anemia Archives - Amazing Health Advances

Early Pregnancy Anemia Linked to Higher Risk of Heart Defects in Newborns

The AHA! Team — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 05:37:54 +0000

Wiley via News-Medical – We already know that the risk of congenital heart disease can be raised by a variety of factors, but these results develop our understanding of anemia specifically and take it from lab studies to the clinic. New research published in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology found that mothers who are anemic in early pregnancy face a higher likelihood of giving birth to a child with a heart defect. The study assessed the health records of 2,776 women with a child diagnosed with congenital heart disease who were matched to 13,880 women whose children did not have this condition. Investigators found that 4.4% of children with congenital heart disease and 2.8% of children with normal heart function had anemia. After adjusting for potential influencing factors, the odds of giving birth to a child with congenital heart disease was 47% higher among anemic mothers. A variety of factors We already know that the risk of congenital heart disease can be raised by a variety of factors, but these results develop our understanding of anemia specifically and take it from lab studies to the clinic. Knowing that early maternal anemia is so damaging could be a gamechanger worldwide. Because iron deficiency is the root cause of many cases of anemia, widespread iron supplementation for women-both when trying for a baby and when pregnant-could help prevent congenital heart disease in many newborns before it has developed.” – Duncan B. Sparrow, PhD, corresponding author, University of Oxford Source: Wiley Journal reference: Nair, M., et al. (2025) Maternal Anaemia and Congenital Heart Disease in Offspring: A Case–Control Study Using Linked Electronic Health Records in the United Kingdom. BJOG An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology. doi.org/10.1111/1471-0528.18150. To read the original article click here.

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WARNING: GMO Ingredient in Impossible Burger linked to Weight Gain, Kidney Disease

AHA Publisher — Wed, 26 Oct 2022 07:00:01 +0000

Patrick Tims via NaturalHealth365 – There is a common misconception that all vegan and vegetarian food products are nutritious. Listen to the mainstream media, and you’ll hear about how vegan fare is a net positive for human health and the environment. For example, Impossible and Beyond faux burgers have become quite popular in recent years, especially among tweens, teens, and twenty-somethings concerned with health and ecological sustainability. Cut to the truth of the matter, and you will find Impossible faux burgers are anything but healthy. Read through the list of ingredients of Impossible veggie burgers and other processed vegan food products, and you’ll find they contain a plethora of chemicals, GMO ingredient, and unhealthy additives. A recent study revealed that Impossible Burger contains an ingredient likely to cause weight gain along with kidney disease and other health problems. Why You Should Think Twice Before Eating an Impossible Burger Impossible Burgers, Beyond Burgers, and other faux meat options are marketed as healthy alternatives to animal flesh that supposedly benefit the environment and the greater good. Though vegan alternatives certainly have their merits, there are also some important drawbacks. Impossible Foods recently conducted an analysis of rats after consuming Impossible faux burgers. The study results were fairly surprising, especially from the perspective of Impossible executives, who likely assumed their products would have minimal or no impact on rats. The Impossible Foods’ rat study reveals the main ingredient within the faux burgers, soy leghemoglobin, spurred the onset of inexplicable alterations within rat biology. Impossible Foods’ soy leghemoglobin is genetically engineeredrather than natural. It is possible the genetic alteration of the soy is the underlying cause of the changes in rats’ weight and even alterations to blood composition that cause kidney disease, inflammation, and possibly worse. The study even revealed that soy leghemoglobin has the potential to trigger anemia. Why Soy Leghemoglobin (SLH) Is Detrimental to Human Health The GMO ingredient, soy leghemoglobin, is created from yeast. However, the yeast used for soy leghemoglobin is also genetically modified. In summary, Impossible Foods’ faux burgers contain a genetically altered variation of soy stemming from yeast that food scientists within laboratories have also altered. The resulting “Frankenburger” appears to be anything but healthy. Though the weight and blood composition changes identified in rats after consuming the Impossible Burger are not guaranteed to occur in humans after consuming the same food products, the study results are concerning. The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allows Impossible to sell its chemical-laden and genetically modified products throughout the country. Impossible’s brass obtained governmental permission to market the faux hamburger in the United Kingdom and the European Union after requesting clearance in 2019. Should Impossible Burger Be Available to the Public? Let’s shift our attention to what matters most: human health and nutrition in the societal push toward veganism that becomes more transparent by the day. Health experts, nutritionists, and government officials far and wide are pushing a narrative that a society-wide transition to veganism or vegetarianism will save the planet, reduce medical bills and extend human longevity. However, the above study makes it clear that concerns about the GMO ingredient SLH and other chemicals added to faux meat products are valid. The lesson from the scientific community’s analysis of processed vegan and vegetarian food offerings is that they should be viewed with a healthy dose of skepticism. It is widely known that consuming toxic red meat has the potential to cause cardiovascular problems, yet it is also clear that Impossible’s fake burgers have the potential to lead to even worse outcomes, including potential inflammation, anemia, kidney disease, and dreaded weight gain. Sources for this article include: ChildrensHealthDefense.org To read the original article click here.

