Showing posts with label health. Show all posts
Showing posts with label health. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Sex and shopping - retail therapy bad for men?

London: Shopping is really bad for men's health and fertility, scientists are now saying after new research.

Researchers have discovered that a chemical compound found on some cash receipts contains a hazardous substance, Bisphenol A (BPA), which suppresses male hormones in the body and can make men impotent.

The compound, used to make ink visible on thermally sensitive paper, is ingested when men handle the paper and then touch their mouths or handle food.

Frank Sommer, a Berlin-based urologist, said the substance could just affect sex hormones in men. "A substance like that could shift the balance of sex hormones in men towards oestrogen."

"In the long term, this leads to less sexual drive, encourages the belly instead of the muscles to grow and has a bad effect on erection and potency," he added.

BPA has been linked to breast cancer, heart disease, obesity, hyperactivity and other disorders, and has been banned in Canada and a few US states.

It is widely used in tins of food and canned drinks to toughen the internal lining of the container. Most manufacturers of baby bottles have stopped putting it in their products but older stock containing the chemical is still on sale.

BPA is known as an endocrine disrupter and interferes with the release of hormones. It can affect disorders associated with metabolism, fertility and neural development.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Women in thirties freezing eggs to wait for ‘Mr Right’

LONDON - An increasing number of women in their 30s and 40s are freezing their eggs while they continue their search for their Mr. Right, say British doctors.“They come in their 30s or late 30s if they haven’t found the right partner,” dailymail.co.uk quoted Srilatha Gorthi, a senior research fellow at Leeds Centre for Reproductive Medicine, as saying.The technique is now as popular with healthy women as with cancer patients and those women at risk of premature menopause.Simon Fishel, managing director of the 11-clinic chain, said: “Women are coming in their late 30s because they are starting to feel that nothing is happening. They have fallen out of a relationships, they haven’t got a man, they are career people.”The trend was brought to light by a study of all the women who had applied to have their eggs frozen at a Belgian clinic between July 2009-May 2010.Highly-educated and financially secured, these women were in their late 30s and early 40s, and had considered adoption or single motherhood before plumping to spend hundreds of pounds on IVF and egg vitrification or freezing.They told their doctors that they wanted to “take the pressure of the search for the right partner” and “give a future relationship more time to blossom” before bringing up the subject of babies.“The women I saw were not young calculating career women who have everything worked out and deliberately postpone motherhood to advance their careers,” said Julie Nekkebroeck, from the Centre for Reproductive Medicine at the Free University of Brussels, who headed the study.“By vitrifying their oocytes (eggs) they wanted to buy time to find the right partner and do everything they could to prevent age-related infertility. Moreover, frozen oocytes were considered as very precious goods, since even if they would meet Mr. Right in the near future, they would only use the frozen oocytes in the last instance, after trying to conceive naturally,” she added.However, others warn that egg freezing does not guarantee motherhood and pointed out that by the time a woman reaches her late 30s, the quality of her eggs deteriorate.“Many women now choose to delay having children and although they should be supported in that choice, they need to be aware of the potential problems they may encounter when they do decide the time is right for motherhood,” said Clare Lewis-Jones of the charity Infertility Network Britain.“Age has an impact on male as well as female fertility and when they do meet Mr Right, they may well find that he has fertility problems. They also need to be aware that using fertility treatment is no guarantee of success.”

Friday, June 18, 2010

Drinking tea ‘increases arthritis risk’

LONDON - Bad news for tea-lovers. Your favourite drink increases the risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis, says a new study.The finding is based on the study of more than 76,000 women. It showed that consuming tea raised the risk while drinking coffee had no impact.Researchers found that tea-lovers who enjoyed more than four cups a day had the highest risk - being 78 per cent more likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis than those who drank none.But drinking any amount of tea increased the chance by 40 per cent, compared with people who never drank tea.Professor Christopher Collins, from Georgetown University Medical Centre in the US, said he was surprised by the result of the study.“We set out to determine whether tea or coffee consumption, or the method of preparation of the drinks was associated with an increased risk of (rheumatoid arthritis],” the Scotsman quoted him as saying.“It is surprising that we saw such differences in results between tea and coffee drinkers. This does make us wonder what it is in tea, or in the method of preparation of tea, that causes the significant increase in risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis,” he added.The findings were presented at the Annual Congress of the European League Against Rheumatism in Rome. (ANI)

Saturday, May 1, 2010

10 hours of sleep every day can help you hit 100!

