Folate May Help Prevent Heart Damage

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Pretreatment with high doses of folate, water-soluble vitamin B obtained from food, can reduce damage to the heart muscle that is caused when the blood flow is cut off, the results of an animal study suggest.

In the study, published in the current addition of Circulation, rats were treated with folate or placebo. After 1 week, the rats' left coronary arteries were blocked for 30 minutes. The blood normally carries oxygen to the heart muscle, and a sudden, severe blockage can cause a heart attack or an abnormal heart rhythm, conditions that can be fatal.

This was followed by 90 minutes of reperfusion in some animals or no reperfusion in others. Reperfusion is the restoration of the coronary blood flow to the heart muscle. Although it is necessary to preserve or restore heart function, it can paradoxically cause a disturbance in the function of the cells in the heart muscle, called reperfusion injury.

Folate-treated rats experienced significantly less functional impairment of the heart than did the placebo-treated animals, senior author Dr. David A. Kass, from Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore, and colleagues found. On reperfusion, smaller areas of dead heart muscle were also noted in the animals pretreated with folate.

Further analysis suggested that folate may have achieved these beneficial effects, in part, by maintaining levels of the high-energy phosphates ATP and ADP in the heart.

"We want to emphasize that it is premature for people to begin taking high doses of (folate)," Kass said in a statement. "But if human studies prove equally effective, then high-dose folate could be given to high-risk groups to guard against possible heart attack or to people while they are having one."

SOURCE: Circulation, April 8, 2008.

Posted

Stressed Out Pregnancy May Yield Asthma-Prone Baby

Last Updated: 2008-05-19 12:28:36 -0400 (Reuters Health)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Babies born to mothers who are stressed out during pregnancy appear to be increased risk for asthma and allergies, according to a study presented over the weekend at a medical conference in Toronto.

Stress is like a pollutant that, when "breathed" into the body, may influence not only a mother's immune system, but her unborn baby's as well, Dr. Rosalind Wright, of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School noted in comments to Reuters Health.

"There is a lot of evidence to support the notion that negative experiences that cause stress get into the body and disrupt immune function," Wright said. This is why people are more likely to catch colds or the flu when they're stressed. And, according to Wright's research, mother's stress during pregnancy can also influence her baby's developing immune system.

Dust mites, pollen, molds, tobacco smoke and other substances in the environment are other identified important factors for asthma and allergies. However, those do not fully explain rising rates of asthma seen in the past, or why there's more asthma in inner city and lower income populations.

This motivated Wright's team to consider stress as another important factor. In a study involving about 1,000 families, they measured pregnant women's stress levels by asking questions covering money and housing problems, relationships and other issues. They also tested the level of dust mite allergens in their homes while pregnant.

The researchers measured levels of IgE -- antibodies involved in an allergic response - in umbilical cord blood. Among 387 babies tested thus far, levels were increased among those whose mothers suffered higher level stress compared to mothers with less stress. This was true even when the exposure to dust mites during pregnancy was relatively low.

This suggests that mother's stress during pregnancy magnified the effect of dust exposure on the child's immune system, making it more reactive, Wright explained.

Chronic stress can lead to increased levels of cortisol and adrenalin in the body, both of which interact with the functioning of the immune system, she further explained. "If mom is under chronic stress these changes may be more persistent and can even be transmitted to the baby," Wright said.

"So when the baby is now exposed to increased cortisol from the mother, for example, this may change the way their immune system develops and make them more likely to produce IgE, a potential marker of allergic reactivity, when also exposed to lower levels of dust than would normally stimulate the immune system," Wright added.

Pregnant women need to "try to reduce stress as it may affect their own health as well as their baby," she said.

The children in this study are being followed up to see how many of them develop asthma.

The findings were presented Sunday at the American Thoracic Society's 2008 International Conference in Toronto by Wright's colleague, Dr. Junenette Peters, a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health.
 
For more information on how to combat stress, please visit www.abdproducts.com.  You can also take a stress questionnaire to see what kind of a stressor you are & helpful tips for improving your response to stress at www.abdwellness.com.  Look for Stress Questionnaire link on homepage.

Posted

Prenatal Fish Intake Benefits Kids' Brains

Last Updated: 2008-05-27 11:00:44 -0400 (Reuters Health)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Three-year-olds whose mothers ate more fish while pregnant with them score better on several tests of cognitive function than their peers whose mothers avoided seafood, a new study shows.

However, the researchers also found that the amount of mercury in a woman's body rose with the amount of fish she had consumed -- and that children exposed to more mercury performed worse on these tests. Based on the findings, they say, it's possible fish could have even greater brain benefits for babies if mothers-to-be consumed seafood with lower mercury levels.

"Recommendations for fish consumption during pregnancy should take into account the nutritional benefits of fish as well as the potential harms from mercury exposure," Dr. Emily Oken of Harvard Medical School in Boston and her colleagues write in the May 15 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology.

