Nutrition: Drinking tart cherry juice daily could help reduce the severity of insomnia and time spent awake after going to sleep, according to a new study published in the Journal of Medicinal Food. In an experiment, adults who drank eight ounces of tart cherry juice in the morning and evening for two weeks reported significant reductions in insomnia severity and saved about 17 minutes of wake time after going to sleep on average. The researchers suspect tart cherries’ natural benefits could be due in part to their relatively high content of melatonin – a natural antioxidant in cherries with established ability to help moderate the body’s sleep-wake cycle. Melatonin is produced naturally by the body in small amounts and it plays a role in inducing sleepiness at night and wakefulness during the day. Cherries may help boost the body’s own supply of melatonin and increase sleep efficiency.

Weight: There is a correlation between weight and memory for older women, a study says. According to research published in the Journal of the American Geriatric Society, the more an older woman weighs, the worse her memory is. The study also says that this effect is more pronounced in women who carry excess weight around their hips, known as pear shapes, than women who carry it around their waists, called apple shapes. “The message is obesity and a higher Body Mass Index (BMI) are not good for your cognition and your memory,” said the study’s lead author Diana Kerwin, M.D. “Obesity is bad, but its effects are worse depending on where the fat is located,” Kerwin added. The type of fat deposited around the hips versus the waist is likely related to memory deterioration. Cytokines, hormones released by the predominant kind of fat in the body that can cause inflammation, are likely to affect cognition.

Diabetes: Cashew seed extract shows promise as an effective anti-diabetic, according to a new study. Published in the journal Molecular Nutrition & Food Research, the investigation analyzed the reputed health benefits of cashew tree products on diabetes, notably whether cashew extracts could improve the body’s response to its own insulin. The team tested the impact of leaves, bark, seeds and apples from cashew trees on cells that respond to insulin. “Of all the extracts tested, only cashew seed extract significantly stimulated blood sugar absorption by muscle cells,” said senior author of the study, Pierre S. Haddad. Cashew tree products have long been thought to be affective anti-inflammatory agents, to counter high blood sugar and prevent insulin resistance among diabetics; this study corroborates the particular benefit of the cashew seed with respect to diabetes.

Food: Easy on that cup – or cups – of tea. Black tea, a Southern staple and the world’s most consumed beverage, may contain higher concentrations of fluoride than previously thought, says a study. This could pose problems for the heaviest tea drinkers. “The additional fluoride from drinking two to four cups of tea a day won’t harm anyone; it’s the very heavy tea drinkers who could get in trouble,” said Dr. Gary Whitford, who presented his findings at a conference in Spain last week. The previously reported amount of this chemical in a liter of black tea was 1 to 5 milligrams but the new study shows that number could be as high as 9 milligrams. Long-term ingestion of excessive amounts of fluoride could cause bone problems. The average person ingests a safe amount – 2 to 3 milligrams daily through fluoridated water, toothpaste and food. It would take ingesting about 20 milligrams a day for a significant risk to bone health to take place, about 1-2 gallons of tea daily, according to the findings. “The bottom line is to enjoy your favorite tea,”, said Whitford, but “in moderation.”

Psychology: Lucky charms work – because they give us confidence, says a study. New research published in the journal Psychological Science shows that having some kind of lucky token can actually improve your performance by increasing self-confidence. Michael Jordan used to do this by wearing his college team shorts underneath his NBA uniform for good luck ,while Tiger Woods wore a red shirt on tournament Sundays, the last and most important day of a tournament. The study found that a belief in superstition and following through by carrying the lucky token improved people’s performance by improving their confidence, while the reverse was also true: bringing a lucky charm to a test but not being able to use it or have it with them made volunteers perform worse. Looks like the mind will create what the mind believes.

Relationships: Here’s a way to tell a romantic relationship is going to fall apart: find out what people really think about their partners. As a departure from most tests that directly ask people how they feel about their partners and if they are happy (something people oftentimes don’t know), the researchers in this study used a so-called implicit task, which shows how people automatically respond to words – in this case, whether they find it easier to link words referring to their partner to words with pleasant or unpleasant meanings. The study found that volunteers in the experiment who found it easy to associate their partner with bad things (words like death, tragedy, and criticizing) and difficult to associate the partner with good things (words like peace, vacation, and sharing) were more likely to separate over the next year. The study was published in the journal Psychological Science.

Brain: Looks like romantic love, under both happy and unhappy circumstances, may be a ‘natural’ addiction. Researchers have linked rejection by a romantic partner to brain activity associated with motivation, reward and addiction cravings, according to a study published in the July issue of the Journal of Neurophysiology. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, researchers recorded the brain activity of 15 college-age adults who had recently been rejected by their partners but reported that they were still intensely “in love”. Upon viewing pictures of their former partners, several key areas of the participants’ brains were activated, including: the ventral tegmental area (controls motivation and reward and is known to be involved in feelings of romantic love), the nucleus accumbens and orbitofrontal/prefrontal cortex (associated with craving and addiction, specifically the dopaminergic reward system evident in cocaine addiction), and the insular cortex and anterior cingulate (associated with physical pain and distress). By tying these specific areas of the brain to romantic rejection, the research provides insight into the anguished feelings that can accompany a break-up, as well as the extreme behaviors that can occur as a result, such as stalking, homicide and suicide.

Fungus: A team of scientist have identified Vitamin B3 as a potential anti-fungal treatment. The study published in Natural Medicine shows that Vitamin B3 strongly reduced Candida albicans virulence. Infections by the Candida yeast represent a significant public health problem and a common complication in immunodeficient individuals. The researchers found that genetic or pharmacological inhibition of a Candida Albicans enzyme with nicotinamide, a form of Vitamin B3, reduced both normal and drug-resistance strains of the yeast. In addition, nicotinamide prevented the growth of other pathogenic Candida species and Aspergillus fumigatus (another human pathogen), demonstrating the broad anti-fungal properties of nicotinamide.

