Shaped Like an Apple? Beware Kidney Disease

Are apples bad for the kidneys? The answer is yes, if you're talking about an apple-shaped body in which fat is concentrated in the abdominal area.

Researchers in the Netherlands have found that excess abdominal or belly fat— as seen in the so-called apple-shaped body, as opposed to the pear-shaped body where the fat is lower down on the hips and buttocks — can significantly raise the risk of kidney disease even among people with a modest-size belly and who are generally not overweight.

While the connection between obesity and kidney disease has long been established, this latest study is the first to show how just a small increase in abdominal fat begins to strain the kidneys, reducing the blood flow to these organs and raising the local blood pressure within them. [

The study appears today (April 11) in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.
The kidneys are two bean-shaped organs, just below the rib cage, that remove waste from the blood stream and send it out of the body as urine. People can function well with just one kidney. Nevertheless, chronic kidney disease is on the rise. More than 10 percent of American adults now have some form of kidney disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Among diabetics, 35 percent have kidney disease.

Most forms of kidney disease have no cure, except through a kidney transplant from a healthy donor. Kidney disease is the eighth leading cause of death in the United States, according to the CDC, and approximately 90,000 Americans are waiting for a transplant.

To further investigate the known connection between obesity and kidney disease, researchers led by Arjan Kwakernaak, a medical doctor and a Ph.D. candidate at the University Medical Center Groningen in the Netherlands, analyzed kidney profiles and waist-to-hip ratios in 315 healthy individuals with an average body mass index (BMI) of about 25 kg/m2. The waist-to-hip ratio is a measure of central body fat distribution; and a BMI of 25 is considered the upper border or normal weight.

Even among healthy subjects, higher waist-to-hip ratios were directly associated with lower kidney function, lower kidney blood flow and higher blood pressure within the kidneys.

"We found that apple-shaped persons — even if totally healthy and with a normal blood pressure — have an elevated blood pressure in their kidneys," Kwakernaak said. "When they are also overweight or obese, this is even worse."

An apple-shaped body was associated with a twofold-increased risk of high renal blood pressure, seen in both men and women, Kwakernaak said.
The researchers don't know why this is happening. The reason is not because fat is weighing down on kidneys, crushing them, Kwakernaak said. The researchers speculate that the cause might be from the fat triggering inflammation or insulin resistance, which can impede blood flow, or fat creating free radicals, which can damage the kidneys at a cellular level.

"Our study now provides a possible mechanism for this increased renal risk" seen in obesity, for further investigation, Kwakernaak told LiveScience.
As for anyone with a pear-shaped body, you're not off the hook. Researchers at University of California Davis found that gluteal adipose tissue — that is, that fat around the backside, thought to be harmless, if not useful for sitting for long periods — secretes proteins associated with inflammation and insulin resistance, the latter being a precursor to diabetes. Their study was published last month in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.

No word yet, though, from researchers on the healthfulness of a starfruit-shaped body.

credit:livescience.com

Angelina Jolie opens school in Afghanistan

Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie has reportedly opened a school in Afghanistan through her newly-established foundation - The Education Partnership for Children of Conflict.

The 37-year-old has funded the girls educational establishment that caters to about 200 to 300 students. The school is located just outside Kabul and the actress hopes it will be the first of many schools she sets up.

Jolie is also planning to fund more schools by selling her own self-designed accessories collection, the Style of Jolie, to retail stores for the first time with 100 percent profits going to her foundation. 

"Beyond enjoying the artistic satisfaction of designing these jewels, we are inspired by knowing that our work is also serving the mutual goal of providing for children in need," femalefirst.co.uk quoted Jolie as saying.

