Prostate cancer therapy increases the risk of diabetes and Vitamin D decreases this risk

Many men choose drug therapy that blocks male androgen-hormones to treat their prostate cancer. New research shows that blocking androgens increases the risk of developing diabetes and this effect is increased in obese men. Androgen-deprivation therapy is known to cause body changes that could decrease sensitivity to insulin; the hormone that reduces the level of sugar in your blood. The current study involved 396 men who received androgen-deprivation therapy to treat their prostate cancer between January 1989 and July 2005. If the man already had diabetes before the treatment his blood sugar may have become worse. However, obese men were nearly five times more likely to develop diabetes than their non-obese peers. Giving Vitamin D supplementation, by contrast, markedly reduced the risk of developing diabetes. The study is published in the November 2007 issue of the British Journal of Urology International.

Review of two clinical trials shows that Petasites root extract reduces the incidence of migraine headache

In a review of two clinical trials that included 293 migraine sufferers a total daily dosage of 150mg of Petasites reduced the monthly number of migraines suffered by over 50% of the patients over a 3 to 4 month period. . A total daily dosage of 100mg was less effective. The research review is published in the November 2006 issue of the journal Phytomedicine.