Health Related articles updated on daily Basis.

[Mehrushka]

Red bull= slow death

[SIZE=+3]Red Bull Drink = Slow Death?[/SIZE][SIZE=+1]
From Helmi
10-12-9[/SIZE]

[SIZE=+1]France & Denmark have banned it from the country...[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+1]RED BULL - slow death ...[/SIZE]

[SIZE=+1]Do NOT drink this drink anymore![/SIZE]

[SIZE=+1]Pay attention...read everything...[/SIZE]

[SIZE=+1]As a public health safety, please pass on this email to all the contacts in your address book especially those with teenage children.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=+1]This drink is SOLD in all the supermarkets IN OUR country and our children ARE CONSUMING IT ON A TRIAL BASIS. IT can be FATAL.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=+1]RED BULL was created to stimulate the brains in people who are subjected to great physical force and in stress coma and never to be consumed like an innocent drink or soda pop.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=+1]RED BULL IS the energizer DRINK that is commercialized world-wide with its slogan: "It increases endurance, awakens the concentration capacity and the speed of reaction, offers more energy and improves the mood. All this can be found in a can of RED BULL, the power drink of the millennium.

"[/SIZE] [SIZE=+1]RED BULL has managed to arrive in almost 100 countries worldwide. The RED BULL logo is targeted at young people and sportsmen, two attractive segments that have been captivated by the stimulus that the drink provides.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=+1]It was created by Dietrich Mateschitz, an industrialist of Austrian origin who discovered the drink by chance. It happened during a business trip to Hong Kong , when he was working at a factory that manufactured toothbrushes.[/SIZE]
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The liquid, based on a formula that contained caffeine and taurine, caused a rage in that country. Imagine the grand success of this drink in Europe where the product still did not exist, besides it was a superb opportunity to become an entrepreneur.[/SIZE]
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BUT THE TRUTH ABOUT THIS DRINK IS ANOTHER THING[/SIZE] [SIZE=+1]FRANCE and DENMARK have just prohibited it as a cocktail of death, due to its vitamin components mixed with GLUCURONOLACTONE ' - a highly-dangerous chemical, which was developed by the United States Department of Defense during the sixties to stimulate the moral of the troops based in VIETNAM, which acted like a hallucinogenic drug that calmed the stress of the war.[/SIZE]
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But their effects in the organism were so devastating, that it was discontinued, because of the high index of cases of migraines, cerebral tumors and diseases of the liver that was evident in the soldiers who consumed it.[/SIZE]
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And in spite of it, in the can of RED BULL you can still find as one of its components: GLUCURONOLACTONE, categorized medically as a stimulant. But what it does not say on the can of RED BULL are the consequences of its consumption, and that has forced a series of WARNINGS...[/SIZE]
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1. It is dangerous to take it if you do not engage in physical exercise afterwards, since its energizing function accelerates the heart rate and can cause a sudden attack.[/SIZE]
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2. You run the risk of undergoing a cerebral hemorrhage, because RED BULL contains components that dilute the blood so that the heart utilizes less energy to pump the blood, and thus be able to deliver physical force with less effort being exerted.[/SIZE]
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3. It is prohibited to mix RED BULL with alcohol, because the mixture turns the drink into a " Deadly Bomb " that attacks the liver directly, causing the affected area never to regenerate anymore.[/SIZE]
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4. One of the main components of RED BULL is the B12 vitamin, used in medicine to recover patients who are in a coma ; from here the hypertension and the state of excitement which is experienced after taking it, as if you were in a drunken state.[/SIZE]
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5. The regular consumption of RED BULL triggers off symptoms in the form of a series of irreversible nervous and neuronal diseases.[/SIZE]
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CONCLUSION: It is a drink that should be prohibited in the entire world as when it is mixed with alcohol it creates a TIME BOMB for the human body, mainly between innocent adolescents and adults with little experience. Forward this mail to Everyone and Let them know about this..[/SIZE][SIZE=+1]Disclaimer[/SIZE]

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http://rense.com/general88/bull.htm

 

[aamir_uetn]

Fast Food is Dangerous

 

[tahirmajid]

Re: Fast Food is Dangerous

It seems we are eating "lipstic, soap, shampo)

 

[tahirmajid]

Re: Fast Food is Dangerous

But for married persons it is not a big deal because they are already habitual to eat these things (married persons know how)

 

[aamir_uetn]

Re: Fast Food is Dangerous

But for married persons it is not a big deal because they are already habitual to eat these things (married persons know how)

tabhi main kahoon shadi k baad banda down hona kyun shuru ho jata hai [hilar]

 

[Night_Hawk]

Reading, writing keep ageing brains healthy

(IANS) / 27 November 2012

Reading and writing can preserve brains of older people and insure them against deterioration as they age, says a new study.Konstantinos Arfanakis and colleagues from Rush University Medical Centre and Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, examined the effect of late-life cognitive activity on the brain’s white matter, composed of nerve fibres, or axons, that transmit information through the brain.

