Videos:

1. Neil Oliver gives his take on the Green Agenda – that’s ‘NOT GREEN’ (11:51)
2. Gravitas: Did the US help China cover-up Covid-19 outbreak? (10:57)
3. How Can A Wind Turbine Be Motionless? (10:45)
4. Is Government the New God? – The Religion of Totalitarianis

CoQ10 may help blood sugar management in people with MetS

Kashan University of Medical Sciences (Iran), December 5, 2022

Daily supplements of coenzyme Q10 may produce beneficial effects on insulin and blood sugar management in people with metabolic syndrome, says a new study.Levels of CoQ10 have been shown to decline with age and in particular with statin use, which can account for some of the muscular pain and weakness that some users experience as a side effect of the drugs. CoQ10 also functions as an antioxidant, and the new study reported that eight weeks of supplementation with 100 mg of CoQ10 was associated with improvements in plasma total antioxidant capacity (TAC) concentrations.Writing in the PubMed-listed European Journal of Nutrition , researchers from Kashan University of Medical Sciences in Iran report that CoQ10 supplementation was also associated with significant improvements in serum insulin levels, insulin resistance (measured using the homeostatic model assessment: HOMA-IR), and beta-cell function (homeostatic model assessment-beta cell function: HOMA-B).Results showed that participants in the CoQ10 group experienced significant improvements in insulin levels, HOMA-IR, and HOMA-B, while there was also a trend to improved levels of glutathione and reduced levels of malondialdehyde, a reactive carbonyl compound that is a marker of oxidative stress.   Harm from a week’s overeating may be canceled by exerciseUniversity of Michigan, November 6, 2022 Eating more than usual for a week may not be bad, as long as people exercise regularly, too.

These are the findings of research presented at the American Physiological Society (APS)
Researchers from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, wanted to know what would happen to people’s fatty tissue if they continue to exercise during a week-long blowout.
The team carried out a pilot study involving four lean and active adults, aged between 21-26 years.
They hypothesized that regular aerobic exercise during a week of overeating would protect metabolic health, preserve lipolytic response – the breakdown of lipids – and prevent inflammation of the fatty tissue.
The participants consumed 30 percent more calories in one week than they usually did. They continued to exercise as usual. This included at least 2 ½ hours of aerobic exercise spread over at least 6 days of the week.
To measure for inflammation, they looked at markers of inflammation in fat tissue – such as pJNK/JNK, pERK/ERK – or circulating C-reactive protein
In people who do not exercise, the markers of inflammation in fat tissue would normally increase after a week of overeating, but this time the results were different. Instead, the active participants in this study showed no signs of inflammation in their fatty tissue, and no change in glucose tolerance or the chemical breakdown of fat. 

Biological changes in PTSD patients may be reversed by talk therapy

University of Szeged (Hungary),  December 5, 2022

A paper published in Biological Psychiatry suggests that cognitive behavioral therapy for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) not only reduces symptoms but also affects the underlying biology of this disorder. 

The researchers, led by Dr. Szabolcs Kéri at the National Institute of Psychiatry and Addictions and University of Szeged in Hungary, recruited 39 individuals diagnosed with PTSD to participate in the study. For a comparison group, they also included 31 individuals who had been exposed to trauma, but who did not develop PTSD. The individuals with PTSD then received 12 weeks of cognitive behavioral therapy, whereas the non-PTSD group received no therapy. 

Before and after the 12 weeks, the researchers measured the volumes of certain brain regions using magnetic resonance imaging. They also collected blood samples to measure changes in expression of a specific gene, FKBP5, which has been implicated in the risk for developing PTSD and plays a role in regulating stress hormones. 

At the follow-up appointment 12 weeks later, the PTSD patients showed higher expression of FKBP5 and increased hippocampal volume. More importantly, these changes were directly associated with clinical improvement among the patients. The increased FKBP5 expression, and to a lesser degree the increased hippocampal volume, actually predicted improvement in their PTSD symptoms. 

“The results show that structural changes in the brain, such as the shrinkage of the hippocampus, are reversible in trauma victims. Talk therapy may help normalize these alterations and improve symptoms,” explained Kéri. “Furthermore, the regeneration of hippocampus correlated with the expression of a gene that balances the activity of the stress hormone cortisol at the level of cells.” 

The findings suggest that talk therapy may modulate fundamental biological factors: changes in gene expression, brain structure, and psychological improvement may be closely interrelated. These conclusions highlight even further the importance of early intervention in PTSD development and treatment. 

Active Component of Grape Seed Extract Effective Against Cancer Cells

University of Colorado Cancer Center, December 5, 2022 

A University of Colorado Cancer Center study in the journal Nutrition and Cancer describes the laboratory synthesis of the most active component of grape seed extract, B2G2, and shows this synthesized compound induces the cell death known as apoptosis in prostate cancer cells while leaving healthy cells unharmed.

