In the News

Organic & Natural Health Association Submits Petition to FDA for Vitamin D, Preterm Birth Health Claim

Metagenics Achieves Non-GMO Project Verification for Select Products

DSM and MIXFIT announce global partnership to take personalized nutrition to the next level

First Comprehensive Arthritis Data Report Available

Low-Fat Diet With Caloric Restriction Reduces White Matter Microglia Activation During Aging

Naturopathic Medicine is Growing in U.S. Medical Centers of Excellence

The Israeli Ministry of Health has Approved Kanabo Research's Medical Cannabis Vaporizer as a Medical Device

Organic & Natural Health Association Submits Petition to FDA for Vitamin D, Preterm Birth Health Claim

WASHINGTON, DC (March 28, 2018)  – Organic & Natural Health Association submitted a petition to the FDA, requesting that the agency permit dietary supplements containing vitamin D to make a health claim concerning the association between vitamin D and a decreased risk of preterm births. The nutrition trade organization has asked the FDA to acknowledge numerous studies showing an association between higher serum vitamin D levels in pregnant women and a reduced risk of preterm births. Organic & Natural Health believes that such a claim will help raise awareness of preterm births, a risk factor for pregnant women, reduce the cost of health care associated with preterm births, and empower women to take affirmative steps for the health of their children.

Every day in North America, more than 1,000 babies are born prematurely. In fact, the United States has the highest rate of babies who die the day they are born in the industrialized world according to Save The Children, which reports that 130 countries have lower preterm birth rates than the United States. Further, the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics reports no sign of improvement of infant mortality, and reports women of Asian ethnic origin showing the lowest rates of preterm births, at 8.6 percent, while African-American women experience the highest rates, at 13.75 percent of all births.

Recently published research conducted at the Medical University of South Carolina in partnership with GrassrootsHealth, shows pregnant woman who maintain vitamin D levels of 40-60 ng/ml, experience a reduction in preterm births by up to 60 percent. Out of the 1,000 pregnant women studied, 90 percent were deficient in vitamin D.  During the study, researchers did not find a single complication related to pregnant women taking vitamin D.

“Vitamin D is inexpensive and has been shown to be safe at the recommended level,” said Carole Baggerly, director of GrassrootsHealth and co-author of the paper. “We have several medical centers ready to implement a new standard of care with our vitamin D ‘Protect Our Children NOW’ campaign.”

The March of Dimes estimates that the annual cost of preterm births in the United States is $12 billion, for 455,918 children. States with the highest preterm births include: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia, as well as Washington, D.C. States where 10 percent or more of women received late prenatal care or no prenatal care include: Arkansas, New Mexico, Texas and Vermont.

“If 50 percent of preterm births could be prevented each year in the United States, there could be nearly $6 billion available for other health services and more than 225,000 families would be spared this trauma,” said Karen Howard, CEO and executive director of Organic & Natural Health. “MUSC changed its standard of care for its pregnant patients and is now monitoring vitamin D levels based on their research.  We are confident that members of Congress, their constituents, health insurers and employers will see the value in this health claim related to vitamin D levels and a reduced risk of preterm births.”

Organic & Natural Health will take a select team to Capitol Hill to share this message on its April 12 Hill Day, meeting with key legislators and staff, and presenting the research at an informational luncheon at noon in room 340, the Cannon House Office Building. Members of Congress and the media are invited to attend.

Organic & Natural Health Association advances research to redefine how health care is delivered, provides quality education to inform and empower conscious consumer choice and advocates for meaningful public policy. Its Nutrient Power consumer education campaign advances nutrient research and educates and empowers consumers to take charge of their health. Learn more at www.organicandnatural.org, and follow on Facebook and Twitter.

Metagenics Achieves Non-GMO Project Verification for Select Products

ALISO VIEJO, Calif., March 20, 2018 – Metagenics, Inc., a health sciences company, announced today that a selection of its products have earned verification from the NonGMO Project, the leading third-party verification organization for non-GMO foods and products.

All Metagenics formulas with a non-GMO indication on the label have always been tested to ensure they are free of genetically modified organisms. In order to achieve verification, The Non-GMO Project, a nonprofit organization, requires the products it tests to meet strict criteria.

“We care about label transparency and remain committed to delivering nutritional formulas that suit a variety of lifestyles and preferences. To eliminate guesswork, nonGMO status is always indicated on our labels,” said Metagenics CEO Brent Eck. “We chose to go a step further and get our products Non-GMO Project Verified because we believe this verification offers the highest transparency.”

