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Havana Syndrome, Directed Energy Weapons, and the New Cold War
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Please Teach Your Children About Corporate Criminals
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China Declares All Virtual Currency Transactions “Illegal”, Sending Crypto Prices Tumbling
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US Turning Oil-Rich Nigeria into Proxy for its Africa Wars
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UN Chief Warns Humanity Is ‘Unacceptably Close to Nuclear Annihilation’
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The Record-Breaking Failures of Nuclear Power
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Does Nature Have Rights? A Burgeoning Legal Movement Says Rivers, Forests and Wildlife Have Standing, Too
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Mark Zuckerberg’s “Metaverse” Is a Dystopian Nightmare
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Extreme Hospital COVID Policies Are Leading More Pregnant Women To Choose A Home Birth
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With some of its biggest names uncertain about getting jabbed, is tennis a ‘bastion of resistance’ against Covid vaccination?
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America’s Fate: Oligarchy or Autocracy
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Dems Who Opposed Pentagon Cuts Received Nearly 4x More Donations From Weapons Makers
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https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/dr-danice-hertz-injured-pfizer-covid-vaccine/
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https://vk.com/doc-194998673_614427195Todays Videos:
Garlic Supplementation Improves Metabolic Syndrome
Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences (Iran), September 4, 2021
A randomized, clinical trial reported in Phytotherapy Research found an association between supplementation with garlic and improvement in several components of metabolic syndrome—a cluster of factors that increase the risk of developing diabetes and/or cardiovascular disease. Metabolic syndrome is defined as the presence of three of the following five disorders: abdominal obesity, high blood pressure, high triglycerides, elevated blood sugar, and low levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol.
The trial included 90 men and women with metabolic syndrome who received tablets containing 1,600 mg of garlic powder daily for three months, or a placebo.
In the garlic-supplemented group, levels of beneficial HDL cholesterol were significantly higher than at the beginning of the study, and they were also higher compared to the placebo group.
Systolic and diastolic blood pres- sure, triglyceride levels, waist circumference, insulin and insulin resistance, fatty liver index, and appetite were reduced, compared to the placebo group.
Ceramide Intake Reduces Appearance of Wrinkles
Monteleoder S.L. (Spain), September 21, 2021
Make room on your beauty counter for ceramides. A clinical study has found that oral intake has been linked to reduced signs of aging—including wrinkles that are less deep, fewer fine lines and more moist, youthful skin.
You’ve probably already heard of ceramides for skin in moisturizers—these lipids are naturally occurring in skin, but levels decline with age. Adding ceramides as part of an anti-aging routine has been a go-to for years; only more recently have the benefits of an oral ceramide come to light.
Oral Ceramides Help Keep Skin Youthful-Looking
Ceramides in both topical and oral formulas come from grains, and help keep skin youthful-looking and soft to the touch. A double-blind study published in Life Science analyzed the water levels in the skin of individuals who took rice bran extract, which is a source of ceramides, compared to those who did not. There was a significant improvement among those who did consume the rice bran—even on the notoriously dry skin of the elbow. (Having youthful elbows might not be your anti-aging goal—fortunately, the cheek and neck had improvements, too.)
Additionally, recent research published in the scientific journal Food & Nutrition Research found that four herbal extracts, when combined, improved the appearance of skin that had been damaged by pollution and other environmental irritants. The herbs include rosemary, olive leaf, lemon verbena and Japanese pagoda tree leaf—and this botanical cocktail was shown to improve every clinical and biochemical parameter measured, including decreased wrinkle depth and improved elasticity, firmness, and moisturization. It even reduced the appearance of dark spots—and these effects were all significant after only two weeks.
Young women with breast cancer who opt for mastectomies report lower quality of life
Dana Farber Cancer Institute, September 23, 2021
Even as more young women with breast cancer opt to have mastectomies, many experience a persistent decline in their sexual and psychosocial well-being following the procedure, as detailed in new research by Dana-Farber Brigham Cancer Center. The findings, reported in in JAMA Surgery, highlight the importance of doctors and patients discussing the potential long-term physical and emotional consequences of the procedure, researchers say.
