Just because the bottle, bag, box or can says "Green Tea" don't believe that it's necessarily healthy. Some Green Tea products are little more than sugar water while others contain measurable amounts of lead. A report in the NY Times Health Section sites findings by the ConsumerLabs.com.

 

 

 

Food May 23, 2013, 12:01

What’s in Your Green Tea?

By ANAHAD O'CONNOR

 

 

 

Everett Kennedy Brown/European Pressphoto Agency A basket of freshly picked green tea leaves at a farm in Fujinomiya, Japan.

 

For many, no drink is more synonymous with good health than green tea, the ancient Chinese beverage known for its soothing aroma and abundance of antioxidants. By some estimates, Americans drink nearly 10 billion servings of green tea each year.

But a new report by an independent laboratory shows that green tea can vary widely from one cup to the next. Some bottled varieties appear to be little more than sugar water, containing little of the antioxidants that have given the beverage its good name. And some green tea leaves, particularly those from China, are contaminated with lead, though the metal does not appear to leach out during the brewing process.

The report was published this week by ConsumerLab.com, an independent site that tests health products of all kinds. The company, which had previously tested a variety of green tea supplements typically found in health food stores, took a close look at brewed and bottled green tea products, a segment that has grown rapidly since the 1990s.

It found that green tea brewed from loose tea leaves was perhaps the best and most potent source of antioxidants like epigallocatechin gallate, or EGCG, though plain and simple tea bags made by Lipton and Bigelow were the most cost-efficient source. Green tea’s popularity has been fueled in part by a barrage of research linking EGCG to benefits like weight loss to cancer prevention, but the evidence comes largely from test tube studies, research on animals and large population studies, none of it very rigorous, and researchers could not rule out the contribution of other healthy behaviors that tend to cluster together.

Green tea is one of the most popular varieties of tea in the United States, second only to black tea, which is made from the leaves of the same plant. EGCG belongs to a group of antioxidant compounds called catechins that are also found in fruits, vegetables, wine and cocoa.

The new research was carried out in several phases. In one, researchers tested four brands of green tea beverages sold in stores. One variety, Diet Snapple Green Tea, contained almost no EGCG. Another bottled brand, Honest Tea’s Green Tea With Honey, claimed to carry 190 milligrams of catechins, but the report found that it contained only about 60 percent of that figure. The drink also contained 70 milligrams of caffeine, about two-thirds the amount in a regular cup of coffee, as well as 18 grams of sugar, about half the amount found in a can of Sprite.

Another phase of the study looked at green tea in its more natural forms – loose tea leaves sold by Teavana and tea bags sold by companies like Bigelow and Lipton. A single serving of Teavana’s Gyokuro green tea, about one teaspoonful, was chock-full of antioxidants, yielding about 250 milligrams of catechins, a third of which were EGCG. It also contained 86 milligrams of caffeine, slightly less than a regular cup of coffee.

A single bag of the green tea sold by Lipton and Bigelow contained somewhat smaller amounts of antioxidants than Teavana’s green tea and generally minimal amounts of caffeine. But Teavana’s recommended serving size was large, and the tea was also far more expensive, resulting in a higher cost per serving. The report calculated that the cost to obtain 200 milligrams of EGCG ranged from 27 cents to 60 cents with the tea bags, and $2.18 with the Teavana loose tea leaves.

But the most surprising phase of the study was an analysis of the lead content in the green tea leaves. The leaves in the Lipton and Bigelow tea bags contained 1.25 to 2.5 micrograms of lead per serving. The leaves from Teavana, however, did not contain measurable amounts.

“Lead can occur in many botanical products because it is taken up from the ground,” said Dr. Tod Cooperman, president of ConsumerLab.com. “The green tea plant is known to absorb lead at a higher rate than other plants from the environment, and lead also can build up on the surface of the leaves.”

Dr. Cooperman said the tea leaves containing lead probably originated in China, where studies have found that industrial pollution causes the leaves in some regions to gather substantial amounts of lead. The Teavana leaves came from Japan, where that is less of a problem, he said. The decaffeination process also helps remove lead.

Still, the study found that there was no real prospect of a health concern from the lead. The liquid portions of the teas that were brewed and tested contained very little if any of the metal, Dr. Cooperman said.

“The majority of the lead is staying with the leaf,” he said. “If you’re brewing it with a tea bag, the tea bag is very effectively filtering out most of the lead by keeping those tea leaves inside the bag. So it’s fine as long as you’re not eating the leaves.”

