Study: People who regularly use laxatives may have an increased risk of dementia

 

People who regularly use laxatives, a common treatment for constipation, may have more than a 50% increased risk of developing dementia than people who do not use laxatives, according to a study published in the February 22, 2023, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Researchers also found people who used only osmotic laxatives, a type of laxative that attracts water to the colon to soften stool, had an even greater risk. Other types of laxatives are bulk-forming, stool-softening, and stimulating. The study does not prove that laxatives cause dementia. It only shows an association

“Constipation and laxative use  are common among middle-aged and older adults,” said study author Feng Sha, PhD, of the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Guangdong, China. “However, regular laxative use may change the microbiome of the gut, possibly affecting nerve signaling from the gut to the brain or increasing the production of intestinal toxins that may affect the brain. Our research found regular use of over-the-counter laxatives was associated with a higher risk of dementia, particularly in people who used multiple laxative types or osmotic laxatives.”

Sha noted that osmotic and stimulant laxatives are not recommended for regular use, yet some people use them regularly.

The study involved 502,229 people in the UK biobank database with an average age of 57 who did not have dementia at the start of the study. Of this group, 18,235 people, or 3.6%, reported regularly using over-the-counter laxatives. Regular use was defined as using a laxative most days of the week during the month before the study.

Over an average of 10 years, 218 of those who regularly used laxatives, or 1.3%, developed dementia. Of those who did not regularly use laxatives, 1,969 people, or 0.4%, developed dementia.

After adjusting for factors such as age, sex, education, other illnesses and medication use, and a family history of dementia, researchers found people who regularly used laxatives had a 51% increased risk of overall dementia compared to people who did not regularly use laxatives.

The risk of dementia also increased with the number of laxative types used. For people using one type of laxative, there was a 28% increased risk, compared to a 90% increased risk for people taking two or more types of laxatives.

However, among people using only one type, only those taking osmotic laxatives had a heightened risk, with a 64% increase compared to those who did not use laxatives.

“Finding ways to reduce a person’s risk of dementia by identifying risk factors that can be modified is crucial,” said Sha. “More research is needed to further investigate the link our research found between laxatives and dementia. If our findings are confirmed, medical professionals could encourage people to treat constipation by making lifestyle changes such as drinking more water, increasing dietary fiber and adding more activity into their daily lives.”

A limitation of the study is that dosage information for laxatives was not available so researchers could not explore the relationship between various laxative dosages and dementia.  

The benefits of olive oil for health and wellbeing

The health benefits of olive oil, which are commonly attributed to its minor components such as polyphenols, are now well recognised by science. But little attention has been paid to oleic acid, which represents 70 to 80 percent of its composition. That is why a group of professors from the Faculties of Pharmacy and Medicine at the University of Seville, in conjunction with professionals from the Seville North and Aljarafe Health District and the Costa del Sol Hospital, have produced a study on its main contributions to health.

This fatty acid is the main constituent of olive oil and is responsible for many health-promoting properties. Oleic acid is produced by the diet and synthesis in the body itself. It is thereby the most abundant monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA) in the human diet.

The Mediterranean diet is the most widely recognised diet for preventing disease and ageing. The olive tree (Olea europaea L.) is abundant in the Mediterranean basin and olive oil, which is extracted from its fruit, is the most characteristic nutrient and the main fat in this diet, which is also marked by a high vegetable intake, moderate fish consumption, low-moderate dairy consumption, low red meat intake and moderate wine consumption.

Oleic acid is the principal MUFA in the human circulatory system. In the brain, it is a major component of membrane phospholipids and abounds in the neuronal myelin sheaths. A significantly decreased level of oleic acid has been observed in the brains of patients suffering from major depressive disorders and Alzheimer’s disease.

Like all free fatty acids, oleic acid’s main function is that of an energy molecule and a component of cell membranes. One of its most characteristic effects is its antioxidant properties, since it can directly regulate both the synthesis and the activity of antioxidant enzymes. Another beneficial property is its hypocholesterolaemic effect: it inhibits the expression of proteins associated with cholesterol transport, reducing cholesterol absorption and thus preventing atherosclerosis.

Oleic acid is also recognised to be an anti-cancer molecule because of its inhibitory effects on the overexpression of oncogenes and their effects on programmed cell death. Moreover, oleic acid is generally considered an anti-inflammatory molecule, although this quality is still under debate among scientists.

On the other hand, oleoylethanolamide, a derivative of oleic acid, has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects of its own and has now been proposed as a potent therapeutic agent to treat obesity. This underlines the benefits of oleic acid for health. Emerging research suggests that it may influence epigenetic mechanisms (direct modifications of DNA and DNA-associated proteins) and modulation of the immune system, specifically by regulating cells involved in developing inflammation.

Finally, the authors of this study have pointed out that most studies on olive oil have been conducted on animals, hence they warn of the need for further research to confirm the significant properties shown by this molecule and its derivative, oleoylethanolamide, in humans.

Getting good sleep could add years to your life

 

Having five low-risk sleep habits may have long-term benefits

Getting good sleep can play a role in supporting your heart and overall health—and maybe even how long you live—according to new research being presented at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session Together With the World Congress of Cardiology. The study found that young people who have more beneficial sleep habits are incrementally less likely to die early. Moreover, the data suggest that about 8% of deaths from any cause could be attributed to poor sleep patterns.

