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Research Archive

Welcome to our Chinese medicine and acupuncture research news pages. We add to the content of these pages continuously as more research news comes in. Browse through the complete archive below or use the category links on the right.

Please note that the most twenty recent research archive items are free to view but access to the thousands of items in the archive require a journal subscription.

Dash for heart health

Categories: Diet research, Hypertension

Adherence to the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet is associated with a lower risk of coronary heart disease and stroke among middle-aged women. Researchers followed the food choices and health status of more than 88,000 American women for almost 25 years. Those with those eating habits were closest to the DASH diet, which recommends fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat milk ...

Plant foods preserve muscle mass

Categories: Diet research

Western diets rich in protein, cereal grains and other acid-producing foods lead to the development of metabolic acidosis with age, triggering muscle wastage. American researchers looked at links between lean body mass and dietary intake of potassium-rich, alkaline-residue producing fruits and vegetables, which help neutralise acidosis. Analysis of data from nearly 400 male and female volunteers a ...

Flavonoids protect smokers against cancer

Categories: Diet research

A case-control study of 558 lung cancer cases has found that lung cancer is inversely associated with the consumption of antioxidant plant flavonoids among tobacco smokers, but not among non-smokers. In addition, consumption of vegetables, tea, and wine, all of which are rich sources of flavonoids, was associated inversely with lung cancer among tobacco smokers. (Dietary flavonoid intake and lung ...

Sweet drinks linked to gout

Categories: Diet research

Consumption of sugar sweetened soft drinks and fructose is strongly associated with an increased risk of gout in men. In a study of Canadian health professionals, 46,393 men with no history of gout at baseline provided information on intake of soft drinks and fructose through food frequency questionnaires. During the 12 years of follow-up, 755 cases of gout were reported. Increasing intake of suga ...

Oats for cholesterol reduction

Categories: Diet research

A review of recent research strongly supports the link between eating oatmeal and lowering cholesterol levels. The authors report that studies conducted during the past 15 years have, without exception, shown that consumption of oats and oat-based products significantly reduces total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL, the "bad" cholesterol) concentrations without a ...

Steam your greens

Categories: Diet research

Some cooking methods can preserve, and even boost, the nutrient content of vegetables. Italian scientists evaluated the effects of three commonly used cooking methods - boiling, steaming, and frying - on the nutrient content of carrots, courgettes and broccoli. Water-cooking treatments maintained the antioxidant content of the vegetables, while frying caused a significantly higher loss of antioxid ...

Mediterranean diet and regular exercise prevent death

Categories: Diet research

Eating a Mediterranean diet reduces the risk of death from all causes, including cardiovascular disease and cancer. Researchers assessed conformity with the Mediterranean diet in 380,296 of the participants of the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study, with no history of chronic disease. Components of the diet included vegetables, legumes, fruits, nuts, whole grains, fish, alcohol and meat, and a high ra ...

High meat intake linked to cancer

Categories: Diet research

Data from a very large US health study are providing convincing information on the links between various diet and lifestyle factors and a variety of diseases. Researchers used data from a cohort study, which began in 1995 (the National Institutes of Health-American Association for Retired Persons (NIH-AARP) Diet and Health Study) and involves approximately 500,000 men and women aged 50-71 at basel ...

Honey better than drugs for kids night-time coughs

Categories: Diet research

Honey is more effective at soothing children's night-time coughs than over-the-counter antitussive medication. An American study of 105 children aged 2-18 years compared the effects of a single nocturnal dose of buckwheat honey or honey-flavoured dextromethorphan (DXM) with no treatment, on nocturnal cough and sleep difficulty associated with childhood upper respiratory tract infections. Significa ...

Obesity linked with cancer risk

Categories: Diet research

Being overweight increases the risk of developing many forms of cancer. A meta-analysis by UK researchers combined data from 221 studies, including over 250,000 cases of cancer, to determine the risk of cancer associated with a 5kg/m2 increase in body mass index (BMI). The researchers found that in men, a 5kg/m2 increase in BMI raised the risk of oesophageal adenocarcinoma by 52%, thyroid cancer b ...

Eat three meals a day

Categories: Diet research

Eating regular meals is better for health than eating one large meal a day. In a crossover study carried out in the USA, a small group of volunteers participated in two eight-week meal-treatment periods, consuming either all their required weight-maintenance calories in one meal or in three meals a day. At the end of the eight-week study period, the groups swapped over, therefore acting as their o ...

Vitamin D protects against heart disease and cancer

Categories: Diet research

Vitamin D deficiency is already known to be associated with osteoporosis, now two new studies suggest that it may also be associated with heart disease and poorer prognosis for some cancers. A US cohort study of 1739 people with no cardiovascular disease at baseline, showed that those with low blood concentrations of vitamin D had twice the risk of a first cardiovascular event, such as a heart att ...

Caffeine and miscarriage

Categories: Diet research

Too much caffeine during pregnancy may double the risk of miscarriage. In an American cohort study, 1,063 pregnant women were interviewed about their caffeine intake. An increasing dose of daily caffeine during pregnancy was associated with an increased risk of miscarriage, compared with no caffeine intake. Of 264 women who had consumed no caffeine, 12.5% had miscarriages. The miscarriage rate was ...

Categories: Diet research, Allergies

Another mother and child study, this time from the Spanish island of Menorca, supports a potential protective effect of

Apples and fish during pregnancy protect against atopy

Categories: Diet research, Allergies

Intake of apples and fish by women during pregnancy may reduce the risk of their children developing atopic conditions, according to the results of a longitudinal cohort study of nearly 2000 Dutch children. Mothers completed a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) during pregnancy, and children in the cohort were followed up at five years of age with a symptom questionnaire and FFQ. Food groups analy ...

Diet improves fertility

Categories: Diet research

Following a 'fertility diet' may favourably influence fertility in otherwise healthy women. A cohort of 17,544 American women, without a history of infertility, were followed for eight years as they tried to become pregnant. Researchers calculated a dietary score of one to five points for each woman, based on factors previously associated with reduced ovulatory infertility (higher consumption of m ...

Echinacea prevents and treats colds

Categories: Diet research

A new meta-analysis suggests that taking Echinacea can cut the chances of catching the common cold by 58% and reduce its duration by 1.4 days. American researchers combined the results of 14 randomised, placebo-controlled clinical trials involving nearly 3000 patients, making it the largest meta-analysis on the subject to date. The research backs up a previous study that found Echinacea to be an e ...

Fast for a healthy heart

Categories: Diet research, Geriatric

New research suggests that Mormons' habit of fasting for one day a month may benefit their hearts. A study in Utah, where the religion is based, surveyed 515 elderly people undergoing coronary angiography for suspected heart disease about their lifestyle. Those who fasted were 39% more likely than non-fasters to have a healthy heart. About 8% of those surveyed were not Mormons, and those who regul ...

Food restriction increases rats pleasure

Categories: Diet research

A brain-imaging study of genetically obese rats has added to existing evidence that dopamine, the neurotransmitter associated with reward, pleasure, movement and motivation, plays a role in obesity. Investigators found that obese rats had lower levels of dopamine receptors than lean rats. They also demonstrated that restricting food intake can increase the number of dopamine receptors, which can a ...

Eat less, stay fit

Categories: Diet research

Caloric restriction has previously been shown to extend lifespan in animal models. New research shows that it can also maintain physical fitness into old age. A study on rats that had been maintained on a severely calorically restricted diet since birth showed that they had significantly higher physical performance scores at ages comparable to 50-70 years in humans, than animals fed a normal diet. ...