I had a number of people--mainly women from my breast cancer weight loss study--say how inexpensive a Mediterranean-style diet was approached so
#Toxicity map of brain may help protect cognition for cancer patientsnew research from Wake Forest Baptist Medical center is giving radiation oncologists who treat brain tumors a better understanding of how to preserve the brain's functions while still killing cancer.
Radiation treatment of organs with cancer is designed to give enough of a dose to be toxic to the cancer tumor with minimal impact to the surrounding tissue
While avoiding normal tissue death is important it doesn't necessarily help prevent the cognitive and functional problems associated with cancer treatments.
In one of those trials 57 brain cancer survivors returned six months or more after their radiation treatment to determine
whether Donepezil a drug normally used to improve mental function for those with early Alzheimer's disease was effective at improving their cognition.
Advances in cancer treatment have increased survivorship rates and the length of time individuals are able to live following treatment Peiffer said
#Strong anticancer properties discovered in soybeansproteins found in soybeans could inhibit the growth of colon liver and lung cancers.
The study looked at the role soybeans could have in the prevention of cancer. Using a variety of soybean lines
The study showed that peptides derived from soybean meal significantly inhibited cell growth by 73%for colon cancer 70%for liver cancer
and 68%for lung cancer cells using human cell lines. This shows that the selected high oleic acid soybean lines could have a potential nutraceutical affect in helping to reduce the growth of several types of cancer cells.
and director of the atherosclerosis research unit at the David Geffen School of medicine at UCLA. There was no need to isolate
but not in the blood suggesting that targeting the small intestine may be a new strategy to prevent diet-induced atherosclerosis the plaque-based disease of the arteries that can lead to heart attacks and strokes.
Scientists fed the tomatoes to mice that lacked the ability to remove low-density lipoprotein (LDL or bad cholesterol) from their blood and readily developed inflammation and atherosclerosis when consuming a high-fat diet.
decreased lysophosphatidic acid a tumor-promoter that accelerates plaque build up in the arteries in animal models;
and other researchers around the world in animal models of disease have suggested that a large number of conditions with an inflammatory component--not just atherosclerosis--might benefit from treatment with an apoa-1 mimetic peptide including Alzheimer's disease ovarian
and colon cancer diabetes asthma and other disorders. The immune system normally triggers an inflammatory response to an acute event such as injury or infection
which is part of the natural course of healing. But with many chronic diseases inflammation becomes an abnormal ongoing process with long-lasting deleterious effects in the body.
's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and senior associate dean for research at the Geffen School of medicine.
and future studies may yield important and fundamental knowledge about the role of the intestine in diet-induced inflammation and atherosclerosis.
#Chemical trickery explored to help contain potato pestthe pale cyst nematode Globodera pallida is one bad roundworm.
However the eggs are encased in cysts that can resist fumigation according to Navarre who works at the ARS Vegetable and Forage Crops Research Laboratory in Prosser Wash.
#Community approach effective in fight against diabetesnew research from Wake Forest Baptist Medical center shows that a diabetes prevention program led by community health workers is effective at reducing blood glucose
and potentially reducing diabetes over the long term. This is the largest program to successfully replicate the results achieved by the Diabetes Prevention Project (DPP) a research study led by the National institutes of health
and supported by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention which demonstrated several years ago that lifestyle weight-loss interventions can reduce the incidence of diabetes by 58 percent.
The study is published in the March 18 issue of the American Journal of Preventive medicine. We wanted to take this intervention out to people in the community rather than having them have to come to us in a clinical setting said the study's lead author Jeff Katula Ph d. assistant professor of health and exercise sciences at Wake Forest University and joint
Given the high prevalence of obesity and metabolic syndrome and risk for diabetes our study shows we can provide an effective program in a community setting.
Latest estimates indicate that almost 26 million people in the U s. have diabetes and another 79 million adults have prediabetes a condition in
but not yet high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes. Despite improved treatment the overall public health burden continues to increase
This project was supported by award R18dk069901 from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney diseases.
what is believed to be a first of its kind study a research member at The Cancer Institute of New jersey
The Cancer Institute of New jersey is a Center of Excellence of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New jersey-Robert Wood Johnson Medical school.
which is supported by The Cancer Institute of New jersey the UMDNJ-School of Public health and the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical school and provides help on quitting tobacco use through treatment education research and advocacy.
but there is more to the story according to Michael Steinberg MD MPH FACP a member of The Cancer Institute of New jersey
In fact smokers who relight cigarettes may be at higher risk of lung cancer and chronic bronchitis. That is something of which policy makers need to be aware he notes.
