New Hope Blog

Obesity linked to quantity of sleep

Getting enough quality sleep can affect your weight and overall heatlh - and so can too much:

People who sleep fewer than six hours a night - or more than nine - are more likely to be obese, according to a new US study that is one of the largest to show a link between irregular sleep and big bellies.

The study also linked light sleepers to higher smoking rates, less physical activity and more alcohol use.

Study Says Celery's Brain-Saving Pigment May Fight Alzheimer's And Multiple Sclerosis

In a study using mice that suggested some plants help protect the brain, luteolin, a chemical in celery, reduced brain inflammation linked to Alzheimer's disease:

[...] The compound, luteolin, has been shown in previous studies to hinder inflammation in cells belonging to the lungs, prostate and gums. In this study, researchers used luteolin to block the inflammatory response of the brain's immune system, opening the door to potential treatments for diseases of the brain.

"When the body's nervous system is stimulated by pathogens, like a typical infection, the immune system conveys a message to the brain," said Rodney Johnson, professor of Animal Sciences and author of the study. "The immune cells located in the brain respond to that signal and produce more inflammatory molecules, which are thought to contribute to the exacerbation of neurodegenerative diseases.

"Luteolin has the ability to inhibit the production of these inflammatory molecules," Johnson said. "This could slow the progression of certain neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's or multiple sclerosis."

Before you go stuffing your face with celery, know that it may not be enough to stave off Alzheimer's. In order to be able to eat enough celery to get to the comparable levels of luteolin used in the study you'd have to take a dietary supplement.

Secondhand Smoke Exposure Can Cause Cell Damage In 30 Minutes

According to CDC data, cigarette smoking is the single most preventable cause of premature death in the United States, with more than 400,000 Americans dying from cigarette smoking each year (one in every five deaths in the United States is smoking related). Exposure to secondhand smoke (or environmental tobacco smoke) causes an estimated 3,000 deaths from lung cancer, alone, among American adults, and according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, exposure to secondhand smoke even for a brief period is injurious to health. They also found that the deleterious effects of the exposure remain in the body for at least 24 hours, much longer than previously thought:

According to the study, a 30-minute exposure to the level of secondhand smoke that one might normally inhale in an average bar setting was enough to result in blood vessel injury in young and otherwise healthy lifelong nonsmokers. Compounding the injury to the blood vessels themselves, the exposure to smoke impedes the function of the body's natural repair mechanisms that are activated in the face of the blood vessels' injury, the researchers report. Many of these effects persisted 24 hours later.

Study findings are reported in the online edition of the "Journal of the American College of Cardiology," and will appear in the Journal's May 6 print issue.

The results showed that brief exposure to real-world levels of passive smoke have strong and persistent consequences on the body's vascular system ...

Continue reading ....

Your Fat Cell Numbers Remain Constant Throughout Your Life

Statistics show that an incredible 65.2 percent of the U.S. population is considered to be "overweight" or "obese." Fat cells have an important physiological role in maintaining triglyceride and free fatty acid levels - as well as determining insulin resistance, and lie behind how you gain and lose weight.

Researchers at the Karolinska Institute, Sweden, in a study published in Nature, report they have demonstrated that we continually create new fat cells to replace those that are breaking down. According to the scientists, obese people produce approximately twice as many new fat cells annually as lean people. They also found that fat cell death happens at twice the rate among obese people, compared to lean people, and even if the obese people they studied lost a significant amount of weight, their total number of fat cells in the body remained constant, even though the size of individual fat cells fell substantially.

[...] It has been generally believed that adult humans cannot create new fat cells. We have thought, until now, that fat cells only and simply increase their fat mass by adding more lipids into fat cells that already exist in order to settle their body weight - this is true, but that is not the end of the story. Research lead by Kirsty Spalding, Jonas Frisén and Peter Arner has recently shown that adult humans constantly produce new fat cells regardless of their body weight status, sex or age.
Peter Arner, Professor, Department of Medicine, Huddinge, said "The total number of fat cells in the body is stable overtime, because the making of new fat cells is counterbalanced by an equally rapid break down of the already existing fat cells due to cell death."

[...] The scientists say the findings of this study could provide a new target for the treatment of obesity. If we can attack the signals and genes in fat cells and control the formation of new such cells we may be able to treat obesity more effective.

Peter Arner said "The results may, at least in part, explain why it is so difficult to maintain the weight after slimming. The new fat cells generated during and after weight reduction need to fill up their lipids rapidly."

