Olive Oil

This oil is a potent anti-coagulant food. It retards the stickiness of blood platelets, which may account for its artery protecting powers. This is evident from a research study conducted by British Scientists at the Royal Free Hospital and School of Medicine in London. These researchers made volunteers take three quarters of a tablespoon of Olive Oil twice a day for eight weeks in addition to their regular diet. Their platelet clumping was considerably reduced. The scientists found that platelet membranes contained more oleic acid, the dominant fatty acid in olive oil, and less arachidonic fatty acid that encourages stickiness.

The olive-oil-fed blood platelets also released less thromboxane A2, a substance that commands platelets to cling together. Researchers concluded that olive oil benefits platelet function. They believed that this is one more explanation as to the people that depend heavily on olive oil, as in the Mediterranean ares have less heart disease.

Veggies may help protect men from colon cancer

Eating a moderate amount of vegetables, particularly green leafy vegetables, seems to lower a man's risk of developing colorectal cancer, researchers found.

"Our results suggest that regular consumption of fruit and vegetables protects against colorectal cancer," study chief Dr. Yikyung Park of the National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland, told Reuters Health.

"Considering other health benefits of fruit and vegetables, people are encouraged to consume more fruit and vegetables," Park added.

Fruits and vegetables, which are packed with potentially cancer-fighting compounds like vitamin C, carotenoids, folate, fiber, and flavonoids, have been hypothesized to reduce the risk of colorectal cancer, but hard data for humans are lacking.

Park and colleagues looked at associations between fruit and vegetable consumption and risk of colorectal cancer in 488,043 men and women aged 50 to 71 years in the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study. Over the course of 5 years, 2,972 developed colorectal cancer.

Results showed that men who consumed very low amounts of fruit and vegetables (less than 1 serving per day) had 26-percent greater risk of having colorectal cancer than those who consumed low to high amounts (2 or more servings per day).

Men who ate the most servings of vegetables daily had an 18 percent lower risk of developing colorectal cancer compared with men who ate the fewest servings, they report in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

Women with the highest daily servings of vegetables appeared to have a slightly increased risk of colorectal cancer, compared with women reporting the lowest daily servings of vegetables.

But the authors caution that this gender difference may be explained by reporting errors, noting that in past studies women have over reported foods perceived as healthy.

SOURCE: American Journal of Epidemiology

Gene therapy patient dies.

The government has suspended a Seattle company's gene therapy study -- and is reviewing the safety of 28 others around the country -- after learning that a patient died this week.

The Food and Drug Administration didn't reveal the cause of death or any details about the patient, who had enrolled in a study of gene therapy for advanced arthritis. The agency said it was investigating what role, if any, therapy played in the death, which occurred Tuesday.

It marks the third blow since 1999 to the field of gene therapy, as scientists struggle to determine if the viruses they use to deliver new genes may themselves cause serious trouble.

Twenty-eight other gene therapy studies have been reported to the FDA that used, or are using, the same virus, called adeno-associated virus or AAV.

The FDA said Thursday that it was not aware of any serious side effects in any of those studies but that as a precaution, officials were reviewing all the ones still actively treating patients.

Targeted Genetics Corp. notified the FDA of the patient's illness and subsequent death.

The company had enrolled more than 100 people in the study without similar problems, but this patient became ill after a second injection of the therapy directly into an arthritic joint, the FDA said.

The therapy uses AAV to deliver a gene that in turn blocks tumor necrosis factor, a substance that fuels the joint inflammation behind crippling forms of arthritis. Drugs that block TNF already are widely used to treat rheumatoid arthritis and other conditions, but a gene therapy approach is novel.

"We are deeply saddened by the death of an individual enrolled in our clinical trial," company president H. Stewart Parker said in a statement issued Thursday.

The company didn't immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

In 1999, 18-year-old Jesse Gelsinger died in his fourth day of a gene therapy experiment at the University of Pennsylvania. Gelsinger had suffered from an inherited disorder that blocks the body from properly processing nitrogen. The FDA concluded that the gene therapy injection intended to try to cure him instead killed him.

That gene therapy attempt used a cousin to AAV, called adenovirus, to deliver the needed gene.

The only disease ever to be cured with gene therapy is "bubble boy disease," an immune disorder formally called severe combined immunodeficiency, or SCID. But gene therapy attempts are restricted to SCID patients who have no alternative, after doctors in 2003 discovered a few babies saved by gene therapy went on to develop cancer -- again, linked to the virus used to deliver the genes.

Reflecting how seriously regulators take this latest death, the National Institutes of Health's advisory committee on gene therapy will meet in September to discuss its potential scientific implications

Dill

Dill is a green leafy vegetable and a culinary herb. It was known to the ancient Greeks and Romans. Dill leaves are stimulant. They are a soothing medicine and help improve the functioning of the stomach.

Dill possesses antiviral property and helps fight infection. The seeds of this plant are especially effective in infections like colds and influenza. About 60 grams of infusion of the seeds, mixed with honey, should be given thrice daily in treating these disorders.

Chili Pepper

Hot chili pepper is the best mucokinetic food among all hot spicy foods. According to Dr. Ziment, since antiquity, the flavored foods for treating pulmonary and respiratory diseases have been mustard, garlic and hot chili peppers. The active agents in these foods may work by several mechanisms. However, Dr. Ziment believes that they generally activate a flash food of fluids in air passages that thin out mucus, so that it flows more easily.

As the hot stuff hits the mouth, throat and stomach, it touches nerve receptors that send messages to the brain, which in turn, stimulate the vagus nerve controlling secretion-producing glands that line the airways. The glands instantly release waves of fluids that can make the says water and the nose run. Dr. Ziment says that common pharmacological traits of all hot, pungent foods that break up congestion, flushing out sinuses and washing away irritants. He prescribes hot foods for any condition in which secretions in the airways are thicker than normal, including sinusitis, a lump with congestion, asthma, hay fever, emphysema and chronic bronchitis.

Dr. Ziment also advices those who already suffer from chronic bronchitis and emphysema to eat hot food regularly, at least three times a week. He says that his patients who do so breath more eaisly and require less treatment. Further, in surveys, he finds that those who eat more hot spicy cuisine are less likely to develop chronic bronchitis and emphysema, even if they smoke.

Dr. Ziment says, "A lot of drugs for colds and coughs and bronchitis do exactly what chili peppers do, but I believe more in peppers. Peppers don't cause any side effects. I am convinced that 90 percent of all people can tolerate hot food and get a benefit".

Sodas linked to heart diseases

A recent study has relived that people who drink one or more soft drink per day have more than 50% higher risk in developing the heart disease precursor metabolic syndrome than people who drink less than one soda per day.

So whats metabolic syndrome ? It is a constellation of health problems like high waist circumference, high blood pressure, low levels of "good" cholesterol, and other health problems. All these factors have always been strongly linked to heart diseases.

The study, in the American Heart Association journal Circulation, looked at more than 6,000 healthy people, who showed no signs of metabolic syndrome, and then followed up. After four years, 53 percent of people who drank an average of one or more soft drinks per day developed metabolic syndrome. Those who drank one or more diet soft drinks a day were at a 44 percent higher risk.

Watermelon

The watermelon is one of the most delicious and health-building fruits. The pulp of the fruit is sweet, juicy and soft, with a delicate flavour. It is highly valuable on account of the large amount of easily assimilable sugar contained in its juice. This fruit has high concentration of antioxidants and strong antioxidant activity. It is a major food source of antioxidant and anticancer compounds, lycopene and glutathione. It can thus help prevent damage to cells by oxygen-charged molecules. Watermelon also possesses mild antibacterial and anticoagulant activities.