Please read: Hyla Cass, M.D.: Is Your Medication Robbing You of Nutrients Part 2: Getting Specific

Excellent article on how common medications deplete vital nutrients essential to your health, and explains how this happens.

Covers:  Anti-hypertensives, Beta blockers, Cholesterol – lowering drugs, Acid blockers, Antacids, Histamine-2 receptor antagonists & Proton-pump inhibitors, Oral hypoglycemics, Psychotrophic medications, Hormone replacement therapy and Antibiotics.

Click here: Hyla Cass, M.D.: Is Your Medication Robbing You of Nutrients Part 2: Getting Specific

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hyla-cass-md/is-your-medication-robbin_1_b_691711.html

Want more information on Dr. Vittoria Repetto and her NYC Applied Kinesiology/Chiropractic practice; please go to www.drvittoriarepetto.com or www.westbroadwaychiropractic.com

And please check out the Patient Testimonials at the “Our Practice” page at the web site

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Is Low Fat Really Healthy?

Or is a little bit of whole fat better for you?

So here we are with all the health gurus telling us that we should be eating all our foods in their natural forms aka un-processed. And yet when most of them talk about dairy, the majority of these people talk about drinking and consuming low fat milk, yogurt and cheeses. And of course, the same people talk about not using things like coconut milk or eating egg yolks.

In fact I have seen articles talking about the Mediterranean diet and talking about how low fat dairy is part of that diet.  This is strange to this daughter of Italian immigrants who on her travels from her teenage yrs to the present (59 yrs old) never saw her grandparents who lived into their uppers 90’s & low 100′s (nonno & nonna – the latter) or the present healthy 80 something’s in her father’ hometown eat anything low fat.

We have been so obsessed with the concept of low fat/saturated fat/no fat that for over 30 years we have poisoned ourselves by eating margarine and substituting trans fats for saturated fats and have added refined sugars (or worse high fructose corn syrup) to products like yogurt and ice cream. And yet we are fatter and much more important less healthy than we were thirty years ago.

Click here: Do Low-fat Foods Make Us Fat? Mindless Eating Leads Us To Consume More Calories

 

One of our current epidemics is the low levels of Vitamin D in the general population.  Could the fact that we are not consuming enough fat to help absorb the fat soluble vitamins like Vitamin D(the fat soluble vitamins are Vitamin A, D, E and K) and Omega 3′s be playing a part in this besides not getting enough sun?  Fat also help us absorb proteins and calcium.

Our brains also need fat; in fact our brains are mainly fat: http://www.fi.edu/learn/brain/fats.html#fatsbuild. Could this obsession with low fat and 30 yrs of substituting trans fats be a factor in the rise of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s??

How might a low fat diet affect our dopamine receptors and our fat receptors in our tonque and brain?  Click here: Discovery of ‘fat’ taste could hold the key to reducing obesity

Are you taking turmeric as a natural inflammatory supplement; talk to an Ayurvedic healer and they will tell you that cooking turmeric in butter (ghee) or coconut oil or milk potentates the effect of the turmeric.

We also know that whole fat dairy products (esp. from grass fed ruminants) contain more conjugated linoleic acid and has been shown to be possibly effective for preventing colon & rectal cancer, weight loss and atherosclerosis.

http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-826-CONJUGATED%20LINOLEIC%20ACID.aspx?activeIngredientId=826&activeIngredientName=CONJUGATED%20LINOLEIC%20ACID#vit_interactions

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/582029

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conjugated_linoleic_acid

 And to be fair, some of the health gurus either do not demonize saturated fat or are starting to understand that it’s not fat but inflammation and the role that refined carbohydrates have in increasing the inflammation that has a bad effect on your heath.

Please read: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mercola/the-cholesterol-myth-that_b_676817.html

& http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-weil-md/healthy-eating_b_629422.html

So what am I saying?

If you can tolerate dairy products and enjoy them, try switching to quality whole milk products (organic, growth hormone & antibiotic free, non-homogenized, grass fed, etc.) and eat them in moderation; maybe a few spoonfuls of yogurt a day or one pound of cheese consumed over 1-2 weeks.

