Laughing gas relieves symptoms in people with treatment-resistant depression
Single treatment provides patients with rapid, lasting antidepressant effects
June 9, 2021
Science Daily/Washington University School of Medicine
A single, one-hour treatment that involves breathing in a mixture of oxygen and nitrous oxide -- otherwise known as laughing gas -- significantly improved symptoms in people with treatment-resistant depression, according to new data from researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the University of Chicago.
In a phase 2 clinical trial, the researchers demonstrated that symptoms of depression improve rapidly following treatment with inhaled nitrous oxide. Further, they reported the benefits can last for several weeks.
The findings are published June 9 in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
"A large percentage of patients don't respond to standard antidepressant therapies -- the patients in this study had failed an average of 4.5 antidepressant trials -- and it's very important to find therapies to help these patients," said Charles R. Conway, MD, a professor of psychiatry at Washington University and one of the study's senior investigators. "That we saw rapid improvements in many such patients in the study suggests nitrous oxide may help people with really severe, resistant depression."
Conway, and the study's other co-senior investigator, Peter Nagele, MD, professor and chair of the Department of Anesthesia & Critical Care at the University of Chicago, and who previously had an appointment in the Department of Anesthesiology at Washington University School of Medicine, have been studying the potential of nitrous oxide as an antidepressant for the past decade.
Standard antidepressant drugs affect norepinephrine and serotonin receptors in the brain, yet they often take weeks to improve a person's symptoms. Nitrous oxide, however, interacts with different receptors on brain cells -- NMDA glutamate receptors -- and tends to improve symptoms within hours when effective.
"Our primary goals in this study were twofold: to determine whether a lower dose of nitrous oxide might be just as effective as doses we'd tested previously -- and it was for most patients -- and we also wanted to see how long the relief lasted," Nagele said. "In a proof-of-concept study several years ago, we assessed patients for 24 hours. In this study, we continued to assess them for two weeks, and most continued to feel better."
The study involved 24 patients. Each one received three treatments about one month apart. In one session, patients breathed gas for an hour that was half nitrous oxide, half oxygen. In a second treatment, the same patients breathed a solution that was 25% nitrous oxide. A third treatment, the placebo, involved breathing only oxygen, with no nitrous oxide.
"You can't really get a better comparison group than when you compare a person to himself or herself," Nagele said. "Serving as your own control is ideal. The alternative is studying the effects of a drug in two similar groups of people in which you either get one treatment or another. But the problem with that is that you need much larger numbers of patients before you really can draw conclusions."
The primary conclusions in this study were that nitrous oxide -- both at 25% and in a 50-50 mixture with oxygen -- improved depression in 17 of those study participants. The differences between a 25% mix and a 50% mix mainly involved how long the antidepressant effects lasted. Whereas the 50% dosage had greater antidepressant effects two weeks after treatment, the 25% dose was associated with fewer adverse events, the most common of which was feeling nauseated.
"Some patients experience side effects -- it's a small subset, but it's very real -- and the main one is that some people get nauseated," Conway said. "But in our study, only when people got the 50% dose did they experience nausea. When they received 25% nitrous oxide, no one developed nausea. And that lower dose was just about as effective as the higher dose at relieving depression."
Of the 20 people who completed all of the study's treatments and follow-up exams, 55% (11 of 20) experienced a significant improvement in at least half of their depressive symptoms, and 40% (eight of 20) were considered to be in remission -- meaning they no longer were clinically depressed -- after breathing a nitrous oxide solution for one hour.
Over the course of the entire study, having received both dose levels of nitrous oxide and the placebo treatment, some 85% (17 of 20) of the study participants experienced a significant enough improvement that their clinical classification moved at least one category -- for example, from severe to moderate depression.
Many of those in the study also took antidepressant drugs -- medications that, for the most part, had failed to relieve their depression -- but they were allowed to continue using those drugs while they participated in the study.
As many as one-third of those who take antidepressants don't improve. Nitrous oxide and ketamine, another anesthetic drug that interacts with NMDA glutamate receptors, recently have shown promise in those with treatment-resistant depression. Conway and Nagele believe both drugs may represent breakthroughs for people with treatment-resistant depression, but they believe nitrous oxide may have some practical advantages.
"One potential advantage to nitrous oxide, compared with ketamine, is that because it's a volatile gas, its anesthetic effects subside very quickly," Conway said. "It's similar to what happens in a dentist's office when people drive themselves home after getting a tooth pulled. After treatment with ketamine, patients need to be observed for two hours following treatment to make sure they are OK, and then they have to get someone else to drive them."
Nagele and Conway said it is important for scientists soon to conduct a large, multicenter study comparing the effects of ketamine and nitrous oxide to placebo.
This work was supported by a NARSAD award from the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation and the Taylor Family Institute for Innovative Psychiatric Research at Washington University School of Medicine.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/06/210609143446.htm
Having trouble falling asleep predicts cognitive impairment in later life
Study identifies an insomnia symptom that could be an intervention target for dementia prevention
June 9, 2021
Science Daily/American Academy of Sleep Medicine
A study of nearly 2,500 adults found that having trouble falling asleep, as compared to other patterns of insomnia, was the main insomnia symptom that predicted cognitive impairment 14 years later.
Results show that having trouble falling asleep in 2002 was associated with cognitive impairment in 2016. Specifically, more frequent trouble falling asleep predicted poorer episodic memory, executive function, language, processing speed, and visuospatial performance. Further analysis found that associations between sleep initiation and later cognition were partially explained by both depressive symptoms and vascular diseases in 2014 for all domains except episodic memory, which was only partially explained by depressive symptoms.
"While there is growing evidence for a link between insomnia and cognitive impairment in older adults, it has been difficult to interpret the nature of these associations given how differently both insomnia and cognitive impairment can present across individuals," said lead author Afsara Zaheed, a graduate student in clinical science within the department of psychology at the University of Michigan. "By investigating associations between specific insomnia complaints and cognition over time using strong measures of cognitive ability, we hoped to gain additional clarity on whether and how these different sleep problems may lead to poor cognitive outcomes."
Insomnia involves difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep, or regularly waking up earlier than desired, despite allowing enough time in bed for sleep. Daytime symptoms include fatigue or sleepiness; feeling dissatisfied with sleep; having trouble concentrating; feeling depressed, anxious, or irritable; and having low motivation or energy.
The study analyzed data from the Health and Retirement Study, which involved 2,496 adults who were at least 51 years of age. In 2002 they reported the frequency of experiencing insomnia symptoms. In 2016 the participants' cognition was assessed as part of the Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocol and operationalized with a comprehensive neuropsychological battery tapping episodic memory, executive function, language, visuoconstruction, and processing speed. Analyses controlled for sociodemographics and baseline global cognitive performance.
"These results are important given the lack of currently available treatments for late-life cognitive disorders, like Alzheimer's disease and other dementias," said Zaheed. "Sleep health and sleep behaviors are often modifiable. These results suggest that regular screening for insomnia symptoms may help with tracking and identifying people with trouble falling asleep in mid-to-late life who might be at risk for developing cognitive impairments later in life. Additional intervention research is needed to determine whether intervening on insomnia symptoms can help prevent or slow the progression of cognitive impairments in later life."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/06/210609143440.htm
Study shows adaptive brain response to stress, and its absence in people with depression
A biological signal for resilience to stress
June 9, 2021
Science Daily/Emory Health Sciences
A new study identifies a novel biomarker indicating resilience to chronic stress. This biomarker is largely absent in people suffering from major depressive disorder, and this absence is further associated with pessimism in daily life, the study finds.