LONDON - Want to live to 100? Well, then get 10 hours of sleep a night, suggests a new study.Sleep is a major factor in rejuvenating the body and activating the immune system.In the study, boffins found that people who reach 100 are three times more likely to spend at least 10 hours a night in bed.The study involved analysis of data from a 2005 Chinese survey. The sample was composed of 15,638 adults aged 65 and older, including 3,927 who were between 90 and 99 and 2,794 who were 100 or older, reports The Daily Express.Dr Danan Gu, of Portland State University in Oregon, said: “About 65 per cent of the sample overall reported that their sleep quality was good or very good, and the weighted average daily sleep time was about seven-and- a-half hours including naps.“Surprisingly, the oldest adults aged 100 and above were 70 per cent more likely to report good sleep quality than younger participants aged 65 to 79.“Participants who were 100 years of age and older were less likely to sleep for five or fewer hours a day but they were almost three times more likely to sleep for 10 hours or more.“Men were 23 per cent more likely than women to report sleeping well.”When humans sleep, their cells regenerate and they also remove toxins and activate immune system cells.The research has been published in the May issue of the journal Sleep. (ANI)

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Man gets new life after first-of-kind surgery (Lead)

MUMBAI - Dipesh Shah suffered from a major heart problem and doctors described his case as “extremely rare” with a risk of developing permanent infections. But 39-year-old Shah’s heart valve was successfully repaired without serious repercussions after a first-of-its-kind surgery here.

Shah suffered severe aortic valve leakage in his heart, but secured a new lease of life when a team of medicos led by Ramakant Panda successfully operated on him.

Panda described the case as “extremely rare”. This was the “first time in India that a unique surgery of this nature” was conducted at the Asian Heart Institute (AHI).

Shah, who did not have any previous complaints of heart trouble, had gone to AHI for a routine check-up in January. Though all his investigations were fairly normal, his 2D Echo revealed leakage in theaortic valve.

“A heart valve helps control the flow of blood in and out of the heart. The leakage is caused due to damage to the aortic valve and results in backward flow of blood from the aorta. Shah’s CT coronary and aortic angiogram showed different tubular dilation (bulging) of the ascending aorta,” Panda told IANS.

Finally, on March 12, as Shah’s anxious wife Jigisha, 14-year-old son Mounil and 78-year-old father prayed, he was wheeled into the operation theatre for surgery that lasted over 12 hours.

He first underwent Trans Esophageal Echocardiogram (TEE), a procedure in which the probe instrument is inserted through the mouth and passed into the food pipe to view the heart and its functioning.

This was followed by opening the aorta, an examination of the aortic valve and the decision to repair it, said Panda, who shot to fame after he successfully operated on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last year.

“Generally, when the valve gets damaged, it is replaced with a mechanical or biological valve. However, in this case the valve was repaired, not replaced,” he explained.

Accordingly, the dilated portion of the ascending aorta was replaced with a 34-mm woven polyester vascular prosthesis, reinforced with bovine collagen. The right and left coronary arteries were re-implanted on the vascular prosthesis.

“TEE was repeated on Shah, which showed mild aortic leakage, indicating good repair. The patient was absolutely stable and discharged a week later (March 19),” Panda said.

Explaining the challenge, Panda said that when the valve does not function properly, it is either repaired or replaced with a new valve, especially theaortic valve.

“Replacement involves a lot of post-surgical care. Since the new valve is a foreign object, it tends to produce clots and gets blocked, compelling the patient to take blood thinners for the rest of his/her life,” he added.

Added to this is the risk of the patient developing permanent infections in the replaced valve.

“However, if it is repaired - as in Shah’s case - the patient retains his own valve, doesn’t need long post-operative care and quality of life is much better,” Panda said.

Aortic valve repair is a rare thing. In Shah’s case, because of the 7-8 cm bulging of the aorta, the gap between the flaps of the valve had increased considerably, making it near-impossible to repair it, which resulted in its dysfunction, though the flaps had not torn.

Jigisha said that the Shah family would be forever “indebted to Dr. Panda and his team,” for giving a new lease of life to her husband.

