Many people take aspirin to relieve arthritis pain or to prevent heart attacks. The American Heart Association recommends aspirin use for patients who have had heart attacks or strokes caused by blood clots. Unfortunately, aspirin and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) can cause ulcers or gastrointestinal bleeding that may result in death or require hospitalization. Various studies have shown an association between increased prescription of COX2 inhibitors and a 10% increase in hospitalization rates for upper gastrointestinal bleeding. In the UK it has been estimated that more than 40% of ulcer bleeding and deaths from ulcers are related to NSAID use.

Helicobacter pylori, a bacterium that can infect the digestive tract, increases the risk of ulcer complications in NSAID users almost twofold. Patients with a history of ulcers should be tested for H. pylori, and any infection should be eradicated before starting NSAID therapy.

If you take aspirin regularly and you have a burning feeling or pain in your stomach, or if you see blood in your stool, you should seek medical advice promptly. If the bleeding is severe, you may faint and you may not be able to call for help.

Did you know that the brain is about 60% fat? It makes sense that if you eat the wrong fats, your brain is going to suffer. You are what you eat. Ann-Charlotte Granholm of the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston presented the results of a study which showed that trans-fats adversely affected rats’ learning ability, at a meeting of the Society for Neuroscience.[1]

Granholm compared rats on a high-fat diet of about 12% soybean oil with those on a high trans-fat diet, containing 10% hydrogenated fat and 2% cholesterol. Rats on the high trans-fat diet showed learning difficulties when the animals were required to remember the position of hidden platforms in a water-filled maze. The animals on the trans-fat diet learned more slowly and made more errors, particularly as the task was made harder. They were about five times worse at the task, she says, than the animals on the soybean oil diet.

The brains of the animals fed trans fats also showed signs of damage and inflammation in a region called the hippocampus, which is important for learning and memory. The hippocampus is located inside the temporal lobe of the brain.

Trans fats have been shown to double the risk of cardiovascular disease. Now, they are also associated with decreased mental performance. Do you think that the increasing rates of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and autism in our society are just a coincidence? Fetuses are exposed to trans fats during pregnancy, and as soon as the babies are born, they start eating trans fats because the trans fats from our foods end up even in the mother’s milk.[2]

What can you do about it? Read the labels! Avoid all foods with hydrogenated fats and partially hydrogenated fats.

[1] NewScientist.com news service
[2] Ratnayake WM, Chen ZY, Trans, n-3, and n-6 fatty acids in Canadian human milk. Lipids, 1996 March; 31 Suppl:S279-82. PMID: 8729134

If you have ever eaten a piece of meat that was overcooked on the grill, you have tasted the bitterness of the burned corners of the meat. Eating the blackened crust of meat cooked at very high temperatures can increase your risk of developing colorectal, pancreatic, and breast cancers. That is what your taste buds were trying to tell you.

Cooking meats such as beef, pork, chicken, and fish at high temperatures creates heterocyclic amines (HCAs) that are carcinogenic.[1] Cooking at high temperatures also produces advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs) that increase inflammation and contribute to vascular and renal complications of people with diabetes.[2] One study conducted by researchers from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) found a link between individuals with stomach cancer and the consumption of cooked meats. After examining the diets and cooking habits of 176 people diagnosed with stomach cancer and 503 people without cancer, the researchers found that those who ate their beef medium-well or well-done had more than three times the risk of stomach cancer than those who ate their beef rare or medium-rare. Other studies have shown that high intakes of well-done, fried, or barbecued meats are associated with an increased risk of developing colorectal, pancreatic, and breast cancer.

Frying, broiling, and barbecuing produce the largest amounts of HCAs because the meats are cooked at very high temperatures. One study showed a threefold increase in the content of HCAs when the cooking temperature was increased from 200°C to 250°C (392°F to 482°F). Oven roasting and baking are done at lower temperatures, so lower levels of HCAs are formed, but gravy or glazes made from meat drippings contain substantial amounts of HCAs. Stewing, boiling, or poaching are done at or below 100°C (212°F); cooking at this low temperature creates negligible amounts of the harmful chemicals.

To reduce burning the meat, encase it in foil, or cook it at a lower temperature.

[1] Heterocyclic Amines in Cooked Meats

[2] Negrean M, et al, Effects of low- and high-advanced glycation endproduct meals on macro- and microvascular endothelial function and oxidative stress in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 May;85(5):1236-43.
PMID: 17490958

Ralph Nader was at the Bethesda Barnes & Noble bookstore promoting his book “The Seventeen Traditions”. The book describes the family relationships that became the foundation of his beliefs and his ethics. Nader’s parents came to the United States from Lebanon when they were very young. All their children, including Ralph, were born in the United States. It was interesting to hear Ralph speak about growing up in Winsted, Connecticut where his father owned a restaurant. Ralph said that the interaction of the community and the values passed down through example by his parents molded his character.

Ralph is dismayed seeing that television, movies, i-pods, and computers are eroding the community and family relationships that shape the values of the next generation. He proposes that parents should play a more active role guiding their children by good examples and good deeds. Some of the seventeen traditions include listening, health, history, education, discipline, charity, work, and patriotism.

How do you politely refuse to eat something that is bad for you, when a hostess prepares it so proudly and offers it so gracefully? If you refuse, you offend the hostess. If you eat it, your conscience will bother you for days. You will not die if you eat it — at least not right away. Eventually we will all die, so what is the harm of eating a little hydrogenated chocolate sauce?

