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How Salt Is Addictive

July 26, 2011 by ·

Some will no doubt take the news with a pinch of salt.

But researchers claim that salt is addictive in the same way as cigarettes or hard drugs, with the craving triggering the same genes, brain cells and brain connections.

The finding could help explain why many find it so hard to cut back on salt, despite warnings about dangers to blood pressure and heart health.

For the study, Australian and American scientists kept some mice on low-salt diets and gave others a salt drip.

Activity in the creatures’ brains was then compared with that in mice fed normally. They also studied the brains of mice that had been starved of salt for three days and then given salty water to drink freely. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Food, Research & Study · Tagged With: ,

How Bright Promise in Cancer Testing Fell Apart

July 13, 2011 by ·

When Juliet Jacobs found out she had lung cancer, she was terrified, but realized that her hope lay in getting the best treatment medicine could offer. So she got a second opinion, then a third. In February of 2010, she ended up at Duke University, where she entered a research study whose promise seemed stunning.

Doctors would assess her tumor cells, looking for gene patterns that would determine which drugs would best attack her particular cancer. She would not waste precious time with ineffective drugs or trial-and-error treatment. The Duke program — considered a breakthrough at the time — was the first fruit of the new genomics, a way of letting a cancer cell’s own genes reveal the cancer’s weaknesses.

But the research at Duke turned out to be wrong. Its gene-based tests proved worthless, and the research behind them was discredited. Ms. Jacobs died a few months after treatment, and her husband and other patients’ relatives are suing Duke. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Health Care, Research & Study ·

Diet: Eating Fish Found to Ward Off Eye Disease

March 22, 2011 by ·

A new study reports yet another good reason to eat fish: women whose diet was rich in omega-3 fatty acids found in fish were at significantly lower risk of developing age-related macular degeneration.

The Harvard Women’s Health Study, which followed 39,876 women in midlife, had participants fill out detailed food-frequency questionnaires at the start of the study in 1993. After an average 10 years of follow-up, 235 of the women had developed macular degeneration, a progressive eye disease that is the leading cause of irreversible vision loss in the elderly. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Health, Research & Study · Tagged With:

Pesticides On Fruit And Veg ‘Are Wrecking Men’s Fertility’

February 24, 2011 by ·

Pesticides found on fruit and vegetables could be doing untold damage to male fertility, research suggests.

Environmental campaigners say the effects could be particularly severe in the womb, with lack of testosterone feminising unborn boys, raising their odds of reproductive defects at birth and low sperm counts and testicular cancer in later life.

The European Commission-funded research was carried out on cells in a lab. The British scientists behind the work say they cannot be sure that humans would be similarly affected, but more extensive testing is urgently needed. The study from the University of London’s School of Pharmacy focused on pesticides widely used in Europe. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Fruits & Vegetables, Research & Study · Tagged With:

Children’s Medicine Doses Can Be Confusing, Study Finds

December 1, 2010 by ·

Many over-the-counter, liquid medications meant for children contain dosing instructions and measuring cups or droppers that rarely match each other and could confuse even the most careful parent or caretaker, according to a new study. This could easily lead to under- or over-dosing, with potentially dangerous consequences, researchers said.

The study, released online Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Assn., examined popular liquid cough, cold, allergy and stomach medications as well as painkillers and fever reducers, all meant for children younger than 12.

More than one-quarter of the 200 products examined failed to include a measuring device, such as cup, dropper or oral syringe. Of those that did, nearly all contained at least one inconsistency between the printed dosing instructions and the device. One example: a label that called for one-teaspoon doses packaged with a measuring cup marked in milliliters. [Read more...]

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Binge Drinking Doubles Heart Attack Risk

November 25, 2010 by ·

Binge drinkers are at twice the risk of a heart attack than those who consume the same amount but spread it over a week.

Researchers, led by Jean-Bernard Ruidavets from the Toulouse University in France, examined almost 10,000 healthy men aged between 50 and 59 and tracked them for 10 years.

It was found that the men who “binge” drink had nearly twice the risk of heart attack or dying from heart disease compared to regular drinkers over the 10 years of follow up, the British Medical Journal reports.

A binge was defined as consuming over 50g of alcohol in one day, around six units or just over two pints of strong lager or less than three standard 175 ml glasses of average strength red wine, according to the Telegraph. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Health, Research & Study · Tagged With: ,

Soft Drink Could Boost Effects Of Anti-Cancer Drug

October 14, 2010 by ·

A popular lemon-lime soft drink could play an unexpected role in improving the effectiveness of an oral anticancer drug, experiments with an artificial stomach suggest.

The experiments produced evidence that patients will absorb more of the unnamed drug, tested in Phase I in clinical trials, when taken with “flat” or degassed Sprite. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Health & Fitness, Research & Study · Tagged With: