Pulmonary hypertension is caused by the narrowing of the blood vessels in the lung, due to excessive growth of cells in the blood vessel wall. The cells grow in number until they obstruct the vessels, causing the heart to struggle pushing blood through the lungs to the point where the heart fails and the patient dies…
Cancer researcher Dr. Raffaella Sordella, a CSHL Associate Professor, and colleagues, today report in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the discovery of a p53 cousin they call p53-psi (the Greek letter “psi”)…
Vitamin D helps the body absorb calcium and is needed for bone and muscle health. …
source : http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140416090805.htm
Cancer is due to changes in the DNA of cells, which causes them to divide in an uncontrolled manner. It is also true that the cancer cells in certain common tumours, such as in colon cancer, can have over 100 chromosomes instead of the 46 chromosomes normally present in a human cell. But does a single, initial change in the number of chromosomes set off a sequence of unstoppable changes that lead to cancer? The answer to this question is important; in order to ensure that cancer research is on the right track…
By studying when and where mutations occur the researchers hope to gain insights into the early mechanisms that send cells along a pathway to cancer. The new international study coordinated by Roland Eils has now for the first time analyzed the exact distribution of somatic mutations in the genomes of tumor cells of various types of cancer. Mutations do not affect all regions of the genome to the same extent. It is known, for example, that the number of somatic mutations depends on the sequence of bases making up a gene and the frequency at which it is transcribed into RNA molecules. …
Very young patients To make up for the lack of knowledge on liver cancer in Latin America, the researchers performed a statistical analysis of clinical cases of the disease in Peru, the country reputed to have the highest incidence on the continent. They sifted through the demographic characteristics, risk factors and causes for more than 1,500 patients from throughout the country, admitted between 1997 and 2010 at the Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Neoplásicas (Inen ) in Lima. Their results were unexpected: 50% of the people affected do not at all match the profile of those at risk. They are young people with an average age of 25, some even children, who for the most part do not have the hepatitis B or C virus nor do they suffer from cirrhosis. …
The study, "The Ketogenic Diet and Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Prolong Survival in Mice with Systemic Metastatic Cancer," was published online today in PLOS ONE. Led by Dominic D’Agostino, PhD, principal investigator in the Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology at the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, the research shows the effects of combining two nontoxic adjuvant cancer therapies, the ketogenic diet and hyperbaric oxygen therapy, in a mouse model of late-stage, metastatic cancer…
They are a fad that refuses to fade, but no solid evidence exists to show whether or not eating plans tailored to ABO blood types promote health, say Belgian researchers who tried their best to find some. After sifting through the scientific literature, researchers identified just one indirectly related study - it looked at the effects of low-fat diets on cholesterol levels in people with different blood types - and even that one was weak, they concluded. Some studies have found links between blood type and risk for developing blood clots or certain cancers, of having a heart attack and of hemorrhaging when infected with Dengue fever. But no peer-reviewed research has indicated that eating foods supposedly compatible with one's blood type will improve health or induce weight loss more than a general diet plan. Medical professionals already knew this, according to the study's senior author, Dr. Philippe Vandekerckhove at the Belgian Red Cross-Flanders in Mechelen. “However, the general populace have access to blood type diets, regardless of medical guidance, and cannot be expected to be able to determine whether or not the health claims are, in fact, ‘evidence-based',” Vandekerckhove said. Blood type is determined by proteins on the surface of red blood cells and antibodies in the blood. The most familiar grouping, known as ABO blood types, refers to whether a person's cells carry the proteins known as A or B, or both of them, or neither of the two - which is designated blood type O. The idea that blood type influences an individual's life - and even personality - is popular in parts of Asia. In 2011, for example, a Japanese politician apologized for a rude remark he had made about tsunami victims by blaming his blood type. But blood type eating regimens are often premised on the theory that blood group signals a population's evolutionary background - primarily agrarian or hunter-gatherer, for instance - and that ancient history inclines people of certain blood types to thrive or suffer when eating one kind of diet or another. Vandekerckhove's team, who published their results in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, searched the largest online databases of published research for clinical trials, reviews and all other types of studies for reports about people grouped by blood type following specifically prescribed diets. Of 1,415 articles that initially turned up in the search, 16 looked promising at the start but 15 of those were discarded on closer analysis when the authors saw that they were poorly designed. Only one was relevant to the topic and strong enough