“The Non-GMO Project celebrates Metagenics' achievements in verifying a variety of its products and its commitment to providing consumers a transparent choice in the marketplace,” said Non-GMO Project Associate Director Courtney Pineau.

Look for the Butterfly

The Project’s logo will begin appearing on Metagenics labels and literature in the coming months, and the company is diligently working toward certifying its entire line of non-GMO products.

For a complete list of Non-GMO Project Verified Metagenics products or to learn more about The Non-GMO Project, please visit www.nongmoproject.org.

About Metagenics, Inc.

Metagenics was founded on a revolutionary idea: Our genes do not predetermine our health potential, and through nutrition, we can impact how our genes express themselves. Embodied by our company motto — genetic potential through nutrition — this groundbreaking principle drives us to deliver high-quality, science-based nutritional supplements, medical foods, and lifestyle programs to support healthcare practitioners in their efforts to help patients achieve their health goals. With a range of nutritional solutions designed to support individual lifestyles, including non-GMO, gluten-free, and vegetarian offerings, we remain committed to supplying practitioners around the world with advanced tools to help improve patient outcomes.

Media Contact: For additional information contact Kelly Sorrentino at Kellysorrentino@metagenics.com or 949-369-3440.

DSM and MIXFIT announce global partnership to take personalized nutrition to the next level

DSM and digital health company Mixfit, have today confirmed a strategic partnership to deliver personalized nutrition solutions, providing individuals with the nutrients they need for optimal health based on a comprehensive set of health and activity measurements. This unique collaboration brings together DSM's unparalleled expertise in essential micronutrients and the technological edge of Mixfit to provide the ability to analyze health data in real-time, to effectively address nutritional gaps and support a healthy lifestyle.

Soon to be launched, Mixfit's Intelligent Nutrition Assistant (Mina) is the Artificial Intelligence that analyzes a person's genetic makeup, alongside their diet, lifestyle and health goals, to create and dispense delicious beverages containing a customized mix of DSM's Quali® Blends with vitamins and minerals throughout the day. The combination of DSM's safe, effective, and high-quality ingredients, customized solutions and Mixfit's advanced technology means consumers can receive the nutrients they need at the time they need them, from the convenience of their own homes. Additionally, Mina provides users with proactive nutritional recommendations, supported by DSM's position as a leader in scientific research on the role of micronutrients for specific health benefits.

Peter De-Meester, Vice President of Global Strategy of DSM Human Nutrition and Health states: "As consumers across the world become more engaged in their health and wellbeing, there is a growing need for a more personalized approach to nutrition. This partnership has been carefully crafted to connect the complementary and unique expertise of both DSM and Mixfit to support consumers in achieving their nutrition goals and to support our mission to help keep the world's growing population healthy."

Reza Zanjani, Mixfit President & CEO adds: "Personalization is the future of nutrition. By combining DSM's scientific background and high-quality micronutrients with Mixfit's unique digital knowledge and experience in personalized nutrition, we are ensuring that Mina improves the lives of health-conscious consumers worldwide. Our future plans include expansion into targeted, health-oriented boosters for specific health benefits."

More information can be found at www.dsm.com.

News 2

Study: French Grape Seed OPCs Suppress Tumor Formation in Cancer

While the ability of grape seed extract's oligomeric proanthocyanidins (OPC) to prevent tumors has been previously demonstrated, the underlying mechanisms have not been fully explored. A recent study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, has found several pathways by which a form of French grape seed OPC called VX1 prevents cancer, suppresses tumor formation, and inhibits tumor activity. [Toden S, Ravindranathan P, Gu J, Cardenas J, Yuchang M, Goel A. Oligomeric proanthocyanidins (OPCs) target cancer stem-like cells and suppress tumor organoid formation in colorectal cancer. Sci Rep. 2018 Feb 20;8(1):3335]

One of the most important findings was the way that OPCs from grape seed interfere with the ability of cancer stem cells to self-renew, and to re-emerge months or years after cancer treatment is completed.

"Cancer stem cells are able to hide, and are able to resist chemotherapy and other treatments," said Ajay Goel, Ph.D., Professor and Director, Center of Gastroenterology, Translational Genomics and Oncology, Baylor Scott & White Research Institute, Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, TX, the lead author and principal investigator of the study.

"That is why cancer can recur at later dates. The cancer stem cells come out of hiding and start to proliferate. Unfortunately, these new cancer cells are highly resistant to chemotherapy. Finding an effective compound that suppress cancer stem-cell formation in the first place is extremely promising for long-term cancer survival. In this study, we demonstrated that OPCs from French grape seed suppress the creation of cancer stem cells in colorectal cancer, which shows great therapeutic potential. That is in addition to its ability to activate anti-cancer pathways in the body to prevent cancer and to slow tumor growth," stated Dr. Goel.

