They had been told that the insulin that their son was supposed to be taking for his Type 1 diabetes was poison, Solis testified. Timothy Morrow, a herbalist based in Torrance, Calif., had instead told them to rub lavender oil on the boy’s spine and prescribed herbal medicine that he claimed would cure Lopez for life.

burden of dementia

A 2015 clip about vaccination from iHealthTube.com, a “natural health” YouTube channel, is one of the videos that now sports a small gray box.

The HMO Act of 1973 changed that premise. It authorized for-profit IPA-HMOs in which HMOs may contract with independent practice associations (IPAs) that, in turn, contract with individual physicians for services and compensation. By the late 1990s, 80 percent of MCOs were for-profit organizations, and only 68 percent or less of insurance premiums went toward medical care.

Nixon signed into law, the Health Maintenance Organization Act of 1973, in which medical insurance agencies, hospitals, clinics and even doctors, could begin functioning as for-profit business entities instead of the service organizations they were intended to be. 

a group of teachers created a program through Baylor University Hospital where they would agree to pre-pay for future medical services (up to 21 days in advance). The resulting organization was not-for-profit and only covered hospital services. It was essentially the precursor to Blue Cross.

Since U.S. businesses were prohibited from offering higher salaries, they began looking for other ways to recruit new employees as well as incentivizing existing ones to stay. Their solution was the foundation of employer-sponsored health insurance as we know it today.

Because health benefits could be considered part of compensation but did not count as income, workers did not have to pay income tax or payroll taxes on those benefits. Thus, by 1943, employers had an increased incentive to make health insurance arrangements for their workers, and the modern era of employer-sponsored health insurance began

High-quality protein The reason why animal proteins are generally considered “higher quality” when it comes to building muscle is down to the type of amino acids they contain. Amino acids, in particular one called leucine, are thought to be key to driving muscle protein synthesis. In general, animal proteins have a higher proportion (9%-13%) of leucine than plant proteins (6%-8%). Plus, animal-based proteins usually contain all nine essential amino acids whereas most plant-based proteins are missing one or more of these amino acids. There are exceptions such as maize protein, which boasts a 12% leucine content, and quinoa, which has a full complement of all essential amino acids. So it may be that certain plant proteins are just as effective as so-called “higher-quality” animal proteins. We can potentially increase the “quality” of a plant-based proteins by fortifying them with extra leucine, combining different sources to make sure the food has all essential amino acids, or simply increasing the recommended amount of a plant protein source. As a note of caution, the latter option could require as much as 60 grams of certain plant proteins (for example seven large potatoes) – a dose that some people may struggle to consume. The search continues for a more sustainable and environmentally friendly source of protein that can offer similar muscle-building potential to animal proteins. But based on currently available evidence, vegan bodybuilders will have to pay particular attention to their diets to achieve the same results.

Climate change food calculator: What's your diet's carbon footprint?

Climate change: Which vegan milk is best?

Slaughter-Free Milk Is Great for Cows, But Not the Environment

An inconvenient truth If you’re keen on your flat whites, yoghurts and cheeses, the truth behind conventional dairy production is not an easy one to face. Most people perhaps are not aware that to produce the milk we desire, cows are kept almost continually pregnant, with calves taken away from their mothers within 24 hours so that milk can be harvested for human consumption – a process that leaves both mother and baby deeply distressed and bellowing for each other for days. Palmer (and animal welfare groups) estimates between 400,000 and 800,000 of male calves (known within the industry as ‘bobby calves’) are sent to slaughter, as is a significant portion of females and while a cow has a natural life expectancy of 20-30 years, most dairy cows are slaughtered around the four-to-five-year-mark once their milk dries up.

