(UPI) People mysteriously marry those with similar ancestry, U.S. researchers say…

Specifically, [the researchers] find Mexicans mate according to proportions of Native American to European ancestry, while Puerto Ricans are more likely to settle down with someone carrying a similar mix of African and European genes.

Not only are there similar ancestry patterns between spouses, an imprint of many non-random associations of genes between original ancestral populations is found within the genomic architecture within each individual.

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(RealAge.com) Finding it hard to squeeze in your workout or your walk this time of year? Don't sweat it. Sometimes, less still cuts the mustard.

As long as you pick up the pace, that is. In a study, people who cut back on their walks but turned up the burn when they did get out there still boosted their cardiovascular endurance…

Why should you care about your cardiovascular endurance, anyway? Because a 5-year study showed that a mere 10 percent improvement lowered people's risk of mortality by 15 percent, compared with no cardiorespiratory improvement. So don't chuck your workout altogether this holiday season. Cut back if you must, but work harder. Or chunk your 30-minute walks into three 10-minute sessions. Your heart will thank you in the New Year.

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(Chicago Tribune) Adults need seven to eight hours every night for optimal health.

But what makes this wellness strategy so effective -- and not just folksy health talk -- is the deeper benefits that regular sleep provides to the body. It might just be the best healthy step you can take during the holidays.

For example, studies show adults who regularly cheat themselves of sleep by two to three hours are much more likely to die of cardiovascular problems.

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(RealAge.com) Green beans, broccoli, squash . . . eke out a little extra get-through-the-day energy from them with this topper: toasted sesame seeds.

These nutty little seeds are loaded with magnesium -- a mineral that cells need in order to convert food to energy, according to Dr. Maoshing Ni, author of Second Spring. Add the seeds to bread, cookie, and muffin batters, too, for extra magnesium and a delicate crunch…

Other magnesium-rich items that should make more appearances: whole grains, dark leafy greens, pumpkin seeds, cashews, and Brazil nuts. Or, if you're not the nuts-and-seeds type, take a supplement instead…

Besides helping your body turn food into energy, magnesium helps strengthen your bones and keeps your heart, nerves, muscles, and immune system functioning well.

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(RealAge.com) Tacos -- quick and easy, and a treat for your liver if you skip the ground beef and use this filling instead: winter squash…

In a 13-year study, people who ate a high-carb diet were far less likely to develop liver cancer or cirrhosis compared with the people who ate a high-protein, high-cholesterol diet. More research is needed to confirm the study's findings, but we already know that high-cholesterol diets are problematic for many other reasons. So upping your intake of healthy carbs -- like high-fiber veggies -- while slashing dietary cholesterol is pretty much a no-brainer…

The new research doesn't mean you should load up on just any old starch. Healthy carbs are where it's at if you want to keep your weight in check. And you want to. You really, really want to. People in the study who ate too much cholesterol and also were overweight or obese fared the worst in terms of liver health. So start getting creative in your efforts to eat less red meat. Here's some excellent advice on how to do it.

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(The People's Pharmacy, Los Angeles Times) It is unlikely that drinking fruit or vegetable juice from aluminum cans would increase the risk of Alzheimer's. Aluminum cans are coated with a plastic lining to prevent corrosion and protect juice from acquiring a metallic flavor.

These liners are not completely innocuous, we fear. Many of them contain bisphenol A (BPA), a compound that mimics estrogen. A December analysis in Consumer Reports notes that some juice and canned foods contain measurable amounts of BPA.

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(Science Daily) For obese men, a dramatic weight loss can be an effective way to improve moderate to severe sleep apnoea, scientists at Karolinska Institutet report. Those with severe sleep apnoea when the study began benefited most from weight loss…

Untreated, sleep apnoea is associated with an increased risk of traffic accidents, as well as stroke and heart disease… Moderate and severe sleep apnoea also increases the risk of premature death.

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(Reuters Health) The number of prostate cancers diagnosed in UK men each year would jump from 30,000 to 160,000 if the country introduced population-wide screening for the disease, new research shows. However, many of those cancers are low-risk and may not lead to death.

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(HealthDay News) The spread of breast cancer cells from the main tumor to other parts of the body is controlled by a growth factor known as TGFb, which may prove a promising target for new drugs to prevent metastatic breast cancer, British researchers say.

