Foods you might be avoiding, but shouldn’t

THINK potatoes make you fat or dairy bloats you?

Here are 5 foods you might be avoiding but shouldn’t.

NUTS

Yes, nuts are packed with fat (containing as many kilojoules as small packet of potato crisps), but despite what many people believe, eating nuts regularly can actually help to keep your weight in check.

Experts believe this is because the body doesn’t actually absorb all the fat in the nuts, so the energy contribution of nuts is actually less than predicted by calorie calculations.

Besides, nuts also have a high fibre and protein count — a combination that helps to satisfy hunger and reduce appetite.

So, just like fruits and vegetables, eating nuts, is a daily “must do”.

DAIRY

A glass of milk, slab of cheese or tub of yoghurt does more for your body than just keep your skeleton strong, it may also keep your weight in check.

In fact, for people looking to slim down, including three to four serves of dairy, as part of a calorie-controlled diet can actually help accelerate fat loss, particularly from the midsection.

This is likely because calcium can reduce the amount of dietary fat absorbed by the body.

Some milk every day keeps the weight at bay.Source:istock

Full cream or skim? This really depends on your taste preference and health goals.

If you eat plenty of fruits, vegetables, wholegrains, nuts and minimal processed foods, then a splash of full cream milk on your cereal and a latte is unlikely to cause harm, but for those who are at risk of heart disease, it still makes sense to choose low or reduced fat options — just watch the added sugar.

EGGS

While it’s true that egg yolks have a lot of cholesterol, we now know dietary cholesterol (found in eggs) is not a culprit for raising your blood cholesterol levels. Instead, it’s the level of saturated fat in your diet, rather than the cholesterol, that has the greater impact.

FYI: eggs are actually very low in saturated fat. You can happily enjoy up to six eggs a week. So get cracking.

POTATOES

In a carb-phobic nation, the humble spud often is the first to get the flick.

Granted, white potatoes have a high GI — meaning they’re fast to digest causing rapid spikes in insulin and blood sugar — this doesn’t mean we should ditch this vegetable altogether.

Potatoes are a good source of vitamin C and dietary fibre, and can be enjoyed as part of balanced meal (cooked in healthy fats), together with other vegetables and lean sources of protein. Just skip the fried version and crisps.

It’s time to stop avoiding these little beauties. Picture: Taste.com.au/Guy BaileySource:Supplied

FRUIT

In an effort to curb the sugar, cutting fruit from your diet is a lousy idea. The health benefits of eating fresh fruit outweigh any disadvantages posed by it sugar content (despite what anti-sugar crusaders have you believe) — hence why cutting fruit is not recommended for those wanting to cut down on sugar (or fructose).

Choose whole pieces of fruit over fruit juice so you benefit from all its fibre and disease-fighting antioxidants.

Original post found here:

http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/diet/foods-you-might-be-avoiding-but-shouldnt/news-story/6d482050aaef220eaaa00316fb733160

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Diabetes is no laughing matter, say young sufferers

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• From the sectionHealth

Image captionMadeline Milzark told the BBC that the response to her campaign has been 'so heart warming'

A young American woman, infuriated by a social media trend where pictures of cakes and sweets are accompanied by #diabetes, has spelled out what it is really like to have the condition.

On a Facebook post with the hashtag #WhatDiabetesReallyLooksLike, Madeline Milzark, 18, wrote about living with type 1 diabetes.

"Diabetes isn't your piece of cake, or that super-sized McDonald's meal with extra fries or anything you see coated with sugar.

"Diabetes is an 18-year-old girl sitting on her bathroom floor shaking and not able to breathe because her blood sugar dropped and praying her grandma's phone is near her and she got the text message to bring some sugar since she's too weak to yell and the whole room is spinning."

Her post has been shared thousands of times around the world.

Image copyrightMICHAEL BURCH

Image captionAmy Black, who supports Madeline's campaign, said people 'poke fun' at her illness

Madeline told the BBC: "I originally posted the piece because I had low blood sugar, and I finally had enough. So many people post jokes about my disease, even people on my 'friends' list, yet they don't see me when I'm unconscious or when sugar actually saves my life.

"I'm so extremely happy about the response I've gotten.

"I've had so many people telling me I'm making a difference, sharing their stories with me and thanking me. It's so heart-warming."

Like Madeline, Amy Black - from Belfast - has type 1 diabetes and she supports her campaign: "I agree with it in terms of how she's retaliated. It's something which I've experienced personally and frustrates me a lot. A lot of people trivialise diabetes and don't realise how serious it is.

"People don't seem to see it as a chronic illness - people poke fun at it.

"There's a lot of misinformation and confusion between type 1 and type 2.