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Mount Sinai Researchers Present Encouraging Clinical Trial Results on Novel Therapy for Bone Marrow Cancer

AHA Publisher — Tue, 14 Dec 2021 08:00:51 +0000

Mount Sinai Health System via Newswise – New York, NY (December 11, 2021) — Mount Sinai physician-scientists have found that a novel therapy for the bone marrow cancer myelofibrosis is safe and well-tolerated and is associated with modest improvements in patients in a Phase 1b clinical trial. They shared their findings during an oral presentation at the American Society of Hematology annual meeting in December. Patients on the therapy, called AVID200, showed improvements in symptom burden, anemia, and spleen enlargement. The results confirmed the therapy’s safety and showed some evidence of efficacy—though safety and finding the optimal dose was the primary goal—and researchers concluded that the therapy would need to be combined with other drugs to optimize impact in patients. “This is a real testament to cutting-edge translational research at The Tisch Cancer Institute,” said John Mascarenhas, MD, Director of the Institute’s newly launched Center of Excellence for Blood Cancer and Myeloid Disorders, which was created to translate science into cures for patients with blood cancers. “Our scientists tested this therapy in the lab, physician-scientists conducted a successful phase 1 trial, and now the optimal combination therapy approach is the subject of ongoing laboratory studies at Mount Sinai. The most interesting finding in this trial was that a subset of patients had a lasting improvement in their platelet counts—including three whose counts were normalized—supporting the preclinical studies conducted by Mount Sinai researchers Ronald Hoffman, MD, Anna Rita Migliaccio, PhD, and Lillian Varricchio, PhD.” Myelofibrosis is a type of bone marrow cancer that disrupts the normal production of blood cells, causing an enlarged spleen, extensive scarring in the bone marrow, and low levels of red blood cells and platelets, increasing the risk of bleeding. Myelofibrosis patients who have failed the available first-line therapy face a well-documented poor prognosis, so additional therapies are urgently needed to help these patients. Twenty-one patients enrolled in this multicenter trial were given AVID200, and while this trial’s main purpose was to test safety, some patients had an increase in platelets and their enlarged spleens decreased in size. However, despite the clinical benefits observed, patients’ bone marrow scarring did not decline, so doctors believe that AVID200 likely needs to be combined with other rational therapies in the future. In addition to this study, Mount Sinai has launched the new Center of Excellence for Blood Cancers and Myeloid Disorders to further deepen its commitment to quality care for blood and bone marrow cancer patients. A leader in the study and treatment of leukemias, including myeloproliferative neoplasms and myelodysplastic syndromes, the Center is one of the busiest and most well-recognized programs in the country. It is part of The Tisch Cancer Institute at Mount Sinai, a National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center. The Center is focused on bringing multi-disciplinary, cutting-edge, highly personalized care to patients with all forms of blood cancer and myeloid disorders. The Center brings together world-leading physicians to provide exceptional patient care that draws from their experience, innovation, clinical trials, research, and education. “At the Center of Excellence for Blood Cancers and Myeloid Disorders, we believe everyone deserves personalized and excellent care, so we develop an individualized treatment plan for you, using the latest technologies and advances in biologic understanding,” said Dr. Mascarenhas, who is also Professor of Medicine (Hematology and Medical Oncology) at Icahn Mount Sinai. “We use genetic, epigenetic, cell signaling, and immunologic factors in developing your treatment plan. We are skilled in stem cell transplantation, and we are experts at overcoming graft-versus-host-disease, one of the main challenges of stem cell transplant. Through this center, and our ongoing research, we will continue to make progress in the diagnosis and treatment of blood cancers among our patients.” To read the original article click here.

