2010 January | pilladvised

Coffee Talk: How Coffee or Tea Helps Prevent Diabetes

by Dr. Leo Galland

Coffee Talk: How Coffee or Tea Helps Prevent Diabetes

The Archives of Internal Medicine, published by the American Medical Association (AMA), has recently released a comprehensive report on the benefits of coffee and tea for prevention of type 2 diabetes.¹ The report is a review of published studies and a pooled analysis of all the data (called a “meta-analysis”).

Drinking coffee, decaf coffee, green tea or black tea was associated with a reduction in the risk of developing diabetes. Continue reading »

Fish Oil Side Effects

by Dr. Leo Galland

Fish Oil Side Effects

Fish oils are a major source of omega-3 fats which have many health benefits. However there are numerous side effects of fish oil supplements. Breaking out a bottle of fish oil could lead to breaking out in acne.

Some fish oil side effects include:

Body Building Products Warning

by Dr. Leo Galland

Body Building Products Warning

I like to go to the gym, keep in shape.

I’ve seen the fitness magazines: GET RIPPED and BUILD ENORMOUS ARMS, the ads for powders sold in vitamin stores.

But they don’t advertise the dangerous health risks like liver injury, shrinkage of the testes, and other seriously bad side effects that can occur from taking some body building products.

An Oil Change for Arthritis

by Dr. Leo Galland

Here is a quick look at some nutritional approaches to rheumatoid arthritis, a severe type of inflammatory arthritis.

There are several dietary patterns that can help with arthritis:

The first is following an anti-inflammatory dietary pattern: eating food that is high in fiber (vegetables and whole grains) and high in omega 3 fats (fish, beans, walnuts) and using extra virgin olive oil as the main food oil. It’s like an oil change for arthritis. This type of diet may help many types of arthritis and many types of inflammation. One example is the diet we created for our book The Fat Resistance Diet.

The second is a vegetarian gluten-free diet: no animal foods and no foods containing gluten (wheat, rye and barley).

The third involves identifying specific foods that trigger joint pain and swelling and eliminating them. These foods cause pain by mechanisms that are either chemical or allergic.

Live and Let Diet: What Hurts and What Helps

by Dr. Leo Galland

Live and let diet

What we eat on a regular basis can contribute to various conditions. A major way diet impacts health is the case of obesity, diabetes and related diseases. Here we look at other dietary patterns that can cause problems.

Learn which dietary patterns contribute to conditions, and what can help:

Diets high in sugar and white starch increase the risk of Crohn’s disease, another type of inflammatory bowel disease.

What Can Help: For people who already have Crohn’s disease, a high protein, low carbohydrate diet can improve long-term outcome.

High protein diets may increase the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease. In addition, the medication taken for Parkinson’s disease tends to work better when people avoid animal protein.

What Can Help: Drinking coffee (but not decaf) may decrease the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease (and also decrease the risk of developing type 2 diabetes). People with Parkinson’s disease may also need extra fat in their diets.

Diets high in animal flesh (red meat, poultry and seafood) can increase the risk of developing gout.

What Can Help: Control of gout once it develops may be easier if animal flesh is avoided. Eating cherries and drinking concentrated cherry juice can decrease the risk of gout.

A variety of different conditions are adversely affected by eating food with added sugar (either sucrose or high fructose corn syrup). These include diabetes and its many complications, Meniere’s syndrome, hypoglycemia, depression, inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome, vaginal yeast infections, fatty liver disease.

What Can Help: Avoiding foods with added sugar and corn syrup. Eating whole, unprocessed foods.

About 3 million Americans have celiac disease, a genetic disorder that causes intolerance to gluten, a protein found in wheat (including white flour products), barley and rye. Celiac disease can cause diarrhea, abdominal pain, fatigue, neurological and psychiatric problems, osteoporosis, skin rashes, and joint pain and can trigger a variety of autoimmune disorders and some cancers. Most people don’t know they have celiac disease until they’re specifically tested for it.

What Can Help: It is essential for people with celiac disease to follow a strict gluten-free diet for life.

Intolerance or allergy to specific foods may trigger numerous disorders. These include:

Eczema
Asthma
Hives
Canker sores
Interstitial cystitis
Vulvar pain (vulvodynia, vulvar vestibulitis syndrome)
Infantile Colic
Irritable bowel syndrome
Colitis and ileitis
Autoimmune disorders like Sjogren’s syndrome and some cases of lupus
Protein-losing enteropathy
Failure to thrive
Migraine headaches
Epilepsy
Attention deficit disorder, hyperactivity
Nephrotic syndrome
Arthritis
Fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome
Mood swings
Fever of unknown origin
Sinusitis
Type 1 diabetes

What Can Help: Identifying those foods that trigger allergies and eliminating them from the diet may have dramatic effects in reversing a wide range of conditions.

