The Telangana Science Journal, June 2005, Issue 90

Contents

Diet and Exercise	Miscellaneous	Recipes	Financial Health
Apples Raisins Cranberry juice Mad Cow Diabetes and Exercise Kids Learn from Parents Three Stages to Obesity Laughter The mind-body connection Ginger	School Children's Physical Activity Genetics of Orgasm for Women PMS and Calcium Viagra for Children Alzheimer's	Summer Rice Salad	Life Insurance

Diet and Exercise

Apples
America's most common apple also may be its most potent. Just don't skimp on the skin. A Canadian government study in Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry that measured the levels of antioxidants in eight varieties of apples found that Red Delicious contain the highest concentrations of the health enhancing chemicals. Red Delicious, which account for 27 percent of U.S. apple production, has more than six times the antioxidants as the bottom-ranked Empire variety. Northern Spy was No. 2, followed by Cortland, Ida Red, Golden Delicious, McIntosh and Mutsu. In every variety tested, the skins of the apples contained substantially higher levels of antioxidants than the flesh. But if you simply can't bear to eat the peel, the sweet-tart Northern Spy ranks No. 1 for antioxidants in flesh alone. Cortland was second, followed by Red Delicious.

Raisins
Five compounds known as phytochemicals in raisins can be beneficial for teeth and gums, according to U.S. researchers, whose work was funded by the California Raisin Marketing Board and was presented at the meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in Atlanta. The five compounds in seedless raisins that might help make teeth and gums healthier are oleanolic acid, oleanolic aldehyde, betulin, betulinic acid and 5-(hydroxymethyl)-2-furfural. Oleanolic acid slowed growth of a bacterium that causes cavities and another that causes periodontal disease. The acid also stopped bacteria from sticking to surfaces, which prevents them from forming plaque.

Cranberry juice
Cranberry juice, which studies have shown may help disrupt bacterial infections of the urinary tract, may also work against gastrointestinal viruses, U.S. researchers at St. Francis College and Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York found in a study funded partly by the Cranberry Institute and the Wisconsin Cranberry Board. The New York researchers treated intestinal monkey rotavirus SA-11 and a batch of goat viruses called reoviruses with a commercially available cranberry juice drink. In the last five years, an increasingly large number of studies have suggested cranberry juice to be an effective commercial product for the reduction of urinary tract infections in women.

Mad Cow
Tests have confirmed mad cow disease in a U.S. cow previously cleared of having the brain wasting illness, the Agriculture Department said on June 24th. It is the second case of mad cow disease in the United States. A third and more sophisticated test on the beef cow suspected of having mad cow disease would have helped resolve conflicting results from two initial screenings, but the U.S. refused to perform it in November.

Diabetes and Exercise
A study published in the June issue of Diabetes Care shows precisely how much exercise it takes to achieve specific gains in blood glucose, blood pressure, total cholesterol and triglyceride levels, along with the average annual medical costs that can be avoided. Researchers from the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Perugia, Italy, found that it took a minimum of walking about three miles per day for otherwise sedentary people with type 2 diabetes to see a significant improvement in health and medical-related expenses over a two-year period. In contrast, people who did nothing over that same time period saw a decline in health and a rise in medical expenses.

Kids Learn from Parents!
Already, the nation has 9 million children ages 6 to 16 who are overweight, according to federal health officials. Overweight children usually grow into overweight adults, at increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, asthma and other disorders. The biggest study ever to track the impact of childhood nutrition education backs a major new government campaign that aims to keep preteens from getting fat by using some of the same tactics through training programs and real-world tips directed at their parents, in the June issue of the journal Pediatrics. For example, eating a healthy breakfast is important for staying fit. Unsweetened whole-grain cereal, like oatmeal, is a go-food choice. Getting grade-school children in the habit of drinking in moderation lowfat milk instead of whole milk, eating an apple a day, or choosing carrot sticks or raisins as an after-school snack makes them more likely to continue those habits when they're old enough to choose foods on their own.

A National Institutes of Health Web site aimed at parents provides education on ways to fight obesity, including such tips as:

Choose food portions no larger than your fist, a growing guide for a growing child. Restaurants almost always serve too much; plan to bring home leftovers.

Make it easier to get healthy snacks and harder to get unhealthy ones. Don't keep chips in the house, but keep a bowl of fruit within reach on the kitchen counter. Choose a checkout line without the candy display.

Limit TV or video games. Don't just sit and watch -- challenge your children to a jumping-jack contest during commercials.

Go on an after-dinner family walk or bike ride; make outdoor play, or visits to gyms or recreation centers, routine.

