New Hampshire Health News Digest

'Plethora' of diseases caused by low vitamin D - Telegraph : A lack of awareness about vitamin D deficiency and the 'plethora' of disease it is linked to is fuelling a rise in preventable illnesses among children, experts at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health have said. Despite low cost supplements being widely available health care professionals and parents do not know the importance of taking them, they said. Doctors have said the poor summer weather will contribute to an epidemic of vitamin D deficiency as the lack of sunshine will have meant depleted stores of the vitamin which the body can make from sunlight. The College has launched a campaign to ensure all pregnant women, those breastfeeding, children aged between six months and five years and the elderly aged over 65 take vitamin D supplements in accordance with guidelines. It comes as figures show that cases of rickets, poor bone growth causing pain and bowed legs, have risen fourfold i...

Diabetes and heart health link | Diabetes Federation of Ireland : It is known that people with poorly controlled diabetes are at higher risk for heart failure but new data from the UK shows that they may have additional causes of heart disease, may develop heart disease younger and have more severe heart disease.  But poor recording practices in Ireland means that the HSE cannot provide detailed information about the links between hearth health and diabetes.    “Medical data about the health of the Irish population is especially ill suited to planning of health services.  If we in Diabetes Ireland or Department of Health wanted to examine the link between diabetes and heart disease we can’t depend on extracting robust figures from the HSE’s Hospital In-Patient Enquiry (HIPE) system nor is there a diabetes register” says Dr. Anna Clarke, Health Promotion and Research Manager with Diabetes Ireland.  [...] Diabetes Ireland’s advice to people with ...

Race, daytime sleepiness, and vitamin D related in new study - Birmingham science news | Examiner.com Race, the occurrence of daytime sleepiness , and vitamin D have been definitively connected by a new study conducted David McCarty , MD at the American Academy of Sleep Medicine , and published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine on December 14, 2012. This is the first study to demonstrate a significant relationship between sleepiness and vitamin D . Race is a factor because previous research has shown that increased skin pigmentation is an established risk factor for low vitamin D. “Results show that in patients with normal vitamin D levels, progressively higher levels of daytime sleepiness were correlated inversely with progressively lower levels of vitamin D. Among patients with vitamin D deficiency, sleepiness and vitamin D levels were associated only among black patients. Surprisingly, this correlation was observed in a direct relationship, with higher vitamin D...

Teenage Boys Who Are Obese Have Up To 50 Percent Less Testosterone Than Lean Boys : A study by the University at Buffalo shows for the first time that obese males ages 14 to 20 have up to 50 percent less total testosterone than do normal males of the same age, significantly increasing their potential to be impotent and infertile as adults.

High carbohydrate diet may up colon cancer risk : Washington: Colon cancer survivors whose diet is heavy in complex sugars and carbohydrate-rich foods are far more likely to have a recurrence of the disease than are patients who eat a better balance of foods, a new study by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute researchers revealed.

The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living: An Expert Guide to Making the Life-Saving Benefits of Carbohydrate Restriction Sustainable and Enjoyable  [Kindle Edition] Stephen Phinney (Author), Jeff Volek (Author) Carbohydrate restricted diets are commonly practiced but seldom taught. As a result, doctors, dietitians, nutritionists, and nurses may have strong opinions about low carbohydrate dieting, but in many if not most cases, these views are not grounded in science. Now, whether you are a curious healthcare professional or just a connoisseur of diet information, two New York Times best-selling authors provide you with the definitive resource for low carbohydrate living. Doctors Volek and Phinney share over 50 years of clinical experience using low carbohydrate diets, and together they have published more than 200 research papers and chapters on the topic. Particularly in the last decade, much has been learned about the risks associated with insulin resistance (includin...