The study is supported by pilot funding through The Cancer Institute of New jersey. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Cancer Institute of New jersey.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length h
#Catastrophic loss of Cambodias tropical flooded grasslandsaround half of Cambodia's tropical flooded grasslands have been lost in just 10 years according to new research from the University of East Anglia.
#For smokers, low levels of Vitamin d may lead to cancernew research appearing online today in Clinical Chemistry the journal of AACC shows that decreased levels of Vitamin d may predispose smokers to developing tobacco-related cancer.
In the U s. alone cigarette smoking accounts for more deaths annually than HIV illegal drugs alcohol motor vehicle injuries suicides and murders combined.
It is the primary causal factor for at least 30%of all cancer deaths and can lead to multiple kinds of cancer including bladder cervical esophageal head and neck kidney liver lung pancreatic and stomach as well as myeloid leukemia.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention the healthcare expenditures and productivity losses due to smoking cost the economy approximately $193 billion per year.
Researchers then followed the study participants for up to 28 years through the Danish Cancer Registry.
Of the participants 1081 eventually developed a tobacco-related cancer. The authors determined that the median Vitamin d concentration among these participants was only 14.8 ng/ml
These results show for the first time that the risk of tobacco-related cancers as a group is associated with lower concentrations of Vitamin d.
If further research confirms this it would be consistent with previous studies demonstrating the anti-tumorigenic effects of Vitamin d derivatives as well as the correlation of Vitamin d deficiency with favorable cancer-forming conditions and increased susceptibility to tobacco smoke carcinogens.
Interestingly though low Vitamin d levels were connected not with risk of other cancer types. Our analyses show that the association between lower concentrations of plasma Vitamin d
and higher risk of cancer may be driven by tobacco-related cancer as a group which has not been shown before stated author Børge G. Nordestgaard MD DMSC in the paper.
This is important for future studies investigating the association between plasma Vitamin d and risk of cancer.
#High-fat dairy products linked to poorer breast cancer survivalpatients who consume high-fat dairy products following breast cancer diagnosis increase their chances of dying from the disease years later according to a study by Kaiser permanente researchers.
The study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute is the first to examine the relationship between high-fat and low-fat dairy consumption following a diagnosis of breast cancer and long-term breast cancer survival.
Previous studies have shown that higher lifetime exposure to estrogen is a causal pathway to breast cancer.
The researchers studied a cohort of women who were diagnosed with early-stage invasive breast cancer between 1997 and 2000 primarily from Kaiser permanente's Northern California region (83 percent) and the Utah Cancer Registry (12 percent.
Those consuming larger amounts of high-fat dairy (one serving or more per day) had higher breast cancer mortality as well as higher all-cause mortality
and higher non-breast cancer mortality wrote lead author Candyce H. Kroenke Scd MPH staff scientist with the Kaiser permanente Division of Research
and a 49 percent increased risk of dying from their breast cancer during the follow-up period said Kroenke.
The study found an association between high-fat dairy and breast cancer mortality but no association with low-fat dairy products and breast cancer outcomes.
Women entered into the cohort approximately two years after their breast cancer diagnosis. At the beginning of the study 1893 women completed a self-administered food-frequency questionnaire
Of the total sample 349 women had a recurrence of breast cancer and 372 died of any cause 189 (50.8 percent) of them from breast cancer.
This research was part of the Life After Cancer Epidemiology (LACE) study one of several efforts by investigators with the Kaiser permanente Division of Research to consider the role of lifestyle factors such as nutrition exercise
and social support on long-term breast cancer survival and recurrence. While hundreds of studies have examined the role of lifestyle factors in cancer risk
and prevention this study is one of a small but growing number that focus on the role of lifestyle factors after a breast cancer diagnosis For example the Pathways study of breast cancer survivorship based at the Division of Research is collecting
and analyzing data about women's genetic background tumor characteristics and lifestyle choices immediately after diagnosis. Findings from this study along with the LACE study are providing objective information to help guide women as they make decisions following a breast cancer diagnosis;
among these findings are that soy decreases the risk of breast cancer recurrence quality of life after diagnosis influences outcomes
and physical activity is beneficial. Susan E. Kutner MD chair of the Kaiser permanente Northern California Regional Breast Care Task force said that the new study bolsters the counseling that Kaiser permanente gives breast cancer survivors about the importance of a low-fat diet as well as exercise
and weight management in preventing recurrence of the disease. Women have been clamoring for this type of information Dr. Kutner said.
