Tea and Exercise May Affect Depression in Breast Cancer Patients

Breast cancer patients who exercise and drink tea on a regular basis may be less likely to suffer from depression than other patients, according to a new study led by Xiao Ou Shu, M.D., Ph.D., professor of Medicine, Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center. Xiaoli Chen, M.D., a post-doctoral fellow, was first author of the study published in the January issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.The study, conducted in collaboration with investigators from the Shanghai Institute of Preventive Medicine, examined 1,399 women enrolled in the Shanghai Breast Cancer Survival Study in China. Each woman was interviewed about her exercise and diet habits six months following a breast cancer diagnosis. The women were interviewed again approximately 18 months after diagnosis and they also reported on their depressive...

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alli Lowers Blood Pressure, Weight, Low carb Diet Even Better

A new review of existing research confirms that a weight-loss drug raises blood pressure, posing a risk to obese patients who hope to reduce hypertension by shedding pounds.Many doctors assume that patients automatically lower their blood pressure when they become thinner, but that is not necessarily the case when they use drugs to lose weight, said review lead author Dr. Andrea Siebenhofer.In the big picture, "anti-obesity drugs are no wonder pills and should be prescribed only if patients beg doctors for some tablets which help them to lose some weight," said Siebenhofer, a researcher at the Medical University of Graz in Austria.The review authors examined research regarding three weight-loss drugs — orlistat, sibutramine and rimonabant. They looked for studies that lasted at least six months...

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alli Proven to Reduce Visceral Fat, a Dangerous Fat Linked to Many Life-Threatening Diseases

New studies show that overweight and obese people using alli® (orlistat 60 mg) with a reduced calorie, lower-fat diet can significantly reduce weight, visceral fat, and waist circumference and therefore may reduce their risk of type 2 diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and stroke.1,2 The studies were presented at the 1st International Congress on Abdominal Obesity in Hong Kong earlier today.alli is the only FDA-approved OTC weight loss aid that is clinically proven to boost weight loss by 50 percent and significantly reduce excess visceral fat.3 Working in the digestive tract, alli prevents about 25 percent of the fat that a person eats from being absorbed.3Visceral fat is a dangerous type of fat that surrounds the vital organs in the abdomen and when present in excess disrupts the normal...

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It's Better to Eat a Low Carb Meal After Exercise

Many of the health benefits of aerobic exercise are due to the most recent exercise session (rather than weeks, months and even years of exercise training), and the nature of these benefits can be greatly affected by the food we eat afterwards, according to a study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology.“Differences in what you eat after exercise produce different effects on the body’s metabolism,” said the study’s senior author, Jeffrey F. Horowitz of the University of Michigan. This study follows up on several previous studies that demonstrate that many health benefits of exercise are transient: one exercise session produces benefits to the body that taper off, generally within hours or a few days.“Many of the improvements in metabolic health associated with exercise stem largely...

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Women's Health Alert: Fighting Heart Disease in Your 40s

The risk for heart-related death is increasing in young adults ages 35 to 54, and the numbers are even more alarming for younger women. It is the number-one cause of death for both men and women in the United States, yet every year since 1984 more women have died of cardiovascular health problems than men, according to the American Heart Association."Although there has been a general decline in deaths caused by heart disease, the last decade has seen a steady increase among younger women ages 35 to 44. Women account for more than 50 percent of deaths due to heart disease," says Dr. Holly Andersen, the director of education and outreach for the Ronald O. Perelman Heart Institute at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center.Dr. Andersen offers the following advice to women the...

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Magnesium enhances learning and memory

New research finds that an increase in brain magnesium improves learning and memory in young and old rats. The study, published by Cell Press in the January 28th issue of the journal Neuron, suggests that increasing magnesium intake may be a valid strategy to enhance cognitive abilities and supports speculation that inadequate levels of magnesium impair cognitive function, leading to faster deterioration of memory in aging humans.Diet can have a significant impact on cognitive capacity. Identification of dietary factors which have a positive influence on synapses, the sites of communication between neurons, might help to enhance learning and memory and prevent their decline with age and disease. Professor Guosong Liu, Director of the Center for Learning and Memory at Tsinghua University in...