Medically supervised water-only ... [J Manipulative Physiol Ther. 2001] - PubMed - NCBI The treatment program consisted of a short prefasting period (approximately 2 to 3 days on average) during which food consumption was limited to fruits and vegetables, followed by medically supervised water-only fasting (approximately 10 to 11 days on average) and a refeeding period (approximately 6 to 7 days on average) introducing a low-fat, low-sodium, vegan diet. Almost 90% of the subjects achieved blood pressure less than 140/90 mm Hg by the end of the treatment program. The average reduction in blood pressure was 37/13 mm Hg, with the greatest decrease being observed for subjects with the most severe hypertension. Patients with stage 3 hypertension (those with systolic blood pressure greater than 180 mg Hg, diastolic blood pressure greater than 110 mg Hg, or both) had an average reduction of 60/17 mm Hg at the conclusion of treatment. All of the subjects who were taking antihypertensive me...

Low-salt diet increases insulin resistance in healthy subjects Low-salt diet was significantly associated with higher homeostasis model assessment index independent of age, sex, blood pressure, body mass index, serum sodium and potassium, serum angiotensin II, plasma renin activity, serum and urine aldosterone, and urine epinephrine and norepinephrine. Low-salt diet is associated with an increase in IR. The impact of our findings on the pathogenesis of diabetes and cardiovascular disease needs further investigation.

Is Alzheimer's Type 3 Diabetes? - NYTimes.com : Just in case you need another reason to cut back on junk food, it now turns out that Alzheimer’s could well be a form of diet-induced diabetes. That’s the bad news. The good news is that laying off soda, doughnuts, processed meats and fries could allow you to keep your mind intact until your body fails you. We used to think there were two types of diabetes: the type you’re born with (Type 1) and the type you “get.” That’s called Type 2, and was called “adult onset” until it started ravaging kids. Type 2 is brought about by a combination of factors, including overeating, American-style. [...] Diabetes causes complications too numerous to mention, but they include heart disease, which remains our No. 1 killer . And when the cells in your brain become insulin-resistant, you start to lose memory and become disoriented. You even might lose aspects of your personality. In short, it appears, you develop Alzheimer’s. A neuropathol...

More Data Suggests Fitness Matters More Than Weight - NYTimes.com A few years ago, Mercedes Carnethon, a diabetes researcher at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University, found herself pondering a conundrum. Obesity is the primary risk factor for Type 2 diabetes, yet sizable numbers of normal-weight people also develop the disease. Why? Enlarge This Image Ken Orvidas In research conducted to answer that question, Dr. Carnethon discovered something even more puzzling: Diabetes patients of normal weight are twice as likely to die as those who are overweight or obese. That finding makes diabetes the latest example of a medical phenomenon that mystifies scientists. They call it the obesity paradox. In study after study, overweight and moderately obese patients with certain chronic diseases often live longer and fare better than normal-weight patients with the same ailments. The accumulation of evidence is inspiring some experts to re-examine long-held assumptions ...

Older Overweight Children Consume Fewer Calories Than Their Healthy Weight Peers Newswise — CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – A new study by University of North Carolina School of Medicine pediatrics researchers finds a surprising difference in the eating habits of overweight children between ages 9 and 17 years compared to those younger than 9. Younger children who are overweight or obese consume more calories per day than their healthy weight peers. But among older overweight children the pattern is reversed: They actually consume fewer calories per day than their healthy weight peers.

Death of PETA Spokesman | The Whole Soy Story with The Naughty Nutritionist But can meat and animal products actually protect us from heart disease? A naughty proposition to be sure, given the preponderance of the low-fat, low cholesterol myth. But the answer is yes, because of meat’s protective effect on homocysteine levels. Homocysteine first came on the radar in 1969 when Kilmer S. McCully, MD, published the article “Vascular pathology of homocysteinemia: implications for the pathogenesis of arteriosclerosis” in the American Journal of Pathology (56, 111-128). Over the past four decades, homocysteine has not only been studied by Dr. McCully — known as “The Father of the Homocysteine Theory of Heart Disease” — but by many other researchers. Homocysteinemia is an acquired metabolic abnormality, and Dr. McCully initially proposed it could be prevented easily and inexpensively by taking three B vitamins — B6, B12 and folate. Unfortunately, that solution proved simplistic....

