Curry spice 'kills cancer cells'

An extract found in the bright yellow curry spice turmeric can kill off cancer cells, scientists have shown.

The chemical - curcumin - has long been thought to have healing powers and is already being tested as a treatment for arthritis and even dementia.

Now tests by a team at the Cork Cancer Research Centre show it can destroy gullet cancer cells in the lab.

Cancer experts said the findings in the British Journal of Cancer could help doctors find new treatments.

Dr Sharon McKenna and her team found that curcumin started to kill cancer cells within 24 hours.

'Natural' remedy

The cells also began to digest themselves, after the curcumin triggered lethal cell death signals.

Dr McKenna said: "Scientists have known for a long time that natural compounds have the potential to treat faulty cells that have become cancerous and we suspected that curcumin might have therapeutic value."

Dr Lesley Walker, director of cancer information at Cancer Research UK, said: "This is interesting research which opens up the possibility that natural chemicals found in turmeric could be developed into new treatments for oesophageal cancer.

"Rates of oesophageal cancer have gone up by more than a half since the 70s and this is thought to be linked to rising rates of obesity, alcohol intake and reflux disease so finding ways to prevent this disease is important too."

Each year around 7,800 people are diagnosed with oesophageal cancer in the UK. It is the sixth most common cause of cancer death and accounts for around five percent of all UK cancer deaths.

Exercise is good medicine for lymphoma patients

A healthy dose of exercise is good medicine, even for lymphoma patients receiving chemotherapy, University of Alberta researchers have found.

The Healthy Exercise for Lymphoma Patients (HELP) trial, a three-year study led by Kerry Courneya, Canada Research Chair in physical activity and cancer in the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation, found that a regimen of aerobic exercise training produced significant improvements in physical functioning and overall quality of life benefits in patients with lymphoma.

Researchers recruited 122 patients with Hodgkin's and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, then stratified participants by disease type and treatment status; whether they were undergoing chemotherapy at the time or receiving no treatments. Participants were randomly assigned to an exercise program designed to maximize cardiovascular fitness or to usual care, which did not include an exercise component.

Exercisers trained three times a week for 12 weeks and were encouraged to stay the course with behavioural support techniques that included perks like free parking, a well-equipped gym, flexible exercise schedules, variation in exercises, follow-up phone calls reminders and positive reinforcement by staff.

Lymphoma patients who received the exercise intervention reported significantly improved physical functioning, overall quality of life, less fatigue, increased happiness, less depression and an improvement in lean body mass. Cardiovascular fitness in the exercise group improved by over 20 per cent. The group receiving chemotherapy benefited as much as the group that was off treatments.

Perhaps most importantly, says Courneya, was that the vigorous intensity exercise program did not interfere with lymphoma patients' ability to complete their chemotherapy treatments or benefit from the treatments. He found that 46.4 per cent of patients in the exercise group had a complete response to their treatment (no evidence of disease) compared to only 30.8 per cent in the usual care group. Courneya cautions that the trial was not designed to look at this issue, but it at least suggests that lymphoma patients can achieve important health and quality of life benefits from exercise during treatment without worrying about compromising their treatment outcomes.

Krill oil safe, well tolerated and effective, says study

Daily supplements of omega-3-rich krill oil is a safe and effective way of increasing levels of EPA and DHA, says a new study from Aker Biomarine.

Four weeks of krill oil supplementation raised levels of EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) in overweight and obese men and women with “no indication of adverse effects on safety parameters”, report researches in Nutrition Research.

The study is an important support of the safety and efficacy of an ingredient increasingly used to enrich food and supplements with omega-3 fatty acids. The research used Aker Biomarine’s Superba krill oil ingredient, and the study was financed by the Norwegian company.

Demand for krill oil, rich in omega-3, phospholipids and antioxidants, is reportedly increasing. The overall European market for omega-3 from all sources is growing at 24 per cent and forecast to be valued at $1.6bn by 2014, according to some market estimates. Another player, Enzymotec, recently announced a capacity expansion for its krill oil in order to meet growing customer demand for the product.

Krill, which means 'whale food' in Norwegian, are small shrimp-like marine crustaceans eaten by fish, birds and, in particular, whales.

Krill are considered to have the largest biomass of any multi-cellular animal in the world - between 100 and 800 million tones. Despite this, the population has reduced in the past 30 years, resulting in some concern over its harvesting.

