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LOS ANGELES, May 1 (Xinhua) -- Middle-aged adults who sleep too less or too much may be more likely to suffer cognitive decline, a new study suggests.According to the study, less than six hours of sleep each night is considered too little and more than eight hours as too much for middle-aged adults.The study, conducted by researchers at University College London Medical School, was published May 1 in the American medical journal Sleep.The researchers conducted the study in two periods -- the 1997- 1999 period and the 2003-2004 period. The participants were asked how many hours they slept on an average week night, and were asked the same question in 2003-2004 after an average 5.4 years of follow-up.The researchers compared those who reported changes in their sleep patterns with people whose sleep duration stayed the same over the course of the study.In the follow-up, each individual was given a battery of standard tests to assess his or her memory, reasoning, vocabulary, global cognitive status and verbal fluency.The study findings show that women who slept seven hours per night had the highest score for every cognitive measure, followed by those who had six hours of sleep. For men, cognitive function was similar for those who reported sleeping six, seven or eight hours.However, less than six hours of sleep -- or more than eight hours -- were associated with lower scores."Sleep provides the body with its daily need for physiological restitution and recovery," explained Jane Ferrie, a senior research fellow in the department of epidemiology and public health at the school. "While seven hours a night appears to be optimal for the majority of human beings, many people can function perfectly well on regular sleep of less or more hours."However, since most research has focused on the effects of sleep deprivation on biological systems, it is not yet fully understood why seven hours is optimal -- or why long sleeping appears to be detrimental, Ferrie said."Chronic short sleep produces hormones and chemicals in the body which increase the risk of developing heart disease and strokes, and other conditions like high blood pressure and cholesterol, diabetes and obesity," she added.

LIMA, May 5 (Xinhua) -- A total of 53.5 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean suffer from hunger or malnutrition, experts said at an international forum here Thursday.Juan Garcia, coordinator of the 5th work-group meeting of the Latin American and Caribbean Initiative Without Hunger, said the figure has not increased since 1990.Experts and officials from 13 countries gathered to discuss the challenges facing regional food security and advances that have been made, hoping to make cooperative efforts to eradicate hunger and malnutrition by the year 2025.Carcia said people affected most across the continent are still those living in rural areas as well as African descendants and indigenous people who suffer from "exclusion and inequality."The main cause of undernutrition is not lack of food-production capacity, but access to food, Carcia said.Six countries, Brazil, Ecuador, Venezuela, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, have approved food security laws with nine more in the process of doing so. The laws are considered as a way to ensure that local agricultural products are primarily used to feed the countries' own populations and not used for export.

LOS ANGELES, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Drinking green tea and practicing Taichi may promote bone health of postmenopausal women and reduce the risk of inflammation, a new study suggests.The study, conducted by researchers at the Laura W. Bush Institute for Women's Health at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, focused on postmenopausal women and investigated the potential for green tea to work synergistically with Taichi in enhancing bone strength of postmenopausal women.Originating as a martial art in China, Taichi is a mind-body exercise that utilizes slow, gentle movements to build strength and flexibility, as well as deep breathing and relaxation, to move qi, or vital energy, throughout the body.The study findings were published Sunday at EurekAlert.org, the website of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).Carried out as a double-blind, placebo-controlled, intervention trial (the "holy grail" of scientific studies), this experiment involved 171 postmenopausal women with the average age of 57 who had weak bones but not full-fledged osteoporosis. Subjects were divided into 4 groups -- placebo: starch pill (placebo) and no Taichi; GTP or green tea polyphenols (500 mg/day) and no Taichi; Placebo plus Taichi (starch pill and practising Taichi three times a week); and GTP plus Taichi.The study lasted for 6 months, during which blood and urine samples were collected and muscle strength assessed.The results show that consumption of GTP (at a level equivalent to about four-six cups of steeped green tea daily) and participation in Taichi independently enhanced markers of bone health by three and six months, respectively. A similar effect was found for muscle strength at the 6-month time point. Participants taking Taichi classes also reported significant beneficial effects in quality of life in terms of improving their emotional and mental health.Perhaps most remarkable, however, was the substantial effect that both GTP and Taichi had on biological markers of oxidative stress. Because oxidative stress is a main precursor to inflammation, this finding suggests that green tea and Taichi may help reduce the underlying etiology of not only osteoporosis, but other inflammatory diseases as well.In the study, the researchers developed an animal model (the ovariectomized, middle-aged female rat), with which they could effectively study the effects of green tea consumption on protection against breakdown of the bone's microarchitecture, according to the AAAS.In humans, this can lead to osteoporosis, a condition common to older women. The researchers say what they have learned from the animal models might also be applicable to postmenopausal women.There is a "favorable effect of modest green tea consumption on bone remodeling in this pre-osteoporotic population," said lead researcher Dr. Chwan-Li (Leslie) Shen, an associate professor at the institute.The researchers plan to soon complete a more long-term study utilizing more technically savvy measures of bone density, according to the AAAS.

MOSCOW, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- Russian and Chinese companies started construction of an iron ore dressing plant Friday in the Evreyskaya Autonomous Oblast to provide high-grade iron ore to the Asia Pacific region, including China.Yury Makarov, chief executive officer of IRC Ltd., told Xinhua the plant would reach its designed capacity in 2013 at 10 million tons of iron ore and 3.2 million tons of iron ore concentrates, which contain up to 65 percent iron.Makarov said that 20 percent of the iron ore concentrates, which are natural iron ore processed through crushing, grinding and dressing, would be used to meet demands of Russia's far east and the rest would go to the Asia-Pacific market. Currently, China imports large amounts of concentrates from Brazil, Australia and India."We are very open to interaction with various countries of the Asia-Pacific region, especially China. The volume of processed iron ore has been increasing every year. We will be happy to deliver iron ore to your companies as well as any other consumers who are willing to purchase our products," he said.The plant will draw its resources from the Kimkanskoye and Sutarskoye deposits and send its products through the Khabarovsk Krai and the Suifenhe port to China.The plant is only 7 km from the Trans-Siberian Railway. A railway bridge is being planned between Evreyskaya Oblast and Heilongjiang to further shorten the supply route.Total investment in the plant is 400 million U.S. dollars, with 340 million in loans from the ICBC (Industrial and Commercial Bank of China) in China. Interest under the facility will be charged at 2.8 percent above LIBOR per annum. The China National Electric Engineering Co, Ltd is tasked with the construction of the plant.Makarov said he was very optimistic about the future of the plant and the development of relations between the Russia's far east and China's northeastern region.IRC Ltd. is a metal unit of Russian gold miner Petropavlovsk PLC. It became the second Russian company to be listed on the HK stock exchange, when it started trading on Oct. 21.