COSMOS study on multivitamins & cognitive decline

[CDreamer]

Interesting- thoughts?

medscape.com/viewarticle/98...

My take - goes back to poor nutrition & lack of micronutrients in our foods.

[Threecats]

Very interesting, CD, thank you for posting. Like you, I have always been of the opinion that getting micronutrients from a wide and varied diet is the way to go and that it what I’ve always attempted to do.

However, I recently began reading Hans Larsen’s book “Thrombosis and Stroke Prevention”. As a result I have added a number of supplements to the daily MegaMag drink I take, based on the natural approaches mentioned in the book. Since doing so, the regular ectopics I experience have stopped. Maybe it’s coincidence, I don’t know but I was surprised as I’ve redoubled my efforts to eat a variety of foods since being diagnosed with AF, so didn’t think I would be lacking micronutrients. I do wonder if , as you say, there’s a lack of micronutrients in the food we’re eating. Alternatively, maybe absorbing micronutrients becomes more inefficient as we age, so more is needed to achieve the same effect. Either way, a multivitamin “insurance policy” sounds like a good idea to me!

[CDreamer in reply to Threecats]

I think both lack of micronutrients in food & bio-availablity due to poor absorption as we age are factors.

[KMRobbo in reply to Threecats]

which supplements have you added that may have reduced the ectopics??

[Threecats in reply to KMRobbo]

I’m currently taking Vit E, Vit B complex, buffered Vit C, potassium and a magnesium product called Mega Mag Ultra Muscleze. As I say, I’ve no idea if this lot is the cause of my ectopics stopping or whether it’s just coincidence but I’m happy to take it as they were becoming a blooming nuisance!

[KMRobbo in reply to Threecats]

I understand magnesium is known to help with Afib if your cells are low in magnesium (serum magnesium may not be low)

[Threecats in reply to KMRobbo]

Yes, that’s what I’ve heard, too but I have been taking the magnesium supplement for a while and not noticed a difference until I added the other items I mentioned above. It could be argued perhaps, that the magnesium level has gradually increased and that is what is having the effect , I’ve no idea. As I mentioned originally, I’ve introduced the other supplements as part of a natural stroke risk reduction program . This additional benefit is an added bonus as far as I’m concerned!

[LaceyLady]

I am not surprised. Our food has become seriously nutritionally deficient over the last 30 years. Think about this, put watered down petrol and oils into your vehicle where would that get you 🤷🏼‍♀️I follow a nutritionalist Marilyn Glenville, she’s bee practicing for over 30+ years says our food is very nutritionally deficient and we need supplements

[wilsond]

yes,we are what we eat! Highly processed foods,nutritionally poor and drinking fuzzy drinks all surely must have effects on us. One of the reasons I grow much of our own food.

Interesting study x

[Ppiman]

Reasons to be cheerful? Maybe a little, thankfully, but... small cohort, self-reported, positive effects were small and even then only in those with CVD history. It would be interesting to look at insulin resistance within the cohort as their diet is likely to be the most affected by a changed food intake. Also, B3 has some vasodilatory effects which might be separately helpful.

Thanks for posting it!

Steve

[CDreamer in reply to Ppiman]

What I thought interesting was they were reporting on something they weren’t really researching……….

I agree re insulin resistance and what I have learned from the Zoe study is that can be down to gut and it’s microbes. Lifestyle is so important.

[Ppiman in reply to CDreamer]

I agree completely. I think nutrition is the key when we are older and have - likely - some degree of insulin resistance since this creates a wide range of metabolic effects even if sub-clinical. Also, we have such a preference for over-processed foods and a reluctance to eat low-processed alternatives (with good reason, really, as we've been spoiled and chewing nuts daily, or eating unprocessed flours and rice is not so pleasant!).

Steve

[Auriculaire in reply to Ppiman]

I think the preference for overprocessed food is a learned one and starts in childhood. Personally I find over processed food mainly uninviting. I think fast food places like McDonalds and KFC smell awful ( I have never actually eaten anything from either one-ever). I remember vividly the vile smell that emanated from a muffin shop that was in the shop complex at New Street station in Birmingham - every time I had to pass it on the way to the train I felt sick and marvelled that people could actually go in and buy something. Bread made with wholemeal flour is very nice. My husband bakes our bread and the recipe includes eggs , olive oil, pumpkin seeds , walnuts and hazelnuts. It is very much better than shop bread and smells delicious when baking. It is dense though, does not toast well and is only really suitable for open sandwiches. Homemade cakes are superior to shop bought ones and a lot of the white flour can be substituted with ground almonds and coconut. Proper domestic science lessons where children are actually taught to cook disappeared from the curriculum years ago. I remember my grandchildren telling me how in "home economics" they had a project to design a chocolate bar wrapper! How useless was that!

[Ppiman in reply to Auriculaire]

I couldn't agree more with you and my wife, spurred on yet more now by our lovely daughter-in-law and her husband, our health-conscious son, produces most of our food from raw ingredients. Bread is more difficult as there are times when nothing tastes nicer than freshly baked sliced white loaf!

Steve

[Auriculaire in reply to Ppiman]

I will admit I like freshly baked baguette though the bakery in our village closed down when the baker retired several years ago. I sometimes treat myself to one slice of baguette in a restaurant. Sliced bread here is the cottonwool variety in a bag .

