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Healthy News
Archive:
Issue #1
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THE HEALTHY NEWSLETTER from AnnA
Your Weekly Health Prescription
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Welcome and thank you for taking the time to let me share
with you the healthy news that is important for you, and your
family, but that doesn't usually make it into the mainstream
media. As a health author and writer for nearly 20 years, I
know that there is plenty of information out there that will
make a difference to your health and well being and it is my
pleasure to seek it out and pass it on to you. Many I wish you
the best of good health, and do let me have your views on the
reports and breakthroughs you are reading about here.
AnnA Rushton
IN THIS ISSUE:
- Diabetes Drug Linked to Risk of Heart Attack
- Anxiety Attacks worse in hot weather?
- Pomegranate Juice Benefits and Cautions
- Ibuprofen warning for arthritis sufferers
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Diabetes Drug Linked to Risk of Heart Attack
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More than 6 million people around the world have taken the
drug Avandia (rosiglitazone) to treat Type II diabetes.
Although it has been known for some time that drugs in the
same class as Avandia increase the chances of developing
congestive heart failure, a new study published this week in
The New England Journal of Medicine suggests that the drug is
also linked to a higher risk of heart attack and death. A
study by Dr. Steven Nissen and Kathy Wolski of the Cleveland
Clinic found that Avandia increased heart-attack risk by 43
percent. Avandia's manufacturer, GlaxoSmithKline, claimed that
the study is based on "incomplete evidence", but the American
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a safety alert
advising patients to talk to their doctors about whether they
should continue taking the drug. Three major US medical
groups--the American Heart Association, the American College of
Cardiology and the American Diabetes Association - urged
patients to call their doctors but stressed that this is not
an emergency or a crisis.
In the UK, The Lancet editorial recommended a "balanced"
approach to the rosiglitazone study and stated that although
the findings do indicate that there is a need for concern,
there were some "important weaknesses" in the study that needed
further investigation. If you are taking this drug, the
sensible thing would be to check it out with own your doctor to
see if you are at risk.
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Anxiety attacks worse in hot weather?
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If you suffer from any anxiety disorder symptoms have you
noticed that they can become worse during hot weather? The
last couple of months have been unseasonably warm, and if you
thought your symptoms have got worse, then you may not be
imagining it. When your body becomes too hot, it can mimic
similar symptoms to the ones you get when you are anxious and
if you do not take care of yourself when the weather is hot,
you may find your usual anxiety symptoms escalating.
When your body becomes hot, it works to cool itself and it
does this by producing sweat. For some people, however,
sweating is one of the first signs of an anxiety attack and
instead of seeing this as the body's normal response to heat,
they immediately think an attack is happening. Unfortunately
just thinking you might be having an attack can be sufficient
to trigger one, so the best plan is to make sure you take
extra care in hot weather to help keep your body as cool as
possible. Drink plenty of water, wear loose clothing and a hat
and don't sit out in the sun getting overheated.
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Pomegranate Juice Benefits - and Cautions
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A yearly treat in the winter, and the fun of getting the
seeds out with a hatpin, has now turned into a top-selling
health item but what does it do? Several benefits are claimed
and preliminary evidence suggests that drinking concentrated
pomegranate juice may reduce cholesterol. Pomegranate juice
contains high levels of antioxidants - higher than most other
fruit juices, red wine or green tea. Israeli researchers,
published a small clinical study in June 2004 in Clinical
Nutrition which suggested that drinking a glass of pomegranate
juice a day for one year reduced blood pressure and slowed
down LDL cholesterol (the bad cholesterol) oxidation. The
Harvard Men's Health Watch reported in their Spring 2007 issue
that two recent studies suggest that pomegranate juice may
help fight prostate cancer. In one study, scientists grew
cells from highly aggressive cases of human prostate cancer in
tissue cultures. Pomegranate fruit extracts slowed the growth
of the cultured cancer cells and promoted cell death. In a
preliminary study of men with prostate cancer, pomegranate
juice lengthened patients' PSA doubling time (the longer the
doubling time, the slower the tumor is growing) from 15 months
before treatment to 54 months on the juice.
