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Around 12,000 years ago, something scorched a vast swath of the Atacama Desert in Chile with heat so intense that it turned the sandy soil into widespread slabs of silicate glass. Now, a research team studying the distribution and composition of those glasses has come to a conclusion about what caused the inferno. In a study published in the journal Geology, researchers show that samples of the desert glass contain tiny fragments with minerals often found in rocks of extraterrestrial origin. Those minerals closely match the composition of material returned to Earth by NASA's Stardust mission, which sampled the particles...

Researchers report a discovery in cardiac regeneration that offers new hope for the treatment of ischemic heart failure. The study reveals a novel approach to promoting cardiomyocyte proliferation. "When the heart cannot replace injured cardiomyocytes with healthy ones, it becomes progressively weaker, a condition leading to heart failure. In this study, we investigated a new way to stimulate cardiomyocyte proliferation to help the heart heal," said Dr. Riham Abouleisa. Previous studies showed that calcium plays an important role in cardiomyocyte proliferation. In the current study, Abouleisa and her colleagues explored how modulating calcium influx in cardiomyocytes would affect their proliferation....

Higher calcium intake is associated with reduced colorectal cancer (CRC) risk across tumor sites and calcium sources, according to a study. Semi Zouiouich, Ph.D., M.P.H. and colleagues examined the association between calcium intake and CRC risk in a cohort study analyzing data from the National Institutes of Health-AARP Diet and Health Study involving participants aged 50 to 71 years at baseline (October 1995 to May 1996) with self-reported good health and neither extremely high nor low caloric or calcium intake. The researchers identified 10,618 first primary CRC cases during 7,339,055 person-years of follow-up among 471,396 participants who were cancer-free at...

A glass of milk a day could help keep bowel cancer away finds a study. The research suggests that increasing daily milk intake by as little as one glass could have a significant impact on lowering the likelihood of developing bowel cancer. The study found that drinking an additional 20g of alcohol a day, equivalent to a large glass of wine, increased bowel cancer risk by 15%. Consuming more than 30g of red and processed meat daily was linked to an 8% increase in bowel cancer risk. Researchers took a two-pronged approach to examine the association between milk consumption and...

Researchers have found definitive proof of a kidney microbiome that influences renal health and kidney stone formation, demonstrating that the urinary tract is not sterile and low levels of bacteria are normal. They also identified certain bacteria within the microbiome that could promote or block kidney stone development and showed that antibiotic misuse (commonly associated with kidney stone development in a hospital setting) skewed the microbiome towards stone-promoting bacteria. The team's methods showed that bacteria living in the urinary tract were not only there because of disease, since they found them in the urinary tract of people without evidence of...

Coronary artery calcium (CAC) scores have become a non-invasive way for physicians to easily determine how much plaque has built up inside a patient's coronary arteries, but the question has been how accurate the score is in identifying women, as well as men, who are at high risk for a heart attack or death. A study finds coronary artery calcium scores are not only highly effective in identifying those at risk for future heart attacks, but also for death, and risk prediction was found to be as good in women as in men. Results found that in addition to predicting...

People with higher intakes of calcium and zinc before pregnancy appear to have a significantly lower risk for hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP), according to research. Liping Lu, M.D., Ph.D. and colleagues used data from 7,737 pregnant women without chronic hypertension participating in the Nulliparous Pregnancy Outcomes Study: Monitoring Mothers-To-Be to assess the association between preconceptional calcium intake (three months before pregnancy) and odds of HDP. There was a modest inverse association between energy density-adjusted calcium intake and HDP when adjusting for sociodemographic, lifestyle, clinical, and other dietary factors. The odds of HDP were 21 percent lower for participants in...

Researchers at UCSF and UC Davis discovered a hormone, named Maternal Brain Hormone (CCN3), which maintains bone strength in breastfeeding women despite calcium loss. This hormone could potentially treat osteoporosis and aid in healing fractures across different demographics. The study emphasizes the importance of including female subjects in biomedical research to uncover gender-specific biological processes. UCSF and UC Davis researchers identified a new hormone, CCN3, that strengthens bones in breastfeeding women and could treat osteoporosis and enhance fracture healing. Researchers from UCSF and UC Davis have resolved a longstanding mystery about how breastfeeding women maintain strong bones despite losing calcium...

Plant-based diets are often seen as healthier alternatives to eating meat and dairy - with around one in five adopting the diet for health reasons. The way of eating, which has risen in popularity by at least a third since 2017, can involve anything from ditching meat, to going fully vegan, without eggs, milk or cheese. However, these foods could be loaded with sodium, which could raise blood pressure, packed with obesity-causing saturated fat, and stripped of bone-building calcium, a major analysis suggests. Researchers evaluated more than 700 plant-based foods sold in supermarkets, including burgers, sausages, milk, cheese, and yogurt,...

Researchers from Ewha Womens University in Seoul, South Korea have managed to create a powerful chemical composition that can eradicate tumor cells, findings in the journal Angewandte Chemie reveal. The scientists created the promising new cancer-fighting drug by manipulating calcium levels in the cells — supposedly the the key to an “anti-tumor” formula. Typically, too many calcium ions are harmful and will suffocate elements of healthy cellular composition like mitochondria, known by every 9th-grade biology student as the cell’s powerhouse. But now, scientists have found a way to use that harmful over-influx to ward off and destroy tumor cells in...

