Red Wine Antioxidant Might Help Diabetics' Arteries

THURSDAY, May 4, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- The antioxidant resveratrol -- found in red wine, peanuts and berries -- might improve the health of blood vessels in people with type 2 diabetes, a small study suggests.

The study found that resveratrol supplements lessened artery stiffness in some people with type 2 diabetes. Stiffening of the arteries, called arteriosclerosis, raises the risk of heart attack and stroke.

"In treatment with resveratrol among people with diabetes, there was a trend toward improvement in the stiffness. And in people with higher stiffness there was more of a benefit," said lead researcher Dr. Naomi Hamburg. She is chief of the vascular biology section at Boston University School of Medicine.

While the research suggests there might be ways to improve blood vessel abnormalities in people with type 2 diabetes, it's too soon to recommend resveratrol for that purpose, said Hamburg.

"We would need a longer study to look at whether this is going to reduce heart attacks and stroke," she added. "But I think this is evidence to support future research."

For now, Hamburg said, "the overall recommendation is to have a diet that's rich in fruits and vegetables."

As you age, your arteries stiffen, which can lead to an increased risk of heart disease. In people with type 2 diabetes and obesity, this process starts earlier and can have more severe consequences, she said.

The body's largest artery is the aorta, which carries blood from the heart toward the rest of the body. For the study, the researchers measured the aortic thickness of 57 patients with type 2 diabetes (age 56 and obese, on average). The investigators also conducted tests to measure blood-vessel health.

Some patients were given resveratrol supplements, while the others were given a placebo. Overall, the study found a trend toward less aortic stiffness in participants taking resveratrol supplements, but it wasn't statistically significant.

However, in a subset of 23 patients who had an exceptionally stiff aorta at the start of the study, 100-milligram (mg) daily doses of resveratrol for two weeks reduced stiffness nearly 5 percent. That regimen was followed by 300-mg doses over two weeks, which decreased stiffness by 9 percent, the researchers said.

Aortic stiffness increased among those taking a placebo for four weeks, the researchers found.

In animal studies, Hamburg said, resveratrol has been shown to activate a gene (SIRT1) that appears to delay aging and development of several diseases.

To see if the same thing would happen in humans, the same researchers took samples from the blood-vessel linings of seven patients and looked at SIRT1 activity. They found that gene activity increased slightly after resveratrol supplementation.

This doesn't prove that reservatrol activates the longevity gene, only that there was an association. Still, another scientist welcomed the new findings.

"We know that people who drink red wine and __eat nuts live longer, but why?" said Dr. Byron Lee, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. "It's exciting to see scientists now starting to unravel this mystery."

This study shows that a natural antioxidant in these foods can reverse age-related changes in the arteries, said Lee, who wasn't involved in the study.

"Impressively, the effect was seen after just a few weeks of treatment. Who knows what more prolonged antioxidant treatment could do to the arteries and other organs," he said.

Many people obtain resveratrol in their daily diet. However, Hamburg pointed out that the doses of resveratrol used in the study were much greater than exists in a glass of red wine, a major dietary source of the antioxidant.

The study was funded by the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the U.S. National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health.

The results were scheduled for presentation Thursday at a meeting of the American Heart Association, in Minneapolis. The research should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

More information

For more on type 2 diabetes, visit the American Diabetes Association.

SOURCES: Naomi Hamburg, M.D., assistant professor, medicine, chief, vascular biology section, Boston University School of Medicine; Byron Lee, M.D., professor, medicine, and director, electrophysiology laboratories and clinics, University of California, San Francisco; May 4, 2017, presentation, American Heart Association meeting, Minneapolis

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Sugary Drinks More Affordable Across the Globe

THURSDAY, May 4, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Sugar-sweetened beverages have become more affordable worldwide, making the fight against obesity even more difficult, a new study suggests.

Researchers looked at data from 40 high-income and 42 low-income countries. Between 1990 and 2016, sugar-sweetened beverages such as cola became more affordable in 79 of those 82 countries.

Most often, the drinks were easier to afford because prices fell and people earned more money. The actual price of sugar-sweetened drinks went down in 56 of the countries, the study found.

"Overall in the countries we studied, a person in 2016 could buy 71 percent more sugar-sweetened beverages with the same share of their income than they could in 1990," said study co-author Jeffrey Drope, from the American Cancer Society.

"Sugary drinks became even more affordable in developing countries, where 2016's income could buy 89 percent more sugar-sweetened beverages than in 1990. That's essentially half-price," he noted in a cancer society news release.

And, the researchers don't expect this trend to stop. They said the affordability of these products will hinder efforts to combat the global obesity epidemic.

Governments need to raise taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages to reduce consumption, the researchers said.

The study was published May 4 in the journal Preventing Chronic Disease.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention encourages you to rethink your drink.

SOURCE: American Cancer Society, news release, May 4, 2017

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Is This Enzyme Making You Fat?

WEDNESDAY, May 3, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers say they've found an enzyme in mice associated with obesity and a loss of exercise capacity in midlife, suggesting that the discovery could eventually lead to new weight-loss medications.

