Rebekah Eliason for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

Researchers from Mayo Clinic have recently discovered a new type of cancer. When two perfectly harmless genes, PAX3 and MAML3, abnormally combine during recurring chromosomal mismatch, they can turn dangerous. As the two genes combine, they become a chimera, which is a gene that is made up of half of each.

This unique phenomenon causes cancerous biphenotypic sinonasal sarcoma. The tumor usually forms in the nose and continues to spread across the rest of the face. In order to save the person, often a terribly disfiguring surgery is required.

Since the Mayo Clinic pathology researchers have now discovered and described the molecular makeup of this rare tumor, there are several existing cancer drugs that can be used to target this cancer. It was in 2004 when Mayo Clinic pathologists Andre Oliveira, MD, PhD, and Jean Lewis, MD, initially noticed there was something strange about the tumor they were analyzing. They began collecting data and by 2009 had noticed the same pathology a number of times. By 2012, the team defined a new class of tumor that had never been described before.

In this most recent study, the researchers are describing the genetic structures and molecular signature of this rare and difficult to recognize type of cancer. In 75 percent of cases, this cancer affects women.

No one is sure how rare this type of cancer is since most cases the researchers examined were initially diagnosed incorrectly as other cancer types. As Mayo Clinic is considered to be one of the world’s largest referral centers for sarcoma diagnosis and treatment, they were successful at identifying and characterizing this rare tumor.

Dr. Oliveira, who subspecializes in the molecular genetics of sarcomas, said “It’s unusual that a condition or disease is recognized, subsequently studied in numerous patients, and then genetically characterized all at one place. Usually these things happen over a longer period of time and involve separate investigators and institutions. Because of Mayo’s network of experts, patient referrals, electronic records, bio repositories, and research scientists, it all happened here. And this is only the tip of the iceberg. Who knows what is in our repositories waiting to be discovered.”

Although the cancer was not formally identified until the year 2009, when Mayo Clinic’s medical records were searched, it was discovered a Mayo patient had this specific cancer in 1956. An identical description of the cancer was discovered in physician notes that were in Mayo’s computerized database.

Additionally, it was confirmed that the 1956 case was the same cancer through microscopic analysis of the tumor found preserved in Mayo’s bio repositories. Dr. Oliveira’s research confirmed the same genetic chimera in the old tumor.

Researchers are excited by this discovery because of the exciting potential disease model.

“The PAX3-MAML3 chimera we identified in this cancer has some similarities to a unique protein found in alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, a common cancer found in children,” says Mayo Clinic molecular biologist and co-author Jennifer Westendorf, PhD. “Our findings may also lead to a better understanding of this pediatric disease for which, unfortunately, there is no specific treatment.” This study was published in the journal Nature Genetics.

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports – Your Universe Online

While many health experts advise against eating white bread due to a lack of nutritional value, new research appearing in Wednesday’s edition of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry suggests it could benefit our health by encouraging the growth of beneficial gut bacteria.

Furthermore, Sonia González of the University of Oviedo’s Department of Functional Biology and colleagues from the Instituto de Productos Lácteos de Asturias – Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientı́ficas (IPLA-CSIC) found it is essential to look at a person’s entire diet and not just individual parts of it when analyzing the impact of food on his or her microbiomes.

According to the American Chemical Society (ACS), which publishes the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, González and her team report that a person’s gut bacteria plays a key role in his or her health. When there is a decrease in some populations of those bacteria, men and women become more prone to disease.

Eating right is one of the most effective ways to keep our microbiomes healthy and well-balanced, the organization explained. Experts have analyzed the impact of individual fibers and probiotics to determine what dietary ingredients promote helpful bacteria, but there has been little research into the role polyphenols play in this phenomenon.

Polyphenols are micronutrients that are common in many of the foods that we eat, including fruits, vegetables, spices and teas. González and her associates wanted to see what impact they had on our gut bacteria, both alone and in combination with fibers, so they recruited 38 healthy adults to take part in a pilot study.

Each participant answered questions about their diets and agreed to have the bacteria present in their stool samples analyzed by the research teams. The study authors discovered pectin, a compound typically found in citrus fruits, decreases the levels of some helpful bacteria when interacting with other substances contained in oranges.

“A negative association was found between the intake of pectins and flavanones from oranges and the levels of Blautia coccoides and Clostridium leptum,” the study authors wrote. “By contrast, white bread, providing hemicellulose and resistant starch, was directly associated with Lactobacillus.

“Because some effects on intestinal microbiota attributed to isolated fibers or polyphenols might be modified by other components present in the same food, future research should be focused on diet rather than individual compounds,” they added.

The new paper comes just days after research presented as part of the 21st annual European Congress on Obesity (ECO 2014), which reported that consuming white bread instead of whole-grain bread could increase a person’s chances of becoming overweight or obese.

In that study, author, nutritional expert and University of Navarra professor Miguel Martinez-Gonzalez, analyzed the dining habits of more than 9,000 Spanish university graduates. In order to measure the impact of bread type in a culture where it is a dietary staple, he had each participant complete a food questionnaire and then monitored all of them over the next five years.

Martinez-Gonzalez discovered those who consumed a minimum of three slices of white bread each day were 40 percent more likely to gain weight than those who ate just one portion per week. Whole-grain bread consumption was not linked to obesity or weight gain, since it contains dietary fiber and complex carbohydrates that make people feel full longer, and mixing both bread types did not increase a person’s risk of becoming overweight.

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Alan McStravick for www.redorbit.com – Your Universe online

It has been said of the second largest and second most populous state in the Union that everything is bigger in Texas. Nowhere is this more true than in the state’s capital dome (which reaches higher into the air than the capital dome in Washington, DC), its cowboy hats and, regretfully, in its drunk driving deaths.

Statistics for the year 2012 for this grim figure, released seven months ago, show that a staggering 1,296 individuals lost their lives on Texas roads and highways as a result of driving under the influence. California, ranked as the most populous state in the nation, saw nearly 500 fewer of its citizens’ lives claimed by this reckless and preventable act. It should come as no surprise then that the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has recommended further lowering the legal definition of intoxication to .05, down from the current .08 blood alcohol content (BAC).