Advisories on mercury contamination of certain types of large, long-lived fish -- including tuna and swordfish -- have raised concerns about seafood consumption during pregnancy, Oken and her team note. On the other hand, fish are also the chief dietary source of omega-3 fatty acids, substances key to early brain development, they add.

To better understand the risks and benefits of fish consumption, Oken and her team surveyed 341 mothers about their intake of fish during the second trimester of pregnancy, and then had their children complete a battery of tests of cognitive function at 3 years of age.

On average, women reported eating 1.5 servings of fish each week while they were pregnant. The amount of mercury the women had in their red blood cells was directly related to the amount of fish they ate. Children's test scores rose with the amount of fish their mothers had consumed, but those whose mothers had more mercury in their bodies performed less well on the tests.

Accounting for the effects of mercury exposure strengthened the effect of fish intake, and vice versa, the researchers found. Benefits were strongest for children whose mothers ate more than two servings a week.

"Our finding that the benefit of fish intake is strengthened with adjustment for mercury levels suggests that if mercury contamination were not present, the cognitive benefits of fish would be greater," Oken and her team explain. "Maternal consumption of fish lower in mercury and reduced environmental mercury contamination would allow for stronger benefits of fish intake."

SOURCE: American Journal of Epidemiology, May 15, 2008.

For more information on Fish Oil supplements, please visit www.abdproducts.com

 

Posted

Omega-3 Fatty Acid May Guard Against Repeat Stroke

Last Updated: 2008-07-03 14:00:15 -0400 (Reuters Health)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Eicosapentaenoic acid, or EPA -- the essential omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid abundant in oily fish -- may help protect stroke patients from suffering a second stroke, a Japanese study shows.

In a study of people with high cholesterol who were taking a low dose of a cholesterol-lowering "statin," researchers found that adding EPA did not reduce the occurrence of a first stroke but did lower recurrence rates in those with a history of stroke.

The finding, published in the journal Stroke, stems from a large study of patients with elevated cholesterol levels who were randomly assigned to a low dose of pravastatin or simvastatin daily alone or with 1800 milligrams daily of EPA for roughly 5 years.

Of the 9,326 patients in the EPA group, 485 had a history of stroke, as compared with 457 of the 9,319 patients in the no-EPA group.

Dr. Kortaro Tanaka of Toyama University Hospital and colleagues found that rates of first stroke were 1.3 percent and 1.5 percent in the EPA and no-EPA groups -- a nonsignificant difference.

However, there were far fewer second strokes in the EPA group. The recurrent stroke rates were 6.8 percent in the EPA group versus 10.5 percent in the no-EPA group -- a significant difference.

Tanaka and colleagues say it is noteworthy that even among Japanese individuals, who have relatively high blood concentrations of EPA, "further increases in EPA concentration may lead to prevention of recurrence of stroke."

The researchers note that because this trial used purified EPA instead of the fish oil used in previous studies, the preventive effects on stroke can be attributed to EPA.

The exact mechanism remains unclear, however, because EPA has a variety of beneficial effects in the body including lowering cholesterol and inflammation as well as production of platelets, a blood component that promotes the formation of blood clots. It may also guard against heart rhythm disturbances.

Based on the many studies of fish consumption in the US and Europe, Tanaka told Reuters Health, "the beneficial effects of EPA which became clear from our study can be applied to other nationalities."

SOURCE: Stroke, July 2008.

For more information on high quality Omega-3 Fatty Acids, please visit www.abdproducts.com

Posted

Low Vitamin D Linked to Sudden Cardiac Death

Last Updated: 2008-11-17 12:00:32 -0400 (Reuters Health)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Vitamin D deficiency is associated with heart dysfunction, sudden cardiac death, and death due to heart failure, German researchers report.

An association between vitamin D deficiency and heart trouble is physiologically plausible, the researchers note. For example, vitamin D is known to affect contractility of the heart.

Dr. Stefan Pilz, from the University of Heidelberg, and colleagues assessed vitamin D levels in 3,299 Caucasian patients who were referred for a test used to look for clogged heart arteries called coronary angiography from 1997 to 2000. The subjects were then followed for 7.7 years.

During follow-up, 116 patients died from heart failure and 188 from sudden cardiac death, Pilz and colleagues report.

In analyses taking into factors that might influence the results, they found that severe vitamin D deficiency, compared with optimal vitamin D levels, was associated with nearly a three-fold increased risk of death from heart failure and about a five-fold increased risk of sudden cardiac death.

"These data strongly indicate that the maintenance of an optimal vitamin D status may be a promising approach for the prevention and/or therapy of (heart) diseases, warranting confirmation in interventional trials with vitamin D supplementation," the researchers conclude.

SOURCE: Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism October, 2008.