Nature Communications published the research by scientists at Emory University.
The researchers used brain imaging to identify differences in the neurotransmitter glutamate within the medial prefrontal cortex before and after study participants underwent stressful tasks. They then followed the participants for four weeks, using a survey protocol to regularly assess how participants rated their expected and experienced outcomes for daily activities.
"To our knowledge, this is the first work to show that glutamate in the human medial prefrontal cortex shows an adaptive habituation to a new stressful experience if someone has recently experienced a lot of stress," says Michael Treadway, senior author of the study and professor in Emory's Department of Psychology and Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science. "Importantly, this habituation is significantly altered in patients with depression. We believe this may be one of the first biological signals of its kind to be identified in relation to stress and people who are clinically depressed."
"Learning more about how acute stress and chronic stress affect the brain may help in the identification of treatment targets for depression," adds Jessica Cooper, first author of the study and a post-doctoral fellow in Treadway's Translational Research in Affective Disorders Laboratory.
The lab focuses on understanding the molecular and circuit-level mechanisms of psychiatric symptoms related to mood disorders, anxiety and decision-making.
It's long been known that stress is a major risk factor for depression, one of the most common and debilitating of mental illnesses. "In many ways, depression is a stress-linked disorder," Treadway says. "It's estimated that 80 percent of first-time depressive episodes are preceded by significant, chronic life stress."
Around 16 to 20 percent of the U.S. population will meet the criteria for a major depressive disorder during their lifetimes. Experts are predicting rates of depression to climb even further in the wake of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. During the pandemic, about four in 10 adults in the United States have reported symptoms of anxiety or depressive disorder, up from one in 10 who reported them in 2019, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
"The pandemic has created more isolation for many people, while also increasing the amount of severe stressors and existential threats they experience," Treadway says. "That combination puts a lot of people at high risk for becoming depressed."
Although the link between stress and depression is clearly established, the mechanisms underlying this relationship are not. Experiments with rodents have shown an association between the response of glutamate -- the major excitatory neurotransmitter in the mammalian brain -- and stress. The role of glutamate in humans with depression, however, has been less clear.
The 88 participants in the current study included people without a mental health disorder and unmedicated patients diagnosed with a major depressive disorder. Participants were surveyed about perceived recent stress in their lives before they underwent experiments using a brain scanning technique known as magnetic resonance spectroscopy.
While in the scanner, participants were required to alternate between performing two tasks that served as acute stressors: Putting their hand up to the wrist in ice water and counting down from the number 2,043 by steps of 17 while someone evaluated their accuracy.
Brain scans before and after the acute stressor measured glutamate in the medial prefrontal cortex, an area of the brain involved with thinking about one's state and forming expectations. Previous research has also found that this brain area is involved in regulating adaptive responses to stress.
Participants submitted saliva samples while in the scanner, allowing the researchers to confirm that the tasks elicited a stress response by measuring the amount of the stress hormone cortisol in the sample.
In healthy individuals, the brain scans revealed that glutamate change in response to stress in the medial prefrontal cortex was predicted by individual levels of recent perceived stress. Healthy participants with lower levels of stress showed increased glutamate in response to acute stress, while healthy participants with higher levels of stress showed a reduced glutamate response to acute stress. This adaptive response was comparatively absent in the patients diagnosed with depression.
"The decrease in the glutamate response over time appears to be a signal, or a marker, of a healthy adaptation to stress," Treadway says. "And if the levels remain high that appears to be a signal for maladaptive responses to stress."
The initial result was strong for the adaptation in healthy participants, but was in a modest sample size, so the researchers decided to see if they could replicate it. "Not only did we get a replication, it was an unusually strong replication," Treadway says.
The experiment also included a group of healthy controls who underwent scanning before and after performing tasks. Rather than stressful tasks, however, the controls were asked to place a hand into warm water or to simply count out loud consecutively. Their glutamate levels were not associated with perceived stress and they did not show a salivary cortisol response.
To expand their findings, the researchers followed participants for four weeks after scanning. Every other day, the participants reported on their expected and experienced outcomes for activities in their daily lives. The results showed that glutamate changes that were higher than expected based on an individual's level of perceived stress predicted an increased pessimistic outlook -- a hallmark for depression.
"We were able to show how a neural response to stress is meaningfully related to what people experience in their daily lives," Cooper says. "We now have a large, rich data set that gives us a tangible lead to build upon as we further investigate how stress contributes to depression."
The work was supported by the National Institutes of Mental Health.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/06/210609123422.htm
Brain connections mean some people lack visual imagery
June 9, 2021
Science Daily/University of Exeter
New research has revealed that people with the ability to visualise vividly have a stronger connection between their visual network and the regions of the brain linked to decision-making. The study also sheds light on memory and personality differences between those with strong visual imagery and those who cannot hold a picture in their mind's eye.
The research, from the University of Exeter, published in Cerebral Cortex Communications, casts new light on why an estimated one-three per cent of the population lack the ability to visualise. This phenomenon was named "aphantasia" by the University of Exeter's Professor Adam Zeman in 2015 Professor Zeman called those with highly developed visual imagery skills "hyperphantasics."
Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the study is the first systematic neuropsychological and brain imaging study of people with aphantasia and hypephantasia. The team conducted fMRI scans on 24 people with aphantasia, 25 with hyperphantasia and a control group of 20 people with mid-range imagery vividness. They combined the imaging data with detailed cognitive and personality tests.
The scans revealed that people with hyperphantasia have a stronger connection between the visual network which processes what we see, and which becomes active during visual imagery, and the prefrontal cortices, involved in decision-making and attention. These stronger connections were apparent in scans performed during rest, while participants were relaxing -- and possibly mind-wandering.
Despite equivalent scores on standard memory tests, Professor Zeman and the team found that people with hyperphantasia produce richer descriptions of imagined scenarios than controls, who in turn outperformed aphantasics. This also applied to autobiographical memory, or the ability to remember events that have taken place in the person's life. Aphantasics also had lower ability to recognise faces.
Personality tests revealed that aphantasics tended to be more introverted and hyperphantasics more open.
Professor Zeman said: "Our research indicates for the first time that a weaker connection between the parts of the brain responsible for vision and frontal regions involved in decision-making and attention leads to aphantasia. However, this shouldn't be viewed as a disadvantage -- it's a different way of experiencing the world. Many aphantasics are extremely high-achieving, and we're now keen to explore whether the personality and memory differences we observed indicate contrasting ways of processing information, linked to visual imagery ability."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/06/210609115555.htm
Study finds novel evidence that dreams reflect multiple memories, anticipate future events
Dreams focused on future events utilize memories of multiple past experiences
June 8, 2021
Science Daily/American Academy of Sleep Medicine
Dreams result from a process that often combines fragments of multiple life experiences and anticipates future events, according to novel evidence from a new study.
Results show that 53.5% of dreams were traced to a memory, and nearly 50% of reports with a memory source were connected to multiple past experiences. The study also found that 25.7% of dreams were related to specific impending events, and 37.4% of dreams with a future event source were additionally related to one or more specific memories of past experiences. Future-oriented dreams became proportionally more common later in the night.
"Humans have struggled to understand the meaning of dreams for millennia," said principal investigator Erin Wamsley, who has a doctorate in cognitive neuroscience and is an associate professor in the department of psychology and program in neuroscience at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina. "We present new evidence that dreams reflect a memory-processing function. Although it has long been known that dreams incorporate fragments of past experience, our data suggest that dreams also anticipate probable future events."
