Soda, Diabetes, Bone Loss, Daily Aspirin

Over 130,000 cases of diabetes now linked to soda consumption, HFCS

For years, advocates of natural health have been hammering away at the message that soda causes diabetes and obesity. The soda industry, meanwhile, has remained in denial mode, mirroring the ridiculous position of the tobacco industry that "nicotine is not addictive." Soda doesn't cause diabetes, the industry claims, and it's perfectly safe to consume in essentially unlimited quantities.

The Corn Refiners Association has joined the denial with its own spin campaign that seeks to convince people High-Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is totally natural and completely harmless. HFCS is, of course, the primary sweetener used in sodas and soft drinks.

Now comes new research presented at the American Heart Association's Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention annual conference in San Francisco. This new research reveals that over the last decade, soda consumption has conservatively caused:

• 130,000 new cases of diabetes
• 14,000 new cases of heart disease
• 50,000 more "life years" with heart disease over the last decade

"The finding suggests that any kind of policy that reduces consumption might have a dramatic health benefit," said senior study author Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo (associate professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco).

The American Beverage Association, meanwhile, says this study hasn't been published in a peer-reviewed medical journal yet and therefore it doesn't count. Soda consumption doesn't cause diabetes or heart disease, they claim, because "...both heart disease and diabetes are complex conditions with no single cause and no single solution."

It's silly logic, of course: Diabetes obviously has a cause. It's not some spontaneous disease that appears out of nowhere. And when you go looking for the cause, you obviously have to look at dietary factors since diabetes is a disease related to the consumption and metabolism of dietary sugars. Once you do that, sodas immediately raise a red flag because they're liquid sugar in a highly-concentrated form that does not exist naturally in nature.

HFCS doesn't grow on trees, in other words. Nature provides sugars locked into insoluble fibers that slow digestion and lower the effective glycemic index of sugars that are consumed. In nature, sugars are always combined with minerals, too, and many of those minerals help prevent diabetes and heart disease. But High-Fructose Corn Syrup is stripped of virtually all those minerals. It contains no fiber and no healing phytonutrients that you might encounter in plants. As a result, HFCS -- sometimes dubbed "liquid Satan" -- might be called a dietary poison that causes disease while contributing to nutritional deficiencies that accelerate disease.

Add Bone Loss to the Soda List

Interestingly, this new study did not look at loss of bone density, which is another side effect of drinking soda. Due to the extremely high acidity of the HFCS sweetener combined with the phosphoric acid used in sodas, people who drink sodas often lose bone minerals and end up being diagnosed with osteoporosis (even at a relatively young age).

Other people end up with kidney stones due to all these minerals passing through the kidneys and contributing to the build up of mineral deposits there. Long-term soda consumers may even suffer from pancreatic cancer due to the extreme stress placed on the pancreas following the consumption of liquid sugars.

In all, soda consumption is linked to at least six serious diseases:

#1) Diabetes
#2) Obesity
#3) Heart disease
#4) Cancer
#5) Osteoporosis
#6) Kidney stones

That's why taxing sodas is more than merely a way to raise money through soda sales; it's also a way to dramatically reduce the cost of treating these diseases. It's no surprise that several U.S. states are now starting to seriously consider slapping new taxes on sodas and other "junk" beverages.

That's not the way I would prefer to see the situation handled, actually. The better option, in my view, would be to ban all soda advertising by effectively stripping Free Speech rights from corporations. Such rights belong only to individuals, not multi-billion-dollar corporations. Corporations whose products physically harm the health of the population at large should not be allowed to openly advertise and promote those products to the public. They can still sell them, they just can't advertise them.

This is the real solution to the problem: Take away the advertising of sodas and consumer consumption immediately plummets. It's all the advertising that keeps the soft drink sales machine churning out disease and suffering in the name of corporate profits. Soda companies, of course, will argue that they have a Free Speech right to advertise their products even if they do promote disease. That's an argument to be taken up by the U.S. Supreme Court, of course. But let there be no mistake about it: The continued tolerance of soda advertising is creating a nation of diabetes, obesity and heart disease.

