Study reveals fourfold range in rates of mental health problems among US children based on relational and social risks

January 25, 2022

Science Daily/Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health

The analysis, based on 2016-2019 data survey responses covering nearly 132,000 children ages 3 to 17, examined the complex interplay between common mental health problems among children, social and relational health risks, and protective factors.

A large multi-year study based on 2016-2019 data found that children facing relational and social risks are more likely to have mental, emotional, or behavioral health problems, but the negative impact of these problems on child resilience, self-regulation and school engagement can be offset by protective factors such as strong caretaker-child connection and family resilience.

The study, led by researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, also found that children who were facing relational risks only, such as substance abuse among family members, were more likely to have mental, emotional, or behavioral concerns than those who were only facing social risks, such as economic hardship.

The findings are published as the U.S. and other countries face a crisis in children's mental health exacerbated by the pandemic. The study appears online in the January 2022 issue of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America.

The study found that, overall, 21.8 percent of U.S. children ages 3 to 17 have one or more of the common mental, emotional, and behavioral health conditions assessed. The prevalence of mental health problems across U.S. children ranged from about 15 to 60 percent, increasing with the type (social, relational, or both) and number of these risks that children had been exposed to.

The analysis, based on survey responses covering nearly 132,000 children ages 3 to 17, examined the complex interplay between common mental health problems among children, social and relational health risks, and protective factors.

"If we treat children with mental, emotional, and behavioral problems without individually and collectively addressing social and relational health risks, or even assessing them, which is often the case, we are missing some of the biggest factors driving the mental and emotional suffering of our children," says study leader Christina Bethell, PhD, MPH, MBA, professor in the Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health and director of the Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative at the Bloomberg School.

Research suggests that both social and relational health risks contribute to mental, emotional, and behavioral health problems in children. Much prior research has focused on individual social and relational health risks. The new study investigated both the individual and combined effects of these factors on U.S. children.

For their analysis, Bethell and her colleagues gathered data from the National Survey of Children's Health, an annual survey led by the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration's Maternal and Child Health Bureau in collaboration with the U.S. Bureau of the Census. The survey, administered to thousands of parents and caregivers each year, provides data on multiple, intersecting aspects of children's lives -- including physical and mental health, access to quality health care, and the child's family, neighborhood, school, and social context.

The study found that over two-thirds of children with mental health conditions experienced at least one of the eight evidence-based social or relational health risk factors examined in the analysis compared to about half of children without mental health conditions.

Factors examined included economic hardship, food insecurity, unsafe neighborhood, racial discrimination, multiple Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) like substance abuse or domestic violence, poor caregiver mental health, and low levels of caregiver coping or high aggravation with their child.

Relational -- versus social health risks -- were both more prevalent among children with mental health problems and had a stronger association with these conditions. Nearly one-third of children with mental health problems experienced both types of risks.

A key focus of the study was on identifying opportunities to promote positive outcomes among children with mental, emotional, and behavioral conditions who also experience social and relational health risks, with a focus on their engagement in school and building their own resilience, assessed as the ability to regulate emotions and behavior when facing challenges.

Researchers found that the chances a child was engaged in school were 77 percent less if they lacked self-regulation. Offering hope, the chances a child with mental health problems demonstrated good self-regulation -- a key component of resilience -- were 5.73 times greater when children also experienced stronger parent-child connection. These odds were over 2.25 times greater when their family reported staying hopeful and could identify strengths to draw on during difficult times. Findings were consistent across all levels of social and relational health risks.

Bethell notes that both parent-child connection and family resilience are learned behaviors that can be strengthened through supports to families and skills building. Bethell notes that the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend promoting these factors during routine well-child check-ups, through schools, in mental health treatment, and in the community at large.

"There is a mental, emotional, and behavioral health crisis for children in our country, but most children with these conditions have risk factors that we can identify and do something about," says study co-author Tamar Mendelson, PhD, MA, a Bloomberg Professor of American Health in the Bloomberg School's Department of Mental Health. "Ultimately, we need to address the structural and systemic issues that threaten young people's well-being; at the same time, there is a lot we can be doing to decrease risk factors for families."

This study was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/01/220125112533.htm

Living environment affects child’s weight development from birth to school age

January 24, 2022

Science Daily/University of Turku

A new study shows that living in a neighbourhood socioeconomic disadvantage is a risk factor for adverse weight development in children under school age. Researchers studied the connection between neighbourhoods' socioeconomic status and children's weight development from data covering over 11,000 Finnish children.

A new study conducted at the University of Turku, Finland, examined the association between the neighbourhood socioeconomic disadvantage and the development of children's body mass index and the risk of overweight from birth to school age. The children's growth data was acquired from a national register of well-baby clinics.

Information on the socioeconomic status of the neighbourhood was linked to the participants with address coordinates using the national grid database of Statistics Finland. The database contains information that is based on all Finnish residents on social and economic characteristics at the level of 250 m x 250 m grids.

- The socioeconomic status of the neighbourhood was measured with education level, household income, and unemployment rate. The results were independent of the education level, economic situation, marital status and health of the children's parents, says lead author, Docent Hanna Lagström from the Department of Public Health of the University of Turku.

Living in a less prosperous neighbourhood posed a major risk for children to develop overweight by school age in the population-based data, even when the researchers considered factors that can increase the risk of overweight in childhood. These included e.g. mother's type 2 diabetes, mother's smoking, and child's high birth weight. In neighbourhoods with a higher socioeconomic status, children weighted more at birth, but their weight development stabilised already by the age of four.

- This could implicate that neighbourhoods can offer very different types of development environments for children, and that the risk of overweight grows before school age in neighbourhoods with lower socio-economic status. The results of our research are an important factor to take into consideration in e.g. city planning to ensure that inequality is stopped right from the childhood, says Lagström.

The study is based on 2008-2010 data from the Southwest Finland Birth Cohort (SFBC). The Birth Cohort consists of all children born in the Hospital District of Southwest Finland during those three years. In this study, the participants consisted of the first children born to the mothers during this this time.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/01/220124103906.htm

Students with attention problems more likely to cheat

Many don’t get ADHD diagnosis that could lead to help

January 18, 2022

Science Daily/Ohio State University

High school students who have trouble paying attention in class are more likely to admit to cheating, a new study shows.

Researchers found that inattention led to hyperactivity in the students, and both together contributed to higher levels of cheating.

The issue is important because many students with attention problems don't get an official diagnosis, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, said Eric Anderman, lead author of the study and professor of educational psychology at The Ohio State University.

"Students diagnosed with ADHD get a lot of support and help in school, but many other kids with attention problems fall through the cracks," Anderman said.

"They don't get the help they need that could help them do better in school and avoid cheating."

Anderman conducted the study with Richard Gilman of Terrace Metrics and Xingfeiyue Liu, a doctoral student, and Seung Yon Ha, a postdoctoral scholar, both in education at Ohio State. Their results were published recently in the journal Psychology in the Schools.

The researchers studied 855 adolescents from three midwestern public schools, two suburban and one rural. Data was collected twice from the students, about one year apart.

The students completed a standardized measure of inattention that asked them to rate how much they felt they had trouble paying attention to their teacher, how forgetful they were, whether they had a short attention span, and similar questions.

Students' hyperactivity was rated by their responses to questions like whether they had trouble sitting still and whether they talked over other people.

To evaluate cheating, students rated how true it would be to say they used cheat sheets when they took tests, copied answers from other students, and similar statements.

The results showed that students with higher levels of inattention reported higher levels of hyperactivity, and students who were more hyperactive reported a higher rate of cheating.

Hyperactivity by itself was not linked to more cheating.

"Inattention is the driver here, the issue that leads to problems in the classroom," Anderman said.

"The student is not paying attention, so he gets out of his seat and goofs around, and when you put both together, that is a perfect setup for more cheating."

