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An internationally renowned expert in the field of health and nutrition, Gary Null, Ph.D is the author of over 70 best-selling books on healthy living and the director of over 100 critically acclaimed full-feature documentary films on natural health, self-empowerment and the environment.
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Monday Aug 23, 2021
Monday Aug 23, 2021
New research from Harvard explores link between walnut consumption and life expectancy
Findings show a connection between regular walnut consumption and greater longevity, as well as reduced risk of death from cardiovascular diseases
Harvard School of Public Health, August 19, 2021
According to a study by researchers from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, higher walnut consumption – both in terms of the amount and frequency – may be associated with a lower risk of death and an increase in life expectancy among older adults in the U.S., compared to those who do not consume walnuts.
“What we’ve learned from this study is that even a few handfuls of walnuts per week may help promote longevity, especially among those whose diet quality isn’t great to begin with. It’s a practical tip that can be feasible for a number of people who are looking to improve their health, which is top of mind for many people,” said Yanping Li, Senior Research Scientist at the Department of Nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and lead investigator of this research.
This study, supported by the California Walnut Commission and published in Nutrients, found five or more servings of walnuts per week (one serving = one ounce) may provide the greatest benefit for mortality risk and life expectancy. Eating five or more servings per week was associated with a 14% lower risk of death (from any cause), 25% lower risk of dying from cardiovascular diseases, and a gain in about 1.3 years of life expectancy, compared to those who didn’t consume walnuts. Consuming walnuts two to four times per week could have its benefits, too, with the study finding a 13% lower risk of death overall, 14% lower risk of dying from cardiovascular diseases, and a gain in about one year of life, compared to non-walnut consumers.
Interestingly, even among people with a suboptimal diet, as measured by a validated index based on foods and nutrients predictive of chronic disease risk, just a one-half serving per day increase in walnut consumption was associated with benefits, including 12% reduced risk of death and 26% lower risk of death from cardiovascular diseases, specifically.
For this study, researchers examined data from 67,014 women of the Nurses’ Health Study who were average aged 63.6 years and 26,326 men from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study aged 63.3 years in 1986 (the first cycle collected data of walnut consumption in both cohorts). Participants were relatively healthy when they joined the studies (e.g., free of cancer, heart disease, and stroke) and were followed for about 20 years (1998-2018). Dietary intake was assessed every 4 years in which participants reported on their overall dietary intake - including how often they consumed walnuts, other tree nuts, and peanuts – as well as lifestyle factors like exercise and smoking status. Based on this data, the researchers were able to identify associations between walnut consumption at varying levels and different health indicators related to longevity.
As a prospective observational study, these results do not prove cause and effect, but they do shed light on how walnuts may support an overall healthy lifestyle that promotes longevity. Participants who consumed greater amounts of walnuts tended to be more physically active, have a healthier diet, lower alcohol consumption, and take multivitamins. All of these factors could influence life expectancy, however, the researchers adjusted for these aspects in their analysis. In addition, it’s important to note that this data was collected before the current COVID-19 pandemic.
One ounce of walnuts is a powerhouse of important nutrients for optimum health, including protein (4g), fiber (2g), a good source of magnesium (45mg) and an excellent source of the essential omega-3 ALA (2.5g).
Pregnant women may need higher vitamin D dosage
Zahedan University of Medical Sciences (Iran), August 17, 2021
According to news originating from Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, the research stated, “Background & aim: Although evidence confirms the importance of vitamin D supplementation in pregnancy, there is still a debate over the adequate daily doses of vitamin D intake. This study aimed to investigate the effect of 400 and 1,000 IU vitamin D/day on maternal serum 25 (OH) D levels.”
