"In the health area of psychology at Rice, we're very focused on the intersection of health behavior, psychology and medicine," said Christopher Fagundes, an assistant professor of psychology and co-author of the paper. "One thing that we're particularly interested in is how stress affects the immune system, which in turn affects diseases and mental health outcomes, the focus of this paper."
The authors found that in addition to being linked to numerous physical health issues, including cancer and diabetes, systemic inflammation is linked to mental health issues such as depression.
Among patients suffering from clinical depression, concentrations of two inflammatory markers, CRP and IL-6, were elevated by up to 50 percent.
Fagundes said chronic inflammation is most common in individuals who have experienced stress in their lives, including lower socio-economic status or those who experienced abuse or neglect as children.
Other contributing factors are a high-fat diet and high body mass index.
statins-for-cholesterol is a hugely profitable business pushed hard for decades by BigPharma, going back to a single faulty "study" in the 1950s, after Eisenhower's heart attack.
My opinion is that statins-for-cholesterol, obsession with cholesterol is as big of a medical scam, a BigPharma misdirection-for-profit, as BigFood's "low-fat" and "whole grain", and gluten scams.
Cholesterol is essential, so much so 90% is produced by the liver without any dietary consumption.
Cholesterol + lipids + calcium sticking to arteries is a reaction to an injury, mostly from systemic, low-grade inflammation. High blood pressure also injures arteries, also causing cholesterol plaque.
Some people with high cholesterol have no CVD, while some people with low cholesterol die from CVD. Maybe cholesterol isn't the problem?
Aspirin's help with CVD was initially thought to be due it blood-thinning effect, getting blood through narrowed arteries, but then its anti-inflammatory effect was more reasonable. btw, statins are also anti-inflammatory (aspirin and similar are cheaper).
Systemic inflammation reduced by aspirin (or statins), less injury to arteries, less plaque.
Systemic, low-grade inflammation also reduces insulin sensitivity, so the body produces more insulin, which is a really nasty hormone. result? adult-onset Type II diabetes.
So "I think" watching inflammatory bio-markers is more important than watching cholesterol, as one could take away from the New Yorker article.
An alkalizing, anti-inflammatory diet is key, complemented by both moderate resistance work and moderate cardio exercise, which also reduce inflammation.
"life-style" of diet and exercise is your best "Heal Thyself" strategy, not BigPharma.
btw, chronic, systemic, low-grade inflammation causes chronic high-levels of cortisone (derived from cholesterol) to reduce the inflammation, and wreaks havoc on the immune system, which of course causes inflammation as a response to injury or foreign matter.
Can anyone cite a peer reviewed study / documentation of "alkalizing" diets? I've attempted to trace this idea back to anything scientific, and always eventually came up with "well, someone I trust once told me ...".
one of the nasty results of a acid diet (sugar, mammal/fowl products, etc) is that the body will buffer the serum pH on the low side to stay within the body's healthy pH range by robbing calcium from bones and teeth.
Thanks, but that's not what I'm after - let me rephrase my question.
Acid/Base homeostasis is obviously important, and the body works hard to maintain it, no question about it. However, there is a claim (e.g. the one you made) that an "alkalizing diet" is healthier in some way than a "common" diet -- and I'm looking for a reference for that.
I have found references saying that ingesting sodium bicarb (the ultimate alkalizing agent) was shown to help with very controlled amounts and strenuous exercise, and was otherwise either useless or harmful. I have found many claims, but not one properly supported by an experiment, that an "alkalizing diet" (which often includes acids like lemon juice or apple cider vinegar in those descriptions with some hand waving) is good for you.
So, my question is: I am trying to understand the origin of the "alkalizing diet" argument, and see whether it is science, pseudo-science or myth; can you help me with that?
The Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, trained as a physicist, welcomed, encouraged Western science to validate Transcendental Meditation, a mechanical mantra repetition technique, with the stress on lack of effort which is opposed to mindfulness, concentration, self-observation, and other effortful techniques.
Electro-encephalographs of TM meditators, after just a few weeks of initiation into TM technique, show the various brain waves frequencies spreading from back to front, plus left-right hemispheric synchrony, and increasing in amplitude. This behaviour was seen a few decades ago, and is even more verified lately as detectors and signal processing advanced.
Was do the data mean? That's less "scientific", but clearly something is happening, and subjective reports are that it's a very positive experience with benefits that last outside of meditation.
Why does this behavior persist, is repeatable across many TM meditators, even neophyte meditators? It suggests, verifies even, that the TM technique recognizes inherent properties, abilities, behavior of the human brain.
Again, the benefits, if any, meditative sessions causing whole-brain wave synchrony, coherence, and increased wave amplitude? You'll have to ask TM meditators.
off topic of the article but on topic to your comment..
of transcendental meditation jd salinger wrote a book called franny and zooey(i) where the main character is obsessed with a little book about an individual who seeks an answer to a question developed after reading a vague reference in the bible to praying incessantly
it's biblical, but skeptical and the religious elements dissolve and are really only symptomatic of the period,
the book wishes to tell a story and the infrastructure of christianity just happens to be the catalyst
the answer is sought in a pilgrimage around russia of the day, visiting the highest religious sanctums to question the foremost of the holy hierarchies, and the answer unfolds slowly to the pilgrim
the book in the story is a real 19th century anonymous work translated as the way of the pilgrim(ii)
the book is beautiful, and i would definitely recommend it
it walks you through the stages of transcendental meditation and then has the most beautiful final chapter
without the ending the story, for me, would have been a waste, but the last interaction is just so beautiful in its paradoxical self invalidation
the process of having a simple question, seeking an answer and finding innate complexity that leads to a simple solution that dissolves the complexity that led to the realisation is something i recognise in many pursuits
TM (and indeed vipaasanaa and other western hemisphere faddish takes on shutting up and sitting still for awhile) are just an offshoot of India's larger and longer tradition of yoga, no? Which isn't to say India has a monopoly on meditative tradition (cue ~neighbouring Daoists, Sufis, various extremo Christian sects though these usually limited to monks IIRC, etc.), just that it seems more dominant there than anywhere else. Point being, research on meditation has focused largely on yoga, and not without reason: I'd be surprised if TM isn't a sort of statistical aberration in the literature.
Banks pocket, depend heavily on $30B/year on bank account overdrafts alone, and have supported smartcards in Europe and around the planet for 30+ years.
Retailers prefer to be cracked (Target, etc) rather than protect themselves with better equipment and serious IT defenses.
Typical financial (payment) services: sh!tt!est possible product for lowest possible investment.
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/579160-stunning-sur...