healthbriefs
Eating Greens Can Change Genes A
n international team of scientists led by researchers at McMaster and McGill
universities, in Canada, were surprised to find that consuming generous amounts of fruit and raw vegetables modified a gene designated 9p21, the strongest marker for heart disease. In one of the largest gene-diet interaction studies ever conducted related to cardiovascular disease, the research- ers analyzed more than 27,000 individu- als from five ethnicities—Latin American, European, Chinese, South Asian and Arab—and the effect their diets had on the target gene. They discovered that men and women with the high-risk genotype that consumed a healthy diet with plenty of raw vegetables and fruits had a risk of heart attack similar to individuals carrying the low-risk genotype. “We know that 9p21 genetic variants increase the risk of heart disease for those that carry it,” says Genetic Epidemiologist Jamie Engert, joint principal inves- tigator of the study, “but it was a surprise to find that a healthy diet could signifi- cantly weaken its effect.”
Source: PLoS Medicine
Acupuncture Cools Hot Flashes A
small, yet intriguing study published in Acupuncture in Medicine found that
traditional Chinese acupuncture curbed the severity of hot flashes and other menopausal symptoms. Fifty-three middle-aged, postmeno- pausal women were divided into two groups; one received such treatments twice weekly for 10 weeks, while the other experienced “sham” acupuncture with blunt needles that did not penetrate the skin. In both groups, levels of estrogen and other hormones were measured before the study began and before and after the last session. Menopausal symptoms—hot flashes, vaginal dryness, urinary tract infections and mood swings—were also measured before and after the treatments, using a five-point menopause rating scale (MRS) in order to as- sess their severity.
At the end of the study, the women receiv-
ing Chinese acupuncture scored significantly lower on the MRS scale, with hot flashes seeing the sharpest decrease. The researchers explain that acupuncture boosts production of endorphins, which may stabilize the temperature control system of the body. They say that more investigation is needed because the study was small, but note that its results seem promising, suggesting that traditional Chinese acupuncture could be an alternative for women unable or unwilling to use hormone replacement therapy to relieve menopausal symptoms.
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MEMORY AND THE PILL
esearchers from the University of California, Irvine (UCI) report that
while birth control pills don’t damage memory, they can alter it. Women that were not taking birth control pills were better at remembering details than their peers on the pill. The difference makes sense, says UCI graduate researcher Shawn Nielsen, because contraceptives suppress sex hormones such as estro- gen and progesterone to prevent preg- nancy. These hormones were previously linked to women’s strong left-brain memory by a UCI research group led by Ph.D. Neurobiologist Larry Cahill.
SOUR NEWS ABOUT SWEET DRINKS
D
rinking sodas and other sugar- sweetened beverages may increase
a woman’s risk of heart disease and dia- betes, according to research presented at the American Heart Association’s Sci- entific Sessions 2011. Middle-aged and older women that drank two or more such drinks per day were nearly four times as likely to develop high triglyc- erides and significantly more likely to develop impaired fasting glucose levels, plus increase their waist size. The study also noted that risk factors for heart dis- ease and stroke developed even when the women didn’t gain weight.
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