Pollution could be turning you obese - 1

Good morning friends. Many of us knows that pollution has been as any significant change in the physical, chemical or biological characteristics of the air, water and land that many negatively affect mankind, whether directly by being harmful to people or indirectly by causing natural resources to deteriorate. A pollutant might be triggering obesity by influencing gene activity, according to a new study.

For example tributyltin, a chemical is used in antifouling paints for boats, as a wood and textile preservative, and as a pesticide on high-value food crops, among many other applications.


Tributyltin affects sensitive receptors in animal cells, from water fleas to humans, at very low concentrations - a thousand times lower than pollutants that are known to interfere with sexual development of wildlife species.


Tributyltin and its relatives are highly toxic to snails, causing female snails to develop male sexual characteristics, and it bioaccumulates in fish and shellfish.


The harmful effects of the chemical on the liver and the nervous and immune systems in mammals are well known, but its powerful effects on the cellular components known as retinoid X receptors (RXRs) in a range of species are a recent discovery.

ref:thetimesofindia

Effective treatment for neuroblastoma

Experts have claimed that they have discovered an effective treatment for deadly cancer -- neuroblastoma -- by applying new science with a 40-year-old known drug.

Michelle Haber, a molecular and cellular biologist in Australia, said laboratory trials with mice genetically programmed to develop neuroblastoma -- a solid tumour that spreads rapidly through the body -- showed the drug, DFMO, delayed the development of tumours or prevented them forming in the first place.

By combining DFMO with conventional anti-cancer drugs such as cisplatin, that was then used to treat mice with neuroblastoma, the tumours were reduced, took longer to return and some tumours never came back, according to a report published in The Australian.

Haber, executive director of Sydney-based Children's Cancer Institute Australia for Medical Research, said, "The mice were cured. That's something you virtually never see in aggressive neuroblastoma."

Luciano Dalla-Pozza, head of oncology at Children's Hospital in Sydney welcomed the series of genetic and animal experiments Haber's team had conducted. "If the trial was opened now, I'd unhesitantly look at enrolling patients in it," Dalla-Pozza said. While roughly 75 per cent of children diagnosed with other cancers survive, only 50 per cent of those diagnosed with neuroblastoma survive. Two-thirds of youngsters get an aggressive form of neuroblastoma that kills more than 80 per cent of them within a year.

Haber said discussions were under way with Sydney Children's Hospital and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia for trials of combination therapy with children who had relapsed from neuroblastoma.

"For me that's incredibly exciting," Haber said.

ref: thetimesofindia

A diet that predisposes baby to obesity

High-fat diet during pregnancy produces permanent changes in the offspring's brain that lead to increased appetite and obesity early in life, a study in rats has shown.

The surprising new research by Rockefeller University scientists has been reported in the Nov. 12 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience. The research provides a key step toward understanding mechanisms of fetal programming involving the production of new brain cells that may help explain the increased prevalence of childhood obesity during the last 30 years. "We've shown that short-term exposure to a high-fat diet in utero produces permanent neurons in the fetal brain that later increase the appetite for fat," says senior author Sarah F. Leibowitz, who directs the Laboratory of Behavioral Neurobiology at Rockefeller. "This work provides the first evidence for a fetal program that links high levels of fats circulating in the mother''s blood during pregnancy to the overeating and increased weight gain of offspring after weaning,” the expert added.

Research in adult animals by Leibowitz and others has shown that circulating triglycerides stimulate brain chemicals known as orexigenic peptides, which in turn spur the animals to eat more. Scientists also have shown that obese and diabetic mothers produce heavier children and that exposure to fat-rich foods early in life leads to obesity in adulthood.

These studies suggested that food intake and body weight may be programmed during fetal development. But little was known about the mechanism underlying this programming.

ref: thetimesofindia

Diet alters heart failure risk

Each serving of whole-grains may lessen heart failure risk by 7 percent among middle-aged African-American and white men and women, according to findings from a long-term study.

Conversely, each serving of high-fat dairy and egg appear to increase heart failure risk by 8 and 23 percent, respectively, Dr. Jennifer A. Nettleton, of the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in Houston, and colleagues found.

"A refined grain here, a full fat yogurt there, and the occasional egg aren't going to result in heart failure, but a continued pattern of such behaviors could," Nettleton told Reuters Health.

Heart failure is a chronic disease in which the heart gradually loses its ability to pump blood efficiently, leaving organs starved for oxygen.

On 3 occasions over the 13-year study, Nettleton's group assessed the dietary intake of 14,153 adults, aged 45 to 64 years, who did not have heart failure in 1987 when the study began. About half the participants were women and a quarter were African-American,

Overall, 1,140 of the participants were hospitalized for heart failure during the study period, the researchers report in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

After accounting for factors that impact heart failure risk such as calorie intake, lifestyle, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and high blood, the researchers found lower heart failure risk associated with greater intake of whole grains, and higher risk associated with greater amounts of eggs and high fat dairy.

