Vitamins and Mortality

Vitamin supplements, bad.

Mineral supplements, bad.

Antioxidant supplements, bad.

There are no active links in this post as a password was required to link to the articles from the email I received as a subscriber.

To view the articles, copy and paste the title into the address bar of your browser and open the unprotected version.

Experts Weigh In

Vitamins and Mortality: Some Guidance An interview with Jaakko Mursu, PhD

Trash the Vitamins: Convince Your Patients A study review by Charles P. Vega, MD and Veena Kulchaiyawat, DO

Dietary Supplements and Mortality Rates in Women: A Cautionary Tale Commentary from JoAnn E. Manson, MD, DrPH

Vitamins and Mortality: In Defense of Supplements Commentary from Ayaz Virji, MD

News

Vitamin Supplements Associated With Increased Risk for Death

Vitamin E Supplements May Raise the Risk for Prostate Cancer

Vitamin D May Not Have Cardioprotective Benefits

Other Studies

Long-term Antioxidant Supplementation Has No Effect on Health-Related Quality of Life

Mortality in Randomized Trials of Antioxidant Supplements for Primary and Secondary Prevention: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Have fun.

The Pathway To Losing Fat Is Heavily Influenced By A Hormone Produced In The Heart

True.

..a new study at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham) suggests that the heart also plays a role in breaking down fat. In their study, published February 6 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Sheila Collins, Ph.D. and colleagues detail how hormones released by the heart stimulate fat cell metabolism.

There are two: Self-Controlinol and Self-Esteeminol.

You have to have the heart to exert them.

Gene Related To Fat Preferences In Humans Found

A gene causes you to prefer fat humans?

A preference for fatty foods has a genetic basis, according to researchers, who discovered that people with certain forms of the CD36 gene may like high-fat foods more than those who have other forms of this gene.

Oh.

Well, this is crap, too.

Fat only makes you fat when you eat too many Calories of it.

It has nothing to do with preference.

Walmart 'Great for You' Healthy Labels: Nutrition Experts Say 'Devil in the Details'

There are no healthy foods. There is only eating healthily.

As Walmart announced plans today to label certain foods with a new green "Great for You" label, some diet and nutrition experts told ABC News they applauded the move, while others questioned whether a company that sells food could set objective standards for what is healthy.

As if assh**es who sell "healthy foods" advice can be objective.

F**k you, experts.

Taste Receptors Discovered In Pancreatic Beta Cells Can Sense Fructose And Stimulate Insulin Secretion

They're everywhere! They're everywhere!

Taste receptors on the tongue help us distinguish between safe food and food that's spoiled or toxic. But taste receptors are now being found in other organs, too. In a study published online the week of February 6 by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham) discovered that beta cells in the pancreas use taste receptors to sense fructose, a type of sugar. According to the study, the beta cells respond to fructose by secreting insulin, a hormone that regulates the body's response to dietary sugar...

Using human and mouse pancreatic cells, Tyrberg, along with postdoctoral researchers George Kyriazis, Ph.D. and Mangala Soundarapandian, Ph.D., found that fructose activates sweet taste receptors on beta cells. Together with glucose, fructose helps amplify insulin release. To substantiate this observation, the team took a look at cells genetically engineered to lack the taste receptor gene. Without the gene, fructose did not stimulate insulin release, underscoring the role beta cell taste receptors play in insulin signaling.

Taste buds?

Really?

How about chemical receptors.

Yellow medical research.

Crap.

Weight Management Programs For African-American Women Are More Successful If Held In A Church

Can I get some fitness?

As a brand new year gets underway, people all over America are resolving to better manage their weight and have a more healthy 2012. According to a new study, those starting new weight loss programs may be surprised to find out that both location and level of experience may influence their success. A recent article published in The Journal of Black Psychology (a journal from the Association of Black Psychologists, published by SAGE) finds that African American women beginning a new group weight loss program are more successful if they are less experienced with weight management and if the program meets in a church.

Believe it.

Diabetes quadruples birth defects risk, say researchers

More fallout from this primarily fat person disease of choice that leads to early nutritional child abuse.

The risk of birth defects increases four-fold if the pregnant mother has diabetes, researchers say.

The Newcastle University study, published in the journal Diabetologia, analysed data from more than 400,000 pregnancies in North East England.

The risk of defects such as congenital heart disease and spina bifida were increased.

National guidelines already recommend having good control over blood sugar levels before trying to conceive.

Both Type 1 diabetes, which tends to appear in childhood, and Type 2 diabetes, often linked to diet, lead to problems controlling the amount of sugar in the blood.

This is known to cause problems in pregnancy, such as birth defects, miscarriage and the baby being overweight due to too much sugar.

There is concern that rising levels of diabetes, particularly Type 2, could make the issue worse.

And the rest of us get to pay for it.

Bread a culprit in Americans eating too much salt

Wea-pains of mass destruction.

Really?

Nine out of 10 American adults consume too much salt and the leading culprit is not potato chips or popcorn but slices of bread and dinner rolls, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday.

Forty-four percent of salt consumed can be linked to 10 types of foods, CDC said. Bread and rolls lead the list followed by cold cuts and cured meat, pizza, poultry, soups, sandwiches, cheese, pasta dishes, meat dishes and snacks such as pretzels and potato chips.

Bread may not have much salt in a single serving, but when eaten several times a day can raise daily salt intake. A single slice of white bread could contain as many as 230 milligrams of salt, according to the CDC.

