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The Gary Null Show Notes - 08.06.21

  1. Forget FDR and LBJ, Joe Biden is a modern-day Justinian

  2. Andrew Cuomo Didn’t Act Alone, His inner circle enabled him. They should go down with their leader.

  3. Why whales in Alaska have been so happy

  4. Hiroshima Is A Lie

  5. ‘Unimaginably Catastrophic’: Researchers Fear Gulf Stream System Could Collapse

  6. Bayer heads into next U.S. cancer trial, opening statements set for Thursday

  7. There’s a ‘dead zone’ in the Gulf of Mexico this summer that’s bigger than Connecticut

  8. ‘We Need to Take Military Action’: Israeli Defense Minister Threatens War With Iran

  9. Bubonic plague in chipmunks forces closure of top Lake Tahoe sites

    Today’s Videos:

1.  Vaccine Stories 

2. George Carlin  What would happen if we didn’t have electricity

3. Government in Ireland Forced to Admit Covid-19 Does Not Exist

4. Charles Hoffe Story 

5. Eric Adams Running Against a Movement  Real Time with Bill Maher 

 

Supplements could reverse PTSD

Bar Ilan University (Israel), August 4 2021. 

Research reported on July 12, 2021 in Molecular Psychiatry indicates that two nutritional supplements—vitamin A and S-adenosylmethionine (SAMe)—could eliminate the cause of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a debilitating long-term reaction to traumatic events that occurs in susceptible individuals. 

Examination of DNA in the blood of PTSD patients suggests that epigenetic changes can be caused by experiences in life. Epigenetics is the study of nongenetic influences on the expression of genes, in contrast with changes to the genes themselves. Epigenetic changes include DNA methylation, which occurs when a methyl group, consisting of carbon and hydrogen, is added to DNA.

“Although PTSD has been associated with epigenetic alterations in peripheral white blood cells, it is unknown where such changes occur in the brain, and whether they play a causal role in PTSD,” wrote Gal Yadid and colleagues.

The researchers mapped epigenetic DNA methylation marks in the brain’s nucleus accumbens region in an animal model of PTSD. Differences were observed between trauma-exposed animals that were susceptible to PTSD and resilient animals. In PTSD-susceptible animals, an enzyme known as DNMT3a, which transfers methyl groups to DNA, was observed to be lower. 

“Since epigenetic changes in diseases involve different gene pathways, rather than single candidate genes, we next searched for pathways that may be involved in PTSD,” the authors wrote. In their search for groups of genes with altered methylation in susceptible animals, they found that one group is controlled by the retinoic acid receptor, which is activated by vitamin A. 

Because DNMT3a increases DNA methylation, the team utilized SAMe, which donates methyl groups, and vitamin A to activate the retinoic acid receptor to reverse PTSD-associated behaviors. “Since these nutritional supplements are relatively nontoxic, they offer hope for a nontoxic treatment of PTSD that reverses the underlying genomic cause of the disease,” Professor Yadid concluded.

 

Study finds green tea protects against hippocampal neuronal programmed cell death in diabetic encephalopathy

Guizhou Medical University (China), August 2, 2021

According to news reporting from Guiyang, People’s Republic of China, research stated, “Although diabetic encephalopathy (DE) is a major late complication of diabetes, the pathophysiology of postural instability in DE remains poorly understood. Prior studies have suggested that neuronal apoptosis is closely associated with cognitive function, but the mechanism remains to be elucidated.”

The news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from Guizhou Medical University, “Green tea, which is a non-fermented tea, contains a number of tea polyphenols, alkaloids, amino acids, polysaccharides and other components. Some studies have found that drinking green tea can reduce the incidence of neurodegenerative diseases and improve cognitive dysfunction. We previously found that myosin light chain kinase (MLCK) regulates apoptosis in high glucose-induced hippocampal neurons. In neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, activation of the JNK signaling pathway promotes neuronal apoptosis. However, the relationship between JNK and MLCK remains to be elucidated. Green tea serum was obtained using seropharmacological methods and applied to hippocampal neurons. In addition, a type 1 diabetes rat model was established and green tea extract was administered, and the Morris water maze test, Cell Counting Kit-8 assays, flow cytometry, western blotting and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end-labelling assays were used to examine the effects of green tea on hippocampal neuronal apoptosis in diabetic rats. The results demonstrated that green tea can protect against hippocampal neuronal apoptosis by inhibiting the JNK/MLCK pathway and ultimately improves cognitive function in diabetic rats.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “The present study provided novel insights into the neuroprotective effects of green tea.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

Study finds folate lowers, rather than raises, colorectal cancer risk

Harvard University, August 2 2021. 

