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EATING MELATONIN-RICH CHERRIES ARE ‘‘NATURAL” WAY TO RESET YOUR BODY CLOCK WHEN CROSSING TIME ZONES Research Reveals that Cherries Boost Your Body’s Melatonin Levels to Help Prevent Jet Lag After Long International Flights It takes mere seconds to reset our watch to a different time zone, but our body’s internal time clocks often take longer to sync up in our new locale. Experienced travelers often stash a bottle of melatonin supplements in their carryon bag to help adjust, but experts say there may be a more natural and tasty way to get melatonin: cherries. Recent studies have revealed that cherries...

Athens, Ga. - A new University of Georgia study has found that select varieties of sorghum bran have greater antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties than well-known foods such as blueberries and pomegranates. Researchers measured polyphenolic compounds, which naturally occur in plants to help fight against pests and disease, and found that the black and sumac varieties of sorghum have significant levels of antioxidants. Many fruits also contain these compounds, they said, though sorghum bran may prove to be the richest and cheapest source. “Since most human chronic disease states are associated with chronic inflammation and high oxidative stress, a food ingredient...

Pity all those earnest folks who guzzle down a pricey bottle of fancy tea, hoping for a healthy dose of cancer-fighting "antioxidants" and "flavonoids." This news is hard to swallow: Those drinkers would have to down up to 20 bottles of the stuff to get the same amount of beneficial substances found in a single cup of humble, home-brewed tea. (study)

Researchers find red hot Super Fruit aids sleep in older adultsLANSING, Mich., July 12, 2010 – Drinking tart cherry juice daily could help reduce the severity of insomnia and time spent awake after going to sleep, according to a new study published in the Journal of Medicinal Food1. A team of University of Pennsylvania, University of Rochester and VA Center of Canandaigua researchers conducted a pilot study on the sleep habits of 15 older adults. The adults drank 8 ounces of tart cherry juice beverage (CheriBundi www.cheribundi.com) in the morning and evening for 2 weeks, and a comparable matched juice...

Long-term supplementation with dietary antioxidants has beneficial effects on sugar and fat metabolism, blood pressure and arterial flexibility in patients with multiple cardiovascular risk factors. Researchers writing in BioMed Central's open access journal Nutrition and Metabolism report these positive results in a randomized controlled trial of combined vitamin C, vitamin E, coenzyme Q10 and selenium capsules. Reuven Zimlichman worked with a team of researchers from Wolfson Medical Center, Israel, to carry out the study in 70 patients from the centre's hypertension clinic. He said, "Antioxidant supplementation significantly increased large and small artery elasticity in patients with multiple cardiovascular risk factors....

A diet rich in natural antioxidants improves insulin sensitivity in insulin-resistant obese adults and enhances the effect of the insulin-sensitizing drug metformin, a preliminary study from Italy finds. The results will be presented Monday at The Endocrine Society's 92nd Annual Meeting in San Diego. "The beneficial effects of antioxidants are known, but we have revealed for the first time one of their biological bases of action—improving hormonal action in obese subjects with the metabolic syndrome," said principal author Antonio Mancini, MD, an endocrinology researcher at Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome. The metabolic syndrome is a cluster of...

Hold off on the megadoses of antioxidant vitamins like C and E. A study by researchers at Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute shows that you can overdose on these health aids, and the result could be mutated stem cells that cause cancer. There's no cause for alarm if you're staying within suggested doses of your vitamins or nutritional supplements. This study looked only at what happens when people take much more than the standard amounts of antioxidants. Researcher Eduardo Marbán and his colleagues' stumbled on the antioxidant problem while they were researching tissue engineering for human hearts. Using stem cells, Marbán and...

London, ON – A new study at The University of Western Ontario finds the sauces you use when firing up the barbecue this summer may provide unforeseen health benefits. The research, led by Western biology and psychology postdoctoral fellow Raymond Thomas, shows common marinades may be more than just tasty sauces – they can also provide a major source of natural antioxidants. The paper was co-authored by Mark Bernards and Christopher Guglielmo in Western’s department of biology. Foods rich in antioxidants play an essential role in preventing cardiovascular diseases, cancers, neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, inflammation and problems associated...

