Browsing Tag Teenage dieting and osteoporosis

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning a few years ago that pregnant women taking the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressant paroxetine risk giving birth to infants with major birth defects, including heart abnormalities Now comes word that the same drug (sold as Paxil, Paxil CR, Seroxat, Pexeva, and generic paroxetine hydrochloride) carries another danger that could keep babies from being born in the first place. A new study just published in the online edition of the journal Fertility and Sterility concludes as many as fifty percent of all men taking the antidepressant could have damaged sperm and compromised fertility.

New York Presbyterian Hospital and Weill Cornell Medical Center researchers followed 35 healthy male volunteers who took paroxetine for five weeks. Then sperm samples from the men were studied using an assay called terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) to evaluate whether there were missing pieces of genetic code in the sperm DNA. This condition, know as DNA fragmentation, is associated with reproductive problems.

The results? The percentage of men with abnormal DNA fragmentation soared from less than 10 percent to 50 percent while taking the antidepressant. This is a crucial finding because DNA fragmentation has long been known to correlate with an increased risk of birth defects, poor fertility and unsuccessful pregnancy outcomes — even when high tech, extraordinarily expensive fertility enhancing techniques such as in vitro fertilization and intracytoplasmic sperm injection are used.

The study, one of the first scientific investigations into the effect of SSRIs on sperm quality, also confirmed that paroxetine impairs sexual function. More than a third of the research subjects reported significant changes in erectile function and about half had difficulty ejaculating.

“It’s fairly well known that SSRI antidepressants negatively impact erectile function and ejaculation. This study goes one step further, demonstrating that they can cause a major increase in genetic damage to sperm,” Dr. Peter Schlegel, the study’s senior author and chairman of the Department of Urology and professor of reproductive medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College, explained in a statement to the media. “Although this study doesn’t look directly at fertility, we can infer that as many as half of men taking SSRIs have a reduced ability to conceive. These men should talk with their physician about their treatment options, including non-SSRI depression medications.”

The scientists could not identify the exact way the SSRI caused the DNA fragmentation, but the evidence strongly suggests the drug slows sperm as it moves through the male reproductive tract from the testis to the ejaculatory ducts. When this happens, the sluggish sperm grows old and its DNA becomes damaged. “This is a new concept for how drugs can affect fertility and sperm. In most cases, it was previously assumed that a drug damaged sperm production, so the concept that sperm transport could be affected is novel,” Dr. Schlegel stated.

The study contains some good news for men currently on Paxil and related drugs who may be concerned about their fertility. All the changes the researchers found appeared to be totally reversible. Specifically, normal levels of sexual function and DNA fragmentation both returned to normal one month after discontinuation of the drug.

A higher dietary intake of omega-3 fatty acids may protect men from prostate cancer even if they have a genetic predisposition to the disease, researchers have found.

“We detected strong protective associations between increasing intake of long-chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids and more advanced prostate cancer,” said lead researcher John S. Witte. “These fatty acids are primarily from dark fish such as salmon.”

“And the decrease in risk may be even more pronounced if one has a high-risk genetic variant,” he said.

In a study published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research, Witte and colleagues compared the diets and genetic profiles of 466 men suffering from aggressive prostate cancer with those of 478 healthy men of similar age and ethnic distribution. Average participant age was 65, and cancer patients were recruited an average of 4.7 months after diagnosis. Healthy controls were recruited from among men undergoing standard annual health checkups.

The researchers focused only on aggressive tumors because these represent the most dangerous form of the disease. Many men with non-aggressive, slow-growing tumors die of other causes before ever experiencing any cancer symptoms.

Researchers had all participants fill out food frequency questionnaires, classifying their intake of various kinds of fish as “never,” “one to three times per month,” or “one or more times per week.” All men were screened for nine different mutations of the cox-2 gene. These variables were then analyzed for their relationship with prostate cancer, adjusting for other known risk factors such as smoking, obesity, family cancer history and prior prostate screening results.

The study was conducted by researchers from the Institute for Human Genetics, University of California and University of Southern California, and funded by the National Institute of Health and a dean’s grant from Laval University McLaughlin.

The researchers found that men with cancer had a significantly higher intake of calories, fat and linoleic acid (an omega-6) than healthy men. They had a significantly lower intake of omega-3s, shellfish and dark fish.

Men who ate dark fish one to three times a month had a 36 percent lower chance of developing an aggressive prostate cancer than those who ate it rarely or never, while those who ate such fish once a week or more had a 63 percent lower risk.

“The strongest effect was seen from eating dark fish such as salmon one or more times per week,” Witte said.

The researchers found that men with a particular cox-2 gene variant, rs4647310, had 5.5-times the risk of aggressive prostate cancer as men without that variant. This elevated risk was not seen, however, among men with a high omega-3 intake.

“Men with low intake of dark fish and the high-risk variant had a substantially increased risk of more advanced prostate cancer,” Witte said.

