Newsletter - May 22, 2005

May 22, 2005 - In this Issue

Few in U.S. Living Healthy Lifestyles
by Steven Reinberg – HealthDay Reporter
Vitamin E May Help Ease Menstrual Cramps
by Reuters Health
Is a Trip to McDonald's Just What the Doctor (Ornish) Ordered?
by Melanie Warner
Green tea shown to prevent prostate cancer
A Chocolate Shake That Tastes Good and Is Good For You (and your kids)
by Product Review – Frontier Medical Institute
Do Antioxidants Lengthen Life?
by Miranda Hitti – WebMD Medical News
St. Johns Wort More Effective than Paxil?
by A Szegedi, and others – BMJ.com
Limit (or Better Yet ... Don't Eat) Farm Raised Salmon
by Jeffery A. Foran & others – Environmental Health Perspectives
Low-Fat Diets Vs. Breast Cancer?
by Dr. Emily Senay – CBS Medical Correspondent
Longevity Evaluations Available at Frontier Medical Institute

Few in U.S. Living Healthy Lifestyles
by Steven Reinberg – HealthDay Reporter

Even though everybody seems to know what a healthy lifestyle is, very few actually live it, a new study contends.

Those who don't smoke, eat five servings of fruits and vegetables daily, exercise regularly and maintain a normal weight account for only 3 percent of the adult population in the United States, according to the report in the April 25 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

We looked at national representative data for 2000," said study co-author Mathew J. Reeves, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Michigan State University. "We wanted to see the proportion of adults that met the definition for a healthy lifestyle."

In their study, Reeves and his colleague Ann P. Rafferty, from the Michigan Department of Community Health, collected data on 153,805 adults from all over the country. The data came from the 2000 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, which is an annual survey of the nation's health.

Reeves and Rafferty found that 76 percent of the people surveyed were nonsmokers, 40.1 percent maintained a healthy weight, 23.3 percent said they ate at least five fruits and vegetables daily, and only 22.2 percent said they exercised at least five times a week.

"When we look at the combination of all four factors, we found that only 3 percent of adults meet our criteria of a healthy lifestyle," Reeves said. "This data shows the extraordinarily low level of adults living a healthy lifestyle."

Reeves pointed out that there is substantial data showing the benefits of living a healthy lifestyle. "Those who live a healthy lifestyle live longer and have reduced disease risks, including risk for heart disease, cancer and diabetes. They have reduced medical expenditures and a better quality of life," he said.

Dr. Grossman's Comments: These results should serve as a call to action for preventive healthcare providers as well as all health minded individuals. It is a sad commentary that 97 percent of the US population does not meet basic criteria for good health including not smoking, eating five servings of fruits and vegetables daily, exercising regularly and maintaining a normal weight.

An effective and inexpensive way to curb the exponential increase in "healthcare" (really sickness care) expenses is to devote a much greater percentage of our budget to promote the importance of these basic healthcare fundamentals.

Wouldn't it be wonderful to see a dramatic increase in commercials touting more fruits and veggies, more exercise and weight loss and less commercials for endless varieties of junk food and "labor-saving" devices?

Vitamin E May Help Ease Menstrual Cramps
by Reuters Health

Women may find some relief from menstrual cramps by taking vitamin E a few days a month, new research suggests.

The study of teenage girls in Iran, found that those who took vitamin E starting two days before their periods suffered far less cramping than their peers who used only standard pain medication.

After four months, the girls who took vitamin E had cramps for less than two hours, on average, during their periods. That compared with 17 hours for those who did not take the vitamin.

Dr. Saeideh Ziaei and her colleagues at Tarbiat Modarres University in Tehran report the findings in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Common menstrual cramps, or primary dysmenorrhea, are thought to result from the release of hormone-like substances called prostaglandins. Prostaglandins cause the uterus to contract in order to expel the uterine lining, resulting in menstrual blood flow. Vitamin E, by acting on two enzymes in the body, can inhibit the formation of prostaglandins -- and, potentially, menstrual cramps, according to Ziaei and her colleagues.

