A study conducted by researchers at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center evaluated the effect of the four different tocopherol versions of Vitamin E; alpha, beta, gamma and delta tocopherols, on lung cancer risk.

     University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine researchers conclude that if you are a postmenopausal woman and you have a lower blood concentration of vitamin D you have a 70% increased likelihood suffering with a dangerous hip fracture. The researchers studied eight hundred 50 to 79 year-old women for an average of seven years who were selected from candidates who were not using estrogens or other bone-saving drugs. The mean age of the participants was 70 years.

Cocoa flavanols, the unique compounds found naturally in cocoa, may increase blood flow to the brain, according to new research published in the Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment journal. The researchers suggest that long-term improvements in brain blood flow could impact cognitive behavior, offering future potential for debilitating brain conditions including dementia and stroke. In a scientific study of healthy, older adults ages 59 to 83, Harvard medical scientists found that study participants who regularly drank a cocoa flavanol-rich beverage made using the Mars, Incorporated Cocoapro® process had an eight percent increase in brain blood flow after one week, and 10 percent increase after two weeks.

    In a European study those who ate oily fish one or more times a week were protected from advanced and dangerous macular degeneration. Those who consumed EPA and DHA in the top 25% of intake, or about 300mg per day had a stunning 70% lower risk of developing wet macular degeneration; the form that makes the tiny blood vessels in the retina burst leading to scarring in the eyes and blindness compared to tghose with the lowest intake. Those who ate oily fish just once per week had a 50% reduction in risk.

     We know that being overweight or obese can contribute to heart disease and heart attacks. A new study from researchers at the University of Heidelberg says that extra weight around your belly increases the risk of a stroke and the bigger the belly the greater the risk. The researchers looked at whether people who were obese or overweight had a greater stroke risk than those who were normal weight.