A unique Mayo Clinic collaboration has revived the healing wisdom of Pacific Island cultures by testing a therapeutic plant extract described in a 17th century Dutch herbal text for its anti-bacterial properties. Early results show that extracts from the Atun tree effectively control bacteria that can cause diarrhea, as claimed by naturalist Georg Eberhard Rumpf, circa 1650. He documented his traditional healing methods in the book Ambonese Herbal.

The Mayo Clinic-led team’s report appears in the Dec. 23 edition of The British Medical Journal. In their report, Mayo Clinic researchers demonstrate the feasibility of using sophisticated data mining techniques on historical texts to identify new drugs.

The study provides a creative new model for drug discovery. It integrates nontraditional, ancient medical information with advanced technologies to identify promising natural products to investigate as drugs for new and better therapies.  Read more...

According to an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, 2006; 296:87-93, the popular over the counter painkiller paracetamol can cause liver malfunction even if taken for just a few days.

This was discovered when 145 volunteers took a 4 gram dose every day for 14 days. A third of these volunteers had abnormal liver enzyme activity after just a few days. These abnormal readings persisted for up to 11 days after the treatment was discontinued.

Researchers cannot figure out why this have never been noted before in such a popular drug? They figure that maybe it was because the group tested were Hispanic Americans and perhaps they are more prone to liver problems than other groups?

Warren Matthews of Xtend-Life comments:

Hmm…I wonder why this hasn’t been published before? I wonder if the ‘authorities’ will issue a ‘warning’ on the label? Somehow I doubt it! Somewhat of a double standard isn’t it?  Read more...

Coffee often pops up in the news these days, with enthusiasts singing its praise as an antioxidant- rich beverage and with naysayers being concerned about its caffeine-causing side effects such as nervousness and insomnia. Now weighing in on the plus side is a new study suggesting that coffee may substantially reduce the risk of deadly alcoholic cirrhosis in drinkers. To learn more, I consulted lead researcher Arthur L. Klatsky, MD, at the Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program in Oakland, California.

ABOUT THE STUDY

Dr. Klatsky and his colleagues analyzed health data on more than 125,000 people for an average of 14 years. At the start of the study period, no participants reported evidence of liver disease. By the end of 2001, 330 developed cirrhosis, including 199 cases of alcoholic cirrhosis. In this life-threatening disease, scar tissue gradually replaces normal tissue, preventing the liver from functioning properly.

According to Dr. Klatsky, researchers discovered that…

* For each cup of coffee consumed daily, there was an approximately 20% drop in risk for developing alcoholic cirrhosis. Four or more cups daily resulted in roughly an 80% lower risk.  Read more...

Drinking fruit or vegetable juice several times a week could help protect against Alzheimer’s disease, according to a study.

The nine-year study published in The American Journal of Medicine involving nearly 2,000 people, led by Professor Qi Dai of Tennessee’s Vanderbilt University, showed that the risk of developing Alzheimer’s — a degenerative brain disease that affects a person’s memory, thinking and mood — was cut by 76 percent among those who drank fruit or vegetable juice more than three times a week.

Among those who drank juice once a week, the risk was reduced by 16 percent.

The study focused on 1,836 dementia-free people in Seattle, Washington beginning in 1991. They were tracked by questionnaires on their lifestyle and eating habits, as well as by cognitive function tests that were conducted every two years.

Although the scientific community had long thought that antioxidant vitamins like vitamins C and E or carotene had protective benefits against Alzheimer’s, the study confirmed their belief that “there was maybe something else,” Dai said, pointing to polyphenols, natural antioxidants found in juice, tea and wine.  Read more...

LONDON (Reuters) – Regular cups of tea can help speed recovery from stress, according to researchers from University College London (UCL).

Men who drank black tea four times a day for six weeks were found to have lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol than a control group who drank a fake tea substitute, the researchers said in a study published in the journal Psychopharmacology.

The tea drinkers also reported a greater feeling of relaxation after performing tasks designed to raise stress levels.

Andrew Steptoe, of UCL’s department of Epidemiology and Public Health, and one of the report’s authors, said the findings could have important health implications.

“Slow recovery following acute stress has been associated with a greater risk of chronic illness such as coronary heart disease.

“Although it does not appear to reduce the actual levels of stress we experience, tea does seem to have a greater effect in bringing stress hormone levels back to normal.”

In the study, 75 tea-drinking men were split into two groups, all giving up their normal tea, coffee and caffeinated drinks.  Read more...

For years blueberries led the pack when it came to antioxidants, but now beans have blasted their way to the top of the list, according to a recent study reported in the June 9 issue of The Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. The research, focusing on the antioxidant capacities of over 100 common foods, was conducted at two USDA facilities: Arkansas Children’s Nutrition Center and Agricultural Research Service in Little Rock and the Food Composition Laboratory and Nutrient Data Laboratory in Maryland.

Antioxidants occurring in fruits and vegetables are believed to help prevent and even repair oxidative stress thought to damage body cells and have been linked to such diseases as cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and Parkinson’ s disease. Exposure to free radicals from external sources such as cigarette smoke, pollutants, chemicals, and environmental toxins can lead to disease-causing oxidative stress.

Vitamins C and E, carotenoids, and selenium are the principal antioxidants. Clinical trials using supplements of vitamin C, vitamin E, and carotenoids have shown inconsistent results and have led to the belief that whole fruits and vegetables rather than the individual compounds they contain are likely to give more positive results in disease prevention.  Read more...

By Brandon Keim – Wired

http://www.wiredn...dtech/1,71925-0.html

When Jennifer Eddy first saw an ulcer on the left foot of her patient, an elderly diabetic man, it was pink and quarter-sized. Fourteen months later, drug-resistant bacteria had made it an unrecognizable black mess.

Doctors tried everything they knew — and failed. After five hospitalizations, four surgeries and regimens of antibiotics, the man had lost two toes. Doctors wanted to remove his entire foot.

“He preferred death to amputation, and everybody agreed he was going to die if he didn’t get an amputation,” said Eddy, a professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.

With standard techniques exhausted, Eddy turned to a treatment used by ancient Sumerian physicians, touted in the Talmud and praised by Hippocrates: honey. Eddy dressed the wounds in honey-soaked gauze. In just two weeks, her patient’s ulcers started to heal. Pink flesh replaced black. A year later, he could walk again.

“I’ve used honey in a dozen cases since then,” said Eddy. “I’ve yet to have one that didn’t improve.”