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Novel Device Shows Great Potential in Detecting Oral Cancer

Researchers supported by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, part of the National Institutes of Health, report that their initial success using a customized optical device that allows dentists to visualize in a completely new way whether a patient might have a developing oral cancer. The device is called a Visually Enhanced Lesion Scope (VELScope), and it's a simple, hand-held device that emits a cone of blue light into the mouth that excites various molecules within our cells, causing them to absorb the light energy and re-emit it as visible fluorescence. Remove the light, and the fluorescence of the tissue is no longer visible:

Because changes in the natural fluorescence of healthy tissue generally reflect light-scattering biochemical or structural changes indicative of developing tumor cells, the VELScope allows dentists to shine a light onto a suspicious sore in the mouth, look through an attached eyepiece, and watch directly for changes in color. Normal oral tissue emits a pale green fluorescence, while potentially early tumor, or dysplastic, cells appear dark green to black.

Testing the device in 44 people, the results of which are published online in the Journal of Biomedical Optics, the scientists found they could distinguish correctly in all but one instance between normal and abnormal tissue. Their diagnoses were confirmed to be correct by biopsy and standard pathology.

More ...

Every hour every day one person dies of oral cancer in America. Oral Squamous Cell Carcinomas (OSCC) make up over 90% of all oral cancers, and because of its appearance it has been difficult to differentiate from the other relatively benign lesions of the oral cavity. Early OSCC and potentially malignant lesions can appear as a white patch (leukoplakia, or as a reddened area (erythroplakia), or as a red and white (erythroleukoplakia) mucosal change under standard white light examination. However, these cellular changes are often non-detectable to the human eye (even with magnification eyewear) under standard lighting conditions. Often, when the lesion becomes visible, it has advanced to invasive stages. The high mortality rate is directly related to the lack of early detection of potentially malignant lesions. When diagnosis and treatment are performed at or before a Stage 1 carcinoma level, the survival rate is more than 90%.

Clearly, this device can save lives. It belongs in every dentist office and in every ENT office, as well.

Related: More statistical information on oral cancer here ...

Monitor Your Moles For Signs Of Dangerous Skin Cancer

Remember the alphabet. Dermatologists recommend patients consider the letters ABCDE as a guide for self-screening, and have moles exhibiting any of the following characteristics checked out: Asymmetrical shape; border that is irregular; color that is inconsistent within the mole; diameter greater than one-fourth inch; and evolving, or changing in any of the criteria above, or in any other way.

Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States. The two most common types are basal cell cancer and squamous cell cancer, which usually form on the head, face, neck, hands and arms. Another type of skin cancer, melanoma, is less common, but far more dangerous. Recently, the Skin Cancer Foundation recently promoted a simple screen for identifying potentially cancerous lesions such as melanoma: Just look at the moles on your body and note ...

[BAD MARKS AND GOOD: The top left mole is benign, whereas the other three are malignant. And don't look to color as a guide to whether a mole is harmless -- in citing which characteristics to watch, dermatologists emphasize irregularities and changes. - L.A. Times]

Is one different than the others? Has a new one appeared? Some tips to help you decide when to see a dermatologist.

Wondering if you should have that mole on your arm checked out? There have been a few updates on what you should look out for. Most dermatologists now recommend the following:

* Look for "ugly ducklings." The Skin Cancer Foundation recently promoted this simple screen for identifying potentially cancerous lesions: Just look at the moles on your body and note any that look significantly different from the others -- the ugly ducklings. The ugly-duckling approach is based on the fact that most people have stereotypical mole patterns. In some people, they may all appear light brown and flat. In others, they may be darker and raised. Any mole that looks different from the others should be examined by a dermatologist.

* Look for changes. Most melanomas arise out of the blue, not from already-existing moles. Any new skin lesion is reason to head for the dermatologist's office. But some melanomas come from moles gone bad. Any change in the shape, size or color of an existing mole should also be examined.

Continue reading for more tips ...

Dietary Restriction Slows Aging

University of Washington scientists have uncovered details about the mechanisms through which dietary restriction slows the aging process; the take-home message for us is eat less - live longer ...

Chemo Safe For Babies In Treating Breast Cancer In Pregnancy

Facing a diagnosis of breast cancer is challenging enough, but facing breast cancer during pregnancy can be nothing short of devastating, not to mention the matter of wondering if one can have chemotherapy and will the treatment hurt one's baby. However, new research helps to answer these questions, and the findings should serve to reassure patients and their doctors.

