The Fountain of Youth is Green?

Green tea has been drunk for centuries in Asia, and has been receiving increasing popularity in the United States. It has been labeled as everything from a weight loss agent to an anti-carcinogen to an immune enhancer. Now, recent research shows that a chemical in green tea, ECGC (the same chemical supposedly linked to weight loss, as well as a few other benefits) may prevent neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. The chemical apparently can degrade the protein plaques that form in the brain and causes neuron dysfunction. Green tea has also recently been shown to reverse fibrosis of the liver and increase bone density.

Full disclosure: I am somewhat of a green tea-phile. However, if science likes this continues to emerge, it seems like I might be on the right track.

Drink up!

For more info:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091203091856.htm
Cabrera C, Artacho R, Gimenez R. Beneficial effects of green tea: a review. J Am Coll Nutr. 2006; 25:79-99.
Kim et al. Antifibrotic effects of green tea on in vitro and in vivo models of liver fibrosis. World Journal of Gastroenterology, 2009; 15 (41): 5200 DOI: 10.3748/wjg.15.5200

A dork out moment....

For those that have an unhealthy desire to track disease outbreaks (like me), check out:

http://healthmap.org/en

You can select different diseases and see where the latest outbreak has occurred on the world map. Nifty.

Thanks to ProMed for alerting me to this site.

Dengue in Florida

News: A bit of a delayed post, but for those who were not aware, locally acquired Dengue infections in Florida have surfaced. 20 cases were identified, and a serosurvey of 240 Florida Keys residents showed a 41% flavivirus exposure rate. The Flavivirus group includes Dengue as well West Nile and St. Louis encephalitis, both of which are endemic to the area. The last outbreak of Dengue in Florida was in 1934.

Background: Dengue virus is a mosquito-borne virus which can cause hemorrhagic fever. Symptoms include fever, headaches, and body pains. Dengue is endemic in many places close to Florida – the Caribbean, Mexico, and Central America, as well as many other parts of the world.

More Info:

http://news.ufl.edu/2009/11/23/dengue/