Drinking wine could protect your eyes

Now I know why I didn't go into glasses until I was 60! Seriously, though, it's just the resveratrol religion again. I am not entirely clear on what they did but their claims do seem to be much more strongly-based than usual. If they have in fact used resveratrol both in laboratory glassware and mice to produce cell changes they have a good case to transfer their studies to humans. Abstract follows the popular comment below

Researchers have found that a substance found in grapes and other fruits could protect blood vessels in the eye being damaged by old age. It is effective because the compound, known as resveratrol, stops the blood vessels from being damaged.

The substance, which has been linked to anti-ageing and cancer protection in the past, is believed to work because it protects against abnormal angiogenesis – the formation of damaged or mutated blood vessels. This condition is linked to cancer, heart disease and eye diseases such as age-related macular degeneration.

Dr Rajendra Apte, who carried out the research at Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, said the study should have a "substantial impact" on our understanding of how resveratrol works. He said it was able to "demonstrate that resveratrol, a naturally occurring compound, can directly inhibit the development of abnormal blood vessels both within and outside the eye". This he said could lead to new treatments.

Resveratrol is a natural compound that is produced in a variety of plants to prevent bacterial and fungal infections. It is found in particularly high levels in grape skin (and consequently red wine), and at lower levels in blueberries, peanuts, and other plants. Various studies have shown that resveratrol can decrease the effects of ageing and act as an anti-cancer agent.

Red wine has also received a lot of attention lately for its purported health benefits. Along with reducing stroke, moderate wine consumption has been linked to a lowered incidence of cardiovascular disease — the so-called French paradox.

Despite diets high in butter, cheese and other saturated fats, the French have a relatively low incidence of cardiovascular disease, which some have attributed to the regular drinking of red wine.

This study published in The American Journal of Pathology shows why this works.

SOURCE

Resveratrol Regulates Pathologic Angiogenesis by a Eukaryotic Elongation Factor-2 Kinase-Regulated Pathway

By Aslam A. Khan et al.

Abstract

Abnormal angiogenesis is central to the pathophysiology of diverse disease processes including cancers, ischemic and atherosclerotic heart disease, and visually debilitating eye disease. Resveratrol is a naturally occurring phytoalexin that has been demonstrated to ameliorate and decelerate the aging process as well as blunt end organ damage from obesity.

These effects of resveratrol are largely mediated by members of the sirtuin family of proteins. We demonstrate that resveratrol can inhibit pathological angiogenesis in vivo and in vitro by a sirtuin-independent pathway. Resveratrol inhibits the proliferation and migration of vascular endothelial cells by activating eukaryotic elongation factor-2 kinase. The active kinase in turn phosphorylates and inactivates elongation factor-2, a key mediator of ribosomal transfer and protein translation.

Functional inhibition of the kinase by gene deletion in vivo or RNA as well as pharmacological inhibition in vitro is able to completely reverse the effects of resveratrol on blood vessel growth. These studies have identified a novel and critical pathway that promotes aberrant vascular proliferation and one that is amenable to modulation by pharmacological means. In addition, these results have uncovered a sirtuin-independent pathway by which resveratrol regulates angiogenesis.

American Journal of Pathology, May 14, 2010

Abortion 'triples breast cancer risk'

Ho hum! The usual determination to ignore social class, despite the fact that it repeatedly shows up as an influence when examined. Like women elsewhere, lower class women in Sri Lanka were most probably more likely to abort and also more likely to get cancer. The possibility that they would have got more cancer anyway, regardless of whether they had abortions, was not considered

An abortion can triple a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer in later life, researchers say. A team of scientists made the claim while carrying out research into how breastfeeding can protect women from developing the killer disease.

While concluding that breastfeeding offered significant protection from cancer, they also noted that the highest reported risk factor in developing the disease was abortion. Other factors included the onset of the menopause and smoking.

The findings, published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, are the latest research to show a link between abortion and breast cancer.

The research was carried out by scientists at the University of Colombo in Sri Lanka. It is the fourth epidemiological study to report such a link in the past 14 months, with research in China, Turkey and the U.S. showing similar conclusions.

But Cancer Research UK questioned the accuracy of the figures and said women should not be unduly worried. Dr Kat Arney, the charity’s science information manager, said: ‘This is a very small study of only 300 women, so there are likely to be statistical errors in a sample of this size. ‘Much larger studies involving tens of thousands of women have shown no significant links.’

But the findings prompted accusations that women in Britain are not being properly informed of the dangers of abortion. Professor Jack Scarisbrick, the chairman of Life, a pregnancy counselling charity, said: ‘This is devastating new evidence of the abortion-breast cancer link.

‘We have encountered from the pro-abortion lobby manipulation of the evidence on a truly disgraceful scale. This study is further evidence that has been gathering from all around the world that abortion is a major risk factor for breast cancer. ‘When will the (medical) establishment face up to this fact and pull its head out of the sand? ‘It is betraying women by failing to warn that what they are doing to their bodies – the quick fix of abortion – can do grave harm.’

Although the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has acknowledged the possibility of an abortion-breast cancer link, most medical professionals in Britain remain unconvinced. This is because an international study led by Oxford University concluded in 2004 that having an abortion does not heighten a woman’s risk.

Some scientists say, however, that the Oxford research was flawed because many of the women studied were too young to have developed the disease.

Those who believe there is a link say breast cancer is caused by high levels of oestradiol, a hormone that stimulates breast growth during pregnancy. Its effects are minimised in women who take pregnancy to full term but it remains at dangerous levels in those who have abortions.

There has been an 80 per cent increase in the rate of breast cancer since 1971, when in the wake of the Abortion Act, the number of abortions rose from 18,000 to nearly 200,000 a year.

Earlier this year, Dr Louise Brinton, a senior researcher with the U.S. National Cancer Institute who did not accept the link, reversed her position to say she was now convinced abortion increased the risk of breast cancer by about 40 per cent.

Source