Tea may prevent osteoporosis

www.sciencealert.com.au

New research by Australian scientists has shown that women between 70 and 85 who drink green or black tea have higher bone density in their hips than women who don't drink tea.

Tea drinkers also lost less bone density over a five year period than non tea drinkers.

The study confirmed previous research, which suggested that tea preserves hip structure in elderly women and may protect against osteoporosis, a condition that affects one in two Australian women over 60.

The results were published in the October edition of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

The researchers from the University of Western Australia studied 275 women between the ages of 70 and 85 over five years.

The authors said that more research was needed to uncover exactly how tea drinking affected bone density.

Obese Women Should Not Gain Weight During Pregnancy

www.ivanhoe.com

New research shows obese pregnant women need to stop eating for two. Researchers highlight the need for new guidelines and suggest obese and overweight women should gain very little weight during pregnancy and severely obese women should actually lose weight.

Obesity is a major public health crisis. Researchers from St. Louis University School of Medicine conducted the largest population-based study to look at the effects of weight gain during pregnancy in obese expectant moms. The study analyzed data on more than 120,000 obese pregnant women.

Researchers found limiting weight gain in obese women has many health benefits. Obese women who gain less than 15 pounds during a pregnancy are less likely to develop preeclampsia, less likely to need a cesarean delivery and more likely to have a baby of normal weight. Study authors go on to say that severely obese women should actually lose weight during pregnancy.

Investigators say pregnancy is a big factor in the obesity crisis. Study author Raul Artal, M.D., says, “Weight gain increases in subsequent pregnancies because women accumulate weight with each pregnancy and don’t lose it.” He says it really comes down to mom to control the rest of the family. They write, “This is a multi-generational problem. The behavior modification starts with mom. If mothers are overeating and not exercising, that’s how the rest of the family is likely to behave.”

Funny Diet and Weight Loss Stories

Scientists Advise Pregnant Women to Eat Fish

www.sun-sentinel.com

By Sally Squires

In a major break with current U.S. health advice, a coalition of top scientists from private groups and federal agencies plans to advise pregnant and breast-feeding women to consume at least 12 ounces of fish and seafood per week to ensure optimal brain development of their babies.

That recommendation, which will be announced at a news conference today, essentially is at odds with the standard government advice since 2001 that these groups should eat no more than 12 ounces of seafood a week because of concerns about mercury contamination.

The new advisory comes from the National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition, a nonprofit group with nearly 150 members, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the March of Dimes, the National Institute on Child Health and Human Development, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Concerns over the impact of fish on the brain development of fetuses and infants, the most vulnerable groups, have been one of the more vexing nutritional dilemmas of recent years, causing widespread consumer confusion and fueling much scientific debate.

"It's been an important issue over the last decade or so," said Brown University professor Patricia Nolan, former director of the Rhode Island Department of Health and one of the experts who drafted the new guidelines. "There is a big debate about what is safe. ... There are really complex questions. That is why we are doing this."

Concerns about mercury contamination prompted the Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency to issue warnings in 2001 and 2004. Pregnant and breast-feeding women, those who want to become pregnant and young children were advised to eat no more than 12 ounces weekly of seafood, based on theoretical calculations of the potential for contamination. Exposure of too much methyl mercury has been linked to neurological problems.

The FDA and EPA also recommended that these groups avoid eating shark, tilefish, king mackerel and swordfish because of their high mercury content and limit albacore tuna to no more than six ounces per week.

But recent studies have suggested that the health benefits of fish and seafood outweigh the potential health risks from mercury. Based on that evidence, a number of countries and governmental groups including the United Kingdom, Australia, Belgium, the Netherlands and the Nordic Council of Ministers, already advise that pregnant women eat at least a couple of servings of fish weekly. Fish and seafood are the major dietary sources of omega-3 fatty acids, especially a substance called docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), that are key nutrients for brain and nervous systems in the developing fetus and in babies and young children.

Panic Attacks May Increase Heart Risk

www.cbsnews.com

By Salynn Boyles

More Heart Attacks Seen In Older Women Who Experience Panic Attacks

Older women who experience panic attacks appear to have an increased risk for having heart attacks or heart-related death, new research suggests.

Postmenopausal women in the study who reported at least one full-blown panic attack within six months of being interviewed were four times as likely as other older women to have a heart attack or related death over the next five years.

