Drinking beetroot juice reduces high blood pressure, trial shows
Queen Mary University (UK), January 20, 2022
One glass of beetroot juice a day is enough to significantly reduce blood pressure in patients with high blood pressure, conclude researchers who conducted a placebo-controlled trial in dozens of patients.
"This interesting study builds on previous research by this team and finds that a daily glass of beetroot juice can lower blood pressure in people wit...
Drinking beetroot juice reduces high blood pressure, trial shows
Queen Mary University (UK), January 20, 2022
One glass of beetroot juice a day is enough to significantly reduce blood pressure in patients with high blood pressure, conclude researchers who conducted a placebo-controlled trial in dozens of patients.
"This interesting study builds on previous research by this team and finds that a daily glass of beetroot juice can lower blood pressure in people with hypertension - even those whose high blood pressure was not controlled by drug treatment."
Beetroot contains high levels of inorganic nitrate. Other leafy vegetables - such as lettuce and cabbage - also have high levels of the compound, which they take up from the soil through their roots.
In the human body, inorganic nitrate converts to nitric oxide, which relaxes and dilates blood vessels.
The patients in the active supplement group also experienced a 20% or so improvement in blood vessel dilation capacity and their artery stiffness reduced by around 10%. Studies show such changes are linked to reduced risk of heart disease.
Researchers recommend clinical trials for CBD to prevent COVID-19 based on promising animal data
University of Chicago Medical Center, January 20 2022
An interdisciplinary team of researchers from the University of Chicago has found evidence that cannabidiol (CBD), a product of the cannabis plant, can inhibit infection by SARS-CoV-2 in human cells and in mice.
The study, published on January 20, 2022, in Science Advances, found that CBD showed a significant negative association with SARS-CoV-2 positive tests in a national sample of medical records of patients taking the FDA-approved drug for treating epilepsy. The researchers now say that clinical trials should be done to determine whether CBD could eventually be used as a preventative or early treatment for COVID-19. They caution, however, that the COVID-blocking effects of CBD come only from a high purity, specially formulated dose taken in specific situations. The study's findings do not suggest that consuming commercially available products with CBD additives that vary in potency and quality can prevent COVID-19.
"CBD has anti-inflammatory effects, so we thought that maybe it would stop the second phase of COVID infection involving the immune system, the so-called 'cytokine storm.' Surprisingly, it directly inhibited viral replication in lung cells," said Marsha Rosner, Ph.D., Charles B. Huggins Professor in the Ben May Department of Cancer Research and a senior author of the study.
To see this effect, the researchers first treated human lung cells with a non-toxic dose of CBD for two hours before exposing the cells to SARS-CoV-2 and monitoring them for the virus and the viral spike protein. They found that above a certain threshold concentration, CBD inhibited the virus's ability to replicate. Further investigation found that CBD had the same effect in two other types of cells and for three variants of SARS-CoV-2 in addition to the original strain.
CBD did not affect the ability of SARS-CoV-2 to enter the cell. Instead, CBD was effective at blocking replication early in the infection cycle and six hours after the virus had already infected the cell.
Mediterranean diet associated with a lower risk of mortality in older adults
University of Barcelona (Spain), January 20, 2022
A greater adherence to the Mediterranean diet which had been assessed through an index made with biomarkers during a 20-year scientific monitoring is associated with a lower mortality in adults over 65.
The study is based on the InCHIANTI project, conducted in the region of the Italian Tuscany, a study that has been carried out during 20 years in a total of 642 participants (56 percent women) aged over 65 or more and which enabled researchers to obtain complete data on food biomarkers.
In the study, researchers chose the reference levels of the following dietary biomarkers in the urine: total polyphenols and resveratrol metabolites (from grape intake) and presents in plasma, plasma carotenoids, selenium, vitamin B12, fatty acids and their proportion of monounsaturated and saturated fatty acids. Using a predictive model, they assessed the associations of the Mediterranean diet index and the food-frequency questionnaire (FFQ) with mortality.
Once the models were analyzed, the score of the Mediterranean diet using the biomarkers was inversely associated with all causes of death.
The best way to fix a sad mood: Whatever you think works best
Ohio State University, January 20, 2022
What's the best way to improve a sad mood? It may be whatever skill you think you're best at, a new study suggests. Think you're good at mindfulness techniques? Then that may work best for you. Or do you believe a more cognitive approach is your strength? Then use that.
Researchers found that people who were in a sad mood improved more quickly when they used a mood-improving method that they were told was their strongest skill. These participants improved more quickly than people asked to use a skill that they were told was a relative weakness.
"We only studied mindfulness and cognitive skills here, but there are a variety of approaches to improving mental health," he said. "The ones that you think would work best for you probably will indeed work best."
Tomato Juice Reduces Inflammation and Waist Size In Women
Tufts and Boston universities, January 20, 2022
A daily glass of tomato juice is known to significantly lower cardiovascular disease, cancer and even osteoporosis. A new study is now showing that it also has a direct effect on waist circumference, cholesterol, and markers of inflammation in women.
