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Officials ink deal to create medical school in Las Vegas

Nevada’s university leaders have signed a partnership agreement to begin establishing a new M.D.-granting medical school in Southern Nevada.

The agreement, or memorandum of understanding, outlines a vision for UNLV and the University of Nevada School of Medicine at UNR to work together to create a four-year medical school at UNLV that would mint medical doctors.

The UNLV medical school would open under the University of Nevada medical school’s accreditation, but will eventually become its own independently operated, separately accredited and financially-sustainable medical school.

Nevada System of Higher Education Chancellor Dan Klaich, UNR President Marc Johnson, University of Nevada School of Medicine Dean Tom Schwenk and UNLV President Neal Smatresk signed the agreement on Wednesday. Nevada regents are expected to vote on the agreement at their December board meeting.

“Increasing the medical education and health care options for Nevadans has always been a top priority for the Nevada System of Higher Education,” Klaich said in a statement. “I’m proud of the collaboration between our two universities and their efforts to bring these long-discussed plans from the drawing board to reality.”

Earlier this year, Nevada’s higher education leaders — led by Regent Mark Doubrava — directed UNLV and UNR to begin developing plans for a UNLV medical school while continuing to develop the medical school at UNR. UNLV’s faculty senate and graduate student government also supported plans for an on-campus medical school.

Currently, UNR operates the University of Nevada School of Medicine; students complete their core classes in Reno and can complete their clinical training in Reno and at University Medical Center in Las Vegas.

Proponents of a UNLV medical school have long argued that the current model for medical education in Nevada has not served Southern Nevada, by solving its shortage of physicians. Las Vegas is the largest metropolitan area in the United States without an allopathic medical school.

Over the years, Nevada’s higher education leaders have proposed different ways to expand the current medical school’s footprint in Southern Nevada by purchasing a Las Vegas home for the medical dean and kicking around the idea for a $220 million academic medical center at UNLV.

Ultimately, regents decided upon creating a separate medical school for Southern Nevada that could educate high-quality physicians, spur new medical businesses and make Las Vegas a mecca for medical tourism.

“We’ve known for a long time that it is imperative that we build the health care capacity of Southern Nevada,” UNLV’s Smatresk said in a statement. “This collaborative agreement is a substantial step forward and offers a path that effectively utilizes the resources of two great institutions to address our critical needs in health care.”

The signed partnership agreement between UNR and UNLV would not only kickstart a second medical school in Nevada but help the two universities attract federal funding for medical research that would benefit northern, southern and rural communities.

“The ultimate goal is to best apply our resources and steward the investment placed in our organizations to result in improved medical care, health care services and quality of life for Nevadans,” UNR’s Johnson said in a statement.

Developing a Southern Nevada medical school will require a collaborative partnership not only between UNR and UNLV, but also among UMC, Las Vegas hospitals and the medical community. All parties must coordinate designing, financing and building a medical facility that will house clinical research and medical science training.

Building a Southern Nevada medical school will require “substantial incremental funding” from state and private sources, according to the partnership agreement. The construction cost for the UNLV medical school is expected to cost about $80 million.

The agreement calls for funding to be maintained to the UNR medical school and for more funding to create fellowships and residencies to keep physician interns in Nevada, where they are more likely to settle down and open a local practice.

“The quality of life and economic development of the state are dependent on our ability to educate more medical students, train more residents and fellows in more specialties and subspecialties, and improve the quality of care through clinical research,” Schwenk said in a statement. “This agreement is a huge step forward in accomplishing those goals.”

Earlier this year, UNLV’s Lincy Institute commissioned Tripp Umbach, a top national health care consulting firm, to conduct an economic impact study for a Southern Nevada medical school.

Tripp Umbach estimated that a UNLV School of Medicine could have a $1.9 billion total economic impact to Nevada, including the creation of 5,353 jobs and and $94 million in tax revenue by 2030. That represents six times the current economic impact of the UNR medical school, at $285 million.

The firm also recommended that UNLV medical school begin in 2016 with an initial class of 60 medical students, and grow to an incoming class of 120 students by 2030. To support its new medical school graduates and to retain them in-state, Tripp Umbach also advised that Las Vegas must create a minimum of 240 new residency positions.

In the coming months, higher education leaders will discuss the Tripp Umbach recommendations and set a timetable for the construction, programming, financing and accreditation of a UNLV medical school.

