Health@Heart
Current Medical Studies
- One alcoholic drink is one too many for pregnant women, especially during the first trimester
- ‘Children of mothers who ate more fish and other seafood while pregnant are smarter and have better developmental skills than kids of women who ate less or none.’
- Vitamin C may boost the effectiveness of phytoestrogen found in soy
- Daily exercises boost our immune system and resistance to infections and illnesses
FDA Warning: Peanut Butter Contaminated
The U.S. Food and A Drug Administration recommended last Friday that all Peter Pan peanut butter since May 2006 should be discarded because of Salmonella Tennessee contamination.
“More than 290 people from 39 states have become ill in the food poisoning outbreak and 46 have been hospitalized,” according to the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
The batches of Peter Pan peanut butter which, may contain salmonella all had a product code on the lid beginning with 2111. The Great Value brand peanut butter made for retailer Wal-Mart, which is also manufactured in the same plant and also has the code 2111 on the lid, may also be contaminated, warned the FDA.
Pregnancy and Alcohol
One alcoholic drink is one too many for pregnant women, especially during the first trimester. The report from the University of Bristol in the UK cited negative long-term side effects on the mental health of the baby, even with one drink a week, and more evident among female children. The study was done on 9000 children from age 4 to 9. Heavy drinking have been known to cause severe physical and mental defects in them.
Since science has not found a “safe cut-off” for alcohol consumption during pregnancy, the recommendation is for pregnant women not to drink alcoholic beverages at all during pregnancy.
Pregnancy and Fish
The U.S. National Institute of Health reported a study in The Lancet medical journal that showed “children of mothers who ate more fish and other seafood while pregnant are smarter and have better developmental skills than kids of women who ate less or none.”
Dr. Joseph Hibbeln, an NIH researcher, who led the study, said “seafood is a key source of omega-3 fatty acids, important for fetal brain development.”
The research studied children of more than 8,000 British women followed-up by the University of Bristol “to determine how kids fared if their mothers ate more than 12 ounces — about two average meals.” These children, were found “to have more advanced in developmental tests measuring fine motor, communication and social skills as toddlers, behaved better at age 7, and earned higher verbal IQ scores at age 8, compared to those whose mothers ate lesser amounts.”
In their statement in Lancet, Drs. Gary Myers and Philip Davidson of the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York wrote, “These results highlight the importance of including fish in the maternal diet during pregnancy and lend support to the popular opinion that fish is brain food.”
The U.S. Evironmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommend that everyone should eat none of large fish with high mercury levels — shark, swordfish, king mackerel and tilefish — and no more than 6 ounces (170 grams) a week of albacore tuna because of mercury. The smaller fish varieties in the market have a lot less and acceptable level, which is deemed safe.
Vitamin C boosts Phytoestrogen
A University of Southern California research shows that Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C) “may boost the effectiveness of phytoestrogen found in soy (and estrogen in general) to inhibit the oxidation of LDL, the bad cholesterol…oxidation of LDL encourages arteriosclerosis”, known as hardening of the arteries, that leads to the fatty deposits in the inside wall of the arteries all over the body, like the coronary arteries of the heart and the carotid arteries and cerebral arteries brain, etc.
In this study, “increasing the amounts of three phytoestrogens (genistein, daidzein and equol) inhibited LDL oxidation and that this protective effect was even more powerful when ascorbic acid (vitamin C) was present too.” Genistein and daidzein are the isoflavones present in soy and soy products.
Vaccines Against Bird Flu Pandemic
A report from the World Health Organization in Geneva last week stated that “the world has moved significantly closer to developing vaccines against a bird flu pandemic.”
The revelation said that manufacturers in the United States, Europe and Australia were “seeking authority from regulators to abe able to produce vaccines for two of the five bird flu starins that have killed humans.”
“For the first time, results ... have convincingly demonstrated that vaccination with newly developed avian influenza vaccines can bring about a potentially protective immune response,” stated the WHO following a 2-day meeting of experts.
The report stated that “the H5N1 avian flu virus has killed 167 people worldwide since 2003, mainly in Asia. Public health experts fear it could mutate into a form that people catch easily from one another, possibly sparking a pandemic.”
“What has been achieved is extraordinary. It is probably unprecedented. The mood has changed dramatically,” said Professor Ian Gust, an Australian microbiologist who has chaired all three sessions, which are also attended by companies.
Super Benefits From Daily Exercises
Reports in the medical literature have consistently shown that daily physical exercises of at least 30 minutes (walking, swimming, tai bo, dancing, other aerobics), on top of a healthy lifestyle, reduces the risk for the development of Alzheimer’s, Diabetes Mellitus, Hypertension, Heart Attack, Stroke, other metabolic diseases, and even some forms of cancer. Daily exercises also boost our immune system and resistance to infections and illnesses, improves our lung capacity and general strength, vitality, longevity, besides sexual performance. And among those who already have any of the above conditions, daily exercises, as approved by the attending physician, confers great benefits by making those illnesses easier to treat, having lower incidence of their natural expected complications, and overall improvement in the quality of life. And all these in half an hour a day, for free!
So, what are we waiting for? Let’s get up from our sofa and go!