Thursday April 16, 2009
New Research Shows Tree Nuts May Play an Important Role in the Health of People With Diabetes---Researchers at the University of Toronto and St. Michael's Hospital Present New Findings on Nuts and Diabetes at Experimental Biology Conference in
PR Newswire 04-15-09
DAVIS, Calif., April 15, 2009 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Researchers at the University of Toronto and St. Michael's Hospital Present New Findings on Nuts and Diabetes at Experimental Biology Conference in New Orleans, LA
While nuts have been shown to help reduce the risk of heart disease, new findings, which will be presented this week at the Experimental Biology Annual Meeting in New Orleans, LA, suggest that they may also play an important role in the management of diabetes. Researchers from the University of Toronto and St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto, Canada, will show that nuts may improve blood lipid levels and possibly blood sugar levels in individuals with non-insulin dependent diabetes.
According to Cyril Kendall, Ph.D., of the University of Toronto, "This is the largest study done to date looking at the effect of tree nuts (almonds, Brazils, cashews, hazelnuts, pecans, pine nuts, pistachios, macadamias and walnuts) and peanuts on Type 2 diabetes."
The study was a 3-month parallel design with 117 non-insulin dependent adults with diabetes (men and women with a mean age of 62 years) who were all being treated with oral hypoglycemic medications. The subjects were each randomized to one of three diets for three months. The first diet included a supplement of 75g (~2-1/2 ounces or 1/2 cup) of mixed nuts; the second diet included 38g (~1-1/3 ounces or 1/4 cup) of mixed nuts and half portion of muffins; and the third diet contained a full portion of muffins. Each supplement provided approximately 450 calories per 2,000 calorie diet. All of the diets contained roughly the same number of calories but the nuts provided more unsaturated (i.e. healthy) fat and less carbohydrate.
The goal of the study was to determine if nuts improve glycemic control in non-insulin dependent diabetes, as assessed by HbA1c (a marker of blood sugar control over the previous three months) and to ascertain whether these outcomes relate to improvements in cardiovascular health.
The study findings revealed that the full dose nut group had significantly reduced LDL and total cholesterol levels compared to the full dose muffin group. And, there was a significant reduction in HbA1c from baseline in the full dose nuts compared to the other two diets.
"If improvements in glycemic control can be achieved by dietary changes, this would make a substantial contribution to the treatment of those with Type 2 diabetes," stated Dr. Kendall.
Numerous studies have shown that consuming tree nuts may reduce the risk of heart disease. In 2003 tree nuts received a qualified health claim from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) which states, "Scientific evidence suggests but does not prove that eating 1.5 ounces per day of most nuts, as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol, may reduce the risk of heart disease." Interestingly, individuals with Type 2 diabetes have a 2-8 fold higher risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) compared with nondiabetic individuals of similar age, sex and ethnicity.
According to Maureen Ternus, M.S., R.D., Executive Director of the International Tree Nut Council Nutrition Research & Education Foundation (INC NREF), "While we've known for years that eating 1.5 ounces of nuts per day can help reduce the risk for heart disease, these new findings show that consuming nuts may now be helpful in controlling Type 2 diabetes as well."
SOURCE International Tree Nut Council Nutrition Research & Education Foundation
http://www.lef.org/news/LefDailyNews.htm?NewsID=8142&Section=Nutrition
Findings Show Insulin - Not Genes - Linked to Obesity
AScribe News 04-15-09
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind., Apr 14, 2009 (ASCRIBE NEWS via COMTEX) -- Researchers have uncovered new evidence suggesting factors other than genes could cause obesity, finding that genetically identical cells store widely differing amounts of fat depending on subtle variations in how cells process insulin.
Learning the precise mechanism responsible for fat storage in cells could lead to methods for controlling obesity.
"Insights from our study also will be important for understanding the precise roles of insulin in obesity or Type II diabetes, and to the design of effective intervention strategies," said Ji-Xin Cheng, an assistant professor in Purdue University's Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering and Department of Chemistry.
Findings indicate that the faster a cell processes insulin, the more fat it stores.
Other researchers have suggested that certain "fat genes" might be associated with excessive fat storage in cells. However, the Purdue researchers confirmed that these fat genes were expressed, or activated, in all of the cells, yet those cells varied drastically - from nearly zero in some cases to pervasive in others - in how much fat they stored.
The researchers examined a biological process called adipogenesis, using cultures of a cell line called 3T3-L1, which is often used to study fat cells. In adipogenesis, these cells turn into fat.
"This work supports an emerging viewpoint that not all biological information in cells is encoded in the genetic blueprint," said Thuc T. Le, a National Institutes of Health postdoctoral fellow at Purdue who is working with Cheng. "We found that the variability in fat storage is dependent on how 3T3-L1 cells process insulin, a hormone secreted by the pancreas after meals to trigger the uptake of glucose from the blood into the liver, muscle or fat cells."
The findings are detailed in a research paper appearing online in the journal PLoS ONE, published by the Public Library of Science, a non- profit organization of scientists and physicians.
"This varied capability to store fat among genetically identical cells is a well-observed but poorly understood phenomenon," Cheng said
The researchers determined that these differences in fat storage depend not on fat-gene expression but on variations in a cascade of events within an "insulin-signaling pathway." The pathway enables cells to take up glucose from the blood.
"Only one small variation at the beginning of the cascade can lead to a drastic variation in fat storage at the end of the cascade," Cheng said.
The researchers conducted "single cell profiling" using a combination of imaging techniques to precisely compare fat storage in cloned cells having the same fat genes expressed.
Single cell profiling allows researchers to precisely compare the inner workings of individual cells, whereas the conventional analytical approach in biochemistry measures entire populations of cells and then provides data representing an average.
"In this case, we don't want an average. We need to find out what causes fat storage at the single-cell level so that we can compare one cell to another, " Le said. "By profiling multiple events in single cells, we found that variability in fat storage is due to varied rates of insulin processing among cells."
The cell culture used in the research contains cloned mice fibroblast cells.
"This particular type of cell culture has been used to study the molecular control of obesity for the past 35 years," Cheng said. "Researchers have observed tremendous variability in how much fat is stored in cells with identical genes, but no one really knows why. Our findings have shed some light on this phenomenon."
The researchers used a specialized imaging method called coherent anti- Stokes Raman scattering, or CARS, combined with other techniques, including flow cytometry and fluorescence microscopy.
"This multimodal imaging system allows us to correlate different events, like fat storage, gene expression and insulin signaling," Le said. "We can monitor these different events at the same time, and that's why we can determine the mechanism at the single-cell level."
Insulin attaches to binding sites on cell membranes, signaling the cells to take up glucose from the blood. Cells that are said to be resistant to insulin fail to take up glucose, the primary cause of Type II diabetes, a medical condition affecting nearly 24 million Americans. About two-thirds of U.S. adults are overweight, and nearly one-third obese.
The research, which has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, is ongoing. Future work may seek to pinpoint specific events in the insulin-signaling cascade that are responsible for fat storage.
http://www.lef.org/news/LefDailyNews.htm?NewsID=8141&Section=Disease
Excessive meat and dairy may harm sperm quality
Last Updated: 2009-04-15 15:47:07 -0400 (Reuters Health)
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Men who eat lots of processed meat and full-fat dairy may have poorer quality sperm than those who eat more fruit, vegetables and low-fat diary, a small study suggests.
The study included 61 Spanish men visiting a fertility clinic. Half of the men had poor semen quality and generally had a higher intake of processed meat and high-fat dairy than did the 31men with normal sperm counts. The men with higher-quality sperm tended to consume more fruits, vegetables and skim milk.
The findings, reported in the journal Fertility and Sterility, do not prove that these foods contribute to or protect against sperm abnormalities.
But they do suggest that in addition to its numerous other health benefits, a well-balanced diet is important to fertility, lead researcher Dr. Jaime Mendiola, of Instituto Bernabeu in Alicante, Spain, told Reuters Health.
For example, Mendiola explained, the antioxidants found in fruits and vegetables may help protect sperm from damage. In a separate study, he and his colleagues found that men with normal sperm quality had a higher intake of certain antioxidants, like vitamin C and lycopene, than did men with sperm abnormalities.
Another factor may be that meat and high-fat foods may expose men to higher levels of substances known as xenobiotics -- including steroids and various chemicals in the environment that have estrogen-like effects, such as certain pesticides and PCBs. Xenobiotics tend to accumulate in high-fat foods, which in turn accumulate in men with high-fat diets.
Environmental contaminants can get into livestock through food and the water supply, Mendiola said. In addition, livestock in the U.S. are often given antibiotics and hormones for growth promotion.
Mendiola noted that the use of hormones has been banned in Europe since 1988, but the men in the current study were born in the 1970s and would have been exposed to hormones in meat and milk before the prohibition.
SOURCE: Fertility and Sterility, March 2009.
http://www.reutershealth.com/archive/2009/04/15/eline/links/20090415elin001.html
Lifetime exercise may cut breast cancer death risk
Last Updated: 2009-04-15 16:19:07 -0400 (Reuters Health)
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Women who participate in recreational exercise and sports over their lifetime may be lowering their risk of death from breast cancer and breast cancer recurrence.
