Study examines use of fat grafting for postmastectomy breast reconstruction

Date: June 28, 2017

Source: The JAMA Network Journals

Summary:

The use of fat grafting as a tool for breast reconstruction following a mastectomy may improve breast satisfaction, psychosocial well-being, and sexual well-being in patients, according to a study.

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            The use of fat grafting as a tool for breast reconstruction following a mastectomy may improve breast satisfaction, psychosocial well-being, and sexual well-being in patients, according to a study published by JAMA Surgery.

Fat grafting as an adjunct to breast reconstruction involves harvesting fat cells from the abdomen or thighs via liposuction, isolating the adipocytes (fat cells) by removing any extra material, and then injecting it in small amounts to the deficient areas of the reconstruction. Fat grafting has proven to be a useful adjunct to breast reconstruction for the treatment of contour irregularities and volume deficits, but the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is considering regulations that may severely limit the ability of plastic surgeons to continue its use for this purpose. Jeffrey H. Kozlow, M.D., M.S., of the University of Michigan Health System, Ann Arbor, and colleagues conducted a study that included 2,048 women who underwent breast reconstruction after mastectomy.
              Of these women, 165 (8 percent) underwent fat grafting between years 1 and 2 after surgery. One year postoperatively, patients who later underwent fat grafting reported significantly lower breast satisfaction, psychosocial well-being, and sexual well-being, compared with those who did not receive subsequent fat grafting. Following the procedure, the fat-grafted group reported similar breast satisfaction for these measures two years postoperatively.
           "By providing multicenter, prospective data confirming the benefits of autologous fat grafting as a useful adjunct in breast reconstruction, we hope that this study will contribute to the ongoing discussion with payers and regulators over the safety and effectiveness of these procedures. Our findings should bolster the ongoing assertion that fat grafting is an important tool in breast reconstruction and that this option should remain available to reconstructive surgeons and to the patients they serve," the authors write.
A limitation of the study was that as with any nonrandomized study design, the findings may have been attributable to unknown confounders not controlled for in the analysis.

Older adults who take five or more medications walk slower than those who take fewer medications

Date: June 27, 2017

Source: American Geriatrics Society

Summary:

The ability to walk well is a sign of independence and good health for older adults, for example, and it may be affected by the use of multiple medications. Although healthcare providers know that some treatments can slow or hamper an older person's ability to walk, little is known about the effects of polypharmacy on walking while performing other tasks, like talking. In a new study, researchers examined how polypharmacy affected walking while talking.

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           "Polypharmacy" is the term used when someone takes many (usually five or more) different medications. Experts suggest that, for most older adults, taking that many medications may not be medically necessary. Taking multiple medications also can be linked to problems such as falls, frailty, disability, and even death. Polypharmacy also is a problem for older adults due to side effects or interactions resulting from the use of different medications. Older adults may have difficulties taking the medications properly, and the medications may interfere with a person's ability to function well.

The ability to walk well is a sign of independence and good health for older adults, for example, and it may be affected by the use of multiple medications. Although healthcare providers know that some treatments can slow or hamper an older person's ability to walk, little is known about the effects of polypharmacy on walking while performing other tasks, like talking. In a new study, researchers examined how polypharmacy affected walking while talking. They published their study in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
            The researchers examined information from 482 people age 65 and older who were enrolled in the "Central Control of Mobility in Aging" study. That study's main purpose was to determine how changes to the brain and our central nervous system occur during aging, and how they might impact an older person's ability to walk.
Researchers confirmed the medications (prescriptions as well as herbal and other over-the-counter supplements) study participants were taking. The researchers defined "polypharmacy" as using five or more of these treatments.
            Participants took detailed exams assessing physical health, mental well-being, and mobility at the start of the study and at yearly follow-up appointments. Among other evaluations, the researchers measured the participants' walking speed. None of the participants used walking aides (such as canes or walkers) or monitors. The participants were asked to walk at their normal pace on a special 20-foot long walkway, and to walk while talking. The research team also interviewed the participants to learn about their medical conditions, ability to think and make decisions, and brain function.
Among the 482 participants in the study, 34 percent used five or more medications during the study period (June 2011-February 2016); 10 percent used more than eight medications. The participants were mostly in their late 70s.
          People in the polypharmacy group were more likely to have high blood pressure, congestive heart failure, diabetes, and a history of heart attacks. They were also more likely to have had a fall within the last year and were more overweight than people in the non-polypharmacy group.
After accounting for chronic health problems, a history of falls, and other issues, the people in the polypharmacy group had a slower walking speed (or gait) than the people in the non-polypharmacy group. Those who took 8 or more medications had slower walking speed when walking while talking. The researchers concluded that there was a link between polypharmacy and walking speed, and that more studies would be needed to follow-up on their findings and the effect specific medications might have on overall well-being.
          The researchers also noted that at their check-ups, older adults should be asked about all the medications they take, including herbal and other over-the-counter supplements. They also suggested that healthcare professionals measure walking speed during regular check-ups.

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What's on your skin? Archaea, that's what

Study on human skin microbiome finds archaea abundance associated with age

Date: June 28, 2017

Source: DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Summary:

It turns out your skin is crawling with single-celled microorganisms -- and they're not just bacteria. A study has found that the skin microbiome also contains archaea, a type of extreme-loving microbe, and that the amount of it varies with age.

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Hoi-Ying Holman, director of the Berkeley Synchrotron Infrared Structural Biology (BSISB) Program, has developed a technique using the Advanced Light Source to rapidly screen cells to tell if they're bacteria or archaea.

Credit: Marilyn Chung, Berkeley Lab

            It turns out your skin is crawling with single-celled microorganisms -- and they're not just bacteria. A study by the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the Medical University of Graz has found that the skin microbiome also contains archaea, a type of extreme-loving microbe, and that the amount of it varies with age.

