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| Dr. Enrique Jacome |
Eating three or more servings of blueberries and strawberries per week may help women reduce their risk of a heart attack by as much as one-third, researchers reported in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
Blueberries and strawberries contain high levels of naturally occurring compounds called dietary flavonoids, also found in grapes and wine, blackberries, eggplant, and other fruits and vegetables. A specific sub-class of flavonoids, called anthocyanins, may help dilate arteries, counter the buildup of plaque and provide other cardiovascular benefits, according to the study.
"Blueberries and strawberries can easily be incorporated into what women eat every week," said Eric Rimm D.Sc., senior author and Associate Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Mass. "This simple dietary change could have a significant impact on prevention efforts."
Blueberries and strawberries were part of this analysis simply because they are the most-eaten berries in the United States. Thus, it's possible that other foods could produce the same results, researchers said.
Scientists from the Harvard School of Public Health in the United States and the University of East Anglia, United Kingdom conducted a prospective study among 93,600 women ages 25 to 42 who were registered with the Nurses' Health Study II. The women completed questionnaires about their diet every four years for 18 years.
During the study, 405 heart attacks occurred. Women who ate the most blueberries and strawberries had a 32-percent reduction in their risk of heart attack compared to women who ate the berries once a month or less - even in women who otherwise ate a diet rich in other fruits and vegetables.
"We have shown that even at an early age, eating more of these fruits may reduce risk of a heart attack later in life," said AedÃn Cassidy, Ph.D., lead author and head of the Department of Nutrition at Norwich Medical School of the University of East Anglia in Norwich, United Kingdom.
The findings were independent of other risk factors, such as age, high blood pressure, family history of heart attack, body mass, exercise, smoking, caffeine or alcohol intake.
The American Heart Association supports eating berries as part of an overall balanced diet that also includes other fruits, vegetables and whole-grain products. Eating a variety of foods is the best way to get the right amounts of nutrients.
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| Dr. Enrique Jacome |
Breastfeeding can be a difficult time for both mother and baby, so using cabbage leaves and tea bags to ease pain or eating oatmeal to increase milk production are among the folk remedies that women pass along to new mothers seeking help.
As experts in this field, lactation specialists were surveyed to see how often they pass along this folklore to breastfeeding mothers, despite a lack of research-based evidence to support these suggestions, according to a recent survey by Dr. Jonathan Schaffir, an obstetrician at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.
Results of the survey are published in Breastfeeding Medicine.
The online survey of 124 lactation consultants affiliated with U.S. medical centers in 29 states found that 69 percent reported hearing of folk remedies, and 65 percent had recommended at least one of these methods.
Survey respondents were asked to provide examples of advice they had heard of, as well as advice they routinely passed on to breastfeeding mothers. Advice was broken into five categories: recommendations to promote lactation, to initiate breastfeeding, to treat pain associated with breastfeeding, to assist with weaning, and about substances to avoid for the baby's sake.
The survey found that certain folk remedies are widely discussed among experts, particularly herbal remedies to increase milk production and cabbage leaves to ease pain from breastfeeding. They suggest that recommending folk remedies that are outside of the medical mainstream is a common practice among lactation consultants who advise women about breastfeeding.
"Despite the frequency with which such advice is given, there is little empirical evidence to support the use of most the remedies listed," said Schaffir. "But I'm all for anything that helps and is safe for the baby."
More than half of the lactation consultants who responded to the survey said they had heard of and passed on a folklore remedy intended to either increase milk production or ease/prevent pain associated with breastfeeding. Many respondents said they were aware of folklore recommendations to avoid certain foods to prevent infant gassiness, but only two educators relayed this advice to patients.
For example, using beer to promote milk production is a folk tradition of long standing that was in the spotlight when celebrity Mariah Carey was accused of endangering her twins for following it. This folk tradition began in the late 1800s, but no studies have demonstrated a positive impact in milk production.
In fact, maternal alcohol consumption has been demonstrated to decrease milk production, and may have an adverse effect on the baby, Schaffir said. Many cultures also encourage mothers to eat oatmeal to increase milk production, but no studies have been conducted to examine its use.
Folk traditions that aid with breast pain or engorgement were also mentioned, including using cabbage leaves, even though studies have questioned their effectiveness.
