Radioactive scorpion venom deemed safe cancer treatment!: "Scientists say they have helped establish the safety of a bizarre new treatment for an aggressive, essentially incurable cancer called high-grade brain glioma. More than 17,000 cases are diagnosed in the United States every year. The treatment is based on findings that the venom in the yellow Israeli scorpion contains a molecule that attaches itself selectively to the tumor cells. Health physicists in a study used a compound called TM-601, a synthetic version of the molecule. The molecule, a protein, was bound to a radioactive substance called I-131 believed to kill glioma cells. When injected into the blood, if things work as hoped, the radioactive venom protein travels to the brain and attaches to the glioma cells, and the I-131 releases radiation that kills them." 9:37 PM
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Good if you believe it (1): "Deakin University nutrition experts have devised the ultimate tasty, healthy snack food. The Parmesan cheese cracker with organic mashed potato has special healthy additives to boost the brain, heart and immunity, and reduce inflammation in the body. It contains a natural appetite suppressant and a natural compound to increase liking for it. Russell Keast, senior lecturer in the school of exercise and nutrition sciences, devised the palm-sized snack for a food industry workshop on healthy snacks of the future at Deakin University today.... The potato contains soluble fibre, anti-inflammatory oleocanthal, appetite-suppressing lupin fibre, omega 3 fatty acids for the brain and heart, and zinc. "This snack has natural additives . . . to improve brain and heart function, boost male virility and improve immunity," Dr Keast said. He said it was the first time the recently discovered anti-inflammatory agent oleocanthal had been included in a manufactured food. The natural appetite suppressant makes the consumer feel fuller for longer and will prevent overeating of the snack. Dr Keast said the snack also confornmed to three lasting consumer trends -- healthy food that is convenient and organic."
Good if you believe it (2): "What's a health-conscious burger lover to do? The real thing tends to have too many calories and too much fat, but meatless burgers seem to lack the flavor and consistency of real beef. St. Louis-based Solae LLC has come up with a solution, a patent-pending invention called SoleCina that involves both the process and the ingredients to produce either a "hybrid" meat - part soy, part real meat - or a completely meatless food that tastes like chicken, beef, pork or turkey. The company said both versions taste - and feel to the mouth - much like real meat, but are much healthier. For example, a hybrid burger dubbed the "Better Burger" by Solae has two-third the calories and half the fat and saturated fat as a burger of comparable size. SoleCina has been in the works for a decade. Details were introduced this week at a gathering of food scientists and technologists in Orlando, Fla." 9:38 PM
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Another plug for vegies: "Eating plenty of leafy greens, broccoli and Brussels sprouts may help ward off the blood cancer non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, research findings suggest. In a study of more than 800 US adults with and without non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), researchers found that those who ate the most vegetables had a 42 per cent lower risk of the cancer than those with the lowest intakes. In particular, leafy greens like spinach and kale, and cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, Brussels sprouts and cauliflower, seemed to be protective. Similarly, the study found, two nutrients found in green vegetables - lutein and zeaxanthin - were related to a lower NHL risk. The same was true of zinc, a mineral obtained through meat, nuts and beans." 9:39 PM
Monday, June 26, 2006
Mum's birth age may be key to long life: "People are more likely to see their 100th birthday if they were born to young mothers, research hints. The age at which a mother gives birth has a major impact on how long her child will live, two researchers from the University of Chicago's Centre on Aging told the Chicago Actuarial Association meeting this spring. The chances of living to the ripe old age of 100 - and beyond - nearly double for a child born to a woman before her 25th birthday, Drs. Leonid Gavrilov and Natalia Gavrilova reported. The father's age is less important to longevity, according to their research. In a previous study, the husband and wife research team of Gavrilov and Gavrilova identified birth order as a possible predictor of an exceptionally long life. They observed that first-born children, especially daughters, are much more likely to live to age 100. But their latest research suggests that it is the young age of the mother, rather than birth order, which is significant to longevity."
