Tag: nutrition

Categories : AgeingTags :

Lifestyle Interventions Reverse the DNA Methylation Ageing ‘Clock’

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Source: Pixabay/CC0

The results of a clinical trial showed that appropriate diet and exercise are able, to some extent, to reverse the DNA methylation ageing ‘clock’.

Lead author Kara Fitzgerald, ND IFMCP, at The Institute for Functional Medicine, explained: “Advanced age is the largest risk factor for impaired mental and physical function and many non-communicable diseases including cancer, neurodegeneration, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.”

Methylation clocks are based on systematic methylation changes with age. DNAmAge clock specifically demonstrates about 60% of CpG sites losing methylation with age and 40% gaining methylation.

The researchers conducted a randomised controlled clinical trial conducted among 43 healthy adult males between the ages of 50-72. The 8-week treatment programme included diet, sleep, exercise and relaxation guidance, and supplemental probiotics and phytonutrients.

Genome-wide DNA methylation analysis was conducted on saliva samples using the Illumina Methylation Epic Array and DNAmAge was calculated using the online Horvath DNAmAge clock tool.

The researchers found that the diet and lifestyle treatment resulted in a 3.23 years decrease in DNAmAge compared with controls.

With a strong trend to significance, DNAmAge of those in the treatment group decreased by an average 1.96 years by the end of the program compared to those individuals’ baseline.

Nearly a quarter of the DNAmAge CpG sites are located in glucocorticoid response elements, indicating a likely relationship between stress and accelerated ageing. Cumulative lifetime stress has been shown to be linked to accelerated ageing of the methylome.

Other findings include that PTSD contributes to accelerated methylation age; and that greater infant distress is associated with an underdeveloped, younger epigenetic age.

The researchers tentatively accepted the hypothesis that the methylation pattern, from which the DNAmAge clock is computed, is a driver of ageing, thus they expect that attempting to directly influence the DNA methylome using diet and lifestyle to set back DNAmAge should lead to a healthier, more ‘youthful’ metabolism.

The Fitzgerald Research Team concluded, “it may be that emerging ‘omics’ approaches continue to evolve our understanding of biological age prediction and reversal beyond DNA methylation alone. Integration of our future understanding of multi-omics data should therefore be considered in the future trials of candidate age-delaying interventions.”

Source: Aging

Journal information: Fitzgerald, K. N., et al. (2021) Potential reversal of epigenetic age using a diet and lifestyle intervention: a pilot randomized clinical trial. AGING-US. doi.org/10.18632/aging.202913.

Categories : Diet and Nutrition General Interest Mental HealthTags :

Bulimia Experience as a Teen Shaped Man’s Healthy Recipe Project

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A UK man who started a project coming up with gut-healthy-recipes said that it was “shaped” by his having had bulimia in his teenage years.

Clinician and scientist Dr Sunni Patel, 35, said as a teen he thought he was “chubby” and experienced the eating disorder when he was aged 15 to 18.

Binge eating was his “solace” he said, and he used religious fasting “as a cover”.

Dr Patel started a website sharing recipes, and he urged people not to underestimate how gut health affects mental health.

“I’d find comfort and my escapism via food.”
Dr Sunni Patel

He said he would fast for four days a week, eating fruit at the end of the day.

Being from a traditional Asian background, the way “one looks and acts tends to be judged a lot more”, he said.

“Because I’d got bulimia as a get out, I’d binge eat. I might eat six or seven crisp packets at one sitting. I’d find comfort and my escapism via food.”

Suffering bullying at school, Dr Patel said that there was “pressure as a teenager to look cool”. He said that “the thinner I got, the more attractive I felt”. Bulimia became the “solution”, he added.

As he lost weight, he began receiving compliments which would “feed the beast”.

At least 1.5 million people in the UK have an eating disorder, experts estimate, with 25% being male. Bulimia nervosa is a condition that occurs most commonly in adolescent females, though it can appear in just about any patient. It is characterised by indulgence in binge-eating, and inappropriate compensatory behaviours to prevent weight gain.

Dr Patel said after he went to university he stopped, “I wasn’t able to find the safe space to have the… episodes, I didn’t want the truth to come out.”

From around the age of 24, he received cognitive behavioural therapy and in recent years has had psychotherapy.

