High Salt Diet Increases Chances of Developing Ulcer

Another risk from a high-salt diet. High concentrations of salt in the stomach appear to induce gene activity in the ulcer-causing bacterium Helicobacter pylori, making it more virulent and increasing the likelihood of an infected person developing a severe gastric disease.

“Apparently the stomach pathogen H. pylori closely monitors the diets of those people whom it infects. Epidemiological evidence has long implied that there is a connection between H. pylori and the composition of the human diet. This is especially true for diets rich in salt,” says Hanan Gancz, of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland, who presents the research May 22, 2007 at the 107th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in Toronto.  H. pylori infection is common in the United States and is most often found in persons from lower income groups and older adults. About 20% of persons less than 40 years of age and about 50% of persons over 60 years of age are infected. Most infected people do not have symptoms and only a small percentage go on to develop disease.

Botox Injections Can Benefit Men With Enlarged Prostate For Up To A Year .

 Injecting botulinum toxin A, or Botox, into the prostate gland of men with enlarged prostate, eased symptoms and improved quality of life up to a year after the procedure, according to a study by researchers at the Chang Gung University Medical College, Taiwan, and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. The study, based on 37 men with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), was presented at the annual meeting of the American Urological Association (AUA) in
Anaheim, Calif. and published in Abstract 1837 in the AUA proceedings.  

“Millions of men in the United States suffer from enlarged prostate,” said Michael B. Chancellor, M.D., senior author of the study and professor of urology and gynecology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. “It’s a challenging disease to live with because it causes frequent and difficult urination. Unfortunately, common treatments also are problematic because they carry some risk of serious side effects, such as impotence.  

Our results are encouraging because they indicate that Botox could represent a simple, safe and effective treatment for enlarged prostate that has long-term benefits.” 

The study participants, previously diagnosed with symptomatic BPH that did not respond to standard medical treatment, received injections of Botox directly into their prostate glands. Up to one year post injection, 27 of these patients, or 73 percent, experienced a 30 percent improvement in urinary tract symptoms and quality of life. Patients did not experience any significant side effects, including stress urinary incontinence or erectile dysfunction.  

BPH is one of the most common diseases affecting men as they age. More than half of all men over the age of 60 and 80 percent by age 80, will have enlarged prostates. Forty to 50 percent will develop symptoms, which include more frequent urination, urinary tract infections, the inability to completely empty the bladder and, in severe cases, eventual damage to the bladder and kidneys. 

How did they think of this?

Vitamin D Deficiency Widespread During Pregnancy

Regular use of prenatal multivitamin supplements is not adequate to prevent vitamin D insufficiency, University of Pittsburgh researchers report in the current issue of the Journal of Nutrition, the publication of the American Society for Nutrition. A condition linked to rickets and other musculoskeletal and health complications, vitamin D insufficiency was found to be widespread among women during pregnancy, particularly in the northern latitudes.

“In our study, more than 80 percent of African-American women and nearly half of white women tested at delivery had levels of vitamin D that were too low, even though more than 90 percent of them used prenatal vitamins during pregnancy,” said Lisa Bodnar, Ph.D., M.P.H., R.D., assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH) and lead author of the study.

“The numbers also were striking for their newborns — 92.4 percent of African-American babies and 66.1 percent of white infants were found to have insufficient vitamin D at birth.”A vitamin closely associated with bone health, vitamin D deficiency early in life is associated with rickets — a disorder characterized by soft bones  as well as increased risk for type 1 diabetes, asthma and schizophrenia.

“A newborn’s vitamin D stores are completely reliant on vitamin D from the mother,” observed Dr. Bodnar, who also is an assistant investigator at the university-affiliated Magee-Womens Research Institute (MWRI). “Not surprisingly, poor maternal vitamin D status during pregnancy is a major risk factor for infant rickets, which again is becoming a major health problem.”“This study is among the largest to examine these questions in this at-risk population,” Marjorie L. McCullough, Sc.D., senior epidemiologist at the American Cancer Society, wrote in an accompanying editorial. “By the end of pregnancy, 90 percent of all women were taking prenatal vitamins and yet deficiency was still common.”Vitamin D is found naturally in fatty fish but few other foods.

Primary dietary sources include fortified foods such as milk and some ready-to-eat cereals and vitamin supplements. Sun exposure for skin synthesis of vitamin D also remains critical.“Our study shows that current vitamin D dietary intake recommendations are not enough to meet the demands of pregnancy,” Dr. Bodnar said. “Improving vitamin D status has tremendous capacity to benefit public health.”