There will be a price to be paid for all this, and I fear it will be a price far beyond what society is able to pay. To raise a nation on sodas and processed foods is to ultimately doom that nation because failed health will ultimately lead to a failed nation. You cannot build a healthy nation upon the backs of a diseased population, and thanks to the soda companies and junk food companies, the United States of America is now a nation of diseased, diabetic, obese consumers who continue to poison themselves every single day with the dangerous chemicals found in heavily advertised food, beverage and personal care products.

Soft drink consumption increases pancreatic cancer risk

Researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center examined evidence gathered from the Singapore Chinese Health Study. More than 60,000 subjects were followed for as much as 14 years. Results showed that those who consumed just two or more soft drinks each week increased their risk of pancreatic cancer by nearly 90 percent. And the link was that strong even after researchers allowed for factors such as smoking, type 2 diabetes, and excess body weight. (Diet soft drinks weren't included in the study.)

The study also found that the same level of fruit juice consumption was not linked to the disease. This was unexpected because many fruit juices contain as much or nearly as much sugar as soft drinks. But the Georgetown lead researcher pointed out to Medscape that there are several differences between soft drinks and fruit juices, such as nutrient content and typically smaller juice portion sizes. And then there's the huge, glaring difference, which he didn't mention: Unlike a genuine fruit juice, soft drinks are sweetened with high fructose corn syrup. I'm not saying HFCS causes pancreatic cancer. I'm just saying...it's there.

Can the results of a study conducted in Singapore apply to a U.S. population? The Georgetown team, cautiously, believes they can. They point out that other studies with Caucasian subjects have also found a link between soft drink consumption and pancreatic cancer. Good to know!

And this is not the first health problem we've seen linked to soft drinks. In 2007 a study was done in which Framingham Heart researchers found that subjects who drank one or more soft drinks each day were nearly 45 percent more likely to develop symptoms of metabolic syndrome, including obesity, increased waist circumference, impaired fasting glucose, higher blood pressure, high triglycerides, and higher LDL cholesterol.

Another study offered this disturbing stat: The average person in the U.S. drank 11 gallons of soft drinks per year in 1946. In 2000, the yearly average per person was nearly 50 gallons! That level of consumption equals an average of more than 500 hours per year of acid exposure in the gastrointestinal tract. And that level of exposure contributes to gastric distension, acid reflux, and maybe even esophageal cancer.

And finally, two years ago, University of British Columbia researchers found that men who drank one soft drink each day increased their risk of developing gout by 45 percent. Two or more soft drinks per day nearly doubled the risk.

Aspirin - another mainstream "no brainer" bites the dust

A recent issue of the VERY mainstream Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) carries a study that tested low dose aspirin (100mg per day) against placebo in 3,350 healthy subjects between the ages of 50 and 75. On average, each subject participated for more than eight years. Results: No statistically significant difference was found between the two groups in fatal or nonfatal coronary events, strokes, angina, transient heart attack or all- cause mortality.

In short, low-dose aspirin use produced virtually no benefits. But adverse events tell another story. The authors write: "Any effect of aspirin on cardiovascular events needs to be balanced against the potential for harm. Although numbers were small, the trial results suggested an increased incidence of major hemorrhage and gastrointestinal ulcer, although not severe anemia, in the aspirin group, and more participants in the aspirin group than in the placebo group had fatal intracranial adverse events."

So...what do you think? Will this be the turning point? From now on will doctors tell their patients to forget about a daily aspirin because it's likely to do more harm than good? Don't hold your breath. Read your JAMA! All the aspirin evidence you need is right there in front of you.

Here's one fact you won't hear in those ads: Roughly half of all people who suffer a fatal heart attack took an aspirin that day. I wonder what their final thoughts were. I bet more than a few clutched their chest and cried out, "But... I took an aspirin today!"

If you want to really do something to prevent heart problems then give your heart the nutrients it needs to heal itself. Besides eating a healthy diet, be sure to take quality supplements like Cardio-Plus from Standard Process. You can even order Standard Process supplements at a discount on Amazon.com now and many have free shipping.