The actress, who is also United Nations Goodwill Ambassador, is known for her charity work. Last year, Jolie was left in tears after visiting a Syrian refugee camp.

credit:newindianexpress.com

Quantum Cryptography: On Wings of Light

Can worldwide communication ever be fully secure? Quantum physicists believe they can provide secret keys using quantum cryptography via satellite. Unlike communication based on classical bits, quantum cryptography employs the quantum states of single light quanta (photons) for the exchange of data. Heisenberg's uncertainty principle limits the precision with which the position and momentum of a quantum particle can be determined simultaneously, but can also be exploited for secure information transfer. Like its classical counterpart, quantum cryptography requires a shared key with which the parties encode and decode messages. However, quantum mechanical phenomena guarantee the security of quantum key distribution. Because quantum states are fragile, interception of the key by an eavesdropper will alter the behavior properties of the particles, and thus becomes detectable.

This encrypting strategy is already being used by some government agencies and banks. Data are sent either along glass-fiber cables or through the atmosphere. However, optical key distribution via these channels is limited to distances of less than 200 km, due to signal losses along the way. In 2007, LMU physicist Harald Weinfurter and his group successfully transmitted a key over 144 km of free space between ground stations on the islands of Tenerife and La Palma. Distribution of such keys via satellite networks would make secure data transmission possible on a global scale.

Optical data from a mobile transmitter

A team led by Weinfurter and Sebastian Nauerth at the Physics Faculty at LMU Munich, in collaboration with the German Center for Aeronautics and Space Research (DLR), has now succeeded in optically transmitting quantum information between a ground station and a plane in flight. This is the first time that quantum cryptography has been used for communication with a mobile transmitter.

The quantum channel was integrated into DLR's laser-based, wireless communications system, allowing DLR's expertise and experience with the system to be utilized in the realization of the experiment.

"This demonstrates that quantum cryptography can be implemented as an extension to existing systems," says LMU's Sebastian Nauerth. In the experiment, single photons were sent from the aircraft to the receiver on the ground. The challenge was to ensure that the photons could be precisely directed at the telescope on the ground in spite of the impact of mechanical vibrations and air turbulence. "With the aid of rapidly movable mirrors, a targeting precision of less than 3 m over a distance of 20 km was achieved," reports Florian Moll, project leader at the DLR's Institute for Communication and Navigation. With this level of accuracy, William Tell could have hit the apple on his son's head even from a distance of 500 m.

With respect to the rate of signal loss and the effects of air turbulence, the conditions encountered during the experiment were comparable to those expected for transmission via satellite. The same holds for the angular velocity of the aircraft. The success of the experiment therefore represents an important step towards secure satellite-based global communication.

CREDIT:sciencedaily.com

Eat fish, add 2 yrs to your life

Older adults with higher levels of blood omega-3 levels —fatty acids found almost exclusively in fish and seafood — are likely to lower their overall mortality risk by 27% and mortality risk from heart disease by about 35%, a new Harvard School of Public Health and the University of Washington study has found. 
   
 It found older adults with highest blood levels of the fatty acids on an average lived 2.2 years longer than those with lower levels. Earlier studies have shown that consuming baked or broiled fish reduced the risk of Alzheimer’s disease by almost five-fold. The latest results showed that people who did so at least once a week had better preservation of grey matter volume on MRI in brain areas at risk for Alzheimer’s disease. 
   
 In MCI, memory loss is present, but to a lesser extent than in Alzheimer’s. People with MCI often go on to develop Alzheimer’s. Grey matter volume is crucial to brain health. When it remains higher, brain health is maintained. Decrease in grey matter volume indicate that brain cells are shrinking. “Although eating fish has long been considered part of a healthy diet, few studies have assessed blood omega-3 levels and total deaths in older adults,” said lead author Dariush Mozaffarian. “Our findings support the importance of adequate blood omega-3 levels for cardiovascular health, and suggest that later in life these benefits could actually extend the years of remaining life.” 
   
 The study is the first to look at how objectively measured blood biomarkers of fish consumption relate to total mortality.

credit: TNN

Easter Science: 6 Facts About Jesus

He may be the most famous man who ever lived, but surprisingly little is known about his life.

