7 Golden Rules To Live Longer Revealed

London, April 29 (ANI):

        A few simple changes to diet and lifestyle can protect you against a string of killer diseases and add years to your life, a landmark study has shown.

       Following seven golden rules not only cut the risk of dying from cancer by 20 per cent, it also slashed risks of lung disease by half and heart attacks by 44 per cent, the study of nearly 380,000 people by scientists at Imperial College London found.

       The researchers noted that those who stick closely to the rules, which also govern exercise and alcohol consumption, will cut their risk of dying from any of the major circulatory or respiratory diseases, including stroke and angina, by at least 34 per cent.

       The rules were drawn up six years ago by the World Cancer Research Fund and American Institute for Cancer Research, the Daily Express reported. Now, by studying patients across nine European countries, the British scientists have shown that they help people live longer by reducing the risk of death from many other causes as well as cancer.

The seven rules are:

• Be as lean as possible without becoming underweight.

• Be physically active for at least 30 minutes every day.

• Limit consumption of energy-dense foods – those high in fat or added sugar and low in fiber – and avoid sugary drinks.

• Eat a variety of vegetables, fruit, whole grains and pulses such as beans. As well as five portions of fruit and veg a day, try to eat whole grains with each meal.

• Limit consumption of red meat such as beef, pork and lamb to 500g cooked weight a week and avoid processed meats such as ham, salami and bacon.

• Limit alcoholic drinks to two for men and one for women a day.

• It is best for mothers to breast feed exclusively for up to six months.

      Lead researcher Dr Teresa Norat said: “This large European study is the first that shows there is a strong association between following the recommendations and a reduced risk of dying from cancer, circulatory diseases and respiratory diseases.

    He added that further research is needed in other large populations to confirm these findings.The study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, is the first to examine breastfeeding as part of a combination of lifestyle changes to see what effect it has on risk of dying.

      It showed that women who breastfed for at least six months had a reduced risk of death from cancer (10 per cent) and circulatory disease (17 per cent). (ANI)

Scientists Discover New Drug.....

Scientists Discover New Drug That Can stop memory loss in Alzheimers

Reuters

          A new class of experimental drug-like small molecules is showing great promise in targeting a brain enzyme to prevent early memory loss in Alzheimer’s disease, scientists claim.

        Developed in the laboratory of D Martin Watterson, from Northwestern University, the molecules halted memory loss and fixed damaged communication among brain cells in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s.

      “This is the starting point for the development of a new class of drugs. It’s possible someday this class of drugs could be given early on to people to arrest certain aspects of Alzheimer’s,” said Watterson, lead author of the study.

      Changes in the brain start to occur ten to 15 years before serious memory problems become apparent in Alzheimer’s.

     “This class of drugs could be beneficial when the nerve cells are just beginning to become impaired,” said Linda Van Eldik, a senior author of the paper and director of the University of Kentucky Sanders-Brown Center on Aging.


       The novel drug-like molecule, called MW108, reduces the activity of an enzyme that is over-activated during Alzheimer’s and is considered a contributor to brain inflammation and impaired neuron function.

        Strong communication between neurons in the brain is an essential process for memory formation.

       “I’m not aware of any other drug that has this effect on the central nervous system,” Watterson said.

      Watterson and his collaborators have a new National Institutes of Health (NIH) award to further refine the compound so it is metabolically stable and safe for use in humans and develop it to the point of starting a phase 1 clinical trial.

        The compound strikes at a new, single target that has long flown under the radar in Alzheimer’s drug development. The target is a stress-related protein kinase, p38alpha MAPK.

         In a key memory experiment in the study, mice brains were injected with beta-amyloid, whose increase is one hallmark of Alzheimer’s in humans. One group of mice was then administered MW108 and another group was administered a placebo.

        Next, each group of mice was taught environmental cues to learn how to swim through a water maze to find a resting platform.

Then the mice were placed in a different arm of the maze and tested on their ability to remember the location of the platform based on the environmental cues.


