Experts warn against nanosilver

Endocrine disrupters are not the only worrying chemicals that ordinary consumers are exposed to in everyday life. Also nanoparticles of silver, found in e.g. dietary supplements, cosmetics and food packaging, now worry scientists. A new study from the University of Southern Denmark shows that nano-silver can penetrate our cells and cause damage.

Silver has an antibacterial effect and therefore the food and cosmetic industry often coat their products with silver nanoparticles. Nano-silver can be found in e.g. drinking bottles, cosmetics, band aids, toothbrushes, running socks, refrigerators, washing machines and food packagings.

"Silver as a metal does not pose any danger, but when you break it down to nano-sizes, the particles become small enough to penetrate a cell wall. If nano-silver enters a human cell, it can cause changes in the cell", explain Associate Professor Frank Kjeldsen and PhD Thiago Verano-Braga, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Southern Denmark.

Together with their research colleagues they have just published the results of a study of such cell damages in the journal ACS Nano.

The researchers examined human intestinal cells, as they consider these to be most likely to come into contact with nano-silver, ingested with food.

"We can confirm that nano-silver leads to the formation of harmful, so called free radicals in cells. We can also see that there are changes in the form and amount of proteins. This worries us", say Frank Kjeldsen and Thiago Verano-Braga.


               
       

 IMAGE: This is a photo of Thiago Verano-Braga, Ph.D., of the University of Southern Denmark.
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A large number of serious diseases are characterized by the fact that there is an overproduction of free radicals in cells. This applies to cancer and neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

Kjeldsen and Verano-Braga emphasizes that their research is conducted on human cells in a laboratory, not based on living people. They also point out that they do not know how large a dose of nano-silver, a person must be exposed to for the emergence of cellular changes.

"We don't know how much is needed, so we cannot conclude that nano-silver can make you sick. But we can say that we must be very cautious and worried when we see an overproduction of free radicals in human cells", they say.

Nano-silver is also sold as a dietary supplement, promising to have an antibacterial, anti-flu and cancer-inhibatory effect. The nano-silver should also help against low blood counts and bad skin. In the EU, the marketing of dietary supplements and foods with claims to have medical effects is not allowed. But the nano-silver is easy to find and buy online.

In the wake of the Uiversity of Southern Denmark-research, the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration now warns against taking dietary supplements with nano-silver.

"The recent research strongly suggests that it can be dangerous", says Søren Langkilde from the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration to the Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR).

Why dark chocolate is good for your heart

It might seem too good to be true, but dark chocolate is good for you and scientists now know why. Dark chocolate helps restore flexibility to arteries while also preventing white blood cells from sticking to the walls of blood vessels. Both arterial stiffness and white blood cell adhesion are known factors that play a significant role in atherosclerosis. What's more, the scientists also found that increasing the flavanol content of dark chocolate did not change this effect. This discovery was published in the March 2014 issue of The FASEB Journal.

"We provide a more complete picture of the impact of chocolate consumption in vascular health and show that increasing flavanol content has no added beneficial effect on vascular health," said Diederik Esser, Ph.D., a researcher involved in the work from the Top Institute Food and Nutrition and Wageningen University, Division of Human Nutrition in Wageningen, The Netherlands. "However, this increased flavanol content clearly affected taste and thereby the motivation to eat these chocolates. So the dark side of chocolate is a healthy one."

To make this discovery, Esser and colleagues analyzed 44 middle-aged overweight men over two periods of four weeks as they consumed 70 grams of chocolate per day. Study participants received either specially produced dark chocolate with high flavanol content or chocolate that was regularly produced. Both chocolates had a similar cocoa mass content. Before and after both intervention periods, researchers performed a variety of measurements that are important indicators of vascular health. During the study, participants were advised to refrain from certain energy dense food products to prevent weight gain. Scientists also evaluated the sensory properties of the high flavanol chocolate and the regular chocolate and collected the motivation scores of the participants to eat these chocolates during the intervention.

"The effect that dark chocolate has on our bodies is encouraging not only because it allows us to indulge with less guilt, but also because it could lead the way to therapies that do the same thing as dark chocolate but with better and more consistent results," said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal. "Until the 'dark chocolate drug' is developed, however, we'll just have to make do with what nature has given us!"

Fructose not responsible for increase in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is the most common chronic liver disease in developed countries, affecting up to 30 per cent of their populations.

Since the disease is closely linked to obesity and Type 2 diabetes, there's a growing debate in the medical community about whether diet plays a role in its development, specifically the consumption of fructose.

The possible link to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease has become the main criticism against fructose among those who believe there is something unique about the fructose molecule or the way it is metabolized and blame it for the obesity epidemic.

A meta-analysis of all available human trials published today in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition says fructose in and of itself is not to blame for the increase in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

But excess consumption of calories can contribute to the disease, regardless of whether those calories came from fructose or other carbohydrates, said the lead author, Dr. John Sievenpiper, a researcher in the Clinical Nutrition and Risk Factor Modification Centre of St. Michael's Hospital.

"The one thing fructose is supposed to do above all else is give you fatty liver disease, which some say is a starting point for metabolic syndrome--a term used to describe a group of conditions that puts people at higher risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, heart disease and other heart-related problems--and Type 2 diabetes itself," Dr. Sievenpiper said.

"But we found it behaves no differently than glucose or refined starches. It is only when you consume excess calories in the form of fructose that you see a signal for harm but no more harm than if you consume excess calories as glucose."

Fructose, which is naturally found in fruit, vegetables and honey, is a simple sugar that together with glucose forms sucrose, the basis of table sugar. It is also found in sucrose and high-fructose corn syrup, the two most common sweeteners in commercially prepared foods.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is one cause of a fatty liver, occurring when fat is deposited in the liver. Unlike alcoholic liver disease, it is not due to excessive alcohol use.

Previous research by Dr. Sievenpiper has found that fructose by itself does not cause weight gain and does not itself have any impact on an emerging marker for the risk of cardiovascular disease known as postprandial triglycerides when it is substituted for other carbohydrates. It is when fructose is overconsumed providing excess calories that you see the adverse effects on health, but no more than when other carbohydrates are overconsumed.

A study he published in the February issue of Current Opinion in Lipidology also found no benefit in replacing fructose with glucose in commercially prepared foods. That research again showed that that when portion sizes and calories are the same, fructose does not cause any more harm than glucose.

"The debate over the role of fructose in obesity, fatty liver and other metabolic diseases has distracted us from the issue of overconsumption," Dr. Sievenpiper said. "Our data should serve to remind people that the excess calories, whether they are from fructose or other sources, are the issue."

Vitamin D supplementation for prevention and possibly for treatment of autism

A new study by Rhonda Patrick, PhD and Bruce Ames, PhD of Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute (CHORI) demonstrates the impact that Vitamin D may have on social behavior associated with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Dr. Patrick and Dr. Ames show that serotonin, oxytocin, and vasopressin, three brain hormones that affect social behavior, are all activated by vitamin D hormone. Autism, which is characterized by abnormal social behavior, has previously been linked to low levels of serotonin in the brain and to low vitamin D levels, but no mechanism has linked the two until now.

In this study, Dr. Patrick and Dr. Ames show that vitamin D hormone activates the gene that makes the enzyme tryptophan hydroxylase 2 (TPH2), that converts the essential amino acid tryptophan, to serotonin in the brain. This suggests that adequate levels of vitamin D may be required to produce serotonin in the brain where it shapes the structure and wiring of the brain, acts as a neurotransmitter, and affects social behavior. They also found evidence that the gene that makes the enzyme tryptophan hydroxylase 1 (TPH1) is inhibited by vitamin D hormone, which subsequently halts the production of serotonin in the gut and other tissues, where when found in excess it promotes inflammation.

This mechanism explains many of the known, but previously not understood, facts about autism including: 1) the "serotonin anomaly" low levels of serotonin in the brain and high levels in the blood of autistic children; 2) the preponderance of male over female autistic children: estrogen, a similar steroid hormone, can also boost the brain levels of serotonin in girls; 3) the presence of autoimmune antibodies to the fetal brain in the mothers of autistic children: vitamin D regulates the production of regulatory T-cells via repression of TPH1. The Patrick/Ames mechanism is relevant to the prevention of autism, and likely its treatment.

The current guidelines for adequate vitamin D levels are concentrations above 30 ng/ml. Most Americans' vitamin D is made in the skin from exposure to UVB radiation; however, melanin pigment and sunscreen inhibit this action. This is an important cause of the well-known widespread vitamin D deficiency among dark-pigmented Americans, particularly those living in Northern latitudes. The most recent National Health and Examination survey reports that greater than 70% of U.S. population does not meet this requirement and that adequate vitamin D levels have plummeted over the last couple of decades. This precipitous drop in adequate levels of vitamin D in the US is concurrent with the rise in autism rates.

