Daily tablets of large doses of B vitamins can halve the rate of brain shrinkage in elderly people with memory problems and may slow their progression toward dementia, data from a British trial showed on Wednesday.

Scientists from Oxford University said their two-year clinical trial was the largest to date into the effect of B vitamins on so-called “mild cognitive impairment” — a major risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.

Experts commenting on the findings said they were important and called for larger, longer full-scale clinical trials to see if the safety and effectiveness of B vitamins in the prevention of neurodegenerative conditions could be confirmed.

“This is a very dramatic and striking result. It’s much more than we could have predicted,” said David Smith of Oxford’s department of pharmacology, who co-led the trial.

“It is our hope that this simple and safe treatment will delay development of Alzheimer’s in many people who suffer from mild memory problems.”

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) affects around 16 percent of people aged over 70 worldwide and is characterized by slight problems with memory loss, language or other mental functions.

MCI does not usually interfere with daily life, but around 50 percent of people diagnosed with it go on to develop the far more severe Alzheimer’s disease within five years. Alzheimer’s is a mind-wasting disease for which there are few treatments and no cure, and which affects 26 million people around the world.

Smith and colleagues conducted a two-year trial with 168 volunteers with MCI who were given either a vitamin pill containing very high doses of folic acid, vitamin B6 and vitamin B12, or a placebo dummy pill.

These B vitamins are known to control levels of an amino acid called homocysteine in the blood, and high blood levels of homocysteine are linked to an increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.

Helga Refsum, who also worked on the trial, stressed that vitamins were given in extremely high doses.

“This is a drug, not a vitamin intervention,” she said.

The pills, called “TrioBe Plus” contained around 300 times the recommended daily intake of B12, four times daily advised folate levels and 15 times the recommended amount of B6.

Brain scans were taken at the beginning and the end of the trial to monitor the rate of brain shrinkage, or atrophy.

The results, published in the Public Library of Science (PLoS) One journal, showed that on average the brains of those taking the vitamin treatment shrank at a rate of 0.76 percent a year, while those taking the dummy pill had an average brain shrinkage of 1.08 percent.

People who had the highest levels of homocysteine at the start of the trial benefited the most from the treatment, with their brains shrinking at half the rate of those on the placebo.

Although the trial was not designed to measure cognitive ability, the researchers found those people who had lowest rates of shrinkage had the highest scores in mental tests.

Commenting on the study, Paul Matthews, a professor of clinical neurology at Imperial College London said that although the vitamins used are generally safe and inexpensive, the study “should not drive an immediate change in clinical practice”

“Instead, it sets out important questions for further study and gives new confidence that effective treatments modifying the course of some dementias may be in sight,” he said.

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After a new study out of Harvard Medical School revealed that dental fillings and sealants contain dangerously high levels of the deadly chemical bisphenol A (BPA), some dentists are now claiming that these fillings and sealants are still perfectly safe for use in children.

BPA is an endocrine disrupter that mimics the hormone estrogen. Consequently, has been linked to reduced fertility in men, and even receipts containing BPA can be harmful to male hormone levels when handled. BPA is found in plastics, soft drink cans, soup cans, and thousands of other packaging containers.

A recent California bill would have banned BPA in children-related items such as baby bottles and children’s toys, but was shot down on September 2nd. Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Vermont, Wisconsin, and Washington already have such laws.

Why then, would it be safe to have fillings and sealants in your mouth that contain this chemical? The research shows that it’s really not. Research shows that BPA levels in saliva skyrocket by around 88 times higher than normal (and what constitutes a “normal” level of a toxic substance?) right after a dental sealing. Experts agree there is no “safe” level of exposure to BPA.

“This chemical is one that you should not be exposed to at any level,” said von Saal, Curators’ professor of biology at the University of Missouri at Columbia.

This is why it is shocking that multiple media outlets have started claiming that BPA is actually not a danger to health, despite routine research proving that this gender-bending chemical is nothing to play around with.

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Experts from different persuasions often argue about the alleged benefits of using marijuana for pain relief, but a new study out of McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) and McGill University (MU) has conclusively found that cannabis, the genus name for marijuana, is better than pharmaceutical drugs at relieving chronic neurological pain, and without all the harmful side effects.

