Shiitake Mushrooms May Improve Human Immune Function, Especially If Grown On Old Oak Logs

ScienceDaily (June 29, 2008) — Shiitake (Lentinula edodes) mushrooms are good for you--and shiitake byproducts can be good for other crops.

These mushrooms contain high-molecular-weight polysaccharides (HMWP), which some studies suggest may improve human immune function. Other research indicates that the shiitake compound eritadenine may help lower cholesterol levels.

Agricultural Research Service (ARS) agronomist David Brauer has been studying shiitake production at the agency's Dale Bumpers Small Farm Research Center, Booneville, Ark. Working in collaboration with producers at the Shiitake Mushroom Center in Shirley, Ark., Brauer evaluated whether shiitakes grown on logs have higher levels of HMWP than shiitakes grown on commercial substrates.

The group inoculated logs with spores from three different shiitake varieties and compared the yield with shiitake yields grown on commercial substrates. They found that the log-grown shiitakes had HMWP levels as much as 70 percent higher than the substrate-grown shiitakes. The team also observed that shiitakes grown on red and white oak logs had higher levels of HMWP than shiitakes grown on sweet gum logs.

Click here to continue reading article at Science Daily.com

Turmeric may reduce type 2 diabetes risk

SAN FRANCISCO, June 23 (UPI) -- Turmeric, an Asian spice used in curry, may help reverse inflammation associated with obesity and reduce type 2 diabetes risk, U.S. researchers said.

Dr. Drew Tortoriello of Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center at Columbia University Medical Center and colleagues discovered that turmeric-treated mice were less susceptible to developing type 2 diabetes, based on blood glucose levels and glucose and insulin tolerance tests.

The research team also discovered that turmeric-fed obese mice showed significantly reduced inflammation in fat tissue and liver compared to controls.

The researchers speculate that curcumin -- the anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant ingredient in turmeric -- lessens insulin resistance and prevents type 2 diabetes in these mouse models by dampening the inflammatory response provoked by obesity.

"It's too early to tell whether increasing dietary curcumin -- via turmeric -- intake in obese people with diabetes will show a similar benefit," Tortoriello said in a statement. "Although the daily intake of curcumin one might have to consume as a primary diabetes treatment is likely impractical, it is entirely possible that lower dosages of curcumin could nicely complement our traditional therapies as a natural and safe treatment."

The findings are scheduled to be published in Endocrinology and were presented at ENDO, the Endocrine Society's annual meeting in San Francisco.

Music Therapy Shows Promise in Treating High Blood Pressure

Saturday, June 21, 2008 by: Sherry Baker

(NaturalNews) If you have hypertension, listening to soothing music for a half hour a day while breathing deeply can significantly reduce your blood pressure without drugs. That's the conclusion of a new study just presented at the American Society of Hypertension's Twenty Third Annual Scientific Meeting and Exposition (ASH 2008).

The research, the first to examine the anti-high blood pressure impact of music listening on ambulatory blood pressure (ABP), documented that patients with mild hypertension who listened to just half an hour of classical, Celtic or Indian (raga) music a day for four weeks experienced significant reductions in 24-hour ABP.

"Listening to music is soothing and has often been associated with controlling patient-reported pain or anxiety and acutely reducing blood pressure," study investigator Pietro A. Modesti, MD, PhD, an internal medicine specialist in the department of critical care medicine at the University of Florence, Italy, said in a prepared statement for the press. "But for the first time, today's results clearly illustrate the impact daily music listening has on ABP. We are excited about the positive implications for both patients and physicians, who can now confidently explore music listening as a safe, effective, non-pharmacological treatment option or a complement to therapy."

Click here to continue reading article at Natural News.com

Superfoods: What You Need to Know

By: Susan Brady
Published: Sunday, 22 June 2008

Much has been written lately about superfoods and your body's need for these vital ingredients. Even mainstream publications like Parade, the Sunday newspaper supplement, ran a one-page article about 6 superfoods. Despite this plethora of information, many people are still unclear on what a superfood is, how they affect the body, and how to change their diets to include them.

Superfoods are nutritional items that have one or more ingredients with a strong health benefit, such as boosting your immune system, reducing cholesterol, fighting cancer, or lowering your risk of heart disease. I'm sure you all remember your mother telling you that carrots were good for your vision, or grandma saying that you needed the iron in her creamed spinach; they were on the right track. But not all superfoods are fruits or vegetables, although the majority does have a close connection (olive oil and coconut milk come to mind). You won't have to hunt down superfoods in some obscure health food market on the edge of town; most are available at any grocery store, are easy to grow in your garden, and can be found on the menu at restaurants.