Dairy cows add substantial amounts of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. In some places they contribute to the conversion of natural habitat to agricultural land due to the increasing demand for feed crops such as corn, alfalfa and soy. Dairy operations can also be significant contributors to water pollution and soil degradation when manure and feed crop production are poorly managed. Farmers can significantly reduce environmental impacts through the use of better management practices and technologies. Climate change Dairy production has a considerable effect on climate change due to emissions of greenhouse gases such as methane, nitrous oxide, and carbon dioxide. In the US, the greatest sources of these emissions in milk production include feed production, enteric fermentation and manure management. Air Airborne emissions of ammonia can damage downstream habitats, resulting in the loss of species diversity. The output of particulate matter and odor from on-farm activities can negatively impact air quality. Water Dairy operations can consume large volumes of water to grow feed, water cows, manage manure and process products. Additionally, manure and fertilizer runoff from dairy farms can pollute water resources. The increased nutrients in local waterways contribute to the growth of algae, which reduces oxygen for aquatic plant and animal life. Habitat Currently over two-thirds of the world's agricultural land is used for maintaining livestock, including beef and dairy cows. One-third of the world's land suffers desertification due, in large part, to deforestation, overgrazing and poor agricultural practices. In some circumstances, dairy cows can contribute to healthy habitats through well-managed grazing. Soil Health Livestock farming is one of the main contributors to soil erosion around the world. Turning forests into pasture or feed crop production areas, overgrazing and soil impaction from cattle’s hooves can lead to extreme loss of topsoil and organic matter that could take decades or centuries to replace. On the other hand, well-managed manure application and grazing can improve the soil health of pastures and crop lands. Animal Health and Welfare Improper handling of dairy cows decreases the productivity of cows due to stress and ill health, and leads to increased greenhouse gas emissions. Disease in cattle can limit export options, pose supply risks and contribute to production inefficiencies.

The Secret To The Inuit High-Fat Diet May Be Good Genes

What Would Happen if You Only Ate Meat?

FYI: What Would Happen If I Ate Nothing But Meat?

Dairy and EggsIf you eat dairy, eggs or both, your protein options are a lot more extensive. Eggs are said to be among the most bioavailable sources of protein in the human diet. According to a 2004 review in the Journal of Sports Science and Medicine, egg has a biological value of 100, second only to whey, with a value of 104. One large egg has 6 g of protein. Milk, with 8 g of protein per cup, has a biological value of 94, making it another high-quality protein source. Other protein-rich milk products include: Cottage cheese: 15 g per 1/2 cup Yogurt: 10 g per cup Greek yogurt: 22.5 g per cup Including eggs and dairy in your vegetarian diet also offers more protein powder options: Whey: 22 g per 28-g serving Casein: 26 g in a 30-g serving Egg: 24 g per 32-ounce serving

Plant-based protein powders are often more concentrated sources of protein. Using these in smoothies or to stir into oatmeal will help you get more protein than you could from whole foods alone. Some choices you have when choosing a plant-based protein powder include: Pea protein: 21 g per 28-g serving Hemp protein: 12 g per serving Pumpkin seed protein: 18 g per serving Brown rice protein: 22 g per serving Soy protein: 22 g per serving

Seitan (made from wheat gluten): 25 g in 3.5 ounces Tofu (made from soybeans): 9 g in 3.5 ounces Garbanzo beans: 15 g per cup Quinoa: 8 g per cup, cooked Lentils: 18 g per cup, cooked Hempseed: 9.5 g in 3 tablespoons Almonds: 8 g in 1/4 cup

This research supports the idea that the more fruit and veg you eat the better – at least, up to 10 portions (800g) a day.

Many countries - including Germany, the Netherlands and New Zealand - recommend five portions a day. Some others - including Canada and Japan - recommend seven or more. France goes as far as recommending 10 portions of fruit and vegetables a day. In Australia, they say the emphasis should be on eating more vegetables than fruit and recommend five portions of vegetables and two of fruit per day.

In his letter, Sir Tim outlined three specific areas of "dysfunction" that he said were harming the web today: malicious activity such as hacking and harassment problematic system design such as business models that reward clickbait unintended consequences, such as aggressive or polarised discussions

is a waterborne bacterial disease, caused by the leptospiro bacteria. It rarely spreads from person to person and can be treated with common antib

Now, as part of my regular practice, I spend about five minutes out of each hour exercising with this package. This almost always reveals things to me that change at least the slant of my approach during the next hour, and often stimulates a relatively significant change in my short-range plans.

This a harrowing story made even sadder by the grim reality of the statistics.

