Will consuming a specific dose of grape seed extract prior to eating a high fat meal reduce the inflammatory response in people with the metabolic syndrome? In the Sacramento-Davis area, UC Davis is looking for participants for a grape seed extract study on the nutritional benefits of products from grape seeds. Check out the UC Davis website for the Grape Seed Extract Study. Sacramento and Davis scientists study the health benefits of blueberries and grape seed extract.
For further information on the healthful benefits of resveratrol combined with blueberries, see my other Examiner articles, "Does an alkaline diet with added blueberries increase your bone density?" and regarding resveratrol, see, "How to find reliable information on resveratrol."
Sacramento consumers would like to know how resveratrol and rapamycin might increase a beneficial fate hormone. How do resveratrol and rapamycin synergistically achieve their results? A new study now explains how a grape ingredient, resveratrol increases a beneficial fat hormone, according to a new study.
Grape Seed Extract Study at UC Davis in the Sacramento-Davis area
Researchers in the UC Davis Department of Nutrition are looking for individuals to determine whether taking grape seed extract prior to eating a high fat meal will reduce the inflammatory response in people with the metabolic syndrome; thereby possibly postponing the diagnosis of diabetes or other chronic inflammatory diseases.
UC Davis needs volunteers who:
- Are over age 21
- Are nonsmokers
- Have high blood pressure and two or more of the following: high waist circumference, high fasting glucose, low HDL cholesterol, and/or high triglyceride levels.
The Study's overview:
- Attend a screening visit to obtain written informed consent and have a blood draw to test for cholesterol levels.
- Attend two 7-hour study visits to our facility. A Registered Nurse will insert a catheter in your arm and take blood once per hour over the course of 7 hours. After the initial blood draw, we will provide you with either a placebo pill or a 300mg grape seed extract pill and a breakfast meal. These visits occur at the CTSC at the Mather VA in Rancho Cordova.
- Keep food records the 3 days prior to the study day; eat a similar evening meal before each study day.
Participants in the study will receive:
- Compensation.
- Results of screening blood work.
For further information and phone numbers, see the UC Davis Grape Seed Extract study's website.
Grape Ingredient, Resveratrol Increases a Beneficial Fat hormone
According to today's January 7, 2011 EurekAlert! news release, Grape ingredient resveratrol increases beneficial fat hormone," Grape ingredient resveratrol increases beneficial fat hormone," resveratrol, a compound in grapes, displays antioxidant and other positive properties. In a study published this week, researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio describe a novel way in which resveratrol exerts these beneficial health effects.
Check out the university's latest news release on that study at the university's own news site, "Grape ingredient resveratrol increases beneficial fat hormone." Read the abstract of the study which appears in the Jan. 7 2011 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
Resveratrol stimulates the expression of adiponectin, a hormone derived from cells that manufacture and store fat, the team found. Adiponectin has a wide range of beneficial effects on obesity-related medical complications, senior author Feng Liu, Ph.D., professor of pharmacology and member of the Barshop Institute of Longevity and Aging Studies at the Health Science Center explained in today's news release from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.
Both adiponectin and resveratrol display anti-obesity, anti-insulin resistance and anti-aging properties. “Results from these studies should be of interest to those who are obese, diabetic and growing older,” Dr. Liu said in the news release. “The findings should also provide important information on the development of novel therapeutic drugs for the treatment of these diseases.” The researchers confirmed the finding in cells and animal models.
Rapamycin and Resveratrol Studied for Beneficial Health Effects
In July 2009 in the journal Nature, the Barshop Institute and collaborators reported that the compound rapamycin extended life in mice. Rapamycin, like resveratrol, is under scrutiny for its beneficial health effects. Read the abstract of that study on rapamycin. In 2010, Dr. Liu and colleagues announced that resveratrol inhibits activity of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR).
