Do you want to make sure that the files (eg, documents and other data) in your backup are always up-to-date with the ones you are currently using? Another program to do the job has been added to the Free File Synchronization Software page. These programs are extremely useful in that they can back up your documents, photos, website, etc, automatically to make sure that, in an emergency, you can recover all your data and can continue as though nothing has happened. (Note that if you prefer to back up the entire hard disk, see the Free Hard Disk Image and Backup page instead.)
By Serena Gordon
HealthDay Reporter
MONDAY, April 8, 2019 (HealthDay News) — If you’re popping dietary supplements in the hope of living longer, a large new study suggests you’d be better off investing that money in nutritious foods.
The research found that vitamins A and K, magnesium, zinc and copper were linked to a lower risk of death from heart disease or stroke, and an overall lower risk of dying during the average six years of follow-up. But these findings were true only when the nutrients came from foods, not from supplements.
Of more concern, the study found that taking at least 1,000 milligrams of calcium daily from supplements was associated with an increased risk of death. This was not true of calcium from food.
“Over half of the United States population takes supplements on a regular basis. But it’s pretty clear that supplement use has no benefit for the general population. Supplements are not a substitute for a healthy balanced diet,” said Dr. Fang Fang Zhang, the study’s senior author.
“There’s a belief that supplements can improve and maintain health, but this study provides more evidence that there are no benefits,” added Zhang. She’s an associate professor at the Tufts University School of Nutrition Science and Policy in Boston.
Zhang said it wasn’t clear why nutrients from supplements didn’t provide the same benefits they do when they’re found in food.
“Supplement forms could just have different effects than the natural form. In food, the body can regulate and limit the absorption of nutrients. In supplements, the body doesn’t have the same regulatory impact,” she said.
Zhang did note that the population in this study was generally healthy, so the findings don’t necessarily apply to people who are deficient in certain nutrients.
The study included more than 27,000 U.S. adults aged 20 or older. They answered questions about their dietary supplement use and their diets.
More than half reported using at least one supplement, and more than one-third used a multivitamin. Supplement users were more likely to be female, white and have higher levels of education and income. They were also more likely to eat a healthy diet and be physically active.
Vitamin C was the most commonly used supplement, followed by vitamin E, calcium and vitamin D, according to the report.
So is it time to clear out the cabinets and toss all of your supplements?
Zhang said if you’re healthy, supplements aren’t recommended. But if you’ve been diagnosed as deficient in a certain nutrient, don’t stop taking it without talking to your doctor, she advised.
Samantha Heller is a registered dietitian at NYU Langone Health who wasn’t involved in the study.
“No single nutrient is going to solve our health issues. But there are times where supplementation with vitamins or minerals is necessary and important,” said Heller.
For example, people who are living a vegan lifestyle may come up short on vitamin B12, vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acids, she explained. And she said that vitamin D insufficiency is a global problem, though there’s no consensus among health experts as to how much vitamin D people should take.
“Supplements can be helpful when necessary, but there are people who feel that if a little is good, more is better. Our bodies work at maintaining a very delicate balance, and taking too much of any one nutrient can knock that balance off,” Heller said.
The bottom line, according to both experts, is that everyone should get most vitamins and minerals from foods.
“No single supplement can include all of the amazing plant compounds contained in fruits and vegetables, legumes, nuts and seeds, and whole grains,” Heller said. “The nutrients in foods work synergistically to help keep us healthy and fight disease.”
The study findings were published online April 8 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
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MONDAY, April 8, 2019 (HealthDay News) — Vitamin D is the healthy “sunshine” vitamin, but it can have a dark side, one Canadian man discovered.
A team of Toronto physicians reported on the case of a 54-year-old man who developed kidney damage after taking extremely high doses of vitamin D.
It’s a cautionary tale for consumers, medical experts say.
