Breast milk - Best for infant’s

Breast milk - Best for infant’s

Scientists at the University of Illinois have discovered why breast milk is better than infant formula.

"For the first time, we can see that breast milk induces genetic pathways that are quite different from those in formula-fed infants. Although formula makers have tried to develop a product that’s as much like breast milk as possible, hundreds of genes were expressed differently in the breast-fed and formula-fed groups," said Sharon Donovan, a U of I professor of nutrition.

Although both breast-fed and formula-fed babies gain weight and seem to develop similarly, scientists have known for a long time that breast milk contains immune-protective components that make a breast-fed infant’s risk lower for all kinds of illnesses, she said.

"The intestinal tract of the newborn undergoes marked changes in response to feeding. And the response to human milk exceeds that of formula, suggesting that the bioactive components in breast milk are important in this response. What we haven’t known is how breast milk protects the infant and particularly how it regulates the development of the intestine," she said.

Understanding those differences should help formula makers develop a product that is more like the real thing, she said. The scientists hope to develop a signature gene or group of genes to use as a biomarker for breast-fed infants.

Many of the differences found by the scientists were in fundamental genes that regulate the development of the intestine and provide immune defence for the infant.

In the study, Donovan used a new technique to examine intestinal gene expression in 22 healthy infants—12 breast-fed, 10 formula-fed.

The technique involved isolating intestinal cells shed in the infants’ stools, then comparing the expression of different genes between the two groups. Mothers in the study collected fecal samples from their babies at one, two, and three months of age. Scientists were then able to isolate high-quality genetic material, focusing on the RNA to get a gene expression or signature.

Donovan said that intestinal cells turn over completely every three days as billions of cells are made, perform their function, and are exfoliated. Examining the shed cells is a non-invasive way to examine intestinal health and see how nutrition affects intestinal development in infants.

Understanding early intestinal development is important for many reasons, she said.

The study will appear in the June 2010 issue of the American Journal of Physiology, Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology .

Infants learns while sleeping

Infants learns while sleeping

Sleeping newborn infants are better learners than previously thought, according to a University of Florida researcher.

The boffin’s study could lead to identifying those at risk for developmental disorders such as autism and dyslexia.

“We found a basic form of learning in sleeping newborns, a type of learning that may not be seen in sleeping adults,” said Dana Byrd, a research affiliate in psychology at UF who collaborated with a team of scientists.

The findings give valuable information about how it is that newborns are able to learn so quickly from the world, when they sleep for 16 to 18 hours a day, Byrd said. “Sleeping newborns are better learners, better ‘data sponges’ than we knew,” she said.

In order to understand how newborns learn while in their most frequent state, Byrd and her colleagues tested the learning abilities of sleeping newborns by repeating tones that were followed by a gentle puff of air to the eyelids. After about 20 minutes, 24 of the 26 babies squeezed their eyelids together when the tone was sounded without the puff of air.

The research team’s paper, published online this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, describes the results of their experiment with the 1- or 2-day-old infants, comparing them with a control group using EEG and video recordings. The brain waves of the 24 infants were found to change, providing a neural measurement of memory updating.

“While past studies find this type of learning can occur in infants who are awake, this is the first study to document it in their most frequent state, while they are asleep,” Byrd said. “Since newborns sleep so much of the time, it is important that they not only take in information but use the information in such a way to respond appropriately.”

Not only did the newborns show they can learn to give this reflex in response to the simple tone, but they gave the response at the right time, she said.

Learned eyelid movement reflects the normal functioning of the circuitry in the cerebellum, a neural structure at the base of the brain.

This study’s method potentially offers a unique non-invasive tool for early identification of infants with atypical cerebellar structure, who are potentially at risk for a range of developmental disorders, including autism and dyslexia, she said.

The capacity of infants to learn during sleep contrasts with some researchers’ stance that learning new material does not take place in sleeping adults, Byrd said.

The immature nature of sleep patterns in infants could help explain why, she said.

“Newborn infants’ sleep patterns are quite different than those of older children or adults in that they show more active sleep where heart and breathing rates are very changeable,” she said. “It may be this sleep state is more amenable to experiencing the world in a way that facilitates learning.”

Breast cancer Fight with Plums

Breast cancer Fight with Plums

Peach and plum extracts can help fight breast cancer cells, according to lab tests at Texas AgriLife Research.

AgriLife Research scientists say two phenolic compounds are responsible for the cancer cell deaths in the study, which was published in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry. The phenols are organic compounds that occur in fruits. They are slightly acidic and may be associated with traits such as aroma, taste or color.