The team at the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) gave one group of mice a drug that inhibits the activity of the enzyme called DNA-PK. Another group of mice wasn't given the drug. Both groups were fed a high-fat diet.

The group that received the inhibitor had 40 percent less weight gain than the other group, according to the study in the journal Cell Metabolism.

The findings challenge current ideas about why people gain weight as they age, the researchers said.

"Our society attributes the weight gain and lack of exercise at midlife [approximately 30-60 years] primarily to poor lifestyle choices and lack of willpower," said study lead author Dr. Jay Chung, head of the institute's Laboratory of Obesity and Aging Research.

The researchers said the average weight gain between age 20 and 50 is about 30 pounds, even though the amount of food a person consumes generally decreases during this time.

Chung and his colleagues looked for biochemical changes in animals during midlife and found that DNA-PK increases in activity with age. Also, the researchers said the enzyme helps the conversion of nutrients to fat.

"This study shows that there is a genetic program driven by an overactive enzyme that promotes weight gain and loss of exercise capacity at midlife," Chung said in a NHLBI news release.

"Our studies indicate that DNA-PK is one of the drivers of the metabolic and fitness decline that occurs during aging, which makes staying lean and physically fit difficult and increases susceptibility to metabolic diseases like diabetes. The identification of this new mechanism is very important for improving public health," he said.

Obesity is linked with a number of chronic diseases, including type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

"The study opens the door to the development of a new type of weight-loss medication that could work by inhibiting DNA-PK activity," Chung said.

However, it's important to note that research that seems promising in animals doesn't always translate well to humans.

For now, middle-aged people fighting obesity need to focus on calorie reduction and increased exercise, the researchers recommended.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on weight.

SOURCE: U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, news release, May 2, 2017

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Can Dropping Some Weight Save Your Knees?

TUESDAY, May 2, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Knocking off some extra pounds might take a harmful load off your knees, researchers report.

Obese and overweight people who lost 5 percent or more of their weight over four years saw less degeneration of their knee cartilage compared with people whose weight stayed stable.

"Our study shows that a lifestyle intervention such as weight loss can slow the process of knee joint degeneration in patients at risk for and with osteoarthritis," said lead researcher Dr. Alexandra Gersing.

"Therefore, it may slow the worsening of symptoms, such as pain and disability," said Gersing, who's with the University of California, San Francisco's department of radiology and biomedical imaging.

"Osteoarthritis is one of the major causes of disability worldwide," she said.

More than half of U.S. adults age 75 and older have osteoarthritis -- the wear-and-tear form of the joint disease in which cartilage thins and wears away. And more than one-third of Americans over 20 are obese, the study authors noted.

Excess weight puts a strain on the knees that can result in arthritis and, potentially, the need for joint replacement, the authors said.

In addition, overweight people often alter their gait, which can affect the knee joint. They may also have higher blood levels of proteins that cause inflammation in the joints, increasing the risk for osteoarthritis, Gersing said.

For the study, Gersing and her colleagues collected data on 640 obese and overweight people who had mild osteoarthritis or were at risk of it. The patients, average age 69, were part of the Osteoarthritis Initiative, a nationwide U.S. study on the prevention and treatment of knee arthritis.

The participants were put into three groups: those who lost more than 10 percent of their body weight, those who lost 5 to 10 percent of their body weight, and those whose weight remained stable.

Over 48 months, the researchers found that patients with 5 percent weight loss had lower rates of cartilage degeneration than patients whose weight remained stable. Among patients who lost 10 percent of their body weight, cartilage degeneration slowed even more.

Weight loss also slowed degeneration of the menisci, the crescent-shaped cartilage pads that protect and cushion the knee joint, Gersing said.

"Weight loss seems to be protective for the knee joint," she said.

Not everyone agrees the issue is that clear-cut, however.

Dr. Matthew Hepinstall, a New York City orthopedic surgeon, said although it's likely losing weight slows osteoarthritis, it still hasn't been proven.

"Weight loss is considered an important part of osteoarthritis management in patients who are overweight," said Hepinstall, who's with Lenox Hill Hospital's Center for Joint Preservation and Reconstruction.

But, thin patients also experience worsening of arthritis, so losing weight isn't the answer for all patients, he said.

This study should be interpreted with an important caveat, Hepinstall added.

Correlation does not prove causation. Without studies randomly comparing patients with weight loss to those with no weight loss, it's impossible to conclude that weight loss definitely slows progression of arthritis, he said.

"It is possible that progression of knee arthritis caused pain that interfered with weight loss in some patients, while absence of progression allowed greater comfort in other patients, facilitating weight loss," Hepinstall said.

The report was published online May 2 in the journal Radiology.

More information

For more on arthritis of the knee, visit the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons .

SOURCES: Alexandra Gersing, M.D., department of radiology and biomedical imaging, University of California, San Francisco; Matthew Hepinstall, M.D., orthopedic surgeon, Lenox Hill Hospital Center for Joint Preservation and Reconstruction, New York City; May 2, 2017, Radiology, online

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More Active Kids Could Save U.S. Billions in Health Costs: Study

MONDAY, May 1, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Here's another reason to get your kids up and moving: Just a slight increase in American children's physical activity could save tens of billions of dollars in medical costs and lost wages, new research suggests.

