Increased
intakes of vitamin B6 and riboflavin (B2) are associated with a 20% reduction
in the risk of colorectal cancer, says a new study.
Monday, January 7, 2013
Low vitamin D tied to lower birthweight babies.
Vitamin D status has been linked to birth weight.
Women deficient in vitamin D early in their pregnancies
are more likely to deliver babies with lower birth weights, University of
Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health research reveals.
The research team discovered that mothers with levels
of vitamin D in their blood of less than 0.015 parts per million (37.5 nmol/L
or 14.8 ng/ml) in their first 26 weeks of pregnancy delivered babies who
weighed an average of 46 grams less than their peers. Only full-term babies -
those delivered between 37 and 42 weeks of pregnancy - were included in the
study.
In addition, women who were vitamin D deficient in the
first trimester of pregnancy - 14 weeks or less - were twice as likely to have
babies who fell in the lower 10th percentile for weight when compared to other
full-term babies born in the same week of pregnancy, a condition known as
"small for gestational age."
Babies born small for gestational age are at five to
10 times greater risk for death in their first month and have a higher risk of
chronic diseases, such as heart disease, hypertension and type 2 diabetes,
later in life.
Results from this study - one of the largest studies
to examine a mother's vitamin D levels and their relationship with birth
weights - show that clinical trials to determine if you can improve birth
weights by giving women of reproductive age vitamin D supplements may be
warranted.
Vitamin D is unique in that our bodies can make it
from sunlight, though it also is in fortified foods, such as milk and orange
juice, and can be taken as a supplement.
The study used a random sample of 2,146 pregnant women
who participated in the Collaborative Perinatal Project, which was conducted in
12 U.S. medical centers from 1959 to 1965. The blood samples collected by the
project were well-preserved and able to be tested for vitamin D levels half a
century later.
"Although the blood samples were in remarkably
good condition, it would be beneficial to repeat our study in a modern
sample," the researcher said. "Today women smoke less, weigh more,
have less sun-exposure and get more vitamin D in their foods - all things that
could impact their vitamin D levels and babies' birth weights."
Maternal vitamin D deficiency could cause low birth
weight by inhibiting the typical increase in calcium absorption by pregnant
women, which could reduce fetal bone growth. It also could lead to a decrease
in the hormones necessary to produce the glucose and fatty acids that provide
for fetal energy needs.
Source: Journal of Clinical Endocrinology &
Metabolism, online December 2012
Women: Walk away your risk of stroke.
Women who
walk at least three hours every week are less likely to suffer a stroke than
women who walk less or not at all, according to new research from Spain.
Women
who walked briskly for 210 minutes or more per week had a lower stroke risk
than inactive women but also lower than those who cycled and did other
higher-intensity workouts for a shorter amount of time.
The results
for women who were regular walkers translated to a 43 percent reduction in
stroke risk compared to the inactive group.
Each
year in the U.S., about 795,000 people suffer a stroke, according to the American
Heart Association. Put another way, one American has a stroke every 40 seconds
and dies from one every four minutes.
Despite
a recent dip in strokes attributed to better blood pressure control and
anti-smoking campaigns, the World Health Organization (WHO) predicts that
stroke cases will increase as the global population continues to grow older.
Guidelines
set by the WHO and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend at
least 150 minutes - or two-and-a-half hours - of moderate exercise such as
brisk walking each week.
Source: Physical Activity and Risk of Cerebrovascular Disease in the
European Prospective Investigation Into Cancer and Nutrition-Spain Study
Study: Soda and Sugar Drive Obesity
New research powerfully implicates soda and other sugary drinks as culprits in the obesity epidemic.
A huge, decades-long study involving more than
33,000 Americans has yielded the first clear proof that drinking sugary
beverages interacts with genes that affect weight, amplifying a person’s risk
of obesity beyond what it would be from heredity alone.
This means that such drinks are especially harmful
to people with genes that predispose them to weight gain. And most of us have
at least some of these genes.
In addition, two other major experiments have
found that giving children and teens calorie-free alternatives to the sugary
drinks they usually consume leads to less weight gain.
Collectively, the results strongly suggest that
sugary drinks cause people to pack on the pounds, independent of other
unhealthy behavior such as overeating and getting too little exercise,
scientists say.
That adds weight to the push for taxes, portion limits
like the one just adopted in New York City, and other policies to curb
consumption of soda, juice drinks and sports beverages sweetened with sugar.
Soda lovers do get some good news: Sugar-free
drinks did not raise the risk of obesity in these studies.
“You may be able to fool the taste” and satisfy a
sweet tooth without paying a price in weight, said an obesity researcher with
no role in the studies, Rudy Leibel of Columbia University.