The study took into account a wide variety of other factors that have been linked to cheating, including depression, learning disabilities, gender, ethnicity, grade point average and whether students qualified for special education services -- and inattention still was related to cheating.

In addition, the researchers also examined how disruptive students were in class, based on reports from their peers. That didn't influence cheating.

"Once you account for inattentiveness and hyperactivity, we found that disruptiveness wasn't related to cheating. That is not what is driving cheating behaviors," Anderman said.

Generally accepted rates of ADHD are between 7-9% of students aged 17 and younger. Studies suggest, however, that up to three times as many students have problems with attention or hyperactivity, but either don't meet the criteria for the ADHD diagnosis or have never been evaluated.

That doesn't mean they don't need help, Anderman said.

"There are so many evidence-based programs that can help these students who have problems with attention learn to self-regulate, to learn how to be a learner," Anderman said.

"If they had access to these programs, they could learn in class and they wouldn't have to cheat. And these students are not learning partially because of attention issues they can't help."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/01/220118145949.htm

How much do students learn when they double the speed of their class videos?

More than you might think, new psychology study finds

January 11, 2022

Science Daily/University of California - Los Angeles

Recorded lectures have become a routine part of course instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic, and college students often try to pack more learning into a shorter span by watching these recordings at double their normal speed or even faster. But does comprehension suffer as a result?

Surprisingly, no -- up to a point. A new UCLA study shows that students retain information quite well when watching lectures at up to twice their actual speed. But once they exceed that limit, things begin to get a little blurry, said Alan Castel, the study's senior author and a UCLA professor of psychology.

With 85% of UCLA students surveyed as part of the study reporting they "speed-watched" lecture videos, the researchers engaged students in a series of experiments to test how faster speeds affected learning and knowledge retention.

Building Rome in less than 15 minutes

In one experiment, the researchers divided 231 UCLA undergraduates into four groups and had them watch two 13-to-15-minute lecture videos -- one on the Roman Empire and another on real estate appraisals. One group watched at normal speed, one at 1.5 times normal speed, another at double speed and the final group at 2.5 times normal speed. They were instructed not to pause the videos or take notes.

Immediately after the viewings, they were given comprehension tests on the individual videos, each comprising 20 multiple-choice and true-or-false questions. The normal-speed group averaged 26 correct answers out of 40, while the double-time group scored 25 (about the same as the 1.5-speed group). The 2.5-speed group didn't do as well, answering only about 22 questions correctly.

A week later, the same groups were given different tests related to the two videos to assess what they'd retained. The normal-speed group averaged 24 out of 40, the 1.5-speed and double-speed group averaged 21, and 2.5-speed students averaged 20.

"Surprisingly, video speed had little effect on both immediate and delayed comprehension until learners exceeded twice the normal speed," said lead author Dillon Murphy, a doctoral student in psychology at UCLA.

In other experiments, the researchers tested various combinations of speed-watching and normal-speed viewing of the two videos. Among the results:

• Twice at double speed vs. once at normal speed
  
  

One group of students watched the videos at double speed twice in succession and another watched them just once at normal speed. Both groups answered an average of 25 of the 40 questions correctly immediately following their viewings.

In a related experiment, one group watched the videos once at normal speed while another viewed them initially at double speed, then a week later at double speed again. When tested a week after the first group watched the videos (and shortly after the second group viewed the videos a second time), the speed-watchers performed better, averaging 24 out of 40, versus 22 for the one-time, normal-speed group.

• Switching speeds

A group that watched the videos at normal speed, then at double speed, scored slightly better immediately after their viewings than a group that watched at double speed, then normal speed -- 26 vs. 24, a difference Murphy said was not statistically significant. When two other testing groups followed the same viewing procedure and were quizzed a week after watching, they both scored 25.

People generally speak at a rate of about 150 words per minute, and previous research has shown that comprehension begins to decline as speech approaches double speed -- about 275 words per minute, Castel noted.

He and Murphy said they were surprised and impressed that students could learn, and retain knowledge, at some of the faster speeds.

"College students can save time and learn more efficiently by watching pre-recorded lectures at faster speeds if they use the time saved for additional studying, but they shouldn't exceed double the normal playback speed," Murphy said. "While our study didn't reveal significant drawbacks to watching lecture videos at up to double the normal speed, we caution against using this strategy to simply save time. Students can enhance learning if they spend the time saved on activities such as reviewing flashcards or taking practice tests."

The strategy of speeding up videos may not be effective with especially complex or difficult course material, the researchers noted.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/01/220111153637.htm

Teens not getting enough sleep may consume 4.5 extra pounds of sugar during a school year

January 7, 2022

Science Daily/Brigham Young University

Sleep is vital for all people but is particularly important for teenagers as their bodies undergo significant development during their formative years. Unfortunately, most teens aren't getting enough sleep. Data from the American Academy of Pediatrics found that 73% of high school students are getting less than the recommended eight to ten hours of sleep each night.

Prior research has linked lack of sleep to increased risk for poor mental health, poor academic performance, and behavioral problems. But new research from BYU conducted at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center says insufficient sleep also increases the risk of weight gain and other cardiometabolic diseases among teenagers because teens have worse dietary habits when they sleep less.

"Shortened sleep increases the risk for teens to eat more carbs and added sugars and drink more sugar-sweetened beverages than when they are getting a healthy amount of sleep," said Dr. Kara Duraccio, BYU clinical and developmental psychology professor and lead author of the study.

This research, which was recently published in the medical journal SLEEP, analyzed the sleeping and eating patterns of 93 teenagers during two sleep conditions: spending six and a half hours each night in bed for one week (short sleep) and spending nine and a half hours each night in bed for another week (healthy sleep). Researchers measured the caloric intake, macronutrient content, food types, and the glycemic load of foods eaten by teens.

The results found that teenagers undergoing short sleep consumed more foods that were likely to spike blood sugar fast -- things like foods high in carbs and added sugar, or sugary drinks, compared to when they were in healthy sleep. These changes largely occurred in the late evening (after 9:00 pm). Teens getting short sleep also ate fewer fruits and vegetables across the entire day, compared to healthy sleep.

"What's interesting is that getting less sleep didn't cause teens to eat more than their peers getting healthy sleep; both groups consumed roughly the same amounts of calories of food. But getting less sleep caused teens to eat more junk," said Duraccio. "We suspect that tired teens are looking for quick bursts of energy to keep them going until they can go to bed, so they're seeking out foods that are high in carbs and added sugars."

The research found that teens in short sleep consumed 12 extra grams of sugar each day. With most teenagers not getting sufficient sleep during the 180 nights of a school year, an extra 12 grams of added sugar each day could result in over 4.5 pounds of extra sugar each year.

"We know that pediatric obesity is an epidemic, and we've focused on a lot of interventions to try and address it, but sleep is not one of the things that researchers tend to focus on," said Duraccio. "If we are really trying to discover preventative strategies or interventions to increase optimal weight in teens, getting enough and well-timed sleep should be at the forefront of our efforts."

Duraccio admits that it's difficult for teenagers to maintain a healthy sleeping schedule; teens are busy with rigorous academic schedules and a slew of extracurricular activities. Compound this with early start times for school and the result is short and ill-timed sleeping patterns that become a habit.

"It's human nature to think that when we have a long to-do list, sleep should be the first thing to go or the easiest thing to cut out," she said. "We don't recognize that getting enough sleep helps you accomplish your to-do list better. Sleep health should be incorporated into all prevention and intervention modules for child obesity."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/01/220107084431.htm

School closures led to more sleep and better quality of life for adolescents

January 5, 2022

Science Daily/University of Zurich

The school closures in spring 2020 had a negative effect on the health and well-being of many young people. But homeschooling also had a positive flipside: Thanks to sleeping longer in the morning, many teenagers reported improved health and health-related quality of life. The study authors from the University of Zurich therefore believe school days should begin later in the morning.

