Newsbriefs: Spices; Coffee; UTIs
Spice Up Your Life
If you aren’t in the habit of using spices when you cook, you may want to start—especially if you tend to be heavy-handed with the salt shaker when preparing meals. Research published in the Oct. 31, 2017 issue of Hypertension suggests that people who use a range of spices to flavor food have a lower salt intake and lower blood pressure. Salt contains sodium, which has been shown to raise blood pressure and increases your risk of cardiovascular events, such as stroke. Brain-imaging techniques used in the study revealed an overlap between the areas of the brain that are stimulated by salt and the areas that respond to spice—meaning that spices increased brain activity in areas stimulated by salt. The researchers posit that using more spices may modify the way the brain processes salty tastes, thereby reducing individual salt preference.
Coffee May Benefit Kidney Disease Patients
A study presented at the American Society of Nephrology’s annual meeting in November 2017 suggests that coffee may reduce mortality in people with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Researchers looked at data from 2,328 CKD patients, dividing them into four groups based on their daily caffeine consumption: less than 29.5 milligrams (mg), 30.5 to 101 mg, 101.5 to 206 mg, and 206.5 to 1,378.5 mg. Compared to subjects with the least caffeine consumption, those with the highest were 24 percent less likely to die of all causes, while those in the second and third quartiles had a 12 percent and 22 percent lower risk, respectively. These data don’t prove a cause-and-effect relationship between coffee and living longer. However, the researchers noted that, if their findings are confirmed in a larger, randomized clinical trial, caffeine might represent a simple and inexpensive therapy for CKD patients.
Drink More Water to Help Prevent UTIs
Drinking more water every day may help reduce the recurrence of urinary tract infections (UTIs) among women who are prone to these unpleasant infections: That’s one of the key findings in a study presented at the Infectious Diseases Society of America’s annual meeting in October 2017. Researchers found that women with an elevated risk of UTIs who increased their water consumption by at least one-and-a-half quarts (48 ounces) of water a day were about half as likely to experience recurrent UTIs compared with women who did not boost their water intake.
Women are at higher risk of UTIs than men, primarily because women have a shorter urethra—the tube that transports urine from the bladder out of the body. Having a shorter urethra means that bacteria can more easily reach the bladder. About half of all women experience at least one UTI in their lifetimes, and one in four women have multiple UTIs.
Drinking more water also helps keep you adequately hydrated, which benefits all of your body’s organs and systems. However, if you have a condition such as heart failure or kidney disease, discuss your daily water intake with your doctor; you may need to limit your water consumption to avoid health complications.
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