Author Archive
Chronic Fatigue and the Mysterious XMRV Link
Everyone who suffers with this condition and the many thousands of practitioners involved in their health recovery are interested in whether there may be a causal agent identifiable through appropriate tests – not that there is a treatment on offer, but more a case of validation I suspect. This topic has attracted a great deal of attention in the orthodox and alternative medicine world and has some time to go before the explanations become viable treatments. Keeping up to speed with the science will assist all practitioners in their potential application.
The debate over XMRV began back in 2009 when researchers led by Judy Mikovits of the Whittemore Peterson Institute (WPI) for Neuro-Immune Disease in Reno, Nevada, reported in Science: traces of the virus in peripheral blood mononuclear cells, a type of white blood cell, of 67% of CFS patients. By contrast, only 3.4% of healthy controls were found to harbour the virus. The team also showed that XMRV could infect human cells and concluded that the virus—which had previously been linked to prostate cancer—might play a role in causing CFS.
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Healthy Food And Reasonable Body Weight Does Not Prevent Development Of Type 2 Diabetes!
I think we all accept that changes in insulin levels over time predispose people to the development of type II diabetes and that this is often accompanied by the central adiposity that distinguishes the metabolic syndrome morphology we have come to look for.
This study, published in PLOS One this year (2010), suggests that besides these clinical indications another slightly less obvious change to body mass affects insulin resistance and increases risk of diabetes.[1]
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Increase Vit D RDA’s Say Scientists
On July the 28th 2010 the Journal Experimental Biology and Medicine published an article looking at the levels of Vitamin D in the general population and made recommendations concerning the RDA levels needed to limit osteomalacia in adults and rickets in children.[1] This they say is because scientists and nutritionists from many countries agree that at present about half of elderly North Americans and Western Europeans and probably also of the rest of the world are not receiving enough vitamin D to maintain healthy bone. This is nothing new to this web site or indeed the thousands of people that have been following this story for the last 10 years.
The paper goes on to say that over the past decade there has been a dramatic increase in the understanding of the many biological actions that result from vitamin D acting through its daughter steroid hormone, 1α,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 [1α,25(OH)2D3] in collaboration with its cognate vitamin D receptor (VDR). In other words Vitamin D does more than support bone health.
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Vitamin A: The Key to A Tolerant Immune System?
By Michael Ash, BSc(Hons). DO. ND. FellowDipION
Vitamin D and Vitamin A are essential co-partners in immunological and bone health.[1],[2] I’m particularly excited about vitamin A because of its profound effects on the gut mucosal immune system—a specialty of mine. Just as vitamin D has attracted attention for its ability to increase antimicrobial peptides and help us defeat pathogens, it’s fascinating to me that vitamin A is also essential for the very tissues that protect us from the same pathogens.
The availability of vitamin A in our food is a key factor in a tolerant, highly functional immune system. To quote from the title of a brilliant commentary in the March 2008 issue of Nature’s Mucosal Immunology, “Vitamin A rewrites the ABCs of oral tolerance.”[3]
Vitamin A is crucial to a very sophisticated bi-directional mechanism that takes place in the digestive system and leads to immune tolerance across the entire gut lining. Immune tolerance is the essence of good health. An intolerant immune system will lead to a wide range of illnesses, and the gut is where many people first lose immune tolerance. Vitamin A (retinoic acid) is key to our ability to consume a wide range of antigens (food) and yet not react adversely, and it’s quite fascinating.
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B Vitamins Beat Depression
This month’s (August) American Journal of Clinical Nutrition presents a longitudinal study supporting the use of B vitamins in the management of mental health.
In Nutritional Therapy practice when we are faced with patients who seem to be struggling with depression and are finding recovery hard as well as trying to prevent recurrence after resolving their current symptoms we often think – B Vitamins
But what is the evidence for this apparently normal recommendation – is there anything of substance that supports the therapeutic use of these water soluble vitamins.
To date most studies have been conducted using a cross sectional approach[1],[2] (a class of research methods that involve observation of some subset of a population of items all at the same time, in which, groups can be compared at different ages with respect of independent variables) rather than the preferred prospective style investigations (an analytic study designed to determine the relationship between a condition and a characteristic shared by some members of a group). A prospective study may involve many variables or only two; it may seek to demonstrate a relationship that is an association or one that is causal. Prospective studies produce a direct measure of risk called the relative risk.
