Aspirin lowers red blood cell count / bloodletting? (diabetes diet down ovaries bladder)
I don't know what point he is making about "inflammation" either. I
talk about this down to the molecular level on my site, but as you
said, he seems to be obsessed with iron. He is correct that too much
iron is very unhealthy, especially when one eats a diet rich in
polyunsaturated fatty acids and low in antioxidant-rich foods, but he
fails to understand that iron is acting as a catalyst, and that one can
find Asian populations that do not have the "diseases" Western "experts
expect (because the people in question have high iron levels) because
they are not consuming the high PUFA/low antioxidant diet now common in
nations like the USA.
Here is a recent study that is worthy of consideration in the context
of this post:
Med Hypotheses. 2006 Oct 10; [Epub ahead of print]
Heme of consumed red meat can act as a catalyst of oxidative damage and
could initiate colon, breast and prostate cancers, heart disease and
other diseases.Tappel A.
Department of Food Science and Technology, University of California,
Davis, CA 95616, USA.
Dietary epidemiological studies indicate correlations between the
consumption of red meat and/or processed meat and cancer of the colon,
rectum, stomach, pancreas, bladder, endometrium and ovaries, prostate,
breast and lung, heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis, type 2 diabetes
and Alzheimer's disease. The correlation of all these major diseases
with dietary red meat indicates the presence of factors in red meat
that damage biological components. This hypothesis will focus on the
biochemistry of heme compounds and their oxidative processes. Raw red
meat contains high levels of oxymyoglobin and deoxymyoglobin and
oxyhemoglobin and deoxyhemoglobin and cytochromes in muscle and other
tissues. Cooked and processed meat contain hemichromes and hemochromes.
After being eaten heme proteins are hydrolyzed to amino acids and
peptides and the heme group which is coordinated with strong ligands.
The iron of heme coordinates to the sulfur, nitrogen or oxygen of amino
acids and peptides and other biological components. The coordinated
heme groups are absorbed and transported by the blood to every organ
and tissue. Free and coordinated heme preferentially catalyze oxidative
reactions. Heme catalyzed oxidations can damage lipids, proteins, DNA
and other nucleic acids and various components of biological systems.
Heme catalysis with hydroperoxide intermediates can initiate further
oxidations some of which would result in oxidative chain reactions.
Biochemical and tissue free radical damage caused by heme catalyzed
oxidations is similar to that resulting from ionizing radiation.
Oxidative biochemical damage is widespread in diseases. It is apparent
that decreasing the amount of dietary red meat will limit the level of
oxidative catalysts in the tissues of the body. Increasing consumption
of vegetables and fruits elevates the levels of antioxidative
components, for example, selenium, vitamin E, vitamin C, lycopene,
cysteine-glutathione and various phytochemicals. These detrimental
processes of heme catalysis of oxidative damage hypothesized here are
not well recognized. More investigative studies in this field need to
be done.
PMID: 17045417 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Dairy is generally fine (not cooked) as are eggs (not cooked while
exposed to air), but "red meat" presents major problems (especially
considering how it is cooked by most people).
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