The news reporters obtained a quote from the research from Zahedan University of Medical Sciences: “This quasi-experimental study was carried out on 74 healthy pregnant women between June 12 and September 22, 2019. The intervention group (n=44) received 1,000 IU vitamin D/day from 8 to 10 weeks of pregnancy for 17 weeks, while the control group (n=39) took multivitamin supplements (400 IU vitamin D/day) from 16 weeks of pregnancy for 12 weeks. Maternal serum 25 (OH) D levels were measured at 25-28 weeks of gestation. Data were analyzed in SPSS software (version 21) through the Chi-square, Student’s t-test, Mann-Whitney U, and linear regression tests. There was no significant difference between the two groups at the beginning of the study in terms of 25 (OH) D concentration (P=0.23). The intake of 1,000 IU vitamin D/day had a significant (b=0.28, p <0.001), yet small effect (effect size=0.30), on increasing serum 25 (OH) D levels after controlling the confounding variables. About half of the females who took 1,000 IU vitamin D/day had a serum 25(OH) D level less than 30 ng/dl at 25-28weeks of pregnancy.”
According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Even after receiving 1,000 IU/day Vitamin D, vitamin D insufficiency was still prevalent during the second trimester of pregnancy. It seems that a higher dosage of vitamin D is required for pregnant women.”
Key mental abilities can actually improve during aging
Georgetown University Medical Center, August 19, 2021
It’s long been believed that advancing age leads to broad declines in our mental abilities. Now new research from Georgetown University Medical Center offers surprisingly good news by countering this view.
The findings, published August 19, 2021, in Nature Human Behaviour, show that two key brain functions, which allow us to attend to new information and to focus on what’s important in a given situation, can in fact improve in older individuals. These functions underlie critical aspects of cognition such as memory, decision making, and self-control, and even navigation, math, language, and reading.
“These results are amazing, and have important consequences for how we should view aging,” says the study’s senior investigator, Michael T. Ullman, PhD, a professor in the Department of Neuroscience, and Director of Georgetown’s Brain and Language Lab.
“People have widely assumed that attention and executive functions decline with age, despite intriguing hints from some smaller-scale studies that raised questions about these assumptions,” he says. “But the results from our large study indicate that critical elements of these abilities actually improve during aging, likely because we simply practice these skills throughout our life.”
“This is all the more important because of the rapidly aging population, both in the US and around the world,” Ullman says. He adds that with further research, it may be possible to deliberately improve these skills as protection against brain decline in healthy aging and disorders.
The research team, which includes first author João Veríssimo, PhD, an assistant professor at the University of Lisbon, Portugal, looked at three separate components of attention and executive function in a group of 702 participants aged 58 to 98. They focused on these ages since this is when cognition often changes the most during aging.
The components they studied are the brain networks involved in alerting, orienting, and executive inhibition. Each has different characteristics and relies on different brain areas and different neurochemicals and genes. Therefore, Ullman and Veríssimo reasoned, the networks may also show different aging patterns.
Alerting is characterized by a state of enhanced vigilance and preparedness in order to respond to incoming information. Orienting involves shifting brain resources to a particular location in space. The executive network inhibits distracting or conflicting information, allowing us to focus on what’s important.
“We use all three processes constantly,” Veríssimo explains. “For example, when you are driving a car, alerting is your increased preparedness when you approach an intersection. Orienting occurs when you shift your attention to an unexpected movement, such as a pedestrian. And executive function allows you to inhibit distractions such as birds or billboards so you can stay focused on driving.”
The study found that only alerting abilities declined with age. In contrast, both orienting and executive inhibition actually improved.
The researchers hypothesize that because orienting and inhibition are simply skills that allow people to selectively attend to objects, these skills can improve with lifelong practice. The gains from this practice can be large enough to outweigh the underlying neural declines, Ullman and Veríssimo suggest. In contrast, they believe that alerting declines because this basic state of vigilance and preparedness cannot improve with practice.
“Because of the relatively large number of participants, and because we ruled out numerous alternative explanations, the findings should be reliable and so may apply quite broadly,” Veríssimo says. Moreover, he explains that “because orienting and inhibitory skills underlie numerous behaviors, the results have wide-ranging implications.”
“The findings not only change our view of how aging affects the mind, but may also lead to clinical improvements, including for patients with aging disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease,” says Ullman.
