OBJECTIVE: The dietary intake of fructose-rich sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) may have a significant role in raising serum uric acid (SUA) levels as well as the risk of contracting gout and cardiovascular risk factors. Our objective was to investigate the impact of SSB intake on SUA, body mass index (BMI) and systolic blood pressure (SBP) among adolescents in Taiwan. METHODS: We evaluated data from 2727 representative adolescents who were multistage sampled from 36 Junior High schools in Taiwan. We cross-sectionally collected demographic, physical, dietary and anthropometric variables, and prospectively measured clinical outcomes. Data were analyzed using multiple regression and logistic models adjusted for covariates. RESULTS: We found that 87.7% of adolescents were SSB drinkers, with 25.1% drinking 4500 ml per day of such beverages. Increased SSB intake was associated with increased waist and hip circumferences, body fat, BMI, SBP and SUA. As compared with non-drinkers, SSB drinkers had a 3.2-4.9 elevated risk of obesity. The prevalence of hyperuricemia in heavy SSB users (40.2-49.4%) was appreciably greater than that for non-users (24.2%). Adolescents who consumed 4500 ml per day of heavy high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) containing beverages had a 0.42 mg dl À 1 higher SUA level and a 2.0-2.1 increased risk of developing hyperuricemia than non-drinkers. The consumption of HFCS-rich beverages was also found to interact with obesity in determining higher levels of SUA (2.2-2.4 mg dl À 1 increases). CONCLUSION: High SSB consumption has a notable effect on increased levels of BMI and SUA. The intake of HFCS-rich beverages and BMI were likely to interactively strengthen SUA levels among obese adolescents.

Objective: To investigate whether vitamin B 6 supplementation had a beneficial effect on lowering fasting plasma homocysteine concentrations in coronary artery disease (CAD) patients. Design: A single-blind intervention study. Setting: The study was performed at the Taichung Veterans General Hospital, the central part of Taiwan. Subjects: A total of 50 subjects were identified by cardiac catheterization to have at least 70% stenosis of one major coronary artery. In all, 42 patients successfully completed this study. Interventions: Patients were randomly assigned to one of five groups and treated with a daily dose of placebo (n ¼ 8), 5 mg vitamin B 6 (n ¼ 8), 10 mg vitamin B 6 (n ¼ 8), 50 mg vitamin B 6 (n ¼ 9), or 5 mg folic acid combined with 0.25 mg vitamin B 12 (n ¼ 9) for 12 weeks. Main outcome measures: Nutrient intakes were recorded by using 24-h diet recalls when patients returned to the cardiology clinic before the intervention (week 0) and at week 12. Vitamin B 6 status was assessed by direct measures (plasma pyridoxal 5 0 -phosphate) and indirect measures (erythrocyte alanine and aspartate aminotransaminase activity coefficient). Fasting plasma homocysteine, serum folic acid, and vitamin B 12 were measured. Results: Fasting plasma homocysteine concentration did not respond to high or low doses of vitamin B 6 when compared with a placebo treatment after 12 weeks of supplementation. The mean fasting plasma homocysteine concentration, however, decreased significantly after 12 weeks of folic acid combined with vitamin B 12 supplementation (P ¼ 0.047). Further, within group, mean fasting plasma homocysteine concentration was nonsignificantly increased by 25.5, 16.2, and 18.3% in placebo, 10 mg/day and 50 mg/day vitamin B 6 supplemented groups, respectively; whereas folic acid combined with vitamin B 12 supplementation significantly reduced fasting plasma homocysteine concentration by 32% (Po0.001). Conclusions: Our results indicate that vitamin B 6 supplementation alone is less effective than folic acid combined with vitamin B 12 in lowering plasma homocysteine concentrations in CAD patients.

The current study shows a clear dose-response effect of cigarette smoking on development of proteinuria in male Type 2 diabetic patients. These findings reinforce the urgent need to encourage diabetic patients to stop smoking regardless of age, duration of diabetes mellitus or status of blood pressure control.

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