There are many updates in health and lifestyle news; here are a few, from which I hope you will find something of interest for you and your family.

Two of the casualties from the European attack on vitamins and supplements were the Chinese and Indian Ayurvedic medicines.

However, three recent studies confirmed that they can help treat cancer and ease a lung condition.

In addition, it was also found that they may well hold the answer to antibiotic resistant superbugs.

Unfortunately, the studies were published three weeks after the EU’s Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive came into force last April – after which all Chinese and Ayurvedic products were removed from the shelves along with a selection of other vitamins and supplements.

The first study discovered that the Indian spice, curcumin, can help in the treatment of head and neck cancers.

The spice stops the cells’ resistance to chemotherapy.

In the study, oncologists were able to reduce the dose of the chemotherapy drug by a factor of four and still obtain a positive outcome, after the patient had been given the spice.

In the second study, a traditional Chinese medicine herbal paste (known as Xiao Chuan) proved to help ease the worst symptoms of the lung condition Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease during the winter.

Ironically, this paste has been used to ease breathing difficulties in China for more than a thousand years – despite this, the European directive has withdrawn it from sale because there are no double blind studies to confirm its safety.

In the third study, several herbal remedies from the Indian Ayurvedic tradition have been found to act as an effective antibiotic against infections following chemotherapy, after the immune system has been impaired.

One of the most common complications of pregnancy could arise from drinking too many sugary cola-type drinks. Gestational diabetes mellitus may be triggered by drinking five or more cola drinks per week, while pregnant.

It was found that women who consume this amount are 22 per cent more likely to develop the complication compared with those who only drank cola less than once a month.

Researchers made the discovery when they analysed the health profiles of 13,475 women who are continuing to be followed up in the Nurses’ Health Study II.

The complication increases the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes after pregnancy.

In addition, the children of those suffering from this condition are more likely to be obese, glucose intolerant and to suffer from early onset diabetes.

Macular degeneration is one of the most common causes of eyesight loss, but you can reduce your chances of getting it (and maybe even reverse it) by eating a diet high in Vitamin D.

In a study of identical twins, researchers discovered that smokers were far more likely to develop macular degeneration, while those who ate vitamin D-rich foods, such as oily fish (salmon, tuna, mackerel, sardines) and milk, ran a far lower risk.

The research team, from Tufts Medical Centre in Boston, Massachusetts, found that the nutrients betaine and methionine also helped reduce the risk. Betaine is found in fish, grains and spinach, while methionine can be obtained from poultry, fish and dairy.

Many over-65s are targeted for a drug to lower their blood pressure. However, researchers have discovered that it falls naturally as we age.

This suggests that drugs could combine with the natural ageing process to produce abnormally low blood pressure which can result in dizzy spells and even fainting in older people.

Doctors have assumed that blood pressure rises with age and therefore prescribe antihypertensive drugs as a ‘just in case’ measure.

However, researchers at University College, London, have discovered that systolic blood pressure (this is the first number in the reading) rises during four phases of our lives.

It rises up to about the age of 50 and then falls.

During our lifecycle, blood pressure rises when we are adolescents, and again when we are young adults, which is followed by an acceleration in our 40s and finally in our late 50s before declining naturally.

A quote from an excellent book about marketing by Seth Godin tells how pharmaceutical companies spent more on marketing in 2003 than they did on the research and development of drugs. A good example of this is regarding the anti-epilepsy drug Neurontin.

The so-called safety study was in fact a ‘seeding trial’ (marketing dressed up as science).

The practice is unethical, say reviewers, because it misleads doctors into thinking that it is a properly conducted trial with outcomes they can trust.

The ‘scientists’ behind the study were, in fact, the drug’s marketing department, who viewed the whole exercise as a way of drumming up sales.

kathryn@maltanet.net