Data from 30 women revealed that a daily glass of 280 mL of tomato juice containing 32.5 mg of lycopene was associated with an average reduction in waist circumference of 1.6 cm and more than one pound kg reduction in body weight.
The tomato juice supplements were associated with a 22% decrease in levels of monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), a potent marker of inflammation, and a 25% increase in adiponectin levels, according to findings published in Nutrition . Adiponectin is a hormone released from fat cells, which plays an important role in the regulation of insulin sensitivity and energy.
Does coffee help protect against endometrial cancer?
Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, January 20, 2022
Higher coffee consumption is linked with a lower risk of endometrial cancer, a type of cancer that begins in the lining of uterus, according to an analysis of relevant studies published to date. Also, caffeinated coffee may provide better protection than decaffeinated coffee.
The analysis, which appears in the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Research, included 24 studies on coffee intake with 9,833 new cases of endometrial cancer occurring in 699,234 individuals.
People in the highest category of coffee intake had a 29% lower relative risk of developing endometrial cancer than those in the lowest category.
LETTER RE. WIKIPEDIA
To the Victims of Wikipedia’s Libel,
You are by now fully aware that the online encyclopedia Wikipedia has been exceedingly antagonistic against your careers and your personal stances on many issues that directly affect the principles of democracy, freedom of speech, medical choice and personal well-being. In particular, medical professionals and advocates for natural health have been categorically ridiculed, libeled and their careers canceled. This disturbing trend continues to worsen.
Sadly, editors who support globalist agendas and the pharmaceutical industry now far outnumber those trying to make efforts to write opposing views in the spirit of neutrality and objectivity. Repeatedly I hear that efforts to correct the numerous inaccuracies, misinformation, biases and derogatory terms on biographical entries are exercises in futility. The encyclopedia’s parent organization, the WikiMedia Foundation, has been habitually unresponsive to demands for corrections and refuses to enforce its volunteer editors to abide by its editorial rules of neutrality when dealing with subjects regarding alternative medicine and the biographies of its advocates.
Since Wikipedia is ranked in the top three websites that people turn to for information about current events, medicine and general health, and for biographical information about public figures and contemporary voices, I am convinced that numerous people have been wrongfully misled and dissuaded from seeking reliable information on Wikipedia. The Foundation refuses to assume responsibility and to be held accountable for the abuse being perpetrated by individual editors and groups promoting antagonistic ideologies. The consequence has been that your reputations have been seriously undermined and damaged. Over the years, voluminous complaints have been communicated and/or filed to the Foundation, including lawsuits, about the gross violations in Wikipedia’s editorial policies, misinformation and inflammatory and potentially libelous language. Based upon the evidence and my repeated encounters with the Wikimedia Foundation’s in-house and outside attorneys it is my belief that the encyclopedia’s efforts to advance a globalist and corporate-friendly ideology may be intentional.
It is not merely the hundreds of thousands of physicians worldwide who rely on peer-reviewed supported therapies, but Wikipedia’s animus has spread far and wide to assure that its users have no objective choice over sound information about personal religious, socio-political or health decisions. Robert Kennedy Jr, Sharyl Attkinsson, Rupert Sheldrake, Abby Martin, Julian Assange and literally hundreds of others who have exemplary careers and who have been repeatedly accurate have had their accomplishments scrubbed and destroyed. Anonymous Wikipedia editors have made it their personal mission to paint them as promoters of misinformation and conspiracy theories should be verbally ostracized.
The Foundation recently hired a new Executive Director, Maryam Iskander. Although I originally hoped this may signal a positive change in Wikipedia’s neutrality policies and new efforts would be forthcoming to rein in radical ideological editors, I am no longer optimistic. Ms Iskander happens to be an upcoming leader aligned with the World Economic Forum. I now have every reason to believe that Wikipedia will increasingly steer its editing closer towards the Great Reset agenda.
Despite ours and others’ numerous attempts and failures to deal directly with the Foundation’s legal department and Board members to have misinformation corrected or biographies eliminated altogether, there are options that can be pursued by those who have been ridiculed, shamed and wrongfully characterized on Wikipedia. Each of us has lost something due to Wikipedia’s denial of truth. However, we can continue to record our personal achievements on our websites and through our allies. Second, we can continue to investigate and write critical essays and analyses exposing Wikipedia’s biases, negligence, misinformation, political partisanship, smear campaigns and its financial collaborations with private anti-democratic entities, corporate industries and government agencies.
With the growing consolidation of various neoliberal and globalist Wikipedia editors’ presence, including the Skeptics of scientific materialism, into a reactionary movement, this is a critical moment for us to take the upper hand by cooperating together to challenge Wikipedia wherever there is demonstrable proof of ill-will and gross bias. I believe a grassroots national campaign to “Walk Away From Wikipedia” would capture the Foundation’s attention. For our part we have written over 70 articles exposing the encyclopedia, its senior editors and the Foundation’s corporate relations. Yet there remains much more to uncover and report.
Best regards,
Gary Null, PhD
