USDA plant physiologist Steven Britz and colleagues shone ultraviolet LEDs on growing iceberg lettuce, prompting the leaves to build antioxidant polyphenolic compounds in their outer cells. After 43 hours the plants were noticeably redder, and redness rose with light intensity.
Food Consumer
Food
Gluten-free not great for gut health
A British Journal of Nutrition study from the Spanish National Research Council put ten healthy adults on a gluten-free diet for a month and found E. coli rose, beneficial bacteria such as Bifidobacterium fell, and markers of immune function dropped.
Healthcare
Medical treatment vs medical freedom
Daniel Hauser, 13, who has Hodgkin's lymphoma and refuses chemotherapy citing religious beliefs, missed a court hearing on his welfare. A Minnesota judge issued an arrest warrant for his mother Colleen and ordered the boy into foster care and to a pediatric oncologist.
Miscellaneous
Industry changing credit card bill passes the House
A credit card bill passed the House 90-5. It would make applicants under 21 prove they can repay or find a co-signer, bar rate increases until a payment is 60 days late, hold promotional rates for six months and end fees for online and phone transactions.
Disease
Rapid weight loss may be predictor of dementia
A Neurology study tracked 1,836 Japanese-Americans averaging 72 years old for eight years; 129 developed dementia, and those with lower BMI at the outset were 79% more likely to become ill. An earlier study had found the pre-dementia weight loss only in women.
Food
Excessive cola intake leads to muscle problems
A review in the International Journal of Clinical Practice links drinking 2 to 9 litres of cola a day to hypokalemia, with symptoms from mild muscle weakness to profound paralysis. Patients recovered once they stopped the cola and took potassium; caffeine looks like the main driver.
Miscellaneous
Potential breakthrough for low birth weight babies
Andean women deliver more oxygen through the uterine artery to their fetuses at high altitude than women of European descent, and their babies weigh about 9 ounces more. The findings may help doctors treat pregnancies complicated by poor fetal growth.
Food
Turmeric extract may fight obesity
Tufts researchers fed mice a high-fat diet for 12 weeks with or without curcumin, and the curcumin group gained less weight and carried less fat tissue, which the team attributes to suppressed blood vessel growth in fat. Senior author Mohsen Meydani notes no human studies have been done.
Food
Ginger helps fight chemotherapy nausea
In a University of Rochester study of 644 chemotherapy patients already taking standard anti-nausea drugs, every ginger dose significantly reduced nausea, with the largest reductions at 0.5 and 1.0 grams taken daily for six days starting three days before treatment.
Cooking
Healthy Recipes: Mixed-Vegetable Pasta Salad
A whole-wheat pasta salad tossed with garlic, tomatoes, mushrooms, peppers and shredded zucchini, skipping the usual white-flour pasta, full-fat mayonnaise and heaped salt. It makes 14 servings at about 140 calories each and supplies fiber, B and C vitamins and beta-carotene.
Vitamins
Vitamin D reduces asthma severity
Children hospitalized with asthma problems typically had low blood levels of vitamin D, echoing a 2006 Australian study in which sunlight eased asthma severity in mice. The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology reports maternal supplementation may cut children's asthma risk.
Sci-Tech
ARS preserves plants and animals for future needs
ARS screened tens of thousands of wheat and barley accessions from its National Small Grains Collection to find resistance to the Russian wheat aphid, and breeders used them to develop new varieties. The germplasm system shipped more than 182,800 plant samples worldwide in 2008.
Vitamins
Nutrient protection against arsenic toxicity
Among 165 six-year-olds in Bangladesh, researchers found that shortfalls in folate and the amino acid cysteine may hinder arsenic metabolism, which depends on two methylation steps. The children appeared to metabolize and excrete arsenic more efficiently than adults.
Supplements
Glutamine may help prevent damage by H. pylori
Beth Israel Deaconess and MIT researchers found that mice infected with H. pylori and treated with L-glutamine showed significantly less inflammation, the damage that can lead to chronic gastritis and stomach cancer. Earlier work showed glutamine cuts the bacteria's ammonia.
Heart & Blood
Study: Virus may trigger high blood pressure
Harvard's Clyde Crumpacker found that the herpes virus cytomegalovirus causes lasting inflammation in blood vessels that over time may trigger high blood pressure, and that 30 percent of CMV-exposed mice on a high-fat diet showed atherosclerosis. He suggests antivirals may one day treat it.
Disease
Childhood obesity linked to stress
An Iowa State study of 1,011 low-income adolescents aged 10 to 15 in Boston, Chicago and San Antonio found 47 percent were overweight or obese, rising to 56.2 percent among those facing four or more stressors such as poor grades, aggression, or drug and alcohol use.
Disease
Swine flu continues to spread
The CDC counted 4,714 confirmed H1N1 cases and four deaths across 47 states, and three Queens schools closed. New York's health commissioner said the virus seems to spread faster than seasonal flu but does not appear more severe. WHO reported 7,520 cases in 34 countries.
Other Diseases
Allergy Awareness Week
Food allergies affect 12 million Americans, three million of them children, and the CDC reports peanut allergy among children doubled over a recent five-year period. During Allergy Awareness Week, May 10-16, allergy groups pushed for more research funding.
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