If you eat meat, again eat them in moderation…try lean cuts from animals that have been grass-fed & raised in a sustainable manner. Eat no more than 4 ozs. a day and try to limit it to 4 times a week.

Enjoy your eggs as nature intended w/ the yolks but limit yourself to 3-4 a week. And either cook them w/ olive oil instead of butter or poach them.

Eat lots of sources of mono-unsaturated fats in addition, incorporate some nuts and seeds into your diet, eat lots of veggies, some fresh fruit and stay away from refined sugars and fake or trans fats.

In other words,  enjoy your food in all its unprocessed whole glory, just be moderate in your intake.

 Here are some studies comparing low fat milk to whole fat milk:

 In a study in American Journal of Epidemiology 2007;166(11):1259-1269 entitled Calcium, Vitamin D, and Dairy Product Intake and Prostate Cancer Risk: The Multiethnic Cohort Study, no association of calcium or vitamin D intake was seen across racial/ethnic groups. In analyses of food groups, dairy product and total milk consumption were not associated with prostate cancer risk. However, low-/nonfat milk was related to an increased risk and whole milk to a decreased risk of total prostate cancer http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/567465

Eight-year-old children who drink full-fat milk every day have a lower BMI than those who seldom drink milk. This is not the case for children who often drink medium-fat or low-fat milk.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091103102347.htm

University of Gothenburg (2009, November 4). Children Who Often Drink Full-Fat Milk Weigh Less, Swedish Research Finds. ScienceDaily.

In a study of Effect of consumption of whole milk and skim milk on blood lipid profiles in healthy men, the drinkers of whole milk had low lipid profiles

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8116537

In a 16 yr. study of Dairy consumption and patterns of mortality of Australian adults: there was no consistent and significant association between total dairy intake and total or cause-specific mortality. However, compared with those with the lowest intake of full-fat dairy, participants with the highest intake (median intake 339 g/day) had reduced death due to CVD (HR: 0.31; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.12–0.79; P for trend=0.04) after adjustment for calcium intake and other confounders. Intakes of low-fat dairy, specific dairy foods, calcium and vitamin D showed no consistent associations.

 http://www.nature.com/ejcn/journal/v64/n6/abs/ejcn201045a.html

 A reduction in dietary saturated fat has generallybeen thought to improve cardiovascular health.  The objective of this meta-analysis was to summarizethe evidence related to the association of dietary saturatedfat with risk of coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke, and cardiovasculardisease (CVD; CHD inclusive of stroke) in prospective epidemiologicstudies.

Design: Twenty-one studies identified by searching MEDLINE andEMBASE databases and secondary referencing qualified for inclusionin this study. A random-effects model was used to derive compositerelative risk estimates for CHD, stroke, and CVD.

Results: During 5–23 y of follow-up of 347,747 subjects,11,006 developed CHD or stroke. Intake of saturated fat wasnot associated with an increased risk of CHD, stroke, or CVD.The pooled relative risk estimates that compared extreme quantilesof saturated fat intake were 1.07 (95% CI: 0.96, 1.19; P = 0.22)for CHD, 0.81 (95% CI: 0.62, 1.05; P = 0.11) for stroke, and1.00 (95% CI: 0.89, 1.11; P = 0.95) for CVD. Consideration ofage, sex, and study quality did not change the results.

Conclusions: A meta-analysis of prospective epidemiologic studiesshowed that there is no significant evidence for concludingthat dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased riskof CHD or CVD. More data are needed to elucidate whether CVDrisks are likely to be influenced by the specific nutrientsused to replace saturated fat.

http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/abstract/ajcn.2009.27725v1

Dairy Consumption and the Incidence of Hyperglycemia and the Metabolic Syndrome: Results from a French prospective study, Data from the Epidemiological Study on the Insulin Resistance Syndrome (DESIR).

