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Weekend Binge Hurts
For the first time, new research shows that patterns of alcohol consumption – a drink or two every night, or several cocktails on Friday and Saturday nights only – may be more important in determining alcohol’s influence on heart health than the total amount consumed.
In the journal Atherosclerosis, scientists found that daily moderate drinking – the equivalent of two drinks per day, seven days a week – decreased atherosclerosis in mice, while binge drinking – the equivalent of seven drinks a day, two days a week – increased development of the disease. Atherosclerosis, or the hardening and narrowing of arteries, is a serious condition that can lead to a heart attack or stroke.
While population studies support an association between alcohol and cardiovascular disease, they’ve relied on self-reported data, which is not always accurate or reliable. According to study authors, this is the first study to provide concrete evidence linking drinking patterns to the development of vascular disease, and the nearly 15 percent of Americans who binge drink – as estimated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – should take note.
“People need to consider not only how much alcohol they drink, but the way in which they are drinking it,” said lead study author John Cullen, Ph.D., research associate professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Rochester Medical Center. “Research shows that people have yet to be convinced of the dangers of binge drinking to their health; we’re hoping our work changes that.”
Scientists don’t yet understand how moderate alcohol consumption benefits cardiovascular health or how heavy drinking episodes hurt it.
The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism defines binge or “at-risk” drinking as consuming more than four drinks on any day for men, and more than three drinks on any day for women. Understanding how much alcohol is in a “standard” drink is also critical, something the institute is promoting through its new “Rethinking Drinking” campaign.
Health care professionals also need to be aware that drinking style matters and should address the issue when discussing alcohol consumption with patients, especially those who are at higher risk of atherosclerosis or who have suffered a heart attack in the past, added Cullen.
“This evidence is very interesting because it supports a pattern of drinking that is emerging in clinical studies as both safe and seemingly most protective against heart disease – frequent consumption of limited amounts of alcohol. This certainly backs up widespread clinical guidelines that limit drinking to one drink daily for non-pregnant women and two drinks daily for men,” said Kenneth Mukamal, M.D., M.P.H., Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School who studies the role of dietary and lifestyle factors, particularly alcohol consumption, on the incidence of cardiovascular and neurovascular disease.
In the study, mice in the “daily-moderate” group were fed ethanol equivalent to two drinks every day of the week, mice in the “weekend-binge” group were fed approximately seven drinks on two days of the week and mice in the control group were fed a non-alcoholic cornstarch mix. All mice were put on an atherogenic diet, which Cullen equates to a high-fat Western diet – think fried food every day – to encourage the development of atherosclerosis, which forms when fatty deposits or plaque collect on the inner walls of the arteries, causing them to narrow.
Levels of LDL or “bad” cholesterol plummeted 40 percent in the daily-moderate drinking mice, but rose 20 percent in the weekend-binge drinking mice, compared to the no-alcohol controls. High levels of bad cholesterol increase the risk of heart disease, and past studies show that every 10 percent increase in LDL results in a 20 percent increase in atherosclerosis risk.
Surprisingly, levels of HDL or “good” cholesterol went up in both the moderate and binge drinking groups, which Cullen speculates is an acute or short-term effect.
The volume of plaque, as well as the accumulation of immune cells that promote inflammation and consequently contribute to the narrowing of arteries, decreased in the moderate mice compared to no-alcohol mice. The opposite occured in the binge-drinking mice: Plaque volume and the number of inflammatory immune cells grew.
Another unexpected yet noteworthy finding was that the binge drinking mice gained significantly more weight than the moderate and control mice. Though all mice started at approximately the same weight and consumed similar amounts of food over the course of the study, the binge mice gained more than three times as much weight as the moderate mice and about twice as much weight as the control mice.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Volunteering to help others could lead to better health
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(Unless that's why you do it)
Reduced mortality risk not seen in people motivated by self-centered reasons
People who volunteer may live longer than those who don't, as long as their reasons for volunteering are to help others rather than themselves, suggests new research published by the American Psychological Association.
This was the first time research has shown volunteers' motives can have a significant impact on life span. Volunteers lived longer than people who didn't volunteer if they reported altruistic values or a desire for social connections as the main reasons for wanting to volunteer, according to the study, published online in the APA journal Health Psychology. People who said they volunteered for their own personal satisfaction had the same mortality rate four years later as people who did not volunteer at all, according to the study.
"This could mean that people who volunteer with other people as their main motivation may be buffered from potential stressors associated with volunteering, such as time constraints and lack of pay," said the study's lead author, Sara Konrath, PhD, of the University of Michigan.
