exercise had about a 40 percent reduced risk of developing any type of dementia. People with the lowest levels of physical activity were 45 percent more likely to develop any type of dementia than those who did the most exercise. These trends were strongest in men."

Another recent study in the UK looked at older individuals levels of Vitamin D -

"The study found that the risk of cognitive impairment was 42 percent higher in people who were deficient in vitamin D, and 394 percent higher in those with severe vitamin D deficiency."

So what's the easy solution? Exercise out doors more often! On that note I think I'll go out in the hot Phoenix sun and do my kettle-bell routine!

Yet another damning blow against the use of statin drugs was struck by Professor Kausik Ray and colleagues from the University of Cambridge and Addenbrooke's Hospital.

The group looked at the emerging practice that prescribing statin drugs like Pfizer's Lipitor and AstraZeneca's Crestor for patients who do not have heart disease but may develop it. They found that, after careful review of all the literature, there was scant evidence that statins saved lives in the short term in groups without heart disease.

"There is little evidence that statins reduce the risk of dying from any cause in individuals without heart disease," they wrote in the study in Archives of Internal Medicine journal. The Cambridge group combined data from 11 studies involving 65,229 people. A total of 32,623 individuals were taking statins and 32,606 individuals were taking a placebo. Followed for an average of 3.7 years of follow-up, 2,793 participants died. 1,447 of those were on placebos and 1,346 on statins. "The scientists said the small reduction in the statin group was not statistically significant."

When weighed agains the potential harm that statin drugs do - higher risks of liver dysfunction, kidney failure, muscle weakness and cataracts - one has to ask, why would a physician prescribe statins as a preventative measure for otherwise healthy individuals? In my humble opinion this is a wreckless approach at best placing the patient at greater risk of long term systemic problesm with kidney failure and liver disease.

Interstingly the individuals in the placebo group had clearly elevated LDL levels yet did not die at any greater rate than those taking statins to lower this type of lipoprotein.

Statins are one of teh most widely prescribed drugs today so don't expect the Pharmaceutical comanies to simply back away from this cash cow. Your health is secondary to their profits.

Samjunghwan a Traditional Chinese Medicine made of various herbs has been used for thousands of years as a neuroprotective agent and longevity elixir. The blend of Mulberry (or Morus fruit), Lycii Radicis Cortex and Atractylodis Rhizoma Alba has little scientific evidence of its efficacy yet is relied upon by TCM practitioners worldwide.

A group of scientist at the Department of Oriental Pharmaceutical Science at Kyung Hee University in Seoul Korea looked closely at its effects on the neurodegeneration experience at the hand of Amyloid Beta in Alzheimer's sufferers.

By studying the cortical neurons in subjected rats, the herbal mixture did indeed offer protection when  serum concentrations reached even modest levels.

This could prompt additional, and much needed, research into this long trusted herbal medicine.