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Month: July 2021

Published on Leave a comment on Coffee Can Have Health Benefits, But Perhaps Harmful In Large Amounts

Recently there have been studies with conflicting results about the health benefits or harms from coffee consumption. Overall, it seems like moderate intake is OK and beneficial for adults, but too much may cause harm. And avoid caffeinated coffee if pregnant. Yesterday I posted about several recent studies finding health benefits from daily coffee consumption.

Coffee has anti-inflammatory effects, and contains more than a thousand chemical compounds. Over the years many studies found health benefits with regular and decaffeinated coffee, especially when a filter is used in the brewing process (e.g. drip coffee). But when the coffee is made by methods that don't filter the coffee (e.g. French press) the results may show harm, especially if large quantities are consumed daily.

The following are two recent studies finding that coffee consumption is associated with health benefits, and two studies finding potential harm from coffee consumption of over 6 cups a day. Note that whether the coffee is filtered or not may make a difference in results (the last 2 studies).

From (Jan. 11, 2021) Science Daily: Higher coffee intake may be linked to lower prostate cancer risk ...continue reading "Coffee Can Have Health Benefits, But Perhaps Harmful In Large Amounts"

Published on Leave a comment on Drinking Moderate Amounts of Coffee Has Health Benefits

Recently there have been studies finding health benefits from daily coffee consumption, and some finding possible harm. Overall, it seems like moderate intake is OK and beneficial for adults, but too much (over 6 cups daily) may cause harm. And avoid drinking caffeinated coffee if pregnant.

Coffee has anti-inflammatory effects, and contains more than a thousand chemical compounds.

Many studies do not separate out the different preparation methods (drip, percolated, French press), but just look at the amount consumed daily, and whether it was regular or decaffeinated. When the preparation methods are looked at, some studies find health benefits when a filter is used in the brewing process, but not with French press or other methods that don't filter the coffee.

The following are three recent studies finding that coffee consumption is associated with a surprising variety of health benefits.

Researchers looked at UK Biobank data on 495,585 participants. Coffee consumption was associated with a reduced risk of developing chronic liver disease and related liver conditions. From (June 21, 2021) Medical Xpress: Drinking any type of coffee associated with reduced risk of chronic liver disease ...continue reading "Drinking Moderate Amounts of Coffee Has Health Benefits"

Published on Leave a comment on Legislation That Would Regulate “Forever Chemicals”

Finally, some good news (perhaps) regarding the damaging,  unregulated, and widely used PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) chemicals. PFAS are man-made chemicals commonly called "forever chemicals" because of how they stick around, persist, and contaminate both humans and the environment. Including our communities, our drinking water (at least 2411 drinking water systems), and military installations.

Last week the US House of Representatives passed a bill (PFAS Action Act, H.R. 2467) that would finally designate certain PFAS compounds as hazardous substances, would regulate PFAS  in drinking water, and would issue grants to help community water systems treat PFAS contaminated water. It would make clean-up of PFAS contamination of groundwater at military installations a priority (PFAS was in the firefighting foams used by the military).

These chemicals have been used for years in many industrial and consumer products, such as food packaging, non-stick cookware, cosmetics,  and products containing stain and water-repellents (e.g. fabrics, carpeting). Even dental floss!

Why the concern? PFAS are known endocrine (hormone) disruptors associated with all sorts of harmful health problems, including cancers, reproductive harm (e.g. poorer semen quality), lowered sex and growth hormones in children, thyroid disease, immune effects, and liver and kidney damage. Unfortunately, they are already found in the bodies of almost all Americans (at varying levels), so we should try to reduce our exposure.

Of course industry opposes the legislation and called it a ban. No, it's not a ban, but a first step in regulating the chemicals and cleaning up contamination. We'll see what happens in the Senate. Will they also pass legislation?

Excerpts from The Beacon: U.S. House passes PFAS bill regulating ‘forever chemicals’ in drinking water

The U.S. House on July 21 passed bipartisan legislation that would regulate toxic chemicals found in drinking water, as well as designate two types of those toxic chemicals as hazardous substances that would spark federal cleanup standards.   ...continue reading "Legislation That Would Regulate “Forever Chemicals”"

Published on Leave a comment on Fermented Foods Are Good For Your Gut Microbiome

It has been known for a while that eating fermented foods and high fiber foods is healthy for us. A recent study confirms this view. Researchers at the Stanford Univ. of Medicine found that eating fermented foods actually reduces inflammation and increases the diversity of gut microbes (gut microbiome).