Or not really?

Remember that those recommendations are under attack.

Still think they have any idea what they are talking about?

No Breast Cancer Protections From Soy Isoflavone Supplements

Pity the fools.

Soy isoflavone supplements did not decrease breast cancer cell proliferation in a randomized clinical trial, according to a study published in Cancer Prevention Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Or is it dummies?

Whatever.

Fitness and Fatness Independently Linked With CVD Risk Factors

But the problems are: exercise will not lead to increased fitness and absent anabolic substances, it is very, very difficult, nigh impossible, to get anaerobically fitter age 40 and beyond.

Maintaining or improving current fitness levels, as well as not packing on the fat pounds, are both independently associated with a lower risk of developing hypertension, metabolic syndrome, and hypercholesterolemia in healthy adults, research shows.

"We know that people who exercise will lose weight and improve their fitness, but in the real world, some people don't lose weight even though they might gain some fitness," Dr Duck-chul Lee (University of South Carolina, Columbia) told heartwire . "Some of these people might stop exercising because they expected to lose weight and haven't, but this study shows that they should also be aware about their changes in fitness. Even though they don't lose weight, if they increase their fitness, they can offset some of the negative effects of being overweight."

To learn how to train and get fitter, see here, here, here and here.

Lower Mortality in NFL Players--if Weight Is Kept in Check

Size matters.

The lights have dimmed on Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, IN, site of Super Bowl XLVI between the New York Giants and the New England Patriots, just as new data suggest that retired National Football League (NFL) players have a lower rate of deaths from all-causes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease when compared with the general US population [1].

That said, the reduction in mortality and cardiovascular disease was observed in the smaller players--defensive backs, punters, kickers, quarterbacks, and wide receivers, as well as fullbacks, halfbacks, running backs, tight ends, and linebackers. For the true giants of the gridiron, the linemen, the players often weighing 300 lbs or more, cardiovascular disease mortality was not significantly reduced compared with the US population. The study looked at athletes who were playing professionally 15 to 50 years ago.

"Size continues to be an important factor for these players as it is for the general population," lead researcher Dr Sherry Baron (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Cincinnati, OH) told heartwire .

The key is to get or remain trim.

Here's how.

90 percent of Americans eat too much salt: study

Sez who?

Ninety percent of Americans eat too much salt every day, and the top food offenders include cheeseburgers, pizza, bread, deli meat and potato chips, US health officials said on Tuesday.

The average American eats about 3,300 milligrams of sodium per day, and that does not include salt added from the shaker on the table, said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Vital Signs report.

US guidelines recommend that people limit sodium to less than 2,300 milligrams per day.

Remember that those recommendations are under attack.

Still think they have any idea what they are talking about?

Child Abuse Linked to High Financial Burden

Yep.

And the most common form of child abuse is nutritional child abuse.

The monetary burden of child abuse in the United States rivals that of other major health problems such as diabetes and stroke, according to researchers from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The lifetime medical costs for each maltreated child in 2008 averaged $210,012 (in 2010 dollars), outstripping that of type 2 diabetes (range, $181,000 - $253,000) and stroke ($159,486). Costs associated with each fatal case were even higher ($1,272,900), resulting in a low-end conservative estimate of $124 billion in total lifetime economic burden.

"Compared with other health problems, the burden of [child maltreatment] is substantial, even after conservative assumptions are used," write CDC researcher Xiangming Fang, PhD, and colleagues in an article published online January 31 in Child Abuse and Neglect.

You can bet that these numbers are mostly for non-nutritional abuse.

Add that into the equation and the fact that fat kids become fat adults requiring expensive sick care and the numbers will balloon.

Self-Monitoring Not Helpful for Type 2 Diabetes

Too stupid not to overeat. Possibly too stupid to self-monitor.

Self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) has very little effect on glycemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes who are not using insulin. In a review of data from 9 trials of SMBG involving 2324 participants, any effect on HbA1c levels was found to occur only in the first 6 months, during which time the HbA1c level decreased by 0.26% (95% confidence interval [CI], -0.39 to -0.13). Data from 2 trials involving 493 participants showed that the effect of SMBG was no longer significant at 12 months follow-up, with a decrease in HbA1c levels of 0.1% (95% CI, -0.3 to 0.04).

Uriell L. Malanda, MD, and colleagues from the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam reviewed 12 studies involving 3259 patients with diabetes who are not insulin-dependent. The results are published in the latest issue of the Cochrane Library. "Regular self-monitoring of blood glucose in non-insulin-treated patients has minimal impact on glycemic control, has no impact on general well-being or quality of life, and is rather expensive," Dr. Malanda explained in a press release. "Consequently, it does not add to a clinically relevant long-term benefit."

The rest of us should stop being so stupid and refuse to pay for fat people's illnesses of choice.

Pomegranate Seed Oil For Menopause No Better Than Placebo

Say it ain't so.

Women who took pomegranate seed oil pills to relieve symptoms of the menopause, such as hot flashes, were found to receive no significantly better benefits than those who were given a placebo pill which contained sunflower oil, researchers from the Medical University of Vienna wrote in the journal Menopause. The authors added that theirs is the first (albeit small) proper clinical trial to test pomegranate seed oil for the symptoms of menopause.

Oops.

Guess you are just gonna have to use what works - hormones, i.e., real medicine.