A slimming ice-cream!: "A fish that lives in the North Atlantic is being used to create ice-cream that can be eaten without fear of putting on weight. Using GM technology, the blood of the ocean pout, an eel-like fish, has been used to create a protein that will cut the fat and calories in some leading brands of ice-cream. Unilever, which owns Wall's, Magnum, Carte D'Or and Ben & Jerry's, has applied to the Food Standards Agency for permission to use the protein in a range of ice-creams and frozen fruit-ices. It may be 2008, however, before lovers of ice-cream can devour the food without piling on the pounds. The protein is not the GM "Frankenstein food" that has been heavily criticised by environmental and health campaigners. This technology leaves no edible traces of GM material in the finished process - rather like the use of vegetarian rennet in cheese. The gene used in the yeast protein has been developed through GM technology but there is no yeast in the final product." 9:40 PM
Sunday, June 25, 2006
Older but Mellower: Aging brain shifts gears to emotional advantage: "Given all the bad news that science has delivered about brain cells withering and memory waning as the years mount, older people have a right to be cranky. But, instead, the over-50 crowd handles life's rotten realities and finds life's bright side more effectively than whippersnappers do. In no small part, that's because the aging brain makes critical emotional adjustments, a new study indicates. As people age, from 12 to 79 years old, they respond to fear with greater and greater boosts in medial prefrontal activity (left) and to happiness with smaller and smaller boosts (right). Advancing age heralds a growth in emotional stability accompanied by a neural transition to increased control over negative emotions and greater accessibility of positive emotions, according to a team led by neuroscientist Leanne M. Williams of Westmead (Australia) Hospital. A brain area needed for conscious thought, the medial prefrontal cortex, primarily influences these emotional reactions in older adults, Williams and her colleagues say. In contrast, people under age 50 experience negative emotions more easily than they do positive ones". 9:41 PM
Saturday, June 24, 2006
Fish cures depression!: "People with a diet low in fish oil have an increased risk of mood disorders, heart conditions and other general health problems, research shows. Researchers at Sydney's Black Dog Institute found high rates of depression and bipolar disorder could be linked to an omega-3 fatty acids deficiency. Such acids are found in seafood and plants including flaxseed, walnuts and canola oil. Institute executive director Professor Gordon Parker said there was growing interest in the possible role of diet in the increasing rates of depression in Western societies. He said changes in diet over the past 150 years, which have seen omega-3 fatty acids replaced by saturated fats and omega-6 acids from vegetable oils, could be linked to the rise in cardiovascular disease, depression and other neurological disorders." 9:42 PM
The wonders of Kimchi: "Kimchi, for the uninitiated, is the national dish of Korea. Its origins go back centuries. At its most basic, it's fermented cabbage. At its hottest, it can be a sinus-cleansing sojourn in purgatory. Kimchi is the key player in "panchan," the multiple side dishes arrayed like steppingstones in Korean cuisine. There are endless varieties of kimchi -- cabbage, turnip, radish, mustard leaf, eggplant, etc. -- and most contain wincing amounts of salt and often eye-popping levels of chili pepper. Its combustible qualities notwithstanding, kimchi, according to a 2005 report in Health magazine, is considered one of the four healthiest foods, along with soy, yogurt and olive oil. Most Koreans eat kimchi with every meal, and many adherents of kimchi believe it has salutary, almost supernatural, properties. There seems to be no ailment kimchi can't cure or alleviate, from a painful hangover to a nagging cold. So revered is kimchi that there's even a kimchi museum in Seoul, where visitors can ogle plastic displays of kimchi. The curator of the museum, Park Chae-lin, has been quoted as saying, "I think kimchi practically defines Korean-ness."