San Francisco-based BACtrack, the North American leader in both professional and personal breathalyzer products, released a comprehensive breakdown of data collected by their award winning personal breathalyzer product, BACtrack mobile. Recognized by Popular Science with the ‘Best of What’s New’ award for 2013 for health innovation, the BACtrack mobile product is a bluetooth enabled device that sends BAC readings to a user’s smartphone. Data for this report was anonymously collected among those who had the geolocation functions of their phones turned on.

The findings were both interesting and revelatory of date-specific and location-specific drinking trends nationwide. For instance, with this year’s Summer solstice fast approaching, it should be noted that last June 22 saw the heaviest average drinking nationwide at .115 percent. BACtrack believes this data could aid traffic and law enforcement to formulate more effective policies and tactics meant to combat drunk driving. However, BACtrack claims their product is primarily meant to raise the awareness of clients of just when they may have passed the threshold of being impaired.

Other dates and the average BAC associated with them were perhaps less surprising than the weekend that officially kicks off the start of summer. For instance, New Year’s Eve revelers presented an average BAC of .095 while those testing their intoxication on Super Bowl Sunday registered .087 percent. A day that is often heralded as America’s drinking holiday — St. Patrick’s Day — came in at one of the lower average BAC’s recorded with just .057 percent among BACtrack Mobile users and their friends.

While the date-specific data is interesting, geographic data painted a definitive picture of which states and cities were the hardest drinking in the country. Residents of Montana and South Dakota proved they frequently over-imbibe, registering state averages of .101 percent. New Hampshire’s state motto could easily be changed to ‘Live Alcohol Free or Die’ with the nation’s lowest average BAC of .012 percent. Not Surprisingly, Utah, with the heavy influence of the Mormon Church, also registered one of the nation’s lowest BAC averages at .031 percent.

The geographic data collected by BACtrack matches law enforcement statistics for arrests due to drunk driving. Per capita, Montana had the highest number of arrests while New Hampshire had the lowest.

Individual cities were analyzed as well. Dallas came in with the highest average BAC of .091 percent. The Texas city was followed very closely by Oakland, Scottsdale and Indianapolis. Interestingly, another Texas city had the lowest BAC average in the country. Houston came in at just .034

The results of this data are definitely eye opening and serve the BACtrack company mission which is, according to Keith Nothacker, CEO and founder of BACtrack, “…to enlighten the general public on alcohol consumption habits so that they become more responsible drinkers.”

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports – Your Universe Online

Using a common type of medication to lower their cholesterol could cause older men to become less physically active, according to new research appearing in Monday’s edition of the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.

In the study, Oregon State University/Oregon Health and Science University College of Pharmacy assistant professor David Lee and his colleagues discovered a link between the use of statins, some of the most prescribed drugs in the world, and reduced physical activity levels in older men.

“Physical activity in older adults helps to maintain a proper weight, prevent cardiovascular disease and helps to maintain physical strength and function,” Lee said in a statement. “We’re trying to find ways to get older adults to exercise more, not less. It’s a fairly serious concern if use of statins is doing something that makes people less likely to exercise.”

Lee and his fellow researchers examined the relationship between self-reported physical activity and statin use over a seven-year period in 3,039 participants who were approximately 73 years old on average. Of those individuals, 24 percent of them were using statins at baseline, 25 percent reported using a statin for the first time during the follow-up period, and 48 percent claimed to have never used the medications during the follow-up period.

Overall, a self-reported questionnaire revealed that physical activity declined by an average of 2.5 points per year for non-statin users and 2.8 points per year for prevalent users. The difference was deemed to be not statistically significant by the study authors, though the decline occurred at a faster rate for new users than for nonusers.

The study participants were community-living men at least 65 years of age from six geographic regions throughout the US. Statin users averaged approximately 40 minutes less of moderate physical activity over a one-week period when compared to those who did not use the medication, Lee and his colleagues noted. That would equal the loss of approximately 150 minutes of slow-paced walking each week, according to the lead author.

“For an older population that’s already pretty sedentary, that’s a significant amount less exercise. Even moderate amounts of exercise can make a big difference,” Lee explained, noting that an increase in sedentary behavior had also been observed in some of the study participants.

“Given these results, we should be aware of a possible decrease in physical activity among people taking a statin,” he added. “This could decrease the benefit of the medication. If someone is already weak, frail, or sedentary, they may want to consider this issue, and consult with their doctor to determine if statin use is still appropriate.”

In addition to OSU and the Oregon Health & Science University, institutes involved in the research included the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Portland, the California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute in San Francisco, the Stanford Prevention Research Center and the Department of Medicine at the University of California. It was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Medical Research Foundation of Oregon.