Among 1,231 women with breast cancer who were followed for a minimum of 8.3 years, those who obtained about 4 hours or more of weekly moderate-intensity recreational activity over their lifetime had a 44 percent lower risk of death from breast cancer, report Dr. Christine Friedenreich and colleagues.
Risk for recurrence, progression, or new primary breast cancer was likewise reduced by 34 percent among women reporting similar levels of recreational physical activity, note Friendenreich, of Alberta Health Services-Alberta Cancer Board in Calgary, Canada, and colleagues.
These findings suggest "being physically active before a breast cancer diagnosis can improve survival after breast cancer," Friendenreich told Reuters Health.
However, occupational activity and physical household work such as gardening, housework, and do-it-yourself home repair did not confer benefits similar to those from lifetime exercise and sports activities, the investigators report in the International Journal of Cancer.
Friendenreich's team compared the lifetime physical activity reports of 1,231 women, who were 56 years old on average when diagnosed with breast cancer, with their outcomes. Over a minimum of 8.3 years of follow up, 341 women died (223 from breast cancer) and 327 had a recurrence, progressions, or new primary breast cancer diagnoses.
Compared with the least active women (less than 1.4 hours per week of recreational activity), those who engaged in more than 3.9 hours per week of moderate intensity recreational activity had 34 percent decreased risk for the combined outcomes, and 44 percent reduced risk for death from breast cancer.
These effects remained apparent after allowing for other factors potentially associated with survival such as body mass, tumor stage, and age.
Vigorous-intensity recreational activity lowered the risk of breast cancer mortality, but did not appear to reduce the risk of other outcomes.
Friendenreich notes her team continues examinations of "exactly what type and dose of activity is related to improved survival after cancer." Ultimately they hope this research leads to development of clear exercise guidelines for cancer patients.
SOURCE: International Journal of Cancer, April 2009
http://www.reutershealth.com/archive/2009/04/15/eline/links/20090415elin004.html
US jury rules for Monsanto in PCB pollution case
Last Updated: 2009-04-15 12:25:36 -0400 (Reuters Health)
BIRMINGHAM, Ala(Reuters) - A jury in Alabama ruled on Tuesday in favor of the old Monsanto company, now Pharmacia, in a case in which it was accused of manufacturing PCBs that caused arthritis and diabetes.
Five plaintiffs who lived in Anniston, Alabama, where the company made polychlorinated biphenyls until the 1970s and had been dumping chemicals into local creeks, brought individual lawsuits against Monsanto at a state court.
The five are all senior citizens who suffer from arthritis or diabetes. They are the first of around 3,000 individuals filing lawsuits, according to plaintiff attorney Frank Davis of Davis, Norris, LLC.
"This jury... ruled that the five plaintiffs in this case failed to prove their allegations that their common illnesses were caused by exposure to PCBs many years ago from an Anniston, Alabama, plant," defense attorney Augusta Dowd said in a statement.
"The five plaintiffs are 67 to 89 years old and they have a number of well-established health factors that could explain their health condition, including obesity, diet, tobacco smoking, family history and others," Dowd said.
"There is no credible evidence that their illnesses are linked to PCB exposure from the plant in Anniston, where PCBs have not been manufactured for more than 30 years," the statement said.
Pharmacia, a unit of Pfizer Inc, is the named defendant in the case, but Monsanto has an obligation to defend the case, Dowd said.
It was not possible to obtain immediate comment from the plaintiffs.
Much of the 2-week case revolved around whether or not the PCBs actually caused diabetes and arthritis or whether they were merely associated with it.
Monsanto manufactured PCBs, classified as probable human carcinogens by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, at the plant for about 40 years. They were commonly used as lubricants and coolants for electrical equipment.
The U.S. government banned most uses for PCBs in 1979.
http://www.reutershealth.com/archive/2009/04/15/eline/links/20090415elin012.html
Asperger syndrome linked to cortisol response
Last Updated: 2009-04-15 14:01:00 -0400 (Reuters Health)
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Upon awakening, there is normally a surge in cortisol, a steroid hormone produced by the adrenal gland and released in response to stress. Now, UK researchers report that this response is absent in adolescent boys with Asperger syndrome, which may explain some of the symptoms of the condition, such as the need for routine and resistance to change.
Among other functions, the ability to adapt to change is controlled by the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, which controls the dramatic increase in cortisol upon awakening, referred to as "the cortisol awakening response," the study team explains in an article in press in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology.
"The cortisol awakening response is a robust and reproducible neuroendocrine phenomenon which has been positively correlated with psychological and physical well-being," they add.
Dr. Mark Brosnan from University of Bath and colleagues say their research points to a lack of response in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis in individuals with Asperger syndrome, which may help explain why these individuals have difficulties if there are minor changes in their routine or environment.
In the study, the investigators measured the cortisol in saliva of 20 adolescent males with Asperger syndrome and 18 age-matched controls at the time of awakening and 30 minutes later.
While a significant cortisol awakening response was clearly evident in the control group, this was not the case in the Asperger group.
"In our study, the typical marked rise in cortisol, peaking around 30 minutes after waking, was found to be of significant magnitude only in the typically developing control group. Therefore, Asperger syndrome, at least in adolescent males, appears to be characterized by an impaired cortisol awakening response," Brosnan and colleagues write.
Brosnan and colleagues say further research is needed to address this "intriguing phenomenon" in Asperger syndrome.
SOURCE: Psychoneuroendocrinology 2009.
http://www.reutershealth.com/archive/2009/04/15/eline/links/20090415elin022.html
Acupuncture reduces post-op nausea and vomiting
Last Updated: 2009-04-15 11:41:36 -0400 (Reuters Health)
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Acupuncture or acupressure stimulation of Pericardium 6 (P6), a point on the wrist, is safe and effective for reducing postoperative nausea and vomiting, according to a review of studies appearing in The Cochrane Library for April 14.
The results show that compared with a sham treatment, P6 stimulation reduced nausea by 29 percent, vomiting by 30 percent, and the need for rescue antiemetics - drugs that suppress nausea -- by 31 percent, study co-authors Dr. Anna Lee and Dr. Lawrence T. Y. Fan, from The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, report.
In a search of two large databases, MEDLINE and EMBASE, and other sources through September 2008, the authors identified 40 trials with 4858 subjects that compared various forms of P6 stimulation with sham treatment in preventing postoperative nausea and vomiting.
Wristband stimulation alone was the most common form of P6 stimulation, and was used in 17 of the studies. These wristbands, the authors note, are the same ones used to prevent seasickness and chemotherapy-related nausea and vomiting.
P6 stimulation appeared to be equally effective in adult and pediatric populations, the authors note. Moreover, invasive and noninvasive stimulation were comparable in efficacy.
The researchers also found no clear difference in effectiveness between P6 stimulation and use of antiemetic medications. Nevertheless, they don't expect one to soon replace the other.
"Generally, physicians and patients are not aware of this type of treatment for preventing postoperative nausea and vomiting," Dr. Lee said in a statement. "Translating the evidence from this updated Cochrane review into clinical practice will take time."
SOURCE: The Cochrane Library, April 14, 2009.
http://www.reutershealth.com/archive/2009/04/15/eline/links/20090415elin023.html
Do the panda: Bamboo shoots may boost female bowel health
Nutraingredients.com, 16-Apr-2009
Fibre-rich bamboo shoots may improve cholesterol levels and improve bowel health, according to results of a small study from the US and Korea.
Supplementing the diet with bamboo shoots was associated with reductions in total and LDL cholesterol levels amongst 8 young women, suggests data published in the journal Nutrition.
Furthermore, the women’s faecal volume and the number of bowel movements increased significantly after six days of receiving the bamboo shoots.
“We believe that decreased dietary fibre consumption is related to the prevalence of lifestyle-related diseases and dietary fibre intake plays an important role in preventing or delaying the onset of chronic diseases,” wrote Eun-Jin Park from Washington State University and Deok-Young Jhon from Chonnam National University in Korea.
“The data of the present study confirmed the beneficial effects of consuming a high-fibre diet containing bamboo shoots in lowering cholesterol levels and improving bowel functions in healthy young women,” they added.
“Therefore, these results suggested that consumption of bamboo shoots, which contained high levels of dietary fibre, might be increased to help prevent chronic diseases.”
Ins and outs of bamboo
Fibre intake has been shown to benefit gastrointestinal health, glucose handling, heart health, cancer risk and satiety, but these benefits are dependent on the types of fibre present in foods.
According to Park and Jhon, eight per cent of the fibre content of bamboo shoots is soluble, with the other 92 per cent present as insoluble fibre. Most of the dietary fibre in the shoots is hemicellulose, cellulose, pectin, and lignin, they said.
Study details
Park and Jhon recruited eight women with an average age of 22 and an average BMI of 20.2 kg/m2, and randomly assigned them to receive a dietary fibre-free diet (control), a diet containing 25 grams of cellulose, or a diet containing 360 g of bamboo shoots. Each dietary intervention lasted six days and the women underwent each segment.