The July 2021 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published the finding of an association between a lower risk of  colorectal cancer and a higher intake of the B vitamin folate or its synthetic equivalent folic acid. The finding contradicts concerns that have been raised in regard to a possible link between an increased risk of colorectal cancer and greater folic acid intake resulting from mandatory food fortification. 

The study included 86,320 women who participated in the Nurses’ Health Study. Dietary questionnaire responses provided information concerning the subjects’ folate and folic acid intake. 

During follow-up from 1980 to 2016, 1,988 cases of colorectal cancer were diagnosed. The researchers, led by Walter C Willet of the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, observed an association between rising folate or folic acid intake and decreasing colorectal cancer risk. Each daily increase of 400 dietary folate equivalents (which equal the number of micrograms of folate that naturally occur in foods plus 1.7 times the micrograms of folic acid added to fortified foods) was associated with a 7% lower risk of colorectal cancer during a 12-to-16-year period, which declined to 17% for a 16-to-20-year period and 13% for a 20-to-24-year period. 

Greater intake of synthetic folic acid was also associated with risk reduction. For each daily 400 dietary folate equivalent increase within 16 to 20 years and 20 to 24 years before diagnosis there was a 9% decrease in risk. 

“Folate intake, both total and from synthetic forms, was associated with a lower risk of overall colorectal cancer after long latency periods,” the authors concluded. “There was no evidence that high folate intake in the postfortification period was related to increased colorectal cancer risk in this US female population.”

I INCLUDED THIS ONE BECAUSE IT WAS A STUDY DONE IN 2017 AND BEFORE THE PANDEMIC LOCKDOWNS:

Social isolation, loneliness could be greater threat to public health than obesity, researchers say

Brigham Young University, August 6, 2017

Loneliness and social isolation may represent a greater public health hazard than obesity, and their impact has been growing and will continue to grow, according to research presented at the 125th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association.

“Being connected to others socially is widely considered a fundamental human need—crucial to both well-being and survival. Extreme examples show infants in custodial care who lack human contact fail to thrive and often die, and indeed, social  or solitary confinement has been used as a form of punishment,” said Julianne Holt-Lunstad, PhD, professor of psychology at Brigham Young University. “Yet an increasing portion of the U.S. population now experiences isolation regularly.”

Approximately 42.6 million adults over age 45 in the United States are estimated to be suffering from chronic , according to AARP’s Loneliness Study. In addition, the most recent U.S. census data shows more than a quarter of the population lives alone, more than half of the population is unmarried and, since the previous census, marriage rates and the number of children per household have declined.

“These trends suggest that Americans are becoming less socially connected and experiencing more loneliness,” said Holt-Lunstad.

To illustrate the influence of social isolation and loneliness on the risk for , Holt-Lunstad presented data from two meta-analyses. The first involved 148 studies, representing more than 300,000 participants, and found that greater social connection is associated with a 50 percent reduced risk of early death. The second study, involving 70 studies representing more than 3.4 million individuals primarily from North America but also from Europe, Asia and Australia, examined the role that social isolation, loneliness or living alone might have on mortality. Researchers found that all three had a significant and equal effect on the risk of premature death, one that was equal to or exceeded the effect of other well-accepted risk factors such as obesity.

“There is robust evidence that  and loneliness significantly increase risk for premature mortality, and the magnitude of the risk exceeds that of many leading health indicators,” said Holt-Lunstad. “With an increasing aging population, the effect on  is only anticipated to increase. Indeed, many nations around the world now suggest we are facing a ‘loneliness epidemic.’ The challenge we face now is what can be done about it.”

Holt-Lunstad recommended a greater priority be placed on research and resources to tackle this  from the societal to the individual level. For instance, greater emphasis could be placed on social skills training for children in schools and doctors should be encouraged to include social connectedness in medical screening, she said. Additionally, people should be preparing for retirement socially as well as financially, as many social ties are related to the workplace, she noted, adding that community planners should make sure to include shared social spaces that encourage gathering and interaction, such as recreation centers and community gardens

Physical activity jolts brain into action in the event of depression

Ruhr University Bochum (Germany), August 5, 2021

The dual beneficial effect of physical activity in depression is confirmed by a study at the University Clinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) at the Ostwestfalen-Lippe campus: physical activity not only reduces depressive symptoms. It also increases the brain’s ability to change, which is necessary for adaptation and learning processes. “The results show how important seemingly simple things like physical activity are in treating and preventing illnesses such as depression,” says study leader associate professor Dr. Karin Rosenkranz. The study was published on 9 June 2021 in the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry.

