March 21st, 2008 — Health news
Its well known that folate (folic acid) is essential for the healthy development of unborn children. Almost all woemn currently take a folate vitamin if they are pregnant and they should also start taking it before they before.
But a new study shows that guys would benefit from taking folate to help the child bearing process. The study released by University of California, Berkeley showed that men who took a supplement that contained around 1mg of folic acid produced less abnormal sperms. The number produced was about 20-30 per cent less between two study groups.
The price for folic acid supplements can be quite low in North America (about four of five dollars for a package of 100 pills) so for any guy planning on starting a family its looks like an essential purchase.
March 7th, 2008 — Health news
A new study in the research journal Neurology has found something that will help older folks remember if they remember to take it in the first place.
Its important to note that the benefit seems to be limited to healthy older folks who have not demonstrated any existing memory problem.
This group appeared to have a 68 per cent less chance of developing mild memory problems if they took supplements of ginkgo biloba.
Over the past few years various studies have produced conflicting reports on the exact benefit of taking the supplement. This study tracked 118 people over three years. Half of the study was given a placebo and the other half was given 240mg of ginkgo biloba extract. The second group showed a lower amount minor memory loss.
One possible issue is that the group that took the ginkgo biloba extract showed a slightly higher rate of getting a stroke or mini stroke. Obviously this one factor will be examined in more detail by other studies in the future.
February 25th, 2008 — Health news
One of the most confusing things in the grocery store is the fight against transfat in the dairy aisle. If you pick up a block of cheese it lists transfat on the information section.
The most common occurence of trans fat comes from the big food industry companies when they use partial hydrograted vegetage oil which helps stablize certain products which allows them longer shelve lives. Its a cheap solution to higher profits.
But now the dairy industry is fighting the trans fat fight because trace amounts of trans fat occur naturally in certain products.
The European Dairy Association is leading the fight in Europe to help protect its image to consumer. Dr. Joop Kleibeuke from the Association says that recent studies have found no negative health affects from natural occuring trans fats that appear in dairy food.
Look for even more information appearing on this topic from countries that have large amounts of dairy exports and that have a large dairy industry.