Health News Report

When parents of middle school students participate in school-based, family interventions, it can reduce problem behavior

2012-01-27T11:56:00.000-08:00

Source: Health Behavior News Service

When parents of middle school students participate in school-based, family interventions, it can reduce problem behavior, according to new research released online in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

The transition to adolescence can be particularly challenging, as during this period, children are more likely to engage in potentially harmful behavior with their peers while having less monitoring from and communication with their parents.

The researchers were interested in whether an intervention called the Family Check-Up (FCU)—a short program that provides feedback and skill training for parents—could mitigate some of the troubles many parents and teens face.

“We hypothesized that we would find significant intervention effects on all four outcomes—family conflict, parental monitoring, antisocial behavior and alcohol use,” said Mark J. Van Ryzin, Ph.D., of the University of Oregon and lead author of the study. “We were pleased that these hypotheses were confirmed.”

Van Ryzin and his colleagues followed 593 seventh and eighth graders and their families in a randomized controlled trial, with families assigned either to participate in the FCU program or to a control group of “school as usual” students at three public schools in the Pacific Northwest. The researchers gathered data primarily from students' self-reports to provide a broad assessment of family interaction. Researchers also videotaped parents interacting with their teens at home and school. Both parents and teens received comprehensive feedback about their interaction with each other.

One of the program’s strengths is its short duration. “The average participating family only received about 4 and half hours of intervention time,” said Van Ryzin.

“Most adolescents with behavioral problems see professionals after they are in trouble instead of beforehand, which is why this program is unique; there are few preventive programs like it,” said Garry Sigman, M.D., director of adolescent medicine at Loyola University Medical Center in Chicago. “It requires either a school district willing to incur the time and financial costs of trained professionals or collaboration between schools and mental health professionals. In either case, most districts do not have funds or interest in this type of endeavor.”

While no simple answer exists for decreasing teenagers’ behavioral problems, Sigman said, “I only wish more young adolescents would have the opportunity for their parents to get the type of education offered by the Family Check-Up. To be sure, it doesn’t happen very often in primary care offices.”

Sigman said he helps parents understand that adolescence is not a time to pull back on involvement in their children’s lives. “I suggest parents know where their teens are, have curfew rules, and make their values and wishes explicit regarding teen drinking, substance use and sex.”

“If support and services like the Family Check-Up are available, it can help implement reasonable strategies for change,” said Van Ryzin. “The key is to involve the whole family in the process, not just the adolescent.”

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Grape seed extract kills head and neck cancer cells, leaves healthy cells unharmed

2012-01-27T11:42:00.000-08:00

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Nearly 12,000 people will die of head and neck cancer in the United States this year and worldwide cases will exceed half a million.

A study published this week in the journal Carcinogenesis shows that in both cell lines and mouse models, grape seed extract (GSE) kills head and neck squamous cell carcinoma cells, while leaving healthy cells unharmed.

“It’s a rather dramatic effect,” says Rajesh Agarwal, PhD, investigator at the University of Colorado Cancer Center and professor at the Skaggs School of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Note: Here's more from Wkipedia:

Human case reports and results from laboratory and animal studies provide preliminary evidence that grape seed extract may affect heart diseases such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol.[1] By limiting lipid oxidation, phenolics in grape seeds may reduce risk of heart disease, such as by inhibiting platelet aggregation and reducing inflammation.[2] While such studies are promising, more research including long-term studies in humans is needed to confirm initial findings.

A polyphenol contained in grape seeds is resveratrol, which may interfere with cancer cell growth and proliferation, as well as induce apoptosis, among other potential chemopreventive effects.[3][4]

Preliminary research shows that grape seed extract may have other possible anti-disease properties, such as in laboratory models of
• wound healing —- grape seed proanthocyanidins induced vascular endothelial growth factor and accelerated healing of injured skin in mice[5]
• tooth decay -- seed phenolics may inhibit oral sugar metabolism and retard growth of certain bacteria that cause dental caries[6]
• osteoporosis -- grape seed extracts enhanced bone density and strength in experimental animals[7]
• skin cancer -- grape seed proanthocyanidins decreased tumor numbers and reduced the malignancy of papillomas[8]
• ultraviolet damage to skin -— dietary proanthocyanidins may protect against carcinogenesis and provide supplementation for sunscreen protection[9]
• anti-viral[10][11]

and from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine

• Studies have found that some compounds of grape seed extract may be effective in relieving symptoms of chronic venous insufficiency (when veins have problems sending blood from the legs back to the heart) and reducing edema (swelling) after an injury or surgery.
• Small randomized trials have found beneficial effects of grape seed extract for diabetic retinopathy (an eye problem caused by diabetes) and for vascular fragility (weakness in small blood vessels). Larger trials are needed to confirm these findings.
• Grape seed extract contains antioxidants, which help prevent cell damage caused by free radicals (highly reactive molecules that can damage cell function). Preliminary studies have shown some beneficial antioxidant effects; however, more research is needed.
• A study funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) found that grape seed extract did not reduce the hardening of breast tissue that can occur after radiation therapy for breast cancer.
• NCI is also funding studies to evaluate whether grape seed extract is effective in preventing breast cancer in postmenopausal women and prostate cancer.
• NCCAM is studying whether the action of grape seed extract and its components may benefit the heart or help prevent cognitive decline, Alzheimer's disease, and other brain disorders. Another study is investigating the effects of grape seed extract on colon cancer.

Specifically, the paper shows that grape seed extract both damages cancer cells’ DNA (via increased reactive oxygen species) and stops the pathways that allow repair (as seen by decreased levels of the DNA repair molecules Brca1 and Rad51 and DNA repair foci).

“Yet we saw absolutely no toxicity to the mice, themselves,” Agarwal says.

Again, the grape seed extract killed the cancer cells but not the healthy cells.
“I think the whole point is that cancer cells have a lot of defective pathways and they are very vulnerable if you target those pathways. The same is not true of healthy cells,” Agarwal says.

The Agarwal Lab hopes to move in the direction of clinical trials of grape seed extract, potentially as an addition to second-line therapies that target head and neck squamous cell carcinoma that has failed a first treatment.

Jon's Health Tips - Latest Health Research

2012-01-27T10:36:00.001-08:00

I will certainly stop eating protein before major surgery in the future - but just not into total diet restriction:

Protein-free diet good for you?

Limiting certain essential nutrients for several days before surgery—either protein or amino acids—may reduce the risk of serious surgical complications such as heart attack or stroke, according to a new Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) study.

The results are significant because they pinpoint protein as an important substance to eliminate from the diet before surgery to avoid complications. Stroke risk related to cardiovascular surgery ranges from 0.8% to 9.7%, depending on the procedure. Heart attack risk is 3% to 4%.

In numerous animal studies over the past few decades, scientists have found that long-term dietary restriction can improve health and lengthen life. Benefits include increased stress resistance, reduced inflammation, improved blood sugar regulation, and better cardiovascular health—and many of these benefits extend to humans.

I really, really don't know what to do about Vitamin D

Vitamin D could help combat the effects of aging in eyes

Vitamin D statement- European Menopause and Andropause Society

Osteoporosis is a common condition in postmenopausal women leading to bone fractures. However, there is now evidence that vitamin D deficiency is also associated with other medical conditions important in older women. These include cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, infections and neurodegenerative disease. Regular sunlight exposure (without sunscreens) for 15 minutes, 3-4 times a week, in the middle of the day in summer can generate healthy levels. Supplements of vitamin D are recommended for those women who cannot obtain the required quantity through sun exposure and diet. The recommended daily allowance is 600 IU/day increasing to 800IU/day for those aged 71 years and older.

Low vitamin D levels linked to depression,

But:

When It Comes to Heart Health, How Much Is Too Much Vitamin D?

New research by Johns Hopkins scientists suggests that vitamin D, long known to be important for bone health and in recent years also for heart protection, may stop conferring cardiovascular benefits and could actually cause harm as levels in the blood rise above the low end of what is considered normal.

Study leader Muhammad Amer, M.D., an assistant professor in the division of general internal medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, says his findings show that increasing levels of vitamin D in the blood are linked with lower levels of a popular marker for cardiovascular inflammation — c-reactive protein (also known as CRP).

Amer and his colleague Rehan Qayyum, M.D., M.H.S., examined data from more than 15,000 adult participants in the continuous National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a nationally representative sample, from 2001 and 2006. They found an inverse relationship between vitamin D and CRP in adults without cardiovascular symptoms but with relatively low vitamin D levels. Healthier, lower levels of inflammation were found in people with normal or close to normal vitamin D levels. But beyond blood levels of 21 nanograms per milliliter of 25-Hydroxyvitamin D — considered the low end of the normal range for vitamin D — any additional increase in vitamin D was associated with an increase in CRP, a factor linked to stiffening of the blood vessels and an increased risk of cardiovascular problems.

“The inflammation that was curtailed by vitamin D does not appear to be curtailed at higher levels of vitamin D,” says Amer, whose newest finding appears in the Jan. 15 issue of the American Journal of Cardiology. “Clearly vitamin D is important for your heart health, especially if you have low blood levels of vitamin D. It reduces cardiovascular inflammation and atherosclerosis, and may reduce mortality, but it appears that at some point it can be too much of a good thing.”

Amer says consumers should exercise caution before taking supplements and physicians should know the potential risks. Each 100 international unit of vitamin D ingested daily produces about a one nanogram per milliliter increase 25-Hydroxyvitamin D levels in the blood. “People taking vitamin D supplements need to be sure the supplements are necessary,” Amer says. “Those pills could have unforeseen consequences to health even if they are not technically toxic.”

Amer and Qayyum, also an assistant professor in the division of general internal medicine at Hopkins, say the biological and molecular mechanisms that account for the loss of cardiovascular benefits are unclear.

Vitamin D is often called the “sunshine vitamin” because its primary source is the sun. It is found in very few foods, though commercially sold milk is usually fortified with it. As people spend more and more time indoors and slather their bodies with sunscreen, concern is rising that many are vitamin D-deficient, Amer notes.

As a result, Amer says, many doctors prescribe vitamin D supplements, and many consumers, after reading news stories about the vitamin’s benefits, dose themselves. Older women often take large doses to fight and prevent osteoporosis.

Well this is good news: (McDonalds fish sandwich is fried in a combination of sunflower and canola oil. Read more:) Wendy's fired items, on the other hand are cooked in soy, corn, cottonseed, and hydrogenated soy oil. Read more

No cardiac risk with food fried in olive, sunflower oil

In a Mediterranean country where olive and sunflower oils are the most commonly used fats for frying, and where large amounts of fried foods are consumed both at and away from home, no association was observed between fried food consumption and the risk of coronary heart disease or death.

I've been good about eating a bit of dark chocolate every day (2 squares):

Cocoa could prevent intestinal pathologies such as colon cancer

The growing interest amongst the scientific community to identify those foods capable of preventing diseases has now categorized cocoa as a 'superfood'. It has been recognised as an excellent source of phytochemical compounds, which offer potential health benefits.

Headed by scientists from the Institute of Food Science and Technology and Nutrition (ICTAN) and recently published in the Molecular Nutrition & Food Research journal, the new study supports this idea and upholds that cacao consumption helps to prevent intestinal complaints linked to oxidative stress, such as the onset of chemically induced colon carcinogenesis.

Although more research is required to determine what bioactive compounds in cocoa are responsible for such effects, the authors conclude that a cocoa-rich diet seems capable of reducing induced oxidative stress. It could also have protection properties in the initial stages of colon cancer as it reduces premalignant neoplastic lesion formation.

I've been pretty good on fruits and vegetables, including olive oil and a limited amount of orange juice every day:

Plant Flavonoid Luteolin Blocks Cell Signaling Pathways in Colon Cancer Cells

Luteolin is a flavonoid commonly found in fruit and vegetables. Dietary sources include celery, green pepper, thyme, perilla, chamomile tea, carrots, olive oil, peppermint, rosemary, navel oranges, and oregano. This compound has been shown in laboratory conditions to have anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant and anti-cancer properties but results from epidemiological studies have been less certain. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Gastroenterology shows that luteolin is able to inhibit the activity of cell signaling pathways (IGF and PI3K) important for the growth of cancer in colon cancer cells. Colon cancer is the second most frequent cause of cancer-related death in the Western World.

I do get a lot of fiber in my diet - that's good, right?

Increase Dietary Fiber, Decrease Disease

We should all be eating more dietary fiber to improve our health -- that's the message from a health review by scientists in India. The team has looked at research conducted into dietary fiber during the last few decades across the globe and now suggests that to avoid initial problems, such as intestinal gas and loose stool, it is best to increase intake gradually and to spread high-fiber foods out throughout the day, at meals and snacks. Writing in the International Journal of Food Safety, Nutrition and Public Health, the team offers fruit, vegetables, whole-grain foods, such as muesli and porridge, beans and pulses, as readily available foods rich in dietary fiber.

Dietary fiber, also known as roughage, is the general term of the non-digestible parts of the fruit and vegetable products we eat. There are two forms soluble and insoluble. Soluble (prebiotic, viscous) fiber that is readily broken down or fermented in the colon into physiologically active byproducts and gases. The second form is insoluble fiber, which is metabolically inert, but absorbs water as it passes through the digestive system, providing bulk for the intestinal muscles to work against and easing defecation.

Given that dietary fiber has physiological actions such as reducing cholesterol and attenuating blood glucose, maintaining gastrointestinal health, and positively affecting calcium bioavailability and immune function, it is important for the current generation and future generations that this component of our diets be reasserted through education and information.

"Consuming adequate quantities of DF can lead to improvements in gastrointestinal health, and reduction in susceptibility to diseases such as diverticular disease, heart disease, colon cancer, and diabetes. Increased consumption has also been associated with increased satiety and weight loss," the team concludes. Given the ready availability particularly in the West and in the relatively richer parts of the developing world of vegetables, fruit and other foods high in dietary fiber it is a matter of recommending that people eat more dietary fiber rather than consistently taking the unhealthy low-fiber option throughout their lives.

But:

Diets high in fiber MAY CAUSE, not protect against, diverticulosis

For more than 40 years, scientists and physicians have thought eating a high-fiber diet lowered a person's risk of diverticulosis, a disease of the large intestine in which pouches develop in the colon wall. A new study of more than 2,000 people reveals the opposite may be true.

"We were surprised to find that a low-fiber diet was not associated with a higher prevalence of asymptomatic diverticulosis," said Peery. In fact, the study found those with the lowest fiber intake were 30 percent less likely to develop diverticula than those with the highest fiber intake.

Diverticulosis affects about one-third of adults over age 60 in the United States. Although most cases are asymptomatic, when complications develop they can be severe, resulting in infections, bleeding, intestinal perforations and even death. Health care associated with such complications costs an estimated $2.5 billion per year.

Since the late 1960s, doctors have recommended a high-fiber diet to regulate bowel movements and reduce the risk of diverticulosis. This recommendation is based on the idea that a low fiber diet will cause constipation and in turn generate diverticula as a result of increased pressure in the colon. However, few studies have been conducted to back up that assumption. "Our findings dispute commonly-held beliefs because asymptomatic diverticulosis has never been rigorously studied," said Peery.

The study also found constipation was not a risk factor and that having more frequent bowel movements actually increased a person's risk. Compared to those with fewer than seven bowel movements per week, individuals with more than 15 bowel movements per week were 70 percent more likely to develop diverticulosis.

The study found no association between diverticulosis and physical inactivity, intake of fat, or intake of red meat. The disease's causes remain unknown, but the researchers believe gut flora may play a role.

I don't think I'm ready for virtual reality exercise yet, but if I did it I'd be more likely to be open to it:

Virtual reality-enhanced exercise = +cognitive benefit for older adults

Enhancing cognition in older adults also changes personality

A program designed to boost cognition in older adults also increased their openness to new experiences, researchers report, demonstrating for the first time that a non-drug intervention in older adults can change a personality trait once thought to be fixed throughout the lifespan.

Other things I do, or eat that are good:

Grapes may help prevent age-related blindness

Alcohol & polyphenols in red wine both fight cardiovascular disease

Moderate red wine drinking may help cut women's breast cancer risk

Benefits of statin therapy may extend beyond lowering lipids

Chlorophyll in green vegetables can prevent cancer

Omega-3 fatty acids could prevent and treat nerve damage

I still eat too much of these:

Red & processed meat consumption = increased pancreatic cancer risk.

This is interesting:

Dispelling the low-fat-is-healthy myth

Dozens of studies, many from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers, have shown that low-fat diets are no better for health than moderate- or high-fat diets—and for many people, may be worse. A regular blueberry muffin from a national coffee shop chain has 450 calories on average and most of those calories come from carbohydrates, primarily white flour and sugar. However, now that national chains have eliminated trans fats, a regular muffin does have heart-healthy fat, usually from soybean or canola oil. A low-fat muffin has about the same amount of calories, but contains more carbohydrates and sugar—and about 60% more sodium (700 milligrams)—than a regular muffin.

Protein-free diet good for you?

2012-01-25T12:48:00.001-08:00

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Limiting certain essential nutrients for several days before surgery—either protein or amino acids—may reduce the risk of serious surgical complications such as heart attack or stroke, according to a new Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) study.

The study appears in the January 25, 2012 issue of Science Translational Medicine.

"Food restriction as a way to increase stress resistance may seem counterintuitive, but in fact our data indicate that the well-fed state is the one more susceptible to this kind of injury," said James Mitchell, assistant professor of genetics and complex diseases at HSPH.

The researchers, led by Mitchell and Wei Peng, a former HSPH postdoctoral fellow, analyzed two groups of mice. One group was allowed to eat normally for 6 to 14 days; the other group was given a diet free of protein or lacking a single amino acid (amino acids are the building blocks of proteins). Both groups were then subjected to surgical stress that could potentially harm the kidneys or liver. In the mice that were allowed to eat as usual, about 40 percent died. The protein- and amino acid-free mice all survived.

The researchers also found that removing the gene that senses levels of any type of amino acid eliminated the protective effect. This suggests that the pathway activated by amino acid deficiency—rather than the absence of any particular amino acid—is responsible for the observed benefits, and opens up the potential for targeting drugs toward that pathway.

The results are significant because they pinpoint protein as an important substance to eliminate from the diet before surgery to avoid complications. Stroke risk related to cardiovascular surgery ranges from 0.8% to 9.7%, depending on the procedure. Heart attack risk is 3% to 4%.

In numerous animal studies over the past few decades, scientists have found that long-term dietary restriction can improve health and lengthen life. Benefits include increased stress resistance, reduced inflammation, improved blood sugar regulation, and better cardiovascular health—and many of these benefits extend to humans. There is debate, however, about whether the benefits stem from the source of the calories (fat, sugar, or protein) or simply the total calories. Recent research on fruit flies demonstrated the benefits of restricting protein. The HSPH study aimed to provide further clarity by determining the benefits of protein or amino acid restriction in rodents.

As a next step, Mitchell and his colleagues will try to determine whether dietary preconditioning works as well lowering surgery-related risk in humans as it did in mice. They have taken early planning steps with colleagues at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston on a clinical trial of patients on protein-free diets before surgery. If the benefits are confirmed in humans, it may be possible to perform surgeries with significantly reduced risk of complications.

Vitamin D statement- European Menopause and Andropause Society

2012-01-25T12:44:00.000-08:00

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Osteoporosis is a common condition in postmenopausal women leading to bone fractures. However, there is now evidence that vitamin D deficiency is also associated with other medical conditions important in older women. These include cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, infections and neurodegenerative disease. The major natural source of vitamin D is cutaneous synthesis through exposure to sunlight with a small amounts also coming from the diet in animal-based foods such as fatty fish, eggs and milk. Levels of vitamin D are lower in those with poor sun exposure and in the winter. Obesity, malabsorption syndromes and certain medications (e.g. anticonvulsants, antiretrovirals) can also lower vitamin D levels. Regular sunlight exposure (without sunscreens) for 15 minutes, 3-4 times a week, in the middle of the day in summer can generate healthy levels. Supplements of vitamin D are recommended for those women who cannot obtain the required quantity through sun exposure and diet. The recommended daily allowance is 600 IU/day increasing to 800IU/day for those aged 71 years and older.

No cardiac risk with food fried in olive, sunflower oil

2012-01-25T08:23:00.000-08:00

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Food fried in olive or sunflower oil is not linked to heart disease or premature death, but the same is not true of solid or reused oils. While eating lots of fried food can increase some heart disease risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and obesity, a link between fried food and heart disease has not been fully investigated.

So the study authors, led by Pilar Guallar-Castillón professor at the Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain, surveyed the cooking methods of 40,757 adults aged 29 to 69 years over an 11-year period. None of them had heart disease when the study began, the journal bmj.com reports.

Trained interviewers asked participants about their diet and cooking methods. Fried food was defined as food for which frying was the only cooking method used. Questions were also asked about whether food was fried, battered, crumbed or sautéed, according to an Autonomous statement.

The participants' diet was divided into ranges of fried food consumption, the first quarter related to the lowest amount of fried food consumed and the fourth indicated the highest amount. During the follow-up there were 606 events linked to heart disease and 1,134 deaths.

The authors conclude "In a Mediterranean country where olive and sunflower oils are the most commonly used fats for frying, and where large amounts of fried foods are consumed both at and away from home, no association was observed between fried food consumption and the risk of coronary heart disease or death."

Cocoa could prevent intestinal pathologies such as colon cancer

2012-01-24T14:14:00.000-08:00

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A new study on living animals has shown for the first time that eating cocoa (the raw material in chocolate) can help to prevent intestinal complaints linked to oxidative stress, including colon carcinogenesis onset caused by chemical substances.

The growing interest amongst the scientific community to identify those foods capable of preventing diseases has now categorized cocoa as a 'superfood'. It has been recognised as an excellent source of phytochemical compounds, which offer potential health benefits.

Headed by scientists from the Institute of Food Science and Technology and Nutrition (ICTAN) and recently published in the Molecular Nutrition & Food Research journal, the new study supports this idea and upholds that cacao consumption helps to prevent intestinal complaints linked to oxidative stress, such as the onset of chemically induced colon carcinogenesis.

"Being exposed to different poisons in the diet like toxins, mutagens and procarcinogens, the intestinal mucus is very susceptible to pathologies," explains María Ángeles Martín Arribas, lead author of the study and researcher at ICTAN. She adds that "foods like cocoa, which is rich in polyphenols, seems to play an important role in protecting against disease."

The study on live animals (rats) has for the first time confirmed the potential protection effect that flavonoids in cocoa have against colon cancer onset. For eight weeks the authors of the study fed the rats with a cocoa-rich (12%) diet and carcinogenesis was induced.

Possible protection

Doctor Martín Arribas outlines that "four weeks after being administered with the chemical compound azoxymethane (AOM), intestinal mucus from premalignant neoplastic lesions appeared. These lesions are called 'aberrant crypt foci' and are considered to be good markers of colon cancer pathogenesis.

The results of the study showed that the rats fed a cocoa-rich diet had a significantly reduced number of aberrant crypts in the colon induced by the carcinogen. Likewise, this sample saw an improvement in their endogenous antioxidant defences and a decrease in the markers of oxidative damage induced by the toxic compound in this cell.

The researchers conclude that the protection effect of cocoa can stop cell-signalling pathways involved in cell proliferation and, therefore, subsequent neoplasty and tumour formation. Lastly, the animals fed with the cocoa-rich diet showed an increase in apoptosis or programmed cell death as a chemoprevention mechanism against the development of the carcinogenesis.

Although more research is required to determine what bioactive compounds in cocoa are responsible for such effects, the authors conclude that a cocoa-rich diet seems capable of reducing induced oxidative stress. It could also have protection properties in the initial stages of colon cancer as it reduces premalignant neoplastic lesion formation.

A not-so-guilty pleasure

Cocoa is one of the ingredients in chocolate. It is one of the richest foods in phenolic compounds, mainly in flavonoids like procyanidins, catechins and epicatechins, which have numerous beneficial biological activities in the prevention of cardiovascular diseases and cancer (mainly colorectal cancer).

In fact, compared to other foods with a high flavonoid content, cocoa has a high level of procyanidins with limited bioavailability. These flavonoids are therefore found in their highest concentrations in the intestine where they neutralise many oxidants.

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Plant Flavonoid Luteolin Blocks Cell Signaling Pathways in Colon Cancer Cells

2012-01-24T08:43:00.000-08:00

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Luteolin is a flavonoid commonly found in fruit and vegetables. Dietary sources include celery, green pepper, thyme, perilla, chamomile tea, carrots, olive oil, peppermint, rosemary, navel oranges, and oregano. This compound has been shown in laboratory conditions to have anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant and anti-cancer properties but results from epidemiological studies have been less certain. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Gastroenterology shows that luteolin is able to inhibit the activity of cell signaling pathways (IGF and PI3K) important for the growth of cancer in colon cancer cells.

Colon cancer is the second most frequent cause of cancer-related death in the Western World. Colon cancer cells have elevated levels of IGF-II compared to normal colon tissues. It is thought that this is part of the mechanism driving uncontrolled cell division and cancer growth. Researchers from Korea showed that luteolin was able to block the secretion of IGF-II by colon cancer cells and within two hours decreased the amount of receptor (IGF-IR) precursor protein. Luteolin also reduced the amount of active receptor (measured by IGF-I dependent phosphorylation).

Luteolin inhibited the growth stimulatory effect of IGF-I and the team led by Prof Jung Han Yoon Park found that luteolin affected cell signaling pathways which are activated by IGF-I in cancer. Prof Jung Han Yoon Park explained, "Luteolin reduced IGF-I-dependent activation of the cell signaling pathways PI3K, Akt, and ERK1/2 and CDC25c. Blocking these pathways stops cancer cells from dividing and leads to cell death."

Prof Jung Park continued, "Our study, showing that luteolin interferes with cell signaling in colon cancer cells, is a step forward in understanding how this flavonoid works. A fuller understanding of the in vivo results is essential to determine how it might be developed into an effective chemopreventive agent."

Diets high in fiber MAY CAUSE, not protect against, diverticulosis

2012-01-23T13:07:00.000-08:00

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For more than 40 years, scientists and physicians have thought eating a high-fiber diet lowered a person's risk of diverticulosis, a disease of the large intestine in which pouches develop in the colon wall. A new study of more than 2,000 people reveals the opposite may be true.

The study, conducted by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine , found that consuming a diet high in fiber raised, rather than lowered, the risk of developing diverticulosis. The findings also counter the commonly-held belief that constipation increases a person's risk of the disease.

"Despite the significant morbidity and mortality of symptomatic diverticulosis, it looks like we may have been wrong, for decades, about why diverticula actually form," said Anne Peery, MD, a fellow in the gastroenterology and hepatology division at UNC and the study's lead researcher. The study appears in the February 2012 issue of the journal Gastroenterology.

"While it is too early to tell patients what to do differently, these results are exciting for researchers," said Peery. "Figuring out that we don't know something gives us the opportunity to look at disease processes in new ways."

Diverticulosis affects about one-third of adults over age 60 in the United States. Although most cases are asymptomatic, when complications develop they can be severe, resulting in infections, bleeding, intestinal perforations and even death. Health care associated with such complications costs an estimated $2.5 billion per year.

Since the late 1960s, doctors have recommended a high-fiber diet to regulate bowel movements and reduce the risk of diverticulosis. This recommendation is based on the idea that a low fiber diet will cause constipation and in turn generate diverticula as a result of increased pressure in the colon. However, few studies have been conducted to back up that assumption. "Our findings dispute commonly-held beliefs because asymptomatic diverticulosis has never been rigorously studied," said Peery.

The UNC study is based on data from 2,104 patients aged 30-80 years who underwent outpatient colonoscopy at UNC Hospitals from 1998-2010. Participants were interviewed about their diet, bowel movements and level of physical activity.

"We were surprised to find that a low-fiber diet was not associated with a higher prevalence of asymptomatic diverticulosis," said Peery. In fact, the study found those with the lowest fiber intake were 30 percent less likely to develop diverticula than those with the highest fiber intake.

The study also found constipation was not a risk factor and that having more frequent bowel movements actually increased a person's risk. Compared to those with fewer than seven bowel movements per week, individuals with more than 15 bowel movements per week were 70 percent more likely to develop diverticulosis.

The study found no association between diverticulosis and physical inactivity, intake of fat, or intake of red meat. The disease's causes remain unknown, but the researchers believe gut flora may play a role.

Peery said more research is needed before doctors change dietary recommendations, but the study offers valuable insights on diverticulosis risk factors. "At this time, we cannot predict who will develop a complication, but if we can better understand why asymptomatic diverticula form we can potentially reduce the population at risk for symptomatic disease," said Peery.

Increase Dietary Fiber, Decrease Disease

2012-01-20T05:42:00.001-08:00

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We should all be eating more dietary fiber to improve our health -- that's the message from a health review by scientists in India. The team has looked at research conducted into dietary fiber during the last few decades across the globe and now suggests that to avoid initial problems, such as intestinal gas and loose stool, it is best to increase intake gradually and to spread high-fiber foods out throughout the day, at meals and snacks. Writing in the International Journal of Food Safety, Nutrition and Public Health, the team offers fruit, vegetables, whole-grain foods, such as muesli and porridge, beans and pulses, as readily available foods rich in dietary fiber.

Dietary fiber, also known as roughage, is the general term of the non-digestible parts of the fruit and vegetable products we eat. There are two forms soluble and insoluble. Soluble (prebiotic, viscous) fiber that is readily broken down or fermented in the colon into physiologically active byproducts and gases. The second form is insoluble fiber, which is metabolically inert, but absorbs water as it passes through the digestive system, providing bulk for the intestinal muscles to work against and easing defecation.

Vikas Rana of the Rain Forest Research Institute, in Assam, India, and colleagues point out that research has shown that modern food habits have, it seems, led to an increase in the incidence of obesity, cardiovascular diseases, and type 2 diabetes. These are growing more common even in developing nations where a "western" diet of highly processed foods, high in sugars and saturated fats, beef and dairy products and low in dietary fiber is displacing more traditional options. The team suggests that evidence points to a loss of dietary fiber in the diet as being a major risk factor for health problems but one of the simplest to remedy without recourse to major changes in diet or the addition of supplements or so-called functional foods and nutraceuticals to the diet.

Given that dietary fiber has physiological actions such as reducing cholesterol and attenuating blood glucose, maintaining gastrointestinal health, and positively affecting calcium bioavailability and immune function, it is important for the current generation and future generations that this component of our diets be reasserted through education and information.

