(HealthDay News) -- Beetroot juice can boost physical stamina and increase exercise endurance by up to 16 percent, a new British study shows.

The researchers found that nitrate in beetroot juice reduces oxygen uptake to a degree that can't be achieved by any other means. The findings could benefit endurance athletes, elderly people and those with cardiovascular, respiratory or metabolic diseases, the study authors suggest.

The study included eight men, aged 19 to 38, who drank 500 milliliters a day of organic beetroot juice for six consecutive days. They then completed a series of tests on an exercise bike. The same tests were repeated after the men drank the same amount of a placebo (blackcurrant cordial) for six days.

After drinking the beetroot juice, the men were able to cycle for an average of 11.25 minutes -- 92 seconds longer than after consuming the placebo drink. The men also had a lower resting blood pressure after they drank the beetroot juice, the researchers found.

The study was published Aug. 6 in the Journal of Applied Physiology. Read more...

Joint Mender for Joint Care

When President Richard Nixon launched the war on cancer in his January 1971 State of the Union, he called for "the same kind of concentrated effort that split the atom and took man to the moon." Yet nearly 40 years and $100 billion in federally funded cancer research later, it seems the lunar landing was a much less daunting task.

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There were two poster sessions on Cancer Stem Cell Therapeutics at the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). The sessions, Cancer Stem Cell Therapeutics 1 and Cancer Stem Cell Therapeutics 2, took place on the morning and afternoon of April 20, 2010 [FriendFeed entry].

Two posters presented in the 2nd session have been highlighted in a news release. See: Alchemia’s HyACT Technology Enhances the Killing of Cancer Stem Cell Populations in Breast and Colorectal Cancer, Business Wire, April 20, 2010 [FriendFeed entry]. One of these is Poster #4293: Evaluation of activated CD44 as a biological target in the eradication of breast cancer stem cells, by Vera J Evtimov and Tracey J Brown [Presentation Abstract]. The other is Poster #4278: HA-Irinotecan targeting of activated CD44 is an effective therapy for the eradication of putative colon cancer stem cells [Presentation Abstract].

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Long-term high consumption of red and processed meat may increase the risk of cancer in the colon and rectum, a new study shows.

Dr. Michael J. Thun, with the American Cancer Society in Atlanta, and colleagues followed 148,610 adults, average age 63 years, who completed questionnaires in 1982 and again between 1992 and 1993 regarding their diet, exercise, medical history and other lifestyle habits.

By 2001, there were 1667 new cases of colorectal cancer, according to a report in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association.

The participants who consistently ate the most red meat and processed meats had a 50 percent higher rate colorectal cancer than those who ate the least red or processed meat.

Prolonged high consumption of poultry and fish was marginally associated with about a 25 percent lower risk of colon cancer, but not rectal cancer. Read more...

Ayurtox for Body Detoxification

NEW YORK--Will exotic orchids soon be subjected to the same genetic scrutiny as some luxury caviars? That is just one of the coding conundrums that scientists convened at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx to discuss on a cloudy mid-April afternoon. [More]

For links to recent news items, visit these [Twitter] or [FriendFeed] pages. Examples of a few news items that have received attention:

• Split ends in CML: divergent roles of Hes1 by Catriona Jamieson, Blood 2010(Apr 8); 115(14): 2726-7 [FriendFeed entry][Connotea bookmark][PubMed citation][Full text PDF]. A comment on: Hes1 immortalizes committed progenitors and plays a role in blast crisis transition in chronic myelogenous leukemia by Fumio Nakahara and 13 co-authors, Blood 2010(Apr 8); 115(14): 2872-81. [Epub 2009(Oct 27)][PubMed citation].
• Metabolism and the leukemic stem cell by Omar Abdel-Wahab and Ross L Levine, J Exp Med 2010(Apr 12); 207(4): 677-80 [Epub 2010(Apr 5)][FriendFeed entry][ResearchGATE entry][CiteULike entry][Connotea bookmark][PubMed citation][Full text].
• A hypoxic niche regulates glioblastoma stem cells through hypoxia inducible factor 2alpha by Sascha Seidel and 13 co-authors, including Till Acker, Brain 2010(Apr); 133(Pt 4): 983-95 [FriendFeed entry][ResearchGATE entry][Connotea bookmark][PubMed citation].

Medical Hypothesis: No small matter: microRNAs - key regulators of cancer stem cells by Qing Ji, David Karnak, Ping Hao, Rongquan Wang and Liang Xu, Int J Clin Exp Med 2010(Mar 12); 3(1): 84-7 [FriendFeed entry][Full text via PMC]. PubMed Abstract:

Emerging evidence demonstrates that both tumor suppressor and oncogenic miRNAs play an essential role in stem cell self-renewal and differentiation by negatively regulating the expression of certain key genes in stem cells. It seems logical that they may also be critical players in cancer stem cells. Though small in size, miRNAs play a key role in the epigenetic regulation of cancer stem cells. Specifically, the imbalance of oncogenic vs. tumor suppressor miRNAs may lead to dysregulation of cancer stem cells, thus causing excessive self-renewal and survival of cancer stem cells, and resistance to chemo/radiotherapy. We postulate that restoring the balance of miRNAs will correct this dysregulation via the direct and simultaneous modulation of downstream stem cell pathways involved in cancer stem cell self-renewal and/or differentiation. The resultant restoration of key regulatory pathways could improve therapeutic response. Restoring tumor suppressor miRNAs and/or inhibiting oncogenic miRNAs may provide a novel molecular therapy for human cancers, potentially via modulating cancer stem cells.