New Hampshire Health News Digest

The Evidence for Neurologically Determined Anorexia Nervosa Behavioral Patterns | GNIF Brain Blogger Recent research on behavioral characteristics displayed by anorexia nervosa (AN) and anorexia nervosa recovered (ANR) patients point strongly towards an anomalous pattern of activation of the pre-frontal cortex. Unlike in normal women, where food triggers off a reward system in the brain, AN and ANR (those who have recovered from anorexia nervosa) patients display an exaggerated startle effect, as part of an intrinsic defense reaction. In addition, they often salivate less, eat slower, and have a lower preference for fatty and sweet food, suggestive of a disruption in the central food-associated reward pathways. Animal models of AN show that both extreme under-eating and binge eating may result in a disruption of the normal brain chemicals associated with ‘reward’, by an unregulated flooding of dopamine, opioids and cannabinoids in the brain. In a positron emission tomography (PET) stud...

British Archaeology, no 12, March 1996: Features By the time early humans (Homo erectus,archaic Homo sapiens, Neanderthal Man, and the rest) first reached temperate Europe, at least 500,000 years ago, their diet clearly included a large amount of meat. We know this both archaeologically (for instance, by studying animal refuse at archaeological sites), and anatomically - with their large brains and small guts, these people needed to run on high-quality fuel. Moreover, according to work by the American anthropologists Thomas Berger and Erik Trinkaus, the Neanderthals had high rates of injury involving skeletal trauma most like that seem in modern rodeo performers - suggesting, they say, `frequent close encounters with large ungulates [ie, hoofed animals] unkindly disposed to the humans involved'. But what we don't see at this time is evidence of overhunting - that is, an increase in the rate at which European herbivore species went extinct. If anything, after about 450,000 years...

News - Sunshine 'Keeps the Elderly Fit and Healthy' - Healthy Direct (UK) : "Sunshine 'Keeps the Elderly Fit and Healthy' Wednesday, May 02, 2007 Elderly individuals in the UK should use this week's good weather to top up their vitamin D supplies, if new research is to be believed. Scientists from Wake Forest University School of Medicine have claimed that older adults who do not get enough vitamin D are at risk of poor physical performance and even disability. A worrying 25 per cent of those aged 60 or older have low vitamin D levels, the researchers claim. While a subtly altered diet can address this problem to some extent, exposure to sunlight is seen as the only real way to tackle the deficiency. 'With a growing older population, we need to identify better ways to reduce the risk of disability,' said lead author Dr Denise Houston. 'Our study showed a significant relationship between low vitamin D levels in older adults and poorer physical perfor...

News - Milk in new possible acne link - Healthy Direct (UK) : "Milk in new possible acne link Wednesday, May 09, 2007 New research has suggested that there may be a link between drinking milk and bad skin and acne in teenagers. Scientists from the Harvard School of Public Health found that teenagers who drank a pint or more of milk a day were 50 per cent more likely to develop spots or pimples than those who drank no milk at all. And interestingly, skimmed milk was found to be the worst offender, with scientists thinking that the processing of this low-fat version may add to the hormonal content of milk, which has now been linked to increases in acne development. The research has sparked debate among scientific circles with some experts claiming that acne is fully reliant on genetic factors." Milk is another unnatural food. Go to www.paleodiet.com and get the real scoop!

News - Sunbathing may support healthy bones - Healthy Direct (UK) Sunbathing may support healthy bones Tuesday, May 08, 2007 Scientists still argue that sunbathing is a dangerous pastime but a new report indicates that gentle exposure to the sun's rays can be a very positive thing in maintaining healthy bones. In a study of over-60s, researchers from Wake Forest University School of Medicine found that physical performance and grip strength were both about five to ten per cent lower in those with low levels of vitamin D. Both are qualities that can be central to quality of life. And previous research projects in recent years have suggested that vitamin D is hugely important not only for bones but also in the fight against diabetes, cancer, colds and tuberculosis, leading to calls for further investigation about what might constitute healthy levels of exposure to the sun to ensure suitable vitamin D uptake. "Higher amounts of vitamin D may be needed for the preservation of musc...