Apples And Fish During Pregnancy May Protect Against Childhood Asthma And Allergies

Women who eat apples and fish during pregnancy may reduce the risk of their children developing asthma or allergic disease, suggests a new study.  The SEATON study, conducted at the University of Aberdeen, UK, found that the children of mothers who ate the most apples were less likely to ever have wheezed or have doctor-confirmed asthma at the age of 5 years, compared to children of mothers who had the lowest apple consumption. Children of mothers who ate fish once or more a week were less likely to have had eczema than children of mothers who never ate fish. The study did not find any protective effect against asthma or allergic diseases from many other foods, including vegetables, fruit juice, citrus or kiwi fruit, whole grain products, fat from dairy products or margarine or other low-fat spreads. The researchers studied 1212 children born to women who had filled out food questionnaires during their pregnancy. When the children were 5 years old, the mothers filled out a questionnaire about the children’s respiratory symptoms and allergies, as well as a questionnaire about their child’s food consumption. The children were also given lung function and allergy tests. Previous studies in the same children have found evidence for protective effects of vitamin E and D and zinc during pregnancy in reducing the risk of children’s wheeze and asthma, notes researcher Saskia Willers, M.Sc. of Utrecht University in the
Netherlands. If the new results are confirmed, she says, “recommendations on dietary modification during pregnancy may help to prevent childhood asthma and allergy.” Willers concludes that at least until age 5, a mother’s diet during pregnancy might be more influential on a child’s respiratory health than the child’s own diet. She notes that further study of this group of children will be needed to see whether the association with the mothers’ diet declines in older children, and if mothers’ and their childrens’ diets interact in older children. Willers suggests that the beneficial effect of apples may come from powerful antioxidants called flavonoids, while fish’s protective effect may come from omega-3 fatty acids, which other studies have suggested have a protective effect on the heart and may have a protective effect in asthma. “Other studies have looked at individual nutrients’ effect on asthma in pregnancy, but our study looked at specific foods during pregnancy and the subsequent development of childhood asthma and allergies, which is quite new,” Willers says. “Foods contain mixtures of nutrients that may contribute more than the sum of their parts.” Reference: Willers SM, Devereux G, Craig LCA, et al. Maternal Food Consumption During Pregnancy and Asthma, Respiratory and Atopic Symptoms in 5-Year-Old Children. Thorax; in press. This research was presented at the American Thoracic Society 2007 International Conference, on Sunday, May 20 (Session A105; Abstract 726; Poster Board # 901).

 

Another Reason to Take Vitamins

Vitamin D Supplements May Offer Cheap And Effective Immune System Boost Against TB

Scientists have shown that a single 2.5mg dose of vitamin D may be enough to boost the immune system to fight against tuberculosis (TB) and similar bacteria for at least 6 weeks. Their findings came from a study that identified an extraordinarily high incidence of vitamin D deficiency amongst those communities in London most at risk from the disease, which kills around two million people each year. A diet of oily fish can provide some vitamin D, the main source of the body’s vitamin D comes from exposing the skin to sunlight.   Researchers from Queen Mary’s School of Medicine and Dentistry, London, and the Wellcome Trust Centre for Research in Clinical Tropical Medicine, Imperial College London, studied patients at Newham University Hospital and Northwick Park Hospital in London who had been exposed to TB. They found that over 90% of such patients had a vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D was used to treat TB in the pre-antibiotic era, when special sanatoria were built in sunny locations, such as the Swiss Alps. But until now, no study has evaluated the effect of vitamin D supplementation on immunity to mycobacteria, the family of bacteria that cause TB.The researchers performed a randomized control trial on a group of volunteers who were given either a 2.5mg supplement or a placebo. Samples of the volunteers’ blood were then tested in Dr Robert Wilkinson’s  Wellcome Trust-funded laboratory at Imperial College, to see whether the supplement affected the immune system’s ability to withstand infection by mycobacteria.“We found that a single large dose of vitamin D was sufficient to enhance a person’s immunity to the bacteria,” says Dr Adrian Martineau from the Division of Medicine at Imperial College London, who co-ordinated the study. “This is very significant given the high levels of vitamin D deficiency in people at the highest risk of TB infection, and shows that a simple, cheap supplement could make a significant impact on the health of people most at risk from the disease.” 

We sell a Calcium and Vitamin D supplement at the Beverly Hills Office. Its very high quality and inexpensive ($12 for 2 months). Thanks for reading

Top Ten Reasons You Should Run from Your Spine Surgeon

Read this before selecting a surgeon to operate on your back.

10. If the surgeon says “Everyone does well with this surgery”. There is no surgery that does not have risk and always has a good outcome

9. If hip surgery is their main focus and spine surgery comprises only a small part of their surgeries – it takes a lot of practice to get good at operating on the spine.

8. If they cannot clearly articulate what they think is the anatomic problem that is causing your pain and how they propose to correct it.

7. If they state “I always do the neck first and then do the back”. This sounds ridiculous but it happens. It is highly unlikely that a patient would have anatomic lesions in both the neck and back.

6. If they propose doing a multilevel fuion in the lumbar spine for degenerative disc disease. The spine is meant to move and although fusing one or possibly two levels for a badly degenerated disc is reasonable, fusing multiple levels rarely is necessary or advisable.

5. If the surgeon does not offer a patient any non-surgical treatment options they may be operating under the old “I have a hammer so everything I treat is a nail” adage.

4. If they get perturbed by the patient asking questions. A well qualified informed physician does not mind a patient asking questions. A marginal physician is more likely to be put out by an inquisitive patient.

3. If the surgeon states that he has never done this particular type of surgery but would like to try it.

2. If the first surgery does not work and the surgeon proposes doing it all over again. The most common reason a surgery does not work is that the patient did not need the surgery in the first place.

1. If the given reason for proceeding with surgery is that the surgeon needs a new boat.

Posted by: Peter Ullrich, Jr., MD, Orthopedic spine surgeon and Medical Director of www.spine-health.com.