Nutrition Review

The cells lining blood vessels are known to be important for maintaining health, but researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine believe these cells may perform an unsuspected task – controlling the development of fat cells.

When lean healthy young adults gained about 9 pounds, the functioning of their blood vessel lining became impaired -- but shedding the weight restored proper functioning, according to a Mayo Clinic research report. The finding is important because this vessel disorder, known as endothelial dysfunction, is a predictor of heart attacks and stroke, and the effects of modest weight gain on the disorder were not previously known.

Mayo Clinic researchers found that healthy young people who put on as little as 9 pounds of fat, specifically in the abdomen, are at risk for developing endothelial cell dysfunction. Endothelial cells line the blood vessels and control the ability of the vessels to expand and contract.

I was sure that I was going to die with congestive heart failure, when I started taking VitalCell. Within about 10 to 14 days I was a different person. My beautiful wife was stunned at the quick turn around.

New research by the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy (CSTE) at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) provides the first pathological evidence that repetitive head trauma experienced in collision sports is associated with motor neuron disease, a neurological condition that affects voluntary muscle movements.

Research conducted by Dr. Jay Kolls, Professor and Chair of Genetics at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, and colleagues, has found that vitamin D may be an effective therapeutic agent to treat or prevent allergy to a common mold that can complicate asthma and frequently affects patients with Cystic Fibrosis.

Osteoporosis is more common in women who have fractured bones when they were younger -- and they experience a similar loss in health-related quality of life as those with arthritis, lung disease, diabetes and other chronic diseases.

Leading study author, Dr Jackie Center says: "While women are initially twice as likely as men to have a fracture, once the first break occurs, the risk of a second substantially increases and the protective effects of being male disappear altogether."

Women who do not comply with treatment instructions for osteoporosis or who do not respond to treatment are more likely to suffer further fractures, which seriously affects their quality of life. There is an urgent need to provide support to these patients and address their issues when new therapies are assessed and new treatment guidelines drawn up, according to lead researcher Professor Cyrus Cooper from the MRC Epidemiology Resource Centre, University of Southampton, in the UK.

Keep your heart healthy and you may slow down the aging of your brain, according to a new study reported in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. In the study, people whose hearts pumped less blood had brains that appeared older than the brains of those whose hearts pumped more blood.