           The mice administered MW108 found the resting platform in the water maze as quickly as a control group of mice. The mice given the placebo made more mistakes and took longer to find the platform. They also had difficulty learning the location of the resting platform during the teaching phase.


“The results show the compound prevented the cognitive impairment,” Van Eldik said.

PTI

We Have Discovered Why Cancer Spreads...

Scientists: We Believe We Have Discovered Why Cancer Spreads

By Divid Millward, The Daily Telegraph

      Scientists think they have discovered why cancer spreads from one part of the body to another, and say it will be “relatively easy” to stop the process.

This photomicrograph shows cancerous cells detected by a Pap test. Experiments carried out by a team at University College London uncovered what causes the disease to migrate. In many cases, death from cancer is not caused by the primary tumour, but the secondary growth.

                                   Photograph by: THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO , A. Elizabeth Plott, C.T.

          Experiments carried out by a team at University College London uncovered what causes the disease to migrate.
In many cases, death from cancer is not caused by the primary tumour, but the secondary growth.

        Scientists found that diseased cells are attracted to healthy cells, which then try to move away from the cancerous cell. However, the cancer cell continues to follow the healthy cell, causing the disease to spread through the body. “Nobody knew how this happened, and now we believe we have uncovered it,” said Prof Roberto Mayor, who led the team. “If that is the case it will be relatively easy to develop drugs that interfere with this interaction.”

        While the team has not identified what causes cancer in the first place, the research, published in Nature Cell Biology, offers hope of new treatments for a disease that claims 150,000 lives every year in Britain.

         The key to the findings was understanding why cancerous cells attach themselves to healthy cells in the first place. Scientists did this by mimicking what happens by using comparable types of cell and observing their behaviour.
         “We use the analogy of the donkey and the carrot to explain this behaviour: the donkey follows the carrot, but the carrot moves away when approached by the donkey,” added Prof Mayor.

       “The findings suggest an alternative way in which cancer treatments might work in the future if therapies can be targeted at the process of interaction between malignant and healthy cells to stop cancer cells from spreading and causing secondary tumours.

       “Most cancer deaths are not due to the formation of the primary tumour, instead people die from secondary tumours originating from the first malignant cells, which are able to travel and colonize vital organs of the body such as the lungs or the brain.”

           Eric Theveneau, another member of the team, added: “These cells are very similar in their behaviour to cancer cells and this could be analogous to the cancer system.”
The next step, he added, would entail medical researchers using their findings to gain a better understanding of how cancer cells behave.

         Dr Kat Arney, the science information manager at Cancer Research UK, welcomed the findings, but advised caution.

        “This research helps to reveal some of the fundamental biological processes that might be at work as cells move around the body, but the scientists have only looked at developing frog and zebrafish embryos rather than specifically looking at cancer cells.

         “So there’s a very long way to go to see whether this knowledge can be translated into new treatments for cancer patients.”

© Copyright (c) The Province

More voluntary blood donors needed

    The World Health Organization (WHO) has called for all countries to obtain 100% of their supplies of blood and blood products from voluntary unpaid blood donors by 2020.

       WHO has noted that the need for blood and blood products is increasing every year, and many patients requiring life-saving transfusion do not have timely access to safe blood and blood products.

     In 2011, nearly 83 million blood donations were collected worldwide from voluntary unpaid blood donors, an increase of close to 8 million donations from 2004.“Blood collection from voluntary non-remunerated blood donors is the cornerstone of a safe and sufficient blood supply in all countries. More voluntary blood donors are needed to meet the increasing needs and to improve access to this life-saving therapy,” says Dr Neelam Dhingra, Coordinator for Blood Transfusion Safety at WHO.“Furthermore, the safety and quality of blood and blood products should never be compromised.”

70% of donors worldwide are men 

   Regular voluntary unpaid blood donors are the safest source of blood as there are fewer blood-borne infections among these donors than among people   who give blood in exchange for money or who donate for family members incase of  emergencies.

