It’s always good to hear more studies giving positive results about the Mediterranean diet. Following this diet, rich in olive oil, is the surest way to prevent breast cancer. It is even effective when mixed nuts are used instead of oil.
Women who follow the oil-rich diet reduce their risk of developing the disease by around 30 per cent compared with those who follow a low-fat diet.
In a study, 4,282 women, aged 60 to 80, were placed on a diet with extra virgin olive oil added or with nuts added, while the rest were placed on a low-fat diet. The groups were then followed for nearly five years, during which time 35 women developed breast cancer.
For every woman in the olive oil group who developed the disease, 1.8 in the nuts group developed the cancer, whereas this figure rose to 2.9 in the low-fats group (JAMA Intern. Med., 2015).
Although doctors are advised to prescribe cholesterol-lowering statins to anyone they believe has at least a 10 per cent chance of suffering a stroke during the next 10 years, they would probably be better off advising them to follow the Mediterranean diet. This is the advice of a leading heart specialist.
The diet, coupled with exercise and not smoking, could be as effective as taking statins and without the side effects, says Aseem Malhotra, a cardiologist at the Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust.
Dr Malhotra is calling on doctors to explain to patients the advantages and shortcomings of statins, as well as the safer alternatives. The Mediterranean diet is one of those alternatives, rich in olive oil, vegetables, fruit, fish and olives. The doctor’s beliefs are that the older population could be over medicated, so these dietary guidelines would help in many ways (Prescribe, 2015).
The Mediterranean diet, rich in olive oil, is the surest way to prevent breast cancer
New research has looked at the effects of probiotics in toddlers and young children and discovered that probiotics can reverse allergies to milk in toddlers. Probiotics replace the ‘good’ bacteria lost in the gut by antibiotics, formula feeding and a poor diet.
Infants with cow’s milk allergy had their problem reversed when given a probiotic containing lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG) bacteria. The probiotic also helps the gut create butyrate, a short chain fatty acid that is a natural detoxifier which rids the gut of ammonia and neurotoxins.
Researchers at the University of Chicago say the gut flora of an allergy sufferer is significantly different from that of a non-allergic person, suggesting that differences in the composition of the bacterial community in the gut influence the development of allergies. In a test of infants with cow’s milk allergy, those given the probiotic showed no biomarkers of the allergy in their stool samples compared with those not taking the probiotic.
Food allergies have increased by 20 per cent in the developed countries over the past decade. The increase has mainly been the result of overuse of antibiotics, a high-fat/low-fibre diet and low exposure to infectious diseases, as well as formula feeding, say the researchers (ISME J., 2015).
The benefits of vitamin C seem to be endless. It appears that taking the supplement every day can reduce your risk of heart disease if you are overweight and could be as beneficial as exercise.
However, to get the real benefits, you need to be taking an amount that is more than 10 times greater than the recommended daily allowance. Health officials tell us we only need to be taking 40mg/day of the vitamin. However, researchers estimate that overweight people require at least 500mg/day to even begin to reduce their risk of cardiovascular disease.
The researchers at the University of Colorado measured levels of endothelin (ET)-1 protein in the blood of 20 overweight volunteers and matched their progress against a group of 15 volunteers who carried out regular aerobic exercise instead.
Levels of ET-1 are an indicator of likely constriction or narrowing of small blood vessels, which can lead to heart disease and heart attack. While exercise has been shown to lower ET-1 levels, it is often difficult to get the overweight to exercise regularly.
In this study, the researchers discovered that the vitamin supplement was as successful as exercise at lowering levels of ET-1.
Elderly people who are housebound should be taking vitamin D supplements to compensate for lack of sunshine. The vitamin plays a key role in maintaining muscle strength and so could help reduce the risk of falls, researchers believe.
Finally, we all know that type 2 diabetes (the ‘lifestyle’ disease that is often brought about by a poor diet) can affect the heart. However, new research has discovered that it could also have an impact on the health of our bones.
Fractures are common in those suffering from diabetes. Researchers think that high blood sugar, a common symptom of the disease, causes the bones to deteriorate.
kathryn@maltanet.net