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ScienceDaily (May 12, 2009) - Taking folic acid supplements for at least a year before conception is associated with reduction in the risk of premature birth, according to a study by Radek Bukowski (from the University of Texas Medical Branch, United States of America) and colleagues. Although most pregnancies last about 40 weeks, many babies (for example around 12% in the United States) are born before 37 completed weeks of pregnancy. Babies born prematurely are less likely to survive than full-term babies and are more likely to have breathing difficulties and learning or developmental disabilities. Currently, there are no effective methods of prevention or treatment of premature (preterm) birth, but previous studies have suggested that lower concentrations of folate (folic acid) are associated with shorter duration of pregnancy. Bukowski and colleagues therefore tested this idea, by analyzing data collected from a cohort of nearly 35,000 pregnant women. The results of this study showed that taking folate supplements for at least one year before conception was associated with a 70% reduction in spontaneous premature birth between 20 and 28 weeks (a reduction from 0.27% to 0.04%), and a 50% reduction between 28 and 32 weeks (reduction from 0.38% to 0.18%), as compared to the rate of preterm birth when mothers did not take additional folate supplementation. Folate supplementation for less than a year before conception was not linked to a reduction in the risk of premature birth in this study, and folate supplementation was not associated with any other complications of pregnancy. In a related commentary also published in this week's PLoS Medicine, Nicholas Fisk from the University of Brisbane, Australia, and colleagues (who were not involved in the original study) say "Methodologically, the study has several strengths... It is based on a huge dataset, with prospective recording of dietary supplements and potential confounders, and gestational age determined accu

ScienceDaily (May 12, 2009) - A research project at the University of Gothenburg has been testing large groups of 13-year-olds in Sweden since the early 1960s using the same intelligence test. The tests have taken place at approximately five year intervals and consist of an inductive-logic test, a verbal test and a spatial test. Crucial factor The most recent study, which was reported in the new issue of Journal of Swedish Educational Research, shows that today's teenagers are achieving demonstrably better results in the logic test than was the case fifty years ago. This is positive as logic is a crucial factor for achievement in mathematics. "With regard to pupils chances of assimilating maths teaching, there is thus nothing to indicate that the preconditions have deteriorated in recent decades," says Professor Allan Svensson at the Department of Education.

Food Choices and Coronary Heart Disease: A Population Based Cohort Study of Rural Swedish Men with 12 Years of Follow-up. Sara Holmberg, Anders Thelin and Eva-Lena Stiernström. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2009, 6(10), 2626-2638; doi:10.3390/ijerph6102626 - published online 12 October 2009 Coronary heart disease is associated with diet. Nutritional recommendations are frequently provided, but few long term studies on the effect of food choices on heart disease are available. We followed coronary heart disease morbidity and mortality in a cohort of rural men (N = 1,752) participating in a prospective observational study. Dietary choices were assessed at baseline with a 15-item food questionnaire. 138 men were hospitalized or deceased owing to coronary heart disease during the 12 year follow-up. Daily intake of fruit and vegetables was associated with a lower risk of coronary heart disease when combined with a high dairy fat consumption (odds ratio 0.39, 95% CI 0.21-0.73), but not when combined with a low dairy fat consumption (odds ratio 1.70, 95% CI 0.97-2.98). Choosing wholemeal bread or eating fish at least twice a week showed no association with the outcome.

Teenage pregnancy statistics and statistics on teen abortion along with links to state by state data on teen pregnancies and year by year statistics on teen pregnancies. Links to websites containing data from pre-1990 to preliminary research from 2007, 2008 and 2009. Includes links to government and non-profit reputable sources for pregnancy and abortion statistics tools to search for statistics based on specific behavioral, demographic, or other data. Includes teen pregnancy links to charts, graphs and tables with teen pregnancy data

Pomegranate juice consumption for 3 years by patients with carotid artery stenosis reduces common carotid intima-media thickness, blood pressure and LDL oxidation.\nAviram M, Rosenblat M, Gaitini D, Nitecki S, Hoffman A, Dornfeld L, Volkova N, Presser D, Attias J, Liker H, Hayek T.\nClin Nutr. 2004 Jun;23(3):423-33. Erratum in: Clin Nutr. 2008 Aug;27(4):671.\nPMID: 15158307

Chinese New Year is fast approaching,it's the time for reunion and to celebrate again.How can we avoid putting on extra weight while having a great time?

(NaturalNews) 30 years ago the famous Nobel laureate Linus Pauling said that vitamin C supplements can prevent cancer, a highly controversial statement at the time. Now a team of Johns Hopkins scientists have shown that vitamin C stops the growth of some tumors in mice. The Study The study was lead by Chi Dang, M.D., Ph.D., professor of medicine and oncology and Johns Hopkins Family Professor in Oncology Research. Their work is detailed in Cancer Cell, Volume 12, Issue 3, 230-238, 11 September, 2007. They found that the antioxidants' actual role may be to destabilize a tumor's ability to grow under conditions where there isn't enough oxygen to feed it. The conventional belief is that vitamin C helps prevent cancer growth by grabbing up volatile oxygen free radical molecules and preventing the damage they do to our DNA. "The potential anticancer benefits of antioxidants have been the driving force for many clinical and preclinical studies," Says Dang. "By uncovering the mechanism behind antioxidants, we are now better suited to maximize their therapeutic use."