Rebekah Eliason for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
A new study has discovered that exercise and high dietary levels of protein increase the diversity of gut bacteria. According to the authors, these findings have important implications for overall long term health. Obesity and other health problems have been linked to low variation of gut microbes (microbiota). In contrast, diverse microbiota is associated with a healthy metabolic profile and immune system response.
For this study, researchers analyzed the fecal and blood samples of 40 professional rugby players who were participating in an intensive physical training program to determine and assess the range of microbiota the players were hosting in their guts.
Since extreme exercise is often associated with extreme dieting, the researchers chose elite athletes for this study.
As a control, the rugby player’s samples were compared with samples taken from 46 healthy men who were similar in size and age of the rugby players but were not professional athletes.
Of the control group, half of the men had a normal body mass index (BMI) of 25 or less and the other half had a high BMI of 28 and above.
All of the men in the study were asked to complete a food frequency questionnaire that detailed the amount and frequency that 187 specific foods had been consumed over the previous four weeks. In addition, all of the participants were asked to describe their normal physical activity level.
Although the elite athletes had much higher levels of creatine kinase, which is an enzyme that indicates muscle and tissue damage, they had less inflammatory markers than any of the men from the control group. Additionally, they had a better metabolic profile than the men who had a high BMI.
The rugby players had a much wider range of gut microbiota than any of the other men. There was particularly a noticeable difference between the athletes and the men with a high BMI.
The amount of microbial types (taxa) present was significantly higher in the rugby players. The athletes had higher proportions than men with a high BMI of 48 taxa and had more of 40 taxa than the men with a normal BMI.
Particularly noteworthy, the athletes had much higher proportions of Akkermansiaceae, which is a species of bacteria that is linked with lower obesity rates and metabolic disorders.
When the dietary habits of the participants were compared, it was discovered that the rugby players consumed more of all the food groups. Protein accounted for 22% of their energy intake while it only accounted for 15-16% of non-athletes energy intake.
The athlete’s protein intake mostly consisted of meat and meat products, but they also consumed a large amount of protein supplements. Additionally, the athletes consumed much more fruit and vegetables and less snacks than the control group.
“Our findings indicate that exercise is another important factor in the relationship between the microbiota, host immunity and host metabolism, with diet playing an important role,” conclude the authors.
Dr. Georgina Hold of the Institute of Medical Sciences, Aberdeen University, pointed out in an accompanying editorial that our guts are colonized by trillions of bacteria, the composition of which has been implicated in many conditions and is known to determine how well we harvest the energy from the foods we eat.
“Understanding the complex relationship among what we choose to eat, activity levels and gut microbiota richness is essential,” she writes. “As life expectancy continues to increase, it is important that we understand how best to maintain good health. Never has this been more important than in respect of our resident microbiota,” she said.
This study was published in the journal Gut.

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports – Your Universe Online

Levels of a tiny molecule known as miR-1202 are lower in the brains of people suffering from depression, suggesting that it could serve as a marker for depression and help detect which patients are most likely to respond to antidepressant treatment, experts from McGill University and the Douglas Institute claim in a new study.

Their research, which has been published by the journal Nature Medicine, shows that miR-1202 could ultimately improve treatment options from those suffering from the psychological condition. The molecule is only found in humans and other primates, lead author Dr. Gustavo Turecki and his colleagues explained.

Depression is a common disorder, and while there are many types of drugs that can be used to treat it, it can be difficult to determine which medication is right for which patient. A lot of trial and error is involved, the study authors noted, but this new research could help eliminate some of that guesswork and make treatment more efficient.

“Using samples from the Douglas Bell-Canada Brain Bank, we examined brain tissues from individuals who were depressed and compared them with brain tissues from psychiatrically healthy individuals,” Dr. Turecki, a psychiatrist at the Douglas Institute and a professor at the McGill University Department of Psychiatry, said in a statement Sunday.

“We identified this molecule, a microRNA known as miR-1202, only found in humans and primates and discovered that it regulates an important receptor of the neurotransmitter glutamate,” he added. Their discovery could provide “a potential target for the development of new and more effective antidepressant treatments.”

Dr. Turecki and his colleagues conducted a series of experiments which demonstrated that antidepressants altered the levels of miR-1202. In clinical trials, they treated depressed patients that had lower levels of the microRNA compared to their non-depressed counterparts with the commonly prescribed treatment citalopram. The researchers found that miR-1202 increased during the treatment process, and that individuals no longer felt depressed.

While antidepressant drugs, which are the most prescribed medications in North America, “are clearly effective,” Dr. Turecki explained that “there is variability in how individuals respond to antidepressant treatment.” During their clinical trial, he and his colleagues “found that miR-1202 is different in individuals with depression and particularly, among those patients who eventually will respond to antidepressant treatment,” he added.

In related research published earlier this year, University of Cambridge professor Joe Herbert detailed how a saliva-based test could determine if teenage boys experiencing minor bouts of depression would be more likely to experience major depression later in life.

In that study, Herbert and his colleagues found that teenage boys with mild depression symptoms and elevated levels of the stress hormone cortisol were up to 14 times more likely to experience clinical depression as they grew older compared to those possessing low or normal cortisol levels. The work was deemed noteworthy because it offered a method of physically measuring a condition that has its roots within the brain.

Rebekah Eliason for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

Previously, scientists have considered twenty-seven elements to be essential for human life. Recently they have discovered bromine to be the twenty-eighth essential element.

Researchers from Vanderbilt University have shown for the first time that, out of the 92 naturally occurring elements, bromine is essential for tissue development in all animals ranging from sea creatures to humans.

“Without bromine, there are no animals. That’s the discovery,” said Billy Hudson, Ph.D., the paper’s senior author and Elliott V. Newman Professor of Medicine.

Led by co-first authors Scott McCall, Christopher Cummings, Ph.D., and Gautam (Jay) Bhave, M.D., Ph.D., the research team discovered that fruit flies perish without bromine in their diet, but live when it is present.

This discovery is important for treating human disease. “Multiple patient groups … have been shown to be bromine deficient,” said McCall, an M.D./Ph.D. student. Patients on dialysis or total parenteral nutrient (TPN) may improve with bromine supplementation.

This study is part of series of papers published by the Vanderbilt team which have improved the definition of collagen IV scaffolds that undergird the basement membrane of all tissues, including kidney filtration units.

Hudson noted that the foundation for this current discovery started 30 years ago when he was at the University of Kansas Medical School.

His interest in two rare kidney diseases led to the discovery of two new proteins that twist around each other forming the triple-helical collagen IV molecule. This unique structure acts similar to cables supporting a bridge. When these protein cables are defective or damaged disease often follows.

In 2002 Hudson moved to Vanderbilt and continued his work.

In 2009, a study led by Roberto Vanacore, Ph.D. discovered a sulflimine bond between sulfur and nitrogen atoms. This bond acted as a “fastener” to connect the collagen IV molecules which form scaffolds for cells.

