Hundreds protest toughening Spain's abortion law

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Mysterious nodding disease afflicts young Ugandans

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India had 56% of new leprosy infections in 2010

"An Indian leper cooks chicken outside her home in Hyderabad. India accounted for 56% of the world's new leprosy infections in 2010 despite declaring itself free of the nerve-destroying disease five years earlier, a report said Saturday" title

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Ebola outbreak in Uganda kills 14

"A nurse takes care of a patient with the Ebola virus in a Ugandan hospital in 2007. An outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus that erupted in western Uganda at the start of July has killed 14 people, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Saturday. (AFP Photo/)" title

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Spain angers feminists with plan to tighten abortion law

"Women with slogans written on their bodies reading "Yes to life, but I choose" and "Priests and judges out of my body" take part in a protest against a reform of the country's abortion law recently proposed by the Spanish conservative government, at Tirso de Molina Square in Madrid. (AFP Photo/Dani Pozo)" title

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Noodles to Host Free Wine Up Wednesdays Wine Tasting for Charity

and Sushi Bar in Naples, Florida, will be hosting "Wine Up Wednesdays" at 6 p.m. every Wednesday night.

Naples-Marco Island, FL (1888PressRelease) July 26, 2012 - Noodles Italian Caf

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Caf� 21, -Nature's Kitchen,- launches new dinner menu, featuring ingredients 100% sourced from local farms

21, "Nature's Kitchen," launches new dinner menu, featuring ingredients 100% sourced from local farmsNew menu reflects cafe 21's commitment to being "Nature's Kitchen" within San Diego.

San Diego, CA (1888PressRelease) July 26, 2012 - Caf

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Popular Vegan Cleanse Kaeng Raeng Now Available in Southern California and Midwest Whole Foods Stores

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2012Kaeng Raeng Inc. is excited to announce its expansion into the Southern Pacific and Midwest regional Whole Foods Market stores in the US.

Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA (1888PressRelease) July 26, 2012 - Kaeng Raeng Inc., a nutraceutical company based in Palo Alto, is proud to announce its expansion into Southern Pacific and Midwest regional Whole Foods stores in the US. Kaeng Raeng is currently sold in Woodland Hills, Santa Monica, Venice, Beverly Hills, Westwood, Phoenix, and San Diego stores in SoPAC and Chicago South Loop and Deerfield stores in the Midwest.

"We are so excited about our expansion into these new regions," said Lindsay Reinsmith, founder and CEO of Kaeng Raeng. "We have requests from customers all over the country to buy the product in their local Whole Foods Market stores and we want to honor those requests."

Kaeng Raeng has been available in Northern California Whole Foods Market stores since June 2010 including Palo Alto, Redwood City, Cupertino, and San Mateo among others.

"Whole Foods is a natural fit for our brand," Reinsmith said. "We are dedicated to providing a safe, natural product to customers at an affordable price. Kaeng Raeng has absolutely nothing artificial in it and is sustainably made with only locally sourced ingredients."

Kaeng Raeng Inc is a privately-owned nutraceutical company based in Palo Alto, CA. It is sold online at http://www.kaengraeng.com and in select Whole Foods Market stores in the US.

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Tyrosine Helps Maintain Mental Ability Under Stress

Tyrosine, a simple amino acid Building blocks of peptides and protein and have multiple roles of function in life including muscle function, growth, detoxification and metabolic pathways, and neurotransmitter function., is the precursor for several important neurotransmitters, including dopamine1 and norepinephrine. These neurotransmitters help you have drive, alertness, and motivation – giving you horsepower to get things done. Tyrosine also helps make thyroid hormone, coenzyme Enzyme in its most active form that assists with biochemical transport and is considered an active constituent. Q10, and melanin skin pigmentation. A unique form of tyrosine, n-acetyl-l-tyrosine, is more soluble, very easy to absorb, and readily crosses the blood brain barrier.

Just as a carpenter needs 2-by-4-inch lumber and plywood before building anything, so it is that your brain needs tyrosine before it can make norepinephrine and dopamine – a fact that has been well established for 30 years2. Researchers found that simple use of tyrosine could help with depression3. This is rather interesting, since inflammation and other factors are significant in blocking mood. The fact that a simple nutrient precursor could be of any help at all in boosting neurotransmitters in people who don’t feel good represents a first line and fundamental approach to mood boosting. Animal studies help confirm the anti-stress effects of tyrosine4, showing that tyrosine can prevent inappropriate weight loss from stress. The nature of the findings led the researchers to conclude that “Tyrosine might be a potential therapy for cognitive and mood problems associated with the maintenance of a reduced body weight in the treatment of obesity.”

