Homeopathy: An Introduction | NCCAM.
A good overview in case you encounter medical records that include homeopathic remedies in your work.
Alternative Medicine
Red Yeast Rice: An Introduction NCCAM
Some red yeast rice products contain substantial amounts of monacolin K, which is chemically identical to the active ingredient in the cholesterol-lowering drug lovastatin. These products may lower blood cholesterol levels and can cause the same types of side effects and drug interactions as lovastatin.
Other red yeast rice products contain little or no monacolin K. It is not known whether these products have any effect on blood cholesterol levels.
Some red yeast rice products contain a contaminant called citrinin, which can cause kidney failure. In a 2011 analysis of red yeast rice products sold as dietary supplements, 4 of 11 products were found to contain this contaminant.
via Red Yeast Rice: An Introduction | NCCAM.
Personally, I’m sticking with a statin.
Be Still…(it may help your brain)
Mindfulness Meditation Is Associated With Structural Changes in the Brain [NCCAM Research Results]
Brain images in the meditation group revealed increases in gray matter concentration in the left hippocampus. The hippocampus is an area of the brain involved in learning, memory, and emotional control, and is suspected of playing a role in producing some of the positive effects of meditation. Gray matter also increased in four other brain regions (though not in the insula, a region that has shown changes in other meditation studies) in the meditation group. Responses to the questionnaire indicated improvements in three of the five aspects of mindfulness in the mediators, but not the control group.
The researchers concluded that these findings may represent an underlying brain mechanism associated with mindfulness-based improvements in mental health. Additional studies are needed to determine the associations between specific types of brain change and behavioral mechanisms thought to improve a variety of disorders.
DM2 Dietary Guidelines
Diabetes diet – type 2: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia
I’m not diabetic but I have a strong family history of the disease so I try to eat like a diabetic.
Well, most of the time.
Pine Bark Extract for CHD – FAIL
Black Rice Coming Soon?
Black Rice May Be Cheap Source of Antioxidants
I admit it. I didn’t know black rice even existed.
Lower T2DM Risk With Veggies
Medical News: Green Veggies Cut Diabetes Risk – in Endocrinology, Diabetes from MedPage Today
Increasing the daily intake of green leafy vegetables could significantly reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes, a British meta-analysis found.
Consuming 1.35 servings of these vegetables per day was associated with a 14% reduction in risk compared with consuming only 0.2 servings (HR 0.86, 95% CI 0.77 to 0.96, P=0.01), according to Patrice Carter, a PhD student at the University of Leicester, and colleagues.
Do You Know Dr. Dean Ornish? (you should)
I’ve been a fan of Dr. Ornish for a long time. His lifestyle focus to prevent and/or reverse atherosclerosis with diet, exercise, and stress reduction was clearly ahead of its time. Medicare will now pay for the Ornish and Pritikin programs. But am I the only one to realize that Medicare usually doesn’t start until age 65? Time for private health insurance companies to step up to the plate on this issue.
Low Vitamin D = Higher Parkinson’s Risk
In the first longitudinal study to explore this possible connection, Knekt and colleagues analyzed data from the Mini-Finland Health Survey, which was carried out between 1978 and 1980.
Participants provided information on socioeconomic background, medical history, and lifestyle; serum levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D were determined by radioimmunoassay.
Among the 3,173 participants included in the analysis, there were 50 incident cases of Parkinson’s disease during a 29-year follow-up.
A significant inverse association was seen between age- and sex-adjusted levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D and Parkinson’s disease, with the relative risk between the highest and lowest quartiles of serum concentration of the vitamin being 0.35 (95% CI 0.15 to 0.81, P for trend=0.006).
The association persisted after adjustment for body mass index, leisure-time physical activity, month of blood draw, education, marital status, smoking, and alcohol consumption.
Participants whose serum concentration of the vitamin was at least 50 nmol/L had a 65% lower risk than those whose levels were below 25 nmol/L.
Low Vitamin D = Cognitive Decline
Low levels of vitamin D appear to be associated with an increased risk of cognitive decline among older people, according to researchers.
In an observational study conducted among more than 800 Italians ages 65 and older, severe vitamin D deficiency was associated with a 60% increase in the risk of substantial cognitive decline (by a standard measure), according to David Llewellyn, PhD, of the University of Exeter in Exeter, England, and colleagues.
The findings — if confirmed by further studies and randomized clinical trials — “open up important new possibilities for treatment and prevention,” Llewellyn and colleagues wrote in the July 12 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
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