Avoiding Risky Health Behaviors Can Increase Lifespan by 7 Years

Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research and University of Michigan, August 12, 2020

Study shows that those who do not smoke, are not obese, and consume alcohol moderately can live 7 years longer than the general population – spending most of these extra years in good health.

A new study shows those who avoid risky health behaviors tend to live a long life. Perhaps more importantly, those extra years are characterized by good health. Examples of such “risky health behaviors” include smoking, consuming an excess of alcohol and eating to the point of reaching obesity. The study’s results show avoiding such behaviors leads to an increased lifespan of seven years. The study’s details were recently published in Health Affairs. Mikko Myrskyla, the Director of Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, and Neil Mehta, a University of Michigan professor, spearheaded the study.

The study examined data for over 14,000 individuals living in the United States. It determined those who never smoked and did not become obese lived between four and five years longer than the rest of the population. These additional years were not plagued by disabilities. It was also determined those who consumed alcohol in moderation enjoyed an extended lifespan of seven disability-free years. In fact, these individuals enjoyed a life expectancy beyond that of those living in Japan, a nation that is commonly considered to be the best example of how healthy living leads to an extended life.

Most people think advancements in medical technology are a primary determinant of lifespan and health. However, this study shows a healthy lifestyle can extend lifespan and improve health. The bottom line is those who avoid smoking and obesity while limiting alcohol consumption will enjoy considerable health and lifespan benefits.

This study is a trailblazer of sorts as it is the first to study the aggregate impact of numerous health behaviors on total life expectancy as well as one’s odds for being afflicted by disabilities. Prior studies examined single health behaviors. Myrskyla and Mehta studied an array of behaviors to determine lifespan and level of health for those who avoided the most common behavioral risk factors.

The pair of researchers found smoking, obesity and consuming an excess of alcohol were tied to reduced life expectancy as well as an earlier occurrence of numerous disabilities. It was determined that smoking was tied to an early death yet not with an increase in the number of years in which people were plagued with disabilities. Obesity is tied to an extensive period of time in which people are plagued with disabilities. Excessive consumption of alcohol is tied to a reduced lifespan and a reduction in the number of years spent in good health.

The most surprising finding was the massive difference in the average lifespan between the groups that were most at risk and least at risk. Men who avoided obesity, did not smoke and only drank at moderation lived 11 years longer than those who smoked, drank in excess and were overweight. For women, the difference between these groups was 12 years. People will be happy to know the number of years in which one lives with physical limitations does not increase as he gains more years with a healthy way of life. Rather, a healthy way of life is linked to a solid increase in physically fit years. This means the years one gains through a healthy lifestyle are years characterized by good health.

This study’s results show just how important it is for people to key in on prevention. Avoid the risky health behaviors noted above and the odds of a long and healthy life dramatically increase. Furthermore, policy interventions to target health behaviors might help significant portions of the population to enjoy the health benefits noted in the study.

UCalgary researchers discover the microbiome’s role in attacking cancerous tumours

Findings show how our gut bacteria can enhance immunotherapy to battle different forms of cancer

UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY

Researchers with the Snyder Institute for Chronic Diseases at the Cumming School of Medicine (CSM) have discovered which gut bacteria help our immune system battle cancerous tumours and how they do it. The discovery may provide a new understanding of why immunotherapy, a treatment for cancer that helps amplify the body’s immune response, works in some cases, but not others. The findings, published in Science, show combining immunotherapy with specific microbial therapy boosts the ability of the immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells in some melanoma, bladder and colorectal cancers.

Dr. Kathy McCoy, PhD, is a leading expert on the body’s relationship with the microbiome. She and her team are focused on harnessing the power of the microbiome to improve health and treat diseases. McCoy says to harness and direct that power scientists need to better understand the role bacteria play in regulating the immune system.

“Recent studies have provided strong evidence that gut microbiota can positively affect anti-tumour immunity and improve the effectiveness of immunotherapy in treating certain cancers, yet, how the bacteria were able to do this remained elusive, ” says McCoy, director of the International Microbiome Centre at the University of Calgary and principal investigator on the study. “We’ve been able to build on that work by showing how certain bacteria enhance the ability of T-cells, the body’s immunity soldiers that attack and destroy cancerous cells.”

First, the researchers identified bacterial species that were associated with colorectal cancer tumours when treated with immunotherapy. Working with germ-free mice, they then introduced these specific bacteria along with immune checkpoint blockade, a type of cancer immunotherapy. Research revealed that specific bacteria were essential to the immunotherapy working. The tumours shrank, drastically. For those subjects that did not receive the beneficial bacteria, the immunotherapy had no effect.

“We found that these bacteria produce a small molecule, called inosine,” says Dr. Lukas Mager, MD, PhD, senior postdoctoral researcher in the McCoy lab and first author on the study. “Inosine interacts directly with T-cells and together with immunotherapy, it improves the effectiveness of that treatment, in some cases destroying all the colorectal cancer cells.”

The researchers then validated the findings in both bladder cancer and melanoma. The next step in this work will be to study the finding in humans. The three beneficial bacteria associated with the tumours in mice have also been found in cancers in humans.

“Identifying how microbes improve immunotherapy is crucial to designing therapies with anti-cancer properties, which may include microbials,” says McCoy. “The microbiome is an amazing collection of billions of bacteria that live within and around us everyday. We are in the early stage of fully understanding how we can use this new knowledge to improve efficacy and safety of anti-cancer therapy and improve cancer patient survival and well-being.”

Yoga shown to improve anxiety, study shows

New York University School of Medicine, August 13, 2020

Yoga improves symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder, a condition with chronic nervousness and worry, suggesting the popular practice may be helpful in treating anxiety in some people.

Led by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, a new study found that yoga was significantly more effective for generalized anxiety disorder than standard education on stress management, but not effective as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), the gold standard form of structured talk therapy that helps patients identify negative thinking for better responses to challenges.

“Generalized anxiety disorder is a very common condition, yet many are not willing or able to access evidence-based treatments,” says lead study author Naomi M. Simon, MD, a professor in the Department of Psychiatry at NYU Langone Health. “Our findings demonstrate that yoga, which is safe and widely available, can improve symptoms for some people with this disorder and could be a valuable tool in an overall treatment plan.”

For the study, publishing online Aug. 12 in JAMA Psychiatry, 226 men and women with generalized anxiety disorder were randomly assigned to three groups – either CBT, Kundalini yoga, or stress-management education, a standardized control technique.

After three months, both CBT and yoga were found to be significantly more effective for anxiety than stress management. Specifically, 54 percent of those who practiced yoga met response criteria for meaningfully improved symptoms compared to 33 percent in the stress-education group. Of those treated with CBT, 71 percent met these symptom improvement criteria.

However, after six months of follow-up, the CBT response remained significantly better than stress education (the control therapy), while yoga was no longer significantly better, suggesting CBT may have more robust, longer-lasting anxiety-reducing effects.

Study Details

The study involved an evidence-based protocol for CBT treatment of generalized anxiety disorder, including psychoeducation, cognitive interventions (focused on identifying and adapting maladaptive thoughts and worrying), and muscle relaxation techniques.

Kundalini yoga included physical postures, breathing techniques, relaxation exercises, yoga theory, and meditation/mindfulness practice.

The stress-management education control group received lectures about the physiological, psychological and medical effects of stress, as well as the antianxiety effects of lifestyle behaviors, such as reducing alcohol and smoking, and the importance of exercise and a healthy diet. Homework consisted of listening to educational material about stress, nutrition, and lifestyle.

Each treatment was administered in groups of three to six participants, over weekly two-hour sessions for 12 weeks with 20 minutes of daily homework assigned.

Can Yoga Help Treat Anxiety?

According to researchers, generalized anxiety disorder is a common, impairing, and undertreated condition, currently affecting an estimated 6.8 million Americans. While most people feel anxious from time to time, it is considered a disorder when worrying becomes excessive and interferes with day-to-day life. CBT is considered the gold standard first-line treatment. Medications, including antidepressants and sometimes benzodiazepines, may also be used. Yet, not everyone is willing to take medication which can have adverse side effects and there are challenges with accessing CBT for many, including lack of access to trained therapists and long waitlists.

“Many people already seek complementary and alternative interventions, including yoga, to treat anxiety,” says Dr. Simon. “This study suggests that at least short-term there is significant value for people with generalized anxiety disorder to give yoga a try to see if it works for them. Yoga is well-tolerated, easily accessible, and has a number of health benefits.”

According to Dr. Simon, future research should aim to understand who is most likely to benefit from yoga for generalized anxiety disorder to help providers better personalize treatment recommendations.

“We need more options to treat anxiety because different people will respond to different interventions, and having more options can help overcome barriers to care,” she says. “Having a range of effective treatments can increase the likelihood people with anxiety will be willing to engage in evidence-based care.”

High omega 3 fatty acid intake associated with decreased risk of depressive symptoms in middle-aged women

Gachon University (S Korea), August 12, 2020

According to news originating from Gyeonggi Do, South Korea, the research stated, “Omega-3 fatty acid n-3FA intake is known to have a preventive effect on depressive symptoms in a general population.”

The news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from Gachon University: “This study assessed the effects of n-3 FA intake on depressive symptoms and brain function in middle-aged women. Depressive symptoms were screened using the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) and Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression scale (CES-D) assessment questionnaires, and n-3 FA intakes were assessed using semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire. We found that * * n* * -3 FA intakes were negatively associated with depressive symptoms in middle-aged women. Psychiatrists diagnosed the presence of depressive disorders using the 5th edition of the Mental Disorder Diagnosis and Statistics Manual (DSM-5). Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) was performed to investigate the association between n-3 FA intake and brain functional connectivity. Functional connectivity of the right middle frontal cortex (default mode network) and the right middle temporal pole (frontoparietal network) was positively associated with depressive symptom scores and negatively associated with n-3 FA intakes.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “In conclusion, high Omega-3 n-3 FA intake decreases the risk of depressive symptoms and modifies the brain functional connectivity in middle-aged women.”

Study: Medical marijuana associated with fewer hospitalizations for individuals with SCD

Obtaining medical marijuana also associated with an increase in use of edible cannabis products

Yale School of Medicine, August 13, 2020

Individuals with sickle cell disease (SCD) who receive medical marijuana to treat pain may require fewer visits to the hospital, according to a new study in Blood Advances. Adults with SCD who requested and obtained medical marijuana were admitted to the hospital less frequently than those who did not obtain it.

SCD is the most common inherited red blood cell disorder in the United States, affecting an estimated 100,000 people. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, SCD affects one out of every 365 Black or African American births and one out of every 16,300 Hispanic American births. SCD is characterized by abnormal, sickle-shaped red blood cells that can adhere to and block blood vessels, preventing oxygen from reaching the tissues. When this occurs, individuals living with SCD experience severe pain events which may drive them to seek emergency care. It is estimated that there are more than 100,000 SCD-related hospital stays in the United States each year.

There is a need for other options for management of pain so that individuals with SCD do not have to go through the time, hardship, and expense of hospitalization and can manage their symptoms at home. Previous studies have shown that cannabis and cannabinoid products can effectively treat chronic pain associated other conditions such as cancer. More controlled studies of marijuana for the treatment of pain in SCD are still needed.

“When we offered medical marijuana as an option to our patients with sickle cell disease, we found the majority of people who were interested were already using illicit marijuana to treat pain,” said the study’s lead author Susanna Curtis, MD, of the Yale School of Medicine and Yale Cancer Center. “Illicit marijuana is not regulated, so its quality and contents are not standardized. And particularly for people with sickle cell disease, many of whom identify as Black, we know that while Black and white people use marijuana at similar rates, Black people are four times more likely to be arrested for possession. We didn’t want our patients using unsafe products or being arrested for trying to control the pain of their condition.”

Dr. Curtis and her team examined data from 50 individuals with SCD at the Adult Sickle Cell Program at Yale New Haven Hospital who were certified for medical marijuana use. Of those certified, 29 obtained medical marijuana and 21 did not. Those who obtained medical marijuana visited the hospital less frequently on average over the following six months. Several patients even reduced their hospital admission rates by three, four, or five visits. Receiving medical marijuana was not associated with a change in emergency room or infusion center visits, total health care utilization, or opioid use. Researchers did not observe any change to hospitalization rates in individuals who did not obtain medical marijuana.

Dr. Curtis suggested a possible reason for the reduced hospitalization rates could be that medical marijuana helps individuals better tolerate their pain at home.

The researchers also sought to understand why many patients were unable to access medical marijuana, and why some continued to occasionally use illicit cannabis despite obtaining medical marijuana. In a survey, individuals who obtained medical marijuana reported that they felt it was safer than illicit marijuana and they felt it was effective at controlling their pain; however, they did also report barriers such as greater expense and difficulty of access.

Race and socioeconomic status may also be barriers for patients with SCD. “About 80% of our clinic population identifies as Black, and another 15% as Latinx, and unfortunately people of color who visit the hospital with pain are often not believed or accused of being drug-seeking. Medical marijuana is associated with significant stigma, and stigma is already a big part of the life of a person with sickle cell,” said Dr. Curtis.

Cannabis and cannabinoid products also present legal and medical challenges. While 33 states have medical marijuana laws, only five of those states list SCD as a qualifying condition. Medical marijuana products vary greatly in their chemical content and forms of administration. In the study, patients who obtained medical marijuana were more likely to use edible products as opposed to inhaled products. Previous research suggests the pain-relieving effect of edible products has a slower onset but a longer duration than that of inhaled products. This variability between different products can cause difficulty for patients trying to manage their symptoms.

Dr. Curtis highlighted the need for further research to understand the efficacy, side effects, and drug interactions of various cannabis products on SCD treatment. “My patients are living with a very difficult disease that causes them a lot of pain. We need controlled trials to look at each product, and the effects of how it is taken, so that we can offer regulated, pharmaceutical-grade treatment options.”

