Why Drinking Alcohol Makes You Fat

March 27, 2012

Natural News

By Fleur Hupston

“If you want to lose weight, you really need to lay off the booze. A glass of wine here or there isn’t going to hurt, but drinking every single night has got to stop. Your liver will thank you too.” –KTRN

There are many factors that affect weight loss, making the process more complicated than it may seem. The body produces different hormones in response to different types of foods and/or drinks. Losing weight is not only about calorie consumption but also about the types of foods and drinks consumed. Alcohol is one of the worst culprits when it comes to inhibiting weight loss because it disrupts the delicate balance of nutrition, fluid and hormones needed to lose fat.

Alcohol boosts cortisol, a fat-creating hormone

Drinking heavily or even occasionally increases the body’s release of cortisol – the hormone that breaks down muscle and retains fat. This loss of muscle can mean a huge slowdown in one’s metabolism, making it easier to gain weight. In addition, alcohol causes a drop in testosterone in men, a hormone which helps burn fat.

Alcohol also blocks the body from burning fat. Research published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reported that fat metabolism can be reduced by as much as 73 percent after only two drinks of vodka and lemonade in a one-hour time period. In effect, alcohol shuts down the body’s ability to access fat stores for energy. The body needs to be well-hydrated in order to build muscle and burn fat. Alcohol has the effect of dehydrating the body.

Drinking often accompanies irresponsible eating

Because drinking often puts one in a relaxed party mood, it is easier to indulge in snacks, potato chips and other unhealthy party foods — the more one drinks the less one seems to care.

Alcohol is a powerful appetizer. An aperitif is often offered in restaurants to stimulate the appetite. Research has shown that there is a definite correlation between the amount of alcohol consumed before a meal and the amount of food eaten and that people eat more when they have beer or wine with their meal. Since alcohol causes the brain to release dopamine, the pleasure and addiction hormone, the result is an often addictive desire for more alcohol and food. This means one is hit with a double whammy when it comes to gaining weight: excess calories come from both the alcohol and the extra food that is usually consumed as a result of a stimulated appetite.

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New Jersey Government Moves to Force Fluoridation on Public

February 1, 2012

Info Wars

By Kurt Nimmo

“How could anyone think that fluoride in the water is a good idea?  It’s madness.”  –KTRN

Despite numerous studies showing the danger of fluoride and cities and municipalities deciding to no longer poison their citizens with the neurotoxin, officialdom in New Jersey has moved to add it to the state’s water.

Disregarding the warnings of environmentalists and utility officials, New Jersey’s Health Committee, at the behest of Assemblyman Herb Conaway, a Camden Democrat, has required the state’s water companies to add fluoride.

Prior to the move, New Jersey was one of nation’s least fluoridated states, with 1.1 million of its 8.7 million residents living in communities that add the toxin to the public water supply. Forced fluoridation in the remainder of the country is at 70%.

Increasingly, state and local governments are calling for a reassessment of fluoride in drinking water. For instance, in October, commissioners in Pinellas County, Florida, voted to end the seven-year practice of putting fluoride into drinking water.

In fact, even the United States government has called for lower levels of water fluoridation following a study published in Environmental Health Perspectives, which found that increased fluoride consumption led to decreased IQ in children, Andre Evans wrote for Infowars.com in November.

The case against fluoride only gets more persuasive. Earlier this month, we reported on groundbreaking new research that has linked sodium fluoride to cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death worldwide. The research revealed that fluoride stimulates the hardening of arteries, a disease commonly known as atherosclerosis.

Previous studies have linked fluoride to brain and neurological damage. It is also “indicative of a potential for motor dysfunction, IQ deficits and/or learning disabilities in humans,” Dr. Phyllis Mullenix noted in 1995. Numerous studies conducted in China, India, Iran, and Mexico have determined that fluoride exposure is associated with IQ deficits in children.

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10 Foods You Should NEVER Eat!

I know I’ve posted this before, but as the new year approaches us, I feel that you may need to be reminded. I have this framed in all of my offices, so I would suggest you do the same!

