Young women
who eat lots of veggies are healthier later
Washington:
Young women who eat a diet rich in fruits and vegetables show significantly
lower rates of hardening in the arteries 20 years later, said US research out
today.
However,
men did not appear to benefit the way women did, raising questions about why a
heart healthy diet may benefit one sex over the other, according to the study
presented at the American College of Cardiology conference.
The
research was based on 2,508 participants in the government-sponsored Coronary
Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study, which began in the
1980s with the aim of tracking heart health among 18-30 year olds over time.
Women
who reported eating eight to nine servings a day of fruits and vegetables in
their 20s were 40 percent less likely to have calcified plaque in their
arteries in their 40s, compared with those who ate the just three to four
servings a day.
The
association remained even after researchers accounted for other lifestyle
behaviors that could impact cardiovascular health.
"These
findings confirm the concept that plaque development is a lifelong process, and
that process can be slowed down with a healthy diet at a young age," said
lead author Michael Miedema, a cardiologist at the Minneapolis Heart Institute.
"This
is often when dietary habits are established, so there is value in knowing how
the choices we make in early life have lifelong benefits."
Researchers
are not sure why the same benefits were not apparent in men, and said one
possibility is that not enough men were included in the study to provide a
clear picture.
Sixty-three
percent of the people in the study were female and 37 percent were male.
"Several
other studies have also suggested that a diet high in fruits and vegetables is
less protective in men, but we do not have a good biological reason for this
lack of association," Miedema said.
29.03.2014
3D printed plastic skull successfully implanted in
woman
London: In a first in medicine, part of a woman's skull has
been replaced with a plastic cranium, made using a 3D printer.
The path breaking surgery took place in Utrecht, Holland three
months ago.
Brain covering bone is usually about 1.5 cm thick but the
22-year-old woman's was 5cm and caused pressure and sight loss, doctors said
“Implants used to be made by hand in the operating theatre
using a sort of cement which was far from ideal,” neurologist Dr Ben Verweij
was quoted as telling to the Mirror.
He said by making use of 3D printing they could make one to
the exact size, and this not only had great cosmetic advantages, but patients'
brain function often recovered better than using the old method.
Dr Verweij added that the patient has her sight back
entirely, is symptom-free and has gone back to work, asserting that it was
almost impossible to make out if she's ever had surgery.
Although the Dutch operation is considered the world's first
full-skull transplant using 3D printing, a similar surgery was conducted on an
American man in 2013, in which 75 percent of his skull was replaced with an
implant printed by 3D technology.
29.03.2014
If we don’t
change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we are not really living
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