Exercise is Statistically as Good as Pharmaceuticals to Treat Diseases

PreventDisease.com

A recent study published in BMJ found that physical activity is as effective as drug interventions for patients with existing cardiovascular diseases and other chronic conditions such as diabetes.

In the few conditions where the life-saving benefits of exercise have been studied, physical activity was often found to be as effective as drugs at reducing the risk of death, according to the first study to aggregate and assess the comparative benefits of drugs and exercise for reducing mortality in a wide range of illnesses.

"We were surprised to find that exercise seems to have such powerful life-saving effects for people with serious chronic conditions," said Huseyin Naci, an HMS visiting fellow in population medicine at the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, and a graduate student at the London School of Economics. "It was also surprising to find that so little is known about the potential benefits of physical activity for health in so many other illnesses."

Regular physical activity has been shown to reduce the morbidity and mortality from many chronic diseases. Millions suffer from chronic illnesses that can be prevented or improved through regular physical activity. This include heart disease, heart attack, type 2 diabetes, obesity, colon cancer, hip fractures, stroke and high blood pressure. On average, people who are physically active outlive those who are inactive.

Despite the well-known benefits of physical activity, most adults and many children lead a relatively sedentary lifestyle and are not active enough to achieve these health benefits. A sedentary lifestyle is defined as engaging in no leisure-time physical activity (exercises, sports, physically active hobbies) in a two-week period.

Study Details

In addition to providing guidance for patients and clinicians about the importance of discussing the potential benefits of exercise, the researchers highlighted the importance of continuing to research the value of exercise for health.

The researchers argue that more trials comparing the effectiveness of exercise and drugs are urgently needed to help doctors and patients make the best treatment decisions. In the meantime, they say exercise "should be considered as a viable alternative to, or alongside, drug therapy."

"We're not saying people who have had a stroke should go off their medication and head to the gym," Naci said, "but having a conversation with their physician about incorporating exercise into their treatment might be beneficial in many cases."

Preventable illness makes up approximately 80% percent of the burden of illness and 90% of all healthcare costs. Preventable illness accounts for eight of the nine leading categories of death.

In the United States, 80 percent of people 18 and older failed to meet the recommended levels of aerobic and muscle-strengthening physical activity in 2011, according to the CDC. What's more, the average number of retail prescriptions per capita for calendar year 2011 was 12.1, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

For people with chronic ailments, exercise used to be viewed as asking for trouble. However, current evidence suggests that in both health and disease, the overall prognosis is better for the exerciser than for the sedentary. For example, a recent study showed that intensive workouts can not only slow the progress of coronary disease, but actually restore lost coronary function when the disease is still stable.

"We've yet to find a disease state where exercise isn't helpful." said Miriam Nelson, Ph.D, from Tufts University. 

For the current study, the researchers analyzed the results of 305 randomized controlled trials involving 339,274 individuals and found no statistically detectable differences between exercise and drug interventions for secondary prevention of heart disease and prevention of diabetes.

Exercise Often More Effective Than Drugs

Among stroke patients, exercise was more effective than drug treatment.

The authors point out that the amount of trial evidence on the mortality benefits of exercise is considerably smaller than that on the benefits of drugs, and this may have had an impact on their results. Of the nearly 340,000 cases analyzed, only 15,000 patients had had exercise-based interventions.

For chronically ill individuals, the psychological as well as physical benefits of exercise can be profound. Even ten minutes of light exercise a day, can help most chronically ill patients feel more vibrant, energetic and alert.

"Exercise is empowering and energizing, and it increases your sense of control over the situation. You're never too sick or too old to get started exercising," stated Bess Marcus, Ph.D, of Brown's University. 

The researchers argue in the paper that this "blind spot" in available scientific evidence "prevents prescribers and their patients from understanding the clinical circumstances where drugs might provide only modest improvement but exercise could yield more profound or sustainable gains in health."

Participation in regular physical activity-- at least 30 minutes of moderate activity on at least five days per week, or 20 minutes of vigorous physical activity at least three times per week--is critical to sustaining good health. Youth should strive for at least one hour of exercise a day. Regular physical activity has beneficial effects on most (if not all) organ systems, and consequently it helps to prevent a broad range of health problems and diseases. People of all ages, both male and female, derive substantial health benefits from physical activity.