"This study was unique in that it not only showed the efficacy of OPCs in cancer cell lines, but also validated these findings in reducing colorectal cancer formation in an animal model. More importantly, the ability of OPCs to suppress cancer stem cell formation was confirmed using a new technique in which cells are harvested from a patient's colon cancer tumor and developed into a 3D-tumor organoids in a laboratory setting. This is a unique approach that can be used for studying the effect of an anti-cancer compound in the patient's own specific cancerous tumor. This validation provides a lot more confidence in these data for their validity in a human application," continued Dr. Goel.

It is important to note that the form of French grape seed extract used in the study, VX1, has unique specifications, including standardization for only low molecular weight, high absorption OPCs and containing no tannins. Therefore, results may not apply to other forms of grape seed extract.

For more information on the study, please contact Hilary Hancock at hilary@rkpr.net or 858-334-3078.

First Comprehensive Arthritis Data Report Available

• Arthritis in each state and Washington, DC.
• Arthritis-attributable activity limitations.
• Arthritis-attributable severe joint pain.
• Arthritis and one or more other diseases, such as obesity, coronary heart disease, and diabetes.
• Arthritis who are physically inactive.
• Arthritis who were counseled by their health care provider to be physically active or to lose weight (13 states).
• Arthritis who participated in self-management education workshops (13 states).
• Arthritis who walk for exercise.

These estimates will enable CDC and other public health partners to move forward and better target the dissemination of evidenced-based interventions that can decrease the impact of arthritis, including easing arthritis pain. The data presented in this Surveillance Summary was collected as part of CDC’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS).

Low-Fat Diet With Caloric Restriction Reduces White Matter Microglia Activation During Aging

A low-fat diet in combination with limited caloric consumption prevents activation of the brain's immune cells -- called microglia -- in aging mice, shows research published recently in Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience. The study also finds that exercise is significantly less effective than caloric restriction in preventing these age-related changes.

"Obesity and aging are both prevalent and increasing in societies worldwide, but the consequences for the central nervous system are not well understood," says Bart Eggen, lead author of the study and a researcher at the University Medical Center Groningen, The Netherlands. "We determined if a high- or low-fat diet, in combination with exercise and food restriction, impacted microglia during aging in mice."

Microglia are brain cells that help maintain the integrity and normal functioning of brain tissue. Dysfunction of these cells, as may occur in disease, is linked to neurodevelopmental disorders and neurodegenerative conditions. Aging is also associated with inflammation driven by microglia in specific regions of the brain, but it is unclear whether diet or lifestyle can influence this process.

Eggen and his collaborators investigated the impact of high- and low-fat diets on inflammation and microglial markers in a specific brain region -- the hypothalamus -- of 6-month-old mice. They further looked at the effect of low- or high-fat diets on the microglia of 2-year-old mice, which were also given a lifelong exercise regime (voluntary running wheel) or lifelong restricted diets (a 40% reduction in calories).

"Aging-induced inflammatory activation of microglia could only be prevented when mice were fed a low-fat diet in combination with limited caloric intake," says Eggen. "A low-fat diet per se was not sufficient to prevent these changes."

The researchers also found that exercise was significantly less effective than caloric restriction at preventing these changes, although work by others has shown that exercise is associated with reducing the risk of other diseases.

Eggen is careful to point out that there is still much more work needed to understand the meaning of these findings. In their study, mice were only given one type of diet throughout their lives. It remains unclear how changing between diets would alter these results -- for example whether switching to a low-fat diet could undo the negative consequences of a high-fat, unrestricted diet. Further studies are also needed to determine how these changes correspond to the cognitive performance of the mice.

"Nevertheless, these data do show that, in mice, the fat content of a diet is an important parameter in terms of the detrimental effects of aging on the brain, as well as caloric intake," says Eggen. "Only when fat content and caloric intake are limited, can aging-induced changes in microglia be prevented."

Story Source: Materials provided by Frontiers.

Naturopathic Medicine is Growing in U.S. Medical Centers of Excellence

 More Americans are seeking complementary and natural health care providers, as they focus on wellness, prevention, and whole-person care. Increasingly, consumers can find licensed naturopathic doctors as members of the professional clinical teams at medical centers of excellence around the United States. Twenty-eight prominent health systems, hospitals, and cancer treatment centers now have one or more licensed naturopathic doctors on staff at their facilities. Today there are approximately 6,000 licensed naturopathic doctors practicing in the U.S. Twenty-three U.S. states and territories currently license naturopathic doctors.

