Psychiatrists at Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute spoke to 750 people.

Anxiety, severe depression and eating disorders were all far more common in 20 and 30-year-olds who had had minor depression as adolescents, they found.

The British Journal of Psychiatry report said further research was needed to unpick the reasons for the link.

UK charities said specialist services for young people were vital.

The study was based on interviews with 750 14 to 16-year-olds who were then assessed again as adults.

It found that 8% of participants had minor depression as teenagers.

By the time they got to their 20s and 30s, the risk of them having major depression was four times higher than those who did not have signs of minor depression at the first interview.

There was a two-and-a-half times increased risk of agoraphobia, anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder and a threefold risk of anorexia or bulimia.

Continue reading - BBC News/Health

Researchers from Utrecht University in the Netherlands compared adding bran, a soluble supplement called psyllium and a dummy supplement to sufferers’ diets.

They found psyllium was the most effective, warning that bran may even worsen the symptoms of the condition, the British Medical Journal reported.

As many as one in 10 people is estimated to have the condition.

It is characterised by abdominal pain and an irregular bowel habit.

Its exact cause is unknown and recommendations for treatment include dietary advice, antidepressants and drug treatments.

Many relying on dietary adjustments still turn to bran in a bid to help improve the way the intestines work.

But the Dutch study of 275 patients questions the wisdom of this approach.

The team gave patients 10g of either psyllium, bran or rice flour twice a day for 12 weeks.

Symptom severity

At the end of the study, those on psyllium, a naturally occurring vegetable fibre, reported symptom severity had been reduced by 90 points using a standard scale of rating problems.

For bran it was 58 points and for the placebo group, 49.

The report also showed that patients seemed less tolerant of bran, with more than half of the group dropping out during the trial, mostly because their symptoms worsened.

Soluble fibre can also be found in fruit such as apples and strawberries, as well as barley and oats.

But Dr Niek de Wit, one of the researchers, said: “It is unlikely that people with IBS would get enough from fruit and other foods to help them.

“I think adding psyllium to the diet is the best treatment option to start with. In the study, people did this by adding it to things such as yoghurt and it had a real effect.”

Dr Anton Emmanuel, medical director of Core, the charity for diseases of the gut, said bran was being over-used.

He said the study was “helpful” and “reasonably robust”, adding: “Putting it all together, patients should tolerate this form of fibre well and it may help some, especially those with a tendency to constipation.”

Source - BBC News/Health

Diets based on eating lots of meat, fish and cheese, while restricting carbohydrates have grown in popularity in recent years.

But the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in the US found such habits caused artery damage in tests on mice.

The researchers and independent experts both agreed a balanced diet was the best option.

Low-carb diets have attracted a lot of attention and controversy after a surge in interest in them in the 1990s.

Continue reading - BBC News/Health

A team of Israeli scientists has developed a potential way to fix the damage from heart attacks.

A “patch” has been made from heart muscle that can be used to fix scarring left over from a heart attack.

Writing in the journal PNAS, the scientists describe how the technique strengthened the hearts of rats that had suffered heart attacks.

The “patch” was grown in abdominal tissue first, then transplanted to damaged areas of the heart.

This experiment is the first to show that such patches can actually improve the health of a heart after it has been damaged.

The scientists measured an increase in the size of the muscle in damaged areas, and improved conduction of the electrical impulses needed for the heart to pump normally.

Heart failure

Heart attacks usually cause irreversible damage to heart muscle. If people survive, then the damaged muscle can cause another serious condition called heart failure.

It is hoped that the procedure may eventually lead to treatments in humans because of its “simplicity and safety”, the authors - led by Tal Dvir from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beer-Sheva - wrote in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

However, they added that “because most patients with heart attacks are old, and multiple surgery can pose a large risk to them, our strategy is not currently an option”.

Ellen Mason, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation (BHF), told BBC News: “In the last decade there has been significant research into injecting cells, including stem cells, into the heart to try and repair the damaged area.

“This study was in animals, but may help scientists better understand how to repair damaged human hearts in the future.”

The technique is also being developed for livers and bladders.

Source: BBC News/Health

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Americans need to cut back dramatically on sugar consumption, the American Heart Association said on Monday in a recommendation that is likely to rile food and beverage companies.

The group said women should eat no more than 100 calories of added sugar per day, or six teaspoons (25 grams), while most men should keep it to just 150 calories or nine teaspoons (37.5 grams).

That’s far below the 22 teaspoons (90 grams) or 355 calories of added sugar consumed by the average American each day, according to a 2004 government survey.

The guidelines apply to any sugar or sugar syrup added in food processing or at the table as opposed to sugar found naturally in food such as fruit.

But the researchers take particular aim at the estimated $115 billion U.S. market for soft drinks, which Johnson said represent the No. 1 source of added sugars in the American

“For the first time we’ve created specific recommendations about the amount of sugars that can be consumed in a heart-healthy diet,” Rachel Johnson of the University of Vermont, lead author of the policy statement published in the journal Circulation, said in a telephone interview.

