A study presented at the American Chemical Society meetings looked at the effects of burning candles. The common types of candles, nowadays, are paraffin, bees wax and soy.

The researchers found that paraffin candles, which are the major and cheapest type of candle, can be bad for you. Paraffin is made from petroleum. When paraffin burns it releases some harmful compounds into the air.

In an indoor environment where for much of the year there is not much exchange of the air, the levels of indoor pollutants can build up. If candles are burnt frequently, then the pollutants released from burning candles can build up.

The authors of the research mention burning candles in the bathroom, as an example of a closed room, where some people will burn candles frequently in a unventilated environment.

Though the authors did not mention this, there is also some concern about fragrance in candles and other products causing problems.

Scents can build up in the house from candles. These scents also contribute to indoor air pollution and can have significant health problems for some individuals. They can cause aggravation of asthma and other lung diseases and different types of allergic reactions. They can also make people dizzy, give them a headache or feel nauseous. (I fit into the last category some scents make me feel really queasy.) Some societies such as the Canadian Lung Society list scents s a source of indoor pollutants.

For some people, who burn paraffin candles frequently and have respiratory problems, stopping burning paraffin candles may help.

Beeswax and soy candles, which are much more expensive, do not seem to significantly contribute to indoor pollution. It is recommended to either burn paraffin candles infrequently, regularly air out the room/house, or switch to beeswax or soy candles.

photo credit: fchelaru

Technorati Tags: candles, paraffin candles, beeswax, soy, indoor pollution, respiratory problems

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A study in Germany looked at four lifestyle factors and 4 diseases in 23,513 Germans, aged 35 to 65.

The four factors were never smoking, having a body mass index lower than 30; doing 3.5 hours, or more, per week exercise; and adhering to healthy dietary principles (high intake of fruits, vegetables, and whole-grain bread and low meat consumption). The 4 factors (ranked healthy, 1 point; unhealthy, 0 points) were summed to form an index that ranged from 0 to 4.

The diseases were heart attack, stroke and new diagnoses of diabetes, and cancer

Less than 4% of participants had zero healthy factors, most had 1 to 3 healthy factors, and approximately 9% had 4 factors.

During an average follow-up of 7.8 years, the percentages of participants that developed diabetes was 3.7%, myocardial infarction was 0.9%, stroke was 0.8%, and cancer was 3.8%.

Participants with all 4 factors had a 78% reduced risk of developing a chronic disease overall. The reduced risk for diabetes was 93%; heart attack was 81%; stroke was 50%; and cancer was 36%, compared to participants without a healthy factor.

The hazard ratio for developing a chronic disease decreased progres, the less likely you are to get a chronic disease of aging.

So which factors had the most impact on having a lower risk for common chronic diseases?

The largest reduction in risk was associated with having a BMI lower than 30, followed by never smoking, followed by at least 3.5 hours of exercise and last adhering to good dietary principles.

So, unfortunately this study suggests that the thing that you could do to have the greatest impact on long term health is to keep below a BMI of 30 (a BMI of 30 and greater is considered obese). For most of us this is probably the hardest of the four factors to control.

photo credit: dichohecho

Technorati Tags: disease risk, healthy lifestyle, BMI, smoking, healthy diet, exercise

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A few weeks back I had a post Sleep Problems. In that post I talked about insomnia and gave a few statistics. The amazing one, to me, was that it is estimated that the market for insomnia drugs will be $3.9 billion by 2012. $3.9 billion?

At the end of the post I said I was going to sign up for an online course/consultation for treating insomnia with cognitive behavioral therapy or CBT. The course lasts 5 weeks and you get pdfs, your weekly sleep diary analyzed and advice on how to change your sleep habits. See the other post for more info; the course link is cbtforinsomnia.com.

I kept my first sleep diary for a week, and then emailed it. A day later I got my first guidelines.

My problem is not getting to sleep, but waking up in the early hours of the morning and not getting back to sleep for quite a long time. The advice for me was basically to go to bed later, but still get up at the same time every day and not lie in bed once I awoke in the morning.

I got very tired but it seems to have really helped. I have had one night where I did not wake at-all. By the end of the third week, I was wakening once or twice per night, but was not awake for very long, and my brain did not go into that super active mode that kept me awake before.

The verdict? So far a success. Hopefully, when I start to go to bed a bit earlier, I will have trained myself and no longer wake up with an active brain and be awake for long periods of time. Waking briefly is fine with me.

If you have insomnia and want to try a simple and different approach, it might be worth a shot.

photo credit: Photo4jenifer

Technorati Tags: insomnia, cognitive behavioral therapy, CBT, sleep problems

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Many people are taking blood pressure drugs for lowering blood pressure. Now there is a evidence that some members of the class of drugs known as ACE inhibitors may help protect against dementia.