"Consuming adequate quantities of DF can lead to improvements in gastrointestinal health, and reduction in susceptibility to diseases such as diverticular disease, heart disease, colon cancer, and diabetes. Increased consumption has also been associated with increased satiety and weight loss," the team concludes. Given the ready availability particularly in the West and in the relatively richer parts of the developing world of vegetables, fruit and other foods high in dietary fiber it is a matter of recommending that people eat more dietary fiber rather than consistently taking the unhealthy low-fiber option throughout their lives.

Grapes may help prevent age-related blindness

2012-01-19T13:55:00.001-08:00

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Study shows grapes provided more antioxidant protection for eyes than lutein

Can eating grapes slow or help prevent the onset of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a debilitating condition affecting millions of elderly people worldwide? Results from a new study published in Free Radical Biology and Medicine suggest this might be the case. The antioxidant actions of grapes are believed to be responsible for these protective effects.

The study compared the impact of an antioxidant-rich diet on vision using mice prone to developing retinal damage in old age in much the same way as humans do. Mice either received a grape-enriched diet, a diet with added lutein, or a normal diet.

The result? Grapes proved to offer dramatic protection: the grape-enriched diet protected against oxidative damage of the retina and prevented blindness in those mice consuming grapes. While lutein was also effective, grapes were found to offer significantly more protection.

"The protective effect of the grapes in this study was remarkable, offering a benefit for vision at old age even if grapes were consumed only at young age," said principal investigator Silvia Finnemann, PhD, Department of Biological Sciences, Fordham University in New York.

Dr. Finnemann noted that results from her study suggest that age-related vision loss is a result of cumulative, oxidative damage over time. "A lifelong diet enriched in natural antioxidants, such as those in grapes, appears to be directly beneficial for RPE and retinal health and function."

Age-related macular degeneration is a progressive eye condition, leading to the deterioration of the center of the retina, called the macula. It is the leading cause of blindness in the elderly. Aging of the retina is associated with increased levels of oxidative damage, and oxidative stress is thought to play a pivotal role in the development of AMD.

In AMD, there is a known decline in the function of retinal pigment epithelium cells (RPE), which are the support cells for the photoreceptors in the retina that are critical to the process of converting light into sight. The RPE dysfunction is caused by 1) a build-up of metabolic waste products (known as lipofuscin) in the RPE itself and 2) an oxidation burden on the RPE that compromise important metabolic pathways. The resulting dysfunction, distress and often death of the RPE cells leads to AMD.

This study showed that adding grapes to the diet prevented blindness in mice by significantly decreasing the build-up of lipofuscin and preventing the oxidative damage to the RPE, thus ensuring optimal functioning of this critical part of the retina.

"Preserving eye health is a key concern as we age and this study shows that grapes may play a critical role in achieving this," said Kathleen Nave, president of the California Table Grape Commission. "This is good news for consumers of all ages who enjoy grapes, and adds to the growing body of evidence that grapes offer an array of health benefits."

Exercise reduces anxiety symptoms in women

2012-01-19T13:06:00.000-08:00

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Approximately 3 percent of the U.S. population suffers from excessive, uncontrollable worry that reduces their health and quality of life. The condition, known as Generalized Anxiety Disorder, is difficult to overcome and is accompanied by a host of physical symptoms, including fatigue, muscle tension, irritability and poor sleep. However, a new University of Georgia study shows that regular exercise can significantly reduce anxiety symptoms in patients with GAD.

In a study published online in the Nov. 22 edition of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, researchers randomly assigned 30 sedentary women, ages 18-37 who were diagnosed with GAD, to either a control group or six weeks of strength or aerobic exercise training. Women in the exercise conditions completed two weekly sessions of either weight lifting or leg cycling exercise. Remission of the disorder, determined by psychologists who were unaware of the treatment each client received, was higher among exercisers and best among those who performed weight lifting exercise. Worry symptoms, the primary problem among individuals with GAD, were significantly reduced among the exercisers, and moderate-to-large improvements in other symptoms, such as irritability, feelings of tension, low energy and pain, were found.

Matthew Herring, now a research associate in the department of epidemiology at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, led the study during his dissertation research as a doctoral student in the UGA College of Education's department of kinesiology. The team also included Patrick O'Connor and Rodney Dishman, co-directors of the UGA exercise psychology laboratory, psychology professor Cynthia Suveg and doctoral student Marni Jacob.

"Our findings add to the growing body of evidence of the positive effects of exercise training on anxiety," said Herring. "Our study is the first randomized controlled trial focused on the effects of exercise training among individuals diagnosed with GAD. Given the prevalence of GAD and drawbacks of current treatments, including expense and potential negative side effects, our findings are particularly exciting, because they suggest that exercise training is a feasible, well-tolerated potential adjuvant therapy with low risk that can reduce the severity of signs and symptoms of GAD. Future research should confirm these findings with large trials and explore potential underlying mechanisms of exercise effects among individuals with GAD."

The study also examined potential interactions between exercise and drugs used to treat GAD. Half of the participants in each group were taking a medication to treat GAD during the exercise program. Exercise training lessened anxiety symptoms to the same degree among those taking medication compared to those not taking medication.

"The large improvements found in this small investigation show that regular exercise has the power to help calm women suffering from GAD, even among those who appear to be resistant to treatment using medication," said O'Connor.

"The results of this research are very exciting because exercise is available to everyone, is relatively inexpensive and has beneficial effects beyond the reduction of anxious and depressive symptoms," said Suveg. "For individuals suffering from impairing symptoms, these preliminary findings suggest that exercise may offer another potential treatment option that has few, if any, negative side effects. Future research needs to explore the long-term benefits of exercise as well as the conditions under which exercise may be most beneficial and for whom."

Enhancing cognition in older adults also changes personality

2012-01-18T12:44:00.001-08:00

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A program designed to boost cognition in older adults also increased their openness to new experiences, researchers report, demonstrating for the first time that a non-drug intervention in older adults can change a personality trait once thought to be fixed throughout the lifespan.

Personality psychologists describe openness as one of five major personality traits. Studies suggest that the other four traits (agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and extraversion) operate independently of a person's cognitive abilities. But openness – being flexible and creative, embracing new ideas and taking on challenging intellectual or cultural pursuits – does appear to be correlated with cognitive abilities.

The new study, published in the journal Psychology and Aging, gave older adults a series of pattern-recognition and problem-solving tasks and puzzles that they could perform at home. Participants ranged in age from 60 to 94 years and worked at their own pace, getting more challenging tasks each week when they came to the lab to return materials.

"We wanted participants to feel challenged but not overwhelmed," said University of Illinois educational psychology and Beckman Institute professor Elizabeth Stine-Morrow, who led the research. "While we didn't explicitly test this, we suspect that the training program – adapted in difficulty in sync with skill development – was important in leading to increased openness. Growing confidence in their reasoning abilities possibly enabled greater enjoyment of intellectually challenging and creative endeavors."

Researchers tested the cognitive abilities and personality traits of 183 older adults, randomly assigned to either an experimental group who participated in a cognitive intervention or a control group who did not. They were tested a few weeks before the intervention and afterwards.

At the end of the program, those who had engaged in the training and practice sessions saw improvement in their pattern-recognition and problem-solving skills, while those in the control group did not. And those who improved in these inductive reasoning skills also demonstrated a moderate but significant increase in openness.

This study challenges the assumption that personality doesn't change once one reaches adulthood, said Illinois psychology professor and study co-author Brent Roberts.

"There are certain models that say, functionally, personality doesn't change after age 20 or age 30. You reach adulthood and pretty much you are who you are," he said. "There's some truth to that at some level. But here you have a study that has successfully changed personality traits in a set of individuals who are (on average) 75. And that opens up a whole bunch of wonderful issues to think about."

Vitamin D could help combat the effects of aging in eyes

2012-01-17T14:19:00.001-08:00

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Researchers funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) have found that vitamin D reduces the effects of ageing in mouse eyes and improves the vision of older mice significantly. The researchers hope that this might mean that vitamin D supplements could provide a simple and effective way to combat age-related eye diseases, such as macular degeneration (AMD), in people.

The research was carried out by a team from the Institute of Ophthalmology at University College London and is published in the current issue of the journal Neurobiology of Ageing.

Professor Glen Jeffery, who led the work, explains "In the back of the eyes of mammals, like mice and humans, is a layer of tissue called the retina. Cells in the retina detect light as it comes into the eyes and then send messages to the brain, which is how we see. This is a demanding job, and the retina actually requires proportionally more energy than any other tissue in the body, so it has to have a good supply of blood. However, with ageing the high energy demand produces debris and there is progressive inflammation even in normal animals. In humans this can result in a decline of up to 30% in the numbers of light receptive cells in the eye by the time we are 70 and so lead to poorer vision."

The researchers found that when old mice were given vitamin D for just six weeks, inflammation was reduced, the debris partially removed, and tests showed that their vision was improved.

The researchers identified two changes taking place in the eyes of the mice that they think accounted for this improvement. Firstly, the number of potentially damaging cells, called macrophages, were reduced considerably in the eyes of the mice given vitamin D. Macrophages are an important component of our immune systems where they work to fight off infections. However in combating threats to the aged body they can sometimes bring about damage and inflammation. Giving mice vitamin D not only led to reduced numbers of macrophages in the eye, but also triggered the remaining macrophages to change to a different configuration. Rather than damaging the eye the researchers think that in their new configuration macrophages actively worked to reduce inflammation and clear up debris.

The second change the researchers saw in the eyes of mice given vitamin D was a reduction in deposits of a toxic molecule called amyloid beta that accumulates with age. Inflammation and the accumulation of amyloid beta are known to contribute, in humans, to an increased risk of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the largest cause of blindness in people over 50 in the developed world. The researchers think that, based on their findings in mice, giving vitamin D supplements to people who are at risk of AMD might be a simple way of helping to prevent the disease.

Professor Jeffery said "When we gave older mice the vitamin D we found that deposits of amyloid beta were reduced in their eyes and the mice showed an associated improvement of vision. People might have heard of amyloid beta as being linked to Alzheimer's disease and new evidence suggests that vitamin D could have a role in reducing its build up in the brain. So, when we saw this effect in the eyes as well, we immediately wondered where else these deposits might be being reduced."

Professor Jeffery and his team then went on to study some of the blood vessels of their mice. They found that the mice that had been given the vitamin D supplement also had significantly less amyloid beta built up in their blood vessels, including in the aorta.

Professor Jeffery continues "Finding that amyloid deposits were reduced in the blood vessels of mice that had been given vitamin D supplements suggests that vitamin D could be useful in helping to prevent a range of age-related health problems, from deteriorating vision to heart disease."

Professor Jeffery thinks that this link between vitamin D and a range of age-related diseases might be linked to our evolutionary history. For much of human history our ancestors lived in Africa, probably without clothes, and so were exposed to strong sunlight all year round. This would have triggered vitamin D production in the skin. Humans have only moved to less sunny parts of the world and adopted clothing relatively recently and so might not be well adapted to reduced exposure to the sun. Secondly, life expectancy in the developed world has increased greatly over the past few centuries, so reduced exposure to vitamin D is now coupled with exceptionally long lifespan.

Professor Jeffery said "Researchers need to run full clinical trials in humans before we can say confidently that older people should start taking vitamin D supplements, but there is growing evidence that many of us in the Western world are deficient in vitamin D and this could be having significant health implications."

Professor Douglas Kell, BBSRC Chief Executive said "Many people are living to an unprecedented old age in the developed world. All too often though, a long life does not mean a healthy one and the lives of many older people are blighted by ill health as parts of their bodies start to malfunction.

"If we are to have any hope of ensuring that more people can enjoy a healthy, productive retirement then we must learn more about the changes that take place as animals age. This research shows how close study of one part of the body can lead scientists to discover new knowledge that is more widely applicable. By studying the fundamental biology of one organ scientists can begin to draw links between a number of diseases in the hope of developing preventive strategies."

Virtual reality-enhanced exercise = +cognitive benefit for older adults

2012-01-17T14:07:00.000-08:00

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Virtual reality-enhanced exercise, or "exergames," combining physical exercise with computer-simulated environments and interactive videogame features, can yield a greater cognitive benefit for older adults than traditional exercise alone, according to a new study published in the February issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

"We found that for older adults, virtual-reality enhanced interactive exercise, or 'cybercycling' two to three times per week for 3 months, yielded greater cognitive benefit, and perhaps added protection against mild cognitive impairment (MCI), than a similar dose of traditional exercise," explains lead investigator Cay Anderson-Hanley, PhD, from the Healthy Aging and Neuropsychology Lab and Department of Psychology at Union College, Schenectady, NY.

Research shows that exercise may prevent or delay dementia and improve cognitive functioning in normal aging. However, only 14% of adults aged 65-74 years old, and only 7% of those over 75 report regular exercise. Exergames have the potential to increase exercise by shifting attention from aversive aspects toward motivating features such as competition and three-dimensional scenery, leading to greater frequency and intensity, and enhanced health outcomes.

The Cybercycle Study enrolled 101 volunteers, ranging in age from 58 to 99 years, from independent living facilities with indoor access to an exercise bike. 79 participants completed initial evaluations and training, and rode identical recumbent stationary bikes, except the experimental bike was equipped with a virtual reality display. Cybercycle participants experienced 3D tours and raced against a "ghost rider," an avatar based on their last best ride. 63 adults completed the study, averaging three rides per week. Cognitive assessment to evaluate executive functions such as planning, working memory, attention, and problem solving was conducted at enrollment, 1 month later (pre-intervention) and 3 months after (post-intervention). Blood plasma was tested to measure whether a change in brain-derived neurotrophic growth factor (BDNF) indicated possible neuroplasticity, a mechanism of change that could link exercise to cognition.

The cybercycle riders had significantly better executive function than those who rode a traditional stationary bike, and cybercyclists experienced a 23% reduction in progression to MCI compared to traditional exercisers. Co-principal investigator on the project, Paul Arciero, PhD, professor of health and exercise sciences at Skidmore College, comments, "No difference in exercise frequency, intensity, or duration was found between the two groups, indicating that factors other than effort and fitness were responsible for the cognitive benefit."

"Navigating a 3D landscape, anticipating turns, and competing with others require additional focus, expanded divided attention, and enhanced decision making. These activities depend in part on executive function, which was significantly affected," notes Dr. Anderson-Hanley.

The study also found a significantly greater increase of BDNF in cybercyclists than in traditional riders, suggesting that interactive/combined mental and physical exercise may lead to cognitive benefits by way of biomarkers linked to neurotrophic effects.

"Further research will be needed to tease apart the contributions of a variety of factors in the cybercycling condition," says Dr. Anderson-Hanley. "Consistency across conditions for goal setting and competition suggests virtual reality imagery and interactive decision-making might be potent factors of the cybercycle." Exit interviews provided anecdotal evidence of the value of these unique features. Participants commented on their enjoyment of visual stimulation and the challenge of outpacing avatars.

"The implication of our study is that older adults who choose exergaming with interactive physical and cognitive exercise over traditional exercise may garner added cognitive benefit, and perhaps prevent decline, all for the same exercise effort," concludes Dr. Anderson-Hanley.

Alcohol & polyphenols in red wine both fight cardiovascular disease

2012-01-17T13:28:00.001-08:00

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Observational epidemiologic studies relating wine and alcohol to health all suffer from the fact that they, of necessity, compare people who prefer certain beverages, but not the beverages themselves. While there have been many intervention trials in animals, randomized trials in humans are less common. Randomized crossover trials, in which each subject receives all interventions in sequence, can be especially important as they tend to avoid baseline differences among subjects and can detect effects of different interventions with smaller numbers of subjects.

This study by Chiva-Blanch G et al, just published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, included 67 male volunteers in Spain who were considered to be at "high-risk" of cardiovascular disease on the basis of increased BMI, smoking, diabetes, hypertension, or other risk factors. About one half of the individuals were taking ACE inhibitors, statins, aspirin, and/or oral hypoglycemic drugs, so the results of this study may be especially relevant for patients in the real world.

The subjects agreed to not consume any alcohol for a baseline period, then for three one-month periods consumed 30 g/day of alcohol as red wine or as gin, or an equivalent amount of phenolics from dealcoholized red wine. The polyphenol contents of the RW and the DRW interventions were the same. A very high degree of compliance of the subjects with the assigned interventions is evidenced by results of counting numbers of empty bottles of the intervention beverage returned, dietary records, urinary metabolites, etc. Further, there is good evidence that there were no important changes between periods in diet or exercise habits. The effects of each intervention on a large number of adhesion molecules and chemokines that affect inflammation and relate to the development of vascular disease were evaluated.

The key results of the study were that both ethanol and nonalcoholic compounds in red wine have potentially protective effects that may reduce the risk of vascular disease. Specifically, the authors conclude that "the phenolic content of red wine may modulate leukocyte adhesion molecules, whereas both ethanol and polyphenols of red wine may modulate soluble inflammatory mediators in patients at high risk of cardiovascular disease."

Specific comments on the study: Most reviewers considered this to be a well-done, comprehensive study. As one reviewer commented: "This is an excellent paper. The results strongly indicate an effect of wine polyphenols on inflammation (in broad and modern terms) and this is just what we expect from the biochemistry and nutritional effects of fruits and vegetables. The effect of ethanol, on the other hand, likely fits a hormetic mechanism, where low doses regularly supplied are protective while high doses in a single shot are worsening the progression of disease." Another reviewer added: "We need more information on separating the effects of beer, wine, and various types of spirits. Some spirits like brandy and whisky can have useful antioxidant effects, so distinguishing effects among different types of beverages may be informative."

Another Forum reviewer commented: "This is a very interesting paper that goes a way towards answering the question whether it is the alcohol or polyphenols in red wine that confer the health benefits. The trial was well conducted and controlled, with very detailed analyses. It would have been interesting to analyse any changes in conventional risk factors after the interventions. It would also have been interesting in the study to determine the effects on vascular function by, for example, brachial artery activity (flow mediated dilatation)."

Given that the effects of both alcohol and polyphenols on physiologic factors (e.g., platelet function, fibrinolysis) are transient, generally lasting for no more than 24 hours, it was appropriate that the subjects in this study were instructed to consume the intervention substance (RW, gin, DRW) on a daily basis. When drinking is moderate, there is no evidence that having "alcohol-free days" is beneficial to health. Indeed, most epidemiologic studies show better health effects from daily consumption rather than from drinking on a few days per week.

Concerns about the present study: One Forum reviewer stated: "This appears to be a carefully designed and well executed study, but I have four concerns: (1) The study has been undertaken in high-risk individuals, more than half of whom are hypertensive, a quarter dyslipidaemic, and a quarter diabetic. It is not described what happened to the conventional risk factors during the interventions. (For example, any improvement in inflammatory markers may have come at the cost of higher blood pressure with the alcohol interventions.) (2) Was there any weight change that could have confounded any of the outcomes? (3) Both polyphenol and alcohol biomarkers were measured – did the change in these biomarkers correlate with the changes in any of the inflammatory markers; i.e., any suggestion of a dose response relationship? (4) Even though at least 30 outcome variables were assessed, the authors do not describe any correction for multiple comparisons."

Another Forum reviewer: "This is a well conducted study, and adds to our understanding of the potential cardiovascular benefits of alcohol and the non-alcoholic compounds of alcoholic beverages. However, in this study more than one-half of the high-risk subjects consumed drugs with known anti-inflammatory effects, which could be a confounding factor. The anti-inflammatory effects of these pharmaceuticals may be responsible for the beneficial results, and may not be related to the RW, DRW and gin interventions." However, others think that this concern is unlikely to be important since this was a crossover study, and there were no changes in lifestyle or medication use between the intervention periods.

The key results of the study were that both ethanol and nonalcoholic compounds in red wine have potentially protective effects that may reduce the risk of vascular disease. Specifically, the authors conclude that "the phenolic content of red wine may modulate leukocyte adhesion molecules, whereas both ethanol and polyphenols of red wine may modulate soluble inflammatory mediators in patients at high risk of cardiovascular disease." Thus, this study provides important new mechanistic evidence that the reduced risk of cardiovascular disease among red wine drinkers observed in most epidemiologic studies may result from a combination of both the alcohol and the polyphenols in the wine.

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Office Workers Spend Too Much Time at Their Desks

2012-01-16T05:53:00.000-08:00

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Prolonged sitting at your desk is not only bad for your physical health, but potentially your mental well-being

These are some of the key findings of research being presented the 13th of January, by Dr Myanna Duncan, Mr. Aadil Kazi and Professor Cheryl Haslam from the Work & Health Research Centre, Loughborough University, to delegates at the British Psychological Society's Annual Occupational Conference, at the Crowne Plaza, Chester.

Nearly 70% of employees surveyed did not meet recommended guidelines for physical activity; interestingly 50% of people surveyed aged 50 years and under, failed to meet these guidelines.

The findings also showed:

* That those who sit for longer at work are more likely to sit outside of work.
* A correlation between BMI scores and sitting time at work, as one would expect
* That more time spent sitting at work was associated with a decrease in mental well-being.

The findings were a subset of a larger study looking at employee's experiences of Occupational Health provision, over an 18 month period during 2009-2011. The psychologists conducted an on-line and paper based survey with over 1000 employees measuring employee's use and experiences of occupational health services and their physical activity levels.

Specific measures included Lifestyle and physical activity, Domain Specific Sitting Time Questionnaire, Work Ability Index, General Health Questionnaire and Job Attitudes (job satisfaction, organisational commitment, job motivation, intention to quit). Interviews and focus groups with Occupational Health professionals were also conducted.

In the UK, as elsewhere in Europe, there are now twice as many workers aged 50 and over as there are aged 25 or younger. Health, work and well-being have been identified by Dame Carol Black as a key Government priority in order to maintain the health of all workers across their lifespan so as they are able to continue working healthily and productively into their 70s.

Dr Duncan says "People don't need a psychologist to tell them to get up and walk around. But if it helps, I'd tell them to put a post-it note on their computer to remind them. Anyway go and talk to your colleagues face to face, it's a lot more sociable and better for you than emailing them."

Red & processed meat consumption = increased pancreatic cancer risk.

2012-01-13T16:30:00.000-08:00

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Pancreatic cancer is one of the most fatal types of cancer, with a 5-year relative survival of about 5.5% (Howlader et al, 2010). Thus, identification of risk factors for this cancer is of great public health importance. Dietary factors could conceivably influence the risk of developing pancreatic cancer, although no dietary factor has been convincingly associated with pancreatic cancer risk (2007). High consumption of red meat and/or processed meat has been associated with increased risk of some gastrointestinal cancers, such as colorectal (Larsson and Wolk, 2006; Chan et al, 2011) and stomach cancer (Larsson et al, 2006b).

Whether red and processed meat consumption is a risk factor also for pancreatic cancer remains unclear. The authors of this report therefore conducted a dose–response meta-analysis of prospective studies to examine the associations of red and processed meat consumption with pancreatic cancer risk.

Their Conclusion:

Findings from this meta-analysis indicate that processed meat consumption is positively associated with pancreatic cancer risk. Red meat consumption was associated with an increased risk of pancreatic cancer in men.

Chlorophyll in green vegetables can prevent cancer

2012-01-12T14:18:00.001-08:00

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A recent study at Oregon State University found that the chlorophyll in green vegetables offers protection against cancer when tested against the modest carcinogen exposure levels most likely to be found in the environment.

The findings, published in the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology, were done using 12,360 rainbow trout as laboratory models, instead of more common laboratory mice. Rodent studies are much more expensive, forcing the use of fewer specimens and higher carcinogen exposures.

“There’s considerable evidence in epidemiologic and other clinical studies with humans that chlorophyll and its derivative, chlorophyllin, can protect against cancer,” said Tammie McQuistan, a research assistant working with George Bailey, a professor emeritus in the Linus Pauling Institute at OSU.

The trout were exposed to fairly moderate levels of a known carcinogen, but also given chlorophyll. This reduced their number of liver tumors by 29-64 percent, and stomach tumors by 24-45 percent.

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Dispelling the low-fat-is-healthy myth

2012-01-12T14:16:00.000-08:00

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Dozens of studies, many from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers, have shown that low-fat diets are no better for health than moderate- or high-fat diets—and for many people, may be worse.

To combat this "low fat is best" myth, nutrition experts at HSPH and chefs and registered dietitians at The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) have developed five new muffin recipes that incorporate healthy fats and whole grains, and use a lighter hand on the salt and sugar. Their goal? To "make over" the ubiquitous low-fat muffin, touted as a "better-for-you" choice when in fact low-fat muffins often have reduced amounts of heart-healthy fats, such as liquid plant oils, but boast plenty of harmful carbohydrates in the form of white flour and sugar.

Other low-fat processed foods are not much better, and are often higher in sugar, carbohydrates, or salt than their full-fat counterparts. For good health, type of fat matters more than amount. Diets high in heavily processed carbohydrates can lead to weight gain and an increased risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

"It's time to end the low-fat myth," said Walter Willett, professor of epidemiology and nutrition and chair of the Department of Nutrition at HSPH. "Unfortunately, many well-motivated people have been led to believe that all fats are bad and that foods loaded with white flour and sugar are healthy choices. This has clearly contributed to the epidemic of diabetes we are experiencing and premature death for many. The lesson contained in these healthy muffins—that foods can be both tasty and good for you—can literally be life-saving."

A regular blueberry muffin from a national coffee shop chain has 450 calories on average and most of those calories come from carbohydrates, primarily white flour and sugar. However, now that national chains have eliminated trans fats, a regular muffin does have heart-healthy fat, usually from soybean or canola oil. A low-fat muffin has about the same amount of calories, but contains more carbohydrates and sugar—and about 60% more sodium (700 milligrams)—than a regular muffin.

The new Blueberry Muffin recipe offered by HSPH and the CIA is less than half the size of a coffee shop muffin and contains just 130 calories. It is made with a mixture of whole wheat, white, and almond flour and uses canola oil, a healthy fat. (See "Blueberry Muffin Battle" for a nutritional comparison of the three types of blueberry muffins: www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/blueberry-muffin-battle/index.html)

"There are so many ingredients available to home bakers who want to offer their families healthful, flavorful baked goods," says Richard Coppedge, Jr., chef-instructor at the CIA and a Certified Master Baker. "These five recipes not only include a wide variety of whole grain and nut flours; they also demonstrate how more unusual ingredients like canned chickpeas and extra virgin olive oil can be used in baking."

The CIA and HSPH offer a dozen healthy baking tips that professional chefs and home cooks can use to build a healthier muffin. Here are a few of their tips:

- Downsize the portions. The mega-muffins popular in bake shops are two to three times the size of the muffins your grandmother might have baked.

- Go whole on the grains. It's easy to substitute whole wheat flour for 50% of the white flour in recipes without harming taste or texture. And with a few recipe alterations, delicious muffins can be made with 100% whole grains. See the Lemon Chickpea Breakfast Muffin and the Whole Wheat Banana Nut Muffin recipes as examples.

- Slash the sugar. You can cut 25% of the sugar from most standard muffin recipes without any negative impact on flavor or texture, and in some recipes, cut back even more.

- Pour on the oil. Liquid plant oils—canola, extra virgin olive oil, corn, sunflower, and others—help keep whole-grain muffins moist and are a healthier choice than melted butter or shortening.

- Bring out the nuts. For extra protein and an additional source of healthy fats, add chopped nuts.

- Scale back the salt. The best way to reduce salt is to make a smaller muffin and to pair muffins with foods, such as vegetables and fruits, that are sodium-free.
Pump up the produce—and flavor! Fresh whole fruit and unsweetened dried fruit naturally contain sugar, but unlike other sweeteners, they also contain fiber and important nutrients. Using fruit in your muffins means you can have a lighter hand on the added sugar. Cooked or raw vegetables, such as caramelized onions, sliced jalapeños, and chives and other fresh herbs—together with a whole range of spices—can add interesting textures and savory flavors to muffins.

The muffin recipes and photos, baking tips, a Q & A on why it's time to end the low-fat myth, and a handy chart showing how to find foods with healthy fats are all available on The Nutrition Source, a nutrition website from the Harvard School of Public Health: www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/muffin-makeover/index.html

Increase dietary fiber, decrease disease

2012-01-11T12:09:00.001-08:00

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Review confirms benefits of more roughage in the diet

We should all be eating more dietary fiber to improve our health - that's the message from a health review by scientists in India. The team has looked at research conducted into dietary fiber during the last few decades across the globe and now suggests that to avoid initial problems, such as intestinal gas and loose stool, it is best to increase intake gradually and to spread high-fiber foods out throughout the day, at meals and snacks. Writing in the International Journal of Food Safety, Nutrition and Public Health, the team offers fruit, vegetables, whole-grain foods, such as muesli and porridge, beans and pulses, as readily available foods rich in dietary fiber.

Dietary fiber, also known as roughage, is the general term of the non-digestible parts of the fruit and vegetable products we eat. There are two forms soluble and insoluble. Soluble (prebiotic, viscous) fiber that is readily broken down or fermented in the colon into physiologically active byproducts and gases. The second form is insoluble fiber, which is metabolically inert, but absorbs water as it passes through the digestive system, providing bulk for the intestinal muscles to work against and easing defecation.

Vikas Rana of the Rain Forest Research Institute, in Assam, India, and colleagues point out that research has shown that modern food habits have, it seems, led to an increase in the incidence of obesity, cardiovascular diseases, and type 2 diabetes. These are growing more common even in developing nations where a "western" diet of highly processed foods, high in sugars and saturated fats, beef and dairy products and low in dietary fiber is displacing more traditional options. The team suggests that evidence points to a loss of dietary fiber in the diet as being a major risk factor for health problems but one of the simplest to remedy without recourse to major changes in diet or the addition of supplements or so-called functional foods and nutraceuticals to the diet.

Given that dietary fiber has physiological actions such as reducing cholesterol and attenuating blood glucose, maintaining gastrointestinal health, and positively affecting calcium bioavailability and immune function, it is important for the current generation and future generations that this component of our diets be reasserted through education and information.

"Consuming adequate quantities of DF can lead to improvements in gastrointestinal health, and reduction in susceptibility to diseases such as diverticular disease, heart disease, colon cancer, and diabetes. Increased consumption has also been associated with increased satiety and weight loss," the team concludes. Given the ready availability particularly in the West and in the relatively richer parts of the developing world of vegetables, fruit and other foods high in dietary fiber it is a matter of recommending that people eat more dietary fiber rather than consistently taking the unhealthy low-fiber option throughout their lives.

Omega-3 fatty acids could prevent and treat nerve damage

2012-01-11T12:08:00.001-08:00

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Research from Queen Mary, University of London suggests that omega-3 fatty acids, which are found in fish oil, have the potential to protect nerves from injury and help them to regenerate.

When nerves are damaged because of an accident or injury, patients experience pain, weakness and muscle paralysis which can leave them disabled, and recovery rates are poor.

