Being kind to yourself has mental and physical benefits

February 6, 2019

Science Daily/University of Exeter

Taking time to think kind thoughts about yourself and loved ones has psychological and physical benefits, new research suggests.

A study by the Universities of Exeter and Oxford has found that taking part in self-compassion exercises calms the heart rate, switching off the body's threat response. Previous studies have shown that this threat response damages the immune system. Researchers believe the ability to switch off this response may lower the risk of disease.

In the study, published in the journal Clinical Psychological Science, 135 healthy University of Exeter students were divided into five groups, and members of each group heard a different set of audio instructions. The team took physical measurements of heart rate and sweat response, and asked participants to report how they were feeling. Questions included how safe they felt, how likely they were to be kind to themselves and how connected they felt to others.

The two groups whose instructions encouraged them to be kind to themselves not only reported feeling more self-compassion and connection with others, but also showed a bodily response consistent with feelings of relaxation and safety. Their heart rates dropped and the variation in length of time between heartbeats -- a healthy sign of a heart that can respond flexibly to situations. They also showed lower sweat response.

Meanwhile, instructions that induced a critical inner voice led to an increased heart rate and a higher sweat response -- consistent with feelings of threat and distress.

First author Dr Hans Kirschner, who conducted the research at Exeter, said: "These findings suggest that being kind to oneself switches off the threat response and puts the body in a state of safety and relaxation that is important for regeneration and healing."

Lead researcher Dr Anke Karl, of the University of Exeter, said: "Previous research has found that self-compassion was related to higher levels of wellbeing and better mental health, but we didn't know why.

"Our study is helping us understand the mechanism of how being kind to yourself when things go wrong could be beneficial in psychological treatments. By switching off our threat response, we boost our immune systems and give ourselves the best chance of healing. We hope future research can use our method to investigate this in people with mental health problems such as recurrent depression."

The recordings that encouraged self-compassion were a "compassionate body scan" in which people were guided to attend to bodily sensations with an attitude of interest and calmness; and a "self-focused loving kindness exercise" in which they directed kindness and soothing thoughts to a loved one and themselves.

The three other groups listened to recordings designed to induce a critical inner voice, put them into a "positive but competitive and self-enhancing mode," or an emotionally neutral shopping scenario.

All the audio recordings were 11 minutes long.

While people in both the self-compassion and positive but competitive groups reported greater self-compassion and decreased self-criticism, only the self-compassion groups showed the positive bodily response.

The signs of this were reduced sweat response and heart rate slowed by two to three beats per minute on average, compared to the groups listening to critical voice recordings. The self-kindness groups also showed increased hear rate variability -- a sign of a healthy heart that is able to adapt to a range of situations.

Co-author Willem Kuyken, Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Oxford, said: "These findings help us to further understand some of our clinical trials research findings, where we show that individuals with recurrent depression benefit particularly from mindfulness-based cognitive therapy when they learn to become more self-compassionate.

"My sense is that for people prone to depression, meeting their negative thoughts and feelings with compassion is a radically different way -- that these thoughts are not facts.

"It introduces a different way of being and knowing that is quite transformative for many people."

The researchers now plan to extend their research by studying the physiological responses in individuals with recurrent depression.

The researchers stress that the study was conducted in healthy people, so their findings do not mean that people with depression would experience the same improvements from one-off exercises. They did not investigate another important feature of self-compassion, the ability to directly repair mood or distress. Further research is necessary to address these two open points.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/02/190206200344.htm

The interplay between relationships, stress, and sleep

February 6, 2019

Science Daily/Wiley

A new study documents how the quality of a person's romantic relationship and the life stress he or she experiences at two key points in early adulthood (at age 23 and 32) are related to sleep quality and quantity in middle adulthood (at age 37).

Investigators found that people who have positive relationship experiences in early adulthood experience fewer, less disruptive stressful life events at age 32, which in turn predicts better sleep quality at age 37. Sleep is a shared behavior in many romantic relationships, and it is a strong contender for how relationships "get under the skin" to affect long-term health. The study's findings add to a growing body of literature showing that one of the important ways in which relationships impact individuals is by reducing the occurrence and severity of life stress.

"Although a large body of evidence shows that relationships are important for health, we are just beginning to understand how the characteristics of people's close relationships affect health behaviors, such as sleep," said lead author Chloe Huelsnitz, a PhD candidate at the University of Minnesota. "The findings of our study suggest that one way that relationships affect health behavior is through their effects on individuals' stress."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/02/190206091407.htm

A gut feeling for mental health

February 4, 2019

Science Daily/VIB (the Flanders Institute for Biotechnology)

The first population-level study on the link between gut bacteria and mental health identifies specific gut bacteria linked to depression and provides evidence that a wide range of gut bacteria can produce neuroactive compounds.

In their manuscript entitled 'The neuroactive potential of the human gut microbiota in quality of life and depression' Jeroen Raes and his team studied the relation between gut bacteria and quality of life and depression. The authors combined faecal microbiome data with general practitioner diagnoses of depression from 1,054 individuals enrolled in the Flemish Gut Flora Project. They identified specific groups of microorganisms that positively or negatively correlated with mental health. The authors found that two bacterial genera, Coprococcus and Dialister, were consistently depleted in individuals with depression, regardless of antidepressant treatment. The results were validated in an independent cohort of 1,063 individuals from the Dutch LifeLinesDEEP cohort and in a cohort of clinically depressed patients at the University Hospitals Leuven, Belgium.

Prof Jeroen Raes (VIB-KU Leuven): 'The relationship between gut microbial metabolism and mental health is a controversial topic in microbiome research. The notion that microbial metabolites can interact with our brain -- and thus behaviour and feelings -- is intriguing, but gut microbiome-brain communication has mostly been explored in animal models, with human research lagging behind. In our population-level study we identified several groups of bacteria that co-varied with human depression and quality of life across populations.'

Previously, Prof Raes and his team identified a microbial community constellation or enterotype characterized by low microbial count and biodiversity that was observed to be more prevalent among Crohn's disease patients. In their current study, they surprisingly found a similar community type to be linked to depression and reduced quality of life.

Prof Jeroen Raes (VIB-KU Leuven): 'This finding adds more evidence pointing to the potentially dysbiotic nature of the Bacteroides2 enterotype we identified earlier. Apparently, microbial communities that can be linked to intestinal inflammation and reduced wellbeing share a set of common features.'

The authors also created a computational technique allowing the identification of gut bacteria that could potentially interact with the human nervous system. They studied genomes of more than 500 bacteria isolated from the human gastrointestinal tract in their ability to produce a set of neuroactive compounds, assembling the first catalogue of neuroactivity of gut species. Some bacteria were found to carry a broad range of these functions.

Mireia Valles-Colomer (VIB-KU Leuven): 'Many neuroactive compounds are produced in the human gut. We wanted to see which gut microbes could participate in producing, degrading, or modifying these molecules. Our toolbox not only allows to identify the different bacteria that could play a role in mental health conditions, but also the mechanisms potentially involved in this interaction with the host. For example, we found that the ability of microorganisms to produce DOPAC, a metabolite of the human neurotransmitter dopamine, was associated with better mental quality of life.'

These findings resulted from bioinformatics analyses and will need to be confirmed experimentally, however, they will help direct and accelerate future human microbiome-brain research.

Jeroen Raes and his team are now preparing another sampling round of the Flemish Gut Flora Project that is going to start next spring, five years after the first sampling effort.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/02/190204114617.htm

New knowledge could help predict and prevent depression

January 31, 2019

Science Daily/Aarhus University

Researchers have demonstrated that people with the highest genetic propensity are over two and a half times as likely to be treated in a psychiatric hospital for depression compared to people with the lowest propensity. This knowledge could be utilized to strengthen preventative efforts for those who are at risk.