The first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic led to the closure of all schools nationwide from 13 March to 6 June 2020. According to multiple studies, symptoms of depression and anxiety among young people increased during this time, while satisfaction and quality of life decreased. The schoolchildren were also less physically active and spent more time sitting in front of screens.

Now, a study by the University of Zurich (UZH) has shown that the homeschooling phase also had a positive effect on the health and well-being of many teenagers. "The students got about 75 minutes more sleep per day during the lockdown. At the same time, their health-related quality of life improved significantly and their consumption of alcohol and caffeine went down," says the study's co-leader Oskar Jenni, UZH professor of developmental pediatrics. Because they no longer had to travel to school, they were able to get up later.

More sleep on school days improves young people's health-related quality of life

The researchers conducted an online survey with 3,664 high school students in the Canton of Zurich during the lockdown, asking about their sleep patterns and quality of life. They then compared the answers with a survey from 2017 with 5,308 young participants. The results showed that during the three months in which the schools were closed, the adolescents got up around 90 minutes later on school days, but went to bed only 15 minutes later on average -- meaning their total amount of sleep increased by about 75 minutes a day. On weekends, there was little difference in the sleep times of the two groups.

The students in the lockdown group rated their health-related quality of life higher, and the amount of alcohol and caffeine they reported consuming was less than the pre-pandemic group. "Although the lockdown clearly led to worse health and well-being for many young people, our findings reveal an upside of the school closures which has received little attention until now," says Jenni.

Unique opportunity to investigate the effect of later school starting times

Sleep deficits in adolescents can lead to general tiredness, anxiety and physical ailments. These in turn have a detrimental effect on cognitive functions such as concentration, memory and attention, making it significantly harder to function in everyday life. The early start of the school day in Switzerland conflicts with the natural, biologically determined sleeping habits of teenagers. Because they have to get up early for school, many young people therefore suffer from chronic lack of sleep. The topic has recently made its way onto the political agenda in several cantons across the country.

"Our findings clearly indicate the benefit of starting school later in the morning so that youngsters can get more sleep," says Jenni. He speculates that the positive effects on health and health-related quality of life would have been even greater had there not also been the negative effects of the pandemic on mental health.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/01/220105111355.htm

Human gut bacteria have 'sex' to share vitamin B12

Essential nutrient passes between cells via ‘jumping genes’

February 1, 2022

Science Daily/University of California - Riverside

Your gut bacteria need vitamin B12 just as much as you do. Though DNA is usually passed from parent to child, new research shows gut bacteria transfer genes through "sex" in order to take their vitamins.

Without vitamin B12, most types of living cells cannot function. As a result, there is strong competition for it in nature. A new UC Riverside study demonstrates beneficial gut microbes share the ability to acquire this precious resource with one another through a process called bacterial sex.

"The process involves one cell forming a tube that DNA can pass through to another cell," said UCR microbiologist and study lead Patrick Degnan. "It's as if two humans had sex, and now they both have red hair."

Scientists have known about this process for decades, and its ability to transfer what are known as "jumping genes" between organisms. Until now, the majority of studied examples have been responsible for helping bacterial cells stay alive when people ingest antibiotics.

"We're excited about this study because it shows that this process isn't only for antibiotic resistance. The horizontal gene exchange among microbes is likely used for anything that increases their ability to survive, including sharing vitamin B12," Degnan said.

Results of the study have been published in the journal Cell Reports. 

Previously, Degnan worked on a project in which he and his colleagues identified an important transporter responsible for getting B12 into gut microbial cells. More recently, he was studying jumping genes, trying to identify what kinds of information they were transferring. Quickly, Degnan recognized the vitamin B12 transporters as the cargo.

To demonstrate what they suspected, Degnan and his team mixed bacteria that could transport B12 and some that couldn't. Being on a dish together gave the bacteria an opportunity to form a tube called a sex pillus that facilitated the transfer. After, they identified that bacteria previously unable to transport B12 were all still alive and had acquired the genes with the ability to transport B12.

They did a second experiment examining the entire genome of the bacteria.

"In a given organism, we can see bands of DNA that are like fingerprints. The recipients of the B12 transporters had an extra band showing the new DNA they got from a donor," Degnan said.

Not only was the experiment successful in test tubes, but also inside mice.

The type of beneficial gut bacteria used in the study are Bacteroides, which reside in the large intestines of most people. One of their most important services to humans is breaking down complex carbohydrates for energy.

"The big, long molecules from sweet potatoes, beans, whole grains, and vegetables would pass through our bodies entirely without these bacteria. They break those down so we can get energy from them," Degnan explained.

Bacteroides, along with other bacteria, also give our guts a barrier layer that can help restrict pathogens from invading. For example, previous research led by co-author Ansel Hsiao, also at UC Riverside, shows some humans have communities of microbes in their gut that make them more resistant to cholera.

Learning how to keep these bacteria healthy could also help benefit people, given the important services they perform.

"There's no one way to have a healthy microbiome, but generally, having a diverse community of anaerobic bacteria is a healthy thing and can have beneficial effects," Degnan said.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/02/220201074525.htm

Even light drinking can be harmful to health

Research reveals cardiovascular risk of consuming small quantities of alcohol

January 28, 2022

Science Daily/Anglia Ruskin University

Drinking less than the UK's recommended limit of 14 units of alcohol per week still increases the risk of cardiovascular issues such as heart and cerebrovascular disease, according to new research published in the journal Clinical Nutrition.

Academics from Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) examined hospitalisations related to cardiovascular events among more than 350,000 UK residents aged between 40 and 69 from data obtained from the UK Biobank study.

The sample included 333,259 people who drank alcohol. Participants had been asked about their overall weekly alcohol intake and their intake of specific types of alcohol including beer, wine and spirits. Those participants were followed up for a median of approximately seven years, capturing all incidents where patients had been hospitalised through cardiovascular events.

Anyone who had suffered a previous cardiovascular event was excluded from the analysis, as were former drinkers or those who had not completed information on alcohol intake.

The analysis found that, for those participants that drank less than 14 units of alcohol per week -- the limit recommended by the UK's Chief Medical Officers -- each additional 1.5 pints of beer at 4% strength (alcohol by volume) is associated with a 23% increased risk of suffering a cardiovascular event.

The authors argue that biases in existing epidemiological evidence have resulted in the widespread acceptance of the "J-shaped curve" that wrongly suggests low to moderate alcohol consumption can be beneficial to cardiovascular health.

These biases include using non-drinkers as a reference group when many do not drink for reasons of existing poor health, pooling of all drink types when determining the alcohol intake of a study population, and embedding the lower risk observed of coronary artery disease among wine drinkers, potentially distorting the overall cardiovascular risk from the drink.

Lead author Dr Rudolph Schutte, course leader for the BSc Hons Medical Science programme and Associate Professor at ARU, said:

"The so-called J-shaped curve of the cardiovascular disease-alcohol consumption relationship suggesting health benefit from low to moderate alcohol consumption is the biggest myth since we were told smoking was good for us.

"Among drinkers of beer, cider and spirits in particular, even those consuming under 14 units a week had an increased risk of ending up in hospital through a cardiovascular event involving the heart or the blood vessels. While we hear much about wine drinkers having lower risk of coronary artery disease, our data shows their risk of other cardiovascular events is not reduced.

"Biases embedded in epidemiological evidence mask or underestimate the hazards associated with alcohol consumption. When these biases are accounted for, the adverse effects of even low-level alcohol consumption are revealed.

"Avoiding these biases in future research would mitigate current confusion and hopefully lead to a strengthening of the guidelines, seeing the current alcohol guidance reduced."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/01/220128100730.htm

Blood proteins could be the key to a long and healthy life

January 24, 2022

Science Daily/University of Edinburgh

Two blood proteins have been shown by scientists to influence how long and healthy a life we live, research suggests.

