Minimally Processed and Eaten as Part of a Mediterranean-Style Diet, Red Meat Augments MED's Heart Health Benefits

The extra reduction in diastolic blood pressure may translate to a significantly reduced stroke risk. Especially in younger people, a few mmHg can make a tenfold difference in their risk of stroke.

If you follow the mainstream media you will get the impression that eating red meat was worse for your heart than drinking or smoking. In fact, however, the experimental evidence from decently controlled human studies like the latest paper by scientists from the Purdue University and the University of Texas Medical Branch, indicate that red meat - if it's still meat and not bought in processed food, i.e. salami, sausages, wurst, etc. is completely harmless, if not beneficial to your heart health.

Beneficial? Yes, you read that right: As Lauren E O’Connor's randomized investigator-blinded crossover study shows, adding 70g of beef/pork to a Mediterranean diet has no effect on the beneficial effects of the MED on selected markers of cardiovascular health, it even augmented the reduction in diastolic blood pressure - a highly relevant difference, in view of the fact that an elevated diastolic blood pressure is associated in  <45, 45-64, and 65+ year-olds with a 10-, 5-, and 2-fold, respectively, increased risk of stroke (Prospective Studies Collaboration 1995)!

Looking for more ways to improve your diet? Increase your potassium (K) intake!

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Before we go too much into detail, though, it appears prudent to scrutinize the study design and decide how representative of potential real-world effects of red meat consumption it is.

As previously pointed out, we're dealing with a randomized investigator-blinded crossover study in 25 women and 13 men (aged 46 ± 2 y, BMI 30.6 ± 0.6 kg/m2) who were not already following a healthy eating pattern. The subjects consumed a weight-maintenance MED for two 5-wk periods separated by a 4-wk washout period (note: the scientists verified that the baseline CVD risk factor values did not differ between trials, which supports an effective washout period).

Figure 1: Graphical illustration of the study cross-over study design O'Connor et al. used.

The MED diets were either restricted or rich in minimally processed lean red meat (5.5 oz./154g or 18.2 oz./510g of beef/pork per week, respectively). Both diets contained 20/40/40% of total energy from protein/carbohydrate/fat, respectively, with a fatty acid ratio of 22/11/7% of total energy from monounsaturated/polyunsaturated/saturated fats, respectively.

'High normal' (129-139 / 84-95 mmHg) blood pressure can also kill you - not today or tomorrow, but it entails significant health risks | learn more

Don't ignore your diastolic blood pressure, especially if you're still young! When you read about high blood pressure in the mainstream media, oftentimes, only the effects of increased systolic blood pressure are discussed. Especially for young people, however, it's the diastolic (lower number on your monitor) that makes all the difference. As Li et al. point out, below age 50, it's your 24h diastolic, not systolic blood pressure profile that determines your risk of  nonfatal cardiovascular, cardiac, or coronary events and even mortality with a difference as it was observed in the study at hand being enough to decrease your risk of the former 2.05 times (P=0.0039) and the latter 4.07 times irrespective of your systolic blood pressure!

At baseline and during the last week of each intervention fasting BPs, blood lipids and lipoproteins, and body composition (via a BOD POD®) were measured and subjects wore an ambulatory BP monitor for 24 hours. All data were analyzed by doubly repeated measures ANOVA adjusted for age, body mass, and sex using Tukey-Kramer adjusted p values with a significance level of p<0.05. Data are presented as adjusted least squares means and SEM.

Figure 2: Differential effects on blood pressure (illustrated on the left) and the subjects' lipoproteins (total cholesterol, LDL, and HDL in mg/dL); data expressed as change from baseline (O'Connor 2017)

As previously pointed out, the consumption of a MED diet decreased all BP parameters over time (~3-6 and ~2–5 mm Hg decrease in all systolic and diastolic BPs, respectively) and inclusion of higher amounts of minimally processed lean red meat did not influence results except for a greater reduction in waking diastolic BP with consumption of the Med diet rich in red meat (p=0.043).

