Nuts used to have a reputation for being fattening. Nowadays, nuts are gaining a reputation for being a superfood. Nuts are now known for containing healthy fats that are heart-friendly. However, a recent study has come out that echos other studies regarding this delicious snack that can go with just about anything — it lowers your cholesterol.

But there is a catch to this. While  several studies have consistently showed modest improvement in cholesterol levels in all individuals consuming nuts, a recent study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine shows that some individuals may benefit more than others.

This study pooled 25 other trials looking at nuts and their effect on lipid levels — cholesterol and triglycerides — in humans. The individuals that participated in these studies widely varied: some had normal lipid levels and some had high lipids, some were overweight whereas others may have been of normal weight. The investigators of this study found, after consuming an average of nuts that totaled 67 grams daily, that:

total cholesterol were reduced by 5.1%
LDL was reduced by roughly 7.4%
triglycerides were reduced up to 10.2%

Unfortunately, these effects were not found in everyone. It appears that individuals with higher lipid levels and lower weights saw lower lipids, compared to those who had only slightly high lipid levels and weighed more. Additionally, those consuming more of a Western diet (fatty foods) fared better than those following a healthier diet.

While this news may be disappointing to some, it does raise the status of the nut as a heart-healthy food — even if it helps some groups more than others.

Find out more information about nuts and your cholesterol:

Nuts and Cholesterol
Heart-Healthy Pecans
Can Pistachios Lower Cholesterol?

Source: Sabate J, Oda K, Ros E. Nut consumption and blood lipid levels: a pooled analysis of 25 intervention trials. Arch Intern Med. 2010;170(9):821-827.

Photo: Stanislav Pobytov, istockphoto

Related Reports: Alaska Deep Sea Fish Oil

Associated Reports: Nordic Naturals Proomega

Reference: Nordic Naturals Children's Dha

Daily Nutrition Tip

Reference: Carlson Fish Oil

The higher the blood cholesterol level, the greater the risk of atherosclerosis and the greater the likelihood of suffering a heart attack. “We have known this for a long time,” points out Professor Dr. Eicke Latz from Bonn University, “but nobody understood exactly why.”

Professor Latz has been exploring this question in collaboration with Dr Peter Düwell from LMU Munich, Professor Veit Hornung, also from Bonn University, and research colleagues based in the US. The researchers have succeeded for the first time in identifying the molecular trigger for inflammation in large blood vessels. “We've found that, given a certain type of nutrition, cholesterol crystals are deposited in the arterial walls after a relatively short time,” says Dr Düwell. “These crystals are then taken up by the immune system's scavenger cells.” This becomes the starting signal for a catastrophic chain reaction. The unhealthy food results in the accumulation of cholesterol crystals that activate an “inflammasome” complex within the scavenger cells. One of the functions of this multi-protein complex is to induce the release of inflammatory mediators. The mediators then attract more and more immune cells to the site where the problem is occurring. The growing invasion ultimately destabilizes the vessel walls — with potentially life-threatening consequences.

Gout in the arteries

“Very similar processes are observed with cases of gout,” explains Professor Latz, “although that mainly occurs in the joints.” Extremely painful attacks of gout can also be triggered by an unhealthy diet. This time however, the culprit is not fat but nucleic acids from, for instance, muscle tissue (meat). The uric acid formed in the digestion process then crystallizes. These crystals can unleash a powerful inflammatory reaction.

Professor Latz has recently been recruited by the University of Bonn after working ten years in basic research in the United States. Here, he heads the new Institute for Innate Immunity (Institut für Angeborene Immunität), which has a research focus on the immune mechanisms that cause inflammatory reactions. The innate immune system forms part of the body's own defence mechanism and is able to respond rapidly and directly to a number of alarm signals that appear in the tissue environment. These triggers not only include viruses, bacteria and fungi but also certain crystals and other substances that occur during infections of in stress situations. The strength of the innate immune system is that it can respond very quickly to situations that are of danger to the host. The problem, however, is that it can also overshoot the mark. This type of overreaction is also seen in the case of pneumoconioses such as the black lung, a disease which frequently affects miners. In these lung diseases, a chronic inflammatory reaction is triggered by inhaled crystals made of silicates or asbestos. The molecular mechanisms of crystal recognition are similar to those triggered by cholesterol crystals in blood vessels.

Starting point for developing new drugs

There is still a piece of the jigsaw puzzle missing which researchers need to complete the overall picture. “We don't know precisely how the cholesterol crystals activate the inflammasome,” says Professor Latz. The findings of this study however, offer some starting points for developing new drug therapies. At present, statins are widely used in therapy. Statins reduce the synthesis of endogenous — i.e. the body's self-produced cholesterol and diminish the risk of heart attack or stroke, but they cannot inhibit the absorption of cholesterol from ones diet.

Estimates by the World Health Organization put the number of people now dying from cardiovascular diseases at almost 17 million per year. This means that one in four deaths worldwide is caused by atherosclerosis.

