The most up to date collection of scientifically based health facts.
Includes simple to understand definitions and complete references
www.scienceofhealthindex.com
Diets high in polyunsaturated fats have been more effective than low-fat, high-carbohydrate diets in lowering cholesterol as well as the incidence of heart disease.
Reference: New England Journal of Medicine, 1997, 337:1491-1499.
Deficiency: (also see Nerves, Essential Fatty Acids and Parent Essential Oils)
Diabetes: (also see Pancreas)
Diets (also see Fat, Sugar, Sweeteners, Essential Fatty Acids and Parent Essential Oils)
Digestion(also see Pancreas and Fiber)
Disease: (also see Heart Disease, Cancer, Diabetes, Statins, Drugs, Essential Fatty Acids and Parent Essential Oils)
Drugs (also see Heart Disease, Cancer, Diabetes, Statins)
Deficiency (EFAs): (see Nerves or Essential Fatty Acids)
95% of Americans are EFA deficient:
Reference: Fats That Heal, Fats That Kill, Udo Erasmus, Alive Books, Burnaby, BC, Canada, 1993, page 314.
Symptoms of EFA deficiency: headaches, hormonal imbalances, dry skin and a lack of cardiovascular support.
Reference: Erasmus, U. (1993).Fats that Heal, Fats that Kill,Alive Books: Burnaby BC, Canada
3 generations of EFA deficiency resulted in reduced brain size in rats.
Reference: British Journal of Nutrition,1973; 29:127-137.
Diabetes: (see Pancreas)May 27, 2006: Study finds that one third of American adults have diabetes; many of whom don't even know it.
Reference: June issue of Diabetes Care
The above statistic is staggering, especially when you realize that there was practically no Diabetes prior to 1940!
“Our results underscore the importance of tight glucose [sugar] control in limiting beta-cell destruction…” Glucose [sugar from carbohydrates] causes diabetes.
Reference: Diabetes 2001; 50 1683-1690.
Symptoms of Diabetes
Type 1- These symptoms often come on suddenly and very severely;
-Exceptional Thirst
-Dry Mouth
-Need to Urinate Often
-Weight Loss (though you’re hungry and eating)
-Weakness and Tiredness
-Blurry Vision
Type 2- Sometimes symptoms don’t occur or come on gradually.
-Blurry Vision
-Cuts or Sores that are slow to heal
-Itchy Skin, Yeast Infections
-Increased Thirst
-Dry Mouth
-Need to Urinate Often
-Leg PainLow-carb and diabetes:
1999: Diet of 50% fat [half fat!], 30% protein, and 20% [low] carbohydrates improves weight loss and blood lipid profiles in type II diabetics.
Reference: Abstract of presentation before 1999 meeting of Endocrine Society: by James Hayes, MD, endocrinologist.
"'Diabetic patients have the highest risk of coronary artery disease,'
Dr. Schindler pointed out. 'We found that 80% of diabetics had abnormal vascular function…'"
Reference: 2008 meeting of the Society for Nuclear Medicine—Advancing Molecular Imaging and Therapy (reported New York (Reuters Health) June 23, 2008).Weight gain and risk of Diabetes:
For every 10 pounds overweight you become, your risk of developing diabetes doubles during any 10-year period.
Reference: Bottom Line, Dec. 15-1997. Source: David Williamson, PhD, Division of Diabetes Translation, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (study based on 14,000 people).Structure of pancreas & pancreatic system:
99% of the pancreas is devoted to handling the digestion of fats and protein while only 1% is devoted to handling sugar.
Reference: Scientific Foundations of Biochemistry in Clinical Practice, David L. Williams, Vincent Marks, Butterworth-Heinemann, September 1994, ISBN: 0750601671
The system responsible for Pancreatic Insulin release is called the endocrine system. The cells of the pancreas are called the islets of langerhans - these produce Insulin. They make and secrete hormones that help the body break down and use food. Named after Paul Langerhans, the German scientist who discovered them in 1869, these cells sit in clusters in the pancreas. There are five types of cells in an islet:beta cells, which make insulin; alpha cells, which make glucagon; delta cells, which make somatostaton; and PP cells and D1 cells, about which little is known.