Researchers examined data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, which has followed a random sample of 10,317 Wisconsin high school students from their graduation in 1957 until the present. The sample is 51.6 percent female, with an average age of 69.16 years in 2008.
In 2004, respondents reported whether they had volunteered within the past 10 years and how regularly. They reported their reasons for volunteering (or the reasons they would volunteer, for those who had not done so) by answering 10 questions. Some motives were more oriented toward others (e.g., "I feel it is important to help others," or "Volunteering is an important activity to the people I know best") and some that were more self-oriented (e.g., "Volunteering is a good escape from my own troubles," or "Volunteering makes me feel better about myself").
The researchers also considered the respondents' physical health, socioeconomic status, marital status, health risk factors (i.e., smoking, body mass index and alcohol use), mental health and social support. Much of this information was collected in 1992, 12 years before the respondents were asked about their volunteering experience. The researchers then determined how many of the respondents were still alive in 2008.
Overall, 4.3 percent of 2,384 non-volunteers were deceased four years later, which was similar to the proportion of deceased volunteers who reported more self-oriented motives for volunteering (4 percent). However, only 1.6 percent of those volunteers whose motivations were more focused on others were dead four years later. This effect remained significant even when controlling for all the variables. Additionally, respondents who listed social connection or altruistic values as their predominant motive were more likely to be alive compared with non-volunteers.
"It is reasonable for people to volunteer in part because of benefits to the self; however, our research implies that, ironically, should these benefits to the self become the main motive for volunteering, they may not see those benefits," said the paper's co-author, Andrea Fuhrel-Forbis, MA.
(Unless that's why you do it)
Reduced mortality risk not seen in people motivated by self-centered reasons
People who volunteer may live longer than those who don't, as long as their reasons for volunteering are to help others rather than themselves, suggests new research published by the American Psychological Association.
This was the first time research has shown volunteers' motives can have a significant impact on life span. Volunteers lived longer than people who didn't volunteer if they reported altruistic values or a desire for social connections as the main reasons for wanting to volunteer, according to the study, published online in the APA journal Health Psychology. People who said they volunteered for their own personal satisfaction had the same mortality rate four years later as people who did not volunteer at all, according to the study.
"This could mean that people who volunteer with other people as their main motivation may be buffered from potential stressors associated with volunteering, such as time constraints and lack of pay," said the study's lead author, Sara Konrath, PhD, of the University of Michigan.
Researchers examined data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, which has followed a random sample of 10,317 Wisconsin high school students from their graduation in 1957 until the present. The sample is 51.6 percent female, with an average age of 69.16 years in 2008.
In 2004, respondents reported whether they had volunteered within the past 10 years and how regularly. They reported their reasons for volunteering (or the reasons they would volunteer, for those who had not done so) by answering 10 questions. Some motives were more oriented toward others (e.g., "I feel it is important to help others," or "Volunteering is an important activity to the people I know best") and some that were more self-oriented (e.g., "Volunteering is a good escape from my own troubles," or "Volunteering makes me feel better about myself").
The researchers also considered the respondents' physical health, socioeconomic status, marital status, health risk factors (i.e., smoking, body mass index and alcohol use), mental health and social support. Much of this information was collected in 1992, 12 years before the respondents were asked about their volunteering experience. The researchers then determined how many of the respondents were still alive in 2008.
Overall, 4.3 percent of 2,384 non-volunteers were deceased four years later, which was similar to the proportion of deceased volunteers who reported more self-oriented motives for volunteering (4 percent). However, only 1.6 percent of those volunteers whose motivations were more focused on others were dead four years later. This effect remained significant even when controlling for all the variables. Additionally, respondents who listed social connection or altruistic values as their predominant motive were more likely to be alive compared with non-volunteers.
"It is reasonable for people to volunteer in part because of benefits to the self; however, our research implies that, ironically, should these benefits to the self become the main motive for volunteering, they may not see those benefits," said the paper's co-author, Andrea Fuhrel-Forbis, MA.
Resveratrol Prevents Metabolic Syndrome
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Researchers in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Alberta have discovered that resveratrol, a powerful antioxidant found in common foods, prevents a syndrome in some offspring that could lead to later health issues such as diabetes.
Resveratrol is found in fruits, nuts and red wine, and has been shown to extend the lifespan of many species.
Human offspring that have trouble growing in the womb have an increased risk of developing metabolic problems later in life. But U of A medical researchers Jason Dyck and Sandra Davidge and their teams found that administering resveratrol to the young offspring of lab rats after weaning actually prevented the development of a metabolic syndrome, which is characterized by glucose intolerance, insulin resistance and higher deposits of abdominal fat.
