Walnuts help prevent Alzheimer disease

The study was published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.

Having a walnut-enriched diet every day may help reduce the risk, delay the onset, slow the progression of, or prevent Alzheimer's disease all together, found a study led by an Indian-origin researcher.

"study adds to the growing body of research that demonstrates the protective effects of walnuts on cognitive functioning," said Abha Chauhan from the New York State Institute for Basic Research in Developmental Disabilities (IBR).

The research group examined the effects of dietary supplementation on mice with six percent and nine percent walnuts, that is equivalent to one ounce (28.3 gram) and 1.5 ounces (42.5 gram) per day, respectively.

The researchers found significant improvement in learning skills, memory, reducing anxiety and motor development in mice fed a walnut-enriched diet.

Oxidative stress and inflammation are prominent features in the disease.

The high antioxidant content of walnuts (3.7 mmol/ounce) may have been a contributing factor in protecting the mouse's brain from the degeneration typically seen in Alzheimer's disease, the researchers suggested.

This research stemmed from a previous cell culture study led by Chauhan that highlighted the protective effects of walnut extract against the oxidative damage caused by amyloid beta protein.

"These findings are very promising and could help lay the groundwork for future human studies on walnuts and Alzheimer's disease - a disease for which there is no known cure," Chauhan added.

The protein is the major component of amyloid plaques that form in the brains of those with Alzheimer's disease.

Lung cancer can stay hidden for over 20 years

A new U.K. study reveals that lung cancer can remain inactive for almost 20 years before suddenly appearing as an aggressive form of the disease.
Lung cancers can lie dormant for over 20 years before suddenly turning into an aggressive form of the disease, according to a study published Thursday in the U.S. journal Science.

Lung cancer is known as the leading type of deadly cancer among U.S. men and women, and the second most common cancer diagnosed in the U.S. Cigarette smoking is listed as the leading cause of lung cancer, which can also be caused by using other types of tobacco. The American Cancer Society estimates that in the United States, for the year 2014, there will be about 224,210 new cases of lung cancer and nearly 159,260 deaths from it. This disease accounts for 27 percent of all cancer deaths.

The latest study, conducted by the Cancer Research UK's London Research Institute and the UCL Cancer Institute, found that lung cancer can remain hidden for over 20 years. This was based on the study conducted on lung cancers from seven patients that included smokers, ex-smokers and never smokers.

The researchers hoped this study will help improve early detection of the disease.

Professor Nic Jones, Cancer Research UK's chief scientist, said: "This fascinating research highlights the need to find better ways to detect lung cancer earlier when it's still following just one evolutionary path. If we can nip the disease in the bud and treat it before it has started travelling down different evolutionary routes we could make a real difference in helping more people survive the disease..."

It was noticed that after the first genetic mistake that triggered cancer, it can continue to exist undetected for several years until the novel additional defect triggers the rapid growth of the disease. It is during this expansion a sudden gush of different genetic faults that appear in separate region of the tumors. Each of the different sections comes from various paths indicating that every part of the tumor is genetically unique.

This study shows the need for advanced method to detect the disease earlier. Nearly two-thirds of the patients are being diagnosed with advanced form of cancers during which treatment is not successful. Based on this finding, the researchers hope for some improvement in the early detection of the disease.

Study author Professor Charles Swanton, at Cancer Research UK's London Research Institute and the UCL Cancer Institute, said: "Survival from lung cancer remains devastatingly low with many new targeted treatments making a limited impact on the disease. By understanding how it develops we've opened up the disease's evolutionary rule book in the hope that we can start to predict its next steps."

The finding was documented in Science today.

Insomnia related to sleep quality and not duration

Insomnia among older adults may be tied to sleep quality, and not sleep duration, according to a new study.

Researchers at the University of Chicago found that sleep problems may stem from the quality of rest and other health concerns more than the overall amount of sleep that patients get.

An estimated 30 per cent of adults report having some symptoms of insomnia, which includes difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep or waking up too early and then not feeling well rested during the daytime, researchers said.

The study used data from 727 participants in the National Social Life, Health and Aging Project in the US who were randomly invited to participate in an "Activity and Sleep Study."

The activity and sleep study had two components: a self-administered sleep booklet, which included questions about the person's sleep experience, (eg, "how often do you feel really rested when you wake up in the morning?") and 72-hours of wrist actigraphy, which is a wristwatch-like sensor that monitors sleep patterns and movements.

The actigraph measurements showed that most of the older adults got sufficient amounts of sleep.

Even though reported sleep problems are common among older individuals, according to the survey only about 13 per cent of older adults in the study said that they rarely or never feel rested when waking up in the morning.

About 12 per cent reported often having trouble falling asleep, 30 per cent indicated they regularly had problems with waking up during the night and 13 per cent reported problems with waking up too early and not being able to fall asleep again most of the time.

The actigraph provided data that showed the average duration of sleep period among the study participants was 7.9 hours and the average total sleep time was 7.25 hours.

Linda Waite, an author on the study, said this indicates that the majority of older adults are getting the recommended amount of sleep and usually not having common sleep problems.

