Showing posts with label pills. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pills. Show all posts

As good as pills: Mediterranean diet prohibits nothing that was recognized as food by your great-grandmother

From NYTimes: The Times's Gina Kolata talks about a new study, published on The New England Journal of Medicine's Web site, focusing on the health benefits of a Mediterranean diet.



When Diet Meets Delicious - The Mediterranean Approach http://buff.ly/XCsvTJ -- Mediterranean diet prohibits nothing that was recognized as food by your great-grandmother.

Here is the original research from NEJM:

In a multicenter trial in Spain, 7447 participants who were at high cardiovascular risk, but with no cardiovascular disease at enrollment (age range, 55 to 80 years, 57% were women), were randomly assigned to one of three diets:

- a Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra-virgin olive oil
- a Mediterranean diet supplemented with mixed nuts
- a control diet (advice to reduce dietary fat)

Participants received quarterly educational sessions and, and depending on group assignment, free provision of extra-virgin olive oil, mixed nuts, or small nonfood gifts.

The primary end point was the rate of major cardiovascular events (myocardial infarction, stroke, or death from cardiovascular causes). On the basis of the results of an interim analysis, the trial was stopped after a median follow-up of 4.8 years.

The two Mediterranean-diet groups had good adherence to the intervention. A primary end-point event occurred in 288 participants.

The multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios were 0.70 and 0.72 for the group assigned to a Mediterranean diet with extra-virgin olive oil (96 events) and the group assigned to a Mediterranean diet with nuts (83 events), respectively, versus the control group (109 events).

Among persons at high cardiovascular risk, a Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra-virgin olive oil or nuts reduced the incidence of major cardiovascular events (the study was funded by the Spanish government).

References:

Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease with a Mediterranean Diet. February 25, 2013DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1200303
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1200303

Comments from Twitter and Facebook:

Dr Kelly Sennholz @MtnMD: Better! RT .@DrVes: As good as pills: Mediterranean diet prohibits nothing recognized as food by ur grt-grandmother bit.ly/WuFQKv


Matthew Bowdish: My grandmother used to serve bacon-wrapped asparagus. Is that in the Mediterranean diet?

Drug-resistant infections: Bitter pills to swallow (The Economist video)

Antibiotics everywhere are over-used. As a result, bacteria are growing ever more resistant. What the risks of this and what can be done?

3,000 Pills Later - A Nutraceutical Experiment - TIME Video

3,000 Pills Later - A Nutraceutical Experiment - TIME Video



The TIME magazine writer John Cloud took over 3,000 vitamins and supplements in a span of 5 months to see how his health would change. He was taking 28 pills a day. The results may surprise you.

He gained weight. His HDL increased but nobody was sure why. His vitamin D level increased but the follow-up level was done in June when he was spending more time in the sun anyway. That was all.

References:
Nutrition In a Pill. TIME.
Fish out of pills - Pharmaceuticals in drinking water

Fish out of pills - Pharmaceuticals in drinking water



Fish out of pills - Pharmaceuticals in drinking water, NationalGeographic, April 01, 2010. Design Editor Oliver Uberti shows what went into the making of an information graphic about pharmaceuticals that make their way into our watersheds and end up in fish. Click here to see the full-size illustration.

A vast array of pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones — have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans. The concentrations of these pharmaceuticals are tiny, far below the levels of a medical dose but the long-term consequences to human health are unknown.

The pharmaceutical industry points out the amount of medication in the water supply is the equivalent of a single pill in an Olympic-size swimming pool. Still, if you a have glass of water in Philadelphia, you are drinking tiny amounts of at least 56 medications.

References:

Antibiotics, anticonvulsants, antidepressants and sex hormones in drinking water of 41 million Americans http://goo.gl/HiXa
Pollution: Fish Pharm. NGM Blog Central.

Related reading:

Fish Pharm: Pharmaceutical Waste and the Environment. BitingTheDust, 2010.
Fishing For Answers: How To Choose Fish and Seafood | Summer Tomato http://goo.gl/0OBf
Something in the water - fluoxetine in this river, antihypertensives in that lake - BMJ, 2011.