Similarly, the decrease in total cholesterol (− 16 ± 4 and  −9 ± 4), LDL (−10 ± 4 and −4 ± 4), and HDL(−4 ± 2 −5 ± 2) were more favorable (albeit not significantly) for the red meat "enhanced" MED diet compared to its restricted counterpart. No differences were seen for triglycerides, the total cholesterol to HDL ratio, and body composition - neither of these values changed over time with either diet.

If you want to learn what you should and what you shouldn't do to your (red) meats and other protein sources in order to retain their health effects, read the "Protein Oxidation 101: 8 Simple Rules to Minimize PROTOX and Maximize the Proven Benefits of High(er) Protein Diets" | more.

Minimally processed is the keyword, here? Next to the fact that you always have to account for the overall dietary pattern (the epidemiological "red meat is bad studies" don't do that), the main, and in my humble opinion, most important message of the study at hand is that minimally processed meat, i.e. meat that's still recognizable as meat, when you buy it (yes, this excludes salami, Frankfurter, Wiener, regular bacon, all forms of wurst etc.) and not breaded and fried at home, is not a (heart) health problem. Whether you'd also see beneficial effects, as in the study at hand, if you ate more than the 510g of beef/port per week that were consumed in the "red meat" trial of the study at hand, however, will have to be investigated in future studies and unhealthier subjects | Comment on Facebook!

References:

• Li, Yan, et al. "Ambulatory Hypertension Subtypes and 24-Hour Systolic and Diastolic Blood Pressure as Distinct Outcome Predictors in 8341 Untreated People Recruited From 12 PopulationsCLINICAL PERSPECTIVE." Circulation 130.6 (2014): 466-474.
• O’Connor, Lauren E., et al. "Daily Red Meat Intake does not Affect Improvements in Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors Induced by Consuming the USDA’s Healthy Mediterranean-Style Eating Pattern." The FASEB Journal 31.1 Supplement (2017): 966-9.
• Prospective Studies Collaboration. "Cholesterol, diastolic blood pressure, and stroke: 13 000 strokes in 450 000 people in 45 prospective cohorts." The Lancet 346.8991 (1995): 1647-1653.

How Strong is Strong Enough to Stay Healthy? If the Sum of Your 1RMs On Leg & Bench Press Don't Surpass Twice Your Body Weight Your Risk of Metabolic Syndrome Doubles

Don't worry, the sum of both your bench and leg press 1-RM must be ~2.5x your body weight, not each of the dumbbells you use, when you do DB bench presses ;-)

As a SuppVersity reader and Super Human Radio listener, you are well aware of the vital importance of physical strength as a determinant not just of the length, but also and more importantly of the quality of your life.

Scientist from the Manitoba Institute of Child Health have now conducted the first study that was specifically designed identify the threshold of muscle strength or rather weakness that would be associated with an increased likelihood of developing metabolic syndrome in men. As Martin Sénéchal and his colleagues point out, this threshold could be used to identify men at risk of chronic disease, before it's to late to intervene. Find out if you are strong enough!

You can learn more about health at the SuppVersity

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Glutamine vs. Diabesity!

The scientists created receiver operating curves for muscle strength and the risk of MetS from a cross-sectional sample of 5685 young (<50 years) and 1541 older (>50 years) who enrolled in the Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study.

Table 1: Participant characteristics -- Continuous variables are presented as mean TSD, and categorical variables are presented a sn(%).

The primary outcome measure, the MetS, was defined according to the National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III criteria. Upper and lower body muscle strength was treated as a composite measure of one-repetition maximum tests on bench and leg press and scaled to body weight.

"Low muscle strength was defined as the lowest age-specific 20th percentile, whereas high muscle strength was defined as composite muscle strength above the 20th percentile."(Sénéchal. 2014)

If you take a look at the baseline values in Table 1 on the right hand side of this paragraph, you will see that the older gentlemen in the study at hand were not just significantly unfitter, they were also fatter (waist circumference) and had - no wonder - a significantly higher rate of metabolic syndrome.

