It is estimated that more than 2.3 million people worldwide have multiple sclerosis (MS), a chronic disease of the central nervous system - the brain, spinal cord and optic nerves.
MS is thought to be an autoimmune disease, whereby immune-system induced inflammation
damages the protective coating of nerve fibers, called myelin. Symptoms
of MS vary but commonly include loss of balance and coordination,
blurred vision, extreme fatigue, tremors and numbness.
Past studies have suggested that coffee consumption may protect against other neurological diseases, including Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. In this latest study, researchers say the beverage could also protect against MS.
To reach their findings, study author Dr. Ellen Mowry, of Johns Hopkins
University School of Medicine in Baltimore, MD, and colleagues analyzed
data from two separate population-based case-control studies that looked
at the link between coffee consumption and MS.
The first study was a Swedish study involving 1,629 people with MS and
2,807 healthy controls, while the second study was a US study involving
1,159 people with MS and 1,172 healthy controls.
Both studies recorded coffee consumption among people with MS at 1 and 5
years prior to onset of symptoms, and the Swedish study also recorded
coffee consumption among these participants 10 years before symptoms
began. Coffee intake of those with MS was compared with the healthy
controls at similar time points.
Consuming at least four cups of coffee a day linked to reduced risk of MS
The results of the Swedish study revealed that participants who did not
drink coffee in the year prior to symptom onset were around 1.5 times
more likely to develop MS, compared with those who consumed six or more
cups of coffee each day.
The researchers also identified a protective effect against MS among
participants who consumed large amounts of coffee at 5 and 10 years
prior to onset of symptoms.
From the US study, the team also found that participants who did
not drink coffee in the year prior to symptom onset were approximately
1.5 times more likely to develop MS, compared with those who consumed at
least four cups of coffee a day.
The team says the protective effect of coffee consumption against MS may
be down to the main ingredient of the beverage - caffeine. They
explain:
"Caffeine has neuroprotective properties and seems to
suppress the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, which may be
mechanisms that explain the observed association."
Dr. Mowry says future research should investigate how coffee consumption
affects long-term disability and symptom relapse in patients with MS.
The Swedish Medical Research Council, the Swedish Research Council for
Health, Working Life and Welfare, the US National Institute of
Neurological Disorders and Stroke, the National Institute of
Environmental and Health Sciences and the National Institute on Aging
were among the supporters of this research.
The health benefits and risks of coffee consumption
Past studies have associated coffee consumption with numerous health benefits. In April 2014, Medical News Today reported on a study claiming that increasing coffee intake could reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes, while another study found the beverage may protect against tinnitus.
Last month, a study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute claimed coffee consumption may reduce the risk of melanoma skin cancer by a fifth, while more recently, UK researchers found drinking three to four cups of coffee a day could reduce the risk of endometrial cancer in women by up to 19%.
Our Knowledge Center article - "What are the health benefits of coffee?" - looks at some of the other ways coffee may be good for us, while noting some of its risks to health.
Drinking too much coffee, for example, has been associated with increased risk of depression and anxiety, while some studies have indicated that coffee intake may interfere with a woman's reproductive system.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and international agencies are in
the process of revising guidelines concerning fish consumption in an
attempt to better reflect the nutritional benefits of fish.
Currently, the FDA recommend that pregnant women should eat fish no more
than twice a week. The reason for limiting fish consumption is because
much of the mercury in the environment ends up in the world's oceans, so
fish contain small amounts of the chemical.
Although a link between consumption of fish and childhood developmental
problems has never been conclusively proved, experts have previously
been concerned about the consequences of elevated mercury levels in
pregnant women.
However, fish contain many beneficial nutrients. For example, their fatty acids are essential for good brain development.
A partnership between the University of Rochester Medical Center, NY,
Ulster University in Belfast, UK, and the Republic of Seychelles
Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education yielded the Seychelles
Child Development Study - one of the longest and largest population
studies of its kind.
As the 89,000 residents of the Seychelles islands in the Indian Ocean
consume approximately 10 times as much fish in their diet as people in
the US or Europe, the region was considered to be an ideal location for
measuring the public health impact of low-level mercury exposure over a
long period.