Protein: Overweight and postmenopausal women who reduced their energy intake and raised their protein intake to lose weight were found to also lose bone mineral density faster than women who consumed normal protein diets that did not contain any meats. This finding is of concern for this age group and individuals that are susceptible to osteoporosis. Researchers analyzed data from two controlled diet studies. In one of these, one group of women aged from 43-80 consumed a vegetarian (meat-free) diet with a normal amount of protein that did not come from meat, while another group of women of the same age ate a diet high in protein from lean pork such as loin and ham. The women, on average, lost about 19 pounds each, but those who ate the higher-protein, meat-containing diet lost bone mineral density as well. In a second study, all participants consumed the same 1,000-calorie vegetarian diet, but 15 women received 250 calories from chicken breast meant, 14 women received 250 calories from beef tenderloin and 14 women received 250 calories from shortbread cookies and sugar-coated chocolates. Another 11 women served as the control group. The researchers observed, again, that all of the women who ate the energy-reduced diets successfully lost weight, but the groups that consumed the higher-protein, meat-containing diets also lost bone mineral density compared to the control group. The findings were published online in the Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences.

Honey: Sweet news for those who need antibiotics – new research published in the FASEB Journal confirms the antimicrobial property of honey and explains for the first time how it kills bacteria. “We’ve known for millennia that honey can be good for what ails us, but we haven’t known how it works,” said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of the journal. The study shows that bees make a protein that they add to the honey, called defensin-1, which could one day be used to treat burns and skin infections, as well as potentially help combat synthetic antibiotic-resistant infections. The protein is part of the honey bee immune system and is added by the bees to the honey in the process of making it.

Weight: Go metro – and lose weight, says a study. According to research published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, construction of a light-rail system (LRT) resulted in increased physical activity (walking) and subsequent weight loss by people served by the LRT. The findings suggest that improving neighborhood environments by facilitating use of public transit systems can generate positive health impacts by encouraging greater numbers of users to walk to station stops and in that way help them maintain more physically active lives. Using surveys collecting data from before and after the Charlotte, North Carolina LRT was built, investigators found that using light rail for commuting was associated with reductions in body mass index by an average of 1.18 kg/m2 compared to non-LRT users. The study also estimated that LRT users were 81% less likely to become obese over time.

Organics: The benefits of organic produce go far beyond health – right back to the farm and the ecosystem. A team of researchers from Washington State University and the University of Georgia have found that organic farming increases biodiversity among beneficial, pest-killing predators and pathogens. In potato crops, this led to fewer insect pests and larger potato plants. “It’s always been a mystery how organic farmers get high yields without using synthetic insecticides,” says study co-author Bill Snyder, associate professor of entomology at WSU. “Our study suggests that biodiversity conservation may be a key to their success.” Ecosystems with more total species, and more beneficial species that are relatively evenly distributed, are thought to be healthiest. The study, published in the journal Nature, shows that organic farming practices lead to the production of many equally-common beneficial species, and that this is far more effective at killing pests than conventional pest-control practices like broad-acting insecticides.

Mercury: If you eat fish, salt-water varieties may be more toxic if mercury is involved, a study says. Even though freshwater concentrations of mercury are far greater than those found in seawater, it’s the saltwater fish like tuna, mackerel and shark that end up posing a more serious health threat to humans who eat them. The problem is in the salt. The potentially harmful version of mercury – known as methylmercury – latches onto dissolved organic matter in freshwater, while in seawater, it tends to latch onto chloride – the salt itself. “Because sunlight does not break it down in seawater, the lifetime of methylmercury is much longer in the marine environment,” explains Heileen Hsu-Kim, lead author of the study and assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering. Methylmercury is a potent neurotoxin that can lead to kidney dysfunctions, neurological disorders and even death.

Blood Pressure: The nitrate content of beetroot juice is the underlying cause of its blood pressure lowering benefits, according to research from Queen Mary University of London. The study, published online in the American Heart Association journal Hypertension, found that blood pressure was lowered within 24 hours in both people who took nitrate tablets and people who drank beetroot juice. The news will be welcome by people with high blood pressure who seek a natural approach to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. The researchers found that, not only is beetroot equally effective with blood pressure as nitrate capsules, but also only a small amount of juice is needed for an effect – 250 ml.

Green: Looks like the methane problem is much worse than we thought. The approach the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) uses to estimate greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural anaerobic lagoons that treat manure contains errors and may underestimate methane emissions by up to 65%, according to scientists from the University of Missouri. A close evaluation of the EPA and International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) approach to estimate greenhouse emissions found errors in the specific approach – uncovered anaerobic lagoons were more efficient at converting waste to methane than had been predicted by the environmental teams using the anaerobic digesters method – as well as mistakes in the equations used for measurements. The findings were published in the Journal of Environmental Quality.

Nutrition: In a new study, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health found that eating five or more servings of white rice per week was associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes. In contrast, eating two or more servings of brown rice per week was associated with a lower risk of the disease. The researchers estimate that replacing 50 grams of white rice (just one third of a typical daily serving) with the same amount of brown rice would lover risk of type 2 diabetes by 16%. The same replacement with other whole grains, such as whole wheat and barley, was associated with a 36% reduced risk. The researchers also found that consuming white rice was associated to ethnicity and diabetes risk, while eating brown rice was not associated with ethnicity but with a more health-conscious diet and lifestyle instead. The study is the first to examine the difference between white and brown rice. It was published in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine.

Recovery: New guidelines have been issued regarding exercise for cancer patients. According to Kathryn Schmitz, PhD, a member of the Cancer Center at UPenn, cancer patients and survivors should strive to get the same 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise that is recommended for the general public. According to Schmitz, “We now have a compelling body of high quality evidence that exercise during and after treatment is safe and beneficial for these patients, even those undergoing complex procedures such as stem cell transplants.” Swimming, yoga and strength training were cited as productive, but patients with weakened ability to fight infection were advised to avoid exercise in public gyms. The guidelines were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology 2010 meeting.

Supplements: Too much of a good thing can hurt when it comes to calcium supplements says an article appearing in the Journal of the American Society Nephrology. Taking too much supplemental calcium can give rise to a condition called milk-alkali or calcium-alkali syndrome, in which a person develops dangerously high levels of calcium in the blood, causing high blood pressure and possible kidney failure. The authors of the study caution that calcium supplements should be taken in their recommended amounts, no more than 1.2 to 1.5 grams per day, no more. We say you get your calcium naturally, not in supplements but from vegetable sources in foods such as broccoli, spinach, hijiki and sesame seeds – and let your body take what it needs and get rid of the rest.

