Veggies and alcohol may ward off prostate woes

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) — Men who want to avoid developing the benign but bothersome prostate enlargement that typically accompanies ageing should cut their intake of fat and red meat, eat more vegetables, and have a couple of drinks a day, a new study suggests.

As many as half of 50-year-old men have benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH), which causes frequent and sometimes painful urination, while up to 80 percent of 70 year olds have the condition, Dr. Alan R. Kristal of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle and colleagues note in their report.

The only established risk factor for BPH that people can do something about is obesity, particularly in the abdominal region. To investigate whether dietary changes could be beneficial as well, Kristal and his team followed 4,770 initially BPH-free men for seven years, during which time 876 developed the condition.

Men who had two or more alcoholic beverages daily were 33 percent less likely to develop BPH than teetotallers, the researchers found, while those who consumed at least four servings of vegetables daily were at 32 percent lower risk than those who ate fewer than one serving per day.

Red meat increased the likelihood of BPH, but only in men who ate it every day. Men who ate the most fat were 31 percent more likely to develop BPH, while the highest consumers of protein actually cut their risk by 15 percent.

The protein finding "doesn't mean go out and eat lean meat, it means go out and find lean sources of protein, which can be quite diverse," Kristal told Reuters Health, pointing to beans and vegetable proteins as two possibilities. Also, he and his colleagues found, taking antioxidant supplements had no effect on BPH risk. "Dietary supplements didn't matter, no matter how you looked at it. It was the dietary pattern, not the use of supplements."

Insulin-secreting cells produced by stem cells

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) — Results of recent experiments provide "definitive evidence" that human embryonic stem cells can be used to generate cells that secrete insulin in response to glucose, like the beta-cells in the pancreas.

"Development of a cell therapy for diabetes would be greatly aided by a renewable supply of human beta-cells," Dr. Emmanuel E. Baetge and colleagues, from Novocell Inc. in San Diego, comment in the research journal Nature Biotechnology.

In the study, the researchers show that pancreatic tissue, derived from human embryonic stems cells, can generate cells that are "morphologically and functionally similar" to beta-cells after being implanted into mice.

In addition, the team goes on to show that implantation of the stem cell-derived tissue stops glucose levels rising excessively in the animals.

These findings suggest that human embryonic stem cells could, in fact, represent a renewable supply of insulin-producing cells for treating diabetes, the researchers conclude.

Urinary tract infections may come from pets

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) — Picking up an E. coli bug from your pet might lead to a urinary tract infection, according to Minneapolis-based researchers.

"Sharing of E. coli strains among humans and pets within a household, including strains that can cause urinary tract infections, is extremely common," Dr. James R. Johnson told Reuters Health. Harbouring the same strain of the bug implies that it is passed from one person or animal to another.

Johnson and his colleagues at the University of Minnesota investigated the extent to which E. coli strains were shared between humans and pets in 63 households.

They identified 152 people, 48 dogs, 26 cats, and two other animals that had stool samples that tested positive for E. coli. Five of the humans had an acute urinary tract infection.

In the Journal of Infectious Diseases, the researchers report that the same strain of E. coli was shared by several of the inhabitants within a household in 68 percent of the domiciles. That included three of the five households in which one person had a urinary tract infection.

Given the high rate of E. coli strain sharing, Johnson concluded: "If future research shows that this process increases the risk of urinary tract infection for household members, this could lead to new options for preventing such infections."