The researchers conducted both genetic and chemical analyses of samples collected from human volunteers ranging in age from 1 to 75. They found that archaea (pronounced ar-KEY-uh) were most abundant in subjects younger than 12 and older than 60. Their study has been published in Scientific Reports (a Nature journal) in an article titled, "Human age and skin physiology shape diversity and abundance of Archaea on skin."
            "The skin microbiome is usually dominated by bacteria," said Hoi-Ying Holman, director of the Berkeley Synchrotron Infrared Structural Biology (BSISB) Program and a senior author on the paper. "Most of the scientific attention has been on bacteria, because it's easier to detect. Based on the literature, six years ago we didn't even know that archaea existed on human skin. Now we've found they're part of the core microbiome and are an important player on human skin."
The study was a joint effort of Holman, Berkeley Lab postdoctoral fellow Giovanni Birarda (now a scientist at Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste in Italy), UC Berkeley postdoctoral fellow Alexander Probst (now associate professor at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany), and Christine Moissl-Eichinger, the corresponding author of the study. Moissl-Eichinger and her team at the Medical University of Graz in Austria and at the University of Regensburg in Germany analyzed the genetic features of the skin microbiomes.
          In addition to the influence of age, they found that gender was not a factor but that people with dry skin have more archaea. "Archaea might be important for the cleanup process under dry skin conditions," said Moissl-Eichinger. "The results of our genetic analysis (DNA-based quantitative PCR and next-generation sequencing), together with results obtained from infrared spectroscopy imaging, allowed us to link lower levels of sebum [the oily secretion of sebaceous glands] and thus reduced skin moisture with an increase of archaeal signatures."
                                                                                                                                                                        More than skin deep
             It was not until the 1970s that scientists realized how different archaea were from bacteria, and they became a separate branch on the tree of life -- the three branches being Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukarya (which includes all plants and animals). Archaea are commonly found in extreme environments, such as hot springs and Antarctic ice. Nowadays it is known that archaea exist in sediments and in Earth's subsurface as well, but they have only recently been found in the human gut and linked with the human microbiome.
Holman's focus is on developing synchrotron infrared spectroscopy techniques to look at biological or ecological systems. Using Berkeley Lab's Advanced Light Source (ALS), one of the world's brightest sources of infrared beams, the Holman Group developed a rapid and label-free method to screen cells and immediately tell if they're bacteria or archaea.
           "The challenges in microbial profiling are speed, throughput, and sample integrity," she said. "We spent years developing this technique and could not have done it without the unique resources of the ALS."
But the dearth of studies on skin archaea is not just because of technical limitations. The researchers assert that the lack of age diversity in the sampling in previous studies was also a factor. "Sampling criteria and methods matter," Holman said. "We found middle-aged human subjects have less archaea; therefore, the archaeal signatures have been overlooked in other skin microbiome studies."
                                                                                                                                                                             From astronauts to archaea
            This study stemmed from a planetary protection project for NASA and the European Space Agency. "We were checking spacecraft and their clean rooms for the presence of archaea, as they are suspected to be possible critical contaminants during space exploration -- certain methane-producing archaea, the so-called methanogens, could possibly survive on Mars," Moissl-Eichinger said. "We did not find many signatures from methanogens, but we found loads of Thaumarchaeota, a very different type of archaea that survives with oxygen."
At first it was thought the Thaumarchaeota were from the outside, but after finding them in hospitals and other clean rooms, the researchers suspected they were from human skin. So they conducted a pilot study of 13 volunteers and found they all had these archaea on their skin.
          As a follow-up, which is the current study, they tested 51 volunteers and decided to get a large range in ages to test the age-dependency of the archaeal signatures. Samples were taken from the chest area. The variations in archaeal abundance among the age groups were statistically significant and unexpected. "It was surprising," Holman said. "There's a five- to eightfold difference between middle-aged people and the elderly  that's a lot."
                                                                                                                                                                        Role in human health still a question
          Their study focused on Thaumarchaeota, one of the many phyla of archaea, as little evidence of the others was found in the pilot study. "We know that Thaumarchaeota are supposed to be an ammonia-oxidizing microorganism, and ammonia is a major component of sweat, which means they might play a role in nitrogen turnover and skin health," Holman said.
In collaboration with Peter Wolf of the Medical University of Graz, the team also correlated archaeal abundance with skin dryness, as middle-aged persons have higher sebum levels and thus moister skin than the elderly.
So far, most archaea are known to be beneficial rather than harmful to human health. They may be important for reducing skin pH or keeping it at low levels, and lower pH is associated with lower susceptibility to infections.
           "The detected archaea are probably involved in nitrogen turnover on skin, and are capable of lowering the skin pH, supporting the suppression of pathogens," said Moissl-Eichinger. "Bacteria with the same capacities are already used as skin probiotics, potentially improving skin moisture and reducing body odors. Nevertheless, the clinical relevance of Thaumarchaeota remains unclear and awaits further studies."
Holman listed several avenues of inquiry for future studies with Moissl-Eichinger. "We would like to investigate the physiological role of human skin archaea and how they differ from environmental archaea," she said. "We would like to find out which niches they prefer on or in the human body. We also want to know whether they might be involved in pathogenic processes, such as neurodermatitis or psoriasis. So far, there is little evidence of the pathogenicity of archaea."

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Tackling iron, zinc deficiencies with 'better' bread

Date: June 28, 2017

Source: American Chemical Society

Summary:

The health effects of zinc and iron deficiencies can be devastating, particularly in developing countries. One strategy for addressing this problem involves fertilizing crops with the micronutrients. But no one has yet figured out whether these added nutrients end up in food products made with the fortified crops. Now researchers report that this type of biofortification can boost micronutrients in bread, but other factors are also important.

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               The health effects of zinc and iron deficiencies can be devastating, particularly in developing countries. One strategy for addressing this problem involves fertilizing crops with the micronutrients. But no one has yet figured out whether these added nutrients end up in food products made with the fortified crops. Now researchers report in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry that this type of biofortification can boost micronutrients in bread, but other factors are also important.