Source: Las vegas Sun

 

Burning Fats In The Winter With Chili Peppers

When you wake up in the dark at 7:00 am in the morning, you know that winter is here. For me, this is the time of the year when I crave for hot spicy stews every meal. But like most girls, I am afraid of gaining weight from eating so much and constantly find myself on the dilemma of whether to dig in or not. If you find yourself in the same situation as me, here is the good news! Research has found that low temperatures and chili peppers could help burn our body fat!

Researchers from the Hokkaido University of Japan recently found that spending time in cold weather and consuming chili peppers allow a person to burn more energy because low temperature and the chemicals in chili peppers seem to stimulate and increase the activity of brown fat cells.

There are two types of fat in our body, namely the brown adipose tissue and thewhite adipose tissue. While brown fat cells burn off energy, white fat cells store energy and are responsible for making some people fat. Brown fat cells appear red-brown because they contain many mitochondria, which produce a large amount of energy in the form of ATP. And white fat cells appear white, or pale, under the microscope. Below is a clip which I found very clear on explaining the differences between the two different fats.

In the Japanese study, eight subjects with little brown fat tissue were recruited and exposed to a low temperature of 17 °C for two hours daily for six weeks. Comparing with the control participants who went about their normal lives during the experiment, the study found that the eight subjects who were exposed to low temperature had an average of 5% less body fat and less white fat cells. They also burned on average more energy than those in the control group.

In addition, the researchers studied people who ate chili peppers, which contain capsinoids, or substances that give chili peppers the hot taste. It was also found the participants burned more energy than the control group when exposed to cold. This result was consistent with a previous study which found that Ingesting capsinoids increased the levels of fat breakdown in our body, showing that capsinoid plays a pivotal role in fat reduction in mildly obese individuals.

Even though the reduction of white adipose tissue from cold exposure was somewhat expected, it was not expected that capsinoid in chili pepper would have an impact on energy and fat metabolism. The researchers concluded the study by stating that “capsinoids appear to [simulate] brown fat in the same way as cold, by ‘capturing’ the same cellular system that the body’s nervous system uses to increase heat production.”

While chemicals like capsinoids, which stimulate brown fat cells, demonstrate potential application in obesity treatments in the future, it is comforting to know that eating a bit more hot spicy stew than normal will not have a significant impact weight for now!

Source: Communicating science

Helmets May Never Prevent Concussions

A third of Americans said they’re less likely to allow their boys to play football because they understand the head injury risks it poses, a poll showed last week. So it’s no wonder that helmet companies are racing to reassure parents that their products can lessen that risk. Meanwhile, researchers are analyzing whether helmet technology really plays a role in reducing concussions.

A current study of high school players found no differences among brand or age of helmet, said study co-author and University of Wisconsin — Madison Assistant Professor of sports medicine Alison Brooks. She will present the abstract at an American Academy of Pediatrics conference in Orlando today.

What happens to a player’s brain during hard tackles, and what can be done to keep the athletes safe?

“We were surprised that there was not a statistically significant difference in concussion incidence when comparing older age helmets (purchased in 2008 or older) to newer helmets,” she said.

But Stefan Duma, who has studied the Virginia Tech football team for years as head of the Virginia Tech-Wake Forest School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences, says that there are big differences among helmets. His research led to a rating system, the Summation of Tests for Analysis of Risk (STAR) ratings, that ranks helmets from 1 to 5. He’s guessing that most of the players in Brooks’s study were already wearing quality helmets.

“The important thing is, there’s a big difference between the bad and the good,” he said. “There’s a big difference between a 1-star helmet and a 4-star. There’s not so much difference between a  4-star and 5-star.”

Analyzing nine years of data from Virginia Tech, in which players wore helmets equipped with sensors, Duma’s team found an 85 percent reduced risk of concussion in a 4-star helmet vs. a 1-star helmet.

Brooks’ study will factor helmet ratings in in the next year of research, which involves 1,332 players from 36 high schools, she said. Brooks also found that brands of mouth guards probably aren’t important in terms of reducing concussion risk: Players who were generic, school-issued mouth guards actually had fewer concussions than those who wore specialized mouth guards.

Helmets alone won’t solve the concussion problem. That’s partly because of the nature of the brain’s anatomy.

“The anatomy of the brain floating freely inside the skull and the subsequent mechanism of injury will make it difficult to significantly reduce concussion risk using helmet technology alone,” Brooks said. “I think focus could be better spent on rule enforcement and coaching education on tackling technique to limit/avoid contact to the head, perhaps limiting contact practices, and behavior change about the intent of tackling to injure or ‘punish’ the opponent.’”

