Pomegranate lowering blood pressure

Effects of pomegranate juice on blood pressure: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Amirhossein Sahebkar 1, Claudio Ferri 2, Paolo Giorgini 2, Simona Bo 3, Petr Nachtigal 4, Davide Grassi 5Affiliations expand

Abstract

Punica granatum L. (Pomegranate) has been claimed to provide several health benefits. Pomegranate juice is a polyphenol-rich fruit juice with high antioxidant capacity. Several studies suggested that pomegranate juice can exert antiatherogenic, antioxidant, antihypertensive, and anti-inflammatory effects. Nevertheless, the potential cardioprotective benefits of pomegranate juice deserve further clinical investigation. To systematically review and meta-analyze available evidence from randomized placebo-controlled trials (RCTs) investigating the effects of pomegranate juice consumption and blood pressure (BP). A comprehensive literature search in Medline and Scopus was carried out to identify eligible RCTs. A meta-analysis of eligible studies was performed using a random-effects model. Quality assessment, sensitivity analysisand publication bias evaluations were conducted using standard methods. Quantitative data synthesis from 8 RCTs showed significant reductions in both systolic [weighed mean difference (WMD): -4.96mmHg, 95% CI: -7.67 to -2.25, p<0.001) and diastolic BP (WMD: -2.01mmHg, 95% CI: -3.71 to -0.31, p=0.021) after pomegranate juice consumption. Effects on SBP remained stable to sensitivity analyses. Pomegranate juice reduced SBP regardless of the duration (>12 wks: WMD=-4.36mmHg, 95% CI: -7.89 to -0.82, p=0.016) and <12 wks: WMD=-5.83 mmHg, 95% CI: -10.05 to -1.61, p=0.007) and dose consumed (>240cc: WMD=-3.62mmHg, 95% CI: -6.62 to -0.63, p=0.018) and <240cc: WMD=-11.01mmHg, 95% CI: -17.38 to -4.65, p=0.001, pomegranate juice per day) whereas doses >240cc provided a borderline significant effect in reducing DBP. The present meta-analysis suggests consistent benefits of pomegranate juice consumption on BP. This evidence suggests it may be prudent to include this fruit juice in a heart-healthy diet.

Susan Cain’s “Quiet”: The nature of an introvert

“ If you’re an introvert, find your flow by using your gifts. You have the power of perseverance, the tenacity to solve complex problems, and the clear sightedness to avoid pitfalls that trip others up. You enjoy relative freedom from temptations of superficial prizes like money and status. Indeed, your biggest challenge may be to fully harness your strengths. You may be so busy trying to appear like a zestful reward-driven extrovert that you undervalue your own talents or feel underestimated by those around you. But when you’re focused on projects that you care about, you will probably find that your energy is boundless.”

“Quiet” is found on Broadway Books

Passage of the Day: Marguerite de Navarre “The Heptameron”; Puffery

“So Simontaut began: ‘People who are used to residing at court or in the big towns have such a good opinion of (their own) cleverness that they think everyone else is nothing compared to them. It does not however (follow) that there are not always plenty of clever cunning people in all countries and all walks of life.  But because those who think they’re the world’s cleverest are so puffed up. One gets much more fun from laughing at them when they make some mistake…..”

Jon Kabat-Zinn’s “Full Catastrophe Living”: Dealing with thoughts during meditation

“Just because you decide to still your body and observe your breath from moment to moment doesn’t mean that your thinking mind is going to co-operate. It doesn’t necessarily quiet down because you have decided to meditate. Quite the contrary.

What does happen as we intentionally pay attention to our breathing is that we realize pretty quickly that we are immersed in a seemingly never-ending stream of thoughts. Coming willy-nilly one after the other in rapid succession….it is just the way the mind is.

In order to build up continuity and momentum in the meditation practice, you will need to keep reminding yourself to come back to the breath over and over again, no matter what the mind is up to from one moment to the next.”

