New York: Higher sodium intake should not be used as a treatment for lightheadedness, say researchers challenging current guidelines for sodium consumption. Lightheadedness while standing, known as postural lightheadedness, results from gravitational drop in blood pressure and is common among adults. 

Greater sodium intake is widely viewed as an intervention for preventing lightheadedness when moving from seated to standing positions. However, contrary to this recommendation, researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre (BIDMC) found that higher sodium intake, actually increases dizziness. 

"Our study has clinical and research implications," said Stephen Juraschek, researcher from BIDMC in Boston. "Our results serve to caution health practitioners against recommending increased sodium intake as a universal treatment for lightheadedness. Additionally, our results demonstrate the need for additional research to understand the role of sodium, and more broadly of diet, on lightheadedness," Juraschek said.

For the study, reported in The Journal of Clinical Hypertension, the team used data from the completed DASH-Sodium trial, a randomised crossover study that looked at the effects of three different sodium levels (1500, 2300, and 3300 mg/d) on participants' blood pressure for four weeks. 

While the trial showed that lower sodium led to decrease in blood pressure, it also suggested that concerns about lower level of sodium causing dizziness may not be scientifically correct. The study also questioned recommendations to use sodium to treat lightheadedness, an intervention that could have negative effects on cardiovascular health.

"Health practitioners initiating sodium interventions for orthostatic symptoms now have some evidence that sodium might actually worsen symptoms," Juraschek said. "Clinicians should check on symptoms after initiation and even question the utility of this approach. More importantly, research is needed to understand the effects of sodium on physical function, particularly in older adults."

LOS ANGELES: Consuming walnuts may lower the prevalence and frequency of depression, and improve concentration levels, according to a study carried out in American adults.

Researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in the US found that depression scores were 26 per cent lower for walnut consumers and eight per cent lower for consumers of other nuts, compared to those who did not eat nuts at all.

The study, published in the journal Nutrients, found that walnut consumption was more closely associated with higher energy levels and better concentration, compared to other nuts.

"According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), one out of every six adults will have depression at some time in their life. It is important to find low-cost interventions, such as dietary changes, that are easy to implement and may help reduce the incidence of depression,” said lead investigator Lenore Arab, from UCLA.

"Walnuts have previously been investigated for their role in cardiovascular and cognitive health, and now we see an association with depression symptoms - providing another reason to include them in a healthy eating plan," Arab said.

Researchers examined data from the National health and nutrition examination survey, which draws from a large sampling of the US population.

More than 26,000 American adults were asked about their dietary intake over the course of one to two days as well as depression symptoms over the past two weeks.

Using a widely accepted questionnaire, participants ranked how often they experienced factors such as little interest in doing things, trouble sleeping or sleeping too much, feeling tired or having little energy, and trouble concentrating on things.

According to the findings, walnut consumers were more likely to have greater interest in activities, higher energy levels, less hopelessness, better concentration, and greater optimism.

Depression scores were significantly lower among those who consumed nuts, particularly walnuts, compared to those who did not consume nuts, even after controlling for age, sex, race, income, 

body mass index

 (BMI), smoking, alcohol consumption, and marital status.

On average, walnut consumers ate about 24 grammes of walnuts per day, equivalent to one-quarter cup serving.

While the association between nut consumption and depression scores was consistent for men and women, the effect appeared to be strongest among women, who are more likely to report greater depression symptoms and use of antidepressants, compared to men.

When compared to other tree nuts, walnuts have a unique 

fatty acid

 profile -- they contain mostly polyunsaturated fats, including a significant amount of the plant-based omega-3 alpha-linolenic 

acid

 (2.5g/28 grammes),which is more than any other nut, researchers said. PTI

If the findings of a latest study are to be believed, consuming a high-calorie dessert at the beginning of your meal can actually make you opt for a healthier course of meal later.