It was also discovered that a defective bond possibly triggers Goodpasture’s syndrome, which is a rare auto-immune disorder. Because of the bond discovery, researchers wanted to know how the bond is formed. In 2012, Bhave, assistant professor of Medicine, Cummings and Vanacore led a team of researchers and discovered the answer is enzyme peroxidasin.

If this enzyme becomes overactive, it may play a role in disease by excessive deposition of collagen IV and thickening of the basement membrane, which can cause impaired kidney function.

In this current study, researchers showed the essential and unique role of ionic bromide to enable peroxidasin to form the sulfilimine bond.

The authors report that consequently, the element bromine is “essential for animal development and tissue architecture.”

This study was published in the journal Cell.

Rebekah Eliason for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

A new study by the Childhood Obesity Research Center (CORC) at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California has discovered that soda drinkers are consuming much more sugar-fructose than soda labels imply.

In this study, the chemical composition of 34 popular soda and juice drinks made with high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) were analyzed. The researchers discovered that drinks such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Dr Pepper, Mountain Dew and Sprite are all composed of 50 percent more fructose than glucose. This ratio provides evidence disproving the claim that HFCS and sugar are in effect the same.

Michael Goran, PhD, director of the CORC and lead author of the study said, “We found what ends up being consumed in these beverages is neither natural sugar nor HFCS, but instead a fructose-intense concoction that could increase one’s risk for diabetes, cardiovascular disease and liver disease. The human body isn’t designed to process this form of sugar at such high levels. Unlike glucose, which serves as fuel for the body, fructose is processed almost entirely in the liver where it is converted to fat.”

A trade group representing HFCS producers, the Corn Refiners Association, has adamantly claimed that there is only a negligible difference between HFCS and natural sugar, sucrose, which is composed of equal amounts fructose and glucose. According to Goran’s recent beverage analysis, the drinks made with HFCS were comprised of a 60 to 40 fructose to glucose ratio. This is a much different ratio than is found in natural sugar, which challenges the industry’s claim that “sugar is sugar.”

Another disturbing discovery from the team revealed that the product labels on some drinks are not accurately disclosing the fructose content. For example, Pepsi Throwback is labeled as containing natural sugar, but the analysis by Goran’s team found that it contained more than 50 percent fructose. Other drinks such as Sierra Mist, Gatorade and Mexican Coca-Cola all contain higher fructose concentrations than implied by their labeling. These findings indicate that these drinks do not disclose the HFCS that is probably used in production.

In this study, the team purchased drinks for analysis based on the product popularity. Sugar composition for each beverage was analyzed in three different laboratories using three different methods. Across all the different methods, results consistently found that the average sugar composition of drinks containing HFCS was 60 percent fructose and 40 percent glucose.

Over the last three decades, Americans doubled their consumption of HFCS and consume more per capita of the sugary concoction than any other nation. In the same period of time, American diabetes rates have tripled. A great portion of this increase is attributed to the mass consumption of soda, sports drinks and energy drinks.

“Given that Americans drink 45 gallons of soda a year, it’s important for us to have a more accurate understanding of what we’re actually drinking, including specific label information on the types of sugars,” said Goran.

This study was published online in the journal Nutrition.

American Academy of Neurology
New research suggests that high blood pressure in middle age plays a critical role in whether blood pressure in old age may affect memory and thinking. The study is published in the June 4, 2014, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
“Our findings bring new insight into the relationship between a history of high blood pressure, blood pressure in old age, the effects of blood pressure on brain structure, and memory and thinking,” said study author Lenore J. Launer, PhD, of the National Institute on Aging in Bethesda, Md., and a member of the American Academy of Neurology.
For the study, 4,057 older participants free of dementia had their blood pressure measured in middle-age, (average age of 50). In late life (an average age of 76) their blood pressure was remeasured and participants underwent MRIs that looked at structure and damage to the small vessels in the brain. They also took tests that measured their memory and thinking ability.
The study found that the association of blood pressure in old age to brain measures depended on a history of blood pressure in middle age. Higher systolic (the top number on the measure of blood pressure) and diastolic (the bottom number on the measure of blood pressure) blood pressure were associated with increased risk of brain lesions and tiny brain bleeds. This was most noticeable in people without a history of high blood pressure in middle age. For example, people with no history of high blood pressure in middle age who had high diastolic blood pressure in old age were 50 percent more likely to have severe brain lesions than people with low diastolic blood pressure in old age.
However, in people with a history of high blood pressure in middle age, lower diastolic blood pressure in older age was associated with smaller total brain and gray matter volumes. This finding was reflected in memory and thinking performance measures as well. In people with high blood pressure in middle age, lower diastolic blood pressure was associated with 10 percent lower memory scores.
“Older people without a history of high blood pressure but who currently have high blood pressure are at an increased risk for brain lesions, suggesting that lowering of blood pressure in these participants might be beneficial. On the other hand, older people with a history of high blood pressure but who currently have lower blood pressure might have more extensive organ damage and are at risk of brain shrinkage and memory and thinking problems,” said Launer.

Gerard LeBlond for www.redorbit.com – Your Universe Online

Physically fit children are not only healthier, they have faster and more robust neuro-electrical brain responses while reading, according to a new study by researchers from the University of Illinois. The findings were published in the Brain and Cognition journal.

Although the research doesn’t prove that higher fitness directly effects the changes in the electrical activity in the brain, it does offer a mechanism to explain why physical fitness associates closely with improved cognitive performance with a variety of tasks and language skills.

The difference between physically fit children and unfit children is that better language skills are obtained with children that are fit. The study also revealed no difference while the child was reading correct sentences or ones with errors.

“All we know is there is something different about higher and lower fit kids,” said University of Illinois kinesiology and community health professor Charles Hillman, who led the research with graduate student Mark Scudder and psychology professor Kara Federmeier. “Now whether that difference is caused by fitness or maybe some third variable that (affects) both fitness and language processing, we don’t know yet.”

The research consisted of using electroencephalography (EEG), placing an electrode cap on the head of the participant to capture the electrical impulses in the brain. The data was transferred to a readout which resembles the seismic readings during an earthquake. These lines are associated with different tasks performed by the person.

