Coffee, Liver Cirrhosis and Cancer

Today, a presentation about the beneficial effect of coffee on liver cirrhosis provided me with more reasons to refill my cup of java.


According to multiple epidimiological and animal model studies, coffee's active components (chlorogenic acid, cafestol and kahweol (C + K), and caffeine) provide a chemoprotective effect and reduce the incidence and progression of liver cirrhosis. As I commented in a previous post, caffeine acts as an antagonist of the adenosine receptor, thus, it blocks adenosine from binding to its receptor and initiating a signalling pathway. The final effects of the adenosine signalling pathway include drowsiness/sleepiness (that's why coffee wakes us up!) and hepatic inflammation. Inflammation of the liver induces fibrosis that in time turns into cirrhosis, a condition associated with the eventual loss of liver function.

Moreover, cell culture and murine model studies have associated chlorogenic acid with decreased levels of carcinogenesis, and C+K and caffeine intake with anti-tumorigenic effects. Some suggested methods of action include the promotion of phase 2 detoxifying enzymes and the decrease of phase 1 activating enzymes. These findings indicate that coffee might also have a protective effect against cancer.

More studies are needed to elucidate the exact mechanisms behind these protective effects and more importantly, to identify an ideal amount of coffee intake that will provide the most benefit without driving you off the walls.

Earthly Treasures

Today's sermon was titled "I need to know the Joy of Heavenly Treasures!" and it was based on Matthew 6:19-21. The passage goes like this:


¹⁹"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."



Robbie clearly demonstrated that our earthly treasures can be manifested as a myriad of common things that we usually fail to identify as threats to our spiritual growth. Some of these things can be identified by 2 simple questions:

1. What/Who do I spend most of my time with?
2. What/Who do I spend most of my money in?

As a rather wealth-less university student I thought these "earthly treasures" talks didn't apply to me; but as I reflect on those two questions, I realize that my economic status does not absolve me of this admonishment. Things like education, friends and accomplishments could become earthly treasures that hold me back from investing necessary time in the formation of omy heavenly treasures. These are the ones that really matter and the ones for which we should be living.

Research... red meat and cancer (PartI)

For one of my grad classes, I'm writing a paper analyzing the association between cancer and red meat consumption. I'm finding a lot of really interesting articles and I thought I would share some of the information I found.

Heterocyclic amines (HCA) are cancerinogenic (cancer-causing) metabolites created when cooking meats. Meat is pretty much animal muscle, thus when exposed to high temperatures, a reaction occurs between amino acids and phosphocreatine-a molecule known to provide instant energy to muscle. This creates the noxious heterocyclic amines.


A document by the National Cancer Institute in the States recommends using different cooking procedures that reduce the formation of cancerinogenic heterocyclic amines in meats.
One of these recommendations is microwaving meats before cooking them at high temperatures. However, they don't address separate implications related to microwave use.
I have found other papers that recommend marinating meats for several hours before cooking them at high temperatures (ie. BBQ) to reduce HCA. They recommend using olive oil, lime juice, beer or wine!


Ultimately, the best and most efficient way to decrease the risk of red meat-induced cancer is to reduce consumption. Try to reduce the amounts of meat in your diet and include a meat-free day to your week. This will not only help your health, but your pocket too!

This weekend...

This past Wednesday, we were handed a take-home exam for our Nutrition, Exercise and Metabolism class. In my 4+ years of post-secondary education, I have never had a take-home exam; and seeing as we had more than 5 days to complete this assignment, I thought it would be an easy task and an easy mark.

This is day#4. Our take-home midterm is due tomorrow and I haven't even finished one of the 2 questions. Readers might instantly conclude that I have been procrastinating because of the lack of motivation or the pursue of different priorities, however, I tell you I have been working on this exam continuously for the past 3 days!


Our take-home exam consists on designing two studies (selected from a list of questions) and basically inventing results and writing a whole research article on it. I didn't think it was going to be this time consuming but I guess underestimated the time it takes to study the background material, research whether your design, measurements are results are valid and intuitive, and invent data that doesn't sound out of this planet.

Hopefully, after I'm done with this exam, I will be able to laugh about how I've stayed working at my lab past midnight for a couple of days this weekend!

Caloric restriction

In class, we briefly discussed the idea of caloric restriction and longevity.

A hypothesis has been drawn linking reduced caloric intake and a longer lifespan.
According to the Hormesis Hypothesis of Caloric Restriction (CR), a reduced caloric intake translates into a mild stressful condition from which the organism defends itself by increasing its immune system, and staying alert to combat the causes of aging. In CR situations organisms shift to survival mode, altering their metabolism according to their needs.

This means that if you MILDLY restrict your caloric intake to a point at which your body believes its undergoing mild stress, a shift towards survival mode will naturally increase your defenses to protect you against any threat posed to your health and your lifespan, whatever those might be.

It is hard to say whether this hypothesis is completely safe as I imagine that caloric restriction brings threats of its own such as hypoglycemia (reduced blood sugar) and fatigue. Also, CR should be monitored closely to ensure an individual meets its energy requirements for proper functioning.

I am currently not supporting this theory, however, it has made me ponder about what we believe to be a proper caloric intake. Is this a true estimation of what our body really needs? And in a country of plenty, where food producers have a huge influence on nutritional guidelines, how can we advocate for our own health if we don't have the correct information and it's so much easier to just go with the flow?

101 Cookbooks-Recipe Blog

Being a lover of good food that is both nutritious and well-presented, I couldn't but fall in love with a blog I ran into while looking for a cracker recipe:

101 Cookbooks

The author, Heidi Swanson, shares the same passion I have for making food appealing through exquisite presentation and for introducing healthier meal alternatives to skeptics that believe that healthy food is synonymous to a plain looking salad or grey slimy porridge. 101 Cookbooks makes healthy food easy, inspiring and appetizing.




It is very easy to prepare food that is not only good for your body but that tastes so guilt-free delicious! You just need a little help and inspiration from a site like 101 Cookbooks.

Enjoy!

P.S. I'm currently in love with this flour-less, sugar-less, egg-less chocolate chip cookie recipe.
Check it out: Nikki's Healthy Cookies

GTA Conference

At this year's Teacher's Assistant conference, I was able to attend interesting sessions on a wide spectrum of educational topics. Some of these include EBL/EBT (Enquiry Based Learning and Equiry Based Teaching), Effective Facilitation of Seminar Groups and Teaching to Learn & Learning to Teach. It was a refreshing insight into post-graduate academia and it confirmed some of the ideas I was already aware of or I was struggling to fully orchestrate in my mind.


What I got from it was this: Teaching, especially at a post-secondary level, is about guiding the student to obtain the information for them to chew, not chewing the information for them, spoon feeding it to them and wait for them to memorize and regurgitate. This only leads to a waste of your time and effort, for even though the students might have achieved a good level of memorization for the exam, they are doomed to forget the information because they never analyzed it or understood it in the first place. Learning should be active and as facilitator/educators, we should challenge them to dig deeper and embrace the fact that knowledge should be integrated into daily life rather than stored in an old shoe box and forgotten after their grades are posted.