Photos on School Lunch Trays Boost Veggie Intake

More s**t research.

A small experiment in which photographs of vegetables were placed in the tray compartments for school lunches has had some success in boosting vegetable intake in one US elementary school [1].

Dr Maria Reicks (University of Minnesota, Minneapolis) and colleagues say in their research letter in the February 1, 2012 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association that cardiovascular risk factors related to obesity often take root in childhood, so convincing children to eat more healthily is a major goal of the public-health community.

They compared school lunches on two days--one a control day where lunch was served as normal, and the second an intervention day where the photos were used. Other than adding the photos to the trays, cafeteria procedures were otherwise identical, and the same meal was served on both days.

Coauthor psychologist Dr Traci Mann (University of Minnesota), told heartwire that she doesn't think this specific intervention has been tried before and that the inspiration came from an experiment where supermarket trolleys were divided into compartments and labeled, which was successful in persuading shoppers to buy more fruits and vegetables.

I have dealt with Traci Mann before. See here.

IMHO, she is about as FOS as it gets.

Note the one day only study.

Also note that there were no data on total Calories consumed.

That is what matters.

More crap.

Overweight Physicians Less Likely to Give Diet and Exercise Advice

Good.

Doctors who are normal weight are more likely to give patients advice on diet and exercise, according to a new study.

Except for the morons who worship AdipOprah, who wants the fat leading the fat?

Heart Failure Linked to Loss of Brain Gray Matter

Gray matter is the stuff with which you think.

Heart failure is associated with a decline in mental function and loss of gray matter in the brain, which may make it more difficult for patients to follow instructions regarding their medication, a new Australian study has found [1].

Lead author Prof Osvaldo Almeida (University of Western Australia, Perth), commented to heartwire : "The regions of the brain that showed loss of gray matter are believed to be important for memory, reasoning, and planning. They are also consistent with the possibility that patients with heart failure may have trouble following complex management strategies."

And guess who is more likely to have heart failure - a fatso or an intended-size human?

S&P Warns Cuts Loom for G20 Nations on Health Costs

Stop paying for treating the fat and their illnesses of choice, then watch the ratings soar.

Ratings agency Standard & Poor's warned it may downgrade "a number of highly rated" Group of 20 countries from 2015 if their governments fail to enact reforms to curb rising healthcare spending and other costs related to aging populations.

That is the only reform that is needed.

It is the only reform that will work.

Hostile Social Interactions May Increase Inflammation

Here's the only way to avoid the hostilities of life:

Negative social interactions may increase proinflammatory cytokine reactivity, new research suggests. When chronic, this reactivity has been associated with hypertension, diabetes, coronary heart disease, depression, and some cancers.

In a prospective study of more than 100 healthy young adults, stressful or "hostile" interactions during daily living were associated with increased levels of the cytokines IL-6 and soluble receptor for tumor necrosis factor-α (sTNFαRII).

Significant levels of increased inflammation were also found after the participants engaged in competitive interactions, such as in school, the workplace, or even for another's attention, but not in leisure-time activities such as sports.

"Our findings about negative and competitive interactions were pretty much what we expected. But when we broke down the types of competitive activities, we were surprised that leisure activities didn't fall into this heightened inflammation group," lead author Jessica Chiang, doctoral student in health psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles, told Medscape Medical News.

She noted that having a few of these negative or competitive social interactions "is not going to be detrimental to health." However, if these interactions are experienced day in and day out, they can add to a patient's stress burden.

Wonder what amount of stress is associated with being a frigggin' weenie.

Americans Sweet on Sugar: Time to Regulate?

I am no cheerleader for the sick care or any other industry.

In this case, however, Big Sweet has it right.

Americans are eating unhealthy amounts of sugar, and excess sugar should be regulated like alcohol and tobacco, say researchers from the University of California, San Francisco.

"We are now seeing the toxic downside [of excess sugar intake]," Robert H. Lustig, MD, a professor of clinical pediatrics at the UCSF Center for Obesity Assessment, Study, and Treatment, tells WebMD. "There has to be some sort of societal intervention. We cannot do it on our own because sugar is addictive. Personal intervention is necessary, but not sufficient."

His views on regulating sugar are published as a commentary in the journal Nature.

Regulating Sugar: Industry Weigh-In

WebMD asked the Sugar Association, an industry group, to review the recommendations.

Charles Baker, PhD, the association's chief scientific officer, responded by email. "When the full body of science is evaluated during a major review, experts continue to conclude that sugar intake is not a causative factor in any disease, including obesity," he says.

And it will always be right.

The issue is too much.

The issue is not sugar.

The issue is that people are unable to fully experience the results of their gluttony.

If they did, e.g., higher sick care insurance premiums, they would think before eating sugar, or any other Calorie source, to excess.

Public Health Burden Could Be Eased By Societal Control Of Sugar

Stoopid.

Sugar should be controlled like alcohol and tobacco to protect public health, according to a team of UCSF researchers, who maintain in a new report that sugar is fueling a global obesity pandemic, contributing to 35 million deaths annually worldwide from non-communicable diseases like diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

Instead of replacing one "burden" with another (taxing the calorically responsible), let's just burden the calorically irresponsible with the results of their irresposibility, i.e., tax fat person items and have them pay for the real costs of their sick care.

US Govt Health Spending Seen Hitting $1.8 Trillion

Kudos, fatsos.

