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Category: healthy living

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More discussion of the benefits of vitamin D. From Science Daily:

Vitamin D deficiency, depression linked in international study

Vitamin D deficiency is not just harmful to physical health -- it also might impact mental health, according to a team of researchers that has found a link between seasonal affective disorder, or SAD, and a lack of sunlight. "Rather than being one of many factors, vitamin D could have a regulative role in the development of SAD," said Alan Stewart of the University of Georgia College of Education.

Stewart and Michael Kimlin from QUT's School of Public Health and Social Work conducted a review of more than 100 leading articles and found a relationship between vitamin D and seasonal depression."Seasonal affective disorder is believed to affect up to 10 percent of the population, depending upon geographical location, and is a type of depression related to changes in season," said Stewart, an associate professor in the department of counseling and human development services.

"We believe there are several reasons for this, including that vitamin D levels fluctuate in the body seasonally, in direct relation to seasonally available sunlight," he said. "For example, studies show there is a lag of about eight weeks between the peak in intensity of ultraviolet radiation and the onset of SAD, and this correlates with the time it takes for UV radiation to be processed by the body into vitamin D.

Vitamin D is also involved in the synthesis of serotonin and dopamine within the brain, both chemicals linked to depression, according to the researchers. "Evidence exists that low levels of dopamine and serotonin are linked to depression, therefore it is logical that there may be a relationship between low levels of vitamin D and depressive symptoms," said Kimlin, a Cancer Council Queensland Professor of Cancer Prevention Reseach. "Studies have also found depressed patients commonly had lower levels of vitamin D."

Vitamin D levels varied according to the pigmentation of the skin. People with dark skin often record lower levels of vitamin D, according to the researchers.

Kimlin, who heads QUT's National Health and Medical Research Council Centre for Research Excellence in Sun and Health, said adequate levels of vitamin D were essential in maintaining bone health, with deficiency causing osteomalacia in adults and rickets in children. Vitamin D levels of more than 50 nanomoles per liter are recommended by the U.S. Institute of Medicine...."A few minutes of sunlight exposure each day should be enough for most people to maintain an adequate vitamin D status."

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Makes sense. From Science Daily:

High school football players show brain changes after one season, even in absence of concussions

Some high school football players exhibit measurable brain changes after a single season of play even in the absence of concussion, according to a new study.

Dr. Whitlow and colleagues set out to determine if head impacts acquired over a season of high school football produce white matter changes in the brain in the absence of clinically diagnosed concussion.The researchers studied 24 high school football players between the ages of 16 and 18. For all games and practices, players were monitored with Head Impact Telemetry System (HITs) helmet-mounted accelerometers, which are used in youth and collegiate football to assess the frequency and severity of helmet impacts.

Risk-weighted cumulative exposure was computed from the HITs data, representing the risk of concussion over the course of the season. This data, along with total impacts, were used to categorize the players into one of two groups: heavy hitters or light hitters. There were nine heavy hitters and 15 light hitters. None of the players experienced concussion during the season.

All players underwent pre- and post-season evaluation with diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) of the brain. DTI is an advanced MRI technique, which identifies microstructural changes in the brain's white matter.

The brain's white matter is composed of millions of nerve fibers called axons that act like communication cables connecting various regions of the brain. Diffusion tensor imaging produces a measurement, called fractional anisotropy (FA), of the movement of water molecules along axons. In healthy white matter, the direction of water movement is fairly uniform and measures high in fractional anisotropy. When water movement is more random, fractional anisotropy values decrease, suggesting microstructural abnormalities.

The results showed that both groups demonstrated global increases of FA over time, likely reflecting effects of brain development. However, the heavy-hitter group showed statistically significant areas of decreased FA post-season in specific areas of the brain, including the splenium of the corpus callosum and deep white matter tracts.

"Our study found that players experiencing greater levels of head impacts have more FA loss compared to players with lower impact exposure," Dr. Whitlow said. "Similar brain MRI changes have been previously associated with mild traumatic brain injury. However, it is unclear whether or not these effects will be associated with any negative long-term consequences."

