New Hampshire Health News Digest

Human skin cells hide circadian clock - health - 28 January 2008 - New Scientist An internal clock hidden in human skin cells could reveal whether your body clock is out of sync with your lifestyle, say researchers. Steven Brown of the University of Zurich in Switzerland and his colleagues knew that the brain’s circadian clock causes a gene called Bmal1 to be more active in the body’s other cells during the daytime. To find out how closely matched this activity was, they used a virus to equip skin cells taken from 11 early-rising people dubbed "larks" and 17 late-rising "owls" with a firefly gene that would produce a visible glow whenever Bmal1 was active. “The result is light coming out of the cell in a 24-hour rhythm,” says Brown. By monitoring the times when the cells glowed, they demonstrated that skin cells showed the same sleep-wake patterns as those reported in questionnaires by at least half the donors. There were discrepancies too, however, most notably in ...

Scientists discover way to reverse loss of memory - Science, News - Independent.co.uk Scientists performing experimental brain surgery on a man aged 50 have stumbled across a mechanism that could unlock how memory works. The accidental breakthrough came during an experiment originally intended to suppress the obese man's appetite, using the increasingly successful technique of deep-brain stimulation. Electrodes were pushed into the man's brain and stimulated with an electric current. Instead of losing appetite, the patient instead had an intense experience of déjà vu. He recalled, in intricate detail, a scene from 30 years earlier. More tests showed his ability to learn was dramatically improved when the current was switched on and his brain stimulated. Scientists are now applying the technique in the first trial of the treatment in patients with Alzheimer's disease. If successful, it could offer hope to sufferers from the degenerative condition, which affects 450,000 peopl...

Science Centric | News | Cutting caffeine may help control diabetes Daily consumption of caffeine in coffee, tea or soft drinks increases blood sugar levels for people with type 2 diabetes and may undermine efforts to control their disease, say scientists at Duke University Medical Centre. Researchers used new technology that measured participants’ glucose (sugar) levels on a constant basis throughout the day. Dr James Lane, a psychologist at Duke and the lead author of the study, says it represents the first time researchers have been able to track the impact of caffeine consumption as patients go about their normal, everyday lives. The findings, appearing in the February issue of Diabetes Care, add more weight to a growing body of research suggesting that eliminating caffeine from the diet might be a good way to manage blood sugar levels. Lane studied 10 patients with established type 2 diabetes and who drank at least two cups of coffee every day and who were trying to manage their d...

Scientific American Has Second Thoughts About Fluoride Editors for Scientific American believe recent studies suggest that fluoride raises the risks of disorders affecting teeth, bones, the brain and the thyroid gland, and in general “scientific attitudes” about fluoridation may be shifting. "Fluoride, the most consumed drug in the USA, is deliberately added to 2/3 of public water supplies theoretically to reduce tooth decay, but with no scientifically-valid evidence proving safety or effectiveness," says lawyer Paul Beeber, president of the New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation. Meanwhile, according to environmental reporter and director of New York University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program Dan Fagin, "There is no universally accepted optimal level for daily intake of fluoride." After analyzing hundreds of fluoride studies, researchers found that fluoride: * Alters endocrine function, especially in the thyroid * Causes ...

Snoozing Worms Help Explain Evolution Of Sleep Snoozing Worms Help Explain Evolution Of Sleep ScienceDaily (Jan. 15, 2008) — The roundworm C. elegans, a staple of laboratory research, may be key in unlocking one of the central biological mysteries: why we sleep. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine report in the January 11 advanced online edition of Nature that the round worm has a sleep-like state, joining most of the animal kingdom in displaying this physiology. This research has implications for explaining the evolution and purpose of sleep and sleep-like states in animals. In addition, genetic work associated with the study provides new prospects for the use of C. elegans to identify sleep-regulatory genes and drug targets for sleep disorders. First author David M. Raizen, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Neurology, in collaboration with other researchers at the Penn Center for Sleep, showed that there is a period of behavioral quiescence during the worm...

Atkins - Long Term Effects of a Ketogenic Diet in Obese Patients OBJECTIVE: To determine the effects of a 24-week ketogenic diet (consisting of 30 g carbohydrate, 1 g/kg body weight protein, 20% saturated fat, and 80% polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fat) in obese patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In the present study, 83 obese patients (39 men and 44 women) with a body mass index greater than 35 kg/m2, and high glucose and cholesterol levels were selected. The body weight, body mass index, total cholesterol, low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, triglycerides, fasting blood sugar, urea and creatinine levels were determined before and after the administration of the ketogenic diet. Changes in these parameters were monitored after eight, 16 and 24 weeks of treatment. RESULTS: The weight and body mass index of the patients decreased significantly (P CONCLUSIONS: The present study shows the beneficial effects of a long-term ketogenic diet....

