Probiotics effective in combating antibiotic-associated diarrhea

ΩIn four different studies presented at the American College of Gastroenterology's (ACG) 76th Annual Scientific meeting in Washington, DC, researchers explored the effectiveness of probiotics for antibiotic-associated diarrhea; as an anti-inflammatory agent for patients with ulcerative colitis, psoriasis and chronic fatigue syndrome; and for people with abdominal discomfort and bloating who have not been diagnosed with a functional bowel disorder, such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).These four studies will be featured during an ACG press briefing on Tuesday, November 1, 2011 entitled: "Good, Bad and Ugly Bugs: Mother Nature as a Treatment for Better Health in the GI Tract," which will highlight new clinical science that explores the role of the "gut microbiota" –the bacterial composition...

Read more »

Moderate alcohol consumption is associated with GI woes

Just one drink per day may be cause of bloating, gas, abdominal pain, diarrheaJust one drink per day for women -- two for men -- could lead to small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) and subsequently cause gastrointestinal symptoms like bloating, gas, abdominal pain, constipation and diarrhea, according to the results of a new study unveiled today at the American College of Gastroenterology's (ACG) 76th Annual Scientific meeting in Washington, DC.The retrospective review, "Moderate Alcohol Consumption is Associated with Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth," looked at the charts of 198 patients who underwent lactulose hydrogen breath testing (LHBT) to determine the presence of SIBO, and found that any current alcohol consumption was significantly associated with the presence of SIBO...

Read more »

Live longer with fewer calories

Ω By consuming fewer calories, ageing can be slowed down and the development of age-related diseases such as cancer and type 2 diabetes can be delayed. The earlier calorie intake is reduced, the greater the effect. Researchers at the University of Gothenburg have now identified one of the enzymes that hold the key to the ageing process."We are able to show that caloric restriction slows down ageing by preventing an enzyme, peroxiredoxin, from being inactivated. This enzyme is also extremely important in counteracting damage to our genetic material," says Mikael Molin of the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology.By gradually reducing the intake of sugar and proteins, without reducing vitamins and minerals, researchers have previously shown that monkeys can live several years longer than...

Read more »

Jon's Health Tips - Latest Health Research

Wow - it's been a busy three weeks health news wise - so I will use a short-hand approach to much of this report (click on links for details):Things I do that are good for me:Regular aspirin intake halves hereditary cancer riskStrawberries Protect the Stomach from AlcoholExercise Eases ArthritisDiet lower in fat and higher in fiber may lower risk for chronic disease Watermelon reduces atherosclerosisLow fat diet with fish oil slowed growth of human prostate cancer cellsConsumption of black tea and fruit may protect against lung cancerPhysical fitness = reduced risk of glaucomaLight drinking = significant decrease in cancer riskEarly mortality risk reduced up to 40 percent through increased physical activity and sportsOmega-3 fatty acids shown to prevent or slow progression of osteoarthritisEating...

Read more »

Regular aspirin intake halves cancer risk

ΩScientists have discovered that taking regular aspirin halves the risk of developing hereditary cancers.Hereditary cancers are those which develop as a result of a gene fault inherited from a parent. Bowel and womb cancers are the most common forms of hereditary cancers. Fifty thousand people in the UK are diagnosed with bowel and womb cancers every year; 10 per cent of these cancers are thought to be hereditary.The decade-long study, which involved scientists and clinicians from 43 centres in 16 countries and was funded by Cancer Research UK, followed nearly 1,000 patients, in some cases for over 10 years. The study found that those who had been taking a regular dose of aspirin had 50 per cent fewer incidences of hereditary cancer compared with those who were not taking aspirin.The research...

Read more »

Strawberries Protect the Stomach from Alcohol

ΩIn an experiment on rats, European researchers have proved that eating strawberries reduces the harm that alcohol can cause to the stomach mucous membrane. Published in the open access journal PLoS ONE, the study may contribute to improving the treatment of stomach ulcers.A team of Italian, Serbian and Spanish researchers has confirmed the protecting effect that strawberries have in a mammal stomach that has been damaged by alcohol. Scientists gave ethanol (ethyl alcohol) to laboratory rats and, according to the study published in the journal PLoS ONE, have thus proved that the stomach mucous membrane of those that had previously eaten strawberry extract suffered less damage.Sara Tulipani, researcher at the University of Barcelona (UB) and co-author of the study explains that "the positive...

