|
|
| |
|
| |
|
- Chillies 'kill' cancer
New research claims that spicy chilli peppers can help kill cancer cells, inducing apoptosis and causing them to "commit suicide".
The team from University of California, Los Angeles, (UCLA) and the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute found that tumours in mice with prostate cancer were a fifth of the size of their compatriots when fed capsaicin, the active "spicy" chemical in chillies.
Writing in the journal Cancer Research, study author Dr Soren Lehmann said that "capsaicin had a profound anti-proliferative effect on human prostate cancer cells in culture".
The researchers claim that giving a human the weekly equivalent of three to eight habanera peppers – the hottest known peppers – would slow development of prostate cells and kill others.
Prostate cancer is the most common malignancy in men in the US and is said to be responsible for 221,000 deaths worldwide each year and 10,000 in Britain alone.
While the report's authors claim that eating equivalent of 120 jalapeno peppers every week would be good for men, others are more sceptical.
Chris Hiley, head of research at the Prostate Cancer Charity in the UK , said that while she found the research "interesting", she warned against men eating too many chilli peppers until there was a way to extract capsaicin.
"We caution men with prostate cancer in the UK against upping their weekly intake of the hottest known chillies," she said.
"High intake of hot chillies has been linked with stomach cancers in the populations of India and Mexico ."
The charity's advice until there was further research was that men should cut down on fatty foods, eat less red meat and take in more fruit and vegetables.
Unfortunately for men looking to follow this advice and increase their chilli intake, the most popular dishes containing chillies, such as jalfrezi or chilli con carne, are often high in fats and red meat.
© Adfero Ltd
- Baby antibiotics could cause asthma
Children under the age of one who are treated with antibiotics are twice as likely to develop asthma, a Canadian study has suggested.
Researchers from the University of British Colombia in Vancouver said multiple courses of antibiotics further increased the risk of childhood asthma developing.
Lead author of the study, Professor Carlo Marra, said: "Antibiotic use in children has been found to coincide with an increased incidence of childhood asthma.
"Although the causal nature between antibiotics and asthma is still unclear, our overall results show that treatment with at least one antibiotic as an infant appears to be associated with the development of childhood asthma."
Previous studies have suggested that antibiotics can kill of protective bacteria in the intestine which alters the way the body deals with the disease.
The researchers, who reported their findings in the US journal Chest, looked at 12,082 children and found that 1,817 of them had asthma.
They found that overall infants who were exposed to at least one antibiotic were twice as likely to develop the condition than those who did not take antibiotics.
The team also looked at data from five other studies which involved 27,167 children. It was found that each extra course of the drugs in children under one made them 1.16 times more likely to develop asthma.
"In children, antibiotics are commonly used to treat ear infections, upper respiratory tract infections, and bronchitis, but not every childhood infection requires an antibiotic," said the study's co-author Dr Fawziah Marra.
"Current guidelines recommend that children under age two receive an antibiotic for diagnosed ear infection.
"However, the majority of upper respiratory tract infections and bronchitis is viral for which antibiotics are ineffective."
Asthma UK says 5.2 million people in the UK are receiving treatment for asthma, 1.1 million of whom are children.
© Adfero Ltd
|
|
Read
Health & Medical News.... |
 |
|
|