Previous research, unlike that of Arfanakis, had linked late-life cognitive activity with better mental sharpness, according to a statement from Rush University and Illinois Institute.

‘Reading the newspaper, writing letters, visiting a library, attending a play or playing games, such chess or checkers, are all simple activities that can contribute to a healthier brain,’ Arfanakis said.

The researchers used a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) method known as DTI to generate data on diffusion anisotropy, a measure of how water molecules move through the brain. These values in white matter drop with aging, injury and disease.

The study included 152 elderly participants with an average age of 81 years, from the Rush Memory and Aging Project, a large-scale study looking at risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease. They were without dementia or mild cognitive impairment, based on a detailed clinical evaluation.

Researchers asked them to rate on a scale of one to 5 the frequency with which they participated in a list of mentally engaging activities during last year, such as reading newspapers and magazines, writing letters and playing cards and board games.

Data analysis revealed significant associations between the frequency of cognitive activity in later life and higher water molecule diffusion in the brain.

These findings were presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) in Chicago in the US.

 

[Night_Hawk]

Dangers of mixing grapefruit with drugs rises

(AFP) / 27 November 2012

OTTAWA — The number of drugs when mixed with grapefruit that can lead to serious health problems, including sudden death, has skyrocketed, warns a Canadian researcher who first discovered the toxic link.In an article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, David Bailey, a scientist at the Lawson Health Research Institute in London, Ontario, said more than 85 drugs, many of them highly prescribed for common medical conditions, are known to interact with the pink fruit.
He first made the link 20 years ago.
But the number of medications with the potential to interact with grapefruit and cause serious adverse health effects has jumped from 17 to 43 in the last four years, as new drugs have been rolled out, Bailey said.
“How big a problem are such interactions? Unless health care professionals are aware of the possibility that the adverse event they are seeing might have an origin in the recent addition of grapefruit to the patient’s diet, it is very unlikely that they will investigate it,” Bailey said.
Generally patients don’t say they eat grapefruit and doctors don’t ask, he lamented in the article.
Grapefruit poses a risk when mixed with certain drugs because it inhibits an enzyme that metabolizes ingested drugs, resulting in the drugs entering the bloodstream at full force, which can lead to overdosing.
Some of the drugs known to interact with grapefruit include anti-cancer agents, heart drugs, pain medications and drugs to treat schizophrenia. All of them are administered orally.
It doesn’t take much grapefruit to have an effect. Drinking a single glass of grapefruit juice with medication can lead to serious side effects, including gastrointestinal bleeding, kidney failure, breathing problems and sudden death.
Other citrus fruits such as Seville oranges and limes can have similar effects. But they have been studied less.

 

[Night_Hawk]

