#Contradictory nutrition news creates consumer confusionexposure to conflicting news about the health benefits of certain foods vitamins
and supplements often results in confusion and backlash against nutrition recommendations finds a recent study in the Journal of Health Communication:
Nagler analyzed responses collected from 631 adults who took part in the Annenberg National Health Communication Survey in 2010.
Many people get health information from the news media which may not make it clear that research is constantly evolving.
or health study and instead report on findings from groups of studies Oransky said. If journalists do report on a single study they need to put the information in context he added.
The above story is provided based on materials by Health Behavior News Service part of the Center for Advancing Health.
#DDT pesticide exposure linked to Alzheimers disease, study showsscientists have known for more than 40 years that the synthetic pesticide DDT is harmful to bird habitats and a threat to the environment.
since 1972 but still used as a pesticide in other countries--may also increase the risk and severity of Alzheimer's disease in some people particularly those over the age of 60.
when DDT breaks down were higher in the blood of late-onset Alzheimer's disease patients compared to those without the disease.
and livestock and to combat insect-borne diseases like malaria--was introduced as a pesticide during WWII.
Rutgers scientists--the first to link a specific chemical compound to Alzheimer's disease--believe that research into how DDT
and DDE may trigger neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's is crucial. I think these results demonstrate that more attention should be focused on potential environmental contributors
and their interaction with genetic susceptibility says Jason R. Richardson associate professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Medicine at Robert Wood Johnson Medical school and a member of the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences
Our data may help identify those that are at risk for Alzheimer's disease and could potentially lead to earlier diagnosis and an improved outcome.
Although the levels of DDT and DDE have decreased significantly in the United states over the last three decades the toxic pesticide is still found in 75 to 80 percent of the blood samples collected from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
This occurs scientists say because the chemical can take decades to breakdown in the environment.
In the Rutgers study conducted in coordination with Emory University Alzheimer's disease Research Center and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical school's Alzheimer's disease Center 74 out of the 86 Alzheimer's patients involved
--whose average age was had 74 DDE blood levels almost four times higher than the 79 people in the control group who did not have Alzheimer's disease.
Patients with a version of Apoe gene (Apoe4) which greatly increases the risk of developing Alzheimer's
and high blood levels of DDE exhibited even more severe cognitive impairment than the patients without the risk gene.
Brain cell studies also found that DDT and DDE increased the amount of a protein associated with plaques believed to be a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease.
These sticky amyloid proteins--which may form in regions of the brain involved in memory learning
and increase as the disease progresses. This new research is important Richardson says because it suggests that DDT
Although the exact cause of Alzheimer's disease--with five million Americans suffering now and millions more expected to fall prey with the graying of the Baby boom Generation--is known not scientists believe that late-onset Alzheimer's may be linked to a combination of genetic environmental and lifestyle factors.
Much of the research into Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases has mostly been centered on finding genetic connections Richardson says.
This study demonstrates that there are additional contributors to Alzheimer's disease that must be examined and that may help identify those at risk of developing Alzheimer's says Richardson.
It is important because when it comes to diagnosing and treating this and other neurodegenerative diseases the earlier someone is diagnosed the more options there may be available.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences. The original article was written by Robin Lally.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference e
#Study helps researchers better estimate citrus crop yieldscitrus crop-yield estimates may be more accurate thus ensuring higher productivity
Growers harvest more citrus in some parts of their groves than others possibly because of differences in soil from one acre to another water or disease Lee said.
or inactive chemical commonly used as a pesticide additive--is highly toxic to honeybee larvae.
Nurse bees use this pollen to make beebread which they then feed to honeybee larvae.
or in concert to create a toxic environment for honeybee growth and development. The researchers also investigated the effects of NMP on honeybee larvae by adding seven concentrations of the chemical to a pollen-derived royal jelly diet.
We found that mixtures of pesticides can have greater consequences forlarval toxicity than one would expect from individual pesticides Frazier said.
In contrast the addition of coumaphos significantly reduced the toxicity of the fluvalinate and chlorothalonil mixture.
According to Chris Mullin professor of entomology Penn State these pesticides may directly poison honeybee larvae
or they may indirectly kill them by disrupting the beneficial fungi that are essential for nurse bees to process pollen into beebread.
This is the first study to report serious toxic effects on developing honeybee larvae of dietary pesticides at concentrations that currently occur in hives.
