Pumpkin Seed Oil Relieves Symptoms Of BPH (Enlarged Prostate)

To a list which includes saw palmetto and flax seed for BPH:

• Flaxseed Extract Comparable To Drugs Like Flomax For Enlarged Prostate
• Saw Palmetto, NIH Gives It Top Grade
• Saw Palmetto VS. Flomax

Add pumpkin seed:

Effects Of Pumpkin Seed Oil And Saw Palmetto Oil In Korean Men With Symptomatic Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia, Nutrition Research and Practice, December 2009

This is another randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. You don't get better than this when studying the effectiveness of a drug. And it was long for a study like this, a year.

There were four groups:

• Group A: Placebo: Sweet potato starch, 320 mg/day
• Group B: Pumpkin seed oil, 320 mg/day
• Group C: Saw palmetto oil, 320 mg/day
• Group D: Pumpkin seed oil plus saw palmetto oil, 320 mg each/day

Results:

International Prostate Symptom Scores: Symptoms in Groups B, C, and D were significantly reduced after three months. Group D showed the most improvement. Interestingly, Group D showed continual improvement over time. So, the longer they took pumpkin seed/saw palmetto, the better they felt.

Quality of Life Scores: Improvements in Groups B, C, and D. Group D showed the most improvement, and again, they improved continually over time. (The placebo group's score was unchanged over the 12 months.)

Serum PSA Levels: Only Group D showed a reduction in PSA levels, up to about 50%.

Prostate Volume: Groups B, C and D showed a gradual decline in size over time. (The placebo group remain unchanged.)

Maximal Urinary Flow Rate: Group B was significantly increased after 3 months; Group C after 6 months. Interestingly, Group D showed no improvement, but this could have been influenced by the participants' higher age (see comment below*). The placebo group experienced a worsening of urinary symptoms, flow rate decreased 22% over a year.

The authors concluded:

"The results of this study show that the symptoms of BPH for all patients receiving treatment with pumpkin seed oil, saw palmetto oil, or a combination of pumpkin seed oil plus saw palmetto oil were improved over 12 months, in comparison with placebo. ... During the experimental period, no side effects were reported."

* One drawback to this study was its small number of participants. In randomization, population characteristics cannot be ensured across groups. More participants mean more similarity across groups. It would be better if all groups had, say, the same percentage of people who were obese. In this study, Group D's average age was significantly higher than Groups B and C. This may have been why Group D did not show even better outcomes for combination therapy, which one would expect. (Of course, age may not have had any impact, but you can't tell from this study.)

Why would you expect that combination therapy would be better? Because pumpkin seed oil and saw palmetto oil have different mechanisms of action, they work to improve urinary symptoms in different ways:

"According to the difference in action mechanisms, a synergistic effect on BPH was expected from combination treatment of pumpkin seed oil and saw palmetto oil. In our study, combination treatment of pumpkin seed oil and saw palmetto oil induced a higher symptomatic improvement ... than a single treatment."

Pharmaceutical drugs like Flomax are potent and can relieve symptoms overnight. Plant-based therapies (phytotherapies) take several weeks to show effectiveness, but do so without the cost and side effects of drugs. They may also be better choices for long-term use.

Indeed, in this study:

"PV [prostate volume] and MFR [Maximal Urinary Flow Rate] measurements started after 6 months because the urologists advised that there would not be a significant change over a short period such as the first 3 months of treatment."

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Spider Drinking

This little guy came up to get a drink while I was doing the dishes. No inhibitions. I swear he posed as I snapped. The best part of this photo? His shadow!
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Snail And Slug

They almost ended up on the bottom of my shoe this morning. The snail was a perfect specimen!



Close-up:



I took this with a flash. It was still dark and rainy at 6:00 a.m. They were thoroughly camouflaged. ________

Making Cabbage And Carrot Slaw

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Kennedy-Nixon First Presidential Debate, 1960

On this day, 52 years ago...

"On September 26, 1960, Senator John F. Kennedy and Vice President Richard Nixon stood before an audience of 70 million Americans — two-thirds of the nation's adult population — in the first nationally televised Presidential debate. This first of four debates held before the end of October gave a vast national audience the opportunity to see and compare the two candidates, and ushered in a new age of Presidential politics."

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Flaxseed Extract Comparable To Drugs Like Flomax For Enlarged Prostate

Here's a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial, the gold standard of scientific research, that investigated the ability of flaxseed extract to lessen symptoms of BPH (short for Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia or enlarged prostate):

Effects Of Dietary Flaxseed Lignan Extract On Symptoms Of Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia, Journal of Medicinal Food, June 2008

87 subjects were divided into 3 groups:

• Placebo (0 mg flaxseed extract*)
• Group 1 (300 mg flaxseed extract)
• Group 2 (600 mg flaxseed extract)

*A flaxseed lignan extract containing 33% secoisolariciresinol diglucoside (SDG).

There were statistically significant improvements in the International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS) and the Quality of Life score (QOL score) in both the 300 mg and 600 mg groups.

There were statistically significant improvements in lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) in both the 300 mg and 600 mg groups, e.g. more subjects taking flaxseed reported symptoms changing from "moderate/severe" to "mild."

