#Estimated risk of breast cancer increases as red meat intake increases, study suggestsso far studies have suggested no significant association between red meat intake and breast cancer.
and later and many lines of evidence suggest that some exposures potentially including dietary factors may have greater effects on the development of breast cancer during early adulthood.
So a team of US researchers investigated the association between dietary protein sources in early adulthood and risk of breast cancer.
Factors such as age height weight race family history of breast cancer history of benign breast disease smoking menopausal status hormone
Medical records identified 2830 cases of breast cancer during 20 years of follow-up. Putting these real life data into a statistical model allowed the researchers to estimate breast cancer risks for women with different diets.
They estimated that for each step-by-step increase in the women's consumption of red meat there was a step-by-step increase in the risk of getting breast cancer over the 20 year study period.
Specifically the statistical model worked out the number of cases of breast cancer during the total years of follow up for all the women in the study (rate/person years.
For example the model estimated that there would be 493 cases of breast cancer over 306298 person years among women with the lowest intake of red meat.
This compared with 553 cases per 31169 person years among women with the highest intake.
This translated to an estimate that higher intake of red meat was associated with a 22%increased risk of breast cancer overall.
Each additional serving per day of red meat was associated with a 13%increase in risk of breast cancer (12%in premenopausal and 8%in postmenopausal women.
In contrast estimates showed a lower risk of breast cancer in postmenopausal women with higher consumption of poultry.
Substituting one serving per day of poultry for one serving per day of red meat--in the statistical model--was associated with a 17%lower risk of breast cancer overall and a 24%lower risk of postmenopausal breast cancer.
Furthermore substituting one serving per day of combined legumes nuts poultry and fish for one serving per day of red meat was associated with a 14%lower risk of breast cancer overall and premenopausal breast cancer.
The authors conclude that higher red meat intake in early adulthood may be a risk factor for breast cancer
and replacing red meat with a combination of legumes poultry nuts and fish may reduce the risk of breast cancer.
and risk of breast cancer is needed they add. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by BMJ-British Medical Journal.
#Limiting carbs could reduce breast cancer recurrence in women with positive IGF1 receptordartmouth researchers have found that reducing carbohydrate intake could reduce the risk of breast cancer recurrence among women
whose tumor tissue is positive for the IGF-1 receptor. The study Risk of Breast cancer Recurrence Associated with Carbohydrate Intake
and Tissue Expression of IGFI Receptor will appear in the July issue of Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention.
There is a growing body of research demonstrating associations between obesity diabetes and cancer risk said lead author Jennifer A. Emond an instructor in the Department of Community and Family Medicine at the Geisel School of medicine at Dartmouth College.
There are similarities between the biological pathways that underlie all of these conditions and there is some evidence to suggest that over-activation of the insulin/insulin-like growth factor axis which increases the availability of IGF1 in the blood may relate to a poor prognosis among breast cancer survivors.
Receptors for IGF1 have been found in breast tumor tissue and expression of those receptors may contribute to treatment resistance among breast cancer survivors.
Since diet can influence insulin activation the researchers wondered whether diet could impact breast cancer prognosis based on expression of the IGF1 receptor in the primary breast tumor tissue.
Using an unusual approach this study assessed the combined association of two factors implicated in tumor growth--carbohydrate intake
and IGF1 receptor status--to test whether activating the insulin/insulin-like growth-factor axis can impact breast cancer
Since carbohydrates stimulate the biological pathway that can increase concentrations of IGF1 the researchers focused on carbohydrate intake.
The women they studied were part of a larger intervention trial called the Women's Healthy Eating
and Living (WHEL) study conducted between 2001 and 2007. We found an association between increased breast cancer recurrence in women with a primary breast cancer tumor that was positive for the IGF1 receptor
which is consistent with other studies said Emond. We further found that a decreased carbohydrate intake was associated with decreased breast cancer recurrence for these women.
This is the first study to suggest that it might be possible to personalize recommended diets for breast cancer survivors based on the molecular characteristics of their primary tumor.
Further research is needed to confirm these findings and Emond notes that breast cancer survivors should not be concerned about dramatically lowering their carbohydrate intake based on this study.
There are still many unanswered questions regarding this study including what type of carbohydrate-containing foods may be the most important foods that breast cancer survivors should limit she said.