The new study, published this week in the Journal of Neuroscience*, suggests that omega-3 fatty acids could play a significant role in speeding recovery from nerve injury.

The study focused on peripheral nerve cells. Peripheral nerves are the nerves which transmit signals between the brain and spinal cord, and the rest of the body.

These nerves have the ability to regenerate but, despite advances in surgical techniques, patients usually only have good recovery when their injury is minor.

Omega-3 fatty acids are vital for the body's normal growth and development and have been widely researched for their health benefits. Because the body cannot manufacture omega-3 fatty acids, they have to be consumed in foods such as oily fish.

In the new study, researchers first looked at isolated mouse nerve cells. They simulated the type of damage caused by accident or injury, by either stretching the cells or starving them of oxygen. Both types of damage killed a significant number of nerve cells but enrichment with omega-3 fatty acids in cells gave them significant protection and decreased cell death.

Next the researchers studied the sciatic nerves of mice. They found that a high level of omega-3 fatty acids helped mice to recover from sciatic nerve injury more quickly and more fully, and that their muscles were less likely to waste following nerve damage.

The research was carried out by a group led by Adina Michael-Titus, Professor of Neuroscience at Barts and The London Medical School and lead of the Neurotrauma and Neurodegeneration group in the Centre for Neuroscience and Trauma, Queen Mary, University of London.

She explained: "Our previous research has shown that these fatty acids could have beneficial effects in a number of neurological conditions. This new study suggests that they could also have a role in treating peripheral nerve injuries.

"More work is needed but our research indicates that omega-3 fatty acids can protect damaged nerve cells, which is a critical first step in a successful neurological recovery."

Why coffee drinking reduces the risk of Type 2 diabetes

2012-01-11T12:00:00.001-08:00

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Why do heavy coffee drinkers have a lower risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, a disease on the increase around the world that can lead to serious health problems? Scientists are offering a new solution to that long-standing mystery in a report in ACS' Journal of Agricultural & Food Chemistry.

Ling Zheng, Kun Huang and colleagues explain that previous studies show that coffee drinkers are at a lower risk for developing Type 2 diabetes, which accounts for 90-95 percent of diabetes cases in the world. Those studies show that people who drink four or more cups of coffee daily have a 50 percent lower risk of Type 2 diabetes. And every additional cup of coffee brings another decrease in risk of almost 7 percent. Scientists have implicated the misfolding of a substance called human islet amyloid polypeptide (hIAPP) in causing Type 2 diabetes, and some are seeking ways to block that process. Zheng and Huang decided to see if coffee's beneficial effects might be due to substances that block hIAPP.

Indeed, they identified two categories of compounds in coffee that significantly inhibited hIAPP. They suggest that this effect explains why coffee drinkers show a lower risk for developing diabetes. "A beneficial effect may thus be expected for a regular coffee drinker," the researchers conclude.

Moderate red wine drinking may help cut women's breast cancer risk

2012-01-06T12:41:00.001-08:00

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Drinking red wine in moderation may reduce one of the risk factors for breast cancer, providing a natural weapon to combat a major cause of death among U.S. women, new research from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center shows.

The study, published online in the Journal of Women's Health, challenges the widely-held belief that all types of alcohol consumption heighten the risk of developing breast cancer. Doctors long have determined that alcohol increases the body's estrogen levels, fostering the growth of cancer cells.

But the Cedars-Sinai study found that chemicals in the skins and seeds of red grapes slightly lowered estrogen levels while elevating testosterone among premenopausal women who drank eight ounces of red wine nightly for about a month.

White wine lacked the same effect.

Researchers called their findings encouraging, saying women who occasionally drink alcohol might want to reassess their choices.

"If you were to have a glass of wine with dinner, you may want to consider a glass of red," said Chrisandra Shufelt, MD, assistant director of the Women's Heart Center at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute and one of the study's co-authors. "Switching may shift your risk."

Shufelt noted that breast cancer is the leading type of women's cancer in the U.S., accounting for more than 230,000 new cases last year, or 30 percent of all female cancer diagnoses. An estimated 39,000 women died from the disease in 2011, according to the American Cancer Society.

In the Cedars-Sinai study, 36 women were randomized to drink either Cabernet Sauvignon or Chardonnay daily for almost a month, then switched to the other type of wine. Blood was collected twice each month to measure hormone levels.

Researchers sought to determine whether red wine mimics the effects of aromatase inhibitors, which play a key role in managing estrogen levels. Aromatase inhibitors are currently used to treat breast cancer.

Investigators said the change in hormone patterns suggested that red wine may stem the growth of cancer cells, as has been shown in test tube studies.

Co-author Glenn D. Braunstein, MD, said the results do not mean that white wine increases the risk of breast cancer but that grapes used in those varieties may lack the same protective elements found in reds.

"There are chemicals in red grape skin and red grape seeds that are not found in white grapes that may decrease breast cancer risk," said Braunstein, vice president for Clinical Innovation and the James R. Klinenberg, MD, Chair in Medicine.

COUCH POTATO OR ATHLETE? A HAPPY MEDIUM KEEPS COLDS AT BAY!

2012-01-05T13:47:00.001-08:00

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Battling colds and doing (or pledging to do) more exercise are familiar activities for most of us in January. But different levels of exercise can actually significantly increase or decrease your chances of catching a respiratory infection, says Professor Mike Gleeson from Loughborough University.

While regular moderate exercise can reduce the risk of catching cold-like infections, prolonged strenuous exercise, such as marathons, can make an individual more susceptible. This is a topical area of research in the year of the Olympics, says Professor Gleeson talking at the Association for Science Education (ASE) Conference on Friday, on behalf of the Society for General Microbiology and the British Society for Immunology.

Upper- respiratory tract infections (URTIs) are acute infections that affect the nose, throat and sinuses, and include the common cold, tonsillitis, sinusitis and flu. Viruses that circulate in the environment usually cause URTIs. While we are constantly exposed to these viruses, it is the status of our immune system that determines whether we succumb to infection or not. Exercise can have both a positive and negative effect on immune function, combined with genetics and other external factors like stress, poor nutrition and lack of sleep. Collectively these factors determine an individual’s susceptibility to infection.

Professor Gleeson explains why the exercise factor is an interesting one. “If you have a tendency to be a couch potato then you probably have an average risk of catching an infection – typically 2-3 URTIs per year. Research shows that those undertaking regular moderate exercise (e.g. a daily brisk walk), can reduce their chance of catching a respiratory infection, such as a cold, by up to almost a third.” This effect has been shown to be the result of the cumulative effect of exercise leading to long-term improvement in immunity. “Conversely, in periods following prolonged strenuous exercise, the likelihood of an individual becoming ill actually increases. In the weeks following a marathon, studies have reported a 2-6 fold increase in the risk of developing an upper respiratory infection,” said Professor Gleeson. “The heavy training loads of endurance athletes make them more susceptible to URTIs and this is an issue for them as infections can mean missing training sessions or underperforming in competitions.”

The major players in this immune regulation are immune cells called Natural Killer (NK) cells which are important weapons in the fight against viral infections. NK cells recognise viral-infected cells as foreign invaders and force them to commit suicide.” During moderate exercise the activity of NK cells is enhanced, whereas stressful endurance activities such as marathons can turn down NK cell activity. These changes are tightly regulated by stress hormones and other immune cells,” explained Professor Gleeson.

There is a clear take-home message from our current understanding of the link between exercise and immune function. “Moderate exercise has a positive effect on the immune system. So to keep colds at bay, a brisk daily walk should help - it’s all about finding a happy medium,” said Professor Gleeson.

Low vitamin D levels linked to depression,

2012-01-05T13:45:00.001-08:00

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Low levels of vitamin D have been linked to depression, according to UT Southwestern Medical Center psychiatrists working with the Cooper Center Longitudinal Study. It is believed to be the largest such investigation ever undertaken.

Low levels of vitamin D already are associated with a cavalcade of health woes from cardiovascular diseases to neurological ailments. This new study – published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings – helps clarify a debate that erupted after smaller studies produced conflicting results about the relationship between vitamin D and depression. Major depressive disorder affects nearly one in 10 adults in the U.S.

"Our findings suggest that screening for vitamin D levels in depressed patients – and perhaps screening for depression in people with low vitamin D levels – might be useful," said Dr. E. Sherwood Brown, professor of psychiatry and senior author of the study, done in conjunction with The Cooper Institute in Dallas. "But we don't have enough information yet to recommend going out and taking supplements."

UT Southwestern researchers examined the results of almost 12,600 participants from late 2006 to late 2010. Dr. Brown and colleagues from The Cooper Institute found that higher vitamin D levels were associated with a significantly decreased risk of current depression, particularly among people with a prior history of depression. Low vitamin D levels were associated with depressive symptoms, particularly those with a history of depression, so primary care patients with a history of depression may be an important target for assessing vitamin D levels. The study did not address whether increasing vitamin D levels reduced depressive symptoms.

The scientists have not determined the exact relationship – whether low vitamin D contributes to symptoms of depression, whether depression itself contributes to lower vitamin D levels, or chemically how that happens. But vitamin D may affect neurotransmitters, inflammatory markers and other factors, which could help explain the relationship with depression, said Dr. Brown, who leads the psychoneuroendocrine research program at UT Southwestern.

Vitamin D levels are now commonly tested during routine physical exams, and they already are accepted as risk factors for a number of other medical problems: autoimmune diseases; heart and vascular disease; infectious diseases; osteoporosis; obesity; diabetes; certain cancers; and neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, multiple sclerosis, and general cognitive decline.

Investigators used information gathered by the institute, which has 40 years of data on runners and other fit volunteers. UT Southwestern has a partnership with the institute, a preventive medicine research and educational nonprofit located at the Cooper Aerobics Center, to develop a joint scientific medical research program aimed at improving health and preventing a wide range of chronic diseases. The institute maintains one of the world's most extensive databases – known as the Cooper Center Longitudinal Study – that includes detailed information from more than 250,000 clinic visits that has been collected since Dr. Kenneth Cooper founded the institute and clinic in 1970.

When It Comes to Heart Health, How Much Is Too Much Vitamin D?

2012-01-04T14:00:00.000-08:00

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New research by Johns Hopkins scientists suggests that vitamin D, long known to be important for bone health and in recent years also for heart protection, may stop conferring cardiovascular benefits and could actually cause harm as levels in the blood rise above the low end of what is considered normal.

Study leader Muhammad Amer, M.D., an assistant professor in the division of general internal medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, says his findings show that increasing levels of vitamin D in the blood are linked with lower levels of a popular marker for cardiovascular inflammation — c-reactive protein (also known as CRP).

Amer and his colleague Rehan Qayyum, M.D., M.H.S., examined data from more than 15,000 adult participants in the continuous National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a nationally representative sample, from 2001 and 2006. They found an inverse relationship between vitamin D and CRP in adults without cardiovascular symptoms but with relatively low vitamin D levels. Healthier, lower levels of inflammation were found in people with normal or close to normal vitamin D levels. But beyond blood levels of 21 nanograms per milliliter of 25-Hydroxyvitamin D — considered the low end of the normal range for vitamin D — any additional increase in vitamin D was associated with an increase in CRP, a factor linked to stiffening of the blood vessels and an increased risk of cardiovascular problems.

“The inflammation that was curtailed by vitamin D does not appear to be curtailed at higher levels of vitamin D,” says Amer, whose newest finding appears in the Jan. 15 issue of the American Journal of Cardiology. “Clearly vitamin D is important for your heart health, especially if you have low blood levels of vitamin D. It reduces cardiovascular inflammation and atherosclerosis, and may reduce mortality, but it appears that at some point it can be too much of a good thing.”

Amer says consumers should exercise caution before taking supplements and physicians should know the potential risks. Each 100 international unit of vitamin D ingested daily produces about a one nanogram per milliliter increase 25-Hydroxyvitamin D levels in the blood. “People taking vitamin D supplements need to be sure the supplements are necessary,” Amer says. “Those pills could have unforeseen consequences to health even if they are not technically toxic.”

Amer and Qayyum, also an assistant professor in the division of general internal medicine at Hopkins, say the biological and molecular mechanisms that account for the loss of cardiovascular benefits are unclear.

Vitamin D is often called the “sunshine vitamin” because its primary source is the sun. It is found in very few foods, though commercially sold milk is usually fortified with it. As people spend more and more time indoors and slather their bodies with sunscreen, concern is rising that many are vitamin D-deficient, Amer notes.

As a result, Amer says, many doctors prescribe vitamin D supplements, and many consumers, after reading news stories about the vitamin’s benefits, dose themselves. Older women often take large doses to fight and prevent osteoporosis.

For more information.

Benefits of statin therapy may extend beyond lowering lipids

2012-01-04T13:39:00.000-08:00

In this image, blood clot formation in atherosclerotic blood vessels cuts off the blood supply. Triggers of blood clotting, such as tissue factor, are blocked by statins.

People with high cholesterol are at risk of heart attack and stroke because atherosclerotic plaques within their arteries can rupture triggering the formation of a blood clot called an occlusive thrombus that cuts off the blood supply to their heart or brain.

For years, scientists have studied the cause of this abnormal clotting. Now, a study led by researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, has identified a molecular pathway that leads to this abnormal blood clotting and turned it off using a popular class of cholesterol-lowering drugs, statins.

The research was performed using humans, monkeys and mice with highly elevated blood lipid levels. It indicated that elevated levels of oxidized low density lipoprotein (LDL) induces a molecule called "tissue factor" that triggers clotting. The study appears online in the January 3, 2012 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

"Statins have been shown to have antithrombotic activity in several previous studies. However, I believe our study is the first to elucidate how statins reduce the activation of the blood clotting process independently of their lipid lowering activity, said senior study author Nigel Mackman, PhD, FAHA. Mackman is the John C. Parker Distinguished Professor of Hematology in the Department of Medicine and Director of the UNC McAllister Heart Institute.

Additionally, Mackman noted that statins "only target the 'bad and inducible tissue factor', not the good one used in normal clotting, and therefore should not be associated with the increased bleeding risk that is a typical side effect of anticoagulant drugs currently on the market."

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Jon's Health Tips - Latest Health Research

2012-01-03T11:47:00.001-08:00

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I drink tea before and during most soccer games. Before the last one I actually drank coffee, something I almost never do. I had a goal and two assists. Connection?

Caffeine and physical performance

"Caffeine is the most dynamic and broad-ranging ergogenic aid that I know of. That is, there are aids that could specifically help strength or specifically help long-term endurance, whereas caffeine affects activities that are as short as a minute or as long as several hours; these activities could be aerobic or anaerobic in nature and so on. From that point of view, caffeine is a more general compound that can be used to enhance performance or endurance than any other aid that I could name. There is no question that it is a very potent ergogenic aid."

Things I'm glad I eat or take:

1. Fish Oil/Olive Oil
Possible Cure for Leukemia Found in Fish Oil

A compound produced from fish oil that appears to target leukemia stem cells could lead to a cure for the disease, according to Penn State researchers.

"Research in the past on fatty acids has shown the health benefits of fatty acids on cardiovascular system and brain development, particularly in infants, but we have shown that some metabolites of Omega-3 have the ability to selectively kill the leukemia-causing stem cells in mice," said Prabhu. "The important thing is that the mice were completely cured of leukemia with no relapse."

Virgin Olive Oil & Fish Fatty Acids Help Prevent Acute Pancreatitis

Oleic acid and hydroxytyrosol –present in a particularly high concentration in virgin olive oil– and n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids –found in fish– affect the cellular mechanisms involved in the development of acute pancreatitis, a disease of oxidative-inflammatory etiology. Therefore, oleic acid and hydroxytyrosol can be considered potential functional ingredients, as they may prevent or mitigate this disease.

Diet Patterns May Keep Brain from Shrinking

People with diets high in several vitamins or in omega 3 fatty acids are less likely to have the brain shrinkage associated with Alzheimer’s disease than people whose diets are not high in those nutrients, according to a new study published in the December 28, 2011, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Those with diets high in omega 3 fatty acids and in vitamins C, D, E and the B vitamins also had higher scores on mental thinking tests than people with diets low in those nutrients. These omega 3 fatty acids and vitamin D are primarily found in fish. The B vitamins and antioxidants C and E are primarily found in fruits and vegetables.

2. Alcohol/Wine/ Fruits and Vegetables
Is it who drinks wine that makes the difference?

Wine consumers, especially in comparison with spirits drinkers, have been shown to have higher levels of education and income, to consume a healthier diet, be more physically active, and have other characteristics that are associated with better health outcomes. However, epidemiologic studies have been inconsistent in showing that, after adjustment for all associated lifestyle factors, consumers of wine have lower risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality than do consumers of other beverages.

A study based on the long-term follow up of a group of older Americans concluded that the associated lifestyle habits and environmental factors of wine consumers largely explained their better health outcomes. Forum reviewers were concerned about some of the methodological approaches used, and believed that the data presented in the paper were inadequate to support such a conclusion. This was a small study, had only a single estimate of alcohol intake (at baseline but not throughout 20 years of follow up), and the authors may have over-adjusted for large differences in lifestyle factors between what they termed as "low-wine" and "high-wine" consumers. The study did confirm a lower mortality risk for alcohol consumers than for non-drinkers.

Experimental studies have clearly indicated that the polyphenols and other constituents that are present in wine and some beers have independent protective effects against most cardiovascular risk factors. Whether or not such advantages are seen among moderate drinkers of wine (or beer) in epidemiologic studies is difficult to determine, as comparisons are not being made between wine, beer, and spirits but between humans who consume one or other such beverage. In almost all populations, drinkers of a specific beverage differ in many ways other than just the type of beverage they consume.

Association of lifestyle and environmental factors with the risk of cancer

It has been well established that certain lifestyle habits relate to the risk of certain cancers (e.g., smoking and lung cancer). In a well-done analysis, the authors estimate the proportion of cancer in the population associated with a variety of lifestyle and environmental factors.

"Tobacco smoking is by far the most important risk factor for cancer in the UK, responsible for 60_000 cases (19.4% of all new cancer cases) in 2010. The relative importance of other exposures differs by sex. In men, deficient intake of fruits and vegetables (6.1%), occupational exposures (4.9%) and alcohol consumption (4.6%) are next in importance, while in women, it is overweight and obesity (because of the effect on breast cancer) – responsible for 6.9% of cancers, followed by infectious agents (3.7%)."

Forum reviewers considered this to be a well-done paper that used epidemiologic methods that are preferable to those used in some previous such analyses. Generally, they disagreed with the authors that no alcohol consumption was the theoretical "optimum exposure level," as the risk of certain cancers seems to increase primarily from heavy drinking. Further, they found reason to believe that the purported effects related to diet may have been over-estimated.

Fruits/ Vegetables Reduce Risk of Some Cancers

The effects of fruit and vegetable consumption on colorectal cancer (CRC) appear to differ by site of origin, according to a new study published in the October issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association. Researchers found that within the proximal and distal colon, brassica vegetables (Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli) were associated with decreased risk of these cancers. A lower risk of distal colon cancer was associated with eating more apples, however an increased risk for rectal cancer was found with increasing consumption of fruit juice.

3. Mediterranean diet

Mediterranean diet gives longer life

A Mediterranean diet with large amounts of vegetables and fish gives a longer life. This is the unanimous result of four studies to be published by the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg. Research studies ever since the 1950s have shown that a Mediterranean diet, based on a high consumption of fish and vegetables and a low consumption of animal-based products such as meat and milk, leads to better health.

The results show that those who eat a Mediterranean diet have a 20% higher chance of living longer. This means in practice that older people who eat a Mediterranean diet live an estimated 2 3 years longer than those who don't.

4. No Fat Yogurt

Dairy Foods Research - 2011

5. Apples

Compound in Apples Inhibits E. coli

6. Statins

Statins accelerate depletion of plaque in arteries

Statins = reduced mortality in flu patients

Things I'm glad I don't take:

Plant-Based Food Supplements Contain High Levels of Cancer Causing Agents

Good news otherwise:

Working moms feel better than stay-at-home moms, study finds

Mothers with jobs tend to be healthier and happier than moms who stay at home during their children's infancy and pre-school years, according to a new study published by the American Psychological Association.

Diet Patterns May Keep Brain from Shrinking

2012-01-03T10:17:00.000-08:00

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People with diets high in several vitamins or in omega 3 fatty acids are less likely to have the brain shrinkage associated with Alzheimer’s disease than people whose diets are not high in those nutrients, according to a new study published in the December 28, 2011, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Those with diets high in omega 3 fatty acids and in vitamins C, D, E and the B vitamins also had higher scores on mental thinking tests than people with diets low in those nutrients. These omega 3 fatty acids and vitamin D are primarily found in fish. The B vitamins and antioxidants C and E are primarily found in fruits and vegetables.

In another finding, the study showed that people with diets high in trans fats were more likely to have brain shrinkage and lower scores on the thinking and memory tests than people with diets low in trans fats. Trans fats are primarily found in packaged, fast, fried and frozen food, baked goods and margarine spreads.

The study involved 104 people with an average age of 87 and very few risk factors for memory and thinking problems. Blood tests were used to determine the levels of various nutrients present in the blood of each participant. All of the participants also took tests of their memory and thinking skills. A total of 42 of the participants had MRI scans to measure their brain volume.

Overall, the participants had good nutritional status, but seven percent were deficient in vitamin B12 and 25 percent were deficient in vitamin D.

Study author Gene Bowman, ND, MPH, of Oregon Health & Science University in Portland and a member of the American Academy of Neurology, said that the nutrient biomarkers in the blood accounted for a significant amount of the variation in both brain volume and thinking and memory scores. For the thinking and memory scores, the nutrient biomarkers accounted for 17 percent of the variation in the scores. Other factors such as age, number of years of education and high blood pressure accounted for 46 percent of the variation. For brain volume, the nutrient biomarkers accounted for 37 percent of the variation.

“These results need to be confirmed, but obviously it is very exciting to think that people could potentially stop their brains from shrinking and keep them sharp by adjusting their diet,” Bowman said.

The study was the first to use nutrient biomarkers in the blood to analyze the effect of diet on memory and thinking skills and brain volume. Previous studies have looked at only one or a few nutrients at a time or have used questionnaires to assess people’s diet. But questionnaires rely on people’s memory of their diet, and they also do not account for how much of the nutrients are absorbed by the body, which can be an issue in the elderly.

Possible Cure for Leukemia Found in Fish Oil

2011-12-27T08:44:00.000-08:00

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A compound produced from fish oil that appears to target leukemia stem cells could lead to a cure for the disease, according to Penn State researchers.

The compound -- delta-12-protaglandin J3, or D12-PGJ3 -- targeted and killed the stem cells of chronic myelogenous leukemia, or CML, in mice, said Sandeep Prabhu, associate professor of immunology and molecular toxicology in the Department of Veterinary and Medical Sciences. The compound is produced from EPA -- Eicosapentaenoic Acid -- an Omega-3 fatty acid found in fish and in fish oil, he said.

"Research in the past on fatty acids has shown the health benefits of fatty acids on cardiovascular system and brain development, particularly in infants, but we have shown that some metabolites of Omega-3 have the ability to selectively kill the leukemia-causing stem cells in mice," said Prabhu. "The important thing is that the mice were completely cured of leukemia with no relapse."

The researchers, who released their findings in the current issue of Blood, said the compound kills cancer-causing stem cells in the mice's spleen and bone marrow. Specifically, it activates a gene -- p53 -- in the leukemia stem cell that programs the cell's own death.

"p53 is a tumor suppressor gene that regulates the response to DNA damage and maintains genomic stability," Prabhu said.

Killing the stem cells in leukemia, a cancer of the white blood cells, is important because stem cells can divide and produce more cancer cells, as well as create more stem cells, Prabhu said.

The current therapy for CML extends the patient's life by keeping the number of leukemia cells low, but the drugs fail to completely cure the disease because they do not target leukemia stem cells, said Robert Paulson, associate professor of veterinary and biomedical sciences, who co-directed this research with Prabhu.

"The patients must take the drugs continuously," said Paulson. "If they stop, the disease relapses because the leukemia stem cells are resistant to the drugs."

Current treatments are unable to kill the leukemia stem cells, Paulson said.

"These stem cells can hide from the treatment, and a small population of stem cells give rise to more leukemia cells," said Paulson. "So, targeting the stem cells is essential if you want to cure leukemia."

During the experiments, the researchers injected each mouse with about 600 nanograms of D12-PGJ3 each day for a week. Tests showed that the mice were completely cured of the disease. The blood count was normal, and the spleen returned to normal size. The disease did not relapse.

In previous experiments, the compound also killed the stem cells of Friend Virus-induced leukemia, an experimental model for human leukemia.

The researchers focused on D12-PGJ3 because it killed the leukemia stem cells, but had the least number of side effects. The researchers currently are working to determine whether the compound can be used to treat the terminal stage of CML, referred to as Blast Crisis. There are currently no drugs available that can treat the disease when it progresses to this stage.

The researchers, who applied for a patent, are also preparing to test the compound in human trials.

Starch Intake May Influence Risk for Breast Cancer Recurrence

2011-12-27T06:08:00.000-08:00

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Researchers have linked increased starch intake to a greater risk for breast cancer recurrence.

"The results show that it's not just overall carbohydrates, but particularly starch," said Jennifer A. Emond, M.S., a public health doctoral student at the University of California, San Diego. "Women who increased their starch intake over one year were at a much likelier risk for recurring."

Researchers conducted a subset analysis of 2,651 women who participated in the Women's Healthy Eating and Living (WHEL) Dietary Intervention Trial, a plant-based intervention trial that enrolled about 3,088 survivors of breast cancer. WHEL researchers studied breast cancer recurrence and followed the participants for an average of seven years.

The subset analysis involved an examination of how changes in carbohydrate intake influenced breast cancer recurrence. "The WHEL dietary trial, even though it focused on fruits and vegetables, fiber and fat, didn't really have a specific carbohydrate goal," Emond said.

She and her colleagues obtained carbohydrate intake information from multiple 24-hour dietary recalls at baseline and at one year. In an annual phone interview, participants reported everything they had eaten during the last 24 hours. At baseline, carbohydrate intake was 233 grams per day. Results showed that women whose cancer recurred had a mean increase in carbohydrate intake of 2.3 grams per day during the first year, while women whose cancer did not recur reported a mean decrease of 2.7 grams per day during the first year.

Starches were particularly important, Emond said. Changes in starch intake accounted for 48 percent of the change in carbohydrate intake. Mean change in starch intake during the first year was -4.1 grams per day among women whose cancer recurred vs. -8.7 grams per day among women whose cancer did not recur.

When change in starch intake during one year was grouped into quartiles of change, the rate of an additional breast cancer event was 9.7 percent among women who decreased their starch intake the most during one year, compared with an event rate of 14.2 percent among women who increased their starch intake the most during one year.

The change in starch intake was "independent of dietary changes that happened in the intervention arm," Emond said. "It is independent of more global changes in diet quality."

After stratifying patients by tumor grade, Emond and colleagues found that the increased risk was limited to women with lower-grade tumors.

These results indicate a need for more research on dietary recommendations that consider limited starch intake among women with breast cancer.

Virgin Olive Oil & Fish Fatty Acids Help Prevent Acute Pancreatitis

2011-12-24T08:24:00.001-08:00

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Scientists at the University of Granada have shown that oleic acid and hydroxytyrosol –present in a particularly high concentration in virgin olive oil– and n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids –found in fish– relieve the symptoms of pancreatitis.
The researchers evaluated the role of Mediterranean diet ingredients in the prevention and mitigation of cell damage.

Oleic acid and hydroxytyrosol –present in a particularly high concentration in virgin olive oil– and n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids –found in fish– affect the cellular mechanisms involved in the development of acute pancreatitis, a disease of oxidative-inflammatory etiology. Therefore, oleic acid and hydroxytyrosol can be considered potential functional ingredients, as they may prevent or mitigate this disease.

Such was the conclusion drawn in a study conducted by a research group at the University of Granada Physiology Department, where the researchers examined the role of the Mediterranean diet ingredients in the prevention and mitigation of cell damage.

An In Vitro Experimental Model

These scientists developed an in vitro experimental model that allows scientist to evaluate how changes in the membrane fatty acid composition in vivo –caused by a change in the type of fat ingested– affect the ability of cells to respond to induced oxidative-inflammatory damage with cerulein (acute pancreatitis).

This is the first study to examine how fatty acids and antioxidants affect the cellular mechanisms that respond to local inflammation in the pancreas. The University of Granada scientists have evaluated the role of antioxidants from a preventive approach, that is, by using an experimental model in mice in which cell damage is induced after pretreatment with these nutritional components.

The author of this study, María Belén López Millán affirms that "there is increasing evidence that there are oxidative-inflammatory processes involved in the origin of chronic diseases and that diet plays an important role in such processes. The antioxidant (phenolic compounds) and antiinflammatory (omega-3 fatty acids) effects of diet components (nutrients and bioactive compounds) prevent/mitigate the pathological incidence of oxidative-inflammatory processes".

The author reminds us that the Mediterranean diet has been recognized by the UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage “and it is important to provide scientific evidence that explains its beneficial effects on health”.

The results of this study –which has been coordinated by professors Mariano Mañas Almendros, María Dolores Yago Torregrosa and María Dolores Mesa García– have been partially published in the journal Proceedings of the Nutrition Society.

Can vitamin B12 reduce stroke risk?

2011-12-21T11:20:00.000-08:00

A commentary by Dr. David Spence of The University of Western Ontario and Dr. Meir Stampfer of the Harvard School of Public Health in today's Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) argues that vitamin therapy still has a role to play in reducing stroke.

Vitamin B therapy was once widely used to lower homocysteine levels. Too much of this amino acid in the bloodstream was linked to increased risk of stroke and heart attack. But several randomized trials found lowering homocysteine levels with B vitamins did not result in a cardiovascular benefit. And a study by Dr. Spence, a scientist with the Robarts Research Institute at Western's Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, found Vitamin B therapy actually increased cardiovascular risk in patients with diabetic nephropathy.

Dr. Spence says this commentary provides insights that overturn the widespread belief that "homocysteine is dead." He says two key issues have been overlooked in the interpretation of the clinical trials: the key role of vitamin B12, and the newly recognized role of renal failure.

"It is now clear that the large trials showing no benefit of vitamin therapy obscured the benefit of vitamin therapy because they lumped together patients with renal failure and those with good renal function. The vitamins are harmful in renal failure, and beneficial in patients with good renal function, and they cancel each other out," says Dr. Spence, the author of "How to Prevent Your Stroke." The authors also contend most of the trials did not use a high enough dose of vitamin B12.

Is it who drinks wine that makes the difference?

