RxPG News : Food & Nutrition

Vitamin E can fight fatty liver disease in kids

Sat, 30 Apr 2011 14:17:57 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) A specific form of Vitamin E can improve the most severe form of fatty liver disease in some children.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease - is the most common chronic liver disease among US children. It ranges in severity from steatosis - to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis or NASH -.

The symptoms of NAFLD and NASH are identical. They are very bland and non-specific. They can occur at any adult age and, in children, usually appear after 10 years of age.

Fatty liver increases a child's risk of developing heart disease and liver cirrhosis. The only way to distinguish NASH from other forms of fatty liver disease is with a liver biopsy.

Using liver biopsies, researchers found that after 96 weeks of treatment, 58 percent of the children on Vitamin E no longer had NASH, compared to 41 percent of the children on metformin -, and 28 percent on placebo.

Vitamin E was better than placebo because it significantly reduced enlargement and death of liver cells, reports the Journal of the American Medical Association.

'These results suggest that Vitamin E improves or resolves NASH in at least half of children, which we previously showed to be true in adults,' said Stephen P. James, director of the digestive diseases at National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases -, which funded the study.

Weight loss may reverse the disease in some children, but other than dietary advice, there are no specific treatments. Excess fat in the liver is believed to cause injury by increasing levels of oxidants, compounds that damage cells, according to an NIDDK statement.

The Treatment of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease in Children - trial studied whether Vitamin E - or metformin could improve fatty liver disease.

Most children with fatty liver disease are overweight and resistant to insulin, a critical hormone that regulates energy. Boys are more likely to be affected than girls.

Study shows hunger hitting closer to home

Mon, 28 Mar 2011 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) A new study on hunger entitled Map the Meal Gap is the first study to identify the county-level distribution of over 50 million food-insecure Americans.

Until now, we could only compare the data by state, said Craig Gundersen, University of Illinois associate professor of agricultural and consumer economics and executive director of the National Soybean Research Laboratory who led the data analysis on the project. Having this data by county has the potential to redefine the way service providers and policy makers address areas of need.

Gundersen explained that the term meal gap refers to the additional number of meals the food insecure population in the selected area requires to meet their food needs. On the national level, the average cost of a meal is $2.54. The study shows this shortfall represents an estimated $21.3 billion on an annual basis.

Per person this is only about $56 more each month on average to address the shortages in their food budget, Gundersen said.

Among the key findings of the study is that there are 44 counties in the United States that fall into the top 10 percent categories for both food insecurity and food prices. These counties struggle with multiple stressors, including high food insecurity, high poverty, high unemployment and above-average food costs, Gundersen said. At the time the most recent data were collected, on average, one in every four persons in these counties was food insecure and 27 percent lived at or below poverty. The counties are typically rural and one-third are majority African American.

This study also demonstrates the distribution of food-insecure persons who are not eligible for food assistance programs. In Illinois, for example, 41 percent of the almost 2 million people who are identified as being food insecure are also ineligible to receive federal assistance from SNAP, which is limited to people with incomes up to the 130 percent level of federal poverty. (SNAP, The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, was formerly known as the Food Stamp Program.)

A summary of the findings, an interactive map of the United States showing data for each county, and the full report are available on Feeding America's website at www.feedingamerica.org. The study was funded by the Howard G. Buffett Foundation and the Nielsen Co.

The executive summary of the report features additional information that describes how Latinos and American Indians are disproportionately affected by high rates of hunger and high food prices.

Gundersen is also working with James Ziliak of the University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research to coordinate a research program on childhood hunger with $5.5 million from the USDA.

In order to address the problem of hunger in our communities, we have to understand it, Gundersen said. The results from Map the Meal Gap will help researchers to better identify the populations and develop strategies to reach those who are most in need of food assistance.

Religious young adults become obese by middle age

Wed, 23 Mar 2011 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) CHICAGO --- Could it be the potato salad? Young adults who frequently attend religious activities are 50 percent more likely to become obese by middle age as young adults with no religious involvement, according to new Northwestern Medicine research. This is the first longitudinal study to examine the development of obesity in people with various degrees of religious involvement.

We don't know why frequent religious participation is associated with development of obesity, but the upshot is these findings highlight a group that could benefit from targeted efforts at obesity prevention, said Matthew Feinstein, the study's lead investigator and a fourth-year student at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. It'spossible that getting together once a week and associating good works and happiness with eating unhealthy foods could lead to the development of habits that are associated with greater body weight and obesity.

Previous Northwestern Medicine research established a correlation between religious involvement and obesity in middle-age and older adults at a single point in time. By tracking participants' weight gain over time, the new study makes it clear that normal weight younger adults with high religious involvement became obese, rather than obese adults becoming more religious.

The research is being presented at the American Heart Association's Nutrition, Physical Activity and Metabolism/Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention Scientific Sessions 2011 in Atlanta, Georgia.

The study, which tracked 2,433 men and women for 18 years, found normal weight young adults ages 20 to 32 years with a high frequency of religious participation were 50 percent more likely to be obese by middle age after adjusting for differences in age, race, sex, education, income and baseline body mass index. High frequency of religious participation was defined as attending a religious function at least once a week.

Obesity is defined as having a body mass index of 30 or higher. A woman who is 5'5 and 180 pounds has a BMI of 30, for example.

The men and women in the study were part of the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) multi-center study, supported by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

Obesity is the major epidemic that is facing the U.S. population right now, said senior study author Donald Lloyd-Jones, M.D., chair of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a cardiologist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. We know that people with obesity have substantial risks for developing diabetes, heart disease and certain types of cancer, and of dying much younger. So, we need to use all of the tools at our disposal to identify groups at risk and to provide education and support to prevent the development of obesity in the first place. Once the weight is on, it is much harder to lose it.

The authors caution that their findings should only be taken to mean people with frequent religious involvement are more likely to become obese, and not that they have worse overall health status than those who are non-religious. In fact, previous studies have shown religious people tend to live longer than those who aren't religious in part because they tend to smoke less.

Here's an opportunity for religious organizations to initiate programs to help their congregations live even longer, Feinstein said. The organizations already have groups of people getting together and infrastructures in place that could be leveraged to initiate programs that prevent people from becoming obese and treat existing obesity.

Feinstein noted Northwestern is leading such an educational intervention in a church on Chicago's West Side where members are taught how dietary changes and increased physical activity can lower cardiovascular disease risk factors such as obesity, cholesterol and high blood pressure. Church-based interventions have shown promising results, he said.

Load up on fiber now, avoid heart disease later

Tue, 22 Mar 2011 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) CHICAGO --- A new study from Northwestern Medicine shows a high-fiber diet could be a critical heart-healthy lifestyle change young and middle-aged adults can make. The study found adults between 20 and 59 years old with the highest fiber intake had a significantly lower estimated lifetime risk for cardiovascular disease compared to those with the lowest fiber intake.

The study will be presented March 23 at the American Heart Association's Nutrition, Physical Activity and Metabolism/Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention Scientific Sessions 2011 in Atlanta, Ga. This is the first known study to show the influence of fiber consumption on the lifetime risk for cardiovascular disease.

It's long been known that high-fiber diets can help people lose weight, lower cholesterol and improve hypertension, said Donald M. Lloyd-Jones, corresponding author of the study and chair of the department of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a cardiologist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. The results of this study make a lot of sense because weight, cholesterol and hypertension are major determinants of your long-term risk for cardiovascular disease.

A high-fiber diet falls into the American Heart Association's recommendation of 25 grams of dietary fiber or more a day. Lloyd-Jones said you should strive to get this daily fiber intake from whole foods, not processed fiber bars, supplements and drinks.

A processed food may be high in fiber, but it also tends to be pretty high in sodium and likely higher in calories than an apple, for example, which provides the same amount of fiber, Lloyd-Jones said.

For the study, Hongyan Ning, M.D., lead author and a statistical analyst in the department of preventive medicine at Feinberg, examined data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a nationally representative sample of about 11,000 adults.

Ning considered diet, blood pressure, total cholesterol, smoking status and history of diabetes in survey participants and then used a formula to predict lifetime risk for cardiovascular disease.

The results are pretty amazing, Ning said. Younger (20 to 39 years) and middle-aged (40 to 59 years) adults with the highest fiber intake, compared to those with the lowest fiber intake, showed a statistically significant lower lifetime risk for cardiovascular disease.

In adults 60 to 79 years, dietary fiber intake was not significantly associated with a reduction in lifetime risk of cardiovascular disease. It's possible that the beneficial effect of dietary fiber may require a long period of time to achieve, and older adults may have already developed significant risk for heart disease before starting a high-fiber diet, Ning said.

As for young and middle-aged adults, now is the time to start making fiber a big part of your daily diet, Ning said.

The study suggests that starting a high-fiber diet now may help improve your long-term risk, Ning said.

Sea grant awards more than $1.1 million for research under EPA's Long Island Sound study

Tue, 08 Mar 2011 05:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) STONY BROOK, NY, March 8, 2011 - The Sea Grant programs of Connecticut and New York have awarded Long Island Sound Study research grants valued at $1,130,832 to six projects that will look into some of the most serious threats to the ecological health of Long Island Sound, a water body designated by the Environmental Protection Agency as an Estuary of National Significance.

Research results from five two-year projects and a one-year pilot project are expected to provide valuable information to resource managers throughout the Long Island Sound watershed. Most projects involve nitrogen, known to be the biggest driver of low oxygen conditions in the Sound. The research also addresses emerging issues of red tide and the effects of climate change on the Sound's ecosystem.

The focus of many of the projects is on nitrogen-- its sources, impacts, and removal processes-- with the overall goal of improving the water quality of Long Island Sound for the benefit of its coastal communities and businesses, said Dr. James Ammerman, director of New York Sea Grant.

A study by Shimon Anisfeld and Gaboury Benoit at Yale University's School of Forestry and Environmental Studies will examine characteristics of constructed wetlands and wet ponds (manmade retention basins) to find out if and under what conditions they are effective at reducing the amount of nitrogen that enters Long Island Sound via stormwater. The results will help in future Best Management Practice designs to improve water quality.

Two geoscientists at Stony Brook University (SBU), Gilbert Hanson and Teng-Fong Wong, will examine the source, transformation, and fate of nitrogen as it travels from shallow groundwater aquifers to two harbors on Long Island's north shore. The information will be important to municipalities evaluating the potential impacts of on-site wastewater disposal systems. In another project, University of Connecticut (UConn) marine scientists Jamie Vaudrey and Charles Yarish will look at the impacts of nitrogen on habitats in some of the many small embayments that surround the Sound in Connecticut and New York. They will assess the uncertain ability of these habitats to support eelgrass under conditions of eutrophication and changing climate. Eelgrass is ecologically and economically valuable, particularly as bay scallop habitat.

A project led by Darcy Lonsdale and Christopher Gobler at the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at SBU will look at how increasing populations of gelatinous zooplankton, such as comb jellies and jellyfish, might affect hypoxia and food webs in the Sound.

Harmful algal blooms, increasing globally, have negative effects on fisheries and economies. In a separate project, SBU's Gobler will determine possible anthropogenic causes of fundamental changes in the Sound that may encourage toxin-producing algal bloom events. The blooms can cause PSP and DSP, two different types of shellfish poisoning that impact human health.

Finally, in a small-scale pilot project, Craig R. Tobias, UConn Department of Marine Sciences, and Bongkuen Song, University of North Carolina at Wilmington Biology Department, will team up to quantify seasonal removal rates of nitrogen in tidal reaches of a Connecticut estuary. The results will be mapped and provide clues to whether hot spots for these processes persist over time and space or are transient. This information will help inform future management choices.

Nitrogen plays an invaluable role in society as fertilizer, but we know that too much nitrogen in coastal waters such as Long Island Sound can degrade water quality and contribute to harmful algal blooms, said Mark Tedesco, director of the EPA Long Island Sound Office which manages the Long Island Sound Study partnership, and provided the funds for the Sea Grant- administered research projects.

Since 2000, the Long Island Sound grant program has awarded 26 grants to scientists whose work helps meet the needs of decision-makers to improve the management of Long Island Sound, for a total of 32 projects.

The range of projects we are funding reflects the complexity of the problems we are facing, and will contribute to providing a strong scientific basis in support of management decisions for healthy ecosystems, said Dr. Sylvain De Guise, director of Connecticut Sea Grant. The results will help to conserve the Sound for current and future generations.

Research sheds light on fat digestibility in pigs

Mon, 07 Mar 2011 05:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Producers and feed companies add fat to swine diets to increase energy, but recent research from the University of Illinois suggests that measurements currently used for fat digestibility need to be updated.

It's critical that we gain a better understanding of the energy value of fat, said Hans H. Stein, U of I professor in the Department of Animal Sciences. If we don't know the true energy value of fat, we can't determine if it's economical to add to the diet.

In a recent experiment, Stein and his team of researchers studied how different types of diets affect endogenous losses of fat (fat excreted from pigs that did not originate from the diet). They measured endogenous losses of fat to determine the true digestibility of both intact and extracted corn oil. The intact corn oil was provided in the form of corn germ, and the extracted fat was provided as liquid corn oil.

Endogenous losses differed depending on the type of fat in the diet, he said. The intact fat was less digestible than extracted fat.

We believe that the main reason intact fat is less digestible than extracted fat is that it is easy for the enzymes to gain access to the fat in corn oil. In contrast, the corn germ is encased in the feed ingredient among the fiber complexes, which makes it difficult for enzymes to access and digest it, Stein said.

His team also discovered that measuring fat digestibility at the end of the ileum results in a more accurate value than measuring the total tract digestibility of fat.

The microbes in the hindgut can synthesize fat, Stein explained. This fat is not absorbed in the hindgut; it's just excreted in the feces. Because of this, it's easy to underestimate the amount of fat that was absorbed in the small intestine by the pig.

Stein said this research has opened new doors for swine nutrition.

We knew that the concentration of fat in the diet affects the value that is determined for apparent digestibility, Stein said. However, by correcting these values for the endogenous losses, we can calculate the true digestibility of fat fed to pigs.

Results of the research indicate that more information on fat digestibility is needed to ensure that diets are formulated economically.

We now know that fat digestibility should be determined as ileal digestibility rather than total tract digestibility to avoid the influence of the microbes in the hindgut of pigs, he said. We also know that for practical feed formulation, it is more accurate to use values for true ileal digestibility than for apparent ileal digestibility because these values are not influenced by the level of fat in the diet.

However, Stein said we still don't know many of the factors that influence fat digestibility in different feed ingredients and we do not have good data for the true ileal digestibility of fat in most of our feed ingredients. A better understanding of how fat is utilized by the pig after absorption is also needed. Stein believes follow-up research should focus on addressing these questions and determining the energy value of the different sources of fat used in swine diets.

Hershey scientists improve methods for analysis of healthful cocoa compounds

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 05:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Two scientific publications report on improved methods for determining the amounts of flavanol antioxidants in cocoa and chocolate. The research, sponsored by The Hershey Center for Health and Nutrition, was a collaboration between scientists at The Hershey Company and other scientific laboratories.

Scientists at Planta Analytica (Danbury, CT) isolated and separated cocoa flavanol antioxidants on a large scale. The Hershey scientists and collaborating scientists at the Pennsylvania State University-M.S. Hershey Medical Center (Hershey, PA) teamed up to determine the purity of these flavanols by HPLC and by Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization Time of Flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectroscopy. The isolated compounds were then used as standards in the determination of flavanol cocoa antioxidants in a cocoa powder and a dark chocolate.

We believe this represents the first large scale purification of standards for flavanol antioxidant determination said Dr. Jeffrey Hurst of the Hershey Center for Health and Nutrition. Prior to this, only dimers were commercially available. With a full series of standards, our flavanol determinations are not only more accurate, but the values are much higher, between 40% to 100% higher, than previously published methods using proprietary standards. This also means that standards are commercially available to various laboratories. This collaborative work was published in the online journal

In other research published in the Journal Association of Official Analytical Chemists, scientists from The Hershey Company and Brunswick Laboratories (Newton, MA) reported on the development of a new method for determining total procyanidins. This method is a colorimetric test based on the specific reaction of dimethylaminocinnamaldehyde (DMAC) with flavanols. The method measures flavanol monomers, including EGCG, as well as higher flavanol polymers. The method which is standardized using a commercially available flavanol dimer, was validated at two Brunswick Laboratories facilities and at Hershey with all three laboratories providing comparable results at the 95% confidence level. The specific reaction of DMAC with the flavanols has been known since the 1950s. This method is a simple and quick way to measure total procyanidins in cocoa and chocolate said Dr. Mark Payne of the Hershey Center for Health and Nutrition. Compared to the HPLC method, which separates individual compounds, this method gives one number, which importantly includes polymers of flavanols beyond ten.

These reports are part of an ongoing series of publications, by Hershey and its collaborators, designed to improve upon the methods to determine flavanol antioxidants from cocoa and chocolate, said Dr. David Stuart, of the Hershey Center for Health and Nutrition. We want to make these methods generally available to the chocolate industry initially, with the intent of having uniformly agreed upon methods of determining the level of these important molecules.

These new methods can be used in research and other applications involving dietary intake of cocoa and chocolate, clinical interventions and food standardization.

Want more efficient muscles? Eat your spinach

Tue, 01 Feb 2011 05:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) After taking a small dose of inorganic nitrate for three days, healthy people consume less oxygen while riding an exercise bike. A new study in the February issue of Cell Metabolism traces that improved performance to increased efficiency of the mitochondria that power our cells.

The researchers aren't recommending anyone begin taking inorganic nitrate supplements based on the new findings. Rather, they say that the results may offer one explanation for the well-known health benefits of fruits and vegetables, and leafy green vegetables in particular.

We're talking about an amount of nitrate equivalent to what is found in two or three red beets or a plate of spinach, said Eddie Weitzberg of the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. We know that diets rich in fruits and vegetables can help prevent cardiovascular disease and diabetes but the active nutrients haven't been clear. This shows inorganic nitrate as a candidate to explain those benefits.

In fact, up until recently nitrate wasn't thought to have any nutritional value at all. It has even been suggested that this component of vegetables might be toxic. But Weitzberg and his colleague Jon Lundberg earlier showed that dietary nitrate feeds into a pathway that produces nitric oxide with the help of friendly bacteria found in our mouths. Nitric oxide has been known for two decades as a physiologically important molecule. It opens up our blood vessels to lower blood pressure, for instance.

The new study offers yet another benefit of nitrate and the nitric oxides that stem from them. It appears that the increased mitochondrial efficiency is owed to lower levels of proteins that normally make the cellular powerhouses leaky. Mitochondria normally aren't fully efficient, Weitzberg explained. No machine is.

Questions do remain. The new results show that increased dietary nitrate can have a rather immediate effect. But it's not yet clear what might happen in people who consume higher levels of inorganic nitrate over longer periods of time. Weitzberg says it will be a natural next step to repeat the experiment in people with conditions linked to mitochondrial dysfunction, including diabetes and cardiovascular disease, to see if they too enjoy the benefits of nitrates.

Among the more consistent findings from nutritional research are the beneficial effects of a high intake of fruit and vegetables in protection against major disorders such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes, the researchers concluded. However, the underlying mechanism(s) responsible for these effects is still unclear, and trials with single nutrients have generally failed. It is tempting to speculate that boosting of the nitrate-nitrite-NO pathway may be one mechanism by which vegetables exert their protective effects.

As an interesting aside, Weitzberg says that the benefits of dietary nitrates suggest that powerful mouthwashes may have a downside. We need oral bacteria for the first step in nitrate reduction, he says. You could block the effects of inorganic nitrate if you use a strong mouthwash or spit [instead of swallowing your saliva]. In our view, strong mouthwashes are not good if you want this system to work.

Insects that deter predators produce fewer offspring

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 05:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Scientists studied the defences used by caterpillars that transform into large white butterflies, called Pieris brassicae. The insects regurgitate semi-digested cabbage leaves to make them smell and taste unpleasant to predators. The team found, however, that frequent use of this defence reduces the caterpillars' growth rate and the number of eggs they produce. It remains unclear why their defences affect them in this way, but the loss of nutrition from frequent regurgitation is thought to play a part.

Caterpillars are a target of pest control, as they destroy food crop by eating the leaves of cabbages and other vegetable crop. This new study, however, suggests that natural predators, such as farmland birds, do not necessarily have to consume large numbers of insects, to have a significant effect on the size of the population. Researchers found that 40% of caterpillars that defended themselves from predators by regurgitating food, died before transforming into a butterfly, despite successfully surviving the initial attack.

The study also showed that on average large caterpillars have 60 eggs, but those that used their defences against daily predator attacks produced approximately 30 eggs. It is thought that this effect could be widespread amongst herbivorous insects, suggesting that predators may have a larger impact on reducing the population of agricultural pests than previously thought.

Dr Mike Speed, from the University of Liverpool's Institute of Integrative Biology, explains: Research has shown that large insects produce more eggs than smaller ones. This is commonly assumed to always be the case, but we have found that those that regurgitate food as a defence against predators, have fewer eggs, similar to the numbers of offspring smaller insects have. We also found that these insects grow at a slower rate and even those that successfully change into a butterfly, are smaller than normal.

Dr Andrew Higginson, from the University of Glasgow, said: Interestingly, the caterpillars that grew at a slower rate were not forced, as a result of the attack, to metamorphose prematurely. They could have fed for longer, grown larger and produced more offspring, despite the daily use of their defences, but they appear to 'choose' to change into a smaller butterfly. More study is required to understand why they do this, but it could be that the threat of a fatal attack is too large for them to remain at the larval stage for too long and prompts them to transform into a butterfly early.

Dr Speed added: This work demonstrates that it is important to maintain the diversity of predators such as wild birds, particularly in areas where large numbers of insects can destroy food crop. We now need to look at the defence mechanisms of a variety of insects to understand if other species react in similar ways.

Quick school cafeteria lines could lead to healthier food choices

Wed, 12 Jan 2011 05:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Middle schools soon might add fast cafeteria lines to their menu of tools to help students eat healthier, according to Penn State researchers.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently awarded $40,000 from the Economic Research Service to Amit Sharma, assistant professor; Martha Conklin, associate professor, hospitality management; and Lisa Bailey-Davis, senior instructor of public health sciences, College of Medicine.

The project will use economic concepts to study the effect of fast cafeteria lines on healthy lunch choices for middle school students, Sharma said.

Students have only a little over 30 minutes to eat lunch, and that includes time spent in the lunch line, Sharma said. Our idea is to create a conducive environment where it is more convenient for students to make healthier food choices.

Sharma said convenience is the key. When students are pressed for time and face multiple food choices, they usually pick foods that are familiar and popular.

Those choices, as you can imagine, usually aren't the most healthy ones, Sharma said.

To limit the time spent in line, the researchers worked on designing a fast service lane option for school cafeterias with limited food choices, called meal deals. Students can select a main dish from limited options, for instance, but most of the side selections would be predetermined. Sharma expects that the strategy will reduce the time that students spend in the lunch lane and encourage them to chose fast lanes more often. The researchers will test the fast service lane at a local middle school.

The researchers will first collect information from students, parents, administrators and food service personnel about how students currently make food choices and which choices are the most popular. From that data, they will develop the food combinations for the fast service lane.

We have to strike the right balance when we create the meal deals, said Sharma. The food choices should be exciting enough for the students, but also healthy.

Once the food combinations are selected and the fast service lane is in place, the researchers will collect data on fast lane use and food combination sales for two or three weeks. The sales of the meal deals will continue for a week after the experiment to determine if students continue to make healthy food choices.

If we can counter those unhealthy choices, we can slowly have the students choose healthier foods rather than food that might be unhealthy, Sharma said.

Middle school students make ideal candidates for the experiment because previous research suggests they are beginning to develop the cognitive capacity to make choices, such as decisions on food and health, according to Sharma. Students also face more health and diet options at this age.

Sharma said it is important that the fast service lane concept fits the school district budget, as well.

Obviously, for the program to work, it has to be affordable, said Sharma. If the fast lane meals incur significant costs for the food service, we will have to go back to the drawing board and find the solutions that are more financially viable.

Widespread vitamin D deficiency a concern in Asia

Mon, 13 Dec 2010 05:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Bone health experts attending the 1st Asia-Pacific Osteoporosis Meeting in Singapore this week have flagged vitamin D deficiency as a major concern in the region, particularly in South Asia where the problem is especially severe and widespread across the entire population.

Dr. Nikhil Tandon, Professor of Endocrinology and Metabolism at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences of New Delhi, India highlighted the results of various studies which show severe deficiency across India and Pakistan in all age groups, as well as insufficiency in populations of South-East and East Asia. A lack of exposure to sunshine, genetic traits and dietary habits are all factors which influence vitamin D levels. In certain regions, vitamin D deficiency can also be attributed to skin pigmentation and traditional clothing, as well as air pollution and limited outdoor activity in urban populations, he stated.

Vitamin D is primarily made in the skin when it is exposed to sunlight, with limited amounts obtained from food sources. However, in people with low sunlight exposure vitamin D is principally obtained from nutritional or supplemental sources. In the elderly, vitamin D deficiency is linked to reduced physical performance and increased risk of fall-related fractures. In children, severe vitamin D deficiency results in inadequate mineralization of bone, leading to growth retardation and bone deformities known as rickets. As well, there is evidence that children born to mothers who are vitamin D deficient during pregnancy may have reduced bone mass, which could in turn be a risk factor for osteoporosis later in life.

At a Vitamin D Roundtable held in conjunction with the meeting, nutrition and bone health experts discussed the importance of encouraging further studies on vitamin D status and risk factors in countries where data are scarce. The group is developing interactive vitamin D maps based on published data of 25(OH)D serum levels, the biomarker used to measure vitamin D status in the blood. Chair of the Roundtable, Professor Robert Josse, Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Nutritional Sciences at the University of Toronto, Canada commented, The maps will track vitamin D levels by region and different population groups, giving a valuable overview of the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency around the world. The global maps are innovative tools that will help identify problem areas, encourage awareness and stimulate research studies. By facilitating global comparisons, the maps should provide an incentive for health authorities to implement strategies to improve vitamin D status in the population.

Vitamin D deficit doubles risk of stroke in whites, but not in blacks

Sun, 14 Nov 2010 05:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Low levels of vitamin D, the essential nutrient obtained from milk, fortified cereals and exposure to sunlight, doubles the risk of stroke in whites, but not in blacks, according to a new report by researchers at Johns Hopkins.

Stroke is the nation's third leading cause of death, killing more than 140,000 Americans annually and temporarily or permanently disabling over half a million when there is a loss of blood flow to the brain.

Researchers say their findings, to be presented Nov. 15 at the American Heart Association's (AHA) annual Scientific Sessions in Chicago, back up evidence from earlier work at Johns Hopkins linking vitamin D deficiency to higher rates of death, heart disease and peripheral artery disease in adults.

The Hopkins team says its results fail to explain why African Americans, who are more likely to be vitamin D deficient due to their darker skin pigmentation's ability to block the sun's rays, also suffer from higher rates of stroke. Of the 176 study participants known to have died from stroke within a 14-year period, 116 were white and 60 were black. Still, African Americans had a 65 percent greater likelihood of suffering such a severe bleeding in or interruption of blood flow to the brain than whites, when age, other risk factors for stroke, and vitamin D deficiency were factored into their analysis.

Higher numbers for hypertension and diabetes definitely explain some of the excess risk for stroke in blacks compared to whites, but not this much risk, says study co-lead investigator and preventive cardiologist Erin Michos, M.D., M.H.S., an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and its Heart and Vascular Institute. Something else is surely behind this problem. However, don't blame vitamin D deficits for the higher number of strokes in blacks.

Nearly 8,000 initially healthy men and women of both races were involved in the latest analysis, part of a larger, ongoing national health survey, in which the researchers compared the risk of death from stroke between those with the lowest blood levels of vitamin D to those with higher amounts. Among them, 6.6 percent of whites and 32.3 percent of blacks had severely low blood levels of vitamin D, which the experts say is less than 15 nanograms per milliliter.

It may be that blacks have adapted over the generations to vitamin D deficiency, so we are not going to see any compounding effects with stroke, says Michos, who notes that African Americans have adapted elsewhere to low levels of the bone-strengthening vitamin, with fewer incidents of bone fracture and greater overall bone density than seen in Caucasians.

In blacks, we may not need to raise vitamin D levels to the same level as in whites to minimize their risk of stroke says Michos, who emphasizes that clinical trials are needed to verify that supplements actually do prevent heart attacks and stroke. In her practice, she says, she monitors her patients' levels of the key nutrient as part of routine blood work while also testing for other known risk factors for heart disease and stroke, including blood pressure, glucose and lipid levels.

Michos cautions that the number of fatal strokes recorded in blacks may not have been statistically sufficient to find a relationship with vitamin D deficits. And she points out that the study only assessed information on deaths from stroke, not the more common brain incidents of stroke, which are usually non-fatal, or even mini-strokes, whose symptoms typically dissipate in a day or so. She says the team's next steps will be to evaluate cognitive brain function as well as non-fatal and transient strokes and any possible tie-ins to nutrient deficiency.

Besides helping to keep bones healthy, vitamin D plays an essential role in preventing abnormal cell growth, and in bolstering the body's immune system. The hormone-like nutrient also controls blood levels of calcium and phosphorus, essential chemicals in the body. Shortages of vitamin D have also been tied to increased rates of breast cancer and depression in the elderly.

Michos recommends that people maintain good vitamin D levels by eating diets rich in such fish as salmon and tuna, consuming vitamin-D fortified dairy products, and taking vitamin D supplements. She also promotes brief exposure daily to the sun's vitamin D-producing ultraviolet light. And to those concerned about the cancer risks linked to too much time spent in the sun, she says as little as 10 to 15 minutes of daily exposure is enough during the summer months.

If vitamin supplements are used, Michos says that daily doses between 1,000 and 2,000 international units are generally safe and beneficial for most people, but that people with the severe vitamin D deficits may need higher doses under close supervision by their physician to avoid possible risk of toxicity.

The U.S. Institute of Medicine (IOM) previously suggested that an adequate daily intake of vitamin D is between 200 and 600 international units. However, Michos argues that this may be woefully inadequate for most people to raise their vitamin D blood levels to a healthy 30 nanograms per milliliter. The IOM has set up an expert panel to review its vitamin D guidelines, with new recommendations expected by the end of the year. Previous results from the same nationwide survey showed that 41 percent of men and 53 percent of women have unhealthy amounts of vitamin D, with nutrient levels below 28 nanograms per milliliter.

Gastric bypass alters sweet taste function

Tue, 02 Nov 2010 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Gastric bypass surgery decreases the preference for sweet-tasting substances in obese rats, a study finding that could help in developing safer treatments for the morbidly obese, according to Penn State College of Medicine researchers.

Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery is the most common effective treatment for morbid obesity, said Andras Hajnal, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor, Department of Neural and Behavioral Science and Surgery. Many patients report altered taste preferences after having the procedure.

This surgery involves the creation of a small gastric pouch and bypassing a portion of the upper small intestine. Unlike other weight-reduction methods, it produces substantial and durable weight loss and significant improvements in obesity-related medical conditions including diabetes.

Study results in obese rats suggest that post-surgery changes in the gastrointestinal anatomy affect change in the brain that relate to taste.

Obese rats given gastric bypass surgery showed a reduced preference for high concentration sucrose water when compared to obese rats that did not have surgery. Researchers observed a similar decrease in preference with other sweet-tasting substances, but not for salty, sour or bitter substances. Researchers observed no change in preference in lean rats that had gastric bypass surgery.

The obese rats used do not have the ability to produce the receptor for feeling satiated shortly after a meal because they lack the gut hormone CCK-1. As a result, these rats consumed larger meals and, over time, became obese and developed type-2 diabetes. Interestingly, previous studies lead by the Penn State investigators found an increased sweet preference in these rats, which is also often seen in people struggling with weight management.

It appears that an uncontrolled appetite may get further boost from altered taste functions during development of obesity and diabetes, Hajnal said. How much of this vicious circle is due to changes in the neurons inside the brain, which receive taste sensations from the tongue and report to the higher order motivational brain centers, we don't know.

The researchers recorded the activity of 170 taste-responsive neurons in the brain. These showed a shift in the neurons' firing activity similar to the behavioral response, which was measured in lick rates of the rats within a ten-second time period. Neurons in the obese rats' brain responded more vigorously to higher-concentration sucrose water placed on the tongue when compared to lean rats. These effects were reversed by gastric bypass surgery and matched the response of lean rats -- a preference for lower concentration sucrose.

The rats that had gastric bypass surgery lost weight comparable to humans who received the surgery -- 26 to 30 percent of their weight -- and maintained the loss for a long period of time after surgery. Following surgery, the obese rats also showed a higher tolerance for glucose, indicating improvement in diabetes.

This supports the applicability of this rat model of Roux-en-Y gastric bypass to humans and also suggests that the observed taste changes following the surgery were not related to 'human factors' such as awareness and compliance to dietary and behavioral interventions, Hajnal said.