Against that background it's not surprising that the study found highly significant risk increases for metabolic syndrome in those subjects with low vs. moderate / high muscle strength. After adjustment  for age, smoking status, and alcohol intake young weaklings' risk of developing metabolic syndrome is 120% higher than that of stronger young men. For the older guys, things don't look much better.

How strong is strong enough? In order to avoid the significant increase in metabolic syndrome risk, young men have to leg press and bench press 2.86kg per kg of body weight. Older men (50+) must have an average lower body and upper body strength (assessed as 1-RM on supine bench press and seated leg press) of 2.46kg per kg body mass. With a 112% risk increase the weak 50+ agers are also more than twice as likely to develop metabolic strength.

Unsurprisingly, a further adjustment for cardiovascular fitness lead to a significant reduction of the associated risks from +120% and +112% to 23% and 32% respectively. In that, it is probably worth mentioning that strength appears to have a greater influence in older vs. younger men.

The significant impact of an adjustment for physical fitness, i.e. a measure that has all to do with cardio training (LISS / HIIT) and general physical activity and only very little with how much you lift on a 1-RM max effort should yet remind you that brute strength alone is not going to save you (fat) ass if you are one of the 21.8% of people who (dis)qualified as being inactive in their leisure time.

"Trying to Build Strength? Periodized Training Yields 30% / 34% / 77% Increases in Bench Press, Squat and Deadlift Performance" | read more

Bottom line: While we have long known that muscular weakness is a correlate of increased mortality and reduced quality of life in the elderly, the study at hand is the first to provide some orientation as to how strong you have to be to avoid health problems.

In that it may be surprising that the difference between young and old men is significantly lower than you'd expect: 14% or 0.4kg per kg body weight that's not exactly much and a value that tells us that the 65-year-old 95kg father of a 35-year-old 90kg son has to bench and leg press only ~10% less than his son (233.7 kg vs. 257.4 kg | for bench + leg press).

...What? Yes, I am pissed, too, but I hope that the scientists will soon come up with a similar study in women. I mean, we all know that muscle strength is nothing only men benefit from, right?

Reference:

• Sénéchal, Martin, et al. "Cut-Points of Muscle Strength Associated with Metabolic Syndrome in Men." Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise (2014).

Fish Oil W/ High Peroxide Levels Is Useless and Can Negate the Beneficial Health Effects of an Omega-3 Rich Diet. Plus: 3 Tips to Help You Make the Right Fish Oil Choices

This describes the problem quite perfectly. You would never eat rancid fish - trust me, if you did it would take the same way out, it went in. Try the same with rancid fish oil caps and you will at best suffer from burping. Could be a sign your some of the "real fish" that stinks and warns you that a fish is rancid is still left in your oil, but I don't have a study to prove that.

Carl mentioned it on the Science Round-Up, but we did not really get to it, so I thought it would make a nice headliner for the weekend. A headliner, of which I have already pointed out that I doubt it will be responsible for the prostate cancer issues with fish oil (see Thursday's news). It does, allegedly, sound logical that the consumption of oxidized (=rancid) fish oil would precipitate the development of cancer, but it is not logical why this would happen in the prostate, yet nowhere else.

On the other hand, rancidity could, as this recent study from the  Miguel Hernandez University in Spain goes to show you, well negate the beneficial effects I enumerated at the end of the previous article and what's particularly nasty about the whole business is that it's hard or rather impossible to spot, whether your fish oil is rancid. With real fish you would start to vomit it up again, as your body knows that the smell and taste, which is largely due to components that have been filtered during the industrial manufacturing process of fish oil, is not good for you.

There is no rancid fish protein left in rancid fish oil - that's the problem

It is thus no wonder that popping the highly oxidized (=totally rancid) fish oil caps was not much of a problem for the 57 female participants of the study at hand. The women all suffered from dyslipemia (250–300 mg/dL and TG 160–175 mg/dL), but did not yet receive any medical treatment. During the one-month intervention period, all participants attended face-to-face training sessions, receiving instruction manuals that included a personal sample meal plan, recipes and information regarding physical activity. Body weight, height and blood pressure were repeatedly measured under standard conditions.

