Archive for April, 2010
Women who eat foods with high glycemic index may be at greater risk for heart disease
Consuming carbohydrates with high glycemic index-an indicator of how quickly a food affects blood glucose levels-appears to be associated with the risk of coronary heart disease in women but not men, according to a report in the April 12 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals (see also JAMA and Archives Journals).
High-carbohydrate diets increase the levels of blood glucose and of harmful blood fats known as triglycerides while reducing levels of protective HDL or “good” cholesterol, thereby increasing heart disease risk, according to background information in the article. However, not all carbohydrates have the same effect on blood glucose levels. The glycemic index is a measure of how much a food raises blood glucose levels compared with the same amount of glucose or white bread. A related measure, the glycemic load, is calculated based on the glycemic index of a given food and also on the total amount of carbohydrates it contains.
Sabina Sieri, Ph.D., of Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan, Italy, and colleagues studied 47,749 Italian adults-15,171 men and 32,578 women-who completed dietary questionnaires. Based on their responses, the researchers calculated their overall carbohydrate intakes as well as the average glycemic index of the foods they consumed and the glycemic loads of their diets. During a median (midpoint) of 7.9 years of follow-up, 463 participants (158 women and 305 men) developed coronary heart disease.
The one-fourth of women who consumed the most carbohydrates overall had approximately twice the risk of heart disease as the one-fourth who consumed the least. When these carbohydrates were separated into high- and low-glycemic index categories, increased intake from high-glycemic index foods was significantly associated with greater risk of coronary heart disease, whereas low-glycemic index carbohydrates were not. “Thus, a high consumption of carbohydrates from high-glycemic index foods, rather than the overall quantity of carbohydrates consumed, appears to influence the risk of developing coronary heart disease,” the authors write.
The one-fourth of women whose diet had the highest glycemic load had 2.24 times the risk of heart disease compared with the one-fourth of women with the lowest glycemic load.
Overall carbohydrate intake, glycemic index and glycemic load were not associated with heart disease risk in men. This could be because the adverse changes associated with carbohydrate intake, including triglyceride levels, are stronger risk factors for heart disease in women than in men, the authors note.
“We tentatively suggest that the adverse effects of a high glycemic diet in women are mediated by sex-related differences in lipoprotein and glucose metabolism, but further prospective studies are required to verify a lack of association of a high dietary glycemic load with cardiovascular disease in men,” they conclude.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Intentional weight loss not harmful to seniors
A new study by researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center is the first to refute the widely held belief that intentional weight loss in older adults leads to increased risk of death (see also Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center).
In fact, the research shows that seniors who intentionally exercised and/or modified their diets to lose weight were half as likely to die within eight years of follow-up as their peers who did not work toward weight loss, said M. Kyla Shea, Ph.D., first author on the study and a research associate in the Department of Internal Medicine, Section on Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine.
“It was an unusually strong and surprising finding,” Shea said. “Our data suggest that people should not be concerned about trying or recommending weight loss to address obesity-related health problems in older adults.”
The study, funded by the National Institute on Aging, is currently available online and is schedule to appear in a future print issue of the Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences.
Prior to this study, research that has looked at the association between mortality and weight loss has not factored in the many different potential causes of the weight loss. So, using a more rigorous randomized trial approach, Shea and colleagues sought to prove or disprove the idea that older individuals who actively tried to lose weight increased their risk of death.
The research team re-analyzed data from a study of 318 community-dwelling, older adults over age 60, all with knee arthritis, who were enrolled in a trial assessing the effects of weight loss and/or exercise on physical function in the late 1990s. The initial weight-loss intervention took place over a period of 18 months from 1996 through 1998, during which time the 159 individuals in the intervention groups actively lost an average of 10.5 pounds. The non-intervention group lost an average of 3.1 pounds naturally.
The researchers then checked to see if the study participants were still living eight years later.
“Overall, we found that there were far fewer deaths – half the number – in the group of participants that lost weight compared to the group that did not,” Shea said.
The finding was unexpected to seasoned gerontologists.
“For years, the medical community has relied on multiple epidemiological studies that suggested that older people who lost weight were more likely to die,” said Stephen B. Kritchevsky, Ph.D., director of the J. Paul Sticht Center on Aging at the Medical Center. “Weight loss in old folks is just understood to be a bad prognostic sign. The data that people have been using has been unable to separate the cause and effect of the weight loss, however, and our study suggests that the weight loss they’ve been studying may be the result of other health problems and not of intentional weight loss.”
The participants in this study had a constellation of common health problems occurring in aging adults, Kritchevsky added.
“These were the seniors living out in the community, getting around and doing their daily tasks just like your neighbor,” he said. “All were overweight and dealing with the signs of aging when the study started.”
