Health News Report: December 2018

Friday, December 28, 2018

Post-natal depression in dads linked to depression in their teenage daughters

Fathers as well as mothers can experience post-natal depression -- and it is linked to emotional problems for their teenage daughters, new research has found.

Almost one in 20 new fathers suffered depression in the weeks after their child was born, according to a study published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry and co-authored by Professor Paul Ramchandani of the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge.

The research, based on a sample of more than 3,000 families in Bristol, UK, also identified a link between post-natal depression in men and depression in their daughters as they reached adulthood.
At 18, girls whose fathers had experienced depression after their birth were themselves at greater risk of the condition, researchers found. The "small but significant" increased risk applied only to daughters; sons were not affected.

One reason for this "handing on" effect could be that post-natal depression in fathers is sometimes linked with an increased level of maternal depression, researchers concluded. This might mean that family life is more disrupted for everyone with higher levels of stress for all. It may also be that the having one or both parents with depression affects the way in which parents interact with their children.

It is unclear why girls may be more affected at this age. There may be links to specific aspects of father-daughter relationships as girls go through adolescence, the research team suggests.
The findings are important because they have implications for perinatal services, which have traditionally considered post-natal depression to be a potential problem for mothers only, the study's authors say. They highlight the importance of recognising and treating depression in fathers during the postnatal period, and call on health professionals to consider both parents when one reports depression.
Professor Ramchandani said: "Research from this study of families in Bristol has already shown that fathers can experience depression in the postnatal period as well as mothers. What is new in this paper is that we were able to follow up the young people from birth through to the age of 18, when they were interviewed about their own experience of depression. Those young people whose fathers had been depressed back when they were born had an increased risk of depression at age 18 years.
"We were also able to look at some of the ways in which depression in fathers might have affected children. It appears that depression in fathers is linked with an increased level of stress in the whole family, and that this might be one way in which offspring may be affected.
"Whilst many children will not be affected by parental depression in this way, the findings of this study highlight the importance of providing appropriate help to fathers, as well as mothers, who may experience depression."
Paternal depression campaigner Mark Williams, who set up the lobby group Fathers Reaching Out and campaigns for mental health screening for new fathers as well as mothers, said: "Fathers' Postnatal Depression impacts on the whole family when unsupported, often resulting in fathers using negative coping skills, avoiding situations and often feeling anger.
"In my experience of working with families, it's sometimes only the father who is suffering in silence but sadly very few are asked about their mental health after becoming a parent."
Earlier research by the same academic team found post-natal depression in fathers was linked to behavioural and emotional problems in their children at three and a half and seven. The effect seems to happen because paternal depression may negatively affect the way a family functions -- causing conflict between partners and prompting maternal depression.
The new paper, Association of Maternal and Paternal Depression in the Postnatal Period with Offspring Depression at Age 18 Years, was based on the experiences of 3,176 father and child pairs drawn from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children -- an ongoing cohort study launched in 1991.

Thursday, December 27, 2018

How exercise reduces belly fat in humans

**IMAGE:** This graphical abstract shows that in abdominally obese people, exercise-mediated loss of visceral adipose tissue mass requires IL-6 receptor signaling. view more