"It was a differential effect which is what you're looking for because in current cancer treatment with chemotherapy, the substance kills all cells, so it is really tough on the body," said Dr. David Byrne, AgriLife Research plant breeder who studies stone fruit. "Here, there is a five-fold difference in the toxic intensity. You can put it at a level where it will kill the cancer cells - the very aggressive ones - and not the normal ones."

Byrne and Dr. Luis Cisneros-Zevallos originally studied the antioxidants and phytonutrients in plums and found them to match or exceed the blueberry which had been considered superior to other fruits in those categories.

"The following step was to choose some of these high antioxidant commercial varieties and study their anticancer properties," Cisneros-Zevallos said. "And we chose breast cancer as the target because it''s one of the cancers with highest incidence among women. So it is of big concern."

Cisneros-Zevallos, an AgriLife Research food scientist, said the team compared normal cells to two types of breast cancer, including the most aggressive type. The cells were treated with an extract from two commercial varieties, the "Rich Lady" peach and the "Black Splendor" plum.

"These extracts killed the cancer cells but not the normal cells," Cisneros-Zevallos said.

A closer look at the extracts determined that two specific phenolic acid components - chlorogenic and neochlorogenic - were responsible for killing the cancer cells while not affecting the normal cells, Cisneros-Zevallos said.

The two compounds are very common in fruits, the researchers said, but the stone fruits such as plums and peaches have especially high levels.

"So this is very, very attractive from the point of view of being an alternative to typical chemotherapy which kills normal cells along with cancerous ones," Byrne added.

Loose Weight with Chili peppers

Loose Weight with Chili peppers

Chili peppers contain an ingredient that may cause weight loss and fight fat, scientists have reported.

According to boffins, capsaicin, the stuff that gives chili peppers their kick, may cause weight loss and fight fat buildup by triggering certain beneficial protein changes in the body.

The study, which could lead to new treatments for obesity, appears in ACS' monthly Journal of Proteome Research .

Jong Won Yun and colleagues point out that obesity is a major public health threat worldwide, linked to diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and other health problems. Laboratory studies have hinted that capsaicin may help fight obesity by decreasing calorie intake, shrinking fat tissue, and lowering fat levels in the blood. Nobody, however, knows exactly how capsaicin might trigger such beneficial effects.

In an effort to find out, the scientists fed high-fat diets with or without capsaicin to lab rats used to study obesity. The capsaicin-treated rats lost 8 percent of their body weight and showed changes in levels of at least 20 key proteins found in fat. The altered proteins work to break down fats.

"These changes provide valuable new molecular insights into the mechanism of the antiobesity effects of capsaicin," the scientists say.

Women Must Drink Milk to be Leaner after exercise

A novel research has hailed benefits of drinking milk for women saying that it helps them make stronger if taken after strength-training.

Research conducted by experts at Department of Kinesiology, McMaster University (Mac), Canada and partially funded by Dairy Farmers of Canada found that drinking milk instead of energy drinks after strength-training can work wonders in improving body composition and overall fitness in women.

The Times of India quoted lead researcher Stu Phillips, professor at Department of Kinesiology, Mac as saying, “Resistance training is not a typical choice of exercise for women. But the health benefits of resistance training are enormous.”

“It boosts strength, bone, muscular and metabolic health in a way that other types of exercise cannot,” added Phillips.

Research details
Researchers conducted a 12-week trial on two groups of women who drank either milk or energy drinks post exercise.

Subjects were asked to do exercises like pushing which included bench press and chest fly. Pulling exercises consisted of seated lateral pull down and abdominal exercises without weights, and leg exercises included leg press and seated two-leg hamstring curl.

Training was conducted every day under personal trainers to ensure proper use of technique.

The subjects were asked not to drink or eat anything except water two hours prior to the training.

As soon as the exercises ended, one group consumed half litre fat-free white milk while the other consumed sugary energy drink.

Both groups consumed the same drinks one hour post-exercise also.

Researchers aimed at studying the effects of taking energy drink and milk on weight loss and muscle-building.

Study findings
Study results revealed that women who drank milk post-exercise lost a great amount of fat compared to the other group.

Expressing surprise at the results, Phillips was quoted in Emax Health as saying, “The women who drank milk gained barely any weight because what they gained in lean muscle they balanced out with a loss in fat.”

