This information also suggests that the reverse may be true as well—high fat diets may help prevent undersized babies.

"Our model may one day lead to dietary recommendations for mothers who are entering pregnancy overweight or obese," said Helen N. Jones, Ph.D., first author of the study. "We hope this research will ultimately help reduce the number of babies suffering from birth injuries, decrease C-section rates, and lower the risk of babies becoming overweight or obese later in life."

To reach their conclusion, the researchers fed one group of mice a normal diet and another group a higher fat diet for eight weeks. Then the mice were mated. At the end of each mouse’s pregnancy the offspring were delivered by c-section and weighed along with their placentas. The scientists then took blood from the mothers and measured the ability of the placenta to transport nutrients to the babies.

"It’s no secret that big women tend to have big babies," said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal, "but now we know that there’s more at play than genetics. Cutting back on fatty foods during pregnancy might decrease the chance of having a baby that becomes overweight in the future."

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about one-third of adult men and women, and 16.3 percent of children and youth in the United States are obese. Obesity increases the risk of many diseases and health conditions, including: hypertension, osteoarthritis (breakdown of cartilage and its underlying bone in a joint), dyslipidemia (high total cholesterol, high levels of triglycerides), type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke, gallbladder disease, sleep apnea and respiratory problems, and some cancers.

Adapted from materials provided by Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Source: sciencedaily.com

"Eww" and "Yuck" came the replies as students watched their science teacher chew and swallow the vegetable.

Many of them, who are between the ages of 10 and 13, had never witnessed the growth of the vegetable, while others had never tasted one.

Lack of exposure to fresh fruits and vegetables is something Cherry and others at the school noticed among the middle school students. To help show that there are healthier snack options, the school applied for and was awarded a grant that provides healthy snacks to students.

The school is tucked away in an affluent West Meade neighborhood. But a lot of the students had bad diets, regularly snacking on potato chips, candy and cookies.

At home, eighth-grader Brayden Stewart rarely eats healthy foods.

"Junk food is really all I eat, and maybe sometimes oranges," the 13-year-old said.

And it’s not uncommon for eighth-grader Kiebron Negasi to have a diet of processed foods, his favorite being chocolate chip cookies as a snack after school.

Initiatives are launched

The consumption of processed foods among school-age children is spurring "healthy initiatives" like the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program at H.G. Hill Middle.

With the help of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the school received a grant of nearly $50,000 to provide healthy snacks of cherry tomatoes, blackberries, pears and other foods to the 400-plus students during the school year.

In many areas, there are no grocery stores nearby that offer reasonably priced healthy food options. Many of the students are used to their fruits and vegetables in cans, Cherry said. "The parents don’t have access to those healthy foods, and they’re limited to canned foods that are not fresh," he said.

At first, the students were a little unsure when the carts of blueberries, strawberries and broccoli wheeled into their classrooms, and Cherry has the pictures to prove it.

The teacher’s photos, taken the first day of the new program, show the middle-schoolers hesitating. They stand back from the cart, their hands held protectively close.

"At first I was kind of confused," said eighth-grader Latazia Carter.

"I thought they were going to pass out junk food," Brayden admitted.

But over time, the students got used to seeing the cart with the fresh fruits and vegetables.

Carolyn Dillahay, cafeteria manager at the school, said she has already seen the success of the program among the students.

The offering of healthier food options "opens their eyes and lets them know that there are good snacks out there," Dillahay said, watching as a teacher wheeled into the cafeteria an almost-empty cart that held the fruits and veggies.

The plums seem to be less popular among the students, but strawberries go quickly, as do the peaches and nectarines.

"Seeing how well they’ve accepted it is what does it for me," Dillahay said.

Contact Leah Caudle at 615-259-8066 or lcaudle@tennessean.com.

Source: tennessean.com

For the study, a team of researchers from the University of Alabama enrolled 13 patients with resistant high blood pressure who were taking at least three blood-pressure-lowing medications. The participants were randomly assigned to a high- or low-salt diet and then monitored using a recorder worn continuously for 24 hours. Researchers found that those on the low-salt diet saw a 22.6 mmHg drop in the systolic (top number representing pressure while the heart contracts) blood pressure, along with a 9.2 mmHg drop in their diastolic blood pressure (bottom number representing the pressure when the heart relaxes between beats), as compared to patients on the high-salt diet. The amount of sodium excreted in their urine was also markedly reduced. Overall, the patients on the low-salt diet reported a better health state than the others, with appropriate body weight and levels of thoracic fluid and brain natriuretic peptide, which are two parameters that indicate fluid retention in the body.

The study team concludes that these findings clearly demonstrate the harmful effects of a high-salt diet in people with stubborn hypertension, as well as the benefits of a low-salt diet. “The blood pressure reduction achieved with low-salt diet was higher than some antihypertensive drugs,” said lead researcher Dr. Eduardo Pimenta, now at the Department of Hypertension and Nephrology at the Dante Pazzanese Institute of Cardiology in Sao Paulo, Brazil. “We were expecting blood pressure reduction with low-salt diet but the reduction was larger than we expected.”

