Chocolate could prevent obesity and diabetes, study suggests

More than a third of US adults are obese and are, therefore, at higher risk of type 2 diabetes. But new research suggests a surprising prevention strategy for both conditions - eating chocolate.
In a mouse study, led by Andrew P. Neilson of the Department of Food Science and Technology at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, researchers discovered that a certain antioxidant in cocoa - the main ingredient in chocolate - prevented mice from gaining weight and lowered their blood sugar levels.
This is not the only study to suggest that consuming chocolate can prevent such health conditions.
Earlier this year, Medical News Today reported on a study claiming that chocolate, as well as wine and berries, protects against type 2 diabetes, while other research found that teens who eat lots of chocolate tend to be slimmer.
Such studies claim that the reason chocolate may have these health benefits is because of the flavanols it contains. These are types of antioxidants.
But the researchers of this most recent study say that not all flavanols are the same. In fact, cocoa has several different types.

Good news for chocolate lovers: a certain flavanol in cocoa may help prevent obesity and type 2 diabetes.

In their study, published in the Journal of Agricultural Food and Chemistry, the investigators set out to determine exactly which flavanol may be responsible for preventing weight gain and lowering blood glucose levels.
For the research, the investigators assigned mice to one of six different diets for 12 weeks.
These consisted of high- and low-fat diets, and high-fat diets supplemented with either monomeric, oligomeric or polymeric procyandins (PCs) - types of flavanols. Mice were given 25 milligrams of these flavanols each day for every kilogram of their body weight (25 mg/kg).

Oligomeric procyandins most effective

The research team found that a high-fat diet supplemented with oligomeric PCs was the most effective for maintaining weight of the mice and improving glucose tolerance - a factor that could help prevent type 2 diabetes.
Commenting on the findings, the researchers say:

"Oligomeric PCs appear to possess the greatest antiobesity and antidiabetic bioactivities of the flavanols in cocoa, particularly at the low doses employed for the present study.
Additional studies of prolonged feeding of flavanol fractions in vivo are needed to further identify the fractions with the highest bioactivities and, therefore, the greatest potential for translation to human clinical applications at reasonable doses."

The investigators point out that the doses of flavanols used in this study are significantly lower than doses used in past research and are more feasible when translated into flavanol levels for human consumption.
"Therefore, our data suggest that moderate doses of cocoa flavanols or cocoa powder have the potential to be more effective in human clinical trials than previously thought," they add.
According to previous research, the health benefits of chocolate may reach further than decreasing the likelihood of obesity and type 2 diabetes. Medical News Today recently reported on a study claiming that eating 70 g of dark chocolate every day could reduce the risk of atherosclerosis - the thickening and hardening of the arteries.
But interestingly, this study did not attribute this benefit to the flavanols that chocolate contains. Study participants ate either regular dark chocolate or chocolate with added flavanols. Both types of chocolate had the same effect.
"We provide a more complete picture of the impact of chocolate consumption in vascular health and show that increasing flavanol content has no added beneficial effect on vascular health," says study researcher Prof. Diederik Esser, of the Top Institute Food and Nutrition and the Division of Human Nutrition at Wageningen University, both in the Netherlands.
Other research claims that hot chocolate could help prevent memory decline. Again, the researchers say this finding was not down to flavanols.
Our article on the health benefits of chocolate reveals some of the other ways in which chocolate may be good for you.

Read More

Alcohol does not benefit the heart, claims new study

A new BMJ study finds that even among people who drink only light to moderate amounts of alcohol, reducing consumption can improve heart health, reduce body mass index, and bring down blood pressure.

The large multi-center international study, which was co-led by the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, calls into question previous research that suggests light to moderate drinking may be good for the heart.

The researchers found that people with a particular gene consumed 17% less alcohol per week, were less likely to binge drink, and were more likely to abstain from alcohol altogether, than non-carriers.