More importantly, the ladies followed similar dietary regimen with an overall energy intake of ranging from 1900 to 2000kcal/day. The meal planning included seven different daily "fish meal" options (macros: see table 1). Each meal option contained a dish of fish distributed as follows:

• 

  Table 1: Composition of the standardized hypocholestorolemic diet (Garciá-Hernandéz. 2013)

  Day 1: 120 g of sole for dinner,
• Day 2: 115 g of hake for lunch, 115 g cod for dinner, 
• Day 3: 120 g of swordfish for dinner,
• Day 4: 120 g of monk fish for dinner, 
• Day 5:120 g of salmon for dinner, 
• Day 6: 250 g of mullets for dinner and
• Day 7: 105 g of tuna for lunch, 105 g hake for dinner

You can see the daily intakes of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids in table 1. The daily energy expenditure was estimated according to Harris– Benedict equation.

Now I do agree, this does at first sight not look exactly like your typical supplement study and you are right. In my humble opinion the overtly healthy baseline diet and even more so the high amount of fish is a major design flaw, which will obviously reduce the validity of the results in a real world Western diet scenario.

Healthy diet + rancid fish oil = negative effect

In this scenario there are almost no intact omega-3 fatty acids in the baseline diet to counter the potential negative effects of rancid fish oil, so that the it is all the more remarkable that the scientists were still able to observe significant interferences with the blood pressure lowering and cholesterol normalizing effect of the fish oil in their study (see figure 1; additional benefits on BMI & co were not observed, by the way).

Figure 1: Rel. change in glucose, total cholesterol and systolic & diastolic blood pressure (Garcia-Hernandez. 2013)

If you scrutinize the data you will recognize that the dietary change alone yielded albeit non-significant reductions in total cholesterol, for example, that were actively reversed by the ingestion of 2 fish oil caps/day with a rather mediocre oxidation level of 47.67meq/kg, which is ~50% of the highest levels the researchers found in their batches of commercially available fish oil products and ~3x more than in the oils the other group received (peroxide level: 16.98meq/kg).

So how rancid is commercial fish oil, after all?

These differences actually lead us to the different peroxide levels of the fish oils Garcia-Hernandez et al. analyzed before and after 6 months of storage. As it is common practice, the authors don't encoded the products with numbers. So it is probably not useful for you, if I tell you that the fish oil with the lowest peroxide level in the study was #4. It had a peroxide index of 15.1meq/kg and contained 175mg of EPA and 125mg of DHA per serving. The most significant and at least for me surprising result of this part of the study is therefore the fact that ...

Figure 2: Fish oil does go rancid over time, vitamin E just turns an exponential into a linear process (Kulas. 2001)

"[...a]ll brands presented similar peroxide index after 6 months compared to time 0, indicating that the quality of the initial product rather than storage conditions was the main determinant in the oxidation of encapsulated oils.

This observation can be explained by the use of antioxidants in the moment of encapsulation. The majority of the brands, when indicated, reported the addition vitamin E (ranging from 0.5 to 10 mg/capsule) and some of them (five brands) used vitamins A (ranging from 375 to 1500mg/capsule) and D (ranging from 0.2 to 10mg per capsule)."  (Garciá-Hernandéz. 2013)

In other words, contrary to what I claimed on the Science Round-Up, storage (out of the sun, cold, etc.) does not seem to pose such a great risk for oxidation. At first this struck me as being quite odd. Not because I am infallible, but rather because it contrasts the data in figure 2, which shows the results of a 2001 study by Kulas & Ackman in the course of which they tested the oxidation rates for fish oil with different forms of vitamin E that were stored protected from sunlight, but at 30°C (obviously not optimal, but not unrealistic in the warmer climates, either).

It's the oxygen exposure during storage that makes the difference

There is yet one significant difference I did not take into consideration at first and that's the lack of oxygen exposure, when the fish oil is properly encapsulated. Contrary to the caps the Spanish researchers had bought, the fish oil in the Kulas study was stored in a brown, yet not air-tight bottle. It's quite obvious that the oxidation process will stop, once all the oxygen that may have been inside the caps has been "consumed". So that it appears plausible to assume that your fish oil, as long as you buy it in caps and not in a bottle, will last a couple of months without going even more rancid than it was, when it left the manufacturing plant.