Anemia affects more than 30 percent of the world's population, and many cases are due to iron deficiency, according to the World Health Organization. Many of the same people are also affected by zinc deficiencies.     These conditions can lead to impaired growth, neurological problems and even early death.   To combat deficiencies in iron and zinc, the nutrients can be applied to crops, so they will ultimately end up in food products. But few studies have investigated whether the common practice of foliar fertilization -- applying micronutrients to leaves -- has the desired result. So Valentina Ciccolini and colleagues set out to determine how effective this strategy might be, using wheat as their study crop.
                The researchers found that fertilizing an old variety of wheat crop increased its flour's concentration of zinc by more than 78 percent. Iron levels remained about the same regardless of whether varieties were biofortified; however, the old variety in the study had higher concentrations of the micronutrient than the modern variety. The analysis also showed that milling grains, regardless of whether they came from biofortified crops, into whole wheat flour versus white flour resulted in higher levels of iron, zinc and other health-promoting compounds, including antioxidants. Additionally, the process of bread-making slightly changed iron and zinc concentrations, but greatly boosted their bioavailability by 77 and 70 percent, respectively. The researchers say their findings demonstrate that biofortification, milling technique and baking should all factor into strategies for enhancing bread with iron and zinc for fighting deficiencies.

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Image analysis and artificial intelligence will change dairy farming

Cow gait images allow early detection of serious diseases

Date: June 28, 2017

Source: Osaka University

Summary:

An early detection method for cow lameness (hoof disease), a major disease of dairy cattle, has now been developed from images of cow gait with an accuracy of 99 percent or higher by applying human gait analysis. This technique allows early detection of lameness from cow gait, which was previously difficult. It is hoped that a revolution in dairy farming can be achieved through detailed observation by AI-powered image analysis.

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             A group of researchers led by Osaka University developed an early detection method for cow lameness (hoof disease), a major disease of dairy cattle, from images of cow gait with an accuracy of 99 percent or higher by applying human gait analysis. This technique allows early detection of lameness from cow gait, which was previously difficult. It is hoped that a revolution in dairy farming can be achieved through detailed observation by AI-powered image analysis.

Credit: Osaka University

             Dairy farmers are busy with routines such as cleaning cowsheds, milking, and feeding, so it's very difficult to determine the condition of cows. If this continues, they will remain too busy to ensure the quantity and quality of milk and dairy products. A group of researchers led by Professor YAGI Yasushi at the Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research, Osaka University, together with Professor NAKADA Ken at Rakuno Gakuen University, developed a technique for monitoring health of dairy cattle with high frequency and accuracy in the farmers' stead by using a camera and AI with the aim of realizing a smart cowhouse.

           Hoof health is an important aspect of proper dairy cattle care. Injuries and illnesses of hooves, called 'lameness', if left untreated, will lead not only to declining quantity and quality of dairy products, but also to life-threatening disease. Thus, its early detection is very important. Indicators for lameness are manifested in back arch and gait patterns of cows. Methods for finding lameness by detecting back arch had been studied; however, that method was effective in detecting moderate to severe lameness.
This group established a method for the early detection of lameness from cow gait images with an accuracy of 99% or higher by using their own human gait analysis technique. Specifically, this group waterproofed and dustproofed Microsoft Kinect, a camera-based sensor capable of measuring distance to an object, and set it in a cowshed at Rakuno Gakuen University. Based on the large number of cow gait images taken by this sensor, this group characterized cow gaits, detecting cows with lameness through machine learning.
           "Our achievements will mark the start of techniques for monitoring cows using AI-powered image analysis," says Professor Yagi. "This will contribute largely to realizing a smart cowhouse interlocked with an automatic milking machine and feeding robot, both of which have already been introduced to some dairy farms, as well as wearable sensors attached to cows under study." He continues, saying, "By finely adjusting the amount of expressed milk and the amount of feed as well as by showing farmers cow conditions in detail through automatic analysis of cow conditions, we can realize a new era of dairy farming in which farmers can focus entirely on health management of their cows and delivering high-quality dairy products."

Bumble bees make a beeline for larger flowers

Flower size matters when bumble bees learn new foraging routes

Date: June 29, 2017

Source: Springer

Summary:

Bumble bees create foraging routes by using their experience to select nectar-rich, high-rewarding flowers. A study now suggests that bees actually forage more efficiently when flower sizes are large rather than small. This indicates that for these insect pollinators foraging quickly is more efficient than foraging accurately.

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Bee on a sunflower.

Credit: © johnnychaos / Fotolia

           Bumble bees create foraging routes by using their experience to select nectar-rich, high-rewarding flowers. A study by Shohei Tsujimoto and Hiroshi Ishii of the University of Toyama in Japan now suggests that bees actually forage more efficiently when flower sizes are large rather than small. This indicates that for these insect pollinators foraging quickly is more efficient than foraging accurately. The research is published in Springer's journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology and uses a laboratory-based experiment to investigate how aspects of associative learning influence how bumble bees find food among different-sized flowers.

          The researchers examined the trade-off between speed and accuracy that occurs when bumble bees (Bombus ignites) are presented with new foraging areas. To do so, they introduced the insects to different-sized artificial flowers that were set out in a flight cage. The flowers had styrene foam centres which were embedded with nectar providers. These allowed for a sucrose solution to be automatically replenished. When an array of flowers which was two centimetres in diameter was used, the bees could not easily detect the next nearest flower. However, when large flowers (six centimetres in diameter) were presented, the bees could easily recognize the next available artificial bloom.
           Previous studies focusing on spatial-reward associative learning in foraging animals have assumed that foraging efficiency increases as the forager learns the locations of greater rewards. Tsujimoto and Ishii found that when the flowers were small, the bees created foraging routes by selectively incorporating the locations of high-rewarding flowers with their experience. But when the flowers were large and, therefore, more easily detectable, the bees no longer needed to consider the location of high rewarding flowers and simply flew between flowers more quickly.
          "The bumble bees created a foraging route without accounting for the location of high-rewarding flowers when they could find flowers easily, but incorporated the locations of high-rewarding flowers when they could not easily find the next nearest flowers," explains Tsujimoto. "These results, together with those of other studies, show that learning could be a choice that foragers apply according to the cost-benefit balance of learning, and this is dependent on the circumstances."
"A forager that creates a route without accounting for the location of high-rewarding flowers will therefore not always be a short-sighted loser," adds Ishii.