In a German study examining outcomes among 122 pregnant breast cancer patients, researchers concluded that pregnant patients can often be treated as aggressively as non-pregnant patients, with little evidence of ill effects to their babies. The health problems reported among the babies during their first month of life were generally minor and outcomes among babies born to mothers who had chemotherapy were similar to those of babies born to mothers who did not. More ...

Researchers: Vitamin D And Calcium Influence Cell Death In The Colon

Scientists at Emory University studying how vitamins and minerals in the diet can stimulate or prevent the appearance of colon cancer have found that supplementing the diet with calcium and vitamin D can influence colon cancer risk. Their findings on biological markers that could influence colon cancer risk will be presented in three abstracts at the American Association for Cancer Research meeting in San Diego:

[...] In a clinical study of 92 patients, supplementing diet with calcium and vitamin D appeared to increase the levels of a protein called Bax that controls programmed cell death in the colon. More Bax might be pushing pre-cancerous cells into programmed cell death, says Emory researcher Veronika Fedirko, who will present her team's results.

[...] Bostick and his colleagues demonstrates in a 200-patient case-control study that high levels of calcium and vitamin D together are associated with increased levels of E-cadherin, which moderates colon cells' movement and proliferation.

[...] A third abstract on the same case-control study to be presented at the same meeting, shows that high levels of iron in the diet are linked to low levels of APC, a protein whose absence in colon cancer cells leads to their runaway growth.

Continue reading: Vitamin D And Calcium Influence Cell Death In The Colon

Fewer Doses Of Radiation Still Effective In Beating Breast Cancer

A revolution in radiotherapy treatment for cancer could be near after 10-year trials showed less radiation delivered in fewer doses is just as effective in preventing return of the disease. An important result of the reduced number of doses and total radiation is fewer long-term side effects on the breast due to hardening (radiation fibrosis), as well as a reduction in shrinkage:

Two trials involving almost 4,500 women with breast cancer found that reducing the overall dose of radiation by 20 per cent and the number of sessions by 40 per cent cut side effects without increasing cancer recurrence. The finding could mean a reduction in the international-standard radiotherapy schedule for early breast cancer, which says that women should receive 50 gray of radiation in 25 equal doses over five weeks. It could also have implications for other cancers of glandular tissue, such as prostate cancer.
In women with breast cancer, radiotherapy is normally given after chemotherapy. The present regime means women must attend hospital five days a week for five weeks, spending an hour or more queuing for the radiotherapy machine, being correctly positioned under it and receiving their daily dose. Women in the two trials, called Start A and B (Standardisation of Breast Radiotherapy Trial), attended clinics three days a week over five weeks with a total dose of between 39 and 41.6 gray, compared with the normal 50 gray.

Five years on, recurrence rates of breast cancer in women on both trials were no different from those who had the standard treatment, but long-term side effects on the breast of hardening (due to fibrosis) and shrinkage were reduced.

Continue reading ...

As is most often the case in early studies, it's too soon to change practice on the basis of just two studies which had followed patients for only five to six years. Longer-term independent research will be needed to support these findings, but the indications for likely success look good - so far.

Mitochondrial Mutations Make Tumors Spread

In a new study published online in Science, researchers shed light on the poorly understood process of metastasis - when a tumor spreads to other organs. They report that mutations in mitochondrial DNA can spur metastasis and that it can be reversed with drugs, at least in mice:

Mitochondria are the tiny organelles inherited from your mom that serve as the cell's powerhouses. They have their own DNA, called mtDNA. Ten years ago, cancer researchers noticed that mtDNA in tumor cells tends to be riddled with mutations--far more than in normal tissues. (This is in part because mtDNA is not packaged in proteins, which makes it more vulnerable to damage.) Some researchers think mtDNA may cause tumors. But others suggest that the mutations are simply a byproduct of the cancer; they note that people with mitochondrial diseases are not particularly cancer-prone, and cancer risk is not inherited maternally, as would be expected for a disease linked to mitochondria.

To explore the role of mtDNA mutations in cancer, Jun-Ichi Hayashi's group at the University of Tsukuba in Japan and collaborators swapped the mtDNA of two types of mouse tumor cells: one that tends to metastasize and another that does not. When they injected these hybrid cells under the skin of mice, the cells grew into tumors that eventually spread to the lungs. Mice that received the mtDNA from metastasizing cells had many more lung tumors than mice that had mtDNA from less metastasis-prone cells, suggesting that mtDNA was indeed the culprit. However, mtDNA did not seem to be involved in primary tumor formation: When the group swapped mtDNA from metastatic cells into normal cells, it did not cause these to form tumors.