“I was diagnosed with gut issues in 2014 and that’s when I started exploring the link between gut health and depression. As my diet became healthier so did my mind.”

A business director as well as a clinician, he now comes up with gut-healthy-recipes that are shared on his Dish Dash Deets website, set up during the COVID pandemic, where he also keeps a blog.

Included in his recipes are his top foods to combat depression and low mood, such as bananas, berries, beans and lentils.

He said to anyone that is in a similar position to his, “find a safe person to talk to”, who would not judge, adding: “Don’t feel any shame. You’re human.”

“The more that you rely on it, you use it as your way of escaping, the more it becomes your norm,” he said.

He also currently does live cook-alongs on Instagram with invited celebrities and chefs.

“Food is still my escapism. Now I enjoy being in the kitchen and making things that will serve my needs, not make things worse.”

Source: BBC News

Categories : Ageing Diet and Nutrition Neurodegenerative DiseasesTags :

A Mediterranean Diet Keeps Dementia at Bay

On By ModernMedia
A dish full of vegetables which could be in a Mediterranean diet.

Researchers have reported that a Mediterranean diet may reduce the risk of developing dementia and cognitive loss, helping preserve memory functions as people age.

Specifically, the diet appears to lower the level of amyloid and tau proteins that are linked with dementia. People following the Mediterranean diet, already noted for its numerous health benefits, scored better on memory tests than those who were not following the diet.

The first of these proteins, amyloid protein, forms plaques in the brain, whereas the second, tau protein, forms tangles. Both are present in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s, though they are not uncommon in the brains of healthy older people, too.

“These results add to the body of evidence that shows what you eat may influence your memory skills later on,” said study author Tommaso Ballarini, PhD, of the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases in Bonn, Germany. He adds:

Studies have linked good health with the foods that people living in Greece, Spain, and Italy ate before the 1960s. This diet consists primarily of vegetables and fruits, nuts and seeds, legumes, potatoes, whole grain foods, seafood, extra virgin olive oil, and wine in moderation. Poultry, eggs and dairy products are present to a limited extent, while red meat, added sugar, refined grains and oils, and processed foods are typically lacking in a Mediterranean diet.

Kristin Kirkpatrick, a dietitian at Cleveland Clinic told Medical News Today that the contents of a Mediterranean diet offers beneficial “omega-3 fatty acids, polyphenols, specific minerals, fiber, and protein” that “may support the brain’s health and protection throughout the years.”

However, Kirkpatrick cautioned that, “A diet, even one with strong clinical data on its benefit, is only as healthy as the individuals who choose its structure.”

Sensible portion sizes are important, she noted and warned against the “consumption of processed foods that are marketed as heart-healthy or contain the components seen in a traditional Mediterranean approach.”

The investigators recruited 512 individuals from the German Centre for Neurodegenerative Diseases’ Longitudinal Cognitive Impairment and Dementia StudyTrusted Source. Participant  assessments showed that 343 were at a higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease while the other 169 people were “cognitively normal.”

Participants filled in questionnaires regarding the food they ate the previous month and the investigators asked them to record their intake of 148 specific food items. Participants were scored on their diet’s similarity to a Mediterranean diet, the most similar receiving a 9 and the least similar a 1. Since this was a self-reported study on eating habits, errors or misrepresentations are possible.

Individuals also took cognitive tests designed to detect the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. The tests assessed five areas: memory, working memory, language, executive functions, and visuospatial abilities. MRI brain scans determined each individual’s brain volume.

Finally, the researchers analyzed spinal fluid from a subsample of 226 participants who gave their consent, assessing the presence and amounts of the two biomarker proteins: amyloid and tau.

After adjusting for sex, age, and education, the scientists identified several clear links between better cognitive health and a Mediterranean diet.

The investigators  reported that:

  • Every dietary score point lower than 9 was linked to almost 1 year of the brain ageing that occurs in Alzheimer’s disease progression.
  • Participants who most closely followed the Mediterranean diet had fewer amyloid and tau protein biomarkers in their spinal fluid than those who had lower dietary scores.
  • People on the Mediterranean diet scored better on memory tests than people who were not.

Dr Ballarani concluded that, “More research is needed to show the mechanism by which a Mediterranean diet protects the brain from protein buildup and loss of brain function, but findings suggest that people may reduce their risk for developing Alzheimer’s by incorporating more elements of the Mediterranean diet into their daily diets.”