Duma agrees that future technology probably won’t change concussion rates in football much more. Current technology in football helmets is “about as good as we can get,” he said.

Still, sports in which helmets haven’t been focused on to the same extent may have more room to benefit. Duma’s team will present a rating system for hockey helmets this fall, and they plan on rating lacrosse helmets next. And new technology, perhaps in the form of a headband, may be on the horizon for youth soccer.

Source: Daily me

 

How 17th Century Fraud Gave Rise To Bright Orange Cheese

The news from Kraft last week that the company is ditching two artificial dyes in some versions of its macaroni and cheese products left me with a question.

Why did we start coloring cheeses orange to begin with? Turns out there’s a curious history here.

In theory, cheese should be whitish — similar to the color of milk, right?

Well, not really. Centuries ago in England, lots of cheeses had a natural yellowish-orange pigment. The cheese came from the milk of certain breeds of cows, such as Jersey and Guernsey. Their milk tends to be richer in color from beta-carotene in the grass they eat.

So, when the orange pigment transferred to the cow’s milk, and then to the cheese, it was considered a mark of quality.

But here’s where the story gets interesting.

Cheese expert Paul Kindstedt of the University of Vermont explains that back in the 17th century, many English cheesemakers realized that they could make more money if they skimmed off the cream — to sell it separately or make butter from it.

But in doing so, most of the color was lost, since the natural orange pigment is carried in the fatty cream.

So, to pass off what was left over — basically low-fat cheese made from white milk — as a high-quality product, the cheesemakers faked it.

“The cheesemakers were initially trying to trick people to mask the white color [of their cheese],” explains Kindstedt.

They began adding coloring from saffron, marigold, carrot juice and later, annatto, which comes from the seeds of a tropical plant. (It’s also what Kraft will use to color its new varieties of macaroni and cheese.)

The devious cheesemakers of the 17th century used these colorings to pass their products off as the full-fat, naturally yellowish-orange cheese that Londoners had come to expect.

The tradition of coloring cheese then carried over in the U.S. Lots of cheesemakers in Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin and New York have a long history of coloring cheddar.

The motivation was part tradition, part marketing to make their cheeses stand out. There was another reason, too: It helped cheesemakers achieve a uniform color in their cheeses.

But Kindstedt says it’s not a tradition that ever caught on in New England dairy farms.

“Here in New England there was a disdain for brightly colored cheese,” Kindstedt says.

And that’s why to this day, we still see lots of naturally white cheddar cheese from places such as Vermont.

With the boom in the artisanal food movement, we’re starting to see more cheese produced from grass-fed cows.

And as a result, we may notice the butterlike color in summer cheeses — similar to what the 17th century Londoners ate.

“We absolutely see the color changes when the cows transition onto pasture in early May,” cheesemaker Nat Bacon of Shelburne Farms in Vermont wrote to us in an email. He says it’s especially evident “in the whey after we cut the curd, and also in the finished cheese. Both get quite golden in color, kind of like straw, with the beta-carotenes the cows are eating in the fresh meadow grasses.”

Source: npr

 

Surgeon Wins Award For 95p Invention

Dr Hossien spent over six months developing his invention A heart surgeon at a Swansea hospital has won an award for an invention that cost him 95p to create. Morriston hospital doctor Abdull razak Hossien made his surgery training simulator out of a sweet tin. The portable device can be used anywhere and is now being manufactured for use around the world

Dr Hossien spent over six months developing his invention

A heart surgeon at a Swansea hospital has won an award for an invention that cost him 95p to create.

Morriston hospital doctor Abdullrazak Hossien made his surgery training simulator out of a sweet tin.

The portable device can be used anywhere and is now being manufactured for use around the world.

It is used in training for surgery of the aortic root, which carries blood from the left side of the heart to the arteries of the limbs and organs.

Dr Hossien created his training device for a competition run as part of the European Association for Cardiothoracic Surgery (EACTS) Conference 2013 in Vienna.

He said: “Thomas Edison said that to invent you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.

“I designed a portable trainer, which you can keep in your pocket. You can practise on the train, on an airplane, at home, wherever you are.

“I developed it from a sweet tin that can be fixed to a table, and created an aorta using synthetic material. It cost me around 95p.

“I accompanied this simulator with a multimedia DVD [with] guidelines that trainees can apply to any procedure on the aortic root. They can progress from the simplest procedure to the most complex as they develop.”

Dr Hossien said trainees using the simulator would be completely familiar with the procedures by the time they came to carry out supervised aortic root surgery on patients.

