Unilab Link-Up: A Health and Wellness Open Source Program

Unilab launches Unilab Link-Up, an open source program for innovations in healthcare. It is designed to be an online facility where innovators, suppliers, and consumers can submit their very own innovations whether its on health and wellness products, services, packaging, or manufacturing technology.

Practically anyone in the country can now bring an idea to the market through Unilab Link-Up. The first of its kind for a Filipino pharmaceutical and healthcare company, the program also aims to provide for the needs of Filipinos in terms of health and wellness. Moreover, it also welcomes ideas on functional foods, packaging, manufacturing technologies, and wellness services. To submit an idea, one only has to visit and register at www.unilablinkup.com.

An idea review body will then check the submission using a four-level review process. Corresponding rewards will be given to the innovation partner as the idea progresses from the review level until it is launched in the market.

"Your ideas could be the start of something big," says Unilab President and CEO Clinton Campos Hess. So share it to the world through Unilab Link-Up and help change lives!

Visit their website @ http://www.unilablinkup.com/

Top 5 Things You Didn't Know About Sugar

Whether you're a rabid chocoholic or simply prefer a spoonful of sugar in your morning coffee, there's just no resisting the sweet stuff. But do you know why humans appear to be so hooked on sugar?

#1: It's Like Your Mama's Milk

One reason our taste buds like the sweetness of sugar is it tastes a lot like something we had just after birth: mother's milk.

"A mother's milk is sweet, and all the sugars we eat are converted into glucose so the body can digest them, so there's a real connection between sugar and the whole architecture of mammalian life," explained anthropologist Sidney W. Mintz, author of "Sweetness and Power: the Place of Sugar in Modern History."

#2: Evolution Made Us Favor It

In general, sweet plants are safe, says Mintz. So our ancestors were naturally inclined to sample the sweet stuff. "When our ancestors were running through trees, being able to tell when things were sweet was one of the flags of edibility," he said.

#3: It Spurred Colonization

According to Mintz, human fondness for sugar was so strong it prompted expansion of New World plantations, and, unfortunately, furthered the slave trade. After a few years serving as a sort of caviar to the European elite, it became a fast source of calories for factory workers in the newly industrialized world.

#4: It's Sweet: And That's It

Unlike fruit, sugar is the only sweet substance with no other taste. Coffee, tea, and cocoa are incredibly bitter, but add hot water and sugar and you get a cheap source of calories and a lot of human steam. "The stimulant effect was very important to people who worked long hours under bad conditions," noted Mintz, adding that these products became small luxuries and symbols of cozy hospitality in cold, dismal Europe.

#5: It's Not Addictive

Although it may seem easy to get hooked on sugar, it is not addictive, says Mintz. Still, humans (young and old alike) find it tantalizing.

"Pop a spoonful of sugar into a child's mouth and the child goes crazy with pleasure," Mintz said, but affirmed there's no scientific link between sugar and hyperactivity. It's simply "a close association between one taste and the history of our species."

Original post here.

The Truth About Eggs

It is not cholesterol in the egg yolk per se that is harmful. In this more health-conscious era, egg, a very popular standard items in most any breakfast around the world, has been a controversial food item because of its high cholesterol content. Clinical reviews in various medical journals around the world the past five decades have pointed out the danger of dietary cholesterol for those at risk of developing cardiovascular diseases, like heart attack and stroke, metabolic illness such as diabetes, and even cancer. Most of these studies have considered the egg yolk as the worst offender when it comes to cholesterol.

Depending on the size of the egg, it could contain between 125 to 275 mg of cholesterol in its egg yolk. The recommended daily limit for cholesterol intake is 200 mg per day. So, eating two eggs a day will more than exceed the limit by at least 25 percent. And since other foods we eat also contain cholesterol, it is easy to see that adding even one egg a day to our diet will greatly increase our cholesterol intake.

However, it is not cholesterol in the egg yolk per se that is harmful. It is the oxidized cholesterol that is atherogenic (causes hardening of the artery and eventual blockage in the circulation to the heart, brain, abdominal organs, or legs). Oxidation of cholesterol in eggs can be minimized by using less heat in the cooking process. Liquidy soft boiled egg appears to be healthier than hard boiled or fried eggs in any style. When fried, eggs obviously provide higher level of oxidized cholesterol.

Other highly atherogenic food items include saturated fats from milk products, especially butter. Most butter substitutes, margarines, have hydrogenated vegetables oils, which produce unhealthy trans-fatty acids and are very atherogenic like saturated fats. Reading all food labels is a wise practice. Margarines without trans-fatty acids are available in large grocery stores. While vegetable oils contain N6 fatty acids, fish oil (from Salmon, Mackerel, Non-Albacore Tuna, etc. or fish oil capsules) contains the healthy N3 fatty-acids (Omega-3), which are potent anti-oxidants, anti-inflammatory, anti-clot, and effective in lowering triglyceride, bad cholesterol, and blood pressure, and in preventing irregularity of the heart beat. They slow down arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) and thus, the aging process of the cells in our body.

