Note: I wrote this post quite a while ago when we first decided we would have a blog. I came across the file last week, and decided I would go ahead and post it despite it being older. It is very link heavy, and a lot of the information comes from other sources. Hopefully you find the information and the linked articles useful

Why is Nutrition Important

Today I want to talk about some general ideas that help answer the question “why is nutrition important?” A proper diet is not just for someone who is overweight, or wants to improve their appearance. There are an endless number of reasons why everyone should watch what they eat, and maintain a healthy diet that includes all of their essential nutrients. This post explores only a few of the many benefits of eating healthy, and some of the consequences of not having a proper diet.
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nutrition disease prevention, nutrition, well-being

U.S. researchers are studying exosomes, tiny sacs released from cancer tumors that contain genetic information, and their relationship with cancer within in the body. Different cells in the body use exosomes to communicate between each other. The researchers believe that the cancer tumors communicate in a similar way using the exosomes. They believe that they will be able to use the exosomes as biomarkers, and learn valuable information about the cancer through simple blood tests. With this informaiton, they would be able to understand the actual mutation the cancer cell causes, and develop better ways to treat the disease.

The first step would be to develop a blood test, but eventually Skog thinks it may be possible to use the exosomes to deliver therapies to the cancer.

(Source: Reuters)

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A log of the blogs I read write a post every Friday where they recap some of the things that they did, some of the relevant news that happend, and interesting blog posts from the week. I decided that I would try that for a while starting with this week. Most of these posts will include a link back to some of things we did here at the Alive and Well Blog as well as some other items from various blog and news sources. So having said that, here is this week in review.

What We Did
Foods With Amino Acid Table - This week we created a “foods with amino acid table” that provided a variety of food sources for the essential amino acids. We also discussed the suggested amounts for these amino acids per the World Health Orginization.

Health News
Obese People at Increased Risk of Cardiovascular Disease - We already know that obese people have a heightened risk of cardiovascular disease. But a study at Ohio University suggests that this risk could still be high even if the person does not suffer from high cholesterol or diabetes.
Fewer Than 1 in 5 U.S. Adults Now Smoke - On Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that the adult smoking rate in the U.S. has dropped below 20% for the first time since 1960’s when the government began tracking the statistic.
AIDS patient is cured - Doctors in Berlin have said that they cured an AIDS patient by transplanting blood stem cells from a person who is naturally resistant to the virus. Unfortunately, the procedure is pretty impractical for wide-scale use.

What the Blogosphere is Saying
10 Lies you Swallow When you Eat - Dietriffic takes a look at 10 claims you can find on food labels, that you should think twice about.
When Did Dieting Begin? - The people at Diet-Blog investigate when dieting first started.

Week in Review foods with amino acid table, Obesity, smokers

Foods With Amino Acid Table

Today, we constructed a “foods with amino acid table”. Amino acids are the molecules that make up proteins. There are 20 different amino acids that the body uses to synthesize proteins. These 20 amino acids consist of 8 essential amino acids, and 12 nonessential amino acids. The 8 essential amino acids are categorized as such because the body cannot normally synthesize them, and they must be obtained from different foods. Histidine may also be considered an essential amino acid because of issues arising from studies on histidine-free diets, but for this post we will only consider the standard 8 essential amino acids. We have created a basic “foods with amino acid table” to help give you some idea as to where your body obtains these essential amino acids from. Additionally, I thought it would also be good to know the recommended amounts your body should be getting. I’m going to post the table here on the front page, and you can find the recommended amounts by clicking the “more” link.

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nutrition amino acids, food, nutrition

Note: As I mentioned in this post, I’m not really sure what shape this blog is going to take. Right now, I decided we’d provide some relevant news and links, with a little commentary from us on a daily basis. We will begin having our own original content tomorrow, so keep checking in to see what we have.

Going along with a little bit of theme here, more news on cancer treatment and research. Researchers at Albert Einstein college of Medicine of Yeshiva University New York are experimenting with small glass implants in mice that enable to track the growth of cancer cells in the body. The scientists implanted a small glass window in over the mammary glands of mice with breast cancer. They then use jellyfish protein that lights up the cells under ultraviolet light. Scientists hope that by using this process they will be able to track the growth of the cancer, and determine the effectiveness of different drugs used in treatment.

“We hope this technology can be used to test the ability of various drug treatments to inhibit tumor cell invasiveness and metastasize,” said Segall, who led the study.

This is another interesting study. Anything that can be done to help develop drugs that inhibit cancer cells from metastasizing it extremely important. The capability to get a better look at how the cancer cells act in the body could be a huge step towards improved treatment and defense.

(Source: Reuters)

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Daniel Hayes, PhD from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene believes that a form of Vitamin D may help the human body protect itself from radiation. The belief stems from the idea that calcitriol, the active form of Vitamin D, could help protect the body’s DNA from mutation when it has been exposed to low levels of radiation.