This Sunday (March 31), more than 2 billion Christians will celebrate Jesus Christ's resurrection from the dead. While there is no scientific way to know whether that supernatural event at the heart of Christianity actually happened, historians have established some facts about his life.

From his birth to his execution by the Romans, here are six facts about the historical Jesus.

1. His birth … in a manger?
Most historians believe Jesus was a real man. To test the veracity of biblical claims, historians typically compare Christian accounts of Jesus' life with historical ones recorded by Romans and Jews, most notably the historians Flavius Josephus and Cornelius Tacitus.
And though a manger may or may not have figured prominently in the birth, scholars do agree that Jesus was born between 2 B.C. and 7 B.C. as part of the peasant class in a small village called Nazareth in Galilee. Historians also back the claim that Joseph, Jesus' father, was a carpenter, meaning Jesus would have gone into the family profession as well.
2. A mystical baptism
One of the pivotal moments in the New Testament is Jesus' baptism in the wilderness by a radical mystic named John the Baptist. Most historians believe this event actually occurred, and that Jesus experienced some sort of vision that led him to begin preaching. In the New Testament, Mark 1:10 (The New American Bible, Revised Edition) describes Jesus seeing "the heavens being torn open and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon him." Jesus is then tempted by Satan in the wilderness for 40 days, the passage continues.
The Jewish historian Josephus mentions the mystical activities of John the Baptist, as well as his execution by King Herod.

3. Reformer
After his vision, Jesus began to preach that the Earth could be changed into a "Kingdom of God." Jesus' message of reform was deeply rooted in the Jewish tradition, and he likely never viewed himself as creating a new religion per se — just reforming the one he was born into, scholars say.
4. A wise teacher
Josephus not only mentions Jesus, in one passage he also describes him as a wise man and a teacher. (The passage is controversial because many historians believe a Christian author later added in phrases such as "He was the messiah" to the text, leading a few scholars to doubt the authenticity of the passage as a whole). Most historians agree, however, that Jesus was viewed as a teacher and healer in Galilee and Judea.
5. Timing of Jesus' crucifixion
Several sources mention Jesus' crucifixion at the hands of Pontius Pilate, the Roman prefect. Christian Gospels say the skies darkened for hours after the crucifixion, which historians viewed either as a miracle or a portent of dark times to come. Using astronomy, later historians have used this mention to pinpoint the death of Christ. Some tie the crucifixion to a one-minute 59-second total solar eclipse that occurred in 29 C.E., whereas others say a second total eclipse, blocking the sun for four minutes and six seconds, in 33 C.E. marked Jesus' death. (C.E. stands for Common Era or Christian Era, and is an alternative name for anno Domini, or A.D.)
Death by crucifixion was one of the goriest ends the Romans meted out, and it was typically reserved for slaves and those seen to be challenging Roman authority.
6. Historical relics
The historical veracity of various physical relics, such as the crucifixion nails and crown of thorns Jesus wore on the cross, have decidedly less historical or scientific backing. Most scientific studies suggest that these relics originated long after Jesus died. But the most famous relic of Jesus, the shroud of Turin, may be on more solid footing: Whereas some parts of the shroud date to A.D. 1260, other analyses have suggested that the shroud is about as old as Jesus.
Another more recent finding, a scrap of papyrus from the early Christian era referring to Jesus' wife was unveiled last year, to much skepticism. Since then, evidence has come out to suggest the so-called Gospel of Jesus' Wife is a forgery, though the jury may still be out on that relic.

credit:livescience.com

You Are What You Eat

A pair of papers published in Cell by A.J. Marian Walhout, PhD, co-director of the Program in Systems Biology and professor of molecular medicine at UMMS, describe how metabolism and physiology are connected to diet. Using C. elegans, a transparent roundworm often used as a model organism in genetic studies, Dr. Walhout and colleagues observed how different diets produce differences in gene expression in the worm that can then be linked to crucial physiological changes.

