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Sadness, loss of interest in usual activities, lowered appetite, fatigue, and insomnia: these symptoms can also occur in normal responses to loss and stress.

A study in the March edition of the American Journal of Psychiatry senior-authored by Jerome C. Wakefield, a professor at the Silver School of Social Work at New York University with Mark Schmitz of Temple University and Judith Baer of Rutgers University, empirically challenges the effectiveness of psychiatrists' official diagnostic manual in preventing mistaken, false-positive diagnoses of depression.

The findings concerning the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders' (DSM) criteria for diagnosing depression rebuts recent criticism of earlier research by Wakefield. That earlier research suggested that misdiagnoses of depression are widespread, and touched off considerable controversy.

According to the DSM, the diagnosis of major depression requires the presence -- for two weeks -- of at least five possible symptoms out of a list of nine, which include, for example, sadness, loss of interest in usual activities, lowered appetite, fatigue, and insomnia. However, these symptoms can also occur in normal responses to loss and stress. False positive diagnoses occur when someone reacting with intense normal sadness to life's stresses is misdiagnosed as having major depressive disorder. Recent studies suggest that a very large percentage of people have such symptoms for two weeks or longer at some point in their lives; therefore, how many of these individuals really are afflicted by a mental disorder or are responding within normal limits to loss or stress has been a matter of debate.

The journal article examines the primary method by which the official diagnostic criteria for depression -the Clinical Significance Criterion (CSC) -- are supposed to distinguish normal from disordered cases and thereby prevent false positive diagnoses. The CSC was added to the symptom and duration criteria in the DSM's fourth edition in 1994 (DSM-IV) in the wake of criticism that too many of the listed symptoms -- loss of appetite, say, or sadness, insomnia, or fatigue -- were being identified as evidence of major depressive disorder even when they were mild and possibly normal responses to distress arising from such events as the loss of a job, the dissolution of a marriage, or other triggers for sadness, and that such errors might be contributing to the very high reported rates of untreated depression in the American population drawn from epidemiological surveys.

Under the 1994 DSM revision, in addition to the two weeks of sadness and other depressive symptoms, a specified minimal "clinically significant" threshold in the form of harm due to distress or role impairment (in occupational, family, or interpersonal contexts) must have resulted from the symptoms in evidence before they could be considered signs of depression. Researchers have subsequently assumed -- without definitive evidence -- that the CSC eliminates substantial numbers of false positives.

In a 1999 article in American Journal of Psychiatry, Wakefield and co-author Robert Spitzer, the originator of the modern DSM symptom-based approach to diagnosis, argued that the CSC would not eliminate false-positive diagnoses of major depression because anyone having the specified symptoms -- even an individual experiencing a normal intense reaction to loss -- would be likely to experience distress or role impairment. Thus, they asserted, the CSC was redundant with the symptom criteria and could not distinguish normal from disordered symptoms -- a claim that has come to be known as the "redundancy hypothesis." The researchers' argument was purely conceptual, and largely ignored.

The issue of whether the redundancy hypothesis is correct became suddenly more important after Wakefield senior-authored a much-discussed 2007 article in Archives of General Psychiatry. The article argued that there were indeed large numbers of false-positive diagnoses of major depression in community surveys of mental disorder -- possibly as high as 25% to 33%. However, that study used data from a national survey that was conducted before the DSM-IV's addition of the CSC to the major depression diagnostic criteria. Thus, there was no CSC in the criteria that Wakefield and his team used to identify cases of major depression at the time.

Critics of that study argued that the lack of a CSC was fatal to the argument because if the CSC had been used, then the supposed false-positive diagnoses that Wakefield and his group identified would likely have been eliminated as cases too mild for diagnosis. For example, one noted psychiatrist argued that Wakefield's results were due to a "glitch" in the diagnostic criteria Wakefield used, and that the diagnosed individuals identified by Wakefield as having normal reactions would have been eliminated from the depression category if current diagnostic criteria including the CSC were used.

A paper later submitted by Wakefield that built on the 2007 article was rejected for publication partly based on a reviewer's assertion that if the CSC had been included in the earlier study, the supposed false positives likely would have been eliminated. So, the issue of whether the CSC is in fact redundant or actually eliminated many false-positive major depression diagnoses became key to the debate, which is still ongoing, about the prevalence of depressive disorder.

The latest study, coming in the American Journal of Psychiatry, offers an empirical demonstration, based on nationally representative data, that the Critical Significance Criterion fails to distinguish normal from disordered conditions. In this analysis, Wakefield undertook to evaluate independently the impact of the CSC on epidemiological survey estimates of major depressive disorder by using data from a later survey that included a carefully worked out CSC criterion for depression whose inclusion, according to the claims of its authors, was an effective way of eliminating former false positives. Wakefield then compared estimates of depressive disorder with and without the use of the CSC.

Confirming the redundancy hypothesis put forward a decade earlier, he found that the CSC eliminated virtually no one from diagnosis -- in fact, even among those who experienced prolonged sadness without meeting other diagnostic criteria for depression, about 94% of them satisfied the CSC just on the basis of the "distress" component alone. Thus the Clinical Significance Criterion, according to Wakefield and his co-authors, is not doing what it is supposed to do -- reducing the over-diagnosis of normal mood fluctuations as depression -- and the issue of preventing false positives needs to be revisited. And contrary to critics' speculations, the earlier findings suggesting many false positives in community surveys cannot be dismissed on the basis of the CSC.

The results take on further importance, Wakefield says, in light of proposals for changes to the DSM in a revision currently taking place that will lead to DSM-V. Concern about increasing false positives is at the heart of criticisms of the proposals that have been put forward by leading psychiatrists, including Allen Frances, the Editor of DSM-IV. Moreover, some of the proposals seem to rely heavily on the CSC to justify diagnosis of disorder even when symptoms are minimal -- when in fact the current research underscores that normal distress can easily satisfy the CSC.

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Following a negative complete colonoscopy, those who had their colonoscopies at a hospital and had their procedures performed by a non-gastroenterologist may be at a significantly increased risk of developing subsequent colorectal cancer (CRC), according to a new study in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Institute.

"The overall incidence of colorectal cancer is reduced for at least 10 years following a negative colonoscopy, compared with the general population. However, colorectal cancers do occur in individuals following a negative colonoscopy," said Linda Rabeneck, MD, MPH, of the University of Toronto and lead author of this study. "For this reason, having extensive formal training matters, especially when procedures are more challenging to perform. We found that among those physicians who perform colonoscopy in the hospital setting, gastroenterologists are more proficient at colonoscopy than other physicians, including general surgeons. This may reflect the considerable formal training in endoscopy that forms part of gastroenterology core training requirements in the U.S. and Canada."

AGA considers colonoscopy to be the gold standard for detecting and removing adenomas, and colonoscopic polypectomy is associated with a reduced incidence of CRC. Colonoscopy is endorsed as an option for CRC screening by the U.S. Multi-Society Task Force on Colorectal Cancer and the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.

"March is National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, which provides the perfect reminder to patients aged 50 and older that they need to be screened for colorectal cancer," said Gail A. Hecht, MD, MS, AGAF, president of the AGA Institute. "Colorectal cancer is the third leading cause of cancer death, but it is one of the most preventable cancers when caught earlier. We cannot emphasize strongly enough that screening saves lives. Patients should talk to their doctors to discuss all of their colorectal cancer screening options."

Study Results

Doctors identified a cohort of 110,402 Ontario residents, 50 to 80 years old, who had a negative complete colonoscopy between Jan. 1, 1992, and Dec. 31, 1997. Cohort members had no prior history of CRC, inflammatory bowel disease or a recent colonic resection. Each individual was followed through Dec. 31, 2006, and those with a new diagnosis of CRC were identified.

During the 15-year follow-up period, 1,596 (14.5 percent) developed CRC. There was no association between the average number of colonoscopies performed and a diagnosis of CRC. Among those who had their colonoscopies at a hospital, which was the majority (86 percent), those who had their procedures performed by a non-gastroenterologist, e.g., general surgeon, internist or family physician, were at significantly increased risk for developing subsequent CRC. For those who underwent their colonoscopies in a private office/clinic, endoscopist specialty was not significantly associated with incident CRC. These study findings suggest that endoscopist specialty is an important determinant of the effectiveness of colonoscopy in usual clinical practice.

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May pose diet and health risks, concludes National Institutes of Health consensus development conference panel

People may avoid milk and other dairy products due to concerns about lactose intolerance, but eliminating these nutrient-rich foods may not only be unnecessary to manage the condition – it could impact diet and health, concludes a panel of experts assembled by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The NIH Consensus Development Conference on Lactose Intolerance and Health was convened to examine the latest research on lactose intolerance, strategies to manage the condition and the health outcomes of diets that exclude dairy foods. Lactose is the natural sugar in milk and some people lack sufficient amounts of an enzyme that is needed to comfortably digest lactose.

