Lifestyle improvements may lessen cognitive decline

Australian National University, September 10, 2020

Results from a new study suggest that lifestyle changes may help to improve cognition in older adults experiencing cognitive decline that precedes dementia.

In the study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 119 individuals older than 65 years of age who were experiencing cognitive decline were randomized to a control group or an intervention group for 8 weeks. The control group received online information related to dementia and lifestyle risk factors, Mediterranean diet, physical activity, and cognitive engagement.

Participants were instructed to implement this information into their own lifestyles. The intervention group received the same online information, plus active components to assist with implementing this information into their lifestyles: dietitian sessions, an exercise physiologist session, and online brain training.

Over 6 months of follow-up, investigators noted that participants in the intervention group were able to improve their lifestyle and had higher cognition scores than those in the control group. The results suggest that lifestyle-based changes may modify the course of cognitive decline.

“We’ve known for some time that lifestyle changes such as these can reduce dementia risk in the general population. What this study adds is that with the right intervention, people experiencing cognitive decline may retain sufficient neuroplasticity for their brain to ‘bounce back’ from decline,” said lead author Mitchell McMaster, a PhD student at The Australian National University.

Green light therapy shown to reduce migraine frequency, intensity

University of Arizona, September 10, 2020

New research from the University of Arizona Health Sciences found that people who suffer from migraine may benefit from green light therapy, which was shown to reduce the frequency and intensity of headaches and improve patient quality of life.

According to the Migraine Research Foundation, migraineis the third most prevalent illness in the world, affecting 39 million people in the United States and 1 billion worldwide.

“This is the first clinical study to evaluate green light exposure as a potential preventive therapy for patients with migraine, ” said Mohab Ibrahim, MD, Ph.D., lead author of the study, an associate professor in the UArizona College of Medicine—Tucson’s Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology, and Neurosurgery and director of the Chronic Pain Management Clinic. “As a physician, this is really exciting. Now I have another tool in my toolbox to treat one of the most difficult neurological conditions—migraine.”

Overall, green light exposure reduced the number of headachedays per month by an average of about 60%. A majority of study participants—86% of episodic migraine patients and 63% of chronic migraine patients—reported a more than 50% reduction in headache days per month. Episodic migraine is characterized by up to 14 headache days per month, while chronic migraine is 15 or more headache days per month.

“The overall average benefit was statistically significant. Most of the people were extremely happy,” Dr. Ibrahim said of the participants, who were given light strips and instructions to follow while completing the study at home. “One of the ways we measured participant satisfaction was, when we enrolled people, we told them they would have to return the light at the end of the study. But when it came to the end of the study, we offered them the option to keep the light, and 28 out of the 29 decided to keep the light.”

Dr. Ibrahim and co-author Amol Patwardhan, MD, Ph.D., who are affiliated with the UArizona Health Sciences Comprehensive Pain and Addiction Center, have been studying the effects of green light exposure for several years. This initial clinical study included 29 people, all of whom experience episodic or chronic migraine and failed multiple traditional therapies, such as oral medications and Botox injections.

Despite recent advances, the treatment of migraine headaches is still a challenge,” said Dr. Patwardhan, an associate professor and the vice chair of research in the Department of Anesthesiology. “The use of a nonpharmacological therapy such as green light can be of tremendous help to a variety of patients that either do not want to be on medications or do not respond to them. The beauty of this approach is the lack of associated side effects. If at all, it appears to improve sleep and other quality of life measures.”

During the study, patients were exposed to white light for one to two hours a day for 10 weeks. After a two-week break, they were exposed to green light for 10 weeks. They completed regular surveys and questionnaires to track the number of headaches they experienced and the intensity of those headaches, as well as quality of life measurements such as the ability to fall and stay asleep or to perform work.

Using a numeric pain scale of 0 to 10, participants noted that green light exposure resulted in a 60% reduction in pain, from 8 to 3.2. Green light therapy also shortened the duration of headaches, and it improved participants’ ability to fall and stay asleep, perform chores, exercise, and work.

None of the study participants reported any side effects of green light exposure.

“In this trial, we treated green light as a drug,” Dr. Ibrahim said. “It’s not any green light. It has to be the right intensity, the right frequency, the right exposure time and the right exposure methods. Just like with medications, there is a sweet spot with light.”

Dr. Ibrahim has been contacted by physicians from as far away as Europe, Africa and Asia, all asking for the green light parameters and schematic design for their own patients.

“As you can imagine, LED light is cheap,” he said. “Especially in places where resources are not that available and people have to think twice before they spend their money, when you offer something affordable, it’s a good option to try.”

The paper, “Evaluation of green light exposure on headache frequency and quality of life in migraine patients: A preliminary one-way cross-over clinical trial,” was published online by Cephalalgia, the journal of the International Headache Society.

“These are great findings, but this is where the story begins,” Dr. Ibrahim said. “As a scientist, I am really interested in how this works because if I understand the mechanism, then I can utilize it for other conditions. I can use it as a tool to manipulate the biological systems to achieve as much as we can.”

Curcumin analog exhibits multiple biologic effects on factors related to pathogenesis of Alzheimer disease in cell study

Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, September 10, 2020

According to news originating from Tainan, Taiwan, research stated, “Drugs for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are in urgent demand due to the unmet need and the social burden associated with the disease. Curcumin has been historically considered as a beneficial product for anti-aging and AD.”

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from the Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, “However, many efforts to develop curcumin for clinical use are hindered mainly due to its poor bioavailability. Recent development in drug delivery and structural design has resolved these issues. In this study, we identified a small molecule, TML-6, as a potential drug candidate for AD through screening a panel of curcumin derivatives using six biomarker platforms related to aging biology and AD pathogenesis. The structural modification of TML-6 is designed to improve the stability and metabolism of curcumin. Cell biological studies demonstrated that TML-6 could inhibit the synthesis of the beta-amyloid precursor protein and beta-amyloid (A beta), upregulate Apo E, suppress NF-kappa B and mTOR, and increase the activity of the anti-oxidativeNrf2gene. In the 3x-Tg AD animal model, TML-6 treatment resulted in significant improvement in learning, suppression of the microglial activation marker Iba-1, and reduction in A beta in the brain. Although TML-6 exhibited a greater improvement in bioavailability as compared to curcumin, formulation optimization and toxicological studies are under development to assure its druggability.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Taken together, TML-6 meets the current strategy to develop therapeutics for AD, targeting the combination of the A beta cascade and aging-related biology processes.”

Substances with anti-cancer action are identified in red propolis

Researchers isolated eight novel polyphenols from the rarest type of propolis; two of them were found to inhibit tumor cell proliferation in laboratory assays

Universities of São Paulo and Campinas (Brazil), September 10, 2020

Brazilian red propolis found in beehives along the coast and mangroves in the Northeast region contains two substances with anti-cancer properties. In laboratory tests, they considerably reduced the proliferation of ovarian, breast, and brain cancer cells.

In a study published in the Journal of Natural Products, researchers at the Universities of São Paulo (USP) and Campinas (UNICAMP) report their discovery of the two anti-cancer substances as well as six novel polyphenols with structures previously unknown to science. Polyphenols are beneficial natural compounds with anti-oxidant properties. They include flavonoids and tannins, and can be found in plants, cereals, and wine.

“Two of the eight substances isolated for the first time from red propolis displayed cytotoxic properties in ovarian cancer, breast cancer, and glioma cells. We performed in vitro tests on these three types of tumor because they are resistant to many different drugs and hence hard to treat. The cells in question have a well-known mechanism that overexpresses a protein responsible for barring drugs. This is why they’re drug-resistant. Our tests showed that the substances in red propolis circumvented the mechanism, showing their potential to reduce tumors,” said Roberto Berlinck, a professor in the University of São Paulo’s São Carlos Institute of Chemistry (IQSC-USP) and a member of the steering committee of the São Paulo Research Foundation – FAPESP Research Program on Biodiversity Characterization, Conservation, Restoration and Sustainable Use (BIOTA-FAPESP).

The discoveries resulted from a study within the scope of BIOTA-FAPESP, coordinated by Berlinck, and from a Thematic Project coordinated by Ronaldo Pilli.

Library of natural products

According to Berlinck, red propolis polyphenols are a novel class of anti-cancer compounds that inhibit tumor growth and induce tumor cell death. “In one of our tests they outperformed a well-known chemotherapy drug [doxorubicin],” he told.

Natural products are among the main sources of new cancer drugs. Hence the importance of bioprospecting studies such as this one, demonstrating the beneficial effects of the substances concerned. Previous research described the bactericidal, anti-fungal, anti-inflammatory, and immunomodulatory properties of red propolis.

“Bees produce propolis to protect the hive, so it’s no accident that the resin is bactericidal and anti-fungal,” Berlinck said. “This had been reported previously by researchers who analyzed raw red propolis. In our study, we proved the anti-cancer effects of specific substances isolated from red propolis.”

Red propolis is rarer than green, yellow, or brown propolis. Brazil is one of the world’s largest producers of propolis. Red propolis is found in several states of Northeast Brazil. In Alagoas, for example, it is produced by honeybees (Apis mellifera) that feed on the reddish resin exuded by the coin vine Dalbergia ecastaphyllum.

