The National Health Institute famously documented awhile back that it takes 20 years for new health information to be incorporated into mainstream, orthodox practices. Well, they were wrong—it takes longer than that. Take for example the science behind Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (EDC). I began finding articles about them in the 90s (NEJM 1992;327:319). But don’t take my word for it. Read about these chemicals that are messing with your hormones and causing cancer. Start with the article below
Hugo Rodier, MD
Association between exposure to EDCs, health problems
“CNN (10/29/24, Holcombe) reports, “A class of chemicals – likely in products all over many homes in the United States – could be impacting your hormone health.” According to CNN, “the scientific literature around” endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), “such as phthalates, BPA or bisphenol A, and brominated flame retardants,” is “growing, but associations have been suggested between exposure and health problems including brain development, fertility and puberty, said Dr. Michael Bloom, professor of global and community health at George Mason University College of Public Health.” Although “there are still many questions researchers want to explore around EDCs, organizations like the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit that researches and advocates for safer products, are encouraging individuals to take steps to avoid exposure.”
Comment: avoid these chemicals, and strengthen your body’s ability to get rid of them. Eat a lot of veggies (especially cruciferous) and supplement Rosemary, I3C, and sulpharanes.
COVID-19 may be risk factor for heart attacks, strokes for as long as three years after infection
“CNN (10/9/24, Goodman) reports COVID-19 “could be a powerful risk factor for heart attacks and strokes for as long as three years after an infection, a large new study suggests.” Researchers found that “people who caught COVID in 2020, before there were vaccines to blunt the infection, had twice the risk of a major cardiac event like a heart attack or stroke or death for almost three years after their illness, compared with the people who didn’t test positive.” If an individual “had been hospitalized for their infection, pointing to a more severe case, the risk of a major heart event…was even greater – more than three times higher – than for people without COVID in their medical records.” The findings were published in J. Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology.”
Comment: COVID amnesia has settled in. We are not out of the woods. The new variant requires 2 vaccinations 6 months apart.
The vascular endothelium in health and disease
J. Cell Volume 187, Issue 18 p4833-4858September 05, 2024
“The dysfunction of blood-vessel-lining endothelial cells is a major cause of mortality. Although endothelial cells, being present in all organs as a single-cell layer, are often conceived as a rather inert cell population, the vascular endothelium as a whole should be considered a highly dynamic and interactive systemically disseminated organ. We present here a holistic view of the field of vascular research and review the diverse functions of blood-vessel-lining endothelial cells during the life cycle of the vasculature, namely responsive and relaying functions of the vascular endothelium and the responsive roles as instructive gatekeepers of organ function. Collectively, this review is aimed at promoting disciplinary coherence in the field of angioscience for a broader appreciation of the importance of the vasculature for organ function, systemic health, and healthy aging.”
Comment: Circulation of the building blocks of life that we get from food, and the messages our cells send to each other to function as a whole is a vital function that must be optimized when dealing with ALL DISEASES. That is my experience after 4 decades of practice. This is why maintaining a healthy endothelium improves my patients’ health no matter what they come in with. Again, your diet and exercise are key. The main supplement for this is the amino acid arginine, which improves Nitric Oxide function. This concept won the Nobel prize in Medicine in 1998.
The gut microbiome and chronic pain
J. Nature 25 September 2024
“Pain from conditions such as endometriosis could be alleviated if the gut’s resident bacteria can be understood and tamed.
This persistence of pain after the original stimuli have subsided or been removed is a key feature of many kinds of chronic pain. In some whole-body pain conditions, such as fibromyalgia, there is no clear cause. Something has tripped the pain system into overdrive, prompting a desperate search for relief. At least in the case of endometriosis, that relief is often found in switching diets. The foods people eat can rapidly alter the vast collection of microbes that reside in the intestine, in turn releasing chemicals that either drive or dampen pain. Observations that people with chronic pain have different mixes of microbes in their gut from other individuals have also given rise to the idea that manipulating this gut microbiome — through diet or other means — might help. That outcome remains speculative, awaiting more clinical trials. And tinkering with the microbiome is unlikely to provide relief for everyone, especially when chronic pain becomes hardwired in the brain. But given the paucity of other options, and the potential benefits, a microbiome-focused approach is worth pursuing. It could “significantly change the way we understand, diagnose and treat chronic pain”, says Amir Minerbi, a physician at the Rambam Institute for Pain Medicine in Haifa, Israel. But researchers are wary of overstating the gut microbiome’s analgesic abilities. “We don’t want to give false hope.”
Gut microbes and visceral pain
The connection between the gut and chronic pain began to materialize two decades ago in studies of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), a chronic condition more painful than its name suggests. IBS is marked by visceral pain, which emanates from organs in the abdomen and pelvis. Despite decades of work probing the connections between gut bacteria and visceral pain in IBS, “it’s been a slow evolution” to recognize the gut microbiome’s role, says stress neurobiologist John Cryan at University College Cork in Ireland.
About 20 years ago, animal studies began to reveal that certain bacteria stimulate pain receptors on cells of the gut in a manner similar to morphine, among other mechanisms. In 2008, Cryan’s team showed that animals that had been stressed in early life by being separated from their mothers developed a whole-body syndrome of inflammation and sensitivity to visceral pain that was linked to changes in their gut bacteria. “That was our first real strong look” at how changes in pain related to changes in the microbiome in an animal model.
Steadily, researchers realized not only that the gut’s resident bacteria could induce persistent visceral pain — and, in fact, were required for normal visceral pain sensation — but also that transplanting certain microbes from one animal to another could relieve it. These findings have since been replicated in other types of pain, such as allodynia, a type of severe nerve pain stemming from very faint stimuli. Human trials of probiotics have shown what Cryan says are “slight but significant” analgesic effects on visceral pain in IBS. Altogether, the evidence suggests that “the microbiome is playing a key role in pain”, he adds. It is even possible that gut bacteria influence not only how neurons transmit pain, but also how those acute pain signals turn chronic.”
Comment: I hope you read the article. If you did not, let me summarize it: inflammation is a response driven by the immune system as a way to alarm you that things are not well. Since 2/3 of the immune system is in the gut, inflammation is often generated in the gut. Heal the gut and a whole lot of things get better. See below.
The microbiome and human cancer
J. Science 26 Sep 2024
“Historical accounts linking cancer and microbes date as early as four millennia ago. After establishment of the germ theory of infectious diseases, clinical research of microbial influences on cancer began in 1868, when William Busch reported spontaneous tumor regressions in patients with Streptococcus pyogenes infections. Over the next century, poor reproducibility, erroneous microbiological claims, and severe toxicity led many to discount the role of bacteria in carcinogenesis and cancer therapy. However, these studies provided the first crude demonstrations of cancer immunotherapy. Contemporaneously, the viral theory of cancer flourished, spurred by the 1911 discovery of Rous sarcoma virus, which transformed benign tissue into malignant tumors in chickens. The decades-long search to find viruses behind every human cancer ultimately failed, and many cancers have been linked to somatic mutations. Now the field is encountering intriguing claims of the importance of microbes, including bacteria and fungi, in cancer and cancer therapy. This Review critically evaluates this evidence in light of modern cancer biology and immunology, delineating roles for microbes in cancer by examining advances in proposed mechanisms, diagnostics, and modulation strategies.”
Comment: cancer is generated mostly by an immune-detoxification system subpar functioning. Genetics only play a role in 15% of cases.