There were also improvements in measurements of urinary flow and postvoiding urine volume.

The researchers concluded:

"Dietary flaxseed lignan extract appreciably improves LUTS in BPH subjects, and the therapeutic efficacy appeared comparable to that of commonly used intervention agents of alpha1A-adrenoceptor blockers and 5alpha-reductase inhibitors."

So, flaxseed extract was comparable to Flomax (an alpha1A-adrenoceptor blocker) And Proscar or Propecia (5alpha-reductase inhibitors). I wonder how effective eating flaxseed straight up would be.
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Here's a related study, a small pilot study of 25 prostate cancer patients who were waiting to have their prostates removed. They were all put on a low-fat diet (20% of calories, which isn't that low-fat, it's double the 10% seen in Ornish diets and triple the 6% of the traditional Okinawans) and told to eat about 3 tablespoons (30g) of flaxseeds a day:

Pilot Study Of Dietary Fat Restriction And Flaxseed Supplementation In Men With Prostate Cancer Before Surgery: Exploring The Effects On Hormonal Levels, Prostate-Specific Antigen, And Histopathologic Features, Urology, July 2001

The average duration on the diet was 34 days (range 21 to 77).

The authors commented:

"Although we were skeptical that we would observe any differences in tumor biology between the diet-treated patients and the historic control patients with a short-term dietary intervention, we found significantly lower proliferation rates and significantly higher rates of apoptotic cell death (programmed death or "suicide" of cancer cells, something our body does naturally) (Both the proliferation rate and apoptosis were significantly associated with the number of days on the diet).

Thus, these finding suggest that a flaxseed-supplemented, low-fat diet may have an effect on prostate cancer biology that may be medicated through a hormonal mechanism."

Another point of note: In these men eating a low-fat diet and supplementing with 3 tablespoons of flaxseeds, "significant decreases were observed in total serum cholesterol (201 to 174 mg/dL, P <0.05)."

Three tablespoons of flaxseeds have about 165 calories, 12 grams of fat (primarily polyunsaturated and omega-3), 6 grams of protein, and 6 grams of carbohydrate which is almost all fiber (so, 6 grams of fiber). These are little powerhouses.

I saw these studies on Dr. Greger's site. Here's a video where he discusses them and others related to BPH. And here's the video he used to kick off his BPH series. It's absulutely cringeworthy:



By the way, pumpkin seeds show benefit for BPH too: Pumpkin Seed Oil Relieves Symptoms Of BPH (Enlarged Prostate)
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Arsenic In Rice

Some things I'm learning:

• Almost all rice and rice products have been found to contain arsenic - brown and white, organic and conventional, short- and long-grain, US grown or imported, adult and baby cereals, rice beverages, rice cakes and crackers. - Consumer Reports
  
  
• Rice is thought to have higher levels of arsenic than other foods because it is grown in water.
  
  
• Arsenic-containing poultry litter (feathers, feces, feed) is used as an approved fertilizer in organic farming of rice. - Lundberg Rice. Arsenic is in poultry litter because poultry are fed arsenic-containing drugs, e.g. Roxarsone, for parasite control and weight gain. - Mother Jones
  
  
• Inorganic arsenic is more of a problem than organic arsenic.
  
  
• "Inorganic arsenic is classified by the U.S. EPA as a known human carcinogen, based on extensive population studies of lung cancers following inhalation exposure, and skin cancers following ingestion of contaminated drinking water in adults; arsenic exposure also may be associated with a higher incidence of bladder, liver, kidney, and prostate cancer." - EPA: Inorganic Arsenic
  
  
• There is no federal limit for how much arsenic is allowed in food. - Consumer Reports
  
  
• "The EPA assumes there is actually no “safe” level of exposure to inorganic arsenic." - Consumer Reports
  
  
• There is a federal limit of 10 parts per billion (10 ppb) for inorganic arsenic in drinking water. New Jersey has a stricter standard of 5 ppb. - Consumer Reports
  
  
• One liter of water (about 4 cups) would expose you, in New Jersey, to 5 micrograms (5 mcg) of inorganic arsenic. Use that 5 mcg as a gauge for the two bullets below. - Consumer Reports

How much arsenic is being found in rice?

• The FDA released results of 200 samples. Some average levels (in mcg inorganic):
  • Rice (other than Basmati rice): 6.7 per 1 cup (cooked)
  • Rice cakes: 5.4 per 2 cakes
  • Rice beverages: 3.8 per 240 ml (some samples not tested for inorganic arsenic)
  • Rice cereals: 3.5 per 1 cup
  • Basmati rice: 3.5 per 1 cup cooked
  
  
• Consumer Reports released results of 223 samples, found levels up to 9.6 mcg per serving (9.6 mcg was for a serving, 1/4 cup dry, of long grain brown rice). - Consumer Reports, includes a table with brand names

What to do:

• Rinse raw rice thoroughly before cooking. Cook like pasta, using a ratio of at least 6 cups water to 1 cup rice. Drain excess water afterward. Research has shown that rinsing and draining removes about 30% of inorganic arsenic. (Here's my picture post on how to cook rice like pasta. I'll be throwing out the rice water from now on!)
  
