Mediterranean diet 'aids fertility'

Men who eat a diet rich in fruit, vegetables and fish could boost their chances of becoming a father, according to a new study.

A Mediterranean-style diet, which also contains leafy vegetables, pulses and whole grains, can enhance sperm motility by 11%.

This could be especially important for couples who are trying to conceive naturally due the need for sperm to be "strong swimmers".

The research comes as a separate study found that men who take moderate exercise can also positively impact their sperm motility. Both studies were presented at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) conference in Orlando.

In the first, experts from universities including the Harvard School of Public Health, examined the diets of more than 180 men aged 18 to 22. They split those who ate any Mediterranean-type items into four sub-sets, from those with the highest intake of these nutrient-rich foods to those with the lowest. Those in the highest group had an increased sperm motility of 11% compared to the lowest.

Audrey Gaskins, from Harvard's Department of Nutrition, said: "I think motility is most important for couples who are trying to conceive naturally. It's our hope that a small increase could lead to a small increase in fertility rates."

Dr Allan Pacey, senior lecturer from the academic unit of reproductive and developmental medicine at the University of Sheffield, said the influence of a man's diet on semen quality had been of interest for some time. He said the latest study "nicely illustrates that a good diet is of benefit when trying to conceive".

In the second study, from experts at Yamaguchi University in Japan, 215 men attending an IVF clinic completed a questionnaire about their exercise habits and gave semen samples.

The group reporting moderate exercise had the highest average sperm motility as well as a significantly lower percentage of men with less than 40% sperm motility (14.3%). In the lowest exercise group, 30.8% of men had sperm motility under 40% and 27.1% of men who exercised intensely had sperm motility under 40%.

Dr Dolores Lamb, president-elect of the ASRM, said: "Exercise is a component of an overall healthy lifestyle, which contributes to reproductive health. This study which uses frequency, intensity, and duration to quantify the amount of exercise a subject gets, shows that a moderate exercise routine may be recommended to modestly improve semen parameters in men with no known conditions that impair their reproductive capacity."

UkPress

Mediterranean Diet tied to fewer Birth defects

Women who eat a better diet leading up to pregnancy are less likely to have babies with birth defects, including brain and spine problems as well as cleft lip and cleft palate, according to a U.S. study.

Researchers found that fewer babies were born with defects such as neural tube defects when mothers-to-be more closely followed either a Mediterranean diet -- high in beans, fruits, fish and grains, and low in diary, meat and sweets -- or the U.S. food guide pyramid guidelines for a healthy diet.

The findings were published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

"A lot of birth defects, including neural tube defects, occur very early in pregnancy, before women even know they're pregnant," said Suzan Carmichael from Stanford University, who worked on the study.

"These messages are important for women who are at any risk of becoming pregnant."

The bottom line for women who are pregnant, or may get pregnant, is eating a variety of foods, including a lot of fruit, vegetables and grain, and taking a vitamin supplement that contains folic acid, she added.

Low levels of folate during pregnancy were linked to brain and spinal birth defects in the late 1990s, and pregnant women are recommended to take a prenatal vitamin with folic acid and iron.

Carmichael and her colleagues wondered if eating a healthy, balanced diet could have the same protective effect as getting extra vitamins and minerals through supplements. They used data from the National Birth Defects Prevention Study to compare about 3,400 women who had a baby with a neural tube defect or a cleft lip or palate, and 6,100 women whose babies didn't have a birth defect.

Birth Defects

Each of those women completed a phone interview in the two years after her baby was born.

Researchers asked the new mothers how frequently they had eaten a range of foods, from beans to candy, in the few months before they became pregnant. Then they calculated how closely women had followed the so-called "Mediterranean diet" ir the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Guide Pyramid.

After taking into account how much the women weighed, whether they took vitamins and if they smoked and drank, Carmichael and her colleagues found that those who more closely followed either healthy diet were less likely to have babies with any of the birth defects they studied.