I used to be comforted by their cheering words, by the hours they spent at my bedside, and by their conversation.

So if you are tired during the day, check that you’re giving yourself the opportunity to get 7 to 9 hours.

So if you are tired during the day, check that you’re giving yourself the opportunity to get 7 to 9 hours.

anxious

Davis and col-leagues (3) provide useful new data that enhance our un-derstanding of the effects of hospitalists on health sys-tems. In their study of a voluntary hospitalist system at alarge rural nonteaching hospital in Mississippi, theyfound that patients cared for by hospitalists had adjustedhospital stays that were 25% shorter, and costs that were12% less, than patients cared for by nonhospitalist inter-nists. For patients in the highest severity group, these sav-ings were even greater. Annualized, the authors extrapo-late that the hospitalists would have saved $2.5 millionhad they cared for all of the internists’ patients. As withprior studies that found similar reductions in resourceuse (4 –7), these substantial savings were achieved with-out diminishing quality or patient satisfaction. Nor wasthere evidence of cost shifting: hospitalists’ patients wereno less likely to be discharged to home (instead of anotherinstitution such as a skilled nursing facility) than werepatients of primary care internists. We can now state withconsiderable confidence that hospitalists markedly de-crease inpatient costs and lengths of stay with no compro-mise in quality or patient satisfaction.

Meditation can not only provide a welcome counterweight to this work with abstractions, it also cultives 10 qualities of character (Pali: paramis) that are useful during the practice of programming.

Polls show that doctors are trusted by the public more than politicians, which means it’s hard for public policy to shape the healthcare system unless medical associations sign off on it.

“It’s about embracing the inscrutable nature of human interactions,” says Chang. Evidence-based medicine was a massive improvement over intuition-based medicine, he says, but it only covers traditionally quantifiable data, or those things that are easy to measure. But we’re now quantifying information that was considered qualitative a generation ago.

“Our biggest opportunity is leaning into that. It’s either embracing the qualitative nature of that and designing systems that can act just on the qualitative nature of their experience, or figuring how to quantitate some of those qualitative measures,” says Chang. “That’ll get us much further, because the real value in health care systems is in the human interactions. My relationship with you as a doctor and a patient is far more valuable than the evidence that some trial suggests.”

Duffy points to the increase in health care interactions online and adds that he would like to see a pervasive culture of in-person care as last resort. “If every organizational decision, technology decision, process decision — assuming all the payment stuff, that’s kind of ticket of entry, transpires — if you view in-person as last resort, that will help pull systems across the country to a more consumer-forward Uber-like experience,” he says

As with other forms of value-based health care, patient-centered care requires a shift in the way provider practices and health systems are designed, managed, and reimbursed. In keeping with the tenets of patient-centeredness, this shift neither happens in a vacuum, it driven by traditional hierarchies in which providers or clinicians are the lone authority. Everyone, from the parking valet and environmental services staff to c-suite members, are engaged in the process, which impacts hiring, training, leadership style, and organizational culture. Patient-centered care also represents a shift in the traditional roles of patients and their families from one of passive “order taker” to one of active “team member.” One of the country’s leading proponents of patient-centered care, Dr. James Rickert, has stated that one of the basic tenets of patient-centered care is that “patients know best how well their health providers are meeting their needs.” To that end, many providers are implementing patient satisfaction surveys, patient and family advisory councils, and focus groups, and using the resulting information to continuously improve the way health care facilities and provider practices are designed, managed, and maintained from both a physical and operational perspective so they become centered more on the individual person than on a checklist of services provided. As the popularity of patient- and family-centered health care increases, it is expected that patients will become more engaged and satisfied with the delivery of their care, and evidence of its clinical efficacy should continue to mount.

Poor health literacy is a silent and ubiquitous health care issue, and the field of neurosurgery is particularly prone to the consequent adverse effects. Failure to address low health literacy has several detrimental health and economic consequences, and numerous policies have been initiated to address these. Better facilitating patient understanding of neurosurgical disease, treatment options, and care surrounding the operative period may have a positive impact on the health care economy and ultimately achieve improved outcomes for patients.

