CONTEXT: B vitamins and factors related to 1-carbon metabolism help to maintain DNA integrity and regulate gene expression and may affect cancer risk. OBJECTIVE: To investigate if 1-carbon metabolism factors are associated with onset of lung cancer. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: The European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) recruited 519,978 participants from 10 countries between 1992 and 2000, of whom 385,747 donated blood. By 2006, 899 lung cancer cases were identified and 1770 control participants were individually matched by country, sex, date of birth, and date of blood collection. Serum levels were measured for 6 factors of 1-carbon metabolism and cotinine. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Odds ratios (ORs) of lung cancer by serum levels of 4 B vitamins (B(2), B(6), folate [B(9)], and B(12)), methionine, and homocysteine. RESULTS: Within the entire EPIC cohort, the age-standardized incidence rates of lung cancer (standardized to the world population, aged 35-79 years) were 6.6, 44.9, and 156.1 per 100,000 person-years among never, former, and current smokers for men, respectively.

The effect of age and gender on minor and trace element contents in the scalp hair of 80 relatively healthy 15- to 55-year-old women and men was investigated. Contents or upper limit of contents of 37 chemical elements in the scalp hair were determined by instrumental neutron activation analysis. Mean values (M +/- SEpsilonMu) for the mass fraction of Ag, Au, Ba, Br, Ca, Ce, Cl, Co, Cr, Eu, Fe, Hf, Hg, I, K, La, Lu, Mg, Mn, Na, Rb, Sb, Sc, Se, Sm, Sr, Th, and Zn (milligrams per kilogram of dry hair) were 0.191 +/- 0.018, 0.0102 +/- 0.0014, 6.33 +/- 0.68, 3.59 +/- 0.26, 1320 +/- 110, 0.369 +/- 0.055, 1245 +/- 133, 0.0707 +/- 0.0054, 2.78 +/- 0.22, 0.0082 +/- 0.0021, 88.2 +/- 6.7, 0.040 +/- 0.012, 0.145 +/- 0.009, 6.93 +/- 1.05, 146 +/- 14, 0.238 +/- 0.025, 0.0030 +/- 0.0007, 163 +/- 17, 2.29 +/- 0.30, 344 +/- 31, 0.65 +/- 0.10, 0.062 +/- 0.005, 0.0100 +/- 0.0012, 0.248 +/- 0.008, 0.0090 +/- 0.0010, 45.7 +/- 3.5, 0.0168 +/- 0.0019, and 154 +/- 3, respectively. The upper limits of contents of Cd, Cs, Gd, Nd, Ta, Tb, Tm, and Yb were <or=0.17, <or=0.013, <or=0.104, <or=0.19, <or=0.011, <or=0.0048, <or=0.0057, and <or=0.0047, respectively.

Earlier studies have shown that resveratrol could induce death in several human
cancer cell lines in culture. Here we report our observation that resveratrol
can also promote the growth of certain human cancer cells when they are grown
either in culture or in athymic nude mice as xenografts. At relatively low
concentrations (</=5 microM), resveratrol exerted a significant
growth-stimulatory effect in the MDA-MB-435s human cancer cells, but this effect
was not observed in several other human cell lines tested. Analysis of cell
signaling molecules showed that resveratrol induced the activation of JNK, p38,
Akt, and NF-kappaB signaling pathways in these cells. Further analysis using
pharmacological inhibitors showed that only the NF-kappaB inhibitor (BAY11-7082)
abrogated the growth-stimulatory effect of resveratrol in cultured cells. In
athymic nude mice, resveratrol at 16.5 mg/kg body weight enhanced the growth of
MDA-MB-435s xenografts compared to the control group, while resveratrol at the
33 mg/kg body weight dose did not have a similar effect. Additional analyses
confirmed that resveratrol stimulated cancer cell growth in vivo through

The study, presented in Boston at the annual meeting of the Association for Psychological Science, analyzes data on empathy among almost 14,000 college students over the last 30 years.

"We found the biggest drop in empathy after the year 2000," said Sara Konrath, a researcher at the U-M Institute for Social Research. "

College kids today are about 40 percent lower in empathy than their counterparts of 20 or 30 years ago, as measured by standard tests of this personality trait."

Konrath conducted the meta-analysis, combining the results of 72 different studies of American college students conducted between 1979 and 2009, with U-M graduate student Edward O'Brien and undergraduate student Courtney Hsing.

BACKGROUND: Calorie Restriction (CR) research has expanded rapidly over the past
few decades and CR remains the most highly reproducible, environmental
intervention to improve health and extend lifespan in animal studies. Although
many model organisms have consistently demonstrated positive responses to CR, it
remains to be shown whether CR will extend lifespan in humans. Additionally, the
current environment of excess caloric consumption and high incidence of
overweight/obesity illustrate the improbable nature of the long-term adoption of
a CR lifestyle by a significant proportion of the human population. Thus, the
search for substances that can reproduce the beneficial physiologic responses of
CR without a requisite calorie intake reduction, termed CR mimetics (CRMs), has
gained momentum. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Recent articles describing health and
lifespan results of CR in nonhuman primates and short-term human studies are
discussed. Additional consideration is given to the rapidly expanding search for
CRMs. RESULTS: The first results from a long-term, randomized, controlled CR
study in nonhuman primates showing statistically significant benefits on

Researchers in The Netherlands found:

• Drinking more than six cups of tea per day was associated with a
  36 percent lower risk of heart disease compared to those who drank less
  than one cup of tea per day.
• Drinking three to six cups of tea per day was associated with a
  45 percent reduced risk of death from heart disease, compared to
  consumption of less than one cup per day.