Premenstrual professor says premenstrual syndrome does not exist: "Pre-menstrual tension, post-natal depression and menopausal outbursts do not exist, controversial research has claimed. Instead these are "catch-all" diagnoses being used as an excuse by women to explain the stressful effects of their modern lives. University of Western Sydney's professor of women's health and psychology Jane Ussher yesterday claimed women's unhappiness was being wrongly diagnosed as a product of their reproductive bodies. Drawing on 20 years of research - including in-depth interviews with British and Australian women - Professor Ussher said PMS and PND were products of repressed rage stemming from social pressure. "I would argue that PMS and PND are essentially a form of repressed rage women feel, rather than a medical illness," she said." [She got the rage bit right] 9:43 PM
Oldies are happier: "The study, performed by VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System and University of Michigan researchers, involved more than 540 adults who were either between the ages of 21 and 40, or over age 60. All were asked to rate or predict their own individual happiness at their current age, at age 30 and at age 70, and also to judge how happy most people are at those ages. The results are published in the June issue of the Journal of Happiness Studies, a major research journal in the field of positive psychology. "Overall, people got it wrong, believing that most people become less happy as they age, when in fact this study and others have shown that people tend to become happier over time," says lead author Heather Lacey, Ph.D., a VA postdoctoral fellow and member of the U-M Medical School's Center for Behavioral and Decision Sciences in Medicine. "Not only do younger people believe that older people are less happy, but older people believe they and others must have been happier 'back then'. Neither belief is accurate." 9:44 PM
Monday, June 19, 2006
Meditation will cure you: "Transcendental meditation improves blood pressure and insulin resistance in heart patients, according to a placebo-controlled study carried out at an academic medical center in California. Researchers studied 84 patients with coronary artery disease, randomly dividing them into two groups. The first received a 16-week course of health education; the second was enrolled in a course in transcendental meditation. Both groups continued to receive conventional medical care and advice. Transcendental meditation is a technique that involves mental concentration and physical relaxation through the use of a mantra, a repeated phrase or syllable. By the end of the study, the participants in the meditation group had significantly lower blood pressure compared with participants in the control group. They also had significantly improved in measures of insulin resistance, the ability of the body to properly process insulin and blood sugar. The paper appeared yesterday in Archives of Internal Medicine". 9:44 PM
Study links migraine headaches, sex drive: "Contrary to the clich,, "Not tonight, I have a headache," a study has found that not all headache sufferers avoid sex: in fact, migraine sufferers report higher levels of sexual desire than people with other types of headaches. Migraine is a type of severe, recurring headache. "Sexual desire and migraine headaches may be influenced by the same brain chemical," said Timothy Houle of Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C., lead author of the study. The research, which involved 68 young adults from Chicago, is to appear in an upcoming issue of the research journal Headache. "Understanding of this link will help us to better understand the nature of migraine and perhaps lead to improved treatment," he added. Evidence suggests a complex relationship between sexual activity and headache, the researchers said. Both have been linked to levels of serotonin, a brain chemical that also plays a role in depression. Excess serotonin may be associated with decreased libido, and migraine sufferers are reported to have low levels of the brain chemical in their systems. Serotonin has also been found to play a role in migraine attacks. 9:46 PM
Have a Maccas! Fatty food protects the skin: "Fatty foods will clog your arteries and pad your backside, but at least they won't increase your risk of skin cancer. New Australian research appearing in BMC Cancer this week contradicts the long-held belief that a fatty diet increases skin cancer risk. Led by Robert Granger and colleagues at the Menzies Research Institute in Hobart and the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute in Melbourne, the new findings suggest that high fat intake may even protect against non-melanoma skin cancer. They studied 652 Australians who had been diagnosed with either skin melanoma or non-melanoma (the former is more aggressive and more likely to spread to other tissues). They compared these patients with 471 people who did not have skin cancer. Both groups completed a survey about their fat intake and history of sun exposure. There was no evidence that high fat intake increased the risk of developing either type of skin cancer. In fact, patients who had previously been diagnosed with non-melanoma skin cancer had a lower risk of developing another if they reported eating more fat." 9:46 PM
It's war at the Santa Clara Unified School District. But parents aren't fighting over the curriculum, or over bilingual education or even over school closures. They're brawling over cupcakes -- and chocolate bars, and hamburgers and candy. School food has become a national obsession. And no place is the fixation more evident than in the Bay Area, where activists are determined to put an end to obesity and teach kids how to eat right. They're filling school yards with edible gardens, applying for grants to put salad bars in cafeterias, teaching students and parents how to cook healthful meals and replacing cookies with strawberries at school dances.