“We plan to investigate how the bees process this tree resin,” Berlinck said. “Do they modify it to make propolis or use it as is?”

However, he added, polyphenols are not considered promising candidates for drug development. “Polyphenols, unfortunately, bind to all sorts of proteins, whereas a drug needs to target a specific protein,” he said. “This may be why red propolis is active in so many ways. It can influence several different systems.”

Study: Aerobic exercise is key to lowering the risk of dementia among the elderly

University of Texas Southwestern, September 9, 2020

In a major breakthrough, Rong Zhang, an expert in brain aging and a professor of internal medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern (UTSW) Medical Center, and his colleagues found that regular aerobic exercise training can stall brain deterioration and reduce plaques in the brain linked to Alzheimer’s disease.

This is the first randomized controlled trial (RCT) to examine the effect of aerobic exercise training on brain structure, brain function and brain plaque in sedentary older adults that had memory problems. The research findings appeared online in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.

Aerobic exercise has protective effects against dementia

In this most recent RCT, Zhang and his colleagues subjected 70 mild cognitive impairment (MCI) patients aged 55 and older to 12 months of either aerobic exercise training or stretching or toning exercises. The group also measured their cognitive abilities prior to and after the trial.

Using brain imaging techniques, the researchers found that aerobic exercise delayed the shrinkage of the hippocampus, the region of the brain responsible for short- and long-term memory, better than stretching. In dementia patients, the size of the hippocampus can be used to diagnose the progression of the disease.

Furthermore, the researchers found that both groups exhibited no significant improvements in their cognitive abilities after the 12-month trial. However, brain imaging showed that participants in the aerobic exercise group who had more amyloid plaques in their brains experienced less volume reduction in their hippocampus.

Amyloid plaques are aggregates of proteins that form in the spaces between nerve cells, thus impairing the connections between cells. The plaques are often found in the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia and as such, are thought to have a major role in its onset and progression.

The idea that exercise can stall cognitive decline is not a breakthrough in itself, as there are past studies that featured similar trials on older adults. But what Zhang and his colleagues found in their RCT is that aerobic exercise, not stretching, has the most significant effect on hippocampus deterioration given the presence of plaque in the brain.

Based on these findings, Zhang speculated that aerobic exercise training might have been able to confer those beneficial effects on the brain because of its impact on cardiovascular health.

Proper blood circulation can encourage neuron growth and survival, said Zhang. This, in turn, might help reduce the damaging effects of plaque in the brain, he added.

Does the Mediterranean diet protect against rheumatoid arthritis?

University of Paris South (France), September 10, 2020

Previous research has demonstrated a variety of health benefits associated with the Mediterranean diet, which is rich in olive oil, cereals, fruit and vegetables, fish, and a moderate amount of dairy, meat, and wine. Now results from an analysis published in Arthritis & Rheumatology suggest that the diet may also help prevent rheumatoid arthritis in individuals who smoke or used to smoke.

The analysis included 62,629 women from France who have been taking part in a questionnaire-based study assessing dietary intake since 1990. In total, 480 women developed rheumatoid arthritis.

Adherence to the Mediterranean diet was not associated with rheumatoid arthritis risk overall; however, among women who smoked or used to smoke, it was associated with a decreased risk: 383 cases of rheumatoid arthritis per 1 million people per year among those with high adherence to the Mediterranean diet, compared with 515 cases per 1 million people per year among those with low adherence to the diet. (Among women who never smoked and had high adherence to the diet, there were 358 cases per 1 million people per year.)

Study finds botanical effective for chemo-resistant colon cancer

City of Hope (California), September 10, 2020

The natural botanical Andrographis paniculata, when given in conjunction with chemotherapy, may eventually change the way doctors treat chemotherapy-resistant colorectal cancer, reports a new City of Hope study.

Published in the journal Carcinogenesis, the study’s goal was to use a natural substance that, given as an adjunct treatment along with chemotherapy, would not only be nontoxic but would succeed in killing chemo-resistant cancer cells.

Currently, in an attempt to provide some help for these chemo-resistant patients, other types of chemotherapies are given — but cancer usually finds a way to outsmart them. What’s more, these drugs are highly toxic and can do further harm to the patient.

A Three-Part Study

Andrographis is commonly used in South Asia and is also available in the U.S. It’s known for its anti-inflammatory, antibacterial and antiviral properties, and increasingly, for its ability to fight cancer.

“Many, many scientific articles have been published showing that andrographis kills cancer cells. That’s not the news,” said Ajay Goel, Ph.D., M.S., founding chair of City of Hope’s Department of Molecular Diagnostics and Experimental Therapeutics and corresponding author of the study. “The problem is, how do we kill these ‘super cells’ that have become chemo-resistant?”

To tackle this challenge, his study tested the efficacy of using a standard chemotherapy for colon cancer, 5-fluorouracil (5FU), alone and combined with andrographis. The study proceeded in three parts.

First, they used cell lines of human colorectal cancer, cultivated in the lab. The combination treatment proved far more effective in killing cancer cells than the chemotherapy alone.

Cell lines do not represent the whole body, so the next step was to look at the effects of using animal tissue. Here too, combining andrographis with 5FU was a more potent cancer killer than 5FU alone.

Knowing that it worked on an animal model, the next step was to further confirm these findings in a 3D-organoid model, grown from human colorectal tumor tissue excised from an actual patient. Again, the combination far outperformed chemotherapy alone in killing cancer cells.

How Andrographis Kills Cancer

“In cancer there are hundreds of pathways that are malfunctioning, and modern therapies are designed to target a specific gene or molecule or pathway,” Goel said. “It can give patients relief in the short term, but sometimes the cancer says, ‘No problem. We have 100 different ways to survive.’ Unlike many of the targeted therapies we use in cancer patients, natural treatments are unique, as they don’t target a specific pathway but work on many pathways.”

What this study showed is that two major pathways were altered by the andrographis.

One is the ferroptosis pathway, which regulates programmed cell death. Under normal conditions it signals old cells that it’s time to die, and they are replaced by new ones. But in cancer, the ferroptosis pathway becomes defective. Old cells don’t die; new ones keep coming and a tumor forms.

The other is the β-catenin/Wnt-signaling pathway, which involves cell metabolism, a process that goes haywire in cancer. Cancer cells become hyperactive and channel nutrition away from normal cells.

“After exposure to andrographis, the ferroptosis signals were turned back on, which told the cells, ‘Yep, it’s time to die,'” Goel said. “And the metabolic process was regulated, taking nutrition away from the cancer cells, allowing them to die.”

The next step will be to test 5FU and andrographis in a clinical setting, and Goel will soon submit an application for Food and Drug Administration approval.

This combination of natural botanical and potent pharmaceutical promises to bring new hope to patients who have developed chemo-resistance or suffer a relapse of their colon cancer.

Nature’s Own Medicine

In addition to the andrographis study, Goel has done several others, including an earlier studyin Carcinogenesis and another in the journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. This work revealed that two herbs, curcumin (found in turmeric) and boswellic acid, were able to regulate certain microRNAs found in human colorectal cancer, suggesting that these substances would be useful for disease prevention.

In fact, because these substances can be protective, he feels that people should start taking them before cancer has a chance to develop.

25-hydroxyvitamin D beats other vitamin D tests as predictor of premature mortality

University Hospitals Leuven (Belgium), September 9 2020.

Findings presented at the annual meeting of the European Society of Endocrinology (e-ECE 2020) revealed a superior effect for 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] testing for the prediction of disease onset in comparison with testing for 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D [1,25(OH)2D], the active form of vitamin D. 25-hydroxyvitamin D is a prohormone that is converted to 1,25(OH)2D and is commonly measured to assess vitamin D levels. Deficient vitamin D levels have been associated with cardiovascular disease and other aging-related disorders.

The study utilized data collected from 1,970 men who participated in the European Male Ageing Study from 2003 and 2005. Free and protein-bound 25(OH)D and 1,25(OH)2D levels were measured after enrollment.

Participants with total 25(OH)D that was among the lowest 20% of participants had an 83% higher risk of dying during the 12.3-year average follow-up period than those whose levels were among the top 20%. Men with total 1,25(OH)2D levels among the lowest 20% had a 41% greater risk. When free 25(OH)D was examined, men whose levels were among the lowest 60% had a 91% greater risk of death during follow-up compared to men whose levels were among the highest 20%, however, the risk of premature mortality was similar among all examined percentiles of free 1,25(OH)2D. “Low total 25(OH)D levels and low total 1,25(OH)2D levels in community-dwelling middle-aged and elderly men have an increased future mortality risk,” the authors concluded. However, only low free 25(OH)D but not free 1,25(OH)2D levels predict all-cause mortality.

“Most studies focus on the association between total 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels and age-related disease and mortality,” lead researcher Leen Antonio commented. “As 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D is the active form of vitamin D in our body, it was possible it could have been a stronger predictor for disease and mortality. It has also been debated if the total or free vitamin D levels should be measured. Our data now suggest that both total and free 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels are the better measure of future health risk in men.”

Reduce your risk of breast cancer by eating more onions and garlic: Research

University of Buffalo and University of Puerto Rico, September 9, 2020

Sofrito, a condiment made from onions and garlic, is a staple in Puerto Rican kitchens. Some personalized recipes might feature other healthful herbs and spices like cilantro and peppers, but its most basic ingredients remain the same. It can be consumed as a dip like salsa or used as a foundation for rice dishes.