They're asking us'Tell me what I should eat?''With this information we can be more specific about recommending low-fat dairy products.
Authors of the study in addition to Dr. Kroenke and Caan were Marilyn L. Kwan Phd and Adrienne Castillo MS RD of the Kaiser permanente Division of Research;
The National Cancer Institute of the National institutes of health funded this study (grant R01ca129059. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Kaiser permanente. Note:
#Predicting hotspots for future flu outbreaksthis year's unusually long and rocky flu season would be compared nothing to the pandemic that could occur
if bird flu became highly contagious among humans which is why UCLA researchers and their colleagues are creating new ways to predict where an outbreak could emerge.
Using surveillance of influenza cases in humans and birds we've come up with a technique to predict sites where these viruses could mix
and generate a future pandemic said lead author Trevon Fuller a UCLA postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability's Center for Tropical Research.
and Egypt's Nile Delta are danger zones where bird flu could combine with human flu to create a virulent kind of super-flu.
--and use the researchers'models to identify other hotspots--for increased monitoring of flu in humans livestock poultry and wild birds.
That could help detect a novel flu virus before it spreads worldwide the researchers said.
The research paper Predicting Hotspots for Influenza Virus Reassortment was published March 13 in the peer-reviewed public health journal Emerging Infectious diseases.
Previous pandemics such as the 1957 and 1968 influenzas that each killed more than a million people or the 2009 H1n1 swine flu outbreak that killed 280000 worldwide developed
when viruses from humans and animals exchanged genes to create a new virus in a process called reassortment.
Recent research using mice confirms that genes from bird flu and human flu can combine to create dangerous new flu strains.
Swine which are susceptible to both bird and human flu could serve as a mixing vessel for reassortment between the two viruses.
The mixing of genetic material between the seasonal human flu virus and bird flu can create novel virus strains that are more lethal than either of the original viruses said senior author Thomas Smith director of the Center for Tropical
Research and a professor at UCLA's Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and the UCLA Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.
and prevent the next pandemic he said. The researchers looked for locations where bird flu outbreaks human flu outbreaks
and swine populations overlapped to predict hotspots where reassortment is more likely using a $1. 3 million grant from the Fogarty International Center at the National institutes of health.
The research focused on two flu strains that studies in mice have shown can combine with lethal results:
the seasonal H3n2 human flu and the H5n1 strain of bird flu that has crossed occasionally over into humans.
While the World health organization has identified six countries as hosts to ongoing widespread bird flu infections in poultry in 2011--China Egypt India Vietnam Indonesia
Not all flu outbreaks whether bird or human are tracked. The scientists had to identify indicators of flu outbreaks such as dense poultry populations
or rain and temperatures that encourage flu transmission. For each type of flu we identified variables that were predictive of the various virus strains Fuller said.
We wanted a map of predictions continuously across the whole country including locations where we didn't have data on flu outbreaks.
Although the researchers had bird flu data for parts of both China and Egypt other countries such as Indonesia don't have full reporting systems in place.
Even in China and Egypt accurate reporting is hampered by farmers who may conceal flu outbreaks in order to sell their livestock.
If we provide incentives for better reporting we could more precisely predict future outbreaks Fuller said.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by University of California-Los angeles. The original article was written by Alison Hewitt.
#College kids who dont drink milk could face serious consequencescollege-age kids who don't consume at least three servings of dairy daily are three times more likely to develop metabolic syndrome than those who do said a new University of Illinois study.
That alarming finding means that three-fourths of the 18-to 25-year-old college applicants surveyed are at risk for metabolic syndrome the researcher said.
Metabolic syndrome occurs when a person has three of the following risk factors: abdominal obesity high blood pressure high blood sugar and unhealthy cholesterol and lipid levels.
Having this disorder greatly increases a person's chances of developing heart disease and type 2 diabetes she said.
Although scientists believe that dairy products guard against obesity and the health problems that accompany extra weight they aren't sure how it happens.
It may be the calcium it may be the proteins. Whatever the mechanism evidence suggests that dairy products are effective in attaining
and were evaluated then for metabolic syndrome risk factors. The analysis controlled for sex age family history of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes and physical activity.