To investigate, the researchers randomly assigned 278 girls, 15 to 17 years old, with primary dysmenorrhea to take either vitamin E or an inactive placebo pill. Girls in the vitamin E group took 200 milligrams (mg) of the vitamin twice a day, starting two days before they expected their periods and continuing through the third day of menstruation.>

Both groups were allowed to take ibuprofen if they needed to.

After four months, girls in the vitamin E group showed a sharp reduction in the number of hours they suffered cramps each month. Few -- 4 percent -- reported using ibuprofen, compared with 89 percent of girls in the placebo group.

Girls in both groups tended to say their periods got lighter during the study period, but the change was greater in the vitamin group, according to Ziaei's team.

The dose of vitamin E used in the study -- 200 mg twice a day -- is significantly higher than the recommended daily intake of 20 mg, but still well within the range that experts consider unlikely to cause adverse effects. U.S. health officials set the "upper tolerable intake level" for vitamin E at 1,000 mg per day.

"The use of vitamin E for dysmenorrhea in adolescent women is attractive," Ziaei's team writes, "because of the marked effect we have demonstrated, coupled with the absence of significant side effects from vitamin E at therapeutic doses."

Dr. Grossman's Comments: Menstrual cramping is quite common in teenaged girls. Painful periods can last well beyond adolescence and can often be disabling. This study showed that 400 IU of vitamin E can significantly lessen the pain so much so that the precentage of girls requiring ibuprofen for cramps fell from 89 percent to 4 percent.

There is hardly an individual in the country who hasn't heard that Vitamin E "causes heart attacks" and I have discussed the errors in this misinterpretted paper in previous editions of this newsletter. Yet, I haven't seen any mention of this article demonstrating significant benefit of vitamin E in any major mainstream media.

Is a Trip to McDonald's Just What the Doctor (Ornish) Ordered?
by Melanie Warner

For the last 28 years, Dr. Dean Ornish has been trying to persuade people to eat healthier. In his five books, he champions low-fat diets; he was one of the first researchers to show that stringent healthy eating can reverse chronic illness, particularly heart disease. Among his advice to patients is to eat a lot of vegetables and minimally processed foods, and avoid all things greasy.

Dr. Ornish also works for the McDonald's Corporation. As a paid consultant, he meets with top executives, gives talks to employees and recently wrote nutritional words of wisdom about diet and breast cancer for table displays to go into all McDonald's restaurants in the United States for Mother's Day.

He is not the only one straddling this line between science and commerce. In the last two years, at least two dozen leading nutrition scientists and experts have started working for large food companies, either as consultants or as members of health advisory boards. Most do not directly promote products, though Dr. Arthur Agatston, a practicing cardiologist and author of "The South Beach Diet," has a licensing deal with Kraft Foods to sell a line of South Beach foods, which are appearing on supermarket shelves this month...

Dr. Grossman's Comments: I have followed Dean Ornish's work with great respect and admiration over the years. The reality is that many people eat at MacDonalds regularly. I am optimistic that Dr. Ornish can help these restaurants offer more healthy options. Judging by the current MacDonalds menu, I couldn't imagine an easier job.

Green tea shown to prevent prostate cancer

After a year's oral administration of green tea catechins (GTCs), only one man in a group of 32 at high risk for prostate cancer developed the disease, compared to nine out of 30 in a control, according to a team of Italian researchers from the University of Parma and University of Modena and Reggio Emilia led by Saverio Bettuzzi, Ph.D.

Earlier research demonstrated primarily that green tea catechins were safe for use in humans. Bettuzzi and his colleagues had found that EGCG (an active ingredient in green tea) targets prostate cancer cells specifically for death, without damaging the benign controls. They identified Clusterin, the most important gene involved in apoptosis, or programmed cell death in the prostate, as a possible mediator of catechins action. "EGCG induced death in cancer cells, not normal cells, inducing Clusterin expression" said Bettuzzi.

Dr. Grossman's Comments: We include green tea along with green leafy vegetables as a fundamental pillar of our Ray & Terry's Food Pyramid.

Prostate cancer is a leading cause of cancer deaths among men. Here is more evidence in support of drinking several cups of this amazing beverage every day.