Continue reading ...

Compound Found In Plastic Drinking Water Bottles May Alter Gene Expression In Human Breast Cells

Just when you might think it was safe to drink the water in plastic bottles, along comes another chemical called BPA or bisphenol A. Now it looks as though you might want to think twice next time before you leave your plastic water bottle in a hot car, or even drink from a plastic bottle if you're genetically predisposed to breast cancer.

This, after a "Priority Report" in the latest issue of the journal Cancer Research, says that Bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical that leaches into food and beverages from many consumer products, especially plastic water bottles, causes normal, non-cancerous human breast cells to express genes characteristic of aggressive breast cancer cells:

Via ScienceDaily (Apr. 3, 2008) - [...] This new information about bisphenol A (BPA) is timely because the State of California is currently considering placing BPA on the Prop 65 list of hazardous chemicals, and State Senator Fiona Ma has proposed legislation that would ban BPA in products used by children.

The study was done by researchers at the California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute, in collaboration with the Stanford Genome Technology Center.

The findings are significant because BPA is found in many plastic water bottles, in plastic baby bottles, in the lining in food cans, as well as in sealants used by dentists to protect teeth.

"This is a very common compound that most of us are exposed to on a regular basis, often without even being aware of it," says William Goodson, M.D., Senior Clinical Research Scientist at the Institute and lead researcher on the study. "If it's true that exposure to BPA can cause normal, non-cancerous human breast cells to behave in ways that are more characteristic of aggressive breast cancer cells, this is very worrying."

Continue reading: Common Organic Compound Found In Many Household Products May Pose Health Risk To Breast Cells

Remember, the problem discussed here relates to BPA in plastic drinking water bottles, not DHEA or PET, which are not considered present at levels capable of affecting human cells - so far as is presently known.

Green Tea Boosts Antibiotics for Superbugs

There's almost on other food or drink reported to have as many health benefits as green tea. The Chinese have known about the medicinal benefits of green tea since ancient times, and used it to treat everything from headaches to depression. Add the fact that anti-cancer compounds have been found in tea, it is effective in rheumatoid arthritis, lowers high cholesterol levels, helps in cardiovascular disease and improves impaired immune function, and more, and we shouldn't be surprised to find out that green tea boosts antibiotics for superbugs:

Green tea can help antibiotics be three times more effective in fighting drug-resistant bacteria, even superbugs, according to a study by researchers at Alexandria University in Egypt.

Green tea is common in Egypt, and it's likely that many people there drink it while taking antibiotics.Therefore, the researchers wanted to determine if green tea would decrease or increase the effectiveness of antibiotics or have no effect.

"We tested green tea in combination with antibiotics against 28 disease-causing microorganisms belonging to two different classes," Dr Mervat Kaseem, of the university's pharmacy faculty, said in a prepared statement. "In every single case, green tea enhanced the bacteria-killing activity of the antibiotics. For example, the killing effect of chloramphenicol was 99.99 percent better when taken with green tea than when taken on its own in some circumstances."

Kaseem and colleagues also found that green team made 20 percent of drug-resistant bacteria susceptible to cephalosporin antibiotics, an important type of antibiotics to which new drug-resistant strains of bacteria have evolved resistance.

In almost every case and for all types of antibiotics they tested, the researchers found that drinking green tea at the same time as taking the antibiotics appeared to increase the action of the antibiotics and reduce drug resistance in bacteria. In certain cases, even low concentrations of green tea were effective.

The study was to be presented Monday at a meeting of the Society for General Microbiology in Edinburgh, Scotland.

The research team plans to look at other natural herb products such as majoram and thyme to see whether they also contain active compounds which can help in the battle against drug resistant bacteria.

So far, the only negative side effect reported from drinking green tea is insomnia from the relatively low amount of caffeine and theophylline it cotains. However, green tea contains less caffeine than coffee: there are approximately thirty to sixty mg. of caffeine in six - eight ounces of tea, compared to over one-hundred mg. in eight ounces of coffee.

Interestingly, unlike coffee, green tea aids in being tranquil yet alert, relaxed yet focused.

Young Cancer Victim's Dying Wish 'Almost' Fulfilled

This post is a bit of departure from our regular topic here at New Hope Blog, however, given that it's about human compassion and the lack of it, we feel that it's a post that needs to be made.

