I found a very interesting and informative article today, and
I’m sure many of you will learn something between the good
fats that our bodies need to function properly and bad fats
that our bodies obviously don’t need.

Stop and read today’s Health Tip on the truth about fats.

Enjoy today’s issue…

Be Well,
Kris

HEALTH TIP: Truth About Fats

Fats that Heal
Unsaturated Fats – The Good Fats
Unsaturated fats are the good fats. They don’t raise our
cholesterol levels. To maintain good health we should consume
more unsaturated fats and less saturated fat. Why is that?
Unsaturated fats provide our bodies with the essential fats
that our bodies need for healthy cell development. The Omega
3s and Omega 6s, which are found in the good fats, are critical
for the normal growth and development of our bodies. They are
also needed for brain function. Unsaturated fats work by
lowering our overall cholesterol, including our low-density
protein (LDL) cholesterol.

Monounsaturated Fats
The majority of the fats we consume should come from
monounsaturated fats. According, to research conducted by the
American Heart Association, monounsaturated fats are heart
healthy. They can lower the risk of heart disease.
Monounsaturated fats are considered to be the healthiest of
the saturated fats. If we consume monounsaturated fats we will
increase our high density lipoprotein (HDL) (also known as the
good cholesterol). Monounsaturated fats remain a liquid at room
temperature, but they can become a solid if put into a
refrigerator. A few sources of monounsaturated fats are canola
oil, peanut oil, and olive oil. Other food sources that contain
a high amount of monounsaturated fat are avocados and most nuts.

Polyunsaturated Fats
Polyunsaturated fats can also aid in lowering our LDL.
Polyunsaturated fats will usually remain liquids at room
temperature or when placed in the refrigerator. Vegetable oils
such as cottonseed, corn, safflower, sunflower, and soy oil are
all polyunsaturated fats.

Fats that Harm: Saturated Fats
The Bad Fats
Saturated fats are the main culprits of high blood cholesterol.
Low-density protein (LDL) causes fatty buildup in the arteries.
The cholesterol deposits place a lot of demand on our heart and
circulatorysystem, making it harder for the blood to flow through
the body. A high level of LDL in the blood increases the risk of
cardiovascular disease (CVD). Saturated fats can be found in
animal foods and in certain plant foods. A few examples of animal
fat are butter, beef, dairy products, eggs, cheese, lamb, milk,
pork, poultry fat, and veal. Saturated fats can also be found in
some vegetable fats like cocoa butter, coconut, coconut oil,
palm oil, and palm kernel oil.

Hydrogenation
When foods are processed, the fats sometimes go through a
procedure referred to as hydrogenation. Hydrogenated fats are
commonly used in baked goods like cookies, cakes, most breads,
and fried foods. Hydrogenated fats remain solid or semi-solid at
room temperature. You can usually find them in vegetable
shortenings and margarine. Hydrogenation occurs when the
manufacturer adds hydrogen to a vegetable oil. This process
increases the shelf life of foods containing hydrogenated fats,
along with the flavor of the product, but at what cost?

Trans Fats
Trans fats raise our LDL and are very unhealthy. They also
increase the risk of heart disease and stroke. When we add trans
fats to healthy foods like steamed vegetables and baked potatoes,
they become unhealthy. The American Heart Association recommends
that individuals over two years of age should limit the intake
of trans fat to less than 1% of their total calories.

Make Healthy Choices:
Choose Healthy Fats
Our bodies need fat to function. It’s important to greatly
reduce our consumption of saturated fats. If we consume too
much, we face a higher risk of developing a disease. It’s
important that we choose unsaturated fats, especially the
monounsaturated fats. If you aren’t doing this already, get
into the habit of reading the labels on food packaging. You
want to ensure that you are choosing the right types of fats.

If you are consuming too much fat, reduce your intake. In
addition tomonitoring your fat intake, be sure you add plenty
of fresh fruits and vegetables to your diet and engage in some
type of physical activity.

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Nanotubes used to spur bone growth
SAN DIEGO — U.S. scientists say they are using nanotubes
and stem cells to help accelerate bone growth in patients
who undergo orthopedic surgery. The University of California-
San Diego researchers said they placed mesenchymal stem cells
on top of very thin titanium oxide nanotubes to control bone
building cells. Mesenchymal stem cells can be directly sup-
plied from a patient’s own bone marrow, the scientists said.
“If you break your knee or leg from skiing, for example, an
orthopedic surgeon will implant a titanium rod and you will
be on crutches for about three months,” said Professor Sungho
Jin. “But what we anticipate through our research is that if
the surgeon uses titanium oxide nanotubes with stem cells,
the bone healing could be accelerated and a patient may be
able to walk in one month instead of being on crunches for
three months. The research — said to be the first of its
kind to use stem cells attached to titanium oxide nanotube
implants — also included Professors Shu Chien and Adam
Engler, as well Seunghan Oh and other researchers. The study
appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of
Science.