The study defines light to moderate drinking as consuming 0.6 to 0.8 fluid ounces of alcohol a day, or 17 to 23 ml, which is roughly what a 175 ml glass of wine contains.
The 155 researchers - from the UK, continental Europe, North America, and Australia - pooled and analyzed data about links between drinking habits and heart health from 56 epidemiological studies covering more than 260,000 people of European descent.
They found that people with a particular gene consumed 17% less alcohol per week, were less likely to binge drink, and were more likely to abstain from alcohol altogether, than non- carriers.
These lower alcohol consumers typically had a 10% average reduced risk of coronary heart disease, lower blood pressure and a lower body mass index (BMI).
The researchers conclude that reducing alcohol consumption across all levels of consumption - even light to moderate drinking - is beneficial for heart health.
Co-lead author Michael Holmes, a research assistant professor in Perelman School of Medicine's department of Transplant Surgery, says, "Contrary to what earlier reports have shown, it now appears that any exposure to alcohol has a negative impact upon heart health."
He explains how for some time, observational studies have suggested only heavy drinking is bad for the heart, and that light drinking might even provide some benefit, and this has led some people to believe moderate consumption is good for their health, even lowering their risk of heart disease.

Even for light-to-moderate drinkers, reduced consumption may improve heart health

"However, what we're seeing with this new study, which uses an investigative approach similar to a randomized clinical trial, is that reduced consumption of alcohol, even for light-to-moderate drinkers, may lead to improved cardiovascular health," says Prof. Holmes.
The focus of the study was investigating the heart health of people who carry a particular version of the gene "alcohol dehydrogenase 1B" which codes for a protein that helps to break down alcohol more quickly than in non-carriers.
The rapid breakdown causes nausea, facial flushing, and other symptoms, and is linked to lower levels of alcohol consumption over time.
The team used the gene as an indicator of lower alcohol consumption, and from there found the links between lower consumption and improved heart health.
Funds from the British Heart Foundation and the Medical Research Council in the UK financed the study.
In April 2014, Medical News Today learned how neuroscientists at the University of Utah are investigating a region of the brain that regulates how sensitive we are to the negative effects of alcohol. Inactivating this region of the brain in rats led them to drink more alcohol, at a faster pace.

Read More

1 in 10 patients inappropriately prescribed aspirin to prevent first heart attack, stroke

This was the conclusion of a new study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, led by a team at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX.
The researchers note that as aspirin is also available over the counter, it is possible that inappropriate use may be higher than their figure suggests because of patients medicating themselves against the risk of primary cardiovascular events.
In May 2014, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advised Americans against the general use of aspirin for primary prevention and they also recently denied a request to market the drug for such use.
To decide what constitutes inappropriate prescribing of daily aspirin for preventing a first heart attack or stroke, the researchers evaluated guidelines from organizations like the American Heart Association and the US Preventative Services Task Force.

Study analyzed large nationwide patient sample of aspirin use

From the published guidelines, the researchers determined that daily aspirin use would be inappropriate in patients whose 10-year cardiovascular risk was under 6%.
They then used this rule to analyze data on a nationwide sample of 69,000 patients receiving aspirin for primary cardiovascular disease prevention. The sample came from the National Cardiovascular Disease Registry Practice Innovation and Clinical Excellence (PINNACLE) Registry.
The patients in the sample were attending 119 practices when they were prescribed aspirin between January 2008 and June 2013. The researchers excluded patients who had already experienced a cardiovascular event - such as heart attack or stroke - or who were affected by heart conditions like atrial fibrillation.
The analysis showed nearly 12% of patients in the nationwide sample probably should not have been prescribed aspirin to prevent primary cardiovascular disease.
The team found that inappropriate use of prescribed aspirin was higher among women than men (17% versus 5%). Patients prescribed aspirin inappropriately were also on average about 16 years younger than those receiving it appropriately, they note.
However, they also found that inappropriate use fell from 14% in 2008 to 9% in 2013.
In addition, the researchers found the rate of inappropriate prescribing varied among practices, ranging from 0-72% of patients receiving aspirin for primary prevention.