Soy unlikely to help hot flashes (Reuters) / 28 November 2012 Women who eat a lot of soy-based foods or fiber don’t seem to have fewer menopause symptoms, according to a US study - the latest research to find no benefits from eating extra amounts of soy, a food abundant in dietary estrogen.Hormone replacement therapy, based on estrogen and other hormones, is effective in reducing hot flashes and other menopause symptoms, but carries some risks of heart disease and cancer. Researchers have been testing whether plant estrogens can offer benefits, perhaps without the risks. ‘Many women can’t or don’t want to take hormones,’ making dietary estrogen an appealing alternative, said Ellen Gold, the lead author of the study and a professor at the University of California Davis School of Medicine. But studies on plant estrogens have been mixed. A review of 17 studies on soy supplements has found that the pills can reduce the frequency and severity of hot flashes, but some individual trials on soy protein pills have found no benefits. ‘It might be a dead end,’ said William Wong, a professor at Baylor College of Medicine who has studied the effects of soy protein on menopause symptoms but was not part of the study. To see if women who choose to eat more phytoestrogens have an easier time through menopause, Gold and her colleagues tracked 1,651 women for 10 years. At the beginning of the study, none of the women had gone through menopause. Each year the researchers, whose findings appeared in the journal Menopause, followed up with them to gather any reports of hot flashes or night sweats, and every few years the women filled out a food survey. By the end of the study, Gold’s team could find no consistent pattern between the amount of phytoestrogens eaten and how often or how severely women experienced hot flashes and night sweats. The same was true for how much fiber the women ate. In some cases, the researchers did see a relationship between one type of dietary estrogen and menopause symptoms, but it didn’t always carry through when they examined women of different ethnicities or looked at different points in time. But those apparent results may simply have been due to chance, they wrote. Gold said it’s possible that for some subsets of women, plant estrogens might have a benefit, but they weren’t able to tease that out in this study. ‘I think the more promising avenue for us in the future is to see if there are some women who might benefit,’ she told Reuters Health. Wong is less optimistic, because of the negative results seen in long-term studies of women taking soy protein supplements. ‘After looking at our own clinical trial data and others, we don’t see it,’ he told Reuters Health. ‘I think we should move on.’ SOURCE: http://bit.ly/Uq77iV

 

[Night_Hawk]

Soft drink raises risk of prostate cancer

(IANS) / 28 November 2012

Men who drink fizzy drinks are not just ruining their teeth but could also be at risk of aggressive prostate cancer, the Daily Mail reported Tuesday.A Swedish study has found just one soft drink a day could increase the risk of developing more serious forms of the cancer by 40 percent.

Experts at Lund University also found those who ate a carbohydrate diet heavy in rice and pasta increased their risk of getting milder forms of prostate cancer, which often required no treatment, by 31 percent.

And eating lots of sugary breakfast cereals raised the incidence of milder forms of the cancer to 38 percent

Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in men after lung disease.

The study examined more than 8,000 men aged between 45 and73 for an average of 15 years.

 

[Night_Hawk]

[h=1][/h]
Permanent Address: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=food-additives-mimic-hormones
[h=2]Some Food Additives Mimic Human Hormones[/h]New research reveals that some common food additives behave like estrogen in the body
By Jessica A. Knoblauch and Environmental Health News | Friday, March 27, 2009 | 6

FISHY LOBSTER? Some food additives that help to keep lobster and other shellfish looking fresh might be changing human hormones.Image: FLICKR/IAW KEVEN

A discovery that two commonly used food additives are estrogenic has led scientists to suspect that many ingredients added to the food supply may be capable of altering hormones.

More than 3,000 preservatives, flavorings, colors and other ingredients are added to food in the United States, and none of them are required to undergo testing for estrogenic activity, according to the Food and Drug Administration.

“We need to be mindful of these food additives because they could be adding to the total effect of other estrogen mimicking compounds we're coming into contact with,” said Clair Hicks, a professor of food science at the University of Kentucky and spokesperson for the Institute of Food Technologists, a nonprofit scientific group.

“The benefits of using these additives in food need to be weighed against the risks they present,” Hicks said.

In a study published in December, Italian researchers screened 1,500 food additives using computer-modeling software, a much faster and cheaper approach than testing lab rats.

The researchers first used modeling to identify 13 molecules that could hypothetically bind with an estrogen receptor, a group of molecules activated by the hormone. Like a clenched fist that fits into the palm of a hand, potentially estrogenic molecules will “fit” inside the receptor, indicating they could interact and alter hormones.

Then, the researchers exposed cells to the 13 food additives, which confirmed that two have estrogen-mimicking properties. Known as “xenoestrogens,” these substances have been linked to reproductive problems in animals and perhaps humans.

The first food additive, propyl gallate, is a preservative used to prevent fats and oils from spoiling that can be found in a range of foods including baked goods, shortening, dried meats, candy, fresh pork sausage, mayonnaise and dried milk.

The second additive, 4-hexyl resorcinol, is used to prevent shrimp, lobsters, and other shellfish from discoloring.

“Some caution should be issued for the use of these two additives,” said Pietro Cozzini, one of the researchers who conducted the study and a chemistry professor at the University of Parma in Italy.

He added that further tests on rats are necessary to determine whether these additives could harm humans.

