21st December 2006
Reduced Dietary Fat Intake May Decrease Breast Cancer Recurrence
Science Daily — Reducing dietary fat intake may decrease the chance of a breast cancer recurrence in women who have been treated for early-stage breast cancer, according to a randomized, phase III trial in the December 20 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

21st December 2006

Scientists link weight to gut bacteria
Researchers found a strong connection between obesity and the levels of certain types of bacteria in the gut. That could mean that someday there will be novel new ways of treating obesity that go beyond the standard advice of diet and exercise.

According to two studies being published in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature, both obese mice and people had more of one type of bacteria and less of another kind.
Obese humans and mice had a lower percentage of a family of bacteria called Bacteroidetes and more of a type of bacteria called Firmicutes, Gordon and his colleagues found.

The researchers aren't sure if more Firmicutes makes you fat or if people who are obese grow more of that type of bacteria.

But growing evidence of this link gives scientists a potentially new and still distant way of fighting obesity: Change the bacteria in the intestines and stomach. It also may lead to a way of fighting malnutrition in the developing world.

Before dieting, about 3 percent of the gut bacteria in the obese participants was Bacteroidetes. But after dieting, the now normal-sized people had much higher levels of Bacteroidetes — close to 15 percent, Gordon said.

The growing field of research puts more importance in the trillions of microbes that live in our guts and elsewhere, crediting it with everything from generations of people getting taller to increases in diabetes and asthma.

People are born germ-free, but within days they have a gut blooming with microbes. The microbes come from first foods — either breast milk or formula — the exterior environment, and the way the babies are born, said Stanford University medicine and microbiology professor David Relman, who was not part of the study.

For decades, doctors have treated bacteria in a "warlike" manner, yet recent research shows that "most encounters we have with microbes are very beneficial," Gordon said.

"Much of who we are and what we can do and can't do as human beings is directly related to microbial inhabitants," Relman said.

21st December 2006

Less Sugary Drinks During Childhood May Cut Disease Risk
 Symptoms of heart disease and diabetes usually seen in adults are increasingly being found in adolescents according to a longitudinal study, which suggests that reducing the intake of sugar-sweetened beverages during childhood may lessen the risk of chronic disease in later life.

Results from the study further suggest that the risk groups for hypertension and metabolic syndrome also had significantly greater increases in weight and fat mass between the ages of 5 and 13 compared to the other two groups. Those at higher risk for metabolic syndrome were also found to be consuming significantly more servings of sugary beverages between the ages of 5 and 9 compared to the other three groups.  Controlling weight gain and the intake of sugar-sweetened drinks may prevent a child from the risk of disease later in life," Ventura adds.
 

21st December 2006 
High Levels Of Vitamin D In Body May Decrease Risk Of Multiple Sclerosis
Science Daily — The possibility that vitamin D could help protect people from developing multiple sclerosis (MS) has been posited by researchers in recent decades, but evidence to support that link has been scant. In the first large-scale, prospective study to investigate the relationship between vitamin D levels and MS, researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) have found an association between higher levels of vitamin D in the body and a lower risk of MS.

21st December 2006 
Exercise Appears To Improve Brain Function Among Younger People
Science Daily — As an expanding body of work continues to confirm links between exercise and improved brain function in older adults, a new study by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam suggests similar improvements among younger populations as well.


Charles Hillman, a professor of kinesiology and community health, has found that exercise may be beneficial to cognition during early and middle periods of life and protect against age-related loss of cognitive function during older adulthood.

Physical activity may be beneficial to cognition during early and middle periods of the human lifespan and may continue to protect against age-related loss of cognitive function during older adulthood," said Charles H. Hillman, a U. of I. professor of kinesiology and of community health and the lead author of the study, published in the current edition of the journal Health Psychology.

7th December 2006 

Exercise When Young May Reduce Risk Of Fractures Later In Life

Running and jumping during childhood is more than child's play; it provides lifelong benefits for future bone health and appears to reduce the risk of fractures later in life according to a Journal of Bone and Mineral Research study by Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) researchers. The study is now available in an advance online edition of the journal and will appear in a print edition in 2007
 

7th December 2006 

Exposures To Insecticide Chlorpyrifos In Pregnancy Adversely Affect Child Development, Study Finds
Children who were exposed prenatally to the insecticide chlorpyrifos had significantly poorer mental and motor development by three years of age and increased risk for behavior problems, according to a peer-reviewed study published by the American Academy of Pediatrics in its journal, Pediatrics. Chlorpyrifos, which was banned for residential use in 2001, is still widely applied to agricultural crops in the U.S. and abroad, including many fruits and vegetables.
 

21st- November 2006 

Holiday Gluttony Can Spell Disaster For Undiagnosed Diabetics
Hearty feasts and couch-potato marathons are holiday traditions, but UT Southwestern Medical Center experts warn that packing on pounds and not exercising could be deadly for the 6 million Americans who have diabetes and don't even know it.

Endocrinologist Dr. Manisha Chandalia warns that packing on pounds and not exercising during the holiday season could be deadly for the 6 million Americans who have diabetes and don't even know it. (Credit: UT Southwestern Medical Center)Ads by Google Advertise on this site

If you are overweight, try to lose 5 percent to 7 percent of your body weight through exercise and eating right.
Exercise regularly. Walk at least 30 minutes a day.
Eat a nutritious diet high in fiber and whole grain. Reduce the intake of high-calorie food.
"Various research studies have shown that maintaining a healthy lifestyle with a balanced diet, weight management and regular exercise can prevent the development of diabetes or help control an existing condition," said Dr. Chandalia, an associate professor of internal medicine.

Diabetes has several basic forms and stages:

Pre-diabetes: People have higher-than-normal blood sugar levels but the levels are not high enough for a diabetes diagnosis.

Type 1: The immune system attacks insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas, requiring insulin to survive. This typically affects children.

Type 2: The body can't efficiently use its own insulin and insulin production can't keep up with the high demand, so glucose builds up in the blood and the body can't burn the blood sugars that are its main source of fuel. This is normally associated with older age, obesity, diabetic family history, physical inactivity and certain ethnicities, but is increasingly diagnosed in overweight children as well.

"Diabetes doesn't occur just because of eating sugar. Sugar, as any other food, provides excess calories that can lead to obesity and a predisposition to diabetes," Dr. Chandalia said. "If you don't eat sugar, and continue to eat extra calories from other foods, you may still develop diabetes."

15th- November 2006 

You are what your grandmother ate
22:00 13 November 2006
NewScientist.com news service

A mother’s diet can change the behaviour of a specific gene for at least two subsequent generations, a new study demonstrates for the first time.

Feeding mice an enriched diet during pregnancy silenced a gene for light fur in their pups. And even though these pups ate a standard, un-enriched diet, the gene remained less active in their subsequent offspring.

The findings could help explain the curious results from recent studies of human populations – including one showing that the grandchildren of well-fed Swedes had a greater risk of diabetes.

The new mouse experiment lends support to the idea that we inherit not only our genes from our parents, but also a set of instructions that tell the genes when to become active. These instructions appear to be passed on through “epigenetic” changes to DNA – genes can be activated or silenced according to the chemical groups that are added onto them.

Gene silencer
David Martin at the Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute in California, US, and colleagues used a special strain of genetically identical mice with an overactive version of a gene that influences fur colour. Mice with the AVY version of this gene generally have golden fur.

Half of the mice were given a diet enriched with nutrients such as vitamin B12 and zinc. These nutrients are known to increase the availability of the “methyl” chemical groups that are responsible for silencing genes. The rest of the mice received a standard diet.

The pups of mice on the standard diet generally had golden fur. But a high proportion of those born to mice on the enriched diet had dark brown fur.

Martin believes that the nutrient-rich maternal diet caused silencing of the pups’ AVY genes while they developed in the womb.

Passed down
Intriguingly, even though all of the pups in this generation received a standard diet, those that had exposure to a high-nutrient diet while in the womb, later gave birth to dark-coated offspring. Their control counterparts, by comparison, produced offspring with golden fur.

This shows that environmental factors – such as an enriched diet – can affect the activity of the AVY gene for at least two generations, the researchers say.

“The results make it clear that a nutritional status can affect not only that individual, but that individual’s children as well,” says study member Kenneth Beckman.

Skin colour
Beckman notes that the AVY gene is linked to weight and diabetes risk. He adds that there is some evidence that a related gene in humans might affect skin colour – but it is unknown if it also affects weight.