A Chocolate Shake That Tastes Good and Is Good For You (and your kids)
by Product Review – Frontier Medical Institute

Over 60% of U.S. adults are either overweight or obese. One popular way to control calories without sacrificing nutrition is using low calorie meal replacement beverages.

The problem is that most of the products on the market are loaded with ingredients that are anything but healthy ... such as artificial sweeteners, colorings, flavorings and preservatives. Ray Kurzweil and Terry Grossman spent over a year developing Ray & Terry's Deep Chocolate Meal Replacement Shake, a product that is not only delicious ... it is blended with ingredients just the way nature gave them to us.

Ray & Terry’s Deep Chocolate Meal Replacement Shake is intended for use as a complete meal replacement, using healthy, natural, non-artificial ingredients to fill you up and inhibit your need for additional food for several hours. It also provides a high source of vitamins, minerals, fibers and proteins to create a nutritionally balanced diet as part of a weight control and maintenance program.

Each of the ingredients contained in Ray & Terry’s Deep Chocolate Meal Replacement Shake is natural -- and the formulation contains no artificial ingredients (e.g., colors, sweeteners, etc.)

One serving of the meal replacement composition provides:

10 g of carbohydrates of which 7 g are fiber for a net carbohydrate yield of 3 g
4 g of fat of which 0 g are trans fats and 1.5 g are saturated fat
18 g of protein
200 mg of sodium
Total calories are 117 of which 35 calories (30%) are from fat

When mixed with sugar-free soy milk, the shake is still only has 185 calories. And it’s made with Ghiardelli cocoa and tastes great. Your kids will love it too!

Do Antioxidants Lengthen Life?
by Miranda Hitti – WebMD Medical News

Could antioxidants add years to your life? It's a controversial topic, say researchers who recently tested the theory in mice.

Peter Rabinovitch, MD, PhD, and colleagues don't have the final answer. But they did find that mice that made more of an antioxidant called catalase lived longer than normal.

How much extra time did the mice get? About five months, on average -- an 18.5% increase in life span for a mouse, says the study.

Heart disease, cataract development, and other signs of age-related damage were delayed or reduced, the researchers report in Science Express, the advance online edition of Science.

Dr. Grossman's Comments: The fundamental theme of Ray Kurzweil and my recent book Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever is that the technology that will enable humans to live vastly longer than they are living today should occur within the next few decades. For people older than 50, the addition of a few years of life might enable them to take advantage of life-extending therapies that don't exist today.

Increasing the antioxidant enzyme catalase was shown to increase life expectancy 18% in lab animals. If a similar result were to occur in humans (and, of course, we don't have any guarantees that this would occur), this would translate to an increase of 14 years.

For a 60 year old today with a life expectancy of, say, 80 years, an increase of 14 years would mean they might live to the year 2039 rather than 2025. Many authorities predict that the major breakthroughs in life extension will occur precisely in this time window. If an individual were able to live a few extra years and was then able to take advantage of the new Bridge 3 nanotechnology breakthroughs that will occur after 2025, then they might not gain merely an extra 14 years, but several hundred years or more.

St. Johns Wort More Effective than Paxil?
by A Szegedi, and others – BMJ.com

As reported in a previous edition of this newsltter, this study from Germany published in the prestigious Breitish Medical Journal showed that hypericum extract (St Johns Wort or SJW) is at least as effective as Paxil over six weeks of acute treatment in outpatients with moderate or severe major depression.

The average advantage was 3 points for the decrease in total Hamilton depression score and response rates of 70% v 60% and the remission rates of 50% v 35% were found for for SJW and Paxil, respectively. The results thus indicate that in a group of patients in whom the appropriateness of SJW was previously disputed, the antidepressant efficacy of the herbal drug is at least comparable with the effect of one of the leading synthetic antidepressants. In patients with insufficient response to the initial (lower) dose an increase in dose after two weeks was beneficial.

The authors concluded that their results support the use of SJW as an alternative to standard antidepressants in moderate to severe depression, especially as it is well tolerated.

