Chemical Attraction

Breast Density and Breast Cancer
Compared with women who had fatty breasts, women with denser breasts were more likely to have first-degree relatives with breast cancer, according to a study in the April 2 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The genes that determine a woman's breast density may also determine her risk of breast cancer. The genes that account for the association between breast density and breast cancer risk have yet to be identified.

Vegetarian Diet Reduces Cholesterol
Cholesterol level may be lowered by a third with a vegetarian diet that combines "heart healthy" foods, including soy and soluble fiber, according to a study presented at a meeting of the American Heart Association, at Miami Beach, Fl.  Studies suggested that certain plant foods were especially good at lowering cholesterol. A Canadian team created a diet called Portfolio diet that combined some of those foods.  It includes daily okra, eggplant and Metamucil.  Preliminary results suggested that the diet worked about as well as the statin drugs.  The diet is based on a low-fat vegetarian regimen that emphasizes foods shown to be beneficial individually, soy, soluble fiber, plant sterols and almonds.  Sources of soluble fiber include oats, barley, legumes, eggplant, okra and Metamucil. Every meal had soy in some form like soy yogurt or soy milk. A typical breakfast included oat bran, fruit and soy milk. Lunch sometimes involved vegetarian chili, oat bran bread and tomato. A typical dinner had vegetable curry, a soy burger, Northern beans, barley, okra, eggplant, cauliflower, onions and red peppers. Volunteers also received Metamucil three times a day, for soluble fiber from psyllium.  Volunteers had found the diet extremely filling and that several people had stayed on it after the experiment ended. It appears that a Portfolio diet is effective at reducing cholesterol and coronary heart disease risk.  The volunteers were on diets that provided 2,000 calories a day.

According to a study published on April 24th in New England Journal of Medicine, researchers spent 16 years evaluating 900,000 people who were cancer-free when the study began in 1982 and concluded that excess weight may account for 14 percent of all cancer deaths in men and 20 percent of those in women. The study was big enough to back up a fat connection not only in cancers where it has been known for some time, but in eight where it hadn't been widely documented. Earlier studies have found that excess weight contributes to cancers of the breast and uterus, colon and rectum, kidney, esophagus and gall bladder. This one also linked it to cancers of the cervix and ovary, multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkins lymphoma, pancreas, liver, and, in men, the stomach and prostate.

Diet for Future
Perhaps most harmful to future generations are diets low in carbohydrates and high in protein, such as the Atkins diet, says David J.P. Barker, director of the environmental epidemiology unit of the Medical Research Council at University of Southampton in the United Kingdom.  Barker discussed the research council's work at an international biotechnology conference, BioVision 2003, attended by representatives from more than 60 countries. His conclusions were based on preliminary findings from the first five years of an ongoing study of women ages 25-34, their diets and their infants. He found that 40% have "unbalanced and monotonous diets," creating poor metabolic conditions for developing embryos and fetuses. Such diets also may affect the ripening eggs.  The best diets for bearing children who grow up to be healthy include a wide variety of fruits and vegetables and dairy products and a proper balance of proteins and carbohydrates are essential.  For every one serving of protein, a woman needs two servings of carbohydrates to deliver energy to a developing fetus. 

Foods that Lower Prostate Cancer
Men in China have the world's lowest rate of prostate cancer and one of the reasons may be a diet rich in garlic, shallots and onions.
A diet rich in tomato sauce, ketchup and other tomato-based products that contain lycopene also can lower the risk of prostate cancer.
Broccoli and broccoli sprouts contain a chemical that kills the bacteria responsible for most stomach cancers; broccoli also has been shown to reduce prostate cancer.
Edible cranberry-like berries from the autumn olive plant have been found to have up to 18 times more lycopene than tomatoes, and could also be a cancer fighter.
Longtime tea drinking may make bones stronger, and reduce the risk of dying after a heart attack. (See Chemical in Tea  below)