Credit: Wedell-Neergaard, Lehrskov, and Christensen, et al. / *Cell Metabolism*

Some of you may have made a New Year's resolution to hit the gym to tackle that annoying belly fat. But have you ever wondered how physical activity produces this desired effect? A signaling molecule called interleukin-6 plays a critical role in this process, researchers report December 27 in the journal Cell Metabolism.
As expected, a 12-week intervention consisting of bicycle exercise decreased visceral abdominal fat in obese adults. But remarkably, this effect was abolished in participants who were also treated with tocilizumab, a drug that blocks interleukin-6 signaling and is currently approved for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. Moreover, tocilizumab treatment increased cholesterol levels regardless of physical activity.
"The take home for the general audience is 'do exercise,'" says first author Anne-Sophie Wedell-Neergaard of the University of Copenhagen. "We all know that exercise promotes better health, and now we also know that regular exercise training reduces abdominal fat mass and thereby potentially also the risk of developing cardio-metabolic diseases."
Abdominal fat is associated with an increased risk of not only cardio-metabolic disease, but also cancer, dementia, and all-cause mortality. Physical activity reduces visceral fat tissue, which surrounds internal organs in the abdominal cavity, but the underlying mechanisms have not been clear. Some researchers have proposed that a "fight-or-flight" hormone called epinephrine mediates this effect. But Wedell-Neergaard and co-senior study author Helga Ellingsgaard of the University of Copenhagen suspected that interleukin-6 could also play an important role because it regulates energy metabolism, stimulates the breakdown of fats in healthy people, and is released from skeletal muscle during exercise.
To test this idea, the researchers carried out a 12-week, single-center trial in which they randomly assigned abdominally obese adults to four groups. A total of 53 participants received intravenous infusions of either tocilizumab or saline as a placebo every four weeks, combined with no exercise or a bicycle routine consisting of several 45-minute sessions each week. The researchers used magnetic resonance imaging to assess visceral fat tissue mass at the beginning and end of the study.
In the placebo groups, exercise reduced visceral fat tissue mass by an average of 225 grams, or 8 percent, compared with no exercise. But tocilizumab treatment eliminated this effect. In the exercise groups, tocilizumab also increased visceral fat tissue mass by approximately 278 grams compared with placebo. In addition, tocilizumab increased total cholesterol and "bad" low-density-lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol compared with placebo, in both the exercise and no-exercise groups. "To our knowledge, this is the first study to show that interleukin-6 has a physiological role in regulating visceral fat mass in humans," Wedell-Neergaard says.
The authors note that the study was exploratory and not intended to evaluate a given treatment in a clinical setting. To complicate matters, interleukin-6 can have seemingly opposite effects on inflammation, depending on the context. For example, chronic low-grade elevations of interleukin-6 are seen in patients with severe obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. "The signaling pathways in immune cells versus muscle cells differ substantially, resulting in pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory actions, so interleukin-6 may act differently in healthy and diseased people," Wedell-Neergaard explains.
In future studies, the researchers will test the possibility that interleukin-6 affects whether fats or carbohydrates are used to generate energy under various conditions. They will also investigate whether more interleukin-6, potentially given as an injection, reduces visceral fat mass on its own. "We need a more in-depth understanding of this role of interleukin-6 in order to discuss its implications," Wedell-Neergaard says.
In the meantime, the authors have some practical holiday exercise tips. "It is important to stress that when you start exercising, you may increase body weight due to increased muscle mass," Wedell-Neergaard says. "So, in addition to measuring your overall body weight, it would be useful, and maybe more important, to measure waist circumference to keep track of the loss of visceral fat mass and to stay motivated."

Your brain rewards you twice: When you eat and when food reaches your stomach

We know a good meal can stimulate the release of the feel-good hormone dopamine, and now a study in humans from the Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research in Germany suggests that dopamine release in the brain occurs at two different times: at the time the food is first ingested and another once the food reaches the stomach. The work appears December 27 in the journal Cell Metabolism.

"With the help of a new positron emission tomography (PET) technique we developed, we were not only able to find the two peaks of dopamine release, but we could also identify the specific brain regions that were associated with these releases," says senior author Marc Tittgemeyer (@tittgemeyer), head of the Institute's Translational Neurocircuitry Group. "While the first release occurred in brain regions associated with reward and sensory perception, the post-ingestive release involved additional regions related to higher cognitive functions."

In the study, 12 healthy volunteers received either a palatable milkshake or a tasteless solution while PET data were recorded. Interestingly, the subjects' craving or desire for the milkshake was proportionally linked to the amount of dopamine released in particular brain areas at the first tasting. But the higher the craving, the less delayed post-ingestive dopamine was released.

"On one hand, dopamine release mirrors our subjective desire to consume a food item. On the other hand, our desire seems to suppress gut-induced dopamine release," says Heiko Backes, group leader for Multimodal Imaging of Brain Metabolism at the Institute, who is co-first author on the study with Sharmili Edwin Thanarajah.
Suppression of gut-induced release could potentially cause overeating of highly desired food items. "We continue to eat until sufficient dopamine was released," Backes says but adds that this hypothesis remains to be tested in further studies.

Sugar-sweetened beverage pattern linked to higher kidney disease risk

**IMAGE:** Visual Abstract view more

Credit: Rebholz

Highlight

In a study of African-American men and women with normal kidney function, a pattern of higher collective consumption of soda, sweetened fruit drinks, and water was associated with a higher risk of developing kidney disease.

