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Quercetin helps to reduce the risk of pancreatic cancer
Univ. of Hawaii and Univ. of Southern California, November 1, 2022
Quercetin, which is found naturally in apples and onions, has been identified as one of the most beneficial flavonols in preventing and reducing the risk of pancreatic cancer. Although the overall risk was reduced among the study participants, smokers who consumed foods rich in flavonols had a significantly greater risk reduction.
This study, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, is the first of its kind to evaluate the effect of flavonols – compounds found specifically in plants – on developing pancreatic cancer.
Researchers from the Univ. of Hawaii and Univ. of Southern California tracked food intake and health outcomes of 183,518 participants in the Multiethnic Cohort Study for eight years. The study evaluated the participants’ food consumption and calculated the intake of the three flavonols quercetin, kaempferol, and myricetin. The analyses determined that flavonol intake does have an impact on the risk for developing pancreatic cancer.
The most significant finding was among smokers. Smokers with the lowest intake of flavonols presented with the most pancreatic cancer. Smoking is an established risk factor for the often fatal pancreatic cancer, notes the research.
Among the other findings were that women had the highest intake of total flavonols and seventy percent of the flavonol intake came from quercetin, linked to apple and onion consumption.
It is believed that these compounds may have anticancer effects due to their ability to reduce oxidative stress and alter other cellular functions related to cancer development. Previously, the most consistent inverse association was found between flavonols, especially quercetin in apples and lung cancer, as pointed out in this study. No other epidemiological flavonol studies have included evaluation of pancreatic cancer.
While found in many plants, flavonols are found in high concentrations in apples, onions, tea, berries, kale, and broccoli. Quercetin is most plentiful in apples and onions.
Hops may help lower Alzheimer disease risk
University of Milano-Bicocca (Italy), November 9 2022.
Hops, the plant whose flowers are used to make beer, could have a future in the prevention of Alzheimer disease according to research reported in the journal ACS Chemical Neuroscience.
“The search for natural compounds, whose intake through diet can help prevent the main biochemical mechanisms responsible for Alzheimer disease onset, led us to screen hops,” Alessandro Palmioli of the University of Milano-Bicocca and colleagues wrote.
Acting on other positive findings for hops, the team identified feruloyl and p-coumaroylquinic acids, flavan-3-ol glycosides and procyanidins as compounds responsible for the plant’s neuroprotective action. These molecules interacted with amyloid-beta (a substance that forms sticky plaques in the brains of Alzheimer disease patients), to prevent it from forming fibrils and becoming toxic. Hops extracts were also found to prevent cell death by inhibiting oxidative stress and inducing autophagy, a process by which cells break down and destroy old or damaged proteins or other substances. The Tettnang variety of hops proved to be the most successful of the four varieties tested.
“The identification of natural compounds or natural mixtures, such as nutraceuticals, exploitable for the development of preventive strategies against Alzheimer disease (and other neurodegenerative diseases) appears as a better alternative to the treatment of symptoms, as the neuronal damage associated with the disease is irreversible,” the authors remarked. “Our results show that hop is a source of bioactive molecules with synergistic and multitarget activity against the early events underlying Alzheimer disease development. We can therefore think of its use for the preparation of nutraceuticals useful for the prevention of this pathology.”
Healthy plant-based diets better for the environment than less healthy plant-based diets
Harvard School of Public Health, November 10. 2022
Healthier plant-based dietary patterns are associated with better environmental health, while less healthy plant-based dietary patterns, which are higher in foods like refined grains and sugar-sweetened beverages, require more cropland and fertilizer, according to a new study led by researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Health and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. The findings also showed that red and processed meat had the highest environmental impact out of all food groups in participants’ diets, producing the greatest share of greenhouse gas emissions and requiring the most irrigation water, cropland, and fertilizer.
“The differences between plant-based diets was surprising because they’re often portrayed as universally healthy and good for the environment, but it’s more nuanced than that,” said Aviva Musicus, postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Nutrition at Harvard Chan School and corresponding author of the study.
Previous research has documented that different types of plant-based diets have various health effects. For example, plant-based diets higher in whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, vegetable oils, and tea/coffee are associated with reduced chronic disease risk, while plant-based diets high in fruit juices, sugar-sweetened beverages, refined grains, potatoes, and sweets/desserts are associated with an increased risk of chronic disease. Yet little research has been conducted to determine the environmental impacts, such as greenhouse gas emissions, use of high-quality cropland, nitrogen from fertilizer, and irrigation water, of these dietary approaches.
The researchers analyzed the food intakes of more than 65,000 qualifying participants, and examined their diets’ associations with health outcomes, including relative risks of cardiovascular disease, and with environmental impacts. Higher scores on the unhealthy plant-based diet index indicated higher consumption of refined grains, sugary drinks, fruit juice, potatoes, and sweets/desserts; while higher scores on the healthy plant-based diet index indicated higher consumption of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts, legumes, vegetable oils, and tea/coffee.
Participants who consumed healthy plant-based diets had lower cardiovascular disease risk, and those diets had lower greenhouse gas emissions and use of cropland, irrigation water, and nitrogenous fertilizer than diets that were higher in unhealthy plant-based and animal-based foods.
Participants who ate unhealthy plant-based diets experienced a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, and their diets required more cropland and fertilizer than diets that were higher in healthy plant-based and animal foods. The findings also reinforced earlier studies showing that diets higher in animal-based foods, especially red and processed meat, have greater adverse environmental impacts than plant-based diets.
