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Green tea supplements may benefit skin from within
Universities of Manchester (UK), January 29, 2023
Oral supplements containing extracts from green tea may help protect against sunburn and the longer-term effects of UV damage, says a new study from the UK.
Skin levels of green tea catechin compounds increased following oral supplementation for 12 weeks, and these increased levels were associated with significantly lower levels of inflammatory markers when skin was exposed to UV radiation, according to findings published in the British Journal of Nutrition.
“Our data provide the first evidence that green tea catechins can be taken up into the skin following oral intake in human subjects and indicate their complex skin incorporation pattern,” wrote researchers from the Universities of Manchester, Bradford, and Leeds.
“Significant reduction was found in the cutaneous UVR erythema dose–response, with greatest effect at higher doses, and this reduced inflammation may be attributable to the associated significant abrogation of UVR up-regulation of the potent pro-inflammatory 12-LOX metabolite, 12-HETE.”
Led by The University of Manchester’s Lesley Rhodes, the researchers recruited 14 healthy human subjects (average age of 42.5, 12 women) with fair skin (phototype I/II) and gave them low-dose green tea catechin supplements at a daily dose of 540 mg in combination with a daily vitamin C dose of 50 mg for 12 weeks. The supplements were provided by Nestec Limited.
“Since one large cup of green tea (250 ml) contains approximately 300 mg of catechins (EC, ECG, EGC and EGCG), then the modest level of green tea catechins intake in the present study, i.e. approximately 540 mg, is seen to be readily achievable in daily life, and this is already consumed in many parts of the world,” they explained.
Results showed that levels of metabolites of green tea catechins increased in skin fluids after supplementation.
In addition, erythema levels were reduced after the 12 week supplementation period, added Rhodes and her co-workers.
Vitamin D supplements may protect millions from developing Type 2 diabetes
Tufts University, February 6, 2023
Getting some sun — or just taking a vitamin D supplement — may lower the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes for the nearly 400 million adults at risk worldwide, according to a new study. A team from Tufts Medical Center says taking the supplements could lead to a 15-percent drop in the likelihood of developing the condition among adults with prediabetes.
They found that over a three-year follow-up period, new onset diabetes occurred in 22.7 percent of adults who received vitamin D, compared to 25 percent among those who took a placebo. The team then took these results and estimated how vitamin D supplements would impact adults with prediabetes across the globe. They found that cheap vitamin D supplements could delay the development of diabetes.
“Our results show vitamin D provides a modest benefit in lowering diabetes risk in adults with high-risk prediabetes,” says Dr. Anastassios Pittas, Chief of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at Tufts Medical Center, according to a statement from SWNS.
“In trials that were specifically designed to test the hypothesis that vitamin D reduces the rate of progression to diabetes in people with prediabetes, the risk for developing diabetes was consistently lower in the group assigned to vitamin D than in the placebo group.”.
Mindfulness meditation training lowers biomarkers of stress response in anxiety disorder
Georgetown University Medical Center, January 24, 2023
A rigorously designed, NIH-sponsored clinical trial led by a Georgetown University Medical Center researcher has found objective physiological evidence that mindfulness meditation combats anxiety.
The researchers found that anxiety disorder patients had sharply reduced stress-hormone and inflammatory responses to a stressful situation after taking a mindfulness meditation course—whereas patients who took a non-meditation stress management course had worsened responses.
“Mindfulness meditation training is a relatively inexpensive and low-stigma treatment approach, and these findings strengthen the case that it can improve resilience to stress,” said lead author Elizabeth A. Hoge, MD, associate professor in Georgetown University Medical Center.
The study, published in Psychiatry Research, included 89 patients with generalized anxiety disorder, a condition of chronic and excessive worrying.
Hoge and her colleagues randomly divided the patients into two groups: One took an eight-week mindfulness based stress reduction course, the other—the control group—took an eight-week Stress Management Education course, which included general tips on the importance of good nutrition, sleep habits and other wellness topics. Both courses had similar formats but only the former included training in meditative techniques.
Before and after the training course, participants underwent the Trier Social Stress Test, a standard experimental technique for inducing a stress response, in which the participants are asked at short notice to give a speech before an audience, and are given other anxiety-inducing instructions.
For the stress test, the team monitored blood-based markers of subjects’ stress responses, namely levels of the stress hormone ACTH and the inflammatory proteins IL-6 and TNF-α. The control group showed modest rises on the second test compared to the first, suggesting a worsening of their anxiety from having to endure the test again. By contrast, the meditation group showed big drops in these markers on the second test, suggesting that the meditation training had helped them cope.
