Health Technology Research Synopsis
47 th Issue Date 06 JAN 2009
Compiled By Ralph Turchiano
www.healthresearchreport.me www.vit.bz
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Editors Top Five:
**Holiday Light Version
In this issue:
1. Common food additive found to increase risk and speed spread of lung cancer
2. Another reason to avoid high-fat diet — it can disrupt our biological clock
3. Nutrigenomics — developing personalized diets for disease prevention
4. Grape-seed extract kills laboratory leukemia cells, proving value of natural compounds
5. USC dentist links Fosamax-type drugs to jaw necrosis
6. Antioxidants offer pain relief in patients with chronic pancreatitis
7. Childhood trauma associated with chronic fatigue syndrome
8. Pneumococcal vaccine does not appear to protect against pneumonia
9. Low-carb diets prove better at controlling type 2 diabetes
10. New infant formula safety advice could prevent infant suffering
11. Coffee may protect against oral cancers
Public release date: 29-Dec-2008
Common food additive found to increase risk and speed spread of lung cancer
New research in an animal model suggests that a diet high in inorganic phosphates, which are found in a variety of processed foods including meats, cheeses, beverages, and bakery products, might speed growth of lung cancer tumors and may even contribute to the development of those tumors in individuals predisposed to the disease.
The study also suggests that dietary regulation of inorganic phosphates may play an important role in lung cancer treatment. The research, using a mouse model, was conducted by Myung-Haing Cho, D.V.M., Ph.D., and his colleagues at Seoul National University, appears in the first issue for January of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, published by the American Thoracic Society.
“Our study indicates that increased intake of inorganic phosphates strongly stimulates lung cancer development in mice, and suggests that dietary regulation of inorganic phosphates may be critical for lung cancer treatment as well as prevention,” said Dr. Cho.
Lung cancer is the number one cause of cancer deaths in the world and is also the most frequently diagnosed solid tumor. Non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) constitutes over 75 percent of lung cancers and has an average overall 35-year survival rate of 14 percent. Earlier studies have indicated that approximately 90 percent of NSCLC cases were associated with activation of certain signaling pathways in lung tissue. This study revealed that high levels of inorganic phosphates can stimulate those same pathways.
“Lung cancer is a disease of uncontrolled cell proliferation in lung tissue, and disruption of signaling pathways in those tissues can confer a normal cell with malignant properties,” Dr. Cho explained. “Deregulation of only a small set of pathways can confer a normal cell with malignant properties, and these pathways are regulated in response to nutrient availability and, consequently, cell proliferation and growth.
“Phosphate is an essential nutrient to living organisms, and can activate some signals,” he added. “This study demonstrates that high intake of inorganic phosphates may strongly stimulate lung cancer development by altering those (signaling) pathways.”
In the study, lung cancer-model mice were studied for four weeks and were randomly assigned to receive a diet of either 0.5 or 1.0 percent phosphate, a range roughly equivalent to modern human diets. At the end of the four-week period, the lung tissue was analyzed to determine the effects of the inorganic phosphates on tumors.
“Our results clearly demonstrated that the diet higher in inorganic phosphates caused an increase in the size of the tumors and stimulated growth of the tumors,” Dr. Cho said.
Dr. Cho noted that while a moderate level of phosphate plays an essential role in living organisms, the rapidly increasing use of phosphates as a food additive has resulted in significantly higher levels in average daily diets. Phosphates are added to many food products to increase water retention and improve food texture.
“In the 1990s, phosphorous-containing food additives contributed an estimated 470 mg per day to the average daily adult diet,” he said. “However, phosphates are currently being added much more frequently to a large number of processed foods, including meats, cheeses, beverages, and bakery products. As a result, depending on individual food choices, phosphorous intake could be increased by as much as 1000 mg per day.”
“Although the 0.5 percent was defined as close to ‘normal,’ the average diet today is actually closer to the one percent diet and may actually exceed it,” Dr. Cho noted. “Therefore, the 0.5 percent intake level is actually a reduced phosphate diet by today’s scale.”
Dr. Cho said future studies will help refine what constitutes a “safe” level of dietary inorganic phosphate, with recommendations that will be easily achievable in the average population.
“The results of this study suggest that dietary regulation of inorganic phosphates has a place in lung cancer treatment, and our eventual goal is to collect sufficient information to accurately assess the risk of these phosphates,” he said.
