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Halloween is Almost Here: Choose Your Candy Wisely

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Higher chocolate intake may very well lower your risk for cardiovascular disease and stroke if you are a healthy adult.

A new study of almost 21,000 people has shown that higher chocolate intake may very well lower your risk for cardiovascular disease and stroke if you are a healthy adult.

This wasn’t one of your quick, 6-month studies that have to be projected out in time to guess the benefits. The University of Cambridge UK EPIC-Norfolk study has been running for over 12 years and continues to this day. It was designed to track the effect of diet on cancers, but the data gathered has been used in other ways.

A team from the University of Aberdeen Scotland analyzed the data from 20,951 of the participants. They were divided into five equal groups (quintiles), based on the lowest to highest average daily consumption of chocolate.

Over 11.9 years, 13.8% of the people in the lowest chocolate consuming group had coronary heart disease (CHD) incidents. Only 9.7% of the highest chocolate consuming group had CHD incidents. That’s almost 30% lower!

Strokes during this time period were also tracked. There were 848 in the group overall, at a rate of 5.4% in the lowest chocolate consuming quintile and 3.1% in the highest quintile “chocolate lovers” group. The “chocolate lovers” had an over 40% lower rate of stroke than the lowest group.

How is this possible? The seeds from within cacao pods from which chocolate is made, (often called “cocoa beans”) are packed with a class of nutrients called “flavonoids.” Flavonoids are the plant’s natural antioxidants and they protect it from damage. When we eat foods rich in flavonoids, we get the benefit of these antioxidants.

Flavonols are the primary type of flavonoids found in cocoa and chocolate. In addition to being potent antioxidants, flavonols have been shown to lower blood pressure, make platelets less sticky, and improve blood flow to the brain and heart. Given that all of these things would have a positive impact on overall cardiovascular health, their correlation to the study results seems obvious.

We used to think that the fat content in chocolate was a problem, but recent research shows that the fats in cocoa itself (the cocoa butter) consist of equal amounts of oleic, stearic and palmitic acids. Oleic acid is the same monounsaturated heart-healthy fat found in olive oil. Stearic and palmitic acid are saturated fats, but have less negative impact than once thought. However, other fats are sometimes added in the chocolate-making process.

That brings us to the caveat. (There’s always a catch – right?) Not all chocolate is the same. While the study above noticed that the participants actually ate more milk chocolate than dark chocolate, (dark chocolate being unofficially defined as 60% cocoa or more) the participants still got the benefits once thought to be reserved for the more intense dark chocolate.

This Halloween, make sure you read each label carefully before enjoying a sweet treat or two — as long as it meets the requirements outlined above, you should feel free to enjoy as much as you’d like!

Get your FREE e-Book today, Dr. Dzugan’s “Your Blood Doesn’t Lie” and learn more about our program and how it can help you get back to the living a life you love.

Because every person’s body chemistry is different, we work closely with you to develop a personalized program that improves your overall Quality of Life.

Scroll to the bottom of the Dzugan PhysioLogic home page and grab your free ebook, a free consultation with one of our Doctors, or just give us a call at 1-866-225-4877 Option 2 today to speak with an experienced advisor.

DISCLAIMER: This blog is for informational purposes only. It does not replace medical care from a licensed physician. If you have a medical concern, please contact DzLogic at 1-866-225-4877.

Beware the Char! Too much sitting - for your job or in front of the TV - can increase your risk of diabetes, heart disease, metabolic syndrome, cancer and a shorter life span.

Too Much Sitting Can Harm You In Many Ways

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More and more evidence is coming out that excessive sitting can wreck your health.

Why you need to get up and move.

The American College of Cardiology presented a study on March 15, 2015, showing sedentary time (sitting) is directly linked to coronary artery calcification; independent of other exercise and traditional cardiovascular disease risk factors. Arterial calcification (hardening of the arteries) is a major component of serious heart disease.

The Annals of Internal Medicine published a meta-analysis review of 47 papers showing increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, cancer and all-cause death associated with sedentary lifestyles.

The study didn’t define an exact “danger point” for too much sitting, but “if you sit more than 8 hours a day, that’s probably linked to a lot of the negative health effects,” said the study’s lead researcher, Aviroop Biswas, a doctoral candidate at the University of Toronto.

What Can You Do?