2011-12-20T12:19:00.000-08:00

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Wine consumers, especially in comparison with spirits drinkers, have been shown to have higher levels of education and income, to consume a healthier diet, be more physically active, and have other characteristics that are associated with better health outcomes. However, epidemiologic studies have been inconsistent in showing that, after adjustment for all associated lifestyle factors, consumers of wine have lower risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality than do consumers of other beverages.

A study based on the long-term follow up of a group of older Americans concluded that the associated lifestyle habits and environmental factors of wine consumers largely explained their better health outcomes. Forum reviewers were concerned about some of the methodological approaches used, and believed that the data presented in the paper were inadequate to support such a conclusion. This was a small study, had only a single estimate of alcohol intake (at baseline but not throughout 20 years of follow up), and the authors may have over-adjusted for large differences in lifestyle factors between what they termed as "low-wine" and "high-wine" consumers. The study did confirm a lower mortality risk for alcohol consumers than for non-drinkers.

Experimental studies have clearly indicated that the polyphenols and other constituents that are present in wine and some beers have independent protective effects against most cardiovascular risk factors. Whether or not such advantages are seen among moderate drinkers of wine (or beer) in epidemiologic studies is difficult to determine, as comparisons are not being made between wine, beer, and spirits but between humans who consume one or other such beverage. In almost all populations, drinkers of a specific beverage differ in many ways other than just the type of beverage they consume.

Mediterranean diet gives longer life

2011-12-20T12:08:00.001-08:00

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A Mediterranean diet with large amounts of vegetables and fish gives a longer life. This is the unanimous result of four studies to be published by the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg. Research studies ever since the 1950s have shown that a Mediterranean diet, based on a high consumption of fish and vegetables and a low consumption of animal-based products such as meat and milk, leads to better health.

Study on older people

Scientists at the Sahlgrenska Academy have now studied the effects of a Mediterranean diet on older people in Sweden. They have used a unique study known as the "H70 study" to compare 70-year-olds who eat a Mediterranean diet with others who have eaten more meat and animal products. The H70 study has studied thousands of 70-year-olds in the Gothenburg region for more than 40 years.

Chance of living longer

The results show that those who eat a Mediterranean diet have a 20% higher chance of living longer. "This means in practice that older people who eat a Mediterranean diet live an estimated 2 3 years longer than those who don't", says Gianluca Tognon, scientist at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg.

Support in other studies

These results are supported by three further as yet unpublished studies into Mediterranean diets and their health effects: one carried out on people in Denmark, the second on people in northern Sweden, and the third on children.

"The conclusion we can draw from these studies is that there is no doubt that a Mediterranean diet is linked to better health, not only for the elderly but also for youngsters", says Gianluca Tognon.

Lean Beef is Good for Heart Health?

2011-12-15T11:42:00.001-08:00

A new study published in the January 2012 edition of American Journal of Clinical Nutrition shows that beef can play a role in a cholesterol-lowering diet, despite commonly held beliefs. The study found that diets including lean beef every day are as effective in lowering total and LDL "bad" cholesterol as the "gold standard" of heart-healthy diets (DASH, Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension).

The Beef in an Optimal Lean Diet (BOLD) clinical study (Effects on Lipids, Lipoproteins and Apolipoproteins),¹ conducted by The Pennsylvania State University (PSU) researchers, evaluated adults with moderately elevated cholesterol levels, measuring the impact of diets including varying amounts of lean beef on total and LDL cholesterol levels. Study participants experienced a 10 percent decrease in LDL cholesterol from the start of the study, while consuming diets containing 4.0 and 5.4 oz. of lean beef daily.

"This research sheds new light on evidence supporting lean beef's role in a heart-healthy diet. Study participants ate lean beef every day and still met targets for saturated fat intake," says Penny Kris-Etherton, PhD, RD, distinguished professor of nutrition at PSU and the study's principal investigator. "This study shows that nutrient-rich lean beef can be included as part of a heart-healthy diet that improves risk factors for cardiovascular disease."

The Research

The study used a rigorously designed Randomized Controlled Clinical Intervention Study to investigate the effects of cholesterol-lowering diets with varying amounts of lean beef. Thirty-six participants (adults ages 30-65 with moderately elevated cholesterol) were randomly assigned to a treatment order and consumed a total of four diets for five weeks each. The cross-over design allowed each participant to serve as his or her own control, reducing any errors associated with biological variation.

The four diets tested in the study were: Healthy American Diet (HAD) as control; Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH); Beef in Optimal Lean Diet (BOLD); and Beef in Optimal Lean Diet Plus (BOLD-PLUS). Although BOLD and DASH diets were both rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains and low-fat dairy products, the diets differed in their primary protein source. The BOLD and BOLD-PLUS diet's primary protein source came from lean beef while DASH and HAD included white meat and plant protein. The BOLD diet included an average of 4.0 oz/day of lean beef and the BOLD-PLUS diet included 5.4 oz/day of lean beef, while the HAD and DASH diets included 0.7 and 1.0 oz/day of lean beef, respectively. Many of the BOLD and BOLD-PLUS diet menu plans incorporated recipes from The Healthy Beef Cookbook.

Details on each of the dietary interventions are as follows:

HAD

2,097 calories, 17% of calories from protein, 50% of calories from carbohydrate, 33% of calories from fat, 12% of calories from saturated fat, 0.7 oz/day lean beef (weight before cooking)

DASH

2,106 calories, 18% of calories from protein, 55% of calories from carbohydrate, 27% of calories from fat, 6% of calories from saturated fat, 1.0 oz/day lean beef (weight before cooking)

BOLD

2,100 calories, 19% of calories from protein, 54% of calories from carbohydrate, 28% of calories from fat, 6% of calories from saturated fat, 4.0 oz/day lean beef (weight before cooking)

BOLD-PLUS

2,104 calories, 27% of calories from protein, 45% of calories from carbohydrate, 28% of calories from fat, 6% of calories from saturated fat, 5.4 oz/day lean beef (weight before cooking)

Research Findings

After five weeks, total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol in the participants were significantly reduced in the BOLD, BOLD-PLUS and DASH diets compared to the HAD diet.

Overall, participants following the BOLD and BOLD-PLUS diets experienced a 10 percent decrease in LDL cholesterol from the start of the study. The improvements in heart health risk factors seen from the BOLD diets were as effective as those from the DASH and other heart-healthy diets, many of which emphasize plant proteins.

This study adds to the body of evidence regarding lean beef in a heart-healthy diet, including a recent review of 20 epidemiological studies encompassing more than one million subjects concluding that red meat intake does not increase risk of heart disease.²

"This research adds to the body of evidence concluding that you can include beef in your diet every day and get heart-health benefits," says Shalene McNeill, PhD, RD, executive director, human nutrition research for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, which contracts to manage programs for the beef checkoff. "Americans now have more scientific evidence for including lean beef in a heart-healthy diet."

Many of the most popular beef cuts, such as Top Sirloin steak, Tenderloin, T-Bone steak and 95% lean Ground Beef meet government guidelines for lean. In fact, sixty-five percent of all beef muscle cuts available in grocery stores are lean.^3,4 On average, a 3 oz. serving of lean beef is about 150 calories, an excellent source of six nutrients (protein, zinc, vitamin B12, vitamin B6, niacin and selenium) and a good source of four nutrients (phosphorous, choline, iron and riboflavin).⁴

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To access this study, please click here. For nutrition information, a fact sheet on this study or recipes featuring lean beef, visit http://www.BeefItsWhatsforDinner.com.

About The Beef Checkoff Program

The Beef Checkoff Program (http://www.MyBeefCheckoff.com) was established as part of the 1985 Farm Bill. The checkoff assesses $1 per head on the sale of live domestic and imported cattle, in addition to a comparable assessment on imported beef and beef products. States retain up to 50 cents on the dollar and forward the other 50 cents per head to the Cattlemen's Beef Promotion and Research Board, which administers the national checkoff program, subject to USDA approval.

About the National Cattlemen's Beef Association

The National Cattlemen's Beef Association is a contractor to the national Beef Checkoff Program, which is administered by the Cattlemen's Beef Board. Consumer-focused and producer-directed, NCBA and its state beef council partners work together as a marketing organization on behalf of the largest segment of the food and fiber industry.

1. Roussell MA, Hill AM, Gaugler TL, West SG, Vanden Heuvel JP, Alaupovic P, Gillies PJ, Kris-Etherton PM. Beef in an Optimal Lean Diet study: effects on lipids, lipoproteins, and apolipoproteins. Am J Clin Nutr 2012; 95(1).Internet: [http://www.ajcn.org/content/early/2011/12/13/ajcn.111.016261.full.pdf+html] (accessed 14 December 2011).

2. Micha R, Wallace SK, Mozaffarian D. Red and processed meat consumption and risk of incident coronary heart disease, stroke, and diabetes mellitus: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Circulation. 2010; 121:2271-2283.

3. Fresh Look Marketing Group, Total US Beef, 52 weeks ending 9/25/2011.

4. USDA, ARS. 2011. USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Release 24. Nutrient Data Laboratory Home Page,
http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/

Dairy Foods Research - 2011

2011-12-15T11:35:00.000-08:00

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In 2011 alone, there has been an abundance of published research from world renowned nutritional scientists and universities, revealing the health benefits of dairy. To name a few:
• According to a U.S. study published in February's Current Nutrition and Food Science, milk provides necessary nutrients without adversely impacting body weight in children and adolescents.
• In Australia, researchers found that consumption of low-fat dairy may help decrease the risk for elevated blood pressure and, regardless of fat content, fluid dairy foods are associated with a reduced risk of elevated blood pressure.
• A French study found a lower incidence of metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes and abnormal levels of fasting blood glucose was associated with higher consumption of dairy products and calcium.
• Researchers in Sweden studied more than 15,000 women and found that high-fat diets (including yogurt and regular milk), are associated with a reduced risk of invasive breast cancer.
• Researchers in Australia found that dairy food consumption are not associated with weight gain in children and adults. The review was published in the July Obesity Reviews.
• In Canada, researchers found that women who consumed at least two servings of dairy per day had smaller visceral fat cells compared with women consuming less than two daily servings.
• A May study revealed that dairy intake was not associated with increased heart attack risk in more than 3,000 Costa Rican adults.
• A study of premenopausal African-American women revealed that consuming low-fat and fat-free dairy products may be associated with a lower percent of body fat.
• A Swedish study found that a higher intake of dairy products is associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease.
• In Japan, a breakfast that included milk protein was shown to reduce visceral fat by approximately 15%, versus a breakfast that included soy protein that showed no change in fat.
• In October, a Danish study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that cheese does not seem to increase plasma total and LDL-cholesterol concentrations.

Compound in Apples Inhibits E. coli

2011-12-15T11:33:00.001-08:00

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A compound that is abundant in apples and strawberries inhibits the highly pathogenic E. coli O157:H7 biofilms while sparing a beneficial strain of E. coli that also forms biofilms in the human gut, according to a paper in the December 2011 issue of the journal Infection and Immunology.

Transcriptome analysis revealed that the compound, called phloretin, suppresses toxin and other genes involved in O157:H7 pathology and biofilm formation. And in a rat model of colitis, phloretin, reduced colon inflammation and body weight loss. "Phloretin has a triple biological activity as an antioxidant compound, a biofilm inhibitor, and an anti-inflammatory agent," says corresponding author Jintae Lee of Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan, Korea.

E. coli O157:H7 causes hemorrhages in the intestine. To date, no effective therapy for O157:H7 biofilms has been found. Biofilms generally are notoriously resistant to antimicrobial therapy. So in the study, Lee screened a dozen flavonoids, including phloretin, for their ability to inhibit these biofilms. "We found that phloretin markedly reduced E. coli O157:H7 biofilm formation on abiotic surface and human colon epithelial cells, while phloretin did not harm commensal E. coli K-12 biofilms," says Lee. Commensal E. coli can actually fortify the human immune system, he says.

In addition to its anti- E. coli O157:H7 biofilm activity, phloretin "accounts in part for the antioxidant capacity of apples, and it also shows anti-inflammatory activity," says Lee. "This study suggests that phloretin in apples could reduce the risk of E. coli O157:H7 infection and intestinal inflammation."

"This study demonstrated for the first time that phloretin, a natural flavonoid, is a nontoxic inhibitor of enterohemorrhagic E. coli O157:H7 biofilms, but does not harm commensal E. coli K-12 biofilms," Lee writes. "Also, importantly, our results confirmed that phloretin shows anti-inflammatory properties in both the in vitro and in vivo inflammatory colitis models. The effect of phloretin was noticeably more pronounced than that of the conventional [inflammatory bowel disease] drug 5-aminosalicylic acid."

(J.-H. Lee, S.C. Regmi, J.-A. Kim, M.H. Cho, H. Yun, C.-S. Lee, and J. Lee, 2011. Apple flavonoid phloretin inhibits Escherichia coli O157:H7 biofilm formation and ameliorates colon inflammation in rats. Infect. Immun. 79:4819-4827.

Weight Regain After Loss Potentially Dangerous

2011-12-14T13:38:00.000-08:00

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The holidays are upon us and, for many Americans that means some degree of weight gain and the subsequent New Year’s resolution to diet.

However, shedding the pounds may have some negative consequences on the overall health of older women if the weight loss is not maintained, according to a new study by researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.

Published recently in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the study showed that some older women who lose weight gain a lot of their weight back within a year. Importantly, the weight regained is mostly in the form of fat, rather than muscle.

“The body composition of some of the women was worse than before their weight loss,” said Barbara Nicklas, Ph.D., a gerontologist at the J. Paul Sticht Center on Aging and Rehabilitation at Wake Forest Baptist and principal investigator for the study. “When older women lose weight, they also lose lean mass. Most women will gain a lot of the weight back, but the majority of the weight regained is fat.”

For the study, sponsored by the National Institute on Aging, Nicklas and colleagues evaluated 78 postmenopausal women averaging 58 years old, one year after they had intentionally lost an average of 12 percent of their body weight by dieting for another study. The women’s body composition – including change in body weight, muscle and fat – was recorded immediately before and after initial weight loss, then six and 12 months later. There was no weight loss intervention during the year after initial weight loss.

The objective of the study was to determine whether the composition of body weight regained after intentional weight loss is similar to the composition of body weight lost.

At the end of the study, 53 of 78 (68 percent) women at the six-month follow-up and 52 of 68 (76 percent) women at the 12-month follow-up had regained some of their lost weight. Eleven women (16 percent) weighed more at the 12-month follow-up than they did at baseline, and 16 (24 percent) women continued losing weight after the intervention.

A large majority – 75 percent – of those who regained weight gained more than 4.4 pounds at the six-month follow-up, and this number increased to 84 percent at the 12-month follow-up. This subgroup of “regainers” was subsequently used to examine whether lost lean mass from intentional weight loss was recovered during weight regain.

In these participants, researchers found that fat mass was increasing to a greater degree than was lean mass during the postintervention period.

Of the weight lost during the intervention, 67 percent was fat and 33 percent was muscle. Of the weight regained during the entire 12 months of follow-up, 81 percent was fat and 19 percent was muscle. On average, by 12 months after the intervention, 26 percent of fat lost was regained, whereas only six percent of muscle lost was regained.

“Most people will regain their weight after they lose it.” Nicklas said. “Young people tend to regain weight in the proportion that they lost it. But the older women in our study did not appear to be regaining the muscle that they lost during initial weight loss in the same way.”

The long term consequences of losing muscle mass in middle aged and older women is yet unknown, but in combination with the loss in bone density known to occur as we age, the loss of muscle could increase their fall risk, among other things.

“There are certainly a lot of health benefits to weight loss, if you can keep the weight off,” Nicklas said. “For older women who lose weight, however, it is particularly important that they keep the weight off and continue to eat protein and stay physically active so that, if the weight does come back, it will be regained as muscle instead of fat.”

She cautioned that the results from this study were limited to sedentary, abdominally obese, postmenopausal women, and the findings may differ in men or in younger populations. Future studies of weight cycling are needed to determine its effects on muscle strength, quality, and function and body composition in older adults after all weight lost is regained, she said.

“Many health complications associated with overweight and obesity are improved with weight loss,” the researchers wrote. “However, negative consequences (such as loss of muscle mass and bone density) are also associated with weight loss and are detrimental for older adults, which results in a reluctance to recommend intentional weight loss in this population…Because lean mass loss in older adults may be associated with the development of adverse health events and disability, it is important to examine whether the benefits of weight loss outweigh the risks in this population.”

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Association of lifestyle and environmental factors with the risk of cancer

2011-12-14T12:42:00.000-08:00

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It has been well established that certain lifestyle habits relate to the risk of certain cancers (e.g., smoking and lung cancer). In a well-done analysis, the authors estimate the proportion of cancer in the population associated with a variety of lifestyle and environmental factors.

"Tobacco smoking is by far the most important risk factor for cancer in the UK, responsible for 60 000 cases (19.4% of all new cancer cases) in 2010. The relative importance of other exposures differs by sex. In men, deficient intake of fruits and vegetables (6.1%), occupational exposures (4.9%) and alcohol consumption (4.6%) are next in importance, while in women, it is overweight and obesity (because of the effect on breast cancer) – responsible for 6.9% of cancers, followed by infectious agents (3.7%)."

Forum reviewers considered this to be a well-done paper that used epidemiologic methods that are preferable to those used in some previous such analyses. Generally, they disagreed with the authors that no alcohol consumption was the theoretical "optimum exposure level," as the risk of certain cancers seems to increase primarily from heavy drinking. Further, they found reason to believe that the purported effects related to diet may have been over-estimated.

Nevertheless, this paper provides considerable new information on lifestyle and environmental factors that may relate to the risk of cancer. It puts into perspective the importance of targeting certain behaviours for the potential reduction in the risk of cancer.

Statins accelerate depletion of plaque in arteries

2011-12-14T12:30:00.000-08:00

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In a new study, NYU Langone Medical Center researchers have discovered how cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins promote the breakdown of plaque in the arteries. The study was published online by the journal PLoS One on December 6, 2011.

The findings support a large clinical study that recently showed patients taking high-doses of the cholesterol-lowering medications not only reduced their cholesterol levels but also reduced the amount of plaque in their arteries. However, until now researchers did not fully understand how statins could reduce atherosclerosis, the accumulation of fat and cholesterol that hardens into plaque in arteries, a major cause of mortality in Western countries. High blood cholesterol is a major culprit in atherosclerosis. As a result of narrowing arteries, blood clots can form or plaque can break off causing blockages in vessels. This can lead to a potentially fatal heart attack or stroke.

"Our new research shows statins actually promote the regression of atherosclerosis by altering the expression of a specific cell surface receptor within plaque cells," said co-author of the study, Edward Fisher, MD, PhD, Leon H. Charney Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine and director of the Marc and Ruti Bell Vascular Biology Program at NYU Langone Medical Center. "This molecular phenomenon helps dissolve plaque by expelling coronary artery disease-causing cells from the plaque lining the arteries."

The NYU Langone study reveals how statins promote the transformation of arterial plaques by activating a protein that sits on the surface of macrophages, immune cells that are prevalent in plaque. The immune system sends macrophages to clean up cholesterol deposits in arteries, but once they fill up with the bad form of cholesterol they get stuck in the arteries, triggering the body's inflammatory response. The bloated macrophages then become major components of plaque lining artery walls.

In the study, researchers show in mouse models that statins activate the cell surface protein receptor C-C chemokine receptor type 7 (CCR7), which in turn activates a cell-signaling pathway forcing macrophages out of plaque. In addition, the researchers show that macrophages only leave plaque when CCR7 is expressed. Therefore, regression of plaque is dependent on CCR7, the researchers concluded. The statins appeared to directly regulate and enhance CCR7 gene expression and induce macrophage cells to leave the plaque. CCR7 is a widely studied protein associated with the migration of immune cells and its expression is a marker of the presence of macrophages.

Statins are potent inhibitors of HMG-CoA reductase, the enzyme that plays a central role in the production of cholesterol. Statins have been shown to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and cardiac events like heart attack. Cholesterol is needed for all proper cellular function. High-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), good cholesterol, helps reduce the risk of atherosclerosis by taking cholesterol away from cells. Low density lipoprotein (LDL-C), bad cholesterol, carries cholesterol to cells. However, an LDL overload in the body increases a person's risk of cardiovascular disease including atherosclerosis.

"Our experimental findings indicate that statins, in addition to lowering LDL cholesterol, have clinical benefits of accelerating plaque regression by a newly discovered mechanism," said co-author Michael Garabedian, PhD, Professor, Department of Microbiology and Urology at NYU Langone Medical Center. "It's possible that these drugs could possibly be more beneficial to a wider population of patients potentially reducing the overall lifetime burden of plaque and the prevention of atherosclerosis."

Statins = reduced mortality in flu patients

2011-12-14T12:03:00.000-08:00

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The two main ways to prevent and control influenza today are annual immunization and antiviral drugs. A team of investigators has found that statins, cholesterol-lowering drugs, may offer an additional treatment to complement these approaches and reduce mortality among patients hospitalized with influenza. The findings are published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases and are now available online.

In an observational study led by Meredith L. Vandermeer, MPH, then with the Oregon Public Health Division in Portland, researchers used data for hospitalized adults during the 2007-2008 influenza season to evaluate the association between patients prescribed statins and influenza-related deaths. The data were drawn from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Emerging Infections Program, which conducts active surveillance for patients hospitalized with confirmed influenza in 59 counties in 10 states.

Among 3,043 hospitalized patients with laboratory-confirmed influenza, 33 percent were given statin medications prior to or during hospitalization. After adjusting for various factors, patients not receiving statins were almost twice as likely to die from influenza as those who did receive the medication.

"Our study found that statins were associated with a decrease in odds of dying among cases hospitalized with laboratory-confirmed influenza, when adjusted for age, race, cardiovascular disease, chronic lung disease, renal disease, influenza vaccine receipt, and initiation of antivirals within 48 hours of admission," the study authors wrote.

Because the study was observational, the authors noted there may have been confounding factors that were not found through the review of patients' charts. Researchers also did not attempt to track the amount of statin use by patients during their entire hospital stay. Randomized controlled trials would best address the potential benefits of statins for influenza treatment, the researchers concluded, and "would allow for examination of such issues as dose response, use in younger age groups, and identifying the most effective class of statins."

In an accompanying editorial, Edward E. Walsh, MD, of the Infectious Diseases Division at Rochester General Hospital in Rochester, N.Y., noted that there have been previous observational studies suggesting statins may reduce mortality from influenza and pneumonia. "One of the important strengths of the current study," Dr. Walsh added, "is that only patients with laboratory-confirmed influenza were included in the analysis," avoiding the uncertainty of disease misclassification possible in other methods.

Caffeine and physical performance

2011-12-14T11:26:00.000-08:00

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Complete report

"Caffeine is the most dynamic and broad-ranging ergogenic aid that I know of. That is, there are aids that could specifically help strength or specifically help long-term endurance, whereas caffeine affects activities that are as short as a minute or as long as several hours; these activities could be aerobic or anaerobic in nature and so on. From that point of view, caffeine is a more general compound that can be used to enhance performance or endurance than any other aid that I could name. There is no question that it is a very potent ergogenic aid."

Plant-Based Food Supplements Contain High Levels of Cancer Causing Agents

2011-12-14T08:21:00.000-08:00

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While many consumers equal 'natural' with 'safe', botanicals and botanical preparations such as plant-based food supplements may contain compounds, like the so called alkenylbenzenes, that are of concern for human health. At high doses these chemical compounds can cause liver cancer in experimental animals. A new study, published in the last issue of the journal Food and Nutrition Sciences, reveals that in many plant-based food supplements levels of these compounds are so low that they are of no concern. Although there are also plant-based food supplements on the market that contain alkenylbenzenes at levels comparable to those causing tumours in laboratory animals. This indicates a need for better regulation and quality control of plant-based food supplements containing alkenylbenzenes.

Botanicals and botanical preparations such as plant-based food supplements are extensively used by consumers within the European Union and the market volume for these products is expanding. In order to assess the safety of plant-based food supplements used in the European Union, an extensive selection and analysis of botanical compounds of concern and present in plant-based food supplements was performed by researchers of Wageningen University, part of Wageningen UR, the University of Milan (Università degli Studi di Milano) and Proform SA collaborating under the EU project PlantLIBRA.

The researchers selected thirty botanical compounds that are of possible concern for human health because they are able to damage the genetic material and/or are carcinogenic. The majority of these compounds were found to belong to the group of the alkenylbenzenes or the group of pyrrolizidine alkaloids. For these botanical ingredients regulatory authorities are aware of the possible risk for human health and consequently the use of pyrrolizidine alkaloid-containing botanicals in food and plant-based food supplements is prohibited in most EU Member States for precautionary health protection reasons. The use of the alkenylbenzenes estragole, methyleugenol, safrole or β-asarone as flavouring agents in food is also banned within the EU. However, restrictions have not (yet) been made with regard to the presence of alkenylbenzenes in plant-based food supplements.

The analysis of several plant-based food supplements containing as main ingredient basil, fennel, nutmeg, sassafras, cinnamon or calamus or their essential oils revealed that some of these products contain relatively high levels of alkenylbenzenes. The researchers concluded that the use of such plant-based food supplements raises a concern for human health and might be of high priority for risk management actions to be taken.

The research team passes the remark that there are also plant-based food supplements in which the levels of the alkenylbenzenes were so low that they are of no concern. Furthermore, they underline that the results obtained in studies in which liver cancer was observed in experimental animals, are based on experiments in which high concentrations of the pure alkenylbenzenes were given to animals instead of administering the plant-based food supplements as such in combination with normal feed. The results obtained in those studies may present an overestimation of the effects compared to those of the alkenylbenzenes in the presence of other ingredients that can be found in the plant-based food supplements or in the normal food. Due to the presence of such a botanical or food pattern, the toxicity of the alkenylbenzenes might be reduced, diminishing the possible risk for human health.

Future studies will place special focus on this subject. However, for the time being it is concluded that some -- although not all -- plant-based food supplements containing the alkenylbenzenes estragole, methyleugenol, safrole or β-asarone might raise a concern for human health and that this indicates a need for better regulation and quality control of plant-based food supplements containing these alkenylbenzenes.

Working moms feel better than stay-at-home moms, study finds

2011-12-12T13:06:00.000-08:00

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Mothers with jobs report fewer symptoms of depression, better overall health

Mothers with jobs tend to be healthier and happier than moms who stay at home during their children's infancy and pre-school years, according to a new study published by the American Psychological Association.

Researchers analyzed National Institute for Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development data, beginning in 1991 with interviews of 1,364 mothers shortly after their child's birth and including subsequent interviews and observations spanning more than 10 years. The findings were published in the December issue of APA's Journal of Family Psychology.

"In all cases with significant differences in maternal well-being, such as conflict between work and family or parenting, the comparison favored part-time work over full-time or not working," said lead author Cheryl Buehler, PhD, professor of human development and family studies, at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. "However, in many cases the well-being of moms working part time was no different from moms working full time."

For example, mothers employed part time reported better overall health and fewer symptoms of depression than stay-at-home moms, while there were no reported differences in general health or depressive symptoms between moms employed part time and those who worked full time, the study said.

The part-time and full-time working moms also showed no significant differences when it came to the women's perception that their employment supported family life, including their ability to be a better parent, the authors wrote.

The analysis found that mothers employed part time were just as involved in their child's school as stay-at-home moms, and more involved than moms who worked full time. In addition, mothers working part time appeared more sensitive with their pre-school children and they provided more learning opportunities for toddlers than stay-at-home moms and moms working full time.

Particularly in tough economic times, employers looking for cost savings hire part-time employees because they typically do not receive the same level of benefits, such as health insurance, training and career advancement, the authors pointed out.

"Since part-time work seems to contribute to the strength and well-being of families, it would be beneficial to employers if they provide fringe benefits, at least proportionally, to part-time employees as well as offer them career ladders through training and promotion," said study co-author Marion O'Brien, PhD, professor of human development and family studies, also of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Mothers who participated in the study were from 10 locations across the U.S., and included 24 percent ethnic minorities, 1 percent without a high school degree, and 14 percent single parents. The number of mothers employed part time was fairly consistent at about 25 percent of the total over the span of the study, although mothers moved in and out of part-time work. Part-time employment was defined as between one and 32 hours per week.

The study's limitations included the fact that only one child in the family was included and its exclusive focus on work hours, according to the authors. They recommended that future research include other employment-related factors such as professional status, scheduling flexibility, work commitment and shift schedules.

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Vitamin D deficiency

2011-12-09T12:03:00.000-08:00

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Vitamin D deficiency is higher among certain demographic segments, including women, the elderly, and the obese. All three groups also share an increased risk of pelvic floor problems, including urinary incontinence. Could there be a connection? Perhaps so, according to recent research.
A study published in Obstetrics & Gynecology compared vitamin D levels with incidence of various forms of pelvic floor disorder among 1,881 women, average age 48. Those with low levels of vitamin D (characterized as less than 30 nanograms per milliliter, or ng/ml) had a 170% increased risk of urinary incontinence, compared to those with higher blood levels.

Why might this be? As a hormone, vitamin D supports a myriad of bodily functions, including maintenance of muscle and bone. As a result, deficiency could undermine the muscular infrastructure of the pelvis needed for urinary control.

Related research suggests that losing weight could result in as much as a 47% decrease in episodes of incontinence, perhaps by reducing the pressure that excess adipose tissue places on the pelvis -- and by increasing levels of vitamin D: Maintaining levels of vitamin D may lower your risk of other ailments, including fractures, tooth loss, depression, chronic pain, and even certain cancers.

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Fruits/ Vegetables Reduce/Increase Risk of Some Cancers

2011-12-08T06:57:00.000-08:00

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The effects of fruit and vegetable consumption on colorectal cancer (CRC) appear to differ by site of origin, according to a new study published in the October issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association. Researchers found that within the proximal and distal colon, brassica vegetables (Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli) were associated with decreased risk of these cancers. A lower risk of distal colon cancer was associated with eating more apples, however an increased risk for rectal cancer was found with increasing consumption of fruit juice.

"Fruits and vegetables have been examined extensively in nutritional research in relation to CRC, however, their protective effect has been subject to debate, possibly because of different effects on different subsites of the large bowel," commented lead investigator Professor Lin Fritschi, PhD, head of the Epidemiology Group at the Western Australian Institute for Medical Research, Perth, Western Australia. "It may be that some of the confusion about the relationship between diet and cancer risk is due to the fact that previous studies did not take site of the CRC into account. The replication of these findings in large prospective studies may help determine whether a higher intake of vegetables is a means for reducing the risk of distal CRC."