Ketogenic diet to reduce hunger, diabetes and obesity. The premise of the ketogenic diet is to lower endogenous insulin levels and promote the use of body fat as fuel. During partial fasting with carbohydrate restriction, insulin declines, and glucagon increases. This shift in the insulin-to-glucagon ratio results in mobilization of free fatty acids from adipose tissue, increased mobilization of amino acids from muscle, and increased fatty acid oxidation by the liver. Strict use of a ketogenic diet high in fats and extremely low in carbohydrates is sometimes used for treatment of refractory epilepsy, and is effective about half of the time. It has been suggested that a ketogenic diet might be used as a mood stabilizer in affective disorders. A report published in the peer-reviewed, open access journal Nutrition and Metabolism, showed that a brain protein, amyloid-beta, which is an indicator of Alzheimer's disease, is reduced in mice on the so-called ketogenic diet. Results from a M...

The ketogenic diet may have mood-stabilizing prope...[Med Hypotheses. 2001] - PubMed Result The ketogenic diet may have mood-stabilizing properties. El-Mallakh RS, Paskitti ME. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Louisville School of Medicine, Kentucky 40292, USA. The ketogenic diet, originally introduced in the 1920s, has been undergoing a recent resurgence as an adjunctive treatment for refractory epilepsy, particularly in children. In this difficult-to-treat population, the diet exhibits remarkable efficacy with two-thirds showing significant reduction in seizure frequency and one-third becoming nearly seizure-free. There are several reasons to suspect that the ketogenic diet may also have utility as a mood stabilizer in bipolar illness. These include the observation that several anticonvulsant interventions may improve outcome in mood disorders. Furthermore, beneficial changes in brain-energy profile are noted in subjects on the ketogenic diet. This is i...

History of the Ketogenic Diet (by Lyle McDonald) : Other clinical conditions Epilepsy is arguably the medical condition that has been treated the most with ketogenic diets (1-3). However, preliminary evidence suggests that the ketogenic diet may have other clinical uses including respiratory failure (6), certain types of pediatric cancer (7-10), and possibly head trauma (11) . Interested readers can examine the studies cited, as this book focuses primarily on the use of the ketogenic diet for fat loss. Obesity Ketogenic diets have been used for weight loss for at least a century, making occasional appearances into the dieting mainstream. Complete starvation was studied frequently including the seminal research of Hill, who fasted a subject for 60 days to examine the effects, which was summarized by Cahill (12). The effects of starvation made it initially attractive to treat morbid obesity as rapid weight/fat loss would occur. Other characteristics attributed to ketosis, such as appetit...

Type 1 Diabetes a Nerve Disease? Type 1 Diabetes a Nerve Disease? Findings in Mice Suggest Totally New Direction for Diabetes Treatment By Daniel J. DeNoon WebMD Medical News Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD Dec. 18, 2006 -- Sensory nerve cells -- not immune cells -- may be the key culprits in type 1 diabetes, mouse studies suggest. The findings, if confirmed in humans, would turn diabetes research on its head. They suggest that diabetes could be treated or prevented with drugs that work on the nervous system. The study is published in the Dec. 15 issue of Cell; it comes from the labs of Hans Michael Dosch, MD, PhD, and Michael Salter, MD, PhD, at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. "We are now working hard to extend our studies to [type 1 diabetes] patients, where many have sensory nerve abnormalities," Dosch says in a news release. "But we don't yet know if these abnormalities start early in life and if they contribute to disease development." Type 1 Diabet...

Two different neural pathways regulate loss and regain of consciousness during general anesthesia University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine researchers have answered long-running questions about the way that anesthetics act on the body, by showing that the cellular pathway for emerging from anesthesia is different from the one that drugs take to put patients to sleep during operations. The findings will be published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The research focuses on orexins, the small, specialized fraction of the brain’s 100 billion neurons that play a key role in regulating the body’s wakeful state. Studying mice whose orexin systems had been genetically destroyed – a state similar to humans suffering from narcolepsy, a neurological condition that causes unusual daytime sleepiness – Max B. Kelz, MD, PhD, an assistant professor in Penn’s Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care and the Mahoney Institute of Neurological Sciences, found that ...

