Amino

Sprouted-grain bread offerings in the market have been slowly but steadily on the uptick of late, and a number of health claims have attached themselves to the spongy, nutty-tasting loaves: more digestible, richer in protein and higher in vitamins and minerals compared with other breads. But are the claims true? Yes -- and no. Sprouted-grain products have distinct nutritional advantages over white breads, but when compared to other whole-grain breads, they're usually nutritionally comparable -- although nutrient contents can vary, depending on the sprouts included.

Want to live longer? One of the most sure-fire strategies is caloric restriction . Going on what amounts to a permanent diet has been shown to stave off age-related diseases and death in worms, flies, rodents and monkeys. But caloric restriction isn’t for everyone. Thankfully, scientists have been looking for ways to get the same benefits with less sacrifice. A group of Italian researchers is offering up one potential alternative – water fortified with a cocktail of branched-chain amino acids , or BCAAs for short.

It was evidently good enough for Gilligan and Robinson Crusoe. But is coconut water a healthy choice for people who aren't stranded on a deserted island? A longstanding treat in tropical regions across the globe, coconut water hit U.S. supermarkets a few years back and is now being marketed with a vengeance. Sometimes billed as nature's sports drink, the slightly sour beverage has also acquired a reputation for being able to improve circulation, slow aging, fight viruses, boost immunity, and reduce the risk of cancer, heart disease and stroke.

Glowing skin signals youth, radiates good health and is the signature accessory of celebrities who walk the red carpet, as exemplified so far this awards season at the Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild by the likes of Jennifer Aniston, Zoe Saldana, Joan Allen, Emily Blunt and others. Like beauty as a whole, the process of achieving luminous skin starts from the inside out. Here are the steps that experts say will help your skin shine like a star's. Step 1: Pay attention to what you eat and drink and do to your body Dr. Susan Taylor is a Harvard-educated assistant dermatology professor at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University and an attending physician at both Philadelphia's Pennsylvania Hospital and St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital Center in New York.

Glowing skin signals youth, radiates good health and is the signature accessory of celebrities who walk the red carpet, as exemplified so far this awards season at the Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild by the likes of Jennifer Aniston, Zoe Saldana, Joan Allen, Emily Blunt and others. Like beauty as a whole, the process of achieving luminous skin starts from the inside out. Here are the steps that experts say will help your skin shine like a star's. Step 1: Pay attention to what you eat and drink and do to your body Dr. Susan Taylor is a Harvard-educated assistant dermatology professor at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University and an attending physician at both Philadelphia's Pennsylvania Hospital and St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital Center in New York.

The Times is to be commended for its well-taken points in its editorial (May 14) regarding the implications and importance of mapping the human genome. However, the big picture presented was marred by a few critical details. The corrections stand as follows. DNA is not a sequence of amino acids, but rather a sequence of nucleotides, each of which consists of (1) a ribose sugar, (2) a phosphate, and (3) a nitrogen-containing base, which may or may not be an amino acid. The importance of these corrections is that of clarifying the distinction between proteins, which are indeed sequences of amino acids, and nucleic acids (DNA is one)

UC San Diego scientists examining ancient rocks have detected organic molecules that they believe could only have been deposited when an extraterrestrial object, probably a comet, crashed into the Earth 65 million years ago. Some researchers say the finding lends powerful support to the hotly debated theory that a cosmic collision threw up a worldwide dust cloud that hampered photosynthesis and set off a mass extinction of dinosaurs and many...

A change in diet may also prevent deaths occurring during kidney dialysis, according to researchers from Johns Hopkins University. Deaths could be avoided, they reported in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, by giving patients a low protein diet supplemented by ketoacids and amino acids. The team administered the diet and supplements to 44 kidney failure patients during their first two years on dialysis. During the period, only two patients died. National statistics suggest that 11 to 12 patients in a group that size would usually die in the same period.

Ostrich eggshells are among the most commonly found objects at archeological sites in Africa. Primitive humans used the eggs as food and the shells for water containers, bowls and beads. Now, archeologists may find them even more valuable for understanding the history of early humans. A team of researchers headed by paleoanthropologist Allison S. Brooks of George Washington University and geophysicist P. Edward Hare of the Carnegie Institution of Washington reported recently in the journal Science that the slow decomposition of proteins in the eggshells can be used to date archeological sites, particularly in the range of 40,000 to 100,000 years ago--a period for which there are few usable dating techniques.

