Researchers have designed a urine test that can simultaneously measure the extent of a potential carcinogenic process and a marker of garlic consumption in humans.
 

In a small pilot study, the test suggested that the more garlic people consumed, the lower the levels of the potential carcinogenic process were.

The research is all about body processes associated with nitrogen-containing compounds, scientists say.

These processes include nitrosation, or the conversion of some substances found in foods or contaminated water into carcinogens.

"What we were after was developing a method where we could measure in urine two different compounds, one related to the risk for cancer, and the other, which indicates the extent of consumption of garlic," said Earl Harrison, Dean's Distinguished Professor of Human Nutrition at Ohio State, an investigator in Ohio State University's Comprehensive Cancer Center, and senior author of the study.

"Our results showed that those were inversely related to one another -- meaning that the more we had the marker for garlic consumption, the less there was of the marker for the risk of cancer."

Ultimately, the scientists hope to find that a nutritional intervention could be a way to stop the process that develops these carcinogens. This process is most commonly initiated by exposure to substances called nitrates from certain processed meats or high-heat food preparation practices, or to water contaminated by industry or agricultural runoff.

About 20 percent of nitrates that are consumed convert to nitrites. A cascade of events can convert these compounds into what are called nitrosamines, and many, but not all, nitrosamines are linked to cancer.

Vegetables also contain nitrates, but previous research has suggested that the vitamin C in vegetables lowers the risk that those nitrates will convert to something toxic. Researchers suspected that nutrients in garlic could have similar antioxidant effects as vitamin C.

The study is published in a recent issue of the journal Analytical Biochemistry.
 

Successful treatment for gum disease cuts the risk of pregnant women giving birth early, US research suggests.

The preliminary research showed those whose gum disease was not treated successfully were three times more likely to give birth before 35 weeks.

UK experts said the finding was "controversial" but advised pregnant women to take care of teeth and gums.

Doctors have previously established that severe gum infections cause an increase in the production of prostaglandin and tumour necrosis factor, chemicals which induce labour, to be produced.

The study by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania enrolled women who were between six and 20 weeks' pregnant.

All of the volunteers had gum disease. These women were given treatment, which was successful in one third of the cases.

The researchers found a "strong and significant association" between successful treatment and full-term births.

Those whose treatment did not work were "significantly more likely" to give birth before 35 weeks.

UK experts warned that this was a small study and further research was needed.

Professor Iain Chapple, from Birmingham Dental School, said this was a "controversial area", and that while some previous studies had shown an association between gum disease and early births, others had shown no association.

He said the results "could reflect behavioural differences in the successfully treated group versus the unsuccessfully treated group" such as "poorer diets, smoking status, alcohol intake and many other issues".

But Dr Nigel Carter, chief executive of the British Dental Health Foundation, said: "This paper adds to the growing evidence around links between gum disease and pre-term babies.
 

Whether or not children receive regular dental care is strongly associated with their parents' history of seeking dental care.

A new report to appear in the journal Pediatrics, which has been released online, is the first to analyze the relationship between parents' and childrens' dental visits in a nationally representative sample.

"When parents don't see the dentist, their children are much less likely to see the dentist," says Inyang Isong, MD, MPH, of the MassGeneral Hospital for Children (MGHfC) Center for Child and Adolescent Health Policy, the study's lead author.

"We also found that the children of parents who have put off their own dental care for financial reasons are more likely to have their care deferred due to cost as well.

It looks like strategies to promote oral health should focus on the whole family."

The study's authors note that dental caries -- tooth decay -- is of one of the most prevalent childhood diseases and is particularly common among minority and low-income children.

Previous studies have associated factors including insurance coverage, parents' income and education, and the availability of dental care in the local community with the likelihood that children will have regular dental visits.

Earlier investigations of the impact of parents' accessing dental care focused on particular demographic groups.
 

A new study suggests that beer is a significant source of dietary silicon, a key ingredient for increasing bone mineral density.
 

Researchers from the Department of Food Science & Technology at the University of California, Davis studied commercial beer production to determine the relationship between beer production methods and the resulting silicon content, concluding that beer is a rich source of dietary silicon.

Details of this study are available in the February issue of the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the Society of Chemical Industry.

"The factors in brewing that influence silicon levels in beer have not been extensively studied" said Charles Bamforth, lead author of the study.

"We have examined a wide range of beer styles for their silicon content and have also studied the impact of raw materials and the brewing process on the quantities of silicon that enter wort and beer."

Silicon is present in beer in the soluble form of orthosilicic acid (OSA), which yields 50% bioavailability, making beer a major contributor to silicon intake in the Western diet.

According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), dietary silicon (Si), as soluble OSA, may be important for the growth and development of bone and connective tissue, and beer appears to be a major contributor to Si intake.

Based on these findings, some studies suggest moderate beer consumption may help fight osteoporosis, a disease of the skeletal system characterized by low bone mass and deterioration of bone tissue.
 

Drinkers who are overweight face a "double whammy" impact on their liver, research suggests.

Two studies of more than a million UK men and women suggest excess weight and alcohol act together to raise the risk of cirrhosis and other liver diseases.

Obese women who drink little more than a glass of wine a day have almost double the risk of liver disease than other women, the researchers said.

A similar effect is seen in men, the British Medical Journal reported.

The authors of the research said "safe" alcohol limits for the overweight may need to be redefined.

Rates of liver disease and obesity are increasing in the UK.

Alcohol is a major cause of liver cirrhosis and there is mounting evidence that excess weight also plays a role.

In the first study, researchers at the University of Oxford studied more than a million middle-aged women in England and Wales.

They found that being overweight or obese increased the likelihood of developing liver cirrhosis.

Dr Bette Liu of Oxford's Cancer Epidemiology Unit said: "We estimate that almost 20% of liver cirrhosis in middle-aged UK women is due to excess weight, while almost 50% is due to alcohol consumption."

Lead author Dr Carole Hart of the University of Glasgow said: "Further research might show that there could be different limits more applicable to overweight and obese people."