There is a growing body of research that has reported a wide range of adverse effects of inactive ingredients to human health including enhancing pesticide toxicities across the nervous cardiovascular respiratory
Multi-billion pounds of these inactive ingredients overwhelm the total chemical burden from the active pesticide drug
and solvents of known high toxicity to fish amphibians honey bees and other non-target organisms.
#Developing new methods to assess resistance to disease in young oilseed rape plantsbeing able to measure resistance to disease in young oilseed rape plants is vital in the battle to breed new
disease resistant varieties of the crop and is the focus of a study by a team of researchers led by the University of Hertfordshire.
Oilseed rape is prone to phoma stem canker also known as blackleg disease which is responsible for losses worth more than £1200 million in oilseed rape crops across the world.
With the fragile state of the world's economy and concern over food shortages there is a need to protect arable crops from disease.
However assessing disease resistance in young oilseed rape plants is difficult as there is a long period where the pathogen is not visible--it can infect plants
Plant disease epidemics are bad news for farmers. There has been a heavy reliance on fungicides to control disease
but some of the most effective fungicides are now being withdrawn through EU regulations. So there is a need to develop oilseed crop varieties with greater inbuilt resistance to the disease.
Although oilseed rape crops in the UK are bred for disease resistance it is a difficult and expensive process--both in time
and money--to develop new disease resistant varieties. Traditionally selection of disease resistant oilseed crops has relied on field assessments of disease severity on stems
which are made towards the end of the cropping season when the symptoms have become visible on the adult plants--typically about eleven months after sowing.
Crops also need to be grown at various sites to assess the impact of location on disease resistance--adding yet more cost and time to the assessment.
Professor Fitt continued: If resistance can be assessed in young oilseed rape plants it will not only accelerate the process of breeding oilseed rape crops for resistance
Our study investigates new methods for assessing disease resistance in young plants. The paper based on experiments done by Dr Yong-Ju Huang at Rothamsted Research shows that resistance in young oilseed rape plants can be detected in controlled conditions
--and suggests that the methods should be evaluated further to develop techniques which can be used reliably by breeders to select for quantitative resistance in young plants.
#Clinical trial studies vaccine targeting cancer stem cells in brain cancersan early-phase clinical trial of an experimental vaccine that targets cancer stem cells in patients with recurrent glioblastoma multiforme
Like normal stem cells cancer stem cells have the ability to self-renew and generate new cells
In theory if the cancer stem cells can be destroyed a tumor may not be able to sustain itself
but if the cancer originators are removed not or destroyed a tumor will continue to return despite the use of existing cancer-killing therapies.
The Phase I study which will enroll about 45 patients and last two years evaluates safety
and dosing of a vaccine created individually for each participant and designed to boost the immune system's natural ability to protect the body against foreign invaders called antigens.
The drug targets a protein CD133 found on cancer stem cells of some brain tumors and other cancers.
Immune system cells called dendritic cells will be derived from each patient's blood combined with commercially prepared glioblastoma proteins
and grown in the laboratory before being injected under the skin as a vaccine weekly for four weeks and then once every two months according to Jeremy Rudnick MD neuro-oncologist in the Cedars-Sinai Department of Neurosurgery
and Department of Neurology the study's principal investigator. Dendritic cells are the immune system's most powerful antigen-presenting cells--those responsible for helping the immune system recognize invaders.
By being loaded with specific protein fragments of CD133 the dendritic cells become trained to recognize the antigen as a target
and stimulate an immune response when they come in contact. The cancer stem cell study is the latest evolution in Cedars-Sinai's history of dendritic cell vaccine research
which was introduced experimentally in patient trials in 1998. Cedars-Sinai's brain cancer stem cell study is open to patients
whose glioblastoma multiforme has returned following surgical removal. Potential participants will be screened for eligibility requirements and undergo evaluations and medical tests at regular intervals.
The vaccine and study-related tests and follow-up care will be provided at no cost to patients.
For more information call 1-800-CEDARS-1 or contact Cherry Sanchez by phone at 310-423-8100 or email cherry. sanchez@cshs. org. Story Source:
The above story is provided based on materials by Cedars-Sinai Medical center. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length h
#Whats with sloths dangerous bathroom break? Maybe hungerfor the three-toed sloth a trip to the restroom is no rest at all.
It's a long slow descent into mortal danger from the safety of home among the upper branches of the forest.