After a thorough review of the scientific evidence, the Consensus Development Conference panel completed a draft consensus statement that is intended to correct some of the common misperceptions about lactose intolerance, including the belief that dairy foods need to be excluded from the diet.

Without lowfat and fat free milk and milk products in the diet, it's hard to meet nutrient needs, and available research suggests people with lactose intolerance can tolerate at least 12 grams of lactose (the amount in about one cup of milk) with no or minor symptoms. Plus, gradually re-introducing dairy into the diet can help manage symptoms and help those diagnosed benefit from dairy's unique nutrient package, including calcium, vitamin D, protein, potassium and other nutrients that are critical for bone health and beyond.

Experts also suggest drinking lowfat or fat free milk (regular or flavored) with meals or a snack instead of an empty stomach, trying small, frequent portions or buying lactose-free or lactose-reduced milk – which contain all the same nutrients as regular milk. Yogurt and hard cheeses (the panel suggests cheddar, provolone and mozzarella) may also be more easily digested.

Conducted by the National Institutes of Health since 1977, the Consensus Development Program is an unbiased, independent, evidence-based assessment of complex medical issues. The purpose is to evaluate the available scientific evidence on a medical topic and develop a statement that will advance the understanding of the issue and help guide the advice given by health professionals and directed to the public.

Lactose intolerance is a topic that is frequently misunderstood, according to Dr. Robert P. Heaney, a prominent researcher at Creighton University who presented findings to the panel on the health outcomes of dairy exclusion diets.

"With modern diets, eliminating dairy from the diet – for any reason whatsoever – will result in poor nutrition with long-term consequences for health," said Heaney.

Heaney said people need a steady supply of calcium, vitamin D and other bone-building nutrients in milk early in life to lay a sturdy foundation. Depriving the body of these nutrients has the potential to impact bone health throughout the lifecycle. Additionally, lowfat and fat free milk is the top food source of vitamin D, which has been linked to a growing range of health benefits.

African Americans have been found to have lower intakes of vitamin D, which is likely linked, in part, to their concerns about lactose intolerance. Yet, even if you have lactose intolerance – and fewer people likely have symptoms of this condition than previously believed – it's still important to find ways to incorporate milk and milk products into the diet.

This is the same conclusion made by the National Medical Association (NMA), the nation's largest group of African American physicians. Dr. Wilma Wooten, president of the San Diego chapter of the National Medical Association, presented research on the ethnic prevalence of lactose intolerance to the panel. She said the NMA released its own policy statement that alerted African-Americans that they may be at risk for nutrient deficits as a result of under-consumption of dairy foods.

"Individuals with lactose intolerance should not avoid dairy products," Wooten said. "This message should be reinforced to prevent the missed opportunity provided by the nutrient-rich package of low- and non-fat milk, hard cheese and yogurt with live active cultures."

Prevalence Estimates for Lactose Intolerance

While the panel concluded that there's insufficient evidence to determine a true prevalence of the condition, one new study presented at the conference suggested the age-adjusted, self-reported prevalence may be as little as 12 percent of the U.S. population, on average. This recent data from a national sample of three ethnic groups indicated that 7.7 percent of European Americans, 10.1 percent of Hispanic Americans and 19.5 percent of African Americans currently consider themselves lactose intolerant.

These self-reported prevalence rates are in contrast with previous higher estimates based on lactose maldigestion studies that over-estimated by wide margins the proportion of people who experience symptoms after consuming usual amounts of dairy foods.

Avoiding Health Risks

Beyond the recommendations of the NIH panel, several major health authorities agree that it is critical for people with lactose intolerance to consume dairy products every day to benefit from the unique nutrient profile of these foods.

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans encourage people with lactose intolerance to try lower-lactose dairy options (such as lactose-free milk, yogurt and hard cheeses) to ensure they get the important nutrients found in dairy.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends children with lactose intolerance still consume dairy foods to help meet calcium, vitamin D, protein and other nutrient needs that are essential for bone health and overall growth. The group cautions that lactose intolerance usually does not require avoidance of dairy foods.

Additionally, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) supports lactose-reduced or lactose-free milk as a first choice before non-dairy options for those with lactose intolerance.

Findings suggest that a biphasic sleep schedule not only refreshes the mind, but can make you smarter

If you see a student dozing in the library or a co-worker catching 40 winks in her cubicle, don't roll your eyes. New research from the University of California, Berkeley, shows that an hour's nap can dramatically boost and restore your brain power. Indeed, the findings suggest that a biphasic sleep schedule not only refreshes the mind, but can make you smarter.

Conversely, the more hours we spend awake, the more sluggish our minds become, according to the findings. The results support previous data from the same research team that pulling an all-nighter – a common practice at college during midterms and finals –- decreases the ability to cram in new facts by nearly 40 percent, due to a shutdown of brain regions during sleep deprivation.

"Sleep not only rights the wrong of prolonged wakefulness but, at a neurocognitive level, it moves you beyond where you were before you took a nap," said Matthew Walker, an assistant professor of psychology at UC Berkeley and the lead investigator of these studies.

In the recent UC Berkeley sleep study, 39 healthy young adults were divided into two groups – nap and no-nap. At noon, all the participants were subjected to a rigorous learning task intended to tax the hippocampus, a region of the brain that helps store fact-based memories. Both groups performed at comparable levels.

At 2 p.m., the nap group took a 90-minute siesta while the no-nap group stayed awake. Later that day, at 6 p.m., participants performed a new round of learning exercises. Those who remained awake throughout the day became worse at learning. In contrast, those who napped did markedly better and actually improved in their capacity to learn.

These findings reinforce the researchers' hypothesis that sleep is needed to clear the brain's short-term memory storage and make room for new information, said Walker, who is presenting his preliminary findings on Sunday, Feb. 21, at the annual meeting of the American Association of the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in San Diego, Calif.

Since 2007, Walker and other sleep researchers have established that fact-based memories are temporarily stored in the hippocampus before being sent to the brain's prefrontal cortex, which may have more storage space.

"It's as though the e-mail inbox in your hippocampus is full and, until you sleep and clear out those fact e-mails, you're not going to receive any more mail. It's just going to bounce until you sleep and move it into another folder," Walker said.

In the latest study, Walker and his team have broken new ground in discovering that this memory- refreshing process occurs when nappers are engaged in a specific stage of sleep. Electroencephalogram tests, which measure electrical activity in the brain, indicated that this refreshing of memory capacity is related to Stage 2 non-REM sleep, which takes place between deep sleep (non-REM) and the dream state known as Rapid Eye Movement (REM). Previously, the purpose of this stage was unclear, but the new results offer evidence as to why humans spend at least half their sleeping hours in Stage 2, non-REM, Walker said.

"I can't imagine Mother Nature would have us spend 50 percent of the night going from one sleep stage to another for no reason," Walker said. "Sleep is sophisticated. It acts locally to give us what we need."

Walker and his team will go on to investigate whether the reduction of sleep experienced by people as they get older is related to the documented decrease in our ability to learn as we age. Finding that link may be helpful in understanding such neurodegenerative conditions as Alzheimer's disease, Walker said.

Those who live in industrialized countries have easy access to healthy food and nutritional supplements, but magnesium deficiencies are still common. That's a problem because new research from Tel Aviv University suggests that magnesium, a key nutrient for the functioning of memory, may be even more critical than previously thought for the neurons of children and healthy brain cells in adults.

The research confirms the results of a study recently reported here.

Begun at MIT, the research started as a part of a post-doctoral project by Dr. Inna Slutsky of TAU's Sackler School of Medicine and evolved to become a multi-center experiment focused on a new magnesium supplement, magnesium-L-theronate (MgT), that effectively crosses the blood-brain barrier to inhibit calcium flux in brain neurons.

Published recently in the scientific journal Neuron, the new study found that the synthetic magnesium compound works on both young and aging animals to enhance memory or prevent its impairment. The research was carried out over a five-year period and has significant implications for the use of over-the-counter magnesium supplements.

In the study, two groups of rats ate normal diets containing a healthy amount of magnesium from natural sources. The first group was given a supplement of MgT, while the control group had only its regular diet. Behavioral tests showed that cognitive functioning improved in the rats in the first group and also demonstrated an increase of synapses in the brain — connective nerve endings that carry memories in the form of electrical impulses from one part of the brain to the other.

"We are really pleased with the positive results of our studies," says Dr. Slutsky. "But on the negative side, we've also been able to show that today's over-the-counter magnesium supplements don't really work. They do not get into the brain.

"We've developed a promising new compound which has now taken the first important step towards clinical trials by Prof. Guosong Liu, Director of the Center for Learning and Memory at Tsinghua University and cofounder of Magceutics company," she says.

While the effects were not immediate, the researchers in the study — from Tel Aviv University, MIT, the University of Toronto, and Tsighua University in Beijing — were able to assess that the new compound shows improved permeability of the blood-brain barrier. After two weeks of oral administration of the compound in mice, magnesium levels in the cerebral-spinal fluid increased.