Removing digital devices from the bedroom can improve sleep for children, teens
Penn State University, November 4, 2022
Removing electronic media from the bedroom and encouraging a calming bedtime routine are among recommendations Penn State researchers outline in a recent manuscript on digital media and sleep in childhood and adolescence.
The recommendations, for clinicians and parents, are:
- Make sleep a priority by talking with family members about the importance of sleep and healthy sleep expectations;
- Encourage a bedtime routine that includes calming activities and avoids electronic media use;
- Encourage families to remove all electronic devices from their child or teen’s bedroom, including TVs, video games, computers, tablets and cell phones;
- Talk with family members about the negative consequences of bright light in the evening on sleep; and
- If a child or adolescent is exhibiting mood or behavioral problems, consider insufficient sleep as a contributing factor.
“Recent reviews of scientific literature reveal that the vast majority of studies find evidence for an adverse association between screen-based media consumption and sleep health, primarily delayed bedtimes and reduced total sleep duration,” said Orfeu Buxton, associate professor of biobehavioral health at Penn State.
The reasons behind this adverse association likely include time spent on screens replacing time spent sleeping; mental stimulation from media content; and the effects of light interrupting sleep cycles, according to the researchers.
Black Sesame Seed Reduces High Blood Pressure
Mahidol University (Thailand), November 10, 2022
Research from Thailand’s Mahidol University has found that black sesame seeds can significantly reduce blood pressure among men and women.
The research tested 30 men and women with an average age of 50 years old. They were considered ‘pre-hypertensive’ as their blood pressure levels were high but not yet high enough to be prescribed medication. During the four week study, the patients did not take any medications or dietary supplements.
The volunteers were divided into two groups. One group was given six placebo capsules per day, and the other group was given six capsules of 420 milligrams of black sesame seed meal. Each person in the sesame seed group was given a total of 2,520 milligrams (2.5 grams) per day.
According to the USDA, a tablespoon of sesame seeds weighs about nine grams. This would mean that the subjects were given a little less than a quarter tablespoon per day.
The research found the sesame seed meal significantly decreased the blood pressure among the treated group. Their average systolic blood pressure after the four weeks was 121 mmHg, while the average blood pressure of the placebo group was 129 mmHg.
The sesame seed group also showed decreased levels of malondialdehyde and increases in their blood vitamin E levels.
Malondialdehyde is an indicator of the amount of lipid peroxidation taking place within the bloodstream. As other research has shown, lipid peroxidation is linked to the blood vessel damage seen in atherosclerosis. This is a relationship of free radical oxidation. When low-density lipoproteins are oxidized, they can damage blood vessels because they effectively steal electrons from blood vessel wall cells.
Conversely, higher vitamin E levels are typically linked with lower lipid peroxidation because vitamin E is an antioxidant.
The researchers analyzed the black sesame seed meal, and it was found to contain 105 micrograms per gram of tocopherols – primarily gamma tocopherol. By the way, this is a different configuration of synthetic vitamin E found in most supplements – rac-α-tocopheryl acetate – referred also as alpha-tocopherol.
The main medicinal constituents of black sesame seed include sesamol, sesamin and sesamolin, which are known to be antioxidants. They also contain catechins, known for their anticancer properties.
Is muscle weakness the new smoking? Grip strength tied to accelerated biological age, study shows
University of Michigan, November 10, 2022
Everyone ages at a different pace. That’s why two 50-year-olds, despite living the same number of years, may have different biological ages—meaning that a host of intrinsic and extrinsic factors have caused them to age at varying paces with different levels of risk for disease and early death. Lifestyle choices, such as diet, and smoking, and illness all contribute to accelerating biological age beyond one’s chronological age.
For the first time, researchers have found that muscle weakness marked by grip strength, a proxy for overall strength capacity, is associated with accelerated biological age. Specifically, the weaker your grip strength, the older your biological age, according to results published in the Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle.
Researchers at Michigan Medicine modeled the relationship between biological age and grip strength of 1,274 middle aged and older adults using three “age acceleration clocks” based on DNA methylation, a process that provides a molecular biomarker and estimator of the pace of aging. The clocks were originally modeled from various studies examining diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, physical disability, Alzheimer’s disease, inflammation and early mortality.
Results reveal that both older men and women showed an association between lower grip strength and biological age acceleration across the DNA methylation clocks.
“We’ve known that muscular strength is a predictor of longevity, and that weakness is a powerful indicator of disease and mortality, but for the first time, we have found strong evidence of a biological link between muscle weakness and actual acceleration in biological age,” said Mark Peterson, Ph.D., M.S. at University of Michigan.
“This suggests that if you maintain your muscle strength across the lifespan, you may be able to protect against many common age-related diseases. We know that smoking, for example, can be a powerful predictor of disease and mortality, but now we know that muscle weakness could be the new smoking.”
The real strength of this study was in the 8 to 10 years of observation, in which lower grip strength predicted faster biological aging measured up to a decade later, said Jessica Faul, Ph.D., M.P.H., a co-author of the study and research associate professor at the U-M Institute for Social Research.
Past studies have shown that low grip strength is an extremely strong predictor of adverse health events. One study even found that it is a better predictor of cardiovascular events, such as myocardial infarction, than systolic blood pressure—the clinical hallmark for detecting heart disorders. Peterson and his team have previously shown a robust association between weakness and chronic disease and mortality across populations.