This discovery was included in the prestigious Faculty of 1000 (F1000), a service that identifies and evaluates the most important articles in biology and medical research publications. The selection process involves a peer-nominated global 'faculty' of the world's leading scientists and clinicians who rate the best of the articles they read and explain their importance. A reviewer noted that the study, which appeared in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, would open up work in a new area: explaining how resveratrol and rapamycin synergistically achieve their results.
The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, one of the country’s leading health sciences universities, ranks in the top 3 percent of all institutions worldwide receiving National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding. Research and other sponsored program activity totaled a record $259 million in fiscal year 2009.
The university’s schools of medicine, nursing, dentistry, health professions and graduate biomedical sciences have produced approximately 26,000 graduates. The $744 million operating budget supports eight campuses in San Antonio, Laredo, Harlingen and Edinburg. For more information on related health and nutrition research, visit The University of Texas Health Science Center.
Sacramento-Davis regional area, UC Davis also focuses on studying how polyphenols work to stop inflammation in the human body
Sacramento consumers might like to know how phytochemicals in fruit such as polyphenols work in the human body to stop inflammation. How limited are researchers' knowledge of what's helpful and what's subtoxic when it comes to taking polyphenols? In the latest study of the health effects of polyphenols, there were concerns with the work on cell uptake of quercetin and resveratrol.
UC Davis studies resveratrol
In the Sacramento area, U.C. Davis also did a study on resveratrol. But in December 2010 another university published a different study on the health effects of resveratrol and quercetin. According to a December 23, 2010 news article from the Boston University Medical Center, "Study on effects of resveratrol and quercetin on inflammation and insulin resistance," this study researched the effects of resveratrol and quercetin on inflammation and insulin resistance. The findings opened up the question of how phytochemicals work in the human body to stop inflammation.
The researchers looked at resveratrol and quercetin from a clinical point of view, to study the role of phytochemicals acting as antioxidants and anti-inflammatory agents. Two years ago, in the Sacramento-Davis area, one of the results of a UC Davis study on resveratrol, a polyphenol, was a reduced incidence of diabetes in the mice studied. In humans, high calorie diets usually mean increased glucose and increased insulin levels that may lead to diabetes or frequent high-glucose (sugar) spikes.
Last Month's Study on How Resveratrol and Quercetin Effect Inflammation and Insulin Resistance at Boston University Medical Center
In a December 2010 study at Boston University Medical Center, (see "Study on effects of resveratrol and quercetin on inflammation and insulin resistance,") primary adipocytes were incubated with the polyphenols, but it is not clear whether or not the concentrations used were subtoxic. So as research continues, would you keep taking your resveratrol and quercetin supplements? Or would you try to get as polyphenols from fruits?
Can resveratrol and quercetin from foods be extremely important in inflammation-associated chronic conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer? Quercetin and resveratrol may indeed play an important role in this regard, according to the latest study. These phytochemicals from plants need to be investigated further to establish the clinical importance of natural dietary compounds in the prevention of chronic degenerative conditions.
Researchers carried out the current study to examine the extent to which quercetin and trans-resveratrol (RSV) prevented inflammation or insulin resistance in primary cultures of human adipocytes treated with tumor necrosis factor-a (TNF-a)—an inflammatory cytokine elevated in the plasma and adipose tissue of obese, diabetic individuals.
The Swedish study looked at the effects of resveratrol on rats. But rats are used in scientific studies to see how a substance reacts also with humans, since the genes are not as far apart as you'd believe.
The main point of the resveratrol study that you should be aware of is that resveratrol is a phytoestrogen. As a phytoestrogen, it's going to act like a phytoestrogen in your body. The phytoestrogen resveratrol is found in grapes, mulberries and peanuts, all of which are consumed regularly by humans.
Resveratrol is also used in chemotherapy against cancer and aging and as a cardioprotectant. The aim of the present study had focused on characterizing the effects of resveratrol on rat adrenal steroidogenesis and to study the underlying mechanism.
