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Research Archive

Welcome to our Chinese medicine and acupuncture research news pages. We add to the content of these pages continuously as more research news comes in. Browse through the complete archive below or use the category links on the right.

Please note that the most twenty recent research archive items are free to view but access to the thousands of items in the archive require a journal subscription.

Broccoli could reverse diabetic heart damage

Categories: Diet research

Eating broccoli could reverse diabetes-induced damage to coronary blood vessels, according to a British research team. The scientists tested the effect of sulforaphane, a compound found in the vegetable, on human vascular endothelial cells that had been damaged by hyperglycaemia. They found that sulforaphane reversed the glucose-mediated increase in cell-damaging reactive oxygen species (ROS) by 7 ...

Red yeast rice good for heart

Categories: Diet research

A large clinical study carried out in China, on patients who had suffered a heart attack, found that an extract of Chinese red yeast rice (hong qu mi) significantly reduced the rate of a second heart attack. Red yeast rice is a produced by fermentation using the mould Monascus purpureus. It contains significant quantities of a naturally occurring statin (lovastatin), which is an HMG-CoA reductase ...

Soya bad for sperm

Categories: Diet research

Eating soya-based food may lower sperm count and play a role in male infertility, especially in obese men, according to Harvard researchers. Intake of 15 soya-based foods in the previous three months was assessed for 99 male partners of subfertile couples who presented for semen analysis. The study found that was an inverse association between soya intake and sperm concentration that remained sign ...

Coffee may be good

Categories: Diet research

Higher coffee consumption is associated with lower liver cancer risk. A cohort of 60,323 Finns completed a questionnaire about their medical history, socioeconomic factors and dietary and lifestyle habits. Participants were divided into five categories of coffee consumption: 0-1 cup, 2-3 cups, 4-5 cups, 6-7 cups, and 8 or more cups per day. After a follow-up period of 19.3 years, 128 participants ...

Coffee and tea protect against stroke

Categories: Diet research

Drinking large quantities of coffee or tea every day appears to protect male smokers against stroke. A large cohort study (26,556 subjects) of male Finnish smokers (aged 50 to 69), showed that those who consumed eight or more cups of coffee per day had a 23% lowered risk for cerebral infarction, whereas those who drank two or more cups of black tea daily had a 21% lowered risk for this type of str ...

Vegan diet protects RA patients from cardiovascular disease

Categories: Diet research

Eating a gluten-free vegan diet could protect rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients against heart attacks and stroke. Sixty-six Swedish patients with active RA were randomly assigned to either a vegan diet free of gluten or a well-balanced non-vegan diet for one year. The gluten-free vegan diet was found to lower body mass index, LDL-cholesterol, and oxidized LDL, as well as raising levels of natural ...

Vitamin c lowers diabetes risk

Categories: Diet research

Another cohort study from the UK has found that higher plasma vitamin C levels are associated with a decreased risk for type 2 diabetes. 21,831 people aged 40-75 underwent baseline measurement of plasma vitamin C levels and were then followed over twelve years using a food frequency questionnaire. The authors concluded that there was a strong inverse association between vitamin C and diabetes risk ...

Mediterranean diet prevents diabetes

Categories: Diet research

A Mediterranean diet provides significant protection against type 2 diabetes. A cohort of 13,380 Spanish graduates completed food frequency questionnaires over a 4.4 year follow-up. Participants who adhered closely to a Mediterranean diet (rich in olive oil, vegetables, fruits, nuts, cereals, legumes, and fish but relatively low in meat and dairy) showed an 83% relative reduction in the risk of de ...

A glass of wine for your liver's sake

Categories: Diet research

Modest wine consumption, defined as one glass a day, may decrease your chances of developing non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). 7,211 non-drinkers and 945 modest wine drinkers were screened for elevated liver enzyme levels associated with NAFLD. Based on this, suspected NAFLD was observed in 3.2% of non-drinkers and 0.4% of modest wine drinkers. (Modest wine drinking and decreased prevalen ...