The researchers published their findings in the October issue of the

Restaurant Customers Willing To Pay More For Local Food

Tue, 26 Oct 2010 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Not only are restaurant patrons willing to pay more for meals prepared with produce and meat from local providers, the proportion of customers preferring local meals actually increases when the price increases, according to a team of international researchers. A recent study of how customers perceive and value local food shows that restaurant patrons prefer meals made with local ingredients when they are priced slightly higher than meals made with non-local ingredients, said Amit Sharma, assistant professor, School of Hospitality Management, Penn State. The research will appear in the fall/winter issue of the International Journal of Revenue Management. In the experiment, researchers first set prices for both non-local and local selections on the menu of a student-led restaurant at $5.50. When the price was the same for non-local and local food, customers showed no significant preference for either option. However, when the local food selection was priced at $6.50, or 18 percent higher than the non-local option, a higher proportion of the customers picked the meal made with local foods and ingredients, said Sharma, who worked with Frode Alfnes, associate professor, department of economics and resource management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences. This is partly good news for restaurants, said Sharma. It shows that customers were willing to pay slightly more for a local dish, with the emphasis on 'slightly.' Customer preference for premium-priced local food has its limits, however, Sharma warned. Once researchers raised the price of the local option to $7.50, or 36 percent higher than the non-local alternative, a higher proportion of customers chose the regular menu. Value cues--signals that attract increased attention from consumers--may influence the customers' preference for the higher-priced local option. The results indicate that the main value cue of local food for customers is its freshness. The higher price of the local dish was an indicator of higher value, said Sharma. So, customers were comfortable with a slightly higher price for the local food. Sharma said the research could help restaurant owners decide how to set prices for local foods and estimate whether the potential to charge higher prices will compensate for the additional costs associated with adding local food to the menu. The study helps restaurants make decisions on whether it makes sense to offer local foods, said Sharma. If local foods are a natural fit for some of these restaurants, then it would definitely be a good strategy to price the food higher because there is an indication of value with fresh food. Sharma said another important finding of the research was that customers indicated they had no preference between restaurants that offered local foods and ones that did not. The study of 322 customers was conducted at a training restaurant on a Midwest university that serves between 45 and 85 customers each day. Researchers designed a real-time choice experiment to meet several challenges they anticipated from conducting an in-restaurant experiment. Customers who dine at a restaurant are less inclined to fill out long questionnaires. To avoid bias, the researchers asked questions only after the customers chose their food. We literally put the customers in the situation and let them choose, said Sharma. Then we asked them why they made the choices they did. The project was funded by the Leopold Centre for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University.

Eating mostly whole grains, few refined grains linked to lower body fat

Wed, 20 Oct 2010 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) BOSTON (October 20, 2010) - People who consume several servings of whole grains per day while limiting daily intake of refined grains appear to have less of a type of fat tissue thought to play a key role in triggering cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes, a new study suggests. Researchers at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Researcher Center on Aging (USDA HNRCA) at Tufts University observed lower volumes of visceral adipose tissue (VAT) in people who chose to eat mostly whole grains instead of refined grains.

VAT volume was approximately 10 % lower in adults who reported eating three or more daily servings of whole grains and who limited their intake of refined grains to less than one serving per day, says first author Nicola McKeown, PhD, a scientist with the Nutritional Epidemiology Program at the USDA HNRCA. For example, a slice of 100% whole wheat bread or a half cup of oatmeal constituted one serving of whole grains and a slice of white bread or a half cup of white rice represented a serving of refined grains.

McKeown and colleagues, including senior author Caroline S. Fox, MD, MPH, medical officer at The Framingham Heart Study of the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), examined diet questionnaires submitted by 2,834 men and women enrolled in The Framingham Heart Offspring and Third Generation study cohorts. The participants, ages 32 to 83, underwent multidetector-computed tomography (MDCT) scans, to determine VAT and subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) volumes.

Visceral fat surrounds the intra-abdominal organs while subcutaneous fat is found just beneath the skin. Prior research suggests visceral fat is more closely tied to the development of metabolic syndrome, a cluster of risk factors including hypertension, unhealthy cholesterol levels and insulin resistance that can develop into cardiovascular disease or type 2 diabetes, explains co-author Paul Jacques, DSc, director of the Nutritional Epidemiology Program at the USDA HNRCA and a professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts. Not surprisingly, when we compared the relationship of both visceral fat tissue and subcutaneous fat tissue to whole and refined grain intake, we saw a more striking association with visceral fat. The association persisted after we accounted for other lifestyle factors such as smoking, alcohol intake, fruit and vegetable intake, percentage of calories from fat and physical activity.

Published online September 29 by The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the present study builds on prior research that associates greater whole grain intake with reduced risk of metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance. However, because these studies are observational, future research that specifically investigates whole grain intake and body fat distribution in a larger, more diverse study population is needed to identify the mechanism that is driving this relationship, Jacques adds.

Additionally, in the present study, the authors observed that participants who consumed, on average, three daily servings of whole grains but continued to eat many refined grains did not demonstrate lower VAT volume. Whole grain consumption did not appear to improve VAT volume if refined grain intake exceeded four or more servings per day, says McKeown, who is also an assistant professor at the Friedman School. This result implies that it is important to make substitutions in the diet, rather than simply adding whole grain foods. For example, choosing to cook with brown rice instead of white or making a sandwich with whole grain bread instead of white bread.

2 studies present new data on effects of alcohol during pregnancy

Fri, 15 Oct 2010 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Scientific data continue to indicate that higher intake of alcohol during pregnancy adversely affects the fetus, and could lead to very severe developmental or other problems in the child. However, most recent publications show little or no effects of occasional or light drinking by the mother during pregnancy. The studies also demonstrate how socio-economic, education, and other lifestyle factors of the mother may have large effects on the health of the fetus and child; these must be considered when evaluating the potential effects of alcohol during pregnancy.

A very large population-based observational study from the UK found that at the age of 5 years, the children of women who reported light (no more than 1-2 units of alcohol per week or per occasion) drinking did not show any evidence of impairment on testing for behavioral and emotional problems or cognitive ability. There was a tendency for the male children of women reporting heavy/binge drinking during pregnancy (7 or more units per week or 6 or more units per occasion) to have poorer behavioural scores, but the effects were less clear among female offspring.

A second study, published in Pediatrics, based on a population in Western Australia examined the associations between dose, pattern, and timing of prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) and birth defects and found similar results, that there was no association between low or moderate prenatal alcohol exposure and birth defects.

Data from a randomly selected, population-based cohort of non- indigenous women who gave birth to a live infant in Western Australia (WA) between 1995 and 1997 (N = 4714) were linked to WA Midwives Notification System and WA Birth Defects Registry data. Information about maternal alcohol consumption was collected 3 months after birth for the 3 month period before pregnancy and for each trimester separately.

Low alcohol consumption was defined as less then 7 standard drinks (10g) a week, and no more than 2 drinks on any one day. Women who consumed more than 70g per week were classified as heavy drinkers and women consuming more than 140g were classified as very heavy drinkers.

The study results indicate that the prevalence of birth defects classified as ARBDs by the IOM was low. Compared with abstinence, heavy prenatal alcohol exposure in the first trimester was associated with increased odds of birth defects classified as ARBDs (adjusted odds ratio: 4.6 [95% confidence interval: 1.5-14.3]), with similar findings after validation through bootstrap analysis. There was no association between low or moderate prenatal alcohol exposure and birth defects.

Overall, current scientific data indicate that while drinking during pregnancy should not be encouraged, there is little evidence to suggest that an occasional drink or light drinking by the mother is associated with harm. Heavy drinking, however, is associated with serious developmental defects in the fetus.

High death and disability rates due to fractures in Russia, Central Asia and Eastern Europe

Mon, 27 Sep 2010 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Preliminary findings from an upcoming new report by the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) show alarming projections and reveal the poor state of post-fracture care in the Russian Federation and many other countries in the region. The findings were announced today at a press conference in St. Petersburg at the IOF Summit of Eastern European and Central Asian Osteoporosis Patient Societies.

Osteoporosis, a disease of the bone which leaves people at increased risk of fracture, is most common in the older population. Population projections for most countries in the region predict that by 2050 there will be a decrease of the total population, but a significant increase (up to 56%) in the percentage of people aged 50 and over. As a result, in the Russia Federation alone the number of people with osteoporosis is expected to increase by a third by 2050.

Despite the major public health burden of osteoporosis-related fractures, the disease suffers from severe under recognition - mainly due to the lack of solid epidemiological and economic data which would help convince health authorities of the urgency of osteoporosis prevention. There are no formal hip or fragility fracture registries in most countries within the region and data on vertebral fractures, the most common osteoporotic fracture, are completely lacking. IOF President John Kanis stated, It is clear from the key findings that governments need to support wide scale epidemiological studies to collect data on the incidence of osteoporotic fractures.

DXA technology, diagnostic equipment which provides the most accurate method of diagnosis, is usually only accessible in main cities - yet in about one-third of the countries, more than 40% of the population lives in a rural area. In most countries, drug treatment for those at high risk of fracture is not, or is only partially, reimbursed - effectively making treatment unaffordable for the majority of citizens.

Low levels of calcium and vitamin D intake impact negatively on bone health. The average daily calcium intake in nearly all countries outlined in the report falls far below the FAO/WHO recommendations. In addition the majority of populations in the region suffer from severe vitamin D insufficiency. This not only affects fracture rates, but also causes rickets. In recent years the incidence of rickets (pediatric vitamin D deficiency) among Russian infants has ranged from 54% to 66% in some regions.

Although older people who sustain a hip fracture are at increased risk of death and suffer long term disability throughout the world, the report indicates that this problem is far more severe in the Russia Federation and in many other countries of the region. Professor Olga Lesnyak, Vice-President of the Russian Association on Osteoporosis and author of the report, called for action, There is an urgent need for health care providers to improve post hip fracture surgical care, she said. While in Western Europe most hip fracture patients receive operative treatment (the optimal standard of care), in the Russian Federation there is an extremely low rate of surgical treatment. Consequently there is high mortality rate after a hip fracture, reaching up to 45-52% during the first year after fracture in some Russian cities. Of the surviving hip fracture patients, 33% remain bed-ridden and 42% are capable of only very limited activities. Only 9% are able to return to the same level of daily activity as they had before their fracture.

IOF Chief Operating Officer Judy Stenmark stated, Wider and more equitable access to diagnostic tests and appropriate medication are required to stem the growing tide of fractures in the region.

Veterinarian says natural foods not always best for pets

Thu, 16 Sep 2010 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) MANHATTAN, KAN. -- While natural food is a rising trend among humans, pet owners should be careful before feeding similar types of food to their pets, according to a Kansas State University veterinarian.

All too often pet owners assume that because certain foods, such as fruits and vegetables, are healthy for them, they are also healthy for their pets, said Susan Nelson, K-State assistant professor of clinical services.

Natural and veggie-based pet foods are based more on market demand from owners, not because they are necessarily better for the pet, she said.

Natural pet food isn't necessarily unhealthy for pets, and there are good brands on the market. But cats and dogs have specific nutritional needs that some of these foods may not provide, Nelson said.

For instance, a natural dog food may provide antioxidants through fruits and vegetables, but it may be deficient in other nutrients the dog needs. If pet owners opt for natural pet food, it's important to make sure pets still receive a well-balanced diet, she said.

Before buying any pet food that is labeled natural, owners should make sure it comes from a reputable company. Nelson said the Association of American Feed Control Officials, or AAFCO, sets guidelines for the production, labeling and distribution of pet food and sets minimum standards for the nutritional adequacy of diets.

To ensure that food contains the proper nutrients a pet needs, pet owners should only buy pet food that has at least one of the two AAFCO nutritional adequacy statements on its label, Nelson said. The association's standards determine whether a pet food company's product is complete and balanced for a specific life stage according to one of two criteria: the diet's formula meets the minimum nutrient requirements established by the association or the diet has undergone association feeding trials.

Feeding trials, while not perfect, generally give the best assessment on how well the food performs for a specific life stage, Nelson said. Owners should look closely at the feeding statement on the label, as some foods are intended for intermittent feeding or only for specific life stages, and they could be detrimental to a pet if fed long-term.

Nelson said it is important to differentiate between terms such as natural, organic and holistic. Organic and holistic currently have no specific definitions for pet foods under the Association of American Feed Control Officials guidelines. Organic is defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for human food, but the department has no definition of natural foods for humans.

The feed control association defines natural products as those that don't contain any chemically synthesized ingredients except vitamins or minerals. The labels for natural products containing any of these ingredients must state: Natural with added vitamins, minerals and other trace nutrients. Consumers should be wary of any pet food company that claims to have organic or holistic food because they don't exist by the association's definition, Nelson said.

Consumers should also pay attention to food ingredients. For instance, cats and dogs should not eat onions or garlic. While flaxseed oil can provide fatty acids for dogs, cats can't use it for this purpose. Any manufacturer that uses these ingredients should be avoided, Nelson said.

Most reputable companies have a veterinary nutritionist on hand, Nelson said. These companies also conduct nutritional research and have their own internal quality control in place.

Because dry pet food needs preservatives, there is often debate about whether artificial or natural preservatives are better. Studies show that synthetic preservatives seem to work better and aren't bad for pets at the levels contained in the food. However, market demand is for using vitamins E and C because they are natural preservatives.

As with any pet diet, pet owners who opt for natural pet food should keep an eye on their pets to make sure the food is not negatively affecting them, Nelson said.

Assuming the diet you have chosen meets AAFCO minimum standards of nutritional adequacy, and if your pet looks healthy, has good coat quality, is in good body condition, has good fecal consistency and is able to do its job, the diet is probably adequate for him, she said.

Male maturity shaped by early nutrition

Mon, 13 Sep 2010 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) EVANSTON, Ill. --- It seems the old nature versus nurture debate can't be won. But a new Northwestern University study of men in the Philippines makes a strong case for nurture's role in male to female differences -- suggesting that rapid weight gain in the first six months of life predicts earlier puberty for boys.

Males who experienced rapid growth as babies -- an indication that they were not nutritionally stressed -- also were taller, had more muscle and were stronger, and had higher testosterone levels as young adults. They had sex for the first time at a younger age and were more likely to report having had sex in the past month, resulting in more lifetime sex partners.

The researchers think that testosterone may hold the key to understanding these long-term effects.

Most people are unaware that male infants in the first six months of life produce testosterone at approximately the same level as an adult male, said Christopher W. Kuzawa, associate professor of anthropology in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and author of the study. We looked at weight gain during this particular window of early life development, because testosterone is very high at this age and helps shape the differences between males and females.

The study provides more evidence that genes alone do not shape our fate.

The environment has a very strong hand in how we turn out, Kuzawa said. And this study extends that idea to the realm of sex differences and male biology.

The study found men, on average, tend to be taller and more muscular than females, and the magnitude of that difference appears to be the result of nutrition within the first six months of an infant male's life, according to the study.

There is a perennial question about how important heredity is versus the environment as shapers of who we turn out to be, said Kuzawa. In the last 20 years, a lot has been learned about a process called developmental plasticity -- how the body responds early in life to things like nutrition and stress. Early experiences can have a permanent effect on how the body develops, and this effect can linger into adulthood. There is a lot of evidence that this can influence risk of diseases like heart attack, diabetes and hypertension -- really important diseases.

Kuzawa and his collaborators applied the same framework in this study and found evidence that male characteristics -- such as height, muscle mass and testosterone levels as opposed to disease characteristics -- also relate back to early life developmental plasticity.

Another way to look at it is that the differences between the sexes are not hard wired, but are responsive to the environment, and in particular to nutrition, Kuzawa said.

Testosterone has long been known to increase muscle mass and puts a person on a higher growth trajectory to be taller. The Northwestern study suggests that the age of puberty also is influenced by events in the first six months of life.

The study, which was funded by the National Science Foundation and the Wenner Gren Foundation, was conducted among a group of 770 Filipino males aged 20 to 22 who have been followed their entire lives. Since 1983 a team of researchers in the United States and the Philippines (including Kuzawa for about the last 10 years) has been working to understand how early life nutrition influences adult health, such as risk for cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

Rapid Weight Gain After Birth Predicts Life History and Reproductive Strategy in Filipino Males was published Sept. 13 in the

Talented bacteria make food poisoning unpredictable

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) While we are often exposed to bacteria in our food which could cause food poisoning, we don't always become ill - why should this be so?

Professor Colin Hill who is presenting his work at the Society for General Microbiology's autumn meeting in Nottingham today describes how bacteria use different tricks to aid their survival inside the body, helping to explain why food poisoning can be so unpredictable.

One of the biggest challenges faced by food-borne bacteria is acid. Acidic conditions, particularly in the stomach and in the gut will kill most microbes found in contaminated food.

Professor Hill's group at University College Cork has revealed that Listeria bacteria, which may be found in soft cheeses and chilled ready-to-eat products, can overcome harsh acidic conditions by exploiting key food ingredients. Listeria that survive are able to cause serious and sometimes fatal infections, particularly in the elderly and pregnant women.

Certain food constituents such as the amino acid, glutamate, can help the bacteria neutralise acid, allowing the bacteria to pass through the stomach unscathed. Professor Hill explains the significance of this. People who consume foods that are contaminated with Listeria and are also high in glutamate, such as soft cheese or meat products, have a higher chance of developing serious infection than someone eating the same quantity of bacteria in a low-glutamate food, he said. Of course this is further complicated by the fact that a contaminated, low-glutamate food could be eaten in combination with a high-glutamate food such as tomato juice, which could also increase the risk of infection.

Listeria can also take advantage of food processing and storage conditions to help them survive. Bacteria that are exposed to low pH before entering the body may adapt to become more acid-tolerant and therefore better equipped to deal with acidic conditions in the body. For example, Listeria contaminating naturally acidic foods such as cheese may be more likely to cause infection than Listeria carried at a more neutral pH in water.

Professor Hill explains how his group's work could help reduce the incidence of Listeria infections. The number of cases of listeriosis has nearly doubled in the last decade in Europe. This is because the bacterium is so good at overcoming the challenges it faces in food and in the body, he said. Our studies show that consuming Listeria in one food may be quite safe, while eating the same amount in another food might be lethal. By understanding the role of the food matrix we may be able to identify and eliminate high-risk foods from the diet of susceptible people.

Americans struggle with long-term weight loss

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Only about one in every six Americans who have ever been overweight or obese loses weight and maintains that loss, according to Penn State College of Medicine researchers.

While that number is larger than most weight-loss clinical trials report, the majority of Americans are still unable to lose weight and keep it off. Identifying those who lose weight and successfully maintain that loss may aid health professionals in developing approaches to help others maintain weight loss, the researchers say.

Two-thirds of the United States adult population is overweight, defined as a body mass index (BMI) of at least 25, or obese, a BMI of at least 30. Obesity rates, which doubled between 1980 and 2004, increase the risk of type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure. The recommendation is often to lose at least 5 to 10 percent of initial body weight with these conditions.

Weight loss and weight maintenance programs need significant changes in their effectiveness and availability to affect these numbers, note the researchers.

It is important for health professionals to understand the true prevalence of long-term weight loss, as it may help to change the underlying beliefs and influence clinical practice, said Jennifer Kraschnewski, M.D., M.P.H., assistant professor of medicine and public health sciences. Studies have shown that physicians may not believe offering weight loss advice and counseling is a worthwhile activity in clinical practice. An awareness of our findings may encourage health professionals to pursue weight loss counseling for overweight patients.

Previously, data came from either published clinical trials or the National Weight-Control Registry, comprised only of those able to lose at least 30 pounds and keep it off for a year. The registry does not represent the entire population, so it is not useful for providing estimates of long-term weight loss in the country.

Penn State College of Medicine researchers analyzed data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 1999-2006, a nationwide survey evaluating the health and nutrition of a representative portion of the population. Participants of this survey self-reported weight status and history.

Researchers calculated BMI for each individual and determined if they achieved 5, 10, 15 or 20 percent long-term (long than one year) weight loss maintenance. The sample included 14,306 people: 52.3 percent men and 47.7 women. One-third stated a current goal of losing weight, with 82.6 percent classified as overweight or obese.

Thirty-six percent of the sample had maintained a weight loss of at least 5 percent of their initial body weight. This is a higher rate than clinical trials, which have shown only 10 to 20 percent of individuals able to maintain a loss of at least five percent. This difference may be that while those who participate in clinical trials are a selected population, the numbers in the current study include unintentional weight loss, or the current study captures temporary weight gain that is typically lost at specific instances, such as the so-called freshman 15.

In the sample, women, adults age 75 to 84, non-Hispanic whites and those with less than a high school education showed stronger longer-term weight management.

Identifying a significant percentage of the population that is succeeding in some weight loss may be an important target population for weight maintenance programs, Kraschnewski said. Although the amounts lost are modest, if a substantial number of individuals achieved such losses, it would have a significant public health effect. Particularly, those individuals who have lost at least five percent and kept it off -- one in three Americans who have ever been overweight -- may represent a unique opportunity to reach a target population who has had some success but could benefit from greater weight loss efforts.

Other key findings of this study:

Co-products and cornstalk residue can cut cow feed costs by a dollar a day

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) University of Illinois researchers recently discovered that feeding co-products and cornstalk residue in the winter can save cow-calf producers up to $1 per day per cow as compared to feeding hay.

Feed costs continue to be the number one detriment to profitability in cow-calf operations. With feed comprising 60 percent of a producer's costs, any measures producers take to minimize expenses can make the difference between profit or no profit at the end of the year.

Most feed costs occur in the winter when cows can't graze and utilize pasture, said Dan Shike, U of I assistant professor of animal sciences. Typically cow-calf producers feed large round bales because they are easy, but that can be pretty expensive, especially when prices hit record highs like they did in 2008. Feeding harvested and stored feeds is a common practice, but it's also costly.

As ethanol production increases, so has the availability of corn co-products. Shike said more corn residue such as cornstalks are also being used as an energy source.

Cornstalk bales are an adequate source of energy, but they are low in protein and need to be supplemented, especially when fed to cows in early and peak lactation, he said.

Researchers conducted two experiments on a herd of Angus and Simmental cows at the Orr Research Center in Baylis, Ill., and discovered many ways producers can save money. The cows calved between January and March and were evaluated from calving until breeding.

The first experiment compared new co-products developed from improved fractionation processes. The study compared free-choice cornstalk residue with 14.3 pounds of distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS), free-choice cornstalk residue with 9.7 pounds of corn bran and 4.8 pounds of DDGS, free-choice cornstalk residue with 11.2 pounds of corn bran and 3.3 pounds of high-protein (HP) DDGS (a low-fat distillers grain with 40 percent or more crude protein content), and free-choice hay.

We wanted to find the most economical way to feed cows in the winter without sacrificing performance, Shike said. Our study revealed that producers could save about $1 a day per cow when feeding a combination of cornstalk residue and co-products as compared to hay.

Feeding methods and delivery systems formed the basis of the second experiment. Researchers compared free-choice cornstalk residue and 14.3 pounds of DDGS, a total mixed ration of 14.1 pounds of ground cornstalk residue and 14.3 pounds of DDGS, a total mixed ration of 9.9 pounds of ground cornstalk residue and 16.5 pounds of HP-DDGS, and free-choice hay.

Again our goal wasn't to find performance differences in this study, Shike said. We fed diets that should achieve similar performance results. In this experiment, we wanted to find the most economical delivery method within various herd sizes ranging from 50 to 350 cows.

In a 50-cow herd, the least expensive winter feeding strategy is to offer free-choice cornstalk residue and handfeed DDGS, he said. If producers use a tractor to feed DDGS instead of buckets, they are better off to feed free-choice hay. Feeding total mixed rations requires more equipment which in turn increases cost for the producer.

In a 100-cow herd, handfeeding with buckets is not the most practical, but it's the cheapest. With this size of a herd, producers can use a tractor to deliver DDGS to the cattle at a more economical price per day than free-choice hay.

The major savings occurs in a bigger cow herd with more than 200 cows. The total mixed rations at $2.33 per cow a day become even more comparable to feeding free-choice cornstalk residue and DDGS at $2.21 per cow a day. In contrast, the free-choice hay is $3.21 per cow a day.

We thought one of the advantages of grinding cornstalk residue was reducing wasted feed as compared to free-choice hay, Shike said. But whatever we saved in unwasted stalks did not compensate for the added equipment cost to have both a grind and mix wagon as compared to a conventional feeding wagon. Even though those treatments were close, putting out a bale of cornstalks and feeding DDGS was always a little cheaper than grinding them together.

The key to profitable cow-calf production is to keep feed costs at a minimum. This information will help producers of various herd sizes not only select which feedstuffs to use, but also which delivery method best fits their operation, reducing feed costs and maximizing profitability.

Our goal is to help producers identify which feedstuffs and delivery methods best fit their operation, resulting in the lowest possible feed cost for their operation and the most profitability, Shike said. This will vary whether they are a smaller or larger operation. Regardless, producers have options and can increase their profitability using combinations of co-products.

Despite the heat, it's time to start planning winter feeding strategies, he said.

If you decide to wait until February to decide to feed cornstalks, they will be hard to find, Shike said. Now is a great time to contact area corn producers to identify who will have cornstalk bales for purchase. It appears we are on track for a substantially earlier harvest which will allow for a nice window to bale high-quality cornstalks this fall.

It's also a good time to price co-products depending on what you have available for storage, he added. Prices tend to go up in the winter, and it's best to have stored feeds in order before the winter sets in.

Penn State, government, industry helping children pick healthier foods

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) A new initiative to improve children's nutrition education and increase the amount of healthy foods available in schools is a collaboration among Penn State researchers; Pennsylvania's Departments of Health, Education, and Agriculture; Pennsylvania food manufacturers and food distributors; and school districts across the state.

The project, led by Penn State and supported for two years by an $800,000 grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, seeks to improve children's understanding of nutrition and help them make smarter food choices. The funds come through the Pennsylvania Department of Health as part of the CDC's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding.

Researchers will increase the amount of nutrition information available in schools and at home, including innovative menu labeling systems for use in cafeterias across Pennsylvania. These menu systems will be age appropriate and will target everyone from kindergarteners to high school seniors. Children will have a baseline level of nutrient information, which will help them make healthier choices. Then, in conjunction with school districts and foodservice providers, Penn State will test the effectiveness of the labeling system.

Penn State, with its tradition in nutrition and food innovation, was the perfect partner to develop and implement these initiatives, said Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Everette James, who is playing a significant role in the project. The College of Health and Human Development and the Center for Food Innovation are centered on how to improve nutrition for children in Pennsylvania. The health of children is already important to schools and now we're making it the top priority.

A major focus of the project is finding effective ways to share nutrition information with parents. Peter Bordi, associate professor of hospitality management and principal investigator on the project, plans to take a multimedia approach by using the Internet, new technologies and old technologies such as informational handouts.

What may work for one school district may not work for another, said Bordi. This component is designed so that parents can sit down and teach their children to make healthier choices -- in practice, not in theory, says Secretary James.

Penn State's Center for Food Innovation, directed by Bordi, will work with foodservice organizations to ensure that children have access to healthy, affordable foods in schools. The research team will identify ten foods that meet or exceed nutrition guidelines for both the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Pennsylvania Department of Health. Prices of these foods' prices will be reduced to be more competitive with other foods in the schools.

Progress made in addressing food marketing to children, but challenges remain

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) STOCKHOLM, Sweden: The last six years have seen significant progress in efforts to curb the marketing of unhealthy food to children, with an increasing number of governments taking on the issue, but considerable challenges remain, a leading expert on the topic said today (Tuesday).

At the International Congress on Obesity in Stockholm, Tim Lobstein presented an analysis of the European policy landscape, undertaken as part of the European Commission's effort to gather evidence to support policy making on the marketing of foods to children.

For many years, public health experts have argued that the marketing of calorie-packed food and drinks to children contributes to the global obesity problem, but the issue has gained more traction over the last few years as concern over the scale of childhood obesity and has grown and as efforts to combat it have progressed.

An increasing number of countries are trying to address this issue, with some introducing regulations addressing television advertising during children's programming or the use of familiar personalities or fictional characters to promote products during that television time slot. There is real progress, but the challenges are numerous, said Lobstein, director of policy at the International Association for the Study of Obesity, which coordinated the European Union PolMark study. Firstly, most countries do not address advertising to children by the calorie content or other nutrient quality of the food product and marketing channels beyond broadcast advertising have been largely ignored. Secondly, our research has shown that there's a certain amount of anarchy at the moment and concluded that the terms need to be set by government, not the industry itself, because although they appear to be willing, there's chaos within the details, with a lot of contradiction in what industry is offering.

Internationally, several countries are considering strong measures, Lobstein noted. Brazil is developing legislation on broadcast advertising, Thailand has legislation to limit the quantity of advertising to children, Korea and Malaysia have a ban on junk food marketing to children, while South Africa, Colombia and Chile have a draft law in waiting, he said.

In Europe, two-thirds of countries now have, or are proposing, statements on food marketing to children in their national health plans.

That is a big shift, Lobstein said. Six years ago, there were only about two or three countries out of the 50 or so in European region doing this, so this decade has seen a rapid increase in awareness by government policy makers, who are increasingly writing it into their strategies.

Also, the UK took a lead in 2006 by banning ads for specific types of food during children's viewing hours. This was considered a major step, Lobstein said, because it introduced a legal definition of junk food, using a formula based on the nutrient profile of food products.

In the United States, a federal interagency working group established last year is developing proposals for voluntary nutritional standards for food and drink marketed to children and adolescents under the age of 18. The final proposals are scheduled to be submitted in a report to the U.S. Congress by July. Lobstein also noted that U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama's childhood obesity initiative does not rule out the possibility of regulation if voluntary measures prove insufficient.

He said the passage of a resolution - without dissent - at the annual meeting of member states of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva in May is another mark of progress. The resolution urged countries to implement recommendations contained in a report on restricting food and drink marketing to children and instructed WHO to provide technical support. A general resolution endorsing a set of recommendations doesn't look dramatic, but it consolidates the progress made so far. If they had tried to debate the recommendations one-by-one, they may have found countries unwilling to endorse them and that would have unravelled quite a lot of the work that has been done to get this far, Lobstein said.

One of the major challenges is that voluntary action has some impact, but not enough, Lobstein said. Food companies are making pledges and showing that they are sticking to those, but the pledges have loopholes. They don't all stick to the same criteria around the definition of marketing, what age group of children and what foods are covered. Companies have been pushing the boundaries into children's social marketing networks, school playgrounds, text messaging to mobile phones and so on, undermining any likely parental controls. We need a system that supports, rather than hinders, the efforts of parents to prevent obesity in their children. You cannot expect the industry to reform itself when so much money would be lost, he said.

In a separate presentation at the conference, Brazilian researcher Fabio Gomes reported an analysis of advances and setbacks in his country's effort to address food marketing. The Brazilian government is proposing statutory regulation that would require health warnings to be included in advertisements for food. Gomes said that challenges in Brazil include weak consumer criticism and the abandonment of early government proposals for a watershed for advertising to children. Also, while multinational companies have made pledges on the issue in the United States and in Europe, they have not made their pledges or self-regulation rules effective in Brazil, he said. We are in a deaf dialogue in Brazil, said Gomes, a nutritionist and senior analyst at the National Cancer Institute of Brazil.

Lobstein said it is less important whether measures are voluntary or statutory. What matters, he said, is that governments need to agree a clear set of targets that include cross-border marketing applied to products based nutrient profiling, a timeline and monitoring to ensure progress is being made.

Defensin-1 in honey can work as antibiotic

Thu, 01 Jul 2010 15:34:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Bees make a protein called defensin-1 that they add to honey, which could one day be used to treat burns and skin infections and to develop new drugs that could combat antibiotic-resistant infections.

'We have completely elucidated the molecular basis of the antibacterial activity of a single medical-grade honey, which contributes to the applicability of honey in medicine,' said Sebastian A.J. Zaat, researcher in medical microbiology at the Academic Medical Centre, Amsterdam.

'Honey or isolated honey-derived components might be of great value for prevention and treatment of infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria,' Zaat said.

To make the discovery, Zaat and colleagues investigated the antibacterial activity of medical-grade honey in test tubes against a panel of antibiotic-resistant, disease-causing bacteria. 3

They developed a method to selectively neutralise the known antibacterial factors in honey and determine their individual antibacterial contributions.

Ultimately, researchers isolated the defensin-1 protein, which is part of the honey bee immune system and is added by bees to honey.

After analysis, the scientists concluded that the vast majority of honey's antibacterial properties come from that protein.

This information also sheds light on the inner workings of honey bee immune systems, which may one day help breeders create healthier and heartier honey bees, said a release of Academic Medical Centre.

'We've known for millennia that honey can be good for what ails us, but we haven't known how it works,' said Gerald Weissmann, editor-in-chief of FASEB Journal, which published these findings.

'Now that we've extracted a potent antibacterial ingredient from honey, we can make it still more effective and take the sting out of bacterial infections,' he said.

A key mechanism links virgin olive oil to protection against breast cancer

Wed, 30 Jun 2010 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) The researchers decoded a complete cascade of signals within breast tumour cells activated by virgin olive oil, and concluded that benefits include decrease in the activity of the oncogene p21Ras, changes in protein signaling pathways, stimulation of tumour cell death and prevention of DNA damage. The study was carried out in an experimental model and researchers have already begun a new study with human cell lines.

Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer in Western countries. Research carried out with animal models demonstrate that a diet rich in fats is directly related to the incidence of cancer. Some types of fats however can play a protective role against the development of these tumours. Such is the case of virgin olive oil, rich in oleic acid, a mono-unsaturated fatty acid, and containing several bioactive compounds such as antioxidants. A moderate and regular intake of virgin olive oil, characteristic of the Mediterranean diet, is associated with low incidences of specific types of cancer, including breast cancer, as well as with having a protective role against coronary diseases and other health problems.