"It seems counterintuitive to use magnesium for memory improvement because magnesium is a natural blocker of the NMDA receptor, a molecule critical for memory function. But our compound blocks the receptor only during background neuronal activity. As a result, it enhances the brain's 'plasticity' and increases the number of brain synapses that can be switched on," says Dr. Slutsky.

"Our results suggest that commercially available magnesium supplements are not effective in boosting magnesium in cerebro-spinal fluid," she says. "Magnesium is the fourth most abundant mineral in the body, but today half of all people in industrialized countries are living with magnesium deficiencies that may generally impair human health, including cognitive functioning."

Before the new compound becomes commercially available, Dr. Slutsky advises people to get their magnesium the old-fashioned way — by eating lots of green leaves, broccoli, almonds, cashews and fruit. The effects on memory won't appear overnight, she cautions, but with this persistent change in diet, memory should improve, and the effects of dementia and other cognitive impairment diseases related to aging may be considerably delayed.

Frying meat on a gas burner may be more harmful to health than using an electric burner, because of the type of fumes it produces, suggests research published ahead of print in Occupational and Environmental Medicine.



Professional chefs and cooks may be particularly at risk.

Cooking fumes produced during high temperature frying have recently been classified as "probably carcinogenic" by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).

Potentially harmful polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons or PAHs for short, heterocyclic amines, and higher and mutagenic aldehydes, along with fine and ultrafine particles, have all been found in cooking fumes, using vegetable oils, such as safflower, soya bean, and rapeseed oils, as well as lard.

But it is not clear if the energy source or the type of fat used for cooking have any impact on fume content.

The research team simulated the conditions found in a typical Western European restaurant kitchen, frying 17 pieces of steak, weighing 400 g each, for 15 minutes.

They used either margarine or two different brands of soya bean oil to cook the steak on gas and electric burners. The margarine contained a blend of soya bean, rapeseed, coconut and palm oils as well as vitamins A and D, but no hydrogenated fats.

They measured the amount of PAH, aldehydes, and total particulate matter produced in the breathing zone of the cook.

Napthalene -- a banned chemical contained in traditional mothballs -- was the only PAH detected and ranged from 0.15 to 0.27 ug/m3 air in 16 of the 17 meat samples. The highest levels were produced when frying with margarine on the gas burner.

Higher aldehydes were produced during the frying of all the samples, while mutagenic aldehydes were produced for most samples.

Overall levels ranged from undetectable to 61.80 ug/m3 air, but the highest levels were found when frying on the gas burner, irrespective of the type of fat used.

The peak number of ultrafine particles during frying on the gas burner was considerably higher than when cooking with electricity. Particle size with gas was 40 to 60 nm compared with 80 to 100 nm with electricity. Ultrafine particles are more readily absorbed into the lung.

The authors point out that the levels of PAHs and particulate matter found during this study were below accepted occupational safety thresholds. But they add that cooking fumes contain various other harmful components for which there is as yet no clear safety threshold, and gas cooking seems to increase exposure to these components.

"Exposure to cooking fumes should be reduced as much as possible," they caution.

Broiling isn't a good option either in some cases: Meat cooked at high temperatures to the point of burning and charring may increase the risk of pancreatic cancer.

People who are usually happy, enthusiastic and content are less likely to develop heart disease than those who tend not to be happy, according to a major new study published February 17.

The authors believe that the study, published in the Europe's leading cardiology journal, the European Heart Journal [1], is the first to show such an independent relationship between positive emotions and coronary heart disease.

Dr Karina Davidson, who led the research, said that although this was an observational study, her study did suggest that it might be possible to help prevent heart disease by enhancing people's positive emotions. However, she cautioned that it would be premature to make clinical recommendations without clinical trials to investigate the findings further.

"We desperately need rigorous clinical trials in this area. If the trials support our findings, then these results will be incredibly important in describing specifically what clinicians and/or patients could do to improve health," said Dr Davidson, who is the Herbert Irving Associate Professor of Medicine & Psychiatry and Director of the Center for Behavioral Cardiovascular Health at Columbia University Medical Center (New York, USA).

Over a period of ten years, Dr Davidson and her colleagues followed 1,739 healthy adults (862 men and 877 women) who were participating in the 1995 Nova Scotia Health Survey. At the start of the study, trained nurses assessed the participants' risk of heart disease and, with both self-reporting and clinical assessment, they measured symptoms of depression, hostility, anxiety and the degree of expression of positive emotions, which is known as "positive affect."

Positive affect is defined as the experience of pleasurable emotions such as joy, happiness, excitement, enthusiasm and contentment. These feelings can be transient, but they are usually stable and trait-like, particularly in adulthood. Positive affect is largely independent of negative affect, so that someone who is generally a happy, contented person can also be occasionally anxious, angry or depressed.

After taking account of age, sex, cardiovascular risk factors and negative emotions, the researchers found that, over the ten-year period, increased positive affect predicted less risk of heart disease by 22% per point on a five-point scale measuring levels of positive affect expression (ranging from "none" to "extreme").

Dr Davidson said: "Participants with no positive affect were at a 22% higher risk of ischaemic heart disease (heart attack or angina) than those with a little positive affect, who were themselves at 22% higher risk than those with moderate positive affect.

"We also found that if someone, who was usually positive, had some depressive symptoms at the time of the survey, this did not affect their overall lower risk of heart disease.

"As far as we know, this is the first prospective study to examine the relationship between clinically-assessed positive affect and heart disease."

The researchers speculate about what could be the possible mechanisms by which positive emotions might be responsible for conferring long-term protection from heart disease. These include influence on heart rates, sleeping patterns and smoking cessation.

"We have several possible explanations," said Dr Davidson. "First, those with positive affect may have longer periods of rest or relaxation physiologically. Baroreflex and parasympathetic regulation may, therefore, by superior in these persons, compared to those with little positive affect. Second, those with positive affect may recover more quickly from stressors, and may not spend as much time 're-living' them, which in turn seems to cause physiological damage. This is speculative, as we are just beginning to explore why positive emotions and happiness have positive health benefits."

She said that most successful interventions for depression include increasing positive affect as well as decreasing negative affect. If clinical trials supported the findings of this study, then it would be relatively easy to assess positive affect in patients and suggest interventions to improve it to help prevent heart disease. In the meantime, people reading about this research could take some simple steps to increase their positive affect.

"Like the observational finding that moderate wine consumption is healthy (and enjoyable), at this point ordinary people can ensure they have some pleasurable activities in their daily lives," she said. "Some people wait for their two weeks of vacation to have fun, and that would be analogous to binge drinking (moderation and consistency, not deprivation and binging, is what is needed). If you enjoy reading novels, but never get around to it, commit to getting 15 minutes or so of reading in. If walking or listening to music improves your mood, get those activities in your schedule. Essentially, spending some few minutes each day truly relaxed and enjoying yourself is certainly good for your mental health, and may improve your physical health as well (although this is, as yet, not confirmed)."

In an accompanying editorial by Bertram Pitt, Professor of Internal Medicine, and Patricia Deldin, Associate Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry, both at the University of Michigan School of Medicine (Michigan, USA), the authors pointed out that, currently, no-one knew whether positive affect had a direct or indirect causal role in heart disease, or whether there was a third, underlying factor at work, common to both conditions. Nor was it known for certain whether it was possible to modify and improve positive affect, and to what extent.

"Randomised controlled trials of interventions to increase positive affect in patients with cardiovascular disease are now underway and will help determine the effectiveness of increasing positive affect on cardiovascular outcome and will provide insight into the nature of the relationship between positive affect and cardiovascular disease," they wrote.

"The 'vicious cycle' linking cardiovascular disease to major depression and depression to cardiovascular disease deserves greater attention from both the cardiovascular and psychiatric investigators……..These new treatments [to increase positive affect] could open an exciting potential new approach for treating patients with known cardiovascular disease who develop depression. If Davidson et al.'s observations and hypotheses stimulate further investigation regarding the effect of increased positive affect on physiological abnormalities associated with cardiovascular risk, perhaps it will be time for all of us to smile."

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Scientists have confirmed that the healthful substances found in green tea — renowned for their powerful antioxidant and disease-fighting properties — do penetrate into tissues of the eye. Their new report, the first documenting how the lens, retina, and other eye tissues absorb these substances, raises the possibility that green tea may protect against glaucoma and other common eye diseases. "Green Tea Catechins and Their Oxidative Protection in the Rat Eye" appears in ACS's bi-weekly Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.




Chi Pui Pang and colleagues point out that so-called green tea "catechins" have been among a number of antioxidants thought capable of protecting the eye. Those include vitamin C, vitamin E, lutein, and zeaxanthin. Until now, however, nobody knew if the catechins in green tea actually passed from the stomach and gastrointestinal tract into the tissues of the eye.