Researchers also found that respondents who reported waking up more frequently during the night had more total sleep time.

"This suggests that a question about feeling rested may tap into other aspects of older adults' everyday health or psychological experience," said Waite.

"Our findings suggest that reports of what seem like specific sleep problems from survey questions may be more accurately viewed as indicators of general problems or dissatisfaction with sleep that may

According to Study Dietary Supplements May Cause Liver Damage

Dietary supplements have grown remarkably popular in the last few years. They may help with weight-management but their side effects remain highly debatable. According to a new study published in the journal Hepatology, liver damage caused by herbals and dietary supplements have increased from 7 percent to almost 20 percent in the United States in the last 10 years.

Dr. Victor Navarro from Einstein Medical Centre in Philadelphia said, "While many Americans believe supplements to be safe, government require less safety evidence to market products than what is required for conventional pharmaceuticals. With less stringent oversight for herbals and dietary supplements, there is greater potential for harmful consequences including life-threatening conditions."

The new study examined 839 patients in the federally supported Drug-Induced Liver Injury Network who had liver damage between 2004 and 2013. Forty-five cases were caused by bodybuilding supplements, 85 by non- body-building supplements and 709 by medications.
Liver injury due to non-bodybuilding supplements is most severe when compared with injury due to body-building supplements or conventional medications. It may even require the need for transplantation and can also be fatal.

The team concluded that bodybuilding supplements caused prolonged jaundice in young men but no fatalities or liver trans-plantations occurred. However, the team also noted that they couldn't say that the results applied to the whole of the U.S. population. More research is needed, but the public needs to be cautious before taking any dietary supplements.

Egg yolk is good for you some facts

Ditching the egg-yolk has always been an ideal option for the weight-obsessed. But why boycott the most delicious part of an egg when research says you should embrace it.

You might think yolks are high in fat and cholesterol but scientists believe their role in raising cholesterol levels is minimal and in fact they're the most nutritious part of an egg. According to nutrition coach Liz Wolfe, NTP and author of 'Eat The Yolks', whole eggs don't raise the risk of heart disease and in fact, it may be worse for your health to not eat the egg yolk. (As reported in huffingtonpost.com)

Previous Claims
Egg yolks, along with other sources of saturated fat and cholesterol, came under fire in the wake of research by Nikolai Anichkov at the turn of the 20th century. Anichkov fed rabbits pure cholesterol and found that their arteries clogged up with plaque. This lead him to believe that cholesterol triggers heart disease and since then there have been many questions raised about the relationship between the two. Wolfe counters this result by saying that, "Rabbits have nothing in common with human bodies... and cholesterol isn't part of their diet anyway."

Researcher Ancel Keys made headlines in the 1950s with his Seven Countries' Study, which almost single-handedly set the line of thinking on saturated fat that prevails today. Keys claimed that after looking at the average diets of populations in seven different countries, he was able to determine that those who ate the maximum amount of animal fat had the highest rates of heart disease. But his analysis was flawed.

Although Keys' data did show a connection between fat and heart disease, he couldn't demonstrate that the relationship was causal. Furthermore, while mortality rates for heart disease were higher in the countries that consumed the most animal fat, deaths from nearly ever other cause were lower - and overall life expectancy was higher.

The New Facts
In 2010, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published a meta-analysis - the collected findings of 21 different studies - which stated that "saturated fat was not associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease, stroke or coronary vascular disease".

Earlier this year, Time magazine reversed the argument it made in a 1984 cover story claiming eggs and other high-fat foods were dangerous.

What's So Great About Egg Yolks
Besides its great taste, egg yolks are power packed with amazing health benefits. Wolfe suggests the real cause of heart disease lies in the inflammation caused by "chronic stress levels and the over-consumption of vegetable oils and processed carbohydrates." According to Wolfe, egg yolks are "a great source of vitamin A, which is good for skin, B vitamins for energy and choline, which also supports brain health, muscles and is necessary for a healthy pregnancy".

The saturated fat in yolks is also necessary for hormone production and the body's absorption of vitamins and minerals. If you control your overall calories, whole egg consumption won't cause weight gain, despite its fat content.

Antiperspirants actually make you smell worse

The study is conducted by researchers at the University of Ghent in Belgium. For the study, the researchers asked eight test subjects not to use deodorant or antiperspirant for a month.

Another subject who was not a regular deodorant user was asked to use it regularly for a month. The researchers selected the timeframe on one month because a new layer of skin is formed in around 28 days.

The researchers tested the armpit bacterial community of each subject at the start and the end of the month and found out that the ecosystem of each armpit ecosystem had been altered after one month.

The study showed that the use of antiperspirant was linked to an increase in Actinobacteria, the 'bad' type of armpit bacteria that instigate noxious armpit odour.

Lead author Chris Callewaert said the presence of the aluminium compounds in antiperspirants is to be blamed for this.

He added that these compounds can block pores to prevent sweating by killing off "good" bacteria. According to Callewaert, this allows Actinobacteria to dominate.

The results were published in the journal Archives of Dermatological Research.