The type of ACE inhibitors that seem to be effective are those that enter the brain. The brain is protected by a barrier called the blood-brain barrier, which stops many things entering the brain. This is a mechanism to protect the brain. The ACE inhibitors that can get into the brain are called “centrally-acing”.
Centrally-acting ACE inhibitors include captropril (Capoten®), fosinopril (Monopril®), lisinopril (Prinivil® or Zestri®), perindopril (Aceon®), ramipril (Altace®) and trandolapril (Mavik®). The other ACE inhibitors are not centrally acting.

The study found that those taking centrally-acting ACE inhibitors had less mental decline and dementia, than those taking other blood pressure medications. The other medications studied, including non centrally-acting ACE inhibitors had no effect on the rate of mental decline or dementia. Patients were taking other blood pressure medications were no different from those not taking blood pressure medication.

This study seems to suggest that if you have to take blood pressure medicine you might as well slow your potential mental decline and risk of dementia as the same time. Before we all rush out to change our blood pressure medicine; this is only one study and different blood pressure drugs have different effectiveness in different people.

When a heart attack occurs there is damage to the heart. The heart seems to have only a limited capacity to repair itself. This is one of the promises of stem cells. The idea is that you would bank your own stem cells at birth, and then they could be used later in life for problems such as a heart attack. (In the media stem cells seems to equal embryonic stem cells. In reality, most research is done on stem cells that did not come from embryos.)

Now researchers have shown that injecting a growth factor called neuregulin 1 may help with repairing the heart. Neuregulin 1 is a growth factor that is important for the growth and development of the heart in the fetus. In the experiments mice that had had heart attacks showed more repair if they had been injected daily with neuregulin 1, than those that had no received the growth factor. The neuregulin 1 treated mice regained much better heart function than the other mice.

Getting more heart function back after a heart attack would make a huge difference in quality of life for a large number of people. It would save money too. Lets hope that a treatment like neuregulin 1 is found to be safe and effective and become widely available soon.

photo credit: ♪ Sleeping Sun ♪

Technorati Tags: ACE inhibitors, centrally-acting ACE inhibitors, blood-brain barrier, mental decline, dementia, heart attack, neuregulin 1, growth factor, heart function

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For some reason (weather?), swine flu is rampant in the UK.

I just looked at the NHS (National Health Service) webpage for swine flu. The Health Protection Agency estimates that there were 55, 000 new cases last week!!

The ages that are most affected are 14 and under. Plus those that have some other health problem.

My nephew is 16. The school year runs much longer in the UK than it does in the US. He was on an end of term school trip to Newquay, which is in the extreme southwest of England. There were about 100 of them on the trip and 75 of them came down with swine flu. One of the students was hospitalized.

It is really bad timing. My brother and his family are supposed to be flying out to the US, to visit me, in two weeks. I am sure that my nephew and brother will be fine by them, but if it spreads through the rest of the family slowly, it is possible that not everybody will be well enough to come.

The NHS webpage on symptoms is good with lots of information.

Here in the US, swine flu is expected to spread rapidly as soon as schools open at the end of the summer. It is going to be an interesting fall.

photo credit: Corey Tegeler

Technorati Tags: swine flu, UK, nephew

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Naringenin, not to be confused with naringen, a related compound, is found in grapefruit and other citrus fruits. It is an antioxidant that has been suggested to also have anti-inflammatory properties and suppress glucose production by the liver.

New research suggests that naringenin may help prevent weight gain and other symptoms of metabolic syndrome. The researchers showed that naringenin normalized blood triglyceride levels and returned glucose processing to normal in mice that had been fed a high fat diet and had developed metabolic syndrome.

Further those mice that had naringenin in their diet did not become obese, whereas the mice on the same diet without naringenin did gain weight. This suggests that naringenin may be useful for weight loss or stopping weight gain.

This research suggests that there might be benefit to humans in eating citrus fruits including grapefruit. However, it should be noted that the amounts of naringenin that were fed to mice were much greater than you could get from eating a reasonable amount of citrus. This is a bit like resveratrol, the compound in red wine. To get the levels of resveratrol used in many studies, you would have to drink red wine out of a 5 gallon bucket not a wine glass.

It will be interesting to see if the results in mice can be replicated in humans. If naringenin becomes available as a supplement, make sure before you take it, that you talk to your doctor, if you are taking any drugs including those that do not need a prescription. It can interfere with the processing of certain drugs in the body and could have bad health consequences.

So a modified healthy grapefruit diet may actually help prevent weight gain.

photo credit: shawncampbell

Technorati Tags: naringenin, grapefruit, metabolic syndrome, weight gain, glucose

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Whenever I take my dog to the vet, I see several posters about how keeping your pet’s teeth clean and stopping gum disease are important for maintaining the overall health of the pet. Somehow the message has got through for pets but not for humans.