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Type 1 diabetes

• Around 10% of the 3.5 million people with diabetes have type 1
• It is most commonly diagnosed in childhood and is not linked to a poor diet or unhealthy lifestyle
• It is treated with daily doses of the hormone insulin
• People with the condition have to manage their blood glucose levels in order to do the job that the pancreas is not doing
• Hypoglycaemia - where blood sugar is too low and there is too much insulin in the blood - can cause shaking, sweating and dizziness or even loss of consciousness
• People need to eat something containing carbohydrate to bring their blood glucose levels back to normal
• Hyperglycaemia - where blood glucose is too high - doesn't carry the same immediate risks but can increase the chance of developing complications
• For more information, go to Diabetes UK or the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation

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"There have been times where I've been near people buying ice cream or sweets and people have said that they're 'getting diabetes'.

"I never say anything but it makes me feel irritated. It's so frustrating.

"Sometimes people seem to think I was using it as an excuse, because I don't 'look diabetic'. People think you have to be overweight and over 50 but that's simply not the case. There needs to be more public education."

Online support

Amy was 11 when she was diagnosed. A boy at school had recently found out he had the condition and described his symptoms to the class - increased thirst, going to the toilet more, feeling more tired and growing thinner. These are known as the four Ts of type 1 diabetes.

When she started experiencing her symptoms a few months later her mother, who was a nurse, tested her blood.

Now she says stress makes her condition worse, and she has had seizures in her sleep. She constantly has to keep an eye on her blood sugar levels.

Sophie Lane has recently started a blog describing her life with type 1 diabetes .

The 24-year-old says people are not aware of what having the condition involves.

"I find it hard when I'm doing an injection. I don't want to move away to do it but people keep asking questions about why I have to do it."

Image copyrightOTHER

Image captionSophie Lane uses social media to make contact with others who have type 1

Sophie was 12 when she was diagnosed and says: "I was lucky. I had very mild symptoms. My GP was diabetic and she spotted the symptoms."

Despite her symptoms being relatively mild, she was sent to hospital.

Sophie, from Hertfordshire, is now using social media to connect with other people with the condition and find support through her blog and an Instagram account.

"On your own, it's harder but when people have the same issues as you have, it helps," she says.

"It helped me so much. The blog is more for people to read, to understand it more and, for people who have it, to have something to relate to.

"Because it isn't visible, if you don't tell anyone, they won't know. And people don't realise how much it affects you."

Dan Howarth, head of care at Diabetes UK, said: "Every day we hear from people with type 1 diabetes who say that often, people don't understand their condition and think that they brought it on themselves.

"Captioning a plate of food with #diabetes is not helpful.

"What we need is for people to understand the differences between type 1 and type 2 diabetes which may help to avoid this kind of insensitivity and recognise that all types of diabetes are very serious."

Original post found here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-36924362

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First Outbreak of Locally Transmitted Zika Virus Confirmed in Continental US

An outbreak of the Zika virus has been confirmed in Florida, marking the first time the virus has been found to be transmitted via infected mosquitoes within the continental U.S.

The outbreak has infected at least four people, three men and one woman, through local transmission, Florida officials said today.

“This means Florida has become the first state in our nation to have local transmission of the Zika virus," Florida Gov. Rick Scott said today.

Scott said a small area in northern Miami that is about a square mile in size is the only area where the Zika virus is being transmitted from mosquitoes to people.

"We’re being very aggressive at testing people there we are testing the mosquitoes there and we spraying to make sure it’s contained," Scott said. He said health officials do not think that the transmission was ongoing.

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The Florida Health Department has been giving Zika prevention kits to pregnant women in the affected area and warning residents to eliminate standing water to help cut down on the risk of mosquitoes breeding near them. The virus has been found to cause serious birth defects, including microcephaly, which is characterized by abnormally small head and brain, leading to significant developmental problems.

"We know this virus is most detrimental to expectant mothers," Scott said. "If you are pregnant or think you might become pregnant contact your OB/Gyn."

The state is working with the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to monitor and combat the outbreak, Scott said. He expressed disappointment that Congress did not pass a bill to allocate funding to the CDC to prepare and combat the Zika virus.

"This is not just a Florida issue. This is a U.S. issue it is a national issue. We’re just the front of it," he said during a news conference.

More than 1,650 people have been diagnosed with Zika within the U.S., but the vast majority have been people who contracted the virus while abroad. A small number of people contracted the Zika virus through sexual transmission within the U.S.

Original post found here:

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/outbreak-locally-transmitted-zika-virus-confirmed-continental-us/story?id=40989431

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Being Unfit May Be Almost as Bad for You as Smoking

Being out of shape could be more harmful to health and longevity than most people expect, according to a new, long-term study of middle-aged men. The study finds that poor physical fitness may be second only to smoking as a risk factor for premature death.