The study involved 48 students who spent the night in the laboratory for overnight sleep evaluation using polysomnography. During the night, participants were awakened up to 13 times to report on their experiences during sleep onset, REM sleep, and non-REM sleep. The following morning, participants identified and described waking life sources for each dream reported the previous evening. A total of 481 reports were analyzed.
"This is a new description of how dreams draw simultaneously from multiple waking-life sources, utilizing fragments of past experience to construct novel scenarios anticipating future events," said Wamsley.
According to Wamsley, the proportional increase of future-oriented dreams later in the night may be driven by temporal proximity to the upcoming events. While these dreams rarely depict future events realistically, the activation and recombination of future-relevant memory fragments may nonetheless serve an adaptive function.
The research abstract was published recently in an online supplement of the journal Sleep and will be presented as a poster beginning June 9 during Virtual SLEEP 2021. SLEEP is the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, a joint venture of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/06/210608203711.htm
Exercise likely to be best treatment for depression in coronary heart disease
June 8, 2021
Science Daily/RCSI
A study by RCSI indicates that exercise is probably the most effective short-term treatment for depression in people with coronary heart disease, when compared to antidepressants and psychotherapy or more complex care.
The study, led by researchers at RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences, is published in the June edition of Psychosomatic Medicine.
This is the first systematic review to compare treatments for depression in those with coronary disease and the findings provides valuable clinical information to help doctors determine the best treatment plan for patients.
The researchers reviewed treatment trials which investigated antidepressants, psychotherapy, exercise, combined psychotherapy and antidepressants, and collaborative care (i.e. treatments devised by a multidisciplinary team of clinicians with input from the patient).
To measure effectiveness, the researchers looked at factors including patient adherence to the treatment (dropout rate) and change in depressive symptoms eight weeks after commencing treatment.
The strongest treatment effects were found to be exercise and combination treatments (antidepressants and psychotherapy). However, as the combination study results have a high risk of bias, the findings of the review suggest that exercise is probably the most effective treatment. Antidepressants had the most research support, while psychotherapy and collaborative care did not perform very well.
"Depression is common in patients with coronary artery disease. Having both conditions can have a significant impact on the quality of life for patients so it is vital that they access to the most effective treatments," commented Dr Frank Doyle, Senior Lecturer Division of Population Health Sciences, RCSI and the study's first author.
"Our study indicates that exercise is likely to be the best treatment for depression following coronary artery disease. Our findings further highlight the clinical importance of exercise as a treatment as we see that it improves not only depression, but also other important aspects of heart disease, such as lowering blood pressure and cholesterol, in these patients."
"We continue to see emerging evidence of the importance of lifestyle to treat disease -- in comparison to other treatments -- but further high-quality research is needed. People with coronary heart disease who have symptoms of depression should talk to their doctor about treatments that are most suitable for their personal needs, and clinicians can be confident of recommending exercise to their patients."
Dr Frank Doyle and the study's senior authors, Prof. Jan Sorensen (Health Outcomes Research Centre, RCSI) and Prof. Martin Dempster (School of Psychology, Queen's University Belfast), conducted the study in collaboration with researchers in the USA, The Netherlands, the UK and Denmark.
This study was also the first of its kind to establish a new method to conduct systematic reviews known as a hybrid review, which is a combination of umbrella reviews and systematic reviews.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/06/210608113205.htm
People who have trouble sleeping are at a higher risk of dying early - especially diabetics
June 8, 2021
Science Daily/University of Surrey
In a paper published by the Journal of Sleep Research, researchers reveal how they examined data* from half a million middle-aged UK participants asked if they had trouble falling asleep at night or woke up in the middle of the night.
The report found that people with frequent sleep problems are at a higher risk of dying than those without sleep problems. This grave outcome was more pronounced for people with Type-2 diabetes: during the nine years of the research, the study found that they were 87 per cent more likely to die of any cause than people without diabetes or sleep disturbances.
The study also found that people with diabetes and sleep problems were 12 per cent more likely to die over this period than those who had diabetes but not frequent sleep disturbances.
Malcolm von Schantz, the first author of the study and Professor of Chronobiology from the University of Surrey, said:
"Although we already knew that there is a strong link between poor sleep and poor health, this illustrates the problem starkly."
"The question asked when the participants enrolled does not necessarily distinguish between insomnia and other sleep disorders, such as sleep apnoea. Still, from a practical point of view it doesn't matter. Doctors should take sleep problems as seriously as other risk factors and work with their patients on reducing and mitigating their overall risk."
Professor Kristen Knutson of Northwestern University, the senior co-author of the study, said:
"Diabetes alone was associated with a 67 per cent increased risk of mortality. However, the mortality for participants with diabetes combined with frequent sleep problems was increased to 87 per cent. In order words, it is particularly important for doctors treating people with diabetes to also investigate sleep disorders and consider treatments where appropriate."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/06/210608092300.htm
High caffeine consumption may be associated with increased risk of blinding eye disease
June 7, 2021
Science Daily/The Mount Sinai Hospital / Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Consuming large amounts of daily caffeine may increase the risk of glaucoma more than three-fold for those with a genetic predisposition to higher eye pressure according to an international, multi-center study. The research led by the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai is the first to demonstrate a dietary -- genetic interaction in glaucoma. The study results published in the June print issue of Ophthalmology may suggest patients with a strong family history of glaucoma should cut down on caffeine intake.
The study is important because glaucoma is the leading cause of blindness in the United States. It looks at the impact of caffeine intake on glaucoma, and intraocular pressure (IOP) which is pressure inside the eye. Elevated IOP is an integral risk factor for glaucoma, although other factors do contribute to this condition. With glaucoma, patients typically experience few or no symptoms until the disease progresses and they have vision loss.
"We previously published work suggesting that high caffeine intake increased the risk of the high-tension open angle glaucoma among people with a family history of disease. In this study we show that an adverse relation between high caffeine intake and glaucoma was evident only among those with the highest genetic risk score for elevated eye pressure," says lead/corresponding author Louis R. Pasquale, MD, FARVO, Deputy Chair for Ophthalmology Research for the Mount Sinai Health System.
A team of researchers used the UK Biobank, a large-scale population-based biomedical database supported by various health and governmental agencies. They analyzed records of more than 120,000 participants between 2006 and 2010. Participants were between 39 and 73 years old and provided their health records along with DNA samples, collected to generate data. They answered repeated dietary questionnaires focusing on how many caffeinated beverages they drink daily, how much caffeine-containing food they eat, the specific types, and portion size. They also answered questions about their vision, including specifics on if they have glaucoma or a family history of glaucoma. Three years into the study later they had their IOP checked and eye measurements.
Researchers first looked at the relationship looked between caffeine intake, IOP and self-reported glaucoma by running multivariable analyses. Then they assessed if accounting for genetic data modified these relationships. They assigned each subject an IOP genetic risk score and performed interaction analyses.
The investigators found high caffeine intake was not associated with increased risk for higher IOP or glaucoma overall; however, among participants with the strongest genetic predisposition to elevated IOP -- in the top 25 percentile -- greater caffeine consumption was associated with higher IOP and higher glaucoma prevalence. More specifically, those who consumed the highest amount of daily caffeine- more than 480 milligrams which is roughly four cups of coffee -- had a 0.35 mmHg higher IOP. Additionally, those in the highest genetic risk score category who consumed more than 321 milligrams of daily caffeine -- roughly three cups of coffee -- had a 3.9-fold higher glaucoma prevalence when compared to those who drink no or minimal caffeine and in lowest genetic risk score group.