Paul Foster, whose research focuses on the potential human health effects of endocrine disruptors, agreed. He said there is a big difference between adding estrogenic molecules to cells in a culture dish and actually seeing what happens when that dose is administered to an animal.

“There are a lot of compounds that give quite strong responses in a culture dish that really don’t produce any effects on lab rats,” said Foster, who is deputy director of the National Toxicology Program's Center for the Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduction, which is part of the National Institutes of Health.

The major concern, Foster said, is what happens when people are exposed to mixtures of these estrogenic compounds.

“There are examples where you can take dose levels of compounds on their own that won’t produce an effect, but when you put these compounds together, you may get something different,” he said.

However, Foster said people should keep in mind that they already ingest significant numbers of fairly potent estrogens in their diets by consuming foods like tofu and milk, so findings like these shouldn’t necessarily scare people until more research has been conducted.

“It’s clear that humans are exposed to a mixture of these estrogenic compounds,” Foster said. “But you have to try to balance out what might already be present in your diet or your lifestyle with these things that might be coming from some other sources,” such as food additives.

Systems like the one used by the Italian researchers are useful for screening potentially estrogenic additives, Foster said, adding that it’s a “good first step” towards identifying these compounds.

Of the estimated 3,000 additives used in the United States to preserve foods or improve their taste and appearance, only about 2,000 have detailed toxicological information available, according to the FDA.

"Our results are part of a bigger, more important problem, which is that there could be other additives used in foods that could have estrogenic activity," Cozzini said.

Globally, the market for additives is expected to reach more than $33 billion by 2012. There are five main reasons that companies add compounds to food: to emulsify, to preserve, to add nutritional content, to add flavor or color and to balance alkalinity and acids.

"With some 3,000 compounds being used in food formulations there may be other additives with estrogenic properties that come to light with these types of studies," Hicks said.

Using the traditional animal testing system, “it would be impossible to test all of the additives in a short time,” Cozzini said. “Every day we discover new molecules, and we must continue to identify new ways to study them.”

Propyl gallate is considered “Generally Recognized As Safe” (GRAS) by the FDA, a title given to food additives that don’t require approval because they have a proven track record based on either a history of use before 1958 or on published scientific evidence. Examples of other GRAS substances include salt, sugar, spices and vitamins.

The other estrogenic one, 4-hexyl resorcinol, which is used on raw shelled seafood to inhibit melanosis, or black spots, was petitioned in 1990 for GRAS status. Its status is still pending, according to Michael Herndon, an FDA press officer.

The FDA’s lack of testing for estrogenic compounds doesn’t stop at additives. In 2008, an independent advisory board said the FDA ignored critical evidence concerning another estrogenic compound, bisphenol A, a plasticizing chemical found in polycarbonate baby bottles and the linings of metal foods cans.

“What we’ve seen with the FDA’s handling of BPA is that it’s had its head in the sand,” said Renee Sharp, director of the Environmental Working Group’s California office. “If you look at its assessments, what you see is that it has consistently ignored independent science and consistently used outdated methods in its assessments.”

As concern about the cumulative impacts of these chemicals grows among the scientific community, some studies are suggesting that the effects of these compounds could extend to future generations.

For example, investigators at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences have found that adverse effects can be seen in both the granddaughters and grandsons of mice who were developmentally exposed to diethylstilbestrol (DES), a synthetic form of estrogen that caused reproductive problems in pregnant women and their fetuses. While DES was taken off the market in 1971, there are many other compounds that have similar, estrogenic effects.

“This study is the flagship of estrogen mimickers and why we worry about them,” said Shanna Swan, director of the University of Rochester's Center for Reproductive Epidemiology and a leading expert on reproductive effects of environmental exposures. “The fact that these chemicals can effect future generations has been a huge lesson for the science community.”

Other research has found that low doses of these chemicals can cause significant changes in those exposed to them and their developing offspring. One recent study published in Environmental Health Perspectives found that when rats are exposed to low levels of BPA during lactation, their offspring had an increased chance of breast cancer.

As the evidence that synthetic estrogens may pose a health risk mounts, researchers are uncovering these compounds in new places.

Earlier this month, researchers in Germany found traces of an unknown estrogenic substance leaching into mineral water stored in polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles, a commonly used plastic for storing foods and beverages.

The study is the first to find that these containers are leaching synthetic estrogens.