Researchers randomly assigned volunteers to one of 2 groups for 10 weeks: the fermentation foods group, and the high fiber group. Surprisingly, the group eating the high fiber diet for 10 weeks did not have changes in microbial diversity or changes in the 19 inflammatory markers studied. Instead, the researchers reported that the high-fiber diet "changes microbiome function and elicits personalized immune responses".

The fermented foods group ate a diet rich in yogurt, kefir, fermented cottage cheese, kimchi and other fermented vegetables (e.g. sauerkraut, traditional dill pickles), vegetable brine drinks, and kombucha tea. Each day they ate 6 servings (1/2 cup = 1 serving generally). The high fiber diet was rich in legumes, seeds, whole grains, nuts, vegetables, and fruits (increased their fiber intake from about 22 grams per day to 45 grams).

The fermented foods group ate six servings daily (e.g. 1/2 cup yogurt, kefir, fermented cottage cheese, kimchi, sauerkraut, traditional dill pickles, and kombucha tea). The high fiber group increased their fiber intake from about 22 grams per day to 45 grams, by eating a diet rich in legumes, seeds, whole grains, nuts, vegetables, and fruits.

High-fiber diets are associated with numerous health benefits such as lower rates of numerous chronic diseases and mortality. The consumption of fermented foods can help with weight maintenance and may decrease the risk of diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease.

From Futurity: Fermented Food Diet Boosts Microbiome and Cuts Inflammation

In a clinical trial, 36 healthy adults were randomly assigned to a 10-week diet that included either fermented or high-fiber foods. The two diets resulted in different effects on the gut microbiome and the immune system. 
...continue reading "Fermented Foods Are Good For Your Gut Microbiome"

Published on Leave a comment on Missing Birth Canal Bacteria Can Be Restored to Cesarean Birth Babies

There are microbial differences (microbiome) in babies who are born by cesarean vs vaginal deliveries. Research shows that bacterial differences can be minimized by a simple procedure - swabbing the newborn infant with the mother's vaginal fluids (using a gauze pad).

An infant normally picks up bacteria during birth as it passes through the birth canal, and these bacteria "seed" (colonize) the baby's skin and gut microbial community. On the other hand, babies born by C-section are colonized by microbes floating around in the operating room (from doctors, nurses) and these are predominantly skin bacteria. These bacterial differences between babies born by vaginal birth or C-section persist and are thought to explain some health differences between babies born vaginally or by C-section.

Dr. Dominguez-Bello has been doing a long-term study in which babies born by cesarean section are immediately swabbed with a gauze cloth soaked with the mother's vaginal fluids (which contain the mother's microbes). This resulted in the infants' skin and gut microbial community being more like vaginally born babies. These microbial changes persisted during the first year of life.

Such big changes from such a small procedure!

From The Scientist: Maternal Vaginal Fluids Mimic Microbe Transfer of Vaginal Birth

Babies born by C-section carry an increased risk of immune and metabolic disorders later in life, which studies have suggested may be associated with the communities of microbes on and in their bodies at the time of birth.  ...continue reading "Missing Birth Canal Bacteria Can Be Restored to Cesarean Birth Babies"

Published on Leave a comment on Are Lawn and Garden Pesticides Harming Us?
Credit: NSF

Once again it is summer – the weather is hot, flowers are blooming, and pesticide application signs appear on lawns throughout the United States.

Americans love their lawns, and there seems to be a national obsession for one that looks like a lush weed-free carpet. Lawns can be thought of as the largest crop in the country, since they cover more area than any irrigated crop, even more than corn.

This has led to Americans applying nearly 80 million pounds of lawn care pesticides each year. One of the most common weed-killers is 2,4-D, a chemical used in Agent Orange, and linked to several types of cancers. It is found in many weed and feed products.

There are different types of pesticides. Harmless sounding “weed-killers” are actually herbicides, and “bug-killers” and “bug sprays” are insecticides. The purpose of pesticides is to kill or repel whatever is viewed as a pest, whether insects or weeds. Lawn care pesticides are considered to be “cosmetic” or non-essential use pesticides – meaning they are only used for aesthetic purposes.