Pang and his colleagues resolved that uncertainty in experiments with laboratory rats that drank green tea. Analysis of eye tissues showed beyond a doubt that eye structures absorbed significant amounts of individual catechins. The retina, for example, absorbed the highest levels of gallocatechin, while the aqueous humor tended to absorb epigallocatechin. The effects of green tea catechins in reducing harmful oxidative stress in the eye lasted for up to 20 hours. "Our results indicate that green tea consumption could benefit the eye against oxidative stress," the report concludes.
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An analysis of data from the Nurse’s Health Study, a large, ongoing prospective observational study, shows that women who have completed treatment for early-stage breast cancer and who take aspirin have a nearly 50 percent reduced risk of breast cancer death and a similar reduction in the risk of metastasis.

“This is the first study to find that aspirin can significantly reduce the risk of cancer spread and death for women who have been treated for early-stage breast cancer, " said Michelle Holmes, MD, DrPH, associate professor of medicine and epidemiology at Harvard Medical School & Harvard School of Public Health and the study's lead author. “If these findings are confirmed in other clinical trials, taking aspirin may become another simple, low-cost and relatively safe tool to help women with breast cancer live longer, healthier lives."

Investigators report it is not yet clear how aspirin affects cancer cells, but they speculate it decreases the risk of cancer metastasis by reducing inflammation, which is closely associated with cancer development. Prior studies have also suggested that aspirin inhibits cancer spread: one study found that people with colon cancer who took aspirin lived longer than those who did not, and laboratory studies have also shown that aspirin inhibited the growth and invasiveness of breast cancer cells.

In this analysis, researchers evaluated data from the Nurses' Health Study, which included 4,164 female nurses in the United States (ages 30 to 55 in 1976) who were diagnosed with stage I, II, or III breast cancer between 1976 and 2002 and were followed through June 2006. They examined patients’ use of aspirin for one or more years after a breast cancer diagnosis (when patients would have completed treatment such as surgery, radiation therapy, and/or chemotherapy) and the frequency of metastasis and breast cancer death. (The authors emphasized that patients undergoing active treatment should not take aspirin due to potential interactions that can increase certain side effects.)

A total of 400 women experienced metastasis, and 341 of these died of breast cancer. Women who took aspirin two to five days per week had a 60 percent reduced risk of metastasis and a 71 percent lower risk of breast cancer death. Those who took aspirin six or seven days a week had a 43 percent reduced risk of metastasis and a 64 percent lower risk of breast cancer death. The risk of breast cancer metastasis and mortality did not differ between women who did not take aspirin and those who took aspirin once a week.

Researchers also found that women who took non-aspirin non-steroidal inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) six or seven days a week also had a reduced risk of breast cancer death (a 48 percent reduction), but women who took NSAIDS less frequently and those who used acetaminophen did not experience such a benefit.

While the investigators did not collect data on aspirin dose, they noted that women who took aspirin regularly most likely took it for heart disease prevention; the typical dose for that purpose is 81 mg/day.

Expert Perspective
Lori Pierce, MD, Member, ASCO’s Cancer Communications Committee

“Several studies have suggested that aspirin may have beneficial effects against cancer because of its anti-inflammatory effects. But aspirin can cause stomach bleeding and is not for everyone. These are promising findings, and if they are confirmed in additional clinical trials, physicians may be able to regularly recommend aspirin to their breast cancer patients to reduce risk of cancer spread and mortality.”

New research shows people who regularly take ibuprofen may reduce their risk of developing Parkinson's disease, according to a study released today that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 62nd Annual Meeting in Toronto April 10 to April 17, 2010.

The research involved 136,474 people who did not have Parkinson's disease at the beginning of the research. Participants were asked about their use of non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), including aspirin, ibuprofen and acetaminophen. After six years, 293 participants had developed Parkinson's disease.

The study found regular users of ibuprofen were 40 percent less likely to develop Parkinson's disease than people who didn't take ibuprofen. Also, people who took higher amounts of ibuprofen were less likely to develop Parkinson's disease than people who took smaller amounts of the drug. The results were the same regardless of age, smoking and caffeine intake.

"Ibuprofen was the only NSAID linked to a lower risk of Parkinson's," said Xiang Gao, MD, with Harvard School of Public Health in Boston. "Other NSAIDs and analgesics, including aspirin and acetaminophen, did not appear to have any effect on lowering a person's risk of developing Parkinson's. More research is needed as to how and why ibuprofen appears to reduce the risk of Parkinson's disease, which affects up to one million people in the United States."

The addition of rosemary extract to ground beef actually reduces cancer-causing agents that can form upon cooking, according to a recent study in the Journal of Food Science, published by the Institute of Food Technologists.

Heterocyclic amines (HCAs) are mutagenic compounds that form when meat and fish are cooked at high temperatures—especially meats that are grilled, pan-fried, broiled, or barbecued. The National Toxicology Program of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services categorizes HCAs as human carcinogens that can increase the risk of certain types of cancers.

Kansas State University researchers Kanithaporn Puangsombat and J. Scott Smith investigated the idea that reducing the amount of HCAs in meat cooked at high temperatures would reduce the associated health risks.

The study compared five rosemary extracts with varying concentrations of water and ethanol and their ability to inhibit HCA formation in cooked beef patties.
• Rosemary extracts were isolated with ethanol concentrations ranging from 10 percent to 40 percent
• The extracts were added directly onto the ground beef patties and cooked at two different temperatures: 400°F for five minutes each side and 375°F for six minutes each side.

Researchers found that all of the concentrations significantly decreased the levels of HCAs at both cooking temperatures.
• When beef patties were cooked at 400°F for five minutes per side, the rosemary extracted at the lower ethanol concentrations were most effective in inhibiting HCA formation.

• It should be noted that rosemary extracts prepared at these lower ethanol concentrations contain a mixture of rosmarinic acid, carnosol, and carnosic acid, and these compounds just may work together in inhibiting HCA formation. Thus, rosemary extracts may not be the same depending on what solvents are used.

Fiber not only increases the bulk of the food and moves it through the gastrointestinal tract more rapidly, but also helps in preventing constipation and possible colon and rectal cancer. Intake of fiber through various foods such as nuts, whole-grain flour, fruits, and vegetables is now associated with decreased low-density lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol, lower insulin demand, increased stool bulk, softening of fecal contents, and improved laxative properties. Epidemiological studies have correlated high consumption of fiber with lower incidence of certain diseases such as cardiovascular and cancer of colon and rectum. Several conditions such as diabetes, atherosclerosis, breast cancer, diverticulitis, hemorrhoids have been connected to a low intake of fiber.

Complete article with links to research reports.

Also:
Role of Fiber in Cardiovascular Diseases: A Review

Comprehensive study of the causes of Cardiovascular Diseases and the impact of different kinds of food consumption on the risks, with a special focus on fiber.

Middle aged and elderly people with high levels of vitamin D could reduce their chances of developing heart disease or diabetes by 43%, according to researchers at the University of Warwick.

A team of researchers at Warwick Medical School carried out a systematic literature review of studies examining vitamin D and cardiometabolic disorders. Cardiometabolic disorders include cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus and metabolic syndrome.

Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin that is naturally present in some foods and is also produced when ultraviolet rays from sunlight strike the skin and trigger vitamin D synthesis. Fish such as salmon, tuna and mackerel are good sources of vitamin D, and it is also available as a dietary supplement.

Researchers looked at 28 studies including 99,745 participants across a variety of ethnic groups including men and women. The studies revealed a significant association between high levels of vitamin D and a decreased risk of developing cardiovascular disease (33% compared to low levels of vitamin D), type 2 diabetes (55% reduction) and metabolic syndrome (51% reduction).

The literature review, published in the journal Maturitas, was led by Johanna Parker and Dr Oscar Franco, Assistant Professor in Public Health at Warwick Medical School.

Dr Franco said: “We found that high levels of vitamin D among middle age and elderly populations are associated with a substantial decrease in cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome.

“Targeting vitamin D deficiency in adult populations could potentially slow the current epidemics of cardiometabolic disorders.”

All studies included were published between 1990 and 2009 with the majority published between 2004 and 2009. Half of the studies were conducted in the United States, eight were European, two studies were from Iran, three from Australasia and one from India.

Statins, a class of drugs used to lower cholesterol levels, have been successfully fighting heart disease for years. A new study from Tel Aviv University has now found that the same drugs cut the risks of cataracts in men by almost 40%.

"Doctors have known for some time that there is some sort of preventative effect that statins have against cataracts," says Dr. Gabriel Chodick of the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine at Tel Aviv University, who led the study. "It seems that they protect the eye from inflammation and ocular nerve cells from a process of oxidization. But ours is the first study to show such a strong association in such a large population."

The study covered over 180,000 patients between the years of 1998 and 2007 and was published in the February 2010 issue of the Annals of Epidemiology.

From the heart to the head

Dr. Chodick and his colleague Dr. Varda Shalev found that men aged 45 to 54 who took the statins daily to lower their cholesterol levels also lowered their chances of developing cataracts by 38%. For women of about the same age, the risk for cataracts was also cut dramatically, by about 18%.