Researchers from the Western Australian Institute for Medical Research, University of Western Australia and Deakin University investigated the link between fruit and vegetables and three cancers in different parts of the bowel: proximal colon cancer, distal colon cancer, and rectal cancer. The case-control study included 918 participants with a confirmed CRC diagnosis and 1021 control participants with no history of CRC. The subjects completed extensive medical and nutritional questionnaires and were assigned a socioeconomic status based on their home address.

Consumption of brassica vegetables (e.g., broccoli, cabbage) was associated with reduced incidence of proximal colon cancer. For distal colon cancer, both total fruit and vegetable intake and total vegetable intake appeared to decrease risk. Distal colon cancer risk was significantly decreased in association with intake of dark yellow vegetables and apples, although there was an increased risk for rectal cancer with consumption of fruit juice. Risk of proximal colon cancer and rectal cancer was not associated with intakes of total fruit and vegetable, total vegetable or total fruit.

Previous studies on CRC have often failed to distinguish between the different sites of origin of cancers in the large bowel, even though it is now well established that tumors in the proximal colon develop along different pathways to those of the distal colon and rectum and that risk of cancer varies by subsite within the colorectum. The mechanisms for different effects of dietary components on different sites of the large bowel have not yet been determined.

The authors conclude that "from a public health point of view it is easier to translate food-based analyses into dietary recommendations, rather than using the intake of single nutrient."

The article is "Fruit and vegetable consumption and the risk of proximal colon, distal colon and rectal cancers in a case-control study in Western Australia" by Neeltje Annema, Jane S. Heyworth, Sarah A. McNaughton, Barry Iacopetta, and Lin Fritschi. It appears in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, Volume 111, Issue 10 (October 2011) published by Elsevier.

Jon's Health Tips - Latest Health Research

2011-12-07T12:54:00.000-08:00

1. This is kind of weird and a little disturbing: my weekday soccer games are in the evening:

Waking later and being active later put people at greater risk of dementia

2. I like to think of my workplace as flexible:

A flexible workplace initiative improved employees' health behavior and well-being, including a rise in the amount and quality of sleep and better health management

3. This is really good news to me:

Physical Fitness Trumps Body Weight in Reducing Death Risks

4. I don't eat a whole lot of eggs, dairy, meat or soy. I'm still not worried about the quality of my protein:

Eggs, dairy and meat proteins have a score of 1.0. Soy protein is the only widely available high-quality plant-based protein that achieves this score.

5. I do eat a lot of fish (and take omega -3 supplements), fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, but no sugary drinks. I really think these apply to everyone, and if so they are good news for me as well:

In the first population-based study in women of childbearing age, those who rarely or never ate fish had 50 percent more cardiovascular problems over eight years than those who ate fish regularly. Compared to women who ate fish high in omega-3 weekly, the risk was 90 percent higher for those who rarely or never ate fish.

Eating fish reduces risk of Alzheimer's disease

Vegetables, fruits, grains reduce stroke risk in women

Study Affirms ‘Mediterranean Diet’ Improves Heart Health

Drinking two or more sugar-sweetened beverages a day may expand a woman's waistline and increase her risk of heart disease and diabetes.

6. Finally proof that I've been right to avoid this:

Snow shoveling increases heart attack risk

7. I only head a well-struck ball if I have a chance to score a goal:

Frequent 'heading' in soccer can lead to brain injury and cognitive impairment

8. Reports of BPA in canned food are disturbing to me - I lived on canned food almost exclusively for 3 years in law school, and canned soups were my daily lunch a few years ago. I continue a lifelong habit of canned vegetables as well:

Consuming canned soup linked to greatly elevated levels of the chemical BPA

Pending federal legislation authored by Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., that would ban BPA from all food and beverage containers including canned foods.

9. More good news about coffee - will I eventually succumb and start drinking it?

Coffee may protect against endometrial cancer

10. I'm in no danger of low salt intake as far as I know - if anything. it's probably still to high:

Low salt intake as bad as high

11. I've been taking L-arginine for the reasons enumerated here, and see no reason to stop:

L-arginine: fit, young, athletic men - no advantage

12. I still will emphasize red wine consumption over beer, even though I far prefer beer, but this is encouraging be to diversify a little more:

Beer could stand up alongside wine regarding positive effects on cardiovascular health.

13. Starting in January I won't have a Tuesday night soccer game any more and I haven't figured out how to replace the exercise that I know is crucial to my health (no, I won't go to a gym or jog!):

150 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity a week, which is the national guideline, provided a 65 percent improvement in sleep quality. People also said they felt less sleepy during the day, compared to those with less physical activity.

Exercise helps us to eat a healthy diet

Aerobic Fitness May Reduce Brain Aging

Mediterranean Diet and Exercise Can Reduce Sleep Apnea Symptoms

Morning Exercise Better

2011-12-06T13:08:00.000-08:00

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Waking later and being active later put people at greater risk of dementia

Older women with weaker circadian rhythms, who are less physically active or are more active later in the day are more likely to develop dementia or mild cognitive impairment than women who have a more robust circadian rhythm or are more physically active earlier in the day. That’s the finding of a new study in the latest issue of the Annals of Neurology.

“We’ve known for some time that circadian rhythms, what people often refer to as the “body clock”, can have an impact on our brain and our ability to function normally,” says Greg Tranah, PhD., a scientist at the California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute – part of the Sutter Health network – and the lead author of the study. “What our findings suggest is that future interventions such as increased physical activity or using light exposure interventions to influence circadian rhythms, could help influence cognitive outcomes in older women.”

The researchers collected data on activity and circadian rhythm from 1,282 healthy women, all over the age of 75, who were taking part in the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures. All the women underwent a series of neuropsychological tests to ensure they had no evidence of cognitive or brain problems. At the end of five years 15 percent of the women had developed dementia and 24 percent had some form of mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Those women who had weaker circadian rhythm activity, lower levels of activity, or whose peak level of activity was later in the day, were at highest risk of developing dementia or MCI.

“This was not a small difference, but a rather sizable, statistically significant one,” says Tranah. “Those who had the later wake times, whose activity was later in the day, were 80 percent more likely to develop MCI or dementia compared to women who had earlier wake times and earlier activity.”

Circadian rhythms play an important role in the control of sleep-wake cycles and there is considerable evidence to show they also play a role in regulating certain brain functions, such as alertness, learning and memory. As people get older the activity level of those rhythms – how strong they are - often change, bringing with it changes in sleep patterns and levels of physical activity.

“To our knowledge this is the first study to show such a strong connection between circadian activity rhythm and the subsequent development of dementia or MCI,” says Tranah. “The reasons why this is so are not yet clear. The changes in circadian rhythm may directly influence the onset of dementia or MCI, or the decrease in activity may be a consequence, a warning sign if you like, that changes are already taking place in the brain. Identifying what the reason is could help us develop therapies to delay, or slow down, the development of brain problems in the elderly.”

In an accompanying commentary in the journal, Andrew Lim and Clifford Saper of the Department of Neurology at Harvard Medical School, say the study “represents a significant advance” in understanding the connection between circadian rhythm activity and dementia. “By showing that variations in rest-activity patterns precede the development of cognitive impairment and dementia, Tranah and colleagues have identified both a novel predictor of and a potential therapeutic target for incident cognitive deterioration and dementia.”

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Flexible workplaces promote better health behavior and well-being

2011-12-06T12:23:00.001-08:00

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A flexible workplace initiative improved employees' health behavior and well-being, including a rise in the amount and quality of sleep and better health management, according to a new study by University of Minnesota sociology professors Erin Kelly and Phyllis Moen, which appears in the December issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.

"Our study shows that moving from viewing time at the office as a sign of productivity, to emphasizing actual results can create a work environment that fosters healthy behavior and well-being," says Moen. "This has important policy implications, suggesting that initiatives creating broad access to time flexibility encourage employees to take better care of themselves."

Using longitudinal data collected from 608 employees of a white-collar organization before and after a flexible workplace initiative was implemented, the study examined changes in health-promoting behaviors and health outcomes among the employees participating in the initiative compared to those who did not participate.

Introduced at the Best Buy headquarters in Richfield, Minn. in 2005, the workplace initiative—dubbed the Results Only Work Environment (ROWE)—redirected the focus of employees and managers towards measurable results and away from when and where work is completed. Under ROWE, employees were allowed to routinely change when and where they worked based on their individual needs and job responsibilities without seeking permission from a manager or even notifying one.

KEY FINDINGS:

- Employees participating in the flexible workplace initiative reported getting almost an extra hour (52 minutes) of sleep on nights before work.
- Employees participating in the flexible workplace initiative managed their health differently: They were less likely to feel obligated to work when sick and more likely to go to a doctor when necessary, even when busy.
- The flexible workplace initiative increased employees' sense of schedule control and reduced their work-family conflict which, in turn, improved their sleep quality, energy levels, self-reported health, and sense of personal mastery while decreasing employees' emotional exhaustion and psychological distress.

Soy is on top as a high-quality plant protein

2011-12-06T12:12:00.001-08:00

Evaluation method supports soy protein as a high-quality protein similar to meat, eggs and dairy

The importance of protein in the human body is undeniable. However, the idea of what makes a protein a "quality protein" has not been as easy to determine. A new study from the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry takes a closer look at the criteria for determining the quality of a protein.

Traditional methods for determining protein quality have shown animal proteins such as milk and eggs to be high in quality. However, those who are interested in a plant-based diet, or diversifying their proteins, have a more difficult time determining which of their choices are high in quality. Testing methods have shown most plant proteins, such as pea protein, are lower in quality than animal-based proteins.

"Accurate methods for determining protein quality are key to helping people plan a healthful diet," said Glenna Hughes, MS, research scientist at Solae. "Due to the increasing interest in including plant-based proteins in the diet, accurate information on protein quality is needed in scientific literature to help educate consumers and healthcare professionals on this topic."

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) recommend using the protein digestibility-corrected amino acid score (PDCAAS) as a simple and scientific procedure for assessing protein quality. The PDCAAS methodology focuses on three different parameters: the amount of each essential amino acid the protein contains, how easily the protein can be digested, and by taking both of those parameters into account, whether the protein meets the FAO/WHO's amino acid requirements set for children aged two to five years, as they have higher needs to support growth and development than adults.

According to this study, soy protein has a PDCAAS of 1.00, meaning it is a high-quality protein that meets the needs of both children and adults. Eggs, dairy and meat proteins also have a PDCAAS score of 1.0.

However, soy protein is the only widely available high-quality plant-based protein that achieves this score.

"It's important for people to understand that a plant-based diet is healthy, but that not all proteins are created equal," said Connie Diekman, RD, LD, FADA. "If you are planning a vegetarian diet or want to incorporate plant-based proteins in your diet, understanding protein quality using the PDCAAS scale can allow you to select proteins that score higher, such as soy, to ensure that you are getting the essential amino acids you need."

Physical Fitness Trumps Body Weight in Reducing Death Risks

2011-12-06T09:28:00.000-08:00

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If you maintain or improve your fitness level -- even if your body weight has not changed or increased -- you can reduce your risk of death, according to research reported in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

In a study of 14,345 adult men, mostly white and middle or upper class, researchers found that:

* Maintaining or improving fitness was associated with a lower death risk even after controlling for Body Mass Index (BMI) change.
* Every unit of increased fitness (measured as MET, metabolic equivalent of task) over six years was associated with a 19 percent lower risk of heart disease and stroke-related deaths and a 15 percent lower risk of death from any cause.
* Becoming less fit was linked to higher death risk, regardless of BMI changes.
* BMI change was not associated with death risks.

BMI is a measurement based on weight and height (kg/m2). MET measures the intensity of aerobic exercise -- specifically, the ratio of metabolic rate during a specific physical activity to a reference rate of metabolic rate at rest.

"This is good news for people who are physically active but can't seem to lose weight," said Duck-chul Lee, Ph.D., the study's lead researcher and physical activity epidemiologist in the Department of Exercise Science at the University of South Carolina's Arnold School of Public Health in Columbia. "You can worry less about your weight as long as you continue to maintain or increase your fitness levels."

Results of the study underscore the importance of physical inactivity as a risk factor for death from heart disease and stroke, said researchers. Researchers also found no association between changes in body fat percentage or body weight and death risk.

Participants, who were an average 44 years old, were part of the long-term, large-scale Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study. They underwent at least two comprehensive medical exams.

Researchers used maximal treadmill tests to estimate physical fitness (maximal METs), and height and weight measurements to calculate BMI. They recorded changes in BMI and physical fitness over six years.

After more than 11 years of follow-up, researchers determined the relative risks of dying among men who lost, maintained or gained fitness over six years. They accounted for other factors that can affect outcomes, including BMI change, age, family history of heart disease, beginning fitness level, changes in lifestyle factors such as smoking and physical activity, and medical conditions such as high blood pressure or diabetes.

One possible explanation for these results: about 90 percent of the men were either normal weight or overweight at the beginning of the study. Among obese people, changes in BMI might have a significant effect on death risks. So it's unclear whether these results would apply to severely obese people, Lee said.

A BMI score under 25 is considered healthy, 25 to less than 30 is overweight, and 30 or greater is obese.

Because the study was mostly done in white middle and upper class men, it's difficult to know whether the results apply to other racial and socioeconomic groups. Women would likely have similar results as the men in the study, Lee said.

Reduce Heart Disease Risk: Eat Fish W/Omega 3 Fatty Acids

2011-12-06T09:25:00.000-08:00

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Young women may reduce their risk of developing cardiovascular disease simply by eating more fish rich in omega-3 fatty acids, researchers reported in Hypertension: Journal of the American Heart Association.

In the first population-based study in women of childbearing age, those who rarely or never ate fish had 50 percent more cardiovascular problems over eight years than those who ate fish regularly. Compared to women who ate fish high in omega-3 weekly, the risk was 90 percent higher for those who rarely or never ate fish.

Researchers used a Danish nationwide population based pregnancy cohort to examine whether or not eating more fish might reduce cardiovascular disease risk in the young women.

About 49,000 women, 15-49 years old, median age of just under 30 years in early pregnancy -- were interviewed by telephone or answered food frequency questionnaires about how much, what types and how often they ate fish, as well as lifestyle and family history questions.

Researchers recorded 577 cardiovascular events during the eight-year period, including five cardiovascular deaths in women without any prior diagnosis of the disease. In all, 328 events were due to hypertensive disease, 146 from cerebrovascular disease, and 103 from ischemic heart disease.

Inpatient and outpatient admission for cardiovascular disease was much more common among women who reported eating little or no fish. In three different assessments over a 30-week period, women who never ate fish had a three-fold higher disease risk compared to women who ate fish every week.

"To our knowledge this is the first study of this size to focus exclusively on women of childbearing age," said Marin Strøm, Ph.D., lead researcher and post doctoral fellow at the Centre for Fetal Programming, at Statens Serum Institut in Copenhagen, Denmark. "The biggest challenge in getting health messages like this across to younger populations is that usually the benefits may not be evident for 30 or 40 years, but our study shows this is not the case. We saw a strong association with cardiovascular disease in the women who were still in their late 30's."

Fish oil contains long chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, which are believed to protect against heart and vascular disease. Few women in the study took fish oil supplements, so these were excluded from the analyses and the results were based on the dietary intake of omega-3 fatty acids, not intake from supplements.

Most previous studies that found cardiovascular benefits of omega-3 fatty acids have focused on men, according to Strøm.

"Men and women share many cardiovascular risk factors, but some studies have shown that there might also be gender differences. For example, inflammation, cholesterol, and triglyceride levels may have a more negative influence among women," Strom said.

Even women who ate fish only a couple of times a month benefitted. "Women who eat fish should find the results encouraging, but it is important to emphasize that to obtain the greatest benefit from fish and fish oils, women should follow the dietary recommendations to eat fish as a main meal at least twice a week," she said.

The most common fish consumed by women in the study were cod, salmon, herring, and mackerel.

"Our study shows that for younger women, eating fish is very important for overall health, and even though we found cardio-protective effects at relatively modest dietary levels, higher levels may yield additional benefits," Strøm said.

The Scoop On the Dangers of Snow Shoveling

2011-12-06T09:08:00.000-08:00

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Urban legend warns shoveling snow causes heart attacks, and the legend seems all too accurate, especially for male wintery excavators with a family history of premature cardiovascular disease. However, until recently this warning was based on anecdotal reports.

Two of the most important cardiology associations in the US include snow -shoveling on their websites as a high risk physical activity, but all the citation references indicate that this warning was based one or two incidents.

"We thought that this evidence should not be enough to convince us that snow -shoveling is potentially dangerous, " says Adrian Baranchuk, a professor in Queen's School of Medicine and a cardiologist at Kingston General Hospital.

Dr. Baranchuk and his team retrospectively reviewed KGH patient records from the two previous winter seasons and discovered that of the 500 patients who came to the hospital with heart problems during this period, 7 per cent (35 patients) had started experiencing symptoms while shoveling snow.

"That is a huge number," says Dr. Baranchuk. "7 per cent of anything in medicine is a significant proportion. Also, if we take into account that we may have missed some patients who did not mention that they were shoveling snow around the time that the episode occurred, that number could easily double."

The team also identified three main factors that put individuals at a high risk when shoveling snow. The number one factor was gender (31 of the 35 patients were male), the second was a family history of premature coronary artery disease (20 of the 35 patients), and the third was smoking (16 out of 35 patients). The second two factors may carry much more weight than the first, however, since the team could not correct for high rate of snow shoveling among men in their sample.

A history of regularly taking four or more cardiac medications was found to be preventative.

Lower Antioxidants = Higher Skin-Cancer Rate In Males

2011-12-02T13:14:00.000-08:00

Men are three times more likely than women to develop a common form of skin cancer but medical science doesn’t know why. A new study may provide part of the answer.

Researchers at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC – James) have found that male mice had lower levels of an important skin antioxidant than female mice and higher levels of certain cancer-linked inflammatory cells.

The antioxidant, a protein called catalase, inhibits skin cancer by mopping up hydrogen peroxide and other DNA-damaging reactive-oxygen compounds that form during exposure to ultraviolet B light (UVB), a common source of sunburn and cancer-causing skin damage. Studies by others have linked low catalase activity to skin cancer progression.

The research is published online in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology.

The findings suggest that women may have more natural antioxidant protection in the skin than men,” say study co-leaders Gregory Lesinski and Tatiana Oberyszyn, both of the OSUCCC – James.

“As a result, men may be more susceptible to oxidative stress in the skin, which may raise the risk of skin cancer in men compared to women,” says Lesinski, an assistant professor of molecular virology, immunology and medical genetics;.

The study also found that UVB exposure caused a unique inflammatory white blood cell population called ‘myeloid-derived suppressor cells’ to migrate from the bone marrow into the exposed skin. Furthermore, higher numbers of these cells moved into the skin of male mice than female mice.

“To our knowledge, we’ve shown for the first time that UVB exposure causes a migration of systemic myeloid-derived suppressor cells, and it suggests that these cells might be a novel source of UVB-induced immune suppression,” says first author Nicholas Sullivan, a research scientist in the Oberyszyn lab in the Department of Pathology.

This, in turn, might mean that these UVB-induced inflammatory cells contribute to the genesis of skin tumors and perhaps other tumors rather than simply facilitating cancer progression, as generally thought, Sullivan notes.

Normally, the body mobilizes the suppressor cells to limit immune responses to infection, sepsis or trauma so that healing can begin, Lesinski says.

“However, in the cancer setting, repeated UV light exposure or after other chronic or repeated inflammatory stimuli, these cells persist and become immunosuppressive,” he says. “They can render helpful immune cells such as T cells or natural killer cells unable to recognize and eliminate cancer cells in the skin.”

Lesinski, Oberyszyn, Sullivan and their colleagues conducted the study using a strain of hairless mice that develops squamous cell carcinoma of the skin – the second most common skin cancer in humans – when exposed to UVB.

The investigators also found that treating mice with topical catalase inhibited the migration of the suppressor cells into UVB-exposed skin, suggesting that the influx of these cells in males might be due to the relatively lower skin-catalase activity.

In fact, male mice with UVB-induced skin tumors had 55 percent more of the suppressor cells in the skin than did their female counterparts.

“This is the first report to our knowledge of a sex discrepancy in this group of inflammatory cells in tumor-bearing mice, and it suggests that our findings might translate to other types of cancer,” says Oberyszyn, associate professor of pathology. “Men face a higher risk of numerous types of cancers, and relatively higher levels of inflammatory myeloid cells might contribute to this susceptibility.”

Vegetables, fruits, grains reduce stroke risk in women

2011-12-01T14:08:00.000-08:00

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Swedish women who ate an antioxidant-rich diet had fewer strokes regardless of whether they had a previous history of cardiovascular disease, in a study reported in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.

"Eating antioxidant-rich foods may reduce your risk of stroke by inhibiting oxidative stress and inflammation," said Susanne Rautiainen, M.Sc., the study's first author and Ph.D. student at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. "This means people should eat more foods such as fruits and vegetables that contribute to total antioxidant capacity."

Oxidative stress is an imbalance between the production of cell-damaging free radicals and the body's ability to neutralize them. It leads to inflammation, blood vessel damage and stiffening.

Antioxidants such as vitamins C and E, carotenoids and flavonoids can inhibit oxidative stress and inflammation by scavenging the free radicals. Antioxidants, especially flavonoids, may also help improve endothelial function and reduce blood clotting, blood pressure and inflammation.

"In this study, we took into account all the antioxidants present in the diet, including thousands of compounds, in doses obtained from a usual diet," Rautiainen said. Researchers collected dietary data through a food-frequency questionnaire. They used a standard database to determine participants' total antioxidant capacity (TAC), which measures the free radical reducing capacity of all antioxidants in the diet and considers synergistic effects between substances.

Researchers categorized the women according to their TAC levels — five groups without a history of cardiovascular disease and four with previous cardiovascular disease.

For women with no history of cardiovascular disease who had the highest TAC, fruits and vegetables contributed about 50 percent of TAC. Other contributors were whole grains (18 percent), tea (16 percent) and chocolate (5 percent).

The study found:

Higher TAC was related to lower stroke rates in women without cardiovascular disease.
Women without cardiovascular disease with the highest levels of dietary TAC had a statistically significant 17 percent lower risk of total stroke compared to those in the lowest quintile.
Women with history of cardiovascular disease in the highest three quartiles of dietary TAC had a statistically significant 46 percent to 57 percent lower risk of hemorrhagic stroke compared with those in the lowest quartile.
"Women with a high antioxidant intake may be more health conscious and have the sort of healthy behaviors that may have influenced our results," Rautiainen said. "However, the observed inverse association between dietary TAC and stroke persisted after adjustments for potential confounders related to healthy behavior such as smoking, physical activity and education."

For the study, researchers used the Swedish Mammography Cohort to identify 31,035 heart disease-free women and 5,680 women with a history of heart disease in two counties. The women were 49-83 years old.

Researchers tracked the cardiovascular disease-free women an average 11.5 years and the women with cardiovascular disease 9.6 years, from September 1997 through the date of first stroke, death or Dec. 31, 2009, whichever came first.

Researchers identified 1,322 strokes among cardiovascular disease-free women and 1,007 strokes among women with a history of cardiovascular disease from the Swedish Hospital Discharge Registry.

"To the best of our knowledge, no study has assessed the relation between dietary TAC and stroke risk in participants with a previous history of cardiovascular disease," Rautiainen said. "Further studies are needed to assess the link between dietary TAC and stroke risk in men and in people in other countries, but we think our results are applicable."

Eating fish reduces risk of Alzheimer's disease

2011-11-30T13:05:00.001-08:00

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People who eat baked or broiled fish on a weekly basis may be improving their brain health and reducing their risk of developing mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease, according to a study presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

"This is the first study to establish a direct relationship between fish consumption, brain structure and Alzheimer's risk," said Cyrus Raji, M.D., Ph.D., from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. "The results showed that people who consumed baked or broiled fish at least one time per week had better preservation of gray matter volume on MRI in brain areas at risk for Alzheimer's disease."

Alzheimer's disease is an incurable, progressive brain disease that slowly destroys memory and cognitive skills. According to the National Institute on Aging, as many as 5.1 million Americans may have Alzheimer's disease. In MCI, memory loss is present but to a lesser extent than in Alzheimer's disease. People with MCI often go on to develop Alzheimer's disease.

For the study, 260 cognitively normal individuals were selected from the Cardiovascular Health Study. Information on fish consumption was gathered using the National Cancer Institute Food Frequency Questionnaire. There were 163 patients who consumed fish on a weekly basis, and the majority ate fish one to four times per week. Each patient underwent 3-D volumetric MRI of the brain. Voxel-based morphometry, a brain mapping technique that measures gray matter volume, was used to model the relationship between weekly fish consumption at baseline and brain structure 10 years later. The data were then analyzed to determine if gray matter volume preservation associated with fish consumption reduced risk for Alzheimer's disease. The study controlled for age, gender, education, race, obesity, physical activity, and the presence or absence of apolipoprotein E4 (ApoE4), a gene that increases the risk of developing Alzheimer's.

Gray matter volume is crucial to brain health. When it remains higher, brain health is being maintained. Decreases in gray matter volume indicate that brain cells are shrinking.

The findings showed that consumption of baked or broiled fish on a weekly basis was positively associated with gray matter volumes in several areas of the brain. Greater hippocampal, posterior cingulate and orbital frontal cortex volumes in relation to fish consumption reduced the risk for five-year decline to MCI or Alzheimer's by almost five-fold.

"Consuming baked or broiled fish promotes stronger neurons in the brain's gray matter by making them larger and healthier," Dr. Raji said. "This simple lifestyle choice increases the brain's resistance to Alzheimer's disease and lowers risk for the disorder."

The results also demonstrated increased levels of cognition in people who ate baked or broiled fish.

"Working memory, which allows people to focus on tasks and commit information to short-term memory, is one of the most important cognitive domains," Dr. Raji said. "Working memory is destroyed by Alzheimer's disease. We found higher levels of working memory in people who ate baked or broiled fish on a weekly basis, even when accounting for other factors, such as education, age, gender and physical activity."

Eating fried fish, on the other hand, was not shown to increase brain volume or protect against cognitive decline.

More on Alzheimer's:

According to statistics from the National Institute on Aging, Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia in older people. Alzheimer’s is a progressive brain disease; it is irreversible and causes a decline in memory and cognitive skills.
Alzheimer’s disease is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States. It is the only cause of death among the top 10 that cannot be prevented, cured or even significantly arrested. Two-thirds of people over the age of 65 who have the disease are women. This is a startling statistic, and one that requires increased attention and research.

“Clearly, this is an illness of women more than men,” said Victor Henderson, MD, MS, Professor of Epidemiology and Neurology and Neurological Sciences at Stanford University. “In part, it has to do with the fact that women live longer than men. There are real differences in longevity.”

Researchers have long studied the relationship between the hormone estrogen and Alzheimer's disease, but the results have been inconclusive thus far. “There are other risk factors that may come into play,” said Henderson, “which can further explain why women may be predisposed to Alzheimer’s disease.” Some of these factors include: family history, genetics, and some evidence suggests heart disease.

One of the first signs of Alzheimer’s disease may be forgetfulness and difficulty remembering newly learned information. But the disease gradually gets worse. According to the National Alzheimer’s Association in Chicago, other symptoms develop over time and may include:
• Challenges in planning or problem solving.
• Difficulty completing familiar tasks at home, at work, or at leisure.
• Confusion with time or place.
• Trouble understanding visual images and spatial relationships.
• New problems with words in speech or writing.
• Misplacing objects and losing the ability to retrace steps.
• Decreased or poor judgment.
• Withdrawal from work or social activities.
• Changes in mood and personality.

Anti-inflammatory polyphenols in apple peels

2011-11-30T12:57:00.001-08:00

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Here's another reason why "an apple a day keeps the doctor away"—according to new research findings published in the Journal of Leukocyte Biology, oral ingestion of apple polyphenols (antioxidants found in apple peels) can suppress T cell activation to prevent colitis in mice. This study is the first to show a role for T cells in polyphenol-mediated protection against an autoimmune disease and could lead to new therapies and treatments for people with disorders related to bowel inflammation, such as ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease and colitis-associated colorectal cancer.

"Many people with colitis use some form of dietary supplement to complement conventional therapies, but most of the information on the health effects of complementary medicine remains anecdotal. Also, little is known about exactly how these therapies work, if they work at all," said David W. Pascual, Ph.D., a researcher involved in the work from the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana. "Our results show that a natural product found in apple peels can suppress colonic inflammation by antagonizing inflammatory T cells to enhance resistance against autoimmune disease."

To make this discovery, scientists used a chemically induced model of colitis with Dextran sulfate sodium (DSS), researchers administered an oral placebo to one group of mice, and the other group of mice was given an oral dose of apple polyphenols every day during the course of the disease. Results showed that mice treated orally with apple polyphenols were protected from colitis. Importantly, scientists also found that the treated mice had fewer activated T cells in their colons. In mice lacking T cells, apple polyphenols were unable to protect against colitis or suppress proinflammatory cytokine expression, indicating apple polyphenols protect against colitis via the suppression of T cell activation and/or recruitment.

"It appears that the old adage rings true in more ways than one," said John Wherry, Ph.D., Deputy Editor of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology, "In addition to the obvious health benefits of the nutrients and fiber in fruits and vegetables, this study indicates that even something as relatively common as the apple contains other healthy ingredients that can have serious therapeutic value."

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Frequent 'heading' in soccer can lead to brain injury and cognitive impairment

2011-11-29T14:14:00.000-08:00

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Using advanced imaging techniques and cognitive tests, researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and Montefiore Medical Center , the University Hospital and academic medical center for Einstein, have shown that repeatedly heading a soccer ball increases the risk for brain injury and cognitive impairment. The imaging portion of the findings was presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) in Chicago.

The researchers used diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), an advanced MRI-based imaging technique, on 38 amateur soccer players (average age: 30.8 years) who had all played the sport since childhood. They were asked to recall the number of times they headed the ball during the past year. (Heading is when players deliberately hit or field the soccer ball with their head.) Researchers ranked the players based on heading frequency and then compared the brain images of the most frequent headers with those of the remaining players. They found that frequent headers showed brain injury similar to that seen in patients with concussion, also known as mild traumatic brain injury (TBI).

The findings are especially concerning given that soccer is the world's most popular sport with popularity growing in the U.S., especially among children. Of the 18 million Americans who play soccer, 78 percent are under the age of eighteen. Soccer balls are known to travel at speeds as high as 34 miles per hour during recreational play, and more than twice that during professional play.

After confirming the potentially damaging impact of frequent heading, "Our goal was to determine if there is a threshold level for heading frequency that, when surpassed, resulted in detectable brain injury," said lead author Michael Lipton, M.D., Ph.D. , associate director of Einstein's Gruss Magnetic Resonance Research Center and medical director of MRI services at Montefiore. Further analysis revealed a threshold level of approximately 1,000 to 1,500 heads per year. Once players in the study exceeded that number, researchers observed significant injury.