Even though humans may have a similar gene, they should not make dietary changes based on the results of the mouse experiment, researchers stress. “It would be irresponsible to make any prescriptions about human behaviour based on these findings,” says Martin.

An earlier Swedish study which used historical data of harvests in Sweden, found that a youngster had a quadrupled risk of diabetes if their grandfather had good access to food during his own boyhood (see Grandad's diet affects descendants' health).

Journal reference: Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0607090103)
 

15th- November 2006 

Salt Intake Is Strongly Associated With Obesity

A study published in the journal "Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases" refutes the frequently repeated claims that a comprehensive salt reduction would not produce any overall health benefits, or would even increase diseases and shorten the life-span.

Professors, Dr. Heikki Karppanen of the University of Helsinki and Dr. Eero Mervaala of the University of Kuopio report that an average 30-35 % reduction in salt intake during 30 years in Finland was associated with a dramatic 75 % to 80 % decrease in both stroke and coronary heart disease mortality in the population under 65 years. During the same period the life expectancy of both male and female Finns increased by 6 to 7 years.

The most powerful explaining factor for the favorable changes was the more than 10 mmHg ("point") decrease in the average blood pressure of the population. A marked decrease in the average cholesterol levels of the population also remarkably contributed to the decrease of heart diseases. The extensive use of drugs contributed less than 10 % of the observed decreases in blood pressure, cholesterol, and cardiovascular diseases.

"To our surprise, the sales figures of the American Salt Institute divulged that salt intake increased more than 50 % in USA during 15 years from mid-1980s to the late 1990s", says Professor Karppanen. The study reports that the prevalence of high blood pressure, which had long shown a decreasing trend, turned to a marked increase concomitantly with the increase in salt intake.

Perhaps the most interesting finding of the study is the close link between salt intake and obesity. The study reports that increasing intakes of sodium (salt) obligatorily produce a progressive increase in thirst. The progressive increase in the average intake of salt explains the observed concomitant increase in the intake of beverages which, in turn, has caused a marked net increase in the intake of calories during the same period in the United States.

Between 1977 and 2001, energy intake from sweetened beverages increased on the average by 135 % in the United States. During the same period, the energy intake from milk was reduced by 38 %. The net effect on energy intake was a 278 kcal increase per person a day. The American Heart Association has estimated that, to burn the average increase of 278 kcal a day and avoid the development or worsening of obesity, each American should now walk or vacuum 1 hour 10 minutes more every day than in 1977. Unfortunately, this has not been the case.

In a decade from 1976-1980 to 1988-1994 the prevalence of obesity increased 61 % among men and 52 % among women. During 1999 to 2002, the prevalence of obesity was 120 % higher among men and 99 % higher among women as compared with the 1976 to 1980 figures. The increased intake of salt, through induction of thirst with increased intake of high-energy beverages has obviously remarkably contributed to the increase of obesity in the United States.

It is noteworthy that, until 1983 the use of salt did not change or even showed a continuous decreasing trend in the United States. The prevalence of obesity was relatively low and remained essentially unchanged from early 1960s to early 1980s. The study suggests that a comprehensive reduction in salt intake, which would reduce the intake of high-energy beverages, would be a potentially powerful means in the so far failed attempts to combat obesity in industrialized societies.

The authors conclude that there now is conclusive population-wide evidence, which indicates powerful beneficial health effects of comprehensive salt reduction. Decrease of obesity is now added to the previous list of recognized benefits. The population-wide long-term experience from Finland indicates that a remarkable decrease in the salt intake has not caused any adverse effects. Professor Karppanen states that "the repeated warnings of various industries on possible harmful effects of comprehensive salt reduction are unjustified and even unethical".

14th- November 2006 

Fizzy Drinks Increase Risk Of Pancreatic Cancer, Study Finds

The high consumption of sweetened food and drink increases the risk of developing pancreatic cancer, according to a new study from Karolinska Institutet. A heavy intake of fizzy drinks, creamed fruit and sugar in coffee are three common ways of increasing the risk.

Pancreatic cancer is a very serious form of cancer that is possibly caused when the pancreas produces heightened levels of insulin as a consequence of upset glucose metabolism. A well-known way of increasing insulin production is to eat a lot of sugar. Scientists have now, for the first time, shown that the consumption of sweetened food and drink affects a person's chances of developing pancreatic cancer.

The researchers have now been able to show that the risk of developing pancreatic cancer is related to the amount of sugar in the diet. Most at risk were those who drank high quantities of fizzy or syrup based (squash) drinks. The group who said that they drank such products twice a day or more ran a 90% higher risk than those who never drank them. People who added sugar to food or drinks (e.g. coffee) at least five times a day ran a 70% greater risk than those who did not. People who ate creamed fruit (a product resembling runny jam) at least once a day also ran a higher risk -- they developed the disease 50% more often than those who never ate creamed fruit.

"Despite the fact that the chances of developing pancreatic cancer are relatively small, it's important to learn more about the risk factors behind the disease," says Susanna Larsson, one of the researchers involved in the study.

"It is perhaps the most serious form of cancer, with very poor prognoses for its victims. Since it's difficult to treat and is often discovered too late, it's particularly important that we learn to prevent it," she says.

14th- November 2006 

Anxiety Sensitivity Linked To Future Psychological Disorders

People who get scared when they experience a pounding heart, sweaty palms or dizziness -- even if the cause is something as mundane as stress, exercise or caffeine -- are more likely to develop a clinical case of anxiety or panic disorder, according to a Florida State University researcher in Tallahassee, Fla

14th- November 2006 

Losing Weight And Reducing Risk Of Diabetes: Diet And Exercise Work Equally Well

Which works best in fighting the risk factors for diabetes --exercise or diet?

It's a toss up, according to a new study by a Saint Louis University researcher who is a member of a Washington University team of scientists examining whether a calorie-restrictive diet can extend people's lifespan.

"Both diet and exercise provide profound benefits to reduce the risk of diabetes. Both those who restrict calories and those who exercise benefit from weight loss," says Edward Weiss, Ph.D., lead author and assistant professor of nutrition and dietetics at Saint Louis University's Doisy College of Health Sciences.

"We thought exercise probably would produce greater benefits. But both of these are providing beneficial health improvements." Weiss said the scientists looked at markers for developing diabetes because the disease is one of the main causes of premature death.

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14th- November 2006 
Happy People Are Healthier, Psychologist Says

Happiness and other positive emotions play an even more important role in health than previously thought, according to a study published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine by Carnegie Mellon University Psychology Professor Sheldon Cohen.

This recent study confirms the results of a landmark 2004 paper in which Cohen and his colleagues found that people who are happy, lively, calm or exhibit other positive emotions are less likely to become ill when they are exposed to a cold virus than those who report few of these emotions. In that study, Cohen found that when they do come down with a cold, happy people report fewer symptoms than would be expected from objective measures of their illness.

In contrast, reporting more negative emotions such as depression, anxiety and anger was not associated with catching colds. That study, however, left open the possibility that the greater resistance to infectious illness among happier people may not have been due to happiness, but rather to other characteristics that are often associated with reporting positive emotions such as optimism, extraversion, feelings of purpose in life and self-esteem.

Cohen's recent study controls for those variables, with the same result: The people who report positive emotions are less likely to catch colds and also less likely to report symptoms when they do get sick. This held true regardless of their levels of optimism, extraversion, purpose and self-esteem, and of their age, race, gender, education, body mass or prestudy immunity to the virus.

"We need to take more seriously the possibility that positive emotional style is a major player in disease risk," said Cohen, the Robert E. Doherty Professor of Psychology at Carnegie Mellon.

The researchers interviewed volunteers over several weeks to assess their moods and emotional styles, and then infected them with either a rhinovirus or an influenza virus. The volunteers were quarantined and examined to see if they came down with a cold. This was the same method Cohen applied in his previous study, but with the addition of the influenza virus.
 

14th- November 2006 
Regular Exercise Plays A Consistent And Significant Role In Reducing Fatigue

Forget so-called “energy drinks.” A new analysis by University of Georgia researchers finds overwhelming evidence that regular exercise plays a significant role in increasing energy levels and reducing fatigue.

“A lot of times when people are fatigued the last thing they want to do is exercise,” said professor Patrick O’Connor, co-director of the UGA exercise psychology laboratory. “But if you’re physically inactive and fatigued, being just a bit more active will help.”