Listed here are some more more knowledge about Kosher Fish Oil

Professional and amateur athletes, as well as people who just want to lose weight and add muscle mass, often resort to the illicit “solution” of using anabolic steroids.

Using anabolic steroids can cause all sorts of medical and cosmetic problems, such as impotence and breast growth in men, facial hair and breast shrinkage in women, and acne, liver damage, weakened tendons, heart attacks, strokes, psychiatric disorders (and the invalidation of athletic achievements) in both sexes.

And now, investigators from Massachusetts General Hospital have found that the long-term use of anabolic steroids weakens the heart muscle – to a significant degree – in a majority of the people who use them.

The researchers studied 19 apparently healthy weightlifters – 12 who used anabolic steroids chronically, and seven who did not. (This proportion may reflect the relative difficulty in finding serious weightlifters who do not use steroids.) They found that 10 of the 12 steroid users had left ventricular ejection fractions which were actually below the limits of normal, and in addition displayed other significantly abnormal findings on echocardiography that indicated cardiac muscle weakness. These finding were not seen in the non-steroid-users.

While this is important information, and therefore I feel obligated to report it in the hope that young athletes who may read this site will be discouraged from using these dangerous drugs, one must be realistic.  If the prospect of impotence and big breasts does not scare young men away from anabolic steroids, it would be wishful thinking to expect the additional prospect of mere heart failure to tip the balance.

Sources:

Baggish AL, Weiner RB, Kanayama G, et al. Long term anabolic-androgenic steroid use is associated with left ventricular dysfunction. Circ Heart Fail 2010.

Similar Posts: Xtend Life Fish Oil

Listed here are some more details about Carlson Fish Oil

A macrobiotic diet isn't simply a diet
plan. It's a way of life. If you're drawn to the concept of eating a
natural, organic, plant-based diet (with a little fish) and embrace a Zen-like
spirituality in both your life and food selections, then a macrobiotic diet may
be for you.

Originally from Japan, the principle behind the macrobiotic diet combines
tenets of Zen Buddhism with a Western-style vegetarian diet. Much more than a list of recommended
foods, it is all about a spiritualism that transcends lifestyle, attitude, and
diet practices. The word “macrobiotic” comes from the Greek and essentially
means “long life” or “great life.” 

More Information: Nordic Naturals Proomega

The research team has developed the Intermountain Risk Score, a measurement tool that looks at age and sex, but also adds the results of routine blood tests, which are not included in the assessment system commonly used by physicians today.

Researchers at Intermountain compared the Intermountain Risk Score with the Framingham Risk Score, currently the gold standard for measuring future coronary heart disease risk. The Framingham index looks at total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, blood pressure, diabetes, age, and gender.

“Framingham does a good job of classifying groups of patients. But it's not as good at indentifying an individual's risk for disease,” says Benjamin Horne, PhD, director of cardiovascular and genetic epidemiology at the Heart Institute at Intermountain Medical Center, and the principal author of the study.

That's where the Intermountain Risk Score can help.

“Our research has shown that the Intermountain Risk Score really improves a doctor's ability to measure patient risk. And it does it by including two simple and inexpensive tests: the complete blood count and metabolic profiles,” he says.

Results of the study from the Heart Institute at Intermountain Medical Center will be presented at 1:30 pm, EST, on March 14 at the American College of Cardiology's 59th annual scientific session in Atlanta.

Researchers followed over 5,000 patients who were treated for angiography, or vascular imaging. By combining the patients' Framingham Risk Score with their Intermountain Risk Score, researchers found that they were 30 percent more likely to correctly determine a woman's risk, and 57 percent more likely to determine a man's risk for a cardiovascular problem or death within 30 days of the angiography. The results remained substantially better than the Framingham score alone after one year (23 percent for women and 46 percent for men) and at five years (29 percent for women and 25 percent for men).

“Adding the Intermountain Risk Score to the Framingham Risk Score substantially improves our ability to determine an individual's risk of future coronary heart disease and associated problems,” says Dr. Horne.

The Framingham Risk Score was developed as part of the Framingham Heart Study, which began in 1948 as a project of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and Boston University. The objective of the study was to identify common characteristics that contribute to cardiovascular disease by following its development over a long period of time in a large group of participants who had not yet developed symptoms or suffered a heart attack or stroke.

Researchers at Intermountain Medical Center followed patients an average of three years after their angiogram, and some were followed for up to 10 years.

“We are in the process of replicating these findings at an academic center in North Carolina. Our previous studies of the Intermountain Risk Score showed that it applies very well both to patients and to the general population in different geographic settings, so we expect it will improve on the Framingham Risk Score in that East Coast population as well,” Dr. Horne said. “We are also evaluating which health conditions are best predicted by the Intermountain Risk Score, and how changes over time in laboratory values influence the scoring system's ability to predict health outcomes.”

Dr. Horne says that the goal at Intermountain Healthcare is to create an online risk score calculator to help clinicians around the world better assess their patients' health.

Reference: Nordic Naturals Children's Dha

Reference: Carlson Fish Oil