Sham: Big Problems with Chinese Seafood

The problems experienced by Americans and others around the world with Chinese exports has now reached the US food chain, where inexpensive farmed fish have been found to contain a number of illegal and unhealthy ingredients. (Search this site for "China" for references to a number of other reported problems with their dietary supplements, personal care items, toys, etc.)

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday announced it is blocking the import from China of five species of seafood until their importers can prove they are not contaminated. Dr. David Acheson, the agency's assistant commissioner for food protection, stated that "FDA is initiating an import alert against several species of imported Chinese farmed seafood because of numerous cases of contamination with drugs and unsafe food additives."

The species involved here are catfish, eel, shrimp, basa and dace, he said. (Basa is a fish much like catfish; dace is similar to carp.)

The medications cited include the antimicrobials nitrofuran, malachite green, gentian violet and fluoroquinolones. The first three chemicals have been shown to cause cancer in laboratory animals. The use of fluoroquinolones in food-producing animals can result in antibiotic resistance -- something which is a great concern in these days of resistant strains and hospital acquired infections.

None of them is approved for use in farmed seafood in the United States. For many years now, US seafood farmers have been arguing that China is undercutting them and producing an inferior product.

"FDA is taking this action to protect the public health of the American people," the FDA representative said. He also admitted that the products "could cause serious health problems if consumed over a long period of time."

China is the world's largest producer of farmed fish, accounting for 70 percent of the total produced, he said. It is the third-largest exporter of farmed fish to the United States. In another piece of news today, China has been discovered by Brazil to be using fake Brazilian export certificates for their beef sales, claiming to buyers all over the world that Chinese beef is from Brazil. Unbelievable . . . I personally think it is time that we went on a "China-free diet" and ask our grocers where their food comes from before we purchase it for our family's consumption.

Dave

Wham: Moderate Drinkers Report Above-Average Health

A new study from the University of Miami says that moderate drinkers are more likely to report above-average health than lifetime abstainers, light drinkers and heavy drinkers.

“Our results suggest that a moderate amount of drinking is not necessarily dangerous for most people and may actually be health-enhancing,” said study coauthor Michael French, Ph.D., whose findings confirmed much of the clinical evidence on this topic. Previous research has focused on objective health indicators such as cardiovascular disease, injuries and mortality.

In this case, however, researchers wanted to see if moderate drinkers are actually feeling better by their own assessment. French, professor of health economics at the University of Miami, coauthored this study which appears in the July/August issue of the American Journal of Health Promotion.

The study used 2002 data from a representative survey of U.S. households, representing more than 31,000 adults. The U.S. Census Bureau conducts the survey for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Participants answered questions about alcohol consumption, health behaviors and chronic health conditions. Researchers defined moderate drinking as four to 14 drinks weekly for men and four to seven drinks weekly for women.

Compared with lifetime abstainers and former light drinkers, moderate-drinking men were 1.27 times more likely to report above-average health. Women who were moderate drinkers were more than twice as likely to report above-average health as abstainers were.

Arthur Klatsky, M.D., a researcher and cardiology consultant at the Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program in Oakland, Calif., suggests that the study’s results for moderate drinkers probably have something to do with healthy lifestyles. “By and large, the same people that work out and eat healthy are probably more likely to be moderate drinkers instead of heavier drinkers,” he said.

One major health benefit of moderate drinking is the ability to ward off cardiovascular disease, particularly hardening of the arteries and stroke caused by blockages in blood vessels, Klatsky added.

Dave

Sham: Antidepressants May Lead to Serious Bone Loss

The class of antidepressant medications known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors may be associated with an increased rate of bone loss in older men and women, according to two articles in the June 25 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) treat depression by inhibiting the protein that transports serotonin, a neurotransmitter involved in sleep and depression, according to background information in the articles. This protein has recently been discovered in bone as well, raising the possibility that SSRIs may affect bone density and the risk of fracture. SSRIs account for about 62 percent of antidepressant prescriptions in the United States, and are often prescribed to the elderly. Here's more from these two studies:

Susan J. Diem, M.D., M.P.H., University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and colleagues studied 2,722 older women (average age 78.5 years) beginning in 1997 through 1999. At that time and again an average of 4.9 years later, researchers measured women’s total hip bone density and also that of two subregions. At each visit, the participantswere asked to bring in all the medications they had used within the past two weeks, including SSRIs and tricyclic antidepressants, which work through a different mechanism. There was a lower bone density in those who used the SSRI's.

