Vitamin B may reduce risk of stroke

Posted by Neill Abayon

Researchers have uncovered evidence that suggests vitamin B supplements could help to reduce the risk of stroke, according to a study published in the journal Neurology.

 Vitamin B supplements are said to be beneficial for many health issues, including stress, anxiety, depression, dementia, Alzheimer's disease and heart disease.

However, according to Xu Yuming of Zhengzhou University in Zhengzhou, China, previous studies have conflicting findings regarding the use of vitamin B supplements and stroke or heart attack.

"Some studies have even suggested that the supplements may increase the risk of these events," he adds.

In order to determine the role of vitamin B supplements in the risk of stroke, Prof. Yuming and colleagues analyzed 14 randomized clinical trials involving a total of 54,913 participants.

All studies compared use of vitamin B supplements with a placebo, or a very low dosage of the vitamin. All participants were then followed for a period of 6 months.

During this time, there were 2,471 reported strokes over all of the studies.

More here. 

Sugar and Health Research

Emailed to me by Laura Thomas

That sneaky, sweet substance in many people's favourite treats can be downright dirty when it comes to playing with the heart and liver. Unfortunately, Britons love the stuff and consume, on average, 238 teaspoons of the substance each week, more than three times the average from 50 years ago. Now that's a lot of sugar.

Broken down, table sugar is essentially composed of molecules of fructose and glucose. When too much fructose finds its way into the human body, it doesn't break down and metabolise like other carbohydrates. Robert Lustig, professor of pediatric endocrinology at University of California, explained that what the body does instead is "turn excess fructose into liver fat. That starts a cascade of insulin resistance (insulin promotes sugar uptake from blood) which leads to chronic metabolic disease, including diabetes and heart disease."

Researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) recently published a study in the Journal of the American Heart Association which showed a correlation between eating too much sugar and heart failure. The reason for this is a small molecule called glucose 6-phosphate (G6P). When too much of this sugar molecule accumulates, it causes changes to muscle proteins and also induces poor pump function, which can ultimately lead to heart failure.

Another study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition illustrated that fructose can rapidly cause liver damage even if no weight is gained. During the study, researchers at the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center tested animals who were fed a diet high in fructose to measure biomarkers of liver damage. The control group was fed a diet of complex carbohydrates and soy protein.

"What surprised us the most was how quickly the liver was affected and how extensive the damage was, especially without weight gain as a factor," said Kylie Kavanagh, D.V.M., assistant professor of pathology-comparative medicine at Wake Forest Baptist and lead author of the study. "Six weeks in monkeys is roughly equivalent to three months in humans."

Results indicated that, in the high-fructose group, intestinal bacteria was migrating to the liver more rapidly than the control group and causing damage. This was apparently due to the fact that fructose was causing the intestines to be less protective than normal and allowing bacteria to leak out a fairly high rate.

Laura Thomas, founder of happysugarhabits.com, commented, "Changing one's sugar habits is truly about making a conscious choice to be healthier and live longer, and it seems like science is continually proving that point as it delves further into the chemistry and effects of sugar."

EU heart deaths 'halved since 1980s'

About one in five men and one in eight women die from coronary heart disease in the UK

By Helen Briggs BBC News 

Death rates from coronary heart disease have more than halved in almost all EU countries since the early 1980s, according to research.

Most countries have seen steady reductions in deaths in both men and women of all ages, despite rises in obesity and diabetes, a UK study shows.
However, experts have warned against complacency, saying wide disparities remain across Europe.
Coronary heart disease is the UK's single biggest killer.
About one in five men and one in eight women die from the disease.

Read here.

Stress Can Significantly Impact Your Heart

Photo Source

Posted by Neill Abayon

Anticipating that you are unhealthy because of stress may have a negative influence on your heart health, according to a new study published in the European Heart Journal.

Investigators examined data from the Whitehall II study which is partly funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF). The Whitehall II study, established in 1985, gathered health data from several thousand civil servants.

They found people who perceived stress as significantly affecting their health had twice the risk of experiencing coronary heart disease - compared with those who did not think stress was making an impact.

Read the full report here.


 

Obesity causes over 100,000 cancers per year

Posted by Neill Abayon

(NaturalNews) As it turns out, fat tissue isn't just a dormant storage depot for calories. According to the American Institute for Cancer Research, more than 100,000 cancer cases in the U.S. are linked to excess body fat - most of them are preventable.

The data shows that on top of the list of obesity-linked cancers is endometrial cancer, followed by esophageal, pancreatic and kidney cancers, among others. Increased body fat is linked to:


49% of endometrial cancers (20,700 cases/year)

35% of esophageal cancers (5,800 cases/year)

28% of pancreatic cancers (11,900 cases/year)

24% of kidney cancers (13,900 cases/year)

21% of gallbladder cancers (2,000 cases/year)

17% of breast cancers (33,000 cases/year)

9% of colorectal cancers (13,200 cases/year)


A groundbreaking - and startling - study published in ACS' Journal of Proteome Research proved that fat cells actively secrete dozens of hormones that act as chemical messengers in various parts of the body. Scientists suspect that these chemical signals may promote not only cancer, but also a wide range of other chronic diseases, including diabetes and heart disease.

Read the complete news here.

High blood pressure on the rise among young adults

Posted by Neill Abayon

Rates of high blood pressure have remained fairly steady over the past ten years in every category except one: young adults between the ages of 18 and 39. According to a new report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), increasing numbers of young adults are developing high blood pressure, and more young people than ever are now taking blood pressure medication for the condition.

"[I] got upset when I first found out because I automatically associated it with people who are overweight or old," explained Kristen Pessalano, a 23-year-old woman with high blood pressure, in an ABC News article. "I would have never associated high blood pressure with someone my age, especially when I appeared to be totally healthy."