“We saw a clear dose-response relationship, so the more beneficial factors someone has in terms of having higher quality of sleep, they also have a stepwise lowering of all cause and cardiovascular mortality,” said Frank Qian, MD, an internal medicine resident physician at Beth Israel Deaconess

Medical Center, clinical fellow in medicine at Harvard Medical School and co-author of the study. “I think these findings emphasize that just getting enough hours of sleep isn’t sufficient. You really have to have restful sleep and not have much trouble falling and staying asleep.”

For their analysis, Qian and team included data from 172,321 people (average age 50 and 54% women) who participated in the National Health Interview Survey between 2013 and 2018. This survey is fielded each year by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Center for Health Statistics to help gauge the health of the U.S. population and includes questions about sleep and sleep habits. Qian said this is the first study to his knowledge to use a nationally representative population to look at how several sleep behaviors, and not just sleep duration, might influence life expectancy.

About two-thirds of study participants self-reported as being White, 14.5% Hispanic, 12.6% Black and 5.5% Asian. Because researchers were able to link participants to the National Death Index records (through December 31, 2019), they could examine the association between individual and combined sleep factors and all-cause and cause-specific mortality. Participants were followed for a median of 4.3 years during which time 8,681 individuals died. Of these deaths, 2,610 deaths (30%) were from cardiovascular disease, 2,052 (24%) were from cancer and 4,019 (46%) were due to other causes.

Researchers assessed five different factors of quality sleep using a low-risk sleep score they created based on answers collected as part of the survey. Factors included: 1) ideal sleep duration of seven to eight hours a night; 2) difficulty falling asleep no more than two times a week; 3) trouble staying asleep no more than two times a week; 4) not using any sleep medication; and 5) feeling well rested after waking up at least five days a week. Each factor was assigned zero or one point for each, for a maximum of five points, which indicated the highest quality sleep.

“If people have all these ideal sleep behaviors, they are more likely to live longer,” Qian said. “So, if we can improve sleep overall, and identifying sleep disorders is especially important, we may be able to prevent some of this premature mortality.”

For the analysis, researchers controlled for other factors that may have heightened the risk of dying, including lower socioeconomic status, smoking and alcohol consumption and other medical conditions. Compared to individuals who had zero to one favorable sleep factors, those who had all five were 30% less likely to die for any reason, 21% less likely to die from cardiovascular disease, 19% less likely to die from cancer, and 40% less likely to die of causes other than heart disease or cancer. Qian said these other deaths are likely due to accidents, infections or neurodegenerative diseases, such as dementia and Parkinson’s disease, but more research is needed.

Among men and women who reported having all five quality sleep measures (a score of five), life expectancy was 4.7 years greater for men and 2.4 years greater for women compared with those who had none or only one of the five favorable elements of low-risk sleep. More research is needed to determine why men with all five low-risk sleep factors had double the increase in life expectancy compared with women who had the same quality sleep.

“Even from a young age, if people can develop these good sleep habits of getting enough sleep, making sure they are sleeping without too many distractions and have good sleep hygiene overall, it can greatly benefit their overall long-term health,” Qian said, adding that for the present analysis they estimated gains in life expectancy starting at age 30, but the model can be used to predict gains at older ages too. “It’s important for younger people to understand that a lot of health behaviors are cumulative over time. Just like we like to say, ‘it’s never too late to exercise or stop smoking,’ it’s also never too early. And we should be talking about and assessing sleep more often.”

These sleep habits can be easily asked about during clinical encounters, and the researchers hope patients and clinicians will start talking about sleep as part of their overall health assessment and disease management planning.  

One limitation of the study is that sleep habits were self-reported and not objectively measured or verified. In addition, no information was available about the types of sleep aid or medicine used or how often or long participants used them. Future research is needed to understand how these gains in life expectancy might continue as people age, as well as further explore the sex differences that were observed.

Previous studies have shown that getting too little or too much sleep can negatively affect the heart. It’s also been widely reported that sleep apnea, a sleep disorder that causes someone to pause or stop breathing while asleep, can lead to a number of heart conditions, including high blood pressure, atrial fibrillation and heart attacks.

 

Any regular physical activity at any age linked to better brain function in later life

But maintaining exercise routine throughout adulthood best for preserving mental acuity + memory

Peer-Reviewed Publication

BMJ

Any regular leisure time physical activity at any age is linked to better brain function in later life, but maintaining an exercise routine throughout adulthood seems to be best for preserving mental acuity and memory, suggests a long term study published online in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry.

Even though factoring in childhood cognitive ability, household income, and education weakened the observed associations, the findings remained statistically significant.

Physical activity is modestly associated with a lower risks of dementia, cognitive decline, and loss of later life mental acuity. But it’s not known whether the timing, frequency, or maintenance of leisure time physical activity across the life course might be key to later life cognitive abilities.

The researchers were particularly keen to know if physical activity might be most beneficial in specific ‘sensitive’ periods across the life course, or across multiple time periods. 

To try and find out, they looked at the strength of associations between a range of cognitive tests at age 69 and reported leisure time physical activity at the ages of 36, 43, 53, 60-64, and 69 in 1417 people (53% women) taking part in the 1946 British birth cohort study.

Physical activity levels were categorised as: inactive; moderately active (1–4 times/month); most active (5 or more times/month), and summed across all 5 assessments to create a total score ranging from 0 (inactive at all ages) to 5 (active at all ages). 

Some 11% of participants were physically inactive at all 5 time points; 17% were active at one; 20% were active at two and three; 17% were active at four and 15% at all five.

Cognitive performance at age 69 was assessed using the validated ACE-111, which tests attention and orientation, verbal fluency, memory, language, and visuospatial function, plus by tests of verbal memory (word learning test) and processing speed (visual search speed).

