Tag Archives: medicine

Major study examines meat-diabetes link

People who increased their consumption of red meat during a four-year period were more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes in a subsequent four-year period, according to an analysis involving about 150,000 people. The analysis, led by researchers at the National University of Singapore, took data from three long-running Harvard University studies involving mostly nurses and doctors. The results were published online Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine, a journal of the American Medical Association. The studies were funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health. While prior studies have also found a link between red-meat consumption and the development of Type 2 diabetes, the new analysis is believed to be the first time researchers have tracked changes in red-meat consumption over time with the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. Study participants filled out detailed questionnaires about the types of food and drinks they consumed at the beginning of the study and every four years. The analysis looked at some 20 years of data. Broadly, the study showed that, compared with a group of people who had no change in red-meat intake, increasing red-meat consumption by more than a half-serving per day over a four-year period was associated with a 48 percent increase in the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes during the next four years. However, reducing red-meat consumption by the same amount during the same time period didn't cut the risk of diabetes during the next four years. It did reduce the risk by 14 percent over a longer time period, though. The changes were independent of other factors such as body weight and overall diet quality. “Our results confirm the robustness of the association between red meat and [Type 2 diabetes prevention] and add further evidence that limiting red-meat consumption over time confers benefits for…prevention,” the study authors wrote. An Pan, an assistant professor at the National University of Singapore's Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, was the study's lead author. Other doctors say red meat in and of itself isn't necessarily the trouble. “It is not the type of protein (or meat) that is the problem; it is the type of fat,” said William J. Evans, who is affiliated with both Duke University and GlaxoSmithKline PLC., and who wrote a commentary about the study that was also published online in JAMA Internal Medicine. “It's mischaracterizing red meat as high fat,” Evans said in an interview. He said consumers could choose lean cuts of red meat such as sirloin tips or round steak over high-fat cuts like rib-eye. Dr. Pan could not be reached for comment Monday. Click for more from The Wall Street Journal.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/18/major-study-examines-meat-diabetes-link/

Drinking alcohol to shrink?

Alcohol and your weight have a tricky relationship. So tricky, in fact, that experts have had a tough time nailing down exactly why some women wind up with a beer gut (or butt) while others drink daily and never seem to gain a pound. Here's what we know: Your average drink—beer, wine, martini, pick your poison—is usually a combination of carbs, sugar and ethanol (pure alcohol). When it goes down the hatch, it makes a pit stop at your stomach, where some of the alcohol is absorbed through the lining and into your bloodstream, giving you that initial buzz. The carbs and sugar go the traditional digestive route, while ethanol, a toxin, is diverted to the liver. This is when that innocent little drink starts messing with your internal fat incinerator. Ethanol has no nutritional value, so your body burns it off first. That means any remaining calories in your stomach—whether they're from the margarita or the chips and guacamole you had with it—will likely be stored as fat.  And the more fattening the foods you eat, the easier the calories are to store. (Bear in mind that research published in Physiology & Behavior found that alcohol makes us focus on immediate pleasure and ignore the consequences, which often results in eating junk food.) Unlike protein and carbs, which require some energy for the body to break down and store, fat can directly deposit itself, so those chips are first in line to be plastered to your thighs. MORE: The 3 Biggest Weight Loss Mistakes Still, the situation might not be as bleak as it appears, because the real problem may not be drinking itself, but how often and how hard we hit the bottle. Drink and Shrink? A 2010 study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine may be the best news for booze since the 21st Amendment. Researchers found that women who had one or two alcoholic drinks a day were actually less likely to gain weight than those who shunned the sauce. And they did it while consuming more calories overall (from food and drink) than both heavy drinkers and teetotalers. Short of striking a deal with the devil, how did they manage to pull that off? Researchers believe that the bodies of long-term moderate drinkers somehow adapt to metabolize alcohol differently than heavy or occasional drinkers. They use more energy, burning the calories in the drink—or even more than that—while digesting it, Dr. Lu Wang, the lead researcher of the study and an instructor in medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, said.  Researchers are still working out the specifics of how and why this happens, but they've figured out that for women who drink up to eight ounces of an alcoholic beverage a day, those calories simply don't end up as extra fat. MORE: 15 Ways to Boost Your Metabolism Of course, there's a catch. Women who bank their daily drinks for weekends or girls' nights out don't qualify for the free-calorie plan (and among the 18-to-25 crowd, this “binge” behavior is on the rise, according to a 2009 Addiction study).  “Your body adjusts metabolically to the amount you drink, and when you don't drink regularly, your body can't adjust,” Wang said.  Instead of learning to disregard those nutritionally empty calories, your body automatically stores them—as fat. It's akin to tossing old clothes you don't wear into the back of your closet, only your body doesn't have the good sense to hide the junk. It tends to store the fat front and center, in your belly. MORE: 4 Amazing Abs Exercises Booze Clues Evidence suggests that moderate drinkers also tend to practice healthier habits than teetotalers. If you're used to having three or four drinks every week as part of your diet, you're probably compensating for them with fewer calories elsewhere.  “These women know how to moderate how much they drink, so it makes sense that they'd moderate what they eat as well,” Robert Klesges, a professor of preventive medicine at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis, said. The Archives study found that these women also exercise more, which knocks off additional calories. Another thing that helped: The women in the Archives study were served no more than two four-ounce glasses of wine or two 1.5-ounce shots of liquor a day. In real life, you're likely to be handed far more than that by a bartender or waitress—20 to 45 percent more, according to a 2009 study in the journal Alcohol. And we're not much better when left to our own devices.  “Eyeballing the right amount is very difficult,” William C. Kerr, a senior scientist at the Alcohol Research Group in Emeryville, Calif., said. “Most of us don't even know how much we should be shooting for, so overpouring is typical.” MORE: 20 Habits That Make You Fat It's especially easy to overdo it with vino, given that the average wineglass these days looks big enough to hold a school of fish. So a bottle of light beer may be your best bet.  “Unlike wine and mixed drinks, it's portion controlled—the bottle is right there with the calories printed on it,” says Lisa Young, R.D., author of “The Portion Teller Plan.” “It eliminates the guesswork.”source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/14/drinking-alcohol-to-shrink/