Diabetes breakthrough In a discovery that has stunned even those behind it, scientists at a Toronto hospital say they have proof the body's nervous system helps trigger diabetes, opening the door to a potential near-cure of the disease that affects millions of Canadians. Diabetic mice became healthy virtually overnight after researchers injected a substance to counteract the effect of malfunctioning pain neurons in the pancreas. "I couldn't believe it," said Dr. Michael Salter, a pain expert at the Hospital for Sick Children and one of the scientists. "Mice with diabetes suddenly didn't have diabetes any more." The researchers caution they have yet to confirm their findings in people, but say they expect results from human studies within a year or so. Any treatment that may emerge to help at least some patients would likely be years away from hitting the market. But the excitement of the team from Sick Kids, whose work is being published today in the jou...

Nutrition & Metabolism | Full text | A low-carbohydrate, ketogenic diet to treat type 2 diabetes Conclusion In summary, the LCKD had positive effects on body weight, waist measurement, serum triglycerides, and glycemic control in a cohort of 21 participants with type 2 diabetes. Most impressive is that improvement in hemoglobin A1c was observed despite a small sample size and short duration of follow-up, and this improvement in glycemic control occurred while diabetes medications were reduced substantially in many participants. Future research must further examine the optimal medication adjustments, particularly for diabetes and diuretic agents, in order to avoid possible complications of hypoglycemia and dehydration. Because the LCKD can be very effective at lowering blood glucose, patients on diabetes medication who use this diet should be under close medical supervision or capable of adjusting their medication.

Ketogenic Diet Prevents Seizures By Enhancing Brain Energy Production, Increasing Neuron Stability "These findings support our hypothesis that a dietary regimen can dramatically affect the expression of genes and the function of neurons within the brain, which enhances the ability of these neurons to withstand the metabolic challenges of epileptic seizures," Dr. Dingledine said. The ketogenic diet causes molecules called ketone bodies to be produced as fat is broken down. Scientists have understood that these molecules somehow cause a change in metabolism leading to a potent anticonvulsant effect. According to some animal studies they also may limit the progression of epilepsy. The Emory research team studied the link between diet and epileptic seizures on the behavioral, cellular and genetic level. They found, as had others, that in rats fed the KD the resistance to seizures develops slowly, over one to two weeks, in contrast to rats treated with conventional anticonvulsant...

Ketogenic low-carbohydrate diets have no metabolic...[Am J Clin Nutr. 2006] - PubMed Result BACKGROUND: Low-carbohydrate diets may promote greater weight loss than does the conventional low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet. OBJECTIVE: We compared weight loss and biomarker change in adults adhering to a ketogenic low-carbohydrate (KLC) diet or a nonketogenic low-carbohydrate (NLC) diet. [...] However, inflammatory risk (arachidonic acid:eicosapentaenoic acid ratios in plasma phospholipids) and perceptions of vigor were more adversely affected by the KLC than by the NLC diet. CONCLUSIONS: KLC and NLC diets were equally effective in reducing body weight and insulin resistance, but the KLC diet was associated with several adverse metabolic and emotional effects. The use of ketogenic diets for weight loss is not warranted.

Drug 'can reverse Alzheimer's symptoms in minutes'| News | This is London A drug used for arthritis can reverse the symptoms of Alzheimer's "in minutes". It appears to tackle one of the main features of the disease - inflammation in the brain. The drug, called Enbrel, is injected into the spine where it blocks a chemical responsible for damaging the brain and other organs. A pilot study carried out by U.S. researchers found one patient had his symptoms reversed "in minutes". Other patients have shown some improvements in symptoms such as forgetfulness and confusion after weekly injections over six months. The study of 15 patients with moderate to severe Alzheimer's has just been published in the Journal of Neuroinflammation by online publishers Biomed Central. The experiment showed that Enbrel can deactivate TNF (tumour necrosis factor) - a chemical in the fluid surrounding the brain that is found in Alzheimer's sufferers. When used by arthri...