This very sad story about a little girl with terminal brain cancer has been all over the news, and thanks to the media, Jayci Yaeger's dying wish to see her dad before she died, was partially fulfilled.

She got to see her dad once more before she died, but he was prevented from being with her when she died. While many fought for her wish to be fulfilled, in the end it was a terrible lack of human compassion on the part of prison officials that couldn't find an ounce of human compassion in their hearts so as to allow a little girl and her dad to be together as she took her last breath of life.

Readers may recall that Jayci's dad is serving the final year of a five-year sentence for a drug conviction in a minimum security prison camp in South Dakota, and prison officials had denied her dad's repeated requests to honor the bureau's apparent policy of allowing furloughs and transfers under "extraordinary" circumstances, but was rebuffed time and again and refused a furlough so he could spend more time with Jayci, who suffered from terminal brain cancer.

Finally, after great pressure from the media and under the supervision of prison officials, Jason Yaeger visited Jayci Wednesday for about 20 minutes -- just days before she died:

In a letter to Rep. Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska -- dated Feb. 20 and obtained by ABC News -- a regional director from the Department of Justice wrote that "although Mr. Yaeger believes his daughter's severe medical condition constitutes 'extraordinary justification,' a review of his case reveals this specific request was ... reviewed ... and denied ... because his circumstances were not deemed to rise to the level of extraordinary."

The congressman had requested information about the denials of the furlough or transfer.

Last week, after ABCNEWS.com published a story on Jayci, the Bureau of Prisons released a statement saying that officials there "have reviewed inmate Yaeger's request for a compassionate release and have determined his situation does not meet the criteria."

Jayci, named for her father's initials, had been fighting for her life since she was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 3, seven years ago. But in the last six months, she had taken a severe turn downward.

Doctors declared her condition terminal in October. Last month, they found they couldn't transfer her to a children's hospital closer to her Lincoln, Neb., home because they said she wouldn't survive the trip, Lori Yaeger said.

Jason Charles Yaeger had been allowed three brief supervised visits since the terminal diagnosis in the fall and the visits had prompted remarkable, if short-lived revivals in Jayci's condition, she added.

This brings me to pose a question to that regional director from the Department of Justice who denied Jayci Yaeger's dad permission to be with her when she died: "Please, pray tell, if a little girl's dying wish to see her dad, imprisoned for a non-violent crime and in the last year of his sentence, doesn't rise to the level of extraordinary circumstance, what does?"

Compound Found In Soybeans May Halt Spread Of Prostate Cancer

In a study published in the March 15 issue of Cancer Research, researchers report that genistein, an antioxidant found in soybeans, almost completely prevented the spread of human prostate cancer in mice, and the amount of genistein used in the experiments was no higher than what a human would eat in a soybean-rich diet:

Investigators from Northwestern University found that genistein decreased metastasis of prostate cancer to the lungs by 96 percent compared with mice that did not eat the compound in their chow - making the study the first to demonstrate genistein can stop prostate cancer metastasis in a living organism.

"These impressive results give us hope that genistein might show some effect in preventing the spread of prostate cancer in patients," said the study's senior investigator, Raymond C. Bergan, MD, director of experimental therapeutics for the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University.

"Diet can affect cancer and it doesn't do it by magic," Bergan said. "Certain chemicals have beneficial effects and now we have all the preclinical studies we need to suggest genistein might be a very promising chemopreventive drug."

Bergan and his team have previously demonstrated in prostate cancer cell cultures that genistein inhibits detachment of cancer cells from a primary prostate tumor and represses cell invasion. It does this by blocking activation of p38 MAP kinases, molecules which regulate pathways that activate proteins that loosen cancer cells from their tight hold within a tumor, pushing them to migrate. "In culture, you can actually see that when genistein is introduced, cells flatten themselves in order to spread out and stick strongly to nearby cells," he said.

Continue reading ....

Interestingly, Genistein has been shown to enhance the radiosensitivity of DU145, an androgen-independent human prostate cancer cell line. Most prostate cancers are relatively androgen-dependent at their early stages and respond well with androgen deprivation therapy. However, they will eventually become androgen-independent within several years and refractory to most available therapies.

However, positive-sounding as these results are, one shouldn't begin taking mega doses of genistein. What makes more sense is staying on a low fat, high soy diet which includes tofu, soy milk and eating roasted soy nuts for snacks, and if you are being treated for prostate cancer, consult with your physician before taking any genistein supplements.