Factors associated with a heightened risk of cognitive decline—cardiovascular and mental health, and carriage of the APOE-ε4 gene—were also assessed to see if these modified any observed associations. 

Analysis of the results showed that being physically active at all 5 time points was associated with higher cognitive performance, verbal memory, and processing speed at the age of 69. 

The effect sizes were similar across all adult ages, and for those who were moderately and most physically active, “suggesting that being physically active at any time in adulthood, even if participating as little as once per month, is linked with higher cognition,” write the researchers. 

But the strongest association was observed for sustained cumulative physical activity and later life cognition, and for those who were most physically active at all ages. 

The positive association between cumulative physical activity and later life cognitive performance was partly explained by childhood cognition, socioeconomic position, and education. 

But the effect remained significant when these were factored in, and the associations weren’t explained by differences in later life cardiovascular or mental health.

“Together, these results suggest that the initiation and maintenance of physical activity across adulthood may be more important than the timing….or the frequency of physical activity at a specific period,” say the researchers.

This is an observational study, and as such, can’t establish cause, and the researchers acknowledge various limitations to their findings.

The study included only White participants and had a disproportionately high attrition rate among those who were socially disadvantaged. No information was available on exercise intensity, duration, or adherence either.

But they nevertheless conclude: “Our findings support guidelines to recommend participation in any physical activity across adulthood and provide evidence that encouraging inactive adults to be more active at any time, and encouraging already active adults to maintain activity, could confer benefits on later life cognition.”

 

---

JOURNAL

Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry

DOI

10.1136/jnnp-2022-329955 

 

Satisfying mid-life relationships linked to lower multiple chronic disease risk in older age

 

Findings only partially explained by income, education, and health behaviours

Peer-Reviewed Publicationp

Satisfying relationships in mid-life with partners, friends, or work colleagues are linked to a lower risk of accumulating multiple long term conditions in older age—at least among women—suggests research published in the open access journal General Psychiatry.

The less satisfying these relationships were, the greater was the risk, with the findings only partially explained by influential factors, such as income, education, and health behaviours, the study shows.

Mounting evidence indicates a link between strong social networks and good health/wellbeing in older age, but it’s not known if these connections might lower the risk of multiple long term conditions (multimorbidity), which many older women, in particular, face. 

In a bid to assess to what extent a women’s level of satisfaction with their relationships—partner, family, friends, work colleagues, and other social connections—singly and collectively might influence this risk, the researchers drew on 13,714 participants of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health (ALSWH).

The ALSWH is an ongoing population-based study looking at factors associated with the health and wellbeing of women who were aged 18–23, 45–50, and 70–75 in 1996.

All the women in the current study were aged 45-50 in 1996. Their health and wellbeing was tracked roughly every three years via questionnaire up to 2016.

They were asked to rank their levels of satisfaction with each of their 5 categories of  relationships on a 4-point scale, with each response scored up to a maximum of 3 points.

And they were asked to indicate if they developed any of the following: diabetes; high blood pressure; heart disease; stroke; chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD); asthma; osteoporosis; arthritis; cancer; depression; and anxiety.

Accumulating 2 or more of these from a starting point of none, or additional conditions from just 1, or from 2 or more, was defined as having multiple conditions (multimorbidity).

Information was collected on potentially influential demographic, lifestyle and hormonal factors: country of birth, marital status, area of residence, educational attainment and the ability to manage income; weight (BMI), physical activity, alcohol intake and smoking; and menopausal status. 

The final analysis included 7694 women, 58% (4484) of whom accumulated multiple long term conditions over 20 years of monitoring.

Those who did so, were more likely to have lower educational attainment, find it difficult to live off their income, be overweight/obese, physically inactive, smokers and to have had a surgically induced menopause.

Overall, relationship satisfaction was associated with the accumulation of multiple long term conditions: the greater the levels of satisfaction, the lower were the risks.

Compared with women reporting the highest level of satisfaction (score of 15), those who reported the lowest (score of 5 or less) were more than twice as likely to accumulate multiple long term conditions after fully adjusting for potentially influential factors. 

The strength of the association was comparable with that of well established risk factors, such as overweight/obesity, physical inactivity, smoking and alcohol intake, say the researchers.

When all 5 types of relationship were included in the analysis, the association weakened, but still remained significant for all except friendships. Similar results were observed when individual conditions were analysed separately.

Well established risk factors, such as socioeconomic position, health behaviours, and menopausal status, together explained less than one-fifth of the observed association.

This is an observational study, and as such, can’t establish cause. It also relied on personal recall, and didn’t capture information on social relationships in early adulthood. And as it included only Australian women, the findings might not be applicable to men or other cultures, say the researchers.

Further research is needed to explore other specific effects of relationships on the accumulation of multiple long term conditions, such as intimacy, quantity, and emotional and practical support, they emphasise. 

Nevertheless, they conclude: “Our findings have significant implications for chronic disease management and intervention. First, at the individual level, these implications may help counsel women regarding the benefits of starting or maintaining high quality and diverse social relationships throughout middle to early old age.

“Second, at the community level, interventions focusing on social relationship satisfaction or quality may be particularly efficient in preventing the progression of chronic conditions.

“Third, at the country and global levels, social connections (eg, social relationship satisfaction) should be considered a public health priority in chronic disease prevention and intervention.”

