Dietary supplements examined in depth in Food Journal

 

Posted on April 3, 2013 by Stone Hearth News

SANTA MONICA, Calif., April 2, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) has established prevention-oriented standards and rules for food, but does not approve dietary supplements.

To better understand the nutritional supplement landscape, the April 2^nd edition of The Food Journal will provide an analysis on how the FDA provides oversight on claims and nutrients for supplements and review the entire supply chain to better understand how supplements make it from the manufacturer to the consumer.

“Supplements have experienced a steady growth over the last ten years and it is anticipated that this growth will continue,” says Phil Lempert , editor of The Food Journal.

“The population is living longer, and some credit this to supplements and healthier living, but it is imperative that manufacturers, retailers and consumers better understand its best practices, claims and safety.”

In this issue, editors will interview experts and cover supplement topics that include: health and nutrient content claims, structure-function claims, FDA grades for supplements, the Food Safety Modernization Act, The Recommended Daily Allowances (RDA) for food and supplements, the Government Process of Supplement Regulation and the role of the FTC, what it takes to get a product removed, supplements for children, and the position of the grocer.

The Food Journal is a unique and in-depth e-newsletter providing bi-monthly unbiased analysis and commentary. Each issue examines one timely topic as it relates to the food chain from soil to shelves. In addition, each issue contains dozens of links within the body of its copy to provide comprehensive information about the particular subject. As a result, The Food Journal also functions as an annotated bibliography on a specific topic. For more information or to subscribe, please visit the website at http://www.thefoodjournal.com/signup/.

SOURCE The Food Journal

Are there cerebral abnormalities in eating disorders?

 

Posted on April 3, 2013 by Stone Hearth News

A report from the University of Freiburg that is published in one of the last issue of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics address the presence of cerebral abnormalities in eating disorders.

Most eating disorders (ED) patients – independent of diagnostic category – are characterized by an overevaluation of shape and weight, a strong dissatisfaction with their body and an engagement in some form of weight control behavior. They often switch diagnostic categories over time, and there is genetic cross-transmission. Furthermore, about half of ED cases do not fulfill all criteria of anorexia nervosa (AN) or bulimia nervosa (BN). This study raises the question whether the increasing number of neurobiological studies, in particular imaging data, might contribute to this debate. One of the first functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies was suggestive of functional cerebral substrates common to various EDs, demonstrating increased reactivity of the medial prefrontal cortex. Investigations using visual body images yielded amygdalar activation in AN, but not in BN. An increased response of the right amygdala and decreased signals of the midcingulate cortex in restrictive AN was also demonstrated, while BN patients had decreased frontocingular and temporal signals. A further recently published functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) investigation demonstrated differences in blood oxygen level-dependent signals which comprised the cingulate cortex as well as the parietal, temporal, insular, supplementary motor and subcortical (caudate nucleus) regions. Furthermore, using magnetic resonance spectroscopy of the anterior cingulate cortex, BN patients showed a positive correlation of glutamate with ‘drive for thinness’, whereas restrictive AN subjects did not. With respect to ventromedial dysfunction (including the anterior cingulate cortex), it should however be kept in mind that this occurs in other mental diseases, too. Structural cerebral imaging also demonstrated strong differences between AN and BN with reduction of cingular and temporoparietal grey matter in AN, whereas BN was not affected in whole brain analyses.

In summary, from a neurobiological imaging point of view, there is evidence of functional and structural cerebral differences between BN and AN. Considering diagnostic issues, these results seem in favor of keeping a categorical approach. However, a complementary dimensional approach might be reasonable for specific pathopsychological features like drive for thinness, which are shared by most EDs, as shown by a positive correlation of grey matter volume of the right parietal cortex and drive for thinness in both restrictive AN and BN. These findings support the notion that biological features should be considered when discussing the classification of psychic syndromes in the future. Furthermore, considering these neurobiological facts might also form a bridge between neurobiological research and clinical thinking.
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Body mass index and coronary heart disease

Posted on April 2, 2013 by Stone Hearth News

Coronary heart disease (CHD) increases with BMI, as well as with age, finds an article published in BioMed Central’s open access journal BMC Medicine. The research from the Million Women Study indicates that increased weight increases risk of CHD equivalent to that caused by getting older.

Researchers from the University of Oxford followed the health of 1.2 million women from England and Scotland for (on average) almost a decade. Analysis of the data showed that the occurrence of CHD increases with BMI so that every 5 unit increase in BMI, calculated as weight/height2, increases incidence by 23%, which is equivalent to the risk conferred by getting older by 2.5 years.

