UnSymmetrical

When the diets of farmed fish are altered, the food we ingest also changes. For his doctorate, Sverre Ludvig Seierstad investigated the biological consequences of exchanging the fish oils commonly used in fish feed with vegetable oils. What consequences might this have on both fish and human health? The research project “Fjord til bord (Fjord to table)” has been a collaboration between the Norwegian School of Veterinary Science, the National institute for Nutrition and Seafood Research (NIFES), Nutreco ARC and Ullevål University Hospital.

The main ingredients of fish feed have traditionally been of marine origin. For several reasons, including increased demand for and production of farmed fish, and climatic considerations, feed ingredients of marine origin are becoming both scarce and expensive. The fish farming industry therefore wishes to utilise alternative lipid (fat) sources in feed used for salmon farming.

Vegetable oils have been shown to stimulate the appetite and feed intake of fish, and to increase growth rate and carcase quality. This doctorate investigated some consequences of the use of these alternative fish oils in the feed on the health of both fish and humans. Marine oils are rich in long-chain omega-3 fatty acids (EPA and DHA), which have been shown to have beneficial effects on heart and circulatory system disease in man. Seierstad’s research focussed on the behaviour of marker substances for heart and blood vessel parameters, and for inflammation, in both salmon and humans.

Continue reading "Farmed Fish Less Nutritious For Humans" »

Posted by Vitamin Z at 05:56 PM | Permalink

The steady stream of good news about green tea is getting so hard to ignore that even java junkies are beginning to sip mugs of the deceptively delicate brew. You'd think the daily dose of disease-fighting, inflammation-squelching antioxidants--long linked with heart protection--would be enough incentive, but wait, there's more! Lots more.

CUT YOUR CANCER RISK
Several polyphenols - the potent antioxidants green tea's famous for - seem to help keep cancer cells from gaining a foothold in the body, by discouraging their growth and then squelching the creation of new blood vessels that tumors need to thrive. Study after study has found that people who regularly drink green tea reduce their risk of breast, stomach, esophagus, colon, and/or prostate cancer.

SOOTHE YOUR SKIN
Got a cut, scrape, or bite, and a little leftover green tea? Soak a cotton pad in it. The tea is a natural antiseptic that relieves itching and swelling. Try it on inflamed breakouts and blemishes, sunburns, even puffy eyelids. And that's not all. In the lab, green tea helps block sun-triggered skin cancer, whether you drink it or apply it directly to the skin - which is why you're seeing green tea in more and more sunscreens and moisturizers.

Continue reading "7 Reasons to Drink Green Tea" »

Posted by Vitamin Z at 07:01 AM | Permalink

Prozac, the bestselling antidepressant taken by 40 million people worldwide, does not work and nor do similar drugs in the same class, according to a major review released today.

The study examined all available data on the drugs, including results from clinical trials that the manufacturers chose not to publish at the time. The trials compared the effect on patients taking the drugs with those given a placebo or sugar pill.

When all the data was pulled together, it appeared that patients had improved - but those on placebo improved just as much as those on the drugs.

The only exception is in the most severely depressed patients, according to the authors - Prof Irving Kirsch from the department of psychology at Hull University and colleagues in the US and Canada. But that is probably because the placebo stopped working so well, they say, rather than the drugs having worked better.

"Given these results, there seems little reason to prescribe antidepressant medication to any but the most severely depressed patients, unless alternative treatments have failed," says Kirsch. "This study raises serious issues that need to be addressed surrounding drug licensing and how drug trial data is reported."

Continue reading "Prozac, Used by 40m People, Does Not Work Say Scientists" »

Posted by Vitamin Z at 07:01 AM | Permalink

The pharmaceutical industry may soon have another way to boost profits, thanks to a proposed loosening of "off-label" marketing regulations by the FDA. Off-label use means prescribing a medication for a purpose other than as originally approved by the FDA. For instance, the FDA approved Prozac for use in treating depression, and yet many doctors prescribe Prozac to treat other conditions such as menopausal symptoms, insomnia, and pain. Likewise, Botox has approval for use in beautifying patients, but it's often prescribed to treat migraines. And the drug Adderall, approved only for use in controlling hyperactivity, has been widely prescribed to control childhood obesity.

In fact, off-label prescriptions account for at least 21 percent of pharmaceutical sales, according to a 2006 analysis published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Critics voice concerns about widespread off-label use, because drugs prescribed off-label haven't gone through rigorous review by the FDA for safety or for effectiveness. In fact, there may be an almost complete lack of clinical evidence supporting the efficacy of an off-label application.

Dare I say it: Off-label drug usage is based almost exclusively on anecdotal evidence -- just like most herbs and nutraceuticals -- except for the fact that the FDA allows physicians to promote such usage. Physicians typically decide to try an off-label prescription after gleaning anecdotal evidence from a journal article or from talking to colleagues, and based on that information alone, they prescribe the drug for this new, untested application.

Continue reading "Off-label Drugs Get Free Pass from FDA" »

Posted by Vitamin Z at 06:04 AM | Permalink

Although the pharmaceutical industry claims to be a high-risk business, year after year drug companies enjoy higher profits than any other industry. In 2002, for example, the top 10 drug companies in the United States had a median profit margin of 17%, compared with only 3.1% for all the other industries on the Fortune 500 list. Indeed, subtracting losses from gains, those 10 companies made more in profits that year than the other 490 companies put together. Pfizer, the world's number-one drug company, had a profit margin of 26% of sales. In 2003, for the first time in over 2 decades, the pharmaceutical industry fell slightly from its number-one spot to third, but this was explained by special circumstances, including Pfizer's purchase of another drug giant, Pharmacia, which cut into its profits for the year. The industry's profits were still an extraordinary 14% of sales, well above the median of 4.6% for other industries. A business that is consistently so profitable can hardly be considered risky.

Excess profits are, of course, the result of excess prices — and prices are excessive principally in the United States, the only advanced country that does not limit pharmaceutical price increases in some way. Of the top 10 drug companies in the world, 5 are European and 5 are American, but all of them have the US as their major profit centre. In the US, uninsured patients (of which there are many) are charged more for drugs than those who have large insurance companies to bargain for them, and the prices of prescription drugs are generally much higher to start with than in other advanced countries. Moreover, the prices of top-selling drugs are routinely jacked up in the US at 2 to 3 times the general rate of inflation.

Continue reading "Excess in the Pharmaceutical Industry" »

Posted by Vitamin Z at 07:33 PM | Permalink

A chronic shortage of vitamins and other "micronutrients" in the diet may be responsible for triggering many of the ills of modern life such as cancer, obesity and the degenerative diseases of ageing.

Professor Bruce Ames, of the University of California, Berkeley, who invented one of the standard tests for cancer-causing chemicals, said many people's diets were deficient in one or more of the 40 micronutrients essential for a healthy life.

Taking dietary supplements in the form of vitamin pills could help to counteract many of the disorders associated with ageing, Dr Ames told the American Association meeting.

He said many people on a high-calorie diet in the West or poor diet in developing countries were short of micronutrients and this caused the body to go into an emergency "triage" response in which it tried to keep its metabolism in balance by a process of compensation. This ensures immediate survival, but the consequences are an increase in DNA damage, which causes future cancers, a lowered immune defence, and a decay of the mitochondrial "power plants" of the cells, which causes accelerated ageing," he said.

Continue reading "Vitamin Deficiency may Cause Modern Ills" »

Posted by Vitamin Z at 06:25 PM | Permalink