The blowout diet: fast all day, feast at night - Health - Times Online The blowout diet: fast all day, feast at night Jerome Burne For years we’ve been advised to eat little and often, and never to skip breakfast. But now some scientists argue that stop-start eating, as our hunter-gatherer ancestors did, is better for us than ‘grazing’ COWS, SHEEP, goats — when it comes to diet, we have a lot to learn from the cloven-footed beast, it seems. “Grazing”, or eating little and often, has become something of a mantra among nutritional experts. The theory is that several small meals a day helps to balance blood-sugar levels, reducing our desire to snack and to overeat. The reality is that once you start grazing, it’s often difficult to stop. The other great dietary wisdom is that breakfast is the most important meal of the day — it will boost your brainpower and might even help you to stay trim. People who skip breakfast regularly are more likely to be overweight. If you must forgo a meal, it...

Glasses that Block Blue-Light Could Improve ADHD Symptoms and Sleep Disorders - Associated Content Scientists at the Lighting Innovations Institute of Ohio's John Carroll University, under the lead of Dr. Richard Hansler, have discovered that the elimination of blue light for a couple of hours a day improve the symptoms of Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Furthermore, people suffering from sleep disorders like insomnia also seem to improve their overall quality of sleep, if the blue-light is eliminated for a couple of hours each day. The researchers' innovation is simple and cheap but could mean the improvement of the quality of life for many. The scientists developed special glasses that block the blue light, if worn. Blocking the blue light rays results in changes of the circadian rhythm of the patient. The circadian rhythm is the process of normal and regular changes of a person's mental and physical characteristics throughout each day. Circadian is Latin...

ERIC - Education Resources Information Center Social Skills Differences among Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Types in a Chat Room Assessment Task This study assessed social skills in 116 children aged 7-12 with ADHD-Combined Type (ADHD-C; n=33), ADHD-Inattentive Type (ADHD-I; n=45), and comparison children (n=38), with consideration of the role sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT) symptoms play in distinguishing profiles. Social skills were assessed using a novel computerized chat room task, in which participants were encouraged to join a conversation and type messages to interact with four computer-simulated peers. Every participant received the identical stimulus from the simulated peers, but was free to respond to it in his or her own unique way. Relative to comparison children, children with ADHD-C made off-topic and hostile responses; children with ADHD-I made off-topic responses, few responses and showed poor memory for the conversation. ADHD subtype differences remained afte...

Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis Function in Children with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis Function in Children with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Authors: Kaneko, Motohisa; And Others Descriptors: Attention Deficit Disorders; Biochemistry; Children; Hyperactivity; Incidence; Physiology Source: Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, v23 n1 p59-65 Mar 1993 Pub Types: Journal Articles; Reports - Research Abstract: This study with 30 children showing attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) found a normal diurnal saliva cortisol rhythm in only 43.3 percent of the subjects and a dexamethasone suppression in 46.7 percent, with both these abnormalities more frequent in the severely than the mildly hyperactive group. Results suggest abnormalities in hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis function. (Author/DB)

On Nutrition: Need To Lose Weight? Try Fasting - US News and World Report If your pants mysteriously shrink during the holiday season, you may want to consider a weight-loss method with a bad reputation: skipping meals. Though conventional wisdom has held that if you fast or omit meals you will only make up for it by eating more later on, some experts advocate just those methods—not only to control your weight, but also to gain other health benefits. First, let's look at the weight factor. The data have been consistent, says David Levitsky, a professor of nutrition and psychology at Cornell University. If you skip a meal or downsize it, you do feel hungrier at the next one—but you don't make up for all of the calories you avoided, he says. In one unpublished study, his research team gave one group of people a commercially available small lunch (yogurt, soup, or some other small snack) adding up to about 200 calories, while a second group had regular buffet lunches of about 600 ...

Orexins and orexin receptors: a family of hypothal...[Cell. 1998] - PubMed Result Orexins and orexin receptors: a family of hypothalamic neuropeptides and G protein-coupled receptors that regulate feeding behavior. Sakurai T, Amemiya A, Ishii M, Matsuzaki I, Chemelli RM, Tanaka H, Williams SC, Richardson JA, Kozlowski GP, Wilson S, Arch JR, Buckingham RE, Haynes AC, Carr SA, Annan RS, McNulty DE, Liu WS, Terrett JA, Elshourbagy NA, Bergsma DJ, Yanagisawa M. Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, 75235-9050, USA. The hypothalamus plays a central role in the integrated control of feeding and energy homeostasis. We have identified two novel neuropeptides, both derived from the same precursor by proteolytic processing, that bind and activate two closely related (previously) orphan G protein-coupled receptors. These peptides, termed orexin-A and -B, have no significant structural similarities to known fam...

