Nutrenews you need to know
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The use of psychiatric medications has jumped alarmingly over the last 10 years and no one can explain exactly why. In the US in 2010, 1 in 5 adults took a psychiatric medication. In women it was higher, 1 in 4. The most commonly used psychiatric drugs by women are antidepressants, and the women most [...]
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Smokers who stop smoking shortly before surgery (recent quitters) seem to have worse surgical outcomes than early quitters. Therefore, concerns have been expressed about stopping smoking within 8 weeks of surgery. This has generated considerable uncertainty in the media and even in hospitals where smoking cessation advice is an important priority. Researchers therefore conducted a 9 [...]
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The recent finding that brain grey and white matter diminish with obesity is taken a little further with new MRI analysis finding that some subcortical brain mass is increased. Interestingly, they are the subcortical brain structures that are involved in feeding behaviour. The obese people had larger left and right amygdalar volume, and their hippocampus was [...]
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It is now well demonstrated that cancer surgery can promote the growth and spread of the tumour. There is data emerging however, showing that surgery increases the risk of cancer in people without clinical cancer. Many of us have undetectable microscopic cancers. They are called occult tumours and are very common in the general population. They are maintained in [...]
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Bisphosphonates, the new class of drugs that are used orally for osteoporosis and intravenously for bone metastases in cancer ironically cause bone degeneration. The degeneration is called osteonecrosis and generally affects the jaw. Frankly it is death of bone tissue and seems to be due to the drug reducing the ability of the bone to heal, so [...]
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People with higher blood levels of α-carotene have a lower risk of premature death. We know that trials on β-carotene supplementation showed no, or maybe negative, effects on cancer, cardiovascular disease, or type 2 diabetes. And that these results were a little surprising because of the premise that free radicals damage proteins, fats and of [...]
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The US Department of Health Office of Inspector General released a report this week saying that over 13% of all hospitalised patients experience a major adverse event and 1.5% die from them. And a further 13% experience a minor adverse event. The major adverse events ranged from pulmonary embolisms to wrong-body-part surgery. Minor events include excessive [...]
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Smoking cigarettes whilst pregnant increases the likelihood of having a girl. Public health policy measures to reduce smoking have reduced cigarette exposure during pregnancy. Surpisingly, this has had an influence on the sex of newborns. A recent decline in the male:female (M:F) sex ratio seems to relate to pregnancy cigarette smoke exposure. The M:F sex [...]
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DDT is possibly the most ubiquitous global toxin exposure in history. Virtually every human blood sample will contain detectable levels of this now widely banned pesticide. The Lance Armstrong Foundation has funded a study that has found an important link between DDT exposure and increased risk to testicular cancer. Prenatal DDT Exposure and Testicular Cancer: [...]
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Will you recommend it? Whilst it has reasonably high levels of sugar and fat, chocolate contains factors that may outweigh the negatives, at least at moderate levels of intake. Chocolate Intake and Incidence of Heart Failure: A Population-Based, Prospective Study of Middle-Aged and Elderly Women. Mostofsky E, Levitan EB, Wolk A, Mittleman MA. Circ Heart Fail. 2010 [...]
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Exposure to cigarette smoke, even at the lowest levels of detection, still causes genetic damage. The same damage occurs in a heavy smoker as occurs in a nonsmoker exposed to occasional secondhand smoke. Threshold of Biologic Responses of the Small Airway Epithelium to Low Levels of Tobacco Smoke Strulovici-Barel Y, Omberg L, O’Mahony M, Gordon C, [...]
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Prenatal exposure to the most common home and agricultural chemical, organophosphate pesticides, causes a 500% increased risk to ADHD. Organophosphate Pesticide Exposure and Attention in Young Mexican-American Children. Amy R. Marks, Kim Harley, Asa Bradman, Katherine Kogut, Dana Boyd Barr, Caroline Johnson, Norma Calderon, Brenda Eskenazi Published online 19 Aug 2010 | doi:10.1289/ehp.1002056
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Breast cancer survival is strongly determined by an iron transport protein called ferroportin. Low ferroportin leads to higher intracellular iron and higher tumour growth and aggressiveness. Ferroportin and iron regulation in breast cancer progression and prognosis. Pinnix ZK, Miller LD, Wang W, D’Agostino R Jr, Kute T, Willingham MC, Hatcher H, Tesfay L, Sui G, [...]
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Amazingly, one year after a stroke, most people have not changed their preventable risk factors. Almost half of stroke patients discharged from a hospital in Denmark were found to have not changed their cigarette intake: 57 of 121 patients (47%). The proportion of patients who were physically inactive increased from 36% before their stroke to [...]
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Nicotine is converted into potent carcinogenic substances after it has dissolved onto indoor surfaces. These then accumulate over time and children are most at risk. Residual nicotine from cigarette smoke reacts with nitrous acid on indoor surfaces to form carcinogenic nitrosamines. This is a new risk factor that’s never been recognised before. It has been [...]
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