Johnson said U.S. labels on packaged foods do not distinguish between naturally occurring or added sugars, but she said anything labeled “syrup” in the ingredients list is likely an added sugar.

Too much sugar not only makes Americans fat but also is a key culprit in diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke, according to the report.

Prior heart association recommendations issued in 2006 recommended people minimize intake of added sugars. Now the group is eliminating any room for doubt, Johnson said.

U.S. Department of Agriculture dietary guidelines are less specific. They recommend decreased intake of food or beverages with added sugars as a way to maintain a healthy weight, but they do not give specific calorie limits.

The heart association report focused on added sugars, not naturally occurring sugars in food.

LIQUID CALORIES

“Over the past 30 years, total calorie intake has increased by an average of 150 to 300 calories per day, and approximately 50 percent of this increase comes from liquid calories (primarily sugar-sweetened beverages),” the report reads.

And daily consumption of sweetened soft drinks rose 70 percent between 1970 and 2000. One 12-ounce (0.35 liter) can of regular soda contains roughly 130 calories, which exceeds a woman’s daily discretionary sugar budget.

While the experts said no single food or food group is the primary cause of the nation’s obesity epidemic, they said many studies have shown a correlation between higher intake of sweetened beverages and obesity.

Johnson said sweetened foods and beverages displace more nutritious foods and beverages for many people.

If people are to get a balanced, heart-healthy diet filled with whole grains, fruit, vegetables and low-fat protein, there is not much room for empty calories from added sugar, she said.

Johnson said diet soft drinks are a reasonable substitute for people trying to wean themselves from sweet drinks.

“We’re not saying ‘remove added sugars from your diet.’ Sugars do add to the enjoyment and enhance the flavor of foods, but maybe it would be better choice to add your sugars in a sweetened whole grain cereal rather than in an empty-calorie soft drink or candy,” she said.

The food industry often blames increases in obesity on a sedentary lifestyle. Johnson said if people want to eat more sweet treats, they need to increase their sugar budget by becoming more physically active.

(Additional reporting by Martinne Geller in New York; Editing by Maggie Fox and Xavier Briand)

Source Reuters Health

The findings point the way to a strategy for encouraging people at risk of heart disease to kick the habit, the study’s authors say.

Smoking is known to promote inflammation, while quitting cuts the risk of developing and dying from heart and lung disease, Dr. Christine N. Metz of the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in Manhasset, New York, and her colleagues write in the medical journal Chest. However, it’s unknown whether benefits are seen immediately after a person quits.

To investigate, they performed blood tests for several markers of inflammation, including C-reactive protein (CRP), tumor necrosis factor (TNF), and other substances, in 36 women participating in a smoking cessation program. The women were tested four times over 6 to 7 weeks.

Levels of TNF and two related substances fell steadily through the course of the study, the researchers found. Levels of CRP and interleukin-6 also fell.

Informing people about the “age and health” of their lungs is known to help encourage them to quit smoking, Metz and her team note, and using markers of inflammation like those measured in the current study could provide similar information on cardiovascular health.

“Quantifiable information reflecting cardiovascular health may act as positive reinforcement for those trying to quit and remain smoke free,” they add.

“We propose the identification of a panel of inflammatory biomarkers that could be used as measurable milestones for persons quitting smoking in a smoking cessation program focused on improving cardiovascular health for smokers who are at risk,” they conclude.

Reuters/Health

Scientists found “boiled before cut” carrots contained 25% more of the anti-cancer compound falcarinol than those chopped up first.

Experiments on rats fed falcarinol have shown they develop fewer tumours.

The Newcastle University study will be presented at NutrEvent, a conference on nutrition and health, to be held in France.

Continue reading - BBC News/Health

As asthma progresses, the airways are changed or remodelled and become more muscular and reactive to allergens.

Critical to this process is a cellular pump in the muscles called SERCA2, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports.

Ultimately drugs acting on SERCA2 might stop lung damage, the UK experts hope.

Continue reading - BBC News/Health

The tomato pill contains an active ingredient from the Mediterranean diet - lycopene - that blocks “bad” LDL cholesterol that can clog the arteries.

Ateronon, made by a biotechnology spin-out company of Cambridge University, is being launched as a dietary supplement and will be sold on the high street.

Experts said more trials were needed to see how effective the treatment is.

Continue reading - BBC News/Health

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - School cafeteria meals like low-fat pizzas with whole grain crust don’t taste too bad to Paola Villatoro, a 17-year-old at Downtown Magnet High School in Los Angeles.

“Some of it is pretty good,” she said.

But West Adams Preparatory School student Alfredo Segura doesn’t like them. “It tastes like prison food,” said Segura, 16, as he and other students ate snacks at a fast-food joint near the school.

Los Angeles Unified School District is an anti-junk-food pioneer, but the obstacles it faces show how difficult it is to change habits shaped by decades of unhealthy eating promoted by the mammoth fast-food industry.

Continue reading Reuters Health