The study carried out by UAB researchers decoded the mechanisms operating within the tumour cell and induced by the intake of olive oil, in comparison to those activated by corn oil, rich in n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids, which increase the aggressiveness of tumours.

Scientists demonstrated that virgin olive oil is associated with higher incidences of benign breast tumours and at the same time with a decrease in the activity of the p21Ras oncogene, which spurs uncontrolled cell proliferation and stimulates the growth of tumours. In addition, olive oil suppresses the activity of some proteins, such as the AKT, essential for the survival of cells since they prevent apoptosis, the cell's suicide programme. Between proliferation and apoptosis in tumour cells, these effects tip the balance towards cell death, thereby slowing the growth of tumours.

Another result obtained by researchers is the protection of DNA in the cell nucleus. Cells from animals fed a diet rich in virgin olive oil contained less DNA lesions than those fed a control diet.

Scientists of the UAB Breast Cancer Study Multidisciplinary Group (GMECM) have spent over twenty years working to determine the effects fats have on breast cancer, and in particular the effects of virgin olive oil. Previous studies of the group revealed the beneficial effects of this component of the human diet on the clinical conduct of mammary tumours and on their histological grade (malignancy). Scientists also described several molecular mechanisms producing these effects and in 2004 the same group was the one to identify the four genes involved in the effects dietary fats have on experimental breast cancer. The mechanism recently discovered was published in the journal

More than skin deep, tanning product of sun's rays

Mon, 21 Jun 2010 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) People who remain pale and never tan can blame their distant ancestors for choosing to live in the northern reaches of the globe and those who easily achieve a deep tan can thank their ancestors for living in the subtropical latitudes, according to Penn State anthropologists.

The variation of ultraviolet radiation, especially in the middle and high latitudes is great, said Nina Jablonski, professor of anthropology and chair of Penn State's anthropology department. Tanning has evolved multiple times around the world as a mechanism to partly protect humans from harmful effects of ultraviolet radiation.

Jablonski, working with George Chaplin, senior research associate in anthropology and an expert in geographic information systems, looked at the way the sun illuminates different parts of the Earth. They looked at levels and angles of incidence of both ultraviolet A and B radiation at various latitudes. Ultraviolet B radiation is much more variable than ultraviolet A as latitude increases due to atmospheric scattering of the light and absorption by oxygen.

Ultraviolet B radiation produces vitamin D in human skin. Ultraviolet radiation can, however, destroy folate. Folate is important for the rapid growth of cells, especially during pregnancy where its deficiency can cause neural tube defects.

What we now recognize is that some of the medical problems seen in darkly pigmented people may be linked at some level to vitamin D deficiency, said Jablonski. Things like certain types of cancer in darkly pigmented people and in people who use a lot of sunscreen or always stay inside could be partly related to vitamin D deficiency.

Scientists have understood for years that evolutionary selection of skin pigmentation was caused by the sun. As human ancestors gradually lost their pelts to allow evaporative cooling through sweating, their naked skin was directly exposed to sunlight. In the tropics, where human ancestors evolved and where both ultraviolet radiations are high throughout the year, natural selection created darkly pigmented individuals to protect against the sun.

Past arguments about the selective value of dark pigmentation focused on the protective effects of melanin against sunburn, skin cancer, and overproduction of vitamin D. These factors can no longer be considered significant selective pressures, the Jablonski and Chaplin report in a recent issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Sunburn and most skin cancers do not alter an individual's ability to procreate, so they are not selection factors. The human body also has a mechanism to prevent overproduction of vitamin D.

Previously, the researchers concluded that dark skin pigmentation in the tropics protects people from folate destruction by ultraviolet B, but, because levels of ultraviolet B are high year round, the skin can still allow enough in to manufacture vitamin D.

As humans moved out of Africa, they moved into the subtropics and eventually inhabited areas up to the Arctic Circle. Ultraviolet radiation in these areas is neither consistent nor strong. North or south of 46 degrees latitude, which includes all of Canada, Russia, Scandinavia, Western Europe and Mongolia, there is insufficient ultraviolet B through most of the year to produce vitamin D. Populations in these areas evolved to have little skin pigmentation.

In the latitudes between 23 and 46 degrees, an area that encompasses North Africa, South America, the Mediterranean and most of China, ultraviolet B radiation is much more variable. Heavily pigmented skin in the winter would block the development of vitamin D, and lightly pigmented skin during the summer would allow destruction of folate.

We actually demonstrate that in those middle latitudes where highly fluctuating levels of ultraviolet radiation occur throughout the year, tanning has evolved multiple times as a mechanism to partly protect humans from harmful effect of the sun, said Jablonski.

The tanning process evolved for humans who by and large were naked all the time. As the ultraviolet B radiation began to increase in the early spring, the skin would begin to gradually darken. As the sun became stronger, the tan became deeper. During the winter, as ultraviolet B waned, so did the tan, allowing Vitamin D production and protecting folate.

The researchers note that the ability to tan developed in a wide variety of peoples and while the outcome, tanablity, is the same, the underlying genetic mechanisms are not necessarily identical. They also note that depigmentated skin also developed at least three times through different genetic mechanisms.

Implications for today focus on the fact that depigmented people now live in tropical and subtropical areas where besides getting sunburned they run the risk of losing folate. Highly pigmented people live in higher latitudes where they may become vitamin D deficient, especially if they use sunscreens.

It is a conspiracy of modernity, said Jablonski. The rapidity at which we can move long distances and live far away from our ancestral homelands. The fact that we can live and work indoors. All this has happened within the last 500 years and especially within the last 200 years.

FDA should adopt risk-based approach to food safety

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's abilities to discover potential threats to food safety and prevent outbreaks of foodborne illness are hampered by impediments to efficient use of its limited resources and a piecemeal approach to gathering and using information on risks, says a new report by the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council.

To more proactively tackle food safety problems, FDA should implement a risk-based approach in which data and expertise are marshaled to pinpoint where along the production, distribution, and handling chains there is the greatest potential for contamination and other problems, the report says. The agency would then be able to direct appropriate amounts of its resources and attention to those high-risk areas and increase the chances of catching problems before they turn into widespread outbreaks, said the committee that wrote the report.

The report offers FDA a blueprint for developing a risk-based model. It also outlines several organizational steps the agency should take to improve the efficiency of its many food safety activities, such as increasing coordination with state and other federal agencies that share responsibility for protecting the nation's food supply. In addition, the report says Congress should consider amending the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to explicitly provide the authority FDA needs to fulfill its food safety mission.

As recent illnesses traced to produce underscore, foodborne diseases cause significant suffering, so it's imperative that our food safety system functions effectively at all levels, said committee chair Robert Wallace, professor, College of Public Health, University of Iowa, Iowa City. FDA uses some risk assessment and management tactics, but the agency's approach is too often reactive and lacks a systematic focus on prevention. Our report's recommendations aim to help FDA achieve a comprehensive vision for proactively protecting against threats to the nation's food supply.

FDA is responsible for ensuring the safety of approximately 80 percent of the nation's food supply, including seafood, dairy products, and fruits and vegetables. Although it is not the sole organization overseeing food safety -- the U.S. Department of Agriculture handles meat, poultry, and egg products, and state and local agencies share in conducting food production facility inspections, surveillance, and investigations of outbreaks -- recent outbreaks of foodborne illness led to a congressional request for a review of gaps in FDA's food safety system.

The agency has been criticized for not adequately monitoring and inspecting food suppliers and distributors and for not taking a proactive approach to food safety overall. However, given that FDA is responsible for more than 150,000 food facilities, more than 1 million restaurants and other retail food establishments, and more than 2 million farms, as well as millions of tons of imports, it lacks the resources to sufficiently monitor the entire food supply, the committee noted.

A risk-based approach would give FDA's food safety officials the strategic vision needed to evaluate and plan for food safety concerns rather than tackling problems on a case-by-case basis, the report says. Without good information, agency officials cannot identify where its resources are needed most or determine which policy interventions are most effective. FDA has insufficient analytical expertise and infrastructure to gather, manage, and use data effectively. The agency should identify its data needs and review its policies for sharing data with other agencies and organizations.

The federal government should establish a centralized food safety data center outside of the regulatory agencies to collect information and conduct rapid, sophisticated assessments of food safety risks and appropriate policy interventions. This center would go a long way toward developing much-needed capacity and would reduce interagency competition for resources, the committee said. It could also serve as an intermediate step toward consolidating food safety activities within a single agency, which many individuals and organizations have called for.

To enhance its efficiency, FDA should explore alternative approaches to regulating food safety, such as delegating food facility inspections to the states, the report says. FDA should establish national standards for the intensity and frequency of these facility reviews and help states and local municipalities bring their safety programs up to those standards. Once all programs are standardized, FDA should train and certify state inspectors with the goal of turning over the majority of inspections to them under the agency's supervision. This change would build on current practices in which roughly 60 percent of inspections are already conducted by state inspectors under contract with FDA. This integration and leveraging of resources would increase the quality of inspections and eliminate duplication of effort, the committee said.

Despite the dramatic developments in food production and distribution that have occurred over the years, the main statutory provisions under which FDA carries out its food safety responsibilities remain largely unchanged. Although various provisions give the agency broad discretion and flexibility through which it has been able to control potential problems, there are instances in which FDA lacks specific authority, which can make its actions vulnerable to court challenge. Congress should examine how the legislation could be revised to detail FDA's authorities in facility registration, preventive controls, risk-based inspection, mandatory recall, reporting of adulteration, and banning of food imports if the public's health is at risk, among other areas.

Obesity remains an economic issue, Seattle obesity study finds

Mon, 24 May 2010 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Ensuring access to healthy, affordable foods is a top priority in tackling the obesity epidemic in the United States. Over the course of the last six months, the Institute of Medicine, United States Department of Agriculture, The White House and First Lady Michelle Obama have taken an interest in improving access to affordable and nutritious foods.

Here in Seattle, Adam Drewnowski, UW professor of epidemiology, and his team are tackling the same issue. Remember the fat zip codes that predicted obesity rates from a few years ago? Drewnowski and his team were the brains behind that, as well as last summer's study which showed that grocery prices in Seattle varied greatly between one supermarket chain and another.

Now, researchers at the UW Center for Public Health Nutrition, UW Urban Form Lab and the Nutritional Sciences Program in the School of Public Health are asking: Who buys what foods, why, where, and for how much?

The answers might surprise you. Most studies have used distance to the nearest supermarket as the best predictor of whether people have good diets and better health. But Drewnowski and team say that's not true. Six out of seven people shopped for food outside their immediate neighborhood, he said The closest supermarket for most people was less than a mile away, but people chose the market that was more than three miles away. Driving further to save money on groceries is common. For that reason, physical proximity to a supermarket may not, by itself, assure a healthy diet. Money does matter, Drewnowski said.

Areas where access to healthy affordable foods is scarce have become known as food deserts. Seattle, however, is well-supplied with supermarkets, grocery stores, farmers markets and other vendors, said Drewnowski. We do not see evidence of significant food deserts, he said. In comparison with other areas in the state, public transportation is also prevalent and accessible, so people can take a bus to a supermarket or grocery store with relative ease.

Researchers combined a telephone survey, modeled on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Behavioral Risk Factors Surveillance System, with new geo-coding techniques and methods of spatial analysis for the new study.

Economic access has also become a primary research focus in public health nutrition, including the work by Drewnowski and team. Supermarket chains have specific demographics--consumers differ by age, education, income, health, and even obesity rates. The county-wide obesity rate in 2007 was 19.8 percent, but our research found that the obesity rate was only four percent among Whole Foods and PCC shoppers, said Drewnowski. Consumers who shop at most area supermarket chains have obesity rates at 25 percent and higher. Clearly, not all supermarkets are the same and economic access is determined by price.

UW researchers recently discussed the Seattle Obesity Study results at Shopping for Health conference, which brought together public health agencies, academicians, supermarket representatives and policymakers from Seattle, King County and Washington state. Additional findings include:

Food insecurity leads to adverse health consequences in pregnancy

Sat, 22 May 2010 14:39:32 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) A recent research study has shown that food insecurity, a person's inability to obtain adequate amounts of food due to resource constraints, can lead to greater weight gain and increased complications during a woman's pregnancy.

"Prior studies have shown that women living in food insecure households are more likely to experience health complications," said Craig Gundersen, a University of Illinois associate professor of agricultural and consumer economics and co-author of the study. "An area that hadn't been closely examined is the impact of food insecurity on pregnant women."

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service, 14.6 percent of households were food insecure at some time during 2008, up from 11.1 percent in 2007. This is the highest recorded prevalence rate of food insecurity since 1995, when the first national food security survey was conducted.

"In the United States, we are very concerned about issues related to food insecurity," Gundersen said. "We are of course concerned about people going hungry and not having enough to eat. We are also concerned about the negative health consequences associated with food insecurity."

For the study, a total of 810 low- and middle-income pregnant women were surveyed during January 2001 to June 2005. Women were surveyed at the beginning of their pregnancy and a follow-up survey was administered after the birth of their child.

"We looked at the effect of food insecurity on a variety of health factors related to pregnancy," Gundersen said. "We found that food insecurity is associated with a higher body mass index, greater weight gain during pregnancy, and a higher risk for the development of gestational diabetes. These health issues are a concern as they can lead to assorted negative medical conditions."

Gundersen said an important federal program is already in place to address food insecurity in the United States. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as the Food Stamp Program, provides assistance to low-income individuals. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that the number of Americans receiving food stamps reached 39.68 million in February 2010, the highest number since the program began in 1962.

"Food insecurity is a growing concern for many U.S. citizens," Gundersen said. "The expansion of the SNAP program could offer major health benefits for people struggling to afford nutritious foods during these difficult economic times."

IOM report recommends framework to evaluate science behind health claims for foods and drugs

Wed, 12 May 2010 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should apply the same rigor to evaluating the science behind claims of foods' and nutritional supplements' health benefits as it devotes to assessing medication and medical technology approvals, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine. There are no scientific grounds for using different standards of evidence when evaluating the health benefits of food ingredients and drugs given that both can have significant impacts on people's well-being, said the committee that wrote the report. It recommended a new framework the agency can use to consistently and transparently judge the appropriateness and validity of the scientific benchmarks used in studies that companies provide to support health and safety claims for their products.

Because it can be time-consuming and difficult to test products against actual clinical outcomes -- such as whether they cure or reduce the risk of a disease -- companies often conduct studies measuring effects on biomarkers, which are used as biological yardsticks or substitutes for clinical outcomes. For example, tumor size is used as a way to measure a cancer drug's effectiveness. Blood level of harmful cholesterol is often used as a biomarker for the risk of heart disease, and drug and food companies make claims about the heart health benefits of their products based on their ability to lower cholesterol levels, even if the products have not been shown to actually decrease heart disease.

FDA has been hampered in its ability to assess the proliferation of health claims being made by food and supplement manufacturers in part because it lacks a process broadly accepted across the regulatory, food, and medical communities to evaluate biomarkers as valid and appropriate measurements to substitute for clinical outcomes. The committee's proposed three-part framework gives the agency a way to consistently and rigorously assess the selection and use of biomarkers across the food, device, and drug areas.

In addition, the report calls on Congress to boost the agency's authority to require further studies of drugs and devices after they are approved if their approval is based on studies using biomarkers as surrogate clinical outcomes. And Congress should give FDA the authority to conduct studies of how well consumers understand food and supplement health claims and require manufacturers to make changes if needed to promote greater clarity.

Many people naturally assume that the claims made for foods and nutritional supplements have the same degree of scientific grounding as those for medications, and this committee thinks that should in fact be the case, said committee chair John Ball, executive vice president, American Society for Clinical Pathology, Chicago. Without changes in the way biomarkers are used and assessed, however, health care providers, regulators, and consumers will not be able to reliably collect or judge information to support claims.

The proposed framework entails validating that a biomarker can be accurately measured, ensuring that it is associated with the clinical outcome of concern, and confirming that it is appropriate for the proposed use. Committee members demonstrated the kinds of information and lessons the framework can provide by doing several case studies, looking at tumor size as a biomarker for cancer, blood level of beta-carotene as a surrogate for cancer and cardiovascular disease risk, and cholesterol level as an indicator of heart disease, among others.

The report calls for Congress to enhance FDA's abilities to study how health-related information can be communicated more effectively to consumers to help them better understand the science behind claims they see on packaging. The typical consumer is not aware that claims for food ingredients and supplements are often made based on studies using biomarkers instead of actual health outcomes, and that this introduces a measure of uncertainty.

FDA also needs the resources and authority to act on claims when they are found to cause confusion or to exceed regulatory limits. A report issued by Rep. Henry Waxman's office noted that FDA enforcement of food and supplement health claims declined by more than 50 percent from 2000 to 2005. However, recent actions by the FDA indicate it is engaging in heightened enforcement of food labeling, including health claims.

Social context may be a better indicator of obesity disparities than race

Thu, 06 May 2010 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) When analyzing obesity disparities among women, socioeconomic status and social context may be more important than race, according to a study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's Hopkins Center for Health Disparities Solutions. The authors examined race disparities in obesity among black and white women living in the same social context with similar income and compared these estimates to national data. Nationwide, black women were twice as likely to be obese when compared to white women. However, the researchers found that obesity rates were comparable in a sample of white and black women living in similar social and environmental conditions. The results are featured in the January 2010 issue of the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

In a national sample not accounting for race differences in social context, black women had twice the chance of being obese as compared to white women, Sara Bleich, PhD, lead author and assistant professor in the Bloomberg School's Department of Health Policy and Management. To date, efforts to explain the disparity in obesity prevalence have primarily focused on individual level factors and little research has focused on social context as a possible explanation. When we examined poor, urban women exposed to the same environment, race disparities in obesity virtually disappeared.

Bleich, along with colleagues from the Hopkins Center for Health Disparities Solutions examined race disparities in obesity among black and white women living in the same social context with similar income in Baltimore. Using the data from the Exploring Health Disparities in Integrated Communities-Southwest Baltimore (EHDIC-SWB) study, a cross-sectional face-to-face survey of the adults ages 18 and older, researchers compared estimates to national data from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) to determine if the race disparity in obesity was attenuated among women living in the same social context. Obesity was calculated from self-reported height and body weight and logistic regression was used to examine the association between race and obesity.

Accurately accounting for social and environmental exposures is particularly important for the study of obesity disparities given the growing literature linking individual body weight to a host of environmental factors, both positively and negatively associated with body mass index, said Thomas LaVeist, PhD, senior author of the study and director of the Bloomberg School's Hopkins Center for Health Disparities Solutions. Developing policies that focus on modifying social aspects of the environment may reduce disparities in obesity among low-income women living in urban communities.

Creating new healthy ingredients by innovative milling techniques and processes for cereal grains

Wed, 05 May 2010 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) The bioactive compounds of cereals are concentrated in the peripheral layers of the grains (bran) but most of them have a low bio-accessibility. In the HEALTHGRAIN project of the European Union, new tools for process monitoring were developed that support commercial implementation of innovative milling techniques including partial grain debranning, fine grinding and classification of grain fractions, resulting in flours and ingredients with enhanced nutritional properties.

The wheat grain is a heterogeneous structure with bio-active compounds unevenly distributed within its different parts. The bioactive compounds (fibres, micronutrients and phytochemicals) are mostly concentrated in the grain outer layers, each having its own compositional profile. Therefore levels of bioactive compounds in whole meal flour are at least two times higher than those in white flour. However, some of the bioactive compounds have a low bio-accessibility in peripheral layers as they are trapped in strong cell wall structures which resist conventional milling. They can also be localized close to undesirable contaminants such as microbes, mycotoxins, pesticide residues, heavy metals. Therefore novel technologies have been developed for the transformation of the grains to better exploit their nutritional potential and to ensure food safety requirements.

In order to develop new dry processing techniques, new tools based on new insights in grain tissue composition, structure and properties have been obtained. Biochemical markers of the different grain tissues (pericarp, intermediate layers, aleurone layers, germ) have been identified and allow to determine the tissue composition of the technological fractions and deduce the behaviour of the different grain parts upon fractionation operations. More rapid methods for fractionation monitoring using spectral signature of tissues are on the way. New mechanical devices coupled with microscopy and microspectroscopy have been developed to determine the local properties of tissues and of their interfaces to help the development of fractionation with improved resolution. Especially, the effects of temperature, water content and enzymatic pre-treatments have been investigated.

A way to enrich cereal products with bioactive compounds is to manufacture flours with high levels of selected parts of the outer layers. To remove the very outermost layers, partial debranning of grains in using friction (peeling) or abrasion (pearling), was combined with milling (grinding and sieving) to produce flours with tailored tissue composition and thus controlled in content of bioactive compounds, as monitored by the marker methodology. Flours made from peeled grains, peeled and pearled grains and grains with removed outermost layer and crease parts exhibited high contents of bioactive compounds and improved nutritional effects as compared to common flours.

Another way of exploiting cereal potential is to use the miller's bran, a by-product of the milling industry, as a source of healthy ingredients. Careful limited grinding and sieving of the bran allowed to prepare a concentrate of aleurone cells and aleurone layer, where most of the bioactive compounds of the grain are located. Further purification by electrostatic classification yielded practically pure aleurone cells that exhibited excellent nutritional properties.

Another approach used ultrafine grinding of the bran in ambient or cryogenic conditions, to provoke a full dissociation of the material at a sub-cellular level. This resulted in an increase in bioactive compounds bioaccessibility. Classification of the fine particles in using a electrostatic separator made it possible to prepare fractions of very contrasted compositions in starting from bran. One of these ingredients, concentrated in fine aleurone particles, showed a good accessibility of anti-oxidants and mineral compared to bran and untreated aleurone. These technologies have been experimented at large-scale by industrial partners, to determine their feasibility and economics.

The work was conducted by INRA, in close collaboration with difent partners in charge of analyses (VTT, KU Leuven, University of Helsinki, University of Uppsala, Puratos, TNO), development of analytical equipment (Branscan) and industrial demonstration and cost evaluation (Barilla, Buhler, SD-Tech).

New and improved gluten-free foods developed for patients with celiac disease

Wed, 05 May 2010 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) A wide range of gluten free cereals have been studies in detail as part of the HEALTHGRAIN project of the European Union, and their impact on product quality has been assessed. Enzyme technology, bioprocessing as well as high-pressure processing technology have been successfully applied to improve the quality, safety and nutritional attributes of gluten free cereal products.

In genetically susceptible individuals, the ingestion of gluten and related proteins triggers an immunemediated enteropathy known as Coeliac Disease (CD). Recent epidemiological studies have shown that 1 in 100 people worldwide suffer from CD. Such a rate establishes CD as one of the most common food intolerances. Coeliac patients eating wheat or related proteins such as hordeins (barley) or secalins (rye) undergo an immunological response, localized in the small intestine, which destroys mature absorptive epithelial cells on the surface of the small intestine.

Currently, the only way that CD can be treated is the total lifelong avoidance of gluten ingestion. Therefore, CD suffers have to follow a very strict diet and avoid any products which contain wheat, rye or barley. Some authors also include oats. Avoidance of these cereals leads to a recovery from the disease and significant improvement of the intestinal mucosa and its absorptive functions. Coeliac patients are not in position to eat some of the most common foods such as bread, pizzas, biscuits or drink beer.

Due to the unique properties of gluten, it is a big challenge for food scientists to produce good quality gluten free products. The majority of products currently on the market are in general of very poor quality. Therefore part of the HEALTHGRAIN project focused on the development of nutritious and tasty gluten free breads.

The areas covered during the project were a detailed characterisation of gluten free cereals and the assessment of these cereals as potential ingredients for gluten free breads. The characterizations ranged from a detailed chemical characterisation to rheological evaluation of the resulting doughs, structural properties of the doughs and breads using advanced microscopic methods as well as pilotscale baking trials and sensory evaluation. Novel methods to improve the quality of gluten free cereal products were also covered; one example being the use of specially selected Lactic acid bacteria with properties such as antifungal activity, exopolysaccharide production and enzyme production. The use of specifically selected Lactic acid bacteria can significantly improve the quality and shelf-life of gluten free breads.

One of the major problems associated with gluten free products is their texture. Part of the project was therefore to investigate the influence of a range of enzymes such as transglutaminase, glucose oxidase and protease on wide range of gluten free cereals. It was shown that enzymes can play an important role in improving the structure of gluten free bread, but the enzymes showed different interactions with the various gluten free flours.

Children living in apartments with nonsmoking adults still exposed

Sat, 01 May 2010 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) The majority of children living in apartments are exposed to secondhand smoke, even when they don't live with smokers. This study from the University of Rochester Medical Center is the first to examine whether housing type is a potential contributor to children's exposure to cigarette smoke. The abstract was presented this morning at the Pediatric Academic Society Meeting in Vancouver, Canada.

Among children who lived in an apartment, 84 percent had been exposed to tobacco smoke, according to the level of a biomarker (cotinine) in their blood that indicates exposure to nicotine found in tobacco, and this included more than 9 of 10 African-American and white children. Even among children who lived in detached houses, 70 percent showed evidence of exposure.

We are starting to understand the role that seepage through walls and through shared ventilation may impact tobacco smoke exposure in apartments, said Karen Wilson, M.D., MPH, author of the study and an assistant professor of Pediatrics at the University of Rochester Medical Center's Golisano Children's Hospital. We see that children are being exposed in ways we are not picking up, and it's important, for their health, that we figure out where this exposure is taking place, and work to eliminate it. Multi-unit housing is one potential source, but a very important one.

Previous studies have shown that children with cotinine levels indicating tobacco smoke exposure have higher rates of respiratory diseases, decreased cognitive abilities and decreased antioxidant levels.

The study analyzed data from almost 6,000 children between 6- and 18-years-old in a national database (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2001-2006) to see if there was any relationship between their smoke exposure and their housing type. Apartment living was associated with a 45 percent increase in cotinine levels for African American children and a 207 percent increase for white children. About 18 percent of U.S. children live in apartments, and many of these children are living in subsidized housing communities where smoking is more prevalent.

Wilson said many parents are trying to limit their children's tobacco smoke exposure by not allowing smoking in their apartments, but they say they can smell tobacco smoke coming from other apartments or from common areas. Last summer, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development released a memo recommending that their housing developments enact smoke-free policies. A smoking ban within multi-unit, subsidized housing could further reduce the tobacco smoke exposure for children and reduce smoking rates among residents.

Better vitamin D status could mean better quality of life for seniors

Sun, 25 Apr 2010 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) According to legend, it was The Fountain of Youth that the famed Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon was seeking when he landed on the Floridian coast in 1513. It has long been said that he who drinks from the Fountain will have his youth restored. Without a doubt, the quest for eternal youth is as ancient as any pursuit. However, although we are now living longer than ever, there is now growing concern that quantity of years is not nearly as important as quality of those years. Indeed, as we experience the many joys of living longer, we also must deal with myriad consequences accompanying this aging trend. For instance, osteoporosis, arthritis, and other serious and often painful bone and joint diseases are much more common as we get older. And, not surprisingly, seniors often struggle daily with what was once the simple task of getting around. Hence, the obvious question in today's society concerning our longevity is What choices can we make to help ease these inconveniences of aging?

One area of particular interest is the role that diet plays in keeping bones and muscles strong from infancy to old age. For instance, a limited number of studies point to the possibility that optimal intake of vitamin D (the sunshine vitamin) might help keep our muscles strong and preserve physical function. Although there are only few longitudinal studies investigating this relationship, their findings have been mixed. To help understand this diet-health association, Dr. Denise Houston from the Sticht Center on Aging at Wake Forest University and her collaborators studied the relationship between vitamin D status and physical function in a group of relatively healthy seniors living in Memphis, TN and Pittsburgh, PA. Their results will be presented on Sunday, April 25 as part of the scientific program of the American Society for Nutrition, composed of the world's leading nutrition researchers, at the Experimental Biology 2010 meeting in Anaheim.

This study was part of the Health, Aging, and Body Composition (Health ABC) study initially designed to assess the associations among body composition, long-term health conditions, and mobility in older adults. For Houston's segment of the investigation, she studied 2788 seniors (mean age: ~75 years) for 4 years. At the beginning of the study, they assessed vitamin D status by analyzing each person's blood for 25-hydroxyvitamin D, a precursor for activated vitamin D. At baseline and then 2 and 4 years later, the research team then determined whether circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D was related to the participants' physical function. Specifically, they looked at how quickly each participant could walk a short distance (6 meters) and rise from a chair five times as well as maintain his or her balance in progressively more challenging positions. Each participant was also put through a battery of tests assessing endurance and strength.

When the results were tabulated, participants with the highest levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D had better physical function. And, although physical function declined over the course of the study, it remained significantly higher among those with the highest vitamin D levels at the beginning of the study compared to those with the lowest vitamin D levels. The scientists were not surprised to learn that, in general, vitamin D consumption was very low in this group of otherwise healthy seniors. In fact, more than 90% of them consumed less vitamin D than currently recommended, and many were relying on dietary supplements.

The good news: higher circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D is related to better physical function in seniors. But it's impossible to tell from this type of research whether increasing vitamin D intake will actually lead to stronger muscles and preserve physical function. This is partly due to the fact that our bodies can make vitamin D if they get enough sunlight. So, it is possible that the participants with better physical function had higher vitamin D status simply because they were able to go outside more often. Indeed, the ominous chicken-or-the-egg question can only be answered by carefully controlled clinical intervention trials. Nonetheless, it is possible that getting more vitamin D from foods (like fortified milk and oily fish) or supplements will help maintain youth and vitality as we enjoy longer lifespans. As Houston points out: Current dietary recommendations are based primarily on vitamin D's effects on bone health. It is possible that higher amounts of vitamin D are needed for the preservation of muscle strength and physical function as well as other health conditions. However, clinical trials are needed to definitively determine whether increasing 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations through diet or supplements has an effect on these non-traditional outcomes.

Will vitamin D research lead us to The Fountain of Youth? Probably not. But paying attention to how much vitamin D we get is likely important at every age and will help enhance the quality component of life as we enter our senior years.

Keeping the weight off after a very low-energy diet

Sun, 04 Apr 2010 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Simple advice can reduce the risk of weight regain after a very-low-energy diet: the secret to keeping the weight off is to switch back to normal food gradually, reveals a dissertation from the Sahlgrenska Academy, at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, which also contains new research results for patients who have undergone obesity surgery.

For 12 weeks a group of just over 260 patients swapped their normal food for a very-low-energy diet in the form of soups and milkshakes. 169 of the patients lost a lot of weight, averaging 16 per cent of their body weight. They were then divided into two groups so that they could switch back at different rates from the very-low-energy diet to energy reduced portions of normal food. One group completed the refeeding in a week, while the other took six weeks.

After ten months the patients with the six-week refeeding period had gained 4 per cent in weight from their minimum weight, while the patients with the one-week refeeding period had gained eight per cent, says Lena Gripeteg, researcher at the Sahlgrenska Academy.

Very-low-energy diets have been used for many years in the health service to achieve rapid and safe weight loss in obese patients. While this treatment method is well-studied, there is a risk that patients will gain weight when they start to eat normal food again.

We therefore want to look at the importance of different treatment advice on the transition from the very-low-energy diet back to normal food, and assess what actually works, says Gripeteg. A simple tip that seems to work for patients is to revert slowly to normal food after losing weight on a very-low-energy diet.

Her dissertation also includes research results from the current national SOS (Swedish Obese Subjects) study, which has followed 2,010 patients who have undergone surgical treatment for obesity and 2,037 matched control patients for up to 20 years. It shows that men who have undergone obesity surgery are less likely to need a disability pension, while obese women are just as likely to need a disability pension whether they lose weight or not.

On the basis of this study, we can't explain why there is a difference in the sexes, says Gripeteg. It may well be that the underlying health problems differ between women and men, which could explain why there is a significant improvement in the ability to work in men, but no effect in women after surgical obesity treatment.

Studies find treating vitamin D deficiency significantly reduces heart disease risk

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Preventing and treating heart disease in some patients could be as simple as supplementing their diet with extra vitamin D, according to two new studies at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute in Murray, Utah.

Researchers at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute last fall demonstrated the link between vitamin D deficiency and increased risk for coronary artery disease. These new studies show that treating vitamin D deficiency with supplements may help to prevent or reduce a person's risk for cardiovascular disease and a host of other chronic conditions. They also establish what level of vitamin D further enhances that risk reduction.

Study findings will be presented at the American College of Cardiology 59th annual scientific session in Atlanta at 3:30 pm, EST, on March 15, 2010. PLEASE NOTE EMBARGO REQUIREMENTS.

Vitamin D replacement therapy has long been associated with reducing the risk of fractures and diseases of the bone, says Dr. J. Brent Muhlestein, MD, director of cardiovascular research at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute. But our findings show that vitamin D could have far greater implications in the treatment and reduction of cardiovascular disease and other chronic conditions than we previously thought.

For the first study, researchers followed two groups of patients for an average of one year each. In the first study group, over 9,400 patients, mostly female, reported low initial vitamin D levels, and had at least one follow up exam during that time period. Researchers found that 47 percent of the patients who increased their levels of vitamin D between the two visits showed a reduced risk for cardiovascular disease.

In the second study, researchers placed over 31,000 patients into three categories based on their levels of vitamin D. The patients in each category who increased their vitamin D levels to 43 nanograms per milliliter of blood or higher had lower rates of death, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, myocardial infarction, heart failure, high blood pressure, depression, and kidney failure. Currently, a level of 30 nanograms per milliliter is considered normal.