Hypertension Heresy: Are We Overtreating High Blood Pressure? - The People's Pharmacy Until August 15, 2012, if you asked almost any American physician whether someone with a blood pressure reading of 145/95 should be treated with medication, the answer would have been a resounding yes! Medical students and residents are taught that hypertension increases the risk of heart attacks, strokes and early death. Physicians have come to believe that aggressive treatment of patients with high blood pressure will lead to better outcomes. Everything changed on August 15, 2012, when the Cochrane Collaboration published its analysis: "Benefits of antihypertensive drugs for mild hypertension are unclear." The Cochrane Collaboration represents the highest level of scientific scrutiny of available studies. The experts who analyze the data are independent and objective and have come to be regarded as the ultimate authority on the medical interventions they evaluate. As far as we can ...

The #1 Cause of Obesity: Insulin | DietDoctor.com Oh my god. This 3rd episode of “The Skinny on Obesity” may be the best short video on obesity I’ve seen. Not because dr Robert Lustig tells me something I didn’t already know, but because he explains it so crystal clear that a kid will understand. Do you want people to understand the reason behind perhaps 90 percent of obesity epidemic? Spread this video. It needs to be seen by as many people as possible. More Part 1 Part 2 – Sickeningly Sweet Trailer for part 4 – Sugar, A Sweet Addiction The bottom line is that the cause of garden-variety obesity is relatively simple:  Excess (processed) carbs increases insulin which increases fat storage . Some bloggers on the internet have objections to this, but that does not change the facts .

[Evaluation of biological and clinical ... [Rocz Panstw Zakl Hig. 2012] - PubMed - NCBI [Evaluation of biological and clinical potential of paleolithic diet]. [Article in Polish] Kowalski LM, Bujko J. Source Wydział Nauk o Zywieniu Człowieka i Konsumpcji Szkoła Główna Gospodarstwa Wiejskiego, Warszawa. lukasz_kowalski@sggw.pl Abstract Accumulating evidences suggest that foods that were regularly consumed during the human primates and evolution, in particular during the Paleolithic era (2.6-0.01 x 10(6) years ago), may be optimal for the prevention and treatment of some chronic diseases. It has been postulated that fundamental changes in the diet and other lifestyle conditions that occurred after the Neolithic Revolution, and more recently with the beginning of the Industrial Revolution are too recent taking into account the evolutionary time scale for the human genome to have completely adjust. In contemporary Western populations at least 70% of daily energy intake is provide...

Winning the Battle of the Bulge: We're a Scrimmage Closer to Victory | Saint Louis University April 27, 2004 Winning the Battle of the Bulge: We're a Scrimmage Closer to Victory "We feel that we now understand what part of the system is broken -- why leptin isn't working." -- William A. Banks, M.D. ST. LOUIS -- Saint Louis University researchers believe they've won a major skirmish in the battle of the bulge, and their findings are published in the May issue of Diabetes. "We figured out how obesity occurs," says William A. Banks, M.D., professor of geriatrics in the department of internal medicine and professor of pharmacological and physiological science at Saint Louis University School of Medicine. "The next step is coming up with the solution." The scientists used mice to look at how leptin, a hormone secreted by fat cells that tells us to stop eating, gets into the brain. They found that in obese mice, high triglycerides, a t...