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Incremental discovery may one day lead to photosynthetic breakthrough

Date: June 29, 2017

Source: Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Summary:

Photosynthesis is one of the most complicated and important processes -- responsible for kick-starting Earth's food chain. While we have modeled its more-than-100 major steps, scientists are still discovering the purpose of proteins that can be engineered to increase yield. Now researchers have uncovered secrets about another protein, CP12 -- the full understanding of which may provide an additional route to boost yields in the future.

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             Ten-week-old Arabidopsis plants highlight the striking effect of the absence of CP12 on plant growth. From left to right: wild-type plant with normal levels of CP12; plant with no CP12-1 or CP12-3, and reduced levels of CP12-2; and the two plants on the right have hardly any CP12.

Credit: Image courtesy of Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

                Photosynthesis is one of the most complicated and important processes -- responsible for kick-starting Earth's food chain. While we have modeled its more-than-100 major steps, scientists are still discovering the purpose of proteins that can be engineered to increase yield, as scientists recently proved in Science. Now researchers have uncovered secrets about another protein, CP12 -- the full understanding of which may provide an additional route to boost yields in the future.

There are three forms of the protein CP12 that regulate the enzymes GAPDH and PRK. Think of the enzymes as the workhorses and CP12 as the groom holding the reins. CP12 tells them to get to work when there's light and reins them in when it's dark.
          "CP12 is an important component because it helps plants respond to changing light levels, for example when the plant is shaded by a leaf or cloud," said first author Patricia Lopez, a postdoctoral researcher for Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency (RIPE) who led this research. "CP12 stops the activity of the enzymes within seconds but without CP12, it will take several minutes to slow the activity, costing the plant precious energy."
           Published in the Journal of Experimental Botany, Lopez and co-authors found not all CP12 enzymes are created equal. Turns out that CP12-3 is not part of this process -- whereas CP12-1 and CP12-2 are in charge and can cover for each other. Get rid of all three, and the plant can't photosynthesize efficiently, resulting in a drastically smaller plant with fewer, smaller seeds.
In fact, without CP12 to hold the reins, PRK also disappears. "PRK is a vital workhorse that provides the raw materials for the enzyme Rubisco to turn into carbohydrates -- the sugars the plant uses to grow bigger and produce more yield," said lead author Christine Raines, a professor of plant molecular physiology at the University of Essex.
           Agriculture is approaching the limits of the yield traits that drove the remarkable yield increases over the past century, said RIPE Associate Director Don Ort, USDA/ARS scientist and the Robert Emerson Professor of Plant Biology at the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology. "Improving photosynthesis has the promise of being the next frontier to dramatic boost crop yields, and for the first time there is both a molecular understanding of photosynthesis and powerful technological tools to make engineering photosynthesis a realistic and attainable goal."

New innovation feeds the world with more fish protein

Date: June 27, 2017

Source: Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Summary:

As the world faces a projected population increase from today’s 7.5 billion people to 9 billion people by 2050, the demand for sustainable food sources is on the rise. The answer to this looming dilemma may well reside within the booming field of aquaculture. While wild fisheries have been on the decline for the last 20 years, aquaculture, or fish farming, is the fastest growing food-producing sector in the world, and will play an increasingly vital role in our planet’s food resources in the years to come.

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Kaye Innovation Award winner and Hebrew University aquaculture expert Prof. Berta Levavi-Sivan on the job in Uganda.

Credit: Hebrew University

                 As the world faces a projected population increase from today's 7.5 billion people to 9 billion people by 2050, the demand for sustainable food sources is on the rise. The answer to this looming dilemma may well reside within the booming field of aquaculture. While wild fisheries have been on the decline for the last 20 years, aquaculture, or fish farming, is the fastest growing food-producing sector in the world, and will play an increasingly vital role in our planet's food resources in the years to come.

               One of the challenges to aquaculture is that reproduction, as an energy intensive endeavor, makes fish grow more slowly. To solve this problem, Prof. Berta Levavi-Sivan at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem identified tiny molecules named Neurokinin B (NKB) and Neurokinin F (NKF) that are secreted by the brains of fish and play a crucial role in their reproduction. Prof. Levavi-Sivan, a specialist in aquaculture at the Hebrew University's Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, then developed molecules that neutralize the effect of NKB and NKF. The molecules inhibited fish reproduction and consequently led to increased growth rates.
                                                                                                                                                                        Better Fish Growth, More Aquaculture Jobs
            These inhibitors can now be included in fish feed to ensure better growth rates. For example, young tilapia fed the inhibitors in their food supply for two months gained 25% more weight versus fish that did not receive the supplement. So far, NKB has been found in 20 different species of fish, indicating that this discovery could be effective in a wide variety of species.
           The technology developed by Prof. Levavi-Sivan and her team was licensed by Yissum, the Technology Transfer company of the Hebrew University, to start-up AquiNovo Ltd., established and operating within the framework of The Trendlines Group. AquiNovo is further developing the technology to generate growth enhancers for farmed fish.
As the aquaculture industry obtains the tools to flourish, an increase in jobs is likely to follow. In Europe, aquaculture accounts for about 20% of fish production and directly employs some 85,000 people. The sector mainly benefits those living in coastal and rural areas, where jobs are most needed.
                                                                                                                                                                           2017 Kaye innovation Award
          In recognition of her work, Prof. Berta Levavi-Sivan was awarded the Kaye Innovation Award for 2017.
The Kaye Innovation Awards at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have been awarded annually since 1994. Isaac Kaye of England, a prominent industrialist in the pharmaceutical industry, established the awards to encourage faculty, staff and students of the Hebrew University to develop innovative methods and inventions with good commercial potential, which will benefit the university and society. For more information about the 2017 Kaye Innovations Awards, visit http://bit.ly/kaye2017.
           Prof. Berta Levavi-Sivan earned her BSc degree in life science and her MSc and PhD in zoology from Tel Aviv University. At the Hebrew University's Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, where her work focuses on fish reproduction and growth, she has published over 100 articles in refereed journals and has won several prizes for her findings. As a specialist in aquaculture, she has worked extensively in Uganda to combat depleted fish supplies in Lake Victoria.