Read more »

Exercise Eases Arthritis

ΩAdding another incentive to exercise, scientists at Duke University Medical Center have found that physical activity improves arthritis symptoms even among obese mice that continue to chow down on a high-fat diet.The insight suggests that excess weight alone isn't what causes the aches and pains of osteoarthritis, despite the long-held notion that carrying extra pounds strains the joints and leads to the inflammatory condition.Published Sept. 27 online in the journal Arthritis & Rheumatism, the findings are now being tested in people."What's surprising is that exercise, without substantial weight loss, can be beneficial to the joints," said Farshid Guilak, Ph.D., professor of orthopaedic surgery at Duke and senior author of the study. "Ideally, it would be best to be fit and lose a little...

Read more »

Childhood diet lower in fat and higher in fiber may lower risk for chronic disease in adulthood

ΩA recent study has found that a childhood behavioral intervention to lower dietary intake of total fat and saturated fat and increase consumption of foods that are good sources of dietary fiber resulted in significantly lower fasting plasma glucose levels and lower systolic blood pressure when study participants were re-evaluated in young adulthood. The study was accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism (JCEM).A Western dietary pattern high in total fat and saturated fatty acids and refined grains is associated with an increased risk of the metabolic syndrome, a cluster of metabolic abnormalities that include abdominal obesity, low levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (sometimes considered "good cholesterol"), higher levels...

Read more »

Watermelon reduces atherosclerosis

ΩIn a recent study by University of Kentucky researchers, watermelon was shown to reduce atherosclerosis in animals.The animal model used for the study involved mice with diet-induced high cholesterol. A control group was given water to drink, while the experimental group was given watermelon juice. By week eight of the study, the animals given watermelon juice had lower body weight than the control group, due to decrease of fat mass. They experienced no decrease in lean mass. Plasma cholesterol concentrations were significantly lower in the experimental group, with modestly reduced intermediate and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol concentrations as compared to the control group.A measurement of atherosclerotic lesion areas revealed that the watermelon juice group also experienced statistically...

Read more »

Use of Over-the-Counter Thyroid Support Pills is Risky,

ΩPeople who use over-the-counter "thyroid support'' supplements may be putting their health at risk, according to a study being presented at the annual meeting of the American Thyroid Association. The supplements contain varying amounts of two different kinds of thyroid hormones apparently derived in large part from chopped up animal thyroid glands, says the study's senior investigator, Victor Bernet, M.D., an endocrinologist at Mayo Clinic in Florida.The hormones are known as T3, or triiodothyronine, and T4, or thyroxine. They are regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and intended for use only in prescription medication because they can cause significant health issues, such as an increase in heart rate, heart irregularities and palpitations, nervousness, and diarrhea, Dr. Bernet...

Read more »

Analgesics Use Associated With Increased Risk for Renal Cell Carcinoma

ΩUse of acetaminophen and nonaspirin nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs was associated with a significantly increased risk for developing renal cell carcinoma, according to data presented at the 10th AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research, held Oct. 22-25, 2011.It has previously been reported that people who take nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) (other than aspirin) such as ibuprofen (Advil) may have a higher risk of having a heart attack or a stroke than people who do not take these medications.Eunyoung Cho, Sc.D., assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and associate epidemiologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, and colleagues conducted a preliminary meta-analysis of 18 studies from six countries to examine analgesics...

Read more »

Low fat diet with fish oil slowed growth of human prostate cancer cells

ΩA low-fat diet with fish oil supplements eaten for four to six weeks prior to prostate removal slowed down the growth of prostate cancer cells -- the number of rapidly dividing cells -- in human prostate cancer tissue compared to a traditional, high-fat Western diet.Done by researchers at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, the short-term study also found that the men on the low-fat, fish oil supplement diet were able to change the composition of their cell membranes in both the healthy cells and the cancer cells in the prostate. They had increased levels of omega-3 fatty acids from fish oil and decreased levels of omega-6 fatty acids from corn oil in the cell membranes, which may directly affect the biology of the cells, though further studies are needed, said Dr. William Aronson,...