"While heading a ball 1,000 or 1,500 times a year may seem high to those who don't participate in the sport, it only amounts to a few times a day for a regular player," observed Dr. Lipton, who is also associate professor of radiology, of psychiatry and behavioral sciences ), and of the Dominick P. Purpura Department of Neuroscience at Einstein.

"Heading a soccer ball is not an impact of a magnitude that will lacerate nerve fibers in the brain," said Dr. Lipton. "But repetitive heading may set off a cascade of responses that can lead to degeneration of brain cells."

Researchers identified five areas, in the frontal lobe (behind the forehead) and in the temporo-occipital region (the bottom-rear areas) of the brain that were affected by frequent heading – areas that are responsible for attention, memory, executive functioning and higher-order visual functions. In a related study, Dr. Lipton and colleague Molly Zimmerman, Ph.D. , assistant professor in the Saul R. Korey Department of Neurology at Einstein, gave the same 38 amateur soccer players tests designed to assess their neuropsychological function. Players with the highest annual heading frequency performed worse on tests of verbal memory and psychomotor speed (activities that require mind-body coordination, like throwing a ball) relative to their peers.

"These two studies present compelling evidence that brain injury and cognitive impairment can result from heading a soccer ball with high frequency," Dr. Lipton said. "These are findings that should be taken into consideration in planning future research to develop approaches to protect soccer players."

Heading is an essential part of soccer and is unlikely to be eliminated from practice or play.

As there appears to be a safe range for heading frequency, additional research can help refine this number, which can then be used to establish heading guidelines. As in other sports, the frequency of potentially harmful actions in practice and games could be monitored and restricted based on confirmed unsafe exposure thresholds.

"In the past, pitchers in Little League Baseball sustained shoulder injuries at a rate that was alarming," Dr. Lipton noted. "But ongoing research has helped shape various approaches, including limits on the amount of pitching a child performs, which have substantially reduced the incidence of these injuries."

"Brain injury due to heading in children, if we confirm that it occurs, may not show up on our radar because the impairment will not be immediate and can easily be attributed to other causes like ADHD or learning disabilities," continued Dr. Lipton. "We, including the agencies that supervise and encourage soccer play, need to do the further research to precisely define the impact of excessive heading on children and adults in order to develop parameters within which soccer play will be safe over the long term."

Mediterranean Diet and Exercise Can Reduce Sleep Apnea Symptoms

2011-11-29T08:04:00.000-08:00

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Eating a Mediterranean diet combined with physical activity can help to improve some of the symptoms of sleep apnea, according to new research. The study, which is published online in the European Respiratory Journal, looked at the impact a Mediterranean diet can have on obese people with sleep apnea, compared to those on a prudent diet.

Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) causes frequent pauses of breathing to occur during sleep, which disrupts a person's normal sleeping pattern. It is one of the most prevalent sleep-related breathing disorders with approximately 2-4% of the adult population experiencing the condition. This percentage increases up to 20-40% with obesity, and weight loss is often an essential part of the recommended treatment plan.

The researchers, from the University of Crete in Greece, examined 40 obese patients suffering from OSAS. Twenty patients were given a prudent diet to follow, while the other 20 followed a Mediterranean diet. Both groups were also encouraged to increase their physical activity, mainly involving walking for at least 30 minutes each day.

In both groups, the patients also received continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy which involves wearing a mask that generates an air stream, keeping the upper airway open during sleep.

The researchers monitored the patients during a sleep study, known as polysomnography. This involved monitoring several markers for OSAS, including electrical activity in the brain, eye movements and snoring. The patients were examined at the start of the study and again 6 months later.

The results showed that people following the Mediterranean diet had a reduced number of disturbances, known as apneas, during the rapid eye movement (REM) stage of sleep, which usually accounts for approximately 25% of total sleep during the night.

The findings also revealed that people following the Mediterranean diet also showed a greater adherence to the calorie restricted diet, an increase in physical activity and a greater decrease in abdominal fat.

The results of this small sample did show an improvement during one stage of sleep for people with sleep apnea, however it did not show an overall improvement in severity of the condition. The authors suggest that further studies in a larger sample are required to fully understand the benefits of this diet.

Christopher Papandreou, lead author for the research, said: "This is the first study examining the impact of the Mediterranean diet in combination with physical activity on OSAS via changes in the human body. Our results showed that the number of disturbances during REM sleep was reduced more in the Mediterranean diet group than the other group. Recent reports have related an increase in disturbances during REM sleep with the risk of developing significant systemic consequences like diabetes type II. However, its clinical significance remains unclear. Finally, more studies are needed to examine the effect of the above diet on this sleep-related breathing disorder taking into account its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties."

Exercise helps us to eat a healthy diet

2011-11-23T12:59:00.001-08:00

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A healthy diet and the right amount of exercise are key players in treating and preventing obesity but we still know little about the relationship both factors have with each other. A new study now reveals that an increase in physical activity is linked to an improvement in diet quality.

Many questions arise when trying to lose weight. Would it be better to start on a diet and then do exercise, or the other way around? And how much does one compensate the other?

The data from epidemiological studies suggest that tendencies towards a healthy diet and the right amount of physical exercise often come hand in hand. Furthermore, an increase in physical activity is usually linked to a parallel improvement in diet quality.

Exercise also brings benefits such as an increase in sensitivity to physiological signs of fullness. This not only means that appetite can be controlled better but it also modifies hedonic responses to food stimuli. Therefore, benefits can be classified as those that occur in the short term (of metabolic predominance) and those that are seen in the long term (of behavioural predominance).

According to Alonso Alonso, "physical exercise seems to encourage a healthy diet. In fact, when exercise is added to a weight-loss diet, treatment of obesity is more successful and the diet is adhered to in the long run."

The authors of the study state how important it is for social policy to encourage and facilitate sport and physical exercise amongst the population. This should be present in both schools and our urban environment or daily lives through the use of public transport or availability of pedestrianised areas and sports facilities.

Exercise modifies the brain

Eating and physical activity are behaviours and are therefore influenced by cognitive processes that are a result of activity in different areas of the brain. Previous studies have already assessed changes in the brain and cognitive functions in relation to exercise: regular physical exercise causes changes in the working and structure of the brain.

The experts point out that these changes seem to have a certain specificity. The Harvard researcher supports the notion that "regular exercise improves output in tests that measure the state of the brain's executive functions and increases the amount of grey matter and prefrontal connections."

Inhibitory control is one of the executive functions of the brain and is basically the ability to suppress inadequate and non-conforming answers to an aim (the opposite of this would be impulsiveness), which makes modification or self-regulations of a behaviour possible.

With regards to losing weight and sustaining weight loss in the long run, various recent studies suggest that executive functions such as inhibitory control and optimal functioning of the brain's prefrontal areas could be the key to success. This success is mainly the fruit of a behavioural change. Inhibitory control could also help to prevent weight gain in healthy people.

The researcher outlines that "in time, exercise produces a potentiating effect of executive functions including the ability for inhibitory control, which can help us to resist the many temptations that we are faced with everyday in a society where food, especially hypercaloric food, is more and more omnipresent."

The scoop on the dangers of snow shoveling

2011-11-23T12:58:00.001-08:00

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Urban legend warns shoveling snow causes heart attacks, and the legend seems all too accurate, especially for male wintery excavators with a family history of premature cardiovascular disease. However, until recently this warning was based on anecdotal reports.

Two of the most important cardiology associations in the US include snow -shoveling on their websites as a high risk physical activity, but all the citation references indicate that this warning was based one or two incidents.

“We thought that this evidence should not be enough to convince us that snow -shoveling is potentially dangerous, ” says Adrian Baranchuk, a professor in Queen’s School of Medicine and a cardiologist at Kingston General Hospital.

Dr. Baranchuk and his team retrospectively reviewed KGH patient records from the two previous winter seasons and discovered that of the 500 patients who came to the hospital with heart problems during this period, 7 per cent (35 patients) had started experiencing symptoms while shoveling snow.

“That is a huge number,” says Dr. Baranchuk. “7 per cent of anything in medicine is a significant proportion. Also, if we take into account that we may have missed some patients who did not mention that they were shoveling snow around the time that the episode occurred, that number could easily double.”

The team also identified three main factors that put individuals at a high risk when shoveling snow. The number one factor was gender (31 of the 35 patients were male), the second was a family history of premature coronary artery disease (20 of the 35 patients), and the third was smoking (16 out of 35 patients). The second two factors may carry much more weight than the first, however, since the team could not correct for high rate of snow shoveling among men in their sample.

A history of regularly taking four or more cardiac medications was found to be preventative.

Thanksgiving: BPA for Families Using Canned Foods

2011-11-23T07:03:00.000-08:00

Plus, Myths and Facts about BPA in Canned Foods and Recipes for a BPA-Free Thanksgiving at www.breastcancerfund.org/thanksgiving

A new report released today by the Breast Cancer Fund documents the presence of the toxic chemical bisphenol A (BPA) in canned foods used to prepare a typical Thanksgiving meal.

The report, "BPA in Thanksgiving Canned Food," tested Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup, Campbell's Turkey Gravy, Carnation Evaporated Milk (by Nestle), Del Monte Fresh Cut Sweet Corn (Cream Style), Green Giant Cut Green Beans (by General Mills), Libby's Pumpkin (by Nestle), and Ocean Spray Jellied Cranberry Sauce. Single servings of almost half of the products tested had levels of BPA comparable to levels that laboratory studies have linked to adverse health effects.

"Preparing your Thanksgiving dinner with these products can deliver a concerning level of BPA," said Jeanne Rizzo, president and CEO of the Breast Cancer Fund. "How many more Thanksgivings will families have to worry about this uninvited guest before manufacturers finally decide to take it out of cans?"

BPA is used to make, among other things, the epoxy-resin linings of metal food cans. The lining forms a barrier between the metal and the food which helps to prevent bacterial contamination. However, the toxic chemical can leach from the resin and make its way into food. BPA has been linked in laboratory studies to adverse health effects such as breast and prostate cancer, infertility, early puberty in girls, type-2 diabetes, obesity and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

For this report, the Breast Cancer Fund sent 28 canned food items—four cans of each product tested—to Anresco Laboratories, an independent testing laboratory in San Francisco. The testing revealed tremendous variability among cans of the same product made by the same company, which is consistent with other product testing data.

For instance, BPA levels in Del Monte creamed corn ranged from non-detectable to 221 parts per billion, and levels in Campbell's Turkey Gravy ranged from 5 to 125 ppb. According to scientists at the Breast Cancer Fund, these inconsistencies might be explained by variations in the canning processes across facilities and batches, as well as storage and transportation conditions.

"Consumers have no way of assessing BPA levels just by looking at cans on supermarket shelves," said Gretchen Lee Salter, policy manager at the Breast Cancer Fund. "The findings of this report highlight the urgent need to remove BPA from food packaging so that shoppers can be confident that the food they are purchasing is safe for their families—not only on Thanksgiving, but every day."

The tests detected no BPA in any of the four cans of Ocean Spray Cranberry Sauce. The company has stated that while it does use BPA in its cans, independent tests also indicate no leaching of BPA into the food.

"We know from recent research that a BPA meal creates a spike of this estrogenic chemical in the blood," said William Goodson, M.D., a breast cancer surgeon and senior clinical research scientist at California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute, who in September published a study showing that BPA causes non-cancerous cells to grow and survive like cancer cells. "Natural hormones work by spikes, so this is exactly what you don't want, especially in young kids, who shouldn't have any estrogenic spikes at all."

As part of the Breast Cancer Fund's Cans Not Cancer campaign, consumers have sent more than 50,000 letters to canned food manufacturers urging them to get BPA out of canned foods and replaced with a safer alternative, and many are beginning to pay attention. A number of companies including some of the can manufacturers featured in this report, such as General Mills and Nestle, have announced that they are working toward alternatives to BPA in canned foods. However, not all of the manufacturers are disclosing the alternative they are exploring. It is imperative that manufacturers are transparent about these alternatives and ensure they are safe.

At the public policy level, 11 states have banned BPA from baby bottles and sippy cups, and three of those states have also banned it from infant formula and baby food. The Breast Cancer Fund is also supporting pending federal legislation authored by Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., that would ban BPA from all food and beverage containers including canned foods.

The immediate solution for those preparing Thanksgiving dinner is to seek alternatives to canned foods. Visit www.breastcancerfund.org/thanksgiving for easy recipes for a can-free Thanksgiving meal.

Also available at www.breastcancerfund.org/thanksgiving are the full report and Myths and Facts about BPA in Canned Foods, combating the common industry arguments in favor of BPA.

Coffee may protect against endometrial cancer

2011-11-22T13:47:00.000-08:00

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Long-term coffee consumption may be associated with a reduced risk for endometrial cancer, according to a recent study in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Edward Giovannucci, M.D., Sc.D., professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health, said coffee is emerging as a protective agent in cancers that are linked to obesity, estrogen and insulin.

"Coffee has already been shown to be protective against diabetes due to its effect on insulin," said Giovannucci, a senior researcher on the study. "So we hypothesized that we'd see a reduction in some cancers as well."

Giovannucci, along with Youjin Je, a doctoral candidate in his lab, and colleagues observed cumulative coffee intake in relation to endometrial cancer in 67,470 women who enrolled in the Nurses' Health Study.

During the course of 26 years of follow-up, researchers documented 672 cases of endometrial cancer.

Drinking more than four cups of coffee per day was linked with a 25 percent reduced risk for endometrial cancer. Drinking between two and three cups per day was linked with a 7 percent reduced risk.

A similar link was seen in decaffeinated coffee, where drinking more than two cups per day was linked with a 22 percent reduced risk for endometrial cancer.

Giovannucci said he hopes this study will lead to further inquiries about the effect of coffee on cancer because in this and similar studies, coffee intake is self-selected and not randomized.

"Coffee has long been linked with smoking, and if you drink coffee and smoke, the positive effects of coffee are going to be more than outweighed by the negative effects of smoking," said Giovannucci. "However, laboratory testing has found that coffee has much more antioxidants than most vegetables and fruits."

Consuming canned soup linked to greatly elevated levels of the chemical BPA

2011-11-22T13:46:00.000-08:00

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BPA, found in soup can lining, associated with adverse health effects in humans

A new study from researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) has found that a group of volunteers who consumed a serving of canned soup each day for five days had a more than 1,000% increase in urinary bisphenol A (BPA) concentrations compared with when the same individuals consumed fresh soup daily for five days. The study is one of the first to quantify BPA levels in humans after ingestion of canned foods.

The findings were published online November 22, 2011, in the Journal of the Medical Association (JAMA) and will appear in the November 23/30 print issue.

"Previous studies have linked elevated BPA levels with adverse health effects. The next step was to figure out how people are getting exposed to BPA. We've known for a while that drinking beverages that have been stored in certain hard plastics can increase the amount of BPA in your body. This study suggests that canned foods may be an even greater concern, especially given their wide use," said Jenny Carwile, a doctoral student in the Department of Epidemiology at HSPH and lead author of the study.

Exposure to the endocrine-disrupting chemical BPA, used in the lining of metal food and beverage cans, has been shown to interfere with reproductive development in animals and has been linked with cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity in humans. In addition to the lining of food and beverage cans, BPA is also found in polycarbonate bottles (identified by the recycling number 7) and dentistry composites and sealants.

The researchers, led by Carwile and Karin Michels, associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology, set out to quantify whether canned-soup consumption would increase urinary BPA concentrations relative to eating fresh soup.

They recruited student and staff volunteers from HSPH. One group consumed a 12-ounce serving of vegetarian canned soup each day for five days; another group consumed 12 ounces of vegetarian fresh soup (prepared without canned ingredients) daily for five days. After a two-day "washout" period, the groups reversed their assignments.

Urine samples of the 75 volunteers taken during the testing showed that consumption of a serving of canned soup daily was associated with a 1,221% increase in BPA compared to levels in urine collected after consumption of fresh soup.

The researchers note that the elevation in urinary BPA concentrations may be temporary and that further research is needed to quantify its duration.

"The magnitude of the rise in urinary BPA we observed after just one serving of soup was unexpected and may be of concern among individuals who regularly consume foods from cans or drink several canned beverages daily. It may be advisable for manufacturers to consider eliminating BPA from can linings," said Michels, senior author of the study.

Low salt intake as bad as high

2011-11-22T13:44:00.000-08:00

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For years doctors have warned that too much salt is bad for your heart. Now a new McMaster University study suggests that both high and low levels of salt intake may put people with heart disease or diabetes at increased risk of cardiovascular complications.

The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) today, found that moderate salt intake was associated with the lowest risk of cardiovascular events, while a higher intake of sodium was associated with an increased risk of stroke, heart attack and other cardiovascular events and a low intake was associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular death and hospitalization for congestive heart failure.

The research, conducted by investigators in the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster University and the Population Health Research Institute (PHRI) at McMaster and Hamilton Health Sciences, was co-led by Dr. Martin O'Donnell, an associate clinical professor of medicine, and Dr. Salim Yusuf, a professor of medicine and executive director of the PHRI.

"This research addresses an important population health issue – the association between salt intake and cardiovascular disease," said O'Donnell, who is also appointed at the Health Research Board Clinical Research Facility, National University of Ireland.

"In general, previous observational studies have either reported a positive association, no association or an inverse association between sodium intake and heart disease and stroke. This has resulted in a lot of controversy. Our study is the first to report a J-shaped association between sodium intake and cardiovascular disease, which may explain why previous studies have found different results."

For the McMaster observational study, the researchers examined 28,880 people at increased risk of heart disease from clinical trials conducted between 2001 and 2008. The researchers estimated 24-hour urinary sodium and potassium excretion from a morning fasting urine sample. Follow-up found more than 4,500 cardiovascular events occurred, making this one of the largest studies examining the relationship between sodium excretion (a surrogate measure of sodium consumption), as well as potassium excretion and cardiovascular events. Extensive and careful statistical analytic methods were used to determine the association of urinary sodium and potassium with cardiovascular events, in particular heart attack, stroke, hospitalization for congestive heart failure and death.

Compared with moderate sodium excretion (between 4 to 5.99 grams per day), the researchers found that sodium excretion of greater than seven grams per day was associated with an increased risk of all cardiovascular events, and sodium excretion of less than three grams per day was associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular death and hospitalization for congestive heart failure.

The findings call into question current guidelines for salt intake, which recommend less than 2.3 grams (or 2,300 mg) per day. The guidelines are mostly based on previous clinical trials that found blood pressure is lowered modestly when sodium intake is reduced to this level (which was also found in the present study). However, there are no large studies looking at whether such low levels of sodium intake reduce the incidence of heart attacks and stroke.

Clarifying the optimal daily intake of sodium is particularly important in patients with established heart disease, as they may be especially vulnerable to the cardiovascular effects of very high- and low-salt intake and are most likely to receive recommendations on restricting sodium in their diets, the authors concluded.

"Our study confirms the association between high-sodium intake and cardiovascular disease. Our findings highlight the importance of reducing salt intake in those consuming high-salt diets and the need for reducing sodium content in manufactured foods that are high in salt," said Yusuf, who is also vice-president of research, Hamilton Health Sciences.

"However, for those with moderate (average) intake, whether further reduction of salt in the diet will be beneficial is an open question. We believe that large clinical trials are the most reliable way to determine if reducing sodium intake to lower levels is of benefit."

L-arginine: fit, young, athletic men - no advantage

2011-11-22T13:30:00.000-08:00

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Popular supplement goes under the microscope, reveals no metabolic or hormonal enhancement for athletes at rest

One of the most recent, popular supplements for athletes looking to boost performance comes in the form of a naturally-occurring amino acid called L-arginine.

The reason for its popularity is twofold says Scott Forbes, a doctoral student in exercise physiology. "First, L-arginine is a precursor for nitric oxide that is known to improve blood flow, which in turn may aid the delivery of important nutrients to working muscles and assist with metabolic waste product removal. Secondly, L-arginine has been shown to increase growth hormone levels in the blood."

The benefits of growth hormone are diverse, including increasing the use of fat as a fuel as well as insulin and insulin-growth factor-1 (IGF-1) levels. However, most of the research conducted on L-arginine has been in a clinical setting and the benefits for physically active individuals are not as established. In some cases they are conflicting.

"One of the reasons for this is that the amount an individual has to consume has not been clearly established and this information is rarely provided by the manufacturers of such products," explains Forbes, a doctoral student in exercise physiology.

For Forbes it was a theory worth testing – and he wanted to test two different L-arginine doses on healthy, athletic men – the group most likely to purchase this readily-available supplement.

"L-arginine is interesting for a few reasons," says Forbes. "It can increase growth hormone response, and so can increase muscle mass. Also it has an impact on insulin, which is another anabolic hormone. A recent hot topic has been about nitric oxide as a vasodilator. The theory is that if you can vasodilate your arteries you can potentially enhance blood flow to the muscles and enhance nutrient delivery and waste product removal."

L-arginine is also often prescribed for older adults with cardiovascular disease, endothelial dysfunction or hypertension for its vasodilation properties and is rarely studied in younger, more vigorous populations.

For this study, Forbes recruited 14, active, physically fit men (age: 25±5yrs; weight: 78.0±8.5kg; height: 179.4±4.7cm), who were free of nutritional supplements, to examine a low and high dose of oral L-arginine on blood L-arginine, markers of nitric oxide, growth hormone, insulin, and insulin-like growth factor-1. In the double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study participants were first pre-screened, completing a one-day food record which was analyzed for carbohydrates, protein and fat consumption and caloric intake, then required to follow a modified diet to regulate intake of food and water prior to being dosed with L-arginine.

"After a 10-hour overnight fast, and no breakfast, we gave them a different dose of L-arginine – either .075 g per kilogram of body mass for the low dose, .15 g per kg of body mass for the high dose, or a placebo," says Forbes.

Blood samples were drawn with the athlete at rest, every half hour for three hours after the L-arginine or placebo dose. The reason explains Forbes, is that "Previous studies show that two hours after consumption L-arginine tends to reach baseline again."

What Forbes found was that in healthy, young, physically active males the two different doses significantly elevated L-arginine concentrations in the blood at rest, and both a low dose and a high dose were equally effective in doing so, but neither dose promoted a significant increase in nitric oxide, growth hormone, insulin, or insulin-like growth factor-1.

So, according to the study, it appears that L-arginine's impact depends on one's current health status: the more healthy and athletic the person, the less they'll benefit from it.

Now that he's established how L-arginine impacts the fit, young body at rest, he's embarked on two more studies – one with strength-trained athletes and one with aerobically-trained athletes – cyclists in this case – to look at the impacts of L-arginine on the body during exercise. "This time we're looking at the effects of supplements under two extremes: aerobic and strength exercise.

"There's a lot of money in nutritional supplements," he adds. "The industry might not be too happy when they see the results at rest, but who knows, it may be different with exercise."

Forbes has completed both of the exercise studies and hopes to publish the results in the near future.

PHYSICAL ACTIVITY IMPACTS OVERALL QUALITY OF SLEEP

2011-11-22T13:28:00.000-08:00

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People sleep significantly better and feel more alert during the day if they get at least 150 minutes of exercise a week, a new study concludes.

A nationally representative sample of more than 2,600 men and women, ages 18-85, found that 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity a week, which is the national guideline, provided a 65 percent improvement in sleep quality. People also said they felt less sleepy during the day, compared to those with less physical activity.

The study, out in the December issue of the journal Mental Health and Physical Activity, lends more evidence to mounting research showing the importance of exercise to a number of health factors. Among adults in the United States, about 35 to 40 percent of the population has problems with falling asleep or with daytime sleepiness.

“We were using the physical activity guidelines set forth for cardiovascular health, but it appears that those guidelines might have a spillover effect to other areas of health,” said Brad Cardinal, a professor of exercise science at Oregon State University and one of the study’s authors.

“Increasingly, the scientific evidence is encouraging as regular physical activity may serve as a non-pharmaceutical alternative to improve sleep.”

After controlling for age, BMI (Body Mass Index), health status, smoking status, and depression, the relative risk of often feeling overly sleepy during the day compared to never feeling overly sleepy during the day decreased by 65 percent for participants meeting physical activity guidelines.

Similar results were also found for having leg cramps while sleeping (68 percent less likely) and having difficulty concentrating when tired (45 percent decrease).

Paul Loprinzi, an assistant professor at Bellarmine University is lead author of the study, which was conducted while he was a doctoral student in Cardinal’s lab at OSU. He said it is the first study to examine the relationship between accelerometer-measured physical activity and sleep while utilizing a nationally representative sample of adults of all ages.

‘Our findings demonstrate a link between regular physical activity and perceptions of sleepiness during the day, which suggests that participation in physical activity on a regular basis may positively influence an individual's productivity at work, or in the case of a student, influence their ability to pay attention in class,” he said.

Cardinal said past studies linking physical activity and sleep used only self-reports of exercise. The danger with this is that many people tend to overestimate the amount of activity they do, he said.

He added that the take-away for consumers is to remember that exercise has a number of health benefits, and that can include helping feel alert and awake.

“Physical activity may not just be good for the waistline and heart, but it also can help you sleep,” Cardinal said. “There are trade-offs. It may be easier when you are tired to skip the workout and go to sleep, but it may be beneficial for your long-term health to make the hard decision and get your exercise.”

Taking Supplements = Taking Risks

2011-11-17T13:54:00.000-08:00

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The lack of evidence on multivitamin health benefits is no impediment to their widespread popularity, with over half the U.S. population popping such pills. This translates into a $27 billion industry, which lures consumers with the illusory promise of better health. But shocking new research suggests taking multivitamins might have the opposite effect -- not simply on the metabolic level, but on a metaphysical one: promoting a false sense of invulnerability that actually leads users to engage in riskier behaviors.

Taiwanese researchers conducted an experiment in which they gave placebos to 82 adults (45 women, 37 men, average age 31). Half of this group was led to believe that the placebo they were taking was a multivitamin. After one week, all participants took surveys regarding their inclinations towards various healthy vs. less healthy behaviors. The results were astounding. Those subjects thinking they were taking multivitamins registered a 44% higher tendency to engage in hedonistic activities (e.g., casual sex, sunbathing, partying, binge drinking), as well as a 61% increased preference for all-you-can-eat buffets over healthy meals. Compared to the placebo group, the "multivitamin" group not only reported exercising 14% less, they were 66% more likely to walk the shortest distance to their goal over a given time.

The authors conclude that people relying on a multivitamin pay a hidden price, believing they have greater invulnerability and so adopt lazy, riskier behaviors that may actually lead to the exact opposite health outcomes they desire. With regard to direct health impact, a "state-of-the-science" NIH panel found insufficient evidence to recommend multivitamin usage, while the National Cancer Institute actually found that men who take more than seven multivitamins a week are a third more likely to experience advanced prostate cancer. The American Heart Association urges people to forgo antioxidant supplements in favor of fruit and vegetables to minimize cardiovascular disease risk.

Antioxidant pills may even block certain metabolic benefits of exercise.
In a recent German study, 40 young male volunteers engaged in about an hour and a half of intense exercise -- running, cycling, weight-lifting -- five days a week.As expected, the regimen yielded various health benefits, including improved ability to control blood sugar, thus reducing diabetes risk.But when the men took antioxidant supplements -- 400 IU of vitamin E and 1,000 mg of vitamin C -- there was NO improvement in insulin sensitivity.Why? The pills seem to displace the body's own natural antioxidant systems, which otherwise neutralize the oxidative damage caused by oxygen radicals produced during exercise.

These findings add to the mountain of evidence that reliance on supplements either offers no benefits or even poses specific health risks. For example, athletes and others take glucosamine to relieve joint pain, but research shows most commercial supplements are ineffective, while the safety of large doses remains uncertain

Study Affirms ‘Mediterranean Diet’ Improves Heart Health

2011-11-17T13:51:00.000-08:00

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A team of Johns Hopkins researchers has uncovered further evidence of the benefits of a balanced diet that replaces white bread and pasta carbohydrates with unsaturated fat from avocados, olive oil and nuts — foods typical of the so-called “Mediterranean diet.”

In a report prepared for the American Heart Association’s scientific sessions in Orlando next week, the Johns Hopkins investigators say swapping out certain foods can improve heart health in those at risk for cardiovascular disease, even if the dietary changes aren’t coupled with weight loss.

“The introduction of the right kind of fat into a healthy diet is another tool to reduce the risk of future heart disease,” says Meghana Gadgil, M.D., M.P.H., a postdoctoral fellow in the Division of General Internal Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine who will be presenting the research.
Gadgil and her colleagues analyzed data from the OmniHeart Trial, which studied the cardiovascular effects of three different balanced diets on 164 people with mild hypertension but no diabetes. The researchers compared the body’s ability to regulate blood sugar and maintain healthy insulin levels while on a carbohydrate-rich diet, a protein-rich diet and a diet rich in unsaturated fats. People whose bodies fail to effectively use insulin usually develop type 2 diabetes, which is a major risk factor for heart disease.

The researchers found that a generally balanced diet higher in unsaturated fats such as those in avocados, olive oil and nuts improves insulin use significantly more than a diet high in carbohydrates, particularly such refined carbs as white bread and pasta. The preferred diet is very similar to the Mediterranean diet, inspired by the foods of southern Italy and Greece and emphasizing healthy fats, fruits and vegetables.
Each participant in the study was fed each of the three diets for six weeks in a row, with two to four weeks off in between. Blood samples were collected after fasting periods in weeks four and six of each diet, and used to monitor insulin and glucose levels. The study was designed to keep participants at their starting weights. “A lot of studies have looked at how the body becomes better at using insulin when you lose weight,” Gadgil says. “We kept the weight stable so we could isolate the effects of the macronutrients. What we found is that you can begin to see a beneficial impact on heart health even before weight loss.”
Other Hopkins resea

Moderate drinking and cardiovascular health: beer

2011-11-15T12:42:00.000-08:00

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A study conducted by research laboratories at Fondazione 'Giovanni Paolo II' in Italy shows that beer, like wine, can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease

Beer could stand up alongside wine regarding positive effects on cardiovascular health. This is the conclusion of a study conducted by Research Laboratories at the Fondazione di Ricerca e Cura "Giovanni Paolo II", in Campobasso, Italy. Both for wine and beer the key is moderate and regular drinking.

The research, published today on line by the European Journal of Epidemiology, using the statistic approach of meta-analysis, pooled different scientific studies conducted worldwide in previous years to achieve a general result. This way it has been possible to examine data concerning over 200,000 people, for whom alcohol drinking habits were associated with cardiovascular disease.