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Lowering Iron in Fat Cells Prevented Weight Gain in Mice

AHA Publisher — Mon, 12 Jul 2021 07:00:10 +0000

UT Southwestern Medical Center via Newswise – DALLAS – June 28, 2021 – Lowering iron content in fat cells prevented mice fed a high-fat diet from gaining excess weight and developing associated health problems by limiting the amount of lipids absorbed by the intestines, UT Southwestern scientists report in a new study. The findings, published online in Cell Metabolism, could eventually lead to new strategies to protect people against obesity and related diseases. “It’s easy to say that we should consume fewer calories – but at the same time, we all like to eat,” says study leader Philipp E. Scherer, Ph.D., professor in the departments of internal medicine and cell biology at UTSW. “By absorbing fewer lipids, these animals kept their weight down and did not experience the secondary consequences of excess weight gain.” It has long been known that systemic iron deficiencies cause anemia, explains Scherer, with symptoms including extreme fatigue and weakness. Researchers have also investigated the effects of depriving specific cell populations of iron, which typically causes cells to become dysfunctional and even die. However, he adds, researchers have not tested this manipulation in fat cells. When Scherer and his team used a breeding technique to generate mice with significantly lower iron content in their fat cells, the scientists expected the resulting animals to be in poor health. On the contrary, they remained healthy, even when fed a high-fat diet that drove their cage mates to become severely obese. While the normal “wild type” mice developed health problems associated with obesity, including insulin resistance and high levels of cholesterol and triglycerides, the mice with iron-poor fat tissue were leaner and developed none of these issues. A different genetic manipulation that lowered iron content in fat cells of adult mice produced the same positive health effects, protecting the mice from metabolic disorders induced by a high-fat diet, and even improving the health of mice after they became obese, reversing most of the negative obesity-associated consequences. Searching for what caused this phenomenon, Scherer and his colleagues discovered that the intestinal cells of mice with iron-poor fat absorbed fewer lipids, significantly limiting the number of calories they took in. Scherer suggests that iron-deficient fat cells may send a chemical signal to communicate their iron status to the intestine, triggering the tissue to take up fewer lipids. However, the nature of this signal is yet unknown. If researchers could find a way to safely deplete fat cells of iron or artificially supply the chemical signal, they may eventually be able to improve metabolic health in people. “Finding how fat is talking to the intestines is the next step we have to embark upon,” Scherer says. To read the original article click here.

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Natural Dietary Treatments for Fibroids