The study suggests dietary intervention with vitamin D, tryptophan and omega 3 fatty acids would boost brain serotonin concentrations and help prevent and possibly ameliorate some of the symptoms associated with ASD without side effects. There is little vitamin D present in food and fortification is still inadequate as is the amount in most multivitamin and prenatal supplements. Vitamin D supplements are inexpensive and offer a simple solution to raise vitamin D levels to an adequate status. In addition, vitamin D levels should be routinely measured in everyone and should become a standard procedure in prenatal care.

Physical fitness in midlife an indicator of dementia risk

How would you rate your own physical fitness? Is it good, satisfactory or maybe even poor? Surprisingly, your answer may reveal your future risk of getting dementia.

A recent collaborative study from Finland, involving the follow-up of 3,559 adults for 30 years, has found that a simple question about self-rated physical fitness in midlife may reveal individuals who are at an increased risk of developing dementia. Those who reported poor self-rated physical fitness in midlife, at the mean age of 50 years, were four times more likely to get dementia during the next three decades compared to those with good self-rated physical fitness.

"Previous research has shown that self-rated health is a strong indicator of adverse health events. This is the first large population-based study investigating associations between self-rated physical fitness during the three decades from midlife to later life and dementia risk," says Postdoctoral Researcher, Dr Jenni Kulmala from the Gerontology Research Center at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland.

The association between poor self-rated physical fitness and dementia was most pronounced among noncarriers of the apolipoprotein E ε4 allele, that is, people who did not have a strong genetic susceptibility for dementia. A strong association was also observed among people with chronic diseases.

"Chronic conditions independently increase the dementia risk. Furthermore, if a person additionally feels that his or her physical fitness is poor, the risk is even higher. In terms of dementia prevention, maintaining good physical fitness seems to be especially important for people with chronic diseases," Kulmala says.

Poor self-rated fitness is known to be affected by lifestyle factors such as physical inactivity, poor mental wellbeing, lack of social connections, lower education, high body mass index and smoking. Perceived poor physical fitness therefore integrates several unfavourable aspects of lifestyle that have all been previously linked to increased dementia risk.

"The perception of poor physical fitness is most likely affected by different factors for different people. Therefore, I would encourage those who rate their fitness as poor to think about the factors behind this perception. Increasing physical and social activity, making better dietary choices or quitting smoking, for example, could change the rating into more positive. Individual choices that make you feel physically better may substantially decrease your future risk of developing dementia," Kulmala says.

Don't throw out old, sprouting garlic -- it has heart-healthy antioxidants

"Sprouted" garlic — old garlic bulbs with bright green shoots emerging from the cloves — is considered to be past its prime and usually ends up in the garbage can. But scientists are reporting in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry that this type of garlic has even more heart-healthy antioxidant activity than its fresher counterparts.

Jong-Sang Kim and colleagues note that people have used garlic for medicinal purposes for thousands of years. Today, people still celebrate its healthful benefits. Eating garlic or taking garlic supplements is touted as a natural way to reduce cholesterol levels, blood pressure and heart disease risk. It even may boost the immune system and help fight cancer. But those benefits are for fresh, raw garlic. Sprouted garlic has received much less attention. When seedlings grow into green plants, they make many new compounds, including those that protect the young plant against pathogens. Kim's group reasoned that the same thing might be happening when green shoots grow from old heads of garlic. Other studies have shown that sprouted beans and grains have increased antioxidant activity, so the team set out to see if the same is true for garlic.

They found that garlic sprouted for five days had higher antioxidant activity than fresher, younger bulbs, and it had different metabolites, suggesting that it also makes different substances. Extracts from this garlic even protected cells in a laboratory dish from certain types of damage. "Therefore, sprouting may be a useful way to improve the antioxidant potential of garlic," they conclude.

Vitamin D deficiency may compromise immune function

Older individuals who are vitamin D deficient also tend to have compromised immune function, according to new research accepted for publication in the Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).

Vitamin D plays an important role in helping the body absorb calcium needed for healthy bones. The skin naturally produces vitamin D when it is exposed to sunlight. People also obtain smaller amounts of the vitamin through foods, such as milk fortified with vitamin D. More than 1 billion people worldwide are estimated to have deficient levels of vitamin D due to limited sunshine exposure.

"Our data suggest vitamin D may be involved in maintaining the health of the immune system as well as the skeletal system," said one of the study's authors, Mary Ward, PhD, of the University of Ulster in Coleraine, U.K. "This study is the first to find a connection between vitamin D levels and inflammation in a large sample of older individuals."

The observational study of 957 Irish adults who were at least 60 years old examined vitamin D levels as well as biomarkers of inflammation. Participants who were vitamin D deficient were more likely to have high levels of these biomarkers, which are linked to cardiovascular disease and inflammatory conditions such as multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis.

"The results indicate immune function may be compromised in older individuals with vitamin D deficiency," Ward said. "Ensuring older individuals have optimal vitamin D levels may be a way to boost immune function in this population, but this needs to be confirmed through additional studies."

Strawberries lower cholesterol

A team of volunteers ate half a kilo of strawberries a day for a month to see whether it altered their blood parameters in any way. At the end of this unusual treatment, their levels of bad cholesterol and triglycerides reduced significantly, according to the analyses conducted by Italian and Spanish scientists.

Several studies had already demonstrated the antioxidant capacity of strawberries, but now researchers from the Università Politecnica delle Marche (UNIVPM, Italy), together with colleagues from the Universities of Salamanca, Granada and Seville (Spain), conducted an analysis that revealed that these fruits also help to reduce cholesterol.

The team set up an experiment in which they added 500 g of strawberries to the daily diets of 23 healthy volunteers over a month. They took blood samples before and after this period to compare data.

The results, which are published in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, show that the total amount of cholesterol, the levels of low-density lipoproteins (LDL or bad cholesterol) and the quantity of triglycerides fell to 8.78%, 13.72% and 20.8% respectively. The high-density lipoprotein (HDL or good cholesterol) remained unchanged.

Eating strawberries also improved other parameters such as the general plasma lipid profile, antioxidant biomarkers (such as vitamin C or oxygen radical absorbance capacity), antihemolytic defences and platelet function. All parameters returned to their initial values 15 days after abandoning 'treatment' with strawberries.

As Maurizio Battino, researcher at UNIVPM and Director of the study, tells SINC: "This is the first time a study has been published that supports the protective role of the bioactive compounds in strawberries in tackling recognised markers and risk factors for cardiovascular diseases."

The researcher admits that there is still no direct evidence about which compounds of this fruit are behind their beneficial effects, "but all the signs and epidemiological studies point towards anthocyanins, the vegetable pigments that afford them their red colour."

The research team confirmed in other studies that eating strawberries also protects against ultraviolet radiation, reduces the damage that alcohol can have on the gastric mucosa, strengthens erythrocytes, or red blood cells, and improves the antioxidant capacity of the blood.

In fact, this year they will publish another study in the journal Food Chemistry in which they will demonstrate that consuming strawberries increases the antioxidant function of blood flow, erythrocytes and mononuclear cells.

Vitamin A may help boost immune system to fight tuberculosis

Tuberculosis is a major global problem, affecting 2 billion people worldwide and causing an estimated 2 million deaths annually. Western countries are once again tackling the disease, with recent outbreaks in Los Angeles and London.

The rise of drug-resistant TB, called a "ticking time bomb" by the World Health Organization, and the high cost of fighting the disease highlight the need for new approaches to treatment.

In findings published in the March 1 issue of the Journal of Immunology, UCLA researchers investigating the role of nutrients in helping the immune system fight against major infections show that vitamin A may play an important role combating TB.

The UCLA team describes for the first time the mechanism by which vitamin A and a specific gene assist the immune system by reducing the level of cholesterol in cells infected with TB. This is important because cholesterol can be used by TB bacteria for nutrition and other needs, the researchers said.

"If we can reduce the amount of cholesterol in a cell infected with tuberculosis, we may be able to aid the immune system in better responding to the infection," said senior author Philip Liu, an assistant professor of medicine in the divisions of dermatology and orthopedic surgery at UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine and Orthopaedic Hospital Research Center. "Understanding how nutrients like vitamin A are utilized by our immune system to fight infections may provide new treatment approaches."

Although vitamin A circulates in the body in an inactive form known as retinol, it's the active form of the nutrient — all-trans reinoic acid — that is responsible for activating the immune system.

To investigate the role of this active form of vitamin A in immune defense, the UCLA team first compared its effects on cells to the effects of a similar nutrient, vitamin D, which the group had previously studied. The researchers thought the two vitamins might use the same mechanism to aid the immune system, but this wasn't the case. They found that when the vitamins were added to human blood cells infected with tuberculosis, only vitamin A decreased the cells' cholesterol levels.

The researchers also discovered that the action of vitamin A was dependent on the expression of a gene called NPC2. Further experiments in the lab showed that even if an infected blood cell was stimulated with vitamin A, it would not be able to fight the tuberculosis bacteria if the cell couldn't express the NPC2 gene.