Omega-3 may counteract the inflammatory effect of mercury
More than 1,500 mothers and children participated in the study. The
development of the children was assessed using a variety of
communication skills, behavior and motor skills tests. The tests started
at 20 months after birth and the children were followed into their 20s.
Hair samples were also collected from the mothers while they were
pregnant so that the team could measure levels of prenatal mercury
exposure.
Prenatal mercury exposure was not linked with lower test scores, the
researchers found. As the children were followed into adulthood, it was
established that there was no association between consumption of fish
among pregnant mothers and impaired neurological development in their
offspring.
Levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) were also measured in the
women while pregnant. The researchers found that the children of mothers
with higher levels of the omega-3 (n3) fatty acid found in fish performed better on some tests.
Another PUFA, n6, which comes from meats and cooking oils, is more
prevalent in the US and Europe than it is in regions like the
Seychelles. However, n6 is known to promote inflammation - unlike n3, which has anti-inflammatory properties.
In the study, the children of mothers with higher levels of n6 were
found to perform less well on the motor skills tests than children with
higher levels of n3. This finding supports a theory among some
scientists that n3 counteracts the inflammatory effects of mercury.
Philip Davidson, PhD, the principal investigator of the Seychelles Child
Development Study, a professor emeritus at the University of Rochester
and senior author of the study, says:
"It appears that the relationship between fish nutrients and mercury may
be far more complex than previously appreciated. These findings
indicate that there may be an optimal balance between the different
inflammatory properties of fatty acids that promote fetal development
and that these mechanisms warrant further study."
Kim Lewis, a microbiologist and professor at Northeastern University
in Boston, MA, and colleagues report their discovery in the
journal Nature.
Many of the antibiotics in use today were discovered decades ago, and since then, microbes have evolved into resistant strains that
do not succumb to them.
For instance, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), in
2012, there were about 450,000 new cases of multidrug-resistant
tuberculosis (MDR-TB) worldwide. And extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) has been identified in 92 countries.
Bacteria that cause common infections such as urinary tract infections, pneumonia,
bloodstream infections, are also becoming
increasingly resistant and hard to treat. For instance, a high
percentage of hospital-acquired infections are caused by a highly
resistant form of Staph - methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus or MRSA.
This alarming scenario - coupled with the fact there are hardly any
new antibiotics in the pipeline - led the WHO recently to warn
we are approaching a "post-antibiotic era" where people could die from
ordinary infections and minor injuries.
Most antibiotics in use come from soil microbes
Most of the antibiotics used in human and animal medicine today come
from soil microbes - for millions of years they have been
producing toxic compounds to fight off other enemy microbes. For example
penicillin, the first successful antibiotic, comes from the
soil fungus Penicillium.
But there is a major problem with researching soil microbes -
they are very difficult to culture in the lab. This means that as many
as 99% of the microbes on our planet remain under-researched as sources
of new antibiotics because they refuse to grow in lab cultures.
That is until now.
Prof. Lewis and colleagues developed a way to culture bacteria in
their natural environment. This uses a device that they call a
"diffusion chamber" where the soil microbes they want to grow are
separated into individual chambers sandwiched between two semi-permeable
membranes. They then bury the device back in the soil.
Thus, through the semi-permeable membranes, the bacteria become
exposed to the highly complex mix of other microbes and compounds of
the soil, and grow readily as if they were in the soil. This way, the
researchers produced bacterial colonies large enough to research
back in the lab.
10,000 colonies yielded 25 potential new antibiotics, including one superbug-buster
By repeatedly using the diffusion chamber to culture different species of soil bacteria, the team tested about 10,000 bacterial
colonies to see if any produced compounds that could stop the growth of S. aureus.
They found 25 potential antibiotics, of which one, teixobactin, appeared the most powerful.
In the lab, teixobactin, killed a broad range of pathogenic bacteria, including the drug-resistant superbugs MRSA and VRE
(vancomycin resistant enterococci).
Further tests in mice showed promising results against bacteria that cause septicemia, skin and lung infections.
Teixobactin breaks down the bacterial cell wall - the
pathogen's key defence against attack. The researchers believe this
means the
microbe can mutate all it likes, but its cell walls will always be its
Achilles heel.
