Scientists from the Department of Agriculture (USDA) found that a water soluble extract of cinnamon, which is rich in antioxidants, may be useful in mitigating risk factors for metabolic or cardiovascular conditions.

The international team — which included French and American academics as well as government scientists — recruited 22 obese volunteers who were diagnosed as prediabetics for a 12-week study based in Ohio. The condition is characterized by impaired glucose tolerance.

After dividing the participants into two groups, one of which was given 250 milligrams of a dried water-soluble cinnamon extract twice a day, and analyzing their blood samples, the researchers discovered that the treated individuals demonstrated lower levels of fasting glucose, a sign of better health, compared to the control group.

American Diabetes Association estimates that some 57 million people in the U.S. can be classified as prediabetics.

A new study appears to lend support to proponents of medicinal use of marijuana, as it shows that, when smoked, the plant has the potential to relieve chronic neuropathic pain.

The research was conducted by scientists from McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) and McGill University, and was reported in the latest issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

Study participants, who suffered from pain associated with nerve injury, were asked to smoke 25 mg of cannabis that contained about 10 percent THC – the active ingredient – three times a day for five days. The results suggested that most experienced modest pain reduction as well as better mood and sleep.

"The patients we followed suffered from pain caused by injuries to the nervous system, which was not controlled using standard therapies" said Dr. Mark Ware, lead author of the study and director of clinical research at the Alan Edwards Pain Management Unit at the MUHC.

He added that for these people, a similar approach "is sometimes seen as their last hope."

The center’s scientists have identified a genetic mechanism that can help determine the severity of allergic asthma. They say that what distinguishes a mild form of the disease from a more severe case is the pro-inflammatory protein called interleukin-17 (IL-17A).

When exposed to an environmental pollutant – such as cigarette smoke – the body produces high levels of IL-17A, which in turn stimulates the expression of a gene called complement factor 3 (C3) that sets off an "amplification loop," perpetuating increasing inflammatory responses.

"This study suggests that at some point it may be possible to treat or prevent severe forms of asthma by inhibiting pathways that drive the production of IL-17A," said senior investigator Marsha Wills-Karp, director of the division of immunobiology at Cincinnati Children’s.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, more than 7 percent of adults and more than 9 percent of children in the U.S. have asthma.

The results were presented in the August 29 issue of Nature Immunology.

However, a recent study has found that not all green teas are created equal. It appears that the benefits of the drink vary, depending on whether it is consumed from a bottle or freshly brewed.

Speaking at the 240th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston on August 22, scientists involved in the research said that many commercial beverages – whose sales may be as high as $1 billion a year in the U.S. – have fewer polyphenols than a cup of home-brewed green or black tea.

"There is a huge gap between the perception that tea consumption is healthy and the actual amount of the healthful nutrients found in bottled tea beverages," said researcher Shiming Li, who presented the findings.

"Our analysis of tea beverages found that the polyphenol content is extremely low," he added.

In fact, the scientists estimate that in order to reap full health benefits of a single cup of tea, individuals would have to drink about 20 bottles of commercial beverages.

A study, which is soon to be published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, has found that vitamin D may be able to prevent or even treat allergy symptoms triggered by Aspergillus fumigatus, or common mold.

In the study, the scientists analyzed Th2 cells that help the body develop an allergic reaction, including to A. fumigatus. They then discovered that allergic individuals with increased Th2 reactivity had lower average levels of vitamin D, compared to the control group of healthy participants.

Dr. Jay Kolls, professor and chair of genetics at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, explained that the researchers found that the vitamin not only helped lower the levels of the allergy-driving protein, but also boosted the production of proteins that increased the body’s resistance to this type of allergy.

"Our study provides further evidence that vitamin D appears to be broadly associated with human health," he emphasized.

Sometimes, this type of work yields results that may satisfy proponents of natural remedies or alternative medicine. For example, British scientists suspect that banana plantain fibers may help treat individuals who suffer from Crohn’s disease, which manifests itself through bowel inflammation, bleeding, pain and diarrhea.

Specifically, they found that plantain soluble fibres prevented the penetration of E. coli bacteria across a special type of intestinal cells called M cells, a process that is pronounced in Crohn’s disease patients and leads to chronic inflammation.

Dr. Barry Campbell, from the University of Liverpool Institute of Translational Medicine, said doctors have long known that eating high-fiber natural foods such as plantain and broccoli produced general health benefits, but they have not entirely understood their role in preventing infection in people with Crohn’s disease.

"This research shows that different dietary components can have powerful effects on the movement of bacteria through the bowel," he added.

According to the CDC, some 1.4 million Americans suffer from inflammatory bowel conditions, of which Crohn’s is one.

Scientists from Iceland analyzed migraine history of 18,725 people born between 1907 and 1935 who took part in the Reykjavik Study launched by the Icelandic Heart Association in 1967 to assess heart disease in the country. Larus Gudmundsson and his colleagues found that individuals who suffered from migraine with aura were at a higher risk of dying from all causes, including heart disease and stroke, while those with a "regular" migraine were not.

However, the researchers do not want to cause unwarranted concern among migraine sufferers and stress that an individual risk is still low, and that reducing the chances of developing heart disease through measures such as blood pressure or cholesterol control, or smoking cessation, is a good idea, anyway.

The results were published in the British Medical Journal.

A study conducted by the Agricultural Research Service looked at how soybean isoflavones influence bone mass. In the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition they explained how they gave postmenopausal women volunteers a placebo or a pill containing 80 milligrams or 120 milligrams of isoflavones.

After three years of study, they did not observe a significant impact on preventing bone loss from the 80 milligram supplements, but the scientists said that the bigger dose, coupled with lifestyle changes, appeared to produce a moderate positive result.

The article contained some caveats, including the possibility that the body may respond differently to isoflavone extracts as opposed to pure soy protein, soy foods or a supplement.

Regardless of this, it is important to stress the value of a healthy diet and regular exercise, which can both alleviate the side effects of menopause and enhance bone health in older women.

Now, researchers may have an answer. A study conducted at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne, Australia has demonstrated that fat tissue is a site of inflammatory cells that may be responsible for this effect.

"We have shown that insulin resistance in human obesity is closely related to the presence of inflammatory cells in fat tissue, in particular a population of macrophage cells," said professor Len Harrison, one of the authors of the study.

Macrophages are white blood cells that are part of the body’s immune response to infections. The researchers further explain that they migrate to fat tissue in obese people and cause inflammation by releasing chemical compounds called cytokines. These compounds may cause cells to become insulin resistant, leading to diabetes.

The discovery may open the way to new therapeutic options for individuals who suffer from diabetes. According to the American Diabetes Association, more than 23 million people in the U.S. are affected by this chronic and currently incurable condition.

The study’s results were detailed in the journal Diabetes.

Scientists from the University of Oxford have mapped more than 200 genes in the human DNA that vitamin D directly influences.

In their work, the researchers used novel DNA sequencing technology to create a map of vitamin D receptors that appear along the genome and found 2,776 such binding sites, which allow the vitamin to attach itself and influence protein expression.

Many of the sites were located near genes linked to autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s disease, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis as well as cancers, including chronic lymphocytic leukaemia and colorectal cancer.

"Our study shows quite dramatically the wide-ranging influence that vitamin D exerts over our health," said Dr Andreas Heger from the MRC Functional Genomics Unit at Oxford.

His collaborators added that vitamin D supplementation during pregnancy and early life could yield substantial benefits for people as they grow up.

The results were published in the journal Genome Research.