Recalling memories from a third-person perspective changes how our brain processes them

Remembering your past as an observer affects your memories, according to new study

University of Alberta, August 13, 2020

Adopting a third-person, observer point of view when recalling your past activates different parts of your brain than recalling a memory seen through your own eyes, according to a new paper.

“Our perspective when we remember changes which brain regions support memory and how these brain regions interact together,” explained Peggy St Jacques, assistant professor in the Faculty of Science’sDepartment of Psychology and co-author on the paper.

Specifically, the results show that recalling memories from an observer-like perspective, instead of through your own eyes, leads to greater interaction between the anterior hippocampus and the posterior medial network.

“These findings contribute to a growing body of research that show that retrieving memories is an active process that can bias and even distort our memories,” added St Jacques.

“Adopting an observer-like perspective involves viewing the past in a novel way, which requires greater interaction among brain regions that support our ability to recall the details of a memory and to recreate mental images in our mind’s eye.”

Adopting an observer-like perspective may also serve a therapeutic purpose, explained St Jacques. “This may be an effective way of dealing with troubling memories by viewing the past from a distance and reducing the intensity of the emotions we feel.”

This work builds on St Jacques’ previous research on visual perspective in memory, which found that the perspective from which we recall a memory can influence how we remember them over time.

Calcium-rich fermented foods preferred in improving bone and heart health, study says

Nattopharma (Norway), August 9, 2020

Calcium should come from healthy sources like fermented dairy products and leafy greens as a review outlines an approach to receiving an adequate intake while supporting bone and heart health.

The review paper, published in the latest edition of the Open Heart journal, stated that the majority of the US population did not consume the current recommended dietary allowance for calcium. This finding has also been echoed in Europe with studies identifying dietary calcium intake as low – 300 and 600 mg/day in women, and 350 and 700 mg/day in men. The review also found milk and dairy products the most readily available dietary sources of calcium that were preferred by the general population.

However, concerns as to these food’s long-term health effects were mentioned as milk, in particular was singled out as a promoter of inflammation and oxidation in adult humans. Despite this, the review detailed a series of steps that could help in building strong bones while maintaining soft and supple arteries. These included obtaining calcium from dietary sources rather and ensuring that adequate animal protein intake is coupled with calcium intake of 1000 mg/day. Other measures included maintaining vitamin D levels in the normal range, and increasing intake of fruits and vegetables to alkalinise the system and promote bone health.

Other research has shown that calcium supplementation can play an important role in boosting levels, especially in areas where healthy diets are less common.

The average calcium requirement for young adults (18–24 years) is 860 mg/day as defined by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).
EFSA also define the safe upper limit for calcium intake in adults, including pregnant and lactating women, at 2,500 mg/day.

The findings that suggest milk as a less-than-ideal source of calcium will come as a surprise to many.

Indeed, the review acknowledged that “cow’s milk, though rich in many nutrients, including calcium, has issues that render it less than ideal as a dietary staple for many adults.” These issues include milk’s d-galactose content, which has been linked to a high mortality rate and high fracture incidence.

Along with calcium’s direct benefits the paper also recognised its role in facilitating vitamin K-dependent pathways. Increased vitamin K2 intake has been associated with decreased arterial calcium deposition and the ability to reverse vascular calcification in animal models . The vitamin is most abundant in meat, especially liver, chicken and beef along with dairy products. The primary vegetarian source is Nattō, a Japanese soybean food fermented with the bacterial species Bacillus subtilis var. natto.

“The only food that contains enough Vitamin K2 is the Japanese dish Natto,” explained Dr Hogne Vik, chief medical officer with Norwegian vitamin K2 supplier, NattoPharma, whose firm has responded to rising demand for vitamin K2-fortified supplements and foods in recent years.

Berry eaters may be at lower risk of diabetes: Meta-analysis

Zhejiang University (China), August 12, 2020

Data from almost 400,000 people suggests that consuming berries and the anthocyanins they contain may reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus by 15-18%.

Scientists from Zhejiang University in China reported that the potential benefits could be linked to the antioxidant properties of anthocyanins in berries and their regulation of inflammatory responses, as well as via pathways to reduce blood glucose and insulin resistance.

“T2DM [type 2 diabetes mellitus] and its associated complications cause serious medical and socioeconomic burdens. The findings from the present meta-analysis provide sufficient evidence that dietary intakes of anthocyanins and berries are associated with a lower risk of T2DM, respectively,” wrote the researchers in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition .

Booming berries

Consumer interest and demand for berries has grown rapidly in the US, driven by several factors, including the potential health benefits, improved quality and year-round availability,according to a 2012 article by Roberta Cook from UC Davis .

“The berry category recently became the number-one dollar category in fresh produce departments, with national supermarket sales (excluding club stores, supercenters, and some other formats) projected to surpass $5.3 billion annually by June 2011,” wrote Cook.

Many companies are also offering concentrated extracts from the products as dietary supplements, with brands such as Life Extension, Puritan’s Pride, and Swanson offering products.

Study details

An example of one of the many berry extract dietary supplement products commercially available to US consumers

The new study, said to be the first to “evaluate the association of dietary consumption of anthocyanins and berries with T2DM risk”, assessed data from three cohort studies looking at dietary anthocyanin intakes and diabetes risk (200,894 participants and 12,611 cases of diabetes documented) and five cohort studies looking at berry intake and diabetes risk (194,019 participants and 13,013 cases of diabetes).

Crunching the numbers indicated that dietary anthocyanin consumption was associated with a 15% reduction in the risk of T2DM, while berry intake was associated with an 18% reduction in risk.

For every 7.5 mg/day increment of dietary anthocyanin or 17 g/day increment in berry intake the risk of T2DM decreased by 5%, added the researchers.

Interestingly, there were some gender differences observed with the benefits from berry consumption observed for women and not men.

“More prospective studies in other regions and ethnic groups are warranted to further explore the associations of dietary anthocyanins and berries with T2DM risk,” wrote the researchers.

Scientists sound the alarm: Lockdowns may escalate the obesity epidemic

University of Copenhagen Health and Medical Sciences, August 13, 2020

Scientists sound the alarm: Lockdowns may escalate the obesity epidemic Emotional stress, economic anxiety, physical inactivity and social distance – locking down society to combat COVID-19 creates psychosocial insecurity that leads to obesity, warn three Danish researchers. Counter measures are needed if we are to keep the public both metabolically healthy and safe from the coronavirus

Rates of obesity may explode because of strategies to limit the spread of COVID-19, warn a trio of researchers at the University of Copenhagen and Aarhus University. Investment in obesity research will help inform counter strategies that people eating healthily, feeling happy and staying active, while also combatting COVID-19.

“We are concerned that policy makers do not fully understand how strategies such as lockdowns and business closures could fuel the rise of obesity – a chronic disease with severe health implications, but with few reliable treatment options,” says Associate Professor Christoffer Clemmensen, from the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research (CBMR), at the University of Copenhagen.

Alone, inactive and hungry

In a letter published in the scientific journal Nature Reviews Endocrinology, Clemmensen and two co-authors outlined how COVID-19 containment strategies could increase rates of obesity.

Firstly, it is well documented that people with limited economic resources are more likely eat highly-processed and energy-rich food. These foods have been shown to stimulate people’s appetites, so that they end up eating more calories than they need.

“It is likely that more people will turn to these forms of food, as more people lose their jobs and experience economic hardship,” says co-author Professor Michael Bang Petersen, from the Department of Political Science at Aarhus University.

Secondly, physical distancing increases anxiety by limiting our ability to socially interact. Feelings of loneliness and isolation, combined with confinement within a home setting, can impact our food behavior and lead us to overeat. This effect is compounded by lower levels of physical activity, as people are urged to work from home and venture out as little as possible.

Stopping the virus and protecting metabolic health

Co-author Professor Thorkild I.A. Sørensen from CBMR at the University of Copenhagen, stresses that we still do not exactly understand how a person’s mental health and economic status end up increasing a person’s risk of developing obesity.

“We know that there are links between obesity and a person’s class and mental health, but we don’t exactly understand how they make an impact,” says Sørensen.

More research is needed to uncover the cause and effect, but the three co-authors say the scientific expectations are clear: physical distancing and rising rates of unemployment should lead us to expect increased rates of obesity.

Together they urge governments and decision makers to consider what impact COVID-19 containment strategies, such as lockdowns, will have on the public’s metabolic health. With this in mind, counter strategies should be considered to ensure that the public remains healthy, happy and active – and also safe from the coronavirus.

Lipoic acid supplements help some obese but otherwise healthy people lose weight

Oregon State University, August 12, 2020

A compound given as a dietary supplement to overweight but otherwise healthy people in a clinical trial caused many of the patients to slim down, research by Oregon State University and Oregon Health & Science University showed.

The research, published in the Journal of Nutrition, analyzed the effects of 24 weeks of daily, 600-milligram doses of lipoic acid supplements on 31 people, with a similarly sized control group receiving a placebo.

“The data clearly showed a loss in body weight and body fat in people taking lipoic acid supplements,” said Balz Frei, director emeritus of OSU’s Linus Pauling Institute and one of the scientists on the study. “Particularly in women and in the heaviest participants.”

Produced by both plants and animals, lipoic acid sets up shop in cells’ mitochondria, where it’s normally attached to proteins involved in energy and amino acid metabolism. A specialized, medium-chain fatty acid, it’s unique in having two sulfur atoms at one end of the chain, allowing for the transfer of electrons from other sources.

The body generally produces enough lipoic acid to supply the enzymes whose proper function requires it. When taken as a dietary supplement, lipoic acid displays additional properties that might be unrelated to the function in the mitochondria. They include the stimulation of glucose metabolism, antioxidant defenses and anti-inflammatory responses – making it a possible complementary treatment for people with diabetes, heart disease and age-related cognitive decline.

“Scientists have been researching the potential health benefits of lipoic acid supplements for decades, including how it might enhance healthy aging and mitigate cardiovascular disease,” said Alexander Michels, another Linus Pauling Institute scientist involved with the study. “In both rodent models and small-scale human clinical trials, researchers at the LPI have demonstrated the beneficial effects of lipoic acid on oxidative stress, lipid metabolism and circadian rhythm.”

The OSU/OHSU project addressed two issues commonly ignored by previous human trials, said Tory Hagen, a professor of biochemistry and biophysics in the OSU College of Science and the study’s corresponding author.

“Many existing clinical studies using lipoic acid have focused on volunteers with pre-existing conditions like diabetes, making it difficult to determine if lipoic acid supplements simply act as a disease treatment or have other beneficial health effects,” said Hagen, principal investigator and Helen P. Rumbel Professor for Healthy Aging Research at the institute. “Another issue is the formulation of the supplement. Many previous studies have used the S form of lipoic acid, which is a product of industrial synthesis and not found in nature. We only used the R form of lipoic acid – the form found in the body naturally.”

Contrary to what was expected by the researchers, decreased levels of triglycerides – a type of fat, or lipid, found in the blood – were not seen in all the participants taking lipoic acid.

“The effect of lipoic acid supplements on blood lipids was limited,” said Gerd Bobe, another LPI scientist who collaborated on the study. “But people who lost weight on lipoic acid also reduced their blood triglyceride levels – that effect was clear.”

Other effects of the lipoic acid supplements were measurable as well.

“By the end of the study, some markers of inflammation declined,” Hagen said. “The findings also suggest that lipoic acid supplementation provides a mild reduction in oxidative stress. It is not a perfect panacea, but our results show that lipoic acid supplements can be beneficial.”

Identifying which patients will benefit the most from lipoic acid supplementation, and how much they need, is important for both clinical and economic reasons, he added.

“Lipoic acid supplements are often quite expensive,” he said. “So understanding how we can maximize benefits with smaller amounts of the supplement is something we are interested in pursuing.”

Meditation-relaxation therapy may offer escape from the terror of sleep paralysis

Cambridge University, August 12, 2020

Sleep paralysis – a condition thought to explain a number of mysterious experiences including alleged cases of alien abduction and demonic night-time visits – could be treated using a technique of meditation-relaxation, suggests a pilot study published today.

Sleep paralysis is a state involving paralysis of the skeletal muscles that occurs at the onset of sleep or just before waking. While temporarily immobilised, the individual is acutely aware of their surroundings. People who experience the phenomenon often report being terrorised by dangerous bedroom intruders, often reaching for supernatural explanations such as ghosts, demons and even alien abduction. Unsurprisingly, it can be a terrifying experience.

As many as one in five people experiences sleep paralysis, which may be triggered by sleep deprivation, and is more frequent in psychiatric conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder. It is also common in narcolepsy, a sleep disorder involving excessive daytime sleepiness and sudden loss of muscle control.

Despite the condition being known about for some time, to date there are no empirically-based treatments or published clinical trials for the condition.

Today, in the journal Frontiers in Neurology, a team of researchers report a pilot study of meditation-relaxation therapy involving 10 patients with narcolepsy, all of whom experience sleep paralysis.

The therapy was originally developed by Dr Baland Jalal from the Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge. The current study was led by Dr Jalal and conducted in collaboration with Dr Giuseppe Plazzi’s group at the Department of Biomedical and Neuromotor Sciences, University of Bologna/IRCCS Istituto delle Scienze Neurologiche di Bologna, Italy.