 

---

JOURNAL

General Psychiatry

DOI

10.1136/gpsych-2022-100925 

Purple vegetables and tubers have antidiabetic properties

 

The red, purple and blue pigments in fruits, vegetables, and tubers called anthocyanins can reduce the risk of diabetes by affecting energy metabolism, gut microbiota, and inflammation. A new review article comparing the research results in the topic shows that the beneficial effect of anthocyanins on type 2 diabetes is increased if the anthocyanin is acylated, meaning that an acyl group is added to the sugar moieties of anthocyanin.

A great amount of acylated anthocyanins can be found in purple potatoes, purple sweet potatoes, radishes, purple carrots and red cabbages, whereas bilberries and mulberries contain mostly nonacylated anthocyanins. Acylated anthocyanins are poorly absorbed in digestion, but they have probiotic properties and reduce the risk of diabetes more efficiently than nonacylated anthocyanins.

“The studies have shown that, in addition to changing physical and chemical properties, the acylation affects how the anthocyanins are absorbed and metabolised,” says Postdoctoral Researcher Kang Chen at Food Sciences Unit, University of Turku, Finland.

The acylated anthocyanins are more effective antioxidants than the nonacylated anthocyanins, and they can also improve the intestinal barrier that enables the absorption of necessary nutrients. Furthermore, the acylated anthocyanins maintain gut microbiota homeostasis , suppress pro-inflammatory pathways, and modulate glucose and lipid metabolisms.

“The plant's genotype defines what kind of anthocyanins they produce. In general, purple vegetables contain many acylated anthocyanins. Also, purple potatoes, especially the Finnish variety called ‘Synkeä Sakari’, is abundant in acylated anthocyanins,” says Chen.

Acylated anthocyanins travel through our bodies from the upper gastrointestinal tract to the colon where they are metabolised by the gut microbiota. Glucose transporters are involved in anthocyanin absorption, but different glucose transporters are responsible for the absorption of acylated and nonacylated anthocyanins. The acylated and nonacylated anthocyanins also have different impacts on the enzymes involved in metabolism.

“The latest research has shown that the acylated and nonacylated anthocyanins can impact type 2 diabetes in different ways,” Chen summarises.

Recognizing the potential for bone stress injuries after using carbon fiber plate footwear

Case series of five patients using the footwear signal the need to evaluate any potential risk

Peer-Reviewed Publication

MASS GENERAL BRIGHAM

PrintEmail App

Millions of endurance runners use footwear that has an embedded carbon fiber plate (CFP) in the midsole. While the performance benefits that carbon fiber plate footwear offers have been well documented, little has been published about running injuries related to use of this footwear. In a current opinion piece published today in the journal Sports Medicine, authors describe five cases in which runners using carbon fiber plate footwear sustained bone stress injuries.

“While I understand the excitement, we need to consider how to prevent injuries when athletes adopt this new footwear,” said lead author Adam Tenforde, MD, physician in Mass General Brigham’s Sports medicine program and medical director of the Spaulding National Running Center. “We hope this current opinion helps to guide better recognition of potential medical issues related to CFP footwear, appropriate use of this new technology, and how to advance methods to safely use these shoes.”

In their publication, Tenforde and colleagues describe five patient cases, including junior elite track and field athletes in Europe and two athletes in their mid-30s who competed in endurance events in North America. All five experienced foot pain after using carbon fiber plate footwear and were later diagnosed with navicular bone stress injuries (BSI).

“Recognizing possible associations of navicular BSI in runners presenting with vague midfoot or ankle pain who use CFP footwear may be important to identify this high-risk injury,” the authors write.

Metabolites better reflect consumption of the Mediterranean diet during pregnancy

 

In the context of preventing gestational diabetes, and chronic diseases, maternal metabolites may reflect a more objective assessment of the Mediterranean diet consumption among pregnant women, as compared to self-reported dietary information

A Mediterranean diet is a dietary pattern characterised by high intakes of olive oils, nuts, fruits and vegetables, legumes, fish, and whole grains. Randomised-controlled trials and observational studies have consistently demonstrated its beneficial effects on blood glucose control and overall cardiometabolic profile, both in the general population and among pregnant individuals.

For pregnant individuals, interventional studies have suggested protective effects of adhering to the Mediterranean diet during pregnancy on the reduced risks of gestational diabetes, gestational disorders of hypertension, preterm birth, and better birth outcomes.

Metabolites are small molecules within the human cells, biofluids, tissues, or organisms. Collectively, they may objectively reflect one’s overall metabolism status. Findings have shown that several classes of maternal metabolites during pregnancy are differentially associated with the Mediterranean diet. These findings support the role of Mediterranean diet as a potentially modifiable factor of adverse pregnancy outcomes.

Researchers often use an individual’s self-reported information to evaluate the adherence to the Mediterranean diet, but this is often subject to errors and recall bias. As such, identifying metabolites associated with the Mediterranean diet as objective measures is critical.

Homing in on this, a research team led by Professor Cuilin Zhang, Director of the Global Centre for Asian Women’s Health (GloW) and a professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS Medicine), and Associate Professor Liwei Chen from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), in collaboration with investigators from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), investigated the association of maternal plasma metabolites with the Mediterranean diet in pregnant individuals. The study is published in the journal of Clinical Nutrition.

In this prospective study of racially diverse pregnant individuals, the researchers assessed participant’s degree of adherence to the Mediterranean diet during their first- and second-trimesters. They scored them according to the alternate Mediterranean diet index – a score based on the intake of nine items: vegetables, legumes, fruit and nuts, dairy, cereals, meat and meat products, fish, alcohol, and the ratio of monounsaturated to saturated fat.