Source: Medical News Today

Categories : Cancer Diet and NutritionTags :

Could Cutting Sugary Drinks Reduce Cancer Risk in Women?

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A higher intake of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) in adulthood and adolescence was linked to an increased risk of early-onset colorectal cancer (CRC) in women, according to data from a large prospective study.

The Nurses’ Health Study II followed over 95 000 registered nurses from 1991 to 2015. Those consuming at least two SSB servings a day in adulthood had more than double the early-onset CRC risk of those consuming less than one serving a week. This rose by 16% with each extra serving per day.

In the adolescent years of ages 13 to 18, each serving-per-day increment was associated with a 32% higher risk of early-onset CRC. Meanwhile, replacing each SSB serving per day for adults with a serving of a non-SSB drink was associated with a 17-36% lower risk.

“Considering the well-established, adverse health consequences of SSBs and the highest consumption being characterized in adolescents and young adults under age 50 years, our findings reinforce the public health importance of limiting SSB intake for better health outcomes,” Yin Cao, ScD, MPH, of Washington University in St. Louis, and co-researchers wrote.

Although CRC has been on the decline, the age of early onset — that is, diagnosed before age 50 — has been increasing the past two decades. In comparison to adults born around 1950, those born around 1990 had twice the colon cancer risk and four times the rectal cancer risk.

An estimated 12% of the US population currently consume more than three SSB servings per day, as shown by National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data. SSBs in the US are often include high fructose corn syrup as an ingredient, as opposed to South Africa which uses cane sugar.

In this study, the population consisted overwhelmingly of white females, ages 25 to 42, with an average age of approximately 42 at enrollment. Over up to 24-plus years of follow-up, 109 cases of early-onset CRC were recorded.

The researchers found that those with higher SSB intakes in adulthood tended to be less physically active and more likely to have a lower endoscopy history, to use non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and consume red and processed meats. They were also less likely to take multivitamins and to have a reduced intake of alcohol, fibre, folate, and calcium, and to have a poorer diet overall.

No association was found between intake of artificially sweetened beverages or fruit juice in adulthood and risk of early-onset CRC, mirroring past research.

The investigators listed a number of possible pathways for the effect of SSBs on early-onset CRC. 

For example, compared with isocaloric solid foods, energy-containing beverages do not create a feeling of satiation, leading to weight gain. SSBs also initiate rapid blood glucose response and insulin secretion, possibly leading to insulin resistance, inflammation, obesity, and type 2 diabetes — metabolic conditions which are linked to heightened CRC risk.

Other possibilities include intestinal dysbiosis and endotoxemia caused by high fructose levels , the principal sweetener in SSBs in the US and certain other countries, which can impair gut barrier function, increasing gut permeability, and possibly promote cancer formation. A recent experimental study suggested that the high-fructose corn syrup in SSBs from the US enhanced the growth of aggressive tumours in mice, regardless of weight and metabolic syndrome.

High-fructose corn syrup has also been linked to metabolic dysregulation, regardless of obesity.

Fortunately, overall SSB intake has been trending downward in recent years, and Dr Cao and co-authors concluded that further limiting consumption may be “an actionable strategy to curb the rising incidence of [early-onset] CRC.”

Study limitations, the researchers said, included possible unknown confounding variables, the few early-onset CRC cases prevented pinpointing the window of exposure, and there weren’t enough diabetic participants to stratify by a personal history of diabetes. Since the participants were mostly white women, the results were not readily generalisable to other ethnic groups or to men.

Source: MedPage Today

Source Reference: Hur J, et al “Sugar-sweetened beverage intake in adulthood and adolescence and risk of early-onset colorectal cancer among women” Gut 2021; DOI: 10.1136/gutjnl-2020-323450.

Categories : Cardiovascular Disease Diet and NutritionTags :

A Daily Cup of Leafy Vegetables Can Slash Heart Disease Risk

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Eating just one cup of nitrate-rich vegetables each day can significantly reduce the risk of heart disease by up to 26%, according to research from New Edith Cowan University (ECU).

The study sought to find out whether people eating a diet with higher quantities of nitrate-rich vegetables, such as leafy greens and beetroot, had lowered blood pressure, and it also examined whether these same people were less likely to have a heart disease diagnosis in later years.