Washington, DC (December 27, 2018) -- Higher collective consumption of sweetened fruit drinks, soda, and water was associated with a higher likelihood of developing chronic kidney disease (CKD) in a community-based study of African-American adults in Mississippi. The findings, which appear in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN), contribute to the growing body of evidence pointing to the negative health consequences of consuming sugar-sweetened beverages.
Certain beverages may affect kidney health, but study results have been inconsistent. To provide more clarity, Casey Rebholz PhD, MS, MNSP, MPH (Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health) and her colleagues prospectively studied 3003 African-American men and women with normal kidney function who were enrolled in the Jackson Heart Study.
"There is a lack of comprehensive information on the health implications of the wide range of beverage options that are available in the food supply," said Dr. Rebholz. "In particular, there is limited information on which types of beverages and patterns of beverages are associated with kidney disease risk in particular."
For their study, the investigators assessed beverage intake through a food frequency questionnaire administered at the start of the study in 2000-04, and they followed participants until 2009-13.
Among the 3003 participants, 185 (6%) developed CKD over a median follow-up of 8 years. After adjustment for confounding factors, consuming a beverage pattern consisting of soda, sweetened fruit drinks, and water was associated with a higher risk of developing CKD. Participants in the top tertile for consumption of this beverage pattern were 61% more likely to develop CKD than those in the bottom tertile.
The researchers were surprised to see that water was a component of this beverage pattern that was linked with a higher risk of CKD. They noted that study participants may have reported their consumption of a wide variety of types of water, including flavored and sweetened water. Unfortunately, the investigators did not collect information about specific brands or types of bottled water in the Jackson Heart Study.
In an accompanying editorial, Holly Kramer, MD, MPH and David Shoham, PhD (Loyola University Chicago) noted that the findings hold strong public health implications. "While a few select U.S. cities have successfully reduced SSB [sugar sweetened beverage] consumption via taxation, all other municipalities have resisted public health efforts to lower SSB consumption," they wrote. "This cultural resistance to reducing SSB consumption can be compared to the cultural resistance to smoking cessation during the 1960s after the Surgeon General report was released. During the 1960s, tobacco use was viewed as a social choice and not a medical or social public health problem."
In an accompanying Patient Voice editorial, Duane Sunwold explained that he is a patient with CKD who changed his eating and drinking patterns to put his disease in remission. As a chef, he offers a number of recommendations to fellow patients trying to decrease their consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks.

How lifestyle drives ER-positive breast cancer

Poor diet and lack of exercise are associated with cancer development, but the underlying biology is not well understood. Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) could offer a biological link to help us understand how certain lifestyle behaviors increase cancer risk or lessen the likelihood that an anti-cancer therapy will be effective.

AGE accumulation is the natural and unavoidable result of the breakdown of nutrients, sugars and fats. AGE levels, however, can be increased by the consumption of processed foods high in sugar and fat. Certain cooking techniques, such as grilling, searing and frying, also increase AGE formation.

High AGE levels could prevent patients with estrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer from responding to tamoxifen therapy, suggest preclinical findings reported by researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) in a recent issue of Breast Cancer Research and Treatment.

The MUSC team was led by David P. Turner, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the MUSC College of Medicine and a member of the Hollings Cancer Center, who is one of the two corresponding authors on the article. Marvella E. Ford, Ph.D., a professor in the MUSC College of Medicine and associate director of Cancer Disparities at Hollings Cancer Center, is the other corresponding author.

"By showing that AGEs in the diet may impact how well breast cancer patients respond to therapy we can make breast cancer patients aware of their existence," says Turner. "And we can design lifestyle interventions aimed at reducing AGE intake."
AGEs cause an imbalance between molecules called free radicals and antioxidants, leading to chronic inflammation that can promote the development of a variety of chronic diseases. Furthermore, as AGEs accumulate in our organs, they cause damage that is associated with diseases such as diabetes, Alzheimer's, cardiovascular disease, arthritis and cancer. However, AGEs have not been studied in depth in the context of cancer.
The publication by Turner, Ford and colleagues shows that elevated AGE levels lead to continual activation of pathways that promote cancer cell growth. A key molecule turned on by those pathways is important in the context of ER-positive and -negative breast cancer. This led the MUSC team to explore how AGE might affect cancer cell signaling in ER-positive breast cancer.
The MUSC team found that AGEs actually increase the phosphorylation (a process that turns on a biological pathway) of a protein called estrogen receptor alpha in a breast cancer cell line model. Adding tamoxifen to the cancer cells prevented their growth. However, adding AGEs caused them to grow once again. This could mean that patients with high AGEs are less likely to respond to tamoxifen treatment.
Turner's team also found that a defined lifestyle intervention of exercise and dietary counseling lowered systemic levels of AGEs in overweight women with non-metastatic ER-positive breast cancer.
Next steps are to expand the published study to determine the effects of the intervention on a larger scale, while also further exploring the biological pathways in animal models. Together, they should shed light on how lifestyle interventions can beneficially affect cancer treatments by reducing AGE levels.