The investigators collected maternal blood samples during pregnancy and measured a panel of more than 400 metabolites. They identified several key metabolites in the first and second trimesters, respectively, that were associated with the Mediterranean diet. These metabolites included plasma lipids, amino acids, and sugar alcohols.

Concentrations of some metabolites were positively associated with the alternate Mediterranean diet index score, while the concentrations of the others were inversely associated with the score, reflecting the complex maternal physiology during pregnancy.

Their findings also shed light on how the Mediterranean diet may potentially be related to various maternal outcomes through its role on distinct physiological pathways. Particularly, these metabolites may be novel as an objective indicator to quantify the adherence to Mediterranean diet among pregnant individuals.

“To prevent adverse pregnancy outcomes, identifying modifiable factors associated with maternal outcomes like gestational diabetes and chronic diseases is key, and diet is one of them. To date, this is the first study to examine and characterize maternal metabolites of the Mediterranean diet among pregnant individuals. Findings from the present study are consistent with the underlying mechanisms and the beneficial roles of adherence to the Mediterranean diet on several maternal adverse outcomes”, said Professor Chen from UCLA, the first author of the study.

“Our findings identified several metabolites that may serve as novel objective assessment to quantify the adherence to Mediterranean diet among pregnant individuals. These findings also provide insights into distinct pathways that explain the underlying associations of the Mediterranean diet with various pregnancy complications,” said Professor Zhang, the senior author of this study. 

Dr Jiaxi Yang, a co-author and a postdoctoral research fellow at GloW and the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at NUS Medicine who is currently leading the working group of Nutrition and Lifestyle at GloW, noted, “While some of these metabolites, such as major lipids and amino acids, were previously found to be associated with the Mediterranean diet among non-pregnant individuals, other metabolites, such as sugar alcohol and some organic acids, were not. These are interesting findings. It is possible that these novel metabolites of the Mediterranean diet may reflect the differences in the physiology of pregnant vs. non-pregnant individuals. In the context of Singapore, it would be meaningful to characterise maternal metabolic profiles associated with the local dietary patterns.”

Tying in with their main aim of improving women’s health, the team hopes to bring further awareness among the NUS research community, to continue identifying key modifiable factors related to women’s health, while investigating underlying physiological mechanisms. said Professor Zhang, the senior author of this study.

Calorie restriction slows pace of aging in healthy adults

 

In a first of its kind randomized controlled trial an international team of researchers led by the Butler Columbia Aging Center at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health shows that caloric restriction can slow the pace of aging in healthy adults. The CALERIE™ intervention slowed pace of aging measured from participants’ blood DNA methylation using the algorithm DunedinPACE (Pace of Aging, Computed from the Epigenome). The intervention effect on DunedinPACE represented a 2-3 percent slowing in the pace of aging, which in other studies translates to a 10-15 percent reduction in mortality risk, an effect similar to a smoking cessation intervention. The results are published online in the journal Nature Aging.

“In worms, flies, and mice, calorie restriction can slow biological processes of aging and extend healthy lifespan” says senior author Daniel Belsky, PhD, associate professor of epidemiology at Columbia Mailman School and a scientist with Columbia’s Butler Aging Center. “Our study aimed to test if calorie restriction also slows biological aging in humans.”

The CALERIE™ Phase-2 randomized controlled trial, funded by the US National Institute on Aging, is the first ever investigation of the effects of long-term calorie restriction in healthy, non-obese humans. The trial randomized 220 healthy men and women at three sites in the U. S. to a 25 percent calorie-restriction or normal diet for two years.  CALERIE™ is an acronym for ‘Comprehensive Assessment of Long-Term Effects of Reducing Intake of Energy’.

To measure biological aging in CALERIE Trial participants, Belsky’s team analyzed blood samples collected from trial participants at pre-intervention baseline and after 12- and 24-months of follow-up. “Humans live a long time,” explained Belsky, “so it isn’t practical to follow them until we see differences in aging-related disease or survival. Instead, we rely on biomarkers developed to measure the pace and progress of biological aging over the duration of the study.” The team analyzed methylation marks on DNA extracted from white blood cells. DNA methylation marks are chemical tags on the DNA sequence that regulate the expression of genes and are known to change with aging.

In the primary analysis Belsky and colleagues focused on three measurements of the DNA methylation data, sometimes known as “epigenetic clocks”. The first two, the PhenoAge and GrimAge clocks, estimate biological age, or the chronological age at which a person’s biology would appear “normal”. These measures can be thought of as “odometers” that provide a static measure of how much aging a person has experienced. The third measure studied by the researchers was DunedinPACE, which estimates the pace of aging, or the rate of biological deterioration over time. DunedinPACE can be thought of as a “speedometer”.

“In contrast to the results for DunedinPace, there were no effects of intervention on other epigenetic clocks,” noted Calen Ryan, PhD, Research Scientist at Columbia’s Butler Aging Center and co-lead author of the study. “The difference in results suggests that dynamic ‘pace of aging’ measures like DunedinPACE may be more sensitive to the effects of intervention than measures of static biological age.”

Our study found evidence that calorie restriction slowed the pace of aging in humans” Ryan said.  “But calorie restriction is probably not for everyone. Our findings are important because they provide evidence from a randomized trial that slowing human aging may be possible. They also give us a sense of the kinds of effects we might look for in trials of interventions that could appeal to more people, like intermittent fasting or time-restricted eating.”

