News summary

Iron deficiency may contribute to “restless leg”

Restless leg syndrome may be associated with low levels of iron in the blood, according to a study in the US. A family history of the condition is a factor. Researchers at the Mayo Clinic suggest that the condition is often missed in children. They say the explanation for the link is unknown, and that it could be due to diet or a genetic predisposition to low iron levels. Dr Suresh Kotagal, head of paediatric neurology at the Mayo Clinic and lead researcher on the study, says, “Restless legs syndrome is under-diagnosed in kids. If you look at children with difficulty falling asleep, you’ll see a fair number have restless legs. He says the syndrome could be treated with drugs which increase the levels of dopamine in the central nervous system, but that there is not yet sufficient evidence that treatment with iron could help.
BBC News Online

Sex difference in eating disorders

Women may be more at risk of eating disorders than men because of the way their brain processes information, according to scientists in Japan. They say the female brain responds differently to a man’s when exposed to some words concerned with body image, and that this may help explain why ten times as many women as men develop anorexia and bulimia. Scientists at Hiroshima University say MRI scanning shows that in women unpleasant body image terms stimulate a part of the brain called the amygdala, which is thought to become active when a person feels under threat.
BBC News Online

Study confirms effects of junk food

A new study gives scientific backing to a conclusion many have already reached: eating fast food is fattening. A study published in the Lancet indicates that those who fast food gained frequently gain more weight than those who do so less often, and are more than twice as likely to develop an insulin disorder linked to diabetes. Dr David Ludwig, director of the obesity programme at Children’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, and the senior author of the study, says, “Fast food is commonly recognised to have very poor nutritional quality, but there have been very few studies, essentially no long-term studies, that have documented the effects of this dietary pattern on the key chronic diseases of Western civilisation – obesity, Type 2 diabetes, heart disease.”
The Washington Post Online

Early diet influences blood pressure later

Pre-school age children who eat the [US-] recommended four servings of fruit and vegetables as well as the recommended two serving of dairy products, every day may have lower blood pressure in early adolescence, according to new study findings. The finding is interesting because, as Dr Lynn Moore, of Boston University School of Medicine, says, “Those who develop high blood pressure earlier in life, say as a young adult, rather than during middle age or later will be at much higher risk for heart attack, stroke, and other disabling conditions at a younger age.” A diet rich in fruit, vegetables and low-fat dairy products has already been shown to reduce blood pressure among adults with borderline high blood pressure, and other research indicates that vegetarians tend to have lower blood pressures than non-vegetarians.
Reuters Health Online

Persistence is the key to success in dieting

A comparison of four popular diet plans has shown that it is not the diet that determines how much weight people lose, but the rigour with which they follow it. Research published in The Journal of the American Medical Association, suggests that scientists may have to change their approach to the treatment of obesity – matching individuals to the diets that best suit them. Michael Dansinger, of the Tufts-New England Medical Centre in Boston, assessed adherence rates in, and the effectiveness of, Weight Watchers, Atkins, Zone (moderate macronutrient balance and glycaemic load) and Ornish (restricting fat). “We found that a variety of popular diets can reduce weight … but only for the minority of individuals who can sustain a high dietary adherence level … The higher discontinuation rates for the Atkins and Ornish diet groups suggest many individuals found these diets to be too extreme,” he says.
The Independent