Why Beer Is The Latest Hope In Fight Against Cancer
January 18, 2010
DailyMail.co.uk
By Anastasia Stephens
It might be your preference to crack open a bottle of red wine at the end of a hard day but you may be better off pouring a pint.
Researchers at the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg have discovered that beer contains a powerful molecule that helps protect against breast and prostate cancers.
Found in hops, the substance called xanthohumol blocks the excessive action of testosterone and oestrogen. It also helps to prevent the release of a protein called PSA which encourages the spread of prostate cancer.
Scientists have long known that substances in hops help to block oestrogen. This is the first time, however, that they have been found to also inhibit testosterone.
‘Research is still early but in trials we hope to further demonstrate that xanthohumol actively prevents prostate cancer development,’ says Clarissa Gerhauser of the Heidelberg centre. If successful, xanthohumol may one day be developed as a cancer-fighting drug.
So which brews are likely to be richest in xanthohumol?
‘Hops give beer its bitter flavour, so traditional bitters and ales will contain far more of this substance than light lagers,’ explains Ben McFarland, author of the World’s Best Beers.
Beers highest in hops, he says, are India pale ales such as those made by the Meantime Brewery in Greenwich, South-East London. First brewed in the 1800s, these ales were made with high levels of hops to act as a natural preservative for export.
Ales such as Sharp’s and local bitters will also be hop-rich, containing around three to four times more than a typical light lager. Drinks such as Guinness owe their dark colour to malt and contain moderate levels of hops.
Alcohol Concern warns you should only drink beer within recommended limits – two to three units a day for women, three to four units for men.
Click here for the full report.
Obama Administration Pushing Flu Vaccines in Ads
December 8, 2009
Washington Post
by Philip Elliot
Pushing Americans to receive swine flu vaccinations, the Obama administration on Monday released a new slate of television and radio ads to counter an illness that already has infected millions.
The public service announcements target children and their parents, young adults and those in high-risk groups, such as people with asthma. The ads in English and Spanish come as a shortage of the vaccine is easing, with another 10 million doses expected to become available this week. The messages also are a shift from earlier efforts to teach Americans how to avoid spreading the illness, known also as H1N1.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was announcing the new ads Monday.
“Getting vaccinated is the best way to protect yourself and your family against the H1N1 flu virus,” Sebelius said. “Fighting the flu is a shared responsibility and it is up to all of us to help prevent the spread of the flu in your community.”
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 22 million people have been infected with swine flu and 3,900 have died. Government tallies also include 98,000 swine flu-related hospitalizations.
The vaccine is becoming plentiful enough that some state and local governments are allowing everyone to get it, not just those in priority groups. There are 73 million doses available, roughly twice as many as there were a month ago, and another 10 million doses are expected this week, Dr. Thomas Frieden, the CDC’s director, told reporters Friday.
Initially, limited supplies caused the CDC to advise state and local health officials to reserve doses for those at highest risk for severe complications from swine flu or those who take care of them.
Officials at the CDC said last week that it appears that a fall wave of swine flu infections has peaked. But flu is hard to predict, and health officials say they are worried of the possibility of a third wave this winter.
More Benefits of vitamin D – Treatment for Prostate Cancer
November 19, 2009
Natural News
By David Gutierrez
(NaturalNews) Treatment with vitamin D supplements may slow the progress of prostate cancer, according to a study published in the journal BJU International.
In the United States, prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death among men, after lung cancer. Approximately 240,000 new cases are diagnosed every year, leading to 30,000 deaths.
Researchers have suspected for nearly two decades that the so-called “sunshine vitamin” may play a role in the risk and progression of prostate cancer, but no studies have previously been conducted on its usefulness as a treatment.
“It’s very interesting – there has been no significant trial of vitamin D,” said lead researcher Jonathan Waxman of Imperial College London. “This is a treatment which is unlikely to have significant toxicity and is a welcome addition to the therapeutic options for patients with prostate cancer.”
Waxman decided to do the study when he learned of a prostate cancer patient who recovered after his wife bought vitamin D pills for him. Waxman and colleagues recruited 26 men with prostate cancer and assigned them each to take a daily vitamin D supplement. In five of the men, reductions in levels of the prostate specific antigen (PSA) were reduced.