Olive oil and nuts? Mmm, mmm. Not only do they taste good, but by adding them to your diet (according to a new study in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry), they help maintain the cognitive powers of the brain.

Add Olive Oil or Nuts to Guard Brain

 

By Kathleen Struck, Senior Editor, MedPage Today

Published: May 20, 2013

Reviewed by Zalman S. Agus, MD; Emeritus Professor, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

A Mediterranean diet heavy on extra-virgin olive oil or nuts does more to keep the aging brain agile than simply switching to a low-fat diet, researchers found.

Participants in the PREDIMED-NAVARRA trial who consumed the Mediterranean diet plus olive oil had significantly better cognitive function scores on a Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE) (+0.62 versus controls, 95% CI 0.18-1.05, P=0.005), wrote Miguel A. Martinez-Gonzalez, MD, MPH, PhD, of University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain, and colleagues.

Participants who consumed the Mediterranean diet plus olive oil also did better than controls on clock-drawing tests (CDTs) (+0.51 95% CI 0.20-0.82, P=0.001), the authors wrote in Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.

"Our trial suggests that nutritional intervention with MedDiet supplemented with either extra-virgin olive oil or nuts is associated with improved global cognition," the authors wrote . "There are mechanisms that can explain the protective effect of MedDiet on cognitive status, including antioxidative and anti-inflammatory effects and reduced vascular comorbidities."

PREDIMED recruited 522 adults who were at high risk of vascular events. The average age was 75 and 45% were men. The participants were randomized to the MedDiet regimen or a low-fat diet.

They included 224 participants from the MedDiet plus olive oil group, 166 from the MedDiet plus nuts, and 132 from the low-fat control group in their analysis.

Compared with the control group on a low-fat diet typically recommended for the prevention of cardiovascular disease, the "adjusted means of MMSE and CDT scores were also higher for participants allocated to the MedDiet plus nuts versus control (adjusted differences: +0.57 (95% CI +0.11-+1.03, P=0.015 for MMSE and +0.33, 95% CI +0.003-+0.67, P=0.048 for CDT)."

After 6.5 years of nutritional intervention, there were 60 cases of mild-cognitive impairment (18 in MedDiet with olive oil, 19 in Med diet with nuts, and 23 in the control group).

Dementia was diagnosed in 35 participants -- 12 cases in the MedDiet plus olive oil group, six cases in the MedDiet plus nuts. and 17 in the low-fat group.

"These data suggest that the case-ascertainment method based on the review of medical records may be similarly sensitive than the personalised cognitive assessment for dementia diagnosis," the authors wrote. "But sensitivity of medical records review was clearly lower than that for a complete neurological examination for a MCI diagnosis."

Both mini-mental and clock-drawing test scores were lower with inclusion of ApoE4 genotype, female gender, and older age. However, more education was associated with a better mini-mental test scores.

"Oxidative stress has been associated with neurodegeneration. The main components of the MedDiet intervention ... extra-virgin olive oil and nuts, have antioxidant properties and, together with other polyphenol-rich foods in the MedDiet, are suggested to relate to improved cognitive function," the authors wrote.

The authors noted that cognitive function was not assessed at baseline, which limits their findings. Also, they did not control for depression at baseline or cognitive assessment. The sample size was relatively small, they wrote, and true double-blind, long-term trials are not possible when studying nutrition.

Lastly, by study design, the researchers included participants at high risk of CVD, rendering the generalisation of the findings to the average general population "uncertain."

"Future interventional research including both baseline and follow-up assessments of global and multiple domains of cognition is needed to obtain firmer evidence regarding potential benefits of MedDiet on cognition," they concluded.

Martinez-Gonzalez declared no competing interests. Martinez-Lapiscina reported relationships with Novartis, Biogen, Teva, sanofi aventis, Lundbeck and Bayer. Co-authors report relationships with UCB Pharma, GlaxoSmithKline, Lundbeck, Esteve, Novartis, Cerveceros Espana, sanofis aventis, FIVIN-Spain, Nut and Dried Fruit Foundation, the Scientific Advisory Committee of the California Walnut Commission, Flora Foundation, Roche, AMGEN, Merck, DAMM, Abbott, Takeda, Sankyo, Nutrexpa, Feiraco, Unilever UK, Ferrer International, California Walnut Commission, KARO-BIO, DANONE, PACE, AstraZeneca, Rottapharm, and Ricordati. This study was funded by the official agency for funding biomedical research of the Spanish Government.