News - Health experts recommend doctors prescribe omega-3 acids - Healthy Direct (UK) A leading independent health organisation has recommended that doctors make a better diet, including consumption of more oily fish and omega-3 fatty acids, part of their recommendation for patients who have suffered heart attacks. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has said that healthy lifestyle recommendations should go alongside prescribed drugs in efforts to help prevent repeat attacks. NICE has updated guidelines it last set out in 2001, and now recommends two to four portions of fish a week for heart patients. If that figure cannot be met, then the guidelines suggest that the fish can be replaced with daily omega-3 supplements of at least 1g. Dr Gill Leng, NICE implementation systems director, commented that the new framework should help ensure a "coherent and consistent approach amongst clinicians of all disciplines and places of practice". "Its over...

WHFoods: omega-3 fatty acids omega-3 fatty acids What can high-omega-3 foods do for you? * Reduce inflammation throughout your body * Keep your blood from clotting excessively * Maintain the fluidity of your cell membranes * lower the amount of lipids (fats such as cholesterol and triglycerides) circulating in the bloodstream * decrease platelet aggregation, preventing excessive blood clotting * inhibit thickening of the arteries by decreasing endothelial cells' production of a platelet-derived growth factor (the lining of the arteries is composed of endothelial cells) * increase the activity of another chemical derived from endothelial cells (endothelium-derived nitric oxide), which causes arteries to relax and dilate * reduce the production of messenger chemicals called cytokines, which are involved in the inflammatory response associated with atherosclerosis * reduce the risk of becoming obese and improve the body's ability to respond to i...

Liquid Fructose Gives Ratty A Fatty Liver - Diabetes Health Here's yet another bit of research connecting fat to fructose-laden beverages A study recently published in Hepatology shows that fructose-laden water (10% wt/vol) decreases liver fat breakdown and causes lipid accumulation in rats. This change wasnt observed in glucose-fed rats. The rats that drank liquid fructose, unlike those getting glucose, had extra leptin in their blood. However, their livers did not behave as expected given the high levels of leptin, a hormone that generally accelerates fat oxidation in the liver and reduces its synthesis. The researchers concluded that the fructose-caused lipid accumulation and fatty liver was caused by resistance to the extra leptin. The resistance to leptin decreased the action of a specific receptor (PPAR-alpha), which controls fatty acid oxidation. The researchers noted that because PPAR-alpha activity is lower in humans than in rats, liquid fructose ingestion could cause even...

Celiac Disease and Type 1 Development Linked - Diabetes Health : "Swedish researchers say that children with celiac disease are at increased risk of developing type 1. “Earlier studies suggest that children with type 1 diabetes are more likely to have a subsequent diagnosis of celiac disease,” write the researchers. “However, research is sparse on the risk of subsequent type 1 diabetes in individuals with celiac disease.”"

Entrez PubMed Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is one of a family of neurotrophic factors that participates in neuronal transmission, modulation and plasticity. Previous studies using animals have demonstrated that acute and chronic exercise leads to increases in BDNF in various brain regions. PURPOSE:: To determine the effects of acute exercise on serum BDNF levels in humans, and to determine the relationship between exercise intensity and BDNF responses. Additionally, the relationship between changes in BDNF and cognitive function was examined. METHODS:: Fifteen subjects (25.4 +/- 1.01 yr; 11 male, 4 female) performed a graded exercise test (GXT) for the determination of V O2max and ventilatory threshold (VTh) on a cycle ergometer. On separate days, two subsequent 30-min endurance rides were performed at 20% below the VTh (VTh - 20) and at 10% above the VTh (VTh + 10). Serum BDNF and cognitive function were determined before and after the GXT and endurance rides with an enzym...

Entrez PubMed High impact running improves learning. Winter B, Breitenstein C, Mooren FC, Voelker K, Fobker M, Lechtermann A, Krueger K, Fromme A, Korsukewitz C, Floel A, Knecht S. Department of Neurology, University of Muenster, Muenster, Germany. bwinter@uni-muenster.de Regular physical exercise improves cognitive functions and lowers the risk for age-related cognitive decline. Since little is known about the nature and the timing of the underlying mechanisms, we probed whether exercise also has immediate beneficial effects on cognition. Learning performance was assessed directly after high impact anaerobic sprints, low impact aerobic running, or a period of rest in 27 healthy subjects in a randomized cross-over design. Dependent variables comprised learning speed as well as immediate (1 week) and long-term (>8 months) overall success in acquiring a novel vocabulary. Peripheral levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and catecholamines (dopamine, epinephrine, norepineph...

eMedicine - Dopamine-Responsive Dystonia : Article by N K Nikhar, MD : "The activity of these dopaminergic neurons also has circadian variation. Dopamine production increases through the night with each cycle of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. The activity at the nigrostriatal terminals is therefore maximal in the early morning; nocturnal variation is more marked in young children and decreases with age. Dopamine activity in nigrostriatal terminals, which already is reduced in patients with DRD, declines further during the course of the day (as well as with increasing age), exacerbating symptoms toward evening and with increasing age." Very interesting. I know that dopamine deficiency is implicated in ADD, and ADD'ers have trouble sleeping. Less sleep could mean less dopamine in the brain.