There is a dark side to pesticides

Unfortunately, pesticides have effects beyond whatever was targeted. We may not see or smell pesticides after they have dried, whether applied to our lawns, gardens, crops, or homes, but they are still there and getting into our bodies.

We can breathe them in, absorb them through our skin and eyes, and ingest them in food, water, and dust. When children and pets are walking or rolling around on the grass after a pesticide application, they are absorbing those chemicals into their bodies. As far back as the early 1990s, studies showed that pesticides such as 2,4-D get into people and pets walking on treated lawns, especially on the first day they are sprayed (applied).

Pesticides are found in our air, water, soil, “drift” from neighboring properties and farms, and even in rain and fog. We track pesticides into our homes from the outside, where they linger in house dust and carpets. Scary, isn’t it?

Every year more evidence accumulates that pesticide exposures have harmful effects on humans, pets, wildlife, birds, bees, and other beneficial insects. Even on microbes in the soil, as well as microbes in the human gut microbiome!

Exposure to pesticides can be acute – a big amount at once, such as when a toddler walks over a recently treated lawn and winds up severely ill and possibly hospitalized. Yes, that actually happened to a child in my town. Or exposure to pesticides can be continuous and at low levels (chronic exposure).

Did you know that over 90% of all Americans, including pregnant women, have pesticide residues in their bodies? Pesticides can be measured in our blood and urine, breast milk, and even meconium (an infant's first feces). Studies show that while we are being exposed less to some now banned pesticides, other pesticide levels, such as glyphosate (which is used in Roundup), are rapidly increasing in human bodies.

The bad news is that we don’t really know what all the chronic low-level pesticide mixtures that we are exposed to are doing to us. Studies are finding health problems such as cancers, endocrine (hormone) disruption, reproductive problems, effects on mental development and behavior, and even effects on semen quality. Being exposed to pesticides at certain times of development can have the biggest effects, especially during pregnancy when the fetus is developing and during childhood.

The American Academy of Pediatrics issued a statement in December 2012 warning of the dangers of pesticide exposure (including in the home) to children and during pregnancy. They stated that this includes common pesticides considered by many as “safe”, such as pyrethroids.

Our pets are at risk too. Dogs exposed to lawn pesticides develop the same cancers as humans. Researchers consider them early warning systems for human health because cancers take only a few years to show up in dogs, but many years in humans. ...continue reading "Are Lawn and Garden Pesticides Harming Us?"

Published on Leave a comment on Ultra-Processed Foods and Intestinal Bowel Disease

Scientists have suggested for decades that a person's diet may play a role in the development of intestinal bowel disease (IBD), such as Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. This is because these diseases are dramatically increasing in industrialized countries (e.g. USA and Canada) where people eat western diets with lots of ultra-processed foods (additives and artificial ingredients) and a low fiber intake.

A recent large world-wide study found that a higher intake of ultra-processed foods was associated with an increased risk of developing intestinal bowel diseases. This association was seen for all ultra-processed foods, as well as different types of ultra-processed foods - such as processed meats, soft drinks, refined sweetened foods (e.g. packaged desserts, sugary cereals) and salty foods and snacks.

However, this association with IBD was not seen with higher intakes of white meat, red meat, dairy, starch, fruit, vegetables, and legumes. The 116,087 participants were from 21 countries and were followed for 9 to 11 years.

Processed and ultra-processed foods often include many non-natural ingredients and additives such as artificial flavors and colors, sugars, stabilisers, emulsifiers, and preservatives. Emulsifiers are added to most ultra-processed foods to aid texture and extend shelf life. Even "natural flavors" is a laboratory concoction used to alter a food product's taste.

Other studies have found increased rates of gut inflammation and alteration of gut microbes from foods containing emulsifiers (e.g. carboxymethylcellulose, polysorbate 80, soy lecithin, carrageenan), maltodextrin, and titanium dioxide (frequently in nanoparticle form).

Bottom line: For health, eat a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds. Eat less fast food, ultra-processed foods, processed meats, sugary packaged sweets, and soft drinks. Read ingredient lists!

