CAM

Acupuncture holds promise for treating inflammatory disease
"Sepsis is the major cause of death in the hospital," says Luis Ulloa, an immunologist at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School who led the study, which has been published by the journal Nature Medicine. "But in many cases patients don't die because of the infection. They die because of the inflammatory disorder they develop after the infection. So we hoped to study how to control the inflammatory disorder."

The researchers already knew that stimulation of one of the body's major nerves, the vagus nerve, triggers processes in the body that reduce inflammation, so they set out to see whether a form of acupuncture that sends a small electric current through that and other nerves could reduce inflammation and organ injury in septic mice. Ulloa explains that increasing the current magnifies the effect of needle placement, and notes that electrification is already FDA-approved for treating pain in human patients.
  
When the electroacupuncture was applied to mice with sepsis, molecules called cytokines that help limit inflammation were stimulated as predicted, and half of those mice survived for at least a week. There was zero survival among mice that did not receive acupuncture. Eurekalert!

Does a diet high in carbohydrates increase your risk of dementia?
Even small increases in blood sugar caused by a diet high in carbohydrates can be detrimental to brain health. Recent reports in medical literature link carbohydrate calorie-rich diets to a greater risk for brain shrinkage, dementia and Alzheimer's disease, impaired cognition, and other disorders. David Perlmutter, MD, best-selling author of Grain Brain, explores this important topic in a provocative interview in Alternative and Complementary Therapies from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Alternative and Complementary Therapies website. Eurekalert!

IBS management through diet
Monash researchers have provided evidence from a long-term study that a diet low in foods belonging to a family of carbohydrates, FODMAPs (fermentable, oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides and polyols) effectively reduces symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). FODMAPs are poorly absorbed by the digestive tract.
 
Published in the leading and most influential journal in the field Gastroenterology, Professor Peter Gibson's and Dr Jane Muir's research supports the low FODMAP diet as first-line therapy for IBS sufferers. Indeed, FODMAP-containing foods were featured on the cover of this prestigious journal. MedicalXpress

Beta-alanine supplement considerably improves running performance
Supplementing runners with the naturally occurring amino acid beta-alanine considerably improved their performance over 800m according to a study aimed at field-testing laboratory research around the popular performance enhancing sport supplement. The study results have been published in the International Journal of Sports Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism. MedicalXpress