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blog : Page 18
Statins, Fat, and the Prostate
A recent study of prostate cancer, funded by the federal government, linked high cholesterol levels with doubling the risk of developing an aggressive cancer that is more likely to result in death. The study, which involved over 6000 men, showed there was a clear correlation between a cholesterol level over 200 and a doubling in the incidence of high-grade malignancies of the prostate. As a result, some have leapt to the conclusion that placing men on statin drugs, which are a class of drugs that lower cholesterol levels, should lower the risk of prostate cancer (or at least lower the risk of high-grade aggressive prostate cancer).
I wish life was that straight forward, but the data on statin use and prostate cancer incidence is complex. There are studies indicating that long-term use of statin drugs may decrease the overall risk of prostate cancer to some modest degree. On the other hand, a large study, published in September of 2009 and done here at the Seattle Fred
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Dr. Mixon's Longevity Journal, Nutrition
Exercise: As easy as taking a pill?
Recently there have been several reports making the rounds on the various news outlets of a new drug called 5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide-1-β-d-riboside (or AICAR to normal people) that seems to mimic the effects of exercise…at least it does in rats. The rats were able to build muscle, gain endurance, and lose weight. Even their ability to metabolize sugar was improved when they took AICAR. Click here to read the study.
A lot of people will have knee jerk skepticism that any drug can ever take the place of good old fashioned exercise. I, however, would not be one of them. Now, I’m not saying that AICAR is necessarily going to replace the need for exercise but sooner or later something probably will. After all, exercise fundamentally just sets off a series of bio-chemical changes in our bodies that have an awful lot of beneficial effects on us. There’s no
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Dr. Mixon's Longevity Journal, Weight Loss, Exercise
The Secret to Adult NON-set Diabetes
Since I stopped practicing general family medicine and started dedicating myself exclusively to aging issues, there is one disease process that comes up again and again. It’s the one on which I probably spend the lion’s share of my time as a clinical physician. That process is adult-onset, or Type II, diabetes. No mistake about it, it’s a killer and in America’s adult population, it’s a full blown epidemic.
People worry a great deal about cancer, but your chances of getting cancer pale beside the one-in-three shot you have of developing diabetes before you die. People tend to overlook diabetes since the disease has been manageable for decades. But managed or not, over the long term it will still ravage your heart, eyes, and circulatory system.
The thing that’s so crazy about diabetes is that we still have a tendency to view and treat adult-onset diabetes as a purely genetic disorder. The truth is, however, diabetes is like heart disease
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Diabetes, Dr. Mixon's Longevity Journal
Cancer - An Ounce of Prevention
Cancer has become a frighteningly common word in recent years. You read about it in the paper, hear about it on television, and even if you’re lucky enough not to have had it, you probably know someone who has. Worse still, if you believe everything you read or hear, it seems that just about everything we do in life is going to cause it. Sunshine, peanut butter, chlorine and fluoride in your water, diesel fumes in the air, and the gasoline fumes you breathe when filling your gas tank, have all been indicated as factors that increase your risk of getting cancer. It’s enough to make a person want to crawl in a hole and eat nothing but anti-oxidants for the rest of his life. Despite all the scary news floating around out there, let me put some of this in perspective for you….
Firstly, it is important to understand what cancer is. Our DNA is comprised, to a large extent, of carbon. A small percentage of that carbon is radioactive and is constantly breaking
Do Doctors Know Everything?
Some patients get upset if I will not accept, on faith, that their latest homeopathic, holistic, ionized, wheat grass remedy (you get the idea) was unlikely to cure their arthritis. Many years ago I accepted the fact that there are many things I do not, and probably never will, know. But I like to think I know SOMETHING.
I think the perception that we doctors don’t know anything derives from how often patients get told crazy, conflicting health advice. Consider a man who was born in 1949 who would be about 60 now. In his lifetime, he would have seen doctors talk about which brand of cigarettes had the greatest health benefits and that a hearty breakfast of bacon and eggs was healthy. However, he would also remember being told that the cholesterol in eggs and bacon would kill him but then he’d recall being told that maybe it wasn’t as bad as we originally thought. More recently, he has probably heard that there is good and bad cholesterol and he needs to get
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Dr. Mixon's Longevity Journal, Just for Fun
