Vitamin D deficiency linked to heart, stroke risk

People with low vitamin D levels face an elevated risk for heart attack, heart failure and stroke, according to a study published on Monday suggesting that the vitamin may protect against cardiovascular disease.

The elevated risk was particularly acute among those with high blood pressure, the researchers found.

Vitamin D helps the body absorb calcium and is considered important for bone health, but a number of studies have indicated it might provide a number of other benefits. In adults, vitamin D deficiency can lead to osteoporosis, and it can lead to rickets in children.

Researchers led by Dr. Thomas Wang of Harvard Medical School in Boston followed 1,739 people, average age 59, for 5 years, taking blood samples to gauge vitamin D levels.

Those with low vitamin D levels had about a 60 percent higher risk of a cardiovascular event like heart attack, heart failure or stroke compared to those with higher levels, even with well-known cardiovascular risk factors such as diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure taken into account.

The risk for heart attack, heart failure or stroke was double in people with both high blood pressure, also known as hypertension, and vitamin D deficiency, the researchers said.

The findings were published in Circulation, a journal published by the American Heart Association.

The people in this study were offspring of original participants in the long-running Framingham Heart Study centered in Massachusetts. They had no prior history of cardiovascular disease. All of them were white.

Steve - the key here is that none of the participants had prior history of heart disease.

FDA expected to declare cloned meat and milk safe

While most believed it would be a while before the FDA made a decision regarding cloned foods, according to the Wall Street Journal, The Food and Drug Administration is expected to declare that meat and milk from cloned animals safe to enter the American food supply.

The announcement of an amendment to the Farm Bill (H.R. 2419) at the end of last year suggested that approval for cloned food was far away. Moreover, the FDA had previously asked cloned animal producers not to sell animals until it announces the results of its ruling on safety, said the Journal.

But an unnamed source indicated to the Wall Street Journal that the FDA is set to declare the meat and dairy of the animals safe as early as next week.

FDA in December issued its assessment of the available scientific evidence surrounding cloning, which concluded that there were no additional safety risks posed by the technology when compared to other assisted reproductive technologies currently in use in US agriculture.

However, Senators Barbara Mikulski and Arlen Specter proposed amendment 3524 to address concerns that the US Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) risk assessment of the controversial technology was flawed.

Furthermore, the Center for Food Safety (CFS), a non-profit science-based public interest group, released a review of the FDA's risk assessment agreeing with the senators, stating that FDA's assessment was based on "flawed assumptions and misrepresented findings", and claimed that FDA found virtually no scientific evidence to support the commercial release of these experimental foods.

"Animal cloning is a new technology with potentially severe risks for food safety. Defects in clones are common, and cloning scientists warn that even small imbalances in clones could lead to hidden food safety problems in clones' milk or meat. There are few studies on the risks of food from clones, and no long-term food safety studies have been done," the group states on its website.

Despite new noises indicating an imminent safety green light, it could be between three and five years before meat and milk from cloned animals reaches the shelves and consumers' mouths, according to the Wall Street Journal. This is because of the costs involved in producing a cloned animal - reported to be between $15,000 and $20,000 per animal.

Results of a consumer survey in July 2007 showed that 50 percent of American consumers have an unfavorable view of cloning, while 28 percent remain neutral. The national survey, commissioned by the International Food Information Council (IFIC), reported that only 22 percent of the 1,000 people interviewed viewed animal cloning in a favorable light.

Steve - well, this is par for the course for the FDA. We now have another good reason to exclusively eat organic animal protein.

Being selective when it comes to your dark chocolate.

A British medical journal claims that many manufacturers of dark chocolate remove the heart healthy element - the flavanols.

According to many scientific studies, flavanols have a positive effect on human health because they help neutralize free radicals that could damage the body's cells, and cause oxidative stress.

It is this oxidative stress that has been linked to a wide range of chronic diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, arthritis, diabetes, and neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's.

The chocolate industry has never denied that processing removes a lot of nutrients from cocoa, however medical journal The Lancet states that consumers are often misled over how healthy a chocolate product is.

In fact, manufacturers often deliberately remove the flavanols from their products because of the naturally bitter taste, sometimes then darkening the cocoa solids for aesthetic purposes.

However, according to Sandra Capra from the University of Newcastle, the health properties of dark chocolate are real and should not be dismissed so lightly.