References: Mabley, J. G., Belin, V. D., John, N. E., Green, I. C. (1997) Insulin-like growth factor I reverses interleukin-1 inhibition of insulin secretion, induction of nitric oxide synthase and cytokine-mediated apoptosis in rat islets of Langerhans. FEBS Letters 417, 235-238
References: Belin, V. D., Mabley, J. G., James, R. L. F., Swift, S. M., Clayton, H. A., Titheradge, M. A., Green, I. C. (1999) Glucagon decreases cytokine induction of nitric oxide synthase and action on insulin secretion in RIN5F cells and rat and human islets of Langerhans. Cytokine11, 585-592
Overworking the pancreas:
Complex carbs, having increased pancreas workload: Reference: Dutto, S.K. and Hlasko, J. (1985). Dietary fibre in pancreatic disease: effect of high fibre diet on fat mal absorption in pancreatic insufficiency and in vitro study of the interaction of dietary fibre with pancreatic enzymes.
Reference: Amer J Clin Nutr, 41, 517-525.
Reference: Moser, E. (1989). Fibre types and their physiologic effects, In Dietary Fibre: Chemical and Biological Aspects, (ed. D.A. T. Southgate, K. Waldron, I.T. Johnson and G.R. Fenwick), pp.91-102. Royal Society of Chemistry, Special Publication No. 83.
Carbs raise insulin levels:
Carbohydrates are Sugar. Insulin levels will reach 10 – 25 times above normal to get rid of the excess glucose (sugar), and continue to stay elevated even 2 to 3 hours after the time carbohydrates are eaten.
Reference: Textbook of Medical Physiology, pg. 977, Arthur C. Guyton, John E. Hall, W B Saunders Co., January 15, 1996, ISBN: 0721659446.Cholesterol and insulin:
Excess insulin stimulates overproduction of Cholesterol: leading to elevated blood levels. It reduces the elasticity of arterial walls, increasing the risk of plaque formation, and causes the kidneys to increase salt and fluid retention – all of which increase blood pressure and heighten risk of heart disease and stroke.
Reference: American Diabetes Association's 59th Annual Scientific Sessions, June 1999. And Basic Medical Biochemistry, pgs 25, 26, 475, 512, 566, Dawn B. Marks, Allan D. Marks, Colleen M. Smith, Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins, August, 1996, ISBN: 068305595X.
Diabetes and vitamins:
Vitamins impaired by diabetes. "Evidence that diabetes millitus favors impaired metabolism of zinc, copper, and selenium in chronic pancreatitis,"
Reference: Pancreas 2001 Apr; 22(3):299-306, J. Diabetes Complications 2001 Mar-Apr;15(2)97-102, "Effects of diabetes on vitamin B6 requirement in experimental animals," Diabetes Obes Metab 1999 Jul;1(4):221-5.
Diets:
"Diets high in polyunsaturated fat have been more effective than low-fat, high-carbohydrate diets in lowering cholesterol as well as the incidence of heart disease.”
Reference: New England Journal of Medicine, 1997, 337:1491-1499.There are 2 ways to lose excess body fat: either the low-calorie way or the low-carb way.
Low-calorie = Starvation dieting.
• Deprives the body of essential nutrients, healthy oils and natural fats.
• Trains the body to gain weight easier and faster because the body goes into starvation mode and stores excess body fat to protect itself.
• Weight becomes harder to lose because the body holds on to the excess fat to protect itself. Your body becomes a fat storage machine, rather than a fat burning machine.
• There can be physical damage due to the diet roller coaster - resulting in ill health. This could include thyroid damage, which can hinder any weight loss program
• Feeling deprived by limiting yourself to bland, tasteless low-fat foods may lead to sugar cravings, food dependence and eating disorders.
