These diminutive insect-eating creatures which breed in Pennsylvania and winter in Central and South america contribute greatly to the health of forests.
#Healthy diet linked with better lung function in COPD patientssure everyone knows a healthy diet provides lots of health benefits for patients with respiratory diseases
but now a new study has shown a direct link between eating fish fruit and dairy products and improved lung function among patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
. and Europe the study specifically looked at COPD patients'lung function within 24 hours of eating grapefruit bananas fish and cheese.
Limited diet records were available for 2167 ECLIPSE participants who provided dietary intake information at eight time points over a three-year period.
Each participant reported the amount of a specific food they had consumed during the previous 24 hours.
or cheese had showed improvement in lung function less emphysema improved six-minute walk scores improved SGRQ scores
This study demonstrates the nearly immediate effects a healthy diet can have on lung function in in a large and well-characterized population of COPD patients Hanson said.
Based on these results and the results of other studies indicating a link between COPD and diet the role of diet as a possible modifiable risk factor in COPD warrants continued investigation she added.
as a result of their high gamma-tocopherol consumption said senior author Joan Cook-Mills an associate professor of medicine in allergy/immunology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of medicine.
Cook-Mills presented her research in May at the Oxidants and Antioxidants in Biology World Congress.
Rates of asthma in the U s. have been climbing in the last 40 years coinciding with a switch in U s. diets from lard
which were thought to be healthier for the heart Looking at other countries'rates of asthma Cook-Mills said those with significantly lower rates of asthma have diets high in olive and sunflower oils.
or more times higher than those of European and Scandinavian countries that consume sunflower and olive oil Cook-Mills noted.
and canola oil have the highest rate of asthma Cook-Mills said. When people consume alpha-tocopherol which is rich in olive oil
Cook-Mills had done previous allergy research in mice showing alpha-tocopherol decreased lung inflammation protecting healthy lung function and gamma-tocopherol increased lung
Cook-Mills examined the CARDIA results for individuals'lung function tests at four intervals from baseline to 20 years and the type of tocopherol levels in their blood plasma at three intervals from baseline
The blood plasma showed how much they had acquired in their tissues Cook-Mills said. You get Vitamin e from your diet or supplements.
In 2012 research she identified a mechanism for gamma-tocopherol increasing lung inflammation: Protein kinase c-alpha which binds both forms of Vitamin e.
A 10 percent reduction in lung function is like an asthmatic condition Cook-Mills said.
so if they have high gamma-tocopherol levels they would have even more difficulty breathing Cook-Mills said.
#Transplant programs produce high one-year survival ratesin the latest national report on organ transplant outcomes patients receiving a new liver at the Cedars-Sinai Comprehensive Transplant Center had the best one-year
survival outcomes of all hospitals in the Los angeles region with 90%of liver transplant patients surviving beyond that important milestone.
Crops such as almonds pistachios cherries apricots and peaches go through a necessary winter dormant period brought on
so that they can later develop buds flowers and fruit during the growing season said biometeorologist and study lead author Dennis Baldocchi
whose father grew almonds and walnuts in Antioch and Oakley. An insufficient rest period impairs the ability of farmers to achieve high quality fruit yields.
Direct sunlight can heat the buds so that they are warmer than the surrounding air temperature.
As a result fog is important in shielding the buds from the sun and helping them accumulate winter chill.
and chains and feed it into databases that tell us about the landscape before Europeans made drastic changes to it.
The pre-European settlement forest was much more mature with hickory walnut oak and beech says Goring compared to modern upper Midwestern forests
Longer storm seasons and more severe storms are contributing to an excessive amount of phosphorus in the lake--mostly from domestic and agricultural runoff--that feeds the HABS.
and other nutrients draining into the lake. Even with a 75 percent reduction we could still experience a dead zone he added.
A disruption in food supply in one place could affect people on the other side of the world.
and marketing of hookah products and regulation of hookah bars and cafes may be another way to counteract the positive attitudes young adults hold toward hookah smoking Dr. Primack said.
Together with Neiker-Tecnalia the public body that reports to the Sub-Ministry for Agriculture Fisheries and Food Policy of the Government of the Basque Autonomous Community the following are part of this project:
Teagasc-The Agriculture and Food Development Authority (Ireland) IRSTEA (France) INTIA (Navarre) the University of Glasgow Caledonian (Scotland) and the Higher Institute for Agronomy (Portugal.
it will enable the loss in nutrients (N P K Cu Zn) of the farm to be reduced
Surprising relationships between diet and hormones that suppress eatingby comparing how gut microbes from human vegetarians
and grass-grazing baboons digest different diets researchers have shown that ancestral human diets so called paleo diets did not necessarily result in better appetite suppression.
The study published in mbioâ the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology reveals surprising relationships between diet
and the release of hormones that suppress eating. While Western diets have changed dramatically in the last century to become high energy low fiber
and high fat (think: cheeseburger) our digestive systems including our gut bacterial colonies adapted over millennia to process a low-energy nutrient-poor and presumably high fiber diet.
One idea about the current obesity epidemic is that appetite suppression systems that evolved to work with a paleo diet are off-kilter today.
Gary Frost and his colleagues at Imperial College London in the United kingdom wanted to test that hypothesis in the laboratory using fecal bacterial samples from three human vegetarian volunteers
and diets interact to control appetites is vitally important for tackling the problem of obesity said Glenn Gibson co-author on the study based at University of Reading.
The team established gut bacteria cultures in flasks and then'fed'them two different diets--either a predigested potato high-starch diet or a predigested grass high-fiber diet.
This evidence argues that the previous view of paleo diets and appetite suppression is flawed and that high-fiber plant-based diets likely do not lead to increased SCFAS and increased appetite suppression.
Rather the researchers propose little to no appetite suppression might help baboons maintain grazing all day to consume enough nutrients.
A closer cataloguing of all the metabolites produced by the bacterial cultures digesting potato or grass diets showed that as the levels of the amino acids isoleucine
More work will be needed to explore the effects of alternative breakdown products of various foods. The researchers note that this study of digestion in the test tube is limited by not including the roles of gut cells
and nutrition for its development and will therefore be able to survive only at an appropriate distance to its neighbour.
And in the course of all statistical review and analysis performed the characteristics of simulated and real fairy circles turned out to be remarkably congruent and close to identical.
Nitrogen is an essential nutrient for plant and animal life. It's required in many basic molecules like DNA and amino acids.
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.
The findings published in the journal PNAS help to explain why some previous studies have shown that a Mediterranean diet can reduce blood pressure.
The Mediterranean diet typically includes unsaturated fats found in olive oil nuts and avocados along with vegetables like spinach celery and carrots that are rich in nitrites and nitrates.
When these two food groups are combined the reaction of unsaturated fatty acids with nitrogen compounds in the vegetables results in the formation of nitro fatty acids.
However nitro fatty acids were found to lower the blood pressure of normal mice following the same diets.
The findings of our study help to explain why previous research has shown that a Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra-virgin olive oil
Research has determined that consumer acceptance of apples depends largely on fruit color size eating quality and texture.
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
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.
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
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
Introducing into mammals the capacity to convert nonessential nutrients into essential fats could lead to new sustainable
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
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.
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.
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.
#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.
These benefits are linked to the specific microbiota found in these cheeses; they result from the use of raw milk combined with the specific techniques used to manufacture traditional cheeses.
A rich microbiota for intense gustatory pleasuretraditional cheeses contain a rich and highly specific microbiota because of the diversity of the traditional methods used in their manufacture.
From the production of milk to the ripening of cheeses in different environments a wide range of microorganisms have an opportunity to develop.
Indeed raw milk already contains nearly 300 species of bacteria and 70 species of yeasts which are subsequently found to differing degrees in the cheeses.
The microbiota of cheeses is the source of their different aromas and flavours. Microorganisms native to raw milk whose metabolic potentials differ from those of commercial strains may enable the more intense and complex development of aromatic compounds.
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.
At present it seems difficult to be able to reconstitute the breadth of diversity of traditional cheese microbiota
and their environments even though this would make a major contribution to the diversification sought by industrial cheese producers.
WHAT IS A TRADITIONAL CHEESE? Raw milk AOP3 cheeses are currently the best traditional cheeses available.
They have all the characteristics generally used to describe traditional food products: production in limited geographical areas use of specific know-how and techniques handed down from generation to generation
and the use of milk that has undergone little or no treatment after milking. Raw milk AOP cheeses frequently come from mountainous areas
and are produced mainly in small processing units. The name traditional cheese can also extend to cheeses produced using milk
whose native microbiota has been eliminated by different treatments applied to the milk if they are produced on a farm
and if the microbiota that causes ripening is allowed to be expressed (30%of AOP cheeses in France).
Threat to domestic animalsin The alps chamois are frequently in close contact with domestic animals such as cattle and sheep that graze in the pastures.
#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
This study reports systemic intake of tobacco-specific nitrosamines and VOCS after a typical water pipe-smoking session in a hookah bar setting
and the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California San francisco. After a single evening of water pipe smoking in a hookah bar young men and women had in their urine a 73-fold increase
At the end of this period they provided a before urine sample and smoked water pipes at a hookah bar of their choice in the San francisco bay area.
Rising spring temperatures prompt many bee species to begin their search for the flowering plants they depend on for food--and
Unlike social bee species such as honey bees cavity-nesting bees lead solitary lives in the wild pollinating many types of flowering trees as they search for food.
The nests have several cells with an egg in each one that metamorphosizes--like butterflies do--through the summer.
Physical examination of pollen in the nests also is expected to yield information about the food sources the bees visit
At large and foraging for food before their normal sources are available bees may not be able to adapt.
because they are out of synch with the flowering of their food sources could keep them away from their nests for longer periods.
It may give flies wasps and other predators greater opportunities to attack undefended eggs and larvae.
Museum scientists utilized advanced taxonomic methods during recent biodiversity survey projects including DNA bar coding a process that uses a genetic marker to identify
and extending the shelf life of some foods. Last year many scientists looked for new species from the past.
By moving their proboscises in a certain manner the bees appear to concentrate the sugar solution that they are drinking.
The other 74 stands were being overcut or undercut. Overcutting ultimately results in diminished yield and quality of the wood but the effects of undercutting are subtler.
Traditionally weeds have been thought to reduce crop growth and yield due to competition for water nutrients and light.
Animals such as white-tailed deer the Florida panther and migratory birds that depend on native vegetation such as mangrove for food
and shelter are deprived of that habitat. â#oethis can have cascading effects through the food chainâ#said Bill Overholt an entomology professor at UFÂ##s Indian River Research and Education Center in Fort
E-cigarettes deliver a nicotine-containing aerosol popularly called vapor to users by heating a solution commonly consisting of glycerin nicotine and flavoring agents.
E-liquids are flavored including tobacco menthol coffee candy fruit and alcohol flavorings. 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.
One study of e-cigarettes was conducted to resemble a smoky bar: the researchers found that markers of nicotine in nonsmokers who sat nearby was similar for both cigarette smoke and e-cigarette aerosol exposure.
#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:
Nitrogen is an irreplaceable nutrient and a true life-saver as it helps agriculture to feed a growing world population
--but it is unfortunately also a dangerous pollutant says Benjamin Bodirsky lead-author of the study.
Both farmers and consumers would have to participate in mitigationit became clear that without mitigation the global situation may markedly deteriorate as the global food demand grows says Bodirsky who is affiliated also to the International Center for Tropical Agriculture Colombia (CIAT.
Only combined mitigation efforts both in food production and consumption could substantially reduce the risks the study shows.
For consumers in developed countries halving food waste meat consumption and related feed use would not only benefit their health
and their wallet Popp adds. Both changes would also increase the overall resource efficiency of food production
and reduce pollution. 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
#Inactive yeast to preserve aroma of young winesresearchers at UPM in collaboration with CSIC have proved that the usage of inactive yeast preparations rich in glutathione can preserve the aroma of young wines during their storage.
This new technique could be a more sustainable alternative than the traditional usage of sulfites to preserve the aroma of young wines during their storage.
This statement is the result of a researcher group from the School of Agricultural Engineers of Universidad Politã cnica de Madrid in collaboration with the Institute of Food Science Research (CIAL-CSIC) who found that the usage of natural additives
based on inactive wine yeasts and rich in glutathione can reduce the oxidation process that is produced by the aroma loss of young wines The fresh fruity and floral aroma of young wines (white
and rosã) can quickly disappear during their storage because of the oxidation process. Additionally young wines can change their color due to the formation of polymers producing orange and brown color tones.
Apart from the loss of pleasant aromas this process can produce unpleasant aromas similar to some aged wines.
From a technological point of view an interesting solution to minimize this problem could be the usage of antioxidant compounds that delay the appearance of these types of reaction from deterioration.
This represents an interesting natural alternative that is currently having a great reception from all winemakers.
However the technological aptitude to preserve the aroma of young wines with this technique has not been proved so far.
There researchers studied the effect of inactive yeast preparations rich in glutathione in the aroma of rosã wine of the Garnacha variety.
Also they studied the same wine elaborated with the traditional process. This research had a UPM panel of twelve judges.
This consisted of triangular tests that determine sensorial differences between the treated and the controlled wine during the lifetime of the wine (1 2 3 and 9 months.
The wines were sensorially similar until the ninth month of storage. In order to evaluate qualitative and quantitative differences the specialized judges conducted a descriptive sensorial analysis where they assessed
and scored the intensity of some of the most characteristic flavors of these wines (strawberry peach banana floral yeast) and flavor (acidity).
As a result they statistically proved that the wines with additives based on antioxidant inactive yeasts were more intense in fruit aromas (strawberry and banana) and less intense in aromatic notes more specific for oxidation (yeast.
These results indicate that the derivates based on inactive wine yeasts and rich in glutathione could be interesting additives to preserve the aroma of young wines during their storage.
This finding is a sustainable alternative to reduce the content of sulfites in wines. Story Source:
The above story is provided based on materials by Universidad Politã cnica de Madrid. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
and leaves behind bacteria that spread through the tree. Johnson said the bacteria travel quickly to the roots where they replicate damage the root system and spread to the rest of the host tree's canopy.
The disease starves the tree of nutrients leaving fruits that are green and misshapen unsuitable for sale as fresh fruit or juice.
Most infected trees die within a few years. It was thought originally that the leaves and fruit were affected first
#Eating more fruits, vegetables may cut stroke risk worldwideeating more fruits and vegetables may reduce the risk of stroke worldwide according to new research in the American Heart Association's journal Stroke.
Improving diet and lifestyle is critical for heart 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
In particular a diet rich in fruits and vegetables is recommended highly because it meets micronutrient and macronutrient and fiber requirements without adding substantially to overall energy requirements.
The researchers adjusted the study findings for factors such as smoking alcohol blood pressure cholesterol physical activity body mass index and other dietary variables.
A diet rich in a variety of colors and types of vegetables and fruits is a way of getting important nutrients that most people don't get enough of including vitamins minerals and dietary fiber.
For these patients hope lies in a second course of treatment â#repeat radiation. Two complementary papers published back-to-back recently in the journal Radiotherapy
#Fungus may help stop invasive spread of tree-of-heavena naturally occurring fungus might help curb the spread of an invasive tree species that is threatening forests in most of the United states according to researchers.
because tree-of-heaven has an extensive system of sprouts that spread just above the ground surface
because tree-of-heaven is very hard to kill said Davis. The researchers noticed a number of Ambrosia beetles near the infected stands leading them to theorize that the fungus often carried through the forests by beetles was involved in the tree deaths.
The Ambrosia beetles may explain some of the long-range spread of the disease said Davis. One theory is that the beetles feed on an infected tree
When it comes to urging young children to eat healthy foods most parents know the drill:
and once they know that they assume the food won't taste good. In If it's Useful
Preschoolers Refrain from Instrumental Food to be published in the October issue of the Journal of Consumer Research Fishbach
and Michal Maimaran of the Kellogg School of management at Northwestern University demonstrate that telling children that food will help them achieve a goal such as growing strong
or learning to read decreases preschooler's interest in eating the food. The preschoolers seem to think that food can't serve two purposes that it can't be something that makes them healthier
and something that is delicious to eat at the same time Fishbach notes. So telling them that the carrots will make them grow tall
The researchers completed five experiments with 270 preschoolers in which an experimenter read picture stories about a girl who had some food for a snack.
In some stories she was interested in the food because it was good for her in others she was interested
because the food was tasty and in some stories there was no reason mentioned in the story for why she was interested in the food.
In each case children ate more of a food when no reason for eating it was mentioned
or when it was presented yummy than they did thought when they the food were good for them Our study focused on very young children
and we should keep in mind that older children might rely less on taste when making food decisions due to higher self-control Fishbach adds.
On the other hand we all know teenagers who only eat six foods so it could turn out that their thinking is similar to their younger counterparts.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by University of Chicago Booth School of business. Note:
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