Health News

First up, Gary Taubes, author of Good Calories, Bad Calories and Why We Get Fat and What to Do About It will be on the Dr. Oz show tomorrow. Catch it if you can.

EDITED: Taubes filmed today but the episode won't air until 3/7. Sorry about the confusion. I got bad info intially.

Next, Ketogenic Diets and Physical Performance.

"Impaired physical performance is a common but not obligate result of a low carbohydrate diet. Lessons from traditional Inuit culture indicate that time for adaptation, optimized sodium and potassium nutriture, and constraint of protein to 15–25 % of daily energy expenditure allow unimpaired endurance performance despite nutritional ketosis."

Hibiscus Powder and Metabolic Syndrome.

"Significant differences in total cholesterol, HDL-c, and the TAG/HDL-c ratio were found when the means of absolute differences among treatments were compared. Therefore, in addition to the well documented hypotensive effects of Hibiscus sabdariffa (HSEP), we suggest the use of HSEP in individuals with dyslipidemia associated with Metabolic Syndrome."

The study used a powder in a standardized dose, but no one is really selling this as supplement yet as the studies seem to be newish. Amazon has a loose powder you could buy, but who wants to deal with that? Fortunately, lots of herbal tea blends use Hibiscus--look for the Celestial Seasonings Zingers at the grocery store.

The FDA knew there were quality issues with the manufacturer of contaminated baby wipes that killed a toddler.

Court upholds law blocking patients from suing vaccine manufacturers. Interesting read. To date, more than $1.9 billion has been paid out to compensate patients for vaccine injuries.

Oral magnesium supplementation reduces insulin resistance in non-diabetic subjects – a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized trial

"The results provide significant evidence that oral Mg supplementation improves insulin sensitivity even in normomagnesemic, overweight, non-diabetic subjects emphasizing the need for an early optimization of Mg status to prevent insulin resistance and subsequently type 2 diabetes"