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Ginkgo herbal medicines may increase seizures in people with epilepsy

Restrictions should be placed on the use of Ginkgo biloba (G. biloba) — a top-selling herbal remedy — because of growing scientific evidence that Ginkgo may increase the risk of seizures in people with epilepsy and could reduce the effectiveness of anti-seizure drugs, a new report concludes. The article appears in ACS' monthly Journal of Natural Products. It also suggests that Ginkgo may have harmful effects in other people after eating raw or roasted Ginkgo seed or drinking tea prepared from Ginkgo leaves.Eckhard Leistner and Christel Drewke note that consumers use pills, teas, and other products prepared from leaves of the Ginkgo tree to treat...

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Vitamin D Supplements Could Fight Crohn's Disease; Canadian Research Team Publishes Findings in Journal of Biological Chemistry

A new study has found that Vitamin D, readily available in supplements or cod liver oil, can counter the effects of Crohn's disease. John White, an endocrinologist at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, led a team of scientists from McGill University and the Universite de Montreal who present their findings about the inflammatory bowel disease in the latest Journal of Biological Chemistry. "Our data suggests, for the first time, that Vitamin D deficiency can contribute to Crohn's disease," says Dr. White, a professor in McGill's Department of Physiology, noting that people from northern countries, which receive less sunlight that is necessary for the fabrication of Vitamin D by the human body, are particularly vulnerable to Crohn's disease. Vitamin D,...

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

Antioxidants increasingly have been praised for their benefits against disease and aging, but recent studies at Kansas State University show that they also can cause harm.Researchers in K-State's Cardiorespiratory Exercise Laboratory have been studying how to improve oxygen delivery to the skeletal muscle during physical activity by using antioxidants, which are nutrients in foods that can prevent or slow the oxidative damage to the body. Their findings show that sometimes antioxidants can impair muscle function."Antioxidant is one of those buzz words right now," said Steven Copp, a doctoral student in anatomy and physiology from Manhattan and a researcher in the lab. "Walking around grocery stores you see things advertised that are loaded with antioxidants. I think what a lot of people don't...

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Leafy greens can prevent the ill-effects of toxins in foods like peanut butter

Not only are the vitamins and minerals good for you, but eating greens could also save your life, according to a recent study invoving scientists from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL).Photo-illustration depicts the relationship between aflatoxin B1, and healthy greens.LLNL researchers Graham Bench and Ken Turteltaub found that giving someone a small dose of chlorophyll (Chla) or chlorophyllin (CHL) — found in green leafy vegetables such as spinach, broccoli and kale — could reverse the effects of aflatoxin poisoning.Aflatoxin is a potent, naturally occurring carcinogenic mycotoxin that is associated with the growth of two types of...

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Low-carb diet effective at lowering blood pressure

In a head-to-head comparison, two popular weight loss methods proved equally effective at helping participants lose significant amounts of weight. But, in a surprising twist, a low-carbohydrate diet proved better at lowering blood pressure than the weight-loss drug orlistat, according to researchers at Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Duke University Medical Center.The findings send an important message to hypertensive people trying to lose weight, says William S. Yancy, Jr., MD, lead author of the study in the Jan. 25 Archives of Internal Medicine, and an associate professor of medicine at Duke. "If people have high blood pressure and a weight problem, a low-carbohydrate diet might be a better option than a weight loss medication."Yancy added, "It's important to know you can try a diet...

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Midlife Exercise Associated With Better Health in Later Years

Among women who survive to age 70 or older, those who regularly participated in physical activity during middle age appear more likely to be in better overall health. Qi Sun, M.D., Sc.D., of the Harvard School of Public Health, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, and colleagues analyzed data from 13,535 participants in the Nurses' Health Study.The women reported their physical activity levels in 1986, at an average age of 60. Among those who had survived to age 70 or older as of 1995 to 2001, those who had higher levels of physical activity at the beginning of the study were less likely to have chronic diseases, heart surgery or any physical, cognitive or mental impairments."Since the American population is aging rapidly and nearly a quarter of Americans do not...