A follow-up of trial participants is now ongoing to determine if the intervention had long-term effects on healthy aging. In other studies, slower DunedinPACE is associated with reduced risk for heart disease, stroke, disability, and dementia.  “Our study of the legacy effects of the CALERIE™ intervention will test if the short-term effects observed during the trial translated into longer-term reduction in aging-related chronic diseases or their risk factors,” says Sai Krupa Das, a senior scientist and CALERIE investigator who is leading the long-term follow up of CALERIE™ participants.

DunedinPACE was developed by Daniel Belsky and colleagues at Duke University and the University of Otago. To develop DunedinPACE, researchers analyzed data from the Dunedin Longitudinal Study, a landmark birth cohort study of human development and aging that follows 1000 individuals born in 1972-73 in Dunedin, New Zealand. Researchers first analyzed the rate of change in 19 biomarkers across 20 years of follow-up to derive a single composite measure of the Pace of Aging. Next, the researchers used machine-learning techniques to distill this 20-year Pace of Aging into a single-time-point DNA methylation blood test. The values of the DunedinPACE algorithm correspond to the years of biological aging experienced during a single calendar year, providing a measure of the pace of aging.

150 minutes of aerobic exercise per week reduces liver fat

  The 150 minutes of moderate to intense aerobic activity per week that is recommended by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services can significantly reduce liver fat, according to new research by Penn State College of Medicine researchers. The team’s meta-analysis of 14 previous studies confirms that exercise leads to clinically meaningful reductions in liver fat for patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. While prior research suggested that physical activity was beneficial, it had not determined the specific amount of exercise needed to make clinically meaningful improvement.

“Our findings can give physicians the confidence to prescribe exercise as a treatment for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease,” said Jonathan Stine, associate professor of medicine and public health sciences, and hepatologist at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. “Having a target amount of physical activity to aim for will be useful for health care and exercise professionals to develop personalized approaches as they help patients modify their lifestyles and become more physically active.”

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) affects close to 30% of the global population and over time, can lead to cirrhosis, also known as liver scarring, and cancer. There are no approved drug treatments or an effective cure for this common condition; however, research has shown that exercise can improve liver fat, physical fitness, body composition and quality of life for patients.

According to Stine, prior research had not deduced what the required “dose” of exercise was to help patients with NAFLD achieve clinically meaningful improvement — defined as at least a 30% relative reduction of liver fat, measured by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Stine reviewed 14 studies with a total of 551 subjects who had NAFLD and participated in randomized, controlled trials involving exercise interventions. His team evaluated data pooled from all the studies including age, sex, body mass index, change in body weight, adherence to the exercise regimen and MRI-measured liver fat.

The researchers primary goal in the study was to examine the association between exercise training and a clinically relevant improvement in liver fat. Independent of weight loss, the team found exercise training was 3 1/2 times more likely to achieve clinically meaningful treatment response (greater than or equal to 30% relative reduction in MRI-measured liver fat) compared to standard clinical care.

In its secondary analysis, the team determined what the optimal “dose” of exercise was to achieve clinically meaningful improvements in liver fat. They found that 39% of patients prescribed greater than or equal to 750 metabolic equivalents of task (for example, 150 minutes per week of brisk walking) achieved significant treatment response compared to only 26% of those prescribed lesser doses of exercise. This is the same amount of physical activity recommended by the American Gastroenterological Association and the European Association for the Study of the Liver. The results were published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology.

According to Stine, when this amount of exercise was prescribed, clinically relevant reductions in MRI-measured liver fat were achieved at a rate similar to those reported in early-phase NASH drug trials evaluating medications that block fat production.

“Exercise is a lifestyle modification, so the fact that it might match the ability of in-development therapeutics to achieve the same outcome is significant,” said Stine, a Penn State Cancer Institute researcher. “Clinicians counseling patients with NAFLD should recommend this amount of activity to their patients. Brisk walking or light cycling for 1/2 an hour a day five times a week is just one example of a program that would meet these criteria.”

Stine said more research, particularly controlled randomized trials, are needed to validate their findings and to compare the impact of different exercise doses head-to-head.  

Kara DiJoseph and Rohit Loomba of the University of California San Diego; Zach Pattison, Alex Harrington, Kathryn Schmitz and Vernon Chinchilli of Penn State College of Medicine also contributed to this research. Penn State researchers have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

This research was supported by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases of the National Institutes of Health (Award Number K23DK131290). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

---

DOI

10.14309/ajg.0000000000002098 

Vitamin D supplementation may lower diabetes risk for the more than 10 million adults with prediabetes

Patients should weigh the benefits and harms of vitamin D supplementation with their physician

A review of clinical trials has found that higher vitamin D intake was associated with a 15 percent decreased likelihood for developing type 2 diabetes in adults with prediabetes. The review is published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin available in or added to some foods, as a supplement, or produced by the body when ultraviolet rays from sunlight strike the skin. Vitamin D has many functions in the body, including a role in insulin secretion and glucose metabolism. Observational studies have found an association between having a low level of vitamin D in the blood and high risk for developing diabetes.

Researchers from Tufts Medical Center conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of three clinical trials comparing vitamin D supplement impacts on diabetes risk. The authors found that over a three-year follow-up period, new-onset diabetes occurred in 22.7 percent of adults who received vitamin D and 25 percent of those who received placebo, which is a 15 percent relative reduction in risk. According to the authors, extrapolating their findings to the more than 374 million adults worldwide who have prediabetes suggests that inexpensive vitamin D supplementation could delay the development of diabetes in more than 10 million people.