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Please note that the study was of people living in the Baltimore, Maryland area - so it is unknown if this would hold true for people living elsewhere. From Medical Xpress;

Virus may affect mental abilities, study reports

People with an algae virus in their throats had more difficulty completing a mental exercise than healthy people, and more research is needed to understand why, US scientists say. A study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showed that the virus was present in about half of 92 human subjects studied, and those who had it performed worse on certain basic tasks.

The virus, known as Acanthocystis turfacea Chlorella virus 1, or ATCV-1, also appeared to limit the cognitive abilities of mice.The mice had a harder time navigating a maze and noticing new objects in their surroundings after they were infected.

It remains unclear if the virus was truly driving the drop in mental functioning. Researchers have not yet shown the cause and effect between the virus and the intelligence results."At this point we do not think that this virus should be considered as a threat to individual or public health," said lead researcher Robert Yolken, a virologist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. The virus was found by accident while scientists were analyzing microbes in the throats of healthy humans for a different study.

Experts have been studying viruses similar to ATCV-1 for 35 years, said senior author James Van Etten of the University of Nebraska, an expert on algal viruses. Van Etten joined the research four years ago when Johns Hopkins scientists found ATCV-1's DNA sequences in the brain tissue of people who had died with mental disorders such as schizophrenia.

"These viruses are ubiquitous in fresh water ponds and streams throughout the world," Van Etten said. He noted that the virus—previously thought to only infect algae—could make its way into the human body when people swallow water while swimming.There might also be another host in nature, such as mosquito larvae, he said. But the nature of the disease is still in the early stages of analysis.

It is also unknown if the virus's effects on the brain are lasting or temporary. Scientists have long understood that viruses interact with DNA, and further studies could shed more light on the role of the virus on cognition.

"As more studies like this are conducted, I believe we'll find out there's even more interaction between viruses, bacteria and fungi that are either ingested or breathed into our noses and mouths and the overall human condition," said Jordan Josephson, ear nose and throat specialist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, who was not involved in the study.

Further information on this study and the virus. From Medical Xpress:

Researchers identify algae-virus DNA in humans

From Newsweek:

American Researchers Discover 'Stupidity Virus'

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Natural ways that may help GERD symptoms without drugs : eating smaller portions, losing weight, not lying down for 2 hours after eating, and avoiding alcohol, cigarettes, and "trigger" foods.From Health Day News:

Could Popular Heartburn Drugs Upset Your 'Good' Gut Bugs?

Heartburn drugs such as Prilosec and Nexium may disrupt the makeup of bacteria in the digestive system, potentially boosting the risk of infections and other problems, a small new study suggests.

According to Harvard Medical School, billions of dollars are spent annually on antacid drugs in an attempt to combat heartburn, ulcers and gastroesophageal reflux disease, also known as GERD. Old standbys such as Maalox and Mylanta have been supplanted by more effective, more expensive drugs, including proton pump inhibitors. These include Prevacid (lansoprazole) and Protonix (pantoprazole) in addition to Prilosec (omeprazole) and Nexium (esomeprazole).

Long-term use of proton pump inhibitors has been linked to infection with a germ called Clostridium difficile, which causes severe diarrhea, he said. Researchers have also connected the medications to vitamin deficiencies, bone fractures and pneumonia, among other conditions.

In the new study, researchers sought to understand what happens to the trillions of germs in the digestive system when people take omeprazole, the generic name for the drug best known as Prilosec.Ten participants, aged 18 to 57, took 20 or 40 milligrams of the drug a day for 28 days. Researchers analyzed the study participants' stool samples to understand the germs in their guts.

"These microbes have evolved with us to participate in our normal development and metabolism, and perform certain functions that we would not be able to accomplish without their help," DiBaise said. Many scientists believe that people's risk of disease goes up when their normal germ makeup changes, he said.

The researchers found evidence that the medications disrupted the balance of bacteria in the digestive systems of the participants, and the changes lasted for at least a month after they discontinued the drug. It didn't seem to matter whether they took the higher or lower dose, DiBaise said.

DiBaise cautioned that the study doesn't prove that the drug causes users to become more vulnerable to C. difficile infections. However, it shows that the drug "creates a situation in the gut microbial environment that may increase an individual's susceptibility," he said.