But recent research finds that there might be more to this iconic condiment than its rich Puerto Rican character. In a major breakthrough, scientists from the State University of New York at Buffalo (SUNY Buffalo) and the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) found that sofrito is linked to a reduced risk of breast cancer.

In particular, women who consumed sofrito more than once daily had an incredible 67 percent decrease in breast cancer risk compared to women who never ate it. Lead author Gauri Desai from SUNY Buffalo thinks the sofrito’s anti-cancer effect stems from the combination of potent organic compounds in onion and garlic.

Sofrito, the anti-cancer condiment

Past studies on onion and garlic intake have so far drawn a link between the consumption of these two ingredients and the risk of certain cancers, including those of the lungs, prostate and stomach. But little is known about the potential effects of onion and garlic intake on breast cancer risk, in particular.

To this end, Desai and her colleagues followed a cohort of 314 Puerto Rican women with confirmed breast cancer cases and 346 control subjects from 2008 to 2014. The participants recorded their dietary intake using food frequency questionnaires throughout the assessment.

Puerto Rican women were a unique cohort to examine, said Desai, since Puerto Ricans ate more onions and garlic as part of their cuisine compared to those in the US or Europe. Puerto Rico also has lower breast cancer rates compared to the US, thus making it an ideal population to examine with regards to breast cancer risk.

Their findings, published in the journal Nutrition and Cancer, showed that the combined intake of onion and garlic, as well as sofrito, was associated with a reduced risk of breast cancer.

These findings also confirm that the combination of anti-carcinogenic compounds in onion and garlic, such as quercetin, saponin and alliin, are also potent against breast cancer.

Latinas, as a demographic, are about 30 percent less at risk of breast cancer compared to the average woman in the US, said Desai. This research might explain how that came to be. However, Puerto Rico has seen an increasing trend in their rate of breast cancer in recent times.

Desai and her colleagues explained that the research on breast cancer in Puerto Rico is still scant, so it’s difficult to speculate about the possible causes of the rising incidence of breast cancer in the region. Further research on breast cancer among Puerto Ricans might help shed light on the subject.

Activity of Tea Tree, Lemongrass, Cinnamon and Thyme essential oils against pathogenic fungi

SNDT Women’s University (India), September 10, 2020

In this review, researchers at SNDT Women’s University in India discussed the potential of various essential oils as antifungal agents against known pathogens. The article was published in the Journal of Essential Oil Research.

Mortality due to fungal infections, especially among immunocompromised individuals, has risen in recent years.
Scientists are worried about the possibility of having no effective antifungal agent in the future because of the rapidly developing resistance of pathogenic fungi to currently available antifungal agents.
This is why many studies are now being conducted to develop new strategies that involve reliable agents for the treatment of fungal diseases.
Essential oils derived from medicinal plants are known for their antimicrobial properties.
They are considered the hydrophobic secondary metabolites in plants and are multi-component in nature.
Various essential oils have shown antifungal activities against pathogenic fungi like Aspergillus, Candida, Cryptococcus and Fusarium.
These fungi are the most common causes of mortality in immunocompromised patients.

The researchers noted that essential oils derived from plants belonging to the genera Melaleuca (tea tree), Cymbopogon (lemongrass), Cinnamomum (cinnamon) and Thymus (thyme) have remarkable antifungal activity against these pathogenic fungi.

Exercise May Make It Easier to Bounce Back From Stress

Emory University School of Medicine, September 8, 2020

Exercise makes it easier to bounce back from too much stress, according to a fascinating new study with mice. It finds that regular exercise increases the levels of a chemical in the animals’ brains that helps them remain psychologically resilient and plucky, even when their lives seem suddenly strange, intimidating and filled with threats.

The study involved mice, but it is likely to have implications for our species, too, as we face the stress and discombobulation of the ongoing pandemic and today’s political and social disruptions.

Stress can, of course, be our ally. Emergencies and perils require immediate responses, and stress results in a fast, helpful flood of hormones and other chemicals that prime our bodies to act.

“If a tiger jumps out at you, you should run,” says David Weinshenker, a professor of human genetics at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta and the senior author of the new study. The stress response, in that situation, is appropriate and valuable.

But if, afterward, we “jump at every little noise” and shrink from shadows, we are overreacting to the original stress, Dr. Weinshenker continues. Our response has become maladaptive, because we no longer react with appropriate dread to dreadful things but with twitchy anxiety to the quotidian. We lack stress resilience.

In interesting past research, scientists have shown that exercise seems to build and amplify stress resilience. Rats that run on wheels for several weeks, for instance, and then experience stress through light shocks to their paws, respond later to unfamiliar — but safe — terrain with less trepidation than sedentary rats that also experience shocks.

But the physiological underpinnings of the animals’ relative buoyancy after exercise remain somewhat mysterious. And, rats are just one species. Finding similar relationships between physical activity and resilience in other animals would bolster the possibility that a similar link exists in people.

So, for the new study, which was published in August in the Journal of Neuroscience, Dr. Weinshenker and his colleagues decided to work with frazzled mice and to focus on the possible effects of galanin, a peptide that is produced throughout the body in many animals, including humans

Mindfulness with paced breathing and lowering blood pressure

Florida Atlantic University, September 9, 2020

According to the American Stroke Association (ASA) and the American Heart Association (AHA), more than 100 million Americans have high blood pressure. Elevated blood pressure is a major avoidable cause of premature morbidity and mortality in the United States and worldwide due primarily to increased risks of stroke and heart attacks. Elevated blood pressure is the most important major and modifiable risk factor to reduce stroke. In fact, small but sustained reductions in blood pressure reduce risks of stroke and heart attacks. Therapeutic lifestyle changes of weight loss and salt reduction as well as adjunctive drug therapies are beneficial to treat and prevent high blood pressure.

Mindfulness is increasingly practiced as a technique to reduce stress through mind and body interactions. In some instances, mindfulness includes paced breathing defined as deep and diaphragmatic with slow rates typically about five to seven per minute compared with the usual rate of 12 to 14. Researchers from Florida Atlantic University’s Schmidt College of Medicine and collaborators have published a paper in the journal Medical Hypotheses, exploring the possibility that mindfulness with paced breathing reduces blood pressure.

“One of the most plausible mechanisms is that paced breathing stimulates the vagus nerve and parasympathetic nervous system, which reduce stress chemicals in the brain and increase vascular relaxation that may lead to lowering of blood pressure,” said Suzanne LeBlang, M.D., a neuroradiologist, second and corresponding author, and an affiliate associate professor in FAU’s Schmidt College of Medicine.

The researchers believe the hypothesis they have formulated that mindfulness with paced breathing reduces blood pressure should be tested. To do so, FAU’s Schmidt College of Medicine co-authors are already collaborating with their co-authors from the Marcus Neuroscience Institute, Boca Raton Regional Hospital/ Baptist Health South; and the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health on an investigator-initiated research grant proposal to the National Institutes of Health. The initial pilot trial would include obtaining informed consent from willing and eligible subjects and assigning them at random to mindfulness either with or without paced breathing and examining whether there are sustained effects on lowering blood pressure.

“This pilot randomized trial might lead to further randomized trials of intermediate markers such as inhibition of progression of carotid intimal thickening or coronary artery atherosclerosis, and subsequently, a large scale trial to reduce stroke and heart attacks,” said Charles H. Hennekens, M.D., Dr.PH, senior author, first Sir Richard Doll Professor and senior academic advisor in FAU’s Schmidt College of Medicine. “Achieving sustained reductions in blood pressure of 4 to 5 millimeters of mercury decreases risk of stroke by 42 percent and heart attacks by about 17 percent; so positive findings would have important clinical and policy implications.”

According to the ASA and AHA, cardiovascular disease (CVD), principally heart attacks and strokes, accounts for more than 800,000 deaths or 40 percent of total mortality in the U.S. each year and more than 17 million deaths worldwide. In the U.S., CVD is projected to remain the single leading cause of mortality and is rapidly becoming so worldwide. Stroke alone ranks fifth in all-cause mortality in the U.S., killing nearly 133,000 people annually as well as more than 11 percent of the population worldwide.

“Now more than ever, Americans and people all over the world are under increased stress, which may adversely affect their health and well-being,” said Barbara Schmidt, co-author, teacher, researcher, philanthropist, bestselling author of “The Practice,” as well as an adjunct instructor at FAU’s Schmidt College of Medicine. “We know that mindfulness decreases stress and I am cautiously optimistic that mindfulness with paced breathing will produce sustained lowering of blood pressure.”

Tumeric-Based Drug Eases Eye Inflammation in Dogs

Texas A&M University, September 9, 2020

A therapeutic derived from turmeric shows promise in decreasing ocular inflammation in dogs with from uveitis, according to a new study.

Uveitis—a common condition in dogs, humans, and other species—can have many causes, often occurring secondary to infectious diseases, cancer, and autoimmune diseases. It is also found in patients with longstanding cataracts and after operations correcting cataracts. Uveitis leads to pain and reduced vision.

