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New Rule: Equality of Outcomes | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO) (6:30)
12-Year Old Girl Exposes the Dystopian Reality of 15-Minute Cities! (2:52)
US TO SUPPORT UKRAINIAN PENSIONS (0:29)
15 Things School Won’t Teach You (16:40)
How eating less can slow the aging process
Brigham Young University, February 12, 2023
Research published in Molecular & Cellular Proteomics offers one glimpse into how cutting calories impacts aging inside a cell. The researchers found that when ribosomes — the cell’s protein makers — slow down, the aging process slows too. The decreased speed lowers production but gives ribosomes extra time to repair themselves. “The ribosome is a very complex machine, sort of like your car, and it periodically needs maintenance to replace the parts that wear out the fastest,” said Brigham Young University biochemistry professor and senior author John Price. “When tires wear out, you don’t throw the whole car away and buy new ones. It’s cheaper to replace the tires.” Price and his fellow researchers observed two groups of mice. One group had unlimited access to food while the other was restricted to consume 35 percent fewer calories, though still receiving all the necessary nutrients for survival. “When you restrict calorie consumption, there’s almost a linear increase in lifespan,” Price said. “We inferred that the restriction caused real biochemical changes that slowed down the rate of aging.” “The calorie-restricted mice are more energetic and suffered fewer diseases,” Price said. “And it’s not just that they’re living longer, but because they’re better at maintaining their bodies, they’re younger for longer as well.” Despite this study’s observed connection between consuming fewer calories and improved lifespan, Price assured that people shouldn’t start counting calories and expect to stay forever young. “Food isn’t just material to be burned — it’s a signal that tells our body and cells how to respond,” Price said. “We’re getting down to the mechanisms of aging, which may help us make more educated decisions about what we eat.”
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Evaluating the effect of manuka honey on collagen scaffolds
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, February 22, 2023
The bones of the face and skull can be affected due to a wide range of conditions, including cleft palate defects, traumatic injuries, cancer, and bone loss from dentures. Although bone replacements are routinely used to regenerate the missing tissue, they are vulnerable to bacterial infection. In a new study, researchers investigated whether manuka honey, made from tea trees, can be used to resist bacterial infection and promote bone growth. Bone implants account for 45% of all hospital-contracted infections, impeding healing. Typically, these implants are made from biomaterials that contain extracellular matrix components—molecules that provide structural support to cells. However, researchers commonly use metal implants or synthetic polymers to study bone defects and infections. Therefore, there is a gap in the understanding of how biomaterials behave in response to infection. The researchers used collagen scaffolds to study whether manuka honey can be incorporated to inhibit the growth of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus, two bacteria that commonly infect bone wounds. “At various conferences I saw researchers talk about how nature-derived materials can be used instead of antibiotics, circumventing the problem of antibiotic resistance. Additionally, when I looked at the literature, I found research that claimed manuka honey can be useful,” Dewey said. In the study, the researchers added the manuka honey into the scaffolds in two different ways: incorporation and soaking. In the first method, they added the honey to a collagen suspension and blended them together. The suspension was then used to create scaffolds that had honey embedded in their structure. In the second process, the prepared collagen scaffolds were soaked in manuka honey for 40 hours. In both cases they tested whether the addition of manuka honey had an effect on bone growth and bacterial infection. They found that when the scaffolds were soaked in 5% honey, there was higher mineral formation and osteoprotegerin production, all pointing to increased bone production. Higher concentrations of honey, however, led to a decrease in bone health. Furthermore, the soaked scaffolds worked better than the incorporated ones, although the reason is unclear. Next the researchers tested whether the growth of P. aeruginosa and S. aureus is inhibited by manuka honey. To do so, they soaked paper discs in different concentrations of honey and added them to bacterial lawns. To their surprise, none of the concentrations were able to prevent bacterial growth. Similarly, the honey-soaked scaffolds were unable to prevent bacterial growth, even though the bacteria were not able to attach to these surfaces. “It was striking that we needed ten times the amount of antibiotics to kill the bacteria and some still survived,” Dewey said.