At the end of the study, the bamboo shoot rich diet was associated with a 15.7 and 11.8 mg/dL reduction in total cholesterol levels, compared to the control and cellulose diets, respectively.
Moreover, LDL cholesterol was reduced by 16.1 mg/dL following the bamboo shoot diet compared to the control diet, but there were no differences between the bamboo group and the cellulose group.
HDL cholesterol levels were unchanged by the bamboo diet, but increased by 7.2 mg/dL following consumption of the cellulose diet.
Following the bamboo shoot diet, the average number of bowel movements was 6.2 per day, compared to 4.3 and 5.6 in the control and cellulose groups, respectively.
“The present study concluded that an increased intake of dietary fiber, not just an increase in the intake of bamboo shoots, is good for health,” wrote Park and Jhon.
High cholesterol levels, or hypercholesterolaemia, are a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD), which causes almost 50 per cent of deaths in Europe, and is reported to cost the EU economy an estimated €169bn ($202bn) per year.
According to the American Heart Association, 34.2 per cent of Americans (70.1m people) suffered from some form of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in 2002.
Source: Nutrition
Published online ahead of print, doi: 10.1016/j.nut.2009.01.007
“Effects of bamboo shoot consumption on lipid profiles and bowel function in healthy young women”
Authors: Eun-Jin Park, Deok-Young Jhon
http://www.nutraingredients.com/Research/
Do-the-panda-Bamboo-shoots-may-boost-female-bowel-health
Natto enzyme may boost heart health in at-risk people
Nutraingredients.com, 16-Apr-2009
Nattokinase, an enzyme extracted from fermented soy, may reduce levels of compounds linked to blood clotting, and cut the risk of heart disease in people at-risk of the disease, suggests new research from Taiwan.
The enzyme was found to be able to reduce levels of blood clotting (coagulation) factors such as fibrinogen, factor VII, and factor VIII in 45 men and women, according to results of a study published in the Nutrition Research.
“These results, namely, the observed reduction of the coagulation factors of fibrinogen, factor VII, and factor VIII, suggest that nattokinase administration can be considered as a CVD nutraceutical,” wrote the authors, led by Chien-Hsun Hsia from Changhua Christian Hospital.
“To our knowledge, this study is the first clinical trial reported in the literature to investigate the effects of nattokinase on the CVD-associated coagulation factors.”
The rise of nattokinase
At SupplySide West in Las Vegas last year, Vincent Hackel, CEO and president of Japan Bio Science Laboratory-USA, told NutraIngredients that growth in nattokinase supplements was doubling every year. “Nattokinase is right on the cusp of taking off,” he said. JBSL-USA’s nattokinase was not used in the new study.
The majority of science has focused on reducing blood pressure and the prevention of blood clots. According to Hackel, nattokinase supplements have been available in the US for about five years and for two years in Europe.
Study details
Hsai and his co-workers recruited 45 people and divided them into three groups depending on their health profile: healthy volunteers, patients with cardiovascular risk factors, and dialysis patients.
The open-label, self-controlled clinical trial involved the participants a daily dose of 800 milligrams of nattokinase for two months.
After two months of supplementation, the researchers noted that levels of fibrinogen, factor VII, and factor VIII had fallen by 9, 14, and 17 per cent, respectively, in the healthy individuals; by 7, 13, and 19 per cent, respectively, in the CVD risk group; and 10, 7, and 19, respectively, in the dialysis patients.
No changes in blood lipid levels were observed, added the researchers.
Importantly, no adverse effects were noted by the researchers, leading them to state that nattokinase was “safe and in healthy volunteers, patients with high-risk CVD factors, and dialysis patients”.
How it works
“Fibrinogen is involved in primary haemostasis and is the major determinant of whole blood and plasma viscosity; elevated plasma fibrinogen levels are known to be independently associated with CVD,” wrote Hsai and his co-workers. “According to the present results, nattokinase supplementation can ameliorate blood viscosity and may reduce the incidence of CVD.
“In addition, both factors VII and VIII have been reported to have cross-sectional association with atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease and, prospectively, with coronary heart disease, stroke, ischemic heart disease, and diabetes mellitus.
“The potent effects of nattokinase on lowering blood level of factor VII and factor VIII may imply that it can be considered as a nutraceutical for several types of CVD,” they added.
Limitations
The researchers said that the results should be interpreted cautiously since the study was self-controlled and open-label. “Because of the study design, further investigations following a randomized, double-blind, and placebo-controlled design are needed for validation of the results,” they concluded.
Source: Nutrition Research
Volume 29, Issue 3, Pages 190-196
“Nattokinase decreases plasma levels of fibrinogen, factor VII, and factor VIII in human subjects”
Authors: C.-H. Hsia, M.-C. Shen, J.-S. Lin, Y.-K. Wen, K.-L. Hwang, T.-M. Cham, N.-C. Yang
http://www.nutraingredients.com/Research/
Natto-enzyme-may-boost-heart-health-in-at-risk-people
BBC NEWS
Vitamin deficiency asthma 'link'
A low intake of vitamins A and C could raise the risk of asthma, a team which reviewed 40 studies carried out over the past 30 years has said.
A Nottingham University-led team found people with a low intake of vitamin C had a 12% increased risk of asthma, the Thorax journal reported.
For vitamin A the raised risk was less clear cut, the team said, but there was still a significant association.
Asthma UK and the Medical Research Council said more research was needed.
There has been a lot of confusion over the link between vitamins and the condition, which affects five million people in the UK.
“ The jury is still out as to how exactly vitamin intake and asthma are related ”
Leanne Male Asthma UK
Previous studies have come up with a variety of conclusions.
In this study, the researchers analysed the relevant reports on both children and adults published since 1980.
They found no link for vitamin E, but said the associations for A and C were significant.
They concluded low levels of vitamin C - found in fruit and vegetables - increased the risk of asthma by 12%.
They were unable to put an exact figure on vitamin A - found in cheese, eggs and oily fish - but noted that those with severe asthma consumed on average half of the recommended intake of the vitamin.
Lead researcher Dr Jo Leonardi-Bee said: "Our findings indicate that low levels of vitamin C intake and to a lesser extent vitamin A are consistently associated with asthma risk to a degree that, if causal, would be sufficient to be clinically relevant."
He said it was now important to carry out larger-scale studies to clarify the link and to see if there was a direct cause between vitamin intake and asthma.
Other factors
Experts agreed more research was needed, but warned other factors would also play a significant role.
Glenys Jones, a nutritionist with the Medical Research Council, said: "The data provided is interesting, but inconclusive.
"There are many factors such as smoking, physical activity and socio-economic status that have not been taken into account.
"Therefore more research is required to investigate a causal relationship."
Leanne Male, assistant director of research at Asthma UK, added: "The jury is still out as to how exactly vitamin intake and asthma are related."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8000821.stm
Pineapple Compound Treats Cancer, Inflammation and Poor Digestion
by Barbara Minton, NaturalNews.com
(NaturalNews) Nothing brings up the images of summer breezes and relaxation like pineapple, the sweet juicy treat from the tropics. While thoughts of fun in the sun ease the mind, eating pineapple can greatly ease the body. Bromelain, the key enzyme in pineapple, banishes inflammation as effectively as drugs. It reduces swelling, helps against sore throat, treats arthritis and gout, and speeds digestion of proteins. New research is even showing pineapple to be highly effective at cancer prevention and treatment.
Bromelain keeps cancers from getting started and shrinks tumors
In a study reported on March 30, in the Cancer Letter, scientists at the Indian Institute of Toxicology Research in India, noted the anti-inflammatory, anti-invasive, and anti-metastatic properties of bromelain. They studied its anti tumor-initiating effects against induced skin tumor formation in mice.
Pre-treatment with bromelain resulted in reduction in cumulative number of tumors, and in average numbers of tumors per mouse. Reduction in tumor volume was 65%. They investigated components of cell signaling pathways by targeting proteins involved in cell death. Bromelain treatment resulted in up-regulation of the anti-cancer gene p53, with subsequent caspase activation. A marked inhibition of Cox-2 expression and inactivation of pro-inflammatory nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-kappa B) was recorded. They concluded that Bromelain was protective of DNA formation, and induced modulation of inappropriate cell signaling cascades is a coherent approach in achieving chemoprevention.
Bromelain has strong anti-inflammatory and digestive benefits
Bromelain from pineapple is a complex mixture of substances, the most widely studied of which is a group of protein digesting enzymes, or proteolytic enzymes. Enzymes give bromelain its fibronolytic and antithrombotic feature. Tumors often have a protective covering made of fibrin that can be dissolved by the fibronolytic action of bromelain, one reason it is so effective against cancer. Two clinical trials with heart patients have shown an elimination of thrombosis with bromelain. Therapeutic doses of dietary supplements of bromelain put a rapid halt to inflammation, and are able to reduce excessive coagulation of the blood.
Bromelain is approved by the German Commission E for the treatment of sinusitis. Clinical studies have shown that children diagnosed with acute sinusitis recovered significantly faster when treated with bromelain than when given other treatments
Bromelain is effective in treating bruises, sprains and strains by reducing swelling, tenderness and pain. It works well at reducing post operative swelling.
