A study in The Journal of Clinical Hypertension reports that eating more potassium, and possibly magnesium and calcium, may lower blood pressure and reduce coronary heart disease and stroke risk. Americans eat twice the recommended sodium and half the recommended potassium.
Food Consumer
Cancer
What can you eat to prevent prostate cancer
A roundup of earlier reports on diet and prostate cancer, among them a review of plant-based diets, trials of black tea and lycopene, and Japanese research finding men who drank five or more cups of green tea a day were 48% less likely to develop advanced disease.
Nutrition
10 people killed by new CJD-like disease
Pierluigi Gambetti's US prion surveillance centre has identified 16 Americans, 10 of them already dead, with a fatal dementia resembling Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Unlike known disease-causing prions, theirs break down when proteases attack. He suspects earlier cases passed as other dementias.
Cooking
Healthy Recipes: Bean and Cheese Quesadilla
An AICR recipe for four: mashed pinto beans and reduced-fat Monterey Jack folded into whole-wheat tortillas, topped with a salsa of corn, red bell pepper, red onion, cilantro, jalapeno and lime juice. 350 calories and 11 grams of fiber per serving.
Environment
Cell phone users at higher risk of tumors
An American Journal of Epidemiology study of 402 benign and 58 malignant parotid gland tumours in Israel found people who used cell phones more than 22 hours a month had a 50 percent higher risk, with tumours more often on the side the phone was held.
Vitamins
Low vitamin D linked to high risk of premature death
Among 3,258 Austrian patients followed 7.7 years, those with the lowest blood vitamin D levels were about twice as likely to die of any cause, including heart disease, as those with the highest. Nearly 23 percent of participants died, most from cardiovascular causes.
Drug
Melanoma rates on the rise among young women
Federal researchers analysing cancer data from 1973 to 2004 found melanoma in younger women rose 50 percent after 1980 while young men's rates leveled off. They could not explain the gap and speculate recreational sun exposure or tanning beds may be responsible.
Other Diseases
Eating too much soy may cause memory loss
A study of 719 elderly Indonesians found eating tofu at least once a day was linked to worse memory, especially after age 68, while fermented tofu was linked to better memory. Researchers suspect phytoestrogens, though formaldehyde used to preserve tofu may play a part.
Dining
Slow eating cuts calorie intake: Study
In a study of 30 women in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Ana Andrade's team at the University of Rhode Island found that chewing each bite 20 to 30 times cut intake by 70 calories compared with eating the same pasta lunch nonstop.
Disease
Obesity may lower men's fertility
Among 2,037 men at the Aberdeen Fertility Centre, those with a normal body mass index produced more semen and more normal sperm than overweight or obese men, researchers reported in Barcelona. Dr. Ghiyath Shayeb suggests men hoping to conceive lose some weight first.
Drug
Thousands of adverse reactions to cervical cancer vaccine reported
Media reports say thousands of adverse reactions to Merck's Gardasil have reached the CDC since June 2006, including 15 reports of death, with no proof the vaccine caused them. Reported problems include injection-site pain, nausea, blood clots and paralysis from a neurological disorder.
Drug
Hormone therapy for prostate cancer does more harm than good
A JAMA review of nearly 20,000 men over 65 with early stage prostate cancer found hormone therapy raised deaths from other causes, such as heart disease, offsetting its survival benefit. The authors say monitoring is the better option; the therapy still helps advanced disease.
Drug
FDA: Antibiotics raise tendon rupture risk
The FDA asked makers of fluoroquinolone antibiotics, including Cipro, Levaquin, Avelox, Factive, Floxin and Noroxin, to add a boxed warning about tendinitis and tendon rupture. Risk runs highest over age 60, on corticosteroids, and after kidney, heart or lung transplant.
Vitamins
Mother's prenatal vitamin D levels affect baby's dental health
Among 206 pregnant Manitoba women, only 21 had adequate vitamin D in the second trimester. Of 135 infants examined, 21.6 percent had enamel defects and 33.6 percent had early childhood tooth decay, and their mothers had lower vitamin D levels during pregnancy.
Cooking
Healthy Recipes: Sweet and Sour Veggies
A five-minute stir-fry of yellow bell pepper, broccoli and cole slaw mix in a soy, vinegar and cornstarch sauce, from AICR, which notes that cruciferous vegetables supply compounds linked to lower cancer risk. Six servings at 60 calories each.
Phytochemicals
Resveratrol may prevent breast cancer
In laboratory tests, resveratrol at 10 umol/L, roughly the amount in a glass of red wine, suppressed the formation of estrogen-DNA adducts, an early step researchers link to breast cancer. Lead author Eleanor Rogan believes this could stop the progression before it starts.
Chemical
Study: Ingestion of trans-fatty acids does not affect insulin sensitivity
French researchers fed rats diets with 4 percent of calories from industrial or dairy trans fat for eight weeks and found neither impaired insulin sensitivity or muscle mitochondrial capacity. Because the work was done in rats, it does not establish that trans fat is harmless to people.
Sci-Tech
Tomato vaccine may prevent Alzheimer's disease?
Mice fed tomatoes engineered to carry beta-amyloid produced antibodies to the protein after a booster dose, Korean researchers report in Biotechnology Letters. They saw no reduction in existing brain plaques and call the transgenic-plant method a novel route to an oral vaccine.
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