But the harrowing and excruciatingly slow trip may be key to staving off starvation. What is striking about this behavior is the vulnerability says Jonathan Pauli a professor of forest
when malnutrition is at stake. At least one question remains. It's not clear how the algae get into the sloth's stomach
and plants near busy roadways may enhance air quality and positively impact public health. In recent years the health of people living working
or going to school near roads with high traffic volume has been a rising national concern. Studies conducted in the United states
A multidisciplinary group of researchers planners and policymakers recently gathered in Sacramento Calif. to discuss roadside vegetation as a viable option for mitigating these adverse health impacts from air pollution.
Properly designed and managed roadside vegetation can help us breathe a little easier said Dr. Greg Mcpherson research forester at the U s. Forest Service's Pacific Southwest Research Station.
#More relief options may be available for hay fever sufferersthere is more to seasonal allergies than a little congestion and sneezing.
and itch it may be a symptom of ragweed allergy. But more help might be on the way for some of the 23 million hay fever sufferers.
On Tuesday January 28 the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will hold a public meeting of the Allergenic Products Advisory Committee.
The goal of the meeting is to discuss and make recommendations on the safety and efficacy of oral tablets used to treat ragweed allergy symptoms.
The committee is likely to approve these tablets which will mark great improvement in the fight against allergy said allergist Michael Foggs MD president of the American College of Allergy Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI.
Once the committee and then the FDA approve the tablets allergy sufferers will have another form of treatment available to them.
In December the same committee granted approval for grass allergy tablets. Assuming the committee also approves the ragweed allergy tablets the FDA will then have to approve both the grass
and ragweed tablets before they can be made available to allergy sufferers. Currently the best treatment for those with moderate-to-severe allergy symptoms is allergy shots also known as immunotherapy.
This treatment requires tiny injections of purified allergen extracts. A pill a day may seem more appealing than getting shots.
So why bother with allergy shots anymore? Allergy sufferers are typically allergic to more than one allergen said Dr. Foggs.
Allergy shots can be customized to provide relief to multiple allergens including tree grass weed mold house dust dander and mold while offering the assurance of more than 100 years of experience in causing remission not just symptom
relief in allergy. We think there may be pros and cons of these differing forms of treatments.
Board-certified allergists can help patients make good short-term and long-term choices. It is unknown whether the new allergy tablets will allow sufferers to eat ragweed relatives like avocado melons and some fruits like allergy shots permit.
We look forward to testing the limits of this new treatment said Dr. Foggs. Story Source:
The above story is provided based on materials by American College of Allergy Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length h
#Sequence of water buffalo completedlal Teer Livestock Limited an associate of Lalteer Seed Ltd. the largest seed company in Bangladesh with strong hybrid research program
and BGI the world's largest genomics organization jointly announced today that they have completed the genome sequencing of water buffalo
and the bioinformatics analysis. The outstanding work lays an important foundation for molecular breeding of water buffalo and sheds new light on the understanding of its origin and domestication process.
Buffalo is known as Black Gold due to its contribution to economy which is being reared as milk meat hide and bone sources all over the world.
In particular it could provide more than 5%of the world's milk supply and 20%to 30%of the farm power in Southeast asia.
Considering the importance of buffalo and realizing the need of genomic research for its improvement Lal Teer Livestock took a great effort for The Whole Genome Sequencing of Water buffalo in collaboration with BGI since March 2012.
but the latest research from Queen's Palaeoecologist Dr Chris Hunt suggests otherwise. A major analysis of vegetation histories across the three islands and the SE Asian mainland has revealed a pattern of repeated disturbance of vegetation since the end of the last ice age approximately 11000 years ago.
It is the culmination of almost 15 years of field work by Dr Hunt involving the collection of pollen samples across the region and a major review of existing palaeoecology research
which was completed in partnership with Dr Ryan Rabett from Cambridge university. Evidence of human activity in rainforests is extremely difficult to find
Dr Hunt who is Director of research on Environmental Change at Queen's School of Geography Archaeology
Dr Hunt continued: Laws in several countries in South East asia do not recognise the rights of indigenous forest dwellers on the grounds that they are nomads who leave no permanent mark on the landscape.