In an accompanying editorial, authors from University College Dublin and Food Safety Authority of Ireland, highlight that previous data have demonstrated significant adverse effects for high vitamin D intake. They argue that professional societies promoting vitamin D therapy have an obligation to warn physicians about both required vitamin D intake and safe limits. They advise that this very-high-dose vitamin D therapy might prevent type 2 diabetes in some patients but may also cause harm.

Playing golf may be just as healthy or better than Nordic walking for older people

 

Regular rounds of golf are particularly good aerobic exercise for older adults, study suggests

Older adults may gain more health benefits from playing golf than participating in regular or Nordic walking, suggests a study published online in the journal BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine.

The health advantages of aerobic exercise in helping to prevent cardiovascular diseases are well documented as part of efforts to stave off high blood pressure, diabetes and dyslipidaemia (an abnormal amount of lipids in the blood causing problems such as high cholesterol).

However, most relevant studies have tended to focus on younger people participating in acute bouts of exercise lasting 30 to 60 minutes at moderate to high intensity with less information available on the impact of exercise on older people.

Golf, walking and Nordic walking—an enhanced walking technique in which people use poles to work their upper body as well as their legs—are popular age-appropriate forms of outdoor aerobic exercise that are safe and easily accessible for many older people.

A team of researchers from Finland set out to compare the acute effects of these three different types of aerobic exercises on markers of cardiometabolic health in terms of intensity, duration and energy expenditure.

They carried out a study involving 25 healthy older golfers (aged 65 and above), comparing the effects of three acute aerobic exercises—an 18-hole round of golf, 6km of Nordic walking, and a 6km walk—on their blood pressure, blood glucose, and blood lipid profile in a real-life environment.

For the study, the researchers took blood samples, blood glucose finger-prick tests, and measured the participants’ blood pressure, while the study subjects also wore fitness measuring devices to measure exercise-specific distance, duration, pace, energy expenditure and steps, as well as wearing an ECG sensor with a chest strap to measure their heart rate.

The results showed that all three types of aerobic exercise improved the cardiovascular profile in older adults when performed in acute bouts despite differences in duration and intensity – lowering their systolic blood pressure while walking and Nordic walking also led to a decrease in diastolic blood pressure.

However, despite the lower exercise intensity of golf compared with Nordic walking and walking, it was the longer duration and higher total energy expenditure involved in playing golf that seemed to positively affect lipid profile and glucose metabolism.

The study had some limitations such as the fact that it involved a small sample size and the accuracy of the fitness devices was debatable, while carrying out a study in a real-life environment does not allow for all factors to be controlled as they would be in a laboratory setting.

Also, the researchers only recruited golfers for the study because it was thought that non-golfers could not be expected to play a round of golf properly, while Nordic walking was seen as a new type of exercise for most participants, which may have led to poor technique, therefore decreasing the effectiveness of the Nordic walking activity.

However, the authors concluded: “Despite the lower exercise intensity of golf, the longer duration and higher energy expenditure appeared to have a more positive effect on lipid profile and glucose metabolism compared with Nordic walking and walking.

“These age-appropriate aerobic exercises can be recommended to healthy older adults as a form of health-enhancing physical activity to prevent cardiovascular diseases and can also be used as a treatment strategy to improve cardiometabolic health among those who already have a cardiovascular disease.”

Following healthy lifestyle may reduce risk of long COVID

Key points:

• A healthy lifestyle was associated with a reduction in the risk of long COVID
• Findings suggest simple lifestyle changes, such as having adequate sleep, could prevent long COVID symptoms

Embargoed for release: Monday, February 6, 2023, 11:00 AM ET

Boston, MA – Women who followed most aspects of a healthy lifestyle, including healthy body weight, not smoking, regular exercise, adequate sleep, high quality diet, and moderate alcohol consumption, had about half the risk of long COVID compared with women without any healthy lifestyle factors, according to a study led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

“With ongoing waves of COVID-19, long COVID has created a serious public health burden. Our findings raise the possibility that adopting more healthy behaviors may reduce the risk of developing long COVID,” said Andrea Roberts, senior research scientist in the Department of Environmental Health and senior author of the study.

The study appears online February 6, 2023, in JAMA Internal Medicine.

It’s estimated that 8-23 million Americans suffer from long COVID, which is defined as having COVID-19 symptoms four weeks or more after initial SARS-CoV-2 infection. Symptoms can include fatigue, fever, and a variety of respiratory, heart, neurological, and digestive symptoms.

The researchers analyzed data from more than 32,000 female nurses in the Nurses’ Health Study II, who reported on lifestyle in 2015 and 2017 and reported history of SARS-CoV-2 infection from April 2020 to November 2021.

During that time, more than 1,900 participants contracted COVID-19. Among these, 44% developed long COVID. Compared to women without any healthy lifestyle factors, those with five or six had 49% lower risk of long COVID. Among the six lifestyle factors, maintaining a healthy body weight and getting adequate sleep (seven to nine hours daily) were the ones most strongly associated with lower risk of long COVID. The results also showed that, even among women who developed long COVID, those with a healthier pre-infection lifestyle had 30% lower risk of having symptoms that interfered with their daily life.

The authors noted that one possible explanation for the associations they observed is that, based on prior research, an unhealthy lifestyle is associated with increased risk of chronic inflammation and immune dysregulation, which have been linked with increased risk of long COVID.

“In the past decades, scientists have accumulated evidence that healthy lifestyle is good for overall health. However, in the U.S. for example, 70% of the population do not have a healthy body weight and 30% do not sleep enough. Findings from this study suggest that simple lifestyle changes, such as having adequate sleep, may be beneficial for the prevention of long COVID,” said lead author Siwen Wang, research fellow in the Department of Nutrition.