"Glaucoma patients often ask if they can help to protect their sight through lifestyle changes, however this has been a relatively understudied area until now. This study suggested that those with the highest genetic risk for glaucoma may benefit from moderating their caffeine intake. It should be noted that the link between caffeine and glaucoma risk was only seen with a large amount of caffeine and in those with the highest genetic risk," says co-author Anthony Khawaja, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Ophthalmology University College London (UCL) Institute of Ophthalmology and ophthalmic surgeon at Moorfields Eye Hospital. "The UK Biobank study is helping us to learn more than ever before about how our genes affect our glaucoma risk and the role that our behaviors and environment could play. We look forward to continuing to expand our knowledge in this area."
National Eye Institute which is part of the National Institutes of Health, and New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai helped to fund this study.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/06/210607084601.htm
Defying body clock linked to depression and lower wellbeing
June 7, 2021
Science Daily/University of Exeter
People whose sleep pattern goes against their natural body clock are more likely to have depression and lower levels of wellbeing, according to a large-scale new study.
Research led by the University of Exeter, published in Molecular Psychiatry, also found the most robust evidence to date that being genetically programmed to be an early riser is protective against major depression, and improves wellbeing. Researchers suggest this may be because society is set up to be more aligned to early risers, through the standard 9-5 working pattern.
COVID-19 has led to more flexible working patterns and this research may help make the case for more adaptable working habits to suit individuals' needs.
The team built on previous research which mapped 351 genes linked to being an early riser, or a night owl. They used a statistical process called Mendelian Randomisation to examine whether these genes were causally associated with seven mental health and wellbeing outcomes, including major depression, using data on more than 450,000 UK adults from UK Biobank's biomedical database and research resource. As well as the genetic information, participants also completed a questionnaire on whether they were a morning person or an evening person.
The team also developed a new measure of "social jetlag" that measures the variation in sleep pattern between work and free days. They measured this in more than 85,000 UK Biobank participants for whom sleep data was available, via wrist-worn activity monitors. They found that people who were more misaligned from their natural body clock were more likely to report depression and anxiety and have lower wellbeing.
Lead author Jessica O'Loughlin, of the University of Exeter, said: "We found that people who were misaligned from their natural body clock were more likely to report depression, anxiety and have lower wellbeing. We also found the most robust evidence yet that being a morning person is protective of depression and improves wellbeing.
We think this could be explained by the fact that the demands of society mean night owls are more likely to defy their natural body clocks, by having to wake up early for work."
Overall, the research team found that morning people were more likely to be aligned to their natural body clock. They then tested the effect by looking at shift workers, and found that morningness may not be protective for depression in shift workers, meaning morning people who work shifts may not have improved mental health and wellbeing, however, this was inconclusive.
Senior author Dr Jessica Tyrrell, of the University of Exeter, said: "The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced a new flexibility in working patterns for many people. Our research indicates that aligning working schedules to an individual's natural body clock may improve mental health and wellbeing in night owls."
The study is entitled 'Using Mendelian Randomization methods to understand whether diurnal preference is causally related to mental health', and published in Molecular Psychiatry. The research is supported by the Academy of Medical Sciences. The study involved collaborators from King's College London, the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of Manchester and Monash University.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/06/210607202226.htm
How to relax your mind before going to sleep at night.
Guest Post contribution by:David Sheptovitsky, sleepacademy.org
Difficulty falling asleep at night is a common experience for many adults. After a long day of work and caring for your family, you might think falling asleep would be a breeze. This is not the case. Many adults find it difficult to sleep due to their minds running about what they need to accomplish the next day. Thoughts are racing and anxiety is heightened making it much more difficult to relax your mind and have a proper night's sleep. Rather than turning to sleeping pills or other unnatural means to help you fall asleep, focusing on calming your body and relaxing your mind can be the most beneficial way to fall asleep and stay asleep at night after a stressful day. Below are some strategies to help promote relaxation in the mind and body before bed.
Tips to keep in mind before attempting any relaxation strategies:
The ultimate goal of any relaxation strategies before you are going to bed is to lower your heart rate and blood pressure, as well as to enable slow, deep breathing. These factors create an increased sense of well-being. Any strategies you use to promote body and mind relaxation should all create those results.
While keeping those factors in mind, along with whatever relaxation strategies you choose to do, keeping a balanced sleeping schedule will also be beneficial in creating the best results for falling asleep faster. It is also important to keep in mind these relaxation strategies might take some practice before they are able to work in full effect. Ongoing practices of relaxation techniques are much more effective than short-term use. Lastly, It is important to be aware of what specific exercises work for you. Not all relaxation exercises may be effective for you. Only you know your body best and if you feel like one exercise just isn't cutting it, focusing on a new exercise to relax your mind may be more beneficial.
Relaxation Strategies:
Visualization Exercises:
A way of engaging in your body's natural relaxation process is visualization exercises. These exercises focus on using mental images to create a sense of well-being and promote a stress-free environment for sleeping.
Autogenic Training: Autogenic training hyper focuses on the heaviness and warmth of each part of your body. The overall idea of this training is to be able to calm different parts of your body at any time. Below are the steps of Autogenic Training:
- Start with a few minutes of controlled breathing
- After breathing, focus on a single part of your body. For example your hands. Then say back to yourself “ My hands are very heavy, I am completely calm”. Say this a few times.
- Then say, “ My hands are very warm, I am completely calm”. Repeat this a few times.
- Repeat this process as many times as you feel needed, and to as many body parts as you feel needed.
Body Scan: A body scan is a type of meditation that calms different parts of your body. The goal of this exercise is to be able to calm your body parts to promote a relaxed mind. Below are the steps of Body Scan:
- Start with a few minutes of controlled breathing
- Focus on a specific body part, for example, your hands. Notice if they hold any tension in your palms or fingers
- If there is any tension, visualize this tension leaving your hands and body. This can be through mental visualization or through controlled breathing
- Repeat this process as many times as you feel needed, and to as many body parts as you feel needed.
Breathing Exercises:
Controlled breathing is one of the body's most basic ways to engage in a state of relaxation. Overall, decreasing the speed of your breathing and focusing on the depths of your breaths can be beneficial in promoting a calm mind and body. These breathing exercises will help you create a stress-free environment that promotes a relaxed mind and body for a good night's rest.
4-7-8 Breathing: This exercise is an advanced breathing exercise. If you are not comfortable holding your breath, this exercise may not be great to promote a stress-free mind. The steps are below as follows:
- Place your tongue on the roof of your mouth, right behind your top, front teeth. Your tongue will remain here for the duration of the exercise
- Inhale through your nose for 4 seconds
- Hold your breath for 7 seconds
- Exhale through your mouth for 8 seconds
- Repeat as many times as needed
Diaphragmatic Breathing: This is a much simpler breathing exercise. This technique targets your belly, rather than lungs. This focuses on reducing stress while strengthening your diaphragm. The steps are below as follows:
- In a lying down position, place one hand on your chest and one hand on your belly, right below your rib cage.
- Breath in through your nose, and feel your belly push against your hand. You should try to keep the rest of your body as still as possible.
- While keeping your chest still, tighten your stomach muscles and exhale through your mouth.
- Repeat as many times as needed
Sleep should be a priority in your life. A good night’s sleep is essential to participate in your daily activities to the fullest of your ability. Trouble falling asleep at night is something commonly struggled with by adults. Stressful days can turn over into stressful, sleepless nights. These exercises above promote relaxation in both your mind and body. Keeping a stress-free mind and body can result in falling asleep quicker, as well as staying asleep longer. Try a few of the practices above and see which relaxation techniques work best for you.
