Health for life

New research in human volunteers has shown that molecular changes to our genes, known as epigenetic marks, are driven mainly by ageing but are also affected by what we eat.

The study showed that whilst age had the biggest effects on these molecular changes, selenium and vitamin D status reduced the accumulation of epigenetic changes, and high blood folate and obesity increased them. These findings support the idea that healthy ageing is affected by what we eat.


Researchers from the Institute of Food Research led by Dr Nigel Belshaw, working with Prof John Mathers and colleagues from Newcastle University, examined the cells lining the gut wall from volunteers attending colonoscopy clinic. The Institute of Food Research is strategically funded the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and this study was also funded by the Food Standards Agency.

The study volunteers were free from cancer or inflammatory bowel disease and consumed their usual diet without any supplements. The researchers looked for specific epigenetic modifications of the volunteers’ genes that have been associated with the earliest signs of the onset of bowel cancer – an age-related disease. These epigenetic marks, known as DNA methylation, do not alter the genetic code but affect whether the genes are turned on or off. These methylation marks are transmitted when cells divide, and some have been associated with the development of cancer.

The investigators studied the relationship between the occurrence of these epigenetic marks at genes known to be affected in cancer, and factors including the volunteers’ age, sex, body size and the levels of some nutrients in the volunteers’ blood. The biggest influence on gene methylation was age. This fits with the fact that the biggest risk factor for bowel cancer is age, with risk increasing exponentially over 50 years old.

The findings, published in the journal Aging Cell, showed that men tended to have a higher frequency of these epigenetic changes than women, which is consistent with men being at a greater risk of bowel cancer. Volunteers with higher vitamin D status tended to show lower levels of methylation, and a similar effect was observed for selenium status. Again, this is consistent with the known links between higher vitamin D and selenium and reduced bowel cancer risk.

The B vitamin folate is essential for health, but in this study, high folate status was associated with increased levels of epigenetic changes linked with bowel cancer. These findings are consistent with some epidemiological studies suggesting that excessive folate intakes may increase risk in some people. The results of this study showing an association between folate status and epigenetic changes linked to cancer, together with those from another recent study by Nigel Belshaw’s group showing that, in cells grown in the laboratory, they could be induced by exposure to high levels of folic acid, emphasise the need for further research on optimal folate status in humans. The researchers intend to investigate the mechanism for the effect of folate on DNA methylation in a follow-up study.

Obesity is also a risk factor for bowel cancer. This study found relationships between body size (height, weight and waist circumference) and epigenetic changes. How excess body weight induces these epigenetic changes, and the consequences for gut health, are currently being investigated at IFR and in Newcastle University.

In summary, the results of this study support the hypothesis that ageing affects the epigenetic status of some genes and that these effects can be modulated by diet and body fatness.

Smoking, Why do you smoke | Some people who have really addicted to cigarettes will ignore the effects that will result from smoking. Sometimes people say rather not eat than not smoke why. due to narcotic effects of nicotine contained in cigarettes has given a considerable effect on the body condition of people who smoke.

There are many reasons why smoke dangerous for your own health and the health of your family, if you have the habit. The reasons are (bad effect of smoking):

1. Cancer
Smoking increases the risk of cancer in the lungs and lips. The more you smoke, the greater the likelihood you die from cancer. Spare yourself not to get one of these diseases, because if you already have cancer, then the possibility of recovery is less.

2. Bronchitis

Smoking habits also will menyembabkan diseases that are harmful to the lungs including chronic bronchitis and emphysema and can cause death in people who suffer from this condition or suffer from asthma.

3. Gastric ulcers

With the smoking habit, this will also lead to diseases of the stomach (gastric ulcers) or it will aggravate the already suffering from the disease.

4. PNEUMONIA

The children of parents who smoke are more often suffer from pneumonia and other respiratory illnesses compared with children whose parents do not smoke.

5. HEART

The most dangerous smoking is to increase your chances of suffering or dying from heart disease or cerebrovascular disease.

