Americans still not eating enough fruits and vegetables, according to two recent studies
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“Eat your vegetables” has been heard at the dinner tables of America for a long time. Has the message gotten through? Since 1990 the Dietary Guidelines for Americans has recommended consuming at least two servings of fruits and three servings of vegetables daily. However, two studies published in the April issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine clearly show that Americans are not meeting the mark. This is a serious public health concern because consuming a diet high in fruits and vegetables is associated with decreased risk of obesity and certain chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and some cancers.
Researchers from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and the Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology, and Clinical Research in Baltimore analyzed NHANES data (National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys) to determine trends over time for fruit and vegetable consumption among American adults.
Salt consumption falling but still 50 per cent higher than advised
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Salt consumption in Britain has dropped but is still on average 50 per cent higher than the recommended amount, new research claims. Tests on 1,287 adults showed their average salt intake was 9g per day compared to 9.5g when tests were done in 2001.
But consumption is still higher than the Government’s national target of 6g per day, the Food Standards Agency said.
Spirituality increases as alcoholics recover
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For decades, recovering alcoholics and those who treat them have incorporated spirituality into the recovery process — whether or not it’s religious in nature. But few research studies have documented if and how spirituality changes during recovery, nor how those changes might influence a person’s chance of succeeding in the quest for sobriety.
Now, a new study from researchers at the University of Michigan Addiction Research Center sheds light on this phenomenon. In the March issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, they show that many measures of spirituality tend to increase during alcohol recovery. They also demonstrate that those who experience increases in day-to-day spiritual experiences and their sense of purpose in life are most likely to be free of heavy drinking episodes six months later.
In preeclampsia, researchers identify proteins that cause blood vessel damage
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Proteins released by the placenta may damage blood vessels in women with preeclampsia (PE), according to an abstract presented by Yale School of Medicine researchers at the Society for Gynecologic Investigation Conference March 17 in Reno, Nevada.
In PE, a complication of pregnancy linked to life-threatening increases in high blood pressure after 20 weeks of gestation, it has long been recognized that substances called “microparticles” released by the placenta damage maternal blood vessels. Researchers at Yale, led by Seth Guller, sought to detect whether specific proteins were found in microparticles.
Liverpool to trial new pancreatic cancer therapy
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Patients in Liverpool are to trial a new therapy for pancreatic cancer – a disease which sees most sufferers die within a year of diagnosis.
One of the 10 most common cancers in the UK, it is among the most difficult to diagnose and treat and kills around 7,000 people each year. There are very few early symptoms so most patients present late and only around 15% are suitable for surgery.
The Phase III TeloVac trial has been designed by the Pancreatic Cancer Clinical Sub-Group of the UK National Cancer Research Institute and will be run by Cancer Research UK’s Liverpool Cancer Trials Unit.
Incidence of Fatty Liver Disease rises as obesity in children increases
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Indiana University School of Medicine researchers are taking a closer look at a disease whose incidence is rising as obesity in children increases. Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis, more popularly known as Fatty Liver Disease, occurs in approximately 15% of obese children. Fatty Liver Disease, in which fat accumulates in the liver, while not life threatening in children, can lead to cirrhosis (scarring) of the liver, sometimes requiring transplantation by adulthood.
“Until now the only treatment for Fatty Liver Disease has been to offer diet and exercise counseling, but this is often not effective. As part of a national multicenter research network, we are now looking at Vitamin E and at metformin, a drug used to treat Type II diabetes, as possible therapies” said Jean Molleston, M.D., clinical professor of pediatrics at IU School of Medicine and director of pediatric gastroenterology at Riley Hospital for Children. Dr. Molleston is the pediatric principal investigator for the IU School of Medicine site of TONIC, an eight-center Phase III study funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease, which is investigating treatment options for Fatty Liver Disease in 8 to 17 year olds and is the largest study of its type to date.
Study challenges idea that schizophrenia is distinct in developing and developed regions
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Research by the World Health Organization (WHO) has suggested that the course and symptomatic expression of schizophrenia is relatively more benign in developing societies. However, a new study from Current Anthropology challenges this assumption, comparing biological and cultural indicators of schizophrenia in urban, Western societies with study data from the island of Palau, which has one of the highest rates of schizophrenia diagnosis in the world today.
