Is heart disease genetic destiny or lifestyle?
Two studies confirm a healthy lifestyle has biggest impact on cardiovascular health
Northwestern University: Is cardiovascular health in middle age and beyond a gift from your genes or is it earned by a healthy lifestyle and within your control?
Two large studies from Northwestern Medicine confirm a healthy lifestyle has the biggest impact on cardiovascular health. One study shows the majority of people who adopted healthy lifestyle behaviors in young adulthood maintained a low cardiovascular risk profile in middle age. The five most important healthy behaviors are not smoking, low or no alcohol intake, weight control, physical activity and a healthy diet. The other study shows cardiovascular health is due primarily to lifestyle factors and healthy behavior, not heredity.
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Why chocolate protects against heart disease
Linköping University: Cacao has a protective effect against cardiovascular disease, several studies have shown. The cause has now been made clear by researchers at Linköping University. When a group of human test subjects got to munch on a hearty portion of dark chocolate, an enzyme in the body that contributes to increasing blood pressure was inhibited.
Behind the study, the results of which are now being published in the Journal of Cardiovascular Pharmacology, is a group of medical researchers under the leadership of Ingrid Persson.
“Earlier, we showed that green tea inhibits the enzyme ACE, which is involved in the body’s fluid balance and regulation of blood pressure. Now, we wanted to study the effects of cacao, since the active substances catechins and procyanidins are related,” says Persson.
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Soy may stop prostate cancer spread
Northwestern University: Northwestern Medicine researchers at the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University have found that a new, nontoxic drug made from a chemical in soy could prevent the movement of cancer cells from the prostate to the rest of the body.
Genistein, a natural chemical found in soy, is being used in the lab of Raymond Bergan, M.D., the director of experimental therapeutics at the Lurie Cancer Center, to inhibit prostate cancer cells from becoming metastatic and spreading to other parts of the body. So far the cancer therapy drug has worked in preclinical animal studies and now shows benefits in humans with prostate cancer.
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The ultimate Twinkie diet
CNN.com : Mark Haub, a professor of human nutrition at Kansas State University, ate a “convenience store diet” that helped him shed 27 pounds. Haub limited himself to 1,800 calories and two-thirds come from junk food. Haub said it’s too early to draw any conclusions about diet, but wanted to prove that in weight loss, pure calorie counting is what matters most — not the nutritional value of the food.
Soy isoflavones may modify risk of breast cancer
American Association for Cancer Research: Increased phytoestrogens commonly found in dietary soy may modify the risk of some types of breast cancer, according to findings presented at the Ninth Annual AACR Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research Conference, held Nov. 7-10, 2010.
“This study was unique in that we looked at specific subtypes of breast cancer, and found a suggestion that menopausal status may play a role in risk,” said Anne Weaver, a graduate student at the University at Buffalo and research apprentice at Roswell Park Cancer Institute.
Weaver and colleagues evaluated 683 women with breast cancer and compared them with 611 healthy women. Dietary data patterns were observed using a food frequency questionnaire and isoflavones were measured as a dietary, rather than supplemental, intake. Isoflavone intake was divided into three groups.
Those women with the highest isoflavone intake had an approximately 30 percent decreased risk of having an invasive breast tumor, and an approximately 60 percent decreased risk of having a grade 1 tumor.
Observations by menopausal status revealed the following: Among premenopausal women, the highest intake of isoflavones had a 30 percent decreased risk of stage I disease, a 70 percent decreased risk of having a tumor larger than 2 cm, and a 60 percent decreased risk of having stage 2 breast cancer. These connections were not seen among postmenopausal women.
Like most dietary studies, Weaver said these findings are not definitive and need to be considered in the context of further follow-up and confirmation.
“Still, we definitely saw a reduction that deserves further investigation,” she said.
Canola-type rapeseed oil reduces the level of fibrinogen, a cause of thrombosis and inflammation
University of Helsinki: According to research on fatty acids conducted at the universities of Helsinki and Tampere, the consumption of canola-type rapeseed oil decreases the level of fibrinogen detrimental to health in the body. The increased fibrinogen level, caused by an imbalance in essential fats in one’s diet, decreases when saturated fatty acids are replaced with rapeseed oil. The research results were published in the journal Prostaglandins, Leukotrienes and Essential Fatty Acids.
A complex state of balance, the haemostatic balance, prevails in the bloodstream. One player in this balancing act is fibrinogen, the single most important blood coagulation factor. A high level of fibrinogen promotes the creation of thrombosis and maintains inflammation within the body. An increase in the fibrinogen level is closely linked with, for example, cardiovascular disease, strokes, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
The new research demonstrates for the first time that an increase in the fibrinogen level of the blood is largely caused by the lack of omega-3-alpha-linolenic acid in the diet. When there is too little of this beneficial fatty acid found in one’s diet, an imbalance between fatty acids in the body is created. When the omega-3-alpha-linolenic acid level is too low, the body starts to manufacture more harmful omega-6-arachidonic acid out of the omega-6-linoleic acid, creating hormone-like compounds that cause thrombosis and inflammation. According to the researchers, the fat composition of rapeseed oil is optimal with regard to fatty acids essential to the body and consequently is well-suited to reduce the fibrinogen levels in the blood.
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Olive oil protects liver
BioMed Central: Extra-virgin olive oil can protect the liver from oxidative stress. Researchers writing in BioMed Central’s open access journal Nutrition and Metabolism exposed rats to a moderately toxic herbicide known to deplete antioxidants and cause oxidative stress, finding that those rats fed on a diet containing the olive oil were partially protected from the resulting liver damage.
Mohamed Hammami from the University of Monastir, Tunisia and King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, worked with a team of researchers to carry out the experiments in a group of 80 rats. He said, “Olive oil is an integral ingredient in the Mediterranean diet. There is growing evidence that it may have great health benefits including the reduction in coronary heart disease risk, the prevention of some cancers and the modification of immune and inflammatory responses. Here, we’ve shown that extra virgin olive oil and its extracts protect against oxidative damage of hepatic tissue.”
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