[VaccinationLiberation] Antioxidants, Depression, EU Law

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Hi everyone...

This has 3 separate articles, hope you enjoy...

Be Well,

Misty L. Trepke

http://www..com

 

Why EU Law Says Food Can't Effect Your Mind

 

IN THIS ISSUE

 

.. EU to rule out making health claims about food

.. Proof that food can beat nutrition

.. Why antioxidants can help prevent cardiovascular disease

 

WHY EU LAW SAYS FOOD CAN'T AFFECT YOUR MIND

 

Saying things like 'fish is good for your brain' may soon become

illegal, if a draft EU Regulation on Health and Nutrition Claims get

voted through in Brussels. This further piece of legislation has the

worthy goal of making sure that health claims made about foods and

food supplements are true. However, instead of allowing claims that

are backed up with good science, the EU Regulation states

that: " There are many factors, other than dietary ones, that can

influence psychological and behavioural functions. Therefore, it is

appropriate to prohibit the use of psychological and behavioural

claims " .

 

This argument for the exclusion of psychological or behavioural

claims is spurious. There are many factors, other than dietary ones,

that influence physiological functions (exercise, smoking,

pollution, infection and sun exposure, to name a few). Food does

effect both psychology and behaviour and the possibility of such

claims, if scientifically supported, should not be excluded. Why,

for example, should it be legal to say that 'omega 3 fats help to

support cardiovascular health' and not legal to say that 'omega 3

fats help support a healthy mood', when the science is there to

support such claims?

 

The effect of this clause will not only counter the proposed intent

of the EU regulation - which is to allow substantiated health claims

to be made - it will severely hamper attempts to improve the

public's diet. Since most foods, for example fish or fish oils,

cannot be patented, there is no possibility - by virtue of the costs

involved and the lack of return on a non-patented food - in

obtaining a medicinal licence. Nor should there be any need

to 'licence' a nutrient and to describe its health supporting

effects. The very idea would have Hippocrates turning in his grave.

The net consequence of the inclusion of this clause would be to

provide a monopoly of psychological and behavioural health claims to

licensed medicines, such as anti-depressants. This will have the

effect of pushing the public towards prescription drugs and away

from choosing health-promoting foods and food supplements for

supporting mental wellbeing.

 

If you disagree with this EU proposal, as I do, then now is the time

to write to your MEP, whose details you can find at

www.europarl.org.uk or by calling 020 7227 4300. Attached is an

example letter, which I am sending to mine. Please feel free to

amend accordingly. MEP Letter

 

PROOF THAT FOOD CAN BEAT DEPRESSION

 

According to a recent survey of 2000 people, almost half of adults

in the UK eat to stifle feelings of loneliness, boredom and stress.

Yet, ironically, eating the right foods, plus appropriate

supplementation, may be the very answer to beating the blues.

America's CBS News recently reported on the breakthroughs being made

in the treatment of depression by us at the Brain Bio Centre in

London. This short film, which was shown on Sky News, follows the

success story of a 21-year-old girl who experienced severe side-

effects and withdrawal effects on anti-depressants and has found

incredible improvement through the Brain Bio Centre's diet and

supplement strategy.You can download the film and see it for

yourself at www.mentalhealthproject.com

 

AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION BACK IN THE DARK AGES ON ANTIOXIDANTS

 

Last month the American Heart Association (AHA) published a review

of clinical trials looking at antioxidant supplementation in

Cardiovascular Disease and suggested that scientific data does not

justify antioxidant supplementation to reduce risk. I strongly

disagree. Why the difference of opinion?

 

Firstly, the majority of the subjects in the clinical trials

reviewed by the AHA already had cardiovascular disease (CVD) and so

their extrapolation that antioxidant supplements won't help prevent

disease is highly questionable. To date, the vast majority of

prevention studies show exactly the opposite. For example, modest

amounts of vitamin E (135 to 270mg) alone has been shown to reduce

risk of CVD by 30 to 40%.(1, 2). Another report -

titled 'Multivitamin Use and Mortality in a Large Prospective

Study' - showed that out of over one million participants, those

adults who used vitamin E or other antioxidant vitamins, in

combination with a daily multivitamin, had a 15% lower risk of dying

from heart disease or stroke than those who did not take vitamins.

(3) A more recent study showed that even basic multivitamin use has

been shown to reduce risk by 20%.(4) It is highly likely

that 'optimum nutrition' style supplementation will halve risk.

