Nicotine sans tobacco may ward off Alzheimer’s disease: Study
New York: Nicotine — when given independent of tobacco — could help protect the brain as it ages and even ward off neuro-degenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s disease, US researchers have said. The ability of nicotine — an important component of cigarettes — to be neuro-protective may be partly due to its well-known ability to suppress appetite, said Ursula Winzer-Serhan, Associate Professor at the Texas A&M University in the US, in a paper published in the Journal of Toxicology.

In the study, researchers added nicotine to drinking water of three different groups of mice and at three different concentrations (low, medium and high) corresponding to occasional, low and medium smokers, respectively, in comparison to a control group that did not receive any nicotine. The two groups that received nicotine at low and medium doses did not show any levels of the drug in their blood and experienced no changes in food intake, body weight or number of receptors in the brain where nicotine acts.  Conversely, the group that received the highest concentration of nicotine ate less, gained less weight and had more receptors, indicating that at higher doses, the drug gets into the brain where it can impact behaviour.  But, even at high doses, it didn’t seem to have worrying behavioural side effects like making the individuals more anxious, study said. It did not produce a negative change in behaviour, in fact, the high levels of nicotine made the animal models less anxious, Winzer-Serhan added. 

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Diabetes: Pepsi Co to cut sugar in drinks PepsiCo Inc has announced today that by 2025 at least two thirds of its drinks will have 100 calories or fewer from added sugar per 12 oz serving, up from about 40 percent now.The move, which it plans to achieve by introducing more zero and low-calorie drinks and reformulating existing drinks, comes as PepsiCo and rival Coca-Cola come under increasing pressure from health experts and governments who blame them for fuelling epidemics of obesity and diabetes. The New York based PepsiCo also said that the new global target is more ambitious than its previous goal of reducing sugar by 25 percent in certain drinks in certain markets by 2020. Mehmood Khan, PepsiCo’s chief scientific officer of research and development, told Reuters that science has evolved giving examples of new flavor ingredients that require less sweetening, saying: “It’s not just about sweeteners, it’s about understanding the flavor ingredients and having proprietary knowledge and access to them. The World Health Organization this month recommended taxes on sugary drinks, as France and Mexico have done, to curb consumption and improve health. The soft drinks industry opposes such taxes. Despite its name, PepsiCo generates only 12 percent of its $63 billion in annual revenue from its famous cola brand. It makes 25 percent from carbonated soft drinks such as Mountain Dew, with the rest coming from waters and juices including the Tropicana brand, plus snacks and dips such as hummus and guacamole. Its 2025 goals also include targets for lowering sodium and saturated fat. “Mindy Lubber, President of Non-profit Organization Ceres has said that these are good steps. But when we have an obesity crisis, I think there is more that we can be doing,” said Mindy Lubber, president of non-profit organization Ceres, which pushes companies and investors to take action on sustainability. “If a food and beverage company is not looking at nutrition, they are not looking at the direction the world is going in.” Coke has said that by 2020 it would offer low-calorie or no-calorie options in every market as part of its sustainability goals.

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