“He has come home now and is feeling quite normal. Yes, there are severe dietary and other restrictions, some minor side-effects after the surgery, but he is cheerful,” Jigisha told IANS from her home in Borivli west, a north-west Mumbai suburb.

The total cost of the operation would work out to over Rs.1 million (US $22,205) Jigisha said adding that her husband is expected to go back to his routine within two months.

Friday, March 12, 2010

R-rated films ‘propel’ underage kids to try booze

WASHINGTON - R-rated movies that glamorise violence and crime inspire children under 17 to try alcohol, a new study claims.

A total of 6,255 children were surveyed, every 8 months for two years from 2003 through 2005, to find the relationship between R-rated movies and the probability of alcohol use.

The link was established across different levels of “sensation seeking,” which are a tendency to seek out risky experiences.

James D. Sargent, a pediatrician at Dartmouth Medical School, who conducted the study, said: “The study found that watching R-rated movies affected the level of sensation seeking among adolescents.

“It showed that R-rated movies not only contain scenes of alcohol use that prompt adolescents to drink, they also jack up the sensation seeking tendency, which makes adolescents more prone to engage in all sorts of risky behaviors.

“There is another take home point in the findings. When it comes to the direct effect on alcohol use, the influence of R-rated movies depends on sensation seeking level. High sensation seekers are already at high risk for use of alcohol, and watching a lot of R-rated movies raises their risk only a little. But for low sensation seekers, R-rated movies make a big difference. In fact, exposure to R-rated movies can make a low sensation seeking adolescent drink like a high sensation seeking adolescent.”

The Dartmouth pediatrician explained that high sensation seeking adolescents go out on the street and engage in risky behaviors, hence movies don’t play a big role in their alcohol consumption.

Sensation seeking was based on how individual subjects identified with statements like: “I like to do scary things, I like to do dangerous things, I often think there is nothing to do, and I like to listen to loud music.”

Sargent ended: “The message to parents is clear. Take the movie ratings literally. Under 17 should not be permitted to see R-rated movies.”

The study has been published in the March issue of Prevention Science, a scientific journal of the Society for Prevention Research. (ANI)

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Kidney donation doesn’t shorten donor’s life

WASHINGTON - Donating a kidney does not appear to significantly increase long-term risk of death, says a new research.

An examination of results for live kidney donors in the U.S. over a 15-year period showed they had similar long-term survival rates as their healthy counterparts who had not donated a kidney.

The study has appeared in the March 10 issue of JAMA.

The authors write: “Although many healthy adults are eager and willing to accept the risk of donor nephrectomy [surgical removal of a kidney] to help their loved ones, the responsibility lies within the medical community to quantify these risks as best as possible and to make this information available to those considering donation.”

Dorry L. Segev of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, and colleagues analysed the outcomes of live kidney donors (80,347) in the US between April 1, 1994, and March 31, 2009, who were drawn from a mandated national registry. Median follow-up was 6.3 years. A matched group was drawn from 9,364 participants of the third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III).

During the study period, there were 25 deaths within 90 days of live kidney donation, with the risk of death being 3.1 per 10,000 donors, compared to a rate of death for the NHANES III matched group of 0.4 per 10,000 persons. By 1 year followingnephrectomy , risk of death in the matched group was similar to the live donor group, likely representing deaths attributable to comorbidity (co-existing illnesses) rather than death because of the surgery. The scientists discovered that long-term mortality was similar or lower for livekidney donors than for the matched NHANES III group throughout the 12-year period of follow-up (5-year follow-up, 0.4 percent vs. 0.9 percent; 12-year follow-up, 1.5 percent vs. 2.9 percent, respectively).

The authors say: “Surgical mortality did not change during the 15-year period, despite differences in surgical practice and donor selection. Men had a statistically significantly higher surgical mortality than women did, as did black individuals vs. white and Hispanic individuals.” Donors with hypertension also had a statistically significantly higher surgical mortality than did donors without hypertension.

The authors conclude by saying: “Regardless of what physiologic changes might occur in a healthy adult after kidney donation, our findings of similar long-term survival between donors and healthy comparison patients suggest that these physiologic changes do not result in premature death. Although additional studies are clearly needed to better understand the physiologic changes afterkidney donation, the current practice of live kidney donation should continue to be considered a reasonable and safe modality for addressing the profound shortage in deceased donor organs.” (ANI)

Monday, March 8, 2010

Drinking tea ‘cuts down ovarian cancer risk’

LONDON - Having two cups of black tea or one cup of green tea a day can help cut down risk of developing ovarian cancer in women, says a study.

