Category Archives: Medical Tidbits

Pomegranate Juice – has Antioxidants

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Pomegranate Juice – has Antioxidants

Drinking pomegranate juice may help reduce some of the major risk factors for heart disease, according to results of a study in mice and men. Based on the findings, its recommended, drinking half a glass of pomegranate juice a day.

A team of Israeli researchers found that the juice, which is rich in antioxidants, prevented the build up of plaque in the arteries of mice and inhibited further damaging changes in mice who already had plaque in their arteries.

In a group of healthy males who drank up to 50 ml of pomegranate juice daily for 2 weeks, the juice was found to boost the activity of an enzyme that protects against damaging changes to cells. The juice also reduced the oxidation of LDL (”bad”) cholesterol—a step that encourages the cholesterol particle to stick to artery walls and may lead to heart disease.

The oxidation of LDL is promoted by free radicals, cell-damaging particles that are a by product of normal metabolism. Antioxidants can mop up free radicals and help prevent the oxidation of LDL cholesterol.

In order to increase our defence system against the oxidative stress which we are exposed to every day, we need to consume potent natural antioxidants.

Pomegranate juice provides a superb defence against the harmful effects of free radicals and, hence, protects against cardiovascular diseases.

Contents of Pomegranate

Food Value Minerals and Vitamins
Moisture 78.0% Calcium 10 mg
Protein 1.6% Phosphorus 70 mg
Fat 0.1% Iron 0.3 mg
Minerals 0.7% Vitamin C

Small amounts of Vitamin B Complex

 16 mg
Fibre 5.1%
Carbohydrates 14.5%
100%
Calorific Value – 65
*Values per 100 gms edible portion

Chocolate has antioxidants

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Chocolate has antioxidants

New research published in the Medical Journal “Lancet”, shows that eating chocolate could prevent cancer and heart disease and contrary to popular belief also fights tooth decay.

Research conducted by scientist from Holland’s National Institute of Public Health and Environment shows that chocolates contain antioxidants called Catechins and Phenols. These antioxidants could prevent heart diseases and cancer.

Until now tea was thought to contain the largest amount of these antioxidants but this new research indicates that dark chocolate has four times as much as compared to tea. The researchers found that dark chocolate had 53.5 mg of catechins per 100 gm, milk chocolate contains 15.9 mg per 100 gm, and the black tea contains 13.9 mg per 100 ml.

Chocolate like the red wine – which is said to protect against heart disease, also contains phenols. These reduce the presence of free radicals that damage cells and DNA. Phenols are said to prevent fat like substances in the blood stream from oxidizing and clogging the arteries.

Atherosclerosis, or the formation of plaque in the arteries, is caused by oxidation of LDL (low density lipoproteins ) that ‘s one of the cholesterol particles. At first this leads to subtle damage, and then eventually to the formation of advanced plaque. The build up of plaque can lead to clogging of the arteries, a major cause of heart attack.

By acting as a deoxidizing agent, the phenols prevent clogging of arteries, thus averting heart attacks. The researchers also believe that the cacao plant, from which chocolate and cocoa is derived, boosts the immune system and also restricts the formation of the type of cholesterol which damages heart.

Researchers believe that most of the bad effects of eating chocolate are either overstated or entirely false. For example, chocolate also has not been proven to cause cavities or tooth decay. Rather, it helps thwart mouth bacteria and stop dental decay.

Tooth cavities start when streptococcus mutans bacteria produce a sticky molecule called glucan. This helps the bacteria anchor themselves to teeth and form plaque. These and other bacteria in plaque convert sugar to acids, which eat away the tooth’s surface and lead to cavities.

Research shows that the cocoa butter in the chocolate coats the teeth and may help protect them by preventing plaque from forming. The sugar in the chocolate does contribute to cavities, but no more than the sugar in any other food. Scientists believe that antibacterial agents in cocoa beans offset its high sugar levels. Cocoa bean husk, the outer part of the bean, which usually goes waste in chocolate production in a potent source of these agents. Research has also shown that parts of cocoa bean, the main ingredient of chocolate, thwart mouth bacteria and stop dental decay.

Also, eating chocolate neither causes nor aggravate acne, as is the general belief. In fact recent research has shown that eating chocolate or not eating it does not produce any significant changes in the acne conditions in human beings.

However, as in the case of any other food, eating too much of chocolate may cause health problems. The cocoa butter in chocolate does contain saturated fat, which can increase blood cholesterol levels, and high cholesterol may contribute to heart disease.

Chocolate is high in calories and eating too much therefore make you fat, increasing your risk of heart disease. Over eating of chocolate can also lead to obesity.