In men with prostate cancer, PSA levels are an indicator of disease severity. One participant experienced a decrease in PSA levels less than 25 percent, two experienced decreases of between 25 and 50 percent, and two experienced decreases of more than 50 percent. In one of the participants, PSA levels remained reduced for a full 36 months.
Vitamin D is synthesized by the body upon exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation from sunlight. It plays a critical role in calcium absorption and bone health, and deficiency in the vitamin can lead to rickets in children and osteoporosis in adults. Recent research has also suggested that vitamin D can help prevent autoimmune disorders and a variety of chronic diseases, including diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Some scientists have stated that if everyone increased the amount of time they spent in the sun, far more lives would be saved from cancers prevented than would be lost from increased skin cancer cases.
A light-skinned person can get enough vitamin D from getting 15 minutes of sun on the face and hands each day, while a darker skinned person might need up to 45 minutes. More sun exposure is needed at more extreme latitudes.
A connection between vitamin D and prostate cancer was first suggested in 1990, when researchers suggested that the vitamin might tie together a variety of observed risk factors for the disease. A wide body of research has demonstrated that prostate cancer risk is higher at northern latitudes (where people get less vitamin D), among older people (with reduced vitamin D synthesis) and black people (who absorb less UV rays). Researchers have also found that men diagnosed with prostate cancer in the summer or autumn, when vitamin D levels tend to be highest, have a better prognosis than men diagnosed in winter or spring.
In 1992, researchers also suggested that higher vitamin D consumption in Japan might account for lower rates of prostate cancer there, relative to the United States. Japanese men consume more fatty fish, which is high in both vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acids that increase the vitamin’s stability in the body, and soy, which slows the rate at which bodily vitamin D breaks down.
Since then, studies have found that many prostate cancer cells contain vitamin D receptors, and that vitamin D can inhibit the growth of some of these cells.
Researchers also hypothesize that vitamin D might inhibit the action of the androgen receptor, which produces male sex hormones that have been linked to the disease.
Click here for the full report
Automotive Uses for Hemp
November 16, 2009
NaturalNews
By Paul Louis
PSA, the French manufacturer for Peugeot and Citroen, has recently initiated its Green Materials Plan. This plan intends to increase car parts made from natural materials 600 percent by 2015. They are making a few parts now that are based on flax and hemp.
PSA’s Green Materials Plan focuses on three areas: Biopolymers to replace plastics derived from oil; Natural fibers from flax and hemp mixed with other materials, such as wood chips; And recycled materials from shredded plastic bottles mixed with glass fibers.
The plastic interior door panels made by PSA are already 50 percent flax fibers pressed with wood chips. Other parts, including mirror and windshield wiper mountings, use hemp instead of glass fiber in their material mix.
Oil based plastics in cars make up to 20 percent of a car’s weight on average. Of that 20 percent, only six percent is currently green or cellulose based. PSA’s goal is to increase that six percent to 30 percent of the plastic used.
Hemp is legal in France, so further advances with hemp for car parts may unfold. Laurent Bechin, PSA’s natural-fibers specialist, pointed out that the hemp used does not produce marijuana. “It would need about two tons of this material to produce one joint”, he quipped.
Hemp and flax for building cars is not new. It was actually done in the USA by Henry Ford while hemp was legal in 1941. The experimental model’s body was seventy percent made of fibers from field straw, cotton fibers, hemp, and flax. The other 30 percent consisted of soy meal and bio-resin fillers.
Ford’s successful prototype was tagged as the vegetable or hemp car.
Ford’s motivation was green-based for two reasons. He wanted to increase agricultural involvement for materials in the automotive industry to improve the farmers’ economic plight. And he wanted to build lighter, stronger cars with better fuel efficiency.
The car weighed 2000 pounds compared to 3000 pounds for similar all-steel automobiles. In 1941, ethanol had a higher octane and was cheaper to produce than gasoline. Ford designed the car to run on partial or complete ethanol fuels.
But steel and oil magnates lobbied government to ensure Ford’s vision would never manifest.
Click here for the full report.