Generally, big problems result from the accumulation of small problems that are easily ignored. When the problem is big enough, sometimes it cannot be fixed. A little mole that gets irritated and bleeds occasionally, may turn out to be fatal melanoma which would not have been fatal if the mole had been removed in time. Gaining one pound of weight per year may not seem too bad, but by avoiding this gain of 1.3 ounces per month we may be able to prevent diabetes and cardiovascular disease when we get older.

The Horseshoe Nail

For want of a nail the shoe is lost
For want of a shoe the horse is lost
For want of a horse the rider is lost
For want of a rider the battle is lost
For want of a battle the kingdom is lost
And all for the loss of a horseshoe nail

– George Herbert (1633)

The flowers of spring are turning into seed pods. It is a pleasant time of the year. The weather is neither too hot nor too cold. The trees are covered with green leaves and all the landscape is green. From the penthouse, only a few rooftops can be seen through the thick canopy of leaves. Huge white magnolia blooms are a sure sign that summer will soon be here. Clusters of tall buildings can be seen in the distance, but most of the houses in Bethesda do not rise above the tree tops.

One of the main causes of high cholesterol is an imbalance of dietary fats. In particular, a high cholesterol level is frequently due to excessive intake of hydrogenated and saturated fats, combined with inadequate intake of polyunsaturated omega-3 and omega-6 essential fatty acids. Since the Food and Drug Administration required reporting the amount of trans fats in foods, manufacturers have been scrambling to replace partially hydrogenated fats, which contain heart-damaging trans fats, with saturated fats that do not spoil. Ingredients like palm kernel oil and coconut (copra) oil are appearing more frequently in food labels, but these saturated oils will also increase your cholesterol.

Your cholesterol level can improve by reducing saturated fats, and including foods with polyunsaturated fats such as fish and nuts in your diet. However, only nuts that are high in polyunsaturated fats will help to lower your cholesterol. Besides eating the right proportions of fats, other dietary and life style changes, such as exercising, quitting smoking, and increasing soluble dietary fiber can help to lower cholesterol. The following link points to a 3-page article that explains this in detail:

At 7:17 AM on the morning of June 30, 1908, an asteroid entered the earth’s atmosphere in Russian Siberia causing a great explosion at an altitude roughly ten kilometers in the atmosphere.[1] Witnesses in the nearby towns saw a luminous trail across the sky followed by a brilliant fireball. The force of the impact flattened trees 30 kilometers from the central point in the Stony Tunguska River Valley and trees were burned as far as 60 kilometers away. The blast destroyed over 6,000 square kilometers of forest.

A similar but more powerful event may have wiped out the North American megafauna and the Clovis people. Some scientist have theorized that the demise of the mammoth, the saber-toothed cat, and the American camel was due to the hunting skills of the Clovis people and weather changes. However, Richard B. Firestone of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, thinks that a 10-kilometer-wide comet could have hit North America 12,900 years ago.[2] This event was preceded by an intense blast of iron-rich grains from a supernova explosion that impacted the planet roughly 34,000 years ago.

In support of the supernova and comet impact theory, Firestone and Arizona geologist Allen West have found 34,000-year-old mammoth tusks that are peppered with tiny impact craters apparently produced by iron-rich grains traveling at an estimated 10,000 kilometers per second. These grains may have been emitted from a supernova that exploded roughly 7,000 years earlier and about 250 light years from Earth. Also, the scientists found magnetic metal spherules in the sediment of nine 13,000-year-old Clovis sites in Michigan, Canada, Arizona, New Mexico and the Carolinas. Low-density carbon spherules, charcoal, and excess radioactivity were also found at these sites.

[1] Chyba, C., P. Thomas, and K. Zahnle 1993. “The 1908 Tunguska Explosion: Atmospheric Disruption of a Stony Asteroid”. Nature 361, p. 40-44. [abstract]

[2] Supernova Explosion May Have Caused Mammoth Extinction, Berkeley Lab, [News Release]

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that 2 out of 3 U.S. adults are overweight or obese. Being overweight poses an increased risk for developing type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and some forms of cancer.

The Body Mass Index (BMI) and waist circumference provide useful estimates of body fat distribution. Fat around the waist is more likely to result in health problems than fat carried mainly in the hips and thighs. Women with a waist measurement of more than 35 inches or men with a waist measurement of more than 40 inches usually have a higher disease risk than people with smaller waist measurements.

BMI does not take into consideration the distribution of the fat. A more accurate estimate of the percentage of body fat can be obtained with the U.S. Navy Circumference Method which takes into consideration the height, neck, waist, and hip measurements.

= 300 Calories = 1 hour of brisk walking

Exercise is good for you. Exercise has been shown to help mangage weight and stress, prevent heart disease and type 2 diabetes, and extend life. Isn’t that great? All you need to do is invest 30 minutes a day performing moderately vigorous activities that make you breathe hard.

Regular exercise strengthens your muscles, your heart, and your lungs. The rhythmic deep breathing from vigorous exercise develops greater lung capacity, and the increased muscular strength will give you mobility and independence into your old age. Your bones also benefit. Weight-bearing exercise and a proper diet help to preserve and build bone mass. You may already be getting enough exercise if you have a job that demands physical strength, but if you have a job where you are sitting most of the time, you definitely need to make the time to exercise.

Exercise can burn calories that may help you to lose weight. One hour of walking at a brisk pace will burn about 300 calories which is the equivalent of a creme-filled doughnut. If you want to lose weight, you cannot do it only through exercise. You have to cut out the junk food too.