“We already knew that BPA was leaching from polycarbonate baby bottles, so we decided to test bottles of mineral water to see if there was any estrogenic activity,” said Martin Wagner, a PhD student in aquatic toxicology at Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt.

The scientists tested 20 brands of mineral water and found that 60 percent of the samples tested positive, with estrogenic activity in plastic bottles appearing twice as high as compared to activity in water from glass bottles.

In addition, the researchers found that mud snails placed inside the bottles filled with fresh water experienced reproduction rates double of control snails, which suggests that substances from the packaging, and not the water itself, caused the reproductive change.

“The results show that these leached chemicals are important enough to change reproduction in only eight weeks,” Martin said.

Further testing is needed to identify the source of the estrogenic activity, but Wagner said the study’s significance is that it shows people are exposed to more environmental endocrine disruptors than what was previously thought.

“We’re dealing with this chemical mixture, a cocktail effect, and I would say that if you look at a single compound then you might underestimate the exposure to these environmental estrogens,” he said.

Ralph Vasami, executive director of a plastics industry group, the PET Resin Association, said ongoing research on the safety of PET for the past three decades has revealed no safety issues or reasons for concern.

"PET has been proven through considerable research to be a safe packaging material for water and other food and beverage items,” he said. “The PET industry stands on its record of safety and reliability as a packaging material.”

Swan said that the studies reinforce the need for precautionary action when dealing with these types of chemicals, such as avoiding plastic products whenever possible to decrease exposure.
“If you’re taking several hits of something, even if it’s safe at a low dose, it’s going to add up,” Swan said.

This article originally ran at Environmental Health News, a news source published by Environmental Health Sciences, a nonprofit media company.



http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=food-additives-mimic-hormones&print=true

 

[Night_Hawk]

Stem cell discovery may revive damaged heart

(IANS) / 29 November 2012

A new discovery that tricks aging stem cells into rejuvenating mode could enable scientists to create youthful patches for damaged or diseased hearts and heal them, according to a Canadian study.The breakthrough may enable scientists to create such life giving patches from a patient’s own stem cells - regardless of the patient’s age - while avoiding the threat of rejection, the study claims.

Stem cell therapies involving donated bone marrow stem cells run the risk of patient rejection in a portion of the population, argues Milica Radisic, associate professor of chemical engineering and applied chemistry at the University of Toronto, the Journal of the American College of Cardiology reports.

One method of avoiding such a risk has been to use cells derived from a patient’s own body. But until now, clinical trials of this kind of therapy using elderly patients’ own cells have not been a viable option, since aged cells tend not to function as well as cells from young patients, according to a Toronto statement.

‘If you want to treat these people with their own cells, how do you do this?’ asks Radisic. It’s a problem that Radisic and co-researcher Ren-Ke Li think they might have an answer for: by creating the conditions for a ‘fountain of youth’ reaction within a tissue culture. Li is a professor in the division of cardiovascular surgery.

Radisic and Li first create a ‘micro-environment’ that allows heart tissue to grow, with stem cells donated from elderly patients at the Toronto General Hospital, where Li works.

Li and his team then tracked the molecular changes in the tissue patch cells. ‘We saw certain aging factors turned off,’ states Li, citing the levels of two molecules in particular, p16 and (regucalcin) RGN, which effectively turned back the clock in the cells, returning them to robust and states.

‘It’s very exciting research,’ says Radisic, who was named one of the top innovators under 35 by MIT in 2008 and winner of the 2012 Young Engineers Canada award.

 

[Night_Hawk]

Tap water chemicals could be giving you food allergies

(IANS) / 3 December 2012

Food allergies are rearing their head worldwide because of pesticides and chemicals in tap water, says an immunological research.The study reported that high levels of dichlorophenols, a chemical used in pesticides and to chlorinate water, are tied to food allergies when found in the human body.

Symptoms can range from a mild rash to a life-threatening reaction known as anaphylaxis.
“Our research shows that high levels of dichlorophenol-containing pesticides can possibly weaken food tolerance in some people, causing food allergy,” said study lead Elina Jerschow, assistant professor of medicine (allergy and immunology), Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
“This chemical is commonly found in pesticides used by farmers and consumer insect and weed control products, as well as tap water,” added Jerschow, the journal Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology reports.
A US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2005-2006, involving 10,348 people, found that 2,548 had dichlorophenols measured in their urine and 2,211 were included into the study.
Food allergy was found in 411 of these participants, while 1,016 had an environmental allergy, according to an Albert Einstein statement.
Opting for bottled water instead of tap water might seem to be a way to reduce the risk for developing an allergy, according to the study such a change may not be successful.
“Other dichlorophenol sources, such as pesticide-treated fruits and vegetables, may play a greater role in causing food allergy,” said Jerschow.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an increase in food allergy of 18 percent was seen from 1997-2007. The most common food allergens are milk, eggs, peanuts, wheat, tree nuts, soy, fish, and shellfish.