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Researchers find new schizophrenia gene
BALTIMORE — U.S. medical scientists say they’ve discovered
a variation in the neuregulin 3 gene that influences delus-
ions associated with schizophrenia. The Johns Hopkins Univ-
ersity researchers say their discovery moves science closer
to understanding schizophrenia and related disorders.
“Neuregulin 3 is clearly one more gene to add to the few
currently known to contribute to schizophrenia,” said Dr. -
David Valle, director of the McKusick-Nathans Institute of
Genetic Medicine at Hopkins. “There’s much more to do, but
we’re making progress.” He said schizophrenia is a varied
condition with a number of symptoms not shared by all affec-
ted, which might be one reason why it’s been difficult to
identify genes that contribute to the condition. “Neuregulin
3 makes sense because it’s turned on mostly in the central
nervous system, and the related gene neuregulin 1 also has
been shown to be associated with schizophrenia,” said Assoc-
iate Professor Dimitrios Avramopoulos. He said the team will
next sequence the neuregulin 3 gene from patients who part-
icipated in the study, looking for rare genetic variants
that might also contribute to the condition. The research
that included Pei-Lung Chen, Virginia Lasseter, John McGrath,
M. Daniele Fallin, Kung-Yee Liang, Gerald Nestadt, Ningping
Feng, Gary Steel, Andrew Cutting, Paula Wolyniec, Ann Pulver,
and David Valle appears in the Jan. 9 issue of the American
Journal of Human Genetics.

____________________________________________________

Chemicals used to disrupt cancer
DALLAS — U.S. medical scientists have identified two chemical
compounds that can possibly disrupt the growth of many types
of cancer and degenerative diseases. University of Texas
Southwestern Medical Center researchers screened a chemical
library of 200,000 compounds to find the chemicals that can
be used to study and possibly manipulate cellular pathways.
“The identification of these chemicals and their targets
within this cellular pathway represents an important step in
developing therapeutic agents,” said Assistant Professor
Lawrence Lum. Using cultured mouse cells, the researchers
studied biochemical reactions within cells controlled by a
class of proteins called Wnt that help control embryonic dev-
elopment in many animals, including humans. Misregulation of
cellular responses to Wnt proteins is associated with a broad
range of diseases, including cancer, Alzheimer’s and poly-
cystic kidney disease, and type 2 diabetes, the scientists
said. Nine compounds found to inactivate Wnt-controlled sys-
tems were earmarked for further research. The scientists
found five of the compounds stopped cells from responding to
Wnt and four prevented Wnt from being produced in the first
place. The research is reported in the journal Nature Chemical
Biology.

____________________________________________________

Scientists build complex cell microtissues
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — U.S. biomedical engineers say they have
built complex-shaped microtissues in a Petri dish by assem-
bling small blocks of living cell clusters. The Brown Univ-
ersity scientists said their achievement, using a 3-D Petri
dish they invented, helps advance the field of tissue engine-
ering and could reduce the need for some animal research.
Professor Jeffrey Morgan, who led the research, said it has
enormous implications for basic cell biology, drug discovery
and tissue research. He said the tissues created in the lab
are more like natural tissue and can be constructed to have
complex lace-like patterns similar to a vasculature — the
arrangement of blood vessels in the body or in an organ.
“We think this is one step toward using building blocks to
build complex-shaped tissues that might one day be trans-
planted,” he said. The research that included former students
Adam Rago and Dylan Dean will appear in the March 1 issue of
the journal Biotechnology and Bioengineering and is available
at the journal’s Web site.
____________________________________________________
Arteries adjust blood flow after stroke
SAN DIEGO — U.S. medical researchers have discovered a grid
of small arteries at the surface of the brain redirects and
controls blood flow following a stroke. University of Cali-
fornia-San Diego scientists say they found the mesh-like net-
work adjusts to restore normal supply when blood slows after
a stroke. “This is optimistic news,” said Professor David
Kleinfeld, whose team studies blood flow in animal models of
stroke. Damage from stroke can continue for hours or even
days as compromised brain tissue surrounding the core injury
succumbs to deprivation of oxygen and nutrients, the resear-
chers said. “This is the area doctors are trying to protect
after a stroke,” said Andy Shih, a postdoctoral fellow in
Kleinfeld’s group who conducted the experiments. “Those
neurons are teetering on the edge of death and survival.”
The researchers said previous work found blood flow can per-
sistently slow after a stroke, which would hinder the del-
ivery of drugs that might help recovery. But, they said,
those studies only measured the speed of the blood. By meas-
uring both the speed of blood cells moving through individual
small arteries and the diameters of the same vessels, the
scientists found the arteries dilate to maintain a constant
delivery of blood cells. The research that included Patrick
Drew, Philbert Tsai, Beth Friedman and Dr. Patrick Lyden
appeared in the Jan. 28 online edition of the Journal of
Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism.

____________________________________________________

Fast-food can cause liver damage
We all know that eating fast food isn’t healthy. In the
spirit of the movie ‘Supersize Me’ by Morgan Spurlock,
Swedish researchers conducted their own study to see what
happens to otherwise healthy people who ate two supersized
fast-food meals over the course of a month, while taking on
a sedentary lifestyle.

Their finding weren’t surprising. The 18 healthy, active
medical students who volunteered for the study showed an
average weight gain of 14 pounds, added 2.6 inches to their
waistline and added 3.7% fat to their body during the month.
They also showed an increase in liver enzymes called alanine
aminotransferase (ALT), which can be a sign of liver damage.

While it’s not clear whether the increase in liver enzymes
was due to eating fast-food or from being sedentary, the
researchers were surprised to find that the main damage
wasn’t from animal fat. It appeared that the healthy HDL
cholesterol increased, even though the amount of animal
fats was increased. What seemed to be the worst issue was
an increase in carbs from sugar-laden soda, fries and bread
products, which researchers feel were the main reason the
liver enzymes were increased.

The end conclusion is no surprising: Don’t overeat sugar
and starches and get plenty of exercise.