Drinking eight cups of tea a day
‘cuts blood pressure and heart disease’ 
Study says
Having a cup of good tea has long been the preferred way for the Irish & English to relax.
Now scientists have found that tea really does lower the blood pressure and could prevent heart disease.
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Drinking eight cups of black leaf tea, such as Barry’s, Earl Grey or Lyon’s & a English or Irish Breakfast, a day “significantly” cuts blood pressure, researchers at the University of Western Australia found.
Volunteers with normal to high blood pressure were given three drinks a day containing 429 milligrams of the plant chemicals polyphenols – the equivalent of eight and a half teas a day. A second group were given a tea-flavoured placebo.
After six months, the blood pressure of the tea-drinking group had fallen by between two and three mmHg, the measurement of pressure used in medicine.
A blood pressure fluctuating with the heartbeat between 112 and 63 mmHg is considered healthy, while a reading fluctuating between 140 and 90 is deemed high.
If the experiment was emulated by the general population, the number of people with high blood pressure would be cut by ten per cent and the risk of heart disease would fall by between seven and ten per cent.
“Our study has demonstrated for the first time to our knowledge that long-term regular consumption of black tea can result in significantly lower blood pressures in individuals with normal to high-normal range blood pressures,” the team, led by Dr Jonathan Hodgson, wrote in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine.
Previous studies suggest adding milk to tea does not affect the body’s ability to absorb polyphenols.
Green tea is widely considered to have numerous health benefits because it is high in antioxidants. It is said to aid weight loss, prevent glaucoma, reduce the risk of cancer and even treat acne.
Irish Truckers & Farmers planning Dublin protest over diesel and fuel prices
With the rising diesel and fuel prices escalating, truckers are planning a protest in Dublin next month and the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) due to raise the issue with politicians when it meets the Oireachtas Transport Committee on Wednesday.
The truckers, who have the backing of the Road Haulage Association, will converge on the capital on the morning of February 22nd. They plan to bring Dublin to a standstill by 8am in protest at rising diesel prices.
Gardaí have been informed of the plan and are to meet to draw up contingency plans for the rally.
One of the organisers of the protest is Donegal truck company boss John McLaughlin of JML Transport.
Mr McLaughlin has met numerous politicians including Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar in recent weeks to discuss truckers’ concerns about rising fuel costs.
He said the time for talking had passed, and action would now take its place. “We have been left with no opportunity but to blockade the entire city. We will bring Dublin to a standstill.”
He said this would be just the first in a series of huge protests unless something drastic was done to slash the rising price of fuel.
“This is not just about truckers. This is about the ordinary family who can no longer afford to run their car because it is too expensive to fill the tank.
“The whole of the country is suffering, and our Government is just sitting by and allowing it to happen without doing anything about it,” he said.
Those who cannot make it to Dublin to protest are being encouraged to protest outside their local Government and council offices in their towns and villages.
Meanwhile, IFA president John Bryan said rapidly escalating fuel and energy costs were now threatening agricultural growth, job creation and Ireland’s prospects for recovery.
He said Ireland was particularly vulnerable because of our reliance on imported energy, our dependence on exports and our island status.
“Road fuel prices have increased by almost 4 per cent and agricultural diesel prices by 2.5 per cent in the first month of the year,” he said. “Since 2010, agricultural diesel has gone up by a massive 54 per cent, while road diesel has increased by almost 35 per cent.
Mr Bryan warned that further price increases were in the pipeline because of the geopolitical tensions developing between the West and Iran, coupled with sustained speculative investment by funds.
He said the Government and EU must take action to ensure energy prices became more competitive and to contain speculative investment in oil products.
He encouraged policymakers to examine opportunities to lower haulage costs through increased transport weight limits and trailer length for agricultural and heavy goods vehicles. “In addition, the Government must move to put viable supports in place to get our bio-energy industry established, as Ireland is being left behind the rest of Europe.”
Electronics & Communications giant Cisco plans to expand Irish operation in Galway
The Electronics and communications giant Cisco is planning to expand its Irish operations in Galway. Cisco’s European presidentChris Dedicoat (above) said the investment is part of the company’s growing commitment to Ireland.
“Ireland is delivering exactly what it was expected to do and more,” said Mr Dedicoat in Davos.
“We’ve found Ireland to be very productive in term of capability. We’ve found it very beneficial to research and development: the quality of products, the quality of engineers, the ability to collaborate on a global basis.”
Cisco is one of the world’s largest technology companies, with annual revenues of more than €30 billion in 2010 and 20,000 employees worldwide.
Cisco’s Irish operation, which opened in Furbo, Co Galway, five years ago, employs 180 people locally and 100 in Dublin.
Corkman Barry O’Sullivan, the head of the Irish business, said that continued research and development expansion was planned next month but declined to go into detail. He said the company took on 20 graduates last year and would take on even more in 2012.
“The quality of engineering graduates is improving, with more people choosing engineering as a career than four or five years ago,” said Mr OSullivan.
For Cisco, Irish graduates and tax breaks for research and development are a more important factor than Ireland’s low corporate tax rate. Mr Dedicoat said the tax issue is “one part, it always is, but the key for us, from a research and development perspective, is a sustainable supply of talent”.
Mr Dedicoat said that research and development was crucial at all stages of the economic cycle.
“RD is not about good times and bad times, it’s about investing for the future. What you do today is a product in two to three years’ time,” he said. “It’s about access to highly qualified, capable engineers. And the universities of Ireland have continued to produce that for us. We’ve been very pleased with the calibre and capability of people in excess of three years we’ve been there.”
The Irish operation is linked closely to Cisco’s US base in Silicon Valley. “Products were once developed country by country but you can’t do that now, you have to develop globally,” said Mr Dedicoat.
A Testicular zap ‘may stop the production of sperm’ A study tells us
A dose of ultrasound to the testicles can stop the production of sperm, according to researchers investigating a new form of contraception.
A study on rats published in Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology showed that sound waves could be used to reduce sperm counts to levels that would cause infertility in humans.
Researchers described ultrasound as a “promising candidate” in contraception. However, far more tests are required before it could be used.
The concept was first proposed in the 1970s, but is now being pursued by researchers at the University of North Carolina who won a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
They found that two, 15-minute doses “significantly reduced” the number of sperm-producing cells and sperm levels.
It was most effective when delivered two days apart and through warm salt water.
In humans, the researchers said men were considered to be “sub-fertile” when sperm counts dropped below 15 million sperm per millilitre.
The sperm count in rats dropped to below 10 million sperm per millilitre.
Lead researcher Dr James Tsuruta said: “Further studies are required to determine how long the contraceptive effect lasts and if it is safe to use multiple times.”
The team needs to ensure that the ultrasound produces a reversible effect, contraception not sterilisation. As well as investigate whether there would be cumulative damage from repeated doses.
Dr Allan Pacey, senior lecturer in andrology at the University of Sheffield, said: “It’s a nice idea, but a lot more work is needed.”
He said that it was likely that there would be recovery of sperm production, but the “sperm might be damaged and any baby might be damaged” when sperm production resumed.
“The last thing we want is a lingering damage to sperm,” he said.
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