Food Reward Friday

This week's lucky "winner"... Lay's milk chocolate-dipped potato chips!!

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Kung Fu & Qigong in The Songshang Mountains with Shifu Yan Lei

From Friday 31st July 2015  - Friday 28th August 2015 I will be teaching a Shaolin Summer Camp in the Chinese Songshang Mountains, a few kilometers away from the Shaolin Temple. You will train like a Shaolin Monk, three times a day. You will be taught by myself for two, two hour sessions per day then you will do self-training for one session a day. You will train in authentic Shaolin Kung Fu and Qigong.

You can train for a minimum of two weeks or the whole month. The focus will be on training hard! This is not a holiday. There will be the option of visiting the Shaolin Temple for one of the days and visiting the Bodhidharma Cave. 

Sample Schedule:

Most of your training will be done outside. You will start the day with a run up the mountain then come back and do a kung fu session with the emphasis on strength and stamina training, you will then cool down with some Qigong. After you've finished training, breakfast will be served. This is usually steamed bread, congee, pickled vegetables and stir fried vegetables. After breakfast you will rest and we will start our training again mid-morning, with a focus on getting your form and techniques correct. Lunch will be served at 1pm. After lunch it's advisable to sleep to help your body recover from the hard training. In the afternoon you will do self-training. At 6pm we will have dinner. Evenings will be spent reading,  or doing internal training such as Qigong or meditating. 

Who Is Is Suitable For?

Anyone over the age of 18 who has a passion for Shaolin. 

We will be a small group with a maximum of 18 people. The teaching will be done in English.

Do I have to be good at Kung Fu and Qigong?

Beginner's are welcome but not total beginners. It's best to have a basic fitness level and a grounding in kung fu. But no matter what level you are at, you will be training in a non-competitive friendly environment.

Weather:

It's usually between 30 - 36 so we train in the early morning before it gets hot, and we train inside when the weather is at it's hottest. You need to bring lots of training clothes.

PRICE:

£1000 for two weeks. ( about $1520.00 US dollars)

£1500  for one month. ( about $2285.00 US Dollars)

You can start your training in any of those weeks.

What You Get

1) 3 x 2 hour training sessions per day:

2 of your sessions will be taught by myself and one of your sessions will be self-training.

2) Accommodation:

You will stay in a shared room with one other person. The room has an en-suite bathroom and air conditioning.

3) Meals:

All of your meals will be provided. This will be healthy, hearty, Chinese food, locally grown. Due to the rural location we are sorry but we can't give options for specific dietary needs apart from vegetarian.

What you need to provide:

A valid Chinese visa. 

Your flight to China and travel to the venue.

Travel Insurance

Training clothes, running shoes, training shoes, flip flops or sandals, and towels. 

Some pocket money to buy water, and snacks. If you want to visit the Shaolin Temple, you will need to pay the admission fee

Getting There:

The nearest airport to Shaolin Temple is Zhengzhou. The nearest city is Dengfeng. There are regular flights from Beijing to Zhenghou, and it's possible to book them on the day at the airport.

The address is:  China, Henan Province, Dengfeng City, Leijia Ditch, Shaolin Temple International School.

We can arrange pick up and drop off at Zhengzhou airport. The price will be a maximum of £100.00 depending on the number of people. Once you register, we'll try and put you with other people who are traveling to make the cost as low as possible.

The venue is the blue dot on the map.

Payment Details

Payment needs to be made by bank transfer. All payments must be made in full by 30th June. We can only accept currency in sterling pound. 

Cancellations for All Retreats:

• If you cancel 4 weeks before your arrival date, we will be happy to refund you, but a cancellation fee of £100.00 will be charged plus £100.00 for the application form.
• If you cancel less than 4 weeks before your arrival date, there is a cancellation fee of 50% of the total contribution of your stay.
• If you cancel upon or after your arrival date, there is no refund.

Reserve Your Spot:

Please email info@shifuyanlei.co.uk.  We will send you an application form, and a link to pay a non-refundable deposit of £100.00, which will be off-set from your training fee.

Statins worsen heart function in 71% of patients

This study was published in the American Journal of Cardiology 2004 Nov 15;94(10):1306-10

 

Study title and authors:

Effect of atorvastatin on left ventricular diastolic function and ability of coenzyme Q10 to reverse that dysfunction.

Silver MA, Langsjoen PH, Szabo S, Patil H, Zelinger A.

Heart Failure Institute, Department of Medicine, Advocate Christ Medical Center, University of Illinois/Christ Cardiovascular Disease Fellowship Program, Oak Lawn, Illinois 60453, USA. marc.silver@advocatehealth.com

 

This study can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15541254

This study evaluated left ventricular diastolic function before and after statin therapy. The study included 14 patients (who met the National cholesterol Education Program's recommendations for initiating pharmacologic therapy), aged 51 - 79 years, who completed three to six months on atorvastatin.