Curcumin prevents peripheral organ dysfunction associated with Alzheimer disease
The deposition of amyloid beta plaques and neurofibrillary tangles are the hallmark pathologies of AD, but severe splenomegaly associated with inflammation and disruption of the immune system warranted investigations to understand the interaction between central and peripheral systems interacting in AD. Curcumin, due to its anti-inflammatory and immune modulating properties, could preserve the cytoarchitecture of the spleen and prevent its enlargement.
Dr.Maiti explains further, “We understand that these AD pathogenesis is not confined to the central nervous system, but it also involves metabolic dysfunction in the peripheral organs. Curcumin can be good news to prevent these disorders to a great extent, which are largely found in the form of disorders and abnormalities amidst the ageing and cognitive impairments.” The scientific community could gain valuable insights into the usage of this formulation for the prevention of several pathological conditions.”
Waking nightmare: Disturbed circadian rhythm may be associated with Alzheimer's disease
Circadian rhythm disruption adversely affects the physiology and behavior of rats, with implications in Alzheimer’s disease pathology
Shoolini University (India), August 19, 2021
Our body is tuned to function in a synchronous manner with a “circadian” or day-and-night rhythm. Alterations to daily lifestyles due to the current stressful routines people follow disrupt the body’s day-night cycle for longer periods. Recent studies in rats have shown that even chronic light exposure can disrupt the circadian rhythm and cause memory deficits seen in neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Interestingly, circadian rhythm disruption has also been frequently reported in patients suffering from AD. However, the cause-and-effect relationship between AD and circadian rhythm disruption remains unclear.
To understand the correlation between circadian rhythm disturbances and AD progression, a team of researchers from Shoolini University, India, tested the effect of circadian rhythm disruption caused by chronic light exposure on the physiology and functional abilities of Wistar rats. Explaining the rationale behind their study published in ACS Chemical Neuroscience (American Chemical Society), Professor Rohit Goyal, who led the study, said, “Cells of various organs in the body are synchronized to the day-night cycle, and release different biochemical substances including hormones in a time-specific manner. Untimely expression of these hormones can trigger anxiety, cognitive impairment, and memory loss, all symptoms of brain disorders such as AD.”
In a previous study, the team had reported that upon chronic light exposure for two months, rats exhibit cognitive deficits along with sub-clinical accumulation of amyloid β (Aβ), the pathogenic protein known to form aggregates in AD. Building on these findings, they speculated that longer light exposure may result in circadian rhythm disruptions that cause an AD-like phenotype. To test this hypothesis, they exposed adult rats to constant light conditions for four months and compared them with rats subjected to a normal light-dark cycle taken as the control group.
They found that chronic light exposure disrupted the expression of genes like Per2 that follow circadian rhythms. Markers of oxidative stress such as peroxiredoxins were also dysregulated in the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) region of the brain in these rats, which is the primary controller of circadian rhythms in the body. Neurotransmitters, including glutamate and γ-aminobutyric acid, were dysregulated in the SCN of rats with circadian rhythm disruption due to chronic light exposure. Additionally, these animals showed disrupted metabolic profiles, suggestive that their digestive systems may also have been adversely affected by the disrupted circadian rhythms.
The level of soluble Aβ in the brain was also significantly higher in these rats compared to the controls, and they experienced down-regulation of anti-aging gene Sirt1 and up-regulation of the neuronal damage markers. The researchers also found that circadian rhythm disruption due to chronic light exposure caused memory and cognitive deficits in the rats. Collectively, these findings were suggestive of an AD-like phenotype.
Based on the above results, their next hypothesis was that fluoxetine, a drug used for treating anxiety and hyperactivity, could alleviate physiological and functional abnormalities associated with circadian rhythm disruption. Sure enough, fluoxetine treatment prevented oxidative damage, Aβ accumulation, and rescued memory and cognitive deficits in the treated rats.
Overall, the study suggests that long-term circadian rhythm disruption induces AD-like pathology in rats, which can be prevented by treatment with fluoxetine. Notably, elevation in Aβ, a hallmark of AD, and disturbed circadian rhythms, can each trigger the other, resulting in a cascade of irreversible neurological symptoms. This sets the stage for serious life-long conditions like AD.