Osteoporosis drug stops growth of breast cancer cells, even in resistant tumors, study suggests

The findings, presented June 15, 2013, at the annual Endocrine Society meeting in San Francisco, indicate that the drug bazedoxifene packs a powerful one-two punch that not only prevents estrogen from fueling breast cancer cell growth, but also flags the estrogen receptor for destruction. "We found bazedoxifene binds to the estrogen receptor and interferes with its activity, but the surprising thing we then found was that it also degrades the receptor; it gets rid of it," said senior author Donald McDonnell, PhD, chair of Duke’s Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology. In animal and cell culture studies, the drug inhibited growth both in estrogen-dependent breast cancer cells and in cells that had developed resistance to the anti-estrogen tamoxifen and/or to the aromatase inhibitors, two of the most widely used types of drugs to prevent and treat estrogen-dependent breast cancer…

Newly discovered gene strengthens heart, fights breast tumors

A new study has pinpointed a single gene that appears to both strengthen the heart –  without exercise – and halt the spread of breast cancer. Researchers at Case Western Reserve University found that the gene HEXIM1, discovered in 2012, not only suppressed the spread of breast cancer in mouse models, but also made the mice’s hearts healthier. with respect to enhanced strength and size. Normally, exercise helps to strengthen the heart and increase its size. However, researchers found that when the HEXIM1 gene was re-expressed in adult mouse hearts, their hearts grew in weight and size - without exercise. Researchers say this discovery has the potential to help treat people with cardiovascular disease. “Our Cleveland-based collaborative research teams revealed that increasing HEXIM1 levels brought normal functioning hearts up to an athletic level, which could perhaps stand up to the physical insults of various cardiovascular diseases,” said Michiko Watanabe, professor of pediatrics, genetics, and anatomy at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine and director of Pediatric Cardiology Fellowship Research at Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital. Common cardiovascular diseases like hypertension and heart failure create a shortage of both oxygen and necessary nutrients in the heart muscles, preventing blood from circulating at a satisfactory rate. This ultimately results in a distended heart, which can continually grow weaker and has the potential to stop at any given moment. However, researchers showed that the artificial enhancement of HEXIM1 led to increased blood vessel growth and enhanced overall functionality of the heart. In essence, HEXIM1 could potentially serve as a therapeutic target for the treatment of heart disease. Researchers also found that HEXIM1 increased the number and density of blood vessels in the heart, decreased the animals’ resting heart rates and allowed the transgenic heart to circulate more blood per heartbeat.  The study also demonstrated that untrained genetically altered mice with the HEXIM1 gene were capable of running twice as long compared to unaltered mice. Lead researcher Monica Montano, associate professor of pharmacology, Case Comprehensive Cancer Center member, and creator of the mice for the heart and breast cancer research, was very proud of the research’s findings. “Our promising discovery reveals the potential for HEXIM1 to kill two birds with one stone – potentially circumventing heart disease as well as cancer, the country's leading causes of death,” Montano stated. The study’s results add to previous findings from the team’s research, which revealed last year that increasing levels of HEXIM1 expression led to the inhibition of breast cancer metastasis. Given the discovery of the gene’s two therapeutic benefits, the researchers are currently developing a more potent version of the drug hexamethylene-bisacetamide, which is meant to enhance HEXIM1 expression. “Many cancer drugs have detrimental effects on the heart,” said Dr. Mukesh K. Jain, professor of medicine and director of Case Cardiovascular Research Institute at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine. “It would be beneficial to have a cancer therapeutic with no adverse effects on the heart and perhaps even enhance its function.” The research was published in the peer-reviewed journal Cardiovascular Research.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/14/newly-discovered-gene-strengthens-heart-fights-breast-tumors/

Can a common hormone prevent unborn babies from developing autism?