Breast cancer survivors should continue to follow a plant-based dietary pattern as suggested by the American Association for Cancer Research and the American Cancer Association
which means eating lots of fiber rich vegetables legumes and fruits; consuming whole grains and also limiting refined grains starchy vegetables and added sugar.
#The ugly truth about summer allergiesas if a runny nose and red eyes weren't enough to ruin your warm weather look summer allergies can gift you with even more than you've bargained for this year.
Summer allergies can cause severe symptoms for some sufferers and can be just as bad as the spring and fall seasons said allergist Michael Foggs MD president of the American College of Allergy Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI).
Symptoms aren't always limited to the hallmark sneezing runny nose and watery eyes. Black eyes lines across the nose and other cosmetic symptoms can occur.
Even if you've never before had allergies they can suddenly strike at any age and time of year.
According to the ACAAI pollen mold and insect stings are common allergy culprits during the summer months.
But fresh produce such as celery apples and melons can also cause allergy symptoms. This is known as food pollen syndrome cross-reacting allergens found in both pollen and raw fruits vegetables and some tree nuts.
Summer allergy symptoms can easily be mistaken for colds food intolerances or other ailments said Dr. Foggs.
If your symptoms are persistent and last for more than two weeks you should see your allergist for proper testing diagnosis and treatment.
Before turning to over-the-counter antihistamines and nasal sprays for relief allergy sufferers should speak with an allergist to ensure medication is right for them
For more information about seasonal allergies and to locate an allergist in your area visit Allergyandasthmarelief. org.
The above story is provided based on materials by American College of Allergy Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI.
#Tomato pill improves function of blood vessels in patients with cardiovascular diseasea daily supplement of an extract found in tomatoes may improve the function of blood vessels in patients with cardiovascular disease according to new research from the University of Cambridge.
The incidence of cardiovascular disease varies worldwide but is reduced notably in southern Europe where a'Mediterranean diet'consisting of a larger consumption of fruit vegetables and olive oil predominates.
Recent dietary studies suggest that this diet reduces the incidence of events related to the disease including heart attack
Thirty-six cardiovascular disease patients and thirty-six healthy volunteers were given either Ateronon (an off-the-shelf supplement containing 7mg of lycopene) or a placebo treatment.
The patients with cardiovascular disease were all on statins (cholesterol-lowering drugs. However despite this they still had impaired a relatively function of the endothelium--the inner lining of blood vessels--compared to healthy volunteers.
Endothelial function predicts future events so having a healthy endothelium is an important factor in preventing the evolution of heart disease.
constriction of the blood vessels is one of the key factors that can lead to heart attack and stroke.
We've shown quite clearly that lycopene improves the function of blood vessels in cardiovascular disease patients adds Dr Cheriyan.
It reinforces the need for a healthy diet in people at risk from heart disease and stroke.
if this may reduce heart disease--this would need much larger trials to investigate outcomes more carefully.
Professor Jeremy Pearson Associate Medical Director at The british Heart Foundation says Impaired endothelial function is known a predictor of increased risk of future heart disease.
This pathway could be a potential new target for osteoporosis treatment. In humans it is well known that vitamin deficiencies lead to stunted growth
Giving the mother a single injection of Vitamin b12 during pregnancy was enough to prevent stunted growth and the onset of osteoporosis in the offspring.
and human beings raises the prospect that targeting this pathway through pharmacological means could be a novel approach toward an anabolic treatment of osteoporosis. Story Source:
It can also give rise to hypothyroidism since selenium is required a chemical in the production of thyroid hormone.
However the study published in the on-line journal Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology also determined that lower oxygen levels in the water known as hypoxia
and increased acidification actually increased how toxic some of the pesticides were. Such climate variables should be considered
if their ecosystem is suffering from local climate stressors like hypoxia and acidification said the study's lead author Marie Delorenzo Ph d. NOAA environmental physiology
. In addition to causing painful itchy bumps to people mosquito bites can transmit serious diseases such as malaria dengue fever
#Rising tobacco epidemic in Asia linked to elevated risk of deatha new study estimates that tobacco smoking has been linked to approximately 2 million deaths among adult men
advisor of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research center Seattle Washington. Roughly 60 percent of the world's population lives in Asia where approximately half of men are tobacco smokers.