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(Science Daily) Here's a holiday news nugget for those who will experience "wrap rage" this season…

According to the American Dialect Society, wrap rage is defined as anger brought on by the frustration of trying to open a factory-sealed purchase…

As we enter the holiday season, Pennsylvania's physicians are encouraging citizens to play it safe with tough-to-open packaging to avoid an unnecessary trip to the emergency room. The following tips may help:

1. If you must use a knife or another type of sharp object, cut away from your body.
2. If you must use scissors, use ones with blunt tips.
3. Wear protective gloves.
4. Avoid opening tough-to-open packages in a crowded area.
5. Don't use your legs to keep the product stable.

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(HealthDay News) Pity the poor single people who pass their 40th birthday without ever tying the knot, since research has shown that never-married adults have more health woes than married folks. And, um, isn't there something wrong with those who go it alone anyway?

Not so fast.

A new study looking at psychological measures shows that never-married people aged 40 and up can be just as resourceful, psychologically speaking, as their married counterparts.

Wait, there's more.

"If you look at never marrieds who are high on mastery -- they feel like they are in the driver's seat and in control of their lives -- and high on self-sufficiency -- they know how to take care of themselves -- they actually have better emotional well-being than married people," said study author Jamila Bookwala, an associate professor of psychology.

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(Science Daily) Even the anticipation of sweets may cause our muscles to start taking up more blood sugar, say researchers…

Orexin neurons are known to switch on when we are motivated to eat or seek other rewards. They also play a role in active wakefulness.

"Our results show that good taste, a pleasant meal, and its expectation stimulate muscle glucose utilization and thereby decrease blood glucose level during feeding," said Yasuhiko Minokoshi…

Orexin has been shown to stimulate feeding, he added, and in fact, they confirmed that mice lacking the orexin gene were less interested than normal mice in sweets. He concludes that orexin may be responsible for controlling and coordinating both feeding behavior and muscle glucose metabolism.

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(Science Daily) Getting the correct balance of proteins in our diet may be more important for healthy ageing than reducing calories, new research … suggests.

The research may help explain why 'dietary restriction' (also known as calorie restriction) -- reducing food intake whilst maintaining sufficient quantities of vitamins, minerals and other important nutrients -- appears to have health benefits…

[Researchers] found that levels of a particular amino acid known as methionine were crucial to maximising lifespan without decreasing fertility. Adding methionine to a low calorie diet boosted fertility without reducing lifespan; likewise, reducing methionine content in a high calorie diet prolonged lifespan. Previous studies have also shown that reducing the intake of methionine in rodents can help extend lifespan.

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Community: According to Wikipedia, "High levels of methionine can be found in sesame seeds, Brazil nuts, fish, meats and some other plant seeds. Most fruits and vegetables contain very little of it. Most legumes are also low in methionine."

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(Science Daily) Exposure to secondhand smoke for a prolonged period of time and in high quantity may increase the risk of breast cancer, even in women who never smoked cigarettes.

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(Chicago Tribune) A double-blind study published in Urology (October 2008) included 80 men whose prostate problems interfered with nightly sleep. Half got Celebrex before bedtime; the other half received a placebo. After a month, the men on Celebrex had fewer symptoms and half as many nightly trips to the bathroom. Celebrex and ibuprofen are both nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).

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(Science Daily) Scientists … have found that combining two chemicals, one of which is the green tea component EGCG, can prevent and destroy a variety of protein structures known as amyloids. Amyloids are the primary culprits in fatal brain disorders such as Alzheimer's, Huntington's, and Parkinson's diseases. Their study … may ultimately contribute to future therapies for these diseases.

"These findings are significant because it is the first time a combination of specific chemicals has successfully destroyed diverse forms of amyloids at the same time," says Dr. Martin Duennwald of BBRI, who co-led the study.

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(Science Daily) The combination of sigmoidoscopy and fecal immunochemical test (FIT) detects advanced proximal (right-sided) tumors better than either test alone, according to a new study.

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(Reuters Health) Women who eat more soy-based foods than average may have less risk for certain cancers in the ovaries and the lining of the uterus, according to the combined findings of a few studies.

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(USA Today) Strange-looking cats? Maybe.

Pam Moore concedes that if someone is accustomed to long-haired cats, a Sphynx can be off-putting at first. But after a Sphynx curls up in the lap of one of her patients, Moore … says the animal brings about a transformation in the human. "They bring so much peace and happiness to the patients," she says…

Sphynx cats love to cuddle with people and are as soft as velvet. "They'll just curl right up on a patient's lap and stay there," Moore says. "That's not the training. That's just the way they are."