1. Microwaved Food
2. Excitotoxins (MSG – monosodium glutamate, aspartame) and anything you can’t pronounce
3. Homogenized and non-organic dairy products
4. Any product that contains hydrogenated oil
5. Anything you can’t pronounce do not put on your skin (propylene glycol / mineral oil)
6. Non-filtered water for drinking, showering, bathing and swimming
7. Pork and shellfish
8. White sugar and white flour
9. Any meat that’s not totally organic, range free, grass fed, and properly killed
10. “Fat Free”, “Sugar Free” anything

-KT

Reasons Why You Should Avoid Bottled Water

August 16, 2010

Natural News

By: Cindy Jones-Shoeman

Many Americans buy bottled water across the United States every day; this practice stems from the belief that drinking more water is good for a person. Yes, water is truly the best thing a person could ever drink, but bottled water is not the best way to do it. In fact, drinking bottled water is a bad idea. There are several reasons why people should stop drinking bottled water now.

Bottled Water is Usually Just Tap Water

That’s right. Bottled water, most of the time, is simply tap water from whatever municipality the bottling company is located in. Sometimes it’s purified and filtered; sometimes it’s not.

Why would a person want to spend a dollar or two on water that comes straight out of the faucet? At the very least, when a person pours water out of his own tap, he usually knows what’s in his city’s water, and he can filter it before drinking it. But there are no labels on bottled water that report to consumers what is in the city water poured into a bottle.

Bottled Water Harms the Environment

Here’s a frightening fact: 2.5 million plastic bottles are thrown away every hour in the United States. Yes, 2.5 million an hour. Imagine how that amount contributes to swelling landfills as well as the ever-growing plastic vortex in the Pacific Ocean.

Drinking water in one’s kitchen from a cup produces little waste in regard to the environment. But if a person consumed all her daily water from bottles, imagine how quickly that would add up. Bottled water is bad for the planet.

Drinking Bottled Water Exposes Consumers to Harmful Chemical

No, that chemical doesn’t come from the water; it comes from the plastic. Many plastic bottles contain the chemical bisphenol A, also known as BPA, which can leach into the water in the bottle.

Why is this a problem? Studies indicate that BPA exposure is toxic and exposure can cause myriad health problems and can wreak havoc on hormone levels. The FDA is, in typical fashion, moving slowly on the issue, so it is up to consumers to keep themselves safe.

Buying Bottled Water Puts More Money into the Pockets of Big Business

Do people really want to hand over their primary drinking source to big business? It’s one thing when a company supplies a product and then tries to convince consumers they have a need for it; it’s another thing when they take a real need out of people’s hands.

According to the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Americans spend approximately 4 billion dollars a year on bottled water. That money goes into the pockets of the very companies that also try to hook people on soft drinks containing caffeine, sugar, and other potentially harmful additives.

But What About Healthful Bottled Water?

Forget “healthy” bottled water. It’s a fallacy. John Robbins reports that many of these so-called healthful bottled waters, ones that are marketed as containing vitamin, mineral, and herbal supplements, are nothing more than “sugar-water.”

As with any product, a consumer would do best to read the labels of these kinds of products. When a water product contains sugar, how healthy can it be for a person? It’s not, no mattered how it’s hyped.

Bottled Water is Bad!

It doesn’t matter what companies claim; bottled water is a bad idea. People will be healthier and the environment will be better cared for if people don’t spend their money on bottled water.

Click Here For Full Report

Drinking Alcohol Can Reduce Symptoms Of Arthritis

July 29, 2010

News Health

Drinking alcohol can not only ease the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis it appears to reduce disease severity too, research suggests. Scientists at the University of Sheffield asked two groups of patients with and without the disease to provide details of their drinking habits. They found that patients who had drunk alcohol most frequently experienced less joint pain and swelling.Experts say this should not be taken as a green light for drinking more.

In the study, 873 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) were compared to 1,004 people who did not have it. Both groups were asked how often they had drunk alcohol in the month running up to the start of the study.

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Patients completed a detailed questionnaire, had X-rays and blood tests, and a nurse examined their joints. ’Less damage’

Dr James Maxwell, consultant rheumatologist and lead author of the study, explained the findings. 