The associations held independently of intake of red meat, fruits and vegetables, fish, and nuts. In this study these foods showed no association with heart failure risk likely because there were too few heart failure cases to detect the heart benefits previously linked with eating fish, fruit and vegetables, and nuts, Nettleton said. However, findings from the current study are consistent with current dietary recommendations to minimize saturated fat intake from meat and high fat dairy products, and eat at least 3 whole grains each day, Nettleton said.

ref: thetimesofindia

Why crying is therapeutic after breakup

Shedding tears often eases our sense of shock or trauma after a painful breakup. But why is the act so beneficial? And is there such a thing as a "bad cry"?

University of South Florida psychologists Jonathan Rottenberg and Lauren M. Bylsma, along with colleague Ad JJM Vingerhoets of Tilburg University analysed more than 3,000 recent crying experiences (outside of lab) and found that the benefits of crying depend entirely on the what, where and when of a particular crying episode.

They found that the majority of respondents reported improvements in their mood following a bout of crying. However, a third of the participants reported no improvement in mood and a tenth felt worse after crying.

The survey also revealed that criers who received social support during their crying episode were the most likely to report improvements in mood.

Research to date has not always produced a clear picture of the benefits of crying, in part because the results often seem to depend on how crying is studied, said a Southern Florida release.

The authors note several challenges in accurately studying crying behaviour in a laboratory setting. Volunteers who cry in a lab setting often do not describe their experiences as being cathartic or making them feel better.

Rather, crying in a lab setting often results in the study participants feeling worse; this may be due to the stressful conditions of the study itself, such as being videotaped or watched by research assistants.

However, these lab studies have provided interesting findings about the physical effects of crying. Criers do show calming effects such as slower breathing, but they also experience a lot of unpleasant stress and arousal, including increased heart rate and sweating. Research has shown that the effects of crying also depend on who is shedding the tears. For example, individuals with anxiety or mood disorders are least likely to experience the positive effects of crying. These findings will appear in the December issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science.

ref: thetimesofindia

Eating at buffets can make you obese

People who eat out often at buffets and cafeterias and find their community unpleasant for physical activity are more likely to get obese, says a new study.

Ross Brownson, Ph.D., senior author of the study and a professor at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis said that it's not that people don't want to get physical activity or eat healthy foods, but lack of easy access to fresh fruits and vegetables has made people obese.

In the study conducted over 258 randomly selected adults in 12 rural communities in Missouri, Arkansas and Tennessee showed that lack of sidewalks for walking or biking or just few places available to be active has made people perceive their community unpleasant for physical activity.

"It's not that people don't want to get physical activity or eat healthy foods, but we've made it difficult in many communities," said Brownson. "People in small towns spend a great deal of time in cars, and they also may not have easy access to fresh fruits and vegetables in their markets," Brownson added.

During the study, the researchers asked the participants about their access to produce and low-fat foods, frequency and location of food shopping and frequency and location of restaurant dining. They also were asked how they perceived their community for physical activity.

The findings revealed that respondents who ate out often, especially at buffets, cafeterias and fast food restaurants, were more likely to be obese. Rural adults have higher levels of obesity and are less active in their leisure time than urban and suburban U.S. adults, said Brownson. Those with a high school education or less reported limited access to fruits and vegetables and were more likely to shop at convenience stores.

"Although obesity rates are higher in rural areas, this is one of the first studies to look at food choices and exercise in this population," says Alicia Casey, first author of the paper and now a doctoral student in health communications at Penn State University. "Determining how much these factors increase the risk of obesity in rural areas can help us determine methods to help this group," he added.

ref: thetimesofindia

Bone drug can fight breast cancer - 3

Specialists took issue with a separate analysis of that study, which hinted at a bigger benefit from starting on Femara. And pooled results of prior studies involving 20,000 women suggest that any such advantage is very small.

"At this point in time, there is a slight increase in survival in patients treated with AIs but it is not statistically significant," said that study's leader, Dr. James Ingle of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

"The only really fair interpretation is that all of these are the same," and that women should include one at some point in their treatment as guidelines now recommend, Winer said.

About 90,000 women in the United States and many more worldwide each year face this decision, and key issues are cost and side effects.

Both drugs can cause hot flashes. Tamoxifen raises the risk of endometrial cancer and blood clots. The aromatase inhibitors can cause more bone loss, vaginal dryness, problems having sex, joint pain and muscle aches.

"Many of us think that overall, they're drugs that are a little harder to take," Winer said of the newer drugs.

"When you put it all together it's almost a balancing act," depending on each woman's health history and risks, said Dr. C. Kent Osborne, a breast cancer specialist at Baylor College of Medicine ghelaniin Houston. The San Antonio Breast Cancer symposium is sponsored by the American Association for Cancer Research, Baylor and the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

ref: thetimesofindia