Exercise programme promotes motivation and togetherness

People with depression often withdraw and are physically inactive. To investigate the effect of physical activity, Karin Rosenkranz’s working group enlisted 41 people, who were undergoing treatment at the hospital, for the study. The participants were each assigned to one of two groups, one of which completed a three-week exercise programme. The programme, which was developed by the sports science team from the University of Bielefeld led by Professor Thomas Schack, was varied, contained fun elements, and did not take the form of a competition or test, but instead required teamwork from the participants. “This specifically promoted motivation and social togetherness while breaking down a fear of challenges and negative experiences with physical activity – such as school PE lessons,” explains Karin Rosenkranz. The other group took part in a control programme without physical activity.

The study team ascertained the severity of the depressive symptoms, such as a loss of drive and interest, lack of motivation and negative feelings, both before and after the programme. The brain’s ability to change, known as neuroplasticity, was also measured. It can be determined externally with the help of transcranial magnetic stimulation. “The ability to change is important for all of the brain’s learning and adaptation processes,” explains Karin Rosenkranz.

Ability to change increased – symptoms decreased

The results show that the brain’s ability to change is lower in people with depression than in healthy people. Following the programme with physical activity, this ability to change increased significantly and achieved the same values as healthy people. At the same time, depressive symptoms decreased in the group. “The more the ability to change increased, the more clearly the clinical symptoms decreased,” summarises Karin Rosenkranz. These changes were not so pronounced in the group who took part in the control programme. “This shows that physical activity has an effect on symptoms and the brain’s ability to change. We cannot say to what extent the change in symptoms and the brain’s ability to change are causally linked based on this data,” says the doctor, referring to the limitations. “It is known that physical activity does the brain good, as it, for instance, promotes the formation of neuron connections. This could certainly also play a role here.”

Eating more plant foods may lower heart disease risk in young adults, older women

University of Minnesota, Aug. 4, 2021 

Eating more nutritious, plant-based foods is heart-healthy at any age, according to two research studies published today in the Journal of the American Heart Association, an open access journal of the American Heart Association.

In two separate studies analyzing different measures of healthy plant food consumption, researchers found that both young adults and postmenopausal women had fewer heart attacks and were less likely to develop cardiovascular disease when they ate more healthy plant foods.

The American Heart Association Diet and Lifestyle Recommendations suggest an overall healthy dietary pattern that emphasizes a variety of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, low-fat dairy products, skinless poultry and fish, nuts and legumes and non-tropical vegetable oils. It also advises limited consumption of saturated fat, trans fat, sodium, red meat, sweets and sugary drinks.

One study, titled “A Plant-Centered Diet and Risk of Incident Cardiovascular Disease during Young to Middle Adulthood,” evaluated whether long-term consumption of a plant-centered diet and a shift toward a plant-centered diet starting in young adulthood are associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease in midlife.

“Earlier research was focused on single nutrients or single foods, yet there is little data about a plant-centered diet and the long-term risk of cardiovascular disease,” said Yuni Choi, Ph.D., lead author of the young adult study and a postdoctoral researcher in the division of epidemiology and community health at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health in Minneapolis.

Choi and colleagues examined diet and the occurrence of heart disease in 4,946 adults enrolled in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study. Participants were 18- to 30-years-old at the time of enrollment (1985-1986) in this study and were free of cardiovascular disease at that time. Participants included 2,509 Black adults and 2,437 white adults (54.9% women overall) who were also analyzed by education level (equivalent to more than high school vs. high school or less). Participants had eight follow-up exams from 1987-88 to 2015-16 that included lab tests, physical measurements, medical histories and assessment of lifestyle factors. Unlike randomized controlled trials, participants were not instructed to eat certain things and were not told their scores on the diet measures, so the researchers could collect unbiased, long-term habitual diet data.