“Although vitamin D toxicity is rare owing to a large therapeutic range, its widespread availability in various over-the-counter formulations may pose a substantial risk to uninformed patients,” said study co-author Dr. Bourne Auguste. He’s a clinical fellow in home dialysis at Toronto General Hospital and the University of Toronto.
As reported April 8 in the CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal), the man was seen by doctors after he returned from a holiday in Southeast Asia, where he spent much of his time sunbathing. Vitamin D is naturally synthesized by the skin upon contact with sunlight.
Testing showed that the man had elevated blood levels of creatinine, a marker for kidney damage or malfunction. The patient was then referred to a kidney specialist and underwent further testing.
Doctors learned that the man had been prescribed high doses of vitamin D by a naturopath — even though he did not have vitamin D deficiency and no history of bone loss.
Over 30 months, the man had taken eight to 12 drops of vitamin D — a total of 8,000 to 12,000 International Units (IUs) — per day.
The typical recommended daily allowance of vitamin D is 400 to 1,000 IU, with a higher amount (800 to 2,000 IU) recommended for adults at high-risk of osteoporosis, and for older adults.
The patient far exceeded those dosages, however, and that led to extremely high levels of calcium in his blood. It’s those high blood calcium levels that triggered his kidney damage, Auguste’s team said.
“Patients and clinicians should be better informed about the risks regarding the unfettered use of vitamin D,” the study authors concluded.
Dr. Maria DeVita directs nephrology (kidney medicine) at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. Reading over the case report, she said that “overuse of the vitamin, as is true of many supplements, may have dire adverse effects.”
DeVita said, “Vitamin D is necessary for the development and maintenance of strong bones, [but] the take-home message is too much of a good thing is not good.”
Article source: https://www.webmd.com/vitamins-and-supplements/news/20190408/for-one-man-too-much-vitamin-d-was-disastrous
A recent report published in the March-April issue of the Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hepatology highlighted the case of a 24-year-old woman in India who succumbed to liver failure after taking dietary supplement Herbalife. But Herbalife is not the only herbal and dietary supplement (HDS) that could result in liver failure with reports of both Hydroxycut and Garcinia Cambogia causing it as well.
Garcinia cambogia is a supplement derived from the garcinia gummi-gutta fruit. Despite a seemingly healthy origin, the supplement does not boast the same benefits.
A study published in Internal and Emergency Medicine highlighted four case reports of patients who presented with acute liver failure after taking supplements containing Garcina cambogia.
The first patient was a 61-year-old woman with 10-day abdominal pain, nausea, progressive weakness, jaundice, dark urine, and acholic stools. The patient revealed that for the past two months, she had been taking one daily doses of SUPER ANANAS SLIM, which contains—among other things—Garcina cambogia, which contains hydroxycitric acid.
“Laboratory tests performed during the ED visit revealed that alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), total bilirubin (TB), direct bilirubin, albumin, alkaline phosphatase (ALP), and gamma glutamyl transferase (GGT) values were out of the normal range,” the study authors wrote. “International normalized ratio (INR) at ED admission was in range (INR 1.6, range 0.83–1.9).”
A routine checkup three months earlier—before initiating SUPER ANANAS SLIM—had revealed normal levels. A CT scan revealed signs consistent with cholestatic hepatitis. TB levels declined after two sessions of plasmapheresis. The patient stopped taking the supplement, and within four weeks, her symptoms and liver function tests slowly returned to normal.
Another study published in the World Journal of Gastroenterology analyzed an association between Garcinia cambogia and fulminant hepatic failure.
The case report discusses the experience of a 34-year-old Hispanic male whose symptoms began as nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and dark urine. The patient was tested for viral hepatitis, hemochromatosis, Wilson’s disease, autoimmune hepatitis, and hemochromatosis; the results were “unremarkable with exception of an elevated Ferritin level of 7089 mg/dL.” Imaging also showed no signs of cirrhosis or anatomic abnormality. He tested negative for drugs, acknowledged occasional alcohol use, and denied using energy drinks, herbs, Chinese teas, or muscle milk. The patient ceased alcohol use, which at first seemed to help. Six weeks later, he presented with asterixis, jaundice, and confusion.