In a multicenter prospective cohort of young women diagnosed with breast cancer, moderate to large quality of life differences were apparent several years after breast cancer surgery, with women who underwent more extensive surgery reporting lower quality of life. The findings in the study are especially noteworthy given the recent trends towards younger women with breast cancer opting for bilateral mastectomies for unilateral breast cancer when breast conserving surgery was also an option.
“Historically, it was felt that 75 percent of breast cancer patients should be eligible for breast conserving surgery. Over time, however, more women, particularly young women, are electing to have a mastectomy,” says the lead author of the study, Laura Dominici, MD, a surgeon at Dana-Farber Brigham Cancer Center. “They frequently offer peace of mind as the reason for their decision—even though research shows that unless a woman has a genetic predisposition to breast cancer, she has a very low risk of developing cancer in the healthy breast.”
In this study, a patient reported outcomes survey known as BREAST-Q was completed by 560 women, age 40 and younger with breast cancer, who were on average 5.8 years removed from their diagnosis.
Patients who had a mastectomy scored markedly lower in three quality of life measures—satisfaction with the appearance of their breasts, psychosocial well-being, and sexual well-being—than patients who underwent breast-conserving surgery. The results were consistent regardless of whether the patients had one or both breasts removed, and that most had breast reconstruction surgery.
- For breast satisfaction, those who had breast-conserving surgery had an average BREAST-Q score of 65.5, compared with to 54.6 in the bilateral mastectomy group.
- For psychosocial well-being, those who had breast-conserving surgery had an average BREAST-Q score of 75.9, compared with 65.1in the bilateral mastectomy group.
- For sexual well-being, those who had breast-conserving surgery had an average BREAST-Q score of 57.4, compared with 53.4 for the unilateral mastectomy group and 46.2 for the bilateral mastectomy group.
A fourth area examined by the survey—physical function—was similar for women who had a mastectomy and those who had not. Women with financial difficulties tended to have lower scores in all four categories.
“The decision of whether to have a mastectomy or breast-conserving surgery should be a shared decision between patients and their doctors,” Dominici added. “Particularly when talking to young women, who are likely to have a long period of survivorship, it’s important that we as clinicians discuss the potential impacts of mastectomy on their quality of life. As our study indicates, those impacts are not insignificant and persist years into the future.”
Dominici said the study’s primary limitation is that it was not randomized, and it evaluated quality of life only at a single time point. She added that researchers did not have information about women’s quality of life prior to the study, which could have affected their decision making and their post-surgery quality of life.
Polyphenols may enhance endurance, delay time to exhaustion
University of Burgundy (France), September 11, 2021
Acute intake of a specific blend of polyphenols from grape and apple may boost endurance in athletes, says a new study using Nexira’s ViNitrox ingredient.
Just two 500 mg doses of the polyphenols increased the time to exhaustion by almost 10%, report scientists from the Faculty of Sports Science at the University of Burgundy -Franche-Comté, Nexira, and CEN Nutriment
In addition, the time to reach maximal perceived exertion (which can be considered as fatigue barrier) was delayed by almost 13%, according to findings published in Nutrients .
“[T]he present randomized, crossover, double-blind and controlled study demonstrated that the acute supplementation of polyphenols in healthy, physically active males allowed significant increases in endurance performance (hereby the capacity to maintain a strong effort) with greater energy expenditure as demonstrated by the lengthening of time to exhaustion and time to maximal perceived exertion,” wrote the authors.
“Also, the main cardiovascular and respiratory measured parameters showed no significant differences between conditions. A similar observation was obtained on muscle pain two days after exercise. These results indicate that performance improvements, as a result of acute polyphenol intake, have been obtained under safe conditions and without additional pain.”
