Apparently a very small study published by the The Lancet Oncology showed that "comprehensive lifestyle changes", including a vegan diet, daily exercise and meditation, "increase the body’s ability to fight premature aging, cancer, heart disease, and other chronic diseases."
Honestly, who can be surprised that a vegan diet, daily exercise and meditation would have that kind of positive effect? What I'm really curious about, though, is whether they will be able to allocate the responsibility for the positive results to these various lifestyle changes. I doubt this small study did it, but I'd love to see a study where different groups did various combinations of these lifestyle changes, and see how the results differ. Oh, and can we take into account their starting genetic factors and starting vital stats too?
Still, never anything wrong with continuing to bolster the argument for a healthy, cruelty-free and zen lifestyle :)
Source PCRM
An MD friend introduced me to the National Cholesterol Institute's set of guidelines called Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes (TLCs) (surprisingly cute acronym for such a vaunted group, huh?). It's a codified set of behaviors that don't solely target cholesterol levels. The 'diet' page, which includes a calculator, is at: http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/cgi-bin/chd/step2intro.cgi
(wish I knew how to make hyperlinks in comments).
TLC includes many recommendations. My MD friend, who is a cardiologist treating heart failure, tells me that she has 'gotten patients off the transplant list' when they follow these lifestyle changes.
Posted by: Maria Tseng | November 16, 2008 at 12:01 AM