Let's Stop Dying, OK?

Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health, the University of Toronto and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington have just published the most comprehensive study ever done about how diet, lifestyle and metabolic risk factors for chronic disease contribute to mortality in the U.S.

Want to know what they found?

Here are some of the highlights. Remember, these are the numbers of preventable-repeat preventable- deaths each year in the U.S. directly caused by the following individual risk factors.

Get ready to be stunned.

• Low intake of dietary poly-unsaturated fatty acids: 15,000 deaths
  

• Low intake of fruits and vegetables: 58,000 deaths
  

• Alcohol use: 64,000 deaths. (Note: because moderate drinking reduces the risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes, alcohol use actually prevented 26,000 deaths, but these deaths were outweighed by the 90,000 alcohol-related deaths from traffic, violence, cancer and other diseases. Net loss, 64,000!)
  

• High intake of trans-fatty acids: 82,000
  

• Low intake of omega-3 fats: 84,000 (we'll be talking a lot more about this in the future!)
  

• High blood sugar: 190,000
  

• Sedentary lifestyle: 191,000
  

• Overweight/ obesity: 216,000
  

And the winner is...

Smoking: 467,000

These figures speak for themselves. I'm particularly stunned by the number of deaths specifically related to high blood sugar (!) and to lack of omega-3's, but all the numbers are sobering.

Now consider this: In another one of the largest ongoing studies of diet and health ever undertaken- the Nurses Health Study- it was found that five behaviors- five- could reduce the risk of heart disease by a whopping 83%. That percentage is higher than any drug has ever performed in the history of the world.

Ready for the five simple behaviors?

1. maintain a healthy weight
   
2. eat a Mediterranean diet (eat fish, omega-3's)
   
3. exercise every day
   
4. don't smoke
   
5. drink alcohol in moderation (if you drink it at all)
   

These same five behaviors will keep an awful lot of people from being swallowed up by the "health care" system, which is- let's be honest- really "sickness care"

Five simple behaviors.

It sure beats becoming a statistic.

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Treating Cravings and Addictions with Food and Supplements

You may never have been addicted to drugs, but you might know something about the addiction to food. Or sugar. Or alcohol. Or gambling. Turns out that all these addictions- and the associated cravings- have more in common with one another than you might think. And interestingly enough, the key to managing them might be in your diet.

This week's issue of The Economist, a London based newspaper, reports on interesting ongoing research using dietary approaches to addictions.

Here's how they explain the problem:

"People are programmed for addiction. Their brains are designed so that actions vital for propagating their genes- such as eating and having sex- are highly rewarding. Those reward pathways can, however be subverted by external chemicals (in other words, drugs) and by certain sorts of behavior such as gambling."

We also know from animal experiments that reward pathways in the brain can be hijacked by sugar. Rats who became addicted to sugar actually showed all the signs of cocaine withdrawal when sugar was removed from their diet.

The key to the whole thing- no big surprise- is in your brain chemistry, that complicated computer system where messages can frequently get corrupted and things can easily go astray. Addictive substances literally "hijack" the pleasure centers of the brain so that it's harder to obtain regular plain old garden-variety pleasure from regular activities. Instead, you need bigger and bigger doses of the substances or behaviors that give you the biggest jolt- sugar, cocaine, drugs, alcohol, gambling and the rest of the usual suspects.

One supplement that's getting a lot of research attention for addictions and that has remained under the radar for now is NAC- N-Acetyl-Cysteine. A study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry found that giving NAC to cocaine addicts reduced their desire to use the drug so much that the researchers recommended NAC as a potential treatment. An entirely different study found that NAC reduced the desire to gamble in 80% of gambling addicts (as compared to 28% of those given a placebo). And animal studies have shown that NAC reduces relapse with cocaine and heroin.

OK, so probably not many of you are cocaine or heroin addicts. But cravings are cravings, and if NAC works with some addictions (or cravings) it should work with others. I've recommended NAC for years as part of a liver health program since it boosts the body's level of the important antioxidant glutathione (which is not well absorbed in supplement form).

Now it looks like it may have another use!

Other nutritional factors that can support a healthy brain function are tyrosine (a precursor of the neurotransmitter dopamine), 5-HTP (a precursor of serotonin) and GABA (a relaxing neurotransmitter). My friend Dr. Daniel Amen put these together in an elegantly designed formula called NeuroLink, which also contains a nice dose of vitamin B6, needed to convert 5-HTP into the feel good neurotransmitter serotonin.

Red Wine, Resveratrol and Cancer

New research suggests that drinking the occasional glass of red wine may help men to reduce their risk of developing lung cancer.

Research scientist Chun Chao investigated the relationship between lung cancer risk and beer, red wine, white wine, and liquor consumption in men. Adjustments were made for factors affecting lung cancer risk, such as age, race/ethnicity, education, income, body mass index, history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or emphysema, and smoking history.

The results showed that lung cancer risk dropped by approximately 2% for every glass of red wine a man drunk each month. Results also revealed that drinking red wine dramatically reduced the risk of lung cancer in smokers - male smokers who drank one to two glasses of red wine each day were found to be 60% less likely to develop lung cancer than other smokers who did not drink red wine. However, Chao warns that male smokers who drink one to two glasses of red wine each day are still more likely to develop lung cancer than non-smokers.

Interestingly, when I wrote my latest book, The Healthiest Meals on Earth I based all the meals and recipes on the concept of the Polymeal- a notion first explored in the British Medical Journal by researchers who calculated that you could reduce heart disease by over 75% and give people an extra 9 good years of life if everyone ate a meal of 7 basic ingredients on a regular basis. One of those ingredients was red wine.

Consumption of white wine, beer, or liquor, was not found to have a significant effect upon lung cancer risk.

Although the reasons why red wine should reduce lung cancer risk are unconfirmed. Chao believes that "an antioxidant component" may well be responsible. "Red wine is known to contain high levels of antioxidants. There is a compound called resveratrol that is very rich in red wine because it is derived from the grape skin. This compound has shown significant health benefits in preclinical studies," Chao said in a news release issued by the American Association for Cancer Research.

I've long believed resveratrol- one of the most powerful antioxidants found in red wine and the skins of dark grapes- is one of the best anti-aging supplements you can take (I take resveratrol every day). We know resveratrol seems to have life extending properties from lab experiments- perhaps it also has cancer fighting ones as well.

The study is due to be published in the October Issue of the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.