In Denmark, 15.5 per cent of woman and nine per cent of men receive treatment for depression at a psychiatric hospital at some stage of their lives. Depression is a common but very serious condition which is very costly for both the individual and society as a whole.

Researchers have now completed a study in which they followed 34,500 Danes for up to 20 years and measured their genetic risk for developing depression.

"The study showed that the risk of being treated for depression at a psychiatric hospital was more than two and a half times higher for people with a high polygenic risk score," explains professor at iPSYCH and contributor to the study Esben Agerbo.

Polygenetic means that the disease is not connected to only one disease gene, but to many genes. Put another way, it means there are many genes that determine whether a person is predisposed to developing depression.

Easier to identify people

"We know that depression is partly determined by genetic factors, and today it's possible to measure the genetic propensity directly -- rather than having to rely on family history as a way of guessing at genetic disposition for developing depression," explains Esben Agerbo.

The polygenetic score was not related to factors such as mild, moderate, severe or psychotic symptoms, treatment setting or age at the first hospital visit, which could mean that these aspects are determined more by environmental factors.

The results of the study have just been published in the scientific journal JAMA Psychiatry.

"Our hope is that by utilising genetic information in conjunction with known risk factors in the environment, we will be able to develop better methods to identify people who are at risk of developing depression," says postdoc at iPSYCH, Katherine L. Musliner, who is behind the study.

However, the results also show that the relationship between genetics and mental illness is complex. There is no ' depression gene' and even those with the highest genetic propensity will not necessarily develop depression.

"The ability to identify people with an increased risk of developing depression is useful, because it will make it possible for us to target preventative efforts towards the people who will benefit most from them," says Katherine L. Musliner.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/01/190131101047.htm

How exercise may protect against Alzheimer's

February 8, 2019

Science Daily/Columbia University Irving Medical Center

A hormone called irisin -- produced during exercise -- may protect neurons against Alzheimer's disease.

Athletes know a vigorous workout can release a flood of endorphins: "feel-good" hormones that boost mood. Now there's evidence that exercise produces another hormone that may improve memory and protect against Alzheimer's disease, according to a study co-led by Ottavio Arancio, MD, PhD, a researcher at Columbia University's Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain.

The study was published in Nature Medicine.

Physical activity is known to improve memory, and studies suggest it may also reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease. But researchers don't understand why.

A few years ago, exercise researchers discovered a hormone called irisin that is released into the circulation during physical activity. Initial studies suggested that irisin mainly played a role in energy metabolism. But newer research found that the hormone may also promote neuronal growth in the brain's hippocampus, a region critical for learning and memory.

"This raised the possibility that irisin may help explain why physical activity improves memory and seems to play a protective role in brain disorders such as Alzheimer's disease" says Arancio, who is a professor of pathology and cell biology and of medicine at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Irisin is reduced in brains of people with Alzheimer's

In the new study, Arancio and his colleagues at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil and Queens University in Canada first looked for a link between irisin and Alzheimer's in people. Using tissue samples from brain banks, they found that irisin is present in the human hippocampus and that hippocampal levels of the hormone are reduced in individuals with Alzheimer's.

To explore what irisin does in the brain, the team turned to mice. These experiments show that irisin, in mice, protects the brain's synapses and the animals' memory: When irisin was disabled in the hippocampus of healthy mice, synapses and memory weakened. Similarly, boosting brain levels of irisin improved both measures of brain health.

Swimming boosts irisin, protects memory in mice

The researchers then looked at the effect of exercise on irisin and the brain. In the study's most compelling experiments, the researchers found that mice who swam nearly every day for five weeks did not develop memory impairment despite getting infusions of beta amyloid -- the neuron-clogging, memory-robbing protein implicated in Alzheimer's.

Blocking irisin with a drug completely eliminated the benefits of swimming, the researchers also found. Mice who swam and were treated with irisin-blocking substances performed no better on memory tests than sedentary animals after infusions with beta amyloid.

Together the findings suggest that irisin could be exploited to find a novel therapy for preventing or treating dementia in humans, Arancio says. His team is now searching for pharmaceutical compounds that can increase brain levels of the hormone or can mimic its action.

"In the meantime, I would certainly encourage everyone to exercise, to promote brain function and overall health," he said. "But that's not possible for many people, especially those with age-related conditions like heart disease, arthritis, or dementia. For those individuals, there's a particular need for drugs that can mimic the effects of irisin and protect synapses and prevent cognitive decline."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/02/190208173511.htm

Hibernating hamsters could provide new clues to Alzheimer's disease

February 6, 2019

Science Daily/American Chemical Society

Syrian hamsters are golden-haired rodents often kept as house pets. Cold and darkness can cause the animals to hibernate for three to four days at a time, interspersed with short periods of activity. Surprisingly, the hibernation spurts of these cute, furry creatures could hold clues to better treatments for Alzheimer's disease (AD), according to a recent study.

When hamsters and other small mammals hibernate, their brains undergo structural and metabolic changes to help neurons survive low temperatures. A key event in this process appears to be the phosphorylation of a protein called tau, which has been implicated in AD. In the brains of hibernating animals, phosphorylated tau can form tangled structures similar to those seen in AD patients. However, the structures disappear and tau phosphorylation is rapidly and fully reversed when the hibernating animal wakes up. Coral Barbas and colleagues wondered if determining how hibernating hamsters' brains clear out the tangled proteins could suggest new therapies for AD.

So the researchers used mass spectrometry to analyze metabolic changes in Syrian hamster brain before (control), during and after hibernation. A total of 337 compounds changed during hibernation, including specific amino acids, endocannabinoids and brain cryoprotectants. In particular, a group of lipids called long-chain ceramides, which could help prevent oxidative damage to the brain, were highly elevated in hibernating animals compared with those that had recently woken up. The largest change for any metabolite -- about 5-fold more in hibernating animals compared with control animals -- was for phosphatidic acid, which is known to activate an enzyme that phosphorylates tau. The Syrian hamster is an excellent model to study substances that could help protect neurons, the researchers say.

The authors acknowledge funding from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, the Network Center for Biomedical Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases and the San Pablo CEU University Foundation.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/02/190206104607.htm

Absentmindedness points to earlier warning signs of silent strokes among people at risk

February 6, 2019

Science Daily/Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care

Adults who notice that they frequently lose their train of thought or often become sidetracked may in fact be displaying earlier symptoms of cerebral small vessel disease, otherwise known as a 'silent stroke,' suggests a recent study.

Researchers uncovered that individuals with damage to the brain's white matter, caused by silent strokes, reported poor attentiveness and being distracted more frequently on day-to-day tasks, according to a recently published paper in the journal Neurobiology of Aging. Despite these complaints, about half of the people with identified white matter damage scored within the normal range on formal laboratory assessments of attention and executive function (a person's ability to plan, stay organized and maintain focus on overall goals).

"Our results indicate that in many cases of people who were at a higher risk of silent stroke and had one, they saw a notable difference in their ability to stay focused, even before symptoms became detectable through a neuropsychological test," says Ayan Dey, lead author on the paper and a graduate student at Baycrest's Rotman Research Institute (RRI) and the University of Toronto. "If a person feels this may be the case, concerns should be brought to a doctor, especially if the person has a health condition or lifestyle that puts them at a higher risk of stroke or heart disease."