Heidi May, PhD, a cardiovascular clinical epidemiologist with the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute, and one of the study's authors, says the link between low levels of vitamin D and increased risk for a variety of diseases is significant.

It was very important to discover that the 'normal' levels are too low. Giving physicians a higher level to look for gives them one more tool in identifying patients at-risk and offering them better treatment, says Dr. May.

Dr. Muhlestein says the results of these studies will change the way he treats his patients.

Although randomized trials would be useful and are coming, I feel there is enough information here for me to start treatment based on these findings, he says.

Treatment options in this case are simple, starting with a blood test to determine a patient's vitamin D level. If low levels are detected, supplements and/or increased exposure to sunlight may be prescribed.

Increasing vitamin D intake by 1000 to 5000 international units (IU) a day may be appropriate, depending on a patient's health and genetic risk, says Dr. Muhlestein. He says supplements are the best source of vitamin D because they are relatively inexpensive and can be found at almost any supermarket or drug store. Most supplements provide an average of 400 IU per tablet.

While exposure to 20-30 minutes of sunlight can provide up to 10,000 IU, Dr. Muhlestein says it is important to use sunscreen and avoid the hottest parts of the day in order to avoid sunburn and the harmful UV rays associated with skin cancer.

Multicenter study finds little effect of soy isoflavones on bone loss in postmenopausal women

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 05:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) AMES, Iowa -- A previous six-month study by Iowa State University researchers had indicated that consuming modest amounts of soy protein, rich in isoflavones, lessened lumbar spine bone loss in midlife, perimenopausal women. But now an expanded three-year study by some of those same researchers does not show a bone-sparing effect in postmenopausal women who ingested soy isoflavone tablets, except for a modest effect at the femoral (hip) neck among those who took the highest dosage.

The multi-center clinical trial of 224 postmenopausal women -- led by D. Lee Alekel, professor of nutrition and interim associate director of the Nutrition and Wellness Research Center (NWRC) at Iowa State, and supported by the National Institute of Arthritis, Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, one of the research institutes of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) -- was the longest ever conducted on the effects of soy isoflavones on bone mineral density (BMD). It compared the effects of either ingesting daily 80-mg daily or 120-mg soy isoflavone tablets, compared to placebo tablets on BMD and other health outcomes.

Iowa State NWRC researchers collaborated with research physiologist Marta D. Van Loan and her colleagues at the USDA Agricultural Research Service's Western Human Nutrition Research Center, located at the University of California, Davis. The primary results of their study were published in the January issue of The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Our six-month preliminary study, published in 2000, indicated that soy protein, rich in isoflavones, exerted the greatest impact in slowing the loss of bone mineral density in the lumbar spine, Alekel said. But we believed that we needed to replicate these results in a study with a greater sample size and longer duration, which is what we did with this three-year intervention.

In this longer study, we had sufficient power to detect change, she continued. We monitored adverse events, had excellent compliance throughout, and accounted for potential confounding factors.

NWRC research staff members Laura Hanson, Jeanne Stewart and Kathy Hanson also joined Kenneth Koehler and C. Ted Peterson from statistics as part of the eight-member ISU team that conducted the research.

The researchers ran statistical analyses to determine change in BMD at the lumbar spine, total proximal femur (hip), femoral neck and whole body. They accounted for treatment, age, whole body fat mass and bone removal (using a biochemical marker).

While the 120-mg dose soy isoflavones did reveal a small protective effect on femoral neck bone BMD, researchers found no significant effect of treatment on lumbar spine, total hip, or whole-body BMD.

This trial used isoflavones extracted from soy protein, compressed into tablet form, consumed over the course of three years, which is very different than either providing soy protein or soy foods, Alekel said. In our recent study, we did not demonstrate an important biological effect on BMD or bone turnover.

The new study calls into question the value of postmenopausal women consuming soy isoflavone tablets to help lessen bone loss and minimize the effect of osteoporosis.

The preponderance of studies that have been published -- particularly the longer term, more carefully conducted studies, like our own -- have shown little to no biological effects of soy isoflavones on BMD, she said. This field of research has attracted 'believers,' making it difficult to convince them otherwise. They may continue to believe what they want to believe, rather than what the evidence shows.

And when it comes to minimizing the consequences of osteoporosis in postmenopausal women, Alekel urges a more holistic approach.

People in general, would like an easy fix. We would all like soy isoflavones to be that magic pill, but this study has found that they are not, she said.

Results from other health outcomes from this research have been published in six manuscripts to date, with six additional manuscripts underway. The NWRC research team will continue to study factors that influence bone mineral density and health outcomes in postmenopausal women.

Antioxidants aren't always good for you and can impair muscle function, study shows

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 05:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Antioxidants increasingly have been praised for their benefits against disease and aging, but recent studies at Kansas State University show that they also can cause harm.

Researchers in K-State's Cardiorespiratory Exercise Laboratory have been studying how to improve oxygen delivery to the skeletal muscle during physical activity by using antioxidants, which are nutrients in foods that can prevent or slow the oxidative damage to the body. Their findings show that sometimes antioxidants can impair muscle function.

Antioxidant is one of those buzz words right now, said Steven Copp, a doctoral student in anatomy and physiology from Manhattan and a researcher in the lab. Walking around grocery stores you see things advertised that are loaded with antioxidants. I think what a lot of people don't realize is that the antioxidant and pro-oxidant balance is really delicate. One of the things we've seen in our research is that you can't just give a larger dose of antioxidants and presume that there will be some sort of beneficial effect. In fact, you can actually make a problem worse.

David C. Poole and Timothy I. Musch, K-State professors from both the departments of kinesiology and anatomy and physiology, direct the Cardiorespiratory Exercise Laboratory, located in the College of Veterinary Medicine complex. Researchers in the lab study the physiology of physical activity in health and disease through animal models. Copp and Daniel Hirai, an anatomy and physiology doctoral student from Manhattan working in the lab, have conducted various studies associated with how muscles control blood flow and the effects of different doses and types of antioxidants.

Abnormalities in the circulatory system, such as those that result from aging or a disease like chronic heart failure, can impair oxygen delivery to the skeletal muscle and increase fatigability during physical activity, Copp said. The researchers are studying the effects antioxidants could have in the process.

If you have a person trying to recover from a heart attack and you put them in cardiac rehab, when they walk ona treadmill they might say it's difficult, Poole said. Their muscles get sore and stiff. We try to understand why the blood cells aren't flowing properly and why they can't get oxygen to the muscles, as happens in healthy individuals.

Copp said there is a potential for antioxidants to reverse or partially reverse some of those changes that result from aging or disease. However, K-State's studies have shown that some of the oxidants in our body, such as hydrogen peroxide, are helpful to increase blood flow.

Eating less may help you live longer

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 15:05:57 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Going back for a second dessert after your holiday meal might not be the best strategy for living a long, cancer-free life, a new study has confirmed.

University of Alabama-Birmingham - researchers have shown exactly how restricted calorie diets, specifically in the form of restricted glucose -, help human cells live longer.

This discovery could help lead to drugs and treatments that slow human ageing and prevent cancer.

'Our hope is that the discovery that reduced calories extend the lifespan of normal human cells will lead to further discoveries of the causes for these effects in different cell types...,' said Trygve Tollefsbol, researcher at the Centre for Aging and Comprehensive Cancer Centre UAB.

'We would also hope for these studies to lead to improved prevention of cancer as well as many other age-related diseases through controlling calorie intake of specific cell types,' he added.

Tollefsbol and colleagues used normal human lung cells and pre-cancerous human lung cells that were at the beginning stages of cancer formation.

Eating less may help you live longer

Both sets of cells were lab grown and received either normal or reduced levels of glucose. As the cells grew over a period of a few weeks, researchers monitored their ability to divide, and tracked how many cells survived over this period.

They found that the normal cells lived longer, and many of the precancerous cells died, when given less glucose. Gene activity was also measured under the same conditions, said a UAB release.

'Western science is on the cusp of developing a pharmaceutical fountain of youth,' said Gerald Weissmann, medical expert and editor-in-chief of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology - Journal, which published these findings.

UIC receives $1 million grant to study 'fat taxes,' diet, obesity

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 05:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have received $1 million from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute to study the relationship between fat taxes and food consumption, diet quality and obesity.

The funding for the two-year project was made available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

The study will link state tax rates associated with restaurants and with specific sugar- and fat-laden foods and beverages (soda, candy, baked goods and chips) to individual survey data.

Using multiple data sets from a 10-year period -- 1997 through 2007 -- the researchers will determine if differential tax rates equate to differences in consumption, diet quality and body mass index, or BMI, for children, adolescents and adults.

The study will separately examine these relationships among low-income food stamp recipients and non-food stamp recipients.

Previous economic studies suggest that food prices do change consumption. However, the researchers want to determine if, for example, consumers will seek out another high-sugar drink such as Kool-Aid if, say, soda is too expensive. If they do, then a tax on soda may reduce soda consumption but will not necessarily reduce weight, improve diet quality, or reduce overall sugar intake.

We want to know if this price sensitivity is just for a specific good, such as soda, or if it translates into changes in diet quality and weight outcomes, said Lisa Powell, senior research scientist at UIC's Institute for Health Research and Policy and principal investigator of the study. It will help lay the foundation on the extent to which these taxes may be effective policy instruments to generate behavior change and potentially reduce obesity.

Current fat-tax rates are fairly low, ranging, for example, from 0 to 7 percent for soda.

Taxing soda is an easy target because it is clear there is not a lot of nutritional value, said Powell. But if you look at taxing all foods or beverages with a certain amount of sugar or fat, that might include a fortified cereal that could also be healthy.

Defining healthy and unhealthy when there are many different components to food can be difficult, she said.

According to the researchers, the study is critical because Americans are increasingly consuming poor diets, which have contributed to a public health crisis with more than 17 percent of children and 32 percent of adults being obese.

Powell's co-investigators at UIC are Frank Chaloupka, distinguished professor of economics and director of the Health Policy Center; Carol Braunschweig, associate professor of human nutrition; Jamie Chriqui, senior research scientist at the Institute for Health Research and Policy; and Euna Han, health economist at the Institute for Health Research and Policy.

Owners should count calories for obese pets, consider several factors for good health

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) You might watch your daily calorie intake or glance over nutritional information on food packages, but do you do the same for your pet?

Dr. Susan Nelson, a veterinarian and assistant professor of clinical sciences at Kansas State University, said there are several guidelines to follow when feeding your pet to ensure that it maintains good health.

Just like human food packages, many cat and dog food packages contain nutritional information, Nelson said. Packages often list the kilocalories, protein, fat, carbohydrates and fiber per cup. In recent years, manufacturers started listing some nutritional information, including calorie content, for dog and cat treats.

In the past, we didn't know how many calories were in various treats, Nelson said. Now that's becoming more available, and that's because more pets are becoming obese and their owners are asking for that information. Pets are overeating and underexercising, and they're eating too many high-fat foods and treats.

Nelson said these plumper pets are not only benefitting from improvements in pet food quality, but also from the increased calorie content caused by the higher fat content of many premium diets. But does that call for owners to start counting calories for their pets?

It's important to count calories if the pet is overweight, but it's probably not necessary if you have a pet that is of normal weight, Nelson said. If it starts to get pudgy, you need to take a look at how much exercise it is getting, how much food you are feeding it, and how many treats you're giving it.

Calories from treats should be no more than 10 percent of your pet's diet. If owners want to count their pet's calories, Nelson said, veterinarians can make diet calculations for dogs and cats. The overall recommendation for the amount of food to feed your pet is based on several factors, including the type of food you are feeding your pet, your pet's metabolism and how much exercise it gets.

Generally, I tell people that unless your pet is overweight, go with the guidelines on the food bag, she said. If the pet is a little overweight, you should feed it for its ideal weight and not for its current weight.

Nelson said if you want to compare different pet food brands' nutritional information, you have to look at the nutritional content calculations based on the dry matter content. Often, this is not listed on the bag, so you might have to look online or call the company to find the information.

What most bags list is the nutritional analysis that is formulated on an as-fed basis, she said. To truly compare the nutrient content of foods, you have to look at the dry matter basis, which takes out water content.

Nelson said it's typically best to start by following the feeding guidelines on the bag. She said people shouldn't assume that feeding one cup of one diet is the same as feeding one cup of another, because pet foods can vary greatly in calories. She also suggests using a standard 8-ounce measuring cup for dry food.

To determine if a pet is too heavy or light, Nelson said owners should look at several factors. You should not be able to see the animal's ribs, but you should be able to feel them easily with a thin layer of fat over them. When you look at the animal from the side, its tummy should tuck up at the flank area and not hang in a straight line.

If you look over the top of a dog, you should see an hourglass shape where it's broad at the shoulders, narrow at the waist and broader at the hips. If the dog starts to thicken out, you should cut back on its calories and/or have it exercise more.

In general, make sure you're feeding the appropriate diet for the life stage of your pet, Nelson said. If your pet is pregnant, a puppy or kitten, has special health condition needs or is a senior, there are foods formulated that best meet the nutritional demands for that condition.

There are breeds of dogs and cats that have high metabolisms and have trouble putting weight on, Nelson said. For these pets, there are pet foods that have higher fat contents because it gives the food more calories. If the pet is extremely overweight, it might need diet food along with other recommendations. These foods are lower in calories, nutritionally complete and often contain extra fiber, which helps make the animal feel full. Conversely, if you feed the animal much less of their regular food, your pet is not going to get enough of the nutrients it needs.

Nelson said many people do not realize how many calories they're feeding their pet because they don't account for table scraps or treats. These hidden calories can add up significantly over the day and be the main contributor to obesity. Putting your pet on a diet requires attention and effort from the whole family, she said. If you have a small child, inside pets are going to eat everything the child drops, and those calories will add up.

Sometimes you'll try to put your pet on a diet, and then someone else living in the house will slip it treats, Nelson said. You should talk with the whole family when putting your pet on a diet. Tell them the diet is necessary to keep the pet at a good weight, which in turn will make it healthier and can help it live a longer life.

Coconut oil keeps fat at bay

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 10:57:59 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Sydney, Sep 9 - A diet rich in coconut oil keeps fat away and also protects against insulin resistance, a new study shows.

The study also helps explain how people who incorporate medium chain fatty acids found in coconut oil into their diets can lose body fat.

Obesity and insulin resistance are major factors leading to the development of Type 2 diabetes. Insulin resistance is an impaired ability of cells to respond to insulin.

Nigel Turner and Jiming Ye from Sydney's Garvan Institute of Medical Research compared fat metabolism and insulin resistance in mice fed coconut oil and lard based diets.

'The medium chain fatty acids like those found in coconut oil are interesting to us because they behave very differently to the fats normally found in our diets,' said study leader Turner.

'Unlike the long chain fatty acids contained in animal fats, medium chain fatty acids are small enough to enter mitochondria - the cells' energy burning powerhouses - directly where they can then be converted to energy.'

'Unfortunately the downside to eating medium chain fatty acids is that they can lead to fat build up in the liver, an important fact to be taken into consideration by anyone considering using them as a weight loss therapy.'

Fat storage is determined by the balance between how much fat is taken in by cells and how much of this fat is burned for energy.

When people eat a high fat diet, their bodies attempt to compensate by increasing their capacity to oxidise fat, said a Garvan release.

'Obese humans usually eat 40-50 percent of their calories as fat. Our mice were fed 45 percent of their calories as fat,' Turner said.

Their findings are now published online in Diabetes.

K-State researchers say after-school programs should promote activity, healthy nutrition

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Children's after-school activities often consist of sedentary behavior such as watching television, but after-school programs that offer physical activity and healthy snacks could be the best place for children's health.

David Dzewaltowski, head of the department of kinesiology at Kansas State University, and other K-State researchers have found that quality after-school programs are an important contributor to children's physical activity.

Participation in after-school programs tends to drop with increasing age as parents believe their children can be at home without adult supervision, Dzewaltowski said. Parents should strive to place their children in healthy environments that are supervised by adults and that provide physical activity and healthful food options.

The researchers conducted the Healthy Opportunities for Physical Activity and Nutrition, or HOP'N, After-School Project, which was designed to prevent obesity by enhancing the quality of after-school programming. The study found that some existing after-school programs lack in quality and do not provide adequate nutrition or physical activity, especially for different genders and fitness levels.

The HOP'N After-School Project includes four elements: a daily healthy snack, daily physical activity, weekly nutrition and physical activity education sessions. It also provides continuous staff training.

Eight elementary schools and after-school programs in Lawrence participated in the K-State study during a three-year period. The after-school settings were observed throughout the school year. Participating children has their height and weight measured in the fall and spring. Children also wore pedometer devices to measure their physical activity. After a baseline year, the HOP'N program was implemented at four of the sites for two years, and the other sites continued their regular programming as a project control.

Baseline findings of the study showed that, on average, the after-school programs provided 20 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, which fulfills one-third of the recommended 60-minute daily physical activity for youth. However, the researchers found that the students spent the majority of their time participating in sedentary and light-intensity activities.

For two subsequent program years, the HOP'N program staff trained after-school program leaders to increase physical activity in their programs. Results showed that program leaders could modify the existing activities to include more moderate-to-vigorous physical activity throughout the session.

The findings showed that boys were significantly more active than girls during indoor free play and organized outdoor activities; however, moderate activity levels for both genders were similar. This shows that the girls had lower participation in vigorous-intensity physical activity.

Dzewaltowski said after-school programs can better cater to the interests of genders and provide various activity choices, which could increase physical activity levels, self-efficacy and enjoyment of physical activity.

The results also showed that overweight students were substantially less active than the students who were not overweight during organized outdoor activities, which might be related to differences in aerobic fitness. Dzewaltowski said future research should include understanding the activity preferences of overweight children.

During the baseline year, the researchers also found that there was a significant difference in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity levels recorded during the free play and organized physical activity sessions. Children were more active in free play than when led by adults who were not well trained to promote physical activity.

After-school program leaders who attempt to provide physical activity through structured games may do more harm than good, Dzewaltowski said. Leaders should encourage children's natural inclination to move and play to promote physical activity in the after-school time period if there is not opportunity for training to be an effective physical activity leader.

Dzewaltowski said it is important for children in middle school to learn healthy lifestyle behaviors, and the after-school setting is an effective place for obesity prevention. Since many schools do not provide opportunities for physical activity during the school day, the after-school hours provide an opportunity for children to be active without having to change the structure of the school day.

The baseline findings of the study have been published in numerous publications, including in the

Researcher finds Girl Scout meetings provide an opportunity to increase girls' physical activity

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Girls typically are less physically active than boys, but a Kansas State University researcher has found that organizations like Girl Scouts provide an ideal setting to get girls moving early in life and to develop lifelong healthy habits.

Richard Rosenkranz, assistant professor in human nutrition at K-State, did a study using interventions with Girl Scout troops. He trained group leaders to instruct exercise sessions and promote healthful eating, and in effect taught the girls about a healthy lifestyle and increased their participation in exercise activities.

We were striving to get the girls and parents to spend some of their leisure time together being active and taking steps together for fun and health, he said.

Rosenkranz worked with 10- and 11-year-old girls who were members of Girl Scout troops in Manhattan and the surrounding area. The two-year study involved nine troops, with five of the troops receiving an intervention.

What we saw in the control troops was an environment where girls were sedentary for the vast majority of time at the meeting, combined with snacks that were less than health-promoting, he said. This is just one part of a girl's weekly or bi-weekly experience, but it offers the chance to provide an opportunity and a message for health promotion.

Rosenkranz trained the group leaders as part of the intervention. They learned about the background of intervention activities, which included nutrition, family meals, physical activity and family connection. They also were taught the expectations of being role models and providing a healthful environment at Girl Scout meetings, as well as new physically active games for the girls.

Federal physical activity guidelines recommend that all children perform at least 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per day, Rosenkranz said. The intervention focused on having the girls participate in walking, dancing, active games and yoga.

The intervention was focused on physical activities that could be done in or around the home, without special equipment, ideally involving the parents, Rosenkranz said.

He said the girls in the intervention troops were less sedentary than those not in the interventions. Additionally, the girls involved in the intervention performed higher levels of both moderate-intensity and moderate-to-vigorous intensity exercise during troop meetings.

Statistically, Rosenkranz said, minorities acquire lower amounts of physical activity. However, the interventions created the same amount of activity for all demographics and there was no difference by minority or weight status.

An important step of the intervention was involving the adults. Rosenkranz said adults should be involved in promoting physical activity to children, which can be done through providing formal and informal opportunities for children to be active, being active along with them and encouraging physical activity -- or at least not discouraging it.

The key for this project to achieve lasting effectiveness is to make an impact on the adults who structure the environments where children spend time; for this study these are the parents and troop leaders, he said. Both these sets of adults need to recognize that getting sufficient physical activity is essential for the children's health and for their own health.

New supplement may help slow sight loss in elderly

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Queen's University Belfast academics have helped develop an antioxidant supplement which may slow down sight loss in elderly people.

The supplement may help those affected by the leading cause of blindness in the Western World, a five-year research programme has found.

Professor Usha Chakravarthy, from Queen's Centre of Vision and Vascular Science (CVVS), co-ordinated the study, which looked at nutritional supplements for patients with early age-related macular (AMD) degeneration and found they helped sharpen vision.

Details of the findings are being presented in Belfast today (Friday) by Professor Chakravarthy and Dr Stephen Beatty, Head of Vision Research at the Waterford Institute of Technology.

They co-designed the study and the antioxidant supplement was developed with the advice of Professor Ian Young from the School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences at Queen's and scientists in eyecare companies Dr Mann Pharma and Bausch and Lomb.

AMD is an incurable eye disease which causes blurring of central vision because of its effects on the macula, the central part of the retina.

Over 400 people across Ireland took part in clinical trials investigating whether carotenoids, rich antioxidants which are found in fruit and vegetables, could prevent progression to the more serious late AMD.

When the eye disease progresses to late AMD patients are unable to read, watch television or recognise people's faces as they only have peripheral vision, not central vision.

Professor Chakravarthy, who is also a Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon at the Royal Hospital in Belfast, said: Late AMD causes severe sight loss and has a huge economic impact both in terms of the effects of sight loss itself and in terms of the expensive treatments that are needed to deal with the condition.

Up to 500 people a year in Northern Ireland will lose sight in one or both eyes as a result of late AMD.

We wanted to carry out the study as prevention of progression to late AMD can result in a reduced financial and societal burden.

As the macula of the eye is very rich in antioxidants the researchers wanted to see if a supplement called CARMA (Caroteneoids and Co-antioxidants in Age-related Maculopathy) containing the carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin could help slow down AMD.

The supplement also contained vitamins C,E and Zinc, which had been used in a previous study.

The latest study showed that intake of high levels of both carotenoids preserved the macular pigments, slowing down the progression from early AMD to late AMD.

In contrast, the macular pigments of participants in a placebo group declined steadily.

Dr Chakravarthy added: These findings are important because this is the first randomised controlled clinical trial to document a beneficial effect through improved function and maintained macular pigments.

Further research is needed to confirm these findings and to identify the numbers needed to treat to prevent 1 case from progressing from early to late AMD.

Study suggests obese women should not gain weight

Fri, 29 May 2009 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) For years, doctors and other health-care providers have managed pregnant patients according to guidelines issued by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). In 1986, ACOG stated, Regardless of how much women weigh before they become pregnant, gaining between 26-35 pounds during pregnancy can improve the outcome of pregnancy and reduce their chances of having the pregnancy end in fetal death. Until its revised guidelines were released yesterday, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) had recommended that overweight women should gain about 15 pounds during pregnancy.

The current study was undertaken to test whether these guidelines make a difference in maternal-fetal outcomes among obese women. In the study, conducted at several hospitals, the researchers followed 232 obese pregnant women, all of whom had a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or greater. Half of the women followed conventional prenatal nutritional guidelines, which is essentially eat to appetite (control group). The other half were placed on a well-balanced, nutritionally monitored program, which included a daily food diary (study group). The average weight gain in the control group was 31 pounds, compared to 11 pounds in the study group. Twenty-three extremely obese patients lost weight during their pregnancy.

The findings showed that there were no fetal deaths and no growth-restricted infants in the study group. Also, there were fewer babies weighing more than 10 pounds in the study group than in the control group. (A birth weight over 10 pounds poses significant hazards to both infants and mothers.) Moreover, women in the study group gained less weight, had fewer cesarean deliveries, were less likely to develop gestational diabetes, and retained less weight after they delivered than women in the control group.

The researchers concluded that obese pregnant women may be placed on a healthy, well balanced, monitored nutritional program without adverse maternal-fetal outcomes.

Women who are obese when beginning a pregnancy are, by definition, unhealthy, says study leader Yvonne S. Thornton, MD, MPH, a clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology and board-certified specialist in maternal-fetal medicine at New York Medical College. To say that they should gain even more weight is counter-intuitive, and our study bears that out. Rather than focusing on numerical endpoints with respect to weight gain, we need to focus on making these women healthier by getting them to eat a well-balanced diet.

The study grew out of Dr. Thornton's personal experience with obesity and pregnancy. Despite being overweight, she gained a substantial amount of weight during her first pregnancy, exacerbating her life-long battle with obesity. During her second pregnancy, she followed a well-balanced diet and gained little weight, with no adverse consequences for mother or baby.

Dr. Thornton observed the same pattern in her own clinical practice, leading her to question prevailing guidelines for weight gain during pregnancy. Adding to her skepticism was the fact that women who develop gestational diabetes are routinely put on diets that effectively limit weight gain, with no ill effects.

It is the mindset of our specialty, and our society, that we need to have round, chubby pregnant women in order make sure they are healthy, adds Dr. Thornton. Pregnancy has become a license to eat. We talk about 'eating for two,' but it's really more like eating for 1 and 1/20th.

These attitudes have contributed to the obesity epidemic in the U.S., where 35 percent of women are considered obese, says the researcher. The situation is even worse among African-American women, four out of five of whom are overweight or obese.

Gaining weight during pregnancy contributes to obesity, and it makes it that much harder for overweight women to return to their normal weight after pregnancy, says Dr. Thornton.

Increased food intake alone explains the increase in body weight in the United States

Fri, 08 May 2009 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Amsterdam, the Netherlands: New research that uses an innovative approach to study, for the first time, the relative contributions of food and exercise habits to the development of the obesity epidemic has concluded that the rise in obesity in the United States since the 1970s was virtually all due to increased energy intake.

How much of the obesity epidemic has been caused by excess calorie intake and how much by reductions in physical activity has been long debated and while experts agree that making it easier for people to eat less and exercise more are both important for combating it, they debate where the public health focus should be.

A study presented on Friday at the European Congress on Obesity is the first to examine the question of the proportional contributions to the obesity epidemic by combining metabolic relationships, the laws of thermodynamics, epidemiological data and agricultural data.

There have been a lot of assumptions that both reduced physical activity and increased energy intake have been major drivers of the obesity epidemic. Until now, nobody has proposed how to quantify their relative contributions to the rise in obesity since the 1970s. This study demonstrates that the weight gain in the American population seems to be virtually all explained by eating more calories. It appears that changes in physical activity played a minimal role, said the study's leader, Professor Boyd Swinburn, chair of population health and director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Obesity Prevention at Deakin University in Australia.

The scientists started by testing 1,399 adults and 963 children to determine how many calories their bodies burn in total under free-living conditions. The test is the most accurate measure of total calorie burning in real-life situations.

Once they had determined each person's calorie burning rate, Swinburn and his colleagues were able to calculate how much adults needed to eat in order to maintain a stable weight and how much children needed to eat in order to maintain a normal growth curve.

They then worked out how much Americans were actually eating, using national food supply data (the amount of food produced and imported, minus the amount exported, thrown away and used for animals or other non-human uses) from the 1970s and the early 2000s.

The researchers used their findings to predict how much weight they would expect Americans to have gained over the 30-year period studied if food intake were the only influence. They used data from a nationally representative survey (NHANES) that recorded the weight of Americans in the 1970s and early 2000s to determine the actual weight gain over that period.

If the actual weight increase was the same as what we predicted, that meant that food intake was virtually entirely responsible. If it wasn't, that meant changes in physical activity also played a role, Swinburn said. If the actual weight gain was higher than predicted, that would suggest that a decrease in physical activity played a role.

The researchers found that in children, the predicted and actual weight increase matched exactly, indicating that the increases in energy intake alone over the 30 years studied could explain the weight increase.

For adults, we predicted that they would be 10.8 kg heavier, but in fact they were 8.6 kg heavier. That suggests that excess food intake still explains the weight gain, but that there may have been increases in physical activity over the 30 years that have blunted what would otherwise have been a higher weight gain, Swinburn said.

To return to the average weights of the 1970s, we would need to reverse the increased food intake of about 350 calories a day for children (about one can of fizzy drink and a small portion of French fries) and 500 calories a day for adults (about one large hamburger), Swinburn said. Alternatively, we could achieve similar results by increasing physical activity by about 150 minutes a day of extra walking for children and 110 minutes for adults, but realistically, although a combination of both is needed, the focus would have to be on reducing calorie intake.

He emphasized that physical activity should not be ignored as a contributor to reducing obesity and should continue to be promoted because of its many other benefits, but that expectations regarding what can be achieved with exercise need to be lowered and public health policy shifted more toward encouraging people to eat less.

Study: Vibration plate machines may aid weight loss and trim abdominal fat

Fri, 08 May 2009 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Amsterdam, the Netherlands: New research suggests that, if used properly, vibration plate exercise machines may help you lose weight and trim the particularly harmful belly fat between the organs.

In a study presented on Friday at the European Congress on Obesity, scientists found that overweight or obese people who regularly used the equipment in combination with a calorie restricted diet were more successful at long-term weight loss and shedding the fat around their abdominal organs than those who combined dieting with a more conventional fitness routine.

These machines are increasingly found in gyms across the industrialized world and have gathered a devoted following in some places, but there has not been any evidence that they help people lose weight. Our study, the first to investigate the effects of vibration in obese people, indicates it's a promising approach. It looks like these machines could be a useful addition to a weight control package, said the study's leader, Dirk Vissers, a physiotherapist at the Artesis University College and the University of Antwerp in Belgium.

Vissers and his colleagues studied the effects of the Power Plate in 61 overweight or obese people - mostly women - for a year. The intervention lasted six months, after which the scientists advised all the volunteers to do the best they could with a healthy diet and exercise regime on their own for another six months. Body measurements, including CT scans of abdominal fat, were taken at the beginning of the study and after three, six and 12 months.

The researchers divided the volunteers into four groups. One group was prescribed an individually calculated calorie restricted diet. Dietician visits were scheduled every fortnight for the first three months and every month for the second three months. The dieters were asked not to engage in any exercise for the duration of the six-month intervention.

A second group received the same diet intervention, with the addition of a conventional fitness regime. They attended supervised exercise classes twice a week for an hour and were urged to exercise on their own a third time each week. The sessions included group cycling, swimming, running, step aerobics and some general muscle strengthening exercises.

A third group got the diet intervention plus supervised vibration plate training instead of conventional exercise. They were asked not to do any aerobic exercise during the six-month intervention phase. The physiotherapists gradually increased the speed and intensity of the machine each week, as well as the variety and duration of the exercises from 30 seconds for each of 10 exercises to 60 seconds for each of 22 exercises, such as squats, lunges, calf raises, push-ups and abdominal crunches. The average time spent on the machine was 11.9 minutes per session in the first three months and 14.2 minutes in the second three months.

A fourth group got no intervention. There were no significant differences between the groups in obesity and abdominal, or visceral, fat at the start of the study.

Over the year, only the conventional fitness and vibration groups managed to maintain a 5% weight loss, which is what is considered enough to improve health, Vissers said.

During the first six months, the diet only group lost about 6% of their initial body weight, but could not maintain a 5% weight loss in the subsequent six months. The group that got diet plus conventional fitness lost about 7% of their initial body weight in the first six months, but they didn't put much of it back on and by the end of the study, they had managed to keep off a 6.9% loss. The vibration group lost 11% of their body weight during the intervention phase and by the end of the follow-up period they had maintained a 10.5% loss. The control group gained about 1.5% of their original body weight.

The vibration group lost 47.8 square centimetres of visceral fat during the first six months and still had a loss of 47.7 square centimetres at 12 months. Visceral fat shrank by 17.6 square centimetres in the conventional fitness group in the first six months, but by the end of the year, it was only 1.6 square centimetres less than at the beginning. The diet group had a visceral fat loss of 24.3 square centimetres after six months and 7.5 square centimetres after a year.

These are very encouraging results, but it doesn't mean people trying to lose weight can ditch aerobic exercise and jump on the vibration plate instead. They still need a healthy diet and aerobic exercise, but this could be a viable alternative to weight lifting, Vissers said, explaining that the plate works by making muscles rapidly contract, which builds lean muscle mass.

People say vibration machines are fitness for lazy people. It may feel like a short cut, but if it's easy, you are not doing it properly, he added. Supervision in the beginning is imperative and the longer the better. What we see in gyms very often - people just standing on the machine holding the handles - is not going to do anything.

Vissers said further research on a larger group of obese patients is needed to confirm how beneficial the machines are. His team is also planning to study why vibration seems to be more effective than aerobic exercise in trimming visceral fat, including whether increased blood flow to the abdomen and hormonal response to vibration might play a role in more efficient fat breakdown. His study was funded by the Artesis University College of Antwerp.