Regular physical activity reduces the risk of developing or dying from some of the leading causes of illness in the United States. Regular physical activity improves health in the following ways:

• Reduces the risk of dying prematurely from heart disease and other conditions;
• Reduces the risk of developing diabetes;
• Reduces the risk of developing high blood pressure;
• Reduces blood pressure in people who already have high blood pressure;
• Reduces the risk of developing colon and breast cancer5;
• Helps to maintain a healthy weight;
• Helps build and maintain healthy bones, muscles, and joints;
• Helps older adults to become stronger and better able to move about without falling;
• Reduces feelings of depression and anxiety; and
• Promotes psychological well-being. 

Exercise v.s. Diet v.s. Drugs

Exercise v.s. diet v.s. drugs is often the debate that many health professionals evaluate. By examining each disease through clinical trials, we can better determine the efficacy of both exercise and diet in the treatment of many common ailments. Diet, for example, is the cornerstone of diabetes care, but if diet is combined with exercise, diabetics dramatically improve their condition by more than 45% than with diet alone. 

CONDITION	TYPE OF EXERCISE	MAXIMUM IMPROVEMENT WITH EXERCISE	MAXIMUM IMPROVEMENT WITH DRUGS	MAXIMUM IMPROVEMENT WITH DIET
High Blood Pressure	Aerobic	15%	9%	11%
Diabetes	Strength training, flexibility, low-impact aerobic	52%	5%	38%
Stroke	Strength training, flexibility, low-impact aerobic	28%	7%	--
Heart Disease	Aerobic	33%	11%	26%
High LDL cholesterol	--	--	13%	20%
Low HDL cholesterol	Aerobic	15%	--	--
High Blood Sugar	Aerobic	15%	11%	30%
Arthritis Pain	Strength training, flexibility, low-impact aerobic	40%	12%	--
Low Bone Density	Weight bearing	3%	--	2%

Regular physical activity is associated with lower mortality rates for both older and younger adults. Even those who are moderately active on a regular basis have lower mortality rates than those who are least active. Regular physical activity leads to cardiovascular fitness, which decreases the risk of cardiovascular disease mortality in general and coronary artery disease mortality in particular. High blood pressure is a major underlying cause of cardiovascular complications and mortality. Regular physical activity can prevent or delay the development of high blood pressure, and reduces blood pressure in persons with hypertension.

Despite this uncertainty, the authors claim that based on the available data physical activity is potentially as effective as many drug interventions and more trials to address the disparity between exercise and drug-based treatment evidence are needed.

"What we don't know about the benefits of exercise may be hurting us," Naci said.

Sources:
bmj.com
nlm.nih.gov
preventdisease.com
medicalnewstoday.com

Dr. Marianna Pochelli is a Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine specializing in the treatment of disease through superfoods and herbal strategies. She actively promotes detoxification, colon cleansing, and a vegetarian lifestyle using living foods as a platform to health.

Parents Ask For Second Opinion On Child's Illness, Authorities Take Child

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SACRAMENTO, CA (April 25h, 2013)- A Sacramento family was torn apart after a 5-month-old baby boy was taken from his parents following a visit to the doctor.

“I’m going to grab your baby and don’t resist and don’t fight me.”

This is what a police officer told a Sacramento couple for merely getting a second opinion on their baby’s health. This recent news story is shocking many, but the word is getting out…

Video:

Sources: Raw For Beauty

news10.net

Rate of Chronic Disease Increasing Exponentially

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A growing global epidemic of chronic disease, such as heart disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes, will cause at least 35 million deaths this year, costing the world economy billions of dollars, even though medical science has identified the principal causes and knows ways to prevent it, experts said at a AAAS seminar in Washington, D.C.

www.DiscoveryDoodles.com

 Speakers at the first Philip Hauge Abelson Advancing Science Seminar said that twice as many premature deaths are caused worldwide by chronic diseases as by all infectious diseases, maternal and perinatal conditions and nutritional deficiencies combined. And while the toll from infectious diseases is declining globally, deaths from chronic disease are expected to increase by 17 percent in the next 10 years.