He added: “They will have mastered the procedure before they operate on the patient.”

Garage workshop

Dr Hossien said that at the same time “qualified surgeons and any doctor with an interest in the specialty can improve their skills”.

The prototype simulator was made from a sweet tin

For the EACTS award, candidates were challenged to create a low-tech training simulator for aortic root surgery.

These were judged by a panel of eight top surgeons from Europe and the USA.

Dr Hossien was eventually declared joint winner along with a candidate from Italy.

His simulator will be manufactured for worldwide use by award sponsor Ethicon, which develops innovative surgical products.

Dr Hossien turned the garage of his Swansea home into a workshop to develop the aortic root simulator.

“I spent six or seven months on it. I would forget to eat and to drink sometimes because I was thinking about it so much.

“I would like to thank my wife and daughter who supported me and gave me the time I needed to develop this.”

He is donating his share of the 3,000 euro (£2,600) first prize from the EACTS award to the Syrian humanitarian relief appeal.

Dr Hossien is senior clinical research fellow in the cardiothoracic department at Morriston Hospital.

Mr Saeed Ashraf, consultant cardiothoracic surgeon and honorary senior lecturer at Swansea University said: “Dr Hossien is a very talented academic surgeon with an excellent pair of surgical hands.”

Source: 24all news

Polio in Syria poses risk for Europe

An outbreak of polio in Syria poses a threat to Europe, where the crippling and potentially fatal disease was declared eradicated in 2002, doctors warned on Friday.

Europe is exposed because some countries have low rates of innoculation, which lowers “herd immunity”, or protection through community-wide vaccination, a pair of German epidemiologists warned in The Lancet.

In addition, most countries use a type called inactivated polio vaccine (IPV), which is less effective against the virus than an oral vaccine which is now largely discontinued because it causes rare cases of paralysis, they warned.

At least 10 cases of polio have been confirmed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Syria, where vaccination has been disrupted by the war.

The polio virus has also been found in Israel in routine tests in sewage, from people who had the virus but did not develop the disease, prompting the country to launch an emergency innoculation campaign.

In their letter to The Lancet, Martin Eichner of the University of Tuebingen and Stefan Brockmann, a regional health officer in Reutlingen, said the risk of polio spreading to Europe was invisible but real.

Out of every 200 people infected with the polio virus, only one will develop the disease’s classic symptoms, called acute flaccid paralysis, they said.

“In regions with low vaccination coverage (e.g. Bosnia and Herzegovina, 87 percent or Ukraine, 74 percent), particularly those with low coverage of inactivated polio vaccine (e.g. Austria, 83 percent), herd immunity might be insufficient to prevent sustained transmission,” said the letter.

In addition to vaccinating Syrian refugees, “more comprehensive measures” should be considered, it said.

“Routine screening of sewage for poliovirus has not been done in most European countries, but this intensified surveillance measure should be considered for settlements with large numbers of Syrian refugees.”

Source: France 24

US moves to ban trans fats in foods

US food safety officials have taken steps to ban the use of trans fats, saying they are a threat to health.

Trans fats, also known as partially hydrogenated oils, are no longer “generally recognised as safe”, said the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The regulator said a ban could prevent 7,000 deaths and 20,000 heart attacks in the US each year.

The FDA is opening a 60-day consultation period on the plan, which would gradually phase out trans fats.

“While consumption of potentially harmful artificial trans fat has declined over the last two decades in the United States, current intake remains a significant public health concern,” FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said in a statement.

“The FDA’s action today is an important step toward protecting more Americans from the potential dangers of trans fat.”

‘Industrially produced ingredient’

If the agency’s plan is successful, the heart-clogging oils would be considered food additives and could not be used in food unless officially approved.

The ruling does not affect foods with naturally occurring trans fats, which are present in small amounts in certain meat and dairy products.

  • Some processed baked goods such as cakes, cookies, pies
  • Microwave popcorn, frozen pizza, some fast food
  • Margarine and other spreads, coffee creamer
  • Refrigerator dough products such as cinnamon rolls

Artificial trans fats are used both in processed food and in restaurants as a way to improve the shelf life or flavour of foods. The fats are created when hydrogen is added to vegetable oil, making it a solid.

Nutritionists have long criticised their use, saying they contribute to heart disease more than saturated fat.

Some companies have already phased out trans fats, prompted by new nutritional labels introduced in 2006 requiring it to be listed on food packaging.

New York City and some other local governments have also banned it.

