and drinking water contributes to a number of human illnesses and can affect ecosystems negatively. That could be given a problem the high biodiversity of tropical rain forests and their important role in the global carbon cycle and the Earth's climate.
Preserving human and ecosystem health requires immediate steps to solve this growing problem Cleveland said.
and lettuce can protect you from hypertension suggests a new study led by King's college London. The findings published in the journal PNAS help to explain why some previous studies have shown that a Mediterranean diet can reduce blood pressure.
Mice genetically engineered to be resistant to this inhibitory process were found to maintain their high blood pressure
or nuts can reduce the incidence of cardiovascular problems like stroke heart failure and heart attacks. Story Source:
Gastrointestinal diseases are the major cause of mortality in wild and captive pandas but little is known about their digestive process.
Additionally China has banned logging to preserve the habitat of the declining species. With gastrointestinal disease causing the greatest natural mortality of red
#Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: Promising drug therapies for fatal lung disease foundresearchers in separate clinical trials found two drugs slow the progression of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis a fatal lung disease
with no effective treatment or cure and for which there is currently no therapy approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
Paul W. Noble MD chair of the Department of Medicine at Cedars-Sinai and director of the Women's Guild Lung Institute is the senior author of the multicenter study that found that the investigational drug pirfenidone
significantly slowed the loss of lung function and reduced the risk of death. Pirfenidone was developed by Intermune Inc
. and in 2011 was approved by the European union for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. The findings of the ASCEND drug trial are published online by the New england Journal of Medicine
and are being presented this week at the International Conference of the American Thoracic Society in San diego
. What we discovered about the anti-inflammatory and anti-fibrotic properties of pirfenidone offers help and encouragement to so many patients suffering from this relentless disease that robs them of breath
and life said Noble. Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis causes the regions of the lungs where oxygen gets to the blood to thicken
and scar leaving patients with shortness of breath a chronic cough and extreme fatigue. Most patients die within two to five years of diagnosis. Not only did pirfenidone prevent the loss of lung function
and preserve the distance patients could walk but during the study the risk of death was reduced by a remarkable 48 percent in those taking the drug
when compared with those who received placebo said Noble. The findings were so strong that an early access program has been initiated to provide patients with pirfenidone
while the process of obtaining FDA approval is undertaken. Cedars-Sinai will be participating in this program under the direction of Dr. Jeremy Falk and the Advanced Lung Disease Program.
Noble also was a co-author of a second study testing the efficacy and safety of the multi-kinase inhibitor nintedanib on idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis patients.
Nintedanib is also is being studied in lung cancer. In our research we found that nintedanib could also slow the loss of lung function in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis said Noble.
It is a second dose of good news for our patients because nintedanib not only slowed the progression of the disease
but it tended to reduce acute exacerbations of the disease while tending to preserve the quality of life of the study patients receiving the drug.
Noble is paid a consultant of Intermune Inc . and Boehringer-ingelheim for his work on the steering committees of the two clinical trials.
Cedars--Sinai was not among the medical centers participating in this multicenter study of the drug's efficacy in treating idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
These IPF drug therapy findings by Dr. Noble and his colleagues exemplify the dedication and hard work required to find treatments for a group of patients who have so few therapeutic options
because there have been approved no drugs by the Food and Drug Administration specifically targeted for treating this fatal disease said Shlomo Melmed MD senior vice president and dean at Cedars-Sinai and the Helene A. and Philip E. Hixon Chair in Investigative Medicine.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Cedars-Sinai Medical center. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Journal Reference e
#Transgenic mice produce both omega-3, omega-6 fatty acids on carbohydrate dietmassachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators have developed a transgenic mouse that synthesizes both the omega-3 and omega-6 essential
fatty acids within its tissues on a diet of carbohydrates or saturated fats. Called essential because they are necessary to maintain important bodily functions omega fatty acids cannot naturally be synthesized by mammals
and therefore must be acquired by diet. Significant evidence suggest that the ratio of dietary omega-6 to omega-3 has important implications for human health further increasing interest in the development of foods rich in omega-3s
which are found in certain species of fish as well as some nuts and green vegetables. Introducing into mammals the capacity to convert nonessential nutrients into essential fats could lead to new sustainable
and cost-effective resources of beneficial omega-3 fatty acids says Jing X. Kang MD Phd of the Laboratory for Lipid Medicine and Technology in the MGH Department of Medicine senior author of the report
in the open-access journal PLOS ONE. Our study also provides a mouse model for addressing research questions about the true health impacts of these essential fatty acids.