It seems simple. It's not. All agree that schools need to clean up their nutritional act, but there is bitter dissent over how it should be done and how far it should go. Some think the state, schools and corporate food companies aren't doing enough to keep fatty and sugary foods off campuses. Others believe schools are going too far -- adopting policies that are too draconian and turning teachers and administrators into the food police. And then there are the school boosters, who acknowledge the need for more nutritious meals on campus, but fear that junk food bans will cost their districts hundreds of thousands of dollars in fundraising money. "It's gotten pretty heated," said Roger Barnes, Santa Clara schools' business administrator, on the debate the district has been having since January over banning junk food 24 hours a day, seven days a week. "It's about changing the way people think and changing the culture. But that's not easy."
In recent years, California has passed some of the most stringent school food laws in the country. The state, concerned that it has the second highest rate of overweight children in the nation, passed legislation introduced by Sen. Martha Escutia, D-Whittier (Los Angeles County), that would heighten nutritional standards at schools. The law, which goes into effect July 1, 2007, says vending machine snacks sold on campus during school hours, and a half hour before and after, must meet certain requirements: No more than 35 percent of their calories can come from fat, no more than 10 percent can come from saturated fat, and no more than 35 percent of their weight can be sugar. Entrees prepared in school cafeterias must have no more than four grams of fat per 100 calories with a 400-calorie cap.
But Marion Nestle, a nutrition professor, one of the food industry's loudest critics and author of "What to Eat,'' says the junk food manufacturers are probably already looking for ways to circumvent the requirements. "I don't like this kind of criteria," she said, adding that although the new rules will rid schools of candy bars, they will also knock out most salad dressings. "It's a slippery slope, and there are always exceptions. Why not just get rid of highly processed foods and use the Marion Nestle method -- only serve foods with no more than five ingredients on the label."
As summer approaches, parents and school districts are grappling with strategies for the start of the upcoming school year in the fall -- a sort of dress rehearsal for when the new law kicks in. What's happening in Santa Clara exemplifies the struggles taking place all over Northern California. Parents and administrators in the South Bay city, not satisfied that the 2007 food requirements are strong enough, propose to completely ban junk food, even celebratory cupcakes, home-baked cookies and birthday cakes, on campus and during all after-school events. The plan, however, sent a whole other faction of parents and teachers into an apoplectic fit. "We get an awful lot of money from the snack business," said Angie Scott, a parent and athletic director at Wilcox High School. "Nutritious food is important, but it's expensive. And if we can't continue to fundraise, we're going to lose our athletic programs. And exercise should be the biggest component of keeping our children healthy." Scott fears that with an around-the-clock ban, concession sales at sporting events in the district would plummet. Gone would be the hamburgers, hot dogs, French fries and sodas that have become synonymous with high school football games. "The majority of the customers buying this stuff after hours are adults anyway," Scott argues.....
A steering committee in the district has prepared a compromise proposal, which is expected to be unveiled at a school board meeting Thursday. The vote is scheduled for the June 8 meeting. The new plan would allow four school celebrations a year with cakes and candies. It also encourages concessionaires to offer 50 percent healthful snacks, such as salads, fruit, water and juice, and asks that 50 percent of fundraising sales be nonfood items, such as T-shirts, mugs and wrapping paper. In addition, the proposal says that by the start of school in August, vending machines at Santa Clara schools will only sell healthful foods. [Whatever they are]
At Bret Harte Elementary in the San Francisco Unified School District, faculty got rid of the vending machines last year. This year they eliminated the soda machine in the teachers lounge, because Principal Vidrale Franklin thought it was a bad influence on the kids. She discourages parents from bringing in baked goods for celebrations, but Franklin says it would be too controversial to outright ban cakes and cookies. Instead they gently encourage parents to use the school's recipes for desserts like a fruitcake made with yogurt.
