Science: hot cocao really is good for you
GENEVA, N.Y., Nov. 6 (UPI) -- Just in time for winter, here's good news from the nutrition front: A Cornell study shows hot cocoa delivers more antioxidants than even tea or red wine.
Researchers at Cornell University have shown that the popular winter beverage contains more antioxidants per cup than a similar serving of tea or red wine.
The study adds to growing evidence of the nutritional value of cocoa's antioxidants, widely believed to fight cancer, heart disease and aging, the researchers say.
Their study will appear in the Dec. 3 issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Chemical Society.
"Although we know that antioxidants are important for good health, nobody knows the exact daily amount required per person," says Chang Yong Lee, head of the study and a professor of food chemistry in Cornell's Department of Food Science and Technology.
"Nevertheless, a cup or two of hot cocoa every once in a while can provide a delicious, warm and healthy way to obtain more antioxidants."
Depression and sleep apnea linked
STANFORD, Calif., Nov. 6 (UPI) -- People with depression are five times as likely to have a breathing-related sleep disorder as non-depressed people, a Stanford study shows.
The Stanford University School of Medicine study is the first to link depression and sleep apnea.
"Physicians who see people with depression shouldn't stop at the first diagnosis, but instead look into the presence of a breathing-related sleep disorder," said Maurice Ohayon, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences. His study appears in the current issue of the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.
Symptoms of the disorder include such breathing anomalies as chronic, disruptive snoring and obstructive sleep apnea syndrome, a disorder in which people stop breathing for brief periods up to hundreds of times a night.
Left untreated, the disorders can lead to hypertension, stroke and cognitive deterioration.
"This type of disorder increases a person's chances of feeling sleepy and irritable, having a dispute with a family member or colleague, or getting into a traffic accident," Ohayon said.
New therapy aims at mending broken hearts
WASHINGTON, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- International researchers report encouraging signs from a new kind of therapy aimed at doing something long thought impossible: mending broken hearts.
Purpose of the experimental procedure is to grow new heart muscle through the injection of healing cells into a damaged heart from other parts of the body. It is hoped the cells would take root and develop into healthy muscle.
It has only been tested directly in people in a handful of studies in Europe, the United States and Brazil, each involving a dozen or so patients at most. But, so far the results have been tantalizingly promising, the Washington Post reported Thursday.
A spate of new positive results will be presented next week at the American Heart Association's annual meeting in Florida. If all continues to go well, some experts are speculating, cell therapy for heart disease could become standard within five years.
Senator credits UPI report on poor GI care
WASHINGTON, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., Thursday credited UPI for triggering big improvements in medical care for hundreds of sick and wounded soldiers, many Iraq veterans.
Bond, co-chair of the Senate National Guard Caucus, took to the Senate floor to describe steps being taken to confront problems first reported by UPI Oct. 17.
"It is our understanding that the Senate Armed Services committee, as well as its House counterpart, are going to conduct hearings into the conditions uncovered by Mark Benjamin and confirmed by (Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.) and my investigation," Bond said.
Last month, UPI reported more than 600 soldiers, mostly from the National Guard and Army Reserve, were waiting weeks or months for doctors at Fort Stewart, many in squalid cement barracks with no air conditioning or running water. UPI also reported more than 400 soldiers faced long waits for care at Fort Knox, Ky.
"I regret very much, as all of us do, that this situation occurred," Bond said. He also credited Steve Robinson, executive director of the National Gulf Resource Center, with helping demonstrate "a significant problem with the care and treatment of returning Guardsmen and Reserves coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan to Fort Stewart."
