Odyssey Mail September 17

Odyssey

September 2017

HEALTH CLUBS & SPA

Cholesterol is NOT the Problem Why a Low Fat Diet and Statin’s May Cause Alzheimer’s BMW Specialist Cars Stevenage Launch Partnership with Odyssey!

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NEWS Amazing Results from Keto and Low Carb

Over the past few weeks some of the team here at Odyssey have switched their diets to follow the Phil Richards principles of Low Carb - High Fat & Ketosis

Our Diet Articles Each month we try to bring you the latest information on diet advice, supplementation and their impact on health. Without question, the quality of your diet will impact on your overall health and the results you can achieve through exercise.

The principle being that you are stabilising your blood sugar levels and training your body to use fats, rather than glucose as a fuel source. We want you to maximise those results and be the healthiest you can be at all times. Our articles are We are already seeing some chosen to initiate you on your own impressive results: journey of discovery and deeper Ian - lost 33lbs and % body fat has reading. The blood profiling results from Phil Richards have proven that dropped from 20% to 10%! there is no one size fits all, however, there are certain food principles Stephen - 24lbs (12st 9lb - 10st that underpin good health - cutting 13lb). 5% decrease in body fat. sugar/ carbohydrate intake is Lilly - 15lbs and two clothes sizes certainly one of them and we would urge you to incorporate this in 4 weeks into your lifestyle.

Phil - 10lbs and 3% body fat We'll keep you posted on the progress and if you'd like to learn more, simply book a free nutritional review with one of our coaches!

Look out for forthcoming weekly weight management classes!

Welcome to Odyssey!

Our Front of House team has two new additions to introduce to you; Sian and Billi. And joining our Fitness Team is Luciana - welcome!

states " The blood chemistry analysis that I perform takes away the guesswork from what diet you should be on, what supplements you need, what hormones may be necessary and what training will be the most beneficial to drop fat safely, effectively and long term as well as increasing sporting performance.

Instead, this blood chemistry analysis will look at 85 blood markers, and I will be able to tell you precisely why you are not getting results and what you need to be doing today, to get the results you want tomorrow.

As part of our exclusive relationship with Phil, we are delighted to be able to offer Odyssey members for just ÂŁ549, a saving of ÂŁ150 until the end of September 17. Please don't miss out on this incredible offer, I can speak from personal experience that this test has transformed my results and averted serious health issues in the future.

We hope you enjoy the information provided and warmly welcome any feedback.

Blood Profiling Test Exclusive Price for Odyssey Members We are delighted to announce the Odyssey Members can now benefit from a significant discount on the rrp of Phil Richards Blood Chemistry Analysis Test. As Phil

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5 Health Benefits of Low-Carb and Ketogenic Diets

much weight, without being hungry.

3. Blood Pressure Tends to go Down

Having elevated blood pressure (hypertension) is an important risk factor for many diseases. This includes heart disease, stroke, kidney failure and many others.

Low-carb diets have been controversial for decades.

They were originally demonized by fat-phobic health professionals and the media. People believed that these diets would raise cholesterol and cause heart disease because of the high fat content.

Low-carb diets are an effective way to reduce blood pressure, which should lead to a reduced risk of these diseases and help you live longer.

However... times are changing. Since the year 2002, over 20 human studies have been conducted on low-carb diets. In almost every one of those studies, low-carb diets come out ahead of the diets they are compared to.

When we eat carbs, they are broken down into simple sugars (mostly glucose) in the digestive tract. Because high blood sugars are toxic, the body responds with a hormone called insulin, which tells the cells to bring the glucose into the cells and to start burning or storing it. For people who are healthy, the quick insulin response tends to minimize the blood sugar "spike" in order to prevent it from harming us.

Here are the 5 health benefits of low-carb and ketogenic diets.

1. Low-Carb Diets Kill Your Appetite (in a Good Way)

Hunger is the single worst side effect of dieting.

It is one of the main reasons why many people feel miserable and eventually give up on their diets.

One of the best things about eating low-carb is that it leads to an automatic reduction in appetite.

The studies consistently show that when people cut carbs and eat more protein and fat, they end up eating much fewer calories.

2. Low-Carb Diets Lead to More Weight Loss

Cutting carbs is one of the simplest and most effective ways to lose weight. Studies show that people on low-carb diets lose more weight, faster, than people on low-fat diets... even when the lowfat dieters are actively restricting calories.

One of the reasons for this is that low-carb diets tend to get rid of excess water from the body.

Because they lower insulin levels, the kidneys start shedding excess sodium, leading to rapid weight loss in the first week or two.