Damien Guillemet, Scientific Director at Nexira and co-author on the new paper, told NutraIngredients-USA that the study used the commercially ingredient ViNitrox, which is already formulated in some specific finished products designed for sport performance.
“Polyphenols are already known to have an impact on blood flow and benefits for sports performances,” said Guillemet. “But ViNitrox formulation has been especially designed through pre-clinical trials, to achieve the highest nitric oxide synthesis and then trigger a significant vasodilatation, thanks to a synergistic action of specific polyphenols class from grape and from apple.” (Guillemet added that the ingredient has also demonstrated antioxidant activity during in vivo trials.)
Guillemet noted that the study’s population size is bigger than usual (the trial included 48 physically active men), and that benefits were observed after acute administration. “Generally polyphenols based ingredients require a (sub)chronic administration to demonstrate a significant physiological impact,” he said.
The researchers recruited physically active men with an average age of 31 and randomly assigned them to receive 500 mg of polyphenols or placebo at two separate testing sessions.
The results showed that, compared to placebo, the time to exhaustion mean increased significantly by 9.7%, while the fatigue barrier was reached 12.8% later with polyphenols.
Commenting on the potential mechanism of action, the study authors noted that the polyphenols may be beneficially impacting endurance through an action on nitric oxide (NO), which is a potent vasodilator that improves blood flow.
“Additionally, polyphenols such as green tea or grape have been associated to improved endothelial function,” they wrote. “Based on in vivo and ex vivo preclinical unpublished observations with ViNitrox, we could speculate that performance benefits might be due to the modulation of NO-dependent vasodilation with NO synthesis increase and protection.”
Guillemet confirmed that Nexira is planning additional studies for the ingredient. “A hypothesis we proposed about the link between nitric oxide, vasodilation and sport performance improvements due to ViNitrox, is related to the oxygen debt created during the exercise,” he said. “We are thinking to continue our investigation to highlight how this modulation works. Moreover, exploring performance improvements for other kinds of exercise could be in our next investigations.”
Strength training can burn fat too, myth-busting study finds
University of New South Wales(Australia), September 23, 2021
If you’re strength training to change how your body looks, don’t focus too much on the number on the scale – weight won’t give you the whole picture of how your body is changing. Credit: Shutterstock.
It’s basic exercise knowledge that to gain muscles, you strength train, and to lose fat, you do cardio—right?
Not necessarily, a new UNSW study published this week in Sports Medicinesuggests.
In fact, the study—a systematic review and meta-analysis that reviewed and analyzed existing evidence—shows we can lose around 1.4 percent of our entire body fat through strength training alone, which is similar to how much we might lose through cardio or aerobics.
“A lot of people think that if you want to lose weight, you need to go out and run,” says senior author of the study Dr. Mandy Hagstrom, exercise physiologist and senior lecturer at UNSW Medicine & Health.
“But our findings show that even when strength training is done on its own, it still causes a favorable loss of body fat without having to consciously diet or go running.”
Up until now, the link between strength training and fat loss has been unclear. Studies have investigated this link in the past, but their sample sizes tend to be small—a side effect of not many people wanting to volunteer to exercise for months on end. Smaller sample sizes can make it difficult to find statistically significant results, especially as many bodies can respond differently to exercise programs.
“It can be really difficult to discern whether there’s an effect or not based on one study alone,” says Dr. Hagstrom. “But when we add all of these studies together, we effectively create one large study, and can get a much clearer idea of what’s going on.”
Dr. Hagstrom and her team pulled together the findings from 58 research papers that used highly accurate forms of body fat measurement (like body scans, which can differentiate fat mass from lean mass) to measure the outcomes from strength training programs. Altogether, the studies included 3000 participants, none of which had any previous weight training experience.
While the strength training programs differed between the studies, the participants worked out for roughly 45–60 minutes each session for an average of 2.7 times per week. The programs lasted for about five months.
The team found that, on average, the participants lost 1.4 percent of their total body fat after their training programs, which equated to roughly half a kilo in fat mass for most participants.
