Before being dismissed by corporate medicine on the grounds that I took too long seeing patients, I was told that I was a rebel. I took it as a compliment
Hugo Rodier, MD
Why healthcare needs rebels
BMJ 2021;375:n2559
“Rebels are needed elsewhere across healthcare, to spot what’s wrong and champion what’s right, and to push for greater openness, constructive discussion, and evidence-based change.”
Comment: the ancients understood Gadflies. Today they are ostracized.
Irregular menses may signal heart disease, diabetes risk
J. Clin Endocrinol. 2021;doi:10.1111/cen.14640.
“Women with irregular menses are 20% more likely to develop cardiovascular disease and 17% more likely to develop type 2 diabetes over 20 years compared with women with regular menstrual cycles, according to an Australian database analysis. Links between menstrual disorders and metabolic conditions are often underappreciated and not considered when assessing cardiometabolic risk in women, Sylvia Kiconco, MSc, a doctoral student at Monash University School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine in Victoria, Australia wrote. Women with irregular menstrual cycles are more likely to develop CVD and type 2 diabetes than those with regular menstrual cycles. This limits screening and prevention strategies including lifestyle modification and becomes even more pertinent as women transition through menopause, which is associated with increased visceral adiposity and adverse cardiometabolic changes,” the researchers wrote. “Moreover, premature and early menopause are associated with chronic conditions including diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, arthritis, osteoporosis, breast cancer, depression and anxiety.”
Comment: articles like this one, puzzling over different diseases clustering together, are not uncommon. Our splintering, reductionist world does not have much room for holistic thinking, which this newsletter thrives on. Our health depends on our metabolism (energy) and our immune system, both of which take place mostly in the gut. Even our genes depend on those functions (epigenetics). Health breaks down when our organ cells TOIL: when they are toxic, oxidized, inflamed and lack optimal mitochondrial function.
Diet quality and risk and severity of COVID-19
J. Gut November 2021
“31,815 COVID-19 cases were documented. Compared with individuals in the lowest quartile of the diet score, high diet quality was associated with lower risk of COVID-19. A diet characterized by healthy plant-based foods was associated with lower risk and severity of COVID-19. This association may be particularly evident among individuals living in areas with higher socioeconomic deprivation.”
Comment: a plant-based diet has more micronutrients called Prebiotics. They feed probiotics, which results in a better immune system. Sugar-based diets do the opposite.
Higher Ultra-Processed Food Consumption Is Associated with Increased Risk of Incident Coronary Artery Disease
Journal of Nutrition, Volume 151, Issue 12, December 2021, Pages 3746–3754
“Higher ultra-processed food intake was associated with a higher risk of coronary artery disease among middle-aged US adults. Further prospective studies are needed to confirm these findings and to investigate the mechanisms by which ultra-processed foods may affect health.
Comment: you are what you eat down to the cellular level. See below.
Ultra-processed foods increase risk for heart attack, stroke
“HealthDay (12/1, Preidt, Mundell) reports research suggests that a high intake of ultra-processed foods “significantly increases the risk of another heart attack or stroke, and it’s more likely to be fatal.” For the study, published in the European Heart Journal, investigators “tracked the health of more than 1,100 Italians who already had heart disease and were followed for more than 10 years.”
Comment: processed diets unbalance our microbiome, resulting in cellular TOIL.
Proposed Anti-Inflammatory Diet Reduces Inflammation in Compliant, Weight-Stable Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis
The Journal of Nutrition, Volume 151, Issue 12, December 2021, Pages 3856–3864
“A proposed anti-inflammatory diet likely reduced systemic inflammation, as indicated by a decreased ESR in those who completed the study with high compliance.”
Comment: inflammation is driven by our immune system, which is 70% in the microbiome of our gut. Anti-inflammatory diet = plant-based diet.
Egg Consumption in Plant-Based Diets and Cardiometabolic Risk Factors in Adults at Risk of Type 2 Diabetes
The Journal of Nutrition, Volume 151, Issue 12, December 2021, Pages 3651–3660
“Consuming 2 eggs daily in the context of PBDs does not adversely affect cardiometabolic risk factors among adults at risk of T2DM. Eggs could be used as an adjuvant to enhance PBDs that are typically recommended for those at risk of T2DM.”
Comment: cholesterol is not the problem. The problem is a stressed microbiome and liver which then cannot handle cholesterol well. This results in “sticky” cholesterol, which will botch its job: fixing leaky arteries from wear and tear.
One in 44 eight-year-old children diagnosed with autism
“The AP (12/2, Tanner) reports, “In an analysis of 2018 data from nearly a dozen states, researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that among 8-year-olds, 1 in 44 had been diagnosed with autism,” compared to “1 in 54 identified with autism in 2016.” Meanwhile, a second “CDC report released Thursday said that children were 50% more likely to be diagnosed with autism by age 4 in 2018 than in 2014.” The reports “are based on data from counties and other communities in 11 states.” The reports were published in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality.”
Comment: it was 1/10,000 when I was in Medical School. Have our genes mutated? Of course not, but our diets and environments have. Refined foods and pollutants are often associated with ADD/Autism. Most of those children have intestinal problems.
MCI may not necessarily lead to dementia in older adults
“HealthDay (12/2, Murez) reports, “A diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment (MCI)” may not necessarily lead to future dementia in older adults, investigators concluded in a study that “followed just over 2,900 study participants, average age mid-70s, for about six years.” Focusing on 480 patients diagnosed with MCI, researchers found that 48% “were ‘cognitively normal’ on a follow-up visit an average of 2.4 years later,” even if they “may have met one or two of the three criteria for MCI initially.” The findings were published online in the journal Neurology.”
Comment: we all forget a lot of little things. Don’t panic. Take it in stride. Our brains age like any other organ. Best to make fun of ourselves and improve our microbiome. See the articles below.
Signaling inflammation across the gut-brain axis
J. Science 2021;374:1087
“The brain and gastrointestinal tract are critical sensory organs responsible for detecting, relaying, integrating, and responding to signals derived from the internal and external environment. At the interface of this sensory function, immune cells in the intestines and brain consistently survey environmental factors, eliciting responses that inform on the physiological state of the body. Recent research reveals that cross-talk along the gut-brain axis regulates inflammatory nociception, inflammatory responses, and immune homeostasis.”
Comment: to reiterate: plant-based diets are high in prebiotics.
Happy gut, happy kidneys? Restoration of gut microbiome ameliorates acute and chronic kidney disease.
J. Cell Met 2021, Pages 1901-1903; 1926-1942
“In a new study, Zhu et al. (2021) show that mitigating dysbiosis by the probiotic L. casei Zhang reduces kidney inflammation via restoring short-chain fatty acid-producing gut microbiome and nicotinamide metabolism. These findings shed light on the underlying mechanisms of probiotics in treating human kidney diseases.”
Comment: we will soon know exactly which probiotics are best for all organs.