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(SouthBeachDiet.com) Everyone knows the holiday season brings plenty of joy — as well as the chaos and stress of last-minute shopping, multiple parties, and gatherings you're hosting for friends and family. What you may not know is that chronic stress can contribute to the development of numerous illnesses, including migraines, depression, and heart disease, not to mention interfering with your weight-loss goals… Reduce stress now with these easy ideas:

• Eat a balanced diet…
• Stay active…
• Get enough sleep…
• Practice relaxation or meditation…
• Manage your to-do list…
• Make time for yourself.

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(HealthDay News) Increased exercise, reduced soda consumption and self-weighing are among the most effective weight control strategies for adolescents, a new study shows.

Researchers surveyed 130 adolescents about their weight-control strategies and lifestyle habits. Sixty-two had succeeded in losing weight and 68 had not…

Overall, a higher percentage of participants who lost weight used six or more of the healthy weight control behaviors [eating fewer calories, increasing exercise, eating less high fat and junk food, drinking less soda, drinking more water, weighing oneself, eating more fruits and vegetables and doing different types of exercise], compared to those who didn't lose weight. A minority of adolescents who lost weight reported using any of the structured weight control behaviors [eating a certain amount of calories, counting calories, recording food intake and working with a professional] or extreme dietary changes…

"[O]ur findings suggest that there are no magical solutions, and that behaviors such as eating more fruits and vegetables and eating less fat and decreasing sedentary time seem to offer the most promise for success."

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Community: What works for teens can work for the rest of us, too.

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(UPI) Active commuting -- walking, cycling or skating to and from work or school -- can make all the difference in being physically active, New York officials say…

"Just 10 minutes of exercise at a time can improve long-term health," Dr. Thomas Farley, New York City health commissioner, said in a statement. "Active commuting is an excellent way to incorporate more exercise into a daily routine."

However, the report pointed out that people become less active with age. Twenty-four percent of 18- to 24-year-old New Yorkers report fewer than 10 blocks of active travel during the past month, but the proportion grows to 27 percent among 25- to 44-year-olds, 34 percent among 45- to 64-year-olds and 46 percent among those age 65 and older.

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(Science Daily) Married people in the United States are living longer these days, but the widowed are experiencing a higher mortality rate, according to new research by a Michigan State University sociologist.

The widening mortality gap between the two groups is a disturbing trend that should prompt scholars and politicians to seek out strategies to better protect and promote health for the widowed, said Hui Liu, study author.

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(Science Daily) Two new University of Illinois studies report that lunasin, a soy peptide often discarded in the waste streams of soy-processing plants, may have important health benefits that include fighting leukemia and blocking the inflammation that accompanies such chronic health conditions as diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.

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(Science Daily) An international team of scientists has rescued visual function in laboratory rats with eye disease by using cells similar to stem cells. The research shows the potential for stem cell-based therapies to treat age-related macular degeneration in humans.

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(Science Daily) A new study shows that muscle cells grown in the lab can restore an intestine's ability to squeeze shut properly. The work, performed in dogs and rats, might ultimately help treat patients with conditions such as gastric reflux and fecal incontinence.

This technique may be used to strengthen sphincters, which are the bands of muscle that separate the major sections of your intestinal tract. Weakness in these areas can cause gastrointestinal esophageal reflux disease, or GERD, which affects 25 million adults in the United States. It is also a cause of fecal incontinence, or loss of control of the bowels, which afflicts more than 5 percent of adults under 40, especially women after childbirth; its prevalence increases with age.

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(Science Daily) A major discovery is challenging accepted thinking about amyloids -- the fibrous protein deposits associated with diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's -- and may open up a potential new area for therapeutics…

Amyloid deposits can accumulate at many different sites in the body or can remain localised to one particular organ or tissue, causing a range of different diseases. Amyloid deposits can be seen in the brain, in diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, whereas in other amyloid diseases deposits can be found elsewhere in the body, in the joints, liver and many other organs. Amyloid deposits are also closely linked to the development of Type II diabetes.

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(HealthDay News) Monkeys can recognize photographs of other monkeys they know, proving that they can both detect differences in faces and figure out if they've seen them before, researchers report.

The study also shows that capuchin monkeys can decipher the two-dimensional nature of a photograph, the scientists authors noted.

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(RealAge.com) Dry, dull skin doesn't have to be inevitable this season.

To keep your skin looking healthy and radiant no matter the weather, start with three winter essentials: a moisturizer, a lip balm, and an exfoliant. But, say the experts at our sister site RealBeauty.com, you've gotta choose the right ones.

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(RealAge.com) Here's a simple way you can start living greener, and get slimmer in the process.