Safe and bioavailable

Led by Kevin Maki from Provident Clinical Research, the researchers recruited 76 overweight and obese men and women to take part in their randomized, double-blind parallel arm trial.

Participants were randomly assigned to receive capsules containing 2 grams per day of krill oil, fish oil (menhaden), or control oil (olive) for four weeks.

At the end of the time, the researchers report that levels of EPA and DHA concentrations increased significantly more following krill oil supplementation than following menhaden or olive oil supplementation. Indeed, EPA and DHA levels rose by an average 178 and 90 micromoles per litre of plasma, respectively, in the krill oil group, compared to 132 and 150 micromoles per litre of plasma in the menhaden group, and only 3 and -1.1 micromoles in the olive oil group.

Regular exercise may help battle the flu

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Regular exercise may help reduce the misery of the flu by boosting the immune system's response to the virus, a study in mice hints.

Studies have suggested that people who exercise moderately suffer fewer and less severe colds and flu infections than couch potatoes do -- while exhausting workouts may increase a person's vulnerability to these infections.

In theory, the benefits of moderate exercise may stem from its effects on immune defenses. Research has found that exercise boosts activity in various parts of the immune system that help limit a viral attack or help clear an invading virus from the body more quickly.

In the new study, researchers found that when they had a group of mice regularly run on a treadmill over 3.5 months, the animals developed less-severe symptoms when infected with the flu virus, as compared with mice not subjected to the rodent workouts.

In addition, mice that exercised right before flu infection, but not regularly over the preceding months, also showed some protection against severe symptoms -- which in mice means dampened appetite and weight loss.

Those benefits, however, were only apparent in the couple days after infection, whereas regular long-term exercise reduced flu symptoms over the whole course of infection.

Dr. Marian L. Kohut and colleagues at Iowa State University in Ames report the findings in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.

Whether the findings translate to humans is unknown. But they offer possible clues as to why regular exercisers have been found to suffer fewer or at least less-severe respiratory infections.

Compared with their non-exercising counterparts, mice that exercised showed lower levels of various inflammatory substances in their lungs soon after being infected with the flu virus. Those levels stayed lower in mice that exercised regularly, whereas they rose over the next several days in mice subjected to just one workout.

The regularly exercising mice also showed lower concentrations of virus in their lungs early on.

These findings, Kohut's team writes, suggest that exercise boosts "early innate antiviral defenses" -- though the exact mechanisms remain unclear.

For now, the results offer one more potential reason to get regular moderate exercise.

Eating Right -- Not Supplements -- Is Best At Keeping Your Good Bacteria Healthy, Dietitian Says

Healthy eating, not supplements, is the best way to keep the good bacteria in your gut healthy, says a dietitian and researcher.

As with vitamins, it's best to get the bacteria you need from healthy food rather than taking often expensive and potentially ineffective supplements, says Gail Cresci, Medical College of Georgia dietitian and researcher.

"Consumers are buying stuff like crazy that is probably not even helping them and could potentially hurt them," says Ms. Cresci, assistant professor of surgery at the MCG School of Medicine and winner of the 2009 Excellence in Practice Award for Clinical Nutrition by the American Dietetic Association.

Increasing awareness of the benefit some of these organisms play in sickness and in health has resulted in an explosion of prebiotic and probiotic additives and products marketed directly to consumers. It's also created confusion -- even among nutrition and other health care experts -- about how best to use them, says Ms. Cresci, who prescribes them to help surgery patients recover and works in the lab to learn more about their potential. She discussed the latest findings about their implications for clinical practice at the association's 2009 Food & Nutrition Conference & Expo in Denver, Oct. 17-20.

She equates the good bacterium in your gastrointestinal tract to another living being inside that helps keep you healthy. "If you do good by your bacteria, they will do good by you," Ms. Cresci says.

There are about 800 bacterial species with more than 7,000 strains inhabiting the average gut and even though many sound similar they likely aren't: a little Lactobacillus acidophilus combined with some Lactobacillus bifidus, for example, has been shown extremely beneficial in preventing antibiotic-induced diarrhea while Lactobacillus bulgaricus with some Streptococcus thermophilus is useless.

"You need to be careful," Ms. Cresci says. "You don't just give the same probiotic to try and treat everybody." That's why she lectures to dietitians, physicians and anyone interested in how to make good use of these front-line protectors that attack invaders that enter the body via the mouth and help the immune system keep a more global watch over the body, as well.