Nicotine up-regulates expression of orexin and its...[Endocrinology. 2000] - PubMed Result Nicotine up-regulates expression of orexin and its receptors in rat brain. Kane JK, Parker SL, Matta SG, Fu Y, Sharp BM, Li MD. Department of Pharmacology, University of Tennessee College of Medicine, Memphis 38163, USA. Orexins are two recently discovered neuropeptides that can stimulate food intake. As the chronic use of tobacco typically leads to a reduction in body weight, it is of interest to determine whether nicotine, the major biologically active tobacco ingredient, has an effect on orexin metabolism in the brain. Using a semiquantitative RT-PCR technique, the levels of messenger RNA (mRNA) for prepro-orexin, orexin A (OX1-R) and orexin B (OX2-R) receptors were 20-50% higher in rats receiving nicotine for 14 days at the level of 2-4 mg/kg day compared with rats receiving saline solvent alone. In animals treated with nicotine at 4 mg/kg x day, the expression levels of mRNA for prepro-orexi...

Disentangling the overlap between Tourette's disor...[J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 1998] - PubMed Result : "OBJECTIVE: To identify similarities and differences in neuropsychiatric correlates in children with Tourette's syndrome (TS) and those with ADHD. METHOD: The sample consisted of children with Tourette's syndrome with ADHD (N = 79), children with Tourette's syndrome without ADHD (N = 18), children with ADHD (N = 563), psychiatrically referred children (N = 212), and healthy controls (N = 140). RESULTS: Disorders specifically associated with Tourette's syndrome were obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and simple phobias. Rates of other disorders, including other disruptive behavioral, mood, and anxiety disorders, neuropsychologic correlates, and social and school functioning were indistinguishable in children with Tourette's and ADHD. However, children with Tourette's syndrome plus ADHD had more additional comorbid disorders overall and lower psychos...

Social and emotional adjustment in children affect...[J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2000] - PubMed Result This study examined social-emotional functioning in children with Gilles de la Tourette's syndrome (TS) alone and children with TS and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). In addition, the contribution of family functioning to social competence was examined. Children with a clinical diagnosis of TS were recruited from the Yale Child Study Center TS specialty clinic. Unaffected control children were recruited through newspaper advertisements and announcements within the university and at area schools. The final sample consisted of 72 children (45 boys and 27 girls) between the ages of 8 and 14. Sixteen children met DMS-III-R criteria for TS, 33 children met criteria for TS and ADHD, and 23 children had no psychiatric diagnoses. Children with TS and ADHD evidenced more externalizing and internalizing behavior problems and poorer social adaptation than children with TS o...

Forget oil, the new global crisis is food A new crisis is emerging, a global food catastrophe that will reach further and be more crippling than anything the world has ever seen. The credit crunch and the reverberations of soaring oil prices around the world will pale in comparison to what is about to transpire, Donald Coxe, global portfolio strategist at BMO Financial Group said at the Empire Club's 14th annual investment outlook in Toronto on Thursday. "It's not a matter of if, but when," he warned investors. "It's going to hit this year hard." Mr. Coxe said the sharp rise in raw food prices in the past year will intensify in the next few years amid increased demand for meat and dairy products from the growing middle classes of countries such as China and India as well as heavy demand from the biofuels industry. "The greatest challenge to the world is not US$100 oil; it's getting enough food so that the new middle class can eat the way our mid...

wcbstv.com - Breathalyzer Tests Now The Law At N.J. High School PEQUANNOCK TOWNSHIP, N.J. (CBS) ― When it comes to keeping our teenagers safe and sober, one New Jersey school district is taking the lead by employing the use of a Breathalyzer test. And as CBS 2 HD found out, it's become such a successful deterrent, students are passing with flying colors. Keeping high school students sober can be, in some situations, a full time job. "I personally got Breathalyzed," said student Jessica Forrest. At Pequannock High School. Getting checked for alcohol is now the rule at dances and other social events. "I'm all for it because if your child isn't doing anything wrong, then you have nothing to hide," parent Barbara Fede said. So the kids will avoid the prom, and drink at a friend's house instead. Or leave early to get drunk afterwards. Or show up sober, pass the test and then drink AT the prom with bottles of whisky they sneak in- mixing it with cokes the...