Dyck and Davidge published their findings in a recent edition of the peer-reviewed journal Diabetes. Dyck is a researcher in the departments of Pediatrics and Pharmacology, while Davidge is a researcher in the departments of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Physiology. Both are also members of the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute, as well as the Women and Children's Health Research Institute. Dyck and Davidge were co-senior authors of the study.
The study took advantage of the fact that "infancy is a potential window of opportunity to intervene and prevent the future development of metabolic diseases." The researchers noted this is the first potential pharmacological treatment that may help babies that developed in a growth-restricted environment in the womb.
"There is a concept that in utero, there are genetic shifts that are occurring -- reprogramming is occurring because of this strenuous environment babies are in, that allows them to recover very quickly after birth," says Dyck.
"When babies are growth-restricted, they usually have a catch-up period after they are born where they catch up to non-growth-restricted groups. It might be that reprogramming that creates this kind of 'thrifty' phenotype, where they want to consume and store and get caught up.
"That reprogramming appears to make them more vulnerable to developing a host of metabolic problems."
Researchers in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Alberta have discovered that resveratrol, a powerful antioxidant found in common foods, prevents a syndrome in some offspring that could lead to later health issues such as diabetes.
Resveratrol is found in fruits, nuts and red wine, and has been shown to extend the lifespan of many species.
Human offspring that have trouble growing in the womb have an increased risk of developing metabolic problems later in life. But U of A medical researchers Jason Dyck and Sandra Davidge and their teams found that administering resveratrol to the young offspring of lab rats after weaning actually prevented the development of a metabolic syndrome, which is characterized by glucose intolerance, insulin resistance and higher deposits of abdominal fat.
Dyck and Davidge published their findings in a recent edition of the peer-reviewed journal Diabetes. Dyck is a researcher in the departments of Pediatrics and Pharmacology, while Davidge is a researcher in the departments of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Physiology. Both are also members of the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute, as well as the Women and Children's Health Research Institute. Dyck and Davidge were co-senior authors of the study.
The study took advantage of the fact that "infancy is a potential window of opportunity to intervene and prevent the future development of metabolic diseases." The researchers noted this is the first potential pharmacological treatment that may help babies that developed in a growth-restricted environment in the womb.
"There is a concept that in utero, there are genetic shifts that are occurring -- reprogramming is occurring because of this strenuous environment babies are in, that allows them to recover very quickly after birth," says Dyck.
"When babies are growth-restricted, they usually have a catch-up period after they are born where they catch up to non-growth-restricted groups. It might be that reprogramming that creates this kind of 'thrifty' phenotype, where they want to consume and store and get caught up.
"That reprogramming appears to make them more vulnerable to developing a host of metabolic problems."
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Good articles
I've always avoided baked potatoes because of their high glycemic index. But new rsearch is eye-opening as is this article:
The TRUTH about Potatoes, Glycemic Index, and "White Foods" - Friend or Foe for Fat Loss?
and here is an article worth reading more than once:
Why White Bread is Bad for You
The TRUTH about Potatoes, Glycemic Index, and "White Foods" - Friend or Foe for Fat Loss?
White potatoes are actually a healthy carbohydrate as long as you eat them in the right form... with the entire skin, and please don't ruin them by deep frying them into french fries either! French fries are one of the most evil things ever invented for your health, but only because we ruin them by soaking them in a scorching bath of trans fats in the deep fryer from the hydrogenated oils that are typically used.
Keep in mind that potatoes contain so many vitamins and minerals that the list is way too long to even try. Also, as long as you eat the skins, you get a decent shot of fiber too.
and here is an article worth reading more than once:
Why White Bread is Bad for You
Friday, September 2, 2011
Bananas Vs. Asthma
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Going bananas may help kids breathe easier. Children who ate just one banana a day had a 34% less chance of developing asthmatic symptoms, according to new British research.
Going bananas may help kids breathe easier. Children who ate just one banana a day had a 34% less chance of developing asthmatic symptoms, according to new British research.
The Imperial College of London collected dietary information from 2,640 children, ages 5 to 10, and found that banana-eaters were one-third less likely to encounter breathing problems like wheezing. Children who drank apple juice daily experienced a 47% reduction. Other research suggests that children with low fiber intake are more vulnerable to the respiratory problems associated with secondhand smoke. The pineapple enzyme, bromelain, also appeared to reduce the inflammation associated with asthma in one animal trial.
