OUT: Genome project
IN: Social Determinants of Health
Was it just a couple of years ago that the genome project was going to be
the big breakthrough in curing everything that ails humankind?
The genome project may have had the glitz, the sex appeal and the superstar
scientists, but public health researchers toiling away with their
statistics may be pointing the way to a better, healthier world.
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Dec. 31, 2004
Atkins is out, slim is always in and calories count
JUDY GERSTEL
OUT: Atkins
IN: Weight Watchers
A review of 10 of the most popular weight-loss programs published in this
week's Annals Of Internal Medicine found there was not enough evidence to
support the claims many of them make about helping people shed pounds and
keep them off.
Only Weight Watchers had strong documentation that it worked — with one
study showing that participants lost around five per cent (about 10 pounds)
of their initial weight in six months and kept off about half of it two
years later.
Researchers found insufficient evidence to prove the effectiveness of
self-help programs like Overeaters Anonymous, Take Off Pounds Sensibly and
two doctor-supervised diets in the U.S., including Optifast, which costs
around $2,000 U.S. for three months.
But dieters are bored with carb cutting and dietitians maintain there's
insufficient proof that low-carb, high-protein diets are healthy in the
long term, with warnings about increased risk of cancer, kidney stones and
high cholesterol.
Atkins plans to lay off 40 per cent of its employees and cut its marketing
budget by half in 2005, reports the New York Times.
Early in 2004, 9 per cent of Americans were following a low-carb diet but
by the end of the year, the number dropped to 4.5 per cent. And while
thousands of new low-carb products hit the shelves last year, they're not
selling. Kellogg's couldn't sell its low-carb inventories.
OUT: Arthritis drugs Vioxx, Celebrex, naproxen.
IN: Exercise, weight loss, topical pain relievers.
First, Vioxx was pulled at the end of September. Then, Celebrex was
connected with a higher risk of heart disease.
Finally, naproxen, sold as Anaprox and Naprosyn — and maybe even all the
non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs — was found to lead to fluid
retention and elevated blood pressure with prolonged use.
And so, it's back to basics for arthritis sufferers: aspirin and ibuprofen
(not without their own risks and side effects) and exercise and weight
loss.
What about topical pain relief products? They're being heavily promoted
nowthe high-profile drugs are losing their lustre, but there's no clinical
proof topicals do the job to any significant extent. Still, for mild pain,
it's a worth a try, even if only for the placebo effect.
Among the products: O24 essential oil pain reliever, from Toronto-based
Swiss Medica, and Relief Matrix, made with capsaicin, the hot substance
found in chili peppers, from Canadian company Relief Healthcare Inc.
OUT: Big Pharma
IN: Beverages
Big Pharma has been blacklisted for pushing lifestyle drugs so heavily and
for promoting meds beyond the narrow target group of people who can benefit
from them when the cost-risk benefit is calculated.
In an article posted online this week by the Journal Of The American
Medical Association, Cleveland Clinic cardiology chief Eric Topol, who blew
the whistle on Vioxx, calls for less aggressive advertising by Big Pharma
and better safety assurances for approved drugs.
"The combination of mass promotion of a medicine with an unknown and
suspect safety profile cannot be tolerated in the future," he warns.
With distrust building for Big Pharma and its pill-pushing, the medicinal
properties found in food and drink are gaining attention.
This year, more studies showed moderate consumption of red wine confers
cardiovascular and cancer prevention benefits. The journal Thorax recently
reported that each daily glass of red wine — but not rosé, white, beer or
spirits — gives 13 per cent protection against cancer when compared with
non-drinkers.
Resveratrol in the skin of red grapes even stifles tumour development in
some patients with lung cancer, the study shows.
"We have known for a while that drinking a little red wine can protect
against a number of conditions, ranging from the common cold to coronary
heart disease," said Dr. Andrew Peacock of the British Thoracic Society.
"This new research suggests that red wine, in moderation, could also
protect against lung cancer."
Does this mean you can swig a bottle of merlot with impunity tonight or any
other night?
Uh-uh. The key to culling benefits is keeping the intake to a glass or two.
And while a study in the British Medical Journal a few months ago showed
that people who drank no alcohol had an increased risk of mild mental
difficulties in later life, the same study also found that drinking alcohol
frequently in your 40s and 50s was linked to mental impairment in old age.
Besides, non-alcholic drinks such as green tea, grape juice and cranberry
juice have also been found to contribute significantly to good health and
to prevent disease.
OUT: Estrogen
IN: Testosterone
Estrogen and its feminizing effect is no longer au courant. In a testy
world that demands ballsy behaviour, the hormone du jour is testosterone.
Estrogen replacement for menopausal women is now taking its rightful role
as a minimal, short-term, stop-gap measure only for women suffering from
severe change-of-life symptoms. At the same time, testosterone patches are
being tested as a possible boost to sexual satisfaction for middle-age
women.
Men, of course, are making every effort to hike their testosterone levels,
smearing on the testosterone cream, slapping on patches — whether they're
athletes who want an edge, middle-age men who won't accept waning levels of
the male hormone, or young studs who want to enhance what they've got.
OUT: Flu panic
IN: Diabetes prevention
Yes, the World Health Organization keeps warning about the possibility of a
devastating pandemic evolving from avian flu, but with SARS disappearing
from the radar and other catastrophes impinging on our consciousness,
nobody is panicking about a pandemic. A year or two down the road, who
knows?