Using spices eaten in the Mediterranean diet as natural antioxidants is a good way forward for the food industry, given the beneficial health effects of these products. This has been shown by researchers from the Miguel Hernández University (UMH), who have put the clove in first place. Researchers from the Miguel Hernández University have identified cloves (Syzygium aromaticum) as the best antioxidant spice, due to the fact they contain high levels of phenolic compounds, as well as having other properties. "Out of the five antioxidant properties tested, cloves had the highest capacity to give off hydrogen, reduced lipid peroxidation well,...

Scientists have confirmed that the healthful substances found in green tea — renowned for their powerful antioxidant and disease-fighting properties — do penetrate into tissues of the eye. Their new report, the first documenting how the lens, retina, and other eye tissues absorb these substances, raises the possibility that green tea may protect against glaucoma and other common eye diseases. It appears in ACS's bi-weekly Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. Chi Pui Pang and colleagues point out that so-called green tea "catechins" have been among a number of antioxidants thought capable of protecting the eye. Those include vitamin C,...

Antioxidants increasingly have been praised for their benefits against disease and aging, but recent studies at Kansas State University show that they also can cause harm. Researchers in K-State's Cardiorespiratory Exercise Laboratory have been studying how to improve oxygen delivery to the skeletal muscle during physical activity by using antioxidants, which are nutrients in foods that can prevent or slow the oxidative damage to the body. Their findings show that sometimes antioxidants can impair muscle function. "Antioxidant is one of those buzz words right now," said Steven Copp, a doctoral student in anatomy and physiology from Manhattan and a researcher...

New research in the FASEB Journal opens the door for new drugs that could prevent severe flu-related lung damage As the nation copes with a shortage of vaccines for H1N1 influenza, a team of Alabama researchers have raised hopes that they have found an Achilles' heel for all strains of the flu—antioxidants. In an article appearing in the November 2009 print issue of the FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org) they show that antioxidants—the same substances found in plant-based foods—might hold the key in preventing the flu virus from wreaking havoc on our lungs. "The recent outbreak of H1N1 influenza and the rapid...

"I'm president of the United States, and I'm not going to eat any more broccoli!" proclaimed George H.W. Bush in a 1990 news conference. America's 41st president disdained broccoli so much that he banned the vegetable from the White House menu. Now 84, Bush may live to regret his broccoli bullying: New scientific evidence suggests that a chemical in broccoli may rejuvenate the immune system enough to ward off common diseases of aging. At the University of California- Los Angeles, Andre Nel and colleagues recently discovered that sulforaphane, a phytonutrient in broccoli, activates antioxidant pathways at the cellular level. Injected...

Polysaccharides from black tea may blunt the spike in sugar levels after a meal more than similar compounds from green and oolong tea, and offer potential to manage diabetes, says a new study. The black tea polysaccharides also exhibited the greatest activity for scavenging free radicals, which are linked to development of diseases such as cancer and rheumatoid arthritis, according to new findings published in the Journal of Food Science. Interest in tea and its constituents has bloomed in recent years, with the greatest focus on the leaf’s polyphenol content. Green tea contains between 30 and 40 per cent of...

Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, also known as Moses Maimonides or the Rambam was not only one of the greatest Torah scholars of all time, he was a rabbi, physician, and philosopher in during the Middle Ages. Much of his career he was in the personal doctor Saladin, the 12th Century Sultan of Egypt. Along with his great books on Jewish learning, he wrote 10 breakthrough medical books and had many medical cures that had been lost through time. One of them might have been found. A doctor at the University of Haifa has tested a compound based on an inedible...

...ROS are also implicated in many theories of aging and cellular damage, which is why cells have several systems to try to soak these things up. That’s exactly why people take antioxidants, vitamin C and vitamin E especially. So. . .what if you take those while you’re exercising? A new paper in PNAS askes that exact question. About forty healthy young male volunteers took part in the study, which involved four weeks of identical exercise programs. Half of the volunteers were already in athletic training, and half weren’t. Both groups were then split again, and half of each cohort took...