These results offer yet more proof of the potential of food to affect asthma symptoms for better...or for worse. As previously reported in this space, kids who eat even one burger a week are more likely to suffer from asthma.
Banana Bonus: Early banana consumption may also be associated with lower risk of childhood leukemia. Bananas' fiber, potassium, vitamin C and B6 content support heart health. Bananas also contain tryptophan, an amino acid which may play a role in preserving your memory and boosting your mood.
Breast cancer risk drops when diet includes walnuts
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The risk of breast cancer dropped significantly in mice when their regular diet included a modest amount of walnut, Marshall University researchers report in the journal Nutrition and Cancer.
The study, led by Elaine Hardman, Ph.D., of Marshall’s Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine, compared the effects of a typical diet and a diet containing walnuts across the lifespan: through the mother from conception through weaning, and then through eating the food directly. The amount of walnut in the test diet equates to about 2 ounces a day for humans.
Hardman said that during the study period, the group whose diet included walnut at both stages developed breast cancer at less than half the rate of the group with the typical diet. In addition, the number of tumors and their sizes were significantly smaller.
“These reductions are particularly important when you consider that the mice were genetically programmed to develop cancer at a high rate,” Hardman said. “We were able to reduce the risk for cancer even in the presence of a preexisting genetic mutation.”
The paper notes that dietary modification studies do not show whether benefits result from what is added to a diet or what is removed. In this case, adding healthy fat and other components meant that unhealthy fat was reduced to keep total dietary fat balanced in the mice. Hardman said other studies have clearly shown, however, that multiple ingredients in walnuts reduce the risk of cancer or slow its growth.
Using genetic analysis, the Marshall study found that the walnut-containing diet changed the activity of multiple genes that are relevant to breast cancer in both mice and humans. Other testing showed that increases in omega 3 fatty acids did not fully account for the anti-cancer effect, and found that tumor growth decreased when dietary vitamin E increased.
Hardman said the findings highlight the vital role diet plays in health.
“Food is important medicine in our diet,” she said. “What we put into our bodies makes a big difference – it determines how the body functions, our reaction to illness and health. The simple stuff really works: eat right, get off the couch, and turn off the TV.
“The results of this study indicate that increased consumption of walnut could be part of a healthy diet and reduce risk for cancer in future generations,” she said.
The risk of breast cancer dropped significantly in mice when their regular diet included a modest amount of walnut, Marshall University researchers report in the journal Nutrition and Cancer.
The study, led by Elaine Hardman, Ph.D., of Marshall’s Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine, compared the effects of a typical diet and a diet containing walnuts across the lifespan: through the mother from conception through weaning, and then through eating the food directly. The amount of walnut in the test diet equates to about 2 ounces a day for humans.
Hardman said that during the study period, the group whose diet included walnut at both stages developed breast cancer at less than half the rate of the group with the typical diet. In addition, the number of tumors and their sizes were significantly smaller.
“These reductions are particularly important when you consider that the mice were genetically programmed to develop cancer at a high rate,” Hardman said. “We were able to reduce the risk for cancer even in the presence of a preexisting genetic mutation.”
The paper notes that dietary modification studies do not show whether benefits result from what is added to a diet or what is removed. In this case, adding healthy fat and other components meant that unhealthy fat was reduced to keep total dietary fat balanced in the mice. Hardman said other studies have clearly shown, however, that multiple ingredients in walnuts reduce the risk of cancer or slow its growth.
Using genetic analysis, the Marshall study found that the walnut-containing diet changed the activity of multiple genes that are relevant to breast cancer in both mice and humans. Other testing showed that increases in omega 3 fatty acids did not fully account for the anti-cancer effect, and found that tumor growth decreased when dietary vitamin E increased.
Hardman said the findings highlight the vital role diet plays in health.
“Food is important medicine in our diet,” she said. “What we put into our bodies makes a big difference – it determines how the body functions, our reaction to illness and health. The simple stuff really works: eat right, get off the couch, and turn off the TV.
“The results of this study indicate that increased consumption of walnut could be part of a healthy diet and reduce risk for cancer in future generations,” she said.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Baked Potatoes Reduce Blood Pressure
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The potato’s stereotype as a fattening food for health-conscious folks to avoid is getting another revision today as scientists report that just a couple servings of spuds a day reduces blood pressure almost as much as oatmeal without causing weight gain. Scientists reported on the research, done on a group of overweight people with high blood pressure, at the 242nd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), being held here this week.