But trans fats persist primarily in processed foods – including some microwave popcorns and frozen pizzas – and in restaurants that use the oils for frying.

According to the FDA, trans fat intake among Americans declined from 4.6g per day in 2003 to around 1g per day in 2012.

The American Heart Association said the FDA’s proposal was a step forward in the battle against heart disease.

“We commend the FDA for responding to the numerous concerns and evidence submitted over the years about the dangers of this industrially produced ingredient,” said its chief executive, Nancy Brown.

Outgoing New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who led the charge to ban trans fats in that city, said the FDA plan “deserves great credit”.

“The groundbreaking public health policies we have adopted here in New York City have become a model for the nation for one reason: they’ve worked,” he said.

Source: BBC News

 

New Medical Township in Kerala beckons foreign health tourists

A medical township comprising nine super speciality hospitals — offering the latest state-of-the-art technology to treat a host of diseases including cancer — is coming up in Kochi with an eye to promote Kerala as a top medical health tourism destination.

Aster Medcity, which is being built on what was a huge garbage dump yard, is to start functioning by March 2014. D M Healthcare, a big name in healthcare in Gulf countries, is building the complex on 38 acres of land at Cheranallur in Kochi.

Phase I of the complex, being built at a cost of $150 million, would have on offer 540 beds across the nine hospitals, Harish Pillai, chief executive officer of Aster Medcity, told IANS.

The Medcity plans to add another 500 beds later in Phase II. The township will have residential quarters, hotels, a convention centre, cafeterias, guest rooms and later also a home for the elderly, said Pillai.

“We are aiming to attract foreign health tourists to Aster Medcity. We have the latest facilities, including minimally invasive treatment and diagnostic techniques for the diagnosis and treatment of various cancers and heart diseases,” Pillai told IANS.

India gets 150,000 medical tourists every year, and it is expected to grow by 15 per cent annually, he said.

Among the latest technology that Aster will boast of is the ‘True Beam’ that provides radiation treatment in a shorter time and minus most of the usual side effects of current treatment, said Pillai. The ‘True Beam’ technology is a radio-surgery treatment in which high-energy X-rays are used to destroy tumours.

“Conventional therapy takes a very long time, but this system delivers concentrated radiation with pinpoint accuracy on the tumour,” Pillai said.

“As it is a concentrated high-dose treatment, the process is over in a few minutes for patients,” he added.

An added advantage of the new system is that it uses 25 per cent lower X-ray dosage compared to conventional ones. This reduces greatly the radiation exposure for patients.

“The conventional radiation therapies are accompanied by various side effects, but with True Beam the impact of radiation is greatly minimized and it also doesn’t impact the normal tissues,” Pillai said.

The Medcity will also have cardiac cath labs or catheterization laboratories — diagnostic imaging equipment used to visualise the arteries of the heart to detect any abnormalities. The cath labs will have an added advanced technology, called ‘clarity’, to reduce the radiation levels for patients, doctors and lab technicians, said Pillai.

This has been introduced keeping safety and efficiency as the hospital’s top priority, he said.

“You would be surprised to know that so far there has been no study of how many cardiologists in the country acquire cancer due to long exposure to radiation. So this is the reason the cardiac cath labs with option of ‘clarity’ are being introduced,” Pillai said.

The ‘clarity’ cardiac cath lab reduces radiation exposure by almost 73 per cent.

“This is the newest technology that is being introduced in India for the first time,” he said.

Another new technology being introduced is the hybrid biplane cath lab that can convert the imaging and diagnostic device into an operation theatre for any emergency surgery.

“Besides cardio, this technology would be used in interventional neuro-radiology cases. We will be bringing experts trained overseas for using this technology,” Pillai said.

The medical township also has a large artificial lake in the complex, which adds to the pleasing environment of the township.

Source: India Medical Times

Tea Promotes Weight Loss, Improve Heart Health

black tea for weight loss

Tea has been found to help promote weight loss, improve bone and heart health, slow the progression of prostate cancer and activate areas of the brain that bolster attention, problem solving and mood, say researchers.