6. Infant Growth

In addition to cause disease in smokers, these habits will affect the babies conceived or born of a mother who has a habit of smoking. Growth of infants born to mothers who smoke will be smaller and will grow more slowly than in infants whose mothers did not smoke.

7. The Bad Examples

If we as parents, teachers or health workers do not give a bad example to our children, our students and the community by the habit of smoking. With the habit of smoking to our children, our students and the community will see the behavior of people who become teachers or peers and consequently, they will go smoke.

8. Economy

Smoking habits would need money to buy it and the result would be a waste of money for useless things. Apparently the money used to buy cigarettes does not mean, but if the collected amount will be many. In developing countries more money spent on people to buy tobacco. If the money used to buy tobacco used to buy food, then the kids and the whole family will be healthier.

Looking at bad effect of smoking should we as a society that already know the meaning of health, can avoid it, not until we feel regret after getting the effects of the disease that is not good.

Read this post also smoker dont have health insurance

People with job stress and an unhealthy lifestyle are at higher risk of coronary artery disease than people who have job stress but lead healthy lifestyles, found a study published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).

To determine whether a healthy lifestyle can help reduce the effects of job stress on coronary artery disease, researchers looked at 7 cohort studies from a large European initiative that included 102 128 people who were disease-free during the 15-year study period (1985-2000). Participants, ranging in age from 17-70 (mean 44.3) years were from the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Sweden and Finland. More than half (52%) were women.

Of the total participants, 15 986 (16%) reported job stress, which was determined from specific job-related questions in the studies. The investigators defined three lifestyle categories based on smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity/inactivity and obesity (body mass index). A "healthy lifestyle" had no lifestyle risk factors, "moderately unhealthy lifestyle" had one risk factor and "unhealthy lifestyle" included 2-4 lifestyle risk factors.

A total of 1086 participants had incident events of coronary artery disease events during the follow-up period. The 10-year incidence of coronary artery disease was 18.4 per 1000 people for people with job strain and 14.7 for those without job strain. People with an unhealthy lifestyle had a significantly higher 10-year incidence rate (30.6 per 1000) compared to those with a healthy lifestyle (12.0 per 1000). The incidence rate was 31.2 per 1000 for participants with job strain and an unhealthy lifestyle but only 14.7 for those with job strain and a healthy lifestyle.

"The risk of coronary artery disease was highest among participants who reported job strain and an unhealthy lifestyle; those with job strain and a healthy lifestyle had about half the rate of this disease," writes Dr. Mika Kivimäki, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London (UCL), London, United Kingdom. "These observational data suggest that a healthy lifestyle could substantially reduce the risk of coronary artery disease risk among people with job strain."

Evidence from randomized controlled trials has shown that lifestyle changes such as weight loss and stopping smoking can reduce the risk of disease.

"In addition to stress counselling, clinicians might consider paying closer attention to lifestyle risk factors in patients who report job strain," the authors conclude.

Studies have shown that resveratrol, a natural compound found in colored vegetables, fruits and especially grapes, may minimize the impact of Parkinson’s disease, stroke and Alzheimer’s disease in those who maintain healthy diets or who regularly take resveratrol supplements. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri have found that resveratrol may also block the effects of the highly addictive drug, methamphetamine.

Dennis Miller, associate professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences in the College of Arts & Science and an investigator with the Bond Life Sciences Center, and researchers in the Center for Translational Neuroscience at MU, study therapies for drug addiction and neurodegenerative disorders. Their research targets treatments for methamphetamine abuse and has focused on the role of the neurotransmitter dopamine in drug addiction. Dopamine levels in the brain surge after methamphetamine use; this increase is associated with the motivation to continue using the drug, despite its adverse consequences. However, with repeated methamphetamine use, dopamine neurons may degenerate causing neurological and behavioral impairments, similar to those observed in people with Parkinson’s disease.

“Dopamine is critical to the development of methamphetamine addiction—the transition from using a drug because one likes or enjoys it to using the drug because one craves or compulsively uses it,” Miller said. “Resveratrol has been shown to regulate these dopamine neurons and to be protective in Parkinson’s disease, a disorder where dopamine neurons degenerate; theore, we sought to determine if resveratrol could affect methamphetamine-induced changes in the brain.”

