Study finds virus contributes to obesity

By Seth Borenstein, AP Science Writer

WASHINGTON — In the buffet of reasons for why Americans are getting fatter, researchers are piling more evidence on the plate for one still-controversial cause: a virus.

New research announced Monday found that when human stem cells -- the blank slate of the cell world -- were exposed to a common virus they turned into fat cells. They didn't just change, they stored fat, too.

While this may be a guilt-free explanation for putting on pounds, it doesn't explain all or even most of America's growing obesity problem. But it adds to other recent evidence that blames expanding waistlines on more than just super-sized appetites and underused muscles.

For several years, researchers have looked at a possible link between obesity and this common virus, called adenovirus-36, from a family of viruses that cause colds and pinkeye in people. They had already found that a higher percentage of fat people had been infected with the virus than nonfat people. They had exposed animals to the virus and got them to fatten up and even found a a gene in the virus that causes animals to get obese.

But ethical restraints kept researchers from exposing people to the virus to see what happens. So they did what would be considered the next best thing, said Nikhil Dhurandhar, who headed the research at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in the Louisiana State University system. More...

Calcium and Vitamin D Intake and Risk for Breast Cancer

Journal Watch General Medicine
June 14, 2007

Calcium and Vitamin D Intake and Risk for Breast Cancer



Jamaluddin Moloo, MD, MPH

Journal Watch. 2007;6(6) ©2007 Massachusetts Medical Society

Posted 07/13/2007

Higher calcium and vitamin D intake showed modest benefit in premenopausal women.
Summary

Animal experiments and observational human studies suggest that calcium and vitamin D may decrease risk for breast cancer. Researchers prospectively assessed this relation among 10,000 premenopausal and 20,000 postmenopausal women enrolled in the Women’s Health Study. Calcium and vitamin D intake was determined from self-reported questionnaires about food and vitamin supplement intake.

During a mean follow-up of 10 years, the overall incidence of invasive breast cancer was 2.6% among premenopausal women and 3.6% among postmenopausal women. The hazard ratio for developing invasive breast cancer was 0.61 for premenopausal women at the highest versus lowest quintiles of calcium intake and 0.65 for vitamin D intake. No relation was found between calcium and vitamin D intake and risk for invasive breast cancer among postmenopausal women.
Comment

In this large, prospective study, a higher intake of calcium and vitamin D was associated with a lower risk for invasive breast cancer among premenopausal but not postmenopausal women. Although the hazard ratios appear relatively large, the absolute risk reduction was modest. Limitations of this study include ascertainment of calcium and vitamin D intake only once at baseline and the possibility that unmeasured confounding variables explain the findings in this nonrandomized assessment of diet.

Vitamin D Reduces Cancer Risk

Study Shows Risks of Several Types of Cancer Cut in Older Women
By TIMBERLY ROSS AND JEFF DONN, AP

OMAHA, Neb. - Building hope for one pill to prevent many cancers, vitamin D cut the risk of several types of cancer by 60 percent overall for older women in the most rigorous study yet.

The new research strengthens the case made by some specialists that vitamin D may be a powerful cancer preventive and most people should get more of it. Experts remain split, though, on how much to take.

"The findings ... are a breakthrough of great medical and public health importance," declared Cedric Garland, a prominent vitamin D researcher at the University of California-San Diego. "No other method to prevent cancer has been identified that has such a powerful impact." More...

Wild wheat gene could boost nutrient content of modern varieties

I find a couple of things in this article fascinating. We have selectively bred wheat to be very high in starch and low in everything else. Now scientists are trying to put back what was lost.

Reminds me of Wonder bread. So devoid of nutrients that vitamins and minerals have to added to the reciope to make it worth eating.

Also its very sad that in this day and age that "more than 160 million children under the age of five lack an adequate protein supply" Dr. H



Wild wheat gene could boost nutrient content of modern varieties

By Stephen Daniells


24/11/2006 - US scientists have identified a gene from wild wheat that could increase protein and micronutrient content of its cultivated cousin by 10 to 15 per cent, and could soon be used in food products with enhanced nutritional value.

The reintroduction of the functional gene from the wild species into commercial wheat varieties has the potential to increase the nutritional value of a large proportion of our current cultivated wheat varieties," said lead researcher Professor Jorge Dubcovsky from the University of California, Davis. More...

Studies: Surgery No Better for Sciatica

Studies: Surgery No Better for Sciatica
By CARLA K. JOHNSON
Associated Press Writer

November 22, 2006, 7:04 PM EST

CHICAGO -- Two big government-funded studies on back surgery for painful herniated disks show no clear-cut reason to choose an operation over other treatment. The pain and physical function of the patients, who were suffering from a condition called sciatica, improved significantly after two years whether or not they had surgery. However, neither strategy offered complete relief.

More...