"We were very surprised that this particular gene was involved, since it has traditionally been associated with cholesterol transport and not immune defense," said co-first author Elliot Kim, who was a research technician in Liu's lab at the time of the study and is currently a graduate student in the department of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics at the Geffen School.

However, once the team took a closer look at the actions taking place in the cells, it made sense.

Cholesterol is stored in lysosomes, compartments in a cell that also play an integral role in fighting infections. If the lysomome is full of cholesterol, it supplies the bacteria with needed nutrition instead of killing it.

Vitamin A induces the cell to express NPC2, which helps the cell effectively remove cholesterol from the lysosomes so the bacteria can't access it. This allows the lysomomes to once again become effective in killing the bacteria.

When activated correctly, lysomomes fuse with the area of the cell containing the bacteria and dump antimicrobial material onto the bacteria to kill it, similar to a helicopter dropping water and retardant on a forest fire.

"The cells need vitamin A to trigger this defense process and NPC2 to carry it out," said co-first author Matthew Wheelwright, a medical and doctoral student at the University of Minnesota who was an undergraduate research assistant in Liu's lab when the research was conducted. "We may be able to target these pathways that regulate cholesterol within a cell to help the immune system respond to infection."

The next stage of research will focus on better understanding how the immune system takes retinol, the inactive form of vitamin A, and creates all-trans retinoic acid, the form of the nutrient that can activate the infected cells against the tuberculosis bacteria.

The UCLA team notes that this is an early study and that more research needs to be done before recommending vitamin A supplementation to combat tuberculosis or other infections.

Breast-feeding Benefits Appear to be Overstated, According to Study of Siblings

A new study comparing siblings who were fed differently during infancy suggests that breast-feeding might be no more beneficial than bottle-feeding for 10 of 11 long-term health and well-being outcomes in children age 4 to 14.

The outlier was asthma, which was associated more with breast-feeding than with bottle-feeding.

The study also included an analysis of outcomes across families of different races and socioeconomic circumstances for comparison purposes, and those results matched other studies suggesting that breast-feeding’s benefits to children outweigh bottle-feeding.

The lead researcher noted that there is a clear reason for that.

“Many previous studies suffer from selection bias. They either do not or cannot statistically control for factors such as race, age, family income, mother’s employment – things we know that can affect both breast-feeding and health outcomes,” said Cynthia Colen, assistant professor of sociology at The Ohio State University and lead author of the study. “Moms with more resources, with higher levels of education and higher levels of income, and more flexibility in their daily schedules are more likely to breast-feed their children and do so for longer periods of time.”

Previous research has identified clear patterns of racial and socioeconomic disparities between women who breast-feed and those who don’t, complicating an already demanding choice for women who work outside the home at jobs with little flexibility and limited maternity leave.

Colen’s study is also rare for its look at health and education benefits of infant feeding practices for children age 4 to 14 years, beyond the more typical investigation of breast-feeding’s effects on infants and toddlers.

Federal health officials have declared breast-feeding for at least six months a national priority, which could end up stigmatizing women who can’t opt to nurse their babies, Colen said.

“I’m not saying breast-feeding is not beneficial, especially for boosting nutrition and immunity in newborns,” Colen said. “But if we really want to improve maternal and child health in this country, let’s also focus on things that can really do that in the long term – like subsidized day care, better maternity leave policies and more employment opportunities for low-income mothers that pay a living wage, for example.”

The study is published in the journal Social Science & Medicine.

Demographic differences across families that can bias studies in favor of breast-feeding include parental race, age, marital status, family income, insurance coverage, the mother’s education and employment, and whether a woman smokes or drinks during pregnancy.

“When we get more advantaged moms selecting into breast-feeding and we know those traits also will affect the health outcomes, it’s not clear what’s affecting an outcome like obesity – is it breast-feeding itself or those other background characteristics?” Colen said.

Colen used data from the 1979 cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), a nationally representative sample of young men and women who were between ages 14 and 22 in 1979, as well as results from NLSY surveys between 1986 and 2010 of children born to women in the 1979 cohort. The children were between ages 4 and 14 during the time period studied.

The NLSY79 is conducted by Ohio State’s Center for Human Resource Research for the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Colen analyzed three samples: 8,237 children, 7,319 siblings and 1,773 “discordant” sibling pairs, or children from 665 surveyed families in which at least one child was breast-fed and at least one other child was bottle-fed. The children who were differently fed in the same family represented about 25 percent of the siblings in the data.

For each sample, the researchers sought answers to two basic questions: Was at least one child breast-fed and, if so, what was the duration of breast-feeding?

The study measured 11 outcomes that are common to other studies of breast-feeding’s effects: body mass index (BMI), obesity, asthma, hyperactivity, parental attachment (secure emotional relationships between parents and child) and behavior compliance, as well as scores predicting academic achievement in vocabulary, reading recognition, math ability, intelligence and scholastic competence. Colen constructed statistical models for the analysis.

As expected, the analyses of the samples of adults and their children across families suggested that breast-feeding resulted in better outcomes than bottle-feeding in a number of measures: BMI, hyperactivity, math skills, reading recognition, vocabulary word identification, digit recollection, scholastic competence and obesity.

When the sample was restricted to siblings who were differently fed within the same families, however, scores reflecting breast-feeding’s positive effects on 10 of the 11 indicators of child health and well-being were closer to zero and not statistically significant – meaning any differences could have occurred by chance alone.

“If breast-feeding doesn’t have the impact that we think it will have on long-term childhood outcomes, then even though it is very important in the short-term we really need to focus on other things.”

The outlying outcome in this study was asthma; in all samples, children who were breast-fed were at higher risk for asthma, which could relate to data generated by self-reports instead of actual diagnoses.

Some examples of differing benefits: Breast-feeding’s beneficial influence on BMI decreased by 66 percent between siblings across families and siblings within families. The magnitude of the beneficial effects of breast-feeding for math, reading, vocabulary and intelligence declined by between 69 and 29 percent, respectively, when comparing data across families to data from within families.

“Instead of comparing across families we are comparing within families, completely taking into account all of those characteristics – both measured and unmeasured – that differ by family, such as parental education, household income and race/ethnicity,” Colen explained.

These same differences between samples were found in the analysis of the effects of the duration of breastfeeding.

These findings have implications for health policy, she noted.

“If breast-feeding doesn’t have the impact that we think it will have on long-term childhood outcomes, then even though it is very important in the short-term we really need to focus on other things,” she said. “We need to look at school quality, adequate housing and the type of employment parents have when their kids are growing up.

“We need to take a much more careful look at what happens past that first year of life and understand that breast-feeding might be very difficult, even untenable, for certain groups of women. Rather than placing the blame at their feet, let’s be more realistic about what breast-feeding does and doesn’t do.”

Saturated Fat = More Body Fat

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New research from Uppsala University shows that saturated fat builds more fat and less muscle than polyunsaturated fat. This is the first study on humans to show that the fat composition of food not only influences cholesterol levels in the blood and the risk of cardiovascular disease but also determines where the fat will be stored in the body. The findings have recently been published in the American journal Diabetes.

The study involved 39 young adult men and women of normal weight, who ate 750 extra calories per day for seven weeks. The goal was for them to gain three per cent of their starting weight. The project received considerable attention when it started in 2011, partly because the extra calories were ingested in the form of muffins with high fat content, baked in the lab by Fredrik Rosqvist, a doctoral candidate and first author of the study.

One half of the subjects were random to eat surplus calories from polyunsaturated fat (sunflower oil), while the other half got their surplus calories from saturated fat (palm oil). Both diets contained the same amount of sugar, carbohydrates, fat, and protein; the only difference between muffins was the type of fat.

The increase in body fat and the distribution of fat in the body was measured using a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI scans) before and after the weight gain, as was the muscle mass in the body. Gene activity was measured in the abdominal visceral fat before and after the weight gain with the help of a gene chip that studies several thousand genes at a time.

Despite comparable weight gains between the two diet groups, the surplus consumption of saturated fat caused a markedly greater increase in the amount of fat in the liver and abdomen (especially the fat surrounding the internal organs, visceral fat) in comparison with the surplus consumption of polyunsaturated fat. Moreover the total amount of body fat was greater in the saturated fat group, while, on the other hand, the increase in muscle mass was three times less for those who ate saturated fat compared with those who ate polyunsaturated fat. Thus, gaining weight on excess calories from polyunsaturated fat caused more gain in muscle mass, and less body fat than overeating a similar amount of saturated fat. Since most of us are in positive energy balance, and consequently gain weight slowly but gradually over time, the present results are highly relevant for most Western populations.

"Liver fat and visceral fat seems to contribute to a number of disturbances in metabolism. These findings can therefore be important for individuals with metabolic diseases such as diabetes. If the results regarding increased muscle mass following consumption of polyunsaturated fat can be confirmed in our coming studies, it will potentially be interesting for many elderly people, for whom maintaining muscle mass is of great importance in preventing morbidity," says Ulf Risérus, associate professor at the Department of Public Health and Caring Science and director of the study.