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Heightened risk in rice? Researchers discover the toxicity of thioarsenates for plants

Date: June 26, 2017

Source: University of Bayreuth

Summary:

Rice is a staple food in many regions of the world, however it sometimes contains levels of arsenic that are hazardous to our health. An interdisciplinary team of researchers has now discovered that there are arsenic compounds which have a toxic effect on plants and yet had not previously been considered in connection with chemical analyses of rice and the estimated health risks for humans. The research concerns thioarsenates, compounds made up of arsenic and sulphur, which may be present in rice fields more often than previously assumed.

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Doctoral researchers in Bayreuth Carolin Kerl M.Sc. (left) and Colleen Rafferty M.Sc. (right) are investigating the absorption of thioarsenates in the thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana).

Credit: Christian Wissler

             Rice is a staple food in many regions of the world, however it sometimes contains levels of arsenic that are hazardous to our health. An interdisciplinary team of researchers at the University of Bayreuth has now discovered that there are arsenic compounds which have a toxic effect on plants and yet had not previously been considered in connection with chemical analyses of rice and the estimated health risks for humans. The research concerns thioarsenates, compounds made up of arsenic and sulphur, which may be present in rice fields more often than previously assumed. The scientists have published their findings in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.

                                                                                                                                                                        Increased concentrations in rice fields?
           Thioarsenates can be found in surface water, groundwater, and bottom water with high levels of sulphide. Sulphide is the reduced form of sulphate; it reacts spontaneously with arsenic and can form thioarsenates. Rice fields provide favourable conditions for these processes. "Rice is usually grown on flooded fields. The resulting lack of oxygen in the ground can reduce sulphate to sulphide. We were able to demonstrate for the first time that a considerable amount of the arsenic in rice fields -- namely 20 -- 30% -- is bound up in the form of thioarsenates," explained Prof. Dr. Britta Planer-Friedrich, Professor of Environmental Geochemistry at the University of Bayreuth. "Further research to shed more light on the spread of thioarsenates is now even more urgent since we were able to show for the first time that thioarsenates can be absorbed by plants and are harmful to them."
                                                                                                                                                                 Harmfulness for biological model organisms
           The experiments in Bayreuth, which also included several doctoral researchers -- concentrated on the thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana), a common plant in the fields of Europe and Asia that has proven to be a useful model organism in biological research. Together with plant physiologist Prof. Dr. Stephan Clemens, various mutants of the thale cress were tested in the laboratory to see how they reacted to thioarsenates added to their nutrient solution. The results were clear: the plants absorb the arsenic-sulphur compounds and their growth is visibly limited. The more arsenic reaches the plant in this way, the more its roots shrivel up.
                                                                                                                                                                             Toxic for humans too?
             "In the wake of these unsettling findings, we plan to investigate the effects of thioarsenates on different types of rice over the next several months. At present, we do not yet sufficiently understand whether or not and to what extent rice plants absorb the arsenic that bonded with sulphur and to what extent this adversely affects their metabolic processes. Above all, it is unclear whether thioarsenates also make their way to the rice grains," explained Prof. Clemens. He added, "At the University of Bayreuth, we have all the research technology necessary to see these experiments through. If it turns out that thioarsenates are absorbed by the roots of the rice plants and make their way to the rice grains unaltered, then further research will be needed. In particular, we would need to clarify whether thioarsenates are toxic for humans who consume food containing rice over an extended period. What's more: in addition to the previously known forms of arsenic, thioarsenates must be considered in the future when developing rice plants that accumulate less arsenic in their grains. This is an objective currently being pursued by numerous research groups around the world."
            "Not only the EU, which has had a limit for arsenic in rice since 2016, but above all countries in Asia and Africa where yearly rice consumption can be well above 100 kilograms per person -- should be following rice research closely with an eye to amending their food safety regulations. Traces of arsenic are also found in drinking water and other types of food. These trace amounts can add up to a daily dose representing a health risk that is not to be underestimated," Prof. Planer-Friedrich said.
           A few years ago, Planer-Friedrich discovered that thioarsenates could play a more significant role in Earth's arsenic balance than previously thought. The starting point was a study at the hot springs in Yellowstone National Park. Here it was discovered that more than 80% of the arsenic from the hot springs is bound up in thioarsenates. In the following years, it was shown that thioarsenates can occur in soil and groundwater under less extreme conditions. Depending on the sulphide content, they may even account for more than a quarter of total arsenic. These findings have provided impetus for further experiments on the spread of such arsenic compounds -- at the University of Bayreuth, such research will focus on the staple food rice.

Genetic engineering tool generates antioxidant-rich purple rice

Date: June 27, 2017

Source: Cell Press

Summary:

Researchers in China have developed a genetic engineering approach capable of delivering many genes at once and used it to make rice endosperm -- seed tissue that provides nutrients to the developing plant embryo -- produce high levels of antioxidant-boosting pigments called anthocyanins. The resulting purple endosperm rice holds potential for decreasing the risk of certain cancers, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and other chronic disorders.

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This is a photograph of purple endosperm rice.

Credit: Qinlong Zhu of the South China Agricultural University

           Researchers in China have developed a genetic engineering approach capable of delivering many genes at once and used it to make rice endosperm -- seed tissue that provides nutrients to the developing plant embryo produce high levels of antioxidant-boosting pigments called anthocyanins. The resulting purple endosperm rice holds potential for decreasing the risk of certain cancers, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and other chronic disorders. The work appears June 27th in the journal Molecular Plant.

