The first piece of news is my resignation from the University of Western Sydney. After six years as an Associate Lecturer in the Naturopathy Program, it was finally time to say goodbye. As some of you would know, the School of Biomedical & Health Sciences in which I worked decided in 2008 to close the Naturopathy Program, so there have been no new intakes since then. The program was due to finish teach out at the end of 2011, which meant that whilst the University was not communicating its intentions in regards to my position, it was clear that there was little point in me staying. Whilst I miss the students and wish them all the very best in the last 18 months of their studies, I certainly do not miss the institution.

The second piece of news is my appointment as Program Director – Natural Therapies at the Australasian College of Natural Therapies (ACNT). This week was my first week in this position, where I will be responsible for overseeing the Naturopathy, Western Herbal Medicine, Nutrition, Homoeopathy, and Aromatic Medicine courses.

This is an exciting new challenge for me, and this week has been very much about getting my head around the systems, course structures and roles. I have to say the change is very nice, and I am really enjoying working as part of a supportive team with a sense of purpose and direction.

It is also interesting to be back at ACNT after all these years. It is great to see a few of the lecturers whom I remember from years ago, and many others who were former students of mine and are now themselves passing on their knowledge and experience.

The job is huge, with lots of change happening quite swiftly. Change of any sort always carries with it some difficulties and pain, but the direction is positive, and it is so nice to again be part of an institution which is actually committed to natural medicine.

According to Gizmodo Senator Conroy stated that his three year old daughter had managed to alter the settings on his iPhone and he didn’t know how to fix it. Adding further embarrassing evidence that the politician responsible for Australia’s communications doesn’t have a clue, is a quote from his speech at National Cyber Security Awareness Week:

“There’s a staggering number of Australians being in having their computers infected at the moment, up to 20,000, uh, can regularly be getting infected by these spams, or scams, that come through, the portal.”

Um … what?

Check out the video below.

Palm oil plantation. Photo by Marco Schmidt courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Public awareness of the environmental impact of the massive use of palm oil in food products is steadily increasing. Nevertheless consumer demand for products containing palm oil remains high, and few companies are making significant changes.

However ABC is reporting that a social web media campaign utilising YouTube and initiated by Greenpeace, has led to Nestle changing its sourcing policies in regards to palm oil.

Palm oil is used in a huge variety of manufactured food products, sometimes clearly stated in the ingredient list, other times simply stated as “vegetable oil”. Another big use of palm oil is in biodiesel production, and in soap manufacture. Unfortunately huge areas in some South East Asian countries have been deforested to make way for production, and it also seems to be threatening the native habitat of orang-utans.

Aside from the health implications of the widespread consumption of this type of saturated fat, the environmental and conservation issues are frightening. There is also debate about whether benefits of switching to this sort of biofuel is outweighed by the climate and environmental impact of the deforestation process.

Hopefully this change by Nestle will make a positive impact directly, as well as indirectly by making other manufacturers and consumers consider the impact of their choice of ingredients.

Photo of a Palm Oil Plantation by Marco Schmidt courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

About two weeks before this, the New York Times reported that, whilst we’ve known for some time that chronic mild sleep deprivation increases weight, we now know that it can make you consume more kilojoules/calories and mostly from more carbohydrates.

So let’s look at some of the research.

The Journal of Behaviour Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry recently published a study of 88 physically and psychologically healthy adults, and the effects of acute sleep deprivation. As expected, acute sleep deprivation increased the self-reported symptoms of anxiety and depression.

A number of studies link sleep deprivation with inflammation. Integrative Cancer Therapies reported in 2009 that a number of inflammatory markers including TNF-alpha (tumour necrosis factor alpha) and IL-6 (interleukin 6) were elevated in people with sleep deprivation and various Per2 clock gene polymorphisms which are connected with circadian rhythm disturbances. Another study in the journal Pain showed increased PGE2 (prostaglandin E2), accompanied by increased symptoms of headache and general muscle pain, in sleep deprived individuals. And yet another study, this time in animals, showed that sleep deprivation increased colonic inflammation in mice.

Connected with inflammation, but extending the effects to the cardiovascular system, another study has indicated that acute sleep deprivation causes vascular dysfunction even before the obvious signs of increased sympathetic nervous activity (such as increased blood pressure and heart rate). This is confirmed by a study which showed similar results, but also elevations in C-reactive protein (CRP) and other interleukins, which are known risk factors in cardiovascular disease. Interestingly some of these pro-inflammatory cytokines (including CRP) remained elevated even after 2 nights of recovery sleep.

A fascinating study published in Biological Psychology in 2009 looked at the connection between sleep and recovery from burnout in 23 white collar workers who were on sick leave for more than 3 months due to burnout. Recovery from burnout (as measured by reduction in anxiety, depression, fatigue and also return to work) was linked to improvement in various parameters of sleep quality. However what was most interesting was that none of the parameters reached the same level as those in the control group, indicating that full recovery from burnout is difficult.

Glucose metabolism and sleep is another area of research. The journal Chest reported on a study of 11 people whose sleep was broken over 2 nights, and showed that insulin sensitivity decreased significantly, and the subjects also showed an increased sympathetic activity and morning cortisol levels indicative of the stress response. This has implications for metabolic syndrome, weight control and even possibly Type 2 diabetes.

Bottom Line

Sleep deprivation:

• promotes anxiety and depression
• reduces cognitive performance
• increases inflammatory responses and may worsen existing inflammatory diseases ranging from musculoskeletal to digestive diseases
• may increase the risk of cardiovascular disease
• may lead to increased eating and increased obesity
• may contribute to metabolic syndrome and even Type 2 diabetes

So what can you do to ensure you get adequate sleep? I’ll cover that in a post later this week.