CAUTION: However, preliminary research also suggests that
pomegranate juice may interact detrimentally with certain
medications, much like grapefruit juice does. These two juices
are both known to block the cytochrome P450 3A4 enzyme systems
in the intestines. By inhibiting these enzymes, the juices may
increase blood levels of many medications and thus potentise
their effects. Groups of drugs that may be affected are:
Antiarrhythmics, Calcium channel blockers, Statins,
andProtease inhibitors. If you take any of these, please
consult with your doctor before adding pomegranate juice to
your diet.
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Ibuprofen warning for arthritis sufferers
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Those suffering from arthritis should not take the common
pain killer ibuprofen without consulting their doctor first as
it has been found to increase an existing risk of having a
heart attack or a stroke in such people. Researchers led by Dr
Michael E Farkouh at the cardiovascular unit, Mount Sinai
School of Medicine, in New York, studied more than 18,000
patients who took one of three painkillers for their arthritis
- ibuprofen, naproxen and lumiracoxib - and found that one
patient in 10 was at risk of a heart attack or stroke. For
high risk patients taking both aspirin and ibuprofen the
danger was increased nine-fold. The research, published in the
journal Annals of Rheumatic Diseases, is believed to be the
first demonstration of the effect in arthritis patients.
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I hope you have found this information useful, but remember I
am not a doctor and cannot give you medical advice. Please
take appropriate action by consulting your own medical advisor
if you have concerns about your health.
Wishing you the best of good health, AnnA
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Healthy News
Archive:
Issue #2
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THE HEALTHY NEWSLETTER
Your Weekly Health Prescription
July 24th 2007
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With the horrendous weather we have been having, it is more
reminiscent of winter isn't it? With that in mind I am sending a
timely warning this week about Echinacea - a favourite remedy for
boosting the immune system. Studies help to validate the effects
of medicines and natural products but not if the findings are
'doctored' or misrepresented as I am reporting here for you. May
the sun shine on all of us soon!
Wishing you the very best of good health - AnnA
IN THIS ISSUE:
- Echinacea - does it work?
- Fish fights heart disease
- One for the Girls
- Low GI diets can help acne
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Echinacea - does it work?
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Two years ago a study published in the New England Journal of
Medicine reported that the herb Echinacea proved to be ineffective
in preventing or treating the common cold. Many who had relied on
it to prevent winter infections stopped taking it, but what most
papers did not report was that the study was flawed because they
only gave the participants one-third of the typical recommended
dosage. This sadly seems to be a common practice when 'testing'
alternative medicines and is a sure fire way to 'prove' they don't
work.
Now another journal ('The Lancet Infectious Diseases') has
provided evidence that refutes that earlier study and their
conclusion was very different:
" Echinacea decreased the odds of developing the common cold by 58
%...and the duration of a cold by 1.4 days." The University of
Connecticut School of Pharmacy research team found that if you
combined Echinacea with vitamin C your risk of developing a cold
dropped by more than 85 percent when compared to placebo.
Did you know there is a Common Cold Centre at the University of
Cardiff? Well I guess we need one, and Professor Ronald Eccles is
its Director. He backed the study's findings, noting that it gives
more validity to the idea of "harnessing the power of our own
immune system to fight common infections with herbal medicines."
If you are not already taking Echinacea, and I am certainly a
devotee from late autumn on, then it's worth noting that as with
all supplements you need to check the potency. The best are those
are extracted from the root, not the flower, and it is not
recommended you take it every day for prolonged periods. The
general advice is to take it for two weeks on and one week off,
though some herbalists feel that 3-4 weeks on with a couple of
weeks off is also ok. If in doubt, talk to a herbalist or your
doctor.
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Fish Fights Heart Disease - and wins
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If you are picturing a large salmon dressing in satin shorts and
boxing gloves attached to its fins, move on to the next item now -
though it's an interesting picture. The evidence that fish is good
for your health just got another tick in the box. Ever had an
electrocardiogram (ECG) reading and been told it is abnormal? Well
just slight changing your diet could make all the difference to
hearing that news. What an ECG measures is your heart's electrical
activity and this highly complex process can be simplified to the
"QT interval". This is where the Q wave starts off the electrical
cycle and the T wave ends it so that the QT interval is the brief
moment between the Q and T waves. These intervals or scores are
taken into account by your doctor because differences in QT
intervals (QT scores) are important because a high QT score can
reveal the risk of arrhythmia. This disturbance of the heart's
rhythm can produce simple irregularities, which are not dangerous,
to more pronounced abnormalities, which can prompt heart attacks
and strokes.