“Relaxation Exercises to Help Fall Asleep.” Sleep Foundation, 18 Dec. 2020, www.sleepfoundation.org/sleep-hygiene/relaxation-exercises-to-help-fall-asleep.
Margarita Tartakovsky, M.S. “12 Ways to Shut Off Your Brain Before Bedtime.” Psych Central, Psych Central, 17 May 2016, psychcentral.com/lib/12-ways-to-shut-off-your-brain-before-bedtime#6.
10 Tips For New Moms
Guest post by: Dema Sawaqed
You have just given birth and are experiencing a mixture of excitement, pride, immense joy, and fatigue.
In short, nothing more normal.
And while you think you are, well, quiet at least for a few weeks, reality forces itself on you, sometimes a little abruptly.
To prepare yourself as much as possible and be calm, here are the 10 things to do after your pregnancy:
Let’s get started,
1. Express your feelings
As 50 to 80% of young mothers, pregnancy and childbirth may give way, for a few days (or just a few hours) to a baby blues.
Do not panic!
This is perfectly normal and should dissipate quickly.
But to deal with you as easily as possible, it is highly recommended to talk about it and especially not to keep it to yourself.
Share your thoughts with anyone you think can understand and help you deal with it. Like your health staff, partner, family member, or friend.
2. Postpartum consultation
We may think (and wish) that childbirth is the end of medical visits of all kinds, Nay!
Mothers should quickly think about the post-natal consultation (within six to eight weeks after birth).
3. Resumption of contraception
Even if this is not really our main concern during a stay in the maternity hospital, it should be considered if you do not want to immediately follow a second pregnancy.
You might as well take advantage of the presence of professionals to ask questions and choose your contraceptive method.
4. Learn to let go
This is one of the main keys to remaining calm and taking on your new role as a mom while ensuring the daily tasks.
The trick?
Do not hesitate to ask those around you!
5. Take care of your marital life to avoid the baby clash
Needless to say…
The arrival of a child within a couple changes things considerably!
The spouse suddenly becomes a parent, and the couple becomes a family, with the key to new situations to manage and new roles to assume.
It is thus common that the first months following a birth generate difficulties, even a real upheaval, which can go as far as separation.
To avoid this,
..take care of your marital life as soon as possible and as much as you can!
6. Think about yourself and have fun
… But we also think of ourselves!
Forgetting yourself by living only for your little one is not the best solution.
Allow yourself moments of pleasure just for yourself that you can be completely fulfilled.
And as known: Happy mom.. Happy baby!
7. Do some sports
Of course, we all want to find the line quickly after pregnancy.
Only here, things are not so simple, and each woman is different on this point.
Rule?
Wait for the post-natal consultation and the doctor's opinion, then take it easy if there are no contraindications.
Walking, swimming, cycling or yoga are recommended to start.
Jogging or tennis are to be avoided.
8. Anticipate returning to work
It is the best way of returning to an active life without too much stress.
Anticipating means finding a childcare arrangement and organizing future days according to work and transport schedules
...but also discussing with your employer to possibly adjust their schedules to help you take care of your little one.
9. Find childcare for your baby
Babysitter or childcare center?
In all cases, the choice of childcare must be anticipated from the time of pregnancy, to allow the baby and the mother to be confident and perfectly reassured.
10. Enjoy!
With all these things to do, we would almost forget the essential: enjoying your baby and every moment spent together!
Time flies by so fast..
Remember to enjoy your little one being so little as much as you can!
About
Dema JS is the founder of newbabysmell.com and a mother of two little kids.
Dema had her MBA from St. John’s University- NYC in dual concentrations: Executive Management and Marketing Management.
Contact: Please email dema@newbabysmell.com or go to newbabysmell.com
Early bird or night owl? Study links shift worker sleep to 'chronotype'
Sleep styles may hold the key to designing better work schedules
June 1, 2021
Science Daily/McGill University
Getting enough sleep can be a real challenge for shift workers affecting their overall health. But what role does being an early bird or night owl play in getting good rest? Researchers from McGill University find a link between chronotype and amount of sleep shift workers can get with their irregular schedules.
"Some people seem to be hardwired to sleep early, while others tend to sleep late. This preference, called chronotype, is modulated by our circadian system -- each person's unique internal timekeeper," says lead author Diane B. Boivin, a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at McGill University.
Their study published in Sleep is the first to examine the relationship between chronotype and sleep behaviour in shift workers during morning, evening, and night shifts. To investigate this relationship, the researchers tracked 74 police officers as they worked their usual shifts. For close to a month, the officers wore a watch-like device, allowing researchers to measure their sleep.
Not all shifts created equal
"Our results suggest that the effect of chronotype on sleep duration and napping behavior depends on the shift type. On average early risers sleep 1.1 hours longer on morning shifts, while night owls sleep two hours longer on evening shifts," says co-author Laura Kervezee, a former Postdoctoral Fellow at The Douglas Research Centre affiliated with McGill University.
The power of naps
While shift workers take naps to reduce the effect of their irregular schedules on their sleep, the researchers found this behaviour was more prominent during night shifts in early risers. Generally, early risers slept less after night shifts compared to night owls -- but they also took more naps prior to their night shifts, so their total daily sleep was similar.
The findings could help design strategies to improve sleep in workers with atypical schedules, the researchers say. Such strategies could include work schedules that consider chronobiological principles.
"People involved in shift work experience an increased risk of sleep disturbances and fragmented sleep periods. Since sleep is essential for optimal performance, health, and well-being, it's important to develop strategies to get better rest," says Boivin, who is also the Director of the Centre for Study and Treatment of Circadian Rhythms at The Douglas Research Centre.
As next steps, the researchers hope to study the impact of chronotype and shift work on other health outcomes.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/06/210601135727.htm
How to boost muscle regeneration and rebuild tissue
Muscle cells tissue illustration (stock image). Credit: © gen1607 / stock.adobe.com
Clues about molecular changes underlying muscle loss tied to aging
May 25, 2021
Science Daily/Salk Institute
One of the many effects of aging is loss of muscle mass, which contributes to disability in older people. To counter this loss, scientists at the Salk Institute are studying ways to accelerate the regeneration of muscle tissue, using a combination of molecular compounds that are commonly used in stem-cell research.
In a study published on May 25, 2021, in Nature Communications, the investigators showed that using these compounds increased the regeneration of muscle cells in mice by activating the precursors of muscle cells, called myogenic progenitors. Although more work is needed before this approach can be applied in humans, the research provides insight into the underlying mechanisms related to muscle regeneration and growth and could one day help athletes as well as aging adults regenerate tissue more effectively.
"Loss of these progenitors has been connected to age-related muscle degeneration," says Salk Professor Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, the paper's senior author. "Our study uncovers specific factors that are able to accelerate muscle regeneration, as well as revealing the mechanism by which this occurred."
The compounds used in the study are often called Yamanaka factors after the Japanese scientist who discovered them. Yamanaka factors are a combination of proteins (called transcription factors) that control how DNA is copied for translation into other proteins. In lab research, they are used to convert specialized cells, like skin cells, into more stem-cell-like cells that are pluripotent, which means they have the ability to become many different types of cells.
"Our laboratory previously showed that these factors can rejuvenate cells and promote tissue regeneration in live animals," says first author Chao Wang, a postdoctoral fellow in the Izpisua Belmonte lab. "But how this happens was not previously known."