Dr. Chodick has been studying the health benefits of statins for years. One of his recent studies, featured as part of a Time magazine cover story, showed that statins can reduce a person's chance of dying from all combined diseases and conditions by 40% — something in the medical community called "all-cause mortality."

"People who persistently take statins have tremendously reduced chances of premature death by disease. We began to think that statins, which are proven to prevent cardiovascular disease, may do other good things in the body as well. We started investigating cataracts to show statins' effects in a more statistical manner," says Dr. Chodick.

A statin a day …

"Statins are not being taken consistently by patients, and only about 10% of those who get these prescriptions actually end up taking them. Once you start, it's important to continue taking them to avoid cardiovascular problems," Dr. Chodick warns. "But now we have even more good reasons to keep taking statins — like an apple a day. People who begin taking them in their 40s to early 60s can reap a number of benefits, including better protection against cataracts."

A cataract is a type of clouding that develops in the lens of the eye, leading to varying degrees of sight impairment. It typically progresses slowly so that the sufferer may not even be aware of the problem. If left untreated, a cataract can lead to blindness. In the U.S., cataracts affect about 60% of both men and women over the age of 60. About 1.5 million cataract surgeries are performed in the U.S. each year, and visual disabilities associated with cataracts lead to over 8 million physician office visits a year.

"We believe that the regular use of statins for men and women under the age of 75 can significantly protect them against cataracts," Dr. Chodick concludes. Whether people who are not at risk for heart attacks should take them as a cataract preventative alone has not been determined. But before long we may be taking a daily statin pill along with our daily vitamin tablet, Dr. Chodick believes.

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Health-conscious consumers long have chosen meals that include oats—in part due to a snappy “heart healthy” claim that prominently appears on the labels of packaged oat products sold nationwide. Significantly, ARS-funded scientists have not only discovered that certain compounds in oats hinder the ability of blood cells to stick to artery walls, but they have also found further indicators that the same compounds hold promise to provide other health benefits.



This research is led by nutritionist Mohsen Meydani, director of the Vascular Biology Laboratory at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University (HNRCA) in Boston, Massachusetts. Meydani previously showed that phenolic antioxidants in oats actually obstruct the ability of blood cells to stick to artery walls. He showed that the compounds, called “avenanthramides,” from oats significantly suppress the adhesive molecules that glue blood cells to artery walls.

Now, Meydani has been working on determining the anti-inflammatory and other effects of oat avenanthramides and their derivatives. He is using several animal models and colon cancer cell lines for testing purposes. As a result of using these models, Meydani has published several journal articles that shed light on the compounds’ potencies and molecular mechanisms.

A 2006 study published in the journal Free Radical Biology & Medicine demonstrated for the first time that avenanthramide-c arrests smooth muscle cell (SMC) proliferation, which is known to participate in arterial lesion development. Unhealthy SMC growth contributes to the development of atherosclerosis, which can eventually lead to heart attack. Also, vascular endothelial cells, and to a lesser degree SMCs, are involved in the synthesis of heart-healthy nitric oxide. The researchers found that avenanthramide-c treatment of human SMC significantly and dose-dependently increased nitric oxide production in both SMC and endothelial cells.

These results suggest that the avenanthramides of oats may contribute to the relaxation of arteries and the prevention of atherosclerosis by increasing nitric oxide production and inhibiting SMC proliferation. In fact, earlier human clinical studies conducted by Meydani’s colleagues at the HNRCA have shown that consumption of oats reduces blood pressure.

Another 2008 study, also published in Free Radical Biology & Medicine, reported findings that suggest that avenanthramides decrease expression of inflammatory molecules. Because chronic inflammation of the arterial wall is part of the process that eventually causes disease, inhibition of inflammation through diet, drugs, or key nutrients is considered to be of great benefit in preventing atherosclerosis.

Findings from a more recent study soon to be published suggest that consuming oats and oat bran may reduce the risk of colon cancer, not only through high fiber content, but also through avenanthramides that slow or discourage proliferation of colon cancer cells.

These studies provide additional indications of the potential health benefit of oat consumption in the prevention of coronary heart disease beyond its known effect through lowering blood cholesterol.

Could eating blueberries help get rid of belly fat? And could a blueberry-enriched diet stem the conditions that lead to diabetes? A new University of Michigan Cardiovascular Center study suggests so.



The new research, presented at the Experimental Biology convention in New Orleans, gives tantalizing clues to the potential of blueberries in reducing risk factors for cardiovascular disease and metabolic syndrome. The effect is thought to be due to the high level of phytochemicals – naturally occurring antioxidants – that blueberries contain.

The study was performed in laboratory rats. While the animal findings suggest blueberries may be protective against two health conditions that affect millions of Americans, more research should be done.

The researchers studied the effect of blueberries (freeze dried blueberries crushed into a powder) that were mixed into the rat diet, as part of either a low- or high-fat diet. They performed many comparisons between the rats consuming the test diets and the control rats receiving no blueberry powder. All the rats were from a research breed that is prone to being severely overweight.

In all, after 90 days, the rats that received the blueberry-enriched powder, measured as 2 percent of their diet, had less abdominal fat, lower triglycerides, lower cholesterol, and improved fasting glucose and insulin sensitivity, which are measures of how well the body processes glucose for energy.

While regular blueberry intake reduced these risks for cardiovascular disease and metabolic syndrome, the health benefits were even better when combined with a low-fat diet.

In addition to all the other health benefits, the group that consumed a low-fat diet had lower body weight, lower total fat mass and reduced liver mass, than those who ate a high fat diet. An enlarged liver is linked to obesity and insulin resistance, a hallmark of diabetes.

The rats in the study were similar to Americans who suffer fatty liver disease and metabolic syndrome as a result of high-fat diets and obesity. Metabolic syndrome is a group of health problems that include too much fat around the waist, elevated blood pressure, elevated blood sugar, high triglycerides, and together these conditions increase the risk of heart attacks, strokes and diabetes.

But were the health benefits seen in rats a result of losing abdominal fat, or something else?

“Some measurements were changed by blueberry even if the rats were on a high fat diet,” says E. Mitchell Seymour, M.S., lead researcher and manager of the U-M Cardioprotection Research Laboratory. “We found by looking at fat muscle tissue, that blueberry intake affected genes related to fat-burning and storage. Looking at muscle tissue, we saw altered genes related to glucose uptake.”

Steven Bolling, M.D., a U-M heart surgeon and head of the Cardioprotection Laboratory, says: “The benefits of eating fruits and vegetables has been well-researched, but our findings in regard to blueberries shows the naturally occurring chemicals they contain, such as anthocyanins, show promise in mitigating these health conditions.”

It is already known that blueberries are rich in antioxidants and vitamins. New research from the Lund University Faculty of Engineering in Sweden shows that blueberry fibre are important and can alleviate and protect against intestinal inflammations, such as ulcerative colitis. The protective effect is even better if the blueberries are eaten together with probiotics.


The project originated as an attempt to see whether various types of dietary fibre and health-promoting bacteria, so-called probiotic bacteria such as lactobacillus and bifidobacteria, can help alleviate and prevent the risk of ulcerative colitis and colorectal cancer.

"But new knowledge of this field is also of interest to those who don't believe they run the risk of developing any intestinal diseases. In recent years the research world has been realizing that our health is governed to a great extent by what happens in our large intestine," explain Camilla Bränning, a PhD in Applied Nutrition and Åsa Håkansson, a doctoral candidate in Food Hygiene at the Division of Applied Nutrition and Food Chemistry.

The researchers tested various types of diets of blueberry husks, rye bran and oat bran with or without a mixture of probiotic bacteria. The results showed that the protective effect of blueberries was reinforced if they were eaten together with probiotics.

"The probiotics proved to have a protective effect on the liver, an organ that is often negatively impacted by intestinal inflammations," explains Åsa Håkansson.

Blueberries are rich in polyphenols, which have an antimicrobial and antioxidative effect. The combination of blueberries and probiotics reduced inflammation-inducing bacteria in the intestine at the same time as the number of health-promoting lactobacilla increased.

Åsa Håkansson and Camilla Bränning also noted that if blueberries are eaten together with probiotics, the content of butyric acid and propionic acid increased in the blood, two substances that are formed when fibre are broken down and that have previously been known to be important energy sources for intestinal cells. In recent years they have also been shown to favourably impact the immune defence. It seems as if the absorption of these components is facilitated by the presence of probiotics.

"What surprised us was that such a large share of the butyric acid not only was taken up by the intestinal cells but was also transported onward to the blood. Previously it was thought that the intestinal cells used all of the butyric acid, but this is not at all the case," says Camilla Bränning, who recently defended her dissertation on the subject.

"A further explanation for the extremely positive effect of blueberries may be that the blueberry fibre are not degraded to such a high degree in the large intestine. This means that inflammation-inducing substances do not come into contact with the mucous lining of the intestine but are embedded in the fibre instead. Then these substances are transported out of body together with the faeces," explains Camilla Bränning.

