News on Health Topics

According to the American Pregnancy Association, six million women a year deal with infertility. Now, a Tel Aviv University study is giving new hope to women who want to conceive – in the form of a pill they can find on their drugstore shelves right now.
Prof. Adrian Shulman of Tel Aviv University’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine and the Meir Medical Center has found a statistical connection between the over-the-counter vitamin supplement DHEA, used to counter the effects of aging, and successful pregnancy rates in women undergoing treatment for infertility.

In the first controlled study on the effects of the supplement, Prof. Shulman found that women being treated for infertility who also received supplements of DHEA were three times more likely to conceive than women being treated without the additional drug. The results were recently published in AYALA, the journal of the Israeli Fertility Association.

A natural supplement to fertility treatments

After hearing anecdotal evidence from his patients and the medical community on the benefits of combining fertility treatments with DHEA, a supplement marketed as an anti-aging drug around the world, Prof. Shulman decided to put this old wives’ tale to the statistical test.

He and his fellow researchers conducted a study in which a control group of women received treatment for poor ovulation, and another group received the same treatment with the addition of the DHEA supplement. The latter group took 75mg of the supplement daily for 40 days before starting fertility treatments, and continued for up to five months.

Not only were women who combined infertility treatment with DHEA more likely to conceive, the researchers discovered, they were also more likely to experience a healthy pregnancy and delivery.

“In the DHEA group, there was a 23% live birth rate as opposed to a 4% rate in the control group,” explains Shulman. “More than that, of the pregnancies in the DHEA group, all but one ended in healthy deliveries.”

Making grade-A eggs?

Shulman believes that women who are finding little success with their current fertility treatments could look to DHEA to improve their chances of conceiving. “We recommend that women try this DHEA treatment, in conjunction with fertility treatments, for four to five months,” says Prof. Shulman. It could also be used as a regular “vitamin” for women who have already conceived and are pregnant, but more research would need to be done on the compound to determine its effects, says Prof. Shulman.

DHEA, for 5-Dehydroepiandrosterone (5-DHEA), is a naturally-occurring steroid found in the brain, which plays an important biological role in humans and other mammals. Produced in the adrenal glands, it is also synthesized in the brain. The pharmaceutical version of this molecule is known as Prastera, Prasterone, Fidelin and Fluasterone, and identical generics are widely available over the counter in the United States without a prescription. Women interested in using DHEA to conceive, however, should consult their practitioner first, suggests Prof. Shulman, a gynecologist and director of the IVF Unit of the Obstetric and Gynecology Department at Meir Medical Center.

While studies on the effects of DHEA are far from complete – his test group only included around 20 women – Prof. Shulman hopes that further research will unlock the secrets of why the supplement aids in successful conception in women with an otherwise poor response to fertility treatments. “We need to look into what the drug actually does to make the body more fertile,” he says. “It could be affecting components such as the quality of the eggs or the follicles.”

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/193736.php

Related Posts:

• Blood Pressure Lowered By Beetroot Juice
• Diet can sharply cut Alzheimer’s risk
• Vitamin D Fears Lead to Sun Warnings Review
• What are all those chemicals in your shampoo? your lipstick? your aftershave? And what do they have to do with asthma, cancer and learning disabilities?
• Vitamin D Expert Says More Than Half The World’s Population Gets Insufficient Vitamin D

The nitrate content of beetroot juice is the underlying cause of its blood pressure lowering benefits, research from Queen Mary University of London reveals.
The study, published online in the American Heart Association journal Hypertension, found that blood pressure was lowered within 24 hours in people who took nitrate tablets, and people who drank beetroot juice. The research will be welcome news to people with high blood pressure who might now be able to use a new ‘natural’ approach to reduce their risk of cardiovascular disease (including stroke and heart attacks) – the world’s biggest killer.