In particular, women with a diet closely matching the USDA Food Guide Pyramid were half as likely to have a baby missing part of its brain and skull -- a birth defect called anencephaly -- than women whose diet was farthest from those guidelines. They were also 34 percent less likely to have a baby with cleft lip and 26 percent less likely to have one with cleft palate.

Epidemiologist David Jacobs, from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, said the findings suggest that a healthy diet can lower the risk of birth defects in the same way that has happened through folic acid fortification.

"If you are a woman about to become pregnant or think you might become pregnant, it's all the more reason for you to take care of yourself and seek out better foods," Jacobs, who wrote a commentary accompanying the study, told Reuters Health.

Luz de Regil, from the World Health Organization's Department of Nutrition of Health and Development in Geneva, cautioned that with the current evidence about the benefits of prenatal supplements, a good diet isn't enough.

On a global scale, especially in places where diets aren't as good, folic acid is still a priority for preventing birth defects, she told Reuters Health.

"If a woman is trying to get pregnant, a good diet should be a complement to the use of folic acid supplementation, not a substitute," said de Regil, who wasn't involved in the study.

"Having a baby (and) a good pregnancy is a result of many things." SOURCE: bit.ly/ovBiCs

Study Finds Olive Oil Better than Medication for Heart Disease

According to preliminary results of a Spanish study part of PREDIMED, a long-term nutritional intervention study aimed to assess the efficacy of the Mediterranean diet in the primary prevention of cardiovascular diseases, virgin olive oil is more effective in reducing heart disease than drugs.

Researchers are reporting that a Mediterranean diet enriched with virgin olive oil or nuts can reverse arteriosclerosis in carotid arteries in just one year.

The study included 187 participants over the age of 55 who were randomly assigned to 3 groups; the olive oil group followed the Mediterranean diet supplemented with 15 liters of virgin olive oil per three months which corresponded to about 10 tablespoons a day, the nut group also followed the Mediterranean diet with 30 grams (about 1 ounce) a day of walnuts, almonds and hazelnuts, and the low fat diet group which were given instructions and material to follow a low-fat diet.

All the volunteers had the thickness of the artery walls of their carotid arteries measured, both at the beginning of the study and at the end of a year. “We thus observed who had suffered the greatest thickening of this layer, due to arteriosclerosis, a significant improvement and regression of lesions having taken place in those cases that had followed a Mediterranean diet enriched with virgin olive oil or nuts. This improvement was not observed amongst those who did not have thickening of the artery wall at the start of the study,” according to Dr. Ana Sánchez-Tainta, one of the researchers.

From the results it was concluded that “a modification in the entire diet pattern managed to achieve, in just one year, results that pharmaceutical drugs did not – even after two years of treatment.”

Lower Risk of Alzheimer's Disease with The Mediterranean Diet

Q. We have heard that people who drink fruit and vegetable juice have a significantly lower risk of Alzheimer's disease. Are veggie juices as good as fruit juices? What about wine?
A. Several studies suggest that food could play a role in the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. A Mediterranean diet has been associated with less cognitive impairment and dementia (Current Alzheimer's Research, August 2011). In particular, a diet high in nonstarchy vegetables, fruits, nuts and berries seems to be somewhat protective (Journal of Nutrition, Sept. 1, 2009).
Tomatoes are rich in antioxidant compounds, and so are berries, tea, cocoa, pomegranates and wine. New research suggests that moderate social drinking, particularly wine, also may reduce the likelihood of developing cognitive impairment or Alzheimer's disease (Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment online, Aug. 11, 2011).