A Couple of Italian Whites

From Campania we try a Vesevo Beneventano Falanghina 2019.This platinum-colored wine has aromas of lemon, lime, pear and custard. On the palate pear, vanilla and tangerine. Although dry it does have character and is not like some of the flinty dry whites with the personality of Mike Pence. Moderately long finish. It must be those volcanic soils of Mount Vesuvius that propel this white out of the ordinary and mundane. Great with a Napoli white pizza or chicken in a cream sauce.

(Vesevo Beneventano Falanghina 2019, IGT Beneventano, Vesevo Forino (Avellino), Italy, $16.95, 750 mL, 13%, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 289538, Robert K. Stephen A Little Birdie Told Me So Rating 91/100).

The next white is a Pitars Friulano from the Tre Venezia region. Platinum in colour. On the nose peach, apricot, tangerine with lesser hints of pineapple, mango and honey. On the palate a mid-weight wine. Notes of pear, apple and cantaloupe but fails to deliver the complexity offered by its aroma and if it could it would be a stunning wine. Short finish with refined acidity.

Drink by the end of 2021. Again I am thinking a white pizza with artichokes.

(Pitars Friulano 2018 San Cristoforo, DOC Friuli Grave, Pitars SNC, San Martino al Tagliamento, Italy, $16.95, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 17700, 750 mL, 12.5%, Robert K. Stephen A Little Birdie Told Me So Rating 90/100).

A Neapolitan “white pizza” suited so very well for these two wines; Photo Robert K. Stephen

“Another Gay Movie” (Director’s Cut)

This movie is so vintage it might be showing on Turner Classic Movies. However it is far too raunchy for mainstream media. It is celebrating its 15-year anniversary and it shows how far LGBTQ film has progressed. One might even bookmark this film as a historical “breakout” film.

There are two types of LGBTQ movies on the spectrum. At one end is the genre that celebrates gayness and the other where gay characters are simply actors in a greater than gay plot. In fact I am not sure the term LGBTQ as a term even existed 15 years ago. The promo material from the film’s distributor Breaking Glass Pictures refers to the film as a comedy cult classic. Like” Reefer Madness” this movie is so far off reality perhaps it could be a cult film.

If you are in the LGBTQ community having your own cult classic is a great advancement and achievement to be proud of?

The plot is simple, Four male gay virgin teenagers in California want to get laid before a Labour Day Party. I’ll let you find out if that happens when you watch the movie. But the plot would seem to be far ahead of its time which makes it a historical reference film. It is a raunchy Beverly Hills 90210 which you wouldn’t blink an eye at if you were a heterosexual teen. So good for the creators of the film for giving a film that gay teenagers might identify with.

It is so over the top I wonder if the gay community is laughing at gay stereotypes. Is this film a mockumentary? You have an ungay looking gay, a nerdy gay a jock gay and a flaming queen. You might even call the film a spoof. It has an artistic element of gaudiness and almost a 1950’s feel to its sets. Great soundtrack!

Even straights can be gay in this film.

Is it a comedy? There are few hilarious scenes involving “Belgian chocolate”, a gerbil up the ass, an enema and fart fest and a penis enlargement machine gone haywire. You might be turned right off by this type of comedy but I say take a chance you heterosexuals out there and see a bit of the other side! Unabashedly gross and vulgar. The fact it has been with us just for 15 years may make it a classic.

Here is the trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea92UVjSyBw

This film is written, directed and produced by Todd Stephens and will be available April 27th on VOD including iTunes, Google Play and VUDU and on DVD on May 4th.

Horny gay teenagers plot to lose their virginity

“Kenny Scharf: When Worlds Collide”

While watching this Brazilian/American documentary I started wondering what rock I have been hiding under! Who in the hell is Kenny Scharf?

Kenny Scharf Ratfink Boner

I know some of his contemporaries he hung out with like Keith Haring, Andy Warhol and Jean Michel Basquiat and have seen many of their works but Scharf draws a blank. I can also see the influence on his work by Picasso, Rousseau, Peter Max and Dali which the film declines to make any connection to.