Deyo et al. (8) demonstrated a reduction in the adverse impact of inadequate health literacy in the neurosurgical field. The impact of an interactive videodisc program that informs patients of their treatment options for back surgery on patient outcome and surgical choices was evaluated. The program helped facilitate decision making and ensured informed consent. It also reduced surgery rates for patients with herniated disks. The authors of this study also implemented the use of patient-oriented multimedia to augment comprehension and advocated a similar strategy for other clinicians. Further commitment is needed to put health literacy at the forefront of improving health care and reducing health expenditures, especially in neurosurgery.

Paasche-Orlow et al. (18) suggested 3 principles to ameliorate health literacy disparities. The first is to promote productive interactions. Clinicians need to develop better communication abilities and take appropriate measures to ensure adequate comprehension of health information. Educating youth and establishing health literacy standards in the educational system can help improve existing and future health literacy rates. Incorporating health literacy classes as a component of training for health professionals and in studies of preventive services can increase awareness among providers, facilitating better communication and quality of care (19). Additionally, transmitting complex ideas can be aided with the use of technology platforms. Yin et al. (25) investigated the plausibility of a pictogram-based intervention program to reduce medication administration errors. The authors found that when the intervention was used as part of medication counseling, there was a decrease in medication dosage errors compared with standard medication counseling.The second principle is concerned with addressing the organization of health care. Paasche-Orlow et al. advocated patient-centered care, streamlined access to health care, and incentives to promote collaboration to address the needs of the health illiterate population. The U.S. government created and enacted several major policies that address this principle to diminish the adverse effects of poor health literacy. The first is the Affordable Care Act, which stipulates that health plans and insurers must provide understandable and clear health information regarding coverage and benefits (11). Because most Americans receiving coverage through the new legislative act have limited health literacy, standardized information about health care would greatly assist these Americans in making better-informed health decisions (15). Another policy is the National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy (22). This is the first plan of its kind to create health literacy goals for the entire country. It intends to provide all Americans with access to accurate health information, deliver patient-focused services, and support learning and skills that improve health. All of these acts and policies have the potential to improve 3 keys to health care: access, quality, and cost.The third principle from the study by Paasche-Orlaw et al. involves establishing an objective and sincere voice for better delivery of health information to the community. Individuals may have appropriate health literacy levels, but other personal or environmental factors can contribute to a lower understanding of vital health information. Ito (9) analyzed Vietnamese refugees who tested positive for inactive tuberculosis and their response to prophylactic tuberculosis treatment. Ito found that the immigrants were more hesitant to complete the medication regimen because the side effects were too “hot.” Instead, the immigrants preferred Asian herbal medications as they were considered “cooling.” Von Goeler et al. (23) investigated diabetes self-management among Puerto Rican adults with type 2 diabetes and found that the participants regularly self-monitored their blood glucose levels. However, they did not use that information to control their diabetes properly because of financial and social barriers such as competing family concerns. Situations such as these call for a voice, a cultural broker, who understands the environmental obstacles to comprehending and using health information fully.

Koh et al. (11) detailed a cycle of crisis care elaborating the nature of high medical costs, possibly resulting from fear and denial. First, an individual is in need of medical help, so he or she goes to a physician's office where the staff asks the individual to fill out a complex and confusing form. The physician examines the patient and explains the condition and treatment options using medical jargon. Numerous prescriptions, laboratory tests, and referrals are given without confirmation of the patient's comprehension. The staff sends the patient home with complicated instructions. Inevitably, the patient may consume medication incorrectly or miss follow-up appointments, and his or her condition worsens. Eventually, the patient presents to the emergency department, and the hospital staff develops a new treatment plan. Again, no one confirms the patient's understanding. When the patient is discharged, he or she is likely to get sick again and repeat the cycle (11)

Silvia’s father went to prison when she was a baby, and served 10 years for selling drugs. Without his support, her mother struggled to provide financially for her and her brother. Her mother also suffered from a mental disorder for which she received SSI. While Silvia was growing up, the family relied on public assistance and ate mostly cheap food such as canned ravioli and Ramen noodles. Silvia remembers being hungry often and recalls that her mother often ignored Silvia and her brother.