Consumers more likely to identify healthy food using traffic light nutrition labels

Thu, 07 May 2009 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Amsterdam, the Netherlands: Consumers are five times more likely to identify healthy food when they see colour-coded traffic light nutrition labels than when labels present the information numerically by showing what percentage of the recommended daily nutrient intake each portion provides, new research finds.

Some governments are trying to improve the quality of nutrition information that consumers have access to in supermarkets by adding labels to the front of food packages, but there is no standard approach, not all products have labels and in many countries several different systems are used.

Food manufacturers are currently allowed to use any labelling system they prefer on the front of food packages. In some countries this has led to a plethora of different systems appearing on supermarket shelves, which only serves to confuse consumers more and does not allow them to quickly and accurately identify healthy products, said Bridget Kelly, whose study was presented on Friday at the European Congress on Obesity.

The food industry tends to favour the percentage daily intake method (known as Guideline Daily Amount in some countries), but our research indicates that the traffic light system is the most effective and that a consistent labelling approach across all food products is needed. This is unlikely to be achieved without government regulation, said Kelly, a nutritionist at the Cancer Council, New South Wales in Australia.

Kelly and her colleagues aimed to determine the most acceptable and effective food labelling system for consumers. Four different approaches were tested on 790 Australians to determine their preferences and ability to compare the healthiness of mock food products, using two variations of the traffic light system and two variations of the percentage daily intake system. Each person was exposed to only one type of nutrition label, allowing each system to evaluated on it own merits without the influence of the others.

Traffic light labelling uses colours to rate the nutritional content of food according to how healthy it is. A common version uses a panel with red, amber or green dots to rate the food's salt, sugar, saturated fat and total fat content separately. A variation adds a single coloured dot to give an overall rating, rather than just rating separate nutrients.

The percentage daily intake system and its variations present, for each of the key nutrients, the proportion of the government recommended adult daily intake that a serving of the product contains.

The study found that consumers favoured a consistent labelling format across all products. In addition, those who were shown the traffic light labels were five times more likely to identify healthier foods than those shown a single colour version of the percentage daily intake label and three times more likely to do so than those shown a colour-coded version of the daily intake label.

As a result of these findings, we are recommending that mandatory traffic light labelling regulation be introduced in Australia. The labels should be applied to all processed retail grocery food and drinks at first, and consideration should be given to extending that to restaurant chains with standard menu items, Kelly said.

The findings are relevant to other countries, Kelly said, adding that regulations being considered by the European Union favour a system similar to the percentage daily intake approach.

Kelly said that further research is needed to determine whether the traffic light system proves to be as effective in other countries, but that the study showed it could be used equally well by all consumers, regardless of ethnicity, gender and socioeconomic status.

The study was funded by the New South Wales Health Department, the University of Sydney and several Australian public health and consumer organisations.

Study in pregnant women suggests probiotics may help ward off obesity

Thu, 07 May 2009 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Amsterdam, the Netherlands: One year after giving birth, women were less likely to have the most dangerous kind of obesity if they had been given probiotics from the first trimester of pregnancy, found new research that suggests manipulating the balance of bacteria in the gut may help fight obesity.

Probiotics are bacteria that help maintain a healthy bacterial balance in the digestive tract by reducing the growth of harmful bacteria. They are part of the normal digestive system and play a role in controlling inflammation. Researchers have for many years been studying the potential of using probiotic supplementation to address a number of intestinal diseases. More recently, obesity researchers have started to investigate whether the balance of bacteria in the gut might play a role in making people fat and whether adjusting that balance could help.

The results of our study, the first to demonstrate the impact of probiotics-supplemented dietary counselling on adiposity, were encouraging, said Kirsi Laitinen, a nutritionist and senior lecturer at the University of Turku in Finland who presented her findings on Thursday at the European Congress on Obesity. The women who got the probiotics fared best. One year after childbirth, they had the lowest levels of central obesity as well as the lowest body fat percentage.

Central obesity, where overall obesity is combined with a particularly fat belly, is considered especially unhealthy, Laitinen said. We found it in 25% of the women who had received the probiotics along with dietary counselling, compared with 43% in the women who received diet advice alone.

In the study, 256 women were randomly divided into three groups during the first trimester of pregnancy. Two of the groups received dietary counselling consistent with what's recommended during pregnancy for healthy weight gain and optimal foetal development. They were also given food such as spreads and salad dressings with monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids, as well as fibre-enriched pasta and breakfast cereal to take home. One of those groups also received daily capsules of probiotics containing Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium, which are the most commonly used probiotics. The other group received dummy capsules. A third group received dummy capsules and no dietary counselling. The capsules were continued until the women stopped exclusive breastfeeding, up to 6 months.

The researchers weighed the women at the start of the study. At the end of the study they weighed them again and measured their waist circumference and skin fold thickness. The results were adjusted for weight at the start of the study.

Central obesity - defined as a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more or a waist circumference over 80 centimetres - was found in 25% of the women who had been given the probiotics as well as diet advice. That compared with 43% of the women who got dietary counselling alone and 40% of the women who got neither diet advice nor probiotics. The average body fat percentage in the probiotics group was 28%, compared with 29% in the diet advice only group and 30% in the third group.

Laitinen said further research is needed to confirm the potential role of probiotics in fighting obesity. One of the limitations of the study was that it did not control for the mothers' weight before pregnancy, which may influence how fat they later become.

She said she and her colleagues will continue to follow the women and their babies to see whether giving probiotics during pregnancy has any influence on health outcomes in the children.

The advantage of studying pregnant women to investigate the potential link between probiotics and obesity is that it allows us to see the effects not only in the women, but also in their children, she said. Particularly during pregnancy, the impacts of obesity can be immense, with the effects seen both in the mother and the child. Bacteria are passed from mother to child through the birth canal, as well as through breast milk and research indicates that early nutrition may influence the risk of obesity later in life. There is growing evidence that this approach might open a new angle on the fight against obesity, either through prevention or treatment.

Latinen's study was funded by the Social Insurance Institution of Finland, the Academy of Finland and the Sigrid Juselius Foundation, a Finnish medical research charity.

Now chicken soup for blood pressure, too

Sun, 19 Apr 2009 10:12:32 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Washington, April 11 - Chicken soup with matzoh balls, a staple of the traditional Jewish dinner, may be good in reversing high blood pressure - too, according to the latest findings.

Japanese scientist Ai Saiga and colleagues cited previous studies indicating that chicken breast contains collagen proteins with effects similar to ACE inhibitors, mainstay medications for treating high BP.

But chicken breast contains such small amounts of the proteins that it could not be used to develop food and medical products for the condition.

Chicken legs and feet, often discarded as waste products in the US but key soup ingredients elsewhere, appear to be a better source.

Saiga and colleagues extracted collagen from chicken legs and tested its ability to act as an ACE inhibitor in lab studies. They identified four different proteins in the collagen mixture with high ACE-inhibitory activity, said a release of the American Chemical Society.

Given to rats used to model human high BP, the proteins produced a significant and prolonged decrease in blood pressure, the researchers say.

These findings were published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

Children who are dissatisfied with their appearance often have problems with their peer group

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Being satisfied with one's appearance is one of the most important prerequisites for a positive self image. However, in today's appearance culture it is the rule rather than the exception that children and young people are dissatisfied with their appearance.

Those children who are teased or subject to bullying are particularly critical of their appearance - and they tend to be this way over a long period. This is revealed in a new thesis in psychology from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

In her thesis Carolina Lunde has followed almost 1,000 children between the ages of 10 and 14. The aim has been to investigate the link between body image and peer group relationships.

An important conclusion is that both boys and girls become more dissatisfied with their body and their appearance during this age bracket - even though the girls were consistently more dissatisfied with their appearance than the boys.

The early teens can therefore be regarded as a high risk period for acquiring a negative body image. The children who weighed the most at 10 years old were particularly dissatisfied with their appearance. Furthermore, overweight children, primarily girls, were bullied and teased about their appearance considerably more often than the other children in the study.

Overweight children who are bullied can therefore be said to bear a double burden, which means that they are in the risk zone in terms of developing a negative body image.

As negative attitudes towards overweight people are formed when children are young, Carolina Lunde feels that it is important to try to counteract these prejudices at an early stage.

The fact that children and young people have a negative body image can have a number of serious psychological consequences. It increases the risk of developing eating disorders and depression. Exercising too much is also related to a negative body image. Being dissatisfied with one's appearance can also limit children and young people in their everyday lives.

They might focus to such an extent on their dissatisfaction with their appearance that they find it difficult to think of anything else. Avoiding situations that make them feel self-conscious and uncomfortable, getting changed for sports activities at school for example, is also common.

Carolina Lunde says that the title of the thesis What people tell you gets to you is a direct quotation from one of the young people who took part in one of the studies. The most dissatisfied young people indicated that their parents and their peer group frequently commented negatively about their appearance.

It might be the case that being bullied and teased about one's appearance during the early teens when the body is changing so much has a particularly negative impact on body image, observes Carolina Lunde.

Evolutionary link to modern-day obesity, other problems

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 05:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) EVANSTON, Ill. --- That irresistible craving for a cheeseburger has its roots in the dramatic growth of the human brain and body that resulted from environmental changes some 2 million years ago.

Higher quality, nutritionally dense diets became necessary to fuel the high-energy demands of humans' exceptionally large brains and for developing the first rudimentary hunting and gathering economy.

But the transition from a subsistence to a modern, sedentary lifestyle has created energy imbalances that have increased rapidly -- evolutionarily speaking -- in recent years and now play a major role in obesity.

Activity patterns must get every bit as much attention as consumption of unhealthy foods in any attempt to reverse the modern-day permeations of an evolutionary trend that now contributes to obesity worldwide, according to William Leonard.

Leonard, chair and professor of anthropology at Northwestern University, will discuss his work during the 2009 American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) meeting in Chicago at a press briefing that will take place at 2 p.m. Feb. 12 and during a symposium from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. Feb. 13.

Two million years ago shifts in foraging behavior and dietary quality helped to provide the energy and nutrition to support the rapid evolutionary increases in both the brain and body sizes of our ancestors.

Today modern humans use nearly a quarter of their resting energy needs to feed our brains, considerably more than other primates (about 8 to 10 percent) or other mammals (3 to 5 percent). To support the high-energy costs of our large brains, humans consume diets that are much richer in calories and nutrients than those of other primates.

While our large-bodied ape relatives -- chimps, gorillas and orangutans -- can subsist on leaves and fruit, we needed to consume meat and other energy-rich foods to support our metabolic demands, Leonard said.

Staple foods for all human societies are much more nutritionally dense than those of other large-bodied primates. To obtain these higher-quality diets, our foraging ancestors would have had to have moved over larger areas than our ape relatives, requiring large activity budgets, he said.

But substantial reductions of intense physical activities for adults living a modern lifestyle in the industrialized world have dramatically lowered the metabolic costs of survival.

The differences between energy in and energy out widen as we increase the nutritional density of our diets while reducing the time and energy associated with obtaining food. Think about our ancestors, Leonard said. Human hunter-gatherers typically move 8 miles per day in the search for food. In contrast, we can simply pick up the phone to get a meal delivered to our door.

That decline in daily energy expenditures contributes not only to obesity, but also to other chronic diseases of the modern world, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. In a sense, those modern diseases represent where we started early in our evolutionary history, Leonard said.

The data clearly suggest the obesity epidemic cannot be understood solely by looking at consumption, he stressed. Throughout most of our evolutionary history, the acquisition of our high-quality diets required substantial expenditure of energy and movement over much larger areas than for other primates.

The imbalance between energy intake and energy expenditure today, Leonard concludes, is the root cause of obesity in the industrialized world.

Both theories about human cellular aging supported by new research

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 05:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Aging yeast cells accumulate damage over time, but they do so by following a pattern laid down earlier in their life by diet as well as the genes that control metabolism and the dynamics of cell structures such as mitochondria, the power plants of cells.

These research findings, presented at the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) 48th Annual Meeting, Dec. 13-17, 2008 in San Francisco, support the theories that old age is the final stage of a developmental program AND the result of a lifelong accumulation of unrepaired cellular and molecular damage.

The diet plus metabolic genes pattern is a modular longevity network, says Vladimir Titorenko of Concordia University in Montreal, who studies baker's yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, as a simpler model for the complex mechanisms of human cellular aging.

Through the yeast model, Titorenko and colleagues identified five groups of novel anti-aging small molecules that significantly delayed aging.

The scientists first identified a mechanism closely linking life span to the dynamics of such lipids as cholesterol, triglycerides and fatty acids: When fatty acids build up, yeast cells explode from within, scattering their contents and spreading inflammation to neighboring cells.

In addition to cell death, the accumulation of fatty acids sets off chemical reactions that ultimately produce a lipid called diacylglycerol, which impairs many of the yeast's stress response-related defenses.

Knowing the link between life span and lipid dynamics, the scientists next evaluated aging effects of both calorie-rich and low-calorie diets.

The calorie-rich diet suppressed the oxidation of fatty acids in peroxisomes, structures in cells that use enzymes to neutralize toxic peroxides.

These fatty acids are constantly synthesized in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), the cell's protein manufacturing factory. Without peroxisome processing, fatty acids end up deposited within lipid bodies.

Low-calorie diets, which have been shown to increase lifespan and delay age-related disorders in nonhuman primates and other organisms, altered the way fats were processed in the yeast cells.

The researchers assessed calorie restriction along with a number of known mutations that extend yeast lifespan against a variety of age-related changes in fat metabolism and lipid transport.

To determine whether the diet-aging mechanism could be manipulated by a therapeutic drug, Titorenko and his colleagues developed a life-span assay for a high-throughput screening of multi-compound chemical libraries.

The assay identified five groups of novel anti-aging small molecules that significantly delayed yeast aging by remodeling lipid dynamics in the ER, peroxisomes and lipid bodies or by activating stress response-related processes in mitochondria.

These small molecules can be used as research tools to investigate the mechanisms of longevity, says Titorenko, and as possible pharmaceutical agents for age-related disorders that affect lipid metabolism such as heart disease, chronic inflammation, and Type 2 diabetes.

Avoid refined carbohydrates, chocolates to prevent pimples

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 11:38:10 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Shun refined carbohydrates and chocolates if you really want to avoid pimples, according to a new study conducted in Australia.

The first randomised controlled trial on diet and acne in more than 40 years has established that a protein-based, low GI - diet could have a dramatic effect on acne symptoms.

GI is a measure for calculating the glucose level of the blood. A low GI diet contains foods that have a low glucose level.

'Diet has long been thought to be the cause of acne, with chocolate most often named as a culprit, but I was surprised how little scientific research had been done in this area,' said Robyn Smith, who studied the affect of diet on acne for her doctoral thesis.

'My research found that a low GI diet significantly reduced acne lesion counts when compared with the conventional high carb, high GI Western diet.

'A diet designed to fight acne should contain minimally refined carbohydrate-based foods and include a wide variety of fresh fruits, vegetables, wholegrains, lean meats, fish and seafood,' she said.

Smith worked with Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology - Hospital's staff from the department of dermatology on the trial, which involved 43 teenage boys following two different diets over 12 weeks, said an RMIT release.

One group followed the typical western teen diet of refined and highly processed carbohydrate foods while the other group ate a more natural diet higher in protein and low GI foods such as whole grain bread, pasta and legumes.

'Those on the low GI diet reduced facial acne by 50 per cent, and showed improvements in their self-esteem and overall wellbeing,' Smith said.

These findings have been published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology and the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Moderate wine intake may be way to a healthier heart

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 14:44:16 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Moderate wine intake may be the way to a healthier heart, as it is associated with higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids which protects the vital organ, a new study suggests.

Omega-3 fatty acids, mainly derived from fish, are considered as protective against coronary heart disease and sudden cardiac death, thus their high blood concentration is definitely good for our health, the study said.

The study suggests that wine does better than other alcoholic drinks. This effect could be ascribed to compounds other than alcohol itself, representing a key to understanding the mechanism lying behind heart protection in moderate wine drinkers.

The IMMIDIET study examined 1,604 individuals from three geographical areas: south-west London in England, Limburg in Belgium and Abruzzo in Italy.

Thanks to close cooperation with general practitioners of these areas, all participants underwent a comprehensive medical examination, including a one year recall food frequency questionnaire to assess their dietary intake, alcohol consumption included.

Now European researchers found that moderate alcohol drinking acts like a 'trigger', boosting the amount of omega-3 fatty acids in our body, said an IMMIDIET release.

'Several studies have shown that moderate alcohol consumption, including wine, is associated with protection against coronary heart disease and ischemic stroke - said Romina di Giuseppe, co-author of the study, from the Research Laboratories at Catholic University of Campobasso.

These findings will be published in the January issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Calorie restriction and exercise show breast cancer prevention differences in postmenopausal women

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 05:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) WASHINGTON, D.C. - Scientists at the University of Texas at Austin have identified pathways by which a reduced-calorie diet and exercise can modify a postmenopausal woman's risk of breast cancer.

The results, presented at the American Association for Cancer Research's Seventh Annual International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research, suggest that both caloric restriction and exercise affect pathways leading to mTOR, a molecule involved in integrating energy balance with cell growth. Dysregulation of the mTOR pathway is a contributing factor to various human diseases, including cancers. Diet and exercise reach mTOR through different means, with calorie restriction affecting more upstream pathways, which could explain why caloric restriction is more efficient in delaying tumor growth than exercise in animal models.

One of the few breast cancer modifiable risk factors is obesity, said lead author Leticia M. Nogueira, Ph.D., a research graduate assistant at the University of Texas. Our study may provide a good scientific basis for medical recommendations. If you're obese, and at high risk for breast cancer, diet and exercise could help prevent tumor growth.

Epidemiological data has suggested that inducing a so-called negative energy balance (where less energy is taken in than expended) through eating a low-calorie diet or increasing exercise levels, decreases the postmenopausal breast cancer risk associated with obesity. Although the mechanism responsible for these anti-obesity strategies was unknown, scientists have suspected hormone alteration plays a critical role. Increased fat tissue is known to be associated with alterations in adipokines, proteins secreted by fat tissue that help modify appetite and insulin resistance. For example, increased levels of leptin and decreased levels of adiponectin have been associated with breast cancer risk.

For the study, Nogueira and colleagues sought to compare the changes in adipokines, and their downstream signaling pathways proven to be altered in human breast cancers, following either caloric restriction or exercise in a mouse model of post-menopausal obesity.

For eight weeks, they administered a high-fat diet to 45 mice that had their ovaries surgically removed to model the post-menopausal state. During week nine of the study, the diet-induced obese mice were randomly assigned to one of three groups: a control group, permitted to eat at will; a group fed a diet reduced in calories by 30 percent; and a group that was permitted to eat at will but exercised on a treadmill for 45 minutes a day, five days a week. At week 16, researchers collected tissue from the mice for analysis.

Breast milk provides baby molecule to build immunity

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 13:58:36 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Washington, Oct 27 - A molecule holds the key to mothers' ability to strengthen the immunity of the baby through breast milk, according to a latest research.

The study highlights the amazing change that takes place in a mother's body when she begins producing breast milk.

Years before her pregnancy, cells that produce antibodies against intestinal infections travel around her circulatory system and regularly take an 'off-ramp' to her intestine.

There they stand guard against infections like cholera or rotavirus. But once she begins lactating, some of these antibody-producing cells suddenly begin taking a different off-ramp that leads to the mammary glands.

That way, when her baby nurses, the antibodies go straight to their intestine and offer protection while the baby builds up its own immunity. This is why previous studies have shown that formula-fed infants have twice the incidence of diarroheal illness as breast-fed infants.

Until now, scientists did not know how the mother's body signalled the antibody-producing cells to take the different off-ramp. The new study identifies the molecule that gives them the green light.

'Everybody hears that breast feeding is good for the baby,' said Eric Wilson, Brigham Young University microbiologist who is a co-author of the study.

'But why is it good? One of the reasons is that mothers' milk carries protective antibodies which shield the newborn from infection, and this study demonstrates the molecular mechanisms used by the mother's body to get these antibody-producing cells where they need to be.'

Understanding the role of the molecule, called CCR10, also has implications for potential future efforts to help mothers better protect their infants, according to a release from the Brigham University.

Wilson's other co-authors are Yuetching Law, Kathryn Distelhorst and Erica D. Hill.

Harvard Medical School co-authors are Olivier Morteau, Craig Gerard, Bao Lu, Sorina Ghiran and Miriam Rits. Stanford University School of Medicine co-authors are Raymond Kwan, Nicole H. Lazarus and Eugene C. Butcher.

These findings are scheduled for publication in Nov 1 issue of the Journal of Immunology.

Nutrition advice best served with family in mind

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Researchers at the University of Sheffield and Royal Holloway, University of London will argue today (21 October 2008) that the nation's diet is unlikely to improve significantly if healthy eating policies fail to take into account the diverse nature of contemporary family life.

Recent government initiatives have attempted to change people's dietary behaviour and the amount of exercise they take. But, despite compelling evidence of the need for healthier eating, families remain ambivalent about altering their eating habits.

The researchers argue that if government initiatives, such as improving the quality of school meals or increasing the nation's consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables, are to succeed they need to acknowledge that families have differing domestic routines, relationships and resources and this affects how and what they eat.

Much of the current policy literature provides factual information on healthy eating and is aimed at individuals rather than families. However, the researchers discovered that decisions about what to eat aren't simply a matter of individual choice but are instead rooted in people's diverse family circumstances, embedded in the routines and rhythms of their everyday lives, subject to their available resources and shaped by their social, ethnic and religious ties.

Most people are aware that they need to eat 'five-a-day' but many don't achieve these targets because they are forced to act within their circumstances. Poorer families may be acting rationally when serving 'junk' food to their children knowing that 'healthier' meals will simply go to waste. To truly improve the nation's diet a better understanding of social and cultural conventions is required in order to inform more effective health advice and social policy around families and food.

Professor Jackson of the University of Sheffield said: If government advice on healthy eating is to have a serious impact, it needs to be framed within a better understanding of the diversity of our everyday family lives.

Policies and interventions have often looked to redress a perceived deficit in family relationships and practices (e.g. parenting skills). Although government policy makes some acknowledgement of the impact of poverty and other social factors, this often takes second place to the 'blame' culture.

People may have been shocked to see mothers sneaking 'junk' food into schools after Jamie Oliver's high-profile intervention but instead of turning the spotlight on them, the government needs to look at the root causes of why parents behave in this way.

The research provides convincing evidence that food is a powerful lens through which to view recent changes in family life (and vice versa). As families are changing - with fewer and later marriages, more single-person households, increased numbers of divorced and separated couples - so too are food cultures. This has included the rise of 'convenience' foods, new cooking technologies and an increased emphasis on snacking rather than formal meals.

Funded by The Leverhulme Trust, the research provides new insights into contemporary family life and challenges many received ideas about families and food.

Other research findings include:

Sweat it out: UH study examines ability of sweat patches to monitor bone loss

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Some health assessments that are routinely carried out on Earth are not practical when the patients are free-floating astronauts on long space flights, such as missions to Mars or the Moon. A new, NASA-funded study from the University of Houston department of health and human performance will examine how well sweat patches the size of adhesive strips can detect levels of chemicals that may indicate bone loss.

Current assessments involve blood tests, urine analysis or bone density scans, all of which are time-consuming, inconvenient to the working astronauts or, in the case of bone density scans, require large equipment that's not practical on a space station, said Mark Clarke, associate professor and principal investigator. These patches are small, non-intrusive, and placed on the skin to collect a sweat sample. The sample is then analyzed for biomarkers of bone loss markers, such as calcium.

The three-year, $780,000 study will examine three types of sweat patches, each differing in the way the sweat is collected and extracted from the devices. One device collects the sweat between the skin and a plastic layer; another is a commercially used patch that absorbs the sweat and is then reconstituted with water. The third is called a Microfabricated Sweat Patch (MSP) built using micro-chip inspired-technology. Sweat is removed from the MSP using a mini-centrifuge. The technology was developed by Clarke and Daniel Feeback, a lead scientist with NASA's Life Science Directorate.

Our goal is to develop a micro-fabricated sweat patch that collects a sweat sample from the skin, performs a biomarker analysis and immediately provides a read-out to the user, said Clarke. The first phase of the study will determine if sweat can be used to monitor bone loss. Next, it will determine which patch technology most accurately measures the chemicals associated with bone loss.

The last phase of the study will look specifically at the MSP and will involve 60 people, from young college students to elderly men and women, to new Air Force recruits. Each will wear a series of patches during normal daily activities and then perform exercises at the UH Laboratory of Integrated Physiology. The patches then will be collected and the sweat analyzed. Changes in bone also will be monitored using bone mineral density scans performed in the department. Clarke expects this phase of the project to span at least eight months.

Being in a microgravity environment causes astronauts' bodies to lose more bone mineral than they can replace, which makes them vulnerable to fractures and breaks. Even when they return to Earth, the bone loss continues as their bodies slowly begin the process of replacing the bone mineral content. This is a critical concern, especially as the space program considers longer space missions to Mars or the Moon.

Clarke says the research has applications for those susceptible to bone loss, such as the elderly, post-menopausal women and adolescent girls

Typically, it takes up to six months to see if changes in your exercise and eating habits are helping to maintain or increase bone mineral density, Clarke said. Astronauts on long flights need this information quicker so that they can make adjustments to their exercise protocols, diet or drug treatments. Similarly, bone loss in women can be seen as early as the teen years, so this kind of fast and easy screening device can provide advance notice to fend off serious bone density issues later in their lives.

A stronger future for the elderly

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Experts at The University of Nottingham are to investigate the effect of nutrients on muscle maintenance in the hope of determining better ways of keeping up our strength as we get old.

The researchers, based at the School of Graduate Entry Medicine and Health in Derby, want to know what sort of exercise we can take and what food we should eat to slow down the natural loss of skeletal muscle with ageing.

The team from the Department of Clinical Physiology, which has over 20 years experience in carrying out this type of metabolic study, need to recruit 16 healthy male volunteers in two specific age groups to help in it's research.

Skeletal muscles make up about half of our body weight and are responsible for controlling movement and maintaining posture. However, at around 50 years of age our muscles begin to waste at approximately 0.5 per cent to one per cent a year. It means that an 80 year old may only have 70 per cent of the muscle of a 50 year old.

Since the strength of skeletal muscle is proportional to muscle size, such wasting makes it harder to carry out daily activities requiring strength, such as climbing stairs and leads to a loss of independence and an increased risk of falls and fractures.

In order for skeletal muscles to maintain their size, the large reservoirs of muscle protein require constant replenishment in the way of amino acids from protein contained within the food we eat. In fact, amino acids from our food act not only as the building blocks of muscle proteins but also actually 'tell' our muscle cells to build proteins.

Recent research from the clinical physiology team has shown that the cause of muscle wasting with ageing appears to be an attenuation of muscle building in response to protein feeding. In other words, as we age we lose the ability to covert the protein in the food we eat in to muscle tissue. The proposed research will investigate the mechanisms responsible for this deficit.

Dr Philip Atherton, who is currently recruiting volunteers, said: I am really excited to be involved in this project because if we can determine ways to better maintain muscle mass as we age it will greatly benefit us all.

The researchers are looking for 16 healthy, non-smoking, male volunteers aged 18 to 25 and 65 to 75.

Initially, the volunteers will undergo a health screening and then on a different day, under the supervision of a doctor, will be infused with an amino acid mixture to simulate feeding along with a 'tagged' amino acid that allows them to assess muscle building. To make these measures, blood samples will be taken from the arm and muscle biopsies from the thigh muscle under local anaesthesia. Volunteers will receive an honorarium to cover their expenses.

Second Life a first for UH department of health and human performance

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) The University of Houston department of health and human performance is expanding into the virtual world of Second Life (SL) thanks to grants from the UH Faculty Development Initiative Program (FDIP) and the Network Culture Project of the University of Southern California-Annenberg School for Communication.

These funds will allow our faculty to stake ground in Second Life for the benefit of our students and our community, said Charles Layne, professor and department chair. Layne received a $30,000 Technology and Retention Research award from the FDIP to investigate whether students who use SL for academic reasons get better grades than those who do not, or if they earn their degrees sooner (or at all) than those who do not.

We know young people easily accept new technology, but we want to know if using technology like Second Life, which immerses participants in a new world, can create an environment that is supportive of students' academic endeavors, Layne said. There isn't a lot of literature on the use of virtual environments in this way. This program evaluation began during summer 2007 and will continue for at least the next three years and may become a permanent fixture if it proves to be successful.

Brian McFarlin, assistant professor of health and human performance, is no stranger to instructional technology. His study on 'hybrid classes' found that students who took a hybrid exercise physiology class earned a letter grade higher than their counterparts who took the class in traditional settings. He's now received $25,000 from the FDIP to move an entire class, Public Health Issues in Physical Activity and Obesity, into Second Life. He says SL technology will allow him to present material in ways that are not possible with traditional online teaching tools.

For example, in discussions on how obesity impacts the heart, I can make a 3-D model of a healthy heart and a diseased heart and allow the students to view the inside of the left ventricle to demonstrate how blood flow is altered by disease, McFarlin said. I want to be mindful of what students want. It's about them and trying to give them a better learning experience. He anticipates the SL section of his course will be offered in spring 2009.

The Texas Obesity Research Center (TORC), housed in the department, will move some of its research to SL in hopes of using its international reach to promote healthful dietary habits and physical activity. TORC was the winner of the Network Culture Project contest, sponsored by the University of Southern California-Annenberg School for Communication. The contest solicited proposals from around the world for ways to use SL to promote the public good. TORC received 300,000 Linden, the currency of SL, for its proposal to use the medium to prevent and treat obesity through education, skills training and outreach.

We hope to develop multi-national collaborations in SL to increase awareness, knowledge, skills and support for healthy living, Rebecca Lee, TORC director and associate professor, said. Reducing obesity is an international priority, and SL provides a portal to an international community. The program will emphasize learning and virtual sampling of healthful lifestyle habits. Lee's study will enroll 500 resident avatars and invite them to participate in educational games and activities to help them learn to adopt a healthier lifestyle in real life.

Technology presents many opportunities to creatively use new venues to improve the way we live and learn, Layne said. UH and our department want to be at the forefront of those opportunities so that we can make a positive contribution to our community and world.

Fresh from the grapevine to the table

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) BET DAGAN, ISRAEL - Table grapes are subject to serious water loss and decay while making the long trip from the vine to dinner tables around the world. Mold and browning of the stems are the two main factors that reduce grape quality during shipping and storage in retail produce sections.

Pads placed over the fruit packed in boxes are one way of ensuring that consumers get fresh, appealing fruits. The pads release sulfur dioxide, or SO2 , a chemical used to prevent mold and decaying of table grapes. Sulfur dioxide as a method of controlling decay has been in use for over 75 years. Since the late 1960s, grape producers and packers have favored use of a dual-release pad, which can keep grapes from decaying for extended periods.

Two methods are presently used for transporting the packed grapes. One method is to place a perforated plastic liner inside each box, put the grapes in the liner, and then cool. The the other method is to cool the boxed grapes and then externally wrap the entire pallet of boxes. In both cases, a SO2 pad is placed in each box.

Researchers in the Department of Postharvest Science at the Agricultural Research Organization of Israel's Volcani Center recently compared both packing methods for their efficiency in maintaining grape quality and preventing decay for periods ranging from 33 to 117 days. The experiments included 'Redglobe' and 'Zainy' grapes packaged in plastic boxes and 'Thompson Seedless' grapes packaged in cardboard boxes.

The study concluded that the quality of the grapes in the trials with plastic boxes was either similar in both packaging methods or better in the wrapped pallet than the liner method. Prevention of decay was also better with the wrapped pallets than for storage in liners. In the experiment with cardboard boxes, however, the externally wrapped boxes contained lower levels of SO2, probably because the cardboard absorbed more SO2, and the grapes developed more decay than when perforated liners were used.

Although the most commonly used method of grape packaging for long-distance shipment is the use of perforated liners, the study proved using external wrapping of pallets with low-density polyethylene film can be as effective as the liner method in preventing grape decay. The external wrapping method has significant advantages over the use of box liners: it allows faster precooling of grapes and is more economical than using individual liners. The pallet wrapping method works best when used with recyclable plastic boxes, as the plastic boxes do not absorb the SO2. A bonus for the environmentally conscious industry: plastic boxes also can be more environmentally viable than traditional cardboard boxes.

NOAA and Louisiana scientists predict largest Gulf of Mexico 'dead zone' on record

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) NOAA-supported scientists from the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium and Louisiana State University are forecasting that the dead zone off the coast of Louisiana and Texas in the Gulf of Mexico this summer could be the largest on record.

The researchers are predicting the area could measure a record 8,800 square miles, or roughly the size of New Jersey. In 2007, the dead zone was 7,903 square miles. The largest dead zone on record was in 2002, when it measured 8,481 square miles. The official measurement of this year's dead zone is slated to be released in late July. Researchers began taking regular measurements of the dead zone in 1985.

The prediction of a large dead zone this summer is due to a combination of large influx of nitrogen and exceptionally high flows from the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers, said LSU scientist R. Eugene Turner.

The dead zone is an area in the Gulf of Mexico where seasonal oxygen levels drop too low to support most life in bottom and near-bottom waters. This low oxygen, or hypoxic, area is primarily caused by high nutrient levels, which stimulates an overgrowth of algae that sinks and decomposes. The decomposition process in turn depletes dissolved oxygen in the water. The dead zone is of particular concern because it threatens valuable commercial and recreational Gulf fisheries.