Probing depression and its ties to diabetes - Health & Science - International Herald Tribune Although the evidence is growing, they also said there is not yet proof that depression causes diabetes, and there are no definitive explanations of what underlies the connection. But scientists are turning up some clues. A study at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, published in the journal Diabetes in February, found differences in the brains of people with and without Type 1 diabetes. The brains of diabetics were less dense and less responsive in an area of the prefrontal cortex that helps control emotions and is believed to contribute to depression, said Dr. Alan Jacobson, director of behavioral and mental health research at the Joslin. Future research is planned to help explain how these changes affect behavior and whether they get worse over time. Other scientists are looking at the stress hormone cortisol, which builds up in many depressives. Cortisol decreases the body's pro...

Metapsychology Online Reviews - Theory of Addiction Here is the question: Why do some addicts relapse even when they sincerely claim that they do not like the substance to which they are addicted? Here is the Berridge and Robinson answer. Liking something is a hedonic process and is associated with its own neural substrate. Liking may explain why addicts initially take and persist in taking drugs (for the pleasure this produces, and to avoid the displeasure of withdrawal). Addicts, however, may re-take drugs after a period of refraining, long after the displeasures associated with withdrawal are past, and for no anticipated pleasure. This is because the neural systems that are sensitized to drug taking are connected with wanting or desiring. These are dopamine systems and they are not the same substrates as those for liking. Addicts may want drugs or be motivated to take them even if they rightly believe that they don't like them, and therein are both unawares of wanting the...

Print Story - canada.com network Last week, the Lebanese army attacked a squalid Palestinian refugee camp that’s become infested with Islamist suicide terrorists and guerilla fighters. On May 20, government troops surrounded the camp, with tanks and artillery pieces shelling it at close range. Army snipers gunned down anything that moved. At least 18 civilians were killed, and dozens more injured. Water and electricity were cut off. By week’s end, much of the camp had been turned into deserted rubble. Thousands of terrified residents fleeing the camp reported harrowing stories of famished, parched families trapped in their basements. How did the rest of the world react? The Arab League quickly condemned “the criminal and terrorist acts carried out by the terrorist group known as Fatah al-Islam,” and vowed to “give its full support to the efforts of the army and the Lebanese government.” EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana also condemned Fatah al-Islam, and declared Europe’s “...

Chavez Defends Decision on TV Station : "CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - President Hugo Chavez defended his decision not to renew the license of a popular opposition-aligned television network on Tuesday and warned he might crack down on another critical TV station, accusing it of trying to incite attempts on his life. Chavez said his refusal to renew the license of Radio Caracas Television, which went off the air at midnight Sunday, is 'a sovereign, legitimate decision in which there is no argument.' He said the remaining opposition-sided channel Globovision had encouraged attempts on his life and warned that if it wants 'to continue calling for disobedience, inciting assassination ... I'm going to warn them before the nation... I recommend they take a tranquilizer, that they slow down, because if not, I'm going to slow them down.' Chavez did not elaborate, but also warned that radio stations should not be inciting violence by 'manipulating feelings' amo...

Iran, the United States and Potential Iraq Deal-Spoilers By Reva Bhalla After 27 years of frozen relations, the United States and Iran held their first high-level direct talks in Baghdad on May 28 to negotiate a plan on how to stabilize Iraq. U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker and his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Kazemi-Qomi, traded accusations about who was the bigger destabilizing force in Iraq. But by the end of the four-hour meeting, both described the negotiations as a positive first step in bringing the two sides together to stabilize Iraq. Kazemi-Qomi even said there probably would be a follow-up meeting within a month if he gets the OK from Tehran. Iran and the United States evidently have come a long way since the spring of 2003, when Washington double-crossed Tehran on the two countries' original understanding that a pro-Iranian, Shiite-dominated Iraq would be allowed to emerge in exchange for Iran's help in effecting regime change in Baghdad. When the United States ...