What should users do for now? According to DiBaise, proton pump inhibitors are "the most effective medications to treat gastroesophageal reflux disease." If patients don't have the most severe symptoms, he said, other types of heartburn drugs might help. Also recommended: eating smaller portions, losing weight, not lying down for two hours after eating, and avoiding alcohol, cigarettes and "trigger" foods.

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Great reasons to eat walnuts. Yes, this study was done in mice, but it (as supported by other research) should also apply to humans.From Medical Xpress:

'Tis the season to indulge in walnuts

Researchers at UC Davis and other institutions have found that diets rich in whole walnuts or walnut oil slowed prostate cancer growth in mice. In addition, both walnuts and walnut oil reduced cholesterol and increased insulin sensitivity. The walnut diet also reduced levels of the hormone IGF-1, which had been previously implicated in both prostate and breast cancer. The study was published online in the Journal of Medicinal Food. 

Davis and colleagues have been investigating the impact of walnuts on health for some time. A previous study found that walnuts reduced prostate tumor size in mice; however, there were questions about which parts of the nuts generated these benefits. 

In the current study, researchers used a mixture of fats with virtually the same fatty acid content as walnuts as their control diet. The mice were fed whole walnuts, walnut oil or the walnut-like fat for 18 weeks. The results replicated those from the previous study. While the walnuts and walnut oil reduced cholesterol and slowed prostate cancer growth, in contrast, the walnut-like fat did not have these effects, confirming that other nut components caused the improvements - not the omega-3s.

While the study does not pinpoint which combination of compounds in walnuts slows cancer growth, it did rule out fiber, zinc, magnesium and selenium. In addition, the research demonstrated that walnuts modulate several mechanisms associated with cancer growth.

"The energy effects from decreasing IGF-1 seem to muck up the works so the cancer can't grow as fast as it normally would," Davis said. "Also, reducing cholesterol means cancer cells may not get enough of it to allow these cells to grow quickly." In addition, the research showed increases in both adiponectin and the tumor suppressor PSP94, as well as reduced levels of COX-2, all markers for reduced prostate cancer risk.

Although results in mice don't always translate to humans, Davis said his results suggest the benefits of incorporating walnuts into a healthy diet. Other research, such as the PREDIMED human study, which assessed the Mediterranean diet, also found that eating walnuts reduced cancer mortality.

Still, Davis recommends caution in diet modification. "In our study the mice were eating the equivalent of 2.6 ounces of walnuts," he said. "You need to realize that 2.6 ounces of walnuts is about 482 calories. That's not insignificant, but it's better than eating a serving of supersized fries, which has 610 calories. In addition to the cancer benefit, we think you also get cardiovascular benefits that other walnut research has demonstrated.

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Are probiotic bacteria the reason?

From Medical Xpress: Does a yogurt a day keep diabetes away?

A high intake of yogurt has been found to be associated with a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes, according to research published in open access journal BMC Medicine. This highlights the importance of having yogurt as part of a healthy diet.

Type 2 diabetes is a chronic condition that occurs when the body doesn't produce enough insulin, or the body's cells develop resistance to insulin. There is an increased risk of developing it if a relative has the condition or if an individual has an unhealthy lifestyle. 

Researchers from Harvard School of Public Health pooled the results of three prospective cohort studies that followed the medical history and lifestyle habits of health professionals. These studies were the Health Professionals' Follow-up Study (HFPS), which included 51,529 US male dentists, pharmacists, vets, osteopathic physicians and podiatrists, aged from 40 to 75 years; Nurses' Health Study (NHS), which began in 1976, and followed 121,700 female US nurses aged from 30 to 55 years; and Nurses' Health Study II (NHS II), which followed 116,671 female US nurses aged from 25 to 42 years beginning in the year 1989.

Within the three cohorts 15,156 cases of type 2 diabetes were identified during the follow-up period. The researchers found that the total dairy consumption had no association with the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. They then looked at consumption of individual dairy products, such as skimmed milk, cheese, whole milk and yogurt. When adjusting for chronic disease risk factors such as age and BMI as well as dietary factors, it was found that high consumption of yogurt was associated with a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

The authors then conducted a meta-analysis, incorporating their results and other published studies, up to March 2013, that investigated the association between dairy products and type 2 diabetes. This found that consumption of one 28g serving of yogurt per day was associated with an 18 per cent lower risk of type 2 diabetes.