Get up! It is that simple, and yet will feel unnatural at first. Here are a couple of strategies:

  1. Set a recurring timer on your desk that will beep at you every 45 minutes to an hour. Every time it goes off you get up, stretch out and maybe do a few deep knee bends to get your blood flowing into all the right places again.
  2. Do the same at home on every commercial break while you’re watching TV.
  3. Set a small glass of water (6 oz.) on your desk. After your stretch, drink the water and then go refill the glass. This will keep you hydrated as well as moving.
  4. Get a wireless headset for your office phone so that you can stand up and walk around while taking or making calls.

The above studies noted that sedentary behavior increased with a combination of age, declining health,  and overall energy level. An optimized body chemistry program can reverse many of the effects of aging while helping protect you from the diseases mentioned.

Visit our Getting Started page for more information, or give us a call at 1-866-225-4877 today.

 

DISCLAIMER: This blog is for informational purposes only. It does not replace medical care from a licensed physician. If you have a medical concern, please contact DzLogic at 1-866-225-4877.

Studies show testosterone protects heart function.

FDA Testosterone Warning “Premature” – Evidence Continues to Mount

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Two major medical conferences in the last week (The Endocrine Society & American College of Cardiology) have presented a total of four new papers showing no increased cardiovascular risk for men using testosterone therapy. (1, 2)

The first study presented at the American College of Cardiology included 7245 men in 15 hospitals and 150 clinics. The second was a meta-study of 29 separate studies including 122,000 men.

“When we pulled out all the studies so far, testosterone in any form—whether it was a gel, an injection, or older pills—did not increase the risk of cardiovascular events, such as heart attack, sudden cardiac death, stroke, or hospitalization for heart failure,” said Dr Pawan Patel (Regions Hospital, St Paul, MN), lead investigator of the meta-analysis.

The Endocrine Society conference highlighted two additional studies; showing no additional ‘venous thrombotic events’ (blood clots) in one, and no increase in ‘major adverse cardiovascular events’ in the other.

“This has become a popularized and controversial issue,” Ronald Swerdloff, MD, from the University of California, Los Angeles, told Medscape Medical News at the ENDO 2015 meeting.

“The regulatory agencies have raised questions based upon some studies that suggest there may be adverse effects. But many other studies suggest there are no adverse effects, and there are mainly epidemiologic studies showing there may be adverse effects of low testosterone.”

Visit our Getting Started page for more information, or give us a call at 1-866-225-4877 today.

 

DISCLAIMER: This blog is for informational purposes only. It does not replace medical care from a licensed physician. If you have a medical concern, please contact DzLogic at 1-866-225-4877.

Recent study about testosterone therapy based on flawed, refuted study

FDA Releases “Safety Alert” Based On Flawed, Refuted Study

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If you are concerned by what you’ve heard on national media about the FDA’s safety alert regarding “possible” cardiovascular risk associated with testosterone therapy, you’ll want to hear “the rest of the story” as Paul Harvey used to say.

Dozens of studies over the last 30 years have shown that higher levels of testosterone, either naturally occurring or the result of testosterone therapy done correctly, have shown a positive effect on cardiovascular risk factors. In fact, two of those studies showed that men treated with testosterone had a 50% reduction in mortality compared to untreated men who also had low testosterone.

The study at the heart of the FDA’s thinking was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in November of 2014. Since then, 29 medical societies and 160 of the world’s foremost experts in endocrinology, cardiology, etc. from 32 countries have demanded JAMA retract the paper citing “gross data mismanagement.”

“People find it hard to believe that JAMA would publish a study in which the percentages of men who suffered an adverse event was lower by half in men who received testosterone than untreated men, yet results were reported as if the opposite were true, thanks to absurdly complicated statistical manipulations of the data,” stated Andre Guay, Clinical Professor of Endocrinology, Tufts University School of Medicine. “There is nothing believable in this study.”

For a quick video overview of this controversy, we invite you to watch this 8 minute video from Dr. Morgentaler, Professor of Urology, Harvard University:

Additional information:“

Testosterone is a major component of men’s health and as testosterone levels fall, overall health suffers. Low levels have been associated with diabetes, metabolic syndrome, obesity, high blood pressure, memory loss, erectile dysfunction and other conditions.

As with all medical practices, testosterone therapy should only be managed by experienced professionals with extensive experience in the use of this powerful substance.

Visit our Getting Started page for more information, or give us a call at 1-866-225-4877 today.

DISCLAIMER: This blog is for informational purposes only. It does not replace medical care from a licensed physician. If you have a medical concern, please contact DzLogic at 1-866-225-4877.