Theeuroblog.com – Health, Food and Travel

Here is a very good info about pregnant women..It’s time to read it!!

Exercise may lessen pregnancy depression
Copyright 2008 by United Press International
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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. (UPI) — Women who exercise and are more positive about their changing shapes are less depressed both during and after pregnancy, U.S. researchers said.

Lead study author Danielle Symons Downs of Pennsylvania State University and colleagues surveyed 230 women in Pennsylvania throughout pregnancy and the postpartum period about their symptoms of depression, exercise habits and feelings about weight, appearance and other aspects of body image.

“Our study supports the psychological benefits of exercise to improve body image and lessen depressive symptoms,” Downs said in a statement.

As expected and consistent with previous research, women who experienced depressive symptoms early in pregnancy tended to report later pregnancy and postpartum depression, the researchers said.

What is new are the findings about the role of body image and exercise behavior in relation to pregnancy and postpartum depressive symptoms. Women who exercised more prior to their pregnancy had greater body satisfaction during the second and third trimesters and less depressive symptoms in the second trimester, the study found.

The findings appear in August journal Annals of Behavioral Medicine.

HONG KONG (UPI) — Chinese scientists say they’ve discovered bats might be reservoirs of a new group of astroviruses that cause diarrhea in many species, including humans.

Researchers at the University of Hong Kong and the school’s Pasteur Research Center said astroviruses are associated with gastroenteritis in a variety of mammals including humans, but most commonly afflict children, elderly people and immune-compromised patients. Until now, most studies of astroviruses have focused on humans and domesticated animals, so little is known about potential carriers in wildlife.

In the new study the scientists collected fecal samples from a single habitat of apparently healthy insectivorous bats in Hong Kong during a one year period. Results showed high genetic diversity of viruses within a single habitat. And that, the researchers said, suggests some of the bat astroviruses might be genetically linked with human astroviruses and further studies are warranted.

“These findings are likely to provide new insights into the ecology and evolution of astroviruses and reinforce the role of bats as a reservoir of viruses with potential to pose a zoonotic threat to human health,” said the scientists.

The findings are reported in the September issue of the Journal of Virology

Copyright 2008 by United Press International
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I love magoes!! During my first vacation in the Philippines, my wife made so-called mango float and I love it very much..here is the very good info about Mango!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mango

Mangoes belong to the genus Mangifera, consisting of numerous species of tropical fruiting trees in the flowering plant family Anacardiaceae. The mango is indigenous to the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia.^[1] Cultivated in many tropical regions and distributed widely in the world, mango is one of the most extensively exploited fruits for food, juice, flavor, fragrance and color, making it a common ingredient in new functional foods often called superfruits. Its leaves are ritually used as floral decorations at weddings and religious ceremonies.

Nutrient and antioxidant properties

Mango is rich in a variety of phytochemicals and nutrients that qualify it as a model “superfruit“, a term used to highlight potential health value of certain edible fruits. The fruit is high in prebiotic dietary fiber, vitamin C, polyphenols and carotenoids.

Mango contains essential vitamins and dietary minerals. The antioxidant vitamins A, C and E comprise 25%, 76% and 9% of the Dietary Reference Intake (DRI) in a 165 g serving. Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine, 11% DRI), vitamin K (9% DRI), other B vitamins and essential nutrients such as potassium, copper and 17 amino acids are at good levels. Mango peel and pulp contain other phytonutrients, such as the pigment antioxidants – carotenoids and polyphenols – and omega-3 and -6 polyunsaturated fatty acids.

The edible mango peel has considerable value as a source of dietary fiber and antioxidant pigments. Contained within the peel and pulp are rich contents of polysaccharides as fiber sources, especially starch and pectins.

Antioxidants of the peel and pulp include carotenoids, such as the provitamin A compound, beta-carotene, lutein and alpha-carotene, polyphenols such as quercetin, kaempferol, gallic acid, caffeic acid, catechins, tannins, and the unique mango xanthone, mangiferin, any of which may counteract free radicals in various disease mechanisms as revealed in preliminary research. Contents of these phytochemicals and nutrients appear to vary across different mango species. Up to 25 different carotenoids have been isolated from mango pulp, the densest content for which was beta-carotene accounting for the yellow-orange pigmentation of most mango species. Peel and leaves also have significant content of polyphenols, including xanthones, mangiferin and gallic acid.

The mango triterpene, lupeol is an effective inhibitor in laboratory models of prostate and skin cancers. An extract of mango branch bark called Vimang, isolated by Cuban scientists, contains numerous polyphenols with antioxidant properties in vitro and on blood parameters of elderly humans.