Event-related potentials (ERPs) is what these line patterns are called and vary with each person being evaluated. There are two brain waveforms — the N400 is associated with processing the meaning of words while reading a sentence and the P600 is associated with the grammatical rules of a sentence. For the study, these two waveforms were evaluated.

“We focused on the N400 because it is associated with the processing of the meaning of a word. Previous reports have shown that greater N400 amplitude is seen in higher-ability readers,” Scudder said.

“And then we also looked at another ERP, the P600, which is associated with the grammatical rules of a sentence,” Federmeier added.

By evaluating these two waveforms, the findings showed that children who were more physically fit (taking in more oxygen while exercising) had higher N400 and P600 readings than the lesser-fit children while reading normal sentences, signifying they processed the information more quickly, leading the researchers to believe it improves reading performance and language comprehension.

Compared to previous studies, “our study shows that the brain function of higher fit kids is different, in the sense that they appear to be able to better allocate resources in the brain towards aspects of cognition that support reading comprehension,” Hillman said.

More research needs to be done, according to Hillman, but the new study does show a link between fitness and healthy brain function.

Previous studies with children and adults, “have repeatedly demonstrated an effect of increases in either physical activity in one’s lifestyle or improvements in aerobic fitness, and the implications of those health behaviors for brain structure, brain function and cognitive performance,” Hillman concluded.

Alan McStravick for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

It cannot be argued that in the last decade we have been spending more time looking at our phones, tablets and computers than ever before. Back in 2010, the Harvard Medical School began sounding the alarm about the potential hazards of blue light, the hue of light emitted by our electronic devices and energy-efficient light bulbs, and how it may be detrimental to our health, especially as the sun sets and we move from day into night.

Blue light, the publication contends, has the ability to affect our circadian rhythm causing poor and diminished sleep. Even worse, they say, blue light could be a significant contributor to ill health in the forms of heart disease, diabetes, cancer and obesity.

Cutting out all blue light is not necessarily recommended, however, as during daylight hours, it aids in boosting our attention, reaction times and mood. At night, however, increased attention brought on by blue wavelengths can suppress the secretion of melatonin, a hormone that influences our circadian rhythm. As of 2010, there was at least some evidence that diminished levels of melatonin could explain the association with diagnoses of cancer.

A separate Harvard study also examined the links between blue wavelengths of light and the onset of diabetes and obesity. A cohort of 10 participants was placed on a gradually changing schedule which shifted the timing of their circadian rhythms. The researchers noted an increase in blood sugar levels to such a degree that it placed the participants into a pre-diabetic state. Additionally, the participants leptin levels, a hormone associated with the feeling of fullness, decreased as well.

All of the Harvard research preceded a new study that builds on the idea of hunger and metabolism manipulation as a result of exposure to blue-enriched light. Researchers at Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois have determined that with just 15 minutes of exposure to blue light prior to mealtime there is an increase in the sensation of hunger that remains for a full two hours after the completion of the meal. They also detected the same lack of sleeplessness and increased insulin resistance noted in previous studies.

“It was very interesting to observe that a single three-hour exposure to blue-enriched light in the evening acutely impacted hunger and glucose metabolism,” said study co-author Ivy Cheung, a doctoral candidate in the Interdepartmental Neuroscience program at the university. “These results are important because they suggest that manipulating environmental light exposure for humans may represent a novel approach of influencing food intake patterns and metabolism.”

Like the Harvard study noted above, the Northwestern University study consisted of a cohort of 10 healthy adult participants who presented regular sleep and eating schedules. During the course of the study they received identical carbohydrate-rich isocaloric meals. Over four days of the study, they were subjected to dim-light conditions on days one and two. Dim-light conditions refers to having been exposed to less than 20 lux during 16 hours awake and less than 3 lux during eight hours of sleep. Beginning on day three, the light exposure was increased to 260 lux, blue-enriched light for three hours. The effects of the increased lux exposure was compared to the conditions experienced on day two.

According to Cheung, further research is needed to determine the mechanisms of action involved in the relationship between light exposure, hunger and metabolism.

With the growing prevalence of energy-efficient lighting, including compact fluorescent light bulbs, it may seem that we are technologically advancing ourselves to ill health. Experts recommend a few keys to combating prolonged exposure to blue wavelengths such as:

– Use dim red lights in the evening. Red light has the least power to shift circadian rhythm and suppress melatonin.

– Avoid looking at bright screens beginning two to three hours before bed.

– Graveyard shifters are urged to invest in blue-blocking glasses (approx. $80)

– Seek prolonged exposure to bright light during the day to help facilitate sleep in the evening.

– Seek out software products for your devices that automatically shift your screens light to a diminished amount of blue light as the evening progresses. F.lux is one provider of blue-blocking software available.

Results of the study, having already been published online in the journal SLEEP, will be formally presented at this year’s SLEEP 2014 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This year’s conference marks the 28th annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, LLC.

