Living near green areas reduces the risk of suffering a stroke by 16 percent
March 15, 2022
Science Daily/IMIM (Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute)
The risk of suffering an ischaemic stroke, the most common type of cerebrovascular event, is 16% less in people who have green spaces less than 300 metres from their homes. This has been revealed in a joint study by the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute, Hospital del Mar, the Catalan Health Quality and Assessment Agency (AQuAS) from the Catalan Government's Department of Health and the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), a centre promoted by the "la Caixa" Foundation. It is the most important work in this field to date in Europe, analysing data on the entire population of Catalonia between 2016 and 2017. It has been published in the journal Environment International.
The study took into account information on exposure to three atmospheric pollutants linked to vehicle traffic in more than three and a half million people selected from among the 7.5 million residents of Catalonia, over the age of eighteen who had not suffered a stroke prior to the start of the study. Specifically, it analysed the impact of the levels of particulate matter under 2.5 microns (PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and soot particles at the place of residence of each of the people studied. The number and density of green spaces within a 300-metre radius of their homes was also studied. The data was obtained via geographic referencing and by designing models of exposure to the two determinants, using population data obtained by reusing health information generated in Catalonia and anonymised by the Data Analytics Programme for Research and Innovation in Health (Programa d'Analítica de Dades per a la Recerca i la Innovació en Salut; PADRIS) and managed by the Catalan Agency for Health Quality and Assessment (Agència de Qualitat i Avaluació Sanitàries de Catalunya; AQuAS).
More pollution, a higher risk of stroke
The results indicate a direct relationship between increased levels of NO2 in the atmosphere and the risk of ischaemic stroke. For every increase of 10 micrograms (µg) per cubic metre, this risk increases by 4%. The same happens when PM2.5 levels increase by 5 µg/m3. In the case of soot particles, the risk increases by 5% for every 1 µg/m3 increase in the atmosphere. These figures are the same for the entire population, irrespective of other socio-economic factors, age or smoking habits.
"It should be borne in mind that, unlike other air pollutants, which have various sources, NO2 is mainly caused by road traffic. Therefore, if we really want to reduce the multiple risks that this pollutant poses to people's health, we need to implement bold measures to reduce car use", says Cathryn Tonne, a researcher at ISGlobal.
"The study demonstrates the importance of environmental determinants in stroke risk. Given that it is predicted that the incidence, mortality and disability attributed to the disease will increase in the coming years, it is important to understand all the risk factors involved", explains Dr. Carla Avellaneda, a researcher in the Neurovascular Research Group at IMIM-Hospital del Mar and one of the main authors of the study. Previous studies by the same group had already provided evidence on the relationship between factors such as soot or noise levels and the risk of suffering a stroke and its severity. All these factors act as stroke triggers.
In contrast, having an abundance of green spaces within the same radius from the home directly reduces the risk of suffering a stroke. Specifically, up to 16%. In this sense, "People who are surrounded by greater levels of greenery at their place of residence are protected against the onset of stroke", says Dr. Avellaneda. Exposure to green spaces is generally considered to have beneficial effects through a variety of mechanisms, such as stress reduction, increased physical activity and social contact, and even exposure to an enriched microbiome.
Rethinking established air pollutant limits
In view of this data, the researchers point out that it is necessary to reflect on the current levels of atmospheric pollution that are considered safe. At the moment, the thresholds set by the European Union are 40 µg/m3 for NO2, which the World Health Organisation reduces to 10 µg/m3, and 25 µg/m3 for PM2.5, which the WHO limits to 5 µg/m3. Currently, no levels have been set for soot particles. In fact, the levels recorded during the period analysed were lower, on average, than those set by the European authorities (17 µg/m3 for PM2.5, 35 µg/m3 for NO2 and 2.28 µg/m3 in the case of soot).
"Despite compliance with the levels set by the European Union, we are faced with the paradox that there is still a health risk, such as the one we identified in this study, where there is a direct relationship between exposure to pollutants in our environment and the risk of suffering a stroke", explains Dr. Rosa Maria Vivanco, lead author of the study and researcher at AQuAS and IMIM-Hospital del Mar. "The danger is still present and many more measures need to be taken", considering the increase in the urban population and its ageing, she adds.
In this sense, Dr. Jaume Roquer, head of the Neurology Service at Hospital del Mar and coordinator of the Neurovascular Research Group at IMIM-Hospital del Mar, points out that "This study demonstrates the real impact that environmental aspects have on the health of the Catalan population. In view of the effects of atmospheric pollution, the lack of green spaces, noise, and so forth, more efforts and populational strategies are needed to reduce its impact. Its harmful effects are permanently and globally damaging. We must strive to achieve more sustainable towns and cities where living does not mean an increased risk of disease."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220315113023.htm
When it comes to sleep, it’s quality over quantity
Science Daily/March 15, 2022
University of California - San Francisco
Some people are gifted with genes that pack the benefits of slumber into an efficient time window, keeping them peppy on only four or six hours of sleep a night, according to researchers at UC San Francisco. In addition, the scientists said, these "elite sleepers" show psychological resilience and resistance to neurodegenerative conditions that may point the way to fending off neurological disease.
"There's a dogma in the field that everyone needs eight hours of sleep, but our work to date confirms that the amount of sleep people need differs based on genetics," said neurologist Louis Ptacek, MD, one of the senior authors on the study, which appears in iScience on March 15, 2022 "Think of it as analogous to height; there's no perfect amount of height, each person is different. We've shown that the case is similar for sleep."
For over a decade, Ptacek and co-senior author, Ying-Hui Fu, PhD, both members of the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences, have been studying people with Familial Natural Short Sleep (FNSS), the ability to function fully on -- and have a preference for -- four to six hours of sleep a night. They've shown that it runs in families and, thus far have identified five genes across the genome that play a role in enabling this efficient sleep. There are still many more FNSS genes to find, the researchers said.
This study tested Fu's hypothesis that elite sleep can be a shield against neurodegenerative disease. Her ideas contrast somewhat with current thinking that, for many people, lack of sleep can accelerate neurodegeneration. The difference, Fu said, is that with FNSS, the brain accomplishes its sleep tasks in a shorter time. In other words, less time spent efficiently sleeping may not equate to a lack of sleep.
The team chose to look at mouse models of Alzheimer's disease because that condition is so prevalent, said Fu. They bred mice that had both short-sleep gene and genes that predisposed them to Alzheimer's and found that their brains developed much less of the hallmark aggregates associated with dementia. To confirm their findings, they repeated the experiment using mice with a different short-sleep gene and another dementia gene and saw similar results.
Fu and Ptacek believe that similar investigations of other brain conditions would show the efficient-sleep genes conferring comparable protections. improving peoples' sleep could delay progression of disease across a whole spectrum of conditions, they said.
"Sleep problems are common in all diseases of the brain," she said. "This makes sense because sleep is a complex activity. Many parts of your brain have to work together for you to fall asleep and to wake up. When these parts of the brain are damaged, it makes it harder to sleep or get quality sleep."
Understanding the biological underpinnings of sleep regulation could identify drugs that will help ward off problems with sleep disorders. In addition, improving sleep in healthy people may sustain wellbeing and improve the quality of time we each have, the researchers said. But pursuing the many genes involved is a long game that they liken to putting together a thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle.