Numerous studies have shown that diets rich in omega-3 fatty acids reduce the risks and effects of cardiovascular disease and may have other health benefits.
While omega-6 fatty acids--found in some vegetable oils as well as nuts and seeds--are also essential to health they are quite common in the Western diet
and some evidence suggests that high omega-6 consumption can have harmful effects. While it is believed that humans evolved on a diet equally balanced between the two fatty acids the typical Western diet--rich in omega-6s
along with saturated fats--has led to a omega-6 to omega-3 ratio as high as 20 to 1. It is known that molecules produced by omega-6 metabolism can promote inflammation
while omega-3 metabolites are anti-inflammatory; and since the same enzyme is required in both metabolic pathways increased production in one causes a decrease in the other.
This has led to the somewhat controversial hypothesis that the omega-6/omega-3 ratio is an important contributor to the risk of cardiovascular disease cancer and inflammatory disorders.
Part of the reason for the controversy Kang explains is that studies using diet to create different omega-6/omega-3 ratios in animal models may introduce changes caused by other dietary factors such as calories potentially confounding the results.
One type of animal that naturally produces all fatty acids is the c. elegans roundworm and in 2004 Kang's group reported that mice transgenic for a c. elegans gene called fat-1 converted omega-6s into omega-3s in their tissues.
The current study describes how crossbreeding the fat-1 mouse with another strain transgenic for the c. elegans gene fat-2
which converts monosaturated fats into omega-6s can produce mice expressing both c. elegans genes.
Called the Omega mouse this strain produces both omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids in its tissue.
The crossbreeding protocol produces four different strains within the same litter--Omega mice that express both fat-1 and fat-2 strains that express only one of the c. elegans genes
and a nontransgenic strain expressing neither. Littermates fed a identical diet high in saturated fats
and carbohydrates and low in omega-6s had these differences in their muscle tissues: Even when fed a high-carbohydrate fat-free diet both the Omega and fat-2 strains produced significant levels of both essential fatty acids.
Since our 2004 report on the fat-1 mouse our lab and many others have been working towards the generation of larger omega-3-producing animals--including pigs sheep
and cows--that could produce meat milk or other foods rich in this essential fatty acid says Kang an associate professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical school.
While there are regulatory issues that need to be addressed this transgenic approach may help meet the increasing demand for omega-3-rich foods
and supplements and the new Omega mouse model will help us better understand the true importance of the omega-6/omega-3 ratio for human health.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Massachusetts General Hospital. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
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#Growing camelina, safflower in the Pacific Northwesta recent study published in Agronomy Journal provides information important to farmers growing oilseed crops.
#Wide variation in lung cancer rates globally, study findsthe only recent comprehensive analysis of lung cancer rates for women around the world finds lung cancer rates are dropping in young women in many regions
or expand comprehensive tobacco control programs across the globe to curtail future tobacco-related lung cancer deaths.
The study is published early online in Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention. Lung cancer is now the second leading cause of cancer death in women worldwide.
An estimated 491200 women died of lung cancer in 2012 more than half (57%)of whom resided in economically developing countries.
Differences in smoking patterns account for much of the variation in lung cancer rates around the globe.
Smoking in females became common in North america Northern europe Australia and New zealand as early as the 1940s but remained rare throughout the 20th century in the developing world and in places with strong social norms against it such as the Middle east.
Because the tobacco epidemic among women has varied globally researchers led by Lindsey Torre documented and compared contemporary trends in lung cancer mortality to identify opportunities for intervention.
They used the World health organization's Cancer Mortality Database covering populations on 10 six continents to calculate age-standardized lung cancer death rates during 2006 to 2010 and annual percent change in rates for available
years from 1985 to 2011 and for the most recent five years for which data is available by population and age group (30-49 and 50-74 years).
Lung cancer mortality rates among young women (30-49 years) were stable or declining in 47 of the 52 populations examined.