Developing drugs that target these proteins could be one way of slowing the ageing process, according to the largest genetic study of ageing.

As we age, our bodies begin to decline after we reach adulthood, which results in age-related diseases and death. This latest research investigates which proteins could influence the ageing process.

Many complex and related factors determine the rate at which we age and die, and these include genetics, lifestyle, environment and chance. The study sheds light on the part proteins play in this process.

Some people naturally have higher or lower levels of certain proteins because of the DNA they inherit from their parents. These protein levels can, in turn, affect a person's health.

University of Edinburgh researchers combined the results of six large genetic studies into human ageing -- each containing genetic information on hundreds of thousands of people,

Among 857 proteins studied, researchers identified two that had significant negative effects across various ageing measures.

People who inherited DNA that causes raised levels of these proteins were frailer, had poorer self-rated health and were less likely to live an exceptionally long life than those who did not. .

The first protein, called apolipoprotein(a) (LPA), is made in the liver and thought to play a role in clotting. High levels of LPA can increase the risk of atherosclerosis -- a condition in which arteries become clogged with fatty substances. Heart disease and stroke is a possible outcome.

The second protein, vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 (VCAM1), is primarily found on the surfaces of endothelial cells -- a single-cell layer that lines blood vessels. The protein controls vessels' expansion and retraction -- and function in blood clotting and the immune response.

Levels of VCAM1 increase when the body sends signals to indicate it has detected an infection, VCAM1 then allows immune cells to cross the endothelial layer, as seen for people who have naturally low levels of these proteins.

The researchers say that drugs used to treat diseases by reducing levels of LPA and VCAM1 could have the added benefit of improving quality and length of life.

One such example is a clinical trial that is testing a drug to lower LPA as a way of reducing the risk of heart disease.

There are currently no clinical trials involving VCAM1, but studies in mice have shown how antibodies lowering this protein's level improved cognition during old age.

The findings have been published in the journal Nature Aging.

Dr Paul Timmers, lead researcher at the MRC Human Genetics Unit at University of Edinburgh, said: "The identification of these two key proteins could help extend the healthy years of life. Drugs that lower these protein levels in our blood could allow the average person to live as healthy and as long as individuals who have won the genetic lottery and are born with genetically low LPA and VCAM1 levels."

Professor Jim Wilson, Chair of Human Genetics at the University of Edinburgh's Usher Institute, said: "This study showcases the power of modern genetics to identify two potential targets for future drugs to extend lifespan."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/01/220124203745.htm

Predicting Long COVID at initial point of COVID-19 diagnosis: Study finds several warning factors

January 25, 2022

Science Daily/Institute for Systems Biology

A study has identified four predictive factors of Post Acute Sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC), often called long COVID. These 'PASC factors' can be identified at the initial point of COVID-19 diagnosis and can anticipate if a patient is likely to develop long COVID. Additionally, researchers found that mild cases of COVID-19, not just severe cases, are associated with long COVID, and that administering antivirals very early in the disease course may potentially prevent some PASC.

A significant portion of people who contract the SARS-CoV-2 virus -- some estimates suggest more than 40 percent -- suffer chronic effects known as Post Acute Sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC), commonly referred to as long COVID. PASC symptoms include fatigue, brain fog, the loss of taste and smell, shortness of breath, and more.

Now, researchers have identified several factors that can be measured at the initial point of COVID-19 diagnosis that anticipate if a patient is likely to develop long COVID. These "PASC factors" are the presence of certain autoantibodies, pre-existing Type 2 diabetes, SARS-CoV-2 RNA levels in the blood, and Epstein-Barr virus DNA levels in blood.

"Identifying these PASC factors is a major step forward for not only understanding long COVID and potentially treating it, but also which patients are at highest risk for the development of chronic conditions," said ISB President, Dr. Jim Heath, co-corresponding author of a research paper that will be published by the journal Cell. "These findings are also helping us frame our thinking around other chronic conditions, such as post-acute Lyme syndrome, for example."

Additionally, researchers found that mild cases of COVID-19, not just severe cases, are associated with long COVID. They also suggest that administering antivirals very early in the disease course may potentially prevent some PASC.

"Long COVID is causing significant morbidity in survivors of COVID-19, yet the pathobiology is poorly understood," said Dr. Jason Goldman, co-corresponding author of the paper and an infectious disease expert at Swedish. "Our study pairs clinical data and patient-reported outcomes with deep multi-omic analyses to unravel important biological associations that occur in patients with PASC. Certain findings such as the low cortisol state in patients with long COVID have potential to translate rapidly to the clinic. Our results form an important foundation for the development of therapeutics to treat long COVID."

Researchers collected blood and swab samples from 309 COVID-19 patients at different time points to perform comprehensive phenotyping which was integrated with clinical data and patient-reported symptoms to carry out a deep multi-omic, longitudinal investigation.

A key finding from the study deals with viral load, which can be measured near diagnosis to predict long COVID symptoms. "We found that early blood viral measurements are strongly associated with certain long COVID symptoms that patients will develop months later," said Dr. Yapeng Su, a co-first and co-corresponding author of the paper.

In addition, researchers found the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) -- a virus that infects 90 percent of the human population and is normally inactive in the body after infection -- is reactivated early on after SARS-CoV-2 infection, which is significantly associated with future long COVID symptoms. "This may be related to immune dysregulation during COVID-19 infection," Su added.

The team also found that PASC is anticipated by autoantibodies (which associate with autoimmune diseases like lupus) at diagnosis, and that as autoantibodies increase, protective SARS-CoV-2 antibodies decrease. This suggests a relationship between long COVID, autoantibodies and patients at elevated risk of re-infections.

"Many patients with high autoantibodies simultaneously have low (protective) antibodies that neutralize SARS-CoV-2, and that's going to make them more susceptible to breakthrough infections," said Daniel Chen, a co-first author of the paper.

The research project was a collaboration between ISB, Providence, Swedish the University of Washington, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Stanford, UCLA, UCSF, and others.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/01/220120165100.htm

Why the Omicron variant causes less severe disease

Eight COVID-19 drugs remain active against Omicron in cell culture study

January 24, 2022

Science Daily/Goethe University Frankfurt

A new study shows that the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant is less effective than Delta at blocking a cellular defense mechanism against viruses, the so-called 'interferon response'. Moreover, cell culture findings indicate that eight important COVID-19 drugs and drug candidates remain effective against Omicron.

A new study by researchers from the University of Kent and the Goethe University Frankfurt shows that the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant is less effective than Delta at blocking a cellular defence mechanism against viruses, the so-called "interferon response." Moreover, cell culture findings indicate that eight important COVID-19 drugs and drug candidates remain effective against Omicron.

The SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant causes less severe disease than Delta although it is better at escaping immune protection by vaccinations and previous infections. The reasons for this have so far remained elusive.

A new study by a research team with scientists from the University of Kent and the Goethe-University Frankfurt has now shown that Omicron variant viruses are particularly sensitive to inhibition by the so-called interferon response, an unspecific immune response that is present in all body cells. This provides the first explanation of why COVID-19 patients infected with the Omicron variant are less likely to experience severe disease.

The cell culture study also showed that Omicron viruses remain sensitive to eight of the most important antiviral drugs and drug candidates for the treatment of COVID-19. This included: EIDD-1931 (active metabolite of molnupiravir), ribavirin, remdesivir, favipravir, PF-07321332 (nirmatrelvir, active ingredient of paxlovid), nafamostat, camostat, and aprotinin.

Prof Martin Michaelis, School of Bioscience, University of Kent, said: "Our study provides for the first time an explanation, why Omicron infections are less likely to cause severe disease. This is due to Omicron, in contrast to Delta, does not effectively inhibit the host cell interferon immune response."

