BBC has a compelling article today on veganism for the environment. It quotes an Oxford study. If everybody cut meat and dairy from their diet there could be… 49 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from food production. 76 per cent reduction in land used for food production. A 49 per cent reduction in…
Author: Sameer Oza
sleep 7 hrs
Inspired by Dr. Koushik Krishnan who runs a lifestyle program for the veterans at VA Hospital in Tampa. Here is something I lifted straight off his Twitter page : “Each night, when I go to sleep, I die. And the next morning, when I wake up, I am reborn.” – Gandhi
processed food & mortality
A JAMA study from February 2019 showed highly processed food kills you. In 44 551 French adults 45 years or older, a 10% increase in the proportion of ultra-processed food consumption was statistically significantly associated with a 14% higher risk of all-cause mortality. Ultra processed food has high amounts of sugar, salt and saturated animal fat….
accupuncture & AFIB
Of all the non-allopathic (CAM – complementary and alternative) therapies out there, the only one that has been systematically studied is accupuncture. Puncturing of the Neiguan, Shenmen and Xinshu spots has been advocated to treat atrial fibrillation. The best study I can find in a peer reviewed journal is from JCE 2011. 80 patients post…
the wanderer (vagus) & AFIB
The Latin word vagus means “wandering”. The vagus is the longest nerve in the autonomic nervous system in the body. It is a parasympathetic nerve, i.e. it counters the fight or flight response. It innervates the heart, lung and stomach among other things. Just like the famous Nordic wanderer, Odin, the vagus nerve has been attributed with a lot…
athletes & heart arrhythmias
Moderation in everything, including exercise. Food for thought: https://www.velonews.com/cycling-to-extremes-heart-health-and-endurance-sports https://www.velopress.com/athletes-with-haywire-hearts
magnesium & AFIB
Low serum magnesium levels have been correlated with a risk of AFIB in both the ARIC and Framingham studies. There are also data that US population as a whole is deficient in magnesium. Here is an excellent review article on magnesium and its role in cardiovascular disease. There are data that magnesium supplementation may reduce…
last nail in the coffin
SSB – Sugar sweetened beverages ASB- Artificially sweetened beverages Study and editorial published in Circulation last week: 2 large studies – 37 716 men from the Health Professional’s Follow-up study and 80647 women from the Nurses’ Health study who were free from chronic diseases at baseline. 3.7 million person-years of follow up. SSB showed higher…
really?!
Tiger Woods – Presidential Medal of Freedom. Same league as Maya Angelou? Barack Obama – Nobel Peace Prize (prior to any real achievements). Same league as Mother Teresa (who got the prize) and Mahatma Gandhi (who did not). Bob Dylan – Nobel Prize for Literature. Same league as Rudyard Kipling and Rabindranath Tagore (both of…
placebo and sham
Shankar Vedantam did a thought provoking “Hidden Brain” podcast on the placebo effect. Franz Mesmer is the godfather of the placebo effect. He created a lot of “atmosphere” around his sugar pills and since then, the public perception is that the placebo effect is a “New Age” phenomenon and it involves deception. But there is…