2 Apples a
day cut heart disease risk in women
Eating just two apples a day could help protect women
against heart disease by cutting their cholesterol levels, a new study has
revealed.
Scientists found that apples significantly lowered blood fat levels in postmenopausal women, the group which is most at risk of heart attacks and strokes. Snacking on the fruit every day for six months slashed cholesterol by almost a quarter.
The biggest reduction was seen in low-density lipoprotein, the so-called 'bad' cholesterol that furs up arteries and raises the risk of a life-threatening clot forming near the heart or brain.
The findings, by a team of researchers at Florida State University in the US, support previous evidence that apples could be good for the heart, but it also suggests that they could benefit one of the highest-risk groups. Around 45 per cent of British women will suffer from heart disease or a stroke and it is the biggest single cause of death among post-menopausal women.
Up to the menopause, women appear to have a natural immunity to heart disease and the rate of illness is only a third of that seen in men, but from the age of around 50 onwards, the incidence increases sharply.
Researchers wanted to see if eating the equivalent of two apples every day could have a significant effect on heart disease risk. They recruited 160 women who had been through the menopause and got half to eat 75 grams a day of dried apple - the equivalent of two medium-sized fresh apples.
As a comparison, the other half were told to eat the same quantity of prunes to see if they had a similar effect. Each volunteer underwent blood tests every three months for one year.
The results showed that after three months total cholesterol levels in the apple-eating group had dropped by nine per cent and LDL cholesterol by 16 per cent.
After six months, levels were even lower, with total cholesterol down 13 per cent and LDL levels dropping by 24 per cent. There was no further decline in the remaining six months of the experiment. Prunes lowered cholesterol levels slightly but not to the same extent as the dried apple.
"Consumption of about two medium-sized apples can significantly lower cholesterol levels as early as three months," the Telegraph quoted the researchers as saying.
The study has been published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
Source: www.timesofindia.com
27.08.2012
Alzheimer's hits women more severely
than men
Alzheimer's hits women
more severely than men, even when both are in the same stage of the disease.
Researchers from the University of Hertfordshire discovered that men with Alzheimer's consistently performed better than their women counterparts, across the five cognitive areas they examined.
Most remarkably, the verbal skills of women with Alzheimer's are worse when compared to men with the disease, the Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology reports.
Researchers led by Keith Laws, professor of psychology at Hertfordshire, completed a meta-analysis of neurocognitive data from 15 published studies, which revealed a consistent male advantage on verbal and visuo-spatial tasks, and tests of both episodic and semantic memory.
Episodic memory is our ability to recall specific events of our past, accompanied by the feeling of remembering. Semantic memory is the other knowledge that we acquire which is purely factual without any personal feeling or history attached, according to a Hertfordshire statement.
"Unlike mental decline associated with normal aging, something about Alzheimer's specifically disadvantages women. There has been some previous, but limited, evidence that women with Alzheimer's deteriorate faster than men in the earlier stages of the disease," said Law.
Further analysis of the study data showed that age, education level and dementia severity did not explain the advantage that men with the disease have over women with the disease.
Alzheimer's disease, which damages memory, thinking, behaviour and emotion, is the most common form of dementia affecting 30 million people worldwide, with 4.6 million new cases being added every year.
Researchers from the University of Hertfordshire discovered that men with Alzheimer's consistently performed better than their women counterparts, across the five cognitive areas they examined.
Most remarkably, the verbal skills of women with Alzheimer's are worse when compared to men with the disease, the Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology reports.
Researchers led by Keith Laws, professor of psychology at Hertfordshire, completed a meta-analysis of neurocognitive data from 15 published studies, which revealed a consistent male advantage on verbal and visuo-spatial tasks, and tests of both episodic and semantic memory.
Episodic memory is our ability to recall specific events of our past, accompanied by the feeling of remembering. Semantic memory is the other knowledge that we acquire which is purely factual without any personal feeling or history attached, according to a Hertfordshire statement.
"Unlike mental decline associated with normal aging, something about Alzheimer's specifically disadvantages women. There has been some previous, but limited, evidence that women with Alzheimer's deteriorate faster than men in the earlier stages of the disease," said Law.
Further analysis of the study data showed that age, education level and dementia severity did not explain the advantage that men with the disease have over women with the disease.
Alzheimer's disease, which damages memory, thinking, behaviour and emotion, is the most common form of dementia affecting 30 million people worldwide, with 4.6 million new cases being added every year.
Source: www.timesofindia.com
27.08.2012
Start with what is
right rather than what is acceptable
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