The pigment euxanthin, known as Indian yellow, is often thought to be produced from the urine of cows fed mango leaves; the practice is described as having been outlawed in 1908 due to malnutrition of the cows and possible urushiol poisoning. One author claims these descriptions of the pigment’s origin rely on a single anecdotal source and Indian legal records do not mention such a practice being outlawed.

Some good infos especially for women!!

Weak bladders keep women from sports
Copyright 2008 by United Press International
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VARESE, Italy (UPI) — A weak bladder is keeping many young women from participating in sports or prompting some to give up sports, Italian researchers suggest.

The researchers asked 679 Italian women whether they had ever had urinary stress incontinence. All had regular periods and took part in non-competitive sports.

The anonymous responses showed that around 15 percent said they suffered from the condition — on average for six years.

Being overweight and having had children boosted the risk of urinary stress incontinence, the researchers said.

The prevalence of urinary stress incontinence — defined as an involuntary leakage of urine — is relatively high among women, with some research putting the figure as high as 46 percent.

Of those affected, almost half said the condition occurred during routine activities, while one-third said it occurred solely during sporting activities. The riskiest sports for women, in descending order of magnitude, were basketball, athletics and tennis or squash.

The study is published online ahead of print in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

I am just sharing this photo which I took in one of the Metzgerei or Meat shop in Trier, Germany during our visit there last January 2008…wanna buy German sausages!!

Another important medical study I am sharing to you.

Gastrointestinal bleeding test created
Copyright 2008 by United Press International
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ROME (UPI) — Italian medical scientists say they’ve developed a clinical scoring system to indicate when urgent treatment of upper gastrointestinal bleeding is indicated.

It’s currently accepted that an urgent endoscopy for gastrointestinal bleeding patients should be performed within 24 hours from admission to a hospital. But it remains unclear whether the procedure should be performed within two hours or in a more delayed interval.

With the goal of refining timing for urgent endoscopy in gastrointestinal bleeding patients, a research team led by Professor Leonardo Tammaro at San Giovanni Addolorata Hospital in Rome developed a clinical scoring procedure to suggest when urgent endoscopy is necessary. When classifying 436 patients according to the scoring procedure, active bleeding or signs of recent hemorrhage was detected in 85 percent of the most severe patients and only in 5 percent or fewer patients suffering less severe bleeding.

The researchers said their findings show timing of urgent endoscopy following a gastrointestinal bleeding episode can differentiated according to a simple score that reflects the clinical conditions of the patients.

The research appeared in the Aug. 28 issue of the World Journal of Gastroenterology.

I am sharing this medical news to all of you only for your general information.

Kidney disease gene variants found
Copyright 2008 by United Press International
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BETHESDA, Md. (UPI) — U.S. medical scientists say they have discovered gene variants that account for kidney diseases among African-Americans.

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health and Johns Hopkins University said they have, for the first time, identified variations in a single gene that are strongly associated with kidney diseases disproportionately affecting blacks.

“These two breakthrough genomic studies on kidney disease illustrate the importance of collaborations between scientists at NIH and NIH-funded investigators at Johns Hopkins,” said Dr. Elias Zerhouni, the institutes’ director. “This type of government-academic collaboration moves translational research forward and provides the knowledge base for developing new therapies for these chronic health disorders.”

Using a type of genome association that relies on differences in the frequency of gene variants between populations, the researchers identified several variations in the MYH9 gene as major contributors to excess risk of kidney disease among African-Americans. The NIH researchers shared their discovery with the Johns Hopkins scientists, who replicated the findings in participants from earlier studies of kidney disease.

The studies will appear in the October print issue of the journal Nature Genetics and are now available online at the journal’s Web site.

photo by Eurostar

I cooked this last time…sorry I don’t have time to write the menu..hopefully next time!!

any reaction, suggestion or comment with this news!! it’s up to you!!

Breastfeeding women picket store
Copyright 2008 by United Press International

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (UPI) — A Canadian clothing store in Vancouver was picketed by at least 60 breastfeeding women after a new mother was chastised for feeding her infant.

The protest Thursday followed an incident Tuesday in which Manuela Valle was told by store staff to go into the changing room to feed her 2-month-old daughter, The Province newspaper in Vancouver reported.

As women breastfed in the store sitting cross-legged on the floor, others marched outside with placards, the report said. Some of the women told the newspaper they’re annoyed that companies can display ads showing near-naked women, yet mothers are vilified for discretely feeding their infants in public.

A spokeswoman for the H&M clothing stores’ headquarters in Toronto told the newspaper the staff had acted in error on Tuesday, and a retraining program on policy was being scheduled.