Free Radicals and Antioxidants

For a longer life~Hit 50yrs with few Risk Factors

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Hit 50 yrs with few Risk Factors – for a longer life

It is said that healthy ageing begins long before your hit old age.

Those hoping to live long and healthy life should aim to reach age 50 with as few risk factors for heart disease and stroke as possible.

  • Not smoking
  • Maintaining healthy weight
  • Without diabetes
  • Without high blood pressure
  • Without high cholesterol
Without these Risk Factors – may drastically reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease and add 10 yrs your life.
Prevention of heart disease needs to begin very early in life because by middle age most of the risk factors are already established.
The need is to focus on young adults, even teens and to create a life style that will prevent cardiovascular diseases to develop or keep them from developing.
It is clear that aggressively treating the cardiovascular diseases risk factors is the best approach to prevent the development of fully developed cardiovascular disease and for a long healthy life.

Coronary Heart Disease in Indians

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Coronary Heart Disease in Indians

A report of WHO says that by the end of this century, India would account for more than half of the total heart patients in the world.

Incidence of  CAD in US is 1 %, whereas it was as high as 3 % among Indians and about 7 % among north Indians.

Higher Rate –   2-4 fold higher prevalence of CAD and mortality. Higher rates of clinical events – double than the Whites, 4 fold higher than Chinese.

Greater pre maturity – 5-10 yrs. earlier onset of first myocardial infarction. 5–10 fold higher risk of myocardial infarction and death in the younger age < 40 yrs.

Greater severity – Three vessel disease common even in younger pre menopausal women. Large infarction and greater muscle damage in younger age. 

Lower prevalence of conventional risk factors like hypertension, obesity, cigarette smoking. Cholesterol levels similar to Whites but higher than other Asians.

Higher prevalence of thrombogenic risk factors like – high levels of lipoprotein (a), homocysteine, ApoB, high levels of Triglycerides, fibrinogen, plasminogen activator inhibitor – 1, low levels of HDL.   

The increased incidence of the CAD in the Indians is due to a combination of Nature (genetic predisposition) and Nurture (environmental factors). Because of the genetic predisposition the harmful effects of environmental factors are greatly magnified. Adverse life style factors include those associated with affluence, urbanization and mechanization. When people move from the rural to the urban environment they tend to become sedentary.

Decreased physical activity and increases consumption of calories and saturated fatty acids, insulin resistance and athrogenic dyslipidaemia all add and have synergistic effect on the development of CAD.

Because Indians have higher prevalence of thrombotic risk factors the conventional risk factors become doubly dangerous. 

Lipoprotein(a) elevated levels render many Indians genetically susceptible to CAD as early as childhood. It has been seen that Lp(a) level > 30 mg % is associated with increases

High rate of CAD in Indians are in sharp contrast to  very low rates in other Asians. Despite high rates of smoking and hypertension, CAD rates among both Chinese and Japanese are about 4 fold lower than in US.

The low rate of CAD in Chinese despite high rates of other risk factors is attributed to their highly Anti-Atherogenic Lipid Profile. 

In a study the typical levels in rural China were:

  •  Cholesterol: 127 mg /dl
  • LDL: 63 mg /dl
  • Triglycerides: 100 mg /dl
  • HDL: 44 mg /dl
  • TC/HDL ratio : 2.9

Others have reported cholesterol levels as low as 80 mg /dl in some Chinese communities, where CAD is virtually non existent.

Following are some observations of a Berkeley study: –

Indians around the globe have highest rate of heart disease, usually 2 to 3 times higher than Americans, Europeans, Chinese and Japanese.
Indo Americans are at a higher risk of heat disease in spite of the fact that half of them are vegetarians and lack many of the traditional risk factors related to the heart disease.
About 25 % of the heart attacks among the Indian descent occur when they are younger than 40, unheard of in other populations.
Among those younger than 30 years of age, the coronary artery disease mortality is three fold higher than Whites in UK and 10 fold higher than Chinese in Singapore.


Walking Cuts Heart Attack Risk

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Walking Cuts Heart Attack Risk

Elderly men who walk two miles every day showed half the risk for a heart attack than men who walked only a quarter of a mile, a study suggests. 
The risk of a heart attack dropped 15 percent with everyadditional half mile walked per day, researchers report in the Circulation: Journal of the American
Heart Association. Those findings are based on a study conducted by researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine in Richmond, Va. They looked at 2,678 men ages 71 to 93 and their walking habits. 
Study results showed that men who walked at least two miles every day had a 2.5 percent risk for a heart attack compared with a 5 percent risk for men who walked only a quarter mile a day. In an accompanying editorial, doctors from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas say the finding that exercise that is neither strenuous nor prolonged can benefit an individual at any age is encouraging.