Videos:
- The Higher Ed Cartel | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO) (4:53)
- This WEF plan is the most INSANE one yet | Redacted with Natali and Clayton Morris (10:00
- Senator Malcolm Roberts 🚨 WARNING 🚨 : World Health Organisation’s Dictator style power grab
- The Re-Education of Jordan Peterson: Why His Clinical Psychology License is Under Threat
Drinking beetroot juice reduces high blood pressure, trial shows
Queen Mary University (UK), January 20, 2023
One glass of beetroot juice a day is enough to significantly reduce blood pressure in patients with high blood pressure, conclude researchers who conducted a placebo-controlled trial in dozens of patients.
“This interesting study builds on previous research by this team and finds that a daily glass of beetroot juice can lower blood pressure in people with hypertension – even those whose high blood pressure was not controlled by drug treatment.”
Beetroot contains high levels of inorganic nitrate. Other leafy vegetables – such as lettuce and cabbage – also have high levels of the compound, which they take up from the soil through their roots.In the human body, inorganic nitrate converts to nitric oxide, which relaxes and dilates blood vessels.
For the trial, Amrita Ahluwalia and colleagues recruited 64 patients aged 18-85. Half of the patients were taking prescribed medication for high blood pressure but were not managing to reach their target blood pressure, and the rest had been diagnosed with high blood pressure but were not yet taking medication for it.
The patients were randomly assigned to one of two groups. One group consumed a daily glass (250 ml or around 8.5 oz) of beetroot juice, and the other group had the same except their beetroot juice was nitrate-free (the placebo).
The patients consumed the juice every day for 4 weeks. They were also monitored for 2 weeks before and after the study, bringing the total trial period to 8 weeks. The trial was double-blind, which means neither the administering clinicians nor the patients knew whether the beetroot juice they were given was the placebo or the active supplement.
During the 4 weeks they were taking the juice, patients in the active supplement group (whose beetroot juice contained inorganic nitrate) experienced a reduction in blood pressure of 8/4 mmHg (millimeters of mercury).
In the 2 weeks after they stopped taking the juice, the patients’ blood pressure returned to their previous high levels.
The patients in the active supplement group also experienced a 20% or so improvement in blood vessel dilation capacity and their artery stiffness reduced by around 10%. Studies show such changes are linked to reduced risk of heart disease.
There were no changes to blood pressure, blood vessel function or artery stiffness in the placebo group (whose beetroot juice did not contain nitrate) during the period of the study.According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), high blood pressure is either the primary cause of or contributes to 1,000 American deaths every day.
Effectively Treating Colorectal Cancer With Grape Seed Extract, Even As Cancer Gets More Aggressive
University of Colorado Cancer Center, January 20, 2023
A University of Colorado Cancer Center study published in the journal Cancer Letters shows that the more advanced are colorectal cancer cells, the more GSE inhibits their growth and survival. On the other end of the disease spectrum, GSE leaves healthy cells alone entirely.
“We’ve known for quite a while that the bioactive compounds in grape seed extract selectively target many types of cancer cells. This study shows that many of the same mutations that allow colorectal cancer cells to metastasize and survive traditional therapies make them especially sensitive to treatment with GSE,” says Molly Derry, investigator at the CU Cancer Center and professor at the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.
Derry notes this is an especially important finding in light of increasing colorectal cancer rates (due in part to increasingly high-fat diets and sedentary lifestyles) and a low screening rate; that means 60 percent of patients diagnosed have already reached the advanced stage of the disease.
The group performed their experiments on colorectal cancer cell lines representing various stages of the disease. Whereas it generally takes much more chemotherapy to kill a stage IV cancer cell than a stage II cancer cell, Derry saw that the reverse was true with grape seed extract.
“It required less than half the concentration of GSE to suppress cell growth and kill 50 percent of stage IV cells than it did to achieve similar results in the stage II cells,” Derry says.
The group also discovered a likely mechanism of GSE’s preferential targeting of advanced colorectal cancer cells: when cancer cells were treated with antioxidants the GSE induced cell death was reversed and so Derry and colleagues consider it likely that GSE targets colorectal cancer through inducing oxidative stress that leads to the programmed cell death known as apoptosis.
