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Higher dose of DHA associated with lower early preterm birth rate, study finds
University of Kansas Medical Center, May 24, 2021
Women taking 1,000 mg of docosohexanoic acid (DHA) daily in the last half of pregnancy had a lower rate of early preterm birth than women who took the standard 200 mg dose, according to a study funded by the National Institutes of Health. Women who entered the study with the lowest DHA level had the greatest reduction in early preterm birth, which is birth before 34 weeks of pregnancy and which increases the risk of infant death and disability
The study was conducted by Susan E. Carlson, Ph.D., at the University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, and colleagues. It appears in EClinicalMedicine. Funding was provided by NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).
Previous studies on DHA and other omega-3 fatty acids, which are nutrients found in fish and eggs and supplements like algal oil, and their possible effects on the rate of early preterm birth have been inconclusive and have not identified a specific type or dose of omega-3 fatty acids.
Researchers enrolled nearly 1,100 women and compared the early preterm birth rate of women given 1,000 mg of DHA to those given 200 mg. Overall, 1.7% of women in the high dose group delivered early preterm compared to 2.4% in the standard dose group. Women in the high dose group with low DHA levels at study entry had the greatest reduction in early preterm birth (2% rate, compared to a 4.1% rate for those with low DHA levels on the standard dose). Among women who had high DHA levels at study entry, the rate of early preterm birth was low and did not differ by dose (1.4% vs. 1.1%). The authors called for screening DHA levels in pregnancy so that women with low levels could consider taking a higher daily dose.
Cancer treatments may accelerate cellular aging
Emory University School of Nursing, May 24, 2021
New research indicates that certain anti-cancer therapies may hasten cellular aging, where changes in the DNA of patients may contribute to greater inflammation and fatigue. The findings are published by Wiley early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society.
Gene activity is often adjusted during life through epigenetic changes, or physical modifications to DNA that do not involve altering the underlying DNA sequence. Some individuals may experience epigenetic age acceleration (EAA) that puts them at a higher risk of age-related conditions than other individuals of the same chronological age. Investigators recently examined EAA changes during and following cancer treatment, and they looked for a potential link between these changes and fatigue in patients with head and neck cancer (HNC).
In the study of 133 patients with HNC, half of the patients experienced severe fatigue at some point. EAA was most prominent immediately after radiation therapy, when the average epigenetic age was accelerated by 4.9 years. Increased EAA was associated with elevated fatigue, and patients with severe fatigue experienced 3.1 years higher EAA than those with low fatigue. Also, patients with high levels of markers of inflammation exhibited approximately 5 years higher EAA, and inflammation appeared to account for most of the effects of EAA on fatigue.
“Our findings add to the body of evidence suggesting that long-term toxicity and possibly increased mortality incurred from anti-cancer treatments for patients with HNC may be related to increased EAA and its association with inflammation,” said lead author Canhua Xiao, PhD, RN, FAAN, of the Emory University School of Nursing, in Atlanta. “Future studies could examine the vulnerabilities that may account for sustained high EAA, fatigue, and inflammation among patients.”
The authors noted that interventions to reduce inflammation, including prior to cancer treatment, might benefit patients by decelerating the aging process and subsequently reducing age-related chronic health problems such as fatigue.
An accompanying editorial stresses that chronic fatigue in patients receiving treatment for cancer is not just a symptom; it may also play an important role in influencing patients’ health.
Blueberry extract as potential pharmacologic tool for preventing depressive-like behavior and neurochemical dysfunctions in mice exposed to proinflammatory compound
Federal University Pelotas (Brazil), May 24, 2021
According to news reporting originating from Pelotas, Brazil, research stated, “Major depressive disorder is a debilitating and recurrent psychiatric disorder. Blueberries have several biological properties, including neuroprotective effects, through antioxidant and anti-inflammatory actions.”
Our news editors obtained a quote from the research from Federal University Pelotas, “The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of blueberry extract on depressive-like behavior and lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced neurochemical changes. Mice were pretreated with vehicle, fluoxetine (20 mg/kg) or blueberry extract (100 or 200 mg/kg) intragastrically for seven days before intraperitoneal LPS (0.83 mg/kg) injection. Twenty-four hours after LPS administration, mice were submitted to behavioral tests. Oxidative stress and neuroinflammatory parameters were evaluated in the cerebral cortex, hippocampus, and striatum. Our data showed that blueberry extract or fluoxetine treatment protected against LPS-induced depressive-like behavior in tail suspension and splash tests (P < 0.05), without changes in locomotor activity (P > 0.05). LPS induced an increase in the levels of reactive oxygen species (P < 0.001), nitrite (P < 0.05) and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (P < 0.01), as well as a reduction in total sulfhydryl content (P < 0.05) and catalase activity (P < 0.05) in brain structures; blueberry extract restored these alterations (P < 0.05). In addition, blueberry extract attenuated the increase in tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) levels induced by LPS administration (P < 0.05).”
According to the news editors, the research concluded: “This study showed that blueberry extract exerted antidepressant-like effects, protected the brain against oxidative damage, and modulated TNF-alpha levels induced by LPS.”
This research has been peer-reviewed.
Regular physical activity linked to better organized preteen brains
Data from ~6,000 9- and 10-year-old show positive effects on the developing ‘connectome’
Boston Children’s Hospital, May 24, 2021
Regular physical activity has positive effects on children’s developing brain circuits, finds a Boston Children’s Hospital study using neuroimaging data from nearly 6,000 early adolescents. Physical activity of any kind was associated with more efficiently organized, flexible, and robust brain networks, the researchers found. The more physical activity, the more “fit” the brain.
Findings were published in Cerebral Cortex on May 14.
“It didn’t matter what kind of physical activity children were involved in – it only mattered that they were active,” says Caterina Stamoulis, PhD, principal investigator on the study and director of the Computational Neuroscience Laboratory at Boston Children’s. “Being active multiple times per week for at least 60 minutes had a widespread positive effect on brain circuitry.”
Specifically, Stamoulis and her trainees, Skylar Brooks and Sean Parks, found positive effects on circuits in multiple brain areas. These circuits play a fundamental role in cognitive function and support attention, sensory processing, motor function, memory, decision-making, and executive control. Regular physical activity also partially offset the effects of unhealthy body mass index (BMI), which was associated with detrimental effects on the same brain circuitry.
Harnessing big data
With support from the National Science Foundation’s Harnessing the Data Revolution and BRAIN Initiative, the researchers tapped data from the long-term, NIH-sponsored Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study. They analyzed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data from 5,955 9- and 10-year-olds and crunched these data against data on physical activity and BMI, using advanced computational techniques developed in collaboration with the Harvard Medical School High Performance Computing Cluster.
“Early adolescence is a very important time in brain development,” notes Stamoulis. “It’s associated with a lot of changes in the brain’s functional circuits, particularly those supporting higher-level processes like decision-making and executive control. Abnormal changes in these areas can lead to risk behaviors and deficits in cognitive function that can follow people throughout their lifetime.”
Gauging functional brain organization
The functional MRI data were captured in the resting state, when the children were not performing any explicit cognitive task. This allows analysis of the “connectome” — the architecture of brain connections that determines how efficiently the brain functions and how readily it can adapt to changes in the environment, independently of specific tasks.
The team adjusted the data for age, gestational age at birth, puberty status, sex, race, and family income. Physical activity and sports involvement measures were based on youth and parent surveys collected by the ABCD study.
The analysis found that physical activity was associated with positive brain-wide network properties reflecting the connectome’s efficiency, robustness, and clustering into communities of brain regions. These same properties were detrimentally affected by high BMI. Physical activity also had a positive effect on local organization of the brain; unhealthy BMI had adverse impacts in some of the same areas.
“Based on our results, we think physical activity affects brain organization directly, but also indirectly by reducing BMI, therefore mitigating its negative effects,” Stamoulis says.
Optimal functional brain structure consists of small regions or “nodes” that are well connected internally and send information to other parts of the brain through strong, but relatively few, long-range connections, Stamoulis explains.