After detailed diet history interviews, the quality of the participants diets was scored based on the A Priori Diet Quality Score (APDQS) composed of 46 food groups at years 0, 7 and 20 of the study. The food groups were classified into beneficial foods (such as fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts and whole grains); adverse foods (such as fried potatoes, high-fat red meat, salty snacks, pastries and soft drinks); and neutral foods (such as potatoes, refined grains, lean meats and shellfish) based on their known association with cardiovascular disease.

Participants who received higher scores ate a variety of beneficial foods, while people who had lower scores ate more adverse foods. Overall, higher values correspond to a nutritionally rich, plant-centered diet.

“As opposed to existing diet quality scores that are usually based on small numbers of food groups, APDQS is explicit in capturing the overall quality of diet using 46 individual food groups, describing the whole diet that the general population commonly consumes. Our scoring is very comprehensive, and it has many similarities with diets like the Dietary Guidelines for Americans Healthy Eating Index (from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service), the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet and the Mediterranean diet,“ said David E. Jacobs Jr., Ph.D., senior author of the study and Mayo Professor of Public Health in the division of epidemiology and community health at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health in Minneapolis.

Researchers found:

  • During 32 years of follow-up, 289 of the participants developed cardiovascular disease (including heart attack, stroke, heart failure, heart-related chest pain or clogged arteries anywhere in the body).
  • People who scored in the top 20% on the long-term diet quality score (meaning they ate the most nutritionally rich plant foods and fewer adversely rated animal products) were 52% less likely to develop cardiovascular disease, after considering several factors  (including age, sex, race, average caloric consumption, education, parental history of heart disease, smoking and average physical activity).
  • In addition, between year 7 and 20 of the study when participants ages ranged from 25 to 50, those who improved their diet quality the most (eating more beneficial plant foods and fewer adversely rated animal products) were 61% less likely to develop subsequent cardiovascular disease, in comparison to the participants whose diet quality declined the most during that time.
  • There were few vegetarians among the participants, so the study was not able to assess the possible benefits of a strict vegetarian diet, which excludes all animal products, including meat, dairy and eggs.

“A nutritionally rich, plant-centered diet is beneficial for cardiovascular health. A plant-centered diet is not necessarily vegetarian,” Choi said. “People can choose among plant foods that are as close to natural as possible, not highly processed. We think that individuals can include animal products in moderation from time to time, such as non-fried poultry, non-fried fish, eggs and low-fat dairy.”

Because this study is observational, it cannot prove a cause-and-effect relationship between diet and heart disease.

Other co-authors are Nicole Larson, Ph.D.; Lyn M. Steffen, Ph.D.; Pamela J. Schreiner, Ph.D.; Daniel D. Gallaher, Ph.D.; Daniel A. Duprez, M.D., Ph.D.; James M. Shikany, Dr.P.H.; and Jamal S. Rana, M.D., Ph.D.

The study was funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health; Healthy Food Healthy Lives Institute at the University of Minnesota; and the MnDrive Global Food Ventures Professional Development Program at the University of Minnesota.

In another study, “Relationship Between a Plant-Based Dietary Portfolio and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease: Findings from the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) Prospective Cohort Study,” researchers, in collaboration with WHI investigators led by Simin Liu, M.D., Ph.D., at Brown University, evaluated whether or not diets that included a dietary portfolio of plant-based foods with U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved health claims for lowering “bad” cholesterol levels (known as the “Portfolio Diet”) were associated with fewer cardiovascular disease events in a large group of postmenopausal women.

The “Portfolio Diet” includes nuts; plant protein from soy, beans or tofu; viscous soluble fiber from oats, barley, okra, eggplant, oranges, apples and berries; plant sterols from enriched foods and monounsaturated fats found in olive and canola oil and avocadoes; along with limited consumption of saturated fats and dietary cholesterol. Previously, two randomized trials demonstrated that reaching high target levels of foods included in the Portfolio Diet resulted in significant lowering of “bad” cholesterol or low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), more so than a traditional low-saturated-fat National Cholesterol and Education Program diet in one study and on par with taking a cholesterol-lowering statin medication in another.

The study analyzed whether postmenopausal women who followed the Portfolio Diet experienced fewer heart disease events. The study included 123,330 women in the U.S.  who participated in the Women’s Health Initiative, a long-term national study looking at risk factors, prevention and early detection of serious health conditions in postmenopausal women. When the women in this analysis enrolled in the study between 1993 and 1998, they were between 50-79 years old (average age of 62) and did not have cardiovascular disease. The study group was followed until 2017 (average follow-up time of 15.3 years). Researchers used self-reported food-frequency questionnaires data to score each woman on adherence to the Portfolio Diet.

