Gary‘s Daily Health News - Vol. 15

Resveratrol can help to reduce inflammation, study finds

Georgia State University September 28, 2021 

 

 

A component of red wine and grapes can help control inflammation induced by a bacterial pathogen that is linked to upper respiratory tract inflammatory diseases such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD) and middle ear infection (otitis media), according to a study by researchers at Georgia State University.

 

The findings, published in the online journal Scientific Reports, identify a novel mechanism that resveratrol, a compound found naturally in some plant foods such as grapes, uses to alleviate inflammation in airway disease. The results suggest this compound could offer health benefits and be used to develop new, effective anti-inflammatory therapeutic agents.

 

"We showed that an important component in red wine and also grapes called resveratrol can suppress inflammation," said Dr. Jian-Dong Li, a senior author of the study, director of the Institute for Biomedical Sciences at Georgia State and a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar. "It has been shown that resveratrol can suppress inflammation, but how it regulates inflammation still remains largely unknown. We found that resveratrol suppresses a major bacterial pathogen causing otitis media and COPD by upregulating or increasing the production of a negative regulator called MyD88 short."

 

Resveratrol belongs to a group of compounds called polyphenols that are thought to act like antioxidants and protect the body against damage. It has long been considered a therapeutic agent for various diseases, including inflammatory diseases. In the study, resveratrol was effective against inflammation caused by nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi), a major respiratory pathogen.

 

An appropriate amount of inflammation in the body is beneficial for defense against bacterial infection, but uncontrolled inflammation leads to inflammatory diseases. Upper respiratory tract inflammatory diseases such as asthma and COPD affect more than half a billion people worldwide and are characterized by chronic inflammation that is aggravated by respiratory pathogens such as NTHi. Asthma results in 250,000 deaths annually and is the leading cause of hospitalizations in children younger than 15 in the United States. COPD is the third leading cause of death in the U.S., and the World Health Organization predicts it will be the fifth most significant contributor to worldwide disease by 2020. Otitis media is the most common bacterial infection and also the leading cause of conductive hearing loss in children.

 

Antibiotics are routinely used to treat NTHi infections, but the increasing numbers of antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains and the limited success of currently available pharmaceuticals used to manage the symptoms of these diseases present an urgent need for the development of non-antibiotic therapeutics.

 

This study found for the first time that resveratrol decreases NTHi-induced expression of pro-inflammatory mediators in airway epithelial cells and in the lungs of mice by enhancing MyD88 short, a negative regulator of inflammatory signaling pathways. MyD88 short is considered a "brake pedal protein" because it can tightly control inflammation induced by this respiratory pathogen. It could be a critical target with significant therapeutic potential for suppressing inflammation associated with chronic airway disease.

 

The researchers also found that resveratrol has anti-inflammatory effects after NTHi infection, which demonstrates its therapeutic potential.

 

"The findings help us to shed light on developing new therapeutic strategies by targeting or pharmacologically upregulating MyD88 short production," Li said. "We could use resveratrol to suppress inflammation or develop resveratrol derivatives that could be pharmacological agents to suppress inflammation using the same strategy."

 

 

 

 

 

Cognitive function maintained among elderly who feel good about life

University of Michigan, September 28, 2021

Feeling happy about life slowed the cognitive decline among older adults in China, a new 12-year study suggests.

Researchers found that the odds of developing cognitive impairment, such as dementia, were lower in those with better psychological well-being.

While previous studies have reported the benefits of positive psychology on cognitive functions, the research only tracked individuals for a short time, which can underestimate the association between psychological well-being and cognitive change.

Knowing more about cognitive impairment is an important public health issue in an aging society, said Lydia Li, professor of social work at the University of Michigan and the current study's co-author.

"The findings have implications for policy and practice regarding supporting older people to preserve cognitive function in older age, given that psychological well-being is modifiable," she said.

In addition, enhancing the psychological well-being of older adults not only improves their quality of life, but may also lessen the burden and cost associated with cognitive impairment, Li said.

Data came from a subset of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey. The sample included nearly 9,500 respondents aged 60 and older without any cognitive impairments at baseline (2002). The respondents were interviewed five times between 2002 and 2014.

About 2,640 respondents had onset of cognitive impairment at one of the follow-up interviews, and the numbers slightly increased over time, from nearly 11% during the 2002-2005 interval to 13.3% in the 2011-2014 interval.