"The evidence is there, that dark chocolate is a good alternative to milk chocolate and is a source of some key anti-oxidants," she said. "Anyone already on a healthy and balanced diet should be able to indulge occasionally in one or two squares of dark chocolate and benefit from a few health benefits as well."

Bonnie - a key to knowing if the brand contains a beneficial amount of flavanols is the percentage of cocoa listed. If 70% or higher, it is almost a guarantee that there is a medicinal amount of flavanol content. If the amount of cocoa is not listed on the packaging, I would not recommend purchasing it.

Vitamin C linked to lower stroke risk

Increased blood levels of vitamin C may reduce the risk of stroke by 42 per cent, suggests a large European-based study performed on 20,649 men and women taking part in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer.

The authors, led by Phyo Myint from the University of Cambridge, state in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that blood levels of the vitamin could be used as a biological marker of lifestyle used to identify people at high risk of stroke.

The highest average blood levels of vitamin C (greater than 66 micromoles per litre) were associated with a 42 per cent lower risk of stroke, compared to the lowest average blood levels (less than 41 micromoles per litre), after adjusting the results for potentially confounding factors such as age, sex, smoking habits, alcohol consumption, blood pressure, cholesterol levels, BMI, physical activity, and use of supplements.

Steve - this is another well constructed, prevention-focused study from a very large population base spanning many years.

Group sues FDA for stronger warnings on antibiotics

Courtesy of AP

A consumer group sued the Food and Drug Administration Thursday, charging the agency is ignoring calls for stronger warnings that Cipro and similar antibiotics may cause serious tendon injuries.

Labels of the fluoroquinolone family of antibiotics — drugs that include the popular Cipro and Levaquin — already warn about rupture of tendons and other tendon injuries, but at the bottom of a list of other side effects.

The consumer group Public Citizen wants those warnings upgraded to the FDA's most severe type, a so-called black-box warning — and for patients to get pamphlets with every bottle that describe the risk. It argues that too few patients know they're supposed to quit using the drugs if they experience symptoms such as pain or inflammation, before the tendon actually ruptures.

Public Citizen filed a petition seeking the stronger warning in August 2006. The state of Illinois had filed a similar petition the previous year.

The FDA is violating its own statutes and putting patients at risk in taking so long to settle the issue, Public Citizen said in the suit filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

When Public Citizen first filed the petition, FDA's database showed 262 reports of tendon ruptures between November 1997 and December 2005, along with hundreds of other tendon problems in users of these antibiotics. Since then, the FDA has received an additional 74 reports of tendon ruptures, said Public Citizen's Dr. Sidney Wolfe. Only a fraction of drug side effects typically are reported to the agency, he noted.

An FDA spokesman said the agency was evaluating the lawsuit and declined comment.

While we were gone...

Here are some snipits from the last two weeks:

Parents don't realize kids are fat -

A startling number of parents may be in denial about their youngsters' weight. A survey found that many Americans whose children are obese do not see them that way. "It suggests to me that parents of younger kids believe that their children will grow out of their obesity, or something will change at older ages," said Dr. Matthew M. Davis, a University of Michigan professor of pediatrics and internal medicine who led the study, released earlier this month.

Among parents with an obese, or extremely overweight, child ages 6 to 11, 43 percent said their child was "about the right weight," 37 percent responded "slightly overweight," and 13 percent said "very overweight." Others said "slightly underweight."

Doctors fear rickets resurgence -

Pregnant or breastfeeding women in the UK have been urged by the government to boost their vitamin D intake amid warnings that cases of rickets in children are increasing. Some minority ethnic groups in the UK, including Asians, are particularly at risk, says the Department of Health. Doctors want pregnant women to take more vitamin D during winter months.

FDA Aims To Dissolve Labelling Requirement For Irradiated Foods -

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has decided to relax its stance on food labeling to allow some foods which have been irradiated to be labeled as "pasteurized" instead. The proposed rule changes would allow companies to label food as pasteurized when the treatment of irradiation doesn't cause any material change in the product or any material change in the consequences that may arise from ingesting the product. This could include changes to the texture, smell, taste, and shelf life; as well as the nutritional, organic or functional properties of food.