This study links dairy intake with lower BMI , BP, TG, & reduced insulin resistance. (not funded by industry) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21447660

 

Component in Common Whole Fat Dairy Foods May Cut Diabetes Risk http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/12/101220200000.htm

 

© 2010-Dr. Vittoria Repetto

 

Want more information on Dr. Vittoria Repetto and her NYC Applied Kinesiology/Chiropractic practice; please go to www.drvittoriarepetto.com or www.westbroadwaychiropractic.com

And please check out the Patient Testimonials at the “Our Practice” page at the web site

Want to be in the know on holistic information and postings? Click here: Facebook | West Broadway Chiropractic & Applied Kinesiology 

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Getting Enough Calcium Into Your Bones? Ten Facts You Need to Know!

A while back, a fellow member of an e-mail list serve that I belong to, asked the following:
“What do you take for calcium if you are not getting enough from diet. I used to take Tums, but now I heard that they don’t do anything. Any suggestions”

I said there are 10 facts you need to know in order to make sure that you are getting the calcium that you need.

The first fact that you need to know is that that you need an acidic ph in your stomach to help absorb the calcium. Our bodies supply this naturally w/ our own stomach acid. If you have a healthy digestive system that has not been abused w/ antacids, you are ok. But as we get older some people’s stomachs secrete less acid; to safeguard against this, some companies add Betaine HCl – a digestive enzyme and Vitamin C to their calcium supplements insure the proper Ph.
So what is Tums? It’s an antacid which uses a very cheap form of calcium called Calcium Carbonate that has an antacid effect all it’s own and therefore is mal-absorbed and you don’t get any calcium into your system. Remember, it’s not what you eat/take…It’s what you absorb!

The second fact that you need to know is that the two best-absorbed Calcium’s are Calcium Citrate and Microcrystallline Hydroxyapatite Concentrate (MCHC). MCHC is a complete bone food; it contains proteins (to produce collagen – the mesh that the calcium/minerals attaches it to form the bone) and other ingredients that comprise the organic portion of the bone, as well as calcium and other minerals.
Calcium citrate produces a higher peak calcium level in the blood. This is an interesting finding because the carbonate supplements actually contain more calcium per pill than those with the citrate.
I personally use a supplement that contains both MCHC and Calcium Citrate.
Your calcium supplement and/or your multi-vitamin/mineral should contain Vitamin K and boron as well as a complete mineral profile as these help your bones absorb calcium.

The third fact that you need to know is how to read the label of calcium supplements; most labels will list:
Calcium Citrate(1 tablet)………………….250 mg
But what you want to see listed is the Elemental Calcium; that is how much calcium you are getting; the rest of it is the citrate part of compound.
Calcium (Elemental)………………………100mg.

The four fact is that you need to take magnesium along w/ the calcium; magnesium helps activates the parathyroid hormone and Vitamin D that helps us to absorb the calcium into our digestive systems as well as working as a counterbalance to calcium in nerve stimulation/relaxation and prevent us from getting constipated from taking too much calcium. The present accepted ratio of calcium to magnesium is 2 to 1:( Ca 200/Mg 100).

The fifth fact is that you need Vitamin D in order to absorb the calcium. The current RDA is 200-400IU though with all the current research on Vitamin D and its effect on our immune system, some are suggesting that the new RDA be 800-1000IU. Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin and can build up to toxic levels (above 10,000IU a day ) so be careful if you are taking cod liver oil or something similar. Always read labels carefully. Also try taking in sunshine for 20 minutes a day minus the sun block so that your body can make its own Vitamin D.

The sixth fact is that you should be taking your calcium supplement in the evening hours as that is when your Para-thyroid gland is most active. It increases gastrointestinal calcium absorption by activating Vitamin D and promotes calcium uptake by the kidneys
.
The seventh fact is that you should be taking calcium yrs before you enter menopause. Contrary to common misconception, bone is a living substance; one of the most active tissues in the body. It is constantly being dissolved and rebuilt in a process called remodeling and like any other living tissue, needs nourishment to stay strong and healthy. So in my opinion, a woman should take 400mg to 600 mg before she is 40 yrs. old (pregnant women need a lot more), take 600-1000 mg after 40. I recommend that you do not take more than 600mg in supplement form but try to get the majority of your calcium from foods like beans, leafy greens, almonds and some quality dairy products if you are not lactose-intolerant