The researchers also found that rye bran was broken down in the large intestine, in the same place that ulcerative colitis and large-intestine cancer often occur, and that the rye bran provided a rich supply of butyric acid and propionic acid. On the other hand, the fibre in oat bran were degraded earlier in the large intestine. The most striking result, however, was that blueberries themselves had such a favourable effect compared with both rye bran and oat bran.

Some 15-20 percent of all Swedes suffer from stomach pains, diarrhoea, or constipation, complaints resulting from intestinal disorders and more undefined intestinal problems. The disease ulcerative colitis is one of the inflammatory intestinal diseases included under the general name IBD, inflammatory bowel diseases. It can lead to colorectal cancer and afflicts about 1,000 Swedes per year.

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In countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea, heart disease is less common than in the United States. Researchers believe that foods common to Greece and southern Italy are a major reason for this difference.

The February issue of Mayo Clinic Women’s HealthSource covers key components of the Mediterranean diet as well as reasons why this approach is beneficial to heart health. Key components include:

Eating generous amounts of fruits and vegetables and whole grains. In most Mediterranean countries, fruits and vegetables are part of every meal. They are naturally low in fat and sodium and have no cholesterol. Many are loaded with antioxidants, which may help prevent cholesterol buildup in the arteries.

Breads, pastas and rice are typically made from whole grains instead of grains that have been refined and lost some nutritional value. Whole grains provide an excellent source of fiber and contain a variety of vitamins and minerals. Certain types of dietary fiber also can help reduce blood cholesterol levels and may lower the overall risk of heart disease.

Getting most fats from healthy sources. Olive oil is the primary fat used in Mediterranean cooking. This type of monounsaturated fat can help reduce low-density lipoprotein (LDL, or “bad”) cholesterol levels when used in place of unhealthy saturated fats or trans fats. Other healthy fats in the Mediterranean diet include polyunsaturated fats and omega-3 fatty acids, which can be found in vegetable oils, nuts and fish. Omega-3 fatty acids are considered especially beneficial because they can lower triglycerides, a type of blood fat; improve the health of blood vessels; and protect against death from sudden heart attack.

Consuming very little red meat and eating generous amounts of legumes. Red meat isn’t a big part of the Mediterranean diet. Legumes, a class of vegetables that includes beans, peas and lentils -- offer a source of protein that’s typically low in fat and contains no cholesterol.

Drink wine, in moderation. Some research has shown that a light intake of alcohol is associated with a reduced risk of heart disease. In the Mediterranean, the alcoholic beverage consumed most is wine, which may offer slightly greater heart health benefits than other forms of alcohol. For women (and men over age 65), the recommendation is no more than one glass, or 5 ounces, of wine daily. For men under age 65, it’s no more than two glasses, or 10 ounces, daily.

Other aspects of the Mediterranean diet include dining on fish or shellfish as least twice a week; lesser amounts of dairy products, such as cheese and yogurt; incorporating small portions of nuts and seeds daily; eating sweets only on occasion; using herbs and spices instead of salt to flavor food; getting plenty of physical activity; and eating meals with family and friends.

The Mediterranean diet may be best known as a heart-healthy eating plan, but some studies suggest that it may also reduce the risk of diabetes, certain cancers, obesity and Alzheimer’s disease.

Giving chocolates to your Valentine on February 14th may help lower their risk of stroke based on a preliminary study from researchers at St. Michael's Hospital. The study, which is being presented at the American Academy of Neurology in April, also found that eating chocolate may lower the risk of death after suffering a stroke.

"Though more research is needed to determine whether chocolate is the contributing factor to lowering stroke risk, it is rich in anti-oxidants and that may have a protective effect against stroke," explains Dr. Gustavo Saposnik, a neurologist at St. Michael's Hospital.

Chocolate is rich in antioxidants called flavonoids which may help lower the risk of strokes.

Authored by Sarah Sahib, the research analyzed three studies involving chocolate consumption and stroke risk. One showed there was no association between flavonoid intake and risk of stroke or death. In contrast, a second study found an association with stroke for chocolate consumption once a week as opposed to none per week. The third study suggested flavonoid intake from eating chocolate weekly lowered death caused by a stroke.

"We are continuing to investigate the correlation between chocolate and the risk of stroke," says Dr. Saposnik. "The preliminary data is interesting but we need to determine whether consumption truly lowers the risk of a stroke or whether the benefit is biased based on those who are on average healthier than the general population when enrolling in a clinical trial."

Researchers at McMaster University have developed a cocktail of ingredients that they claim forestalls major aspects of the aging process.

The findings are published in the current issue of Experimental Biology and Medicine.

"As we all eventually learn, aging diminishes our mind, fades our perception of the world and compromises our physical capacity," says David Rollo, associate professor of biology at McMaster. "Declining physical activity—think of grandparents versus toddlers—is one of the most reliable expressions of aging and is also a good indicator of obesity and general mortality risk."

The study found that a complex dietary supplement powerfully offsets this key symptom of ageing in old mice by increasing the activity of the cellular furnaces that supply energy—or mitochondria—and by reducing emissions from these furnaces—or free radicals—that are thought to be the basic cause of ageing itself.

Most of the primary causes of human mortality and decline are strongly correlated with age and free-radical processes, including heart disease, stroke, Type II diabetes, many cancers, neurodegenerative diseases, and inflammatory and autoimmune conditions. Successful intervention into the ageing process could consequently prevent or forestall all of these.

Using bagel bits soaked in the supplement to ensure consistent and accurate dosing, the formula maintained youthful levels of locomotor activity into old age whereas old mice that were not given the supplement showed a 50 per cent loss in daily movement, a similar dramatic loss in the activity of the cellular furnaces that make our energy, and declines in brain signaling chemicals relevant to locomotion. This builds on the team's findings that the supplement extends longevity, prevents cognitive declines, and protects mice from radiation.

Ingredients consists of items that were purchased in local stores selling vitamin and health supplements for people, including vitamins B1, C, D, E, acetylsalicylic acid, beta carotene, folic acid, garlic, ginger root, ginkgo biloba, ginseng, green tea extract, magnesium, melatonin, potassium, cod liver oil, and flax seed oil. Multiple ingredients were combined based on their ability to offset five mechanisms involved in aging.

For Rollo, the results go beyond simply prolonging the lifespan.

"For aging humans maintaining zestful living into later years may provide greater social and economic benefits than simply extending years of likely decrepitude," he says. "This study obtained a truly remarkable extension of physical function in old mice, far greater than the respectable extension of longevity that we previous documented. This holds great promise for extending the quality of life of "health span" of humans."

Development of new and hopefully more effective supplements is ongoing.

As a pivotal paper linking childhood vaccinations to autism is discredited, a new study finds no evidence that the measles vaccine—given alone or as part of a combined measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine—increases the risk of autism in children. The study appears in The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal.

The early online publication appears in the wake of the recent announcement that the editors of The Lancet had retracted a controversial 1998 article suggesting that vaccines contributed to autism risk. That paper—which alarmed parents worldwide and led to sharp drops in measles and MMR vaccination rates in some places—has since been debunked amidst allegations of ethical and scientific misconduct.

In the new study, a team in Krakow, Poland, compared 96 Polish children with autism to a carefully matched set of 192 children without autism. Statistical techniques were used to look for any relationship between measles vaccination and the development of autism.

The results showed no evidence that children receiving measles vaccine—alone or as part of the MMR vaccine—were more likely to develop autism. This was so after adjustment for known risk factors for autism, including the mother's age and education, length of gestation, medications during pregnancy, and the child's condition after birth.

Vaccinated children were actually less likely to develop autism—especially those receiving the MMR vaccine. The researchers suspect this may reflect some other unmeasured factor affecting the children's health status. "For example," they write, "healthcare workers or parents may have noticed signs of developmental delay or disease before the actual autism diagnosis and for this reason have avoided vaccination."

In Poland, the MMR vaccine has replaced the measles-only vaccine gradually over the past decade, providing a unique opportunity to compare their effects. Vaccination rates in Poland have remained high, in contrast to other countries—including the United States and Britain—where a decline in the number of children vaccinated has been followed by measles outbreaks. Based on the new results, "both vaccines are characterized by a similar level of safety with respect to the risk of autism in children," Dr. Mrożek-Budzyn and colleagues conclude.

Advanced paternal age is a risk only when the mother is younger

Advanced maternal age is linked to a significantly elevated risk of having a child with autism, regardless of the father's age, according to an exhaustive study of all births in California during the 1990s by UC Davis Health System researchers. Advanced paternal age is associated with elevated autism risk only when the father is older and the mother is under 30, the study found.

Published online today in the February issue of the journal Autism Research, the study, "Independent and Dependent Contributions of Advanced Maternal and Paternal Ages to Autism Risk," is one of the largest population-based studies to quantify how each parent's age — separately and together — affects the risk of having a child with autism.