Cerebral small vessel disease is one of the most common neurological disorders of aging. This type of stroke and changes in the brain's blood flow (vascular changes) are connected to the development of vascular dementia and a higher risk of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias.

The strokes are "silent" since they don't cause lasting major changes seen with an overt stroke, such as affecting a person's ability to speak or paralysis. Despite a lack of obvious symptoms, cerebral small vessel disease causes damage to the brain's white matter (responsible for communication among regions), which can cause memory and cognitive issues over time.

Typically, this type of stroke is uncovered incidentally through MRI scans or once the brain damage has worsened, says Dey.

"There are no effective treatments for Alzheimer's disease, but brain vascular changes can be prevented or reduced through smoking cessation, exercise, diet and stress management, as well as keeping one's blood pressure, diabetes and cholesterol under control," says Dr. Brian Levine, senior author on the paper, RRI senior scientist and professor of Psychology and Neurology at the University of Toronto. "With the right diagnosis, these interventions and lifestyle changes give older adults who are at risk for cognitive decline some options for maintaining brain health."

The study looked at results from 54 adults (between the ages of 55 to 80), who also possessed at least one risk factor for a stroke, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, sleep apnea, a history of smoking, past mini strokes and advanced age above 75.

Research participants had their brains scanned by MRI and scientists analyzed brain tissue damage, specifically in relation to white matter, to determine injuries caused by cerebral small vessel disease. They also took part in a number of neurocognitive tests and questionnaires that assessed their attention and executive function.

Following up on this study, researchers will analyze functional brain imaging and electrical brain activity from participants to look at the differences in brain networks. They hope to uncover why some people are still able to perform well on cognitive assessments, despite damage to the brain.

"The question that remains is whether overcoming these changes in the brain is a natural ability some people have or if this is something that can be built up over time," says Dey. "If it's something that can be developed, is it something we can train?"

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/02/190206091417.htm

A new culprit in cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease

Study finds blood protein destroys memory storage sites in the brain and may lead to new treatments

February 5, 2019

Science Daily/Gladstone Institutes

Scientists have shown for the first time that a blood-clotting protein called fibrinogen is responsible for a series of molecular and cellular events that can destroy connections between neurons in the brain and result in cognitive decline.

It has long been known that patients with Alzheimer's disease have abnormalities in the vast network of blood vessels in the brain. Some of these alterations may also contribute to age-related cognitive decline in people without dementia. However, the ways in which such vascular pathologies contribute to cognitive dysfunction have largely remained a mystery. Until now, that is.

Scientists at the Gladstone Institutes, led by Senior Investigator Katerina Akassoglou, PhD, showed for the first time that a blood-clotting protein called fibrinogen is responsible for a series of molecular and cellular events that can destroy connections between neurons in the brain and result in cognitive decline.

Akassoglou and her team used state-of-the-art imaging technology to study both mouse brains and human brains from patients with Alzheimer's disease. They also produced the first three-dimensional volume imaging showing that blood-brain barrier leaks occur in Alzheimer's disease.

In their study, published in the scientific journal Neuron, the researchers found that fibrinogen, after leaking from the blood into the brain, activates the brain's immune cells and triggers them to destroy important connections between neurons. These connections, called synapses, are critical for neurons to communicate with one another.

Previous studies have shown that elimination of synapses causes memory loss, a common feature in Alzheimer's disease and other dementias. Indeed, the scientists showed that preventing fibrinogen from activating the brain's immune cells protected mouse models of Alzheimer's disease from memory loss.

"We found that blood leaks in the brain can cause elimination of neuronal connections that are important for memory functions," explains Akassoglou, who is also a professor of neurology at UC San Francisco (UCSF). "This could change the way we think about the cause and possible cure of cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease and other neurological diseases."

The team showed that fibrinogen can have this effect even in brains that lack amyloid plaques, which are the focus of diverse treatment strategies that have failed in large clinical trials. The researchers showed that injecting even extremely small quantities of fibrinogen into a healthy brain caused the same kind of immune cell activation and loss of synapses they saw in Alzheimer's disease.

"Traditionally, the build-up of amyloid plaques in the brain has been seen as the root of memory loss and cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease," says Mario Merlini, first author of the study and a staff research scientist in Akassoglou's laboratory at Gladstone. "Our work identifies an alternative culprit that could be responsible for the destruction of synapses."

The scientists' data help explain findings from recent human studies in which elderly people with vascular pathology showed similar rates of cognitive decline as age-matched people with amyloid pathology. However, patients with both types of pathology had much worse and more rapid cognitive decline. Other studies also identified vascular pathology as a strong predictor of cognitive decline that can act independently of amyloid pathology.

"Given the human data showing that vascular changes are early and additive to amyloid, a conclusion from those studies is that vascular changes may have to be targeted with separate therapies if we want to ensure maximum protection against the destruction of neuronal connections that leads to cognitive decline," says Akassoglou.

Interestingly, Akassoglou and her colleagues recently developed an antibody that blocks the interaction between fibrinogen and a molecule on the brain's immune cells. In a previous study, they showed this antibody protected mouse models of Alzheimer's disease from brain inflammation and neuronal damage.

"These exciting findings greatly advance our understanding of the contributions that vascular pathology and brain inflammation make to the progression of Alzheimer's disease," said Lennart Mucke, MD, co-author of the study and director of the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease. "The mechanisms our study identified may also be at work in a range of other diseases that combine leaks in the blood-brain barrier with neurological decline, including multiple sclerosis, traumatic brain injury, and chronic traumatic encephalopathy. It has far-reaching therapeutic implications."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/02/190205115419.htm

Scientists shed light on processes behind age-related decline in brain structures

January 31, 2019

Science Daily/Cardiff University

Aging can cause damage to support cells in the white matter, which in turn may lead to damage in the grey matter of the hippocampus, finds a new study.

The discovery gives researchers a new area to focus on in the search for treatments that can protect cognitive function.

Claudia Metzler-Baddeley, from Cardiff University's Brain Imaging Research Centre (CUBRIC), said: "The brain is made up of grey and white matter. While grey matter contains neuronal cells, which perform computations in our brain, the white matter contains connections and support cells that help the communication between different areas.

"Our new study not only confirms that aging leads to both grey matter decline in the hippocampus and white matter decline in the surrounding area, but also reveals the causal relationship between the two.

"Using a method called mediation analysis, we discovered that ageing of the white matter was accounting for ageing of hippocampal grey matter and not the other way around. Our results suggest that damage to the support cells may affect tissue health in the hippocampus, a region important for memory and involved in Alzheimer's disease.

"This is an exciting find. If hard-working support cells in the white matter start to misfunction with age, then therapies that protect these support cells may aid in the fight against the damage that ageing can do to our cognitive ability."

The study, which looked at the brains of 166 healthy volunteers, was carried out using state-of-the-art brain imaging techniques at CUBRIC and was jointly funded by the Alzheimer's Society and the BRACE Alzheimer's charity.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/01/190131104936.htm

How to Enjoy Restorative Sleep While Being Treated for Cancer

By: Scott Sanders

When you’re in the midst of cancer treatment, healthful, restorative sleep is crucial for your well-being.  Not only does slumber help you physically, it’s a key to your mental wellness. Here’s how to ensure you get the sleep you need without resorting to prescription medications.  