For more information on high quality vitamin D, please visit www.abdproducts.com

Posted

Frequent Weight Loss May Weaken Men's Bones

Last Updated: 2008-05-06 13:25:29 -0400 (Reuters Health)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Weight cycling in adulthood may lead to fragile bones later in life, according to a new study of 4,601 men followed for 28 years.

The more frequently men slimmed down and regained weight between the ages of 25 and 50, the more likely they were to suffer a fractured forearm after age 50, Dr. Anne Johanne Sogaard of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health in Oslo and colleagues found.

Weight cycling could increase skeletal fragility by causing microscopic damage to bone structure, or it could also boost men's fall risk by weakening muscles, Sogaard noted in emailed comments to Reuters Health.

Sogaard and her team had previously found that among the group of men initially examined in 1972-1973 and then later in 2000, those who had lost weight more frequently, and lost more weight with each slimming bout, were more likely to develop metabolic syndrome and diabetes.

In the current study, in the American Journal of Epidemiology, the researchers investigated whether weight cycling was related to the risk of forearm fracture, "an early and sensitive marker of male skeletal fragility."

Among men who reported no weight loss episodes before age 50, about 17-18 percent suffered forearm fractures. The rate was 35-43 percent among men who had lost weight four or more times, depending to some extent on the amount lost.

After accounting for other factors, losing weight four or more times before the age of 50 nearly tripled the risk of forearm fracture after 50.

People who want to make sure their bones stay strong when they lose weight should always be sure to exercise as well as diet, Sogaard said. "We know that weight-bearing activities, weight-training and exercise with varied loadings (e.g. squash, badminton, tennis) are favorable for muscles (and) balance, as well as bones."

Also, Sogaard noted, people who lose weight and then regain it often wind up weighing more than they did before they started trying to slim down. "If you want to lose weight, the crucial thing is to be serious (and) realistic regarding how much, and determined to change life-style," she said -- not just jump on a casual diet.

SOURCE: American Journal of Epidemiology, April 15, 2008.
 
For more articles on Health, Wellness & Nutrition, please visit www.abdproducts.com

Posted

Youngsters Often Miss Diet and Exercise Marks

Last Updated: 2009-01-19 10:00:39 -0400 (Reuters Health)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - According to their parents, pre-school children have somewhat better diets than school-age children, but both groups fall short when it comes to getting recommended amounts of exercise.

Dr. Hollie A. Raynor, of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, and co-investigators, assessed parents' reports of their children's diet and activity levels. Of 174 boys and girls, about half (49 percent) were preschoolers (2 to 5.9 years old) and 51 percent were school-age children (6 to 12.9 years).

Parental reports of physical activity levels showed just 51 percent of kids, aged 2 to 12 years old, participated in sweat-inducing play or exercise for the recommended minimum of 60 minutes on most days, they report in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior.

Overall, 47 percent of the school-age kids were at risk for or were overweight, compared with 22 percent of the pre-school age kids, the investigators found.

They also found that fewer pre-school kids ate salty and sweet snacks daily -- 14 and 16 percent, respectively. Conversely, reports showed nearly double this intake among school-age kids -- about 26 percent ate salty and nearly 30 percent ate sweet snacks daily.

On average, parents' reported pre-school children ate minimum recommended daily servings of low fat dairy products, but school-age children did not.

Moreover, while kids, regardless of age, minimally met recommended vegetable intake of 1 to 2.5 cups daily, and generally ate the recommended 1 to 1.5 cups of fruit daily, parents reported nearly 74 percent of the children ate fast food at least once a week.

In this study, parents' perspectives, as a whole, suggest "children's eating and leisure-time behaviors are not close to meeting current recommendations," Raynor said.

As unhealthy eating and activity habits tend to increase as children age, Raynor and colleagues surmise, it may be necessary to assist parents of young children establish healthy lifestyle habits before their kids' start school.

SOURCE: Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, January/February 2009

For more articles on Health, Wellness & Nutrition, please visit www.abdproducts.com.

Posted

Vitamins Block Post-Meal Grogginess in Diabetics

Last Updated: 2008-07-03 13:13:15 -0400 (Reuters Health)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Fatty meals may cloud the brains of people with type 2 diabetes, but antioxidant vitamins can help clear the fog, Canadian researchers demonstrated in a study they conducted.

The findings suggest, the researchers say, that memory impairment after heavy meals in type 2 diabetics is related to oxidative damage.

The findings shouldn't be interpreted to mean that people can avoid the harmful consequences of fatty foods and "bad carbs" by popping vitamin pills, Dr. Carol Greenwood of the University of Toronto, who was involved in the study, told Reuters Health.

In the study, Greenwood and colleague Michael Herman Chui had 16 men and women with type 2 diabetes who were 50 and older eat three different meals at three separate weekly sessions: a Danish, cheddar cheese and yogurt with whipped cream; water only; or the same meal plus 1000 milligrams of vitamin C and 800 international units of vitamin E.