They found that an hour after being released in a room at a relative humidity of 23% or less, 70-77% of viral particles retained their infectious capacity, but when humidity was increased to about 43%, only 14% of the virus particles were capable of infecting cells. Most of this inactivation occurred within the first fifteen minutes of the viral particles being released in the high-humidity condition. The study concludes that maintaining indoor relative humidity at levels greater than 40% can significantly reduce the infectious capacity of aerosolized flu virus.

A review of the health effects of relative humidity in indoor environments suggests that relative humidity can affect the incidence of respiratory infections and allergies. Experimental studies on airborne-transmitted infectious bacteria and viruses have shown that the survival or infectivity of these organisms is minimized by exposure to relative humidities between 40 and 70%. Nine epidemiological studies examined the relationship between the number of respiratory infections or absenteeism and the relative humidity of the office, residence, or school. The incidence of absenteeism or respiratory infections was found to be lower among people working or living in environments with mid-range versus low or high relative humidities. The indoor size of allergenic mite and fungal populations is directly dependent upon the relative humidity. Mite populations are minimized when the relative humidity is below 50% and reach a maximum size at 80% relative humidity. Most species of fungi cannot grow unless the relative humidity exceeds 60%. Relative humidity also affects the rate of offgassing of formaldehyde from indoor building materials, the rate of formation of acids and salts from sulfur and nitrogen dioxide, and the rate of formation of ozone. The influence of relative humidity on the abundance of allergens, pathogens, and noxious chemicals suggests that indoor relative humidity levels should be considered as a factor of indoor air quality. The majority of adverse health effects caused by relative humidity would be minimized by maintaining indoor levels between 40 and 60%. This would require humidification during winter in areas with cold winter climates. Humidification should preferably use evaporative or steam humidifiers, as cool mist humidifiers can disseminate aerosols contaminated with allergens.

Ambient (outdoor) air quality and health

health of the Internet.

So a weighted blanket it is. “We’re not understanding how to deal with [mental health]. Instead, we’re throwing products at it,” says Beautiful Voyager’s Arthur. “It’s very American.”

So, yes, meditation apps may help us meditate, and meditation may reduce anxiety. Weighted blankets may calm us down long enough to fall and stay asleep, which will help us feel better the next day. And fidget devices can distract us so that instead of ruminating on negative thoughts, we’re expending mental energy on something physical.

There are plenty of places to point fingers: your phone, the president, climate change, the recession, FOMO, divorce, social media, student debt, terrorism, the 24-hour news cycle, the economy, “the economy,” living farther from family, toxins in your gut, too many choices, too little sleep, too little sex. Or maybe we’re just overdiagnosing anxiety and actually, everything’s fine.

mental health and addiction services

medical care

Matthew Mayer, a professor of educational psychology at Rutgers’ Graduate School of Education, says that among experts the best solutions to school shootings are not really in dispute: basic gun control, more and better mental-health services and a robust national threat-assessment program. We also need to help educators create an atmosphere where students who hear about a potential threat feel comfortable sharing that information with adults. (Many student shooters, including Gabe Parker at Marshall County, hint about their plans to at least one other person or tell them outright. Getting those others to inform teachers is one of our best options for preventing shootings from happening in the first place.) In February, Mayer and his colleagues circulated an eight-point document titled “A Call for Action to Prevent Gun Violence in the United States of America,” which summarized these and other key actions needed to reduce the risk of school shootings. So far, 4,400 educators and public-health experts have signed it. But political will is still missing. “We keep revisiting the same conversations every five or six years without learning or changing much of anything,” Mayer says. “Armed guards and metal detectors make it look like you’re doing something. You get far fewer points for talking about school climate and mental health.”

Anomie (/ˈænəˌmi/) is a "condition in which society provides little moral guidance to individuals".[1] It is the breakdown of social bonds between an individual and the community, e.g., under unruly scenarios resulting in fragmentation of social identity and rejection of self-regulatory values.

The technical and theoretical details underlying clinical informatics are beyond the scope of this chapter. What follows is a concise introduction to topics and resources of general interest in this field, presented to help clinicians use information technology for the benefit of patient care.