          "We have developed a highly efficient, easy-to-use transgene stacking system called TransGene Stacking II that enables the assembly of a large number of genes in single vectors for plant transformation," says senior study author Yao-Guang Liu of the South China Agricultural University. "We envisage that this vector system will have many potential applications in this era of synthetic biology and metabolic engineering."
           To date, genetic engineering approaches have been used to develop rice enriched in beta-carotene and folate, but not anthocyanins. Although these health-promoting compounds are naturally abundant in some black and red rice varieties, they are absent in polished rice grains because the husk, bran, and germ have been removed, leaving only the endosperm.
          Previous attempts to engineer anthocyanin production in rice have failed because the underlying biosynthesis pathway is highly complex, and it has been difficult to efficiently transfer many genes into plants.
To address this challenge, Liu and his colleagues first set out to identify the genes required to engineer anthocyanin production in the rice endosperm. To do so, they analyzed sequences of anthocyanin pathway genes in different rice varieties and pinpointed the defective genes in japonica and indica subspecies that do not produce anthocyanins.
         Based on this analysis, they developed a transgene stacking strategy for expressing eight anthocyanin pathway genes specifically in the endosperm of the japonica and indica rice varieties. The resulting purple endosperm rice had high anthocyanin levels and antioxidant activity in the endosperm. "This is the first demonstration of engineering such a complex metabolic pathway in plants," Liu says.
          In the future, this transgene stacking vector system could be used to develop plant bioreactors for the production of many other important nutrients and medicinal ingredients. For their own part, the researchers plan to evaluate the safety of purple endosperm rice as biofortified food, and they will also try to engineer the biosynthesis of anthocyanins in other crops to produce more purple endosperm cereals.
           "Our research provides a high-efficiency vector system for stacking multiple genes for synthetic biology and makes it potentially feasible for engineering complex biosynthesis pathways in the endosperm of rice and other crop plants such as maize, wheat, and barley," Liu says.

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New 3-D model predicts best planting practices for farmers

Date: June 23, 2017

Source: Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Summary:

Scientists have developed a computer model to predict the yield of different crop cultivars in a multitude of planting conditions. The model depicts the growth of 3-D plants, incorporating models of the biochemical and biophysical processes that underlie productivity.

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Sugarcane planted in with traditional spacing (pictured here) is better for yields but may be worse for plants and soil quality.

Credit: Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

             As farmers survey their fields this summer, several questions come to mind: How many plants germinated per acre? How does altering row spacing affect my yields? Does it make a difference if I plant my rows north to south or east to west? Now a computer model can answer these questions by comparing billions of virtual fields with different planting densities, row spacings, and orientations.

            The University of Illinois and the Partner Institute for Computational Biology in Shanghai developed this computer model to predict the yield of different crop cultivars in a multitude of planting conditions. Published in BioEnergy-Research, the model depicts the growth of 3D plants, incorporating models of the biochemical and biophysical processes that underlie productivity.
Teaming up with the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil, they used the model to address a question for sugarcane producers: How much yield might be sacrificed to take advantage of a possible conservation planting technique?
            "Current sugarcane harvesters cut a single row at a time, which is time-consuming and leads to damage of the crop stands," said author Steve Long, Gutgsell Endowed Professor of Plant Biology and Crop Sciences at the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology. "This could be solved if the crop was planted in double rows with gaps between the double rows. But plants in double rows will shade each other more, causing a potential loss of profitability."
The model found that double-row spacing costs about 10% of productivity compared to traditional row spacing; however, this loss can be reduced to just 2% by choosing cultivars with more horizontal leaves planted in a north-south orientation.
            "This model could be applied to other crops to predict optimal planting designs for specific environments," said Yu Wang, a postdoctoral researcher at Illinois who led the study. "It could also be used in reverse to predict the potential outcome for a field."
The authors predict this model will be especially useful when robotic planting becomes more commonplace, which will allow for many more planting permutations.

Older obese adults can benefit from moderate exercise

Date: June 27, 2017

Source: Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center

Summary:

Moderate-intensity exercise can help even extremely obese older adults improve their ability to perform common daily activities and remain independent, according to researchers.

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          Moderate-intensity exercise can help even extremely obese older adults improve their ability to perform common daily activities and remain independent, according to researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.

Findings from the National Institutes of Health-funded study are published in the July issue of the journal Obesity.
            In the United States, obesity affects nearly 13 million adults age 65 and older. Both overall obesity and abdominal obesity are strongly associated with the development of major mobility disability (MMD), the inability to walk a quarter of a mile, according to the study's lead author, Stephen Kritchevsky, Ph.D., director of the Sticht Center for Healthy Aging and Alzheimer's Prevention at Wake Forest Baptist.
Previous data on older populations had suggested that obesity may lessen the beneficial effects of physical activity on mobility. However, this research, which analyzed data from the multicenter Lifestyle Interventions and Independence for Elders (LIFE) study, showed that a structured physical activity program reduced the risk of MMD even in older adults with extreme obesity.
           "The inability to walk a quarter of a mile is a proxy for common daily activities, such as the inability to walk a block around the neighborhood or to walk several street blocks to go to a store," Kritchevsky said. "Having a major mobility disorder can really affect the quality of life and independence for older people, but we showed that moderate exercise was a safe and effective way to reduce that risk even in severely obese people."
          The LIFE study was a large clinical trial that enrolled 1,635 sedentary men and women age 70 to 89. The participants were randomized to a moderate intensity physical activity program or a health education program to test if the physical activity program would reduce the rate of MMD compared to the education program. Major mobility disability was defined as the inability to walk 400 meters (about a quarter of a mile) without sitting and without help from another person or a walker, Kritchevsky said.
Participants were divided into four groups according to body mass index (BMI) -- a measure of body fat based on height and weight -- and waist circumference: non-obese with BMI less than 30; non-obese with high waist circumference of more than 40 inches for men and 34 inches for women; class 1 obese with BMI between 30 and 35; and class 2 obese with BMI of 35 or higher.
             The physical activity program focused on walking, strength, balance and flexibility training. The goal for participants was to be able to walk at moderate intensity for 30 minutes and perform 10 minutes of lower-extremity strength training with ankle weights and 10 minutes of balance training in a single session. Participants attended two center-based training sessions per week and performed at-home activities three to four times per week during the two-year study.
The health education program involved in-person group workshops focused on aging-relevant topics such as nutrition, safety and legal/financial issues. Sessions included lectures and interactive discussions and five to 10 minutes of upper body stretching exercises.
             While there was no significant difference between obesity category and intervention effect, those in the class 2 obesity group showed the greatest benefit from the physical activity program, reducing their risk of MDD by 31 percent, Kritchevsky said.