When it comes to the risk of developing diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, it seems more important where in the body the fat is stored than how much fat the body has. Visceral fat, along with a high proportion of fat in the liver, is closely associated with increased risk for developing type-2 diabetes. These fat depots are therefore important targets for new drugs and dietary strategies. A number of studies have indicated that a higher intake of polyunsaturated fats from plant oils and nuts is associated with a decreased risk of type-2 diabetes, but the reasons for this remain unclear.

The present study proposes a potential explanation for such an association, showing that polyunsaturated fatty acids can affect fat distribution in the body more favorably than saturated fats, probably by regulating increased energy combustion or decreased storage of visceral fat in connection with calorie-rich diets.

The researchers were also able to see that over-consumption of saturated fats seems to be able to "turn on" certain genes in fatty tissue that increase the storage of fat in the abdomen and at the same time hamper insulin regulation. Polyunsaturated fats, instead, can "turn on" genes in visceral fat that in turn are linked to reduced storage of fat and improved sugar metabolism in the body. However, more research is required to understand how this occurs in humans.

The discovery may also be a contributing factor regarding the tendency of some individuals to accumulate fat in the liver and abdomen. The new findings suggest that the fat composition of the diet, in the long term, might play a role in preventing obesity-related disorders, like type-2 diabetes, at an early stage, before overweight develops.

"This is of great interest, as we lack preventive treatments for fatty liver and visceral fat today. The new findings also support international dietary recommendations including the new Nordic nutritional recommendations, which, among other things, recommend replacing some saturated fat from meat, butter, and palm oil, for example, with unsaturated fats from plant oils and fatty fish," says Ulf Risérus.

Does a Diet High in Carbohydrates Increase Your Risk of Dementia?

Even small increases in blood sugar caused by a diet high in carbohydrates can be detrimental to brain health. Recent reports in medical literature link carbohydrate calorie-rich diets to a greater risk for brain shrinkage, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, impaired cognition, and other disorders. David Perlmutter, MD, best-selling author of Grain Brain, explores this important topic in a provocative interview.

Vegetarian diets associated with lower blood pressure

Eating a vegetarian diet appears to be associated with lower blood pressure (BP), and the diets can also be used to reduce blood pressure.

Factors such as diet, body weight, physical activity and alcohol intake play a role in the risk of developing hypertension. Dietary modifications have been shown to be effective for preventing and managing hypertension.

The authors analyzed seven clinical trials and 32 studies published from 1900 to 2013 in which participants ate a vegetarian diet. Net differences in BP associated with eating a vegetarian diet were measured.

In the trials, eating a vegetarian diet was associated with a reduction in the average systolic (peak artery pressure) and diastolic (minimum artery pressure) BP compared with eating an omnivorous (plant and animal) diet. In the 32 studies, eating a vegetarian diet was associated with lower average systolic and diastolic BP, compared with omnivorous diets.

Medication to treat high blood pressure associated with fall injuries in elderly

Medication to treat high blood pressure (BP) in older patients appears to be associated with an increased risk for serious injury from falling such as a hip fracture or head injury, especially in older patients who have been injured in previous falls.

Most people older than 70 years have high blood pressure, and blood pressure control is key to reducing risk for myocardial infarction (MI, heart attack) and stroke. Previous research has suggested that blood pressure medications may increase risk of falls and fall injuries.

Researchers examined the association between BP medication use and experiencing a serious injury from a fall in 4,961 patients older than 70 years with hypertension. Among the patients, 14.1 percent took no antihypertensive medications, 54.6 percent had moderate exposure to BP medications and 31.3 percent had high exposure.

During a three-year follow-up, 446 patients (9 percent) experienced serious injuries from falls. The risk for serious injuries from falls was higher for patients who used antihypertensive medication than for nonusers and even higher for patients who had had a previous fall injury.

"Although cause and effect cannot be established in this observational study and we cannot exclude confounding, antihypertensive medications seemed to be associated with an increased risk of serious fall injury compared with no antihypertensive use in this nationally representative cohort of older adults, particularly among participants with a previous fall injury. The potential harms vs. benefits of antihypertensive medications should be weighed in deciding whether to continue antihypertensives in older adults with multiple chronic conditions."

Commentary: Treating Hypertension in the Elderly

In a related commentary, Sarah D. Berry, M.D., M.P.H., and Douglas P. Kiel, M.D., M.P.H., of Hebrew SeniorLife, Boston, write: "These findings add evidence that antihypertensive medications are associated with an elevated risk of injurious falls."

"An alternative possibility is that the increased risk of injurious falls is due not to antihypertensive medications but rather to the underlying hypertension or overall burden of illness," they continue.

"So how do clinicians reconcile the potential harms and benefits of antihypertensive medications in elderly patients? In the absence of direct data, they should individualize the decision to treat hypertension according to functional status, life expectancy and preferences of care. … Most important, clinicians should pay greater attention to fall risk in older adults with hypertension in an effort to prevent injurious falls, particularly among adults with a previous injury," the authors conclude.

New Study Supports Body Shape Index as Predictor of Mortality

In 2012, Dr. Nir Krakauer, an assistant professor of civil engineering in CCNY’s Grove School of Engineering, and his father, Dr. Jesse Krakauer, MD, developed a new method to quantify the risk specifically associated with abdominal obesity.

A follow-up study, published February 20 by the online journal PLoS ONE, supports their contention that the technique, known as A Body Shape Index (ABSI), is a more effective predictor of mortality than Body Mass Index (BMI), the most common measure used to define obesity.

The team analyzed data for 7,011 adults, 18+, who participated in the first Health and Lifestyle Survey (HALS1), conducted in Great Britain in the mid 1980s, and a follow-up survey seven years later (HALS2). The sample was broadly representative of the British population in terms of region, employment status, national origin, and age. They used National Health Service records through 2009 to identify deaths and cancer cases: 2,203 deaths were recorded among the sample population.

Then, they compared all-cause mortality from the HALS sample with ABSI and other variables, including BMI, waist circumference, waist – hip ratio and waist – height ratio.

The analysis found ABSI to be a strong indicator of mortality hazard among the HALS population. Death rates increased by a factor of 1.13 (95% confidence interval, 1.09–1.16) for each standard deviation increase in ABSI. Persons with ABSI in the top 20 percent were found to have death rates 61 percent than those with ABSI in the bottom 20 percent.

The results tracked closely with the earlier study, which used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), conducted in the United States between 1999 and 2004. This provides stronger evidence that ABSI is a valid indicator of the risk of premature death across different populations. Further, they showed that ABSI outperformed commonly used measures of abdominal obesity, including waist circumference, waist – hip ratio and waist – height ratio.

Also, because the data came from two surveys seven years apart, the researchers were able to assess the effect of change in ABSI on mortality. The found an increase in ABSI correlated with increased risk of death, and that the more recent ABSI measurement was a more reliable predictor. Noting this, the researchers contend that further investigation is warranted into whether lifestyle or other interventions could reduce ABSI and help people live longer.

Persons curious about their ABSI and how it compares with the general population can try the online calculator at http://www-ce.ccny.cuny.edu/nir/sw/absi-calculator.html.




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Vitamin E, Selenium Supplements Might Double Chances of Prostate Cancer

Men taking selenium or vitamin E supplements might double their risk of prostate cancer, depending on the levels of selenium already in their bodies, a new study suggests.

Men who already have high concentrations of selenium in their bodies nearly double their risk of aggressive prostate cancer if they take selenium supplements, said lead author Dr. Alan Kristal, associate head of the Cancer Prevention Program at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.

The new study, published Feb. 21 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, also found that vitamin E supplements can more than double a man's prostate cancer risk, but only if the man has low concentrations of selenium in his body.

The upshot, said Kristal, is simple: Don't take high-dose selenium or vitamin E supplements.

"No one's ever been able to demonstrate any benefit for taking high doses of selenium or vitamin E, so why do it?" he said. "There's no benefit, there's only risk, so what's the point?"

Men can still take their daily multivitamin without fear, however.

"The levels they were giving these men in the study are much higher than would be found in most multivitamins and higher than the daily recommended allowance," said Dr. Durado Brooks, director of prostate and colorectal cancers for the American Cancer Society.

The new study is based on data gathered during the Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial (SELECT), which was funded by the U.S. National Cancer Institute. The study, begun in 2001, was prompted by early research that indicated the supplements might protect against prostate cancer.

The trial was designed to last 12 years, but was stopped early in 2008 after finding no protective benefit for selenium and an increased risk of prostate cancer among men taking vitamin E.

During the trial, men took 200 micrograms (mcg) of selenium and 400 IU of vitamin E daily, either separately or in combination.

By comparison, the recommended daily intake of selenium for adults is 55 mcg, and recommended daily intake of vitamin E is about 22 IU, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

Researchers in this new study used toenail samples taken from SELECT participants to determine the level of selenium already in their bodies before taking the supplements.