Parenting: Here’s another reason to breastfeed your baby: Canadian researchers have discovered that a probiotic found in breast milk reduces or eliminates painful cramping in the gut. In a new study published online in the FASEB Journal, the scientists show that a specific strain of Lactobacillus reuteri decreases the force of muscle contractions in the gut of mice within minutes of exposure. This bacteria naturally occurs in the gut of many mammals and can be found in human breast milk. This discovery suggests that increasing intake of this bacteria could help with many tummy-related disorders like irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease and constipation.

Cancer: Here’s a delicious idea to fight cancer. A new study published in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry found that breast cancer cells – even the most aggressive type – died after treatments with peach and plum extracts in lab tests. In the experiments conducted at Texs AgriLife Research, not only did the cancer cells keel over, but the normal cells remained unharmed in the process. The scientists say two phenolic compounds are responsible for the cancer cell deaths, and they are organic compounds that occur in fruits. They are slightly acidic and may be associated with traits such as aroma, taste or color. Dr. David Byrne and Dr. Luis Cisneros-Zevallos also studied the antioxidants and phytonutrients in plums and found them to match or exceed those in the blueberry, which had been considered superior to other fruits in these categories. The two compounds that killed the cancer cells – cholorogenic and neochlorogenic – are very common in fruits, but stone fruits such as plums and peaches have especially high levels of the chemicals.

Pain: People who meditate regularly find pain less unpleasant because their brains anticipate the pain less, a new study has found. Scientists from The University of Manchester studied individuals who had diverse range of experience with meditation, spanning from months to decades. It was only the more advanced meditators whose anticipation and experience of pain differed from non-meditators. The study, to be published in the journal Pain, found that particular areas of the brain were less active as meditators anticipated pain, as induced by a laser device. The authors of the study concluded that mindful meditation trains the brain to be more present-focused and therefore to spend less time anticipating future negative events, and that this was a possible reason for meditation to be so effective at reducing the recurrence of depression, which makes chronic pain considerably worse.

Media: TV or gaming a pain in the neck? Possible, says new research. A large study of more than 30,000 teenagers published in the journal BMC Public Health has shown that TV viewing, computer use and computer gaming were consistently associated with back pain and recurrent headaches. The researchers found that there was little connection between specific types of screen-based activity and specific physical complains – it’s not like watching a TV screen was the cause of headaches, for example – but there is a relationship between the duration and the ergonomic aspect of the activity. Screen time is a contributing factor, but not a primary causal factor in headache and backache in this population, which may mean that shorter periods of screen time and better ergonomic conditions may be beneficial for the correlated conditions.

Fertility: It’s not you, it’s your personality, says a study when it comes to fertility. The reproductive success of both men and women is influenced by our personality traits, according to new research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study found that women with higher levels of neuroticism and men who are more extroverted are likely to give birth to a larger number of children in societies with traditionally high birth rates. Women with above-average levels of neuroticism, prone to be anxious, depressive, and moody, had 12% more children than those with below average. Men with above-average levels of extroversion, prone to be sociable and outgoing, had 14% more children than men with below average extroversion. There had to be an upside to neuroticism, didn’t there?

Relationships: No talking and driving, for the sake of your relationship, a study says. While cell phone usage has been condemned for making driving more hazardous, the same factors that make this activity dangerous (longer reaction times and impaired attention) can also make family communication more risky, according to research in Family Science Review. Delayed reaction to conversation due to divided attention can be misinterpreted by the other party, which may lead to upsetting the partner or be read as suspicious of hiding something. Cell phone usage while driving may lead to conflict, hurt feelings, misunderstandings and possibly even serious damage to the relationship, says Paul Rosenblatt, professor at the University of Minnesota and author of the article. In addition to all this, lack of visual cues like gestures, facial expressions and posture creates challenges. While most stable relationships can manage the added difficulties related to cell phone use, couples in which things have been difficult may find these things push their relationship to the tipping point.

Media: Don’t be fooled by that sexy commercial – making food choices based on television advertising results in a very imbalanced diet according to a new study comparing the nutritional content of food choices influenced by television to nutritional guidelines published in the June issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association. Investigators found that a 2,000-calorie diet consisting entirely of advertised foods would contain 25 times the recommended servings of sugars and 20 times the recommended servings of fat, but less than half of the recommended servings of vegetables and fruits. In fact, the excess of servings in sugars and fat is so large that, on average, eating just one of the observed food items would provide more than three times the recommended daily servings for sugars and two and a half times for fat – for the entire day. “The foods advertised on television tend to oversupply nutrients associated with chronic illness, (for example, saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium) and undersupply nutrients that help protect against illness (fiber, vitamins A, E and D, and calcium and potassium),” said Michael Mink, PhD, lead investigator in the study. Luckily, we know that’s not how YOU make your food choices.

Behavior: Reality TV is much higher in aggression than regular television, says a new study. Researchers looked at five reality shows and five non-reality shows and found 52 acts of aggression – gossip, insults, dirty looks, etc… – per hour on reality TV compared to 33 per hour for the non-reality programs. Which show topped the list? Donald Trump’s “The Apprentice”, with 85 acts of verbal or relational aggression per hour. Second best was Simon Cowell and “American Idol” with 57 aggressive acts per hour, but the scientists did comment that this may be because it is harder to backbite while you’re singing. One interesting point the researchers made was that the actual aggression was not so much of a reality, but seemed more induced by the producers via the common tactic of putting participants in a booth and baiting them to say something nasty about their competitors. No big deal, you say? Think again. Plenty of other studies have confirmed that meanness rubs off on viewers (monkey see, monkey do). The study was published in the Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media.

Parenting: Want “smarter” kids? Scheduled sleep time can help. According to a study published in the journal Sleep, consistent bedtimes are linked to better language, reading and math skills in preschool children. Results of the research indicate that among sleep habits, having a regular bedtime was the most consistent predictor of positive development outcomes at 4 years of age. Scores for receptive and expressive language, phonological awareness, literacy and early math abilities were higher in children whose parents reported having rules about what time their child goes to bed. Having an earlier bedtime was also found to be predictive of higher scores for most developmental measures. Another tip: According to the research on optimal sleep patterns, preschool children should get a minimum of 11 hours of sleep each night.