Previous research has suggested calcium, magnesium, or specific fatty acids present in dairy products may lower the risk of type 2 diabetes. It has been shown that probiotic bacteria found in yogurt improves fat profiles and antioxidant status in people with type 2 diabetes and the researchers suggest this could have a risk-lowering effect in developing the condition. 

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Amazing persistence of the restroom microbial community.From NPR news:

What Microbes Lurked In The Last Public Restroom You Used?

The invisible world of the bathroom isn't pretty — unless you're a microbe. After scanning the microbial zoo of four public restrooms recently, a team of researchers found a diverse swarm of characters that persisted for months despite regular cleaning of the facilities. The goal of the study, published in the December issue of Applied and Environmental Microbiology, was to better understand how communities of bacteria and viruses can shift in these very public places across a couple of months.

To get their down-and-dirty readings, the researchers selected four bathrooms at San Diego State University... They checked two women's restrooms and two men's restrooms (a high-traffic and a low-traffic bathroom for each gender). The bathrooms were thoroughly cleaned at the study's start with bleach solution, which killed any existing germ communities.Then, during the following hours, days, weeks and months of human use, the researchers periodically swabbed soap dispensers, floors and toilet seats in all four restrooms for microbe samples. 

Within one hour of sterilization, the bathrooms were completely recolonized with microbes — just as plants rapidly arrive and populate a newly emerged island. Fecal bacteria dominated, including on toilet seats and on soap dispensers — about 45 percent of the bacteria there were of fecal origin.

In all, the scientists found genetic traces of more than 77,000 distinct types of bacteria and viruses. (At least some of those species were likely dead or dormant, the scientists add; genetic testing detects them all, whatever their status.)

Patterns of regrowth and succession, as some species waned and others replaced them, were surprisingly similar from bathroom to bathroom; within just five hours the population mix in each room stabilized.

When the team tried growing cultures from different surfaces in each room, they found one set of live bacteria in overwhelming abundance: Staphylococcus. Staph's persistence in these studies points to its power as a potential pathogen, Gilbert says. Various versions are common on human skin and inside the nose and other orifices; they generally cause no problems, or trigger only minor skin infections. But staph infections can be serious, or even kill, if the bacteria get into bloodstream, joints, bones, lungs or heart. 

Gilbert notes that none of the live Staph strains detected in the San Diego bathrooms showed signs of being antibiotic resistant. They were instead relatively harmless "skin bugs that happened to have lost their skin," he says. The team did find genes from MRSA hiding on the floor, as well as traces of some troublemaker viruses, including HPV and herpes virus.

Interestingly, although restrooms that were left open for use for up to two months were cleaned regularly with soap and water, the communities of microbes found there remained relatively unchanged for the full eight weeks of the study.

No need to be scared or grossed out by that finding, Gilbert says..."All human environments contain pathogens — your bedroom, the phone you're talking on, even the bugs inside of you could turn pathogenic at any time," Gilbert tells Shots. "But we desperately need them in our lives." Having a healthy community of good — or even just neutral — microbes can crowd out the bad ones. As we've learned from using broad-spectrum antibiotics in the human body, "sterilization is not necessarily good," he says. "Bacteria come back right away, and they might come back perturbed."

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Jogging? Now retirees planning to relax and putter around instead have to jog for health? From Science Daily:

Jogging keeps you young: Seniors who run regularly can walk as efficiently as 20-somethings

A new study by researchers at Humboldt State University and the University of Colorado, Boulder is shedding light on an unexpected benefit of jogging in older adults. The study looked at adults over the age of 65 -- some of whom walk for exercise and some who run for exercise. The researchers found that those who run at least 30 minutes, three times a week were less likely to experience age-related physical decline in walking efficiency than those who simply walked.

In fact, the older runners were 7-10 percent more efficient at walking than those who didn't jog. "What we found is that older adults who regularly participate in high aerobic activities -- running in particular -- have what we call a lower metabolic cost of walking than older, sedentary adults. In fact, their metabolic cost of walking is similar to young adults in their 20s," said Justus Ortega, a Kinesiology Professor at Humboldt State and director of HSU's Biomechanics Lab.