Most scientists are fortunate if they can make one major discovery in their lifetime. Dr. Paul Zamecnik made two, each of which should have won him a Nobel Prize. Working with Dr. Mahlon Hoagland, he discovered transfer RNA, a crucial molecule in the synthesis of proteins in the cell. Later, he invented the idea of antisense therapy, in which strands of DNA or RNA are used to block the activity of genes -- a concept that is now being turned into a new class of drugs for cancer, HIV and a host of other diseases.

Marshall Nirenberg, the Nobel laureate who deciphered the genetic code that allows the information contained in genes to be translated into proteins, died Jan. 15 at his home in New York City. He was 82 and had been battling cancer. Nirenberg, who spent his entire career at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., and was the first government employee to win a Nobel Prize, was "one of science's great titans," NIH Director Francis S. Collins said. Nirenberg was an outsider who was not considered among science's elite when he began his career in the 1950s in what has often been called the golden age of molecular biology.

Most scientists are fortunate if they can make one major discovery in their lifetime. Dr. Paul Zamecnik made two, each of which should have won him a Nobel Prize. Working with Dr. Mahlon Hoagland, he discovered transfer RNA, a crucial molecule in the synthesis of proteins in the cell. Later, he invented the idea of antisense therapy, in which strands of DNA or RNA are used to block the activity of genes -- a concept that is now being turned into a new class of drugs for cancer, HIV and a host of other diseases.

I suffer from trichotillomania. I pull hairs constantly, and this leaves little bald spots. I heard on your radio program about an amino acid to calm this compulsion. Trichotillomania is a condition in which people feel an overwhelming urge to pull hair from their heads, eyebrows, eyelashes or even pubic area. Physicians don't understand the cause. There is no Food and Drug Administration-approved treatment. Researchers reported in July in the Archives of General Psychiatry that the amino acid N-acetylcysteine could help.

Dr. Mahlon Hoagland, who helped unravel the mystery of how cells build proteins by discovering a molecule that brings individual amino acids to growing protein chains and who spent the latter part of his career explaining biology to the public in a series of well- received books, died Sept. 18 at his home in Thetford, Vt. He was 87. He had been suffering from cardiovascular disease and kidney failure and chose to abstain from food and drink to die peacefully, lingering for nine days with his family at hand.

Showing that the ingredients for life in the universe may be distributed far more widely than previously thought, scientists have found traces of a key building block of biology in dust snatched from the tail of a comet. Scientists at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., have uncovered glycine, the simplest amino acid and a vital compound necessary for life, in a sample from the comet Wild 2. The sample was captured by NASA's Stardust spacecraft, which dropped it into the Utah desert in 2006.

After chemo treatment, I had two bouts with shingles. Knowing that this is a herpes virus, I treated myself with L-lysine as I often do for cold sores. The discomfort and rash disappeared in less than a week. My oncologist was very interested to hear this and has been successful using L-lysine for other patients with shingles. Prescription antiviral drugs such as Valtrex or Famvir can be helpful against shingles. Many people say L-lysine works for cold sores.

Dr. Mahlon Hoagland, who helped unravel the mystery of how cells build proteins by discovering a molecule that brings individual amino acids to growing protein chains and who spent the latter part of his career explaining biology to the public in a series of well- received books, died Sept. 18 at his home in Thetford, Vt. He was 87. FOR THE RECORD: Hoagland obituary: An obituary of biochemist Mahlon Hoagland in Section A on Oct. 17 said that James Watson and Francis Crick shared the 1962 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for discovering the structure of DNA. Maurice Wilkins also shared in the prize that year.

Colleen Dawmen had been plagued for years by severe hot flashes that would wash over her dozens of times a day and awaken her, dripping with sweat, three or four times a night. "I'd get so overwhelmed by this furnace-like heat that I felt like my head was going to explode," says the 51-year-old nurse. She didn't want to take hormones, but black cohosh and progesterone cream had failed to curb her symptoms. "I was at the mercy of these hot flashes," she says.