      Currently, 60 countries collect 100% of their blood supply from voluntary unpaid blood donors (35 are high-income countries, 18 middle-income countries and 7 low-income countries).Six of these countries have achieved this target from a percentage lower than 75% reported in 2004: Cook Islands (from 40%), Kenya (from 53%), Nicaragua (from 41%), Turkey (from 40%), United Arab Emirates (from 59%) and Zambia (from 72%).

    However, more progress is needed, with 73 countries still collecting more than 50% of their blood supply from replacement or paid donors.In low- and middle-income countries, blood transfusion is usually given for the management of complications of pregnancy and childbirth and the treatment of severe childhood anaemia. In high-income countries, transfusion is most commonly used for supportive care in heart surgery, transplant surgery, trauma and cancer therapy.

       Providing safe and adequate supplies of blood and blood products should be an integral part of every country’s national health care policy and infrastructure.

       WHO provides policy guidance and technical assistance to support countries in developing national blood systems based on voluntary unpaid blood donations, and implementing quality systems to ensure that safe and quality blood and blood products are available and used appropriately for all people who need them.

Majority Of People Failing To Wash Their Hands Correctly

Says Michigan University Researchers:

     It seems like the simplest of tasks, yet it seems most of us need a hand when it comes to washing one of our most used body parts.

    That's right, 95 per cent of us get an epic F for failure when it comes to washing our hands correctly.

      University of Michigan researchers say the majority of people aren't only failing to wash our hands thoroughly enough, but that some of us aren't even using soap.

You don't have to be a myths expert to know that means that only five per cent of people actually wash their hands long enough to kill the germs that can cause infections.

     What's more, researchers found 33 per cent of people didn't use soap, while the worst offenders didn't even wash their hands at all.

      Men faired worse in the hygiene stakes than their female counterparts, with seven per cent of ladies failing to wash their hands compared to 15 per cent for the blokes.

When they did wash their hands, only half of men used soap compared to three quarters of women.

      The researchers observed 3749 people washing their hands in public loos and also found people were less likely to soap up if the sink was dirty, but were more likely to do so earlier in the day as opposed to at night as they became more relaxed.

 

            Hand Hygiene Australia director professor Lindsay Grayson said the findings were not completely surprising, particularly when it came to men's habits.

      Professor Grayson, who is also the director of infectious diseases at Austin Health in Melbourne, said it seemed some people were not only failing to wash their hands at all, but were also doing so incorrectly.

      "People should really wash their hands for a minimum of 15 seconds using soap and water," he said.

       "You also need to wash between your fingers and the palms of your hands - in other words the areas which have the greatest contact with surfaces and under nails if they're long or fake".

       He said it was ridiculous if people didn't wash their hands at all, particularly in public toilets and before eating when the risk of contamination, particularly from fecal matter, was greatest.

     Professor Grayson said some people also mistakenly over used antibacterial soap thinking a quick rinse would cut it, but that a thorough rinse with soap and water was adequate at home.

     According to the latest World Health Organisation guidelines, people should spend between 20 and 60 seconds washing their hands to ensure they are thoroughly clean, use soap and water and paper towel to rinse off.

      Associate professor of hospitality business and lead investigator on the Michigan University study Carl Borchgrevink said their findings held implications for both consumers and for those who worked in restaurants and hotels.

      "Imagine you're a business owner and people come to your establishment and get food-borne illness through the fecal-oral route - because people didn't wash their hands - and then your reputation is on the line," he said. "You could lose your business."

The findings appear in the Journal of Environmental Health.

New Layer Of Human Cornea Discovered

By Rose Pastore

The findings could help surgeons improve outcomes for patients undergoing corneal grafts and transplants

      In a breakthrough, scientists have found a previously undetected layer in the cornea - the clear window at the front of the human eye - and named it after the Indian researcher who made the discovery.

    The findings, by researchers from the University of Nottingham in UK, could help surgeons to dramatically improve outcomes for patients undergoing corneal grafts and transplants.

      The new layer has been dubbed the Dua's Layer after the academic Professor Harminder Dua who discovered it.The human cornea is the clear protective lens on the front of the eye through which light enters the eye.