AHA Publisher — Thu, 13 May 2021 07:00:09 +0000

Michael Greger M.D. FACLM via Nutrition Facts – The same diet that helps regulate hormones in women may also reduce exposure to endocrine-disrupting pollutants. Fibroids are the most common benign tumors in women. They can grow to a foot in diameter and affect the majority of women before they hit menopause. Although fibroids tend to be asymptomatic, when symptoms do occur, they tend to manifest as heavy menstrual bleeding—so much so that women may get anemic and experience a lot of pain. So, what can women do? I discuss this in my video The Best Diet for Fibroids. Up to half go into surgery and get their entire uterus removed. “Although hysterectomy is generally considered a safe operation, complications occur in a significant proportion of patients” and, obviously, you can’t have kids any more. The alternative is a variety of hormone-modulating drugs, which can shrink the fibroids and provide relief, but many of these drugs have significant side effects, like bone loss, so you really don’t want to be taking them for more than a few months. What’s the bottom line? “There is currently no evidence to support the routine use of medical treatment in women with uterine fibroids.” No wonder many women turn to “complementary and alternative treatments…including exercise, diet, herbs, and acupuncture.” Women who exercise seven or more hours a week do seem to have lower risk of having fibroids than women who exercise less than around 20 minutes a day, but exercise has never been put to the test for treating fibroids. Likewise, to date, there isn’t a single randomized controlled trial of acupuncture for the treatment of fibroids to help guide us. In terms of herbs, there are two Asian herbal preparations that show promise—a five-herb combo called Guizhi Fuling and a Malaysian ten-herb formula that contains “secret ingredients” that must not be that secret since they’re just listed in the study, as you can see at 1:50 in my video—and they seemed to work as well as a leading drug. The problem is that traditional Asian herbal remedies may contain a few extra ingredients, like arsenic, mercury, and lead, which have been detected in most of the samples tested from Asian market and health food store shelves, and not just a little. Some, apparently, had really toxic amounts. So, these two Asian herbal preparations “may reduce fibroid size, but there is insufficient evidence to support the efficacy or safety of these treatments.” And, certainly, don’t try to apply caustic herbs internally, as this can lead to scarring, stenosis, and ulceration. Well, what about diet? In one of the largest studies of diet and fibroids, fibroid tumors were “associated with beef and ham consumption, whereas high intake of green vegetables seems to have a protective effect.” The researchers figured that the “association between levels of estrogen, diet, and breast and endometrial [uterine lining] cancers also may help us understand” why. Indeed, “[f]or breast and endometrial cancers, a direct association with the frequency of consumption of meat and ham was observed…whereas protection was conferred by high intake of vegetables and fruits.” Thus, there may be these shared risk factors between estrogen-responsive malignant tumors, like breast cancer, and estrogen-responsive benign tumors, like fibroids. We know the presence of fibroids seems to correlate with an increase in the amount of estrogens flowing through your body, for example, and that women eating vegetarian diets have significantly lower levels of excess estrogen. Researchers are using this knowledge to try to explain why there are lower rates of endometrial cancer—that is, lining-of-the-uterus cancer—and possibly breast cancer among vegetarian women, but it could also help explain the fibroid findings. “The incidence of breast cancer among vegetarian American women (Seventh Day Adventists) is 60 to 80 per cent of the incidence among American women in general, and the incidence among women in Africa and Asia is even lower.” Why might vegetarian women have lower estrogen levels? A famous study in the New England Journal of Medicine concluded that it was their “increased fecal output, which leads to increased fecal excretion of estrogen,” resulting in lower blood levels. Double the fecal output, in fact, as you can see at 4:07 in my video. And, you can put it to the test. Maybe the same reason African-American women have more fibroids is the same reason they have worse breast cancer survival: too much estrogen in their bloodstream due to a less than optimal diet. So, researchers designed a study to see what would happen if they were switched to a more plant-based, higher fiber diet. Compared with the Caucasian women, the African-American women started out with much higher estrogen levels, again helping to explain their increased mortality from breast cancer. But, after they were put on a healthier diet, all of their levels came down, “suggest[ing] that a substantial reduction in breast cancer risk can be achieved” by adopting a diet centered around more whole plant foods. The same also appears to be true for fibroids, especially eating lots of cruciferous vegetables—broccoli, cabbage, and Chinese cabbage—as well as tomatoes and apples. Women who underwent premature puberty, starting their periods before age 11, may also be at increased risk of fibroids later in life, and we know that higher childhood red meat intake is associated with earlier age of starting one’s period, though total protein and animal protein in general may contribute. For example, girls who eat meat tend to start their periods about six months earlier than vegetarian girls. Those who eat meat analogues like veggie burgers and veggie dogs start their periods nine months later on average, and a similar puberty normalizing influence was found with consumption of whole plants foods, such as beans. It could also be the endocrine-disrupting pollutants that build up the food chain. Researchers tooksamples of internal abdominal fat from women and found there appeared to be a correlation between the presence of fibroids with the levels of a number of PCBs in their fat. So, does that mean fish-eaters have higher risk of fibroids? Researchers did find a small increase in risk associated with the intake