Beer is good for you: "A main ingredient in beer may help prevent prostate cancer and enlargement, according to a new study. But researchers say don't rush out to stock the refrigerator because the ingredient is present in such small amounts that a person would have to drink more than 17 beers to benefit. Oregon State University researchers say the compound xanthohumol, found in hops, inhibits a specific protein in the cells along the surface of the prostate gland. Xanthohumol was first discovered in hops in 1913, but its health effects were not known until about 10 years ago, when it was first studied by Fred Stevens, assistant professor of medicinal chemistry at OSU's College of Pharmacy. Last fall, Stevens published an update on xanthohumol in the journal Phytochemistry that drew international attention. Stevens says it possible for drug companies to develop pills containing concentrated doses of the flavonoid found in the hops used to brew beer. He also says researchers could work to increase the xanthohumol content of hops. There are already a number of food supplements on the market containing hops, and scientists in Germany have developed a beer that contains 10 times the amount of xanthohumol as traditional brews. The drink is being marketed as a healthy beer, but research is still under way to determine if it has any effect against cancer." 9:47 PM
Fatal football boots: "Blisters from new football boots can do more than slow down budding soccer stars - they have the potential to kill, it was revealed yesterday. Doctors reported two cases of toxic shock in young footballers, caused by infected blisters from new boots. Both players, a girl, 13, and a boy, 11, were treated in hospital and survived. But toxic shock syndrome is known to have a 5 per cent fatality rate in children. The syndrome is an extreme life-threatening reaction to bacterial infection, causing fever and organ failure. It is mainly associated with an outbreak of cases in 1980 involving young women who used a particular type of tampon, now withdrawn from the market. In children, the syndrome is rare and mostly occurs as a complication of skin burns." 9:48 PM
Thursday, June 08, 2006
Smart drugs for all in 20 years: "Smart drugs to make people think faster, improve their memory and reduce tiredness will be commonplace within 20 years, according to the British Government's chief scientific adviser. David King told ministers at a presentation in Downing Street that a new generation of "recreational psychoactive substances" could be given to healthy people to enhance their lives. Sir David said brain-enhancing chemicals could "revolutionise" the treatment of mental disorders and create new medical ways to fight drug addiction. The King report adds to calls from scientists for the removal of restrictions on cognitive enhancers, which have been dubbed "cosmetic neurology" or nip and tuck for the mind. Ritalin and Modafinil, the first generation of mind-enhancing drugs, were intended to treat disorders but have been adopted by people from across the social spectrum because of their ability to enhance performance..." 9:49 PM
British vodka no good: "Drinkers with refined palates sometimes struggle to distinguish cheap British vodka from paint-stripper. Soon, if Finland has its way, the similarity will be official. The Nordic vodka superpower is planning to use its six-month presidency of the European Union to try to ban some British-made brands from using the "vodka" appellation, forcing them to be labelled as "spirit drink" or even "white spirit drink". The Finns, who take the helm of the EU next month, are convinced that only vodka made from potatoes or grain is worthy of the name and want to amend EU law. Up to one-third of British-produced vodka will have to be re-labelled if the amended EU law is passed in the autumn. "We want to promote this traditional approach to the definition of vodka," said Pekka Pesonen, the Finnish secretary for agriculture. "This is something we really feel strongly about." Under the proposal, British brands such as Ciroc, Moskova, Red Square and Kirov, as well as many supermarket and pub-chain vodkas, would have to be reclassified because they are not made from potatoes or grains."