Gerard LeBlond for www.redorbit.com – Your Universe Online
Researchers from the University of Edinburgh Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology have found that people who speak two or more languages have long-lasting benefits to their brain health.
As part of the Lifelong Health and Wellbeing Initiative, the study found that knowing more than one language helps brain health by slowing down cognitive decline from aging even if they acquired the second language in adulthood. It is also believed to delay dementia in older adults.
The findings of the study are published in the Annals of Neurology.
Previous research on studying the impact of learning more than one language has proven difficult. The focus is on whether individuals who learn a new language improve their cognitive functions or those who have an improved cognitive baseline have a better chance of becoming bilingual.
“Our study is the first to examine whether learning a second language impacts cognitive performance later in life while controlling for childhood intelligence,” said lead author Dr. Thomas Bak from the Centre for Cognitive Aging and Cognitive Epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh. “These findings are of considerable relevance,” Bak added.
The researchers used previous data acquired from the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936, which used 835 individuals living in Edinburgh, Scotland who natively spoke English. They were given an intelligence test at the age of 11 in 1947. Between 2008 and 2010 while they were in their early 70s, they were retested. Of them, 262 had learned one or more languages — 195 learned a second language before they were 18 years of age; the other 65 participants learned the second language after they were 18. No negative effects were found in any group who were bilingual.
The results indicated that the individuals who were bilingual had significantly improved cognitive functions, especially in general intelligence and reading. It was also found that it didn’t matter when the second language was acquired, even in those who learned their second language later in life — they all had the same improved cognitive effect.
“The Lothian Birth Cohort offers a unique opportunity to study the interaction between bilingualism and cognitive aging, taking into account the cognitive abilities predating the acquisition of a second language. These findings are of considerable practical relevance. Millions of people around the world acquire their second language later in life. Our study shows that bilingualism, even when acquired in adulthood, may benefit the aging brain,” Bak concluded.
“The epidemiological study by Dr. Bak and colleagues provides an important first step in understanding the impact of learning a second language and the aging brain. This research paves the way for future causal studies of bilingualism and cognitive decline prevention,” Dr. Alvaro Pascual-Leone, an Associate Editor for Annals of Neurology and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts said after reviewing the study.

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports – Your Universe Online
Consuming white bread instead of whole-grain bread could increase a person’s chances of becoming overweight or obese, according to new research presented last week as part of the 21st annual European Congress on Obesity (ECO 2014) in Sofia, Bulgaria.
The study’s author, nutritional expert and University of Navarra professor Miguel Martinez-Gonzalez, studied the eating habits of over 9,000 Spanish university graduates to gauge the impact of bread type in a culture where it is a dietary staple. He had each participant complete a 136-item food questionnaire, and then continued monitoring them for a five-year period.
According to UPI reporter Alex Cukan, he found that those who consumed at least three slices of white bread per day were 40 percent more likely to pack on extra weight than those who only ate one portion each week, and that mixing white and whole-grain bread did not increase obesity risk.
Martinez-Gonzalez told Rebecca Smith, Medical Editor for The Telegraph, that whole-grain bread consumption was not associated with obesity. Likewise, he said that no link was found between weight gain and whole-grain bread consumption, because the products contain dietary fiber and complex carbohydrates that make people feel as though they are full for longer periods of time.
“Refined grains such as white bread start to taste sweet in the mouth almost as soon as you eat it. That is the starch being broken down into sugar. It is this feeling that leaves you wanting more,” he told Smith. “When white bread is a staple food, eating at one or two main meals a day then this is a lot of extra calories on a daily basis.”
In an interview with of The Independent’s Charlie Cooper, Martinez-Gonzalez added that the eating white bread “is equivalent to a high consumption of sugar,” that the process is similar to what occurs with soft drinks, as “their sugars are rapidly transformed into fat an organism [sic].”
White bread loses fiber during the refining process, which is part of the reason that medical experts have been debating the nutritional value of white break for several years. Cooper noted that scientists have suggested that there is a link between diets high in white bread consumption and an elevated risk of cardiovascular disease.
When asked about the study by the Daily Mail, Professor Jason Halford, chairman of the UK Association for the Study of Obesity, said: “I would say white bread is a concern because it is generally lower in useful nutrients such as fiber and it can contain added sugar and sometimes contains higher levels of salt.”
“The message is clear, go for whole grains instead of white bread when eating your meals,” Martinez-Gonzalez told The Telegraph. He added that the general trend suggested that consuming whole-grain could help combat weight gain, since it not only contained additional fiber and was broken-down and absorbed more slowly, but it also contains more vitamins and minerals than white bread.

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports – Your Universe Online

Giving infants and toddlers vegetables on a regular basis before they reach the age of two will help them develop a taste for greens and other types of produce, experts from the University of Leeds report in a new PLOS ONE study.

According to Sarah Knapton of The Telegraph, youngsters are more willing to try different types of vegetables during the first 24 months of their lives, and become more resistant to trying new foods as they grow older. The study also found that children grew fonder of different foods if they were offered them more frequently.

Lead researcher Professor Marion Hetherington of the university’s Institute of Psychological Sciences and her colleagues also found that it was unnecessary to sweeten vegetables to mask the taste and/or attempt to sneak them into an unsuspecting child’s meal.

“For parents who wish to encourage healthy eating in their children, our research offers some valuable guidance,” she said in a statement. “If you want to encourage your children to eat vegetables, make sure you start early and often. Even if your child is fussy or does not like veggies, our study shows that 5-10 exposures will do the trick.”

As part of their experiment, the researchers gave artichoke puree to 332 European children between the ages of four and 38 months. Each youngster was provided with between five and 10 servings of at least 100g of the puree in one of three varieties: basic, sweetened with sugar, or mixed with vegetable oil for additional energy.

Twenty percent of the children cleaned their plates, while 40 percent of them grew to like artichoke, according to BBC News. Overall, the researchers found that the younger children consumed more artichoke than the older study participants, reportedly because children become reluctant to try new foods and are more likely to even reject ones that they previously enjoyed after the age of two.

Hetherington’s team observed that four distinct groups emerged during their investigation. Most of the children (40 percent) were dubbed “learners” and increased their artichoke consumption over time. Of that group, 21 percent ate at least three-fourths of what they were offered each time, and became known as the “plate-cleaners.”

Those youngsters consuming less than 10 grams of the puree through the fifth helping were categorized as “non-eaters” and represented 16 percent of the group, and the remaining 23 percent were classified as “others” because their pattern of intake tended to vary over time.

“The age of child is key when introducing novel foods,” the authors wrote. “Age predicted initial intake of the novel vegetable both pre-intervention and during the initial exposure of the intervention period, with younger children consuming more compared to older children. Plate-clearers were also younger and less fussy whilst older children ate less consistently, were more likely to be non-eaters and were fussier compared to younger children.”

