ISLAMABAD  – Adequate folic acid and vitamin B intake could help reduce vascular disease risk in patients, a study released here said.
Conducted by Sir Ganga Ram Hospital and Jamia Millia Islamia, the study said foods containing vitamin B, like potato, greens, beans and fish and animal products, should be consumed regularly.
“Plasma homocysteine concentrations, responsible for plaque formation that lead to blockage of arteries have a negative relation with vitamin B12 levels in patients with stroke and deep vein thrombosis and with folate levels in patients with coronary artery and cerebrovascular disease,” said the study.
Seema Bhargava, lead author of the study and senior consultant, Department of Biochemistry, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, said, “Large-scale corrective measures like food fortification or dietary supplementation with folate and B-12 might benefit the Indian population and reduce the incidence and morbidity of vascular disease.”
“It would be pertinent to suggest that scientists, clinicians and policy-makers in our country should further evaluate the relevance of food fortification with folate and vitamin B12 so as to correct nutritional deficiencies as well as reduce risk for vascular disease - the double benefit for the double burden of disease in the developing countries,” she said.
Pregnant women sleeping on their back risk stillbirth
Pregnant women who sleep on their back may increase the risk of miscarriage or stillbirth, a five-year Australian study has found.
The research titled the “Sydney Stillbirth Study” looked at pregnancies of 295 women from eight hospitals around Australia, the Daily Mail reported.
The study found that women who sleep on their back are six times more likely to have a stillborn baby.A stillborn baby is a baby born dead after 24 weeks of pregnancy. If the baby dies before 24 completed weeks, it is known as a late miscarriage.
Lead researcher Adrienne Gordon, from Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, said previous research suggested prolonged periods of lying in this position restricted blood flow to the baby. It is believed that sleeping on the right side or on the back reduces blood flow through a major vein from the legs to the heart, which affects the supply to the womb, the study said.
However, the researchers said it was important that women who are currently pregnant “Don’t become alarmed if they sometimes sleep on their back”.
Experts said three-quarters of pregnant women sleep mostly on the left side.
The daily said this may suggest they instinctively choose a sleeping position that works best for the baby.
In almost half of stillbirths, the direct cause of the baby’s death cannot be established.
Ten percent of stillborn babies have some kind of abnormality and other possible causes include problems with the mother’s health or problems with the placenta, which links the baby’s blood supply to that of the mother.
Stillbirth Foundation Australia, which funded the study, said the research was unique as it looked exclusively at women who were more than 32 weeks pregnant.
In 2011, a University of Auckland study found that mothers who slept on their back or right-hand side on the night before giving birth were twice as likely to have a stillborn child compared to those who slept on their left.
21 genes linked to cholesterol levels identified
An international consortium carried out the largest-ever genetic study of cholesterol and other blood lipids and identified 21 new gene variants associated with risks of heart disease and metabolic disorders.
The findings expand the list of potential targets for drugs and other treatments for lipid-related cardiovascular disease, a leading global cause of death and disability.
The International IBC Lipid Genetics Consortium used the Cardiochip, a gene analysis tool invented by Brendan J Keating, PhD, a scientist.
Since its creation in 2006, researchers have used the Cardiochip to pinpoint gene variants in dozens of studies. The device contains approximately 50,000 DNA markers across 2000 genes implicated in cardiovascular disease.
Keating and Fotios Drenos, PhD are senior authors of the current study.
Comprising over 180 researchers worldwide, the consortium analyzed genetic data from over 90,000 individuals of European ancestry. First the researchers used the Cardiochip in a discovery dataset of over 65,000 individuals from 32 previous studies. They then sought independent replication in other studies covering over 25,000 individuals, as well as in a previously reported study of 100,000 individuals.
From this meta-analysis, the consortium identified 21 novel genes associated with levels of low-density lipoproteins (LDL, or “bad cholesterol”), high-density lipoproteins (HDL, “good cholesterol”), total cholesterol (TC), and triglycerides (TG), as well as verifying 49 known signals.
The researchers also found that some of the strongest signals appeared to be gender-specific-some variants were more likely to appear in men, others in women.
“To date, this is the largest number of DNA samples ever used in a study for lipid traits, it clearly shows the value of using broad-ranging global scientific collaborations to yield new gene signals,” Keating said.
Drenos added, “While each of the genetic variants has a small effect on the specific lipid trait, their cumulative effect can significantly add up to put people at risk for disease.”
“This study underscores how international sharing of resources and datasets paves the way for robust, continuing discoveries of new and unexpected information from human genetic studies,” he added.