Among men who had smoked ever there was an elevated risk of death from cardiovascular disease (CVD) cancer or respiratory diseases in all of the geographic regions in 2004.
The association with cancer risk was quite consistent across study populations. Men who had smoked were nearly twice as likely to die from cancer especially lung cancer
but there was also an elevated risk of death from cancers of the head and neck esophagus stomach colorectum liver pancreas and bladder--all diseases that have been linked to smoking in previous studies according to the authors.
Men who had smoked ever tobacco were approximately 50 percent more likely to die from respiratory diseases than those who had smoked not.
While women in most Asian regions are far less likely to smoke than men the study also found an increased risk of death from cancer CVD and respiratory diseases among East Asian women.
Approximately 16.7 percent of lung cancer deaths in East Asian women at least 45 years old were attributable to tobacco smoking in 2004
while for men this number approached 63.2 percent. Our study showed a clear dose-response relationship between the length of time someone smoked
Tobacco smoking has reached now epidemic proportions in Asia and it is likely with the maturation of this epidemic
and the lack of effective tobacco control efforts smokers will continue to face an increased risk of death from cancer and other diseases.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Vanderbilt University Medical center. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
and The americas via trade citrus is now under attack from citrus greening an insidious emerging infectious disease that is destroying entire orchards.
in addition to its role in calcium metabolism this critical nutrient reduces both the risk of current infections and the late-life development of such autoimmune diseases as multiple sclerosis and type 1 diabetes.
And those of us who got Vitamin d by neither route were increased at risk of a whole host of Vitamin d-related disorders most obvious and most easily recognized being rickets.
The bony deformities of rickets were common a century ago in Europe North america and East asia and were eradicated largely in growing children by use of cod liver oil and in the US by the introduction of Vitamin d fortification of milk in the 1930s.
Fortunately growing children can repair some of the bone deformities of rickets if they are given Vitamin d soon enough.
But repairing rickets while a good and necessary thing to do is not sufficient. It is too late
by the time we recognize the deformities of rickets to ensure maximal protection against the autoimmune diseases (for example) for which susceptibility is determined mainly in the first year of life.
Their research was published in late April by the online open access journal PLOS Pathogens. Gonzalez and Lorca are UF associate professors in the microbiology and cell science department part of UFÂ##s Institute of food and agricultural sciences.
Benzbromarone is used typically to treat gout in humans. Citrus greening first enters the tree via a tiny bug the Asian citrus psyllid
#Parasites fail to halt European bumblebee invasion of the UKA species of bee from Europe that has stronger resistance to parasite infections than native bumblebees has spread across the UK according to new research at Royal Holloway
despite them carrying high levels of an infection that normally prevents queen bees from producing colonies.
and Vitamin d during this time head into adulthood with less than optimal bone density setting themselves up for osteoporosis and bone fractures years later.
#Acne cant be prevented or cured, but it can be treated effectivelyacne just won't go away. The skin condition characterized by unsightly blemishes remains one of the most common disorders there is with an estimated 80 percent of all people having outbreaks at some point in their lives.
Acne doesn't discriminate by gender or race and while it's most common in adolescents
and young adults it can appear at later ages especially in women. There's no way to prevent acne there's no cure
and today's over-the-counter remedies contain the same basic ingredients as those on drugstore shelves decades ago.
And acne won't just go away: Not treating it can actually make things worse. But acne can be treated effectively.
Recent advances in both medications and approaches to care have reduced significantly the impact it once had on both skin and self-esteem.
because there are so many more options for treating acne said Sarah Taylor M d. a dermatologist at Wake Forest Baptist Medical center.
We're much better equipped to deal with all different types of acne. Acne occurs when the skin's pores become clogged.
Each pore opens to a hair follicle containing a gland that produces oil called sebum which helps keep skin soft.
and other lesions commonly referred to as zits. What triggers this process isn't clear.
--thus partially accounting for acne flare-ups in teens and pregnant women--and heredity can be a factor
but research has shown that acne is caused not by dirty skin or by eating chocolate pizza or greasy foods.
While nonprescription acne medications aren't necessarily all that new or improved or that different from each other they can be effective on mild acne.
Over-the-counter products can work in many cases said William Huang M d. another Wake Forest Baptist dermatologist.