Health professionals encourage regular exercise to prevent or improve symptoms of conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and obesity, but the scientific evidence on whether exercise increases or reduces fatigue had never been reviewed quantitatively. O’Connor, kinesiology professor Rod Dishman and lead author Tim Puetz, who recently completed his doctoral work at UGA, analyzed 70 randomized, controlled trials that enrolled a total of 6,807 subjects. They found strong support for the role of exercise in reducing fatigue.

“More than 90 percent of the studies showed the same thing: Sedentary people who completed a regular exercise program reported improved fatigue compared to groups that did not exercise” O’Connor said. “It’s a very consistent effect.”

The study, published in the November issue of the journal Psychological Bulletin, quantified the magnitude of the effect of exercise and found that it was stronger than the treatment of fatigued people with drugs such as the narcolepsy drug modafinil. Specifically, the researchers found that exercise increased energy and reduced fatigue by 0.37 standard deviations when compared to control groups, whereas participants in a previous study taking modafinil had an improvement of 0.23 standard deviations.

Puetz notes that their analysis found that nearly every group studied – from healthy adults to cancer patients to those with chronic conditions such as diabetes and heart disease – benefited from exercise. He acknowledges that it may seem counterintuitive that expending energy through exercise would increase feelings of energy and reduce fatigue, but he points out that previous studies have shown marked increases in the levels of energy-promoting and mood-enhancing neurotransmitters such as dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin in the brains of animals that are placed in regular exercise conditions.

“We live in a society where people are always looking for the next sports drink, energy bar or cup of coffee that will give them the extra edge to get through the day,” Puetz said. “But it may be that lacing up your tennis shoes and getting out and doing some physical activity every morning can provide that spark of energy that people are looking for.”

14th- November 2006 

Warning over chemical risk to developing brains

Chemicals that seep into our environment may be causing a "silent pandemic" of brain diseases, researchers claim, impairing brain development, lowering IQs and costing billions of dollars in lost productivity.

A new review paper in The Lancet lists 201 commercially used chemicals that previous studies have shown are neurotoxic to adults. These include pesticides and cleaning products. Philippe Grandjean, at the University of Southern Denmark, and Philip Ladrigan at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, US, argue that it is likely many of these chemicals pose an even greater risk to fetuses and children.

The list represents a small fraction of the 100,000 chemicals used commercially in the US and Europe, most of which have not been tested for their effects on brain development.

Grandjean and Ladrigan say governments should take a close look at their list of chemicals to determine which ones present a particular risk to their populations because, for example, they are very common. They also urge governments to see what can be done to prevent fetuses being exposed to the chemicals.

To date, five chemicals have been proven to impair how the brain develops: lead, methylmercury, PCBs (found, for example, in electrical circuits and pesticides), arsenic and toluene (used in paint thinners, ink and glues).

However, it can take many decades for the effects of specific chemicals on brain development to show up in standard health statistics. Such effects include lower IQ and behavioural changes.
 

14th- November 2006 
Antioxidants: New Kid On The Block For Pain Relief?

Antioxidant-based pain killers may one day become a viable alternative to addictive medications such as morphine.

Researchers found that synthetic antioxidants practically eradicated pain-like behavior in nearly three-quarters of mice with inflamed hind paws.

“When it comes to pain killers, there aren't many choices between over-the-counter pain relievers like ibuprofen and aspirin and prescription opiates like morphine,” said Robert Stephens, a professor of physiology and cell biology at Ohio State University. He's the lead author of a study examining the effects of antioxidants as pain killers.

Antioxidants neutralize free radicals, substances that damage cells. While our bodies constantly produce free radicals, healthy tissues inactivate these damaging substances and keep their levels in check. It's when free-radical production somehow exceeds the body's natural defenses that problems occur. Researchers have linked this excessive production to diseases like cancer and Alzheimer's.

A handful of studies published in the last 10 years suggest that free radicals may also contribute to chronic pain. Left unchecked, free radicals build up in the body and can further damage already-injured tissue.

An equally small number of studies, including those by Stephens, suggest that antioxidants may fight chronic pain by helping the body to break down free radicals.
 

7th- November 2006 

Deficiency In Exposure To Sunlight Linked To Ovarian Cancer

Using newly available data on worldwide cancer incidence, researchers at the Moores Cancer Center at UCSD have shown a clear association between deficiency in exposure to sunlight, specifically ultraviolet B (UVB), and ovarian cancer. UVB exposure triggers photosynthesis of vitamin D3 in the body.

7th- November 2006 

Reduced Body Temperature Extends Lifespan, Study Finds

Scientists at the Scripps Research Institute have found that reducing the core body temperature of mice extends their median lifespan by up to 20 percent. This is the first time that changes in body temperature have been shown to affect lifespan in warm-blooded animals.
 

"Our study shows it is possible to increase lifespan in mice by modest but prolonged lowering of core body temperature," said Bruno Conti, an associate professor at Scripps Research who led the study. "This longer lifespan was attained independent of calorie restriction."

Prior to this study, researchers had known that core body temperature and aging were related in cold-blooded animals. Scientists had also known that lifespan could be extended in warm-blooded animals by reducing the number of calories they consumed, which also lowered core body temperature. But the degree of calorie restriction needed to extend lifespan is not easy to achieve, even in mice.

7th- November 2006 

Rock Climbing Does Not Increase Risk Of Osteoarthritis

A study in the US has found there is no greater risk of osteoarthritis in rock climbers compared to non climbers, contrary to previous theory.

The study, published in the November issue of Journal of Anatomy, examined osteological changes in the hands and fingers of rock climbers that result from intense, long-term mechanical stress placed on these bones. Specifically, whether rock climbing leads to increased cortical bone thickness and joint changes associated with osteoarthritis. Researchers also wanted to identify whether climbing intensity and frequency of different styles of climbing influence changes..

7th- November 2006 

Regular Exercise Can Stave Off Degenerative Eye Disease

Regular exercise can cut the likelihood of developing the degenerative eye disease, age related macular degeneration by 70%, suggests research published ahead of print in the British Journal of Ophthalmology.

Age related macular degeneration, or ARMD for short, refers to a condition in which the light sensitive cells in the macula at the back of the eye stop working. This affects central vision and therefore activities, such as driving.

It is usually divided into two types--"dry" or non-exudative AMRD--and "wet" or exudative AMRD.
After taking account of other risk factors, such as weight, blood fat levels, and age, those with an an active lifestyle were 70% less likely to develop "wet" AMRD than those who had a sedentary lifestyle.

Regular walkers were 30% less likely to develop this variant. Physically active people are also likely to be "biologically" younger than those with a sedentary lifestyle, which could also be important as AMRD is associated with ageing, they add.

7th- November 2006 

Drug Prescribed For Migraines And Seizures Found To Increase Risk Of Kidney Stones

Topiramate (Topamax), a drug commonly prescribed to treat seizures and migraine headaches, can increase the propensity of calcium phosphate kidney stones, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.

7th- November 2006 

Child abuse: nature or nurture?
Monkeys that are abused as infants develop a specific brain change that makes them more likely to mistreat their own offspring, a new study shows.

The findings may help explain why child abuse in humans often perpetuates from one generation to the next, the researchers say.

7th- November 2006 

Stress Hormones May Play New Role In Speeding Up Cancer Growth

    New research here suggests that hormones produced during periods of stress may increase the growth rate of a particularly nasty kind of cancer. The study showed that an increase in norepinephrine, a stress hormone, can stimulate tumor cells to produce two compounds. These compounds can break down the tissue around the tumor cells and allow the cells to more easily move into the bloodstream. From there, they can travel to another location in the body to form additional tumors, a process called metastasis.

The research also suggests the same hormone can also stimulate the tumor cells to release another compound that can aid in the growth of new blood vessels that feed cancer cells, hastening the growth and spread of the disease. The work was reported in the latest issue of the journal Cancer Research.

“This opens up an entirely new way of looking at stress and cancer that's different from current interpretations,” explained Ronald Glaser, a professor of molecular virology, immunology and medical genetics, and director of the Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research at Ohio State University .

Glaser and Eric Yang, a research scientist in the same institute, focused on the role of these three compounds. Two of them, both matrix metalloproteinases -- MMP-2 and MMP-9 -- play a role in breaking down the scaffolding that cells attach to in order to maintain their shape. The third compound, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), is important in the growth of new blood vessels into tumor cells.

