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Red Wine “Waste” Could Extend Your Lifespan

AHA Publisher — Mon, 28 Nov 2022 08:00:18 +0000

Al Sears, MD, CNS – I enjoy drinking a nice glass of red wine with my grass-fed steak dinner. And the health benefits are an added bonus! But, it turns out the seeds from red grapes have even more health benefits than wine. These seeds – the same ones my brothers, sister, and I used to spit out at each other whenever we ate grapes – contain disease fighters so potent I call them super-antioxidants. In fact, a recent study from the National Institutes of Health backs up what I’ve been telling my patients for years… Grape seed extract’s antioxidant capacity can reduce the inflammatory process at the root of today’s chronic diseases. But, its regenerative benefits go even further… A breakthrough study published in the journal Nature Metabolism recently revealed grape seed extract successfully prolonged the lifespan of old mice by 9%.1 Researchers focused on a phenomenon known as cellular senescence – the process during which your cells lose function as your body ages. Specialized compounds called senolytics destroy these rogue cells, allowing the body to repair the damage. In the breakthrough study, researchers discovered a previously unidentified senolytic derived from a compound in grape seed extract called procyanidin C1, or PCC1. This newly discovered senolytic induces a type of programmed cell death called apoptosis in senescent cells while leaving healthy cells unharmed. In the new study, the mice were exposed to doses of radiation that caused them to develop abnormal features such as significant amounts of gray hair. They also lost muscle mass and suffered damage to their kidneys, livers, and lungs. But once the compound in the grape seed extract was introduced, this damage was reversed. According to the study authors, there’s no reason to believe that this compound can’t do the same for human beings. It’s just one more advantage to add to a growing list of benefits we get from these seeds. To date, they’ve been proven to: Dramatically reduce the risk of prostate cancer2 Improve blood sugar and insulin sensitivity3 Slow brain aging and increase cognitive function4 Boost HDL cholesterol and lower blood pressure5 Restore cardiovascular health6 Fight infections and kill germs7 Make Grape Seed Extract Part of Your Life There are two distinct ways to add the seeds of grapes to your diet. Grapeseed extract comes from the small seeds (and occasionally the skins) of red grapes – the same kind that is pressed to make wine. Grapeseed oil comes from the same seeds – but after the juice is pressed. Supplement With Grape Seed Extract: I recommend taking 250 mg of grape seed extract twice per day. It’s available in capsules, tablets, or in liquid form. Look for products that are standardized to 40 to 80% proanthocyanidin polyphenols. Cook with Grapeseed oil: Grapeseed oil is a joy to cook with. It smokes at a much higher temperature than olive oil – which means you can sauté and pan-sear your favorite meats, fish, and vegetables without burning anything. You can also rub fish or chicken with the oil before baking. To Your Good Health, Al Sears, MD, CNS References: 1. Xu Q, et al. “The flavonoid procyanidin c1 has chemotherapeutic activity and increases lifespan in mice.” Nat Metab. 2021 Dec 6. doi: 10.1038/s42255-021-00491-8. Online ahead of print. 2. “Garavaglia J, et al. “Grape seed oil compounds: biological and chemical actions for health.” Nutr Metab Insights. 2016 Aug 16;9:59-64. 3. Sapwarobol S, et al. “Postprandial blood glucose response to grape seed extract in healthy participants: A pilot study.” Pharmacogn Mag. 2012 Jul-Sep; 8(31): 192–196. 4. Bell L, et al. “Grape seed polyphenol extract and cognitive function in healthy young adults: a randomised, placebo-controlled, parallel-groups acute-on-chronic trial.” Nutr Neurosci. 2020 Jan 16;1-10. 5. Grohmann T, et al. “Efficacy of bilberry and grape seed extract supplement interventions to improve glucose and cholesterol metabolism and blood pressure in different populations-a systematic review of the literature.” Nutrients. 2021 May 17;13(5):1692. 6. Feringa H, et al. “The effect of grape seed extract on cardiovascular risk markers: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. J Am Diet Assoc. 2011. Aug;111(8):1173-81. 7. Su X, Dsouza D. “Grape seed extract for control of human enteric viruses.” Appl Environ Microbiol. 2011 Jun; 77(12): 3982–3987. To read the original article click here.

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Medical Expert Says Exposure to Some Germs Is Healthy for Kids, Even During a Pandemic: ‘Dirt Is Good’