Researchers stated that regular weightlifting exercises combined with fat-free milk could help women’s physical wellbeing.

The team was uncertain of the causative factors; however, it might be due to vitamin D, calcium and high-quality protein found in milk, stated Phillips.

To verify the study results, researchers are planning a large-scale clinical weight loss trial in women.

The study appears in Medicine and Science in Sport and Exercise.

Wealthy (Higher Income) Group are more Overweighed

According to a novel study, rich men are more likely to be overweight than men of middle or lower income group.

Researchers from Department of Sociology, University of Montreal, Canada found that wealthy men constantly increase their chances of being overweight as they keep on earning more.

Nathalie Dumas, graduate student, University of Montreal and lead study researcher was quoted in Sindh Today as saying, “Many epidemiological studies have established that the odds of being overweight or obese decrease as family income increases.”

“But we don’t know why this relationship is inverted for Canadian men. According to the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS), the richer they are, the fatter they are,” added Dumas.

Epidemiology is the study of factors affecting the health and illness of populations.

Study details

The research team evaluated data of a previous study conducted in 2004 by CCHS.

The CCHS study was based on records of information collected from 7,000 adults in the age group 25 to 65.

After analyzing the data, researchers found that since 1980s a significant increase in obesity levels has been seen among wealthy Canadian and Korean men.

Though the research team is still finding out the appropriate reason, they assumed that it could possibly be due to people’s fondness of ‘eating out’ which in turn, affects their belly.

According to researchers, people who often eat out are not able to control their calorie-intake with not only the food but large amounts of alcohol too.

Besides, reduced physical activity could be another reason for increasing obesity.

Dumas was quoted in The Times of India as saying, “There are obviously various factors at play, we still haven’t empirically proved them.”

Other findings of the study

Comparing the study results of men with those of women, researchers found that women also had the same correlation but findings needed to be confirmed.

“However, women from rich households are less likely to be obese than women of middle or lower income,” The Times of India cited Dumas as saying.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), by 2030, 2.3 billion people will be overweight and 700 million will be obese.

The study findings were presented at the annual conference of Association francophone pour le savoir (ACFAS).

WHO : H1N1 pandemic is not yet over

(Reuters) - The H1N1 pandemic is not yet over although its most intense activity has passed in many parts of the world, the World Health Organization said on Thursday after a review of the flu outbreak by independent experts.

The WHO emergency committee, composed of 15 external advisers, said it remained critical for countries to maintain vigilance concerning the pandemic, including necessary public health measures for disease control and surveillance, WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said in a statement.

"We're still in the pandemic," WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl told Reuters.

Chan said that pandemic flu activity was expected to continue, and the committee would meet again by mid-July to review the status of the outbreak once more data from the winter influenza season in the southern hemisphere was available.

The panel met on Tuesday, but Chan had delayed the announcement until Thursday as the committee, whose members were spread around the world for the meeting by teleconference, put the final touches to the wording of their recommendation.

Chan's decision, based on the committee's recommendation, means that the outbreak, widely known as swine flu, remains at phase 6 on the WHO's pandemic scale, which has been at the top level of 6 since June 2009.

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The next meeting will decide to recommend whether to retain that level, declare the pandemic has passed, or move into a transitional "post-peak" phase.

The U.N. agency's guidance on whether a disease constitutes a pandemic determines how its 193 member governments handle an outbreak, including stockpiling vaccines and antivirals.

WHO experts say that the virus remains a threat to some vulnerable people, notably pregnant women, young children and those with respiratory problems, and such groups would continue to need vaccinations.

"It is predicted that H1N1 will continue to be the primary or overwhelming virus among influenza viruses for quite a while," Hartl said on Tuesday. "Pandemic or no pandemic, H1N1 will still exist. If there is no pandemic, it means that H1N1 is behaving like a normal flu virus."

The WHO has been accused of exaggerating the dangers of the H1N1 outbreak, which emerged in April last year.

Symptoms suffered by most people infected with the virus, have been mild. But WHO experts fear it could spread easily among people if it were to mutate into a more dangerous or lethal form.

Laboratory tests have confirmed more than 18,000 deaths from H1N1 infection, according to WHO figures, but the actual global death toll is much higher and will take at least a year after the pandemic ends to establish.

The virus is currently most active in parts of the Caribbean and Southeast Asia, and activity in Africa is low or sporadic.

The emergency committee has been waiting for signs of how the virus is developing in the southern hemisphere winter before making a full pronouncement on its state.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6521WF20100603