Red wine prevents heart disease

Good morning friends. Many of you out there loves to drink wine. Some don’t make their day not drinking any. For those who were not aware, Red wine now has a good use in our body.

A study claims to have discovered a process inside the human body which gives those fond of this drink a valid reason to say cheers! "It has often been observed that the French do not develop heart disease despite bad eating habits. The consumption of red wine contains a chemical compound resveratrol which is beneficial for the heart and has anti-cancer properties."

"It has been baffling for scientists that under laboratory conditions, resveratrol is required in much higher amounts to show effects similar to what is observed under normal conditions".

"For example, the amount of resveratrol ingested through a glass of wine or a serving of red grapes, another important source of the compound, has not been sufficient to elicit health benefits in studies conducted under laboratory conditions."

"The key to this phenomenon may be found in an enzymatic system present in the red blood cells, known as Plasma Membrane Redox System (PMRS). The resveratrol that is ingested into the body through any source, donates electrons to the PMRS which is present in the red blood cells. These electrons are used by the PMRS to maintain the levels of ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) in the plasma."
"Vitamin C is essential to regenerate Vitamin E which plays a very important role in preventing atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, which in turn gives rise to several diseases related to the heart."

"This phenomenon offers a possible explanation to the health-promoting effects of resveratrol, even when consumed in moderate concentrations. With this, people may also be rest assured that for health benefits, they need not consume large amounts of resveratrol-rich food like red wine, red grapes or pomegranate."

The rate of red blood cell PMRS increases during human aging. "It appears that the increase in PMRS activity is a defense mechanism of the human body to cope with increased oxidative stress during aging. Thus any compound which displays PMRS activating effect has a potential anti-aging effect."

Reference: indianexpress

Women's heart rate helps detect health risks

Measuring a woman's heart rate at rest can help predict her risk of heart attack or dying from heart disease, giving doctors a simple, inexpensive way to monitor health risks. Postmenopausal women who had the highest resting heart rate were 26 per cent more likely to suffer a heart attack or die from cardiovascular disease than those with the lowest rates.

Previous studies have linked resting heart rate to such problems in men but the relationship has been less certain for women, in part because trials did not include enough women to get a statistically significant result.

Heart disease is the world's leading cause of death. It is caused by fatty deposits that harden and block arteries, high blood pressure which damages blood vessels, and other factors.

Resting heart rate measures beats per minute after sitting still to gauge how well the heart works when not stressed. Women with resting heart rates of more than 76 beats per minute were found to be 26 per cent more likely to have a heart attack or die from heart disease than those with heart rates of 62 beats per minute or lower.

"People have to put in perspective that it is not as much as smoking but it is still a clinically meaningful amount."

Researchers compensated for factors known to increase heart attack and disease risk such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, smoking and drinking, and monitored the women for an average of nearly eight years.

Although resting heart rate is usually lower among people who are physically fit. The measurement could help predict heart attack risk for women regardless of how much they exercise. Researchers said they found no correlation between resting heart rate and stroke.

Reference: Indian Express

Tadpoles 'could prevent skin cancer'

Good morning friends. Medicine is the best thing to use for any skin problem. But there is this other way that could prevent it.

Tadpoles could hold the key to developing skin cancer drugs, according to scientists. It has identified a compound which blocks the movement of the pigment cells that give the tadpoles their distinctive markings. It is the uncontrolled movement and growth of pigment cells that causes skin cancer in both humans and frogs. And by blocking their migration, the development and spread of cancerous tumours can potentially be prevented, the scientists have claimed.

The South African clawed frog tadpoles – Latin name Xenopus Laevis – have the same organs, molecules and physiology as humans. The close comparison means the same mechanisms are involved in causing cancer in both Xenopus tadpoles and humans. Until the 1960s, Xenopus Laevis frogs were used as the main human pregnancy test.

There would be a lot of testing to prove this test accurately. It shows that like tadpoles could lead to potential cancer drugs."

photo courtesy: sound waves

Single brain cell can hold memories

Good morning friends. We all know that brain is the most important part of our body. It is the brain who command us what to do. As it is very useful

Individual nerve cells in the front part of the brain can hold traces of memories on their own for as long as a minute and possibly longer.

This is the first time that a study has recognized the specific signal that establishes nonpermanent cellular memory, and revealed how the brain holds temporary information. The new finding has implications for addiction, attention disorders and stress-related memory loss. Permanent memories are known to be stored when the excitatory amino acid glutamate activates in channels on nerve cells in the brain to reorganize and strengthen the cells’ connections with one another.