Recently there has been a greater appreciation of the fact that atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) diabetes and other chronic diseases have a strong inflammatory component. Long term constant inflammation is bad for us. It increases our risk of having health problems.

If you have gum disease periodontis, the gums are swollen and inflamed. This long term constant inflammation will have negative consequences for health.

The number of people who have periodontis (inflammation of the gum) is astonishingly high. It is estimated that 30-50 % of US adults have some form. Of course, for many it is quite mild, with gum problems progressing slowly. However, it is estimated that 1 in 10 adults have severe periodontis.

Several studies have all found the same result. Those with periodontis have an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. The increased risk includes atherosclerosis, heart attack, heart failure, stroke and high blood pressure.

In fact, there has been a suggestion that those with moderate to severe periodontis should be evaluated for cardiovascular disease and if necessary given treatments to reduce their risk.

For both good dental and heart health it is important to both clean our teeth and floss regularly. Floss for a healthy heart.

photo credit: Bee Skutch

Technorati Tags: gum disease, periodontis, inflammation, cardiovascular disease, atherosclerosis, floss

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Vinegar is made from many plants including fruits such as apple, barley, rice and wine. Different vinegars have diverse flavors. However, they all contain acetic acid, which is what the makes the vinegar acid, and gives it many of its properties.

Over the years, vinegar has been suggested to have many healthful effects. Some of these suggested positive effects on health have included fighting infections and detoxifying the body.

In most countries the sale of vinegar is not regulated, so there are huge variations between brands and types. The range of amount of acetic acid can be quite significant.

If large quantities of vinegar, or vinegars with high acetic acid content, are taken there can be negative health consequences. Vinegar can burn your throat, esophagus and stomach. Taking too much over a period of time can deplete your body of potassium in the body, increase the rate of osteoporosis and increased blood pressure.

In new research, mice were fed a high fat diet and some were given acetic acid. Those with acetic acid supplementation gained less body fat. Up to 10% less body fat!

The researchers suggest that acetic acid is acting on the liver, turning on genes that are involved in breaking down fat. If more fat is broken down, there is less to be taken up by fat cells. Therefore, there is less fat on the belly or other places.

So perhaps taking a sensible amount of vinegar every day may help with weight gain. However, exercise caution. Too much vinegar could have bad health effects such as those described above. More is not necessarily better.

photo credit: Andyrob

Technorati Tags: vinegar, body fat, weight gain, acetic acid

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Teeth whitening kits, both home and professional, contain 6% hydrogen peroxide. It has been suggested that this strength of hydrogen peroxide is quite damaging to the surface of teeth.

The new technique looked at the surface of the teeth and estimated changes to the surface and hardness.

The researchers found that teeth whitening had little impact on the surface of the teeth, whereas orange juice slowly ate away at teeth. Therefore, over time regular drinking of orange juice could weaken teeth.

Sodas are also acidic and so may be having the same effect. Ditto for sports drinks and wine.

The length of time that teeth are in contact with acidic drinks is important. Sipping a drink exposes teeth to acid longer. So chug that drink!

A straw also helps protect teeth, since much of the drink bypasses the teeth.

Drinking water or eating cheese after an acidic drink helps reduce the acidic environment in the mouth. Anything that means I can eat more cheese is fine with me.

photo credit: chiszeo

Technorati Tags: orange juice, teeth whitening, teeth, acid drinks, cheese

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Well before the Adkins diet became popular, some research had suggested that eating a lot of high carb foods increased the risk of cardiac events.

New research suggests that this increased risk may in part be due to meals with high simple carbohydrate levels causing arteries to have reduced function for at least several hours after the meal.

The arteries in our blood system can get wider and narrower as required by the body. For instance, to lower blood pressure, the body can make arteries wider, increasing the volume,which then lowers the pressure. Think of water coming out of the hose. If you squeeze the end to make it a bit narrower the water would squirt out with a higher pressure.

If your arteries become less elastic, or become less able to contract the body cannot control things like blood pressure as well. Studies comparing people with normal body fat and obesity have shown that arteries are less elastic.

In the new study expansion of the brachial artery, the major blood vessel of the upper arm, was compared in study subjects who ate either one of two different types of a high carb meal, a low carb meal or got water. The three meals and water were rotated, so all subjects were analyzed after consuming all three meals and water. The artery function was reduced after eating, but not when just drinking water. The effect on arteries was much greater for the both the high meals, than for the high fiber meal.

This research is another piece of evidence that eating a high carb diet may not be the best for your health.

photo credit: saragoldsmith – Walkers potato chips (crisps) – even cajun squirrel flavour are high carb

Technorati Tags: high carb, artery, elastic, reduced function

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