He grew up in a dull L.A. suburb in the 1960’s and was influenced by early American television which creeps out in his art. Yes there was a period in his career based on the Jetson’s television show.

His art is playful and at point cartoonish almost like Jeff Koons. A quote by Picasso at the beginning of the film rings so very true with Scharf, “All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist when you grow up.”

You get a good feel about what Scharf is all about through commentary from his mother, friends, fellow artists, collectors and art critics. They portray a most interesting portrait of the man which I will let you discover.

The documentary is the best way to experience his art and his life and the documentary wraps it up like a huge juicy pastrami sandwich that will leave you full and satisfied.

You’ll go through the downtown New York art scene in the 70’s and eighties, the devastating ravages of AIDS in the artistic community, the transformation and commodification of pop art when uptown New York started to recognize downtown New York. 

His style of art? I’ll go out on a limb and say pop art with humour and enormous creativity. To categorize his art as modern art might be too banal.

Best I shut up and say let his art speak for itself and there is no doubt in my mind Scharf is a modern American master. And he is a survivor unlike Haring and Basquiat who died too young.

The 77-minute 2020 documentary opens up virtually at Ted Rogers Hot Docs Cinema on April 15th. It is a film by Malia Scharf and Max Basch.

“When Worlds Collide” is a 1985 Oil and Spray Paint on canvas. When worlds collide there can be calm in chaos.

“Mutantism on the March” :Chapter 38 “Nicaraguan Miseries Augment”

Moza was fuming at the opposition groups whose indolence had been disrupting industrial production and civil order. They had challenged him to deal with the problems facing the nation rather than lining his pockets. They had the unmitigated audacity to convey their complaints to some of the foreign embassies in Managua. Some of these sassy communist insurgents had the gall to burn his portraits in effigy in the streets of Managua. These insubordinate acts rattled his mental health. He thought this insubordination must be stopped before the communists gathered support and started a slaughter of the simpleminded masses. The country had been dragged remarkably close to the communist abyss years ago but the patriotic motherland capitalists had saved the slide into Bolshevik madness not on the curriculum of the American educated junta. The best way was to eliminate the entire population except for the one percent that could be counted on. Well there was a “Final Solution” called the Moza Plan which was the only way that could stem the communist insurgency. Rufus Moonhead was to be the hatchet man while Moza, the Green Cross, Unifoods and Murky Express were to be the beneficiaries.

The Green Cross recused itself from direct violence being a humanitarian organization they were to continue their kidnapping of children for adoption, organ brokering business and blood sales but their role in the Moza Plan was to portray a scene of total humanitarian misery that could be ameliorated by a mass kidnapping (airlifting to mercy) of Nicaraguan children to a “peaceful” country like the USA. There they would be adopted by those “who could provide an adequate standard of living to overcoming the terrible trauma of war and poverty”. The best Madison Avenue advertising firms were enlisted in the campaign to “save the children”. With their advertising campaign of top-notch charity porn the middle class Americans were sobbing at the fly covered Nicaraguan children who were actually paid Mexican actors. Applications to the Green Cross for Nicaraguan adoptions flooded in. For certain “administrative fees” a Nicaraguan child could be adopted. Green Cross was raking in huge profits as Nicaraguan parents complained bitterly of child abduction being greeted by cries of treason! Suddenly there was a shortage of children in Nicaragua. This delighted Moza who took a 10% cut of the adoption “administrative fees”.

Emergency Orders in Ontario to bolster teetering hospitals

NEWS RELEASE

Ontario Supporting Health System Response During Third Wave of COVID-19

Action being taken to maximize capacity and preserve resources needed to care for patients

April 9, 2021

Health

Table of Contents

  1. Content
  2. Quick Facts
  3. Additional Resources
  4. Related Topics

TORONTO — In response to the recent and rapid rise in hospitalizations, ICU admissions and the threat to the province’s critical care capacity, the Ontario government is issuing two emergency orders under the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act (EMCPA). These orders will maximize system capacity, ensuring that hospitals have the resources required to provide care for patients and save lives.