About 800 million children have blood lead levels that affect their brain. Guilarte has been among the first to document what's happening at the cellular level of the brain that triggers a cascade of lifelong consequences—from learning difficulties and lower IQ scores to the risk of psychiatric diseases and drug abuse in adulthood. Can the damage lead has done to their children ever be undone? Decades of research has brought Guilarte and his collaborators closer to an answer. They've identified a certain flavonoid, a class of nutrients present in fruits and vegetables, that reverses some of the negative effects of...

There is an adverse association between calcium channel blocker (CCB) use and glaucoma, according to a study. Alan Kastner, M.D. and colleagues examined the association between systemic CCB use and glaucoma and related traits in a population-based cross-sectional study involving U.K. Biobank participants with complete data for analysis of glaucoma status, intraocular pressure (IOP), and optical coherence tomography-derived inner retinal layer thicknesses. Data were included for 427,480 adults (median age, 58 years), including 33,175 CCB users (7.8 percent). The researchers found that use of CCBs, but not other antihypertensive agents, was associated with increased odds of glaucoma after adjustment for...

A small (57 g) daily portion of Jarlsberg cheese may help to stave off bone thinning (osteopenia/osteoporosis) without boosting harmful low density cholesterol, suggest the results of a small comparative clinical trial. The effects seem to be specific to this type of cheese, the findings indicate. Jarlsberg is a mild and semi-soft, nutty-flavored cheese made from cow's milk. Previous research indicates that it may help boost levels of osteocalcin, a hormone that is associated with strong bones and teeth. Researchers studied women allocated to adding Jarlsberg (41) or Camembert cheese to their diet. Jarlsberg and Camembert have similar fat and...

Older women with more advanced abdominal aortic calcification (AAC) have a higher risk for late-life dementia, according to a study published online June 26 in The Lancet Regional Health: Western Pacific. Tenielle Porter, Ph.D., from Edith Cowan University in Joondalup, Australia, and colleagues analyzed data from 958 ambulant community-dwelling older women (aged 70 years and older) with lateral spine images captured at baseline from a bone density machine to assess AAC. The researchers found that during 14.5 years of follow-up, 15.7 percent of women had a late-life dementia hospitalization and/or death. Women with moderate and extensive AAC were more likely...

Kidney stones illustration. Mayo Clinic researchers found that enriching diets with foods high in calcium and potassium may prevent recurrent symptomatic kidney stones. Diets Higher in Calcium and Potassium May Help Prevent Recurrent Symptomatic Kidney Stones Not only can kidney stones cause excruciating pain, but they also are associated with chronic kidney disease, osteoporosis, and cardiovascular disease. If you’ve experienced a kidney stone once, you have a 30% chance of having another kidney stone within five years. Typically, doctors prescribe changes in diet to prevent recurrent symptomatic kidney stones. Unfortunately, there is little research available regarding dietary changes for those...

7 Reasons Not to Take Vitamin K with D If it isn’t clear from the title of my blog yet, I’ll make it clear. I don’t normally recommend combo supplements of vitamin D3 with vitamin K (either K1 or K2). I get asked all the time why my brand of D3 doesn’t have K in it, and it would have been cheap and easy to put it in there but I chose not to, because of SO many reasons which I’ll discuss today, but mainly because the combination can increase risk of kidney stones (within a few years) and may...

Fungus that draws gold from its surroundings has been discovered in Western Australia, stunning scientists who say it could signal new deposits. Found near Boddington, south of Perth, the strain of the Fusarium oxysporum fungus attaches gold to its strands by dissolving and precipitating particles from the environment. There may be a biological advantage in doing so, as the gold-coated fungus was found to grow larger and spread faster than those that don’t interact with the precious metal. “Fungi are well-known for playing an essential role in the degradation and recycling of organic material, such as leaves and bark, as...

Daniel Begay, who is Navajo, had always been told growing up that traditional American Indian foods were good for him. But because most American Indians are lactose intolerant, "they aren't getting that same source of calcium from dairy products," Begay says. Turns out that it's a traditional cooking method that is key to his bone health. The Navajo burn juniper branches, collect the ash and stir it into traditional dishes. The most popular: blue corn mush. Begay, a graduate student at Northern Arizona University, analyzed the amount of calcium in 27 samples of juniper from all over the reservation. But...

According to a new study published in the journal Scientific Reports, adding cinnamon to your diet can cool your stomach by up to two degrees. "The results of the study, which used pigs, seemed to show that cinnamon maintained the integrity of the stomach wall," said study co-lead author Prof. Kourosh Kalantar-zadeh, from RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. "When pigs feed at room temperature, carbon dioxide gas increases in their stomach." "Cinnamon in their food reduces this gas by decreasing the secretion of gastric acid and pepsin from the stomach walls, which in turn cools the pigs' stomachs during digestion,"...

WEDNESDAY, Aug. 17, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Taking calcium supplements with the hope of keeping osteoporosis at bay may raise an older woman's risk of dementia, a new study suggests. And that seems particularly true if a woman has already sustained an event causing poor blood flow to the brain (cerebrovascular disease), such as from a stroke, researchers said. The study can't prove cause-and-effect. However, dementia risk was seven times higher in female stroke survivors who took calcium supplements, compared to women with a history of stroke who didn't use the supplements, the findings showed. The risk of dementia also...