The researchers found:

  • Compared to women who followed the Portfolio Diet less frequently, those with the closest alignment were 11% less likely to develop any type of cardiovascular disease, 14% less likely to develop coronary heart disease and 17% less likely to develop heart failure.
  • There was no association between following the Portfolio Diet more closely and the occurrence of stroke or atrial fibrillation.

“These results present an important opportunity, as there is still room for people to incorporate more cholesterol-lowering plant foods into their diets. With even greater adherence to the Portfolio dietary pattern, one would expect an association with even less cardiovascular events, perhaps as much as cholesterol-lowering medications. Still, an 11% reduction is clinically meaningful and would meet anyone’s minimum threshold for a benefit. The results indicate the Portfolio Diet yields heart-health benefits,” said John Sievenpiper, M.D., Ph.D., senior author of the study at St. Michael’s Hospital, a site of Unity Health Toronto in Ontario, Canada, and associate professor of nutritional sciences and medicine at the University of Toronto.

The researchers believe the results highlight possible opportunities to lower heart disease by encouraging people to consume more foods in the Portfolio Diet.

“We also found a dose response in our study, meaning that you can start small, adding one component of the Portfolio Diet at a time, and gain more heart-health benefits as you add more components,” said Andrea J. Glenn, M.Sc., R.D., lead author of the study and a doctoral student at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto and in nutritional sciences at the University of Toronto.

Although the study was observational and cannot directly establish a cause-and-effect relation between diet and cardiovascular events, researchers feel it provides a most reliable estimate for the diet-heart relation to-date due to its study design (included well-validated food frequency questionnaires administered at baseline and year three in a large population of highly dedicated participants). Nevertheless, the investigators report that these findings need to be further investigated in additional populations of men or younger women.

Neuroscience Shows How Gut Bacteria Impact Emotions

UCLA, August 4, 2021

It is becoming widely known that gut bacteria influence much more than our digestive process. The bacteria living in the digestive system impact our general health. Furthermore, scientists are now discovering that this influence goes beyond physical health. A study out of the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) discovered evidence that gut microbes affect our emotions. Specifically, they impact how we respond to fear.

In their study, UCLA researchers examined fecal samples of 40 women to identify their gut microbiome. In addition, these women were hooked up to an MRI scanner and then shown images designed to provoke an emotional response. The study identified two types of gut bacteria that potentially impact the brain areas associated with mood and general behavior.

First, the scientists found Prevotella to be common in seven of the women. “The Prevotella group showed less hippocampal activity viewing negative valences images.” The hippocampus regulates emotions, consciousness and memories. Women in this first group had profoundly negative emotions associated with distress and anxiety when viewing negative images.

On the other hand, Bacterioids were prevalent in the other 33 women. In the imaging analysis, “the Bacteroides cluster showed greater prominence in the cerebellum, frontal regions, and the hippocampus.” We associate the frontal regions of the brain with problem-solving and more complex processing. The results showed that women in this group were less emotional when viewing undesirable images.

Consequently, MRI imaging in this study shows that certain gut bacteria influence the physical structure of the brain. The researchers believe their study supports the concept of brain-gut-microbe interactions in healthy humans.

Gut Bacteria Finds Ways to Bypass Blood-Brain Barrier

This is not the first time that scientists have identified a link between the gut and the brain. Throughout the last decade, researchers have been exploring the effects that gut microbes have on our emotions and neural chemistry.

Neuroscientist John Cryan was involved in such research at the University College Cork, in Ireland. He discovered that even though the brain is anatomically isolated from the digestive system, interactions still exist. Moreover, this “communication” happens regardless of the blood-brain barrier, which protects the brain from pathogens.

Cryan’s study added to the growing evidence that signals from beneficial bacteria nonetheless find a way through the barrier. Somehow — though his 2011 paper could not pinpoint exactly how — micro-organisms in the gut tickle a sensory nerve ending in the fingerlike protrusion lining the intestine and carry that electrical impulse up the vagus nerve and into the deep-brain structures thought to be responsible for elemental emotions like anxiety. (source)

In brief, neuroscience continues to confirm that a connection between the brain and gut bacteria exists. Although we don’t yet know the specifics, it’s safe to say that a healthy gut may help balance mood and affects how we respond to emotional situations.