---

Suggested read for all of you who are now considering to switch from fish in capsules to real fish: "Making the Right Fish Choices" (read more)

Bottom line: So, the good news is, if you store your caps properly (best, but not necessarily in the fridge and protected from the sunlight), it's not your fault, when they are rancid. The bad news is however that your fish oil can very well already be rancid enough to lack any measurable benefits once you buy it and may - in the worst case not improve, but worsen blood lipids , even if you are, like the ladies in the study at hand, already getting plenty of good omega-3s in your diet - even in that case, the two rancid fish oil caps per day won't kill you, though... I guess ;-)

So what can be done? If you still want to take your beloved fish oil? Well, one thing should be obvious: (A) Don't buy bottled fish oil! Whenever you open the bottle you'll restart the oxidation process. Another thing you may do in case you insist on supplementing with fish oil instead of simply eating fish, is to (B) buy fish oil from a supplier who has the peroxide index of the final product controlled for each batch by an independent lab. And (C) chew your fish oil caps! While the taste is not as bad as with rancid fish, you still got a chance to identify whether your fish oil is rancid - if it has not or not totally been cleansed. In fact, a 1975 study by Huss et al. suggests that the highest "acceptable" (=does not taste off) peroxide index for crude (not processed) fish oil is only 7-8meq/kg, which happens to be less than the "best" fish oil in the study. So, in case "your" fish oil doesn't just taste like dead fish, but rather like dead fish after being stored in the heat for weeks, you better try to find another source.

References:

• Djoussé L, Gaziano JM, Buring JE, Lee IM. Dietary omega-3 fatty acids and fish consumption and risk of type 2 diabetes. Am J Clin Nutr. 2011 Jan;93(1):143-50. doi: 10.3945/ajcn.110.005603. Epub 2010 Oct 27.
• García-Hernández VM, Gallar M, Sánchez-Soriano J, Micol V, Roche E, García-García E. Effect of omega-3 dietary supplements with different oxidation levels in the lipidic profile of women: a randomized controlled trial. Int J Food Sci Nutr. 2013 Jul 18. [Epub ahead of print]
• Huss HH. 1975. Principal changes during storage wet fish FAO/DANIDA training course on quality aspects in the handing and storage of fish 4, Copenhagen (Denmark), Rome (Italy): FAO, 15p.
• Kulås E, Ackman RG. Different tocopherols and the relationship between two methods for determination of primary oxidation products in fish oil. J Agric Food Chem. 2001 Apr;49(4):1724-9.

Are Camels the Better Cows? Cancer, Heart Disease, High LDL and Triglycerides, Diabetes, High Blood Pressure, Allergies, Viral and Bacterial Infections and Trace Mineral Deficiencies, Camel Milk Prevents or Fixes Them All!

Image 1: To the average inhabitant of the Western hemisphere camels are probably not the most beautiful animals under the sun; but hey, cows aren't either, hah?

When muscle-heads think of dairy, they think of whey, they think of casein, they think of cottage cheese... but I bet few of them will think of camels! Even if you just went by the mere amino acid composition (see. figure 2 at the end of the article), of which you, as an educated SuppVersity student should by now be aware that it does not give you the 'whole picture', as far as the biological effects of a given protein and peptide containing foodstuff is concerned, it appears that camel milk would at least make an excellent alternative for cows milk, in case global warming is progressing and Europe and the US turn into desert wastelands... but all jokes aside, muscle is not everything and I bet that after reading this article you will be interested to register for the US' first official camel milking seminar *rofl*

7+1 reasons you may want to slaughter your grass fed cows and replace them with camels

While the idea of drinking the milk of an ugly desert ship may appear hilarious at first, I guess my compilation of purported and scientifically established benefits of camels milk will have you reconsider if the Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashed Al-Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, may not have made a very good investment, when he spent $16.5 million dirham ($4.5 million USD) on the winner of a 2008 beauty pageant in the United Arab Emirates’ capital city of Abu Dhabi (FYI, the guy in image 1 is not the Sheikh, just tom make sure I don't get sued, here ;-):

