The Latest news about Health matters, taken from the blog entries of the HeWeHap Health reports.
There is more evidence that coffee has a beneficial effect on Alzheimer's disease, at least in mice. Previously research from the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences has suggested a protective effect from caffeine.
The new research from the University of South Florida Health Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center suggests that drinking coffee could reverse memory problems seen in Alzheimer's disease. As little as 5 cups of ordinary coffee (or 2 typical lattes from your local Starbucks) would be equivalent to the dosage given to the mice in the study.
The results seem to even show that a reversal of existing memory failure, a typical symptom of Alzheimer's, could be possible.
The study used 55 mice which had been bred to develop symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. The mice were given tests to confirm they were suffering from memory impairment at the age at which mice become senior citizens - between 18 and 19 months old. Half the mice were given caffeine in their drinking water, the control group were given plain water.
When the test were repeated after two months, the ones who were given the caffeine performed much better on tests measuring their memory and thinking skills than previously, and even performed as well as mice of the same age without the dementia. The control group without caffeine did not improve at all.
Earlier research by the same team had shown younger mice, who had also been bred to develop Alzheimer's but who were given caffeine in their early adulthood, were protected against the onset of memory problems.
Of course, warnings were sounded by charities concerned with Alzheimer's, indicating that more research would be required to see if the result also applied in humans. But the fact that caffeine is considered a safe drug for most people. Millions drink 5 or more cups a day and it seems they may even be able to point to a good reason for doing so.
The natural ingredient which gives grapefruit its bitter taste may be able to used to create a diet pill, a study has indicated.
Naringenin, a flavonoid found in citrus fruit including grapefruit, has a affects the liver making it selectively burn fat instead of storing it after a meal. This could mean that without having to change diets or cut out particular foods, a dose of naringenin could prevent weight gain and even help to lose it.
Long-term, the researchers behind the tests believe it would also help obesity sufferers and even fight diabetes because the process also helped balance insulin and glucose levels.
Grapefruit is often recommended as helpful in weight control but this research involved much higher doses of naringenin than you could get just by eating grapefruit.
It would have to be concentrated into a supplement to have the desired effect for those suffering from Type 2 diabetes, which is also a precursor to cardiovascular disease.
The research was carried out by a team at the Robarts Research Institute at the University of Western Ontario and published in the journal Diabetes.
Two groups of mice were both fed the equivalent of a Western diet to speed up their "metabolic syndrome" – the process which leads to Type 2 diabetes in human.
The food given to one of the groups was treated with naringenin.
The non-naringenin mice became obese, they developed the metabolic syndrome which saw their cholesterol rise and their bodies become resistant to insulin.
The mice given naringenin did not suffer from these. Any rise in cholesterol was corrected by the naringenin which also caused the liver to burn up fat rather than store it.
Lead researcher Professor Murray Huff added: "Furthermore, the marked obesity that develops in these mice was completely prevented by naringenin.
"What was unique about the study was that the effects were independent of caloric intake, meaning the mice ate exactly the same amount of food and the same amount of fat.
"There was no suppression of appetite or decreased food intake, which are often the basis of strategies to reduce weight gain and its metabolic consequences."
The researchers will now try and develop the compound into a drug which would be both effective and safe for humans to take as a supplement or treatment.
Professor Huff said: "These studies show naringenin, through its insulin-like properties, corrects many of the metabolic disturbances linked to insulin resistance and represents a promising therapeutic approach for metabolic syndrome."
We all know that we feel better when we have a good night's sleep. And the opposite is true too - we struggle through the day if we feel we haven't had enough shut-eye. So much, so common.
But it seems that what actually matters is how we feel about how much - and how good - our sleep has been. The actual quantity and quality of sleep seems not to matter at all. These findings were recently published in the journal of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, not surprisingly called "Sleep"
According to lead author Graciela E. Silva, PhD, assistant professor in the College of Nursing and Health Innovation at Arizona State University, the results provide important and surprising insights regarding the relationship between sleep and quality of life.
"While we were expecting an association between quality of sleep and quality of life, it was surprising that we did not find a significant association between objective measures of quality of sleep and quality of life, but that only subjective measures of sleep were associated with quality of life," said Silva. "These findings signal to the importance of perception of quality of sleep on quality of life."
Some of us are old enough to remember when calculators first appeared. Many people decried the loss of mental arithmetic skills that were entailed in the constant use of those now-ubiquitous devices. In the same way, when your phone can remember all your favourite numbers, and your computer all the many details of daily life, to a large extent we no longer need to remember many things. We just need to know how to find them.
Some things though - like where you live and what your car (or partner) look like, are vitally important. And these are often lost in the later stages of Alzheimer’s disease.
Very early in the onset of the disease though, new research indicates that it becomes hard for sufferers to prioritise information - to sift the wheat from the chaff and concentrate on what it is important to remember and what can safely be forgotten. The paper, published in the May 2009 issue of Neuropsychology, the journal of the American Psychological Association, found that the Alzheimer's groups were significantly less efficient than their healthy age peers at remembering items according to their value.
The researchers speculate that people with early-stage Alzheimer's might remember important information better by learning to be more strategic and selective when encoding the most useful information, even though it comes at the expense of less-important information. They believe that improved memory training, emphasizing the relative importance of pieces of data and including strategies for prioritising these, may help reduce this symptom in the early stages of the disease.
Read more on HeWeHap about Alzheimer’s Disease
The publication of a leaflet by a section of the UK National Health Service has caused controversy in the national press. There is much clucking of tongues over the cost, and the fact it is aimed at people over 60 years old who presumably have some idea of the subject themselves already, given that most have children and grandchildren of their own.
More interesting to me is what the pamphlet, called Ageing Well In Medway, actually says:
"There are many reasons why sex is good for you. In women it can increase blood oestrogen levels, helping to protect against coronary heart disease and osteoporosis, and helps keep the pelvic muscles toned reducing the risk of incontinence.
"In men sex releases hormones which help strengthen bones and muscles, protect against heart disease and may relieve congestion in the prostrate gland.
"For both sexes it is a great stress reliever, induces sleep and is fun."
This may indeed be good news to many people, not just those over 60.