From Science Daily: Ultra-processed food linked to higher risk of IBD

A higher intake of ultra-processed food is associated with higher risk of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), finds a study published by The BMJ today.  ...continue reading "Ultra-Processed Foods and Intestinal Bowel Disease"

Published on Leave a comment on The Pesticide Industry’s Influence Over EPA Decisions

The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) has failed the people of the United States with regard to pesticides and pesticide exposures, but absolutely given in to the wishes of the pesticide industry. This has resulted in pesticides being used in the US that are banned in other countries, and in Americans being exposed to unsafe pesticide exposures.

What is going on at the EPA? Cover-ups, studies finding health problems ignored, waiving of tests/studies that should have been done, political interference, pesticide industry lobbyists having a lot of influence at the EPA, punishment of scientists who speak out or point out harms about specific pesticides, top EPA officials leaving the EPA to work at pesticide companies, and on and on.

Yes, commonly used pesticides such as chlorpyrifos, Roundup, malathion, and neonicotinoids (neonics) all have had EPA suppression of research showing serious health harms (e.g. cancer, neurological harm).

Sharon Lerner at the Intercept has written a great piece of investigative journalism about pesticides and the EPA. She writes that the EPA:

“...is often unable to stand up to the intense pressures from powerful agrochemical companies, which spend tens of millions of dollars on lobbying each year and employ many former EPA scientists once they leave the agency. The enormous corporate influence has weakened and, in some cases, shut down the meaningful regulation of pesticides in the U.S. and left the country’s residents exposed to levels of dangerous chemicals not tolerated in many other nations.”

From the Intercept: The Department of Yes - How Pesticide Companies Corrupted the EPA and Poisoned America

While it’s impossible to catalog all the ways in which the EPA has failed to protect the public from the harms of pesticides, this reporting has brought to light several instances in which the overlooking, burying, or scuttling of science has had direct consequences for human health.  ...continue reading "The Pesticide Industry’s Influence Over EPA Decisions"

Published on Leave a comment on A Southern Style Diet Linked to Increased Risk of Sudden Cardiac Death

The results of a large study adds more evidence to what we have long suspected: eating a Southern-style diet (fried foods and sugary drinks!) increases the risk for sudden cardiac death (up to 46% higher risk), while eating a plant-based or Mediterranean style diet appears to lower that risk.

Sudden cardiac death (SCD) occurs when the heart suddenly stops beating, and death occurs within one hour from the onset of symptoms. Heart disease (coronary artery disease) is the most common underlying cause of SCD (75 to 80% of cases), but it can also have other causes (e.g. heart failure, valve disease). Sudden cardiac death is quite common in the US - about 1 in every 7.5 deaths (or nearly 367,000 deaths in 2016).

Univ. of Alabama researchers looked at 5 dietary patterns that people ate over a 10 year period:  plant-based (Mediterranean), Southern, convenience food, alcohol & salad, and sweets. People generally eat foods from all 5 groups, but what is significant is the primary pattern - what the person mostly eats. The Southern diet is most prevalent in the southeastern US, which is also known as the "Stroke Belt", due to the higher stroke death rate there.

A Southern-style dietary pattern is characterized by fried foods, added fats,  eggs, organ meats (such as liver or giblets), processed meats (e.g. bacon, hotdogs, cold cuts), and sugar-sweetened beverages. A plant-based or Mediterranean dietary pattern is rich in fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts, whole grains, legumes (beans), and fish, and low in processed meats, added fats, and fried foods.

The bottom line here is that what you eat has an effect on your health, including heart health. Best is a diet rich in plant-based foods - which also happens to be fiber rich and best for feeding beneficial microbes in the gut. Try to eat at least a minimum of 5 to 6 servings of fruits and vegetables each day, but more (up to 8 or 9 servings) might be even better.

From Science Daily: The Southern diet - fried foods and sugary drinks - may raise risk of sudden cardiac death

Regularly eating a Southern-style diet may increase the risk of sudden cardiac death, while routinely consuming a Mediterranean diet may reduce that risk, according to new research published today in the Journal of the American Heart Association, an open access journal of the American Heart Association.  ...continue reading "A Southern Style Diet Linked to Increased Risk of Sudden Cardiac Death"