Videos:
- Senator Gerard Rennick Talking To Parliament 10:56)
- Katie Hopkins: In support of those speaking out. And punished for ‘wrong-think’. (8:10)
- Tory Party is ‘going down this totalitarian, woke way of looking at the world’ | Adam Holloway MP (3:49)
- All Hell Breaks Loose At School Board Meeting When GOP Lawmaker Slams Trans-Inclusive Bathroom Rules (5:15)
- Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH Names Those Who Played Roles in the Greatest Conspiracy Against Humankind:
Body fat ‘talks’ to the brain when we’re stressed
University of Florida & University of Cincinnati, January 9, 2023
The brain is not the only part of the body that affects the way we respond to stress. New research shows that body fat can send a stress signal, too. While the exact nature of those signals remains a mystery, researchers say simply knowing such a pathway exists and learning more about it could help break a vicious cycle. Stress causes a desire to eat more, which can lead to obesity. And too much extra fat can impair the body’s ability to send a signal to the brain to shut off the stress response. “It moved our understanding of stress control to include other parts of the body. Before this, everyone thought that the regulation of stress was mainly due to the brain. It’s not just in the brain. This study suggests that stress regulation occurs on a much larger scale, including body systems controlling metabolism, such as fat,” says James Herman, a professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience at the University of Cincinnati and a coauthor of the paper published in the the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology. Researchers found that a glucocorticoid receptor in fat tissue can affect the way the brain controls stress and metabolism. Initially, such signals from the receptor can be lifesavers, directing the brain to regulate its energy balance and influencing stress responses in a beneficial way. Steroid hormones known as glucocorticoids activate their receptors within fat tissue in a way that affects a main component of the metabolic stress response. Using mouse models, the researchers found a unique connection between glucocorticoid signaling in fat tissue and the brain’s regulation of energy balance and stress response. Because glucocorticoid signaling is crucial to regulating the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, fat tissue can directly affect central nervous system functions that link obesity, metabolic disease, and stress-related problems, researchers conclude. Understanding fat-to-brain signaling is a first step toward someday being able to influence the broad, complex relationship between stress, obesity, and metabolism.
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AMPK — the enzyme that makes physical activity healthy
University of Copenhagen, January 3, 2022
Physical activity benefits diabetics and others with insulin resistance. One of the reasons is that a single bout of physical activity increases the effectiveness of insulin. Thus, physical activity helps to reduce the risk of developing diabetes, while also reducing the effects of diabetes if it does set in. Until now, no one has understood the underlying mechanism of this phenomenon.
New research from the University of Copenhagen’s Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports reports that the enzyme AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) plays a crucial role in enhancing the ability of insulin to stimulate glucose uptake in muscles. The discovery may be a breakthrough in finding a medical pathway to improve the health of people with limitations for physical activity. “AMPK is central for insulin sensitivity in muscles, and thereby for the ability of muscles to take up glucose immediately after physical activity. That our research group has been able to demonstrate such an important and basic physiological role of AMPK in muscles is fantastic, and a reward after many years of effort,” according to Professor Jørgen Wojtaszewski, who had overall responsibility for the group’s work. The study’s main experiments were conducted on laboratory animals in which the genes coding for AMPK specifically were removed in skeletal muscle. The ability of these mice to increase muscle insulin sensitivity after a single exercise bout was fully ablated. Over the last years the research group has conducted several experiments that show that it is highly probable that AMPK plays a similar role in muscles of man. In addition, last year, the group demonstrated that medicinal activation of AMPK could increase insulin sensitivity in muscles of mice. “While physical activity is clearly preferred, because it improves health and welfare in a great many areas and ways, our finding points to a medicinal way to improve health that can benefit those who are limited in their ability to be physically active. This could include people with physical handicaps, ill people forced to stay in bed for more than a few days or of course those who do not fancy physical activity at all. Popularly put, we are moving towards the development of an ‘exercise pill'”, says Postdoc Rasmus Kjøbsted, lead author of the article that catalogued the group’s research. He concludes: “Moreover, our findings suggest that some types of physical activity are likely more effective than others in increasing insulin sensitivity. But more experiments are required to further clarify this.”