Earlier work by researcher Anil Sood at the University of Texas had shown that the same stress hormones can stimulate ovarian tumor cells to produce these three compounds. The key to that discovery was that the two stress hormones – epinephrine and norepinephrine – would bind to places on the surface of ovarian cancer cells, called adrenergic receptors, and stimulate the release of MMP-2, MMP-9 and VEGF which might then foster cancer growth.

“MMP-2 and MMP-9 contribute to the aggressiveness of these tumors,” Yang said. “It isn't clear exactly how they are operating but they may work with VEGF to facilitate blood vessel growth in new tumors so that they can grow.”

The target adrenergic receptors for these hormones are well-known to clinicians dealing with high-blood-pressure patients. Typically, such patients are given a class of drugs known as beta-blockers which lead to a lowering of blood pressure levels.

Glaser and Yang wanted to see how these same drugs affected these tumor cells. They added propanol, a beta-blocker, to the tumor cells and then exposed them to both norepinepherine and epinephrine. With the drug present, the levels of MMP-2, MMP-9 and VEGF didn't increase.

“This suggests a new approach to possibly fight some cancers – the prescribing of beta-blocker-type drugs that would block these receptors and perhaps slow the progression of the disease,” Glaser said.

“Using this approach may not cure this cancer but perhaps we could slow down its growth, making the tumor more sensitive to anti-cancer therapy, and therefore extending the patient's lifespan and improve their quality of life.”

7th- November 2006 

Household Items May Pose Danger During Pregnancy

What do popcorn bags, frying pans and mattresses have in common? Chemicals contained in these and other common household items may affect maternal thyroid function and may lead to impaired fetal brain development, according to PhD candidate Glenys Webster, of UBC's School of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene.

Chemicals found in household items such as non-stick cookware and flame-retardant furnishings may affect fetal brain development. (Photo by Martin Dee)

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Webster is leading an investigation into the effects of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), chemicals that are used as flame-retardants, and perfluroinated compounds (PFCs), used as stain or water repellents. The chemicals are found at low levels in all Canadians. They leach out of many products, can last for a long time in both indoor and outdoor environments, and accumulate in both animals and humans via dust, foods and air.

 Animal studies have shown that certain PBDEs interfere with the thyroid system, critical to fetal development. A butterfly-shaped gland in the lower front part of the neck, the thyroid controls metabolism and keeps basic functions such as body temperature, blood pressure and energy levels working properly.

It is known that thyroid disruption in early pregnancy can result in neurological damage in babies, but the mechanism -- including any negative environmental factors -- is not known. Although there are no known human health risks from common levels of PBDEs and PFCs, very few studies have been conducted in humans, says Webster, so at this point nothing is conclusive.

She suspects the chemicals may put additional stress on the thyroid system. Animal and laboratory studies have shown that certain PBDEs can mimic thyroid hormones and bind to a transport protein that sends the damaging "imposter" hormone from the mother to the fetus, possibly directly to the brain. Participants will be asked, during in-home surveys, about exposures to PBDEs found in mattresses, furniture foam, plastic casing of electronic equipment such as TVs and computers, and other household goods. The women will also be asked about exposure to PFCs via products ranging from microwavable popcorn bags to non-stick cookware coatings and self-cleaning ovens.

Levels of PBDEs and PFCs will be measured in the air, dust and dryer lint in homes. Also, maternal blood samples will be collected in mid-pregnancy and a sample of umbilical cord blood will be collected at delivery. Levels of both groups of chemicals won't be analyzed until all 150 subjects have been recruited.

 Health Canada data showed PBDE levels in Vancouver mothers' breast milk increased approximately 15-fold from 1992-2002, but are still lower than levels found in certain areas of the US. Canada has this year prohibited the importation of certain chemicals that turn into PFCs.

7th- November 2006 

Helpful fevers come in from the cold
Fevers speed up the identification and neutralisation of infections, new research has shown, raising new questions over whether it is always wise to combat fevers with drugs and cold compresses.

Doctors already know that bacteria and viruses thrive best at body temperature, so fevers disrupt their ability to multiply. Now it has been found that fevers help the body’s immune system identify an infection and raise an army of white blood cells (lymphocytes) against it.

“We’re not advising against cooling fevers, but our results raise questions about the advantages of lowering temperature,” says Sharon Evans, who carried out the research with colleagues at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York, US. “We have found a physiological mechanism for improved immune surveillance,” she adds.

Evans’s team artificially created a fever-like state in a group of mice by confining them at 39.5°C – 2.6°C higher than normal. This had the effect of doubling the number of lymphocytes visiting lymph nodes, they found.
Killer efficiency

The lymph nodes are the body’s screening tool. Lymphocytes arriving at the nodes are screened for “killer efficiency” using fragments of potentially infectious material. Lymphocytes that respond to the fragments are found, are then selectively multiplied, and then swarm into the bloodstream to seek out and destroy the invader.

The sooner an infectious agent is identified and an “army” of lymphocytes raised to kill it, the sooner an infection can be brought under control. Evans concludes that fever helps by accelerating the surveillance process.

She found that heat activates “gatekeeper” cells in lymph nodes so that they attract and summon more lymphocytes into the nodes than usual. “It’s an attempt to accelerate identification and eradication of infection,” she says.

The gatekeepers – also called high endothelial venule cells – become more “sticky” by producing extra surface proteins which capture passing lymphocytes and draw them into the lymph nodes.

“This study shows the effects fever has at a molecular level, letting more lymphocytes stick to and enter the lymph nodes,” comments Andrew Luster at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Charlestown, US, who was not involved in the research.
Fever fashion

The team is now investigating how to fine-tune fever and deploy it in treatment. Fevers usually begin with local inflammation, which makes infected tissue hotter. Signalling chemicals called cytokines are released from the site of inflammation into the bloodstream and reach the hypothalamus in the brain, which acts as the body’s temperature gauge.

If the infection escalates, the hypothalamus can raise the temperature of the entire body, which then activates the accelerated surveillance and response system in the lymph nodes identified by the research team.

Evans says that although it fell out of fashion with the development of modern medicine, the idea of treating disease with heat has a long history: “Hippocrates used to heat patients with cancer,” she says. And a century ago the physician William Coley discovered a cocktail of bacteria, dubbed “Coley’s toxins”, which appeared to combat cancer by producing a fever.

Evans cautions against letting fevers run riot, however, as they can cause fits or even kill by overheating organs such as the liver and brain. But she is hopeful that fever-based therapies might be refined to improve existing treatments for infections, auto-immune diseases and cancer.

Journal reference: Nature Immunology (DOI: 10.1038/ni1406)
 

1st- November 2006 

Our Vision Changes In The Blink Of An Eye
Eyelids do a whole lot more than hold up our eyelashes and keep the sun out, a Queensland University of Technology PhD optometry researcher has found.

A study by Dr. Scott Read of the QUT School of Optometry found the upper eyelid's pressure and shape of its opening work to change the shape of our eyes throughout the day. (Image courtesy of Queensland University of Technology)Ads by Google Advertise on this site

A study by Scott Read of the QUT School of Optometry found the upper eyelid's pressure and shape of its opening work to change the shape of our eyes throughout the day.

Dr Read found the biggest changes were amongst people who maintained a downward gaze for a long time while reading or doing close work.

"The first study found that there were highly significant changes to the contours of the cornea (the eye's front surface) throughout the day when we tested at 9am, 1pm and 5pm over three days of the week," Dr Read said.

"The study found horizontal bands of distortion appeared on the cornea where the eyelid would have been sitting and that this increased during the day but went back to normal by the next morning.

"As these changes appear to be related to forces from the eyelids themselves and were more marked in people who spent a lot of time reading in downward gaze it is certainly one reason why people's vision may be slightly worse at the end of the day or after doing a lot of close work.

"It suggests that people should take a short break from reading or close work at least every hour."

Dr Read said some changes were also found in corneal astigmatism (which can lead to distortion of vision due to irregularities of the cornea), a condition that affects up to 60% of people.

In a second study on 100 normal-sighted young subjects, Dr Read described the shape of the eyelid opening at different angles of gaze and compared this with the contours of the cornea to find out how eyelid characteristics and corneal shape affected each other.

He found significant associations between the angle, shape and size of the eyelids and the shape of the cornea.

"It appears eyelids do play a part in determining the shape of the cornea. One explanation is that pressure from the eyelids is involved in the cause of corneal astigmatism.