The therapy teaches patients to follow four steps during an episode:

1. Reappraisal of the meaning of the attack – reminding themselves that the experience is common, benign, and temporary, and that the hallucinations are a typical by-product of dreaming2. Psychological and emotional distancing – reminding themselves that there is no reason to be afraid or worried and that fear and worry will only make the episode worse

3. Inward focused-attention meditation – focusing their attention inward on an emotionally-involving, positive object (such as a memory of a loved one or event, a hymn/prayer, God)

4. Muscle relaxation – relaxing their muscles, avoiding controlling their breathing and under no circumstances attempting to move

Participants were instructed to keep a daily journal for four weeks to assess sleep paralysis occurrence, duration and emotions. Overall, among the 10 patients, two-thirds of cases (66%) reported hallucinations, often upon awakening from sleep (51%), and less frequently upon falling asleep (14%) as rated during the first four weeks.

After the four weeks, six participants completed mood/anxiety questionnaires and were taught the therapy techniques and instructed to rehearse these during ordinary wakefulness, twice a week for 15 min. The treatment lasted eight weeks.

In the first four weeks of the study, participants in the meditation-relaxation group experienced sleep paralysis on average 14 times over 11 days. The reported disturbance caused by their sleep paralysis hallucinations was 7.3 (rated on a ten-point scale with higher scores indicating greater severity).

In the final month of the therapy, the number of days with sleep paralysis fell to 5.5 (down 50%) and the total number of episodes fell to 6.5 (down 54%). There was also a notable tendency towards reductions in the disturbance caused by hallucinations with ratings dropping from 7.3 to 4.8.

A control group of four participants followed the same procedure, except participants engaged in deep breathing instead of the therapy – taking slow deep breaths, while repeatedly counting from one to ten.

In the control group, the number of days with sleep paralysis (4.3 per month at the start) was unchanged, as well as their total number of episodes (4.5 per month initially). The disturbance caused by hallucinations was likewise unchanged (rated 4 during the first four weeks).

“Although our study only involved a small number of patients, we can be cautiously optimistic of its success,” said Dr Jalal. “Meditation-relaxation therapy led to a dramatic fall in the number of times patients experienced sleep paralysis, and when they did, they tended to find the notoriously terrorising hallucinations less disturbing. Experiencing less of something as disturbing as sleep paralysis is a step in the right direction.”

If the researchers are able to replicate their findings in a larger number of people – including those from the general population, not affected by narcolepsy – then this could offer a relatively simple treatment that could be delivered online or via a smartphone to help patients cope with the condition.

“I know first-hand how terrifying sleep paralysis can be, having experienced it many times myself,” said Dr Jalal. “But for some people, the fear that it can instil in them can be extremely unpleasant, and going to bed, which should be a relaxing experience, can become fraught with terror. This is what motivated me to devise this intervention.”

Why walking to work may be better for you than a casual stroll

Study finds people walk faster, report being healthier, when they walk with a purpose

Ohio State University, August 12, 2020

Walking with a purpose – especially walking to get to work – makes people walk faster and consider themselves to be healthier, a new study has found.

The study, published online earlier this month in the Journal of Transport and Health, found that walking for different reasons yielded different levels of self-rated health. People who walked primarily to places like work and the grocery store from their homes, for example, reported better health than people who walked mostly for leisure.

“We found that walking for utilitarian purposes significantly improves your health, and that those types of walking trips are easier to bring into your daily routine,” said Gulsah Akar, an associate professor of city and regional planning in The Ohio State University Knowlton School of Architecture.

“So, basically, both as city planners and as people, we should try to take the advantage of this as much as possible.”

The study used data from the 2017 National Household Travel Survey, a U.S. dataset collected from April 2016 to May 2017.

The researchers analyzed self-reported health assessments from 125,885 adults between the ages of 18 and 64. Those adults reported the number of minutes they spent walking for different purposes – from home to work, from home to shopping, from home to recreation activities and walking trips that did not start at their homes.

And, the survey respondents ranked how healthy they were on a scale of 1 to 5. The dataset the researchers analyzed included more than 500,000 trips.

The researchers – Akar and Ohio State doctoral student Gilsu Pae – found that walking for any duration, for any purpose, increased how healthy a person felt.

But they also found that an additional 10 minutes of walking per trip from home for work-based trips – say, from a person’s house to the bus stop 10 minutes away – increased that person’s odds of having a higher health score by 6 percent compared with people who walk for other reasons. People who walked from home for reasons not connected to work, shopping or recreation were 3 percent more likely to have a higher health score.

And, the researchers found, people who walked for work walked faster – on average, about 2.7 miles per hour – than people who walked for other reasons. People who walked for recreational purposes – say, an after-dinner stroll – walked, on average, about 2.55 miles per hour.

The researchers also found that walking trips that begin at home are generally longer than walking trips that begin somewhere else. The team found that 64 percent of home-based walking trips last at least 10 minutes, while 50 percent of trips that begin elsewhere are at least that long.

Akar has studied the ways people travel for years, and said she was surprised to see that walking for different purposes led to a difference in how healthy people believed they were.

“I was thinking the differences would not be that significant, that walking is walking, and all forms of walking are helpful,” she said. “And that is true, but walking for some purposes has significantly greater effect on our health than others.”

Akar said the findings suggest that building activity into parts of a day that are otherwise sedentary – commuting by foot instead of by car, for example – can make a person feel healthier.

“That means going to a gym or a recreation center aren’t the only ways to exercise,” Akar said. “It’s an opportunity to put active minutes into our daily schedules in an easy way.”

Eating raw organic fruits and veggies helps boost your gut health

Graz University of Technology (Austria), August 12, 2020

A study published in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology found that consuming organic produce promotes gut microbiome diversity.

Birgit Wassermann, the first author of the study and a researcher at the Graz University of Technology in Austria, explained that consuming raw fruits and vegetables is key to maintaining a diverse microbial community, which is essential for a healthy gut microbiome and a strong immune system.

But these foods don’t need to just be raw, they should also be organically produced. In their study, Wassermann and her colleagues found that while the production method didn’t affect the abundance of microbes found in the different tissues of apples, the microbes present in organically produced apples were more diverse than those harbored by conventionally produced ones.

Wassermann and her team chose to study apples because they are popular worldwide. In 2018 alone, about 83 million apples were grown, and production continues to grow today.

Organic vs conventional

Using genetic analysis and fluorescence microscopy, the researchers found that both conventional apples and organic apples had roughly the same amount of total bacteria (about 100 million per apple). While different parts of the fruit contained distinct microbial communities, apple pulp and seeds had the largest bacterial colonies. Apple peels were surprisingly less colonized.

The researchers also found that organic apples had a more diverse bacterial population than conventionally grown apples. Additionally, organic apples contained beneficial bacteria, such as the common probiotic, Lactobacillus.

On the other hand, conventional apples had a greater chance of containing potentially pathogenic bacteria like Escherichia and Shigella, both of which are linked to food poisoning symptoms like cramps and diarrhea.

According to Wassermann, the very diverse microbiome of organically grown apples can help fight human pathogens by outcompeting them. She explained that the microbial pool that organic apple trees are exposed to tends to be more diverse and more balanced, and this helps promote their health by bolstering their resistance to pathogens. (Related: Exploring the ”gut-heart” connection: Can heart failure be treated by boosting gut microbiota health?)

The difference between “organic” and “conventional” fruits

According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), organic is a label for foods that are grown in accordance with certain federal guidelines. These guidelines include factors like soil additives, pesticide use and how animals are raised.

On the other hand, conventional refers to modern, industrial agriculture that uses chemical fertilizers, pesticides and genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

Research suggests that organic produce has a similar nutritional profile to conventional produce, but the former helps reduce your exposure to pesticides and harmful bacteria.

When buying produce, consider other health factors like chronic conditions or pregnancy. To narrow down your search, start by learning about the fruits and vegetables that are more likely to be exposed to different kinds of pesticides.

Smiling can trick your mind into being more positive, study finds

University of South Australia, August 11, 2020

From Sinatra to Katy Perry, celebrities have long sung about the power of a smile—how it picks you up, changes your outlook, and generally makes you feel better. But is it all smoke and mirrors, or is there a scientific backing to the claim?

Groundbreaking research from the University of South Australia confirms that the act of smiling can trick your mind into being more positive, simply by moving your facial muscles.

With the world in crisis amid COVID-19, and alarming rises of anxiety and depression in Australia and around the world, the findings could not be more timely.

The study, published in Experimental Psychology, evaluated the impact of a covert smile on perception of face and body expressions. In both scenarios, a smile was induced by participants holding a pen between their teeth, forcing their facial muscles to replicate the movement of a smile.

The research found that facial muscular activity not only alters the recognition of facial expressions but also body expressions, with both generating more positive emotions.

Lead researcher and human and artificial cognition expert, UniSA’s Dr. Fernando Marmolejo-Ramos says the finding has important insights for mental health.

“When your muscles say you’re happy, you’re more likely to see the world around you in a positive way,” Dr. Marmolejo-Ramos says.

“In our research we found that when you forcefully practice smiling, it stimulates the amygdala—the emotional center of the brain—which releases neurotransmitters to encourage an emotionally positive state. For mental health, this has interesting implications. If we can trick the brain into perceiving stimuli as ‘happy’, then we can potentially use this mechanism to help boost mental health.”

The study replicated findings from the “covert” smile experiment by evaluating how people interpret a range of facial expressions (spanning frowns to smiles) using the pen-in-teeth mechanism; it then extended this using point-light motion images (spanning sad walking videos to happy walking videos) as the visual stimuli.

Dr. Marmolejo-Ramos says there is a strong link between action and perception.

“In a nutshell, perceptual and motor systems are intertwined when we emotionally process stimuli,” Dr. Marmolejo-Ramos says.

“A ‘fake it ’til you make it’ approach could have more credit than we expect.”

Coriander is a potent weapon against antibiotic resistant bacteria

University of Beira Interior (Portugal) August 10, 2020

The problem of antibiotic resistant bacteria has been deemed a public health crisis, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reporting that invasive MRSA – or methicillin-resistant S. aureus – infections affect 80,000 people globally a year, and claim over 11,000 lives. But, what the CDC will never tell you is how coriander can potentially save lives.

Researchers in Portugal now say that that the oil from coriander – a common kitchen spice – is quite toxic to a wide range of harmful bacteria, leading to hopes that it may be enlisted in the fight against MRSA and other pathogens.

Researchers at University of Beira Interior used flow cytometry to study the effects of coriander oil on 12 different disease-causing types of bacteria, including E. coli, Salmonella, B. cereus and MRSA. In the study, published in Journal of Medical Microbiology, the oil significantly inhibited bacterial growth – especially that of MRSA and E. coli.

Researchers found that the coriander oil worked by damaging the membrane around the bacterial cell, interfering with vital functions such as respiration and eventually causing cell death.

Linalool, a terpenoid responsible for coriander’s pleasant scent, is the main constituent, but the coriander oil outperformed linalool alone – showing that interactions between the components in coriander oil made it even more bactericidal.

Finally, the team found that coriander tended to perform better on Gram-negative bacteria such as E. coli and salmonella – as it could more easily disrupt their cell membranes.

Lead researcher Dr. Fernanda Domingues noted that using coriander in foods could help prevent bacterial spoilage and food-borne illnesses, and possibly function as a natural alternative to pharmaceutical antibiotics. The team called for further study to explore practical applications and delivery systems.

Coriander, scientifically known as Coriandrum sativum L. and also called cilantro and Chinese parsley, is an herb used in Mediterranean, Asian, Indian and Mexican cuisine, where it lends its spicy, bracing flavor to chutneys, pickles, sauces and salads.

A staple of folk and herbal medicine, coriander has pain-relieving, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial effects. The seeds have even been used for their mild relaxant, anxiety-easing and mood-elevating properties, and the diluted essential oil has been used to treat topical skin infections.

For this study, researchers used essential oil of coriander, but other research on coriander’s antimicrobial qualities has used other forms, such as freeze-dried powder. Coriander essential oil is one of the most widely-used in the world, and is already in use as a food additive.

The need to develop safe, non-chemical preservatives – and the need to find natural solutions for antibiotic resistant bacteria – mean that studies on natural, herbal substances such as coriander are a “research hotspot.”

Coriander has impressed researchers with its antimicrobial properties, and additional studies attest to that fact.

In a study published in International Journal of Food Nutrition and Safety, researchers found that a water extract of coriander had a very strong inhibitory effect on E. coli and B.subtilis. Many serotypes of E.coli can cause illness, and B. subtilis, while not a disease-causing pathogen, can contaminate food, and cause potatoes to rot.

Researchers found that the coriander extract worked best to inhibit bacteria when it was prepared in a concentration of 10 percent, with a pH of 6 and a salt concentration of 2 percent.

And, a 2015 study published in Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition showed that coriander seed oil exhibited antimicrobial activity against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria – along with some yeasts and fungi. Researchers expressed their belief in the successful development of a food preservation strategy featuring coriander oil.

MRSA continues to threaten lives, while food-borne illnesses affect up to 30 percent of the population of developed countries – yearly. The CDC reports that a type of infection called STEC – Shiga toxin-producing E. coli – strikes a whopping 265,000 people every year in the United States alone, causing symptoms of severe stomach cramps, vomiting and diarrhea.

And, finally, coriander seed oil – non-toxic, non-chemical, and packed with beneficial flavonoids – may very well be the food preservative and antibacterial agent of the future.

Exercise can improve mental health

McGill University (Quebec), August 10, ,2020

One in four men in the world suffer from mental health issues. More men than women die from mental health issues. Dr. Farhan Khawajawho holds a Ph.D in Neuroscience from Mcgill University has said that regular fitness routines can help reduce the number of people whosuffer from long term mental health issues and can save lives.

Dr. Farhan Khawaja has launched a campaign to make men aware of how important regular fitness is to their mental health and well-being. The fitness experts have said regular exercise can help deal with stress and reduce mental health problems.

According to a recent report, more than 450 million people in the world suffer from mental health issues. In the UK more than 16 million people suffer from stress and mental health problems, in the USA that figure stands at 46.6 million. The World Health Organization has said that one in four men suffer from mental health problems and men are more likely than women to lose their life to this rising killer disease. Dr. Farah Khawaja who has called for more to be done to help men who suffer from stress and depression, and mental health problems want more men to turn to exercise to beat this rising problem.