While the findings are encouraging for fans of pumping iron, Dr. Hagstrom says the best approach for people who are aiming to lose fat is still to stick to eating nutritiously and having an exercise routine that includes both aerobic/cardio and strength training.
But if aerobics and cardio just aren’t your thing, the good news is you don’t need to force it.
“If you want to exercise to change your body composition, you’ve got options,” says Dr. Hagstrom.
“Do what exercise you want to do and what you’re most likely to stick to.”
Busting the fat loss myth
Part of the reason many people think strength training doesn’t live up to cardio in terms of fat loss comes down to inaccurate ways of measuring fat.
For example, many people focus on the number they see on the scale—that is, their total body weight. But this figure doesn’t differentiate fat mass from everything else that makes up the body, like water, bones and muscles.
“More often than not, we don’t gain any muscle mass when we do aerobic training,” says Dr. Hagstrom. “We improve our cardiorespiratory fitness, gain other health and functional benefits, and can lose body fat.
“But when we strength train, we gain muscle mass and lose body fat, so the number on the scales won’t look as low as it would after aerobics training, especially as muscle weighs more than fat.”
The research team focused on measuring how much the total body fat percentage—that is, the amount of your body that’s made up of fat mass—changed after strength training programs. This measurement showed fat loss appears to be on par with aerobics and cardio training, despite the different figures on the scales.
“A lot of fitness recommendations come from studies that use inaccurate measurement tools, like bioelectrical impedance or scales,” says Dr. Hagstrom.
“But the most accurate and reliable way of assessing body fat is through DEXA, MRI or CT scans. They can compartmentalize the body and separate fat mass from lean tissue.”
While this study didn’t show whether variables like exercise duration, frequency, intensity, or set volume impacted fat loss percentage, the team hope to next investigate whether how we strength train can change the amount of fat loss.
A better way of measuring progress
As part of their study, the team conducted a sub-analysis comparing how different ways of measuring fat can influence a study’s findings.
Interestingly, it showed that when papers used more accurate measurements like body scans, they tended to show lower overall changes in body fat.
“Using accurate fat measurements is important because it gives us a more realistic idea of what body changes to expect,” says lead author of the study Mr Michael Wewege, Ph.D. candidate at UNSW and NeuRA.
“Future exercise studies can improve their research by using these more accurate body measurements.”
Reframing the way we measure progress doesn’t just apply to sports researchers, but to everyday people, too.
“Resistance training does so many fantastic things to the body that other forms of exercise don’t, like improving bone mineral density, lean mass and muscle quality. Now, we know it also gives you a benefit we previously thought only came from aerobics,” says Dr. Hagstrom.
“If you’re strength training and want to change how your body looks, then you don’t want to focus on the number on the scale too much, because it won’t show you all your results.
“Instead, think about your whole body composition, like how your clothes fit and how your body will start to feel, and move, differently.”
A sedentary lifestyle can lead to more nighttime hot flashes
New study suggests that too many hours sitting on the couch could increase problematic hot flashes in midlife women
Smith College, September 22, 2021
Hot flashes, one of the most common symptoms of the menopause transition, not only interfere with a woman’s quality of life, but are also associated with an array of health problems. A new study suggests that sedentary behavior can increase the likelihood of nighttime hot flashes. Study results will be presented during The North American Menopause Society (NAMS) Annual Meeting in Washington, DC, September 22-25, 2021.
Approximately 80% of women report experiencing hot flashes. Some data suggest that a greater number and severity of hot flashes are related to increased risk for cardiovascular disease. Sedentary behavior, which is often more prevalent as women age, is also related to a greater risk for heart disease. Few studies, however, have evaluated the effect of sedentary behavior on hot flash experience. Those studies that have been conducted were largely based on self-reports and did not consider objective measures of hot flashes or sedentary behavior.
This new study, which includes pre-, peri-, and postmenopausal women, aimed to determine whether objectively measured sedentary behavior is a predictor of objective and subjective hot flash experience. Preliminary results of the study indicate that sedentary behavior does, in fact, predict nighttime objective hot flashes, independently of time spent participating in moderate-to-vigorous activity.