A corroborative review of several studies involving hundreds of thousands of cases was done by Dr. David Spence, stroke prevention expert at The University of Western Ontario, Dr. David Jenkins, nutrition expert of the Risk Factor Modification Centre at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto, and Dr. Jean Davignon, cholesterol expert of the Clinique de nutrition métabolisme et athérosclérose in Montreal, according to The Medical News Today.

While two of those large studies reported no harm from egg consumption among healthy people, the authors stated that “in both studies, those who developed diabetes while consuming an egg a day doubled their risk of cardiovascular disease compared to those eating less than an egg a week…the studies also showed a significant increase of new onset diabetes with regular egg consumption.”

The UWO researchers concluded, "There is no question that egg white is classed as a valuable source of high-quality protein. Egg yolks, however, are not something that should be eaten indiscriminately by adults without regard to their global cardiovascular risk, genetic predisposition to heart attacks and overall food habits."

Egg white (egg minus its yellow yolk) is a highly nutritious source of protein in itself. The yummy but unhealthy egg yolk is not really an essential food item, and actually deleterious to those who are at risk of cardiovascular, metabolic, or cancer disorders. The big question then is: Who, among us, are at high risk for those illnesses? If only science could identify individuals who are at risk of developing high blood pressure, diabetes, heart attack, stroke, cancer, and a host of other diseases when they eat fatty foods, smoke cigarettes, drink alcoholic beverage in excess, and not exercise, then we would know who, among us, may safely consume high cholesterol foods, be sedentary, smoke like a chimney, and/or drink alcohol to our heart’s content the rest of our life, and still be from serious diseases.

Unfortunately, we still do not have such a medical test to address this issue. Therefore, it behooves all of us to be wise, prudent, careful, and indulge in moderation, since we’ve got only one body, one life, no spare, no back-up. Health is indeed priceless, and life simply too wonderful to waste.

Epidemiology of Hypertension

Hypertension is the most common and one of the primary risk factors for cardiovascular disease, stroke, diabetes and kidney disease. Research reveals that one-quarter of the world's adult population has hypertension, and this is likely to increase to 29% by 2025.

According to the report of World Health Organization (2003), hypertension is one of the most prevalent causes of premature deaths to nearly 8 million people every year worldwide and nearly 1.5 million every year in the South-East Asia Region.

WHO also estimates that there are about 1 billion people suffering from hypertension, two-thirds of these are from developing countries.

According to the Philippine National Statistics Office Mortality Data (2007), diseases of the heart, cerebrovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus, and renal diseases are among the leading causes of mortality in the country.

Due to its high prevalence and threatening outcomes, hypertension has become an important public health challenge worldwide. Hence, awareness, prevention, treatment and control of hypertension are significant public health measures.

Eat Fish Regularly for a Healthier Brain

Research shows that getting at least some of your protein requirements from fish is good for the brain. If you want to preserve your brain's health, then you might want to add fish to your weekly menu. According to a new study presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), people who eat a good portion of baked or broiled fish regularly reduce the risk of having mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and of getting Alzheimer's disease.

With many people around the world who may be suffering from these dreaded brain diseases, this study is definitely a significant step forward. Reportedly the first to directly connect eating baked or broiled fish and the prevention of MCI and Alzheimer's, the study showed that those who have fish at least once a week have better preservation of gray matter volume in brain areas that are most vulnerable to Alzheimer's disease. Gray matter volume is very important to brain health. High levels of gray matter indicate that all is well. Low levels, however, are proof that brain cells are shrinking.

For the study, the researchers gathered 260 cognitively sound individuals from the Cardiovascular Health Study. Then, using the National Cancer Institute Food Frequency Questionnaire, they were asked about their fish consumption habits. Results revealed that 163 patients ate fish on a weekly basis. Each of these patients were then made to undergo 3-D volumetric MRI of the brain and through a technique that measures gray matter, the researchers then checked to see how fish consumption affects brain structure at baseline as well as 10 years later. Social, physiological and even genetic factors aside, those who consumed baked and broiled fish weekly were found to be more likely to preserve gray matter in the brain.

"Consuming baked or broiled fish promotes stronger neurons in the brain's gray matter by making them larger and healthier," explained Cyrus Raji, MD, PhD, from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. "This simple lifestyle choice increases the brain's resistance to Alzheimer's disease and lowers risk for the disorder."