Sleep: Nighttime noise from nearby road traffic, passing trains and overhead planes disturbs sleep and impairs morning performance, according to research presented at the annual conference Sleep 2010. Results of the study show that exposure to traffic noise during sleep contributed to slower reaction times the following day, among other markers of neurobehavioral performance. Special care should be taken with risk groups, people who are more susceptible to sleep disturbances, such as children, shift workers, the elderly and people with chronic medical conditions.

Skin: New research published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention definitively links indoor tanning to increased risk of melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer. The study, the largest of its kind, found that people who use any type of tanning bed for any amount of time are 74% more likely to develop melanoma, while frequent users of indoor tanning beds are 2.5 to 3 times more likely to develop melanoma than people who never use tanning devices. The increased risk applies to all ages and genders. “We found that it didn’t matter the type of tanning device used; there was no safe tanning device,” said DeAnn Lazovich, Ph.D., lead author of the study. Before this study, indoor tanning had been only weakly associated with melanoma risk, she added. Risk also increased with increased use.

Gender: Macho men are not the safest behind the wheel, a study says. “Catch that car!” was the instruction given to 22 men sitting in a driving simulator during the research; the results indicated that the more “macho” the man, the more risks he took on the road. “Some men develop a passion for driving that can verge on the obsessive,” said Julie Langlois, author of the study. “They consider the cars to be an extension of themselves and they become extremely aggressive if they are honked at or cut off.” Speed was directly related to the stereotype – during testing, some participants caught the car within five minutes, while others caught the car in 12 minutes and were much less dangerous on the road. Langlois’ says that cars are often a vehicle by which character traits are expressed and this overly risky behavior for this particular male stereotype is an issue of public safety.

Nutrition: For centuries, ginger root has been used as a folk remedy for things like colds and upset tummies. Now, researchers at the University of Georgia have found that daily ginger consumption also reduces muscle pain caused by exercise (sports or recreation). Ginger had been showed to exert anti-inflammatory effects in rodents before, and this study has concluded that the root can reduce muscle pain in humans by as much as 25%; it is also believed that heating ginger, as it happens when it is cooked in a soup or sauté, might increase its pain-relieving benefits. The study will be published in the September issue of the Journal of Pain.

Pollution: Anger, fat and many other factors have been linked to heart disease and now there is another less controllable one: Air. Breathing polluted air increases stress on the heart’s regulation capacity, up to six hours after inhalation of combustion-related small particles, according to researchers. High exposure to these particles called particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5) may contribute to cardiovascular disease, says a study published in the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology as well as Environmental Health Prospective. The particular effect of polluted air was to the heart’s electrophysiology, its ability to properly regulate electrical activity, something on which the body’s circulatory system depends for proper amounts of blood being pumped throughout. “Air pollution is associated with cardiopulmonary mortality and morbidity, and it is generally accepted that impaired heart electrophysiology is one of the underlying mechanisms,” said Fran He, from the Penn State Department of PUblic Health Sciences.

Exercise: Tai Chi, a low impact martial art, has been associated with reduced stress, anxiety and depression, and enhanced mood, in both healthy people and those with chronic conditions. A systemic review of the literature on the subject, published in the journal BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, found that although Tai Chi does appear to have positive psychological effects, more high quality, randomized research is needed to establish its exact benefits. Still, the data showed that practicing Tai Chi was associated with reduced stress, anxiety, depression and mood disturbance, and increased self-esteem.

Relationships: Gratitude, it seems, is key for a fulfilling long-term relationship. A new article in Personal Relationships points the way to the methods of thankfulness we can use to give a boost to our romantic relationships, and help us achieve and maintain satisfaction with our partners. Events such as one partner planning a celebratory meal when the other partner gets a promotion, taking the children somewhere fun so the other partner can have some quiet time, or stopping to pick up the other partner’s favorite treat are each examples of gratuitous behavior that could strengthen romantic relationships, if the recipient feels grateful in response. In the study, a feeling of gratitude by one of the two partners in the relationship made the difference, even the day after the gratitude had been expressed. The effect was also especially pronounced when a person showed that they cared about their partner’s needs and preferences.

Heart: There is another reason to control your sugary liquid intake. According to a study conducted on 810 adults ages 25-79, drinking fewer sugar-sweetened beverages – a leading source of added sugar in the USA – may lower blood pressure. The research, published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association, suggests that reducing sugary drinks by an average of 2 servings per day would reduce systolic blood pressure by as much as 3 millimeters of mercury, which would in turn reduce stroke mortality by 8% and coronary heart disease mortality by 5%. This adds to previous research regarding sugar-sweetened beverages, in which findings concluded that consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages has been associated with an elevated risk of obesity, metabolic syndrome, and type 2 diabetes

Mind: Food cravings are a very complex issue, but researchers may have found a way to deal. Scientists at Flinders University in Australia reviewed the latest research on food cravings and how they may be controlled and published their findings in the journal Current Directions in Psychological Science. Turns out, imaging food has a lot to do with it. Mental imagery may be a key component of food cravings, because when people crave a specific food, they have vivid images of that food. The strength of the cravings was also linked to how vividly people imagined the food in question. Because mental imagery takes up resources in the mind, which helped the researchers devise a possible aid to counteract cravings: Using cognitive tasks to reduce food cravings. In other words, if it imagining food makes you crave it more, and imagination takes brain power, using that brain power to imagine different things can help control or reduce the cravings as well. “Engaging in a simple visual task seems to hold real promise as a method for curbing food cravings,” said the study authors, and added that the technique might extend to other types of cravings, like alcohol.

Men: Postpartum depression is not just for mommies, says a study. According to research published in Journal of the American Medical Association, about 10% of fathers experience prenatal or postpartum depression too, with rates being highest in the 3-6 month period after birth. The highest rates were reported in the United States – almost twice as internationally – and the study also found that there is a moderate correlation between depression in fathers and mothers. Because there is not enough research on the subject, it is unclear what the risk factors and effects of depression among  new fathers are, but it is well established that maternal depression has negative personal, family, and child developmental outcomes, and the researchers encourage new fathers to explore this possibility, especially if there are symptoms being shown by their spouses.