Results confirm what was already known about wine: a moderate consumption (approximately two glasses per day for men and one for women) can lower the risk of cardiovascular disease, up to 31% less when comparing to non drinkers. What this research adds are new data on beer. For the first time, in fact, evidence about dose-dependent effect is shown for this beverage. Maximum protection is observed, for a beer containing 5% of alcohol, with a consumption of slightly more than an English pint a day.

"In our research – explains Simona Costanzo, first author of the paper - we considered wine and beer separately: you first observe a reduction in cardiovascular risk with low to moderate drinking. Then, with an increasing consumption, you can see that the advantage disappears, until the risk gets higher. The interesting part of our research is that, among the studies selected for this meta-analysis, there were 12 in which wine and beer consumption could be compared directly. Using these data we were able to observe that the risk curves for the two beverages are closely overlapping".

But beer as well as wine, drinkers, should be cautious before toasting too much at these results. "What we are talking about – says Augusto Di Castelnuovo, head of the Statistic Unit of Research Laboratories and a pioneer in alcohol epidemiological studies - is moderate and regular drinking. I think we will never stress enough this concept. Wine or beer are part of a lifestyle. One glass can pair with healthy foods, eaten at proper time, maybe together with family of friends. There is no place for binge drinking or any other form of heavy consumption.

"The data reported in our meta-analysis – Di Castelnuovo emphasizes- cannot be extrapolated to everybody. In young women still in their fertile age, as an example, alcohol can slightly raise the risk for some kind of cancer. This could counterbalance the positive effect on cardiovascular disease and reduce the overall benefit of alcoholic beverages on health".

In the similarity between wine and beer regarding positive effects on cardiovascular health there is a still unanswered question: the evidence we are observing derives from alcohol alone or from other substances contained in beverages? Wine and beer are different in composition, except for alcohol, so we could think this is the main player. But they both contain polyphenols, albeit different ones. Researchers at Fondazione "Giovanni Paolo II" underline how this is something to look at more closely in the future.

"A research like this - comments Giovanni de Gaetano, director of Research Laboratories at Fondazione "Giovanni Paolo II" – is part of a concept that our group strongly pursues: to look at people's real life. Health and disease are conditions deriving from our lifestyle. New therapies, new drugs, are extremely important. But a healthy life, with a strong attitude toward prevention, is the key element of the medicine in the years to come".

Sugar-sweetened beverages may increase cardiovascular risk in women

2011-11-14T11:32:00.001-08:00

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Drinking two or more sugar-sweetened beverages a day may expand a woman's waistline and increase her risk of heart disease and diabetes, according to research presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2011.

In this study, researchers compared middle-aged and older women who drank two or more sugar-sweetened beverages a day, such as carbonated sodas or flavored waters with added sugar, to women who drank one or less daily. Women consuming two or more beverages per day were nearly four times as likely to develop high triglycerides, and were significantly more likely to increase their waist sizes and to develop impaired fasting glucose levels. The same associations were not observed in men.

"Women who drank more than two sugar-sweetened drinks a day had increasing waist sizes, but weren't necessarily gaining weight," said Christina Shay, Ph.D., lead author of the study and assistant professor at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City. "These women also developed high triglycerides and women with normal blood glucose levels more frequently went from having a low risk to a high risk of developing diabetes over time."

The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) included food frequency surveys in 4,166 African-American, Caucasian, Chinese-Americans and Hispanic adults 45 to 84 years old. At the beginning of the study the participants didn't have cardiovascular disease.

Researchers assessed risk factors in three follow-up exams spanning five years starting in 2002. Participants were monitored for weight gain, increases in waist circumference, low levels of high density lipoproteins (HDL "good" cholesterol), high levels of low density lipoproteins (LDL "bad" cholesterol), high triglycerides, impaired fasting glucose levels, and type 2 diabetes.

"Most people assume that individuals who consume a lot of sugar-sweetened drinks have an increase in obesity, which in turn, increases their risk for heart disease and diabetes," said Shay, formerly of Northwestern University's Department of Preventive Medicine in Chicago, where the study was conducted. "Although this does occur, this study showed that risk factors for heart disease and stroke developed even when the women didn't gain weight."

Women may have a greater chance for developing cardiovascular disease risk factors from sugar-sweetened drinks because they require fewer calories than men which makes each calorie count more towards cardiovascular risk in women, Shay said.

Researchers have yet to determine exactly how sugar-sweetened beverages influence cardiovascular risk factors such as high triglycerides in individuals who do not gain weight, Shay said, but further work is planned to try and figure that out.

Aerobic Fitness May Reduce Brain Aging

2011-11-14T11:20:00.000-08:00

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New findings suggest exercise may help maintain cognitive abilities of seniors

Physically fit seniors show fewer age-related changes in their brains, according to new research presented at Neuroscience 2011, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience and the world’s largest source of emerging news about brain science and health. The findings underscore the importance of exercise for maintaining brain health throughout life.

"Our findings suggest that a high level of aerobic fitness may help diminish the changes in brain structure that occur as we get older," said senior author Gene Alexander, PhD, of the University of Arizona.

As people age, some regions of the brain — including those responsible for attention and memory functions — begin to lose volume or shrink. To see how physical fitness affects brain aging and age-associated declines in cognition, Alexander and colleagues scanned the brains of 58 men and 65 women (ages 50 to 89 years) and evaluated their performance walking on an inclined treadmill.

The more physically fit a participant was, the less age-related brain changes they showed. In particular, exercise endurance and breathing efficiency offered the best combination of fitness measures in predicting patterns of brain aging. Individuals with higher levels of aerobic fitness also outperformed their less physically fit counterparts on tests measuring memory, executive function, and information processing.

"Identifying the fitness indices that are the best predictors of brain aging and cognitive performance may help improve exercise-based interventions — ones that could delay or prevent changes in the brain that lead to age-related cognitive decline," Alexander said.

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Adolescent alcohol consumption and breast cancer

2011-11-14T11:17:00.000-08:00

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Alcohol consumption by adolescents may increase breast cancer risk in those with a family history of the disease

Breast cancer patients often wonder what their daughters might do to reduce their risk of also developing cancer. Are there dietary intakes or behaviors that can be modified by their daughters to lower their own chances of getting the disease? A new study published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, sought information relevant to this question.

Dr. Catherine Berkey, a biostatistician at Brigham & Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, led a team that investigated childhood and adolescent risk factors for benign breast disease among girls with a family history of breast cancer. Benign breast disease, a large class of breast ailments that can cause breast lumps or breast pain, is a known risk factor for breast cancer. The authors found that among adolescent girls with a family history of breast cancer (or maternal benign breast disease), there was a significant association between amount of alcohol consumed and further increased risk of getting benign breast disease as young women.

The investigators analyzed information from the Growing Up Today Study (GUTS, founded by co-author Dr. Graham Colditz), which includes females who were aged nine to 15 years old in 1996 and who completed annual questionnaires from 1996 to 2001, then again in 2003, 2005, and 2007. Participants provided information regarding alcohol consumption, age at first menstrual period, height, and body mass index.

In the final two surveys, the participants (who were aged 18 to 27 years at the time) reported whether they had ever been diagnosed with benign breast disease. A total of 67 reported receiving this diagnosis (confirmed by breast biopsy), while another 6,741 reported they had never been diagnosed with the disease. Also, participants' mothers reported their own cases of benign breast disease and breast cancer, as well as breast cancer in their sisters and mothers (maternal aunts and maternal grandmothers of the participants).

Young women whose mothers or aunts had breast cancer were more than twice as likely to be diagnosed with benign breast disease compared to young women with no family history. Young women whose mothers had benign breast disease also saw their own risk (for benign breast disease) nearly double. More importantly, among adolescent girls having a mother, aunt, or grandmother with breast cancer, the more alcohol the girls consumed, the more likely they were to develop benign breast disease as young women. The same held true for girls whose mothers had benign breast disease. These findings are consistent with previous studies (on older women) showing that drinking by adult women increases their risk of breast cancer.

"Our study suggests that adolescent females already at higher risk for breast cancer, in light of their family history, should be aware that avoiding alcohol may reduce their risk for benign breast disease as young women, which might be accompanied by reduced breast cancer risk later in life" said Dr. Berkey.

Furthermore, girls with a family history who had the most rapid height growth spurt were at increased risk, whereas in girls with no family history, height and body shape impacted their chances of developing benign breast disease. These findings suggest that risk factors for breast cancer may differ between women with a family history of breast cancer and women without a family history.

Jon's Health Tips - Latest Health Research

2011-11-12T09:12:00.000-08:00

Recent reports discuss the benefits of:

Pomegranate juice (lowers cholesterol and blood pressure}

Fish (reduces the risk of diabetes)

Omega 3 (Reduces Anxiety And Inflammation)

Slow eating (reduces food intake)

Vitamin D (Light-skinned people who avoid the sun are twice as likely to suffer from vitamin D deficiency as those who do not)

More on Vitamin D (fights chronic digestive conditions)

Vegetarian diet, physical activity (protect against diabetes)

Physical activity (lower risk of depression in old age)

Nuts (decreases feelings of hunger, makes people feel happier and improves heart health)

Mediterranean diet and exercise (can reduce sleep apnea symptoms)

Resveratrol (metabolisms change for the better. In fact, the effects appear to be as as severe calorie restriction)

Probiotics (effective in combating antibiotic-associated diarrhea)

Fiber (lower risk of heart disease and type-2 diabetes)

Previous Reports

October 29

October 7

September 19

August 26

August 11

July 22

June 25

June 4

May 21

May 7

April 13

March 29

March 2

Health Effects of Green and White Tea

2011-11-12T07:49:00.000-08:00

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In doing research on the above, I came across this Wikipedia article.

I immediately

1. Wrote this note
2. Went off to brew more white tea, which I will drink with some orange juice.

Read the article!

Pomegranate juice lowers kidney disease patients' cholesterol, blood pressure, and the need for blood pressure medications

2011-11-11T12:24:00.000-08:00

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Lilach Shema, PhD (Western Galilee Medical Center in Israel) and colleagues investigated the long-term effects of drinking pomegranate juice on heart disease risk factors -- such as high cholesterol and blood pressure -- in kidney disease patients. Pomegranate juice is rich in antioxidants and has been touted as having a variety of health benefits.

The researchers randomized 101 dialysis patients to receive about three-and-a-half ounces of pomegranate juice or placebo, three times a week. After one year, the number of blood pressure drugs patients took decreased in 22% of patients drinking pomegranate juice compared to 7.7% in the placebo group, while an increase was documented in 12.2% of patients drinking pomegranate juice compared to 34.6% in the placebo group. Patients who drank pomegranate juice also had healthier blood pressure and cholesterol levels and less plaque build-up in their arteries. These results suggest that drinking pomegranate juice might decrease the high rates of illness and death among kidney disease patients.

Eating fish can reduce the risk of diabetes

2011-11-11T12:23:00.001-08:00

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A study analyzes the dietary patterns of the adult Spanish population with high cardiovascular risk. The results reveal a high consumption of both red meat and fish. However, whilst eating lots of cured meats is associated with greater weight gain and a higher obesity rate, the consumption of fish is linked to lower glucose concentrations and a smaller risk of developing diabetes.

More Fiber, but Not Necessarily Less Fat, Good for Teen Diets

2011-11-11T06:55:00.000-08:00

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A diet high in fiber -- but not necessarily one low in saturated fat or cholesterol -- is tied to a lower risk of heart disease and type-2 diabetes in teenagers, according to new findings from Michigan State University.

A study led by Joseph Carlson of MSU's Division of Sports and Cardiovascular Nutrition suggests to reduce metabolic syndrome -- a collection of risk factors including high blood pressure and a large waistline -- it is more important to emphasize diets including fiber-rich, nutrient-dense, plant-based foods than focus on restricting foods high in cholesterol or saturated fat.

The research is published in Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

"What we found is that as fiber intake increases, the risk for metabolic syndrome decreases," said Carlson, a registered dietitian and associate professor at MSU. "High-fiber, nutrient-dense foods are packed with heart healthy vitamins, minerals and chemicals that can positively affect many cardiovascular risk factors.

"It may be better to focus on including these foods than to focus, as is commonly done, on excluding foods high in saturated fat."

That does not mean, however, that teens should have carte blanche in eating foods high in saturated fat and cholesterol, Carlson said.

"It is well established that saturated fat can raise bad cholesterol," he said. "What this data suggest is the importance of including foods high in dietary fiber."

With the high availability of processed foods today, Carlson said, it is possible for teens to eat a diet that is low in saturated fat and cholesterol but that also is low in fiber and nutrient-rich, plant-based foods. Recent national data indicates up to 30 percent of teens' dietary intake comes from beverages and sugar-rich snacks.

Due to low intakes of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and beans, the total dietary fiber intake in teens is about 13 grams per day, well below the recommendation of 26 grams and 38 grams for female and male adolescents, respectively.

In addition, obesity and other key risk factors associated with metabolic syndrome are on the rise in youth; more than 70 percent of teens in the study had at least one of the five risk factors used to assess metabolic syndrome: high blood pressure, high levels of sugar and fat in the blood, low levels of good cholesterol and a large waistline (a person having three or more of the factors are classified as having the syndrome).

"One of the takeaways is that our study reinforced the current dietary recommendations for dietary fiber intake by including a variety of plant-based foods," Carlson said. "A strategy of emphasizing fiber-rich foods may improve adherence to dietary recommendations."

The next step, he said, is to figure out the best methods to boost dietary fiber intakes to levels that will improve or sustain a desirable cardiovascular risk factor status. For example, if a person daily has three servings of fruit and vegetables (12 grams of fiber), one serving of beans (seven grams), and three servings of whole grain, they will be at about 30 grams of dietary fiber.

"The trick is getting people in the groove finding the foods that they both enjoy and are convenient," Carlson said.

As part of the cross-sectional study, Carlson and his team focused on data collected as part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey done from 1999-2002. They analyzed the diets of more than 2,100 boys and girls ages 12 to 19, looking at whether the teens had three or more conditions that make up metabolic syndrome.

The study found there was a three-fold increase in the number of children that had metabolic syndrome when the group of children receiving the least fiber was compared with the group receiving the most. There was not a significant relationship with either saturated fat or cholesterol intake.

Reduction in risk of coronary heart disease from alcohol consumption

2011-11-10T13:24:00.000-08:00

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In a prospective, observational study of approximately 150,000 Norwegians, the investigators found that alcohol consumption was associated with a large decrease in the risk of death from coronary artery disease. For men, the fully adjusted hazard ratio for cardiac death was 0.52 (in other words, only about 1/2 the risk of dying) when comparing subjects reporting more than one drink/week in comparison with those reporting never or rarely drinking; for women, it was 0.62 (only about 3/5 the risk of dying). There was little change in the hazard ratio when HDL-cholesterol (HDL) was added to the model, suggesting that very little of the lower risk of heart disease was due to an increase in HDL from alcohol consumption.

Forum members considered this a well-done analysis. They were surprised at the very low amounts of alcohol intake reported by the subjects, with only 16% of males and about 8% of females reporting more than one drink/week. It is possible that the low levels of drinking, or perhaps over-adjustment in the multivariable analysis, led to the lack of effect of HDL. Most other studies have shown a much larger proportion of the effect of alcohol on heart disease risk to be associated with an increase in HDL.

OMEGA-3 Reduces Anxiety And Inflammation

2011-11-09T13:07:00.000-08:00

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A recent study gauging the impact of consuming more fish oil showed a marked reduction both in inflammation and, surprisingly, in anxiety among a cohort of healthy young people.

The research, supported by the Ohio State University Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS), was conducted by a team of scientists that has spent more than three decades investigating links between psychological stress and immunity.

“The findings suggest that if young people can get improvements from dietary supplements, then the elderly and people at high risk for certain diseases might benefit even more,” said Janice Kiecolt-Glaser, professor of psychiatry and author of the study, which was published this month in the journal Brain, Behavior and Immunity.
“The more we understand about the complex interplay between inflammation and immunity, the closer we’ll get to figuring out which lifestyle choices and changes have the biggest impact on long term health.”

Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, such as eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), have long been considered as positive additives to the diet.

Earlier research suggested that the compounds might play a role in reducing the level of cytokines in the body, compounds that promote inflammation, and perhaps even reduce depression.

Psychological stress has repeatedly been shown to increase cytokine production so the researchers wondered if increasing omega-3 might mitigate that process, reducing inflammation.

To test their theory, they turned to a familiar group of research subjects – medical students. Some of the earliest work these scientists did showed that stress from important medical school tests lowered students’ immune status.

“We hypothesized that giving some students omega-3 supplements would decrease their production of proinflammatory cytokines, compared to other students who only received a placebo,” explained Kiecolt-Glaser.

“We thought the omega-3 would reduce the stress-induced increase in cytokines that normally arose from nervousness over the tests.”

The team assembled a field of 68 first- and second-year medical students who volunteered for the clinical trial. Half the students received omega-3 supplements while the other half were given placebo pills. The students were randomly divided into six groups, all of which were interviewed six times during the study. At each visit, blood samples were drawn from the students who also completed a battery of psychological surveys intended to gauge their levels of stress, anxiety or depression. The students also completed questionnaires about their diets during the previous weeks
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“The omega-3 supplement the students received was probably about four or five times the amount of fish oil you’d get from a daily serving of salmon,” explained Martha Belury, professor of human nutrition and co-author in the study.

Part of the study, however, didn’t go according to plans.

Changes in the medical curriculum and the distribution of major tests throughout the year, rather than during a tense three-day period as was done in the past, removed much of the stress that medical students had shown in past studies.

“These students were not anxious. They weren’t really stressed. They were actually sleeping well throughout this period, so we didn’t get the stress effect we had expected,” Kiecolt-Glaser said.

But the psychological surveys clearly showed an important change in anxiety among the students: Those receiving the omega-3 showed a 20 percent reduction in anxiety compared to the placebo group. An analysis of the of the blood samples from the medical students showed similar important results.

“We took measurements of the cytokines in the blood serum, as well as measured the productivity of cells that produced two important cytokines, interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα),” said Ron Glaser, professor of molecular virology, immunology & medical genetics and director of the Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research.

“We saw a 14 percent reduction in the amounts of IL-6 among the students receiving the omega-3.” Since the cytokines foster inflammation, “anything we can do to reduce cytokines is a big plus in dealing with the overall health of people at risk for many diseases,” he said.

Inflammation is a natural immune response that helps the body heal, but it also can play a harmful role in a host of diseases ranging from arthritis to heart disease to cancer.

Even though the study showed omega-3 supplements can reduce both anxiety and inflammation – and some of the researchers said that they take omega-3 supplements – the researchers aren’t ready to recommend that the public start taking them daily.

"It may be too early to recommend a broad use of omega-3 supplements, especially considering the cost and the limited supplies of fish needed to supply the oil,” Belury said. “People should just consider increasing their omega-3 through their diet.”
Also working on the research with Kiecolt-Glaser, Glaser and Belury were William Malarkey, professor emeritus of internal medicine, and Rebecca Andridge, an assistant professor of public health.

Slow eating reduces food intake

2011-11-09T13:01:00.000-08:00

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Two new studies by researchers at the University of Rhode Island are providing additional insights into the role that eating rate plays in the amount of food one consumes. The studies found that men eat significantly faster than women, heavier people eat faster than slimmer people, and refined grains are consumed faster than whole grains, among other findings.

Kathleen Melanson, URI associate professor of nutrition, along with graduate students Emily Ponte and Amanda Petty, presented their research at the annual meeting of The Obesity Society in Orlando this month.

In one laboratory study, which validated that self-reported eating rates reflect an individual's actual eating rate, Melanson and her lab team found that fast eaters consumed about 3.1 ounces of food per minute, medium-speed eaters consumed 2.5 ounces per minute, and slow eaters consumed 2 ounces per minute. This work is the first to validate self-reported eating rates that have been used in large population studies, which have shown relationships between eating rate and body weight.

The researchers also found what Melanson described as "very strong gender differences" in eating rates. At lunch, the men consumed about 80 calories per minute while the women consumed 52 calories per minute.

"The men who reported eating slowly ate at about the same rate as the women who reported eating quickly," said Melanson, director of the URI Energy Balance Laboratory.

The second study, which examined the characteristics associated with eating rates, found a close association between eating rate and body mass index (BMI), with those individuals with a high BMI typically eating considerably faster than those with a low BMI.

"One theory we are pursuing is that fast eating may be related to greater energy needs, since men and heavier people have higher energy needs," said Melanson.

In what Melanson called her favorite result, the study also found that the test subjects consumed a meal of whole grains – whole grain cereal and whole wheat toast – significantly slower than when eating a similar meal of refined grains.

"Whole grains are more fibrous, so you have to chew them more, which takes more time," she said.

According to Melanson, these studies have raised a number of additional questions that she intends to pursue with future research.

"When you talk about eating rate, you have to talk about eating techniques," she explained. "It's not just about how long it takes you to eat, but how you eat."

She plans to study specific slow-eating techniques to see how they may affect appetite and weight loss. She will also examine other factors that might influence eating rate in daily life.

"We also want to recruit fast-paced eaters with a high BMI, teach them how to eat slowly, and see what role that might play in weight management," Melanson said.

While the link between eating rate and obesity is still being studied, Melanson said that her research has demonstrated that eating slowly results in significantly fewer average calories being consumed.

"It takes time for your body to process fullness signals," she concluded, "so slower eating may allow time for fullness to register in the brain before you've eaten too much."

The latest research follows up on a landmark 2007 study conducted by Melanson that was the first to confirm the popular dietary belief that eating slowly reduces food intake. That study found that women who were told to eat quickly consumed 646 calories in nine minutes, but the same women consumed just 579 calories in 29 minutes when encouraged to pause between bites and chew each mouthful 15 to 20 times before swallowing.

Alcohol Pluses and Minuses

2011-11-07T12:12:00.000-08:00

Reports in the last two weeks have focused on some negative aspects of alcohol consumption (click on links in each paragraph for more details.)

According to one report: "Just one drink per day for women -- two for men -- could lead to small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) and subsequently cause gastrointestinal symptoms like bloating, gas, abdominal pain, constipation and diarrhea."

Another report: Consumption of 3 to 6 alcoholic drinks per week is associated with a small increase in the risk of breast cancer...However, an individual will need to weigh the modest risks of light to moderate alcohol use on breast cancer development against the beneficial effects on cardiovascular disease to make the best personal choice regarding alcohol consumption."

I thought it might be useful in light of those recent reports to review some of the reported benefits of alcohol consumption:

Most recent reports:

Women who drink 15 grams or less of alcohol a day (the equivalent of one drink of any alcoholic beverage) at midlife may be healthier when older than women who do not drink at all, who consume more than two drinks a day, or who consume four drinks or more at the one time, according to a new study.

Among 13,894 women in the Nurses' Health Study, investigators prospectively examined alcohol use assessed at midlife in relation to "successful ageing," which was defined as survival to age 70 years, not having a major chronic disease (such as coronary disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes), and having no major cognitive impairment, physical impairment, or mental health problems. Only 11% of the women met these criteria.

The results indicate that moderate drinkers, especially those consuming wine and drinking regularly, were more likely to exhibit successful ageing. For average amount consumed, the largest benefit (an increase of 28%) was among women who reported 15.1 – 30 g of alcohol per day (an average of just over 1 to 2 ½ drinks per day), when compared with non-drinkers. The frequency of drinking was especially important: in comparison with nondrinkers, women who drank only on 1 to 2 days per week had little increase in their risk of successful ageing, but those drinking on at least 5 days per week had almost a 50% greater chance of successful ageing.

Older reports:

Men who drink alcohol every day have a lower risk of heart disease than those who drink less frequently, suggests research in the British Medical Journal.

A new study provides further evidence that alcohol, when consumed in moderation, reduces the risk of death, and not just that due to cardiovascular disease.

Red wine again linked to slowing Alzheimer's.

Resveratrol, a compound found in grapes, red wine and peanuts, can improve blood flow in the brain by 30 per cent, thereby reducing the risk of stroke.

A study published in Journal of the American Geriatrics Society finds that moderate alcohol intake (1-2 drinks/day for 3-6 days/week, depending on alcoholic content) may lead to increased quality of life and survival in older women. The study found that non-drinkers and women who rarely drank had a significantly higher risk of dying during the survey period than did women who drank moderately. Of those who survived, the women who drank the least reported the lowest health-related quality of life.

Participants who drank on average half a glass, or 1.5 ounces, of wine per day, over a long period, had a 40 percent lower rate of all-cause death and a 48 percent lower incidence of cardiovascular death, compared to the non-wine drinkers. Researchers said life expectancy was 3.8 years higher in those men who drank wine compared to those who did not drink alcoholic beverages. Life expectancy of wine users was more than two years longer than users of other alcoholic beverages.

Women who regularly enjoy an alcoholic drink or two have a significantly lower risk of having a non-fatal heart attack than women who are life-time abstainers.

Alcohol may protect against rheumatoid arthritis (RA), with three units a week exhibiting protective effects and ten units a week being more protective still.

Drinking up to half a glass of wine a day may boost life expectancy by five years—at least in men—suggests research published ahead of print in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

A not-to-be missed- red wine summary here.

Moderate alcohol intake offers long-term cognitive protection and reduces the risk of dementia in older adults.

A study published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease suggests a protective effect of alcohol consumption on the risk of Alzheimer's disease, particularly in women who do not smoke.

More on red wine:

Red Wine

1. Drinking more than three glasses of red wine a week could cut the risk of colorectal cancer by almost 70 per cent.

2. Resveratrol, a polyphenol found in red wine, extended survival rates of mice and prevented the negative effects of high-calorie diets, says a new study. The study, described by an independent expert as potentially “the breakthrough of the year”, adds to a growing body of research linking resveratrol and red wine consumption to a range of beneficial health effects, including brain and mental health, and cardiovascular health.

3. Red wine and green tea halt prostate cancer growth

4. Drink Red Wine Daily For Best Results

5. Drinking Wine Protects Skin From Radiation

6. Lose Weight With Resveratrol?

“The physiological benefits of resveratrol are currently under intensive investigation, with recent work suggesting that it could be a good candidate for the development of obesity therapies.”

7. Resveratrol Neutralizes Toxicity of Proteins Related to Alzheimer's

Caucasians who avoid sun exposure more likely to be vitamin D deficient

2011-11-03T12:41:00.000-07:00

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Light-skinned people who avoid the sun are twice as likely to suffer from vitamin D deficiency as those who do not, according to a study of nearly 6,000 people by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Surprisingly, the use of sunscreen did not significantly affect blood levels of vitamin D, perhaps because users were applying too little or too infrequently, the researchers speculate.

The study adds to a growing debate about how to balance the dangers of sun exposure with the need for appropriate levels of vitamin D to prevent bone diseases such as osteoporosis and rickets.

"It's not as simple as telling everyone to wear sunscreen," said dermatologist Eleni Linos, MD PhD. "We may instead need to begin tailoring our recommendations to the skin tones and lifestyles of individual patients. It's clearly a very complex issue."

Linos, who is now an assistant professor of dermatology at the University of California-San Francisco, was a Stanford resident when the research was conducted. She is the first author of the research, which will be published online Nov. 4 in Cancer Causes and Control. Assistant professor of dermatology Jean Tang, MD, PhD, is the senior author.

Vitamin D is produced by the skin in response to exposure to the ultraviolet rays in sunlight; too little of the vitamin causes bone weakening and rickets and possibly contributes to many other chronic diseases including cancer. Small amounts of vitamin D can also be acquired by drinking fortified milk, eating fortified breakfast cereals or eating fatty fish such as salmon, tuna and mackerel, as well as from over-the-counter dietary supplements. Although it's not clear exactly how many people may be deficient in the vitamin, experts believe about 30 to 40 percent of the United States population may be affected.

Linos and Tang analyzed population-base data from the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 2003 to 2006. The survey included questions about sun-protective behavior, inquiring whether respondents frequently wore long sleeves, hats and sunscreen, and whether they sought out shade on sunny days. It also included each respondent's race, as well as their blood levels of a form of vitamin D called 25-hydroxyvitamin D.

The researchers found that Caucasians who avoided the sun with clothing or stayed in the shade had blood levels of vitamin D that were about 3.5 and 2.2 nanograms per milliliter lower than those who did not report such behavior. In contrast, the association between sun avoidance and reductions in vitamin D levels in Hispanic or African-American survey-takers was not statistically significant. "This may be explained by the inherent pigmentation in darker skin, which acts as natural sun protection," said Linos. (The researchers did not analyze Asians as a separate group.)

The researchers considered any respondent with blood levels of 20 nanograms per milliliter or below to be vitamin D deficient because lower levels have been associated with adverse health outcomes. They found that although about 40 percent of all survey participants were vitamin D deficient, the prevalence increased to 53 and 56 percent among those who wore long sleeves and stayed in the shade. Whites who wore long sleeves and stayed in the shade were twice as likely to be deficient in the vitamin as those who did not (odds ratios of 2.16 and 2.11, respectively).

Race affects vitamin D production because of differences in skin pigmentation. Highly pigmented skin protects against ultraviolet rays, but also leads to lower overall baseline levels of vitamin D in the blood and frequent vitamin D deficiency. In the current study, African-Americans who rarely took sun-protective measures had an average vitamin D blood level of about 14.5 nanograms per milliliter. Hispanics who didn't avoid the sun had an average level of about 19.7 and sun-loving Caucasians, about 26.4. In contrast, those who frequently stayed in the shade had average levels of 14, 19.2 and 22.8 nanograms per milliliter, respectively.

"This confirms that the issue of vitamin D supplementation is increasingly important." said Linos. She cautioned, however, against wholesale use of dietary supplements before more data has been generated; currently there are two large, randomized clinical trials testing the health effects of relatively high doses of vitamin D.

The real surprise came when Linos found that the reported use of sunscreen did not significantly affect vitamin D levels. Because sunscreens block the ultraviolet rays that trigger the vitamin's production, it seems that regular usage should lower vitamin D in the blood.

"This finding was both interesting and surprising," said Linos. The apparent contradiction is likely due to sunscreen users not using the protection effectively. "People are probably not applying it often or thickly enough," she said. "Often, people use sunscreen when they anticipate getting a lot of sun exposure, unlike others who spend time in the shade in order to avoid the sun."

Vegetarian diet, physical activity protect against diabetes

2011-11-03T12:40:00.000-07:00

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New research shows that following a vegetarian diet and exercising at least three times a week significantly reduced the risk of diabetes in African Americans, who are twice as likely to be diagnosed with diabetes when compared to non-Hispanic whites.

"These findings are encouraging for preventing type 2 diabetes in the black population, which is more susceptible to the disease than other populations," said Serena Tonstad, MD, a professor at Loma Linda University and lead author of the research, published in the October issue of Nutrition, Metabolism & Cardiovascular Diseases.