Walking
"If a pill could significantly lower the risk of heart attack, diabetes, stroke, osteoporosis and breast and colon cancer while reducing weight, cholesterol levels, constipation, depression and impotence and also increase muscle mass, flatten the belly and reshape the thighs even as it reduced the risk of age-related dementia and made you better-looking -- and had no negative side effects -- there would be panic in the streets. The American economy would tip into chaos. ... [T]here is no such pill, but a large and growing body of credible research demonstrates that taking a good walk most days of the week can deliver all of the health benefits cited above and more" (Washington Post). Now instead of lecturing Americans to exercise, health officials are trying different experiments to build fitness back into society, playing music to entice elevator users onto the stairs, starting walk-to-school programs, constructing sidewalks and handing out pedometers. Dr. Julie Gerberding of CDC advised the congressmen to take 10,000 steps a day. However, a study published this month in Heart, a British medical journal, found that only vigorous exercise such as jogging, hiking, climbing stairs, racket sports and swimming seems to make any difference to the risk of early death from heart disease in British men.  The superiority of the vigorous exercise might be due to the fact that it burns more calories than moderate exercise.  Even if high intensity exercise is the best, common sense tells us that any exercise is better than no exercise at all. More than half of the U.S. population gets no exercise or too little exercise to provide any health benefits. Even modest exercise such as walking, golfing or gardening may lower the risk of diseases such as diabetes. HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson on 15th introduced a strategy for developing a national health care system that addresses the prevention and treatment of heart disease and stroke. For more information or for free copies of A Public Health Action Plan to Prevent Heart Disease and Stroke, write to the CDC's National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Division of Adult and Community Health, 4770 Buford Highway NE, MS K-45, Atlanta, GA 30341-3717; call 1-888-232-2306 (toll free inside the United States); e-mail: ccdinfo@cdc.gov; or visit the Web site www.cdc.gov/cvh.

Men, Women and Pain
Sex differences in pain perception have been noted in multiple studies. Women typically displayed lower pain tolerance than men. Some researchers have suggested that men are more motivated to express a tolerance for pain because masculine stereotyping encourages it, while feminine stereotyping encourages pain expression and lower pain tolerance. Men's higher tolerance for pain is not just macho posturing but has a physiological underpinning, suggests a study by the Department of Operative Dentistry at the University of Florida and the Gainesville VA Medical Center in Gainesville, Fla.  The subjects were given a monetary incentive to keep their hand submerged in ice water in the study.  The results are published in the current issue of Psychosomatic Medicine. The researchers point out that psychological factors can influence the association between physiological responses, such as heart rate and blood pressure, and pain responses.

Grpefruit Juice
Naringin is a flavonoid (plant pigment) compound found in grapefruit.  It gives grapefruit its characteristic bitter flavor and is believed to enhance our perception of taste by stimulating the taste buds. Therefore, some people drink a small amount of grapefruit juice before a meal.  Naringin interferes with enzymatic activity in the intestines and slows the breakdown of certain drugs resulting in higher blood levels of the drug. Drugs that are affected by the naringin include estrogen, sedatives, medications for high blood pressure, allergies, AIDS, cholesterol-lowering drugs and calcium channel blockers. The effect of naringin on the metabolism of a drug can increase the drug's effectiveness. However, it can also result in dosages that are too high.  That's why grapefruit is not recommended with any drugs.  According to previous studies found significant increases in caffeine half-life in vivo. However, contrary to the earlier findings, a new study by of South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD, presented at the American Physiology Society (APS) conference, suggest that naringin, when taken in conjunction with caffeine, does not significantly alter caffeine metabolism.  
Atkins Diet
Contrary to the nutritional advice long handed out by major health groups that advocates that a diet relatively low in saturated (animal) fat and high in complex carbohydrates (grains, lentils, vegetables and fruits) for heart health and cancer prevention, the Atkins diet and other similar plans have become extremely popular the past few years, appealing to Americans who love their steak, bacon and eggs but not their fruits and vegetables. Researchers at Stanford and Yale universities reviewed 107 studies that reported data on 94 diet programs involving 3,268 people and concluded that a) people lose weight on low-carb diets because they eat fewer calories and they could be cutting calories in other ways and still lose weight, b) Weight loss was associated with the amount of calories dieters consumed, the time they spent on the diet and how heavy they were at the beginning of the program, and c) low-carb diets failed to reduce blood cholesterol, blood pressure or blood sugar levels and any apparent changes in these measurements are because of weight loss, not because of the carbohydrate restriction, in Journal of the American Medical Association.