Primary source: Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry
Source reference:
Martinez-Gonzalez MA, et al "Mediterranean diet improves cognition: the PREDIMED-NAVARRA randomised trial" J Neurol Neurosurg Psych 2013; DOI: 10.1136/jnnp-2013-305153.

The Scientific Workout....is it for you? According to the New York Times article, if you're now doing no exercise, this could work well for you. Though painful to do, its over in seven minutes.

 

 

The Scientific 7-Minute Workout

By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS

Exercise science is a fine and intellectually fascinating thing. But sometimes you just want someone to lay out guidelines for how to put the newest fitness research into practice.

An article in the May-June issue of the American College of Sports Medicine’s Health & Fitness Journal does just that. In 12 exercises deploying only body weight, a chair and a wall, it fulfills the latest mandates for high-intensity effort, which essentially combines a long run and a visit to the weight room into about seven minutes of steady discomfort — all of it based on science.

“There’s very good evidence” that high-intensity interval training provides “many of the fitness benefits of prolonged endurance training but in much less time,” says Chris Jordan, the director of exercise physiology at the Human Performance Institute in Orlando, Fla., and co-author of the new article.

Work by scientists at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, and other institutions shows, for instance, that even a few minutes of training at an intensity approaching your maximum capacity produces molecular changes within muscles comparable to those of several hours of running or bike riding.

Interval training, though, requires intervals; the extremely intense activity must be intermingled with brief periods of recovery. In the program outlined by Mr. Jordan and his colleagues, this recovery is provided in part by a 10-second rest between exercises. But even more, he says, it’s accomplished by alternating an exercise that emphasizes the large muscles in the upper body with those in the lower body. During the intermezzo, the unexercised muscles have a moment to, metaphorically, catch their breath, which makes the order of the exercises important.

The exercises should be performed in rapid succession, allowing 30 seconds for each, while, throughout, the intensity hovers at about an 8 on a discomfort scale of 1 to 10, Mr. Jordan says. Those seven minutes should be, in a word, unpleasant. The upside is, after seven minutes, you’re done.

A version of this article appeared in print on 05/12/2013, on page MM20 of the NewYork edition with the headline: The Scientific 7-Minute Workout.

Considering that pain is not what one should feel in a state of well-being, the rise of chronic pain in older adults is becoming problematic. My best advice to patients is to begin flexibility exercises and good nutrition early on. That said, it's never too late to start.

Constant Pain a Big Problem in Older Adults

 

By Ed Susman, Contributing Writer, MedPage Today

Published: May 11, 2013

Reviewed by F. Perry Wilson, MD, MSCE; Instructor of Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

NEW ORLEANS -- Nearly 19 million older adults in the U.S. reported bothersome pain in the previous month, according to researchers here.

Based on an analysis of data from the 2011 National Health and Aging Trends Study, 18.7 million (52.3%) adults, ages 65 to 69, reported bothersome pain within the last month as did 56% those ages 90 and up, said Kushang Patel, PhD, from the University of Washington in Seattle, and colleagues at the annual meeting of the American Pain Society.

In addition, the incidence of bothersome pain in the past month did not appear to change between those in their 60s and those in their 90s.

"Those really aren't the differences we have thought we would see," Patel told MedPage Today, adding that his group had expected that pain incidence would rise significantly as people grow older, especially because the data included individuals in nursing homes.

The authors wanted to assess the burden of pain in the country's older adult population given the large numbers of them with multiple morbidities, hospitalizations, and surgical procedures. The 2011 national study included in-person interviews with over 7,000 adults, ages 65 and up, and had a response rate of 71%.

Based on the current analysis, Patel's group found the following rates of bothersome pain prevalence among various age groups:

• Ages 70 to 74: 51.9%
• Ages 75 to 79: 53.8%
• Ages 80 to 84: 51.9%
• Ages 85 to 89: 56%

Patel said that almost three-fourths of the individuals with pain said they had multiple pain sites, and that it impacted their ability to perform activities of daily living.

"For example, self-reported inability to walk three blocks was 72% higher in participants with pain than without pain," the group explained (adjusted prevalence ratio=1.72, 95% CI 1.56 to 1.90).

Compared with older adults without pain and after adjusting for other potential confounders, participants with two sites of pain had a slower gait speed of 0.03 meters/second while those with three sites of pain had a slower speed of 0.05 meters/second. Those with more than four sites of pain had a gait slower speed of 0.08 meters/second (P<0.001).