The study found that the incremental risk of having a child with autism increased by 18 percent — nearly one fifth — for every five-year increase in the mother's age. A 40-year-old woman's risk of having a child later diagnosed with autism was 50 percent greater than that of a woman between 25 and 29 years old.

Advanced parental age is a known risk factor for having a child with autism. However, previous research has shown contradictory results regarding whether it is the mother, the father or both who contribute most to the increased risk of autism. For example, one study reported that fathers over 40 were six times more likely than fathers under 30 to have a child with autism.

"This study challenges a current theory in autism epidemiology that identifies the father's age as a key factor in increasing the risk of having a child with autism," said Janie Shelton, the study's lead author and a doctoral student in the UC Davis Department of Public Health Sciences. "It shows that while maternal age consistently increases the risk of autism, the father's age only contributes an increased risk when the father is older and the mother is under 30 years old. Among mothers over 30, increases in the father's age do not appear to further increase the risk of autism."

Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder of deficits in social skills and communication, as well as repetitive and restricted behaviors, with onset occurring prior to age 3. Abnormal brain development, probably beginning in the womb, is known to be fundamental to the behaviors that characterize autism. Current estimates place the incidence of autism at between 1 in 100 and 1 in 110 children in the United States.

During the 1990s, the number of California women over 40 giving birth increased by more than 300 percent. But only about 5 percent of the 600-percent increase in the number of autism cases in the state can be attributed to women waiting longer to have children, the study suggests.

To conduct their investigation, the researchers obtained the electronic records for all births in California between Jan. 1, 1990 and Dec. 31, 1999. The records incorporated detailed demographic information, including the ages of both parents. To identify which children would develop autism, the researchers obtained electronic records identifying children born during the study period who later received an autism diagnosis from state Department of Developmental Services. In this study autism was defined as a diagnosis of full-syndrome autism at a California Regional Center.

The researchers also excluded a small number of births where demographic information about parents, such as their ages and levels of education, was not available. Instances of multiple births were analyzed separately. The exclusions brought the total size of the study sample to approximately 4.9 million births and 12,159 cases of autism.

For older mothers, the step-wise progression in the risk of having a child who later would be diagnosed with autism was apparent among every age group of fathers. When the father was older and the mother was younger — under 30 — the child's risk for developing autism also was elevated. For example, among births to mothers under 25, children fathered by a man over 40 were twice as likely to develop autism as those whose father was between 25 and 29. Among mothers over 30, the increased risk associated with older fathers dissipated, the study found.

Because of the large study size, the researchers were able to show how risk for autism was affected by each parent's age by holding one parent's age constant and then comparing autism incidence across the age of the other parent across five-year increments. The subtle interaction of how each parent's age affects the risk of autism then became quantifiable even when it was reliant on the other parent's age. This methodology is more efficacious and requires fewer assumptions than the mathematical modeling used by earlier studies, the researchers said.

The researchers note that understanding the relationship between increased parental age and autism risk is critical to understanding its biological causes. Earlier studies have observed that advanced maternal age is a risk factor for a variety of other birth-related conditions, including infertility, early fetal loss, low birth-weight, chromosomal aberrations and congenital anomalies.

Irva Hertz-Picciotto, professor of public health sciences, a researcher at the UC Davis MIND Institute and the study's senior author, said the reason that having an older parent places a child at risk for autism is not known.

"We still need to figure out what it is about older parents that puts their children at greater risk for autism and other adverse outcomes, so that we can begin to design interventions," Hertz-Picciotto said.

One possible clue comes from a 2008 UC Davis study that found some mothers of children with autism had antibodies to fetal brain protein, while none of the mothers of typical children did. Advancing age has been associated with an increase in autoantibody production. Further work investigating advancing age in such findings may be useful, the study authors said. They added that some persistent environmental chemicals accumulate in the body and also may have a role to play in autism, possibly contributing to the apparent effect of parental age.

The study also suggests that epigenetic changes over time "may enable an older parent to transfer a multitude of molecular functional alterations to a child ... thus epigenetics may be involved in the risks contributed by advancing parental age as a result of changes induced by stresses from environmental chemicals, co-morbidity or assistive reproductive therapy."

A Mediterranean diet may help people avoid the small areas of brain damage that can lead to problems with thinking and memory, according to a study released today that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 62nd Annual Meeting in Toronto April 10 to April 17, 2010.

The study found that people who ate a Mediterranean-like diet were less likely to have brain infarcts, or small areas of dead tissue linked to thinking problems.

The Mediterranean diet includes high intake of vegetables, legumes, fruits, cereals, fish and monounsaturated fatty acids such as olive oil; low intake of saturated fatty acids, dairy products, meat and poultry; and mild to moderate amounts of alcohol.

For the study, researchers assessed the diets of 712 people in New York and divided them into three groups based on how closely they were following the Mediterranean diet. Then they conducted MRI brain scans of the people an average of six years later. A total of 238 people had at least one area of brain damage.

Those who were most closely following a Mediterranean-like diet were 36 percent less likely to have areas of brain damage than those who were least following the diet. Those moderately following the diet were 21 percent less likely to have brain damage than the lowest group.

"The relationship between this type of brain damage and the Mediterranean diet was comparable with that of high blood pressure," said study author Nikolaos Scarmeas, MD, MSc, of Columbia University Medical Center in New York and a member of the American Academy of Neurology. "In this study, not eating a Mediterranean-like diet had about the same effect on the brain as having high blood pressure."

Previous research by Scarmeas and his colleagues showed that a Mediterranean-like diet may be associated with a lower risk of Alzheimer's disease and may lengthen survival in people with Alzheimer's disease. According to the present study, these associations may be partially explained by fewer brain infarcts.

A new study suggests that beer is a significant source of dietary silicon, a key ingredient for increasing bone mineral density. Researchers from the Department of Food Science & Technology at the University of California, Davis studied commercial beer production to determine the relationship between beer production methods and the resulting silicon content, concluding that beer is a rich source of dietary silicon. Details of this study are available in the February issue of the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the Society of Chemical Industry.

"The factors in brewing that influence silicon levels in beer have not been extensively studied" said Charles Bamforth, lead author of the study. "We have examined a wide range of beer styles for their silicon content and have also studied the impact of raw materials and the brewing process on the quantities of silicon that enter wort and beer."

Silicon is present in beer in the soluble form of orthosilicic acid (OSA), which yields 50% bioavailability, making beer a major contributor to silicon intake in the Western diet. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), dietary silicon (Si), as soluble OSA, may be important for the growth and development of bone and connective tissue, and beer appears to be a major contributor to Si intake. Based on these findings, some studies suggest moderate beer consumption may help fight osteoporosis, a disease of the skeletal system characterized by low bone mass and deterioration of bone tissue.

The researchers examined a variety of raw material samples and found little change in the silicon content of barley during the malting process. The majority of the silicon in barley is in the husk, which is not affected greatly during malting. The malts with the higher silicon contents are pale colored which have less heat stress during the malting process. The darker products, such as the chocolate, roasted barley and black malt, all have substantial roasting and much lower silicon contents than the other malts for reasons that are not yet known. The hop samples analyzed showed surprisingly high levels of silicon with as much as four times more silicon than is found in malt. However, hops are invariably used in a much smaller quantity than is grain. Highly hopped beers, however, would be expected to contain higher silicon levels.

No silicon was picked up from silica hydrogel used to stabilize beer, even after a period of 24 hours and neither is there pick up from diatomaceous earth filter aid.

The study also tested 100 commercial beers for silicon content and categorized the data according to beer style and source. The average silicon content of the beers sampled was 6.4 to 56.5 mg/L.

"Beers containing high levels of malted barley and hops are richest in silicon," concludes Dr. Bamforth. "Wheat contains less silicon than barley because it is the husk of the barley that is rich in this element. While most of the silicon remains in the husk during brewing, significant quantities of silicon nonetheless are extracted into wort and much of this survives into beer."

Any Vitamin D may be effective


Drinking milk during pregnancy may help reduce your baby's chances of developing multiple sclerosis (MS) as an adult, according to a preliminary study released today that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 62nd Annual Meeting in Toronto April 10 to April 17, 2010.

The study involved 35,794 nurses whose mothers completed a questionnaire in 2001 about their experiences and diet during pregnancy with their nurse-daughter. Of the nurses studied, 199 women developed MS over the 16-year study period.

Researchers found that the risk of MS was lower among women born to mothers with high milk or dietary vitamin D intake in pregnancy.

"The risk of MS among daughters whose mothers consumed four glasses of milk per day was 56 percent lower than daughters whose mothers consumed less than three glasses of milk per month," said Fariba Mirzaei, MD, with the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston. "We also found the risk of MS among daughters whose mothers were in the top 20 percent of vitamin D intake during pregnancy was 45 percent lower than daughters whose mothers were in the bottom 20 percent for vitamin D intake during pregnancy."

"There is growing evidence that that vitamin D has an effect on MS. The results of this study suggest that this effect may begin in the womb," said Mirzaei.