It is not news that aerobic capacity can influence lifespan. Many past epidemiological studies have found that people with low physical fitness tend to be at high risk of premature death. Conversely, people with robust aerobic capacity are likely to have long lives.

But most of those studies followed people for about 10 to 20 years, which is a lengthy period of time for science but nowhere near most of our actual lifespans. Some of those studies also enrolled people who already were elderly or infirm, making it difficult to extrapolate the findings to younger, healthier people.

So for the new study, which was published this week in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, researchers from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden and other institutions turned to an impressively large and long-term database of information about Swedish men.

The data set, prosaically named the Study of Men Born in 1913, involved exactly that. In 1963, almost 1,000 healthy 50-year-old men in Gothenburg who had been born in 1913 agreed to be studied for the rest of their lives, in order to help scientists better understand lifetime risks for disease, especially heart disease.

The men completed baseline health testing in 1963, including measures of their blood pressure, weight and cholesterol, and whether they exercised and smoked. Four years later, when the volunteers were 54, some underwent more extensive testing, including an exercise stress test designed to precisely determine their maximum aerobic capacity, or VO2 max. Using the results, the scientists developed a mathematical formula that allowed them to estimate the aerobic capacity of the rest of the participants.

Aerobic capacity is an interesting measure for scientists to study, because it is affected by both genetics and lifestyle. Some portion of our VO2 max is innate; we inherit it from our parents. But much of our endurance capacity is determined by our lifestyle. Being sedentary lowers VO2 max, as does being overweight. Exercise raises it.

Among this group of middle-aged men, aerobic capacities ranged from slight to impressively high, and generally reflected the men’s self-reported exercise habits. Men who said that they seldom worked out tended to have a low VO2 max. (Because VO2 max is more objective than self-reports about exercise, the researchers focused on it.)

To determine what impact fitness might have on lifespan, the scientists grouped the men into three categories: those with low, medium or high aerobic capacity at age 54.

Then they followed the men for almost 50 years. During that time, the surviving volunteers completed follow-up health testing about once each decade. The scientists also tracked deaths among the men, based on a national registry.

Then they compared the risk of relatively early death to a variety of health parameters, particularly each man’s VO2 max, blood pressure, cholesterol profile and history of smoking. (They did not include body weight as a separate measure, because it was indirectly reflected by VO2 max.)

Not surprisingly, smoking had the greatest impact on lifespan. It substantially shortened lives.

But low aerobic capacity wasn’t far behind. The men in the group with the lowest VO2 max had a 21 percent higher risk of dying prematurely than those with middling aerobic capacity, and about a 42 percent higher risk of early death than the men who were the most fit.

Poor fitness turned out to be unhealthier even than high blood pressure or poor cholesterol profiles, the researchers found. Highly fit men with elevated blood pressure or relatively unhealthy cholesterol profiles tended to live longer than out-of-shape men with good blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

Of course, this study found links between poor fitness and shortened lifespans. It cannot prove that one caused the other, or explain how VO2 max might affect lifespan. However, the findings raise the possibility, as the scientists speculate, that by strengthening the body, better fitness may lower the risk of a variety of chronic diseases.

This study also involved men — and Swedish men at that. So whether the findings are applicable to other people, particularly women, is uncertain.

But “there is no reason not to think” that the rest of us would also share any beneficial associations between fitness and longevity, said Per Ladenvall, a researcher at the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, who led the study. Past studies involving women have found such links, he said.

Encouragingly, if you now are concerned about the state of your particular aerobic capacity, you most likely can increase it just by getting up and moving. “Even small amounts of physical activity,” Dr. Ladenvall said, “may have positive effects on fitness.”

Original post found here:

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/07/27/being-unfit-may-be-almost-as-bad-for-you-as-smoking/?_r=0

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'Ice Bucket Challenge' funds ALS gene breakthrough

Two years after the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge craze on social media, researchers say money raised from the campaign has funded the discovery of a new gene linked to the disease.

The gene, identified as NEK1, has been found to contribute to hereditary Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease. The gene is associated with three per cent of all ALS cases, according to the ALS Association.

ALS is a rapidly-progressing, neurodegenerative disease that paralyzes muscles and destroys nerve cells. It currently has no cure and is often fatal, although some individuals, including Stephen Hawking, live with it for decades.

Researchers are now focused on understanding how the NEK1 gene contributes to the development of ALS, so they can develop a gene therapy for it. It's not yet known whether it's the only factor necessary to pass on the inherited disease. It is possible to test for the gene, but researchers say the results are difficult to interpret at this point, even if NEK1 is present.

An international team of researchers at Project MinE made the discovery and published their findings in the journal Nature Genetics.