AHA Publisher — Fri, 29 Jan 2021 08:00:34 +0000

News Staff via CBN News – The coronavirus pandemic has created a desire among many of us to kill all germs everywhere. However, leading scientists say that’s going too far and that over-sanitizing our environment can lead to a number of health problems. CBN Medical Reporter Lorie Johnson interviewed Dr. Jack Gilbert, author of the book “Dirt is Good.” Dr. Gilbert said the world around us is filled with all kinds of helpful microbes that actually strengthen our immune system. “The wonderful thing about microbes is they’ve been here for a long period of time and they’ve adapted to every environment on earth,” he explained. “In the last 100 years since we’ve moved in moved indoors and live in our sealed homes, the microbes that have inhabited our bodies have taken up residence in our homes. The bacteria that live on our skin, in our mouth, and in your gut find their way into the homes we live in. They play an active role in our health.” And there can be serious, harmful health consequences if we mismanage microbes, particularly for children. “The environment in which a child grows up shapes their immune system especially in the first six weeks to six months of life. When a child is putting things in their mouth, those exposures and experiences shapes how their immune system develops and that can shape how our brains develop. For children with autism or allergic diseases, those early life exposures can be fundamental in helping them live a healthy life.” Dr. Gilbert pointed out that growing up around animals and in an environment that isn’t totally sterile can help a child’s immune system. “When we look at asthma which is a major disease, it affects approximately nine to 10 percent of the U.S. population,” Gilbert said. “It’s huge, right? Children that grow up living with a dog, physically interacting with a dog can have a 13 percent reduction in the likelihood of developing asthma overall. Children that grow up on a farm and interact with farm animals have a 50 percent reduction in the likelihood of developing asthma.” “We can use our information about the exposures those children get to try and understand how to train children’s immune systems that grow up in inner cities and urban environments where their immune systems are not being trained appropriately as you might expect.” Additionally, he explained that too much disinfecting with antibacterial products can be harmful to a child’s body. “Early life-straining of the immune system, sensing the bacteria in dirt or the microbes in the hair of a dog play an active role in helping the child’s immune system to learn how to cope with the environment in which it finds itself,” he said. “That will stop allergic diseases such as asthma, food allergy, maybe even help the development of the brain and endocrine system to allow the body to live a healthy and productive life without chronic diseases.” Dr. Gilbert even gave advice on how to get enough good germs while still protecting against the coronavirus. “There’s a simple solution to allow our children to survive the pandemic without chronic consequences. Allow them to physically interact with a dog or a pet on a regular basis. Allow the child to play with dirt and plants. Allow the child outside. Those simple solutions will expose your child to the right kind of microbial environments.” Finally, Dr. Gilbert encouraged everyone to continue washing their hands with warm water and soap, because viruses are still something to be avoided. To read the original article click here. For more articles from CBN News click here.

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Killing Coronavirus With Handheld Ultraviolet Light Device May Be Feasible

AHA Publisher — Thu, 04 Jun 2020 07:00:22 +0000

Penn State viaEurekAlert – A personal, handheld device emitting high-intensity ultraviolet light to disinfect areas by killing the novel coronavirus is now feasible, according to researchers at Penn State, the University of Minnesota and two Japanese universities. There are two commonly employed methods to sanitize and disinfect areas from bacteria and viruses — chemicals or ultraviolet radiation exposure. The UV radiation is in the 200 to 300 nanometer range and known to destroy the virus, making the virus incapable of reproducing and infecting. Widespread adoption of this efficient UV approach is much in demand during the current pandemic, but it requires UV radiation sources that emit sufficiently high doses of UV light. While devices with these high doses currently exist, the UV radiation source is typically an expensive mercury-containing gas discharge lamp, which requires high power, has a relatively short lifetime, and is bulky. The solution is to develop high-performance, UV light emitting diodes, which would be far more portable, long-lasting, energy efficient and environmentally benign. While these LEDs exist, applying a current to them for light emission is complicated by the fact that the electrode material also has to be transparent to UV light. “You have to ensure a sufficient UV light dose to kill all the viruses,” said Roman Engel-Herbert, Penn State associate professor of materials science, physics and chemistry. “This means you need a high-performance UV LED emitting a high intensity of UV light, which is currently limited by the transparent electrode material being used.” While finding transparent electrode materials operating in the visible spectrum for displays, smartphones and LED lighting is a long-standing problem, the challenge is even more difficult for ultraviolet light. “There is currently no good solution for a UV-transparent electrode,” said Joseph Roth, doctoral candidate in Materials Science and Engineering at Penn State. “Right now, the current material solution commonly employed for visible light application is used despite it being too absorbing in the UV range. There is simply no good material choice for a UV-transparent conductor material that has been identified.” Finding a new material with the right composition is key to advancing UV LED performance. The Penn State team, in collaboration with materials theorists from the University of Minnesota, recognized early on that the solution for the problem might be found in a recently discovered new class of transparent conductors. When theoretical predictions pointed to the material strontium niobate, the researchers reached out to their Japanese collaborators to obtain strontium niobate films and immediately tested their performance as UV transparent conductors. While these films held the promise of the theoretical predictions, the researchers needed a deposition method to integrate these films in a scalable way. “We immediately tried to grow these films using the standard film-growth technique widely adopted in industry, called sputtering,” Roth said. “We were successful.” This is a critical step towards technology maturation which makes it possible to integrate this new material into UV LEDs at low cost and high quantity. And both Engel-Herbert and Roth believe this is necessary during this crisis. “While our first motivation in developing UV transparent conductors was to build an economic solution for water disinfection, we now realize that this breakthrough discovery potentially offers a solution to deactivate COVID-19 in aerosols that might be distributed in HVAC systems of buildings,” Roth explains. Other areas of application for virus disinfection are densely and frequently populated areas, such as theaters, sports arenas and public transportation vehicles such as buses, subways and airplanes. To read the original article click here.

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