Research indicates that the nearly tripling of nitrogen levels into the Gulf over the past 50 years from human activities has led to a dramatic increase in the size of the dead zone. Various models are useful in evaluating the influence of nitrogen loads and other factors on the size of the dead zone. The LSU model has a strong track record of accurately predicting the dead zone's size.

The strong link between nutrients and the dead zone indicates that excess nutrients from the Mississippi River watershed during the spring are the primary human-influenced factor behind the expansion of the dead zone, said Rob Magnien, director of the NOAA Center for Sponsored Coastal Ocean Research. This analysis will greatly inform the development of federal, state and local efforts to reduce the dead zone's size.

The forecast is based on a mathematical model developed by LSU through NOAA's long-term research investment by CSCOR's Gulf of Mexico Ecosystems and Hypoxia Assessment. The model incorporates U.S. Geological Survey data on the amount of nitrogen reaching the Gulf of Mexico in May. NOAA has been funding investigations into the dead zone since 1990.

Water: The forgotten crisis

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) This year, the world and, in particular, developing countries and the poor have been hit by both food and energy crises. As a consequence, prices for many staple foods have risen by up to 100%. When we examine the causes of the food crisis, a growing population, changes in trade patterns, urbanization, dietary changes, biofuel production, and climate change and regional droughts are all responsible. Thus we have a classic increase in prices due to high demand and low supply. However, few commentators specifically mention the declining availability of water that is needed to grow irrigated and rainfed crops. According to some, the often mooted solution to the food crisis lies in plant breeding that produces the ultimate high yielding, low water- consuming crops. While this solution is important, it will fail unless attention is paid to where the water for all food, fibre and energy crops is going to come from.

A few years ago, IWMI (the International Water Management Institute) demonstrated that many countries are facing severe water scarcity, either as a result of a lack of available fresh water, or due to a lack of investment in water infrastructure such as dams and reservoirs. What makes matters worse is that this scarcity predominantly affects developing countries where the majority of the world's under-nourished people-- approximately 840 million -- live.

The causes of water scarcity are essentially identical to those of the food crisis. There are serious and extremely worrying factors that indicate water supplies are steadily being used up. Essentially every calorie of food requires a liter of water to produce it. Thus those of us on western diets, use about 2500-3000 liters per day. A further 2.5 billion people by 2030 will mean that we have to find over 2000 more cubic kilometers of fresh water to feed them. This is not any easy task given that current water usage for food production is 7500 cubic kilometers and supplies are scarce. According to the recent report Water for Food, Water for Life of the Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture, which drew on the work of 700 scientists, unless we change the way we use water and increase water productivity (i.e. more crop per drop) we will not have enough water to feed the world's growing population (This population is estimated to increase from 6 billion now to about 8.5 billion in 25 years.) Compared with the lengthy agenda to combat climate change, this is a very short time indeed and yet the impacts of water scarcity will be profound. However, very little is being done about it in most countries.

Since the formulation of the UN Millennium Goals in 2002, much of the water agenda has been focused around the provision of drinking water and sanitation. This water comes from the same sources as agricultural water and as we urbanize and improve living standards there will be increasing competition for drinking water from domestic and other urban users, putting agriculture under further pressure. While improving drinking water and sanitation is vital with respect to health and living standards, we cannot afford to neglect the provision and improved productivity of water for agriculture.

There are potential solutions. Better water storage has to be considered. Ethiopia, which is typical of many sub-Saharan African countries, has a water storage capacity of 38 cubic meters per person. Australia has almost 5000 cubic meters per person, an amount that in the face of current climate change impacts may be inadequate. While there will be a need for new large and medium-sized dams to deal with this critical lack of storage in Africa, other simpler solutions are also part of the equation. These include the construction of small reservoirs, sustainable use of groundwater systems including artificial groundwater recharge and rainwater harvesting for smallholder vegetable gardens. Improved year- round access to water will help farmers maintain their own food security using simple supplementary irrigation techniques. The redesign of both the physical and institutional arrangements of some large and often dysfunctional irrigation schemes will also bring the required productivity increases. Safe, risk free reuse of wastewater from growing cities will also be needed. Of course these actions need to be paralleled by development of drought- tolerant crops, and the provision of infrastructure and facilities to get fresh food to markets.

A little milk could go a long way for your heart

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Grabbing as little as one glass of lowfat or fat free milk could help protect your heart, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Researchers found that adults who had at least one serving of lowfat milk or milk products each day had 37 percent lower odds of poor kidney function linked to heart disease compared to those who drank little or no lowfat milk.

To determine heart disease risk, researchers from several universities in the United States and Norway measured the kidney function of more than 5,000 older adults ages 45 to 84. They tracked eating patterns and tested albumin-to-creatinine ratio (ACR) – a measure that when too low, can indicate poor kidney function and an extremely high risk for cardiovascular disease, according to the American Heart Association.

Researchers found that people who reported consuming more lowfat milk and milk products had lower ACR, or healthier kidney function. In fact, lowfat milk and milk products was the only food group evaluated that on its own, was significantly linked to a reduced risk for kidney dysfunction. The study authors cited other research suggesting milk protein, vitamin D, magnesium and calcium may contribute to milk's potential heart health benefits.

An overall healthy diet, including lowfat milk and milk products, whole grains, fruits and vegetables was also associated with a benefit – 20 percent lower ACR or healthier kidney function.

The National Kidney Foundation estimates that kidney disease affects about 26 million Americans – and kidney disease is both a cause and a consequence of cardiovascular disease, the number one killer of Americans. An estimated one out of three adults is currently living with some form of cardiovascular disease.

Milk provides nine essential nutrients, including calcium, vitamin A, vitamin D, protein and potassium. The U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend drinking three glasses of lowfat or fat free milk each day.

Photo: Mel B. on Flickr, Creative Commons License

New UGA invention effectively kills foodborne pathogens in minutes

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) University of Georgia researchers have developed an effective technology for reducing contamination of dangerous bacteria on food. The new antimicrobial wash rapidly kills Salmonella and E. coli O157:H7 on foods ranging from fragile lettuce to tomatoes, fruits, poultry products and meats. It is made from inexpensive and readily available ingredients that are recognized as safe by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The new technology, which has commercial application for the produce, poultry, meat and egg processing industries, is available for licensing from the University of Georgia Research Foundation, Inc., which has filed a patent application on the new technology.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that, in the U.S. alone, foodborne pathogens are responsible for 76 million illnesses every year. Of the people affected by those illnesses, 300,000 are hospitalized and more than 5,000 die. These widespread outbreaks of food-borne illnesses are attributed, in part, to the fast-paced distribution of foods across the nation. Recently, raw tomatoes caused an outbreak of salmonellosis that sickened more than 300 people in at least 28 states and Canada.

Currently, a chlorine wash is frequently used in a variety of ways to reduce harmful bacteria levels on vegetables, fruits and poultry, but because of chlorine's sensitivity to food components and extraneous materials released in chlorinated water treatments, many bacteria survive. Chlorine is toxic at high concentrations, may produce off-flavors and undesirable appearance of certain food products, and it can only be used in conjunction with specialized equipment and trained personnel. In addition, chlorine may be harmful to the environment.

We can't rely on chlorine to eliminate pathogens on foods, said Michael Doyle, one of the new technology's inventors and director of UGA's Center for Food Safety. This new technology is effective, safe for consumers and food processing plant workers, and does not affect the appearance or quality of the product. It may actually extend the shelf-life of some types of produce.

Doyle is an internationally recognized authority on food safety whose research focuses on developing methods to detect and control food-borne bacterial pathogens at all levels of the food continuum, from the farm to the table. He has served as a scientific advisor to many groups, including the World Health Organization, the Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The new antimicrobial technology, developed by Doyle and Center for Food Safety researcher Tong Zhao, uses a combination of ingredients that kills bacteria within one to five minutes from application. It can be used as a spray and immersion solution, and its concentration can be adjusted for treatment of fragile foods such as leafy produce, more robust foods such as poultry, or food preparation equipment and food transportation vehicles.

The effectiveness, easy storage and application, and low cost of this novel antibacterial make it applicable not only at food processing facilities, but also at points-of-sale and at home, restaurants and military bases. The development of this technology is timely, given the recent, sequential outbreaks of foodborne pathogens, said Gennaro Gama, UGARF technology manager in charge of licensing this technology.

Study links vitamin D to colon cancer survival

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) BOSTON--Patients diagnosed with colon cancer who had abundant vitamin D in their blood were less likely to die during a follow-up period than those who were deficient in the vitamin, according to a new study by scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

The findings of the study -- the first to examine the effect of vitamin D among colorectal cancer patients -- merit further research, but it is too early to recommend supplements as a part of treatment, say the investigators from Dana-Farber and the Harvard School of Public Health.

In a report in the June 20 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the authors note that previous research has shown that higher levels of vitamin D reduce the risk of developing colon and rectal cancer by about 50 percent, but the effect on outcomes wasn't known. To examine this question, the investigators, led by Kimmie Ng, MD, MPH, and Charles Fuchs, MD, MPH, of Dana-Farber, analyzed data from two long-running epidemiologic studies whose participants gave blood samples and whose health has been monitored for many years.

They identified 304 participants in the Nurses' Health Study and the Health Professionals Followup Study who were diagnosed with colorectal cancer between 1991 and 2002. All had had vitamin D levels measured in blood samples given at least two year prior to their diagnosis. Each patient's vitamin D measurement was ranked by quartiles -- the top 25 percent, the next lowest 25 percent, and so on. Those whose levels were in the lowest quartile were considered deficient in vitamin D.

The researchers followed the 304 patients until they died or until 2005, whichever occurred first. During that period, 123 patients died, with 96 of them dying from colon or rectal cancer. The researchers then looked for associations between the patients' previously measured vitamin D blood levels and whether they had died or survived.

The results showed that individuals with the vitamin D levels in the highest quartile were 48 percent less likely to die (from any cause, including colon cancer) than those with the lowest vitamin D measurements. The odds of dying from colon cancer specifically were 39 percent lower, the scientists found.

Our data suggest that higher prediagnosis plasma levels of [vitamin D] after a diagnosis of colorectal cancer may significantly improve overall survival, the authors wrote. Future trials should examine the role of vitamin D supplementation in patients with colorectal cancer.

The measurements of vitamin D in the patients' blood reflected both the amounts made by the body when exposed to sunlight and to all sources of the vitamin in their diets, said Ng. However, she added, there may be additional unknown factors that might account for individual differences. Patients with the highest vitamin D levels tended to have lower body-mass index (BMI) indicating that they were leaner, and also were more physically active. However, after controlling for BMI and physical activity, as well as other prognostic factors, higher vitamin D levels were still independently associated with better survival rates.

Ng said that a trial is being planned in which colon cancer patients will take vitamin D along with post-surgery chemotherapy to look for any benefits of the supplements.

Meanwhile, she said that individuals with colon cancer should consult their physicians as to whether they should add vitamin supplements to their daily regimen. Standard recommended daily amounts of vitamin D supplements range from 200 International Units (IU) per day for people under age 50 to 400 IU for people between 50 and 70, and 600 IU for those over 70.

'Addicted' cells provide early cancer diagnosis

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Scientists at the Institute of Food Research have detected subtle changes that may make the bowel more vulnerable to the development of tumours.

With support from the Food Standards Agency and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council they are investigating whether diet could control these changes and delay or reverse the onset of cancer.

We looked at changes in 18 genes that play a role in the very earliest stages of colorectal cancer, says Professor Ian Johnson at the Institute of Food Research.

We detected clear chemical differences in these genes in otherwise normal tissue in cancer patients.

This represents a new way to identify defects that could eventually lead to cancer.

All cells carry a complete set of instructions for the whole organism in their nuclear DNA, but to define the specialised structure and functions of each particular cell type, genes must be switched on or firmly off, over the course of the cell's life-cycle.

One of the mechanisms controlling the activities of the genes in a cell is the epigenetic code, a set of chemical tags attached to the DNA molecule, marking individual genes for expression, or for silence. It is well known that the abnormal behaviour of cancer cells is partly due to mistakes in this epigenetic code, some of which switch on genes for growth, whilst others switch off genes that would otherwise cause abnormal cells to destroy themselves.

Scientists at IFR are exploring the possibility that such mistakes in the epigenetic code may begin to occur in apparently normal tissues, long before the appearance of a tumour.

In the current study published in the British Journal of Cancer they measured the numbers of methyl groups attached to DNA taken from the cells lining the large intestine of bowel cancer patients. They found subtle changes that may make the whole surface of the bowel more vulnerable to the eventual development of tumours by causing the 'addiction' of cells to abnormal gene expression.

Some of these changes seem to occur naturally with age, but, supported by the Food Standards Agency, IFR is investigating the possibility that factors in our lifestyle such as diet, obesity and exercise can accelerate or delay DNA methylation as we grow older, thus giving us some degree of control over this vital aspect of our long-term health.

Professor Nigel Brown, Director of Science and Technology at BBSRC said: Basic research in the relatively young field of epigenetics is already contributing to our understanding of human health. Understanding how epigenetic processes work to maintain healthy cells and tissues is the key to long-term health because, as we see here, the breakdown of these normal processes may subsequently cause disease. BBSRC funds a range of research in the field of epigenetics and has been encouraging networking amongst members of the European epigenetics research community.

Substance in red wine found to keep hearts young

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- How do the French get away with a clean bill of heart health despite a diet loaded with saturated fats? Scientists have long suspected that the answer to the so-called French paradox lies in red wine. Now, the results of a new study bring them closer to understanding why.

Writing this week in the online, open-access journal Public Library of Science (PLoS) ONE, researchers from industry and academia, including the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Florida, report that low doses of resveratrol -- a natural constituent of grapes, pomegranates, red wine and other foods -- can potentially boost the quality of life by improving heart health in old age.

The scientists included small amounts of resveratrol in the diets of middle-aged mice and found that the compound has a widespread influence on the genetic causes of aging. Specifically, the researchers found that low doses of resveratrol mimic the heart-healthy effects of what is known as caloric restriction, diets with 20 to 30 percent fewer calories than a typical diet. The new study is important because it suggests that resveratrol and caloric restriction, which has been widely studied in animals from spiders to humans, may govern the same master genetic pathways related to aging.

Caloric restriction is highly effective in extending life in many species. If you provide species with less food, the regulated cellular stress response of this healthy habit actually makes them live longer, says study author Christiaan Leeuwenburgh, chief of the division of biology of aging at UF's Institute on Aging. In this study, the effects of low doses of resveratrol (on genes) were comparable to caloric restriction, the hallmark for life extension.

Previous research has shown that high doses of resveratrol extend life in invertebrates and prevent early death in mice given a high-fat diet. The new study extends those findings, showing that resveratrol in low doses, beginning in middle age, can elicit many of the same benefits as a reduced-calorie diet.

Resveratrol is active in much lower doses than previously thought, said Tomas Prolla, a UW professor of genetics and a senior author of the new report.

The group explored the agent's influence on the heart, muscle and brain by looking to see which genes were switched on and off during the aging process.

In the new study -- which compared the genetic responses of animals to either restricted diets or normal diets including small doses of resveratrol -- the similarities were remarkable, explains lead author Jamie Barger of Madison, Wis.-based LifeGen Technologies, who spearheaded the research.

In the heart, for example, there are at least 1,029 genes whose functions change with age. In animals on restricted diets, 90 percent of those heart genes experienced alterations in gene expression, while low doses of resveratrol thwarted age-related change in 92 percent. The new findings, say the study's authors, reveal how red wine's special ingredient helps keep the heart young.

In short, the authors note that a glass of wine or food or supplements containing even small doses of resveratrol are likely to help stave off cardiac aging.

That finding, may also explain the remarkable heart health of people who live in some regions of France where diets are soaked in saturated fats but the incidence of heart disease, a major cause of mortality in the United States, is low. In France, meals are traditionally complemented with a glass of red wine.

There must be a few master biochemical pathways activated in response to caloric restriction, which in turn activate many other pathways, explained Prolla. And resveratrol seems to activate some of these master pathways as well.

Resveratrol is currently sold over-the-counter as a nutritional supplement with supposed anti-cancer, anti-viral, anti-inflammatory and anti-aging benefits, although few scientific studies have verified these claims in humans. That may soon change: Researchers at the University of Florida hope to explore the effects of resveratrol on older people in a phase 1 clinical trial, set to begin this summer.

The study will assess the supplement's effects on memory, physical performance, inflammation and oxidative damage, according to Steve Anton, a principal investigator of the upcoming trial and an assistant professor of aging and geriatrics in the UF College of Medicine.

Mitochondria, the tiny power plants that keep a cell functioning, are especially vulnerable to the oxidative damage that accumulates during the aging process.

In animal studies, (resveratrol) seems to promote mitochondrial health, said Todd Manini, also a principal investigator of the upcoming trial and an assistant professor of aging and geriatrics in the UF College of Medicine. Mitochondria are everywhere: They're in the brain, in the muscle, the liver. So it could have kind of a global impact on many different organ systems.

Members of European Parliament discuss food labeling and heart health

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Members of the European Parliament Heart Group meet today, 3 June, in Brussels, to discuss the link between nutrition and cardiovascular diseases and how labelling of food can help people choose products that are better for their hearts and vessels. The European Commission has already made the declaration of the amount of energy, fat, sugars, salt and saturates on food packaging mandatory. Nevertheless, there is no European legislation harmonising diverse national schemes. Consumers often find nutrition labelling confusing and sometimes even misleading.

Given the alarming rate at which obesity is progressing, especially among children, bringing with it other health related problems such as diabetes, hypertension and heart disease, it seems necessary to insist on giving consumers clear and understandable information in order to help them make better informed dietary choices, explaines Professor Pedro Marques, Spokesperson for the European Association of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation (EACPR), a registered body of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), and speaker at today's MEP Heart Group meeting.

Front of pack labelling should allow consumers to know at a glance whether a product contributes to their health or not, says Susanne Logstrup, Director of the European Heart Network (EHN). To achieve this, simplified front of pack labelling of four key nutrients, energy, saturated/trans fats, sugars and salt, must be presented in an easy to understand way. Based on work carried out particularly in the UK, EHN believes that a scheme whereby the quantity of these nutrients are highlighted with a multiple colour coding ('traffic lights'), indicating clearly whether a product contains high, low or medium levels of them, is the best. EHN calls upon MEPs to improve the Commission proposal and put colour coding on mandatory front of pack in the Commission proposal and introduce mandatory back of pack labelling of the 'big eight' (energy, protein, carbohydrate, sugars, fibre, fat, saturated fat, trans fat and salt).

Prevention experts of the ESC believe that the UK 'traffic light' system is an effective idea and should be supported at a European level states Dr Simona Giampaoli, Chair of the Prevention and Health policy section of the EACPR. The traffic light system helps consumers see at a glance whether the contents of a certain product are within a healthy limit. Food with a green light is the healthiest option and a red light warns that this product should not be eaten regularly.

There are many issues for the MEP Heart Group to consider, explains Mr Adamou, MEP. Consumers demand and people need better information on labels; information that is clear, simple, comprehensive, and standardised. As Co-chair of the MEP Heart Group, I want labels that really make a difference. It would be useful to have mandatory front of pack signposting of four key nutrients that are colour coded.

As health professionals, we, at the ESC, clearly see the need to adopt clear information in the front of food packages. We also need to educate consumers on the adequate amounts of sugar, salt and fat intake as well as healthy portion sizes, explains Professor William Wijns, Spokesperson for the European society of Cardiology. Obesity is being recognised as a growing and dangerous disease with a high cost on public health systems. It is urgent to achieve a harmonised common policy on labelling as soon as possible as part of a larger effort to raise awareness on the effects of unhealthy eating habits on our bodies and especially their link to increased risk of cardiovascular disease.

Cardiovascular disease is the number one killer in Europe, accounting for 4.3 million deaths and costing the EU over 192 billion Euros each year.

The good news in our DNA: Defects you can fix with vitamins and minerals

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Berkeley -- As the cost of sequencing a single human genome drops rapidly, with one company predicting a price of $100 per person in five years, soon the only reason not to look at your personal genome will be fear of what bad news lies in your genes.

University of California, Berkeley, scientists, however, have found a welcome reason to delve into your genetic heritage: to find the slight genetic flaws that can be fixed with remedies as simple as vitamin or mineral supplements.

I'm looking for the good news in the human genome, said Jasper Rine, UC Berkeley professor of molecular and cell biology.

Headlines for the last 20 years have really been about the triumph of biomedical research in finding disease genes, which is biologically interesting, genetically important and frightening to people who get this information, Rine said. I became obsessed with trying to decide if there is some other class of information that will make people want to look at their genome sequence.

What Rine and colleagues found and report this week in the online early edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) is that there are many genetic differences that make people's enzymes less efficient than normal, and that simple supplementation with vitamins can often restore some of these deficient enzymes to full working order.

First author Nicholas Marini, a UC Berkeley research scientist, noted that physicians prescribe vitamins to cure many rare and potentially fatal metabolic defects caused by mutations in critical enzymes. But those affected by these metabolic diseases are people with two bad copies, or alleles, of an essential enzyme. Many others may be walking around with only one bad gene, or two copies of slightly defective genes, throwing their enzyme levels off slightly and causing subtle effects that also could be eliminated with vitamin supplements.

Our studies have convinced us that there is a lot of variation in the population in these enzymes, and a lot of it affects function, and a lot of it is responsive to vitamins, Marini said. I wouldn't be surprised if everybody is going to require a different optimal dose of vitamins based on their genetic makeup, based upon the kind of variance they are harboring in vitamin-dependent enzymes.

Though this initial study tested the function of human gene variants by transplanting them into yeast cells, where the function of the variants can be accurately assessed, Rine and Marini are confident the results will hold up in humans. Their research, partially supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the U.S. Army, may enable them to employ U.S. soldiers to test the theory that vitamin supplementation can tune up defective enzymes.

Our soldiers, like top athletes, operate under extreme conditions that may well be limited by their physiology, Rine said. We're now working with the defense department to identify variants of enzymes that are remediable, and ultimately hope to identify troops that have these variants and test whether performance can be enhanced by appropriate supplementation.

In the PNAS paper, Rine, Marini and their colleagues report on their initial analysis of variants of a human enzyme called methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase, or MTHFR. The enzyme, which requires the B vitamin folate to work properly, plays a key role in synthesizing molecules that go into the nucleotide building blocks of DNA. Some cancer drugs, such as methotrexate, target MTHFR to shut down DNA synthesis and prevent tumor growth.

Using DNA samples from 564 individuals of many races and ethnicities, colleagues at Applied Biosystems of Foster City, Calif., sequenced for each person the two alleles that code for the MTHFR enzyme. Consistent with earlier studies, they found three common variants of the enzyme, but also 11 uncommon variants, each of the latter accounting for less than one percent of the sample.

They then synthesized the gene for each variant of the enzyme, and Marini, Rine and their UC Berkeley colleagues inserted these genes into separate yeast cells in order to judge the activity of each variant. Yeast use many of the same enzymes and cofactor vitamins and minerals as humans and are an excellent model for human metabolism, Rine said.

The researchers found that four different mutations affected the functioning of the human enzyme in yeast. One of these mutations is well known: Nearly 30 percent of the population has one copy, and nine percent has two copies.

The researchers were able to supplement the diet of the cultured yeast with folate, however, and restore full functionality to the most common variant, and to all but one of the less common variants.

Since this experiment, the researchers have found 30 other variants of the MTHFR enzyme and tested about 15 of them, and more than half interfere with the function of the enzyme, producing a hundred-fold range of enzyme activity. The majority of these can be either partially or completely restored to normal activity by adding more folate. And that is a surprise, Rine said.

Most scientists think that harmful mutations are disfavored by evolution, but Rine pointed out that this applies only to mutations that affect reproductive fitness. Mutations that affect our health in later years are not efficiently removed by evolution and may remain in our genome forever.

The health effects of tuning up this enzyme in humans are unclear, he said, but folate is already known to protect against birth defects and seems to protect against heart disease and cancer. At least one defect in the MTHFR enzyme produces elevated levels in the blood of the metabolite homocysteine, which is linked to an increased risk of heart disease and stroke, conditions that typically affect people in their post-reproductive years.

In those people, supplementation of folate in the diet can reduce levels of that metabolite and reduce disease risk, Marini said.

Marini and Rine estimate that the average person has five rare mutant enzymes, and perhaps other not-so-rare variants, that could be improved with vitamin or mineral supplements.

There are over 600 human enzymes that use vitamins or minerals as cofactors, and this study reports just what we found by studying one of them, Rine said. What this means is that, even if the odds of an individual having a defect in one gene is low, with 600 genes, we are all likely to have some mutations that limit one or more of our enzymes.

The subtle effects of variation in enzyme activity may well account for conflicting results of some clinical trials, including the confusing data on the effect of vitamin supplements, he noted. In the future, the enzyme profile of research subjects will have to be taken into account in analyzing the outcome of clinical trials.

If one considers not just vitamin-dependent enzymes but all the 30,000 human proteins in the genome, every individual would harbor approximately 250 deleterious substitutions considering only the low-frequency variants. These numbers suggest that the aggregate incidence of low-frequency variants could have a significant physiological impact, the researchers wrote in their paper.

All the more reason to poke around in one's genome, Rine said.

If you don't give people a reason to become interested in their genome and to become comfortable with their personal genomic information, then the benefits of much of the biomedical research, which is indexed to particular genetic states, won't be embraced in a time frame that most people can benefit from, Rine said. So, my motivation is partly scientific, partly an education project and, in some ways, a partly political project.

Marini and Rine credit Bruce Ames, a UC Berkeley professor emeritus of molecular and cell biology now on the research staff at Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute, with the research that motivated them to look at enzyme variation. Ames found in the 1970s that many bacteria that could not produce a specific amino acid could do so if given more vitamin B6, and in recent years he has continued exploring the link between micronutrients and health.

Looked at in one way, Bruce found that you can cure a genetic disease in bacteria by treating it with vitamins, Rine said. Because the human genome contains about 6 billion DNA base pairs, each one subject to mutation, there could be between 3 and 6 million DNA sequence differences between any two people. Given those numbers, he reasoned that, as in bacteria, there should be people who are genetically different in terms of the amount of vitamin needed for optimal performance of their enzymes.

This touches on what Rine considers one of the key biomedical questions today. Now that we have the complete genome sequences of all the common model organisms, including humans, it's obvious that the defining challenge of biology in the 21st century is not what the genes are, but what the variation in the genes does, he said.

Rine, Marini and their colleagues are continuing to study variation in the human MTHFR gene as well as other folate utilizing enzymes, particularly with respect to how defects in these enzymes may lead to birth defects. Rine also is taking advantage of the 1,500 students in his Biology 1A lab course to investigate variants of a second vitamin B6-dependent enzyme, cystathionine beta-synthase.

He also is investigating how enzyme cofactors like vitamins and minerals fix defective enzymes. He suspects that supplements work by acting as chaperones to stabilize the proper folding of the enzyme, which is critical to its catalytic activity. That is a new principle that may be applicable to drug design, Rine said.

Study identifies trends of vitamin B6 status in US population sample

Tue, 20 May 2008 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) BOSTON- (May 20, 2008) In an epidemiological study, Tufts University researchers identified trends of vitamin B6 status in a sample of the United States population based on measures of plasma pyridoxal 5'- phosphate (PLP) levels in the bloodstream. Plasma PLP is the indicator used by the federal government to set the current Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) of vitamin B6, a nutrient essential for red blood cell function and important for maintaining a healthy immune system and blood glucose levels.

Across the study population, we noticed participants with inadequate vitamin B6 status even though they reported consuming more than the Recommended Daily Allowance of vitamin B6, which is less than 2 milligrams per day, says Martha Savaria Morris, PhD, an epidemiologist at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University. We also identified four subgroups where this trend seemed most prominent: women of reproductive age, especially current and former users of oral contraceptives, male smokers, non-Hispanic African-American men, and men and women over age 65. Someone with inadequate vitamin B6 status is at risk of becoming Vitamin B6 deficient should their vitamin B6 levels drop too low.

Corresponding author Morris and colleagues studied 7,822 blood samples of men and women ages one-year and older collected from the 2003-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Vitamin B6 inadequacy was defined as a plasma PLP concentration less than 20 nmol/L. To the authors' knowledge, the current study is the first large scale study to use plasma PLP concentrations to evaluate vitamin B6 status in free-living people of all ages. The investigators were also able to consider whether the current RDA guaranteed adequate vitamin B6 status because study participants were questioned about supplement use and two days' worth of food intake.

Eleven percent of supplement users and nearly a quarter of non-users demonstrated plasma PLP blood levels of less than 20 nmol/L. Within the four sub-groups where vitamin B6 inadequacy was most prominent, the prevalence of low plasma PLP levels significantly exceeded 10 percentɤeven among those who consumed 2 to 2.9 milligrams per day of vitamin B6. The RDAs for vitamin B6 in men and women who are not pregnant or lactating are as follows: 1.3 mg per day for men and women ages 19-50, 1.7 mg per day for men over age 50 and 1.5 mg for women over age 50.

Writing in the May 2008 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Morris and colleagues noted a stark contrast in plasma PLP levels between women of childbearing age (ages 13 to 54) and their male peers. When we looked specifically at the plasma PLP levels in women of childbearing age, we noticed they were significantly lower than in males in approximately the same age group. Morris continues, Most importantly, the data suggest that oral contraceptive users have extremely low plasma PLP levels. Three quarters of the women who reported using oral contraceptives, but not vitamin B6 supplements, were vitamin B6 deficient.

A pattern of low vitamin B6 status also surfaced in menstruating women who reported using oral contraceptives but who were no longer using them at the time of the NHANES survey. Among women in this sub-group who were not taking vitamin B6 supplements, 40 percent demonstrated plasma PLP blood levels below the cut-off for vitamin B6 inadequacy. Morris says, that although these results are somewhat surprising, the link between oral contraceptive use and vitamin B6 deficiency remains unclear. The vitamin could be stored elsewhere in the bodies of the oral contraceptive users, or in a different form, since our study only examined plasma PLP.

To further support their findings, Morris and colleagues measured homocysteine levels in the blood and compared them against the plasma PLP measures. Homocysteine is an amino acid that can accumulate in the blood if vitamin B6 levels are too low. Though study participants using oral contraceptives at the time of the survey did not demonstrate elevated homocysteine levels, the homocysteine concentrations of former users were significantly higher than those of women who had never used oral contraceptives. Morris says this could mean that oral contraceptive use has an effect on vitamin B6 status that is masked during use by acute effects of the exposure.

Because the study shows association and not causation, Morris stresses that further research is necessary to determine whether the RDA for vitamin B6 is high enough. We have identified populations with a high prevalence of apparently inadequate vitamin B status, Morris says. However, it is important to recognize that signs of deficiency are not seen at plasma PLP concentrations of 20 nmol/L and that dietary assessment is imperfect.

According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), vitamin B6 deficiency is rare in the United States, but it can cause a form of anemia similar to iron deficiency anemia. Vitamin B6 is widely distributed in the American diet, and baked potatoes, bananas, 100 percent fortified cereals and chicken are particularly good sources. Morris says, The question our study raises is whether, due to aging, genetics, or exposures, some population subgroups need supplements to achieve the current biochemical definition of adequate status.

Iron supplements might harm infants who have enough

Mon, 05 May 2008 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) ANN ARBOR, Mich.---A new study suggests that extra iron for infants who don't need it might delay development -- results that fuel the debate over optimal iron supplement levels and could have huge implications for the baby formula and food industry.

Our results for 25 years of research show problems with lack of iron. For us to find this result is a big deal, it's really unexpected, said Dr. Betsy Lozoff, University of Michigan research professor at the Center for Human Growth and Development, and the study's principal investigator.

U.S. infant formulas typically come fortified with 12 mg/L of iron to prevent iron-deficiency anemia. Europe generally uses a lower amount. In infants, iron-deficiency anemia is associated with poorer development, and during pregnancy it contributes to anemia in mothers, contributing to premature birth, low birth weight and other complications.

I thought that behavior and development would be better with the 12 mg formula, said Lozoff, also professor of pediatrics in the U-M Department of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases at the Medical School and C.S. Mott Children's Hospital

The U-M study of 494 Chilean children showed that those who received iron fortified formula in infancy at the 12 mg used in the U.S. lagged behind those who received low-iron formula in cognitive and visual-motor development by age 10 years. Lozoff stressed that most children who received the 12 mg formula did not show lower scores. But the 5 percent of the sample with the highest hemoglobin levels at 6 months showed the poorest outcome. Your body needs iron to make hemoglobin, a substance in red blood cells that enables them to carry oxygen. High hemoglobin generally indicates sufficient iron.

Adversely affected children scored 11 points lower in IQ and 12 points lower in visual-motor integration, on average; the average overall score on both tests was 100. A similar pattern was observed for spatial memory and other visual-motor measures.

Lozoff noted that not many infants in Chile had high hemoglobin levels at the time since there was no iron-fortification program for infants and that more than 5 percent of U.S. infants might have high hemoglobin levels in early infancy.

In this randomized study, healthy infants without iron-deficiency anemia were given formula with either 12 mg or 2.3 mg iron from 6 to 12 months and followed to 10 years. The next step is to test the participants again at age 16, Lozoff said, who says that no such study has been conducted in the United States or elsewhere.

