This Week In Wellness

TWIW 44: A true Paleo diet includes carbs

This Week In Wellness research published in the journal Science has shown that humans consumed high carb roasted potatoes as long ago as 170,000 years and that it may have played a significant role in our evolution.
While some proponents of the ‘Paleo Diet’ recommend followers cut out carbs in favour of high protein or high-fat foods citing our evolutionary past as evidence, new research has shown that roasted potatoes were consumed over 170,000 years ago and may have played a crucial role in our evolution.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2020/01/02/true-paleo-diet-should-include-carbs-according-archaeologists/
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/367/6473/87?intcmp=trendmd-sci
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TWIW 43: Long naps linked to stroke

This Week In Wellness people who nap longer than 90 minutes, people who sleep longer than 9 hours and people who sleep poorly are all at increased risk of stroke according to a study in Neurology, the online journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Whilst napping for less than an hour seemed fine, those napping for over 90 minutes had a 25% increase in their risk of stroke according to the study. Those sleeping more than 9 hours a night had a 23% increased risk of stroke. And those who rated themselves poor sleepers were 29% more likely to have a stroke.
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-12/aaon-tln120919.php
https://n.neurology.org/content/early/2019/12/11/WNL.0000000000008739
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TWIW 42: Man’s best friend linked to brain health

This Week In Wellness a study from Johns Hopkins Medicine suggests that kids exposed to dogs prior to the age of 12 were significantly less likely (as much as 24%) to develop schizophrenia later in life.
Robert Yolken, M.D., chair of the Stanley Division of Pediatric Neurovirology and professor of neurovirology in pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, and lead author of the paper says that “Serious psychiatric disorders have been associated with alterations in the immune system linked to environmental exposures in early life, and since household pets are often among the first things with which children have close contact, it was logical for us to explore the possibilities of a connection between the two,”. “There are several plausible explanations for this possible ‘protective’ effect from contact with dogs — perhaps something in the canine microbiome that gets passed to humans and bolsters the immune system against or subdues a genetic predisposition to schizophrenia,”
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/12/191218153448.htm
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0225320
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TWIW 41: Alcohol recommendations reduced due to cancer links

This Week In Wellness, in what will not be a very timely announcement for many, the NHMRC’s new draft guidelines recommend that people drink “no more than 10 standard drinks per week” to reduce the health risks, especially cancer. The NHMRC have also retained the recommendation to not drink more than four drinks in one sitting. They state that the link between drinking and developing a number of different cancers is now more certain. These latest recommendations come after three years of research into the pros and cons of alcohol.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-16/alcohol-drinking-guidelines-revised-down-on-cancer-links/11798992?pfmredir=sm
https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/health-advice/alcohol
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TWIW 40: Maternal fluoride intake linked to lower IQ in kids

This Week In Wellness JAMA paediatrics has published a study linking maternal fluoride exposure during pregnancy with lower IQ scores at 3 to 4 years of age. Fluoride has long been a hotly debated topic due to it’s potential neurotoxicity and that fast that the dosage when included in the water supply is hard to control. Fluoride is known to cross the placenta, accumulates in brain regions involved in learning and memory and alters neurotransmitters in the central nervous system. Water fluoridation is supplied to about 89% of Australians, 66% of Americans, 38% of Canadians, and 3% of Europeans.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2748634
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/article-abstract/2748628
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TWIW 39: British Medical Journal takes on big pharma

This Week In Wellness An international team of researchers, clinicians, regulators, and citizen advocates from the British Medical Journal (BMJ) are launching a campaign to separate medicine from Big Pharma.
Citing a 2009 Institute of Medicine report, that identified widespread financial conflicts of interest across medical research, education, and practice, the BMJ team say that “endemic financial entanglement with industry is distorting the production and use of healthcare evidence, causing harm to individuals and waste for health systems”. They cite industry sponsored education events and industry sponsored drug trials as major concerns and state that those trials cannot be trusted, in an editorial published on Wednesday.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/cannot-be-trusted-causing-harm-top-medical-journal-takes-on-big-pharma-20191203-p53ggj.html
https://www.bmj.com/content/367/bmj.l6576
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TWIW 38: 41% of cancer caused by environment and lifestyle