Dr. Gregg C. Fonarow, professor of cardiology at the University of California, Los Angeles, called the study “small, but interesting” and agreed that salt reduction could have a substantial impact on lowering blood pressure for patients with medication-resistant high blood pressure. “Excess sodium intake, above 2,300 milligrams daily, should be avoided in all patients with hypertension, and among those patients with medically resistant hypertension, a closely monitored low-salt diet (1,500 milligrams daily) should be considered,” he advised.

The American Heart Association (AHA) says simple dietary changes to reduce salt consumption will only help in averting high blood pressure, but also its adverse effects like heart disease. The AHA recommends 2,300 milligrams (mg) of salt per day (which equates to about one teaspoon), or 2,000 mg for people suffering from high blood pressure or congestive heart failure. Recent studies have also shown that blood pressure can be lowered by following the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) eating plan, which offer a week of menus as well as recipes for two levels of daily sodium consumption—2,300 and 1,500 milligrams per day. Twenty-three hundred milligrams is the highest level considered acceptable by the National High Blood Pressure Education Program and also the highest amount recommended for healthy Americans by the 2005 “U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans.”

High blood pressure is clearly a major public health problem. According to recent estimates, approximately one in three adults in the United States as well as two million American teens and children has high blood pressure, but because there are often no symptoms, nearly one-third of people are unaware they have it. The only certain way to tell if you have high blood pressure is to have your pressure checked. Most people can control high blood pressure if they maintain a healthy weight, be moderately physically active on most days of the week, follow a healthy eating plan that includes foods lower in sodium, avoid alcoholic beverages or consume then in moderation, and take blood-pressure-lowering medications as directed.

The details of the study were presented at the American Heart Association’s Fall Conference of the Council for High Blood Pressure Research.

Source: healthnews.com

In the report, a pioneer study of 30 prostate cancer patients conducted by scientists and doctors at UCSF and a Sausalito research institute show for the first time that major lifestyle changes including a change in diet and a regular exercise routine may prevent early cell death and lengthen life.

The study was directed by Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn, the UCSF biochemist who is renowned for discovering the ellusive proteins called telomeres that cap the ends of chromosomes and control the longevity of dividing cells. In addition, Blackburn’s colleague, Dr. Dean Ornish, is a leading San Francisco cardiologist and known advocate of a controlled diet, regular exercise and stress reduction to prevent heart disease that can lead to death.

In the study released on Tuesday in the British journal Lancet Oncology, Blackburn and Ornish warn that even though the results are a cause for more attention, it is important to remember that there was a limited number of patients involved in the study and a bigger and more controlled research study is in order. However, the researchers note that if their results are positively confirmed, “this might be a powerful motivator for many people to beneficially change their diet and lifestyle.”

During the research, a team of scientists examined the enzyme levels, specifically called telomerase, in the prostate tissue of the thirty cancer patients who volunteered to go on a strict, a low-fat diet, exercise moderately and reduce their stress levels. “After only three months, 24 patients showed a highly significant increase in their telomerase levels – an indication that the cell-protecting telomeres in their cells were being restored.”

Overall, it was shown that the correlation between the test subject’s increasingly healthy habits after a prolonged about of time and the increased amount of telomerase proved highly significant and beneficial to overall health and lifespan. It is highly advisable for men at risk of prostate cancer as well as all humans to combine the powers of eating a healthy diet, exercise regularly and practice yoga and/or medication for a longer life and better well being.

Source: caymanmama.com

A session at the Festival of Science under way in Liverpool has heard how hormones play a central role in whether we will become overweight or obese and why weight-loss or “bariatric” surgery has proven the only reliable method to ensure long-term weight reduction.

Dr Rachel Batterham of University College London and Dr Carel Le Roux of Imperial College London described studies which explained how the surgery altered levels of three key hormones – the satiety hormone Peptide YY, Ghrelin, the hunger hormone, and CGP-1, which helps to regulate glucose. They also discussed new discoveries about how the satiety hormone affects the «reward/ pleasure» areas of the brain.

«Until last year we believed this hormone only acted on the primitive areas of the brain, but we now know it works on the reward area of the brain,» Dr Batterham said.

Two-thirds of the British population were classed as either overweight or obese, something that could be attributed to a conflict between our genes and our environment, she added. «Obesity is actually a normal response to an abnormal environment.»

Dr Batterham said our metabolisms evolved when food was scarce and periods of starvation were common. We ate a great deal when food was available and our bodies learned to store the surplus as fat to sustain us during famine. This had represented a “survival advantage” but was a danger to us now that food was always available, making it difficult to diet.

«What you are doing with dieting is fighting the biology we have developed to fight starvation,» Dr Batterham said.

Weight-loss surgery alters the hormone mix, allowing the body to reduce excess weight. Dr Batterham is seeking ways to achieve this mix without surgery. It was a challenge given that it involved hormones and these had to be injected, like the hormone insulin.

Dr Le Roux discussed the benefits of bariatric surgery, not just for the patient but for society in general. He argued there should be a tenfold increase in the numbers of people qualifying for weight-loss surgery, which he preferred to call “metabolic surgery”.