 

Secondly, contrary to the AHA's report, many trials do show that

antioxidant supplements are effective against CVD. For example, the

Cambridge Heart Antioxidant Study (CHAOS) found a 77% reduction in

heart attacks over two years by giving 270mg of vitamin E.(5) Those

trials that have not been successful are usually open to the same

criticisms - too little too late and bad study designs.

 

A classic example is the British Heart Foundation trial comparing

the effects of statins versus an antioxidant supplement regime

providing 600mg of vitamin E, 250mg of vitamin C and 20mg of beta-

carotene.(6) I predicted this trial would may be ineffective because

the doses are too low for those already suffering from CVD. Vitamin

C is only in circulation for six hours so I would give a person with

cardiovascular disease no less than 1g every six hours (three times

a day). I would give vitamin E in the form of both natural d-alpha

tocopherol, tocotrienols and other tocopherols, not synthetic dl-

alpha tocopherol as used in this trial, probably at 800mg a day. I

would also give Co-Q, at least 100mg, and lipoic acid, at least

300mg.

 

This trial, and most referred to by the AHA, make one fatal error.

They fail to measure an indicator of oxidative stress. In other

words, they fail to measure whether the supplements they were giving

were effectively acting as an antioxidant in the body. There is no

question that reducing oxidation reduces risk. Only by measuring if

you have reduced oxidation can you say whether the dose, or the form

of the nutrient, was good enough to make a difference to the people

being studied. Some individuals are more responsive to lowering

homocysteine with B vitamins, while others respond best to reducing

oxidation with antioxidants. Without measuring whether the treatment

has reduced oxidation - which is the mechanism that damages arteries

and can be reversed with enough antioxidants - or reduced

homocysteine - another mechanism that leads to artery damage - you

really learn nothing. On top of this, these trials skirt around the

fact that the patients are usually on powerful medication. It is

obviously wrong to assume that vitamin E, which helps thin the

blood, will have the same effect on someone taking aspirin or

warfarin, compared to someone who isn't. However, that's exactly

what almost all the trials referred to by the AHA have done.

 

In truth there are plenty of studies on vitamin E, C and beta-

carotene - such as the Physicians Health Study 2 (PHS2) which showed

that beta-carotene supplementation reduced subsequent cardiovascular

events among 333 men with prior angina or revascularisation (7) -

plus other important antioxidants such as tocotrienols, lipoic acid

and Co-enzyme Q10, that show benefit.

 

Back in the 1930s, when Drs Evan and Wilfred Shute from Canada first

showed that vitamin E reduced risk of CVD, the medical profession

managed to make vitamin E illegal to important into the US, and

persuaded the Postmaster General to prohibit the sending of vitamin

E from Canada to US citizens. Today, at least, you still have the

freedom to choose whether or not to supplement antioxidants. The

truth is we are still learning what the optimum intake of

antioxidants may be for those with CVD and there are many research

questions still to be answered.

 

The AHA imply you can get enough from your diet, by eating five or

more servings of fruits and vegetables each day. I recommend eight

servings, not five. However, the average person eats less than three

portions of fruit and vegetables a day. I believe, on the basis of

the science to date, that supplementing alongside a healthy diet can

help boost antioxidant intake towards optimum levels. I hope the AHA

report does not put you off supplementing antioxidant nutrients, as

I do every day, and I hope it doesn't slow down the research into

their optimal intake.

 

 

References:

 

1. Rimm EB et al. Vitamin E consumption and the risk of coronary

heart disease in men. NEJM 1993, May 20: 1450.

 

2. Stampfer MD et al. Vitamin E consumption and the risk of coronary

heart disease in women. NEJM 1993, May 20: 1444.

 

3. Christen WG, Gaziano JM and Hennekens CH. Design of Physicians'

Health Study II - a randomized trial of beta-carotene, vitamins E

and C, and multivitamins, in prevention of cancer, cardiovascular

disease and eye disease, and review of results of completed trials.

Ann Epidemiol 2000, Feb; 10(2): 125-34.

 

4. Holmquist C, Larsson S, Wolf A and de Faire U. Multivitamin

supplements are inversely associated with risk of myocardial

infarction in men and women - Stockholm Heart Program (SHEEP). J

Nutr 2003, Aug; 133(8): 2650-4.

 

5. Stephens NG et al. Randomised controlled trial of vitamin E in

patients with coronary disease: Cambridge Heart Antioxidant Study

(CHAOS). The Lancet 1996; 347: 781-786.

 

6. MRC/BHF Heart Protection Study of antioxidant vitamin

supplementation 20,536 high-risk individuals: a randomised placebo-

controlled trail. The Lancet 2002; 360: 23-33.

 

7. As reference 3.