This Week In Wellness a new study has estimated that almost 41% of cancers can be linked to lifestyle and environmental factors.
The study, published in Canada by the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) looked at 24 lifestyle and environment-related risk factors for cancer such as smoking, obesity, low fruit and vegetable intake, lack of exercise, alcohol and air pollution just to name a few and combined the risk estimates of each. The conclusion was that 40.8% of cancers could be attributed to these 24 risk factors, with smoking being the highest, accounting for 15.7% of all cancers, followed by physical inactivity (7.2%) and excess body weight (4.3%).
https://www.naturalnews.com/2017-08-13-most-cancer-caused-by-processed-food-and-toxic-ingredients-new-study-confirms-2.html
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28687643
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TWIW 37: Australian teens amongst the least physically active in the world

This Week In Wellness a study published in The Lancet has ranked Australian teens 140th out of 146 countries for the physical activity of our teens.
The study examined 1.6 million adolescent school students across 146 countries and compared them using the World Health Organisation’s physical activity guidelines that for this age group recommend a minimum of one hour of vigorous physical activity of intensity similar to jogging.
http://theconversation.com/140th-out-of-146-australian-teens-do-close-to-the-least-physical-activity-in-the-world-127434
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanchi/article/PIIS2352-4642(19)30323-2/fulltext
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TWIW 36: Alternatives for colic?

This Week In Wellness a study reviewing the available evidence supporting complementary and alternative (CAM) therapies to help babies with colic has suggested that probiotics, fennel extract and spinal manipulation, do appear to help.
The Systematic Reviews were published by researchers from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) at the University of Bristol and the University of Manchester. It stated that whilst the available evidence was ‘limited’ due to small sample sizes, possible biases, the inability to “blind” practitioners and data collection methods, that the “encouraging” results require further investigation through well-designed RCTs” (randomised control trials).
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/11/191112113958.htm
https://systematicreviewsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13643-019-1191-5
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TWIW 35: Getting dirty could reduce anxiety

This Week In Wellness research from the University of Adelaide suggests that microbes in dust may help improve gut health and by extension mental health.
This contributes to a growing body of research linking time in nature with improved health outcomes. Especially from Japan where Forest Bathing or “shinrin-yoku”, which means “taking in the forest”, has been popular for decades and research has been done and benefits have been shown from microbes in the soil right through to scents from the trees. At the same time our urban environment has been linked with reduced health, including mental health disorders.
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-11-biodiverse-soil-linked-anxiety.html
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969719346753?via%3Dihub
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TWIW 34: Home birth just as safe for low risk mums

And This Week In Wellness a study in the British Medical journal analysing Australian births has suggested that for low-risk pregnancies birthing at home is just as safe and has a 6 times higher chance of resulting in a “normal birth”.
Professor Caroline Homer, director of the UTS Centre for Midwifery, Child and Family Health says “home births are associated with fewer incidences of induced labour, epidural, vacuum or forceps delivery and C Sections and there are no differences in the death rates for babies born in hospitals, compared with those born at home or in midwife run birth centres.
https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/9/10/e029192
https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/worldtoday/calls-for-greater-access-to-homebirths/11653760?fbclid=IwAR1-vWhcS1JnRIOto6vtsXo-lZt77qVrtmN1RB3anZOWv4pAkevw20uNT2g
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TWIW 33: Trans fats raise alzheimer’s risk by 74%

This Week In Wellness high levels of trans fats in your blood may make you 50 to 75% more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease or dementia according to a new study in the journal Neurology.
The study was run over 10 years and utilising over 1600 men and women and importantly measuring the actual trans fat levels in their blood over that time (rather than relying on dietary questionnaires) adding weight to the findings.
After adjusting for other influencing factors like high blood pressure, diabetes and smoking, the study found that people with the highest levels of trans fats were up to 74% more likely to develop dementia compared to those with the lowest levels.
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/10/23/health/alzheimers-trans-fats-dementia-risk-75-higher-wellness/index.html
https://n.neurology.org/content/early/2019/10/23/WNL.0000000000008464
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