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What is the Best Test for Coeliac Diagnosis?
Coeliac disease is regarded as a common disorder, yet many clinicians miss the cardinal signs that indicate further investigation is warranted. Coeliac disease is becoming an increasingly recognised autoimmune enteropathy caused by a permanent intolerance to gluten. Once thought to be a rare disease of childhood characterised by diarrhoea, coeliac disease is actually a multisystemic disorder that occurs as a result of an immune response to ingested gluten in genetically predisposed individuals and includes non gastrointestinal symptoms such as depression.
So how can practitioners decide if their patient has wheat intolerance or is requiring strict gluten avoidance to reduce the risk of linked diseases.
A paper out in the Journal of The American Medical Association on May the 5th looks at a variety of papers published since 1947 until 2009 to determine the evolution of investigative tests and to see which was most accurate. Two principle mechanisms for valid confirmation were identified.[1]
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CAM Conference 2010-Heart Care
Michael Ash BSc (Hons) DO ND F.DipION is presenting a functional medicine approach to patients with cardiovascular disease using nutrition and the immune system to provide evidence based strategies to assist in the care of affected patients. The CAM conference series three lecture, will be held at Cavendish Conference Centre, London on the 14th May 2010. Other speakers will help make this a very informative and strategic day.
Cardiovascular disease continues to be the number 1 cause of preventable death in the industrialised world as confirmed by a recent report undertaken in the UK. some 5000 patients followed up in the United Kingdom’s Whitehall Study, which began in the 1960s has revealed that just three cardiovascular risk factors shortened their life span by a whole decade.
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Multi Vitamins May Help Prevent Breast Cancer
There is an area of discovery related to food supplement ingestion and cancer prevention that has been attracting a lot of interest. Namely; does taking food supplement (of mostly indeterminate quality) provide women with a benefit or risk in terms of breast cancer. A recent post reviewed a study of Swedish women,[1] where the indications were of increased risk, compared to other studies that were either indicative of reduced risk, or benign.
This latest study suggests women who take multivitamin tablets along with calcium supplements seem to have a reduced risk of developing breast cancer. Interestingly the Swedish study also indicated that calcium was a mineral of benefit for reducing risk.
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Iodine Status In UK
Iodine deficiency is the single most common cause of preventable mental retardation and brain damage in the world. It also decreases child survival, causes goitres, and impairs growth and development. Iodine deficiency in pregnant women causes miscarriages, stillbirths, and other complications. Children with IDD can grow up stunted, apathetic, mentally retarded, and incapable of normal movements, speech, or hearing. Globally, 2.2 billion people (38% of the world’s population) live in areas with iodine deficiency and risks its complications.
But are people in the UK deficient in Iodine? There is surprisingly little information available to identify whether the population has adequate or insufficient levels to meet the various needs of all the tissues that have iodine receptors.
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Lifestyle Changes Better Than Drugs for Diabetes Prevention
A series of papers out in the New England Journal of medicine on March the 14th 2010 have failed to add any substantive weight to the use of medication in the prevention of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. [1],[2],[3]
The continued expansion of the western global waistline and incidence of diabetes has provided fertile opportunity for a wide range of clinical trials designed to uncover strategies for incidence of diabetes reduction.[4] There is no surprise in the discovery that making significant changes to people’s lifestyles, eating less and being more active, the primary causes of weight gain, also have a consistent reduction in type II diabetes risk. The real success has also been in the associated benefits in reduction of related cardiovascular disease risk[5] and raising of mood.[6]
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Apples and Nuts Reduce Inflammation Via Mucosal Immune System
In the context of the ever increasing relationship between inflammation and diseases of our western lifestyle the idea that the old adage of ‘an apple a day keeps the Dr away’ this recent paper has some attractive evidence.
The university of Illinois team of researcher have written a paper due to be published in the prestigious Journal Brain Behaviour and Immunity later in the year around May.[1]
Looking at a mouse model – and we are aware of how diet affect mouse studies from a post written a few days ago- Food Choice Affects Lab Outcomes this group have extended the concept further, and presented the mice with a specially enriched diet. This study fed a low fat diet to both groups for six weeks differentiated by one having soluble fibre and the other non soluble fibre.
When challenged using a microbial wall particle called lipopolysaccharide (LPS) the group on the soluble fibre had a 50% reduction in symptoms compared to the insoluble group. They also recovered 50% faster. It seems that just 6 weeks of an increased soluble fibre intake change their immune responses in a very positive manner.
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Food Choice Affects Lab Outcomes
Most basic research relies on the use of mice as the sacrificial animal. Many of these mouse are carefully engineered to have special gene abnormalities, or to be a consistent animal in order that different laboratories can limit variability by using the same strain/species. Without doubt millions of mice have been sacrificed in the name of science, and whilst there will be considerable polarisation on the validity of their use, they have contributed an enormous amount of information to human health.
But man is not a mouse, and indeed a mouse may be adversely affected by the choice of mouse chow given to it. A remarkably elegant study by Courtney Kozyul PhD demonstrated how by changing the diet of lab mice, significantly divergent results could be collected. A few years prior, there was an understanding from labs that the local environment would impact on outcomes, now the mice chow is the next item on their radar.
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CFIDS Virus XMRV- Link Challenged
Controversial link. A previous study of chronic fatigue syndrome pointed to a retrovirus found in cancerous prostate cells
Last October 2009 the journal Science published a paper suggesting that a virus could be linked to CFIDS as well as prostate cancer. This was commented on in this site. Initial enthusiasm for this potential pathogen explanation for the chronic and debilitating condition has taken a couple of knocks as two papers have questioned the link. Scientists in the initial study found DNA traces of a virus in the blood cells of two-thirds of 101 patients with CFIDS, compared with 4% of 218 healthy controls. XMRV is a rodent retrovirus also implicated in an aggressive prostate cancer, though why it might cause or be associated with CFIDS remains unclear.
This naturally seemed to provide a plausible association with an infectious agent that would mesh with the common development of the condition following a viral infection.
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Soft Drink Intake Linked to Pancreatic Cancer Risk
The February issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention published a paper showing a staggering 87% increase in the risk of developing pancreatic cancer associated with an intake of 2 or more sugary soft drinks per week. The group of scientists were careful to exclude other lifestyle risks such as smoking, caloric intake and type II diabetes to extrapolate this risk association.
The proposed mechanism is related to the increased surge of insulin – a known pancreatic cancer promoter after the consumption of sugar laden soft drinks. Fruit juice, another sweet beverage was also tested but the researchers did not find any link with increased risk for pancreatic cancer.
This may be due to the small group looked at for the study, additional nutrients found in juice as opposed to the sugary beverage and the fact that fruit juice is often consumed by people who follow a healthier lifestyle.
However, the study group are confident that the ingestion of the high sugar soft drinks play an independent role in the development of pancreatic cancer, one of the most aggressive and difficult to manage of all cancers.
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Chronic Fatigue Responds to Antioxidants
Many researchers have investigated effective treatments for chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS), but Martin Pall, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry and Basic Medical Sciences at Washington State University, and author of Explaining “Unexplained Illnesses”, is the first to suggest a plausible underlying cause and therapeutic method of treatment. Pall, who came down with a severe case of CFS in 1997 and fully recovered in 18 months, has dedicated the rest of his career to understanding and treating these illnesses.
Pall has discovered that abnormal levels of nitric oxide (NO), high levels of peroxynitrite (ONOO-) and superoxide activate the disabling and widely varying symptoms that characterise this entire group of unexplained illness. The fundamental approach: reducing NO-related free radical activity.
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