Several lactation consultants recommend tea bags to help women deal with nipple soreness, but a randomized trial of breastfeeding women with pain demonstrated that tea bags offered no additional benefit than a water compress, Schaffir said. A review of studies that examine treatment for nipple pain concluded that there was no significant benefit to the use of tea bags, lanolin or expressed milk on the nipple.
The lactation consultants who made recommendations based on folklore compared with those who only made medical recommendations did not have any significant difference in relation to age, parity, education, experience or socioeconomic status.
The folk traditions communicated in this survey represent a particular culture in the United States, and folklore in general varies by culture and background. Surveys of lactation consultants in different countries and different ethnicities may yield different results, Schaffir notes.
"With the attention given to these remedies, this survey may spur future research to objectively measure whether such recommendations are actually safe and effective, rather than relying solely on anecdotal evidence," Schaffir said.
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| Dr. Enrique Jacome |
Piraye Yurttas Beim, PhD, Founder and CEO of the biotech firm Celmatix Inc., and a leading international expert in the genetics of female infertility, presented A Report from the Front Lines of the Personalized Reproductive Medicine Revolution at the Futures in Reproduction Conference at the Churchill College, Cambridge, a two- day meeting celebrating the spirit of inquiry personified by Nobel Prize winner Professor Sir Robert Edwards.
In the not so distant future, Dr. Beim predicts things will be very different for women who struggle with infertility. The pairing of "big data" analytics with genomics is helping Celmatix decipher the genetic drivers of infertility and usher in an era of personalized reproductive medicine by determining which treatments work best for individuals and developing targeted therapies and treatment plans, something that is being done in cancer treatment already.
Celmatix uses big data and the power of machine learning analytics to interpret personalized clinical data, such as hormone levels and age, to understand how specific patients compare to millions of other women with similar conditions. By pairing these analytics with the world's first whole genome sequences of women with unexplained infertility and premature menopause, Celmatix is paving the way for personalized treatments and recommendations.
"We're here to celebrate Bob Edwards' dream, and the conviction that it's possible to overcome infertility," said Dr. Beim. "This is a very exciting time for reproductive medicine. Scientists are helping women extend their biological lifespan through gamete and embryo preservation, and the majority of couples who are able to persist with fertility treatments such as IVF achieve the goal of starting a family."
"But challenges still remain," she adds. "The people who are least likely to benefit from current treatments often end up in the system for the longest, with round after round of failed cycles. And even people who succeed often have to go through several failed treatment cycles until physicians determine what finally works through a sequential process of trial and failure."
Dr. Beim says the statistics are compelling: 68% of IVF treatment cycles in women under 40 do not result in a live birth. Of 7.3 million American women with infertility problems, about 40% pursue treatment, while the other 60% avoid what they fear will be an expensive and emotionally taxing process. And, infertility is a global issue. Approximately 56% of assisted reproductive technology (ART) procedures are performed in Europe. In addition to the large European market, roughly 50 million couples in China and India are currently seeking infertility treatment.
However, she says, change is on the horizon. Cancer patients are already benefiting from the use of targeted therapies and companion diagnostics, and the time is ripe for the reproductive medicine field to start leveraging these powerful personalized paradigms. The cost of DNA sequencing and data storage is plummeting and there is widespread adoption of electronic medical records, which not only help collect big data and assist in the development of bio repositories but store a valuable body of personal phenotypic data that can help shape/direct individualized treatment when evaluated through sophisticated analytics.
"Look at what has happened in the 12 short years since the first genome was sequenced," says Dr. Beim. "We now have 30,000 genomes sequenced, and we've all heard that the $1000 genome is just around the corner. But reproductive medicine faces unique challenge, and several pieces of the puzzle need to come together before we solve the riddle of infertility and reduce the 'noise' in our datasets to simplify the problem."
Dr. Beim explained that Celmatix is tackling the problem by pairing big data analytics with genomics; building the FertilomeTM Database as a filtering tool and discovery engine; and looking at possible biomarkers for infertility. This work will lead over the coming years to the development of the world's first noninvasive, companion genetic diagnostic test to guide infertility treatment and identify women at risk for premature menopause.
"Understanding the genetic drivers of infertility is step one in the direction of personalizing reproductive medicine," she says. "Having diagnostics that can differentiate who treatments work for better than others is good first step. But the real promise is then to be able to pair this information with targeted therapies."
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