What I've learned so far this year

Time to file the accumulation of news letters and ask that question: Did I learn anything ? It's a question I've asked of myself previously.

1. Vitamin D, I keep blog'n about it, but it was excellent news that Monterey Mushrooms now expose mushrooms (white, brown and portabella) to Ultra-violet light to increase Vitamin D content. So you can get 100% of the present, and very low, daily government recommendation for Vitamin D from one 3 ounce serving of these super Monterey Mushrooms.
All this from Tufts University Health & Nutrition Newsletter.
The only small question is that the little monsters make the D2 form of Vitamin D - D3 is much better - but D2 is OK.

2. The Berkeley Wellness Letter has given up on supplementing with Vitamin E - "Bottom line, get your Vitamin E from food, not supplements because supplements have not proved beneficial and may be risky. Get Vitamin E from: nuts; seeds; vegetable oils; whole grains; leafy green vegetables; tomato sauce; red peppers - more details.

3. The National Cancer Institute stopped the SELECT Trial Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial because those taking Vitamin E had slightly higher rates of Prostate cancer while selenium takers had a somewhat higher risk of diabetes. Nutrition Action Newsletter reported on this but did not recommend against continued use of vitamin E supplementation. Their exact words "If you take a multi-vitamin, stick with one that contains roughly the daily recommended targets for vitamin E (30 IU) and selenium (55 mcg)."

4. The same issue of Nutrition Action Newsletter had a new take, new to me at least, of the belly brain connection. They reported on Kaiser Permanente research had looked at a new way to measure the size of a big belly - measure the front to back distance - look at picture. They wryly call this new dimension the Sagittal Abdominal Diameter (which gets us to SAD).

Anyone with a SAD dimension above 10 inches has a doubled to tripled chance of dementia in later years.

5. Johns Hopkins Medical Letter had a piece about issues with long term use of Proton Pump Inhibitors to treat chronic ulcers or to alleviate GERD (gastro-esophageal reflux disease). I've blog'd about my personal concerns about taking Prilosec every morning because it interferes with calcium absorption which in turn leads to reduced bone density and long term to osteoporosis. The Johns Hopkins words "I'm concerned about the long-term use of Proton Pump Inhibitors, particularly for patients who have or at increased risk for osteoporosis and people with conditions such as liver disease that interfere with their ability to utilize Vitamin D and calcium."

6. Have you wondered how the Lo-salt products manage to have less salt, and hence less sodium, that normal salt ? The answer is by increasing the amount of potassium which then reduces the sodium content. If you have diabetes reducing your salt intake is a good idea.

Then the other shoe drops and sometime later a routine blood tests shows up high blood potassium - this is not good either. The Mayo Clinic Health Letter says "Even without symptoms, moderate to severely elevated potassium can be life-threatening."