There is even mounting evidence that a healthy gut microbiota helps maintain a healthy weight. Studies have shown, for example, that when bacteria from a genetically fat mouse are placed in a lean germ-free mouse, it gains weight without changing its food intake.

Unfortunately poor diets are hurting the bacteria in many of us and the overuse of antibiotics is taking its toll as well, she says, particularly the common, broad spectrum antibiotics that wipe out anything in their path, good and bad bacteria included.

Diarrhea is an extremely common consequence of disturbing the natural balance of your gut's microbiota. In generally healthy individuals, a good diet, rich in fiber, protein and low in fat, will quickly help restore good bacteria. But in older individuals or those with an underlying condition, probiotics may be needed to avoid potentially deadly problems such as overgrowth of bad bacterium like Clostridium difficile. When that bacteria starts to thrive, it can result in an extremely enlarged colon that must be removed and, even then, about 80 percent of patients die.

To avoid such havoc, it's important that you pull the right live bugs off the shelf and that they survive to reach the lower gut, Ms. Cresci says of fragile bacteria that can be lambasted by gastric juices or killed off by even a short-term exposure to ambient heat.

The right combination is essential as well. "A lot of these probiotics have only one bacterium but we have trillions of colony forming units in our gut," she says. There is mounting evidence that one of the best ways to quickly restore the complex gut complement is by using feces from healthy individuals. It's called fecal bacteriotherapy, when feces mixed with a little saline, is given typically via a rectal enema or a nasogastric tube.

The good news is, if you eat right, you likely won't need such extremes.

Promising novel treatment for human cancer -- Chrysanthemum indicum extract

A series of studies have demonstrated that Chrysanthemum indicum possesses antimicrobial, antiinflammatory, immunomodulatory, and neuroprotective effects. Recently, much attention has been devoted to the anticancer activity of Chrysanthemum indicum, especially in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, its anticancer mechanism of action is still not clear and needs further investigation.

A research article to be published on September 28, 2009 in the World Journal of Gastroenterology addresses this question. The research team, led by Prof. Zong-fang Li from the Second Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Xi'an Jiaotong University, investigated the effects of Chrysanthemum indicum extract (CIE) on inhibition of proliferation and on apoptosis, and the underlying mechanisms, in a human HCC MHCC97H cell line.

They examined viable rat hepatocytes and human endothelial ECV304 cells by trypan blue exclusion and MTT assay, respectively, as normal controls. The proliferation of MHCC97H cells was determined by MTT assay. The cellular morphology of MHCC97H cells was observed by phase contrast microscopy. Flow cytometry was performed to analyze cell apoptosis with annexin V/propidium iodide (PI), mitochondrial membrane potential with rhodamine 123 and cell cycle with PI in MHCC97H cells. Apoptotic proteins such as cytochrome C, caspase-9, caspase-3 and cell cycle proteins, including P21 and CDK4, were measured by Western blotting.

The results showed CIE inhibited proliferation of MHCC97H cells in a time- and dose-dependent manner without cytotoxicity in rat hepatocytes and human endothelial cells. CIE induced apoptosis of MHCC97H cells in a concentration-dependent manner, as determined by flow cytometry. The apoptosis was accompanied by a decrease in mitochondrial membrane potential, release of cytochrome C and activation of caspase-9 and caspase-3. CIE arrested the cell cycle in the S phase by increasing P21 and decreasing CDK4 protein expression.

The researchers drew a conclusion that CIE exerted a significant apoptotic effect through a mitochondrial pathway and arrested the cell cycle by regulation of cell cycle-related proteins in MHCC97H cells without an effect on normal cells. The cancer-specific selectivity shown in their study suggests that the plant extract could be a promising novel treatment for human cancer.

Green tea may ease mental distress: Study

Drinking five cups of green tea per day may reduce the incidence of psychological distress by 20 per cent, says a new study from Japan.

In a study with 42,093 Japanese individuals 2,774 people, or 6.6 per cent of the study population, suffered from psychological stress, and green tea consumption was said to improve psychological well-being.

According to WHO estimates, more than 450 million people suffer from stress worldwide, with 17 per cent of Europeans stating that stress is the most important risk factor to health. The related costs of stress estimated at €20bn in Europe (WHO) and $200bn in the US (International Labor Office).