But don’t reach for the catsup, vinegar or mayonnaise. The research was not done with French fries, America’s favorite potato, but with potatoes cooked without oil in a microwave oven. Although researchers used purple potatoes, they believe that red-skin potatoes and white potatoes may have similar effects.
“The potato, more than perhaps any other vegetable, has an undeserved bad reputation that has led many health-conscious people to ban them from their diet,” said Joe Vinson, Ph.D., who headed the research. “Mention ‘potato’ and people think ‘fattening, high-carbs, empty calories’. In reality, when prepared without frying and served without butter, margarine or sour cream, one potato has only 110 calories and dozens of healthful phytochemicals and vitamins. We hope our research helps to remake the potato’s popular nutritional image.”
In the new study, 18 patients who were primarily overweight/obese with high blood pressure ate 6-8 purple potatoes (each about the size of a golf ball) with skins twice daily for a month. They used purple potatoes because the pigment, or coloring material, in fruits and vegetables is especially rich in beneficial phytochemicals. Scientists monitored the patients’ blood pressure, both systolic (the higher number in a blood pressure reading like 120/80) and diastolic. The average diastolic blood pressure dropped by 4.3 percent and the systolic pressure decreased by 3.5 percent, said Vinson, who is with the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania and has done extensive research on healthful components in foods. The majority of subjects took anti-hypertensive drugs and still had a reduction in blood pressure. None of the study participants gained weight.
Vinson said that other studies have identified substances in potatoes with effects in the body similar to those of the well-known ACE-inhibitor medications, a mainstay for treating high blood pressure. Other phytochemicals in potatoes occur in amounts that rival broccoli, spinach and Brussels sprouts, and also may be involved, Vinson added.
Unfortunately for French fry and potato chip fans, those high cooking temperatures seem to destroy most of the healthy substances in a potato, leaving mainly starch, fat and minerals. Potatoes in the study were simply microwaved, which Vinson said seems to be the best way to preserve nutrients.
The purple potatoes used in the study are becoming more widely available in supermarkets and especially in specialty food stores and farmers’ markets. Vinson said that he strongly suspects a future study using white potatoes, now in the planning stages, will produce similar results.
The potato’s stereotype as a fattening food for health-conscious folks to avoid is getting another revision today as scientists report that just a couple servings of spuds a day reduces blood pressure almost as much as oatmeal without causing weight gain. Scientists reported on the research, done on a group of overweight people with high blood pressure, at the 242nd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), being held here this week.
But don’t reach for the catsup, vinegar or mayonnaise. The research was not done with French fries, America’s favorite potato, but with potatoes cooked without oil in a microwave oven. Although researchers used purple potatoes, they believe that red-skin potatoes and white potatoes may have similar effects.
“The potato, more than perhaps any other vegetable, has an undeserved bad reputation that has led many health-conscious people to ban them from their diet,” said Joe Vinson, Ph.D., who headed the research. “Mention ‘potato’ and people think ‘fattening, high-carbs, empty calories’. In reality, when prepared without frying and served without butter, margarine or sour cream, one potato has only 110 calories and dozens of healthful phytochemicals and vitamins. We hope our research helps to remake the potato’s popular nutritional image.”
In the new study, 18 patients who were primarily overweight/obese with high blood pressure ate 6-8 purple potatoes (each about the size of a golf ball) with skins twice daily for a month. They used purple potatoes because the pigment, or coloring material, in fruits and vegetables is especially rich in beneficial phytochemicals. Scientists monitored the patients’ blood pressure, both systolic (the higher number in a blood pressure reading like 120/80) and diastolic. The average diastolic blood pressure dropped by 4.3 percent and the systolic pressure decreased by 3.5 percent, said Vinson, who is with the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania and has done extensive research on healthful components in foods. The majority of subjects took anti-hypertensive drugs and still had a reduction in blood pressure. None of the study participants gained weight.
Vinson said that other studies have identified substances in potatoes with effects in the body similar to those of the well-known ACE-inhibitor medications, a mainstay for treating high blood pressure. Other phytochemicals in potatoes occur in amounts that rival broccoli, spinach and Brussels sprouts, and also may be involved, Vinson added.
Unfortunately for French fry and potato chip fans, those high cooking temperatures seem to destroy most of the healthy substances in a potato, leaving mainly starch, fat and minerals. Potatoes in the study were simply microwaved, which Vinson said seems to be the best way to preserve nutrients.
The purple potatoes used in the study are becoming more widely available in supermarkets and especially in specialty food stores and farmers’ markets. Vinson said that he strongly suspects a future study using white potatoes, now in the planning stages, will produce similar results.
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