• Most low-fat foods have increased sugar to try and improve taste and since sugar is the only thing that the body stores as excess body fat, this can throw a wrench into any weight loss attempts. Finding success with low-calorie dieting means eating very little food and foods with the lowest nutritional value.
Note: Carbohydrates contain 4 calories per gram while Fats contain 9 calories per gram - Therefore, a low carb/high-protein/high-fat diet is NOT a low calorie diet! So, anyone claiming Low-carb is just another low-calorie diet and that's why it works, is WRONG! Atkins low-carb diets are also low-fat and therefore lacking in essential nutrients. The proper way to eat low-carb is to include natural fats (the fat on meat, full cream cheeses, sour cream, real butter and whipping cream). Atkin's diets also include lots of highly processed foods, which are not healthy.
WARNING: Low-fat diets are associated with increased rates of depression, psychological problems, fatigue, violence and suicide.
Reference: Lancet 3/21/92 v339.
Low-carbohydrate = Nutritional support.• Provides the body with desired fuel (natural fats/and essential protein)
• Helps the body to lose weight healthily with less processed foods, more organic and natural foods, and more essential protein and natural fats. These nutrients aid the body in regeneration and go to body structure (bones, muscles, tissues – not body-fat)
• Trains the body to crave more nutritious foods rather than junk food.
• You don’t feel deprived because you don’t want the high carb foods and even if you have them occasionally, you drop excess fat faster.
• Doesn’t train the body to hold onto fat.
• Doesn’t train the body to gain weight faster.
• You keep the weight off by turning your body to a fat burning machine rather than a fat storage machine.Low calorie is a starvation diet:
Millions of chemical processes take place in the body daily for which the body requires energy. In addition to the energy needed for these complicated processes, the body needs energy for daily activities. Fuel for energy is derived both from food and stored body fat. The minimum daily requirement of calories is 1360 for a woman and 1750 for a man. This is the Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). This is only the energy required if you were to sleep all day. In order to have enough calories for physical activity a woman would need 2000 and a man 2500. Reducing food intake below these levels will inevitably result in weight loss, but it is an unhealthy way to diet. A low calorie diet will change the metabolic rate, which causes the body to gain weight more easily. This is why eating low-calorie is considered a starvation diet.
The reason the body puts weight on easier after eating this way is because a low calorie diet deprives the body of important nutrients, namely essential oils and natural fats. In other words the body thinks it’s starving and holds on to fat for it’s own protection. Missing these nutrients also makes the body more vulnerable to medical disorders and disease because essential oils and natural fats provide nutrition from the cellular level up.
A low calorie diet typically consists of a high intake of carbohydrates and very little natural fat. Carbohydrates provide instant energy that converts to body fat if not used immediately. Dietary fat also provides instant energy that won’t convert to excess body fat Eating natural fats and burning stored body fat provides 2.5 times more energy than carbohydrate eating. The energy from natural fats is longer sustained and won’t result in a “low” as with sugar.
Molecular Biology of the Cell (major medical textbook) has already disproved the calorie theory!
References: Molecular Biology of the Cell, Bruce Alberts, Dennis Bray, Julian Lewis, Martin Raff, ke Roberts, Keith Roberts, James D. Watson, Garland Pub, March, 1994, ISBN: 0815316194. Textbook of Medical Physiology, Basic Medical Biochemistry: A Clinical Approach, Dawn B. Marks, Allan D. Marks, Colleen M. Smith, Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins, August, 1996, ISBN: 068305595X, and The Essentials of Biochemistry (Essentials), Jay M. Templin, Research & Education Assn, 1998, ISBN: 0878910735"On changing SLOWLY from a carbohydrate diet to an almost [even] COMPLETELY FAT diet, a person's body adapts to the use of far more acetoacetic acid than usual, and in this instance, ketosis normally does not occur. For instance, the Eskimos, who sometimes live almost entirely on a fat diet, do not develop ketosis. Undoubtedly, several factors enhance the rate of acetoacetic acid metabolism by the cells. Even the brain cells, which normally derive almost all of their energy from glucose, after a few weeks can derive 50 to 75 percent of their energy from fats."
