Published March 19, 2010

Does sunscreen cause you to gain weight?

After a long, cold winter for many people around the country, spring is finally in the air. This is a great time to get outside and soak up some healthy rays from the sun. But don’t overdo it. Doing so might require you to use sunscreen. And new evidence suggests sunscreen may cause you to feel sluggish and gain weight.

You may have heard that sunscreen blocks the amount of vitamin D your body gets from the sun. But now there’s an even bigger concern. Sunscreen can poison your thyroid!

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Published March 17, 2010

How diabetics can avoid vascular disease

If you have weight-related diabetes, you probably know that you have a higher risk for vascular disease. Diabetic adults fall to vascular disease two to four times more often than non-diabetics. So it’s vital you protect your vascular system from damage. Fortunately, a recent study found that a familiar vitamin can protect you and help reduce your risk. What’s more, it can help even if you don’t lose the extra pounds.

In this study, the researchers gave diabetic mice folic acid. They used non-diabetic mice as controls. Then they studied the mice for vascular relaxation.

They found that the aortas in the diabetic mice had significant damage compared to the lean mice. Then they found that folic acid restored normal aorta function.

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Published March 12, 2010

Why E. coli and salmonella hate LDL cholesterol

You’ve probably heard all the information about how bad LDL (low density or “bad” cholesterol) is for you. If you show up at your doctor’s office with an LDL level of 100 or more, he immediately pulls out the statin drug prescription pad. LDL has this image of public enemy #1.

But it’s my belief that God made everything in balance. LDL is there for good reason. And possibly elevated levels are serving a protective role that no one has heretofore considered. In fact, we already know that people with high levels of LDL have better outcomes from severe Gram-negative bacterial infections. Gram-negative organisms produce some real nasty and hard to treat infections. These organisms include salmonella, E. coli, pseudomonas, and others. An animal study suggests how this happens.

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