"This move by the FDA would deny consumers clear information about whether they are buying food that has been exposed to high doses of ionizing radiation. . . an industry attempt to make consumers buy products that they otherwise might avoid," said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch, a national consumer advocacy group.

Companies looking to take advantage of the new labeling allowances simply will need to prove to the FDA that irradiating food kills microorganisms as effectively as pasteurization. This proposal also allows companies to use alternate terms to describe "irradiated" foods other than the word "pasteurized."

Independent and governmental studies have linked irradiation to cancer, severe internal bleeding, vitamin deficiency, lack of blood clotting, marked edema, loss of coordination or movement, chromosome damage and death. However, the proposed rule is making some large industrial groups, such as the Grocery Manufacturers/Food Products Association, very happy about the switch.

The FDA has posted the proposed revisions to the rules on food irradiation and is accepting public comments on their website regarding this proposal for 90 days from the date it was first posted (April 4).

Blog comes out of hibernation!

Happy New Year.

We truly hope your holiday and New Year were as excellent as ours was.

Wishing you a healthy and fruitful 2008.

Expect our second blog entry of 2008 shortly.

Bonnie's Blog will be on vacation until January 3rd, 2008. Happy New Year!

May your holidays be full of health, happiness, and giving.

Data About Zetia Risks Was Not Fully Revealed

Courtesy of NY Times

New evidence shows that the drug makers Merck and Schering-Plough have conducted several studies of their popular cholesterol medicine Zetia that raise questions about its risks to the liver, but the companies have never published those results. Partial results of the studies, alluded to in documents on the Food and Drug Administration’s Web site, raise questions about whether Zetia can cause liver damage when used long term with other cholesterol drugs called statins. Most of the millions of people who use Zetia take it along with a statin like Lipitor, Crestor or Zocor. Or they take it in a single pill, Vytorin, that combines Zetia with Zocor. The discovery of the unpublished research comes as Merck and Schering are already under criticism for not yet releasing data from an important Zetia study, called Enhance, that they completed early last year. The Enhance data may also contain important information about Zetia’s liver risks. At least some patients were dropped from the Enhance study after testing revealed that they had elevated liver enzymes, a Schering-Plough spokesman confirmed this week. But a full report on that trial, including the number of patients who had liver problems, will not be available until March.

Doctors say that by failing to disclose promptly all their research, Merck and Schering-Plough may be leaving the public with a misleadingly favorable view of Zetia’s safety and benefits. “You don’t want to have data missing,” said Dr. Bruce Psaty, a professor of medicine and epidemiology at the University of Washington. “When there have been adverse effects, when the benefits don’t look impressive, those are the trials that historically don’t make it to press.” A Schering executive, when asked by a reporter about the unpublished studies, confirmed their existence. But the executive, Dr. Robert J. Spiegel, said the companies had not considered the studies scientifically important enough to publish their findings. Some may eventually be published, he said. “We’re pretty comfortable that people don’t have trouble tolerating Zetia,” said Dr. Spiegel, the chief medical officer of the Schering-Plough Research Institute, Kenilworth, N.J. Schering also said that the F.D.A. had reviewed the data from the unpublished studies and had approved Zetia for use alongside statins. But experts on drug safety say that the agency has been slow to issue warnings about many widely used drugs that have turned out to carry serious risks, including the painkiller Vioxx, the diabetes medicine Avandia and the anti-psychotic drug Zyprexa. Even doctors critical of Zetia generally say it is safe for most patients. But before the drug was approved in 2002, one F.D.A. reviewer said it should not be cleared for use with statins because the combination had caused liver damage in animals. And in the last two years, scattered case reports of severe liver damage in patients taking Zetia in combination with statins have appeared in medical journals.

In the United States, the product label for Zetia contains only mild warnings about the drug’s potential for liver damage. But in Australia and Canada, regulators have been more cautious. Since 2005, they have issued a series of warnings about Zetia’s potential to cause hepatitis, pancreatitis and depression — warnings that have largely gone unnoticed in the United States.

Steve - I don't like where this is going. Haven't we heard this before? Could Zetia be yet another in the long list of examples for why you wait several years, if not more, to take a new drug. Because in most cases, there have been no long-term studies done!

High dairy in childhood linked with cancer risk

Children who consume high levels of dairy products may have a greater risk of developing colorectal cancer in adulthood, study findings suggest.