Reach for low-carbon-footprint snacks, suggests nutrition expert Kate Geagan, MS, RD, author of Go Green Get Lean…

Geagan says the ideal snack should have about 100 to 175 calories. (Learn the secret to stopping out-of-control snack attacks.)They should also have just a few ingredients, have little packaging, and take minimal amounts of resources to produce (that tends to mean less processing).

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(Los Angeles Times) Watch for more and more and more cranberries showing up in your food. This year so far, there have been 562 "cranberry product" launches, according to the first of a … four-part series on the cranberry at the trade website Nutraingredients.com…

Cranberries are showing up in bars, gum, chocolate and more and more drinks. Yes, the fruit has the well-known rep of helping with urinary tract infections, but they're now promoted as healthful because of their superfruit-y, loaded-with-antioxidant status.

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(USA Today) A national push to avert delays in heart attack treatment has sharply increased the percentage of people who get prompt care, a study shows.

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(Reuters Health) People treated for heart problems at rural hospitals fare about as well as those getting care at urban medical centers, a study of U.S. hospitals suggests.

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(HealthDay News) Potentially fatal blood clots after surgery are a much greater risk than has previously been thought, a British study finds…

One of every 140 women who had surgery that required a hospital stay was readmitted for venous thromboembolism within 12 weeks of the operation…

By contrast, the incidence of venous thrombosis during a 12-week period for women who did not have surgery was one in 6,200.

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(HealthDay News) Add colorectal cancer to the list of malignancies caused by smoking, with a new study strengthening the link between the two.

And other studies are providing more bad news for people who haven't managed to quit: Two papers … strengthen the case for the dangers of secondhand smoke for people exposed to fumes as children and as adults.

Inhaling those secondhand fumes may raise a woman's odds for breast cancer or a child's lifetime risk for lung malignancies, the studies found.

All of the findings, while grim, could be useful in the war against smoking, experts say.

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(Science Daily) A chemical culprit responsible for the rapid, mysterious death of phytoplankton in the North Atlantic Ocean has been found… This same chemical may hold unexpected promise in cancer research…

Both the virus and the newly found lipid deal their deadly blow by causing the upper-ocean plants to commit cellular suicide…

The lipid may help shed light on why cancer cells are unable to commit suicide. Someday, the researchers say, it might suggest ways to correct that defect.

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(Science Daily) There was no substantial change in brain tumor incidence among adults 5 to 10 years after cell phone usage sharply increased, according to a new brief communication [from the] National Cancer Institute.

Although cell phone use has been proposed as a risk factor for brain tumors, a biological mechanism to explain this association is not known.

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(Actress Kate Mulgrew, writing at CNN) Alzheimer's and other dementias cost Medicare, Medicaid and businesses $148 billion annually, a number that will grow quickly and substantially as baby boomers reach age 65.

Prevention. Cure. Hope. These are words seldom associated with Alzheimer's disease. But groundbreaking scientific research and an opportunity for powerful collaborations could lead to discovery of the ultimate cure for Alzheimer's disease: its prevention.

I know this is so because my friend Dr. Karen Hsiao Ashe, an internationally renowned Alzheimer's disease researcher at the University of Minnesota, has developed a research road map that calls for bringing together a group of the world's foremost laboratory and clinical investigators in the field to make prevention a reality by 2020…

Karen and her colleagues are homing in on a promising possibility: a pill containing the molecular compound that could block the chemical chain reaction in the brain that leads to Alzheimer's.

So what's the holdup? Well, money, of course, and attitude, perhaps. Finding a treatment within the next 10 years that will prevent Alzheimer's disease will require a major national investment to bring together the scientists to develop an effective, safe and affordable way to block the disease…

We must fight mightily now to prevent the shadow of this disease from darkening the lives of our children and grandchildren. We must invest today in research that will most swiftly lead to the ultimate cure: prevention.

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(Shrink Yourself) Are you dreading what the next month might do to your weight? Are you stressed about everything you need to plan and do? Are you wishing that the season wouldn't start so soon? If so, you're not alone. But just a few tips can help you keep things in perspective in the month to come…

Cutting back on calories in the days before holiday parties or celebrations can balance out a little overindulging on the actual day. Adding in walks this month can help to dial down stress, keep you trim, and give you the time and space to remember the reason for the season. Just a few minutes to breathe fresh air and contemplate the blessings in your life can take the focus away from food and put it back on gratitude. And lastly, knowing how certain people, situations, and feelings affect your eating patterns can make you understand what you're feeling instead of just mindlessly eating to stuff unknown or uncomfortable feelings down.