XYLITOL Pet Warning

Xylitol, a natural sweetener which I have recommended in the past, used in sugarless gum, candy, and desserts is actually beneficial to humans and has been shown to help prevent tooth decay. But xylitol is quite toxic to dogs. The ASPCA reports that dogs experience a sharp drop in blood sugar just a few minutes after consuming xylitol. This prompts lethargy, vomiting, seizures, and even liver failure. Immediate attention is required.

Bone Loss Drugs

If you're a woman who's concerned about bone health, I think you'll be angry about this.

We'll start with a recent FDA announcement about bisphosphonate drugs--better known by familiar brand names such as Fosamax, Boniva, Reclast, and Actonel. I'm sure you're aware that this class of drugs is supposed to strengthen bones in women at risk of osteoporosis. But the fact is, these drugs are actually linked to INCREASED fracture risk.

Nevertheless, in true FDA fashion, after a review of bisphosphonate studies, FDA officials announced that they could find no evidence that the drugs increase risk of fractures to the thighbone (femur) below the hip joint. Too bad those officials couldn't make it to the annual meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons in New Orleans earlier this year. Because two different studies presented at that meeting completely contradict the FDA announcement.

Take 112 post-menopausal women with osteoporosis. Give half of them a bisphosphonate drug. Give the other half daily calcium and vitamin D supplements. Four years later take bone scans of their thighbones. Results: On average, subjects in the drug group had increased buckling ratio compared to non-drug subjects. Higher buckling ratio equals higher risk of fracture.

That's study number one.

In the second study, bone biopsies were taken from 21 post- menopausal women who had broken their femur. Twelve of the women had taken bisphosphonates for an average of more than eight years. Lead researcher, Dr. Joseph Lane of Weill Cornell Medical College, explained to HealthDay News that normally about 20 percent of a bone is new, about 60 percent is middle-aged, and about 20 percent is old. In the women taking the drugs, 90 percent of the bone was old. Dr. Lane added that when too much of the bone is old, microdamage to the bone can't be repaired. Dr. Lane: "What I think is happening is, women keep doing microdamage to the bone."

So it’s the women causing it?

Women keep doing microdamage to the bone. Bisphosphonates don't hurt the bone. Women hurt the bone.

Should we cut Dr. Lane some slack? After all, maybe he just carelessly misspoke. Or maybe he was even misquoted. Maybe. But two years ago, Dr. Lane led another similar study that found a very specific type of thighbone fracture that occurred in women who used Fosamax. And here was his comment to HealthDay News in 2008: "This is a great drug that does wonderful things."

Great drug. Fantastic drug! The problem with the drug, obviously, is women. If they would just not take the drug, there would be no fractures!

Speaking of women...when ABC News reported on the bisphosphonate link to femur fracture risk, scores of women went to the ABC website and shared their experiences. Here are just a few of the typical comments from bisphosphonate users:

"...developed aches in my hips, and weakness in the legs..."
"...my femur broke, worst pain in the world..."
"...my mother's femur fractured..."
"...had a slight fall and my left femur shattered..."
"...my right leg just gave out and I fell..."
"...had compression fractures of the spine..."
"...fell and broke my right femur bone..."
"...fell to my knees splitting my femur..."

These painful testimonials about this "great drug" go on and on and on. In one comment, however, a woman breaks the pattern. She notes that it's good to vent in this spontaneous ABC forum, but the next stop for all these women should be the FDA website (fda.gov). There, they can file a formal complaint that will become part of the permanent record of these drugs that are really NOT great at all. Not even close.

My Comment:
Avoid taking drugs to try and control possible health issues in your life. Eat right, take the right nutritional supplements and get some exercise. That is the simple way to stay healthy and have strong bones. As I have said many times before, taking drugs on a daily basis is never a good idea. Using nutrition is the best form of prevention and far safer than drugs. Whether you are talking about controlling cholesterol, heart disease, osteoporosis or anything else, never rely on drugs for your health. If you give your body the nutrition it needs you won’t have to worry about these deadly diseases.

Until next time, stay healthy and happy

JD Roma