Fortified milk, fatty fish such as salmon and exposure to sunlight are the most important sources of vitamin D.

Consuming two or more soft drinks per week increased the risk of developing pancreatic cancer by nearly twofold compared to individuals who did not consume soft drinks, according to a report in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Although relatively rare, pancreatic cancer remains one of the most deadly, and only 5 percent of people who are diagnosed are alive five years later.

Mark Pereira, Ph.D., senior author on the study and associate professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota, said people who consume soft drinks on a regular basis, defined as primarily carbonated sugar-sweetened beverages, tend to have a poor behavioral profile overall.

However, the effect of these drinks on pancreatic cancer may be unique.

"The high levels of sugar in soft drinks may be increasing the level of insulin in the body, which we think contributes to pancreatic cancer cell growth," said Pereira.

For the current study, Pereira and colleagues followed 60,524 men and women in the Singapore Chinese Health Study for 14 years. During that time, there were 140 pancreatic cancer cases. Those who consumed two or more soft drinks per week (averaging five per week) had an 87 percent increased risk compared with individuals who did not.

No association was seen between fruit juice consumption and pancreatic cancer.

Pereira said that these results from Singapore are likely applicable to the United States.

"Singapore is a wealthy country with excellent health care. Favorite pastimes are eating and shopping, so the findings should apply to other western countries," said Pereira.

Susan Mayne, Ph.D., associate director of the Yale Cancer Center and professor of epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health, said these study results are intriguing but have some key limitations that should be considered in any interpretation.

"Although this study found a risk, the finding was based on a relatively small number of cases and it remains unclear whether it is a causal association or not. Soft drink consumption in Singapore was associated with several other adverse health behaviors such as smoking and red meat intake, which we can't accurately control for," said Mayne, an editorial board member of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.

Pereira points out that the findings are biologically plausible, held up in non-smokers, remained similar after taking other dietary habits into account and are consistent with findings in Caucasian populations.

The big news is in the area of diet – based on recent reports, I have decided to resume taking orlistat (alli) despite the unpleasant side effects, cost, and lack of results from my previous experience with it. I already eat a fairly low-fat, low carb diet, so according to these reports I should lose weight, something I have not been able to do at all :

Studies had already indicated that a low-carbohydrate diet and prescription-strength orlistat combined with a low-fat diet are effective weight loss therapies. In a new study, the average weight loss for both groups was nearly 10 percent of their body weight.

Orlistat, known by the brand names Xenical and Alli, is both an over-the-counter and a prescription drug in the United States. Orlistat use is often limited by gastro-intestinal side effects, however.

In those treated with orlistat, blood pressure fell by an average of 2.5 mm Hg systolic and 1.9 mm Hg diastolic. Systolic blood pressure is the top number in a blood-pressure reading (like 120/80) while diastolic is the bottom number. Blood pressure fell significantly more with a low-carb diet.

IN another report,

New studies show that overweight and obese people using alli® (orlistat 60 mg) with a reduced calorie, lower-fat diet can significantly reduce weight, visceral fat, and waist circumference and therefore may reduce their risk of type 2 diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and stroke.

alli is the only FDA-approved OTC weight loss aid that is clinically proven to boost weight loss by 50 percent and significantly reduce excess visceral fat. Working in the digestive tract, alli prevents about 25 percent of the fat that a person eats from being absorbed.

Visceral fat is a dangerous type of fat that surrounds the vital organs in the abdomen and when present in excess disrupts the normal functioning of organs, increasing the risk of life-threatening diseases. Even modest weight loss can result in significant reductions in visceral fat and substantially improve health. In fact, when losing weight, visceral fat is among the first fat lost, which is associated with noticeable health benefits such as reductions in total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein (LDL). This helps reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and stroke.

Lots of other things I am doing now are are good for me according to latest research reports

I try to eat a low carb meal after exercise, but not necessarily low-calorie.

Exercise is good for me, according to several reports.

But especially soccer! according to this report:
A just published research experiment on inactive men with high blood pressure shows that just 3 months of soccer practise twice a week causes a significant fall in blood pressure, resting pulse rate, and percentage of body fat, and is more effective than the doctor's usual advice on healthy diet and exercise. Other parallel experiments on both women and men further demonstrates that a regular game of soccer affects numerous cardiovascular risk factors such as maximal oxygen uptake, heart function, elasticity of the vascular system, blood pressure, cholesterol and fat mass far more than e.g. strength training and just as much if not more than running.

And tea and exercise are probably good for my mental health as well, as they each appear to fight depression.

Fish oil is good for my physical and mental health and may even protect against aging.

Dark chocolate is good for me too:
Eating about an ounce and a half of dark chocolate a day for two weeks reduced levels of stress hormones in the bodies of people feeling highly stressed. Everyone’s favorite treat also partially corrected other stress-related biochemical imbalances.


I have started taking zinc recently, which is good, and don’t eat much meat or eat cereal with much iron in it, or supplements with any iron:

“It seems clear that large segments of the population are at risk for toxicities from free copper and free iron, and to me, it seems clear that preventive steps should begin now." The article details those steps for people over age 50, including avoiding vitamin and mineral pills that contain cooper and iron; lowering meat intake: avoiding drinking water from copper pipes; donating blood regularly to reduce iron levels; and taking zinc supplements to lower copper levels.

The blueberries I eat regularly are good for me, but I can’t remember why:
Blueberries improve memory

Stretching may be good for my heart.

Nuts are good for me but most come with too much salt:

Reducing salt in the American diet by as little as one-half teaspoon (or three grams) per day could prevent nearly 100,000 heart attacks and 92,000 deaths each year, according to a new study. Such benefits are on par with the benefits from reductions in smoking and could save the United States about $24 billion in healthcare costs, the researchers add.

And I should consider taking magnesium:
Magnesium enhances learning and memory

More and more Americans are turning to herbal remedies to help manage chronic conditions or promote general health and wellness. But many of today's popular herbal supplements, including St. John's wort, gingko biloba, garlic and even grapefruit juice can pose serious risks to people who are taking medications for heart disease, according to a review article published in the February, 9, 2010, issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. The use of these products is especially concerning among elderly patients who typically have co-morbidities, take multiple medications and are already at greater risk of bleeding, according to authors.

"Many people have a false sense of security about these herbal products because they are seen as 'natural,'" Arshad Jahangir, M.D., Professor of Medicine and Consultant Cardiologist, Mayo Clinic Arizona, adding that more than 15 million Americans reportedly use herbal remedies or high-dose vitamins. "But 'natural' doesn't always mean they are safe. Every compound we consume has some effect on the body, which is, in essence, why people are taking these products to begin with."

In addition to their direct effects on body function, these herbs can interact with medications used to treat heart disease, either reducing their effectiveness or increasing their potency, which may lead to bleeding or a greater risk for serious cardiac arrhythmias.

"We can see the effect of some of these herb-drug interactions—some of which can be life-threatening—on tests for blood clotting, liver enzymes and, with some medications, on electrocardiogram," Dr. Jahangir said.

According to the report, a major concern is that patients do not readily disclose their use of herbal remedies, and healthcare providers may not routinely ask about such use. In addition, because these herbs are regarded as food products, they are not subject to the same scrutiny and regulation as traditional medications.

"If patients aren't satisfied with their care today, many will turn to herbs because they believe these compounds can help them manage chronic conditions or improve health and prevent future disease," said Dr. Jahangir. "In fact, patients are willing to spend nearly the same or more on out-of-pocket expenses for herbal remedies than traditional medical care."

Two nationwide surveys conducted in 1990 and 1997 found that the number of visits to complementary and alternative providers increased from 427 million to 629 million, whereas the number of visits to primary care physicians remained basically unchanged.

Some examples of herbs and their adverse effect on heart disease management include:

St. John's wort, which is typically used to treat depression, anxiety and sleep disorders among other problems, reduces the effectiveness of medications contributing to recurrences of arrhythmia, high blood pressure or increase in blood cholesterol levels and risk for future heart problems.
Ginkgo biloba, which is supposedly used to improve circulation or sharpen the mind, increases bleeding risk in those taking warfarin or aspirin.
Garlic, which supposedly helps boost the immune system and is commonly used for its cholesterol and blood pressure lowering properties, can also increase the risk of bleeding among those taking warfarin.
In addition to highlighting commonly used herbs and potential interactions with cardiovascular medications, the present review also outlines steps for improving their safe use and reducing harm among patients with heart disease.

"These herbs have been used for centuries—well before today's cardiovascular medications—and while they may have beneficial effects these need to be studied scientifically to better define their usefulness and, more importantly, identify their potential for harm when taken with medications that have proven benefit for patients with cardiovascular diseases," said Dr. Jahangir. "Patients, physicians, pharmacists and other healthcare providers need to know about the potential harm these herbs can have."

In addition to greater public education about the risks of using herbal products, patients and clinicians need to actively discuss the use of over-the-counter medications, supplements and herbal products in addition to prescription medications.