And for coffee they found:

• Coffee drinkers with a modest intake, two to four cups per day,
  had a 20 percent lower risk of heart disease compared to those drinking
  less than two cups or more than four cups.
• Although not considered significant, moderate coffee consumption
  slightly reduced the risk of heart disease death and deaths from all
  causes.

Researchers also found that neither coffee nor tea consumption
affected stroke risk.

On the wake of the Deepwater Horizon, there are calls left, right and
centre to increase the security of oil rigs, improve oil spill response
and whatnot. This is good, but far from sufficient. What we need to
address is the world's dependence on oil, and how we can quit the black
stuff. It might appear a hard task until you consider the lenghths to
which we go to get oil. The animation below, by cartoonist Mark Fiore,
sums it up:

Read more at Greenpeace

Dry-weight is a kidney disease patient's weight immediately after
dialysis, when he or she does not carry the excess fluid that builds up
between dialysis treatments. Dry-weight is the lowest weight one can
safely reach after dialysis without developing symptoms of low blood
pressure such as cramping, which can occur when too much fluid is
removed. If a patient lets too much fluid build up between sessions, it
is harder to get down to a proper dry-weight. Achieving and maintaining
dry-weight can improve blood pressure between dialysis sessions and
limit hospitalizations. This appears to be an effective but forgotten
strategy in controlling and maintaining blood pressure control among
hypertensive patients on dialysis.

Rajiv Agarwal, MD (Indiana University School of Medicine and
Roudebush VA Medical Center) and Matthew Weir, MD (University of
Maryland Medical Center) looked to see what information is available in
the medical literature related to dry-weight and its use in achieving
blood pressure control. Their goal was to provide an overview of the
concept of dry-weight: how to assess it and how to achieve it.

To maximize training quality, athletes have sought nutritional supplements that optimize recovery. This study compared chocolate milk (CHOC) with a carbohydrate replacement beverage (CRB) as a recovery aid after intense exercise, regarding performance and muscle damage markers in trained cyclists. Ten regional-level cyclists and triathletes (maximal oxygen uptake 55.2 +/- 7.2 mL.kg(-1).min(-1)) completed a high-intensity intermittent exercise protocol, then 15-18 h later performed a performance trial at 85% of maximal oxygen uptake to exhaustion. Participants consumed 1.0 g carbohydrate.kg-1.h-1 of a randomly assigned isocaloric beverage (CHOC or CRB) after the first high-intensity intermittent exercise session. The same protocol was repeated 1 week later with the other beverage. A 1-way repeated measures analysis of variance revealed no significant difference (p = 0.91) between trials for time to exhaustion at 85% of maximal oxygen uptake (CHOC 13 +/- 10.2 min, CRB 13.5 +/- 8.9 min).

Resveratrol (3,5,4 trans-hydroxy stilbene) was discovered about 70 years ago. It's hardly new. You see everyone selling resveratrol, so it must be good stuff, right? If so many people are buying it, then it must work, right?

Cancer Research UK is more forthright in condemning those who hype resveratrol for its cancer- inhibiting properties. "Many vitamin and mineral supplements were believed to be potent cancer fighters until trials and large studies showed they are usually ineffective and can even increase the risk of cancer in some cases," says the charity's Yinka Ebo. "Resveratrol has a few anticancer properties when tested in animals or cells grown in a lab. But, to date, there is no strong evidence that resveratrol supplements can prevent cancer in people."

Read the whole story at Wired

Since an article appeared in "Nature" in 2003 about the potential life-extension capabilities of resveratrol, many people both in and out inside of the life-extension community have been interested in this supplement. Red wine became touted even more as a heath drink due to its (meager) resveratrol content, and people began to have hope in this as a potential CR mimetic. The possibility to obtain the benefits of CR with out the actual calorie restriction made the ears of the nation perk.

By 2006 and 2007, the results from different groups were beginning to conflict. Studies began to indicate that while resveratrol had health benefits in elderly and obese mice, the longevity effects were not consistently observed in ad lib fed mice stared on the supplement midlife. However, a very interesting observation showed that resveratrol could improve insulin and glucose levels in mice on a high-fat (over-consumption) diet, but note that cholesterol and free fatty acid levels did not improve.

Other vitamins and nutrients may get more headlines, but experts say as many as two billion people around the world have diets deficient in zinc – and studies at Oregon State University and elsewhere are raising concerns about the health implications this holds for infectious disease, immune function, DNA damage and cancer.

One new study has found DNA damage in humans caused by only minor zinc deficiency.

Zinc deficiency is quite common in the developing world. Even in the United States, about 12 percent of the population is probably at risk for zinc deficiency, and perhaps as many as 40 percent of the elderly, due to inadequate dietary intake and less absorption of this essential nutrient, experts say. Many or most people have never been tested for zinc status, but existing tests are so poor it might not make much difference if they had been.