WEDNESDAY, Feb. 27 (HealthDay News) -- Curcumin, an ingredient in the curry spice tumeric, can reduce heart enlargement and may lower the risk of heart failure, Canadian researchers say.

The scientists at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre of the Toronto General Hospital tested the effects of curcumin in mice with enlarged hearts (hypertrophy) and found it could prevent and reverse the condition, restore heart function, and reduce scar formation. The study was published in the February issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

If human clinical trials support these findings, curcumin-based treatments may provide a safe and inexpensive new option for patients with heart enlargement, according to the researchers.

They said curcumin works directly in the cell nucleus by preventing abnormal unraveling of the chromosome under stress and preventing excessive abnormal protein production.

"Curcumin's ability to shut off one of the major switches right at the chromosome source where the enlargement and scarring genes are being turned on is impressive," Dr. Peter Liu, a cardiologist at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre and scientific director at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research - Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health, said in a prepared statement.

"Whether you are young or old; male or female; the larger your heart is, the higher your risk is for developing heart attacks or heart failure in the future," Liu said. "However, until clinical trials are done, we don't recommend patients to take curcumin routinely. You are better off to take action today by lowering blood pressure, reducing cholesterol, exercising, and health eating."

Current clinical trials of curcumin-based treatments for pancreatic and colorectal cancer are yielding promising results, according to the study.

More information

The American Heart Association has more about enlarged heart  .

FRIDAY, Feb. 22 (HealthDay News) -- Regular exercise in a heated swimming pool can benefit people with the common, painful condition fibromyalgia, a new study suggests.

Symptoms of fibromyalgia include chronic and severe pain and tenderness in muscles, ligaments and tendons; neck and shoulder pain; sleep problems; anxiety and depression. Women account for more than 90 percent of people with fibromyalgia, which has no known cause or cure.

Current treatments include painkillers, exercise, relaxation therapy, and low-dose antidepressants, according to background information in a news release about the study, which was published Feb. 21 in the journal Arthritis Research & Therapy.

The study from the University of Extremadura in Spain and the University of Evora, Portugal, included 33 women with fibromyalgia -- 17 did supervised one-hour exercise sessions in a heated pool three times a week for eight months, while the other 16 did no aquatic training.

The researchers found that the long-term aquatic exercise helped reduce fibromyalgia symptoms and improved the women's health-related quality of life. In an earlier study, the same researchers found that a short-term exercise program helped ease symptoms, but pain returned when patients completed the exercise regimen.

"The addition of an aquatic exercise program to the usual care for fibromyalgia in women is cost-effective in terms of both health care costs and societal costs," and "appropriate aquatic exercise is a good health investment," the researchers wrote.

They have yet to compare aquatic training with other forms of gentle exercise such as walking, tai-chi and low-impact aerobics.

More information

The American College of Rheumatology has more about fibromyalgia  .

THURSDAY, Feb. 21 (HealthDay News) -- The large number of fast food commercials on Spanish-language television in the United States may be contributing to the obesity epidemic among Hispanic youths, new research suggests.

Among American children, Hispanics have the highest rates of overweight and obesity.

Researchers from the Johns Hopkins Children's Center reviewed 60 hours of programming airing between 3 p.m. and 9 p.m. (heavy viewing hours for school-age children) on Univision and Telemundo, the two largest Spanish-language channels in the United States. The stations reach 99 percent and 93 percent of U.S. Hispanics, respectively.

The stations averaged two to three food commercials an hour, with one-third of them specifically targeted to children. Almost half of all food commercials promoted fast food, and more than half of all drink commercials featured soda and drinks with high sugar content. The study was published in the Feb. 18 online issue of the Journal of Pediatrics.

"While we cannot blame overweight and obesity solely on TV commercials, there is solid evidence that children exposed to such messages tend to have unhealthy diets and to be overweight," lead investigator Dr. Darcy Thompson, a pediatrician at Hopkins, said in a prepared statement.

To reduce the impact of food commercials, young children should be restricted to two hours or less per day of TV, and parent should talk to their children about healthy diet and food choices, the researchers said. Children younger than 2 shouldn't be allowed to watch any TV.

The Hopkins team also recommended that pediatricians caring for Hispanic children should be aware of their patients' heavy exposure to food commercials and the possible effects of that exposure. In addition, public health officials should lobby policy makers to limit food advertising that targets children.

More information

The Nemours Foundation has more about overweight and obesity in children  .

THURSDAY, Jan. 31 (HealthDay News) -- Long known to help prevent birth defects, folic acid may also help prevent premature births, new research suggests.

In a large study that included almost 40,000 women, a team of U.S. and Irish researchers found that women who took folic acid supplements for a year or longer before conception had a 70 percent decreased risk of preterm birth between 20 and 28 weeks of gestation.

"There have been all sorts of protocols, lifestyle interventions and medications tested, and nothing has made a difference in preterm births, so this is a really exciting study," said Dr. Katharine Wenstrom, president of the Society of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, and a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville.

Wenstrom said it's likely that folic acid is regulating certain genes that malfunction to cause early labor. "Now that we know that folic acid makes a huge difference, researchers can look at the different reactions that folic acid causes and see which might be related to preterm labor," she said.

A premature birth is one that occurs before 37 weeks' gestation, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). Improved medical knowledge and technology have made survival for these small infants more likely -- of babies born at 28 weeks or after, 90 percent are expected to survive, according to the NIH.

But the earlier a baby is delivered, the greater the risk of serious complications, including bleeding in the brain, infection, delayed growth and intestinal problems, according to the NIH.

The new study included 38,033 women pregnant with one baby. Women who had known pregnancy complications, such as preeclampsia or high blood pressure, and women pregnant with babies with known chromosomal or other birth defects weren't included in the study.

A baby's gestational age was determined by ultrasound between 10 and 14 weeks of pregnancy. Folic acid supplementation history was reported to the researchers by the women.

The researchers found that women who took a folic acid supplement for at least a year prior to becoming pregnant reduced their risk of preterm delivery between 20 and 28 weeks of gestation by 70 percent. A year of folic acid supplementation dropped the risk of delivering during weeks 28 through 32 by 50 percent, according to the study.

"This study saw a huge decrease in spontaneous preterm delivery for women who took folic acid for one year prior to conception. Now we can add prevention of prematurity to the mix of reasons for all women to take an additional folic acid supplement," said Dr. Alan Fleischman, senior vice president and medical director of the March of Dimes.

Results of the study were to be presented Thursday at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine annual meeting, in Dallas. Fleischman noted that the current findings are preliminary and need to be published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

In the meantime, Wenstrom said she believes that everyone -- both male and female -- should take a daily folic acid supplement in addition to a multivitamin containing folic acid.

"Cereal and grain products are fortified with folic acid, but the level of fortification isn't optimal. Folic acid influences so many things. It reduces the risk of stroke, cardiovascular disease, and it prevents birth defects," she said. "It's a simple preventive measure for a variety of severe problems."

The March of Dimes recommends that women take 400 micrograms daily of folic acid before becoming pregnant, and continuing to take folic acid throughout the pregnancy.

More information

To learn more about folic acid and pregnancy, visit the March of Dimes  .