Cardiovascular diseases are a leading cause of deaths around the world, attributed to some 13 million deaths in 2010 and making up one in every four deaths.

The study examined the diets of over 50 000 people in Denmark, who took part in the Danish Diet, Cancer, and Health Study over a 23-year period. People who consumed the greatest amounts of nitrate-rich vegetables had about a 2.5 mmHg lower systolic blood pressure, and their risk of heart disease was 12 to 26% lower.

The results were published in the European Journal of Epidemiology. It is a collaboration between Edith Cowan University, the Danish Cancer Society and The University of Western Australia.  

Lead researcher Dr Catherine Bondonno from ECU’s Institute for Nutrition Research said that it was a priority to identify diets that prevent heart disease.

“Our results have shown that by simply eating one cup of raw (or half a cup of cooked) nitrate-rich vegetables each day, people may be able to significantly reduce their risk of cardiovascular disease,” Dr Bondonno said.

“The greatest reduction in risk was for peripheral artery disease (26 percent), a type of heart disease characterized by the narrowing of blood vessels of the legs, however we also found people had a lower risk of heart attacks, strokes and heart failure.”

The study found that only one cup of nitrate-rich vegetables was needed for optimum results, and it didn’t seem that there were any more benefits from eating more.

“People don’t need to be taking supplements to boost their nitrate levels because the study showed that one cup of leafy green vegetables each day is enough to reap the benefits for heart disease,” Dr Bondonno said. “We did not see further benefits in people who ate higher levels of nitrate rich vegetables.”

Dr Bondonno added that some shortcuts such as adding a cup of spinach when making a banana or berry smoothie could be an easy way to include more daily leafy greens.

“Blending leafy greens is fine, but don’t juice them. Juicing vegetables removes the pulp and fiber,” Dr Bondonno said.

The research adds to a growing body of evidence linking vegetables generally and leafy greens specifically with improved cardiovascular health and muscle strength.

Source: Medical Xpress

Journal information: Catherine P. Bondonno et al, Vegetable nitrate intake, blood pressure and incident cardiovascular disease: Danish Diet, Cancer, and Health Study, European Journal of Epidemiology (2021). DOI: 10.1007/s10654-021-00747-3

Categories : Diet and Nutrition Immune SystemTags :

Too Much Salt can Disrupt the Immune System

On By ModernMedia
Salt shaker spilling table salt. Image by Bruno /Germany from Pixabay

Researchers have found that, besides raising blood pressure, too much salt can disrupt the immune system by affecting their energy balance in immune calls and weakening them.

Back in 2015, the researchers had found that raised sodium concentrations in the blood affect both the activation and the function of patrolling monocytes — the precursors to macrophages.

“But we didn’t know exactly what was happening in the cells,” said Dr Sabrina Geisberger of the Berlin Institute for Medical Systems Biology (BIMSB) at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC). She is lead author of the study of an international research team led by MDC scientists together with colleagues from University of Regensburg and from Flanders Institute for Biotechnology (VIB) /Hasselt University in Belgium.

The researchers began in the lab by measuring the metabolism immune cells exposed to high salt concentrations.

Changes appeared after just three hours. “It disrupts the respiratory chain, causing the cells to produce less ATP and consume less oxygen,” explained Prof Geisberger. ATP (adenosine triphosphate) powers all cells, providing energy for the ‘chemical work’—synthesising proteins and other molecules—needed for muscle power and metabolic regulation. ATP is produced in the mitochondria, the cell’s ‘power plant,’ using a complex series of biochemical reactions known as the respiratory chain. “Salt very specifically inhibits complex II in the respiratory chain.”

Consequences include the monocytes maturing differently due to a lack of energy. “The phagocytes, whose task is to identify and eliminate pathogens in the body, were able to fight off infections more effectively. But this could also promote inflammation, which might increase cardiovascular risk,” explained Professor Dominik Müller of the Experimental and Clinical Research Center (ECRC). Salt was shown to affect the functioning of human phagocytes in the same way.