John Heffner, M.D., past president of the ATS, stated that this line of investigation in animals addresses the complex interactions between host factors and the environment that underlie cancer in man. “We know that only some patients who smoke develop lung cancer but the reasons for this varying risk are unknown. This study now provides a rationale for funding case-control studies in humans to determine the potential role of dietary phosphates in promoting cancer.”
Public release date: 29-Dec-2008
Another reason to avoid high-fat diet — it can disrupt our biological clock
Jerusalem, December 28, 2008 – Indulgence in a high-fat diet can not only lead to overweight because of excessive calorie intake, but also can affect the balance of circadian rhythms – everyone’s 24-hour biological clock, Hebrew University of Jerusalem researchers have shown.
The biological clock regulates the expression and/or activity of enzymes and hormones involved in metabolism, and disturbance of the clock can lead to such phenomena as hormone imbalance, obesity, psychological and sleep disorders and cancer.
While light is the strongest factor affecting the circadian clock, Dr. Oren Froy and his colleagues of the Institute of Biochemistry, Food Science and Nutrition at the Hebrew University’s Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment in Rehovot, have demonstrated in their experiments with laboratory mice that there is a cause-and-effect relation between diet and biological clock imbalance.
To examine this thesis, Froy and his colleagues, Ph.D. student Maayan Barnea and Zecharia Madar, the Karl Bach Professor of Agricultural Biochemistry, tested whether the clock controls the adiponectin signaling pathway in the liver and, if so, how fasting and a high-fat diet affect this control. Adiponectin is secreted from differentiated adipocytes (fat tissue) and is involved in glucose and lipid metabolism. It increases fatty acid oxidation and promotes insulin sensitivity, two highly important factors in maintaining proper metabolism.
The researchers fed mice either a low-fat or a high-fat diet, followed by a fasting day, then measured components of the adiponectin metabolic pathway at various levels of activity. In mice on the low-fat diet, the adiponectin signaling pathway components exhibited normal circadian rhythmicity. Fasting resulted in a phase advance. The high-fat diet resulted in a phase delay. Fasting raised and the high-fat diet reduced adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK) levels. This protein is involved in fatty acid metabolism, which could be disrupted by the lower levels.
In an article soon to be published by the journal Endocrinology, the researchers suggest that this high-fat diet could contribute to obesity, not only through its high caloric content, but also by disrupting the phases and daily rhythm of clock genes. They contend also that high fat-induced changes in the clock and the adiponectin signaling pathway may help explain the disruption of other clock-controlled systems associated with metabolic disorders, such as blood pressure levels and the sleep/wake cycle.
Ralph’s Note – I only regret that they did not mention the type of fats. Certain fats are inflammatory others are anti-inflammatory. So leaving this out of the equation, leaves the study incomplete.
Public release date: 29-Dec-2008
Nutrigenomics — developing personalized diets for disease prevention
New Rochelle, NY, December 29, 2008—The emerging field of nutrigenomics, which aims to identify the genetic factors that influence the body’s response to diet and studies how the bioactive constituents of food affect gene expression, is explored in a series of provocative, interdisciplinary reports and analyses in the December 2008 Special Issue (Volume 12, number 4) of OMICS: A Journal of Integrative Biology, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. (www.liebertpub.com). The issue is available free online at http://www.liebertpub.com/omi
This compendium of papers describing the innovative new area of study encompassed by nutrigenomics research is Part 1 of a two-part series. Part 2 will be published in Spring 2009.
Nutrigenomic’s bidirectional approach to investigating how the genetic traits of an individual or population interact with their diet offers many possibilities for targeted clinical interventions and preventive medicine. These may include modifying either diet or the biochemical response to food exposure to prevent disease in individuals shown to be susceptible to the consequences of unfavorable dietary/genomic interactions. In the future, nutrigenomics may potentially help guide the development of customized diets based on an individual’s genetic make-up.
“In contrast to previous applications of genomics technologies where the goal is to distinguish existing disease from absence of disease, nutrigenomics aims to discern nuanced differences in predisease states such that personalized dietary interventions can be designed to prevent or modify future disease susceptibility,” write Guest Editors Béatrice Godard, PhD, and Vural Ozdemir, MD, PhD, from the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Montreal, Québec, Canada.
“Nutrigenomics opens new and amazing frontiers in 21st century biomedical and clinical research,” says Eugene Kolker, PhD, Executive Editor of OMICS and Chief Data Officer at Seattle Children’s Hospital, Seattle, Washington.