“Vitamin D by its preventive/ameliorating actions should be given serious consideration as a protective agent against sublethal radiation injury, and in particular that induced by low-level radiation,” concludes Hayes.

The article states that there are currently no plans on formulating a drug that would put this theory into action, but it is interesting nonetheless. I personally am always amazed at how seemingly basic nutrients like Vitamin D can have so many potential benefits to the body. This is something I want to follow in the coming years, to see the type of progress they can make in terms of preventing the dangerous effects of radiation.

(sources: Science Daily)

Cancer, dna, vitamin d Cancer, dna, radiation, vitamin d

We at Alive and Well Blog have a strong connection to pancreatic cancer research. It is such a deadly disease, and scientists have unfortunately made fairly little progress in terms of treating it. However, scientists at UC Davis Cancer Center have found a metabolic deficiency in pancreatic cancer cells that may help lead to the treatment of the disease. The life-expectancy of pancreatic cancer patients is generally very short, and less than 5% of those who are diagnosed with the disease live 5 years or longer. According to Richard Bold, chief of surgical oncology at UC Davis and his team of researchers, the pancreatic cancer cells are unable to produce arginine.

“The researchers found that exposing the pancreatic cancer cell lines to the modified arginine deiminase enzyme inhibited cancer-cell proliferation by 50 percent. ”

This sounds like it could be the start of something promising. Pancreatic cancer is a terrible disease that we unfortunately know very little about. We need to continue research to find viable treatments that can help increase the life-expectancy and chances of long-term survival.

(sources: UC Davis Health System; Mayo Clinc)

Cancer, Disease, medical information arginine, Cancer, pancreatic cancer

So it’s obviously been quite some time since we’ve made an updates on here. Unfortunately, we have gotten fairly busy and have been negelcting this blog. Having said that, we have decided to rededicate ourselves to Alive and Well Blog, and start upating with regular, fresh content. I’m still not sure the what direction we will end up taking this blog. In the short-term I think we are going to try to provide some original content and links to current news and stories that we think are informative and relevant.

As the title says, we want to let you kno what we are working on.  We are going to come out with a couple of different article series focused on topics that we think are pretty important, and ther is not enough information about. The first series is going to deal with hypoglycemia, and we are hoping to get the first part going in the next week or two. It’s taking quite a bit of time because we really want to be thorough and provide as much information as possible.

Over the next few weeks, we hope to start providing some good, new content. We definitely have been slacking, and we hope to make up for it by providing some really good posts.  Thanks for stopping by, and we hope that you’ll keep checking frequently because we plan on making some changes for the better.

alive and well blog, hypoglycemia alive and well blog, hypoglycemia

I wanted to let you know that Dr. Rybicki recently wrote an article about the Health Benefits of Curcumin Nutritional Supplements. Curcumin is an antioxidant that is derived from the Turmeric Plant. Most of you probably eaten Curcumin without even knowing it. Curcumin is what gives curry powder its distinctive yellow color.

As I said previously, Curcumin is an antioxidant, so it has many health benefits associated with it. These benefits are mostly due to Curcumin’s ability as an antioxidant to counteract free-radicals. Free-radicals are molecules in the body that have one of more unpaired electrons. The molecules stabilize themselves, and by doing so damage the body’s cells and tissues. Antioxidants help stabilize the free-radicals and in turn help protect the body from possible damage.

Free-radical damage can lead to many serious health issues. Studies have shown that free-radicals may be in part responsible for some forms of cancer. Free-radical damage, also known as oxidative stress, has also been show to cause physical signs of aging.

Dr. Rybicki’s article discusses the health benefits associated with Curcumin nutritional supplements. These benefits range from potentially helping fight cancer, to helping with Alzheimer’s disease, and reducing the pain and swelling of Arthritis. Take a look at the article and leave your comments and questions here. you can also check out Dr. Rybicki’s nutritional supplement, NeoVitin Curcumin Nutritional Supplement

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A recent scientific study has linked low levels of vitamin D with an increased risk of breast cancer. Vitamin D deficiency was also found to be associated with a poor prognosis in patients diagnosed with breast cancer. This research study was recently published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (26:2008, May 20 supplement; abstract 511), and is being presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meetings in late May, 2008. This research showed that vitamin D deficiency was common in patients who were first diagnosed with breast cancer. They also found that survival of patients with breast cancer was worse when vitamin D levels were low.

Like all vitamins, Vitamin D is not produced naturally by the body. Unfortunately, not many natural food sources contain significant amounts of the nutrient. Some plants, and mushrooms as well as fatty fish contain the vitamin. Also, many manufacturers now produce fortified products such as milk and cereal that contain Vitamin D. Vitamin D can also be obtained through nutritional supplements.

Cancer, Diabetes, Diet, Obesity, nutrition, supplements, vitamins breast cancer, vitamins d