The eighth fact is that some companies use fillers and binders that make it impossible for the calcium tablet to break down in your digestive system and be absorbed.
There is a simple test you can do at home: put 1/4 of a cup of vinegar in a jar (similar acidic ph as our stomachs), drop the Calcium supplement into jar, close and shake well for 15 min and then leave it on counter for 3 hrs…if it is not dissolved by then…then you are not absorbing it. You can do this to all your vitamins/minerals. I personally use and recommend a brand of vitamin/mineral that is highly absorbable…and I am of the opinion that you get what you pay for. Remember, it’s not what you eat/take…It’s what you absorb!

The ninth fact is that use of weight bearing exercise such as wt. training, swimming or using a cross-country machine accelerates the deposition of minerals into the bones.

The tenth fact is that there have been studies that show that overuse of animal proteins (western diet vs. eastern diet) and overuse of carbonated drinks (sodas/seltzer) accelerates the loss of minerals from our bones. There are also studies that show that the calcium in milk/ dairy products is not as well absorbed as the milk companies would have you believe. So I would suggest that you increase your intake of veggie protein (soy, nuts, beans and legumes) and eat a moderate amount of animal protein and forget the sodas

© 2010-Dr. Vittoria Repetto / revised -2013

Want more information on Dr. Vittoria Repetto and her NYC Applied Kinesiology/Chiropractic practice; please go to www.drvittoriarepetto.com 

And please check out the Patient Testimonials at the “Our Practice” page at the web site

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or

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Tell the Obama FDA to say NO to GMO Salmon!

There are a lot of bad ideas in food and agriculture today: high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), rBGH in your milk, but genetically modified (GMO) salmon really takes the cake. Massive mutant GMO salmon, genetically engineered to grow twice as fast as wild salmon, are coming to a table near you if you don’t act today.

On September 3rd, a panel of three Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials declared that genetically modified salmon were “safe” for human consumption. [1] Somehow, the elite FDA panel arrived at this “decision” based on “scientific research” provided by AquaBounty Technologies, the same company that stands to profit from introducing its patented genes onto our plates.

With the potential approval of GMO salmon, Americans are now entering an alarming new era of genetic experimentation with food animals, nature and the human population. Already the scientific community is warning against the real risk that these unnaturally engineered fish pose to wild species, the environment and human health.

Act today to stop the FDA from allowing this disaster to happen! Click here to automatically sign your name to the petition demanding that the FDA halt approval of GMO salmon.

http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/247?akid=201.63330.4Z_lQ5&t=8

Known as “macro-mutants”, AquaBounty’s GMO salmon are designed to ignore natural cycles of food sources and wild fish mating patterns that have existed for eons. [2]

While AquaBounty’s GMO salmon are only days away from being approved, the FDA has only seen scientific studies provided by the company that stands to profit from these patented genes. Because the FDA does not require indendent scientific review of food items that have been declared “substantially equivelant” to natural food and AquaBounty’s GMO salmon are being regulated under the FDA’s new animal drug provision, real independent scientific studies were not required, nor will these GMO salmon be labeled when they reach your plate. [3]

Once again, corporations and our government are trying to place profits over people, profits over food safety, and profits over the environment.

If history and the law of unintended consequences has taught us anything, the FDA’s approval of transgenic GMO mutant fish will be a disaster. For years independent scientists have been warning us about the dangers posed by these GMO salmon. President George Bush’s administration chose to delay AquaBounty’s 2001 application, but the Obama administration’s FDA is getting ready to fast track this dangerous risk to your health and our planet’s future.

Act today to stop the FDA from allowing this disaster to happen! Click here to automatically sign your name to the petition demanding that the FDA halt approval of GMO salmon.

http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/247?akid=201.63330.4Z_lQ5&t=11

What will these mutant GMO salmon do to the environment?