Public release date: 31-Dec-2008
Grape-seed extract kills laboratory leukemia cells, proving value of natural compounds
PHILADELPHIA – An extract from grape seeds forces laboratory leukemia cells to commit cell suicide, according to researchers from the University of Kentucky. They found that within 24 hours, 76 percent of leukemia cells had died after being exposed to the extract.
The investigators, who report their findings in the January 1, 2009, issue of Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, also teased apart the cell signaling pathway associated with use of grape seed extract that led to cell death, or apoptosis. They found that the extract activates JNK, a protein that regulates the apoptotic pathway.
While grape seed extract has shown activity in a number of laboratory cancer cell lines, including skin, breast, colon, lung, stomach and prostate cancers, no one had tested the extract in hematological cancers nor had the precise mechanism for activity been revealed.
“These results could have implications for the incorporation of agents such as grape seed extract into prevention or treatment of hematological malignancies and possibly other cancers,” said the study’s lead author, Xianglin Shi, Ph.D., professor in the Graduate Center for Toxicology at the University of Kentucky.
“What everyone seeks is an agent that has an effect on cancer cells but leaves normal cells alone, and this shows that grape seed extract fits into this category,” he said.
Shi adds, however, that the research is not far enough along to suggest that people should eat grapes, grape seeds, or grape skin in excess to stave off cancer. “This is very promising research, but it is too early to say this is chemo-protective.”
Hematological cancers – leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma – accounted for an estimated 118,310 new cancer cases and almost 54,000 deaths in 2006, ranking these cancers as the fourth leading cause of cancer incidence and death in the U.S.
Given that epidemiological evidence shows that eating vegetables and fruits helps prevent cancer development, Shi and his colleagues have been studying chemicals known as proanthocyanidins in fruits that contribute to this effect. Shi has found that apple peel extract contains these flavonoids, which have antioxidant activity, and which cause apoptosis in several cancer cell lines but not in normal cells. Based on those studies, and findings from other researchers that grape seed extract reduces breast tumors in rats and skin tumors in mice, they looked at the effect of the compound in leukemia cells.
Using a commercially available grape seed extract, Shi exposed leukemia cells to the extract in different doses and found the marked effect in causing apoptosis in these cells at one of the higher doses.
They also discovered that the extract does not affect normal cells, although they don’t know why.
The researchers then used pharmacologic and genetic approaches to determine how the extract induced apoptosis. They found that the extract strongly activated the JNK pathway, which then led to up-regulation of Cip/p21, which controls the cell cycle.
They checked this finding by using an agent that inhibited JNK, and found that the extract was ineffective. Using a genetic approach – silencing the JNK gene – also disarmed grape seed extract’s lethal attack in leukemia cells.
“This is a natural compound that appears to have relatively important properties,” Shi said
Public release date: 1-Jan-2009
USC dentist links Fosomax-type drugs to jaw necrosis
Study is among first to link short term drug use for osteoporosis to bone death
Researchers at the University Of Southern California, School Of Dentistry release results of clinical data that links oral bisphosphonates to increased jaw necrosis. The study is among the first to acknowledge that even short-term use of common oral osteoporosis drugs may leave the jaw vulnerable to devastating necrosis, according to the report appearing in the January 1 Journal of the American Dental Association (JADA).
Osteoporosis currently affects 10 million Americans. Fosomax is the most widely prescribed oral bisphosphonate, ranking as the 21st most prescribed drug on the market since 2006, according to a 2007 report released by IMS Health.
“Oral Bisphosphonate Use and the Prevalence of Osteonecrosis of the Jaw: An Institutional Inquiry” is the first large institutional study in the U.S. to investigate the relationship between oral bisphosphonate use and jaw bone death, said principal investigator Parish Sedghizadeh, assistant professor of clinical dentistry with the USC School of Dentistry.
After controlling for referral bias, nine of 208 healthy School of Dentistry patients who take or have taken Fosamax for any length of time were diagnosed with osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONJ). The study’s results are in contrast to drug makers’ prior assertions that bisphosphonate-related ONJ risk is only noticeable with intravenous use of the drugs, not oral usage, Sedghizadeh said. “We’ve been told that the risk with oral bisphosphonates is negligible, but four percent is not negligible,” he said.
Most doctors who have prescribed bisphosphonates have not told patients about any oral health risks associated with the use of the drugs, despite even short-term usage posing a risk due to the drug’s tenacious 10-year half life in bone tissue. Lydia Macwilliams of Los Angeles said no one told her about the risk posed by her three years of Fosamax usage until she became a patient of Sedghizadeh at the School of Dentistry. “I was surprised,” she said. “My doctor who prescribed the Fosamax didn’t tell me about any possible problems with my teeth.”