Randomized Trials of Antioxidant Supplementation for Cancer PreventionFirst Bias, Now Chance—Next, Cause Peter H. Gann, MD, ScD JAMA. 2009;301(1):(doi:10.1001/jama.2008.863). In 1996, a wave of hope arose when the Nutritional Prevention of Cancer trial reported a 65% reduction in prostate cancer incidence in men receiving selenium supplementation.1 This came only 2 years after the ATBC (-Tocopherol, Beta Carotene) Cancer Prevention Trial had reported a 35% reduction in prostate cancer occurrence among men taking vitamin E supplements.2 Suddenly, it appeared to make sense that this cancer could be prevented by bolstering antioxidant defenses in middle-aged and older men. Prostate cancer was not...

Vitamin pills 'increase risk of early death' By Kate Devlin, Medical Correspondent Last Updated: 12:01am BST 16/04/2008 Popular vitamin supplements taken by millions of people in the hope of improving their health may do no good and could increase the risk of a premature death, researchers report today. They warn healthy people who take antioxidant supplements, including vitamins A and E, to try to keep diseases such as cancer at bay that they are interfering with their natural body defences and may be increasing their risk of an early death by up to 16 per cent. Antioxidants, including vitamins A,...

Fruit of the bog outshines 19 commonly eaten fruits for the antioxidant advantageWAREHAM, Mass., Jan. 30 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The latest Agricultural Research Service Report from USDA, containing the results of the most comprehensive analysis of antioxidants in foods, shows cranberries score among the highest of all common fruits on the antioxidant scale (http://www.ars.usda.gov/Services/docs.htm?docid=15866). The report includes antioxidant values for a wide variety of foods, which are measured by their Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity, or ORAC value. With 9584 ORAC units per 100 grams of fresh fruit, cranberries have the highest antioxidant capacity when compared to 19 common fruits. Oxygen Radical...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Adding to evidence that a little wine can do a heart good, a new study suggests that women who drink moderate amounts may have less inflammation in their blood vessels. Spanish researchers found that after four weeks of drinking two glasses of wine per day, women showed lower levels of certain inflammatory substances in their blood. The findings, reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, suggest a mechanism by which wine -- particularly red wine -- may protect the heart. Numerous studies have found that wine drinkers tend to have lower rates of heart...

Vitamin C can impede the growth of some types of tumors although not in the way some scientists had suspected, researchers reported on Monday. The new research, published in the journal Cancer Cell, supported the general notion that vitamin C and other so-called antioxidants can slow tumor growth, but pointed to a mechanism different from the one many experts had suspected. The researchers generated encouraging results when giving vitamin C to mice that had been implanted with human cancer cells -- either the blood cancer lymphoma or prostate cancer. Another antioxidant, N-acetylcysteine, also limited tumor growth in the mice, the...

The reported failure of vitamin E to prevent heart attacks may be due to underdosing, according to a new study by investigators at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. The findings, published early online in Free Radical Biology and Medicine, suggest that these earlier studies all had a fundamental flaw the doses used werent high enough to have a significant antioxidant effect. In fact, no studies have ever conclusively demonstrated the dose at which vitamin E can be considered an antioxidant drug, the researchers report. Oxidant injury, or oxidative stress, occurs when highly reactive molecules called free radicals attack and damage cellular...

ISLAMABAD: Spanish and British scientists have discovered how green tea helps to prevent certain types of cancer. Researchers at the University of Murcia in Spain (UMU) and the John Innes Center (JIC) in Norwich, England have shown that a compound called EGCG in green tea prevents cancer cells from growing by binding to a specific enzyme. "We have shown for the first time that EGCG, which is present in green tea at relatively high concentrations, inhibits the enzyme dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR), which is a recognized, established target for anti-cancer drugs, " says Professor Roger Thorneley, of JIC. "This is the...

Flavonoids, a group of compounds found in fruits and vegetables that had been thought to be nutritionally important for their antioxidant activity, actually have little or no value in that role, according to an analysis by scientists in the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University. However, these same compounds may indeed benefit human health, but for reasons that are quite different - the body sees them as foreign compounds, researchers say, and through different mechanisms, they could play a role in preventing cancer or heart disease. Based on this new view of how flavonoids work, a relatively modest intake...