Is There a Gene for Shyness? But which genes are involved? One line of evidence leads to serotonin, which has numerous functions in the nervous system including an influence on mood, memory and learning. Irregularities in the expression or control of serotonin have been linked to depression, anxiety and a variety of other disorders. Drugs such as Prozac™ which affect serotonin are are now widely used in medicine. In 1996, geneticist Dean Hamer of the National Institutes of Health and his colleagues reported that they had found an association between the serotonin transporter gene and neuroticism, a complex of behaviors that includes depression, low self-confidence, and shyness around strangers. Hamer reported in Science that adult volunteers who rated high on the scale of neuroticism tend to have a short version of the serotonin transporter promoter, a stretch of DNA that controls how much of the serotonin transporter gets made. Adults who ranked low in neuroticism tended to have a lon...

Arch Gen Psychiatry -- Abstract: Interacting Effects of the Dopamine Transporter Gene and Psychosocial Adversity on Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Symptoms Among 15-Year-Olds From a High-Risk Community Sample, May 2007, Laucht et al. 64 (5): 585 Interacting Effects of the Dopamine Transporter Gene and Psychosocial Adversity on Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Symptoms Among 15-Year-Olds From a High-Risk Community Sample Manfred Laucht, PhD; Markus H. Skowronek, PhD; Katja Becker, MD; Martin H. Schmidt, MD, PhD; Günter Esser, PhD; Thomas G. Schulze, MD; Marcella Rietschel, MD Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2007;64:585-590. Context Recent evidence suggests that gene x environment interactions could explain the inconsistent findings of association studies relating the dopamine transporter (DAT1) gene with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). So there's a gene for ADHD, but not everyone with the gene (allele 10 variant of the VNTR 40 base pair DAT gene) gets ADHD. ...

ADHD Spotlight Double Trouble Depression and ADHD. They just go together. Problem is, patients and clinicians alike are too little aware of this common combination. That has major consequences. Here are relevant statistics from one study.* Kessler and his colleagues looked at subjects who, within a year, met diagnostic criteria for clinical depression (major depressive disorder). Of these persons with severe depression, the researchers found that 9.4 % also met criteria for ADHD. That’s almost one in 10. Conversely, the findings were more marked when the researchers looked at study subjects who initially met criteria for ADHD. Nearly 1 in 5 (18.6%) also met criteria for clinical depression within the previous year. An estimated 5 -10% 0f patients with the most severe mood disorder, bipolar disorder (manic-depressive illness) also have ADHD.

Tips for Managing Adult ADD Tips for Managing Adult ADD From Apply Now, Your Guide to ADD / ADHD. FREE Newsletter. Sign Up Now! 1. Educate yourself about ADD. Read books, talk to your doctor, therapist, coach, other adults with ADD, join a support group, either in your area or online. The more you understand ADD, the more you will be able to help yourself and work together with medical professionals in determining the best treatment. 2. Use structure in your life. Create lists, write yourself notes, use a tape recorder to record messages to yourself, use an organizer such as a dayplanner or a PDA. The more structure you create in your life, the more you can control the downslide of disorganization. 3. Always break tasks down into small chunks. Large tasks tend to overwhelm the adult with ADHD, breaking them down into small chunks can help you manage the task more easily. For example, instead of “I’m going to clean the house today” focus one particular aspect, such as...

26 Reasons What You Think is Right is Wrong A cognitive bias is something that our minds commonly do to distort our own view of reality. Here are the 26 most studied and widely accepted cognitive biases. Bandwagon effect - the tendency to do (or believe) things because many other people do (or believe) the same. Related to groupthink, herd behaviour, and manias. Carl Jung pioneered the idea of the collective unconscious which is considered by Jungian psychologists to be responsible for this cognitive bias. Bias blind spot - the tendency not to compensate for one’s own cognitive biases. Choice-supportive bias - the tendency to remember one’s choices as better than they actually were. Confirmation bias - the tendency to search for or interpret information in a way that confirms one’s preconceptions. Congruence bias - the tendency to test hypotheses exclusively through direct testing. Contrast effect - the enhancement or diminishment of a weight or other measurement when compared with rec...