Researchers at the University of Washington studied 2,000 women and noticed a 54 per cent risk reduction in those who drank one or more cups of green tea a day, the Daily Express reported.

A second study by the National Institute of Environmental Medicine in Stockholm discovered that those drinking at least two cups of black tea daily slashed the risk of ovarian cancer by nearly 50 per cent.

Studies have emphasised the cancer-protecting properties of both teas that have also been observed to help the heart, boost the brain and bring down “bad” cholesterol levels. (ANI)

9 in 10 Britons do not get enough sleep

LONDON - A new study has revealed that nine in ten Britons do not get enough sleep and that millions are risking their health by depriving themselves of much needed rest.

The study found that the average Briton sleeps for just six hours and seven minutes a night, well below the eight hours recommended by experts, with 17 percent regularly dozing off at work, reports the Daily Express.esearchers found that in Aberdeen, home to the UK’s most sleep-deprived people, the typical resident has just five hours and 23 minutes a night.

And in Norwich, which is the UK’s sleepiest city, residents spend only six hours and 38 minutes in bed.

More than 3,000 adults were quizzed about their sleeping habits in a survey commissioned by shopping channel QVC.

Money worries are the most common cause of difficulty sleeping, being cited by 48 per cent.

They are followed by relationship troubles (34 percent) and family troubles (33 percent). (ANI)

UN says mother-to-child HIV transmission can be eliminated by 2015

UN says mother-child HIV can be eliminated by 2015

GENEVA — The United Nations says mother-to-child HIV transmission can be eliminated by 2015 if health programs receive increased investments as planned.

Michel Sidibe, the head of UNAIDS, appealed to government and private donors to keep investing in the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

Michel D. Kazatchkine, the Global Fund’s executive director, said Monday “it is also now possible to imagine a world with no more malaria deaths.”

The Global Fund is meeting in The Hague, Netherlands, on March 24 to examine how it can meet its goals eliminating or reducing instances of the three diseases by 2015.

It estimates that between $13-20 billion are needed for the period 2011-2013.

Friday, March 5, 2010

Stressed people likely to grind teeth at night

WASHINGTON - Stress not only hurts your brain, but also has a bad effect on teeth, claims a new study.

Boffins writing in BioMed Central’s open access journal Head and Face Medicine studied the causes of ’sleep bruxism’, gnashing teeth during the night, finding that it was especially common in those who try to cope with stress by escaping from difficult situations.

Maria Giraki, from Heinrich-Heine-University, Dsseldorf, Germany, worked with a team of researchers to study the condition in 69 people, of whom 48 were ‘bruxers’.

She said, “Bruxing can lead to abrasive tooth wear, looseness and sensitivity of teeth, and growth and pain in the muscles responsible for chewing. Its causes are still relatively unknown, but stress has been implicated. We aimed to investigate whether different stress-factors, and different coping strategies, were more or less associated with these bruxism symptoms”.

Tooth grinding was measured by thin plates that were placed in trial participants mouths’ overnight, while stress and coping techniques were assessed by three questionnaires. Bruxing was not associated with age, sex or education level, but was more common in people who claimed to experience daily stress and trouble at work.
iraki adds, “Our data support the assumption that people with the most problematic grinding do not seem to be able to deal with stress in an adequate way. They seem to prefer negative coping strategies like ‘escape’. This, in general, increases the feeling of stress, instead of looking at the stressor in a positive way”. (ANI)

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Man with three-week erection saved by surgeons in Kolkata

MELBOURNE - A businessman, who is said to have suffered from an erection for three-weeks, was saved by surgeons in Kolkata, India, after he underwent an operation.

The 55-year-old man was forced to undergo the emergency operation after the problem firmly persisted for a staggering 21 days. According to the Sun, the hour-long operation was successful, but it rendered the man impotent.

“It was very late when the man sought treatment,” the Daily Telegraph quoted Doctor Avishek Mukherjee as saying.