"Every mutation we find is another piece," said Ptacek. "Right now we're working on the edges and the corners, to get to that place where it's easier to put the pieces together and where the picture really starts to emerge."
Despite the long road ahead, there's already promise in some of the few genes they've identified. At least one of them can be targeted with existing drugs that might be repurposed. Their hope is that within the next decade, they'll have helped facilitate new treatments that allow people with brain disorders to get a better night's rest.
"This work opens the door to a new understanding of how to delay and possibly prevent a lot of diseases," said Fu. "Our goal really is to help everyone live healthier and longer through getting optimum sleep."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220315112959.htm
Brain stimulation shows promise as treatment for cannabis use disorder in people with schizophrenia
Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) associated with up to 60 per cent reduction in cannabis use in clinical trial
March 3, 2022
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) was associated with a reduction in self-reported cannabis use by up to 60 per cent among people with schizophrenia who have cannabis use disorder (CUD), according to a CAMH-led study just published in the journal NPJ Schizophrenia.
The double-blind study is the first of its kind to investigate the effectiveness of rTMS in treating CUD in people with schizophrenia, and was supported by the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the CAMH Foundation.
"People with schizophrenia have very high rates of cannabis use disorder compared to the general population, and there is strong evidence that cannabis use worsens psychiatric symptoms and quality of life in these people," said senior author CAMH clinician scientist Dr. Tony George. "Despite the known harmful effects, there is currently no approved treatment for CUD with or without schizophrenia. These results indicate rTMS may be a safe and effective way to reduce cannabis among people with schizophrenia."
Until relatively recently, brain stimulation technologies like rTMS were used primarily for treatment-resistant depression. However, studies have now found rTMS to be effective in reducing drug use and cravings for several substance use disorders in the general population.
Study participants were given rTMS treatment at the Temerty Centre for Therapeutic Brain Intervention at CAMH five times a week for four weeks targeting the brain's the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), which is associated with the brain's reward system and executive function.
Those who were given rTMS reported a reduction in cannabis use by up to 60 per cent after 28 days as well as reduced cravings, compared to controls receiving sham rTMS.
The authors state that one of the reasons there is currently no effective treatment for CUD in people with schizophrenia is that people with schizophrenia or other mental illnesses are usually excluded from CUD clinical trials. Dr. George says that CAMH is uniquely positioned to do this kind of research:
"In addition to our ability to conduct clinical trials with brain stimulation at the Temerty Centre, CAMH also has one of the largest schizophrenia outpatient clinics in North America as well as state-of-the-art addiction treatment programs," said Dr. George. "All those factors make CAMH one of the few places in the world that can lead a study like this."
"It was a difficult study to recruit for given the intensity of time commitment required by patients," said study lead author Dr. Karolina Kozak Bidzinski. "However, the awareness patients had of the negative effects cannabis was having on their lives, the expected benefits of reducing their use and noticing the various positive outcomes that would surface throughout the duration of the trial, enabled such a high number of patients to complete the study. Hopefully this work paves the way for more research into investigating the effects of rTMS as a treatment for cannabis use disorder in people with schizophrenia."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220303144146.htm
Employers should nurture friendship and support amongst co-workers to unlock creativity
Co-worker support shared with a partner at home inspires creative thinking
February 18, 2022
Science Daily/University of Bath
The new study from the University of Bath's School of Management reveals care from a co-worker inspires people to be supportive to their partner at home, showing that co-workers have a significant role to play in enabling couples to cope with balancing the demands of work and family life. This spiral of support has knock on benefits for creative thinking at work.
Employers who want to see creative thinking in their workforce should value supportive friendships between colleagues as the key to unlocking more resourcefulness and innovation.
The new study from the University of Bath's School of Management reveals care from a co-worker inspires people to be supportive to their partner at home, showing that co-workers have a significant role to play in enabling couples to cope with balancing the demands of work and family life. This spiral of support has knock on benefits for creative thinking at work.
"Employees take the support they receive from co-workers home with them, and in a loving relationship they transfer this support to their partner. This might mean they encourage them to open up about stresses, seek to resolve issues, or make improvements to the juggle of work-life arrangements that benefits the family," said Professor Yasin Rofcanin from the University of Bath's Future of Work research centre.
"The result is that both members of a couple benefit. Spouses pass on support received from co-workers and partners will be more creative at work, in what is termed a 'gain spiral. So it pays for employers to recognise the value of caring co-workers."
Over and above work policies, or interventions by supervisors, it is informal support from co-workers that stands out as having the biggest impact on an individual's ability to manage the work-life balance, spilling over to benefit the partner at home and in turn their own creative thinking at work.
Co-worker support can mean being on hand to listen and talk through life's issues and challenges as they arise, offering suggestions for problems at home, as well as providing cover for absence if a child is sick, or other caring responsibilities crop up. The research suggests organisations should give employees more flexibility to manage caring cover with a colleague without intervention from managers.
The research also alerts employers to the pitfalls of working practice and expectation taking a toll on home life, encouraging employers to be mindful of the detrimental impact on relationships.
"So much research points to the stresses of being in a dual income couple, it's refreshing to see a win for loving relationships alongside work," said Rofcanin. "While we're not suggesting employers should meddle in relationships, they may be able to positively contribute to the quality of relationships at home by putting policies and procedures in place to minimise work-family conflict, such as limiting over time and expectations to respond to emails outside of hours."
The study, by the Universities of Bath, VU Amsterdam and IESE Business School, focused on diary entries over five weeks by over 200 full-time, dual income heterosexual couples in the United States, eighty per cent of which had children.
The researchers acknowledge that there could be drawbacks in relying on co-workers for support with work and family matters, with partners at home feeling jealous and upset about the closeness of 'work spouse' relationships. They suggest future research could examine the potential of this relationship dynamic to promote conflict at home.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/02/220218100646.htm
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy benefits people with depression through promoting self-kindness
March 9, 2022
Science Daily/University of Exeter
New research shows that Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) can help promote self-kindness in people with a history of depression, thereby putting their bodies in a state of safety and relaxation.
The research, led by the University of Exeter with collaboration from the universities of Oxford and Magdeburg, indicates that MBCT may help break the cycle of highly critical thoughts and feelings of worthlessness, which often lead people with depression to relapse.
Participants treated with MBCT showed a pattern of being kind to themselves, along with body responses of reduced threat response, a state of safety and relaxation that is important for regeneration and healing.
The authors believe the study helps to better understand how MBCT prevents relapse.
MBCT is an effective group-based psychological treatment that helps people change the way they think and feel about their experiences and learn skills that reduce the likelihood of further episodes of depression.
Previous research has shown that individuals with recurrent depression benefit particularly from MBCT when they learn to become more compassionate towards themselves.
This increased self-compassion has been defined as the ability to be kind to ourselves in stressful times.
The researchers studied 50 people who were in remission from depression and at risk for depressive relapse.
25 of this group were tested before and after an eight-week MBCT treatment and compared with an untreated control sample of 25 people with recurrent depression.
Dr Hans Kirschner, of the University of Magdeburg, the first author of the study, said: "It's encouraging to see that an evidence-based treatment like MBCT can help individuals with recurrent depression to move to a kinder self view and a related body state of safety. We hope that this can strengthen individuals' resilience and prevent depressive relapse. Though, this idea must be tested formally in future research."
In contrast, the untreated control group showed body responses indicative of a more adverse response to the self-compassion meditation when they engaged in it a second time.