       Scientists previously believed the cornea to be composed of five layers, from front to back, the corneal epithelium, Bowman's layer, the corneal stroma, Descemet's membrane and the corneal endothelium.The new layer that has been discovered is located at the back of the cornea between the corneal stroma and Descemet's membrane.

      Although it is just 15 microns thick - the entire cornea is around 550 microns thick or 0.5mm - it is incredibly tough and is strong enough to be able to withstand one and a half to two bars of pressure.

  

       "This is a major discovery that will mean that ophthalmology textbooks will literally  need to be re-written, Dua, Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, said."Having identified this new and distinct layer deep in the tissue of the cornea, we can now exploit its presence to make operations much safer and simpler for patients.

     "From a clinical perspective, there are many diseases that affect the back of the cornea which clinicians across the world are already beginning to relate to the presence, absence or tear in this layer," he said.

     The scientists proved the existence of the layer by simulating human corneal transplants and grafts on eyes donated for research purposes to eye banks located in Bristol and Manchester.

     During this surgery, tiny bubbles of air were injected into the cornea to gently separate the different layers. The scientists then subjected the separated layers to electron microscopy, allowing them to study them at many thousand times their actual size.

     Understanding the properties and location of the new Dua's layer could help surgeons to better identify where in the cornea these bubbles are occurring and take appropriate measures during the operation.

        The scientists now believe that corneal hydrops, a bulging of the cornea caused by fluid build up that occurs in patients with keratoconus (conical deformity of the cornea), is caused by a tear in the Dua layer, through which water from inside the eye rushes in and causes water-logging.

The study was published in the journal Ophthalmology.

NASA's Chandra Observatory Detects Black Hole Bonanza Next Door

PTI : Washington, Thu Jun 13 2013,

      Astronomers have discovered 26 new black holes in the Andromeda Galaxy, one of the nearest galaxies to the Milky Way, using data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory.Using more than 150 Chandra observations, spread over 13 years, researchers identified 26 black hole candidates, the largest number to date, in a galaxy outside our own.

     Many consider Andromeda (M31) to be a sister galaxy to the Milky Way. The two ultimately will collide, several billion years from now."While we are excited to find so many black holes in Andromeda, we think it's just the tip of the iceberg," said Robin Barnard of Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) in Cambridge, and lead author of the study.

    "Most black holes won't have close companions and will be invisible to us," Barnard said.The black hole candidates belong to the stellar mass category, meaning they formed in the death throes of very massive stars and typically have masses five to 10 times that of our Sun.Astronomers can detect these otherwise invisible objects as material is pulled from a companion star and heated up to produce radiation before it disappears into the black hole.

      The first step in identifying these black holes was to make sure they were stellar mass systems in the Andromeda Galaxy itself, rather than super massive black holes at the hearts of more distant galaxies.To do this, the researchers used a new technique that draws on information about the brightness and variability of the X-ray sources in the Chandra data. In short, the stellar mass systems change much more quickly than the supermassive black holes.

    To classify those Andromeda systems as black holes, astronomers observed that these X-ray sources had special characteristics: that is, they were brighter than a certain high level of X-rays and also had a particular X-ray colour.

   Sources containing neutron stars, the dense cores of dead stars that would be the alternate explanation for these observations, do not show both of these features simultaneously. But sources containing black holes do.The European Space Agency's XMM-Newton X-ray observatory added crucial support for this work by providing X-ray spectra, the distribution of X-rays with energy, for some of the black hole candidates.

    "By observing in snapshots covering more than a dozen years, we are able to build up a uniquely useful view of M31," said co-author Michael Garcia, also of CFA."The resulting very long exposure allows us to test if individual sources are black holes or neutron stars," Garcia said.

    The research group previously identified nine black hole candidates within the region covered by the Chandra data, and the present results increase the total to 35.

The study will be published in The Astrophysical Journal.