Lung cancer mortality rates (per 100000) during 2006-2010 ranged from 0. 7 in Costa rica to 14.8 in Hungary among young women and from 8. 8 in Georgia to 120.0 in Scotland among older women.
The widespread reduction in lung cancer we found in young women in many parts of the globe is encouraging
and increased awareness about the health hazards of smoking said Torre. The greatest opportunity we have right now for slowing a tobacco-fueled epidemic is in those countries where smoking among women is rare such as Africa and most of Asia.
And while decreasing lung cancer death rates are encouraging many countries have yet to implement the kinds of comprehensive tobacco control measures that have led to drops in other countries.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by American Cancer Society. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Journal Reference e
#Traditional cheeses: gustatory richness, health quality assured by their microbiotaresearch scientists from INRA Universitã de Caen
and Universitã de Franche-Comtã have reviewed the benefits of traditional raw-milk cheeses. They showed that traditional cheeses have unrivalled advantages in terms of both their diversity and their gustatory richness but also regarding their protection against pathogenic agents.
Limited health risksproducers of raw milk cheeses need to manage their associated health risks. The research team showed that the microbial combinations present in traditional cheeses were able to to protect them--both in the paste and on the surface--from dangerous pathogens notably Listeria monocytogenes.
The surfaces of the wooden equipment used to manufacture and ripen certain raw milk cheeses also appeared to be protected by a complex microbial biofilm limiting contamination by redoubtable pathogens such as Salmonella Listeria monocytogenes Escherichia coli o157/H7 and Staphylococcus aureus.
Between traditional and industrial cheesestraditional raw milk cheeses have undeniable advantages but the effects of their consumption on human health are still unknown.
Nevertheless studies performed on raw milk have demonstrated that its consumption can protect against allergies asthma hay fever and more generally atopic sensitisation.
Industrial manufacturers seek to diversify their products by adding selected strains to milk from which the native microflora have been removed.
However the industrial use of these strains is restricted by the regulations because of the problems inherent in proving their safety.
At present it seems difficult to be able to reconstitute the breadth of diversity of traditional cheese microbiota
Concerned hunters and foresters sent the carcasses to the University of Veterinary medicine Vienna for analysis. Extensive investigations have revealed now that the animals died of bacterial pneumonia caused by two strains of bacteria that are highly unusual in chamois.
The results have been published in the Journal of Wildlife Diseases. Chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra) share their habitat with a number of other wild animals as well as with farm animals.
Because of the risk of disease transmission between species when dead or sick animals are discovered by hunters
Early identification of the cause of disease or death can be crucial to prevent a wide-scale outbreak.
The Pathological Laboratory at the Research Institute of Wildlife Ecology specializes in such cases. Severe pneumonia as cause of deathnineteen dead chamois from the region of Amstetten Lilienfeld and Salzburg in north-central Austria were investigated.
The researchers performed autopsies investigating various tissues and testing for the presence of bacteria viruses and parasites.
The analysis revealed that the animals had died of a massive pneumonia. The causes of the pneumonia turned out to be bacteria with the evocative names Mannheimia glucosida (in honour of the German biologist Walter Mannheim nothing to do with the German town) and Bibersteinia trehalosi.
The bacteria had previously been detected only in cattle and sheep. That they can cause deadly and epidemic pneumonia in chamois was unknown.
It is against the law to administer medical treatment to wild animals so we don't really have many possibilities to prevent an epidemic explains Annika Posautz from the pathology team of the Research Institute.
All we can do is try to minimize contact between animals for example by avoiding the use of salt licks.
There has been no acute die off of chamois since the cases in 2010. So why were the bacteria so harmful at that time?
This puts farm animals as well as wildlife population at risk for interspecies transmission of infections. Close cooperation with hunters and foresters is essential to ensure that any outbreaks are detected as soon as possible.