  
• Brown rice can have higher levels of inorganic arsenic than white rice because it contains the bran and germ. - Lundberg Rice
  
  
• The kidneys eliminate arsenic and its metabolites. Drink generously. - EPA: Inorganic Arsenic
  
  
• Diversify your diet. "There are contaminants in everything. Nothing is completely safe." - Professor Jaymie Meliker, Stony Brook University.

________Photo of rice growing in flooded paddy from Wikipedia.

Sample Menu Used In Crohn's Disease Study

Here's a photo of a sample menu used in the study which found a semi-vegetarian diet prevented relapse in Crohn's disease patients. (Click to enlarge.):



The study was conducted in Japan. Here's a description of the food:

"A sample of a 1700-kcal/d semi-vegetarian diet (SVD) for Crohn’s disease (CD). From left to right, breakfast (A), lunch (B), and dinner (C). Boiled brown rice is seen at the bottom left of the tray and miso (fermented bean paste) soup is at the bottom right.

Breakfast (A): Raw grated nagaimo (yam) and shredded toasted nori seaweed are at the top left; natto (fermented soybeans) and grated daikon (Japanese radish) are at the top right; and braised hijiki seaweed, nama-age (thick deep-fried beancurd), and edamame (young soybeans) are in the center;

Lunch (B): Boiled potato, onion, and corn in tomato soup are at the top left; isomaki-tamago (dried nori seaweed inside egg roll) and boiled chrysanthemum with sesame dressing are at the top right; takuan (pickled radish) is in the center; and a mixture of banana and plain yoghurt is at the bottom right;

Dinner (C): Boiled chingensai (qing gin cai), soybeans, and wakame seaweed with vinegar soy sauce dressing are at the top left; simmered ganmodoki (bean-curd-based mixture), tofu (bean curd), boiled egg, Japanese-variety eggplant, Japanese butterbur, Japanese-variety pumpkin, and snow peas are at the top right; and citrus fruit is in the center."

I thought this was a good example of how diet is dependent on culture and environment.
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Study Finds Tumours In Rats Fed GM Corn

French Study Finds Tumours In Rats Fed GM Corn, Reuters, 19 September 2012

"Rats fed on a diet containing NK603 - a seed variety made tolerant to dousings of Roundup - or given water containing Roundup at levels permitted in the United States died earlier than those on a standard diet.

The animals on the GM diet suffered mammary tumours, as well as severe liver and kidney damage.

The researchers said 50 percent of males and 70 percent of females died prematurely, compared with only 30 percent and 20 percent in the control group."

These are the results of the first ever peer-reviewed, long-term animal study of GMO corn. The findings were published today:

Long Term Toxicity Of A Roundup Herbicide And A Roundup-Tolerant Genetically Modified Maize, Food and Chemical Toxicology, 19 September 2012.

"All results were hormone and sex dependent, and the pathological profiles were comparable.

Females developed large mammary tumors almost always more often than and before controls, the pituitary was the second most disabled organ; the sex hormonal balance was modified by GMO and Roundup treatments.

In treated males, liver congestions and necrosis were 2.5–5.5 times higher. This pathology was confirmed by optic and transmission electron microscopy.

Marked and severe kidney nephropathies were also generally 1.3–2.3 greater. Males presented 4 times more large palpable tumors than controls which occurred up to 600 days earlier. Biochemistry data confirmed very significant kidney chronic deficiencies; for all treatments and both sexes, 76% of the altered parameters were kidney related.

These results can be explained by the non linear endocrine-disrupting effects of Roundup, but also by the overexpression of the transgene in the GMO and its metabolic consequences."

So, it was exposure to either the pesticide (technically herbicide) Roundup, or the corn which was engineered to be resistant to Roundup, which led to tumors in rats.

Here's that endocrine-disrupting factor again. I should start a list of all the chemicals we're exposed to which are proving to be endocrine disruptors (EDs). Bisphenol A (BPA) is one. DDT, PCBs, and Phthalates are others. You have to wonder what the body burden of the entire fleet of EDs are.

The study’s authors will be hosting a press conference today to discuss the study at 11:30 am PDT.
________Photo of mammary tumors in rats from the study.

How Often Do You Eat Eggs?

Results of our poll:



The poll ran for a month. It's likely there were revotes but the raw results - that many people eat eggs a few times a week - seem believable.
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The Perfect Diet

I have both of these sites in a list of blogs I follow:

Perfect Formula Diet, by Janice Stanger, PhD

Perfect Health Diet, by Paul Jaminet, PhD

I often get them confused. I think my brain just sees "Perfect Diet." But once I'm there, it's easy to tell the difference.

Stanger advocates a plant-based diet that excludes animal foods. It concentrates on whole foods including grains, potatoes, legumes, vegetables, and fruits. She recommends avoiding animal foods which can "reduce your level of IGF-1, a cancer-promoting hormone," and lessen exposure to hazardous environments chemicals, claiming "animal foods are the source of 89%-99% of the persistent organic pollutants in your body."