The study builds on the team's previous research that found that a brief self-compassion exercise can temporarily activate a pattern of self-kindness and feeling safe in healthy individuals.
The researchers wanted to explore this effect in people with depression, and found that the self-compassion exercise alone was not sufficient to bring about the feeling of safety, but that MCBT did so effectively.
Professor Anke Karl, from the University of Exeter, lead author of the study, said: "This study extends our previous research that found that a brief self-compassion exercise can temporarily activate a pattern of self-kindness and feeling safe in healthy individuals but in individuals with recurrent depression this is unlikely to happen without going through an effective psychological therapy that we know addresses vulnerability to relapse."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220309104429.htm
Mindfulness meditation can reduce guilt, leading to unintended negative social consequences
March 4, 2022
Science Daily/University of Washington
Mindfulness meditation is a stress-management practice with ancient lineage that cultivates nonjudgmental awareness of the present moment, often by directing attention to the physical sensations of breathing. Initially inspired by centuries-old Buddhist practices consisting of philosophies and meditations together, today a secular version of mindfulness -- consisting of meditations alone -- is becoming increasingly popular.
There are phone apps that help generate self-awareness and many big corporations are folding mindfulness training programs into their curriculums. But there may be an unanticipated downside to secular mindfulness meditation practices, according to new research led by the University of Washington's Foster School of Business, and published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
"Meditating can reduce feelings of guilt, thus limiting reactions like generosity that are important to human relationships," said lead author Andrew Hafenbrack, an assistant professor in the Foster School who studies mindfulness.
Researchers wanted to know how mindfulness meditation reduces negative emotions, like anger and guilt.
"Negative emotions may not be pleasant, but they can help us navigate social situations and maintain relationships," Hafenbrack said.
"If someone gets really angry and they yell at their boss, or something, and they get fired or make people feel unsafe, then you know that's a bad thing," Hafenbrack said. "Not all negative emotions are the same in terms of the kinds of behaviors that they queue up, though."
When people feel guilty, it tends to make them focus outward, on other people, which can promote reparative actions.
"Meditating for short periods of time is a tool that can make people feel better, like popping an aspirin when they have a headache," Hafenbrack said. "We have a responsibility as researchers to share not only the many positive effects of meditation, but also the inadvertent side effects, such as the potential for it to occasionally relax one's moral compass."
To better understand meditation practices, the researchers conducted eight experiments with more than 1,400 participants in the U.S. and Portugal. Participants varied for each experiment -- some were U.S. adults recruited online, some were graduate students attending a university in Portugal, while another group was mostly undergraduates at the Wharton School of Business.
In their first study, the researchers demonstrated that mindfulness does reduce feelings of guilt. Participants were randomly assigned to either write about a past situation that made them feel guilty or write about their previous day. Then, they listened to either an eight-minute guided mindfulness meditation recording that instructed them to focus on the physical sensations of breathing or an eight-minute control condition recording in which they were instructed to let their minds wander. Participants who listened to the mindfulness recording reported feeling less guilt compared to those in the mind-wandering control group. This was true whether they had written about a guilty situation or their previous day.
The team then ran six other experiments to test whether mindfulness meditation would influence prosocial reparative behaviors, like making up with a friend after doing something that caused harm.
For example, in two experiments all participants were asked to recall and write about a time they wronged someone and felt guilty, before being randomly assigned to meditate or not. After that, they were asked to allocate a hypothetical $100 between a birthday gift for the person they had wronged, a charity for African flood victims, and themselves. Participants who had meditated allocated approximately 17% less to the person they had wronged compared to those who had not meditated.
The psychological process behind these allocation differences was reduced guilt. These and three other, similar experiments established that mindfulness meditation reduces the tendency to make amends for harming others.
"This research serves as a caution to people who might be tempted to use mindfulness meditation to reduce emotions that are unpleasant, but necessary to support moral thoughts and behavior," said co-author Isabelle Solal, an assistant professor at ESSEC Business School in Cergy-Pointoise, France.
While focused breathing meditation is the most popular form of meditation, used in mindfulness programs such as the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction approach and Google's Search Inside Yourself, the study also explored loving kindness meditation, which appears in those programs as well. Loving kindness meditation consists of imagery exercises in which one evokes other people and sends wishes that each is happy, well and free from suffering.
In the final experiment, participants once again wrote about a time they wronged someone and felt guilty, before listening to either a focused breathing mindfulness meditation recording or a loving kindness meditation recording. Participants in the loving kindness group reported higher intentions to contact, apologize to, and make up with people they had harmed compared to participants in the focused breathing meditation group. The difference was explained by participants' increased focus on others and feelings of love.
"Our research suggests that loving kindness meditation may allow people to have the stress-reduction benefits of meditation without the cost of reducing repair, because it increases focus on others and feelings of love," said co-author Matthew LaPalme, who was a research scientist at Yale University and now works at Amazon.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220304101008.htm
Mindfulness therapy reduces opioid misuse and chronic pain in primary care, according to new research
March 1, 2022
Science Daily/University of Utah
Results from a new clinical trial demonstrate that an eight-week mindfulness-based therapy -- Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement (MORE) -- decreased opioid use and misuse while reducing chronic pain symptoms, with effects lasting as long as nine months. This is the first large-scale clinical trial to demonstrate that a psychological intervention can simultaneously reduce opioid misuse and chronic pain among people who were prescribed opioid pain relievers.
The study, published in the peer-reviewed journal JAMA Internal Medicine, followed 250 adults with chronic pain on long-term opioid therapy who met the criteria of misusing opioids. Most participants took oxycodone or hydrocodone, reported two or more painful conditions and met the clinical criteria for major depression. More than half of participants also had a diagnosable opioid use disorder.
Study participants were randomly assigned to either a standard supportive psychotherapy group, or a MORE group, both engaging in eight weekly two-hour group sessions, as well as 15 minutes of daily homework. The study treatment groups were delivered in doctor's offices, in the same clinical care setting where patients received their opioid pain management. Researchers measured the participants' opioid misuse behaviors; symptoms of pain; depression, anxiety and stress; and opioid dose through a nine-month follow-up. Opioid craving was measured at three random times a day, prompted by a text message sent to the participants' smartphones.
Nine months after the treatment period ended, 45% of participants in the MORE group were no longer misusing opioids, and 36% had cut their opioid use in half or greater. Patients in MORE had more than twice the odds of those in standard psychotherapy to stop misusing opioids by the end of the study. Additionally, participants in the MORE group reported clinically significant improvements in chronic pain symptoms, decreased opioid craving and reduced symptoms of depression to levels below the threshold for major depressive disorder.
"MORE demonstrated one of the most powerful treatment effects I've seen," said Eric Garland, lead author of the study, director of the Center on Mindfulness and Integrative Health Intervention Development at the University of Utah and the most prolific author of mindfulness research in the world. "There's nothing else out there that works this well in alleviating pain and curbing opioid misuse."
"Remarkably, the effects of MORE seem to get stronger over time," said Garland, who developed MORE and has been studying it for over a decade. "One possible explanation is that these individuals are integrating the skills they've learned through MORE into their everyday lives." Garland also hypothesized that, based on previous research, the sustained benefits might be related to MORE's ability to restructure the way the brain processes rewards, helping the participants' brains shift from valuing drug-related rewards to valuing natural, healthy rewards like a beautiful sunset, the bloom of springtime flowers or the smile on the face of a loved one.