“The treatment has to be sought within six hours, otherwise it could even lead to death, besides the degeneration of the penis,” he explained.

Doctors believe the father of two was suffering from a condition called priapism, which is triggered by a nervous system disorder, and prevents blood from draining out of the penis.

“During erection, the blood flow stops,” he said.

“So, if the erection persists for more than an hour, the supply to the penis is reduced, which can damage the organ. If the supply remains cut off for a long time, the penis can even become gangrenous.

“We drained the blood and relieved him,” Dr Mukherjee added.

The man, whose identity was concealed, has since been discharged from hospital. (ANI)

Think like a marathon runner to reduce work stress

WASHINGTON - A marathon mindset, i.e. starting slow but picking up pace, can help people reduce their stress load and perform better at work, researchers have pointed out.

Experts at Tel Aviv University have come up with tips to help keep the energy tanks full while working.

Dr. Danit Ein-Gar of the University’s Recanati Graduate School of Business Administration and her co-author Dr. Yael Steinhart of Haifa University found that people with high-levels of self-control tend to burn out the fastest.

Dr. Ein-Gar said: “They tend to invest all their energy at once and are then left with insufficient resources for additional tasks.”

But those who thought like marathon runners were better able maintain their energy levels and avoided burning themselves out, unlike a sprinter who gave all his effort at once, the boffins observed.

Dr. Ein-Gar added: “The world may be multi-tasking at a frenetic pace but in thinking like a marathon runner, people with high self-control won’t mind other people passing them. Marathon runners know that the race is long, but the winner is the one who can finish the race at the end with power left over to keep running.”

Dr. Ein-Gar quantified the findings in a new series of studies presented at the Society for Consumer Psychology in San Diego. (ANI)

Thursday, February 25, 2010

'Lame' mosquitoes to stop dengue

Scientists are breeding a genetically altered strain of mosquito in an effort to curb the spread of dengue fever.

The dengue virus is spread by the bite of infected female mosquitoes and there is no vaccine or treatment.

Experts say the illness affects up to 100 million people a year and threatens over a third of the world's population.

Scientists hope their genetically altered males will mate with females to create female offspring that will inherit a gene limiting wing growth.

The study is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The scientists say their approach offers a safe, efficient alternative to harmful insecticides and could be used to stop other diseases spread by mosquitoes, like malaria.
They estimate that if released, the new breed could sustainably suppress the native mosquito population in six to nine months.

Researcher Professor Anthony James, of the University of California, Irvine, said: "Current dengue control methods are not sufficiently effective, and new ones are urgently needed.

"Controlling the mosquito that transmits this virus could significantly reduce human morbidity and mortality."

Grounded

The plan is to release genetically-altered male mosquitoes who will mate with wild females and pass on their genes.

The scientists have shown that females of the next generation who inherit the gene are unable to fly because it interrupts normal wing growth.

Male carriers of the gene remain unaffected.

Lead researcher Luke Alphey, of the University of Oxford and his own spin-out company Oxitec Ltd, said the approach was highly targeted.

"The technology is completely species-specific, as the released males will mate only with females of the same species.

"Another attractive feature of this method is that it's egalitarian - all people in the treated areas are equally protected, regardless of their wealth, power or education."

Dr Hilary Ranson, of the Liverpool School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said the work was a major step forward.

"This is a significant advance. It will be logistically challenging to make and release enough of the male mosquitoes and it's not going to be cheap. But it can be done with the right resources."

She said dengue fever was an ideal disease to tackle in this way because it is spread by only a couple of species of mosquito.

She said malaria would be harder to beat because of the variety of mosquitoes carrying the disease.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

THE POLITICS OF SHARINO A BED

Does the way we sleep reveal the true nature of our relationships, wonders Tim Dowling, while writers and celebrities reveal their bedroom secrets.
WHAT POSITION DO YOU SLEEP IN?