“We’ve shown similar anti-cancer activity in the past with grape seed extract (GSE), but now we know B2G2 is its most biologically active ingredient which can be synthesized in quantities that will allow us to study the detailed death mechanism in cancer cells,” says Alpna Tyagi, PhD, of the University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

The group has spent more than a decade demonstrating the anti-cancer activity of GSE in controlled, laboratory conditions. For example, previous studies have shown the GSE effectiveness against cancer cells and have also shown its mechanism of action. “But until recently, we didn’t know which constituent of GSE created this effect. This naturally occurring compound, GSE, is a complex mixture of polyphenols and also so far it has been unclear about the biologically active constituents of GSE against cancer cells,” Tyagi says.

Eventually the group pinpointed B2G2 as the most active compound, but, “it’s expensive and it takes a long time to isolate B2G2 from grape seed extract,” Tyagi says.

In the paper’s second half, the group shows anti-cancer activity of synthesized B2G2 similar in mechanism and degree to overall GSE effectiveness.

Acupuncture Can Treat Alzheimer’s Disease

Hubei University of Chinese Medicine (China), December 05, 2022 

An increasing number of clinical and animal studies have confirmed that acupuncture is effective for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.

Moxibustion is reported to be more effective than electro-acupuncture for improving space-recognizing memory ability in aged mice, suggesting that moxibustion is another alternative or complementary therapy used to treat Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr. Yanjun Du and team from Hubei University of Chinese Medicine, China only used suspended moxibustion (also named warming moxibustion, scarring moxibustion, or herb-partition moxibustion) on Baihui (GV20) and Shenshu (BL23) acupoints to observe the action of pre-moxibustion on preventing apoptosis in a rat model of Alzheimer’s disease.

The pre-moxibustion group was treated with moxibustion for eight courses (each course lasting for 6 days) prior to the exposure and 14 days after Aβ1–42 exposure. Results showed no evidence of apoptosis in hippocampal neurons, a significantly reduced apoptosis rate of neurons and improved learning and memory abilities were observed in the Alzheimer’s disease model.

In particular, moxibustion prior to Aβ1–42 exposure was more effective than moxibustion after Aβ1–42 exposure in protecting the neuronal structure and lowering the apoptosis rate.

Their findings, published in the Neural Regeneration Research (Vol. 8, No. 30, 2013), indicate that a combination of preventive and therapeutic moxibustion has a beneficial effect for the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease development.

Rhythm of breathing affects memory and fear

Northwestern University, December 6, 2022 

Northwestern Medicine scientists have discovered for the first time that the rhythm of breathing creates electrical activity in the human brain that enhances emotional judgments and memory recall.

These effects on behavior depend critically on whether you inhale or exhale and whether you breathe through the nose or mouth.

In the study, individuals were able to identify a fearful face more quickly if they encountered the face when breathing in compared to breathing out. Individuals also were more likely to remember an object if they encountered it on the inhaled breath than the exhaled one. The effect disappeared if breathing was through the mouth.

“One of the major findings in this study is that there is a dramatic difference in brain activity in the amygdala and hippocampus during inhalation compared with exhalation,” said lead author Christina Zelano, assistant professor of neurology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “When you breathe in, we discovered you are stimulating neurons in the olfactory cortex, amygdala and hippocampus, all across the limbic system.”

This discovery led scientists to ask whether cognitive functions typically associated with these brain areas—in particular fear processing and memory—could also be affected by breathing.

The amygdala is strongly linked to emotional processing, in particular fear-related emotions. So scientists asked about 60 subjects to make rapid decisions on emotional expressions in the lab environment while recording their breathing. Presented with pictures of faces showing expressions of either fear or surprise, the subjects had to indicate, as quickly as they could, which emotion each face was expressing.

When faces were encountered during inhalation, subjects recognized them as fearful more quickly than when faces were encountered during exhalation. This was not true for faces expressing surprise. These effects diminished when subjects performed the same task while breathing through their mouths. Thus the effect was specific to fearful stimuli during nasal breathing only.

In an experiment aimed at assessing memory function—tied to the hippocampus—the same subjects were shown pictures of objects on a computer screen and told to remember them. Later, they were asked to recall those objects. Researchers found that recall was better if the images were encountered during inhalation.

The findings imply that rapid breathing may confer an advantage when someone is in a dangerous situation, Zelano said.

“If you are in a panic state, your breathing rhythm becomes faster,” Zelano said. “As a result you’ll spend proportionally more time inhaling than when in a calm state. Thus, our body’s innate response to fear with faster breathing could have a positive impact on brain function and result in faster response times to dangerous stimuli in the environment.”

Another potential insight of the research is on the basic mechanisms of meditation or focused breathing. “When you inhale, you are in a sense synchronizing brain oscillations across the limbic network,” Zelano noted.