MORE combines meditation, cognitive-behavioral therapy and principles from positive psychology into sequenced training in mindfulness, savoring and reappraisal skills.
Participants are taught to break down the experience of pain or opioid craving into their sensory components, "zooming in" on what they are feeling and breaking it down into different sensations like heat, tightness or tingling. They are trained to notice how those experiences change over time, and to adopt the perspective of an observer. They are also taught to savor pleasant, healthful and life-affirming experiences, amplifying the sense of joy, reward and meaning that can come from positive, everyday events. Finally, participants are taught to reframe stressful events to find a sense of meaning in the face of adversity, to recognize what can be learned from difficult events and how dealing with those experiences might make a person stronger.
Garland explained, "Rather than getting caught up in the pain or craving, we teach people how to step back and observe that experience from the perspective of an objective witness. When they can do that, people begin to recognize that who they truly are is bigger than any one thought or sensation. They are not defined by their experiences of pain or craving; their true nature is something more."
People experiencing both chronic pain and opioid misuse present a significant treatment challenge, since opioid use disorder has been shown to increase pain sensitivity, which in turn promotes further opioid misuse. By simultaneously reducing pain and opioid use, MORE may offer an effective, economical and lifesaving intervention to help halt the ongoing opioid crisis.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220301192410.htm
Exercise may treat long COVID-induced diabetes, depression
March 11, 2022
Science Daily/Pennington Biomedical Research Center
While no medically recognized treatment exists for Long COVID, exercise may break the vicious cycle of inflammation that can lead to developing diabetes and depression months after a person recovers from the virus.
"We know that Long COVID causes depression, and we know that it can increase blood glucose levels to the point where people develop diabetic ketoacidosis, a potentially life-threatening condition common among people with type 1 diabetes," said Candida Rebello, Ph.D., a research scientist at Pennington Biomedical Research Center. "Exercise can help. Exercise takes care of the inflammation that leads to elevated blood glucose and the development and progression of diabetes and clinical depression."
It's unclear how many people suffer from Long COVID. But estimates range from 15 percent to 80 percent of the people infected. Based on those figures, it's possible that as many as 1 million of Louisiana's residents suffer from Long COVID.
Long COVID causes what the Centers for Disease Control describes as "a constellation of other debilitating symptoms" including brain fog, muscle pain, and fatigue that can last for months after a person recovers from the initial infection.
"For example, a person may not get very sick from COVID-19, but six months later, long after the cough or fever is gone, they develop diabetes,' Dr. Rebello said.
One solution is exercise. Dr. Rebello and her co-authors describe their hypothesis in "Exercise as a Moderator of Persistent Neuroendocrine Symptoms of COVID-19," published in the journal Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews.
"You don't have to run a mile or even walk a mile at a brisk pace," Dr. Rebello said. "Walking slowly is also exercising. Ideally, you would do a 30-minute session of exercise. But if you can only do 15 minutes at a time, try to do two 15-minute sessions. If you can only walk 15 minutes once a day, do that. The important thing is to try. It doesn't matter where you begin. You can gradually build up to the recommended level of exercise."
"We know that physical activity is a key component to a healthy life. This research shows that exercise can be used to break the chain reaction of inflammation that leads to high blood sugar levels, and then to the development or progression of type 2 diabetes," said Pennington Biomedical Executive Director John Kirwan, Ph.D., who is also a co-author of the paper.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220311095317.htm
Physical activity may protect your brain as you age
Even just a few more steps a day benefits cognitive function
March 8, 2022
Science Daily/University of Georgia
We all know we should exercise and eat healthy. But doing that isn't just good for maintaining your figure as you age.
New research from the University of Georgia shows that physical activity could help protect your cognitive abilities as you age. And it doesn't have to be intense exercise to make an impact.
"This finding isn't saying, 'If you're older, you need to go out there and start running marathons,'" said Marissa Gogniat, lead author of the study and a recent doctoral graduate in psychology from the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. "This is saying if you get more steps, if you're moving around your environment a little bit more, that can be helpful to your brain health and keep you more independent as you age."
Exercise improves brain function
Published in Sport Sciences for Health, the study followed 51 older adults, tracking their physical activity and fitness measurements. The participants performed tests specifically designed to measure cognitive functioning and underwent MRIs to assess brain functioning.
They also wore a device that measured the intensity of the wearer's physical activity, number of steps taken and distance covered. The researchers assessed fitness through a six-minute walking test, during which participants walked as quickly as they could to cover the most distance possible within the time limit.
"We've always been told it's good to exercise, but I think this is some evidence that exercise can actually change your brain," Gogniat said. "And that impacts the way you're able to function in your daily life."
Brain networks improve with physical activity
The brain is made up of a bunch of distinct networks. Those networks are in constant communication, sending information to each other.
But different parts of the brain are active at different times. The network that is active when the body is at rest, for example, flips off when a person starts trying to complete a task. At that time, another network kicks on.
While one of these networks is active, the other should be shut off. If it's not, that's a sign that a person's brain isn't functioning as well as it should be.
These networks are the key to being able to perform basic tasks in daily life, such as remembering important information and exhibiting self-control. But as people age, these tasks often become more difficult.
This study was the first to examine how these networks interact with physical activity and fitness to impact how the brain functions.
"This paper is exciting because it gives us some evidence that when people whose brain networks aren't functioning optimally engage in physical activity, we see improvement in their executive function and their independence," Gogniat said. "We're not saying you need to radically change your life.
"Maybe just take the stairs on the way to work. Stand up and walk around a little bit more. That's where you get the most bang for your buck, not crazy, high-intensity exercise."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220308155637.htm
Higher education and language skills may help ward off dementia
March 3, 2022
Science Daily/University of Waterloo
New research has found that people with mild cognitive impairment may not inevitably develop dementia and, in fact, having higher education and advanced language skills more than doubles their chances of returning to normal.
The study, led by researchers at the University of Waterloo, may reassure those with mild cognitive impairment as it contradicts a common assumption that the condition is simply an early stage of dementia. People with mild cognitive impairment show signs of cognitive decline, but not enough to prevent them from performing typical daily tasks. They have been considered at higher risk of progressing to the more severe cognitive decline seen in dementia.
"Possessing high cognitive reserve -- based on education, high academic grades, and written language skills -- may predict what happens years after someone receives a diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment," said Suzanne Tyas, a professor in the School of Public Health Sciences at Waterloo and lead author. "Even after considering age and genetics -- established risk factors for dementia -- we found that higher levels of education more than doubled the chances that people with mild cognitive impairment would return to normal cognition instead of progressing to dementia."
The study also found that language skills, whether reflected in high grades in English in school or in strong writing that was grammatically complex and full of ideas, were also protective.
The researchers discovered that almost one-third of 472 women diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment reverted to normal cognition at least once over an average of eight-and-a-half years following their diagnosis, with more than 80 per cent of them never developing dementia.
Almost another third of the total number progressed to dementia without ever reverting to normal cognition, while three per cent stayed in the mild cognitive impairment stage, and 36 per cent died. None of the participants reverted from dementia to mild cognitive impairment.
The researchers also highlighted that reverse transitions are much more common than progressing to dementia in relatively younger individuals who didn't carry a certain genetic risk factor and had high levels of education and language skills.