[Ppiman in reply to Auriculaire]

We've baked our own bread for very many years, mostly using a Panasonic bread maker for ease, but often the oven. You are so lucky eating a fresh baguette in La Belle France.

Steve

[LaceyLady in reply to Ppiman]

quite frankly the ‘sliced bread’ is disgusting, so sugary, lacks nutrition. I’ve made my own bread in a panasonic for decades, I know what’s in it, buy good quality flours from mills. You know, they were putting trap in the flour for centuries. Bread is no longer a good basic staple.

We didn’t get so much processed food as a kid, we couldn't afford it, mum baked and cooked from scratch. Over the years our ‘food’ has got worse and worse. Grown too fast with chemicals. We barely have any good food shops now. I saw the decline happening many years ago, - SUPERMARKETS!

[Ppiman in reply to LaceyLady]

Spot on. Interestingly, our daughter in law comes from Romania and her parents own a farm where everything is still naturally grown. The meat is so different from ours. It's much tougher, but much tastier. Pork is like a different meat altogether. Fascinating.

Steve

[LaceyLady in reply to Ppiman]

DON’T get me started of the meat in this country! I have very very sharp senses, smell a bonfire before anyone else in the house and taste things so acutely husband now has learned to ask me to smell something in case its of!!

There is barely any taste you our meats and food in general and sometimes I can’t be bothered to eat it!

[Ppiman in reply to LaceyLady]

I have similarly sharp senses. I'll be honest and say that not everything has deteriorated in flavour. Having been able to try the "real thing" I am amazed that things like fruit and veg can sometimes still taste good from a supermarket.

Steve

[LaceyLady in reply to Ppiman]

Yes, all about where it comes from, I’ve found that but not often sadly. We have local berries in the supermarkets here, tasteless, it’d the way they produce them, in poly tunnels constantly fed water!

[Ppiman in reply to LaceyLady]

yes - berries are an issue, but it depends. Home grown raspberries were poor this year! And runner beans a disaster.

We buy organic as much as we can afford now, mostly as I trust to their animal welfare more than anything, but the amount of chemicals sprayed on, say, carrots, is frightening.

Steve

[LaceyLady in reply to Auriculaire]

oooohhhh I remember my cookery teacher, of course fierce but a softer at heart and I always came first in exams 😜

I started to explore different recipes for bread , cake and pastries with almond, coconut flour and alway baked my own bread in a Panasonic with various whole meal flour types, now I add mixed seeds, pumpkin and sunflower. Being diagnosed T2 last June😉

[Auriculaire in reply to LaceyLady]

My fasting sugars are sometimes in prediabetic range. Whenever I have tested after a njght in afib they are always in the diabetic range. I don't know if it's the poor night's sleep or the stress of the afib on the body that does it. Twice a year I buy a tub of test strips and test intensively . Bread -even our homemade- puts up my post prandials more than anything else.

[LaceyLady in reply to Auriculaire]

It’s all linked. I’ve had a lot of stress, one thing after another. Just interred my younger brothers ashes this morning. I’ve had to organise all the funeral etc and there’s to be an inquest due to hospital negligence! I suppose its no wonder my levels have been all over the place and I’m SO ;lucky not to have had any AF episodes!! Eating pasta, rice and bread it is always best for wholemeal however I know what you mean, these do increase my levels. When wholemeal they take longer to digest and ‘better’. I follow the’ Glucose Goddess’ on instagram, very very interesting ‘hacks’ also the ‘Gut doctor’. I was a blue light job last June, HBa1C was mega high, 138, no symptoms no inherited link 🤷🏼‍♀️ I had to go low carb as all carbs turn into sugars. So, hoping I can get my levels down to 6 at least and no massive fluctuations.

[Auriculaire in reply to LaceyLady]

Really sorry to hear that you are having such a hard time. It must have been an awful shock to be diagnosed out of the blue like that. I am overweight so aware that T2 might be lurking in my future - hence why I keep an eye on my sugars .I have cut down a bit on carbs - less pasta ,rice and spuds than I used to eat. I think wholemeal pasta is horrible and my husband is not keen on brown rice either! So I just cut back the amounts of the white stuff.

[sleeksheep in reply to Auriculaire]

I am T2 and watch what I eat , with rice only long grain rice is lower in carbs - short grain brown rice is still a lot higher than Basmati which is one of the low GI ( Glycemic Index) rice's.

Basmati 58

Brown Rice 72

Short grain 83

Jasmine rice 89

With bread always stay with Multi Grain / Mixed Grain 44

Wholemeal is usually around 72 / 74

Luckily with spuds if there kept whole not mashed the GI is moderate rather than high

[LaceyLady in reply to sleeksheep]

The whole grains are slower release which is better.

[Auriculaire in reply to sleeksheep]

I did not know that about rice. I use Basmati for Indian dishes and Camargue ( 'cos most local) for anything else.

[LaceyLady in reply to Auriculaire]

Auriculaire so did I, you get used to it! I does have more flavour and mixed with veg, a sauce is ok. The alternative is ‘cauliflower rice’ now there’s a tasteless option!

[LaceyLady]

Ive got cook books by Katie & Giancarlo Caldesi with Dr David Unwin. Giancarlo is an Italian chef not too many miles away from me, he became diabetic and now he and his wife write cook books for diabetics 👍🏻 I’ve finally got round to reading the Drs information in the front of one 🙄