Image 2 (DrCate.com): Homogenization makes milk more convenient, but it disrupts the natural structure of the fat globules and releases the otherwise bound xanthine oxidase of which scientists hypothesized that it could trigger heart disease, a hypothesis, btw., that was not disproven, but simply kept quiet for the past 25+ years (Deeth. 1983)

• Little to no xanthine oxidase (=reductase) - While the idea that XOR (xanthine oxidoreductase), which is supposedly released during homogenization of bovine milk, could be a potential contributor to overall inflammation and cardiovascular disease has disappeared from the 'scientific radar' within the past couple of years (cf. Deeth. 1983; Berry. 2004) , it may still be of interest (and for certain populations such as people with increased gut permeability even of great importance) that camel milk apparently contains little to no xanthine oxidase - irrespective of whether you drink it raw, pasteurized or homogenized (Baghiani. 2003).
• Anticancer effects - Camels milk has been shown to trigger apoptosis (controlled cell death) in human breast cancer and liver cancer cells via epigenetic mechanisms (Korashi. Feb 2012; Korashi. May 2012).
• Antibacterial & antiviral effects -Camel milk prevents gram positive bacteria from growing and reduces the amounts and activity of gram-negative cultures (el Agamy. 1992). With the latter being among the primary drivers of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and endotoxin induced inflammation (Ulevitch. 1999), camel milk could thus help to reduce local and systemic inflammation. Aside from its activity against rotavirus, the lactoferrin faction from camel milk appears to have protective effects against hepatitis C, as well (Redwan. 2007).
• Camel milk whole- & beta-caseins act as natural anti-oxidants and ACE-inhibitors - As Salami et al have shown the whole casein and beta-casein (β-CN) faction(s) of camel milk exert Angiotensin Converting Enzyme (ACE)-inhibitory (=blood pressure reducing) and antioxidant activity after they were hydrolyzed in the stomach (Salami. 2011). In a previous study, the same researchers had already determined that the whey fraction of camel milk exhibits significant anti-oxidant and antimicrobial activities, as well, and that those were up to 100% greater (depending on the essay and fraction the scientists used) than those of bovine whey protein (Salami. 2010).



Figure 1: A certain part of the population in Rajasthan (India) who consumes camel milk on a daily basis has been found to have a significantly reduced incidence of diabetes (not a single one!), impaired fasting glucose (-6%/-11%) and impaired glucose tolerance (-10%/-10%) than both non-camel milk drinking parts of the Raica community or other non-camel milk drinkers from the same region (based on Agrawal. 2007)

• Profound and long-lasting anti-diabetic effects - Camel milk has a long history of being used to tread type 1 diabetes in the Middle East (see figure 1; cf. Mohamad. 2009). Studies from animal models (dogs, Sbou. 2010) and humans (Agrawal. 2009; Mohamad. 2009) improved blood glucose, microalbumenia and secondary symptoms such as diabetic neuropathy. Probably also as a consequence of the small, but biologically active natural insulin content of camels milk (Malik .2012), the type 1 diabetics in a 2009 study by Agrawal could even reduce their insulin medication by 32% from 41µ/day to 28µ/day. In the 2-year follow up, the researchers report that "out of 12 subjects receiving camel milk, insulin requirement in 3 subjects reduced to zero" (Agrawal. 2011) - try that with metformin, let alone some of the other 'diabetes prolongation drugs'.
• Improved lipid metabolism - The 24 type one diabetics who consumed 500ml of plain camel milk per day for 6 months in the aforementioned 2009 study by Agrawal et al. for example exhibited -30% decreases in LDL and -66% decrease in triglycerides.
• Camel milk is an extraordinary good source of trace minerals - According to Al-Awidi et al. Camel milk contains 7-20x and 1-10x higher levels of manganese and iron than human milk, more zinc and comparable amounts of selenium, copper and other protein bound and thus highly bioavailable trace minerals (Al-Awadi. 2001).

