.      Researchers at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center at Tufts University in Boston write that evidence indicates that Vitamin K may be involved in the control of blood sugar but there is no observational data so far on the associations between vitamin K intake and insulin sensitivity.      They examined the association of vitamin K1 intake with insulin sensitivity and glycemic (blood sugar) status in the Framingham Offspring Cohort.

     Researchers from the University of Heidelberg in Germany, the Medical University of Graz in Austria, and Ulm University in Germany write that Vitamin D deficiency is common among the elderly and may contribute to cerebrovascular diseases. They aimed to elucidate whether low vitamin D levels are predictive for fatal stroke.      Their study includes 3316 patients who were referred to coronary angiography at baseline between 1997 and 2000; Coronary angiography is an X-ray examination of the blood vessels or chambers of the heart.

Researchers from the Department of Dermatology, University of Alabama at Birmingham note that research shows Grape Seed Extract (GSE) protects the skin from cancerous changes caused by the suns radiation. This review examines the mechanisms via which GSE exerts this benefit and reviews the evidence. In animal studies GSE decreases the number of animals that develop skin cancer due to UVB radiation exposure, the number of tumors an individual animal develops, and decreases the transformation of growths into a cancer.

     An improved status of vitamin K was linked to improved bone health in both healthy children and sufferers of juvenile idiopathic arthritis, according to findings of a newly published study. Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is reportedly the most prevalent rheumatic disease in children, affecting one in every 250 children in the US, according to the Arthritis Foundation.      In the children with JIA, a higher vitamin K status was associated with markedly higher bone parameters (stronger-denser bones) according to researchers from the University Medical Centre Utrecht and the University of Maastricht.The study is published in the journal Clinical and Experimental Rheumatology Volume 26, Issue 3.

     Getting a lot of exercise may help slow brain shrinkage in people with early Alzheimer's disease a preliminary study suggests. Analysis found that participants who were more physically fit had less brain shrinkage than their less-fit peers. However, they didn't do significantly better on tests for mental performance (note that this may change in the future because the participants were evaluated only once rather than repeatedly over time).