In people who do not meet guidelines, risk of bleeding outweighs potential benefits

There is no evidence, note the authors, that aspirin reduces the risk of a first stroke or heart attack in people who have no history of cardiovascular events and a low risk of developing disease. However, it is linked to raised risk bleeding in the gut or stomach and of hemorrhagic strokes.
First author Dr. Ravi S. Hira, a cardiology researcher at Baylor College of Medicine, says doctors must think about whether the potential for bleeding outweighs the potential benefits of aspirin in patients who do not meet the guidelines, adding:
"Since aspirin is available over the counter, patient and public education against using aspirin without a medical provider's recommendation will also play a key role in avoiding inappropriate use."
In an editorial published with the study, Freek W.A. Verheugt - a professor of cardiology at the the Heart and Lung Center and chairman of the Department of Cardiology at Onze Lieve Vrouwe Gasthuis, both of the University Medical Centre of Nijmegen in the Netherlands - says:

"Major coronary events are reduced 18% by aspirin, but at the cost of an increase of 54% of major extracranial bleeding. Each two major coronary events have shown to be prevented by prophylactic aspirin at the cost of one major extracranial bleed. Yet, primary prevention with aspirin is widely applied."

In August 2014, Medical News Today reported a study that suggested daily aspirin could be an effective way to avoid recurrent blood clots in patients with venous thromboembolism - blood clots in the veins - who are unable to have anticoagulant therapy.

Read More

Weight 'influenced by gut bacteria'

Past research has suggested that weight may be influenced by genes. A new study builds on this concept, revealing that our genetic makeup shapes what type of bacteria live in the gut, which may affect how heavy we are.

The results of a twin study suggest that our genes influence what type of bacteria we have in our gut, and that the abundance of bacteria could affect our weight.

The findings come from a twin study conducted by researchers from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, and King's College London in the UK.
The research team, including Prof. Tim Spector, head of the Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology at King's College London, says the results may open the door to personalized probiotic treatments that could reduce the risk of obesity and its related diseases.
For their study, published in the journal Cell, the researchers sequenced the genes of microbes present in over 1,000 fecal samples taken from 416 pairs of twins who were part of the Twins UK data registry.
Of these twins, 171 pairs were identical and 245 were non-identical. Identical twins share 100% of their genes, while non-identical twins share around 50% of their genes.

Increasing certain strain of bacteria in the gut 'could reduce, prevent obesity'

Results of the analysis revealed that identical twins had a similar abundance of specific types of gut bacteria, compared with non-identical twins. The team says this indicates that genes influence the type of bacteria present in the gut.
What is more, the researchers found that the presence of a class of bacteria called Christensenellaceae was most influenced by genes. A certain strain of this bacteria - Christensenellaceae minuta - was found to be more common among individuals of a low body weight.
On introducing this bacteria to the guts of mice, the team found the animals gained less weight than those that did not receive the bacteria. This suggests that increasing the amount of Christensenellaceae minuta bacteria in the gut could help to reduce or prevent obesity, the researchers say.
Commenting on their results, Prof. Spector says:

"Our findings show that specific groups of microbes living in our gut could be protective against obesity - and that their abundance is influenced by our genes. The human microbiome represents an exciting new target for dietary changes and treatments aimed at combating obesity."

Senior author Ruth Ley, an associate professor of microbiology at Cornell University, notes that this study is the first to determine that specific gut microbes are heritable and that the variation of these microbes is not solely influenced by diet, environment, lifestyle and health.

Other ways in which gut bacteria may play a role in obesity

Numerous other studies have reported on the association between obesity and gut bacteria, but all of them have different theories.
In September, Medical News Today reported on a study suggesting that Granny Smith apples could protect against obesity by balancing the proportions of "good" gut bacteria.
The researchers of that study, from Washington State University, explain that the fibers and polyphenols present in Granny Smith apples are unscathed when they reach the colon, even after exposure to stomach acid and digestive enzymes. The bacteria in the colon then ferment these compounds, producing butyric acid that triggers the growth of good gut bacteria.
Another study, reported in July, detailed the creation of a probiotic that researchers say could prevent obesity.
Senior study author Sean Davies, of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN, and colleagues genetically modified a strain of bacteria that colonizes the human gut - Escherichia coli Nissle 1917 - to produce a compound called N-acyl-phosphatidylethanolamine (NAPE), which can reduce food intake.
On giving this bacteria to mice fed a high-fat diet for 8 weeks, the team found that it significantly reduced their food intake, body fat and incidence of hepatosteatosis (fatty liver), compared with control mice.
"There are lots of people who are doing their best to change their lifestyle and it still isn't enough for them to get to and keep a healthy weight. We think this strategy will really help them," Davies told MNT.

Read More