ACCORDING TO Evany Thomas, author of The Secret Language Of Sleep, there are 39 distinct sleeping positions, ranging from common or garden Spoons to the more exotic Stairway. It’s tempting to interpret these as manifestations of the nature of the relationship of the couple -— it’s hard to look at the Spring- loader, say, without thinking that somebody has some issues — but let’s not forget these people are unconcious,
individuals come Into relationships with odd sleeping habits of their awn, habits that must ultimately be accommodated. Finding a mutually satisfactory layout is usually a matter of trial and error.
No single arrangement is going to last for the full seven hours. For security’s sake, you may need to expand your reportaire experiment with the Scissors, the Zipper, the Koala and Tree. On some nights you may need them all.
That doesn’t mean the positions themselves aren’t interesting. Devotees of the Conjoined Twins formation might feel they have ahealthier relationship than Cliffhangur couples, though in reality they probably just have a much smaller bed. There are several positions — Starfish being the most obvious where one half of the couple is getting the worst of the bargain, and one may speculate whether these roles are replicated or reversed during the day.
Ironically the most peaceful arrangement has the most troubling name: Crime Scene. Here the couple lies side by side in the haphazard attitude of two shooting victims.
One thing is certain — any pair of people who falls asleep in that position must be contented. Or utterly exhausted.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Personalised cancer blood test hope


Personalised blood tests which could track whether cancer treatment is working or if the disease has come back have been developed by US researchers.

The test identifies tumour DNA "rearrangements" which are specific to the individual patient.

In the future, this "genetic fingerprint" could be used to pick out tiny remnants of a tumour, Science Translational Medicine reports.

Such techniques are currently very expensive but costs are falling.

The researchers hope that one day the technology could be used to spot cancer recurrence before they would be picked up by scans.

DNA from volunteer patients was scanned for rearrangements of large chunks of genetic information which occur in cancer cells but not normal cells.
Known as personalised analysis of rearranged ends (Pare), the technique was developed using six sets of cancerous and normal tissue samples taken from four patients with bowel cancer and two with breast tumours.

They found between four and 15 DNA rearrangements in each of the six samples.

Using blood samples from two of the colorectal cancer patients, they found the test was sensitive enough to detect this marker or "fingerprint" DNA that had been shed by tumours into the bloodstream.

In tests on one patient, after surgery the levels of the marker DNA dropped due to the removal of the main tumour.

Then they rose again, suggesting that some cancer remained.

After chemotherapy and another round of surgery levels of the DNA markers fell once more.

The test was still picking up signs of the tumour which tallied with a small cancerous lesion in the patient's liver where the cancer had spread.

Cost

Further research is needed to ensure such a test could accurately detect cancer recurrence.

One current drawback is the expense with genetic sequencing costing about £3,200 per patient but, say researchers, costs are falling as the technology improves making the approach potentially more feasible.

Study leader Dr Victor Velculescu, from Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center in Baltimore, said: "I'm quite optimistic that within five years this approach could be turned into something that's widely applicable.

"Cancer more and more is becoming a chronic disease, and to manage a chronic disease you have to know how it's doing - is it getting better or worse?

"We haven't had any good ways of measuring how a cancer is doing up until now."

Co-author Dr Luis Diaz said: "Eventually we believe this type of approach could be used to detect recurrent cancers before they are found by conventional imaging methods like CT scans,"

Professor Peter Johnson, Cancer Research UK's chief clinician, said: "The detection of DNA changes, unique to individual cancers, has proved to be a powerful tool in guiding the treatment of leukaemia.

"If this can be done for other types of cancer like bowel, breast and prostate it will help us to bring new treatments to patients better and faster than ever."

Monday, February 8, 2010

It’s official: Beer is good for your bones

LONDON - Beer can help strengthen the bones and prevent fractures in old age, a new study has confirmed.

Beer is a significant source of silicon, which is a key ingredient of the diet that helps to improve bone mineral density.

The best beers for silicon are the pale malted ales and lagers. Dark bitters and stouts contain lower levels because they are made with roasted barley, which has lower silicon content. Wheat contains less silicon than barley, so wheat beers are poorer sources of silicon.

Previous studies have suggested that a regular pint or two may help to prevent the bone-thinning disease osteoporosis.

In the new study, researchers at the University of California studied 100 commercial beers and found their silicon content ranged from 6.4 milligrams per litre to 56.5 mg/l. Paler beers have more silicon than darker ones because less heat is used in the malting process.

“Beer containing high levels of malted barley and hops are richest in silicon. It is the husk of the barley that is rich in this element. While most remains during brewing, significant quantities are none the less extracted into wort and survive into beer,” the Independent quoted Charles Bamforth, who led the study, as saying.

The study has been published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture. (ANI)