Appearing in the latest issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal, the study reveals that tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient in marijuana that gives it psychoactive and analgesic properties, is linked to relieving chronic pain, improving mood and inducing better sleep in those with severe neurological pain.

Patients who took a single inhalation of marijuana smoke three times a day experienced moderate pain reduction within just a few days. The effects were more pronounced with marijuana containing ten percent THC versus varieties with less than ten percent.

“This is the first trial to be conducted where patients have been allowed to smoke cannabis at home and to monitor their responses, daily,” explained Dr. Mark Ware, lead author of the study, Director of Clinical Research at the Alan Edwards Pain Management Unit at MUHC, assistant professor of anesthesia in McGill University’s Faculty of Medicine and neuroscience researcher at the Research Institute of the MUHC.

“The patients we followed suffered from pain caused by injuries to the nervous system…and which was not controlled using standard therapies,” he went on further to say. “This kind of pain occurs more frequently than many people recognize, and there are few effective treatments available. For these patients, medical cannabis is sometimes seen as their last hope.”

For legitimate chronic pain caused by post-traumatic and post-surgical injuries, marijuana can be a safer alternative than prescription medications. As always, though, it is important not to abuse marijuana for non-therapeutic purposes.

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Scientists are concerned that exposure to chemicals used in non-stick frying pans could raise cholesterol levels in children after finding a link. They have no proof, but the West Virginia team says further research is needed to rule it out.

They studied over 12,000 children involved in a lawsuit regarding a water supply contaminated with the same chemicals used on non-stick pans. Experts stressed that the children’s exposure was much higher than typical.

Unavoidable

Most people are exposed to the man-made perfluoroalkyl acid chemicals because they are used commonly in manufacturing.

Perfluoroalkyl acids like PFOA and PFOS give non-stick pans heat resistance, and also come from the breakdown of compounds used in commercial food packaging and factory treatments for fabrics, carpets and stain-resistant clothing.

Experts know these chemicals can get into the body and travel to the liver – the organ responsible for making cholesterol and handling any fat that comes from the diet.

And other studies have already suggested that PFOA and PFOS may change how well the body deals with these fats.

Stephanie Frisbee and colleagues at West Virginia University School of Medicine set out to investigate this further, looking at a group of children who had been exposed to particularly high levels of PFOA through an industrial accident.

Blood tests from the children showed that they did have much higher levels of PFOA than would be expected – their levels were 69.2 nanograms per millilitre on average compared to the 3.9ng/ml national average.

And their higher PFOA levels were associated with increased total cholesterol and LDL or “bad” cholesterol.

The one-fifth of children and teenagers with the highest PFOA levels had total cholesterol levels 4.6 milligrams per decilitre higher and LDL cholesterol levels 3.8mg/dl higher than the fifth of children with the lowest PFOA levels.

The children’s PFOS levels were only slightly raised, yet were also linked with higher cholesterol levels. High cholesterol, particularly LDL cholesterol, is linked to heart disease.

Frying pan contents

But the experts told the journal Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine that it was too early to say if their findings meant that the children in the study would be at increased risk of heart disease as a result.

Cathy Ross, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, urged caution in interpreting the findings.

“This study was carried out in a specific area in the USA where the levels of these substances were excessively high due to contaminated water.

“It does not show a link to these substances when they are used in coatings for frying pans where they appear in considerably lower levels.

“While the study found that where there were high blood levels of PFOAs and PFOSs there was also a modest increase in cholesterol levels, this is not the same as saying that they caused the rise in cholesterol.

“More research is needed to identify whether the small quantities of these chemicals that UK children are exposed to actually affect their cholesterol levels.”

She said children’s heart health was at greater risk from what goes into the frying pan and from an increasingly inactive lifestyle than from what the lining of the frying pan is made of.

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Babies born with low vitamin D levels are twice as likely to develop schizophrenia later in life, researchers from the Queensland Brain Institute have found.

But the researchers say the good news from the study is that it suggests it may be possible to prevent schizophrenia, which affects almost 200,000 Australians.

