New study

Soy contains isoflavones, which act similarly to the hormone estrogen, and may have anti-cancer qualities in hormone-related cancers of the breast and prostate, the researchers note in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Cells in the lung have properties that suggest they may also respond to isoflavones.

Dr. Taichi Shimazu, of the National Cancer Center in Tokyo, and colleagues studied more than 36,000 Japanese men and more than 40,000 Japanese women, 45 to 74 years old and free of cancer at the start of the study.

The researchers followed the women for about 11 years, after surveying their food intake, smoking status, medical history, and other lifestyle factors between 1995 and 1999.

Overall rates of lung cancer were small: 481 men — or about one in 75 — and 178 women, or about one in 225 — were diagnosed during the 11 years of the study.

Among the slightly more than 13,000 men who never smoked, there were 22 lung cancer cases among men who ate the least soy, and just 13 lung cancer cases among those who ate the most. Shimazu said men’s soy intake from food varied widely, from about 34 to about 162 grams per day.

After taking a number of factors into account, the risk about halved in the highest versus the lowest intake group.

There were even fewer lung cancer cases among women, so researchers could draw no conclusions about their risks.

The authors note that men it may not be the act of eating soy that lowered lung cancer risk in the men in their study. Men who eat soy may be more likely to take part in other activities that may lower the risk, or may be more likely to eat other healthy foods. But they did take many of those factors into account.

However, the current study did not gather data on isoflavone supplement use, nor did it look at exposure second-hand smoking. That means these findings should be confirmed among Japanese and other populations, the authors conclude.

Further evidence may lead to more recommendations that individuals start taking nutritional supplements, such as omega-3 fatty acids, as it has been discovered that coronary heart disease patients who had higher levels of the nutrient had a lower rate of cellular aging.

The study, which is published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that patients who had a high dietary intake of omega-3 fatty acids had a lower rate of telomere length, which is a chromosomal marker of biological aging.

Researchers studied 608 patients who suffered from coronary heart disease, which is caused by clogged arteries, and noted that patients who had a higher level of omega-3 fatty acids in their blood stream had a 32 percent reduction in the chance of telomere shortening, which is a good sign for living longer.

“These findings raise the possibility that omega-3 fatty acids may protect against cellular aging in patients with coronary heart disease,” the researchers write.

Previous studies have shown the several health benefits from omega-3 fatty acids with coronary heart disease patients, but have never looked into how the nutrient affects cell life.

A new study has proven that nutritional supplements such as vitamin D and calcium can prevent bone fractures, a practice many physicians have been recommending for quite some time.

Research conducted at UC Davis in Sacramento, California, revealed that individuals who take the nutritional supplements on a daily basis reduces the risk of bone fractures regardless of gender and age.

The findings represent a large effort from researchers around the world, determining the benefits of calcium and vitamin D in post-menopausal women, adult men and younger patients of both genders.

Various reports have confirmed that the supplements help post-menopausal women prevent osteoporosis, which affects roughly 8 million American women.

The researchers discovered that combining both of the supplements provides better results than when they are taken separately.

“This combination of supplements benefits both women and men of all ages, which is not something we fully expected to find,” explained co-author John Robbins, a professor at UC Davis. “We now need to investigate the best dosage, duration and optimal way for people to take it.”

Researchers focused on telomeres, the protective caps on the chromosomes that keep a cell’s DNA stable but shorten with age.

They found telomeres shortened less quickly in key immune cells of athletes with a long history of endurance training. The study, by Saarland University, appears in the journal Circulation.

In a separate study of young Swedish men, cardiovascular fitness has been linked to increased intelligence and higher educational achievement. Telomeres are relatively short sections of specialised DNA that sit at the ends of all our chromosomes.

They have been compared to the plastic tips at the ends of shoelaces that prevent the laces from unravelling. Each time a cell divides, its telomeres shorten and the cell becomes more susceptible to dying.

The researchers measured the length of telomeres in blood samples from two groups of professional athletes and two groups of people who were healthy non-smokers, but who did not take regular exercise.

One group of professional athletes included members of the German national track and field athletics team, who had an average age of 20.

The second group was made up of middle-aged athletes who had regularly run long distances – an average of 80km a week – since their youth. The researchers found evidence that the physical exercise of the professional athletes led to activation of an enzyme called telomerase, which helped to stabilise telomeres.

This reduced the telomere shortening in leukocytes, a type of white blood cell that plays a key role in fighting infection and disease. The most pronounced effect was found in athletes who had been regularly endurance training for several decades.