They were three times as likely to have either a heart attack, heart-related death, or stroke, and nearly twice as likely to die from any cause.

Earlier studies have implicated depression as a risk factor for heart disease, but the new research is the first to suggest a direct link between anxiety-related panic attacks and heart attack and stroke risk.

Harvard Medical School associate professor of psychiatry Jordan W. Smoller, M.D., who led the study team, says more research is needed to confirm the finding.

"There is not a lot of previous evidence suggesting that panic attacks are in themselves dangerous (in terms of heart risk)," he tells WebMD. "Our study does not resolve the question. But it does suggest that older women with a recent history of panic attacks may warrant closer scrutiny for cardiovascular complications."

Panic Attacks and Heart Attacks

The study included 3,369 healthy postmenopausal women participating in the larger ongoing Women's Health Initiative (WHI) trial examining risk factors for heart disease and other health outcomes among older women.

When they entered the study between 1997 and 2000, the women, whose average age was 66, were asked if they had recently experienced a panic attack. They were then followed for an average of 5.3 years.

At enrollment, one out of 10 women reported having had a full-blown panic attack within six months.

After adjusting for the impact of other established cardiovascular risk factors, a recent panic attack was associated with a fourfold increased risk of heart attack or heart-related death and a twofold increase in death from any cause.

The findings are published in the October issue of the journal Archives of General Psychiatry.

"Our study adds panic attacks to the list of emotional states and psychiatric symptoms that have been linked to excess risk of cardiovascular disease and death," the researchers wrote.

Impact on Heart Hard to Measure

Smoller says it is not clear if the anxiety that leads to panic attacks directly increases cardiovascular risk or if panic attacks are actually a symptom of undiagnosed heart and vascular disease.

"Shortness of breath, chest pain, and raised heartbeat are all symptoms of panic attack," he says. "It is possible that some women who reported these symptoms might have unrecognized cardiac problems."

It is also not clear if the findings apply to younger women and men, or if aggressive treatment of panic attacks with anti-anxiety drugs lowers heart attack and stroke risk.

Cardiologist Gerald F. Fletcher, M.D., tells WebMD that while there is growing evidence to suggest that depression, anxiety, and other psychological conditions have an adverse impact on the heart, the impact remains difficult to measure.

Fletcher is a professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic Jacksonville and a spokesman for the American Heart Association.

"We have been able to show a direct link between heart disease and risk factors like hypertension, cholesterol, obesity, and smoking, "he says. "These are easily measurable, but the impact of depression and anxiety on heart risk is not."

Panic Attacks In Older Women Linked To Risk Of Cardiovascular Diseases

Sex Boost From Late Hormone Therapy

www.webmd.com

But No Memory Benefit From Hormone Therapy Years After Menopause

By Daniel J. DeNoon

Hormone therapy begun years after menopause doesn't improve mental function, but it does boost sexual interest, researchers find.

Forgetfulness is more of a problem for women during and after menopause than it is before menopause. Does this mean the hormonal changes of menopause cause a decline in mental function? And if so, can hormone therapy help?

Studies suggest that hormone therapy begun during menopause can preserve mental function. Might later hormone therapy do the same?

In a study funded by Wyeth, the maker of the hormone products Prempro (estrogen plus progesterone) and Premarin (estrogen only), 180 healthy women began taking either Prempro or inactive placebo pills one to three years after menopause.

After four months of treatment, researchers Pauline Maki, PhD, of the University of Illinois at Chicago and colleagues gave the women a battery of mental-function tests. Among other measures, they also gave the women a test that evaluated their sexuality, including sexual thoughts and interest in sex.

Hormone therapy did not help the women's memory.

"These results are similar to previous studies suggesting hormone therapy has minimal effect on a woman's memory when taken many years after menopause," Maki says in a news release.

But when it came to sexuality, it was a different story.

"The level of sexual interest reported by women on hormone therapy increased 44%," Maki says. "And their number of sexual thoughts increased 32% compared to the placebo group."

The Maki study had just begun when the results of the Women's Health Initiative showed that hormone therapy begun after menopause increases a woman's risk of breast cancer without decreasing risk of heart disease. The Maki study thus came to an abrupt end before it could enroll as many women as planned. This means the results have to be taken with a grain of salt.

The study appears in the Sept. 25 issue of the journal Neurology.