Green tea consists of an ingredient , which may help kill oral cancer cells, without touching the healthy cells, says a new research.

Associate professor Joshua Lambert at Penn State said that earlier studies had shown that epigallocatechin-3-gallate-EGCG-a compound found in green tea, killed oral cancer cells without harming normal cells, but researchers did not understand the reasons for its ability to target the cancer cells. The current study shows that EGCG may trigger a process in the mitochondria that leads to cell death.

The researchers studied normal human oral cells side-by-side with human oral cancer cells to determine how EGCG was affecting cancer cells differently than normal cells.

They grew the normal and cancer cells on petri dishes and then exposed them to EGCG, the major polyphenol found in green tea, at concentrations typically found in the saliva after chewing green-tea chewing gum. At various times, the researchers would collect the cells and check for oxidative stress and signs of antioxidant response.

The researchers said that a protein called sirtuin 3 -- SIRT3 -- was critical to the process, so the idea that EGCG might selectively affect the activity of sirtuin 3 in cancer cells-to turn it off-and in normal cells-to turn it on-was probably applicable in multiple kinds of cancers, Lambert said.

The study builds on earlier research on how EGCG affected oral cancer, a disease that is expected to kill more than 8,000 people in the United States this year.

He said the next step would be to study the mechanism in animals. If those tests and human trials are successful, the researchers then hope to create anti-cancer treatments that are as effective as current treatments without the harmful side effects.

Lambert said chemotherapy drugs just targeted rapidly dividing cells, so cancer divides rapidly, but so did the cells in your hair follicles and cells in your intestines, leading to a lot of side effects. But green tea consumption didn't have such side effects.

The study is published in the online issue of Molecular Nutrition and Food Research.

A new study has examined that people who have flexible work schedules have better health and they sleep properly than their counterparts.

Orfeu M. Buxton, associate professor of biobehavioral health, Penn State, said that in the absence of sufficient sleep, they are not as attentive or alert, they process information more slowly, miss or misinterpret social and emotional cues and decision making is impaired.

The researchers followed 474 employees as part of a Work, Family and Health Network study conducted at an information technology company, with about half of the employees serving as the control while the other half experienced the study intervention. Both employees and their supervisors participated.

The intervention was designed to reduce conflicts between work and personal life, and focused on two main cultural shifts: allowing employees to decide on when and where they worked and training supervisors to support their employees' personal lives. Those who were assigned to the intervention were encouraged to be completely flexible about when and where they would work at the office, from home or elsewhere while still working the same number of hours as the control group. All of the participants wore a sleep-monitoring watch, a device that tracks movement to monitor periods of sleep.

At 12 months, the researchers found that employees who participated in the intervention experienced an average of eight minutes more sleep per night, which is nearly an hour more sleep per week, than the control group. Intervention participants' perceptions of their sleep sufficiency also improved.

Buxton added that work can be a calling and inspirational, as well as a paycheck, but work should not be detrimental to healthIt is possible to mitigate some of the deleterious effects of work by reducing work-family conflict and improving sleep.

The benefits of fish consumption during pre-natal development may offset the risks associated with mercury exposure, shows a study.

Nutrients found in fish have properties that protect the brain from the potential toxic effects of the chemical.

Compounds present in fish - specifically polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) - may actively counteract the damage that mercury causes in the brain.

The type of fatty acids a mother consumes during pregnancy may make a difference in terms of their child's future neurological development.

"It is also becoming increasingly clear that the benefits of fish consumption may outweigh, or even mask, any potentially adverse effects of mercury," said Edwin van Wijngaarden, associate professor in University of Rochester in Britain.

Mercury is found in the environment as a result of both natural and human activity.

Much of it ends up being deposited in the world's oceans and, as a result, fish harbour the chemical in very small amounts.

"It appears that relationship between fish nutrients and mercury may be far more complex than previously appreciated," said Philip Davidson, principal investigator of the Seychelles Child Development Study.

The study appeared in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Coffee drinkers may face lower risk of melanoma, as a new study has suggested that it may have a protective effect against the skin cancer.

Erikka Loftfield, M.P.H., of the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, used data from the NIH-AARP Diet and Health study to determine if there was an association between coffee consumption and risk of cutaneous melanoma.

Information on coffee consumption was obtained from 447,357 non-Hispanic white subjects with a self-administered food-frequency questionnaire in 1995/1996, with a median follow-up of 10 years. All subjects included in the analysis were cancer-free at baseline, and the authors adjusted for ambient residential ultraviolet radiation exposure, body mass index, age, sex, physical activity, alcohol intake, and smoking history.

Overall, the highest coffee intake was inversely associated with a risk of malignant melanoma, with a 20 percent lower risk for those who consumed 4 cups per day or more. There was also a trend toward more protection with higher intake, with the protective effect increasing from 1 or fewer cups to 4 or more. However, the effect was statistically significant for caffeinated but not decaffeinated coffee and only for protection against malignant melanoma but not melanoma in-situ, which may have a different etiology.

The researchers point out that the results are preliminary and may not be applicable to other populations, and therefore additional investigations of coffee intake are needed. However, they concluded that "Because of its high disease burden, lifestyle modifications with even modest protect ive effects may have a meaningful impact on melanoma morbidity."

The study is published in JNCI: Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

A recent study involving 14,386 young adults has revealed that daily consumption of tree nuts can promote good health.

Tree nuts that include almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, hazelnuts, macadamias, pecans, pine nuts, pistachios and walnuts are a rich source of protein, fiber, unsaturated fats, and important vitamins and minerals.

Consumption of at least 44 grams of tree nuts per day, is associated with better nutrient adequacy in the diet and better diet quality.

"Consumption of tree nuts should be encouraged as part of a healthy diet by health professionals to improve diet quality and nutrient adequacy," said Carol O'Neil, professor at Louisiana State University's agricultural centre.

He also stressed the need for nutrition education programmes that increase awareness and consumption of tree nuts.

The team found that when it comes to nutrient adequacy for most nutrients, tree nut consumers fared better than non-consumers.

"This new research further supports the need to encourage people to eat tree nuts for overall health," stated Maureen Ternus, executive director of the International Tree Nut Council.

We need to encourage people to grab a handful of nuts every day, he added.