Decreased absorption of calcium, magnesium, zinc and ... [J Nutr. 1976] - PubMed - NCBI J Nutr. 1976 Apr;106(4):493-503. Decreased absorption of calcium, magnesium, zinc and phosphorus by humans due to increased fiber and phosphorus consumption as wheat bread. Reinhold JG, Faradji B, Abadi P, Ismail-Beigi F. Abstract During a 20 day period of high fiber consumption in the form of bread made partly from wheaten wholemeal, two men developed negative balances of calcium, magnesium, zinc and phosphorus due to increased fecal excretion of each element. The fecal losses correlated closely with fecal dry matter and phosphorus. Fecal dry matter, in turn, was directly proportional to fecal fiber excretion. Balances of nitrogen remained positive. Mineral elements were well-utilized by the same subjects during a 20-day period of white bread consumption. Whole wheat bread causes mineral deficiencies? But the "Government Plate" tells me whole wheat foods are a health food? I'...

Intracellular magnesium and insulin resistance. [Magnes Res. 2004] - PubMed - NCBI Intracellular magnesium and insulin resistance. Takaya J, Higashino H, Kobayashi Y. Source Department of Pediatrics, Kansai Medical University, Moriguchi, Osaka 570-8506, Japan. takaya@takii.kmu.ac.jp Abstract Magnesium, the second most abundant intracellular divalent cation, is a cofactor of many enzymes involved in glucose metabolism. Magnesium has an important role in insulin action, and insulin stimulates magnesium uptake in insulin-sensitive tissues. Impaired biological responses to insulin is referred to as insulin resistance. This review was designed to reach a better understanding of the mechanism involved in the correlation between magnesium and insulin resistance. Intracellular magnesium concentration is low in type 2 diabetes mellitus and in hypertensive patients. In patients with type 2 diabetes an inverse association exists between the plasma magnesium and insulin resistance due to ...

Carbohydrate nutrition is associated with changes in the retinal vascular structure and branching pattern in children Objectives: We aimed to assess the associations between intakes of high-GI and high–glycemic load (high-GL) diets, carbohydrate, and the main carbohydrate-containing food groups and retinal microvascular changes in preadolescents. Design: Students aged 12 y (n = 2353) from a random cluster sample of 21 schools underwent detailed eye examinations. Retinal vessel caliber and fractal dimension were measured from digital retinal images. A validated semiquantitative food-frequency questionnaire was administered. Results: After multivariable adjustment, children who consumed soft drinks once or more per day had significantly narrower mean retinal arterioles (∼1.9 μm) than did those who never or rarely consumed soft drinks (P-trend = 0.03). When the highest to lowest tertiles of carbohydrate consumption were compared, girls had significantly narrower retinal arterioles (...

The ketogenic diet as a treatment parad - PubMed Mobile : The ketogenic diet as a treatment paradigm for diverse neurological disorders. Stafstrom CE, et al. Show all Journal Front Pharmacol. 2012;3:59. Epub 2012 Apr 9. Affiliation Department of Neurology, University of Wisconsin Madison, WI, USA. Abstract Dietary and metabolic therapies have been attempted in a wide variety of neurological diseases, including epilepsy, headache, neurotrauma, Alzheimer disease, Parkinson disease, sleep disorders, brain cancer, autism, pain, and multiple sclerosis. The impetus for using various diets to treat - or at least ameliorate symptoms of - these disorders stems from both a lack of effectiveness of pharmacological therapies, and also the intrinsic appeal of implementing a more "natural" treatment. The enormous spectrum of pathophysiological mechanisms underlying the aforementioned diseases would suggest a degree of complexity that cannot be impacted universally by any single ...

Beneficial effects of UV radiation other than via vitamin D production This is an open access article. Volume 4, Issue 2 April/May 2012 Keywords: heliotherapy, nitric oxide, photoprotection, phototherapy, tanning, ultraviolet radiation, vitamin D synthesis Authors: Asta Juzeniene and Johan Moan View affiliations Most of the positive effects of solar radiation are mediated via UV B (UVB) induced production of vitamin D in skin. However, several other pathways may exist for the action of UV (UV) radiation on humans as focused on in this review. One is induction of cosmetic tanning (immediate pigment darkening, persistent pigment darkening and delayed tanning). UVB-induced, delayed tanning (increases melanin in skin after several days), acts as a sunscreen. Several human skin diseases, like psoriasis, vitiligo, actopic dermatitis and localized scleroderma, can be treated with solar radiation (heliotherapy) or artificial UV radiation (phototherapy). UV exposure can suppress the...

