Researchers at the University of Cincinnati discovered that ghrelin increases cholesterol levels in mice.

Ghrelin is a hormone that tells our brains we are hungry. In another experiment, cholesterol increased in mice when ghrelin receptors were blocked. This challenges the idea that levels are simply determined by diet and how much the liver makes.

High levels of cholesterol harden arteries, increasing the risk of cardiovascular diseases such as heart attack and stroke. Fotini Rozakeas, cardiac nurse at British Heart Foundation, said “This could potentially open up new forms of treatment to control cholesterol levels, which would be great news for people with heart and circulation problems.”

More research is needed to completely understand how ghrelin increases cholesterol.

© 2010, Mensvita – Anti Aging and Health Portal for men. All rights reserved. On republishing this post you must provide link to original post.

Aging begins at the level of the cells. So in order to slow this process down it is important to maintain a healthy lifestyle. The benefits of even moderate exercise can not be stressed enough. The human body is designed to move.

It is also very important that you consume enough water. The body has a vital need for water. You must know the importance of diet and nutrients.

You will not get enough nutrients in your diet and will need to consider suppliments. You will want to have a diet that is rich in fruits, vegtables, and grain.

A plan of detoxification of the body will also serve you well, it will improve your overall attitude and health and help get rid of built up toxins in the body. it is also important to keep your mind active as well as your body.

Learn something new. Try a new hobby. Get involved with your community the more time you spend giving of your time and of yourself the more you are going to feel good about yourself and your life. Which in turn is going to improve your overall health. The most simple changes can make the biggest differences.

Take a nice walk two or three times a week. Eat a salad not a steak. Dance, laugh, love.

All of these will help in the fight against becoming old.

© 2010, Mensvita – Anti Aging and Health Portal for men. All rights reserved. On republishing this post you must provide link to original post.

The body is an adaptive mechanism that has its own intelligence. Thus taking care of our well connected body parts is simple – just take good care of your whole body.

The advances in anti-aging might suggest that this is not available to the common people, not without a large financial burden at least. This is not true as the bottom line of anti-aging is to have good health for longer.

Since our telomeres are our biological clock that determine out rate of aging, it indicates that we can stop aging by taking action right now. Thus, taking care of your body is in your hands and it is easier than you can imagine. And it starts right now.

Eating Greens
Telomeres get shortened by homocysteine, an amino acid as we age. This is produced in a vital metabolic path within our body. A high level of homocysteine quickens aging and hurts cardiovascular health. Folic acid or Vitamin B9 is important to maintain a healthy level of homocysteine.

Fish
Omega -3s are essential to maintain good brain and heart health, and for a good immune system. It also helps prevent diseases like cancer and conditions like rheumatoid arthritis. Fish is a great source of Omega-3. The more omega-3 fatty acid is taken in, the slower the rate at which telomere shortens.

Antioxidants and Multivitamins
It is important to fight free radical damage by having antioxidants. Most of us require multivitamins to make up for the missing nutrients in our diets.

Sugar
Excessive sugar would shorten telomeres, directly damage DNA and also result in high blood pressure, obesity and thus aging. It impacts telomerase, an enzyme that vitalizes aging telomeres.

Sun exposure
Exposure to sun would help us gain Vitamin D, which in turn would slow down the telomere shortening. The best source of Vitamin D is wild caught fatty fish and sunlight.

Exercise
Exercise is good for the entire body, helps stress management and prevents aging.

This is important as good mental health is also the key to good body health. Stress can age you by making your telomeres shorter. Exercise, eating Omega-3s and vitamin D are effective means of stress management.

Anti aging measures are in general good for your general health. These are not the only ways to prevent aging. The future might bring more means to stay young longer. So take care of your body so you remain well longer.

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The Medical University of Vienna has been commissioned by international pharmaceutical firms to conduct three clinical trials of the treatment of recurrent prostate tumors (hormone refractory prostate carcinomas). The new approaches comprise immunotherapy, hormone therapy and an augmented form of the current standard treatment with docetaxel.

Team leader Prof. Dr. Michael Krainer and his colleagues will concentrate primarily on tumors diagnosed late or those which recur after surgical interventions, and which do not (or no longer) respond to common treatments such as androgen deprivation.

IMMUNOTHERAPY
The team will investigate the use of the monoclonal antibody ipilimumab as part of the immunotherapeutic treatment. This antibody can cause the body’s own immune system to react against cancer cells. Prof. Krainer said that “the use of ipilimumab rather than docetaxel has led to rather surprising successes during the past year in a small-scale trial.

In three patients, a tumor that had been hard to treat became so small that it could be surgically removed. Since a small-scale trial of this nature only allows limited claims to be made about the drug, ipilimumab is now being investigated further in a larger study.”

HORMONE THERAPY
A hormone treatment based on the drug MDV3100 is also being trialed by the team at the Medical University of Vienna. This is used as a second-line treatment after the initial treatment with docetaxel. MDV3100 is a substance that blocks the androgen receptor and thus offers a new approach to the prevention of hormone dependent tumor growth.