So, how do these superfoods work? Omega-3 fatty acids—found in fish, soy, and walnuts, among others—help to break up fat and plaque in our arteries, thereby lowering blood pressure. They can also improve the elasticity of the artery walls, meaning a reduced risk of hardening of the arteries, and the Omega-3s help lower cholesterol by reacting positively with lipoproteins. Anti-oxidants, consisting of vitamins A, C, E and beta carotene, protect cells from the damage by neutralizing free radicals, helping to thwart cancer, aging, and cardiovascular disease. Research isn't always so clear on how all superfoods work, but studies have certainly proven that they do work.

Click here to continue reading article at HealthNews.com Blogs

Blueberries may lower cholesterol

KENTVILLE, Nova Scotia, June 20 (UPI) -- Blueberries help protect the brain, but the fruit may also have a heart protective effect by significantly lowering cholesterol, Canadian researchers say.

Lead scientist Wilhelmina Kalt of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada conducted tests on pigs fed a blueberry-supplemented diet. Blueberry-supplemented diets resulted in a reduction in total cholesterol including both low-density lipoprotein, or LDL the "bad" cholesterol and high-density lipoproteins, or HDL, the "good" cholesterol, Kalt said.

"In feeding trials, we found that blueberry supplementation reduced plasma cholesterol levels more effectively when the animals received a mostly plant-based diet than when they received a less heart-healthy diet," Kalt said in a statement. "The soy, oats and barley contained in these diets may have functioned synergistically with the blueberries to beneficially affect plasma lipids."

The study, published in the British Journal of Nutrition, found that the greatest reduction in total, LDL and HDL cholesterol levels was found in pigs fed a 2 percent blueberry diet equivalent to approximately 2 one-cup servings of blueberries in the human diet.

Pigs have levels of LDL similar to humans and are susceptible to diet-induced vascular disease, develop atherosclerotic plaques in the aorta and carotid artery and have a similar blood pressure and heart rate as humans, Kalt said.

Click here for article source

Migraine Triggers And Fighters

CBS) If you're one of the more than 28 million Americans plagued by debilitating migraine headaches, relief may be as simple as changing what you eat, registered dietician Keri Glassman explained on The Early Show Tuesday.

Glassman pointed to foods to avoid if you're prone to migraines, and ones to keep in your arsenal because they may help you avert that throbbing pain and other symptoms.

No food or food additive has been proven to cause migraines, Glassman stressed.

Conversely, it appears that regular supplementation with some nutrients may reduce the frequency and intensity of migraines, she continued.

People have individual triggers, including dietary choices, stress, and activities, she added.

Click here for the entire article on CBS News; including foods that are triggers and foods that are fighters.

New Possibilities For Breast Cancer Treatment On The Horizon

ScienceDaily (Jun. 19, 2008) — The first patient scans from a custom-built scanner combining positron emission tomography (PET) and computed tomography (CT) technologies indicate that these scans could significantly improve breast cancer imaging capabilities and lead to more targeted treatment options, according to researchers at SNM's 55th Annual Meeting. The prototype scanner is designed to help physicians determine stages of breast cancer in patients already diagnosed with the disease, rather than as a mammography screening tool.

"The use of dedicated breast PET/CT scanners could really open up new possibilities in treatment for women with breast cancer," said Ramsey Badawi, assistant professor of radiology, University of California--Davis Medical Center, Sacramento, and investigator for the study, First Human Images from a Dedicated Breast PET/CT Scanner. "Using this noninvasive technology, physicians can get much more accurate images of tumors--especially small tumors--than conventional full-body PET scans. This will enable physicians to determine the stage of the cancer and determine courses of treatment more accurately."

Click here to continue reading article at Science Daily.com

Natural cures that work - Relieve headaches, back pain, PMS, depression and more—no drugs needed.

By Melanie Howard
From the May 2008 issue

When your doc recommends a new treatment, you probably research all the side effects and pepper her with questions. But perhaps because there's something less scary or medical sounding about alternative medicines such as acupuncture or herbs, many smart women not only slack on their research into so-called complementary therapies, but they skip class altogether.