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About MUSC
Founded in 1824 in Charleston, The Medical University of South Carolina is the oldest medical school in the South. Today, MUSC continues the tradition of excellence in education, research, and patient care. MUSC educates and trains more than 3,000 students and residents, and has nearly 13,000 employees, including approximately 1,500 faculty members. As the largest non-federal employer in Charleston, the university and its affiliates have collective annual budgets in excess of $2.2 billion. MUSC operates a 700-bed medical center, which includes a nationally recognized Children's Hospital, the Ashley River Tower (cardiovascular, digestive disease, and surgical oncology), Hollings Cancer Center (a National Cancer Institute-designated center) Level I Trauma Center, and Institute of Psychiatry. For more information on academic programs or clinical services, visit musc.edu. For more information on hospital patient services, visit muschealth.org.
About Hollings Cancer Center
The Hollings Cancer Center at the Medical University of South Carolina is a National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center and the largest academic-based cancer research program in South Carolina. The cancer center comprises more than 100 faculty cancer scientists and 20 academic departments. It has an annual research funding portfolio of more than $40 million and a dedication to reducing the cancer burden in South Carolina. Hollings offers state-of-the-art diagnostic capabilities, therapies and surgical techniques within multidisciplinary clinics that include surgeons, medical oncologists, radiation therapists, radiologists, pathologists, psychologists and other specialists equipped for the full range of cancer care, including more than 200 clinical trials. For more information, visit http://www.hollingscancercenter.org

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

Friday, December 21, 2018

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Pregnancy and New Baby Care

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Breastfeeding for more than 6 months associated with smaller maternal waist circumference

Jonathan KantrowitzatHealth News Report - 3 days ago

Breastfeeding for more than 6 months was found to be independently associated with smaller waist circumference in the decade after delivery among women in the POUCHmoms Study. Pregnancy contributes to an accumulation of abdominal adiposity, which is an indicator of cardiometabolic dysfunction in later life. The complete findings regarding the relationship between breastfeeding duration and maternal central adiposity are reported in an article published in *Journal of Women's Health*, a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. Click here to read the full-tex... more »

How does diet during pregnancy impact allergies in offspring?

Jonathan KantrowitzatHealth News Report - 3 days ago

Pregnant women routinely swear off alcohol and tobacco to boost their chances of having a healthy baby. What about common food allergens like nuts and milk? There are scant data that describe how often pregnant women deliberately stop eating a specific food item in order to prevent future food allergies in their newborns. As a first step toward addressing this data gap, a research team led by Karen Robbins, M.D., an allergist at Children's National Health System, pored through a longitudinal study conducted by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Contro... more »

Anxiety and depression

Looking on bright side may reduce anxiety, especially when money is tight

Jonathan KantrowitzatHealth News Report - 3 days ago

Trying to find something good in a bad situation appears to be particularly effective in reducing anxiety the less money a person makes, possibly because people with low incomes have less control over their environment, according to research published by the American Psychological Association. "Our research shows that socioeconomic status has a powerful effect on whether reframing a situation can reduce anxiety, both in the short term and the long term," said Claudia Haase, PhD, of Northwestern University and co-author of the study. "As social inequality continues to rise, it become... more »

Depression, anxiety may take same toll on health as smoking and obesity

Jonathan KantrowitzatHealth News Report - 3 days ago

An annual physical typically involves a weight check and questions about unhealthy habits like smoking, but a new study from UC San Francisco suggests health care providers may be overlooking a critical question: Are you depressed or anxious? Anxiety and depression may be leading predictors of conditions ranging from heart disease and high blood pressure to arthritis, headaches, back pain and stomach upset, having similar effects as long-established risk factors like smoking and obesity, according to the new research. In the study, first author Andrea Niles, PhD, and senior author... more