Why social isolation can bring a greater risk of illness

Study found that isolating animals leads to sleep loss, eventually cell stress

Date: June 26, 2017

Source: University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine

Summary:

Social isolation in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, leads to sleep loss, which in turn leads to cellular stress and the activation of a defense mechanism called the unfolded protein response.

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The effect of sleep and social isolation on protein folding.

Credit: Michael Paolini & Sarah Ly. Adpated from Colwell (2007) Nature Neuroscience

           Social isolation has been linked to a wide range of health problems, as well as a shorter lifespan in humans and other animals. In fact, during a U.S. Senate hearing on aging issues this spring, a representative for the Gerontological Society of America urged lawmakers to support programs that help older adults stay connected to their communities, stating that social isolation is a "silent killer that places people at higher risk for a variety of poor health outcomes."

Now, researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have found a possible explanation for this association. The team observed that in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, social isolation leads to sleep loss, which in turn leads to cellular stress and the activation of a defense mechanism called the unfolded protein response (UPR). Their findings are published online in the journal SLEEP this month. The UPR is found in virtually all animal species. Although its short-term activation helps protect cells from stress, chronic activation can harm cells. Long-term, harmful activation of the UPR is suspected as a contributor to the aging process and to specific age-related diseases such as Alzheimer's and diabetes.
           Studies also have shown that social isolation is a growing problem in developed countries. In the United States, for example, about half of people older than 85 live alone, and decreased mobility or ability to drive may cut opportunities for other socialization.
"A lot of elderly people live alone, and so we suspect that stresses from the combination of aging and social isolation creates a double-whammy at the cellular and molecular level," said senior author Nirinjini Naidoo, PhD, a research associate professor of Sleep Medicine. "If you have an age-related disruption of the UPR response, compounded by sleep disturbances, and then you add social isolation, that may be a very unhealthy cocktail."
             This line of research stemmed from a surprise finding by the new study's first author, Marishka K. Brown, PhD, who was then a postdoctoral researcher at Penn. She is now Program Director of the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). While evaluating the effects of aging on the UPR in fruit flies, she noticed that molecular markers of UPR activation were at higher levels in flies kept singly in vials, compared to same-aged flies kept in groups.
"Ultimately, she realized that keeping animals isolated induces a cellular stress response and a higher level of UPR activation," Naidoo said. Markers of UPR activation include the protein BiP, a molecular "chaperone" that helps ensure proper protein folding within cells. Proteins, after being synthesized as simple chains of amino acids, are meant to fold into functional shapes, which are often highly complex. This delicate process is easily disturbed when cells are under stress and can lead to the harmful, runaway clumping of unfolded or misfolded proteins.
              As its name suggests, the UPR is supposed to protect against this cellular catastrophe. But when it fails to work efficiently to restore proper protein-folding conditions, and stays activated, it can trigger harmful inflammation, suppress normal, healthy cellular activity, and ultimately force the death of the cell. Scientists have found evidence that this inefficient, chronic response becomes more likely with aging. "When animals get older, you start to see a more maladaptive UPR," Naidoo said.
Why does social isolation trigger the UPR? Naidoo and others have shown in prior studies that sleep loss induces the UPR in multiple animal species. Other studies have shown that social isolation induces sleep loss, again in multiple species, including humans. When Brown forced the isolated flies to sleep more, for example by giving them the sleep drug Ambien (zolpidem), their levels of UPR markers dropped to those seen in grouped flies. Conversely, when she caused sleep loss in otherwise healthy grouped flies, their levels of UPR markers rose towards the levels seen in socially isolated flies.
               "When you keep animals isolated, it basically induces a disturbance of sleep, which then gives rise to a cellular stress that in turn triggers the UPR," Naidoo said.
Naidoo and her colleagues are continuing to study the connections among aging, sleep loss, the UPR, and age-related diseases such as Alzheimer's. "Aging itself seems to make the UPR more defective, but we suspect this is worsened by the fact that aging also tends to cause more fragmented sleep," Naidoo said.

The dust storm microbiome

Date: June 27, 2017

Source: Weizmann Institute of Science

Summary:

The airborne dust carried in sand storms affects the health of people and ecosystems alike. New research suggests that part of the effect might not be in the particles of dust but rather in bacteria that cling to them, traveling many kilometers in the air with the storms.

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Dust storm in Timna Park is shown.

Credit: Weizmann Institute of Science

            Israel is subjected to sand and dust storms from several directions: northeast from the Sahara, northwest from Saudi Arabia and southwest from the desert regions of Syria. The airborne dust carried in these storms affects the health of people and ecosystems alike. New research at the Weizmann Institute of Science suggests that part of the effect might not be in the particles of dust but rather in bacteria that cling to them, traveling many kilometers in the air with the storms.