U.S. government spending for Medicare, Medicaid and other healthcare programs will more than double over the next decade to $1.8 trillion, or 7.3% of the country's total economic output, congressional researchers said on Tuesday.

In its annual budget and economic outlook, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said that even under its most conservative projections, healthcare spending would rise by 8% a year from 2012 to 2022, mainly as a result of an aging U.S. population and rising treatment costs. It will continue to be a key driver of the U.S. budget deficit.

It is not the aging of the population.

It is the aging of a population that is sicker and sicker because it is fatter and fatter.

And the costs associated with treating chronic illnesses for longer and longer.

Proton Pump Inhibitors Raise Hip Fracture Risk Over Time

These drugs have been around for ages and they are still finding complications.

A new study strengthens the association of long-term use of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) with increased risk for hip fracture in postmenopausal women, particularly those who smoke.

Just as they will with the IMHO malpractice known as fat person drugs.

Avoid the drugs.

Lose weight properly.

Sugar tax needed, say US experts

Bulls**t.

Sugar is as damaging and addictive as alcohol or tobacco and should be regulated, claim US health experts.

According to a University of California team, new policies such as taxes are needed to control soaring consumption of sugar and sweeteners...

The consumption of sugar has tripled worldwide over the past 50 years, with links to obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes.

In a comment in the journal Nature, Prof Lustig, a leading child obesity expert, says governments need to consider major shifts in policy, such as taxes, limiting sales of sweet food and drinks during school hours, or even stopping children from buying them below a certain age.

The professor of paediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco, told the BBC: "It [sugar] meets all the criteria for societal intervention that alcohol and tobacco meet."

Hogwash.

Taxes on cigarettes and alcohol affect smokers and drinkers, respectively, almost exclusively.

A sugar tax affects all of us.

The problem is people who are too fat.

All that is necessary is to charge the fat the real cost of their sick care and weight loss will ensue.

Here is one way to do the right thing correctly.

Potential Link Between Daily Consumption Of Diet Soft Drinks And Risk Of Vascular Events

And there goes the "need" for a sugar tax (see post above).

Individuals who drink diet soft drinks on a daily basis may be at increased risk of suffering vascular events such as stroke, heart attack, and vascular death. This is according to a new study by Hannah Gardener and her colleagues from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and at Columbia University Medical Center. However, in contrast, they found that regular soft drink consumption and a more moderate intake of diet soft drinks do not appear to be linked to a higher risk of vascular events. The research¹ appears online in the Journal of General Internal Medicine², published by Springer.

Still think they have any idea what they are talking about?

'Cardiovascular Health' New Focus of the AHA, Linked With Reduced Mortality

K-razy.

Individuals meeting five of seven cardiovascular health metrics outlined by the American Heart Association (AHA) had a significantly lower risk of all-cause mortality and deaths from diseases of the circulatory system compared with unhealthy individuals who met none of the metrics. The findings support the new AHA course on focusing on cardiovascular health, say investigators, noting that attaining the cardiovascular metrics outlined by the AHA could result in substantial reductions in mortality.

And what was the AHA focusing in on before setting this new course?

Nutrition Labels Being Ignored By Consumers

Who coulda seen that coming?

The key outcome of the FLABEL conference (Food Labeling to Advance Better Education for Life) in November 2011 was reported to be that even though nutrition labeling is commonly used throughout Europe, consumers pay insufficient attention and lack motivation to use them. FLABEL Scientific Advisor, Professor Klaus G. Grunert, will present the final findings of this three-and-a-half-year project in a webinar today.

Anyone but a brain-dead politico or researcher with a vested interest.

How Red Wine's Resveratrol Confers Health Benefits

Easy...

Scientists have found out why resveratrol, a chemical naturally found in red wine, grapes, and some other fruit and vegetables, has health benefits, according to an article published in the journal Cell, February 3rd issue. The researchers, from the Laboratory of Obesity and Aging Research at the NIH's National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, explain that resveratrol inhibits PDEs (phosphodiesterases), proteins (enzymes) that play a crucial role in cell energy regulation.

...Faked data.

The quickest route to research success.

Women Copy Each Others' Eating Patterns

Copycat Calorie crimes.

When two women are eating together, one is more likely to put food in her mouth when the other one is doing so too - while one's food-filled fork is coming towards her mouth, the other one is more likely to do the same within five seconds, researchers from Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands, reported in PLoS One (The Public Library of Science 1). Behavioral mimicry, the authors suggest, occurs unwittingly during a meal.

May not be so bad if Calorie overconsumers then go to the bathroom together and co-purge.

Study Finds 55 Percent of Nurses Are Overweight or Obese

Throw them out of the profession just as people are willing to unemploy thin models.

Researchers at the University of Maryland's School of Nursing found that 55 percent of the 2,103 female nurses they surveyed were obese, citing job stress and the effect on sleep of long, irregular work hours as the cause.

Also, throw them out because they are stupid, excusinator, f**ks.

No one gets fat from "stress and the effect on sleep of long, irregular work hours."

People only get fat from consuming more Calories than they burn.

That is the basic science every sick care professional, even too fat ones, should know.

If they don't, get rid of 'em.

"There's an awful lot conspiring against weight control in nurses. The solutions are ... giving the nurses the knowledge and skills they need to manage their weight, and environmental reforms, like having opportunities for physical activity breaks in hospitals, and having nutritious food options readily available 24 hours a day," Katz said.

