Light linked to prostate cancer

United Press International 02-04-09
HAIFA, Israel, Feb 3, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Israeli and U.S. researchers suggest a link between artificial light and prostate cancer.
The University of Haifa study finds the incidence of prostate cancer in those countries with low light exposure was 66.77 prostate cancer patients to 100,000 inhabitants. An increase of 30 percent was found in those countries with medium exposure -- 87.11 patients per 100,000 inhabitants.
Researchers Abraham Haim, Boris A. Portnov and Itai Kloog of the University of Haifa along with Richard Stevens of the University of Connecticut, however, said the countries with the highest level of exposure to nightly artificial light demonstrate a jump of 80 percent -- 157 patients per 100,000 inhabitants.
"This does not mean that we have to go back to the Middle Ages and turn the lights out on the country," the researchers say in a statement. "What it means is that this link should be taken into account in planning the country's energy policies."
The researches examined the influence of various factors including the the amount of artificial light at night per person. Amounts of artificial light were determined using data from Defense Meteorological Satellite Program images, electricity consumption and other factors.
The incidence of three types of cancer -- prostate, lung and large intestine -- is based on data from 164 countries collected by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.
http://www.lef.org/news/LefDailyNews.htm?NewsID=7848&Section=DISEASE

Nutrition educator advocates uncooked food for good health

McClatchy-Tribune Information Services -- 02-04-09
After three battles with recurring breast cancer, Sally Miller was tired -- body and soul.
She was 36 years old when she had a double mastectomy to combat her first breast cancer diagnosis. The cancer returned 11 years later on the incision points. She had 33 radiation treatments. The following year, it was back. Doctors scraped her insides from ribs to clavicle and placed her on an estrogen-blocking drugs.
"Tamoxifen did terrible things to me. I had no energy and I was depressed," she said. "I became a person nobody knew."
She had taken the medication for two years, when her daughter in Atlanta suggested she attend a conference on the topic of a raw foods diet that reputedly bolstered the body to battle illness. In all her cancer treatments, nobody suggested a connection between diet and cancer, so she still ate the meat-heavy diet that had been part of her Irish/Italian/Polish heritage.
A raw and living foodie eats a plant-based, uncooked diet that contains the nutrients, enzymes, vitamins and minerals that a body needs to maintain good health and balance. It's basically a step beyond a vegan diet -- no meat, dairy, processed flour, yeast, refined sugar or cooked foods.
"At the conference, I was introduced to the idea of food being your medicine and medicine being your food," she said. "It blew my mind that I met all these people who had been through illness and changed their lives by changing what they were putting in their mouths. I thought to myself, 'I can do this.'"
Miller's husband, architect Lloyd Miller, attended the conference at the Living Foods Institute in Atlanta with her and supported their move to raw foods, although he had a few reservations. "I was skeptical. It's quite a dramatic change from a traditional diet," he said.
After a bit more research, Miller began preparing exclusively raw foods. Both Lloyd and Sandy Miller lost weight, had more energy and sharpened their thinking. Their previous heavy, meat-laden diet held little appeal.
"We both felt great. I was having so much fun with food, developing recipes," she said. "I moved into more gourmet recipes."
About six months later, Sally told her doctor that she wanted to quit
taking the medicine. The doctor agreed, as long as she continued to enjoy good health. She's been medicine- and cancer-free ever since. That was six years ago.
Today, Miller teaches classes on raw and living foods from her home office. She'll receive her master's in nutrition education from Bauman College in California in May. As a certified nutrition educator, she'll offer individual consultations to help people personalize a raw foods diet.
"I want to teach people how to eat and to enjoy healthy foods," she said. "I'll look at their diet and lifestyle and help them make menu plans."
Her two-day weekend overview class is her most popular. For $150, she gives a general overview of raw foods and tells students where to shop, what to buy and gives 10 to 12 recipes to get them started. She's taught about 150 people. She partners with Healthy Life Markets at Drug Emporium and buys organic produce at Kroger.
In addition to fresh fruits and vegetables, the Millers eat lots of sprouted and fermented foods. She drinks wheat grass juice every morning made fresh in their juicer. She makes scones and cookies from sprouted grains, fruits and nuts and flatbreads and crackers from flax seeds, ground sunflower seeds, almond pulp and dehydrated vegetables. She forms the sprouted grain mixture into loaves.
"There's some psychological need for something that you slice," she said. "This allows me to do that."
A typical lunch might be bok choy stalks filled with hummus, cabbage salad with raisins and lentils spooned on top, and a lentil soup base with juice of carrots, celery, onion and garlic. She makes large quantities of crackers and eats them with soup.
A big salad with lots of fruits and vegetables and a creamy homemade dressing of nut cheese processed with olive oil, lemon juice and herbs is a simple lunch.
For dinner, Miller makes burgers out of vegetables, grains and lentils. She uses a spiral slicer to cut zucchini into linguini-like noodles and serves it with pesto. She crumbles some thick crackers on top to resemble ground meat.
"I enjoy finding simple, fast ways to make favorite things," she said. "I spend about 15 to 30 minutes in the kitchen to make a meal." She keeps key ingredients on hand, such as the legumes she uses in soups or patties.
For the first two years, the Millers ate a pure raw foods diet. She's worked some cooked foods in, at first blanching vegetables instead of just raw and marinated ones. "It gives two different types of flavors and more variety on the dinner plate," she said. She purchased sprouted breads with no yeast after a year without bread. She cooks wild-caught salmon occasionally and tuna and eggs about once a month.
"I don't wake up in the morning and think I'm going to have bacon and eggs. I just don't do that anymore," she said. "I juice vegetables or make a smoothie with fruit and flaxseed or coconut oil. That's all I need. Later in the morning, I'll have a scone or some cookies."
Dinner is usually a light meal, after lunch at 1 or 2 p.m. "By the evening, we just have a blended vegetable soup or another salad," she said. In the cold weather, she craves something warming, so she'll pour hot vegetarian broth over fresh vegetables.
She makes a chocolate pudding out of raw cacao, avocado and a little sweetener. "It is the most out-of-this-world pudding or chocolate mousse," she said. "With a little honey spread and soaked, dried Bing cherries on top, it's wonderful."
Miller's raw food lifestyle doesn't prevent her from eating out or dining with friends. She looks for appropriate choices on the menu or compromises when she must. She might eat a baked sweet potato or potato topped with salsa. She orders salads with the dressing on the side.
"I don't take myself out of normal situations. I just bring myself and who I am into them," she said. "I haven't removed myself from society."
She isn't tempted by many foods on her previous diet because the meats taste heavy and bog her down. Packaged cookies taste like cardboard, but homemade favorites such as the holiday goodies her adult son and daughter requested tempt her. "I always make sour cream cranberry bread for her and chocolate chip cookies for him," she said. "Yes, I'm tempted and yes, I eat them."
She prepares most of their food on a Vita Mix, juicer, dehydrator and food processor. A sunny window holds clear jars of sprouting grains. She uses the equipment every day and for class demonstrations.
Despite the fresh vegetables and fruit prices, the cost of a raw food diet is probably comparable to a traditional meat-based meal, Miller said.
Their raw food diet eliminated the acid reflux symptoms that previously plagued Lloyd, as it is purported to do for other medical problems, such as diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol, said Miller. She advises everyone to check with a physician before drastically changing diets.
"Looking back, I could have been feeding myself in a healthier way had I realized that I was prone to growing cancer in my body," she said.
Friends were concerned that her diet wouldn't include enough protein, but she gets enough from lentils, legumes, seeds and nuts. The average American eats three to four times more protein than needed, she said.
"I would like to see more of this in our community. It's a great place to live, but it makes me sad to see us at the bottom of all the health statistics," Miller said. "It's changed my life. I've had wonderful health and I want to share that with others."
http://www.lef.org/news/LefDailyNews.htm?NewsID=7846&Section=NUTRITION