“One potential explanation for our findings is that SSRI use may have a direct deleterious effect on bone,” the authors write. “This theory is supported by findings of in vitro and in vivo laboratory investigations.” Some data suggest that SSRIs may interfere with the function of osteoclasts and osteoblasts, cells responsible for the regular breaking down and rebuilding of bone in the body.

In a related paper, Elizabeth M. Haney, M.D., of Oregon Health & Sciences University, Portland, and colleagues conducted a similar study with 5,995 men age 65 and older (average age 73.7). The men’s bone density at the hip, including subregions, and at the base of the spine were measured between 2000 and 2002. Participants were asked to bring all medications to their clinic visit, where they were also given a physical examination and asked about other health and lifestyle factors.

A total of 160 (2.7 percent) men reported using SSRIs, 99 (1.7 percent) reported using tricyclic antidepressants and 52 (0.9 percent) reported using trazodone, a third type of antidepressant. Total hip bone mineral density was 3.9 percent lower among SSRI users than among men who didn’t use any antidepressants. Similarly, spine bone mineral density was 5.9 percent lower among SSRI users than among non-users. There was no significant difference in either hip or spine density between men who took tricyclic antidepressants or trazodone and those who did not take antidepressants.

Although these studies do not prove definitively that SSRIs cause a reduction in bone mineral density, they do raise concerns that physicians must consider when they write prescriptions for antidepressant medications, writes Kenneth Saag, M.D., M.Sc., of the University of Alabama at Birmingham in an accompanying editorial.

For many patients, the benefits of SSRIs are likely to outweight the risks, Dr. Saag continues. “Although it is not appealing to use a second medicine to ‘chase’ the adverse effects of a first one, if needed, there are many good options that exist to prevent bone loss.”

As medicine advances, it is not surprising that physicians are finding new ways to improve one health problem while worsening another. My concern in reading these research studies is that instead of finding another, safer way to reduce depression, doctors will add another pharmaceutical chemical to the daily "cocktail" they prescribe for their patients to improve bone density. This increasingly complicated mix of expensive pharmaceutical chemicals serves to help no one with the exception of the pharmaceutical companies that make these products.

Natural products are available which support a positive mood, and which provide a healthy alternative to anti-depressants. MIND BODY & SPIRIT, a Rhodiola-rosea based supplement produced by Verde Botanica and marketed by ProActive BioProducts Inc. is one such product that offers an increase in energy combined with uplift in mood and outlook that can be beneficial to many older Americans. There is no bone loss or risk of drug interactions with Rhodiola products.

Dave

Wham: Omega 3 Fish Oils in Blindness Prevention

Increasing intake of the omega-3 fatty acids DHA and EPA, found in popular fish-oil supplements, may protect against blindness resulting from abnormal blood vessel growth in the eye, according to a study published online by the journal Nature Medicine on June 24. The study was done in mice, but a clinical trial at Children’s Hospital Boston will soon begin testing the effects of omega-3 supplementation in premature babies, who are at risk for vision loss. Here's more from this report about Omega 3 Fish Oil supplementation:

Abnormal vessel growth is the cause of retinopathy of prematurity, diabetic retinopathy in adults, and “wet” age-related macular degeneration, three leading causes of blindness. Retinopathy, affecting about 4 million diabetic patients and about 40,000 premature infants in the United States, is a two-step disease that begins with a loss of blood vessels in the retina (the nerve tissue at the back of the eye that sends visual signals to the brain). Because of the vessel loss, the retina becomes oxygen-starved and sends out alarm signals that spur new vessel growth. But the new vessels grow abnormally and are malformed, leaky and over-abundant. In the end stage of the disease, the abnormal vessels pull the retina away from its supporting layer, and this retinal detachment ultimately causes blindness.

The researchers, led by Lois Smith, MD, PhD, and Kip Connor, PhD, of Children’s Hospital Boston’s Department of Ophthalmology and Harvard Medical School, and John Paul SanGiovanni, ScD, of the National Eye Institute (NEI), National Institutes of Health, studied retinopathy in a mouse model, feeding the mice diets that emphasized either omega-3 fatty acids (comparable to a Japanese diet) or omega-6 fatty acids (comparable to a Western diet).

Mice on the omega-3 diet, rich in DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) and its precursor EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid), had less initial vessel loss in the retina than the omega-6-fed mice: the area with vessel loss was 40 to 50 percent smaller. As a result, the omega-3 group had a 40 to 50 percent decrease in pathological vessel growth.