Hoge and colleagues also found—as they reported in an earlier paper on this study—that the meditation group patients, compared to controls, experienced significantly greater reductions in self-reported measures of stress after their course.The study adds to evidence for the effectiveness of mindfulness meditation in treating anxiety, Hoge said.
The neurons in our gut help the immune system keep inflammation in check
Rockefeller University, January 22, 2023
The immune system exercises constant vigilance to protect the body from external threats–including what we eat and drink.
New research from Rockefeller University’s assistant professor Daniel Mucida, shows that neurons play a role in protecting intestinal tissue from over-inflammation. Published in Cell, the findings could have treatment implications for gastrointestinal diseases such as irritable bowel syndrome.
“Resistance to infections needs to be coupled with tolerance to the delicacy of the system,” says Mucida, who led the research together with co-first authors Ilana Gabanyi, a postdoctoral associate, and Paul Muller, a graduate student. “Our work identifies a mechanism by which neurons work with immune cells to help intestinal tissue respond to perturbations without going too far.”
Using an imaging technique that allows scientists to view cellular structures three-dimensionally, the researchers looked in depth at the differences between the two populations. In addition to variations in how the cells look and move, they noticed that intestinal neurons are surrounded by macrophages.
When Mucida and colleagues analyzed the genes that are expressed in the two macrophage populations, they found that lamina propria macrophages preferentially express pro-inflammatory genes. In contrast, the muscularis macrophages preferentially express anti-inflammatory genes, and these are boosted when intestinal infections occur.
“We came to the conclusion that one of the main signals seems to come from neurons, which appear in our imaging to almost be hugged by the muscularis macrophages.”
The researchers also observed that the muscularis macrophages are activated within one to two hours following an infection–significantly faster than a response would take if it were completely immunological, not mediated by neurons. They believe that was because these deeply embedded macrophages receive signals from neurons, they are able to respond rapidly to an infection, even though they are not in direct contact with the pathogen.
Protective Effect of Vitamin D Supplementation on COVID-19-Related Intensive Care Hospitalization and Mortality: Definitive Evidence from Meta-Analysis and Trial Sequential Analysis
University of Palermo (Italy), February 7, 2023
The COVID-19 pandemic represents one of the world’s most important challenges for global public healthcare. Various studies have found an association between severe vitamin D deficiency and COVID-19-related outcomes.
Recent data have suggested a protective role of vitamin D in COVID-19-related health outcomes.
The purpose of this meta-analysis and trial sequential analysis (TSA) was to better explain the strength of the association between the protective role of vitamin D supplementation and the risk of mortality and admission to intensive care units (ICUs) in patients with COVID-19.
We searched four databases on 20 September 2022. The pre-specified outcomes of interest were mortality and ICU admission.
We identified 78 bibliographic citations. Vitamin D administration results in a decreased risk of death and ICU admission. The TSA of the protective role of vitamin D and ICU admission showed that, since the pooling of the studies reached a definite sample size, the positive association is conclusive. The TSA of the protective role of vitamin D in mortality risk showed that the z-curve was inside the alpha boundaries, indicating that the positive results need further studies. Discussion: The results of the meta-analyses and respective TSAs suggest a definitive association between the protective role of vitamin D and ICU hospitalization.
Mitochondrial deterioration linked to major depression in older adults
University of Connecticut, February 7, 2023
Depression can drain a person’s energy. In the elderly, there may be a very good reason for that: depression has been linked with the deterioration of the tiny power plants in our cells.
These power plants are the mitochondria, tiny structures within our cells that handle several important tasks. The most critical is producing the molecules our cells use for energy. When mitochondria don’t function well, it causes all kinds of problems for us.
A team of researchers from several institutions, led by UConn School of Medicine Breno S. Diniz reports in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry that older adults with major depression often have rapidly aging mitochondria.
The team measured levels of a protein produced by mitochondria in the blood of depressed adults over 70. The protein, GDF-15, is strongly associated with aging, poorly functioning mitochondria. And aging mitochondria are strongly linked with fast biological aging. The higher the level of GDF-15 in the blood, the more impaired the mitochondria tend to be. In other words, this is when our tiny power plants start to fall apart.
This is the largest study to date providing a link between accelerated mitochondrial aging and depression in older adults, but the scientists were not surprised. Previous work has shown other aspects of accelerated aging are correlated with major depression.
“We have seen it in immune cells; in glial cells in the brain; in adipose tissue. We see a systemic cellular senescence changes in depressed older adults,” says Diniz, meaning overall, older adults with major depression show accelerated aging in cells throughout their body.
“One problem feeds into another, and make what began as a small issue into a much larger one,” he says.