Respiratory virus common in US children: study
Last Updated: 2009-02-05 9:01:19 -0400 (Reuters Health)
BOSTON (Reuters) - A highly contagious respiratory virus is far more widespread among children than once thought and puts more of them in the hospital than influenza (flu), U.S. researchers reported on Wednesday.
They projected that the respiratory syncytial virus, known as RSV, affects 2.1 million children under the age of 5 each year.
Over four years, from November through April, the virus was responsible for 20 percent of hospitalizations, 18 percent of visits to emergency rooms and 15 percent of office visits for respiratory infections in children younger than age 5 in three U.S. counties, Dr. Caroline Breese Hall of the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York and colleagues found.
"This causes hospitalization in children three times as often as influenza," Hall said in a telephone interview.
She said the findings show that researchers should place more emphasis on finding a vaccine for RSV.
Until now, most of the concern around the virus had been for newborns, up to 1 year of age, and children with high-risk medical conditions.
Hall's team reported in the New England Journal of Medicine that only 3 percent of the RSV cases were correctly diagnosed, and that most of its victims were older than 1 year.
"These kiddies are not the young babies on which we've focused, but they are older and are quite severely ill. Seventy-three percent have had some kind of difficulty in breathing. That's significant," she said.
Most of the children who became ill had no previous health problems.
In many instances, because the illness was misdiagnosed, the children were treated with antibiotics, which are ineffective, Hall said.
http://www.reutershealth.com/archive/2009/02/05/eline/links/20090205elin016.html

Flu may not have killed most in 1918 pandemic
Last Updated: 2009-02-05 14:57:12 -0400 (Reuters Health)
WASHINGTON (Reuters Life!) - Strep infections and not the flu virus itself may have killed most people during the 1918 influenza pandemic, which suggests some of the most dire predictions about a new pandemic may be exaggerated, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.
The findings suggest that amassing antibiotics to fight bacterial infections may be at least as important as stockpiling antiviral drugs to battle flu, they said.
Keith Klugman of Emory University in Atlanta and colleagues looked at what information is available about the 1918 flu pandemic, which killed anywhere between 50 million and 100 million people globally in the space of about 18 months.
Some research has shown that on average it took a week to 11 days for people to die -- which fits in more with the known pattern of a bacterial infection than a viral infection, Klugman's group wrote in a letter to the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.
"We observed a similar 10-day median time to death among soldiers dying of influenza in 1918," they wrote.
People with influenza often get what is known as a "superinfection" with a bacterial agent. In 1918 it appears to have been Streptococcus pneumoniae.
"Neither antimicrobial drugs nor serum therapy was available for treatment in 1918," Klugman's team wrote.
Now there are also vaccines that protect against many different strains of S. pneumoniae, which cause infections from pneumonia to meningitis.
WORST-CASE SCENARIO
Most health experts agree that another pandemic of influenza is inevitable. There were smaller pandemics in 1958 and in 1967.
Many government projections have been based on a worst-case 1918 scenario, in which tens of millions of people would die globally and up to 40 percent of the work force would be out for weeks, either sick, caring for others who are sick, or avoiding public places for fear of infection.
"Based on 1918 we would project less mortality in an era of antibiotics," Klugman said in an e-mail.
"We -are currently modeling this -- assuming of course that the bacterial superinfections remain susceptible to the antibiotics and that sufficient antibiotics are available."
No one knows when a pandemic of flu might strike. Every year seasonal influenza kills between 250,000 and 500,000 people.
A pandemic occurs when a new strain of flu begins infecting people. One big fear is that H5N1 influenza, currently infecting many birds in Asia, Europe and Africa, might make the jump to people.
H5N1 currently infects people only rarely but it has killed 254 out of 405 infected since 2003, according to the World Health Organization. Many countries and companies are stockpiling antiviral drugs and vaccines in case it does strike.

Vitamin D deficiency may harm brain function: study
Last Updated: 2009-02-05 12:01:13 -0400 (Reuters Health)
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Low levels of vitamin D increase the risk of cognitive impairment in the elderly, according to findings from the nationally representative, population-based Health Survey for England 2000.
Despite the theoretical support for the role of vitamin D in maintaining brain function in old age, clinical data are lacking, the researchers note.
Therefore, Dr. David J. Llewellyn and his associates studied 1766 adults, aged 65 or older, from whom blood samples were obtained to measure circulating vitamin D levels.
Cognitive function was measured using the Abbreviated Mental Test, which includes 10 questions to assess attention, orientation in time and space, and memory.
Based on scores of 70 percent or less, 212 subjects (12 percent) were deemed to be cognitively impaired.
The researchers found a significant association between lower levels of vitamin D and cognitive impairment.
After adjusting for factors that could influence the association, including co-existing illnesses, older adults with the lowest levels of vitamin D were more than twice as likely to be cognitively impaired as those with the highest levels.
Llewellyn, of the University of Cambridge and his colleagues suggest that vitamin D concentrations may help doctors in screening for cognitive impairment.
"Further research," they conclude, "is needed to investigate whether vitamin D supplementation is a cost effective way of reducing the incidence of cognitive impairment with few adverse events."
SOURCE: Journal of Geriatric Psychology and Neurology, February 2009.
http://www.reutershealth.com/archive/2009/02/05/eline/links/20090205elin029.html

Lignans linked to healthier, thinner women: Study

Nutraingredients.com, 06-Feb-2009

Women with increased intake of lignans, and subsequently levels of metabolites in the blood, tend to have lower BMIs and total body fat mass, says a new study from Canada.
A study of 115 post-menopausal women showed that those with the highest blood levels of enterolactone, a lignan metabolite, had a BMI 4 kg/m2 less than women with the lowest average blood levels, according to results published online ahead of print in the British Journal of Nutrition.
Moreover, the highest blood levels of enterolactone were also associated with 8.5 kg less body fat, compared to women with the lowest levels, report researchers from Laval University in Quebec.
While the study does not show establish a causal link between lignans and the women’s metabolic profile, the research does add to the list of potential health benefits of the plant compounds.
About lignans
Plant lignans, from sources such as flax seed, whole grain cereals, berries, vegetables and fruits, are metabolised in the colon by microflora into enterodiol and enterolactone. Previous research has focussed on plant lignans as reducing the risk of prostate cancer, and in improving menopause health.
The main lignan from flaxseed is secoisolariciresinol diglucoside (SDG), which is metabolised to give enterodiol and enterolactone. These two metabolites are then absorbed from the gut and transported to the liver where they undergo further reactions before entering circulation. SDG-containing products are well-represented on the market, including Frutarom’s LinumLife.
Other lignan sources also have market representation, including the 7-hydroxymatairesinol (HMR) from Norwegian spruce. The lignan, been commercialised by Swiss company, Linnea, is metabolised differently in the body, forming mostly enterolactone (ENL) and some 7-hydroxyenterolactone (HENL), but no enterodiol.
Study details
The researchers, led by André Tchernof, evaluated the intake of lignans using a three-day dietary record. The 115 women (average age of 56.8) also had blood taken to evaluate blood levels of enterolactone.
High intake of lignans was associated with lower body fat mass and BMI, compared to women with the lowest average intakes. Moreover, women with the highest average blood levels of enterolactone had improved glucose disposal rates (8.3 versus 5.5) and significantly lower blood glucose levels, compared to women with the lowest average blood levels.
“In conclusion, women with the highest enterolactone concentrations had a better metabolic profile including higher insulin sensitivity and lower adiposity measures,” wrote the researchers.
A number of studies have reported links between increased dietary lignan intake, and/or increased levels of enterolactone and/or enterodiol and protection/ reduced risk of a wide range of conditions, most notably breast cancer, prostate cancer, and reduced hair loss. Clearly, more research is needed to evaluate the potential role, and to determine causality, for the potential role of lignans and their metabolites for metabolic profiles.
Source: British Journal of Nutrition
Published online ahead of print, First View, doi:10.1017/S0007114508162092
“Impact of a lignan-rich diet on adiposity and insulin sensitivity in post-menopausal women”
Authors: A.-S. Morisset, S. Lemieux, A. Veilleux, J. Bergeron, S.J. Weisnagel, A. Tchernof
http://www.nutraingredients.com/Research/Lignans-linked-to-healthier-thinner-women-Study