Patel said that it's been previously unclear whether pain incidence goes up with age, "but here we see that, even including persons in nursing homes, there is no particular difference in the percentage of patients with pain after age 65."

While the researchers did not look at treatment for pain, "in general, pain is undertreated in older adults." he said.

Mark Sullivan, MD, who is also from the University of Washington but did not participate in the study, told MedPage Today that "pain has a lot of functional significance for these people in terms of being able to walk, in being able to get up and down, and in being able to grasp things. So these are pretty significant."

But Sullivan said more information was needed on treatment because "a lot of times, treatments make these geriatric patients worse. With pain treatments you are looking at quality of life. Nonsteroidals, opioids, gabapentin; really common pain treatments have a pretty substantial downside in older groups."

"I think there is a second chapter about what you do about [burdensome pain] that is really going to make an overall benefit," he added.

Patel and Sullivan reported no conflicts of interest.

Primary source: American Pain Society
Source reference:
Patel K, et al "Prevalence and impact of pain among older adults in the United States: findings from the National Health and Aging Trends study" APS 2013; Abstract 145.

Would you consider eating foods that are protective of your health? A study published in the Annals of Neurology and reported on Medscape demonstrates that the eating of peppers may ward of Parkinson's Disease. Other foods may well have similar effects on disease states. Maybe the apple a day does keep the doctor away.

Can Eating Peppers Help Ward Off Parkinson's Disease?

Megan Brooks

May 09, 2013

 

Eating foods that contain even a small amount of nicotine, such as peppers, may reduce the risk for Parkinson's disease (PD), new research hints.

Peppers are in the same botanical family as tobacco — the Solanaceae family. In a population-based study, researchers found that increasing consumption of edible forms of Solanaceae plants was associated with a lower risk of developing PD, with peppers displaying the strongest association.

"If our results are confirmed in similar studies, and we also learn more about why peppers might be protective, then the research may be of particular interest to people who want to eat foods that might benefit their health, especially people without PD already," Susan Searles Nielsen, PhD, who led the study, told Medscape Medical News.

"We weren't able to explore whether peppers or other foods slow progression of the disease once you have it, although research to address that question might be a natural extension," added Dr. Searles Nielsen, research scientist in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle.
 
Consistent Inverse Association With Tobacco
 
Research has consistently shown an inverse association between PD and tobacco use, with people who have ever regularly smoked cigarettes less likely to develop PD than others. Some animal studies indicate that nicotine might help protect neurons. "However, it's unclear whether nicotine or something else in tobacco is actually protective, or whether people predisposed to PD simply don't respond well to tobacco smoke and therefore avoid it," Dr. Searles Nielsen explained.

Dr. Susan Searles Nielsen

"A few studies suggest that secondhand smoke might be associated with a reduced risk of PD, so that prompted us to look at another source of a relatively small amount of nicotine — foods in the same plant family as tobacco," she added.

The researchers assessed whether nicotine from edible Solanaceae influences risk for PD in 490 adults with newly diagnosed PD and 644 unrelated, neurologically healthy controls. They used questionnaires to assess participants' lifetime diets and tobacco use.

They report that PD was inversely associated with consumption of all edible Solanaceae combined (relative risk [RR], 0.81; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.65 - 1.01), but not consumption of all other vegetables combined (RR, 1.00; 95% CI, 0.92 - 1.10).

They found that the trend "strengthened" when they weighted edible Solanaceae by nicotine concentration (P for trend = .004).

An inverse association was also evident for peppers specifically (P for trend = .005). Eating peppers 2 to 4 times per week was "consistently" associated with a 30% reduction in risk for PD (RR, 0.70; 95% CI, 0.50 to 1.00), the researchers report.

The potentially protective effect of peppers was mainly in people who had little or no prior tobacco use, which is "intriguing," Dr. Searles Nielsen said. "That is where you would expect to see the clearest association if something in both tobacco and peppers, such as nicotine, is protective."

"This lends strength to our findings, along with our observations that the association grew stronger with greater consumption of peppers and that there was no association between PD and eating vegetables outside this plant family.  However, more research is needed to fully understand whether eating peppers might help prevent PD," Dr. Searles Nielsen said.

Novel Approach, New Evidence
 
The observation that smokers have a lower risk for PD has been "consistently reported in more than 60 epidemiological studies," Honglei Chen, MD, PhD, from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, who wasn't involved in the study, told Medscape Medical News.

