Alcohol can cut risk of men's heart problem

Good morning friends. Most men usually drink alcohol. Even young ones do that. Some parents advice their children especially boys that they should not get use to drink alcohol as it is bad in the body. But there is a study that alcohol can cut risk of men’s heart problem.

Alcohol lovers have now one more excuse to say 'cheers' every day, as a new research said it can cut the risk of heart problems by almost a third in men.

The Spanish research involving more than 15,500 men and 26,000 women found that those who have about four to ten units a day can apparently even halve their risk – regardless of whether they opt for beer, wine or spirits.

Women can get some benefits too, said the study published in Heart journal, although more testing is needed.

The research involved men and women aged between 29 and 69, who were asked to document their lifetime drinking habits and followed for 10 years.

Crucially the research team claim to have eliminated the "sick abstainers" risk by differentiating between those who had never drunk and those whom ill-health had forced to quit.

This has been used in the past to explain fewer heart-related deaths among drinkers on the basis that those who are unhealthy to start with are less likely to drink, the BBC reported.
The exact mechanisms are as yet unclear, but it is known that alcohol helps to raise high-density lipoproteins, sometimes known as good cholesterol, which helps stop so-called bad cholesterol from building up in the arteries.

The study was conducted in Spain, a country with relatively high rates of alcohol consumption and low rates of coronary heart disease.

However, British experts warn the claims must not be seen as a green light to over-indulge.
Cathy Ross, of the British Heart Foundation, said:

"While alcohol could offer limited protection to one organ, abuse of it can damage the heart and other organs, such as the liver, pancreas and brain."

Robert Sutton, professor of surgery at Liverpool University, said the study had "several flaws" and must not be taken to mean high levels of alcohol can improve health.

They warned that heavy drinking can increase the risk of other diseases, as alcohol responsible for 1.8 million deaths globally per year. – Indian Express

Vitamin C helps stop diabetes damage

Good morning friends. Diabetes patient should not worry this time. Researchers found the Vitamin C helps stop diabetes damage.

Harold Hamm Oklahoma Diabetes Center researchers have found a link between taking vitamin C with insulin and stopping blood vessel damage caused by type 1 diabetes.

While neither therapy produced desired results when used alone, the combination of insulin to control blood sugar together with the use of Vitamin C, stopped blood vessel damage caused by the disease in patients with poor glucose control, said researchers. – The Times of India

The findings appear this week in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.

"We had tested this theory on research models, but this is the first time anyone has shown the therapy's effectiveness in people," said Michael Ihnat, Ph.D., principal investigator and a pharmacologist at the OU College of Medicine Department of Cell Biology. Ihnat said they are now studying the therapy in patients with Type 2 diabetes.

The goal of the work being done by Ihnat and British scientists from the University of Warwick led by Dr. Antonio Ceriello is to find a way to stop the damage to blood vessels that is caused by diabetes. The damage, known as endothelial dysfunction, is associated with most forms of cardiovascular disease such as hypertension, coronary artery disease, chronic heart failure, peripheral artery disease, diabetes and chronic renal failure.

By reducing or stopping the damage, patients with diabetes could avoid some of the painful and fatal consequences of the disease that include heart disease, reduced circulation and amputation, kidney disease and diabetic retinopathy, which can lead to blindness.

Insulin and many other drugs have long been used to control blood sugar, but Ihnat - in an earlier project with scientists in Italy and Hungary - found that cells have a "memory" that causes damage to continue even when blood sugar is controlled. By adding antioxidants like Vitamin C, Ihnat found that cell "memory" disappeared and cell function and oxidation stress were normalized.

"We have speculated that this happens with endothelial dysfunction, but we did not know until now if it was effective in humans. We finally were able to test it and proved it to be true," Ihnat said.

"For patients with diabetes, this means simply getting their glucose under control is not enough. An antioxidant-based therapy combined with glucose control will give patients more of an advantage and lessen the chance of complications with diabetes," the expert added. While researchers do suggest diabetic patients eat foods and take multivitamins rich in antioxidants like Vitamin C, they warn that additional study is needed.