"We can't do much about age and genetics, so it's encouraging that our findings show that there are other ways to reduce the risk of dementia, such as building cognitive reserve through education and language skills earlier in life," Tyas said.
The study's findings have implications for treatment and research in people with mild cognitive impairment.
"If individuals with higher cognitive reserve are more likely to improve even without treatment, then this needs to be taken into consideration when recruiting participants for clinical trials of prospective treatments and when interpreting the results of these trials," Tyas said, adding there's no cure for most causes of dementia, so prevention is key.
For the analysis, researchers used complex modelling with data drawn from a longitudinal study called the Nun Study, which looked at older, highly educated religious sisters. The participants were mostly homogeneous, with similar socioeconomic status and marital and reproductive history, strengthening the conclusions of this work.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220303095634.htm
Blood pressure medications impact brain function
March 2, 2022
Science Daily/University of Minnesota Medical School
Published in Science, University of Minnesota Medical School researchers found that blood pressure medications have an unanticipated effect on the brain.
The research team discovered that drugs used to treat blood pressure unexpectedly increase the effect of opioids that the brain naturally produces. This can fine-tune the function of a specific brain circuit and counteract the addictive properties of opiates like fentanyl, which are used to treat pain.
"Our findings suggest a new strategy to boost opioid signaling in the brain in a way that is protective and beneficial, with a very low risk of dependence or addiction," said Patrick Rothwell, PhD, an assistant professor of neuroscience at the U of M Medical School and Medical Discovery Team on Addiction.
The study focused on angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE), which has long been known to regulate blood pressure. However, little is known about the function of ACE in the brain.
Based on the study findings, Rothwell recommends further research on ACE inhibitors, a safe class of drugs used to control blood pressure. ACE inhibitors have the potential to be redesigned to treat brain conditions.
This research was funded by Minnesota's Discovery, Research, and Innovation Economy (MnDRIVE) initiative, and the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The project was led by Brian Trieu, an MD/PhD candidate working in the Rothwell lab.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220302185942.htm
Physical fitness linked to lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease
February 28, 2022
Science Daily/American Academy of Neurology
People who are more physically fit are less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease than people who are less physically fit, according to a preliminary study released today, February 27, 2022, that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 74th Annual Meeting being held in person in Seattle, April 2 to 7, 2022 and virtually, April 24 to 26, 2022.
"One exciting finding of this study is that as people's fitness improved, their risk of Alzheimer's disease decreased -- it was not an all-or-nothing proposition," said study author Edward Zamrini, MD, of the Washington VA Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and a member of the American Academy of Neurology. "So people can work toward making incremental changes and improvements in their physical fitness and hopefully that will be associated with a related decrease in their risk of Alzheimer's years later."
The study involved 649,605 military veterans in the Veterans Health Administration database with an average age of 61 who were followed for an average of nine years. They did not have Alzheimer's disease at the start of the study.
Researchers determined participants' cardiorespiratory fitness. Cardiorespiratory fitness is a measure of how well your body transports oxygen to your muscles, and how well your muscles are able to absorb oxygen during exercise.
The participants were divided into five groups, from least fit to most fit. Fitness levels were determined by how well participants did on a treadmill test. This test measures exercise capacity, the highest amount of physical exertion a person can sustain. For people who are middle-aged and older, the highest level of fitness can be achieved by walking briskly most days of the week, for two and a half hours or more per week.
The group with the lowest level of fitness developed Alzheimer's at a rate of 9.5 cases per 1,000 person-years, compared to 6.4 cases per 1,000 person-years for the most fit group. Person-years take into account the number of people in a study as well as the amount of time spent in the study. The case rate decreased as the level of fitness increased, with a rate of 8.5 for the second least fit group, 7.4 for the middle group and 7.2 for the second most fit group.
When researchers adjusted for other factors that could affect risk of Alzheimer's disease, they found that the people in the most fit group were 33% less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease than those in the least fit group. The second most fit group was 26% less likely to develop the disease, while the middle group was 20% less likely and those in the second least fit group were 13% less likely to develop the disease than those in the least fit group.
"The idea that you can reduce your risk for Alzheimer's disease by simply increasing your activity is very promising, especially since there are no adequate treatments to prevent or stop the progression of the disease," Zamrini said. "We hope to develop a simple scale that can be individualized so people can see the benefits that even incremental improvements in fitness can deliver."
A limitation of the study was participants were mostly white men so results may not be generalizable to other populations.
The study was supported by the National Institute on Aging, the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the Washington D.C. VA Medical Center and George Washington University.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/02/220228125736.htm
Depression and Alzheimer’s disease share genetic roots
February 17, 2022
Science Daily/Elsevier
Epidemiological data have long linked depression with Alzheimer's disease (AD), a neurodegenerative disease characterized by progressive dementia that affects nearly 6 million Americans. Now, a new study identifies common genetic factors in both depression and AD. Importantly, the researchers found that depression played a causal role in AD development, and those with worse depression experienced a faster decline in memory. The study appears in Biological Psychiatry, published by Elsevier.
Co-senior author Aliza Wingo, MD, of Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, USA, said of the work, "It raises the possibility that there are genes that contribute to both illnesses. While the shared genetic basis is small, the findings suggest a potential causal role of depression on dementia."
The authors performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS), a technique that scans the entire genome for areas of commonality associated with particular conditions. The GWAS identified 28 brain proteins and 75 transcripts -- the messages that encode proteins -- that were associated with depression. Among those, 46 transcripts and 7 proteins were also associated with symptoms of AD. The data suggest a shared genetic basis for the two diseases, which may drive the increased risk for AD associated with depression.
Although previous studies had examined AD and depression using GWAS, the current work was made more powerful by using larger, newly available data sets that revealed more detailed information.
"This study reveals a relationship between depression and Alzheimer's disease and related dementia at the genetic level," said co-senior author Thomas Wingo, MD. "This is important because it may explain, at least in part, the well-established epidemiologic association between depression and higher risk for dementia."
Dr. A. Wingo added, "This relationship raises the question of whether treatment of depression can mitigate the risk for dementia. We identified genes that may explain the relationship between depression and dementia here that merit further study. Such genes may be important treatment targets for both depression and reduction of dementia risk."
"The costs of ineffectively treated depression continue to mount. There has been increasing evidence that major depressive disorder increases the risk for Alzheimer's disease, but little insight into this relationship," John Krystal, MD, Editor of Biological Psychiatry, said. "This innovative study, which links genetic risk mechanisms to molecular changes in the brain, provides the clearest link to date supporting the hypothesis that depression plays a causal role in the biology of Alzheimer's disease."
This does not mean that if one has an episode of depression that dementia is an inevitable result. Instead, it suggests that ineffectively treated depression may aggravate the biology of Alzheimer's disease, potentially hastening the onset of symptoms and increasing the rate of functional decline."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/02/220217122344.htm
Exercise can help older adults retain their memories
Pooling data from dozens of experiments let researchers show whose brains benefit the most from exercise
February 17, 2022
Science Daily/University of Pittsburgh
Conducting a meta-analysis of 3,000 patients over 36 studies (carefully vetted from more than 1,200 studies in all), psychologists were able to find that specific exercise helps episodic memory -- 3 times a week for 4 months, with greater improvements among those who are age 55 to 68 years.