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Exercise Program Associated With Denser Bones, Lower Fall Risk in Older Women

Women age 65 or older assigned to an exercise program for 18 months appeared to have denser bones and a reduced risk of falls, but not a reduced cardiovascular disease risk, compared with women in a control group. Wolfgang Kemmler, Ph.D., and colleagues at Freidrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany, studied a total of 246 older women. Half of the women exercised four days per week with special emphasis on intensity while the other half participated in a wellness program that focused on well-being.Among the 227 women who completed the study, the 115 who exercised had higher bone density in their spine and hip, and also had a 66 percent reduced rate of falls. Fractures due to falls were twice as common in the controls vs. the exercise group (12 vs. six). However,...

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Physical Activity = Reduced Cognitive Impairment In Elderly Population

Moderate or high physical activity appears to be associated with a lower the risk of developing cognitive impairment in older adults after a two-year period. Thorleif Etgen, M.D., of Technische Universität München, Munich, and Klinikum Traunstein, Germany, and colleagues examined physical activity and cognitive function in 3,903 participants (older than 55) from southern Bavaria, Germany between 2001 and 2003.At the beginning of the study, 418 participants (10.7 percent) had cognitive impairment. After two years, 207 (5.9 percent) of the remaining 3,485 unimpaired study participants developed cognitive impairment. "The incidence of new cognitive impairment among participants with no, moderate and high activity at baseline was 13.9 percent, 6.7 percent and 5.1 percent, respectively," the authors...

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Weight training improves cognitive function in seniors

Weight-bearing exercises may help minimize cognitive decline and impaired mobility in seniors, according to a new study conducted by the Centre for Hip Health and Mobility at Vancouver Coastal Health and the University of British Columbia.The study, published today in the Archives of Internal Medicine, is one of the first randomized controlled trials of progressively intensive resistance training in senior women. Led by Dr. Teresa Liu-Ambrose, researcher at the Centre and assistant professor in the Faculty of Medicine at UBC, the research team found that 12 months of once-weekly or twice-weekly resistance training improved executive cognitive function in senior women aged 65 to 75 years old. Executive cognitive functions are cognitive abilities necessary for independent living."We were able...

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Fish Oil Reduces Hospital Stays

A randomised controlled trial of fish oil given intravenously to patients in intensive care has found that it improves gas exchange, reduces inflammatory chemicals and results in a shorter length of hospital stay.Researchers writing in BioMed Central's open access journal Critical Care investigated the effects of including fish oil in the normal nutrient solution for patients with sepsis, finding a significant series of benefits.Philip Calder, from the University of Southampton, UK, worked with a team of researchers to carry out the study in 23 patients with systemic inflammatory response syndrome or sepsis in the Hospital Padre Américo, Portugal. He said, "Recently there has been increased interest in the fat and oil component of vein-delivered nutrition, with the realization that it not...

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Protein Supplements Don't Help

Protein Supplements Are Often Misused by Athletes, Study FindsProtein supplements don't improve performance or recovery time and, according to a recent study, such supplements are inefficient for most athletes. "They are often poorly used or unnecessary by both high-level athletes and amateurs," says Martin Fréchette, a researcher and graduate of the Université de Montréal Department of Nutrition.Fréchette submitted questionnaires to 42 athletes as part of his master's thesis. Sportsmen were asked about their use of supplements while keeping a journal of their eating habits for three days. They came from a variety of disciplines including biathlon, cycling, long-distance running, swimming, judo, skating and volleyball.Nine athletes out of 10 reported food supplements on a regular basis. They...

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Omega-3 Fatty Acid May Protect Against Aging

Patients with coronary heart disease who had higher omega-3 fatty acid blood levels had an associated lower rate of shortening of telomere length, a chromosome marker of biological aging, raising the possibility that these fatty acids may protect against cellular aging, according to a study in the January 20 issue of JAMA.Several studies have shown increased survival rates among individuals with high dietary intake of marine omega-3 fatty acids and established cardiovascular disease. The mechanisms underlying this protective effect are not well understood, according to background information in the article.Telomeres are a structure at the end of a chromosome involved in the replication and stability of the chromosome. Genetic factors and environmental stressors can shorten the length of the...