Reference: Textbook of Medical Physiology, page 869
Digestion:60%-70% of protein eaten is used to fuel energy of digestion. Only 30%-40% is left for body structure — like muscles — and system function — like enzyme production.
Reference: Basic Medical Biochemistry: A Clinical Approach. Dawn B. Marks, Allan D. Marks, Colleen M. Smith, Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins, August 1996, ISBN: 068305595X
Blood glucose levels are kept ad approximately 70 milligrams per deciliter - about 1 teaspoon in the bloodstream.
Reference: Basic Medical Biochemistry, pg 483Daily Elimination:
Also, it is expected by most people that solid elimination should take place daily, but when not following a high fiber diet, it is natural for the body to sometimes not eliminate solid waste but every 2 to 3 days. This is because proteins produce much less waste product and it takes more time for the body to build up enough waste to be eliminated. People can differ greatly in this respect. Some may adjust after adopting a higher protein, lower carbohydrate diet to daily elimination. The adjustment may take time, depending on how much fiber one ate previous to changing their dietary habits.Vitamins and protein locked away in plant fiber:
There is a general misconception that plant foods are loaded with vitamins that we benefit from. Many people also eat beans to get protein. But unfortunately, most of these nutrients are locked away in the plant fiber, Cellulose, which cannot be digested by humans.
Reference: Essentials of Biochemistry, Jay M. Templin, Research & Education Assn, 1998, pg. 185. ISBN: 0878910735.This is precisely why humans are designed to get their nutrients primarily from the animal that ate the plant. Herbivores are able to break down the cellulose and get to the nutrients, humans are not! Humans can eat only one serving of fruit of vegetable a day, even only three times a week, and maintain excellent health as long as they are getting sufficient protein, natural fats and EFAs in their diets.
66% of people die from just two conditions that involve fatty degeneration:• Cardiovascular disease - 43.8%
• Cancer - 22.4%95% of Americans are deficient in essential fatty acids (EFAs).
Reference: Fats that Heal, Fats that Kill, (second edition), Udo Erasmus, Alive Books, Burnaby, BC, Canada, 1993.How disease works:
One way disease works: The body can produce its own "cleansing" agents (such as bacteria, viruses, fungi and prions) when the need arises. Also, these agents can be transmitted from others, or as in the case of Mad Cow Disease, by humans ingesting prions* by eating the flesh of the infected animal.
When these agents start cleaning out the toxins in the body, the toxins are dumped into the blood stream to be filtered and eliminated from the body. These toxins then cause symptoms, which the doctor diagnoses as "disease" and the doctor then NAMES the disease according to the symptoms it produces.
The medical and pharmaceutical establishments then try to produce a DRUG to STOP the cleansing process, in order to STOP the patient's uncomfortable symptoms. But the drug NEVER cures the "disease" - it just stops the cleansing process so the patient's body remains sick and filled with the toxins, even though the patient may feel somewhat better - at least for a time.
Reference: ©Copyright Dr. Joseph Mercola, 2003. All Rights Reserved. www.mercola.com"Medicine is far from having decreased human sufferings as much as it endeavors to make us believe. Indeed, the number of infectious diseases has greatly diminished. But we still must die in a much larger proportion from degenerative diseases." Dr. Alexis Carrel, "Man, the Unknown"
Reference: Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, Weston A. Price, D.D.S., McGraw Hill - NTC; 15th edition (June 2003). ISBN: 0879838167. (out of print).
Drugs:
The Truth About Drugs and Your Health
FDA Official Assails Agency on Monitoring [Drug] Risks• Can you trust a drug to work as you are led to believe it will? NO!
• Can you trust a drug to be safe simply because it has been "approved?" NO!"David Graham, associate director for science and medicine in the agency's [FDA] drug-safety office, told the Senate Finance Committee [speaking about the Vioxx tragedy] that his agency discounts recommendations from its own safety researchers and doesn't give sufficient weight to safety concerns once drugs are approved."