To assess psychological well-being, respondents answered questions about their optimism, conscientiousness, loneliness, self-esteem and other factors. They also disclosed what social support they received, such as visits from family and friends, as well as their health status.

Although the research focused entirely on Chinese residents, Li said there's no reason the findings could not be applied to other racial, ethnic or geographic groups.

The research was published in the Journal of Aging and Health.

 

 

Children who eat more fruit and vegetables have better mental health

University of East Anglia, September 28, 2021

Children who eat a better diet, packed with fruit and vegetables, have better mental wellbeing—according to new research from the University of East Anglia.

A new study published today is the first to investigate the association between fruit and vegetable intakes, breakfast and lunch choices, and mental wellbeing in UK school children.

It shows how eating more fruit and veg is linked with better wellbeing among secondary school pupils in particular. And children who consumed five or more portions of fruit and veg a day had the highest scores for mental wellbeing.

The study was led by UEA Health and Social Care Partners in collaboration with Norfolk County Council.

The research team say that public health strategies and school policies should be developed to ensure that good quality nutrition is available to all children before and during school to optimize mental wellbeing and empower children to fulfill their full potential.

Lead researcher Prof Ailsa Welch, from UEA's Norwich Medical School, said: "We know that poor mental wellbeing is a major issue for young people and is likely to have long-term negative consequences.

"The pressures of social media and modern school culture have been touted as potential reasons for a rising prevalence of low mental wellbeing in children and young people.

"And there is a growing recognition of the importance of mental health and wellbeing in early life—not least because adolescent mental health problems often persist into adulthood, leading to poorer life outcomes and achievement.

"While the links between nutrition and physical health are well understood, until now, not much has been known about whether nutrition plays a part in children's emotional wellbeing. So, we set out to investigate the association between dietary choices and mental wellbeing among schoolchildren."

The research team studied data from almost 9,000 children in 50 schools across Norfolk (7,570 secondary and 1,253 primary school children) taken from the Norfolk children and Young People's Health and wellbeing Survey.

This survey was commissioned by the Public Health department of Norfolk County Council and the Norfolk Safeguarding Children Board. It was open to all Norfolk schools during October 2017.

Children involved in the study self-reported their dietary choices and took part in age-appropriate tests of mental wellbeing that covered cheerfulness, relaxation, and having good interpersonal relationships.

Prof Welch said: "In terms of nutrition, we found that only around a quarter of secondary-school children and 28 percent of primary-school children reported eating the recommended five-a-day fruits and vegetables. And just under one in ten children were not eating any fruits or vegetables.

"More than one in five secondary school children and one in 10 primary children didn't eat breakfast. And more than one in 10 secondary school children didn't eat lunch.

The team looked at the association between nutritional factors and mental wellbeing and took into account other factors that might have an impact—such as adverse childhood experiences and home situations.

Dr. Richard Hayhoe, also from UEA's Norwich Medical School, said: "We found that eating well was associated with better mental wellbeing in children. And that among secondary school children in particular, there was a really strong link between eating a nutritious diet, packed with fruit and vegetables, and having better mental wellbeing.

"We also found that the types of breakfast and lunch eaten by both primary and secondary school pupils were also significantly associated with wellbeing.

"Children who ate a traditional breakfast experienced better wellbeing than those who only had a snack or drink. But secondary school children who drank energy drinks for breakfast had particularly low mental wellbeing scores, even lower than for those children consuming no breakfast at all.

"According to our data, in a class of 30 secondary school pupils, around 21 will have consumed a conventional-type breakfast, and at least four will have had nothing to eat or drink before starting classes in the morning.

"Similarly, at least three pupils will go into afternoon classes without eating any lunch. This is of concern, and likely to affect not only academic performance at school but also physical growth and development.

"Another interesting thing that we found was that nutrition had as much or more of an impact on wellbeing as factors such as witnessing regular arguing or violence at home.

Prof Welch said: "As a potentially modifiable factor at an individual and societal level, nutrition represents an important public health target for strategies to address childhood mental wellbeing.

"Public health strategies and school policies should be developed to ensure that good quality nutrition is available to all children both before and during school in order to optimize mental wellbeing and empower children to fulfill their full potential."

"Cross-sectional associations of schoolchildren's fruit and vegetable consumption, and meal choices, with their mental wellbeing: a cross-sectional study" is published in the journal BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health.

