Daily Vlog 11/22/11: Smooth Diabetes

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New Mothers – 10 Health Tips for Women After Delivery

I just found this health related video on YouTube … and thought you might enjoy it!

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This video features 10 health tips for new mothers. These recommendations are based on expert clinical guidelines published in UpToDate online version 19.3, and the American Academy of Family Physicians. This video was produced by Nicholas Cohen, MD in 2011.

Tell us what you think about this video in the comments below, or in the Battling For Health Community Forum!
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Rockstar Health & Fitness – Episode 7 ft. Kim Glass

I just found this health related video on YouTube … and thought you might enjoy it!

youtube.com/watch?v=xSShrcEVzxo%3Fversion%3D3%26f%3Dvideos%26app%3Dyoutube_gdata

Skee.TV presents Rockstar Health & Fitness, a new original Web series hosted by music industry executive & KIIS-FM yoga instructor Lori Rischer. Rockstar H&F features celebrities sharing their health, diet, and fitness tips. In this episode Kim Glass shares some tips on how she’s preparing for the 2012 Olympics and shows us her recipe for her favorite “on the go” snack. The 9-episode Rockstar season’s all-star line up includes Kim Glass, Lala Romero, OneRepublic, Patrick Stump, Austin Brown among, others. Check out next week’s episode featuring OneRebublic’s Zach Filkins Created by Lori Rischer and Sera Roadnight. Produced By Skee.TV.

Tell us what you think about this video in the comments below, or in the Battling For Health Community Forum!
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Send a message to Eli Lilly: Stop Milking Cancer!

The compound

It goes by many different names: recombinant bovine somatotropin (rBST), recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH), artificial growth hormone, Posilac. But its main purpose is to induce cows to produce more milk. And it does. Unfortunately it harms the cow and the insulin-like growth factor IGF-1 in it finds its way into the milk – and our table.

It is a compound that is banned in most developed countries but not in the US. It is even considered unacceptable by the Codex Alimentarius, the international standard list of approved food additives.

Its manufacturers claim there is not enough evidence to show that rBGH is harmful to humans. And if the cow injected with rBGH gets mastitis, who cares?

There have been recent studies, however, that point to a link between IGF-1 and tumor formation. In one 2009 review, the authors wrote:

“Insulin and Insulin-like Growth Factors (IGFs) systems play a key role in cellular metabolism, differentiation, proliferation, transformation and apoptosis, during normal and malignant growth. Moreover, these molecules seem essential in promoting tumor vascularization.”

The company

Posilac was the brainchild of the agricultural giant Montsanto. It now belongs to the pharma company Eli Lilly. The company is known for its best-selling and sometimes controversial products Prozac (anti-depressant), Thimerosal (vaccine preservative) and Methadone (narcotic drugs treatment. The company is also the manufacturer of the anti-cancer chemotherapy drug Gemzar and the breast cancer preventive drug Evista. In this context, Eli Lilly has the “perfect cancer profit cycle” by manufacturing Posilac which may cause breast cancer and by selling drugs that should prevent or treat breast cancer. In other words, the company is milking cancer to the very last drop. It is a win-win situation for Eli Lilly and the consumers are the ultimate losers.

You can help BCA in trying to stop Eli Lilly from Milking Cancer by sending an email message to Eli Lilly at the www.thinkbeforeyoupink.org

But what is even concerning is the increasing use of rBGH in developing countries in the guise of augmenting food production. Posilac is going global – and so is cancer.

The campaign

The campaign is called Stop Milking Cancer and its aim is to put pressure on Eli Lilly to stop the manufacture of rBGH. Behind the campaign in none other than the Breast Cancer Action Group (BCA), the watchdog group that coined the term “pinkwashers” – companies that claim to care about breast cancer but make or sell products that are linked to the disease. They launched the www.thinkbeforeyoupink.org site to identify pinkwashers.

Here is what the campaign has to say:

Eli Lilly is Milking Cancer!

Eli Lilly is now the sole manufacturer of rBGH — the artificial growth hormone given to dairy cows that increases people’s risk of cancer. Eli Lilly also manufactures breast cancer treatment medications and a pill that “reduces the risk” of breast cancer. Eli Lilly is milking cancer. Tell them to stop making rBGH.

You can help BCA in trying to stop Eli Lilly from Milking Cancer by sending an email message to Eli Lilly at the www.thinkbeforeyoupink.org site.

Milk: the ideal drink for the bone and the heart

Milk is man’s first food, whether in the form of breast milk or substitutes like cow’s milk. But milk is not only for babies. Everybody needs the vitamins and minerals found in milk.

Milk is good for the bones.

How much milk do we need?

How much milk we need actually depends on the amount of calcium and potassium we need in order to maintain our bone health. The US Department of Agriculture (US DA) recommends the following:

• The recommended daily allowance for calcium is 1000 milligrams for young adults and 1200 for adults aged 50 and older.
• The recommended daily allowance for potassium is a whopping 4700 milligrams.

A cup of milk contains about 300 mg of calcium and 360 mg of potassium, plus lots of vitamins (A & D).

The US DA recommends daily intake of3 cups of milk of equivalent for those older than 8.

It is obvious that a large number of people do not meet the daily allowance. It is clear that milk is not only for the young but for the elderly as well.

Some experts believe that the RDAs for calcium and potassium are unrealistic. We need to drink about 13 cups of milk to meet our potassium RDA alone.