 

[Night_Hawk]

Climbing stairs serially burns more calories

(IANS) / 17 December 2012

Climbing one step at a time burns more calories than leaping up several stairs, according to scientists from the University of Roehampton.They found climbing five flights of stairs five times a week—an ascent of around 15 metres—burnt an average of 302 calories if the stairs were taken one at a time.

But taking two steps with every stride will only burn 260 calories, they say.
Lewis Halsey, senior lecturer in comparative and environmental physiology at the university, said: “We were really interested to find out what expended more energy overall—attacking the stairs two at a time and climbing them quickly, or taking them more sedately one step at a time and reaching the top more slowly,” the Daily Mail reports.
“Our study reported the calories burned ascending stairs, the potential weight loss value of climbing stairs if done regularly and frequently during the week, and also the different energy costs of ascending stairs one step at a time versus two steps at a time.
“And our conclusion: it is better to take the stairs one at a time, if you want to burn the most calories.”
He added that the greater total energy expenditure of one-step ascents must be partly explained by the fact it takes longer.
But there might be a bio-mechanical explanation too.
Taking the stairs one at a time may result in faster rates of muscle shortening, which increases energy turnover.
Previous research from the University of Ulster found office workers who began regularly climbing stairs quickly improved their fitness.
Researchers divided office workers into two groups. One climbed staircases located within an eight-storey office block, consisting of 145 steps. They began by climbing the stairs once a day and gradually built up to three over the following five weeks.
The average speed they climbed was 75 steps a minute.
At the end of the trial, the stairclimbing group showed a significant 10 percent increase in a reading called predicted VO2 max.
This is measured using your pulse—the time interval between your heartbeats is used to find out how well your body takes up and uses oxygen.

 

[Night_Hawk]

Aerobic exercise makes brain smarter

(IANS) / 15 December 2012

The physical benefits of regular exercise are well documented. Now researchers in a New Zealand university say that people who routinely perform aerobic exercises are also smarter than those who do not.Hayley Guiney and Liana Machado from the University of Otago, New Zealand unearthed evidence that highlights the importance of physical activity and its role in improving cognitive function throughout life.

A certain amount of mental deterioration is expected with advancing age. But aerobic exercise benefits cognitive function such as switching between tasks, and selective attention and working memory, the journal Psychonomic Bulletin & Review reports.

Review of studies by researchers consistently found that fitter individuals scored better in mental tests than their unfit peers.

Scores in mental tests also improved among those who were assigned to an aerobic exercise regimen, compared to those told to do stretch and tone classes, according to an Otago statement.

Both the updating of working memory and the volume of information which could be held was better in fitter individuals or those who followed an aerobic exercise regime.

 

[Night_Hawk]

December 12, 2012, 12:01 am[h=1]Why Afternoon May Be the Best Time to Exercise[/h] By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS

Getty Images


Gretchen Reynolds on the science of fitness.


