Sugar is catastrophic for the body, study suggests

Sugar is getting an increasingly bad rap. Only last week, a leaked report by government advisory group Public Health England - which health secretary Jeremy Hunt initially tried to keep hushed – pinpointed sugar’s role in a soaring obesity crisis and proposed “a price increase of a minimum of 10%-20% on high-sugar products through the use of a tax or levy”.

Meanwhile, on Monday 20 October, celebrity chef Jamie Oliver gave evidence to the Health Committee on childhood obesity about why a sugar tax should be slapped onto food and drink, despite previous opposition to the idea by some ministers, including Prime Minister David Cameron, who instead has indicated that measures such as a clampdown on advertising and marketing deals could form part of a childhood obesity strategy.

Oliver has already added a sugar-levy to his restaurant chains, but has faced criticism for his apparent lack of understanding about the issue of obesity – especially within the different social classes.
However, the celebrity chef’s grave concerns about the impact of sugar on the human body would appear to carry weight, with the suggestions from a new study that reducing sugar in diets even without cutting calories or losing weight can significantly boost health in less than 10 days.
The study, featured in the journal Obesity, looked at obese children and discovered significant changes in lowering blood pressure and cholesterol in less than a fortnight.

In total, 43 children aged nine to 18 took part in the study at the University of California San Francisco Benioff Children’s Hospital. All children participating in the study were obese with at least one other chronic disorder, such as high blood pressure.

They were given 9 days of food prepared for them by the clinic and were weighed each day. The added sugar in their diet was cut back from 28% to 10%. In addition, the fructose – a type of sugar often advisable to limit – was reduced from 12% to 4% of their total calorie intake.

Results clearly showed that the new meal plan given to the children resulted in major improvements to their health in a short duration. Diastolic blood pressure dropped by 5mm, levels of blood fats called triglycerides dropped by 33 points, LDL-cholesterol, also known as “bad” cholesterol, dropped by 10 points, and liver function tests improved.

The diet overall stuck to the same fat, protein, carbohydrate, and calorie levels as their previous diets at home, but sugary food was replaced by starchy food such as turkey, hot dogs, crisps and pizza.
The Scientists involved in the study state that sugar was “metabolically harmful not because of its calories” but due to the fact it is putting a lot of strain on the body.

The study assessed potential impacts of limiting sugar on metabolic syndrome, a cluster of conditions that raise heart disease risk, stroke and Type 2 diabetes. Those with metabolic syndrome may find they have raised blood pressure, high blood glucose levels, excess body fat around the waist and unusual cholesterol levels.

During the study, those children that did lose weight, were then given more low sugar foods to keep weight stable.

Lead author, Dr Robert Lustig, said: “This study definitively shows that sugar is metabolically harmful not because of its calories or its effects on weight; rather sugar is metabolically harmful because it’s sugar.

“This internally controlled intervention study is a solid indication that sugar contributes to metabolic syndrome, and is the strongest evidence to date that the negative effects of sugar are not because of calories or obesity.”

Jean-Marc Schwarz, senior author of the paper, added: “I have never seen results as striking or significant in our human studies.

“After only nine days of fructose restriction, the results are dramatic and consistent from subject to subject.”

“All of the surrogate measures of metabolic health got better, just by substituting starch for sugar in their processed food — all without changing calories or weight or exercise,” said Dr Lustig.
“These findings support the idea that it is essential for parents to evaluate sugar intake and to be mindful of the health effects of what their children are consuming.

“When we took the sugar out, the kids started responding to their satiety cues.

“They told us it felt like so much more food, even though they were consuming the same number of calories as before, just with significantly less sugar.

“Some said we were overwhelming them with food.”

Dr Lustig said: “This study demonstrates that a calorie is not a calorie.

“Where those calories come from determines where in the body they go.”

“Sugar calories are the worst, because they turn to fat in the liver, driving insulin resistance, and driving risk for diabetes, heart, and liver disease.

“This has enormous implications for the food industry, chronic disease, and health care costs.”

Dr Aseem Malhotra, a cardiologist and advisor to Action on Sugar, said: “It’s time to abandon the outdated notion that a calorie is a calorie theory that continues to damage public health. This study provides further evidence that all calories do not have the same metabolic effects on the body with sugar calories being particularly harmful.”