Health Care Spending On Unnecessary Tests Discouraged By Major Medical Groups Jeffrey Young Health Care Spending On Unnecessary Tests Discouraged By Major Medical Groups WASHINGTON -- With health care costs growing out of control, medical societies made up of family physicians, cardiologists and other specialists have a message for America's doctors: Don't be so quick to order expensive procedures like CT scans and X-rays. Unnecessary tests and treatments pad the nation's health care bill and expose patients to needless risks, the groups say. On Wednesday, nine doctors' organizations -- including the American College of Physicians, the American Academy of Family Physicians and the American College of Cardiology -- along with business and consumer groups are launching an effort to reduce unnecessary medical tests and treatments, thereby saving costs and cutting back on patients' exposure to stressful and sometimes dangerous procedures. The "Choosing Wi...

Babies treated in the womb for obesity: Overweight mothers-to-be get diabetes pill to cut the risk of having a fat child NHS trial has been started in attempt to halt obesity epidemic If it is a success, treatment could be widespread in five years But there is unease over problem that could be solved by exercise and diet By Julie-anne Barnes and Fiona Macrae Babies are being medicated in the womb in an attempt to prevent them from being born obese. In a world first, dangerously overweight mothers-to-be in four British cities have started taking a diabetes drug during their pregnancy. The doctors behind the controversial NHS trial say that obesity among pregnant women is reaching epidemic proportions and they need to act now to protect the health of tomorrow's children. Overweight mothers-to-be are being allowed to take diabetes drugs to treat their unborn children in the womb to prevent them being born obese Overweight mothers-to-be are being allowed to take diabetes d...

The link between fast food and depression has been confirmed According to a recent study headed by scientists from the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and the University of Granada, eating commercial baked goods (fairy cakes, croissants, doughnuts, etc.) and fast food (hamburgers, hotdogs and pizza) is linked to depression. Published in the Public Health Nutrition journal, the results reveal that consumers of fast food, compared to those who eat little or none, are 51% more likely to develop depression. Furthermore, a dose-response relationship was observed. In other words this means that "the more fast food you consume, the greater the risk of depression," explains Almudena Sánchez-Villegas, lead author of the study, to SINC. The study demonstrates that those participants who eat the most fast food and commercial baked goods are more likely to be single, less active and have poor dietary habits, which include eating less fruit, nuts, fish, vegetables and olive oil. ...

Why Fast? Part 1 – Weight Loss Mark's Daily Apple So, yes: it works. But does fasting work solely through caloric restriction, or is it doing something special?http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif That’s the real question. There’s no question that fasting causes weight loss through caloric restriction. Obviously, when you don’t eat anything, your body turns to its own stored energy reserves, reserves that take up physical space and have mass. Depletion of those energy stores reduces mass and thus weight. Total and absolute caloric restriction. That’s elementary stuff and the studies from the 1960s show that. To dig a bit deeper, let’s look at how weight loss occurs during a fast. I’ll stick to research involving humans only (sorry, rodent personal trainers). Secretion of growth hormone, one of the premier fat burning hormones, increases during a fast. In a five-day fasting protocol, men experienced increased GH secretion on day one and day five (the only two days where GH was measu...

Intense Sweetness Surpasses Cocaine Reward Magalie Lenoir,# Fuschia Serre,# Lauriane Cantin, and Serge H. Ahmed* Conclusions Our findings clearly demonstrate that intense sweetness can surpass cocaine reward, http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifeven in drug-sensitized and -addicted individuals. We speculate that the addictive potential of intense sweetness results from an inborn hypersensitivity to sweet tastants. In most mammals, including rats and humans, sweet receptors evolved in ancestral environments poor in sugars and are thus not adapted to high concentrations of sweet tastants. The supranormal stimulation of these receptors by sugar-rich diets, such as those now widely available in modern societies, would generate a supranormal reward signal in the brain, with the potential to override self-control mechanisms and thus to lead to addiction.