Researchers believe the spice, long-praised for its natural anti-inflammatory properties, may also translate to the treatment of cataracts and uveitis in humans.

“Uncontrolled inflammation inside the eye, also known as uveitis, is a leading cause of complications after cataract surgery in dogs. The management of postoperative ocular inflammation is a major challenge observed in both human and veterinary ophthalmology,” says Erin Scott, an assistant professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences at Texas A&M University.

For a new study in Science Advances, Scott and colleagues at the Texas A&M University College of Pharmacy tested the anti-inflammatory properties of curcumin, a compound found in turmeric. They discovered that, when processed to a special nanoparticle formulation to boost absorption, the natural compound is safe and effective at managing uveitis without any known side effects.

Oral medications currently used to treat uveitis must be adequately absorbed into the blood stream for their medicinal effects to be effective. This requires the medication to successfully pass through the intestinal barrier—the physical barrier between the gut and the rest of the body via the circulatory system—which limits the absorption of many drugs.

Drug delivery to the eye presents additional challenges because of the blood-ocular barrier—the physical barrier between blood vessels and tissues of the eye—which tightly controls what substances can pass into the eye.

Therefore, researchers must find ways to bypass such barriers to improve drug availability within the body.

Scott and her colleagues implemented a new formulation of curcumin that improved transport of the substance across both intestinal and ocular barriers. Adding nanoparticle molecules that interact with receptors on a ubiquitous transmembrane carrier protein, known as the transferrin receptor, allows curcumin to hitch a ride across crucial barriers, improving absorption of the substance and reducing ocular inflammation.

Curcumin is especially attractive as a candidate for management of uveitis because it has no known side effects.

“Current treatments include a combination of systemic and topical anti-inflammatory medications, either in the form of steroids or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAYSs),” Scott says.

“While both these medications are effective in the treatment of uveitis, they can cause unwanted side effects, such as vomiting, diarrhea, stomach ulcers, negatively impact kidney and liver function, and increase glucose levels in diabetic patients.”

Scott and her colleagues hope to start a clinical trial using this new medication in the near future and are optimistic that the utility of their findings may benefit populations beyond dogs.

“This medication may translate to the treatment of cataracts and uveitis in humans,” she says. “By studying animal patients with naturally occurring eye diseases, our findings may accelerate the development of medications to benefit both animals and humans.”

Biochemists discover what makes olive oil help with weight loss

Virginia Tech University, September 7, 2020

Biochemist researchers at Virginia Tech have uncovered the compounds responsible for olive oil’s ability to help with weight loss, shedding new light on the health benefits of a Mediterranean diet.

The results, which could also help diabetes prevention, were published in a rapid report in the journal Biochemistry.

The research team reported that the natural compound derived from olive leaves, oleuropein, has anti-diabetic functions as well as evidence that oleuropein promotes glucose-stimulated insulin secretion (GSIS) in β-cells.

Furthermore the compound showed capabilities to inhibit the cytotoxicity induced by amylin amyloids, a hallmark feature of type 2 diabetes.

An oil with many benefits

Olive oil has been researched extensively with findings showing that consumption could have an abundance of health benefits including cardiovascular healthbenefits , reducing osteoporosis fracture risk , reducing depression and even making you smarter .

It is has previously been suggested that olive oil can aid with weight loss also, however researchers had not been able to discover the exact reasons why.

This new study reports on the exact mechanisms that contribute to its medicinal and nutritional benefits.

“Our work provides new mechanistic insights into the long-standing question of why olive products can be anti-diabetic,” said Bin Xu, study lead and assistant professor of biochemistry in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and a Fralin Life Science Institute affiliate.

“We believe it will not only contribute to the biochemistry of the functions of the olive component oleuropein, but also have an impact on the general public to pay more attention to olive products in light of the current diabetes epidemic.”

The team believe that their discovery could help develop new, low-cost nutraceuticals strategies to fight type 2 diabetes and related obesity.

It was found that oleuropein helps the body produce more insulin, helping to regulate metabolism and allowing cells to use sugar for energy.

Thus making it less likely for the body to put on weight.

The study

Researchers screened a library of natural compounds, including flavonoids and polyphenols, that have anti-diabetic functions in complementary medicines based on a thioflavin T fluorescence assay.

Through this process, the team identified oleuropein and its health benefits.

Oleuropein’s insulin secretion in INS-1 β –cells was then analysed to examine how it aided the metabolism.

The team also performed cell signalling analyses in INS-1 β-cells to further validate oleuropein’s effects.

“On the basis of the cell signalling activation used by other ligands that induce GSIS effets in β-cells, we used a standard pharmacological inhibitor approach. We tested the involvement of major kinase pathways that are related to metabolism: protein kinase A, protein kinase C, ERK/MAPK, PI3 kinase and the AMP-activated kinase,” the team explained.

The next steps for these findings are to test the effects of oleuropein and its components in counter-acting amylin amyloid deposition in the pancreas as well as in positively regulating hyperglycemia in diabetic animal models in the future.

Exercise can make cells healthier, promoting longer life, study finds

University of Virginia, September 2, 2020

Whether it’s running, walking, cycling, swimming or rowing, it’s been well-known since ancient times that doing some form of aerobic exercise is essential to good healthand well-being. You can lose weight, sleep better, fight stress and high blood pressure, improve your mood, plus strengthen bones and muscles.

“Whether muscle is healthy or not really determines whether the entire body is healthy or not,” said Zhen Yan of the University of Virginia School of Medicine. “And exercise capacity, mainly determined by muscle size and function, is the best predictor of mortality in the general population.”

But why? Yan might have some answers. He and colleagues at UVA are peering inside the cell to understand, at a molecular level, why that workout – like it or not – is so vital to the body. They found that one important benefit involves the cellular power plant – the mitochondria – which creates the fuel so the body can function properly.

Exercise Stresses Mitochondria

Yan and colleagues have completed a study in mice that, for the first time, shows that just one bout of moderate-to-intense exercise acts as a “stress test” on mitochondria in muscles. They discovered that this “stress test” induced by aerobic exercise triggers a process called mitophagy, where the muscle disposes of the damaged or dysfunctional mitochondria, making the muscle healthier. Yan compares exercise-induced mitophagy to a state vehicle inspection that removes damaged cars from the streets.

“Aerobic exercise removes damaged mitochondria in skeletal muscle,” Yan said. “If you do it repeatedly, you keep removing the damaged ones. You have a better muscle with better mitochondrial quality. We clean up the clunkers, now the city, the cell, is full of healthy, functional cars.”

How Exercise Removes Mitochondria ‘Clunkers’

For this study, Yan and colleagues assessed the skeletal muscle of a mouse model where they had added a mitochondrial reporter gene called “pMitoTimer.” The mitochondria fluoresce green when they are healthy and turn red when damaged and broken down by the cell’s waste-disposal system, the lysosomes.

The mice ran on a small treadmill for 90 minutes and Yan’s team observed mitochondrial stress (signs of “state inspection”) and some mitophagy (towing of the clunkers) at six hours after exercise. Yan explained that exercise in these mice also stimulated a kinase called AMPK, which in turn switched on another kinase, Ulk1. These chemical reactions appear to be important in control of the removal of dysfunctional mitochondria.

“When its turned on, Ulk1 activates other components in the cell to execute the removal of dysfunctional mitochondria,” Yan said. “It’s analogous to a 911 call where a tow truck removes the clunkers. However, we still do not know how these activities are coordinated.”

Some Mice Didn’t Benefit From Exercise

Yan’s lab also deleted the Ulk1 gene in mouse skeletal muscle and found that, without the gene, the removal of damaged or dysfunctional mitochondria is dramatically inhibited, suggesting a new role for the Ulk1 gene in exercise and mitophagy.

“Mice that were unable to do mitophagy did not have the benefit of exercise,” explained study co-author Joshua Drake, a postdoctoral fellow in the Yan lab. “Even though, from an exercise standpoint, they still were able to run just as far as normal mice, they didn’t benefit metabolically with training.”

Drake pointed out that some people with type 2 diabetes don’t respond to exercise, which is a growing clinical problem. He hopes that continued research in the Yan lab will lead to new discoveries to help these non-responders.

The findings have been published online by the scientific journal Nature Communications.

Midlife physical activity is associated with better cognition in old age

University of Helsinki, September 9, 2020

A long-term follow-up study of 3050 twins from the Finnish Twin Cohort has shown that midlife, moderately vigorous physical activity is associated with better cognition at old age. The association was statistically independent of midlife hypertension, smoking, education level, sex, obesity and binge drinking. “his suggests that the beneficial influence of physical activity on the brain and cognition is not solely based on decreasing vascular risk factors”, says researcher Paula Iso-Markku from the University of Helsinki.

The association was studied first in all individuals of the cohort, and then by comparing later cognition in pairs where one twin was more physically active than the other.

Increasing the volume of physical activity was not, however, associated with increased memory-protecting benefits. Instead, quite a moderate amount of physical activity was found to be sufficient for memory-protecting benefits, and only the most inactive group of twins stood out with a significantly higher risk for cognitive impairment.

Overall, the study shows that moderately vigorous physical activity, meaning more strenuous than walking, is associated with better cognition after an average of 25 years. “This finding is in accordance with earlier animal model studies, which have shown that physical activity increases the amount of growth factors in the brain and improves synaptic plasticity”, states Professor Urho Kujala from the University of Jyväskylä.