The study found that 71% of the patients had worsening of left ventricular diastolic function after taking statins.

Dr Silver concluded: "For more than a decade, there has been a suggestion of impairment of diastolic function after the administration of statins, and our findings suggest that this may be a common event and potentially a precursor to symptoms associated with ventricular dysfunction".

A New Understanding of an Old "Obesity Gene"

As you know if you've been following this blog for a while, obesity risk has a strong genetic component.  Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) attempt to identify the specific locations of genetic differences (single-nucleotide polymorphisms or SNPs) that are associated with a particular trait.  In the case of obesity, GWAS studies have had limited success in identifying obesity-associated genes.  However, one cluster of SNPs consistently show up at the top of the list in these studies: those that are near the gene FTO.

As with many of the genes in our genome, different people carry different versions of FTO.  People with two copies of the "fat" version of the FTO SNPs average about 7 pounds (3 kg) heavier than people with two copies of the "thin" version, and they also tend to eat more calories (1, 2).  

Despite being the most consistent hit in these genetic studies, FTO has remained a mystery.  As with most obesity-associated genes, it's expressed in the brain and it seems to respond somewhat to nutritional status.  Yet its function is difficult to reconcile with a role in weight regulation: 

• It's an enzyme that removes methyl groups from RNA, which doesn't immediately suggest a weight-specific function.
• It's not primarily expressed in the brain or in body fat, but in all tissues.
• Most importantly, as far as we know, the different versions of the gene do not result in different tissue levels of FTO, or different activity of the FTO enzyme, so it's hard to understand how they would impact anything at all.  

An important thing to keep in mind is that GWAS studies don't usually pinpoint specific genes.  Typically, they tell us that obesity risk is associated with variability in a particular region of the genome.  If the region corresponds to the location of a single gene, it's a pretty good guess that the gene is the culprit.  However, that's not always the case...

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Join Healthy World Cafe for lunch Wednesday, May 28!

Spring is bringing an abundance of fresh produce from local farms!

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Woodley Wonderworks

Celebrate with us and join us for lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 28, at First Moravian Church, 41 N. Duke St., York, where we'll be serving up delicious, locally sourced eats. Check out our menu!

Menu: 
-- Farmers harvest chicken soup
-- Lentil soup with coconut
-- Spring carrot, radish and quinoa salad with herbed avocado
-- Wheatberry salad with snow peas and carrots
-- Mediterranean hummus served with flatbread
-- Swiss chard and chickpea fritters with yogurt
-- Mushroom and garlic bread pudding with balsamic rhubarb drizzle
-- Rhubarb clafoutis
-- Signature dried fruit and oatmeal cookies

Of course, our menu is always based on what's available from our farmer friends, so check back for updates.

At Healthy World Cafe, we always feature our "eat what you want, pay how you can" philosophy. The ability to pay should never be a barrier to accessing delicious, unprocessed, healthy food.

Housekeeping items worth noting:

-- PARKING: When coming to the cafe for our Wednesday lunches, please DO NOT park in the private lots surrounding First Moravian Church.  You may park on the street (metered), or you may park at First Presbyterian Church at E. Market and N. Queen streets in the un-numbered, yellow-lined parking spots, and please include a sign on your dashboard to indicate you are a Healthy World Cafe volunteer. Then, walk one block west down Clarke Avenue to First Moravian (and enter on north side)!

-- TAKE OUT: Take out orders for lunch are available by e-mailing your selections (by 10 a.m. May 28) to healthyworldcafe(at)gmail(dot)com.

-- VOLUNTEERING: In order to better respect our volunteers' time, we split the Wednesday lunch into two volunteer shifts: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and noon to 3 p.m. Feel free, of course, to sign up for both shifts, if you wish. And, since this month's lunch falls the week of Memorial Day, we'll forgo our Monday-night prep to allow everyone to enjoy their three-day weekend!

Here's a breakdown of our volunteer needs for this month's lunch:

-- 6 to 9 p.m. Tuesday, May 27 -- Food prep at First Moravian Church. If you're able, join us earlier and help us get a jump start on prep! We'll have volunteers prepping from 3 to 9 p.m.

 -- 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday, May 28 -- Food prep and serving at FMC. We're now splitting our lunch days into two volunteer shifts to better respect our volunteers' time: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and noon to 3 p.m. Feel free to sign up for both, if you wish. If you can't work a full shift (say, you can be there 10 to 2, but not as early as 9), please email sarah.e.chain(at)gmail(dot)com and let us know when to expect you!