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The “Chocolate Cure” for Emotional Stress

The “chocolate cure” for emotional stress is now getting new support from a clinical trial published online in ACS’ Journal of Proteome Research:“Metabolic Effects of Dark Chocolate Consumption on Energy, Gut Microbiota, and Stress-Related Metabolism in Free-Living Subjects” It found that eating about an ounce and a half of dark chocolate a day for two weeks reduced levels of stress hormones in the bodies of people feeling highly stressed. Everyone’s favorite treat also partially corrected other stress-related biochemical imbalances.Sunil Kochhar and colleagues note growing scientific evidence that antioxidants and other beneficial substances in dark chocolate may reduce risk factors for heart disease and other physical conditions. Studies also suggest that chocolate may ease emotional stress....

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Over age 50 - cut copper and iron intake

With scientific evidence linking high levels of copper and iron to Alzheimer's disease, heart disease, and other age-related disorders, a new report in ACS' Chemical Research in Toxicology suggests specific steps that older consumers can take to avoid build up of unhealthy amounts of these metals in their bodies. "This story of copper and iron toxicity, which I think is reaching the level of public health significance, is virtually unknown to the general medical community, to say nothing of complete unawareness of the public," George Brewer states in the report.The article points out that copper and iron are essential nutrients for life, with high levels actually beneficial to the reproductive health of younger people. After age 50, however, high levels of these metals can damage cells in...

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Blueberry juice improves memory in older adults

Scientists are reporting the first evidence from human research that blueberries — one of the richest sources of healthful antioxidants and other so-called phytochemicals — improve memory. They said the study establishes a basis for comprehensive human clinical trials to determine whether blueberries really deserve their growing reputation as a memory enhancer. A report on the study appears in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, a bi-weekly publication.Robert Krikorian and colleagues point out that previous studies in laboratory animals suggest that eating blueberries may help boost memory in the aged. Until now, however, there...

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Reducing Salt = Fewer Heart Attacks, Strokes and Deaths

Findings Published in New England Journal of MedicineReducing salt in the American diet by as little as one-half teaspoon (or three grams) per day could prevent nearly 100,000 heart attacks and 92,000 deaths each year, according to a new study. Such benefits are on par with the benefits from reductions in smoking and could save the United States about $24 billion in healthcare costs, the researchers add.A team from the University of California, San Francisco, Stanford University Medical Center and Columbia University Medical Center conducted the study. The findings appear January 20 in online publication by the New England Journal of Medicine and also will be reported in the February 18 print issue of the journal.The team’s results were derived from the Coronary Heart Disease Policy Model,...

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Stretching Good For Your Heart Health?

From the NY Times:What is surprising are some early indications that increasing your flexibility might somehow loosen up your arteries, too. That was the accidental and, as yet unreplicated finding of a small 2008 study at the University of Texas at Austin. The study was designed to examine whether weight lifting increased arterial stiffness. (It didn’t, at least on this occasion.) The control group consisted of people who stretched. They were not expected to show any change in cardiac function, but over the course of 13 weeks they in fact increased the pliability of their arteries by more than 20 percent.Mr. Yamamoto and his colleagues are currently conducting an ambitious study to determine just how and whether stretching directly affects the arteries. The results won’t be available for...

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Latest Health Research

Good and bad news in the latest health research reports. I drink lots of green tea, which is good, and don’t smoke, which is even better: Green tea fights lung cancer risk for smokers:Among smokers and non-smokers, those who did not drink green tea had a 5.16-fold increased risk of lung cancer compared with those who drank at least one cup of green tea per day. Among smokers, those who did not drink green tea at all had a 12.71-fold increased risk of lung cancer compared with those who drank at least one cup of green tea per day.I take Vitamin D which is good, but not calcium, which I guess I bad – I need to think about adding it to my regimen: CALCIUM/VITAMIN D PREVENT FRACTURES: Taking both calcium and vitamin D supplements on a daily basis reduces the risk of bone fractures, regardless...