Healing power

The world we live in can lead you to believe sleep is a waste of time, especially since you don’t appear to be accomplishing anything while snoozing.  However, sleep is necessary for healingthe body and mind.  Your body appears to go through a restoration process while you sleep, helping you recover from the previous day’s events and preparing you for the next morning.  Your bones, skin, and even your brain don’t manage as well when you try to go with insufficient sleep, and on top of that, your immune function is reduced.  It’s also a strain on heart health, more difficult to stay at a healthy weight, and your liver can be stressed, creating a situation where your body can struggle to detoxify itself.  

US News points out sleep is linked with how our bodies regulate cell growth, which makes some scientists all the more inclined to encourage cancer patients toward full nights of high-quality sleep. Unfortunately, some research indicates many patients face sleep deprivationin conjunction with cancer treatment.  Thankfully, there are many things you can do to improve your slumber, and snag those much-needed z’s.

Sleep-friendly environment

Ensuring your bedroom is conducive to a good night’s sleep is a great starting point. Begin with the general atmosphere of the room.  Is it cool and comfortable?  Some experts feel the optimal sleep temperatureis around 65 degrees, and you should adjust your thermostat accordingly.  A dark room is also helpful, so consider installing appropriate window treatments.  Having clean, refreshing air can boost sleep quality as well, especially if you have allergies or asthma.  Check that your air filters are changed routinely to maintain good in-home air quality, and use filters designed to help clear your air of allergens; filters with a MERV rating of at least 11are recommended in order to reduce 95 percent of the airborne debris, like mold spores and pet dander, that threaten your sleep and overall health.  

Catch some sunshine

A dark, cool, comfortable room can help you sleep at night, and the other side of that coin is enjoying sunlight in the daytime can help keep your body rhythm on track.  Getting some sunshine, especially in the morning hours, can improve your sleep by regulating serotonin and cortisol release, encouraging your body to wind down come nighttime.  It’s an opportunity to boost your vitamin D production as well, which some studies indicate can contribute to better sleep at night.  What’s more, Stanford Medicine notes a littlegreen spaceappears to go a long way toward improving sleep, so consider spending time in the morning sitting on your porch and admiring the trees, taking a stroll through the neighborhood with your dog, or settling onto a park bench and feeding the birds.

Find a healthy routine

Sunlight is just one facet of triggering your body toward a healthy sleep cycle.  You can also help set your body’s clock much in the way you would for a child, by embracing a set sleep schedule.  Most people do best with 7 to 9 hours of sleep, although depending on your situation and biological makeup, you may need to break it into routine nap sessions. Some people find a single sleep session of a few hours offset by several naps through the day fits best, and some people benefit from planning several napping periods over the course of 24 hours.

Whatever schedule fits, a bedtime routine can encourage your mind and body to relax. For instance, try doing some meditation exercises, listening to restful music, or sipping some herbal tea.  There are soothing poemsyou can read, or if you need to express yourself, consider journaling.  By doing the same thing at the same time on your chosen schedule, it’s a signal to your body and mind that sleep is coming.  

When you’re in cancer treatment, sufficient slumber is vital.  Evaluate your environment, spend time in the sun, and embrace a healthy routine.  Your mind and body need to heal, and sleep can help.  

Listening to Your Five Senses to Find More Peace

Paige A. Mitchell

We all live busy lives. Rushing to and from work, participating in extracurricular activities, caring for children and loved ones, all of which can lead to stressand make us feel frazzled by the end of the day. 

Our homes should be our sanctuaries, a place of comfort and peace that we can relax and recharge our batteries each night. There are many ways we can help make our house more peaceful, but the best place to start is with the basics. Paying attention to our five senses and responses from them can help create that calming space you have been searching for. 

Sight

Many of us stare at computer screens all day for work. Even if you don’t have a technological aspect to your job, your office might have harsh fluorescent lighting. Taking a few minutes each day when you are home to shift your focus can help calm your mind and rest your eyes.

●     Put down your phone and turn off the TV. Give your eyes a break from blue lightand pick up a good book instead. No Kindles or tablets either! Just a good, old fashioned book.

●     Hang photographs from vacations and happy family memories around the house. Take time every day to focus and reflect on the moments.

●     Declutter living spaces starting with the foyer. Your home can feel immediately stressful if the place where you first walk in the door is a mess. Develop a landing area to put away bags, mail and other items that can pile up and cause feelings of stress and anxiety. 

●     Refresh the paint in your bedroom or other main living area with a calm, soothing color.

Smell

Psychology Today reportsthat our sense of smell is closely tied to our memory. Fill your home with scents that bring back familiar memories, like following grandma’s apple pie recipe that smells—and tastes—exactly like hers. Add some new scents too. Ones that you will associate with your present life and peaceful home.

●     Find the recipe for your favorite dinner that your mother made for you as a child, and make it tonight to be transported back to that time.

●     Light a subtly scented candle to fill your home with a calming scent. Lavender and jasmine are good options to consider.

●     Troubleshoot unpleasant odors in your house. Food that spoils before its expiration date may indicate your refrigerator isn’t operating correctly while a mildew-like smell coming for your ducts may signal a problem with your heating and cooling unit. Fortunately, both of these items are typically covered under home warranties, according to House Method, and they can be fixed by a professional for a discounted price without adding unnecessary stress to your life.

●      Cut some fresh flowers and put them on display in your kitchen, then literally take time to  stop and smell the roses.

Sound

Sounds can affect and lift our mood almost instantaneously. After a long day being bombarded with outside noise it is important to select the right sounds at home to set a calming, peaceful space. 

●     Incorporate musicinto your everyday life at home. There are so many options for streaming background music with smart technologies, allowing you to build a custom playlist.

●     Find soothing background noise when you sleep, such as a white noise machines or a box fan. 

●     If you live in a noisy area or shared apartment building, add insulation or lay area rugs to soundproof your home, helping to cancel out distracting noise.

Touch

Many of us don’t experience much touch throughout the day thanks to desk jobs and computer screens. On the other hand, caregivers and full-time parents may be totally “touched out” by the end of the day.

●     Have a pair of comfortable clothes to slip into once you get home from work. Soft, comfortable fabrics and fuzzy cozy slippers will help you relax immediately. 

●      Soft, weighted blanketsrelieve stress and anxiety while you unwind and read a book.

●     Draw a hot bath and sink into it. Add some bath bombs for added, relaxing scent. 

●     Pet your cat or dog. Take time to feel the softness of their fur, and their purr in response to your touch.

●     Pay close attention to seemingly small sensations. There can be something really refreshing about walking barefoot through the grass on your way to the mailbox or feeling the warmth of the sunshine on your lunch break.

Taste

In busy lives we often grab breakfast on the way out the door, eat lunch at our desks, and utilize the drive through at fast food restaurants. Some of us skip full meals in order to get more work done. This takes a toll on our health and our mood.

●     Plan for at least one meal at home a week. Sit down, turn off phones and television and really enjoy the meal you prepared.

●     Try one new recipe a week. Or find a favorite and stick with it, knowing you will have it to look forward to every week. 

●      Chocolate. Need I say more?

There are many ways you can make your home more relaxing as a space to decompress at the end of a busy day. Tune into your five senses to help make your home a sanctuary that helps you decompress at the end of the day, and allows you to jumpstart your mornings energized and ready to tackle the future. 

Women gain weight when job demands are high

January 25, 2019

Science Daily/University of Gothenburg

Heavy pressures at work seem to predispose women to weight gain, irrespective of whether they have received an academic education. This is shown in a study of more than 3,800 people in Sweden.

"We were able to see that high job demands played a part in women's weight gain, while for men there was no association between high demands and weight gain," says Sofia Klingberg, a researcher in community medicine and public health at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, and the study's lead author.

