Health News - Monday, March 26, 2007
Imagine using a "dipstick" test to find out if your food is spoiled. If things work out as John Lavigne hopes, it just might be possible. Lavigne, an assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of South Carolina, and his research team have developed a polymer sensor that detects biogenic amines, the breakdown products of proteins that are a hallmark of food spoilage.
However, some experts are skeptical, saying it would be hard to improve upon good, old-fashioned food hygiene and a sensitive nose. The findings were presented Sunday in Chicago at the American Chemical Society's national meeting. Targeting nonvolatile amines -- the breakdown products that you cannot smell -- the test is about 90 percent accurate, Lavigne said, and can detect spoilage in different kinds of meats, vegetables, fruits and beverages. Continue reading
U.S. breast cancer patients with a particularly deadly form of the disease are more likely to be poor, black or Hispanic, and under 40 years of age, new research shows. Patients diagnosed with "triple-negative" breast cancer lack three key hormonal cancer markers that are present in most other forms of the disease, experts explain.
The absence of these cell receptors deprives doctors and patients of critical diagnostic information and prime targets for treatment, reducing a patient's therapeutic options and undercutting her expected survival. "The paradox is that while African-American and Hispanic women have a lower overall risk for breast cancer, they have a higher mortality, which is probably due to the higher incidence of triple-negative [disease]," said study co-author Dr. Vincent Caggiano, research medical director of the Sutter Cancer Center at the Cancer Surveillance Program in Sacramento, Calif. Continue reading
Dark chocolate is good for the arteries as it helps facilitate blood flow, a new study in U.S. has found. Yale University Research, presented at the annual convention of the American College of Cardiology on Sunday, indicated that flavonoids, a group of antioxidant compounds found in fruit and vegetables, play an important health role.
Studies indicated there is a strong correlation between the consumption of foods rich in flavonoids such as wine, green tea, fruit and vegetables and the fight against cardiovascular disease, the study said. Cocoa or dark chocolate products are considered one of the most concentrated sources of flavonoids among commonly consumed foods. While the researchers cautioned against bingeing on bon bons, they said the findings of the trial were clear and called for larger such studies to confirm the results. Continue reading
Chemicals found in grape seeds may help ward of skin cancer due to regular exposure to the sun, according to the results of an animal study reported Sunday in Chicago at the 223rd annual meeting of the American Chemical Society. Researchers from the University of Alabama, Birmingham exposed hairless mice to ultraviolet-light. Some of the mice they fed a standard diet supplemented with grape seed proanthocyanidins, or GSPs, while control mice were fed a standard diet without this supplement.
Dietary supplementation with GSPs inhibited light-induced carcinogenesis, study chief Dr. Santosh K. Katiyar told the conference. Mice supplemented with GSPs had up to 65 fewer tumors than control mice did. Moreover, the tumors seen in GSP-supplemented mice were up to 78 percent smaller than those seen in the control mice. "It suggests that regular consumptions of GSPs as a dietary supplement may be beneficial for the prevention of skin cancers," Katiyar said in a written statement. Continue reading
It's the junk food junkie's wildest dream come true -- pizza as health food. University of Maryland food chemists said on Monday they had found ways to enhance the antioxidant content of whole-grain wheat pizza dough by baking it longer at higher temperatures and giving the dough lots of time to rise.
Antioxidants are substances that protect cells from damage caused by unstable molecules known as free radicals. Some experts believe antioxidants can lower the risk of cancer, heart disease and other ailments. Liangli Lucy Yu, a food chemistry professor, said the findings arose from broader research into ways to improve health-promoting properties of wheat-based food products. "The reason that we chose pizza is just because it is a very popular food product, not only in the U.S. but worldwide," researcher Jeffrey Moore added. Continue reading
A study published today supports recent efforts to rid the American diet of trans fats. In the study, women with the highest levels of trans fat in their blood had triple the risk of heart disease as those with the lowest levels. "Humans cannot synthesize, or create, trans fatty acid. The only source is through diet," study chief Dr. Frank B. Hu of the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, said in a written statement.
The main source of trans fat in the diet is partially hydrogenated oils that are plentiful in cookies, crackers, pastries and fried foods. "Eliminating the use of partially hydrogenated oils and other sources of trans fat in the U.S. diet -- as long as saturated fat intake doesn't increase -- will likely help reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease," Hu said. Hu and colleagues analyzed blood samples obtained from 32,826 nurses between 1989 and 1990 as part of a long-term study that looked at the effect of oral contraceptives, diet and lifestyle on the development of heart and other diseases. Continue reading
The long-term use of aspirin, at low to moderate doses, appears to reduce all causes of mortality in women, especially in older women and those with cardiovascular risk factors, according to the results of a new study. This is primarily due to a reduction in death from cardiovascular disease. However, an accompanying editorial questions this finding and suggests that, on the basis of previous study findings, women without a history of cardiovascular disease should not start taking aspirin to prevent death.
Previous reports have indicated that aspirin use can lower the risk of heart disease and certain types of cancer, which are major contributors to mortality in women. However, it is unclear if long-term aspirin use is actually associated with a reduced risk of mortality from all causes. To investigate, Dr. Andrew T. Chan, from Harvard Medical School in Boston, and colleagues analyzed data from 79,439 women who were enrolled in the Nurses' Health Study. All of the women were cancer- and heart disease-free when the investigation began. Continue reading