In studies comparing low-carb and low-fat diets, the low-carbers sometimes lose 2-3 times as

4. Reduced Blood Sugar and Insulin Levels, With a Major Improvement in Type 2 Diabetes

However... many, many people have major problems with this system and this insulin resistance can lead to a disease called type 2 diabetes. This affects about 300 million people worldwide.

By cutting carbohydrates, you remove the need for all that insulin. Both blood sugars and insulin fall. If you are currently on blood sugar lowering medication, then talk to your doctor before making changes to your carbohydrate intake, because your dosage may need to be adjusted in order to prevent hypoglycemia.

5. Low-Carb Diets Are Therapeutic For Several Brain Disorders

Some part of the brain can only burn glucose.

That's why the liver produces glucose out of protein if we don't eat any carbs. But a large part of the brain can also burn ketones, which are formed during starvation or when carbohydrate intake is very low.

This is the mechanism behind the ketogenic diet, which has been used for decades to treat epilepsy in children who don't respond to drug treatment.

Very low-carb/ketogenic diets are now being studied for other brain disorders as well, including Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease.

Cholesterol is NOT the problem — it is time to focus on the real culprit: Insulin Resistance

E

merging evidence shows that insulin resistance is the most important predictor of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.

Aggressive lowering cholesterol has been the cornerstone of preventative cardiology for decades.

Statins are widely used as the go-to solution for the prevention of heart disease owing to their ability to slash cholestrerol levels, a ‘surrogate marker’ of cardiovascular disease (CVD).

Indeed, statins are one of the most widely prescribed class of drugs in the world.

Over the years, medical guidelines have continually expanded the number of individuals for whom statin therapy is recommended. Proponents argue that statins are ‘life-savers’ and that ‘people will die’ if they discontinue their medicine. Prominent researchers from reputable universities have declared that ‘everyone over 50’ should be on a statin to reduce their risk of CVD and that even children with high cholesterol as young as 8 years should be afforded statin therapy However, the true benefit of statins in altering risk of CVD is increasingly being questioned by respected members of the medical community, creating bitter divisions within the ranks. Several cardiologists have countered that the benefits of statins have been grossly exaggerated (especially as primary prevention), while their risks have been consistently underemphasised.

In some quarters, the scepticism about statins has reached fever pitch. Some say that the preponderance of statin trials has been tainted by ‘industry sponsorship’, influenced by ‘statistical deception’, and riddled with ‘flawed methodology’ Those who challenge the cholesterol hypothesis

are accused of ‘cherry-picking’ the data. Ironically, pro-statin researchers themselves are the ones who are guilty of cherry-picking. A recent article in The Lancet, published in 2016, purported to end the statin debate, ostensibly to silence dissenting views.Yet, despite billions invested in developing medicines to reduce cholesterol drastically, there remains no consistent evidence for clinical benefit with respect to either events or mortality.

When looking at all the evidence, the sobering results of the studies have left many doctors wondering whether the directive to lower cholesterol aggressively using pharmacotherapy has been misguided.

It is clear that appropriate lifestyle interventions deliver far more impressive results compared with those of current medications (and without the side effects, and at a much lower cost).

Insulin Resistance: the main culprit Using the lowering of Cholesterol (LDL-C) as a surrogate marker, accomplished through either diet or medicines, has proven to be, at best, inconsistent and, at worst, misguided. Furthermore, using weight or body mass index (BMI) as a surrogate marker has been uniformly ineffective. While some people lose weight acutely through self-imposed dieting, they routinely gain it back, often with worsening of their metabolic state.

The risk factor that has been most consistently associated with CVD, type 2 diabetes and obesity is ‘insulin resistance’ — defined as an impaired biological response to insulin. In fact, insulin resistance plays a primary and causative role in the pathogenesis of hypertension, dyslipidaemia, fatty liver disease, and type 2 diabetes, collectively termed ‘metabolic syndrome’.

We propose that insulin resistance is the most important predictor of CVD and type 2 diabetes, Up to 69% of patients who were admitted to hospital with acute heart attacks were found to have metabolic syndrome, which was associated with increased risk of death or readmission over the following 12 months.

Excessive consumption of refined carbohydrates (especially sugar) and the resultant glycaemic load can overwhelm mechanisms that regulate the

body’s blood glucose levels. Evidence surrounding the use of low carbohydrate, high fat diets for the prevention and treatment of CVD, type 2 diabetes, and obesity is accumulating. Unfortunately, other than Brazil, there has been little change to any nation’s dietary guidelines, which continue to recommend a low fat diet, which often results in diets high in refined carbohydrates (especially sugar).

Even minimal exercise can help to reverse insulin resistance. A recent article stated that just 30 minutes of exercise per day more than three times per week, can reverse insulin resistance, while another study suggested that just 15 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per day can increase lifespan by 3 years.