In a new study at the University of Athens School of Medicine in
Greece, researchers assessed heart health by comparing differences
in QT intervals (QT scores) to dietary intake. What they found was
that those who ate more than 10.5 ounces of fish a week had
significantly lower QT scores than those who never ate fish.
Researchers believe it is fish rich in omega-3 fatty acids that
help support the electrical function in heart muscle cells and
therefore keep them healthier.
Harvard Medical School researchers who examined 12 years of ECG's
and dietary data for more than 4,800 people over the age of 65
also confirmed these findings, based as they are on people who
primarily eat a healthy Mediterranean diet. The diet of the
typical American, or English person, is not nearly so healthy and
they reported that those subjects who regularly ate oily fish that
was grilled, or baked had a much lower incidence of atrial
fibrillation (AF), which is the most common type of abnormal heart
rhythm. Sadly this does not apply to fried fish, which as both a
northerner and lover of fish and chips is a severe blow, because
according to a University of Washington study the regular intake
of fried fish might produce a higher risk of both heart attack and
death. Adding salt and onion vinegar, my personal favourite, would
I imagine stack the odds even further against having a healthy
heart. So, if heart disease is a major concern for you, then
eating fish at least five times a week will reduce your risk of AF
by 35%.
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One for the Girls
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From the teens onwards, girls experiment with makeup. We love it
and rarely go out of the door without at least something on our
faces, but are we paying too high a price to look good? Yes we
are, according to Richard Bence, a biochemist who has spent three
years researching conventional beauty products. He has found that
women who use make-up on a daily basis are absorbing almost 5lb of
chemicals a year into their bodies. The main problems areas?
Keeping cosmetics too long is a major problem: warnings over using
out-of-date lipstick and mascara have been issued by the Royal
College of Optometrists which believes such items are a "hothouse"
for harmful bacteria. Apparently many women use more than 20
different beauty products a day and 9 out of 10 of us are using
items that are out of date.
What concerns Richard Bence is the combined effect. "We have no
idea what these chemicals do when they are mixed together, the
effect could be much greater than the sum of the individual
parts." He tested only conventional products and believes that
absorbing chemicals through the skin is more dangerous than
swallowing them and that switching to organic beauty products
would be a safer bet.
One organic and natural company that I have used for many years is
the German range of Annemarie Borlind. Their skincare is
particularly effective, and they have won many awards. It is
available in the UK by mail order from a small company in East
Sussex. Their website is http://www.simply-nature.co.uk/ and you
can download a questionnaire about your skin and get some samples
to try. If you ring them on 01580 201687 and speak to Jane you can
get the same questionnaire but with personal help. She is very
knowledgeable and tell her I said hello.
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Low GI Diets Can Help Acne
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It has been the diet of choice for celebrities for some time, and
now it is claimed in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
that it can help with problem skin. Avoiding high GI foods, that
is those that contribute to high levels of blood glucose, such as
white bread and potatoes and switching to foods that have a low
glycaemic index such as high-fibre cereals or beans really can
have an impact on acne. A study by Dr. Robyn N. Smith, from the
RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia assessed acne symptoms in
male patients, aged between 15 and 25. For 12 weeks she assigned
them either a low glycemic load diet or a normal diet. Those on
the low-glycaemic diet showed a significant reduce in total acne
compared with those on the normal diet, and they lost weight too.
If you want to try it, the low GI diet was made up of 25 percent
energy from protein and 45 percent from low-glycaemic-index
carbohydrates. For a free diet plan, visit http://www.tescodiets.com/
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I hope you have found this information useful, and please feel
free to pass it on to others. Remember, I am not a doctor and
cannot give you medical advice, so please always take appropriate
action by consulting your own medical advisor if you have concerns
about your health.
Wishing you the best of good health, AnnA |
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