Some of these bacteria might be pathogenic harmful to us or the environment and a few of them also carry genes for antibiotic resistance. Others may induce ecosystem functions such as nitrogen fixation. Prof. Yinon Rudich and his research group, including postdoctoral fellow Dr. Daniela Gat and former research student Yinon Mazar, in Weizmann's Earth and Planetary Sciences Department investigated the genetics of the windborne bacteria arriving along with the dust.
              "In essence, we investigated the microbiome of windborne dust," says Rudich. "The microbiome of a dust storm originating in the Sahara is different from one blowing in from the Saudi or Syrian deserts, and we can see the fit between the bacterial population and the environmental conditions existing in each area."
The researchers found that during a dust storm the concentration of bacteria and the number of bacterial species present in the atmosphere rise sharply, so people walking outdoors in these storms are exposed to many more bacteria than usual.
             Rudich and his team then explored the genes in these bacteria, checking for antibiotic resistance a trait that can arise owing to elevated use of antibiotics but also naturally, especially in soil bacteria. Antibiotic resistance has been defined by the World Health Organization as one of the primary global health challenges of the twenty-first century, and its main driver is the overuse of antibiotics. But bacteria can pass on the genes for antibiotic resistance, so any source of resistance is concerning. How many different genes for antibiotic resistance come to Israel from the various dust storms, and how prevalent are these genes?
          Rudich says that the study enabled the researchers to identify a "signature" for each source of bacteria based on the prevalence of antibiotic resistant genes, which revealed whether the genes were local or imported from distant deserts. "We found that as more 'mixing' occurs between local dust and that which comes from far off, the lower the contribution of the imported antibiotic resistance genes." In other words, antibiotic resistance coming from Africa or Saudi Arabia is still a very minor threat compared to that caused and spread by human activity, especially animal husbandry. Also participating in this research were Dr. Eddie Cytryn of the Volcani Center and Prof. Yigal Erel of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
                                                                                                                                                                             City air not set to improve
Urban air pollution is attributed, to a large extent, to emissions from transportation. Prof. Rudich and Staff Scientist Dr. Michal Pardo-Levin ask how these sources contribute to air pollution. Their findings show that pollution that does not come from the combustion engine but rather is released from the friction of the vehicle's tires on the road and from braking systems can lead to serious health effects upon inhalation. That means that even if we manage to significantly reduce our cars' tailpipe emissions, city air will still be polluted, to a large extent, with these other substances. And since the friction of tires and brakes are necessary for driving, reducing their emissions could be much harder.

Just one alcoholic drink a day increases breast cancer risk, exercise lowers risk

Date: May 23, 2017

Source: Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center

Summary:

Drinking just one glass of wine or other alcoholic drink a day increases breast cancer risk, finds a major new report.

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           The report found strong evidence that drinking the equivalent of a small glass of wine or beer a day (about 10 grams alcohol content) increases pre-menopausal breast cancer risk by 5 percent and post-menopausal breast cancer risk by 9 percent.

Credit: © petrrgoskov / Fotolia

            Drinking just one glass of wine or other alcoholic drink a day increases breast cancer risk, finds a major new report by the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) and the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF).The report also revealed, for the first time, that vigorous exercise such as running or fast bicycling decreases the risk of both pre- and post-menopausal breast cancers. Strong evidence confirmed an earlier finding that moderate exercise decreases the risk of post-menopausal breast cancer, the most common type of breast cancer.

           "It can be confusing with single studies when the findings get swept back and forth," said Anne McTiernan, MD, PhD, a lead author of the report and cancer prevention expert at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
"With this comprehensive and up-to-date report the evidence is clear: Having a physically active lifestyle, maintaining a healthy weight throughout life and limiting alcohol -- these are all steps women can take to lower their risk."
                                                                                                                                                                         Brisk Walking, Alcohol and Breastfeeding
Diet, Nutrition, Physical Activity and Breast Cancer systematically collated and evaluated the scientific research worldwide on how diet, weight and exercise affect breast cancer risk in the first such review since 2010. The report analyzed 119 studies, including data on 12 million women and 260,000 cases of breast cancer.
         The report found strong evidence that drinking the equivalent of a small glass of wine or beer a day (about 10 grams alcohol content) increases pre-menopausal breast cancer risk by 5 percent and post-menopausal breast cancer risk by 9 percent. A standard drink is 14 grams of alcohol.
For vigorous exercise, pre-menopausal women who were the most active had a 17 percent lower risk and post-menopausal women had a 10 percent lower risk of developing breast cancer compared to those who were the least active. Total moderate activity, such as walking and gardening, linked to a 13 percent lower risk when comparing the most versus least active women.
In addition the report showed that:
• Being overweight or obese increases the risk of post-menopausal breast cancer, the most common type of breast cancer.
• Mothers who breastfeed are at lower risk for breast cancer.
• Greater adult weight gain increases risk of post-menopausal breast cancer.
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in US women with over 252,000 new cases estimated this year. AICR estimates that one in three breast cancer cases in the U.S. could be prevented if women did not drink alcohol, were physically active and stayed a healthy weight.
                                                                                                                                                                    Emerging Findings: Dairy and Veggies
The report points to links between diet and breast cancer risk. There was some evidence -- although limited -- that non-starchy vegetables lowers risk for estrogen-receptor (ER) negative breast cancers, a less common but more challenging to treat type of tumor.
Limited evidence also links dairy, diets high in calcium and foods containing carotenoids to lowering risk of some breast cancers. Carrots, apricots, spinach and kale are all foods high in carotenoids, a group of phytonutrients studied for their health benefits.
These links are intriguing but more research is needed, says McTiernan. "The findings indicate that women may get some benefit from including more non-starchy vegetables with high variety, including foods that contain carotenoids," she said. "That can also help avoid the common 1 to 2 pounds women are gaining every year, which is key for lowering cancer risk."
                                                                                                                                                                          Steps Women Can Take
Aside from these lifestyle risk factors, other established causes of breast cancer include being older, early menstrual period and having a family history of breast cancer.
While there are many factors that women cannot control, says Alice Bender, MS, RDN, AICR's Head of Nutrition Programs, the good news from this report is that all women can take steps to lower their breast cancer risk.
"Wherever you are with physical activity, try to nudge it up a bit, either a little longer or a little harder. Make simple food shifts to boost protection -- substitute veggies like carrots, bell peppers or green salad for chips and crackers and if you drink alcohol, stick to a single drink or less," said Bender.
"There are no guarantees when it comes to cancer, but it's empowering to know you can do something to lower your risk."