Study says nano zinc oxide dots can kill foodborne pathogens

Foodnavigator.com, 06-Feb-2009

The application of zinc oxide nanoparticles in food systems may be effective at inhibiting certain pathogens, claims a study published in the Journal of Food Science.
Recent outbreaks of illnesses due to foodborne pathogens such as Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella spp., and Listeria monocytogenes continue to draw public attention to food safety.
In this study, scientists working at the US Agriculture Department’s Food Safety Intervention Technologies Research Unit evaluated the antimicrobial activity of zinc oxide quantum dots (ZnO QDs), nanoparticles of purified powdered ZnO, against these pathogens.
They claim that this research was triggered by the fact that, currently, there are very few studies related to the application of nanoparticles in food safety.
Method
The team said that ZnO QDs were utilized as a powder; bound in a polystyrene film (ZnO-PS); and suspended in a polyvinylprolidone gel (ZnO-PVP).
Bacteria cultures, they added, were inoculated into a growth media of tryptic soy broth (TSB) or brain heart infusion broth (BHIB) or liquid egg white (LEW) and incubated at 22°C:
“Room temperature was selected for the incubation tests after considering the worst case scenario in which food was left at room temperature, at which the pathogens grow much faster, rather than refrigerated,” explained the researchers.
LEW was selected for this study, added the authors, as both the physical and functional properties of liquid egg products are sensitive to thermal treatments and because occurrences of egg related Salmonellosis have heightened the concern for the safety of egg-related products.
“The high thermal sensitivity of egg components prevents the application of more intense heat treatments. Therefore, it would be desirable to use new antimicrobial agents or other non-thermal processing techniques to ensure the safety of liquid egg products while not altering their desired qualities,” argues the team.
Results
The inhibitory efficacies of ZnO QDs against three pathogens were concentration dependent and also related to type of application, found the research team.
“ZnO powder and ZnO-PVP showed significant antimicrobial activities against all three pathogens in growth media and LEW. However, the ZnO-PVP coating had less inhibitory effect than the direct addition of ZnO-PVP, while no antimicrobial activities of ZnO-PS film were observed,” found the authors.
They said the ZnO-PVP (3.2 mg ZnO/mL) treatment resulted in 5.3 log reduction of L. monocytogenes and 6.0 log reduction of E. coli O157:H7 in growth media after 48 hours incubation, as compared to the controls.
According to the findings, Listeria cells in the LEW control increased from 3.8 to 7.2 log CFU/mL during eight days incubation, while the cells in the samples treated with 1.12 and 0.28 mg ZnO/mL were reduced to 1.4 and 3.0 log CFU/mL, respectively.
The cell populations of Salmonella in LEW in the presence of 1.12 and 0.28 mg ZnO/mL were reduced by 6.1 and 4.1 log CFU/mL respectively, in comparision to the reduction levels in the controls.
Further work
The scientists claim that the study shows that ZnO nanoparticles possess antimicrobial activities against L. monocytogenes and Salmonella in liquid egg white and growth media, as well as against E. coli O157:H7 in growth media.
They maintain, however, that additional research is required to determine the full potential of the use of ZnO nanoparticles in food safety:
“Parameters such as concentrations, times, temperatures, and combination with other bacteriocins will be the focus of further study,” said the authors.
Source: Journal of Food Science Vol. 74, Nr. 1, 2009
Published online ahead of print doi: 10.1111/j.1750-3841.2008.01013.x
Title: Antimicrobial Efficacy of Zinc Oxide Quantum Dots against Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella Enteritidis, and Escherichia coli O157:H7
Authors: T. Jin; D. Sun; J.Y. Su; H. Zhang; H.J. Sue.
Study-says-nano-zinc-oxide-dots-can-kill-foodborne-pathogens

Edible fungus additive could eliminate grapefruit side effects: Study

Nutraingredients.com, 03-Feb-2009

Adding an edible mushroom-like fungus to grapefruit juice may help to reduce the serious side effects that can occur when people taking certain prescription drugs drink grapefruit juice.
The ‘grapefruit effect’ related to an interaction between furanocoumarins – compounds found in the fruit and some other citrus – and certain prescription medications. Furanocoumarins can block the action of a key enzyme critical for the metabolism of the medications, turning a normal dose into a toxic overdose.
“This ‘grapefruit/drug’ interaction has adversely affected the citrus industry for years, even though grapefruit possesses antioxidant activity and numerous beneficial health phytochemicals and putatively acts as a protector against cancer and cardiovascular diseases,” wrote lead author Kyung Myung from the United States Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service.
According to the new research published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, adding the edible fungus Morchella esculenta to grapefruit juice could remove most of the furanocoumarins. And this led to a 60 per cent reduction in the inhibition of one of the enzymes, known as CYP 3A4.
Approximately 70 per cent of the world’s grapefruit production is for the fresh fruit market, while the other 30 per cent goes into the processing industry to give us juice and canned segments. The export market is worth about €200 million, according to FAO estimates.
Dried or live fungi?
Myung and his co-workers Jan Narciso and John Manthey, tested the efficacy of M. esculenta, Monascus purpureus, Pleurotus sapidus, and Agaricus bisporus, all of which are edible fungi, to bind with two of grapefruit’s main furanocoumarins, 6′,7′-dihydroxybergamottin (DHB) and bergamottin (BM).
The report that the when the edible fungi were autoclaved and added to the juice, the furanocoumarins were removed from the juice.
This indicated that the effects were from a general and passive interaction. No effects of the acidity of the juice was observed.
When the researchers tested the efficacy of dried fungal material of M. esculenta, they also observed that the furanocoumarins were removed from the juice, regardless of if the sample had been prepared from fresh grapefruit or from grapefruit juice concentrate.
Furanocoumarin removal approaches
Various scientific approaches have previously been explored to remove furanocoumarins from grapefruit juice, including chemical extractions and reconstitutions, or ultraviolet radiation and heat to degrade the compounds.
Source: Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Volume 56, Issue 24, Pages 12064-12068, doi: 10.1021/jf802713g
"Removal of Furanocoumarins in Grapefruit Juice by Edible Fungi"
Authors: K. Myung, J.A. Narciso, J.A. Manthey

Infertility Linked to Common Household Chemicals

by Sherry Baker, NaturalNews.com
(NaturalNews) For the first time, scientists have evidence that perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs), long thought to be inactive in the human body, can disrupt fertility in women. This is particularly troublesome because PFCs are widely used in industrial nations -- they are in everything from pesticides and clothing to carpets, upholstery, food packages, Teflon-coated cookware and personal care products. And they persist in the environment as well as the human body for decades.

The University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) study, just published in Europe's leading reproductive medicine journal Human Reproduction, found that it was more difficult for women with the higher blood levels of the chemicals to become pregnant. The researchers studied data from a total of 1,240 women in the Danish National Birth Cohort. They took blood samples when the women were between four and 14 weeks into their pregnancies to check for concentrations of two kinds of PFCs -- perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS). The women were also interviewed around the 12th week of pregnancy to find out whether the pregnancy was planned or not and how long it took them to conceive. Infertility problems were defined by a length of 12 months or longer to become pregnant, or if infertility treatments had to be used to faciliate a pregnancy.

The levels of PFOS in the women's blood plasma measured from a low of 6.4 nanograms per milliliter (ng/ml) to a high of 106.7 ng/ml, and, for PFOA, from less than 1 ng/ml to 41.5 ng/ml. The women with the highest levels of PFOS exposure, indicated by the higher blood levels of the chemical, were found to have experienced 70 to 134% more infertility problems than women with the lowest levels of PFCs. Increased exposure to the specific type of PFCs called PFOA also upped the risk of infertility 50 to 154%.

So what do these chemicals do to a woman's reproductive system? The researchers said in a press statement that the biological mechanisms by which exposure to PFOS and PFOA might reduce fertility are not known. However, there is good reason to think PFCs may interfere with hormones that are involved in reproduction.

"Our data showed that higher proportions of women reported irregular menstrual periods in the upper three quartiles of PFOA and PFOS compared with the lowest, and so this could indicate a possible pathway," UCLA scientist Dr. Chunyuan Fei, the study's first author, said in a statement to the media. "PFOS and PFOA were considered to be biologically inactive, but recently animal studies have shown that these chemicals may have a variety of toxic effects on the liver, immune system and developmental and reproductive organs. Very few human studies have been done, but one of our earlier studies showed that PFOA, although not PFOS, may impair the growth of babies in the womb, and another two epidemiological studies linked PFOA and PFOS to impaired fetal growth."