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Iron deficiency suppresses important arm of the innate immune system
German Cancer Research Center, February 16, 2023
Two proteins ensure that cells can take up iron when needed. If both control proteins are switched off in mice, the animals develop severe anemia, as expected. Surprisingly, at the same time a cell type of the innate immune defense, the neutrophils, also dramatically decreases, as scientists from the German Cancer Research Center now have shown for the first time. Iron deficiency, a known defense mechanism against infectious pathogens, is a double edged sword, as it simultaneously curbs the defensive power of an important arm of the innate immune system. The iron supply to the cells is controlled by the two proteins IRP-1 and IRP-2. If the cell lacks iron, IRP-1 and IRP-2 crank up the production of the various iron transporter proteins that take iron into the cell. IRP-1 and IRP-2 also ensure that an equally dangerous excess of iron does not occur. IRP-1 and IRP-2 are essential for survival: mice lacking both control proteins during embryonic development die while still in the womb. But what happens when IRP-1 and IRP-2 fail in adult mice? A team led by Bruno Galy at DKFZ has now investigated this in mice whose IRP production can be shut down by injecting a drug. As the researchers had expected, the most striking change after IRPs were switched off was a pronounced decrease in red blood cells. Due to the lack of hemoglobin, these erythrocytes reached only a minimal size. However, the researchers were surprised to see that white blood cells also decreased extremely. Closer examination revealed that this decline was mainly due to a deficiency of neutrophils. These immune cells account for up to two-thirds of white blood cells in humans and are an important component of the innate immune system. This decline is not a caused by a mass death of neutrophils, but a developmental blockade in the hematopoietic system: the precursor cells in the bone marrow no longer develop into mature neutrophils, as this differentiation process is apparently iron-dependent. Other types of white blood cells, such as monocytes, were not affected by the IRP-dependent developmental blockade.
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New Study Outlines What Meditation, Yoga, & Prayer Can Do To The Human Body
Benson-Henry Institute (Harvard), February 14, 2023
Relaxation-response techniques, such as meditation, yoga, and prayer, could reduce the need for health care services by 43 percent, according to a study at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) that looked at participants in a relaxation-response-focused training program. The paper’s authors noted that stress-related illnesses, such as anxiety and depression, are the third-highest causes of health expenditures in the United States after heart disease and cancer (which also are affected by stress). The study, based at MGH’s Institute for Technology Assessment and the Benson-Henry Institute (BHI) for Mind Body Medicine, found that individuals in the relaxation-response program used fewer health care services in the year after their participation than in the preceding year. “Our study’s primary finding is that programs that train patients to elicit the relaxation response can also dramatically reduce health care utilization,” said James E. Stahl of the MGH Institute for Technology Assessment, who led the study. “These programs promote wellness and, in our environment of constrained health care resources, could potentially ease the burden on our health delivery systems at minimal cost and at no real risk.” To analyze the potential impact of mind-body interventions like the relaxation response on use of health care services, the researchers gathered data on individuals participating in the BHI Relaxation Response Resiliency Program (3RP) over an eight year period. The program combined elicitation of the relaxation response with social support, cognitive-skills training, and positive psychology designed to build resiliency. Based on the number of health care encounters in the studied period, which included interactions in any setting — imaging studies, lab tests, and procedures — the 3RP participants had an average reduction of 43 percent in their use of health care services in the year after their participation. The control group had an overall, but not statistically significant, increase in service utilization in the second year. The utilization-matched 3RP subgroup had a reduction of around 25 percent across all clinical services. Clinical areas in which 3RP participation was associated with the greatest reduction in service utilization were neurologic, cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, and gastrointestinal. The investigators estimate that the price of participating in programs like 3RP would be made up in costs savings in four to six months or less.
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Study finds ‘forever chemicals’ disrupt key biological processes
Keck School of Medicine of University of Southern California, February 21, 2023
A team of researchers from the Keck School of Medicine of USC found that exposure to a mixture of synthetic chemicals found widely in the environment alters several critical biological processes, including the metabolism of fats and amino acids, in both children and young adults. The disruption of these biological processes is connected to an increased risk of a very broad range of diseases, including developmental disorders, cardiovascular disease, metabolic disease and many types of cancer. Known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, these man-made chemicals are used in a wide range of consumer and industrial products. PFAS are sometimes called “forever chemicals” because they break down very slowly and accumulate in the environment and human tissue. Although individual PFAS are known to increase the risk of several types of disease, this study, published in Environmental Health Perspectives, is the first to evaluate which biological processes are altered by exposure to a combination of multiple PFAS, which is important because most people carry a mixture of the chemicals in their blood. “Our findings found that exposure to a combination of PFAS not only disrupted lipid and amino acid metabolism but also altered thyroid hormone function.” To understand the effects that the mixture of PFAs has in the body, the team used blood samples collected from 312 adolescents and 137 children. They found that all the children and adolescents had a mixture of several common PFAS in their blood including PFOS, PFHxS, PFHpS, PFOA and PFNA. More than 98% of the participants also had PFDA in their blood. The researchers also measured thousands of naturally occurring chemicals in blood and, using a biostatistical method they developed, they identified how exposure to multiple different PFAS impacted each of these naturally occurring chemicals. This information helped the researchers determine that PFAS exposure altered the way the body metabolized lipids and amino acids as well as the levels of thyroid hormone, an important determinant of metabolic rates. One finding that stood out, according to Goodrich, was the fact that the PFAS exposure had an effect on thyroid hormone function, which has a critical role in growth and metabolism. Because of this, changes in thyroid hormones play an important role in child development during puberty, which can have important effects on a range of diseases later in life, including diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer. Another important finding was the fact that exposure to a mixture of PFAS, rather than a single chemical of this type, drove the disruption of these biological processes. This finding was consistent across the two cohorts, even though they had different levels of PFAS exposure. Almost all people in the U.S. have detectable levels of several PFAS, which are in a wide variety of products including waterproof clothing and food packaging, in their blood. An estimated 200 million people in the U.S. have drinking water with PFAS levels that are considerably higher than the levels recommended by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2022.
