Scientists reveal why a restricted diet can lead to a longer lifespan and reduce incidence of age-related diseases – even if adopted late in life.

Scientists at the BBSRC Center for Integrated Systems Biology of Ageing and Nutrition (CISBAN) at Newcastle University set out to find why a restricted diet affects cell senescence.

“Our research, which looked at parts of the body that easily show biological signs of aging, suggests that a restricted diet can help to reduce.

The amount of cell senescence occurring and can reduce damage to protective telomeres,” said Chunfang Wang, the lead researcher on this project at CISBAN.

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Shares of two San Diego companies working on experimental weight-loss drugs got a boost Tuesday from documents released by regulators in advance of a federal review of a third obesity drug. Orexigen shares rose 84 cents, or 20 percent, to close at $5, while shares of Arena Pharmaceuticals jumped 41 cents, or nearly 11 percent, to close at $4.20. Those gains came on a day when the major stock indexes were up between 1.5 percent and 2 percent.

The Food and Drug Administration documents focused on the side effects of Qnexa, a weight-loss drug developed by Vivus of Mountain View. An FDA advisory committee on Thursday will review Vivus’ application to sell Qnexa in the United States. Orexigen’s Contrave and Arena’s lorcaserin face similar reviews later this year. Each of the companies is hoping its treatment will become the first new obesity drug to win federal approval since 1999.

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A high protein diet for obese menopausal women may help in weight loss, but it could also lower bone density, says a new research.

Wayne W. Campbell and doctoral student Minghua Tang found in their study that all of the women who ate the energy-reduced diets successfully lost weight.

But the groups that consumed the higher-protein meat-containing diets also lost bone mineral density. "However.

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British researchers studying mice found that a pregnant mother's diet may interact with the genes her unborn baby inherits and influence the type or severity of birth defects such as congenital heart disease and cleft palate. "These are very important findings as we have been able to show for the first time that gene-environment interactions can affect development of the embryo in the womb," said Jamie Bentham of the Wellcome Trust Center for Human Genetics at the Oxford University, who led the study.

"We know that poor diet and defective genes can both affect development, but here we have seen the two combine to cause a much greater risk of developing health problems and more severe problems. We are excited by this as it suggests that congenital heart defects may be preventable by measures such as altering maternal diet," he said in a statement about the findings.

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Whenever you switch on the television, go online or enter a supermarket you tend to see various diet products being advertised, usually claiming that if you buy them you will be able to shed a vast amount of weight in a short space of time.

Of course, you want to believe these claims and so you may be prepared to spend a significant amount of money purchasing these diet products. Usually, you find these products don’t live up to the claims they make, though, and so you may lose a few pounds while using them, but soon notice your weight creeping back up once you stop.

It is therefore clear that you can’t rely on diet products to get you to lose weight and keep it off. If diet products worked there probably wouldn’t be as many of them, as you would pick one that worked, lose the weight and remain slim.

As it is, however, the diet industry is thriving because everyone is desperate to lose weight and because it is so difficult they will spend ridiculous sums of money on the latest diet shakes, meals and bars that if you eat or drink will result in rapid weight loss.

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Pregnant women were left in confusion today after doctors issued conflicting advice on vitamin pills. A team of experts at the University College London Institute of Child Health said expectant mothers should routinely take vitamin D supplements to protect babies from life-threatening conditions.

But the advice clashes with the official NHS guidelines and recommendations from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists which say there is no need for every pregnant women to take the supplement. The mixed signals follow a report in the British Journal of Nutrition which says there is a 'strong case' for a daily dose of vitamin D.

The paper says there is growing evidence linking vitamin D deficiency to health problems for pregnant women and newborn babies.Yet the UK is the only one of 31 European countries that doesn't have a set vitamin D recommendation for women of reproductive age.

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Eating a lot of foods and drinks sweetened with fructose significantly raises a person’s risk of having high blood pressure, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.

The study is the latest to link a sugar-laden diet with higher blood pressure, but it also clearly fingers fructose as a major contributor.

“The data is very consistent with what has been in other papers,” said Michael Chonchol of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver.

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It is well-known that olive oil and a Mediterranean diet are associated with a lower risk for cardiovascular disease, but a new research offers a surprising reason why: These foods change how genes associated with atherosclerosis function.

"Knowing which genes can be modulated by diet in a healthy way can help people select healthy diets," said Maria Isabel Covas, a researcher involved in the work from the Cardiovascular Risk and Nutrition Research Group at the Institut Municipal d'Investigacio Medica in Barcelona, Spain.

"It is also a first step for future nutritional therapies with selected foods," she added. Scientists worked with three groups of healthy volunteers. The first group consumed a traditional Mediterranean diet with virgin olive oil rich in polyphenols. The second group consumed a traditional Mediterranean diet with an olive oil low in polyphenols. The third group followed their habitual diet.

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Britain's National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) has called on the food industry to help decrease huge numbers of unnecessary deaths by reducing the level of salt in everyday products. As per the new guidelines by NICE, maximum salt intake per adult should be six grams a day by 2015, and three grams a day by 2025. Over 40,000 people die from premature cardiovascular disease in Britain every year and six million men and women suffer from heart disease.

"These clear and important recommendations from NICE strengthen and endorse the current salt reduction campaign in the Britain," Graham MacGregor, professor of cardiovascular medicine and chairman of campaign group Consensus Action on Salt and Health, was quoted as saying.

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