Muscle regeneration is mediated by muscle stem cells, also called satellite cells. Satellite cells are located in a niche between a layer of connective tissue (basal lamina) and muscle fibers (myofibers). In this study, the team used two different mouse models to pinpoint the muscle stem-cell-specific or niche-specific changes following addition of Yamanaka factors. They focused on younger mice to study the effects of the factors independent of age.
In the myofiber-specific model, they found that adding the Yamanaka factors accelerated muscle regeneration in mice by reducing the levels of a protein called Wnt4 in the niche, which in turn activated the satellite cells. By contrast, in the satellite-cell-specific model, Yamanaka factors did not activate satellite cells and did not improve muscle regeneration, suggesting that Wnt4 plays a vital role in muscle regeneration.
According to Izpisua Belmonte, who holds the Roger Guillemin Chair, the observations from this study could eventually lead to new treatments by targeting Wnt4.
"Our laboratory has recently developed novel gene-editing technologies that could be used to accelerate muscle recovery after injury and improve muscle function," he says. "We could potentially use this technology to either directly reduce Wnt4 levels in skeletal muscle or to block the communication between Wnt4 and muscle stem cells."
The investigators are also studying other ways to rejuvenate cells, including using mRNA and genetic engineering. These techniques could eventually lead to new approaches to boost tissue and organ regeneration.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/05/210525113717.htm
Stair climbing offers significant cardiovascular and muscular benefits for heart patients
May 17, 2021
Science Daily/McMaster University
A team of McMaster University researchers who studied heart patients found that stair-climbing routines, whether vigorous or moderate, provide significant cardiovascular and muscular benefits.
The findings, published in closely related studies in the journals Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise and Frontiers, address the most frequently cited barriers to exercise: time, equipment and access to gym facilities.
"Brief, vigorous stair-climbing and traditional moderate intensity exercise both changed fitness, which is a key predictor of mortality after a cardiac event," says Maureen MacDonald, one of the lead researchers on both studies and a professor in McMaster's Department of Kinesiology.
"We've shown stair-climbing is a safe, efficient and feasible option for cardiac rehabilitation, which is particularly relevant during the pandemic when many people don't have the option to exercise in a gym," she says.
While it is widely known that exercise and lifestyle changes reduce the risk of secondary cardiovascular disease, statistics suggest less than a quarter of all cardiac patients adhere to fitness programs.
Researchers worked closely with the Cardiac Health and Rehabilitation Centre at the Hamilton General Hospital to develop an exercise protocol that did not require specialized equipment or monitoring and could be easily performed outside a laboratory.
Participants with coronary artery disease who had undergone a cardiac procedure were randomly assigned either to traditional moderate-intensity exercise or vigorous stair climbing: three rounds of six flights of 12 stairs, separated by recovery periods of walking, with participants selecting their own stepping pace.
Researchers compared the results and found that individuals who had done traditional exercise and those who had done stair-climbing both increased their cardiorespiratory fitness after four weeks of supervised training and maintained those levels for an additional eight weeks of unsupervised training.
They also reported substantial muscular improvement.
"These patients who had undergone a coronary bypass or stent procedure had muscle that was compromised, compared to age-matched healthy controls," explained Stuart Phillips, a co-author of the studies and a professor in the Department of Kinesiology at McMaster who oversaw the analysis of muscle tissue taken during the study.
Previously, there had been very few studies of the impact of exercise on cardiac patients' muscle specifically. This analysis shows heart patients can still repair and build lost muscle.
"Even in just a short period, whether it was moderate intensity, continuous training or high-intensity stair climbing, there were beneficial adaptations in muscles after a cardiac procedure," Phillips says. "The improvements were clear."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/05/210517102635.htm
Scientists identify mechanism linking traumatic brain injury to neurodegenerative disease
June 1, 2021
Science Daily/eLife
Scientists have revealed a potential mechanism for how traumatic brain injury leads to neurodegenerative diseases, according to a study in fruit flies, and rat and human brain tissue, published today in eLife.
The results could aid the development of treatments that halt the progression of cell damage after brain injury, which can otherwise lead to neurological diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.
Repeated head trauma is linked to a progressive neurodegenerative syndrome called chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Postmortem tissues from patients with CTE show dysfunctional levels of a molecule called TDP-43, which is also found in ALS, Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia.
"Although TDP-43 is a known indicator of neurodegeneration, it was not clear how repeated trauma promotes the build-up of TDP-43 in the brain," explains first author Eric Anderson, Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US. "We have shown that repetitive brain trauma in fruit flies leads to a build-up of TDP-43. In this study we measured the changes of proteins in the fruit fly brain post injury to identify the molecular pathways that cause this."
From an analysis of 2,000 proteins, the team identified 361 that significantly changed in response to injury. These included components of the nuclear pore complex (NPC) involved in nucleocytoplasmic transport -- the shuttling of important cargoes between the cell nucleus and the rest of the cell.
They found that a family of molecules that make up the NPC called nucleoporins (Nups) were increased in both larval and adult flies after injury. When they looked at the distribution pattern of Nups around the edge of the nucleus in fruit fly nerve cord cells, they found it was altered after brain trauma: there were gaps in the nuclear membrane and clumps of Nups. They also found changes in a key enzyme involved in transporting molecules in and out of the nucleus in injured brains. As a result, the transport of fluorescently labelled cargo in and out of the nucleus was impaired.
Having established that brain injury impairs the transport machinery between the nucleus and the rest of the cell, the team looked at whether the build-up of Nups leads to the aggregation of TDP-43 seen in neurodegenerative diseases. They created fruit flies that produce excess Nup protein and then stained the brain cells for the fruit fly version of TDP-43, called Tbph. They found a significant increase in the number of Tbph deposits in brains that had too much Nup compared with normal brains. Moreover, these high levels of Nups were also toxic to the flies, causing decreased motor function and reducing the distance they could climb in a certain timeframe. When the level of Nups was reduced in cells after injury, this improved the flies' climbing ability and lifespan, highlighting an avenue to explore for new treatments.
Finally, the team looked at whether the increased build-up of a Nup molecule (Nup62) was also seen in human brain tissue after injury. They examined postmortem brain tissue from patients with mild and severe CTE matched to healthy tissue from people of the same age. All mild and severe patients were involved in sports, while healthier cases were not. They found that Nup62 was present in large amounts in the wrong place in patients with mild and severe disease, but not in the healthy group, and the degree of Nup62 aggregation increased with the severity of disease. They also saw similar changes in the distribution of Nup62 in a rat model of traumatic brain injury.
"Our study reveals that traumatic brain injury can disrupt nuclear transport machinery of the cells, which plays an essential role in normal cell functions such as communication," concludes senior author Udai Pandey, associate professor of pediatrics, human genetics and neurology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. "This suggests that the accumulation of neurodegenerative hallmark proteins caused by injury begins with these nuclear transport defects, and that targeting these defects could be a strategy for preventing trauma-induced neurological disorders."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/06/210601135830.htm
Gut to brain: Nerve cells detect what we eat
June 2, 2021
Science Daily/Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
The gut and the brain communicate with each other in order to adapt satiety and blood sugar levels during food consumption. The vagus nerve is an important communicator between these two organs. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research in Cologne, the Cluster of Excellence for Ageing Research CECAD at the University of Cologne and the University Hospital Cologne now took a closer look at the functions of the different nerve cells in the control centre of the vagus nerve, and discovered something very surprising: although the nerve cells are located in the same control center, they innervate different regions of the gut and also differentially control satiety and blood sugar levels. This discovery could play an important role in the development of future therapeutic strategies against obesity and diabetes.