Lead researcher Dr Ulrich Laufs said: “This is direct evidence of an anti-ageing effect of physical exercise.

“Our data improves the molecular understanding of the protective effects of exercise and underlines the potency of physical training in reducing the impact of age-related disease.”
Professor Tim Spector, an expert on genetics and ageing at Kings College London, said other studies had suggested more moderate exercise had a beneficial effect on ageing.

He said: “It is still difficult to separate cause and effect from these studies – as longer telomeres may still be a marker of fitness.

“Nevertheless – this is further evidence that regular exercise may retard aging.”

Professor Kay-Tee Khaw, of the University of Cambridge, an expert on ageing, said: “The benefits of physical activity for health are well established from many large long-term population studies.

“Even moderate levels of physical activity are related to lower levels of many heart disease risk factors such as blood pressure and cholesterol and lower risk of many chronic diseases associated with ageing such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes and some cancers.”

In the second study, published in Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences, a team from the University of Gothenburg analysed data on more than 1.2 million Swedish men born from 1950-1976 who enlisted for military service at age 18.

They found that good heart health was linked to higher intelligence, better educational achievement and raised status in society. By studying twins in the study, the researchers concluded that environmental and lifestyle factors were key, rather than genetics.

They said the findings suggested that campaigns to promote physical exercise might help to raise standards of educational achievement across the population.

Lead researcher Professor Georg Kuhn said cardiovascular exercise increased blood flow to the brain, which in turn might help forge more and stronger connections between nerve cells.

However, he said it was also possible that intelligent people tended to make more exercise.

Studies have previously estabilished a link between colorectal cancer and a diet high in fat and low in fiber, vitamin D and calcium.

Now, in a new research, scientists at Rockefeller University have shown what happens to colon tissue when mice are fed such a diet.

The study has been published in the November 2009 issue of The Journal of Nutrition.

“There is convincing evidence that increased intake of red meat, processed meat and alcohol can increase risk of colorectal cancer, whereas greater consumption of dietary fiber, milk and calcium might decrease risk,” says Peter Holt, a senior research associate in the Laboratory of Biochemical Genetics and Metabolism at Rockefeller. “Our findings show that a Western diet induces oxidative stress and alters immune responses in the colon of mice long before tumors occur.”

To reach the conclusion, researchers fed experimental mice either a standard diet containing five percent fat and ample amounts of calcium and vitamin D or a Western diet containing 20 percent fat and adequate but marginal levels of calcium and vitamin D for three or six months.

As expected, animals consuming the Western diet were heavier and had more fat tissue than those on the control diet. Microarray analysis identified 41 genes that were being expressed at significantly different levels between the Western diet and control animals. Most of these genes were related to metabolic processes such as lipid metabolism and glutathione metabolism, which is important for preventing damage caused by oxidation.

In addition, expression of a series of genes collectively associated with immune and inflammatory responses was altered. The diet also increased the number of macrophages, cells associated with inflammation in the colon, as well as several proteins such as myeloperoxidase and MCP-1 and colonic oxidative stress genes associated with inflammation.

A new study suggests that while nutritional supplements such as magnesium may help ease muscle pain in the neck and back, exercise may also help ease the discomfort.

The study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, found that when women were exposed to strength training exercises with dumbbells, they experience a muscle build up that helps the tenderness and tightness of the upper trapezius muscle.

Research found that two-thirds of women in office jobs experience pain in their upper trapezius muscle, which may be a result of doing tedious computer work.

The study consisted of 42 working women who were split into groups utilizing a 10-week strength training exercise program, general fitness or counseling on diet and health regimens respectively.

It was found that the women who participated in the strength training experienced 50 percent less pain, and that those in the general fitness and control groups did not experience a significant decrease in discomfort.

The researchers noted that the strength training encouraged women to overcome their fears of using the muscles that hurt them, leading them to exercise more and decrease the tightness.

A team of epidemiologists from the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston looked at 2,600-plus men who were diagnosed with prostate cancer between 1990 and 2002, while they were enrolled in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study.

As part of that study, the men answered questions about their rates of physical activity every year, so exercise data was available from before and after their diagnoses. What they found was that men who engaged in five or more hours of vigorous activity a week had a 56 percent lower risk of dying from prostate cancer.

Exercise has what doctors call a “protective effect.” In this study of men with prostate cancer, the researchers found that after a prostate cancer diagnosis, exercise was linked with a lower risk of death by all causes, whether the exercise was vigorous or not. “But when we looked at mortality specifically from prostate cancer, we only saw a significant benefit with more vigorous activity—at the level of five or more hours of vigorous activity per week,” says lead author Stacey Kenfield, Sc.D., a research associate at Harvard School of Public Health.