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(Arthur Agatston, MD, Everyday Health) There is an important medical condition so obvious that I can diagnose it without performing a single diagnostic test. I can spot it the instant a patient walks into my office. It's so common that I see it everywhere — at malls, in restaurants, on the golf course, and strolling down the street. It has reached epidemic proportions in the United States. I'm sure you've seen it, too, among your family and friends, and maybe when you look in the mirror.

The ailment has many names, including metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance, Syndrome X, and the name I will use,prediabetes. Why is it so easy to diagnose? There's one clue that's a dead giveaway: It's your waistline. One of my colleagues says that when a patient's belly is the first body part to enter his office, the diagnosis is made. If you have gained weight in middle age and most of it is in your belly, you are likely part of the American epidemic of prediabetes. And if you don't start eating better and exercising, full-blown diabetes will almost certainly be in your future.

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(Science Daily) Scientists at the University of Bonn have found a new signaling pathway which stimulates the production and function of so-called brown fat cells. They propose using these cells that serve as a "natural heating system" in order to just 'burn' unwanted excess fat…

The researchers suspect that a disorder of the brown fatty tissue can lead to obesity in adults. If it were possible to turn on the 'natural heating system' on again, the problem of unwanted fat would be quickly solved: according to estimates, 50 grams of active brown fatty tissue is sufficient for increasing the basal metabolic rate by 20 per cent.

"With the same nutrition and activity the fat reserves would melt at a rate of five kilos [about 11 pounds] per year," Professor [Alexander] Pfeifer explains

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(Science Daily) Chicken collagen can provide relief from rheumatoid arthritis (RA) symptoms. A randomised, controlled trial … has found that Chicken type II collagen (CCII), a protein extracted from the cartilage of chicken breast, is a safe and effective treatment for RA.

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Community: Chicken cartilage has been a folk remedy for arthritis for generations. We shortchange ourselves when we sneer at folk medicine without investigation.

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(HealthDay News) Women who take low-dose aspirin to protect their heart might be helping their eyes as well.

A new study by Harvard University researchers found what they described as a modest benefit for aspirin in preventing age-related macular degeneration (AMD), an eye disease that destroys sharp, central vision.

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(Science Daily) The right kind of stress response in the operating room could lead to quicker recovery for patients after knee surgery, according to a new study… The results could be used to develop methods for predicting how well patients will fare after they leave the hospital.

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(U.S. News & World Report) [T]he country's major cancer centers are a rich resource even for people who can't or don't want to receive all of their care there. That's particularly true of the cancer centers specially recognized by the National Cancer Institute and funded by taxpayers to support research into the disease.

There are a number of ways to take advantage of the expertise concentrated at the big centers, says Mark Fesen, an oncologist in Hutchinson, Kan., and author of Surviving the Cancer System,published earlier this year.

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(Science Daily) In spite of their genetic similarity to humans, chimpanzees and great apes have maximum lifespans that rarely exceed 50 years. The difference, explains … Professor Caleb Finch, is that as humans evolved genes that enabled them to better adjust to levels of infection and inflammation and to the high cholesterol levels of their meat rich diets…

In addition to differences in diets between species of primates, humans evolved unique variants in a cholesterol transporting gene, apolipoprotein E, which also regulates inflammation and many aspects of aging in the brain and arteries.

ApoE3 is unique to humans and may be what Finch calls "a meat-adaptive gene" that has increased the human lifespan.

However, the minor allele, apoE4, when expressed in humans, can impair neuronal development, as well as shorten human lifespan by about four years and increase the risk of heart disease and Alzheimer disease by several-fold.

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(Science Daily) Three papers scheduled for publication … suggest that copper might have a role in the fight against healthcare-associated infections.

In a busy Birmingham teaching hospital, researchers swapped a conventional toilet seat, tap-handles and a ward door push-plate for similar items made from 70% copper. They compared the number of microbes on the copper surfaces against the number of bacteria on the same items from another ward and found that the copper surfaces had 90-100% fewer live bacteria than the non-copper surfaces.

Similar findings were reported from a primary healthcare facility in the Western Cape, South Africa.

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(Science Daily) Those extra helpings of gravy and dessert at the holiday table are even less of a help to your waistline than previously thought. According to a new research report…, a diet that is high in fat and in sugar actually switches on genes that ultimately cause our bodies to store too much fat.