 

Low-carb diet shown to improve cardiometabolic risk profile

Children's Hospital Boston, September 28, 2021

Low-carbohydrate diets are popular for weight loss and diabetes control. However, for most of the past 50 years, medical and public health experts have instead embraced low-fat diets, concerned about the health effects of saturated fats on cardiovascular risk factors like LDL cholesterol. As a result, low-fat and fat-free foods have proliferated—many of them high in processed carbohydrates.

A clinical trial led by Boston Children's Hospital, one of the largest and most rigorous study of its kind, now challenges that thinking. It demonstrates that low-carb diets—even though higher in saturated fat—produce better cardiovascular and metabolic profiles than low-fat, higher-carb diets. The findings were published online September 28 by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

"Surprisingly, the low-carb diet did not adversely affect LDL ("bad") cholesterol, despite having saturated fat levels far in excess of current recommendations," says David Ludwig, MD, Ph.D., who led the study together with first author Cara Ebbeling, Ph.D..

Carbohydrates, insulin resistance, and disease

While high LDL cholesterol is the traditional risk factor for heart disease, a group of other risk factors is increasingly being tied to both heart disease and diabetes: high triglycerides, low HDL ("good") cholesterol, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, chronic inflammation, a tendency toward blood clotting, and fatty liver.

These factors are hallmarks of metabolic syndrome, also known as insulin resistance syndrome because the body's cells lose their sensitivity to signals from insulin to take up sugars from the blood. Mounting evidence implicates increased consumption of carbohydrates, especially highly processed carbs like refined grains and added sugars.

As people switch to low-fat diets, carbohydrates make up more and more of what we eat. This is one reason why metabolic syndrome is rising—while obesity remains an epidemic.

Comparing low-carb and low-fat diets

Ebbeling and Ludwig wanted to test the idea that a low-carb diet would improve people's cardiometabolic risk profiles as compared with a low-fat diet. In partnership with Framingham State University, they enrolled 164 adults with overweight or obesity who had lost 10-14 percent of their body weight on a reduced-calorie diet.

The participants then followed one of three weight-loss maintenance diets for five months, assigned at random:

• Low-carb diet (20 percent carbs, 60 percent fat, 20 percent protein)
• Moderate-carb diet (40 percent carbs, 40 percent fat, 20 percent protein)
• High-carb diet (60 percent carbs, 20 percent fat, 20 percent protein)

All participants received fully prepared, customized meals that they could eat in cafeterias or take to go. This protocol ensured that they stuck to the diets, unlike many other studies that just give people nutritional guidelines.

"We had a commercial food service provide more than 100,000 meals, tailored to each participant's caloric needs," says Ebbeling. "The meals were designed to keep participants at the same weight throughout the five months, so that everything we saw in this study would be independent of weight loss."

In all three diets, 35 percent of the fat consumed was saturated fat. This meant that the low-carb diet had three times the saturated fat of the high-carb diet (21 vs. 7 percent), well above the range of current recommendations.

But of note, the low-carb diet wasn't a ketogenic diet—a restrictive very-low-carb, very high-fat diet in which carbs typically constitute less than 10 percent of calories.  

"The less restricted low-carb diet we studied is pragmatic," says Ludwig. "There's still room for whole fruits, all the non-starchy vegetables you want, beans, and small amounts of grains."

The benefits of restricting carbs

As compared with higher-carb, lower-fat diets, the low-carb diet improved the profiles of a range of blood lipids related to cardiovascular disease and insulin resistance. It also increased adiponectin, a hormone made by fat cells that promotes sensitivity to insulin and protects against atherosclerosis (the formation of fatty plaques in the arteries).

"We also found that the low-carb diet reduced lipoprotein(a), an under-appreciated risk factor for atherosclerosis, heart disease, and stroke that previously was not thought to be influenced by diet," says Ludwig.

Specifically, lipoprotein(a) fell by an average of nearly 15 percent with the low-carb diet, versus a 2 percent reduction with the moderate-carb diet and a slight increase of 0.2 percent with the high-carb diet.

In a related, recently published commentary, Ludwig, Ebbeling, and their colleagues specifically implicate refined carbohydrates—not excess calories—as fueling the obesity epidemic. Foods like white bread, white rice, most breakfast cereals, and highly-processed snack foods cause spikes in blood sugar and insulin that slow metabolism, increase hunger, and set the stage for weight gain, the authors write. 