Iron deficiency occurs because babies grow so quickly they often grow out of the amount of iron they are born with. Breast milk is thought to contain the iron a baby needs for 4-6 months, Lozoff said. Other important sources of iron for infants include iron-fortified infant formulas and cereals, iron drops and meat.

Infants are typically not tested for hemoglobin or iron levels before 9-12 months. It would be premature to recommend earlier testing or to avoid supplemental iron based on the study's results, Lozoff said. She expects parents to be concerned, but stressed that results must be reproduced in other studies.

At this point there's no basis for changing practice, but it's really important that we have continued research on this issue, she said.

Domestic violence associated with chronic malnutrition in women and children in India

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Boston, MA-- In a new, large-scale study exploring the link between domestic violence and chronic malnutrition, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) have found that Indian mothers and children experiencing multiple incidents of domestic violence in the previous year are more likely to be anemic and underweight. The findings were published online March 26, 2008 in The American Journal of Epidemiology and will appear in an upcoming print issue of the journal.

This is strong evidence that domestic violence is linked with malnutrition among both mothers and children. In India, the withholding of food is a documented form of abuse and is likely correlated with the perpetration of physical violence, said S V Subramanian, associate professor of Society, Human Development, and Health at HSPH, and co-author of the study.

The study population included 69,072 (aged 15-49 years) women and 14,552 children (12-35 months) from the Indian National Family Health Survey of 1998-99. The participants underwent face-to-face interviews by trained personnel, and the data collected included body measurements, blood samples, and information on women's and child's exposure to domestic violence in the previous 12 months.

The researchers found that women who reported more than one instance of domestic violence in the previous year had a 11% increased likelihood of having anemia and a 21% increased likelihood of being underweight, as compared to women with no such history. This difference was not explained by the mother's demographic information. The associations between domestic violence and nearly all nutritional outcomes were similar for children.

The data suggest a relation between domestic violence and malnutrition among women and children in India. The authors note that preventing domestic violence could be just as effective as a pharmaceutical approach in combating anemia among women. The authors believe that one possible explanation is empowerment, such that perpetrators of domestic violence often use several types of abuse, including physical and psychological, to control the behavior of their family members. In India, the withholding of food as a type of abuse could be a factor in the link between physical domestic violence and nutrient deficiencies that cause anemia and underweight. Additionally, domestic violence has been strongly associated with a woman's inability to make decisions for herself and her family, including the choice of types and quantities of food she prepares

The authors' second explanation is that the link between domestic violence and nutritional deficiencies may also reflect the effects of psychological stress. Women and children who experience domestic violence tend to have higher levels of psychological stress, which has been associated with anemia and being underweight.

The authors believe that reducing domestic violence is clearly important from a moral and intrinsic perspective, and that this study provides a compelling case to also address the problem from the perspective of health effects. More efforts need to be focused on the 'non-health' aspects or 'social' conditions that influence health conditions, and domestic violence represents one such adverse social/contextual aspect that we've identified in Indian society, said Subramanian.

An apple a day does keep the doctor away

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 10:21:49 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Washington, April 9 - There is, it appears, more than an element of truth in the old adage about an apple a day keeping the doctor away. A new study has found that eating an apple a day - or drinking its juice - is a sound way of maintaining a slimmer waistline and insuring oneself against high BP and cardiac disease.

Apple eaters had a 21 percent reduced risk of increased waist circumference, predictor of cardiovascular disease and increased likelihood of metabolic syndrome.

Additionally, they had significantly reduced C-reactive protein levels, another measurable marker related to cardiovascular risk.

These findings, presented at the Experimental Biology 2008 meeting, were based on analysis of data collected under a 1999-2004 national survey in the US.

Victor Fulgoni, who analysed the data, noted that adults who eat apples and apple products have smaller waistlines that indicate less abdominal fat, lower blood pressure and a reduced risk for developing what is known as the metabolic syndrome.

Apple-eaters' diets were healthier than non-consumers. They had a greater intake of fruit and key nutrients, including dietary fibre, vitamins A and C, calcium and potassium.

They had less total fat, saturated fat, discretionary fat and added sugars.

Mounting evidence shows red wine antioxidant kills cancer

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Rochester researchers showed for the first time that a natural antioxidant found in grape skins and red wine can help destroy pancreatic cancer cells by reaching to the cell's core energy source, or mitochondria, and crippling its function. The study is published in the March edition of the journal, Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology.

The study also showed that when the pancreatic cancer cells were doubly assaulted -- pre-treated with the antioxidant, resveratrol, and irradiated -- the combination induced a type of cell death called apoptosis, an important goal of cancer therapy.

The research has many implications for patients, said lead author Paul Okunieff, M.D., chief of Radiation Oncology at the James P. Wilmot Cancer Center at the University of Rochester Medical Center.

Although red wine consumption during chemotherapy or radiation treatment has not been well studied, it is not contraindicated, Okunieff said. In other words, if a patient already drinks red wine moderately, most physicians would not tell the patient to give it up during treatment. Perhaps a better choice, Okunieff said, would be to drink as much red or purple grape juice as desired.

Yet despite widespread interest in antioxidants, some physicians are concerned antioxidants might end up protecting tumors. Okunieff's study showed there is little evidence to support that fear. In fact, the research suggests resveratrol not only reaches its intended target, injuring the nexus of malignant cells, but at the same time protects normal tissue from the harmful effects of radiation.

Antioxidant research is very active and very seductive right now, Okunieff said. The challenge lies in finding the right concentration and how it works inside the cell. In this case, we've discovered an important part of that equation. Resveratrol seems to have a therapeutic gain by making tumor cells more sensitive to radiation and making normal tissue less sensitive.

Resveratrol is known for its ability to protect plants from bacteria and fungi. Purified versions have been described in scientific journals as potential anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory and anti-atherogenic agents, and for their ability to modulate cell growth. Other well-known antioxidants derived from natural sources include caffeine, melatonin, flavonoids, polyphenols, and vitamins C and E.

A flurry of antioxidant studies in recent years has not proven how and why they work at the cellular level. At the suggestion of a young scientist in his lab, Okunieff began studying resveratrol as a tumor sensitizer. That's when they discovered its link to the mitochondria.

The discovery is critical because, like the cell nucleus, the mitochondria contains its own DNA and has the ability to continuously supply the cell with energy when functioning properly. Stopping the energy flow theoretically stops the cancer.

Researchers divided pancreatic cancer cells into two groups: cells treated without resveratrol, or with resveratrol, at a relatively high dose of 50 mg/ml, in combination with ionizing radiation. (The resveratrol concentration in red wine can be as high as 30 mg/ml, the study said, and higher doses are expected to be safe as long as a physician is monitoring.)

They evaluated the mitochondria function of the cells treated with resveratrol, and also measured apoptosis (cell death), the level of reactive oxygen species in the cells, and how the cell membranes responded to the antioxidant.

Laboratory experiments showed that resveratrol:

Study links dietary folate intake to genetic abnormalities in sperm

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Berkeley -- Healthy men who report lower levels of the nutrient folate in their diets have higher rates of chromosomal abnormalities in their sperm, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Women of child-bearing age are encouraged to maintain adequate levels of folate in their diet, but the new findings, to be published Thursday, March 20, in the journal Human Reproduction, provide evidence that what men eat may also affect reproductive health.

Recent studies have suggested that paternal diet affects sperm count and motility, which is important for conception, but this new study takes it further to say that male diet may be important for healthy offspring as well, said study coordinator Suzanne Young, a researcher at UC Berkeley's School of Public Health. Our study is the first to look at the effects of diet on chromosomal abnormalities in sperm. These abnormalities would cause either miscarriages or children with genetic syndromes if the sperm fertilized an egg.

Folate is a water-soluble B vitamin that occurs naturally in a wide range of foods, particularly liver, leafy green vegetables, citrus fruits and legumes. It is needed during the synthesis of DNA, RNA and proteins, and it is necessary for the production of new cells. Folate also helps keep in check levels of homocysteine, an amino acid that, when elevated, is linked to heart disease.

Studies have shown that adequate intake of folate by women just before and during pregnancy significantly reduces the risk of neural tube birth defects, such as spina bifida or anencephaly.

To ensure that women get the recommended daily intake of 400 micrograms of folic acid, the synthetic form of folate, and reduce the risk of these birth defects, the U.S. government in 1998 began requiring food manufacturers to add folic acid to breads, cereals, flours and other grain products. At least one study suggests that there has been a significant reduction in neural tube birth defects in this country since the folic acid fortification program began.

The emphasis related to the birth of a healthy baby has been weighted towards the health and diet of women, not just during pregnancy, but before, said Brenda Eskenazi, professor of epidemiology and maternal and child health at UC Berkeley's School of Public Health and co-principal investigator of the study. What we're finding now is that a nutritious diet, specifically folate intake, may be beneficial for men as well when it comes to producing healthy offspring.

An estimated 1 to 4 percent of a healthy male's sperm have abnormal numbers of chromosomes, or aneuploidy, that are caused by errors during cell division (meiosis) in the testis. However, the causes of these errors are not well understood. If these abnormal sperm fertilize a normal egg, there would either be a miscarriage or a fetus with a chromosomal disorder such as trisomy, in which cells have three rather than the normal two copies of a given chromosome.

For this study, the researchers targeted three chromosomes - X, Y and chromosome 21 - because they are associated with common types of aneuploidy in live births. For example, children born with an extra chromosome 21 have Down syndrome, characterized by mild to severe mental retardation, while boys with an extra X chromosome have Klinefelter syndrome, which could affect language and learning development. Boys with an extra Y chromosome, or XYY syndrome, may also have some learning and behavioral difficulties.

The researchers studied 97 men who were ages 22 to 80 and who worked at or had retired from a government research laboratory. The study excluded smokers and those with previous or existing reproductive or fertility problems.

Researchers determined average intake of dietary and supplemental nutrients, including multi-vitamins, through participant questionnaires. Semen samples were collected within a week of completing the questionnaires.

After accounting for factors such as age, alcohol use and medical history, the researchers found that men reporting the highest intake of folate had 19 percent lower rates of sperm with abnormal numbers of chromosomes than men with moderate folate intake, and 20 percent lower rates compared with men in the low folate intake group.

The researchers were not able to determine a link between sperm aneuploidy and the other nutrients examined, such as zinc, calcium, beta-carotene and other vitamins.

But before fathers-to-be start popping folic acid supplements, the researchers caution that this study only found a link, not a cause-and-effect relationship, between folate and chromosomal abnormalities.

We can't yet say that increasing folate in your diet will lead to healthier sperm, said study co-principal investigator Andrew Wyrobek, chair of the Radiation Biosciences Department at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. But we did come up with enough evidence to justify a larger, clinical and pharmacological trial in men to examine the causal relationships between dietary folate levels and chromosomal abnormalities in their sperm. This information will help us set dietary folate levels that may reduce the risk of miscarriage or birth defects linked to the fathers.

If future studies verify higher folate intake with lower rates of sperm abnormalities, it may be worthwhile to increase the U.S. recommended daily allowance of folate for men considering fatherhood from the current level of 400 micrograms per day, the researchers said.

Adolescent girls with ADHD are at increased risk for eating disorders, study shows

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Girls with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder stand a substantially greater risk of developing eating disorders in adolescence than girls without ADHD, a new study has found.

Adolescent girls with ADHD frequently develop body-image dissatisfaction and may go through repeating cycles of binge eating and purging behaviors that are common in bulimia nervosa, said University of Virginia psychologist Amori Yee Mikami, who led the study.

The findings appear in the current issue of the Journal of Abnormal Psychology.

ADHD is a disorder that affects about 5 percent of school-age children, and three times more boys than girls. Symptoms include a short attention span, poor organization, excessive talking, disruptive and aggressive behavior, restlessness and irritability. Many children with ADHD suffer through a range of problems, from poor grades to poor relations with parents and teachers, and more than half have serious problems making friends.

Because the disorder is far more common in boys, researchers are still learning its long-term effects on girls.

Our finding suggests that girls may develop a broader range of problems in adolescence than their male counterparts, Mikami said. They may be at risk for eating problems, which are a female-relevant domain of impairment. We know that eating disorders occur 10 times more often in girls than boys.

Additionally, Mikami noted that because ADHD is more common in boys, many girls with the disorder may go undiagnosed and untreated.

Girls with ADHD may be more at risk of developing eating problems as adolescents because they already have impulsive behaviors that can set them apart from their peers, Mikami said. As they get older, their impulsivity may make it difficult for them to maintain healthy eating and a healthy weight, resulting in self-consciousness about their body image and the binging and purging symptoms.

The study was conducted with an ethnically diverse sample of 228 girls in the San Francisco Bay area; 140 who had been diagnosed with ADHD and 88 matched comparison girls without ADHD. They were first assessed between the ages of 6 and 12 and again five years later.

Girls with the combined type of ADHD (those with both inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity) were most likely to have adolescent bulimia nervosa symptoms, relative to girls with the inattentive type of ADHD (those with inattention only) and girls without ADHD. Girls with both types of ADHD were more likely to be overweight, to have experienced harsh/critical parenting in childhood, and to have been peer-rejected than girls without ADHD. Mikami said she believes these factors could contribute to the bulimia nervosa symptoms.

An additional concern is that stimulant medications used to treat ADHD have a side effect of appetite suppression, creating a risk that overweight girls could abuse these medicines to encourage weight loss, though we have not yet investigated that possibility, Mikami said.

She warned parents and teachers to be aware that adolescent girls with ADHD may develop an array of female-relevant symptoms beyond the standard ADHD symptoms, to include eating disorders, depression and anxiety.

NIH announces new initiative in epigenomics

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 05:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) The National Institutes of Health (NIH) will invest more than $190 million over the next five years to accelerate an emerging field of biomedical research known as epigenomics.

Disease is about more than genetics. It's about how genes are regulated -- how and when they work in both health and disease, said NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D. Epigenomics will build upon our new knowledge of the human genome and help us better understand the role of the environment in regulating genes that protect our health or make us more susceptible to disease.

The NIH is making this a priority in its research portfolio, taking it on as an NIH Roadmap initiative. Grant applications are now being accepted for research on epigenome mapping centers, epigenomics data analysis and coordination, technology development in epigenetics, and discovery of novel epigenetic marks in mammalian cells.

Epigenetics focuses on processes that regulate how and when certain genes are turned on and turned off, while epigenomics pertains to analysis of epigenetic changes across many genes in a cell or entire organism.

Epigenetic processes control normal growth and development. Diet and exposure to environmental chemicals throughout all stages of human development among other factors can cause epigenetic changes that may turn on or turn off certain genes. Changes in genes that would normally protect against a disease, as a result, could make people more susceptible to developing that disease later in life. Researchers also believe some epigenetic changes can be passed on from generation to generation.

The Epigenomics Program is a trans-NIH effort led by several NIH institutes including the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and the National Center for Biotechnology Information of the National Library of Medicine. Efforts of these Institutes are coordinated by the Office of Portfolio Analysis and Strategic Initiatives (OPASI) as part of the NIH Roadmap.

Epigenetic mechanisms are important in development, aging, and learning and memory, but our understanding of epigenetic processes is still very much in its infancy, said NIDA Director Nora D. Volkow. A deeper understanding of epigenetics will enable researchers to make significant strides in understanding and treating many diseases including cancers, obesity, depression, and addiction.

Increased interest in epigenetics has spawned international research collaborations that have pushed the field forward in recent years. With the NIH Roadmap initiative, the United States will increase its commitment to epigenetics research and accelerate the pace of biomedical discovery in the next decade.

US$ 38 million grant for fight against malnutrition

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 01:14:05 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) today announces a US$ 38 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to increase private sector engagement in the fight against malnutrition in young children.
GAIN will use the grant to work with private companies and public-private partnerships to introduce nutritious foods for infants and young children between 6 and 24 months of age. GAIN will provide loans, grants and technical advice to help develop and distribute low-cost, easy-to-use, nutritious food products.
“The private sector can have a huge impact on the long-term health of infants and young children, who are at a critical stage in their mental and physical development, by producing healthy complementary foods specifically targeted at this vulnerable group,” says Marc Van Ameringen, Executive Director of GAIN.
Malnutrition plays a role in more than a third of all deaths of children under the age of 5 – more than 9,000 deaths every day. Malnutrition prevents many more children from reaching their full mental and physical potential, increases health care costs for poor countries, and consequently slows economic growth. For instance, 75 percent of children in India and 85 percent of children under five years old in Ethiopia suffer from iron deficiency anemia, while 57 and 30 percent respectively are vitamin A deficient, which weakens immune systems and can cause blindness.
“Nutrition is a bedrock global health issue that receives far too little attention,” says Katharine Kreis, Senior Program Officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “Harnessing the reach and expertise of the private sector is essential to successfully fighting malnutrition and its devastating consequences.”
Companies that receive support from GAIN will be required to ensure that any foods they produce and market meet international standards, complement and do not compete with breast feeding practices, and have demonstrable positive impacts on the health of children.
“Every child deserves a chance at a healthy life, and that chance starts with good nutrition. By bringing companies together with governments and non-profits, we can make nutritious foods accessible and affordable to families in the world’s poorest countries,” says Jay Naidoo, Chairman of the Board for GAIN.
The new initiative will complement GAIN’s ongoing work to increase access to nutritious foods in developing countries. GAIN is already reaching 160 million people with staple foods fortified with essential nutrients. For instance, in China, a pilot review showed a reduction of more than 30% in iron deficiency anemia after the introduction of iron-fortified products.
“This grant allows us to mobilize the innovative spirit of the private sector to deliver products that have clear benefits to the health of young children and the bottom line of companies, and that therefore can inspire the private sector worldwide to do more to fight malnutrition,” says Van Ameringen.

More sun exposure may be good for some people

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 05:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) UPTON, NY - A new study by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory and colleagues in Norway suggests that the benefits of moderately increased exposure to sunlight - namely the production of vitamin D, which protects against the lethal effects of many forms of cancer and other diseases - may outweigh the risk of developing skin cancer in populations deficient in vitamin D. The study will be published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the week of January 7, 2008.

We know that solar radiation is the leading cause of skin cancer, said communicating author Richard Setlow, a Senior Biophysicist Emeritus at Brookhaven and a well-known expert on the link between solar radiation and skin cancer. Setlow's group was the first to establish that ultraviolet A (UVA) radiation and visible light are the primary causes of malignant melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. He and his colleagues emphasize that people need to protect themselves from the harmful effects of sun exposure.

But solar radiation is also a major, if not the main, source of vitamin D in humans. In the presence of sunlight, the body converts certain precursor chemicals to active vitamin D.

Since vitamin D has been shown to play a protective role in a number of internal cancers and possibly a range of other diseases, it is important to study the relative risks to determine whether advice to avoid sun exposure may be causing more harm than good in some populations. The concern, he says, is particularly great in populations from northern latitudes, such as Scandinavia, where sun exposure is extremely limited.

In the current study, Setlow and his colleagues used a model incorporating information on solar radiation intensity and a vertical cylinder shape to represent the human body's skin surface to calculate the relative production of vitamin D via sunlight as a function of latitude, or distance from the equator. The cylindrical model more realistically represents human body sun exposure than flat surface exposure measurements used in previous models. The scientists also examined the incidence of and survival rates for various forms of cancer by latitude.

According to the calculations, people residing in Australia (just below the equator) produce 3.4 times more vitamin D as a result of sun exposure than people in the United Kingdom, and 4.8 times more than people in Scandinavia.

There is a clear north-south gradient in vitamin D production, Setlow says, with people in the northern latitudes producing significantly less than people nearer the equator.

In populations with similar skin types, there is also a clear increase in the incidence of all forms of skin cancer from north to south. This gradient in skin cancer rates indicates that there is a true north-south gradient in real sun exposure, Setlow says.

The scientists also found that the incidence rates of major internal cancers such as colon cancer, lung cancer, and cancers of the breast and prostate also increased from north to south. However, when the scientists examined the survival rates for these cancers, they found that people from the southern latitudes were significantly less likely to die from these internal cancers than people in the north.

In previous work, we have shown that survival rates for these cancers improve when the diagnosis coincides with the season of maximum sun exposure, indicating a positive role for sun-induced vitamin D in prognosis - or at least that a good vitamin-D status is advantageous when combined with standard cancer therapies, Setlow says. The current data provide a further indication of the beneficial role of sun-induced vitamin D for cancer prognosis.

So, how can people get the benefits of vitamin D without running the risk of deadly skin cancer

As far as skin cancer goes, we need to be most worried about melanoma, a serious disease with significant mortality, Setlow says.

Melanoma is triggered by UVA (the long UV wavelengths) and visible light. Vitamin-D production in the body, on the other hand, is triggered by UVB (the short UV wavelengths at the earth's surface). So perhaps we should redesign sunscreens so they don't screen out as much UVB while still protecting us from the melanoma-inducing UVA and visible light, Setlow says.

Increased UVB exposure may result in an increase in non-melanoma skin cancers. But these are relatively easy to cure and have very low mortality rates compared with the internal cancers vitamin D appears to protect against, Setlow adds.

Another option would be to increase vitamin D consumption while continuing to wear sunscreen. Vitamin D is easily accessible in many foods and liquids, such as cod liver oil and milk, and in dietary supplements.

Now '100 percent' vegetarian eggs

Fri, 21 Dec 2007 09:39:42 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Erode -, Dec 21 - Here's some good news for diehard vegetarians who may yet like to tuck in some eggs. India's leading egg powder manufacturer and exporter will launch a '100 percent vegetarian egg' in the coming year.

'We will commercially launch the completely 100 percent vegetarian eggs both in the domestic market and also export them across the world in a couple of months from now,' S. Hariharan, general manager, operations of SKM Egg Products Ltd, told IANS.

The company is already exporting 100 percent vegetarian egg powder, egg yolk powder and egg albumen powder to as many as 27 countries in the world, including Europe and Japan.

So what is a vegetarian egg?

Chicks aged between zero and eight weeks are brought to poultry farms and bred till up to 72 weeks when they become 'layers'.

Normally, each layer lays about 300 eggs in poultry farms. However, these eggs are not totally vegetarian because the hens are fed fishmeal - as a protein supplement.

However, SKM Egg Products Ltd, located aptly on the Gandhiji Road in Erode, claims all the 'egg-laying birds' in its contract farms are not fed any 'animal-based food'.

Instead of fishmeal, soya powder is added to the poultry feed as the protein supplement.

'Hence, eggs produced in our contract farms are fully vegetarian,' asserts Hariharan.

But this company, which buoyantly ended last fiscal - with a Rs.845-million - turnover, did not hit upon the vegetarian egg concept for the sheer sake of vegetarianism.

It was for commercial reasons to meet the strict stipulations of the export market.

The eggs laid by the hens fed on fishmeal contained antibiotic residues in excess of the limits - set by European countries. Hence, the company substituted soya for fish powder. Thus the 100 percent vegetarian egg was born.

Recently, SKM, which exported 4,500 tonnes of egg powder last year, set up its own poultry farm with nearly 1.5 million chicks.

However, as of now, the company largely sources the 'vegetarian eggs' from nearby Namakkal, which is southern India's 'egg land'.

With over 700 poultry farms, Namakkal produces 22.5 million eggs every day, which is 14 percent of the country's egg production.

'If milk is vegetarian, then all commercially produced eggs in our farms are vegetarian. Only, most of us use fish feed for the hens because soya feed is expensive,' says Namakkal Poultry Feeds and Egg Producers Association president Nallathambi.

So the next time you gobble up an egg pastry, just don't feel guilty.

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Waistline growth on high-carb diets linked to liver gene

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 05:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) MADISON - Experts have been warning for years that foods loaded with high-fructose corn syrup and other processed carbohydrates are making us fatter. Now, a University of Wisconsin-Madison study has uncovered the genetic basis for why this is so.

Writing in the December issue of Cell Metabolism, a team led by biochemistry and nutritional sciences professor James Ntambi reports that a gene in the liver, called SCD-1, is what causes mice to gain weight on a diet laden with carbohydrates. The gene encodes the enzyme SCD, whose job is to synthesize fatty acids that are a major component of fat.

When the scientists fed a starch- and sugar-rich diet to mice lacking SCD-1 in the liver, the extra carbohydrates were broken down rather than being converted into fat and stored - keeping the mice skinny. Meanwhile, control mice with normal gene activity grew plump on the same food.

It looks like the SCD gene in the liver is responsible for causing weight gain in response to a high-carbohydrate diet, because when we take away the gene's activity the animals no longer gain the weight, says Ntambi. These findings are telling us that the liver is a key tissue in mediating weight gain induced by excess carbohydrates.

The results could have implications for stemming the skyrocketing obesity problem in people, Ntambi adds. He explains that people pack on pounds in two ways, one of which is to eat extra fat, which then accumulates in adipose, or fat, tissue. But the main cause of weight gain is excess carbohydrates, because they trigger the body to produce new fat.

Blocking SCD's action in the liver could therefore offer another means to help people lose weight, Ntambi says, especially since obese people appear to have higher levels of the enzyme than do thin people.

We think that obese individuals, in general, may have higher SCD activity in both the liver and in adipose tissue, he says. So, they may have a higher capability of converting carbohydrate into fat.

High-carbohydrate diets have become exceedingly common not only in western nations but also in the developing world, as sugary ingredients like high-fructose corn syrup have crept into all sorts of processed foods, including soft drinks, baked goods, condiments - even supposedly healthy items like low-fat, fruit yogurt. What Ntambi's team has now demonstrated is how those diets can act directly on a gene to boost fat synthesis and storage.

This is a very good example of a diet-gene interaction, he says.

The current study builds on previous work, in which Ntambi and his colleagues created mice that lacked SCD-1 everywhere in the body, including the liver, muscle, brain, pancreas and adipose tissue. No matter how much they ate, the mice didn't gain weight on either a high-fat or a high-carbohydrate diet. But it was very difficult to tell which tissue was responsible for the effect, says Ntambi.

To tease this out, he and his colleagues subsequently bred mice that lacked SCD-1 in the liver only and placed them on either a high-fat diet or a high-carbohydrate, low-fat one. Much to their surprise, the mice on the high-fat diet gained weight just as quickly as normal, control mice.

This suggests that in weight gain induced by a high-fat diet, other tissues beyond the liver are involved, says Ntambi.

In contrast, the mice stayed thin when they feasted on food heavy in starch and table sugar, or sucrose. They were also protected from the condition known as fatty liver. Ntambi thinks what's happening is that in the absence of SCD, the liver has no way to convert surplus carbohydrates into fat, causing the body to break them down instead.

The findings also highlight the central role of the enzyme and its main product, a fatty acid known as oleic acid, in overall carbohydrate metabolism, he adds. For example, mice lacking SCD could no longer make glucose - the sugar burned by cells for energy - leading to abnormally low blood sugar levels, or hypoglycemia. They also weren't able to make glycogen, a short-term storage form of glucose.

It looks to us that if you don't have enough oleic acid - which the SCD enzyme makes - then the carbohydrate does not proceed through normal glucose metabolism, says Ntambi. As further evidence of this, when the scientists supplemented the mouse diets with oleic acid, normal metabolism was restored.

In both mice and people, on the other hand, eating lots of carbohydrate appears to boost SCD activity, leading to a glut of oleic acid, increased fat storage - and, over time, obesity.

Too much carbohydrate is not good, says Ntambi. That's basically what we are saying.

Price of lower-calorie foods rising drastically, researchers find

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 05:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) As food prices rise, the costs of lower-calorie foods are rising the fastest, according to a University of Washington study appearing in the December issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association. As the prices of fresh fruit and vegetables and other low-calorie foods have jumped nearly 20 percent in the past two years, the UW researchers say, a nutritious diet may be moving out of the reach of some American consumers.

UW researchers Dr. Adam Drewnowski, director of the Center for Public Health Nutrition, and Dr. Pablo Monsivais, a research fellow in the center, studied food prices at grocery stores around the Seattle area in 2004. They found that the foods which are less energy-dense -- generally fresh fruits and vegetables -- are much more expensive per calorie than energy-dense foods -- such as those high in refined grains, added sugars, and added fats.

When the researchers surveyed prices again in 2006, the found that the disparity in food prices only worsened with time. Lower-calorie foods jumped in price by about 19.5 percent in that two-year period, while the prices of very calorie-rich foods stayed stable or even dropped slightly, the researchers found. The general rate of food price inflation in the United States was about 5 percent during that period, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

That the cost of healthful foods is outpacing inflation is a major problem, said Drewnowski. The gap between what we say people should eat and what they can afford is becoming unacceptably wide. If grains, sugars and fats are the only affordable foods left, how are we to handle the obesity epidemic

Research conducted by Drewnowski and others at the UW Center for Obesity Research had previously shown that per calorie food costs were much higher for fresh produce and other recommended foods than for fats and sweets. Those studies were based on prevailing food prices in the United States and in Europe.

This project was the first of its kind to track the change in prices over time not by food group, but by food quality. The Labor Department monitors food prices by tracking the cost of an average food basket, which is calculated based on what American consumers purchase at the grocery store. However, the researchers argue, the inflation rate of the overall basket may drastically underestimate the rising cost of the healthiest foods.

The UW study looked at price inflation in foods grouped by energy density, or calories per gram of food. Energy density is one measure of food quality, since many energy-dense foods also tend to be low in nutrients. People who eat energy-dense foods may consume more calories than they need.

We are an overfed but undernourished nation, said Drewnowski.

Drewnowski and Monsivais argue that the study provides yet another piece of evidence that obesity isn't just a personal problem -- it's an economic one.

We need to focus on bigger-scale changes, like the farm bill or other policy measures that can address the disparity in food costs, Monsivais said.

The project was supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research in the National Institutes of Health.

Citrus juice, vitamin C give staying power to green tea antioxidants

Tue, 13 Nov 2007 05:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - To get more out of your next cup of tea, just add juice.

A study found that citrus juices enable more of green tea's unique antioxidants to remain after simulated digestion, making the pairing even healthier than previously thought.

The study compared the effect of various beverage additives on catechins, naturally occurring antioxidants found in tea. Results suggest that complementing green tea with either citrus juices or vitamin C likely increases the amount of catechins available for the body to absorb.

Although these results are preliminary, I think it's encouraging that a big part of the puzzle comes down to simple chemistry, said Mario Ferruzzi, assistant professor of food science at Purdue University and the study's lead author.

Catechins (pronounced KA'-teh-kins), display health-promoting qualities and may be responsible for some of green tea's reported health benefits, like reduced risk of cancer, heart attack and stroke. The problem, Ferruzzi said, is that catechins are relatively unstable in non-acidic environments, such as the intestines, and less than 20 percent of the total remains after digestion.

Off the bat you are eliminating a large majority of the catechins from plain green tea, Ferruzzi said. We have to address this fact if we want to improve bodily absorption.

Ferruzzi tested juices, creamers and other additives that are either commonly added to fresh-brewed tea or used to make ready-to-drink tea products by putting them through a model simulating gastric and small-intestinal digestion. Citrus juice increased recovered catechin levels by more than five times, the study found. Ascorbic acid, or vitamin C, used to increase shelf life in ready-to-drink products, increased recovered levels of the two most abundant catechins by sixfold and 13-fold, respectively.

The study, published this month in Molecular Nutrition and Food Research, also found that soy, dairy and rice milk appeared to have moderate stabilizing effects. But Ferruzzi said the result is misleading; a chemical interaction between milk proteins and tea catechins apparently helps shelter the complex from degradation, a force likely overcome by enzymes within a healthy human digestive system.

Lemons and tea go even better together than their popularity might suggest. Lemon juice caused 80 percent of tea's catechins to remain, the study found. Following lemon, in terms of stabilizing power, were orange, lime and grapefruit juices. Ferruzzi said both vitamin C and citrus juices must interact with catechins to prevent their degradation in the intestines, although data made it clear that citrus juices have stabilizing effects beyond what would be predicted solely based on their vitamin C content.

If you want more out of your green tea, add some citrus juice to your cup after brewing or pick a ready-to-drink product formulated with ascorbic acid, Ferruzzi said.

Ready-to-drink green tea products should optimally contain 100-200 mg of catechins, but oftentimes do not have sufficient levels of tea extract since some people do not like green tea's flavor, Ferruzzi said.

Although this study only examined green tea, Ferruzzi said he suspects that some of the results also could apply to black tea, which is produced by fermenting green tea. Many prefer black tea's flavor, although it contains lower total levels of catechins.

Studies have shown catechins from the green tea plant, Camellia sinensis, are able to detoxify toxic chemicals, inhibit cancer cell activity and stimulate production of immune-strengthening enzymes. Finding methods to improve uptake of these catechins may, therefore, be important in improving health, part of the study's goal, Ferruzzi said.

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Ferruzzi currently is conducting an in vivo study, or study on a live organism, to quantify the ability of juices and vitamin C to increase levels of catechins in the intestines and bloodstream of animals and, by extension, in humans. He collaborates with the NIH-funded Purdue Botanicals Research Center on this project.

This next study is designed to get us past the limitations imposed by our digestive model, which is really just a simple screening process that relies on preset physiology parameters, he said. Human digestion is a lot more complicated.

To see if juices and vitamin C actually increase catechin absorption, researchers will have to find out if increased levels of intestinal catechins translate to higher levels of absorbed catechins in live animals and humans. They also will need to better document effects upon catechin metabolism in order to prove, for instance, that increased levels of absorbed catechins are not leveled off by metabolic factors, Ferruzzi said.