The basis for the article, published in the journal International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health, was the Västerbotten Intervention Program, a Swedish population-based study. Klingberg's study included 3,872 participants in this program.

The women and men in the study were investigated on three occasions over a 20-year period with respect to such variables as body weight and demands and control at work. They were followed either from age 30 to 50 or from 40 to 60.

To estimate the level of job demands, the respondents were asked about their work pace, psychological pressures, whether there was enough time for their duties and how often the demands made were contradictory.

The questions about control at work covered such matters as how often they learned something new; whether the job called for imagination or advanced skills; and whether the respondent was personally able to choose what to do and how to do it.

The results show that the respondents with a low degree of control in their work more frequently gained considerable weight, defined as a weight gain of 10 percent or more, in the course of the study. This applied to women and men alike.

On the other hand, long-term exposure to high job demands played a part only for women. In just over half of the women who had been subjected to high demands, a major increase in weight took place over the 20 years. This gain in weight was some 20 percent higher than in women subject to low job demands.

"When it came to the level of demands at work, only the women were affected. We haven't investigated the underlying causes, but it may conceivably be about a combination of job demands and the greater responsibility for the home that women often assume. This may make it difficult to find time to exercise and live a healthy life," Klingberg says.

Having had or not had an academic education does not explain the associations in the study. Neither do quality of diet or other lifestyle factors. However, the information about dietary intake comes from the respondents themselves, with a certain risk of incorrect reporting.

At the same time, given the problems associated with work-related stress, the study is relevant in terms of public health. The researchers think identification of groups who are susceptible to stress and efforts to reduce work-related stress would likely achieve a decrease not only in weight gain but also in the incidence of ill health, including cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/01/190125172950.htm

Brain biomarkers could help identify those at risk of severe PTSD

Study links brain activity related to associative learning with PTSD symptom severity

January 28, 2019

Science Daily/NIH/National Institute of Mental Health

A study has shed light on the neurocomputational contributions to the development of post-traumatic stress disorder in combat veterans. The findings revealed distinct patterns for how the brain and body respond to learning danger and safety depending on the severity of PTSD symptoms. These findings could help explain why symptoms of PTSD can be severe for some people but not others.

"Researchers have thought that the experience of PTSD, in many ways, is an overlearned response to survive a threatening experience," said Susan Borja, Ph.D., chief of the NIMH Dimensional Traumatic Stress Research Program. "This study clarifies that those who have the most severe symptoms may appear behaviorally similar to those with less severe symptoms, but are responding to cues in subtly different, but profound, ways."

PTSD is a disorder that can sometimes develop after exposure to a traumatic event. People with PTSD may experience intrusive and frightening thoughts and memories of the event, experience sleep problems, feel detached or numb, or may be easily startled. While almost half of all U.S. adults will experience a traumatic event in their life, most do not develop PTSD.

One theory explaining why some symptoms of PTSD develop suggests that during a traumatic event, a person may learn to view the people, locations, and objects that are present as being dangerous if they become associated with the threatening situation. While some of these things may be dangerous, some are safe. PTSD symptoms result when these safe stimuli continue to trigger fearful and defensive responses long after the trauma has occurred.

Despite the prominence of this theory, the way in which this learning occurs is not well understood. In this study, Ilan Harpaz-Rotem, Ph.D., associate professor of psychiatry at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, Daniela Schiller, Ph.D., associate professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York City, and colleagues examined how the mental adjustments performed during learning and the way in which the brain tracks these adjustments relate to PTSD symptom severity.

Combat veterans with varying levels of PTSD symptom severity completed a reversal learning task in which two mildly angry human faces were paired with a mildly aversive stimulus. During the first phase of this task, participants learned to associate one face with the mildly aversive stimulus. During the second phase of this task this association was reversed, and participants learned to associate the second face with the mildly aversive stimulus.

Although all participants, regardless of PTSD symptomology, were able to perform the reversal learning, when the researchers took a closer look at the data, they found highly symptomatic veterans responded with greater corrections in their physiological arousal (i.e., skin conductance responses) and several brain regions to cues that did not predict what they had expected.

The amygdala, a brain area involved in associative learning, value encoding, and emotional responses, was particularly important. Both smaller amygdala volume and less precise tracking of the negative value of the face stimuli in the amygdala independently predicted PTSD symptom severity. Differences in value tracking and associability were also found in other brain regions involved in computation related to threat learning, such as the striatum, the hippocampus, and the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex.

"What these results tell us is that PTSD symptom severity is reflected in how combat veterans respond to negative surprises in the environment -- when predicted outcomes are not as expected -- and the way in which the brain is attuned to these stimuli is different," said Dr. Schiller. "This gives us a more fine-grained understanding of how learning processes may go awry in the aftermath of combat trauma and provides more specific targets for treatment."

"One's inability to adequately adjust expectations for potentially aversive outcomes has potential clinical relevance as this deficit may lead to avoidance and depressive behavior," said Dr. Harpaz-Rotem.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/01/190128125319.htm

Mental health disorders common following mild head injury

Risk factors for neuropsychiatric conditions after concussion

January 30, 2019

Science Daily/NIH/National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke

A new study reveals that approximately 1 in 5 individuals may experience mental health symptoms up to six months after mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), suggesting the importance of follow-up care for these patients. Scientists also identified factors that may increase the risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and/or major depressive disorder following mild mTBI or concussion through analysis of the Transforming Research and Clinical Knowledge in Traumatic Brain Injury (TRACK-TBI) study cohort.

"Mental health disorders after concussion have been studied primarily in military populations, and not much is known about these outcomes in civilians," said Patrick Bellgowan, Ph.D., NINDS program director. "These results may help guide follow-up care and suggest that doctors may need to pay particular attention to the mental state of patients many months after injury."

In the study, Murray B. Stein, M.D., M.P.H., professor at the University of California San Diego, and his colleagues investigated mental health outcomes in 1,155 people who had experienced a mild TBI and were treated in the emergency department. At three, six, and 12 months after injury, study participants completed various questionnaires related to PTSD and major depressive disorder. For a comparison group, the researchers also surveyed individuals who had experienced orthopedic traumatic injuries, such as broken legs, but did not have head injury.

The results showed that at three and six months following injury, people who had experienced mTBI were more likely than orthopedic trauma patients to report symptoms of PTSD and/or major depressive disorder. For example, three months after injury, 20 percent of mTBI patients reported mental health symptoms compared to 8.7 percent of orthopedic trauma patients. At six months after injury, mental health symptoms were reported by 21.2 percent of people who had experienced head injury and 12.1 percent of orthopedic trauma patients.

Dr. Stein and his team also used the data to determine risk factors for PTSD and major depressive disorder after mTBI. The findings revealed that lower levels of education, self-identifying as African-American, and having a history of mental illness increased risk. In addition, if the head injury was caused by an assault or other violent attack, that increased the risk of developing PTSD, but not major depressive disorder. However, risk of mental health symptoms was not associated with other injury-related occurrences such as duration of loss of consciousness or posttraumatic amnesia.

"Contrary to common assumptions, mild head injuries can cause long-term effects. These findings suggest that follow-up care after head injury, even for mild cases, is crucial, especially for patients showing risk factors for PTSD or depression," said Dr. Stein.

This study is part of the NIH-funded TRACK-TBI initiative, which is a large, long-term study of patients treated in the emergency department for mTBI. The goal of the study is to improve understanding of the effects of concussions by establishing a comprehensive database of clinical measures including brain images, blood samples, and outcome data for 3,000 individuals, which may help identify biomarkers of TBI, risk factors for various outcomes, and improve our ability to identify and prevent adverse outcomes of head injury. To date, more than 2,700 individuals have enrolled in TRACK-TBI.