Two thirds of adults who take herbal supplements are using them to treat conditions for which there is no scientific evidence that they work, a study in Mayo Clinic Proceedings reports. It doesn't help that mainstream doctors often aren't familiar enough with complementary therapies to recommend them: Another survey of physicians at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, found that while most believed some treatments hold promise, the majority were not comfortable counseling patients about them.

"It takes time and effort to discern which therapies are valuable and right for you," says Victoria Maizes, M.D., executive director of the University of Arizona Program in Integrative Medicine in Tucson. That's where SELF comes in. We interviewed the experts and analyzed the data (yes, we peruse The Journal of the American Medical Association so you don't have to) to ID six remedies that have proven potency. Let the natural healing begin!

Click here to continue reading article at Self.com

Flaxseed Dims Hot Flashes in Postmenopausal Women

A daily dose of crushed flaxseed halved hot flashes in postmenopausal women who did not want to take estrogen, according to a pilot study.

The weak estrogenic properties in flaxseed seem to be the most likely mechanism of the plant's effectiveness, Dr. Pruthi said.

Considered a phytoestrogen, fiber-rich flaxseed is a rich source of lignans and omega-3 fatty acids. Lignans have antioxidant properties and are thought to have estrogen agonist and antagonist properties, such as those in selective estrogen receptor modulators, such as tamoxifen, they said.

Research findings also suggest that dietary lignans have some cancer-protective effects. Therefore, Dr. Pruthi said, flaxseed is an interesting agent to study for managing vasomotor symptoms.

Statistically significant improvements were reported for mood, joint or muscle pain, chills, and sweating. Quality of life improved, and the women reported less anger, anxiety, and fatigue on the Self-Assessment Scale.

Read the entire article on MedPage Today

Scenes Of Nature Trump Technology In Reducing Low-level Stress

ScienceDaily (Jun. 10, 2008) — Technology can send a man to the moon, help unlock the secrets of DNA and let people around the world easily communicate through the Internet. But can it substitute for nature?

Apparently not, according to a new study that measured individuals' heart recovery rate from minor stress when exposed to a natural scene through a window, the same scene shown on a high-definition plasma screen, or a blank wall. The heart rate of people who looked at the scene through the window dropped more quickly than the others. In fact, the high-definition plasma screen had no more effect than the blank wall.

In addition, the research done through the Human Interaction with Nature and Technological Systems Lab at the University of Washington showed that when people spent more time looking at the natural scene their heart rates tended to decrease more. That was not the case with the plasma screen.

The study, funded by the National Science Foundation, is published in the current issue of the Journal of Environmental Psychology.

"Technology is good and it can help our lives, but let's not be fooled into thinking we can live without nature," said Peter Kahn, a UW associate professor of psychology who led the research team.

"We are losing direct experiences with nature. Instead, more and more we're experiencing nature represented technologically through television and other media. Children grow up watching Discovery Channel and Animal Planet. That's probably better than nothing. But as a species we need interaction with actual nature for our physical and psychological well-being."

Click here to read entire article at Science Daily.com

A Roundup of the Best Web Sites for Vegetarian Recipes

Posted on: Monday, 9 June 2008, 09:00 CDT at RedOrbit.com

I've been scouring the Internet for hot-weather recipe inspiration. And I am amazed at how many ethnic and unusual food resources lie in wait for a click of the mouse. The more-established sites are polished and dependable with regards to recipes and methods. But other recipes are not tested, are poorly written or have no yields. This is especially true on blogs.

Hard-to-find ingredients and ethnic foods can be purchased on many sites, some with no shipping charges. Just do a Google search.

Here are the recipe sites I turn to for ideas:

recipesource.com: This is the best source for global recipes.

allrecipes.com: A good, all-purpose recipe site with video cooking lessons. You can find great recipes for ethnic dishes, baked goods, beverages, healthy living and dinner in an instant. There are also recipe exchange pages. The recipes are easy to prepare and well organized. And all recipes are reviewed, much like a book review.

ethnicrecipes.org: Only ethnic foods here, including world news and a bit of food politics. The recipes, for the most part, are simple but with uneven yield results and explanations. Love the Asian recipes, but you can find everything from Australian to Welsh dishes.

vegkitchen.com: This site belongs to Nava Atlas, who has been writing vegetarian and vegan cookbooks for a long time. She offers great vegetarian recipes, a blog and cooking tips.

