Health and Fitness Tips

Alcohol Activates Cellular Changes That Make Tumor Cells Spread

alcohol and cancerResearchers have identified a cellular pathway that may explain the link between alcohol consumption and cancer.

Alcohol consumption has long been linked to cancer and its spread, but the underlying mechanism has never been clear. Now, researchers at Rush University Medical Center have identified a cellular pathway that may explain the link.

In a study published in a recent issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, the researchers found that alcohol stimulates what is called the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, in which run-of-the-mill cancer cells morph into a more aggressive form and begin to spread throughout the body.

“Our data are the first to show that alcohol turns on certain signals inside a cell that are involved in this critical transition,” said Christopher Forsyth, PhD, assistant professor of medicine and biochemistry at RushUniversity Medical Center and lead author of the study. [Read more →]

July 21, 2012   No Comments

Is There Any Health Benefit In Eating Frozen Food Rather Than Tinned?

frozen foodFrozen food has long had a reputation for being inferior to fresh, on a par with canned. But this is now largely undeserved. Frozen fish is a good example of how freezing has come a long way.

Back in the Seventies and early Eighties, when we weren’t so picky or knowledgeable, frozen fish consisted mainly of fish fingers made from the tail ends of poor quality fish, and freezing techniques meant they were often mushy when defrosted.

But freezing technology has improved vastly since then – today fish is frozen within minutes of being caught out at sea.

It’s cleaned and popped into the freezer and transported in this frozen state, so that when you defrost it, it is almost as good as it would have been had you eaten it straight from the net. [Read more →]

July 14, 2012   No Comments

Cake, a stress killer?

Yummy cake A high-fat, high-sugar diet could have the same effect on brain chemistry as mood-altering drugs, giving scientific support to the craving for “comfort food”, Australian researchers said on Tuesday.

A controlled study of rats that were traumatised in early life and went on to exhibit depressed or anxious behaviours found those that were fed lard-laced foods such as cake or pie reversed their stress levels.

“We asked the question, if you’re stressed early in life and then you’re given yummy food to eat does that reduce your behavioural deficit, and basically that’s what we found,” lead researcher Margaret Morris told AFP.

“The animals who’d been exposed to stress who were then given palatable food, junk food if you will, no longer looked anxious.” [Read more →]

July 1, 2012   No Comments

Eggs Can Enhance Your Health

eggsHaving fallen in and out of favor with nutrition experts, you’d think the fragile egg would be broken and beaten by now. Luckily, its ego isn’t nearly as vulnerable as its shell. Oblivious to the attempts to separate the egg from its well-deserved title of “best source of complete protein on the planet,” the egg has managed to remain a nutritious, inexpensive, and popular food.

For awhile, nutrition experts hypothesized that the high cholesterol content of eggs raised blood cholesterol levels, which can increase a person’s risk of heart disease. But this hypothesis was never proven. In fact, several studies have shown that the consumption of eggs is not associated with higher cholesterol levels but is associated with higher nutrient intake. [Read more →]

November 28, 2009   No Comments