Among nearly 5,000 individuals followed for an average of 65 years, those who grew up in families reporting the highest levels of dairy consumption -- nearly 2 cups per day -- had close to three-times the risk of colorectal cancer compared with those from families reporting the lowest intake, Dr. Jolieke C. van der Pols and colleagues report.

The level of milk consumption in the high-diary group was similar to the estimated average daily intake of children in the United States, van der Pols, of the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, and colleagues noted.

Links between colorectal cancer risk and childhood exposure to dairy products have not been previously evaluated, the researchers said.

Using data from a study of weekly food consumption in families living in England or Scotland from 1937 to 1939, the researchers estimated the daily dairy intake ranged from less than half a cup at the lowest to nearly 2 cups at the highest. Nearly all, 94 percent, of the diary produces came from drinking milk.

Among the 4,374 individuals still available for follow-up between 1948 and 2005, the investigators identified 35 registrations and 41 deaths from colorectal cancer.

An increased risk of colorectal cancer among those who consumed the highest amounts of dairy during childhood was still seen after the investigators adjusted the data for potentially influential factors such as meat, fruit, and vegetable consumption; and socioeconomic status.

SOURCE: The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, December 2007.

Bonnie - I'd say this is a pretty compelling argument for dairy not being "the end all be all".

Maternal omega-3 consumption boosts offspring's coordination

Increased intake of the omega-3 DHA during pregnancy could produce improved motor function in the offspring in later life, suggests a new study from the Netherlands.

Over 300 children were followed for seven years, with the results showing a positive effect on docosahexaenoic acid (DHA: 22:6n-3) levels in the umbilical blood during pregnancy and nervous system health in the children, states the study in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Mothers are also aid to be less at risk of post partum depression or mood change, and to recover more quickly after pregnancy, if they consume enough of the fatty acid.

The study supports an earlier report from Australia involving 98 pregnant women given fish oil supplements (1.1 g of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and 2.2 g of DHA) from 20 weeks of pregnancy until the birth of their babies (Archives of Disease in Childhood (Fetal and Neonatal Edition), doi: 10.1136/adc.2006.099085).

While no significant differences were observed in overall language skills and growth between the two groups of children, the researchers report that the children whose mothers had taken fish oil supplements had higher scores for receptive language (comprehension), average phrase length, and vocabulary.

They also report that high levels of omega-3 fatty acid in cord blood were strongly associated with good hand-eye coordination.

Putting Very Little Weight in Calorie Counting Methods

Courtesy of NY Times

Exercise physiologists say there is little in the world of exercise as wildly exaggerated as people’s estimates of the number of calories they burn. Despite the displays on machines at gyms, with their precise-looking calorie counts, and despite the official-looking published charts of exercise and calories, it can be all but impossible to accurately estimate of the number of calories you burn.

One reason for the calorie-count skepticism is that two individuals of the same age, gender, height, weight and even the same level of fitness can burn a different amount of calories at the same level of exertion.

Even if you wanted to get a rough estimate of the calories an average person your size might burn at the gym, you might not want to trust the displays on cardio machines, with the possible exception of treadmills, said William Haskell, an exercise physiologist at Stanford. But for most people, calories burned should not matter. The aim is to get some exercise, preferably outdoors.

Cloned food postponed

Food from cloned animals looks likely to take longer than expected to enter the American food supply, following the passage of a provision in the Senate's Farm Bill that requires more testing.

The amendment, which was included in the Farm Bill (H.R. 2419), calls for a rigorous review of the human health and economic impacts of introducing cloned foods.

FDA in December issued its assessment of the available scientific evidence surrounding cloning, which concluded that there were no additional safety risks posed by the technology when compared to other assisted reproductive technologies currently in use in US agriculture.

However, fierce opposition from scientists, health groups, consumer advocacies and even industry sparked a heated debate, which culminated in the proposal of an amendment to the 2007 Farm Bill.

The amendment requires that two rigorous studies be performed before the FDA is able to issue a final decision on food from clones.

It directs the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to convene a blue-ribbon panel of leading scientists to review the FDA's initial decision that food from cloned animals is safe.

The amendment further requires the NAS to study the potential health impacts of cloned foods entering the nation's food supply, including the possible health effects of lessened milk consumption as a result of consumer avoidance of cloned food.

Steve - this is great news!