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Children: Researchers at the World Congress on Osteoporosis presented evidence that vigorous physical activity in young children results in stronger hip bones. Using advanced scanning technology, the scientists measured bone mass and analyzed the structure of the femoral neck (hip) and thigh bone of 200 six year olds, while physical activity was assessed for seven continuous days. The results showed that kids who spent more time in vigorous activity (sports like basketball, singles tennis, hockey, soccer, running, fast bicycling, aerobic dance, martial arts, jump rope, swimming, for example) had stronger femoral necks, both in terms of shape and mineral density, independent of other factors such as diet, lifestyle and physical size. This supports the argument that more physical activity in childhood is likely to improve skeletal bone development, making this a potentially important strategy to prevent osteoporosis later in life.  

Mind: Moderate to severely depressed clients showed greater improvement in cognitive therapy when therapists emphasized changing how they think rather than how they behave, new research indicates. The study found that concentration on changing behavior – such as having patients schedule activities to get them out of the house, and tracking how they spent their time – did not significantly predict change in depressive symptoms. Instead, using cognitive techniques to break out of negative thought patterns and to see events in their lives more realistically helped patients the most, especially in the early part of treatment. The findings were published in the online edition of the journal Behaviour Research and Therapy.

Women: A study published in Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine found that folic acid may provide a safe and inexpensive  treatment to improve vascular function in your female runners who are amenorrheic. Young women who do not eat enough to offset the energy they expend exercising can stop menstruating or develop irregular menses as a consequence; the resulting estrogen profile is similar to that of postmenopausal women who have low estrogen levels, placing these women at higher risk of early onset heart disease. The research team found that folic acid supplements improved blood flow-mediated dilation in the brachial artery, which correlates with increased blood flow to the heart. Though dosage is still to be determined, the scientists said that a side benefit of folic acid may also include improved athletic performance.

Gender: The age-old question of why men store fat in their bellies and women store it in their hips may have finally been answered. It seems genetically speaking, the fat tissue of each gender is almost completely different. Researchers found that out of about 40,000 genes, only 138 were found both in female and male cells, which startled the scientists as they expected to find the opposite: many more genes in common and a few different between the sexes. The study involved mice, which distribute their fat in a sexually dimorphic pattern similar to humans. “Given the difference in gene expression profiles, a female fat tissue won’t behave anything like a male fat tissue and vice versa,” said Dr. Deborah Clegg, senior author of the study that appeared in the International Journal of Obesity. She concluded that hormones made by the ovaries may be critical in determining where fat is deposited.

Nutrition: Women with type 2 diabetes who ate the most bran in a study had a 35% lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease and a 28% reduction in death from all causes than women who at the least amount, says a study. Bran is a component of whole grain rich in vitamins, minerals and fiber. “Diabetes is thought to be a chronic state of inflammation characterized by moderately increased levels of chemical markers for inflammation and endothelial dysfunction,” said Lu Qi, Ph.D, senior author of the study. “Those markers have been found to be related to increased risk of cardiovascular disease in both diabetic and non-diabetic populations. In our previous studies we have reported that intakes of whole grains and subcomponents such as cereal fiber may lower these markers in diabetic parents.” This is the first study to suggest bran as a potentially beneficial whole grain as well. The findings were reported in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

Pregnancy: Mommies-to-be, take note. A new study says that even healthy pregnant women can be at risk for pregnancy problems caused by oral bacteria. The findings, published in the journal Infection and Immunity, reported that of the 700 species of bacteria living in the mouth, several new bacteria originating there travel through the blood to generate an inflammatory reaction in the placenta and eventually cause a range of health issues from miscarriages to stillbirths. Common mouth bacteria like Streptococcus, Leptotricia, Fusobacterium nucleautm and Veillenella, harmless in the mouth, were also leaving through the bloodstream and locating themselves in the placenta’s immune-free environment, igniting an inflammatory reaction that can lead to premature or stillbirths. Sounds like an even stronger reason to maintain the blood in a healthy state by eating alkaline-forming foods that prevent the acidic environment that bacterias prefer to live in.

Psychology: Looks like washing your hands has more than a physical benefit. A recent study concludes that the activity “wipes the slate clean,” affecting us psychologically by removing doubts about recent choices, in addition to the feeling of being clean of germs as well as the already established link to feeling morally restored. “It’s not just that washing your hands contributes to moral cleanliness as well as physical cleanliness, as seen in earlier research” said Spike W. S. Lee, a doctoral candidate in social psychology. “Our studies show that washing also reduces the influence of past behaviors and decisions that have no moral implications whatsoever.” The researchers say that the “clean slate” effect may be relevant to many choices and decisions in life, not just the complex ones where ‘good behavior’ is implicated (for example, cheating) but also with simple choices like whether to buy one car over another (buyer’s remorse). The study was published in the May 7th issue of Science.

Sleep: According to a new study to be published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, just one night of short sleep duration can induce insulin resistance, a component of type 2 diabetes.  “Sleep duration has shortened considerably in western societies in the past decade,” said Esther Donga, MD, lead author of the study. “And simultaneously, there has been an increase in the prevalence of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.”  The researcher says that the co-ocurring rises in both situations may not be a coincidence. “Our findings show a short night of sleep has more profound effects on metabolic regulation than previously appreciated.” Previous studies found that multiple nights of less sleep than normal resulted in impaired glucose tolerance, but this is the first to examine the effects of only a single night of partial sleep restriction on insulin sensitivity. The data indicated that the sensitivity depends, not on the health of the person (all volunteers in the study were healthy and had no sugar problems) but on the amount of sleep you actually get the night before.

Cancer: In the race to find answers about ovarian cancer, researchers now have something to cluck about.  Researchers have been using the chicken as a model to study this disease and have discovered that a diet enriched with flaxseed decreases the severity of ovarian cancer and increases survival in hens. “The chicken is the only animal that spontaneously develops ovarian cancer on the surface of the ovaries like humans,” explained Janice Bahr, professor emerita at the University Illinois Department of Animal Sciences. Several studies have already shown that flaxseed inhibits the formation of colon, breast, skin and lung tumors. The results showed that hens fed a flaxseed-enriched diet for one year experienced significant reduction in late-stage ovarian tumors. Though hens fed the flaxseed diet did not have a decreased incidence of ovarian cancer overall, they did experience fewer late-stage tumors, which translated into higher survival rates. Also, hens with the flaxseed diet had better weight control, which is important because obesity increases cancer risk. Ultimately, the flaxseed-enriched diet helped the birds maintain a healthy weight and resulted in less sickness and death, which Bahr says may provide the basis for trials that evaluate how effective this can be for women.