Watch for the coffee con: "Scientists have discovered why dating couples invite each other home for a coffee: caffeine makes people more persuadable. Controlled experiments showed that after only moderate amounts, drinkers were more likely to agree with persuasive arguments. Pearl Martin, from the School of Psychology at the University of Queensland, said that the findings would not interest only courting couples. Politicians and advertisers would also take note." 9:51 PM
Food as a way to learn English!: "Go into most British kitchens and you will find a pile of Italian cookery books, on the assumption - nurtured by writers from Elizabeth David to Antonio Carluccio - that Mediterranean cuisine holds the key to La Dolce Vita. Now Renata Beltrami and Silvia Mazzola, two cookery writers from Milan, have launched a campaign to turn the tables by persuading Italians of the joys of . . . British cooking. The result, Language on a Plate, manages to make Lancashire hotpot or summer pudding sound as mouthwatering as spaghetti alle vongole or zabaglione. According to the authors, the aim is to help Italians to learn English through recipes and understand the British way of life through such baffling concoctions as stuffed marrow or roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. The initiative could have a useful educational purpose, according to a survey by Censis, a respected research institute, which concluded that most Italians' knowledge of English was "dismal". Although 53 per cent of Italians claimed to speak English, in reality they spoke it "badly, if at all", the survey said.... Even today the expression mangiare all'Inglese - to eat like the English - is an insult". 9:52 PM
Friday, June 02, 2006
Home-made cake not allowed: "He was born before the discovery of antibiotics and survived the Depression and two world wars, yet staff at a day centre run by Age Concern decided that it was too much of a risk to let him eat a slice of home-made birthday cake. The Madeira cake was baked for the 96-year-old man by Elaine Richards, a retired district nursing sister and a member of the Women's Institute. But when Mrs Richards, who is in her 70s, tried to deliver the cake to her elderly friend, who does not wish to be identified, her contribution to the birthday fare was rejected because of food and hygiene rules. She was told by staff at the day centre in Barnstaple, North Devon, that only shop-bought cakes were acceptable. Two hours before she was due to attend the party, Mrs Richards received a phone call from the charity's director in Barnstaple, who was aware of her offering. Mrs Richards said: "At first I thought she was joking. I've been making cakes for 60 years and have fed a family of four on my cooking - and the worst they've had is a bit of indigestion from eating too much." Andrea Scott, from Age Concern, apologised for upsetting Mrs Richards, but said that food regulation guidelines had to be followed to protect people in her care."
Chocolate-powered cars? "Chocoholic germs can provide hydrogen, the clean-burning energy of the future, New Scientist reports. British scientists fed Escherichia coli bacteria a diluted mix of waste caramel and nougat. The germs tucked into the sugar and in the process produced hydrogen, using their own enzyme, called hydrogenase. The hydrogen was used to power a fuel cell, generating enough electricity to drive a small fan. The experiment has applications far beyond the lab. Waste chocolate, instead of being thrown away by confectionary companies, could be turned into hydrogen and used to help power their factories or sold to energy companies. The British team, led by Lynne Mackaskie at the University of Birmingham, central England, got the same bacteria to tuck into catalytic converters from old cars. The bacteria cleverly recovered the precious metal palladium after they were immersed in a vat with hydrogen and liquid waste from spent converters. The work is reported in full in the specialist journal, Biochemical Society Transactions."
Hopeful fatso thrown out of court: "A Manhattan judge has thrown out a proposed class-action lawsuit by an overweight man who blamed his physical condition on more caloric-than-advertised CremaLita ice cream. CremaLita had countered that their lower-calorie ice cream wasn't Stephen Brandt's problem - it was his "heart attack diet." "What Brandt fails to mention," the company's lawyer said in court papers, "is that he regularly eats real ice cream, McDonald's and Wendy's cheeseburgers, french fries, pepperoni pizza, beer, corn chips, donuts, cookies, hard cheese, eggs, bagels, peanut butter, Chinese take-out meals and pasta, [and] that he never exercises." And, the filing says, "although he provided no useful information regarding his weight gain during the period that he ate CremaLita, his medical records . . . show that he managed to pack on an additional 16 pounds in the nine months AFTER he stopped" eating the ice cream." (Via Jerry Lerman) 9:53 PM