Does exercise influence the body’s internal clock? Few of us may be conscious of it, but our bodies, and in turn our health, are ruled by rhythms. “The heart, the liver, the brain — all are controlled by an endogenous circadian rhythm,” says Christopher Colwell, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles’s Brain Research Institute, who led a series of new experiments on how exercise affects the body’s internal clock. The studies were conducted in mice, but the findings suggest that exercise does affect our circadian rhythms, and the effect may be most beneficial if the exercise is undertaken midday.
For the study, which appears in the December Journal of Physiology, the researchers gathered several types of mice. Most of the animals were young and healthy. But some had been bred to have a malfunctioning internal clock, or pacemaker, which involves, among other body parts, a cluster of cells inside the brain “whose job it is to tell the time of day,” Dr. Colwell says.
These pacemaker cells receive signals from light sources or darkness that set off a cascade of molecular effects. Certain genes fire, expressing proteins, which are released into the body, where they migrate to the heart, neurons, liver and elsewhere, choreographing those organs to pulse in tune with the rest of the body. We sleep, wake and function physiologically according to the dictates of our body’s internal clock.
But, Dr. Colwell says, that clock can become discombobulated. It is easily confused, for instance, by viewing artificial light in the evening, he says, when the internal clock expects darkness. Aging also worsens the clock’s functioning, he says. “By middle age, most of us start to have trouble falling asleep and staying asleep,” he says. “Then we have trouble staying awake the next day.”
The consequences of clock disruptions extend beyond sleepiness. Recent research has linked out-of-sync circadian rhythm in people to an increased risk for diabetes, obesity, certain types of cancer, memory loss and mood disorders, including depression.
“We believe there are serious potential health consequences” to problems with circadian rhythm, Dr. Colwell says. Which is why he and his colleagues set out to determine whether exercise, which is so potent physiologically, might “fix” a broken clock, and if so, whether exercising in the morning or later in the day is more effective in terms of regulating circadian rhythm.
They began by letting healthy mice run, an activity the animals enjoy. Some of the mice ran whenever they wanted. Others were given access to running wheels only in the early portion of their waking time (mice are active at night) or in the later stages, the equivalent of the afternoon for us.
After several weeks of running, the exercising mice, no matter when they ran, were found to be producing more proteins in their internal-clock cells than the sedentary animals. But the difference was slight in these healthy animals, which all had normal circadian rhythms to start with.
So the scientists turned to mice unable to produce a critical internal clock protein. Signals from these animals’ internal clocks rarely reach the rest of the body.
But after several weeks of running, the animals’ internal clocks were sturdier. Messages now traveled to these animals’ hearts and livers far more frequently than in their sedentary counterparts.
The beneficial effect was especially pronounced in those animals that exercised in the afternoon (or mouse equivalent).
That finding, Dr. Colwell says, “was a pretty big surprise.” He and his colleagues had expected to see the greatest effects from morning exercise, a popular workout time for many athletes.
But the animals that ran later produced more clock proteins and pumped the protein more efficiently to the rest of the body than animals that ran early in their day.
What all of this means for people isn’t clear, Dr. Colwell says. “It is evident that exercise will help to regulate” our bodily clocks and circadian rhythms, he says, especially as we enter middle age.
But whether we should opt for an afternoon jog over one in the morning “is impossible to say yet,” he says.
Late-night exercise, meanwhile, is probably inadvisable, he continues. Unpublished results from his lab show that healthy mice running at the animal equivalent of 11 p.m. or so developed significant disruptions in their circadian rhythm. Among other effects, they slept poorly.
“What we know, right now,” he says, “is that exercise is a good idea” if you wish to sleep well and avoid the physical ailments associated with an aging or clumsy circadian rhythm. And it is possible, although not yet proven, that afternoon sessions may produce more robust results.
“But any exercise is likely to be better than none,” he concludes. “And if you like morning exercise, which I do, great. Keep it up.”

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/12/why-afternoon-may-be-the-best-time-to-exercise/

 

[Night_Hawk]

Bullying creates mental problems for children later

(IANS) / 19 December 2012

Bullying by peers at school may bring on mental health problems for children later by altering the expression of a gene involved in regulating mood.‘Many people think that our genes are immutable. However this study suggests that social environment can affect their functioning,’ said Isabelle Ouellet-Morin, professor at the University of Montreal and Centre for Studies on Human Stress (CSHS) at the Hopital Louis-H. Lafontaine.

‘This is particularly the case for victimisation experiences in childhood, which change not only our stress response but also the functioning of genes involved in mood regulation,’ adds Ouellet-Morin, who led the study, the journal Psychological Medicine reports.

A previous study by Ouellet-Morin, conducted at the Institute of Psychiatry in London, UK, showed that bullied children secrete less cortisol—the stress hormone—but had more problems with social interaction and aggressive behaviour.

The study indicates that the reduction of cortisol, which occurs around the age of 12, is preceded two years earlier by a change in the structure surrounding a gene (SERT) that regulates serotonin, a neurotransmitter involved in mood regulation and depression, according to a Montreal statement.