The results showed that one in eleven lean middle aged women (with an average BMI of 21) will be admitted to hospital or will have died from CHD between the ages of 55 to 74. This risk progressively increases with BMI, and it reaches one in six, for obese women (with an average BMI of 34).
Dr Dexter Canoy, who led this study explained, “The risk of developing CHD increases even with small incremental increases in BMI, and this is seen not only in the heaviest but also in women who are not usually considered obese. Small changes in BMI, together with leading a healthy lifestyle by not smoking, avoiding excess alcohol consumption, and being physically active could potentially prevent the occurrence of CHD for a large number of people in the population.”
Source

Fish oil can boost the immune system

Posted on April 2, 2013 by Stone Hearth News

New research published in the Journal of Leukocyte Biology suggests that instead of suppressing the body’s immune response, fish oil actually enhances the function of B cells

Fish oil rich in DHA and EPA is widely believed to help prevent disease by reducing inflammation, but until now, scientists were not entirely sure about its immune enhancing effects. A new report appearing in the April 2013 issue of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology, helps provide clarity on this by showing that DHA-rich fish oil enhances B cell activity, a white blood cell, challenging the notion that fish oil is only immunosuppressive. This discovery is important as it shows that fish oil does not necessarily reduce the overall immune response to lower inflammation, possibly opening the doors for the use of fish oil among those with compromised immune systems.
“Fish oil may have immune enhancing properties that could benefit immunocompromised individuals,” said Jenifer Fenton, Ph.D., M.P.H., a researcher involved in the work from the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan.

To make this discovery, researchers used two groups of mice. One group was fed a control diet, and the other was fed a diet supplemented with DHA-rich fish oil for five weeks. B cells were harvested from several tissues and then stimulated in culture. Researchers then looked for markers of B cell activation on the cell surface, B cell membrane changes, and B cell cytokine production. They found that DHA-enriched fish oil enhanced B cell activation and select antibody production, which may actually aid immune responses associated with pathogen clearance, while possibly dampening the totality of the inflammatory response.
“This work confirms similar findings on fish oil and B cells from our lab, and moves us one step closer to understanding the immune enhancing properties of EPA and DHA,” said S. Raza Shaikh, Ph.D., a researcher also involved in the work from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at East Carolina University.
Source

Also of interest . . .

Vitamin P as a potential approach for the treatment of damaged motor neurons

 

Posted on April 2, 2013 by Stone Hearth News

RUB biologists clarify effect and mode of action

Biologists from the Ruhr-Universität Bochum have explored how to protect neurons that control movements from dying off. In the journal “Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience” they report that the molecule 7,8-Dihydroxyflavone, also known as vitamin P, ensures the survival of motor neurons in culture. It sends the survival signal on another path than the molecule Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF), which was previously considered a candidate for the treatment of motoneuron diseases or after spinal cord damage. “The Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor only had a limited effect when tested on humans, and even had partially negative consequences”, says Prof. Dr. Stefan Wiese from the RUB Work Group for Molecular Cell Biology. “Therefore we are looking for alternative ways to find new approaches for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.”

Same effect, different mode of action
In previous studies, researchers hypothesised that vitamin P is an analogue of BDNF and thus works in the same way. This theory has been disproved by the team led by Dr. Teresa Tsai and Prof. Stefan Wiese from the Group for Molecular Cell Biology and the Department of Cell Morphology and Molecular Neurobiology headed by Prof. Andreas Faissner. Both substances ensure that isolated motor neurons of the mouse survive in cell culture and grow new processes, but what exactly the molecules trigger at the protein level varies. BDNF activates two signalling pathways, the so-called MAP kinase and PI3K/AKT signal paths. Vitamin P on the other hand makes use only of the latter.

The dose is crucial
However, vitamin P only unfolded its positive effects on the motor neurons in a very small concentration range. “These results show how important an accurate determination of dose and effect is”, says Prof. Wiese. An overdose of vitamin P reduced the survival effect, and over a certain amount, no more positive effects occurred at all. The researchers hope that vitamin P could have less negative side effects than BDNF. “It is easier to use, because vitamin P, in contrast to BDNF, can pass the blood-brain barrier and therefore does not have to be introduced into the cerebrospinal fluid using pumps like BDNF,” says Wiese.

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Bibliographic record
T. Tsai, A. Klausmeyer, R. Conrad, C. Gottschling, M. Leo, A. Faissner, S. Wiese (2013): 7,8-Dihydroxyflavone leads to survival of cultured embryonic motoneurons by 2 activating intracellular signaling pathways, Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience, DOI: 10.1016/j.mcn.2013.02.007
Source

Obesity leads to decreased physical activity over time

 

Posted on March 31, 2013 by Stone Hearth News

Physical activity and its relation to obesity has been studied for decades by researchers; however, almost no one has studied the reverse – obesity’s effect on physical activity.