A recent study coming out of TRACK-TBI suggested that many TBI patients were not receiving recommended follow-up care.

"TRACK-TBI is overturning many of our long-held beliefs around mTBI, particularly in what happens with patients after they leave the emergency department. We are seeing more evidence about the need to monitor these individuals for many months after their injury to help them achieve the best recovery possible," said Geoff Manley, M.D., professor at the University of California San Francisco, senior author of the current study and principal investigator of TRACK-TBI.

Future research studies will help identify mental health conditions, other than PTSD and major depressive disorder, that may arise following mTBI. In addition, more research is needed to understand the biological mechanisms that lead from mTBI to mental health problems and other adverse outcomes, such as neurological and cognitive difficulties.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/01/190130112717.htm

PTSD symptoms improve when patient chooses form of treatment

October 19, 2018

Science Daily/University of Washington

A new study is the first large-scale trial of hundreds of PTSD patients, including veterans and survivors of sexual assault, to measure whether patient preference in the course of treatment impacts the effectiveness of a type of cognitive behavioral therapy and use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, a type of antidepressant often prescribed for PTSD.

The study, led by the University of Washington and Case Western Reserve University, was conducted at outpatient clinics in Seattle and Cleveland. It found that both a medication -- Sertraline, marketed as Zoloft -- and a specific form a therapy known as prolonged exposure were effective in reducing PTSD symptoms during the course of treatment, with improvements maintained at least two years later. But patients who received their choice between the two possible treatments showed greater reduction in symptoms, were more apt to stick to their treatment program and even lost their PTSD diagnosis over time.

The study, published Oct. 19 in the American Journal of Psychiatry, is the first large-scale trial of hundreds of PTSD patients, including veterans and survivors of sexual assault, to measure whether patient preference in the course of treatment impacts the effectiveness of a type of cognitive behavioral therapy and use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, a type of antidepressant often prescribed for PTSD.

"In any form of health care, when receiving a recommendation from a provider, patients may or may not be given a choice of approaches to address their problems," said the study's lead author, Lori Zoellner, a UW professor of psychology and director of the Center for Anxiety & Traumatic Stress. "This research suggests that prolonged exposure and Sertraline are both good, evidence-based options for PTSD treatment -- and that providing information to make an informed choice enhances long-term outcomes."

The 200 subjects in the study, all adults, had been diagnosed with chronic PTSD. At the start of the study, all participants expressed a treatment preference between two options -- medication or 10 weeks of therapy -- at the outset of the trial. The study was doubly randomized, meaning that participants were randomly assigned to a group in which they received their preferred treatment, or to a group in which they were also randomly assigned to one treatment program or the other. All participants were evaluated by clinicians for PTSD symptoms, along with the patients' own reports of feelings and behaviors, before, immediately after, and at three, six, 12 and 24 months later.

In this study, 61 percent of participants expressed a preference for prolonged exposure therapy. This form of counseling is often used to treat PTSD because it encourages patients to talk about what happened to them, learn coping strategies and explore their thoughts and feelings through repeatedly approaching the trauma memory and reminders of the trauma.

Of those participants who received prolonged exposure therapy, nearly 70 percent were determined to be free of their PTSD diagnosis two years after the therapy ended, compared with 55 percent of those who had taken and stayed on Sertraline through the follow-up.

Comparing medication to psychotherapy is rare in a clinical trial because it is time- and labor-intensive, Zoellner explained. In this case, both treatments had positive effects, though therapy demonstrated a slight edge. "When both interventions reduce symptoms, it is often difficult to detect a difference because of patients' varying responses -- some get a lot better, some do not. This study showed both prolonged exposure and Sertraline provide generally large and clinically meaningful effects to reduce PTSD and related symptoms," she said. "Prolonged exposure psychotherapy for PTSD is as good as Sertraline, if not better, for the treatment of PTSD."

When treatment preference is taken into account, results are more dramatic. Of those who wanted and received therapy, 74 percent had lost their PTSD diagnosis two years later; of those who preferred therapy but received medication instead, only 37 percent were PTSD-free after two years.

Whether patients received their choice of treatment appeared to directly affect their commitment: Nearly 75 percent of those who were "matched" with their preferred method completed their full treatment program, while more than half of those who were "mismatched" with a treatment method did not complete that course of treatment.

Though PTSD is commonly associated with combat veterans, more than half the participants in the study were diagnosed with chronic PTSD due to a sexual assault, in either childhood or adulthood. Three-quarters of participants were women.

Not all survivors of sexual assault have PTSD or depression, Zoellner pointed out, but those who do may not know that short-term therapy or a medication can yield significant long-term benefits.

"Sexual assault often has a long-term impact on the trauma survivor, but for many it need not be in the form of chronic psychiatric problems," she said. "Survivors should know good, short options exist and need not suffer in silence."

Cost-effectiveness information from the trial, released in 2014, showed that patient choice in treatment also saved money, in the form of fewer emergency department visits, hospitalizations and other care, as well as indirect savings such as fewer lost work hours.

Overall, the trial indicates the importance of tailoring PTSD treatment to the patient, said study co-author Norah Feeny, a psychology professor at Case Western Reserve University.

"Dr. Zoellner and our team showed that we've got two effective, very different interventions for chronic PTSD and associated difficulties," Feeny said. "Given this, and the fact that getting a treatment you prefer confers significant benefit, we are now able to move toward better personalized treatment for those suffering after trauma. These findings have significant public health impact and should inform practice."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/10/181019131515.htm

Mitigating stress, PTSD risk in warfighters

September 27, 2018

Science Daily/U.S. Army Research Laboratory

Researchers have developed a technique that has the potential to provide measures that facilitate the development of procedures to mitigate stress and the onset of conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder in warfighters.

A U.S. Army Research Laboratory scientist has collaborated with a team of researchers from the University of North Texas to develop a new data processing technique that uses electroencephalogram, or EEG, time series variability as a measure of the state of the brain.

The researchers say such a technique has the potential to provide measures that facilitate the development of procedures to mitigate stress and the onset of conditions such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in warfighters.

"The human brain is considered by many to be the most complex organ in existence, with over a billion neurons and having in excess of a trillion interconnections," said Dr. Bruce West, senior scientist of mathematics and information science at the U.S. Army Research Office and ARL Fellow.

According to West, it is the operation of this extraordinary complex network of neurons that hosts human thinking, and through the central nervous system, enables the functioning of most, if not all, of the physiologic networks, such as the respiratory, motor control and cardiovascular.

However, according to the researchers, even with this central role the brain plays in enabling our existence, remarkably little is known about how it does what it does.

Consequently, measures for how well the brain carries out its various functions are critical surrogates for understanding, particularly for maintaining the health and wellbeing of military personnel.

A small but measureable electrical signal generated by the mammalian brain was captured in the electrocardiogram of small animals by Caton in 1875 and in human brains by Berger in 1925.

Norbert Wiener, a half century later, provided the mathematical tools believed necessary to penetrate the mysterious relations between the brain waves in EEG time series and the functioning of the brain.

According to West, progress along this path has been slow, and after over a century of data collection and analysis, there is no taxonomy of EEG patterns that delineates the correspondence between those patterns and brain activity....until now!

The technique developed by West and his academic partners generalizes Evolutionary Game Theory, a mathematical technique historically used in the formulation of decision making in war gaming.

Their findings are reported in a paper published in the August edition of Frontiers in Physiology.