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Coeliac Disease 4 Times More Common Than Previously Thought
Examples of macroscopic features of villous atrophy detected by wireless capsule endoscopy in coeliac disease: A) Normal villi, B) scalloping of the mucosa on circular folds, C) fissuring of the mucosa, D) mosaic pattern. © Mayo Clinic
Researchers from the USA, Europe and other research centres are suggesting that Coeliac Disease has increased up to 4 x in the last 30 years.
They suggest that as much as 1% of the adult and child populations may have CD, and as we know there are many others that have yet to have the disease diagnosed, but experience problems with gluten and are diagnosed as being intolerant or sensitive.
Let’s be clear about what gluten intolerance is. ‘It isn’t a food allergy’. It’s a physical condition in your gut. Basically, undigested gluten proteins (prevalent in wheat and other grains) lurk around your intestines and are regarded by your body as a foreign invader, irritating your gut and flattening the essential microvilli along the small intestine wall. This reduces the surface area available to absorb the nutrients from your food. This can result in symptoms of malabsorption, including chronic fatigue, neurological disorders, nutrient deficiencies, anaemia, nausea, skin rashes, depression, and more.
Whilst there are better screening techniques today than there were in the 1980’s, we must also recognise that there are many other factors at work here, one of which is the changing levels of gluten in grains from hybridisation techniques.
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Genes, Viruses, Microbes and IBD
Crohn’s disease is common and miserable to suffer from, yet its actual cause is still under some debate as no clear understanding has yet been fully elucidated. It is known that there are some gene variations and that the environment has an impact. A paper out in Cell suggests, based on a mouse model that it may be a virus that makes the difference between health and inflammation. demonstrate that a viral infection, a toxic insult to the gut, commensal bacteria, and a Crohn’s disease susceptibility gene collude to cause inflammatory disease in the mouse gut.[1]
To be clear, Cadwell and co-workers are not arguing that Crohn’s disease is caused by infection with norovirus (as used in this study) or by any other single microbe. The environmental factors that predispose to and protect from Crohn’s disease remain uncertain, but the balance among commensal and pathogenic gut bacteria and viral infections is likely to be part of the story. These studies make an urgent and compelling case for characterising the human virome as well as the microbiome and defining its effects on physiology and gene expression. In addition, further explanations to help us to understand how the virome interacts with polymorphisms in the host genome and how numerous toxins in the environment alter this complex interplay will need to be unravelled.
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Does Junk Food increase the risk of Allergies and IBD?
As discussed here on many occasions it is well recognised that developed countries are suffering from an epidemic rise in immunologic disorders, such as allergy-related diseases and certain auto-immunities. One of the proposed explanations and one that I feel most convinced about is the changing composition of our intestinal microflora and parasite burden. Our intestinal ecological changes appear to be altering our ability to manage appropriate immunomodulatory responses to various ingested and inhaled antigens.
The Proceedings of The National Academy of Science Journal published a paper this June 2010 exploring the differences in the microbial communities between those children on a western style diet and those from a rural African community whose diet reflected that of a the early humans – high in fibre.[1]
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Blueberries for Blood Pressure Benefits – A Medicinal Food?
In the management of patients for hypertension and weight, linked to metabolic syndrome, we will find ourselves saying – eat more fruits and vegetables without always giving them our full attention – well I do anyway!
A paper just out in the Journal of Nutrition describes the effects of consuming 50gm of freeze dried blueberry smoothie equivalent they suggest to -350g of fresh blueberries for eight weeks by 48 participants (44 women & 4 men) with an average age of 50 and BMI of 38kg/m2.[1]
This was not just a simple watch and see trial, they randomised it with a placebo, so whilst the numbers are small the methodology is sound. The controls were asked to consume 960ml of water daily – even this had an effect as I have previously described.
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The Foundations of Ecological Medicine
Ecological Medicine addresses the interactions between the individual and the environment and their health consequences – both the impact of environmental factors on the individual and that of the individuals actions on the environment, upon which we all depend.
The British Society for Ecological Medicine have put together a three stage, 2 year training programme open to all healthcare professionals and medical students.
Stage one: The Pillars of Ecological Medicine
Date: Wednesday the 10th and Thursday the 11th November 2010
Location: Hallam Conference Centre, 44 Hallam Street, London W1W 6JJ
Cost: BSEM Members: £240 Non Members £280
The subjects for the presentation and further details can be collected from their The foundations of ecological medicine flyer.
For further information please visit their web site