The prevalence of dementia has increased with aging populations both in Finland and globally. Although the incidence of dementia seems to have decreased in less senior generations, the total prevalence of dementia is still expected to rise. No cure for dementia exists, but during the last decade research has produced an abundance of new information on dementia prevention. The traditional vascular risk factors (elevated blood pressure, hypercholesterolemia, obesity, diabetes and lack of exercise) have also been associated with dementia risk.

“However, few long-term, high-quality, follow-up studies on physical activity and cognition have been published, and it has remained unclear what type and amount of exercise is needed to safeguard cognition”, Iso-Markku says.

The study, published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, was conducted by scientists at the universities of Helsinki, Jyväskylä and Turku.

Astragalus membranaceus suppresses production of proinflammatory cytokine

Shanxi University (China), September 3, 2020

According to news reporting originating from Taiyuan, People’s Republic of China, research stated, “Astragalus membranaceus (AM), used in traditional Chinese medicine, has been shown to enhance immune functions, and recently, its anti-inflammatory effects were identified. However, the mechanisms of action remain unclear.”

Our news editors obtained a quote from the research from Shanxi Medical University: “Most studies have shown that autophagy might be involved in the immune response of the body, including inflammation. Here, we developed an inflammatory model by stimulating macrophages with lipopolysaccharides (LPS) to explore the anti-inflammatory effect and mechanisms of AM injection from the perspective of the regulation of autophagy. Immunoblot, immunofluorescence, and ELISA were used to determine the effects of AM injection on the production of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and alterations of autophagy markers. It was found that AM injection reduced the expression of IL-6 in LPS-stimulated macrophages and reversed the LPS-induced inhibition of cellular autophagy. After treatment with inhibitors of signaling pathways, it was shown that LPS downregulated autophagy and upregulated the production of IL-6 in macrophages via the protein kinase B (Akt)/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway. AM injection reversed the effects of LPS by activating the AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) instead of inhibiting Akt. These results were further confirmed by testing activators and siRNA silencing of AMPK. Hence, these 2 distinct signaling molecules appear to exert opposite effects on mTOR, which integrates information from multiple upstream signaling pathways, negatively regulating autophagy. In addition, we demonstrated that autophagy might play a key role in regulating the production of IL-6 by testing activators and inhibitors of autophagy and siRNA silencing of ATG5.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “These findings showed that AM injection might enhance autophagy by activating AMPK and might further play a repressive effect on the LPS-stimulated expression of IL-6. This study explored the relationship between autophagy, signaling pathways, and the production of inflammatory factors in a model of endotoxin infection and treatment with AM injection.”

A lack of oxygen in tumors promotes metastasis

University of Basel (Switzerland), September 8, 2020

Metastases are formed by cancer cells that break away from the primary tumor. A research group at the University of Basel has now identified lack of oxygen as the trigger for this process. The results reveal an important relationship between the oxygen supply to tumors and the formation of metastases. This research may open up new treatment strategies for cancer.

The chances of recovery significantly worsen when a tumor metastasizes. Previous research has shown that metastases are formed by clusters of cancer cells that separate from the primary tumor and migrate to new tissue through the bloodstream. However, thus far little has been known about why these clusters of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) leave the tumor in the first place.

Lack of oxygen leads to more metastases

Professor Nicola Aceto’s research group at the University of Basel’s Department of Biomedicine has now shown that a lack of oxygen is responsible for the separation of CTC clusters from the tumor. This is an important starting point for the development of new cancer treatments.

A mouse model for breast cancer formed the basis of the experiments: the researchers analyzed the oxygen supply inside these tumors, which are equivalent to human cancer tissue, the detachment of CTCs and their molecular and cell biological properties.

It turned out that different areas of a tumor are supplied with different levels of oxygen: cancer cells with a lack of oxygen were found wherever the tumor had comparatively fewer blood vessels – in the core of the tumor as well as in clearly defined peripheral areas. Next, the research team investigated the CTC clusters that had separated from these tumors and found that they similarly suffered from a lack of oxygen. This led to the conclusion that cells leave the tumor if they do not receive enough oxygen. “It’s as though too many people are crowded together in a small space. A few will go outside to find some fresh air,” says Aceto.

Further experiments showed that these CTC clusters with a lack of oxygen are particularly dangerous: in comparison to clusters with normal oxygen content, they formed metastases faster and shortened the mice’s survival time. “If a tumor does not have enough oxygen, these CTC clusters, which have a particularly high potential to develop metastases, will break away,” says Aceto.

Stimulating blood vessel formation as a treatment approach

This insight led the researchers to take a closer look at the effect of what is called proangiogenic treatment: they stimulated the formation of blood vessels, thus boosting the supply of oxygen to the tumor cells. As expected, the number of separating CTC clusters dropped, the mice formed fewer metastases, and they lived longer – but at the same time, the primary tumor increased in size significantly.

“This is a provocative result,” says Aceto. “If we give the tumor enough oxygen, the cancer cells have no reason to leave the tumor and metastasize. On the other hand, this accelerates the growth of the primary tumor.”

The next challenge is to transfer these findings to a clinical environment, where the characteristics of tumors vary from patient to patient: “But we speculate that substances that improve oxygen supply to the tumor can inhibit the formation of metastases in breast cancer, alone or in combination with other agents.”

Alleviate chronic joint pain with just a few minutes of walking, experts claim

Duquesne University, September 8, 2020

Neuroscientist Benedict Kolber of Duquesne University said that the science behind the analgesic effects of walking lies in the brain.

According to Kolber, exercise engages the endogenous opioid system that regulates pain, reward and addictive behaviors. When a person exercises, the body makes opioids which it uses to alleviate pain. Furthermore, exercise triggers the release of endorphins that improve mood and lessens stress. All of this can help you feel less pain.

“We get pain signals that are coming from our hands to our spinal cord and up to our brain. And then we get these control systems – parts of our brain that seem to be activated in exercise – and that then turns down the pain system,” explained Kolber.

A study also shows that regular exercise can increase a person’s pain tolerance, or the degree to which someone can withstand pain. For the study, researchers recruited 24 healthy but inactive adults, half of whom did a program of moderate stationary biking for 30 minutes three times a week. The rest of the participants remained inactive.

After six weeks, those who exercised demonstrated higher pain tolerance than before exercise. Participants whose fitness increased the most also showed the greatest increase in pain tolerance.

These results could be applied to how a person experiences joint pain. With a higher pain tolerance, one is more capable of withstanding the discomfiting sensation that comes with chronic joint pain.

Experts also said that limiting one’s movement in the hopes that it will make the pain go away can only weaken muscles, which could worsen joint trouble and affect posture.

Brisk walking: A simple pain reliever

Any kind of exercise can work, but walking tends to be the least demanding and the easiest physical activity for people to commit to doing regularly. Even a half-hour of brisk walking can be an effective pain reliever, according to Kolber who conducted a study to calculate how much exercise a person has to do to reap its analgesic benefits.

He tested on 40 healthy women over the course of a week and monitored pain sensitivity before and after periods of exercise. The participants performed brisk walking for 30 minutes. Some of the participants did the exercise three times a week while others did it for five to 10 times.

Kolber found that those who walked five or more times a week experienced 60 percent less pain than they reported before exercising.

While the results might have varied based on a person’s pain response, the study shows that brisk walking has big potential to relieve pain. It’s very easy to follow and adhere to, which can be helpful for people who are new to working out. For such individuals, experts recommend starting with five minutes of brisk walking a day and working their way up to 30 minutes, five or more days a week.

Exercise physiologist Kirsten Ambrose said, “Five minutes is very easy to think about. Small chunks to start with and slowly progressing is the best way to go.”

Study supports Fenugreek extract’s menopausal benefits

University of Agricultural Sciences (India), September 1, 2020.

A standardized extract of fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum) may reduce hot flashes in postmenopausal women, and improve their quality of life, says a new study.

Data published in Phytotherapy Research indicated that hot flashes decreased by 48% on the Greene Climacteric Scale, a questionnaire used to study the symptoms of menopause, compared to baseline.

Other measures were improved, including vaginal dryness, irritability, anxiety, night sweats, mood swings, insomnia, and headaches, wrote the researchers.

The researchers used the FenuSMART branded standardized fenugreek extract from Akay Flavours & Aromatics Pvt., Ltd., and the Indian company funded the study.

“Supplementation of 1,000 mg of [FenuSMART] for 90 days was found to offer hormonal balance by significantly enhancing the estradiol levels, an estrogen that was shown to play a key role in menopausal discomforts,” wrote the researchers.

“Moreover, [FenuSMART] supplementation for 90 days was found to be safe with no adverse effects as shown by the haematological (sic) and serum biochemical parameters.”

Study details

The researchers recruited 88 women to participate in their randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled study. The women were randomly assigned to receive either 1,000 mg per day of FenuSMART or placebo for 90 days.

Results showed that, compared to placebo, the fenugreek extract was associated with 57% reductions in scores of night sweats, a 68% reduction in measures of mood swings, a 75% reduction in measures of insomnia, and a 54% reduction in headache measures.