Sex: A new study suggests that it may not help older men and women with sexual problems to talk to a doctor, but men who talk to their partner about their issues report greater happiness, while those who talked with friends felt less depressed. The research, to be published in the Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, shows that the way men and women deal with sexual health and stress in their later years varies greatly and that there is not one solution that can help ease unhappiness caused by sexual problems. “Older adults are advised to talk to their doctors about sexual health issues, but not all people do so and talking with a physician is not as helpful as you might expect,” said Ryo Hirayama, Ph.D. However, confiding in a partner or with friends was found to be effective for many men in reducing stress and unhappiness related to sex. Unfortunately for women, this same benefit was not reported. “In fact, women with higher levels of sexual stress who confided in their close friends reported lower happiness,” said Hirayama. Researcher Alexis Walker said that, “what this tells us is that women’s sexual issues are complex,” adding, “a woman with a great deal of sexual concerns could feel threatened by talking to her spouse about it, or perhaps simply confiding in a friend is not enough.” Most importantly, the researches say the findings show that men, who are typically considered to be less conversational or sharing than women, can greatly benefit from social networks and confiding in their mates.

Parenting: Want your kids to eat more veggies? Serve those first, says a study. Researchers at Penn State University found that when serving meals in various combinations and proportions to preschool children, the earlier the vegetables were served, the more were consumed. “We gave children carrots first without other competing foods,” explained Barbara J. Rolls, Chair of Nutritional Sciences at the university. “When they are hungry at the start of the meal, it presents us with an opportunity to get them to eat more vegetables.” Rolls explained that this challenged the conventional belief that children simply won’t eat vegetables, because they don’t have a taste for them, for example. It also provides parents a simple strategy to get their children eating a more healthy and nutritious diet. Putting out veggie snacks when children are hungry is a good idea, while setting an example by eating vegetables yourself as the parent while your kids are still young and impressionable also helps. The study was published in the current issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Exercise: Apoptosis, the natural ‘programmed’ death of cells, is arrested in the aftermath of strenuous exercise, says a new study. Researchers studied blood samples taken from people finishing a marathon and found that the mechanism that drives this cell death shifted after the race. “Apoptosis is a normal physiological function dependent on a variety of signals, many of which can be modulated by strenuous exercise. Here, we’ve shown for the first time that exercise modulates expression of the sirtuin family of proteins,” explained Gabriella Marge, lead author of the study. Sirtuin proteins may play the crucial role of mediators in the maintenance of skeletal and cardiac muscle tissues as well as neurons, which explains the protective effects of physical exercise for survival and aging. The findings appear in the journal BMC Physiology.

Nutrition: Consuming more nuts appears to be associated with improvements in blood cholesterol levels, according to analysis of data from 25 trials reported in the May 10 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Nuts have been the focus of intense research recently because of their potential to reduce coronary heart disease risk and to lower blood lipid (fat and cholesterol) levels based on their unique nutritional attributes, said the authors of the study. “The effects of nut consumption were does related, and different types of nuts had similar effects on blood lipid levels,” the authors write.

Mind: No time to reap the mental benefits of a workout? No problem. According to a study in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, just five minutes of exercise in a park, working in a backyard garden, on a nature trail, or other green space will benefit mental health. So called “green exercise”, physical activity in the presence of nature, has been proven to decrease the risk of mental illness and improve a sense of well-being. But until now, nobody knew how much time people needed to spend in green spaces to get those and other benefits. The study analyzed activities such as walking, gardening, cycling, fishing, boating, horse-riding and farming. All natural environments were beneficial, including parks in urban settings. Green areas with water added something extra, and the researchers noted that a blue and green environment seems to be even better for health.

Heart: Not all rice is created equal – and now some can help your heart. According to a study conducted at Temple University School of Medicine, brown rice might have an advantage over white rice by offering, among other benefits, protection from high blood pressure and atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries). This new research suggests that a component in a layer of tissue surrounding grains of brown rice may work against angiotensin II, an endocrine protein that is a known culprit in the development of both of these conditions. The subaleurone layer of rice, located between the white center of the grain and the brown fibrous outer layer, is rich in oligosaccharides and dietary fibers, making it particularly nutritious. The researchers conducted tests with this part of the grain and vascular smooth muscle cells, and discovered that components in the subaleurone layer inhibited angiotensin II activity. Because half-milled rice still contains this layer, it is expected to also have this benefit.

Immunity: There may be a connection between caloric intake and immunity. According to a study published in Journal of Gerontology, Biological Sciences, volunteers who followed a low-calorie diet or a very low-calorie diet not only lost weight, but also significantly enhanced their immune response. The study may be the first to demonstrate the interaction between calorie restriction and immune markers among humans. The calorie restriction for test subjects ranged from 10-30% and the experiment was conducted for six months. The results showed for the first time that short-term calorie restriction improved the function of T-cells, as these white blood cells proliferated significantly with both calorie-restrained diet groups. There was no word on the specifics of the diet or nutrient content.

Nutrition: Consuming more olive oil could help prevent ulcerative colitis, according to a new study presented at the Digestive Disease Week conference in New Orleans last Saturday. The findings show that people with a diet rich in oleic acid, present in olive oil, are far less likely to develop the condition, one characterized by inflammation of the lining of the colon. Oleic acid is a monounsaturated fatty acid found in olive, peanut and grapeseed oils, as well as butter and certain margarines. The fatty acid seems to help by blocking chemicals in the bowel that aggravate the inflammation found in this illness. Dr. Andrew Hart, lead author of the study, said that two to three tablespoons of olive oil per day would have a protective effect. Note: Some research suggests that olive oil is best consumed uncooked, to prevent possible hydrogenation and reap the most health benefits.

