Albumin, which is derived from the Greek word for white (as in albino or even album, which was originally a book with a bunch of white pages), is a multi-functional Swiss army knife type protein, with a chemical structure that allows it to perform many different biological roles. It’s primarily produced in the liver and measuring its levels is one of the ways physicians determine hepatic health. Deficiencies can be indicative of cirrhosis or liver disease.
Albumin’s most well-recognized function involves its ability to act as a water trapping or water attracting “sponge” in the blood. Albumin has an ability to pull water. It’s technically called osmosis, but you can just think of a sponge. Dip a sponge in water and the water gets sucked up automatically. That’s called osmosis and that’s exactly how albumin works in the blood. Sponges are made of long chain sugars that trap water and while albumin is more like a magnet than a trap, the water pulling or absorbing effect is the same. One of the most obvious consequences of an albumin deficiency is swelling and edema. That’s because without albumin trapping fluid it tends to leak out of the blood and into the tissues. Albumin can also be thought of as a fluid expander for the blood, without it blood can become thick and sludgy and more prone to clot. Albumin levels can drop significantly in with burns or blood loss. This loss of albumin can be serious and if it’s severe it can even be life threatening and doctors will inject a pharmaceutical version of albumin into the blood as a replacement.
By now almost everyone has seen the commercials for Androgel and other pharmaceutical hormone replacements claiming to compensate for the age related drop in the testosterone known as low-T. The prescriptions, which over the past 10 years have been filled nearly 5 million times and have generated over 1.6 billion dollars in sales, are promoted as nearly magical medical hormone replacements that can improve mood, muscle development, bone strength, fat burning, endurance, libido and sexual performance.
However, despite these supposed benefits, testosterone replacement may cause problems. Recently, a trial of testosterone treatment in elderly men had to be discontinued because of increased cardiovascular events. In a commentary published in the journal “Science Translation Therapy”, Dr. Amir Tirosh of the Harvard Medical School writes that researchers concluded that hormone therapy demonstrated “substantial evidence of cardiovascular adverse effects associated with testosterone replacement”.
Well, its official, obesity is a disease. So declared the doctor delegates at the American Medical Association’s annual meeting this past June. Americans are the second fattest people in the world (second only to Mexico, and only by 1 percent, according to Scripps Media Inc.). According to Dr. Patrice Harris, a member of the association’s board, considering corpulence as a doctor issue is good thing. “Recognizing obesity as a disease will help change the way the medical community tackles this complex issue that affects approximately one in three Americans, in the words of Dr. Harris.
How exactly these changes will show up remains to be seen. AMA doctors say reclassifying it as a disease will reduce the stigma that can result from the silly idea that obesity is simply the result the result of too much food and too little exercise. Apparently, our medical saviors feel that their patients do not have control over their weight and physiology.
One of the most under-appreciated aspects of skincare involves its relationship to the mind, emotions and the skin. Technically called “psychodermatology” this aspect of cutaneous health is being recognized more and more as a fundamental, if under-appreciated cause of dermatological diseases. Psychodermatology recognizes that the skin, the brain and the body’s defense (immune) system that deals with survival threats, real or imagined, are in reality three parts of one system. That means that if you are dealing with acne, psoriasis, eczema, vitiligo or any other skin heath issue, you should consider looking at it as the result of a real or imagined survival threat. By far the most important sources of these threats are not actual. They are mental and emotional. In other words, in the majority of threatening situations, our survival is not actually at risk, we simply “believe” it is! However, while these threats may only exist as thoughts and feelings they can and do manifest themselves as real physical effects such as itching and rashes (eczema), inflammation (psoriasis), oiliness (acne) and changes in pigmentation (melasma).
If you go to a doctor, his management options according to the medical journal “American Family Physician” include “…psychotropic medication, stress management courses and referral to a psychiatrist.” No surprise there. As always, the medical model focuses on symptoms and not the causes.
Sugar is pretty interesting stuff. It’s also misunderstood. For one thing, we all love how “sugar” tastes, but we don’t necessarily love its effects. That presents a problem. Despite it’s well-documented health hazards, just because we love the stuff, no matter how much we try to abstain, when it comes right down to it, turning down that apple pie a la mode or peach gelato, as much as we’d like to, can be pretty difficult and at times impossible. That’s because our brainy cells which are fueled by the sweet and sticky substance, are hardwired to love sugar! On the other hand, the downside of sugar ingestion includes weight gain, diabetes, eye disease, hypertension, jittery-ness and anxiety. Well, those we would rather do without. Thus the love-hate relationship we have with what is generally referred to as “sugar”.
However, unbeknownst to many, there’s a whole other side to the subject of sugar! The chemical that most of us know as “sugar” and the substance that is so problematic is actually a special type of sugar called “glucose”. As it turns out, glucose is just one version of 8 different sugars that are collectively, if not entirely accurately, referred to as “essential”. These 7 other essential sugars aren’t very tasty or sweet but, importantly, they provide lots of health benefits.