What about children?

Although the clinical trial was done in adults, low-carb diets are appropriate for children, says Ludwig. Children coming to the Optimal Wellness for Life (OWL) clinic at Boston Children's may be prescribed diets with reduced proportions of carbohydrates depending on their individual needs. Pediatric cardiologists are also starting to embrace low-carb diets.

"The roots of heart disease are planted in childhood," Ludwig says. "A moderate change now could lead to a huge benefit when kids reach middle age, and if you establish healthy habits early, they're more likely to stick. We're trying to shift the lifetime trajectory of heart disease risk."

 

 

Sunlight exposure guidelines may need to be revised, researchers warn

Kings College London, September 27, 2021

Previously published solar exposure guidelines for optimal vitamin D synthesis based on a study of skin samples may need to be revised, according to new research published today in PNAS.

A study by researchers from King’s College London, with support from the NIHR Guy’s and St Thomas’ Biomedical Research Centre, has tested the optimum ultraviolet radiation (UVR) wavelengths for human skin production of vitamin D in sunlight.

UVR from sunlight can cause sunburn and skin cancer, however, it is the most important source of vitamin D that is essential for healthy bone development and maintenance.

Public health advice on sunlight exposure takes both risk and benefits into account. Calculating the potential risks and benefits from sunlight exposure is not simple because the health outcomes from UVR exposure vary considerably with wavelength within the sun’s UVR spectrum. For example, the sun’s UVR contains less than 5% short wavelength UVB radiation but this is responsible for over 80% of the sunburn response. Each health outcome from solar exposure has its own unique wavelength dependency.

The association between specific UVB wavelengths and vitamin D production was determined more than thirty years ago in skin samples (ex vivo). However, the finding is less well established and there have been doubts about its accuracy. These doubts compromise risk/benefit calculations for optimal solar exposure.

Researchers led by the Professor Antony Young from King’s College London measured blood vitamin D levels in 75 healthy young volunteers, before, during, and after partial or full body exposure to five different artificial UVR sources with different amounts of UVB radiation, to weigh the trade-off between the benefits of solar exposure, which include vitamin D synthesis, versus the risks of sunburn and skin cancer.

They then compared their results with those that would be predicted from the old ex vivovitamin D study and found the previous study is not an accurate predictor of benefit from UVR exposure.  

The authors recommend a simple systematic correction of the ex vivo wavelength dependency for vitamin D. The new study means that many risk benefit calculations for solar UVR exposure must be reviewed with a revised version of the wavelength dependency for vitamin D. 

Professor Antony Young said: “Our study shows that risk versus benefit calculations from solar exposure may need to be re-evaluated. The results from the study are timely because the global technical committee, Commission internationale de l'éclairage, that sets UVR standards will be able to discuss the findings of this paper to re-evaluate the wavelength dependency of vitamin D. Further research from our group will determine the risk/benefit calculations.”

 

 

At-home exercise reduced depression levels significantly during COVID-19 lockdowns, says research

University of British Columbia, September 28, 2021

At-home, app-based workouts were very effective at reducing people's depression levels during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, finds a new UBC research trial whose findings were released today in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

"We found that regardless of the type of movement that people did in a week—whether it was high-intensity interval training (HIIT) or yoga—their mental health improved," said Dr. Eli Puterman, an associate professor at UBC's school of kinesiology and the Canada Research Chair in Physical Activity and Health.

Dr. Puterman, who is also a health psychologist studying how exercise can benefit highly stressed people, says he noticed a lot of people suffering from isolation, loneliness and depression in the early days of the pandemic. One study found that global rates of depression and anxiety reached 28 percent and 26 percent, or more, in the beginning of the pandemic, respectively.

He says his findings show that low-cost and accessible exercises are important strategies for managing depression and should be implemented widely.

Big mental health benefits for people with high depressive symptoms

In the first trial that examined the capacity of at-home app-based exercise programs to buffer against depression symptoms during the pandemic, Dr. Puterman and his team partnered with the mobile app company DownDog to run a six-week study between May and August 2020.

They randomized a group of 334 participants (a mix of both women and men between 18-64 years old who were, at the time, engaging in no or low levels of regular physical activity) to a specific at-home workout. One group was assigned to yoga, one to HIIT, and another to a combination of both. A final comparison group was asked to maintain their current levels of activity.