#Water pipe smoking causes significant exposure to nicotine, cancer-causing agentsyoung adults who smoked water pipes in hookah bars had elevated levels of nicotine cotinine tobacco-related cancer-causing agents
and volatile organic compounds (VOC) in their urine and this may increase their risk for cancer
and other chronic diseases according to a study published in Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.
thus making the findings generalizable to most water pipe users in the United states said Gideon St helen Ph d. postdoctoral fellow in the Division of Clinical Pharmacology
twofold increase in NNAL a breakdown product of a tobacco-specific nitrosamine NNK which can cause lung and pancreatic cancers;
and acrolein that are known to cause cancer and cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. There was also a substantial increase in nicotine levels
The above story is provided based on materials by American Association for Cancer Research (AACR. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length h
Donahue and an international team of researchers with the CLOUD experiment at CERN set out to test that hypothesis. The CLOUD project at CERN is a unique facility that allows scientists to reproduce a typical atmospheric setting inside of an essentially contaminant-free
#Many smokers still surprised by facts about tobaccos dangersa new study in the American Journal of Preventive medicine finds that many smokers still find accurate and detailed facts about the dangers of tobacco both new and motivating
or addictive explained one of the study's authors James Thrasher associate professor at the University of South carolina Arnold School of Public health.
health effects of smoking for smokers; health effects of secondhand smoke for nonsmokers; cigarette and nicotine addictiveness;
industry design of cigarettes to increase addiction; and the lack of relative safety of low-tar and light cigarettes.
For nearly a decade though implementation of this ruling has been delayed while the industry has fought back in the courts.
The above story is provided based on materials by Health Behavior News Service part of the Center for Advancing Health.
and his colleagues used data from the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) to compare wood packaging infestation rates from 2 years prior to U s. implementation
Growing evidence suggests that smoking during pregnancy may increase the risk of psychopathology such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD.
Research on ADHD has suggested that individuals with the disorder may exhibit poor inhibitory control. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was performed at age 25 years on young adults who had been followed
since birth to examine the effect of prenatal tobacco smoke exposure on neural activity implicated in externalizing disorders such as ADHD with measures of inhibitory control.
Lifetime ADHD symptoms were measured over a period of 13 years (from 2 to 15 years of age.
By reducing methane emissions society buys some critical decades of lower temperatures. â#oesociety needs to wean itself from the addiction to fossil fuels as quickly as possibleâ#Howarth said. â#oebut to replace some fossil fuels â#coal oil
Florida Museum assistant curator of Lepidoptera Akito Kawahara said new species of insects sometimes lead to powerful discoveries that affect other fields including agriculture and medicine.
However each stress resulted in very different expression patterns. Traditionally weeds have been thought to reduce crop growth and yield due to competition for water nutrients and light.
Next the researchers look at the effect of water stress on gene expression using corn planted on high and low ground.
This in turn affected the plant's wounding response and made it more susceptible to pest injury.
The researchers now have a clearer idea of how that stress is affecting the plant she explains.
The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service will review the joint UF/IFAS and USDA petition for the thripsâ##release Overholt said.
But in their analysis of the marketing health and behavioral effects of the products which are unregulated the UCSF scientists found that e-cigarette use is associated with significantly lower odds of quitting cigarettes.
Despite many unanswered questions about e-cigarette safety the impact on public health and whether the products are effective at reducing tobacco smoking e-cigarettes have penetrated swiftly the marketplace in the United states and abroad in both awareness and use.
While most youth using e-cigarettes are dual users up to a third of adolescent e-cigarette users have smoked never a conventional cigarette indicating that some youth are starting use of the addictive drug nicotine with e-cigarettes.
Toxins and nicotine have been measured in that aerosol such as formaldehyde acetaldehyde acetic acid and other toxins emitted into the air
though at lower levels compared to conventional cigarette emissions. One study of e-cigarettes was conducted to resemble a smoky bar:
if existing smokers switched completely from conventional cigarettes (with no other changes in use patterns) to e-cigarettes there would be a lower disease burden caused by nicotine addiction the evidence available at this time
Furthermore high rates of dual use may result in greater total public health burden and possibly increased individual risk
if a smoker maintains an even low-level tobacco cigarette addiction for many years instead of quitting.
#Dangerous nitrogen pollution could be halvedthe most important fertilizer for producing food is at the same time one of the most important risks for human health:
Chemical compounds containing reactive nitrogen are major drivers of air and water pollution worldwide and hence of diseases like asthma or cancer.
not only benefit their health and their wallet Popp adds. Both changes would also increase the overall resource efficiency of food production
Health effects of nitrogen pollution more important than climate effectsthe nitrogen cycle is interwoven with the climate system in various ways Hermann Lotze-Campen points out co-author of the study
Nitrous oxide or laughing gas on the one hand is one of the major greenhouse gases. On the other hand nitrogen containing aerosols scatter light
Currently the health effects of nitrogen pollution are clearly more important because the different climate effects largely cancel out says Lotze-Campen.