Monsoon Rains Cover Around Half Of India

By DEBIPRASAD NAYAK:

Monsoon rains have advanced to cover about half of India, bringing relief to drought-hit areas and brightening prospects for summer crops.

      The monsoon is progressing about two to three days ahead of schedule in most parts except the eastern region, said D. Sivananda Pai, head of the long-range forecasting division of the state-run India Meteorological Department.

       He said the rainfall may intensify over the next three to four days because of strong wind currents.

     The monsoon arrived on time this year over the mainland through the southern state of Kerala on June 1, brightening the outlook for agriculture. The weather department has predicted "normal rains" this year.

      Nearly a quarter of India was hit by drought last year due to the late arrival of monsoon rains. But this year, the rainfall is on track.

     Total rainfall in India was 23% above the 50-year average between June 1-12, according to the weather department.The monsoon usually covers the entire country by mid-July.

      The June-September monsoon is significant for the overall economy, as most farmland is rain-dependent and more than half of the nation's workforce is employed in agriculture.

FIVE Things To Eat To Lose Weight

Stop worrying about your weight, just eat right. Here are five tips you need to keep in mind.

Have A Healthy Breakfast:
      The cardinal rule to any weight loss programme is never to miss breakfast. And oatmeal, a complex carbohydrate is ideal. It is a satisfying breakfast cereal, and compared to any other grain it provides more protein per serving. The fact that it takes longer to digest and hence releases energy slowly makes it perfect because you feel full for longer. Oats also keep blood sugar and insulin levels stable, which helps prevent fat storage. Have it with skimmed milk or yogurt.

Opt For Skimmed Milk:

       Milk and its products are rich in calcium and can help keep your bones strong. Skimmed milk, low fat cheese and yogurt helps to break down fat cells.

Bean It:

        Foods that are high in fiber and are good sources of protein, can help you feel full for a very long time. And that, will help you control unnecessary bingeing. Protein has a very high satiety index and that is why make proteins an essential part of your meals.

Go For The Grain:

         Grains have complex carbohydrates which during digestion release glucose slowly. Jowar, bajra and ragi etc can help in maintaining your blood sugars levels. The fiber and vitamins in them play an important role too.

Snack On Nuts Through The Day:

         Stay away from fried and salted nuts but you can munch on raw, unsalted ones  almonds, and walnuts. These have essential roughage, protein, fat, minerals and micronutrient.
A handful can keep hunger at bay and provide energy.

Humans Reached South Asia After Major Eruption

Tia Ghose, LiveScience Staff Writer:

         Humans didn't enter the Indian subcontinent until after the massive eruption of Mount Toba in Sumatra nearly 75,000 years ago, new research suggests — overturning a previous idea that humans arrived much earlier.

      The research, published today (June 10) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, used a combination of archaeological and genetic data to suggest a new earliest possible date for the exodus from Africa to Asia.

The new data suggest humans left Africa to arrive in South Asia around 55,000 to 60,000 years ago — long after the Mount Toba supereruption 74,000 years ago. That contradicts some archaeologists' claims that modern humans have been living in the region for twice that long.

About 70,000 years ago, the Toba Supervolcano erupted in what is now Indonesia. After the eruption, the ground collapsed and left behind a depression called a caldera, which is not filled by Lake Toba and volcanic domes that have emerged in the time since, as seen in this set of images taken Jan. 28, 2006, by NASA's Terra satellite and then stitched together. CREDIT: NASA/GSFC/MITI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and the U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team

       "The ash from the eruption, which was an absolutely huge eruption, blew across all of India and smothered the whole region in ash," said study co-author Martin Richards, an archaeogeneticist at the University of Huddersfield in the United Kingdom. "Modern humans weren't there when that happened. They arrived afterwards."