“Our studies suggest that after initial loss, vessels re-grew more quickly and efficiently in the omega-3-fed mice,” says Connor, the study’s first author. “This increased the oxygen supply to retinal tissue, resulting in a dampening of the inflammatory ‘alarm’ signals that lead to pathologic vessel growth.”

Because omega-3 fatty acids are highly concentrated in the retina, a mere 2 percent change in dietary omega-3 intake was sufficient to decrease disease severity by 50 percent, the researchers note. Validating their findings, results were virtually identical in mice whose omega-3 fatty acid levels were increased through genetic means.

Omega-3 fatty acids like DHA and EPA are thought to dampen inflammation in the body. They are often lacking in Western diets; instead, omega-6 fatty acids predominate. The ideal omega-6:omega-3 ratio is thought to be 2:1 to 5:1, whereas typical Western diets have ratios of 10:1 or higher. Premature infants are especially lacking in omega-3 fatty acids, because they miss getting this nutrient from their mothers, a transfer that normally happens in the third trimester of pregnancy.

The researchers demonstrated that the omega-3-based diet suppressed production of TNF-alpha, reducing the inflammatory response in the retina, whereas the omega-6-based diet increased TNF-alpha production. The retinas of omega-3-fed mice also had increased production of the anti-inflammatory compounds neuroprotectinD1, resolvinD1 and resolvinE1. These compounds, derived from omega-3 fatty acids, also potently protected against pathological vessel growth, and they were not detected in the retinas of mice fed the omega-6 diet.

“If omega-3 fatty acids, or these anti-inflammatory mediators, are as effective in humans and they are in mice, simple supplementation could be a cost-effective intervention benefiting millions of people,” says Smith, the study’s senior investigator. “The cost of blindness is enormous.”

Aside from fish-oil supplements, the most widely available source of omega-3 fatty acids is coldwater oily fish (wild salmon, herry, mackerel, anchovies, sardines). The compounds can also be made synthetically from algae or other non-fish sources.

Its hard to believe, but some doctors are still not recommending Fish Oil supplements to their patients, as the research continues to pile up that quality fish oil supplements (pure, free from mercury contamination) can be one of the most important supplements you take each day.

Dave

Sham: The American Media's Anti-Supplement Slant

As my readers know, I am over in Europe right now and publishing irregularly. However, today's post is a very interesting one for me, because I am in Europe now, reading the news here, and yet also staying in very close touch with the news on CNN and other sources in the States.

What a difference we have in the reporting of facts about herbs, or about dietary supplements on this side of the water compared to the States. I truly believe that we are seeing an agenda playing out here, driven by pharmaceutical companies and the huge money that they throw into the media with their advertising campaigns for drugs.

Here's an example . . . Both today's BBC news, and the local news in Lisbon, Portugal, carried the story of new, large Echinacea clinical trials which show strong results from the herb for keeping colds at bay, and also for knocking out colds early. Here are some of the facts of this story about the research done by researchers from the USA and reported in The Lancet (one of the most important medical publications in the world):

Taking the herbal remedy echinacea can more than halve the risk of catching a common cold, US researchers say. They found it decreased the odds of developing a cold by 58% and the duration of colds by a day-and-a-half. The results in The Lancet Infectious Diseases conflict with other studies that show no beneficial effect.

Experts believe echinacea, a collection of nine related plant species indigenous to North America, may work by boosting the body's immune system. Researchers, led by Dr Craig Coleman from the University of Connecticut School of Pharmacy, combined the results of 14 different studies on Echinacea's anti-cold properties.

In one of the 14 studies the researchers reviewed, echinacea was taken alongside vitamin C. This combination reduced cold incidence by 86%. When echinacea was used alone it reduced cold incidence by 65%.

As you might imagine, seeing this as front page headlines locally and on the BBC, and seeing that it was an American research team, I thought for sure that it would be repeated either on CNN or on the various USA networks or print media. Apparently, I was mistaken. It seems that the same news media outlets which prominently featured the NEGATIVE trials on this herb simply took this positive news and swept it under the rug.

I am beginning to sense a serious MD/Pharma Company coalition working against the dietary supplement industry. Does anyone else have another explanation for this? See the news story from BBC linked to this headline.