But this may change--hence limiting nitrogen would have the double benefit of helping our health today
Cary Mitchell professor of horticulture said the technique could be particularly useful for growing transgenic crops to produce high-value medicinal products such as antibodies for the budding plant-derived industrial and pharmaceutical compounds industry.
and processed into medicine pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals such as essential vitamins he said. This is a young industry but
Using plants as factories to generate bioactive medicines would be far cheaper than the current methods that rely on cell cultures from mammals he said.
It's not good news--as greenhouse gases continue to rise we'll get fewer storms chased up into Australia Dr Abram said.
along with data from tree rings and lakes in South america Dr Abram and her colleagues were able to extend the history of the westerly winds back over the last millennium.
Study co-authors Dr Robert Mulvaney and Professor Matthew England said the study answered key questions about climate change in Antarctica.
Strengthening of these westerly winds helps us to explain why large parts of the Antarctic continent are not yet showing evidence of climate warming said Dr Mulvaney from The british Antarctic Survey.
We wanted to understand the functional role of diversity says Dr. Hannah Burrack an associate professor of entomology at NC State
We think the benefit stems from differences in behavior between bee groups in part depending on the weather explains Dr. David Tarpy an associate professor of entomology at NC State
#Citrus greening affects roots before leavesalthough citrus greening enters trees through their leaves University of Florida researchers have discovered that the deadly disease attacks roots long before the leaves show signs of damage--a finding that may help
while scientists work to find a cure. The role of root infection by insect-carried bacterial pathogens has been underestimated greatly said Evan Johnson a research assistant scientist with UF's Institute of food and agricultural sciences.
Hundreds of researchers throughout the world are rushing to find a viable treatment for citrus greening which is devastating Florida's $9 billion citrus industry
The disease starves the tree of nutrients leaving fruits that are green and misshapen unsuitable for sale as fresh fruit or juice.
This early root loss means that the health of a citrus tree is compromised severely before the grower even knows it is infected Johnson said.
Based on the work of Dr. Johnson and his colleagues we now know how important roots are in the development of greening disease said Jackie Burns director of the CREC.
We hope further investigations on the role of roots in this disease will lead to future management solutions that help growers remain productive until a permanent solution can be found.
While Johnson's research is not a cure it may help more trees survive as scientists continue their search.
This finding suggests that growers should focus more effort on maintaining the health of the root system in relation to other soilborne pests
#Link between insecticides and collapse of honey bee colonies strengthenedtwo widely used neonicotinoids--a class of insecticide--appear to significantly harm honey bee colonies over the winter particularly during colder winters according to a new study
from Harvard School of Public health (HSPH. The study replicated a 2012 finding from the same research group that found a link between low doses of imidacloprid
and Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) in which bees abandon their hives over the winter and eventually die.
or parasites as a result of exposure to pesticides the new study found that bees in the hives exhibiting CCD had almost identical levels of pathogen infestation as a group of control hives most
Experts have considered a number of possible causes including pathogen infestation beekeeping practices and pesticide exposure.
which may impair bees'neurological functions. Imidacloprid and clothianidin both belong to this group. Lu and his co-authors from the Worcester County Beekeepers Association studied the health of 18 bee colonies in three locations in central Massachusetts from October 2012 through April 2013.
At each location the researchers separated six colonies into three groups--one treated with imidacloprid one with clothianidin and one untreated.
The above story is provided based on materials by Harvard School of Public health. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Lead author Dr Lindsay Banin from the UK's Centre for Ecology & Hydrology said In Borneo dipterocarps--a family of large trees with winged seeds--produce wood more quickly than their neighbours.
and stroke risk reduction in the general population said Yan Qu M d. the study's senior author director of the intensive care unit at Qingdao Municipal Hospital and professor at the Medical College of Qingdao University
It has favorable effects on body mass index waist circumference cholesterol inflammation and oxidative stress.
and by type of stroke caused by clot or bleeding). Researchers found no significant difference in the effect on age (younger or older than 55.
In the United states stroke is the No. 4 cause of death and a leading cause of disability.
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