Deep red tomatoes get their rich color from lycopene, a disease-fighting antioxidant. A new study, however, suggests that a special variety of orange-colored tomatoes provide a different form of lycopene, one that our bodies may more readily use. Researchers found that eating spaghetti covered in sauce made from these orange tomatoes, called Tangerine tomatoes, caused a noticeable boost in this form of lycopene in participants' blood. "While red tomatoes contain far more lycopene than orange tomatoes, most of it is in a form that the body doesn't absorb well," said Steven Schwartz, the study's lead author and a professor of...

Dark times ahead for chocolate By David Derbyshire, Consumer Affairs Editor (Filed: 14/10/2006) Britain's taste for chocolate is growing more sophisticated, figures out yesterday suggest. Sales of dark chocolate have trebled in a year, while the number of dark mainstream brands has risen tenfold. Confectionary analysts say the figures reflect a more discerning palate. They also follow several studies — some funded by chocolate makers — indicating that dark chocolate can have health benefits. Antioxidants in dark chocolate can help lower cholesterol and blood pressure, say researchers. However, dark and milk contain the same amount of fat and sugar. Although...

Children with autism have a abnormal metabolic profile that may play a role in the condition, according to researchers at the University of Arkansas. The researchers believe autistic children are more vulnerable to oxidative stress, which occurs when the antioxidant system fails to counteract the production or exposure to free radicals. These free radicals then damage cells in the brain, as well as the gastrointestinal tract, and the immune system, which they believe may contribute to the the neurological, gastrointestinal and immunologic pathology that occurs in autistic children. The team analyzed and compared blood samples from 95 autistic children with...

Drinking fruit and vegetable juices more than three times a week can dramatically cut the chances of developing Alzheimer's disease, a new study has found. Researchers followed almost 2,000 volunteers for up to 10 years while monitoring their juice consumption and brain function. They found the risk of Alzheimer's was 76 per cent lower for those who drank juices more than three times a week compared to those who drank them less than once a week. Other research has shown that eating curry can help stave off the disease and improve mental agility because of compounds found in the spice...

May 24, 2005 — NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Resveratrol, a chemical found in red grapes, blocks replication of the influenza virus in cell culture and in animals, Italian researchers report. "Resveratrol merits further investigation as a potential weapon for combating the growing threat of influenza," Dr. Anna Teresa Palamara of the Institute of Microbiology in Rome and colleagues conclude. In cell culture experiments, resveratrol prevented influenza from replicating. Study: Cigarette Smoke May Harm Fertility Big Guns: When Cops Use Steroids Study: Bypass Better for Clogged Arteries Resveratrol treatment had the greatest effect when administered 3 hours after exposure to...

'Research has shown that there are even greater health benefits to people who drink single malt whiskies. Why? Single malt whiskies have more ellagic acid than red wine.' Drinking whisky can help protect you against cancer, a conference of international scientists have heard. Researchers have long hailed the anti-cancer properties of red wine due to its antioxidant content.Delegates at the EuroMedLab 2005 conference in Glasgow have now been told that whisky contains significantly higher levels of a powerful antioxidant that kills cancer cells. Dr. Jim Swan, an independent consultant to the worldwide drinks industry, discussed the art and science...

Immortality is within our grasp . . . In Fantastic Voyage, high-tech visionary Ray Kurzweil teams up with life-extension expert Terry Grossman, M.D., to consider the awesome benefits to human health and longevity promised by the leading edge of medical science--and what you can do today to take full advantage of these startling advances. Citing extensive research findings that sound as radical as the most speculative science fiction, Kurzweil and Grossman offer a program designed to slow aging and disease processes to such a degree that you should be in good health and good spirits when the more extreme...

LiveScience’s Bad Medicine Columnist Studies showing the negative or null effects of vitamins supplements are so common that it is surprising doctors still find these studies to be surprising. Vitamins are not as simple as A-B-C. The latest bit of confusion appears in the April 27 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. Doctors in Australia provided nearly 1,900 pregnant women with either supplements of vitamins C and E or a placebo to see whether the vitamins would lower the risk of developing high blood pressure during pregnancy. It didn't work. Surprisingly, the doctors said, the vitamin group had...