In the paper, titled "Bridging Waves and Crucial Events in the Dynamics of the Brain," West, along with Gyanendra Bohara and Paolo Grigolini of the University of North Texas, propose and successfully test a new model for the collective behavior within the brain, which bridges the gap between waves and random fluctuations in EEG data.

"The work horse of decision making within the military has historically been Game Theory, in which players cooperate or defect, and with pairwise interactions receive various payoffs so that under given conditions certain strategies always win," West said. "When the game is extended to groups in which individual strategy choices are made sequentially and can change over time, the situation evolves offering a richer variety of outcomes including the formation of collective states in which everyone is a cooperator or a defector, resulting in a collective state."

It turns out, West said, that the technique developed to process EEG data, the self-organized time criticality method, or SOTC method, incorporates a strategy that is an extension of Evolutionary Game Theory directly into the modeling of the brain's dynamics.

"The collective, or critical, state of the neural network is reached spontaneously by the internal dynamics of the brain and as with all critical phenomena its emergent properties are determined by the macroscale independently of the microscale dynamics," West said.

This macroscale can be directly accessed by the EEG spectrum.

The EEG spectrum, obtained by the SOTC method, decays like Brownian motion at high frequencies, has a peak at an intermediate frequency (alpha wave) and at low frequencies has an inverse power law.

In the case of the brain, the inverse power law has revealed that there is a broad range of time scales over which the brain is able to respond to the demands placed on it.

This spectrum suggests a flexibility in response, reflecting a potential range from concentrating on a single task for hours to rapidly countering a physical assault.

"This means that in the foreseeable future the physical training of warriors, along with the necessary monitoring of progress associated with that training, will be expanded to include the brain," West said. "The reliable processing of brain activity, along with the interpretation of the processed EEG signal, will guide the development of reliable techniques to reduce stress, enhance situational awareness and increase the ability to deal with uncertainty, both on and off the battlefield."

West said that the research team even speculates that such understanding of brain dynamics may provide the insight necessary to mitigate the onset of PTSD by early detection and intervention, as is routinely done for more obvious maladies.

According to West, going forward with this research can proceed in at least two ways.

"One way is to apply these promising results to data sets of interest to the Army," West said. "For example, quantify how the EEG records of warriors with PTSD differ from a control group of warriors and how this measure changes under different therapy and medication protocols. The other way is to refine the technique, for example, locate where on the scalp it is the most robust, while retaining sensitivity."

However this research proceeds, these Army scientists are focused on bringing the technology to fruition to help the Soldier of the future succeed in an ever-changing world and battlefield.

Earlier this year, the research team published on work that look at the processing heart rate data and how heart rate was indirectly influenced by meditation through the dynamics of the brain. That work examined how the brain influences the operation of the body by directly measuring how the physiologic system (cardiovascular in this case) responds to changes in the brain (by means of meditation).

This current work focuses on processing EEG data and directly interpreting the dynamics of the brain; it examines how the rhythmic behavior of brain waves (alpha, beta, gamma, etc. waves) can be understood to be compatible with the fluctuations in brain wave data.

Both papers are part of an ongoing ARL-University of North Texas study to determine if the fluctuations in all the physiological systems are produced by a previously unidentified mechanism that we call crucial events.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/09/180927091010.htm

Want healthier eating habits? Start with a workout

January 30, 2019

Science Daily/University of Texas at Austin

Researchers have found that formerly sedentary young adults who were instructed to exercise regularly for several weeks started choosing healthier foods without being asked to.

In the latest evidence that it's worth sticking to your health-focused New Year's resolutions, researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have found that exercising regularly is linked to better eating habits.

The new study, published this week in the International Journal of Obesity, looked at 2,680 young adults who were not exercising regularly or dieting. Scientists found that after exercising for several weeks, formerly sedentary study participants were more likely to choose foods like lean meats, fruits and vegetables, while preferences for fried foods, sodas and other unhealthy options decreased.

Participants were instructed not to change their diets in any significant way, but it happened anyway. Although this study did not examine the mechanism at work behind the changes, previous research has found that moderate exercise can reduce a preference for high-fat foods in animals through changes in dopamine levels. Several studies also have shown a relationship between the intensity of exercise and the amount of appetite-regulating hormones in the body.

"The process of becoming physically active can influence dietary behavior," said Molly Bray, corresponding author of the paper and chair of the Nutritional Sciences department at UT Austin and a pediatrics faculty member at Dell Medical School. "One of the reasons that we need to promote exercise is for the healthy habits it can create in other areas. That combination is very powerful."

Bray says what drives food-preference changes when people exercise would probably be consistent across a wide span of ages. The study examined people between the ages of 18 and 35, a period of young adulthood critical for forming healthy habits. Previous studies have found that considerable weight gain occurs during the college years and that being mildly to moderately overweight at age 20-22 increases the risk of obesity later in life.

"Many people in the study didn't know they had this active, healthy person inside them," Bray said. "Some of them thought their size was inevitable. For many of these young people, they are choosing what to eat and when to exercise for the first time in their lives."

The participants in the study were students at the University of Houston and the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Participants who said they exercised less than 30 minutes a week at the beginning of the study started 30-minute aerobic workouts three times a week for 15 weeks, with instructions not to change their diet in any significant way. The exercise sessions consisted of 30 minutes of aerobic exercise at 65-85 percent of the person's age- and gender-specific maximum heart rate, along with a 5-minute warmup and a 5-minute cool down. Participants wore heart-rate monitors and could choose from a variety of exercise types, such as on stationary bikes, treadmills or elliptical machines.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/01/190130112728.htm

Not all saturated fats are equal when it comes to heart health

Cardiovascular risk of diets rich in saturated fats found in meats and the benefits of plant-based and dairy alternatives

January 28, 2019

Science Daily/Elsevier

The type of saturated fats we eat can affect our risk of a heart attack, according to a study published in the International Journal of Cardiology. People whose diets contain relatively little palmitic and stearic acid -- saturated fats composed of 16 or more carbon atoms (longer-chain saturated fats) that are typically found in meats -- and eat plant-based proteins instead have decreased chances of myocardial infarction. Moreover, individuals who eat more saturated fats with 14 or fewer carbon atoms (shorter-chain saturated fats) that are typically found in dairy products have lower risk of myocardial infarction.

"Our analysis of the diets of large groups of individuals in two countries over time shows that the type of saturated fats we consume could affect our cardiovascular heath," explained lead investigator Ivonne Sluijs, PhD, Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands.

The study investigated whether saturated fats with chains varying in length from 4 to 18 carbon atoms are associated with the risk of developing a myocardial infarction. Data from approximately 75,000 people in the UK and Denmark were analyzed. Of these two groups, nearly 3,500 people experienced myocardial infarction in the period between the study's initial outreach and follow-up 13 years later (in Denmark) and 18 years later (in the UK).

"We found that eating relatively little of the longer chained saturated fatty acids and consuming plant-based proteins instead was associated with a lowered risk. Substitution of those saturated fats with other energy sources such as carbohydrates did not affect the risk to develop myocardial infarction," said Dr. Sluijs. Although diets vary by nationality and other factors, the most frequently consumed saturated fat is palmitic acid, with 16 carbon atoms, followed by stearic acid, with 18 carbon atoms, both of which are found in meat products. Consumption of saturated fats that have shorter carbon atom chains and are present in dairy products is less prevalent.