Time to Redefine CVD Risks In summary, for many patients at high risk of CVD, one of the safest and most effective ways to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke is to consume a high fat and low glycaemic load Mediterranean diet and engage in regular exercise. At the very least, exercise interventions are often similar to drug interventions in terms of their mortality benefits in the secondary prevention of coronary heart disease, and do not come with side effects.

Maryanne Demasi is an investigative medical reporter Robert H. Lustig is professor of paediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco, USA Aseem Malhotra is honorary consultant cardiologist at Lister Hospital, Stevenage

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Seasonal Eating

Now that we can eat most fruit and veg all year round, we often forget what is in season.

There are many reasons for trying to eat seasonally: 1. It is good for the environment as it is usually grown locally meaning less long-haul shipping and fewer chemicals to ensure that the food arrives in good condition (some countries have relaxed laws when it comes to pesticides) 2. It is often cheaper as more is available 3. Harvesting at the right time means higher in nutrients. Storing food for long periods can destroy vitamins and minerals 4. When harvested on the vine the flavour is richer. Storing in a chilled environment can take away its true flavour 5. Food in season supports our nutritional needs according to the time of year; lighter foods in the summer are rich in beta-carotene, citrus foods in the winter are high in vitamin C to prevent colds as well as rich in root vegetables for warming foods such as stews and casseroles A good website to follow seasonal food http://eatseasonably.co.uk/what-to-eat-now/ Lisa Knowles lisa@nutriality.com 07956578608

Why a Low Fat Diet and Statin’s May Cause Alzheimer’s Alzheimer’s is a devastating disease that currently affects almost 500,000 people in the UK and this number is expected to drastically rise in the future with dietary and lifestyle choices being one of the main catalyst for this rise. Alzheimer’s was a little known disease before 1960, but today it threatens to completely derail the health system not only in the UK – but Worldwide.

This article is provided by Stephanie Seneff – A senior Research Scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.

Something in our current lifestyle is increasing the likelihood that we will succumb to Alzheimer’s.

My belief is that two major contributors are our current obsession with low-fat diet, combined with the ever expanding use of statin drugs.

Researchers are only recently discovering that both fat and cholesterol are severely deficient in the Alzheimer’s brain.

Cholesterol is essential both in transmitting nerve signals and in fighting off infections. A crucial piece of the puzzle is a genetic marker that predisposes people to Alzheimer’s, termed “apoE-4.” ApoE plays a central role in the transport of fats and cholesterol.

A person with apoE-4 allele inherited from both their mother and their father has up to a twentyfold increased likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s disease. However, only about 5% of the people with Alzheimer’s actually have the apoE-4 allele, so clearly there is something else going on for the rest of them.

Cholesterol plays an incredibly important role in the synapse, by shaping the two cell membranes into a snug fit so that the signal can easily jump across the synapse. So inadequate cholesterol in the synapse will weaken the signal at the outset, and inadequate fat coating the myelin sheath will further weaken it and slow it down during transport.

The neurons that are damaged in Alzheimer’s are located in specific regions of the brain associated with memory and high level planning. These neurons need to transmit signals long distances between the frontal and prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus, housed in the midbrain.

In a post-mortem study comparing Alzheimer’s patients with a control group without Alzheimer’s, it was found that the Alzheimer’s patients had significantly reduced amounts of cholesterol, phospholipids (e.g, B-HDL), and free fatty acids in the cerebrospinal fluid than did the controls.

This was true irrespective of whether the Alzheimer’s patients were typed as apoE-4. In other words, reductions in these critical nutrients in the spinal fluid are associated with Alzheimer’s regardless of whether the reduction is due to defective apoE.

The Relationship between Cholesterol and Alzheimer’s The statin industry has looked long and hard for evidence that high cholesterol might be a risk factor for Alzheimer’s. They examined cholesterol levels for men and women of all ages between 50 and 100, looking back 30 or more years if necessary, to see if there was ever a correlation between high cholesterol and Alzheimer’s. They found only one statistically significant relationship: men who had had high cholesterol in their 50’s had an increased susceptibility to Alzheimer’s much later in life.

The statin industry has jumped on this opportunity to imply that high cholesterol might cause Alzheimer’s, and, indeed, they have been very fortunate in that reporters have taken the bait and are promoting the idea that, if high cholesterol many Cholesterol in the Brain years ago is linked to Alzheimer’s, then statins might The brain comprises only 2% of the body’s total protect from Alzheimer’s. weight, yet it contains nearly 25% of the total Fortunately, there exist lengthy web pages that have cholesterol in the body. It has been determined that documented the long list of reasons why this idea is the limiting factor allowing the growth of synapses absurd. is the availability of cholesterol, supplied by the astrocytes.