However, we are already be in the midst of a diabetes epidemic, says
Toronto endocrinologist Bernard Zinman. The disease kills thousands of
Canadians each year and more than 2 million have this condition, with 3
million predicted to have it by the end of the decade, the Star reported
last month. "We're heading for disaster," St. Michael's Hospital
endocrinologist Lawrence Leiter told Star editorial writer Leslie Papp.
What to do? More money is urged for education, screening and exercise
programs.
And weight loss is mandatory.
Losing as little as 10 pounds can prevent type 2 diabetes from becoming
full-blown in people at risk.
OUT: Running
IN: Spinning, Pilates, Yoga
Remember when running a marathon or a half, or even a 10k, was a test of
mettle, a badge of honour, proof that you were fit and with it?
Well, no more. Bad knees and aching backs have taken their toll and
pounding the joints on the pavement is no longer proof of anything except a
penchant for punishment. Besides, now that everybody's done a run, it
doesn't have the same cachet anymore.
But spinning — it's easier on the knees and the back and you still get
boasting rights about keeping up with the instructor during an endurance
class. Combine the aerobic, cardiovascular and stamina benefits of spinning
with Pilates for abs and back strengthening and yoga for overall physical
strengthening and emotional healing and you can't help but be a paragon of
health.
It's even more important if you're middle-aged or older. A six-month
program of aerobic exercise and weighlifting — with three 60-minute
sessions a week — can reduce risk factors for heart disease and diabetes in
people 55 to 75 years old by 41 per cent, reports the January issue of the
American Journal Of Preventive Medicine.
OUT: Genome project
IN: Social Determinants of Health
Was it just a couple of years ago that the genome project was going to be
the big breakthrough in curing everything that ails humankind?
The genome project may have had the glitz, the sex appeal and the superstar
scientists, but public health researchers toiling away with their
statistics may be pointing the way to a better, healthier world.
Social scientists like York University's Dennis Raphael demonstrate again
and again that people living in socioeconomically deprived communities are
more likely to develop diabetes and cardiovascular disease, are at
considerably higher risk of further and more rapid disease progression, and
have the fewest resources and most barriers to subsequent health
improvement.
They remind us that the primary modifiable behavioural risk factors for
diabetes and cardiovascular disease are heavily determined by social
conditions.
In fact, a new Austrian study appearing in yesterday's online edition of
the journal Stroke shows that low income was associated with a 60 to 70 per
cent increased risk of dying from a stroke compared with stroke patients in
the highest income group.
Genomics? In 2005, let's pay attention instead to economics.
OUT: Sex enhancers
IN: Chocolate
Yeah, Canadian men like their Levitra, Viagra and Cialis — they spent about
$135 million on the erectile dysfunction drugs in the past year. And more
young men with normal, average function are using the pills to get to above
average, or even A-plus-plus-plus.
But some sobering news last month suggested men might want to think
carefully about what they do with what an ED drug does for them.
A British study found men who are sexually promiscuous when they're young
could be increasing their risk of contracting prostate cancer later in
life.
The study suggests sex with lots of partners increases the risk of exposure
to the human papilloma virus (HPV) and that such infections may kick-start
the chain of genetic mutations that lead to cancer, often decades later.
HPV is already linked to cervical cancer in women, but connecting it to
prostate cancer in men is new and, if confirmed, could explain why rates of
the disease have surged in the Western world.
Meanwhile, an Italian study showed that women who eat chocolate regularly
had the highest levels of desire, arousal and satisfaction from sex. What
all this means is that men should stop spending so much money on Viagra and
start spending more on Godiva.
As for what happens later in life, here's some interesting information
courtesy of The Times of London. A large, unpublished survey carried out 35
years ago revealed that after 20 years of marriage there was virtually no
sexual activity in almost a quarter of marriages.
The twist to this figure, reports The Times, is that there was no
statistically relevant relationship between the sex life at this stage of
the marriage and the happiness rating of the marriage.
The further twist: There was, a small, albeit statistically insignificant,
chance of the sexless marriage being happier than those enjoying an
"uproarious" sex life.
So, yes, chocolate, by all means, and lots of it.
OUT: Antibiotics
IN: Fish Oil
Exactly that. In 2005, you need fewer antibiotics in your life, both those
you consume internally and those you wash your hands with, and you need
more fish oil in your body.
The omega-3 essential fatty acids in fish oil, from such fish as sardines,
mackerel or from fish oil supplements, are health food superstars now
entering mainstream nutrition: Studies show people who consume more omega-3
are at less risk of suffering heart attacks.
Also, fish oil supplements appear to ward off asthma symptoms in young
children with a family history of allergies, Australian researchers found.
Children who consumed higher amounts of omega-3 fatty acids from birth were
10 per cent less likely to experience coughing and wheezing at the age of
3.
There's more.
A number of randomized trials have confirmed that fish oil supplementation
can benefit patients with rheumatoid arthritis. The effects of the omega-3
fatty acids in fish oil include direct anti-inflammatory activity in
joints.
Australian researchers also say the supplement could be one of the few
biological treatments for postpartum depression and could halve the rate of
baby blues in new mothers.
In addition, they believe that not only does the supplement act as a
natural antidepressant, it may also boost brain functioning in unborn
babies.
And so, go open a can of sardines, uncork a bottle of cabernet sauvignon
and select some good dark chocolate — the dark is rich in antioxidant
compounds known as flavonoids that enhance cardiovascular health and immune
system function — to welcome the New Year and a healthier, happier you.
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