Brain: Regular exercise speeds learning and improves blood flow to the brain, says a new study published in the journal Neuroscience. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine found that monkeys (more comparable to human physiology than other animals) who exercised regularly at an intensity that would improve fitness in middle-aged people learned to do tests of cognitive function faster and had greater blood flow to the brain’s motor cortex than their sedentary counterparts.   The scientists who conducted the experiment said that this suggested that people, with very close genetic and structural composition to monkeys, would reap similar benefits. “These findings indicate that aerobic exercise at the recommended levels can have meaningful, beneficial effects on the brain,” said Dr. Judy L. Cameron, senior author of the study. “It supports the notion that working out is good for people in many, many ways.”

Infants: According to a study, extremely low birthweight babies who received feedings supplemented with probiotics had better weight gain than infants who were not given the supplements. The research, presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies annual meeting in Canada last Saturday, found that these healthy, live organism supplements whose positive effects on the digestive health and immune function of adults has been documented were also beneficial for premature infants. Results showed superior weight gain in children who received the probiotics even though the average daily volume of their feedings was less than infants in the control group, suggesting that the “good bacteria” helped to improve nutrient absorption. In addition, no side effects were seen as a result of probiotic supplementation.

Mind: A new study sheds light on the role that dreams play in the important process of learning. The new findings suggest that dreams may be the sleeping brain’s way of telling us that it is hard at work on the process of memory consolidation, integrating our recent experiences to help us with performance-related tasks in the short run and, in the long run, translating this material into information that will have widespread application to our lives. “What’s got us really excited is that after nearly 100 years of debate about the function of dreams, this study tells us that dreams are the brain’s way of processing, integrating and really understanding new information,” explained Robert Stickgold, PhD, senior author of the study and Director of the Center for Sleep and Cognition at BIDMC and Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. The study is reported in the online issue of the journal Current Biology.

Cancer: A substance found in breast milk can kill cancer cells, reveal studies published in the journal PLoS One. Although the special substance, known as HAMLET (Human Alpha-lactalbumin Made Lethal to Tumor cells), was discovered in breast milk several years ago, it is only now that it has been possible to test it on humans. Patients with cancer of the bladder who were treated with the substance excreted dead cancer cells in their urine after each treatment, which has given rise to hopes that it can be developed into medication for cancer care in the future. HAMLET was discovered by chance when researchers were studying the now established antibacterial properties of breast milk. Laboratory experiments have shown that HAMLET kills 40 different types of cancer, and the researchers are now going on to study its effect on skin cancer, tumors in the mucous membranes and brain tumors. Most importantly and something that makes this a new hope beyond chemo and radiation: HAMLET only kills cancer cells and does not affect healthy cells. Amen for mommies.

Heart: Added sugars in processed foods and beverages may increase cardiovascular disease risk factors, according to a study by Emory University researchers. The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), found that people who consumed more added sugar were more likely to have higher cardiovascular disease risk factors, including higher triglyceride levels and higher ratios of triglycerides to HDL-C, or good cholesterol. “Just like eating a high-fat diet can increase your levels of triglycerides and high cholesterol, eating sugar can also affect those same lipids,” says study co-author Miriam Vos, MD, MSPH. Added sugars are defined as caloric sweeteners used by the food industry and consumers as ingredients in processed or prepared foods to increase the desirability of these foods.

Infectious Disease Alert: A newly discovered strain of an airborne fungus has caused several deaths in Oregon and seems poised to move into California and other adjacent areas, according to scientists at Duke University Medical Center. The new type of Cryptococus gattii produces symptoms that can appear two to several months after exposure, and may include a cough lasting weeks, sharp chest pain, shortness of breath, headache, fever, nighttime sweats and weight loss. In animals the symptoms are a runny nose, breathing problems, nervous system problems and raised bumps under the skin. While C. gattii can be treated, it cannot be prevented as there is no vaccine. Because the strain is so virulent when it infects some otherwise healthy humans and animals, researchers are calling for greater awareness and vigilance; treatment can take place if the doctors know with what type of Cryptococcus they are dealing.

Nutrition: Responding to the health threat posed by Americans’ over-consumption of sodium, experts in the department of nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and The Culinary Institute of America have called for sodium reduction strategies that are strong and effective – and that maximize the enjoyment people derive from food. “There is now overwhelming evidence that we must treat sodium reduction as a critical public health priority, much as we did when we discovered the harms of trans fats,” said Walter Willett, MD, DrPH, chairman of the department of nutrition at HSPH. “The food industry tackled the trans fat reduction challenge with remarkable speed. We invite their best creative minds to bring similar leadership to the equally urgent cause of sodium reduction,” he added. Sodium is a major culprit in our nation’s epidemic of high blood pressure – a disease that can start in childhood and will afflict nine out of 1- Americans over the course of their lifetimes. Recommendations to help lower sodium intake include: Fresh produce first (fill half your plate with fruits and vegetables – produce is naturally low in sodium), go nuts for healthy fats (a variety of nuts add flavor to a less salty meal), shop seasonally and know your farmer (to find the tastiest raw ingredients whose natural flavor doesn’t require much if any salt), and spice it up (add spices, dried and fresh herbs, and roots like garlic and ginger to add flavor without using salt.)

Bones: Martial arts could be the key to helping osteoporosis sufferers fall more safely. A study published in the journal BMC Research Notes has found that this can be carried out safely with older persons, who usually suffer falls and consequently hip fractures from lower bone density. The researchers concluded that it was possible and advantageous to teach people to fall into a rolling movement by bending and twisting the trunk and neck (a typical martial arts move), as long as the training is done with hip protectors and exercises are performed on a thick mattress. After training, knowing how to fall could help reduce impact to the hip, the area that is usually in danger when either the elderly or osteoporosis sufferers fall.

Ecology: A comprehensive assessment of global fossil-fuel subsidies has found that governments are spending $500 billion annually on policies that undermine energy security and worsen the environment. The study, titled “The Politics of Fossil-Fuel Subsidies” by David Victor, a professor of political science with UC San Diego’s School of International Relations and Pacific Studies was one of five released on Earth Day by the Global Subsidies Initiative (GSI) of the International Institute for Sustainable Development. “The pervasive role of fossil fuels in countries’ economies makes them attractive for politicians to subsidize, which leads to over-consumption. Virtually every analysis of fossil-fuel subsidies has shown that most are a complete waste of money.” The United States does not tax fossil fuels to the level needed to offset the cost of burning them, according to Victor, which does not help us get a real picture for what we consume and, worse, hinders our adoption of greener energy methods. “The more that consumers in every country in the world pay the full price for fuels – a price that reflects the true costs of fuel combustion on the economy and environment – the easier it will be for market forces to encourage more secure and cleaner energy supplies.”