The study is part of the Up Amigos project a collaboration between scientists at the U of I and the Universidad Autã noma de San luis Potosî in Mexico.
or a few whales because of sickness or disorientation triggers a chain reaction in which healthy individuals are drawn into the shallows in an effort to support their family members.
One research direction being pursued in Johnson's lab is to induce viral pneumonia in piglets at the point in the postnatal period
They are also looking at effects of prenatal infections in the mother to see if that alters the trajectory of normal brain growth in the offspring.
The risk for behavioral disorders and reduced stress resilience is increased by pre-and postnatal infection
and Sickkids Research Institute announced today that they have mapped successfully the genes in the fungus that causes Dutch elm disease.
Essentially Dutch elm disease is caused by a fungus that prevents the normal distribution of nutrients in the tree by blocking the flow of sap said Alan Moses an Assistant professor with the University of Toronto's department of Cell & Systems Biology one of the authors of the study.
Relatively little is known about the fungus that causes Dutch elm disease and it's a very distant relative of the fungi that are studied more often by researchers like bread mould or beer yeast.
Dutch elm disease is believed to have originated in The himalayas travelling to Europe from the Dutch east indies in the late 1800s.
It emerged in Holland shortly after the First world war earning the name Dutch elm disease. It is the most destructive elm tree disease in North america and typically kills most trees within two years of infection.
Dutch elm disease is a problem in many parts of the world particularly Scotland Spain Italy Western Canada and New zealand.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by University of Toronto. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
However a 2001 National Cancer Institute (NCI) report found that smokers compensate for the lower smoke yield in light cigarettes
#Goats milk with antimicrobial lysozyme speeds recovery from diarrheamilk from goats that were modified genetically to produce higher levels of a human antimicrobial protein has proved effective in treating diarrhea in young pigs demonstrating the potential for food products from transgenic animals to one
day also benefit human health report researchers at the University of California Davis. The study is the first on record to show that goats'milk carrying elevated levels of the antimicrobial lysozyme a protein found in human breast milk can successfully treat diarrhea
caused by bacterial infection in the gastrointestinal tract. The findings slated to appear March 13 in the online scientific journal PLOS ONE offer hope that such milk may eventually help prevent human diarrheal diseases that each year claim the lives of 1. 8 million children around the world
Because lysozyme limits the growth of some bacteria that cause intestinal infections and diarrhea and also encourages the growth of other beneficial intestinal bacteria it is considered to be one of the main components of human milk that contribute to the health and well-being of breast-fed infants.
Pigs were chosen for this study as a research model because their gastrointestinal physiology is quite similar to humans
although both groups of pigs recovered from the infection and resulting diarrhea the young pigs fed the lysozyme-rich milk recovered much more quickly than did the young pigs that received goats'milk without enhanced levels of lysozyme.
More accurate, sensitive DNA test allows early identification of fungus causing white nose syndromeeven after researchers studying White Nose Syndrome (WNS) established that a fungus called Geomyces destructans is at the heart
White Nose Syndrome was identified first in Upstate New york in 2006. Since then it has spread to caves throughout the East Coast
White Nose Syndrome is arguably the most devastating wildlife disease we've faced said Michael T. Rains Director of the Forest Service's Northern Research Station.
and does a dance in front of the other bees describing the location of what it's found which helps the hive decide collectively where the best source is said senior scientist Matthew Krummel Phd a UCSF professor of pathology.
and communicate essential information to each other in a similar way Krummel said thereby helping to coordinate immune responses directed against invading pathogens.
what they've discovered about the new pathogen or vaccine which in turn helps the immune system mount a coordinated response to the foreign matter Krummel said The discovery is said important Krummel
which the immune system recognizes a pathogen to which it had been exposed months or years previously. Without that long-term memory vaccines would be said useless Krummel.
The body wouldn't remember that it had been exposed to a particular pathogen such as measles or diphtheria and would not know how to successfully fight it off.
In experiments with a mouse model of human immune function the scientists vaccinated mice for listeria a common bacterium that causes food-borne illness
and then exposed the animals to the bacteria. Mice in which the critical differentiation period was allowed to occur unimpeded remained healthy protected from a potentially lethal infection.
