London: While drinking your daily cup of coffee can help you stay sharp, modifying your habit by increasing coffee consumption over time may increase risk of mild cognitive impairment (MCI), early symptoms of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and dementia, says new research.

"These findings from the Italian Longitudinal Study on Ageing suggested that cognitively normal older individuals who never or rarely consumed coffee and those who increased their coffee consumption habits had a higher risk of developing MCI," said one of the researchers Francesco Panza from the University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy.

"Therefore, moderate and regular coffee consumption may have neuroprotective effects also against MCI - confirming previous studies on the long-term protective effects of coffee, tea, or caffeine consumption and plasma levels of caffeine against cognitive decline and dementia," Panza noted.

The study involved 1,445 individuals aged 65-84 years.

An interesting finding in this study was that cognitively normal older individuals who modified their habits by increasing with time their amount of coffee consumption ( more than a cup of coffee/day) had about two times higher rate of MCI compared to those with reduced habits (less than a cup of coffee/day).

They also had about one and a half time higher rate of MCI in comparison with those with constant habits (neither more nor less than one cup of coffee/day).

Moreover, those who habitually consumed a moderate amount of coffee (one or two cups of coffee/day) had a reduced rate of the incidence of MCI than those who habitually never or rarely consumed coffee.

These findings were published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.

As per a new study by medical researchers, regular exercise and healthy food habits may reduce the short-term onset of knee pain for overweight adults with type 2 diabetes.

Daniel White, Assistant Professor at the University of Delaware, wrote an article which was a key study for 2015 at the Osteoarthritis Society's international meeting.

The study compared subjects receiving intensive lifestyle intervention (ILI) to a group receiving standard diabetes support and education (DSE) to measure knee pain at the end of one year and four years.

White and his colleagues conducted a secondary analysis of the Action for Health in Diabetes study, a randomised intervention of trial adults aged 45 to 76 years who were obese and had Type 2 diabetes mellitus. The Action for Health in Diabetes study began in 2001.

White said that the analysis involved a group of 2,889 subjects, who reported no knee pain at baseline, but were at high risk due to obesity.

The primary method of achieving weight loss was caloric intake restrictions, based on guidelines from the American Diabetes Association. The diet limits total calories from fat to 30 percent while mandating at least 10 percent of calories to be obtained from protein.

Moderate-intensity walking encouraged as a primary type of physical activity for most of the participants.

White said the study concluded that an intensive program of diet and exercise had a small but statistically significant protective effect against the development of knee pain in the short-term among overweight adults with diabetes.

The story is published in Arthritis Care and Research.

Scientists have found a link between a class of drugs used to treat diabetes and protection against Parkinson's disease (PD).

The study conducted by Dr. Ruth Brauer, of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, found a lower incidence of PD among people using a glitazone drug (either rosiglitazone or pioglitazone) to treat diabetes when compared to people who had used different treatments for diabetes.

These findings are consistent with animal and in vitro studies which suggested that glitazones and other drugs that target peroxisome proliferation-activated receptor gamma may have neuroprotective effects.

It is important to note that these results may not apply to people without diabetes and do not indicate whether glitazones can slow PD progression.

Further, it is possible that unknown patient characteristics associated with glitazone use might also be linked to PD, contributing to the appearance of a direct causal connection. In addition, glitazones have been associated with serious side effects.

However, the authors are hopeful that these findings may pave the way towards other treatments that target the same pathway.

The study is published in PLOS Medicine. (ANI)

Treatment with a drug approved for rheumatoid arthritis has led to dramatic improvement in six patients with moderate to severe eczema who had previously tried old therapies with no success, says a study.

The new study suggests that a change in the standard of care for eczema -- a skin condition for which there is no targeted therapy -- may be on the horizon, said the researchers.

Eczema (atopic dermatitis) is a chronic condition that causes severe itching and leaves the skin red and thickened. It can adversely affect sleep and also the quality of life. Standard treatments, such as steroid creams and oral medicines, commonly fail to relieve symptoms in patients with moderate to severe eczema.

In the study, the researchers from Yale School of Medicine in the US hypothesized that the drug tofacitinib citrate, would interrupt the immune response that causes eczema.

During treatment all six patients reported significant reduction in itch as well as improved sleep. The redness and thickening of the skin also diminished, showed the findings reported in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.

"These individuals were not only very happy with the results, they also expressed a tremendous sense of relief at being comfortable in their skin for the first time in many years," said assistant professor of dermatology Brett King.

The researchers had previously shown that tofacitinib citrate regrows hair in patients with an autoimmune-related form of hair loss called as alopecia areata.

They also published findings reporting the successful treatment of a patient with vitiligo, which can leave widespread irregular white patches all over the body.

Post-menopausal women, especially those who are obese, should exercise at least five hours a week to curb obesity and breast cancer risk, shows research.

Exercising 300 minutes per week is recommended for reducing total fat in post-menopausal women than the currently recommended 150 minutes, the researchers said.

"A possible association between physical activity and post-menopausal breast cancer risk is supported by more than 100 epidemiologic studies, with strong biologic rationale supporting fat loss as an important (though not the only) mediator of this association," the study said.

"Our findings of a dose-response effect of exercise on total fat mass and several other adiposity measures, including abdominal fat, especially in obese women, provide a basis for encouraging post-menopausal women to exercise at least 300 minutes/week, longer than the minimum recommended for cancer prevention," researchers said.

The results of the one-year clinical trial was published online in the journal JAMA Oncology.

According to the study, physical activity is an inexpensive, non-invasive strategy for disease prevention advocated by public health agencies around the world, with recommendations to be physically active at least 150 minutes per week at moderate intensity or 60 to 75 minutes per week at vigorous intensity for overall health.

For the new study, Christine Friedenreich of Alberta Health Services, Canada, and colleagues compared 300 minutes of exercise per week with 150 minutes per week of moderate to vigorous aerobic exercise for its effect on body fat in 400 inactive post-menopausal women who were evenly split into the two exercise groups.

The women, who had body mass index (BMI) 22 to 40, were asked not to change their usual diet.

Any aerobic activity that raised the heart rate 65 percent to 75 percent of heart rate reserve was permitted, and most of the activities involved the elliptical trainer, walking, bicycling and running.

Average reductions in total body fat were larger in the 300-minute versus 150-minute group.

Abdominal fat, BMI, waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio also decreased more in the 300-minute group, the findings showed.