Cardiovascular diseases are the world’s largest killers, claiming 17.1 million lives a year. Risk factors for heart disease and stroke include raised blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose levels, smoking, inadequate intake of fruit and vegetables, overweight, obesity and physical inactivity.

In partnership with WHO, the World Heart Federation organizes awareness events in more than 100 countries – including health checks, organized walks, runs and fitness sessions, public talks, stage shows, scientific forums, exhibitions, concerts, carnivals and sports tournaments.

Reference:

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/events/annual/world_heart_day/en/index.html

World Breastfeeding Week is celebrated every year from 1 to 7 August in more than 170 countries to encourage breastfeeding and improve the health of babies around the world. It commemorates the Innocenti Declaration made by WHO and UNICEF policy-makers in August 1990 to protect, promote and support breastfeeding.

Breastfeeding is the best way to provide newborns with the nutrients they need. WHO recommends exclusive breastfeeding until a baby is six months old, and continued breastfeeding with the addition of nutritious complementary foods for up to two years or beyond.

Reference:

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/events/annual/world_breastfeeding_week/en/index.html

By Jess Halliday, 01-Aug-2011
Related topics: Minerals, Cognitive and mental function, Maternal & infant health, Research

Folic acid supplements during pregnancy might help protect against worsening depression up to 21 months after giving birth, especially in women with a genotype that influences folate metabolism, suggests a new study.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends all women of childbearing age in the United States consume at least 0.4mg of folic acid a day to reduce risk of neural tube defects (NTD) – most commonly spina bifida and anencephaly – in infants.

However several recent studies have suggested that low folate status could also be a factor in depression. Dr Sarah Lewis of Bristol University in the UK and her team wanted to explore the relationship in pregnant women by investigating whether high folate intake during pregnancy might offer protection against depression during pregnancy and afterwards.

Their research is thought to be the first ever longditudinal study of folic acid supplementation and perinatal depression.

They found no strong evidence linking self-reported folic acid intake to a reduce risk of self-reported depressive symptoms during pregnancy or in the first eight months after giving birth.

However they did note a link later on, as folic acid supplementation appeared to exert a protective effect against increased depressive symptoms between eight and 21 months after giving birth – and the effect was particularly pronounced in women with the methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) C677T genotype, which has been seen to influence folate metabolism and intra-cellular levels of folate metabolites and homocystein.

“Low folate is unlikely to be an important risk factor for depression during pregnancy and for post-partum depression, but it may be a risk factor for depression outside pregnancy, especially among women with the MTHFR C677T TT genotype,” wrote Dr Lewis in a report published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

The timescale for an observed effect is significant because without adequate supplementation concentrations of maternal serum folate decrease gradually from the fifth month of pregnancy. They remain low for several months after the birth, meaning that women who become pregnant again within a short space of time may not rebuild serum folate to optimum pre-pregnancy levels.

Study details

The study drew on data from 6809 women who had taken part in the Avon Longditudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), a population-based prospective study conducted in the UK involving women who were expecting a baby between April 1991 and December 1992.

They looked at the association between change in self-reported depressive symptoms (on the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale) at 18 and 32 weeks of pregnancy and at 8 weeks, 8 months and 21 months post partum; and self-reported folic acid supplementation at 18 and 32 weeks gestation.

The analysis was stratified by genotype, because the team also wanted to see whether any differences could be seen in depression outcomes for women with the MTHFR C677T TT genotype.

The change in depression score for the women with this genotype from 8 to 21 months was 0.66 among those not taking supplements, compared with -1.02 among those taking supplements at 18 weeks of pregnancy.

Source

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2011), 1-7
“Folic acid supplementation during pregnancy may protect against depression 21 months after pregnancy, an effect modified by MTHFR C677T genotype”
Authors: Lewis, S.J.; Araya, R; Leary, S.; Davey Smith, G., Ness, A.

By Jess Halliday, 02-Aug-2011
Related topics: Proteins, peptides, amino acids, Energy & endurance, Research

Vegetarians have a reduced capacity to transport carnitine into muscle and store it, even though they do not excrete as much as non-vegetarians, says new research.

Carnitine plays an essential role in fat and carbohydrate metabolism. It is found mainly in foods of animal origin, and over 95 percent of the human body’s total carnitine is stored in skeleton muscle tissue.

Researchers from Nottingham University Medical School in the UK set out to test the hypothesis that muscle carnitine uptake and retention are higher in vegetarians than in meat eaters.

While they found that vegetarians excreted less carnitine than non-vegetarians, they had lower concentrations in their blood and muscles, as well as lower levels of the transporter messenger and protein expressions. Uptake was also seen to be lower in vegetarians.

The lower storage levels of carnitine in muscles may be due to lower presence of the muscle carnitine transporter, organic cation transporter 2 (OTCN2), which the researchers propose adapts to lower stores and retains some of the nutrient for other tissues.

Implications for vegetarians

The findings could have implications for people on long-term carnitine-free parentenal (intravenous) nutrition, or people on hemodialysis who are carnitine deficient.

Dr Kevin Owen, Nafta head of technical marketing and scientific affairs at Lonza, which supplied its Carnipure L-carnitine for the study (L-carnitine is the biologically active stereoisomer of carnitine), said: “The results of this study confirm Lonza’s position that vegetarians can benefit by adding supplemental Carnipure L-Carnitine to their diets […] A good supply is important for active people providing the energy they need.”

“After heavy exercise, vegetarians may get a functional L-Carnitine deficiency, meaning that there is a lack of available, free L-Carnitine in the cell.”

Lonza’s Carnipure is not derived from animal sources but is synthesized by a patented process. Dr Owen added that vegetarians may take supplements of L-carnitine or opt for vegetarian foods fortified with the nutrient, like soy burgers or soy hot dogs.

Study details

The research team recruited 17 healthy vegetarian and 22 healthy non-vegetarian participants with an average age of 22 years. The volunteers took part in two studies.

In the first study 11 vegetarians (7 men and 4 women) and 14 male non-vegetarians (who ate red meat on average twice a week) received intravenous L-carnitine and an infusion of insulin to stimulate take-up over five hours, on two separate laboratory visits.

In the second study eight men who had been vegetarians for between eight and 14 years and eight non-vegetarians were given 4.5g of L-carnitine L-tartrate to ingest, dissolved in 200mL of water. They were asked to collect their urine for 24 hours.

Greater whole-body carnitine retention in vegetarians was observed after a single dose of L-carnitine, as their 24-hour total carnitine urine excretion was 58 percent lower. However the basal plasma total carnitine concentrations were 16 percent lower in the vegetarians than in the non-vegetarians, muscle total carnitine content was 33 percent lower, and muscle carnitine transporter messenger RNA and protein expressions were 37 percent lower.

The non-vegetarians also had 15 percent increase in muscle total carnitine when receiving L-carnitine with hyperinsulinemia, while in the vegetarians the L-carnitine had no effect on total carnitine, with or without hyperinsulinemia.

Source

American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
DOI: 10.3945/ajcn.111.012047
“Vegetarians have a reduced skeletal muscle carnitine transport capacity”
Stephens, F., Kanagaraj, M., Cheng, Y., Patel, N., Constantin, D., Simpson, J., Greenhaff, P.
Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Lonza’s Carnipure is derived from animal sources, and has since been corrected. NutraIngredients-USA apologizes for the error.