Macwilliams was especially at risk for complications because she was to have three teeth extracted. The infection is a biofilm bacterial process, meaning that the bacteria infecting the mouth and jaw tissues reside within a slimy matrix that protects the bacteria from many conventional antibiotic treatments, and bisphosphonate use may make the infection more aggressive in adhering to the jaw, Sedghizadeh said. The danger is especially pronounced with procedures that directly expose the jaw bone, such as tooth extractions and other oral surgery. After her extractions, two of the three extraction sites had difficulty healing due to infection, Macwilliams said. Luckily, with treatment as well as the rigorous oral hygiene regimen USC dentists developed especially for patients with a history of bisphosphonate usage, the remaining sites slowly but fully healed. “It took about a year to heal,” she said, “but it’s doing just fine now.”
Sedghizadeh hopes to have other researchers confirm his findings and thus encourage more doctors and dentists to talk with patients about the oral health risks associated with the widely used drugs. The results confirm the suspicions of many in the oral health field, he said. “Here at the School of Dentistry we’re getting two or three new patients a week that have bisphosphonate-related ONJ,” he said, “and I know we’re not the only ones seeing it.”
Public release date: 1-Jan-2009
Antioxidants offer pain relief in patients with chronic pancreatitis
Convincing evidence to recommend antioxidants for treatment has been lacking
Bethesda, MD (Jan. 1, 2009) — Antioxidant supplementation was found to be effective in relieving pain and reducing levels of oxidative stress in patients with chronic pancreatitis (CP), reports a new study in Gastroenterology. CP is a progressive inflammatory disease of the pancreas in which patients experience abdominal pain (in early stage) and diabetes and maldigestion (in late stage). Pain is the major problem in 90 percent of patients with CP and currently, there is no effective medical therapy for pain relief. Gastroenterology is the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Institute.
In this placebo-controlled, double blind trial, 127 patients, ages 30.5+/-10.5, were assigned to placebo or antioxidant groups. After six months, the reduction in the number of painful days/month was significantly higher in the antioxidant group, compared with the placebo group (7.4±6.8 versus 3.2±4, respectively). The reduction in the number of analgesic tablets/month was also higher in the antioxidant group (10.5±11.8 versus 4.4±5.8, respectively). Furthermore, 32 percent and 13 percent of patients became pain free in the antioxidant and placebo groups, respectively; the beneficial effect of antioxidants on pain relief was noted early at three months.
“Abdominal pain, the predominant symptom in patients with CP, is difficult to treat. The main reason for a largely ineffective medical treatment is that the mechanism of pain in CP is not well understood,” said Pramod Kumar Garg, MD, DM, of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi and lead author of the study. “We are encouraged by our findings, as significant improvement was noted with antioxidants in respect to all the parameters of pain in this study. In addition, reduction in pain resulted in fewer man-days lost, thus providing functional employment gain to the patients. The findings should spur further research in this exciting area.”
There are two important implications of this study — the fact that measures of oxidative stress were increased initially and decreased subsequently after supplementation with antioxidants suggests that there is a state of heightened free radical mediated injury in CP, and that injury is reversible. Second, with regard to pain management, this trial showed that antioxidant therapy is effective for pain relief in patients with CP. This assumes significance since no effective medical therapy exists for pain relief for such patients.
Pancreatitis is inflammation of the pancreas that usually begins as a sudden attack and is often caused by gallstones, alcohol abuse or genetic mutations. Symptoms of pancreatitis start with a gradual or sudden severe pain in the center part of the upper abdomen going through to the back. Treatment often focuses on the nutritional and metabolic needs of the patient and on relieving pain. Most people with chronic pancreatitis have a good prognosis if they follow their treatment regimen. “Aside from medication, abstaining from alcohol and smoking are most important and key to halt the progression of CP,” added Dr. Garg.
Public release date: 5-Jan-2009
Childhood trauma associated with chronic fatigue syndrome
Individuals who experience trauma during childhood appear more likely to develop chronic fatigue syndrome as adults, according to a report in the January issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. In addition, neuroendocrine dysfunction—or abnormalities in the interaction between the nervous system and endocrine system—appears to be associated with childhood trauma in those with chronic fatigue syndrome, suggesting a biological pathway by which early experiences influence adult vulnerability to illness.
