PHARMA ZONE
Researchers had 14 diabetic men on a heart-healthy eating plan and soya protein to their diets. After two months, the men had a 10% reduction in urinary albumin, a protein buildup that indicates poor kidney function. When they swapped soya for casein, an animal-based protein found in milk, they had an 11% increase in albumin.
The researchers aren't sure why soya helped, but say it may be isoflavones, which regulate enzymes thought to filter and reabsorb nutrients from urine. Soya's safety hasn't been proven, but experts agree that it's probably okay in moderation.
Anti oxidant vitamins supplements, particularly vit.C, may protect the aging brain against damage associated with the pathological changes of Alzeimer's disease, according to a study conducted by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and other institutions.
Researchers found that vitamins C and E may protect against Alzeimer's when taken together in the higher doses available in individual supplements. In the United States, notes the study, multivitamins typically contain the recommended daily allowance of vitamin E (22 IU-15 mg) and vitamin C (75 to 90 mg). Individual supplement contain doses upto 1000 IU of E and 500 to 1000 mgs or more of C. Lead author Peter P. Zandi says that "these results are extremely exciting". but further study is needed before firm conclusions about the protective effects of these antioxidants can be drawn.