Blood pressure reductions were seen in the 50 percent of the patients who consumed a medium amount of dietary salt.

Simply avoiding pre-salted foods and not adding salt to foods can result in a modest but statistically significant reduction in blood pressure, study findings suggest.
A modest reduction in dietary salt, measured by sodium content in the urine by about 35 percent and lowered daytime blood pressure by 12.1 mm Hg systolic and 6.8 mm Hg diastolic in patients with high blood pressure (hypertension) not taking anti-hypertensive medications, reports Dr. Javad Kojuri. Blood pressure readings at night were slightly lower, according to Reuters.
Kojuri and Dr. Rahim Rahimi, both from Shiraz University in Iran, assessed blood pressure and 24-hour urinary sodium excretion in 60 individuals before and after instructing them to follow a “no salt added“ diet for 6 weeks.
Twenty subjects who did not follow the diet were used as a comparison group (’controls’). All of the subjects were similar in age, gender, weight, blood pressure, and initial urinary sodium excretion.
The average age was 49, half were men, and all of the patients had mild to moderate hypertension, according to the report, published in the medical journal BMC Cardiovascular Disorders.
After 6 weeks, the researchers noted a significant reduction in urinary sodium excretion in those on the diet, compared with those not on the diet.
The blood pressure reductions were seen even in the 50 percent of the patients who consumed a medium amount (3 to 7 grams/day) of dietary salt and the 25 percent of the patients who ingested 7 or more grams per day. Only 21 percent of the subjects consumed less than 3 grams of salt daily.
These results provide strong support for universal salt reduction in all hypertensive individuals, the researchers conclude, but the limited size of this study “mandates larger scale, population based studies to (further) evaluate the effect of a ’no salt added’ diet,“ Kojuri told Reuters Health.

Researchers at MIT have devised remotely controlled nanoparticles that, when pulsed with an electromagnetic field, release drugs to attack tumors. The innovation, reported in the Nov. 15 online issue of Advanced Materials, could lead to the improved diagnosis and targeted treatment of cancer.
In earlier work the team, led by Sangeeta Bhatia, M.D.,Ph.D., an associate professor in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences & Technology (HST) and in MIT’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, developed injectable multi-functional nanoparticles designed to flow through the bloodstream, home to tumors and clump together. Clumped particles help clinicians visualize tumors through magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), Physorg.com said.
With the ability to see the clumped particles, Bhatia’s co-author in the current work, Geoff von Maltzahn, asked the next question: “Can we talk back to them?“
The answer is yes, the team found. The system that makes it possible consists of tiny particles (billionths of a meter in size) that are superparamagnetic, a property that causes them to give off heat when they are exposed to a magnetic field. Tethered to these particles are active molecules, such as therapeutic drugs.
Exposing the particles to a low-frequency electromagnetic field causes the particles to radiate heat that, in turn, melts the tethers and releases the drugs. The waves in this magnetic field have frequencies between 350 and 400 kilohertz-the same range as radio waves. These waves pass harmlessly through the body and heat only the nanoparticles. For comparison, microwaves, which will cook tissue, have frequencies measured in gigahertz, or about a million times more powerful.
The tethers in the system consist of strands of DNA, “a classical heat sensitive material,“ said von Maltzahn, a graduate student in HST. Two strands of DNA link together through hydrogen bonds that break when heated. In the presence of the magnetic field, heat generated by the nanoparticles breaks these, leaving one strand attached to the particle and allowing the other to float away with its cargo.
One advantage of a DNA tether is that its melting point is tunable. Longer strands and differently coded strands require different amounts of heat to break. This heat-sensitive tuneability makes it possible for a single particle to simultaneously carry many different types of cargo, each of which can be released at different times or in various combinations by applying different frequencies or durations of electromagnetic pulses.
To test the particles, the researchers implanted mice with a tumor-like gel saturated with nanoparticles. They placed the implanted mouse into the well of a cup-shaped electrical coil and activated the magnetic pulse. The results confirm that without the pulse, the tethers remain unbroken. With the pulse, the tethers break and release the drugs into the surrounding tissue.