"All previous studies on this topic have focused on analysis of smoking behaviors, while this study took a very different and novel approach by examining nicotine from diet in relation to Parkinson risk. Although this study did not settle the controversies regarding smoking and PD, it offers new evidence that supports a causal explanation," Dr. Chen said.

He cautioned, however, that this is a "preliminary finding that needs to be replicated, particularly from prospective studies that assess dietary habit before PD diagnosis.

"This study, however, is an excellent example of a novel approach for studying the relationship between smoking and PD. Further, if this finding could be confirmed, it adds to the health benefits of eating tomatoes and green peppers," Dr. Chen said.

The study was sponsored in part by the University of Washington Superfund Research Program and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. The authors and Dr. Chen have disclosed no relevant financial relationships. 
 
Ann Neurol. Published online May 9, 2013. Abstract

Just when you thought you were old enough and that it was safe enough to lounge in that easy chair all day while eating a Dagwood sandwich....it turns out that it is not. Want to live healthier? Its time to get up an exercise.

Most Adults Ignore Fitness Recommendations

 

By John Gever, Deputy Managing Editor, MedPage Today

Published: May 03, 2013

Reviewed by Zalman S. Agus, MD; Emeritus Professor, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

 

Just over 20% of U.S. adults get as much aerobic and muscle-strengthening exercise as recommended in government guidelines, CDC researchers said. 

 

Using data from the large Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey in 2011, with about 450,000 respondents, Carmen Harris, MPH, and colleagues at the CDC found that 20.6% of respondents indicated that their non-occupational physical activity reached levels recommended in the 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

On the plus side, however, half the respondents reported enough aerobic activity to meet the guideline recommendation for that type of exercise, and almost 30% reached the goal for muscle-strengthening activity, the researchers indicated in the May 3 issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

The guidelines call for adults to engage in these forms of activity, outside of work, at the following levels:

• Aerobic: at least 150 minutes/week of moderate-intensity, 75 minutes/week of vigorous exercise, or a combination of the two such that, by multiplying the duration of vigorous activity in minutes by two, the total is at least 150 minutes/week
• Muscle-strengthening: at least two episodes of such activity per week

Men were more likely than women to meet these goals, together and individually. Harris and colleagues also found a strong age effect, in which the percentage of respondents indicating that they met the goals declined with increasing age.

Both findings largely reflected lower participation in muscle-strengthening activities in women and older respondents. For aerobic activity, the disparities by gender and age were much smaller.

For example, 34.4% of men and 24.5% of women met the muscle-strengthening guideline, whereas 53.1% of men and 50.2% of women achieve the aerobic activity goal, Harris and colleagues reported.

Other factors strongly associated with success in meeting the guidelines were educational attainment (positive correlation) and body mass index (negative).

Only 12% of respondents without a high school diploma met goals for both aerobic and muscle-strengthening activity, compared with 27.4% of college graduates (P<0.05). Similarly, 13.5% of individuals classed as obese and 21.9% of those classified as overweight met both goals, versus 25.8% of normal and underweight respondents (P<0.05 for both comparisons to normal/underweight).

Race/ethnicity was less of a factor, with Hispanics showing slightly lower rates of goal attainment than other groups. African Americans showed relatively high participation in muscle strengthening but lower levels of aerobic activity than whites or "other" races.

Geographically, respondents in western states had the highest levels of goal attainment (23.5% for both goals) and those in the South had the lowest (18.7%).

States in the Deep South and Appalachian regions had attainment levels as low as 13%. The highest rates were seen in Colorado (27.3% for both goals) followed by the District of Columbia (26.3%).

Harris and colleagues noted that the CDC has previously recommended a number of local policies to encourage exercise participation, such as opening school recreation facilities to adults after-hours and designing streets to be more bike-friendly.

Limitations to the analysis included self-report of physical activity types and durations, a survey response rate of 50%, and the specific survey question on exercise which asked respondents to describe their participation in their top two physical activities.

"Some respondents classified as not meeting the aerobic guideline criteria might have met the criteria if information about additional aerobic activities or regular, aerobic job duties had been included in the analysis," the researchers indicated.

The study had no external funding. All authors were CDC employees.

Primary source: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report
Source reference:
Harris C, et al "Adult participation in aerobic and muscle-strengthening physical activities -- United States, 2011" MMWR 2013; 62: 326-330.