These temporary emergency orders will support the redeployment of health care professionals and other workers currently working in Ontario Health and Home and Community Care Support Services organizations to hospitals. They will also provide hospitals with the flexibility to transfer patients to alternate hospital sites in situations where a hospital’s resources are at significant and immediate risk of becoming overwhelmed. These orders, along with additional measures being taken, are expected to increase ICU capacity in the province by up to 1,000 patient beds.   

“With Ontario’s hospitals facing unprecedented critical care capacity pressures during the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, our government is taking immediate action to ensure no capacity nor resource in Ontario’s hospitals goes untapped,” said Christine Elliott, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health. “Together with the provincewide Stay-At-Home Order, these measures will help to ensure that hospitals continue to have the staffing and resources they need to care for patients. We continue to work with our hospital and health care partners to fight this deadly virus, and I want to thank all of Ontario’s frontline health care workers for their tireless work each day to protect the health and safety of Ontarians.”

Over the last year, the government has made significant investments and efforts to build capacity and maintain the integrity of Ontario’s health care system, including investing $5.1 billion to support hospitals, creating over 3,100 more hospital beds. However, as Ontario, like other provinces and jurisdictions around the world, combats the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and deadly variants, further action is needed to allow hospitals to maximize capacity and ensure patients are receiving the most appropriate care. 

Effective immediately, similar to orders previously introduced, Home and Community Care Support Services organizations (formerly LHINs) and Ontario Health will be provided the authority and flexibility to voluntarily deploy staff, such as care coordinators, nurses, and others, to work in team-based models in hospitals that are experiencing significant capacity pressures due to COVID-19. In addition, Home and Community Care Support Services organizations will now be authorized to deploy staff to backfill redeployed staff within and to another Home and Community Care Support Service organization.

In addition, the government is taking action to better leverage Ontario’s hospital system as one connected resource, improving the ability of hospitals to respond to the most emergent and acute needs so that all patients can receive the most appropriate care in the right setting. During major surge events where the demand for critical care threatens to overwhelm a hospital, the province will allow hospitals the flexibility to transfer patients to alternate hospital sites without obtaining the consent of the patient or, where the patient is incapable, their substitute decision maker. Hospitals may rely upon this order to facilitate the transfer of a patient to an alternate hospital site only when necessary to respond to a major surge event, when the attending physician is satisfied that the patient will receive the care they require at that other site and that the transfer can be effected without compromising the patient’s medical condition, and where all of the other conditions specified within the order have been met.

As soon as possible following the conclusion of the major surge event, the alternate hospital site would be required to make reasonable efforts to transfer the patient back to the original hospital site or to another suitable care location which is consented to by the patient or substitute decision maker.

Effective Monday, April 12, 2021, Ontario Health has also instructed hospitals to ramp down all elective surgeries and non-urgent activities in order to preserve critical care and human resource capacity. At this time, the ramp down instruction does not apply to the Northern Ontario Health Region. Pediatric specialty hospitals can also continue their plans to care for children and youth and may help if required to support other regional hospitals.

“Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals and health care providers have worked tirelessly and thanks to their efforts, have allowed our province to protect Ontarians and provide care for patients,” said Matthew Anderson, CEO of Ontario Health. “These are challenging times for all Ontarians, and we understand that deferring scheduled surgeries and other procedures will have an impact on patients, their families and on caregivers. We are monitoring the situation and will work to resume as soon and as safely as possible these deferred services and procedures.”

These time-limited orders remain valid for 14 days unless revoked or extended in accordance with the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act and will come into effect on Friday, April 9, 2021.