Since the 1960s, when diets high in saturated fat were linked to elevated "bad" LDL cholesterol and coronary heart disease, dietary guidelines recommended restricting saturated fatty acids across the board. In recent years, research studies have raised some questions about what was considered established evidence. Inconsistent findings have pointed to the possibility that different types of saturated fats have different effects on cholesterol levels and the development of coronary heart disease. Despite the fact that their study's findings support this hypothesis, Dr. Sluijs and her fellow investigators recommend proceeding with caution before changing dietary guidelines:

"Our study only allowed us to draw conclusions on the level of associations between saturated fatty acids and the development of myocardial infarction. We do not know whether those fatty acids are actually the cause of differences between the occurrences of myocardial infarction we observed. To further explore this, we need experiments in which the consumption of saturated fatty acids is more controlled and, for instance, compared with consumption of unsaturated fatty acids," she noted.

"The study is applaudable for its large size, prospective cohort study design, and detailed assessment of diet and lifestyle factors. In addition, it is among the few studies that specifically examined individual saturated fatty acids in relation to coronary heart disease risk and compared with different macronutrients," commented Jun Li, MD, PhD, and Qi Sun, MD, ScD, both at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA, in an accompanying editorial. They also noted a few limitations of the study and thus called for cautious interpretation of the overall null results for the primary saturated fatty acids.

Dr. Li and Dr. Sun advise that shifts in fat intake should align with the recommended healthy dietary patterns, which emphasize limited intakes of red and processed meat and added sugars, lower salt intake, replacement of refined grains with whole grains, and higher consumption of fruits and vegetables.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/01/190128105230.htm

Excessive body fat around the middle linked to smaller brain size

January 9, 2019

Science Daily/American Academy of Neurology

Carrying extra body fat, especially around the middle, may be linked to brain shrinkage, according to new research. For the study, researchers determined obesity by measuring body mass index (BMI) and waist-to-hip ratio in study participants and found those with higher ratios of both measures had the lowest brain volume.

BMI is a weight-to-height ratio. It is determined by dividing a person's weight by the square of their height. People with a BMI above 30.0 are considered obese. Waist-to-hip ratio is determined by dividing waist circumference by hip circumference. People with bigger bellies compared to their hips have higher ratios. Men above 0.90 and women above 0.85 are considered to be centrally obese.

"Existing research has linked brain shrinkage to memory decline and a higher risk of dementia, but research on whether extra body fat is protective or detrimental to brain size has been inconclusive," said study author Mark Hamer, PhD, of Loughborough University in Leicestershire, England. "Our research looked at a large group of people and found obesity, specifically around the middle, may be linked with brain shrinkage."

The study looked at 9,652 people with an average age of 55. Of that group, 19 percent were determined to be obese. Researchers measured BMI, waist-to-hip ratio and overall body fat and surveyed participants about their health. Researchers then used magnetic resonance imaging to determine brain volumes for white and gray brain matter and volumes in the various regions of the brain.

Gray matter contains most of the brain's nerve cells and includes brain regions involved in self-control, muscle control and sensory perception. White matter contains nerve fiber bundles that connect various regions of the brain.

After adjusting for other factors that may affect brain volume, such as age, physical activity, smoking and high blood pressure, researchers found that while a high BMI alone was linked to slightly lower brain volumes, those with high BMI and waist-to-hip ratios had lower gray matter brain volumes than participants who did not have a high waist-to-hip ratio. Specifically, researchers found that 1,291 people who had a high BMI and a high waist-to-hip ratio had the lowest average gray matter brain volume of 786 cubic centimeters, compared to 3,025 people of healthy weight who had an average gray matter brain volume of 798 cubic centimeters and 514 people with a high BMI but without high waist-to-hip ratio who had an average gray matter brain volume of 793 cubic centimeters. They found no significant differences in white matter brain volume.

"While our study found obesity, especially around the middle, was associated with lower gray matter brain volumes, it's unclear if abnormalities in brain structure lead to obesity or if obesity leads to these changes in the brain," said Hamer. "We also found links between obesity and shrinkage in specific regions of the brain. This will need further research but it may be possible that someday regularly measuring BMI and waist-to-hip ratio may help determine brain health."

A limitation of the study was that only 5 percent of those invited to participate in the study took part, and those who participated tended to be healthier than those who did not, so the results may not reflect the population as a whole.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/01/190109164233.htm

Personality type could shape attitudes toward body weight of others

January 15, 2019

Science Daily/Florida State University

Researchers found that personality traits have significant bearing on a person's attitudes toward obesity, their implicit theories of weight and their willingness to engage in derisive fat talk or weight discrimination.

Studies show there is a major link between personality traits and personal body image, but the relationship between personality and attitudes toward others' bodies has gone largely unexplored.

Now, Florida State University researchers suggest that the specific alchemy of an individual's personality -- their distinct blend of conscientiousness, agreeableness, openness, neuroticism and extraversion -- is directly related to their beliefs about others' bodies and the ways those beliefs are expressed in social interactions.

In a study published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, researchers found that the relative prominence of these five personality traits, which together constitute the Five Factor model of personality, has a significant bearing on a person's attitudes toward obesity, their implicit theories of weight and their willingness to engage in derisive fat talk or weight discrimination.

"Individuals who are higher in neuroticism hold more negative attitudes about obesity, they show more phobia toward weight, they talk more negatively about their body to their friends and around their children, and they are more likely to perceive weight discrimination," said study co-author Angelina Sutin, associate professor in FSU's College of Medicine.

The scientific literature has long suggested a strong connection between personality and body weight. People who score high in conscientiousness, for example, tend to weigh less and have lower long-term risk of obesity, whereas people higher in neuroticism tend to harbor negative emotions about their bodies.

While these connections present a compelling case for the power of personality in predicting a person's body weight or coloring a person's body image, Sutin and her team were interested in broadening this line of inquiry beyond the individual. They wanted to learn more about how personality may be modulating body weight experiences in the social realm.

"There is a social dimension to body weight," Sutin said. "People have attitudes about body weight and what contributes to obesity. People also often vocalize their fears about how they look and what they need to do to lose weight. We wanted to know whether personality contributes to this social experience."

Sutin and her team interviewed 3,099 women with children using a series of carefully crafted surveys that allowed researchers to map respondents' attitudes and behaviors onto their individual Five Factor personality profiles. Their results were largely in line with expectation: higher neuroticism foretold more negative attitudes, and higher conscientiousness generally aligned with more positive attitudes and behaviors.

One finding, though, surprised Sutin and her team. Their surveys pointed to a significant association between conscientiousness and greater fat phobia.

"One aspect of conscientiousness is following the norms of society," Sutin said. "Even though two-thirds of the U.S. population is overweight or obese, there are strong social ideals for health and fitness -- even if, on average, we do not meet these ideals."

People high in conscientiousness -- already preconditioned to follow rules and hold to prevailing social beliefs -- may internalize these ideals, Sutin said. Eventually, that may result in expressions of phobia toward obesity.

"Their endorsement of obesity stereotypes may be consistent with their need to fit with beliefs held by society more broadly," Sutin and her co-author, FSU College of Medicine Associate Professor Antonio Terracciano, wrote in their study.

While these results need to be replicated to confirm their validity beyond this specific cohort of mothers, Sutin said both individuals and society would benefit from renewed scrutiny on attitudes toward others' bodies.

"Attitudes have broad-reaching consequences -- for how the individual feels and responds to their body, for shaping children's attitudes toward their own bodies and the bodies of those around them, and for policy," she said. "If people hold negative attitudes toward obesity, that could shape the way that policies are made and implemented and perpetuate stigma toward obesity rather than constructive ways to address it."

This research was supported by the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/01/190115124436.htm