Avoid Swimming Pools if You Have Allergies or Asthma

Swimming in a chlorinated pool may boost the odds that a child susceptible to asthma and allergies will develop these problems.
Chlorinated pools irritate the airways of swimmers, exerting a strong additive effect on the development of asthma and respiratory allergies such as hay fever and allergic rhinitis.
The impact of chlorinated pools on the respiratory health of children and adolescents appears to be much more important -- at least by a factor of five -- than that associated with secondhand smoke.

What the Length of Your Index Finger Says About You

For many decades, scientists have noticed an extraordinary link between the length of your ring and index fingers and a plethora of apparently unrelated traits.
Evidence is growing that this 'digit ratio' effect is real. Recently, strong evidence has emerged that men whose index fingers are longer than their ring fingers are significantly less likely to develop prostate cancer.
To work out the ratio of your fingers, measure the distance from the midpoint of the lowest crease at the base of the finger to the very tip -- the fingernail does not count.
A long index finger correlates strongly with a lower risk of early heart disease and, in women, a higher risk of breast cancer and greater fertility. People with relatively long index fingers are also more likely to suffer from schizophrenia, allergies, eczema and hay fever.

How Statins Harm Your Brain Function

As is often the case with pharmaceutical drugs, the side effects end up teaching us new things about how the human body works. When statins first hit the market, conventional medicine was unaware of the importance of cholesterol for proper brain function. Now, researchers believe that statins' adverse effects on cognition are due to cholesterol insufficiency.
Research also began to emerge in 2001 showing the importance of cholesterol in the formation of memories.
In fact, dolichols are vital to a number of cellular processes, including:

• Glycoprotein synthesis
• Cell identification
• Cell communication
• Immunodefense
• Neurohormone formation

Dr. Graveline goes on to explain that dolichols influence all the hormones involved with your mental condition, including your emotions and moods. And if you do not have sufficient dolichol, your entire process of neurohormone production will be altered—with potentially devastating results.

"[T]here are thousands of reports of aggressiveness and hostility, increased sensitivity, paranoia, depression and homicidal ideation," Dr. Graveline says.

There are also numerous reports of suicide.

"This whole range of what I call personality- or emotion and behavioral responses have to do with the dolichol deficiency brought on by the mevalonate blockade," Dr. Graveline explains.
"It's not just something that occurs in an occasional person… You know we're all the same and yet we're all different… You give one medicine to 10 people and if you're really lucky, in six of them it will do what it's supposed to do. That's the way it is with this. I expect there are some people that won't get any effects of dolichol suppression because they have alternative pathways. The same thing probably holds for CoQ10."

That said, it's important to realize that your brain also requires cholesterol in order for memory formation to function normally. In essence, statins suppress a number of vital elements for proper brain functioning, including cholesterol, antioxidants and co-factors like CoQ10, and dolichol.
At the same time, statins also create mitochondrial DNA and cellular damage, including in your brain.
Your brain uses glial cells as factories for producing its own cholesterol on demand. Unfortunately, glial cells are affected by statins in the same way as your liver cells, or any other cell in our body. So if you take a statin, you're also harming your glial cells and when they cease to function normally, that on-demand cholesterol capability also ceases and your brain can no longer function properly.

Exercise Reduces Diabetes by Reducing Insulin Resistance

It has been shown numerous times that exercise may prevent certain diseases such as heart disease and diabetes, although the exact mechanism of this effect is often disputed. This study found that one of these mechanisms is that physical activity causes a reduction in insulin resistance.

• The study included 5159 men aged 40 to 59 years with no history of coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, or stroke.
  
• During an average follow-up period of 16.8 years, there were 616 cases of major coronary heart disease events (fatal and nonfatal) and 196 incident cases of type 2 diabetes.
  
• Physical activity was inversely related to coronary heart disease rates, with the lowest rates in the men undertaking moderate physical activity and with no further benefit thereafter.
  
• For type 2 diabetes, risk decreased progressively with increasing levels of physical activity.
  
• Physical activity was associated with serum insulin level and with factors associated with insulin, ie, heart rate, hyperuricemia (elevated uric acid in the urine), diastolic blood pressure, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol level, and with -glutamyltransferase level, a possible marker of insulin resistance in the liver.

The authors maintain that insulin resistance definitely plays an important role in the development of diabetes, although they were not able to come to the same conclusion in regards to heart disease. They feel that the majority of the risk reduction for heart disease induced by exercise must be obtained through a different mechanism.

Are You Male and Going Bald? STOP the Grains and Sugar!!

There exists a proven association between male-pattern baldness and serious cardiovascular events, but the mechanism of action is unknown.
Now, a new study has shown a strikingly increased risk of insulin resistance, hyperinsulinemia, and insulin-resistance-associated disorders in men with early onset of male-pattern baldness (alopecia), supporting the theory that early male-pattern baldness could be a clinical marker of insulin resistance.

• Researchers performed a practice-based case-control study on 154 subjects (aged 19-50 years) with early-onset male-pattern baldness (onset prior to 35 years of age) and age-matched controls.
  
• Men were only selected whose hair loss was significant, using an accepted classification method.
  
• Information on diagnoses of chronic diseases and data on current medication, weight and height, fasting total cholesterol, triglycerides, HDL cholesterol, and blood glucose were collected.
  
• Blood insulin levels were measured.

Researchers looked at the following insulin-resistance-associated risk factors:

• Elevated lipids (HDL cholesterol <0.9 mmol/L, triglycerides > 1.7 mmol/L, or lipid-lowering medication)
  
• Abnormal glucose metabolism (fasting blood glucose > 6.7 mmol/L twice or antidiabetic medication)
  
• High body-mass index
  
• Elevated systolic blood pressure (> 160 mm Hg).

A "cluster" was considered to be present if at least three of the four variables were simultaneously positive.
The risks for the following were all found to be elevated for the alopecia group:

• Nearly 5 times more likely to have clustered risk factors
  
• Hyperinsulinemia risk was increased nearly 2-fold
  
• Moderate obesity was increased nearly 2-fold
  
• Severe obesity was increased nearly 150%.
  
• Use of cholesterol lowering medication was increased more than 4-fold
  
• Use of blood pressure or diabetic medication was more than double

Researchers maintain that there findings " ... raise the question whether insulin resistance could be a pathophysiological mechanism or promoting factor in early androgenetic alopecia, which could, in turn, be an early marker of insulin resistance."
In addition, they suggest that men with early-onset male-pattern baldness should be screened for insulin resistance and other cardiovascular disease risk factors.

Baldness Drug Risks Men's Sexual Health

Men could be risking their sexual health by taking the common anti-baldness drug Propecia (finasteride). Experts say the drug can cause serious side effects and isn't adequately labeled.
Merck, the manufacturer of the drug, mentions problems on its Web site such as difficulty achieving an erection, but also says the problems will go away for men who stop taking the drug. However, many doctors say that complete impotence is not unusual even among men who have stopped taking the drug.

Simple Glycerin May Help Your Skin

Research has found that glycerin may have therapeutic value. Glycerin, also known as glycerol, is a natural alcohol and water attractor that is commonly found in skin care products. It makes the skin look and function better, assisting direct skin cells through their four stages of maturity.
Researchers are finding that glycerin in its pure state may help people that have been diagnosed with psoriasis and non-melanoma skin cancers as a result of abnormal proliferation and maturation of skin cells.