vegcooking.com: A solid vegetarian Web site, sponsored and supported by PETA.

vegetariansrecipes.org: Strong selection of vegetarian recipes with endless categories.

ivu.org: This site, hosted by the International Vegetarian Union, offers serious vegetarians a bit of everything. It claims to have promoted a vegetarian lifestyle since 1908, and you can look up everything from vegetarian bed-and-breakfast locations to other vegetarian and vegan Web sites. I like the international recipes, which are served up by home cooks.

vegsource.com: A resource for everything vegetarian and a good one at that. If you don't find it here, you won't find it anywhere.

sallys-place.com: I'll go anywhere for a good meal. If you love food travel and want to know what's cooking internationally, this site is for you. If you have any food travel pending, there are food travel tips as well.

Dehydrated tomatoes may fight prostate tumors

By Amy Norton Mon Jun 9, 3:20 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A compound found in dehydrated tomatoes may help quash prostate cancer tumors, new animal research suggests.

Studies have come to conflicting conclusions as to whether tomatoes or lycopene, an antioxidant found in tomatoes, might offer prostate cancer protection. One recent study found no correlation between men's blood levels of lycopene and their risk of prostate cancer.

The new findings, reported in the journal Cancer Research, suggest that the processing of the tomato may be a key factor.

Researchers found that a form of carbohydrate called FruHis, found in dehydrated tomatoes, appeared to protect rats from developing prostate tumors. The greatest protection came from dehydrated tomatoes that had been rehydrated into tomato paste and supplemented with additional FruHis.

The findings could aid in developing new, less toxic cancer therapies, said lead researcher Dr. Valeri V. Mossine, of the University of Missouri in Columbia.

Click here to read entire article at Yahoo News

Concord grape juice may help aging memory

CONCORD, Mass., June 3 (UPI) -- A pilot study suggests drinking Concord grape juice may benefit older adults dealing with early memory decline, a University of Cincinnati researcher says.

Robert Krikorian of UC's College of Medicine says the placebo-controlled human study investigated whether regular consumption of polyphenol-rich food or beverage could have beneficial effects against age-related cognitive decline.

The study involved 12 adults with early memory decline. Participants drank a total of 15 to 21 ounces, depending on body weight, of either Concord grape juice or placebo daily, divided among meals, for a 12-week period.

The beverages were equal in calorie and sugar content, but only the Concord grape juice contained natural polyphenolic compounds, which have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, Krikorian says.

Participants who drank the Concord grape juice showed significant improvement in list learning and trends suggests improved short-term retention and spatial memory, the study says.

The findings were presented at the 38th annual scientific meeting of the American Aging Society in Boulder, Colo.

Click here for article source at UPI.com

New hints seen that red wine may slow aging

By Nicholas Wade
Published: June 4, 2008

Red wine may be much more potent than was thought in extending human lifespan, researchers say in a new report that is likely to give impetus to the rapidly growing search for longevity drugs.

The study is based on dosing mice with resveratrol, an ingredient of some red wines. Some scientists are already taking resveratrol in capsule form, but others believe it is far too early to take the drug, especially using wine as its source, until there is better data on its safety and effectiveness.

The report is part of a new wave of interest in drugs that may enhance longevity. On Monday, Sirtris, a startup founded in 2004 to develop drugs with the same effects as resveratrol, completed its sale to GlaxoSmithKline for $720 million.

Sirtris is seeking to develop drugs that activate protein agents known in people as sirtuins.

"The upside is so huge that if we are right, the company that dominates the sirtuin space could dominate the pharmaceutical industry and change medicine," Dr. David Sinclair of the Harvard Medical School, a co-founder of the company, said Tuesday.

Serious scientists have long derided the idea of life-extending elixirs, but the door has now been opened to drugs that exploit an ancient biological survival mechanism, that of switching the body's resources from fertility to tissue maintenance. The improved tissue maintenance seems to extend life by cutting down on the degenerative diseases of aging.

The reflex can be prompted by a faminelike diet, known as caloric restriction, which extends the life of laboratory rodents by up to 30 percent but is far too hard for most people to keep to and in any case has not been proven to work in humans.

Click here to continue reading article at The International Herald Tribune

Emotional Intelligence Helps Make Better Product Choices

ScienceDaily (Jun. 3, 2008) — People with highly developed emotional sensibilities are better at making product choices, according to a new study.