Tyrosine offsets fatigue and stress, helping to keep your brain alert and more functional. A variety of human studies show that tyrosine boosts mental performance under stress. Tyrosine was shown to prevent mental performance decline that is associated with sleep deprivation5. Under conditions of highly stressful training6 tyrosine was shown to improve cognitive performance and lower blood pressure. Tyrosine offset the effects of cold temperatures7 (another form of stress) on cognitive performance – meaning it might help you function better in the winter.

Tyrosine is a basic nutritional building block for nerve transmission involving alertness, drive, and motivation. The supplemental use seems especially important under stress, which is a test of neurotransmitter function. Since a loss of dopamine results in inappropriate food cravings and the risk for addiction, maintaining basic dopamine status during times of stress not only helps cognitive performance but is also likely to reduce the risk for “quick fix” brain stimulants that are generally unhealthy.

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Supplements that contain tyrosine
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How malnutrition leads to inflamed intestines

ScienceDaily (July 24, 2012) — More than one billion people in poor countries are starving, and malnutrition remains a major problem even in rich countries, making it a leading cause of death in the world. For over a hundred years, doctors have known that a lack of protein in the diet or low levels of amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, can lead to symptoms like diarrhoea, inflamed intestines and other immune system disorders, which weaken the body and can be fatal. However, the molecular mechanism which explains how malnutrition causes such severe symptoms has been largely unexplored.

Now a research group led by Josef Penninger, the director of the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) in Vienna, Austria, in cooperation with Philip Rosenstiel, University of Kiel, Germany, has found a molecular explanation for the increased susceptibility to intestinal inflammation in malnutrition.  The researchers were studying an enzyme which helps to control blood pressure, kidney failure in diabetes, heart failure and lung injury, called the Angiotensin Converting Enzyme 2, or ACE2.  This enzyme was identified as the key receptor for SARS virus infections, but the researchers also discovered an entirely new function.  ACE2 controls the way our intestines take in amino acids from our food, via amino acid transporters, and in particular the uptake of the essential amino acid tryptophan.

Too little tryptophan alters our natural immune system, which changes the types of bacteria which can live in our bowels and guts, leading to higher sensitivity and eventually diarrhoea and inflamed intestines.  Increasing the intake of tryptophan in their diet provided relief for mice suffering from intestinal inflammation. The mixture of bacteria returned to normal, the inflammation died down, and the mice also became less susceptible to new attacks.

"The research shows how the food we eat can directly change the good bacteria in our intestines to bad bacteria and so influence our health”, says Thomas Perlot, the first author of the study. “Our results might also explain nutritional effects that have been known for centuries and provide a molecular link between malnutrition and the bacteria living in our intestines. This discovery could be used in the future to treat patients with a simple regulated diet or by taking tryptophan as a food supplement.  And there is hardly any risk of side effects from artificially increasing an amino acid found in the normal diet.”

Josef Penninger, the lead author, says “I have studied ACE2 for more than 10 years and was completely stunned by this novel link between ACE2 and amino acid balance in the gut. Biology continues to surprise me. Up to a billion people in the world are malnourished, especially the poor and disadvantaged. In Austria alone, around 80,000 people suffer from a chronic inflammatory bowel disease like ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease. I hope that our findings have opened a door to a better molecular understanding how malnutrition affects human health. Whether simple tryptophan diets can indeed cure the effects of malnutrition in humans now needs to be carefully tested in clinical trials.”

See Also:Health & MedicineGastrointestinal ProblemsDietary SupplementNutritionDiet and Weight LossCholesterolDiabetesReferenceInflammation of the kidneyNeurotransmitterHeat shock proteinInflammationShare this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

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How a low-protein diet predisposes offspring to adulthood hypertension

ScienceDaily (July 25, 2012) — Studies have shown that the offspring of mothers on a low-protein diet are more likely to develop hypertension as adults. Now, Drs. Gao, Yallampalli, and Yallampalli of the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston report that in rats, the high maternal testosterone levels associated with a low-protein diet are caused by reduced activity of an enzyme that inactivates testosterone, allowing more testosterone to reach the fetus and increase the offspring's susceptibility to adulthood hypertension.