When the researchers evaluated the effect of weight loss in the oldest of the participants – 75 and older – they found the same reduction in mortality as they saw in the younger group – those 60 and older – who lost weight.
Weight loss in older adults has been shown to help several medical problems, Kritchevsky said, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and high fasting glucose levels. However, physicians have been hesitant to recommend weight loss in older adults because of a concern for mortality based on previous research.
“This study puts to rest a lot of unfounded concerns about how to address the epidemic of obesity among our older adults,” Kritchevsky said.
He cautioned that the study was relatively small and the results should be confirmed in other trials, but that the data gathered from this analysis are sufficient enough to rule out any significant excess risk due to intentional weight loss and to suggest that there may be a mortality benefit to losing the weight, as well.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Trial drug vastly boosts hepatitis C cure
Hepatitis C patients can be cured in 24 weeks when an experimental treatment is added to two established anti-viral drugs, researchers in Vienna said Friday.
Adding experimental telaprevir, an infection-treating protease inhibitor co-developed by Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Johnson & Johnson, to established anti-viral treatments peginterferon and ribavirin, can cure 93 percent to 100 percent of patients infected with hepatitis C genotype 1, one of the hardest types to cure, said researchers at the International Liver Congress 2010, the annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of the Liver.
Patients taking standard peginterferon and ribavirin alone have an average 51 percent cure rate, statistics indicate.
Hepatitis C is an infectious disease chronically infecting 170 million people worldwide. It is one of the top three causes of cancer death in men and a major cause of cancer death in women.
Spread by blood-to-blood contact, the disease can lead to advanced liver scarring, known as cirrhosis, as well as liver failure or liver cancer.
Even after a liver transplant, the virus almost always recurs, statistics indicate.
The study presented Friday involved 161 European and U.S. patients who enrolled in a phase II trial, designed to see how well the new drug worked in various doses after its initial safety was confirmed.
“This trial is really helpful as it shows that patients with a good early virological response only need 24 weeks of treatment and that a twice-daily dose of telaprevir is just as effective as three times a day,” hepatology Professor Mark Thursz of London’s Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine said.
“Although the number of patients in this study was relatively small and should therefore be treated with caution, I expect such findings will make an important contribution in terms of patients’ adherence to their therapy and overall treatment outcomes,” he said. “This will ultimately impact on their overall quality of life.”
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Autism and Stem Cell Therapy
In June of 2007 an article was published in a peer-reviewed journal proposing a role for stem cell therapy in treating autism. The account that follows provides a perspective on the implications and prevalence of autism, as well as a synopsis and a critique of the proposed use of stem cells to treat the major symptoms of autism disorder.
Autism is a complex brain developmental disorder that is characterised by impaired social interactions, communication difficulties, obsessive attachment to routines and repetition, and often an extreme dislike of certain sounds, textures and tastes. Autism usually surfaces in the first three years of life and may vary in severity from mild to disabling. Depending on degree of severity, some children with autism may develop into independent adults with full time employment and self-sufficiency; however this is seldom the case. There is no known single cause but abnormalities in brain function are generally attributed to environmental, immunological and neurological factors.
Social costs: It is reported as one of the fastest-growing developmental disabilities in the US, with diagnoses having increased by staggering proportions in the last decade. An estimated 1.5 million children and adults in the U.S. currently (as at 2007) have some form of autism. Presenting these statistics another way; autism spectrum disorders are believed to affect approximately 1 in 166 children.
Children with autism suffer from two major conditions: Hypoperfusion and Immune Dysregulation
Hypoperfusion of the brain in autism
Children with autism have shown impaired blood flow (hypoperfusion) to the brain. Hypoperfusion may contribute to functional defects not only by inducing hypoxia (an oxygen deficit that prevents normal brain function) but also by allowing for abnormal metabolite or neurotransmitter accumulation. Hypothetically, if perfusion can be improved through the revitalisation of blood vessels (angiogenesis), then this should also allow for metabolite clearance and restoration of functionality.
See http://www.stemcells21.com
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Intentional weight loss helps, not harms, seniors.
The outcome of a study scheduled to appear in the print issue of the Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences contradicts the concerns raised by previous studies that deliberate weight loss among older individuals could increase the risk of death.
Weight reduction aids in lowering high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol and high fasting glucose levels, all of which can increase with aging, yet some health care practitioners have hesitated recommending weight loss to older individuals due to findings that associated weight reduction with increased mortality. However, the studies upon which these conclusions were based did not address whether weight loss was intentional or due to underlying disease.
M. Kyla Shea, PhD and her associates at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center analyzed data from 318 arthritic men and women over the age of 60 who participated in a randomized trial that evaluated the effects of dieting and/or exercise on physical function. Known cardiovascular disease, severe hypertension, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and other conditions that could limit participation in regular exercise were criteria for exclusion. The 159 subjects in the weight loss diet and diet plus exercise intervention groups lost an average of 10.5 pounds over an 18.5 month period, while the exercise only group and the healthy lifestyle control participants lost an average of 3.1 pounds.