They then re-analyzed the data to see if the amount of selenium already present in the body made any difference when it came to prostate cancer risk. They focused in on 1,739 men from the SELECT trial who were diagnosed with prostate cancer and, for comparison purposes, a random sample of 3,117 men without prostate cancer who were matched to the others by race and age.

It turns out that existing selenium levels did make a difference.

Taking selenium supplements increased the risk of high-grade cancer by 91 percent among men with already high selenium levels.

Among men with low selenium levels, taking vitamin E increased their total risk of prostate cancer by 63 percent and their risk of aggressive cancer by 111 percent.

The researchers aren't sure why high doses of these supplements increase prostate cancer risk. "I don't think there's any real understanding why that occurs," Brooks said.

But these findings jibe with other studies that have linked taking large amounts of supplements with increased cancer risk, Kristal said. Such studies have tied large amounts of omega-3 fatty acids to endometrial cancer, excess folate to colon cancer and beta carotene supplementation to lung cancer, he said. High doses of selenium have also been linked to skin cancer, he added.

"As humans, we evolved with the levels of micronutrients you'd normally get with food," Kristal said. "There's no benefit to taking high doses of these micronutrients. There's only risk."

Prostate cancer, the most common cancer among U.S. men, strikes about 200,000 Americans each year.

Aspirin May Reduce Ovarian Cancer Risk

A daily aspirin may reduce the risk of ovarian cancer, a new study suggests. Further research will be needed to confirm the finding.

More than 20,000 women nationwide are expected to be diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2014, and at least 14,000 will likely die from the disease. If caught early, ovarian cancer can often be successfully treated. However, its symptoms can mimic more common conditions, such as digestive and bladder disorders, so it’s usually not diagnosed until advanced stages. Late-stage ovarian cancer leaves women with limited treatment options and poor prognoses, making prevention particularly important.

Chronic or persistent inflammation is known to raise the risk for cancer and other diseases. Studies suggest that reducing inflammation with drugs such as aspirin and non-aspirin NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) may reduce overall cancer risk. However, studies of whether these drugs influence ovarian cancer risk have been inconclusive.

A team led by Drs. Britton Trabert and Nicolas Wentzensen of NIH’s National Cancer Institute (NCI) investigated associations between ovarian cancer and aspirin, non-aspirin NSAIDs, or acetaminophen use. The researchers analyzed data from 12 large studies that together included nearly 8,000 women with ovarian cancer and 12,000 without. The results were reported in the February 2014 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Overall, 18% of the women reported using aspirin regularly (at least once per week), 24% used non-aspirin NSAIDs regularly, and 16% used acetaminophen. Women who reported daily aspirin use had a 20% lower risk of ovarian cancer than those who used aspirin less than once per week. Results for non-aspirin NSAID use, which include a wide variety of drugs, were less clear. The scientists observed a 10% lower ovarian cancer risk among women who used NSAIDs at least once per week compared with those who used NSAIDs less frequently. However, the finding was not statistically significant—it may be due to chance. Acetaminophen, which relieves pain but doesn’t reduce inflammation, wasn’t associated with reduced ovarian cancer risk.

These findings add ovarian cancer to a growing list of cancers that might be prevented by aspirin use. “Our study suggests that aspirin regimens, proven to protect against heart attack, may reduce the risk of ovarian cancer as well,” Trabert says. “However intriguing our results are, they should not influence current clinical practice. Additional studies are needed to explore the delicate balance of risk-benefit for this potential chemopreventive agent, as well as studies to identify the mechanism by which aspirin may reduce ovarian cancer risk.”

The scientists caution that, despite the potential benefits of a daily aspirin regimen, it should only be undertaken with a doctor’s approval. Side effects of daily aspirin use include gastrointestinal bleeding and hemorrhagic stroke.

Latest Health Research

Many years ago I took a CPR course in order to coach a girl's high school soccer team - kneeling to practice CPR was agony because I had just had knee surgery - but it was a good experience - although it now turns out quite unnecessary, inasmuch as anyone can do it - and should be willing to:

Hands-Only CPR To Save the Life of a Teen or Adult

The image you have in your head of CPR is probably some combination of chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. While both may still be needed for children and infants, breaths are no longer necessary for teenagers and adults. According to the American Heart Association (AHA), hands-only CPR has been shown to be equally as effective for out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest.

There is enough oxygen in our blood to keep our organs functioning without doing mouth-to-mouth.

By following the steps below, you can more than double a person’s chances of survival.

If you see a teen or adult suddenly collapse, and they are unconscious:

• Call 911. Have someone else call 911 if you can’t do it yourself.

• Push hard and fast at the center of the chest. Place the heel of one hand on the center of the victim’s chest and put the other hand on top of the first. Then push.

• Keep pushing to the beat of the disco song “Staying Alive” until help arrives. The goal is to push at a rate of at least 100 beats per minute, which is about the same tempo as the song.

I add a little orange juice to my white tea, But I don't know if I should continue doing so:

Citric Juice In Tea: The Good and Bad News

The study found that lemon juice caused a roughly four-fold boost in the recovered levels of catechins; in order, the next most effective juice additions were orange, lime and grapefruit. And one should not be stingy with the juice - while adding 10 percent juice was helpful, the best catechin preservation happened at levels of 20 to 50 percent juice. This suggests that while adding a squeeze of lemon to tea is an excellent idea, it also makes sense to think in terms of 20 to 50 percent blends using orange and grapefruit juices...

Unfortunately, tea also contains high levels of two toxic substances, fluoride and aluminium (aluminum). Studies have shown that little of the aluminium in tea is absorbed by the body because it is bound by catechins (flavonoids) in the tea. Yet, squeezing lemon in tea dramatically increases aluminium absorption, somewhere close to 700 percent, so tea would be better flavoured with mint for example.

The lowest levels of both of these toxins are found in white tea, and the highest levels are in black tea. White tea, because it is harvested earlier than other forms of tea and is minimally processed, has a higher concentration of catechins, quercetin and other nutrients. It also contains far less fluoride and aluminium.

I got up and walked around as soon as I read this, and again as I'm writing this, but really it is extremely discouraging ( I spend far too much time sitting in front of a computer or reading):

New sitting risk: Disability after 60

Regardless of exercise, too much sedentary time is linked to major disability after 60

If you're 60 and older, every additional hour a day you spend sitting is linked to doubling the risk of being disabled -- regardless of how much moderate exercise you get, reports a new Northwestern Medicine® study.

If there are two 65-year-old women, one sedentary for 12 hours a day and another sedentary for 13 hours a day, the second one is 50 percent more likely to be disabled, the study found.

I eat one hard boiled egg a day - I need to eat more spinach: (I like the queue reference!)


Eat spinach or eggs: Tyrosine helps you stop faster, think better and cheer up

Researchers at Leiden University and the University of Amsterdam have carried out the first-ever study to test whether the intake of tyrosine enhances our ability to stop an activity at lightning speed. The findings seem to indicate that this is the case.

The positive effect of tyrosine on our reaction speed can have benefits for road safety. For example, if a queue suddenly forms, fast reflexes can prevent an accident. But there are many more examples.

Tyrosine is found in such foods as spinach, eggs, cottage cheese and soya. Anyone who doesn't eat enough of these foodstuffs produces too little dopamine, which can lead to depression and apathy.

Vitamin D provides relief for those with chronic hives


Loneliness is a major health risk for older adults

Feeling extreme loneliness can increase an older person's chances of premature death by 14 percent. A 2010 meta-analysis showed that loneliness has twice the impact on early death as does obesity. It is not solitude or physical isolation itself, but rather the subjective sense of isolation that is so profoundly disruptive. Older people living alone are not necessary lonely if they remain socially engaged and enjoy the company of those around them.

Moderate exercise cuts women's stroke risk


Citrus wards off your risk of stroke

Eating foods that contain vitamin C may reduce your risk of the most common type of hemorrhagic stroke.Vitamin C is found in fruits and vegetables such as oranges, papaya, peppers, broccoli and strawberries. Hemorrhagic stroke is less common than ischemic stroke, but is more often deadly.

On average, the people who had a stroke had depleted levels of vitamin C, while those who had not had a stroke had normal levels of the vitamin. Vitamin C appears to have other benefits like creating collagen, a protein found in bones, skin and tissues. Vitamin C deficiency has also been linked to heart disease.