Early dates

         Most archaeologists believed humans migrated to what is now India between 50,000 and 60,000 years ago. However, in a 2007 study, archaeologists reported on stone tools unearthed in Jwalapuram in southeastern India both above and beneath the ash layer deposited by the Mount Toba supereruption about 74,000 years ago. That mega eruption spewed enough lava to create two Mount Everests and blocked sunlight for years. [10 Biggest Volcanic Eruptions in History]

     One researcher argued that the tools looked similar to those used by modern humans in Africa at that time, which suggested that modern humans were in South Asia prior to thevolcano eruption. Some even proposed that the migration might have happened as far back as 130,000 years ago.

     To test the idea that humans reached South Asia before the eruption, Richards and his colleagues analyzed 817 samples of mitochondrial DNA, which is carried in the cytoplasm of the egg and is only passed on through the maternal line, from people throughout the subcontinent. They then compared it with existing samples from East Asia, the Near East and sub-Saharan Africa.

     The genetic evidence suggested that people emerged in the subcontinent via the western coast between 55,000 and 60,000 years ago, well after the eruption. These ancient humans appear to have colonized the coasts of the subcontinent first, and then spread into the interiors along rivers, Richards told LiveScience.

     Separately, archaeologist Paul Mellars of the University of  Cambridge in the United Kingdom and his colleagues analyzed archaeological evidence from the region. They analyzed the stone tools in Jwalapuram and compared them with stone artifacts from both other regions in the subcontinent and Africa.

      40,000 to 50,000 year old stone tools and abstract artistic decorations from South Asia (shown) closely resemble slightly older finds in South and East Africa

CREDIT: Dora Kemp, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge University, Paul Mellars
View full size image

Not modern humans
       The team concluded that the tools from before the eruption did not resemble those used in Africa during the same period and, therefore, weren't made by modern humans. Instead, archaic humans — possibly Neanderthals — probably made the tools, Mellars told LiveScience.

       "This paper provides a persuasively argued case that the Out of Africa movement took place around 60,000 years ago — that is after the Toba eruption event," Jim Wilson, a population geneticist at the University of Edinburgh in the U.K., wrote in an email.

    In addition, the team used two types of data: modern archaeology and the largest collection of mitochondrial DNA evidence to date, wrote Wilson, who was not involved in the study.

     "The findings are important for understanding the history of all humanity, given that southern Asia is on the route from Africa to East Asia, Southeast Asia, Australasia and the Americas," Wilson told Live Science.

With An Hour Of Wearing High Heels Your Feet Hurts

ANI | Jun 11, 2013:

      It takes a little more than an hour for the pain to kick in while wearing high heels, a new study has revealed.

 

         Most women report that high heels start to hurt after one hour and six minutes, while 20 percent say that they can feel the pain after just 10 minutes, the New York Daily News reported.

       In a new British survey of 2,000 men and women and 60 podiatrists conducted by The College of Podiatry, about half of women said that they suffered foot problems after wearing uncomfortable shoes.

        More than 40 percent of women said that they'll suffer for the sake of fashion, while only 12 percent of men said that they'd do the same.

      When the pain gets too much, one in four women said that they have resorted to dancing barefoot in a nightclub or bar, while a third of women said that they have walked home barefoot due to throbbing feet.Women in the survey on average said that they own 17 pairs of shoes, while men said that they own eight.

         The younger the woman, the higher the heels, with 20 percent of women aged 18-24 owning a pair of six-inch high heeled shoes compared to 10 percent of those aged 25-42.Perhaps it's no surprise but women were also found to have more foot ailments than men, with 90 percent saying that they have experienced problems, ranging from blisters to muscular problems.

    Twenty percent of women said that there were "embarrassed" by their feet, with another 12 percent so ashamed that they always covered them up.

Frequent Binge Drinking May Lead To Insomnia

PTI : Washington, Tue Jun 11 2013,

         Frequent binge drinking is associated with insomnia symptoms in older adults, a first-of-its-kind study has found. US researchers found that participants who binged on an average of more than two days a week had an 84 per cent greater odds of reporting an insomnia symptom compared to non-binge drinkers.

          The results were adjusted for demographic variables, medical conditions, and elevated depressive symptoms. Overall 26.2 per cent of participants had two or less binge drinking days per week, on average, and 3.1 per cent had more than two days per week, on average.