Legislation to update the nutrition standards dropped

Courtesy of the Washington Post

The Senate last Thursday night dropped an amendment to the farm bill that would have banned fatty foods and high-calorie beverages at school snack bars, stores and vending machines. The National School Nutrition Standards Amendment, sponsored by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), would have been the first legislation to update the nutrition standards since 1979, a period in which scientific opinion on what foods are appropriate has drastically shifted.

The measure, the result of months of negotiations, ultimately garnered the support of more than 100 public health and education organizations and food industry giants, including Coca-Cola, Nestle and Frito-Lay. Proponents had hailed it as a crucial step toward addressing the dismal state of school nutrition.

The amendment would have banned most candy, cakes and cookies, staples of today's school snack bars. Sugary beverages, considered one of the main causes of teenage obesity, would also have been restricted. Serving sizes and calories for all drinks, with the exception of bottled water, were to be capped.

Steve - folks, this was even a watered-down amendment! Once again, we'll have to rely on the state to pick up the pieces.

Don't worry though, our federal government has its priorities in order. The Farm Bill will increase subsidies for milk, corn, wheat, and try to bail out the American Sugar industry!

Happy Holidays From Nutritional Concepts!

May your holidays be full of health, happiness, and giving.

F.D.A. Panel Rejects Over-the-Counter Cholesterol Drug

Government advisers rejected on Thursday Merck’s bid for over-the-counter sales of Mevacor, the cholesterol-lowering drug. Too many people would mistakenly use the drug if it no longer required a prescription, advisers to the Food and Drug Administration concluded in a 10-to-2 vote against the nonprescription sales.

The advisers, however, were struck by how many people, in a study of almost 1,500 potential customers, wanted to buy the drug even though they were bad candidates. A quarter of people who wanted the pill did not have a high enough risk of heart disease to qualify, meaning they would face unnecessary side effects. Worse still, 30 percent of very high-risk people — those who have heart disease or diabetes or had survived a stroke — wanted Mevacor; these are people who should be under a doctor’s care. Merck said many of them were not seeing a doctor and that a little treatment was better than none. Yet more than 30 percent of patients already taking prescription cholesterol-lowering drugs said they wanted the over-the-counter version. Half said they would drop the more potent drug in favor of low-dose Mevacor.

Bonnie - all I can say is thank goodness the committee has a conscience. Now, let's wait and see what the FDA decides. history has shown they side with the advisers, but you never know when billions are at stake.

Perfect example of when big food gets involved in the supplement industry

Procter & Gamble Co. is getting into the probiotic supplement business -- slowly -- with a three-city test of a product called Align that it first began selling online two years ago.

While their intentions are good, they have taken a valuable probiotic strain and loaded it up with horrific inactive ingredients. Read their reasoning:

Sugar: Adds to formulation stability of bacteria
Sodium caseinate: Adds to formulation stability of bacteria
FD&C blue #2: Color to make capsules distinctive

Sodas and cereals most popular food items in 2007

If any of us thought that the US population has begun to move towards a healthier trend, these statistics may give you pause.

Carbonated soft drinks topped the list of all packaged goods purchased in the US this year. Refrigerated milk, ready-to-eat cereal, fresh bread, cookies, chocolate candies, and potato chips were all in the top ten.

Bonnie - what can you say but, ugh.

Caesareans may harm lung growth

Babies born by elective Caesarean section are much more likely to develop breathing problems, a Danish study examining 34,000 deliveries suggests. Researchers found they were up to four times more likely to have respiratory problems than those born naturally, or by emergency Caesarean section. The babies may miss out on hormonal and physiological changes during labor which help mature the lungs, they say. The University of Aarhus study features in the British Medical Journal.

Med diet linked to longer life

Eating a Mediterranean-style diet, rich in fruit, vegetables, olive oil and fish, may reduce the risk of dying from cancer and cardiovascular disease, says a new US study.

A study of almost 400,000 people with an age range of 50 to 71 reports that greater adherence to a Med-style diet reduced the risk of death from cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer by 22 and 17 per cent in men, and 12 per cent for women.

"To our knowledge, the present study is the first and largest US cohort to evaluate the Mediterranean dietary pattern and mortality," wrote lead author Panagiota Mitrou in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Bonnie - this study once again reaffirms one of our Top Revelations of '07.