Jaminet regards cereal grains such as wheat, barley, oats, and corn, or foods made from them such as bread, pasta, breakfast cereals, and oatmeal as "toxic." Legumes and beans should be avoided, soy and peanuts "absolutely excluded." His diet recommends up to a pound a day of "meat, fish, and eggs" with organ meats such as liver and kidney "exceptionally nourishing." He also recommends "safe starches" such as root vegetables and tubers.

Interesting that two well-educated and well-meaning students of nutrition can arrive at so dissimilar "perfect" diets. It makes me wonder if a perfect diet really exists. What do you think, is there a "perfect" diet?
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Links Between Cholesterol And Cancer, Cholesterol And Diabetes

Epidemiological and animal studies have pointed to an increased risk for cancer from high serum cholesterol. This new study...

Anticancer Activity of the Cholesterol Exporter ABCA1 Gene, Cell Reports, 13 September 2012

... Unveils a mechanism: Cholesterol builds up in cells, increasing rigidity of mitochondrial membranes. These changes in membrane structure inhibit the release from mitochondria of cell death-promoting molecules.

Here's the press release:

URMC Geneticists Verify Colesterol-Cancer Link, University of Rochester Medical Center, Press Release, 13 September 2012

"University of Rochester Medical Center scientists discovered new genetic evidence linking cholesterol and cancer, raising the possibility that cholesterol medications could be useful in the future for cancer prevention or to augment existing cancer treatment.

The data, published in the online journal Cell Reports, support several recent population-based studies that suggest individuals who take cholesterol-lowering drugs may have a reduced risk of cancer, and, conversely that individuals with the highest levels of cholesterol seem to have an elevated risk of cancer.

The cancer-cholesterol question has been debated since the early 20th century, and along with it doctors and scientists have observed various trends and associations. However, until now genetic evidence directly linking cholesterol and malignancy has been lacking, said senior author Hartmut (Hucky) Land, Ph.D., Robert and Dorothy Markin Professor and chair, Department of Biomedical Genetics, and director of research and co-director of the James P. Wilmot Cancer Center at URMC.

"Scientifically it is very satisfying to have data that support longstanding ideas about cholesterol in the context of cancer," Land said. "Our paper provides a rationale for cholesterol targeting as a potentially fruitful approach to cancer intervention or prevention strategies."

Cholesterol is a fat-like substance supplied in foods and made in cells throughout the body. Too much cholesterol is bad for the heart and vascular system. It is typically measured as serum cholesterol by routine blood tests.

Unlike serum cholesterol that is bound to proteins, however, cholesterol also hides inside cells. While locked inside cell membranes before it is eventually exported, cholesterol has an impact on cell growth and survival. A gene, known as ABCA1, is at the crossroads of the process that shuttles intracellular cholesterol outbound.

Several years ago while conducting unrelated experiments that were published in the journal Nature, Land and colleagues first noticed the importance of ABCA1. At that time, they identified a network of approximately 100 so-called "cooperation response genes" that mediate the action of cancer genes. ABCA1 was found among these genes and is frequently turned off in presence of other mutant cancer genes.

In the latest investigation, Land and co-author Bradley Smith, Ph.D., a post-doctoral fellow in the Land lab, wanted to further understand the role of ABCA1 and cholesterol in cancer. They found that defective cholesterol exportation appears to be a key component in a variety of cancers.

The proper function of ABCA1, in fact, is critical for sensing of cell stress. If ABCA1 function is lost in cancer cells, cholesterol is allowed to build up in the cells' mitochondria, or energy centers, making their membranes more rigid. This in turn inhibits the function of cell-death triggers that normally become activated in response to cell stresses, as for example cancer gene activation. Therefore, when functioning properly ABCA1 has anti-cancer activity – in the sense that by keeping mitochondrial cholesterol low it protects the functioning of cellular stress response systems and acts as a barrier to tumor formation and progression.

Smith and Land also demonstrated that some of the relatively rare ABCA1 mutations found in human colon cancers by other investigators disabled the gene's ability to export cholesterol. And by re-establishing the cholesterol export function in human colon cancer cells, they inhibited the cells' ability to grow as cancers when grafted onto mice.

The URMC study, therefore, is the first to directly show how ABCA1 loss-of-function and cholesterol may play a role in cancer.

Millions of Americans take cholesterol-lowering drugs or statins, as prescribed by physicians. The drugs work by blocking the action of key enzymes in the liver, which synthesizes cholesterol. Clinical trials also are evaluating statins as a tool against cancer, and some previous studies suggest that when used in combination with chemotherapy, statins might make chemotherapy more effective by sensitizing certain cancer cells to chemotherapy-induced cell death.

Land, however, urges caution and further study. Doctors do not know the appropriate statin dose for cancer prevention or treatment of cancer-related conditions. Side effects cannot be ignored either, and little research has distinguished between the responses among people who take statins.