Prof. Jindrich Cinatl, Institute of Medical Virology at the Goethe-University, added: "Although cell culture experiments do not exactly reflect the more complex situation in a patient, our data provide encouraging evidence that the available antiviral COVID-19 drugs are also effective against Omicron."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/01/220124203747.htm

How can body weight affect the mortality risk of excessive drinkers?

January 24, 2022

Science Daily/Penn State

While research has long shown a higher risk of death linked to alcoholism for people with overweight, a new study published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence has found that people with underweight who drink excessively may be at an even higher risk of dying from heart disease, cancer and other causes.

The study was based on data from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), which has a nationally representative sample of more than 200,000 U.S. adults aged 35-85, interviewed between Jan. 1, 2001, and Dec. 31, 2011. The researchers analyzed data on mortality risk among drinkers and non-drinkers using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) categories to define "underweight," "normal weight," "overweight" and "obesity."

"The NHIS is like a 'selfie' for the U.S. because it is a snapshot of health behaviors of people from every type of background," said Muntasir Masum, postdoctoral scholar at the Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center at Penn State. "We expected to see a link between obesity and mortality related to alcoholism, and we were surprised to see that the link was especially pronounced for people with underweight who drink excessively."

The CDC defines underweight as having a body mass index (BMI) of less than 18.5 using the calculation of person's weight in kilograms divided by the square of their height in meters. According to the CDC, BMI is a screening tool, but it does not diagnose "body fatness or the health of an individual."

Further research is needed into how having underweight could contribute to mortality in people who drink excessively. Masum suggested that multiple factors could be at play, such as how people handle stress and whether they have co-occurring health issues or nutritional deficiencies.

"I hope these findings encourage people to eliminate risks that may lead to a life-or-death situation," said Masum.

Excessive alcohol use is the third most common cause of preventable death in the U.S. and is estimated to cause 1 in 10 deaths among working-age adults in the U.S., according to the Journal of the American Medical Association.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/01/220124115035.htm

Breathing: The master clock of the sleeping brain

January 24, 2022

Science Daily/Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

LMU neuroscientists have shown that breathing coordinates neuronal activity throughout the brain during sleep and quiet.

While we sleep, the brain is not switched off, but is busy with "saving" the important memories of the day. To achieve that, brain regions are synchronized to coordinate the transmission of information between them. Yet, the mechanisms that enable this synchronization across multiple remote brain regions are not well understood. Traditionally, these mechanisms were sought in correlated activity patterns within the brain. However, LMU neuroscientists Prof. Anton Sirota and Dr. Nikolas Karalis have now been able to show that breathing acts as a pacemaker that entrains the various brain regions and synchronizes them with each other.

Breathing is the most persistent and essential bodily rhythm and exerts a strong physiological effect on the autonomous nervous system. It is also known to modulate a wide range of cognitive functions such as perception, attention, and thought structure. However, the mechanisms of its impact on cognitive function and the brain are largely unknown.

The scientists performed large-scale in vivo electrophysiological recordings in mice, from thousands of neurons across the limbic system. They showed that respiration entrains and coordinates neuronal activity in all investigated brain regions -- including the hippocampus, medial prefrontal and visual cortex, thalamus, amygdala, and nucleus accumbens -- by modulating the excitability of these circuits in olfaction-independent way. "Thus, we were able to prove the existence of a novel non-olfactory, intracerebral, mechanismthat accounts for the entrainment of distributed circuits by breathing, which we termed "respiratory corollary discharge," says Karalis, who is currently research fellow at the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research in Basel. "Our findings identify the existence of a previously unknown link between respiratory and limbic circuits and are a departure from the standard belief that breathing modulates brain activity via the nose-olfactory route," underlines Sirota.

This mechanism mediates the coordination of sleep-related activity in these brain regions, which is essential for memory consolidation and provides the means for the co-modulation of the cortico-hippocampal circuits synchronous dynamics. According to the authors, these results represent a major step forward and provide the foundation for new mechanistic theories, that incorporate the respiratory rhythm as a fundamental mechanism underlying the communication of distributed systems during memory consolidation

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/01/220124103856.htm

Mediterranean diet associated with a lower risk of mortality in older adults

January 20, 2022

Science Daily/University of Barcelona

A greater adherence to the Mediterranean diet which had been assessed through an index made with biomarkers during a 20-year scientific monitoring is associated with a lower mortality in adults over 65. This is one of the main conclusions of a study led by Cristina Andrés-Lacueva, head of the Research Group on Biomarkers and Nutritional & Food Metabolomics of the Faculty of Pharmacy and Food Sciences of the University of Barcelona (UB) and the CIBER on Fragility and Healthy Ageing (CIBERFES), also formed by the Food Innovation Network of Catalonia (XIA).

he paper, published in the journal BCM Medicine, has been carried out in collaboration with the National Institute on Ageing (NIA) of the United States. According to the conclusions, the analysis of dietary biomarkers in plasma and urine can contribute to the individualized food assessment for old people. The study is based on the InCHIANTI project, conducted in the region of the Italian Tuscany, a study that has been carried out during twenty years in a total of 642 participants (56% women) aged over 65 or more and which enabled researchers to obtain complete data on food biomarkers.

As stated by the UB Professor Cristina Andrés-Lacueva, head of the research group in CIBERFES, "we develop an index of dietary biomarkers based on food groups that are part of the Mediterranean diet, and we assess their association with mortality."

In the study, researchers chose the reference levels of the following dietary biomarkers in the urine: total polyphenols and resveratrol metabolites (from grape intake) and presents in plasma, plasma carotenoids, selenium, vitamin B12, fatty acids and their proportion of monounsaturated and saturated fatty acids. Using a predictive model, they assessed the associations of the Mediterranean diet index and the food-frequency questionnaire (FFQ) with mortality.

During the twenty years of monitoring, there were 425 deaths (139 due to cardiovascular diseases and 89 due to cancer-related causes). Once the models were analysed, the score of the Mediterranean diet using the biomarkers was inversely associated with all causes of death.

This study highlights the use of dietary biomarkers to improve the nutritional assessment and guide a customized assessment for older people. As noted by the CIBERFES researcher of the UB Tomás Meroño, co-first signatory of the study, the researchers "confirm that an adherence to the Mediterranean diet assessed by a panel of dietary biomarkers is inversely associated with the long-term mortality in older adults, which supports the use of these biomarkers in monitoring evaluations to study the health benefits associated with the Mediterranean diet."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/01/220120103400.htm

Constant tinnitus is linked to altered brain activity

January 26, 2022

Science Daily/Karolinska Institutet

There has to date been no reliable objective method of diagnosing tinnitus. Researchers from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden now show that brainstem audiometry can be used to measure changes in the brain in people with constant tinnitus. The study has been published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Tinnitus is currently not classified as a distinct disorder, but as a symptom with many possible causes, such as impaired hearing, noise, disease or stress. Tinnitus is often described as a phantom sound that is only audible to the sufferer. Today, some 20 per cent of the Swedish population has some form of tinnitus, and the risk increases with age.

Measuring brain activity

The degree of tinnitus severity is currently defined by a process of self-rating. A study by scientists at Karolinska Institutet conducted in collaboration with the company Decibel Therapeutics has now shown that auditory brainstem responses (ABR) is a possible objective diagnostic tool in identifying people with constant tinnitus. ABR measures the activity of the brain in response to a specific sequence of sound stimuli.

"We believe that our ABR method can be sufficiently sensitive to be used as a diagnostic tool," says Christopher R. Cederroth, researcher at the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Karolinska Institutet. "The method measures the actual neural alterations in the brainstem in people with constant tinnitus, which could become a future biomarker.