“Exercise and going to the gym and running in the park is not just about losing weight, it can also help with people’s well-being. Regular fitness can be a very highly effective way of dealing with stress, anxiety, and depression. It is the perfect way to help a person to fight the negative feelings they have,” explained Dr. Farhan Khawaja.

In 2019, 6507 deaths were recorded due to suicide, in the USA 129 people take their own life due to mental health problems. Those figures show the importance of why more needs to be done according to Dr. Farhan Khawaja.

It is not just Dr. Farhan Khawaja who has said that regular exercise can help fight depression, stress, and anxiety, scientists have also written many reports on the subject. They have said they have found through studies that exercise can reduce the levels of tension a person may feel and can help elevate and stabilize mood, improve sleep patterns, and improve a person’s self-esteem. According to one scientist report, even five minutes of aerobic exercise can have a positive impact on someone suffering from anxiety and stress.

“We want to see more people exercise. They don’t have to join an expensive gym; they can do exercise in the home or at the park. Through regular exercise it can help boost a person’s overall mood and well-being,” explained Dr. Farhan Khawaja.

Dr. Farhan Khawajabelieves that if more people spent just ten minutes a day exercising, it could help reduce the number of people who suffer from stress.

Study shows how food preservatives may disrupt human hormones and promote obesity

Cedars-Sinai Medicine Institute, August 9, 2020

Can chemicals that are added to breakfast cereals and other everyday products make you obese? Growing evidence from animal experiments suggests the answer may be “yes.” But confirming these findings in humans has faced formidable obstacles – until now.

A new study published today in Nature Communications details how Cedars-Sinai investigators developed a novel platform and protocol for testing the effects of chemicals known as endocrine disruptors on humans.

The three chemicals tested in this study are abundant in modern life. Butylhydroxytoluene (BHT) is an antioxidant commonly added to breakfast cereals and other foods to protect nutrients and keep fats from turning rancid; perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) is a polymer found in some cookware, carpeting and other products; and tributyltin (TBT) is a compound in paints that can make its way into water and accumulate in seafood.

The investigators used hormone-producing tissues grown from human stem cells to demonstrate how chronic exposure to these chemicals can interfere with signals sent from the digestive system to the brain that let people know when they are “full” during meals. When this signaling system breaks down, people often may continue eating, causing them to gain weight.

“We discovered that each of these chemicals damaged hormones that communicate between the gut and the brain,” said Dhruv Sareen, PhD, assistant professor of Biomedical Sciences and director of the Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Core Facility at the Cedars-Sinai Board of Governors Regenerative Medicine Institute. “When we tested the three together, the combined stress was more robust.”

Of the three chemicals tested, BHT produced some of the strongest detrimental effects, Sareen said.

While other scientists have shown these compounds can disrupt hormone systems in laboratory animals, the new study is the first to use human pluripotent stem cells and tissues to document how the compounds may disrupt hormones that are critical to gut-to-brain signaling and preventing obesity in people, Sareen said.

“This is a landmark study that substantially improves our understanding of how endocrine disruptors may damage human hormonal systems and contribute to the obesity epidemic in the U.S.,” said Clive Svendsen, PhD, director of the institute and the Kerry and Simone Vickar Family Foundation Distinguished Chair in Regenerative Medicine. More than one-third of U.S. adults are considered to be obese, according to federal statistics.

The new testing system developed for the study has the potential to provide a much-needed, safe and cost-effective method that can be used to evaluate the health effects of thousands of existing and new chemicals in the environment, the investigators say.

For their experiments, Sareen and his team first obtained blood samples from adults, and then, by introducing reprogramming genes, converted the cells into induced pluripotent stem cells. Then, using these stem cells, the investigators grew human epithelium tissue, which lines the gut, and neuronal tissues of the brain’s hypothalamus region, which regulates appetite and metabolism.

The investigators then exposed the tissues to BHT, PFOA and TBT, one by one and also in combination, and observed what happened inside the cells. They found that the chemicals disrupted networks that prepare signaling hormones to maintain their structure and be transported out of the cells, thus making them ineffective. The chemicals also damaged mitochondria – cellular structures that convert food and oxygen into energy and drive the body’s metabolism.

Because the chemical damage occurred in early-stage “young” cells, the findings suggest that a defective hormone system potentially could impact a pregnant mother as well as her fetus in the womb, Sareen said. While other scientists have found, in animal studies, that effects of endocrine disruptors can be passed down to future generations, this process has not been proved to occur in humans, he explained.

More than 80,000 chemicals are registered for use in the U.S. in everyday items such as foods, personal care products, household cleaners and lawn-care products, according to the National Toxicology Program of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. While the program states on its website that relatively few chemicals are thought to pose a significant risk to human health, it also states: “We do not know the effects of many of these chemicals on our health.”

Cost and ethical issues, including the health risk of exposing human subjects to possibly harmful substances, are among the barriers to testing the safety of many chemicals. As a result, numerous widely used compounds remain unevaluated in humans for their health effects, especially to the hormone system.

“By testing these chemicals on actual human tissues in the lab, we potentially could make these evaluations easier to conduct and more cost-effective,” Sareen said.

Cannabidiol improves blood flow to brain’s hippocampus

University College London, August 11, 2020

A single dose of cannabidiol (CBD) helped increase blood flow to the hippocampus, an important area of the brain associated with memory and emotion, finds a new study led by UCL researchers.

Researchers say the findings could be an important discovery for conditions which affect memory, such as Alzheimer’s disease and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and could help better target therapies.

In the study, published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, researchers set out to investigate how CBD influences cerebral blood flow in different regions on the braininvolved in memory processing.

Lead author, Dr. Michael Bloomfield (UCL Psychiatry) said: “Cannabidiol is one of the main constituents of cannabis and is gaining interest for its therapeutic potential.

“There is evidence that CBD may help reduce symptoms of psychosis and anxiety. There is some evidence to suggest that CBD may improve memory function.

“Additionally, CBD changes how the brain processes emotional memories, which could help to explain its reputed therapeutic effects in PTSD and other psychiatric disorders. However, the precise mechanisms underlying the effects of CBD on memory are unclear.”

For the randomized controlled study, 15 healthy young adult participants, with little or no history of cannabis use were selected.

On different occasions, separated by at least a week, each participant was given a 600 mg of oral CBD or a placebo. The doses came in identical capsules, so participants didn’t know which one they were taking on which occasion.

Researchers measured blood flow to the hippocampus using ‘arterial spin labeling’ – a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scanning technique which measures changes in the blood oxygen levels.

Findings

CBD significantly increased blood flow in the hippocampus, however CBD did not cause significant differences in blood flow in other regions of the medial temporal lobe (MTL), of which the hippocampus is a significant component.

In the prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain used for planning and decision making, CBD caused a significant increase in blood flow in the orbitofrontal cortex.

Dr. Bloomfield added: “To our knowledge, this is the first study to find that CBD increases blood flow to key regions involved in memory processing, particularly the hippocampus.

“This supports the view that CBD has region-specific blood flow effects in the human brain, which has previously been disputed.

“If replicated, these results could lead to further research across a range of conditions characterized by changes in how the brain processes memories, including Alzheimer’s disease, where there are defects in the control of blood control flow, along with schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder.”

Study limitations

This study used a single dose of CBD in healthy volunteers, which may not translate to the effects of repeated CBD dosing.

Study finds cabbage juice contains compounds that promote stomach health and treat peptic ulcers

Stanford University School of Medicine, August 10 2020

Research by Dr. Garnett Cheney of Stanford University School of Medicine shows that treating peptic ulcers with cabbage juice promotes faster healingthan conventional medical treatments.

As early as 1950, Cheney has been conducting studies on cabbage juice to explore its potential as a natural treatment for peptic ulcers. He discovered that a certain compound in cabbage, which he dubbed “vitamin U,” promotes the natural healing of intestinal sores.

Now, numerous studies support Cheney’s claims about the healing properties of cabbage. However, recent reports suggest that it’s not just one, but rather several compounds in the humble cabbage that make it and its juice an effective natural remedy for peptic ulcers.

Cabbage juice helps ulcers heal more quickly than modern meds

Peptic ulcers refer to open sores that form in the stomach lining or the first part of the small intestine called the duodenum. They usually develop due to bacterial infection, although in some cases, they are caused by frequent intake of pain relievers and other medications.

Three types of peptic ulcers exist, namely, gastric ulcer, duodenal ulcer and esophageal ulcer. Gastric ulcer is located in the stomach, while duodenal and esophageal ulcers are located in the duodenum and esophagus, respectively. These ulcers are treated with prescription medicines including antibiotics. However, these drugs come with unwanted side effects.

In his study, Cheney looked at how patients with peptic ulcers respond to cabbage juice treatment. Previous studies on guinea pigs have shown that both fresh whole cabbage and cabbage juice are effective at preventing peptic ulcers from forming.

Cheney recruited 13 patients for his experiment. Seven of them had duodenal ulcers, while five had gastric ulcers. Only one patient had ulcers in another part of the small intestine called the jejunum.

Cheney asked the patients to drink about a liter of cabbage juice each day. They also went through X-ray exams before treatment and six and nine days after the treatment. Cheney considered the absence of ulcers in the post-treatment X-ray results as a sign of healing.

Cheney reported that the average healing time for those with duodenal ulcers who drank cabbage juice daily was 10 days. Meanwhile, the average healing time for those with gastric ulcers was seven days.

In comparison, published findings show that with conventional medicines, healing time averages 37 and 42 days for duodenal and gastric ulcers, respectively.

These findings demonstrate the potential of cabbage juice as an alternative treatment for peptic ulcers. Not only does it accelerate healing, but cabbage juice also doesn’t cause any adverse effects.

Compounds in cabbage juice are good for ulcers?

Researchers now know more about the compound Cheney previously referred to as vitamin U. But instead of being just one compound, recent studies suggest that vitamin U may actually be several different components present in cabbage.

For example, the amino acids, glutamine and methionine, have been identified as good for stomach health. Studies show that a form of methionine called methionine S-methyl sulfonium (MMS) stimulates the production of protective mucous. It’s also equipped with potent antioxidant abilities that combat tissue-damaging oxidative stress.

According to experts, MMS can support stomach healing after exposure to non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or NSAIDs. NSAIDs are also major contributors to peptic ulcers as these medications have been found to damage the stomach lining.

Glutamine, on the other hand, is a natural antacid that is strong enough to counter the effects of acid-reducing drugs. Dr. William Shive from The University of Texas at Austinfound that a high concentration of L-glutamine may partly explain why cabbage juice is capable of healing ulcers.

Cabbage also contains a powerful group of compounds known as glucosinolates. These plant nutrients are said to have protective effects against the bacterium Helicobacter pylori, which is responsible for the majority of ulcer cases. In fact, studies link vegetables rich in glucosinolates to a reduced risk of colorectal, esophageal, mouth and throat cancers.

Oxytocin can help prevent osteoporosis

Fundacao de Ampara do Estado de Sao Paulo (Brazil), August 10, 2020

Oxytocin, produced by the hypothalamus and sometimes known as the “love hormone” for its involvement in pair bonding and orgasm, can be a strong ally in the control and prevention of osteoporosis, according to a study by scientists at São Paulo State University (UNESP) in Brazil.

The study showed that when administered to female rats at the end of their fertile period, the hormone reversed precursors of osteoporosis, such as reduced bone density, decreased bone strength and a lack of substances that promote bone formation.

“Our research focuses on the prevention of primary osteoporosis, so we investigate physiological processes that occur during the premenopausal period. In this part of a woman’s life, measures can be taken to prevent bone brittleness and fractures, which lead to lower quality of life and can shorten life expectancy,” said Rita Menegati Dornelles, a researcher affiliated with UNESP’s Araçatuba Dental School (FOA). Dornelles heads the Endocrine Physiology and Aging Laboratory in the school’s Department of Basic Sciences.

The study was supported by São Paulo Research Foundation – FAPESP. A description of the study is published in Scientific Reports.

According to Dornelles, the important hormonal milestones in a woman’s life are puberty and perimenopause, a transitional period starting some years before menopause itself as the ovaries gradually begin to produce less estrogen. These milestones mark the beginning and end of fertility, respectively.

“There’s a lot of research on the postmenopause phase, which follows a woman’s last period, but hormone swings in perimenopause are already sharp and are associated with a gradual decrease in bone density,” Dornelles said. “More research is needed to support the prevention of osteoporosis during perimenopause, as the period after menopause represents about a third of a woman’s life and should have the best quality possible.”

In the study, the researchers administered two doses of oxytocin 12 hours apart to ten female Wistar rats. They were 18 months old, an unusually advanced age for laboratory rats, which have an average life expectancy of three years. Most in vivo experiments involve young rats that have been ovariectomized, i.e., had their ovaries surgically removed. The study involved rats in “peri-estropause”, considered to be the equivalent of perimenopause in humans, that were undergoing a natural aging process.

Thirty-five days after oxytocin was administered, the researchers analyzed blood samples and samples of tissue from the femoral neck (the upper portion of the femur just below the hip joint and the most common location for a hip fracture), comparing the results with those for ten 18-month-old female Wistar rats that were not given the hormone.

There was no evidence of osteopenia (loss of bone density) in the animals treated with oxytocin, in contrast with the control group. “Our results demonstrated that oxytocin helps to modulate the bone remodeling cycle in senescent rats,” Dornelles said. “The animals that received the hormone displayed an increase in biochemical markers associated with bone renewal and in the expression of proteins that support bone formation and mineralization.”