So BYU exercise science professor Larry Tucker decided to look at the other side of the equation to determine if obesity leads to less activity. The findings, no surprise, confirmed what everyone has assumed for years.
“Most people talk about it as if it’s a cycle,” Tucker said, senior-author on a study appearing online ahead of print in the journal Obesity. “Half of the cycle has been studied almost without limit. This is the first study of its kind, in many ways, looking at obesity leading to decreases in physical activity over time.”
To study this reciprocal effect objectively, the researchers attached an accelerometer to more than 250 participants. Accelerometers measure actual movement and intensity of activity. Previous studies have relied on less-dependable self-reported data.
“Roughly 35 percent of the population reports that they’re regularly active,” Tucker said. “When you actually put an accelerometer on adults and follow them for many days, only about 5 to 7 percent are actually regularly active. We used an objective measure so we could determine genuine movement, not just wishful thinking.”
The 254 female participants – 124 of which were considered obese – were instructed to wear the accelerometer for seven consecutive days at the beginning of the study, and then again for an additional week 20 months later, at the end of the study.

On average, physical activity in obese participants dropped by 8 percent over the course of 20 months. This is equivalent to decreasing moderate to vigorous physical activity by 28 minutes per week. In contrast, non-obese women demonstrated essentially no change in the amount of physical activity they were participating in weekly.
These results weren’t shocking to the researchers, who assumed this study would confirm the destructive cycle; however, it does provide more understanding into how the cycle works and how it can be stopped. It also offers additional insight into the measurement methods researchers use and how self-reporting can yield inaccurate results.
“It’s not rocket science, and it’s very logical,” Tucker said. “It just hasn’t been studied using high quality measurement methods and with a large sample size. This provides scientists with more ammunition to understand how inactivity leads to weight gain and weight gain leads to less activity. This cycle, or spiral, is probably continuous over decades of life.”
Tucker is a professor and epidemiologist who has conducted many studies on obesity and its contributing factors.
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Jared M. Tucker, a graduate student at the time, is the lead author on the paper. Along with Larry Tucker, exercise science professors James LeCheminant and Bruce Bailey were coauthors on the paper.
Source

Monounsaturated fats reduce metabolic syndrome risk

 

Posted on March 31, 2013 by Stone Hearth News

Canola oil and high-oleic canola oils can lower abdominal fat when used in place of other selected oil blends, according to a team of American and Canadian researchers. The researchers also found that consuming certain vegetable oils may be a simple way of reducing the risk of metabolic syndrome, which affects about one in three U.S. adults and one in five Canadian adults.

“The monounsaturated fats in these vegetable oils appear to reduce abdominal fat, which in turn may decrease metabolic syndrome risk factors,” said Penny Kris-Etherton, Distinguished Professor of Nutrition, Penn State.
In the randomized, controlled trial, 121 participants at risk for metabolic syndrome received a daily smoothie containing 40 grams (1.42 ounces) of one of five oils as part of a weight maintenance, heart-healthy, 2000-calorie per day diet. Members of the group had five risk factors characterized by increased belly fat, low “good” hdl cholesterol and above average blood sugar, blood pressure and triglycerides that increase the risk of heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes. The researchers repeated this process for the remaining four oils.
The results were presented at the American Heart Association’s EPI/NPAM 2013 Scientific Sessions in New Orleans.

Results showed that those who consumed canola or high-oleic canola oils on a daily basis for four weeks lowered their belly fat by 1.6 percent compared to those who consumed a flax/safflower oil blend. Abdominal fat was unchanged by the other two oils, which included a corn/safflower oil blend and high-oleic canola oil enriched with an algal source of the omega-3 DHA. Both the flax/safflower and corn/safflower oil blends were low in monounsaturated fat.
According to the American Heart Association, many of the factors that contribute to metabolic syndrome can be addressed by a healthy diet, exercise and weight loss, which can significantly reduce health risks of this condition.
“It is evident that further studies are needed to determine the mechanisms that account for belly fat loss on a diet high in monounsaturated fatty acids,” said Kris-Etherton. “Our study indicates that simple dietary changes, such as using vegetable oils high in monounsaturated fatty acids, may reduce the risk of metabolic syndrome and therefore heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes.”
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Other authors on the paper include Peter Jones and Shuaihua Pu of the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg; Sheila West, Xiaoran Liu, Jennifer Fleming and Cindy McCrea of Penn State; Benôit Lamarche and Patrick Couture of Laval University in Quebec; and David Jenkins of the University of Toronto. The government of Canada, the Canola Council of Canada and Dow Agrosciences funded this research.
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