Acknowledgement for patients

ABR has previously been put forward as a tool for measuring tinnitus, but it has not reached scientific consensus. No earlier study has, however, included as many participants as this one. Here, the researchers have done ABR measurements on 405 individuals, 228 with tinnitus and 177 without. They observed in people with constant tinnitus a clear difference in the measures when compared to people without tinnitus, or people who rated their tinnitus as occasional.

"We need an objective diagnostic method for tinnitus, both to acknowledge the condition to sufferers and to promote the development of new therapies," says Christopher R. Cederroth. "Our study suggests a causal relationship between such alterations in the brain's neural activity and the development of constant tinnitus, but we need to do more studies to verify this. We also need to determine if our method can measure a therapeutic benefit."

Tinnitus is exacerbated

The researchers also followed over 20,000 people with no or varying degrees of tinnitus in order to track how the symptoms develop over time. Here the researchers showed that people with occasional tinnitus are at increased risk of developing constant tinnitus, especially if it recurs often. The study also found that for those who already experience constant tinnitus, the chances are that the problem will persist.

"It's important to know that if you've had recurring tinnitus, you're more likely to develop lasting tinnitus," adds Dr Cederroth. "We need to spread this information so that people with occasional tinnitus become aware of the risks and have the chance to act preventatively."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/01/220126122458.htm

What’s good for the heart is good for the brain

January 26, 2022

Science Daily/American Heart Association

The same risk factors that contribute to making heart disease the leading cause of death worldwide also impact the rising global prevalence of brain disease, including stroke, Alzheimer's disease and dementia, according to the American Heart Association's Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics -- 2022 Update, published today in the Association's flagship, peer-reviewed journal Circulation. Experts say maintaining a healthy weight, managing your blood pressure and following other heart-healthy lifestyle behaviors can also support good brain health.

Optimal brain health includes the functional ability to perform all the diverse tasks for which the brain is responsible, including movement, perception, learning and memory, communication, problem solving, judgment, decision making and emotion. Cognitive decline and dementia are often seen following stroke and cerebrovascular disease and indicate a decline in brain health. Conversely, studies show maintaining good vascular health is associated with healthy aging and retained cognitive function.

The global death rate from Alzheimer's disease and other dementias is increasing considerably -- even more than the rate of heart disease death:

• Globally, more than 54 million people had Alzheimer's disease and other dementias in 2020, that's a 37% increase since 2010 and a 144% increase over the past 30 years (1990-2020).

• More than 1.89 million deaths were attributed to Alzheimer's disease and other dementias worldwide in 2020, compared to nearly 9 million deaths from heart disease.

• Global deaths from Alzheimer's disease and other dementias increased more than 44% from 2010 to 2020, compared to a 21% increase in deaths from heart disease.

• Deaths from Alzheimer's disease and other dementias increased 184% over the past 30 years (1990-2020), compared to a 66% increase in heart disease deaths during that same time.

Because prevalence and mortality data are tracked differently by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in the U.S. compared to other countries, the Statistical Update does not offer comparable national data for 2020. However, nearly 2.9 million people in the U.S. were reported to have Alzheimer's disease and other dementias in 2017. Alzheimer's disease and other dementias combined were the leading cause of death among all neurological disorders, including stroke.

"The global rate of brain disease is quickly outpacing heart disease. The rate of deaths from Alzheimer's disease and other dementias rose more than twice as much in the past decade compared to the rate of deaths from heart disease, and that is something we must address," said Mitchell S.V. Elkind, M.D. M.S., FAHA, the immediate past president of the American Heart Association, a professor of neurology and epidemiology at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and attending neurologist at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY. "We are learning more about how some types of dementia are related to the aging, and how some types are due to poor vascular health. Many studies show that the same healthy lifestyle behaviors that can help improve a person's heart health can also preserve or even improve their brain health. It's becoming more evident that reducing vascular disease risk factors can make a real difference in helping people live longer, healthier lives, free of heart disease and brain disease."

The 2022 Statistical Update highlights some of that research:

• In a meta-analysis of 139 studies, people with midlife hypertension were five times more likely to experience impairment on global cognition and about twice as likely to experience reduced executive function, dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

• Nearly half of all adults (47% or 121.5 million) in the U.S. have elevated blood pressure, based on 2015 to 2018 data.

• In a meta-analysis of longitudinal studies with up to 42 years of follow-up, people with obesity had three times the risk of dementia.

• Current smoking was associated with a 30%-40% increased risk of dementia, Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia, based on a meta-analysis of 37 prospective studies.

Having cardiovascular disease also increases the chances of developing brain disease:

• In a meta-analysis of four longitudinal studies, the risk for dementia associated with heart failure was nearly two-fold.

• In the ARIC Neurocognitive study (12,515 participants, average age of 57 years, 24% Black participants, 56% women), atrial fibrillation was associated with greater cognitive decline and dementia over 20 years.

• A meta-analysis of 10 prospective studies (including 24,801 participants) found that coronary heart disease was associated with a 40% increased risk of poor cognitive outcomes including dementia, cognitive impairment or cognitive decline.

There are also significant differences in the gender, race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status of people who are more likely to develop brain disease and dementia, an indication that social determinants of health also play a role:

• Of the more than 54 million cases of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias worldwide in 2020, almost 20 million were among men, compared to nearly 35 million women. More than twice as many women as men died from Alzheimer's disease and other dementias.

• A retrospective analysis of the 2016 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data found significant differences in subjective cognitive decline across non-white racial and ethnic groups when compared to white adults in the 20,843 respondents who reported being diagnosed with stroke. Compared to white adults, other racial and ethnic groups were more likely to report worsening confusion or memory loss that contributed to not participating in everyday activities or difficulty with work, volunteer, and social activities outside of the home at least some of the time. After adjustments for sex, age, education, income and comorbidities, Black adults were one-and-a-half times more likely and Hispanic adults were more than twice as likely than white adults to give up day-to-day household activities or chores because of confusion or memory loss. Black adults were almost three times as likely and Hispanic adults were more than four times as likely to report needing assistance with everyday activities compared to white adults. These findings are likely due to social determinants of health negatively impacting communities of color over their lifetime, advised Elkind.

Estimated U.S spending on dementias more than doubled from $38.6 billion in 1996 to $79.2 billion in 2016. Spending on dementias was among the top 10 health care costs in the United States in 2016.

"Like cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer's disease, dementia and other cognitive ailments are a tremendous emotional and economic burden across the globe," said Connie W. Tsao, M.D., M.P.H., FAHA, chair of the Statistical Update writing group, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and attending staff cardiologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. "This new chapter on brain health was a critical one to add. The data we've collected brings to light the strong correlations between heart health and brain health and makes it an easy story to tell -- what's good for the heart is good for the brain."

Over the past several years, the American Heart Association has supported more than $46 million in research funding focused on brain health. In a $43 million collaboration with The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group, the Association is funding three projects that are now underway to find innovative ways to understand and improve brain health and cognitive impairment science. A $3.3 million grant in collaboration with global philanthropist and technology visionary Bill Gates is committed to advancing the scientific evidence base related to brain health and dementia. The project supports a new brain health and dementia technology research center at Boston University. Additionally, it will support the global exchange of research data to help scientists around the world collectively work in accelerating new discoveries related to heart and brain health, including the early detection and treatment of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias.

"Advancing brain science through innovative research will help scientists shed new light on the causes and contributors to cognitive impairment and dementia, particularly as it relates to heart and vascular health. This is an important step in the Association's ongoing commitment to better understand how our brains age and how vascular health impacts brain health and overall well-being," said Elkind, who is a member of the Statistical Update writing committee. "Additionally, it's critical that as a society and as individuals we understand and make the changes needed to improve health outcomes from brain disease and, more importantly, prevent them to begin with."