AUGMENTED STANDARD TREATMENT
In the past, Prof. Krainer and his team were able to show the efficacy of docetaxel versus other common chemotherapeutic drugs. The third trial at the Medical University of Vienna will test the combination of docetaxel with the tyrosine kinase inhibitor sunitinib. As part of the trial, the researchers will examine biomarkers in the patients’ blood that will yield information about the progress of the treatment.

TOP QUALITY RESEARCH IN AUSTRIA
“We are delighted that multinational pharmaceutical companies find in Austria the optimal environment and competent partners for clinical trials and basic research”, said Dr. René Siegl, Managing Director of the Austrian investment promotion company ABA – Invest in Austria. “This shows that the conditions at the location Austria are ideal”.

More than 15 percent of Austrian R&D expenditure comes from foreign commissions. With 2.73 percent of the GNP in 2009 being spent on research, Austria has closed the gap with other European countries at the forefront of innovation. The aim is a research quota of 4 percent by 2020. In future Austria will create even greater incentives for businesses to attract innovation centers and will further develop collaborative endeavors between the scientific and business worlds.

www.investinaustria.at

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In recent years, the practice of meditation has gained a tremendous amount of popularity within Western cultures. It seems as though every day there is a new report explaining how meditation is an effective alternative to using drugs to alleviate and prevent maladies of the mind and body. So is this ancient Eastern practice worth all the hype?

Research shows that meditation can combat the negative effects of aging and restore youthful vigor no matter how old you are. Meditation has been proven to improve energy, calm the mind and body and even purge the body of maladies. How does meditation do this? Some research suggests that meditation raises the body’s melatonin levels.

Melatonin is a hormone that regulates sleeps and influences other body hormones. By raising levels of melatonin in the body, meditation is able to activate the body’s own natural healing processes.

The pineal gland of the brain produces the hormone melatonin. According to Hindu spiritual tradition, meditation techniques direct energy flow through seven energy centers in the body, or chakras. By directing energy flow to these different centers, practitioners of meditation are able to selectively activate or suppress glands associated with each center. The pineal gland is believed to influence happiness.

Meditation’s ability to nurture positive emotions and its effectiveness as therapy for depression and stress relief has been documented in medical literature since the 1970s. As a result of meditation decreasing the stress levels in its practitioners, cellular aging associated with high stress levels is postponed.

The exact mechanics of how meditation slows the aging process continues to be researched. However, the average person need not concern themselves with the exact mechanics. All the average person needs to know is that meditation is easy to do and gives the best value package for one’s health because it gives the most benefit for one’s time.

Adding twenty minutes a day of meditation to an anti-aging regimen can provide inner peace, reduce disease risks, and even slow down the aging process, prolonging a lifespan. With benefits such as the aforementionedl, meditation is definitely worth the hype.

© 2010, Mensvita – Anti Aging and Health Portal for men. All rights reserved. On republishing this post you must provide link to original post.

Internet addicts are more likely to suffer from depression, according to a study performed by Leeds University in the United Kingdom.

According to the study, those who are obsessed with their internet use are likely to replace normal social interaction with less healthy habits in forums, chat rooms, and other social networking online communities.

Dr. Catriona Morrison of Leeds University said on the school’s official website, “While many of us use the internet to pay bills, shop and send emails, there is a small subset of the population who find it hard to control how much time they spend online, to the point where it interferes with their daily activities.”

It is not clear whether depression causes internet addiction, or that the depression was already present before the person started using the internet. “What is clear, is that for a small subset of people, excessive use of the internet could be a warning signal for depressive tendencies,” said Morrison.

The study was conducted on 1,319 British internet users ranging in age from 16 to 51. Of those numbers about 1.2% of the subjects were diagnosed with internet addiction. This percentage is larger than the country’s 0.6% of people suffering from a gambling problem.

This research will become available on February 10th in the magazine Psychopathology.

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Consuming sugary soft drinks can dramatically increase the risk of pancreatic cancer, a new research has suggested.

According to the study, drinking as little as two soft drinks a week can almost double the chances of developing the disease, one of the most deadly forms of cancer.

Mark Pereira and colleagues said they followed 60,524 men and women in the Singapore Chinese Health Study for 14 years.

Over that time, 140 of the volunteers developed pancreatic cancer. Those who drank two or more soft drinks a week had an 87 percent higher risk of being among those who got pancreatic cancer.

“The high levels of sugar in soft drinks may be increasing the level of insulin in the body, which we think contributes to pancreatic cancer cell growth,” said Pereira.

Those who consumed two or more soft drinks per week (averaging five per week) had an 87 percent increased risk compared with individuals who did not. No association was seen between fruit juice consumption and pancreatic cancer.