When we consume food, information about the ingested food is transmitted from the gastrointestinal tract to the brain in order to adapt feelings of hunger and satiety. Based on this information, the brain decides, for example, whether we continue or stop eating. In addition, our blood sugar level are adapted by the brain. The vagus nerve, which extends from the brain all the way down to the gastrointestinal tract, plays an essential role in this communication. In the control center of the vagus nerve, the so-called nodose ganglion, various nerve cells are situated, some of which innervate the stomach while others innervate the intestine. Some of these nerve cells detect mechanical stimuli in the different organs, such as stomach stretch during feeding, while others detect chemical signals, such as nutrients from the food that we consume. But what roles these different nerve cells play in transmitting information from the gut to the brain, and how their activity contributes to adaptations of feeding behavior and blood sugar levels had remained largely unclear.
"To investigate the function of the nerve cells in the nodose ganglion, we developed a genetic approach that enables us to visualize the different nerve cells and manipulate their activity in mice. This allowed us to analyze which nerve cells innervate which organ, pointing to what kind of signals they detect in the gut," says study leader Henning Fenselau. "It also allowed us to specifically switch on and off the different types of nerve cells to analyze their precise function."
Different food activates different nerve cells
In their studies, the researchers focused primarily on two types of nerve cells of the nodose ganglion, which is just one millimeter in size. "One of these cell types detects stomach stretch, and activation of these nerve cells causes mice to eat significantly less," Fenselau explains. "We identified that activity of these nerve cells is key for transmitting appetite-inhibiting signals to the brain and also decreasing blood sugar levels." The second group of nerve cells primarily innervates the intestine. "This group of nerve cells senses chemical signals from our food. However, their activity is not necessary for feeding regulation. Instead, activation of these cells increases our blood sugar level," says Fenselau. Thus, these two types of nerve cells in the control center of the vagus nerve fulfil very different functions.
"The reaction of our brain during food consumption is probably an interplay of these two nerve cell types," Fenselau explains. "Food with a lot of volume stretches our stomach, and activates the nerve cell types innervating this organ. At a certain point, their activation promotes satiety and hence halts further food intake, and at the same time coordinates the adaptations of blood sugar levels. Food with a high nutrient density tends to activate the nerve cells in the intestine. Their activation increases blood glucose levels by coordinating the release of the body's own glucose, but they do not halt further food intake." The discovery of the different functions of these two types of nerve cells could play a crucial role in developing new therapeutic strategies against obesity and diabetes.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/06/210602130330.htm
People who eat a healthy diet including whole fruits may be less likely to develop diabetes
Research links fruit but not fruit juice to lower type 2 diabetes risk
June 2, 2021
Science Daily/The Endocrine Society
A new study finds people who consume two servings of fruit per day have 36 percent lower odds of developing type 2 diabetes than those who consume less than half a serving. The research was published in the Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.
Diabetes is a disease where people have too much sugar in their bloodstream, and it is a huge public health burden. Approximately 463 million adults worldwide were living with diabetes in 2019, and by 2045 this number is expected to rise to 700 million. An estimated 374 million people are at increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease. A healthy diet and lifestyle can play a major role in lowering a person's diabetes risk.
"We found people who consumed around 2 servings of fruit per day had a 36 percent lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes over the next five years than those who consumed less than half a serving of fruit per day," said study author Nicola Bondonno, Ph.D., of Edith Cowan University's Institute for Nutrition Research in Perth, Australia. "We did not see the same patterns for fruit juice. These findings indicate that a healthy diet and lifestyle which includes the consumption of whole fruits is a great strategy to lower your diabetes risk."
The researchers studied data from 7,675 participants from the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute's Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle Study who provided information on their fruit and fruit juice intake through a food frequency questionnaire. They found participants who ate more whole fruits had 36 percent lower odds of having diabetes at five years. The researchers found an association between fruit intake and markers of insulin sensitivity, meaning that people who consumed more fruit had to produce less insulin to lower their blood glucose levels.
"This is important because high levels of circulating insulin (hyperinsulinemia) can damage blood vessels and are related not only to diabetes, but also to high blood pressure, obesity and heart disease," Bondonno said.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/06/210602091404.htm
Western diet may increase risk of gut inflammation, infection
Diet rich in sugar, fat damages immune cells in digestive tracts of mice
May 18, 2021
Science Daily/Washington University School of Medicine
Eating a Western diet impairs the immune system in the gut in ways that could increase risk of infection and inflammatory bowel disease, according to a study from researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Cleveland Clinic.
The study, in mice and people, showed that a diet high in sugar and fat causes damage to Paneth cells, immune cells in the gut that help keep inflammation in check. When Paneth cells aren't functioning properly, the gut immune system is excessively prone to inflammation, putting people at risk of inflammatory bowel disease and undermining effective control of disease-causing microbes. The findings, published May 18 in Cell Host & Microbe, open up new approaches to regulating gut immunity by restoring normal Paneth cell function.
"Inflammatory bowel disease has historically been a problem primarily in Western countries such as the U.S., but it's becoming more common globally as more and more people adopt Western lifestyles," said lead author Ta-Chiang Liu, MD, PhD, an associate professor of pathology & immunology at Washington University. "Our research showed that long-term consumption of a Western-style diet high in fat and sugar impairs the function of immune cells in the gut in ways that could promote inflammatory bowel disease or increase the risk of intestinal infections."
Paneth cell impairment is a key feature of inflammatory bowel disease. For example, people with Crohn's disease, a kind of inflammatory bowel disease characterized by abdominal pain, diarrhea, anemia and fatigue, often have Paneth cells that have stopped working.
Liu and senior author Thaddeus Stappenbeck, MD, PhD, chair of the Department of Inflammation and Immunity at Cleveland Clinic, set out to find the cause of Paneth cell dysfunction in people. They analyzed a database containing demographic and clinical data on 400 people, including an assessment of each person's Paneth cells. The researchers found that high body mass index (BMI) was associated with Paneth cells that looked abnormal and unhealthy under a microscope. The higher a person's BMI, the worse his or her Paneth cells looked. The association held for healthy adults and people with Crohn's disease.
To better understand this connection, the researchers studied two strains of mice that are genetically predisposed to obesity. Such mice chronically overeat because they carry mutations that prevent them from feeling full even when fed a regular diet. To the researchers' surprise, the obese mice had Paneth cells that looked normal.
In people, obesity is frequently the result of eating a diet rich in fat and sugar. So the scientists fed normal mice a diet in which 40% of the calories came from fat or sugar, similar to the typical Western diet. After two months on this chow, the mice had become obese and their Paneth cells looked decidedly abnormal.
"Obesity wasn't the problem per se," Liu said. "Eating too much of a healthy diet didn't affect the Paneth cells. It was the high-fat, high-sugar diet that was the problem."
The Paneth cells returned to normal when the mice were put back on a healthy mouse diet for four weeks. Whether people who habitually eat a Western diet can improve their gut immunity by changing their diet remains to be seen, Liu said.
"This was a short-term experiment, just eight weeks," Liu said. "In people, obesity doesn't occur overnight or even in eight weeks. People have a suboptimal lifestyle for 20, 30 years before they become obese. It's possible that if you have Western diet for so long, you cross a point of no return and your Paneth cells don't recover even if you change your diet. We'd need to do more research before we can say whether this process is reversible in people."
