Obese children who cut sugar from their diets saw improvements in markers of heart disease after just nine days, a study in Atherosclerosis found. For the study, researchers evaluated 37 children ages 9-18 who were obese and at high risk for heart disease and Type 2 diabetes. The researchers swapped foods high in added sugars, like pastries and sweetened yogurts, for options like bagels and pizza. This lowered dietary sugar from 28 percent to 10 percent, and fructose from 12 percent to 4 percent of total calories. After nine days, the researchers found a 33 percent drop in triglycerides, a type of fat tied to heart disease; a 49 percent reduction in a protein called apoC-III that is tied to high triglyceride levels; and reductions in small, dense LDL cholesterol, a risk factor for heart disease.

Gut bacteria existed before humans

Microbes are in, on and around us in a way that's sort of mind-blowing. It's become clear that these little critters have a lot of influence over the way we live our lives. But just how far back does the relationship between humans and our favorite microbes go? According to one new study, published in the journal Science, it's a love story older than humanity itself. "We are showing that some human gut bacteria are the direct descendants of gut bacteria that lived within our common ancestors, with apes," said lead researcher Andrew Moeller, a postdoc at the University of California at Berkeley. "It shows there has been an unbroken line of inheritance or transfer from one generation to another for millions of years, since the dawn of African apes."

Task force questions skin cancer screen

A federal task force said it can't judge whether skin cancer checks by dermatologists are worth the trouble for healthy Americans because good research on the practice is lacking. The finding of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force is not a repudiation of the practice recommended by the American Academy of Dermatology, in which a medical professional inspects a patient's skin for moles, thickening, discoloration or tags that might be cancerous. But the task force said there was not enough well-conducted studies to establish the practice saves lives without incurring undue risks.

Avian flu outbreak raises concern

An outbreak of avian influenza virus in Cameroon is raising concerns that the disease, already entrenched in parts of West and Central Africa, might advance southward and ravish the poultry industry. The Food and Agriculture Organization said the virus was recently confirmed on chicken farms in Cameroon. The H5N1 strain of the virus found in Cameroon also can infect and kill humans. It is the first time the disease has been found in Central Africa since 2006, the agency said.

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