Satisfaction with cost to you88.93

Convenience of location for you84.17

Friendliness and courtesy of the staff78.63 High

Accuracy and completeness in filling out reports73.66

Skill and competency of medical staff

Speed in completing examination and reports

She reached behind her to her bookshelf, which held about a dozen blue bottles of something called Real Water, which is not stripped of “valuable electrons,” which supposedly creates free radicals something something from the body’s cells.

A 2016 Lancet study found that universal breast-feeding would prevent 800,000 child deaths a year across the globe and yield $300 billion in savings from reduced health care costs and improved economic outcomes for those reared on breast milk.

Transcriptome-wide association study of schizophrenia and chromatin activity yields mechanistic disease insights

There are many resources available to help you and your health care proxy develop a care plan. These are merely suggestions to get you thinking about possible scenarios and topics to discuss. I hope you found this blog informative, and urge you to share it with anyone who does not have a health care proxy. We always think it will never happen to us, but what if it does? It's best to be prepared!

Further, a doctor, medical center, hospital, EMT, and even assisted living staff can make decisions regarding your healthcare, treatment methods and type of medical care to provide you if you are not married, over 18 years old, and do not have a health care proxy in place

Who would decide what was best for you? Who would advocate on your behalf?

Health care proxy: An advance medical directive in the form of a legal document that designates another person (a proxy) to make health care decisions in case a person is rendered incapable of making his or her wishes known.

The question each proxy should ask when making decisions on behalf of others is, who am I truly serving — the patient or myself?

When the patient is unwilling or unable to make medical decisions, the health care proxy is activated and he or she is obligated to make all health choices on behalf of the patient. These may be related to withdrawing or withholding life support, instituting artificial liquid feeding, attempting resuscitation and even whether or not to participate in autopsy and organ donation.

Many lives have been saved by parents doing something simple. Beginning in the 1960s American military doctors and researchers in Dhaka developed a therapy for acute diarrhoea—a sweet, salty oral rehydration solution. This is now dirt cheap and widely available. At the last count, fully 84% of Bangladeshi parents with stricken children fed it to them (only a third saw a doctor). Thinly populated African countries are struggling to match that. One promising idea is to distribute the sachets along with Coca-Cola—which gets everywhere.

many Indians continue to defecate in the open. Bangladesh’s government and charities have built latrines, too, but they have worked harder to stigmatise open defecation. Often they install latrines for the poor and then prod richer folk into following their example. A new, surprising, finding is that this works better than expecting people to copy their social superiors.

have been selectively bred

In fact, it's a huge indicator that there are underlying issues.

A beneficial impact of the fat quality on insulin sensitivity is not seen in individuals with a high fat intake (> 37E%).

The domain of personalised medicine, in particular, is overflowing with possibilities for innovation [3].

Government announces it has secured a major strategic investment into UK by MSD ahead of this morning’s publication of its flagship Industrial Strategy Landmark investment comes as a huge vote of confidence in the government’s approach to industrial strategy, with the global healthcare company committing to open a new world-class hub in the UK

The five conditions with the highest burden are (in order) depression, bipolar disorder, alcohol use disorders, social phobia and schizophrenia.

Then Dan Bloomfield reviews what makes nature-based interventions in mental health successful. Follow-ing this there are two accounts of using green spaces in mental health services, from Australia and the UK.

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is important to them

Large computer networks (and their associated users) may “wake up” as superhumanly intelligent entities.

American Council on Science and Health

American Council on Science and Health

American Council on Science and Health

American Council on Science and Health

American Council on Science and Health

American Council on Science and Health

American Council on Science and Health

American Council on Science and Health

Section 139A of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by adding at the end the following new sentence: “This section shall not be taken into account for purposes of determining whether any deduction is allowable with respect to any cost taken into account in determining such payment.”.