Citric Juice In Tea : The Good and Bad News

I add a little orange juice to my white tea, based on this report:

The study by Purdue University researchers, published in the November 2007 Molecular Nutrition and Food Research, involved putting green tea alone and with various additives through a model simulating gastric and small-intestinal digestion. They found that catechins are unstable in non-acidic environments such as the intestines and less than 20 percent of the total remains after digestion. But adding vitamin C (which is done in ready-to-drink products to increase shelf life) increased recovered levels of the two most abundant catechins by sixfold and 13-fold, respectively.
Adding citrus juice to plain green tea was also beneficial. The study found that lemon juice caused a roughly four-fold boost in the recovered levels of catechins; in order, the next most effective juice additions were orange, lime and grapefruit. And one should not be stingy with the juice - while adding 10 percent juice was helpful, the best catechin preservation happened at levels of 20 to 50 percent juice. This suggests that while adding a squeeze of lemon to tea is an excellent idea, it also makes sense to think in terms of 20 to 50 percent blends using orange and grapefruit juices.

http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/ART02914/How-to-Boost-Green-Tea-Benefits.html


But unfortunately, in addition to releasing catechins, it appears that adding citrus juice to tea releases harmful elements as well: (thanks to a reader for alerting me to this)

Unfortunately, tea also contains high levels of two toxic substances, fluoride and aluminium. Studies have shown that little of the aluminium in tea is absorbed by the body because it is bound by catechins (flavonoids) in the tea. Yet, squeezing lemon in tea dramatically increases aluminium absorption, somewhere close to 700 percent, so tea would be better flavoured with mint for example.

The lowest levels of both of these toxins are found in white tea, and the highest levels are in black tea. White tea, because it is harvested earlier than other forms of tea and is minimally processed, has a higher concentration of catechins, quercetin and other nutrients. It also contains far less fluoride and aluminium.

https://health.org.au/index.php/health-articles-free/item/320-white-and-green-tea-miracle-teas.htmlWHY

So how harmful is aluminum (aluminium) ? No one knows - and it's everywhere:

In the form of salts, it has properties that make it a versatile and useful additive. “Aluminium sulphate is added to our water to improve clarity,” says Prof Exley. “All foods that need raising agents or additives, such as cakes and biscuits, contain aluminium. Children’s sweets contain aluminium-enhanced food colouring. It is in tea, cocoa and malt drinks, in some wines and fizzy drinks and in most processed foods.

“It is in cosmetics, sunscreens and antiperspirants, as well as being used as a buffering agent in medications like aspirin and antacids. It is even used in vaccines. We know aluminium can be toxic, yet there is no legislation to govern how much of it is present in anything, apart from drinking water.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/9119528/Is-aluminium-really-a-silent-killer.html

Aluminum is one of the most abundant metals on earth and it has permeated mainstream products to the degree that it’s virtually impossible to completely avoid exposure. However, you can take certain measures to reduce your exposure. Use glass cookware instead of aluminum. Avoid hygiene products (antacids, deodorant) with aluminum hydroxide, natural substitutes are available. Avoid processed and frozen foods, their containers can contain aluminum. Instead opt for fresh, organic fruits and vegetables, and foods with responsible packaging.

http://www.globalhealingcenter.com/natural-health/concerned-about-aluminum-dangers/

So what am I going to do - I'm leaning toward the benefits of adding OJ outweigh the risks, but now I will think twice every time I take that extra little drink - The more I learn about health, the less I know!

Long-term daily multivitamin supplement use decreases cataract risk in men

Researchers also find a slight, though statistically non-significant, increase in age-related macular degeneration risk among multivitamin users; call for further study

Long-term daily multivitamin supplement use may lower cataract risk in men, according to a study of nearly 15,000 male physicians published this month in Ophthalmology, the journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology.

Past observational studies have indicated a relationship between nutritional supplement use and eye health. However, randomized trial data on the effects of long-term multivitamin supplement use and risk of eye diseases are limited and, in some cases, non-existent. To address this, researchers based at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School – as part of the Physicians' Health Study II (PHS II) – conducted a randomized, double-blind study from 1997 to 2011 of 14,641 U.S. male doctors age 50 and older. Half took a common daily multivitamin, as well as vitamin C, vitamin E and beta carotene supplements. The other half took a placebo. The researchers followed the participants to identify how many participants in each group developed new cases of two common eye diseases: cataract, which is a clouding of the eye's lens, and age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the deterioration of the eye's macula that is responsible for the ability to see fine details clearly.

The researchers found that in the placebo group 945 cases of cataract developed, which were self-reported and confirmed by medical records, while only 872 cases of cataract developed in the multivitamin group, representing a 9 percent decrease in risk. This risk was even lower, at 13 percent, for nuclear cataract, which occurs at the center of the lens and is the most common variety of cataract associated with the aging process. Given that an estimated 10 million adults in the United States have impaired vision due to cataract, even a modest reduction in risk of cataract has potential to improve public health outcomes.

"If multivitamins really do reduce the risk of cataract, even by a modest 10 percent, this rather small reduction would nonetheless have a large public health impact," said William Christen, ScD, the study's lead author and researcher from Harvard Medical School.

In terms of AMD risk, the researchers found there were 152 new cases of visually significant (best corrected visual acuity of 20/30 or worse) AMD in the multivitamin group compared to 129 in the placebo group, but the difference was not statistically significant. While this finding may seem to contradict results of other studies, such as Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS), the researchers note that the studies had different nutrient supplements, dosing and objectives. AREDS included daily zinc and a high-dose antioxidant combination of vitamin E, vitamin C and beta carotene, whereas the multivitamin in PHS II included these nutrients and many others. All the nutrients were provided to the PHSII participants at the U.S. Recommended Dietary Allowance dose levels, which are much lower than the AREDS supplements. Furthermore, the objective in AREDS was to prevent AMD progression among persons who already had the disease, whereas the objective of PHS II was to prevent new cases of AMD, and thus persons with a diagnosis of AMD at baseline were not included.

"This finding of more cases of AMD in the multivitamin group than in the placebo group, although not statistically significant, does raise some concerns," added Dr. Christen. "Clearly, this finding needs to be examined further in other trials of multivitamin supplements in both men and women."

The American Academy of Ophthalmology recommends the use of antioxidant vitamin and mineral supplements as recommended in the AREDS reports, including high daily doses of vitamin C, vitamin E, beta-carotene, zinc and copper only for patients who have intermediate or advanced AMD. Patients are advised to contact their ophthalmologist to learn if these supplements are appropriate for them. Some people should not take large doses of antioxidants or zinc for medical reasons. Current smokers and patients with a smoking history should be advised to avoid taking beta-carotene because of the increased risk of lung cancer and consider taking the other components of the AREDS formulation. The recent AREDS2 results would suggest other nutrients such as lutein and zeaxanthin may be an appropriate substitution for beta-carotene in the formulation.

The Academy does not at this time have a recommendation for the use of nutritional supplements to prevent cataracts or delay their progression.

Vitamin D provides relief for those with chronic hives

A study by researchers at the University of Nebraska Medical Center shows vitamin D as an add-on therapy could provide some relief for chronic hives, a condition with no cure and few treatment options. An allergic skin condition, chronic hives create red, itchy welts on the skin and sometimes swelling. They can occur daily and last longer than six weeks, even years.

Jill Poole, M.D., associate professor in the UNMC Department of Internal Medicine, was principal investigator of a study in the Feb. 7 edition of the Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. The two-year study looked at the role of over-the-counter vitamin D3 as a supplemental treatment for chronic hives.

Over 12 weeks, 38 study participants daily took a triple-drug combination of allergy medications (one prescription and two over-the-counter drugs) and one vitamin D3, an over-the-counter supplement. Half of the patient's took 600 IUs of vitamin D3 and the other half took 4000 IUs.

Researchers found after just one week, the severity of patients' symptoms decreased by 33 percent for both groups. But at the end of three months, the group taking 4000 IUs of vitamin D3 had a further 40 percent decrease in severity of their hives. The low vitamin D3 treatment group had no further improvement after the first week.

"We consider the results in patients a significant improvement," Dr. Poole said. "This higher dosing of readily available vitamin D3 shows promise without adverse effects. Vitamin D3 could be considered a safe and potentially beneficial therapy.

"It was not a cure, but it showed benefit when added to anti-allergy medications. Patients taking the higher dose had less severe hives -- they didn't have as many hives and had a decrease in the number of days a week they had hives.

In the study, patients had suffered from five to 20 years with severe hives. Some had been on therapy and others none.

The cause of hives is not generally known, but allergy and autoimmune reactions sometimes play a role. Treatment options for chronic hives are limited.

"Standard therapy is to control symptoms with antihistamines and other allergy medications," Dr. Poole said. "Some are costly and can pose substantial side effects."

She said the study didn't include patients with kidney disease or those with calcium disorders.

Loneliness is a major health risk for older adults

Feeling extreme loneliness can increase an older person's chances of premature death by 14 percent, according to research by John Cacioppo, professor of psychology at the University of Chicago.

Cacioppo and his colleagues' work shows that the impact of loneliness on premature death is nearly as strong as the impact of disadvantaged socioeconomic status, which they found increases the chances of dying early by 19 percent. A 2010 meta-analysis showed that loneliness has twice the impact on early death as does obesity, he said.

Cacioppo, the Tiffany & Margaret Blake Distinguished Service Professor in Psychology at the University, joined other scholars at a seminar on "The Science of Resilient Aging" Feb. 16 at the American Association for the Advancement of Science Annual meeting in Chicago.

