Medical anecdotes and fun facts

[fume711]

yeah wanted to see if i could start a new thread of interesting facts that can help with your health....this way this can be a source to find good living fun facts...oh yeah....nerd talk

try to reference source and past in whole article incase the link gets lost to the mailer-daemon.

Soy sauce is good for you!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060603/hl_nm/singapore_sauce_dc


Dark soya sauce healthier than red wine: study

Sat Jun 3, 12:06 PM ET

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Dark soya sauce, widely used in east Asia, may prove to be more effective than red wine and vitamin C in combating human cell damage, researchers in Singapore said.

Scientists found that the sauce -- derived from fermented soya beans -- contains antioxidant properties about 10 times more effective than red wine and 150 times more potent than vitamin C, Singapore's Strait Times reported on Saturday.

Antioxidants -- found in red wine, fruits and vegetables -- counter the effects of free radicals, unstable atoms which attack human cells and tissues.

Free radicals have been linked to the aging process as well as a range of ailments including Parkinson's disease, cancer and heart disease.

The National University of Singapore study also found that the sauce improved blood flow by as much as 50 percent in the hours after consumption.

"There's a preventative aspect, showing that it may potentially slow down the rate of cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases," research team leader Professor Barry Halliwell said.

But he cautioned against taking large amounts of dark soya sauce because of its high salt content, which could lead to high blood pressure.

[KHRISTINE]

But isnt there too much sodium in soy sauce... i mean... if u drink soy sauce i dun think that's too healthy too... you know doctor always tell people not to use too much salt....

[DOHC-LSR]

But isnt there too much sodium in soy sauce... i mean... if u drink soy sauce i dun think that's too healthy too... you know doctor always tell people not to use too much salt....
well it did say not to take high amounts of it due to the salt. Its just to let people know that it is good for you in some ways... eat more sushi people... but eat it with soy sauce.

[KHRISTINE]

Drinking Coffee Cuts Alcohol's Harmful Effects
(AP / BCN) OAKLAND Coffee may counteract alcohol’s poisonous effects on the liver and help prevent cirrhosis, Kaiser Permanente researchers say.

In a study of more than 125,000 people, one cup of coffee per day cut the risk of alcoholic cirrhosis by 20 percent. Four cups per day reduced the risk by 80 percent. The coffee effect held true for women and men of various ethnic backgrounds.

"Consuming coffee seems to have some protective benefits against alcoholic cirrhosis, and the more coffee a person consumes the less risk they seem to have of being hospitalized or dying of alcoholic cirrhosis," said study co-author Dr. Arthur Klatsky of the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland.

"Even allowing for statistical variation, this shows there is a clear association between coffee consumption, and protection against alcoholic cirrhosis," Klatsky said. But "we did not see a similar protective association between coffee and non-alcoholic cirrhosis."

It is unclear whether it is the caffeine or some other ingredient in coffee that provides the protection, Klatsky added.

He cautioned that the study was not meant to provide alcohol abusers with a way to mitigate the effects of their abuse and added that there is a better way to avoid alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver: “The way to avoid getting ill is not to drink a lot of coffee, but to cut down on the drinking of alcohol."

"This study is not a recommendation to drink coffee. Nor is it a recommendation that the way to deal with heavy alcohol consumption is to drink more coffee," he explained. "The value of this study is that it may offer us some clues as to the biochemical processes taking place inside liver cells that could help in finding new ways to protect the liver against injury."

The participants ranged from teetotalers, who made up 12 percent of the total, to heavy drinkers, who made up 8 percent. The researchers calculated the risk reductions rate for the whole group, not just the drinkers.

Not all heavy drinkers develop cirrhosis, an irreversible scarring of the liver that hurts the organ’s ability to filter toxins from the blood. Klatsky said the new findings may help explain why some people’s livers survive heavy alcohol use.

Hepatitis C and some inherited diseases can also cause cirrhosis. But the study found coffee did not protect the liver against those other causes of scarring.

Improved liver function
The same study found coffee drinkers had healthier results on blood tests used to measure liver function, whether or not they were heavy alcohol users. Coffee’s effect on reducing liver enzymes in the blood was more apparent among the heavy drinkers in the study.

Cirrhosis from all causes kills more than 27,000 Americans a year and sends nearly 400,000 to the hospital.

The findings, published in Monday’s Archives of Internal Medicine, build on reports that coffee also may reduce the risk of liver cancer.

The data came from members of a Northern California health plan. Their coffee consumption was noted only at the beginning of the study, which the researchers admitted was a limitation. They were followed for an average of 14 years.

The researchers found no reduced risk of cirrhosis for tea drinkers. Tea has less caffeine than coffee and there were fewer heavy tea drinkers in the study, so if caffeine is the protective ingredient, an effect may not have shown up for tea in the study, Klatsky said.


This may come in handy for some people... sherman :thumb_up: