When a study in her lab showed that mate tea drinkers had experienced a significant increase in the activity of an enzyme that promotes HDL (good) cholesterol while lowering LDL (bad) cholesterol, University of Illinois scientist Elvira de Mejia headed for Argentina where mate tea has been grown and taken medicinally for centuries.She returned with a five-year agreement signed by administrators of La Universidad Nacional de Misiones (UNaM) to cooperate in the study of 84 genotypes of mate tea, both cultivated and wild, never-before-studied, varieties. The arrangement calls for the writing of joint grants and an exchange of students and professors between UNaM and the U of I.The scientist is also negotiating a grant from the National Institute of Yerba Mate to fund further research, she said.Our studies show that some of the most important antioxidant enzymes in the body are induced by this herbal tea, said de Mejia of her study in Septembers Planta Medica.Because Argentina has the different mate varieties, well be able to do more comparisons and characterizations between the different genotypes and the benefits of different growing conditionswhether in sun (on a plantation) or in shade (under the rainforest canopy), she added.Not only does de Mejia hope to identify the most nutritionally beneficial genotypes of the herbal tea, she hopes that Argentine experience with drying and processing mate will lead to improved extraction of the teas bioactive compounds. Food companies are very interested in adding tea extracts to juices, soda, and
Posted by: JoAnn
Experts dont dispute the important role that diet and activity play in maintaining a healthy weight. But can poor eating habits and a less active lifestyle fully explain the prevalence of obesity in the United States today? That question has led some scientists to ask whether there might be other causes for this serious problem. In the recent issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, researcher Richard Atkinson, M.D., asserts that there is a growing body of evidence demonstrating that viruses may play a role in causing obesity in humans. The cause of obesity is not a secret -- if you consume more calories than you burn in daily activity, you gain weight. What is interesting is that much of the obesity epidemic cannot be explained just by Americans eating more and exercising less. There are other factors at play, and viruses causing obesity may be one of them, say Dr. Atkinson.Dr. Atkinson, director of Obetech Obesity Research Center in Richmond, Va., evaluated multiple published articles that demonstrate a correlation between viral infections and obesity. His article in Mayo Clinic Proceedings discusses five animal viruses and three human viruses that have been shown to cause obesity in laboratory studies.As per Dr. Atkinson, several studies offer ample evidence that animals infected with certain human viruses experience excess weight gain and fat storage. When scientists infected animal subjects with a human virus known as Human Ad-36, they reported measurable increases in the infected animals body fat and the visceral fat that surrounds the organs deep within the belly. In addition, studies also demonstrated that infection with Ad-36 and the resulting weight gain could be transmitted from infected animals to uninfected animals.........
Link between obesity and viral infections
Posted by: JoAnn
A new neurobiological study has observed that a synthetic form of THC, the active ingredient in cannabis, is an effective anti-depressant at low doses. However, at higher doses, the effect reverses itself and can actually worsen depression and other psychiatric conditions like psychosis.The study, reported in the October 24 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience, was led by Dr. Gabriella Gobbi of McGill University and Le Centre de Recherche Fernand Seguin of Hpital Louis-H. Lafontaine, affiliated with l'Universit de Montral. First author is Dr. Gobbi's McGill PhD student Francis Bambico, along with Noam Katz and the late Dr. Guy Debonnel* of McGill's Department of Psychiatry.It has been known for a number of years that depletion of the neurotransmitter serotonin in the brain leads to depression, so SSRI-class anti-depressants like Prozac and Celexa work by enhancing the available concentration of serotonin in the brain. However, this study offers the first evidence that cannabis can also increase serotonin, at least at lower doses.Laboratory animals were injected with the synthetic cannabinoid WIN55,212-2 and then tested with the Forced Swim test a test to measure depression in animals; the scientists observed an antidepressant effect of cannabinoids paralleled by an increased activity in the neurons that produce serotonin. However, increasing the cannabinoid dose beyond a set point completely undid the benefits, said Dr. Gobbi.........
Posted by: Janet
Eventhough flu and pneumonia can be lethal for cancer patients, more than one quarter of patients undergoing radiation treatment are not complying with national guidelines to be vaccinated against these potentially life-threatening yet preventable illnesses, as per a research studypresented October 28, 2007, at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncologys 49th Annual Meeting in Los Angeles.While Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines and the Joint Commission recommend an annual flu (influenza) vaccine for cancer patients aged 50 years or older, 25 percent of patients 50 years or older reported never having received the flu vaccine. Similarly, the pneumonia (pneumococcus) vaccine is recommended to all cancer patients 65 year or older; however, over one-third (36 percent) of cancer patients in this age range reported never having received the vaccine. Cancer patients are at a higher risk of acquiring and dying from these illnesses due to a weaker immune system, among other factors.Three reasons accounted for almost 80 percent of why patients didnt receive either vaccine: Patients either believed they didnt need the vaccines, they didnt know about the recommended vaccination guidelines or their physicians didnt recommend the vaccines.........
Cancer Patients not getting live-saving flu and pneumonia shots
Posted by: JoAnn
Spending just 10 minutes talking to another person can help improve your memory and your performance on tests, as per a University of Michigan study would be reported in the February 2008 issue of the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin."In our study, socializing was just as effective as more traditional kinds of mental exercise in boosting memory and intellectual performance," said Oscar Ybarra, a psychology expert at the U-M Institute for Social Research (ISR) and a lead author of the study with ISR psychology expert Eugene Burnstein and psychology expert Piotr Winkielman from the University of California, San Diego.In the article, Ybarra, Burnstein and his colleagues report on findings from two types of studies they conducted on the relationship between social interactions and mental functioning.Their research was funded in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation.In one study, they examined ISR survey data to see whether there was a relationship between mental functioning and specific measures of social interaction. The survey data included information on a national, stratified area probability sample of 3,610 people between the ages of 24 and 96. Their mental function was assessed through the mini-mental exam, a widely used test that measures knowledge of personal information and current events and that also includes a simple test of working memory.........
Ten minutes of talking has a mental payoff
Posted by: Janet
In the United States, African Americans have higher blood pressure and are at greater risk of high blood pressure than whites. In addition, African Americans report poorer sleep quality and exhibit a smaller nighttime decrease in blood pressure than whites, a phenomenon called blood pressure "dipping"."This ethnic difference in blood pressure dipping may help explain why African Americans are at greater risk of hypertension," says Dr. Joel Hughes, Kent State assistant professor of psychology, "as a smaller dip in nighttime blood pressure has been linked to increased left ventricular mass and wall thickness in the heart".In this month's issue of the American Journal of Hypertension, Hughes and colleagues examine the possibility that sleep quality may help account for ethnic differences in blood pressure dipping. They observed that African-American college students, in comparison to whites, spent less time in bed, slept for a shorter period of time and took longer to fall asleep. Thus, ethnic differences in sleep quality seemed to accompany ethnic differences in blood pressure dipping; however, it was not shown that these differences in sleep quality caused ethnic differences in nighttime blood pressure."Obviously, more studies are needed," says Hughes. "There are too few studies of ethnic differences in sleep, and the importance of sleep for health is becoming increasingly recognized".........
Ethnic Differences in Sleep Quality and Blood Pressure
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