"Nurses, who dedicate themselves to helping others," said Katz, "deserve that support from us."

And a hearty "F**k you" to the IMHO corrupt AdipOprah whore Katz who makes excuses for these bovines.

Sugar - Attacking Health Globally

Morons - attacking the calorically responsible globally.

A recent study published in Nature by Robert Lustig, MD, Laura Schmidt, PhD, MSW, MPH, and Claire Brindis, DPH, and colleges at the University of California, San Francisco, reveals that sugar is as dangerous when over-consumed as tobacco or alcohol, and should be used in moderation.

The authors say that sugar is contributing to the global obesity rates, which account for 35 million deaths a year world-wide from health problems, such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

Currently, 75% of health care money is spent on diseases related to obesity and the problems that result from these diseases. Obesity problems and diseases that come from obesity are now more prevalent in the world than infectious diseases.

This bulls**t is another of the nanny state's cants re: control over the rest of us.

Sugar does not cause and has not caused overweight/obesity and never will.

Only more Calories in than out can result in a too-fat animal - humans included.

Rather than listen to these PsOS researchers, we are far better off silencing them.

A Glass Of Milk A Day Could Benefit Your Brain

Wanna bet?

Pouring at least one glass of milk each day could not only boost your intake of much-needed key nutrients, but it could also positively impact your brain and mental performance, according to a recent study in the International Dairy Journal. Researchers found that adults with higher intakes of milk and milk products scored significantly higher on memory and other brain function tests than those who drank little to no milk. Milk drinkers were five times less likely to "fail" the test, compared to non milk drinkers.

i suspect that this is another lie spun by Big White.

Data Mixed on Role of Parents and Caregivers in Combating Childhood Obesity

The fat leading the fat.

In the AHA statement, Faith and colleagues reviewed data where researchers experimentally changed the degree or nature of parental/adult caregiver involvement in affecting the weight of children. Just two of 12 studies found significant short-term differences in child weight status among parents who were more actively involved. Of the 12 studies, just three reported long-term differences in weight loss. On the whole, the randomized, controlled clinical data "provide limited support for the notion that greater parental involvement with their children in treatment leads to stronger outcomes," according to the AHA statement.

Of course it doesn't.

Fat parents have fat kids.

The reason the kids are fat is because the fat parents are involved.

Keeping fat parents involved keeps the kids fat.

Unless parents learn how to control their own weight, they will, with near certainty, never learn how to help their kids control their weight.

Working Long Hours May Double Depression Risk

Work less, spend less, bitch and moan less.

Working overtime appears to be a risk factor for depression, new research shows.

In a prospective cohort study led by Marianna Virtanen, PhD, from the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Helsinki, Finland, British civil servants who worked 11 or more hours a day had an almost 2.5-fold greater risk of having a major depressive episode than their counterparts who worked 7 to 8 hours a day.

Well, now we see how Obamanomics is contributing to the happiness of the USA.

No work.

No overtime.

No depression.

Don't worry. Be happy.

Lumbar Disc Degeneration More Likely In Overweight And Obese Adults

C-rack!

One of the largest studies to investigate lumbar spine disc degeneration found that adults who are overweight or obese were significantly more likely to have disc degeneration than those with a normal body mass index (BMI).

Another fatso-related malady.

Weight Of Physician May Influence Obesity Diagnosis And Care

More data evidencing that you are not Number One to your physician.

A patient's body mass index (BMI) may not be the only factor at play when a physician diagnoses a patient as obese. According to a new study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the diagnosis could also depend on the weight of your physician. Researchers examined the impact of physician BMI on obesity care and found that physicians with a normal BMI, as compared to overweight and obese physicians, were more likely to engage their obese patients in weight loss discussions (30 percent vs. 18 percent) and more likely to diagnose a patient as obese if they perceived the patient's BMI met or exceed their own (93 percent vs. 7 percent).

Avoid fat docs, nurses, etc.

Obesity Linked to Lumbar Disc Degeneration

Oh, your aching back!

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data show that obesity is associated with increased lumbar disc degeneration, according to a study published online January 30 in Arthritis & Rheumatism.

How fat are you?

You are so fat that you are crushing yourselves.

Kudos, fatsos.

Stealthy Leprosy Pathogen Evades Critical Vitamin D-Dependent Immune Response

More bad news for the cure du jour.

A team of UCLA scientists has found that the pathogen that causes leprosy has a remarkable ability to avoid the human immune system by inhibiting the antimicrobial responses important to our defenses.

In one of the first laboratory studies of its kind, researchers discovered that the leprosy pathogen Mycobacterium leprae was able to reduce and evade immune activity that is dependent on vitamin D, a natural hormone that plays an essential role in the body's fight against infections.

Vit D is outsmarted by a bacterium.

New Rules for School Meals Aim at Reducing Obesity

The aim ain't true.

Hoping to combat the growing problem of childhood obesity, the Obama administration on Wednesday announced its long-awaited changes to government-subsidized school meals, a final round of rules that adds more fruits and green vegetables to breakfasts and lunches and reduces the amount of salt and fat...

Still, Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nonprofit research group in Washington, said the rules would provide healthier meals and have a major impact in reducing childhood obesity rates.

No major impact from bad aim.

Just a major mess:

Cocoa Could Prevent Intestinal Pathologies Such As Colon Cancer

The look of people with healthy colons.