This study tells us a lot of interesting things, but it raises many questions that have yet to be answered, he said.

Fat cells send message that aids insulin secretion

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 05:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) The body's fat cells help the pancreas do its job of secreting insulin, according to research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. This previously unrecognized process ultimately could lead to new methods to improve glucose metabolism in type 2 diabetic or insulin-resistant people.

In a study using laboratory mice, published in the November 7, 2007 issue of Cell Metabolism, scientists at the School of Medicine report that fat cells release a protein that aids insulin secretion from pancreatic beta cells, which are the sole source of insulin. The protein is an enzyme that the pancreatic cells themselves produce in only minimal amounts. The enzyme works to enhance glucose-stimulated insulin secretion from pancreatic beta cells.

Insulin helps the body process blood sugar (glucose), and those with type 2 diabetes have a deficiency of insulin or a resistance to its effects. More than 7 million people in the U.S. are living with a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes and many more are undiagnosed.

The researchers assert that the enzyme secreted by fat cells, called Nampt, is an important component of the insulin-secretion pathway. We think this secretion process allows fat cells to communicate with the pancreas and aid its function, says senior author Shin-ichiro Imai, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine and of molecular biology and pharmacology. I suspect this process could be critical for compensating pancreatic beta cell function in the face of increasing insulin resistance.

The association of type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance with obesity suggests there may be limits to the ability of the process to enhance pancreatic function, according to Imai. It may be that in some obese individuals a threshold has been reached so that this mechanism no longer provides adequate compensation, he says. But there may be ways to overcome this threshold.

Interestingly, in 2004 Nampt provoked excitement in the scientific community because it was reported to be a newly discovered fat-derived hormone that worked very much like insulin. That study named the enzyme visfatin. The scientists who made this assertion have since retracted their claim.

In the new study, the Washington University researchers contend that Nampt is not an insulin-like hormone. Instead, their investigation shows it's an enzyme that modulates pancreatic function.

Our work marks a conceptual breakthrough, Imai says. Nampt synthesizes a compound in the bloodstream, and when that compound reaches the pancreas it stimulates insulin secretion. This is a surprising mechanism by which a circulating metabolite modulates pancreatic function.

Imai says he believes it's possible that the compound produced by Nampt, called NMN for short, could be used to raise insulin secretion from pancreatic cells and thus help improve the way the body handles sugar. Imai and his group are collaborating with clinical researchers at the University to find out how much NMN is in the blood of normal and diabetic or obese patients. They also hope to initiate clinical trials to test NMN as a therapeutic agent in patients with type 2 diabetes or insulin resistance.

U of I scientist does nutritional detective work in Botswana

Thu, 25 Oct 2007 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Many Americans have a soft spot for Botswana, developed while reading the best-selling #1 Ladies Detective Agency series. But few have had a chance to do any sleuthing of their own in that African country.

That changed when University of Illinois scientist Karen Chapman-Novakofski acquired a Batswana doctoral student and learned how little data existed about the health and nutrition of that country's elderly.

In Botswana, which has the highest incidence of AIDS of any African country, the aged are often raising many grandchildren whose parents have died from the disease. So the elderly's good health is very important, she said.

The two traveled to Africa, secured each tribal chief's permission, then set up shop in front of Botswanan post offices on the days the elderly received their pension checks and questioned them about their eating habits.

The results of their detective work have clarified the situation for Botswanan policy makers and were published in the November/December issue of the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior. The article has also been selected for inclusion in a special issue of that journal dedicated to the problem of world poverty.

The information that we gathered will support needed changes in the country's nutrition policy. For example, should foods be fortified And what foods are best to fortify said Chapman-Novakofski, a U of I professor of nutrition.

Because of our research, Sega (her former doctoral student and collaborator Segametsi D. Maruapula, now a professor at Botswana's University of Gabarone) is well positioned to assume leadership in this area, she said.

Elderly Batswana have little variety in their diet, and, of the five major food groups, they receive only enough grain, and not nearly enough milk, fruits, vegetables, and meat. Only 41 percent had eaten meat in the 24-hour period before they were surveyed, the researcher said.

She noted that mixed dishes--for example, samp (a grain) and beans--are a source of protein for Batswana, and added that people who consume lower-calorie diets may need higher protein levels in order to function well.

The most widely consumed foods were tea, sorghum and maize meal, followed by milk and bread, she said. Although up to 40 percent of the elderly drink milk, they mainly drink it in their tea. And Botswanan milk is ultrapasteurized, canned milk that may not be fortified with vitamins A and D.

The scientists also investigated dietary patterns, Chapman-Novakopfski said.

For example, persons living in urban areas had more access to fruits and vegetables than their rural counterparts. And, in a pattern that also occurs in the West, single, widowed, and elderly females consumed less meat and fruit than elderly men and married people, she said.

Eating vegetables was more common if older persons had children in their homes, also a Western behavior, she said. As a rule, people make an effort to prepare more nutritious meals if children are also eating them.

The elderly Batswana's frequent role as caretakers of their grandchildren makes it all the more necessary that government policy makers promote good health and nutrition among that group, said Chapman-Novakofski.

Although, as a researcher, the amazing thing to me was that the people we interviewed were as old and as mobile as they were. Most had walked to the post office to get their pension, she said.

Many live to be 80 or 90, yet they're obviously not eating the five fruits and vegetables a day that we recommend. They may not be in robust good health, yet they seem to be healthy enough, especially in a country that has severe infectious disease, she said.

So there may be other factors that promote their longevity, which is an interesting area for further research, she said.

Also, as Batswana begin to adopt Western consumption patterns, they'll have the challenge of promoting good eating habits while avoiding some of the bad habits that we have, such as overconsumption of fats and calories, she said.

Parasites a key to the decline of red colobus monkeys in forest fragments

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Forest fragmentation threatens biodiversity, often causing declines or local extinctions in a majority of species while enhancing the prospects of a few. A new study from the University of Illinois shows that parasites can play a pivotal role in the decline of species in fragmented forests. This is the first study to look at how forest fragmentation increases the burden of infectious parasites on animals already stressed by disturbances to their habitat.

The study, of black-and-white colobus monkeys and red colobus monkeys in tropical forests in western Uganda, appears in the American Journal of Primatology.

Once dominated by vast forests, Uganda now has less than one-twentieth of its original forest cover. According to the World Resources Institute, its tropical forests are being logged and converted to agricultural land at a rate that outpaces sub-Saharan Africa as a whole. Small tracts remain, however, hemmed in by pastures and croplands. Many of the species that thrived in the original forests are struggling to survive in these parcels, which can be as small as one hectare in size.

�In Uganda, just looking at the primates, it�s one of the most biodiverse places on the earth,� said professor of pathobiology Thomas Gillespie, principal investigator on the study. �You�ve got 12 to 13 species of primates in a core undisturbed forest. But if you go into these forest fragments, you�ll find only three or four species of primates.�

Populations of black-and-white colobus monkeys appear to be stable in the Ugandan forest remnants, while their cousins, the red colobus monkeys, are in decline.

Gillespie and his colleague, Colin Chapman, of McGill University in Montreal, surveyed 20 forest fragments near the western boundary of Kibale National Park, in western Uganda.

They compared the abundance, variety and density of potentially harmful parasites in these fragments to the undisturbed �core forest� of the park.

The researchers followed the monkeys for four years, collecting data on how far the animals ranged, what they ate and which parasites were infecting them.

In those four years, red colobus populations in forest fragments declined 20 percent, whereas populations of black-and-white colobus monkeys remained relatively stable. Both species maintained stable populations in the undisturbed forest.

Scientists have struggled to explain why closely related animals, like these two species of monkeys, can fare so differently in forest fragments. The answer, Gillespie said, lies in a complex interplay of factors, with parasites and nutrition playing key roles.

The researchers focused on two nematodes known to cause significant pathology in monkeys: a whipworm, (Trichuris sp.), and a nodule worm (Oesophagostomum sp.). While feeding on leaves, the monkeys ingest the larval forms of these worms. The larvae mature in the intestines, where they can cause blockages or other damage. The nematodes migrate through blood vessels, causing inflammation, organ damage and, sometimes, death.

The researchers found a higher density of parasites in the forest fragments than in the undisturbed forest. They also found new parasites not seen in the undisturbed forest.

�Several of the parasites in these animals in the fragments never occur in undisturbed forest, and some of these novel parasites are definitely from livestock or people,� Gillespie said. The red colobus monkeys were infected with five of these human or livestock parasites; the black and white colobus carried only two.

Other differences between the two species affect their vulnerability to parasitic infection. Red colobus monkeys congregate and live in large groups, with up to 50 members, compared with about 10 members in the black-and-white groups. Red colobus monkeys eat a much more varied diet. This causes them to travel farther, searching for the foods they need. But many of the plants that make up their diet simply aren�t available in disturbed forest fragments.

�The red colobus typically eat 40 to 50 species of plants, but in these forest fragments we might only have 12 tree species, so there�s a dramatic reduction in what we typically would see them feed on,� Gillespie said.

�The black-and-white colobus tend to feed on whatever�s dominant. They make do with what�s there.�

The black-and-white colobus monkeys� ability to eat well under a variety of circumstances enhances their ability to withstand parasitic infections, Gillespie said.

Red colobus monkeys� travels bring them into contact with more parasites. Their compromised nutritional status also weakens them, giving parasites the edge, Gillespie said.

�We asked how parasitism plays into this dynamic of some species doing well and others not doing well after forest fragmentation,� Gillespie said. �This is giving us a new window into what�s happening.�

Severely restricted diet linked to physical fitness into old age

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) BUFFALO, NY -- Severely restricting calories leads to a longer life, scientists have proved.

New research now has shown for the first time that such a diet also can maintain physical fitness into advanced age, slowing the seemingly inevitable progression to physical disability and loss of independence.

The study, using a rat model of life-time caloric restriction, showed that the diet reduces the amount of visceral fat, which expresses inflammatory factors that in humans cause chronic disease and a decline in physical performance and vitality across the lifespan.

The study appears in the October issue of Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences.

Have we finally discovered the Fountain of Youth?

No. But we may be getting a little closer.

�This is the first study to report that caloric restriction reduced production in visceral fat of the inflammatory cytokine IL-6 and enhanced performance on overall physical function assessments,� said Tongjian You, Ph.D., assistant professor of exercise and nutrition sciences in the UB School of Public Health and Health Professions and principal investigator.

�In addition, rats that ate a normal diet lost a significant amount of lean muscle mass and acquired more fat, while calorie-restricted rats maintained lean muscle mass as they aged.�

The study was conducted with male rats in three age groups -- 18, 24 and 29 months, comparable to ages 50-70 years in humans -- that had been fed either a normal or

40-percent calorie-restricted diet from birth. The animals were put through tests to determine grip strength, muscle tone, stamina and swimming speed. Data also were collected on whole body mass, lean body mass, fat mass, percent body fat, the ratio of fat-to-lean body mass, amount of visceral fat and the amount of pro-inflammatory cytokines and C-reactive protein, a marker of chronic inflammation.

Results showed that animals on the restricted calorie diet had significantly higher physical performance scores than animals fed a normal diet. They also had less fat, a lower fat-to-lean ratio, and lower adipose tissue secretion of IL-6 and circulating levels of C-reactive protein.

The stumbling block on this path to remaining forever young is that humans could not adhere to such a severe diet.

�Based on an average of 2,000 calories per day for adult women and 2,500 for men, cutting by 40 percent would mean surviving on 1,200 and 1,500 calories per day, respectively, said You.

�It�s very difficult for people to maintain that type of diet for short periods of time, and it would be nearly impossible over a lifetime, while staying healthy. Starting on a diet like that in the senior years would be harmful.�

You said that a more moderate form of caloric restriction, 8 percent, is achievable in humans, based on recent findings, and may have positive effects on specific oxidative stress and inflammatory biomarkers.

�Preclinical testing of this 8-percent regimen could be informative and beneficial in translating to humans,� he said.

Exercise improves thinking, reduces diabetes risk in overweight children

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Just three months of daily, vigorous physical activity in overweight children improves their thinking and reduces their diabetes risk, researchers say.

Studies of about 200 overweight, inactive children ages 7-11 also showed that a regular exercise program reduces body fat and improves bone density.

�Is exercise a magic wand that turns them into lean, healthy kids? No. They are still overweight but less so, with less fat, a healthier metabolism and an improved ability to handle life,� says Dr. Catherine Davis, clinical health psychologist at the Medical College of Georgia and lead investigator.

All study participants learned about healthy nutrition and the benefits of physical activity; one-third also exercised 20 minutes after school and another third exercised for 40 minutes. Children played hard, with running games, hula hoops and jump ropes, raising their heart rates to 79 percent of maximum, which is considered vigorous.

�Aerobic exercise training showed dose-response benefits on executive function (decision-making) and possibly math achievement, in overweight children,� researchers write in an abstract being presented during The Obesity Society�s Annual Scientific Meeting Oct. 20-24 in New Orleans. �Regular exercise may be a simple, important method of enhancing children�s cognitive and academic development. These results may persuade educators to implement vigorous physical activity curricula during a childhood obesity epidemic.�

Functional magnetic resonance imaging studies, which show the brain at work, were performed on a percentage of children in each group and found those who exercised had different patterns of brain activity during an executive function task.

�Look what good it does when they exercise,� says Dr. Davis. �This is an important public health issue we need to look at as a nation to help our children learn and keep them well.�

Unprecedented obesity and inactivity rates in America�s children are impacting health, including dramatic increases in the incidence of type 2 diabetes, a disease formerly known as adult-onset diabetes. Overweight children also have slightly lower school achievement, on average.

�We hope these findings will help persuade policymakers, schools and communities that time spent being physically active enhances, rather than detracts, from learning,� says Dr. Davis.

�There have been several studies that have shown that exercise produces kind of a selective effect, particularly with older adults, in cognitive tasks that require regulation of behaviors,� says Dr. Phillip D. Tomporowski, experimental psychologist at the University of Georgia and a key collaborator.

For this study, researchers gave the children tests that look at their decision-making processes. In the first such studies in children, the researchers found small to moderate improvements in children who exercised as well as a hint of increased math achievement.

�We have a number of studies conducted with animals that examined what influence physical activity has on blood flow, metabolic activity, brain function, glucose regulation, and they all demonstrate the same theme: that physical activity done on a regular basis has a protective effect,� says Dr. Tomporowski. �It doesn�t take too much to make the leap that it might influence developing children as well.�

Looking at the children�s insulin resistance, a precursor of type 2 diabetes in which it takes more insulin to convert glucose into energy, researchers found levels dropped 15 percent in the 20-minute exercise group and 21 percent in the 40-minute group. The control group stayed about the same.

�Increasing volume of regular aerobic exercise shows increased benefits on insulin resistance in overweight children, indicating reduced risk of type 2 diabetes, regardless of sex or race,� they write.

�We also know that if you stop exercising, you lose all the benefits,� adds Dr. Davis. �Exercise works if you do it.�

Adult studies have yielded comparable findings regarding exercise�s impact on insulin resistance and cognition.

The researchers tested oral glucose tolerance, measuring insulin response after children drank a small amount of glucose, before and after the studies. �Once your glucose levels start to rise, it�s called impaired glucose tolerance and that is a precursor of diabetes. It�s called pre-diabetes now,� says Dr. Davis, noting that overweight children typically have higher insulin resistance than their leaner peers. Insulin resistance is an early sign of diabetes risk that appears before glucose levels start to rise. Growth associated with puberty can temporarily increase insulin resistance, Dr. Davis notes, so because some of the children were beginning puberty, they made adjustments for the level of sex hormones.

DEXA scanning, which uses a small amount of radiation to quantify bone, tissue and fat, was used to accurately assess body composition. Executive function was measured using the Cognitive Assessment System and math skills using the Woodcock Johnson Test of Achievement III.

�If physical education were ideal, which it�s not � it�s not daily and it�s not active � then children could achieve this within the school day,� Dr. Davis says, pointing to benefits derived by children exercising just 20 minutes a day. �We are not there. To achieve maximum benefit, we were able to show it will take more than PE.�

Zinc may reduce pneumonia risk in nursing home elderly

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) BOSTON � When elderly nursing home residents contract pneumonia, it is a blow to their already fragile health. Simin Nikbin Meydani, DVM, PhD of the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University and colleagues report that maintaining normal serum zinc concentration in the blood may help reduce the risk of pneumonia development in that population.

�Based on our data, it appears that daily zinc intake can help nursing home residents who are susceptible to pneumonia, especially those with low serum zinc concentrations in their blood,� says Meydani, corresponding author and director of the Nutritional Immunology Laboratory at the USDA HNRCA . �The study participants with normal serum zinc concentrations in their blood reduced their risk of developing pneumonia by about 50 percent. Additionally, deaths from all causes were 39 percent lower in this group.�

Meydani and colleagues analyzed blood samples from a previous study that investigated the role of Vitamin E in preventing respiratory infections in nursing home residents ages 65 and older. The study enrolled 617 men and women from 33 nursing homes in the Boston area. All of the participants received daily supplements containing 50 percent of the recommended dietary allowance of several vitamins and minerals, including zinc, for one year. Foods that provide zinc include oysters, red meat, poultry, whole grains, beans and dairy products.

In the present study, published in the October issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the authors compared blood samples collected at the beginning and the conclusion of the one-year study. The participants whose serum zinc concentrations remained low throughout that 12-month period had more difficulty battling pneumonia. �Not only did those participants have a higher risk of developing pneumonia when they did become sick, they did not recover as quickly and required a longer course of antibiotics,� says Meydani, who is also a professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy and the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences, both at Tufts University. �We also noted a higher rate of death from all causes.�

Maintaining normal serum zinc concentration in the blood throughout the 12-month study period benefited the participants even if they did develop pneumonia. Meydani adds, �Those participants with normal serum zinc concentrations in their blood were more likely to spend fewer days on antibiotics and recover more quickly.�

Meydani and colleagues conclude that zinc may reduce the risk of pneumonia, and its associated complications in nursing home residents. �Zinc is already known to strengthen the immune system; however, there needs to be further investigation of zinc and its effect on pneumonia development and prevention in nursing homes,� Meydani says. �The next step would likely be a clinical trial.�

New study: pine bark extract boosts nitric oxide production

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) A study to be published in the October edition of Hypertension Research reveals Pycnogenol, (pic-noj-en-all), an antioxidant plant extract from the bark of the French maritime pine tree, helps individuals by enhancing healthy nitric oxide (NO) production which leads to an increase in blood flow and oxygen supply to muscles.

Nitric oxide, a key cardiovascular chemical produced by the body, increases blood flow that serves to deliver more nutrients and oxygen to the muscles, helping muscles to cope with increased physical activity and build when subjected to regular elevated labor.

�This study suggests that when taking Pycnogenol, more NO is provided in response to neurotransmitters allowing for better expansion of arteries to carry more blood. This process serves to meet the enhanced oxygen demand of the performing muscle and avoid anaerobic metabolism,said Dr. Yukihito Higashi, lead researcher of the study. �These results also lead me to determine that Pycnogenol will be a useful natural alternative therapy in various diseases in which oxidative stress is involved in the pathogenesis.

The double-blind, randomized, placebo study was held at the Hiroshima University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences in Japan. Every day for two weeks young healthy men either took 180 mg Pycnogenol or a placebo. To identify Pycnogenol�s effect on the release of NO, an inhibitor of the amino acid L-arginine was infused in patients, which restricts the expansion of arteries in response to the neurotransmitter acytelcholine.

After two weeks of supplementation with Pycnogenol, results revealed blood flow increased in response to acetylcholine stimulation by 42 percent. In contrast, the control group receiving the placebo did not show a pronounced blood flow increase in response to neurotransmitter stimulation.

�Acetylcholine stimulates the cells of arteries to produce NO from L-arginine faster,Dr. Higashi said. �In turn, the NO causes the muscle surrounding arteries to relax, which results in an increase of blood vessel diameters. When subjects had taken Pycnogenol the relaxation of arteries was increased by 42 percent as compared to the group taking placebo tablets.

According to Frank Sch�nlau, Ph.D, director of scientific communications for Horphag Research, worldwide distributors of Pycnogenol, �While more research is warranted, this is an encouraging breakthrough especially to athletes as Pycnogenol seems to allow people to move faster when exercising by satisfying the enhanced muscle oxygen demand and increasing the blood flow to active muscles. When people are performing heavy physical activity, nerves release neurotransmitter acetylcholine to arteries supplying muscles, which makes them expand, a process that requires enhanced production of NO.

A multitude of studies about Pycnogenol and sports nutrition have been conducted. Most recently, a year ago, Pycnogenol was demonstrated to improve blood circulation and support a lasting aerobic muscle activity during any kind of activity and enhance sports endurance by alleviating cramping and muscular pain in athletes. In short, Pycnogenol is effective for enhancing and prolonging muscle performance during sport, supports muscle adaptation to higher work-load and allows for faster physical recovery.

The 'arms' race: Adult steroid users seek muscles, not medals

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) The majority of non-medical anabolic-androgenic steroid (AAS) users are not cheating athletes or risk-taking teenagers. According to a recent survey, containing the largest sample to date and published in the online open access publication, Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, the typical male user is about 30 years old, well-educated, and earning an above-average income in a white-collar occupation. The majority did not use steroids during adolescence and were not motivated by athletic competition or sports performance.

The study, conducted by a collaboration of researchers from around the country coordinated by Jason Cohen, Psy.D. candidate, used a web-based survey of nearly 2,000 US males. Whereas athletes are tempted to take anabolic steroids to improve sports performance, the study suggests that physical self-improvement motivates the unrecognized majority of non-medical AAS users who particularly want to increase muscle mass, strength, and physical attractiveness. Other significant but less highly ranked factors included increased confidence, decreased fat, improved mood and attraction of sexual partners.

Although often considered similar to abusers of narcotics and other illicit drugs (e.g., heroin or cocaine), non-medical AAS users are remarkably different. These users follow carefully planned drug regimens in conjunction with a healthy diet, ancillary drugs and exercise. As opposed to the spontaneous and haphazard approach seen in abusers of psychotropic drugs, everything is strategically planned to maximize benefits and minimize harm. This is simply not a style or pattern of use we typically see when we examine substance abuse said Jack Darkes, Ph.D., one of the authors. The notions of spontaneous drug seeking and loss of control do not apply to the vast majority of AAS users, added co-author Daniel Gwartney, M.D.

These findings question commonly held views of typical AAS users and their underlying motivations, said Rick Collins, one of the study's authors. The focus on 'cheating' athletes and at risk youth has led to irrelevant policy as it relates to the predominant group of non-medical AAS users. The vast majority of AAS users are not athletes and hence, are not likely to view themselves as cheaters. The targeting of athletes through drug testing and other adolescent or sports-based interventions has no bearing on non-competitive adult users.The study concludes that these AAS users are a driven and ambitious group dedicated to gym attendance, diet, occupational goals and educational attainment. The users we surveyed consider that they are using directed drug technology as one part of a strategy for physical self-improvement within a health-centered lifestyle, said Collins. Effective public policy should begin by accurately identifying who's using steroids and why. We hope our research - the largest adult survey of non-medical AAS use we know of - is a significant step forward in that direction.

Drink tea for stronger bones, suggests study

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 11:01:04 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Sydney, Oct 9 - Drinking tea regularly, known to have several health benefits, may be good for the bones too, say researchers in Australia.

Health experts in Perth studied 275 elderly women aged 70-85 and found that those who drank tea had higher bone density at their hips and less bone loss than women who didn't drink tea.

It was a larger five-year study of calcium supplements and osteoporosis - a disease that weakens the bones and increases the risk of fractures. The researchers led by Amanda Devine of University of Western Australia, Perth, measured the bone density of the hip at the beginning and end of the study and also kept a tab on the amount of black and green tea the women drank.

Although the study did not find a link between the cups of tea consumed per day and bone mineral density, it found the bone density at two places at the hip was higher in tea drinkers than in non-tea drinkers, the online edition of health Magazine WebMD reported.

Tea drinkers also had less loss of bone density over a four-year period compared to the women who did not drink tea.

These results took into account factors such as smoking history and use of calcium supplements, according to the study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed.

'Other variables, such as dietary calcium and coffee intake, physical activity, and smoking did not appear to be important confounders of the relation between tea and bone density,' the researchers said.

People in the past have been using tea in managing and preventing allergies, diabetes, bacterial and viral infections, cavities and to reduce inflammatory diseases.

A previous study by the Yale School of Medicine had indicated that those who consume green tea on an average of 1.2 litres a day get several health benefits.

Separate studies have also revealed that tea can help improve gastrointestinal functions, alcohol metabolism, kidney, liver and pancreatic functions and protect the skin and eyes.

Folic acid lowers blood arsenic levels, according to Mailman School of Public Health study

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) October 8, 2007 -- A new study by researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health finds that folic acid supplements can dramatically lower blood arsenic levels in individuals exposed to arsenic through contaminated drinking water. This toxic element, naturally present in some aquifers used for drinking, is currently a significant public health problem in at least 70 countries, including several developing countries and also parts of the U.S. Chronic arsenic exposure is associated with increased risk for skin, liver and bladder cancers, skin lesions, cardiovascular disease, and other adverse health outcomes. The study results are published in the October issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

The researchers found that treatment with 400 micrograms a day of folic acid, the U.S. recommended dietary allowance, reduced total blood arsenic levels in the study population by 14 percent. Folate, a B vitamin found in leafy vegetables, citrus fruits, beans, and whole grains, can also be taken as a vitamin supplement, and in the U.S., is added to flour and other fortified foods. The researchers found that folate deficiency is very common in Bangladesh, where the study was conducted.

�Folic acid supplementation enhanced the detoxification of arsenic to a form that is more readily excreted in urine,� said Mary Gamble, PhD, assistant professor of Environmental Health Sciences at the Mailman School, and lead author. The study is jointly supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health and the federally funded Superfund Basic Research Program (SPRB), which seeks solutions to the complex health and environmental issues associated with the nation's hazardous waste sites.

Folic acid increased the methylation or detoxification of arsenic in the body, allowing the body to change some of its more toxic metabolite, or methylarsonic (MMA) acid, to a form that could more easily be excreted from the body, thus lowering the levels of arsenic found in the blood.

Chronic arsenic exposure currently affects 100 million persons worldwide, including populations in Bangladesh. The arsenic levels in drinking water in some parts of Bangladesh reach as high as 100 times the World Health Organization and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) guidelines, which set a limit of 10 micrograms per liter for arsenic in drinking water.

The initial intervention study included 200 folate-deficient participants drawn from a larger cohort study in Bangladesh examining the adverse health effects of arsenic. Dr. Gamble pointed out, �The technology to measure arsenic in blood, and particularly to measure the individual arsenic metabolites in blood, didn�t exist when the studies were first planned.� She credits the advanced technology to recent advances in other laboratories at Columbia, including work conducted by Superfund grantee Joseph H. Graziano, PhD, professor of Environmental Health Sciences at the Mailman School, and a co-author on the study.

�Clearly the first priority should focus on mitigation efforts to lower arsenic exposure. But this very exciting and significant finding implies that folic acid has therapeutic potential for people who have been exposed to arsenic,� said Dr. Gamble. �Although additional studies are needed, the results of this study suggest that a simple, low-cost nutritional intervention may help to prevent some of the long-term health consequences associated with arsenic exposure for the many populations at risk.�

William Suk, PhD, acting deputy director of the NIEHS, discussed the significance of this work in Bangladesh to the U.S. He explains that arsenic contamination of groundwater is one of the five most common inorganic compounds found at Superfund sites and is present at over 70% of the sites. �Because of the prevalence of arsenic, the SBRP has placed an emphasis on supporting arsenic-related research in heavily affected areas all over the world to understand and mitigate the health issues arising from arsenic exposure via drinking water. This research is already demonstrating its relevance to exposures that are occurring in the United States.�

Claudia Thompson, PhD, acting director of the SPRB, said, �The work that our grantees are doing in Bangladesh is extraordinary. Not only is the research they are conducting improving the quality of life for the people in Bangladesh, but it can potentially help the more than 100 million people worldwide that are chronically exposed to arsenic.�

The study results also imply that folic acid supplementation may help to reduce body stores of arsenic even after exposure has been reduced. Elevated risk for adverse health outcomes persists for decades after exposure has been eliminated. The researchers stress that additional studies are needed to determine the optimal dose- and duration of treatment, as well as studies that include health outcomes.

Limiting refined carbohydrates may stall AMD progression

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Eating fewer refined carbohydrates may slow the progression of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), according to a new study from researchers at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University.

AMD results in partial or total blindness in 7 to 15% of the elderly, according to the Eye Diseases Prevalence Research Group. �Dietary changes may be the most practical and cost-effective prevention method to combat progression of AMD,� says Allen Taylor, PhD, director of the Laboratory for Nutrition and Vision Research at the USDA HNRCA. �It is surprising there is so little attention focused on the relationship between AMD and carbohydrates.�

The current study, published in the October issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, builds on a recent analysis by Taylor and colleagues that found men and women older than 55 who consumed diets with higher-than-average dietary glycemic index foods appeared to have an increased risk for both early and later stages of AMD.

Dietary glycemic index is a scale used to determine how quickly carbohydrates are broken down into blood sugar, or glucose. Foods with a high glycemic index are associated with a faster rise and subsequent drop in blood sugar. Refined carbohydrates like white bread and white rice have high glycemic indices. Whole wheat versions of rice, pasta and bread are examples of foods with low glycemic indices.

In the present study, Taylor and colleagues analyzed diet questionnaires completed by 4,757 non-diabetic men and women participating in the nationwide Age-Releated Eye Disease Study (AREDS). The eight-year AREDS study enrolled participants between the ages of 55 and 80 with varying stages of AMD. Taylor and colleagues examined the participants� carbohydrate intake over a one-year period and used the data to calculate the participants� dietary glycemic index.

�Our data showed those people in the high-glycemic-index group were at greater risk of AMD progression, especially those already in the late stages,� says first author Chung-Jung Chiu, DDS, PhD, scientist in the Laboratory for Nutrition and Vision Research at the USDA HNRCA and assistant professor at Tufts University School of Medicine. �Participants who consumed the most refined carbohydrates were 17 percent more likely to develop blinding AMD than the group that consumed the least.�

According to the authors, public health officials believe the condition could spur a public health crisis in the United States by 2020, when they predict the cases of AMD-related vision loss will have doubled to three million.

�No one has been able to identify an effective noninvasive intervention that will slow the progression of AMD� says Taylor, who is also a professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts and Tufts University School of Medicine. �We feel we have identified a risk factor that could postpone the debilitating loss of vision with very little economic or personal hardship. Based on our data, limiting refined carbohydrate intake, such as by limiting sweetened drinks or exchanging white bread for whole wheat, in at-risk elderly could reduce the number of advanced AMD cases by 8 percent in five years. This can equate to saving the sight of approximately 100,000 people.�

The authors note that their findings warrant randomized controlled clinical trials.

Corazonas Foods and Brandeis University partner to create cholesterol-reducing snacks

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 04:00:00 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Waltham, MA -- Corazonas Foods, Inc., creators of great-tasting, heart-healthy snack foods, has announced an exclusive licensing agreement with Brandeis University to utilize its technology in creating several new categories of heart-healthy snacks. Brandeis�s innovative technology allows high levels of plant sterols to be incorporated into snack foods while retaining the product�s outstanding flavor. The partnership�s first venture, Corazonas Heart-Healthy Tortilla Chips, are currently the first and only snack chips clinically proven to reduce low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, a.k.a. �bad cholesterol,� by up to 15 percent. The chips have been a huge hit since debuting in early 2006, further demonstrating the overwhelming consumer demand for healthful snack alternatives without sacrificing great taste.

Patented by Brandeis researchers K.C. Hayes, Daniel Perlman, and Andy Pronczuk, the cutting-edge technology has allowed the creation of foods fortified with natural (chemically unmodified) plant sterols. Found naturally in fruits, vegetables, whole-grain products and most vegetable oils, plant sterol levels are usually too low to effectively combat LDL cholesterol. The Brandeis technology makes natural plant sterols biologically available in oils at concentrations of 2 to 25 percent, enabling them to effectively block cholesterol absorption and reduce LDL levels.

A variety of scientific studies have shown that plant sterols, when appropriately added to other foods, can lower blood cholesterol and reduce risk for coronary heart disease. Brandeis University has licensed its patents exclusively in the field of snack products to Corazonas Foods, which will create additional categories of plant-sterol enhanced foods expanding beyond tortilla chips to other popular snacks including cookies, crackers and potato chips.

�Brandeis University has been a dream partner,� said Ramona Cappello, Corazonas Foods chief executive officer. �We�ve been able to take an American favorite, tortilla chips, and produce them with healthy ingredients to create a crunchy, good-for-you and absolutely delicious snack. In the United States, half the population suffers from borderline to high cholesterol. It�s very rewarding for our Corazonas team to be providing a product that we know can make a real difference in people�s heart health.�

�Brandeis is thrilled that Corazonas is successfully turning our basic discovery into products that have both a positive health benefit and are gaining broad acceptance by consumers,� said Irene Abrams, executive director of the Office of Technology Licensing at Brandeis University. �We are confident that Corazonas will be as successful with its new line of products as they have been with the tortilla chips.�

The chips are currently available in three flavors: Original, Jalape�o Jack and Salsa Picante. Three additional flavors � Margarita Lime, Cilantro Salsa Fresca and Baja Bean Dip � are launching this fall.