Quick Facts

  • COVID-19 related ICU admissions are already over the peak of wave two and as of April 9, 2021, there are 552 patients in ICU due to COVID-related critical illness, and ICU occupancy provincewide has already surpassed 81 per cent. Modelling data predicts that this number will pass 600 within the next week.
  • On April 7, the Ontario government, in consultation with the Chief Medical Officer of Health and other health experts, declared a third provincial emergency under s 7.0.1 of the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act (EMPCA).
  • Effective Thursday, April 8, 2021 at 12:01 a.m., the government issued a province-wide Stay-at-Home order requiring everyone to remain at home except for specified purposes, such as going to the grocery store or pharmacy, accessing health care services (including getting vaccinated), for outdoor exercise, or for work that cannot be done remotely.
  • The government has invested over $5.1 billion to support hospitals since the start of the pandemic, creating more than 3,100 additional hospital beds. This includes 185 beds at Mackenzie Health’s Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital, which has been temporarily transitioned into a systemwide resource supporting the province’s COVID-19 response. Working with Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, the province is setting up a Mobile Health Unit that will be available this month, and site work for a Mobile Health Unit is underway at Hamilton Health Sciences.
  • As part of the province’s $2.8 billion fall preparedness plan, the government invested $283.7 million to assist the health system’s ongoing efforts to reduce surgery backlogs, and $457.5 million to ensure that the health system is prepared to respond to any waves or surges of COVID-19 without interrupting routine health services.

El Tequileño Reposado Gran Reserva Tequila

As far as spirits go Tequila does not hit my ranking at all. That is not Tequila’s fault but mine perhaps as a result of memories of not so good Tequila in Mexico years ago. But I will admit it crawled from the pages of “Under the Volcano” by Malcom Lowry into superstar status in the United States becoming a huge seller in the last decade. 2020 saw tequila sales in the USA increase by 22% from 2019. In Canada Tequila at last account is in eighth place of spirits consumed.

The El Tequileño costs a stiff $89.95 at the Liquor Control Board of Ontario. It is a Reposado which ranks above Blancos and Jovens but below Añejo and Extra Añejo. At $89.95 for 750 mL I think one has to try it neat as the ultimate test is how it stands on its two feet without being consumed in a cocktail.

It has a pale gold colour. On the nose honey, butterscotch, grapefruit, pineapple and a hint of banana. On the palate despite the burn from the alcohol it is surprisingly smooth. Strong notes of pear, sweet white grapefruit with secondary notes of tangerine, honeycomb and Portuguese custard tarts. Long slow burn of a finish.

Reposado Tequila is aged in American or European oak barrels for at least two months to 1 year. The El Tequileño Reposado Gran Reserva Tequila has been aged at least 8 months in American oak and blended with a small amount of Añejo which has been aged in American oak. It is made from 100% Blue Agave from the premium growing region of Los Altos de Jalisco and mineral rich water from El Volcan de Tequila.

So how do you consume this premium Tequila? Some say it suits Margaritas but at this price I say it deserves to be tried at least initially, neat and naked. It would appeal to those who like single malts and high blended Scotch whiskies or Irish pot stilled whisky. But unlike Scotch or Bourbon there is very little sweetness. I prefer my Scotch and Bourbon neat and I will take this Tequila the same way.

Now when to consume? It could be served slightly chilled to start the feast or after the feast with a dessert influenced by honey such as many a Greek dessert or Mexican honey cakes.. As my knowledge of Mexican food is scandously low I dare not make any suggestions as to food pairings although I understand the El Tequileño private jet is ready to pick me up and educate me for a week on their Tequilas with Jalisco’s best food!

You may be used to me rating wines and beer but as a newbie to Tequila it is best not to venture there. What I can say this is a quality spirit that deserves your attention. Being frank I would require an intensive media trip to be able to speak with authority on Tequila. While EU countries take me here and there for wine tastings I am waiting for the Mexicans to do the same. My personal jet is in the hangar for maintenance for the next month.

Wallowing in ignorance I say give this Tequila a try. There is more to life than Scotch and Bourbon neat!