|
|
|
A widespread link between heart disease, arthritis, and cancer now seems treatable
Adapted from THE CALCIUM BOMB: The Nanobacteria Link to Heart Disease and Cancer, by Douglas Mulhall & Katja Hansen (The Writers’ Collective) www.calcify.com What medical condition affects more of us than heart disease, arthritis, or cancer, and...
Don't Suffer Needlessly From Chronic Pain
As a chronic pain sufferer myself, being diagnosed with a herniated disc in my lower back, along with bone disc degenerative disease, I have learned a lot about how chronic pain is treated, or I should say undertreated. It's a sad fact for a...
Riding the Energy of Ease
Moving into The Magic When did you last visit The Zone-that space of smooth, easy flow? Ask yourself, "When was a time I was happy-a time when everything was going really well?" Re-visit the best times in your life. Find a golden memory, or two, or...
The diet / cancer link
Attitudes to the link between diet and cancer are changing fast. The World Cancer Research Fund was founded specifically to fund and sponsor education and research into the diet-cancer link. There is mounting evidence that the high fat intake in a...
Top 5 ways to diagnose acid reflux disease
Gastroesophageal reflux disease, also referred to as GERD or
acid reflux disease, is an illness where the liquefied contents
of the sufferers stomach backs up into their esophagus. The
stomach contents that is regurgitated contains acids and...
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mediterranean Diet - What is it?
Well, to begin with, there isn't really any one Mediterranean Diet! There's a whole swag of countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea. The basic Mediterranean Diet has common characteristics even if the sourrounding countries differ in culture, language and recipes to some extent.
* an extensive intake of fruits, vegetables, bread and cereals, potatoes, beans, nuts and seeds
* olive oil is a source of mono-unsaturated fat - common to the Mediterranean area
* some dairy products, fish and even poultry are consumed in sparing to moderate amounts, and some red meat(not much)
* eggs are consumed in low to moderate amount say 1 to 4 eggs a week
* fortunately wine is acceptable but in low quantities ie. 1 - 3 glasses per day
A good question to ask is - Does a Mediterranean-style diet follow American Heart Association dietary guidelines?
Mediterranean-style diets are often close to US dietary guidelines, but not exactly.
People who follow the average Mediterranean diet eat less saturated fat than those who eat the average American diet. In fact, saturated fat consumption is well within US dietary guidelines. More than half the fat calories in a Mediterranean diet come from mono-unsaturated fats (mainly from olive oil). Mono-unsaturated fat doesn't raise blood cholesterol levels the way saturated fat does.
The incidence of heart disease in Mediterranean countries is lower than in the United States. Death rates are lower, too.
However there are some who feel this may not be entirely due to the diet. Lifestyle factors (ie. more physical activity and extended social family support structures) may also play a part. At this stage this is just a theory. However the research tells all - the diet has existed for umpteen years.
If you would like further proof of the mediterranean diet benefits resulting from research and qualified researchers you could try visiting http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/short/348/26/2599 or http://my.webmd.com/content/article/67/80070.htm. Both of these sites give good 'food for thought'(excuse the pun).
"Olive oil plays a central role, but it is not alone," says Dimitrios Trichopoulos, MD, PhD, of Harvard School of Public Health.
"It's among the divine mix of several factors that, when used in combination, help provide strong evidence of something that is very important -- eating the proper diet can significantly reduce your risk of early death."
He and researchers from Greece studied some 22,000 adults, aged 20 to 86, from all regions of that country; most previous studies tracked only older people who were more likely to die during the study. The participants answered detailed questionnaires about their eating habits throughout the four-year study. Then they were rated on how
closely they followed the key principles of the Mediterranean diet.
Sticking to the Mediterranean diet cut the risk of death from both heart disease and cancer. For every two points higher on this 0-to-9 scale -- with top numbers going to those most closely following the Mediterranean diet -- the death rate dropped by 25%.
The findings by Trichopoulos may also help explain why Asians, who typically use these other cooking oils, also have lower disease and death rates. Although they rarely use olive oil, they traditionally follow other principles of the Mediterranean diet -- lots of produce, legumes, nuts, and minimally processed grains, with little saturated fat.
"The message remains the same, and is consistent with other findings: A diet lower in saturated fats and higher in monounsaturated fats, and potentially, polyunsaturates, will result in better health outcomes," says Alice H. Lichtenstein, DSc, of Tufts University and a spokeswoman for the American Heart Association.
"If the main message that Americans get is to just increase their olive or canola oil consumption, that's unfortunate because they will increase their caloric intake and they are already getting too many calories. What they need to do is eat more fruits, vegetables, and legumes and fewer foods rich in saturated fats."