Prof. Lewis says, "Teixobactin's dual mode of action and binding to non-peptidic
regions suggest that resistance will be very difficult to develop."
He and his colleagues found that repeated exposure to the drug did not produce any resistant mutations in Staphylococcus
aureus or Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium that causes most cases of TB.
They conclude: "The properties of this compound suggest a path
towards developing antibiotics that are likely to avoid development
of resistance."
Meanwhile, Medical News Today recently learned how another team has been tackling the drug-resistance problem from a
different angle. They developed software that anticipates a superbug's next resistant mutation to a new
drug.
For the study, researchers from Weill Cornell Medical College in Doha,
Qatar, recruited 522 patients who had been recently diagnosed with type 2
diabetes.
At the start of the study, the participants' height, weight and waist
circumference were measured and samples of their blood were analyzed for
insulin sensitivity.
The participants were required to keep sleep diaries, from which their weekday "sleep debt" was calculated.
The participants at the start of the study who had weekday sleep debt
were found to be 72% more likely to be obese, compared with participants
who had no weekday sleep debt. By follow-up at 6 months, the
association between weekday sleep debt and obesity and insulin resistance was found to be significant.
At 12-month follow-up, the researchers calculated that for every 30
minutes of weekday sleep debt there was an associated 17% increased risk
of obesity and 39% increased risk of insulin resistance.
"While previous studies have shown that short sleep duration is
associated with obesity and diabetes, we found that as little as 30
minutes a day sleep debt can have significant effects on obesity and
insulin resistance at follow-up," says lead study author Prof. Shahrad
Taheri.
The authors suggest in a statement that future interventions designed to
combat metabolic disease should also consider sleep and other factors
affecting metabolic function. Sleep hygiene and education may be a key
component of future trials studying metabolic control, they add.
People often miss out on sleep during the week and try to catch up at weekends
People often accumulate sleep debt during weekdays as a consequence of
social and work commitments, making up for the lost sleep at the
weekend. However, Prof. Taheri explains that the results reinforce the
notion that sleep loss is additive and has metabolic consequences:
"Sleep loss is widespread in modern society, but only in the last decade
have we realized its metabolic consequences. Our findings suggest that
avoiding sleep debt could have positive benefits for waistlines and
metabolism and that incorporating sleep into lifestyle interventions for
weight loss and diabetes might improve their success."
In February, researchers from the University of Chicago, MI, published the results of their study into the associations between sleep loss and diabetes in the journal Diabetologia.
The Chicago team found that after 3 nights of getting only 4 hours
sleep, blood levels of fatty acids remain elevated, rather than peaking
and receding overnight as they would normally. This elevated level of
fatty acids between 4 am and 9 am reduces the ability of insulin to
regulate blood sugars, the researchers explained.
Last December, Medical News Today reported on a study published in The Journal of Pediatrics that found chronic lack of sleep and sleep-related breathing problems each double the risk of a child being obese by the age of 15.
Lead author of that study, Prof. Karen Bonuck, from Einstein College of
Medicine of Yeshiva University in New York, NY, commented:
"If impaired sleep in childhood is conclusively shown to cause future
obesity, it may be vital for parents and physicians to identify sleep
problems early, so that corrective action can be taken and obesity
prevented. With childhood obesity hovering at 17% in the US, we're
hopeful that efforts to address both of these risk factors could have a
tremendous public health impact."
One glass of beetroot juice a day is enough to significantly reduce blood pressure in patients with high blood pressure, conclude researchers who conducted a placebo-controlled trial in dozens of patients. beetroot juice Beetroot contains high levels of inorganic nitrate. Other leafy vegetables - such as lettuce and cabbage - also have high levels of the compound, which they take up from the soil through their roots. The trial, conducted at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) in the UK, was funded by the British Heart Foundation, whose senior research advisor Dr. Shannon Amoils remarks: "This interesting study builds on previous research by this team and finds that a daily glass of beetroot juice can lower blood pressure in people with hypertension - even those whose high blood pressure was not controlled by drug treatment.