A new study on living animals has shown for the first time that eating cocoa (the raw material in chocolate) can help to prevent intestinal complaints linked to oxidative stress, including colon carcinogenesis onset caused by chemical substances.

The growing interest amongst the scientific community to identify those foods capable of preventing diseases has now categorized cocoa as a 'superfood'. It has been recognised as an excellent source of phytochemical compounds, which offer potential health benefits.

Headed by scientists from the Institute of Food Science and Technology and Nutrition (ICTAN) and recently published in the Molecular Nutrition & Food Research journal, the new study supports this idea and upholds that cacao consumption helps to prevent intestinal complaints linked to oxidative stress, such as the onset of chemically induced colon carcinogenesis.

"Being exposed to different poisons in the diet like toxins, mutagens and procarcinogens, the intestinal mucus is very susceptible to pathologies," explains María Angeles Martín Arribas, lead author of the study and researcher at ICTAN. She adds that "foods like cocoa, which is rich in polyphenols, seems to play an important role in protecting against disease."

The study on live animals (rats) has for the first time confirmed the potential protection effect that flavonoids in cocoa have against colon cancer onset. For eight weeks the authors of the study fed the rats with a cocoa-rich (12%) diet and carcinogenesis was induced.

Note, no proof.

Just claims of potential benefit.

And the benefit is from? The killer antioxidants.

More Black Tea Lowers Blood Pressure

No it does not.

Tea, the second most consumed drink after water, may help lower blood pressure. Scientists at The University Of Western Australia and Unilever, state in Archives of Internal Medicine, that drinking black tea three times a day may drastically lower a person's systolic and diastolic blood pressure...

Six months later, the researchers examined the findings. They concluded that the people who drank the black tea were found to have lower 24-hour systolic and diastolic blood pressure; between 2 and 3 mmHg lower.

First, it "may."

Then it is only 2-3 mmHG.

A lot can happen in 6 months that can result in this near-meaningless reduction in blood pressure.

The time to fall for this drivel in not yet here.

Most People Fudge Numbers On Weight and Height Surveys

Old news.

When people in the U.S. are asked to provide their weight for research surveys, they underestimate their weight and overestimate their height, despite numerous public reports about increasing rates of obesity.

That fat people lie about just how fat they are has been known for years.

Nothing new here.

Studying The Causes Of Obesity In Aboriginal Children

Stupid research, again. Though the researchers get the problem correct, when they start to wax excusinator, it all falls apart.

Here is the part they got mostly right.

To fully understand the causes of the obesity epidemic in Aboriginal children requires an understanding of the unique social and historical factors that shape the Aboriginal community. A review article published in Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism emphasizes that early childhood obesity prevention efforts should begin focusing with the parents before and during pregnancy and on breastfeeding initiatives and nutrition in the early childhood development stages.

The breastfeeding part is bull.

The rest of the article is crap.

But the parts about the parents and pregnancy are spot on.

Appetite Accomplice: Ghrelin Receptor Alters Dopamine Signaling

BFD.

New research reveals a fascinating and unexpected molecular partnership within the brain neurons that regulate appetite. The study, published by Cell Press in the January 26 issue of the journal Neuron, resolves a paradox regarding a receptor without its hormone and may lead to more specific therapeutic interventions for obesity and disorders of dopamine signaling.

Not hardly.

Too complex and even if they do, you will be fat for many, many years until it happens.

Waiting for this to happen is like waiting for a day when the sun refuses to rise or set.

New Standard For Vitamin D Testing To Ensure Accurate Test Results

More about the cure du jour.

You'd have expected someone to think of this before making the recommendations in the post below.

At a time of increasing concern about low vitamin D levels in the world's population and increased use of blood tests for the vitamin, scientists are reporting development of a much-needed reference material to assure that measurements of vitamin D levels are accurate. The report appears in ACS' journal Analytical Chemistry.

Duh.

Position Statement On The Role Of Vitamin D In Postmenopausal Women Published In Maturitas

Shaky position?

See post above.

Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, has announced the publication of a position statement by the European Menopause and Andropause Society (EMAS) in journal Maturitas on the role of vitamin D in postmenopausal women with summary recommendations.

Vitamin D deficiency is common and may affect up to 70% of Europeans. It is classified as a public health issue as it can contribute to many diseases, especially osteoporosis. EMAS has risen to the challenge of increasing awareness of vitamin D deficiency to women and health professionals. The position statement describes the implications of vitamin D deficiency and provides clear recommendations on why and how adequate levels should be maintained.

So how do they know it is low without a reliable standard to ensure accurate test results?

And BTW, there is little relationship between Vitamin D and osteoporosis.

All the Vitamin D in the world will not fix osteoporosis.

The Vitamin D - osteoporosis connection is largely a myth.

See here, here and here to learn why.

Men at Higher Risk for Mild Cognitive Impairment

Two words - Anabolic Clinic (sm).

Men are at greater risk for mild cognitive impairment, a new study shows. The results are surprising, investigators point out, because women generally have higher rates of dementia...

"The risk of mild cognitive impairment in men and women combined was high in this age group of elderly persons," Roberts said. "This is disturbing given that people are living longer, and mild cognitive impairment may have a large impact on healthcare costs if increased efforts at prevention are not used to reduce the risk."

