The Man may not despise his bodily life (Catechism of the Catholic Church, §364) - Health, Vitamin D

Blood levels of vitamin D are associated with lower incidence of most cancers, heart disease, and dementia. Vitamin D protects against brittle bones and auto-immune diseases and dramatically lowers the incidence of cold and flu. Also “asthma, diabetes, stroke, multiple sclerosis, and cognitive decline.” The RDA of vitamin D is absurdly low, and also inconsistent with the recommended blood levels. Many people have to take thousands of IU daily to get their blood levels into the ‘normal range’ of 30-74 ng/ml, especially in the winter when there is no sun to supplement dietary vitamin D.

 Vitamin D deficiency is a public health concern. Mediated by classical endocrine effects, vitamin D deficiency is causally linked with bone and calcium disorders. Non-endocrine actions of vitamin D are also widely recognised and these effects are mediated by local tissue activation of vitamin D bringing about intracrine effects in non-classical sites. Supported by large volumes of observational studies linking low circulating vitamin D with negative outcomes for many common disease states, there is growing interest that vitamin D may be central to the pathology and outcomes of many common diseases, including cardiovascular, cancer and autoimmune conditions. This article explores the quality of evidence linking vitamin D and various disease outcomes, and furthermore describes some of the cellular and molecular mechanisms of vitamin D action that may help explain some of the incongruity of data observed in observational versus interventional studies of vitamin D supplementation. 

(See more in: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26634683)

The Man may not despise his bodily life (Catechism of the Catholic Church, §364) - Health, Metformin

Metformin is a drug that has been used to treat diabetes for long time, but it is only recently that epidemiologists have begun to notice that patients on metformin have lower rates of cancer and heart disease.

(See more in: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26475449)

The Man may not despise his bodily life (Catechism of the Catholic Church, §364) - Health, If olive oil is high in fat, why is it considered healthy?

The main type of fat found in all kinds of olive oil is monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs). MUFAs are actually considered a healthy dietary fat. If your diet replaces saturated and trans fats with unsaturated fats such as MUFAs and polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs), you may gain certain health benefits.

MUFAs and PUFAs may help lower your risk of heart disease by improving related risk factors. For instance, MUFAs have been found to lower your total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels. MUFAs may also help normalize blood clotting. And some research shows that MUFAs may also benefit insulin levels and blood sugar control, which can be especially helpful if you have type 2 diabetes.

But even healthier fats like olive oil are high in calories, so use them only in moderation. Choose MUFA-rich foods such as olive oil in place of other fatty foods — particularly butter and stick margarine — not in addition to them. And remember that you can't make unhealthy foods healthier simply by adding olive oil to them.

(http://www.mayoclinic.org/food-and-nutrition/expert-answers/FAQ-20058439?p=1)

The Man may not despise his bodily life (Catechism of the Catholic Church, §364) - Health, Dieters: Don't Replace Saturated Fats With Processed Carbs

TUESDAY, Sept. 29, 2015 (HealthDay News) - When trimming saturated fat from your diet, subbing in whole-grain foods helps your heart, but turning to white bread doesn't, a new study shows.
"This is very important stuff," said Dr. Robert Vogel, a cardiologist at the University of Colorado, Denver, who wrote a commentary accompanying the published study. "If you substitute high-quality carbohydrates like fruits, vegetables and whole grains, then lives are saved. It's that simple."
"Folks don't just spontaneously drop a few hundred calories of saturated fat out of their diets without replacing them with something else," explained study first co-author Adela Hruby, a research fellow at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston. "The 'something else' makes a difference to their health."
The researchers found that when the men and women replaced 5 percent of their saturated fat calories with healthier polyunsaturated fats, such as those found in nuts, the risk for coronary heart disease dropped by 25 percent.
Replacement with monounsaturated fats such as olive oil dropped risk by 15 percent, and replacement with whole-grain carbs was linked with a 9 percent decrease in heart disease risk.
But subbing in processed carbs such as white bread or white rice for saturated fat had no effect on risk for heart disease.
This lack of effect means that saturated fat, found in animal products like butter and red meat, looks neutral for heart disease only when it's compared to eating refined carbs and sugar instead. Compared to other options, though, it's the non-heart-healthy choice.
The findings also mean that consumers should get rid of saturated fat, said Michelle Cardel, a spokesperson for the Obesity Society and an assistant professor in the department of health outcomes and policy at the University of Florida, in Gainesville.
"Rather than trying to add more healthy fat into your diet, the focus should be on replacing saturated fats with healthy fats," Cardel said. "You can replace them with foods high in healthy fats, including fatty fish like salmon, avocados, nuts and seeds."
Vogel has some very specific advice for the health-conscious consumer. "If you insist on meat, eat lean meat," he said. "Poultry would be better than [red] meat, white meat poultry would be better than dark meat, and fish would be better than poultry."
When it comes to carbs, said Vogel, check the nutrition labels for two key features of whole grains. "A whole grain is something where the first ingredient says 'whole grain,' not the third or the fifth, but the first," he said. The second feature is that the whole-grain food contains at least 3 grams of fiber per serving. He added, "5 grams would be better, 7 would be better still."
Foods with healthier polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats, such as walnuts, salmon and olive oil have been a part of other delicious dietary patterns, like the Mediterranean diet, for decades, maybe even centuries.
Vogel said that people don't need to retrain their taste buds to eat healthier - "they have to retrain their brains."

(https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_154882.html)

The Man may not despise his bodily life (Catechism of the Catholic Church, §364) - Health, More Evidence High-Fiber, Mediterranean Diet Is Good for You

TUESDAY, Sept. 29, 2015 (HealthDay News) - Numerous studies have extolled the health benefits of the Mediterranean diet. Now, research suggests the regimen may also boost levels of beneficial fatty acids. These so-called "short chain fatty acids" are produced by bacteria in the intestine during fermentation of insoluble fiber from fruits, vegetables and legumes. The fatty acids are believed to provide a number of health benefits, including a lower risk of diabetes, heart disease and inflammatory diseases, an Italian team reports in the Sept. 29 issue of the journal Gut.

The study found higher levels of short chain fatty acids in vegans, vegetarians and those who closely followed a Mediterranean diet. The diet includes large amounts of fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts and cereals; moderately high amounts of fish; low levels of saturated fat, red meat and diary products; and some alcohol.These findings suggest that eating a high-fiber diet does appear to boost their levels, Ercolini's team said. "Multiple studies have shown the benefits of the Mediterranean diet," noted one U.S. expert, cardiologist Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum. The study also showed that vegans or vegetarians had relatively low levels of a compound called trimethylamine oxide (TMAO), which has been linked to heart disease. Among non-vegetarians, people who adhered to the Mediterranean diet also had relatively low TMAO levels, the researchers said. The take-away message from this study is to use animal-based proteins only as condiments.
(https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_154880.html)

The Man may not despise his bodily life (Catechism of the Catholic Church, §364) - Health, Drinking beetroot juice reduces high blood pressure

 (http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/288229.php)

(in ALDI supermarkets http://www.aldi.com/)

The Man may not despise his bodily life (Catechism of the Catholic Church, §364) - Health, Ionized calcium

Ionized calcium is calcium in your blood that is not attached to proteins. It is also called free calcium.
Normal results in adults vary between 4.4 and 5.3 mg/dL (milligrams per deciliter).
Higher-than-normal levels of ionized calcium may be due to excess of vitamins A and/or D, etc. Lower-than-normal levels may be due to vitamin D deficiency, etc.

(https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003486.htm)