Study author Amrita Ahluwalia, Professor of Vascular Biology at Queen Mary’s William Harvey Research Institute, said the investigation was able to demonstrate that the nitrate found in beetroot juice was the cause of its beneficial effects upon cardiovascular health by increasing the levels of the gas nitric oxide in the circulation

Professor Ahluwalia said. “We gave inorganic nitrate capsules or beetroot juice to healthy volunteers and compared their blood pressure responses and the biochemical changes occurring in the circulation.

“We showed that beetroot and nitrate capsules are equally effective in lowering blood pressure indicating that it is the nitrate content of beetroot juice that underlies its potential to reduce blood pressure. We also found that only a small amount of juice is needed – just 250ml – to have this effect, and that the higher the blood pressure at the start of the study the greater the decrease caused by the nitrate.

“Our previous study two years ago found that drinking beetroot juice lowered blood pressure; now we know how it works.”

The results of the study could pave the way for a natural approach to lowering blood pressure that ultimately may help reduce the currently massive burden of cardiovascular disease on the NHS.

Inorganic Nitrate Supplementation Lowers Blood Pressure in Humans, Kapil et al. is published online in the AHA journal Hypertension on Monday 28 June 2010

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/193257.php

Related Posts:

• Vitamin D Fears Lead to Sun Warnings Review
• Vitamin D Expert Says More Than Half The World’s Population Gets Insufficient Vitamin D
• Anti-Aging Supplement Is A Fountain Of Hope For Would-Be Mothers
• Diet can sharply cut Alzheimer’s risk
• Bio-Cellular Analysis – How This Test Can Improve the Quality of Your Life

Asthmatic children with relatively low vitamin D levels in their blood may have a greater risk of suffering severe asthma attacks than those with higher levels of the vitamin, a new study suggests.
The study, which followed more than 1,000 children with asthma for four years, found those with vitamin-D “insufficiency” at the outset were more likely to have an asthma attack that required a trip to the hospital. Over the four-year study, 38 percent of children with insufficient vitamin D levels went to the emergency room or were hospitalized for an asthma exacerbation. The same was true of 32 percent of children with sufficient levels of the vitamin.

When the researchers considered other factors — including the severity of the children’s asthma at the study’s start, their weight and their family income — vitamin D insufficiency itself was linked to a 50 percent increase in the risk of severe asthma attacks.

Researchers led by Dr. Augusto A. Litongua, of Harvard Medical School in Boston, report the findings in the Journal of Allergy & Clinical Immunology.

As it stands, people are considered to have an overt deficiency in vitamin D when blood levels drop below 11 nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL). But there is debate over how the optimal vitamin D level should be defined — and what the daily recommended intake of the vitamin should be for children and adults.

Some experts believe that vitamin D blood levels above 30 ng/mL are desirable for overall health, and that levels between deficiency and 30 ng/mL should be viewed as “insufficient.”

For their study, Litongua and his colleagues considered children with vitamin D levels of 30 ng/mL or lower to be insufficient in the vitamin.

The researchers based their findings on 1,024 children with mild-to-moderate asthma who were part of a clinical trial testing two inhaled asthma medications — budesonide and nedocromil. Using blood samples taken at the start of the trial, Litongua’s team found that 35 percent of the children had vitamin D insufficiency, and 65 percent had sufficient levels.

Overall, the researchers found no evidence that sufficient vitamin D levels protected kids from moderate asthma symptoms; in fact, children with low levels of the vitamin tended to report fewer moderate symptoms.

However, these children were at greater risk of severe asthma attacks.

While the findings point to an association between vitamin D status and asthma exacerbations, they do not prove that vitamin D is responsible — or, by extension, that taking the vitamin will prevent asthma attacks.

It is biologically plausible that vitamin D would affect the severity of asthma attacks, according to Litongua and his colleagues.

Vitamin D may be best known for its role in healthy bone development and maintenance, but it is also needed for normal nerve, muscle and immune system function. Some studies have linked low vitamin D levels to a higher risk of type 1 or “insulin-dependent” diabetes in children and, in adults, heart disease and certain cancers.