"The link between cholesterol and cancer is clear," Land said, "but it's premature to say that statins are the answer." "

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There has also been found a link between cholesterol and the development of type 2 diabetes:

Direct Effect of Cholesterol on Insulin Secretion, A Novel Mechanism for Pancreatic β-Cell Dysfunction http://diabetes.diabetesjournals.org/content/56/9/2328.full

"RESULTS — We found a direct link between elevated serum cholesterol and reduced insulin secretion, with normal secretion restored by cholesterol depletion."

A few other notable bits:

"Whereas the relative importance of alterations in insulin sensitivity versus secretion is debatable, it is accepted that hyperglycemia, hence diabetes, does not develop without β-cell dysfunction."
...
"Cholesterol measurements in pancreatic islets show that an increase in serum cholesterol leads to increased islet cholesterol. ... The increase in islet cholesterol causes a dramatic reduction in the islets’ ability to secrete insulin in response to basal and high glucose concentrations."
...
"Direct cholesterol depletion from isolated islets significantly enhances insulin secretion under both basal and high glucose concentrations."
...
"Using different animal models, we show that elevated serum cholesterol leads to increased cholesterol in pancreatic islets. More importantly, islet cholesterol levels directly and significantly impact the extent of GSIS [glucose-stimulated insulin secretion], independent of FFA levels."
...
"Because of the profound effects of cholesterol on lipid organization and cellular functions, cells have formulated comprehensive mechanisms to maintain membrane cholesterol levels within a narrow range."

In addition to the mechanisms in this study, the same cholesterol-transporting protein referenced in the cholesterol-cancer study above, ABCA1, can also affect insulin secretion:

Islet Cholesterol Accumulation Due to Loss of ABCA1 Leads to Impaired Exocytosis of Insulin Granules

"These data suggest that abnormalities of cholesterol metabolism may contribute to the impaired β-cell function in diabetes."

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The Islets of Langerhans in the pancreas are responsible for secretion of more than just insulin. If high serum cholesterol reduces the ability of the islets to secrete insulin, it may also reduce secretion of glucagon, amylim, somatostatin, ghrelin, and other islet-derived hormones.

These are not epidemiological studies, population-based studies that reveal associations and which many people say are too dogged by confounders and special interests to be trusted. The studies in this post are lab investigations designed to tease out biologically plausible mechanisms which may explain the hypotheses wrought in epidemiology.

Evidence is accruing on cholesterol's effects in the body. High levels can impact not just arteries, but tissue, cell, and organelle membranes too, leading to structural changes that impair cellular function and hormonal regulation. This must make statin makers giddy.

Related: Two Studies That Link Dietary Fat To Cancer
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Remission Of Crohn's Disease With A Semi-Vegetarian Diet

Crohn's disease is a type of inflammatory bowel disease. This study found that a semi-vegetarian diet was more effective at keeping patients symptom-free than an omnivorous diet:

Lifestyle-Related Disease In Crohn’s Disease: Relapse Prevention By A Semi-Vegetarian Diet, World Journal of Gastroenterology, May 2010

Dr. Greger explains:



Finding:

"The semi-vegetarian diet was highly effective in preventing relapse in Crohn's Disease. Remission rate with the semi-vegetarian diet was 100% at 1 year and 92% at 2 years. This is the best result in relapse prevention ever reported."

What did they eat?

"The semi-vegetarian diet in this study was a lacto-ovo-vegetarian diet in which eggs and milk were used. Fish was served once a week and meat once every 2 wk, both at about half of the average amount."

The semi-veg group also ate brown rice three times a day, and several servings of soy foods.

It was a small study, just 22 adults. However, the findings were not just statistically significant but remarkable, since this disease is physically, psychologically, and socially devastating and remission is hard to achieve even with drugs.
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German Shepherd Runs Away from Home, Sleeps On Owner's Grave

From:
Loyal Dog Ran Away From Home To Find His Dead Master's Grave - And Has Stayed By Its Side For Six Years, Daily Mail, 13 September 2012

Mr Guzman bought Capitan as a present for his 13-year-old son Damian in 2005.

He died suddenly in March the next year, but by the time his family had returned home from the funeral Capitan was gone.

Mr Guzman's widow Veronica told Argentina's Cordoba newspaper: 'We searched for him but he had vanished. We thought he must have got run over and died.

'The following Sunday we went to the cemetery and Damian recognised his pet. Capitan came up to us, barking and wailing, as if he were crying.'

She added: 'We had never taken him to the cemetery so it is a mystery how he managed to find the place.

'We went back the next Sunday, and he was there again. This time, he followed us home and spent a bit of time with us, but then went back to the cemetery before it started getting dark.

The cemetery's director Hector Baccega remembers the day he first saw the dog. He said: 'He turned up here one day, all on his own, and started wandering all around the cemetery until he eventually found the tomb of his master.

'During the day he sometimes has a walk around the cemetery, but always rushes back to the grave. And every day, at six o'clock sharp, he lies down on top of the grave stays there all night.'

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Can The New "Nutrition Science Initiative" Remain Unbiased?

@Pronutritionist passed on info about a new project called the Nutrition Science Initiative or NuSI, which seeks to "reduce the economic and social burden of obesity and obesity-related chronic disease by improving the quality of science in nutrition and obesity research."