Other Harvard Chan School authors included Yanping Li, Yiyang Yue, Changzhen Yuan, Jorge Chavarro, and Shilpa Bhupathiraju.

My supplements - updated

 Newest additions:

Astaxanthin

Along with boosting your immune system, astaxanthin may also help to reduce inflammation. In particular, this pigment acts on reactive oxygen species to reduce proteins that can cause inflammatory diseases like celiac disease, rheumatoid arthritis, heart disease, and diabetes

Ginseng

Ginseng is one of the most popular food supplements in the world. It is made out of various plants and herbs and is thought to provide many benefits, with numerous studies pointing at possible anti-inflammatory and antioxidant benefits as well as anti-cancer effects. A group of researchers at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) has now found that it can also be helpful for exercise.According to the findings of the study, which was carried out as part of a master's degree final project and was recently published in the open-access journal Nutrients, taking ginseng has a direct effect on reducing fatigue and helps muscles to recover after sport.

https://healthnewsreport.blogspot.com/2024/02/ginseng-speeds-up-recovery-and-reduces.html

Aspirin

Cardiologists: risk of internal bleeding outweighs cardiovascular benefits unless person is at heightened risk, but this ignores aspirins benefits vs cancer and other medical problems"

Aspirin: Cognitive Benefits

Health Benefits of Aspirin: Pancreatic, Prostate, Skin, Endometrial, Throat and Bowel Cancer

Health Benefits of Aspirin: Colorectal Cancer

Health Benefits of Aspirin: Breast, Ovarian and Cervical Cancer

Health Benefits of Aspirin - General Cancer Benefits

Health Benefits of Aspirin: Miscellaneous Benefits

An alternative theory on how aspirin may thwart cancer

 Cocoa flavanol supplement shows promise for reducing cardiovascular risk, https://healthnewsreport.blogspot.com/.../cocoa-shown-to...

Co-enzyme Q-10

I began taking Co-enzyme Q10 to fight potential muscle pain from the statin I take, but have discovered substantial offered additional benefits (see http://healthnewsreport.blogspot.com/2015/06/health-benefits-of-coenzyme-q10.html).

 

Glucosamine

 

see http://healthnewsreport.blogspot.com/2020/12/glucosamine-may-reduce-overall-death.html

Lutein 

Lutein is a carotenoid with reported anti-inflammatory properties. A large body of evidence shows that lutein has several beneficial effects, especially on eye health. In particular, lutein is known to improve or even prevent age-related macular disease which is the leading cause of blindness and vision impairment.

 

NAC/Glycine

Supplementation with GlyNAC - a combination of glycine and N-acetylcysteine as precursors of the natural antioxidant glutathione - could improve many age-associated defects in older humans to improve muscle strength and cognition, and promote healthy aging.

https://healthnewsreport.blogspot.com/2021/03/glynac-improves-multiple-defects-in.html

Pterostilbene

• Pterostilbene has been shown to minimize oxidative stress on cells, combat free radicals, and have anti-inflammatory effects. Similar to an improved version of Resveratrol, this compound has been shown to keep DNA in good repair, preventing DNA damage and promoting longevity!
• PROMOTE HEALTHY BLOOD SUGAR LEVELS - Pterostilbene supplementation may promote normal glucose and triglyceride levels. It is associated with upregulation of PPAR expression, and may be effective for facilitating healthy blood sugar.

 

• Ultra Omega-3 1000 EPA

A new study published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings provides the most comprehensive analysis of the role of omega-3 dosage on cardiovascular prevention to date. The meta-analysis, which is an in-depth review of 40 clinical trials, provides authoritative evidence for consuming more EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) omega-3 fats.

The research concludes that EPA and DHA omega-3 intake is associated with reduced risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) events, the cause of 7.4 million deaths globally each year, and reduced risk of myocardial infarction (heart attack), including fatal heart attack.

Specifically, the study found that EPA+DHA supplementation is associated with a statistically significant reduced risk of:

 

• Fatal myocardial infarction (35 percent)
• Myocardial infarction (13 percent)
• CHD events (10 percent)
• CHD mortality (9 percent)

see http://healthnewsreport.blogspot.com/2016/10/health-benefits-of-fish-oil.html)

 

 

 

Vitamin B-12

 

(see http://healthnewsreport.blogspot.com/2016/10/health-benefits-of-vitamin-b12.html)

 

Zinc

 

see https://healthnewsreport.blogspot.com/2014/07/8-ways-zinc-affects-human-body.html

 

A few times a week

 

 

 

Choline

 

Choline supplementation may help combat Alzheimer's disease

Dietary guidelines advisory committee reinforces need for increased choline intake

 

 

Probiotic

Probiotic reduces 'bad' and total cholesterol

Two daily doses of a probiotic lowered key cholesterol-bearing molecules in the blood as well as “bad” and total cholesterol, in a study presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2012.

 

Taurinne

Study shows that amino acid taurine could be used in anti-aging therapy

https://healthnewsreport.blogspot.com/2022/07/study-shows-that-amino-acid-taurine.html

Vitamin D3

 (see http://healthnewsreport.blogspot.com/2016/10/heath-benefits-of-vitamin-d.html)

Also: A review of clinical trials has found that higher vitamin D intake was associated with a 15 percent decreased likelihood for developing type 2 diabetes in adults with prediabetes. The review is published in Annals of Internal Medicine.