Scientists report they have found a way to reduce smokers’ nicotine dependence while allowing them to continue smoking.
Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, and San Francisco General Hospital Medical Center had 20 healthy adult smokers smoke their usual brand for a week and then had them undergo a six-week regimen of smoking cigarettes with progressively decreased nicotine content, UPI said.
At the end of the six weeks, the study participants were free to return to their usual commercial cigarette brand. Most did, but the study-- published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention--found 25 percent of the smokers quit smoking while the study was in progress.
In addition, when tested one month later, the study subjects who were still lighting up were smoking about 40 percent fewer cigarettes per day, with a comparable reduction in nicotine intake, compared to when the study began, the researchers said.
Tobacco company products market low-nicotine alternatives, but they do not change the level of nicotine taken in by smokers, study leader Dr. Neal Benowitz said.

The Earth seen emerging over the moon's horizon on November 7.

Japan’s space agency said Nov. 16 it has shot the first high-definition image of the Earth rising, showing a crystal clear blue planet emerging from the moon’s horizon.
The images were taken by Japan’s Kaguya probe, which is carrying out the most extensive investigation of the moon since the Apollo missions of the United States that began in the 1960s, AFP said.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said in a statement that the agency, working with Japan’s public broadcaster NHK, had “successfully performed the world’s first high-definition image of an earthrise“.
The images show a brilliant blue globe with a white top at Antarctica against a backdrop of pitch black space.
Australia is visible as a lightish brown island, as are the craters of the moon’s surface.
The first image of the Earth was taken in 1959, when US Explorer VI took the first photo from space while passing over the Pacific Ocean.
Images of the Earth quickly became icons for the growing environmentalist movement amid concerns that modern industry was destroying the planet.
The Kaguya took the image of a nearly-full Earth as it traveled some 100 kilometers (62 miles) above the moon’s surface.
“We may also try to shoot images of a full Earth,“ JAXA spokesman Akinori Hashimoto said.
The 55-billion-yen (495-million-dollar) Kaguya probe, named after a fairytale princess, was launched from southern Japan in mid-September.
The agency plans to begin the main part of the moon study in mid-December, including a review of the lunar gravity fields, Hashimoto said.
Japan has been expanding its space operations and has set a goal of sending an astronaut to the moon by 2020.

British scientists have genetically engineered crops such as oilseed rape to produce fish oil, offering a new approach to improving diet.
Experiments by British scientists have proved that crops containing genes from marine organisms are able to produce omega 3 fatty acids, normally found in oily fish, the BBC reported.
Scientists at Rothamsted Research in Harpenden, Hertfordshire, north of London, isolated key genes from a species of microscopic single-celled marine algae known as Thalassiosira pseudonana, inserted the genes into crops such as linseed and oil seed rape, and found that the plants were able to synthesize omega 3 fatty acids in their seed oils.
“We know that this works, we’ve done proof of concept studies in model plants and also in crop plants and we can see the accumulation of some of the fish oils we’re interested in,“ research group leader Johnathan Napier said.
Concerns over dwindling fish stocks and marine pollution has led researchers to seek an alternative source of long-chain omega 3 fatty acids.
Omega 3 fatty acids are made not by the fish themselves but by the marine microbes they consume.
Omega 3 fatty acids have important health benefits, especially for the heart.
The scientists’ eventual aim is to feed GM-enhanced oils to animals such as chickens and cattle, in order to produce omega 3-enriched meat, milk and eggs.

Effluents from industrial or municipal sources may contain hundreds to thousands of chemicals.