American Industrial Health Council

American Industrial Health Council

American Industrial Health Council

American Industrial Health Council

American Industrial Health Council

American Industrial Health Council

American Industrial Health Council

American Industrial Health Council

American Industrial Health Council

American Industrial Health Council

American Industrial Health Council

American Industrial Health Council

American Industrial Health Council

American Industrial Health Council

American Industrial Health Council

American Industrial Health Council

American Council on Science and Health

American Council on Science and Health

American Council on Science and Health

Exercise is often positioned as something that always lowers blood glucose; however, high-intensity exercise, such as sprinting or weight lifting, can sometimes raise blood glucose. This stems from the adrenaline response, which tells the body to release stored glucose. Often, I find this happens when I’m exercising in the morning on an empty stomach. But this is not a reason to avoid high intensity exercise – studies show it can improve blood glucose for one to three days post-exercise! Note that in some cases high-intensity exercise can also drop blood glucose very rapidly (2-3 mg/dl per minute), especially if you have insulin on board in your pump. The best way to see how individual exercise sessions affect your blood glucose is to test prior and after activity. “The Impact of brief, high-intensity exercise on blood glucose levels” (Diabetes Metab Syndr Obes 2013)

“It may sound like an incredibly bold statement, however, Dr. Bergman will discuss exactly how 97% of diseases can be prevented and cured.

Findings In a meta-regression analysis of 49 clinical trials with 312 175 participants, each 1-mmol/L (38.7-mg/dL) reduction in LDL-C level was associated with a relative risk (RR) of major vascular events of 0.77 (95% CI, 0.71-0.84; P < .001) for statins and 0.75 (95% CI, 0.66-0.86; P = .002) for established nonstatin interventions that act primarily via upregulation of LDL receptor expression.Meaning These data suggest statins and nonstatin therapies that act through upregulation of LDL receptor expression are associated with similar cardiovascular risk reduction per decrease in LDL-C. The clinical value of adding specific nonstatin interventions to lower LDL-C to background statin therapy should be confirmed in appropriately powered clinical trials.

In addition, the vast majority of animal studies have shown that oral administration of PS reduces the progression atherosclerosis. However, it has been recently suggested that an increase in PS plasma concentrations may increase CV risk. Evidence to support this hypothesis come mainly from observations in sitosterolemic patients who hyperabsorb PS and cholesterol and display very high levels of PS, which may be associated with a premature atherosclerosis. Some epidemiological studies in non-sitosterolemic subjects have shown a positive correlation between PS plasma levels and coronary heart disease. However, these are observational studies and some of them present major methodological bias. In addition, recent studies with a larger number of subjects have indicated, either an absence or a negative relationship between PS and the incidence of CV disease.

One way exercise can protect against atherosclerosis (and therefore heart disease) is by increasing shear stress on the arterial walls, which causes the endothelium to become less permeable (less accepting of oxidized LDL particles) and produce more nitric oxide (a potent inhibitor of LDL oxidation). You can think of exercise, then, not just as training for your muscles, but also for your arterial walls. It’s enough of an inflammatory stressor to induce an adaptive response. Of course, too much shear stress can be too inflammatory and might actually cause atherosclerosis to progress.

The most effective approach has been minimizing fat stores located inside the abdominal cavity (visceral body fat) in addition to minimizing total body fat.[46] Visceral fat, which is more metabolically active than subcutaneous fat, has been found to produce many enzymatic signals, e.g. resistin, which increase insulin resistance and circulating VLDL particle concentrations, thus both increasing LDL particle concentrations and accelerating the development of diabetes mellitus.

In summary, reducing dietary saturated fat is associated with an increase in LDL-receptor abundance of magnitude similar to the decrease in serum LDL-cholesterol. Thus, an important mechanism by which reductions in dietary saturated fatty acids decrease LDL-cholesterol in humans is through an increase in LDL-receptor number.

“beauty parlor stroke syndrome.”

In line with data in humans [8], feeding of dietary monounsaturated fat to nonhuman primates reduced LDL without lowering HDL, and in comparison to saturated and polyunsaturated fat, provided the lowest LDL to HDL ratio [9•]. On the other hand, replacement of some of the saturated fat with monounsaturated fat was associated with an even greater enrichment of LDL particles with cholesteryl oleate, a change in LDL particle composition that has been shown to confer atherogenicity [9•]. However, caution is needed in applying the results from animal experiments to humans.