The researchers also suggested that the sperm quality in men could be harmed by PFC levels. "Studies on sperm quality and PFOA/PFOS are certainly warranted," Professor Jorn Olsen, Chairman of the UCLA Department of Epidemiology and principle investigator of the study, stated in a press release. " We are waiting for further studies to replicate our findings in order to discover whether PFCs should be added to the list of risk factors for infertility."

http://www.naturalnews.com/z025544.html

Eating fatty fish warded off kidney cancer, study shows

Independent.ie, Feburary 6, 2009 (Ireland)

SWEDISH women who ate fatty fish like salmon, mackerel and herring at least once a week had a significantly lower risk of kidney cancer compared to consumers of lean fish, researchers said yesterday.
The 15-year study found those who regularly ate fish containing lots of fish oil that is rich in omega-3 acids and Vitamin D had a 74pc lower risk of getting kidney cancer compared to those who ate no fish at all.
Lean varieties such tuna, cod and fresh-water fish did not confer the same benefit.
Compared to lean fish, fatty fish have up to 30 times the amount of certain acids and up to five times the level of Vitamin D. The fatty acids have been reported to slow development of cancer and people with kidney cancer often have low levels of Vitamin D.
"The name fatty fish may frighten some people but this kind of fat is healthy so I would recommend to eat fatty fish, not lean, because you can get much more benefits," said Alicja Wolk of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.
"Fatty fish per definition has also more calories but benefits are so overwhelming," she said.
The researchers, writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association, did not indicate whether fatty fish might prevent other types of cancer.
Of more than 61,000 women in the study, ranging in age from 40 to 76, 150 developed kidney cancer.
In the United States, there is a one in 77 lifetime risk of kidney cancer, and 39,000 Americans expected to be diagnosed this year, according to the American Cancer Society. The disease is twice as common among men than women.
Earlier this year another study found eating fatty fish such as salmon, herring, and mackerel could reduce men's risk of developing prostate cancer. Essential fatty acids - especially omega-3 fatty acids contained in large amounts in fatty fish - have previously been proved to inhibit the growth of prostate cancer cells.
http://www.independent.ie/health/eating-fatty-fish-warded-off-kidney-cancer-study-shows-79106.html

The Hidden Dangers of Roundup

by Dr. Gregory Damato, Ph.D., citizen journalist
(NaturalNews) Roundup is the world`s most popular herbicide used to control weeds all over the planet and is omnipresent in the food chain of animals and humans. Roundup is claimed to have an active ingredient known as glyphosate (G) and said to be safe for humans even though plants are readily killed. In a first of its kind published study, French researchers recently sought to examine the toxicity of four popular G-based herbicide formulations on human placental cells, kidney cells, embryonic cells and neonate umbilical cord cells and surprisingly found total cell death of each of these cells within 24 hours.

As the percentage of genetically modified (GM) soy in the US burgeons to over 91 percent [1], researchers are beginning to publish harbingers for the potential of a maelstrom of future health problems from GMOs (genetically modified organisms) [2, 3]. One of the potential harmful triggers includes the increased amounts of chemicals present in the environment disseminating at an alarming rate with few researchers examining the combined effects of these xenobiotics on plants, animals or humans. Similarly, much of the existing research on GMOs has been undertaken on the individual organism itself and neglects to examine the more important ecological issue of synergism. This point is very notable because the world`s most popular herbicide known as Monsanto`s Roundup contains a blend of glyphosate (G) and several unknown adjuvants. The exact ingredients in Roundup are not disclosed to the general public and are kept confidential as they are labeled, "trade secrets". Monsanto assures the public these ingredients are inert and are therefore non-toxic. The most predominant adjuvant in Roundup seems to be polyethoxylated tallowamine or POEA [4, 5], which has been implicated in ocular burns, redness, swelling, blisters, nausea and diarhhea [6]. POEA is one of the most prevalent pollutants found in rivers all over the world. Problems begin to arise when G alone interacts with POEA and other unknown ingredients activating and accelerating the resultant mixture known as Roundup [7].

Monsanto patented its G propriety blend and named it Roundup in the 1970`s to kill broadleaf and cereal leave weeds. G is the active ingredient utilized in nearly 75% of all edible GM plants that have been engineered to tolerate high levels of this form of G [8]. G works by inhibiting an enzyme that synthesizes the amino acids tyrosine, tryptophan and phenylalanine thereby killing the weed. Researchers examining the amounts of herbicide used on GMO soy have concluded that the GMO soy typically receives several more pounds of G than conventionally grown soy per acre [9]. Furthermore, researchers have found that several types of newly created superweeds resistant to Roundup (e.g., pigweed, ryegrass and marestail) have been rapidly surfacing leading to increased amounts of Roundup on such crops [10]. These farmers have been told to use increasingly potent mixtures of herbicides and not Roundup alone [11]. In fact, there has been a more than 1900% increase in G use on Roundup Ready soybeans from 1994 to 2006 [12].

For the first time, French researchers recently sought to examine the toxicity of four G-based herbicide formulations on human placental cells, kidney cells, embryonic cells and neonate umbilical cord cells [13]. The researchers used the four most common types of Roundup utilized worldwide: Roundup Express, Roundup Bioforce, Roundup Grand Travaux and Roundup Grand Travaux Plus at lower concentration levels than would be normally found in plants and in animal feed. The researchers sought to determine the levels of necrosis (death of cells due to injury, disease or loss of blood supply) and apotosis (programmed cell death) of each of these cells based on exposure to various dilutions of each of the four Roundup products as well as G, POEA and AMPA (the main metabolite of G at 14 different concentrations of 10 ppm to 2%).

The researchers were surprised by the findings and reported that all four herbicides caused cellular death for all four types of cells within 24 hours. The researchers reported several mechanisms by which the herbicides caused the cells to die including: cell membrane rupture and damage, mitochondrial damage and cell asphyxia. Following these findings, the researchers tested G, AMPA and POEA by themselves and concluded that, "It is very clear that if G, POEA, or AMPA has a small toxic effect on embryonic cells alone at low levels, the combination of two of them at the same final concentration is significantly deleterious".

Although Monsanto claims that G metabolizes into a harmless and inert substance known as AMPA, the researchers found that AMPA was more toxic to human cells than G. This finding is very noteworthy considering AMPA is more stable and present in soil, plants, food and wastewater (2 to 35 ppm) compared with G (.1 to 3 ppm) [14]. AMPA was also found to synergistically increase the toxicity of G and POEA.

The researchers also reported that G acted very quickly at concentrations 500 to 1000 times lower than present agricultural levels to induce programmed cell death. G alone was found to induce mitochondrial toxicity without cell membrane damage. Furthermore, the researchers tested very weak concentrations (.005%) of Roundup and reported cell death, lack of adhesion, shrinking and fragmentation in the cells undergoing apoptosis. The embryonic cells were the most sensitive indicating another major reason to eat only organic foods while pregnant.

Although previous researchers have proposed that the supposed "inert ingredients" alter the role of cell membrane disruptors in fish, amphibians, microorganisms [15] and plants [16], independent of G, this study is the first of its kind to report similar findings in human cells and immediately calls for strict monitoring of the agricultural usage of Roundup. The researchers concluded that, "the proprietary mixtures available on the market could cause cell damage and even death around residual levels to be expected, especially in food and feed derived from R [Roundup] formulation-treated crops".