Researchers at the ECRC then conducted a study in which healthy male participants six grammes of salt in tablet form to their usual diet every day for 14 days. In another clinical study, the researchers investigated a familiar scenario: eating a pizza from an Italian restaurant. After analysing the monocytes in the participants’ blood, they saw that the mitochondrial  dampening effect doesn’t just happen after an extended time with high salt intake—it also happens after a single pizza. The pizza experiment showed that the effect was fairly short. After eight hours, the effect was barely measurable.

“That’s a good thing. If it had been a prolonged disturbance, we’d be worried about the cells not getting enough energy for a long time,” commented Prof Müller. Mitochondrial activity is therefore not permanently stalled. However, the risk remains if a person eats very salty foods throughout the day. The pizza, incidentally, contained ten grammes of salt. Nutrition experts recommend that adults limit their daily intake to five or six grammes at most. The calculation includes the salt that is hidden in processed foods.

“The fundamental finding of our study is that a molecule as small as the sodium ion can be extremely efficient at inhibiting an enzyme that plays a crucial role in the respiratory chain,” said biochemist and metabolomics expert Dr Stefan Kempa of BIMSB. “When these ions flood into the mitochondria—and they do this under a variety of physiological conditions—they regulate the central part of the electron transport chain.” It therefore seems to be a fundamental regulatory mechanism in cells.

The next step is determining whether salt influences this mechanism in other cell types. Prof Kleinewietfeld believes that this is extremely likely because mitochondria aren’t just present in immune cells; they exist in every cell of the body, save for red blood cells.

Though the way in which different cell types regulate sodium influx into the mitochondria is still not properly understood, the study confirms that overconsumption of salt is unhealthy. “Of course the first thing you think of is the cardiovascular risk. But multiple studies have shown that salt can affect immune cells in a variety of ways. If such an important cellular mechanism is disrupted for a long period, it could have a negative impact—and could potentially drive inflammatory diseases of the blood vessels or joints, or autoimmune diseases,” said Professor Markus Kleinewietfeld of Hasselt University and VIB.

Source: Medical Xpress

More information: Sabrina Geisberger et al, Salt Transiently Inhibits Mitochondrial Energetics in Mononuclear Phagocytes, Circulation (2021). DOI: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.120.052788

Categories : Allergies Diet and NutritionTags :

Common Probiotic Altered to Grow in Dairy Products

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A glass of milk. Source: Pixabay via Pexels

Researchers at the University of Helsinki have created a strain of the Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus GG probiotic that can reproduce in dairy products.

Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus GG, or LGG, is the most studied probiotic bacterium in the world. However, it cannot utilise lactose found in milk or break down the milk protein casein. This makes the bacterium grow poorly in milk and is the reason why it must be added separately to probiotic dairy products.

While attempts have been made to get L. rhamnosus GG to thrive in milk through genetic engineering, strict restrictions have prevented the use of such modified bacteria in human food.

Thanks to a recent breakthrough made at the University of Helsinki, Finland, with researchers from the National Institute for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, Pakistan, features have now been successfully added to the LGG probiotic without gene editing, making it able to grow in milk.

The method instead took advantage of conjugation, a DNA exchange technique used in certain bacterial groups to transfer their traits to other bacteria. A bacterium produces a copy of its plasmid, a ring-shaped piece of DNA, and then transfers it to an adjacent bacterium. The spread of plasmids, which carry traits useful for bacteria, can be rapid among bacterial communities – and can also further the spread of problematic traits such as antibiotic resistance.

A specific Lactococcus lactis bacterial strain grown in the same place provided the lactose and casein-utilising plasmid to the Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus GG.

“The new LGG strain is not genetically modified, which makes it possible to consume it and any products containing it without any permit procedures,” explained project leader Per Sari, Professor of Microbiology at the University of Helsinki.

The new strain can be used as a starting point in the development of new dairy products where the probiotic concentration increases already in the production stage. In other words, the probiotic need not be separately added to the final product. Furthermore, lactose- and casein-hydrolysing bacteria added to milk could help produce products suitable for people with dairy allergies.

This new LGG strain could also be better suited to growing in the infant gut, where it can utilise the casein and lactose in breastmilk to grow, thereby producing more protective lactic acid than the original strain.

“Lactic acid lowers the pH of the surface of the intestine, reducing the viability of many gram-negative pathogenic bacteria, such as E. coli, Salmonella and Shigella, which threaten the health of infants. Moreover, in larger numbers the new LGG strain can potentially be more effective at protecting infants than the old strain. After all, LGG has previously been shown to alleviate infantile atopic dermatitis and boost the recovery of the gut microbiota after antibiotic therapies.”