Humans hard-wired to be generous : Humans hard-wired to be generous A study by government scientists in Washington indicates humans are hard-wired to be unselfish. "Neuroscientists Jorge Moll and Jordan Grafman of the National Institutes of Health say experiments they conducted have led them to conclude unselfishness is not a matter of morality, The Washington Post reports. Rather, the two say altruism is something that makes people feel good, lighting up a primitive part of the human brain that usually responds to food or sex."

home LOLCODE : "LOLCODE Programming the LOL way. All LOLCats, LOL, ALL CAPS. HAI! This site provides community documentation of the emergent LOLCODE language. It is our hope that the examples can grow in a way that is both internally consistent and suggest a real, feasible computing language. The best way to start the site is with some examples to give the flavor of the language. Wow, hello, new users! Stick around, and get comfortable. I’ve only just started the site. I’m blown away by the creativity of the contributions coming into the site and by email, and want to be able to push new keywords into the canon soon. Examples HAI WORLD: HAI CAN HAS STDIO? VISIBLE 'HAI WORLD!' KTHXBYE COUNT!!1: HAI CAN HAS STDIO? I HAS A VAR IM IN YR LOOP UP VAR!!1 VISIBLE VAR IZ VAR BIGGER THAN 10? KTHXBYE IM OUTTA YR LOOP KTHXBYE FILEZORZ: HAI CAN HAS STDIO? PLZ OPEN FILE 'LOLCATS.TXT'? AWSUM THX VISIBLE FILE O NOES INVISIBLE 'ERROR!' KTHXBYE"

APOD: 2007 May 28 - A Hole in Mars : "A Hole in Mars Credit: NASA, JPL, U. Arizona Explanation: Black spots have been discovered on Mars that are so dark that nothing inside can be seen. Quite possibly, the spots are entrances to deep underground caves capable of protecting Martian life, were it to exist. The unusual hole pictured above was found on the slopes of the giant Martian volcano Arsia Mons. The above image was captured three weeks ago by the HiRISE instrument onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter currently circling Mars. The holes were originally identified on lower resolution images from the Mars Odyssey spacecraft, The above hole is about the size of a football field and is so deep that it is completely unilluminated by the Sun. Such holes and underground caves might be prime targets for future spacecraft, robots, and even the next generation of human interplanetary explorers."

Katie Couric: "No Atheists in foxholes" Free Thought Forum Katie Couric: “No Atheists in foxholes” A response from retired Master Sergeant Gid L. White. After Katie Couric declared that there were no atheists in foxholes on a TV newscast: Dear Miss Couric, While there is nothing wrong highlighting in the program the role that religion has played in the American Armed Forces, I find your mindless parading of that silly old aphorism, “there are no Atheists in foxholes,” to be thoughtless and downright offensive to the families of uncountable numbers of atheists, and I include Agnostics, who gave their lives wearing the uniform of the American Armed Forces. Yes, there are, and always have been Atheists, both draftees and volunteers on the battlefield, many of whom bare the scars of war or are ironically buried below white crosses in battlefields throughout the world. I’m in a position to know. After initially being nominated to WestPoint, I enlisted in the United States Army as...

ISIS News no.9/10 - Dietary Interventions for Alzheimer’s & Parkinson’s The team’s work goes back to the 1990s, when they started using ‘metabolic control analysis’ (see Box) to study glucose metabolism in working rat hearts perfused with glucose, to which ketones or insulin or both have been added [2]. Insulin is a hormone that reduces glucose concentration in the blood, and deficiency of insulin is associated with type I diabetes. Radioactive glucose was used to keep track of the rate at which glucose disappears and becomes transformed into different metabolites including glycogen (a storage product which is a large polymer of glucose). The results show that no single enzyme controls glucose metabolism. Instead, different enzymes are in control, depending on the prevailing conditions. For example, the heart works better in the presence of either ketones or insulin, but the combination of both ketones and insulin is no better than either alone. In the presence of glucose only, gly...

