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Monday, March 16, 2009
A reduction in salt consumption by people may help decrease the incidences of death, say researchers.
Making a presentation at the American Heart Association's 49th Annual Conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention, University of California-San Francisco researchers said that for every gram of salt that people reduce in their diets daily, a quarter of a million fewer new heart disease cases and over 200,000 fewer deaths would occur over a decade.
The researchers revealed that the results were derived from a validated computer-simulation of heart disease among U.S. adults.
"A very modest decrease in the amount of salt -- hardly detectable in the taste of food -- can have dramatic health benefits for the US. It was a surprise to see the magnitude of the impact on the population, given the very small reductions in salt that we were modelling," said Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, lead author of the study and an assistant professor of Medicine and of Epidemiology at the university.
The researchers say that a 3-gram-a-day reduction in salt intake could result in six percent fewer cases of new heart disease, eight percent fewer heart attacks, and three percent fewer deaths.
They said that African Americans, who are more likely to have high blood pressure and whose blood pressure may be more sensitive to salt, could derive even more health benefits.
They reckoned that among African Americans, new heart disease cases could be reduced by 10 percent, heart attacks by 13 percent, and deaths by six percent.
"It's clear that we need to lower salt intake, but individuals find it hard to make substantial cuts because most salt comes from processed foods, not from the salt shaker," Bibbins-Domingo said.
"Our study suggests that the food industry and those who regulate it could contribute substantially to the health of the nation by achieving even small reductions in the amount of salt in these processed foods," the researcher added.
Because the majority of salt in the diet comes from prepared and packaged foods, the results of the study reveal the need for regulatory changes or voluntary actions by the food industry to make achievable changes in heart health, Bibbins-Domingo said.
The researchers say that they will next try to assess the cost-effectiveness of various interventions already being used to reduce salt consumption in other countries, including industry collaborations, regulations and labelling changes.
source:http://tinyurl.com/heal01
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Friday, March 13, 2009
WASHINGTON: A new study has found that kids living in greener neighbourhoods are more active. Researchers from Universite de Montreal, Canada
have shown that the presence of nearby parks was strongly associated with girls walking to school and boys engaging in leisure walking.
For every additional park located within a half mile of their home, researchers found, the likelihood of walking to school more than doubled among girls and leisure walking by boys increased by 60%. "There was a strong association between walking and the number of nearby public open recreational spaces, including neighborhood parks, playgrounds and sports fields," said Tracie A Barnett, PhD, lead author of the study and a researcher at Sainte-Justine Hospital Research Center and Université de Montréal in Montreal, Canada.
"We were able to relate the proximity and number of parks to how often children aged 8-10 years walked. This is important because active transportation is a promising public health strategy for increasing overall physical activity, and for helping to curb the obesity epidemic. "We know that walking to school has been decreasing steadily for the past 30 years; concurrent increases in overweight and obesity suggest that these two phenomena may be linked," she added.
For the analysis, the researchers looked at 600 kids enrolled into the Quebec Adipose and Lifestyle Investigation in Youth (QUALITY) study. Researchers examined the relationship between park availability and proximity, and walking. All the children were considered at high risk for future obesity because at least one of their parents was obese.
"Obesity in children and adolescents has tripled in the past 20 or so years," Barnett said. "Although obesity has many causes, this relatively sudden and steep increase suggests that the drivers of the obesity epidemic are largely environmental rather than biological or genetic in nature.
"Parks may benefit girls and boys differently, but are associated with increased overall walking for both."In the past few decades we have become more sedentary due to the increased use of labor-saving devices, motorized transportation, television and computers. "In addition, children are spending more time inside, yet we know that spending time outdoors is an important determinant of activity," she added.
source: http://tinyurl.com/bhyvd9
Friday, March 13, 2009
WASHINGTON: Forget forcing yourself into gruelling exercise regime to shed those extra pounds, for a diet rich in calcium is more than enough to
spur weight loss, say researchers. A research team led by Angelo Tremblay from Universite Laval's Faculty of Medicine boosting calcium intake can aid in losing weight, but only in people whose diets are calcium deficient.
During the study, the team conducted a 15-week weight loss program on obese women. The participants consumed on average less than 600 mg of calcium per day, whereas recommended daily intake is 1000 mg. In addition to following a low calorie diet, the women were instructed to take two tablets a day containing either a total of 1200 mg of calcium or a placebo.
The researchers found that those who took the calcium tablets lost nearly 6 kg over the course of the program, compared to 1 kg for women in the control group. "Our hypothesis is that the brain can detect the lack of calcium and seeks to compensate by spurring food intake, which obviously works against the goals of any weight loss program," said Tremblay, holder of the Canada Research Chair in Environment and Energy Balance.
"Sufficient calcium intake seems to stifle the desire to eat more," he added. Therefore, it is important to consume sufficient calcium to ensure the success of any weight loss program. In previous studies Tremblay has shown that women who consumed diets poor in calcium had more body fat, bigger waistlines, and higher bad cholesterol levels than those who consumed moderate or large amounts of calcium.
In another study, researchers showed that the more people reduced their consumption of dairy products over the six-year period examined, the more weight and body fat they gained and the bigger their waistlines grew.
source: http://tinyurl.com/bdbpbb
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Member Comments About This Blog Post:
for sharingsuch a nice info
