Longevity is a curious and important point. Does one want to live to old age. Does one want to die old and alert or become time expired and senile and old.This question has been highlighted by two reportsOne by the WHO who showed that in two districts of Glasgow that the expectation of live differed…
Read moreThe wonders of the Beijing Olympics are now behind usThe implications for nutrition of the activities of these extraordinary people are immense.Two asidesThe great swimmer Phelps eats 12000 calories a day. This energy intake is presumably monitored by a nutrition team. What happens when he rests from swimming or retires? I hope that he is…
Read moreThis is such an intriguing paper. Many lay people believe that there is a relationship between stress and the development of cancer. The tumour suppressor p53 is activated following stress and initiates a heterogeneous response in a cell-, tissue- and stress-dependent manner. This heterogeneity is reflected in the different physiological outcomes that follow p53 activation.…
Read moreSeale et al , Tseng et al and Cannon and Nedergaard write in three articles of brown and white fat This is not a popular topic and these authors bring new insights to this most important field.They describe a revised model of the origins of fat cells. White fat cells accumulate energy from food within…
Read moreIn the Lancet of August 23rd 2008 there is an fascinating debate on a report from 2006 also in the Lancet ( Lancet 2006 vol 368 p 704 . In the original case report the death of a neonate was attributed to the mother taking codeine . The mother was an ultra rapid converter of…
Read moreUCP2 mediates ghrelin’s action on NPY/ AgRP neurons by lowering free radicals Zane B. Andrews et al 2008 Nature vol 454 pp 846-851The gut-derived hormone ghrelin acts on the brain by regulating neuronal activityGhrelin is a hormone with widespread activity. This paper links its activity with appetite control in a complex action involving fatty acids…
Read moreThis paper in Nature 2008, vol 454 7th August p 711-2 is an easy read account of epigenomics, the physiology of molecular biologyEpigenomes, is all the epigenetic marks in a given cell type. Epigenetic processes are essential for packaging and interpreting the genome, are fundamental to normal develop¬ment and are increasingly recognized as being involved…
Read moreWhere I live in Scotland obesity is a real problem. It is so sad to see young women waddling along with considerable difficulty. What is odd to me is that the old fashioned fat woman was equally fat all over, this new epidemic seems to concentrate the fat around the bottom, and result in a…
Read moreThere is a good review of methods of evaluating the status of trace elements in the body for Nutrition Ed Fairweather-Tait and HarveyMicronutrients status methods Proceedings of the EURRECA Workshop and working party on new approaches for measuring micronutrient status. BJN vol 99 Supplement 3 pp S1-80 Biomarkers of copper status: a brief updateHarvey and…
Read moreGary Williamson * and Birgit HoistDietary reference intake (DRI) value for dietary poly phenols: are we heading in the right direction?Polyphenols are widely distributed in plant foods, and have been linked to improved human health through reduced risk of chronic diseases, especially cardiovascular. Although they do not cause classical deficiencies, recently they have been discussed…
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