"Physical activity not only makes kids feel better and helps them develop healthy habits, it's also good for the nation's bottom line," said study leader Dr. Bruce Lee.

Lee is executive director of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's Global Obesity Prevention Center.

Using federal government data, the researchers created a computer model to determine how changes in physical activity levels among 8- to 11-year-olds could affect them throughout their lifetime. The researchers also evaluated the resulting economic impact.

The investigators said that if all 8- to 11-year-olds did 25 minutes of exercise three times a week, it would prevent $62.3 billion in medical costs and lost wages during their lives. Also, 1.2 million fewer youngsters would be overweight or obese.

Moreover, for every year that children in this age group achieved higher levels of physical activity, an additional $60 billion would be saved, according to the study.

"Our findings show that encouraging exercise and investing in physical activity such as school recess and youth sports leagues when kids are young pays big dividends as they grow up," Lee said.

Obesity is linked to serious health problems such as diabetes and heart disease. The savings in health care spending would more than make up for costs of programs designed to increase activity levels, he said.

"Even modest increases in physical activity could yield billions of dollars in savings," Lee said. These estimates are probably low, he added, noting other benefits of physical activity include improved bone density, improved mood and muscle development.

"As the prevalence of childhood obesity grows, so will the value of increasing physical activity," Lee said.

"We need to be adding physical education programs and not cutting them," he added. "We need to encourage kids to be active, to reduce screen time and get them running around again. It's important for their physical health -- and the nation's financial health."

The study results were published May 1 in the journal Health Affairs.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on children and exercise.

SOURCE: Johns Hopkins University, news release, May 1, 2017

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Could Fasting Every Other Day Help You Lose More Weight?

MONDAY, May 1, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- As much as you might hate the daily restrictions of a conventional diet, a new study shows that fasting one day and eating what you want the next may not be a better way to lose weight.

After one year, researchers found that weight loss on either type of diet was about the same -- 6 percent for those on the alternate-day fasting diet and a little over 5 percent for those on the daily restricted-calorie diet.

"We thought the alternate-day fasting group would do better. It allows people to have a break from dieting every other day, so we thought their adherence would be better," explained lead author Krista Varady.

"But it turns out people in both diets lost the same amount of weight," said Varady. She's an associate professor of kinesiology and nutrition at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

"People in the alternate-day fasting group were eating more than the 500 calories prescribed on the fast day, but a lot less than the calories prescribed on the fast day. That's why they lost the same amount of weight," she explained.

However, "people who stuck to the [alternate-day fasting] diet lost 20 to 50 pounds in a year," Varady added. "It does work for some people."

In the study, Varady's team randomly assigned 100 obese people to an alternate-day fasting diet, a conventional diet (25 percent reduction in calories every day), or no diet at all (the "control" group).

People on the conventional diet were able to stick to their calorie goals better than the alternate-day fasting group, the researchers found.

The dropout rates proved the point: 38 percent of the alternate-day fasting group quit, while only 29 percent of the conventional diet group and 26 percent of the control group tossed in the towel.

It's hard for people to stick to 500 calories in one day, Varady explained. "Certain people are suited to this type of diet. If someone were to pick this diet for themselves, they probably would do better," she said.

The fasting diet appeared to be safe, she added. On fast days, people were encouraged to __eat a lot of protein, because protein makes you feel full, she said.

In terms of weight loss, all calories are the same, but not all calories are healthy ones, Varady said. On days people could __eat anything, some ate bags of chips and still lost weight, she noted.

"If you are reducing your food intake, you are going to lose weight, but in terms of health benefits, people should try to eat less processed foods and more fruits and vegetables," Varady said.

Some people really love this lifestyle and have been on the fasting diet for years, but it's not for everyone, Varady said. "People should find what works for them," she added.

The report was published online May 1 in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.

One specialist isn't convinced that a long-term fasting diet is healthy.

"There are some experts who suggest that intermittent fasting may help with weight control, but for markers for heart disease and diabetes management, the jury is still out -- especially on how healthy and sustainable this approach is," said Samantha Heller. She is a senior clinical nutritionist at New York University Medical Center.

Fasting on alternate days feels punitive to many, and may exacerbate an already difficult and complex relationship someone has with food, Heller explained.

In addition, the body does not know that restricting food is a choice and views severe calorie restriction as a crisis, Heller said.

"Intermittent fasting does not teach strategies for making healthy choices and managing life's ups and downs," she added.

"A lifestyle overhaul -- one that a person can maintain for long term that provides a healthy, balanced diet as well as pleasurable foods -- is what I would like to see people embrace," Heller said. "These kinds of changes take time, motivation and ongoing support."

More information

For more on weight control, visit the U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

SOURCES: Krista Varady, Ph.D., associate professor, kinesiology and nutrition, University of Illinois, Chicago; Samantha Heller, M.S., R.D., senior clinical nutritionist, New York University Medical Center, New York City; May 1, 2017, JAMA Internal Medicine, online

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