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A cherry on top: Tart cherries may alter heart/diabetes factors

04-30-2007 · EurekAlert!

Tart cherries may be good for more than just making pie, according to new animal data. Researchers report that rats that received powdered tart cherries in their diet had lower total cholesterol, lower blood sugar, less fat storage in the liver and lower oxidative stress, compared with rats that didn't receive cherries.

Keywords: cherry, top, tart, cherries, alter, heart, diabetes, factors, diabete, factor

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Advance in understanding of blood pressure gene could lead to new treatments
02-04-2007 · EurekAlert!
Research by scientists at UCL (University College London) has clearly demonstrated for the first time the structure and function of a gene crucial to the regulation of blood pressure. The discovery could be important in the search for new treatments for illnesses such as heart disease, the UK's biggest killer. In a paper published online today in Nature Medicine, the team, led by Professor Patrick Vallance and Dr James Leiper, UCL Department of Medicine, reveal the role of the human gene dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase (DDAH), showing that loss of DDAH activity disrupts nitric oxide (NO) production. NO is critical in the regulation of blood pressure, nervous system functions and the immune system. The role of DDAH is to break down modified amino acids (Asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) and monomethyl arginine (L-NMMA)) that are produced by the body and have been shown to inhibit NO synthase. These molecules accumulate in various disease states including diabetes, renal failure and pulmonary and systemic hypertension, and their concentration in plasma (the fluid component of blood) is strongly predicative of cardiovascular disease and death. In a healthy human body, the majority of ADMA is eliminated through active metabolism by DDAH. Scientists have hypothesised that if DDAH function is impaired, NO production is reduced, and that this could be an important feature of increased cardiovascular risk. To examine this pathway in more detail, the researchers deleted the DDAH gene in mice. These mice went on to develop hypertension, or high blood pressure. They also designed specific inhibitors (small molecules) which bind to the active site of human DDAH. These small molecule inhibitors also induced hypertension in mice, confirming the importance of DDAH in the regulation of blood pressure. Dr Leiper, UCL Medicine, said: “These genetic and chemical approaches to disrupt DDAH showed remarkably consistent results, and provide compelling evidence that loss of DDAH function increases the concentration of ADMA and thereby disrupts vascular NO signalling. “There has been considerable scientific interest in this pathway and the role of ADMA as a novel risk factor, but so far there's been little evidence to support the idea that it's a cause of disease, rather than just a marker. Genes and their pathways are crucial to our understanding of cardiovascular disease and a better understanding of DDAH-1 could lead to important new treatments. “It could help us to establish if genetic variation predisposes certain people to these diseases, or whether environmental factors exert some of their effects through modulation of DDAH activity. “Our research also shows that this pathway could be harnessed therapeutically to limit production of NO in certain situations where too much nitric oxide is a bad thing; for example, hypotension and septic shock. These are some of the biggest problems in intensive care medicine and there is a huge unmet need for drug treatments.” The study, which was carried out at UCL's Rayne Institute, was funded by grants from the British Heart Foundation, the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council. Professor Jeremy Pearson, Associate Medical Director of the British Heart Foundation, said: "The unexpected finding in the 1980s that a simple gas, nitric oxide (NO), is made by cells in the blood vessel wall and is a powerful control of blood vessel relaxation led to the award of the Nobel Prize in 1998 to its discoverers. "More recently, there has been increasing evidence that impairment of NO production is likely to be an important factor in the development of heart and circulatory disease, but the mechanisms responsible are not fully understood. "This study suggests for the first time that the loss of the activity of the enzyme DDAH-1 leads to reduced NO production and may cause heart and circulatory disease. These findings are likely to be important in the search for new ways to optimise the health of our blood vessels." ### Notes for Editors 1. For more information, please contact Ruth Metcalfe in the UCL Media Relations Office on tel: +44 (0)20 7679 9739, mobile: +44 (0)7990 675 947, out of hours: +44 (0)7917 271 364, e-mail: r.metcalfe@ucl.ac.uk2. 