See Also:Health & MedicineProstate HealthPregnancy and ChildbirthHypertensionProstate CancerMen's HealthNutritionReferenceTestosteroneProgesteroneAndrogenEndocrine system

Fetal programming is a term used to describe the impact of maternal stress on an unborn child's physical characteristics at birth, as well as its long-term health. The placenta is thought to be a major contributor to fetal programming due to its critical roles in hormone production and nutrient transport, as well as its susceptibility to environmental disruptions.

Recently, a study found that protein restriction doubles the plasma testosterone levels in pregnant rats. Elevated testosterone levels are associated with pregnancy-related complications such as preeclampsia and polycystic ovarian syndrome in humans, and emerging evidence suggests that testosterone may play a role in fetal programming of hypertension.

Gao et al. hypothesized that the increased testosterone levels were caused either by increased activity of an enzyme that produces testosterone or by decreased activity of an enzyme that reduces testosterone, specifically Hsd17b2, which converts testosterone to a less potent androgen, androstenedione.

The team found that Hsd17b2 expression in rats was affected by protein restriction in two parts of the placenta. It was increased in the junctional zone, which is responsible for hormone production, but was reduced in the labyrinth zone, which is essential for nutrient transport from mother to fetus and also acts as a protective barrier.

Based on this novel finding, Gao et al. propose that the reduction in Hsd17b2 expression in the protective labyrinth zone may allow more testosterone to reach the fetus and play a role in fetal programming of hypertension.

The finding that Hsd17b2 was the only enzyme for testosterone production affected by gestational protein restriction suggests an important role for Hsd17b2 in regulating the testosterone levels at the maternal-fetal interface; further research is needed to determine its exact functions.

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New drug could help maintain long-term weight loss

ScienceDaily (July 26, 2012) — A new drug could aid in losing weight and keeping it off. The drug, described in the journal Cell Metabolism on July 26, increases sensitivity to the hormone leptin, a natural appetite suppressant found in the body. Although so far the new drug has only been tested on mice, the findings have implications for the development of new treatments for obesity in humans.

See Also:Health & MedicineObesityDiet and Weight LossFitnessPharmacologyDiseases and ConditionsControlled SubstancesReferenceAppetiteAnti-obesity drugDetoxBlood sugar

"By sensitizing the body to naturally occurring leptin, the new drug could not only promote weight loss, but also help maintain it," says senior study author George Kunos of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. "This finding bodes well for the development of a new class of compounds for the treatment of obesity and its metabolic consequences."

Although leptin is an appetite suppressant, leptin supplements alone have not been effective at reducing body weight in humans. It's thought that this is because of desensitization to the hormone; leptin is still there, but our bodies can no longer respond to it. While it is not entirely clear how this desensitization occurs, cannabinoid receptors, which mediate the feelings of hunger produced by marijuana and naturally occurring cannabinoids in the body, are thought to be involved. So blocking these receptors, rather than providing excess leptin, could be more effective at long-term weight loss. Knowing that marijuana use causes the munchies, scientists had developed anti-obesity drugs that target cannabinoid receptor type 1 (CB1R). One CB1R-binding drug called rimonabant was sold in Europe beginning in 2006, but it was taken off the market a few years later due to serious psychiatric side effects, including anxiety, depression and thoughts of suicide.

To minimize these side effects, Kunos and his team previously developed a CB1R-targeting drug that did not enter the brain as easily as rimonabant. However, the drug was not as effective at reducing weight and improving metabolic health, possibly because of its specific mode of action. In the new study, Kunos tested a new compound, JD5037, that targets CB1R without penetrating the brain. JD5037suppressed the appetite of obese mice, caused weight loss, and even improved metabolic health, in part by resensitizing mice to the appetite-suppressing hormone leptin. Importantly, the mice did not show signs of anxiety or other behavioral side effects.

"Obesity is a growing public health problem, and there is a strong need for new types of medications to treat obesity and its serous metabolic complications, including diabetes and fatty liver disease," says Kunos.

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