Reference: The Wall Street Journal, "FDA Official Assails Agency on Monitoring Risks," Anne Mathews, November 19, 2004, page 1ADRs (Adverse Drug Reactions) are between the fourth and sixth leading cause of death in the US. Reference: Strom, Brian. Potential for Conflict of Interest in the Evaluation of suspected Adverse Reactions. Journal of the American Medical Association. 2004;292;(DOI 10.1001/JAMA.292.21.2643).
Cholesterol-lowering drugs:
Cholesterol-lowering drugs do not work significantly.
Reference: Journal of American Medical Association, 1994, No. 272, pgs 1335-1340.Please see Cholesterol where you will learn why artificial cholesterol-lowering is not only dangerous but completely unnecessary. Also, please see Visual Aids and read the amazing report The Cholesterol Myth.
Drugs and disease:
The medical and pharmaceutical establishment produce DRUGS to STOP the body's cleansing process (see above), in order to STOP the patient's uncomfortable symptoms. But the drug NEVER cures the "disease" - it just stops the cleansing process so the patient's body remains sick and filled with the toxins, even though the patient may feel somewhat better - at least for a time.
Reference: ©Copyright Dr. Joseph Mercola, 2003. All Rights Reserved. www.mercola.comUsing statins to lower cholesterol increases cancer risk:
Several trials of cholesterol lowering with drugs to prevent cardiovascular disease events have demonstrated an increase in cancer incidents in the subjects treated with lipid-altering drugs. The trials were randomized, double-blinded, and lasted an average of five years... A statistically significant excess of malignancy was seen in elderly subjects and women randomized to the drug groups."
Reference: Goldstein MR. Lipid-altering drugs: Decreasing cardiovascular disease at the expense of increasing colon cancer? Cancer Res. 2004;64:6831-6832.Ritalin for ADD in children:
There are more than two million children taking the drug Ritalin, to manage their ADD.
Reference: Energy Times, Jan. 1997, page 53.Ritalin a narcotic (cocaine):
Ritalin is the most prescribed drug for children. In a pharmacy it is classified as a "Schedule II" narcotic. Ritalin reacts with the same brain receptors as cocaine!
Reference: "Imaging Cocaine in Action," Dr. Ricki Lewis, Photonics Spectra, May 1996. & Brain Research, 520(1-2): 303-9, 1990. & Archives of General Psychiatry, 52(6): 456-63, 1995.
Aspirin and heart disease:
A study was the basis for the "aspirin-a-day" prescription for preventing heart attack from myocardial infarction (restricting blood flow which causes a shortage of oxygen to the heart). In this study there were about 255 heart attacks per 100,000 people taking the drug compared with about 440 per 100,000 not taking the drug [as you can see, those NOT taking aspirin were better off].
Reference: Rats, Drugs, and Assumptions, Majid Ali, M.D., Live Span Press, Denville, NJ, 1995, pages 96-102.Please read the special medical report, Aspirin is Awful (pdf)
Unseen damage to your and your environment:
"So many Europeans are using the cholesterol-lowering drug clofibrate and excreting it into domestic sewer lines, according to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), that detectable levels are being found throughout the entire North Sea, which is awash in 50 to 100 TONS of clofibrate annually."
"Clofibrate is a cousin of the weed-killing herbicide 2,2vD..."
"Researchers are similarly concerned about estrogen supplements, which are excreted in the urine and can change the sex characteristics of certain fish at concentrations of just 20 parts per trillion - well below levels triggering governmental scrutiny."
Reference: Natural Pharmacy, Leibert Publishing, Larchmont, NY, Vol 3, No. 6, June 1999, page 4. (Ref. Good Medicine, Winter)
The information on this website and it's conclusions have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.
Nothing herein is intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. This web site is intended to be informational
only and is not to be construed as medical advice. Please consult appropriate health care professionals
if you are dealing with any acute or chronic health condition.