In addition to being at a greater risk for developing diabetes, black persons in the U.S. are also more likely to suffer from diabetes-related complications, such as end-stage renal disease and lower-extremity amputations, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

"A vegetarian diet may be a way to counteract the increased diabetes risk for the black population," Dr. Tonstad said.

Dr. Tonstad's research showed that, compared to non-vegetarian blacks, vegan blacks had a 70 percent reduced risk of diabetes, and lacto-ovo vegetarian blacks (those who consume dairy, but no meat) had a 53 percent reduced risk of diabetes. Dr. Tonstad said one explanation was the protection associated with foods typically consumed in higher amounts in a vegetarian diet. Fruits and vegetables have a high fiber content, which may contribute to a decreased occurrence of type 2 diabetes. In addition, whole grains and legumes (beans) have been shown to improve glycemic control and slow the rate of carbohydrate absorption and the risk of diabetes.

The study also showed that black participants who exercised three or more times a week, compared to once a week or never, had a 35 percent reduced risk of diabetes.

The findings used prospective data (following persons over time) of 7,172 black Seventh-day Adventists participating in Adventist Health Study-2. Adventists are a Protestant religious group that promotes vegetarianism and advocates abstinence from tobacco and alcohol, which results in less confounding (distortions) when studying associations between diet and disease. Participants were given a questionnaire that asked how often they consumed 130 foods and food groups. Participants were then categorized into a dietary category (vegan, lacto-ovo vegetarian, etc.) based on their responses.

The study also analyzed data of 34,215 non-black Adventists and found similar protections against diabetes for a vegetarian diet. These findings confirm results from past cross-sectional research (examining persons at one point in time) that showed a vegetarian diet offered protection against diabetes.

Physical activity = lower risk of depression in old age

2011-11-03T05:48:00.000-07:00

Regular physical activity is associated with a lower risk of suffering depression in old age. This is shown by one of the largest studies on elderly Europeans to have been carried out, by researchers at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, among others. Research also shows that self-determined motivation and perceived competence are i

"We do not yet know for sure what the causal relationship between physical activity and depression is like. What is clear is that elderly people who are physically active are less depressed, but higher levels of depression can also lead to less exercise, and this suggests there is a mutual influence," says Magnus Lindwall, docent (associate professor) in exercise and health psychology at the University of Gothenburg.

In a recently published study Lindwall, together with research colleagues, has studied 17,500 elderly people with an average age of 64 from 11 European countries who are taking part in the large EU-funded population study Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement (SHARE). The subjects in the study were followed up over a period of two and a half years, among other things with regard to physical activity and depression.

"This study is one of the first to look at both how physical activity affects future depression and vice-versa, and how change in physical activity is associated with change in depression over time," says Lindwall.

"An important question for the researchers to answer has been what motivates elderly people to be physically active. Modern motivational theories propose, for example, that individuals who feel that they are competent, that they can take decisions for themselves and have freedom of choice and that they feel social relatedness linked to physical activity experience a more internal and a less controlled form of motivation for exercise. . This form of motivation, unlike a non-self-determining external form of motivation, is also associated with the maintenance of long-term regular physical activity, which also improves the prospects for the positive effects that physical activity can have on both physical and mental health.

"Right now we are developing and testing a structured programme to increase motivation for physical activity among the elderly based on the theories that today has strong support in the research," says Lindwall.

The results support the recommendations to use physical activity as a powerful preventive measure against mental ill-health in the elderly.

"But regular physical activity is required, otherwise there is a great risk of the long-term favourable effects on health being lost. It is therefore important to identify the barriers, for example depression, that prevent the elderly from being physically active and focus on how to increase the motivation of elderly people for physical activity," says Lindwall.

Vitamin D fights chronic digestive conditions

2011-11-03T05:46:00.000-07:00

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New research points to a potential role for UV light exposure and vitamin D levels in chronic digestive conditions; Crohn's disease, a serious inflammatory condition in the small intestine; and ulcerative colitis (UC), which similarly affects the colon.

In two separate studies presented at the American College of Gastroenterology's 76th Annual Scientific Meeting, a group of investigators from Massachusetts General Hospital probed the connection between geography, UV exposure and incidence of inflammatory bowel disease while another group from Weill Cornell Medical Center looked at different levels of supplementation with Vitamin D to determine impact on severity of Crohn's disease.

"Geographic Variations and Risk of Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis"

Results from two large prospective studies among large cohorts of nurses enrolled in the U.S. Nurses Health Study I and II revealed a significant north-south gradient in the association between latitude and incidence of Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis in the United States. Such geographic variation has been reported in Europe, however comparable data in the United States are lacking, so this study advances understanding of the epidemiology of chronic inflammatory bowel disease, which affects as many as 1.4 million patients in the United States.

"This differential risk may be explained by differences in UV light exposure, vitamin D status, or pollution," explained Dr. Hamed Khalili, who, along Dr. Andrew Chan and colleagues at Massachusetts General Hospital, analyzed data that included a 4,209,454 person-year follow up in which they confirmed 284 cases of Crohn's disease and 332 cases of ulcerative colitis.

While the mean age of diagnosis among the women was 51 for Crohn's and 48 for UC, the investigators found that the women's geographic location at age 30 was strongly associated with incidence of disease. Based on geographic location at age 30, compared to women in northern latitudes, women in southern latitudes had an adjusted hazard ratio of 0.51 for Crohn's and 0.65 for UC suggesting that the risk of disease is 50% and 35% lower in the southern latitudes compared to northern latitudes for CD and UC, respectively. Further studies are warranted on underlying lifestyle and environmental factors that mediate this association, as well as their interaction with known genetic risk factors for CD and UC.

"High-dose Vitamin D3 Improves Clinical Activity in Crohn's Disease"

Results of an interim analysis of the first 15 patients in a study conducted at Weill-Cornell Medical and presented at the ACG Annual Scientific Meeting by Dustin Boothe, MD, sought to determine if high doses of Vitamin D3 supplementation in Vitamin D deficient patients with Crohn's disease leads to improved clinical outcomes.

Two groups of patients with Crohn's disease, who had baseline levels of Vitamin D that were low, were randomized to either low-dose (1,000 IU/day) or high-dose (10,000 IU/day) Vitamin D treatment and assessed at day 1, and after 8 weeks and 26 weeks of treatment. The investigators measured the patients's symptom severity using the Harvey-Bradshaw Index (HBI) an index of disease activity in Crohn's.

Results from the first 15 patients suggest that after 26 weeks of therapy, there were persistently significant differences in Vitamin D levels between the high-dose and low-dose groups, but importantly the low-dose group had no significant change in disease activity as measured by HBI at 26 weeks compared to baseline, whereas the high dose group did.

"Our interim analysis suggests that supplementation with 10,000 IU of Vitamin D3 may be an effective adjunctive therapy for ameliorating symptoms in Crohn's disease patients," commented Dr. Boothe on the presentation of these preliminary data.

Mediterranean diet and exercise can reduce sleep apnoea symptoms

2011-11-02T13:19:00.000-07:00

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Eating a Mediterranean diet combined with physical activity can help to improve some of the symptoms of sleep apnoea, according to new research.

The study, which is published online in the European Respiratory Journal, looked at the impact a Mediterranean diet can have on obese people with sleep apnoea, compared to those on a prudent diet.

Obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSAS) causes frequent pauses of breathing to occur during sleep, which disrupts a person’s normal sleeping pattern. It is one of the most prevalent sleep-related breathing disorders with approximately 2-4% of the adult population experiencing the condition. This percentage increases up to 20-40% with obesity, and weight loss is often an essential part of the recommended treatment plan.

The researchers, from the University of Crete in Greece, examined 40 obese patients suffering from OSAS. Twenty patients were given a prudent diet to follow, while the other 20 followed a Mediterranean diet*. Both groups were also encouraged to increase their physical activity, mainly involving walking for at least 30 minutes each day.

In both groups, the patients also received continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy which involves wearing a mask that generates an air stream, keeping the upper airway open during sleep.

The researchers monitored the patients during a sleep study, known as polysomnography. This involved monitoring several markers for OSAS, including electrical activity in the brain, eye movements and snoring. The patients were examined at the start of the study and again 6 months later.

The results showed that people following the Mediterranean diet had a reduced number of disturbances, known as apnoeas, during the rapid eye movement (REM) stage of sleep, which usually accounts for approximately 25% of total sleep during the night.

The findings also revealed that people following the Mediterranean diet also showed a greater adherence to the calorie restricted diet, an increase in physical activity and a greater decrease in abdominal fat.

The results of this small sample did show an improvement during one stage of sleep for people with sleep apnoea, however it did not show an overall improvement in severity of the condition. The authors suggest that further studies in a larger sample are required to fully understand the benefits of this diet.

Christopher Papandreou, lead author for the research, said: “This is the first study examining the impact of the Mediterranean diet in combination with physical activity on OSAS via changes in the human body. Our results showed that the number of disturbances during REM sleep was reduced more in the Mediterranean diet group than the other group. Recent reports have related an increase in disturbances during REM sleep with the risk of developing significant systemic consequences like diabetes type II. However, its clinical significance remains unclear. Finally, more studies are needed to examine the effect of the above diet on this sleep-related breathing disorder taking into account its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.”

Recommended consumption of several food groups according to the prescribed diet:

Food groups Prudent Diet Mediterranean diet
Red meat (servings/wk) 9 3
Poultry (servings/wk) 3 3
Fish (servings/wk) 1 3 (1 fatty fish)
Dairy products, low fat 2 2
Fruit (servings/d) 1-2 4
Vegetables (servings/d) 1.5 5
Legumes (servings/wk) 1 ≥3
Potatoes (servings/wk) ≥5 ≥5
Non-refined cereals 2 6
Red wine (glasses/d) 0 1-2
Daily use of olive oil moderate moderate

Benefits of nut consumption

2011-11-02T13:18:00.000-07:00

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For the first time, scientists report a link between eating nuts and higher levels of serotonin in the bodies of patients with metabolic syndrome (MetS), who are at high risk for heart disease. Serotonin is a substance that helps transmit nerve signals and decreases feelings of hunger, makes people feel happier and improves heart health. It took only one ounce of mixed nuts (raw unpeeled walnuts, almonds and hazelnuts) a day to produce the good effects. The report appears in ACS' Journal of Proteome Research.

Cristina Andrés-Lacueva and colleagues from the Biomarkers & NutriMetabolomics Research Group of the University of Barcelona in collaboration with the Human Nutrition Unit of the Rovira i Virgili University explain that the rise in obesity around the world means more and more patients have MetS. Symptoms include excess abdominal fat, high blood sugar and high blood pressure, which increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Dietary changes may help patients shed the excess weight and become healthier, among the changes, the regular consumption of nuts — which are jam-packed with healthful nutrients, such as healthy fats (unsaturated fatty acids) and antioxidants (polyphenols) — have been recommended to fight the metabolic abnormalities associated with MetS. To check the biochemical effects of nut consumption, the researchers put 22 MetS patients on a nut-enriched diet for 12 weeks and compared them to another group of 20 patients who were told to avoid nuts.

The scientists analyzed the broad spectrum of compounds excreted in the patients' urine and found evidence of several healthful changes. One surprise was evidence that nut consumption had boosted patients' levels of serotonin metabolites in urine, since these findings suggest the role of serotonin in the beneficial effects of nuts. They point out that the study provides the first evidence in humans of the beneficial effects of nut consumption in reducing levels of substances in the body associated with inflammation and other cardiovascular risk factors in patients with metabolic syndrome.

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Vitamin D Study Suggests No Mortality Benefit for Older Women

2011-11-02T10:57:00.000-07:00

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A study of postmenopausal women found no significant mortality benefit from vitamin D after controlling for health risk factors such as abdominal obesity. The only exception was that thin-waisted women with low vitamin D levels might face some risk. The results agree with advice issued last year by the Institute of Medicine that cautioned against vitamin D having a benefit beyond bone health.

Doctors agree that vitamin D promotes bone health, but a belief that it can also prevent cancer, cardiovascular disease and other causes of death has been a major health controversy. Consistent with advice issued last fall by the Institute of Medicine, a new study finds that vitamin D did not confer benefits against mortality in postmenopausal women after controlling for key health factors such as abdominal obesity.

"There's not enough evidence to do anything about vitamin D levels if it's not in regard to bone health.""What we have is clinical trial evidence that for the most part vitamin D doesn't seem to be helpful for conditions where people thought it might," said study lead author Charles Eaton, professor of family medicine and of epidemiology in the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and a physician at Memorial Hospital in Pawtucket, R.I. "The best we can tell is that there isn't an association. Once we took into account these other factors, high levels didn't provide a benefit and low levels didn't put you at risk."

In the study, published online Oct. 26 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Eaton led an analysis of data from 2,429 postmenopausal women aged 50 to 79 who participated in the broad-based Women's Health Initiative study, in which Eaton and many co-authors were investigators. They tracked blood levels of vitamin D in the women and their mortality over a 10-year period. They not only looked at death from all causes but also focused on cancer and cardiovascular disease.

In all, 225 of the women died, including 79 from cardiovascular disease and 62 from cancer.

Eaton said he expected to find some protective effect against such mortality from vitamin D, and at first glance -- controlling only for age, ethnicity, and whether women took part in a calcium and vitamin D supplement trial -- that's what the data showed. But what was apparent in the data was that the women with the lowest levels of vitamin D also had a lot of other negative health indicators. The team therefore controlled for several more key health factors, such as smoking, history of cardiovascular disease, history of cancer, alcohol consumption, and waist circumference. The additional controls, especially waist circumference, which is a measure of abdominal obesity, eroded the statistical significance of vitamin D's seemingly protective effects down to nothing.

The one exception was that women with thinner waistlines (less than 35 inches) and with the lowest vitamin D levels seemed to have a greater risk of "all-cause" mortality within the 10-year analysis period. That result, however, was right on the borderline of statistical significance.

"If you are thin, this data suggest that maybe low vitamin D levels are potentially harmful and you should talk to your doctor about what to do about them," Eaton said.

Eaton said he and his co-authors can only speculate about why abdominal obesity was an especially important and powerful factor to control for in their analysis. In the study they note that abdominal obesity is associated with several negative health indicators that may overwhelm any modest benefit vitamin D might have. They also point out that fat tissue can store vitamin D, possibly meaning that women with larger waistlines are storing more of the vitamin than their blood serum levels alone would reveal.

More research into the connections between abdominal fat and the health effects of vitamin D could help resolve the question, Eaton said. He also said that a major new trial of vitamin D supplements and health called "VITAL" is getting underway and will likely inform the broader controversy about what vitamin D is good for.

For now, Eaton said, "there's not enough evidence to do anything about our vitamin D levels if it's not in regard to bone health."

First clinical trial of red wine ingredient shows metabolic shifts

2011-11-01T13:22:00.000-07:00

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When obese men take a relatively small dose of resveratrol in purified form every day for a month, their metabolisms change for the better. In fact, the effects appear to be as good for us as severe calorie restriction. Resveratrol is a natural compound best known as an ingredient in red wine.

"We saw a lot of small effects, but consistently pointing in a good direction of improved metabolic health," said Patrick Schrauwen of Maastricht University in The Netherlands.

The findings in the November issue of the Cell Press journal Cell Metabolism are the first to report the clinical effects of resveratrol.

Earlier studies in animals had shown that resveratrol alleviates insulin resistance and protects against the ill effects of a high-fat diet, among other benefits, he explained. The effects are comparable to what happens when animals or humans significantly restrict the number of calories they consume, a diet plan shown to delay the onset of age-related diseases. Still, no studies had systematically examined the metabolic effects of resveratrol in humans.

To fill that gap, the researchers gave 11 obese but otherwise healthy men a dietary supplement containing 150 milligrams of a 99 percent pure trans-resveratrol (trade name resVida) for 30 days while they measured the amount of energy they expended, the amount of fat they were storing and burning, and more.

The data show that, like calorie restriction, resveratrol supplements lower energy expenditure and improve measures of metabolism and overall health. Those changes include a lower metabolic rate, less fat in the liver, lower blood sugar levels and a drop in blood pressure. Trial participants also experienced changes in the way their muscles burned fat.

"The immediate reduction in sleep metabolic rate was particularly striking," Schrauwen said. Of course, in the case of obesity, it's not entirely clear whether burning fewer calories is a good or a bad thing. It does suggest that participants' cells were operating more efficiently, as they do following calorie restriction.

Those metabolic effects of resveratrol also came with no apparent side effects.

Schrauwen said they chose to study obese individuals given their increased risk for type 2 diabetes. In future studies, he hopes to explore the effects of resveratrol in people who have already progressed to diabetes.

ResVida and other resveratrol supplements are already widely available, but more work is needed to establish whether they indeed have the potential to overcome the metabolic aberrations associated with obesity and aging, according to the researchers.

"I don't see a reason for particular caution, but we do need long-term studies," Schrauwen says.

Low levels of alcohol consumption associated with small increased risk of breast cancer

2011-11-01T13:21:00.000-07:00

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Consumption of 3 to 6 alcoholic drinks per week is associated with a small increase in the risk of breast cancer, and consumption in both earlier and later adult life is also associated with an increased risk, according to a study in the November 2 issue of JAMA.

"In many studies, higher consumption of alcohol has been associated with an increased risk of breast cancer. However, the effect of low levels of drinking as is common in the United States has not been well quantified," according to background information in the article. "In addition, the role of drinking patterns (i.e., frequency of drinking and 'binge' drinking) and consumption at different times of adult life are not well understood."

Wendy Y. Chen, M.D., M.P.H., of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, and colleagues examined the association of breast cancer with alcohol consumption during adult life, including quantity, frequency, and age at consumption. The study included 105,986 women enrolled in the Nurses' Health Study who were followed up from 1980 until 2008 with an early adult alcohol assessment and 8 updated alcohol assessments. The primary outcome the researchers measured was the risk of developing invasive breast cancer.

During the follow-up period, there were 7,690 cases of invasive breast cancer diagnosed among the study participants. Analyses of data indicated that a low level of alcohol consumption (5.0 to 9.9 grams per day, equivalent to 3-6 glasses of wine per week) was modestly but statistically significantly associated with a 15 percent increased risk of breast cancer. In addition, women who consumed at least 30 grams of alcohol daily on average (at least 2 drinks per day) had a 51 percent increased risk of breast cancer compared with women who never consumed alcohol.

The researchers also found that when examined separately, alcohol consumption levels at ages 18 to 40 years and after age 40 years were both strongly associated with breast cancer risk. The association with drinking in early adult life still persisted even after controlling for alcohol intake after age 40 years.

Binge drinking, but not frequency of drinking, was also associated with breast cancer risk after controlling for cumulative alcohol intake.

The authors add that although the exact mechanism for the association between alcohol consumption and breast cancer is not known, one probable explanation may involve alcohol's effects on circulating estrogen levels.

"In summary, our study provides a comprehensive assessment of the relationship between alcohol intake and breast cancer risk in terms of timing, frequency, quantity, and types of alcohol in a large prospective cohort with detailed information on breast cancer risk factors," the researchers write. "Our results highlight the importance of considering lifetime exposure when evaluating the effect of alcohol, and probably other dietary factors, on the carcinogenesis process. However, an individual will need to weigh the modest risks of light to moderate alcohol use on breast cancer development against the beneficial effects on cardiovascular disease to make the best personal choice regarding alcohol consumption."

Probiotics effective in combating antibiotic-associated diarrhea

2011-10-31T13:41:00.000-07:00

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In four different studies presented at the American College of Gastroenterology's (ACG) 76th Annual Scientific meeting in Washington, DC, researchers explored the effectiveness of probiotics for antibiotic-associated diarrhea; as an anti-inflammatory agent for patients with ulcerative colitis, psoriasis and chronic fatigue syndrome; and for people with abdominal discomfort and bloating who have not been diagnosed with a functional bowel disorder, such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

These four studies will be featured during an ACG press briefing on Tuesday, November 1, 2011 entitled: "Good, Bad and Ugly Bugs: Mother Nature as a Treatment for Better Health in the GI Tract," which will highlight new clinical science that explores the role of the "gut microbiota" –the bacterial composition of the GI tract – and the efficacy of probiotics and fecal microbiota transplantation in treating various GI conditions.

Probiotics are considered "good bacteria" that help maintain the natural balance of microflora in the digestive tract where trillions of bacteria live. While most of the more than 400 different species in the gut are healthy bacteria, others, "bad bugs" have the potential to cause damage to the digestive system. At times, an imbalance between the good and bad bacteria can lead to uncomfortable symptoms or illnesses. Probiotics are bacteria, or even sometimes yeast, which may alleviate common GI symptoms and are found in many commercial products including yogurt, juices, soy products, fermented milk, tempeh and other dietary supplements. They also come in capsule, tablet or powder formulations.

Probiotic Therapy Reduce the Incidence of Antibiotic Associated Diarrhea

Antibiotic-associated diarrhea (AAD) and Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea (CDAD) are complications of long-term antibiotic use and are associated with significant cost and morbidity.

While the role of probiotics in treating AAD and CDAD has been investigated in several trials with conflicting results, this review, "Probiotic Prophylaxis Significantly Reduces the Incidence of Antibiotic Associated Diarrhea: A Meta-Analysis," by researchers from the Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York, is the first meta-analysis examining the role of probiotics in treating these conditions.

Twenty-two studies were identified and a total of 3096 patients were included, 63 percent of whom were adults and all treated with various species of probiotics. Four studies (35 percent of the population of the study) used S. boulardii as the probiotic of choice. The average treatment period with probiotics was 1.5 weeks, with the shortest period being five days and the longest period being three weeks, according to Steven Shamah, MD, who presented the findings.

"Overall in twenty-two studies, probiotic prophylaxis significantly reduced the odds ratio of developing AAD by approximately 60 percent. This analysis clearly demonstrates that probiotics offer protective benefit in the prevention of these diseases," said principal investigator Rabin Rahmani, MD.

"These findings suggest that all patients who are at high-risk for these infections demonstrated by recent antibiotic useage, old age, recent hospitalization, low albumin, and immunosuppression should be considered for probiotic therapy," said Dr. Shamah. He added that further prospective studies are warranted to examine the most efficacious duration, dose and specific species of probiotics in prevention of AAD and CDAD in high risk patients.

Another related meta-analysis, "Probiotics in Antibiotic-Associated Diarrhea: An Updated Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials," confirmed earlier results suggesting the preventative effects of probiotics in AAD. Researchers from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, aimed to estimate the reduction in risk of developing AAD with probiotic therapy in randomized controlled trials (RCT), and identify factors associated with such reduction. The analysis included 28 randomized controlled trials with 3,338 total patients receiving single or combination antibiotics for various indications.

"The preventive effect of probiotic use remained significant regardless of species used, adult versus child populations, study quality score and antibiotic administered," said researcher Elizabeth Videlock, MD, who presented the findings. "The preventive effect of probiotics is also apparent during combined antibiotic treatment for H.pylori eradication."

B. infantis 35624 Investigated in Non-Patient Population

In the largest study on probiotics done in the United States in a non-patient population, researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assessed the efficacy of B. infantis 35624--a probiotic that has been effective in relieving symptoms in IBS patients—for the relief of abdominal discomfort and bloating in a non-patient population.

The double-blind, randomized, placebo controlled, parallel study with a two-week placebo run-in phase followed by a four-week intervention phase was conducted at ten clinical centers in the US. The study included 302 non-patients who experienced abdominal discomfort and bloating more than twice weekly on average for at least three months but had not seen a physician or received prescribed medication for their symptoms in the past 12 months. They called in daily to report symptom severity on a six point Likert scale during the run-in and treatment phase.

Although mean severity scores for both, abdominal discomfort and bloating improved during the intervention period, there were no significant differences between the placebo and probiotic group, according to Yehuda Ringel, MD, who presented the findings.

"Unlike previous clinical studies in IBS patients, we were not able to demonstrate a statistically significant improvement in mean severity of abdominal discomfort and bloating with B. infantis 35624 in a non-patient population," said Dr. Ringel. He attributed this in part to the high placebo response and the possible "floor effect" which means the severity of symptoms is too low to measure any improvement. "This doesn't mean that B. infantis 35624 cannot help ease abdominal discomfort and bloating in non-patients—we just couldn't demonstrate it because the room for improvement is low compared to IBS patients, where symptom severity is much higher. Our secondary finding of significantly more bloating-free days in the B. infantis 35624 group needs further studies, particularly in the non-patient, healthy population."

Probiotic B. infantis 35624 Promising as Anti-Inflammatory Agent for Patients with Ulcerative Colitis, Psoriasis, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Microbial imbalance has been proposed as one possible explanation for the increased incidence of a wide range of inflammatory disorders, including ulcerative colitis, suggesting that altering the balance between good and bad bacteria in the gut may promote an immune regulatory response that could reduce inflammation, according to researchers at the Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre at University College Cork and Alimentary Health Ltd in Cork, Ireland, who aimed to determine if B. infantis could influence systemic pro-inflammatory biomarkers in patients with inflammatory disease.

The double-blind, placebo controlled study, "Oral Administration of the Probiotic Bifidobacterium Infantis 35624 to Humans Induces Immunoregulatory Responses in Vivo," included healthy volunteers, and patients with psoriasis, ulcerative colitis and chronic fatigue syndrome. According to the results, plasma levels of the anti-inflammatory cytokine, IL-10, were significantly increased in healthy volunteers and psoriasis patients, but not placebo for eight weeks; while plasma levels of the pro-inflammatory cytokines TNF-alpha and IL-6 were significantly reduced in all patient groups that received B. infantis. In addition, C-reactive protein (CRP) levels were also significantly reduced in psoriasis, ulcerative colitis and chronic fatigue patients at the end of treatment with B. infantis compared to placebo treated patients.

"The human immunological response to B. infantis further supports the hypothesis that manipulation of the microbiota with specific therapeutic microbes can have a significant effect on host inflammatory processes," said Eamonn M.M. Quigley, MD, FACG, who presented the findings. "This anti-inflammatory effect is not restricted to a specific disease state, suggesting that B.infantis induces a critical cellular response, which may include the induction of regulatory cell subsets."

Moderate alcohol consumption is associated with GI woes

2011-10-31T13:39:00.000-07:00

Just one drink per day may be cause of bloating, gas, abdominal pain, diarrhea

Just one drink per day for women -- two for men -- could lead to small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) and subsequently cause gastrointestinal symptoms like bloating, gas, abdominal pain, constipation and diarrhea, according to the results of a new study unveiled today at the American College of Gastroenterology's (ACG) 76th Annual Scientific meeting in Washington, DC.

The retrospective review, "Moderate Alcohol Consumption is Associated with Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth," looked at the charts of 198 patients who underwent lactulose hydrogen breath testing (LHBT) to determine the presence of SIBO, and found that any current alcohol consumption was significantly associated with the presence of SIBO -- and neither smoking nor use of heartburn drugs called PPIs was associated with an increased risk of SIBO.

Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth is a condition where abnormally large numbers of bacteria grow in the small intestine. Normally the small intestine contains a relatively low number of bacteria in contrast to the large intestine, which should contain a larger number of bacteria. In patients with SIBO, the abnormally large numbers of bacteria in the small intestine use for their growth many of the nutrients that would otherwise be absorbed.

As a result, a person with small bowel bacterial overgrowth may not absorb enough nutrients and become malnourished. In addition, the breakdown of nutrients by the bacteria in the small intestines can produce gas as well as lead to a change in bowel habits.

While previous studies have focused on alcoholics, who were found to have high rates of SIBO, this study by Scott Gabbard, MD and colleagues at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and the Mayo Clinic, is one of the first to look at the relationship between moderate alcohol consumption and SIBO. Moderate alcohol consumption means no more than 1 drink per day for women and 2 drinks per day for men, with twelve ounces of regular beer, 5 ounces of wine, or 1-½ ounces of 80-proof distilled spirits counting as one drink, according to the USDA dietary guidelines.

An overwhelming majority (95 percent) of the 198 patients in the study drank a moderate amount of alcohol, sometimes less than 1 drink per day, said Dr. Gabbard, who also indicated that only four of the patients drank more alcohol -- a finding he noted indicates that consumption of even the slightest amount of alcohol could have an impact on gut health.

"These findings are significant because we now know that any bit of alcohol consumption -- not just the amount consumed by alcoholics -- is a strong predictor of a positive lactulose hydrogen breath testing and small intestinal bacterial overgrowth," he said. "While typical treatment for SIBO has been antibiotics, probiotics or a combination of the two, the question now becomes what is the exact association between moderate alcohol consumption and SIBO and whether alcohol cessation can be used as a treatment for this potentially harmful condition."

Live longer with fewer calories

2011-10-31T13:34:00.000-07:00

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By consuming fewer calories, ageing can be slowed down and the development of age-related diseases such as cancer and type 2 diabetes can be delayed. The earlier calorie intake is reduced, the greater the effect. Researchers at the University of Gothenburg have now identified one of the enzymes that hold the key to the ageing process.

"We are able to show that caloric restriction slows down ageing by preventing an enzyme, peroxiredoxin, from being inactivated. This enzyme is also extremely important in counteracting damage to our genetic material," says Mikael Molin of the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology.

By gradually reducing the intake of sugar and proteins, without reducing vitamins and minerals, researchers have previously shown that monkeys can live several years longer than expected. The method has also been tested on everything from fishes and rats to fungi, flies and yeasts with favourable results. Caloric restriction also has favourable effects on our health and delays the development of age-related diseases. Despite this, researchers in the field have found it difficult to explain exactly how caloric restriction produces these favourable effects.

Using yeast cells as a model, the research team at the University of Gothenburg has successfully identified one of the enzymes required. They are able to show that active peroxiredoxin 1, Prx1, an enzyme that breaks down harmful hydrogen peroxide in the cells, is required for caloric restriction to work effectively.

IMAGE: This is an image of yeast.
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The results, which have been published in the scientific journal Molecular Cell, show that Prx1 is damaged during ageing and loses its activity. Caloric restriction counteracts this by increasing the production of another enzyme, Srx1, which repairs Prx1. Interestingly, the study also shows that ageing can be delayed without caloric restriction by only increasing the quantity of Srx1 in the cell. Repair of the peroxiredoxin Prx1 consequently emerges as a key process in ageing.

"Impaired Prx1 function leads to various types of genetic defects and cancer. Conversely, we can now speculate whether increased repair of Prx1 during ageing can counteract, or at least delay, the development of cancer."

Peroxiredoxins have also been shown to be capable of preventing proteins from being damaged and aggregating, a process that has been linked to several age-related disorders affecting the nervous system, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. The researchers are accordingly also considering whether stimulation of Prx1 can reduce and delay such disease processes.