Find other upcoming dates and sign up to volunteer through our calendar on VolunteerSpot.

Low cholesterol increases the risk of death by 75% after a heart attack

This study was published in the European Heart Journal 2001 Nov;22(22):2085-103

 

Study title and authors:

Assessment of absolute risk of death after myocardial infarction by use of multiple-risk-factor assessment equations: GISSI-Prevenzione mortality risk chart.

Marchioli R, Avanzini F, Barzi F, Chieffo C, Di Castelnuovo A, Franzosi MG, Geraci E, Maggioni AP, Marfisi RM, Mininni N, Nicolosi GL, Santini M, Schweiger C, Tavazzi L, Tognoni G, Valagussa F; GISSI-Prevenzione Investigators.

Gruppo Italiano per lo Studio della Sopravvivenza nell'Infarto miocardico (GISSI), Associazione Nazionale Medici Cardiologi Ospedalieri (ANMCO), Italy.

 

This study can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11686666

This study investigated the risk factors for death in patients after they had suffered a heart attack. The study included 11,324 men and women from the GISSI-Prevenzione trial who were followed for four years.

Regarding cholesterol levels, the study found that those with the lowest cholesterol, under 190 mg/dL (4.91 mmol/L), had a 75% increased risk of death compared to those with the highest cholesterol, over 245 mg/dL (6.3 mmol/L).

Possible mechanisms of how statins cause diabetes

This paper was published in Metabolism 2014 Feb 25

Study title and authors:
Statin treatment and new-onset diabetes: A review of proposed mechanisms.

Brault M, Ray J, Gomez YH, Mantzoros CS, Daskalopoulou SS
Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

This paper can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24641882

Brault notes that new-onset diabetes has been observed in clinical trials and meta-analyses involving statin therapy. Brault discusses the mechanisms that may be involved between statins and diabetes.

(a) Statins affect insulin secretion through direct, indirect or combined effects on calcium channels in pancreatic β-cells.
(b) Statins reduce the expression of glucose transporter 4 (GLUT 4). GLUT 4 is a protein that transports glucose from the bloodstream into cells. Reduced GLUT 4 in response to statins results in hyperglycemia (high blood sugar) and hyperinsulinemia (excess levels of insulin in the blood).
(c) Statin therapy decreases other important molecules such as coenzyme Q10, farnesyl pyrophosphate, geranylgeranyl pyrophosphate, and dolichol; their depletion leads to reduced intracellular signaling.
(d) Statins interference with intracellular insulin signaling pathways via inhibition of necessary phosphorylation events (phosphorylation influences protein enzymes) and reduction of small GTPase action (GTPases are key proteins in many critical biological processes such as hormonal and sensory signals, and the protein building ribosomes). 
(e) Statins can decrease levels of peroxisome proliferator activated receptor gamma and CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein which regulate glucose levels.
(f) Statins may also diminish levels of leptin and adiponectin which also play a role in regulating glucose levels.

Perfect Health Diet Retreat, New Fitbit, Whole Food Juicing and T-Tapp

In just  few days, I'll be heading out to NC for the Perfect Health Diet (PHD) Retreat. I am super excited to be going on this two week adventure and very proud of myself for contacting the organizers and arranging to come on a work/study basis. This program is amazing and well worth it, but simply not in the budget this year. I'm glad to be going as the onsite helper, where I'll be able to reap the rewards of the program and assist the other participants as well. I will be sharing much of what I learn/experience here periodically while at the retreat.

In other, related news, I decided to take the plunge and buy myself a Fitbit Flex. I've coveted these for some time, but again, budget concerns kept me from making the purchase. Oddly enough, it was the upcoming retreat that spurred me into action. One of my duties will be to make the morning coffee, etc. so I'll need to be one of the first people up. Part of the PHD is working on your circadian rhythms and good sleep is extremely important in that regard. The last thing I wanted to do was to wake up my roommates (I'll be in a shared room with other women) with my blaring iPhone. Yikes! So what does this have to do with the Fitbit? Well, the Flex version has a silent alarm feature that vibrates to wake you up gently. I've tired it out and it works! I've also been loving the step tracking, which is fun to watch in real time on my phone. I am such a little kid. Easy to please :)

My more recent food related passion is juicing. Yes, really. I was always so against it, due to the blood sugar spiking and fiber wasting. Well, I found a way that does neither. Enter Whole Food Juicing. Using my trusty Vitamix, I'm able to blend my veggies and fruit so well that it drinks like a juice but still keeps all the fiber. There are tons of great recipes at the Blender Babes. My current favorite is a version of this Giada De Laurentiis one (I use cucumber instead of the carrot and granny smith apples to keep it bright green). I've really been enjoying these and feel great getting in so many more raw veggies.