“A colorectal cancer cell can have upwards of 11,000 genetic mutations – differences from the DNA in healthy cells. Traditional chemotherapies may only target a specific mutation and as cancer progresses more mutations occur. These changes can result in cancer that is resistance to chemotherapy. In contrast, the many bioactive compounds of GSE are able to target multiple mutations. The more mutations a cancer presents, the more effective GSE is in targeting them,” Derry says.
Healthy lifestyle linked to slower memory decline in older adults
National Center for Neurological Disorders, Capital Medical University (China), January 25, 2023
A healthy lifestyle, in particular a healthy diet, is associated with slower memory decline, finds a decade-long study of older adults in China, published today in The BMJ.
Even for carriers of the apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene—the strongest known risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias—a healthy lifestyle was found to slow memory loss.
To explore this further, researchers analyzed data from 29,000 adults aged at least 60 years (average age 72; 49% women) with normal cognitive function who were part of the China Cognition and Aging Study.
At the start of the study, memory function was measured using the Auditory Verbal Learning test (AVLT) and participants were tested for the APOE gene (20% were found to be carriers). Follow-up assessments were then conducted over the next 10 years.
A healthy lifestyle score combining six factors was then calculated: healthy diet, regular exercise, active social contact (eg. seeing friends and family), cognitive activity (eg. writing, reading, playing mahjong), non-smoking, and never drinking alcohol.
Based on their score, ranging from 0 to 6, participants were put into favorable (4 to 6 healthy factors), average (2 to 3 healthy factors), or unfavorable (0 to 1 healthy factors) lifestyle groups and into APOE carrier and non-carrier groups.
After accounting for a range of other health, economic and social factors, the researchers found that each individual healthy behavior was associated with a slower than average decline in memory over 10 years.
A healthy diet had the strongest effect on slowing memory decline, followed by cognitive activity and then physical exercise.
Compared with the group that had unfavorable lifestyles, memory decline in the favorable lifestyle group was 0.28 points slower over 10 years based on a standardized score (z score) of the AVLT, and memory decline in the average lifestyle group was 0.16 points slower.
Participants with the APOE gene with favorable and average lifestyles also experienced a slower rate of memory decline than those with an unfavorable lifestyle (0.027 and 0.014 points per year slower, respectively).
What’s more, those with favorable or average lifestyles were almost 90% and almost 30% less likely to develop dementia or mild cognitive impairment relative to those with an unfavorable lifestyle, and the APOE group had similar results.
This is an observational study so can’t establish cause and the researchers acknowledge some limitations, such as the potential for measurement errors due to self-reporting of lifestyle factors, and the possibility of selection bias, as some participants did not return for follow-up evaluations.
Using running to escape everyday stresses may lead to exercise dependence instead of mental well-being
Norwegian University of Science and Technology, January 25, 2023
Recreational running offers a lot of physical and mental health benefits—but some people can develop exercise dependence, a form of addiction to physical activity which can cause health issues. Shockingly, signs of exercise dependence are common even in recreational runners. A study published in Frontiers in Psychology investigated whether the concept of escapism can help us understand the relationship between running, well-being, and exercise dependence.
“Escapism is an everyday phenomenon among humans, but little is known regarding its motivational underpinnings, how it affects experiences, and the psychological outcomes from it,” said Dr. Frode Stenseng of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, lead author of the paper.
“Escapism is often defined as ‘an activity, a form of entertainment, etc. that helps you avoid or forget unpleasant or boring things.” In other words, many of our everyday activities may be interpreted as escapism,” said Stenseng. “The psychological reward from escapism is reduced self-awareness, less rumination, and a relief from one’s most pressing, or stressing, thoughts and emotions.”
Escapism can restore perspective, or it can act as a distraction from problems that need to be tackled. Escapism which is adaptive, seeking out positive experiences, is referred to as self-expansion. Meanwhile maladaptive escapism, avoiding negative experiences, is called self-suppression. Effectively, running as exploration or as evasion.
The team recruited 227 recreational runners, half men and half women, with widely varying running practices.
The scientists found that there was very little overlap between runners who favored self-expansion and runners who preferred self-suppression modes of escapism. Self-expansion was positively related with well-being, while self-suppression was negatively related to well-being. Self-suppression and self-expansion were both linked to exercise dependence, but self-suppression was much more strongly linked to it.