“Since women near the menopause transition spend a large portion of their daily activities in sedentary behaviors, it’s important to understand how such behavior influences menopausal hot flashes,” says Dr. Sarah Witkowski, an exercise physiologist at Smith College and co-author of the study. “Knowledge regarding the influence of sedentary behavior on hot flashes can improve evidence-based lifestyle recommendations for women experiencing hot flashes.”
“With such a large portion of women affected by hot flashes, research that helps identify triggers or risk factors is always valuable,” says Dr. Stephanie Faubion, NAMS medical director. “Healthcare professionals should review a patient’s physical activities and routines when discussing treatment options.”
Plant-based power: Med-style diet effective in tackling acid reflux
Northwell Health’s Phelps Hospital, NY, September 21, 2021
A plant-based, Mediterranean-style diet may provide the same benefits in addressing the complications bought about by acid reflux, according to a US-based study.
Findings point towards a dietary approach using alkaline water and a plant-based, Mediterranean-style diet as comparable to pharmacological regimens used to improve symptoms of a condition affecting around 10 – 20% of the Western population.
“Although effective in some patients, I felt medication couldn’t be the only method to treat reflux,” said study lead author, Dr Craig Zalvan, chief of Otolaryngology and medical director of The Institute for Voice and Swallowing Disorders at Northwell Health’s Phelps Hospital in New York.
“I saw a lot of studies using plant-based diets to treat patients for many other chronic diseases, so I decided to develop a diet regimen to treat my laryngopharyngeal reflux patients. The results we found show we are heading in the right direction to treating reflux without medication.”
Rich in bioactive compounds, vegetarian and vegan-based diets are a cost-effective, low-risk intervention that may contribute to lower body mass index, blood pressure and cholesterol levels.
Although there is an emphasis on meat and dairy, a Mediterranean diet has been held in high-esteem as an effective lifestyle choice that addresses risk factors contributing to obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Study essentials
The study compared two groups totalling 184 individuals. One group consisted of 85 patients from 2010 to 2012 with Laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR) that were treated with proton pump inhibition (PPI), the first-line method of treatment, and standard reflux precautions (PS).
99 patients that were treated with alkaline water (pH higher than 8.0) were identified. These patients ate a 90% plant-based, Mediterranean-style diet, and standard reflux precautions (AMS).
Dr Zalvan’s diet consists of mostly fruits, vegetables, grains and nuts with avoidance of dairy and meats including beef, chicken, fish, eggs and pork.
Foods that aggravated acid reflux like coffee, tea, chocolate, soda, greasy and fried food, spicy foods, fatty foods and alcohol were also avoided.
The outcome was based on change in Reflux Symptom Index (RSI), a nine-item self-administered outcome questionnaire designed to document and rate (0-5) LPR symptoms and severity.
Results indicated patients achieving a clinically meaningful (over six points) reduction in RSI was 54.1% in PS-treated patients and 62.6% in AMS-treated patients. The mean reduction in RSI was 27.2% for the PS group and 39.8% in the AMS group.
‘A novel strategy’
“Dr. Zalvan’s approach of challenging assumptions in treatment norms epitomises our view of medical research at the Feinstein Institute and Northwell Health,” said Dr Kevin Tracey, president and CEO of the Feinstein Institute.
“We are committed to developing novel strategies to benefit our patients in a way that positively impacts medical practice globally.”
Whilst proton pump inhibitors (PPI) are the most effective drug therapeutic approach for LPR, their use is not without disadvantages. Patients treated with PPIs often have a high rate of erosive lesion healing.
Dr Zalvan observed that some of his patients on a plant-based diet also experienced weight loss and a reduction of symptoms and medication use from other medical conditions like high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
He advised a plant-based diet approach with alkaline water and standard reflux precautions should either be carried out before the use of medication or with the short-term use of medication for more severe needs.
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