And there are likely millions of other young adults like Kristen who think they are safe just because of their age, without taking into account their dietary and lifestyle habits. The modern American diet is loaded with high levels of bad fat, processed sodium, highly-refined sweeteners, and artificial chemical additives, all of which contribute to high blood pressure and heart disease.

Read the full article here.

Drinking tea cuts risk of heart disease by one-third

Posted By Neill Abayon

Drinking several cups of tea or coffee daily appears to cut your risk of heart disease by more than one-third, Dutch researchers have found.

"It's basically a good news story for those who like tea and coffee," said lead researcher Yvonne van der Schouw. "These drinks appear to offer benefits for the heart without raising the risk of dying from anything else."

The study appeared in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology, a journal of the American Heart Association.

Researchers followed 40,000 healthy people for 13 years, then compared rates of heart disease with consumption of coffee and tea. They found that participants who drank between three and six cups of tea per day were 45 percent less likely to die from heart disease than those who drank less than a cup a day.

Drinking coffee or larger amounts of tea was also protective against death from heart disease, but not as strongly. People who drank more than six cups of tea a day reduced their risk by 36 percent compared with the low tea-drinking group, while those who drank between two and four cups of coffee daily reduced their risk by 20 percent compared with those who drank either more or less coffee. These effects remained after researchers adjusted for other heart disease risk factors, such as smoking and exercise level.

Read the full article here.

Obesity health risk cause 'found'

Posted by Neill Abayon

Scientists believe they may have uncovered a key reason why obese people have a raised risk of health complications such as type 2 diabetes.

They blame a specific protein - pigment epithelium-derived factor (PEDF) - which is secreted by fat cells.

The Australian and US research on mice suggests blocking some of PEDF's action may reverse some complications - raising hopes of new drug treatments.

The study appears in the journal Cell Metabolism.

Because PEDF is produced by fat cells people who are overweight have higher levels of the protein in the bloodstream.

The latest research shows that the protein sends a signal to other tissues in the body, triggering development of insulin resistance - a condition that often leads to type 2 diabetes - in the muscle and liver.

Raised PEDF levels were also linked to a release of fats into the bloodstream, raising the risk of complications such as heart disease.

Read the full article here.

Lack of sleep 'hits women harder'

Posted by Neill Abayon

Lack of sleep raises a woman's risk of heart disease more than it does for a man, research suggests.

Sleeping less than the recommended eight hours a night has been linked to a raised risk of heart problems.

Researchers found levels of inflammatory markers - indicators of heart disease - vary significantly with sleep duration in women, but not men.

The study, by University College London and the University of Warwick, appears in the journal Sleep.

Previous research has suggested people who sleep less than five hours a night have an increased risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, compared to those who get the full eight hours.

The latest study found levels of a molecule called interleukin-6 (IL-6), which is known to trigger inflammation, were much lower in women who reported sleeping eight hours, compared to those who slept for seven hours.

Levels of another molecule, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) - which is linked to heart problems - were significantly higher in women who reported sleeping for five hours or less.

Read the full article here.

Heart dangers seen in very young obese children

Posted by Neill Abayon

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Obese children as young as 7 have worrying levels of compounds linked to heart disease and heart attacks, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday.

They found that obese youngsters had up to 10 times the normal amount of a compound that reflects inflammation, and another that helps blood to clot -- both known to raise the risk of heart attacks and heart disease in adults.

"Our study finding suggests that we need more aggressive interventions for weight control in obese children," said Dr. Nelly Mauras of Nemours Children's Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, who led the study.

Obesity is hard to measure in children but pediatricians generally classify a child as obese if he or she is in the 95th percentile of weight for their age.

Mauras and colleagues studied 202 healthy children, 115 of them obese, and half of them past puberty.

The obese children had high levels of c-reactive protein, associated with inflammation, which is itself linked to heart disease. They also had abnormally high levels of the clotting factor fibrinogen compared to lean children of the same age and sex, Mauras told a meeting of the Endocrine Society.

Read the full article here.

Can Omega-3 Fatty Acids Prevent Depression In Coronary Heart Disease?

Posted by Neill Abayon

Depression is an established risk factor for the development of coronary heart disease (CHD) in healthy patients and for adverse cardiovascular outcomes in patients with existing CHD. Dietary factors resulting in lower levels of omega–3 fatty acids not only increase CHD risk, but may also be involved in the pathophysiology of depression.

The investigators measured red blood cell levels of two omega–3 fatty acids, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and assessed depressive symptoms in a cross-sectional study of 987 adults with CHD. Omega –3 fatty acids were blindly measured in fasting venous blood samples using capillary gas chromatography to measure the fatty acid composition of red blood cell membranes. Red blood cell levels of EPA and DHA are presented as a percentage composition of total fatty acid methyl esters.

View the full article here.

Air Pollution Can Hinder Your Heart's Electrical Function

Posted by Neill Abayon

Microscopic particles in polluted air can adversely affect your heart’s ability to conduct electrical signals in people with serious coronary artery disease.

A recent study of 48 Boston-area patients, all of whom had coronary artery disease, used 24-hour Holter monitors to examine electrocardiograms. An elevation in fine particles, from non-traffic as well as traffic sources, and black carbon, a marker for traffic, resulted in a conductivity change called an ST-segment depression, which can indicate inadequate blood flow to the heart or inflamed heart muscle.

The effects were greatest within the first month after hospitalization, and for patients who were hospitalized for a heart attack or had diabetes.

Previous studies have documented that exposure to road traffic can trigger heart attacks, and that particulate air pollution increases the risk for cardiac death.