The researchers are in discussions about further applications of their research.

Source: News-Medical-Net

Journal information: Hussain, N., et al. (2021) Generation of Lactose- and Protease-Positive Probiotic Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus GG by Conjugation with Lactococcus lactis NCDO 712. Applied and Environmental Microbiology. doi.org/10.1128/AEM.02957-20.

Categories : Mental HealthTags :

Dietary Supplement Treats Schizophrenia in Mouse Model

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A study has found that a simple dietary supplement reduces behavioral symptoms in mice with a genetic mutation that causes schizophrenia. 

Schizophrenia is estimated to affect about 1 in 100 people globally and is one of the top 15 leading causes of disability worldwide.

The study examined the role of betaine in schizophrenia, as it is known to be reduced in the brains of schizophrenia patients. Betaine, often associated with sweetness or umami flavours, was first isolated from sugar beets and is acquired through the diet and also produced in the body. Betaine supplements are already used clinically to treat the metabolic disease homocystinuria.

“I don’t encourage anyone to take betaine for no reason, if a doctor has not recommended it. But, we know this drug is already used clinically, so repurposing it to treat schizophrenia should be safe,” said study leader Professor Nobutaka Hirokawa, MD, PhD, from the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Medicine.
“There are treatments for schizophrenia, but they have side effects and unfortunately there is still no effective drug for patients to take that we can explain biochemically why it works,” Prof Hirokawa added.

Genetic studies have found possible links between schizophrenia and variations in the kinesin family 3b (kif3b) gene as well as another gene involved in the body’s production of betaine. The researchers categorised all 45 members of the kinesin superfamily of genes in mammals, most of which encode motor proteins that move materials throughout the cell. Together with another protein kinesin superfamily, the KIF3B protein transports cargo throughout a neuron, travelling up and down the cell’s skeleton.

The researchers mice used to model schizophrenia which had only one functional copy of the kif3b gene. These mice have different behaviours to normal mice such as avoiding social interactions and being less startled by a sound test. The Kif3b mutant mice that were raised on a diet with triple the normal amount of betaine had normal behaviour.

To work out why betaine had this effect on mice, researchers grew nerve cells with the kif3b mutation in the laboratory and added fluorescent labels so they could watch the development of cellular skeleton.

Kif3b mutant neurons grown in the lab have an unusual, overly branched structure with too many dendrites, unlike the normal tree-like shape of healthy neurons. Similar overly branched neurons are also seen in brain samples donated by people with schizophrenia, regardless of any treatments or medications they took while alive.

During healthy neuron development, the cell’s main body fills with a skeleton component called tubulin. Meanwhile, the cell’s front growth cone builds outwards in a spiky, erratic dance due to the movements of another skeleton component known as filamentous actin. In kif3b mutants, this dancing movement, which experts refer to as lamellipodial dynamics, is reduced and the distinction between tubulin and actin is blurred.

Chemical analyses of the brains of kif3b mutant mice and human schizophrenia patients reveal significant chemical damage to CRMP2, a protein which helps assemble actin. This damage causes the proteins to clump together. However, betaine is known to prevent the kind of chemical damage, carbonyl stress, responsible for CRMP2 dysfunction.

“In postmortem brains of schizophrenia patients, CRMP2 is the protein in the brain with the most carbonyl stress. Betaine likely eliminates the carbonyl stress portion of the schizophrenia equation,” said Hirokawa.

It appears that by shielding CRMP2 from damage, betaine treatment allows kif3b mutant neurons to build normal structures, allowing the remaining functional KIF3B protein can shuttle cargo around the cell. Other in vitro experiments showed that KIF3B and CRMP2 can bind together, but their exact relationship remains unclear.

“We know that the amount of betaine decreases in schizophrenia patients’ brains, so this study strongly suggests betaine could be therapeutic for at least some kinds of schizophrenia,” said Hirokawa.

Source: Medical Xpress

Journal information: Shogo Yoshihara et al. Betaine ameliorates schizophrenic traits by functionally compensating for KIF3-based CRMP2 transport, Cell Reports (2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2021.108971

Categories : Diet and Nutrition PaediatricsTags :

Junk Food Impacts Bone Growth in Kids

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Burger and chips. Photo by Jonathan Borba on Unsplash

A new study has found that ultra-processed foods (aka junk food) impacts bone quality, showing how damaging these can be especially in younger children.