Along with new information on brain health, the 2022 Statistical Update provides the latest available data on key factors related to heart disease and stroke:

• On average, someone dies of cardiovascular disease (CVD) every 36 seconds in the U.S. There are 2,396 deaths from CVD each day, based on 2019 data.

• On average, someone in the U.S. has a stroke every 40 seconds. There are about 795,000 new or recurrent strokes each year, based on 1999 data.

• On average, someone dies of a stroke every 3 minutes and 30 seconds in the U.S. There are about 411 deaths from stroke each day, based on 2019 data.

• Approximately 1 in 4 (24%) U.S. adults reported achieving adequate leisure-time aerobic and muscle-strengthening activities to meet the physical activity guidelines, based on 2018 data.

• 1 in 7 male adults and 1 in 8 female adults in the U.S. are current smokers, based on 2019 data.

Tracking such trends is one of the reasons the American Heart Association publishes the definitive statistical update annually, providing a comprehensive resource of the most current data, relevant scientific findings and assessment of the impact of cardiovascular disease nationally and globally.

The U.S. data is gathered in conjunction with the National Institutes of Health and other government agencies, while the global trends are provided by the Global Burden of Disease Study from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.

The annual update represents a compilation of the newest, most relevant statistics on heart disease, stroke and risk factors impacting cardiovascular health. It tracks trends related to ideal cardiovascular health, social determinants of health, global cardiovascular health, cardiovascular health genetics and health care costs. Tsao emphasized the importance of this surveillance as a critical resource for the lay public, policy makers, media professionals, clinicians, health care administrators, researchers, health advocates and others seeking the best available data on these factors and conditions.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/01/220126090523.htm

People who are depressed may be more susceptible to misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines

Among surveyed adults, those with depressive symptoms were more likely to believe false statements about COVID-19 vaccines

January 21, 2022

Science Daily/Massachusetts General Hospital

In a 50-state survey-based study, adults with depressive symptoms were twice as likely to support misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines. People who endorsed false statements were half as likely to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

A general bias toward negativity -- or the tendency to focus on negative rather than positive information -- may exacerbate the spread of misinformation. Because depression may contribute to such negativity bias, a team led by investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) examined whether people who experience depressive symptoms may be more receptive to misinformation related to COVID-19 vaccines. Their findings are published in JAMA Network Open.

"One of the notable things about depression is that it can cause people to see the world differently -- sort of the opposite of rose-colored glasses. That is, for some depressed people, the world appears as a particularly dark and dangerous place," says lead author Roy H. Perlis, MD, MSc, associate chief of research in the Department of Psychiatry and director of the Center for Quantitative Health at MGH. "We wondered whether people seeing the world this way might also be more susceptible to believing misinformation about vaccines. If you already think the world is a dangerous place, you might be more inclined to believe that vaccines are dangerous -- even though they are not."

To investigate, Perlis and his colleagues examined responses from 15,464 adults from all 50 U.S. states and Washington, D.C., who completed an internet survey between May and July 2021 that included statements related to COVID-19 vaccines after answering a questionnaire that measured depressive symptoms.

The team found that levels of depression are at least three times higher than what they were before the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants with moderate or greater major depressive symptoms on the initial questionnaire were more likely to endorse at least one of four false statements about COVID-19 vaccines on the subsequent survey, and those who endorsed these statements were less likely to be vaccinated. Specifically, the presence of depression was associated with a 2.2-times higher likelihood of endorsing misinformation, and respondents endorsing at least one misinformation statement were half as likely to be vaccinated and 2.7 times more likely to report vaccine resistance.

Perlis and his colleagues also analyzed data from the subset of 2,809 respondents who answered a subsequent survey two months later. Those with depression in the first survey were twice as likely as those without depression to endorse more misinformation than they did in the prior survey.

"While we can't conclude that depression caused this susceptibility, looking at a second wave of data at least told us that the depression came before the misinformation. That is, it wasn't that misinformation was making people more depressed," Perlis notes. Because the study also included questions about social media and news sources, the investigators were also able to exclude the possibility that the effect of depression was a result of getting news from different places. They also found that the effect was not limited to people with particular political beliefs or members of particular demographic groups.

The researchers note that the findings provide an additional motivation to ensure that people have access to treatment for depression and anxiety. "Our result suggests that, by addressing the extremely high levels of depression in this country during COVID, we might decrease people's susceptibility to misinformation," says Perlis. "Of course, we can only show an association -- we can't show that the depression causes? the susceptibility, but it's certainly suggestive that it might."

Perlis stresses that the results in no way blame misinformation on people with depression but rather suggest that depression may cause people to be more vulnerable to believing this misinformation.

Co-authors include Katherine Ognyanova, PhD, Mauricio Santillana, PhD, Jennifer Lin, BA, James Druckman, PhD, David Lazer, PhD, Jon Green, PhD, Matthew Simonson, PhD, Matthew A. Baum, PhD, and John Della Volpe, BA.

This study was supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Mental Health, Northeastern University, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and Rutgers University.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/01/220121124824.htm

The best way to fix a sad mood: Whatever you think works best

Study finds advantage to believing you’re using your strengths

January 20, 2022

Science Daily/Ohio State University

What's the best way to improve a sad mood? It may be whatever skill you think you're best at, a new study suggests.

Think you're good at mindfulness techniques? Then that may work best for you. Or do you believe a more cognitive approach is your strength? Then use that.

Researchers found that people who were in a sad mood improved more quickly when they used a mood-improving method that they were told was their strongest skill. These participants improved more quickly than people asked to use a skill that they were told was a relative weakness.

"We found that it helps people to think they're working with their strengths rather than something they see as a weakness," said Samuel Murphy, lead author of the study and a doctoral student in psychology at The Ohio State University.

What may be most surprising about the study, though, is that participants were randomly told that they were best at one mood-enhancing skill or the other.

"Our results suggest that whether participants were good at the skill was not relevant. It was the belief that they were good at that skill that made it effective," said study co-author Daniel Strunk, professor of psychology and head of Ohio State's Depression Research Laboratory.

The study was published online recently in the Journal of Clinical Psychology.

One reason for this finding's importance is that for many years, psychotherapists focused on trying to fix what was wrong with their clients. In recent years, it has become more common to focus on a client's strengths and use them to help deal with their problems, such as depression.

But researchers are still learning how focusing on strengths helps clients, Strunk said.

"How therapists frame the treatment for a client may play an important role in how well it works. Telling clients that you're going to be working on their strengths may further enhance the effectiveness of their treatment," Strunk said.

The study involved 616 undergraduate students. The researchers briefly told participants about two therapy skills -- cognitive and mindfulness -- that they said may be useful in their everyday lives. Both are used by therapists to help clients with issues such as depression.

Cognitive skills were defined as identifying and re-evaluating negative thoughts and beliefs. Mindfulness skills were defined as awareness and acceptance of one's thoughts and feelings without trying to change them.

Participants were then given a hypothetical situation in which they could use those skills -- feeling hurt by not being invited to a social event by a friend -- and directed to practice both skills and complete some measures on how they used them.

Each participant was randomly told that one of the skills -- cognitive or mindfulness -- was their strongest skill or their weakest skill and they would be using that skill in the next part of the experiment -- a "sad mood induction."

The researchers then made participants sad by having them vividly imagine someone they cared about dying while they listened to the sad song "Russia under the Mongolian Yoke," played at half speed to make it sound even sadder.

As expected, most people reported a significant decrease in mood immediately following the induction. Participants were then asked to respond to five mood assessments in the minutes after the sad mood induction.

All participants saw their mood gradually improve after the induction was over. Results showed that whether they were asked to use cognitive or mindfulness skills didn't have a significant effect on mood recovery -- but the framing of whether they were told it was their strongest or weakest skill did.