Researchers at the University of Zurich's Centre for Evolutionary Medicine have discovered that the population of the medieval town of Dalheim had a similar genetic predisposition for milk digestion to present-day Germans and Austrians.
and European-descendent populations in America and Australian that until very recently lactose intolerance was considered an abnormality deficiency or disease.
and limited evidence suggests that similar processes may be operating in humansâ#she added. â#oesuch a finding has potential implications for nutrition management of babies in neonatal intensive care units and selection of donor milks.
and therefore can be regarded as a model for humans who are overweight and at risk of diabetes.
and showing the audience a jar of them says Lovisa Heyman a Phd student in Experimental Medical science.
and higher levels of fat in the liver said Karin Berger diabetes researcher at Lund University.
and Europe that aã§ai has been marketed as a'super berry'with many health benefits including weight loss.
and diabetes by supplementing a more normal diet with berries said Karin Berger. However the Lund researchers do not recommend people start eating large quantities of lingonberry jam.
Dr Michael Pocock an ecologist at the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and lead author of the research paper said This is the sort of science that anyone can Do by taking part the public are doing real science
Co-author Dr Darren Evans a conservation biologist at the University of Hull said This work could have been done by paying research assistants to travel the country and collect records
Dr Pocock added It seems almost like magic for children and other people to put a damaged leaf in a plastic bag wait two weeks
Dr Evans added We have been challenged by other professional scientists as to whether'ordinary people'can make accurate observations suitable for real science.
Innovative methods using odor to make low-fat foods more palatable could someday aid public health efforts to reduce dietary fat intake.
With the help of solution-based chemical processing the chemists around Ajay Singh and Kevin Ryan at the University of Limerick have fabricated films of highly ordered wurtzite nanorods
'In the plant world close relatives make bad neighbours'said Dr Owen Lewis of Oxford university's Department of Zoology who led the study.'
'Oomycetes are potent pathogens that can cause seeds and seedlings to rot and were responsible for the 1840s potato famine'said Professor Sarah Gurr formerly of Oxford university and now at the University of Exeter.'
because this is where they thrive'said lead author Dr Robert Bagchi who began the study at Oxford university
No magic bullet for coffee rust eradicationspraying fungicide to kill coffee rust disease which has ravaged Latin american plantations
and bats--are much more likely to succeed in the long run according to the U-M researchers who provide an overview of the recent Latin american coffee rust epidemic in a paper published online Jan 22 in the journal Bioscience.
Small seemingly trivial changes in environmental conditions can generate dramatic shifts in the underlying dynamics of the disease the researchers wrote.
The recent coffee rust epidemic damaged plantations from Mexico to Peru and applying fungicide is one of the main control methods promoted in the affected countries.
If conventional disease control methods alone are used to address the coffee rust problem the disease may prove to be intractable in Latin america according to the authors.
It's even possible that coffee rust will maintain its epidemic status indefinitely in the region though additional research would be required to determine
#Salamanders help predict health of forest ecosystems, inform forest managementwoodland salamanders are small lungless amphibians that live in moist forest habitats throughout the U s. and the world.
their population size and recovery from major disturbances can help predict the health of forest ecosystems.
We were told it was the ultimate health drink. It is packed full of nutrients like calcium and other minerals vitamins including Vitamin d protein fat and sugar in the form of lactose.
Without this enzyme consuming milk can lead to some unpleasant side effects like bloating cramps flatulence and diarrhea--a condition known as lactose intolerance.
For a long time scientists and clinicians thought the main advantage in Europe was to enable early farmers to avoid the consequences of calcium deficiency;
This would have caused the usual lactose intolerance symptoms such as diarrhea. Diarrhea in in healthy people is not usually life-threatening
but in severely malnourished individuals it certainly can be. So famine could have led to episodes of very strong natural selection favoring lactase persistence.
This supports the theory that hoatzins originated in the Old world says Dr Gerald Mayr of the Senckenberg Research Institute in Frankfurt.
In the opinion of Dr Vanesa De Pietri of Flinders University in Australia it is a further impressive example that the South american avian fauna contains numerous relicts that were once much more widespread.
#Pathogenic plant virus jumps to honeybees, may explain bee population declinea viral pathogen that typically infects plants has been found in honeybees
whether this plant-infecting virus could also cause systemic infection in the bees says Yan Ping Chen from the U s. Department of agriculture's Agricultural research service (ARS) laboratory in Beltsville Maryland an author on the study.
and that the infection becomes widespread in their bodies says lead author Ji Lian Li at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science in Beijing.
