A new study has suggested that tart cherry juice can reduce post-race respiratory tract symptoms after a marathon.

The study found that Montmorency tart cherry juice reduced upper respiratory tract symptoms associated with marathon running in study participants. Post-race sniffles are a common problem among endurance athletes.

The team, led by Glyn Howatson at Northumbria University and Lygeri Dimitriou at Middlesex University, found that marathon runners, who consumed the tart cherry juice had lower markers for inflammation than a placebo group at 24 and 48 hours post-marathon and had no reported incidences of upper respiratory tract symptoms (URTS) up to 48 hours after the race. For the runners who did not drink the tart cherry juice, 50 percent suffered from URTS.

Howatson said that many athletes can suffer from colds and sore throats following strenuous bouts of exercise, like marathon running and triathlons. This is the first study to provide encouraging evidence of the potential role of Montmorency tart cherries in reducing symptoms associated with the development of exercise-induced respiratory problems.

He added that researchers should be looking at all the potential ways they can help athletes recover from strenuous exercise, and protection of the respiratory system is another dimension.

The authors conclude that the results of this pilot study offer an important new opportunity for research, building on the existing body of evidence providing support for the use of Montmorencytart cherry juice in exercise recovery. They suggest future work should examine the prevalence of URTS beyond 48 hours post-marathon.

The study appears in International Society of Sports Nutrition Journal.

New research suggests that drinking at least three cups of coffee a day can help reduce mortality risk, particularly from stroke and heart disease.

"It is important to acknowledge factors which might have a protective effect against cardiovascular disease mortality," researcher Doutor Antonio Vaz Carneiro, said in a news release. "Moderate coffee consumption could play a significant role in reducing cardiovascular disease mortality risk which would impact health outcomes and healthcare spending across Europe."

The research was based on two 2014 meta-analyses suggesting an association between coffee consumption and reduced cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. The findings suggested that drinking anywhere between three to four cups of coffee per day is associated with an approximate 25 percent reduced risk of developing type 2 diabetes when compared to consuming none or less than two cups a day.

However, it's important to note how the study's results differed basted on varying populations, suggesting that lower or higher amounts of coffee may benefit certain groups over others. (For instance, two cups a day may provide the greatest protection for a Japanese population while three cups a day is better for populations in the United States and the United Kingdom.)

"It is important to acknowledge factors which might have a protective effect against CVD mortality. Moderate coffee consumption could play a significant role in reducing CVD mortality risk which would impact health outcomes and healthcare spending across Europe," added Professor Doutor Antonio Vaz Carneiro of the Faculdade de Medicine da Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal.

The exact link between coffee consumption and lessened cardiovascular disease mortality risk is unclear at this time. However, areas of interest regarding new research and the topic include anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties on coffee and the known association between coffee consumption and type 2 diabetes risk reduction as well as CVD mortality rate.

The study results highlight research presented at a Satellite Symposium held during the European Association for Cardiovascular Prevention & Rehabilitation 2015 congress in Lisbon, Portugal, on the subject of "Coffee and CVD Mortality."

New York: Generic drugs used to treat heart diseases also have the potential to bolster the immune systems of patients with Ebola virus and some other life-threatening illnesses, research has found.

Unlike other medications in development for Ebola, which attack the virus, statins and angiotensin receptor blockers typically used for heart disease work on the host response, or a person's biological reaction to the virus, said lead study author David Fedson, retired professor of medicine at the University of Virginia in the US.

The statin/angiotensin receptor blocker combination was found to help improve survival in 100 Ebola patients treated in Sierra Leone, Fedson said.

"This approach to Ebola treatment has two advantages," Fedson said.

First, it uses inexpensive generic drugs that are widely available in any country with a basic healthcare system, and most physicians who treat patients with cardiovascular diseases are familiar with these medications.

Second, because this strategy targets the host response to infection, these drugs might be used to treat patients with any form of acute infectious disease in which a failure to overcome endothelial dysfunction could lead to multi-organ failure and death, Fedson noted.