Analysis of the blood samples showed increased activity of key bone formation markers, such as alkaline phosphatase. “This substance is produced by osteogenic cells and associated with mineralization. We also observed reduced activity of tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase, a marker of bone resorption,” Dornelles said.

The rats treated with oxytocin had denser bones. “We found the femoral neck region to be stronger and less porous. Its biomechanical compression response was better, and it had physico-chemical properties that guaranteed higher density,” she said.

Secreted in bone

Oxytocin is produced by the hypothalamus and released by the pituitary gland. Scientists discovered early in the twentieth century that its release is associated mainly with childbirth and breastfeeding. More recent studies have shown that many other cells also secrete oxytocin.

“It’s secreted by bone cells, and our research has evidenced its association with bone metabolism in females during the aging process. Osteoporosis is more frequent among postmenopausal women, who generally tend to have lower blood plasma levels of oxytocin,” Dornelles said.

The UNESP research group has been studying the involvement of oxytocin in bone metabolism for ten years. “In this time span, we’ve succeeded in characterizing animal models that simulate perimenopause in women,” Dornelles said.

More broken bones

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the number of hip fractures associated with osteoporosis is projected to increase 630% in Brazil by 2050, compared with 50% in developed countries. “The rise has to do with the aging of the Brazilian population,” Dornelles said, adding that quality of life, diet and physical exercise are all important disease prevention factors.

In the study, the researchers focused on the femoral neck because it is the most common location for hip fractures, which are three times as frequent in women as in men. “The consequences of these fractures are very drastic, including loss of mobility and comorbidities,” Dornelles said, adding that hip fractures are associated with high mortality rates: 24% of patients die within 12 months of a hip fracture, and the heightened risk of death can persist for at least five years.

“Loss of function and independence is profound among survivors,” she said. “Approximately 40% become unable to walk independently, and about two-thirds of these need help a year later. Less than half recover their previous level of function.”

In the future, researchers plan to study the effects of oxytocin on osteoporosis prevention in humans. “The hormone is naturally produced in our organism and has been synthesized in the lab. Even so, a long study will be needed to assess its safety and effectiveness and to estimate the appropriate dosage,” Dornelles said.

Plant-based meats improve some cardiovascular risk factors compared with red meat

Stanford University, August 11, 2020

Swapping out red meat for certain plant-based meat alternatives can improve some cardiovascular risk factors, according to a new study by researchers at Stanford Medicine.

The small study was funded by an unrestricted gift from Beyond Meat, which makes plant-based meat alternatives, and used products from the company in comparing the health effects of meat with plant-based alternatives. Beyond Meat was not involved in designing or conducting the study and did not participate in data analysis.

It may seem obvious that a patty made of plants is a healthier option than a hamburger. But many of the new meat alternatives, such as Beyond Meat, have relatively high levels of saturated fat and added sodium and are considered highly processed foods, meaning they are made with food isolates and extracts as opposed to whole beans or chopped mushrooms. All of these factors have been shown to contribute to cardiovascular disease risk, said Christopher Gardner, PhD, professor of medicine at the Stanford Prevention Research Center.

“There’s been this sort of backlash against these new meat alternatives,” Gardner said. “The question is, if you’re adding sodium and coconut oil, which is high in saturated fat, and using processed ingredients, is the product still actually healthy?” To find out, Gardner and his team gathered a group of more than 30 individuals and assigned them to two different diets, each one for eight weeks. One diet called for at least two daily servings of meat — the options available were primarily red meat — and one called for at least two daily servings of plant-based meat.

In particular, the researchers measured the levels of a molecule, trimethylamine N-oxide, or TMAO, in the body; TMAO has been linked to cardiovascular disease risk. They found that TMAO levels were lower when study participants were eating plant-based meat.

A paper describing the results of the study will be published Aug. 11 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Gardner is the senior author of the paper. Postdoctoral scholar Anthony Crimarco, PhD, is the lead author.

Comparing burgers

Gardner, a longtime vegetarian, is a staunch proponent of eating whole foods, with a particular emphasis on vegetables. As nearly all plant-based meats are fairly high in saturated fats and classified as highly processed foods — Beyond Meat included — Gardner wanted to study how they affect the body compared with red meat.

He and his team conducted a study that enrolled 36 participants for 16 weeks of dietary experimentation. Gardner designed the research as a crossover study, meaning participants acted as their own controls. For eight weeks, half of the participants ate the plant-based diet, while the other half ate the meat-based diet consisting of primarily red meat, although some participants ate a small amount of chicken. Then they switched. Regardless of which diet participants were on, both groups had on average two servings of meat or plant-based alternatives per day, carefully tracking their meals in journals and working with members of Gardner’s team to record their eating habits.

The team took precautions to eliminate bias throughout the study, including working with a third party at Stanford, the Quantitative Sciences Unit, to analyze the data once all participants had finished their 16-week dietary interventions. “The QSU helped us draw up a statistical analysis plan, which we published online before the study was completed,” Gardner said. “That way our plan was public, and we were accountable for the specific primary and secondary outcomes that we had initially said we wanted to go after — namely, the participants’ levels of TMAO, blood cholesterol, blood pressure and weight.”

An emerging risk factor

The main outcome the team was interested in tracking, Gardner said, was the level of TMAO.

Gardner calls TMAO “an emerging risk factor,” meaning there seems to be a connection between higher levels of TMAO and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, but the connection has yet to be definitively proved. Two precursors to TMAO, carnitine and choline, are found in red meat, so it’s possible that individuals who regularly eat beef, pork or lamb for dinner will simply have higher levels of TMAO.

“At this point we cannot be sure that TMAO is a causal risk factor or just an association,” Gardner said. However, he sees a reason to pay attention to TMAO readouts. In the past few years, studies have shown that high levels of TMAO are consistent with increased inflammation and blood clotting, among other health concerns. Gardner points to another study in which researchers found that people with elevated TMAO had a 60% higher risk for adverse cardiovascular events, such as a heart attack.

In Gardner’s study, the researchers observed that participants who ate the red-meat diet during the first eight-week phase had an increase in TMAO, while those who ate the plant-based diet first did not. But something peculiar happened when the groups switched diets. Those who transitioned from meat to plant had a decrease in TMAO levels, which was expected. Those who switched from plant to meat, however, did not see an increase in TMAO.

“It was pretty shocking; we had hypothesized that it wouldn’t matter what order the diets were in,” Gardner said. It turns out that there are bacterial species responsible for the initial step of creating TMAO in the gut. These species are thought to flourish in people whose diets are red-meat heavy, but perhaps not in those who avoid meat.

“So for the participants who had the plant-based diet first, during which they ate no meat, we basically made them vegetarians, and in so doing, may have inadvertently blunted their ability to make TMAO,” he said. Whether this type of approach could be used as a strategy for decreasing cardiovascular disease risk remains to be seen.

Beyond TMAO

Outside of TMAO, health benefits conveyed from plant-based alternatives extended to weight and levels of LDL cholesterol — or “bad” cholesterol. No matter which diet was first, participants’ levels of LDL cholesterol dropped on average 10 milligrams per deciliter, which is not only statistically significant, but clinically significant too, Gardner said. In addition, participants lost 2 pounds, on average, during the plant-based portion of the diet.

“The modest weight loss observed when participants substituted the plant-based meats in place of the red meats is an unexpected finding, since this was not a weight-loss study,” Crimarco said. “I think this indicates the importance of diet quality. Not all highly processed foods are created equal.”

Gardner hopes to continue studying the relationship between health and plant-based meat alternatives, particularly as it pertains to changes in the microbiome. Gardner said he’s also interested in expanding his research into diet patterns overall. “Maybe next we’ll look at a combination of dietary factors on health — perhaps alternative meat combined with alternative dairy products,” he said.

Schooling is critical for cognitive health throughout life

University of Texas, August 10, 2020

Investing time in education in childhood and early adulthood expands career opportunities and provides progressively higher salaries. It also conveys certain benefits to health and longevity.

A new analysis published in the journal Psychological Science in the Public Interest (PSPI), however, reveals that even though a more extensive formal education forestalls the more obvious signs of age-related cognitive deficits, it does not lessen the rate of aging-related cognitive declines. Instead, people who have gone further in school attain, on average, a higher level of cognitive function in early and middle adult adulthood, so the initial effects of cognitive aging are initially less obvious and the most severe impairments manifest later than they otherwise would have.

“The total amount of formal education that people receive is related to their average levels of cognitive functioning throughout adulthood,” said Elliot M. Tucker-Drob, a researcher with the University of Texas, Austin, and coauthor on the paper. “However, it is not appreciably related to their rates of aging-related cognitive declines.”

This conclusion refutes the long-standing hypothesis that formal education in childhood through early adulthood meaningfully protects against cognitive aging. Instead, the authors conclude that individuals who have gone further in school tend to decline from a higher peak level of cognitive function. They therefore can experience a longer period of cognitive impairment before dropping below what the authors refer to as a “functional threshold,” the point where cognitive decline becomes so obvious that it interferes with daily activities.

“Individuals vary in their rates of aging-related cognitive declines, but these individual differences are not appreciably related to educational attainment,” notes lead author Martin Lövdén, formerly with the Karolinska Institute and Stockholm University in Sweden and now with the University of Gothenburg.

For their study, the researchers examined data from dozens of prior meta-analyses and cohort studies conducted over the past two decades. The new PSPI report evaluates the conclusions from these past studies to better understand how educational attainment affects both the levels of and changes in cognitive function in aging and dementia.

Although some uncertainties remain after their analysis, the authors note, a broader picture of how education relates to cognitive aging is emerging quite clearly. Throughout adulthood, cognitive function in individuals with more years of schooling is, on average, higher than cognitive function in those with fewer years of schooling.

This review highlights the importance of formal education for cognitive development over the course of childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood. According to the researchers, childhood education has important implications for the well-being of individuals and societies not just during the years of employment, but throughout life, including old age. “This message may be particularly relevant as governments decide if, when, and how to reopen schools during the COVID-19 pandemic. Such decisions could have consequences for many decades to come,” said Tucker-Drob.

The authors conclude that improving the conditions that shape development during the first decades of life carries great potential for improving cognitive ability in early adulthood and for reducing public-health burdens related to cognitive aging and dementia.

That little voice in your head—if you have it—may be aligning your thoughts

University of Wisconsin, August 10, 2020

It’s not uncommon these days to have some time alone with your thoughts. But what does that sound like, if it sounds like anything at all?

Many people feel their thoughts take the form of an inner voice, a sort of conversation with themselves in their mind, according to a new questionnaire on inner voices developed by University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers. Others discover (often through the internet) this way of experiencing thoughts, and are thoroughly confused by the idea.

“It’s much easier to see physical differences, that someone can jump higher than you, or run faster,” says Gary Lupyan, a UW–Madison psychology professor who studies language and cognition. “But the masked differences—differences in how you perceive something or how you think about something—those are much harder to discover. You sort of have to have people comparing notes.”

Variations in the way our minds conjure images and spoken words are a recurring topic for posts on Facebook and Reddit. Software engineer Blake Ross posted to Facebook in 2016 an essay about what he described as “as close to an honest-to-goodness revelation as I will ever live in the flesh. Here it is: You can visualize things in your mind.”

Ross wrote that he could not. Not a specific thing like his father’s face, or a generalized beach scene. Thousands of comments poured in.

When a Reddit user posted a video about the various ways people describe their thoughts, many commenters expressed confusion. “Sometimes I react to something and say it in my head instead of out loud, but this is not an all-day, everyday occurrence,” wrote one commenter. “Do I think as patterns? I don’t know what that means … I’m feeling baffled by all of this.”

Previous questionnaires about inner voices have focused on different questions: say, does an inner voice serve as a method of self-assessment or to provide motivation.

“What we’re looking at is a propensity. How frequently do people report doing these things?” says Hettie Roebuck, a postdoctoral researcher in Lupyan’s lab and coauthor of the Internal Representations Questionnaire, published with its first results this spring in the journal Behavioral Research Methods. “This idea of inner speech has not been studied much at all, and our measure provides it in the context of things like visual imagery and orthographic imagery (visualizing text).”

The propensity tilts toward voice-hearers.

Just 19% of the new questionnaire’s 232 respondents (all adults) disagreed with the statement, “I hear words in my ‘mind’s ear’ when I think.” Sixteen percent disagreed with the statement, “I think about problems in my mind in the form of a conversation with myself.”

And while questionnaire responses back up the anecdotal confusion in online discussions, they also contradict the way respondents imagine other people’s internal lives.

“The people who tell us they don’t really experience inner speech, they assume that others don’t either. And someone who experiences a lot, they assume that others do as well,” says Lupyan. “It’s interesting, though, that there’s no evidence of bimodality—that you either hear thoughts this way or you don’t. People like categories and types, but the reality is people fall on a continuum from little to a lot.

The results were stable over time, with subjects scoring similar levels of inner voice activity in questionnaires administered months apart, and gave the researchers an opportunity to study its relationship with other aspects of their thinking.

In one experiment, participants were shown pictures of an object, followed by a word that either described the pictured object or not. All they had to do was tell researchers if the picture and the word matched. But there was a hitch. Sometimes mismatched pairs rhymed, like a picture of a tree followed by the word “key.”

“The cool thing is, the people who say they verbalize their thoughts to a greater extent take much longer to answer if those pictures and words rhyme,” Roebuck says. “Even though the words are never said out loud, they are slowed down by combinations like key and tree or bear and hair or snail and whale.”

People whose questionnaire results show them leaning toward orthographic imagery—seeing words as they think—were tripped up by a different sort of relationship. They were slower to answer if the word for the picture they were shown and the actual word they saw look similar when they’re both written out.

“Think about the words ‘root’ and ‘foot’ or ‘comb’ and ‘bomb.’ They sound different but they’re spelled in very similar ways,” Roebuck says. “So, the people who say they think more frequently by seeing words written down, they take longer to sort this out when there’s visual similarity to the words—again, even though that picture they’ve seen has no text in it whatsoever.”