ScienceDaily (Mar. 24, 2009) - Individuals who took a dietary supplement called "factor D", which included selenium, vitamin E, and beta-carotene, continued to have lower gastric cancer and overall mortality 10 years after supplementation ceased compared with individuals who did not take the supplements, according to long-term follow-up data from the randomized, double-blind General Population Nutrition Intervention Trial in Linxian, China.

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Consuming cheese from ewe's milk, rich in conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), may reduce markers linked to heart disease, suggest results from a small Italian study. Researchers from the University of Florence report that ewe's milk rich in cis-9, trans-11 CLA produced favourable changes in inflammatory cytokines and platelet aggregation, both of which are associated with atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries due to the build-up of fatty deposits on artery walls. Atherosclerosis is the primary cause of coronary heart disease (CHD), which costs the British public health system more than €5bn per year. "These observations, although preliminary and obtained in a limited study group, seem to be of relevance for the practical implications in terms of nutrition and health of the general population," wrote the researchers in Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular Diseases.

The same annual dose of 292 000 IU of vitamin D(3) (cholecalciferol) on either daily or four monthly basis for elderly women: 1-year comparative study of the effects on serum 25(OH)D(3) concentrations and renal function. Pekkarinen T, Välimäki VV, Aarum S, Turpeinen U, Hämäläinen E, Löyttyniemi E, Välimäki MJ. Clin Endocrinol (Oxf). 2009 May 25. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 19486025 DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2265.2009.03637.x

Protective Effect of Total Carotenoid and Lycopene Intake on the Risk of Hip Fracture: A 17-Year Follow-Up From the Framingham Osteoporosis Study. Sahni S, Hannan MT, Blumberg J, Cupples LA, Kiel DP, Tucker KL. J Bone Miner Res. 2009 Jan 12. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 19138129 DOI: 2009:10.1359/jbmr

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The "sunshine vitamin," vitamin D, is increasingly seen as vital to health, yet more Americans are not getting enough, U.S. researchers said on Monday. Analyzing data from government health surveys, researchers from the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine found three out of four Americans had "insufficient" levels of vitamin D, up from about one out two 20 years ago-

Feb. 23, 2009 -- A walk in the sun may be better than popping a vitamin C tablet for boosting your chances of preventing the common cold or flu.\n\nA new study adds to mounting evidence that vitamin C may have been stealing the spotlight all these years from the real cold fighter, vitamin D.

People in Asia have been eating fermented foods for more than 1,000 years. One vegan fermented food, renowned in Asia for its ability to protect against heart attacks, was recently shown to have a powerful ability in lab experiments to prevent formation of the clumps of tangled protein involved in Alzheimer's disease. if this works as well in the human brain as scientists expect, it will be a great addition to the tables of anyone who is concerned about this terrible disease

Blind Girl Can See Thanks to Umbilical Cord-Based Adult Stem Cell Treatment London, England (LifeNews.com) -- Born two years ago with severe eye problems, Dakota Clarke could not even see well enough to recognize her own mother and father. But now the parents of the little girl, who is registered blind, say she can make out their faces for the first time after pioneering stem cell treatment. The couple gave up work to raise well over $40,000 to fly their daughter to China for the treatment, which remains at the experimental level in Britain -- because the nation has been too preoccupied with embryonic stem cells and human cloning. They returned home this week convinced that Dakota can now see colors, lights and objects around her as a result. They hope further therapy will give her a lifetime of sight. "It's nothing short of a miracle for us," said Mr Clarke, a former engineer. "She can see the world for the first time." In Dakota's case, cells were administered intravenously through her hairline and reportedly traveled towards her optic nerve, repairing the damaged area. The stem cells came from umbilical cords donated by Chinese mothers. Despite the obvious success, some doctors are talking down the results simply because the treatments aren't approved in England. Pro-life advocates say the results are yet another showing of how adult stem cells outpace their embryonic cousins both ethically and when used in treatments.

A glass of wine each evening is enough to increase your risk of developing cancer, women are being warned.\nConsuming just one drink a day causes an extra 7,000 cancer cases - mostly breast cancer - in UK women each year, Cancer Research UK scientists say

Being overweight or seriously underweight as a teenager curbs life expectancy as much as smoking 10 cigarettes a day, a study suggests.\nSwedish researchers followed 46,000 men from the age of 18 for 38 years.

ScienceDaily (Feb. 20, 2009) - A vegan food renowned in Asia for its ability to protect against heart attacks also shows a powerful ability in lab experiments to prevent formation of the clumps of tangled protein involved in Alzheimer's disease, scientists in Taiwan are reporting. \n\nRita P. Y. Chen and colleagues point out that people in Asia have been eating natto - a fermented food made from boiled soybeans -for more than 1,000 years. Natto contains an enzyme, nattokinase, that has effects similar to clot-busting drugs used in heart disease.Nattokinase is sold a dietary supplement to impro 

I stumbled on one of the growing number of local media stories on the power of vitamin D. \nIn one story, a purported "expert" was talking about the benefits of "high-dose" vitamin D, meaning up to 1000, even 2000 units per day. \nI regard this as high-dose---for an infant. \nJudging by my experiences, now numbering well over 1000 patients over three years time, I'd regard this dose range not as "high dose," nor moderate dose, perhaps not even low dose. I'd regard it as barely adequate.

Pomegranate fruit extracts have been shown to block enzymes that contribute to cartilage degradation in osteoarthritis, a condition that currently has little perspective for treatment. The findings, although still at a preliminary stage not yet proven in humans, are likely to encourage further consumption of pomegranate juice in the UK, where sales have rocketed in the last year thanks to media coverage of its antioxidant content.