The big picture for us humans is that we have to consider, do we want our corticosterone production suppressed? And do we want our cytochrome inhibited? Check out on of the 'older' studies from 2006. That study reported in the Harvard Medical School newsletter article of how resveratrol extended the life span of obese mice, "Small Molecule Increases Lifespan and 'Healthspan' of Obese Mice."
Sacramento's Anti-Aging Movement
Are Sacramento consumers familiar with BodyLogicMD of Sacramento? It's about eating healthier in 2011 emphasizing what and how to eat for total health. Check out the website of BodyLogicMD of Sacramento, where Dr Ghelfi shares his weight-loss wisdom.
According to a January 6, 2011 Sacramento news release, losing weight is a common New Year's resolution every year, and this year is no different. But there's more to it than simply deciding that you want to be thinner and healthier.
Many Americans struggle with weight loss, even when they are trying to eat right and exercise. But now, BodyLogicMD of Sacramento physician Bob Ghelfi, M.D ., shares his insight here on what and how to eat to keep that tricky resolution.
While counting calories will put you on the right track, there's more to weight loss than just limiting how much you eat. According to Dr. Ghelfi, "Most people don't recognize how many calories they're eating or how few calories they need to eat. And many don't just eat too many calories relative to their activity levels, but they eat the wrong calories. I generally recommend that patients eat fewer calories overall and consume more calories from protein."
So, how much protein do you need? "I stress the importance of getting in about a third of your calories from protein," says Ghelfi. And how often you eat is important, too. "I try to get patients to spread out their meals so they're eating every three hours of so."
But if you want to shed those excess pounds, you'll probably need to exercise, too. "There's no way for most people to be thin without exercising," Ghelfi warns. But that doesn't mean you have to be a fitness god. Simple changes in your daily habits can work wonders.
Ghelfi's recommendation? "Just walk every day, even if it's just a half hour every day. And if every day is too much, just commit to something, even if it's just three or four days a week, half an hour a day."
Dr. Ghelfi even has an easy way for people to accomplish this: "Move your treadmill into where your TV is, and get on it while you're watching TV." This simple recommendation even has extra benefits. According to Ghelfi, "People usually eat while they're watching TV, and they don't eat good stuff." By moving your treadmill into your TV room, you can go from vegging out to working out, and kill two unhealthy birds with one weight-shedding stone.
Who is Sacramento's Dr. Ghelfi ? The physician received his medical degree from Loma Linda University in California in 1986. In 1987, following a one-year internship at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Dr. Robert Ghelfi completed his Residency in Surgery at the University of Utah Affiliated Hospitals in 1991.
Dr. Ghelfi then pursued his surgical practice at the Northern California Surgical Group in Redding, CA. Robert Ghelfi, M.D. is board certified in General Surgery. He is an active Fellow in the American College of Surgeons, as well as an active member of the Fellowship for Anti-Aging and Regenerative Medicine.
BodyLogicMD, founded in 2003, is a physician-owned practice making up the nation's largest and fastest growing network of the most highly trained physicians specializing in natural bioidentical hormone replacement therapy.
Integrated with fitness and nutrition programs, BodyLogicMD's medically supervised programs are for men and women suffering from hormone imbalance associated with menopause and andropause.
BodyLogicMD is currently featured as an expert resource on Oprah.com; Suzanne Somers' latest bestselling books "Knockout: Interviews With Doctors Who Are Curing Cancer And How To Prevent Getting It In The First Place" and "Breakthrough: Eight Steps to Wellness" lists BodyLogicMD as an expert resource, and her book, "Ageless: The Naked Truth About Bioidentical Hormones" dedicates an entire chapter to BodyLogicMD.
Florida Trend cover story December 2009, features BodyLogicMD as the national leaders in the growing anti-aging industry; BusinessWeek cover story March 2006, features the BodyLogicMD business start-up story. If bioidentical hormones interests you for further information, find bioidentical hormone doctors in Sacramento and get more information about BodyLogicMD bioidentical hormone therapy programs.
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