In a literature examination published in the 2008 Alternative Medicine Review, enzyme supplementation was noted as playing an integral role in the management of various digestive disorders, particularly those regarding a lack of pancreatic enzymes. Historically enzymes from pigs and cows have been the preferred choice for digestive aids. However, bromelain, can serve as an effective aid in the breakdown of proteins. It works so well in the digestion of protein that it can be used as a highly effective meat tenderizer. Bromelain can act synergistically with other enzymes to produce optimal digestive results.
Bromelain has been reported to be effective against a variety of inflammatory diseases, including inflammatory bowel disease. A study by scientists at Duke University Medical Center reported in the July, 2008 edition of Clinical Immunology found that bromelain can effectively decrease neutrophil migration to sites of acute inflammation, It supports the specific removal of a critical chemokine receptor as its mechanism of action.
Bromelain offers protection and treatment for macular degeneration
Eating fruit may be the best way to protect your eyesight. Findings reported in the June, 2004 Archives of Ophthalmology showed that eating three or more servings of fruit a day lowers the risk of age-related macular degeneration, the primary cause of vision loss in older adults. The study involved 110,000 men and women. Researchers evaluated their consumption of fruits, vegetables, carotenoids, and antioxidant vitamins A, C and E on early and advanced macular degeneration. Interestingly, intakes of vegetables, vitamins and carotenoids were not significantly related to the disease. However, fruit intake was shown to be highly protective against development of the more severe form of the disease.
Antioxidants in pineapple protect the immune system
Pineapple is a super source of the body's primary water-soluble antioxidant, Vitamin C. This important vitamin mops up free radicals implicated in the aging process. Free radicals damage normal cells and have been shown to promote clogged arteries and diabetic heart disease. They can cause airway spasms that lead to asthma attacks, and can help colon cancer get started. Free radicals are implicated in joint pain and osteoarthritis. Additionally, Vitamin C is an excellent cold and flu fighter due to its ability to support the immune system.
Vitamin C in pineapple is good for oral health. A study at State University of New York at Buffalo found that Vitamin C can reduce the risk of gingivitis and periodontal disease. It increases the ability of the body to fight bacteria and other toxins that contribute to gum disease. Periodontal disease destroys gum tissue and the underlying jaw bone. It has been linked to heart disease, stroke and diabetes,
http://www.naturalnews.com/026064.html
Rising Medicaid Spending to Bankrupt States, Federal Government
by David Gutierrez, NaturalNews.com
(NaturalNews) Medicaid costs are expected to skyrocket in coming years, far outstripping the rate of economic growth and placing an increasing financial burden on state and federal governments, according to the first actuarial review ever conducted of the program.
"This report should serve as an urgent reminder that the current path of Medicaid spending is unsustainable for both federal and state governments," said Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt. "If nothing is done to rein in these costs, access to health care for the nation's most vulnerable citizens could be threatened."
Medicaid is a joint federal-state program to provide health care for people with low incomes. According to the report, it accounted for 7 percent of the federal budget in 2007. By 2013, it is expected to account for 8.4 percent of all federal spending.
Medicaid spending has grown at an astonishing rate since the program began in 1966. By 1970, Medicaid accounted for 0.4 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP). This had increased to 0.9 percent by 1980, 1.2 percent by 1990 and 2.0 percent by 2000, and had reached 2.3 percent by 2007. According to the new report, Medicaid will account for 3 percent of GDP by 2017.
The rate of Medicaid spending increase from 2007 to 2008 is estimated at 7.3 percent, and is expected to average 7.9 percent annually for the next ten years. In contrast, the economy is only expected to grow at a 4.8 percent annual rate.
An absolute terms, current yearly Medicaid spending totals $339 billion. It is expected to reach $674 billion by 2017.
"High and increasing Medicaid spending clearly leaves states less able to fund other state priorities," said acting Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Kerry Weems. "This new financial report confirms that America's health care system faces significant fiscal challenges."
http://www.naturalnews.com/026059.html
Good Dietary and Lifestyle Health Habits can Drastically Cut Cancer Risk
by Reuben Chow, NaturalNews.com
(NaturalNews) Why do people get cancer? Perhaps more significantly, why have cancer rates soared so drastically over the past century? Is it because of genes? Is it because of what we are eating today? Or are stressful lifestyles to blame? Others put forth that factors such as environmental toxins and electromagnetic radiation are the main culprits. The fact is, cancer is a multi-causal disease and probably a result of a combination of the abovementioned factors. Recent statistics released by the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) has estimated the role of diet and lifestyle, suggesting that about one-third of the 12 most common types of cancer in richer countries could be prevented merely through a healthy diet, physical activity and the maintenance of healthy weight. In poorer, developing nations, the proportion of cancers preventable through these steps was estimated to be about one-in-four.
Details and Findings of Study
The cancers in question included those of the bowel, breast, gallbladder, kidney, liver, lung, mouth / pharynx / larynx, esophagus, pancreas, prostate, stomach and womb. For these cancers, it was estimated that 34% of cases in the US and 39% of UK cases were preventable through the said steps. This implied that there was more room for improvement in these countries.
Zooming in, it was also estimated that more than 40% of breast and bowel cancer cases in developed nations could have been prevented in the same way.
And the abovementioned figures had not even taken into account the detrimental effects of smoking, which on its own is believed to be the main cause of about one-third of all cancers.
The report had been put together by a panel of 23 experts. Their study had been based on 10 recommendations released by the WCRF in 2007 on preventing cancer; those included daily exercise, avoiding processed meats, eating less salt, and keeping healthy weight. To arrive at the estimates, the team had looked at the biggest and most reliable research studies available which covered the 10 factors.
"This report shows that by making relatively straightforward changes, we could significantly reduce the number of cancer cases around the world," said Michael Marmot, the chair of the panel.
Importance of Dietary and Lifestyle Factors in Cancer Prevention
The possible causes of cancer were discussed earlier. What is clear about cancer is that it is certainly not an alien-like ailment which descended from the sky and invaded our bodies, against which we can do nothing for protection or recovery. "People think that somehow cancer comes from heaven, or Darwin, or from their parent's genes, but that's not always the case. A third are caused by smoking, and approximately a third are related to diet and physical activity," Marmot also said.
And scientific backing seems to be increasing. "The evidence linking diet, physical activity, obesity and cancer has become stronger over the last decade and this report can play a part in people adopting healthier lifestyles. After not smoking, it is clear that diet, physical activity and weight are the most important things people can do to reduce their cancer risk," said Mike Richards, the National Clinical Director for Cancer.
Holistic Action is Needed
The experts have called for urgent action, especially in view of the escalating sedentary and obesity epidemics, graying populations as well as worsening food choices. "We are expecting a substantial increase in cancer rates with the ageing population, obesity rates soaring, and with people becoming less active and increasingly consuming highly processed and energy dense foods and drinks. The good news is that this is not inevitable," said Martin Wiseman, the project director.
But it is also quite clear that a holistic solution involving many parties will be needed if society is to stem the cancer epidemic. "There is no magic bullet, no one single fix to the problem. If we are to tackle the situation we need individuals, business and government to work together to encourage healthy lifestyles by promoting things like cycle lanes and food labeling," said Richard Davidson from Cancer Research UK.
The panel's report had put forth some 48 suggestions for improvement. Some include:
* Eating more fruits in place of unhealthy fatty foods.
* Consumers to check labels to ensure foods being bought are healthy.
* Lowering costs of healthy foods.
* Schools and workplaces to stop providing unhealthy foods and to encourage exercise.
* Cycling to work.
* Governments to require widespread walking and cycling routes to be put in place; this will facilitate physical activity.
* Improving access to sporting facilities.
Beyond Merely Prevention - Cancer Recovery
How about those who have already been diagnosed with cancer? Are such lifestyle and dietary changes too little, too late for them? Not according to a recent study conducted by researchers at Addenbrooke's hospital in Cambridgeshire, which found that about 36% of men with aggressive prostate cancer could give planned surgery or radiotherapy a miss after making some basic dietary and lifestyle changes.
The changes, which included lowering salt intake, reducing alcohol consumption, eating larger amounts of oily fish, losing weight and undertaking moderate exercise, were able to inhibit or even totally stop their cancers' progression.
As we search for complicated answers to the cancer riddle, we should not underestimate the powerful role of factors which have been with us throughout human history - dietary and lifestyle habits.
http://www.naturalnews.com/026054.html
Methamphetamine tied to abnormal brain development
Wed Apr 15, 2009 5:01pm EDT
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - In children who were exposed to methamphetamine during pregnancy, MRI findings suggest that alterations in the maturation of white matter occur, according to a report in an online issue of Neurology.
"Methamphetamine use is an increasing problem among women of childbearing age, leading to an increasing number of children with prenatal meth exposure," senior author Dr. Linda Chang, from the University of Hawaii, Honolulu, said in a statement. "But until now, the effects of prenatal meth exposure on the developing brain of a child were little known."
Chang and colleagues performed an MRI test that allows assessment of the brain's microstructure, in 66 children between 3 and 4 years old; 29 were exposed to methamphetamine prenatally and 37 were not.