The 8 December seminar included speakers from the World Health Organization (WHO), from pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers and from university research labs. It was the inaugural event in a series named for Abelson, a researcher in physics, biology and other sciences, and the editor for 22 years of Science, which is published by AAAS. Abelson died last year at the age of 91.

Alan I. Leshner, AAAS chief executive officer and executive publisher of Science, said the seminar series would address major societal challenges and focus on the frontiers of science and technology.
Robert Beaglehole, WHO's director of Chronic Diseases and Health Promotion, said in the keynote address that the toll of premature death from chronic disease is increasing worldwide principally because of unhealthy diets, physical inactivity and the use of tobacco and the aging of populations in almost all countries.

Diet and the lack of physical activity is contributing to a growing pattern of obesity, a key risk factor for diabetes and early heart disease. And it's not just happening in the rich countries, such as the United States and South Africa, where recent reports show that 75 percent of women aged 30 and over are overweight. A "very frightening statistic," said Beaglehole, is that in countries both rich and poor, about 22 million children worldwide under the age of five are already obese.

"We've done a lot to observe the emergence of this problem," he said. "We have done practically nothing to solve it."

Beaglehole said that common misunderstandings about chronic disease have affected policy decisions and slowed the worldwide response to the emerging epidemic.
 
For instance, he said it's widely believed that premature heart disease, stroke, diabetes and other chronic diseases are mostly a plague among the elderly and among the rich in high-income countries.
Actually, said Beaglehole, 80 percent of deaths from chronic diseases are in low- and middle-income countries. A WHO report found that poor people, in all but the least developed countries, are more likely than the rich to develop chronic diseases and are more likely to die early. And it is not just the elderly who are victims. The WHO report found that almost half of the deaths from chronic diseases occur in people under 70 years old.

"A very dangerous misunderstanding is that chronic disease is the result of unhealthy lifestyles under the control of individuals," Beaglehole said. "The reality is that poor people and children have very limited choices, and it is unfair to blame them for the environmental conditions in which they suffer."
There's also the belief by many that chronic diseases and premature deaths cannot be prevented.
"The reality is that approximately 80 percent of premature heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes is preventable, as are 40 percent of all cancers -- many of which result from tobacco consumption," said Beaglehole. "A few known risk factors explain the vast majority of premature chronic disease deaths."

A global effort to attack the causes of chronic disease could reduce death rates by 2 percent a year and save 36 million lives within a decade, he said. Ninety percent of the lives saved, said Beaglehole, would be in low- and middle-income countries. Slowing the epidemic of premature death from chronic diseases will have to involve policy issues beyond the health field, he said. For instance, farm subsidies often affect the type of food available in some countries. An example: The consumption of full fat milk is encouraged in schools in some European countries because of subsidies, said Beaglehole. Excessive fat, sugar and salt in the diet lead to obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and stroke.

Other specialists at the Abelson seminar reported recent findings that offer new hope for treatment and management of heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes and cancer.
Eric J. Topol, provost of the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, said studies of families with heart attack have demonstrated specific genes that are causative or induce susceptibility. This will allow strategies of lifestyle and individualized therapy early in life to prevent heart attacks decades later.

The battle against the growing epidemic of obesity will require fundamental changes in attitudes toward food and exercise, said Holly Wyatt, the program director at the Centers for Obesity Research and Education at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. In American society, she said, "we've had a lot of pressures to not expend more energy than we have to and we had a lot of pressure to eat more than we need."

To change the behaviors that lead to obesity will require encouragement from virtually every element in society -- employers, schools, churches, community centers and retail stores, she said. Such programs have worked in the past to discourage tobacco use and encourage using seat belts in cars. Without such an effort, Wyatt said that by 2008 about 75 percent of Americans will be at a body weight that negatively affects health.

Basic research on how the kidneys regulate salt in the body has given medical science a new understanding of the causes of high blood pressure, a major risk factor for heart attack, stroke and kidney failure, said Rick Lifton, Sterling Professor and chairman of Genetics atYale University School of Medicine. He said there are biological pathways and gene mutations that cause the kidneys to sequester sodium, leading to increases in blood pressure. Drugs to counter these effects could lead to dramatically improved treatments for hypertension, a disorder that affects a billion people world wide and is linked to about 5 million deaths annually.

