Dietary Enigmas
asking questions about our diet
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Archive of "C Reactive Protein" Category
Breastfeeding halves rheumatoid arthritis risk
Tue May 13, 2008 4:06am EDT
LONDON (Reuters) - Women who breastfeed their babies longer are less likely to get rheumatoid arthritis, Swedish researchers said on Tuesday.
Mothers who breastfed for 13 months or more were half as likely to get the painful joint condition as women who never breastfed, said Mitra Pikwer and colleagues at the Malmo University Hospital in Sweden, who led the study.
“Although it is difficult to separate the effect of breast feeding from that of childbirth, our data suggest that rheumatoid arthritis is inversely associated with long-term breastfeeding, rather than with the number of children born,” they said.
The researchers said they wanted to see if a larger, community-based study would echo earlier studies on the links between breastfeeding or the use of oral contraceptives and the condition affecting about 20 million people worldwide.
Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease caused when the body confuses healthy tissues for foreign substances and attacks itself.
Some drugs to treat the condition seek to reduce inflammation directly while others tone down the immune system’s response, which can leave some patients vulnerable to infections and cancer.
The Swedish team compared 136 women with rheumatoid arthritis and 544 women of similar age without the disease. They also found that breastfeeding for between up to 12 months made women 25 percent less likely to get the joint condition.
The findings bolster previous research linking breastfeeding to a reduced risk of the disease. But, as with other studies, the Swedish teams said they did not know the exact reason why.
Breastfeeding is known to provide multiple benefits for the baby and studies have shown the practice may also protect mothers from breast and ovarian cancers.
The study published in the British Medical Journal’s Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases also suggested that oral contraceptives — thought to offer protection because they contain certain hormones — did not seem to make a difference.
(Reporting by Michael Kahn)
arthritis autoimmune disease breast cancer breastfeeding breast feeding british medical journal cancer childbirth complex carbohydrates hormones immune system inflammation osteo arthritis rheumatoid arthritis arthritis autoimmune disease breast cancer breastfeeding breast feeding british medical journal cancer childbirth complex carbohydrates hormones immune system inflammation osteo arthritis rheumatoid arthritisHair Loss - Low GI Diet?
Hi I’m a great devotee of the Low GI diet and have been for years - it is one of our threads in our quest to stay healthy. I was surprised when i read that a Low GI diet not only helps keep weight in the normal range but may also aid hair restoration. But once again when i read about what sucrose does to the body in my last post i realised that it also affects the hormonal system - hence the link with hair loss. Want to keep your hair - go Low GI, want to get pregnant - go Low GI, want to lose weight - go low GI. In fact if you want to live long and prosper - go Low GI
Healthy Mentors - here to help you
Trehalose - the safe sugarHow can I prevent hair loss?
Thinning hair isn’t just a problem for men—like many women, Kristin is experiencing hair loss. “I want to know how to slow it down, how to prevent it, and what are my options to try to get the thickness back,” she says.
Dr. Northrup says that Kristin’s thinning hair may be a result of a hormonal imbalance. “You can get it back by eating a low-glycemic diet, making sure that you are on supplements,” she says.
According to Dr. Northrup, glycemic foods can cause dramatic changes in the body. “One of the things that often happens in mid-life to people is if they have a lot of stress hormones in their system and they’re eating a high-glycemic diet, and the high insulin is in their blood from the high sugar … that actually changes the way hormones are metabolized. So you actually begin to shoot your estrogen and progesterone into androgen-like substances that produce male pattern baldness in women. Have you seen this—where [women] start to get a beard and they get thinning of the hair at the temples and so on?”
Other than a low-glycemic diet, Dr. Northrup has one other recommendation for thinning hair. “Acupuncture can be very, very helpful for it,” she says.
The Greatest Tragedy of All Time
This film was a personal response to our over reliance on the established medical treatments and it expresses some of my personal views. If you want to see more please go to website www.squidoo.com/greatesttragedye mail me
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Trehalose - the safe sugarOmega 3, Omega 6 and Allergies
Found this article very interesting - there has been an ongoing debate about Omega 6 and the concensus is now that we have too much in our diets and shouldn’t supplement it at all. Omega 3 are a different afair and we need them but even then its not always clear - plant based Omega 3 is not well used by the body so my preference is to use a product called Omega 3 From Nordic naturals - available from the best site on the web.
Healthy Mentors - here to help you
Trehalose - the safe sugarJanuary 14, 2008
Omega-3s Cut Child Allergies in Clinical Trial
Swedish study finds that higher maternal omega-3 intake reduces infants’ allergy risks
by Craig WeatherbyThe human immune system uses the omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids in cell membranes to make messenger chemicals called eicosanoids.
Eicosanoids, which were made famous by Barry Sears’ Zone diet books, give orders to immune cells: orders that can start inflammation, control how fiery it will be, and end it.
The omega-6 fatty acids in which American diets are overloaded are used to make eicosanoids that prompt inflammation, while the eicosanoids made from omega-3s are either moderately inflammatory or anti-inflammatory.
And recent studies revealed a novel group of immune-system mediators made from omega-3s (resolvins, docosatrienes, and neuroprotectins), which exert independent anti-inflammatory effects.
In short, omega-3s tend to moderate inflammation in the body, while omega-6s tend to promote and extend inflammation.
What does this have to do with allergies?