Calcium for Adolescent Girls
In a large study the researchers compared groups of girls at comparable age, height, level of maturation, calorie intake and exercise level, they found that girls who consumed more calcium on average weighed less than similar girls who consumed less calcium. It made very little difference if the calcium came solely from dairy products in the diet or from total calcium including supplementation.  The findings were presented at the Experimental Biology 2003 meeting in San Diego, as part of the American Society for Nutritional Sciences program. The amount of fat at the iliac, measured by the skin fold thickness, just above the hipbone near the belly button, is a measure of abdominal fat. An increase in total calcium intake from all sources, including supplementation, was associated with a 0.9 mm lower skin fold and a 2.1 pound lower weight. Fifteen percent of all children and teens in the United States are considered obese. High body fat contributes to many common diseases such as high blood pressure, heart disease, cancer and diabetes. Girls who consumed more and exercised less were heavier and have more body fat.

Magnetic Therapy
The Chinese first advocated the use of magnetic therapy about 2000 years ago.  Paracelsus (1493-1543), a physician and alchemist, concluded that since magnets have the power to attract iron, perhaps they could also attract diseases and leach them from the body.  Today, the magnetic therapy industry generates approximately $500 million in income.  Scientific evidence supporting the efficacy of magnetic therapy is deficient. However, studies suggest that magnetic field therapy can influence physiological processes such as bone formation, action potential generation, edema formation, tumor apoptosis, and cutaneous circulation and blood pressure (in rats).  A new study  presented by researchers from the University of Virginia at Experimental Biology 2003, a meeting sponsored by the American Physiological Society, being held April 11-15, 2003, at San Diego, CA, concluded that static magnetic field (SMF) exposure can have a significant impact on blood flow as well as microvascular tone.

Mechanism of Ejaculation
Rats are different than humans when it comes to sex in some ways.  The male rat can have eight to ten ejaculations over a two hour period, with five minute breaks in between. But, most studies of sexual functioning have used rodents and the results have turned out to work well in humans. Following spinal cord injury that prevents sensation from reaching the brain, humans and other animals remain able to achieve erection and ejaculation upon stimulation. But the location of this spinal ejaculation generator remained a mystery until last year in August Dr. Coolen reported her findings in Science. The lumbar spinothalamic neurons in the lower back because these neurons appeared active only after ejaculation and not during sexual arousal or mounting. When the researchers used a highly selective toxin to destroy the thalamic neurons in adult male rats, they continued their sexual interest and behavior, including penetration of the female. But they no longer had ejaculations, confirming that these were the cells the researchers had been looking for. The lumbar spinothalamic neurons issue sensory signals related to ejaculation that also contribute to mating-induced activation within brain circuits involved in the regulation of motivation and reward, the mesolimbic and mesocortical system. Using neuroanatomical markers and measures of activation of receptors, the researchers were able to show that the brain released various neurochemicals during different stages of sexual behavior. Thirty percent of men experience ejaculatory problems sometime in their lives. At the Experimental Biology 2003 meeting in San Diego, Dr. Lique Coolen reviewed her work in understanding ejaculation and pleasure and reward, key elements in sexual behavior.

Tea Contains a Chemical Defense against Infection
A study reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found in tea a chemical that boosts the body's defense fivefold against disease.  L-theanine was isolated from ordinary black tea. The substance is found as well in green and oolong tea, which also are processed from traditional tea tree leaves.  L-theanine is broken down in the liver to ethylamine, a molecule that primes the response of an immune blood cell called the gamma-delta T cell.  The T cells prompt the secretion of interferon, a key part of the body's chemical defense against infection.  The immune cells in the specimens from tea drinkers secreted five times more interferon than did blood cells from the same subjects before the four weeks of tea drinking.  There was no change in the interferon levels of the coffee drinkers.