Ketone Bodies, Potential theraputic uses [PDF] Summary Ketosis, meaning elevation of D-¯-hydroxybutyrate (R-3- hydroxybutyrate) and acetoacetate, has been central to starving man’s survival by providing nonglucose substrate to his evolutionarily hypertrophied brain, sparing muscle from destruction for glucose synthesis. Surprisingly, D-¯-hydroxybutyrate (abbreviated “¯OHB”) may also provide a more efŽ cient source of energy for brain per unit oxygen, supported by the same phenomenon noted in the isolated working perfused rat heart and in sperm. It has also been shown to decrease cell death in two human neuronal cultures, one a model of Alzheimer’s and the other of Parkinson’s disease. These observations raise the possibility that a number of neurologic disorders, genetic and acquired, might bene Ž t by ketosis. Other beneŽ cial effects from ¯OHB include an increased energy of ATP hydrolysis (1G0 ) and its linked ionic gradients. Thismay be signiŽ cant indrug-resistant epilepsy and in i...

Dyslexia 'is just a middle-class way to hide stupidity' | the Daily Mail Dyslexia is a social fig leaf used by middle-class parents who fear their children will be labelled as low achievers, a professor has claimed. Julian Elliott, a leading educational psychologist at Durham University, says he has found no evidence to identify dyslexia as a medical condition after more than 30 years of research. "There is a huge stigma attached to low intelligence," he said. "After years of working with parents, I have seen how they don't want their child to be considered lazy, thick or stupid. "If they get called this medically diagnosed term, dyslexic, then it is a signal to all that it's not to do with intelligence." He added: "There are all sorts of reasons why people don't read well but we can't determine why that is. Dyslexia, as a term, is becoming meaningless." One in ten people in the UK - including 375,000 schoolchildren - has been ...

d-beta-hydroxybutyrate inhibits the apoptosis of PC12 cells induced by 6-OHDA in relation to up-regulating the ratio of Bcl-2/Bax mRNA. :: Entrez PubMed d-beta-hydroxybutyrate (DbetaHB) is a predominant member of ketone bodies produced by hepatocytes and, to a lesser extent, by astrocytes. It is an alternative source of energy in the brain when glucose supply is depleted such as during starvation. It has been reported that ketone bodies could protect dopaminergic culture. However, the biological function of DbetaHB in Parkinson disease (PD) is still unclear. In the present work, we investigated the role of DbetaHB in protecting rat pheochromocytoma (PC12) cells from apoptosis induced by 6-Hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA). DbetaHB rescued PC12 cells from apoptotic death induced by 6-OHDA by MTT assay, acridine orange (AO) staining, terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) staining and the activity of caspase-3. Yeah, this is the kind of stuff I read all the ...

ScienceDaily: Dopamine-related Drugs Affect Reward-seeking Behavior : "'The results show dopamine drives us to get what we want, but not avoid what we fear,' said study author Mathias Pessiglione, PhD, who now works at the Salpetriere Hospital in Paris, France. The findings may provide a better understanding of the side effects of dopamine-related drugs and the disorders they are used to treat, such as Parkinson's disease and schizophrenia. 'This study may explain why dopamine depletion leads to the lack of motivation often described in people with Parkinson's disease,' said Pessiglione, 'and how dopamine replacement therapy can cause compulsive behaviors, such as overeating and gambling addictions, in the same people.'"

Caution: Some soft drinks may seriously harm your health - Independent Online Edition > Health A new health scare erupted over soft drinks last night amid evidence they may cause serious cell damage. Research from a British university suggests a common preservative found in drinks such as Fanta and Pepsi Max has the ability to switch off vital parts of DNA. The problem - more usually associated with ageing and alcohol abuse - can eventually lead to cirrhosis of the liver and degenerative diseases such as Parkinson's. The findings could have serious consequences for the hundreds of millions of people worldwide who consume fizzy drinks. They will also intensify the controversy about food additives, which have been linked to hyperactivity in children. Concerns centre on the safety of E211, known as sodium benzoate, a preservative used for decades by the £74bn global carbonated drinks industry. Sodium benzoate derives from benzoic acid. It occurs naturally in berries, but is used in...

ScienceDaily: Link Between Parkinson's And Narcolepsy Discovered Science Daily — Parkinson's disease is well-known for its progression of motor disorders: stiffness, slowness, tremors, difficulties walking and talking. Less well known is that Parkinson's shares other symptoms with narcolepsy, a sleep disorder characterized by sudden and uncontrollable episodes of deep sleep, severe fatigue and general sleep disorder. Now a team of UCLA and Veterans Affairs researchers think they know why — the two disorders share something in common: Parkinson's disease patients have severe damage to the same small group of neurons whose loss causes narcolepsy. The findings suggest a different clinical course of treatment for people suffering with Parkinson's that may ameliorate their sleep symptoms. [...] have determined that Parkinson's disease patients have a loss of up to 60 percent of brain cells containing the peptide hypocretin. In 2000, this same group of UCLA researcher...

