There are lots of interesting snippets about our health which I have uncovered to start off 2011. Today, I am going to include as many as I can and hopefully some, if not all, of them will be of interest to you.

Many people say that despite walking regularly they don’t see any changes. However, walking has a directly positive effect on our brain and mental capacities, say researchers from the University of Pittsburgh when they assessed the walking habits of 299 healthy volunteers over a four-year period.

At the end of the four-year trial, 40 per cent of the volunteers had developed cognitive impairment or dementia, but those who walked the most had cut their risk in half.

Those who walked roughly six to nine miles each week had bigger brains compared with those who didn’t walk as much. They had better memory capacity by the time they reached retirement age (Neurology, 2010).

High blood pressure is a common ailment in these days of stress and anxiety. Researchers have discovered that eating watermelon is just as good as taking a statin to lower blood pressure. The fruit is a rich source of L-citrulline, which regulates normal blood pressure. In the body, it is converted to L-arginine.

In a small study, blood pressure was normalised after supplementing with watermelon (in the form of L-citrulline/L-arginine at 2.7g/1.3g per day) for six weeks (Am. J. Hypertens., 2010).

Drug companies have managed for nearly a decade to downplay the breast cancer risks of their hormone replacement therapy (HRT) drugs just to keep their sales up. Finally their lies and spin have been exposed.

Nine years ago, the research evidence showed that the drugs caused breast cancer but the drug companies countered that the cancers were not aggressive and were easily treatable. Now the same researchers have discovered that their earlier claims are not true; HRT causes advanced and life-threatening breast cancer.

Researchers working with the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), who were the first to raise the alarm about HRT’s risks nine years ago, have recently published their latest findings. After tracking the health of over 16,000 postmenopausal women for nearly eight years, the scientists found that the combined oestrogen plus progestin HRT drugs dramatically increased breast cancer risk. Contrary to the drug companies claims, the cancers were aggressive and doubled the numbers who died because of the disease compared with those not taking HRT (JAMA, 2010).

Some herbal supplements are as effective as prescription drugs for treating anxiety, and without the side-effects, scientists have found. Extracts of passion flower (Passiflora incarnate), kava-kava (Piper methysticum), and combinations of L-lysine and L-arginine are effective treatments for anxiety disorders and any side-effects that do arise are mild.

Researchers at the Global Neuro-science Initiative Foundation in Los Angeles analysed the results of 21 medical trials, involving a total of more than 2,000 participants. Fifteen of the studies showed positive results in the participants who were using these supplements and herbal remedies. (Nutr. J., 2010).

What is in a chicken nugget? Only about half of it is chicken, the remainder are taste enhancers and preservatives such as antifoaming agent and a chemical that is used in lighter fuel. Even the chicken parts come from pulverised chicken skin and mechanically reclaimed meat, says the consumer action group Organic Authority (www.organicauthority.com).

The group dissected a well-known chicken nugget and discovered that its ingredients include dimethyl- polysiloxane, a silicone-based antifoaming agent use in Silly Putty and TBHQ (Tertiary butylhydroquinone), a form of butane gas found in lighter fuel.

Of course, the recipe is no worse than those of most fast food and processed manufacturers who also use the same preservatives and enhancers.

A yoga programme of gentle poses, meditation and breathing exercises can reduce the worst symptoms of fibromyalgia (chronic widespread muscle and joint pain) it has been found. A team from the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland divided 53 fibromyalgia sufferers into those who either took part in an eight-week yoga programme or continued with the usual therapy of medication and exercise.

At the end of the study, the yoga group was markedly improved in stiffness, poor sleep, poor memory, anxiety and balance. In particular, pain was reduced by 24 per cent, fatigue by 30 per cent and depression by 42 per cent (Pain, 2010).

Watercress can stop breast cancer from growing and spreading. Researchers have identified a compound in watercress that can suppress the growth of breast cancer cells by turning off a signal in the body. When that happens, the flow of essential blood and oxygen to the growing tumour is stemmed and the cancer cells stop developing.

The scientists from the University of Southampton in the UK discovered this cancer-fighting ability of watercress when they gave a group of cancer survivors a bowl each and monitored them over the following 24 hours.

Not surprisingly, they found extremely high levels of watercress plant’s compound in the participant’s blood samples afterwards. This dietary compound released when chewing watercress, affects the proteins that help to nourish cancer cells.

Research team leader Graham Packham commented, “The research… shows that eating watercress may interfere with a pathway that has already been tightly linked to cancer development” (University of Southampton press conference, September 2010).

kathryn@maltanet.net