Dr Linda Anderson, Principal Pharmaceutical Assessor at the MHRA and Mr Michael McIntyre, Chairman of the European Herbal and Traditional Medicine Practitioners Association, discuss the results of a recent survey with the Drug & Therapeutics Bulletin editors. The survey points out the lack of understanding amongst General Medical Practitioners regarding herbal medicines – the results of the survey can be viewed on their website.

Of particular interest to me is the statement that General Medical Practitioners are being pulled in many directions, and whilst a basic understanding of herbal medicine is useful, an understanding and admission of the fact that they are not experts is probably most important. Of course this raises the question of reliable information resources and reliability of expertise, and this leads the interview in the direction of the new UK regulation of herbal practitioners.

Overall a very interesting podcast which, in my opinion, points out the need for herbalists to be regarded as a genuine part of the health care system (and regulated accordingly), and for medical doctors to recognise that they cannot be experts in everything. When it comes to herbal medicines and their clinical application, properly qualified herbalists are the experts.

Now we just need the education standards and regulation to ensure the public and the medical profession can tell a professional herbalist from a “weekend-workshop” charlatan.

Apparently the president of the AMAQ went on to say …

“You really have to be in the at-risk groups that really warrant a vaccine – remember that,”

Let’s hope this gets sorted out soon.

The study Mood Food: Chocolate and Depressive Symptoms in a Cross-sectional Analysis, involved 931 subjects (both men and women) who were enroled in a different study, but whose dietary habits and mood were examined using various standardised questionnaires. In short the study found that those screening higher for possible depression averaged around 8.4 servings of chocolate per month, whereas those who did not screen positive for possible depression averaged 5.4 servings per month. Also those with much higher scores for possible depression averaged an even higher consumption of 11.8 servings per month. A serving was defined as 1 small bar or 28g of “chocolate candy”.

A weakness which the authors point out is that this study of course does not help us understand whether chocolate consumption contributes to depression, or is consumed as a result of depression, or is even an attempt at dietary self-medication for depression. In the Discussion the authors recognise the complexity of the issue, mentioning that a physiological factor such as oxidation or inflammation could drive the depression as well as the desire for chocolate (a known antioxidant source), and also …

more complex relationships could be hypothesized; for instance, chocolate could have intrinsic mood-elevating effects driving chocolate cravings, but artificial trans fats (which inhibit omega-3 fatty acid production with expected mood worsening consequences) accompany many chocolate products and may neutralize or reverse such benefits on average.

Another issue is the definition of chocolate. So called “chocolate candy” covers a lot of ground, and it would be interesting for a study to look at type of chocolate consumption to see if there was any relationship in terms of behaviour and even activity of dark vs milk, “chocolate candy” with a large number of other ingredients vs plain chocolate, etc.

Still, an interesting report nonetheless. If you want to read the full paper (subscription required) …

Rose N, et al, 2010. Mood Food Chocolate and Depressive Symptoms in a Cross-sectional Analysis. Archives of Internal Medicine 170(8):699-703

Whilst all medical interventions have the potential for adverse reactions (even complementary medicines), this does appear to be an extraordinarily high rate.

And once again it does make you question the logic that some so-called “experts” use when they call for the banning of various herbal medicines. These calls often arise from a handful of ill-defined and inconclusive AR case reports, whilst many common medications (for example paracetamol) which are proven to have much higher AR rates, are commonly available – even in supermarkets.

Let’s all hope they get to the bottom of this issue quickly, and regardless of your attitude towards vaccination, let’s hope these kids recover fully and quickly.

Green & Black’s was an interesting chocolate manufacturer. Started by Craig Sams and Josephine Fairly in the 1990′s, it was one of the first quality organic chocolate suppliers. Their Maya Gold product, a dark spiced chocolate bar, earned the UK’s first Fairtrade mark. Unlike most organic chocolate, attention to detail was given to both the ingredients as well as the manufacturing, which gave it good taste, texture and mouth feel.

Unfortunately (in my opinion) Green & Black’s was taken over by Cadbury in May 2005. Whilst their website states …

“You will be pleased to know that as Cadbury is treating Green & Black’s as an independent business – so our great tasting chocolate will stay the same, our ethical sourcing and business practices will continue and even the same teams have stayed on to run the business.”

… the taste has definitely changed since 2005, and not for the better in my opinion.

And now we find milk products listed even in their 70% and 85% dark chocolate varieties. In my opinion, this is a travesty – dark chocolate is in part characterised by its lack of dairy products, allowing both the strong and subtle characteristics of the cacao to come to the fore.

It is such a shame for those who sought a good quality, dairy-free and organic dark chocolate. Fortunately as mass-market chocolate goes, it still uses organic ingredients and it seems Cadbury may be trying with the Fairtrade. Regrettably it will no longer be on my purchase list.

Congratulations Angelo (pictured left holding his medal) !

For those of you who don’t know, the University of Western Sydney has delivered a Naturopathy program for a few years now, involving a 3 year full-time Bachelor degree, followed by a 1 year full-time Graduate Diploma for professional accreditation. Unfortunately the University has chosen to discontinue the course and 2011 looks to be the last year we will be teaching. For those of us – like myself – employed full-time in the program, we have yet to find out what the University has planned for us, but at this stage it looks as if we won’t have a herbal medicine or naturopathy clinical program in the foreseeable future.

Still, it is great to have been part of a pioneering program and to have been involved in the training of these new professionals over the last few years.

Regards,

Ian