SHR

Lactose Intolerance and the Modern Dairy Industry The principal distinguishing characteristic of mammals is the reliance on mother’s milk during infancy. Notably, the milk sugar lactose provides about half of an infant’s energy demands during this time, and this sugar is nearly exclusively found in milk, begging the question of evolutionary importance. Lactose is a sugar composed of a combined glucose and galactose molecule, both of which play an important role in the biosynthesis of complex carbohydrates, glycoproteins, and glycolipids within most living organisms.  For instance, galactose is one of the six carbohydrates used for construction of gangliosides, which are essential membrane components that play an important role in cell communication and immunity. In order to absorb lactose from the digestive tract, the enzyme lactase is required. Most humans normally stop producing lactase after weening and consequently become lactose intolerant. However, some humans retain this ability, and the importance of this...

Earlier this year I came across a manuscript that argued the current classification of fatty acids, which is based on chemical composition, is inaccurate when discussing health and disease. With 516 references to research evaluating the physiological effects of each fatty acid known to exist, the paper proposed a new classification system for fatty acids that is based upon their biological activity. Although this is a step in the right direction, even the physiological effects of fatty acids are not always absolute. For instance, milk-fat is about 70% saturated fatty acids (SFA) and 30% palmitic acid, which according to the aforementioned manuscript is a fatty acid that does increase one or more cardiometabolic risk factors. However, not all sources of dairy fat have similar effects despite identical fatty acid profiles. A fairly recent review of the influence of dairy products and milk-fat consumption on cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk found that CVD...

If I were to recommend a single supplement for another to take, it would be creatine monohydrate. Its benefits spread far beyond increases in muscle mass and athletic performance towards neurological protection and musculoskeletal health. More recently, creatine has been suggested as a maternal supplement to act as a “multi-organ protectant” for the fetus and neonate that gives it a promise not provided by the current therapies. Most importantly, creatine has an overwhelming base of evidence demonstrating it to be safe. Now, a new study extends creatine’s benefits onto the bone health of postmenopausal women. In this double-blind, parallel-group, randomized controlled trial, 33 otherwise healthy postmenopausal women engaged in a 12-month supervised resistance training program with or without creatine supplementation of 0.1 g/kg/day consumed in a split dose before and after training sessions or with two separate meals on non-training days. Exercise training involved fully supervised resistance training three times per week. Exercises...

There is a vast body of literature evaluating the health effects of fish oil and the quantity needed to benefit. Although therapeutic approaches can be taken, such as using high-doses of fish oil to battle fatty liver and reduce triglycerides, fish oil’s benefits generally come from balancing our body’s n-3/6 ratio. In this regard, many authoritative bodies have put out recommendations for EPA and DHA intake, either as a weekly or daily goal. To date, only two studies (here & here) have compared daily vs twice weekly supplementation of fish oil and found no difference when blood levels were used as a proxy for bioavailability. However, when referring to nutrients, bioavailability is used to describe how much of an orally administered nutrient is actually retained in the body after being digested and absorbed. According to Schuchardt and Hahn, LC n-3 FA can be detected in the blood in various forms. These include...

Statins are quickly becoming the front-line method for primary prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD) due to their outstanding ability to reduce LDL-cholesterol levels, and the most recent Cochrane Review indicates that statins are effective at reducing all-cause and CVD mortality. Of particular concern, however, was the fact that all trials were either fully or partially funded by pharmaceutical companies (five by Bristol Myers and Squibb, three by Pfizer, four by Astra-Zeneca, two by Merck and one by Bayer, one by Bayer and Merk, one by Pfizer, and the remaining by Sankyo Co Ltd). Moreover, the reporting of adverse events in these trials was generally poor, with failure to provide details of severity and type of adverse events or to report on health-related quality of life. There really is no doubt that statins are effective at doing what they were designed to do – lower LDL-cholesterol. However, statins don’t target LDL-c directly;...