Regular trips out guard against depression in old age

Jonathan KantrowitzatHealth News Report - 1 week ago

Supplements

Magnesium optimizes vitamin D status

Jonathan KantrowitzatHealth News Report - 4 days ago

A randomized trial by Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center researchers indicates that magnesium optimizes vitamin D status, raising it in people with deficient levels and lowering it in people with high levels. The study reported in the December issue of *The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition*is important because of controversial findings from ongoing research into the association of vitamin D levels with colorectal cancer and other diseases, including a recent report from the VITAL trial. It gave confirmation to a prior observational study in 2013 by the researchers that linked ... more »

General Health

Higher risk of heart attack on Christmas Eve

Jonathan KantrowitzatHealth News Report - 1 week ago

The risk of heart attack peaks at around 10pm on Christmas Eve, particularly for older and sicker people, most likely due to heightened emotional stress, finds a Swedish study in this week's Christmas issue of *The BMJ*. The risk was also higher during New Years' and Midsummer holidays, and on Monday mornings, but not during Easter holiday or major sport events. Previous studies have shown a peak in heart attacks across the western world during Christmas and New Year festivities, and during Islamic holidays in countries where the religion predominates. Other short term events linked ... more »

Your weight history may predict your heart failure risk

Jonathan KantrowitzatHealth News Report - 1 week ago

[image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *People with lifetime obesity like Mr. A are at a much higher risk of heart failure than the newly obese at an older age like Mr. B. Obesity at any... view more Credit: Johns Hopkins Medicine/Kristen West In a medical records analysis of information gathered on more than 6,000 people, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers conclude that simply asking older adult patients about their weight history at ages 20 and 40 could provide real value to clinicians in their efforts to predict patients' future risk of heart failure, heart attacks or strokes. In a report publi... more »

High-dose antipsychotics place children at increased risk of unexpected death

Jonathan KantrowitzatHealth News Report - 1 week ago

Children and young adults without psychosis who are prescribed high-dose antipsychotic medications are at increased risk of unexpected death, despite the availability of other medications to treat their conditions, according to a Vanderbilt University Medical Center study published today in *JAMA Psychiatry*. Unexpected death includes deaths due to unintentional drug overdose or cardiovascular/metabolic causes. In 2010, an estimated 1.3 million individuals 24 years of age or younger filled 7 million prescriptions, primarily for behavioral symptoms (such as ADHD), depression or bipo... more »

Work stress increases cancer risk

Jonathan KantrowitzatHealth News Report - 1 week ago

In an *International Journal of Cancer* study of data on more than 280,000 people from North America and Europe, work stress was associated with a significantly increased risk of colorectal, esophagus, and lung cancers. When looking more closely at the data, investigators observed a link between work stress and colorectal cancer in North America, but not in Europe. By contrast, a significant association between work stress and esophagus cancer was found in Europe, but not in N

Exercise

Sports compression stockings a winning advantage

Jonathan KantrowitzatHealth News Report - 22 hours ago

Physical activity in the evening does not cause sleep problems

Jonathan KantrowitzatHealth News Report - 1 week ago

[image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *Moderate intensity exercise shortly before bedtime does not negatively affect sleep. At most, vigorous exercise close to bedtime might have a negative effect. Each symbol in this overview represents one... view more Credit: ETH Zurich / Jan Stutz Even among sleep researchers, it is a widely held belief that sleep quality can be improved by avoiding exercise in the evening. However, as researchers from the Institute of Human Movement Sciences and Sport at ETH Zurich have demonstrated, it is not generally true. The scientists combed through the literature on t... more »

Mindfulness training may help support weight loss Mindfulness

Jonathan KantrowitzatHealth News Report - 2 days ago

Mindfulness training may improve the effectiveness of intensive weight management programs, according to a small study published in the Endocrine Society's *Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism*. Individuals who participated in mindfulness training as part of an intensive weight management program lost more weight in six months than other program participants who did not attend mindfulness courses. The findings are the result of research from the University of Warwick and the Warwickshire Institute for the Study of Diabetes Endocrinology and Metabolism at University Hospit... more »

Massage helps ease arthritis pain, improve mobility

Jonathan KantrowitzatHealth News Report - 1 week ago

Patients with arthritis in their knees experienced significant improvement in pain and mobility after undergoing a weekly, whole-body massage for two months, according to a study led by researchers at Duke Health. The finding, appearing online in the *Journal of General Internal Medicine*, suggests that massage could offer a safe and effective complement to the management of knee osteoarthritis, at least in the short term. "Osteoarthritis is a leading cause of disability and affects more than 30 million people in America," said lead author Adam Perlman, M.D., program director of th... more »

Ways to reduce head impacts in youth football

The high head impact and concussion rates in football are of increasing concern, especially for younger players.

Recent research has shown that limiting contact in football practice can reduce the number of head impacts. But what is the correct formula to lessen exposure while still developing the skills necessary to safely play the game?

To find out, researchers at Wake Forest School of Medicine, a part of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, conducted a study that compared head impact exposure (HIE) in practice drills among six youth football teams and evaluated the effect of individual team practice methods on HIE.

The findings are published in the Dec. 21 online edition of the Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics.
In the study, the researchers collected on-field head impact data from athletes age 10 to 13 on six North Carolina youth football teams during all practices in one season. Video was recorded and analyzed to verify and assign impact severity to specific drills using the Head Impact Telemetry System, a system of sensors embedded in football helmets to detect and record head impacts.
HIE was measured in terms of impacts per player per minute and peak linear and rotational head acceleration. The Wake Forest Baptist research team analyzed the differences in head impact magnitude and frequency among drills, as well as differences among teams within the most common drills. A total of 14,718 impacts during contact practices were collected and evaluated in this study.
Among all six teams, full-speed tackling and blocking drills resulted in the highest head impact severity and frequency, according to the study's lead author Jillian Urban, Ph.D., assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Wake Forest Baptist.
"However, solely reducing time spent on contact drills may not lower overall head impact exposure in practice," Urban said. "The severity and frequency of head impacts in practice may be more influenced by the individual athletes and how drills are taught and run rather than the amount of time spent on each type of drill."
The researchers found that there were significant variations in linear acceleration and impact rate among teams within specific drills due to how each team structured their practices.
"Reducing time spent on contact drills relative to minimal or no contact drills may not lower overall HIE," Urban said. "Instead, interventions such as reducing the speed of players engaged in contact, correcting tackling technique, and then progressing to contact may reduce HIE more effectively."
Further investigation into differences in head impact severity among tackling techniques in football and the associated head impact mechanism is needed to better understand how HIE can be reduced, she said.

Getting the most out of spinach -- maximizing the antioxidant lutein

Eat your spinach in the form of a smoothie or juice - this is the best way to obtain the antioxidant lutein, according to research from Linköping University, Sweden. High levels of lutein are found in dark green vegetables, and researchers at the university have compared different ways of preparing fresh spinach in order to maximise the levels of lutein in finished food. The findings are published in the journal Food Chemistry.
Many people with atherosclerosis (narrowing of the arteries) have low-grade, chronic inflammation that can be measured in the blood. This inflammation is linked to an increased risk of myocardial infarction. A research group at Linköping University previously studied the role of the antioxidant lutein. This is a natural fat-soluble pigment found in plants, particularly in dark green vegetables. The researchers showed in their last study that lutein can dampen inflammation in immune cells from patients with coronary artery disease. They also showed that lutein can be stored in immune cells, which means it is possible to build up a reserve of lutein within your body. This led the researchers to wonder whether it is possible to influence the level of lutein in the blood by increasing lutein dietary intake.
In the new study, the researchers have investigated which method of preparation is the best way of obtaining lutein. They chose to study spinach, which contains comparatively high levels of lutein and is eaten by many people. Just as many other nutrients, lutein is degraded by heat.
"What is unique about this study is that we have used preparation methods that are often used when cooking food at home, and we have compared several temperatures and heating times. We have also investigated methods of preparation in which the spinach is eaten cold, such as in salads and smoothies", says Lena Jonasson, professor in the Department of Medical and Health Sciences and consultant in cardiology. In order to simulate methods of preparation that are often used in everyday life, the researchers purchased baby spinach at a supermarket. They subjected the spinach to, for example, frying, steaming, or boiling for up to 90 minutes, and measured the lutein content at different times.
Spinach cooked in a soup or stew is not heated to as high a temperature or for as long as spinach in a lasagne, for example. This is why the researchers compared different heating times. It turned out that the heating time is important when spinach is boiled. The longer it is boiled, the less lutein the spinach retains. The cooking method is also important: when spinach is fried at high temperature a large fraction of the lutein is degraded after only two minutes.
Reheating lunch boxes in a microwave oven is a very common practice in modern life. The researchers found that reheating the food in a microwave to some extent compensated for the loss of lutein in cooked food. More lutein is released from the spinach as the plant structure is broken down further by the microwave. "Best is not to heat the spinach at all. And even better is to make a smoothie and add fat from dairy products, such as cream, milk or yoghurt. When the spinach is chopped into small pieces, more lutein is released from the leaves, and the fat increases the solubility of the lutein in the fluid", says postdoc Rosanna Chung, principal author of the article.