"As yet we have no concrete evidence on what causes astigmatism but this helps us move towards finding a cause."

His findings would provide the groundwork for new understanding about astigmatism in children and in older age.

"Children are born with a high degree of astigmatism and the cornea changes shape rapidly in the first four years of life, so the study's findings could shed light on how some people go on to develop astigmatism," he said.

"Astigmatism also changes in older age, so this may help to explain some of these changes that happen to our vision in older age."

Dr Read's research would also open our eyes to new areas of research on accurately measuring pressure from the eyelids, and how these corneal changes may affect the development of short sightedness.

1st- November 2006 

Halloween Horror Movies May Cause Emotional Problems In Young Children
Toddlers and young children who watch violent movies, including Halloween horror films, television shows or video games may be more likely to develop anxiety, sleep disorders, and aggressive and self-endangering behaviors. "Watching 'Friday the 13th' with your child is probably not a good idea. Children under the age of 5 may be too young to actually watch and understand violent movies; however, they are psychologically affected by the scenes they are exposed to," says Dr. Daniel S. Schechter.

The study followed 76 New York City mothers with a history of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), finding that they watched more violent movies than their healthy counterparts; they also watched more television overall. Even though this study focused specifically on mothers with PTSD, the scientific literature supports deleterious effects of excessive television viewing and violent media viewing on young children at large. One interesting fact Schechter and colleagues reported was that mothers who were otherwise avoidant of reminders of their violent experiences were in many cases drawn to violent media.

"Paradoxically, mothers with violence-related PTSD, who wish to shield themselves and their children from violence, inadvertently expose themselves and their children to violence through movies, television and video games perhaps as a way of feeling a sense of control in the present over very frightening memories of out-of-control experiences," says Dr. Schechter. "While this phenomenon deserves further study, it may also be explained by an evolutionary impulse to warn their children of the dangers that they had faced in the world."

The mothers' PTSD, both treated and untreated, was due specifically to interpersonal violent experiences such as physical and sexual abuse and assault, and family violence exposure.
 

Regular Exercise Helps Obese Youths Reduce, Reverse Risk For Heart Disease, Study Shows

Regular exercise can help obese children shrink more than just their waistlines, new research shows. The activity also can help them to reduce -- and even reverse -- their risk of developing cardiovascular disease, including hardening of the arteries.

Compared with normal children, the obese youths also already were showing signs of early hardening of the arteries as well as thickening of the arterial lining where atherosclerosis originates.

"We think that 90 minutes of exercise, three times per week is the minimum children need to reduce their cardiovascular risk," Dr. Meyer said. "And it's important that children enjoy exercise, so we recommend games like soccer, football, basketball and swimming -- especially for obese children.
 

1st- November 2006 
Adults Who Go To Bed Lonely Get Stress Hormone Boost Next Morning

A new study that takes a rare look at the physiological, social and emotional dynamics of day-to-day experiences in real-life settings shows that when older adults go to bed lonely, sad or overwhelmed, they have elevated levels of cortisol shortly after waking the next morning.

Elevated levels of cortisol -- a stress hormone linked to depression, obesity and other health problems when chronic -- actually cue the body on a day-to-day basis that it is time to rev up to deal with loneliness and other negative experiences, according to Northwestern University's Emma K. Adam, the lead investigator of the study.

In all of her work, Adam is interested in how people's changing social environments get under the skin to influence their biology and health. "Stress systems are designed to translate social experience into biological action," she said. "They are designed to be a conduit from the outside world to our internal worlds so that we can better respond to our social context. The overarching question of my studies of these systems in a variety of contexts is whether overuse of these systems plays a role in disease outcomes."
 

1st- November 2006 

Herbal Medicine Silymarin May Help Sugar-control In People With Type II Diabetes

Diabetes is a growing health problem. Giving antioxidants is recognised as one way of helping people with diabetes to control their blood sugar levels.

The herbal medicine extracted from seeds of the Milk Thistle, Silybum marianum (silymarin) is known to have antioxidant properties and research published this week in Phytotherapy Research shows that this extract can help people significantly lower the amount of sugar bound to haemoglobin in blood, as well as reducing fasting blood sugar levels.

Silymarin contains a number of active constituents called flavolignans which are also used to help protect the liver from poisoning.

"We don't know the exact mechanism of action for this effect, but this work shows that silymarin could play an important role in treating type II diabetes," says lead author Fallah Huseini, who works at the Institute of Medicinal Plants, which is based in Tehran, Iran.

Compared with the beginning of the trial, the treatment group had a significant reduction in fasting blood glucose levels (p<0.001), and a reduction in glycosylated haemoglobin (p<0.001). Both of these measures rose significantly in the placebo group (p<0.0001). There were also non-significant decreases in blood lipids in the treatment group.
 

1st- November 2006

Turmeric Prevents Experimental Rheumatoid Arthritis, Bone Loss

An ancient spice, long used in traditional Asian medicine, may hold promise for the prevention of both rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis, according to a recently completed study at The University of Arizona College of Medicine.

Turmeric, the spice that flavors and gives its yellow color to many curries and other foods, has been used for centuries by practitioners of Ayurvedic medicine to treat inflammatory disorders. Turmeric extract containing the ingredient curcumin is marketed widely in the Western world as a dietary supplement for the treatment and prevention of a variety of disorders, including arthritis.

In addition to preventing joint inflammation, Dr. Funk's study shows that the curcuminoid extract blocked the pathway that affects bone resorption. Noting that bone loss associated with osteoporosis in women typically begins before the onset of menopause, she has begun work on another NIH-funded study to determine whether turmeric taken as a dietary supplement during perimenopause can prevent bone loss and osteoporosis.
 

1st- November 2006
Grape Seed Extract Halts Cell Cycle, Checking Growth Of Colorectal Tumors In Mice

Chemicals found in grape seeds significantly inhibited growth of colorectal tumors in both cell cultures and in mice, according to researchers who have already demonstrated the extract's anti-cancer effects in other tumor types.

Their study, published in the October 18 issue of Clinical Cancer Research, documented a 44 percent reduction of advanced colorectal tumors in the animals, and also revealed, for the first time, the molecular mechanism by which grape seed extract works to inhibit cancer growth. The authors found that it increases availability of a critical protein, Cip1/p21, in tumors that effectively freezes the cell cycle, and often pushes a cancer cell to self destruct.

The skin and seeds of grapes are a rich source of proanthocyanidins, a class of antioxidant flavonoids that remove harmful free oxygen radicals from cells. Grape products (juice and red wine) are known for their heart healthy effects, especially in lowering levels of blood cholesterol, Agarwal said, and because grape seeds contain higher concentrations of these chemicals, they are widely marketed as a dietary supplement.
 

1st- November 2006
Breastfeeding Boosts Mental Health, New Research Reveals

A new study has found that babies that are breastfed for longer than six months have significantly better mental health in childhood.

The findings are based on data from the ground-breaking Raine Study at the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, that has tracked the growth and development of more than 2500 West Australian children over the past 16 years.

The study found that children who were breastfed for less than six months compared to six months or longer had a 52% increased risk of a mental health problem at 2 years of age, a 55% increased risk at age 6, at age 8 the increased risk was 61% while at age 10 the increased risk was 37%.

Dr Oddy said that children that were breastfed had particularly lower rates of delinquent, aggressive and anti-social behaviour, and overall were less depressed, anxious or withdrawn.

"These results are powerful evidence for more support to be given to mothers to help them breastfeed for longer," she said.

1st- November 2006

Weight Gain Of U.S. Drivers Has Increased Nation's Fuel Consumption

As American waistlines have expanded since 1960, so has their consumption of gasoline, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Virginia Commonwealth University say.
Americans are now pumping 938 million gallons of fuel more annually than they were in 1960 as a result of extra weight in vehicles. And when gas prices average $3 a gallon, the tab for overweight people in a vehicle amounts to $7.7 million a day, or $2.8 billion a year.

"The key finding is that nearly 1 billion gallons of fuel are consumed each year because of the average weight gain of people living in the United States since 1960 -- nearly three times the total amount of fuel consumed by all passenger vehicles each day based on current driving habits," McLay and Jacobson wrote.

"Although the amount of fuel consumed as a result of the rising prevalence of obesity is small compared to the increase in the amount of fuel consumed stemming from other factors such as increased car reliance and an increase in the number of drivers, ... it still represents a large amount of fuel, and will become even more significant as the rate of obesity increases.