ASSOCIATED PRESS Tired of trying to keep track of all the so-called superfoods you're supposed to eat? You know, oregano that packs 42 times more antioxidants than apples, cooked tomatoes that may prevent prostate cancer, and chocolate and wine that may or may not be health foods? Then here's the good news - you can stop trying. Leading researchers say all those breathless headlines, food packaging claims and seemingly contradictory studies about what antioxidants can and can't do have fostered a faulty silver bullet mind-set that can hinder health more than help. Instead, experts advise focusing on balance, moderation and...

Cancer Patients Urged to Avoid Antioxidants During Chemotherapy The newest medical advice from a growing number of cancer researchers is to avoid antioxidants such as Vitamins C and E, Selenium, Coenzyme Q10, and Glutathione or Glutathione Precursor (aka "NAC or N-Acetyl-L-Cysteine") during chemotherapy or radiation therapy. Studies suggest that there is "theoretical harm" that antioxidants interfere with the effectiveness of chemotherapy and actually may help tumors to resist the chemotherapy treatment. These precautions would not necessarily apply to non-antioxidant supplements or use of antioxidants for prevention. Below are web links to copyrighted articles, one urging precaution, two urging not to...

WASHINGTON - When the Ink Spots sang “I love the java jive and it loves me” in 1940, they could not have known how right they were. Coffee not only helps clear the mind and perk up the energy, it also provides more healthful antioxidants than any other food or beverage in the American diet, according to a study released Sunday.

Vitamin K is absolutely essential to build strong bones -- and it is proven to prevent heart disease. For several years, compelling evidence has shown that most people don't get enough vitamin K to protect their health through the foods they eat.Green leafy vegetables supply almost half of the vitamin K for the majority of Americans. Most foods considered rich in vitamin K have shown to have less vitamin K than previously thought. Despite this vital information, the majority of multi-vitamins don't contain any vitamin K at all -- and those that do don't contain enough.Recent research supporting vitamin...

Antioxidant-Rich Diet Helps Fight Leukemia   As if undergoing chemotherapy isn't trying enough, kids with the most common form of childhood leukemia receiving this treatment may also experience a significant reduction in their antioxidant and micronutrient levels. This decrease could lead to severe side effects from the chemotherapy.However, there may be a ray of hope amidst this dark cloud.According to a study, children could improve antioxidant and micronutrient levels and prevent some of the adverse side effects of chemotherapy by simply incorporating more fruits and vegetables into their diets.The study, prompted by parental concern regarding children's safety in taking...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - New research provides further evidence that substances in kale, spinach and other green vegetables help protect aging eyes from cataracts. In an experiment, investigators found that human eye cells treated with antioxidants called lutein and zeaxanthin showed less damage after being exposed to ultraviolet rays, the sunlight ingredient considered a major contributor to cataracts. Cataracts occur when proteins in the eye's lens begin to clump together, forming a milky cloud that obscures vision. Currently, around 20 million Americans have cataracts, and research suggests that the more sunlight you are exposed to in life, the greater...

Eating certain foods can help protect you from heart disease, some types of cancers and other illnesses. But can your diet also help protect your brain if you should suffer a stroke or accidental head injury? Or keep your thinking and memory skills strong as you age? Some scientists believe it might. They even think eating the "right" foods --specifically, those high in antioxidants -- may help defend astronauts from brain-damaging cosmic rays on future manned missions to Mars. New research also suggests that some of the environmental chemicals that have gotten into many of our foods -- through the...

Antioxidants in Tea, Curry, Wine May Stem CancerApril 10— By Deena Beasley SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Final proof that dietary components like green tea, curry spice or wine can fight cancer in humans and not just laboratory test tubes remains elusive, but researchers are full of hope for the unconventional treatments."I believe that 50 years from now there will be a sub-specialty of medicine called cancer prevention doctors," Dr. Allan Conney, professor of cancer and leukemia at New Jersey's Rutgers University, said on Wednesday."These doctors will be able to identify cancer risk factors for each individual and, along with pharmacists,...