The effects of vitamin D on the immune system, which include the inflammatory response to infections, might help explain why higher levels of the vitamin were linked to a lower risk of severe asthma exacerbations, according to Litongua’s team.

They say it’s also possible that vitamin D enhances the effects of anti-inflammatory steroid hormones — both the body’s natural supply and the synthetic corticosteroids used to treat asthma.

In this study, the beneficial association between vitamin D and asthma attacks was mainly seen in children who were on budesonide, a corticosteroid.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that infants, children and teenagers get 400 IU of vitamin D each day. Milk, breakfast cereals and orange juice fortified with the vitamin are the main food sources, though some fatty fish naturally contain high amounts of vitamin D. Experts recommend vitamin pills for children who do not get enough of the vitamin from food.

Vitamin D is naturally synthesized in the skin when it is exposed to sunlight, but long winters and sun avoidance in the summer mean that many kids may not get enough vitamin D this way. In addition, vitamin D synthesis is less efficient in people with darker skin, and African Americans are at higher risk of deficiency than whites.

Overweight children and adults also appear to be at elevated risk of deficiency because vitamin D is stored in body fat. The more vitamin D that gets sequestered into fat tissue, the less active vitamin there is in the blood.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65M5E920100623

Related Posts:

• Vitamin D Fears Lead to Sun Warnings Review
• If your child is obese should the government take them away?
• Kids’ high cholesterol may drop naturally
• Anti-Aging Supplement Is A Fountain Of Hope For Would-Be Mothers
• HPV vaccines and Linda Morin, fighting the silence

Nutrition experts blame sugar as a major cause of the rise in obesity in the United States, noting that the rise in overweight children is especially alarming. Some scientists have zeroed in on fructose as a major cause, especially high-fructose corn syrup that is used in soft drinks and processed foods. Manufacturers have staunchly defended their product, saying it is no more a cause of obesity than other foods. New research may prove their critics were right.

A study at the United Kingdom’s University of Bristol found that when a child’s fat cells mature, if fructose is present, more of the cells mature into fat cells in belly fat. In addition, the cells are less able to respond to insulin in both belly fat and in subcutaneous fat located below the skin.

“Our results suggest that high levels of fructose, which may result from eating a diet high in fructose, throughout childhood may lead to an increase in visceral [abdominal] obesity, which is associated with increased cardiometabolic risk,” lead author Georgina Coade said in a statement. Abdominal obesity, which is defined by a large waistline, raises the risk of cardiovascular disease and Type 2 diabetes.

Early studies had shown that fructose had a negative effect on fat distribution in rats, but people hadn’t been studied. Coade studied biopsy specimens from 32 healthy children who had not undergone puberty.

The investigators obtained preadipocytes — the precursors to fat cells that have the potential to differentiate, or mature, into fat-containing adipocytes — from the biopsies. They then allowed the precursor cells to mature for 14 days in a culture media containing one of three substances: normal glucose (the main sugar found in the bloodstream and the principal source of energy in the body), high glucose, or high fructose.

The researchers found that fructose produced different effects than those of glucose and caused the fat cells to differentiate more — that is, to form more mature fat cells — but only in visceral fat. The fructose also decreased the ability of cells to take up glucose from the bloodstream into fat and muscles. Decreased sensitivity to insulin is a characteristic of Type 2 diabetes.

“Fructose alters the behavior of human fat cells if it is present as the fat cells mature,” Coade said.

According to data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese. Government statistics show that Mississippi has the highest percentage of obese and overweight children — 44.4 percent.

According to HealthyAmericans.org, obesity costs the United States $75 billion each year in direct costs, but the total costs could reach $139 billion.

http://www.newsmaxhealth.com/headline_health/fructose_makes_belly_fat/2010/06/28/326261.html

Related Posts:

• If your child is obese should the government take them away?
• Kids’ high cholesterol may drop naturally
• HPV vaccines and Linda Morin, fighting the silence
• Insufficient vitamin D tied to severe asthma attacks
• Vitamin D Fears Lead to Sun Warnings Review