Vitamin C can effect inflammatory markers
A new study adds to the evidence that vitamin C supplements can lower concentrations of C-reactive protein (CRP), a central biomarker of inflammation that has been shown to be a powerful predictor of heart disease and diabetes. The study shows that for healthy, non-smoking adults with an elevated level of CRP, a daily dose of vitamin C lowered levels of the inflammation biomarker after two months compared with those who took a placebo. (more…)

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is alerting consumers nationwide not to purchase or consume more than 25 different products marketed for weight loss because they contain undeclared, active pharmaceutical ingredients that may put consumers’ health at risk. (more…)

Vigorous aerobic exercise suppresses appetite by triggering the release of the appetite suppressing hormone peptide YY and lowering levels of the appetite stimulating hormone ghrelin, suggest recent study results. (more…)

B Vitamin may help with cognitive deficits
Nicotinamide, a form of the B vitamin niacin, was shown to restore cognitive deficits in certain mouse models thus representing a safe treatment for Alzheimer’s disease.

The Institute for Progressive Medicine offers several comprehensive B Complex formulas. Please call reception at 949-600-5100 for details. (more…)

January Education Lecture:

How to be Healthy in The New Year

Weight loss should not be the primary concern for a healthy New Years resolution. In this lecture, Dr. Sosin will discuss lifestyle and diet to help promote healthy body composition, reduce the risk factors responsible for cardiac disease, diabetes and cancer, and help you feel better and do more. Methods for healthy shopping, cooking, and timing of meals will be addressed. We will also cover physical movement and exercise that will also help you look and feel great! Other topics on general health and wellbeing will be discussed.

Location: Mother’s Market and Kitchen, Costa Mesa, CA

Date: Wednesday, January 14 2009

Time: 6:30-7:30pm

Click HERE for directions to Mother’s Market.

Environmental pollutant may promote obesity

A common environmental pollutant that is known to have a potent effect on gene activity may be promoting obesity, according to Japanese researchers.

Tributyltin is known to affect cell receptors in animals and humans at very low concentrations. Its harmful effect on the liver and the nervous and immune systems of mammals is well documented, however recently scientists have discovered that it also has potent effects on retinoid X receptors (RXRs), cellular components that mediate the biological effects of retinoids (chemical compounds that are chemically related to vitamin A). When activated, RXRs switch on genes that promote the growth of fat cells and switch off those that promote the breakdown of fat (lipolysis). Taisen Iguchi and Yoshinao Katsu, of the Graduate University for Advanced Studies in Japan, write that tributyltin is a potent activator of RXRs, and could thus promote obesity by increasing fat storage.

The authors conclude: “The environment may play a significant role in obesity. Since the increase in obesity rates parallels the rapid growth in the use of industrial chemicals over the past 40 years, it is plausible and provocative to associate in utero or chronic lifetime exposure to chemical triggers present in the modern environment with this epidemic.” (more…)

Regular exercise increases cerebral blood flow and helps to stave off age-related brain changes, so say researchers from the University of North Carolina (UNC).

J. Keith Smith and colleagues compared brain scans of 12 healthy adults aged between 60 and 76. Half of the participants were very active and had exercised for at least three to four hours each week for the last ten years, whereas the other half had led a sedentary life and had exercised for less than one hour each week. Results showed that the sedentary participants had fewer small blood vessels in the brain, and that the blood flow through the brain was somewhat unpredictable. However, the active participants had more small blood vessels and improved blood flow.

“Our results show that exercise may reduce age-related changes in brain vasculature and blood flow,” said Feraz Rahman, M.S., who presented the findings at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America. “Other studies have shown that exercise prevents cognitive decline in the elderly. The blood vessel and flow differences may be one reason.”

Source: Exercise staves off age-related brain changes

Bad cholesterol inhibits fat breakdown

New research has revealed that LDL or “bad” cholesterol inhibits the breakdown of fat in adipocytes, or fat cells, thus suggesting that it is a regulator of fat stores.

Previous research has shown that the release of free fatty acids from adipocytes increases the synthesis of precursors of LDL cholesterol. However, Dr Johan Björkegren and colleagues at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, found that LDL cholesterol slows the rate of lipolysis (fat breakdown) in adipocytes. Together, these findings suggest that there is a “reciprocal link between the liver and peripheral fat regulating fat turnover,” says Björkegren in a news release.

The finding also suggests that drugs, such as statins, which lower LDL cholesterol may also promote the breakdown of fat stores. (more…)