“Successful repeated exposure is dependent upon tasting even small amounts of the target food. Thus, repeated exposure is more likely to be effective at a time when most tastes are easily accepted, namely the weaning period,” they added. “The first year of life presents a window of opportunity before the onset of food neophobia, which then peaks around 2-6 years, thus introducing novel foods such as different vegetables is optimal earlier rather than later.”

Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

Ahead of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) conference, which is slated for later this year, the UN’s health arm is using World No Tobacco Day to call on countries to raise taxes on tobacco products.

The tobacco epidemic results in six million deaths annually across the globe, of which more than 600,000 are non-smokers who die from breathing in the toxic second-hand smoke of cigarette users. Unless we act now, the epidemic will kill more than eight million people each year by 2030. Furthermore, more than 80 percent of these preventable deaths will occur in low- and middle-income countries, according to WHO data.

WHO’s FCTC maintains that countries should implement tax and price policies on tobacco products as a way to reduce tobacco use. Previous research has shown that higher taxes are effective in reducing tobacco use among lower-income groups and in preventing people from picking up the habit to begin with.

Increasing taxes on tobacco prices by just 10 percent decreases tobacco consumption by about four percent in high-income countries and by up to eight percent in low- and middle-income countries, according to WHO. Furthermore, increasing excise taxes on tobacco would be the most cost-effective tobacco control measure.

The World Health Report 2010 determined that a 50 percent increase in tobacco excise taxes would generate more than $1.4 billion (US) in additional funds in 22 low-income countries. If those funds were allocated to the health sector, government health spending in these countries could increase by as much as 50 percent.

WHO is not only looking to raise taxes on tobacco products, but is also championing the change of view on electronic cigarettes.

In an earlier report, WHO director-general Margaret Chan told an FCTC committee hearing that electronic cigarettes should be considered the same a regular tobacco products, stating they are no less dangerous than traditional cigarettes. The goal of that proposal is also to raise taxes on e-cigarettes and SNUs.

However, a leaked document from that hearing made its way into public eyes and subsequently a group of 53 leading scientists from around the world sent a signed letter to Chan, asking her and her agency to not classify electronic cigarettes the same as regular ones as these products are part of the solution to reducing death and disease, rather than part of the problem.

Currently, WHO and FCTC do not differentiate between the risks of different nicotine products. By applying FCTC measures to e-cigarettes, they would fall under the same category as tobacco products and likely result in advertising bans, smoke-free legislation and higher taxes and health warnings, reducing their use as a safer alternative to cigarettes.

“If the WHO gets its way and extinguishes e-cigarettes, it will not only have passed up what is clearly one of the biggest public health innovations of the last three decades that could potentially save millions of lives, but it will have abrogated its own responsibility under its own charter to empower consumers to take control of their own health, something which they are already doing themselves in their millions,” Professor Gerry Stimson, Emeritus Professor at the Imperial College in London, a signatory to the letter, and organizer of the upcoming Global Forum on Nicotine, said in statement.

The group of signatories said in that letter to Chan that electronic cigarettes could help prevent much of the cancer, heart and lung disease and strokes caused by the toxins found in traditional cigarettes. These e-cigarettes “could be among the most significant health innovations of the 21st century, perhaps saving hundreds of millions of lives,” the group said, according to AFP.

A recent study of nearly 6,000 people who quit smoking in England between 2009 and 2014 found they were 60 times more likely to succeed using e-cigarettes than using nicotine patches or gum, or even going cold turkey.

However, another study published in JAMA in March said that e-cigarettes “did not significantly predict quitting one year later.”

In the US, legislation has already worked its magic against electronic smokers, adding health warning labels and enforcing minimum age limits on the next-gen nicotine sticks. Even New York banned them from restaurants, bars, parks, beaches, and other public places.

Perhaps causing another setback for e-cigarettes is a recent finding that e-cigarette smokers provide a visual stimulant to other traditional smokers, giving them the urge to smoke as well.

That study found that in a controlled setting those who observe e-cigarette use have an increased urge to light up their own traditional cigarettes, revealing that the elevated desire to smoke is just as intense when observing e-cigarette use as when observing combustible cigarette use.

“E-cigarette use has increased dramatically over the past few years, so observations and passive exposure will no doubt increase as well,” said Andrea King, PhD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience at the University of Chicago, in a recent statement. “It’s important to note that there could be effects of being in the company of an e-cigarette user, particularly for young smokers. For example, it’s possible that seeing e-cigarette use may promote more smoking behavior and less quitting.”

It will be studies like this one that may give electronic cigarettes a bad reputation, and spoil efforts by scientists, doctors and other health officials trying to tout their use as a life saver rather than a killer.

Such explanations will unlikely gain traction as WHO and FCTC continue to champion the demise of e-cigarettes. And with World No Tobacco Day around the corner – May 31 – the UN health body will likely not waver from its stance anytime soon.

“The ultimate goal of World No Tobacco Day is to contribute to protecting present and future generations not only from the devastating health consequences due to tobacco, but also from the social, environmental and economic scourges of tobacco use and exposure to tobacco smoke,” WHO wrote in a statement.

The specific goals of the 2014 campaign are that governments increase taxes on tobacco to reduce its consumption and for individuals and civil society organizations to encourage governments to increase taxes on tobacco products.

“Every year, on 31 May, WHO and partners everywhere mark World No Tobacco Day, highlighting the health risks associated with tobacco use and advocating for effective policies to reduce tobacco consumption. Tobacco use is the single most preventable cause of death globally and is currently responsible for 10 percent of adult deaths worldwide,” the WHO statement concluded.

April Flowers for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

Transportation, no matter what mode you use, is part of our daily lives. We ride our bikes for exercise, ride the train or bus to work, or drive our cars on vacation. Researchers at Clemson University wanted to know how our different modes of transportation affect our moods, and which would make us the happiest.

The study, published in the journal Transportation, examined how emotions like happiness, pain, stress, sadness and fatigue vary during travel and by travel mode.

Data collected by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics as part of the American Time Use Survey was analyzed by the research team to determine the average mood felt by people using different modes of travel.

