Coffee May Extend Your Life

A recent study conducted by several Spanish and American scientists reveals that drinking two to three cups of coffee a day does not increase risk of death. In fact, drinking both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee may be linked with a slightly reduced risk of death due to heart disease.

The study which was published in the June issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine was conducted by a team led by Dr. Esther Lopez-Garcia with the help of the US National Institutes of Health.

"Coffee consumption has been linked to various beneficial and detrimental health effects, but data on its relation with death were lacking," Dr. Lopez-Garcia said. "The possibility of a modest benefit of coffee consumption on heart disease, cancer, and other causes of death needs to be further investigated."

The study involved 84,214 women and 41,736 men, all of which are asked to fill up a questionaire every two to four years that included questions about their coffee consumption, other dietary habits, smoking status and their health. Lopez-Garcia and colleagues then looked at how different kinds of coffee drinking patterns correlated with frequency of death from any cause, from death due to heart disease, and from death due to cancer.

These data were then analyzed, showing the following results:

• Women who drank 2 to 3 cups of caffeinated coffee a day had a 25 per cent lower risk of death from heart disease over the follow up period (84,214 women from 1980 to 2004), compared with women who did not drink coffee.
• Women who drank 2 to 3 cups of caffeinated coffee a day also had an 18 per cent lower risk of death from causes not related to cancer or heart disease, over the follow up period compared to women who did not drink coffee.
• Men who drank 2 to 3 cups of caffeinated coffee a day showed no higher or lower risk of death during the follow up period, 41,736 men from 1986 to 2004) compared with men who did not drink coffee.
• During the follow up, 2,368 of the women died from heart disease, 5,011 from cancer, and 3,716 from other causes.
• 2,049 of the men died from heart disease, 2,491 from cancer, and 2,348 from other causes.
• Overall, taking into account other risk factors such as body size, smoking, diet, and some specific diseases, people who drank more coffee were less likely to die during the follow up period.
• The main reason for this was the lower risk of heart disease among the coffee drinkers.
• There was no link between coffee drinking and death due to cancer.
• In the main, there appeared to be no difference in the link to death rates between caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee, they both appeared to have the same link with lower death rates compared with people who did not drink any coffee at all.
• However, drinking decaffeinated coffee was linked to a small reduction in deaths from all causes and cardiovascular (CVD) diseases.

In conclusion, the study showed that regular coffee consumption may not be associated with an increased mortality rate. They also added that the positive benefits of coffee consumption on all-cause and mortality needs to be further investigated.

Insulin-like Hormone May Prolong Life For Men

A recent study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism stated that elderly men with higher activity of the hormone IGF-1 or insulin-growth factor 1 appear to have greater life expectancy and reduced vascular risk. This new finding came as a result of a new form of testing for IGF-bioactivity.

IGF-1 is a hormone similar in molecular structure to insulin, which is being released by the liver and plays an important role in childhood growth and continues to have anabolic effects on adults.

The study evaluated 376 healthy elderly men between the age of 73 and 94 from which the researchers took serum sample from. The participants are then contacted for eight years about their health status. Subjects with the lowest IGF-1 function had significantly higher mortality rate than subjects with the highest IGF-1 bioactivity. These results were especially significant to those who have high risk to die from cardiovascular complications.

Researchers in this study used a new method, a bioassay, to measure the function of IGF-1 in the blood. Compared to commonly used methods to measure IGF-1, the IGF-1 bioassay gives more information about the actual function (bioactivity) of circulating IGF-1 in the body. Determination of IGF-1 function using the bioassay opens the possibility to gather new insights about the functions of IGF-1 in the body

Simple Exercise Can Cut Cancer Deaths in Men, Study Shows

A recent study published in the British Journal of Cancer revealed that men who exercise often are less likely to die from cancer than those who don't. The study found that men who walked or cycled for at least 30 minutes a day had a 34 per cent lower risk of dying from cancer than men who did less exercise or nothing at all.

The study involved a team of scientists from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden who monitored a number of 40,708 men aged between 45 and 79 years. During the seven years period of the study, 3,714 developed cancer and 1,153 died from the disease. The researchers suggest that half an hour of walking or cycling a day increased survival among these men by 33 per cent.

"These results clearly show for the first time, the effect that very simple and basic daily exercise such as walking or cycling has in reducing cancer death risk in middle-age and elderly men," one of the researchers, Professor Alicja said. "Additionally, this study threw up some really promising data on the role exercise can play in preventing cancer which we would like to explore further in future work."