References

1.GMO Compass. USA: Cultivations of GM plants in 2007. 2008 [cited January 15, 2009]; Available from: http://www.gmo-compass.org/eng/agri....
2.Finamore, A., et al., Intestinal and peripheral immune response to MON810 maize ingestion in weaning and old mice. Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry, 2008. 56: p. 11533-11539.
3.Velimirov, A., et al., Biological effects of transgenic maize NK603xMON810 fed in long term reproduction studies in mice. Unpublished study: Institute fur Ernahrung, Austria., November 11, 2008.
4.Acquavella, J.F., et al., Human occular effects frim self-reported exposures to Roundup herbicides. Human & Experimental Toxicology, 1999. 18: p. 479-486.
5.Williams, G.M., Kroe, R., & Munro, I.C. Safety evaluation and risk assessment of the herbicide Roundup and active ingredient, glyphosate, for humans Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology, 200. 31: p. 117-165.
6.Tsui, M.T. & Chu, L.M. Aquatic toxicity of glyphosate based formulations: Comparisons between different organisms and the effect of environmental factors. Chemosphere, 2003. 52: p. 1189-1197.
7.Cox, C., Glyphosate (Roundup). Journal of Pesticide Reform, 1998. 18: p. 3-17.
8.Clive, J., The global status of the commercialized biotechnoligical/genetically modified crop: 2006. Tsitol. Genet., 2007. 41: p. 10-12.
9.Duffy, M., Does planting GMO seed boost farmer`s profits? Leopold Letter, 1999. 11: p. 1-5.
10.Benbrook, C.M. Genetically engineered crops and pesticide use in the United States. BioTech InfoNet Technical Paper Number 7, October 2004.
11.Nice, G., B. Johnson, and T. Bauman, A little burndown madness. Pest & Crop, 2008. 7.
12.Center for Food Safety. Agricultural pesticide use in U.S. agriculture: Why USDA-NASS agricultural chemical reporting is important. May 2008: Washington, DC.
13.Benachour, N. & Seralini, G.E. Glyphosate formulations induce apoptosis and necrosis in human umbilical, embryonic, and placental cells. Chemical Research in Toxicology, In Press.
14.Ghanem, A., et al., Glyphosate and AMPA analysis in sewage sludge by LC-ESI-MS/MS after FMOC derivation on strong anion-exchange resin as solid support. Annals of Chemistry, 2007. 79: p. 3794-3801.
15.Cox, C. & Surgan, M. Unidentified inert ingredients in pesticides: Implications for human and environmental health. Environmental Health Perspectives, 2006. 114: p. 1803-1806.
16.Haefs, R., et al., Studies on a new group of biodegradable surfactants for glyphosate. Pesticide Management in Science, 2006. 58: p. 825-833.

http://www.naturalnews.com/025534.html

Living near big power line may up Alzheimer's risk

Thu Feb 5, 2009 3:15pm EST
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Older people living within 50 meters of major power lines are at increased risk of dying from Alzheimer's disease or senile dementia, research from Switzerland shows.
The risk increased steadily with the amount of time a person had been living in close proximity to a 220-380 kV power line, Dr. Anke Huss of the University of Bern and colleagues found. These are extra-high voltage lines used for long-distance transmission of large amounts of electricity.
Huss and colleagues were able to look at census and mortality data for over 95% of the Swiss population, which strengthens the power of the findings. Nevertheless, the researcher told Reuters Health, the results should be interpreted with caution because this is the first study to link residential magnetic field exposure to Alzheimer's mortality. Huss said she would like to see other research teams, preferably in other countries, look into the issue.
Extremely low-frequency magnetic fields are produced by electrical appliances and wiring as well as by power lines. The World Health Organization has stated that these magnetic fields are possible human carcinogens. In 2007, WHO concluded that there was not enough evidence to link extremely low-frequency magnetic fields to Alzheimer's disease, but called for the relationship to be a "key research priority," Huss and her team note in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
To investigate the relationship between residential exposure to power lines and risk of neurodegenerative disease, the researchers looked at 1990 and 2000 census data and 2000-2005 mortality data for 4.7 million people 30 and older.
Overall, Huss and her colleagues found, people living within 50 meters of a 220-380 kV power line were 1.24 times more likely to die of Alzheimer's disease than those living at least 600 meters away from these power lines.
People who lived for at least 5 years near a 220-380 kV power line were at a 1.51-fold increased risk. For people who lived close to a large power line for at least a decade, risk increased by a factor of 1.78, while it was doubled for those who had been living near a power line for at least 15 years. Results were similar when the researchers looked at deaths from senile dementia.
While 9.2% of the Swiss population lives within 600 meters of an extra-high voltage power line, only 0.3% live within 50 meters of one, Huss noted. "It's not a huge amount of people."
People are much more likely to be exposed to extremely low-frequency magnetic fields at home, but such exposure can easily be controlled, according to Huss. While household appliances such as radio alarm clocks can produce magnetic fields similar to those emitted by power lines, the researcher pointed out, reducing risk is a simple matter of avoiding being very close to such devices for long periods of time; for example, not sleeping with one's head close to a radio alarm clock or keeping an electric blanket on all night long.
At present, the researcher added, there is no accepted biological mechanism to explain why magnetic fields might increase Alzheimer's risk. Given the consistency of the findings, she added, "There might be something going on even if we don't know what it is."
SOURCE: American Journal of Epidemiology, January 15, 2009.
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE5146ZI20090205

Cell phone use linked to brain tumours: Russian scientist

TIMES OF INDIA 6 Feb 2009, 1853 hrs IST

MOSCOW: : A leading Russian scientist has said, citing a Swedish study, that the use of cell phones from an early age could lead to brain

tumours.

"We have a very cautious attitude as regards children, our future generation. There is data suggesting that brain tumours could develop," Yury Grigoryev, a leading scientist at the Burnazyan medical biophysical centre said Thursday.

Grigoryev cited Swedish research data, which he said showed that if a child uses a cell phone from 8 to 12 years, then the risk of developing a brain tumour by the age of 21 increases fivefold.

He also said that every person in Russia is subject to electromagnetic radiation from cellular base stations. He said people use mobile phones too often, which means the dose of radiation they get is comparable to that received by workers whose profession involves dealing with radiolocation equipment and transmitters.

Grigoryev said there is as yet no reliable Russian research proving cell phones are harmful to health. However, he said that according to the World Health Organisation, Alzheimer's disease, depression and a greater risk of epileptic reactions could be the possible consequences of mobile phone usage.

The head of the medical centre's radiobiology and non-ionizing radiation hygiene lab, Oleg Grigoryev, said that in line with Russian sanitary norms, the use of cell phones is not recommended for minors.

"The brand or price of a cell phone doesn't matter. The dose of radiation is defined by the network operation mode and phone use intensity," he said.

Oleg Grigoryev also said that a wire or wireless headset would make the distance from a person's head to the phone over 0.5 meters, a distance believed to be safe. He also advised cutting down on calls.

Cell_phone_use_linked_to_brain_tumours_Russian_scientist/articleshow/4089228.cms

Drought threatens Chinese wheat crop

Low rainfall in the north has put nearly half of the country's harvest at risk
The GUARDIAN UK, Wednesday 4 February 2009 15.48 GMT
A severe drought in northern China – considered the country's breadbasket – has hit almost 43% of the country's wheat crop this winter, senior officials have warned.
Low rainfall since October has affected more than 9.3m hectares (229.71 acres) of land in northern China across six major grain-producing provinces, according to the Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters. Last week it warned that 3.7 million people and 1.85 million livestock had lost access to drinking water.
Vice-premier Hui Liangyu has urged local officials to make tackling the water shortage a priority, state media reported today. Beijing has set aside 100m yuan (£10m) of funding to help farmers combat the problem and have sent specialist teams to the worst affected areas. Provincial governments are planning to seed clouds to ensure it rains.
Henan Daily reported that the drought is the province's most severe since 1951, with no rain for 105 days. It warned that up to 63% of the region's wheat crop is threatened.
In Anhui the provincial government said the drought had already caused losses of 1.6bn yuan. It has set aside hundreds of millions of yuan to assist farmers.
Sun Zhengcai, the agriculture minister, blamed low rainfall since October for the problems. The meteorological administration says no rain is forecast over the next week.
But environmental campaigners warned the lack of rainfall had merely exacerbated a long term problem in a naturally dry region where consumption has soared, thanks to intensive agriculture, industry and a rising and increasingly urbanised population.
Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs and author of China's Water Crisis, said that to have more than 100 rainless days was a record in recent decades.
But he added: "Water use in the region is not sustainable. We have seen rivers running dry because too much water has been diverted for farming and increasingly for urban and industrial use. We have seen the water table dropping steadily over the last three decades. Obviously this kind of drought adds insult to injury."
While the authorities had helped industry and cities to increase the efficiency of water usage, it was not enough to solve the problem.
Ma said the northern half of China had over 40% of the country's population, more than 50% of the arable land and much industry due to its coal reserves – yet less than 20% of the nation's water.
China said last month that it would spend 21.3bn yuan on the next phase of its ambitious water diversion project to help the arid north. The multibillion pound scheme, which will take up to half a century to complete, will connect the Yangtze, Huaihe, Yellow and Haihe rivers. It will require the creation of east, middle and western channels and will eventually divert 44.8bn cubic metres of water annually. The first phase of the eastern programme will begin to deliver water by 2013.
Ma said the scheme was first conceived in the fifties, but that many people believed its time had come because the situation in the north was now so dire. "We have to keep in mind that this will not fill up the whole gap," he said. "From now on the focus should be seriously shifted to conserving water."
Campaigners have warned that the scheme could have serious social and environmental repercussions, changing the ecosystem and requiring mass resettlement.