Hot flashes were reduced by an average one to two times per day from the baseline levels of three to five times a day. In addition, about 32% of the women in the fenugreek group reported no hot flashes at the end of the trial.

While the placebo group displayed increased in levels of total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triglycerides, no such increases were observed in the fenugreek group. “[FenuSMART] revealed a plausible cardiac beneficial effect by maintaining the lipid profile of the subjects in the baseline values,” they wrote.

Commenting on the potential mechanism, the researchers noted that the fenugreek extract was found to increase estradiol levels by 120%.

“Although the mechanism of estradiol enhancement has not been investigated in the present study, the observed increase in estradiol and the improvement in the postmenopausal discomforts point towards the establishment of a healthy hormonal balance upon [fenugreek extract] supplementation. It has been demonstrated that the decrease in estrogen levels to below 60 pg/mL was the main reason for menopausal discomforts. Estradiol also stimulates vaginal lubrication and blood flow, affecting a woman’s capacity for sexual arousal and orgasm.”

Study finds adherence to recommended intake of calcium associated with lower risk of colorectal cancer in women

Seoul National University College of Medicine (S Korea), August 3, 2020

According to news reporting from Seoul, South Korea, research stated, “Dietary calcium intake has been suggested to be protective against the development of colorectal cancer. The mean dietary calcium intake of Koreans is 490 mg/day, which is far below the recommended calcium intake of 700-800 mg/day.”

The news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from the Seoul National University College of Medicine, “In this study, we explored the relationship between dietary calcium intake and colorectal cancer development in Koreans with relatively low calcium intake compared with individuals in Western countries. The Health Examinees Study, a large-scale genomic community-based prospective cohort study, was designed to identify the general characteristics of major chronic diseases in Koreans. A total of 119,501 participants aged 40-69 years recruited between 2004 and 2013 were included in this analysis. The calcium intake level was categorized using the Dietary Reference Intakes for Koreans (KDRIs). The Cox proportional hazards regression model was used to estimate the hazard ratio (HR) and the corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for colorectal cancer risk, adjusting for potential confounders. In the multivariable-adjusted model, compared with the group that consumed less than the recommended amount of calcium, the group that consumed more than the recommended intake of calcium showed a significant reduction in the risk of colorectal cancer in women. (HR, 0.54; 95% CI, 0.31 to 0.95). Among men, however, no significant association was observed between dietary calcium intake and colorectal cancer risk (HR, 0.89; 95% CI, 0.54 to 1.45).”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “Korean women who adhere to the recommended intake of calcium showed a reduced risk of colorectal cancer.”

Honeybee venom kills aggressive breast cancer cells

In laboratory studies, the active component of honeybee venom rapidly killed two types of breast cancer cells that are particularly difficult to treat. Crucially, the toxin left healthy cells unharmed.

Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research (Australia), September 6, 2020

For thousands of years, humans have used honey, propolis, and venom from the European honeybee Apis mellifera as medicines.

More recently, scientists have discovered that honeybee venom and its active component, melittin, are toxic to a wide range of tumors — including melanoma, lung, ovarian, and pancreatic cancers — in laboratory tests.

Melittin is the molecule that creates the painful sensation of a bee’s sting. Scientists do not fully understand how it kills cancer cells, however.

For the first time, researchers have investigated the effect of melittin and honeybee venom on a range of breast cancers, including two of the most aggressive and hard-to-treat types.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. The two aggressive types, known as triple-negative breast cancer and HER2-enriched breast cancer, are associated with the poorest outcomes. They tend to develop resistance to existing treatments.

Scientists at the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research in Perth, Australia, and the University of Western Australia, also in Perth, found that melittin and honeybee venom rapidly kill these cancer types, with negligible effects on normal cells.

“The venom was extremely potent,” says Dr. Ciara Duffy, who led the research. “We found that melittin can completely destroy cancer cell membranes within 60 minutes.”

The study also showed that venom from bumblebees, which contains no melittin, did not kill the cancer cells — even at high concentrations.

The scientists report their work in the journal npj Precision Oncology.

Blocking messages

Melittin can kill cells in under 1 hour by punching holes in their outer membrane. However, within 20 minutes of administration, it also disrupts the passing of chemical messages that the cells need to grow and divide.

“We looked at how honeybee venom and melittin affect the cancer signaling pathways, the chemical messages that are fundamental for cancer cell growth and reproduction, and we found that very quickly these signaling pathways were shut down,” says Dr. Duffy.

The scientists discovered that melittin does this by preventing the activation of receptors for growth factors in the cells’ membrane. One of the reasons that HER2-enriched cancer cells and some triple-negative breast cancers grow uncontrollably is that they have large numbers of these receptors.

By preventing these growth signals from getting through, melittin halts the cells’ proliferation.

Prof. Peter Klinken, who was not involved in the research, is the chief scientist of Western Australia. He welcomes the findings, saying, “This is an incredibly exciting observation that melittin, a major component of honeybee venom, can suppress the growth of deadly breast cancer cells, particularly triple-negative breast cancer.”

He adds: “Significantly, this study demonstrates how melittin interferes with signaling pathways within breast cancer cells to reduce cell replication. It provides another wonderful example of where compounds in nature can be used to treat human diseases.”

Being positive linked to lower chance of dying, study says

University of Oxford, September 8, 2020

Being positive, marrying and getting a degree are each significantly associated with a lower chance of dying, a new study says

Christopher Jacobi, of the University of Oxford, studied survey responses and medical records of 28,662 people in the U.K. to find out whether their chance of dying was associated with their mental health.

Mr Jacobi told the British Sociological Association’s Medical Sociology conference in Birmingham that people with high positive mental health were less likely to die than average, though a longer follow-up period would be needed to see the long-term effects.

Those in the top sixth group of scores for positive mental health experienced a relative risk of dying that was 18% lower in the four years after the survey, he found.

Mr Jacobi, of Nuffield College, said that the strength of this effect was similar to the effect of having a degree or being married.

In his research, he analysed people with similar physical health, income and other life characteristics to exclude the effects of these and isolate those of mental health, marriage and education.

Other factors, such as religious belief and income, did not have a statistically significant role.

Factors linked to a greater chance of dying were, as expected, being older and having physical health problems.

“The results indicate that better positive mental health seems to have a somewhat protective effect against mortality,” Mr Jacobi told the conference.

“In research literature the most frequently stated ways in which positive mental health is likely to affect mortality are via direct physiological responses such as lowered blood pressure, capacity to cope with stress, less drinking and smoking, an active lifestyle, and better sleep quality.

“Likewise, people with high positive mental health might not be affected as severely by potentially negative symptomatic and physiological effects of life events like divorce or unemployment.”

The interviewees’ mental health was evaluated by scoring them for how optimistic they were about the future, how useful and relaxed they were, how close they felt to other people and how decisive they felt.

Protective effects of polyphenols present in Mediterranean diet against endothelial dysfunction

University of Valencia (Spain), September 2, 2020

According to news originating from Valencia, Spain, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “Endothelial dysfunction tends to be the initial indicator in proinflammatory state and macro- and microvascular complications, such as atherosclerosis and cardiovascular diseases.”

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from University of Valencia: “It has been shown that certain compounds in diet can generate beneficial effects on cardiovascular disease due to its interactions with endothelial cells. Thus, this review is aimed at investigating whether certain polyphenols present in the Mediterranean diet, specifically catechin, quercetin, resveratrol, and urolithin, could exert positive effects on endothelial dysfunction. After analysis of numerous papers, we found that polyphenols aiding endothelial function is beneficial not only for patients with cardiovascular disease, diabetes, or endothelial dysfunction but for all people as it can improve the effects of aging on the endothelia. The additional benefit of these polyphenols on weight loss further improves health and lowers the risk of several diseases, including those caused by endothelial dysfunction.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “However, it is important to note that the dosages in the majorities of the studies mentioned in this review were of supplemental rather than nutritionally relevant quantities, and therefore, the recommended dosages are difficult to determine.”

How screen time and green time may affect youth psychological outcomes

University of Adelaide (Australia), September 4, 2020

Less screen time and more green time are associated with better psychological outcomes among children and adolescents, according to a study published September 2 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Tassia Oswald of the University of Adelaide, and colleagues.

The prevalence of mental illness among children and adolescents is increasing globally. Technological developments in recent decades have increased young people’s engagement with screen-based technologies (screen time), and a reduction in young people’s contact with nature (green time) has been observed concurrently. This combination of high screen time and low green time may affect mental health and well-being. But research investigating the psychological impacts of screen time or green time typically considers each factor in isolation and fails to delineate the reciprocal effects of high technology use and low contact with nature on mental health and cognitive outcomes. To address this question, Oswald and colleagues analyzed the findings of 186 studies to collate evidence assessing associations between screen time, green time, and psychological outcomes (including mental health, cognitive functioning, and academic achievement) for children and adolescents.

In general, high levels of screen time appeared to be associated with unfavorable psychological outcomes, while green time appeared to be associated with favorable psychological outcomes. Young people from low socioeconomic backgrounds were underrepresented in the literature overall and may be disproportionately affected by high screen time and low green time, making this a priority group for future research. However, additional longitudinal studies and RCTs are needed to determine whether decreasing screen time and increasing green time would improve psychological outcomes. According to the authors, preliminary evidence suggests that green time could potentially buffer the consequences of high screen time, meaning nature may be an under-utilized public health resource to promote youth psychological well-being in a high-tech era. Investment in more rigorous research is needed to explore this.