Here's a slide show describing the project, which I found on the blog of Tim Ferriss. Ferriss is the author of "The 4-Hour Workweek" and a member of NuSI's Board of Advisors:



The project founders are Peter Attia and Gary Taubes, who are President and Director, respectively, of the new NuSI.

It sounds appealing, no?

"Biases are discarded in favor of solid, experimental data. ... No hidden agenda, no corporate interests, nothing to do with food subsidies or ulterior motives. Just good science. It’s about time, right?" - Ferriss

Research is always biased, more or less. This will be a tall order for them.

The slide show above says, "the time has come to test [the alternative hypothesis] rigorously," and "to set aside conventional wisdom," which they define in part as "eating too many calories relative to how many calories are expended."

So, it appears, at least from this material, that the project will be setting aside investigation as to whether eating less has an impact on obesity. This is a concept I first read about in Gary Taubes' book, "Good Calories, Bad Calories," where he said,

"Obesity is a disorder of excess fat accumulation, not overeating, and not sedentary behavior."

"Consuming excess calories does not cause [Taubes' emphasis] us to grow fatter, any more than it causes a child to grow taller. Expending more energy than we consume does not lead to long-term weight loss; it leads to hunger."

Choosing not to study the science behind conventional wisdom sounds biased to me, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

I am also curious if NuSI's science will address food access. Economics, politics, culture, class, geography, logistics ... these all play a role in food choice. The poor experience higher rates of obesity in this country and access to healthful food is one reason why.
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Are Most Research Findings False? Is That A Bad Thing?

I have some thoughts on this essay that Melinda posted in Comments:

Why Most Published Research Findings Are False, Ioannidis J, PLOS Medicine, August 2005.

I didn't understand what Ioannidis meant by "false," and to what it was being applied. What findings are false? Data results? Interpretation of data results? Hypotheses generated from interpretation of data results? And what is meant by "false?" I feel uncomfortable characterizing things as "true" and "false." Things just aren't that absolute.

After scanning the paper, I still don't see how he defined "findings," although by "false" I'm going to say he was referring to "findings" that are unsupported.

All studies are flawed. All studies are biased. Every single study that exists can be justifiably criticized. This is why science and research exist in the first place, to make sense of a seemingly nonsensical universe.

The risk in emphasizing the idea that studies are flawed, biased, or that findings are false, is that we, consumers of research, might not give study findings due consideration. We might not apply our minds in judging the adequacy of the research design (e.g. does what they measured answer the question they asked?) or the validity of the authors' data interpretation. We might not task ourselves with investigating author affiliations and research sponsorship.

There's always something to learn from research, no matter how flawed it is. Many of the studies that reported an association between cigarette smoking and lung cancer were criticized for being flawed (notably by tobacco companies), yet the body of evidence today continues to support the notion that smoking increases the risk for lung cancer.

After I wrote the above, I saw this reply to Ioannidis' essay by the editors of PLOS Medicine:

Minimizing Mistakes and Embracing Uncertainty, PLOS Medicine, August 2005

It said much the same. About "findings:"

"Ioannidis doesn't define “findings,” but it seems important to attempt to separate data (“in this study 5% of people examined who lived in San Francisco from 1965–1970 developed lung cancer compared with 20% of people studied who lived in Anchorage”) from conclusions (“lung cancer rates are higher in Anchorage than San Francisco”) and hypotheses (“cold weather exacerbates the consequences of smoking”)."

And about continuing to give research due consideration against a backdrop of not-knowing:

"Consumers also need to become comfortable with uncertainty, and understand the strengths and weaknesses intrinsic to every study conducted and published."

Finally, the idea that most findings in research are false, or flawed, or wrong, and that we could achieve much by embracing uncertainty was iterated in this video by physicist Brian Greene, where he said:

"The most amazing thing about the scientific journey is that we spend most of our life in the dark. We spend most of our life trying to figure things out and most people don't recognize that 99.9% of everything we do is flat out wrong. It's not wrong because we make mistakes, it's wrong because the universe is such a rich source of mystery that our attempts to understand it are usually off the mark. ... It's all about being comfortable searching in the dark."

A friend of mine says, "You can't be criticized for being wrong if you never do anything." So, let's do things! Flawed as they may be.*

* For instance, one good outcome from this Stanford study is that lots of people are talking about it, and lots of people are probably learning the reasons why food produced with fewer chemicals may be more healthful and better for the environment.
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The Role of Wonder in Science, A Conversation With Brian Greene

I stumbled upon this video last night:¹



Here's a little piece:

"The most amazing thing about the scientific journey is that we spend most of our life in the dark. We spend most of our life trying to figure things out and most people don't recognize, but maybe people here do, that 99.9% of everything we do is flat out wrong. It's not wrong because we make mistakes, it's wrong because the universe is such a rich source of mystery that our attempts to understand it are usually off the mark. ... It's all about being comfortable searching in the dark."

Here's some background on Brian Greene. I don't understand physics to anything near this depth (it was still dots (electrons) when I was in school, not strings, although that was beginning to change) but I was still rapt. Why?