Dave

Wham: Adaptogens for Jet Lag

I hate to include products of our company in Sham vs. Wham: The Health Insider because it cheapens the site and makes it appear commercial. Therefore, as you know if you've been a reader of this blog for some time that most (90%) of the health news is from material that I research OUTSIDE of our own products at ProActive BioProducts Inc., the company I founded along with my partner.

However, now and again I am so strongly reminded of the power of our own products that I must tell you how I feel about them. While it will no doubt send some readers off with "commercial" concerns, I can tell you that one of our products works so well in a common problem that it should be on the shelf of drug stores all over the world. (Because we sell to Doctors and not drug stores, that will never happen. But certainly more doctors should be aware of this product, that's for sure!).

The product I am speaking of is our triple-adaptogen product, Adapt 232®, which I brought along with me on my current trip to Portugal. I was asked to give a talk at a well known research institution here in Lisbon (the Gulbenkian Institute) and arrived in the afternoon, before my presentation the next day. Jet Lag set in and I could hardly get moving the next day . . . until I took my Adapt 232 and literally felt that situation turn around in an hour or two.

Adapt 232® is a combination of Eleuthero, Rhodiola, and Schizandra in a tablet that is used for a daily energy boost, without the harmful stimulants of caffeine or caffeine-containing herbs. It worked great for me on my Jet Lag, and I intend to develop an advertisement and promotion based upon its super effectiveness proven to me on this trip.

Dave

Wham: Omega 3 Fish Oils Show Benefit Once Again

Research in mice suggests that a diet high in omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oil and certain types of fish could potentially improve the prognosis of men who are genetically prone to develop prostate cancer. The research is reported online by the Journal of Clinical Investigation and will appear in the July 2 print issue. Here's more:

“This study clearly shows that diet can tip the balance toward a good or a bad outcome,” said senior researcher Yong Q. Chen, Ph.D., from Wake Forest University School of Medicine. “It’s possible that a change in diet could mean the difference between dying from the disease and surviving with it.”

In mice that were engineered with a genetic defect that caused prostate cancer, a diet high in omega-3 fatty acids beginning at birth reduced tumor growth, slowed disease progression and increased survival. Prostate cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer and is a leading cause of death in men in the United States. Population studies have suggested that consumption of fish or fish oil reduces prostate cancer incidence. However, these investigations have been hampered by the difficulty people have in accurately reporting their dietary intake.

The goal of the current study was to explore gene-diet interactions in prostate cancer. It involved mice that were engineered with a genetic defect – they lacked a tumor suppressor gene and spontaneously developed prostate cancer. This gene (Pten) is absent in 60 to 70 percent of metastatic cancers in humans.

The engineered mice and “wild-type” (or non-engineered) mice were fed varying levels of omega-3 and omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). Both are “essential” fatty acids, which means the body needs them for proper cell function but cannot produce them. Many vegetable oils contain omega-6 PUFA. Fish like mackerel, lake trout, herring, sardines, albacore tuna and salmon are high in omega-3 fatty acids.

Nutritionists recommend that people consume equal proportions of omega-3 and omega-6 PUFA. However, in current western diets, the proportion of omega-6 to omega-3 is between 30 and 50 to one.

The mice were fed either a diet high in omega-3 (ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 was 1:1) a diet low in omega 3 (ratio omega-6 to omega-3 was 20:1), or a diet high in omega-6 (ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 was 40:1). The scientists compared survival rates and weighed the animals’ prostates to measure tumor progression.

Mice with the tumor suppressor gene remained free of tumors and had 100 percent survival, regardless of diet. In mice with the gene defect, survival was 60 percent in animals on the high omega-3 diet, 10 percent in those on the low omega-3 diet and 0 percent in those on the high omega-6 diet.

“This suggests that if you have good genes, it may not matter too much what you eat,” said Chen, a professor of cancer biology. “But if you have a gene that makes you susceptible to prostate cancer, your diet can tip the balance. Our data demonstrate the importance of gene-diet interactions, and that genetic cancer risk can be modified favorable by omega-3 PUFA.” Chen said dietary changes may be particularly beneficial in people prone to prostate cancer because the disease is usually diagnosed in older men and the tumors are slow-growing. It’s possible that eating a high omega-3 diet could delay tumor development or progression long enough for the man to live out his natural lifespan with prostate cancer.

The authors cautioned that the effects were obtained with the omega-3s found in fish oil and that omega-3s from flaxseed oil and other plants may not provide the same results.

Dave