Professor John McGrath from the Queensland Brain Institute says there has been suggestions for some time that there may be a link between sunlight, vitamin D and brain development.

He says it is increasingly clear children with low vitamin D levels are more likely to develop schizophrenia.

“For the babies who had very low vitamin D, their risk was about twice as high as those babies who had optimal vitamin D,” says McGrath.

“But the amazing thing was that the study that was based in Denmark, where low vitamin D is quite common, we found that if vitamin D is linked to schizophrenia our statistics suggest that it could explain about 40% of all schizophrenias.

“That’s a much bigger effect than we’re used to seeing in schizophrenia research.”

While the simplest way to get enough vitamin D is to spend more time in the sun, it remains unclear whether there are fewer cases of schizophrenia in a country like Australia which sees a lot more sunlight.

“We don’t have high-quality data on that, but some statistics suggest we do have slightly lower incidences and prevalence of schizophrenia,” says McGrath.

“Like many other diseases, like multiple sclerosis, schizophrenia tends to be more common in places further away from the equator.

“And if you’re born in winter and spring you tend to have a slightly increased risk of schizophrenia also, and that was one of the original pieces of the jigsaw puzzle that led us to wonder maybe vitamin D could be implicated.”

Professor Ian Hickie from the Brain and Mind Research Institute in Sydney says he is not surprised by the results, however he says more research is needed.

“So the real acid test is going to be trying to lift vitamin D levels in pregnant women and newborns and see whether there’s an effect on later schizophrenia,” says Hickie.

“Or even in fact, looking at providing higher levels of vitamin D by vitamin D supplementation in other ways later in life and particularly childhood and the teenage years, to see whether you might reduce the risk of onset of schizophrenia.”

Statistical link

McGrath says vitamin D supplements may prove an effective way to prevent schizophrenia.

But he agrees there is only a statistical link at the moment and that does not prove vitamin D deficiencies are to blame for schizophrenia.

“Because the treatment and the outcome can be separated by about 20, 30 years, we need to treat pregnant women and then wait for their offspring to develop schizophrenia,” he says.

“It will be a very challenging study to do.”

McGrath adds that it could be decades before scientists know for sure.

“But medical research tends to move at a steady pace. I think the other thing is that there are many other studies suggesting that vitamin D is good for baby’s bone health,” he says.

“So it may well be that recommendations will be made to women to increase their vitamin D status for more obvious outcomes, like baby’s rickets for example. If that happened then it may well be that schizophrenia would start to fall in decades to come.”

But Hickie warns against spending too much time in the sun to get more vitamin D because that could increase the risk of skin cancer.

“Rates of melanoma and skin cancer are obviously very high in our country and directly related to sun exposure, particularly in childhood,” he says.

“So on the one hand we need to be careful about over exposure to sunlight, on the other hand it may well be that in some places, or in some individuals, low levels of vitamin D may constitute a risk factor, particularly in pregnancy and therefore affecting the rates of vitamin D in newborn children.”

“So this is one of the issues that we’re going to need to look at clearly. I don’t think it means that everyone should be rushing out into the sun and necessarily putting themselves at risk of other sun-related cancers.”

Even if vitamin D does make a difference, there are several other factors that may play a part.

A predisposition to the illness can run in families, chemical imbalances in the brain may be responsible and stressful events are often thought to play a role in the onset of the schizophrenia.

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Spanish scientists from the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona have recently found that adding a little olive oil to your meal can help ward off breast cancer.

The olive oil wards against breast cancer by attacking breast tumors in a number of different ways. The olive oil actually inhibits the growth of the tumor, and eventually causes the destruction of the tumor itself.

The scientists were aware of previous links between olive oil and anti-cancer properties, but they wanted to discover the scientific reasoning behind the matter. They found that one reason is that olive oil switches off the proteins that tumors need to survive.

The Spanish scientists were able to sum up the effects of olive oil on the tumor. Based off of their findings, it “thwarts the gene that drives the growth of breast cancer tumours, it switches off proteins that the cancer cells rely on in order to grow and multiply and it protects the DNA from damage that can lead to cancer.”