"In short, we found that when C. elegans are fed diets of different types of bacteria, they respond by dramatically changing their gene expression program, leading to important changes in physiology," said Walhout. "Worms fed a natural diet of Comamonas bacteria have fewer offspring, live shorter and develop faster compared to worms fed the standard laboratory diet of E. coli bacteria."

Walhout and colleagues identified at least 87 changes in C. elegans gene expression between the two diets. Surprisingly, these changes were independent of the TOR and insulin signaling pathways, gene expression programs typically active in nutritional control. Instead, the changes occur, at least in part, in a regulator that controls molting, a gene program that determines development and growth in the worm. This connection provided one of the critical links between diet, gene expression and physiology detailed in "Diet-induced Development 

Acceleration Independent of TOR and Insulin in C. elegans." "Importantly, these same regulators that are influenced by diet in the worms control circadian rhythm in humans," said Lesley MacNeil, PhD, a postdoctoral student in the Walhout Lab and first author on the paper. "We already know that circadian rhythms are affected by diet. This points to the real possibility that we can now use C. elegans to study the complex connections between diet, gene expression and physiology and their relation to human disease."

Strikingly, Walhout and colleagues observed that even when fed a small amount of the Comamonas bacteria in a diet otherwise composed of E. coli bacteria, C. elegans exhibited dramatic changes in gene expression and physiology. These results provide the tantalizing possibility that different diets are not "healthy" or "unhealthy" but that specific quantities of certain foods may be optimal under different conditions and for promoting different physiological outcomes.

"It's just as true that a small amount of a 'healthy' food in an otherwise unhealthy diet could elicit a beneficial change in gene expression that could have profound physiological effects," said Walhout.

Additional research by the Walhout Lab further explored the possibility of using C. elegans as a model system to answer complex questions about disease and dietary treatment in humans. Detailed in the "Integration of Metabolic and Gene Regulatory Networks Modulates the C. elegans Dietary Response," Walhout and colleagues found that disrupting gene expression involved with C. elegans metabolism lead to metabolic imbalances that interfered with the animal's dietary response; a result that may have a direct correlation to the treatment of a class of human genetic diseases.

"To better understand the molecular mechanisms by which diet effects gene expression in the worm, we performed complimentary genetic screens looking for genes that gave an abnormal response to diet," said Emma Watson, a doctoral student in the Walhout Lab and co-first author on the secondCell study together with Dr. MacNeil. "What we discovered was a large network of metabolic and regulator genes that can integrate internal cellular nutritional needs and imbalances with external availability," said Watson. "This information is then communicated to information processing genes in the worm to illicit the appropriate response in the animal."

These findings suggest the existence of a genetic regulatory network that facilitates rapid responses to internal physiological and external environmental cues in order to maintain a metabolic balance in the worm. Interestingly, a similar phenomenon is involved in mutations that lead to inborn metabolic diseases in humans; classes of genetic diseases resulting from defects in genes that code for enzymes which help convert nutrients into usable materials in the cell. These diseases are usually treated by dietary interventions designed to avoid build-up of toxins and to supplement patients with metabolites that may be depleted.

According to Dr. Walhout, it may be possible to use this genetic regulatory network in C. elegans to compare how certain dietary regimens can be used to mitigate these metabolic diseases. It may also be used to screen for drugs or other small molecules that can produce the same results as dietary treatments.

Though Walhout and colleagues started out asking a fundamental dietary question in the worm, what they got was an answer directly related to disease and treatment in humans, thus establishing C. elegans as a model system for elucidating the mechanisms for dietary responses, inborn metabolic diseases and the connections between them.

"It's very hard to answer questions about the complex interaction between diet, gene expression and physiology in humans for many reasons," said Walhout. "Now, we can use a very tractable system -- namely C. elegans -- to ask precise questions about which components in diet can effect gene expression and physiological traits and ultimately disease, in humans."

CREDIT:sciencedaily.com