The clinical implications of their findings are also evident. Prof. Goyal remarks, “Lifestyle changes that support exposure to natural light followed by ample rest at night may thus be key to limiting the risk of neurological disorders. Therapeutic strategies to optimize circadian timing in prospective patients hold great promise to restrain the prevalence of AD”. Better lifestyle practices, following the traditional Indian discipline of Yoga, or maintaining a natural day-night cycle for work schedules and even dietary practices may make our bodies healthier and function better.
This study certainly “sheds light” on the cause-and-effect relationship between circadian rhythms and AD progression, paving the way for future investigations on this important topic.
Neuroprotective potential of carotenoids
VIT University (India), August 18, 2021
According to news reporting from Tamil Nadu, India, research stated, “Despite advances in research on neurodegenerative diseases, the pathogenesis and treatment response of neurodegenerative diseases remain unclear. Recent studies revealed a significant role of carotenoids to treat neurodegenerative diseases.”
The news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from VIT University, “The aim of this study was to systematically review the neuroprotective potential of carotenoids in vivo and in vitro and the molecular mechanisms and pathological factors contributing to major neurodegenerative diseases (Alzheimer’s disease, Huntington’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and stroke). Carotenoids as therapeutic molecules to target neurodegenerative diseases. Aggregation of toxic proteins, mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress, the excitotoxic pathway, and neuroinflammation were the major pathological factors contributing to the progression of neurodegenerative diseases. Furthermore, in vitro and in vivo studies supported the beneficiary role of carotenoids, namely lycopene, b-carotene, crocin, crocetin, lutein, fucoxanthin and astaxanthin in alleviating disease progression. These carotenoids provide neuroprotection by inhibition of neuro-inflammation, microglial activation, excitotoxic pathway, modulation of autophagy, attenuation of oxidative damage and activation of defensive antioxidant enzymes. Additionally, studies conducted on humans also demonstrated that dietary intake of carotenoids lowers the risk of neurodegenerative diseases. Carotenoids may be used as drugs to prevent and treat neurodegenerative diseases.”
According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “Although, the in vitro and in vivo results are encouraging, further well conducted clinical studies on humans are required to conclude about the full potential of neurodegenerative diseases.”
This research has been peer-reviewed.
Berry eaters may be at lower risk of diabetes: Meta-analysis
Zhejiang University (China), August 22, 2021
Data from almost 400,000 people suggests that consuming berries and the anthocyanins they contain may reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus by 15-18%.
Scientists from Zhejiang University in China reported that the potential benefits could be linked to the antioxidant properties of anthocyanins in berries and their regulation of inflammatory responses, as well as via pathways to reduce blood glucose and insulin resistance.
“T2DM [type 2 diabetes mellitus] and its associated complications cause serious medical and socioeconomic burdens. The findings from the present meta-analysis provide sufficient evidence that dietary intakes of anthocyanins and berries are associated with a lower risk of T2DM, respectively,” wrote the researchers in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition .
An example of one of the many berry extract dietary supplement products commercially available to US consumers
The new study, said to be the first to “evaluate the association of dietary consumption of anthocyanins and berries with T2DM risk”, assessed data from three cohort studies looking at dietary anthocyanin intakes and diabetes risk (200,894 participants and 12,611 cases of diabetes documented) and five cohort studies looking at berry intake and diabetes risk (194,019 participants and 13,013 cases of diabetes).
Crunching the numbers indicated that dietary anthocyanin consumption was associated with a 15% reduction in the risk of T2DM, while berry intake was associated with an 18% reduction in risk.
For every 7.5 mg/day increment of dietary anthocyanin or 17 g/day increment in berry intake the risk of T2DM decreased by 5%, added the researchers.
Interestingly, there were some gender differences observed with the benefits from berry consumption observed for women and not men.
“More prospective studies in other regions and ethnic groups are warranted to further explore the associations of dietary anthocyanins and berries with T2DM risk,” wrote the researchers.