In 2006, 40,820 women died from breast cancer. Many women are starting to look to the mediterranean diet for its preventative properties. The mediterranean diet, which is rich in olive oil, has been cited for many different forms of cancer. It has also been found to protect against heart disease, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s. While the make-up of the diet changes from region to region, the pro-dominant inclusion of olive oil is one of the common themes.

Many who have previously suffered from breast cancer or breast tumors have decided to switch to the mediterranean diet. While it is highly debated whether or not this diet is truly effective, simply adding some more olive oil to your meal may provide a host of benefits.

Luckily adding olive oil to any meal is exceptionally simple. Olive oil can be used as a substitute to butter or water when lubricating a pot or pan before cooking, or olive oil can be sprinkled on food as a flavor enhancer. As with all foods, be sure to purchase a high quality organic brand of olive oil. The last thing you want is the olive oil doing more harm than good, which can be done if it contains toxic pesticides.

A recent study found that produce such as celery, peaches, and strawberries contained 47 to 67 pesticides per serving. Olives are susceptible to the absorption of pesticides, and these pesticides act as neurotoxins. Neurotoxins attack the nerves, leading towards neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Ensuring that the olives are free of pesticides can be as simple as purchasing them from a local source that grows them organically.

Olive oil is a natural means of preventing and fighting breast tumors. It is also a healthy fat that should be incorporated into both male and female diets. Expensive surgeries and pharmaceuticals lead to degrading side-effects and death, but olive oil is a natural substance that can aid the body on an organic level.

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A new study is linking the popular weight loss drug Meridia to an increased risk of non-fatal heart attacks and stroke, although taking the drug did not seem to up the risk of death in patients with a history of heart problems.

The finding is stirring mixed reactions from experts. According to the authors of the trial, which was funded by Meridia’s maker, Abbott, the findings are generally in line with what has been known about the drug and shouldn’t change how it is used.

“The only time you’ve got an increase in heart attacks or strokes were in those patients who had had previous heart disease or strokes, in other words, the people who . . . should never have received the drug in the first place,” said Dr. Philip T. James, a professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in England, and first author on the paper, which appears in the Sept. 2 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Since January, Meridia (sibutramine), has carried a label warning that it should not be used by people with preexisting heart disease, so “the current prescription is entirely appropriate,” James said.

However, not everyone agrees. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is slated to meet in September to decide if more regulatory action — perhaps a tougher “black-box” warning or even removing Meridia from the market — should be taken.

According to Dr. Greg Curfman, executive editor of the NEJM and co-author of an accompanying editorial, the FDA’s January warning was based on preliminary information only. The new study results represent the first hard data, “the first outcomes trial,” he said.

Based on the findings, he and others wonder if the drug is worth keeping around.

The drug did not seem to make people healthier, Curfman said. “Some people were actually made worse,” he said. “All this taken together results in an unfavorable risk-benefit profile and, based on that, we don’t see a rationale for keeping this on the market.”

Also, he said, “the efficacy of producing weight loss with the drug is very unimpressive. In this trial, patients lost on average less than 4 kilograms [about 9 pounds] and we know that that’s not going to translate into a real health benefit over time. It’s not enough weight loss. The FDA has a benchmark of about 5 percent loss of baseline body weight to consider a weight loss drug [effective].”

A University of Rochester expert concurs.

“I have never really found that people taking Meridia had obtained a real substantive weight loss,” said Dr. J. Chad Teeters, assistant professor of clinical medicine, cardiology division at the University of Rochester Medical Center. “It seems that a lot of these ‘quick fix’ weight loss drugs don’t really live up to the hype and they come with risks. I think there’s probably going to be a significant downturn in the use of the drug given the low efficacy and increased risk of side effects.”

This trial involved almost 11,000 older overweight or obese adults with type 2 diabetes or heart disease or both who were randomized either to take Meridia or a placebo and followed for about 3.4 years.

In the group taking Meridia, 11.4 percent had a heart attack, stroke or died as the result of a heart problem, versus 10 percent in the control group, a 16 percent increase.

People taking Meridia also had a 28 percent higher risk for nonfatal heart attack and a 36 percent raised risk for nonfatal stroke, compared to those taking placebo, the authors found.