This means these foods hit you with a double-whammy as the already difficult task of converting high-fat and high-sugar foods to energy is made even harder because these foods also turn our bodies into "supersized fat-storing" machines.

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(Science Daily) When asked to inhibit their response to a "cocaine-cues" video, active cocaine abusers were, on average, able to suppress activity in brain regions linked to drug craving, according to a new study… The results … suggest that clinical interventions designed to strengthen these inhibitory responses could help cocaine abusers stop using drugs and avoid relapse…

Because inhibitory control is crucial for regulating emotions and desires, the findings from this study could have implications for other disorders involving loss of behavioral control, such as gambling and obesity.

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(UPI) ome people think a tan gives them a "healthy" glow, but any tan is a sign of skin damage, a U.S. expert on ultraviolet radiation and tanning warns…

"A tan is the skin's reaction to exposure to UV rays," [Sharon Miller, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration scientist,] says in a statement.

"Recognizing exposure to the rays as an 'insult,' the skin acts in self-defense by producing more melanin, a pigment that darkens the skin. Over time, this damage will lead to prematurely aged skin and, in some cases, skin cancer."

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Community: There are now skin lotions that can give you that “healthy glow”.

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(HealthDay News) A new study suggests that lonely people attract fellow "lonelies" and influence others to feel lonely, too.

"Loneliness can spread from person to person to person -- up to three degrees of separation," said James H. Fowler, co-author of the study…

"For the mental health provider, this means treating not just the patient, but potentially also the patient's friends," he said. "For the employer, this means emphasizing activities that help their employees to connect to one another socially. For the family member, this means you should tend to your own networks, too, while you help your kin feel more connected."

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(Harvard Healthbeat) Glance at the 10 leading causes of death in America, and you won’t find the word “stress” anywhere. Yet many well-respected studies link stress to a variety of ailments, including heart disease, stroke, and cancer. Depression and anxiety, which afflict millions of Americans, can be caused or exacerbated by stress. Stress also triggers flare-ups of asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, and gastrointestinal problems, such as irritable bowel syndrome.

Sometimes just thinking about embarking on a program of stress control can be stressful. Rather than freeze in your tracks, start small. Pick just one stumbling block or source of stress in your life, and see if these suggestions work for you.

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(HealthDay News) Fear of anxiety may push "above-average" worriers into depression, a new study suggests….

The [study] showed that anxiety sensitivity significantly predicted depression symptoms. The researchers also found that two of the four issues that comprise anxiety sensitivity -- the "fear of cognitive dyscontrol" and the "fear of publically observable anxiety symptoms" -- specifically predicted depression symptoms. The two other issues -- the "fear of cardiovascular symptoms" and the "fear of respiratory symptoms" -- weren't significant predictors of depression.

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(UPI) Antioxidants in chocolate and cocoa are highly associated with the amount of non-fat, cocoa-derived ingredients in the product, U.S. researchers say.

The study … found products with the highest level of flavanol antioxidants were cocoa powders, followed by unsweetened baking chocolate, dark chocolate and semi-sweet chips, milk chocolate and chocolate syrup

Cocoa flavanols -- such as epicatechin and catechin -- have been associated with cardiovascular health benefits. The researchers found large differences in the amounts of catechin and attributed them to differences in manufacturing processes.

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(Science Daily) In order to maintain muscle strength with age, cells must rid themselves of the garbage that accumulates in them over time, just as it does in any household, according to a new study… In the case of cells, that waste material includes spent organelles, toxic clumps of proteins, and pathogens…

The new findings highlight the importance of maintaining a normal level of autophagy to clear away the debris and keep muscles working properly…

The findings may have clinical implications, [the study author] says. There has been interest in developing therapies to block proteins' degradation for treating certain muscle-wasting disorders. But in some cases, at least, "it may be better to activate autophagy and remove the garbage in the cells," he said. The researchers think similar treatments might combat aging sarcopenia as well, noting that another study has shown a decline in the efficiency of autophagy during aging.

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(HealthDay News) Weak muscles may be the cause of the painful and debilitating condition known as "runner's knee," new research suggests.

People who develop the condition tend to have "weaker quads and hamstrings," study co-author Darin Padua, said in a news release. "As a result, they don't bend their knees as much when doing tasks, such as running or jumping. That means the contact area between the kneecap and the femur is smaller, so pressure is focused and pinpointed on a smaller area."

That, in turn, leads to runner's knee, also known as patellofemoral pain syndrome, said Padua… Runner's knee, which affects an estimated one in four people who are physically active, can lead to osteoarthritis.

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