• Green's grasp of his topic is so thorough that he can explain esoteric concepts, effectively, to a lay person. ("If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough." - Einstein) In fact, he's known for his popular books on the subject: The Elegant Universe, and The Fabric of the Cosmos both made into NOVA specials on PBS.
• I loved Greene's hand gestures.
• I loved how the interviewer, Michael John Gorman, listened to him, queried him, and just let him speak. Gorman departed from the trend in interviewing these days which sees the host inject his own life stories into the conversation.
• I was impressed by Greene's apparent health, both physically and mentally. While almost three-quarters of adult men in this country are overweight or obese, Greene, at age 49, has remained trim, spry, curious, and competent. His diet? Vegan since 1997.

________¹ Thanks to Robert Piper, @rgpiper, for tweeting it.

The Government Says To Eat Organic Food

The government report below says that chemicals in conventionally-grown food are a problem and we should choose organic foods. Yet the government also says that chemicals in conventionally-grown food aren't a problem (USDA Pesticide Data Program: "The 2010 PDP report confirms that food does not pose a safety concern based upon pesticide residues."). Indeed, the 2010 Dietary Guidelines, which is published jointly by the USDA and the Department of Health and Human Services (the same DHHS which published the report below), makes no mention of pesticides in food.

President's Cancer Panel: Reducing Environmental Cancer Risk (pdf), Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, April 2010

"Exposure to pesticides can be decreased by choosing, to the extent possible, food grown without pesticides or chemical fertilizers and washing conventionally grown produce to remove residues. Similarly, exposure to antibiotics, growth hormones, and toxic run-off from livestock feed lots can be minimized by eating free-range meat raised without these medications if it is available. Avoiding or minimizing consumption of processed, charred, and well-done meats will reduce exposure to carcinogenic heterocyclic amines and polyaromatic hydrocarbons."
...
"In general, adequate infrastructure exists at the Federal level to perform necessary regulatory functions related to the manufacture, use, disposal, and exposure limits of known or suspected environmental carcinogens. However, key agencies are not fulfilling their responsibilities to protect public health. U.S. regulation of environmental contaminants is rendered ineffective by five major problems: (1) inadequate funding and insufficient staffing, (2) fragmented and overlapping authorities coupled with uneven and decentralized enforcement, (3) excessive regulatory complexity, (4) weak laws and regulations, and (5) undue industry influence."
...
"I think we need national programs on a lot of things, and pesticide regulation is one of them, but EPA has chosen to give [regulation of] the administration of pesticides to the various states." - Marion Moses, Pesticide Education Center

So, the President's Cancer Panel is unabashedly advising Americans to eat organically-grown foods to reduce exposure to cancer-causing chemicals, yet the EPA, FDA, USDA, etc., are choosing not to regulate the presence of those chemicals in our food.

How do we know if the EPA's limits on pesticides in food, referenced in this recent Stanford Review of organic food, is worthy if the government itself admits that research is inadequate, industry influence is pervasive, and funds to investigate the problem at all are lacking?

What a mess.

The photo is from the NIH's report above. They aren't beating around the bush here. They're saying quite bluntly that pesticides and other exposures are a problem:

"The American people — even before they are born — are bombarded continually with myriad combinations of these dangerous exposures. The Panel urges you most strongly to use the power of your office to remove the carcinogens and other toxins from our food, water, and air that needlessly increase health care costs, cripple our Nation’s productivity, and devastate American lives."

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CDC's Million Hearts Program

The CDC just launched a new program called Million Hearts, to address our high rates of heart disease and stroke. It's a flashy new website with a lot of tools.

Here are some videos about high blood pressure. What it is and how to treat it:





I like the information in the first one. The second one seems a bit preachy about taking medication. I thought it could have focused more on lifestyle. The style is weird, it reminds me of claymation.

There's a flavor of utopia in these videos, and in a lot of the medical and nutrition materials I've come across over the years. They don't reflect reality. They risk alienating the very people they're trying to reach.
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Stanford Researchers: "There Isn't Much Difference Between Organic And Conventional Foods"

Here's the new study on organic food that's been making headlines:
Are Organic Foods Safer or Healthier Than Conventional Alternatives?: A Systematic Review, Annals of Internal Medicine, 4 September 2012

Which concluded:

"The published literature lacks strong evidence that organic foods are significantly more nutritious than conventional foods."

A few comments:

1. Of the 240 studies it did include, it didn't include one that assessed diabetes risk (or other common mortality-related chronic disease like heart disease or cancer) relative to food contaminants.

For example, the study below found that people with high levels of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) such as pesticides were 38 times! more likely to have diabetes than those with low levels (food is the primary source of POPs):

A Strong Dose-Response Relation Between Serum Concentrations Of Persistent Organic Pollutants [POPs] And Diabetes: Results From The National Health And Examination Survey 1999–2002, Diabetes Care, 2006

2. It found over 35% of conventionally grown produce contained pesticide residues, while 7% of organically grown did. Interesting that 7%. Is that drift? Spraying on the sly?

3. Review studies like this, and their take-home message...

"There isn't much difference between organic and conventional foods, if you're an adult and making a decision based solely on your health," concluded senior study author Dena Bravata.

