People with Type 2 diabetes may benefit from a daily glass of wine, a study said.
Israeli researchers randomly assigned 224 patients, all alcohol abstainers with well-controlled Type 2 diabetes, to drink 5 ounces of either mineral water, white wine or red wine with dinner. All followed a Mediterranean diet without calorie restrictions.
After two years, compared with the water-drinkers, those who drank red wine had increased their HDL (or "good") cholesterol by about 10 percent, and significantly decreased their ratio of total cholesterol to HDL. These positive changes did not happen in white wine drinkers.
Weight gain and later bedtimes
There may be a link between later bedtimes and weight gain, new research suggests.
Researchers studied 3,342 adolescents starting in 1996, following them through 2009. At three points over the years, all reported their normal bedtimes, as well as information on fast food consumption, exercise and television time. The scientists calculated body mass index at each interview.
After controlling for age, sex, race, ethnicity and socioeconomic status, the researchers found that each hour later bedtime during the school or workweek was associated with about a two-point increase in BMI.
Calcium doesn't help bone density
Calcium, eaten in foods or taken as supplements, has little or no effect on bone density or the risk of fracture in people over 50, according to two large reviews of studies in BMJ.
Together, the trials included 13,790 men and women over 50. The data showed that more calcium in the diet or taken as supplements increased bone density about 1 percent to 2 percent — too little to have any effect on fractures.
Thyroid cancer up near Fukushima
A study found children living near the Fukushima nuclear meltdowns have been diagnosed with thyroid cancer at a rate 20 to 50 times that of children elsewhere, a difference the authors contend undermines the government's position that more cases have been discovered in the area only because of stringent monitoring.
The study by the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology was released online this month.
No breast-feeding link found to IQ
Breast-feeding has many benefits, but a new study suggests that it has no effect on a child's IQ from toddlerhood through adolescence.
The idea that breast-feeding might have an effect on cognition is plausible, because long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids, which are important in neurological development, are more plentiful in breast-fed babies.
British researchers' study of 11,582 children appears in PLOS One.
News services