Hot pepper compound could help hearts SAN DIEGO, March 27, 2012 — The food that inspires wariness is on course for inspiring even more wonder from a medical standpoint as scientists today reported the latest evidence that chili peppers are a heart-healthy food with potential to protect against the No. 1 cause of death in the developed world. The rephttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifort was part of the 243rd National Meeting and Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world's largest scientific society, being held here this week. The study focused on capsaicin and its fiery-hot relatives, a piquant family of substances termed "capsaicinoids." The stuff that gives cayennes, jalapenos, habaneros and other chili peppers their heat, capsaicin already has an established role in medicine in rub-on-the-skin creams to treat arthritis and certain forms of pain. Past research suggested that spicing food with chilies can lower blood pressure in people with that condi...

The Case for Sleep Medicine By GAYLE GREENE [...]http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif The risks of sleeping pills are real, as I well know, having taken them for three decades. But so are the risks of chronic sleep loss. As the pioneering sleep scientist William Dement has argued, sleep is “the most important predictor of how long you will live — perhaps more important than smoking, exercise or high blood pressure.” Sleep deprivation ratchets up the stress system, leaving you more susceptible to even relatively mild sources of strain. When University of Chicago researchers led by Eve Van Cauter deprived young, healthy people of a few hours of sleep for six nights, they produced in them the hormonal profiles of much older people: higher levels of stress hormones and lower levels of growth hormone (essential to cell repair). The study’s participants developed hormonal imbalances conducive to weight gain and levels of insulin resistance like those of people with diabetes. Loss of sleep al...

Protein intake, calcium balance and health consequences Abstract High-protein (HP) diets exert a hypercalciuric effect at constant levels of calcium intake, even though the effect may depend on the nature of the dietary protein. Lower urinary pH is also consistently observed for subjects consuming HP diets. The combination of these two effects was suspected to be associated with a dietary environment favorable for demineralization of the skeleton. However, increased calcium excretion due to HP diet does not seem to be linked to impaired calcium balance. In contrast, some data indicate that HP intakes induce an increase of intestinal calcium absorption. Moreover, no clinical data support the hypothesis of a detrimental effect of HP diet on bone health, except in a context of inadequate calcium supply. In addition, HP intake promotes bone growth and retards bone loss and low-protein diet is associated with higher risk of hip fractures. The increase of acid and calcium excretion due to HP...

The George Washington University's Brian Richmond and team of researchers say chimps use 2 legs to reach and carry scarce resources http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif WASHINGTON—Most of us walk and carry items in our hands every day. These are seemingly simple activities that the majority of us don't question. But an international team of researchers, including Brian Richmond at the George Washington University, have discovered that human bipedalism, or walking upright, may have originated millions of years ago as an adaptation to carrying scarce, high-quality resources. This latest research was published in this month's "Current Biology." The team of researchers from the U.S., England, Japan and Portugal investigated the behavior of modern-day chimpanzees as they competed for food resources, in an effort to understand what ecological settings would lead a large ape - one that resembles the 6 million-year old ancestor we shared in common with living chimpanzee...

Brain insulin resistance contributes to cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease PHILADELPHIA – Insulin resistance in the brain precedes and contributes to cognitive decline above and beyond other known causes of Alzheimer's disease, according to a http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifnew study by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Insulin is an important hormone in many bodily functions, including the health of brain cells. The team identified extensive abnormalities in the activity of two major signaling pathways for insulin and insulin-like growth factor in non-diabetic people with Alzheimer's disease. These pathways could be targeted with new or existing medicines to potentially help resensitize the brain to insulin and possibly slow down or even improve cognitive decline. This is the first study to directly demonstrate that insulin resistance occurs in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease. The study is now on...