Oswald adds: “This systematic scoping review highlights that nature may currently be an under-utilised public health resource, which could potentially function as an upstream preventative and psychological well-being promotion intervention for children and adolescents in a high-tech era. However, robust evidence is needed to guide policies and recommendations around appropriate screen time and green time at critical life stages, to ultimately ensure optimal psychological well-being for young people.”

Ginseng gintonin, aging societies and geriatric brain diseases

Konkuk University (South Korea), September 4, 2020

According to news reporting out of Seoul, South Korea, research stated, “A dramatic increase in aging populations and low birth rates rapidly drive aging societies and increase aging-associated neurodegenerative diseases. However, functional food or medicinal formulations to prevent geriatric brain disorders are not readily available. Gintonin is a candidate, since ginseng has long-been consumed as a rejuvenating agent.”

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from Konkuk University, “However, the underlying molecular mechanisms and the components of ginseng that are responsible for brain rejuvenation and human longevity are unknown. Accumulating evidence shows that gintonin is a candidate for the anti-aging ingredient of ginseng, especially in brain senescence. Gintonin, a glycolipoprotein complex, contains three lipid-derived G protein-coupled receptor ligands: lysophosphatidic acids (LPAs), lysophosphatidylinositols (LPIs), and linoleic acid (LA). LPA, LPI, and LA act on six LPA receptor subtypes, GPR55, and GPR40, respectively. These G protein-coupled receptors are distributed within the nervous and non-nervous systems of the human body. Gintonin-enriched fraction (GEF) exhibits anti-brain senescence and effects against disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Huntington’s disease (HD), and Parkinson’s disease (PD). Oral administration of gintonin in animal models of d-galactose-induced brain aging, AD, HD, and PD restored cognitive and motor functions. The underlying molecular mechanisms of gintonin-mediated anti-brain aging and anti-neurodegenerative diseases include neurogenesis, autophagy stimulation, anti-apoptosis, anti-oxidative stress, and anti-inflammatory activities. This review describes the characteristics of gintonin and GEF, and how gintonin exerts its effects on brain aging and brain associated-neurodegenerative diseases.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Finally, we describe how GEF can be applied to improve the quality of life of senior citizens in aging societies.”

How we sleep today may forecast when Alzheimer’s disease begins

Don’t despair. deep, restorative sleep may defend against this virulent form of dementia

University of California Berkeley, September 6, 2020

What would you do if you knew how long you had until Alzheimer’s disease set in? Don’t despair. New research from the University of California, Berkeley, suggests one defense against this virulent form of dementia — for which no treatment currently exists — is deep, restorative sleep, and plenty of it.

UC Berkeley neuroscientists Matthew Walker and Joseph Winer have found a way to estimate, with some degree of accuracy, a time frame for when Alzheimer’s is most likely to strike in a person’s lifetime.

“We have found that the sleep you’re having right now is almost like a crystal ball telling you when and how fast Alzheimer’s pathology will develop in your brain,” said Walker, a UC Berkeley professor of psychology and neuroscience and senior author of the paper published today, Sept. 3, in the journal Current Biology.

“The silver lining here is that there’s something we can do about it,” he added. “The brain washes itself during deep sleep, and so there may be the chance to turn back the clock by getting more sleep earlier in life.”

Walker and fellow researchers matched the overnight sleep quality of 32 healthy older adults against the buildup in their brains of the toxic plaque known as beta-amyloid, a key player in the onset and progression of Alzheimer’s, which destroys memory pathways and other brain functions and afflicts more than 40 million people worldwide.

Their findings show that the study participants who started out experiencing more fragmented sleep and less non-rapid eye movement (non-REM) slow-wave sleep were most likely to show an increase in beta-amyloid over the course of the study.

Although all participants remained healthy throughout the study period, the trajectory of their beta-amyloid growth correlated with baseline sleep quality. The researchers were able to forecast the increase in beta-amyloid plaques, which are thought to mark the beginning of Alzheimer’s.

“Rather than waiting for someone to develop dementia many years down the road, we are able to assess how sleep quality predicts changes in beta-amyloid plaques across multiple timepoints. In doing so, we can measure how quickly this toxic protein accumulates in the brain over time, which can indicate the beginning of Alzheimer’s disease,” said Winer, the study’s lead author and a Ph.D. student in Walker’s Center for Human Sleep Science at UC Berkeley.

In addition to predicting the time it is likely to take for the onset of Alzheimer’s, the results reinforce the link between poor sleep and the disease, which is particularly critical in the face of a tsunami of aging baby boomers on the horizon.

While previous studies have found that sleep cleanses the brain of beta-amyloid deposits, these new findings identify deep non-REM slow-wave sleep as the target of intervention against cognitive decline.

And though genetic testing can predict one’s inherent susceptibility to Alzheimer’s, and blood tests offer a diagnostic tool, neither offers the potential for a lifestyle therapeutic intervention that sleep does, the researchers point out.

“If deep, restorative sleep can slow down this disease, we should be making it a major priority,” Winer said. “And if physicians know about this connection, they can ask their older patients about their sleep quality and suggest sleep as a prevention strategy.”

The 32 healthy participants in their 60s, 70s and 80s who are enrolled in the sleep study are part of the Berkeley Aging Cohort Study headed by UC Berkeley public health professor William Jagust, also a co-author on this latest study. The study of healthy aging was launched in 2005 with a grant from the National Institutes of Health.

For the experiment, each participant spent an eight-hour night of sleep in Walker’s lab while undergoing polysomnography, a battery of tests that record brain waves, heart rate, blood-oxygen levels and other physiological measures of sleep quality.

Over the course of the multi-year study, the researchers periodically tracked the growth rate of the beta-amyloid protein in the participants’ brains using positron emission tomography, or PET scans, and compared the individuals’ beta-amyloid levels to their sleep profiles.

Researchers focused on the brain activity present during deep slow-wave sleep. They also assessed the study participants’ sleep efficiency, which is defined as actual time spent asleep, as opposed to lying sleepless in bed.

The results supported their hypothesis that sleep quality is a biomarker and predictor of disease down the road.

“We know there’s a connection between people’s sleep quality and what’s going on in the brain, in terms of Alzheimer’s disease. But what hasn’t been tested before is whether your sleep right now predicts what’s going to happen to you years later,” Winer said. “And that’s the question we had.”

And they got their answer: “Measuring sleep effectively helps us travel into the future and estimate where your amyloid buildup will be,” Walker said.

As for next steps, Walker and Winer are looking at how they can take the study participants who are at high risk of contracting Alzheimer’s and implement methods that might boost the quality of their sleep.

“Our hope is that if we intervene, then in three or four years the buildup is no longer where we thought it would be because we improved their sleep,” Winer said.

“Indeed, if we can bend the arrow of Alzheimer’s risk downward by improving sleep, it would be a significant and hopeful advance,” Walker concluded.

Link between positive emotions and health depends on culture

University of Wisconsin, September 8, 2020

Positive emotions are often seen as critical aspects of healthy living, but new researchsuggests that the link between emotion and health outcomes may vary by cultural context. The findings, published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, show that experiencing positive emotions is linked with better cardiovascular health in the US but not in Japan.

“Our key finding is that positive emotions predict blood-lipid profiles differently across cultures,” says psychological scientist Jiah Yoo of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “American adults who experience high levels of positive emotions, such as feeling ‘cheerful’ and ‘extremely happy’, are more likely to have healthy blood-lipid profiles, even after accounting for other factors such as age, gender, socioeconomic status, and chronic conditions. However, this was not true for Japanese adults.”

“Our findings underscore the importance of cultural context for understanding links between emotion and health, something that has been largely ignored in the literature,” Yoo adds. “Although some studies have examined cultural differences in links between positive emotions and healthy functioning, this work is novel in that it includes biological measures of health and large representative samples from both countries.”

The fact that positive emotions are conceived of and valued differently across cultures led Yoo and colleagues to wonder whether the health benefits observed in tandem with positive emotions might be specific to Western populations.

“In American cultures, experiencing positive emotions is seen as desirable and is even encouraged via socialization. But in East Asian cultures, people commonly view positive emotions as having dark sides – they are fleeting, may attract unnecessary attention from others, and can be a distraction from focusing on important tasks,” says Yoo.

The researchers designed a cross-cultural comparison, examining data from two large representative studies of adults: Midlife in the United States and Midlife in Japan, both funded by the National Institute on Aging. Data included participants’ ratings of how frequently they felt 10 different positive emotions in the previous 30 days and measures of blood lipids, which provided objective data on participants’ heart health.

“Because of the global prevalence of coronary artery disease, blood lipids are considered important indices of biological health in many Western and East Asian countries,” Yoo explains.

As expected, the data indicated that experiencing frequent positive emotions was associated with healthy lipid profiles for American participants. But there was no evidence of such a link for Japanese participants.

The differences may be due, in part, to the relationships between positive emotions and BMI in each culture. Higher positive emotions were linked with lower BMI and, in turn, healthier lipid profiles among American participants, but not among Japanese participants.

