Latest Blog Posts
Soy and Osteoporosis
Osteoporosis is a disease whereby bones become weak, brittle, and prone to fracture. It is a serious problem, especially for the elderly and women. Women tend to have smaller and thinner bones than men. And when women reach menopause, their levels of estrogen (a hormone in women that protects bones) decrease sharply, causing bone loss and increasing their risk of osteoporosis. Weak bones are more likely to break at the hip, spine, or wrist. About 20% of older people who break a hip die within a year from the complications from the fracture itself, or from the surgery required to repair it. Many require long-term nursing home care.
Organic
Organic foods are not any more nutritious than conventionally grown foods. A systematic review of 52,471 articles has found that there is no evidence of a difference in the nutritional quality between organic foods and conventional foods. Another review looking at 237 studies reached the same result.
Purine and Gout
Gout is the most common form of inflammatory arthropathy in adults. People with gout tend to suffer from hot, painful, and inflamed joints. Over time, joints affected by gout can become swollen and large with the development of hard nodules, called tophi, in the joints and in the surrounding soft tissue. This causes permanent damage to the joints. Gout is primarily caused by high levels of uric acid in the blood. Uric acid is produced when our bodies break down purines—substances found naturally in our bodies and in many of the foods that we eat.
Liver
One of your liver’s primary functions is detoxification. It filters the blood from your gut before the blood is circulated to the rest of your body. It metabolizes toxins and drugs in the blood from your gut, breaking them down before they enter the blood supply to the rest of your body. Your liver also secretes bile, a substance that aids the digestive process. Furthermore, your liver is responsible for the synthesis of cholesterol as well as proteins that are important for the blood clotting process and other essential bodily functions. Because of the important role of your liver, its health is closely tied to that of the rest of your body, and especially that of your heart.
Heart
Heart disease is the leading cause of death globally. In 2015, about 17.7 million people died from cardiovascular diseases. This represents about 31% of all global deaths. Every year, in the U.S., about 735,000 people suffer from a heart attack. In a survey done by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 47% of sudden cardiac deaths in the U.S. happened outside of a hospital. Of those who received treatment by emergency medical services, only 10.6% survived. In the U.S., there is one death every 40 seconds due to heart disease. Heart disease claims more lives than all of the cancers added together.