The methamphetamine-exposed children showed 2 percent to 4 percent less diffusion of molecules in the frontal and parietal white matter compared with the unexposed controls. There was also evidence of more extensive variation in the left frontal white matter among exposed children.
According to Chang, exactly how prenatal methamphetamine exposure causes lower brain diffusion is unclear, but lower diffusion in white matter usually means that nerve fibers are compacted.
Longitudinal studies are now underway, the authors note, to see if these changes in white matter in the methamphetamine-exposed children are permanent.
SOURCE: Neurology, April 15, 2009.
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE53E6WY20090415
Genes Show Limited Value in Predicting Diseases
NEW YORK TIMES, April 16, 2009
By NICHOLAS WADE
The era of personal genomic medicine may have to wait. The genetic analysis of common disease is turning out to be a lot more complex than expected.
Since the human genome was decoded in 2003, researchers have been developing a powerful method for comparing the genomes of patients and healthy people, with the hope of pinpointing the DNA changes responsible for common diseases.
This method, called a genomewide association study, has proved technically successful despite many skeptics’ initial doubts. But it has been disappointing in that the kind of genetic variation it detects has turned out to explain surprisingly little of the genetic links to most diseases.
A set of commentaries in this week’s issue of The New England Journal of Medicine appears to be the first public attempt by scientists to make sense of this puzzling result.
One issue of debate among researchers is whether, despite the prospect of diminishing returns, to continue with the genomewide studies, which cost many millions of dollars apiece, or switch to a new approach like decoding the entire genomes of individual patients.
The unexpected impasse also affects companies that offer personal genomic information and that had assumed they could inform customers of their genetic risk for common diseases, based on researchers’ discoveries.
These companies are probably not performing any useful service at present, said David B. Goldstein, a Duke University geneticist who wrote one of the commentaries appearing in the journal.
“With only a few exceptions, what the genomics companies are doing right now is recreational genomics,” Dr. Goldstein said in an interview. “The information has little or in many cases no clinical relevance.”
Unlike the rare diseases caused by a change affecting only one gene, common diseases like cancer and diabetes are caused by a set of several genetic variations in each person. Since these common diseases generally strike later in life, after people have had children, the theory has been that natural selection is powerless to weed them out.
The problem addressed in the commentaries is that these diseases were expected to be promoted by genetic variations that are common in the population. More than 100 genomewide association studies, often involving thousands of patients in several countries, have now been completed for many diseases, and some common variants have been found. But in almost all cases they carry only a modest risk for the disease. Most of the genetic link to disease remains unexplained.
Dr. Goldstein argues that the genetic burden of common diseases must be mostly carried by large numbers of rare variants. In this theory, schizophrenia, say, would be caused by combinations of 1,000 rare genetic variants, not of 10 common genetic variants.
This would be bleak news for those who argue that the common variants detected so far, even if they explain only a small percentage of the risk, will nonetheless identify the biological pathways through which a disease emerges, and hence point to drugs that may correct the errant pathways. If hundreds of rare variants are involved in a disease, they may implicate too much of the body’s biochemistry to be useful.
“In pointing at everything,” Dr. Goldstein writes in the journal, “genetics would point at nothing.”
Two other geneticists, Peter Kraft and David J. Hunter of the Harvard School of Public Health, also writing in the journal, largely agree with Dr. Goldstein in concluding that probably many genetic variants, rather than few, “are responsible for the majority of the inherited risk of each common disease.”
But they disagree with his belief that there will be diminishing returns from more genomewide association studies.
“There will be more common variants to find,” Dr. Hunter said. “It would be unfortunate if we gave up now.”
Dr. Goldstein, however, said it was “beyond the grasp of the genomewide association studies” to find rare variants with small effects, even by recruiting enormous numbers of patients. He said resources should be switched away from these highly expensive studies, which in his view have now done their job.
“If you ask what is the fastest way for us to make progress in genetics that is clinically helpful,” he said, “I am absolutely certain it is to marshal our resources to interrogate full genomes, not in fine-tuning our analyses of common variations.”
He advocates decoding the full DNA of carefully selected patients.
Dr. Kraft and Dr. Hunter say that a person’s genetic risk of common diseases can be estimated only roughly at present but that estimates will improve as more variants are found. But that means any risk estimate offered by personal genomics companies today is unstable, Dr. Kraft said, and subject to upward or downward revision in the future.
Further, people who obtain a genomic risk profile are likely to focus with horror on the disease for which they are told they are at highest risk. Yet this is almost certain to be an overestimate, Dr. Kraft said.
The reason is that the many risk estimates derived from a person’s genomic data will include some that are too high and some that are too low. So any estimate of high risk is likely to be too high. The phenomenon is called the “winner’s curse,” by analogy to auctions in which the true value of an item is probably the average of all bids; the winner by definition has bid higher than that, and so has overpaid.
Dr. Kari Stefansson, chief executive of deCODE Genetics, an Icelandic gene-hunting company that also offers a personal genome testing service, said deCODE alerted clients to pay attention to diseases for which testing shows their risk is three times as great as average, not to trivial increases in risk.
Dr. Stefansson said his company had discovered 60 percent of the disease variants known so far.
“We have beaten them in every aspect of the game,” he said of rival gene hunters at American and British universities.
The undiscovered share of genetic risk for common diseases, he said, probably lies not with rare variants, as suggested by Dr. Goldstein, but in unexpected biological mechanisms. DeCODE has found, for instance, that the same genetic variant carries risks that differ depending on whether it is inherited from the mother or the father.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/16/health/research/
16gene.html?_r=1&ref=global-home&pagewanted=print
Music Reduces Stress In Heart Disease Patients
ScienceDaily (Apr. 16, 2009) — Listening to music may benefit patients who suffer severe stress and anxiety associated with having and undergoing treatment for coronary heart disease. A Cochrane Systematic Review found that listening to music could decrease blood pressure, heart rate, and levels of anxiety in heart patients.
Living with heart disease is extremely stressful. The uncertainties and anxieties surrounding diagnosis and the various medical procedures involved in treatment can significantly worsen the condition. For example, stress can increase blood pressure, leading to increased risk of complications. Music listening may help to alleviate stress and therefore reduce this risk.
"Our findings suggest music listening may be beneficial for heart disease patients," says Joke Bradt, who works at the Arts and Quality of Life Research Center at Temple University in Philadelphia. "But the trials we looked at were generally small and varied in terms of styles of music used and length of music sessions. More research on the specifics of music listening is certainly warranted."
The researchers reviewed data from 23 studies, which together included 1,461 patients. Two studies focused on patients treated by trained music therapists, but most did not, using instead interventions where patients listened to pre-recorded music on CDs offered by healthcare professionals.
Listening to music provided some relief for coronary heart disease patients suffering from anxiety, by reducing heart rate and blood pressure. There was also some indication that music listening improved mood, although no improvement was seen for patients suffering from depression due to the disease.
"We all know that music can impact on our emotions, our physiological responses, as well as our outlook on life, and this early research shows that it is well worth finding out more about how it could help heart disease patients. In particular, it would be interesting to learn more about the potential benefits of music offered by trained music therapists, which may be differ substantially from those associated with pre-recorded music," says Bradt.
Bradt J, Dileo C. Music for stress and anxiety reduction in coronary heart disease patients. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2009, Issue 2. Art. No.: CD006577 DOI: 0.1002/14651858.CD006577.pub2
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090409104303.htm
Giving Birth: Upright Positions Shorten First Stage Labor
ScienceDaily (Apr. 16, 2009) — Lying down during the early stages of childbirth may slow progress, according to a new systematic review. Cochrane Researchers found that the first stage of labour was significantly shorter for women who kneel, stand up, walk around, or sit upright as opposed to lying down.
Using data from 21 studies carried out in developed countries since the 1960s, involving 3,706 women, the researchers found that the first stage of labour was around an hour shorter in those who adopted upright positions compared to those who lay down.
"In most developing countries, women stand up or walk around as they wish during the early stages of birth with no ill effects," says Annemarie Lawrence, who works at the Institute of Women's and Children's Health at the Townsville Hospital in Queensland, Australia. "This review demonstrates that there is some benefit and no risk to being upright and or mobile during first stage labour."
"Based on these results, we would recommend that women are encouraged to use whichever positions they find most comfortable, but are specifically advised to avoid lying flat," says Lawrence.
The researchers stress that more information is urgently needed to understand how birthing positions relate to levels of pain, control and satisfaction among birthing women.
Lewis et al. Maternal positions and mobility during first stage labour. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews Reviews, Issue 2, 2009; DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD003934.pub2
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090415074951.htm
Low Levels Of Vitamin D In Patients With Autoimmune Disease May Be Result, Not Cause, Of The Disease
ScienceDaily (Apr. 16, 2009) — Deficiency in vitamin D has been widely regarded as contributing to autoimmune disease, but a review appearing in Autoimmunity Reviews explains that low levels of vitamin D in patients with autoimmune disease may be a result rather than a cause of disease and that supplementing with vitamin D may actually exacerbate autoimmune disease.
