More stories

  • in

    Eat Quinoa and Lower Triglycerides?

    How do the nutrition and health effects of quinoa compare to other whole grains? “Approximately 90% of the world’s calories are provided by less than one percent of the known 250,000 edible plant species.” The big three are wheat, corn, and rice, and our reliance on them may be unsustainable, given the ongoing climate crisis. […] More

  • in

    How to Treat High Lp(a), an Atherosclerosis Risk Factor 

    What could help explain severe coronary disease in someone with a healthy lifestyle who is considered to be at low cardiovascular disease risk? A young man ended up in the ER after a heart attack and was ultimately found to have severe coronary artery disease. Given his age, blood pressure, and cholesterol, his ten-year risk […] More

  • in

    Eating to Lower Lp(a) 

    What should we eat—and not eat—to lower the cardiovascular disease risk factor lipoprotein(a)? Lipoprotein A, also known as Lp(a), is an independent, genetic, and causal factor for cardiovascular disease and heart attacks. At any level of LDL cholesterol, our risk of heart attack and stroke is two- to three-fold higher when our Lp(a) is elevated. […] More

  • in

    Can We Safely Use Aluminum Foil, Bottles, and Pots? 

    DNA damage is assessed in users of aluminum cookware. “Over the last decades, the toxicity of aluminum for humans has been heavily discussed and is still not completely clarified.” Those occupationally exposed to aluminum—for instance, in smelter plants—suffer from oxidative stress and free radicals that can damage their DNA. What about just using aluminum cookware? […] More

  • in

    Is Creatine Safe and Efficient for High Homocysteine? 

    Those on a healthy plant-based diet who have elevated homocysteine levels despite taking sufficient vitamin B12 may want to consider taking a gram a day of contaminant-free creatine. The average blood levels of homocysteine in men are about 1.5 points higher than in women, which may be one of the reasons men tend to be […] More

  • in

    The Stroke Risk of Vegetarians 

    The first study in history on the incidence of stroke in vegetarians and vegans suggests they may be at higher risk. “When ranked in order of importance, among the interventions available to prevent stroke, the three most important are probably diet, smoking cessation, and blood pressure control.” Most of us these days are doing pretty […] More

  • in

    The 411 on Statins

    The cholesterol-lowering statin drug Lipitor has become the best-selling drug of all time, generating more than $140 billion in global sales. This class of drugs garnered so much enthusiasm in the medical community that some U.S. health authorities facetiously proposed they be added to the public water supply like fluoride is. One cardiology journal even […] More

  • in

    Creatine to Normalize Homocysteine in Vegetarians? 

    What are the consequences of having to make your creatine rather than relying on dietary sources? “Almost universally, research findings show a poor vitamin B12 status among vegetarians” because they aren’t taking vitamin B12 supplements like they should, which results in an elevation in homocysteine levels. This may explain why vegetarians were recently found to […] More

  • in

    Testing for Vitamin B12 Deficiency 

    Many doctors mistakenly rely on serum B12 levels in the blood to test for vitamin B12 deficiency. There were two cases of young, strictly vegetarian individuals with no known vascular risk factors. One suffered a stroke, and the other had multiple strokes. Why? Most probably because they weren’t taking vitamin B12 supplements, which leads to […] More

  • in

    What About Vitamin D and Vegetarians’ Stroke Risk? 

    Could the apparent increased stroke risk in vegetarians be reverse causation? And what about vegetarians versus vegans?  In the “Risks of Ischaemic Heart Disease and Stroke in Meat Eaters, Fish Eaters, and Vegetarians Over 18 Years of Follow-Up” EPIC-Oxford study, not surprisingly, vegetarian diets were associated with less heart disease—10 fewer cases per 1,000 people […] More

  • in

    What About Omega-3s and Vegetarians’ Stroke Risk? 

    Does eating fish or taking fish oil supplements reduce stroke risk?  In my last video, we started to explore what might explain the higher stroke risk in vegetarians found in the EPIC-Oxford study. As you can see below and at 0:25 in my video Vegetarians and Stroke Risk Factors: Omega-3s?, vegetarians have a lower risk […] More

Load More
Congratulations. You've reached the end of the internet.