The researchers looked at dramatic differences in the rate of decline in physical and mental health as people age. Cacioppo and colleagues have examined the role of satisfying relationships on older people to develop their resilience, the ability to bounce back after adversity and grow from stresses in life.

The consequences to health are dramatic, as feeling isolated from others can disrupt sleep, elevate blood pressure, increase morning rises in the stress hormone cortisol, alter gene expression in immune cells, and increase depression and lower overall subjective well-being, Cacioppo pointed out in a talk, "Rewarding Social Connections Promote Successful Aging."

Cacioppo, one of the nation's leading experts on loneliness, said older people can avoid the consequences of loneliness by staying in touch with former co-workers, taking part in family traditions, and sharing good times with family and friends – all of which gives older adults a chance to connect others about whom they care and who care about them.

"Retiring to Florida to live in a warmer climate among strangers isn't necessarily a good idea if it means you are disconnected from the people who mean the most to you," said Cacioppo. Population changes make understanding the role of loneliness and health all the more important, he explained.

"We are experiencing a silver tsunami demographically. The baby boomers are reaching retirement age. Each day between 2011 and 2030, an average of 10,000 people will turn 65," he said. "People have to think about how to protect themselves from depression, low subjective well-being and early mortality."

Although some people are happy to be alone, most people thrive from social situations in which they provide mutual support and develop strong rapport. Evolution encouraged people to work together to survive and accordingly most people enjoy companionship over being alone.

Research by Cacioppo and his colleagues has identified three core dimensions to healthy relationships —intimate connectedness, which comes from having someone in your life you feel affirms who you are; relational connectedness, which comes from having face-to-face contacts that are mutually rewarding; and collective connectedness, which comes from feeling that you're part of a group or collective beyond individual existence.

It is not solitude or physical isolation itself, but rather the subjective sense of isolation that Cacioppo's work shows to be so profoundly disruptive. Older people living alone are not necessary lonely if they remain socially engaged and enjoy the company of those around them. Some aspects of aging, such as blindness and loss of hearing, however, place people at a special risk for becoming isolated and lonely, he said.

New sitting risk: Disability after 60

Regardless of exercise, too much sedentary time is linked to major disability after 60

If you're 60 and older, every additional hour a day you spend sitting is linked to doubling the risk of being disabled -- regardless of how much moderate exercise you get, reports a new Northwestern Medicine® study.

The study is the first to show sedentary behavior is its own risk factor for disability, separate from lack of moderate vigorous physical activity. In fact, sedentary behavior is almost as strong a risk factor for disability as lack of moderate exercise.

If there are two 65-year-old women, one sedentary for 12 hours a day and another sedentary for 13 hours a day, the second one is 50 percent more likely to be disabled, the study found.

"This is the first time we've shown sedentary behavior was related to increased disability regardless of the amount of moderate exercise," said Dorothy Dunlop, professor of medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and lead author of the study. "Being sedentary is not just a synonym for inadequate physical activity."

Disability affects more than 56 million Americans. It's defined by limitations in being able to do basic activities such as eating, dressing or bathing oneself, getting in and out of bed and walking across a room. Disability increases the risk of hospitalization and institutionalization and is a leading source of health care costs, accounting for $1 in $4 spent.

The study will be published February 19 in the Journal of Physical Activity & Health.

The finding -- that being sedentary was almost as strong a risk factor for disability as lack of moderate vigorous activity -- surprised Dunlop.

"It means older adults need to reduce the amount of time they spend sitting, whether in front of the TV or at the computer, regardless of their participation in moderate or vigorous activity," she said.

The study focused on a sample of 2,286 adults aged 60 and older from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. It compared people in similar health with the same amount of moderate vigorous activity. Moderate activity is walking briskly, as if you are late to an appointment.

The participants wore accelerometers from 2002 to 2005 to measure their sedentary time and moderate vigorous physical activity. The accelerometer monitoring is significant because it is objective. The older and heavier people are, the more they tend to overestimate their physical activity. Previous research indicated a relationship between sedentary behavior and disability but it was based on self-reports and, thus, couldn't be verified.

Because the study examines data at one point in time, it doesn't definitively determine sedentary behavior causes disability. "It draws attention to the fact that this is a potential problem," said Dunlop, who is doing a longitudinal study on sedentary behavior and disability risk.

Studies with animals have shown immobility is a separate risk factor for negative effects on health. "This is the first piece of objective evidence that corroborates the animal data," Dunlop said.

To cut down on sitting time, Dunlop has the following suggestions:

Stand up when you talk on the phone or during a work meeting.
When you go to grocery store or mall, park in a space farthest away.
When you get up to have glass of water, walk around the house or office.
Walk for short errands instead of taking the car.
Take the stairs instead of the elevator, if you are able.

Dunlop wears a device on her wrist that tracks her steps and is synced to her smartphone and computer. She's created a social circle with her friends and family, so they can keep track of each other's progress.

"It's great reinforcement to keep moving," Dunlop said.

Hands-Only CPR To Save the Life of a Teen or Adult

The image you have in your head of CPR is probably some combination of chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. While both may still be needed for children and infants, breaths are no longer necessary for teenagers and adults. According to the American Heart Association (AHA), hands-only CPR has been shown to be equally as effective for out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest.

“There is enough oxygen in our blood to keep our organs functioning without doing mouth-to-mouth,” said Amy Craver, Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center’s Heart and Vascular Center outreach coordinator. “Although oxygen supply is not unlimited, it is usually enough to allow time for first responders and EMS to arrive.”

When a person’s heart stops beating, their survival depends on someone administering CPR immediately. According to the AHA, 89 percent of those who suffer an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest die because CPR is not administered right away.

“If more of us knew how to perform CPR and felt comfortable doing it, a lot more people would still be alive today,” Craver said.

By following the steps below, Craver says you can more than double a person’s chances of survival.

If you see a teen or adult suddenly collapse, and they are unconscious:

• Call 911. Have someone else call 911 if you can’t do it yourself.

• Push hard and fast at the center of the chest. Place the heel of one hand on the center of the victim’s chest and put the other hand on top of the first. Then push.

• Keep pushing to the beat of the disco song “Staying Alive” until help arrives. The goal is to push at a rate of at least 100 beats per minute, which is about the same tempo as the song.

“Hopefully you will never have to perform CPR, but if you do, don’t be afraid,” Craver said. “Break it down into three simple steps: Call 911, push hard and fast at the center of the chest and keep pushing. Doing this could be the difference between life and death.”

Your mindset about the future may impact your eating habits

Emotional eating is something we’re all familiar with. Maybe you had had a rough week at work and all you want on Friday night is to plop down and watch a movie with a giant bowl of buttery popcorn. Maybe you’re a student stressed about a big exam and you’re munching on candy as you study. Or maybe your child’s birthday party is coming up and you’ve bought an ice cream cake to serve a small army to celebrate. Happy or sad, up or down, there’s a plethora of media in the world that tells us our moods often dictate the foods we choose to eat.

More recent studies, though, have shown that negative moods and positive moods may actually lead to preferences for different kinds of foods. For example, if given the choice between grapes or chocolate candies, someone in a good mood may be more inclined to choose the former while someone in a bad mood may be more likely to choose the latter.

But what if we could make better choices in any emotional state?

A forthcoming article by University of Delaware associate professor Meryl Gardner finds that there’s more to stress eating than simply emotion and in fact, thinking about the future may help people make better food choices.

“We were interested in the ‘why,’” said Gardner. “Why when someone is in a bad mood will they choose to eat junk food and why when someone is in a good mood will they make healthier food choices?”

Gardner, a faculty member in UD's Lerner College of Business and Economics, with co-authors Brian Wansink of Cornell University, Junyong Kim of Hanyang University ERICA and Se-Bum Park of Yonsei University, found that a lot depends on our perspective of time.

“In an evolutionary sense, it makes sense that when we feel uncomfortable or are in a bad mood, we know something is wrong and focus on what is close to us physically and what is close in time, in the here and now,” said Gardner. “We’re seeing the trees and not the forest, or how to do things and not why to do things.”

To get at the “why,” the researchers married the theories of affective regulation (how people react to their moods and emotions) and temporal construal (the perspective of time) to explain food choice.

They conducted four laboratory experiments to examine whether people in a positive mood would prefer healthy food to indulgent food for long-term health and well-being benefits and those in a negative mood would prefer indulgent foods to healthy foods for immediate, hedonistic mood management benefits.

In the first study, the researchers investigated the effect of a positive mood on evaluations of indulgent and health foods by examining 211 individuals from local parent-teacher associations (PTAs).

The findings indicated individuals in a positive mood, compared to control group participants in a relatively neutral mood, evaluated healthy foods more favorably than indulgent foods.

“We expect this is possibly because they put more weight on abstract, higher-level benefits like health and future well-being,” said Gardner. “The remaining question was whether individuals in a negative mood would act differently.”