to be included in an analysis because it was a randomized controlled trial. But it had several other weaknesses, including the fact that participants knew which group they had been assigned to, the group sizes were small, and the main endpoint assessed was “bad cholesterol” levels, which doesn't directly address the question of health or weight. Vandekerckhove and his coauthors were surprised and disappointed to find that no studies had been done that actually addressed the question, he said. “Until a study has been performed which recruits people with a certain blood type who have adhered to the diet, compared with those of the same blood type who have not adhered to the diet, and the incidence of disease/measurement of health can be assessed, then the health effects of a blood type diet are not proven,” he wrote in an email. “Currently, there is no evidence to support that ‘Blood Type Diets' have any effect on positively benefiting your health,” said Beth Warren, a registered dietician in New York City who was not involved in the study. “The fad diet was only made popular by a book during 1996…with no evidence to support it,” Warren said. “Eat Right 4 Your Type” by Peter D'Adamo has more than 7 million copies in print, and outlines a theory about which foods are best for people with the various ABO blood types to eat and which to avoid. D'Adamo says he believes in the diet based on circumstantial evidence. “All the authors did was conclude, as have I, that there is a lack of direct research on the subject,” D'Adamo said by email. He too would like to see direct research on the diets, but such studies are unlikely because they would be too costly. One-size-fits-all diets don't make sense either, D'Adamo said, and it may be that blood type is one way to predict which general weight loss diets work better for which people. “We hope the results of this systematic review will reinforce the need for individuals and companies to take responsibility of their claims and clearly differentiate between something that is “evidence-based” rather than something that is “theoretical”,” Vandekerckhove said. “We have to be very careful when we hear of fad diets and look into if and how this way of eating benefits our health and goals for weight-loss and maintenance,” Warren said. “In this case, we cannot say that it does at this time,” she said.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/05/31/no-science-behind-blood-type-diets-researchers-say/
Calorie restriction may not always be fun, but cutting back has benefits beyond even weight loss. Studies have shown that eating less can help slow aging, prolong life and even decrease the effects of diseases like Alzheimer’s in a variety of organisms. Based on this knowledge, a group of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) decided to dig further and ask: Could calorie restriction also delay nerve cell loss in the brain – and the changes in learning and memory that go along with it? “We reasoned – and other folks reasoned – that because cognitive decline and neurodegeneration are characteristics of the aging process, that calorie restriction might also work in the brain to slow neurodegeneration,” lead study author, Dr. Johannes Gräff from the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, told FoxNews.com. Gräff and his colleagues tested their theory using a group of mice engineered to experience rapid neurodegeneration. Researchers decreased half of the mice’s calorie intake by 30 percent and kept the remaining mice on a normal diet. After three months, researchers tested the learning and memory skills in each group of mice, expecting to see a decline in both cognitive areas. However, while the mice eating normally showed evidence of significant learning and memory deficits related to nerve cell loss, the calorie-restricted mice showed no defecits in their learning or memory skills. “That was one of the first experiments we did, and that was quite promising and cool that it worked,” Gräff said. In the next phase of the study, researchers took a more in-depth look at the brains of both groups of mice. “What we further did was to look through the brains to check the extent or amount of neurodegeneration, and what we found was that neurodegeneration had been slowed down by calorie restriction,” Gräff said. Researchers were curious if reduced neurodegeneration could still be achieved by utilizing proteins activated during calorie restriction – without actually restricting calories. Eventually, they targeted an enzyme called Sirtuin 1 (SIRT1). “This protein is one candidate that has been known to be more abundantly expressed as a result of calorie restriction in our tissues,” Gräff said. The scientists then gave a separate group of mice, also engineered to experience rapid neurodegeneration, a pharmacological dose of SIRT1, without restricting their calorie intake. These mice experienced the same effects as the calorie-restricted mice, showing slower rates of nerve cell loss and no learning or memory deficits after a three-month period. Graff noted that more research needed to be done in this area, and he hopes to further explore the relationship between calorie restriction, SIRT1 and neurodegeneration. “We have the choice – (to look into how) to reduce calorie intake in order to slow onset of neurodegeneration, or we look to this pharmacological activator (to do the same thing),” Gräff said. “Do you want to engage more into reducing caloric intake or revert to pharmacological means for the same effect?” This study is published in the May 22nd issue of The Journal of Neuroscience.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/05/22/could-eating-less-save-your-brain-study-shows-reducing-calorie-intake-delays/