I am constantly amazed at the plethora of drinks at my local Safeway. There is a whole refrigerated wall next to the deli and another refrigerated section next to the beer…and then there is the actual beverage section itself with 4-packs, 6-packs, 12-packs, 24-packs, quarts, liters, etc. There are teas, coffee-based drinks, sodas, mixers, sports drinks, as well as the newer “functional” beverages. And I’m not even talking about the juice aisle—that’s a whole other post.
Hard to keep up with all the types, brands and flavors, but recent industry award …

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have identified the molecular mechanism that makes omega-3 fatty acids so effective in reducing chronic inflammation and insulin resistance.
The discovery could lead to development of a simple dietary remedy for many of the more than 23 million Americans suffering from diabetes and other conditions.
Writing in the advance online edition of the September 3 issue of the journal Cell, Jerrold Olefsky, MD, and colleagues identified a key receptor on macrophages abundantly found in obese body fat. Obesity and diabetes are …

A chemical analysis of the bones of ancient Nubians shows that they were regularly consuming tetracycline, most likely in their beer. The finding is the strongest evidence yet that the art of making antibiotics, which officially dates to the discovery of penicillin in 1928, was common practice nearly 2,000 years ago.
The research, led by Emory anthropologist George Armelagos and medicinal chemist Mark Nelson of Paratek Pharmaceuticals, Inc., is published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.
“We tend to associate drugs that cure diseases with modern medicine,” Armelagos says. “But it’s …

Approximately one out of every seven household kitchens in America would fail a restaurant-style health inspection, according to a study that appears in the September 3 edition of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).
The California study, which was launched by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (LACDPH) in spring 2006, involved the use of an online self-assessment questionnaire that was completed by approximately 13,000 adults over a two-year span.
The quiz featured a total of 57 questions regarding food safety and proper preparation techniques, and included questions about flies …

A report said Thursday that over 49 million people in the U.S. do not have regular access to nutritious meals, putting them at risk for a raft of physical, psychological and social problems.
The report published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association says that about 15 percent of households in the U.S. experienced food insecurity sometime during 2008.
The report warned that the number of Americans who have trouble getting a nutritious meal is likely to rise.
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Over a third of 17.3 million food-insecure people in …

Effective and safe weight loss pills may be considered the holy grail of the pharmaceutical industry. It has been difficult to even get such a drug through the rigorous trials required by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and even then most are shot down due to side effects being above and beyond what it considered acceptable. Most recently, the FDA shot down the promising Qnexa in July citing concerns over side effects.
One weight loss drug that remains on the market is Meridia by Abbott Laboratories, however repeated studies have …

Women who have gene mutations that increase the risk of breast and ovarian cancer can substantially reduce their chances of developing—and dying from—those cancers if they have their breasts or ovaries removed preemptively, according to a new study.
The study, which appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association, confirms that preventive mastectomy and ovary removal can slash the risk of cancer in women carrying the BRCA-1 or BRCA-2 gene mutations, and it suggests that surgery is more effective than rigorous screening at preventing future cancer.
Researchers at 22 cancer centers …

People with chronic pain  who aren’t getting enough relief from medications may be able to ease their pain by smoking small amounts of marijuana, a new study suggests.
Marijuana also helps pain patients fall asleep more easily and sleep more soundly, according to the report, one of the first real-world studies to look at the medicinal use of smoked marijuana. Most previous research has used extracts of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient in the cannabis plant.
“This is the first time anyone has done a trial of smoked cannabis on an outpatient …

A study of more than 1,100 participants aged 65 and older, none of whom had dementia when the research began, finds that people who regularly engage in mentally stimulating activities such as reading, doing puzzles, and going to museums  may stave off the onset of dementia longer than people who don’t. This has been shown in several other studies in the past.
But here’s the flip side: Those who are cognitively active also decline more rapidly when they do develop symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, the new study in the journal Neurology …

Humans’ immune systems are not as different from person to person as previously thought, according to scientists at the Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center reported Wednesday. The findings, the researchers say, could help pave the way for new drugs or immunotherapies to treat disease and infection in a host of patients, including organ transplant and skin graft recipients.
The crux of the research is the realization that of the tens of millions of T cell receptors that make up what’s known as the adaptive immune system, a small fraction of them …