We all know exercise is good for us, but that still leaves plenty of questions. How much exercise? Who benefits the most? And when in our lives? New research led by University of Pittsburgh psychologists pools data from dozens of studies to answer these questions, showing that older adults may be able to prevent declines in a certain kind of memory by sticking to regular exercise.
"Everyone always asks, 'How much should I be exercising? What's the bare minimum to see improvement?' " said lead author Sarah Aghjayan, a Clinical and Biological Health Psychology PhD student in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences. "From our study, it seems like exercising about three times a week for at least four months is how much you need to reap the benefits in episodic memory."
Episodic memory is the kind that deals with events that happened to you in the past. It's also one of the first to decline with age. "I usually like to talk about the first time you got behind the wheel of a car," said Aghjayan. "So you might remember where you were, how old you were, who was in the passenger seat explaining things to you, that feeling of excitement."
Exercise that gets the heart pumping has shown promise in increasing brain health, and experiments in mice show that it improves memory -- but studies looking at the same link in humans have come out mixed.
Seeking clarity in the muddy waters of the scientific literature, the team pored over 1,279 studies, eventually narrowing them down to just 36 that met specific criteria. Then they used specialized software and no small number of Excel spreadsheets to transform the data info a form where the different studies could be directly compared.
That work paid off when they found that pooling together those 36 studies was enough to show that for older adults, exercise can indeed benefit their memory. The team, including Aghjayan's advisor Kirk Erickson in the Department of Psychology and other researchers from Pitt, Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Iowa, published their results in the journal Communications Medicine on Feb. 17.
Past analyses looking at connections between exercise and memory didn't find one, but Aghjayan and her team took several extra steps to give them the best chance of finding a link if one did exist. They limited their search to particular groups and age brackets as well as a specific kind of rigorous experimental setup. Another key was focusing specifically on episodic memory, which is supported by a part of the brain that's known to benefit from exercise.
"When we combine and merge all this data, it allows us to examine almost 3,000 participants," Aghjayan said. "Each individual study is very important: They all contribute to science in a meaningful way." Individual studies, however, may fail to find patterns that actually exist because of a lack of resources to run a big enough experiment. The studies individually couldn't find a link between exercise and memory -- it took looking at the whole body of research to bring the pattern into focus.
With that much larger pool of participants, the team was able to show a link between exercise and episodic memory, but also was able to start to answer more specific questions about who benefits and how.
"We found that there were greater improvements in memory among those who are age 55 to 68 years compared to those who are 69 to 85 years old -- so intervening earlier is better," Aghjayan said. The team also found the greatest effects of exercise in those who hadn't yet experienced any cognitive decline, and in studies where participants exercised consistently several times a week.
There are still questions left to be answered. The team's analysis couldn't answer how the intensity of exercise affects the memory benefits, and there's plenty to learn about the mechanism behind the link. But the implications for public health are clear: Exercise is an accessible way older adults can stave off memory declines, benefiting themselves, their caretakers and the healthcare system, Aghjayan said.
"You just need a good pair of walking shoes, and you can get out there and move your body."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/02/220217090610.htm
Weighing up: What’s the bottom line when it comes to weight loss?
March 3, 2022
Science Daily/University of South Australia
When it comes to weight loss, many of us have dabbled in the latest diets. But whether you're cutting carbs or keeping to keto, new research from the University of South Australia shows that diet trends can cost more than your waistline and leave a hefty hole in your hip pocket.
In a new study, UniSA researchers have evaluated the affordability of popular diets, comparing them to the recommendations within the Australian Guide to Health Eating (AGHE), and the Mediterranean Diet, finding that costs of cutting your calories can vary by up to $300 per week.
The research shows that the most cost-effective diet was modelled from the AGHE and adapted for weight loss through calorie restriction. This meal plan included all five core food groups and a range of affordable staple items such as breads, pasta, and legumes, as well as lower amounts of animal products.
The diet plans that were most expensive typically restricted multiple food groups and included premium products such as organic produce, protein supplements, low-carbohydrate replacements, and high protein bread.
In Australia, more than 2.5 million Australians had tried a weight loss diet.
Lead researcher Associate Professor Karen Murphy says understanding the costs of weight loss programs is important, especially when people are facing financial struggles and reduced access to fresh produce amid COVID-19 and current floods.
"In Australia, around 12.5 million adults are overweight or obese. That's two in every three adults, or 67 per cent of our adult population," Assoc Prof Karen Murphy says.
"Not surprisingly, interest in weight loss diets continues to rise, yet very rarely are the associated costs of these programs reported.
"In our research, we assessed the weekly costs of seven different meal plans and found that weekly grocery shopping of entire product units cost between $345-$625, which is substantially higher than more than what the average Australian spends on groceries each week.
"Understanding the costs behind the range of diets on offer is important as the financial feasibility of sticking to these programs may be questionable for certain people, including low-income earners.
"Additionally, there tends to be a misconception that consuming a healthy diet made up of the five key food groups, like the AGHE, is too expensive, which it's really not."
The study showed that some of the more expensive diets absorbed up to 13 per cent of disposable income*.
In addition to costs, UniSA PhD candidate, Ella Bracci, says nutrition is also key to starting a new diet.
"It doesn't matter whether you chose keto or carb-free, weight loss is always linked to calorie intake -- if you reduce the number of calories you consume, you will lose weight," Bracci says.
"Some diets purposely restrict certain food groups -- such breads and pasta -- to help change unhealthy habits. But it's also important to realise that the restrictive patterns of some diets can create unhealthy relationships with food and put you at risk of nutritional deficiency if followed without guidance from a qualified nutritionist or dietitian.
"Healthy eating principles such as those within the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating (AGHE) and the Mediterranean Diet place an emphasis on fresh produce and staple foods. While an incorrect perception exists that these can cost more, eating a healthy diet doesn't need to break the bank.
"Shop for specials and mark-downs, buy in season or frozen, dried and canned produce, choose home-brand or non-premium products where possible, and buy in bulk where appropriate.
"Weigh up your options wisely and you can reduce your waistline without cutting into your bottom line."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220303112233.htm
Prenatal mindfulness program improves stress response in infants
March 10, 2022
Science Daily/University of California - San Francisco
Infants whose mothers participated in a mindfulness-based program during pregnancy had healthier stress responses at 6 months old, a new UC San Francisco study found.
This is the first known study to show that a prenatal social intervention may improve health outcomes in offspring, as measured by autonomic nervous system responses, said Amanda Noroña-Zhou, PhD, first author of the study in Psychosomatic Medicine.
"It is really well established that maternal stress in pregnancy increases the risk for health problems in the children," said Noroña-Zhou, PhD, a clinical psychologist affiliated with UCSF's Center for Health and Community. "But we haven't had a good understanding of how this process unfolds and of the biological mechanisms underlying it, or whether we can buffer the effects of stress on negative health outcomes."
The researchers studied 135 mother-infant dyads from low-income, racially and ethnically diverse backgrounds who were experiencing high stress in their lives. Infants whose mothers underwent an eight-week mindfulness-based program had a faster cardiovascular recovery from stressful interactions, as well as more self-soothing behavior, than those who didn't.
An ability to "bounce back" from stress is tied to better health outcomes later in life, said Nicki Bush, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry and pediatrics in the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences and the senior author on the study.