Drug Companies Discover Clever Loophole to Avoid Listing Side Effects in Direct-to-Consumer Advertising

David Gutierrez, NaturalNews staff writer

(NaturalNews) Pharmaceutical companies have discovered a way to circumvent federal rules that require the listing of side effects in any direct-to-consumer ads: running ads that never mention specific drugs by name but merely direct consumers to a Web site that promotes the company's products.

"With unbranded ads, you don't have the 'fair balance' requirement," said Rich Gagnon of the DraftFCB ad agency, which represents several drug companies. "Imagine paying millions to run that ad campaign, and having to use up 30 seconds to list all the problems."

A recent one-minute ad for Eli Lilly's osteoporosis drug Evista spent 25 seconds listing potential side effects, including blood clots and "dying from stroke."

One of the most notable recent "unbranded" ads is Pfizer's My Time to Quit ad, aired during the Beijing Olympics. The ad features a middle-aged woman discussing her smoking problem, discusses options available for those who wish to quit, then encourages viewers to visit mytimetoquit.com. The Web site includes a link to the site for Pfizer's anti-smoking drug Chantix, which lists the drug's side effects.

The My Time to Quit ad was originally aired as part of the company's campaign to familiarize users with the drug after its 2006 introduction, and was then retired. But after a number of studies linked the drug to drowsiness, traffic accidents and suicide, the company reintroduced the older ad.

Another successful unbranded ad has been one by Sanofi-Aventis, maker of the insomnia drug Ambien. A 15-second ad directs viewers to silenceyourrooster.com, which contains information about Ambien. During the ad's first week on the air, it generated 400,000 hits to the Web site.

Direct-to-consumer drug ads have recently been the subject of congressional investigations, leading Bob Ehrlich of the direct-to-consumer organization DTC Perspectives to speculate that the new ads could ultimately draw the same negative attention.

"There's a risk they could rouse congressional ire over cute commercials that don't emphasize medicine," Ehrlich said.

http://www.naturalnews.com/025526.html

Spirituality, Not Religion, Makes Kids Happy, Say Psychologists

Scientific Blogging.com   Jan 9 2009 - 1:00am

To make children happier, we may need to encourage them to develop a strong sense of 'personal worth', according to Dr. Mark Holder, Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia,  Visiting Assistant Professor Dr. Ben Coleman and graduate student Judi Wallace.   Their research says that children who feel that their lives have meaning and value and who develop deep, quality relationships – what they term measures of spirituality – are happier.

But according to their paper in the Journal of Happiness Studies, actual religious practices have little effect on that happiness.

Both spirituality, what they call an inner belief system that a person relies on for strength and comfort,  and religiousness, what they term institutional religious rituals, practices and beliefs, have been linked to increased happiness in adults and adolescents.  Fewer studies have been done on younger children.

In an effort to identify strategies to increase children's happiness, Holder and colleagues set out to better understand the nature of the relationship between spirituality, religiousness and happiness in children aged 8 to 12 years. A total of 320 children, from four public schools and two faith-based schools, completed six different questionnaires to rate their happiness, their spirituality, their religiousness and their temperament. Parents were also asked to rate their child's happiness and temperament.

The authors found that those children who rated themselves according to their spiritual definition were happier. In particular, the personal (i.e. meaning and value in one's own life) and communal (i.e. quality and depth of inter-personal relationships) aspects  were strong predictors of children's happiness. They determined that 'spirituality' explained up to 27 percent of the differences in happiness levels amongst children.

A child's temperament was also an important predictor of happiness. In particular, happier children were more sociable and less shy. The relationship between spirituality and happiness remained strong, even when the authors took temperament into account. However, religious practices – including attending church, praying and meditating – had little effect on a child's happiness.

According to the authors, "enhancing personal meaning may be a key factor in the relation between spirituality and happiness." They suggest that strategies aimed at increasing personal meaning in children - such as expressing kindness towards others and recording these acts of kindness, as well as acts of altruism and volunteering – may help to make children happier. 

Article: Holder MD, Coleman B,&Wallace J (2008). Spirituality, religiousness, and happiness in children aged 8-12 years. Journal of Happiness Studies DOI 10.1007/s10902-008-9126-1

http://www.scientificblogging.com/print/36296

Grape Seed Extract Found To Kill Leukemia Cells In Laboratory Tests

Published on Scientific Blogging  Dec 31 2008 - 1:00am
An extract from grape seeds forces laboratory leukemia cells to commit cell suicide, according to researchers from the University of Kentucky. They found that within 24 hours, 76 percent of leukemia cells had died after being exposed to the extract.

The investigators, who report their findings in the January 1, 2009, issue of Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, also teased apart the cell signaling pathway associated with use of grape seed extract that led to cell death, or apoptosis. They found that the extract activates JNK, a protein that regulates the apoptotic pathway.

While grape seed extract has shown activity in a number of laboratory cancer cell lines, including skin, breast, colon, lung, stomach and prostate cancers, no one had tested the extract in hematological cancers nor had the precise mechanism for activity been revealed.

"These results could have implications for the incorporation of agents such as grape seed extract into prevention or treatment of hematological malignancies and possibly other cancers," said the study's lead author, Xianglin Shi, Ph.D., professor in the Graduate Center for Toxicology at the University of Kentucky.

"What everyone seeks is an agent that has an effect on cancer cells but leaves normal cells alone, and this shows that grape seed extract fits into this category," he said.

Shi adds, however, that the research is not far enough along to suggest that people should eat grapes, grape seeds, or grape skin in excess to stave off cancer. "This is very promising research, but it is too early to say this is chemo-protective."

Hematological cancers – leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma – accounted for an estimated 118,310 new cancer cases and almost 54,000 deaths in 2006, ranking these cancers as the fourth leading cause of cancer incidence and death in the U.S.

Given that epidemiological evidence shows that eating vegetables and fruits helps prevent cancer development, Shi and his colleagues have been studying chemicals known as proanthocyanidins in fruits that contribute to this effect. Shi has found that apple peel extract contains these flavonoids, which have antioxidant activity, and which cause apoptosis in several cancer cell lines but not in normal cells. Based on those studies, and findings from other researchers that grape seed extract reduces breast tumors in rats and skin tumors in mice, they looked at the effect of the compound in leukemia cells.

Using a commercially available grape seed extract, Shi exposed leukemia cells to the extract in different doses and found the marked effect in causing apoptosis in these cells at one of the higher doses.

They also discovered that the extract does not affect normal cells, although they don't know why.

The researchers then used pharmacologic and genetic approaches to determine how the extract induced apoptosis. They found that the extract strongly activated the JNK pathway, which then led to up-regulation of Cip/p21, which controls the cell cycle.

They checked this finding by using an agent that inhibited JNK, and found that the extract was ineffective. Using a genetic approach – silencing the JNK gene – also disarmed grape seed extract's lethal attack in leukemia cells.

"This is a natural compound that appears to have relatively important properties," Shi said.

Article: Ning Gao, Amit Budhraja, Senping Cheng, Hua Yao, Zhuo Zhang, Xianglin Shi, 'Induction of Apoptosis in Human Leukemia Cells by Grape Seed Extract Occurs via Activation of c-Jun NH2-Terminal Kinase', Clinical Cancer Research 15, 140-149, January 1, 2009. doi: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-08-1447

grape_seed_extract_found_kill_leukemia_cells_laboratory_tests

Gardening Is Good For You - Study

Published on Scientific Blogging Created Feb 3 2009 - 1:00am

Gardening can offer enough moderate physical activity to keep older adults in shape but Kansas State researchers writing in the journal HortScience say that among the other health benefits of gardening is keeping older hands strong and nimble.