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Raising kids lowers blood pressure

They turn Dad’s hair gray, but children can now take partial credit for the health of Mom’s heart.A new Brigham Young University study found that parenthood is associated with lower blood pressure, particularly so among women.Julianne Holt-Lunstad, a BYU psychologist who studies relationships and health, reports her findings Jan. 14 in the peer-reviewed journal Annals of Behavioral Medicine.Of course parenthood is not the only route to low blood pressure – daily exercise and a low-sodium diet also do the trick. The noteworthy aspect of the study is the idea that social factors may also protect physical health.“While caring for children may include daily hassles, deriving a sense of meaning and purpose from life’s stress has been shown to be associated with better health outcomes,” Holt-Lunstad...

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CALCIUM/VITAMIN D PREVENT FRACTURES

Taking both calcium and vitamin D supplements on a daily basis reduces the risk of bone fractures, regardless of whether a person is young or old, male or female, or has had fractures in the past, a large study of nearly 70,000 patients from throughout the United States and Europe has found.The study included data published in 2006 from clinical trials conducted at UC Davis in Sacramento as part of the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI). It appears online in this week’s edition of the British Medical Journal.“What is important about this very large study is that goes a long way toward resolving conflicting evidence about the role of vitamin D, either alone or in combination with calcium, in reducing fractures,” said John Robbins, professor of internal medicine at UC Davis and a co-author of the...

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Radon Gas Is America's Leading In-Home Killer

According to recent reports from the World Health Organization, radon gas is responsible for approximately 20,000 deaths in the U.S. and 100,000 deaths worldwide each year. This equates to about 15% of all lung cancer deaths. Statistically, radon is the leading cause of lung cancer for non-smokers and the second leading cause for smokers. Learn more about radon ...

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Thyme oil fights inflammation

For those who do not drink, researchers have found that six essential oils –from thyme, clove, rose, eucalyptus, fennel and bergamot—can suppress the inflammatory COX-2 enzyme, in a manner similar to resveratrol, the chemical linked with the health benefits of red wine. They also identified that the chemical carvacrol was primarily responsible for this suppressive activity.These findings, appearing in the January issue of Journal of Lipid Research, provide more understanding of the health benefits of many botanical oils and provide a new avenue for anti-inflammatory drugs.Essential oils from plants have long been a component of home remedies, and even today are used for their aromatherapy, analgesic (e.g. cough drops), or antibacterial properties. Of course, the exact way they work is not...

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Low-Carb Diet Bad for the Heart?

Low-carb diets could be bad for the heart and are no more effective in weight loss than a diet that is high in carbs and low in fat, according to recent research.Some obese people may be considering taking on a low-carb lifestyle for the New Year, such as the popular Atkins diet. But recent research shows that a high-fat, low-carb way of eating could be bad for the heart – and, it is no more effective for losing weight than a diet low in fat and high in carbs.A research team led by Dr. Steven Hunter of the Royal Victoria Hospital in Ireland examined a group of obese adults. Some of them were on a low-carb, high-fat diet and the others were eating a diet that was low in fat.The average weight loss was the same for both groups, but over time, the people who ate a high-fat diet showed a clear...

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Green tea fights lung cancer risk for smokers

Drinking green tea could modulate the effect of smoking on lung cancer. Results of this hospital-based, randomized study conducted in Taiwan were presented at the AACR-IASLC Joint Conference on Molecular Origins of Lung Cancer, held there from Jan. 11-14, 2010."Lung cancer is the leading cause of all cancer deaths in Taiwan," said I-Hsin Lin, M.S., a student at Chung Shan Medical University in Taiwan. "Tea, particularly green tea, has received a great deal of attention because tea polyphenols are strong antioxidants, and tea preparations have shown inhibitory activity against tumorigenesis."However, previous studies of green tea have been inhibited by the flaws of the epidemiologic model with its inherent biases.Lin and colleagues enrolled 170 patients with lung cancer and 340 healthy patients...

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