They found that a more intensive program of walking and cycling for between an hour and an hour and a half a day, led to a l6 per cent lower incidence of cancer.

It's not entirely clear from this study what role exercise plays in preventing cancer in men, but it somehow proved that a healthy lifestyle can prevent up to half of all cancers - and regular exercise forms a key part of this. Cancer Research UK recommends maintaining a healthy body weight, eating sensibly and taking regular exercise as key to a healthy life - along with avoiding smoking.

Dehydrated Tomatoes May Prevent Prostate Cancer

Many studies and research have proven that tomatoes are actually good in preventing and fighting cancer. But another research suggests that the form or tomato product one eats could be the key to unlocking its prostate cancer-fighting potential. And it is dehydrated tomatoes.

According to the latest issue of the Cancer Research, a journal by the American Association for Cancer Research, the greatest protective effect of tomatoes from cancer, especially prostate cancer, comes from rehydrating tomato powder into tomato paste. This suggests that processing of edible plants through heating, grinding, mixing or drying dramatically increases their nutritional value.

The protective effect of tomato products against prostate cancer has been suggested in many studies, but researchers remain uncertain about the exact mechanisms. The study demonstrated that FruHis, an organic carbohydrate present in dehydrated tomato products, exerts a strong protective effect.

The research also evaluated the anti-cancer properties of FruHis and 14 other D-fructose amino acids and found that FruHis in a concentrated form protected against DNA damage known to lead to prostate cancer. When combined with lycopene, FruHis stopped cancerous cell growth more than 98 percent of the time.

Before this study, researchers attributed the protective effect of tomatoes to ascorbic acid, carotenoids, or phenolic compounds. FruHis may represent a novel type of potential dietary antioxidant. Experiments like these suggest that a combination of FruHis and lycopene should be investigated as a potential therapeutic anti-tumor agent, not just a prevention strategy.

The mission of the American Association for Cancer Research is to prevent and cure cancer. Founded in 1907, AACR is the world's oldest and largest professional organization dedicated to advancing cancer research.

Exercise for Different Sexes (Nope, Not the Dirty Kind)

The question about male and female equality may never well be answered, well at least when it comes to physical fitness. This is one of the points presented in a study conducted at the University of New England in Biddeford, Maine. According to Danielle Day, one of the researchers involved in the study, said that female may never had the chance to catch up with men when it comes to physical strength and capabilities.

This is because men are bigger and have more muscle and higher levels of that powerhouse hormone testosterone than women. But as researchers have begun to unravel the differences between the sexes with regard to physical activity, they're learning that there's more to the story. Men and women also differ in energy metabolism, lung function and other factors during exercise.


But this study was not conducted to undermine the female population. This is done in an effort to pave the way to sex-specific training regimens for athletes and recreational exercisers as well.

"We're not the same. Our physiological systems are not identical," says Earl Noble, director of the school of kinesiology at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, Canada. He likens exercise to a drug "that needs to be given in the appropriate dose and intensity and should be varied for sex differences."

One real-world application of such research may be the development of workouts that optimize weight-loss for women and men. That is after several researches confirm what frustrated women have long known to be true — that females have a harder time losing weight through exercise than men, says Day. Men's bodies respond more favorably to exercise, whereas women's bodies go into survival mode, slowing metabolism and hanging onto fat. She and other experts say that's an evolutionary response intended to keep a woman healthy for child-bearing.

This is actually good news to everyone, both male and female, as there will be specific exercise, not only to target their needs with different body parts but also needs as a man or women.

Prevent Prostate Cancer, Drink Green Tea

A study conducted by several researchers at Japan's National Cancer Center revealed that drinking green tea may reduce the risk of advanced prostate cancer. The study said that men who drink five or more cups of green tea a day may actually reduce their chance of developing advanced prostate cancer in half, as compared to those who only drinks one cup a day or less.

According to Norie Kurahashi, one researcher who participated in the study, however said that this does not mean that people who drink green tea are guaranteed to have reduced risk of prostate cancer. These results, according to him, are just preliminary and needs further researches to verify the inference. But they claim that the study may point to the hope that green tea can be used to prevent prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer is not very common among Asian men as compared to Western men, and is believed to have been partly due to the effects of the high consumption of green tea in Asia.

However, the British Charity Cancer Research in United Kingdom said on its website that a study of almost 20,000 Japanese men published last 2006 found no relationship between green tea and prostate cancer.