Solanaceae - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The Solanaceae is a family of flowering plants, many of which are edible, while others are poisonous (some have both edible and toxic parts). The name of the family comes from the Latin Solanum "the nightshade plant", but the further etymology of that word is unclear; it has been suggested it originates from the Latin verb solari, meaning "to soothe". This would presumably refer to alleged soothing pharmacological properties of some of the psychoactive species found in the family. It is more likely, however, that the name comes from the perceived resemblance that some of the flowers bear to the sun and its rays, and in fact a species of Solanum (Solanum nigrum) is known as the sunberry. The family is also informally known as the nightshade or potato family. The family includes the Datura or Jimson weed, eggplant, mandrake, deadly nightshade or belladonna, capsicum (paprika, chile pepper), potato, tobacco, tomato, and pet...

NPR : Retune the Body with a Partial Fast For thousands of years, beginning with philosophers like Hippocrates, Socrates and Plato, fasting was recommended for health reasons. The Bible writes that Moses and Jesus fasted for 40 days for spiritual renewal. To understand how the body reacts to a lack of food, you could start by looking at what happens to newborns. Newborns can't sleep through the night because they need to eat every few hours. They don't produce enough glycogen, the body's form of stored sugar, to make energy. "Glycogen is necessary for thinking; it's necessary for muscle action; it's necessary just for the cells to live in general," says Dr. Naomi Neufeld, an endocrinologist at UCLA. Neufeld says most adults need about 2,000 calories a day. Those calories make energy, or glycogen. Neufeld says it doesn't hurt — it might even help the body — to fast or stop eating for short periods of time, say 24 hours once a week, as long as you drink...

Dopamine-related Drugs Affect Reward-seeking Behavior Drugs that adjust dopamine levels in the brain greatly affect how people react to success and failure, according to research presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 59th Annual Meeting in Boston. […] Participants were divided into three groups. One group was given levodopa, a drug that increases dopamine levels in the brain. Another took haloperidol, a dopamine receptor blocker. The third was given a placebo. Dopamine is a chemical naturally produced by the body that transmits signals between nerve cells. Researchers showed each group symbols associated with winning or losing different amounts of money. To "win" more money, participants had to learn through trial and error which symbols resulted in which outcomes. The study found people who took levodopa were 95 percent more likely to choose symbols associated with higher monetary gains than those who took haloperidol. As a result, the levodopa group won more ...

NewsDaily: Science -- Low-carb diet may stunt prostate tumors Tumor growth was stalled and survival rates lengthened in mice fed a low-carbohydrate diet, U.S. researchers found. […] The study, published in the journal Prostate, found mice fed a low-fat but high-carbohydrate diets had larger tumors. The mice on a diet high in both fat and carbohydrates had the biggest tumors and the worst survival rates. "This study showed that cutting carbohydrates may slow tumor growth, at least in mice," lead researcher Dr. Stephen Freedland, of Duke University Medical Center, in Durham, N.C., said in a statement. "If this is ultimately confirmed in human clinical trials, it has huge implications for prostate cancer therapy through something that all of us can control, our diets." The researchers hypothesized carbohydrates in the diet affect the levels of serum insulin and a related substance known as insulin-like growth factor in the body.

Hormone Links Sleep, Hunger And Metabolism While investigating how the hormone orexin might control sleep and hunger, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have discovered, to their surprise, that it activates a protein, HIF-1, long known to stimulate cancerous tumor growth. […] "HIF-1 is very big in the cancer community," Dr. Kodadek said. "So we were intrigued to find this important and very basic mechanism that is unrelated to cancer." Orexin was already known for its role in sleep and hunger. Researchers, including Dr. Masashi Yanagisawa, professor of molecular genetics at UT Southwestern, had found that lack of orexin causes the sleep disorder narcolepsy. "It's really the most straightforward system relevant to the biology of sleep you can look at," Dr. Kodadek said. "You lack orexin" You've got narcolepsy. End of story." […] Surprisingly, the activity of a component of HIF called HIF1-alpha was among the most highly act...

Scientists discover stubbornness gene : Science Technology Hamburg, Germany - People who are stubborn and never seem to learn from their mistakes may have a mutated gene that makes them bull-headed, according to scientists in Germany. About one-third of the population have this mutation, which may be nature's way of ensuring that there are always some people who will not give up trying when at first they do not succeed, say the researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, Germany. "Where would we be without those few individuals who refuse to accept defeat and who continue to soldier onwards when common sense tells the rest of mankind that there's no use trying?" one of the authors of the study, Dr Tilmann Klein, said in an interview. About 30 per cent of the population have the mutation, called the A1 mutation, said co-author Dr Markus Ullsperger.