The Hebrew University study provides the first comprehensive analysis showing the manner in which such foods impact skeletal development.  

Junk foods go through many processing stages, and contain non-dietary ingredients. They are easily accessible, can be eaten without preparation and fairly cheap, and their increasing presence in diets is contributing to worldwide obesity with its associated metabolic impacts.

Children tend to like junk food. As much as 70% percent of their caloric consumption are estimated to come from ultra-processed foods. While numerous studies have reflected on the overall negative impact of junk food, few have focused on its direct developmental effects on children, particularly young children.

Studying lab rodents with skeletons in post embryonic growth stages, they found that those exposed to ultra-processed foods suffered from stunted growth and compromised bone strength. With histological examination, high levels of cartilage were found in the epiphyseal plates at the end of bones. The RNA genetic profiles of cartilage cells exposed to ultra-processed food also showed signs of impaired boned development.

In order to understand how eating habits might impact bone development, the researchers replicated this kind of food intake for the rodents. “We divided the rodents’ weekly nutritional intake—30% came from a ‘controlled’ diet, 70% from ultra-processed foods,” said Monsonego-Ornan. They found that the rodents experienced bone density moderate damage though there were fewer signs of cartilage buildup in their growth plates. “Our conclusion was that even in reduced amounts, the ultra-processed foods can have a definite negative impact on skeletal growth.”

Children and adolescents eat junk foods in great quantities, with half of American minors eating junk food daily. Monsonego-Ornan added. “When Carlos Monteiro, one of the world’s leading experts on nutrition, said that there is no such thing as a healthy ultra-processed food, he was clearly right. Even if we reduce fats, carbs nitrates and other known harmful substances, these foods still possess their damaging attributes. Every part of the body is prone to this damage and certainly those systems that remain in the critical stages of development.”

Source: Medical Xpress

Journal information: Janna Zaretsky et al. Ultra-processed food targets bone quality via endochondral ossification, Bone Research (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41413-020-00127-9

Categories : Cardiovascular DiseaseTags :

Energy Drinks Linked to Heart Failure in Young Man

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In the journal BMJ Case Reports, doctors have warned that heavy energy drink consumption may be linked to heart failure, after treating a 21 year old man who had drunk 2 litres of the drinks every day for 2 years.

This report adds to the growing body of published evidence on, and mounting concerns about, the potential heart harms of these drinks, the authors stated.

The young man in the case report experienced 4 months of progressive shortness of breath on exertion, breathlessness while lying down (orthopnoea), and weight loss before ending up in intensive care.

He habitually drank an average of four 500 ml cans of energy drink every day: each can contains 160 mg of caffeine plus taurine (a protein included in energy drinks for its cytoprotective benefits) and various other ingredients. He said he had been doing this for around 2 years. In the past he had also suffered bouts of indigestion, tremor and palpitations for which he hadn’t sought medical help. In the 3 months before he was admitted to hospital, he had discontinued his university studies because he was feeling so unwell and lethargic.

Testing revealed heart and kidney failure, both of which were severe enough to consider putting him on the list for a dual organ transplant. The kidney failure was due to an unrelated condition.

However, his heart symptoms and function improved significantly with drug treatment and after he cut out energy drinks completely. “However, it is difficult to predict the clinical course of recovery or potential for relapse,” caution the authors.

The authors noted that besides this case report, there have been several others as well as review articles that have highlighted mounting concerns about the potential cardiovascular system harms of energy drinks.

The authors theorised that one factor may be caffeine overstimulating the sympathetic nervous system; energy drinks are also known to increase blood pressure and can trigger heart rhythm abnormalities.

“Clear warnings should be provided about the potential cardiovascular dangers of energy drink consumption in large amounts,” the authors concluded.

“I think there should be more awareness about energy drinks and the effect of their contents,” added the subject of this case report. “I believe they are very addictive and far too accessible to young children.”

Source: Medical Xpress

Journal information: Case report: Energy drink-induced cardiomyopathy, BMJ Case Reports (2021). DOI: 10.1136/bcr-2020-239370