One consequence of such high replication rates are populations of RNA VIRUSES thought to exist as quasispecies clouds of genetically related variants that appear to work together to determine the pathology of their hosts.
and reemerging infectious diseases explain these researchers. Toxic viral cocktails appear to have a strong link with honey bee Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) a mysterious malady that abruptly wiped out entire hives across the United states
and was reported first in 2006. Israel Acute Paralysis Virus (IAPV) Acute Bee Paralysis Virus (ABPV) Chronic Paralysis Virus (CPV) Kashmir Bee Virus (KBV) Deformed Wing
Bee Virus (DWV) Black Queen Cell Virus (BQCV) and Sacbrood Virus (SBV) are known other causes of honeybee viral disease.
When these researchers investigated bee colonies classified as strong or weak TRSV and other viruses were more common in the weak colonies than they were in the strong ones.
Bee populations with high levels of multiple viral infections began failing in late fall and perished before February these researchers report.
and supports the view that viral infections have a significant negative impact on colony survival these researchers conclude.
and chocolate) could offer protection from type 2 diabetes--according to research from the University of East Anglia (UEA) and King's college London.
when chronic is associated with diabetes obesity cardiovascular disease and cancer. Prof Aedin Cassidy from UEA's Norwich Medical school led the research.
This is one of the first large-scale human studies to look at how these powerful bioactive compounds might reduce the risk of diabetes.
Laboratory studies have shown these types of foods might modulate blood glucose regulation--affecting the risk of type 2 diabetes.
Insulin resistance a hallmark of type 2 diabetes was assessed using an equation that considered both fasting insulin and glucose levels.
High insulin resistance is associated with Type 2 diabetes so what we are seeing is that people who eat foods rich in these two compounds--such as berries herbs red grapes wine-are less likely to develop the disease.
We also found that those who ate the most anthocyanins were least likely to suffer chronic inflammation
--which is associated with many of today's most pressing health concerns including diabetes obesity cardiovascular disease and cancer.
What we don't yet know is exactly how much of these compounds are necessary to potentially reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes she added.
so we should be cautious until we test them properly in randomised trials and in people developing early diabetes.
The researchers Gemma Baron Dr Nigel Raine and Professor Mark Brown from the School of Biological sciences at Royal Holloway worked with colonies of bumblebees in their laboratory and exposed half of them to the pesticide.
The topical research is at the heart of a national Bee Health Conference running in London.
Dr Nigel Raine who Is invited an Speaker at this week's bee conference said: Our work provides a significant step forward in understanding the detrimental impact of pesticides other than neonicotinoids on wild bees.
#Secondhand smoke exposure increases odds of hospital asthma readmission for childrena new study shows that exposure to secondhand smoke at home
or in the car dramatically increases the odds of children being readmitted to the hospital within a year of being admitted for asthma.
The study published in the journal Pediatrics raises the possibility that measurement of tobacco exposure could be used in clinical practice to target smoking cessation efforts
and reduce the likelihood of future hospitalizations. To determine tobacco exposure the researchers at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical center and Penn State Milton S. Hershey Children's Hospital measured cotinine in the blood and in saliva of more than 600 children.
Cotinine is produced a substance when the body breaks down nicotine and provides a scientific assessment of tobacco exposure.
or in the hospital and may be used to predict future hospitalizations says Robert Kahn MD MPH associate director of general and community pediatrics at Cincinnati Children's and senior author of the study.
Such a measure for exposure to tobacco smoke could be used to target specific interventions at caregivers of those children before discharge from the hospital.
and contact with the primary care physician could be adopted in clinical practice. The study is part of the Greater Cincinnati Asthma Risks Study
which seeks to understand the causes of hospital readmission particularly for low income and minority children.
and their primary caregivers were asked about tobacco exposure. All children were followed for at least 12 months to see
if they were readmitted to the hospital. The researchers found that there was no correlation between caregiver report of tobacco exposure and readmission.
But a more scientific analysis of actual secondhand exposure via measurement of cotinine in the blood and saliva demonstrated a readmission risk in children exposed to secondhand smoke more than twice that of children not exposed.
Of the 619 children in the study 76 percent were covered by Medicaid says Judie Howrylak MD Phd a physician at Hershey Children's
Certainly there could be a financial incentive for insurance companies to help caregivers quit smoking rather than pay the downstream costs of a future asthma readmission.
The above story is provided based on materials by Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical center. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
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