Read more »

Dietary Patterns = Increased Colorectal Cancer Risk in Women

ΩResearchers may have found a specific dietary pattern linked to levels of C-peptide concentrations that increase a woman's risk for colorectal cancer."High red meat intake, fish intake, sugar-sweetened beverage intake, but low coffee, whole grains and high-fat dairy intake, when taken as a whole, seemed to be associated with higher levels of C-peptide in the blood," said Teresa T. Fung, S.D., R.D., professor of nutrition at Simmons College in Boston, who presented the data at the 10th AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research, held Oct. 22-25, 2011.C-peptide is a marker of insulin secretion that can be measured in a person's blood. High levels of insulin may promote cell growth and multiplication. One of the major characteristics of cancer is aberrant cell growth....

Read more »

Consumption of black tea and fruit may protect against lung cancer

ΩHeavy alcohol consumption may be linked to a greater risk of developing lung cancer, while higher BMI and increased consumption of black tea and fruit are associated with lower risk of the deadly disease. In three separate studies presented at CHEST 2011, the 77th annual meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP), heavy alcohol consumption was related to increased risk of lung cancer, while specific ethnic groups, including African American men and Asian women, had slightly higher risks for lung cancer. Conversely, black tea consumption was shown to reduce lung cancer risk in nonsmoking women, while higher BMI and increased fruit consumption were associated with a lower risk of lung cancer in both men and women.Lung Cancer Risk Factors“Heavy drinking has multiple harmful effects,...

Read more »

Coffee consumption associated with decreased risk for basal cell carcinoma

ΩCaffeine could be related to an inverse association between basal cell carcinoma risk and consumption of coffee, a study found.The prospective study, presented at the 10th AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research, held Oct. 22-25, 2011, examined the risks of basal cell carcinoma (BCC), squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and melanoma in connection with coffee consumption and found a decreased risk for BCC only.“Given the nearly 1 million new cases of BCC diagnosed each year in the United States, daily dietary factors with even small protective effects may have great public health impact,” said researcher Fengju Song, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in the department of dermatology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. “Our study indicates that...

Read more »

Physical fitness could have a positive effect on eye health

ΩNew study links active lifestyle to reduced risk of glaucomaPhysical activity may be what the doctor orders to help patients reduce their risk of developing glaucoma. According to a recently published scientific paper, higher levels of physical exercise appear to have a long-term beneficial impact on low ocular perfusion pressure (OPP), an important risk factor for glaucoma.Published in the Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science journal (Physical Activity and Ocular Perfusion Pressure: The EPIC-Norfolk Eye Study), this study examined the relationship between physical activity and current OPP in 5,650 men and women aged 48 to 90 who live in the U.K. and were part of initial cohort from 1993 - 1997.Using a detailed self-administered health and lifestyle questionnaire, participants...

Read more »

Biggest ever study shows no link between mobile phone use and tumors

ΩThere is no link between long-term use of mobile phones and tumours of the brain or central nervous system, finds new research published on bmj.com today.In what is described as the largest study on the subject to date, Danish researchers found no evidence that the risk of brain tumours was raised among 358,403 mobile phone subscribers over an 18-year period.The number of people using mobile phones is constantly rising with more than five billion subscriptions worldwide in 2010. This has led to concerns about potential adverse health effects, particularly tumours of the central nervous system.Previous studies on a possible link between phone use and tumours have been inconclusive particularly on long-term use of mobile phones. Some of this earlier work took the form of case control studies...

Read more »

Light drinking = significant decrease in cancer risk

ΩA paper from the National Institutes of Health in the United States has evaluated the separate and combined effects of the frequency of alcohol consumption and the average quantity of alcohol drunk per occasion and how that relates to mortality risk from individual cancers as well as all cancers. The analysis is based on repeated administrations of the National Health Interview Survey in the US, assessing more than 300,000 subjects who suffered over 8,000 deaths from cancer. The research reports on total cancer deaths and deaths from lung, colorectal, prostate, and breast cancers.The overall message of this analysis is that light to moderate alcohol intake does not appear to increase the risk of all-site cancer (and light drinking was shown in this study to be associated with a significant...

