While it is believed that eating an orange is better than having orange juice, scientists have explained in a new study that it may not be that clear.

Although juice is indeed high in sugar, the scientists found that certain nutrients in orange juice might be easier for the body to absorb than when a person consumes them from unprocessed fruit.

Ralf Schweiggert, Julian Aschoff and colleagues note that oranges are packed with nutrients such as carotenoids and flavonoids that, among other benefits, can potentially help lower a person's risk for certain cancers and cardiovascular disease. But many people prefer to drink a glass of orange juice rather than eat the fruit.

The researchers found that the production of pasteurized orange juice slightly lowered the levels of carotenoids and vitamin C. But at the same time, it significantly improved the carotenoid and vitamin C bioaccessibility-or how much the body can absorb and use. And contrary to conventional wisdom, although juicing oranges dramatically cut flavonoid levels, the remaining ones were much more bioaccessible than those in orange segments.

The study is published in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

Drinking a small glass of wine a day may give you a better chance of avoiding heart failure than those who don't drink at all, according to scientists.

In a new study, scientists have discovered that middle-aged men who drink up to seven small glasses of wine or about three and a half pints of beer a week are 20 per cent less likely to develop heart failure when compared to teetotallers.

The study also found that the apparent protective effects were more marginal in women, but up to seven drinks a week still gave moderate female drinkers a 16 per cent reduced risk of heart failure over their non-drinking counterparts.

Researcher Scott Solomon of Harvard Medical School in Boston, said that these findings suggest that drinking alcohol in moderation does not contribute to an increased risk of heart failure and may even be protective.

He added that the study shows there is an association between drinking moderate amounts of alcohol and a lower risk of heart failure but this does not necessarily mean that moderate alcohol consumption causes the lowered risk.

However, researchers cautioned that the findings shouldn't be used as an excuse to booze it up as heavy alcohol use is certainly a risk factor.

For the study, researchers tracked drinking patterns and heart failure rates for 14,600 men and women aged between 45 and 64 over a period of 24 to 25 years.

The study also found that former drinkers had the highest risk of developing heart failure, a 19 percent and 17 percent increased risk among men and women respectively compared with abstainers.

The research has been published in the European Heart Journal.

A new study has revealed that people with high levels of vitamin D in their bloodstream have a lower overall risk of developing colorectal cancer.

The research by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute investigators, which represents the first time that a link between vitamin D and the immune response to cancer has been shown in a large human population, that vitamin D, known as the "sunshine vitamin" because it is produced by the body in response to sunlight exposure, plays a key role in cancer prevention.

Senior author Shuji Ogino said that laboratory research suggests that vitamin D boosts immune system function by activating T cells that recognize and attack cancer cells.

Researchers theorized that if the two phenomena were connected, then people with high levels of vitamin D would be less likely to develop colorectal tumors that are permeated with large numbers of immune system cells and colorectal tumors that do develop in these individuals would, by the same logic, be more resistant to the immune response.

Ogino added that this is the first study to show evidence of the effect of vitamin D on anti-cancer immune function in actual patients, and vindicates basic laboratory discoveries that vitamin D can interact with the immune system to raise the body's defenses against cancer.

Ogino concluded that in the future, they may be able to predict how increasing an individual's vitamin D intake and immune function can reduce his or her risk of colorectal cancer.

The study is published by the journal Gut.

Using smartphone apps with daily text messages or videos may encourage you to think about dieting and eating well, helping you lose more weight, a new study has found.

Researchers at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in the US found that cellphone support can help people lose significantly more weight.

The study conducted by Tanika Kelly, associate professor of epidemiology, found that using one of the many mobile apps with daily text messages or videos incites the user to think about dieting and eating well.

"In conjunction with reducing caloric intake and increasing physical activity, mobile messaging services could help to maintain and sustain weight loss over time. It reminds us to continue our good behaviours," said Kelly.

One of the students in Kelly's meta-analysis class, Fangchao Liu, an advanced PhD student from China, worked with a group to analyse 14 previous randomised controlled trials of mobile phone interventions that included 1,337 participants.

Liu is the first author of an abstract published in the journal Circulation about the meta-analysis, which showed mobile phone interventions correlated with weight loss and reduction in body mass index.

Although the increased weight loss was modest - about 1.44 kg on average during the six- and 12-month studies - Kelly said that individual weight loss can have important public health implications for populations.

Obesity and being overweight is a major global health challenge because of the direct link to cardiovascular disease and diabetes, Kelly said.

"Even modest levels of sustained weight loss can yield substantial reductions in weight-related morbidity, mortality and healthcare costs," she said.

Scientists have identified the substance that protects against premature births caused by infection.

Pre-term birth from infection is the leading cause of infant mortality in many countries according to the World Health Organization. The findings by the researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center are the first to identify the specific role that the substance hyaluronon (HA), plays in the reproductive tract.

Senior author Dr. Mala Mahendroo said that they found that HA, a critical substance made by the body, is required to allow the epithelial lining of the reproductive tract to serve as the first line of defense against bacterial infections. Because of this action, HA offers cervical protection against the bacterial infections that cause 25 to 40 percent of pre-term births in women.

Hyaluronon is a natural substance found in many tissues, and is both a lubricant and a beneficial component of eyes, joints, and skin. It has long been thought to play an essential role in increasing the cervix's flexibility during the birth process; however, the study, which was conducted using mouse models, showed that HA is not essential for increased cervical pliability during late pregnancy. Rather, the substance plays an important barrier role in epithelial cells of the lower reproductive tract and in so doing protects against infection-related pre-term birth. The World Health Organization estimates that 1.09 million children under age 5 die from direct complications of being born prematurely, meaning before the 37th week of pregnancy.

Dr. Yucel Akgul, first author of the study said that the study demonstrates that HA plays a crucial role in the epithelial barrier as well as the cervix's mucus. Next steps include determining the mechanism by which HA affects cervical protection against infection.

The study is published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.