In mice in which T-cell differentiation was blocked said Krummel it was as if the mice had never been vaccinated at all.
in case of autoimmune disorders such as diabetes or lupus it might be possible to attenuate the immune response by blocking the formation of a memory pool.
which is what much of the immune response is reacting to in diabetes he said. But if you can tweak the immune cells in the right way then
As the most diverged wild relative of O. sativa (rice) O. Brachyantha has resistance against many rice pathogens and various stress environments.
#New approaches for controlling pesticide exposure in childrennew research on household pesticide contamination emphasizes the need for less reliance on pesticides
Families in Boston public housing developments for instance rank pest infestation pesticide use and pest allergies second only to crime as matters of concern.
#Bitter melon juice prevents pancreatic cancer in mouse modelsa University of Colorado Cancer study published this week in the journal Carcinogenesis shows that bitter melon juice restricts the ability of pancreatic cancer cells to metabolize glucose
Three years ago researchers showed the effect of bitter melon extract on breast cancer cells only in a Petri dish.
and kill pancreatic cancer cells says Rajesh Agarwal Phd co-program leader of Cancer Prevention and Control at the CU Cancer Center and professor at the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical
Diabetes tends to presage pancreatic cancer and bitter melon has been shown to effect TYPE II-DIABETES diabetes and has been used for centuries against diabetes in the folk medicines of China and India.
Following this line of thinking Agarwal and colleagues wondered what would happen if they closed out the middle man of diabetes
and directly explored the link between bitter melon and pancreatic cancer. The result Agarwal says is Alteration in metabolic events in pancreatic cancer cells
and an activation of the AMP-activated protein kinase an enzyme that indicates low energy levels in the cells.
Perhaps not coincidentally bitter melon also regulates insulin secretion by pancreatic beta cells. After studies in cell cultures the group showed that mouse models of pancreatic cancer that were fed bitter melon juice were 60 percent less likely to develop the disease than controls.
It's a very exciting finding Agarwal says. Many researchers are engineering new drugs to target cancer cells'ability to supply themselves with energy
and here we have a naturally-occurring compound that may do just that. The Agarwal Lab is now applying for grants that will allow them to move the study of bitter melon into further chemoprevention trials in mouse models of pancreatic cancer.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by University of Colorado Denver. The original article was written by Garth Sundem.
The all-natural products the creation of which can take less than 5 days have no allergy concerns
and diarrhea and the number of affected cases is growing. Currently there is no cure; sufferers have to let the virus run its course for a few days.
--which plays a vital role in keeping the immune system healthy and fighting illness--is likely to be endemic among the Malawi population.
and the wider Southern African region in the context of wider mineral malnutrition (for example iron zinc and iodine deficiencies) often referred to as the'hidden hunger'.
Protein misfolding has been linked with diseases such as Alzheimer's. Caetano-Anoll s said however that this research makes an important contribution to understanding how molecules work.
#Secondhand smoke exposure linked to signs of heart disease: Exposure to tobacco smoke may be more dangerous than previously thoughtnonsmokers beware.
or as an adult at work or at home--the more likely you are to develop early signs of heart disease according to research being presented at the American College of Cardiology's 62nd Annual Scientific Session.
and the earliest detectable signs of heart disease. This research provides additional evidence that secondhand smoke is harmful
We actually found the risk of secondhand smoke exposure to be an equivalent or stronger risk factor for CAC than other well-established ones such as high cholesterol hypertension and diabetes.
and then to heart attacks so this lends more credence to enforcing smoking bans Dr. Hecht said.
We know heart disease is accelerated significantly by secondhand smoke exposure so it should be included as a routine part of medical exams
and discussions about heart disease and try to prevent it as best we can. This study included 3098 healthy people between 40 and 80 years old who had smoked never (defined as having smoked fewer than 100 cigarettes in their lifetime)
and who were enrolled already in the Flight attendant Medical Research Institute (FAMRI)- International Early Lung cancer Action Program CT screening program from 2005-2012.
and more likely to have diabetes high cholesterol and high blood pressure. Although his team did not use the standard Agatston score to assess CAC Dr. Hecht said this study further validates the utility of low-dose non-gated CT scans to measure the amount of plaque in the coronary arteries in nonsmokers exposed to secondhand tobacco smoke.
By using this imaging/approach people who have been exposed to tobacco smoke can be evaluated for lung cancer emphysema
and coronary artery disease in a single low-dose scan he said. As a general rule people should limit secondhand smoke exposure as much as possible.
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