The study has been published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

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Each week CDC analyzes information about influenza disease activity in the United States and publishes findings of key flu indicators in a report called FluView. During the week of January 24-30, 2010, most key flu indicators remained about the same as during the previous week. Below is a summary of the most recent key indicators:

• Visits to doctors for influenza-like illness (ILI) nationally are low.  ILI is also looked at by Region. Of 10 regions in the United States, ILI declined or remained about the same, except for in one region of the country. In Region 10 (Arkansas, Oregon, Idaho and Washington), ILI activity increased, but still remains low overall.

• Overall cumulative hospitalization rates for the 2009-10 influenza season have leveled off in all age groups and very few 2009 H1N1-laboratory confirmed hospitalizations were reported by states during the week ending January 3o.

• The proportion of deaths attributed to pneumonia and influenza (P&I) based on the 122 Cities Report decreased slightly over the previous week, but is still higher than expected for this time of year.

• No states reported widespread influenza activity. Six states reported regional influenza activity. They are: Alabama, Georgia, Maine, New Jersey, New Mexico and Virginia. Almost all of the influenza viruses identified so far continue to be 2009 H1N1 influenza A viruses.

Source: http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/update.htm

More information about H1N1: http://www.flu.gov

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Texas State University and Orizon Research Institute announced the signing of an agreement today that will permit University Researchers to continue efforts through in vivo testing to further determine the potential and effectiveness of ALKA-V6, a compound which has shown remarkable ability to kill cancer cells and inhibit the HIV virus in laboratory experiments.

The research will evaluate the effects of ALKA-V6 on animal organisms, and will be highly replicated with the goal of moving knowledge about the compound toward eventual FDA approval.

Dr. Troy Chesnut, Managing Member of Orizon Research Institute, stated, “We are excited to move our research from artificial laboratory systems to animal organisms. These next 18 months of research should confirm previous studies and provide more answers about this promising product.”

The prelude from the Texas State University research proposal addresses the reasons for optimism about the product.  “ALKA-V6 is a modified value-added silicon compound……This product has been imputed to have several health benefits including anti-microbial activity, bone remodeling and joint health promoting functions as well as chemotherapeutic benefits against cancer and viral infections….In response to numerous testimonials/case studies, empirical evidence and written personal and contractual statements about the putative cancer reducing and alleviation in symptoms associated with several viral diseases, we previously evaluated the anticancer and anti-HIV effects in in vitro models.

Our results largely corroborated the empirical observations and many in vitro model systems.  ALKA-V6 proved highly effective in mitigating causative factors and conditions that promote cancer and HIV infections.  ALKA-V6 was extremely effective in preventing sodium azide induced mutations, cancer cell survival, and cancer cell adhesion.  In addition, at very low concentrations, ALKA-V6 was also very effective in promoting apoptosis, preventing free radical mediated DNA damage, activating free radical neutralizing systems such as glutathione, superoxide dismutase and catalase.

ALKA-V6 was also very effective in its antiviral activities, and at very low doses it was highly effective in inhibiting viral transcription and replication.  In addition, it was also very effective in reducing viral cell attachment and ability of the virus to evade the immune system.
In spite of these scientifically proven effects, most of these studies have been conducted in in vitro systems…..

…Systematic studies need to be conducted in in vivo systems to decipher the genetic and physiological mechanism of action, determine the effective dosages for health promoting activity…..End point measurements as related to modulation of genetic and metabolic pathways relevant to anti-metastatic and anti-retroviral effects are imperative to completely establish the functionality of ALKA-V6 in promoting homeostasis….

The results from this phase of testing may also result in scientific acceptance of the product as an effective alternative/complementary tool for management and prevention of different diseases.”

Orizon Research Institute of Odessa, Texas is the international distributor of ALKA V-6. Orizon remains committed to providing the ALKA-V6 compound to the general public as an affordably priced nutritional supplement that can be purchased directly from the company web site. The phase 1 ALKA-V6 research study conducted at Texas State is also available on the Orizon Research web site at www.orizonresearch.com.
CONTACT: Orizon Research, LLC, 1-877-367-7770, media@orizonresearch.com

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An important way to prevent cancer which few people know about is vaccination. Every fifth instance of cancer worldwide is linked to an infection triggered by either viruses or bacteria.

On World Cancer Day, therefore, some of today’s leading cancer researchers began advocating for a wider use in Germany of vaccines against cancer-causing pathogens such as the hepatitis-B virus and the human papillomavirus (HPV).

For example, boys are often carriers of HPV, and therefore are at increased risk of the cancers caused by the virus. HPV can eventually cause those who carry it to contract anal or throat cancer. Yet, simply by ensuring that all of those who carry the virus receive the widely available vaccines, up to 80 percent of such cancers might be prevented.

The second pillar of cancer prevention is a lifestyle change. Taking regular exercise, eating healthy foods, limiting alcohol consumption, reducing direct exposure to sunlight, and avoiding tobacco products all help to reduce the risk of cancer.

In total, it is possible to reduce the risk of cancer by 40 percent.

© 2010, Mensvita – Anti Aging and Health Portal for men. All rights reserved. On republishing this post you must provide link to original post.