So while any type of exercise is beneficial for overall health, for prostate cancer, it seems more vigorous levels are needed to see a benefit.

Other studies evaluating the link between exercise and survival after the diagnosis of colorectal and breast cancers suggest that exercise also improves the odds of surviving those cancers. It’s not clear why or how exercise can have beneficial effects for cancer patients, though.

“There are a number of molecular pathways through which exercise could exert an effect on prostate-cancer biology,” says Kenfield. “For instance, exercise influences hormones thought to stimulate prostate cancer.” Exercise can improve your sleep and your mood. Plus, exercise in general improves immune function and can reduce systemic inflammation—all good stuff for trouncing cancer.

Here’s how cancer patients can use exercise to shift the odds in their favor:

• Get your doc’s okay. According to the American Cancer Society, exercise after a cancer diagnosis can actually lead to more physical problems, not fewer, if you have the following conditions: bone metastasis (cancer that has spread to your bones); a low white blood cell count; a low platelet count; a fever or active infection; anemia; or unsteadiness, frailty, or other problem that might make exercise unsafe. So be sure to run your planned exercise regimen by your oncologist before you begin.

• Progress gradually. The rule of thumb for any exerciser—whether he or she has cancer or not—is to boost time and intensity no more than 10 percent per week. That means, if you start off by walking 60 minutes per week, you should add no more than 6 minutes to your weekly walking time the next.

• Exercise vigorously, if you can. In this study, five hours of jogging, running, tennis, swimming, and/or biking a week significantly reduced the risk of dying from prostate cancer in men with prostate cancer. Every person’s situation is different, though, so consult with your care team if you’re not sure how much exercise you can handle.

Scientists searching for the secrets of how calorie-restricted diets increase longevity are reporting discovery of proteins in the fat cells of human volunteers that change as pounds drop off.

The proteins could become markers for monitoring or boosting the effectiveness of calorie-restricted diets – the only scientifically proven way of extending life span in animals. Their study appears online in ACS’ Journal of Proteome Research.

Edwin Mariman and colleagues note that scientists have long known that sharply restricting intake of calories while maintaining good nutrition makes animals live longer and stay healthier. Recent studies suggest that people may gain similar benefits. But scientists know little about how these diets work in humans, particularly their effects on cells that store fat.

The new study focused on proteins in abdominal subcutaneous fat cells from a group of overweight people before and after they went on a five-week-long calorie-restricted diet. The volunteers each lost an average of 21 pounds. Scientists identified changes in the levels of 6 proteins as the volunteers shed pounds, including proteins that tell the body to store fat.

These proteins could serve as important markers for improving or tracking the effectiveness of therapies involving calorie-restricted diets, they say.

According to a study published in Natural Chemical Biology, when EGCG, a green tea ingredient mixed with chemical DAPH-12, it may help destroy amyloids, which are proteins that bring on the brain diseases.

Some feel this study is significant as no other research has found a chemical combination to destroy amyloids. Researchers found that while EGCG could destroy weaker amyloids on their own, it needed to be mixed with DAPH-12 to destroy the stronger proteins.

While the researchers said they were excited with the outcome of finding a potential way to treat the diseases, they are quick to point out there is still more research to be done to see if they could find other possible solutions.

“Our findings are certainly preliminary and we need further work to fully comprehend the effects of EGCG in combination with other chemicals on amyloids,” said co-author Dr. Martin Duennwald. “Yet, we see our study as a very exciting initial step towards combinatorial therapies for the treatment of amyloid-based diseases.”

Experts feel that stress and anxiety are a large reason why people tend to overeat during the holiday season, which is why it’s being suggested that one takes time out for themselves in order to calm down. Using aromas such as eucalyptus may also help ease the stress.

It was also noted that nutritional supplements such as fiber might help with appetite control; and that when you do sit down to eat, try healthy protein. Another way to curb hunger is by eating complex carbohydrates that can be found in stuffing before sitting down to the meal, which will lead you to become fuller faster.

If you’re already feeling full by dessert time, experts feel this will be the best way to control you from reaching for that extra piece of pie, leading to unwanted cravings down the road.

“That pie often opens the floodgates to cravings, and many of us have spent holiday season after holiday season telling ourselves to have just one little treat,” said Dr. Denise Lamothe, a psychologist who studies emotional eating.