Testing that question in a second study using 315 undergraduate students recruited from a large Midwestern university, the researchers found further support for their hypothesis that individuals in a negative mood liked indulgent foods more than healthy foods.

According to Gardner, the finding that people in a positive mood liked the more nutritious options and also liked the idea of staying healthy in their old age is consistent with the hypothesis that time construal is important.

“It suggests that positive mood makes people think about the future, and thinking about the future makes us think more abstractly,” said Gardner.

The researchers were then left to eliminate goal achievement as an alternative explanation.

“Our manipulations of mood in the first two studies involved having participants read positive, negative or neutral articles,” said Gardner. “As it turned out, the positive articles involved someone who had a great life and achieved lots of goals, and the negative articles involved someone who had a sad life and did not achieve goals. So the reviewers wondered whether the findings were due to the manipulation having involved goal achievement or the manipulation having led to different moods.”

In order to prove the findings were not caused by differences in thinking about goal achievement, the researchers conducted a third study with an unrelated manipulation to show that mood not only affects evaluations of nutritious versus indulgent foods but also affects actual consumption.

Using raisins as health food and M&M’s as indulgent food, Gardner said they altered participants’ focus on the present versus the future along with their mood and measured how much of each food they consumed.

To get more insight into the underlying process, the fourth study focused specifically on the thoughts related to food choice, and differentiated concrete (taste/enjoyment-oriented) versus abstract (nutrition/health-oriented) benefits.

Ultimately, the findings of all the studies combined contribute to current research by demonstrating that individuals can select healthy or indulgent foods depending on their moods, an area previously under-represented in past clinical research on the role of healthy foods.

The findings also indicate the integral aspect of the time horizon, showing that individuals in positive moods who make healthier food choices are often thinking more about future health benefits than those in negative moods, who focus more on the immediate taste and sensory experience.

Finally – and this is where it gets even more interesting – Gardner and her partners found that individuals in negative moods will still make food choices influenced by temporal construal which supports the idea that trying to focus on something other than the present can reduce the consumption of indulgent foods.

“If people in a bad mood typically choose to eat foods that have an immediate, indulgent reward, it might be more effective to encourage what we call mood repair motivation, or calling their attention to more innocuous ways to enhance their mood,” said Gardner. “Instead of looking at nutrition and warning labels, try talking to friends or listening to music.”

So the next time you go to grab a snack, think about the future and you just might make a better food choice.

Moderate exercise cuts women's stroke risk

Women don't need to run marathons or do intense aerobics to reduce their stroke risk. Moderate-intensity exercise — such as brisk walking or playing tennis -- may do the trick, according to research presented at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2014.

"I was surprised that moderate physical activity was most strongly associated with a reduced risk of stroke," said Sophia Wang, Ph.D., the study's lead author and professor in the department of population sciences within the Beckman Research Institute at the City of Hope in Duarte, Calif. "More strenuous activity such as running didn't further reduce women's stroke risk. Moderate activity, such as brisk walking appeared to be ideal in this scenario."

The study found that moderate exercise also helps offset the increased stroke risk seen with postmenopausal women taking menopausal hormones, but not completely.

Researchers analyzed information from the 133,479 women in the California Teachers Study to see how many suffered a stroke between 1996 and 2010. Those who reported doing moderate physical activity in the three years before enrolling in the study were 20 percent less likely than women who reported no activity to suffer a stroke. "The benefits of reducing risk of stroke were further observed among the group of women who had a sustained moderate level of physical activity over time," she said.

Postmenopausal women taking menopausal hormone therapy had more than a 30 percent higher risk of stroke than women who never used menopausal hormone therapy. After the women stopped taking hormones, their risk began to diminish.

"The effects of physical activity and hormone therapy appear immediate and the benefits of physical activity are consistent in premenopausal and postmenopausal women," Wang said. Therefore, Wang recommends that women incorporate some type of physical activity into their daily routine. "You don't have to do an extreme boot camp. The types of activities we're talking about are accessible to most of the population." Power walking and recreational tennis, for example, do not necessarily require special memberships to gyms.

The study also found that women with diabetes had elevated stroke risk, although this group encompassed women who also were overweight.

"Physical activity, obesity and diabetes are all highly correlated with one another," Wang said. "Stroke prevention among diabetics is thus a particularly important scientific question to address."

Although 87 percent of the women were white, Wang said she believes the study's results may also apply to women in other racial/ethnic groups because the amount of stroke risk reduction was so robust. Further studies are needed to determine how much moderate exercise helps those with diabetes avoid strokes.

Can citrus ward off your risk of stroke?

Eating foods that contain vitamin C may reduce your risk of the most common type of hemorrhagic stroke, according to a study released today that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 66th Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, April 26 to May 3, 2014.

Vitamin C is found in fruits and vegetables such as oranges, papaya, peppers, broccoli and strawberries. Hemorrhagic stroke is less common than ischemic stroke, but is more often deadly.

The study involved 65 people who had experienced an intracerebral hemorrhagic stroke, or a blood vessel rupture inside the brain. They were compared to 65 healthy people. Participants were tested for the levels of vitamin C in their blood. Forty-one percent of cases had normal levels of vitamin C, 45 percent showed depleted levels of vitamin C and 14 percent were considered deficient of the vitamin.

On average, the people who had a stroke had depleted levels of vitamin C, while those who had not had a stroke had normal levels of the vitamin.

"Our results show that vitamin C deficiency should be considered a risk factor for this severe type of stroke, as were high blood pressure, drinking alcohol and being overweight in our study," said study author Stéphane Vannier, MD, with Pontchaillou University Hospital in Rennes, France. "More research is needed to explore specifically how vitamin C may help to reduce stroke risk. For example, the vitamin may regulate blood pressure."

Vannier adds that vitamin C appears to have other benefits like creating collagen, a protein found in bones, skin and tissues.

Vitamin C deficiency has also been linked to heart disease.

Eat spinach or eggs: Tyrosine helps you stop faster, think better and cheer up

A child suddenly runs out into the road. Brake!! A driver who has recently eaten spinach or eggs will stop faster, thanks to the amino acid tyrosine found in these and other food products. Leiden cognitive psychologist Lorenza Colzato publishes her findings in the journal Neuropsychologia.

The German philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach has already said it: Der Mensch ist was er iβt. You are what you eat. Substances that we ingest through our food can determine our behaviour and the way we experience our environment. Researchers at Leiden University and the University of Amsterdam have carried out the first-ever study to test whether the intake of tyrosine enhances our ability to stop an activity at lightning speed. The findings seem to indicate that this is the case.

Stopping task

Colzato and her colleagues created a situation in which test candidates had to interrupt a repetitive activity at a given instant. The researchers tested this using a stopping task: the participants were told to look carefully at a computer screen. Whenever a green arrow appeared, they had to press a button as quickly as possible. At the same time they had to make sure the button they chose matched the direction of the arrow. If a red arrow appeared on the screen, the candidates had to keep their hands off the keyboard altogether.

Tyrosine or a placebo

The participants had two sessions in the test lab. On one occasion they were given orange to drink that contained tyrosine, and on the other occasion the orange juice contained a placebo. The tests showed that the candidates performed better on the stopping task if they had drunk the juice with tyrosine.

Benefits

The positive effect of tyrosine on our reaction speed can have benefits for road safety. For example, if a queue suddenly forms, fast reflexes can prevent an accident. But there are many more examples.

Colzato: 'Tyrosine food supplements and tyrosine-rich food are a healthy and inexpensive way of improving our intellectual capabilities. This makes them preferable to Ritalin and Modafinil, products that students often reach for to improve their academic performance. Tyrosine is safe and doesn't need a doctor's prescription.

Video

Eating to stop: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6cIeBhzPQY

What is tyrosine?

Tyrosine is found in such foods as spinach, eggs, cottage cheese and soya. Anyone who doesn't eat enough of these foodstuffs produces too little dopamine, which can lead to depression and apathy.

Latest Health Research

This is very good news for me:

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This is good news as well:

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I think I’m doing all the right things already:

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Risk scores for diseases such as CVD are usually presented as the percent chance of contracting the disease within the next ten years. The Heart Age Calculator, http://www.heartage.me, uses the same well established risk factor data, but expresses an individual's risk score as their estimated Heart Age to make it more personally relevant to the individual.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the world's biggest killer(3), but doctors have long struggled to explain risk factors to patients in a way that encourages them to change their behaviour thus reducing risk. Previous research has shown that Heart Age is more likely to be understood and motivate people to make positive changes than traditional % risk scores, especially those who are at higher levels of modifiable risk.

Lately I've been thinking I should get more sun:
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and now this:

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I’m glad I’m on a Mediterranean-style diet:


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I'm in pretty good shape here:

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and here:

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I gave up beta-carotene, A, C and E a long time ago, but still worry about what E may have done to me:

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I've been trying to drink more coffee and now this:

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