All trial participants were also engaged in a diet-and-exercise program to lose weight, whether they were taking the drug or not, said study author James. “Meridia is not a wonder drug that guarantees people lose weight but it is a major additional help for people who change their diet and increase their physical activity,” he said.

But Teeters narrowed the prescription. “Good old-fashioned diet and exercise is the only substantive sustained therapy that’s shown to be helpful,” he said. “There’s no quick-fix pill.”

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About 10,000 cases of breast and bowel cancer could be prevented each year in the UK if people did more brisk walking, claim experts.

The World Cancer Research Fund scientists say any moderate activity that makes the heart beat faster should achieve the same.

For example, data suggest 45 minutes a day of moderate exercise could prevent about 5,500 cases of breast cancer. Physical exercise helps prevent obesity, which is a cancer risk factor.

The WCRF team stress in their report that it is the total time spent being active that is important. You do not need to set aside half an hour each day to exercise. Shorter bouts of activity will be just as beneficial as long as they add up to the same, the charity says.

Alongside brisk walking, other activities that would count include cycling or swimming at a leisurely pace, dancing, gardening and vacuuming combined with other housework, says the WCRF. Their head of science, Dr Rachel Thompson, said by making small changes to their daily routine people could achieve significant health gains.

“There is now every strong evidence that being physically active is important for cancer prevention.

“Even relatively modest increases in activity levels could prevent thousands of cancer cases in the UK every year.

“These figures also show you do not have to go to the gym every day to benefit.

“You can reduce your cancer risk just by making small changes and this is highlighted by the fact that so many cancer cases could be prevented through something as simple as brisk walking.

“By taking up walking as a hobby or even walking to the shops instead of taking the bus or car, people can make a real difference to their health.”

Henry Scowcroft, science information manager at Cancer Research UK, said: “You don’t have to be an athlete to reduce your cancer risk.

“There’s solid evidence that certain cancers – including breast and bowel cancer – are less common in people who do regular, moderate exercise such as brisk walking.”

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A pair of psychiatric experts think they’ve got the answer to the soaring number of troops coming back from war with PTSD: have them undergo intensive psychotherapy — while they’re rolling on ecstasy.

Dr. Michael Mithoefer and Anne Mithoefer, a psychiatric nurse, are the South Carolina pair who’ve been spearheading research into ecstasy, known clinically as MDMA, since 2000. After one successful study on 21 PTSD patients between 2004 and 2008, they’ve now received the final okay from FDA and DEA officials to start a study entirely devoted to former military service members.

“My sense is that, especially after we published the results of the first study, these institutions are more open to the idea,” Dr. Michael Mithoefer tells Danger Room. “Obviously, this is still new and experimental, and it can take time to get through to big institutions.”

With $500,000 in funding from MAPS (the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies), the two are recruiting 16 veterans — they’re hoping for a 50-50 split between men and women, and want most of the participants to have been diagnosed within the last 10 years.

“These will mostly be veterans from Iraq or Afghanistan, because longer duration of PTSD means more complicating factors,” Dr. Mithoefer says, adding that he does anticipate enrolling 4 vets from earlier wars and is still accepting applications.

Participants will undergo a preliminary screening process, and then partake in three solitary, 8-hour therapy sessions with both doctors. While tripping out, they’ll be asked to revisit the traumatic experiences that triggered their disorder. Dr. Mithoefer thinks MDMA acts as a catalyst for “an optimal zone of arousal” that prevents patients from becoming overwhelmed or, on the flipside, shutting down and detaching altogether.

Of course, the Pentagon’s still struggling to better diagnose and address PTSD, most recently with a cutting edge 72,000 square foot research facility. But despite the military’s gradual thaw on alternative methods to treat the disorder — already, they’ve funded everything from yoga and acupuncture to “Warrior Mind Training” — top brass have yet to endorse MDMA.

“We’re had several conversations with people at Veterans Affairs hospitals and officers at the Department of Defense, but so far haven’t convinced them to participate,” Mithoefer says. “That said, we’re moving forward and still making every effort to get them involved.”

In the meantime, the Mithoefers anticipate finishing this latest study within three years. Teams in Switzerland, Israel, Jordan, Spain and Canada are in various stages of similar research.