The incidence of amnestic mild cognitive impairment was also higher for people with less education than for those who continued their studies (42.6 vs 32.5). This was also the case for nonamnestic mild cognitive impairment — less education seemed to put people at a cognitive disadvantage later in life (20.3 versus 10.2).

Start now keeping your cognition.

Find out more here, here and here.

Improving School Meals In American Schools - USDA Unveils New Standards

Continuing damage from the s**t for brains Michellesie "The Cow" Obama and her acolytes.

The US Department of Agriculture has announced new standards for the country's school meals, which it claims will result in healthier eating for children nationwide. The new standards were unveiled by Michelle Obama, First Lady, and Tom Vilsack, Agriculture Secretary. They explained that the USDA's move will affect the health and wellbeing of approximately 32 million school kids.

According to a news release issued today by the USDA, this is the first improvement in school meal standards in over 15 years. This move is part of the requirements stipulated by the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act - a law backed by Michelle Obama and signed by President Obama.

First Lady Michelle Obama, said:

"As parents, we try to prepare decent meals, limit how much junk food our kids eat, and ensure they have a reasonably balanced diet. And when we're putting in all that effort the last thing we want is for our hard work to be undone each day in the school cafeteria.

When we send our kids to school, we expect that they won't be eating the kind of fatty, salty, sugary foods that we try to keep them from eating at home. We want the food they get at school to be the same kind of food we would serve at our own kitchen tables."

This clueless POS is so blind to the fact that it is the home that is toxic, not the schools.

Few things are as dangerous as an idiot with power.

Heart Disease Risk Begins With Middle-Age Risk Factors

Guess who is more likely to have middle-age risk factors for heart disease - fat people or intended-size people.

A meta-analysis of 18 studies confirms that differences in risk-factor burdens in middle age translate into significant differences in lifetime cardiovascular disease risk [1].

"The current paradigm when we're thinking of prevention is to assess risk over the next 10 years using something like the Framingham risk score . . . and that's supposed to guide decision making," senior author Dr Donald Lloyd-Jones (Northwestern University, Chicago, IL) told heartwire . "That's a perfectly valid approach, but that's an incomplete way to represent risk to our patients."

The new results from the Cardiovascular Lifetime Risk Pooling Project, published in the January 26, 2012 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, show that risk in people in their 40s or 50s with one or two risk factors such as hypertension or high cholesterol ramps up sharply over their lifetime. "So there's a disconnect between the short-term risk information that we routinely calculate and what we know, especially with this paper, are long-term risks that are dramatically higher.

Get fit and get rid of your risk factors.

Patients With Diabetes Benefit From Lifestyle Counseling In Primary Care Setting

Type 2 diabetes is fat person diabetes.

Lifestyle counseling, practiced as part of routine care for people with diabetes, helps people more quickly lower blood glucose, blood pressure and cholesterol levels and keep them under control, according to a large, long-term study published in the February issue of Diabetes Care.

As long as the rest of us do not have to pay for the time and resources to tell fat people the more than obvious, counsel them.

Brown Fat - Keeps You Warm And Keeps You Slim

No it doesn't keep you slim - at least these researchers have not proven that it does.

People with more brown fat seem better able to stay warm when it is cold, Canadian researchers reported in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. They added that the findings of their study could eventually be used to find ways of fighting obesity. Not much has been known about brown fat, a type of good fat, until recently...

Experts say much remains to be known regarding brown fat, but the main differences between these two types appear to be:
Brown fat burns through calories in order to generate heat
White fat is a storage area for excess calories

Which means that as long as people consume more Calories than they burn, they will accumulate fat.

Period.

Moderate Exercise Minimizes Supervisors' Abusive Behaviors Towards Their Subordinates

A displacement activity for aggression.

If your boss is giving you a hard time - lying, making fun of you in public and generally putting you down, he or she may benefit from some exercise, according to a new study by James Burton from Northern Illinois University in the US and his team.

Their work shows that stressed supervisors, struggling with time pressures, vent their frustrations on their employees less when they get regular, moderate exercise. The research is published online in Springer's Journal of Business and Psychology.

In the current economic climate, it is not unusual to come across stressed supervisors. But does that mean that they have to transfer their frustrations onto the people they supervise? Research shows that when a supervisor experiences workplace stress, his or her subordinates feel they bear the brunt of that frustration. Burton and his team's study is the first to examine how exercise can buffer the relationship between supervisor stress and employee perceptions of abusive supervision or hostile behavior towards them.

But, if you suggest this to your boss...

A workplace Catch-22.

Sedentary Lifestyle A Problem For 2 In 5 Adults With Rheumatoid Arthritis

Untrue.

A new study, funded by a grant from the National Institute for Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), found that two in five adults (42%) with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) were inactive. Taking measures to motivate RA patients to increase their physical activity will improve public health according to the findings now available in Arthritis Care & Research, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR).

The ACR estimates nearly 1.3 million adults in the U.S. are diagnosed with RA, a chronic autoimmune condition characterized by systemic joint inflammation that can damage joints, impair function, and cause significant disability. Until the early 1980s, medical experts recommended medication and rest for those with arthritis. However, current medical evidence now suggests that regular, moderate physical activity benefits arthritis sufferers by maintaining joint flexibility, improving balance, strengthening muscles, and reducing pain.

Two points.

Who says that the current recommendations are any better than the old ones advocating rest?

What will next year's recommendations say to negate the current ones?

Second.

If a sedentary lifestyle were a "problem," then people would move.

