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Archive for February, 2009

Cholesterol is a material that is derived from animal fats in food and that is also produced by the body. A certain amount of cholesterol is essential to health-it forms two per cent of the weight of the brain, for example—but too much cholesterol builds up in the arteries and may play a part in causing coronary disease or stroke. Most doctors advice moderating the animal fat content of our diet as a wise precaution. And this applies to lean men as well as plump ones.

Cholesterol-rich foods include fat meats, pork, sausages, egg yolk, butter, cheese, pastry, cream, meat drippings, and other animal fats. So it is wise to avoid too many of these foods and to trim away the visible fat from your meat. Since eating vegetable fats will actually reduce the amount of cholesterol in the blood, try to include in your diet some vegetable oils (such as corn, sunflower, and olive oil), fish oils, or polyunsaturated margarines.
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I was diagnosed with diverticulitis almost 30 years ago, and I’ve also been diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome and short bowel syndrome. I’ve done research, but everything I’ve found stresses the need to have a high-fibre intake. I’ve had to drastically reduce my fiber intake on medical advice because of constant diarrhoea.

answer:
Diet plays a major part in the management of diverticular disease. When you have a flare-up, you will be advised to reduce fibre for a month or so, but once symptoms settle down, it is advisable to gradually resume a high-fibre diet. New thinking suggests that changes in the balance of bacteria in the bowel might contribute to chronic low-grade inflammation, and this is almost certainly the case after a lot of antibiotics. Treatment with therapeutic probiotics is the latest direction in preventing recurrence of diverticulitis. Probiotics are also being used to treat irritable bowel syndrome.

What is the difference between nuclear cataracts and cortical cataracts?

answer:
A cataract is a clouding or opacity of the lens in your eye, which is normally clear. It comes from the Latin word cataracta, meaning waterfall, because having a cataract has been likened to looking through a sheet of water. It is considered a common, if not normal, part of aging. As cataracts progress, they can cause blurred vision, sensitivity to glare, increased nearsightedness and distorted vision.The terms “nuclear” and “cortical” cataract refer to the position of the cataract on the lens. The nuclear cataract occurs in the center of the lens, while the cortical cataract starts as wedge-shaped spokes around the periphery of the lens. Higher risk groups for cataracts include people with diabetes, people who have taken corticosteroids over a prolonged period, heavy drinkers, those over-exposed to the sun and smokers.

I have a question about that memory-enhancing natural drug. Can it be taken by anyone or only people who are experiencing memory loss? I am a 28-year-old woman, and I would like to know, as my mother is suffering from dementia. I would also like to know if memory loss is hereditary and if anything can be done to prevent it.

answer:
This is unlikely in someone so young, although Alzheimer’s disease does have a familial association.

There are actually several “natural drugs” for memory, if you mean that in the sense of naturally occurring substances that improve memory. The major one, so far as dementia is concerned, is ginkgo biloba.

A number of experimental double-blind and clinical studies have been done during the past dozen years on standardized ginkgo biloba extract in dementia. (The extract is actually a registered drug in Germany for the treatment of brain dysfunction.) The studies are virtually unanimous in documenting improvement in such parameters as short-term memory, attention, basic learning rate, cognitive efficiency, performance speed, problem-solving, vigilance, mood and sociability. People without dementia who take ginkgo also report improved mental function.

Ginkgo appears to work by increasing blood flow to the brain. It also enhances glucose utilization, the brain’s energy source. In addition, it has membrane-stabilizing and antioxidant effects. The usual dose of the extract, standardized to contain 24 percent ginkgo flavone glycosides, is 40 mg three times a day.

Ginkgo may help delay deterioration in early stages of Alzheimer’s dementia, but the consensus is that it’s not much use later on. For full-blown Alzheimer’s, we turn to a second “natural drug,” acetyl-L-carnitine.

Acetyl-L-carnitine is a form of L-carnitine, an amino acid found in meat, and available as a nutritional supplement. Carnitine changes to acetyl-L-carnitine through the action of an enzyme that is woefully lacking in the brains of Alzheimer’s victims.

Acetyl-L-carnitine has been the subject of double-blind clinical studies in Alzheimer’s patients, with somewhat spotty results. Acetyl-L-carnitine reportedly improves behavior, memory, verbal fluency, attention, name learning, logical intelligence and digit recall, among other measures—or at the very least, it slows the progressive deterioration of such cognitive functions.

Acetyl-L-carnitine may help Alzheimer’s sufferers in at least two ways: It is a precursor to acetylcholine (a brain chemical involved in memory), and it acts as an energy carrier at the level of the cells’ energy factories (the mitochondria) where it is involved in fatty-acid metabolism. The dosage in these studies ranged from 2 to 3 gm a day.

A third natural substance, phos-phatidylserine (PS), has been receiving favorable attention recently. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled study with 72 adults, a daily dose of 300 mg of PS with phosphatidic acid was given for three months. The PS group showed improved memorization of information, memorization of numbers and visual memory. This group also appeared not to experience depressed moods during the winter months.