Although exercise dependence corrodes the potential well-being gains from exercise, it seems that perceiving lower well-being may be both a cause and an outcome of exercise dependency: the dependency might be driven by lower well-being as well as promoting it.
Japanese study concludes that boysenberries help maintain vascular stability
Niigata University (Japan), January 19, 2023
Researchers in Japan found that endothelial dysfunction may be prevented with boysenberries. They discovered in their study that boysenberry polyphenol and its anthocyanins can inhibit blood and lymphatic vessel dysfunction and help keep vascular stability.
Endothelial, also known as blood and lymphatic vessel, cells play an important role in the maintenance of vascular homeostasis. However, the aging process and age-related disorders like diabetes, hypertension, and obesity induce endothelial dysfunction. In turn, endothelial dysfunction increases the risk of atherosclerosis among its sufferers.
For the study, the team analyzed the effect of boysenberry polyphenol on vascular health in a state of metabolic stress in mice. One group of mice received a high-fat diet, while another group received a standard chow for eight weeks. After that, the mice on the high-fat diet received boysenberry polyphenol in their drinking water for six to eight weeks.
The results showed that boysenberry polyphenol ameliorated the increase in the reactive oxygen species (ROS) level in the mice’s aorta brought by obesity-induced metabolic stress. The high-fat diet also caused a lower degree of blood vessel dilation in the iliac arteries of mice, but the treatment of boysenberry polyphenol restored proper blood vessel dilation. These results suggested that boysenberry polyphenol can prevent endothelial dysfunction caused by metabolic stress.
The researchers also conducted another trial in laboratory testing. They cultured human umbilical vein endothelial cells to evaluate the effect of boysenberry polyphenol and anthocyanins. Anthocyanins have been shown to prevent cardiovascular problems.
They discovered that anthocyanins could prevent palmitic acid-induced ROS production in human umbilical vein endothelial cells, as well as reduce nitric oxide inhibition induced by metabolic stress. Anthocyanins also significantly improved endothelium-dependent vasodilation of iliac arteries, inhibited ROS production, and increased nitric oxide production. These results indicated that anthocyanins were the primary component of boysenberry polyphenol responsible in endothelial dysfunction protection against metabolic stress.
Study finds health impact of chemicals in plastics is handed down two generations
University of California – Riverside, January 27, 2023
Fathers exposed to chemicals in plastics can affect the metabolic health of their offspring for two generations, a University of California, Riverside, mouse study reports.
Plastics, which are now ubiquitous, contain endocrine disrupting chemicals, or EDCs, that have been linked to increased risk of many chronic diseases; parental exposure to EDCs, for example, has been shown to cause metabolic disorders, including obesity and diabetes, in the offspring.
Most studies have focused on the impact of maternal EDC exposure on the offspring’s health. The current study, published in the journal Environment International, focused on the effects of paternal EDC exposure.
Led by Changcheng Zhou, a professor of biomedical sciences in the School of Medicine, the researchers investigated the impact of paternal exposure to a phthalate called dicyclohexyl phthalate, or DCHP, on the metabolic health of first generation (F1) and second generation (F2) offspring in mice. Phthalates are chemicals used to make plastics more durable.
The researchers found that paternal DCHP exposure for four weeks led to high insulin resistance and impaired insulin signaling in F1 offspring. The same effect, but weaker, was seen in F2 offspring.
“We found paternal exposure to endocrine disrupting phthalates may have intergenerational and transgenerational adverse effects on the metabolic health of their offspring,” Zhou said. “To the best of our knowledge, our study is the first to demonstrate this.”
Zhou’s team focused on sperm, specifically, its small-RNA molecules that are responsible for passing information down generations. The researchers used “PANDORA-seq method,” an innovative method that showed DCHP exposure can lead to small-RNA changes in sperm. These changes are undetected by traditional RNA-sequencing methods, which lack the comprehensive overview of the small-RNA profile that PANDORA-seq provides.
The team found that paternal DCHP exposure induced metabolic disorders, such as impaired glucose tolerance, in both male and female F1 offspring, but these disorders were seen only in female F2 offspring.
“This suggests that paternal DCHP exposure can lead to sex-specific transgenerational effects on the metabolic health of their progenies,” Zhou said. “At this time, we do not know why the disorders are not seen in male F2 offspring.”