Probiotics Shorten Common Cold Episodes!

Consumption of a mixture of 3 probiotic strains in combination with vitamins reduces the severity of symptoms and the duration of the common cold. These are the results from a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled intervention study among 479 healthy adults over at least 3 months during 2 winter/spring periods by de Vrese et al. [1] More...

Asthma is not a disease, but just a name given to various symptoms, says The Lancet

Originally published August 28 2006
http://www.newstarget.com/020176.html

(NewsTarget) The medical journal The Lancet is appealing to the medical community to stop using the term "asthma" as it misleads people to believe it is a disease rather than a group of symptoms with various origins and characteristics.

Symptoms of asthma include wheezing, coughing and breathing difficulties, and it is generally accepted that attacks are brought on by inflamed airways, but the actual spark for the inflammation is not known, nor is the reason why some people contract asthma while others do not.

"Perhaps asthma as a symptom is really only the clinical manifestation of several distinct diseases," said The Lancet article. "Rather than confusing scientists, doctors and patients even further, is it not time to step out of the straight jacket of a seemingly unifying name that has outlived its usefulness?"

The article went on to explain that asthma can have a multitude of triggers, symptoms and treatments, providing more evidence that it is inappropriate to label it as a single disease.

"The Lancet article raises some interesting points; asthma is indeed a complex ailment," said Dr. Andrew Miller, a spokesman for the British Lung Foundation. "But whether this is a good enough reason to abandon a useful name which encompasses a range of symptoms treated in a similar way is not yet clear."

Natural health advocate Mike Adams found the announcement intriguing. "It's both refreshing and curious to see anyone in conventional medicine finally admitting that asthma isn't a disease at all, but rather just a name given to a variety of symptoms," he said. "This indicates the beginning of an important paradigm shift in medicine, where a few of the brightest thinkers are beginning to realize that calling symptoms diseases is a disservice to patients and doctors alike. It's time we stopped treating symptoms and started examining the underlying causes of conditions like asthma, ADHD, osteoporosis and even cancer," Adams said.

Currently, experts claim that approximately 300 million people have asthma worldwide -- a number expected to reach 400 million by 2025. One in 250 deaths is caused by it, and children with allergies are more likely to develop the condition. The Lancet noted that there has been an increase in childhood allergies across the globe.

"Until the 19th century fever was regarded as a disease and maybe in 20, 30 or 50 years' time we will look back at asthma in the same way," said the editorial.

A little humor with the truth

This and more can be found at http://www.newstarget.com/cartoons

Vitamin D deficiency and chronic low back pain in Saudi Arabia.

Spine. 2003 Jan 15;28(2):177-9.

Vitamin D deficiency and chronic low back pain in Saudi Arabia.

Al Faraj S, Al Mutairi K.

Department of Medicine, Riyadh Armed Forces Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
alfaraj@yahoo.com


STUDY DESIGN: Initial assessment involved 360 patients (90% women and 10% men) attending spinal and internal medicine clinics over a 6-year period who had experienced low back pain that had no obvious cause for more than 6 months. The patients ranged in age from 15 to 52 years. OBJECTIVES: To investigate the contribution of vitamin D deficiency as a cause for idiopathic chronic low back pain, to find a simple and sensitive test for screening patients with low back pain for vitamin D deficiency, and to determine the correlation between the vitamin deficiency and pain.

METHODS: A biochemical assay of serum calcium, phosphate, alkaline phosphatase, and 25-hydroxy vitamin D level was performed before and after treatment with vitamin D supplements.

RESULTS: Findings showed that 83% of the study patients (n = 299) had an abnormally low level of vitamin D before treatment with vitamin D supplements. After treatment, clinical improvement in symptoms was seen in all the groups that had a low level of vitamin D, and in 95% of all the patients (n = 341).

CONCLUSIONS: Vitamin D deficiency is a major contributor to chronic low back pain in areas where vitamin D deficiency is endemic. Screening for vitamin D deficiency and treatment with supplements should be mandatory in this setting. Measurement of serum 25-OH cholecalciferol is sensitive and specific for detection of vitamin D deficiency, and hence for presumed osteomalacia in patients with chronic low back pain.

Researchers in England discovered that patients with chronic pain have phenomenally low vitamin D levels

The authors added to the evidence that severe vitamin D deficiency is associated with chronic pain. They found that 88% of their patients with chronic pain had levels less than 10 ng/ml. If they treated their patients, they did not report it. However, Swiss researchers recently treated chronic pain patients with vitamin D and reported the pain "disappeared" within one to three months in most of their patients. This is the second open study that showed adequate doses of vitamin D dramatically improve chronic pain.
Ann Rheum Dis. 2005 Aug;64(8):1217-9.
BMJ. 2004 Jul 17;329(7458):156-7.
Spine. 2003 Jan 15;28(2):177-9.