Tracy Parker, heart health dietitian at the British Heart Foundation, said: “This study is interesting, but we need more research to confirm these findings. Previous studies have suggested that eating too much added sugar increases a person’s risk of development of the various diseases, including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, hypertension and high cholesterol, because of the link with excess calorie intake leading to obesity.”

Quit smoking for 15 years…and it could be like you had never smoked!

All smokers take note: new research has shown that those successfully quit smoking for a sustained period of 15 years, can massively decrease the chance of suffering with heart failure or even dying.

U.S. Scientists made the remarkable discovery that people who stopped smoking almost two decades previously, had a comparable risk to those that had never smoked before.

Despite the findings clearly being a positive for all smokers across the globe, heavier smokers – i.e. those that had gone through at least a packet of cigarettes each day for 32 years or more – still had a slightly increased risk of health problems.

However, lead researcher Dr Ali Ahmed, from the Washington DC VA Medical Center, is pretty clear with the message…people either need to cut down on their smoking, stop smoking as early as they can, or simply never start smoking.

He commented: “While all individuals who quit smoking will benefit from a decreased chance of death, to achieve the full complement of health benefits of smoking cessation of one who has never smoked, smokers need to smoke less and quit early, and for those are not smokers – never start smoking.”

The findings were extracted via the most recent data from the Cardiovascular Health Study, which comprised of 2,556 people that had claimed to never smoked, 629 present smokers and 1,297 previous smokers. Every participant in the study was aged 65 or over, and 312 of the previous smokers admitted to heavy cigarette usage – smoking at least one pack daily for 32 years or more.

After a 13 year follow-up evaluation, the proportion of never smokers and previous smokers who had suffered heart failure, was found to be 21% in both groups. Within the group of former smokers that had consumed one pack per day for at least 32 years, nearly 30% suffered heart failure.

Comparison of mortality risks among present smokers and heavy smokers to never smokers was an interesting find. Researchers accounted for factors such as age, sex, race, education, other health conditions and medications, discovering that present smokers were around twice more likely to die from other diseases in comparison to those that had never smoked, and previous smokers were found to be 26% more likely to die compared to the never smokers.

Dr Ahmed told Reuters: “When one smokes, it induces atherosclerosis, or the buildup of plaque in the arteries. However, when one quits smoking, the buildup of plaque and risk of blood of clots decreases, allowing one’s cardiovascular risk to return to normal over time.”

Atherosclerosis is the medical term used when a person’s arteries have become narrower and harderned, usually caused by a high level of ‘bad’ low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol.
Statins like atorvastatin (Lipitor) and rosuvastatin (Crestor) are currently taken by around 7 million people in Britain, and work to decrease rates of LDL cholesterol by reducing the production of LDL cholesterol inside the liver. It is dangerous to have high rates of LDL cholesterol as this causes the atherosclerosis, resulting in a higher risk of heart attack, stroke and coronary heart disease.

Earl Grey tea as good as statins at fighting heart disease?

Every office has that one person who is brew-shy and will avoid having to fill up the kettle at all costs! However, these type of people may reconsider after scientists discovered that drinking Earl Grey tea could help to protest against the onset of heart disease.

The tasty beverage – a popular drink in television program Downton Abbey -  contains a fragrant Mediterranean citrus fruit bergamot, an extract responsible for the distinct taste and smell which experts found can be as beneficial as statins like Atorvastatin or Pravastatin in lowering bad cholesterol and ultimately lowering the risk of heart disease.

New research has shown that Earl’s Grey tea contains enzymes called HMGF (hydroxy methyl glutaryl flavonones), which work at fighting the body’s proteins that help to cause cardiovascular disease – something which is the primary reason for a quarter of deaths in the UK.

The study was conducted by scientists from Italy’s University of Calabria, who worked with concentrations of HMGF on the proteins that are responsible for ‘bad’ cholesterol and heart disease.
Writing in the Journal of Functional Foods, they said that a dietary supplement of HMGF could be as comparable as statin therapy in fighting low-density proteins (LDL) or ‘bad’ cholesterol, with the bergamot extract with HMGF working just as well as the medications after comparison.

Not only were levels of the bad LDL cholesterol reduced, but researchers also found that the bergamot extract also increased HDL, also referred to as ‘good cholesterol’.

Citrus foods belong to the heavily praised ‘Mediterranean diet’, something which adhered to,  many health experts argue it can dramatically lower the risk of heart disease. Food and drink from this diet that can aid health include a moderate consumption of ethanol – derived from the wine, low consumption of meat, and high intake of vegetables, fruit, nuts, legumes, fish and olive oil.

Bergamot has only been added to many traditional Mediterranean‘folk’ medicines for the treatment of wounds, inflammation and as an antiseptic, in addition to its boost for the heart.

The journal’s report said: “High cholesterol is a common health concern for us all and often statins are given to help treat the condition. Extract from bergamot – most commonly used in Earl Grey tea – reduced total cholesterol and LDL levels but there was an increase in HDL levels (good cholesterol). Therefore a daily supplement of bergamot fruit extract could be very effective for the treatment of high cholesterol.”

Cholesterol-busting statins such as Crestor (Rosuvastatin) and Lipitor (Atorvastatin) are currently prescribed to around 7 million Brits and function by raising good/protective cholesterol (HDL) and lowering bad cholesterol (LDL) and triglycerides. The higher your cholesterol level, the higher your risk of suffering a heart attack or stroke due to your arteries being clogged up with the fat-like substance known as cholesterol.

Self-injectable cholesterol drug alirocumab is in the pipeline

Pharmaceutical giants Sanofi and Regeneron have developed a potentially ground-breaking new cholesterol drug – currently named ‘alirocumab’ – which analysts are predicting could be a massive sensation and bring in billions of dollars for its creators if the late-stage trials prove successful.

The new cholesterol-lowering drug is self-injectable and belongs to a class of biotech medicines named PCSK9 inhibitors, providing a different method of clearing the fatty deposits that can cause clogging within the arterial walls leading the way to a high risk of poor health, heart disease, strokes and other health complications.

Bad cholesterol, commonly referred to as “low density lipoprotein,” is one of the primary factors behind clogged arteries. If your body is generating sufficient amounts of good cholesterol, or “high density lipoprotein,” this helps the bad cholesterol to be cleared from the arterial walls and subsequently removed from the bloodstream via the liver. However, if you are low on good cholesterol, levels of bad cholesterol will rise and result in clogging in the arterial walls.

Health experts believe that PCSK9 inhibitors could be the biggest breakthrough in the fight against heart disease in two decades, since statins such as Lipitor, Crestor and Zocor have emerged.

Alirocumab contains man-made antibodies that target a particular protein which stops the body from getting rid of the bad LDL cholesterol from the bloodstream. They differ from the statins as statins actually prevent the liver’s production of LDL cholesterol.

Results from the new drug tested in a 100-patient trial are imminent and Sanofi are hopeful it may reach the market in two years’ time. Unfortunately, success will probably hinder on the results of more long-term clinical studies comprising on thousands of patients – and more reliable and trusted results will probably not be available for another five years from such studies.

Following tests in the initial Phase III study, alirocumab was found to reduce levels of LDL cholesterol by up to an incredible 72% and it is now being pitted against Merck’s Zetia, which has been shown to lower LDL cholesterol levels by around 19-24%.

Alirocumab is likely be prescribed to those with genetically-high cholesterol levels, patients deemed ‘high risk’ and who are not reaching cholesterol targets on whichever statin they are taking, and patients who could have a low tolerance to statins.

Speaking at a conference earlier this month, Sanofi’s CEO Chris Viehbacher said the French drugmaker may consider doubling its stake in Regeneron, clearing having faith in the ability and success of alirocumab.

He commented: “When you look at the number of patients who are willing to inject themselves daily for diabetes, and you know a lot of those patients are also going to be in your patient population for PCSK9, I actually think that the injectable part is not going to be as big a barrier as people think. I think it is going to be a paradigm shift for healthcare and a potentially huge opportunity for us.”

Unfortunately, the need for alirocumab to be injected and the high costs involved will deter many and pricing will be a major issue in the UK as the NHS already facing numerous deficit-cutting measures. Certainly the new drug, if and when it eventually hits the market, will be substantially more expensive than statins – currently prescribed to around 7 million people in the UK.