Pregnancy is a time when parents-to-be become increasingly conscious of their food choices, environmental exposure to contaminants and critical of the substances they ingest.

According to a review by the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering on Pesticide Use in Australia, one of the most widely used groups of pesticides in Australia is organophosphates (OP). This class of insecticides acts by irreversibly inhibiting acetylcholinesterase, an enzyme critical to nerve function in humans. Numerous researchers agree there is currently little data on the health effects of chronic, low-dose OP exposure. As a result, it is not surprising that an increased level of scrutiny is required.

A recent prospective, randomised, single-blinded, crossover study was conducted to compare the levels of organophosphate metabolites in the urine of adults after a week of consuming organic foods compared to a week of consuming non-organic foods. As expected, a significant decrease in pesticide metabolites was observed from organic food choices.

 Interestingly, however, the researchers found OP metabolites declined by nearly 90% after 7 days, suggesting most ingested OP pesticides are metabolised and excreted within this time. These findings were supported by previous studies on children.

Although the pesticide metabolite levels were dramatically lower in the organic phase, residues were still detected in some samples. The authors reported there are several possible explanations for this, most likely including non-food sources of organophosphates. Based off these investigations, it is important to  incorporate an holistic approach for supporting healthy pregnancies.

Acting on the results of a previous study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, which found a reduction in Gleason scores (which are used to grade tumor aggressiveness) in prostate cancer patients supplemented with vitamin D over one year, Bruce Hollis, PhD, and colleagues set out to determine whether the vitamin could decrease tumor aggressiveness during the 60-day required waiting period between prostate biopsy and surgery to remove the gland.

Examination of the excised glands revealed improvement among a number of men in the vitamin D-supplemented group, in contrast with no improvement or worsening of disease in those who received a placebo.

The trial randomized 37 men scheduled for elective prostatectomy to receive 4,000 international units (IU) vitamin D or a placebo for 60 days.

The vitamin D group also exhibited changes in cell lipids and proteins, including those involved in inflammation. “Cancer is associated with inflammation, especially in the prostate gland,” stated Dr Hollis, of the Medical University of South Carolina. “Vitamin D is really fighting this inflammation within the gland.”

 The bottom line, make sure your Vit D status is optimal

If you’re male, you probably felt like Superman until you hit your late 30s.

That’s when health issues first started nagging at you. Or when you first heard your friends complain about an achy knee or back.

As men age, these concerns shift. Men in their 40s start to worry about their weight, stress levels and moods. Men in their 50s are more concerned about heart disease or ED (erectile dysfunction). Men in their 60s worry more about prostate cancer and their risk for dementia.

“Knowing when to have your car checked is no different than keeping your body in peak condition.”

Men can generally be quite fastidious about our machinery. It doesn’t matter if we are farmers, tradesman, truckers, miners or car owners when a service is due on our machinery we either do it ourselves or we get the mechanic to do it. This is especially so when the value of our machinery is significant – sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars! With the correct maintenance schedule we can keep our machinery running optimally and can often avoid costly repairs – problems can be identified and fixed early before they become major.

“Our most valuable piece of machinery however is our own health”

If we are incapacitated then we are unable to operate all the other machinery that we own. But when it comes to men looking after ourselves we are generally not very good at it! We mostly don’t have a “maintenance schedule” and tend to use the “wait and see” approach. Physically, if we have an ache or pain, our attitude is often that of “I’ll battle through this” or “I’ll wait a while and see if this gets better by itself”. For most of us we get away with this most of the time

“The key to understanding the male biochemistry is through comprehensive internal biochemistry testing”

Australian men are more likely to get sick from serious health problems, such as cancer, than Australian women. Their mortality (death) rate is also much higher.

The poor health status of Australian men is complicated by the fact that men are more likely than women to shy away from health treatment of any kind. The lack of health awareness and unwillingness to adopt a healthier lifestyle also disadvantages men.

Overall, for every two women who die, three men die.

• Australian men are more likely to get sick from serious health problems than Australian women
• Men die in greater numbers than women from almost every non-sex-specific health problem.
• Compared to women, men visit a health practitioner less frequently, have shorter visits, and only attend when their illness is in its later stages.

“Health concerns confronting Males”                            

Weight management

Recent studies estimate that two thirds of men (67%) are overweight  or obese in Australia. Obesity is associated with an increased risk of

• Type Two Diabetes
• High Blood Pressure
• High Cholesterol
• Cardiovascular Event
• Sleep Apnea
• Arthritis
• Cancer

“Weight management issues and their downstream implications are readily modifiable and treatable”

Stress/Energy

The average man spends 40 plus hours a week at work often in a stressful environment. Poorly managed stress can lead to mood changes, energy depletion, depression, and anxiety and low libido.

Prostate Health

Unique to the male, the prostate gland can become inflamed and require treatment. Urgency and frequency to urinate along with pain are common but treatable symptoms. Diet, nutrition and lifestyle play a large role in prostate health.

“Men are encouraged by our culture to be tough. Many men believe that complaining of feeling ill or visiting the doctor is a threat to their masculinity or a waste of time, unless they are sick or injured.”

Men’s health has never been more necessary than it is today. For any man that wants to live a long and healthy life, it is important to eat balanced and nutritional meals, exercise regularly and have their health checked. It’s never too late to be healthier!

The addition of a small dose of Coenzyme Q10 can achieve big benefits in patients already taking some form of heart medication. A randomised trial involving 128 adults being treated for heart failure with ACE inhibitors, beta-blockers, statins and/or other medications found those who were supplemented with a modest 30 mg of CoQ10 daily had lower levels of inflammatory and oxidative stress markers and subsequently reduced incidence of atrial fibrillation when assessed at one year.

The authors concluded that CoQ10 is a safe and valuable adjuvant for medicated patients with heart failure, which also attenuates the drivers underlying cardiovascular disease.

Even short term administration of antibiotics (ABs) in infancy can lead to long term metabolic changes. Authors of work published in Nature’s Communications aimed to replicate the impact of the two antibiotic classes most commonly prescribed to children on the microbiome (bacteria that reside in the intestine)of mouse pups. They found that both macrolide and beta-lactam antibiotic classes produce changes in microbiota diversity that remain for months after their discontinuation. This produced long-lasting systemic metabolic consequences altering carbohydrate metabolism, liver gene expression and reducing bone density. The macrolide-based ABs had the most impact, which could suggest increased intensity of counteractive therapies such as pre- and probiotics in children prescribed these medications.

Suggest increased intensity of counteractive therapies such as pre- and probiotics in children prescribed these medications.