“By demonstrating that the cultural variation in the connection between emotional well-being and physical well-being, our research has wide-ranging relevance among those who seek to promote well-being in the communities and the workplace, including clinicians, executives, and policy makers,” Yoo concludes.

In future work, the researchers will examine longitudinal data to determine whether the evidence suggests a direct causal link between emotions and health. They also hope to identify emotional profiles that may be more relevant or important to health outcomes in East Asian cultures.

Experimental research suggests co-administration of Panax ginseng and Brassica oleracea plants (kale, broccoli, cabbage, etc) may help protect against osteoporosis

Inha University School of Medicine (South Korea), September 4, 2020

According to news reporting out of Incheon, South Korea, research stated, “Postmenopausal osteoporosis is a common disorder resulting from increased osteoclastic activity.”

The news reporters obtained a quote from the research from Inha University School of Medicine: “To determine the effect of * * Panax ginseng* * on postmenopausal osteoporosis, ovariectomized (OVX) mice were treated with 500 mg/kg/day * * P. ginseng* * extract (Pg) alone or in combination with hot water extract of * * Brassica oleracea* * (Bo) daily for 10 weeks, and the effect of the treatments on OVX-induced bone loss was examined. Bone weight, bone mineral density (BMD), osteoclast (OC) formation, OC marker expression, and biochemical parameters in blood were determined. OVX significantly increased body weight and decreased bone weight compared with those in the Sham group (* * p* * < 0.01). Pg or Bo alone did not affect OVX-induced bone loss, but a combination of Pg and Bo (Pg:Bo) recovered bone weight. The bones of OVX mice showed lower BMD than that of Sham mice, and the Pg:Bo = 3:1 restored the decreased BMD. Single treatment with Pg or Bo did not alter OC formation; however, the Pg:Bo = 3:1 inhibited OC formation.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “In addition, Pg and Bo lowered the OVX-induced elevation in blood glucose level. Thus, we suggest that Pg in combination with proper materials, such as Bo, might be a potential candidate treatment with minimal side effects protect against postmenopausal osteoporosis.”

Rest Days Are Important For Fitness — Here’s Why, According To Science

University Of Aberdeen, September 4, 2020

In 2017, world famous distance runner, Ron Hill, ended his record of 52 years and 39 days of consecutive running by taking a day’s rest after feeling unwell during one of his runs.

Hill writes in his autobiography that he ran at least one mile a day, and tasked himself with training 13 times per week. His training was conducted without a coach, and was done on a trial and error basis.

Though successful – he even competed twice in the Olympics – there were occasions that he describes the symptoms of over-training. These included sore and heavy legs, increased susceptibility to colds and infections, and weight loss. Though Hill found a training regimen that helped him prepare for competition, he wondered if some of his substandard performances were a consequence of not taking any rest days.

When starting a new fitness regime, we’re often told it’s important to take “rest days” between workouts. The reason many recommend rest days is to allow the body’s muscles to recover from any damage they’ve sustained during workouts, and to allow them to grow. And numerous scientific studies show that rest days do indeed play an important role in helping us maintain good health and fitness.

We usually define rest as a period of time without any training. For most people, this is usually about 24 hours between workouts. However, recovery is different, and could indicate a time span of several minutes to hours (such as taking a short break during training between rounds). Recovery could also indicate the time required to induce some form of physiological adaptation, such as the observed rapid increase in plasma volume, which could improve aerobic fitness. But how necessary are both rest and recovery as part of a training program?

Take a break

Most studies indicate that rest and recovery between workouts are both necessary for helping the body adapt and recuperate from one’s last workouts. Exercise requires us to use our body’s energy stores (primarily carbohydrates) and fluids (in producing sweat), so rest and recovery give the body time to replenish these energy stores.

Several studies have shown that the body needs at least 24 hours to fully replace our muscle’s store of carbohydrates. Maintaining an adequate store of muscle glycogen (glycogen is the body’s store of carbohydrate), is important for training and maintaining stable blood sugar levels.

However, less time is required to recover our fluids. Numerous studies have found it takes only around one to two hours to replace our fluids lost as sweat during exercise. But our bodies still require several hours of rest following exercise to maintain hydration due to the continued production of urine.

Training may also damage our body’s tissues. Under some circumstances this damage can be beneficial, but is not an essential part of building muscle. But in order for muscle to recover and improve (known as physiological adaptation) they require several weeks of cycles of exercise and recovery.

Research shows our bodies require a longer rest period in order to build muscle tissue (protein synthesis). But given the turnover of protein for muscle, tendon and ligaments is between 0.4-1.2% a day, this shows there’s a constant exchange of protein in our body related to dietary intake, urinary nitrogen excretion and the added effect of exercise.

The hours just after the initial workout may actually be most important for making this happen. Researchers reported that a three-hour feeding pattern of whey protein was more effective at increasing protein synthesis than feeding every 1.5 or six hours over a 12-hour period.

Many other adaptations that occur as a consequence of training (such as increasing the activity of enzymes and glucose transporters, which are key in oxygen consumption and fuel use), require a period in excess of 12 hours before changes are detected. These changes are important, as when we increase our exercise intensity, we need to use glucose instead of fat to fuel our exercise.

Longer-term adaptations, such as increasing the number of blood vessels in our exercised muscles, or increasing the size of the heart, are a much longer process, requiring months of training and rest to observe any measurable change. Both adaptations are key to increasing our aerobic capacity.

The quality of rest has also been a source of much interest, and sleep deprivation has been used as a tool to examine the effects of disturbed rest on exercise performance and physical and psychological function. A wide-ranging review concluded that disturbed sleep may have a detrimental effect on performance, such as a reduced time to exhaustion – but they were clear that sleep deprivation had many negative effects on cognitive function.

Overwhelming evidence also shows rest days are also extremely important for preventing overtraining syndrome. Overtraining syndrome can cause fatigue, sleep loss, weight gain, depression – and may even result in decreased performance and may stall progress.

In general, it seems that one day’s rest per week is sound advice and is supported by the scientific evidence, especially when it comes to repairing tissues, building and adapting skeletal muscle, and restoring fuel reserves. It may also reduce mental stress. Although Hill set world records at distances between 10 and 16 miles, he is an exceptional example – and even admitted that trying to run every single day may have hindered his performance at the two Olympic games. Based on the evidence, taking a rest day seems to be as important for progress and fitness as exercise itself.

Probiotics may help manage childhood obesity

University of Piemonte Orientale (Italy), September 5, 2020

Probiotics may help children and adolescents with obesity lose weight when taken alongside a calorie-controlled diet, according to a study being presented at e-ECE 2020. The study found that obese children who were put on a calorie-restricted diet and given probiotics Bifidobacterium breve BR03 and Bifidobacterium breve B632, lost more weight and had improved insulin sensitivity compared with children on a diet only. These findings suggest that probiotic supplements and a calorie-controlled diet may help manage obesity in the younger population and reduce future health risks, such as heart disease and diabetes.

Obesity is a global health concern and can lead to a number of life-threatening conditions, such as diabetes and heart disease. Treatment and prevention is a serious public health challenge, especially in children and adolescents. Bifidobacteria are a group of probiotic bacteria that are part of the natural gut microbiome and help with preventing infection from other bacteria, such as E.coli, and digestion of carbohydrates and dietary fibre. During digestion, they release chemicals called short-chain fatty acids, which play an important role in gut health and controlling hunger. Low numbers of Bifodobacteria may impair digestion, affect food intake and energy expenditure, leading to body weight gain and obesity.

Previous studies suggested that probiotic supplementation with Bifidobacteria could help restore the composition of the gut microbiome, which may aid weight loss and could be a potential approach for obesity management. However, current research uses mixtures of different strains of probiotics and does not examine the effects of administering Bifidobacteria alone.

Dr Flavia Prodam and her team at the University of Piemonte Orientale, aimed to assess the impact of Bifidobacteria probiotic treatment in children and adolescents with obesity on a controlled diet, on weight loss and gut microbiota composition. 100 obese children and adolescents (6-18 years) were put on a calorie-controlled diet and randomly given either probiotics Bifidobacterium breve BR03 and Bifidobacterium breve B632, or a placebo for 8 weeks. Clinical, biochemical and stool sample analyses were carried out to determine the effect of probiotic supplementation on weight gain, gut microbiota and metabolism.

The results suggested that children who had taken probiotics had a reduction in waist circumference, BMI, insulin resistance and E.coli in their gut. These beneficial effects demonstrate the potential of probiotics in helping to treat obesity in children and adolescents, when undergoing dietary restrictions.

“Probiotic supplements are frequently given to people without proper evidence data. These findings start to give evidence of the efficacy and safety of two probiotic strains in treating obesity in a younger population,” Dr Prodam comments.

The study suggests that supplementation with probiotics could modify the gut microbiome environment and beneficially affect metabolism, helping obese children or adolescents who are also undergoing a restricted diet to lose weight. However, larger studies over a longer period of time are needed to investigate this.

Dr Prodam explains, “The next step for our research is to identify patients that could benefit from this probiotic treatment, with a view to creating a more personalised weight-loss strategy. We also want to decipher more clearly the role of diet and probiotics on microbiome composition. This could help us to understand how the microbiota is different in young people with obesity.”