Trained to treat the whole person, naturopathic doctors diagnose, prevent and treat acute and chronic illness. Naturopathic doctors complete a rigorous, science-based, four-year, post-graduate education in an accredited naturopathic medical college, recognized by the United States Department of Education. Working as both primary care providers and members of collaborative integrative healthcare teams, naturopathic doctors address underlying causes of illness. Because of their rigorous training in clinical nutrition, lifestyle counseling, botanical medicine and more, they are experts at engaging and empowering patients to make lifestyle changes, proven to improve health outcomes.

"Naturopathic doctors are meeting the growing consumer demand for whole-body health care providers, and they are delivering better health outcomes at lower costs," said Michelle Simon, PhD, ND and Chair of the INM Board of Directors. "In addition to their ability to fill the growing shortage of primary care providers, NDs are sought out for complementary specialty care in oncology, gastroenterology, endocrinology, cardiology and other core fields."

Spanning academic, University-affiliated hospitals, integrative medical centers, large health systems, and specialty treatment centers, here are 28 medical centers of excellence with naturopathic doctors on staff:

Alliance Institute for Integrative Medicine

Amen Clinics Northwest

Beaumont Health System

Cancer Treatment Centers of America

Cedars-Sinai, Los Angeles

Columbia University, Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center

George Washington Center For Integrative Medicine

Goshen Center for Cancer Care

Hartford Hospital

HealthPoint

Integrative Medical Group of Irvine

Lake Health Integrative Medicine

University of Kansas Medical Center

Maryland Proton Treatment Center

Northwestern Osher Center for Integrative Medicine

One Medical Integrative Health

Oregon Health Sciences University

Providence Integrative Medicine Program

Raby Institute for Integrative Medicine at Northwestern

Shawnee Mission Health

Tru Health Medicine

University Hospitals, Connor Integrative Health Network

University of Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine

University of California Irvine, Susan Samueli Center for Integrative Medicine

University of Washington Medical Center-Roosevelt

University of Wisconsin Integrative Health Clinic

University of Pittsburgh Medical Center for Integrative Medicine

About the Institute for Natural Medicine  
The Institute for Natural Medicine (INM) is a national not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization that provides public education about naturopathic medicine and increases consumer access to naturopathic doctors. As a close partner to the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians, the INM strives to increase consumer and physician choice in safe, effective healthcare that improves patient outcomes and lowers costs. For more information visit www.naturemed.org or call 855-799-4490.

The Israeli Ministry of Health has Approved Kanabo Research's Medical Cannabis Vaporizer as a Medical Device

Kanabo Research, a Tel-Aviv-based medical cannabis R&D company, is pleased to announce that the Israeli Ministry of Health has granted initial approval as a medical device to its VapePod vaporizer product. This action makes Israel the first county in the world to grant medical device approval to a vaporizer for the use of medical cannabis extracts and formulations.

In addition, Kanabo has initiated initial pre-clinical trials of the company's targeted formulations for sleep disorders, designed for use with the approved VapePod medical cannabis vaporizer, and is achieving impressive results in early findings.

The combination of the approved vaporizer and the targeted formulations will enable medical cannabis patients to receive more effective, consistent, and accurate dosing and delivery methods than currently accepted medical cannabis treatment methods. Kanabo has two patents in the process of registration regarding the targeted formulations of medical cannabis extracts for sleep disorders, as well as the initial approval of the VapePod vaporizer by the Medical Cannabis Unit of the Israeli Ministry of Health.

Most medical cannabis patients today consume their cannabis by smoking - despite all of the known risks. The VapePod medical vaporizer enables patients to inhale their medical cannabis without the risks of smoking. Studies have shown that inhaling cannabis is significantly more effective than other delivery methods, and the VapePod vaporizer allows patients to still utilize the benefits of inhalation. The next version of the device - VapePod MD - will also monitor patient usage and gather usage data for caregivers, doctors, and research applications.

"This approval is a significant announcement for the medical cannabis patients in Israel who will be able to use the medical vaporizer for the first time," said Avihu Tamir, co-founder and CEO of Kanabo Research. "We expect that due to the transition of most of the cannabis consumers to the use of vaporizers, our company is projected to reach 10 million dollars in sales within three years in the Israeli market, while the Israeli cannabis market is expected to reach 100 million dollars in sales within three years. The Israeli market is a platform to deliver our technology to global markets in North America and Europe."

SOURCE Kanabo Research