March 2009

A combination of folic acid and vitamins B-6 and B-12 may reduce the risk of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) by 34%, according to a new study.

In addition, the combined B-vitamin supplements were associated with a 41% reduced risk of visually significant AMD, according to findings of a randomized, double-blind clinical trial involving 5,442 women age 40 and older.

The researchers, led by William Christen from the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, published their findings in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Research built on the findings of recent studies that reported a correlation between AMD and blood levels of an amino acid called homocysteine, linked to dysfunction of the blood vessel lining. Added to this are observations that supplementation with vitamins B-6 and B-12 and folic acid may reduce homocysteine levels and reverse this blood vessel dysfunction.

Christen and his co-workers recruited women with heart disease or at least three risk factors for the disease. Of these, 96% of the women did not have AMD at the start of the study. The women were randomly assigned to receive either placebo or a combination of folic acid (2.5 mg per day), vitamin B-6 (50 mg per day) and vitamin B-12 (1 mg per day).

Over the course of 7.3 years of intervention and follow-up, the researchers documented 137 new cases of AMD, of which 70 cases were visually significant.

The combined B-vitamin supplement was associated with a 34% lower risk of any AMD and a 41% lower risk of visually significant AMD, said the researchers. "The beneficial effect of treatment began to emerge at approximately two years of follow-up and persisted throughout the trial," wrote the authors. "The trial findings reported herein are the strongest evidence to date in support of a possible beneficial effect of folic acid and B-vitamin supplements in AMD prevention," they added.

The results of the study apply to the early stages of disease development. "From a public health perspective, this is particularly important because persons with early AMD are at increased risk of developing advanced AMD, the leading cause of severe, irreversible vision loss in older Americans," researchers said.

Commenting on the potential mechanism, Christen and his co-workers noted that, beyond lowering homocysteine levels, other modes of action include antioxidant effects and improved function of blood vessels in the eye.

Archives in Internal Medicine 169(4):335-341, 2009.

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Find Time for Tea to Slash Chance of Stroke

March 2009

Drinking three or more cups of green or black tea a day may reduce the risk of stroke by 21%. And the more you drink, the greater the cuts in stroke risk, according to a meta-analysis of nine studies involving 4,378 strokes among 194,965 individuals.

"What we saw was that there was a consistency of effect of appreciable magnitude,” said lead author Lenore Arab. "By drinking three cups of tea a day, the risk of stroke was reduced by 21%. It didn’t matter if it was green or black tea.”

The study was published in the journal Stroke, and the findings were also presented at the American Heart Association’s annual International Stroke Conference in San Diego, CA.

Green tea contains between 30% and 40% of water-extractable polyphenols, while black tea (green tea that has been oxidized by fermentation) contains between 3% and 10%.

The four primary polyphenols found in fresh tea leaves are epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), epigallocatechin (EGC), epicatechin gallate (ECG) and epicatechin (EC).

Arab and her co-workers pooled data from the nine studies, all of which reported stroke occurrence and tea consumption in humans. Compared to people who drank less than a cup of tea a day, drinking three cups a day was associated with a 21% reduction in the risk of stroke.

The researchers also report a linear association with another three cups reducing the risk by another 21%.

No one is certain which compounds in tea are responsible for these potential effects, said Arab. Some researchers have suggested that EGCG or the amino acid theanine may be responsible.

Stroke Published online ahead of print.

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Blueberries May Reduce Childhood Cancer Risk

March 2009

Extracts from blueberries may reduce the size of tumors primarily found in infants and children, and improve survival, a new study with mice suggests.

According to results from Ohio State University, mice fed a blueberry extract doubled their lifespan and had tumors 60% smaller than those in control mice.

Writing in the journal Antioxidants & Redox Signaling, the researchers reported their findings against tumors in walls of blood vessels called hemangionendotheliomas (HE), which affect about three percent of children. Such tumors usually occur within four weeks of birth and more often affect premature infants. Although such tumors are often resolved naturally, they may reoccur and cause deformity, and can be life-threatening if they obstruct the airways.

"This work provides the first evidence demonstrating that blueberry extract can limit tumor formation by inhibiting the formation of blood vessels and inhibiting certain signaling pathways," said lead author Gayle Gordillo. "Oral administration of blueberry extract represents a potential therapeutic strategy [against] endothelial cell tumors in children."

The research could boost further the healthy image of the berry, already firmly engrained in consumers’ minds for its apparent cholesterol-lowering abilities, as well as indications that the fruit could offer protection from neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s.

Gordillo and her co-workers investigated if oral consumption of blueberry extracts could be effective in managing HE and, if so, what the mechanism could be.

Mice received different doses of the extract, with a dose-dependent decrease in HE tumor size recorded, in addition to "significantly enhanced survival," said the researchers.

"Our hope is that if we feed blueberry juice to a child with this type of tumor, we can intervene and shrink the tumor before it becomes a big problem," said Gordillo. "Our next step is a pilot study with humans to see if we can measure response to the treatment using imaging techniques and the monitoring of chemical changes in the urine."

Antioxidants & Redox Signaling 11(1):47-58, 2009

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