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Survival rates in heart failure patients with reduced levels of vitamin D are lower than in patients with normal levels. This is the finding of a major study carried out at University Medical Center, Groningen, Netherlands, according to a presentation at the European Society of Cardiology’s Congress 2010 in Stockholm.

Results also suggest that low levels of vitamin D are associated with activation of the Renin Angiotensin System (RAS — a pivotal regulatory system in heart failure) and an altered cytokine profile.

Vitamin D is produced by the skin when it is exposed to the natural Ultra Violet-B (UV-B) radiation from the sun. Low levels have long been known as the underlying mechanism of rickets however, in recent years, new studies have provided novel insight into the multiple vitamin’s functions. It has been proved that most tissues and cells have a vitamin D receptor, and there is strong evidence that its presence plays a part in reducing the risk factor profiles of several chronic illnesses, such as common cancers, autoimmune diseases, kidney diseases, chronic infectious diseases, hypertension and apparently also heart failure.

“By showing that vitamin D is an independent predictor, we hoped to prove that it is a contributory factor to, rather than peripheral to, the development and prognosis of heart failure,” said Ms. Licette Liu of the University Medical Center, Groningen. “With this new information, we then hope to provide better insight into the pathophysiology of heart failure.”

Experiments with mice lacking the vitamin D receptor have shown typical signs of heart failure, while small-scale clinical studies have shown that low levels are a consistent factor amongst human heart failure patients. “There are several potential reasons for low vitamin D levels in heart failure patients, including the fact that they are often bedridden or house-bound due to their clinical symptoms” Ms. Liu explains. “This would lead to a serious deficiency, because 80-90 percent of vitamin D is obtained by UV-B radiation. Another factor is that the capacity of the skin to produce vitamin D declines with age, and as heart failure has a high incidence among elderly people, it is not entirely surprising to measure low levels. Furthermore, severe heart failure is associated with impaired renal function due to decreased blood supply. This may be responsible for a reduced synthesis of the active form of vitamin D, since the final step of conversion takes place in the kidneys. All of these factors may add to vitamin D deficiency in heart failure patients.”

Observations in animal studies suggest that vitamin D is a negative regulator of the RAS, which is responsible for volume and blood pressure homeostasis and is a pivotal regulatory system in heart failure. Low levels may activate the RAS, which in turn may contribute to the development and progression of heart failure. There is also growing evidence that overproduction of several pro-inflammatory cytokines (and underproduction of anti-inflammatory cytokines) plays an important role in heart failure. Several studies have shown that vitamin D alters the cytokine profile and may therefore contribute to the inflammatory processes in heart failure.

In the current study, vitamin D concentration was assessed in plasma samples from 548 heart failure patients, using data supplied by the Coordinating study evaluating Outcomes of Advising and Counselling in Heart failure (COACH). Results showed that vitamin D concentration is associated with the prognosis of heart failure. Patients with lower concentrations had a higher risk of death or required re-hospitalisation, whereas patients with higher concentrations had lower survival risks for these endpoints. Further, significant correlations between vitamin D, and Plasma Renin Activity and C-Reactive Protein were found. These correlations suggest that the association between vitamin D and the prognosis in heart failure may be explained by activation of the RAS and an altered cytokine profile.

This is the first study in a large cohort of patients recruited due to hospitalisation for heart failure, in which the role of vitamin D has been determined, along with the roles of plasma renin activity and cytokines. Previous reports involved smaller study cohorts, and did not determine either plasma renin activity or cytokines, or they included patients who were referred routinely for coronary angiography at baseline.

The major limitation of this observational study was that bystander and indirect effects of variables could not be discounted. Therefore, a prospective randomised intervention study is necessary to investigate the effect of vitamin D on the RAS, cytokines profile and, finally, on the prognosis in heart failure patients. Ms. Liu concludes, “This study provides compelling evidence that a high vitamin D status is associated with improved survival in heart failure patients. Until an intervention study has been designed and completed, it seems that we should advise patients with heart failure to maintain appropriate vitamin D levels by taking supplements, by eating oily fish or eggs, or simply by exposure to sunlight.”

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