[ Watch the Video: Do Bikes Make You Happier? ]

“We found that people are in the best mood while they are bicycling compared to any other mode of transportation,” said Eric Morris, assistant professor in Clemson’s planning, development and preservation department, in a statement.

Cyclists, on the whole, tend to be a self-selected group who are very enthusiastic about their mode of transportation, according to Morris. The study found bicycle users were the happiest.

“Bicyclists are generally younger and physically healthy, which are traits that happier people usually possess,” he said.

Car passengers are the next happiest, according to the findings, followed by car drivers. The most negative emotions were expressed by bus and train riders. Morris cautions that part of this negativity can be attributed to the fact that mass transit is disproportionately used for commuting to and from work.

The researchers say that their findings show positive implications for bicycles beyond the typically cited health and transportation ones. They suggest that improving the emotional experience of transit riders could be as important as improving traditional service features, such as headways and travel speeds.

“Understanding the relationship between how we travel and how we feel offers insight into ways of improving existing transportation services, prioritizing investments and theorizing and modeling the costs and benefits of travel,” said Morris.

University of Liverpool

Research by the University of Liverpool has found that eating prunes as part of a weight control diet can improve weight loss.

Consumption of dried fruit is not readily recommended during weight loss despite evidence it enhances feelings of fullness.

Low fiber consumers

However, a study by the University’s Institute of Psychology, Health and Society of 100 overweight and obese low fiber consumers tested whether eating prunes as part of a weight loss diet helped or hindered weight control over a 12-week period.

It also examined if low fiber consumers could tolerate eating substantial numbers of prunes in their diet, and if eating prunes had a beneficial effect on appetite.

To assess the effects of prunes on weight and appetite, participants in the study were divided into two groups – those who ate prunes every day (140g a day for women and 171g a day for men) and those who were given advice on healthy snacks over the period of active weight loss.

The researchers found that members of the group which ate prunes as part of a healthy life-style diet lost 2kg in weight and shed 2.5cm off their waists. However, the people in the group which was given advice on healthy snacks lost only 1.5kg in weight and 1.7cm from their waists.

The study also found that the prune eaters experienced greater weight loss during the last four weeks of the study. After week eight, participants showed increased feelings of fullness in the prune group. Moreover, despite the high daily doses, prunes were well tolerated.

Useful and convenient addition

Liverpool psychologist, Dr Jo Harrold who led the research, said: “These are the first data to demonstrate both weight loss and no negative side effects when consuming prunes as part of a weight management diet. Indeed in the long term they may be beneficial to dieters by tackling hunger and satisfying appetite; a major challenge when you are trying to maintain weight loss.”

Professor Jason Halford, Professor of Experimental Psychology and Director of the University’s Human Ingestive Behaviour Laboratory, added: “Maintaining a healthy diet is challenging. Along with fresh fruit and vegetables, dried fruit can provide a useful and convenient addition to the diet, especially as controlling appetite during dieting can be tough.”

The research was presented at the European Congress on Obesity in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Johns Hopkins Medicine

Important resource for speeding research and diagnostic development

Striving for the protein equivalent of the Human Genome Project, an international team of researchers has created an initial catalog of the human “proteome,” or all of the proteins in the human body. In total, using 30 different human tissues, the team identified proteins encoded by 17,294 genes, which is about 84 percent of all of the genes in the human genome predicted to encode proteins.

In a summary of the effort, to be published May 29 in the journal Nature, the team also reports the identification of 193 novel proteins that came from regions of the genome not predicted to code for proteins, suggesting that the human genome is more complex than previously thought. The cataloging project, led by researchers at The Johns Hopkins University and the Institute of Bioinformatics in Bangalore, India, should prove an important resource for biological research and medical diagnostics, according to the team’s leaders.

“You can think of the human body as a huge library where each protein is a book,” says Akhilesh Pandey, M.D., Ph.D., a professor at the McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine and of biological chemistry, pathology and oncology at The Johns Hopkins University and the founder and director of the Institute of Bioinformatics. “The difficulty is that we don’t have a comprehensive catalog that gives us the titles of the available books and where to find them. We think we now have a good first draft of that comprehensive catalog.”

While genes determine many of the characteristics of an organism, they do so by providing instructions for making proteins, the building blocks and workhorses of cells, and therefore of tissues and organs. For this reason, many investigators consider a catalog of human proteins — and their location within the body — to be even more instructive and useful than the catalog of genes in the human genome.

Studying proteins is far more technically challenging than studying genes, Pandey notes, because the structures and functions of proteins are complex and diverse. And a mere list of existing proteins would not be very helpful without accompanying information about where in the body those proteins are found. Therefore, most protein studies to date have focused on individual tissues, often in the context of specific diseases, he adds.

To achieve a more comprehensive survey of the proteome, the research team began by taking samples of 30 tissues, extracting their proteins and using enzymes like chemical scissors to cut them into smaller pieces, called peptides. They then ran the peptides through a series of instruments designed to deduce their identity and measure their relative abundance.

“By generating a comprehensive human protein dataset, we have made it easier for other researchers to identify the proteins in their experiments,” says Pandey. “We believe our data will become the gold standard in the field, especially because they were all generated using uniform methods and analysis, and state-of-the-art machines.”

Among the proteins whose data patterns have been characterized for the first time are many that were never predicted to exist. (Within the genome, in addition to the DNA sequences that encode proteins, there are stretches of DNA whose sequences do not follow a conventional protein-coding gene pattern and have therefore been labeled “noncoding.”) The team’s most unexpected finding was that 193 of the proteins they identified could be traced back to these supposedly noncoding regions of DNA.

“This was the most exciting part of this study, finding further complexities in the genome,” says Pandey. “The fact that 193 of the proteins came from DNA sequences predicted to be noncoding means that we don’t fully understand how cells read DNA, because clearly those sequences do code for proteins.”

Pandey believes that the human proteome is so extensive and complex that researchers’ catalog of it will never be fully complete, but this work provides a solid foundation that others can reliably build upon.