He said excess weight was a risk factor for type II diabetes and those who received the surgery tended to lose their diabetes. Because of this, these procedures quickly paid for themselves given the reduced burden on the health system, he added.

Metabolic surgery was not about vanity. «It will not make you thin, it is not cosmetic, it is about health.» Research was needed to see what types of patients would most benefit from the surgery.

© 2008 The Irish Times

The researchers at McGill University in Montreal studied nearly 6,800 very obese people and found that weight loss surgery, including gastric bypass and gastric banding, can cut the risk of some cancer by as much as 80 percent. The strongest evidence was for breast and colon cancer risk reduction, but there was also a trend toward reduction in other cancers.

The research team, led by Dr. Nicholas Christou, director of bariatric surgery and professor of surgery at McGill, looked at the medical records of 1,035 patients who had the surgery and 5,746 who did not but were otherwise similar. None of the patients, who were in their mid- to late- 40s, had been diagnosed with cancer before the study.

During a five-year follow-up period, 2 percent of the surgery group was diagnosed with cancer, compared with 8.5 percent of the nonsurgery group. Christou, whose prior studies on weight loss surgery have shown a reduction in the risk of overall mortality, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes as well as cancer, said in a telephone interview that the most likely mechanism for the reduced risk of breast cancer is hormonal.

Fat tissue produces estrogen, which drives some breast cancers. In the latest study, the incidence of breast cancer was reduced by 85 percent in the surgery group.

«This effect is so strong it surprised a lot of people,» Christou said.

The risk of colon cancer was reduced by 70 percent in the surgery group, perhaps, Christou said, because after surgery, people eat less and ingest fewer carcinogens. It’s the weight loss per se, not the surgery, that packs the punch, he added.

«The point is to get the weight loss and keep it off permanently,» he said. The study was presented at a scientific meeting in June and will be published soon.

Dr. George Blackburn, a nutritionist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and associate director of the division of nutrition at Harvard Medical School, welcomed the study as further proof of the link between obesity and cancer.

Research shows that an estimated 10 percent to 40 percent of cancer cases in the United States are attributed to obesity, he said. The strongest links are between obesity and esophageal, kidney, endometrial, colon and some breast cancers, he said. But obesity also contributes to pancreatic, ovarian, and gallbladder cancers.

So, if you’re a candidate for weight loss surgery – if your body mass index is 40, or if it’s 35 and you also have another major disease – ask your doctor about the surgery, including how much it might lower your cancer risk.

JUDY FOREMAN

© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.

Source: Boston.com

The indictment against suspended lawyers William Gallion and Shirley Cunningham Jr. adds new charges of wire fraud and seeks forfeiture of nearly $50 million more from them.

Gallion, Cunningham and Melbourne Mills Jr., were tried in July on a single count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, but the jury was unable to reach a verdict in the case against Gallion and Cunningham.

Jurors acquitted Mills, whose lawyer said the defendant was too drunk to have participated.

The new indictment returned yesterday seeks $94.6 million from Gallion and Cunningham and adds eight wire-fraud counts.

Some former federal prosecutors and other defense attorneys said in interviews after the mistrial that the prosecution should have brought additional charges to give jurors more choices.

But Steve Dobson, an attorney for Cunningham, said he was disappointed that the government is adding charges, after the jury voted 10-2 to acquit his client and Gallion. «I hope they are not being vindictive.»

U.S. Attorney James Zerhusen could not be reached for comment. The case is set for trial Oct. 14 but is expected to be continued.

After more than a year in Boone County Jail, Cunningham was released last week when he posted a $1.25 million bond; Gallion remains incarcerated.

Judge Danny Reeves, who was newly assigned to the case, reduced Cunningham’s bond from $45 million and Gallion’s from $52 million to $2.5 million.

Gallion’s lawyer, O. Hale Almand, couldn’t be reached for comment yesterday, but Gallion’s release may be delayed because the former fen-phen plaintiffs have won a foreclosure judgment against his home in Jessamine County.

In the new indictment, Gallion and Cunningham are again accused of paying only about one-third of the $200 million settlement to the 440 fen-phen clients and paying themselves, Mills and other lawyers and clients most of the rest.

They are also accused again of placing more than $20 million in so-called leftover money into a charitable fund, called the Kentucky Fund for Healthy Living, that they paid themselves to manage.

The lawyers said they withheld money in case new claims arose. When none did, they said they were entitled to the money because their clients had been sufficiently compensated.

Lawyers for Gallion and Cunningham said in July that the jury was unable to find them guilty because they were innocent.

But some attorneys and others who followed the eight-week trial in U.S. District Court in Covington say a host of factors likely contributed, including mistakes by the prosecution.

More than 400 of the ex-clients also sued Gallion, Cunningham and Mills, along with Cincinnati lawyer Stan Chesley, who negotiated the $200 million settlement, and won a judgment for $42 million, plus the return of the money placed in the fund.

Angela Ford, a Lexington lawyer who represents the ex-clients, has been trying to collect on the judgment, including an attempt to force the sale of Curlin, the 2007 horse of the year, in which Cunningham and Gallion have a minority stake.

Reporter Andrew Wolfson can be reached at (502) 582-7189.

Source: Courier-Journal.com