1st- November 2006
Exposure To Sunlight Could Reduce Asthma
Australian researchers have found that exposure to measured doses of ultraviolet light, such as sunlight, could reduce asthma.

* Exposure to ultraviolet light for 15 to 30 minutes before allergen exposure significantly reduces the development of asthma-like symptoms
* This UV exposure produces a cell type that, when transferred into other mice before they're sensitised to an allergen, can prevent the development of some of the asthma-like symptoms.

"It appears that sunlight can suppress specific immune reactions, so we are now working to better understand that mechanism with the aim of generating new ways to prevent and treat this chronic disease.

1st- November 2006

Regular, Moderate Exercise Reduces The Risk Of Colds In Postmenopausal Women
Postmenopausal women who want to decrease their risk of colds would be well advised to dust off their sneakers and get moving, suggests a new study led by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
 However, Ulrich is quick to point out that regular exercise in moderation -- such as 30 to 45 minutes of brisk walking each day -- is the key; other studies have shown that excessive, exhaustive exercise can deplete immune function and increase the risk of colds.

The researchers found that the ability of moderate exercise to ward off colds seemed to increase over time. "The enhanced immunity was strongest in the final quarter of the year-long exercise intervention," Ulrich said. "This suggests that when it comes to preventing colds, it's really important to stick with exercise long term." Overall, the non-exercisers experienced about twice as many colds as the exercisers, but in the last three months of the intervention, the non-exercisers had a threefold greater chance of coming down with colds.

Brisk walking was the activity of choice, accounting for 52 percent of gym-based and 74 percent of home-based exercise. "It's been shown that just a 30-minute walk can increase levels of leukocytes, which are part of the family of immune cells that fight infection," Ulrich said, referring to a possible biological explanation for the protective effect.

According to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Americans suffer an estimated 1 billion colds per year, resulting in a leading cause of doctor visits and missed days from work and school. Adults in the United States report an average of two to four colds per year.

27th October 2006 

Late motherhood may risk infertility in daughters

Women who put off pregnancy until late in life not only jeopardise their own chances of bearing children, but may place their daughter’s fertility at risk as well.

A new study found that the mothers of infertile women tended to be older and closer to menopause when their daughters were conceived compared with the mothers of women who became pregnant. And as women wait longer and longer to have children, the affects could increase dramatically.

“In one or two generations, we could have serious problems and it could start to accumulate; it could have an additive affect,” warns Zsolt Nagy of Reproductive Biology Associates in Atlanta, Georgia, US.

Nagy and colleagues examined 74 patients who were using IVF to treat infertility. Women who did not become pregnant were themselves conceived an average of 20 years before their mothers reached menopause, the team found.

However, women who did become pregnant through IVF had been conceived earlier on in their mothers’ reproductive lives – an average of 25 years before menopause.

Nagy suspects that eggs from older women may have impaired gene expression that goes unnoticed until their female offspring try to conceive. “All the genes are there,” he says of the daughters' infertile eggs, “but they aren’t functioning correctly.”

He suggests it is “very likely” that the findings apply to women generally and not just to women seeking treatment for infertility. Nagy presented his findings at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine conference in New Orleans, US, on Tuesday.

 27 October 2006 
Pre-operative Breathing Training Helps Decrease Risk Of Complications Following Bypass Surgery
Patients at high-risk of developing pulmonary complications such as pneumonia following coronary artery bypass graft surgery can reduce their risk through breathing exercises and respiratory muscle training before the operation, according to a study in the October 18 issue of JAMA.

NaNDespite improvements in coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery and care around the time of the operation, the rate of postoperative pulmonary complications (PPCs) has remained stable, possibly because CABG surgery is now performed in more fragile (high-risk) patients at greater risk of PPCs. Postoperative pulmonary complications continue to have an effect on patient illness and risk of death, length of hospital stay, and overall use of resources, according to background information in the article. The prehospitalization period before CABG surgery could be used to improve a patient's pulmonary condition. The effectiveness of preoperative inspiratory (breathing in) muscle training (IMT) in reducing the incidence of PPCs in high-risk patients undergoing CABG surgery has previously not been determined.

27October 2006 
Physiotherapists And Pharmacists Can Help Reduce Knee Pain And Reliance On Painkillers
Older people with knee pain who receive their main care from physiotherapists and pharmacists are more likely to experience improvements in pain levels and knee function, and are less likely to need NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, eg asprin and ibuprofen), according to a British Medical Journal study.

27October 2006 

Medical Induction Of Labor Increases Risk Of Amniotic-fluid Embollism
A Canadian population-based cohort study has revealed that medical induction of labour increases the risk of amniotic-fluid embolism. The study was led by Dr. Michael Kramer, Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Senior Investigator from McGill University, and will be published in the October 21st issue of The Lancet.

Amniotic-fluid embolism (AFE) is a rare, but serious and even fatal maternal complication of delivery. While its cause is unknown, it is one of the leading causes of maternal mortality in developed countries, accounting for seven of 44 direct maternal deaths in Canada in the period 1997-2000.

This population-based study examined the association of AFE and medical induction of labour in a cohort of three million hospital births in Canada, for the twelve fiscal years 1991-2002
 

23rd October 2006 
Kids hang on to dad's every word

Fathers: watch what you say. It seems dads may have more of an influence on their children's language development than they might think.

Lynne Vernon-Feagans at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and her colleagues sat in on playtime with 92 families with dual incomes, observing how much each parent spoke to their child, the words and sentence structures they used, and the types of questions they asked.

Children whose father's vocabulary was more varied when they were 2 years old had more advanced language skills at age 3. Surprisingly, the dads spoke less and asked fewer questions than the mothers, suggesting it was not how much they spoke but what they said and how they said it that resonated with their children.

The mother's vocabulary did not seem to have a significant impact on language development. However, because most of the mothers in the study used a large number of words when talking to their children, there could also be a threshold at which a large vocabulary ceases to be an advantage to the child, says Vernon-Feagans. "Perhaps when parents' vocabulary falls below such a threshold, as is more likely to occur with fathers in this study, children's later expressive language development may be negatively impacted," she says (Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, DOI: 10.1016/j.appdev.2006.08.003).

23rd October 2006 
Widely Prescribed Diabetes Drug Falls Short Of Promise, Says New Review
A new systematic review calls into the question the health benefits versus risks of an oral medicine widely prescribed for diabetes throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia.

The drug -- called pioglitazone -- is marketed in the United States by Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America, Inc., and Eli Lilly and Co. under the trade name Actos.

"Our results showed that published scientific studies of at least 24 weeks of pioglitazone treatment in people with type 2 diabetes mellitus did not provide convincing evidence that patient-oriented outcomes like mortality, morbidity, adverse effects and health-related quality of life are positively influenced by this drug," said lead author Bernd Richter, M.D.

"Until new evidence becomes available, the benefit-risk ratio of pioglitazone therapy in type 2 diabetes mellitus remains unclear," added Richter, assistant professor in the department of endocrinology, diabetes and rheumatology at Heinrich-Heine University in Düsseldorf, Germany.

According to Richter, not only did the review demonstrate no clear-cut benefit to using pioglitazone, but it also showed an increased occurrence of edema and heart failure -- including heart failure requiring hospital admission -- among patients taking the drug.
 

23rd October 2006 

Natural Chemical Found In Strawberries Boosts Memory In Healthy Mice
Mothers have long exhorted their children to eat their fruit and vegetables. But once kids are beyond mom's watchful eye, the hated greens often go the way of Barbie dolls and power rangers. Now, there's another reason to reach for colorful fruits past adolescence.

Fisetin, a naturally occurring flavonoid commonly found in strawberries and other fruits and vegetables, stimulates signaling pathways that enhance long-term memory, report researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. (Photo by Brian Prechtel, courtesy of USDA/Agricultural Research Service)Ads by Google Advertise on this site

Fisetin, a naturally occurring flavonoid commonly found in strawberries and other fruits and vegetables, stimulates signaling pathways that enhance long-term memory, report researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in this week's Online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Roughly one third of people age 60 and over suffer from memory and recall woes. As the average age of the U.S. population climbs, the number of people ravaged by Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia continues to rise.

"Since the development of a basic understanding of the biochemical pathways involved in memory formation, the holy grail of CNS research in the pharmaceutical industry is the identification of a safe, orally active drug that activates memory-associated pathways and enhances memory," says lead author Pamela Maher, Ph.D., a researcher in the Cellular Neurobiology Laboratory at the Salk Institute.

