News
B vitamins may help reduce the risk of PMS
7 March 2011
A new US study suggests that higher dietary intakes of the vitamins B1 and B2 may reduce the incidence of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) by about 35 percent.
29 September 2011
Insufficient blood vitamin D concentrations could be the reason why children with asthma experience worse lung function and more severe symptoms, a new UK study says.
In the study, potential relationships between serum vitamin D (25-hydroxyvitamin D3) concentration and asthma were investigated in 86 children (mean age 11.7 years), 36 of whom had severe, therapy-resistant asthma (STRA), 26 who had moderate asthma and 24 who had no asthma (1). In addition to vitamin D levels, lung function, use of medication and symptoms were tabulated for all the participants. Moreover, airway tissue samples were collected from children with severe asthma. The study results showed that children with STRA had significantly lower levels of vitamin D, a greater use of asthma medications, more exacerbations of symptom and worse lung function when compared with children in the other two groups. The tissue samples also revealed an increase in airway smooth muscle.
According to the researchers, their findings suggest that lower levels of vitamin D in children with STRA contribute to an increase in airway smooth muscle mass, which could make breathing more difficult and exacerbate asthma symptoms. Recent studies have highlighted the role of vitamin D and vitamin D receptor (VDR) in regulation of several genes that are involved in inflammation, immunity, as well as in cellular proliferation and differentiation (2). Thus, treating vitamin D deficiency could help prevent or reduce the structural changes that occur in the airway smooth muscle, which in turn may help reduce asthma-related symptoms and improve overall lung function.
According to a recent report, 70 percent of school-age children do not get enough vitamin D (3). In addition to placing children at risk for heart disease, weak bones and high blood pressure, vitamin D deficiency now appears to be detrimental for children with severe asthma. Childhood asthma is a major problem, affecting 10 percent of all children. Standard treatment is low doses of corticosteroids. However, 5 to 10 percent of children are unaffected by this approach. These children have severe therapy-resistant asthma and as a result suffer more asthma attacks, need more healthcare services and experience more asthma-related problems than do children with less severe asthma.
7 March 2011
A new US study suggests that higher dietary intakes of the vitamins B1 and B2 may reduce the incidence of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) by about 35 percent.
1 May 2015
Winners of the Nobel Prize in 1985, Professors Joseph Goldstein and Michael Brown of the University of Texas recently wrote a brief history of cholesterol and heart disease over the previous century in Cell – with a highly justified focus on their own groundbreaking research contribution. Whilst heart disease has a number of causes, it is clear than an imbalance in blood lipids signifies an increased risk of heart disease in otherwise healthy individuals and can be seen in those individuals who have already had a heart attack. The best known biomarkers of dyslipidemia are HDL (high density lipoprotein) and LDL (low density lipoprotein), often erroneously referred to as cholesterol. Professors Goldstein and Brown have been able to ascertain plausible mechanism as to how LDLs’ normal healthy function as a cholesterol carrier can be compromised and lead to the formation of atherosclerotic plaques. Some nutritional components in foods have been acknowledged by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) as reducing LDL cholesterol levels in the blood e.g., oat beta glucans and olive polyphenols. In a clinical setting, this effect is achieved by administration of a group of pharmaceuticals known as statins.
5 June 2012
Depending on their genes, people with cardiovascular disease could significantly lower their blood pressure and, in turn, their risk of heart disease and stroke by increasing their intake of vitamin B2, suggests a study from Northern Ireland.