Men who have high cholesterol in their 50’s are the poster child for statin treatment: all of the studies

that have shown a benefit for statins in terms of reducing the number of minor heart attacks involved men in their 50’s.

High cholesterol is positively correlated with longevity in people over 85 years old, and has been shown to be associated with better memory function and reduced dementia. The converse is also true: a correlation between falling cholesterol levels and Alzheimer’s.

Statins and Alzheimer’s

fats are generated by a high-heat process and are extremely damaging both to heart and brain health.

A high consumption of trans fats has recently been shown to increase the risk of Alzheimer’s. Trans fats are especially prevalent in highly processed foods — particularly when fats are converted to a powdered form.

If we stop trying to get by on as few fats as possible in the diet, then we don’t have to become so preoccupied with getting the “right” kinds of fats. If the body is supplied with an over abundance of fats, it can pick and choose to find the perfect fat to match each particular need; excess or defective fats can just be used as fuel, where it’s not very important which fat it is, as long as it can be broken down to release energy.

There is a clear reason why statins would promote Alzheimer’s. They cripple the liver’s ability to synthesize cholesterol, and as a consequence the level of LDL in the blood plummets.

Cholesterol plays a crucial role in the brain, both in terms of enabling signal transport across the synapse and in terms of encouraging the growth of Conclusion neurons through healthy development of the myelin This is an exciting time for Alzheimer’s research, as sheath. new and surprising discoveries are coming out at a rapid pace, and evidence is mounting to support the Nonetheless, the statin industry proudly boasts that notion that Alzheimer’s is a nutritional deficiency statins are effective at interfering with cholesterol disease. production in the brain as well as in the liver.

Yeon-Kyun Shin is an expert on the physical The ApoE-4 allele, which is associated with increased mechanism of cholesterol. In an interview by a risk to Alzheimer’s, clearly implicates defects in fat Science Daily reporter, Shin said: and cholesterol transport, and the remarkable 6-fold “If you deprive cholesterol from the brain, then reduction in the amount of fatty acids present in the you directly affect the machinery that triggers the cerebrospinal fluid of Alzheimer’s patients speaks release of neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters loudly the message that fat insufficiency is a key part affect the data-processing and memory functions. In of the picture. other words — how smart you are and how well you remember things.”

Cholesterol obviously plays a vital role in brain function. A whopping 25% of the total cholesterol in the body is found in the brain, and it is present in Fats – A Healthy Choice! abundance both in the synapses and in the myelin To say that the current situation with regard sheath. The cholesterol in both of these places has to dietary fats is confusing would be an been shown to play an absolutely essential role in understatement. We are repeatedly told to keep signal transport and in growth and repair. our total fat intake down to, ideally, 20% of our Given the strong positive role played by cholesterol, total calories. This is difficult to achieve, and I it can only be assumed that statin drugs would believe it is misguided advice. increase the risk of developing Alzheimer’s.

However, the statin industry has been remarkably In direct contradiction to this “low-fat” goal, we are encouraged to consume as much as possible of successful thus far in hiding this painful fact. They have managed to make much of the observation that high the “good” kinds of fats. Fortunately, the message cholesterol much earlier in life is associated with an is finally becoming widely embraced that omega-3 increased risk to Alzheimer’s thirty years later.Yet fats are healthy and that trans fats are extremely they offer not a single study, not even a retrospective unhealthy. study, to substantiate any claim that actively reducing DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) is an omega-3 fat that cholesterol through statin therapy would improve the situation for these people. is found in large quantities in the healthy brain. In the diet, it is available mainly from cold water fish, but eggs and dairy are also good sources. Trans

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Keto Chicken Casserole Recipe Ingredients 4 servings 1½ lbs chicken thighs or chicken breasts 4 oz. red pesto or green pesto 12⁄3 cups heavy whipping cream 8 tablespoons pitted olives 8 oz. feta cheese, diced 1 garlic clove, finely chopped salt and pepper butter, for frying For serving 5 oz. leafy greens olive oil sea salt

Instructions Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Cut the chicken thighs or filets into pieces. Season with salt and pepper and fry in butter until golden brown.

Mix pesto and heavy cream in a bowl.

Place the fried chicken pieces in a baking dish together with olives, feta cheese and garlic.

Add the pesto.

Bake in oven for 20-30 minutes, until the dish turns bubbly and light brown around the edges.

Tip! A simple side dish of field greens or crunchy romaine complements the rich flavors. Or, lightly sautéed asparagus or green beans work, too.