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD), both conditions that are neurodevelopmental in origin, may share some similar molecular vulnerabilities, according to a new rodent study published in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research. When researchers from Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, Ill., exposed pregnant rats to alcohol, they found their offspring experienced symptoms of social impairment and altered-levels of genes that have been previously linked to autism in humans. “The novel finding here is that these two disorders share molecular vulnerabilities, and if we understand those, we are closer to finding treatments,” Eva Redei, the senior author of the study and professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, said in a press release. Furthermore, study authors found that when the pregnant, alcohol-exposed rats were given low doses of the thyroid hormone thyroxin, they were able to lessen some of the effects of alcohol damage and reverse the expression of autism-related genes in offspring. Though more research needs to be done, Dr. Manny Alvarez, senior managing health editor for FoxNews.com, hopes these findings will lead researchers to explore the potential for thyroxin to be utilized in patients who are at risk for having an autistic child. “We’re still poor at identifying patients at risk for autism, but now we now there is family history, sibling history and some genetic deletions strongly associated with autism,” Alvarez said. “One could argue that perhaps in patients at risk for having an autistic child, after more human studies, the prophylactic use of thyroxin can help prevent the neural behavioral changes of autism.”source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/14/link-between-fetal-alcohol-syndrome-and-autism-spectrum-disorder-may-point-to/

Are probiotics miracle food?

Probiotics claim to support immunity and fix everything from bloat to skin trouble, and they're popping up in all kinds of foods and drinks—more than 500 new products in the last decade. Clearly lots of people are on board: Sales of anything touting the probiotic promise increased by $1 billion in the United States in the past two years alone. So should you stock up? Well, it's complicated. Related: Delicious Mediterranean Dishes Under 400 Calories Yes, probiotics do have some awesome health powers. But to really get how they work, you first need to understand a few things about your body and, well, bugs.  From the time you're born, millions of bacteria (those bugs) from your mom, food, air and the things you touch start setting up camp in and on your body.  Related: Tone Up Your Trouble Spots The mix is called the microbiome, and most of it lives in your colon (happily), where it helps signal your body to digest food, fight pathogens, break down cholesterol and more, Gregor Reid, director of the Canadian Research & Development Centre for Probiotics, said. Animal studies suggest the microbiome may affect blood pressure and even behavior. Related: 6 Moves To Resize Your Butt and Thighs Can't believe we're actually saying this, but the microbiome is very trendy right now. There's tons of new research on it: Scientists say it's the next frontier in understanding the human body.  Certain “good” bacteria strains (aka probiotics) seem to help the body function more efficiently, while “bad” bacteria tax it. And when the balance of the gastrointestinal system is off (blame stress, illness, a poor diet or taking antibiotics), we may be left susceptible to disease-causing organisms and diarrhea.  So the theory makes sense: If you have microbiome imbalance, ingesting extra good bacteria—found naturally in certain foods like yogurt and sauerkraut and added to others like tea—might help make you healthier. But you need to make sure you're eating the right stuff. Research suggests taking large doses of certain probiotics—several strains of lactobacillus and bifidobacteria found in fortified yogurts and pills, specifically—may help prevent colds and soothe digestive problems. Plenty of docs recommend these products as natural meds, and they seem to be generally safe for most people. But there's a catch: The FDA doesn't regulate most probiotics the way it does drugs. Some reports suggest claims about the amount and type of bacteria on product labels aren't always accurate. And many products are never clinically tested for efficacy. So sketchy pills—like ones that combine a bunch of strains experts don't know much about—are on store shelves.  “A lot of things called probiotics shouldn't be, because they've never been tested in humans,” Reid said. The bottom line: Probiotic supplements may help prevent colds and ease GI issues, but no need to pop pills every day to balance your microbiome when your diet can do it, too, Dr. David Rakel, director of the University of Wisconsin Integrative Medicine Program. said.  Have at least three weekly servings of fermented foods—yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut, kimchi—which contain probiotics naturally, Dr. Rakel said. (There's no guarantee fortified sources like cereals and teas will help, so it might not be worth it to shell out the cash.) Finally, fill up on fiber from veggies and whole grains: It helps create a more probiotic-friendly environment in your gut.  We'll take food over pills any day. This article originally appeared on Self.com. source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/14/are-probiotics-miracle-food/