“Consumers who understand their emotional ability can make higher quality consumption decisions such as health decisions and product choices,” explain the authors, Blair Kidwell, David M. Hardesty, and Terry L. Childers (University of Kentucky). “A person can know a lot about nutrition and know what foods are not healthy, but can still make poor decisions when unable to recognize, reason, and solve problems based on emotional patterns,” they add. For example, compulsive eaters may understand nutrition, but they may not realize their emotions affect their food choices.

This research establishes a new method for assessing consumers’ emotional intelligence. The authors developed a scale by testing undergraduates with more than 110 questions about emotions and consumption. As a result of this research, the authors were able to determine which emotion-related questions best predicted overeating.

The researchers then narrowed the questions to 18. They measured four different dimensions of consumer emotional ability: perceiving, facilitating, understanding, and managing emotions. This 18-item scale—called the CEIS, or Consumer Emotional Intelligence Scale—is a highly reliable indicator of consumer behavior.

It seems consumers who care about healthy eating need to consider their feelings instead of studying nutrition labels.

---

Journal reference:

1. Blair Kidwell, David M. Hardesty, and Terry L. Childers. Consumer Emotional Intelligence: Conceptualization, Measurement, and the Prediction of Consumer Decision Making. Journal of Consumer Research, June 2008

Adapted from materials provided by University of Chicago Press Journals.

People With Joint Pain Can Really Forecast Thunderstorms

ScienceDaily (Jun. 3, 2008) — The summer brings many thunderstorms to the east coast of the United States, and one of the nation’s leading joint specialists, Javad Parvizi, M.D., Ph.D., of the Rothman Institute at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, says you should believe your grandmother, friend or co-worker when they tell you it’s going to rain—even if it’s simply because their aching knees, hips, hands or shoulders “say so.”

Dr. Parvizi, who is also director of clinical research at the Rothman Institute at Jefferson, and associate professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, explains that even though individuals can experience pain fluctuations with the slightest change in barometric pressure, most patients report significant increases in pain before and during severe changes in weather, like summer downpours and thunderstorms.

“The phenomenon of people being able to forecast precipitation, especially rain, due to the level of their joint pain is real,” says Dr. Parvizi. “It is not in the patient’s head. There is science to back it up.”

Weather-related joint pain is typically seen in patients with osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and other arthritic conditions. It can affect any load-bearing joint, but is most common in hips, knees, elbows, shoulders and hands. The joints contain sensory nerves called baro-receptors which respond to changes in atmospheric pressure. These receptors especially react when there is low barometric pressure, meaning the atmosphere has gone from dry to moist, like when it is going to rain.

Click here to continue reading article at Science Daily

6 natural cures that work - Relieve headaches, back pain, PMS, depression and more — without drugs

When your doc recommends a new treatment, you probably research all the side effects and pepper her with questions.

But perhaps because there's something less scary or medical sounding about alternative medicines such as acupuncture or herbs, many smart people not only slack on their research into so-called complementary therapies, but they skip class altogether.

Two-thirds of adults who take herbal supplements are using them to treat conditions for which there is no scientific evidence that they work, a study in Mayo Clinic Proceedings reports. It doesn't help that mainstream doctors often aren't familiar enough with complementary therapies to recommend them: Another survey of physicians at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, found that while most believed some treatments hold promise, the majority were not comfortable counseling patients about them.

"It takes time and effort to discern which therapies are valuable and right for you," says Victoria Maizes, M.D., executive director of the University of Arizona Program in Integrative Medicine in Tucson.

That's where SELF comes in. We interviewed the experts and analyzed the data (yes, we peruse the Journal of the American Medical Association so you don't have to) to ID six remedies that have proven potency. Let the natural healing begin!

Click here to continue reading article at MSNBC.com

Lifting the Veil of Depression

Experimental Electrical Pulse Therapy Can Shift Moods, Possibly Cure Depression

By JOHN McKENZIE
May 29, 2008

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, more than 21 million Americans suffer from some kind of depressive disorder. For about 4 million of the most severe cases, no treatment can help. But there is a promising experimental therapy now in clinical trials that, in essence, "rewires" the brain. It is most definitely medicine on the cutting edge.

Diane Hire of Norwalk, Ohio, is 54 years old. For the past 20 years, she has lived with severe, unrelenting depression.

"You felt like a dead person walking. There was just nothing left in me," Hire told ABC News. "I had no emotion left. I had no energy left. I had nothing. I was an empty shell of a person."