Researchers led by Atsushi Hozawa from the Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine report their findings online in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Green tea and its extracts already have a positive reputation, with studies reporting they may offer protective effects against Alzheimer's and certain cancers, improve cardiovascular and oral health, and play a positive role in weight management.

Despite reports already stating that green tea or its constituents might reduce psychological stress, no large-scale study has evaluated the relationship between green tea consumption and psychological distress, said the researchers.

After adjusting their results for potential confounding factors, including age, sex, history of disease, BMI, alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking, diet, and other factors, a significant inverse association between green tea consumption and psychological distress was observed for people who drank at least five cups of green tea per day, compared to those who drank less than one cup per day.

Being an epidemiological study, the authors could not offer any evidence as to what the active constituents behind the apparent benefits could be. Further study is needed to elucidate the bioactives and mechanism of action.

The four primary polyphenols found in fresh tealeaves are epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), epigallocatechin (EGC), epicatechin gallate (ECG), and epicatechin (EC).

Omega-3 may protect healthy men from chest pains

Increased intakes of omega-3 fatty acids EPA, DPA, and DHA may protect men against acute coronary syndrome (ACS), says a new study.

The heart health benefits of omega-3 fatty acids are well-documented, being first reported in the early 1970s by Jorn Dyerberg and his co-workers in The Lancet and The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. To date, the polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) have been linked to improvements in blood lipid levels, a reduced tendency of thrombosis, blood pressure and heart rate improvements, and improved vascular function.

The new study, published in the British Journal of Nutrition, reported that increased intakes of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), docosapentaenoic acid (DPA), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) may reduce the risk of acute coronary syndrome (ACS), an umbrella term for a range of symptoms including unstable angina and chest pains.

The Danish Diet, Cancer and Health cohort study involved 57,053 men and women. During an average follow-up time of almost eight years, 1,150 people developed ACS. Men who consumed more than 0.39 grams of PUFAs per day had an associated risk of ACS 27 per cent lower than men who consumed less than 0.39 grams per day.

When the researchers looked at individual omega-3 fatty acids, they did note negative association for EPA, DPA and DHA, but these were considered “less consistent”.

No benefits were observed for women, noted the researchers.

“We found borderline significant negative associations between the intake of marine omega-3 PUFA and ACS among healthy men,” they concluded.

Half a gram needed for heart benefits?

Earlier this year, a ‘state-of-the-art’ review concluded that the science behind the cardiovascular health benefits of omega-3 fatty acids supports recommended daily levels of 500 mg.

Parents can help their children grow to love vegetables

Mitchell Collins is only 4, but he's a burgeoning gourmet.

At an age when many toddlers subsist on macaroni and pizza, Mitchell loves hummus, peas and cottage cheese. He snacks on tomato and cucumber salads. And he begs for his dad's zucchini bread, made from vegetables Mitchell helped grow.

He hasn't always had such a good appetite, says his dad, Chuck Collins.

At 2, Mitchell ate no vegetables and got most of his calories from milk, formula and grits, Collins says. That changed when Mitchell began attending an Omaha child-care center, where children learn about nutrition along with the ABCs.

Toddlers there help tend a 60-foot table garden — watering, weeding and picking vegetables that they serve and eat together. Teachers don't force kids to clean their plates. But they do require children to taste everything, by asking for a "No-thank-you bite" when they don't want a full portion, Collins says.

"They eat stewed green tomatoes because they grew them," says pediatrician Laura Jana, owner of the Primrose School of Legacy and co-author of the American Academy of Pediatrics' Food Fights. "I didn't do that well with my own kids."

With one in three children overweight or obese, experts say it's never too early to help kids learn healthy eating habits.

Emerging research now suggests that parents can begin to shape a child's palate even in the womb, says Stanford University pediatrician Alan Greene, author of Feeding Baby Green, published this month.

A healthful 'imprint'

Babies actually have more taste buds before birth than at any other time of life. They can detect subtle flavors from their mothers' diet through their amniotic fluid, Greene says. These early exposures create a lasting "imprint" on children's tastes, Greene says. One study showed that babies of women who drank carrot juice while pregnant were more likely than others to enjoy carrots when they were 6 months old.