'Disruption of methylarginine metabolism impairs vascular homeostasis' is published in the February issue of the journal Nature Medicine. Advance online publication is embargoed to 18.00 GMT (13.00 US Eastern) Sunday 4 February 2007. Journalists can obtain copies of the paper by contacting the UCL Media Relations Office.3. The study was funded by the British Heart Foundation, the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council. About UCL Founded in 1826, UCL was the first English university established after Oxford and Cambridge, the first to admit students regardless of race, class, religion or gender, and the first to provide systematic teaching of law, architecture and medicine. In the government's most recent Research Assessment Exercise, 59 UCL departments achieved top ratings of 5* and 5, indicating research quality of international excellence. UCL is the fourth-ranked UK university in the 2006 league table of the top 500 world universities produced by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University. UCL alumni include Mahatma Gandhi (Laws 1889, Indian political and spiritual leader); Jonathan Dimbleby (Philosophy 1969, writer and television presenter); Junichiro Koizumi (Economics 1969, Prime Minister of Japan); Lord Woolf (Laws 1954, Lord Chief Justice of England & Wales); Alexander Graham Bell (Phonetics 1860s, inventor of the telephone), and members of the band Coldplay.
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Study of US restaurants shows no healthier foods without healthier profits
04-11-2007 · EurekAlert!
With obesity, diabetes and other diet-related maladies on the rise in the United States, are healthy choices available when eating out? In an interview study of top executives at major U.S. restaurant chains, researchers found that growing sales and increasing profits led the list of factors that drive menu selection. The study, reported in the May issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, sought to understand how restaurant chains make decisions about their menus.
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Metabolic syndrome affects nearly 1 in 10 US teens
01-25-2008 · EurekAlert!
About nine percent of teenagers may have metabolic syndrome, a clustering of risk factors that put them on the path toward heart disease and diabetes in adulthood. This shocking statistic represents some of the first concentrated efforts to define and measure metabolic syndrome in children and adolescents -- a necessary starting point for combating the problem, but one that has proven even trickier in youth than it has been in adults.
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Cherries may help reduce metabolic syndrome and heart disease risk factors
04-30-2007 · EurekAlert!
Increasing intake of antioxidant-rich cherries may help lower the risk of metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease, suggests a new study presented today at the Experimental Biology annual meeting.
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Metabolic syndrome -- don't blame the belly fat
07-16-2007 · EurekAlert!
Abdominal fat, the spare tire that many of us carry, has long been implicated as a primary suspect in causing the metabolic syndrome, a cluster of conditions that includes the most dangerous heart attack risk factors: prediabetes, diabetes, high blood pressure, and changes in cholesterol. But researchers have found that insulin resistance in skeletal muscle leads to alterations in energy storage that set the stage for the metabolic syndrome.
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Cardiovascular disease death rates decline, but risk factors still exact heavy toll
12-20-2007 · EurekAlert!
Cardiovascular disease death rates are declining, but CVD is still the No. 1 cause of death in the United States, and risk factor control remains a challenge for many, according to the most recent data from the American Heart Association's Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics-2008 Update. The update will be available in the Dec. 17 online issue of Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
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New genetic biomarkers could predict coronary heart disease
03-31-2007 · EurekAlert!
New genetic markers may be able to predict whether a person is likely to have coronary heart disease (CAD) in the future. Research shows that people who are pre-diabetic or who have Type 2 diabetes have much shorter telomeres (ends of the chromosome) and, since these people are prone to CAD, an early test could indicate their susceptibility and help them to alter their lifestyle to avoid or delay the onset of the disease.
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Single genetic defect causes early heart disease
03-01-2007 · EurekAlert!
A team of researchers from the United States and Iran has identified a genetic mutation that causes early onset coronary artery disease in members of a large Iranian family. The genetic mutation leads to heart disease by causing high blood pressure, high blood levels of "bad cholesterol" and diabetes, all risk factors for heart disease. Coronary artery disease is the leading cause of death worldwide.
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Study suggests link between obesity, poor bone health
11-26-2007 · EurekAlert!
Being overweight is a known risk factor for heart disease, diabetes and a host of other health conditions. Now, a University of Georgia study published in the November issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition finds that obesity may also be bad for bone health.
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South Asians have higher levels of heart attack risk factors at younger ages
01-16-2007 · EurekAlert!
People who are native to South Asia experience heart attacks at a younger age because of greater levels of heart attack risk factors such as smoking and diabetes at a younger age, according to a study in the January 17 issue of JAMA.
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