More evidence links higher vitamin D levels with a reduced risk of death
Earlier this month I blogged about a study which found that supplementing elderly individuals with vitamin D was found to enhance their muscle strength. This has at least some relevance because as people age, they can tend to go out less, and therefore be a particular risk for vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D deficiency is [...]
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Fructose found to rapidly raise blood pressure and induce metabolic syndrome in men
Last month, one of my blogs focused on a paper from the American Heart Association which warned of the hazards of eating sugar on cardiovascular health. It put at least some focus on the sugar fructose, which makes up half of table sugar (sucrose), as well as being found in fruit and vegetables, honey and [...]
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Recent studies remind us of vitamin D’s cancer-protective potential
Scanning some on-line newspapers today my eye was caught by reports of a couple of studies concerning vitamin D and cancer. The link between this nutrient and this condition is not new ” there is a huge stack of evidence now which shows as association between higher levels of vitamin D in the body and [...]
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High glycaemic load diets associated with insulin resistance
When carbohydrate is eaten, blood sugar (glucose) levels usually rise. The speed and extent to which blood sugar releases into the bloodstream has important implications for health. For example, the greater the level of blood sugar disruption, the more insulin will tend to be secreted by a functioning pancreas in response. High levels of this [...]
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Study suggests it’s never to late to be active
On Monday this week my blog focused on benefits from exercise seen in obese adolescents and children, even in the absence of weight loss. This week also saw the publication of a study which suggests that exercise may have benefits for the elderly too [1]. In this study, almost 2000 elderly individuals aged 70 were [...]
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Can wheat cause diabetes?
The obvious answer to this question is ‘yes’, seeing as many wheat-based foods are very disruptive to blood sugar (they have high glycaemic index), particularly when eaten in quantity (meaning they have high glycaemic load too). As a result, the pancreas will generally need to pump out plenty of insulin. This, in time, can lead [...]
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Exercise shown to produce benefits in the absence of weight loss
Last month one of my blogs focused on the evidence which shows that exercise is, generally speaking, really quite ineffective for the purposes of weight loss. That is not to say that there’s nothing to be said for exercise. It is, for example, linked with a reduced risk of chronic and potentially fatal conditions such [...]
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Can stress make us fat?
There’s a general view that overweight and obesity are the result of eating too much and/or not exercising enough. Essentially, the idea here is that obesity is the result of greed and/or laziness. I am sure these this may be true for some people. I am also sure that this thinking is over-simplistic and does [...]
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Vitamin D found to enhance muscle strength in the elderly
Back in May, one of my blogs focused on some evidence which suggests that vitamin D has the capacity to improve a range of measures of physical function, including fitness, muscular strength, balance and reaction time. Strange though this may seem, there indeed appears to be evidence that simply sitting the sun may be all [...]
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Could eating late in the day promote weight gain in a way that has nothing to do with calories?
A mere 10 days ago one of my posts highlighted a study which had, apparently, found that a low carb diet was found to induce increased amounts of atherosclerosis (a key underlying process in the development of cardiovascular conditions such as heart attacks and strokes) in mice. I was sceptical of this study, partly on [...]
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