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Exceptional Botanical Kills 98% of Cancer Cells in Under 24 Hours
University of Washington, January 6, 2023
The same herb frequently eaten as salad in Asia has been shown to destroy cancer cells — without harming healthy tissue. Researchers at the University of Washington have created a compound based on traditional Chinese medicine that is 1,200 times more effective in killing malignant cells than chemotherapy drugs. Combined with iron, the herb selectively targets cancerous cells and has proven to be a powerful tool in combating the disease. Tomikazu Sasaki, senior author of the study and chemistry professor at the University of Washington, describes the compound as “… a special agent planting a bomb inside the [cancer] cell.” Since traditional chemotherapy is rife with severe side-effects and kills healthy cells, researchers are encouraged by the findings. Standard chemotherapy destroys as many as 1 normal cell for every 5 cancer cells. The compound developed by Sasaki and his team is far more specific, killing 12,000 cancer cells for each healthy cell affected, which minimizes adverse side-effects. Because of this, the effectiveness of the treatment is increased as higher doses can be tolerated.
Sweet wormwood (Artemisia annua L.) has been used for over two millennia in traditional Chinese medicine for a variety of complaints — from skin disorders to high blood pressure and malaria. Native to Asia, the plant is rich in the following beneficial compounds:
Artemisia annua contains sesquiterpenes, flavonoids, coumarins, essential oil, palmitic acid, stigmasterol, B-sitosterol, aurantiamide acetate, annuadiepoxide, B-glucosidase III, etc. And sesquiterpenes contains arteannuin, artemisinin A (qinghaosu I), artemisinin B (qinghaosu II), deoxyartemisinin (qinghaosu III), qinghaosu IV, qinghaosu V, qinghaosu VI, arteannuin C, artemisinic acid (qinghao acid), methyl artemisinate, artemisinol, annulide, friedelin, friedelan-3B-ol, etc. Flavonoids include chrysosplenol D, artemetin, casticin, cirsilineol, axillarin, cirsiliol, tamarixetin, rhamnetin, cirsimaritin, rhamnocitrin, chrysoeriol, kaempferol, quercetin, luteolin, patuletin, etc. Coumarins include scopoletin, coumarin, 6-methoxy-7-hydroxycoumarin, scoparone, etc. Wormwood oil includes camphor, B-caryophyllene, iso-artemisia ketone, B-pinene, bornyl acetate, carveol, benzyl isovalerate, B-farnesene, copaene, y-muurolene, fenchone, linalool, isoborneol, a-terpineol, borneol, camphene, myrcene, limonene, y-terpineol, etc. [source] Of particular interest in the treatment of disease, especially cancer, are the compounds limonene (anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, anti-bacterial, anti-viral, antioxidant), B-pinene (antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, anti-proliferative, antioxidant) and quercetin (anti-inflammatory , anti-proliferative, supports immune function). Artemisinin on its own will destroy 100 cancer cells for every normal cell. To improve the results, researchers added an iron chemical tag into the mix. Since cancer cells need large amounts of iron to maintain rapid tumor growth, they will readily engulf the artemisinin-iron tag compound. As explained by UW Today, “Once inside the cell, the iron reacts with artemisinin to release poisonous molecules called free radicals. When enough of these free radicals accumulate, the cell dies.” Henry Lai, a University of Washington bioengineering professor and co-author of the study, said the compound is like a Trojan horse in gaining access to cancerous cells. Artemisinin is extremely toxic when combined with iron, but harmless otherwise. Cancer cells are also not as efficient as healthy cells in cleaning-up free-floating iron, making the malignant cells more sensitive to the herb. Because cancer cells are already under stress from high iron levels, artemisinin pushes the cells over the edge. Due to this mechanism, researchers believe the compound can be used successfully for almost any type of cancer. Currently, the artemisinin-iron tag duo has been tested on human breast and prostate cancers in vitro, and has safely killed breast cancer in rats. To establish artemisinin’s effectiveness, the team saturated normal breast cells and radiation-resistant cancerous tissue with holotransferrin — a compound found within the body that carries iron into the cells. Next, the cells were dosed with artemisinin. Within 16 hours, all the cancer cells exposed to holotransferrin died and only a few normal cells were affected. Lai notes that a breast cancer cell contains up to 15 times more iron receptors than other cells, therefore making it more susceptible to artemisinin’s assault. The research team hopes that since artemisinin is already widely available, a compound to treat cancer can be manufactured inexpensively to help those who are ill.
