Artificial sweeteners may alters body blood sugar controls

Scientists have found that artificial sweeteners alter the microbiome, the population of bacteria that is in the digestive system.

Artificial sweeteners may disrupt the body’s ability to regulate blood sugar, causing metabolic changes that can be a precursor to diabetes, researchers are reporting.

That is “the very same condition that we often aim to prevent” by consuming sweeteners instead of sugar, said Dr Eran Elinav, an immunologist at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, at a news conference to discuss the findings.

The scientists performed a multitude of experiments, mostly on mice, to back up their assertion that the sweeteners alter the microbiome, the population of bacteria that is in the digestive system.

The different mix of microbes, the researchers contend, changes the metabolism of glucose, causing levels to rise higher after eating and to decline more slowly than they would.

The findings by Dr Elinav and his collaborators in Israel, including Eran Segal, a professor of computer science and applied mathematics at Weizmann, were published in September by the journal Nature.

Cathryn R Nagler, a professor of pathology at the University of Chicago who was not involved with the research but did write an accompanying commentary in Nature, called the results “very compelling.”

She noted that many conditions, including obesity and diabetes, had been linked to changes in the microbiome. “What the study suggests,” she said, “is we should step back and reassess our extensive use of artificial sweeteners.”

Previous studies on the health effects of artificial sweeteners have come to conflicting and confusing findings. Some found that they were associated with weight loss; others found the exact opposite, that people who drank diet soda actually weighed more.

Some found a correlation between artificial sweeteners and diabetes, but those findings were not entirely convincing: Those who switch to the products may already be overweight and prone to the disease.

While acknowledging that it is too early for broad or definitive conclusions, Dr Elinav said he had already changed his own behavior.

“I’ve consumed huge amounts of coffee, and extensively used sweeteners, thinking like many other people that they are at least not harmful to me and perhaps even beneficial,” he said. “Given the surprising results that we got in our study, I made a personal preference to stop using them.

“We don’t think the body of evidence that we present in humans is sufficient to change the current recommendations,” he continued. “But I would hope it would provoke a healthy discussion.”

In the initial set of experiments, the scientists added saccharin (the sweetener in the pink packets of Sweet’N

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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

olive oil Healthy fat may repair failing hearts

Oleate, a common dietary fat found in olive oil, may help restore proper metabolism of fuel that gets disturbed in case of heart failure, a study suggests.

“This gives more proof to the idea that consuming healthy fats like oleate can have a significantly positive effect on cardiac health even after the disease has begun,” said senior study author E. Douglas Lewandowski from the University of Illinois – Chicago, US.

Failing hearts are unable to properly process or store the fats they use for fuel, which are contained within tiny droplets called lipid bodies in heart muscle cells.

The inability to use fats, the heart’s primary fuel source, causes the muscle to become starved of energy.

Fats, not metabolised by the heart, break down into toxic intermediary by-products that further contribute to heart disease.

In addition to balancing fat metabolism and reducing toxic by-products in hyper-trophic hearts, oleate also restored the activation of several genes for enzymes that metabolise fat, the findings of the study showed.

“These genes are often suppressed in hyper-trophic hearts,” Lewandowski added.

“The fact that we can restore beneficial gene expression, as well as more balanced fat metabolism, plus reduce toxic fat metabolites, just by supplying hearts with oleate – a common dietary fat – is a very exciting finding,” Lewandowski pointed out.

For the study, the researchers looked at how healthy and failing rat hearts reacted to being supplied with either oleate or palmitate, a fat associated with the Western diet and found in dairy products, animal fats and palm oil.

When the researchers perfused failing rat hearts with oleate they saw an immediate improvement in how the hearts contracted and pumped blood.

The findings were reported in the journal Circulation.

Kids living in megacities likelier to risk brain damage from air pollution

A new study has recently revealed that kids living in megacities are more prone to brain damage from air pollution.

Researchers from University of Montana revealed that children living in megacities are at increased risk for brain inflammation and neurodegenerative changes, including Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease.

The study found when air particulate matter and their components such as metals are inhaled or swallowed, they pass through damaged barriers, including respiratory, gastrointestinal and the blood-brain barriers and can result in long-lasting harmful effects.

Researchers compared 58 serum and cerebrospinal fluid samples from a control group living in a low-pollution city and matched them by age, gender, socioeconomic status, education and education levels achieved by their parents to 81 children living in Mexico City.

The results found that the children living in Mexico City had significantly higher serum and cerebrospinal fluid levels of autoantibodies against key tight-junction and neural proteins, as well as combustion-related metals.

The breakdown of the blood-brain barrier and the presence of autoantibodies to important brain proteins would contribute to the neuroinflammation observed in urban children and raises the question of what role air pollution plays in a 400 percent increase of MS cases in Mexico City, making it one of the main diagnoses for neurology referrals.

Once there's a breakdown in the blood-brain barrier, not only would particulate matter enter the body but it also opens the door to harmful neurotoxins, bacteria and viruses.

While the study focused on children living in Mexico City, others living in cities where there are alarming levels of air pollution such as Los Angeles, Philadelphia-Wilmington, New York City, Salt Lake City, hicago, Tokyo, Mumbai, New Delhi or Shanghai, among others, also face major health risks. In the U.S. alone, 200 million people live in areas where pollutants such as ozone and fine particulate matter exceed the standards. (ANI)

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.

Smoking e-cigarettes may lead to addiction marijuana and cocaine

A new study has observed that smoking e-cigarettes may encourage the addiction to other substances, such as marijuana and cocaine.

The study presented at Massachusetts Medical Society examined that the e-cigarettes may act as a "gateway drug" to addiction to drugs.

Co-author Denise B. Kandel, PhD, professor of sociomedical sciences (in psychiatry), Department of Psychiatry and Mailman School of Public Health, at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC), said that while e-cigarettes eliminated some of the health effects associated with combustible tobacco, they were pure nicotine-delivery devices.

Dr. Eric Kandel said that their findings provided a biologic basis for the sequence of drug use observed in people and one drug altered the brain's circuitry in a way that enhanced the effects of a subsequent drug.

Kandel continued that e-cigarettes had the same physiological effects on the brain and may pose the same risk of addiction to other drugs as regular cigarettes, especially in adolescence during a critical period of brain development and nicotine clearly acted as a gateway drug on the brain, and this effect was likely to occur whether the exposure comes from smoking cigarettes, passive tobacco smoke, or e-cigarettes.

The study is published in the online edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.