Maher hit upon the beneficial effects of fisetin when she screened a collection of flavonoids, substances with anti-oxidant activities found in many plants, for their neuroprotective abilities in tissue culture models of neurodegenerative disease.

Maher found that some of those compounds, including fisetin, induced differentiation or maturation of neural cells. Maher explains, "That suggested to us that these compounds might be particularly beneficial, since they might not only protect neural cells from dying but might be able to promote new connections between nerve cells."
 Besides strawberries, fisetin is found in tomatoes, onions, oranges, apples, peaches, grapes, kiwifruit and persimmons. Gingko biloba leaves, while rich in other flavonoids, do not contain fisetin.

While eating strawberries sounds like an enjoyable alternative to popping a pill, Maher cautions that it would take about 10 pounds a day to achieve a beneficial effect, which might prove too much even for the most avid strawberry lovers.
 

23rd October 2006 

High Bread Consumption Linked To Higher Risk Of Most Common Kidney Cancer
A case-control study of more than 2300 Italians has found a significant association between high bread consumption and renal cell carcinoma. Eating a lot of pasta and rice may also raise the risk, while eating many vegetables may lower the risk. The study published online October 20, 2006 in the International Journal of Cancer, the official journal of the International Union Against Cancer (UICC).

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is the most common type of kidney cancer, and accounts for 2 percent of all adult cancers. Previous studies have shown that diet plays a role in RCC risk, but attempts to discern which foods have harmful or beneficial effects have been inconclusive. To discern the relationship between specific foods and RCC risk, researchers led by Francesca Bravi of the Institute of Pharmacological Research "Mario Negri" in Milan, conducted a large case-control study of 2301 Italians.

Between 1992 and 2004, the researchers enrolled 767 adults diagnosed with RCC and 1534 controls who did not have the disease. Two controls were matched to each case by gender, age range, and location. The researchers collected sociodemographic information, anthropomorphic measures, lifestyle habits and personal and family medical history from each participant. They also administered a 78-item food frequency questionnaire which asked about the average weekly consumption for each item over the previous two years. They then performed statistical analyses to discover odds ratios (OR) with a 95 percent confidence interval.

"A significant direct association was observed for bread consumption (OR=1.94) for the highest compared to the lowest quintile of intake," the researchers report. Those who consumed more bread had a higher RCC risk. A modest non-significant risk increase was also observed for pasta and rice (OR=1.29). By contrast, decreasing risk was associated with increasing intake of poultry, processed meat, and all vegetables, both raw and cooked.

The association between elevated cereal intake (bread, pasta and rice) "may be due to the high glycemic index of these foods and their possible involvement in insulin-like growth factors," the researchers suggest. The inverse relationship between vegetable consumption is consistent with previous studies and may be related to their content of vitamins, micronutrients or elements such as carotenoids, flavonoids and phytosterols.

While the study was limited by the fact that the interviewers who gathered each participant's information and administered the food questionnaire were not blind to case-control status, its strengths include the large sample size and the reproducibility and validity of diet information.

"Our results confirm that diet may play a role on the risk of RCC, and in particular, a moderate cereal and high vegetable consumption may have a favorable effect on this neoplasm," the authors conclude.
 

23rd October 2006 

Pleasure And Pain: Study Shows Brain's 'Pleasure Chemical' Is Involved In Response To Pain Too
For years, the brain chemical dopamine has been thought of as the brain's "pleasure chemical," sending signals between brain cells in a way that rewards a person or animal for one activity or another. More recently, research has shown that certain drugs like cocaine and heroin amplify this effect -- an action that may lie at the heart of drug addiction.

Now, a new study from the University of Michigan adds a new twist to dopamine's fun-loving reputation: pain.

Using sophisticated brain-scanning and a carefully controlled way of inducing muscle pain, the researchers show that the brain's dopamine system is highly active while someone experiences pain -- and that this response varies between individuals in a way that relates directly to how the pain makes them feel. It's the first time that dopamine has been linked to pain response in humans.

The finding, published in the October 18 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, may help explain why people are more likely to acquire a drug addiction during times of intense stress in their lives. It may also yield clues to why some, but not other chronic pain patients may be prone to developing addictions to certain pain medications. And, it gives further evidence that vulnerability to drug addiction is a very individual phenomenon -- and one that can't be predicted by current knowledge of genetics and physiology.

"It appears from our study that dopamine acts as an interface between stress, pain and emotions, or between physical and emotional events, and that it's activated with both positive and negative stimuli," says senior author Jon-Kar Zubieta, M.D., Ph.D., professor of psychiatry and radiology at the U-M Medical School and a member of the U-M Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Institute and U-M Depression Center. "It appears to act as a mechanism that responds to the salience of a stimuli -- the importance of it to the individual -- and makes it relevant for them to respond to."

The study, which involved 25 healthy men and women, showed that dopamine was active in areas of the brain region known as the basal ganglia, the same region where it has been observed to respond to positive stimuli, such as food or sex.

But when the researchers induced pain in the volunteers' jaw muscle, and asked them to rate different aspects of how they were feeling, differences emerged in specific sub-areas of the basal ganglia. For example, the more a person rated the pain as causing emotional distress and fear, the more dopamine was released in the area known as the nucleus accumbens -- the same region implicated in drug addiction.

That effect persisted even after the researchers controlled for the negative emotional effects caused by the actual research setup, which included a needle inserted into a large jaw muscle, and the expectation of pain and repeated questioning.

Similarly, dopamine release in two other areas of the basal ganglia -- the putamen and caudate nucleus -- was strongly correlated with the rating of how intense and unpleasant the pain itself was on a scale of 0 to 100. The authors concluded that in some areas of the basal ganglia, dopamine was involved in the assessment of pain itself, while in the ventral area, or nucleus accumbens, it was related to the emotional experience of pain.

The study used positron emission tomography, or PET, scanning that allowed the researchers to calculate the level of dopamine activity by measuring the percentage of dopamine receptors on the surface of brain cells that were active. To do this, they used the drug raclopride, to which had been attached a short-lived radioactive form of carbon. The drug binds to the same receptors that dopamine does, so the more of it that could be seen in a specific brain area, the less dopamine was present and vice versa.

The researchers also scanned each volunteer's brain using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in order to create a precise map of the brain's structure, and combined that with their PET scans to find the exact areas of dopamine activity.

The volunteers answered questions from two standardized questionnaires repeatedly both in a control (no pain) state and when their jaw muscles were being injected with harmless salt water in order to cause pain. The questionnaires measure pain and emotion in a standardized way, so that ratings can be compared over time. None of the participants had a history of medical or psychiatric illness, nor of drug addiction or dependence. The 7 female volunteers were not taking birth control pills and were scanned at the same point in their menstrual cycles.

In addition to the differences in dopamine receptor activation in certain areas of the brain across all the participants, the scans also revealed differences between individuals in the level of their dopamine response and their self-rated pain and emotional response. This kind of variation may help explain the major variation between individuals who are exposed to addictive drugs -- some become addicted to the pleasures of the "high" the drugs cause, while others do not.

"Variations in risk for drug abuse after initial exposures could be mediated by individual differences in the response of this neurotransmitter system to various forms of stress, with pain being itself a physical and emotional stressor," write the authors, led by David J. Scott, Ph.D., a graduate student at MBNI. "The dopamine system in the ventral basal ganglia may represent an important point of interaction between the neurobiologies of emotion, reward and pain regulation.

The new findings build on previous pain research by Zubieta and his team, which has shown individual variation in the rating of pain, and has visualized the brain's own painkiller system responding to pain and even to the giving of a "placebo" painkiller medication.

Now, the team is working to examine the hormonal and genetic factors that may be different between people whose dopamine systems responded differently to pain. They also have recently received funding from the National institute of Drug Abuse to study individual variation in the effects and use of opioid painkiller drugs among people with chronic pain.

In addition to Zubieta and Scott, the study's authors include Mary Heitzeg of MBNI and Psychiatry; Robert Koeppe, Ph.D., a professor of radiology and director of the PET Physics Section in the Division of Nuclear Medicine; and Christian Stohler, DMD, Dr.MedDent., dean of the Dental School at the University of Maryland and formerly of the U-M Dental School. The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health. The U-M team that performed this study is currently seeking participants for additional studies; visit http://www.umengage.org to learn more.
 