Clearly, for these people, it is no problem.

School Obesity Programs May Promote Worrisome Eating Behaviors and Physical Activity in Kids

Probably so. However, the reporters of the behavioral abnormalities are untrustworthy, i.e., they are the parents.

In a new poll, 30% of parents report at least one worrisome behavior in their children that could be associated with the development of eating disorders.

A new report from the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health examines the possible association between school-based childhood obesity prevention programs and an increase in eating disorders among young children and adolescents.

The poll asked parents about obesity prevention programs in their children's schools and about food-related behaviors and activity that may be worrisome.

Overall, 82 percent of parents of children age 6-14 report at least one school-based childhood obesity intervention program taking place in their child's school. Among these programs are nutrition education, limits on sweets or "junk food" in the classroom, height and weight measurements, and incentives for physical activity.

Additionally, 7 percent of parents report that their children have been made to feel bad at school about what or how much they were eating.

This same group of parents was also asked about their children's eating behaviors. Thirty percent of parents of 6-14 year-olds report least one behavior in their children that could be associated with the development of an eating disorder. These behaviors include inappropriate dieting, excessive worry about fat in foods, being preoccupied with food content or labels, refusing family meals, and having too much physical activity.

"The issue of childhood obesity is a serious problem. In order to intervene in what seems like an epidemic of childhood obesity, everyone needs to be involved," says David Rosen, M.D., M.P.H., Clinical Professor of Pediatrics, Internal Medicine, and Psychiatry at the University of Michigan Medical School and Chief of Teenage and Young Adult Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics.

Not so.

It is clear that weight-loss professionals should absolutely not be involved.

See here, here and here for reasons this is so.

Food Fried in Olive or Sunflower Oil Is Not Linked to Heart Disease, Spanish Study Finds

Wouldn't trust the Spanish researchers as far as I could throw them.

After all, these are the people who wanted the UN to declare the Mediterranean Diet an international treasure.

Eating food fried in olive or sunflower oil is not linked to heart disease or premature death, finds a paper published in the British Medical Journal online (bmj.com).

The authors stress, however, that their study took place in Spain, a Mediterranean country where olive or sunflower oil is used for frying and their results would probably not be the same in another country where solid and re-used oils were used for frying.

In Western countries, frying is one of the most common methods of cooking. When food is fried it becomes more calorific because the food absorbs the fat of the oils.

While eating lots of fried food can increase some heart disease risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and obesity, a link between fried food and heart disease has not been fully investigated.

And this study has done nothing to change that.

Over 55s More Active Than Younger People

So?

According to survey by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), individuals aged 55+ are more active than the younger generation. Results from the survey revealed that people over the age of 55 do around 28 minutes more physical activity per week than their 18 to 25 year-old counterparts.

Although there is clear evidence of the health benefits associated with physical activity, 30% of survey respondents over the age of 55 cite the British weather as the most restricting factor for engaging in physical activity, followed by long term health conditions (29%).

Excuses, not reasons.

Note that "long term health conditions" are cited.

And when did you think those developed?

At a younger age, duh.

In any event, there are absolutely benefits to physical activity done right.

This effort, will not lead to them.

A waste.

Cellular Degradation May Determine The Health Benefits Of Exercise

A new meaning to "Eat me."

The health benefits of exercise on blood sugar metabolism may come from the body's ability to devour itself, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers report in the journal Nature.

Autophagy is a process by which a cell responds to starvation and other stresses by degrading damaged or unneeded parts of itself to produce energy. It is sometimes called the cell's housekeeping pathway.

"Exercise is known to have many health benefits but the mechanisms have been unclear. Autophagy is also known to have several health benefits, and these benefits correspond closely to the effects of exercise. We hypothesized that some of the health benefits of exercise might be explained through autophagy," said senior author Dr. Beth Levine, professor of internal medicine and microbiology who leads the Center for Autophagy Research at UT Southwestern.

Really?

But if you want to save time and effort, channel your inner Hannibal Lecter.

High Levels of Fructose Consumption by Adolescents May Put Them at Cardiovascular Risk, Evidence Suggests

Wanna bet it is all about the "excess fat"?

Evidence of cardiovascular disease and diabetes risk is present in the blood of adolescents who consume a lot of fructose, a scenario that worsens in the face of excess belly fat, researchers report.

An analysis of 559 adolescents age 14-18 correlated high-fructose diets with higher blood pressure, fasting glucose, insulin resistance and inflammatory factors that contribute to heart and vascular disease.

Heavy consumers of the mega-sweetener also tend to have lower levels of cardiovascular protectors such as such as HDL cholesterol and adiponectin, according to researchers at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Health Sciences University.

These dangerous trends are exacerbated by fat around their midsection, called visceral adiposity, another known risk factor for cardiovascular disease and diabetes. The association did not hold up for adolescents with more generalized, subcutaneous fat.

Hugely less likely in intended-size kids who eat fructose.

Silly research.

High Animal Fat Diet Increases Gestational Diabetes Risk, Study Finds

Don't eat animals that are high.

Women who consumed a diet high in animal fat and cholesterol before pregnancy were at higher risk for gestational diabetes than women whose diets were lower in animal fat and cholesterol, according to researchers at the National Institutes of Health and Harvard University.

Gestational diabetes is more likely to occur in fat people than intended-size people.

The important things to do are lose the weight and not to get pregnant until the weight is shed.