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16 Reasons Black Seed Is “The Remedy For Everything But Death”
Green Med Info, February 22, 2023
An article about nigella sativa (aka black seed) titled, ‘The Remedy For Everything But Death’ describes the research on the many ways in which black seed (nigella sativa) is a potentially life-saving medicinal food. The article summarized the peer-reviewed and published research on 10 of the seed’s remarkable health benefits
Since then, the biomedical research on black seed has continued to flourish, with dozens of new articles published and cited on the National Library of Medicine’s biomedical database.
Here are 16 additional potential health benefits to add to the growing list:
Prevents Radiation Damage: Nigella sativa oil (NSO) and its active component, thymoquinone, protect brain tissue from radiation-induced nitrosative stress.[i]
Protects Against Damage from Heart Attack: A thymoquinone extract from nigella sativa has a protective effect against damage associated with experimental heart attack.[ii]
Prevents Morphine Dependence/Toxicity: An alcohol extract of nigella sativa reduces morphine-associated conditioned place preference, an indication of morphine intoxication, dependence and tolerance.[iii]
Prevents Kidney Damage Associated with Diabetes: A thymoquinone extract from nigella sativa has protective effects on experimental diabetic nephropathy.[iv]
Prevents Post-Surgical Adhesions: Covering peritoneal surfaces with Nigella sativa oil (NSO) after peritoneal trauma is effective in decreasing peritoneal adhesion formation in an experimental model.[v]
Prevents Alzheimer’s Associated Neurotoxicity: A thymoquinone extract from nigella sativa has protective effects on experimental diabetic prevents neurotoxicity and Aβ1-40-induced apoptosis in the cell model.[vi]
Suppresses Breast Cancer Growth: : A thymoquinone extract from nigella sativa inhibits tumor growth and induces programmed cell death (apoptosis) in a breast cancer xenograft mouse model.[vii] [viii]
Exhibits Anti-Psoriasis Properties: The alcohol extract of nigella sativa seeds exhibit anti-psoriatic activity, consistent with its medicinal use in traditional medicine.[ix]
Prevents Brain Pathology Associated with Parkinson’s Disease: A thymoquinone extract from nigella sativa protects cultured neurons against αSN-induced synaptic toxicity, a pathology observed in the brains of patients with Parkinson’s disease and dementia with Lewy bodies.[x]
Kills Highly Aggressive Gliobastoma Brain Cancer Cells: A thymoquinone extract from nigella sativa exhibits glioblastoma cell killing activity. [xi]
Kills Leukemia Cells: A thymoquinone from nigella sativa induces mitochondria-mediated apoptosis in acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in vitro. Suppresses Liver Cancer Growth: A thymoquinone extract from nigella sativa prevents chemically-induced cancer in a rat model. Prevents Diabetic Pathologies: A water and alcohol extract of nigella sativa at low doses has a blood-sugar lowering effect and ameliorative effect on regeneration of pancreatic islets, indicating its value as a therapeutic agent in the management of diabetes mellitus.[xiv]
Suppresses Cervical Cancer Cell Growth: A thymoquinone extract from nigella sativa exhibits anti-proliferative, apoptotic and anti-invasive properties in a cervical cancer cell line.[xv]
Prevents Lead-Induced Brain Damage: A thymoquinone extract from nigella sativa ameliorates lead-induced brain damage in Sprague Dawley rats. Kills Oral Cancer Cells: A thymoquinone extract from nigella sativa induces programmed cell death (apoptosis) in oral cancer cells.