Acne can cause them a lot of stress and affect their emotional well-being so they want something that works right away
Dermatologists generally don't treat many patients with mild acne because those problems can be cleared up by the proper use of consumer products
Instead Taylor said We tend to see people whose acne is out of control and has not been helped by OTC products or prescriptions from their regular doctor.
the acne is bad (with for example a lot of redness around pimples or the appearance of cysts) getting worse or spreading;
or scars develop as the lesions clear up. Skin specialists have both the expertise and the ability to prescribe stronger medications required to deal with more severe cases.
Among the most widely successful strategies they employ is prescribing different topical medications --which are coupled frequently in a single lotion gel or other delivery substance--in combination with oral antibiotics to address multiple causes and effects of acne.
Just like with any condition there isn't a magic bullet Huang cautioned. The treatment depends on the severity of the acne the type of acne where it's located and the patient's individual preference and motivation for treatment.
But these multilayered approaches that are tailored to the individual patient do work well. Dermatologists also have advanced ways to treat scarring including chemical peels microdermabrasion and laser technologies.
And they're generally more cognizant of the psychological damage that acne can inflict. Whether it's because of personal experience
I'd say dermatologists as a whole are much more sensitive to the psychosocial aspects of acne than in the past Huang said.
Or empathy really because I had acne too when I was a teen. But no matter how understanding dermatologists are they--like other clinicians--face the problem of getting patients to follow their instructions.
and encouraging text messages can help increase teenage patients'proper use of acne medications Consistency is the whole key to treating acne Taylor said.
and vegetables said Brandon Meline director of maternal and child health at the Champaign-Urbana (Ill.)
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend increased vegetable consumption to reduce the risk of heart disease certain cancers obesity type 2 diabetes high blood pressure osteoporosis and kidney stones.
They recommend applying repellents containing 20-50%DEET to the skin when in countries with diseases spread by insects such as malaria and dengue fever.
They also looked at case reports of people suffering encephalopathy (brain condition) following exposure to DEET in the 1980s.
when allowing for underreporting the incidence of 14 reported cases of DEET-associated encephalopathy since 1957 is considered small
Brazil for example has dengue fever--a viral infection that is transmitted to humans by Aedes mosquitoes which can cause life-threatening illness.
As there is no cure and no vaccine against the disease repellents are the number one protection.
and other biting insects which can leave people at risk of harm to their health.
and tropical trips--we don't want them ruined by illness so we want to do all we can to help inform
#Tracking potato famine pathogen to its home may aid $6 billion global fightthe cause of potato late blight
and now known to be the ancestral home of one of the most costly and deadly plant diseases in human history.
Knowing the origin of the pathogen does more than just fill in a few facts in agricultural history the scientists say.
and helps explain the mechanisms of repeated emergence of this disease which to this day is still the most costly potato pathogen in the world.
But P. infestans is now one of the few plant pathogens in the world with a well-characterized center of origin.
and Plant Pathology in the College of Agricultural Sciences at Oregon State university a researcher with the USDA Agricultural research service and lead author on the study.
This is just a textbook example of a center of origin for a pathogen and it's a real treat Grunwald said.
Gene sequencing technology used by this research group helped pin down the Toluca Valley as the ancestral hot spot. The P. infestans pathogen co-evolved there hundreds of years ago with plants that were distant cousins of modern potatoes
Today the newly-confirmed home of this pathogen awaits researchers almost as a huge natural laboratory Grunwald said.
Since different potato varieties plants and pathogens have been co-evolving there for hundreds of years it offers some of the best hope to discover genes that provide some type of resistance.
As global population continues to grow biocontrol bacteria may be an important key for farmers to overcome crop losses due to plant disease and to produce more food from the same acre of land.
Common symptoms of rice blast are shaped telltale diamond-lesions on the plant leaves. In order to do its work the spore must produce a structure called the appressorium a filament that adheres to the plant surface like an anchor.
and colleagues Spence Donofrio and Vidhyavathi Raman showed that Pseudomonas chlororaphis EA105 strongly inhibited the formation of the appressorium and that priming rice plants with EA105 prior to infection by rice blast decreased lesion
and spread of zoonotic infectious agents originating in wild animals. Finally it is estimated today that one in three human in the world--1. 46 billion--is obese or overweight a problem to
and the number of children affected by stunting due to malnutrition is estimated at 165 million. There has never been need a greater to ensure equitable efficient and sustainable food production;
#Drop in global malnutrition depends on agricultural productivity, climate changeglobal malnutrition could fall 84 percent by the year 2050 as incomes in developing countries grow
--but only if agricultural productivity continues to improve and climate change does not severely damage agriculture Purdue University researchers say.