The team measured the participants' depressive symptoms before beginning the study and in each of the six weeks after they were assigned to their specific exercise group.

All participants in the exercise groups improved in their depression symptoms compared to the control group.

The greatest change was seen among participants who began the study with high depression symptoms and were placed in the combination (HIIT+yoga) exercise group. At the end of the trial, 72 percent of these participants were no longer categorized as having significant depression symptoms.

"This is likely because the women and men in the HIIT+yoga group did more frequent at-home exercises (four times or more) per week consistently." Dr. Puterman said. The importance of having variety in one's exercise routines to maintain a physically active routine has been shown previously.

In all three exercise groups, 57 percent of the participants who were identified as having high depression symptoms had symptoms decrease significantly, while a minority did so in the control group.

Promising for widespread public health interventions

The World Economic Forum projects that by 2030 mental illness will account for US$6 trillion of the annual global economic burden, accounting for more than half the burden from all non‐communicable diseases.

"The findings show that we should be promoting at-home and app-based workouts as a beneficial tool to manage depression since it has little to no cost," Dr. Puterman says, "especially in light of the long-term mental health consequences COVID-19 will have on many adults even beyond the pandemic."

He strongly encourages widespread promotion of at-home and app-based exercises that can be done with little space and no equipment to improve people's mental health.

"I think there is an opportunity here to tell people you can work out at home and still feel better, especially during the pandemic when some people are still reluctant to be in large groups."

He hopes to see physical activity and exercise initiatives integrated into clinical and health policy initiatives in the future.

 

Could a shot of orange juice boost brain power for men?

University of Reading (UK), September 23, 2021

Scientists from the University of Reading report that a single glass of flavonoid-rich orange juice may boost cognitive function, compared to placebo.

Data published in the European Journal of Nutrition indicated that a 240 ml glass of the flavonoid-rich orange juice was associated with significantly improved scores for attention, executive function, and psychomotor speed in healthy middle-aged men without mild cognitive impairment six hours after consumption, compared with placebo.

“It is important to acknowledge that orange juice consumption was not associated with a significant improvement on every individual cognitive test; this would not be expected given that the effects of nutritional interventions on cognitive performance are small and difficult to detect in healthy adults,” wrote the researchers.

“However, consistently higher means were observed following orange juice relative to the placebo in the vast majority of outcomes.”

The researchers recruited 24 healthy men aged between 30 and 65 to participate in their randomized, double-blind, crossover study. The men were randomly assigned to consumer orange juice containing 272 mg of flavonoid or a calorie-matched placebo, with the interventions separated by two weeks.

A battery of tests revealed that, compared to placebo, the flavonoid-rich orange juice was associated with significantly better performance on tests of executive function and psychomotor speed.

Alertness was also reportedly improved following orange juice consumption.

Bioavailability data would suggest that the cognitive benefits observed after six hours are related to the flavanones hesperidin and narirutin, said the researchers.

“One plausible hypothesis is that flavonoid consumption may lead to acute cognitive benefits via increased [cerebral blood flow] as a result of enhanced endothelial function and increased bioavailability of nitric oxide,” they wrote. “Human studies show significantly increased [cerebral blood flow] several hours following cocoa flavanol consumption. These are supported by chronic studies which show increased activation in the right middle prefrontal cortex and the right superior parietal cortex following anthocyanin and flavanol-rich grape juice consumption.

“Moreover, increased steady-state-evoked potentials in posterior parietal and central–frontal regions and increased [cerebral blood flow] in the hippocampus during a spatial memory task have been observed following several weeks daily consumption of cocoa flavanols. As yet, there are no published data examining peripheral or [cerebral blood flow] in humans following flavanone consumption; therefore, these potential mechanisms are speculative at this time.

To conclude, the authors stated: “These data demonstrate that fruit juice-based flavonoids can acutely enhance cognition in healthy adults. This is consistent with the accumulating evidence from chronic interventions and epidemiological research that increased consumption of fruits, fruit juices and other flavonoid-rich foods over the lifespan is associated with cognitive benefits such as a reduced risk of neuropsychological disease, attenuation of aging-induced cognitive decline and maintenance of optimal cognitive facilities.”

Source: European Journal of Nutrition