Three Stages to Obesity
Being born either too big or too small and the early appearance of puppy fat and tubbiness in teenagehood seem to be emerging as important factors influencing how much of a struggle with weight people have as adults, according to experts gathered this month at Europe's annual conference on obesity research. The three stages of childhood considered critical for obesity development outlined at the conference were discussed at the World Health Organization expert meeting in Japan later this month. Many scientists believe that what happens around the time of birth is a particularly important time and that the evidence for this is especially robust.

Studies have shown that babies who are born large are more likely to end up fat as adults. However, being born very small also seems to increase the risk of obesity in adulthood, especially if such infants are then fed intensively to allow rapid growth so that they catch up with their peers. While the small baby problem is mostly one of the developing world, the major issue in wealthier countries is babies being born too big, experts say. Several studies indicate that children who gain weight before gaining height between toddlerhood and school-age seem to have a higher chance of being fat adults. Rapid weight gain due to overfeeding in the first year of life may be particularly risky for later obesity, experts say.

Major studies over the last few years indicate that about one in three children who are fat in early childhood end up as fat adults. Children that get fat before the age of 8 tend to end more severely obese as adults than those who gain their weight afterward.

Laughter
Scientists have found that a good laugh is a calorie burner not to be ignored. It may not be as good for reducing the waistline as going to the gym or resisting that ice-cream sundae, but American researchers have found that 10-15 minutes of genuine giggling can burn off the number of calories found in a medium square of chocolate. The findings on the weight-loss possibilities of the uniquely human experience of laughter were presented at the close of the annual European Congress on Obesity.

The mind-body connection
Constant stress is like a chemical spill in a factory. Your brain is the factory — producing electrical and chemical signals that make your heart pump and your lungs breathe. In a stressful situation, the brain sends out a flood of chemicals to help you react, and then the body recovers quickly. For awhile, the chemical spill is contained. But the chemicals can build up in your system. Faced with prolonged stress, you may start to feel symptoms like headaches, backaches, and shortness of breath. The mind-body connection is powerful, and it's something you have the power to control. So, the next time you go to the doctor, be prepared to talk about what's going on in your mind, not just your body. And do some simple coping strategies to help you beat the stress cycle and reduce the likelihood of expensive stress-related illnesses. http://www.humana.com/visitors/article2_2.asp

Ginger
A recent study found ginger to be effective in decreasing inflammation associated with osteoarthritis. While the data here is not definitive, it is not unreasonable to try fresh ginger or standardized ginger extracts under medical supervision as a complement to other arthritis therapies to enhance their effect. There is little known toxicity if taken in limited amounts.

Turmeric is a natural Cox-2 inhibitor. Turmeric has a good track record in the Indian Continent for several thousand years.

Miscellaneous
School Children's Physical Activity
Physical activity of American children has decreased dramatically in the last 10 to 20 years. School-age children should participate in 60 minutes or more of moderate to vigorous physical activity daily, according to an expert panel. Most of the studies in the literature had children performing 30 to 45 minutes of continuous moderate to vigorous physical activity three to five days per week. To achieve similar or greater benefits in the context of typically intermittent, ordinary daily activities would require a cumulative time of an hour or more. Jumping rope, soccer, basketball, and brisk walking are all examples of moderate to vigorous physical activity. Sedentary children need to increase activity gradually. Restoration of physical education and other school- and community-based programs could contribute mightily to the health of our children and nation. Recommendations of the 13-member panel are published in the June issue of The Journal of Pediatrics.

Genetics of Orgasm for Women
Factors influencing the ability to reach orgasm vary from woman to woman. Psychologically women are more complex sexually. In a new study, one in three women reported never or hardly ever reaching orgasm during intercourse and 21 percent said that they hardly achieve climax during masturbation. Those figures are consistent with other surveys conducted over the last few decades. A woman's ability to have an orgasm partly depends on her genes along with cultural influences, new research suggests. Hopefully, the discovery of genetic elements of sexual function will help scientists find better treatments for sexual problems. The study was reported in Biology Letters. The results were similar to those of a study on Australian twins published earlier this year.

Researchers at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands have used scans to show that different areas of the brain are stimulated during an orgasm but are not activated when a woman fakes it. When women genuinely achieved an orgasm, areas of the brain involved in fear and emotion were deactivated. Those areas stayed alert however when women were faking it. The researchers also found that the cortex, which is linked with consciousness, is active during a fake orgasm but not during the real thing. The brain scans for men during orgasm were less conclusive. But they did show that different parts of the male and female brain are activated and deactivated during sexual stimulation. The researchers found less deactivation in the males in the areas of the brain linked to emotion and fear when they were sexually stimulated.