Chronic fatigue syndrome affects as many as 2.5 percent of U.S. adults, according to background information in the article. Little is known about the causes and development of the condition. Risk factors include female sex, genetic predisposition, certain personality traits and physical and emotional stress. “Stress in interaction with other risk factors likely triggers chronic fatigue syndrome symptoms through its effects on central nervous, neuroendocrine and immune systems, resulting in functional changes that lead to fatigue and associated symptoms such as sleep disruption, cognitive impairment and pain,” the authors write. “However, obviously not every individual exposed to a stressor goes on to develop chronic fatigue syndrome, and it is therefore of critical importance to understand sources of individual differences in vulnerability to the pathogenic effects of stress.”
Christine Heim, Ph.D., of Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, and colleagues studied 113 patients with chronic fatigue syndrome and 124 healthy individuals who served as controls. Participants—who were drawn from a general sample of 19,381 adults residents of Georgia—reported whether they had experienced childhood trauma, including sexual, physical and emotional abuse or emotional and physical neglect. They also underwent screening for depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder and were tested for levels of the hormone cortisol in their saliva. Low levels may indicate decreased function of the body’s main neuroendocrine stress response system, the authors note.
Individuals with chronic fatigue syndrome reported higher levels of childhood trauma—exposure to trauma was associated with a six-fold increase in the risk of having the condition. Sexual abuse, emotional abuse and emotional neglect were most closely associated with chronic fatigue syndrome. Patients with the syndrome also were more likely than controls to have depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Cortisol levels were decreased in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome who experienced childhood trauma, but not in those with chronic fatigue syndrome who had not been subjected to trauma. Therefore, stress early in life may cause a biological susceptibility to chronic fatigue syndrome, the authors note.
“Our results confirm childhood trauma as an important risk factor of chronic fatigue syndrome,” they write. “In addition, neuroendocrine dysfunction, a hallmark feature of chronic fatigue syndrome, appears to be associated with childhood trauma. This possibly reflects a biological correlate of vulnerability due to early developmental insults. Our findings are critical to inform pathophysiological research and to devise targets for the prevention of chronic fatigue syndrome.”
Public release date: 5-Jan-2009
Pneumococcal vaccine does not appear to protect against pneumonia
Commonly used pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccines do not appear to be effective for preventing pneumonia, found a study by a team of researchers from Switzerland and the United Kingdom http://www.cmaj.ca/press/pg48.pdf.
In many industrialized countries, polysaccharide pneumococcal vaccines (PPVs) are currently recommended to help prevent pneumococcal disease in people aged 65 and over and for younger people with increased risk due to conditions like HIV. Studies have shown conflicting results regarding the efficacy of PPV.
The study, a systematic review and meta-analysis, looked at 22 clinical trials, reviews and meta-analyses and more than 100,000 participants from countries in North America as well as India, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. Unlike other similar studies the authors examined the reasons why different clinical trials produced different results. They found that the quality of the studies substantially affected the results. When only high quality trials were included, there was no evidence that PPVs could prevent pneumonia. The study adds to the ongoing debate around effectiveness of the vaccine.
“Policy makers may therefore wish to reconsider their current recommendations for PPV, especially where routine pneumococcal conjugate immunization has been introduced,” conclude Dr. Matthias Egger from the University of Bern, Switzerland and coauthors.
However, in a related commentary http://www.cmaj.ca/press/pg18.pdf, Dr. Ross Andrews and coauthor from the Menzies School of Health Research, Darwin, Australia state that the researchers’ conclusions exceed the evidence presented. They caution that there should be no change in vaccine policy in countries that recommend PPV to prevent invasive pneumococcal disease.
Ralph’s note- It is not that I am anti-vaccine. It has just been the science has been so bad during the approval process of these immune altering medications. That to force individuals to endure unnecessary side effects with no benefits. Leaves to question the motivations behind vaccine policy.
Public release date: 5-Jan-2009
Low-carb diets prove better at controlling type 2 diabetes
DURHAM, NC — In a six-month comparison of low-carb diets, one that encourages eating carbohydrates with the lowest-possible rating on the glycemic index leads to greater improvement in blood sugar control, according to Duke University Medical Center researchers.
Patients who followed the no-glycemic diet experienced more frequent reductions, and in some cases elimination, of their need for medication to control type 2 diabetes, according to lead author Eric Westman, MD, director of Duke’s Lifestyle Medicine Program. The findings are published online in Nutrition and Metabolism.