Read more »

Soy protein improves lipid profile in healthy individuals

ΩA new study published online in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition shows that soy protein compared to dairy milk protein supplementation improves the lipid profile in healthy individuals. This study investigated the effect of soy and milk protein supplementation on lipids compared with carbohydrate among healthy adults. Numerous research studies have demonstrated that soy protein reduces LDL ("the bad") cholesterol and increases HDL ("the good") cholesterol, supporting the soy protein heart health and cholesterol-lowering claim that is approved in 12 countries around the globe."Coronary heart disease (CHD) is a major health epidemic, as the No. 1 killer of women and men globally. Research has shown that lowering blood lipids reduces the risk of coronary heart disease and stroke,"...

Read more »

HIGH TO MODERATE LEVELS OF STRESS LEAD TO HIGHER MORTALITY RATE

ΩA new study concludes that men who experience persistently moderate or high levels of stressful life events over a number of years have a 50 percent higher mortality rate.In general, the researchers found only a few protective factors against these higher levels of stress – people who self-reported that they had good health tended to live longer and married men also fared better. Moderate drinkers also lived longer than non-drinkers.“Being a teetotaler and a smoker were risk factors for mortality,” said Carolyn Aldwin, lead author of the study and a professor of human development and family sciences at Oregon State University. “So perhaps trying to keep your major stress events to a minimum, being married and having a glass of wine every night is the secret to a long life.”This is the first...

Read more »

Early mortality risk reduced up to 40 percent through increased physical activity and sports

Ω Even though previous studies have been shown the link between regular exercises and improved health the exact dose-response relation remains unclear. Guenther Samitz, researcher in physical activity and public health at the Centre for Sports Sciences and University Sports of the University of Vienna has investigated this relationship with a meta-study representing more than 1.3 million participants. The research project was carried out in collaboration with public health scientists and epidemiologists of the Universities of Bern, Switzerland and Bristol, UK. The results of the study have been published in International Journal of Epidemiology.One week is 10.080 minutes, already 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity per week protect against chronic diseases and premature death...

Read more »

Benefits of Arginine Amino Acid: Arginine Dosage and Arginine Rich Foods

Special amino acids are of specific interest with regard to growth and development, metabolism, and protection from environmental toxins and diseases; arginine is one such vital amino acid.Arginine has severalHealth BenefitsArginine Amino Acid: What is Arginine?Arginine is an amino acid that has an important role to play in wound healing, detoxification, immune functioning and promotion of the secretion of several hormones. By and large, the body makes adequate amounts of arginine, even while the diet is lacking.Arginine Rich FoodsFoods that are good sources of arginine include: peanuts, beans including lima beans and red beans, almonds,...

Read more »

Side Effects of L-Arginine Supplements: Precautions while using L Arginine Supplements

On the whole, L-arginine supplements are well tolerated when administered intravenously, orally or topically .L- Arginine is an amino acid which plays a crucial role in ammonia detoxification, strengthening the immune system and secretion of certain hormones. Though L Arginine supplements are considered beneficial, there consumption can be associated with certain side effects and precautions are suggested while consuming these supplementsArginine supplementscan have side effectsSide Effects of L Arginine SupplementsIn some cases Arginine is known to cause diarrhea, bloating, hormonal changes, gastrointestinal derangements, hives, increased levels...

Read more »

Omega-3 fatty acids shown to prevent or slow progression of osteoarthritis

ΩNew research has shown for the first time that omega-3 in fish oil could "substantially and significantly" reduce the signs and symptoms of osteoarthritis.According to the University of Bristol study, funded by Arthritis Research UK and published in the journal Osteoarthritis and Cartilage, omega-3-rich diets fed to guinea pigs, which naturally develop osteoarthritis, reduced disease by 50 per cent compared to a standard diet.The research is a major step forward in showing that omega-3 fatty acids, either sourced from fish oil or flax oil, may help to slow down the progression of osteoarthritis, or even prevent it occurring, confirming anecdotal reports and "old wives' tales" about the benefits of fish oil for joint health.Lead researcher Dr John Tarlton, from the Matrix Biology Research...

Read more »