“This organization optimizes the efficiency of information processing and transmission, which is still developing in adolescence and can be altered by a number of risk factors,” she says. “Our results suggest that physical activity has a protective effect on this optimization process across brain regions.”
Study shows flickering lights and sound could be new weapon against Alzheimer’s
Georgia Institute of Technology, May 25, 2021
For the past few years, Annabelle Singer and her collaborators have been using flickering lights and sound to treat mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease, and they’ve seen some dramatic results.
Now they have results from the first human feasibility study of the flicker treatment, and they’re promising.
“We looked at safety, tolerance, and adherence, and several different biological outcomes, and the results were excellent—better than we expected,” said Singer, assistant professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory.
Singer shared preliminary results of the feasibility study in October at the American Neurological Association annual meeting. Now she is a corresponding author with Emory neurology researcher James Lah of a paper outlining their findings in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Translational Research & Clinical Interventions.
The flicker treatment stimulates gamma waves, manipulating neural activity, recruiting the brain’s immune system, and clearing pathogens—in short, waging a successful fight against a progressive disease that still has no cure.
Previous research already had shown that sensory areas in the human brain will entrain to flickering stimuli for seconds to hours. But this was the first time Singer and her team were able to test gamma sensory stimulation over an extended period of time.
The study included 10 patients with Alzheimer’s-associated mild cognitive impairment, which required them to wear an experimental visor and headphones that exposed one group to light and sound at 40 hertz for an hour a day over eight weeks, and another group for four weeks after a delayed start.
“We were able to tune the devices to a level of light and sound that was not only tolerable, but it also successfully provoked an underlying brain response,” Lah said.
As they hoped and expected, Singer said, “there was widespread entrainment.” That is, brain activity—in this case, gamma waves—synchronized to the external stimulation.
Gamma waves are associated with high-level cognitive functions, like perception and memory. Disruptions to these waves have been found in various neurological disorders, not just Alzheimer’s.
The human feasibility study showed that the gamma flicker treatment was safe and tolerable. And perhaps most surprising, patients followed the full treatment schedule.
“Adherence was one of our major concerns,” Singer said. “When we sent the device home with the participants, would they use it? Would they use it for a couple of days, and that would be it? We were pleasantly surprised that this wasn’t the case.”
Adherence rates hovered around 90 percent, with no severe adverse effects reported during the study or the 10-month open label extension (some patients even volunteered to continue being monitored and assessed after the study, though this data wasn’t part of the published research).
Some participants reported mild discomfort that could have been flicker related—dizziness, ringing in the ears, and headaches. But overall, Singer said, the device’s safety profile was excellent. She also reported some positive biological outcomes.
“We looked at default mode network connectivity, which is basically how different brain regions that are particularly active during wakeful rest and memory, interact with each other,” Singer said. “There are deficits in this network in Alzheimer’s, but after eight weeks [of treatment], we found strengthening in that connectivity.” This may indicate stronger interactions and therefore better communication between these regions.
In previous animal studies, the 40Hz of flicker stimulated mouse gamma waves, significantly reducing some Alzheimer’s pathogenic hallmarks and recruited microglia to the cause—these are the primary immune cells in the brain. But in the human study, there were no clear changes in the presence of pathogens amyloid beta or p-Tau.
However, as with the mouse studies, “we are getting immune engagement in humans,” Singer said. The flicker treatment sparked the activity of cytokines, proteins used in cell signaling—a sign that flicker had engaged the brain’s immune system.
“That is something we want to see, because microglia do things like clear out pathogens. Some people think that part of what’s going wrong in Alzheimer’s is a failure of this clearance mechanism,” Singer said.
She and Lah have wondered if a longer human trial would make a difference—for example, would there be reduced amyloid activity?
“So far, this is very preliminary, and we’re nowhere close to drawing conclusions about the clinical benefit of this treatment,” Lah said. “But we now have some very good arguments for a larger, longer study with more people.”
Green tea, red wine can reduce cough and cold risk
University of Auckland (New Zealand), May 15, 2021
A study by the University of Auckland showed on Friday that eating flavonoids, found in green tea, apple, blueberries, cocoa, red wine and onions can significantly reduce the risk of catching colds and coughs.