Last but not least, I am still loving my T-Tapp DVDs. Doing the basic, 20 minute workout 2-3 times per week has me feeling way more toned and great in my own skin. I can't even explain how awesome it is. The effort to results ratio is astounding. I've never done such an effective workout, especially one that doesn't leave me in a puddle on the floor by the end. I highly recommend you check this out!*

*Please note that many of the above links are affiliate links to Amazon. If you click on one of them, and then go on to buy something, I get a small percentage, which is awesome. However, I get nothing for recommending T-Tapp. I just think it's wonderful :) And I only link to anything that I truly use and love whether it's on Amazon or not. 

Statins use is associated with increased HbA1c levels in patients with high blood pressure

This study was published in Diabetology and Metabolic Syndrome 2014 Apr 23;6:53

Study title and authors:
Statins use is associated with poorer glycaemic control in a cohort of hypertensive patients with diabetes and without diabetes.

Liew SM, Lee PY, Hanafi NS, Ng CJ, Wong SS, Chia YC, Lai PS, Zaidi NF, Khoo EM
Department of Primary Care Medicine, University of Malaya Primary Care Research Group (UMPCRG), Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

This study can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24782916

This study sought to determine the association between the use of statins and glycaemic control in patients with high blood pressure. The study included 1,060 patients.

The study found:
(a) Analysis of the whole group found that statin users had 29% higher HbA1c levels than statin non users.
(b) Analysis of those with diabetes found that statin users had 20.8% higher HbA1c levels than statin non users.

Liew concluded: "Statins use is associated with increased HbA1c levels among hypertensive patients and hypertensive patients with diabetes".

The Heart Of The Shaolin Warrior

In the rush of our modern life it's easy to grow away from the automatic wisdom of the body and its natural self-regulation but through the practice of Shaolin we return our mind and body to its true natural condition of health and harmony. This is not something reserved for monks or disciples who study at the temple but it's something we all experience when we take up the practice and commit fully to it.

This commitment means that we remind ourselves this is warrior training we are embarking on so we need to train with the fearless energy of a warrior. The Shaolin Warrior trains as if he or she will never train again. There is no tomorrow. This is her final training session. In this way she doesn't save her energy for some future time. There is only now. Now is all we have. Taking care of now takes care of our future.

Committing like this is the only way that we can really penetrate the practice. If we only half commit, if we stay on the surface then we can never receive the benefit. In order to gain we need to give, this is a natural law. If we are learning from a teacher whom we have stolen something from then that exchange can never happen. In the same way, we mustn't steal from ourself, we must give ourself the best conditions in which you can train. 

So be realistic. Better to train once a week with your heart than everyday with half a heart. Train as if you already are what you want to become. Train with the energy of a warrior and soon you will have the heart of a warrior and from your springs forth your life.

For more information on Shifu's DVDs please visit: www.shifuyanlei.com 

Professor concludes that results from statin trials may be considerably flawed

This paper was published in the British Medical Journal 2 May 2014

Study title and author:
Meta-analysis of side effects of statins shows need for trial transparency
Joan-Ramon Laporte
Professor of Clinical Pharmacology Montserrat Bosch

Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, P Vall d'Hebron 129-139 08035 Barcelona

This paper can be accessed at: http://www.bmj.com/content/348/bmj.g2940/rr/696651

This article, authored by Professor Joan-Ramon Laporte from the Autonomous University of Barcelona noted the exclusions in statin clinical trials.

Professor Laporte found:
(a) In the HPS (Heart Protection Study), 32,145 patients with the inclusion criteria participated in a run in phase, but 11,609 (36%) were excluded because of lack of effect on cholesterol, increase in liver enzymes, increase in CPK, or increase of creatinine, or also because "the patient had little probability of complying with the treatment during 5 years".
(b) In the MEGA trial (Management of Elevated Cholesterol in the Primary Prevention Group of Adult Japanese), 15,210 patients entered a 4-week run in phase, but 7,201 (48%) were excluded for similar reasons, and only 8,009 finally participated in the trial.
(c) In the JUPITER trial (Justification for the Use of Statins in Prevention: an Intervention Trial Evaluating Rosuvastatin), 89,890 were initially screened, but 78% were excluded for unclear reasons, and only 19,323 were considered for randomisation. Then, an additional 1,521 were excluded during a run in phase because of poor treatment adherence, and only 17,802 patients (19.8%) were finally randomised.

Professor Laporte concluded that in view of these massive exclusions, the data from these trials may be considerably flawed and lacked validity, and that no conclusions could be drawn from the results of the trials.