       "It was somewhat surprising that frequent binge drinking (more than 2 binge drinking days per week, on average), but not occasional binge drinking (more than zero, but less than 2 binge drinking days per week, on average) had a significant association with self-reported insomnia symptoms," said lead author Sarah Canham, postdoctoral fellow in Drug Dependence Epidemiology, John Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Mental Health in Baltimore.

        The study involved 4,970 community-dwelling adults ages 55 and older from the 2004 wave of the Health and Retirement Study who reported having ever consumed alcohol, and who had completed all binge drinking and insomnia-related questions. Participants reported the number of days on which they had "four or more drinks on one occasion" in the prior three months. Responses were used to calculate the mean number of binge drinking days per week, which was the primary predictor.

 Participants also reported the frequency of difficulty falling asleep, trouble staying asleep, waking too early or feeling unrested in the morning. Those reporting any of these "most of the time" were considered to have an insomnia symptom, which served as the outcome.

        According to the authors of the study published in the journal SLEEP, this is the first study to their knowledge that examines binge drinking and its association with insomnia symptoms in older adults. "Clinicians and health care providers should be aware of and discuss the use of alcohol with their older patients, particularly those who report poor sleep," said Canham.

    "Binge drinking behaviors may be an appropriate target for improving poor sleep," Canham added. The findings were presented in Baltimore at SLEEP 2013, the 27th annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, LLC.

Grilled Foods May Increase Cancer Risk

Washington, June 10 (ANI):

       It's time for picnics and parties with lots of grilled goodies, but experts at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have warned that all that sizzling and flipping on the gas or charcoal grill may also be cooking up cancer-causing chemicals.

       And surprisingly, those chemicals have been linked to breast, stomach, prostate, and colon cancer, according to the American Institute for Cancer Research.

         But Stacy Kennedy, MPH, RD, CSO, LDN, a Dana-Farber nutritionist, said that doesn't mean giving up those tasty summer time treats like burgers, steaks, and ribs.

"It's really about planning ahead and making wise choices," he stated.

       There are two risk factors to keep in mind. First, research has shown that high-heat grilling can convert proteins in red meat, pork, poultry, and fish into heterocyclic amines (HCAs). These chemicals have been linked to a number of cancers.

      "What happens is that the high temperature can change the shape of the protein structure in the meat so it becomes irritating in the body and is considered a carcinogenic chemical," explained Kennedy.

       Another cancer-causing agent, called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), is found in the smoke. PAHs form when fat and juices from meat products drip on the heat source. As the smoke rises it can stick to the surface of the meat.

     "That's where the main cancer causing compound occurs in grilling. So you want to reduce the exposure to that smoke," said Kennedy.

Here are some tips to lower the risk:

Prep the Meat

- Choose lean cuts of meat, instead of high-fat varieties such as ribs and sausage.

- Trim all excess fat and remove skin.

- When using marinades - thinner is better. Thicker marinades have a tendency to "char," possibly increasing exposure to carcinogenic compounds.

- Look for marinades that contain vinegar and/or lemon. They actually create a protective barrier around the meat.

Limit time - limit exposure

- Always thaw meat first. This also reduces the cooking time.

- Partially cook meat and fish in a microwave for 60 to 90 seconds on high before grilling and then discard the juices. This will lower cooking time and reduce risk of cause smoke flare-ups.

Grilling techniques

- Flip burgers often - once every minute for meat burgers - to help prevent burning or charring.

- Place food at least six inches from heat source.

- Create a barrier to prevent juices from spilling and producing harmful smoke. Try lining the grill with aluminum foil and poking holes, and cooking on cedar planks.

Plan ahead and choose wisely

- Lean meats create less dripping and less smoke.

- Choose smaller cuts of meat, like kabobs, as they take less time to cook.

- Try grilling your favorite vegetables. They do not contain the protein that forms harmful HCAs.

      "If you're grilling and following the proper safety tips, the risk of getting cancer from grilling food is very low," said Kennedy.