“Low glycemic diets are good, but our work shows a no-glycemic diet is even better at improving blood sugar control,” he says. “We found you can get a three-fold improvement in type 2 diabetes as evidenced by a standard test of the amount of sugar in the blood. That’s an important distinction because as a physician who is faced with the choice of drugs or diet, I want a strong diet that’s shown to improve type 2 diabetes and minimize medication use.”
Eight-four volunteers with obesity and type 2 diabetes were randomized to either a low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet (less than 20 grams of carbs/day) or a low-glycemic, reduced calorie diet (500 calories/day). Both groups attended group meetings, had nutritional supplementation and an exercise regimen.
After 24 weeks, their glycemic control was determined by a blood test that measured hemoglobin A1C, a standard test used to determine blood sugar control in patients with diabetes. Of those who completed the study, the volunteers in the low-carbohydrate diet group had greater improvements in hemoglobin A1C. Diabetes medications were reduced or eliminated in 95 percent of the low-carbohydrate volunteers, compared to 62 percent in the low-glycemic group. The low-carbohydrate diet also resulted in a greater reduction in weight.
“It’s simple,” says Westman. “If you cut out the carbohydrates, your blood sugar goes down, and you lose weight which lowers your blood sugar even further. It’s a one-two punch.”
The diet is not easy for everybody. “This is a therapeutic diet for people who are sick,” says Westman. “These lifestyle approaches all have an intensive behavioral component. In our program, people come in every two weeks to get reinforcements and reminders. We’ve treated hundreds of patients this way now at Duke and what we see clinically and in our research shows that it works.”
Ralph’s Note – DUH, This was observed for years. Especially during the Low Carb Fad. But, due to Dieticians, Doctors, and Government officials with obvious conflicts of interest. They bullied their way through the media telling us that Low Carb was dangerous and not supported by any science. How many lives were lost due, and continue to be through this propaganda. No wonder they want universal health care.
Public release date: 6-Jan-2009
New infant formula safety advice could prevent infant suffering
Published in Letters in Applied Microbiology
Wheat-based infant follow-on formulas are better reconstituted with fruit juice and should be stored in the fridge at 4°C to prevent growth of meningitis bacteria, according to recent research.
The results of a study, published today in the Society for Applied Microbiology journal, Letters in Applied Microbiology, have shown that Cronobacter species do not grow in wheat-based infant formula stored at 4°C.
Cronobacter is a recently defined genus of bacteria and was previously known as Enterobacter sakazakii. Cronobacter species have been frequently isolated from the environment and various food products including infant formula. These bacteria have been associated with infant meningitis, enteritis and septicaemia, so prevention of infant’s consumption is vital in maintaining their safety.
These bugs will grow at 25°C or 37°C, but less so when the formula is made up using apple or grape juice than when made up using water or milk.
“This is valuable information for parents, infant formula producers and regulators and should be used when preparing and storing the reconstituted wheat based infant formula. It is also important that formula is prepared hygienically” said researcher Tareq Osaili
Public release date: 6-Jan-2009
Coffee may protect against oral cancers
(Reuters Health) – New research indicates that drinking coffee lowers the risk of developing cancer of the oral cavity or throat, at least in the general population of Japan.
The consumption of coffee in Japan is relatively high, as is the rate of cancer of the esophagus in men. To look into any protective effect of coffee drinking, Dr. Toru Naganuma of Tohoku University, Sendai, and colleagues, analyzed data from the population-based Miyagi Cohort Study in Japan.
The study included information about diet, including coffee consumption. Among more than 38,000 study participants aged 40 to 64 years with no prior history of cancer, 157 cases of cancer of the mouth, pharynx and esophagus occurred during 13 years of follow up.
Compared with people who did not drink coffee, those who drank one or more cups per day had half the risk of developing these cancers, Naganuma’s group reports in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
They note that the reduction in risk included people who are at high risk for these cancers, namely, those who were current drinkers and/or smokers at the start of the study.
“We had not expected that we could observe such a substantial inverse association with coffee consumption and the risk of these cancers,” Naganuma commented to Reuters Health, “and the inverse association in high-risk groups for these cancers as well.”
The researchers conclude in their article, “Although cessation of alcohol consumption and cigarette smoking is currently the best known way to help reduce the risk of developing these cancers, coffee could be a preventive factor in both low-risk and high-risk populations.”
SOURCE: American Journal of Epidemiology, December 15, 2008.
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These reports are done with the appreciation of all the Doctors, Scientist, and other Medical Researchers who sacrificed their time and effort. In order to give people the ability to empower themselves. Without the base aspirations for fame, or fortune. Just honorable people, doing honorable things.