Q. Back in 2005, I had a horrible persistent cough. After a CT scan, I was told it looked like lymphoma and referred to a specialist to evaluate the swollen lymph nodes and multiple nodules in my lungs.
The specialist did a biopsy and diagnosed sarcoidosis. We knew nothing about this disease and immediately began online research. The doctor wanted to start me on corticosteroids, but I am already overweight and have mild high blood pressure, and feared the steroids would make that worse.
My wife, Pam, came across some reports of sarcoidosis being treated effectively with low doses of antibiotics. At my next visit, she gave the doctor printouts of her research. He looked it over and described it as "quackery."
Pam is quite persuasive, however. She convinced the doctor just to try the treatment. He prescribed minocycline, a drug commonly used for acne.
Within six weeks, my cough was gone. X-rays showed no lymph-node swelling and no nodules. The doctor is now using the treatment on other patients with sarcoidosis.
A. Sarcoidosis is a systemic autoimmune disease in which small clumps of inflammatory cells lodge in various tissues. The lungs and the lymph nodes are most frequently affected, but these granuloma clumps can appear anywhere. Successful treatment of some sarcoidosis patients with doxycycline or minocycline has been attributed to the immune modulating effects of these drugs (Clinical Rheumatology, September 2008

Mediterranean diet linked to lower risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus

A new study by Imperial College London researchers suggests that following a Mediterranean diet may help reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus.

The study published in the July 25, 2011 issue of Diabetes Care found high adherence to a Mediterranean diet was associated with 12 percent reduced risk of diabetes Mellitus, compared with those who least adhered to the Diet.The association was based on data from a study population of 340,000 participants in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition study. Of the participants, 11,994 incidence type 2 diabetes mellitus were identified.

The study also found medium adherence to the Mediterranean diet was correlated with a 7 percent reduction in the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus compared with the low adherence.

However, the association was not significant among those aged younger than 50 years of age and obese participants.Type 2 diabetes mellitus is a condition in which a person can produce insulin but can't efficiently use it to deal with blood sugar.  The condition can lead to severe complications if not adequately controlled.  An estimated 20 million Americans live with type 2 diabetes mellitus.   There is no cure for the disease, but it can be controlled using diabetes drugs.

Mediterranean Diet May Prevent Metabolic Syndrome

Adherence to the Mediterranean diet may prevent metabolic syndrome, according to a new study.

The Mediterranean diet is based on the healthy eating habits and lifestyle of the southern Italian and Greek populations in the early 1960s. The diet is rich in fiber and nutrients, emphasizing fruits, vegetables, olive oil, fish, nuts and limited red meat.

In a new study, researchers conducted a comprehensive literature search for studies assessing the Mediterranean diet and its potential effects on metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is defined by a group of simultaneous conditions, including high blood pressure, high insulin levels, excess fat around the waist and high cholesterol. Fifty studies evaluating a total of 534,906 individuals were identified for inclusion.

The researchers found that adherence to a Mediterranean diet reduced the risk for metabolic syndrome. Furthermore, clinical studies indentified a reduced risk for the individual conditions involved in metabolic syndrome, including high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

The authors concluded that adherence to a Mediterranean diet may reduce the risk of metabolic syndrome and its associated individual conditions. Additional research is necessary to further evaluate these findings.

Natural Standard

Mediterranean Diet can help People live longer

Here is a little secret on how one can live a longer and healthy life,The Mediterranean Diet can increase a woman's lifespan by as much as 15 years and increase a man's life by 8 years,according to a new study.
Researchers at Maastricht University tracked 120,000 men and women between the ages of 55 and 69. Each person was given a score in 1986 based upon his/her adherence to four key factors that have been shown to affect mortality: smoking, physical activity, body weight, and dietary habits.

What happened? Men who avoided smoking, exercised at least 30 minutes a day, avoided obesity, and stuck to the heart-healthy Mediterranean Diet lived about 8.5 years longer, on average, than men who didn't do any of those things, according to a written statement released by the university. 

Healthy living had an even bigger effect on women's lifespans. On average, those who met all four criteria lived 15 years longer than women who met none.

Fifteen years? Eight-and-a-half years? Those are huge numbers, especially given that life expectancy in the U.S. - where healthy living isn't exactly the norm - now stands at 77.9 years.

“I was surprised that the effect was so big. I was also surprised at the big difference between men and women”, said lead researcher Piet van den Brandt. He also went on to say  he wasn't sure why healthy living women would live so much longer than their male counterparts. One possibility, he said, was that hormonal differences explained the difference. 
so there you go people,start following The Mediterranean Diet if you want a long healthy lifestyle with your family.