Eventually, a liver biopsy revealed “submassive necrosis with collapse of the hepatic architecture involving about 70% of the liver parenchyma.” The diagnosis initially appeared to be drug-induced liver injury, but the patient ultimately shared he had been taking Garcinia Cambogia 5:1 Extract in two 80 mg capsules three times a day before eating for the five-month period before his initial symptoms.
The patient’s health and mental capacity continued to diminish, until he underwent an orthotopic liver transplant. He made a full recovery, and according to the researchers, “Histopathologic examination of the explanted liver demonstrated near total hepatic necrosis with massive hepatocellular dropout and mixed inflammatory cell infiltrates, consistent with severe drug-induced liver injury.”
The study authors concluded by drawing an association between Garcinia cambogia and Hydroxycut: “although the product name may change, deadly side effects remain the same.”
A study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine profiled a case in which a rare, undiagnosed genetic disease presented complications incited by Hydroxycut. Researchers reported the case of a 23-year-old male who presented with four-day symptoms of photosensitive rash on his upper extremities and hands, nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain. He reported no changes in his diet or drug or alcohol use but said he had been taking dietary supplement Hydroxycut for several months. His vital signs included a 102 degrees F temperature and a heart rate of 125 beats per minute. He also presented jaundice. Lab tests revealed “a white blood cell count (WBC) of 40.3/l, total bilirubin of 24.4 mg/dl (normal 0.2–1.3 mg/dl), conjugated bilirubin of 17.5 mg/dl (normal 0.3 mg/dl), alkaline phosphatase of 91 U/l (normal 38–126 U/l), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) 194 U/l (normal 5–35 U/l), alanine aminotransferase (ALT) 92 U/l (normal 7–56 U/l), and international normalized ratio (INR) of 1.5 (normal 0.8–1.2).” The patient underwent an ultrasound, CT scan, and magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography, none of which provided telling results; he was tested for bacterial, mycobacterial, viral, and parasitic diseases, which also gave no answers.
A liver biopsy revealed “cholestasis with a neutrophilic infiltrate in the lobules and focal centrilobular sinusoidal dilatation with dropout of hepatocytes”—indicating possible drug-induced liver injury. The patient’s condition worsened for two months, and despite continued hospital care and discontinuation of Hydroxycut, he suffered acute kidney injury and spontaneous bacterial peritonitis. Given his young age and otherwise healthy history, doctors considered porphyria as a possibility. Several more tests brought them to a diagnosis of hereditary coproporphyria; the patient was successfully treated with hemin.
“In the case of our patient, Hydroxycut™ use was the cause of initial liver injury leading to fulminant failure in the setting of underlying porphyria,” the study authors wrote.
The researchers also pointed out that over-the-counter supplements tend to be regarded as safe by the general public, despite the fact that these supplements are often untested and unregulated.
Article source: https://www.docwirenews.com/docwire-pick/hydroxycut-and-garcinia-cambogia-may-lead-to-liver-failure/
PHP Internals News: Episode 9: Bundled Extensions
London, UK
Thursday, May 9th 2019, 09:09 BST
In this ninth episode of "PHP Internals News" I talk to Kalle Nielsen (Twitter, GitHub) about bundled extensions, and his work on the Windows por...
Setting up your application with authentication & role-based access is much better fleshed out at the very beginning of a new project. There’s nothing worse than being 1 month deep into development and the client then requires login functionality and role-based access, trust me, I’...
By Rob Allen In recent years, a different way to build applications has arisen called serverless computing. This term is not a good name; I’m reminded of the adage that there are two hard problems in programming: naming things, cache invalidation, and off-by-one errors. Serverless computing as...
The PhpStorm IDE v2019.1.2 was released yesterday with support for composer execution using Docker and a Blade template debugging fix.
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The post PhpStorm 2019.1.2 Released With Blade Debugging ...