“We found that patients who had drunk alcohol most frequently had symptoms that were less severe than those who had never drunk alcohol or only drank it infrequently.” 

X-rays showed there was less damage to their joints, blood tests showed lower levels of inflammation, and there was less joint pain, swelling and disability in those patients, the researchers found. 

They say they do not yet understand why drinking alcohol should reduce the severity of RA, and people’s susceptibility to developing it. 

Dr Maxwell said: “There is some evidence to show that alcohol suppresses the activity of the immune system, and that this may influence the pathways by which RA develops. 

“Once someone has developed RA, it’s possible that the anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects of alcohol may play a role in reducing the severity of symptoms,” he added. 

The authors say that further research is needed to confirm the results of the study and to investigate how and why alcohol has an effect on rheumatoid arthritis. 

Risk and rewardsPrevious studies have shown that alcohol may reduce the risk of developing the disease in the first place. 

Similarly, in the current study non-drinkers were four times more likely to develop RA than people who drank alcohol on more than 10 days a month. 

A spokeswoman for Arthritis Research UK, which co-funded the research, said: “We would not want people with RA to take this research to mean that they should go out and start drinking alcohol frequently and in large amounts as this could be detrimental to their health.” 

She said some RA treatments, like the immunosuppressant drug methotrexate, could damage the liver when taken with large amounts of alcohol. 

The patients in the study did not drink more than the recommended limit of 10 units of alcohol a week. 

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Fizzy Drinks Can Increase Chance of Stroke

May 25, 2010

Telegraph

Drinking two fewer glasses of soft drinks could reduce the risk of dying of a stroke by eight per cent and coronary heart disease by five per cent, an American study revealed.

Drinks laced with sugars has long been linked to a greater risk of obesity and diabetes but the effect of the sweet beverages on blood pressure had been uncertain. “Our findings suggest that reducing sugar-sweetened beverages and sugar consumption may be an important dietary strategy to lower blood pressure and further reduce other blood pressure-related diseases,

“It has been estimated that a 3-millimetres of mercury (mm Hg) reduction in systolic blood pressure should reduce stroke mortality by 8 percent and coronary heart disease mortality by 5 percent.

“Such reductions in systolic blood pressure would be anticipated by reducing sugar-sweetened beverages consumption by an average of 2 servings per day.”

Researchers sampled 810 adults aged between 25 and 79 with a prehypertension of between 120/80 and 139/89 mm Hg and stage I hypertension of between 140/90 and 159/99 mm Hg.

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Scientists Claim You Really Can be Bored to Death

February 8, 2010

Mail Online

By Jonathan Petre

Boredom could be shaving years off your life, scientists have found.
Researchers say that people who complain of boredom are more likely to die young, and that those who experienced ‘high levels’ of tedium are more than two-and-a-half times as likely to die from heart disease or stroke than those satisfied with their lot.
More than 7,000 civil servants were studied over 25 years – and those who said they were bored were nearly 40 per cent more likely to have died by the end of study than those who did not.
The scientists said this could be a result of those unhappy with their lives turning to such unhealthy habits as smoking or drinking, which would cut their life expectancy.
Specialists from the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College London, looked at data from 7,524 civil servants aged between 35 and 55 who were interviewed between 1985 and 1988 about their levels of boredom. They then found out whether they had died by April last year.
Researcher Martin Shipley, who co-wrote the report to be published in the International Journal of Epidemiology this week, said: ‘The findings on heart disease show there was sufficient evidence to say there is a link with boredom.
‘It is important that people who have dull jobs find outside interests to keep boredom at bay, rather than turn to drinking or smoking.’
Psychologist Graham Price added: ‘It is important to distinguish between cause and effect. Are these people turning to drink and drugs because they are bored or because they have certain characteristics?
‘For many people who are unmotivated or uninspired by life, or maybe have a tendency towards depression, the way out of it is to change their focus away from themselves and on to other people.
‘From being all me, me, me, they should be thinking, what can I do for my family, my friends, my colleagues, even my boss.’
The original survey found that one in ten civil servants had been bored within the past month, with women more than twice as likely than men to suffer. Younger employees and those with more menial jobs were also found to be more prone to boredom.
Those who reported feeling a great deal of boredom were 37 per cent more likely to have died by the end of the study.