Further experiments showed that a molecule known as deoxycholic acid, a secondary bile acid formed as a byproduct of the metabolism of gut bacteria, forms the link between a Western diet and Paneth cell dysfunction. The bile acid increases the activity of two immune molecules -- farnesoid X receptor and type 1 interferon -- that inhibit Paneth cell function.
Liu and colleagues now are investigating whether fat or sugar plays the primary role in impairing Paneth cells. They also have begun studying ways to restore normal Paneth cell function and improve gut immunity by targeting the bile acid or the two immune molecules.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/05/210518114235.htm
It's never too early to begin healthy eating habits
New randomized trial shows promoting healthy guidelines result
June 1, 2021
Science Daily/Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health
Researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and Universidade Federal de Ciências da Saúde de Porto Alegre, Brazil found that when health workers were trained to promote infant healthy feeding practices to pregnant women their children consumed less fats and carbohydrates at 3 years of age and had lower measures of body fat at the age of 6. The study is the first to show that the roots for obesity start in the first year of life, after mothers stop breastfeeding. The findings are published online in the Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics.
"The first year after birth is a critical window for the establishment of habits that will influence health patterns throughout one's lifetime, said Caroline N. Sangalli, in the Graduate Program in Health Sciences, Universidade Federal de Ciências da Saúde de Porto Alegre, Brazil, and first author. "The message worldwide is that to avoid obesity later in life you cannot start too early to help mothers feed their children well. And this study is proof of principle that it is possible to change a mother's behavior."
"Most surprising was that the mothers in our randomized trial offered ultra-processed foods, that are high in sugar and fat, as early as 6 months of age," said Ma?rcia Vitolo, Graduate Program in Pediatrics: Child and Adolescent Health Care, Universidade Federal de Ciências da Saúde de Porto Alegre, Brazil, and co-senior author. "This behavior can be explained by cultural influences and strong marketing of processed baby foods which continues globally."
The researchers conducted the randomized trial in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in 31 centers that provide prenatal, infant, and other primary care services to low-income families. The intervention was based on births from May 2008 to February 2009 and consisted of a training program to increase the knowledge of primary healthcare workers centered on the 'Ten Steps for Healthy Feeding for Brazilian Children from Birth to Two Years of Age', the Brazilian dietary guideline.
All families were informed about complementary foods that should not be offered to children under 2 years of age (i.e., cookies, snacks, soft drinks and sweets) through posters in waiting rooms. Trained interviewers measured children's growth and other outcomes at ages 6 months, 12 months, 3 years and 6 years at subsequent home visits. Details about food types, amounts and preparation methods were also recorded.
Energy intake at all ages was lower in the intervention group compared to the control group with a statistically significant difference at age 3 years. Also, children from the intervention group at 3 years of age had lower consumption of carbohydrates and total fat than the control group and at 6 years of age had accumulated less body fat as measured by a smaller waist circumference and thinner skinfolds. "We found that the energy intake in both study groups was above the requirement across all age waves; however, the excess energy intake was less in the intervention group," observed Sangalli, who analyzed the study results with Dr. L.H. Lumey at Columbia Mailman School of Public Health with a grant from the Brazil government. "Although the disparity was slight at the onset, in the long term, the reduced intake of 92 kcal per day adds up to 33,000 kcal per year, and changes of this magnitude could explain changes in weight gain during childhood."
The findings were particularly striking with regard to calories from cookies and powder chocolate, important sources of carbohydrates and fats. During the health workers training, sugar, sweets, soft drinks, salty snacks, cookies and ultra-processed foods were emphasized as foods for mothers to avoid for their babies until 2 years of age.
The intervention group at 6 years of age had lower body fat on several measures but this difference was not reflected in BMI-scores, a less sensitive measure of adiposity. "However with the prevalence of overweight in the intervention group at 7 percent lower than the control group at 6 years, this does suggest a valuable public health impact -- especially since estimates indicate that the reduction in 1 percent of obesity prevalence among children up to age 6 years would save $1.7 billion in medical costs," said Vitolo.
"Many individuals including Alice Waters, Jamie Oliver, and Michelle Obama have devoted efforts to improve school lunches and eating habits of school age children to aid in the fight against obesity," said Dr. Lumey, professor of Epidemiology and a co-senior author. "All these efforts are to be applauded and encouraged. What this study suggests is that we might have to think even earlier. Feeding practices early in life can already have a significant impact on the body size of pre-school children."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/06/210601135806.htm
Kids who sleep with their pet still get a good night's rest
Study upends common beliefs about sharing the bed with four-legged friends
June 2, 2021
Science Daily/Concordia University
There is a long-held belief that having your pet sleep on the bed is a bad idea. Aside from taking up space, noisy scratching, or triggering allergies, the most common assertion averred that your furry companion would disrupt your sleep.
A new study published in the journal Sleep Health tells a different story. Researchers at Concordia's Pediatric Public Health Psychology Lab (PPHP) found that the sleep quality of the surprisingly high number of children who share a bed with their pets is indistinguishable from those who sleep alone.
"Sleeping with your pet does not appear to be disruptive," says the paper's lead author, PhD student Hillary Rowe. "In fact, children who frequently slept with their pet endorsed having higher sleep quality."
Rowe co-wrote the paper with fellow PPHP researchers Denise Jarrin, Neressa Noel, Joanne Ramil and Jennifer McGrath, professor of psychology and the laboratory's director.
Serendipitous findings
The data the researchers used was found amid the findings of the larger Healthy Heart Project, a longitudinal study funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, which explores the links between childhood stress, sleep and circadian timing.
Children and parents answered questionnaires about bedtime routines and sleep hygiene: keeping a consistent bedtime, having a relaxing pre-sleep routine and sleeping in a quiet comfortable space. For two weeks, children wore wearables (wrist actigraphy) and filled out daily logs to track their sleep. Children were also fitted with a specialized home polysomnography device for one night to allow the researchers to record their brain waves (EEG signals) while they were sleeping.
"One of the sleep hygiene questions asked if they shared their bed with a pet," McGrath says. "We were startled to find that one in three children answered yes!"
Following this discovery, they looked to see what the existing literature said about the subject of bed-sharing with animals. They found a few studies with adults, but almost nothing with youth.
"Co-sleeping with a pet is something many children are doing, and we don't know how it influences their sleep," Rowe adds. "So, from a sleep science perspective, we felt this was something important we should look into."
Shining a better light on sleep measurement
The researchers categorized the children into one of three groups based on how often they sleep with their pet: never, sometimes or frequent. They then compared the three groups across a diverse range of sleep variables to see if there were any significant differences between them.
"Given the larger goals of the Healthy Heart Project, we were able to not only look at bedtimes and amount of time sleeping (duration), but also how long it took to fall asleep (latency), nighttime awakenings (disruptions) and sleep quality," McGrath says. They found that the three groups were generally similar across all sleep dimensions.
"The findings suggest that the presence of a pet had no negative impact on sleep," Rowe notes. "Indeed, we found that children who slept with their pets most often reported higher perceived sleep quality, especially among adolescents."
She hypothesizes that the children are more likely to consider pets as their friends and derive comfort from sleeping with them.
"These findings also sharpen our thinking about how to improve technology to measure sleep," McGrath adds.
"Many wearables like Apple Watch and Fitbit or even smartphones themselves have accelerometers that detect movement to decode one's sleep. Given the number of people who share their bed with their partner, or their pet, it may be sensible to develop a setting for co-sleeping to tweak the algorithm used to define sleep intrusions or awakenings, which would make for a much more accurate sleep assessment."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/06/210602153334.htm