The current study analyzed deaths that occurred up to 8 years after the trial’s conclusion. Dr Shea and colleagues discovered a correlation between weight loss and increased survival. Fifteen deaths occurred among those assigned to weight loss diet interventions, compared with 30 in the remainder of the participants. “It was an unusually strong and surprising finding,” stated Dr Shea, who is a research associate in Wake Forest’s Department of Internal Medicine, Section on Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine. “Overall, we found that there were far fewer deaths – half the number – in the group of participants that lost weight compared to the group that did not.”
“These were the seniors living out in the community, getting around and doing their daily tasks just like your neighbor,” noted coauthor Stephen B. Kritchevsky, PhD, who is the director of the J. Paul Sticht Center on Aging. “All were overweight and dealing with the signs of aging when the study started.”
“For years, the medical community has relied on multiple epidemiological studies that suggested that older people who lost weight were more likely to die,” he remarked. “Weight loss in old folks is just understood to be a bad prognostic sign. The data that people have been using has been unable to separate the cause and effect of the weight loss, however, and our study suggests that the weight loss they’ve been studying may be the result of other health problems and not of intentional weight loss.”
“This study puts to rest a lot of unfounded concerns about how to address the epidemic of obesity among our older adults,” he concluded.
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Health Concern Life Extension Highlight
Obesity
The risk of death from all causes, including cardiovascular disease and cancer, increases with rising obesity in both men and women in all age groups, and the risk associated with a high BMI is greater for whites than for blacks (Calle et al 1999).
Obesity increases the risk of developing metabolic syndrome and coronary heart disease (Shirai 2004); type 2 diabetes (Mensah et al 2004); osteoarthritis of major load-bearing joints, such as the knee (Felson et al 1997); hypertension (high blood pressure); sleep apnea (periods of suspended breathing during sleep) (Wolk et al 2003); and gall bladder disease (Petroni 2000).
The International Agency for Research on Cancer has classified obesity as a critical causal risk factor for cancers of the colon, breast (postmenopausal women), endometrium, kidney (renal cell), and esophagus (adenocarcinoma) (Calle et al 2004).
A study reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that obesity causes 111,909 deaths annually (Flegal et al 2005), while epidemiological evidence shows that a lower body weight is associated with lower mortality risk (Stevens 2000). In the well-known Framingham Heart Study, risk of death increased by 1 percent for each extra pound (0.45 kg) of weight between age 30 and 42 and increased by 2 percent between age 50 and 62 (Solomon et al 1997; Kopelman 2000).
In order to prevail against your body’s innate propensity to store fat, you must restore fat-reducing hormones such as DHEA and testosterone lost to aging, and suppress hormones such as insulin and estrogen, which promote body fat. You’ll want to enhance insulin sensitivity and maintain a youthful metabolic rate so that your cells are able to release stored fat.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Study: Low levels of vitamin D linked to higher rates of asthma in African-American kids
Researchers at Children’s National Medical Center have discovered that African American children with asthma in metropolitan Washington, DC, are significantly more likely to have low levels of vitamin D than healthy African American children (see also Children’s National Medical Center).
This study supports recent research that suggests vitamin D plays a greater role in the body than just keeping bones healthy. Vitamin D deficiency has been recently linked to a variety of non-bone related diseases including depression, autoimmune disorders, and now asthma.
“It’s been well-documented that as a group, African Americans are more likely than other racial groups to have low levels of vitamin D,” said Robert Freishtat, MD, MPH, an emergency medicine physician and lead author on the study. “But we were shocked to see that almost all of the African American children with asthma that we tested had low vitamin D levels. After adjusting for differences in age, weight, and the time of year of the testing, the odds of these kids with asthma being vitamin D deficient were nearly twenty times those of healthy kids.”
The study took a one-time measurement of vitamin D in the blood of 85 African American children with asthma, who were between 6 and 20 years old. Additionally, the researchers measured the vitamin D levels of 21 healthy African American children between the ages of 6 and 9 years of age. The research team found that 86 percent of the children in the study with asthma had insufficient levels of vitamin D, while only 19 percent of non-asthmatics had these low levels.
These findings may mean that low vitamin D levels have more serious effects on a child’s lung health than previously believed. Though more research is needed to establish definitively how vitamin D deficiency can contribute to asthma, parents can ensure that their children receive healthier amounts of vitamin D by following the current USDA guidelines for milk consumption and seeking a doctor’s advice about multivitamins.
“The District of Columbia has among the highest rates of pediatric asthma in the United States, and we’re working to find out why,” says Stephen Teach, MD, MPH, senior author of the study. “For African American kids with asthma, vitamin D testing and ensuring adequate vitamin D intake may need to become necessary steps in their primary care.”