Statins are more effective for those who follow the Mediterranean diet

For those who have already had a heart attack or a stroke, the combination of statins and Mediterranean Diet appears to be the most effective choice to reduce the risk of mortality, especially from cardiovascular causes. It is the result of an Italian study conducted at the I.R.C.C.S. Neuromed, Pozzilli, Italy on over 1,000 adults recruited in the Moli-sani Study, published in the International Journal of Cardiology.
The traditional Mediterranean diet is rich in fruit, vegetables, legumes, cereals, olive oil, wine in moderation, fish and low in meat and dairy products
"We found - Marialaura Bonaccio, epidemiologist at the Department of Epidemiology and Prevention and first author of the study says - that statins and Mediterranean Diet together were more effective, as compared to one or the other considered separately, in reducing the risk of cardiovascular mortality. Likely, a Mediterranean diet facilitated the beneficial effect of statins, that in our real-life study were generally used at low doses".
Researchers also analyzed the potential underlying mechanisms of this positive interaction, so far poorly explored, between drugs and eating habits.
"The favorable combination of statins and Mediterranean Diet - explains Licia Iacoviello, head of the Laboratory of Molecular and Nutritional Epidemiology of the same Department and Professor of Hygiene at the University of Insubria - appeared to act, rather than on cholesterol levels, by reducing subclinical inflammation, a condition that predisposes to a higher risk of illness and mortality. This finding is of particular interest especially in the light of our observation that a high level of subclinical inflammation doubled the risk of mortality in patients who already had a heart attack or stroke ".
"Our data - says Giovanni de Gaetano, director of the Department of Epidemiology and Prevention - suggest that we should focus more on the possible interactions between food and drugs, an aspect largely neglected in epidemiological research. Of course, controlled clinical trials will be needed to clarify these findings. If our data will be confirmed, new therapeutic possibilities could be designed for those who have already had a cardiovascular event, allowing a better modulation of the pharmacological intervention in relation to life habits. This is a new aspect of personalized medicine".

Thursday, December 20, 2018

Sports compression stockings a winning advantage

A scientist from James Cook University in Australia has found sports compression stockings are so effective they might be considered performance enhancers for soccer players.
Associate Professor Anthony Leicht from JCU's Sport and Exercise Science discipline took part in a study that measured the fatigue levels of female soccer players with and without the tight-fitting stockings, which are designed to apply pressure to the lower legs and enhance blood circulation.
"We found that compression stocking use during an amateur female soccer match positively influenced agility and lower limb muscular endurance following the match," he said.
"The benefits were clearly higher with the compression stockings than with regular socks. They confirmed that there is a protective effect with compression stockings that may be crucial for performance in soccer matches."
Dr Leicht said the study showed that the stockings were comfortable and unlikely to impede players during a match, and while the extent of their benefits needs to be further investigated, they could be considered a potential performance enhancer.
He said the finding that the stockings increased calf muscle endurance was important as soccer players often covered more than 10km per match, with more than 2.5 km of that at high speeds of more than 14kmh. In addition to performing multiple changes of direction, and with constant acceleration and deceleration.
"Soccer is a demanding sport in terms of fatigue-related muscle damage that can significantly influence match performance. Anything that can prevent or delay this damage and/or change in performance could be an advantage," he said.
Dr Leicht said compression stockings may have other beneficial effects too.
"Fifty-seven percent of on-field injuries during soccer matches are related to fatigue and compression stockings may provide a simple method of injury prevention."
He said similar studies had been done with male soccer players but the current findings were unique because of the methods used and the sex differences in match performance and match-induced muscle damage.
"The study provides evidence of the practical benefits of compression stockings that may assist specifically female athletes" he said.