Infants are surprisingly adventurous from the age of 6 months to 13 months, a critical time for the formation of their future preferences. They can learn to like almost anything, although it may take six to 10 tastings, Greene says.

Yet few parents make the most of this crucial window. Research shows that 94% of parents give up offering new foods after only five tries, Greene says. While children's diets have improved modestly in recent years, a new study of kids under age 4 shows that nearly a third eat no vegetables a day.

Introducing new flavors and textures gets harder as kids grow. After age 2 or 2½, when food preferences solidify, it could take 90 attempts to get a child to like something new — at least until puberty, when some kids rediscover their love for new things, Greene says.

Picky eaters often develop bad habits, filling up on familiar fast foods instead of eating more wholesome family meals, Greene says. That helps explain a worrisome trend: Nearly 25% of our meals today come from fast food, compared with 10% of meals two decades ago, Jana says.

Many parents don't realize the problem with letting babies have sweets. "If you start potato chips and sweets early, then everything else will taste bland," says Atlanta pediatrician Jennifer Shu, co-author of Food Fights. "It trains their taste buds."

Everyone wins

With so many temptations, parents who want to raise healthy eaters need to expose their children to the sights, smells and feel of vegetables early and often, Greene says. He encourages parents to take children to farmers markets, letting them hold lumpy sweet potatoes and smell ripe peaches.

Preparing homemade baby food with a food grinder is far cheaper than buying jarred foods, says Greene, who carries a small food mill to show parents how to do it.

Because these purees taste more like the "real" food eaten by adults, they help babies make the transition eating a family meal, says Annabel Karmel, author of Top 100 Baby Purees.

"We're conditioning our children to like something that doesn't taste like real food," she says. "Parents think they're saving time, but they're really causing themselves trouble down the line."

Like the kids in Jana's child-care center, children are more willing to try something if they've had a hand in preparing it, Karmel says.

Training toddlers to enjoy the family meal also saves parents time in the long run, because it keeps them from becoming short-order cooks, Greene says.

"Every bite of food is either an investment in your child's body, or a debt that we'll have to repay somehow," Greene says. Teaching children to love healthy food, he says, "is such a wonderful gift for the rest of their lives."

Chinese herbs show promise for diabetes prevention

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A number of traditional Chinese herbs may help control blood sugar levels in people at high risk of diabetes, a new research review suggests.

The review, which examined 16 clinical trials of 15 different herbal formulations, found that the herbs generally helped lower blood sugar levels in people with "pre-diabetes" -- those with impaired blood-sugar control that can progress to full-blown type 2 diabetes.

When the researchers pooled data from eight of the studies, they found that adding an herbal remedy to lifestyle changes doubled the likelihood of participants' blood sugar levels returning to normal.

What's more, people using the remedies were two-thirds less likely to progress to diabetes during the studies, which ran for an average of nine months.

The findings appear in the Cochrane Library, which is published by the Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates medical research.

The results, say the researchers, are "quite promising." However, they also stress that the studies had shortcomings in their methods that make it hard to draw firm conclusions.

"There are a lot of herbal medicine products on the shelves, but few have been subjected to a rigorous trial," lead researcher Suzanne J. Grant, of the Center for Complementary Medicine Research at the University of Western Sydney, in Australia, told Reuters Health in an email.

Many of the trials her team examined, she explained, had a "high risk of bias" that can overestimate the effects of the treatments.

The gold standard for proving a treatment's efficacy is a clinical trial where participants are randomly assigned to receive either the real treatment or a placebo, with both the researchers and participants unaware of who is taking the real drug.

Grant's team found that those processes were often absent or not clearly detailed in the trials they reviewed.

So, she said, there is still a need for more rigorous trials before any herbal product can be recommended for diabetes prevention.

The studies included a total of 1,391 men and women with either impaired glucose tolerance or impaired fasting glucose -- problems in blood-sugar control that lead to sugar levels that are elevated, but not high enough to diagnose diabetes.

The studies tested various Chinese herbal mixes traditionally used for blood-sugar control -- products like Jiangtang Bushen, Xiaoke huaya and Tang Kang yin.

In most trials, the products were added to lifestyle changes and tested against the effects of lifestyle changes alone -- though the specific changes were not detailed in most reports.

Grant suggested that if people with pre-diabetes do want to try an herbal product, they first consult their doctor and, ideally, take any herbs under a guidance of a health provider qualified in herbal medicine.