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Sugar in western diets increases risk for breast cancer tumors and metastasis
University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, January 1, 2022
The high amounts of dietary sugar in the typical Western diet may increase the risk of breast cancer and metastasis to the lungs, according to a study at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. The findings, published in the online issue of Cancer Research, demonstrated dietary sugar’s effect on an enzymatic signaling pathway known as 12-LOX (12-lipoxygenase). “We found that sucrose intake in mice comparable to levels of Western diets led to increased tumor growth and metastasis, when compared to a non-sugar starch diet,” said Peiying Yang, Ph.D., assistant professor of Palliative, Rehabilitation, and Integrative Medicine. “This was due, in part, to increased expression of 12-LOX and a related fatty acid called 12-HETE.” Previous epidemiological studies have shown that dietary sugar intake has an impact on breast cancer development, with inflammation thought to play a role. “The current study investigated the impact of dietary sugar on mammary gland tumor development in multiple mouse models, along with mechanisms that may be involved,” said co-author Lorenzo Cohen, Ph.D., professor of Palliative, Rehabilitation, and Integrative Medicine. “We determined that it was specifically fructose, in table sugar and high-fructose corn syrup, ubiquitous within our food system, which was responsible for facilitating lung metastasis and 12-HETE production in breast tumors.” Cohen added that the data suggested that dietary sugar induces 12-LOX signaling to increase risks for breast cancer development and metastasis. The MD Anderson team conducted four different studies in which mice were randomized to different diet groups and fed one of four diets. At six months of age, 30 percent of mice on a starch-control diet had measurable tumors, whereas 50 to 58 percent of the mice on sucrose-enriched diets had developed mammary tumors. The study also showed that numbers of lung metastases were significantly higher in mice on a sucrose- or a fructose-enriched diet, versus mice on a starch-control diet. “This study suggests that dietary sucrose or fructose induced 12-LOX and 12-HETE production in breast tumor cells in vivo,” said Cohen. “This indicates a possible signaling pathway responsible for sugar-promoted tumor growth in mice. How dietary sucrose and fructose induces 12-HETE and whether it has a direct or indirect effect remains in question.”
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Eating when we are not hungry is bad for our health
University of Illinois, December 30, 2022
With the wide availability of convenient foods engineered for maximum tastiness— such as potato chips, chocolates, and bacon double cheeseburgers— in the modern food environment and with widespread advertising, the contemporary consumer is incessantly being bombarded with the temptation to eat. This means that, in contrast to people in traditional societies, people in contemporary societies often eat not on account of hunger but because tasty food is available and beckoning at all hours of the day. New research published in the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, found that the tendency of today’s consumers to eat when they are not hungry might be less advantageous for health than eating when they are hungry. The individuals participating in the study were 45 undergraduate students. The participants were first asked to rate their level of hunger and then to consume a meal rich in carbohydrates. To measure how the meal was impacting participants’ health, participants’ blood glucose levels were measured at regular intervals after they consumed the meal. Blood glucose levels tend to rise after a meal containing carbohydrates and it is generally healthier if blood glucose levels rise by a relatively small amount because elevated blood glucose is damaging to the body’s cells. The results of the study showed that individuals who were moderately hungry before the meal tended to have lower blood glucose levels after consuming the meal than individuals who were not particularly hungry before consuming the meal. These findings suggest that it might be healthier for individuals to eat when they are moderately hungry than when they are not hungry.
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Tomato juice may slash waist size & inflammatory markers for young women
China Medical University (Taiwan), January 5m 2023
A daily glass of tomato juice for eight weeks has a direct effect on waist circumference, cholesterol, and markers of inflammation in generally healthy young women, says a new study from Taiwan. Data from 30 twentysomethings revealed that a daily glass of 280 mL of tomato juice containing 32.5 mg of lycopene was associated with an average reduction in waist circumference of 1.6 cm and a 0.5 kg reduction in body weight. The tomato juice supplements were associated with a 22% decrease in levels of monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), a potent marker of inflammation, and a 25% increase in adiponectin levels, according to findings published in Nutrition . Adiponectin is a hormone released from fat cells, which plays an important role in the regulation of insulin sensitivity and energy. “In this study, we showed that, in young healthy Taiwanese women, tomato juice supplementation resulted in a decrease not only in adiposity indices, peroxidative stress, and serum cholesterol levels, but also in levels of the inflammatory adipokine MCP-1, and an increase in levels of the anti-inflammatory adipokine adiponectin,” wrote the researchers from the China Medical University in Taiwan.The participants consumed 280 mL of tomato juice per day, containing 32.5 mg of lycopene The researchers recruited 30 young generally healthy women and assigned them all to receive a daily glass of tomato juice for eight weeks. There was no control or placebo group, and the women were told to continue their normal diet and exercise schedule. Twenty-five women completed the study. Results showed that, despite no changes in overall food intakes, the women displayed significant reductions in body weight, body fat, waist circumference, and BMI. Reductions in cholesterol and MCP-1 levels were also observed, while significant increases in levels of adiponectin, triglyceride, and lycopene were observed for the women.