They found that people performed worse on tests of verbal recall and working memory 105 minutes after eating the high fat meal. But when they took vitamins with the meal, they did just as well on the tests as they did after drinking water.

The cognitive effects observed in the study were subtle, but large enough to impair performance, Greenwood said in an interview. "It kind of makes the 50-year-old brain more like the 75-year-old brain," she explained. And these effects could accumulate to cause lasting damage, according to the researcher.

Greenwood said studies are planned using brain imaging to look at what exactly happens in the brain of diabetes patients after a heavy meal.

SOURCE: Nutrition Research, July 2008.

For more articles on Health, Wellness & Nutrition, please visit www.abdproducts.com

Posted

Heavily Marketed Kids' Cereals Are Least Healthy

Last Updated: 2008-04-23 11:48:24 -0400 (Reuters Health)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Breakfast cereals for children are less healthy than cereals meant for adults, and those marketed the most aggressively to kids have the worst nutritional quality, according to a new analysis of 161 brands.

"The cereal the parent is eating him or herself is probably better than what they're feeding their child," Dr. Marlene B. Schwartz of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, the lead researcher on the study, told Reuters Health.

Schwartz and her colleagues also found that health claims made for kids' cereals were often misleading. Cereals sold as "low fat" or "low sugar" were not lower in calories, as parents might assume, and while brands touted as "whole grain" did have more fiber, they had just as much salt, sugar and fat as other brands and the same calorie content.

The food industry and public health authorities are both encouraging children to eat breakfast, especially ready-to-eat cereals, the researchers note in their report in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association. To compare the nutritional quality of cereals targeted to children and those marketed to adults, Schwartz and her team looked at 161 cereals, 46 percent of which were marketed to children. A cereal was put in this category if it had a character on the box, toys or games inside, or the company's Web site listed the brand as a children's cereal.

Children's cereals had more sugar, sodium, carbohydrate and calories per gram than non-children's cereals, and less protein and fiber. Sugar accounted for more than one-third of the weight of children's cereals, on average, compared to less than one-quarter of the adult cereals. Thirty-four percent of the kids' cereals met nutrition standards for foods sold in schools, compared to 56 percent of the non-children's cereals, Schwartz and her colleagues report.

Parents hoping to choose healthy cereals for their kids should look for brands containing 4 grams of sugar per serving (about one teaspoon) or less, Schwartz advised, and should aim for 4 grams of fiber per bowl of cereal.

As a psychologist, Schwartz says, she urges parents who want to ban heavily marketed cereals from their homes to stick to their guns. "My advice to parents of young children is you've got to just make a decision and stick with it because if you give in once, you're going to regret it. It's just going to make your kid nag you even more."

SOURCE: Journal of the American Dietetic Association, April 2006.

For more articles on Health, Wellness & Nutrition, please visit www.abdproducts.com.

Posted

"Good" Bacteria May Ease Hay Fever Symptoms: Study

Last Updated: 2008-06-03 9:59:55 -0400 (Reuters Health)

LONDON (Reuters) - A probiotic drink a day may help keep hay fever away, British researchers said on Tuesday.

A small study showed that probiotic, or "good" bacteria in a daily drink can change the immune system's response to grass pollen, a common cause of allergies, and balance antibodies in a way that may provide relief to people with the condition.

"These data show that probiotic supplements modulate immune responses...and may have the potential to alleviate the severity of symptoms," Claudio Nicoletti and colleagues at the Institute of Food Research in Norwich, Britain, reported in the journal Clinical and Experimental Allergy.

Probiotics contain live microorganisms, so-called good bacteria that colonize the intestine. They are sold as supplements but are also found naturally in many fermented foods, including yogurt and certain juices.

Humans normally carry several pounds of bacteria in their intestines and they are key to digestion, immune system function and possibly play other beneficial roles. They can also out-compete "bad" bacteria that may cause disease.

"The probiotic strain we tested changed the way the body's immune cells respond to grass pollen," added Kamal Ivory, a researcher who worked on the study.

In the study volunteers with a history of seasonal allergies drank a daily milk drink with or without Lactobacillus casei -- a bacteria widely studied for its beneficial properties -- over a five-month period.

The researchers took blood samples before the grass pollen season, at its peak and after the end of season. They found that people who had been drinking the probiotic drink had lower levels of an antibody that help produce allergy symptoms.

At the same, these people also had higher levels of a different antibody, called IgG that may play a protective role against allergic reactions.

These changes may reduce the severity of symptoms, something the researchers said they plan to test further. They also cautioned that the findings came from a small study and more work was needed.

For more articles related to Health, Wellness & Nutrition, please visit www.abdproducts.com.

 

Posted