Using procedures established by Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease research, rats received resveratrol once a day for seven days in about the same concentration as a human would receive from a healthy diet. After a week of resveratrol, researchers measured how much dopamine was released by methamphetamine. Researchers found that resveratrol significantly diminished methamphetamine’s ability to increase dopamine levels in the brain. Furthermore, resveratrol diminished methamphetamine’s ability to increase activity in mice, a behavior that models the hyperactivity observed in people that use the stimulant.

“People are encouraged by physicians and dieticians to include resveratrol-containing products in their diet and protection against methamphetamine’s harmful effects may be an added bonus,” Miller said. “Additionally, there are no consistently effective treatments to help people who are dependent on methamphetamine. Our initial research suggests that resveratrol could be included in a treatment regimen for those addicted to methamphetamine and it has potential to decrease the craving and desire for the drug. Resveratrol is found in good, colorful foods, and has few side effects. We all ought to consume resveratrol for good brain health; our research suggests it may also prevent the changes in the brain that occur with the development of drug addiction.”

The study “Repeated resveratrol treatment attenuates methamphetamine-induced hyperactivity and [3H]dopamine overflow in rodents,” was published in Neuroscience Letters.

According to a study, “Mediterranean Diet and Risk of Hyperuricemia in Elderly Participants at High Cardiovascular Risk,” published in the Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, a baseline adherence to a Mediterranean diet (MeDiet) is associated with a lower risk of hyperuricemia, defined as a serum uric acid (SUA) concentration higher than 7mg/dl in men and higher than 6mg/dl in women.

Hyperuricemia has been associated with metabolic syndrome, hypertension, type 2 diabetes mellitus, chronic kidney disease, gout, and cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. The MeDiet is characterized by a high consumption of fruits, vegetables, legumes, olive oil, nuts, and whole grain; a moderate consumption of wine, dairy products, and poultry, and a low consumption of red meat, sweet beverages, creams, and pastries. Due to its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, the MeDiet might play a role in decreasing SUA concentrations.

Conducted by Marta Guasch-Ferré and 11 others, this study is the first to analyze the relationship between adherence to a MeDiet in older adults and the risk of hyperuricemia. The five-year study looks at 7,447 participants assigned to one of three intervention diets (two MeDiets enriched with extra virgin olive oil or mixed nuts, or a control low-fat diet). Participants were men aged 55 to 80 years and women aged 60 to 80 years who were free of cardiovascular disease but who had either type 2 diabetes mellitus or were at risk of coronary heart disease.

The findings below demonstrate the positive health effects of a MeDiet in older adults:

- Rates of reversion were higher among hyperuricemic participants at baseline who had greater adherence to the MeDiet.
- Consuming less than one serving a day of red meat compared with higher intake is associated with 23 percent reduced risk of hyperuricemia.
- Consuming fish and seafood increased the prevalence of hyperuricemia.
- Drinking more than seven glasses of wine per week increased the prevalence of hyperuricemia.
- Consuming legumes and sofrito sauce reduced the prevalence of hyperuricemia.

Reversion of hyperuricemia was achieved by adherence to the MeDiet alone, without weight loss or changes to physical activity.

Researchers reporting in the July 17 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine published results of their two-year investigation into three popular diets: A low-carbohydrate diet (based on Atkins guidelines), a Mediterranean diet, and a low-fat diet (based on American Heart Association guidelines).

The full study can be found at:

Weight Loss with a Low-Carbohydrate, Mediterranean, or Low-Fat Diet

Weight Loss

For weight loss, the low-carbohydrate and Mediterranean diets performed best, and were just about tied at 2 years:

• Low-carbohydrate Diet: 4.7 kg (approximately 10 pounds)
  
• Mediterranean Diet: 4.4 kg (approximately 10 pounds)
  
• American Heart Association (AHA) Diet: 2.9 kg (approximately 6 pounds)

Women did better on the Mediterranean diet, while men did better on the low-carbohydrate diet.