Authored by a team of researchers at the California-based non-profit Autoimmunity Research Foundation, the paper goes on to point out that molecular biologists have long known that the form of vitamin D derived from food and supplements, 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25-D), is a secosteroid rather than a vitamin. Like corticosteroid medications, vitamin D may provide short-term relief by lowering inflammation but may exacerbate disease symptoms over the long-term.
The insights are based on molecular research showing that 25-D inactivates rather than activates its native receptor - the Vitamin D nuclear receptor or VDR. Once associated solely with calcium metabolism, the VDR is now known to transcribe at least 913 genes and largely control the innate immune response by expressing the bulk of the body's antimicrobial peptides, natural antimicrobials that target bacteria.
Written under the guidance of professor Trevor Marshall of Murdoch University, Western Australia, the paper contends that 25-D's actions must be considered in light of recent research on the Human Microbiome. Such research shows that bacteria are far more pervasive than previously thought – 90% of cells in the body are estimated to be non-human – increasing the likelihood that autoimmune diseases are caused by persistent pathogens, many of which have yet to be named or have their DNA characterized.
Marshall and team explain that by deactivating the VDR and subsequently the immune response, 25-D lowers the inflammation caused by many of these bacteria but allows them to spread more easily in the long-run. They outline how long-term harm caused by high levels of 25-D has been missed because the bacteria implicated in autoimmune disease grow very slowly. For example, a higher incidence in brain lesions, allergies, and atopy in response to vitamin D supplementation have been noted only after decades of supplementation with the secosteroid.
Furthermore, low levels of 25-D are frequently noted in patients with autoimmune disease, leading to a current consensus that a deficiency of the secosteroid may contribute to the autoimmune disease process. However, Marshall and team explain that these low levels of 25-D are a result, rather than a cause, of the disease process. Indeed, Marshall's research shows that in autoimmune disease, 25-D levels are naturally down-regulated in response to VDR dysregulation by chronic pathogens. Under such circumstances, supplementation with extra vitamin D is not only counterproductive but harmful, as it slows the ability of the immune system to deal with such bacteria.
The team points out the importance of examining alternate models of vitamin D metabolism. "Vitamin D is currently being recommended at historically unprecedented doses," states Amy Proal, one of the paper's co-authors. "Yet at the same time, the rate of nearly every autoimmune disease continues to escalate."
Albert et al.
Vitamin D: The alternative hypothesis.
Autoimmunity Reviews, 2009; DOI: 10.1016/j.autrev.2009.02.011
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090408164415.htm
Octopus venom can treat allergies, cancer
TIMES OF INDIA, 16 Apr 2009, 1349 hrs IST, IANS
SYDNEY: An understanding of the structure and mode of action of venom found in all octopuses, cuttlefish and some squid can help design drugs for conditions like pain management, allergies and cancer.
"Venoms are toxic proteins with specialised functions such as paralysing the nervous system," Bryan Fry, biochemist from the University of Melbourne, said.
While many creatures have been examined as a basis for drug development, cephalopods (octopuses, cuttlefish and squid) which are venomous- going back to a common, ancient ancestor- remain an untapped resource and their venom may represent a unique class of compounds.
Fry, who led the study, said that while the blue-ringed octopus species remain the only group that are dangerous to humans, other species have been quietly using their venom for predatory activities.
Fry obtained tissue samples from cephalopods ranging from Hong Kong, the Coral Sea, the Great Barrier Reef and Antarctica.
The team then analysed the genes for venom production from the different species and found that a venomous ancestor produced one set of venom proteins, but over time, additional proteins were added to the species' chemical arsenal.
The origin of these genes also sheds light on the fundamentals of evolution, presenting a prime example of convergent evolution where species independently develop similar traits, said a Melbourne release.
The team will now work on understanding why very different types of venomous animals seem to consistently settle on the similar venom protein composition, and which physical or chemical properties make them predisposed to be useful as toxin.
These findings were published in the Journal of Molecular Evolution.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Health--Science/
Science/Octopus-venom-can-treat-allergies-cancer/articleshow/4409446.cms
Humans could evolve into all-new species
TIMES OF INDIA 10 Apr 2009, 2349 hrs IST, AGENCIES
WASHINGTON: Human beings are not just evolving, the whole process has been put on the fast track by our genes responding to rapid changes in the world around us.
The pressures of modern life may be speeding up the pace of human evolution, some anthropologists think.
Nowadays, the idea that “human evolution is a continuing process is widely accepted among anthropologists”, said Robert Wald Sussman, the editor of the Yearbook of Physical Anthropology at Washington University in St Louis.
It’s even conceivable, he said, that our genes eventually will change enough to create an entirely new human species, one no longer able to breed with our own species, Homo sapiens, report McClatchy Newspapers.
The still-controversial concept of “ongoing evolution” was much discussed last week at the annual meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists in Chicago. It’s also the topic of a new book, ‘The 10,000 Year Explosion’, by anthropologists Henry Harpending and Gregory Cochran of the University of Utah, Salt Lake City.
In their book, the Utah anthropologists contend that “human evolution has accelerated in the past 10,000 years, rather than slowing or stopping. “The pace has been so rapid that humans have changed significantly in body and mind over recorded history.”
Evolutionary changes result when random mutations or damage to DNA from such factors as radiation, smoking or toxic chemicals create new varieties of genes. Some gene changes are harmful, most have no effect and a few provide advantages that are passed on to future generations. If they’re particularly beneficial, they spread throughout the population.
“Any gene variant that increases your chance of having children early and often should be favored,” Cochran said.
Despite modern medical and technological advances, the pressures that lead to evolution by natural selection have continued. The massive AIDS epidemic that’s raging in southern Africa, for example, is “almost certainly” causing gene variants that protect against HIV to accumulate in the African population, Harpending said.
Another anthropologist, John Hawks of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said, “Our evolution has recently accelerated by around 100-fold.” A key reason, Hawks said, is the enormous growth of the world’s population, which multiplies the size of the gene pool available to launch new varieties.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Health--Science/
Science/Humans-could-evolve-into-all-new-species/articleshow/4387048.cms
Are flame retardants the next DDT?
Apr 15, 2009
Exposure to a commercial mix made up of common flame retardants led to thinner eggshells, fewer hatchings and less successful reproduction in captive American Kestrels. The flame retardant chemicals may be contributing to declining numbers of this species in parts of North America. The new findings are similar to the well known effects that the now banned insecticide DDT had on predatory raptors during the middle decades of the last century.
Chemicals that can reduce flammability of products which readily burn are called flame retardants. They have been used since the 1970s in furniture, carpeting, clothing, electronics and other consumer products. Because of their persistence and popularity, they are widespread in the environment.
Similar to many chemical contaminants–such as the insecticide DDT–flame retardants can travel long distances in air and water, ending up in remote environments, such as coastal areas, mountain tops and the Arctic regions of the world.
Two common types are polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and hexabromocyclododecane
(HBCD). The chemicals contaminate people and are consistently found in fat, blood and breast milk. Exposure most likely occurs through food, water and household dust.
Wildlife harbor the chemicals, too. Levels of flame retardants in fish and fish-eating birds are increasing in North America, despite recent bans of some commercial mixtures. The chemicals can move from prey to predator, concentrating with each move up the food chain.
Researchers have measured very high levels of the chemicals in top avian predators, like the American kestrel, China's common kestrels and Sweden's peregrine falcons. Females can deposit the contaminants in their eggs, exposing their growing chicks to highly elevated levels of the contaminants. Levels found in peregrine eggs in the US exceed those measured in Europe.
Animal laboratory and wildlife studies find that PBDEs can affect behavior, thyroid hormone, sperm production, and number of offspring. Like DDT, PBDEs and other flame retardants may be affecting raptor populations in similar ways as DDT did in the mid-twentieth century. The pesticide congregated in peregrine falcons, eagles and other predatory birds where it caused egg shell thinning that led to species declines.
Decreasing numbers of American kestrels across North America -- especially in the eastern US and Canada -- have left researchers wondering why.
Researchers fed 31 pairs of captive male and female kestrels a diet with one of three concentrations of a commercial flame retardant mixture (D-71). D-71 contains individual flame retardants commonly found in the environment.
The birds were fed either none (control), 0.3 ppm (low dose) and 1.6 ppm (high dose) of D-71 daily for 3 weeks before breeding began and during courting, mating and egg laying. The birds ate the diet until the eggs hatched, about 75 days in total.
The researchers measured the time it took the kestrels to lay their eggs and counted the total numbers of eggs laid. Shell thickness, weight and flame retardant levels (14 PBDE types and total HBCD) were measured in the first eggs. The rest were allowed to hatch to gauge effects on the fertility of the eggs and the survival of the chicks.
As expected, female kestrels deposited the flame retardants into their eggs.
Eggs from kestrels fed the control diet had 3 ppb of measured flame retardants (total of 14 PBDE types) while eggs from birds fed the low and high doses had an average of 288 and 1130 ppb, respectively. These levels were within the range of what has been measured in eggs from wild kestrels and peregrine falcon from the northeastern US and Sweden.
Reproduction in the kestrels was affected by the chemicals in their diet. Egg laying in the birds exposed to the highest dose of flame retardant was delayed by 10 days. Egg laying delays increased with exposure to higher levels of four types of PBDEs. The delays and the contaminant exposure went hand-on-hand with fewer fertile eggs, hatchlings and fledglings from the exposed pairs.
Eggs with higher levels of flame retardants also had thinner and lighter shells, were smaller and lost more weight during incubation than the control eggs. More specifically, adults given the high flame retardant diet laid eggs that were 8 percent thinner than those laid by unexposed pairs.
The results show that reproductive success of the birds was lower when their exposure to flame retardants was higher. Several individual flame retardants were linked to egg laying and eggshell changes and may indicate which of the varieties pose the biggest threats to wildlife, and possibly people.
The increasing levels of flame retardants in wild bird eggs coupled with the new evidence that these chemicals affect reproduction in kestrels may, in part, explain the declining numbers of this species in North America.
According to the authors, this may be the first study "to demonstrate cause-and-effect mechanisms of PBDE exposure on avian reproduction at PBDE concentrations that are currently found in the eggs of terrestrial and aquatic bird species."
In this study, the chemical mix had broad ranging effects on both the adults and the eggs. It influenced egg laying, egg integrity and egg viability. Any one of these alone could affect reproductive success in wild animals.
The amounts of the chemicals found in the study's kestrel eggs were similar to what is found in wild birds, such as kestrels, herring gulls and peregrine falcons. The most common type in peregrine eggs is called BDE-153, which was associated in this study with a number of problems, such as delayed egg laying, reduced eggshell quality and poorer fledging success. Based on this, wild populations, then, could have common reproductive troubles as the study animals, although no field studies have been done to show this is the case.
This story parallels what happened when the pesticide DDT was heavily used in North America. DDT concentrated up food chains and into fatty tissues of organisms. Birds were exposed to high levels of DDT in their diets. The pesticide caused a decline in raptors like the eagle and the peregrine falcon because the birds were laying eggs with shells that were too thin.
Previous studies on DDT in wild raptors found that their populations could not be sustained when eggshell thinning exceeded 18 percent. This study found an 8 percent reduction in eggshell thickness from exposure to flame retardants.
The new evidence that these chemicals affect reproduction in kestrels may, in part, explain the declining numbers of this species in North America and adds to the growing concern over the presence of these chemicals in the environment.
http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/newscience/flame-retardants-next-ddt-for-kestrel/
Obama wants climate bill mindful of WTO rules: Kirk
Wed Apr 15, 2009 4:33pm EDT
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration wants to ensure that legislation being crafted by Congress to fight global climate change does not violate international trade rules and backfire on U.S. exports, the top U.S. trade official said in a letter to a Republican lawmaker.
The letter from U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, released late on Tuesday, was in response to questions Rep. Joe Barton raised about Energy Secretary Stephen Chu's recent suggestion that the United States may need to impose a border tax on Chinese goods.
Despite Chu's comment, the administration "does not support any specific measures, including border measures, at this time" to address concerns about the climate bill relating to trade, Kirk told Barton, the top Republican on the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee.
Many energy-intensive U.S. industries, such as steel, are worried that proposed new taxes on carbon emissions could cripple their competitiveness if developing country rivals such as China and India do not take similar steps to cut their own greenhouse gas emissions.
President Barack Obama has made passing climate change legislation a top priority. House Democrats have proposed a bill that would cut U.S. carbon emissions 20 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 and also help industries that would struggle to meet the proposed requirements.
In addition to fears about potential U.S. job losses, there are concerns about carbon "leakages" from one country to another if all major emitters do not agree to make cuts.
Last month, Chu told the Energy and Commerce Committee the United States may need to raise import duties on China to maintain a level playing field because "we don't want to disadvantage our industries at home."
'KILLING DOMESTIC JOBS'
Larry Neal, deputy Republican staff director on the Energy and Commerce Committee, said Kirk's letter "tries to make up in cheery confidence what it lacks in facts."
It leaves unanswered questions about whether other nations will be able to take "strategic advantage of higher energy prices" that U.S. manufacturers would face under the climate bill, Neal said.
Kirk also does not answer "whether the administration has any evidence that our world leadership on global warming will have much impact beyond killing domestic jobs," Neal added.
Including some sort of trade-protection language in a climate change bill could be vital to securing enough support for passage in Congress.
But depending on how such border measures are crafted, they could run afoul of World Trade Organization rules and lead to retaliation against U.S. exports, trade experts say.
Kirk said the administration was sensitive to concerns raised by energy-intensive industries but also believes transforming the United States to a low-carbon economy would create new agricultural and manufacturing jobs.
The White House wants to work with Congress to ensure "that the design and implementation of domestic energy and climate policy are compatible with our international trade obligations and minimize incentives for our trading partners to pursue countermeasures that could negatively impact U.S. exports," Kirk said.
The best solution would be to negotiate a new international climate change agreement that "ensures all the major emitters take long term, significant action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions," Kirk said, referring to ongoing efforts to reach such a deal by the end of this year.
The genial prophet of climate doom
THE IRISH TIMES, Thu, Apr 16, 2009
James Lovelock is perhaps the world’s leading thinker on environmental issues – and his prognosis for the future of humanity is grim. In Ireland to speak at UCD this week, he tells RONAN McGREEVY why he thinks climate change is irreversible and why Ireland may become ‘a lifeboat for humanity’
IT IS DIFFICULT to have a sense of perspective on future events when the present seems so dire. These are hard times, but they may be viewed by future generations as a golden era of plenty, punctuated by occasional minor reverses such as the one we are currently experiencing.
According to scientist James Lovelock, we are on the cusp of a global catastrophe that will make the present recession look trivial.
Within 30 years, he believes, the Arctic’s floating summer sea ice will all be melted. The polar caps will no longer reflect sunlight back into space and, instead, the ocean will absorb sunlight, heating up. The permafrosts in northern Canada and Siberia will thaw out, releasing carbon dioxide (CO2). At the same time, the tropical forests, which play a critical role in taking CO2 from the atmosphere, will die out. Global temperatures will rise by between five and six degrees in a short period of time, rendering most of the world uninhabitable for the vast majority of mankind.
What sets Lovelock apart from other climate scientists, most notably the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), is the swift timetable he envisages and his belief that such change is irreversible and will take most of the human race with it.
“It is out of our hands. When the floating ice finally melts, it will be the equivalent of nearly all of the CO2 we have put in the atmosphere to date, so the earth begins to join in the act of global heating, doing it in a big way,” he says. “The earth is already moving to its hot stage. The hotter it gets, the faster it goes – and we can’t stop it.”
Lovelock is a former Nasa chief scientist, whose discovery of the electron capture device (ECD) helped to alert the world to the depletion of the ozone layer, but he is most famous for Gaia, his bold hypothesis, now a theory, that the world is itself a living organism.
It is hard to reconcile the dire predictions of impending apocalypse with the soft-spoken and genial man holding court in the lobby of a Dublin hotel. Lovelock will be 90 in July, yet he looks and sounds like a man who has just qualified for his bus pass.
He concedes, rather euphemistically, that the impending catastrophe will be a “very tough school” for mankind, but it may be necessary to save ourselves.
“Evolution has brought us to where we are now. These events improve us,” he says. Many of the IPCC scientists share his views privately, he maintains, but cannot say so in public.
We tend to think of our climate – the oceans and seas and surface rocks – as huge forces acting independently of all life, but the essence of Gaia theory is that life shapes the conditions for its own survival. The earth is like the human body. We shiver when we are cold and sweat when we are hot to maintain a constant body temperature, a process known as homeostasis. Plants and animals regulate the levels of CO2 in the air without which the earth would be an uninhabitable furnace like Venus. The composition of atmosphere and soil, and salination levels in the sea, are all regulated to enable the optimal conditions for life.
The problem, as Lovelock sees it, is that we have trashed the planet, destroying ecosystems and pumping harmful levels of CO2 into the air. The damage is already done.
The temperature rises will be permanent, he predicts, and Gaia will adjust. Life will survive, but there is no guarantee that human beings will.
He pours scorn on the idea that climate change can be reversible. For a man who is one of the world’s most noted environmentalists, he has a withering contempt for the green lobby, with its opposition to nuclear power (he is an unequivocal champion) and its support for renewable fuels (especially wind power, which he regards as a subsidised scam).
“I think humans just aren’t clever enough to handle the planet at the moment. We can’t even handle our financial affairs. The worst possible thing that could happen is the green dream of taking charge and saving the planet. I’d sooner a goat as a gardener than humans in charge of the earth,” he says.
He says a process called biochar carbon sequestration, which is gaining increasing credence, may be the only hope for mankind. It involves taking farmyard waste, such as wheat chaff, turning it into charcoal and then burying it, either on land or at sea, to prevent it releasing CO2 into the atmosphere.
QUITE THE MOST dire of his predictions is that the human race will be reduced in numbers to around one billion people by the end of this century. The biggest problem, he believes, is that there are just too many of us. Simply by existing, we and our lifestock account for a quarter of all man-made CO2 emissions.