Luckily, there are other products which are rich in these minerals, including orange juice and other dairy products such as cheese and yoghurt. According to the US DA, one cup of yogurt, one and a half ounces of hard cheese, one-third cup of shredded cheese or two cups of cottage cheese counts as a cup of dairy and is equivalent to 1 cup of milk.

Milk is good for the heart.

A glass of milk per day can already provide lots of benefit to our heart. But not just any milk.

Even though milk and other dairy products may help meet our RDAs for these essential minerals, they also come with calories and fat. Thus, intake of low-fat dairy products is recommended.

According to Dr. Theresa Nicklas, a dairy researcher and professor of pediatrics with the Children’s Nutrition Research Center at the Baylor College of Medicine:

“Low-fat dairy is a way to meet these nutrient needs without a lot of fat and calories. It’s a unique nutritional package.”

Researchers report that “adults who had at least one serving of low-fat milk or milk products each day had 37 percent lower odds of poor kidney function linked to heart disease compared to those who drank little or no low-fat milk.”

The U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend drinking three glasses of low-fat or fat free milk each day.

Eggs, milk and peanuts: how your allergies connect

Milk and egg allergies today, peanut allergy tomorrow? This could well be, according to findings reported in May issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. The study was conducted by a group of researchers who are part of the Consortium of Food Allergy Research (CoFAR), a major food allergy research program supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The CoFAR reseachers studied more than 500 babies aged between 3 and 15 months who were allergic to milk or egg and followed up the participants until their 5^th birthday. The children are known to be allergic to egg and milk and as expected, tested positive for immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies to these food items. However, none of the babies have known peanut allergy, yet many of these infants also surprising tested positive for allergic antibodies specific for peanuts. The researchers reported two unexpected observations:

“More of the infants have elevated levels of IgE antibody to peanuts than the investigators had anticipated, and some of these infants have such high levels that they may already be allergic to peanuts without their parents being aware of it.”

Aside from being positive to peanut-specific antibodies, many of the children also had moderate to severe eczema (atopic dermatitis).

Milk, eggs, and peanuts are the most common food allergies in children, as listed in a previous post. Gluten is also another common source of allergen. However, allergy to nuts, especially peanuts, presents a major concern due to the high likelihood of anaphylactic allergic reaction which can be life-threatening.

The results of the study suggest that milk and/or egg allergy, as well as eczema are major risk factors for developing peanut allergy later in life. The researchers recommend that parents of children with these risk factors should talk to a health professional before incorporating peanuts or peanut products into their child’s diet.

In addition, I would like to emphasize the importance of recognizing the symptoms of food allergy and knowing what to do about them. As reported previously, many parents may not know how to act appropriately when their children present with allergic reaction to certain food stuff. In the light of this latest report from CoFAR, I think it is worth giving our readers again some links to useful allergy resources:

Take the Food Allergy Screening Quiz.

Info on Anaphylaxis on Severe Allergic Reaction

Grapefruit Pulp For Bone Health

The bone health ‘industry’ is dominated by Calcium and Vitamin D, as many people already know. I know this is an arthritis blog but for now I want to talk about our bone health. For somebody who has never been a religious milk drinker, I wanna take this opportunity to remind myself of the importance of starting early on milk. While I cannot take back  or even make up for the years lost of not drinking milk (I’m a true-blue coffeeholic!), I remain a work in progress in putting milk into my diet. (The time I was pregnant and breastfeeding and of course when I was a kid was the only times in my life I was on milk!)

There is always the option of taking the supplemental Calcium with Vitamin D. I was on this too when I got pregnant and even afterwards. However, I have always believed that taking the dietary sources are a lot better than taking the supplements. That’s why I have always resorted to other dairy products ( and other food sources rich in calcium) such as cheese and fruit yoghurt (yikes, i never thought the day would come I’d be brave enough to try yoghurt!). Just think non-fat dairy folks, that’s arthritis-friendly.

Speaking of grapefruit. Who likes it? It isn’t one of the nicest citrus fruits to eat but it has become popular in lose-weight fad diets. One time I bought grapefruit juice and was repulsed by the taste. Really. That time I thought maybe that’s why people lose weight with grapefruit because after eating (or drinking the juice) you feel horrible in the stomach and the mouth and then you can’t eat anything else anymore.

Now results of  Texas AMU research showed that red grapefruit pulp may compete with Calcium and Vitamin D for bone health, at least in their study using male rats:

The pulp of grapefruit may improve bone health and reduce the risk of developing osteoporosis, according to a new study with male rats.

Consumption of the red grapefruit pulp led to a slow down in bone resorption, and an increase in bone mineral build-up and calcium absorption, according to researchers from Texas A&M University.

If the results can be repeated in humans, grapefruit pulp may offer a new ingredient to the growing bone health market dominated by calcium and vitamin D.

Well…if grapefruit pulp later becomes a supplement, I guess I can take it better than eating fresh grapefruits! But then that’s just me. Other people may disagree and find grapefruit appealing to their taste buds.

So there, I’m just saying there goes maybe another option in the future for people who can’t drink milk. There are always substitute, even for people with cow’s milk allergy and even for the lactose-intolerant. Really I should be thankful because I only cannot take the smell and taste of fresh milk that’s why I have turned creative and put them in my fruit shake. Yum!

What about you, I want to here how you take care of your bones. And joints too!