of long-chain omega-3 fats, mostly from “dark-meat fish consumption,” by which they meant fish like sardines and salmon. This could be because of “the endocrine-disrupting chemicals commonly shown in fish,” or it could just be a statistical fluke. It would be consistent with the increased risk seen among “sport-fish consumers.” Recognizing that diet and endocrine-disrupting persistent organic pollutants have been associated with a variety of gynecologic conditions, including fibroids, researchers looked at consumers of fish fished out of the Great Lakes and found a 20 percent increased risk for every ten years they had been eating the fish. In the most comprehensive study to date, researchers compared pollutant levels in fat samples from women with fibroids to fat liposuctioned out of women without fibroids. They didn’t just find higher levels of PCBs in fibroid sufferers, but also long-banned pesticides, like DDT and hexachlorocyclohexane, PAHs, which are polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons formed when coal is burned, tobacco is smoked, and meat is grilled, as well as heavy metals, arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury. These levels correlated not only to fibroids, but also to seafood consumption or excess body fat. So, the researchers determined that “shedding excess weight and limiting seafood consumption would confer a protective effect” on fibroid tumor development by minimizing exposure to environmental pollutants as much as possible. Okay, so a plant-based diet may be best, but is there a plant in particular that has been shown to be particularly powerful? Plant-based compounds with disease-preventive properties, dietary phytochemicals are found in whole grains, fruits, vegetables, beans, split peas, chickpeas, and lentils, herbs, spices, nuts, and certain beverages. As I discuss in my video The Best Food for Fibroids, we know they can help regulate the initiation, promotion, and spread of cancerous tumors, so what about benign tumors like fibroids? Most anti-cancer drugs on the market now were originally derived from plants or plant products, so why not try to use plants to target the inflammation or blood supply of fibroids? Might fibroids be a consequence of chronic inflammation within the body? We know that women with fibroids are more likely to eat more beef and ham, and fewer fruits and green vegetables, but whole plant foods don’t just have anti-inflammatory effects but antioxidant effects as well. “If the generation of free radicals exceeds the protective effects of antioxidants, oxidative damage will occur,” which has been implicated in a variety of disease states, including gynecological conditions such as fibroids. If you collect fresh fibroids, as well as normal uterine tissue from hysterectomy surgeries, the fibroid cells have significantly fewer antioxidant enzymes, as you can see at 1:20 in my video, so might antioxidant-rich foods help? Well, if you drip some strawberries onto cells in a petri dish, you can apparently kill of some fibroid tumor cells, while leaving normal uterus cells alone. But, what good does that do us? That’s only relevant if we can show those strawberry compounds get absorbed through our gut and achieve high enough concentrations in uterine tissue. The same with curcumin, the component of the spice turmeric. One of its so-called “miraculous” properties is suppressing the growth of uterine fibroid cells, but, again, that was just in vitro. Yes, an inhibitory effect was found and at concentrations that don’t compromise the growth of normal, regular uterine tissue, but my patients are people, not petri dishes. It’s pretty neat to find out what happens to human fibroid cells as you drip higher and higher concentrations of green tea compounds on them in a test tube, as you can see for yourself at 2:19 in my video, but I care less about what happens in vitro or in mice, whether or not they have any clothes on—one study looked at “a nude mice model”—but there were no randomized, controlled clinical studies until 2013. Subjects were randomized to green tea extract or placebo for four months. In the placebo group, fibroid volume increased by 24 percent. That’s what fibroids do; they continue to grow. However, those randomized to the green tea group showed a reduction in total fibroid volume—and not just by a little. There was a dramatic decrease, shrinking by almost a third, which is a highly significant difference, as you can see at 3:02 in my video. Okay, but did the women feel any better? Yes, they experienced a dramatic decrease in symptom severity, as well. Month after month, nothing much happened in the placebo group, but those taking the pills that looked the same but happened to contain green tea compounds had consistent improvement and felt lessening symptoms, each month better than the last, as well as an improved health-related quality of life, month after month, that was significantly better than control. What’s more, their blood counts got better too. With all that continued excess blood loss every month, the blood levels kept decreasing in the placebo group, but they reversed in the green tea group. So, anemia also significantly improved, because average blood flow significantly diminished. And, all this—the fibroid shrinkage, less pain, better periods—was achieved with “no adverse effects.” So, not only were the results comparable to those for the drugs that are commonly used—again, without the side effects—but the results were also comparable to uterine artery embolization, where they try to cut the blood supply to the fibroid, which is great—unless they accidentally cut the blood supply to the rest of the uterus and cause uterine necrosis, one of many reported major complications. Others include death, not only of the fibroid, but also of the patient, along with other potential complications that may arise from accidentally clogging off non-target arteries. In my book, a side-effect-free solution as good as a more invasive procedure is potentially better than. The researchers conclude that green tea compounds show “promise as a safe and effective therapeutic agent for women with symptomatic UFs [uterine fibroids]. Such a simple, inexpensive, and orally administered therapy...

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