Dr. Gerald I. Shulman, an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and professor of internal medicine and cellular & molecular physiology at Yale University, said that new, non-invasive studies using magnetic resonance spectroscopy have demonstrated that the development of insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes is directly related to the build-up of fat inside muscle and liver cells where it disrupts normal insulin signaling and action in these organs. Studies in transgenic and knockout mice as well as in humans have shown that removing this excess intracellular fat can restore insulin sensitivity and cure type 2 diabetes. The results from these studies provide new targets for novel therapies that might be developed to reduce intracellular fat levels and reverse insulin resistance in patients with type 2 diabetes, said Shulman.

Copyright 2005. American Association for the Advancement of Science

Source: oasisadvancedwellness.com

47 Fruits and Veggies and Their Pesticide Load

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Every year, new research is published showing the toxicity of pesticides to human health and the environment, often at doses previously declared "safe" by the pesticide industry and the government. 

As acknowledged by the U.S. and international government agencies, different pesticides have been linked with a variety of toxic effects, including:

·         Nervous system effects

·         Carcinogenic effects

·         Hormone system effects

·         Skin, eye and lung irritation

Pesticides are unique among the chemicals we release into the environment; they have inherent toxicity because they are designed to kill living organisms, insects, plants, and fungi that are considered "pests." Because they are toxic by design, many pesticides pose health risks to people, risks that have been acknowledged by independent research scientists and physicians across the world.

Protecting our families' health from chemical exposures can start with minimizing children's exposure to pesticides. It is now well established that pesticides pose a risk to vital organ systems that continue to grow and mature from conception throughout infancy and childhood. Exposure to pesticides and other toxic chemicals during critical periods of development can have lasting adverse effects both in early development and later in life. The metabolism, physiology, and biochemistry of a fetus, infant or child are fundamentally different from those of adults; a young, organism is often less able to metabolize and inactivate toxic chemicals and can be much more vulnerable to the harmful effects of pesticides. The nervous system, brain, reproductive organs and endocrine (hormone) system can be permanently, if subtly, damaged by exposure to toxic substances in-utero or throughout early childhood that, at the same level, cause no measurable harm to adults. The developing brain and endocrine system are very sensitive, and low doses at a susceptible moment of development can cause more of an effect than high doses. It is especially important to reduce pesticide exposures of babies and young children so as to minimize these risks.

What Can I Do to Reduce My Risk?

Addressing the risks of pesticide exposure first and foremost requires information, which is frequently made unavailable to the general public by the government agencies. To counteract this trend for secrecy, EWG believes that:

People have a right to know what's in their food, so they can choose foods with less pesticides.

·    The government can and should take steps to dramatically reduce the number and amount of toxic chemicals, including pesticides, in the food supply.

Each of us can opt for food safety today by choosing to purchase produce low in pesticides and by buying organically-raised fruits and vegetables as frequently as possible. With this first step we can protect our families' health and preserve our own future and the future of the environment from the harmful effects of pesticides.

The following chart ranks the highest (100 score) and lowest (1 score) pesticide loads of popular fruits and veggies. 

RANK	FRUIT OR VEGGIE	SCORE
1 (worst)	Peach	100 (highest pesticide load)
2	Apple	93
3	Sweet Bell Pepper	83
4	Celery	82
5	Nectarine	81
6	Strawberries	80
7	Cherries	73
8	Kale	69
9	Lettuce	67
10	Grapes - Imported	66
11	Carrot	63
12	Pear	63
13	Collard Greens	60
14	Spinach	58
15	Potato	56
16	Green Beans	53
17	Summer Squash	53
18	Pepper	51
19	Cucumber	50
20	Raspberries	46
21	Grapes - Domestic	44
22	Plum	44
23	Orange	44
24	Cauliflower	39
25	Tangerine	37
26	Mushrooms	36
27	Banana	34
28	Winter Squash	34
29	Cantaloupe	33
30	Cranberries	33
31	Honeydew Melon	30
32	Grapefruit	29
33	Sweet Potato	29
34	Tomato	29
35	Broccoli	28
36	Watermelon	26
37	Papaya	20
38	Eggplant	20
39	Cabbage	17
40	Kiwi	13
41	Sweet Peas - Frozen	10
42	Asparagus	10
43	Mango	9
44	Pineapple	7
45	Sweet Corn - Frozen	2
46	Avocado	1
47 (best)	Onion	1 (lowest pesticide load)