In a pilot study, patients were given the drugs atorvastatin (40 mg/day) and irbesartan (150 mg/day) at several hospitals in West Africa.

The researchers found rapid clinical improvement in most patients.

Specifically, the drugs stabilise or restore the integrity of endothelial cells lining the blood vessels.

Endothelial cell dysfunction has been a central feature of human Ebola virus disease, leading to severe fluid and mineral losses, Fedson explained.

The findings appeared in mBio, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

Eating berries, grapes and other fruits daily can convert excess white fat into calorie-burning "beige" fat to prevent weight gain, scientists have found.

In the study, Washington State University scientists fed mice a high fat diet. Those receiving resveratrol in amounts equivalent to 12 ounces of fruit per day for humans - about two or three servings daily - gained 40 per cent less weight than control mice.

Resveratrol is a polyphenol, a type of antioxidant found in most fruits.

Previous studies have suggested that resveratrol can help prevent obesity but how it did that was unclear. Most of the research, including highly publicised studies on wine, also used very large concentrations of resveratrol, much more than a human could consume in a normal diet.

Professor of animal sciences Min Du and visiting scientist Songbo Wang demonstrated that mice fed a diet containing 0.1 per cent resveratrol were able to change their excess white fat into the active, energy-burning beige fat.

"Polyphenols in fruit, including resveratrol, increase gene expression that enhances the oxidation of dietary fats so the body won't be overloaded," said Du.

"They convert white fat into beige fat which burns lipids off as heat - helping to keep the body in balance and prevent obesity and metabolic dysfunction," Du said.

The researchers also showed that an enzyme called AMPK, which regulates the body's energy metabolism, stimulates this transition of white fat into beige fat.

Du said resveratrol is only one of the polyphenolic compounds found in fruit that provides beneficial health effects.

Du said those compounds are high in all fruits but especially rich in blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, grapes and apples.

Wines like merlot or cabernet sauvignon, in contrast, contain only a fraction of resveratrol and other phenolic compounds found in grapes, he said.

"Many of the beneficial polyphenols are insoluble and get filtered out during the wine production process," he said.

The study was published in the International Journal of Obesity.

Children born to teenage mothers and whose parents have a large gap between their ages are at an increased risk of developing autism spectrum disorder (ASD), says a large study involving 5.7 million children in five countries.

The study also confirmed that older parents are at higher risk of having children with ASD which is characterised by social avoidance, repetitive behaviours and difficulty communicating.

"When we first reported that the older age of fathers increases risk for autism, we suggested that mutations might be the cause. Genetic research later showed that this hypothesis was correct," said study co-author Abraham Reichenberg, neuropsychologist and epidemiologist with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, in New York City.

"In this study, we show for the first time that autism risk is associated with disparately-aged parents.

Future research should look into this to understand the mechanisms," Reichenberg noted.

The study, published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, looked at autism rates among 5,766,794 children -- including more than 30,000 with autism -- in Denmark, Israel, Norway, Sweden and Western Australia.

The children were born between 1985 and 2004, and the researchers followed up on their development until 2009, checking national health records for autism diagnoses.

Autism rates were 66 percent higher among children born to fathers over 50 years of age than among those born to fathers in their 20s. Autism rates were 28 percent higher when fathers were in their 40s versus 20s.

Autism rates were 15 percent higher in children born to mothers in their 40s, compared to those born to mothers in their 20s.

Autism rates were 18 percent higher among children born to teenage mothers than among those born to mothers in their 20s.

Autism rates rose still higher when both parents were older, in line with what one would expect if each parent's age contributed to risk.

Autism rates also rose with widening gaps between two parents' ages. These rates were highest when fathers were between 35 and 44 and their partners were 10 or more years younger.

"These results suggest that multiple mechanisms are contributing to the association between parental age and ASD risk," the authors concluded.