23rd October 2006 

Stress Fast Tracks Puberty
Stress, such as that brought on by parental separation and absentee fathers, fast tracks puberty, say researchers in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

But the failure of politicians, teachers and often parents to acknowledge these physical and emotional changes only adds to teenagers' stress and leads to poor physical and mental health among this age group, they say.

The authors from Liverpool John Moores University Centre for Public Health, say that the onset of puberty has been steadily falling for the past 150 years, and has dropped three years within the past century alone, as a result of public health measures and improved nutrition.

But it is also due to stress, with parental separation/divorce and absentee fathers "one of the most effective stressors," they write. Rates of divorce and single parenthood have rapidly increased in many countries, they say.

But despite the younger age at which children reach puberty, there have been no attempts to develop young people faster, "leaving an increasing gap between physical puberty [changes to their bodies] and social puberty [when they are able to make decisions for themselves]," they write.

"The results can be ill informed health damaging behaviour," they say, including unprotected sex, substance abuse, self harm, violence and bullying, with disadvantaged communities likely to hit the hardest.

While society in general might prefer to ignore earlier puberty, the commercial sector certainly has not, drawing heavily on sexual imagery in their marketing to young teens, say the authors.

"Such marketing is more likely to reinforce the confusion caused by separated physical and social puberty rather than providing the information necessary to deal with it," they write.

"In the short term, responding to earlier puberty means moving away from societal attitudes that equate protecting children with regarding them as firmly ensconced in childhood long after their physical journey into adulthood has begun," contend the authors.

"Such pretence, however well intentioned, simply denies them the vital information they require to complete this transition without damaging their health," they conclude.

15th October 2006 

Regular Exercise, Keeping Weight In Check Reduces Breast-cancer Risk

In Postmenopausal Women Postmenopausal women who want to significantly decrease their breast-cancer risk would be wise to exercise regularly and keep their weight within a normal range for their height, according to new findings from the Women's Health Initiative to be published in the journal Obesity.

The multicenter team of researchers, led by Anne McTiernan, M.D., Ph.D., of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, found that women who had the lowest body-mass index, or BMI, and the highest physical-activity levels had the lowest levels of circulating estrogens, sex hormones that can fuel breast-cancer growth.

Specifically, they found a significant decrease in the two most common, biologically active forms of estrogen, estrone and estradiol, among the most active, lean women studied. The researchers found that women with high BMI and low physical-activity had mean estrogen concentrations that were 50 percent to 100 percent higher than that of women with low BMI and high activity levels.

15th October 2006 

Finding May Explain Biggest Cause Of Post-exercise Fainting
Overactivation of two receptors for histamine, normally associated with common allergies and acid reflux, may explain why some people, including highly trained athletes, pass out soon after heightened physical activities, according to researchers at the University of Oregon.

15th October 2006 
Adult Survivors Of Childhood Cancer Face Long-term Health Problems
Children with cancer currently have survival rates approaching 80 percent -- a much better rate than adults diagnosed with the disease today, and a major improvement over survival chances for children diagnosed 20 and 30 years ago. But survivors of childhood cancer may face long-term health problems well into adulthood, as reported today in a large multicenter study of over 10,000 adults who survived a childhood battle with cancer.

 

15th October 2006 

Psoriasis linked to tripled risk of heart attack
NewScientist.com news service

Patients with the common inflammatory skin condition psoriasis have a tripled risk of heart attack, a new study has revealed.
The study’s researchers speculate that the systemic inflammation seen in psoriasis might weaken the cardiovascular system, thereby increasing the chance of such heart problems.

Psoriasis is an inflammatory system disorder that affects around 2% of people in the US and is characterised by sore, scaly patches of red skin. Recent studies suggest that genetic mutations and lifestyle factors such as stress and smoking may increase the risk of psoriasis. Previous studies have linked other inflammatory illnesses, such as rheumatoid arthritis, to cardiovascular problems.
Relative risk
After controlling for other risk factors, such as high blood pressure, people with psoriasis were up to three times as likely to have a heart attack during that five-year period. The highest elevation of relative heart risk was seen in patients under 50.

For example, compared with people who did not have psoriasis, a 30-year old patient taking medication for this disorder had triple the risk while a 60-year-old patient receiving similar treatment had a 36% increased risk of heart attack.

“I was surprised that for younger people with severe psoriasis the increased risk was as great as that associated with diabetes. That put it into perspective,” says Gelfand. He adds that psoriasis in people under 50 years is more likely to have genetic causes and involve severe inflammation.

Invisible damage
“There is a misconception about psoriasis that it is just a disease of the skin. It’s actually much more complex,” explains Liz Horn of the National Psoriasis Foundation in Portland, Oregon, US. Horn points out that psoriasis can also trigger damage to other parts of the body beneath the surface, such as joints.
Journal reference: Journal of the American Medical Association (vol 296, p 1735)

15th October 2006 
Eating Walnuts With High-fat Meals Helps To Protect Arteries Against Short-term Damage
If you've been going a little nuts trying to eat a healthier diet, you just might be on the right track. New research shows that consuming a handful of raw walnuts along with meals high in saturated fat appears to limit the ability of the harmful fat to damage arteries.

Adding olive oil, however, does not provide the same type of vascular protection. The research, conducted at the University of Barcelona's Hospital Clínico, appears in the Oct. 17, 2006 edition of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

"People would get the wrong message if they think that they can continue eating unhealthy fats provided they add walnuts to their meals," said Emilio Ros, MD, PhD, director of the Lipid Clinic at Hospital Clínico in Barcelona, Spain, the principal site where the research was conducted. "Instead, they should consider making walnuts part of a healthy diet that limits saturated fats.

"Each time we eat a high-fat meal, the fat molecules trigger an inflammatory reaction that, among other ill effects, reduces the elasticity of the arteries," Dr. Ros said. "Over time, this repeated damage is thought to contribute to hardening of the arteries and, in turn, to heart disease. Our latest research shows that eating walnuts helps to maintain the elasticity of the arteries."

According to their findings, both the olive oil and the walnuts helped to decrease the sudden onset of inflammation and oxidation in the arteries. These harmful processes, which typically follow consumption of high-fat meals, can lead to hardening of the arteries, or atherosclerosis, a precursor to heart disease.

But unlike olive oil, adding walnuts also helped to preserve the elasticity and flexibility of the arteries, regardless of people's cholesterol levels. This elasticity allows the arteries to expand when needed to increase blood flow to the body.

"The inner lining of the arteries produces a substance called nitric oxide that is needed to keep the arteries flexible," Dr. Ros said. "When we eat high-fat meals, the fat molecules temporarily disrupt the production of nitric oxide, preventing the arteries from increasing blood flow in response to physical activity."

One of the nutrients found in walnuts, he said, is arginine, an amino acid used by the body to produce nitric oxide. Walnuts also contain antioxidants and alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), a plant-based omega-3 fatty acid. Olive oil does not contain ALA, a specific type of healthy, polyunsaturated fat.

Currently, Dr. Ros is beginning a new trial to determine whether the ALA in walnuts will help people with abnormal heart rhythms. The ALA, although from plants, is similar to the omega-3 fatty acids found in fish. These fatty acids already have been shown to help prevent atrial fibrillation in some people.

For people worried about gaining weight from adding walnuts or olive oil to their diets, Dr. Ros said no evidence exists that links healthy fats to increases in body weight. Eating more saturated fats, such as butter or lard, however, often leads to weight gain because these fats usually are consumed with simple sugars, he said.

Robert A. Vogel, MD, a professor of medicine at the University of Maryland, did not participate in the study, but said it provides further insight into how eating the right foods and the right combinations of foods can help to preserve people's health.

"This demonstrates that the protective fat from walnuts actually undoes some of the detrimental effects of a high-saturated-fat diet, whereas a neutral fat, such as olive oil, does not have as much protective ability," Dr. Vogel said. "This raises a very interesting issue because many people who eat a Mediterranean diet believe the olive oil is providing the benefits. But this research and other data indicate that's not true. There are probably other factors in the diet, including that it is a relatively rich source of nuts. This is not to say that olive oil is bad, but it's not the key protective factor in the Mediterranean diet."

In fact, Dr. Vogel said, research continues to indicate that all monounsaturated-rich foods, including olive oil, likely are relatively neutral in terms of their ability to protect vascular health. On the other hand, he said, omega-3 rich oils and fats -- including walnuts, canola oil