If you follow the news about health research, you risk whiplash. First garlic lowers bad cholesterol, then—after more study—it doesn’t. Hormone replacement reduces the risk of heart disease in postmenopausal women, until a huge study finds that it doesn’t (and that it raises the risk of breast cancer to boot). Eating a big breakfast cuts your total daily calories, or not—as a study released last week finds. Yet even if biomedical research can be a fickle guide, we rely on it.

But what if wrong answers aren’t the exception but the rule? More and more scholars who scrutinize health research are now making that claim. It isn’t just an individual study here and there that’s flawed, they charge. Instead, the very framework of medical investigation may be off-kilter, leading time and again to findings that are at best unproved and at worst dangerously wrong. The result is a system that leads patients and physicians astray—spurring often costly regimens that won’t help and may even harm you.

Here’s the rest of the News Week Article.

If you’re looking for a healthy diet to kick-start the new year, you might want to take a fresh look at the Mediterranean diet. It’s not so much a diet as a healthy way of eating that incorporates all the good foods that people like me have been advocating for a long time. And, it’s about including good taste in your kitchen not about all the things you shouldn’t eat. There are many researchers who have looked at this eating pattern in a favorable way and studies suggest it may protect us from heart disease, some cancers and even some of the not so great effects of aging. I recently came across two newer studies that further underline this diet’s benefits.

Researchers at the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago studied a large group of adults over the age of 65, looking at their eating habits and cognitive function. They were given scores reflecting how well they followed a Mediterranean style diet and another reflecting how well they met the U.S. Dietary guidelines. Their cognitive decline was assessed over time. The study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that those who followed the Mediterranean diet had significantly slower rates of cognitive decline. This is not the first study to look at the role this diet plays in keeping our brain healthy but it adds to the body of evidence and is another good reason to pay attention to this eating style.

The second study is not so much about the Mediterranean diet but looks at two foods that are important components of it. Also published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers at the Cancer Research and Prevention Institute in Italy found that women who eat more olive oil and leafy green vegetables were less likely to develop heart disease. This study followed almost 30,000 women who were part of a large national health study and they found that eating at least one serving of leafy vegetables and/or 3 Tbsp. (45ml) of olive oil daily significantly lowered their heart risk by over 40%.

Again, not the first study but further evidence that components of this diet are linked to heart health.

So, what are the foods that are part of this eating style?

The diet is rich in complex carbohydrates such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, pasta, herbs, spices legumes and beans. These foods should be eaten daily.

Olive oil is the key fat, replacing butter, margarine and other fats. Rich in heart healthy monounsaturated fats and vitamin E, this oil is also a source of plant chemicals that are believed to reduce inflammation. Nuts and seeds are also included for their healthy fat properties.

Fish is one of the key protein foods eaten and it is well known to provide omega-3 fats which have heart healthy and anti-inflammatory properties. It is suggested to have fish and seafood at least twice a week. Lean meat is consumed less frequently.

The traditional diet is low in saturated fats and trans fats.

Cheese and yogurt are consumed moderately as are poultry and eggs.

People who live around the Mediterranean also drink wine which, in moderation, has also been shown to have some heart healthy benefits.

Original Article

There are thousands of unnecessary surgeries being done on the knees and backs of Canadians, particularly patients with osteoarthritis, a new report concludes.

There were 3,600 therapeutic knee arthroscopies and 1,050 vertebroplasties carried out in Canadian hospitals in the fiscal year 2008-09, according to new data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information.

In both cases, there is mounting evidence that the procedures are largely ineffective to combat certain ailments, and those are but two examples cited in the report that more needs to be done to align care with evidence that it actually helps patients, said John Wright, the president and CEO of CIHI. “Evidence and appropriateness of care are a significant issue in Canada’s health-care debate,” he said.

Mr. Wright said improving efficiency is one of the keys to getting health spending under control.

Knee arthroscopy, a minimally invasive surgery, was once used to diagnosis and treat a host of minor knee problems. But it has fallen out of favour as studies showed it did little to reduce pain and that a large number of patients went on to have knee replacements within one year.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/common-back-and-knee-surgeries-fail-to-ease-pain-study/article1841459/

Here’s a great page on tips to keep your body and nerve system working at it’s best during the holiday season: http://www.acatoday.org/12Days/

Have a great and healthy holiday season!

In an effort to guard against heart disease, you may consider adding a multivitamin supplement to your menu of fatty fish, nuts and oat bran.

According to new a study published online in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, women who took a one-a-day supplement were 40 per cent less likely to suffer a heart attack than their peers who didn’t use multivitamins.

Ask us which multi vitamin we recommend.

The entire article…

In a world were people are trying to avoid germs and bugs, more and more research is showing that it’s actually healthier to actually be exposed to those germs.

The key is: you have to have an optimally functioning nerve system and immune system. Then being exposed to ‘bugs’ strengthens your immune system, ultimately making you stronger.

Daycare kids get sick less often during school years

Kids who start going to large child-care facilities before age two and a half tend to develop more colds and ear infections at that age, but they then catch fewer illnesses once they get to elementary school, new Canadian research finds.

Parents of kids at daycare centres know all too well that their children seem to get more colds and infections than kids who stay at home or who go to home-based daycares.

That’s led some to worry about the effects of exposing kids to a wide range of pathogens at such a young age. But few studies have looked at how group child care affects sickness rates beyond the preschool years.

So Sylvana M. Côté, of Ste-Justine Hospital and the University of Montreal led a team who studied more than 1,200 Quebec families of newborns born in 1998.

They asked the mothers whether their children went to a large child-care facility (defined as a centre that cares for up to 10 groups of eight to 12 children; a small child-care facility (home-based centres where a caretaker watches three to eight children); or were cared for at home.

For eight years, the researchers regularly collected information about how often the children had colds and respiratory tract infections, ear infections or stomach infections.

They found that compared with kids cared for at home until elementary school, those who began going to a large group child care before age 2 ½ had higher rates of respiratory infections and ear infections during early preschool. But those children then had lower risks of respiratory tract or ear infections during early elementary school.

The children who started in small group child care in early preschool and never went to a large care setting did not have any differences in infections.

Those who were first cared for at home but then went to any size child care facility during late preschool had a higher risk of ear infections at that time, but no other differences in infection risk.

Interestingly, group child care was not associated with gastrointestinal infections at any period in the children’s development, the authors report in Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

The findings suggest that early exposure to large groups of children early in life gives kids some protection against infections they might encounter again in grade school.

The authors say their findings mean that parents can be assured that although their young children may contract a lot of infections after starting at a large group child care centre, the increase in infections is temporary, and is likely to provide the children with greater immunity during the elementary school years.

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Health/20101206/kids-daycare-colds-infections-101206/

Removing cough and cold medicines for very young children from store shelves led to a big decline in emergency room visits for bad reactions to the drugs, government research found.

But the results released online Monday are a mixed bag: Some parents were still giving their infants and toddlers these medicines, and many ER cases still involved youngsters who apparently got hold of the medications themselves.

Full article.

Did you catch that last sentence? What are you showing your kids? That health is in a bottle? A huge bonus to kids who get adjusted is that they learn and trust that their body will take care of themselves, they don’t need medicine. Do your kids a favor, lead by example and be the best healthy role model they know.

More than 13 percent of Medicare patients in the U.S. experience an adverse event each month in American hospitals, and some 15,000 of them die as a result.

The events are often the result of medical errors, like surgical mistakes or infections that have originated in and spread through the hospital. The data comes from a new report from the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General.

Full report

Always seek safer options first, why risk your health and life?