BPA's Diabetes Link Strengthened by New Study Growing evidence suggests that even minuscule amounts of BPA (used in everything from pesticides to water bottles) can scramble hormone signals, and trick fat cells into taking in more fat or mislead the pancreas into secreting excess insulin.... Advertisement Among the most ubiquitous and scrutinized of these so-called endocrine disruptors is bisphenol, better known as BPA. The chemical is a common ingredient in plastics and food-can linings. [...] Nadal's latest research, finds that the chemical triggers the release of almost double the insulin actually needed to break down food. High insulin levels can desensitize the body to the hormone over time, which in some people may then lead to weight gain and Type 2 diabetes. To achieve this feat, BPA fools a receptor into thinking it is the natural hormone estrogen, an insulin regulator. [...] "That pretty much nails it," Bruce Blumberg of the University of California, Irvine,...

Losing Belly Fat, Whether From a Low-Carb or a Low-Fat Diet, Helps Improve Blood Vessel Function Released: 3/12/2012 11:45 PM EDT Embargo expired: 3/13/2012 8:00 PM EDT Source: Johns Hopkins Medicine Newswise — Overweight people who shed pounds, especially belly fat, can improve the function of their blood vessels no matter whether they are on a low-carb or a low-fat diet, according to a study being presented by Johns Hopkins researchers at an American Heart Association scientific meeting in San Diego on March 13 that is focused on cardiovascular disease prevention. In the six-month weight-loss study, Hopkins researchers found that the more belly fat the participants lost, the better their arteries were able to expand when needed, allowing more blood to flow more freely. The researchers also found that participants in the study who were on a low-carb diet lost about ten pounds more, on average, than those who were on a low-fat diet. Being overweight increases the risk of cardiovascular...

Exercise changes your DNA You might think that the DNA you inherited is one thing that you absolutely can't do anything about, but in one sense you'd be wrong. Researchers reporting in the Marchttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifh issue of Cell Metabolism, a Cell Press publication, have found that when healthy but inactive men and women exercise for a matter of minutes, it produces a rather immediate change to their DNA. Perhaps even more tantalizing, the study suggests that the caffeine in your morning coffee might also influence muscle in essentially the same way. The underlying genetic code in human muscle isn't changed with exercise, but the DNA molecules within those muscles are chemically and structurally altered in very important ways. Those modifications to the DNA at precise locations appear to be early events in the genetic reprogramming of muscle for strength and, ultimately, in the structural and metabolic benefits of exercise. "Our muscles are really plast...

White rice link seen with Type 2 diabetes, says study Health researchers said on Thursday they had found a troubling link between higher http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifconsumption of rice and Type 2 diabetes, a disease that in some countries is becoming an epidemic. Further work is need to probe the apparent association and diets that are notoriously high in sugar and fats should remain on the no-go list, they cautioned. "What we've found is white rice is likely to increase the risk of Type 2 diabetes, especially at high consumption levels such as in Asian populations," Qi Sun of the Harvard School of Public Health told AFP. [...] In the British Medical Journal (BMJ), Sun's team said the link emerged from an analysis of four previously published studies, carried out in China, Japan, Australia and the United States. These studies followed 350,000 people over a timescale from four to 22 years. More than 13,000 people developed Type 2 diabetes. In the studies carrie...

Acid trip could help treat alcoholism, report suggests By Linda Thrasybule MyHealthNewsDaily MSNBC The mind-altering drug LSD could be used to treat alcoholism, a new report says. LSD prevented alcoholics from relapsing during treatment, according to researchers in Norway who analyzed six previous studies of alcoholism treatment. The studies involved 536 heavy drinkers in all, two-thirds of whom were given LSD while others received comparison treatments. Fifty-nine percent of the LSD users avoided relapsing into alcohol abuse, compared with 38 percent of the others, the new study noted. Advertise | AdChoices "LSD worked in an entirely different way than any current psychiatric drugs," said study researcher Teri Krebs of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. "Many patients said they had gained a new appreciation for their alcohol problem and new motivation to address it." The study appeared Thursday (Mar. 8) in the Journal of Psychopharmacology.

