Gut bacteria may conquer hypertension

If you want to seize power over your cardiovascular empire and take control of your blood pressure, research suggests you throw your support behind Lactobacillus!

Lactobacillus is one of the bacteria charged with keeping a proper balance between competing microbes in your gastrointestinal system, so that you can maintain good digestion, steady blood glucose levels, a healthy immune system and avoid over-the-top, bodywide inflammation.

Doctors have known for a while that if you’re short on lactobacillus, you might trigger or worsen ulcerative colitis and other gastro-inflammatory problems.

But recently research has revealed that lactobacillus might play a role in maintaining a healthy blood pressure. Writing in the journal Nature, researchers explain that lactobacillus can restore the proper balance of salt in your system.

When the researchers fed lab rodents a high-salt diet, it triggered high blood pressure. But when the researchers gave the animals lactobacillus, their blood pressure dropped. So if you’re combating HBP, give a regimen of lactobacillus supplements a try.

Cancerbesity

Dr. Francine Kaufman’s 2006 book “Diabesity” coined a term that helped focus the nation’s attention on the connection between the obesity epidemic and the increasing prevalence of Type 2 diabetes. Obesity is one of the risk factors for everything from arthritis and heart disease to a lousy sex life.

Well, now it’s time to coin another new term for a health hazard: cancerbesity.

We’ve mentioned before that obesity and diabetes are linked to an increased risk of seven cancers. But now, U.K. researchers and the International Agency for Research on Cancer at the World Health Organization say that there’s not just an increased risk, but “a causal association.” Obesity causes cancer! Its dirty dozen includes cancers of the colon, gallbladder, pancreas, kidney, liver, endometrium, breast, ovaries, gastrointestinal system, thyroid, esophagus and blood (multiple myeloma).

Today, 36 percent of U.S. adults and 20 percent of

U.S. children are obese.

The medical cost of treating their future cancers will be astronomical.

The government needs to establish policies offering support for weight-loss efforts. You need to reject the Five Food Felons: trans and sat fats, any grain that isn’t 100 percent whole, and all added sugars and syrups.

Email questions for Mehmet Oz and Mike Roizen to youdocsdaily@sharecare. com.