Some of this information has been referenced from The New England Journal of Medicine, June 26, 2003. Dimitrios Trichopoulos, MD, PhD, professor of epidemiology, Vincent L. Gregory Professor of Cancer Prevention, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston. Alice H. Lichtenstein, DSc, senior scientist and director, Cardiovascular Nutrition Laboratory, Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Researcher Center on Aging, Tufts University, Boston; spokeswoman, American Heart Association.
So in a nutshell, there is sound evidence that the Mediterranean Diet can help reduce heart disease, cancer, weight gain and of course reduce the risk of early death. However, it would be a mistake to think this outcome is based on the use of Olive Oil alone. The diet is diverse and allows for taste and creativity which is often lacking in most other diets. This alone warrants further investigation from those who seek a healthy, easy diet that has flavour and is fullfilling. Remember too that just as in all worthwhile diets, moderate level exercise should not be overlooked.
About the Author
Publisher & author: Roy Barker. Roy has an indepth and long established background with the vitamins, minerals and health industry and has researched and experimented with many diets over a thirty year period. Roy is also the author of Safe and Easy Weightloss, a downloadable e-book based on the popular Mediterranean Diet. It can be viewed at http://www.safe-and-easy-weightloss.com.
|
|
|
|
|
| National Library of Medicine - National Institutes of Health |
| Part of the National Institutes of Health, the National Library of Medicine offers access to health information for consumer, patient, and physicians ... |
| www.nlm.nih.gov |
|
| Health and Medical Information produced by doctors - MedicineNet.com |
| Doctor-produced health and medical information written for you to make informed decisions about your health concerns. |
| www.medicinenet.com |
|
| Medicine in the Yahoo! Directory |
| Collection of sites for health professionals, with sections on specific disciplines, organizations, continuing education, conferences, publications, ... |
| dir.yahoo.com |
|
| MedlinePlus Health Information from the National Library of Medicine |
| Health information from the National Library of Medicine. Easy access to Medline and Health topics, medical dictionaries, directories and publications. |
| medlineplus.gov |
|
| Medicine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
| Medicine is a branch of health science and the sector of public life ... The practice of medicine combines both science as the evidence base and art in the ... |
| en.wikipedia.org |
|
| Journal Home - Nature Medicine |
| Nature Medicine has a vacancy for a Locum Assistant Editor for six months. The position involves working in all aspects of the editorial process, ... |
| www.nature.com |
|
| The New England Journal of Medicine: Research & Review Articles on ... |
| The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) is a weekly general medical journal that publishes new medical research findings, review articles, and editorial ... |
| content.nejm.org |
|
| eMedicine Clinical Knowledge Base |
| eMedicine features up-to-date, searchable, peer-reviewed medical journals, online physician reference textbooks, and a full-text article database in 62 ... |
| www.emedicine.com |
|
| Open Directory - Health: Medicine |
| the entire directory, only in Health/Medicine. Top: Health: Medicine (11429). Description · Medical Specialties (4888); Surgery (2265) ... |
| dmoz.org |
|
| the www virtual library biosciences medicine |
| www.ohsu.edu/cliniweb/wwwvl/ - Similar pages |
|
|
| Medicine - home |
| Bimonthly journal covering the latest results in clinical investigation relevant to hospital and office practice. |
| www.md-journal.com |
|
| Institute of Medicine |
| The Institute of Medicine serves as adviser to the nation to improve health. |
| www.iom.edu |
|
| ScienceDaily: Health & Medicine News |
| Medical Research News. Health news on everything from cancer to nutrition. Full-text, images, updated daily. |
| www.sciencedaily.com |
|
| Google Directory - Health > Medicine |
| Search only in Medicine Search the Web. Medicine. Health > Medicine, Go to Directory Home. Categories. Alternative Medicine (6308) Basic Sciences (66) ... |
| www.google.com |
|
| the world wide web virtual library biosciences medicine |
| www.mcb.harvard.edu/biopages/medicine.html - Similar pages |
|
|
| PLoS Medicine - A Peer-Reviewed Open-Access Journal |
| PLoS Medicine is a peer-reviewed, international, open-access journal published ... Every issue of PLoS Medicine contains a selection of readers' responses. ... |
| medicine.plosjournals.org |
|
| Medicine On-Line - Medicine Online -The International Medical Journal |
| Medicine Online - independent and peer reviewed journal published by Priory Medical Journals - priory.com. |
| www.priory.com |
|
| Entrez PubMed |
| PubMed is a service of the US National Library of Medicine that includes over 16 million citations from MEDLINE and other life science journals for ... |
| www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov |
|
| Stanford University School of Medicine |
| Home Page of the Stanford University School of Medicine. |
| med.stanford.edu |
|
| Medicine OnLine |
| Meds.com offers medical information and education on cancer (lung cancer, colon cancer, breast cancer, leukemia) and HIV / AIDS for patients, ... |
| www.meds.com |
|
|