Omega-3s are believed to decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, and autoimmune disorders, and to improve cognitive health. The mechanisms for these benefits are not well understood, but are believed, in some cases, to be linked to reduced inflammation.

The cox-2 gene is known to play a role in prostate inflammation, a risk factor for prostate cancer.

For many years, we have been doing a Natural Fertility Program for couples who are delighted with the results.

Be well

Dr Sundardas

http://www.naturaltherapies.com/nfp.htm

The seeds for osteoporosis are often laid in the early teens. Osteoporosis involves both the mineral (inorganic) and non-mineral (organic matrix composed primarily of protein) components of bone. In fact true lack of dietary calcium results in a separate condition known as osteomalacia or softening of the bone.

Frequent dieting during the teen years or significant caloric restriction do a couple of negative things to the body. First they shock the body and may disrupt the hypothalamus, pituitary adrenal axis (this is like the main switch board for the hormonal and nervous system center). Next as people fast, they normally use up minerals in the body’s attempts to keep vital functions going. Initially the minerals come from whatever is circulating. Then the minerals stored within the bone matrix are used up.

As this goes on, more and more minerals are used up. If these same women become pregnant, most other their nutrients are used up by their babies as well. If they were supplementing throughout those years, these mineral loss effects can be mitigated or ameliorated. Most young women who typically do yoyo diets, fast repeatedly or have bulimic type behaviours in my experience do not do adequate supplementation.

Caloric restriction without malnutrition is a technique that can be used for effective weight loss as well as for anti-ageing. This needs to be distinguished form the caloric restriction programs that young women on weight loss or yo yo diets go on. On these amazing sounding but quite dysfunctional diets there is no adequate nutritional supplementation. This is what leads to the loss of calcium.

Research done by Dr. Michael Colgan show that maximum permitted reduction in calories is from two hundred to five hundred calories a day. Furthermore such a program must be supplemented by a complete vitamin and mineral supplement program to shut down the body’s malnourishment defenses. If the caloric reduction is more severe than the above, the fatpoint defenses are triggered. The whole cycle of metabolic shutdown and appetite explosion begins anew.

Such a program yields a maximum weight loss of between 1.5 to 1 pound a week. Gradually over the course of a year, the fatpoint edges down as the body remodels itself around the new weight, always on the low side of the existing fatpoint. The minor changes in calories slip by the fatpoint defenses and the supplements keep the nutritional defenses quiet. Within a year, you can lose between twenty-five and fifty pounds. The great difference between this loss and most other losses by dieting is that the ravenous hunger, binging, sickness, nausea and other hazards of dieting do not occur. With normal cell turnover the body adopts its enzyme levels, its muscles, its skeleton, its glands, to the new lower weight. The fat point drops to suit.

Osteoporosis that is not due to disease can develop from malnutrition and malabsorption of Calcium and or Vitamin D. It can also be triggered by a Vitamin C deficiency and a high acid ash (high protein) diet. A high phosphate intake or an iron overload can aggravate the condition as well.

When a group of scientists began to study the incidence of osteoporosis in different countries, they found the highest incidence in countries like UK, Sweden, the United States of America and the lowest in China where the diet avoids all of the risk factors metioned above as well as including all of the protective items that follow below.

The ideal diet for preventing osteoporosis is high in vegetables and fruits, but low in fat and animal products. Refined carbohydrates and alcohol are to be held at a very low level and carbonated drinks loaded with phosphates should be eliminated. Flavonoid rich food like dark blue-black berries, citrus rinds and colourful fruits should be liberally consumed. It should also include exercise. A 45 minute to an hour’s walk, three to five times a week is the minimum exercise that is recommended.

According to Dr Maurine Tsakok, head and senior consultant of Singapore General Hospital’s department of obstetrics and gynaecology, women taking soy bean products from dougan to miso soup to legumes like peanuts and beans were naturally increasing their oestrogen levels.

This is because soya products contained plant oestrogens and if sufficient quantities are consumed (which was about three times more soya products a week than normal). In a retrospective study of 98 menopausal Singapore women only half were found the need Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT). Dr Tsakokk also found that two-fifths of the women who did not need HRT exercised regularly compared with about one- tenth of those on HRT. This is one of those times when soya in the right amounts is actually useful and helpful.

The supplements below are suggested; Calcium Citrate 1000 mg a day Magnesium Citrate 500 mg a day Pyridoxine 100 mg a day Folic Acid 1000 mg a day Vitamin B12 1 mg a day Phylloquinone (K1) 1 mg a day Boron 3 mg a day Strontium Lactate 100 mg a day Botanical medicines that are useful are herbs like dong quai (Angelica sinensis), liquorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra), unicorn root (Aletris farinosa), black cohosh (Cimicifuga racemosa), fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) and false unicorn root (Helonias opulus). These herbs contain phytoestrogens which are suitable alternatives to oestrogens in the prevention of osteoporosis in menopausal women. They will also help with symptoms like hot flushes and mood swings.

Be well

Dr Sundardas