Project MinE was one of six projects funded by the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. The phenomenon went viral with the help of a number of celebrities, who dumped ice-cold water on their heads before issuing a challenge to someone else to join in the fun and donate to charity.

Nancy Frates, who helped start the Ice Bucket Challenge with her son, Pete, says it's "overwhelming" to see this discovery come out of their efforts.

The Frates launched the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge after Pete was diagnosed with the disease at the age of 27. Pete Frates had been a baseball player at Boston College before his diagnosis, but the effects of ALS confined him to a wheelchair and robbed him of most of his ability to move.

Nancy Frates said her son's story helped people recognize that ALS can afflict anyone, regardless of age.

"They thought it only happened to old people, so when a big strapping athlete gets this disease, a whole new generation has woken up," she told CTV News Channel on Wednesday. "We knew that this disease needed the awareness and the education."

Frates said she wasn't surprised by the social media reaction to the campaign. "We knew we had a relatable story, a compelling story," she said. "When the vehicle came along people just took hold of it and just joined us."

The campaign raised US$220 million for ALS research, Frates said.

Original post found here:

http://www.ctvnews.ca/health/ice-bucket-challenge-funds-als-gene-breakthrough-1.3004219

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Frankincense oil kills cancer cells while boosting the immune system, studies show

(NaturalNews) Frankincense is a powerful medicinal oil that can not only boost the immune system but also kill cancer cells, a number of studies have shown.

One of the most significant recent studies was conducted by researchers from the University of Leicester, England, in 2013. The researchers found that the naturally occurring frankincense compound acetyl-11-keto-beta-boswellic acid (AKBA) targeted and destroyed ovarian cancer cells. The findings were particularly significant because they showed that AKBA had this effect even in late-stage ovarian cancer patients, not just in laboratory trials performed on isolated cells.

"Frankincense is taken by many people with no known side effects," lead researcher Kamla Al-Salmani said. This finding has enormous potential to be taken to a clinical trial in the future and developed into an additional treatment for ovarian cancer."

Kills cancer and reduces radiation side effects

The Leicester findings build on a large and still growing body of evidence that frankincense and its compounds have powerful immune-boosting and cancer-fighting benefits.

A study published in BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine in 2009, for example, found that the herbal form of frankincense triggered death in bladder cancer cells by activating several different cellular pathways. Another study, conducted by researchers from Nihon University in Tokyo and published in Biological and Pharmaceutical Bulletin, showed that several chemical components of frankincense were able to kill three separate human neuroblastoma cell lines. The same study also found that frankincense inhibited the growth of Epstein-Barr virus.

Neuroblastoma is a type of cancer that forms in nerve cells and primarily affects young children. Other studies have shown that frankincense and its components can kill cancers of the brain, breast, colon, pancreas, prostate and stomach.

Frankincense may also help mitigate the often-debilitating side effects of cancer treatment. One study, published in the journal Cancer in 2011, was performed on brain cancer patients experiencing cerebral edema (swelling) as a side effect of radiation therapy. The researchers found that 60 percent of participants given frankincense experienced a 75 percent reduction in cerebral swelling, a potent enough result for the authors to recommend frankincense as a potential alternative to steroids, the current favored treatment. Side effects of steroids can include headaches, blurred vision and migraines.

All-around immune booster

Frankincense's cancer-fighting benefits seem to come, in part, from its potent effects on the immune system. One study, conducted by researchers from Baylor University Medical Center, found that acts upon the expression of genes that help regulate the immune system, leading to cancer cell death. Another study, published in Phytotherapy Research, found that mice given frankincense exhibited increases in several key markers of immune function, primarily levels of white blood cells (lymphocytes) and anti-inflammatory activity.

Numerous studies have confirmed frankincense as a powerful anti-inflammatory. This, along with its other immune-boosting properties, may in part explain its usefulness in fighting infection and in treating autoimmune conditions such as asthma, rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

Frankincense can also be used to heal skin, including from acne and scarring, and can reduce anxiety levels.

If you wish to incorporate frankincense as a regular natural health booster, it can be taken as an undiluted essential oil on the skin or as a few drops under the tongue. It can also be diffused and breathed in for respiratory conditions. Frankincense can also be purchased and consumed in powdered capsule form.

There are numerous species of frankincense, including Boswellia carteri, B. serrata and B. sacra. All three of these species have shown powerful anti-cancer effects in scientific tests.

B. carteri, native to east Africa, has been the species most heavily studied. B. sacra, also known as "sacred frankincense," was until recently restricted to use by the Saudi royal household, and could only be purchased in Oman. Recently, however, a distillery opened up in Oman to produce essential oil of B. sacra for public sale.


Original post found here:

http://www.naturalnews.com/054790_frankincense_natural_medicine_cancer_prevention.html

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