Diabetes

There was an unexpected finding that applied specifically to participants with diabetes. Fasting blood glucose of people with diabetes who followed the Mediterranean dropped an average of 32.8 mg/dl; while the fasting glucose of diabetics in the other groups increased by 1.2 mg/dl in the low-carb group and 12.1 mg/dl in the AHA group.

People with diabetes who followed the Mediterranean diet also had the lowest fasting insulin and lowest insulin resistance (HOMA-IR).

Differences Between Diets

All participants reduced their intake from baseline and were eating about the same amount of calories, 1500/day for women and 1800/day for men, regardless of group assignment. Physical activity also increased from baseline but was not different between groups.

The low-fat AHA diet derived about 30% of its calories from fat and 50% from carbohydrate. "The participants were counseled to consume low-fat grains, vegetables, fruits, and legumes and to limit their consumption of additional fats, sweets, and high-fat snacks."

The Mediterranean diet derived about 33% of its calories from fat and 50% from carbohydrate. This group had the highest ratio of monounsaturated-to-saturated fat, probably owing to olive oil and nut consumption: "the main sources of added fat were 30 to 45 g of olive oil and a handful of nuts (five to seven nuts, <20 g) per day." It was a diet "rich in vegetables and low in red meat, with poultry and fish replacing beef and lamb." Members also consumed the greatest amount of dietary fiber.

The low-carbohydrate diet derived about 39% of its calories from fat and 40% from carbohydrate. Members consumed the least amount of carbohydrates (consuming about 120 g/day after the first 2 months and throughout) and the most amount of fat, protein, and cholesterol. It diverged from Atkins protocol by advising vegetarian sources of fat and protein. This was the only diet that was unrestricted in calories. However, participants averaged about the same amount of calories as the other groups. Notably, even though limits were not placed on how much members of this group could eat, the low-carb group had the highest drop-out rate.

Conclusion

"Mediterranean and low-carbohydrate diets may be effective alternatives to low-fat diets. The more favorable effects on lipids (with the low-carbohydrate diet) and on glycemic control (with the Mediterranean diet) suggest that personal perences and metabolic considerations might inform individualized tailoring of dietary interventions."

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Statins -- the popular class of cholesterol-lowering drugs used widely to prevent recurrent heart disease or stroke as well as risk for having a first cardiac or stroke event -- appear to cause few side effects, according to new research reported in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

Researchers conducted the largest meta-analysis on statin side effects to date, reviewing data from 135 previous drug studies to evaluate the safety of the seven statins on the market. They concluded "as a class, adverse events associated with statin therapy are not common."

Researchers noted that simvastatin and pravastatin, the generic names of the brands Zocor and Pravachol, were found to have the best safety profile in the class. This is particularly true when patients were prescribed low to moderate doses of those statins, said Huseyin Naci, M.H.S., the studys lead author and a doctoral candidate at the London School of Economics and Political Science and research fellow at Harvard Medical Schools Department of Population Medicine.

Researchers also noted a 9 percent increased risk of diabetes among statin users. But according to a previous landmark study, 250 patients need to be treated with a statin for one case of diabetes to be diagnosed.

"I am concerned that patients may misunderstand this small increase in risk and stop adhering to their medications," Naci said. The proven ability of statins to significantly cut the rate of death and hospitalization in patients who have heart disease outweighs the "small increase in diabetes risk," he said.

Researchers reviewed trials published between 1985 and early 2013, which included almost 250,000 patients. On average, the trials lasted a bit longer than a year. Some compared one statin to another, while others compared a statin to an inactive placebo, which is often called a sugar pill or dummy pill.

The study also found that statins were not linked to an increase in cancer risk. However, the drugs were associated with a typically reversible increase in liver enzymes, which Naci said still resulted in a very low rate of actual liver toxicity in statin patients.

"Although the benefits of statins clearly outweigh risks at the population level, individualizing such benefits and risks is more difficult," he said. "This brings into sharp focus the importance of identifying the individuals who stand to benefit the most from statin therapy.

Although the risk of developing diabetes is low, what this risk would amount to over time is simply not known based on the existing evidence," Naci said.