One key problem with AquaBounty’s current business model is that they intend to sell the patented GMO salmon eggs to giant aquatic fish “farms” and not raise the fish themselves. [4] By becoming the Monsanto of aquaculture in simply selling the seed stock, AquaBounty solves a key infrastructure problem, but opens the door to mismanagement of its product and potential extinction of wild species. While the FDA states that the patented GMO salmon will be raised on inland fish farm facilities, there is no guarantee that the sold eggs might not accidentally end up in open-water ocean net pens or accidentally be spilled during transport.

If this happens, it could spell disaster. Even more alarming is the fact that, according to the Environmental Assessment that AquaBounty submitted to the FDA, these GMO salmon eggs are to be hatched in a facility on Prince Edward Island in Canada and raised at an inland facility in Panama! [5] That’s right, designed in Canada, raised in Panama, and ready for your plate here in America. To be honest, something smells fishy about this arrangement.

If GMO salmon escape into the wild, scientists warn that just 60 GMO salmon released into a population of 60,000 could lead to the extinction of the wild population in just 40 fish generations. [6] With wild Atlantic salmon already on the list of endangered species, the approval of AquaBounty’s patented GMO mutant fish may very well be a death sentence for wild salmon. One has to ask, what profit could possibly be worth such an outcome?

How will GMO salmon impact human health?

Because independent scientific studies of AquaBounty’s patented salmon have not been allowed, the human health impacts of GMO salmon are not currently known. Shockingly, the FDA is relying on scant scientific documents provided by AquaBounty itself. In fact, the FDA’s own assessment AquaBounty’s studies to determine whether GMO salmon are safe for human consumption states that the studies contain “technical flaws” and provide “insufficient data”.

For two of the studies submitted, AquaBounty used sample sizes so small that they have no scientific credibility, with only 12 fish tested for one study, while the study on possible allergic reactions in humans involved only “6 fertile fish and 6 infertile fish.” [7] Despite this scant evidence, the FDA is currently on the verge of approving the companies GMO salmon.

Serious questions remain about eating fish engineered to grow faster and how that genetically manipulated trait can impact human health, especially that of our most vulnerable populations such as pregnant mothers and children.

Act today to stand up for human health, food safety and the environment. Click here to automatically sign your name to a petition that tells the FDA that there are consequences to meddling with nature.

http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/247?akid=201.63330.4Z_lQ5&t=15

Thank you for participating in food democracy!

Want more information on Dr. Vittoria Repetto and her NYC Applied Kinesiology/Chiropractic practice; please go to www.drvittoriarepetto.com.

And please check out the Patient Testimonials at the “Our Practice” page at the web site.

Straw Men on Parade: When Research Findings Get Misrepresented

The simplest way to explain a straw man argument is that it is a fallacy based upon the misrepresentation of an opponent’s position.

It may oversimplify the opponent’s position or quote it out of context, stacking the deck so one’s argument may run over the opponent with the crushing totality of a Panzer tank division. In its worst incarnation, the straw man misrepresentation is deliberate and only the weakest target is chosen- that target is then held to represent the totality of the opponet’s being.

What is obvious and disturbing is that straw men are not just marketing ploys that we’ve become jaded to seeing in television commercials; they are found even in the highest echelons of peer-reviewed journals in medical literature. Straw men seem to have been particularly dominant in publications critical of alternative medical approaches, even appearing in at least one instance in a pharmaceutical company’s attempt to denigrate another company

http://www.dynamicchiropractic.com/mpacms/dc/article.php?id=54783

For a discussion on the correct method for testing the need for nutritional supplements via Applied Kinesiology, please go to  http://drvittoriarepetto.wordpress.com/2010/01/17/the-correct-way-to-do-nutritional-evaluation-by-muscle-testing-in-applied-kinesiology/

Want more information on Dr. Vittoria Repetto and her NYC Applied Kinesiology/Chiropractic practice; please go to www.drvittoriarepetto.com or www.westbroadwaychiropractic.com

And please check out the Patient Testimonials at the “Our Practice” page at the web site

Want to be in the know on holistic information and postings? Click here: Facebook | West Broadway Chiropractic & Applied Kinesiology 

Or join me at Twitter: www.twitter.com/DrVRepetto