It has been emphasised often enough, that switching to a healthy diet would require you to quit all things sugary and greasy for good. But if the feat is too challenging for you, you may make some changes in the sequence in which you have your food. If the findings of a latest study are to be believed, consuming a high-calorie dessert at the beginning of your meal can actually make you opt for a healthier course.

The findings said that if you choose the dessert first, you may maximise your chances of sticking to a healthier diet plan. For the study, the researchers placed either a healthy or less healthy dessert (fresh fruit vs. lemon cheesecake) at the beginning or end of a university cafeteria line.

The researchers said that if the diners picked the cheesecake first, they often chose lower-calorie main or side dishes later. This way they consumed fewer calories than diners who opted for the fresh fruit first.

We believe diners who chose the indulgent dessert first then picked healthier main and side dishes to make up for their high-calorie.

dessert. Diners who picked the healthier dessert may have thought they already had done a good deed for their bodies so they deserved higher-calorie food further down the cafeteria line," said Martin Reimann

The findings of the study were published in the 'Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied'. The study comes as a surprise to many, the bizarre findings revealed

that  diners who chose the indulgent dessert first consumed an average of 30 percent fewer calories (including the dessert) than diners who picked the healthier dessert first.

Interestingly, the diners who went for the cheesecake first were also twice as likely to order the lighter main dish, as compared to those who picked the cheesecake at the end of the line.

At least 1,019 cases of swine flu have been recorded in Delhi, this year, whereas nearly 32,000 people were found with flu-like symptoms. Eat these foods to treat or reduce your risk of getting H1N1 virus.

New Delhi: While there are many strategies to prevent or fight the flu, eating a healthy diet is one of the best ways to protect yourself against various infections. Currently, Delhi, the National Capital of India, is grappling with a rapid surge in the cases of swine flu, also known as H1N1 virus. According to a report, Delhi recorded one death due to swine flu and 124 fresh cases of Infuenza A (H1N1) on Tuesday 5, taking the total number of people affected by the infection in the city this year to 1019.

Meanwhile, News agency PTI reported that over nine lakh people were screened for swine flu in Rajasthan on Tuesday and nearly 32,000 individuals were found with influenza-like symptoms, according to an official of the state medical and health department said. And two people succumbed to the virus in Jodhpur and Barmer on Tuesday, taking the death toll due to swine flu in the state to 88.

Immune-boosting foods to eat when you have the flu

Vegetable juice

Chances are you won’t feel like making and eating a salad while you recover from the flu. So, loading up on low-sodium, fresh vegetable juice (for instance, tomato celery juice) rich in antioxidants will boost the immune system, which is your body’s defense against germs and infections.

Garlic

Garlic has been used in alternative medicine for a variety of ailments for centuries. In fact, one study showed that adults with the flu who took garlic supplements had enhanced the immune system and reduced symptom severity. Garlic is a great choice to spice up foods like soup.

Turmeric

Curcumin in turmeric contains potent antiviral properties that have a direct effect on influenza infections, or their prevention. A study published in a 2009 edition of ‘Emerging Infectious Diseases’ reported that curcumin can reduce viral replication by over 90 per cent in laboratory cells infected with influenza varieties. 

Ginger

Ginger contains powerful antioxidants that fight inflammation and help boost the immune system against various infections. It is an excellent home remedy that has been used for treating a number of health problems ranging from cold and cough to stomach ache and nausea.

Yogurt

As per a mice study reported in the journal International Immunopharmacology, yogurt with live cultures can help soothe a sore throat as well as boost your immune system. Yogurt is also a rich source of protein that fights fatigue and helps the body build antibodies to fight infection. Just ensure that you opt for whole yogurts without any added sugars.

Only 5 per cent of marijuana smokers had sperm concentrations below 15 million/ml compared with 12 per cent of men who never smoked marijuana.

New York: Men who have smoked marijuana at some point in their lives had significantly higher concentrations of sperm compared with men who have never smoked weed, according to a new research by Harvard University. The study looked at men who were seeking help at fertility clinics, not the general population.