PMS and Calcium
A study published in Archives of Internal Medicine finds that a diet rich in calcium and Vitamin D appears to help women reduce the risk of PMS symptoms. The findings support earlier research indicating calcium seems to help women cope with PMS. But the new study also suggests that when calcium is combined with enough vitamin D, it may help prevent PMS altogether. Calcium and Vitamin D are available in foods such as milk, cheese, yogurt and fortified orange juice.

Viagra for Children
Children suffering from a rare and fatal lung disease were able to walk farther and breathe easier after taking the impotence pill Viagra, a small study funded by Pfizer published online in the American Heart Association journal Circulation suggests. Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved using the main ingredient in Viagra to treat adults with pulmonary hypertension.

Alzheimer's
No one knows what causes Alzheimer's. But the leading theory is that something spurs abnormal production of a protein called beta-amyloid, which forms clumps that coat and then kill brain cells -- plaque that is the disease's trademark. It already affects 4.5 million people in the U.S. and is predicted to strike 14 million by 2050 as the population ages. Researchers are honing in on lifestyle choices that may help protect the brain in the first place. Among the findings presented in June at the Alzheimer's Association's first Alzheimer's prevention conference:

People who drink fruit or vegetable juice at least three times a week seem four times less likely to develop Alzheimer's than nonjuice drinkers, according to a study of 1,800 elderly Japanese-Americans. The theory is that juice contains high levels of polyphenols, compounds that may play a brain-protective role.

Less education, gum disease early in life, or a stroke were more important than genes in determining who got dementia, concluded a study of 100 dementia patients with healthy identical twins. Education stimulates neuronal growth; gum disease is a marker of brain-harming inflammation.

Decreasing social activity in old age is a risk factor, a National Institute on Aging study suggests. It is not clear if the men in the study became less social because Alzheimer's already was at work, but social activity is mentally stimulating.

An experimental drug called Flurizan is being tested for Alzheimer's. Researchers are planning a study of a therapy called intravenous immune globulin, or IVIG, for Alzheimer's. Immune globulin is a cocktail of antibodies culled from blood donors and given intravenously to treat a variety of immune-related diseases.

As people age, some decline in memory and other brain functions is inevitable. Taking 800 micrograms of folic acid a day slowed that brain drain, reported lead researcher Jane Durga of Wageningen University in the Netherlands. Diet's also important. While Alzheimer's researchers have long recommended a heart-healthy diet as good for the brain, the latest folic acid study is the first to test the advice directly. Previous studies have shown that people with low folate levels in their blood are more at risk for both heart disease and diminished cognitive function. Folate is found in such foods as oranges and strawberries, dark-green leafy vegetables and beans. In the United States, it also is added to cereal and flour products. The recommended daily dose here is 400 micrograms; doctors advise women of childbearing age to take a supplement to ensure they get that much.

There are ways to gird the brain against age-related memory loss and Alzheimer's:
    * Eat oranges, strawberries, dark-green leafy vegetables and beans, and other heart healthy foods. Bad memory is linked to heart disease and diabetes, because clogged arteries slow blood flow in the brain. Eat dark-skinned fruits and vegetables, which are particularly high in brain-healthy vitamins E and C. Harvard researchers found eating dark green leafy vegetables like spinach improves cognitive function. Also, B vitamins and folic acid, found in cereals, breads and fruits like strawberries, are important for brain health. Avoid artery-clogging saturated fat and cholesterol containing foods and try for omega-3 fatty acids, found in flax, urad and nuts.
    * Exercise your brain. Exercise your brain. Nourish it well. And the earlier you start, the better. That's the best advice doctors can yet offer to ward off Alzheimer's disease. Using brain in unusual ways increases blood flow and helps the brain wire new connections. That's important to build up what's called cognitive reserve, an ability to adapt to or withstand the damage of Alzheimer's a little longer. In youth, that means good education. Later in life, do puzzles, learn to play chess, take classes.
    * Stay socially stimulated. Declining social interaction with age predicts declining cognitive function. A healthy brain isn't just an intellectual one. Social stimulation is crucial, too. Don't sit in front of the television. People who are part of a group, whether it's a church or a book club, age healthier.
    * Exercise your body. Bad memory is linked to heart disease and diabetes because clogged arteries slow blood flow in the brain. Getting physical exercise is crucial also. Elderly people who were less mentally and physically active in middle age are about three times as likely to get Alzheimer's as they gray. A study from Sweden found the obese are twice as likely to get Alzheimer's.

Health and Nutrition

Issue 90