It’s evidence that the differences in visual and “audible” representations in their mind are connected to differences in the way they organize their thoughts.

“To the extent that someone is using language more in moment-to-moment cognition, language may also be aligning their mental spaces,” Lupyan says.

Building a way to consistently describe personal differences in internal verbalization and visual or orthographic imagery can help researchers trying to study different modes of alignment.

“The people who score low on inner speech, there’s a lot less known about what their experiences are like,” says Lupyan. “People say things like, ‘I think in ideas,’ or, ‘I think in concepts,’ and it’s not really clear what that is. Being able to identify these people opens up the possibility of better understanding of how they are thinking.”

Cannabis use in pregnancy linked to a greater risk of autism

Ottawa Hospital (Canada), August 10, 2020

In the largest study of its kind, Ottawa researchers found that children whose mothers reported using cannabis during pregnancy were at greater risk of autism. The incidence of autism was 4 per 1000 person-years among children exposed to cannabis in pregnancy, compared to 2.42 among unexposed children. The findings were published in the prestigious medical journal Nature Medicine.

Recreational cannabis is now legal in Canada, but that doesn’t mean it’s safe for people who are pregnant or breastfeeding. Health Canada and the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada recommend against these populations using cannabis, and health warnings to this effect appear on cannabis packaging.

“Despite these warnings, there is evidence that more people are using cannabis during pregnancy,” said Dr. Mark Walker, Chief of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Newborn Care at The Ottawa Hospital, professor at the University of Ottawa and senior author on the study. “This is concerning, because we know so little about how cannabis affects pregnant women and their babies. Parents-to-be should inform themselves of the possible risks, and we hope studies like ours can help.”

The research team reviewed data from every birth in Ontario between 2007 and 2012, before recreational cannabis was legalized. Of the half a million women in the study, about 3,000 (0.6 percent) reported using cannabis during pregnancy.

The researchers had previously found that cannabis use in pregnancy was linked to an increased risk of preterm birth, and created an animated video to summarize their findings. In that study, they found that women who used cannabis during pregnancy often used other substances including tobacco, alcohol and opioids.

Considering those findings, in the current study the researchers specifically looked at 2,200 women who reported using only cannabis during pregnancy, and no other substances. They found that babies born to this group still had an increased risk of autism compared to those who did not use cannabis.

The researchers do not know how much cannabis the women were using, how often, at what time during their pregnancy, or how it was consumed. They also note that while they tried to control for other factors that could influence neurological development, their study can still only show association – not cause and effect.

As cannabis becomes more socially acceptable, health-care researchers are mindful that some parents-to-be might think it can be used to treat morning sickness.

“In the past, we haven’t had good data on the effect of cannabis on pregnancies,” said Dr. Daniel Corsi, Epidemiologist at The Ottawa Hospital and BORN Ontario, which is affiliated with the CHEO Research Institute. “This is one of the largest studies on this topic to date. We hope our findings will help women and their health-care providers make informed decisions.”

Women who are thinking about or currently using cannabis during pregnancy should talk to their health-care provider to help make an informed choice about what is best for them and their baby.

Eating nuts twice a week helps boost heart health and lowers heart attack risk: Study

Isfahan Cardiovascular Research Institute (Iran), August 1, 2020

A recent study has found that consuming nuts at least two times a week is linked to a 17 percent reduced risk of death from cardiovascular disease.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death not just in the United States but worldwide. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about 647,000 Americans die from heart disease annually. This means that one in every four deaths is due to heart disease.

The findings of the study, which were presented at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress 2019, demonstrate the importance of adding nuts to a healthy diet in order to prevent cardiac events, such as a heart attack.

“Nuts are a good source of unsaturated fat and contain little saturated fat. They also have protein, minerals, vitamins, fiber, phytosterols and polyphenols that benefit heart health,” said Dr. Noushin Mohammadifard, one of the authors of the study.

Eat nuts twice a week for a healthier heart

For their study, the researchers looked at the link between nut consumption and the risk of cardiovascular disease and death in the Iranian population. They considered coronary heart disease, stroke, total cardiovascular disease, all-cause mortality and death from cardiovascular disease as specific outcomes.

The researchers recruited 5,432 Iranians aged 35 and older who had no prior history of cardiovascular disease. They interviewed the participants every two years for the occurrence of cardiovascular conditions and death.

The researchers assessed the participants’ nut intake using a validated food frequency questionnaire. Walnuts, almonds, pistachios, hazelnuts and seeds were some of the nut varieties that appeared in the participants’ diet.

After a median 12-year follow-up, the researchers recorded a total of 751 cardiovascular events, 594 of which were due to coronary heart disease and 157 were related to stroke. Of these, 179 resulted in cardiovascular deaths while 458 corresponded to all-cause deaths.

The researchers found that eating nuts two or more times a week was linked to a 17 percent lower risk of cardiovascular death. This association remained consistent even after controlling for a range of variables, such as age, sex, education, smoking and physical activity. (Related: Go nuts for nuts: Long-term nut consumption can reduce your risk of obesity and reduce weight gain.)

However, Mohammadifard noted that nuts should be eaten raw and fresh as these are the healthiest. Raw unsaturated fats in stale nuts can be oxidized, making them harmful to human health.

Furthermore, the researchers cautioned that nuts should be eaten in moderation as they are high in calories. Nuts provide about 70 to 200 calories per ounce of serving. Although the study recommends increasing your nut intake, you should limit your consumption to moderate amounts. The ESC recommends consuming no more than 30 grams of unsalted nuts daily as part of a healthy diet.

Researchers propose new treatment to prevent kidney stones – HCA in Garcinia Cambogia

University of Houston, August 8, 2020

Researchers have found evidence that a natural fruit extract is capable of dissolving calcium oxalate crystals, the most common component of human kidney stones. This finding could lead to the first advance in the treatment of calcium oxalate stones in 30 years.

Jeffrey Rimer, associate professor of chemical engineering at the University of Houston, was lead author of the study, published Aug. 8 in the online edition of Nature. The work offers the first evidence that the compound hydroxycitrate (HCA) is an effective inhibitor of calcium oxalate crystal growth that, under certain conditions, is actually able to dissolve these crystals. Researchers also explain how it works.

The findings are the result of a combination of experimental studies, computational studies and human studies, Rimer said.

Kidney stones are small, hard mineral deposits that form inside the kidneys, affecting up to 12 percent of men and seven percent of women. High blood pressure, diabetes and obesity can increase the risk, and the reported incidence is on the rise. Preventive treatment has not changed much over the last three decades. Doctors tell patients who are at risk of developing stones to drink lots of water and avoid foods rich in oxalate, such as rhubarb, okra, spinach and almonds. They often recommend taking citrate (CA), in the form of potassium citrate, a supplement that can slow crystal growth, but some people are unable to tolerate the side effects. The project grew out of preliminary work done by collaborator John Asplin, a nephrologist at Litholink Corporation, who suggested HCA as a possible treatment. HCA is chemically similar to CA and is also available as a dietary supplement.

“HCA shows promise as a potential therapy to prevent kidney stones,” the researchers wrote. “HCA may be preferred as a therapy over CA (potassium citrate).”

In addition to Rimer and Asplin, authors on the paper include Giannis Mpourmpakis and his graduate student, Michael G. Taylor, of the University of Pittsburgh; Ignacio Granja of Litholink Corporation, and Jihae Chung, a UH graduate student working in Rimer’s lab.

The head-to-head studies of CA and HCA determined that while both compounds inhibit the growth of calcium oxalate crystals, HCA was more potent and displayed unique qualities that are advantageous for the development of new therapies.

The team of researchers then used atomic force microscopy, or AFM, to study interactions between the crystals, CA and HCA under realistic growth conditions. According to Rimer, the technique allowed them to record crystal growth in real time with near-molecular resolution.

Chung noted that the AFM images recorded the crystal actually shrinking when exposed to specific concentrations of HCA. Rimer suspected the initial finding was an abnormality, as it is rare to see a crystal actually dissolve in highly supersaturated growth solutions. The most effective inhibitors reported in the literature simply stop the crystal from growing.

It turned out that Chung’s initial finding was correct. Once they confirmed it is possible to dissolve crystals in supersaturated solutions, researchers then looked at reasons to explain why that happened.

Mpourmpakis and Taylor applied density functional theory (DFT) – a highly accurate computational method used to study the structure and properties of materials – to address how HCA and CA bind to calcium and to calcium oxalate crystals. They discovered HCA formed a stronger bond with crystal surfaces, inducing a strain that is seemingly relieved by the release of calcium and oxalate, leading to crystal dissolution. HCA was also tested in human subjects, as seven people took the supplement for three days, allowing researchers to determine that HCA is excreted through urine, a requirement for the supplement to work as a treatment.

While Rimer said the research established the groundwork to design an effective drug, questions remain. Long-term safety, dosage and additional human trials are needed, he said.

“But our initial findings are very promising,” he said. “If it works in vivo, similar to our trials in the laboratory, HCA has the potential to reduce the incidence rate of people with chronic kidney stone disease.”

Can Boosting the Immune System Treat Covid-19

Washington University in St Louis, August 10, 2020

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to claim lives around the world, much research has focused on the immune system’s role in patients who become seriously ill.

A popular theory has it that the immune system gets so revved up fighting the virus that, after several days, it produces a so-called cytokine storm that results in potentially fatal organ damage, particularly to the lungs.

But the new findings point to another theory and suggest that patients become ill because their immune systems can’t do enough to protect them from the virus, landing them in intensive care units.

Researchers detailed the new strategy to boost the immune system in two papers, in JAMA Network Open and in the journal JCI Insight.

“People around the world have been treating patients seriously ill with COVID-19 using drugs that do very different things,” says senior investigator Richard S. Hotchkiss, professor of anesthesiology, of medicine, and of surgery at Washington University in St. Louis.

“Some drugs tamp down the immune response, while others enhance it. Everybody seems to be throwing the kitchen sink at the illness. It may be true that some people die from a hyperinflammatory response, but it appears more likely to us that if you block the immune system too much, you’re not going to be able to control the virus.”

The researchers have been investigating a similar approach in treating sepsis, a potentially fatal condition that also involves patients who simultaneously seem to have overactive and weakened immune systems.

Hotchkiss points to autopsy studies performed by other groups showing large amounts of coronavirus present in the organs of people who died from COVID-19, suggesting that their immune systems were not working well enough to fight the virus.

His colleague, Kenneth E. Remy, first author of the JCI Insight paper, compares efforts to inhibit the immune system to fixing a flat tire by letting more air out.

“But when we actually looked closely at these patients, we found that their tires, so to speak, were underinflated or immune-suppressed,” says Remy, assistant professor of pediatrics, of medicine, and of anesthesiology.

“To go and poke holes in them with anti-inflammatory drugs because you think they are hyperinflated or hyperinflamed will only make the suppression and the disease worse.”

After gathering blood samples from 20 COVID-19 patients at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Missouri Baptist Medical Center in St. Louis, the researchers employed a test to measure the activity of immune cells in the blood. They compared the blood of those patients to 26 hospitalized sepsis patients and 18 others who were very sick but had neither sepsis nor COVID-19.

They found that the COVID-19 patients often had far fewer circulating immune cells than is typical. Further, the present immune cells did not secrete normal levels of cytokines—the molecules many have proposed as a cause of organ damage and death in COVID-19 patients.

Instead of trying to fight the infection by further interfering with the production of cytokines, they tried a strategy that has been successful in previous studies they have conducted in sepsis patients.

Hotchkiss and Remy collaborated with researchers in a small study conducted in seriously ill hospitalized COVID-19 patients in Belgium.

In that study, which the researchers reported on in the JAMA Network Open paper, researchers treated the COVID-19 patients with a substance called interleukin-7 (IL-7), a cytokine, required for the healthy development of immune cells.

In those patients, the researchers found that IL-7 helped restore balance to the immune system by increasing the number of immune cells and helping those cells make more cytokines to fight infection.

The research did not demonstrate, however, that treatment with IL-7 improved mortality in COVID-19 patients.

“This was a compassionate trial and not a randomized, controlled trial of IL-7,” Remy explains. “We were attempting to learn whether we could get these immune cells working again—and we could—as well as whether we could do it without causing harmful effects in these very sick patients—and there were none.

“As this was an observational study involving a small number of patients who already were on ventilators, it wasn’t really designed to evaluate IL-7’s impact on mortality.”

Studies focused on boosting immunity and improving outcomes among the sickest COVID-19 patients are just getting underway in Europe, and similar trials are starting in the US, including at Washington University.

Finding ways to boost the immune response should help not only in COVID-19 patients but when the next pandemic arises, Hotchkiss says.

“We should have been geared up and more ready when this pathogen appeared,” he says. “But what Ken and I and our colleagues are working on now is finding ways to boost the immune system that may help people during future pandemics. We think if we can make our immune systems stronger, we’ll be better able to fight off this coronavirus, as well as other viral and bacterial pathogens that may be unleashed in the future.”

Blueberries may help support muscle

Cornell University. August 10 2020.

Findings from a study reported on July 17, 2020 in the Journal of Nutrition suggest that consuming a blueberry-rich diet may help improve musclegrowth and repair in women.

The study included 12 women between the ages of 21 and 40 years and 10 women aged 60 to 79. The women consumed 19 grams freeze-dried blueberries in the morning and evening (the equivalent of 1.75 cups of fresh blueberries per day) for six weeks in addition to their regular diet, while avoiding other foods that contain high amounts of polyphenols and anthocyanins. Serum samples were collected prior to the intervention, 1.5 hours after a morning dose of blueberries, and at four and six weeks. Serum was administered to cultured human muscle progenitor cells to determine the effects of blueberries on muscle cell proliferation, oxidative stress and metabolism.