But the findings, detailed in the Human Reproduction journal, stands in contrast to previous studies that suggested smoking weed can negatively affect male reproductive health. "These unexpected findings highlight how little we know about the reproductive health effects of marijuana, and health effects of marijuana in general," said Jorge Chavarro, Associate Professor at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in the US. 

"Our results need to be interpreted with caution and they highlight the need to further study the health effects of marijuana use," Chavarro said. In the new study, the researchers hypothesised that marijuana smoking would be associated with worse semen quality. They found no significant difference in sperm concentrations between current and former marijuana smokers.

In addition, among marijuana smokers, greater use was associated with higher serum testosterone levels. It could be because "low levels of marijuana use could benefit sperm production because of its effect on the endocannabinoid system, which is known to play a role in fertility, but those benefits are lost with higher levels of marijuana consumption," said Feiby Nassan, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Harvard. 

"An equally plausible interpretation is that our findings could reflect that men with higher testosterone levels are more likely to engage in risk-seeking behaviours, including smoking marijuana," Nassan explained. The team collected 1,143 semen samples from 662 men aged 36 assessed for infertility. 

Only 5 per cent of marijuana smokers had sperm concentrations below 15 million/ml compared with 12 per cent of men who never smoked marijuana. Understanding the health effects associated with marijuana use is important given the growing perception that it poses few health hazards, the study suggested.

While many might agree that ice-cream binge can sooth your soul during a rough phase in your life, a recent study suggests that weight loss, nutrient boosting and fat reduction diets can reduce the symptoms of depression. 

In a new study published in Psychosomatic Medicine, a team of researchers brought together all existing data from clinical trials of diets for mental health conditions. The research provides convincing evidence that dietary improvement significantly reduces symptoms of depression, even in people without diagnosed depressive disorders. 

"The overall evidence for the effects of diet on mood and mental well-being had up to now yet to be assessed. But our recent meta-analysis has done just that; showing that adopting a healthier diet can boost peoples' mood. However, it has no clear effects on anxiety," said Joseph Firth, lead researcher of the study. 

The study found that all types of dietary improvement appeared to have equal effects on mental health, with weight-loss, fat reduction or nutrient-improving diets all having similar benefits for depressive symptoms. Dietary improvement suggests that highly-specific or specialised diets are unnecessary for average individual. Eating more nutrient-dense meals which are high in fibre, while cutting back on fast-foods and refined sugars appears to be sufficient for avoiding the potentially negative psychological effects of a 'junk food' diet," he asserted.

Researchers found that women’s brains were 3.8 years younger than their chronological ages, while men’s brains were 2.4 years older than their true ages.

Women’s brains appear to be three years younger than men’s of the same age, which may explain why females stay mentally sharp for longer, say scientists.

“We’re just starting to understand how various sex-related factors might affect the trajectory of brain ageing and how that might influence the vulnerability of the brain to neurodegenerative diseases,” said Manu Goyal, an assistant professor at the Washington University in the US.

“Brain metabolism might help us understand some of the differences we see between men and women as they age,” Goyal said.

The brain runs on sugar, but how the brain uses sugar changes as people grow and age.

In the study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers studied 205 people to figure out how their brains use sugar.

The study participants – 121 women and 84 men, ranging in age from 20 to 82 years – underwent PET scans to measure the flow of oxygen and glucose in their brains.

For each person, the researchers determined the fraction of sugar committed to aerobic glycolysis – that sustains brain development and maturation – in various regions of the brain.

They trained a machine-learning algorithm to find a relationship between age and brain metabolism by feeding it the men’s ages and brain metabolism data.

The researchers entered women’s brain metabolism data into the algorithm and directed the programme to calculate each woman’s brain age from its metabolism. The algorithm yielded brain ages an average of 3.8 years younger than the women’s chronological ages.

The researchers also performed the analysis in reverse: They trained the algorithm on women’s data and applied it to the men’s. This time, the algorithm reported that men’s brains were 2.4 years older than their true ages.