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Wine Helps Fight Cancer?

October 27, 2009

MSNBC

Reuters

Cancer patients undergoing radiation treatment may want to sip some red wine before treatment.

A study in women with breast cancer found that drinking red wine can help limit the toxic effects of radiation therapy.

“The possibility that particular dietary practices or interventions can reduce radiation-induced toxicity is very intriguing,” Dr. Gabriella Macchia, of Catholic University, Campobasso, Italy, noted in an email to Reuters Health.
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It’s already known that some wine components may protect against the harmful effects of radiation. These components include polyphenols in particular, and the tannins.

In the current study, Macchia and colleagues evaluated the potential protective effects of varying levels of self-reported red wine consumption in 348 women treated with radiation therapy after breast cancer surgery.

The findings were “interesting,” Macchia said.

The incidence of radiation-induced skin toxicity greater was 38.4 percent in non-drinkers, 31.8 percent in women drinking only half a glass of wine daily, 13.6 percent in those drinking one glass daily, and 35 percent in those drinking two glasses daily.

Women who drank only one glass daily had a much lower risk of suffering skin effects from radiation therapy. Specifically, their risk of significant skin toxicity was about 75 percent less than that in non-drinkers, the researchers found.

“If wine can prevent (radiation)-induced toxicity without affecting antitumor efficacy, as we observed, it also has the potential to enhance the therapeutic benefit in cancer patients without increasing their risk of serious adverse effects,” Macchia said.

“The possible protective effect of wine, which we assessed only in women with breast cancer, should also be evaluated in male and female patients with other types of tumors (e.g., prostate carcinoma) who are undergoing radiotherapy,” she concluded.

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Drink Blamed for Oral Cancer Rise

August 10, 2009

BBC News

Alcohol is largely to blame for an “alarming” rise in the rate of oral cancers among men and women in their forties, say experts.

Numbers of cancers of the lip, mouth, tongue and throat in this age group have risen by 26% in the past decade.

Alcohol consumption has doubled since the 1950s and is the most likely culprit alongside smoking, says Cancer Research UK.

Each year in the UK around 1,800 people die from the disease.

“But for people in their 40s, it seems that other factors are also contributing to this jump in oral cancer rates.

“Alcohol consumption has doubled since the 1950s and the trend we are now seeing is likely to be linked to Britain’s continually rising drinking levels.”

Oral cancer can be treated successfully if diagnosed early enough.

The most common signs of the disease are ulcers, sores, or red or white patches in the mouth that last longer than three weeks, together with unexplained pain in the mouth or ear.

Alcohol Concern chief executive Don Shenker said: “Many people are not aware of the connection between alcohol and cancer, yet as this research shows, it can be a major contributor or cause of the disease.

“While alcoholic liver disease remains the number one killer linked to alcohol, more and more people are suffering from oral cancers – and record drinking levels have undeniably played a part.”

He said it was time to introduce tobacco-style health warnings on alcohol.

“It’s a consumer issue – people have a right to know the full range of health risks associated with drinking alcohol above recommended guidelines.

“This research will hopefully help people realise the full extent of the damage that alcohol can do, then they’re better placed to make informed decisions about how much they drink.”

Professor Ian Gilmore, president of the Royal College of Physicians and chair of the Alcohol Health Alliance, said: “These latest figures demonstrate once again that people are being struck down at ever younger ages with alcohol-related illnesses that they might never have previously associated with heavy drinking.

“There is an urgent need to rethink how we communicate the risks of misuse. The first step is to challenge the widespread notion that the only chronic health damage is suffered by a minority of older drinkers.”

Professor Alan Maryon-Davis, president of the UK Faculty of Public Health, said: “The really lethal cocktail is drinking strong spirits and smoking – a carcinogenic double whammy for the delicate lining of the mouth and throat. My advice is if you drink, don’t smoke – and if you must smoke, avoid spirits.”

Click here to continue reading the full story from the BBC News