Participants who were told that the skill they would use was their strongest -- regardless of whether it was cognitive or mindfulness -- saw a bigger improvement in mood than participants who worked with a skill they were told was their weakest.

The study results can't say for sure why framing the intervention as a strength provided better results.

"It may be that if there is this initial encouragement early on that they are really good at one particular strategy, that may inspire greater confidence and persistence in using this skill, which leads to better results," Murphy said.

Or it may be the other way around.

"People may be discouraged if they're told a particular skill is their weakness and not try as hard or be as confident that it will work," Strunk said.

The researchers said the findings may be helpful to therapists who focus on building clients' strengths. "It is very easy to let clients know that you're building on their strengths, so if it enhances the benefit, that will be important to try," Murphy said.

Strunk added that the results could help anyone dealing with a problem like a sad mood.

"We only studied mindfulness and cognitive skills here, but there are a variety of approaches to improving mental health," he said. "The ones that you think would work best for you probably will indeed work best."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/01/220120091219.htm

The circadian clock in heart failure

January 17, 2022

Science Daily/Baylor College of Medicine

Disrupting circadian rhythms, which change naturally on a 24-hour cycle, has been implicated in heart disease, but it is unclear how it leads to the condition. A research team at Baylor College of Medicine and collaborating institutions investigated the function of the protein Rev-erbα/β, a key component of the circadian clock, on heart disease development in animal models and human patients.

The team reports in the journal Circulation that Rev-erbα/β in cardiomyocytes mediates a normal metabolic rhythm that enables the cells to prefer lipids as a source of energy during the animal's resting time, daytime for mice. Removing Rev-erbα/β disrupts this rhythm, reduces the cardiomyocytes' ability to use lipids in the resting time and leads to progressive dilated cardiomyopathy and lethal heart failure.

"We studied how the Rev-erbα/β gene influenced the metabolism of the heart by knocking it out specifically in mouse cardiomyocytes," said co-corresponding author Dr. Zheng Sun, associate professor of medicine, section of endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism and of molecular and cellular biology at Baylor. "Lacking the gene resulted in progressive heart damage that led to heart failure."

To learn how Rev-erbα/β mediated its effects, the team analyzed gene and protein expression and a comprehensive panel of metabolites and lipids, during both the awake and sleep hours. They found that the Rev-erbα/β gene is highly expressed only during the sleep hours, and its activity is associated with fat and sugar metabolisms.

"The heart responds differently to different sources of energy, depending on the time of the day," explains co-corresponding author Dr. Lilei Zhang, assistant professor of molecular and human genetics and of molecular physiology and biophysics at Baylor. "In the resting phase, which for humans is at night and for mice in the day, the heart uses fatty acids that are released from fats as the main source of energy. In the active phase, which is during the day for people and at night for mice, the heart has some resistance to dietary carbohydrates. We found that without Rev-erbα/β, hearts have metabolic defects that limit the use of fatty acids when resting, and there is overuse of sugar in the active phase."

"We suspected that when Rev-erbα/β knockout hearts cannot burn fatty acids efficiently in the resting phase, then they don't have enough energy to beat. That energy deficiency would probably lead to changes in the heart that resulted in progressive dilated cardiomyopathy," said Sun, a member of Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center.

To test this hypothesis, the researchers determined whether restoring the defect in fatty acid use would improve the condition.

"We know that fatty acid use can be controlled by lipid-sensing metabolic pathways. We hypothesized that if we fed the Rev-erbα/β knockout mice more lipids, maybe the lipid-sensing pathways would be activated, override the defect and consequently the heart would be able to derive energy from lipids," Sun explained.

The researchers fed Rev-erbα/β knockout mice one of two high-fat diets. One diet was mostly high-fat. The other was a high-fat/high-sucrose diet, resembling human diets that promote obesity and insulin resistance. "The high-fat/high-sucrose diet partially alleviated the cardiac defects, but the high-fat diet did not," Sun said.

"These findings support that the metabolic defect that prevents the heart cells from using fatty acids as fuel is causing the majority of the cardiac dysfunction we see in the Rev-erbα/β knockout mice. Importantly, we also show that correcting the metabolic defect can help improve the condition," Zhang said.

Clinical implications in obesity paradox and chronotherapy

"There are three clinical implications from this work," Sun said. "First, we analyzed the molecular clock function in heart tissues of patients with dilated cardiomyopathy who had received heart transplants to explore whether the clock function was associated with the severity of cardiac dilation in humans. Tissue samples were taken at different times of the day and the ratio of the gene expression of the circadian genes Rev-erbα/β and Bmal1 was calculated providing a chronotype. We found that the heart chronotype correlates with the severity of cardiac dilation."

"The second implication is that obesity and insulin resistance, long-known clinical risk factors for heart failure, can be paradoxically protective against heart failure, within a certain time window, probably by providing fatty acids in the resting phase," Sun said.

Finally, the researchers explored the possibility of pharmacologically manipulating fatty acid and sugar metabolism to improve the condition. They found that while medications can help restore the altered metabolic pathways, it was important to give the drugs aligned with the internal circadian rhythm of the corresponding metabolic pathways. If the drugs were given out-of-sync with the pathway they were intended to restore, the treatment did not improve the cardiac condition."

These findings highlight the importance of chronotherapy, the scheduling of medications according to the circadian rhythm, not just in this study, but for many other medications.

"Of the top 100 most prescribed drugs in the U.S., at least half of them have a target that is connected to a circadian rhythm," Zhang said. "This indicates that for these drugs to be effective, they need to be taken in a time-specific way. Unfortunately, they are not. We want to emphasize the importance of taking the circadian rhythm into consideration when scheduling medications."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/01/220117085825.htm

Repeated exposure to major disasters has long-term mental health impacts

January 16, 2022

Science Daily/Texas A&M University

Repeated exposure to major disasters does not make people mentally stronger, a recent study from the Texas A&M University School of Public Health found: individuals who have been repeatedly exposed to major disasters show a reduction in mental health scores.

Additionally, the research team found that the more experience the individuals had with such events, the lower their mental health was.

"We discovered the reverse of the adage 'what does not kill you makes you stronger,'" said the study's lead author Garett Sansom, research assistant professor in the Department of Environmental & Occupational Health at the School of Public Health.

Sansom and a team of Texas A&M researchers studied individuals from the Houston area, which is susceptible to hurricanes and flooding as well as industrial emergencies. The results of the study were published recently in the journal Natural Hazards.

From 2000 to 2020, Texas -- one of the states most prone to natural disasters -- experienced 33 Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) declared major disasters. Many of these -- hurricanes, winter weather, drought and flooding -- impacted the Houston area. The area has also been impacted by emergencies such as explosions and chemical releases at nearby industrial facilities.

According to the research team, the combination of natural disasters and emergencies from industrial facilities presents a unique opportunity to observe the impacts.

"There is an unfortunate truth that many communities that reside along the Gulf Coast are at the nexus of exposures from natural and anthropogenic, or human-caused, hazards," Sansom said.

The team used a 12-item short form health survey to gather information. The survey assessed cumulative impacts from exposure to evaluate changes over time, producing a composite score for both mental (MCS) and physical (PCS) health.

The majority of the respondents reported that they experienced many hazardous events over the past five years. Hurricanes and flooding (96.35 percent) were the events experienced the most, followed by industrial fires (96.08), chemical spills (86.84) and tornados (79.82).

The team found that when individuals experienced two or more events over the past five years, their MCS averages fell below the expected national levels.

"Mental health is often overlooked in responding to and preparing for hazard exposures," Sansom said. "However, in order to reach community resilience efforts, mental conditions need to be accounted for."

The results of the study help to reveal the long-term mental impact hazards can have. More importantly, they underscore the need for public health interventions targeted toward these individuals as well as the communities where they reside.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/01/220116081920.htm