Stem Cells lead Anti-Aging Technologies
Stem cell treatment and stem cell gene therapy are leading the way to anti-aging technologies and treatments. Regenerative stem cell therapies are at the forefront of stem cell studies in this type of research, utilizing advanced cellular therapy methodologies to replace damaged or dying cells, which accelerate the aging process.
Such stem cell replacement therapy rely on the transplantation of healthy and vibrant cells that have been isolated and multiplied in an environment outside the body. These stem cells, utilizing adult stem cells, autologous (self) stem cells or umbilical cord stem cells are then injected into the body or skin, depending on need, to supply a healthy source of new cellular growth.
Pre-engineered adult stem cells are often utilized in such research. Adult stem cell therapy or autologous stem cells utilizes a patient’s own stem cells harvested through a typical blood draw. Patients receive injections of the new cell growth about a week later. The injected adult stem cells then stimulate the regrowth of tissues and cellular structures throughout the body or in specific areas where they are injected.
Advanced, integrative treatment is available in Bangkok, Thailand.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Chinese Wolfberries May Help Vision Problems in Type 2 Diabetes
A Kansas State University researcher is exploring the use of Chinese wolfberries to improve vision deficiencies that are common for type-2 diabetics. Dingbo “Daniel” Lin, K-State research assistant professor of human nutrition, is studying wolfberries and their potential to improve damage to the retina. His findings show that the fruit can lower the oxidative stress that the eye undergoes as a result of type-2 diabetes. “I would not say that wolfberries are a medicine, but they can be used as a dietary supplement to traditional treatments to improve vision,” Lin said. “Wolfberries have high antioxidant activity and are very beneficial to protect against oxidative stress caused by environmental stimuli and genetic mutations.” Lin has experience in biochemistry and eye research, and he wanted to bridge his current work in nutrition with vision. In a conversation about the eye and phytochemicals Lin had with his father, a traditional medical doctor in China, Lin decided to explore the use of wolfberries for vision improvement. “In our culture’s history, we have traditional medicine literature that describes things like the wolfberry and its functions,” Lin said. Wolfberries are bright orange-red, oblong-shaped and grown in China. Lin said the fruit is known to help rebalance homeostasis, boost the immune system, nourish the liver and kidneys and improve vision. He wanted to understand the mechanisms of the wolfberry’s effects on vision and started the project in July 2008. Lin and his colleagues have found that wolfberries have high levels of zeaxanthin, lutein, polysaccharides and polyphenolics, which have been shown to improve vision, including the prevention of age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy. The researchers are using dried wolfberries and examining their effects on the retina pigment epithelial cell layer. “It’s the only cell layer in the far back of the retina, and it provides a fundamental support to the whole retina, just like the base of a building,” Lin said. “All of the nutrients pass through that cell layer.” By using type-2 diabetic mice, the researchers are studying the effects of wolfberries on oxidative stress, one of the factors that occurs in diabetic retinopathy, which is a common complication of diabetes and the leading cause of blindness in American adults. “Oxidative stress is known as cell impairment of the production of reactive oxygen,” Lin said. “Cellular oxidative stress is involved in many human diseases, such as diabetes, vision impairment and blindness.” The researchers also looked at the endoplasmic reticulum, which is where the folding process of proteins occurs in a cell. When the accumulation of unfolded protein aggregates occurs persistently, the endoplasmic reticulum is under stress. Prolonged stress will eventually cause cell deaths, Lin said. The in vitro and in vivo studies have shown that the wolfberry’s phytochemicals protect the retinal pigment epithelial cells from hyperglycemia, or high glucose. The findings show that the fruit has local effects on oxidative stress, reactivates the enzyme AMPK and reduces endoplasmic reticulum stress. “AMPK is a key enzyme in the balance of cell energy homeostasis,” Lin said. “The outcome of the current research will lead to the development of dietary regimens in prevention of an eye disease.” The researchers are continuing to study wolfberries and their health benefits. Lin said wolfberries could be used as a dietary supplement, though the fruit isn’t likely to be found in traditional U.S. food stores. He said consumers might find them in a Chinese food store or on the Internet. The research is part of a fast-moving field called nutrigenomics, which studies the effects of food on gene expression and disease. Nutrients have been shown to affect gene expression, and by understanding the roles of specific nutrients and how they might cause diseases, scientists could recommend specific foods for an individual based on his or her genetics. At K-State, other researchers collaborated on the project: Denis Medeiros, professor and department head of human nutrition; Yu Jiang, research associate in human nutrition; Edlin Ortiz, junior in life sciences, Liberal; and Yunong Zhang, a former research assistant in human nutrition. The research has been presented at the 2009 Experimental Biology conference and 2009 American Society of Cell Biology Conference.
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