The studies were being presented Friday at an
obesity conference in San Antonio and were published online by the New England Journal of Medicine.
The gene research in particular fills a major gap
in what we know about obesity. It was a huge undertaking, involving three
long-running studies that separately and collectively reached the same
conclusions. It shows how behavior combines with heredity to affect how fat we
become.
Having many of these genes does not guarantee
people will become obese, but if they drink a lot of sugary beverages, “they
fulfill that fate,” said an expert with no role in the research, Jules Hirsch of Rockefeller University in New York. “The sweet
drinking and the fatness are going together, and it’s more evident in the
genetic predisposition people.”
Sugary drinks are the single biggest source of
calories in the American diet, and they are increasingly blamed for the fact
that a third of U.S. children and teens and more than two-thirds of adults are
obese or overweight.
Consumption of sugary
drinks and obesity rates have risen in tandem —both have more than doubled since
the 1970s in the U.S.
In one study, researchers randomly assigned 224
overweight or obese high schoolers in the Boston area to receive shipments
every two weeks of either the sugary drinks they usually consumed or sugar-free
alternatives, including bottled water. No efforts were made to change the
youngsters’ exercise habits or give nutrition advice, and the kids knew what
type of beverages they were getting.
After one year, the sugar-free group weighed more
than 4 pounds less on average than those who kept drinking sugary beverages.
“I know of no other
single food product whose elimination can produce this degree of weight
change,” said the study’s leader, Dr. David Ludwig
of Boston Children’s Hospital and the Harvard School of Public Health.
The weight difference between the two groups
narrowed to 2 pounds in the second year of the study, when drinks were no
longer being provided. That showed at least some lasting beneficial effect on
kids’ habits. The study was funded mostly by government grants.
A second study involved 641 normal-weight children
ages 4 to 12 in the Netherlands who regularly drank sugar-sweetened beverages.
They were randomly assigned to get either a sugary drink or a sugar-free one
during morning break at their schools, and were not told what kind they were
given.
The studies “provide strong impetus” for policies urged
by the Institute of Medicine, the American Heart Association and others to
limit sugary drink consumption.
The genetic research was part of a much larger set
of health studies that have gone on for decades across the U.S., led by the
Harvard School of Public Health.
Researchers checked for 32 gene variants that have
previously been tied to weight. Because we inherit two copies of each gene,
everyone has 64 opportunities for these risk genes. The study participants had
29 on average.
Every four years, these people answered detailed
surveys about their eating and drinking habits as well as things like smoking
and exercise. Researchers analyzed these over several decades.
A clear pattern emerged: The more sugary drinks
someone consumed, the greater the impact of the genes on the person’s weight
and risk of becoming obese.
For every 10 risk genes someone had, the risk of
obesity rose in proportion to how many sweet drinks the person regularly
consumed. Overall calorie intake and lifestyle factors such as exercise did not
account for the differences researchers saw.
This means that people with genes that predispose
them to be obese are more susceptible to the harmful effects of sugary drinks
on their weight, said one of the study leaders, Harvard’s Dr. Frank Hu. The opposite also was true — avoiding these
drinks can minimize the effect of obesity genes.
“Two bad things can act together and their
combined effects are even greater than either effect alone,” Hu said. “The flip
side of this is everyone has some genetic risk of obesity, but the genetic
effects can be offset by healthier beverage choices. It’s certainly not our
destiny” to be fat, even if we carry genes that raise this risk.
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Vitamin D Linked to Lower Rates of Tooth Decay
According to Dr. Michael Holick, professor of medicine at the Boston University Medical Center, "the findings from the University of Washington reaffirm the importance of vitamin D for dental health." He said that "children who are vitamin D deficient have poor and delayed teeth eruption and are prone to dental caries."
The vitamin D question takes on greater importance in the light of current public health trends. Vitamin D levels in many populations are decreasing while dental caries incidence is increasing.
Parents may increase vitamin D levels in children through the use of supplemental cod-liver oil or other products containing the vitamin.
Folate and Vitamin B-12 Linked to Depression
A low intake of folate and vitamin B12 is linked to a greater risk of melancholic depressive symptoms. Typical depressive symptoms are associated with melancholic depression, such as a depressed mood. Folate helps produce chemicals that control brain functions, such as sleep, mood, and appetite, and can be found in foods like green vegetables. Vitamin B12 is also a water soluble vitamin and it plays a crucial role in the function of the brain, nervous system, and formation of red blood cells.The results from the study showed the subjects with the highest folate intake had a 50% lower risk for melancholic depressive symptoms, compared to those with the lowest intake. And the people who had the highest vitamin B12 levels had a 3 times lower risk for melancholic depressive symptoms than those with the lowest levels.
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