ScienceDaily: Link Between Parkinson's And Narcolepsy Discovered Science Daily — Parkinson's disease is well-known for its progression of motor disorders: stiffness, slowness, tremors, difficulties walking and talking. Less well known is that Parkinson's shares other symptoms with narcolepsy, a sleep disorder characterized by sudden and uncontrollable episodes of deep sleep, severe fatigue and general sleep disorder. Now a team of UCLA and Veterans Affairs researchers think they know why — the two disorders share something in common: Parkinson's disease patients have severe damage to the same small group of neurons whose loss causes narcolepsy. The findings suggest a different clinical course of treatment for people suffering with Parkinson's that may ameliorate their sleep symptoms. In their report in the May issue of the journal Brain, Jerry Siegel, professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCL...

ScienceDaily: Diet Study Tips Scale In Favor Of Atkins Plan Science Daily — The case for low-carbohydrate diets is gaining weight. Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have completed the largest and longest-ever comparison of four popular diets, and the lowest-carbohydrate Atkins diet came out on top. "Many health professionals, including us, have either dismissed the value of very-low-carbohydrate diets for weight loss or been very skeptical of them," said lead researcher Christopher Gardner, PhD, assistant professor of medicine at the Stanford Prevention Research Center. "But it seems to be a viable alternative for dieters." Of the more than 300 women in the study, those randomly assigned to follow the Atkins diet for a year not only lost more weight than the other participants, but also experienced the most benefits in terms of cholesterol and blood pressure. "Many health professionals, including us, have either dismissed the value of ve...

ScienceDaily: Very Low-carbohydrate Diets Work For Men And Upper Body Fat Science Daily — Scientists say that low carbohydrate diets, like the Atkins and South Beach Diets, may actually be the best option for men who want to slim. New research, published this week in the Open Access journal, Nutrition & Metabolism, shows that over 70% of men lost more weight and fat on a low carbohydrate diet, despite eating more calories. Jeff Volek and colleagues, from the University of Connecticut, also show for the first time that a low carbohydrate diet is much more effective in losing fat from the stomach and chest. Upper body fat carries "a greater health risk than fat stored in other regions of the body," say the authors. They found that fat loss in men was three-times greater in the trunk area, when they were on a low-carbohydrate regime compared to the low-fat diet. Nearly all participants in the study (12 of 15 men and 12 of 13 women) lost more fat on their upper body on the lo...

ScienceDaily: Modified Atkins Diet Effectively Treats Childhood Seizures Science Daily — A modified version of a popular low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet is nearly as effective at controlling seizures as the highly restrictive ketogenic diet, Johns Hopkins Children's Center researchers report. "Our findings suggest relatively good efficacy compared to the ketogenic diet," said Eric Kossoff, M.D., a pediatric neurologist at Johns Hopkins Children's Center. "With 20 patients, our study wasn't large enough to say patients and physicians should replace the proven, but highly restricted ketogenic diet, but the results are encouraging and intriguing." The common elements in both the ketogenic and Atkins diets are relatively high fat and low carbohydrate foods that alter the body's chemistry. The ketogenic diet mimics some of the effects of starvation, in which the body first uses up glucose and glycogen before burning stored body fat. In the absence of gluc...

ScienceDaily: A Jekyll And Hyde Of Cytokines: IL-25 Both Promotes And Limits Inflammatory Diseases The findings, which appear the April issue of the Journal of Experimental Medicine, suggest that manipulating IL-25 could provide a method to treat a wide variety of chronic inflammatory diseases. "It appears that IL-25 has a Jekyll and Hyde personality: it can be helpful or hurtful depending on how it interacts with T helper cells, a subset of immune cells that influences inflammatory responses," said David Artis, an assistant professor in Penn's Department of Pathobiology and senior author of the study. "These studies show that IL-25 promotes type 2 T helper cells that drive the type of response required for eradicating worm infections and causing asthma. Importantly, IL-25 can simultaneously limit destructive inflammation caused by inflammatory T helper cells commonly found in diseases like inflammatory bowel disease, arthritis and MS." IL-25 can be considered a...