Dr. Grossman's Comments: These results are highly significant for the millions of people who suffer moderate to severe depression. With less money available for traditional psychotherapy, the focus has shifted to the pharmacologic treatment of depression. SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) such as Paxil are the most commonly prescribed antidepressant drugs and have been shown to help many people with depression. Yet, as with many “blockbuster” prescription drugs, they also have significant problems associated with their use: they have side effects and are often quite expensive. These side effects can often be significant and many patients discontinue therapy because of them. St. John’s wort was shown in this study to be even more effective than Paxil, one of the most commonly prescribed SSRIs. St. John’s wort is also remarkably free of significant side effects, it’s available over-the-counter without a prescription … and it’s far less expensive than Paxil.

Psychiatrists and other physicians should pay careful attention to this article and give serious consideration to this safe, inexpensive herbal formulation as FIRST LINE therapy for patinets with most types of depression.

Limit (or Better Yet ... Don't Eat) Farm Raised Salmon
by Jeffery A. Foran & others – Environmental Health Perspectives

People should avoid eating too much farm-raised salmon, which contains significantly more of the chemical dioxin than is found in fish caught in the wild, new study findings show.

After analyzing the dioxin content of farm-raised and wild salmon captured in different regions, a group of North American researchers found that farm-raised types contain between 3 and 10 times more dioxin than wild salmon.

Currently, more than half of salmon sold in the world was raised on a farm, Foran and his team note. To investigate whether farm-raised salmon has more dioxin than salmon captured in the wild, the researchers tested salmon from different farming regions and wild salmon captured in various waters.

"There is considerably more of those contaminants in the farm-raised salmon," Foran said.

He explained that farm-raised salmon contains more dioxin because the chemical is concentrated in fatty fish feed, made up of fishmeal and fish oil. Farm-raised salmon are fed vast amounts of feed so they will grow quickly, he said, giving them a "supersized dose" of dioxin.

Dr. Grossman's Comments: I restrict salmon eating to wild salmon only. Most restaurant salmon is farm raised and should be avoided. Wild salmon is widely available in natural food markets. Eat your salmon at home. Only eat restaurant salmon if it is specifically listed as wild.

Low-Fat Diets Vs. Breast Cancer?
by Dr. Emily Senay – CBS Medical Correspondent

A new study shows eating a low-fat diet may help prevent breast cancer from returning.

The study looked at post-menopausal women who'd had early stage breast cancer and the standard treatment for it, meaning surgery, chemotherapy and the cancer drug tamoxifen, if the woman was a candidate.

One group ate a regular diet and the other, a low-fat diet, and they were followed for five years.

The women who followed a modest low-fat diet were 24 percent less likely to have their cancer return.

What's interesting about these results, Senay points out, is that women whose tumors weren't fueled by estrogen (and women with these types of tumors don't benefit from taking tamoxifen) benefited the most from a low-fat diet, lowering their risk of relapse by 42 percent.

The women who maintained a regular diet didn't change their fat intake, and averaged about 51 grams of fat per day. The women on the low-fat diet reduced their fat intake to an average of about 33 grams per day.

Dr. Grossman's Comments: This was a large study and it is a hallmark for nutritional medicine. While cardiologists have been advocating healthier eating for their patients for several years, oncologists have been slow to jump on the bandwagon and still give scanty dietary advice to cancer patients. With this major study, perhaps the tide will begin to turn and cancer specialists will begin offering rational dietary advice. There is still a long way to go. The oncology group to whom I refer many of my cancer patients to has a cola machine in their waiting room. (One of the first pieces of advice I give my cancer patients is to avoid simple dietary sugars.)

Longevity Evaluations Available at Frontier Medical Institute

We are entering a new frontier of medicine wherein you can now take control of your health, discover your genetic tendencies, and make INDIVIDUALIZED lifestyle choices that will extend your life. Dr. Grossman, our medical director, developed our longevity program after working with thousands of patients from all over the world during the past 10 years.

By undergoing one of our Longevity Evaluations, you will join individuals who have come to visit us from all parts of the U.S. and around the world to gain the knowledge and tools to live longer, healthier, and younger lives. You will accomplish this by undergoing a comprehensive series of the latest medical tests available.