Emotions: Laughter can have similar effects on your appetite as exercise – it may make you hungry. Dr. Lee S. Berk and Dr. Stanley Tan, who have been studying the effects of laughter since it was first reported by Norman Cousins in the 1970s that it can benefit a person’s health, and have discovered that repetitious “mirthful laughter” causes the body to respond in a way similar to moderate physical exercise. It enhances your mood, decreases stress hormones, enhances immune activity, lowers bad cholesterol and systolic blood pressure, and raises good cholesterol. Berk said, “We are finally starting to realize that our everyday behaviors and emotions are modulating our bodies in many ways.” The study, to be presented this week at the 2010 Experimental Biology conference, included 14 healthy volunteers, each of which were shown 20 minutes of a distressing video clip (the movie Saving Private Ryan). The volunteers also chose a eustress (humorous) video from stand-up comedians and movie comedies, which they watched for 20 minutes. Hormone levels were measured from blood samples taken pre- and post-viewing. The researchers found that volunteers who watched the distressing video showed no statistically significant change in their appetite hormone levels, while the subjects who watched the humorous video had changes in blood pressure and hormones levels: The level of leptin decreased and ghrelin increased (two hormones involved in appetite), much like the acute effect of moderate physical exercise that is often associated with increased appetite.

Green: Harvesting…electrons? Yes. In an electrifying first, Stanford scientists have tapped the power of plants, as researchers looking for alternate sources of electricity experimented with plugging in to algae cells and succeeded in harnessing a tiny electric current. They found it at the very source of energy production – photosynthesis, a plant’s process of converting sunlight to  chemical energy. This may be the first step toward generating high efficiency bioelectricity that doesn’t give off carbon dioxide as a byproduct. In the experiment the researchers intercepted the electrons (using gold electrodes) just after they had been excited by the light and were at their highest energy levels. “We believe we are the first to extract electrons out of living plant cells. This is potentially one of the cleanest energy sources for energy generation,” said WonHyoung Ryu, lead author of the paper published in Nano Letters.

Brain: Mirror neurons, many say, are what make us human – they are the cells in the brain that fire not only when we perform a particular action but also when we watch someone else perform that same action. Neuroscientists believe this “mirroring” is the mechanism by which we can “read” the minds of others and empathize with them; it’s how we “feel” someone’s pain, how we can differentiate a smirk from a smile. But there was never any actual proof they existed – until now. According to research published in the journal Current Biology, scientists have for the first time made a direct recording of mirror neurons in the human brain. “The study suggests that the distribution of these unique cells linking the activity of the self with that of others is wider than previously believed,” said Dr. Itzhak Fried, the study’s lead author. “It is also suspected that dysfunction of these mirror cells might be involved in disorders such as autism, where clinical signs include difficulties with verbal and nonverbal communication, imitation and having empathy for others,” said Roy Mukamel, a postdoctoral fellow in Fried’s lab.

Mind: Good things come to those who wait, and visualization might be the key to why we believe that. A study published in the the journal Neuron provides insight into our capacity for “mental time travel,” also known as episodic future thought, which enables humans to make choices with high long-term benefits. “Our results reveal that vividly imagining the future reduced impulsive choice,” said Dr. Jan Peters, lead author of the study. “Humans normally prefer larger over smaller rewards, but this situation can change when the larger rewards are associated with delays,” she said. “In general, individuals exhibit a particularly significant ability to delay gratification.”

Weight Loss: Counting calories won’t help you lose the weight, new research states. Scientists at Oregon Health & Science University have demonstrated that simply reducing caloric intake is not enough to promote significant weight loss, due to a natural compensatory mechanism that reduces a person’s physical activity in response to a reduction in calories. In other words, as you cut calories, your body adjusts to cut your physical activity as well. This mechanism conserves energy in response to us getting less energy (eating less). Looks like you’re gonna have to dust off the old tennis shoes if you really want to lose that excess weight, but the researchers explained that a combination of a normal, healthy diet along with daily exercise is what seems to work best for significant results. The research was published in the American Journal of Physiology.

Herbs: According to a new report published in the Journal of Natural Products, the popular herbal remedy Ginkgo biloba may increase the risk of seizures in people with epilepsy and could reduce the effectiveness of anti-seizure drugs. Ginkgo biloba is used for a variety of health problems that include memory loss, clinical depression, headaches, irritable bladder and more, but the study reviewed scientific research on the topic and found 10 reports indicating that patients with epilepsy who take Ginkgo products face an increased risk of seizures. Scientific concern focuses mainly on one chemical compound in the herb, a potentially toxic material known as ginkgotoxin, which seems to alter a chemical signaling pathway in ways that may trigger epileptic seizures.

Nutrition: Onions are great for your health – they have antioxidant and antimicrobial properties – and it is these very qualities that may make it possible to use this bulb for food preservation as well. Researcher published in the International Journal of Food Science and Technology has found that the flavonoids in the raw onion make it a good candidate as a preservative to help increase the life of foods. “They are a natural alternative to artificial additives used in the food industry,” concluded researchers from the University of Barcelona, where the study was conducted. The onion, especially the yellow variety, inhibits the growth of microorganisms that alter foods, said the scientists. Onions keep bacteria at bay, and previous studies indicate that they have beneficial effects for cardiovascular health.

Heart: Eating more foods containing the B-vitamins folate and B-6 lowers the risk of death from stroke and heart disease for women and may reduce the risk of heart failure in men, says a study published in Stroke: Journal of the American Hearth Association. Folate and Vitamin B-6 may help guard against cardiovascular disease by lowering homocysteine levels, an amino acid in the blood that is affected by diet and heredity. Folic acid and other B vitamins help break down homocysteine in the body. Evidence has shown that too much homocysteine may damage the inner lining of arteries and promote the formation of blood clots. Sources of folate include vegetables and fruits, whole grains, beans and legumes. Sources of Vitamin B-6 include vegetables, fish, and whole grains.