But before you leave to edit your weekly menu, keep in mind that fried fish is excluded from the formula. According to the study, fried fish does not do anything to help preserve brain health. If you really want to prevent MCI and Alzheimer's disease, stick to baking or broiling recipes instead.

Stop smoking, pulmonology experts urge

Stop smoking and lessen your predisposition to lung cancer. This was the message of pulmonology experts as they revealed that lung cancer is now the number one cancer type in the Philippines. In 2010, the Philippine Cancer Society (PCS) estimated a total of 11,458 new lung cancer cases in both males and females while the estimated number of deaths due to the disease would have been 9,184.

Pulmonologist and chairman on lung malignancy issues of the Philippine College of Chest Physicians (PCCP) Dr. Windfield Tan said smoking has been found as an established cause of lung cancer. A smoker is 8 to 10 times more at risk with lung cancer. A second-hand smoker is also at risk. A cigarette has some 43 to 63 carcinogenic (cancer-causing) chemicals but you will not immediately feel the effect. It will depend upon the length of your consumption and exposure to tobacco.

Tan spoke in a conference organized by the Philippine College of Physicians (PCP) as medical experts mark the National Cancer Consciousness month this January. Some studies suggest that non-smokers who are exposed to environmental tobacco smoke, also called second hand smoke, are at an increased risk of lung cancer. Second hand smoke is the smoke that non-smokers are exposed to when they share air space with someone who is smoking. Each year, about 3,000 non-smoking adults die of lung cancer as a result of breathing secondhand smoke. Quitting smoking not only cuts the risk of lung cancer it cuts the risks of many other cancers as well as heart disease, stroke, other lung diseases, and other respiratory illnesses.

Tan warned that lung cancer is not immediately detected. Sometimes, it is already at an advanced stage when it is medically-diagnosed. Symptoms of the disease include a cough that doesn't go away and gets worse over time, constant chest pain, coughing up blood, shortness of breath, wheezing, or hoarseness, repeated problems with pneumonia or bronchitis, swelling of the neck and face, loss of appetite or weight loss, and fatigue.

Source: Klinika Natin

Skin cancer drug reverses Alzheimer's in mice

(CNN) -- Scientists say they "serendipitously" discovered that a drug used to treat a type of cancer quickly reversed Alzheimer's disease in mice.

"It's really exciting," said Maria Carrillo, senior director for medical and scientific relations for the Alzheimer's Association. "They saw very positive and robust behavior effects in the mice."

In the study, researchers at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine gave mice mega-doses of bexarotene, a drug used to treat a type of skin cancer called cutaneous T-cell lymphoma. Within 72 hours, the mice showed dramatic improvements in memory and more than 50% of amyloid plaque -- a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease -- had been removed from the brain.

The study was published Thursday in the journal Science.

Gary Landreth, the lead researcher at Case Western, cautioned that even though his results were impressive in mice, it may turn out not to work in people.

"I want to say as loudly and clearly as possible that this was a study in mice, not in humans," he said. "We've fixed Alzheimer's in mice lots of times, so we need to move forward expeditiously but cautiously."

Mice -- and humans -- with Alzheimer's have high levels of a substance called amyloid beta in their brain. Pathology tests on the mice showed bexarotene lowered the levels of amyloid beta and raised the levels of apolipoprotein E, which helps keep amyloid beta levels low.

Landreth said he hopes to try the drug out in healthy humans within two months, to see if it has the same effect.

Those participating in the trial would be given the standard dose that cancer patients are usually given.

Researchers tested the memories of mice with Alzheimer's both before and after giving them bexarotene. For example, the Alzheimer's mice walked right into a cage where they'd previously been given a painful electrical shock, but after treatment with bexarotene, the mice remembered the shock and refused to enter the cage.

In another test, the scientists put tissue paper in a cage. Normal mice instinctively use tissues in their cage to make a nest, but mice with Alzheimer's can't figure out what to do with the tissues. After treatment with the drug, the Alzheimer's mice made a nest with the paper.

Carrillo said one of the major advantages of bexarotene is that it's already been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in humans, which means the researchers can move into human trials sooner than if it were a completely new drug.

The Alzheimer's Association is funding Case Western's next phase of research, which will involve using bexarotene at the levels used on cancer patients, Landreth said. Since the drug does have some side effects -- it can increase cholesterol, for example -- he hopes to use it in even lower levels as the study goes on.

Landreth said his lab had been working on other drugs for Alzheimer's for 10 years when a graduate student, Paige Cramer, decided to try bexarotene, which works on a receptor involved in amyloid beta clearance. Some other drugs that worked in mice were too toxic to use in humans.

"We're really lucky that bexarotene is a great drug with an acceptable safety profile," he said. "This doesn't happen very many times in life'"

Source: CNN News

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