"
The researchers publish their findings in the journal Hypertension. Beetroot contains high levels of inorganic nitrate. Other leafy vegetables - such as lettuce and cabbage - also have high levels of the compound, which they take up from the soil through their roots. In the human body, inorganic nitrate converts to nitric oxide, which relaxes and dilates blood vessels. For the trial, Amrita Ahluwalia, a vascular pharmacology professor at QMUL, and colleagues recruited 64 patients aged 18-85. Half of the patients were taking prescribed medication for high blood pressure but were not managing to reach their target blood pressure, and the rest had been diagnosed with high blood pressure but were not yet taking medication for it. The patients were randomly assigned to one of two groups. One group consumed a daily glass (250 ml or around 8.5 oz) of beetroot juice, and the other group had the same except their beetroot juice was nitrate-free (the placebo).
The patients consumed the juice every day for 4 weeks. They were also monitored for 2 weeks before and after the study, bringing the total trial period to 8 weeks. The trial was double-blind, which means neither the administering clinicians nor the patients knew whether the beetroot juice they were given was the placebo or the active supplement. First study to show lasting reduction in blood pressure from dietary nitrate During the 4 weeks they were taking the juice, patients in the active supplement group (whose beetroot juice contained inorganic nitrate) experienced a reduction in blood pressure of 8/4 mmHg (millimeters of mercury).
The first figure is the reduction in systolic pressure (when the heart is pushing) and the second figure is reduction in diastolic pressure (when the heart is relaxing). For many patients, the 8/4 mmHg reduction brought their blood pressure back into the normal range. In the 2 weeks after they stopped taking the juice, the patients' blood pressure returned to their previous high levels. The team notes that this is first study to show evidence of a long-lasting reduction in blood pressure due to dietary nitrate supplementation in a group of patients with high blood pressure. The patients in the active supplement group also experienced a 20% or so improvement in blood vessel dilation capacity and their artery stiffness reduced by around 10%. Studies show such changes are linked to reduced risk of heart disease. There were no changes to blood pressure, blood vessel function or artery stiffness in the placebo group (whose beetroot juice did not contain nitrate) during the period of the study.
The authors note that the reduction achieved in the active supplement group is comparable to that of medication; the average reduction in blood pressure that a single anti-hypertension drug brings is 9/5 mmHg. The study concludes: "These findings suggest a role for dietary nitrate as an affordable, readily-available, adjunctive treatment in the management of patients with hypertension."
To put the importance of these findings in context, the authors note that large-scale observational studies show that for every 2 mmHg increase in blood pressure, the risk of death from heart disease goes up 7% and from stroke by 10%. Natural products to lower blood pressure are 'more appealing' than pills woman having BP checked One glass of beetroot juice a day significantly lowered blood pressure in people with high blood pressure. Commenting on the findings, Prof. Ahluwalia says: "This research has proven that a daily inorganic nitrate dose can be as effective as medical intervention in reducing blood pressure and the best part is we can get it from beetroot and other leafy green vegetables." She says one reason the findings are exciting is because increasing dietary nitrate is something patients can easily work into their daily lives and see a positive benefit. "It is hugely beneficial for people to be able to take steps in controlling their blood pressure through non-clinical means such as eating vegetables," Prof. Ahluwalia adds. "We know many people don't like taking drugs life-long when they feel ok, and because of this, medication compliance is a big issue."
"The possibility of using a natural product, rather than another pill, to help lower blood pressure, is very appealing," adds Dr. Amoils. Prof. Ahluwalia advises people looking to increase their daily nitrate intake not to boil vegetables because the nitrate dissolves in water. Instead, "steaming, roasting or drinking in a juice all has a positive effect," she notes. As for the next step, she says this was a small trial, and now what is needed is a larger study that tries to replicate the findings over a longer period with a much larger group of people with high blood pressure. High blood pressure increases the risk of more dangerous health conditions. For instance, about 70% of people who have a first heart attack, about 80% of those who have a first stroke, and 70% of those with chronic heart failure have high blood pressure. Kidney disease is also a major risk factor for people with high blood pressure. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), high blood pressure is either the primary cause of or contributes to 1,000 American deaths every day. In December 2014, Medical News Today reported research published in the journal Open Heart that concluded added sugars probably contribute more to hypertension than dietary sodium.