This process takes minutes to hours to turn on and off and is too slow to buffer, or temporarily hold, rapidly incoming information.

It shows that rapid-fire inputs less than a second long initiate a cellular memory process in single cells lasting as long as minute, a process called metabotropic glutamate transmission.

It has been said that this transmission in the most highly evolved brain region holds moment-to-moment information.

These cellular findings have implications for how the human brain stores rapidly changing information, like the temporary memory a card shark uses when counting cards in a game of Black Jack and, as casinos have figured out. It is the memory that is most sensitive to the disruptive effects of alcohol and noisy distractions.

ref: The times of India

Cleaner air 'adds five months to life

Good morning friends. Many of you didn’t know about Schizophrenia. Some were not aware of what is this and how will it affect our life.

Schizophrenia blurs the line between inner and outer reality, by overstimulating a brain region involved in self-reflection and causing exaggerated focus on self.

The disturbed thoughts, perceptions and emotions that characterise the condition are caused by disconnections among the brain regions that control these different functions. Schizophrenia also involves an excess of connectivity between the so-called default brain regions, which are involved in self-reflection and become active when we are thinking about nothing in particular, or thinking about ourselves. "People normally suppress this default system when they perform challenging tasks. The patients with schizophrenia don't do this.

"We think this could help to explain the cognitive and psychological symptoms of schizophrenia." Research might lead to ways of predicting or monitoring individual patients' response to treatments for this mental illness, which occurs in about one percent of the population. Schizophrenia has a strong genetic component, and first-degree relatives of patients (who share half their genes) are 10 times more likely to develop the disease than the general population. The identities of these genes and how they affect the brain are largely unknown.

The researchers were especially interested in the default system, a network of brain regions whose activity is suppressed when people perform demanding mental tasks. The medial prefrontal cortex and the posterior cingulate cortex, regions are associated with self-reflection and autobiographical memories and which become connected into a synchronously active network when the mind is allowed to wander. I

n the schizophrenia patients, the default system was both hyperactive and hyper connected during rest, and it remained so as they performed the memory tasks. The patients were less able than healthy control subjects to suppress the activity of this network during the task. The less the suppression and the greater the connectivity, the worse they performed on the hard memory task, and the more severe their clinical symptoms.

Pollution could be turning you obese - 2

When activated, RXRs can migrate into the nuclei of cells and switch on genes that cause the growth of fat storage cells and regulate whole body metabolism -- compounds that affect a related receptor often associated with RXRs are now used to treat diabetes.

RXRs are normally activated by signalling molecules found throughout the body.

Taisen Iguchi and Yoshinao Katsu of the Graduate University for Advanced Studies in Japan described how RXRs and related receptors are also strongly activated by tributyltin and similar chemicals.

Tributyltin impairs reproduction in water fleas through its effects on a receptor similar to the RXR. In addition, tributyltin causes the growth of excess fatty tissue in newborn mice exposed to it in the womb.

The effects of tributyltin on RXR-like nuclear receptors might therefore be widespread throughout the animal kingdom.

The rise in obesity in humans over the past 40 years parallels the increased use of industrial chemicals over the same period. Iguchi and Katsu maintain that it is "plausible and provocative" to associate the obesity epidemic to chemical triggers present in the modern environment.

ref: thetimesofindia

Slick shape 'best for health'

Good morning friends. Here’s a good health tips for all of us.
Like it or not, slick shape is the best for health. A new study has found that the type of fat responsible for producing the pear shape showed off by celebrities like Beyonce and Jennifer Lopez can actually protect women from a number of serious diseases.

Researchers at Harvard Medical School have carried out the study and found that buttock and hip fat may help prevent Type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure - but women "with an apple shape" are more prone to diabetes and heart disease.

In fact, the researchers have based their findings on an analysis of laboratory rodents who were injected with hip and buttock fat taken from other mice - they found that the rodents easily lost weight and made better use of insulin.

"The surprising thing was that it wasn't where the fat was located; it's the kind of fat that was the most important variable. "I think it's an important result because not only does it say that not all fat is bad, but I think it points to a special aspect of fat where we need to do more research," lead researcher Ronald said.

However, having an apple shape may be detrimental to health for women. "The apple shape is definitely more dangerous. This is because tummy fat is packed around organs like the liver and the pancreas," said Jeff Halevy, certified fitness coach based in Manhattan.

In fact, being an "apple" isn't necessarily a health deterrent, he says, so long as there aren't any extra pounds on board. Angelina Jolie, Tyra Banks, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Drew Barrymore all have classic apple shapes, he explains, but they're thin so they cover it up.

ref: thetimesofindia