The study showed adults could be 33 percent more protected against the common cold, or upper respiratory tract infections, if they eat flavonoids or take flavonoid supplements, compared with those who don’t.
People who eat flavonoids also took fewer sick days off work, nutrition researcher Andrea Braakhuis said in a statement.
“These findings show that if you’re generally healthy, eating flavonoids found in lots of fruits and vegetables can help stave off the bugs over winter,” Xinhua news agency quoted Braakhuis as saying.
Most adults have two or three colds a year and children can have up to five, with symptoms including a sore throat, cough, runny nose and headache.
“We’d all love to make it through winter without one of these nasty colds. They’re a leading cause of visits to a doctor, yet antibiotics don’t help, so it’s worth giving flavonoids a go as part of a healthy diet,” said Braakhuis.
Nutrition scientists were learning more about the special components in foods, like flavonoids, which were thought to have anti-viral, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties that help reduce the incidence of coughs and colds and boost immune function.
“Eating five serves of vegetables and two of fruit each day, in a variety of colours, will put you well on the path to getting enough flavonoids. Make sure your dinner plate is at least half full of vegetables, sip green tea over winter and enjoy the occasional red wine,” she said.
Are some foods super bitter to you? You might have lower COVID risk
Baton Rouge General Medical Center, May 26, 2021
If you can’t stand broccoli, celery or kale, you may be a supertaster, and it just might protect you from COVID-19.
Supertasters are folks who are highly sensitive to bitterness. They’re not only less likely to get COVID-19 than people who aren’t so sensitive to sharp, pungent flavors, they’re also less likely to wind up hospitalized with it, researchers said.
What’s more, supertasters in a new study experienced COVID-19 symptoms for only about five days, compared with an average 23 days among non-tasters.
Exactly how or even if taste affects COVID-19 risk isn’t fully understood, but researchers do have a theory.
Bitter taste receptors—including one called T2R38—are found in the taste buds of your tongue.
“When T2R38 is stimulated, it responds by producing nitric oxide to help kill or prevent further replication of viruses in the respiratory mucosa,” said researcher Dr. Henry Barham, an ear, nose, and throat specialist in Baton Rouge, La. These mucus membranes line your respiratory system and provide a point of entry for viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19.
“The results carry important implications, like allowing people to make more informed choices and potentially prioritizing vaccination administration,” Barham said.
Several studies are looking at how bitter taste receptors affect risk for COVID-19 and other upper respiratory infections, he added.
This study included close to 2,000 people (average age 46) whose ability to taste was tested using paper strips. All were tested before having COVID-19, as it could compromise their sense of taste and smell.
The participants were placed into one of three groups: Non-tasters, supertasters, and tasters.
Non-tasters are folks who can’t detect certain bitter flavors at all. Supertasters, on the other hand, are extremely sensitive to bitterness and can detect exceedingly small levels. Tasters fit somewhere in between.
During the study, 266 participants tested positive for COVID-19. Non-tasters were much more likely than supertasters to get infected and were also more likely to have severe COVID-19.
Tasters were likely to display mild-to-moderate COVID-19 symptoms, often not requiring hospitalization. Those who had underlying conditions or were older with decreased ability to taste bitterness were the exception, the study found.
The findings were published online May 25 in JAMA Network Open.
Dr. Alan Hirsch, neurological director of the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago, has spent his career studying the effects of lost smell and taste on disease. He reviewed the study results.
“The new findings make a lot of sense,” he said. Hirsch suggested that folks would benefit from finding out their own tasting status.
“If you are unable to taste bitterness, you should be that much more careful and wear masks for a longer duration to protect yourself from COVID-19,” Hirsch said. Unfortunately, he added, most people don’t know which type of taster they are.
Home- and office-based tests can tell you where you fit on the taste spectrum.
But here’s an easier option: “If celery tastes bitter to you,” Hirsch said, “you’re a supertaster, and if it doesn’t, be careful.”
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