Almonds promote growth of good bacteria

Categories: Diet research

Tests in a device that simulates the human digestive system have concluded that almonds can act as an effective prebiotic, stimulating growth of the probiotic bacteria that are beneficial to the body. (Potential prebiotic properties of almond (Amygdalus communis L.) seeds. Appl Environ Microbiol. 2008 Jul;74(14):4264-70).

Dash for heart health

Categories: Diet research, Hypertension

Adherence to the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet is associated with a lower risk of coronary heart disease and stroke among middle-aged women. Researchers followed the food choices and health status of more than 88,000 American women for almost 25 years. Those with those eating habits were closest to the DASH diet, which recommends fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat milk ...

Plant foods preserve muscle mass

Categories: Diet research

Western diets rich in protein, cereal grains and other acid-producing foods lead to the development of metabolic acidosis with age, triggering muscle wastage. American researchers looked at links between lean body mass and dietary intake of potassium-rich, alkaline-residue producing fruits and vegetables, which help neutralise acidosis. Analysis of data from nearly 400 male and female volunteers a ...

Flavonoids protect smokers against cancer

Categories: Diet research

A case-control study of 558 lung cancer cases has found that lung cancer is inversely associated with the consumption of antioxidant plant flavonoids among tobacco smokers, but not among non-smokers. In addition, consumption of vegetables, tea, and wine, all of which are rich sources of flavonoids, was associated inversely with lung cancer among tobacco smokers. (Dietary flavonoid intake and lung ...

Sweet drinks linked to gout

Categories: Diet research

Consumption of sugar sweetened soft drinks and fructose is strongly associated with an increased risk of gout in men. In a study of Canadian health professionals, 46,393 men with no history of gout at baseline provided information on intake of soft drinks and fructose through food frequency questionnaires. During the 12 years of follow-up, 755 cases of gout were reported. Increasing intake of suga ...

Oats for cholesterol reduction

Categories: Diet research

A review of recent research strongly supports the link between eating oatmeal and lowering cholesterol levels. The authors report that studies conducted during the past 15 years have, without exception, shown that consumption of oats and oat-based products significantly reduces total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL, the "bad" cholesterol) concentrations without a ...

Steam your greens

Categories: Diet research

Some cooking methods can preserve, and even boost, the nutrient content of vegetables. Italian scientists evaluated the effects of three commonly used cooking methods - boiling, steaming, and frying - on the nutrient content of carrots, courgettes and broccoli. Water-cooking treatments maintained the antioxidant content of the vegetables, while frying caused a significantly higher loss of antioxid ...

Mediterranean diet and regular exercise prevent death

Categories: Diet research

Eating a Mediterranean diet reduces the risk of death from all causes, including cardiovascular disease and cancer. Researchers assessed conformity with the Mediterranean diet in 380,296 of the participants of the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study, with no history of chronic disease. Components of the diet included vegetables, legumes, fruits, nuts, whole grains, fish, alcohol and meat, and a high ra ...

High meat intake linked to cancer

Categories: Diet research

Data from a very large US health study are providing convincing information on the links between various diet and lifestyle factors and a variety of diseases. Researchers used data from a cohort study, which began in 1995 (the National Institutes of Health-American Association for Retired Persons (NIH-AARP) Diet and Health Study) and involves approximately 500,000 men and women aged 50-71 at basel ...

Honey better than drugs for kids night-time coughs

Categories: Diet research

Honey is more effective at soothing children's night-time coughs than over-the-counter antitussive medication. An American study of 105 children aged 2-18 years compared the effects of a single nocturnal dose of buckwheat honey or honey-flavoured dextromethorphan (DXM) with no treatment, on nocturnal cough and sleep difficulty associated with childhood upper respiratory tract infections. Significa ...

Obesity linked with cancer risk

Categories: Diet research

Being overweight increases the risk of developing many forms of cancer. A meta-analysis by UK researchers combined data from 221 studies, including over 250,000 cases of cancer, to determine the risk of cancer associated with a 5kg/m2 increase in body mass index (BMI). The researchers found that in men, a 5kg/m2 increase in BMI raised the risk of oesophageal adenocarcinoma by 52%, thyroid cancer b ...