"There has been so little research on what we can do in the positive lane; it's been mostly about showing the negative effects of prenatal stress," Bush said. "This is the next frontier -- interventions for moms that have positive effects on both mom and baby."
Quick Recovery from a Stressful Event
The study follows one from 2019 showing the same mindfulness intervention reduced stress and depression in mothers, as well as improved their glucose tolerance and physical activity levels.
To elicit the infants' stress response, mothers were trained in the "still face paradigm," whereby the mothers played with their children for two minutes, then held a completely neutral facial expression for two minutes and ignored the babies' bids for attention. They repeated the play-ignore cycle and ended with two minutes of play.
Using electrodes, the researchers collected measurements of the infants' autonomic nervous system activity -- the fight-or-flight and rest-and-digest responses -- during the exercise. Trained observers, who were unaware of treatment status, also coded the infants' behavior responses.
The fight-or-flight response of babies whose mothers had undergone the mindfulness program was more acute when they were being ignored by their mothers and also receded more quickly after the stressor went away than babies in the control group. The treatment-group babies engaged in more self-soothing behavior, such as sucking their thumbs and looking at their hands, as well.
"A strong reaction and quick recovery are healthy, because we want our bodies to be ready for action when something is wrong, then go back to normal easily," Bush said. "The babies whose mothers did not receive the intervention had a more delayed response. They didn't respond strongly until the threat had passed, and then they didn't calm down easily after the threat was over."
Support for a Two-Generation Approach
The team intentionally chose mothers for their research who had a high level of stress due to their life situations, including financial strain and health challenges, to ensure the intervention worked for those who might benefit from it the most, said Bush.
"We hope this kind of data can embolden policymakers and advocates to say, hey, this was an inexpensive, group-based intervention that reduced mothers' depression and stress, and may improve babies' long-term wellbeing at the same time" Bush said.
Such "two-generation" programs that address caregivers and children at the same time are becoming more popular in California. Last year's state budget dedicated $800 million to creating a dyadic care benefit for Medi-Cal patients, which will allow caregivers and babies to be treated for behavioral health needs together. Home visiting programs, in which pregnant and new mothers receive visits from early childhood professionals who provide parenting guidance, is up for a proposed $50 million increase in the 2022-23 state budget.
"Pregnancy is an incredible window of opportunity for both mothers and babies," said Bush. "We could, as a society, save a lot of money while doing the right thing for the next generation."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220310143732.htm
Air pollution linked to depressive symptoms in adolescents
Higher ozone levels predicted increase in depressive symptoms over time, study finds
March 14, 2022
Science Daily/American Psychological Association
Exposure to ozone from air pollution has been linked to an increase in depressive symptoms for adolescents over time, even in neighborhoods that meet air quality standards, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association.
Ozone is a gas that is produced when various pollutants from motor vehicle exhaust, power plants and other sources react to sunlight. Higher ozone levels have been linked to various physical ailments, including asthma, respiratory viruses and premature death from respiratory causes. This study is the first to link ozone levels to the development of depression symptoms in adolescents over time. Those symptoms may include persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, difficulty with concentration, sleep disturbances and thoughts about suicide.
"I think our findings really speak to the importance of considering air pollution's impact on mental health in addition to physical health," said lead researcher Erika Manczak, PhD, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Denver.
The researchers analyzed data from a previous study about early life stress with 213 adolescent participants (aged 9 to 13 years old) in the San Francisco Bay area. The researchers compared data about the adolescents' mental health over a four-year period with Census tracts for their home addresses and air quality data for those tracts from the California Environmental Protection Agency.
Adolescents who lived in areas with relatively higher ozone levels showed significant increases in depressive symptoms over time, even though the ozone levels in their neighborhoods didn't exceed state or national air quality standards. The findings weren't affected by the participants' sex, age, race, household income, parental education or socioeconomic characteristics of their neighborhoods. The research was published online in Developmental Psychology.
"It was surprising that the average level of ozone was fairly low even in the communities with relatively higher ozone exposure," Manczak said. "This really underscores the fact that even low levels of ozone exposure have potentially harmful effects."
Ozone and other components of air pollution can contribute to high levels of inflammation in the body, which has been linked to the onset and development of depression. Adolescents may be especially sensitive to these effects because they spend more time outdoors.
The study included a relatively small sample size from one area of the United States. The findings are correlational so it can't be proven that ozone levels caused an increase in depressive symptoms, only that there is a link between them. It's also possible that other components of air pollution besides ozone could be a factor.
Because air pollution disproportionately affects marginalized communities, ozone levels could be contributing to health disparities, Manczak said. Communities also should consider ways to reduce ozone exposure, such as holding youth sporting events indoors when necessary and limiting driving during peak hours of air pollution alerts. Investment in clean and renewable energy sources that reduce air pollution also could be helpful.
"I believe state and federal air quality standards should be stricter, and we should have tighter regulations on industries that contribute to pollution," Manczak said. "Our findings and other studies suggest that even low levels of ozone exposure can pose potentially serious risks to both physical and mental health."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220314095659.htm
Frequent external childcare can affect children's behavior
March 10, 2022
Science Daily/University of Zurich
How does childcare outside of the family affect the development of children and adolescents? To answer this question, researchers at the University of Zurich surveyed around 1,300 Zurich school children, their parents and teachers. The survey suggests that the more time children spend in external daycare, the more likely they are to exhibit problematic behavior; however, this behavior generally disappears at the end of primary school.
The Jacobs Center for Productive Youth Development at the University of Zurich has conducted a study to examine how external childcare influences the development of children into young adulthood. The analyzed data were collected as part of the Zurich Project on the Social Development from Childhood into Adulthood (z-proso) and consisted of around 1,300 school children aged between seven and 20 in the city of Zurich.
Effects at primary school age
Around 67 percent of the children in the survey received external childcare before entering kindergarten. 32 percent of these children attended a daycare center, and 22 percent a playgroup. Another 22 percent received care from an external family member, 3 percent from acquaintances or neighbors, and 12 percent from daycare mothers. The researchers asked the children as well as their parents and teachers about externalizing or internalizing behavior problems, delinquency and substance use. The survey showed that the observed behaviors in primary school-aged children differed depending on the respondents and the type of external daycare.
According to the parents, primary school pupils were more likely to show aggression, display symptoms of ADHD, and experience anxiety and depression the more time they had spent in a daycare center before entering school. This finding was also supported by some of the children's own assessments. According to the teachers, hyperactivity, lack of impulse control, inattention or aggression were more likely to occur in school children who had spent more than two days a week with a daycare mother or at least three days a week in a playgroup.
Problem behavior usually disappears
How can these findings be explained? "It's possible that external childcare may lessen the strength of child-parent attachment and interaction," says first author Margit Averdijk. But it is also possible that children in center-based care or playgroups learn problem behavior from their peers and sometimes use it to get attention from caregivers.
"Although we can't directly check which of these mechanisms is the most likely explanation for our results, both of them support our findings," explains the researcher. The good news is that the problematic behavior observed in primary school-aged children decreases as the children get older and mostly disappears from the age of 13. Symptoms of ADHD were the only ones to persist into adolescence.
No general link to substance use in adolescents
Moreover, the researchers found no evidence that generally links external childcare settings to delinquency and substance use in adolescents. An exception was the link between daycare attendance and substance use, which persisted into young adulthood for those from vulnerable backgrounds. "Our study indicates that these children are also more likely to experience anxiety or depression as they grow older, which may become more acute as a result of the parents' absence," Averdijk explains.