"One of the things we found is that older adults who are gardeners have better hand strength and pinch force, which is a big concern as you age," said Candice Shoemaker, K-State professor of horticulture.

Shoemaker is part of a small team of K-State researchers studying the ways in which gardening affects the health of older adults. She works with Mark Haub, associate professor of human nutrition, and Sin-Ae Park, a research associate in horticulture who earned her doctorate in horticulture from K-State in December 2007.

The research comes from a study that assessed 15 areas of health in older adults, from both those who garden and those who don't. The researchers looked at measurements like bone mineral density, sleep quality, physical fitness, hand strength and psychological well-being.

"We found that with gardening tasks older adults can, among other things, improve their hand strength and self-esteem at the same time," Park said.

Although Shoemaker said that differences between gardeners and non-gardeners showed up in a few health assessments like hand strength, overall physical health and self esteem, results from some of the other areas were more ambiguous.

"If we had a larger sample I think we would see more health differences between those who garden and those who don't, including in areas like sleep quality and life satisfaction," she said.

The results about the positive impact of gardening on hand strength prompted Park and the researchers to explore this area further. They are now analyzing data from an eight-week horticulture therapy program that targeted hand strength in stroke patients.

"They did tasks like mixing soil and filling pots," Park said. "They had to use their hands all of the time, so that was good exercise -- and they really enjoyed it."

Park, Shoemaker and Haub recently garnered national news coverage for a study published in the journal HortTechnology. The study probed the physical impact of gardeners working in their own gardens. The researchers showed that older adults can use gardening to achieve a moderate activity level and meet the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's exercise recommendations.

The trio of researchers also published a study in the journal Perceptual and Motor Skills of the physical impact of individual gardening tasks. They found that a task like raking, which uses the whole body, had the most exercise benefit, whereas activities like mixing soil or transplanting seedlings give the most benefit to the upper body.

Shoemaker, who also researches gardening as a prevention strategy to childhood obesity, said that studying the physical benefits of gardening is important for older adults because gardening is a physically active hobby that provides an alternative to sports or other exercise.

"There's a lot of natural motivation in gardening," Shoemaker said. "For one thing, you know there's a plant you've got to go out and water and weed to keep alive. If we get the message out there that older adults can get health benefits from gardening, they'll realize that they don't have to walk around the mall to get exercise."

http://www.scientificblogging.com/news_releases/gardening_good_you_study

Zen Meditation Alleviates Pain, Study Finds

ScienceDaily (Feb. 6, 2009) — Zen meditation – a centuries-old practice that can provide mental, physical and emotional balance – may reduce pain according to Université de Montréal researchers. A new study in the January edition of Psychosomatic Medicine reports that Zen meditators have lower pain sensitivity both in and out of a meditative state compared to non-meditators.
Joshua A. Grant, a doctoral student in the Department of Physiology, co-authored the paper with Pierre Rainville, a professor and researcher at the Université de Montréal and it's affiliated Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal. The main goal of their study was to examine whether trained meditators perceived pain differently than non-meditators.
"While previous studies have shown that teaching chronic pain patients to meditate is beneficial, very few studies have looked at pain processing in healthy, highly trained meditators. This study was a first step in determining how or why meditation might influence pain perception." says Grant.
Meditate away the pain
For this study, the scientists recruited 13 Zen meditators with a minimum of 1,000 hours of practice to undergo a pain test and contrasted their reaction with 13 non-meditators. Subjects included 10 women and 16 men between the ages of 22 to 56.
The administered pain test was simple: A thermal heat source, a computer controlled heating plate, was pressed against the calves of subjects intermittently at varying temperatures. Heat levels began at 43 degrees Celsius and went to a maximum of 53 degrees Celsius depending on each participant's sensitivity. While quite a few of the meditators tolerated the maximum temperature, all control subjects were well below 53 degrees Celsius.
Grant and Rainville noticed a marked difference in how their two test groups reacted to pain testing – Zen meditators had much lower pain sensitivity (even without meditating) compared to non-meditators. During the meditation-like conditions it appeared meditators further reduced their pain partly through slower breathing: 12 breaths per minute versus an average of 15 breaths for non-meditators.
"Slower breathing certainly coincided with reduced pain and may influence pain by keeping the body in a relaxed state." says Grant. "While previous studies have found that the emotional aspects of pain are influenced by meditation, we found that the sensation itself, as well as the emotional response, is different in meditators."
The ultimate result? Zen meditators experienced an 18 percent reduction in pain intensity. "If meditation can change the way someone feels pain, thereby reducing the amount of pain medication required for an ailment, that would be clearly beneficial," says Grant.
This study was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Mind and Life Institute Varela Grant (J.A.G.) and the Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec.
Grant, Joshua A., Rainville, Pierre. Pain Sensitivity and Analgesic Effects of Mindful States in Zen Meditators: A Cross-Sectional Study. Psychosom Med, 2009 71: 106-114 [link]
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090203110514.htm

Human DNA Repair Process Recorded In Action

ScienceDaily (Feb. 6, 2009) — A key phase in the repair process of damaged human DNA has been observed and visually recorded by a team of researchers at the University of California, Davis. The recordings provide new information about the role played by a protein known as Rad51, which is linked to breast cancer, in this complex and critical process.
The breakthrough comes a decade after Stephen Kowalczykowski, a distinguished professor of microbiology and the study's principal investigator, and Ron Baskin, professor emeritus of molecular and cellular biology, first began developing methods of labeling molecules with fluorescent markers and observing them at work using optical trapping of individual DNA molecules and advanced microscopy techniques. In 2006, the researchers recorded a portion of the bacterial DNA repair process, a system considerably less complex than its human counterpart.
Human DNA is under constant assault from harmful agents such as ultraviolet sunlight, tobacco smoke and a myriad of chemicals, both natural and man-made. Because damage can lead to cancer, cell death and mutations, an army of proteins and enzymes are mobilized into action whenever it occurs.
Rad51 takes a leading role in the action. Always on call in the cell, molecules of the protein assemble into a long filament along a damaged or broken segment of DNA, where they help stretch out the coiled strands and align them with corresponding segments on the cell's second copy of the chromosome, which serves as a template for reconstruction. Because this protein is regulated by a gene linked to increased risk of breast cancer, BRCA2, it is also thought to play a role in suppression of that disease.
With the ability to watch the assembly of individual filaments of Rad51 in real time, Kowalczykowski's team made a number of discoveries. Among those are that, in contrast to their bacterial counterparts, Rad51 filaments don't grow indefinitely. This indicates that there is an as-yet undiscovered mechanism that regulates the protein's growth, Kowalczykowski said.
Another surprising difference between the human and bacterial processes, Kowalczykowski said, is that Rad51 doesn't fall away from the DNA when repair is complete. Instead, proteins that motor along DNA are required to dislodge it.
"From a practical point of view, being able to record these single molecules gives us insightful information regarding the assembly process," the researcher said. "Now we're able to measure this in a quantifiably meaningful way."
The new study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Jan. 13.
Other contributors to the study were postdoctoral scholars Jovencio Hilario and Ichiro Amitani.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090129102340.htm