The December 2013 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition features 12 new articles about the relationship between tea and human health. Each paper is based on presentations from world-renowned scientists who participated in the Fifth International Scientific Symposium on Tea and Human Health, held at USDA in September 2012. Highlights of some of the compelling reports published through the AJCN include the following five papers:

Tea Leaf Polyphenols May Promote Weight Loss

Tea polyphenols and the caffeine content in tea increase energy expenditure and fat oxidation, providing benefits for achieving and maintaining an ideal body weight. The results of one meta-analysis suggests the increase in caloric expenditure is equal to about 100 calories over a 24-hour period, or 0.13 calories per mg catechins. In a related review, researchers concluded that subjects consuming green tea and caffeine lost an average of 2.9 pounds within 12 weeks while adhering to their regular diet. Population-based studies also show that habitual tea drinkers have lower Body Mass Indexes (BMIs) and waist-to-hip ratios and less body fat than non-tea drinkers. In addition, green tea and caffeine also appear to boost fat oxidation over 24 hours by an average of 16% or 0.02 grams per mg catechins.

Tea May Reduce Risk for Some Cancers

Green tea polyphenols may play a role in arresting the progression of certain cancers. For example, in a double-blind, placebo-controlled study, supplementation with 600 mg/d green tea catechins reduced the progression of prostate cancer. The researchers reported that after a year, 9% of men in the green tea supplemented group had progressed to prostate cancer whereas 30% of men in the placebo group had progressed.

Hundreds—if not thousands—of laboratory, epidemiological and human intervention studies have found anti-cancer properties in compounds present in tea. The types of cancer that have shown benefits of tea include cancers of the gastrointestinal tract, lung, prostate, breast, and skin. The proposed mechanisms of action for providing protection against cancer include antioxidant effects, inhibition of growth factor signaling, as well as improving the efficacy of chemotherapy agents.

Tea Catechins are Cardioprotective

Numerous studies suggest tea supports heart health and healthy blood pressure, and appears to be associated with a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, including stroke and heart attack. New research, published in the AJCN provides further support. Study results published by Claudio Ferri, MD, University L’Aquila, Italy, found that black tea reduced blood pressure, and among hypertensive subjects, it helped counteract the negative effects of a high-fat meal on blood pressure and arterial blood flow. Hypertensive subjects were instructed to drink a cup of tea after a meal that contained 0.45 grams fat/lb. body weight. The results suggest that tea prevented the reduction in flow-mediated dilation (FMD), the ability to increase arterial blood flow that occurs after a high-fat meal. In a previous study conducted by Ferri, tea improved FMD from 7.8 to 10.3%, and reduced both systolic and diastolic blood pressure by -2.6 and -2.2 mmHg, respectively, in study participants.

“Our studies build on previous work to clearly show that drinking as little as one cup of tea per day supports healthy arterial function and blood pressure. These results suggest that on a population scale, drinking tea could help reduce significantly the incidence of stroke, heart attack and other cardiovascular diseases,” concluded Dr. Ferri.

Tea Flavonoids Improve Bone Strength and Quality

Osteoporosis is a major public health concern but new research suggests that polyphenols in green tea may help improve bone quality and strength through many proposed mechanisms. In fact, one study found that tea drinking was associated with a 30% reduced risk in hip fractures among men and women over 50 years old. In a study of 150 postmenopausal women, researchers reported that 500 mg green tea extract (equivalent to 4-6 cups of green tea daily), alone or in combination with Tai Chi, improved markers for bone formation, reduced markers of inflammation and increased muscle strength in study participants. Numerous other studies have found that green tea flavanols provide a restorative effect to bone remodeling to help maintain bone density and slow bone loss.

Tea Improves Mood, Alertness and Problem Solving

Results from new research published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that drinking tea improved attention and allowed individuals to be more focused on the task at hand. In this placebo-controlled study, subjects who drank tea produced more accurate results during an attention task and also felt more alert than subjects drinking a placebo. These effects were found for 2-3 cups of tea consumed within a time period of up to 90 minutes. Several studies have evaluated the role of tea in strengthening attention, mood and performance, and the results have been promising. It is thought that the amino acid theanine and caffeine, both present in tea, contribute to many of tea’s psychological benefits.

Twelve internationally renowned researchers contributed to the AJCN supplement, including experts from USDA, National Institutes of Health, UCLA, University of Glasgow and University of L’Aquila, among others. “The scientists who contributed their original research and insights are among the best in the world, and together, this body of research has significantly advanced the science of tea and human health,” said compendium editor Jeffrey Blumberg, PhD, Professor, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy and Director, Antioxidants Research Laboratory, Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, Boston.

“These new peer-reviewed papers add to the previously-published body of evidence that shows that tea can improve human health—both physically and psychologically,” added Blumberg. “Humans have been drinking tea for some 5,000 years, dating back to the Paleolithic period. Modern research is providing the proof that there are real health benefits to gain from enjoying this ancient beverage.”

Source: med india