Too Often, Doctors Overlook Narcolepsy By JANE E. BRODY, Columnist http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif In someone without a sleep disorder, it typically takes about 12 minutes to fall asleep; the rapid eye movement stage of sleep, so-called dream sleep, occurs after more than an hour of non-R.E.M. sleep. Clea’s test showed that she fell asleep almost immediately and quickly lapsed into R.E.M. sleep. In normal R.E.M. sleep, muscles become paralyzed in a sense to prevent people from acting out their dreams. In someone with narcolepsy, the R.E.M. stage is often accompanied by muscle movements that result in restlessness and frequent awakenings. The disordered nights are reflected in excessive daytime sleepiness, which in turn can cause mental fogginess, difficulty concentrating, lack of energy, depression, extreme exhaustion and sometimes memory lapses. After their unavoidable naps, people with narcolepsy are only briefly refreshed. Within an hour or two, the uncontrollable sleepiness re...

Scientists explain marijuana short-term memory loss By Charles Cooper (CNET) -- Scientists have long been puzzled to explain short-term memory loss that results from marijuana smoking. But while an open-and-shut explanation still remains elusive, a couple of neuroscientists may be getting close. Writing in the journal Cell, Xia Zhang of the University of Ottawa Institute of Mental Health Research, and Giovanni Marsicano of the University of Bordeaux, France, came up with a working explanation by focusing on a kind of signalling mechanism called astrocytes that previously had only been considered important for protecting neurons. http://en.wikipedia.orghttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif/wiki/Marinol#Dronabinol Dronabinol Dronabinol is the International Nonproprietary Name (INN) for a pure isomer of THC, (–)-trans-Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol, which is the main isomer in cannabis.[81] It is sold as Marinol (a registered trademark of Solvay Pharmaceuticals). Dronabinol is also marketed, ...

March 9, 2012, 6:47 pm Will There Be “Pink Slime” in Your Child’s School Lunch? By KJ DELL'ANTONIA “Pink Slime:” it’s tasty (well, probably not), nutritious (oops, not that either) and cheap (got that right) and it’s probably found in a hamburger near you. Most particularly, in the hamburger or cheeseburger that almost certainly graced the lunch menu at your child’s school this month. “Pink Slime” is the appetizing term for a ground-up amalgam of beef scraps, cow connective tissues, and other beef trimmings, once useful only for dog food and cooking oil, that are treated with ammonia to kill pathogens and then added to stretch the use of “traditional” ground beef (what most people once called simply “ground beef”). [..] As The Times described in 2009, faced with a glut of fat, connective tissue and other once largely unsaleable remnants, the company’s founder developed a process that turned those slaughterhouse trimmings, which were more prone to contamination with E. coli an...

Three Hidden Ways Wheat Makes You Fat Gluten-free is hot these days. There are books and websites, restaurants with gluten free menus, and grocery stores with hundreds of new gluten-free food products on the shelf. Is this a fad, or a reflection of response to a real problem? Yes, gluten is a real problem. But the problem is not just gluten. In fact, there are three major hidden reasons that wheat products, not just gluten (along with sugar in all its forms) is a major contributor to obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, dementia, depression and so many other modern ills. This is why there are now 30 percent more obese than undernourished in the world, and why chronic lifestyle and dietary driven disease kills more than twice as many people as infectious disease globally. These non-communicable, chronic diseases will cost our global economy $47 trillion over the next 20 years. Sadly, this tsunami of chronic illness is increasingly caused by eating our beloved diet staple, bread, th...