Collapse Of Antarctic Ice Sheet Would Likely Put Washington, D.C. Largely Underwater

enlarge

Processes contributing to the geometry of sea-level change following the potential collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. In illustration A, the WAIS can be seen as a largely marine-based ice sheet - that is, its base commonly sits below local sea level. In illustration B, the change in sea-level geometry that would follow the disappearance of the WAIS is shown. For the sake of comparison, the dashed lines to the left and right show the original location of the sea surface and crustal surface, respectively (i.e., the locations these surfaces had on the top frame, before WAIS collapse). (Credit: Jerry Mitrovica & Natalya Gomez, University of Toronto)
ScienceDaily (Feb. 6, 2009) — University of Toronto and Oregon State University geophysicists have shown that should the West Antarctic Ice Sheet collapse and melt in a warming world – as many scientists are concerned it will – it is the coastlines of North America and of nations in the southern Indian Ocean that will face the greatest threats from rising sea levels.
The catastrophic increase in sea level, already projected to average between 16 and 17 feet around the world, would be almost 21 feet in such places as Washington, D.C., scientists say, putting it largely underwater. Many coastal areas would be devastated. Much of Southern Florida would disappear, according to researchers at Oregon State University.
“There is widespread concern that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet may be prone to collapse, resulting in a rise in global sea levels,” says geophysicist Jerry X. Mitrovica, who, along with physics graduate student Natalya Gomez and Oregon State University geoscientist Peter Clark, are the authors of a new study to be published in the February 6 issue of the journal Science.  “We’ve been able to calculate that not only will the rise in sea levels at most coastal sites be significantly higher than previously expected, but that the sea-level change will be highly variable around the globe,” adds Gomez.
“Scientists are particularly worried about the ice sheet because it is largely marine-based, which means that the bedrock underneath most of the ice sits under sea level,” says Mitrovica, director of the Earth System Evolution Program at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research.  “The West Antarctic is fringed by ice shelves which act to stabilize the ice sheet – these shelves are sensitive to global warming, and if they break up, the ice sheet will have a lot less impediment to collapse.”  This concern was reinforced further in a recent study led by Eric Steig of the University of Washington that showed that the entire region is indeed warming.
“The typical estimate of the sea-level change is five metres, a value arrived at by taking the total volume of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, converting it to water and spreading it evenly across the oceans,  says Mitrovica.  “However, this estimate is far too simplified because it ignores three significant effects:

• when an ice sheet melts, its gravitational pull on the ocean is reduced and water moves away from it.  The net effect is that the sea level actually falls within 2,000 km of a melting ice sheet, and rises progressively further away from it.  If the West Antarctic Ice Sheet collapses, sea level will fall close to the Antarctic and will rise much more than the expected estimate in the northern hemisphere because of this gravitational effect;
• the depression in the Antarctic bedrock that currently sits under the weight of the ice sheet will become filled with water if the ice sheet collapses.  However, the size of this hole will shrink as the region rebounds after the ice disappears, pushing some of the water out into the ocean, and this effect will further contribute to the sea-level rise;
• the melting of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet will actually cause the Earth’s rotation axis to shift rather dramatically – approximately 500 metres from its present position if the entire ice sheet melts.  This shift will move water from the southern Atlantic and Pacific oceans northward toward North America and into the southern Indian Ocean.

“The net effect of all of these processes is that if the West Antarctic Ice Sheet collapses, the rise in sea levels around many coastal regions will be as much as 25 per cent more than expected, for a total of between six and seven metres if the whole ice sheet melts,” says Mitrovica.  “That’s a lot of additional water, particularly around such highly populated areas as Washington, D.C., New York City, and the California coastline.”
Digital animation of what various sea-level rise scenarios might look like for up to six metres is at http://www.cresis.ku.edu/research/data/sea_level_rise.
“There is still some important debate as to how much ice would actually disappear if the West Antarctic Ice sheet collapses – some fraction of the ice sheet may remain quite stable,” he says.  “But, whatever happens, our work shows that the sea-level rise that would occur at many populated coastal sites would be much larger than one would estimate by simply distributing the meltwater evenly.  Any careful assessment of the sea-level hazard associated with the loss of major ice reservoirs must, of course, account for the sea-level fingerprint of other sources of meltwater, namely Greenland, the East Antarctic and mountain glaciers.  The most important lesson is that scientists and policy makers should focus on projections that avoid simplistic assumptions.”
The research was funded with support from the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and the US National Sciences Foundation.
. The Sea Level Fingerprint of West Antarctic Collapse. Science, Feb 6, 2009
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090205142132.htm

Antioxidants Help Prevent Some Forms Of Loss Of Visual Function In Mice

ScienceDaily (Feb. 6, 2009) — Abnormal growth of blood vessels in the eye can result in impaired vision. In a number of diseases (including macular telangiectasia and retinal angiomatous proliferation), this abnormal growth of blood vessels is associated with local degeneration of nerve cells, including those that detect the light that enters the eye (photoreceptors).
In a mouse model of diseases such as macular telangiectasia and retinal angiomatous proliferation, Martin Friedlander and colleagues, at The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, have managed to prevent photoreceptor loss caused by abnormal growth of blood vessels without correcting the blood vessel defect.
Prevention of photoreceptor loss was achieved by both oral antioxidant supplementation and by cell-based delivery of factors that enhance nerve cell survival, development, and function. The authors therefore suggest that both these approaches might help preserve visual function.
The research appears online, Feb. 2nd, 2009, in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
Michael I. Dorrell, Edith Aguilar, Ruth Jacobson, Oscar Yanes, Ray Gariano, John Heckenlively, Eyal Banin, G. Anthony Ramirez, Mehdi Gasmi, Alan Bird, Gary Siuzdak, Martin Friedlander. Antioxidant or neurotrophic factor treatment preserves function in a mouse model of neovascularization-associated oxidative stress. J. Clin. Invest., 2009; DOI: 10.1172/JCI35977
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090202214835.htm

Ritalin May Cause Changes In Brain’s Reward Areas; Effects May Overlap With Those Of Cocaine

ScienceDaily (Feb. 5, 2009) — A common treatment for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, prescribed millions of times a year, may change the brain in the same ways that cocaine does, a new study in mice suggests. Research from Rockefeller University shows that methylphenidate, commonly known as Ritalin, causes physical changes in neurons in reward regions of mouse brains. In some cases, the effects overlapped with those of cocaine.
The study highlights the need for more research into methylphenidate’s long-term effects on the brain, the researchers say.
The researchers, led by Yong Kim, senior research associate, and Paul Greengard, Vincent Astor Professor and head of the Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience, exposed mice to two weeks of daily injections of cocaine or methylphenidate. They then examined reward areas of the brain for changes in dendritic spine formation — related to the formation of synapses and the communication between nerve cells — and the expression of a protein called delta Fos B, which has been implicated in the long-term actions of addictive drugs.
Both drugs increased dendritic spine formation and the expression of delta Fos B; however, the precise patterns of their effects were distinct. They differed in the types of spines affected, the cells that were affected and the brain regions. In some cases there was overlap between the two drugs, and in some cases methylphenidate produced greater effects than cocaine, for example, on protein expression in certain regions. Both methylphenidate and cocaine are in the class of drugs known as psychostimulants.
“Methylphenidate, which is thought to be a fairly innocuous compound, can have structural and biochemical effects in some regions of the brain that can be even greater than those of cocaine,” says Kim. “Further studies are needed to determine the behavioral implications of these changes and to understand the mechanisms by which these drugs affect synapse formation.”
Reference: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: February 3, 2009
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090204193314.htm

Gut Bacteria Can Manufacture Defenses Against Cancer And Inflammatory Bowel Disease

ScienceDaily (Feb. 5, 2009) — Bacteria naturally present in the human gut could produce substances that help to protect against colon cancer and provide therapy for inflammatory bowel disease. In a paper published in the journal Microbiology, researchers from the University of Aberdeen Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health and from the MTT Agrifood Research Institute in Finland report initial studies showing that bacteria in the human gut convert linoleic acid, a naturally-occurring fat in the diet, into a form called conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) which is absorbed by the gut wall.
There are different types of CLA and not all of them have beneficial effects. The "good" form of CLA is present in dairy foods such as milk and cheese," said Dr John Wallace of the Rowett Research Institute, "but eating lots of dairy foods won't necessarily help our gut health as most of the fats are digested in the small intestine before they get to the large intestine, where most of our gut bacteria are found."
The results of these latest studies showed that several different forms of CLA are produced by gut bacteria. Fortunately, most was of the "good" kind, but Dr Wallace stressed that more extensive studies are needed. One subject produced small amounts of a CLA whose beneficial or otherwise effects are much less clear.
The implications are that, if small quantities of dietary linoleic acid can be delivered to the large intestine, the effects on gut health will be generally beneficial in most people. He added, "The results are of special interest for individuals using anti-obesity treatments that prevent the small intestine from absorbing fats. This means that those fats – including linoleic acid - will pass into the large intestine and the gut bacteria will produce CLA. It has to be the correct CLA, so it is important to understand how individuals produce different CLA. This must depend on which types of bacteria are present."