And best of all, based on studies on people with cow's milk allergy, we know that the incidence of allergic reactions to camel milk is not only much lower, but also that 80% of cow's milk allergy sufferers can actually ingest camel milk without any unwanted side-effects (Cardoso. 2010; Ehlayel. 2011).

Figure 2: Even if you go solely by the amino acid composition (here expressed relative to the total amino acids), camel milk protein could be a valid replacement for bovine proteins (data based on Davis. 1994 & Beg. 1987)

This is also worth mentioning, because the host of great effects I listed above do - at least in parts - also occur with the unwarrantedly vilified bovine (=cow's) milk, which also contains ACE precursors (Saito. 2008), exert anti-cancer effects (Gill. 2000), and so much more (see "suggested readings" at the end of this article).

So, in the unfortunate case that you "ain't got no camel handy" at the moment and, due to "the current economy" (I hate when people say that) lack the $1300 to $1700 (Debacle. 2006) to buy your own, obviously not  pageant winning $16.5 million dirham camel, and tolerate bovine milk, just stick to the milk of the farmer you trust. After all, even if Camels were the better cows, you better have a gallon of cows milk in the fridge than a camel in the Arabian desert, right? Ah, wait that was a bird in the hand, right? ... ah, whatever ;-)

Suggested readings:

• Ask Dr. Andro: Are Colostrum and Milk Products in General Healthy Muscle Builders, a Waste of Money or Toxic Waste?
• Childhood Asthma: Children Born to Mothers Who Consume Semi-Skimmed Milk 8% More Likely, Kids of Whole Milk Drinking Mothers 15% Less Likely to Develop Asthma
• The Fat Truth Behind the Dairy Weight Loss Miracle: MUFA and PUFA Impair, Saturated Fat and Plenty of Micronutrients Drive Full-Fat Dairy-Powered Fat Loss.
• Higher Calcium Intake Greater Fatty Acid Oxidation!? True: Chronic & Acute Effect Size Comparable to Caffeine
• Read all about milk here at the SuppVersity

References:

1. Agrawal RP, Budania S, Sharma P, Gupta R, Kochar DK, Panwar RB, Sahani MS. Zero prevalence of diabetes in camel milk consuming Raica community of north-west Rajasthan, India. Diabetes Res Clin Pract. 2007 May;76(2):290-6.
2. Agrawal RP, Dogra R, Mohta N, Tiwari R, Singhal S, Sultania S. Beneficial effect of camel milk in diabetic nephropathy. Acta Biomed. 2009 Aug;80(2):131-4. 
3. Agrawal RP, Jain S, Shah S, Chopra A, Agarwal V. Effect of camel milk on glycemic control and insulin requirement in patients with type 1 diabetes: 2-years randomized controlled trial. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2011 Sep;65(9):1048-52. doi: 10.1038/ejcn.2011.98. Epub 2011 Jun 1.
4. Al-Awadi FM, Srikumar TS. Trace elements and their distribution in protein fractions of camel milk in comparison to other commonly consumed milks. J Dairy Res. 2001 Aug;68(3):463-9.
5. Baghiani A, Harrison R, Benboubetra M. Purification and partial characterisation of camel milk xanthine oxidoreductase. Arch Physiol Biochem. 2003 Dec;111(5):407-14.
6. Beg OU, von Bahr-Lindström H, Zaidi ZH, Jörnvall H. Characterization of a heterogeneous camel milk whey non-casein protein. FEBS Lett. 1987 Jun 1;216(2):270-4.
7. Berry CE, Hare JM. Xanthine oxidoreductase and cardiovascular disease: molecular mechanisms and pathophysiological implications. J Physiol. 2004 Mar 16;555(Pt 3):589-606.
8. Cardoso RR, Santos RM, Cardoso CR, Carvalho MO. Consumption of camel's milk by patients intolerant to lactose. A preliminary study. Rev Alerg Mex. 2010 Jan-Feb;57(1):26-32.
9. Davis TA, Nguyen HV, Garcia-Bravo R, Fiorotto ML, Jackson EM, Lewis DS, Lee DR, Reeds PJ. Amino acid composition of human milk is not unique. J Nutr. 1994 Jul;124(7):1126-32.
10. Deeth HC. Homogenized milk and atherosclerotic disease: a review. J Dairy Sci. 1983 Jul;66(7):1419-35.
11. Gill HS, Cross ML. Anticancer properties of bovine milk. Br J Nutr. 2000 Nov;84 Suppl 1:S161-6. Review.
12. Ehlayel MS, Hazeima KA, Al-Mesaifri F, Bener A. Camel milk: an alternative for cow's milk allergy in children. Allergy Asthma Proc. 2011 May-Jun;32(3):255-8.
13. el Agamy EI, Ruppanner R, Ismail A, Champagne CP, Assaf R. Antibacterial and antiviral activity of camel milk protective proteins. J Dairy Res. 1992 May;59(2):169-75. 
14. Gill HS, Cross ML. Anticancer properties of bovine milk. Br J Nutr. 2000 Nov;84 Suppl 1:S161-6. Review.
15. Korashy HM, El Gendy MA, Alhaider AA, El-Kadi AO. Camel milk modulates the expression of aryl hydrocarbon receptor-regulated genes, Cyp1a1, Nqo1, and Gsta1, in murine hepatoma Hepa 1c1c7 cells. J Biomed Biotechnol. 2012;2012:782642. Epub 2012 Feb 27.
16. Korashy HM, Maayah ZH, Abd-Allah AR, El-Kadi AO, Alhaider AA. Camel Milk Triggers Apoptotic Signaling Pathways in Human Hepatoma HepG2 and Breast Cancer MCF7 Cell Lines through Transcriptional Mechanism. J Biomed Biotechnol. 2012;2012:593195. Epub 2012 May 13.
17. Debacle J. Long or Short Capital. Camels, The Next Big Thing. August 1, 2006. < http://longorshortcapital.com/camels-the-next-big-thing.htm > received on July 13, 2012
18. Malik A, Al-Senaidy A, Skrzypczak-Jankun E, Jankun J. A study of the anti-diabetic agents of camel milk. Int J Mol Med. 2012 Sep;30(3):585-92.
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Olive Leave Extract Equally Effective at Lowering Blood Pressure as ACE Inhibitor Captopril

For those who read yesterday's news on the negative effect of caffeine on exercise induced blood pressure response, it might be of interest that no more than 500mg of Olive (Olea europaea) leaf extract may well counteract the negative effect of caffeine intake and help with triglyceride levels, as well.

In a double-blind, randomized, parallel and active-controlled clinical study (Susalit. 2010) an international team of scientists found that after a run-in period of 4 weeks continued subsequently by an 8-week treatment period supplementation with Olive (Olea europaea L.) leaf extract (EFLA®943) at 500 mg twice daily was equally effective in reducing blood pressure as the ACE inhibitor Captopril, which was given at the dosage regimen of 12.5 mg twice daily for the first two weeks and (if necessary) at 25 mg twice daily for the rest of the treatment period:

After 8 weeks of treatment, both groups experienced a significant reduction of systolic blood pressure (SBP) as well as diastolic blood pressure (DBP) from baseline; while such reductions were not significantly different between groups. Means of SBP reduction from baseline to the end of study were −11.5 ± 8.5 and −13.7 ± 7.6 mm Hg in Olive and Captopril groups, respectively; and those of DBP were −4.8 ± 5.5 and −6.4 ± 5.2 mm Hg, respectively.

What is even more intriguing is the concomitant reduction in triglyceride level, which was observed exclusively in the Olive, but not in Captopril group.

Figure1: Plasma Triglyceride levels throughout the study in the subgroup with baseline triglyceride level of > 200 mg/dl (Susalit. 2010).

So, if you are on blood pressure medication, you may well consider talking to your doctor if you could test-drive some Olive leaf extract to get off those nasty ACE inhibitors. But beware, I strongly advise against dropping the ACE "cold turkey"! It would rather be wise to reduce the dosage and to simultaneously begin supplementing Olive leaf extract to see how your body reacts.