The prevalence and severity of global malnutrition could drop significantly by 2050 particularly in the poorest regions of the world said Thomas Hertel Distinguished Professor of Agricultural Economics.
But if productivity does not grow global malnutrition will worsen even if incomes increase. Climate change also adds a good deal of uncertainty to these projections.
The shift toward a diet higher in calories and richer in protein could lift many in hunger-stricken regions such as Sub-saharan africa South Asia China and Mongolia above the malnutrition line.
Income growth alone will not be enough to solve the malnutrition problem. Historically agricultural productivity has been driven by investments in agricultural research and development.
#Understanding disease resistance genes in crops to secure future food productiona new understanding as to how plants defend themselves against some pathogens that cause crop diseases is proposed by researchers from the University of Hertfordshire to help scientists
Breeding agricultural crops for resistance against disease pathogens is essential in the quest to secure global food production.
Farmers spray their crops with fungicides to control these plant diseases but their effectiveness is limited as disease pathogens mutate to become insensitive to the fungicides.
By exploiting new molecular and genetic insights the research done in collaboration with Pierre de Wit from Wageningen Agricultural University in The netherlands provides a better understanding of the defense system of crop plants against the damaging pathogens that grow in the spaces between plant cells.
This provides new opportunities to improve the effectiveness of breeding crops for resistance against disease.
As traditional methods of controlling crop disease become less effective the need to breed new strains of crops with an inbuilt resistance to the disease pathogens increases.
In the same way that humans have developed immune responses against human disease pathogens crops can be bred for resistance against disease pathogens
and describes a new concept describing how plants protect themselves against the pathogens that grow in the space outside plant cells (the apoplast)--a new concept called effector-triggered defense or ETD.
and inside the plant cells Both sets of receptors sense the invasive pathogen and respond to its intrusion.
The two receptor systems have different classes of plant receptor proteins to detect different types of pathogen molecules.
Pattern-triggered immunity (PTI) is the first line of defense operating soon after the pathogen has landed on the plant surface.
Before the pathogen has entered the plant its presence of specific pathogen molecules or patterns is recognised by the host plant's immune systems.
This then activates immune responses to stop the pathogen and so protect the plant from infection. The second line of defense is referred to as effector-triggered immunity (ETI) this is based on the detection of disease pathogens by the plant's genes--there is a relationship between the gene in the host plant and the gene in the pathogen.
The concept of ETI was developed to describe defense against pathogens that enter into plant cells (e g. wheat rusts
and mildews potato late blight pathogens) and fits their defense mechanisms well. The presence of the pathogen in the cell activates specific proteins that cause death of both the plant cell and the invading pathogen.
Dr Stotz continued: This concept of plant ETI does not really explain the second line of defense in the interaction of plant hosts protecting themselves against extracellular fungal pathogens
--i e. those foliar fungal pathogens that get into the leaf of the plant to exploit the space between its cells known as the apoplast to retrieve nutrients from the plant.
These include the damaging pathogens that cause septoria leaf blotch on wheat barley leaf blotch apple scab and light leaf spot on oilseed rape.
The ETI concept does not hold for defense against those pathogens that go into the leaf but not into the cells.
Through our research we discovered that defense against extracellular pathogens (ETD) involves different plant genes from those involved in the defense against intracellular pathogens.
We identified some specific resistance genes that code for receptor-like proteis (RLPS) and described how they operated against the pathogens.
We feel immunity is too strong a term for this new defense mechanism because these extracellular pathogens can survive
and even sexually reproduce on resistant hosts and so we refer to it as'defense'.'Professor Bruce Fitt professor of plant pathology at the University of Hertfordshire added:
This new understanding of plant defense through ETD suggests different operations of specific resistance genes
which will help us to be more successful in breeding new strains of crops for resistance.
The paper Effector-triggered defense against apoplastic fungal pathogens is published online at Trends in Plant science.
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