Serum collected from the younger women at six weeks resulted in a 40% increase in cultured muscle progenitor cells in comparison with serum collected at the beginning of the study. It was also associated with greater resistance to oxidative-stress induced cell death and improved oxygen consumption. Serum derived from the older group was not associated with any benefit.

“The consequences associated with the deterioration of skeletal muscle are a loss of mobility, decreased quality of life, and ultimately, loss of independence,” observed lead researcher Anna Thalacker-Mercer, PhD. “Currently, research on dietary interventions to support skeletal muscle regeneration in humans is limited. This preliminary study of muscle progenitor cell function paves the way for future studies to develop clinical interventions. While the results cannot be generalized to all populations, this study is an important step in translating findings from cell culture and rodent studies to a potential dietary therapy for improving muscle regeneration after injury and during the aging process.”

Novel predictive risk factor of erectile dysfunction: lower levels of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D

Recep Tayyip Erdogan University (Turkey), August 6, 2020

According to news reporting from Rize, Turkey, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “The present study aimed to investigate the association between the severity of erectile dysfunction (ED) and serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D. It also sought to determine the cut-off level of serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D for ED.”

The news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from Recep Tayyip Erdogan University, “This study included 130 men who had ED between 2018 and 2019. Patients were divided into three groups according to their scores on the international index of erectile function-5 (IIEF-5) Turkish validated short form questionnaire. The serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D results were compared between the groups. The mean age of the patients was 49.28 ? 13.62 years. Groups 1, 2 and 3 included 44 (33.8%) patients with severe ED, 56 (43.1%) patients with moderate ED and 30 (23.1%) patients with mild ED, respectively. Statistical significance was observed between the groups and serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D levels. A positive correlation was detected between the IIEF-5 scores, serum testosterone and serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D levels. A cut-off level for serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D was calculated as 27.32 ng/ml. During multivariate analysis, we found that serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D levels were independent prognostic risk factors for decreased IIEF-5 scores. Decreased serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D levels were associated with decreased IIEF-5 scores.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “Therefore, vitamin D replacement therapy may improve symptoms.”

Aspirin may accelerate progression of advanced cancers in older adults

Massachusetts General Hospital, August 10, 2020

Results from a recent clinical trial indicate that for older adults with advanced cancer, initiating aspirin may increase their risk of disease progression and early death.

The study, which was conducted by a binational team led by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), the Berman Center in Minnesota, and Monash University in Australia, is published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Compelling evidence from clinical trials that included predominantly middle-aged adults demonstrates that aspirin may reduce the risk of developing cancer, especially colorectal cancer. Information is lacking for older adults, however.

To provide insights, investigators designed and initiated the ASPirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly (ASPREE) trial, the first randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial of daily low-dose aspirin (100 mg) in otherwise healthy older adults. The study included 19,114 Australian and U.S. community-dwelling participants aged 70+ years (U.S. minorities 65+ years) without cardiovascular disease, dementia, or physical disability at the start of the study. Participants were randomized to aspirin or placebo and followed for a median of 4.7 years.

In October 2018, the investigators published a very surprising and concerning report showing an association between aspirin use and an elevated risk of death, primarily due to cancer. The current report now provides a more comprehensive analysis of the cancer-related effects of aspirin in the ASPREE participants. “We conducted this study as a more detailed examination of the effect of aspirin on the development of cancer as well as death from cancer,” explained senior author Andrew T. Chan, MD, MPH, Chief of the Clinical and Translational Epidemiology Unit at MGH, Director of Epidemiology at the MGH Cancer Center, and a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Chan and his colleagues reported that 981 participants who were taking aspirin and 952 who were taking placebo developed cancer. There was no statistically significant difference between the groups for developing cancer overall or for developing specific types of cancer. Aspirin was associated with a 19% higher risk of being diagnosed with cancer that had spread (or metastasized) and a 22% higher risk of being diagnosed with stage 4, or advanced, cancer, however. Also, among participants who were diagnosed with advanced cancer, those taking aspirin had a higher risk of dying during follow-up than those taking placebo.

“Deaths were particularly high among those on aspirin who were diagnosed with advanced solid cancers, suggesting a possible adverse effect of aspirin on the growth of cancers once they have already developed in older adults,” said Dr. Chan. He added that the findings suggest the possibility that aspirin might act differently, at the cellular or molecular level, in older people, which requires further study.

Notably, the vast majority of the study participants did not previously take aspirin before age 70. “Although these results suggest that we should be cautious about starting aspirin therapy in otherwise healthy older adults, this does not mean that individuals who are already taking aspirin–particularly if they began taking it at a younger age–should stop their aspirin regimen,” Dr. Chan added.

Two new studies explore how pollution affects the brain

University of Southern California, August 7, 2020

A pair of recently published USC studies add to our growing understanding of how fine particle pollution—the tiny, inhalable pollutants from cars and power plants—impacts our brains.

The first study, published in Environment International, found that these fine particles—known as PM2.5—may alter the size of a child’s developing brain, which may ultimately increase the risk for cognitive and emotional problems later in adolescence.

“At this young age, the neurons in children’s brains are expanding and pruning at an incredible rate. As your brain develops, it wants to create efficient pathways,” said lead author Megan Herting, an assistant professor at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. “If these pathways are altered by PM2.5 exposure, and different parts of the brain are maturing and making connections at different rates, that might set you up for individual differences later on.”

USC, located in what the American Lung Association frequently cites as the most polluted city in the nation, is home to a robust air pollution research program. Findings from its studies have led to changes in state and federal guidelines to improve air quality standards. One of its cornerstones is the USC Children’s Health Study, one of the largest and most detailed studies of the long-term effects of air pollution.

Herting’s team used MRI scans from nearly 11,000 children aged nine and 10 from 21 cities across the United States and matched each scan with yearly pollution data for each child’s residence. This is the first study of its kind to show that, even at relatively low levels, current PM2.5 exposure may be an important environmental factor that influences patterns of brain development in American children.

When they compared highly exposed kids with those who had less exposure to PM2.5, they saw differences. For example, areas associated with emotion were larger in highly exposed kids, while other areas associated with cognitive functioning were smaller.

Herting plans to follow the progress of the children, who are part of the ABCD Study, the largest long-term study of brain health and child development in the United States.

Eating fish could help protect women’s brains against fine particle pollution

The second study, published in Neurology, found that omega-3 fatty acids from consuming fish may protect against PM 2.5-associated brain shrinkage in older women.

Previous USC research showed that women in their 70s and 80s who were exposed to higher levels of air pollution experienced greater declines in memory and more Alzheimer’s-like brain atrophy than their counterparts who breathed cleaner air.

For this study, researchers looked at the brain MRIs of 1,315 women aged 65 to 80 and blood test results to determine levels of healthy omega-3 fatty acids in their blood.

“We found that women with higher blood levels of omega-3s had larger volumes of white matter in their brains. Women living in locations with higher PM2.5 tended to have smaller white matter in their brains, but such damage that may be caused by PM2.5 was greatly reduced in women with high blood levels of omega-3 fatty acids,” said corresponding author Jiu-Chiuan Chen, an associate professor at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.

The brain’s white matter, in contrast to gray matter, makes up most of the volume of the brain. It is the vast, intertwining system of neural connections that unites different regions of the brain that perform various mental operations. White matter loss may be an early marker of Alzheimer’s disease.

Resveratrol: The key to reducing elderly frailty?

Universidad Pablo de Olavide (Spain) , August 9, 2020

The so-called red wine nutrient resveratrol may help maintain muscle performance and reduce frailty in the elderly, research in mice has suggested.

Using 48 young, mature and old mice models, the study found resveratrol improved muscle performance in the mature and old animals but not in the young.

They found resveratrol – found in grapes, red wine, walnuts, peanuts and berries – “primed” the effect of exercise by increasing endurance, coordination and strength in the old animals as well as providing higher protection against oxidative damage and an increase in the mitochondrial mass responsible for the energy-generating process essential for cell metabolism.

“Our results indicate that resveratrol can be considered an ergogenic compound that helps maintain muscle performance during ageing and subsequently reduces frailty and increases muscle performance in old individuals practising moderate exercise,” wrote the researchers from Universidad Pablo de Olavide in Seville, Spain and the Vietnam National University in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Study details

Each experiment group animal was given a daily dose of about 500 μg of resveratrol for 4.5 months. After this period the mice were randomly divided again into sedentary and trained groups.

The trained mice were adapted to exercise then put on a rodent treadmill for 20 minutes per day, five days a week for six weeks.

The animals were then killed by cervical dislocation and the gastrocnemius muscle was quickly removed.

Old polyphenol, young results

Discussing the results, lead author and professor at the Universidad Pablo de Olavide Dr Guillermo Lopez-Lluch told us while this was not the first time the polyphenol had been looked at withinhealth ageing, this was the first time it had been associated with the improvement of muscle capacity in ageing.

Asked if the results meant older people should be recommended or even prescribed resveratrol, Professor Lopez-Lluch said: “The use of nutraceuticals such as resveratrol can be recommended in the case of poor diets lacking fresh vegetables rich in polyphenols.

“In aged people an unbalanced diet must be supplemented with extracts rich in these compounds accompanied by a more active life.”

In 2011 research in Italy estimated between 11–50% of over 80s suffer from age-related muscle loss sarcopenia, with the problem particularly prevalent in care homes.

“Maintenance of muscle functionality is important to avoid frailty and to increase the independence and quality of life during ageing. It seems clear that for daily life activity, and hence a good quality of life, not only strength but also endurance is needed,” the researchers wrote in the British Journal of Nutrition.

“Apart from the maintenance of a series of basic exercises, several nutritional bioactive compounds have been proposed to increase muscle function during ageing and to avoid sarcopenia.”

The researchers said the “most controversial problem” with identifying effects of bioactive compounds was to find if the positive effects found in preclinical studies in animals produced the same response in humans.

“Regarding the effect of different polyphenols on physical capacity in humans, different clinical trials carried out to date have been unsuccessful or show controversial results and further studies are needed.”

Yet Professor Lopez-Lluch said his research team did not have plans to study this effect of resveratrol in humans.

Instead they were currently awaiting funds to carry out a study about exercise, quality of nutrition and quality of life in elderly people.

“We hope this study will get a grant in the next months.”

Mouthwashes could reduce the risk of coronavirus transmission

Cell culture experiments show that commercially available preparations have an effect on Sars-Cov-2 viruses

Ruhr University Bochum (Germany), August 10, 2020

Sars-Cov-2 viruses can be inactivated using certain commercially available mouthwashes. This was demonstrated in cell culture experiments by virologists from Ruhr-Universität Bochum together with colleagues from Jena, Ulm, Duisburg-Essen, Nuremberg and Bremen. High viral loads can be detected in the oral cavity and throat of some Covid-19 patients. The use of mouthwashes that are effective against Sars-Cov-2 could thus help to reduce the viral load and possibly the risk of coronavirus transmission over the short term. This could be useful, for example, prior to dental treatments. However, mouth rinses are not suitable for treating Covid-19 infections or protecting yourself against catching the virus.

The results of the study are described by the team headed by Toni Meister, Professor Stephanie Pfänder and Professor Eike Steinmann from the Bochum-based Molecular and Medical Virology research group in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, published online on 29 July 2020. A review of laboratory results in clinical trials is pending.

Eight mouthwashes in a cell culture test

The researchers tested eight mouthwashes with different ingredients that are available in pharmacies or drugstores in Germany. They mixed each mouthwash with virus particles and an interfering substance, which was intended to recreate the effect of saliva in the mouth. The mixture was then shaken for 30 seconds to simulate the effect of gargling. They then used Vero E6 cells, which are particularly receptive to Sars-Cov-2, to determine the virus titer. In order to assess the efficacy of the mouthwashes, the researchers also treated the virus suspensions with cell culture medium instead of the mouthwash before adding them to the cell culture.

All of the tested preparations reduced the initial virus titer. Three mouthwashes reduced it to such an extent that no virus could be detected after an exposure time of 30 seconds. Whether this effect is confirmed in clinical practice and how long it lasts must be investigated in further studies.

The authors point out that mouthwashes are not suitable for treating Covid-19. “Gargling with a mouthwash cannot inhibit the production of viruses in the cells,” explains Toni Meister, “but could reduce the viral load in the short term where the greatest potential for infection comes from, namely in the oral cavity and throat – and this could be useful in certain situations, such as at the dentist or during the medical care of Covid-19 patients.”

Clinical studies in progress

The Bochum group is examining the possibilities of a clinical study on the efficacy of mouthwashes on Sars-Cov-2 viruses, during which the scientists want to test whether the effect can also be detected in patients and how long it lasts. Similar studies are already underway in San Francisco; the Bochum team is in contact with the American researchers.

Link confirmed between healthy diet and prostate cancer prevention

University of Calgary, August 6, 2020

The Canadian Cancer Society estimates that more than 23,000 Canadians will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2020. Among other risk factors, more and more studies point to diet as a major factor in the development of prostate cancer, as it is for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity. Using data from a study conducted in Montreal between 2005 and 2012, a research team led by Professor Marie-Elise Parent of Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) has shown a link between diet and prostate cancer in the article “Dietary Patterns Are Associated with Risk of Prostate Cancer in a Population-Based Case-Control Study in Montreal, Canada”, published in Nutrients in June.

Three main dietary profiles analyzed

INRS PhD student Karine Trudeau, the lead author of the study, based her analysis on three main dietary profiles: healthy diet, salty Western diet including alcohol, and sugar-rich Western diet with beverages. The first profile leans heavily towards fruits, vegetables, and plant proteins like tofu and nuts. The salty Western diet with alcohol includes more meat and beverages such as beer and wine. The third profile is rich in pasta, pizza, desserts, and sugary carbonated drinks. The study took age, ethnicity, education, family history, and date of last prostate cancer screening into account.