 

[Night_Hawk]

Revealed: secrets of ancient Chinese medicinal herb

(AFP) / 24 December 2012

Scientist in the United States on Sunday offered a molecular-level explanation for how a Chinese herbal medicine used for more than 2,000 years tackles fever and eases malaria.The herb is an extract of the root of a flowering plant called blue evergreen hydrangea, known in Chinese as chang shan and in Latin as Dichroa febrifuga Lour.
Chang shan’s use dates back to the Han dynasty of 206 BC to 220 AD, according to ancient documents recording Chinese oral traditions.

In 2009, researchers made insights into its active ingredient, febrifuginone, which can be pharmaceutically made as a molecule called halofuginone.
They found that halofuginone prevented production of rogue Th17 immune cells which attack healthy cells, causing inflammation that leads to fever.
A study published in the journal Nature on Sunday found halofuginone works by hampering production of proteins for making “bad” Th17 cells, but not the “good” ones.
Specifically, it blocks molecules called transfer RNA (tRNA), whose job is to assemble a protein bit by bit, in line with the DNA code written in the gene.
As for malaria, halofuginone appears to interfere with the same protein-assembly process that enables malaria parasites to live in the blood, the study said.
“Our new results solved a mystery that has puzzled people about the mechanism that has been used to treat fever from a malaria infection going back probably 2,000 years or more,” said Paul Schimmel, who headed the team at the Scripps Research Institute in California.
Halofuginone has been tested in small-scale human trials to treat cancer and muscular dystrophy. Drug engineers also eye it as a potential tool for combatting inflammatory bowel disease and rheumatoid arthritis, which are also autoimmune diseases.

 

[awara ajnabi]

Bullying creates mental problems for children later

(IANS) / 19 December 2012

Bullying by peers at school may bring on mental health problems for children later by altering the expression of a gene involved in regulating mood.‘Many people think that our genes are immutable. However this study suggests that social environment can affect their functioning,’ said Isabelle Ouellet-Morin, professor at the University of Montreal and Centre for Studies on Human Stress (CSHS) at the Hopital Louis-H. Lafontaine.

‘This is particularly the case for victimisation experiences in childhood, which change not only our stress response but also the functioning of genes involved in mood regulation,’ adds Ouellet-Morin, who led the study, the journal Psychological Medicine reports.

A previous study by Ouellet-Morin, conducted at the Institute of Psychiatry in London, UK, showed that bullied children secrete less cortisol—the stress hormone—but had more problems with social interaction and aggressive behaviour.

The study indicates that the reduction of cortisol, which occurs around the age of 12, is preceded two years earlier by a change in the structure surrounding a gene (SERT) that regulates serotonin, a neurotransmitter involved in mood regulation and depression, according to a Montreal statement.

شئیر کرنے کا بہت بہت شکریہ – صحیح کہا گیا ہے کہ جب آپ کسی بچے کو بچپن میں ہی دبائیں گے تو اسکا ذہن نا پختہ رہتا ہے بلکہ اسکی فیصلہ کرنے کی صلاحیت مسخ ہو کر رہ جاتی ہے۔
​

 

[testboss]

Its a nice health blog for sure.

 

[Night_Hawk]

Strawberries cut cardiac risk in women

(IANS) / 18 January 2013

Strawberries and blueberries eaten thrice a week are likely to help women lower their heart attack risk by a third, new research says.The berries have rich levels of compounds called dietary flavonoids, found in foods such as dark chocolate, grapes, blackberries and eggplant.
Dietary flavonoids may prevent heart disease by helping to dilate blood vessels and by countering the build-up of plaque which can cause blockages in the coronary arteries and, ultimately, heart attacks, said researchers, the journal Circulation reports.

The researchers found that women who ate the most blueberries and strawberries had a 32 percent reduction in their risk of heart attack compared to those whose ate them once a month or less - regardless of whether they had an otherwise nutritious diet, according to the Telegraph.
Eric Rimm, professor, who led the study, said: “Blueberries and strawberries can easily be incorporated into what women eat every week. This simple dietary change could have a significant impact on prevention efforts.”
Since these dietary flavonoids are very common in fruit and vegetables, it is likely that other foods will yield similar health benefits, he said. The study involved 93,600 women aged between 25 and 42 years.
“We have shown that even at an early age, eating more of these fruits may reduce risk of a heart attack later in life,” said Aedin Cassidy, professor and study co-author.
The findings were independent of risk factors such as age, high blood pressure, family history of heart attack, weight, exercise and smoking.