(Press-News.org) Eating 3,000 mg per day of salt or more appears to have no adverse effect on blood pressure in adolescent girls, while those girls who consumed 2,400 mg per day or more of potassium had lower blood pressure at the end of adolescence, according to an article published online by JAMA Pediatrics.
The scientific community has historically believed most people in the United States consume too much salt in their diets. The current Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends limiting sodium intake to less than 2,300 mg per day for healthy individuals between the ages of 2 and 50. The relationship between dietary sodium and blood pressure in children and adolescents is largely unexamined in prospective studies, according to the study background.
Lynn L. Moore, D.Sc., M.P.H., of the Boston University School of Medicine, and coauthors examined the long-term effects of dietary sodium and potassium on blood pressure at the end of adolescence. The authors used data from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute's Growth and Health Study and participants included 2,185 black and white girls (ages 9 to 10) who were followed up for 10 years.
The authors found no evidence that higher sodium intakes (3,000 to END
Potassium improved blood pressure in teen girls, salt had no adverse effect
2015-04-27
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Hodgkin's lymphoma survivors have higher risk for cardiovascular diseases
2015-04-27
Survivors of Hodgkin lymphoma appear to be at higher risk for cardiovascular diseases and both physicians and patients need to be aware of this increased risk, according to an article published online by JAMA Internal Medicine.
Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) is a curable cancer with 10-year survival rates exceeding 80 percent. Treatment for HL has been associated with increased risks for other cancers and cardiovascular diseases, and those later cardiovascular complications may be the consequence of radiotherapy and chemotherapy in HL treatment, according to the study background.
Flora ...
Single cells seen in unprecedented detail
2015-04-27
Researchers have developed a large-scale sequencing technique called Genome and Transcriptome Sequencing (G&T-seq) that reveals, simultaneously, the unique genome sequence of a single cell and the activity of genes within that single cell.
The study, published today in Nature Methods, has experimentally established for the first time that when a cell loses or gains a copy of a chromosome during cell division, the genes in that particular region of DNA show decreased or increased expression. While this has long been assumed by genetic researchers, it has not been seen ...
More is less in novel electronic material
2015-04-27
CHESTNUT HILL, MA (April 27, 2015) - Add water to a half-filled cup and the water level rises. This everyday experience reflects a positive material property of the water-cup system. But what if adding more water lowers the water level by deforming the cup? This would mean a negative compressibility.
Now, a quantum version of this phenomenon, called negative electronic compressibility (NEC), has been discovered, a team of researchers led by physicists at Boston College reports today in the online edition of the journal Nature Materials.
Physicists have long theorized ...
Climate change: How Brits feel about 'smart' energy
2015-04-27
Reluctance to share data about personal energy use is likely to be a major obstacle when implementing 'smart' technologies designed to monitor use and support energy efficient behaviours, according to new research led by academics at The University of Nottingham.
The study, published online by the journal Nature Climate Change, found that while more than half of people quizzed would be willing to reduce their personal energy consumption, some were wary about sharing their information with third parties.
Increasing energy efficiency and encouraging flexible energy use ...
New breast cancer gene identified by Women's College Hospital scientists
2015-04-27
April 27, 2015 -- A new breast cancer gene has been identified in a study led by Women's College Hospital (WCH) researcher Dr. Mohammad Akbari, who is also an assistant professor with the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. The study, which was published online today in Nature Genetics, describes how mutations in a gene called RECQL are strongly linked to the onset of breast cancer in two populations of Polish and French-Canadian women.
"Our work is an exciting step in identifying all of the relevant genes that are associated with inherited ...
Olga Troyanskaya brings order to big data of human biology
2015-04-27
New York, New York -- A multi-year study led by researchers from the Simons Center for Data Analysis (SCDA) and major universities and medical schools has broken substantial new ground, establishing how genes work together within 144 different human tissues and cell types in carrying out those tissues' functions.
The paper, to be published online by Nature Genetics on April 27 (at http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ng.3259), also demonstrates how computer science and statistical methods may combine to aggregate and analyze very large -- and stunningly diverse -- genomic 'big-data' ...
More power to the mitochondria: Cells' energy plant also plays key role in stem cell development
2015-04-27
Researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center have discovered that mitochondria, the major energy source for most cells, also play an important role in stem cell development -- a purpose notably distinct from the tiny organelle's traditional job as the cell's main source of the adenosine triphosphate (ATP) energy needed for routine cell metabolism.
Specifically, the NYU Langone team found that blocking the action of the mitochondrial ATP synthase enzyme stalled egg cell development from stem cells in experiments in fruit flies, one of the main organisms used to study cell ...
Finding the body clock's molecular reset button
2015-04-27
An international team of scientists has discovered what amounts to a molecular reset button for our internal body clock. Their findings reveal a potential target to treat a range of disorders, from sleep disturbances to other behavioral, cognitive, and metabolic abnormalities, commonly associated with jet lag, shift work and exposure to light at night, as well as with neuropsychiatric conditions such as depression and autism.
In a study published online April 27 in Nature Neuroscience, the authors, led by researchers at McGill and Concordia universities in Montreal, report ...
Gastroenterology Special Issue confirms: You are what you eat
2015-04-27
Bethesda, MD (April 27, 2015) -- Patients are always interested in understanding what they should eat and how it will impact their health. Physicians are just as interested in advancing their understanding of the major health effects of foods and food-related diseases. To satisfy this need, the editors of Gastroenterology, the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association, are pleased to announce the publication of this year's highly anticipated special 13th issue on food, the immune system and the gastrointestinal tract.
"This special issue provides ...
Study links insomnia to impaired work performance in night shift workers
2015-04-27
DARIEN, IL - A new study of night shift workers suggests that overnight occupational and cognitive impairment is more strongly correlated to insomnia than it is to sleepiness.
Results show that night shift workers classified as alert insomniacs had the highest level of impairment in work productivity and cognitive function, which was significantly worse than controls. This occupational impairment was more severe in alert insomniacs than in insomniacs with excessive sleepiness. The study also found that alert insomniacs reported significantly greater fatigue than sleepy ...