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In May 2009, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published a small study involving 40 participants conducted by German and American researchers on the effects of antioxidant supplementation with 1000 mg/day of vitamin C and 400 IU per day of vitamin E on the impact of exercise. In particular, the study examined the impact of a combination of exercise and vitamins C and E on insulin sensitivity and other parameters of diabetic illness and as well as endogenous (body-produced) antioxidant defenses include superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase.
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David Murdock, the 85-year-old billionaire Chairman of Dole Foods, writes in A Recipe For Longevity: 33 Of The Healthiest Foods On Earth about his lifestyle choices on how to live a long and healthy life. His main focuses are getting an hour of exercise each day and eating almost exclusively fresh vegetables and fruits. He was recently on Oprah Winfrey’s talk show to discuss his practices. Click here to watch.
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Curcumin is part of the widely used Indian spice tumeric. We’ve discussed many of its health benefits in a previous article. In short, they include anti-inflammation, anti-cancer, antioxidant, and other actions. Some newly discovered benefits of curcumin supplementation with regard to weight control have been brought to our attention and we’d like to share them with you.

Curcumin apparently inhibits angiogenesis (the growing of new blood vessels) that is necessary both for the growth of cancerous tumors and fatty (adipose) tissues. It also inhibits the maturation of fat cells (adipocytes) and lowers blood serum total cholesterol, triglycerides, and free fatty acids. Finally, it reduces weight gain from a fatty diet.
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Mathematical biologist Mark Tanaka of the University of New South Wales (Australia) wanted to know why ineffective health therapies, often called “quack therapies”, spread and develop reputations for working. He and other researchers interested in that paradox worked on creating a model of why people often try therapies and medicines which have no evidence of working and how they become more popular despite their ineffectiveness.
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What is Autism?

Autism is a set of child developmental delays and disabilities. It includes impaired social interaction and communications, delayed and impaired verbal and language skills, and focus on repetitive activities. Autism is just one of several related disorders in the Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) classification. Asperger’s Syndrome is the second most common ASD illness after autism and generally differs from autism because language development is not affected as severely.

Early Detection of Autism Provides More Time for Intervention

Early detection of autism can provide parents, doctors, and therapists the time to intervene early in a child’s development, before autism becomes more severe. Although doctors recommend screening for autism starting at age 18 months, it is difficult to screen kids under the age of 2 (sometimes even older) because of typical developmental variations between children that are apparent in the verbal, language, emotional, and motor skills tests used to identify autism.
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Statins are a now famous (or infamous, depending upon your viewpoint) class of medicine used widely in American medicine. While studies do show they help reduce total and LDL (Low Density Lipoprotein) cholesterol and triglyceride levels, there are serious side effects to these medicines. They can lead to lethargy, headaches, muscle weakness, confusion, memory loss, and other side effects. More ominously, a recent study of Crestor (a statin drug) showed an increase in type 2 diabetes rates for those using the drug versus the control group using a placebo.

High Cholesterol Just Small Part of Cardiovascular Health Risks

Many people have the mistaken impression that high cholesterol is the biggest risk to your cardiovascular health. This isn’t likely true. There are a large variety of risks that are likely to be even more significant than high cholesterol levels. Many of them are not commonly tested for by doctors. Too many in the medical establishment have bought into “big pharma” pushing of statin drugs as the ultimate solution as they inaccurately believe high total and LDL cholesterol are the exclusive risk factors for cardiovascular diseases. As cardiovascular surgeon Dr. Michael Ozner points out in his book The Great American Heart Hoax: Lifesaving Advice Your Doctor Should Tell You About Heart Disease Prevention (But Probably Never Will), many of the therapies and surgeries for cardiovascular disease that are common in the United States are probably unnecessary, raise health care expenses, and don’t really improve overall outcomes. Much better than surgeries would be to prevent cardiovascular disease in the first place. But there are many risks that must be managed.
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Researchers at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California (USC) conducted a 16-week study to see if slightly modifying the diets of Latino teenagers would affect type 2 diabetes risk factors. The findings were reported in the April 2009 issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

Latino Teens Have High Obesity and Diabetes Risks

The research participants were Latino teenagers because previous research showed almost 40 percent of Mexican American children ages 12 to 19 were found to be overweight or at risk of developing diabetes.

“Latino children are more insulin resistant and thus more likely to develop obesity-related chronic diseases than their white counterparts,” the authors write. “To date, only a few studies have examined the effects of a high-fiber, low-sugar diet on metabolic health in overweight youth, and to our knowledge, none have tested the effects of this type of intervention in a mixed-sex group of Latino youth.”

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The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is celebrating a big improvement in its public perception. This year, only 47 percent of the US residents recently polled think the agency is doing a poor job. That’s a marked improvement for the agency, down from 58 percent of those polled expressing a “poor” rating a year ago. The public’s poor perception of FDA is based upon facts that show the agency is incapable of performing its mission and is not aligned with public health and safety interests. Unfortunately, the declining public disapproval ratings of the FDA have more to do with the amazingly short-term memory of the American public and media which is bombarded with government scandals and crises (real or imagined) on a daily basis.
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As the misleadingly named “swine flu” spreads across the world killing a few people here and there, a combination of scientific illiteracy and emotional idiocy are hurting a lot of people and businesses.

The pork industry is seeing sales plummet as people errantly think eating pork is dangerous due to the virus.
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Life Extension Foundation is a non-profit organization that funds research studies and public educations campaigns. It does this in part by selling nutritional supplements.

One of their publications we enjoy on a regular basis is their monthly Life Extension Magazine. It’s a mix between health and diet news and production information. It generally features three or four major articles on particular health topics plus news tidbits on recent medical research. Information on Life Extension’s products is mixed in as advertisements.

Recent articles have covered topics such as stopping and reversing age-related bone loss, the link between autism and vitamin D insufficiency, and a summary of research on quercetin which is another compound found in red wine that in conjunction with resveratrol may help explain the “French Paradox” of how the wine-drinking French live a little longer.

Since it’s free, the worst case is it is like getting a dietary supplement catalog delivered to your home every month. Best case, it may help you save a life — yours, or that of a family member or friend.

We’d encourage you to sign up for your complimentary subscription to Life Extension magazine today!