He is remarkably sanguine about this prediction. People die anyway, he says, they just will not live as long in the future. He may be an incredibly durable man, but he is unlikely to be around to see what he has forecast come to pass. However, he has nine grandchildren and a great-grandchild who was born earlier this year. I ask him if he worries about their future.
“I’m not callous,” he says. “I’m trying to encourage them to get to the right places. Many of them are in Australia, which I don’t think is a bad place to be because it is so lightly populated.
“I lived through the second World War and I thought it was exciting even though I was a pacifist. Life is going to be the opposite of boring. Young people will not regard the catastrophe in the same way as our generation will do.”
Though his predictions for the world are dire, his predictions for Ireland are of some small comfort. Because of our proximity to the sea, our relatively high latitude and our low population density, we may be spared the worst excesses of global warming.
He says Ireland, along with New Zealand, will be the “most fortunate countries on earth”. We will be a “lifeboat for humanity”, but a lifeboat can only take so many passengers.
“Ireland will be fortunate, but only if it can limit immigration to what it can carry,” he says. “It is madness to let people flood in if you can’t feed them. Ireland has been through that once, there is no need to go through it twice. If you are the captain of a lifeboat, you have got to decide who you can let in and who you can’t. Otherwise everybody would sink.” , is published by Penguin
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sciencetoday/2009/0416/1224244802236.html
Coral Fossils Suggest That Sea Level Can Rise Rapidly
NEW YORK TIMES April 16, 2009
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
Evidence from fossil coral reefs in Mexico underlines the potential for a sudden jump in sea levels because of global warming, scientists report in a new study.
The study, being published Thursday in the journal Nature, suggests that a sudden rise of 6.5 feet to 10 feet occurred within a span of 50 to 100 years about 121,000 years ago, at the end of the last warm interval between ice ages.
“The potential for sustained rapid ice loss and catastrophic sea-level rise in the near future is confirmed by our discovery of sea-level instability” in that period, the authors write.
Yet other experts on corals and climate are faulting the work, saying that big questions about coastal risks in a warming world remain unresolved.
Among the most momentous and enduring questions related to human-caused global warming are how fast and how high seas may rise. Studies of past climate shifts, particularly warm-ups at the ends of ice ages, show that fast-melting ice sheets have sometimes raised sea levels worldwide in bursts of up to several yards in a century.
A question facing scientists is whether such a rise can occur when the world has less polar ice and is already warm, as it is now, and getting warmer.
Citing the evidence from fossil coral reefs, the authors of the new study say with conviction that the answer is yes.
The study focuses on a set of fossil reef remains exposed in excavations for channels at a resort and water park, Xcaret, about 35 miles south of Cancún on the east coast of the Yucatán Peninsula.
Paul Blanchon, the lead author of the study, said he sought a position as a research scientist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico’s Institute of Marine Sciences in Puerto Morelos so he could focus on the unusual fossil reefs, visible for hundreds of yards where canals were cut into the rocky ground.
“I spent the last four years looking at those cross sections and piecing the story of those reefs together bit by bit like a jigsaw,” he said in a telephone interview.
With three co-authors from Germany, Dr. Blanchon calculated the ages of coral samples by measuring isotopes of thorium in the fossils. The team then confirmed the ages by comparing the Mexican reefs with coral reefs in the Bahamas whose ages had been thoroughly studied.
The team says it found that two Mexican reefs grew during the last “interglacial,” or warm interval between ice ages.
To determine the pace of sea-level rise in that period, Dr. Blanchon charted patterns of coral revealed in excavations at the resort. He said his work revealed a clear point where an existing reef died as the sea rose too quickly for coral organisms to build their foundation up toward the sea surface. Once the sea level stabilized again, the same group of corals grew once more, but farther inshore and up to 10 feet higher in elevation, a process known to geologists as backstepping.
Such an abrupt change from stable coral growth to death and a sudden upward and inshore shift of a reef could happen only because of a sudden change in sea level, he said.
But in interviews and e-mail messages, several researchers who focus on coral and climate said that although such a rapid rise in seas in that era could not be ruled out, the paper did not prove its case.
Daniel R. Muhs, a United States Geological Survey scientist who studies coasts for clues to past sea level, cited a lack of precise dating of the two reef sections. William Thompson, a coral specialist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, agreed, saying that given the importance of the conclusion, Dr. Blanchon interpreted the physical features without enough corroborating evidence.
But Dr. Blanchon maintains that the work will hold up, saying the signs of abrupt change are etched in the rock for everyone to examine.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/16/science/earth/
16coral.html?bl&ex=1239940800&en=9fa61f8ed596eb41&ei=5087%0A
Most green products make some false claims: report
Wed Apr 15, 2009 4:41pm EDT
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Just 2 percent of the growing number of self-proclaimed green products on store shelves make completely legitimate claims on their labels, a report by consulting firm TerraChoice Environmental Marketing said on Wednesday.
The remainder commit "greenwashing" sins, that is they mislead consumers about the environmental benefits of a product or the practices of a company, said TerraChoice, which runs the Canadian government's eco-labeling program and counts companies as diverse as Canon and Husky Energy among its customers.
The number of green products available in stores surveyed by TerraChoice increased dramatically between 2007 and 2009, the report said, and marketing claims became more creative.
TerraChoice increased its list of greenwashing sins this year to seven from six, adding "worship of false labels" for marketers who mimic third-party environmental certifications on their products to entice consumers.
Other sins in the report include lack of proof, vagueness, irrelevance and outright lying. Products that make environmental claims and are sold in big box stores in the United States, Canada, Britain, and Australia were surveyed.
TerraChoice researchers recorded product details, claims, supporting information, and manufacturers' offers of more information or support.
They then tested the claims against best practice guidelines provided by the Canadian Competition Bureau, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission, and the standard for environmental labeling set by the International Organization for Standardization.
"The good news is that the growing availability of green products shows that consumers are demanding more environmentally responsible choices and that marketers and manufacturers are listening", said TerraChoice Chief Executive Scott McDougall.
"The bad news is that TerraChoice's survey of 2,219 consumer products in Canada and the U.S. shows that 98 percent committed at least one sin of greenwashing and that some marketers are exploiting consumers' demand for third-party certification by creating fake labels or false suggestions of third-party endorsement."
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE53E6RS20090415
Environmentalists Adopt New Weapon: Seed Balls
by Margot Adler
All Things Considered, April 15, 2009 · Neighborhood organizations across the U.S. that want to improve the environment are using a surprising weapon: seed balls.
It's a technique for planting in abandoned places and often inhospitable land that was developed in Japan by Masanobu Fukuoka, a pioneer in "natural farming."
The technique has worked its way to Brooklyn, N.Y. In the Greenpoint neighborhood on a recent Sunday afternoon, a small group of activists walked the streets carrying paper bags filed with little balls made from clay, compost and seeds. They are members of a local group called NAG, or Neighbors Allied for Good Growth. They drop the balls on dirt piles and throw them into abandoned lots.
How To Make Seed Balls
Emily Gallagher, a NAG member who specializes in open space issues, says it's easy to make seed balls.
"First, we mix the mulch and a seed mixture," Gallagher says. "We try to pick a seed that is native to the area and can withstand drought. We mix those together, and then we knead it like bread into a red terra-cotta clay. It is important to use the red terra cotta, because other kinds have different chemicals in it that affect growth."
The mixture is rolled into little balls, which then has to dry. The group then puts them in bags and distributes them. The mud and clay protect the seeds from being eaten by birds and rodents. After three to five rains, the balls break down and the seeds germinate. The seeds used in Brooklyn are mostly wild cornflowers, lovely blue daisy-like flowers often seen by the roadside.
Development On Hold
The Brooklyn neighborhoods of Greenpoint and Williamsburg have been gentrifying. There has been lots of development and little attention to open space. But with the economic crisis, a lot of development is now on hold.
Michael Freedman-Schnapp, one of the co-chairs of Neighbors Allied for Good Growth, says that community gardening and the "guerrilla gardening movement" of the 1970s "was a reaction to all the abandonment in the city at the time."
"We are at the end of a development boom, and it is clear that the city's resources are going to be constrained," he says. "They are not going to be able to take care of everywhere in the city. And so the city is going to have to rely on citizens stepping up and taking care of their own surroundings."
There are a lot of fenced-in areas in the neighborhood. On the water front, there is a chain-link fence that has a sign with the little maple leaf that signifies a city park, but it's locked. A new re-zoning plan has promised that it will become a park, but nothing is happening yet.
Taking Control Of A Small Piece Of The Planet
If you look around the neighborhood, you can see people sneaking into abandoned, trash-filled areas near the river, finding places to fish, to jog and to walk their dogs.
Gallagher says that seed balls allow people to take control of their small piece of the planet. She says walking around on a Sunday morning throwing seed balls is fun and easy.
"I think it is really important to break down these larger tasks — of taking back our neighborhoods and cleaning up our open spaces — into tasks that are completely doable," she says.
Most people, of course, still have no clue what seed balls are. Back in 2003, during a World Trade Organization protest, a dozen police surrounded a parking lot. They were concerned that these strange pellets they found might be dangerous weapons. They threw them against walls and watched them "explode." It took them a while to figure out that they were seed balls.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103129515
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