Marie-Elise Parent and Karine Trudeau found a link between a healthy diet and a lower risk of prostate cancer. Conversely, a Western diet with sweets and beverages was associated with a higher risk and seemed to be a factor in more aggressive forms of cancer. The study did not show any clear link between a Western diet with salt and alcohol and the risk of developing the disease.

Moving away from the typical approach used in epidemiological studies, which involves looking at one nutrient or food group at a time, the researchers collected data from a broader dietary profile. “It’s not easy to isolate the effect of a single nutrient,” explained Ms. Trudeau. “For example, foods rich in vitamin C, such as citrus fruits, promote iron absorption. Calcium is often found in dairy products, which also contain vitamin D. Our more targeted approach takes this synergy into account to produce more meaningful results that public health authorities can use to formulate recommendations. Rather than counting on one miracle food, people should look at their overall diet.”

“For a long time we’ve suspected that diet might play a role in the development of prostate cancer, but it was very hard to pinpoint the specific factors at play,” said Professor Parent. “This study is significant because it looks at dietary habits as a whole. We’ve uncovered evidence that, we hope, can be used to develop prevention strategies for prostate cancer, the most common cancer among men in Canadaand many other countries.”

Compounds in ‘monster’ radish could help tame cardiovascular disease

American Chemical Society, August 9, 2020

Step aside carrots, onions and broccoli. The newest heart-healthy vegetable could be a gigantic, record-setting radish. In a study appearing in ACS’ Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, scientists report that compounds found in the Sakurajima Daikon, or “monster,” radish could help protect coronary blood vessels and potentially prevent heart disease and stroke. The finding could lead to the discovery of similar substances in other vegetables and perhaps lead to new drug treatments.

Grown for centuries in Japan, the Sakurajima Daikon is one of the Earth’s most massive vegetables. In 2003, the Guinness Book of World Records certified a Sakurajima weighing nearly 69 pounds as the world’s heaviest radish. Radishes are good sources of antioxidants and reportedly can reduce high blood pressure and the threat of clots, a pair of risk factors for heart attack and stroke. But to date, no studies have directly compared the heart-health benefits of the Sakurajima Daikon to other radishes. To address this knowledge gap, Katsuko Kajiya and colleagues sought to find out what effects this radish would have on nitric oxide production, a key regulator of coronary blood vessel function, and to determine its underlying mechanisms.

The researchers exposed human and pig vascular endothelial cells to extracts from Sakurajima Daikon and smaller radishes. Using fluorescence microscopy and other analytical techniques, the research team found the Sakurajima Daikon radish induced more nitric oxide production in these vascular cells than a smaller Japanese radish. They also identified trigonelline, a plant hormone, as the active component in Sakurajima Daikon that appears to promote a cascade of changes in coronary blood vessels resulting improved nitric oxide production.

Placebos prove powerful even when people know they’re taking one

Michigan State University, August 7, 2020

How much of a treatment is mind over matter? It is well documented that people often feel better after taking a treatment without active ingredients simply because they believe it’s real — known as the placebo effect.

A team of researchers from Michigan State University, University of Michigan and Dartmouth College is the first to demonstrate that placebos reduce brain markers of emotional distress even when people know they are taking one.

Now, evidence shows that even if people are aware that their treatment is not “real” — known as nondeceptive placebos — believing that it can heal can lead to changes in how the brain reacts to emotional information.

“Just think: What if someone took a side-effect free sugar pill twice a day after going through a short convincing video on the power of placebos and experienced reduced stress as a result?”, said Darwin Guevarra, MSU postdoctoral fellow and the study’s lead author. “These results raise that possibility.”

The new findings, published in the most recent edition of the journal Nature Communications, tested how effective nondeceptive placebos — or, when a person knows they are receiving a placebo — are for reducing emotional brain activity.

“Placebos are all about ‘mind over matter,” said Jason Moser, co-author of the study and professor of psychology at MSU. “Nondeceptive placebos were born so that you could possibly use them in routine practice. So rather than prescribing a host of medications to help a patient, you could give them a placebo, tell them it can help them and chances are — if they believe it can, then it will.”

To test nondeceptive placebos, the researchers showed two separate groups of people a series of emotional images across two experiments. The nondeceptive placebo group members read about placebo effects and were asked to inhale a saline solution nasal spray. They were told that the nasal spray was a placebo that contained no active ingredients but would help reduce their negative feelings if they believed it would. The comparison control group members also inhaled the same saline solution spray, but were told that the spray improved the clarity of the physiological readings the researchers were recording.

The first experiment found that the nondeceptive placebos reduced participants’ self-reported emotional distress. Importantly, the second study showed that nondeceptive placebos reduced electrical brain activity reflecting how much distress someone feels to emotional events, and the reduction in emotional brain activity occurred within just a couple of seconds.

“These findings provide initial support that nondeceptive placebos are not merely a product of response bias – telling the experimenter what they want to hear — but represent genuine psychobiological effects,” said Ethan Kross, co-author of the study and a professor of psychology and management at the University of Michigan.

Greater coffee intake associated with decreased depressive symptoms among older Japanese women

Nakamura Gakuen University (Japan), August 5, 2020

According to news reporting originating from Fukuoka, Japan, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “Depression in elderly people is a major global concern around the world. Epidemiological evidence of the association of beverages with depressive symptoms has received research attention; however, epidemiological studies on the association of coffee and green tea consumption with depressive symptoms among the elderly population are limited.”

Our news editors obtained a quote from the research from Nakamura Gakuen University, “The objective of this study is to cross-sectionally examine the association of depressive symptoms with the intake of coffee, green tea, and caffeine and to verify the antidepressant effect of caffeine. The subjects were 1,992 women aged 65-94 years. Intakes of coffee, green tea, and caffeine, as well as depressive symptoms, were assessed with a validated brief dietary history questionnaire (BDHQ) and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), respectively. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to calculate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (as) for depressive symptoms with adjustments for potential confounders. Coffee intake was associated with a lower prevalence of depressive symptoms, the ORs of which for the 4th versus the 1st quartiles of intake was 0.64 (95% CI, 0.46-0.88, P for trend = 0.01) in a fully adjusted model. Caffeine intake was marginally associated with depressive symptoms, but the association was not statistically significant (OR 0.75; 95% CL 0,55-1,02. P for trend = 0.058). The result suggests that the inverse association of coffee intake with depressive symptoms might be associated with not only caffeine intake but also some other substances in coffee or factors related to coffee intake.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Because of the cross-sectional design of the present study, longitudinal studies are required to confirm the present finding.”

Sugary drinks and disease: Chugging 2 sodas per day increases your risk of premature death

University College Dublin (Ireland), August 8, 2020

On top of raising blood sugar and contributing to abdominal fat, European researchers found that soda can also lead to an earlier death.

Published in JAMA Internal Medicine, the study demonstrates that daily consumption of two or more sodas – diet or not – and other sweetened drinks corresponds to a 17 percent increase in the risk of premature death from all causes.

The “bitter truth” of soda consumption: premature death

To examine the relationship between soda consumption and the risk of all-cause and cause-specific mortality, the researchers studied 451,743 individuals living in 10 European countries, including Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

The participants were from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EIPC) study, one of the largest ongoing cohort studies on diet and its relation to cancer and other chronic diseases. None of the participants have any chronic conditions.

The team studied their soda consumption for an average of 16 years. During that period, a total of 41,693 participants died from all causes, eleven percent of whom reported drinking at least two sodas daily, while nine percent reported drinking not more than one per month.

The participants who drank two or more glasses of soda also had a higher risk of death from heart conditions. Meanwhile, those who reported consuming other beverages sweetened with either sugar or artificial sweeteners had a greater risk of death from digestive diseases.

Participants who drank diet soda weren’t off the hook either. The team reported that those who drank diet sodas also had a greater risk of earlier death from cardiovascular disease(CVD).

Taken together, these findings indicate that the consumption of soda, diet soda and other sweetened beverages is linked to premature death from all causes, including CVD and digestive diseases.

The researchers noted that their study supports public health campaigns aimed at limiting the consumption of sodas and other sugar-laden drinks.

Fisetin derivative shows promise against Alzheimer disease in mice

Salk Institute, August 5 2020.

he September 2020 issue of Redox Biology published the finding of Salk Institute researchers of an ability for a compound derived from fisetin, a flavonoid occurring in many plants, to reverse memory loss in a mouse model of Alzheimer disease. The compound, known as CMS121, which was synthesized by Pamela Maher and colleagues, was recently demonstrated to slow brain cell aging.

“This was a more rigorous test of how well this compound would work in a therapeutic setting than our previous studies on it,” commented Dr Maher. “Based on the success of this study, we’re now beginning to pursue clinical trials.”

In the current research, normal mice and mice that were genetically modified to develop Alzheimer disease were given CMS121 starting at nine months of age. Untreated Alzheimer mice and normal mice served as controls. At 12 months, memory and behavior tests revealed that treated Alzheimer mice performed as well as control mice and that Alzheimer mice that did not receive CMS121 performed worse.

An increase in lipid peroxidation was observed in brains cells of untreated Alzheimer mice in comparison with Alzheimer mice that received CMS121. “That not only confirmed that lipid peroxidation is altered in Alzheimer’s, but that this drug is actually normalizing those changes,” remarked first author Gamze Ates.

It was further determined that CMS121 lowered levels of the lipid-producing molecule fatty acid synthetase (FASN). Brain samples from human Alzheimer patients revealed that greater amounts of FASN were present in comparison with cognitively healthy patients, suggesting that FASN could be a drug target for Alzheimer disease.

“There has been a big struggle in the field right now to find targets to go after,” Dr Maher stated. “So, identifying a new target in an unbiased way like this is really exciting and opens lots of doors.”

REM sleep tunes eating behavior

University of Bern (Germany), August 7, 2020

Despite our broad understanding of the different brain regions activated during rapid-eye-movement sleep, little is known about what this activity serves for. Researchers at the University of Bern and the Inselspital have now discovered that the activation of neurons in the hypothalamus during REM sleep regulates eating behaviour: suppressing this activity in mice decreases appetite.

While we are asleep, we transition between different phases of sleep each of which may contribute differently to us feeling rested. During (rapid eye movement) REM sleep, a peculiar sleep stage also called paradoxical sleep during which most dreaming occurs, specific brain circuits show very high electrical activity, yet the function of this sleep-specific activity remains unclear.

Among the brain regions that show strong activation during REM sleep are areas that regulate memory functions or emotion, for instance. The lateral hypothalamus, a tiny, evolutionarily well conserved brain structure in all mammals also shows high activity during REM sleep. In the awake animals, neurons from this brain region orchestrate appetite and the consumption of food and they are involved in the regulation of motivated behaviours and addiction.

In a new study, researchers headed by Prof. Dr. Antoine Adamantidis at the University of Bern set out to investigate the function of the activity of hypothalamic neurons in mice during REM sleep. They aimed at better understanding how neural activation during REM sleep influences our day-to-day behaviour. They discovered that suppressing the activity of these neurons decreases the amount of food the mice consume. “This suggests that REM sleep is necessary to stabilize food intake”, says Adamantidis. The results of this study have been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Long-lasting effect on neuronal activity and feeding behavior

The researcher discovered that specific activity patterns of neurons in the lateral hypothalamus that usually signal eating in the awake mouse are also present when the animals were in the stage of REM sleep. To assess the importance of these activity patterns during REM sleep the research group used a technique called optogenetics, with which they used light pulses to precisely shut down the activity of hypothalamic neurons during REM sleep. As a result, the researchers found that the activity patterns for eating were modified and that the animals consumed less food.

“We were surprised how strongly and persistently our intervention affected the neural activity in the lateral hypothalamus and the behaviour of the mice”, says Lukas Oesch, the first author of the study. He adds: “The modification in the activity patterns was still measurable after four days of regular sleep.” These findings suggest that electrical activity in hypothalamic circuits during REM sleep are highly plastic and essential to maintain a stable feeding behaviour in mammals.

It is a question of quality

These findings point out that sleep quantity alone is not solely required for our well-being, but that sleep quality plays a major role in particular to maintain appropriate eating behaviour. “This is of particular relevance in our society where not only sleep quantity decreases but where sleep quality is dramatically affected by shift work, late night screen exposure or social jet-lag in adolescents”, explains Adamantidis.

The discovered link between the activity of the neurons during REM sleep and eating behaviour may help developing new therapeutical approaches to treat eating disorders. It might also be relevant for motivation and addiction. “However, this relationship might depend on the precise circuitry, the sleep stage and other factors yet to be uncovered”, adds Adamantidis.

The key role of zinc in elderly immunity

Federal University of Juiz de Fora (Brazil), August 7, 2020

According to news reporting originating from Juiz de Fora, Brazil, by NewsRx editors, the research stated, “The COVID-19 infection can lead to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), mainly affecting patients aged 60 and older. Preliminary data suggest that the nutritional status can change the course of the infection, and on the matter, zinc is crucial for growth, development, and the maintenance of immune function.”

Our news editors obtained a quote from the research from the Federal University of Juiz de Fora, “In the absence of treatment for this virus, there is an urgent need to find alternative methods that can contribute to control of disease. The aim of this paper is to establish the relation between zinc and COVID-19. From the prior scientific knowledge, we have performed a review of the literature and examine the role of zinc in immune function in the infection by COVID-19. Our findings are that the zinc as an anti-inflammatory agent may help to optimize immune function and reduce the risk of infection.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Zinc supplementation can be a useful strategy to reduce the global burden of infection in the elderly, there is a need the increased reporting to improve our understanding of COVID-19 and the care of affected patients.”