“A 1% average worldwide population prevalence of schizophrenia is routinely interpreted in the medical literature as implying a uniform distribution,” write Roger J. Sullivan (California State University, Sacramento), John S. Allen (University of Southern California), and Karen L. Nero (University of Canterbury, New Zealand). “In this sense, the 1% figure is a myth that conceals considerable variability in actual prevalence between settings.”
Hearing loss: Is there a cure?
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How do you protect your ears from abuse in our increasingly noisy world? And once the damage is done, can you fix it? Jeremy Laurance sounds out the facts
Deafness, unlike blindness, has always been a bit of a joke. The flesh-coloured box behind the ear emitting periodic whistling sounds is, like the mother-in-law often found wearing it, easily mocked. Embarrassment and denial are the first reactions of those losing their second most important sense. As a result, most people are ignorant about the causes of hearing loss - and the cures.
Last week, the Government published new guidance to the NHS advising it to set up one-stop shops to speed up the assessment and fitting of hearing aids and to use the private sector to help tackle demand. But there is little guidance for individuals on how to protect their hearing and, when protection fails, how to navigate a market in which hearing aids range in price from less than £300 to almost £3,000.
Emergency Medicaid for Immigrants Goes to Childbirth
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An analysis of state Emergency Medicaid spending contradicts assumptions about emergency care provided to recent immigrants, researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Carolinas Center for Medical Excellence have found.
The study appears in the March 15 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Dr. Annette DuBard, a research associate at UNC’s Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, will present the results Tuesday (March 13) at a JAMA media briefing on access to care at the National Press Club.
Many Parents Want Distance Between Own Kids and Those With Mental Illness
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New research suggests that Americans are more likely to socially reject children with mental illness than they are those with physical illnesses such as asthma.
“Many respondents did not want their children to become friends with other kids identified as having mental illnesses or have them come over to spend an evening socializing,” said Jack Martin, Ph.D., lead study author.
Middle-Aged Adults Most Likely to Use Complementary Medicine
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Even though older adults generally have poorer health, middle-aged adults are most likely to turn to complementary and alternative medicine, a new study shows. The study also found that adults of different races or ethnic backgrounds use these self-care methods in similar proportions.
“You’d expect that older adults and ethnic minorities would be the greatest users of complementary and alternative medicine because they tend to have more illness and relatively less money and often hold different beliefs about medicine. But, in fact, they don’t,” said lead author and sociologist Joseph Grzywacz, Ph.D.
Heart attack patients with financial barriers have poorer recovery and quality of life
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About one in five heart attack patients report having financial barriers to health care services, and these patients are more likely to have a lower quality of life and increased rate of rehospitalization, according to a study in the March 14 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on access to care.
Harlan M. Krumholz, M.D., S.M., of the Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn., presented the results of the study today at a JAMA media briefing on access to care at the National Press Club.
Stress and nerve cells survival in rats; finding may open widow for depression treatment
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A single, socially stressful situation can kill off new nerve cells in the brain region that processes learning, memory, and emotion, and possibly contribute to depression, new animal research shows.
Researchers found that in young rats, the stress of encountering aggressive, older rats did not stop the generation of new nerve cells—the first step in the process of neurogenesis. But stress did prevent the cells, located in the hippocampus, from surviving, leaving fewer new neurons for processing feelings and emotions. The hippocampus is one of two regions of the brain that continues to develop new nerve cells throughout life, in both rats and humans. The reduction of neurogenesis could be one cause of depression, says senior author Daniel Peterson, PhD, of the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, near Chicago. His team reports their findings in the March 14 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience.
Diabetes: a growing problem in newly-rich Asia
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A cheese burger one day, lasagna the next and chicken nuggets instead of a bowl of noodles.
Across the continent, a newly-affluent Asian middle class is splurging after centuries of deprivation, shaking off a diet traditionally high in vegetables and rice and low in meat and opting instead for food loaded with saturated fat.
Transcendental meditation may aid heart failure
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People with heart failure may be able to improve their mental and physical health with the help of transcendental meditation, preliminary research suggests.
In a study of 23 African Americans with mild to moderate heart failure, researchers found that those who learned the transcendental meditation (TM) technique made gains in their ability to exercise, as well as improvements in their quality of life and depression symptoms.