What Vitamins Do What

by Dr. Leo Galland

What vitamins do what

The benefits of various vitamins, or nutritional supplements, are mentioned almost every day in the news. But with all the reports it can be confusing to know what vitamins do what. So here is a quick look at some of the major vitamins and minerals.

Studies indicate potential benefits and adverse effects of vitamins and minerals:

Vitamin D may help prevent winter illnesses like colds and flu (this benefit was shown for post-menopausal women). Some people with low vitamin D levels might experience improvement in joint or muscle pain, depression or immunity when taking vitamin D. Vitamin D could help reduce the risk of falls and fractures in elderly people and improve dental health. Vitamin D may also help reduce the risk of breast cancer in post-menopausal women and of colon cancer in men and women. But too much Vitamin D can increase the risk of kidney stones.

Vitamin C supplements might decrease the risk of cataracts and the severity of colds and protect the stomach from the irritant effects of aspirin. High doses of vitamin C may cause stomach pain or diarrhea, however.

Vitamin A supplements (in the form of retinol) may boost immune responses and decrease the severity of acne, but too much vitamin A can cause liver disease, bone loss, dry skin and headaches.

Beta-carotene supplements (a precursor of vitamin A) may help decrease the risk of colon cancer and improve immune function in the elderly, but they were shown to increase the risk of lung cancer in smokers and to interfere with the benefits of statin drugs, which are used to reduce cholesterol. One problem with beta-carotene supplements is that there are many related nutrients called carotenoids, which have more powerful effects than beta-carotene. Taking beta-carotene may reduce the blood level of these other carotenoids (lutein, lycopene, astaxanthin, cryptoxanthin, alpha-carotene).

Vitamin E supplements may either improve or hinder strong immune responses in the elderly. Vitamin E can interfere with the benefits of statin drugs, which are used for reducing cholesterol levels. One problem with vitamin E supplements is that there are many related molecules, called tocopherols, which make up the vitamin E family. Most studies use a synthetic form of vitamin E called d, l-alphatocopherol. The natural form of alphatocopherol is d-alphatocopherol and giving d, l-alphatocopherol may be the wrong way to test the effects of vitamin E. In addition, there are other tocopherols (beta, gamma and delta tocopherols) that may have important effects in the body. Taking any form of alphatocopherol can reduce the blood levels of these other tocopherols. Gamma tocopherol is a more potent antioxidant than alphatocopherol and is the major tocopherol in the U.S. diet.

Supplements of zinc, along with vitamin B6, selenium and lutein may reduce the risk or severity of macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindiness in the US. Zinc may also improve immunity and healing, reduce severity of acne and help antidepressants work better, especially for people with low levels of zinc in plasma. High doses of zinc have been used to treat tinnitus and to prevent sickle crises in people with sick cell anemia. Too much zinc can create a deficiency of copper, which may adversely affect neurological function, thyroid function and bone health.

Boron is a trace mineral with positive effects on bone health and estrogen function. Boron supplements may help prevent or reverse bone loss and may help to prevent prostate cancer.

Vitamin K is essential for blood clotting. Vitamin K also has beneficial effects on bone strength. Vitamin K comes in two natural forms called vitamin K1 (derived from plants and bacteria) and vitamin K2 (made by animals from vitamin K1). Vitamin K supplements have been shown in studies to reduce the risk of osteoporosis and certain kinds of cancer.

Calcium supplements may decrease the risk of osteoporosis and fractures and may reduce blood pressure. Calcium supplements may either decrease or increase the risk of kidney stones, depending upon dietary and genetic risk factors for stones. Some studies but not others have suggested that high calcium may increase a man’s risk of prostate cancer. Chewable, powdered or liquid calcium can help prevent or relieve GERD, or heartburn. Calcium supplements can be constipating.

Selenium supplements in the form of selenomethionine may help reduce the incidence of asthma, breast cancer and prostate cancer. Selenium may help statin drugs (used to reduce cholesterol) work better. One study found that selenium supplements were associated with an increased risk of skin cancer.

With so many people interested in nutritional supplements, it is more important than ever to learn more about what vitamins and minerals can do.

For more information on what vitamins do what, here are a few resources:

National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Dietary Supplements

http://dietary-supplements.info.nih.gov/

United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Information Center

http://fnic.nal.usda.gov/nal_display/index.php?info_center=4&tax_level=1&tax_subject=274