A new study suggests that a holistic approach is needed in assessing the potential environmental and health effects of toxic effluent from industry.
Studies of industrial effluent toxicity usually focus on a single contaminant, such as an environmental or marine pollutant, a potential carcinogen, or a toxic heavy metal. However, according to Tatjana Tisler of the National Institute of Chemistry, in Ljubljana, and Jana Zagorc-Koncan of the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, toxicity tests of effluent using bacteria generally underestimate the total toxicity, ScienceDaily said.
Effluents from industrial or municipal sources may contain hundreds to thousands of chemicals, but only a few are responsible for aquatic toxicity. Simply adding together the individual toxicities of each chemical present is not a reliable way to predict the total toxicity of effluent, the researchers say. An underestimation of whole-effluent toxicity could have seriously detrimental effects on the marine environment.
The researchers point out that the prediction of waste water toxicity usually does not take into account any possible interactions between the compounds in the wastewater sample. The presence of a particular chemical may make another more easily absorbed by aquatic creatures or plants, for instance. Moreover, some highly toxic chemicals may go undetected in a complex waste water mixture.
By testing waste water samples from a tannery, a pharmaceutical plant, and a chemical factory, the researchers were able to demonstrate the presence of key toxic chemicals in the samples and their toxic effects on bacteria, algae, daphnids and fish.
Their tests demonstrated a higher toxicity of the whole sample compared with tests carried out on individual pollutants. “Our results obtained clearly demonstrate the importance of using the ’whole-effluent’ toxicity approach for a reliable assessment of wastewater quality,“ the researchers say.

A group of researchers of the University of Modena has investigated the role of psychological well-being in premature delivery. The study is reported in a recent issue of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics.
According to Medicalnewstoday.com, the aim of this study was to evaluate how sociodemographic factors, psychosocial adaptation to pregnancy and well-being levels are associated with the onset of preterm uterine contractions allowing symptomatic preterm labor. In a prospective case-control design, 51 consecutive women admitted for threatened preterm labor were enrolled.
The patients received standard care. The day before discharge, once contractions had been stopped, the patients were administered 2 questionnaires: the Prenatal Self-Evaluation Questionnaire of Lederman and the Psychological Well-Being Scales. Controls were enrolled among asymptomatic, healthy women attending routine prenatal care.
They were matched for parity and gestational age. Gestational age at inclusion ranged from 25 to 34 weeks. Fourteen cases and 4 controls delivered preterm. Cases were less educated than controls, showed a lower acceptance of pregnancy and worse relationship with others, namely with the husband, compared to controls.
They also displayed a reduced environmental mastery. Having a low education, poor relationship with others, including the husband, and impaired coping skills appeared to be independent risk factors for the development of symptomatic preterm labor in urbanized women.

The inability to express emotions (alexithymia) is thought to be hereditary. The largest study so far has provided new data in the current issue of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics.
The role of genetic and environmental factors for developing alexithymia is still unclear, and the aim of this study was to examine these factors in a large population-based sample of twins, ScienceDaily reported.
The Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (TAS-20) was included in a mail survey of 46,418 individuals born between 1931 and 1982 and registered with the Danish Twin Registry. The response rate was 75.3 percent. A total of 8,785 twin pairs, where both cotwins had completed all items of the TAS-20, were selected for this study.
Analyses were conducted for total TAS-20 scores and the subscales of
(1) difficulties in identi
fying feelings,
(2) difficulties in
describing feelings,
and
(3) externally oriented thinking.
The phenotypes were analyzed both as categorical and continuous data. All measures of similarity suggested that genetic factors added to all facets of alexithymia.
Structural equation modeling of the noncategorical data, an ACE model including additive genetic, shared environmental and nonshared environmental effects, provided the best fit for all three facets of alexithymia as well as total alexithymia scores, with heritabilities of 30-33 percent and the remaining variance being explained by shared (12-20 percent) and nonshared environmental effects (50-56 percent).
The results from this large population-based sample suggest that genetic factors have a noticeable and similar impact on all facets of alexithymia. While the results suggested a moderate influence of shared environmental factors, our results are in concordance with the general finding that environmental influences on most psychological traits are primarily of the nonshared rather than the shared type.