Interpret with caution
"Our study sheds light on some possible unfavorable links between external childcare and children's later development," says last author Manuel Eisner. However, the professor of sociology urges not to jump to conclusions. He adds that while the study meets the highest scientific standards, it is based on observational data and surveys that do not always allow clear conclusions to be drawn about causation. Furthermore, the study was not able to take into account the quality of childcare received outside of the family.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220309140902.htm
Study hints at how early life experiences may affect brain wiring
Observing brain development in mice offers insights into neurological diseases
March 9, 2022
Science Daily/Ohio State University
A new study of brain development in mice shortly after birth may provide insights into how early life events can affect wiring patterns in the brain that manifest as disease later in life -- specifically such disorders as schizophrenia, epilepsy and autism.
Researchers focused on two types of brain cells that have been linked to adult neurological disorders: neurons in a modulating system nestled deep in the brain and other neurons in the cortex, the brain's outermost layer, that counteract excitation in other cells using inhibitory effects. The modulating cells send long-range cables to the cortex to remotely influence cortical cell activity.
The study is the first to show that these two types of cells communicate very early in brain development. A chemical released from the modulating cells initiates the branching, or arborization, of axons, the long, slender extensions of nerve cell bodies that transmit messages, on the cortical cells -- and that arborization dictates how effective the cells in the cortex are at doing their job.
Though there is still a lot to learn about the impact of this cellular interaction in the postnatal brain, the researchers said the study opens the door to a better understanding of how neurological diseases in adults may relate to early-life events.
"It's known that abnormal early-life experiences can impact kids' future sensation and behavior. This finding may help explain that kind of mechanism," said Hiroki Taniguchi, associate professor of pathology in The Ohio State University College of Medicine and senior author of the study.
"This study provides new insight into brain development and brain pathology. It's possible that during development, depending on animals' experiences, this modulating system activity can be changed and, accordingly, the cortical circuit wiring can be changed."
Taniguchi completed the work with co-authors André Steinecke and McLean Bolton while he was an investigator at the Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience.
The research is published today (March 9, 2022) in the journal Science Advances.
The study involved chandelier cells, a type of inhibitory neurons in the cortical section of the brain, and neurons of the cholinergic system -- one of the systems that monitor the environment and the internal state, and send signals to the rest of the brain to trigger memory and appropriate behaviors.
"Both of these types of cells have been separately studied in the context of adult functions or modulations so far. The developmental role of cholinergic neurons in the brain wiring remains poorly understood," Taniguchi said.
Chandelier cells are named for the spray of signal-transmitting synapses (called synaptic cartridges) at the branch terminals that resemble candles of a traditional chandelier, a pattern that gives them inhibitory control over hundreds of cells at a time.
"These cells have output control," said Steinecke, first author of the study who is now working at Neuway Pharma in Germany. "Chandelier cells can put a brake on excitatory cells and tell them they're not ready to fire. As inhibitory cells, chandelier cells are thought to regulate waves of firing -- which is important, because the waves contain information that is transmitted over large distances of the brain."
Previous post-mortem studies have shown that the synaptic terminals located at the end of chandelier cell axons appear to be reduced in the brains of patients with schizophrenia.
"This axonal 'arbor' being reduced suggests they don't make as many connections to downstream targets, and the connections themselves are also altered and don't work that well," Steinecke said.
The team used two techniques to observe chandelier cells during early-life brain development in mice: genetically targeting and using a dye to label and detect cells that differentiate into chandelier cells, and transplanting genetically manipulated cells back into animals shortly after birth.
"This enabled us to watch brain development as it happens and manipulate conditions to test what the mechanisms are," Taniguchi said.
The researchers first observed how chandelier cell axons develop their branching structures, noting that small protrusions emerging from axons were the first signs that branches would sprout. And they identified the chemical needed to start that sprouting process -- the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, which is released by cholinergic system cells.
The interaction between the distant cell types was confirmed through a series of experiments: Knocking out receptors that bind to acetylcholine and decreasing activity of cholinergic neurons lessened branch development, and making cholinergic neurons more likely to fire led to more widespread branching.
"The key is that we didn't previously know how neuromodulatory systems regulate the cortical circuits -- and both of them have been implicated in brain diseases," Taniguchi said. "Now that we've found that cholinergic neurons could remotely impact cortical circuit development, especially cortical inhibitory signals, the question is what kind of environment or emotional state of change can impact cortical inhibitors' development? We may want to see if we can find a link as a next step."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220309140836.htm
Reading builds resilience among at-risk kids
March 8, 2022
Science Daily/University of South Australia
As children settle back into a new school year, families are being encouraged to read to their children at home, as new research from the University of South Australia shows that reading aloud can triple a child's resilience at school, particularly for children at-risk.
Focussing on early primary-aged children who had suffered abuse or neglect, the study explored factors that could modify the negative effects of adverse life circumstances, finding that one of the biggest predictors of resilience in both boys and girls in struggling families was being read to at home.
While reading to children at home has long been associated with school readiness and scholastic outcomes, this is the first study that has shown the benefits of reading to mitigate some of the detrimental trajectories of child maltreatment.
In Australia in 2021, nearly 300,000 children aged 0-17years had one or more child protection notifications with 105,000 the subject of an investigation and nearly 50,000 the subject of substantiated abuse or neglect.
The study found that victims of child maltreatment are generally more developmentally vulnerable than their peers at the start of school.
Lead researcher, Professor Leonie Segal says there is an acute need to support these children and their families, before the children start school, with reading being a key factor for success.
"A good start to school is predictive of later outcomes, so it's vital that we not only identify those at risk early on, but also find ways to support children's emotional, social and physical development, before they start school," Prof Segal says.
"Reading out loud can create many positive outcomes for children. As a shared experience between parent and child, it encourages connection, while also directly contributing to child development through exposure to words and stories.
"Children in families that are struggling to create a nurturing environment will especially benefit from reading with a parent or carer, improving their resilience and keeping them developmentally more on track, despite their adversity exposure."
The study analysed data covering 65,083 children who had completed the Early Australian Development Census (AEDC) at 5 to 6 years old, when starting primary school, identifying 3414 high-risk children who had experienced maltreatment.
Boys were found to be developmentally behind girls, particularly those who had been exposed to abuse or neglect.
Prof Segal says the education sector must look at strategies to better support boys in early learning environments.
"Our study found that boys had a much higher risk of being developmentally behind than girls, as did children living in remote or rural areas, and those with a physical, sensory, or learning disability. All these groups need far greater supports," Prof Segal says.
"Paying particular attention to boys, especially those who are victims of child maltreatment is critical. Encouraging parents to read to their boys while valuable, is not enough, the onus is on the education sector to identify other mechanisms to support boys."
"This could include recruiting more male educators into early childhood settings and ensuring learning approaches are sensitive to the specific needs of boys."
"Males currently make up less than five per cent of the early childhood education workforce, with their presence in primary schools also declining. Boosting the gender balance among educators could be an important step to helping boys."
"Understanding which attributes can help young children to be more resilient -- or conversely which factors can put them at greater risk -- can form the basis of interventions for child victims of maltreatment to improve life trajectories."
"Every child deserves the chance for a bright future. We must not overlook those most at risk."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220308102826.htm