“The average difference in calculated brain age between men and women is significant and reproducible, but it is only a fraction of the difference between any two individuals,” Goyal said.

“It is stronger than many sex differences that have been reported, but it is nowhere near as big a difference as some sex differences, such as height,” he said.

The relative youthfulness of women’s brains was detectable even among the youngest participants, who were in their 20s. “It’s not that men’s brains age faster – they start adulthood about three years older than women, and that persists throughout life,” said Goyal.

“What we don’t know is what it means. I think this could mean that the reason women don’t experience as much cognitive decline in later years is because their brains are effectively younger, and we are currently working on a study to confirm that,” he said.

Older women tend to score better than men of the same age on tests of reason, memory and problem solving.

The researchers are now following a cohort of adults over time to see whether people with younger-looking brains are less likely to develop cognitive problems.

Rome: Medical science has made major strides in defeating cancer including progress in boosting our resistance to the disease, a leading Italian oncologist said.

"Tumours are smart, but we are really close to beating them and to making our bodies better able to fight them," Giampaolo Tortora, director of the Medical Oncology at Rome's Policlinico Gemelli's teaching hospital, told Adnkronos Salute in an interview. 

"We are working at full capacity on the Policlinico Gemelli's new 'Cancer Centre'," said Tortora, who is a pioneer in treating cancer of the pancreas. He was speaking on the World Cancer Day on Monday. The new centre will be able to bring together and coordinat the hospital's extensive oncology work, Tortora underlined. 

Last year alone, the Policlinico Gemelli treated 48,000 patients, a "monstrous" number which is far higher than the number of cases handled by many oncology centres, Tortora noted. "In the field of oncology, the Gemelli is a powerhouse," he said. In his 30-year career in oncology, Tortora said he had seen many advances in the field. 

"There have been two or three key moments in this revolution and the current one involving immunotherapy is the most solid," said Tortora. 

"With chemotherapy and molecular targeted therapy, we had the illusion that we could solve everything but then there were setbacks." Doctors must not mislead patients about immunotherapy, which is not suitable or successful in treating all patients, Tortora warned. 

"But in the cases were it works, patients have responded well and have not had recurrences," Tortora said. "Avoiding recurrences is one of the most difficult problems to overcome," he said. Tortora described the current state of research on the immune system as "an iceberg" of which "we can only see the tip". 

The role of microbiota in cancer and its treatment is another area of medical research that has the potential to accelerate our weapons to fight cancer, Tortora said. "We may be able to improve our resistance to cancer and better modulate the effects of immunotherapy," he stated. 

Weight Loss: Low energy density foods have low number of calories in a large amount of the foods. Including more of low energy density foods in your weight loss diet may benefit you, as these foods fill you up while supplying your body with a low number of calories.

Weight loss and fitness become buzzwords at the start of every year. But even as we enter the second month of the New Year, many of us are struggling to clean our diets out and get adequate workout. Exercise and diet are both important to stay fit, but many health experts have argued that diet is perhaps more important than workout to bring about weight loss and to sustain it. This is because what you eat affects your body's capability to burn fat by improving or decreasing metabolic rate. Moreover, your diet may leave you feeling fulfilled and satiated or hungry and bloated. Therefore, it's extremely important to pick your meal ingredients very carefully, if you are going for a calorie-deficient but satiating diet. Low energy density foods are hence, great for including in a weight loss diet.

Every food has a specific energy density, which indicates the number of calories the food is packing in a specific amount of the food item. Simply put, low energy density foods have low number of calories in a large amount of the foods, while high energy density foods pack in larger number of calories in smaller amounts of food. Including more of low energy density foods in your weight loss diet may benefit you, as these foods fill you up while supplying your body with a low number of calories. The concept of energy density of foods is the central concept of the Volumetrics Diet for weight loss. The diet doesn't ban any food, but instead focuses on the energy density of specific foods.