She was prescribed one anti-depressant after another, as well as psychotherapy. Nothing worked. She tried to commit suicide three times.

"It was unbearable. It was just unbearable." she said. "You start to feel that your friends and family would be better off without you." Hire reasoned, "There's just not anything that's going to change. So why live like this?"

Finally, her psychiatrist suggested a radically different, experimental treatment: deep brain stimulation, the same procedure that's been used safely for two decades to calm the tremors of Parkinson's disease and is now being tested on severe depression.

Click here to continue reading article at ABC News Health

Bone Drug Offers Hope on Breast Cancer

Study: Zometa Could Reduce Risk of Recurrence in Premenopausal Breast Cancer Patients

By AUDREY GRAYSON
May 31, 2008

Some early-stage breast cancer patients may soon have a promising new approach to treatment. A major study, released today, found that a drug commonly known to treat brittle bones also showed promise in dealing with early-stage breast cancer and could change the way many breast cancer patients are treated.

Zometa, a drug originally approved by the FDA to treat bone loss in patients undergoing chemotherapy and to reduce bone fractures in osteoporosis patients, might also reduce the risk of disease recurrence in premenopausal breast cancer patients, an Austrian study suggests.

The study, released today at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago, looked at 1,803 patients with early-stage breast cancer who were undergoing ovarian suppression, a treatment used to prematurely stop menstruation in order to induce menopause in women with hormone-sensitive tumors. By inducing menopause to lower estrogen levels, these hormone-sensitive tumors usually stop growing.

After five years, researchers found that the hormone therapy, when used with Zometa, reduced the risk of breast cancer recurrence by 35 percent compared to patients who received hormone therapy alone.

Moreover, the drug is easily administered and carries little risk of serious side effects, as it requires only one injection every six months.

Michael Gnant, the lead study investigator and professor of surgical oncology at the Medical University of Vienna, said that not only is the study likely to change practice in Europe and the United States, but also might add momentum to the growing demand of many breast cancer patients to avoid chemotherapy.

"To put it into perspective, the number of patients needed to be treated to have one patient who responds very successfully to the drug is quite similar to chemotherapy, but without all the negative and toxic side effects of chemotherapy," Gnant said.

Julie Gralow, associate professor of medical oncology at the University of Washington and director of Breast Medical Oncology at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, said that this study is likely to change the way many early-stage breast cancer patients are treated.

Click here to continue reading article at ABC Health News

Olive and Grape Extracts Work Better as Food Preservatives than Synthetic Antioxidants

Friday, May 30, 2008 by: David Gutierrez

(NaturalNews) Olive and grape extracts derived as byproducts of oil and wine manufacturing proved to be more effective food preservatives than pure antioxidant chemicals in a new study conducted by Portuguese researchers and published in the journal "Innovative Food Science and Emerging Technologies."

"We can assume that the natural extracts grape extract and olive extract are promising natural preservatives, with application in food industry," lead author Ana Teresa Serra said.

Researchers derived the extracts from the residue left behind as a byproduct of pressing grapes for wine and olives for olive oil. These extracts, along with three antioxidant chemicals, were tested against three bacteria species and two yeast species. The bacteria were E. coli, S. Poona, and B. cereus, while the yeasts were S. cerevisiae and C. albicans.

The three antioxidants tested were quercetin, hydroxytyrosol and oleuropein.

Of the five substances tested, the grape extract proved most effective. It inhibited growth among all three species of bacteria, with inhibition increasing along with the dose applied. Quercetin also suppressed all three bacteria species, although not as effectively as grape extract.

Olive extract, hydroxytyrosol and oleuropein were less effective still. Olive extract proved more effective against Gram–positive bacteria than Gram-negative bacteria.

Both olive and grape extracts suppressed the yeast species more effectively than quercetin or hydroxytyrosol at similar concentrations. The suppressing effects of the extracts against the yeasts were also dose-dependent.

While quercetin, hydroxytyrosol and oleuropein are all naturally occurring antioxidants, the higher effectiveness of the extracts suggests that antioxidants are not as effective when isolated from the other plant components they occur with. The researchers hypothesized that the extracts might be more effective because of "a positive synergetic effect within the constituents of grape extract, that reinforce the response and/or, the presence of other components in the matrices with antimicrobial activity."

Click here for article source at Natural News.com