A new study states that paternal obesity may raise cancer risk in daughters. The study was conducted on mice and found out that female children born to obese fathers are at high risk of being overweight at their birth and throughout childhood.

The studies showed that female mice pups born to obese fathers are also prone to delayed growth of their breast tissue as well as being at increased risk of developing breast cancer.

Obesity changes the microRNA (miRNA) signature -- epigenetic regulators of gene expression -- in both the father's sperm and the daughter's breast tissue, suggesting that miRNAs may carry the epigenetic information from obese dads to their daughters.

Lead researcher, Sonia de Assis, Assistant Professor at Georgetown University in the US says,'This study provides evidence that, in animals, a fathers' body weight at the time of conception affects both their daughters' body weight both at birth and in childhood as well as their risk of breast cancer later in life'.

The miRNAs were identified to regulate the insulin receptor signalling, which is linked to alterations in body weight and other molecular pathways that are associated with cancer development.

"Our animal study suggests that those epigenetic alterations in sperm may have consequences for next generation cancer risk," de Assis further added.

Eating a balanced diet, keeping a healthy body weight and lifestyle is imperative for both men and women not only for their own benefit but also to give their children the best chances of being healthy, said the paper published online in the journal Scientific Reports.

The next step is to see if the same associations regarding breast cancer risk hold for daughters of human fathers who are overweight around the time of conception, the researchers concluded.

A deficiency in the amount of vitamin D in the body may lead to high risk of chronic kidney diseases, especially in children, says a new study.

Vitamin D deficiency has been found common in children with chronic kidney disease (CKD) -- the longstanding disease of the kidneys leading to renal failure.

Researchers have identified certain modifiable and non-modifiable factors associated with vitamin D deficiency in children with CKD.

According to the study, nearly two-thirds of children suffering from vitamin D deficiency were also suffering from certain abnormalities like glomerulopathy -- a set of diseases affecting the nephrons.

Vitamin D levels were found lower in winter months than at other times of the year.

"Vitamin D levels are influenced more strongly by seasonal factors, the type of disease and nutritional supplementation than by common variants in vitamin D regulating genes," said Anke Doyon, at the University of Heidelberg in Germany.

Deficiency in Vitamin D may also increase the risk of osteoporosis, cancer, cardiovascular disease and autoimmune disorders, the researchers said.

Children with kidney disease who took vitamin D supplements had vitamin D levels that were two-times higher than those who did not take supplements.

"Supplementation practices should be reconsidered and intervention studies are needed to define guidelines how to monitor and treat vitamin D deficiency in children with chronic kidney disease," Doyon suggested.

The team analysed 500 children affected with kidney diseases in 12 European countries.

The findings published in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN), could help physicians protect the health of these young patients, the researchers concluded.

Deficiencies in certain vitamins are the likely reason behind the development of migraines in children, teens and young adults, finds a new study.

The findings revealed that a high percentage of children, teens and young adults with migraines had mild deficiencies in vitamin D, riboflavin and coenzyme Q10 -- a vitamin-like substance found in every cell of the body that is used to produce energy for cell growth and maintenance.

While girls and young women were more likely to have coenzyme Q10 deficiencies, boys and young men were more likely to have vitamin D deficiency.

Further, patients with chronic migraines were more likely to have coenzyme Q10 and riboflavin deficiencies than those with episodic migraines.

"Further studies are needed to elucidate whether vitamin supplementation is effective in migraine patients in general and whether patients with mild deficiency are more likely to benefit from supplementation," said lead author Suzanne Hagler from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center in the US.

For the study, the team analysed patients with migraines who had baseline blood levels checked for vitamin D, riboflavin, coenzyme Q10 and folate, all of which were implicated in migraines by previous studies.

Many were put on preventive migraine medications and received vitamin supplementation, if levels were low.

Previous studies have indicated that certain vitamins and vitamin deficiencies may be important in the migraine process. However, studies using vitamins to prevent migraines have had conflicting success.

The results were presented at the 58th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Headache Society in San Diego, in the US, recently.

There could soon be a pill to reduce your calorie consumption as researchers have identified a bitter plant extract that can suppress food intake by stimulating the secretion of gut peptide hormones involved in appetite regulation.

Gut chemosensory mechanisms, particularly those involved in detecting and relaying to the brain the chemical composition of food during digestion, play an important role in regulating appetite and food intake.

The researchers hypothesised that activation of specific bitter taste receptors which are expressed throughout the gastrointestinal tract by hormone secreting 'enteroendocrine' cells, could also regulate food intake by triggering the release of satiety or 'fullness' hormones, a mechanism termed by the team as the "bitter brake."

The study was conducted by John Ingram and colleagues from the New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited and University of Auckland, New Zealand.

The team screened over 900 plant extracts for their ability to stimulate enteroendocrine "I cell" hormone release before identifying a highly bitter, non-nutritive plant derived ingredient they have called "Amarasate extract" to take forward into clinical testing.

Twenty lean healthy male volunteers were recruited (mean body mass index 23.4 kg/m2) with 19 completing all three treatments within the randomised, double-blind study.

Treatments comprising 500 mg Amarasate extract or a placebo were administered for targeted intestinal (duodenal) or stomach (gastric) release.

The researchers found that, compared with placebo, both gastric and duodenal delivery of the Amarasate extract stimulated significant increases in the gut peptide hormones CCK, GLP-1 and PYY while significantly reducing total (lunch plus snack) meal energy intake by 218 calories and 226 calories, respectively.

However, no significant treatment effects were observed for any subjective ratings of appetite or nausea.

"We have demonstrated that activation of the 'bitter brake' mechanism by a bitter plant extract can stimulate the release of gut peptide hormones involved in appetite regulation and suppress subsequent feeding behaviour in healthy men," the authors noted.

The findings were presented at the 2016 European Obesity Summit in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Men should try to maintain a healthy weight as researchers have found that higher body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference are associated with an increased risk of aggressive prostate cancer.

In this study, the researchers investigated the associations between various body measurements at baseline, mainly BMI and waist circumference, and the risk of prostate cancer incidence, with a focus on tumour stage and grade, and on mortality from prostate cancer.

A total of 141,896 men with a mean age at recruitment of 52 years in eight European countries (Italy, Spain, Britain, the Netherlands, Greece, Germany, Sweden and Denmark) were included.

After an average of 14 years of follow-up, there were 7,022 incident cases of prostate cancer of which 934 were fatal.

The researchers focussed on aggressive prostate cancer, looking at cancers with a high grade and cancers which resulted in death (fatal prostate cancer).

Men with a higher BMI and waist circumference had an increased risk of high grade prostate cancer, an aggressive form of the disease -- 10 per cent increased risk for BMI for every five kg/m2 increase and 13 per cent for waist circumference for every 10cm increase.

Furthermore, a 14 per cent higher risk for fatal prostate cancer was observed for every five kg/m2 increase in BMI, and 18 per cent increased risk in every 10 cm increase in waist circumference.

"The findings from this large prospective study show that the association between body size and prostate cancer is complex and varies by disease aggressiveness; men who have greater adiposity have an elevated risk of high grade prostate cancer and prostate cancer death," the researchers noted.

The study by Aurora Perez-Cornago from University of Oxford, and colleagues was presented at the European Obesity Summit in Gothenburg, Sweden.