Source: http://preventdisease.com

5 Important Health Benefits of Cherries

Cherries are one of the most popular summer fruit, with around two million tonnes being produced worldwide every year! Thankfully, cherries are also wonderful for our health! That deep, dark red hue is a good sign that they pack an array of nutrients, vitamins and minerals. The benefits of cherries range from helping to relieve pain, prevent diseases like cancer and slow down the aging process. Read on to find out how cherries can help improve our health.

Help Fight Cancer & Disease

Cherries are very rich in antioxidants – you can tell simply by observing their deep red hue. Antioxidants help scavenge free radicals which induce damage to our DNA and cells in our body. When we consume a large quantity of antioxidants, they replace the free radicals in our body before they can cause any harm to our health.

Cherries are rich in queritrin (a flavonoid), which has been found by researchers to be one of the most potent anti-cancer antioxidants. They also contain ellagic acid (potent anti-carcinogen and anti-mutagenic which eradicate cancer cells in the body) and perillyl alcohol (POH) which is extremely powerful in destroying proteins that the cancer cells need to grow.

Powerful Anti-Inflammatory (Arthritis, Gout, Migraines)

Cherries, similar to berries, help fight off inflammation in the body thanks to their high concentration of free-radical scavenging antioxidants. The anthocyanins and bioflavonoids in cherries slow down COX-1 and COX-2 pro-inflammatory enzymes, which means that individuals suffering from arthritis and gout will experience major pain relief from a reduction in inflammation.

By helping reduce inflammation in the body, cherries also help eliminate migraine headaches. In fact, cherries work so well at reducing headaches and migraines, that they have been found to be just as effective as aspirin and ibuprofen!

“Brain Food” – Improve Memory

Anthocyanins in cherries produce powerful effects in the brain, such that they improve circulation of blood and thus increase the ability of neurons to communicate more effectively. This means better memory and reduced risk of developing diseases like dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.

Help You Lose Weight

Cherries, like all fruit, can actually help you lose weight! Foods that are high in vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients help signal to the brain that the body has received ample nutrients and will shut off the hunger signal. When we consume empty-calorie foods (anything highly processed and packaged), we feel as though we can eat 500 times the amount of those foods and STILL not be satiated. This is because these foods are stripped of nutrients, and thus our body gets confused and wants to keep eating until it has fulfilled it’s nutrient needs.

Cherries have been extensively studied and have proven to lower total body weight, reduce belly fat and cholesterol. Specifically, tart cherries have the potential to limit the uptake of fat into the body and help control blood cholesterol levels.

Reset Circadian Rhythms

Cherries contain the antioxidant melatonin which is released when we sleep, and helps regulate our circadian rhythms. Our body rapidly absorbs melatonin, so if you want to sleep easy, eat a cup or two of cherries before you go to bed. Not much melatonin is present in the body, so consuming foods that contain this antioxidant is a wonderful way to naturally treat insomnia and help you sleep better.

Sources:

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2004/01/17/cherries-health.aspx

McCune, L., Kubota, C., Stendell-Hollis, N., & Thomson, C. (2010) Cherries and health: A review. Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, 51, 1-12.

Kelley, D., Rasooly, R., Jacob, R., Kader, A., & Mackey, B. (2006) Consumption of bing sweet cherries lower circulating concentrations of inflammation markers in healthy men and women. American Society for Nutrition, 136, 981-986.

Seymour, E., Lewis, S., Urcuyo-Llanes, D., Tanone, I., Kirakosyan, A., Kaufman, P. (2009) Regular tart cherry intake alters abdominal adiposity, adipose gene transcription, and inflammation in obesity-prone rats fed a high fat diet. Journal of Medicinal Food, 12, 935-942.

Gonzalez-Gomez, D., Lozano, M., Fernandez-Leon, M., Ayuso, M., Bernalte, M., Rodriguez, A. (2009) Detection and quantification of melatonin and serotonin in eight sweet cherry cultivars (prunus avium L.)European Food Research and Technology, 229, 223-229.