... Are unfortunate because they divert the conversation away from problems associated with conventional agriculture (such as contaminants in food, environmental degradation, and farm-worker hazards) towards a more remedial problem, vitamin content.
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High-Normal Blood Glucose Tied To Brain Shrinkage

In the US, the "high-normal" blood glucose referred to in this study falls under the category of Impaired Fasting Glucose (IFG) or pre-diabetes. Fasting glucose is usually part of a blood test taken in the morning after an overnight fast and IFG is defined as a BG of 100 to 125 mg/dl. (I think they're calling it "normal" because they're using the World Health Organization's criteria of 110 mg/dl.) There's another pre-diabetic state that shows up as Impaired Glucose Tolerance (IGT) but since the test is done at precise times after eating, it's not as frequently employed.

A staggering number of people have these prediabetic conditions - 35% of those 20 years or older, and 50% of those 65 or older. Affecting nearly 80 million people, prediabetes overshadows the prevalence of diabetes proper.

And prediabetes is not benign, as this one study shows. A high fasting glucose, but still less than 110 mg/dl, was associated with an up to 10% loss of brain volume in the areas of the hippocampus and the amygdala. These areas govern memory, behavior, thinking, and spacial understanding:

Higher Normal Fasting Plasma Glucose Is Associated With Hippocampal Atrophy, Neurology, 4 September 2012

"These findings suggest that even in the subclinical range and in the absence of diabetes, monitoring and management of plasma glucose levels could have an impact on cerebral health. If replicated, this finding may contribute to a reevaluation of the concept of normal blood glucose levels and the definition of diabetes."

From Wikipedia/Amygdala:
"Research using Rorschach test blot 03 (shown below) finds that the number of "unique responses" to this random figure links to larger sized amygdalae."


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Organic Valley Milk Ad

I wonder how true-to-life this image is:


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A List Of Plant-Based Diets

Various kinds of rice are displayed for sale at a market in Jakarta.

Dr. McDougall posted this list of plant-based diets in his August 2012 Newsletter, drawing focus to their similarities:

Barnard Diet (by Neal Barnard, MD, founder of Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine): Based on starches, vegetables and fruits. Diet is low-fat. Emphasis is on no animal foods, ever.

Biblical Daniel Diet: More than 2500 years ago a diet of vegetables and water was found to improve the health of men in 10 days, compared to men eating meat (the king’s food).

China Study Diet (by T. Colin Campbell, PhD): Based on starches, vegetables, and fruits. Animal foods may account for 10% or fewer of foods consumed.

CHIP Program (The Complete Health Improvement Program by Dr. Hans Diehl): Based on starches, vegetables, and fruits. Emphasis is on eating low-fat.

Esselstyn Diet (by Caldwell Esselstyn, MD): Based on starches, vegetables, and fruits. No nuts, seeds, avocados, or other fatty plant foods are allowed. Emphasis is on eating very low-fat.

Engine 2 Diet (by Rip Esselstyn): Based on starches, vegetables, and fruits. Emphasis is on eating very low-fat.

Fuhrman Diet (by Joel Fuhrman, MD): Based on green and yellow vegetables, beans, nuts, and seeds. Not always low in fat. Small amounts of animal foods allowed. Emphasis is on eating “nutrient-dense” greens.

Hallelujah Diet (by Rev. George Malkmus): Consists of 85% raw, uncooked, and unprocessed plant-based food, and 15% cooked, plant-based foods.

Kempner Rice Diet (by Walter Kempner, MD): Based on rice and fruits. More plant foods and a few animal foods are allowed after recovery. Emphasis is on eating very low sodium.

Macrobiotic Diet: Based on grains (rice) and vegetables. Fish, seafood, seeds, and nuts may be eaten occasionally.

McDougall Diet (by John McDougall, MD): Based on starches, vegetables, and fruits. Healthy, trim people can eat some nuts, seeds, and avocados. Animal foods for holidays, at most. Emphasis is on eating starches.

Natural Hygiene Diet (by Herbert M. Shelton, ND): Advocates a raw food diet of vegetables, fruits, and nuts; and also periodic fasting and food combining.

Ornish Diet (by Dean Ornish, MD): Based on starches, vegetables and fruits. Low-fat dairy, some fish, and fish oils are used at times. Emphasis is on eating very low-fat.

Popper Diet (by Pam Popper, PhD): Based on starches, vegetables, and fruits. Emphasis is on eating very low-fat.

Pritikin Diet (by Nathan Pritikin): The original diet was based on starches, vegetables and fruits. Small amounts of meat, poultry, fish, and low-fat dairy are allowed. Emphasis is on eating very low-fat.

While not all of these diets exclude animal foods, they're nonetheless distinct from diets which focus on animal foods, "such as low-carb, Paleo, Primal, Zone, Wheat Belly, Atkins, etc." Many of them are also low in fat.
________Photo from the international news site GlobalPost:
Southeast Asia: Food Crisis Feed: The region of Southeast Asia remains safe from droughts and crop shortages affecting other parts of the globe. What insulates them from the agricultural struggle? Rice.
Look at all those different kinds of rice. I'd love to try them!