Metabolic cost is the amount of energy needed to move and naturally increases as we age. High metabolic cost contributes to making walking more difficult and tiring. Decline in walking ability is a key predictor of morbidity in older adults.

In the study, researchers looked at self-reported older joggers over the age of 65 -- those who ran at least 30 minutes a day, three times a week -- and self-reported walkers, those who walked three times a week for 30 minutes. Participants were asked to walk on a treadmill at three speeds (1.6, 2.8 and 3.9 miles per hour) as researchers measured their oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production. Overall, older joggers were 7-10 percent more efficient at walking than older adults who just walked for exercise. Their metabolic cost was similar to young people in their 20s.

Researchers aren't yet sure what makes joggers more efficient than walkers but they believe it may have something to do with the mitochondria found in cells. Evidence suggests that people who exercise vigorously have healthier mitochondria in their muscles.

 And a related concern: what about my knees? From  Science Daily:

Running does not lead to knee osteoarthritis, may protect people from developing disease, experts say

Running as a habitual exercise at any stage in life not only does not increase a person’s risk of developing knee osteoarthritis and may even help protect a person from developing the painful disease, according to new research findings."This {research} does not address the question of whether or not running is harmful to people who have pre-existing knee OA," said Dr. Lo. "However, in people who do not have knee OA, there is no reason to restrict participation in habitual running at any time in life from the perspective that it does not appear to be harmful to the knee joint."

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Exciting research in a new area - our trillions of viruses or virome. From the new research it looks like some of the viruses are beneficial to us and help keep us healthy. It's time to stop thinking of all viruses (and bacteria) as bad, but instead that some viruses are necessary for good health. From Science Daily:

Natural Gut Viruses Join Bacterial Cousins in Maintaining Health and Fighting Infections

Microbiologists at NYU Langone Medical Center say they have what may be the first strong evidence that the natural presence of viruses in the gut -- or what they call the 'virome' -- plays a health-maintenance and infection-fighting role similar to that of the intestinal bacteria that dwell there and make up the "microbiome."

In a series of experiments in mice that took two years to complete, the NYU Langone team found that infection with the common murine norovirus, or MNV, helped mice repair intestinal tissue damaged by inflammation and helped restore the gut's immune defenses after its microbiome had been wiped out by antibiotic therapy. In a report on their work to be published in the journal Nature online Nov. 19, researchers say they also found that MNV bolstered the immune system in fighting off tissue damage.

"Our research offers compelling data about the mutually supportive relationship between viruses and bacteria in the mouse gut and lays the groundwork for further research on precisely how the virome supports the immune system, which likely applies to humans, as well," says senior study investigator Ken Cadwell, PhD, an assistant professor at NYU Langone.

"We have known for a long time that people get infected all the time with viruses and bacteria, and they don't get sick," says Cadwell. "Now we have scientific evidence that not every viral infection is bad, but may actually be beneficial to health, just as we know that many bacterial infections are good for maintaining health."

According to Cadwell, until now, scientists have had mostly trace genetic evidence of a virome's existence, but none to confirm its normal presence in the gut or to clarify whether it plays a harmful, neutral, or helpful role.

What the NY Times had to say about this new area of research:

Viruses as a Cure

When we talk about viruses, usually we focus on the suffering caused by Ebola, influenza, and the like. But our bodies are home to trillions of viruses, and new research hints that some of them may actually be keeping us healthy.

“Viruses have gotten a bad rap,” said Ken Cadwell, an immunologist at New York University School of Medicine. “They don’t always cause disease.” Dr. Cadwell stumbled by accident onto the first clues about the healing power of viruses. At the time, he was studying the microbiome, the community of 100 trillion microbes living in our bodies. Scientists have long known that the microbiome is important to our health.

Kristine Wylie, a research instructor of pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine who was not involved in the research, speculated that in real life, certain viruses might be important partners with the microbiome. “It isn’t hard to imagine that the viral exposures we get as children are important to our development,” she said.

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Two studies that talk about a healthy diet and health benefits.From Science Daily:

Home cooking a main ingredient in healthier diet, study shows

People who frequently cook meals at home eat healthier and consume fewer calories than those who cook less, according to new Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health research."When people cook most of their meals at home, they consume fewer carbohydrates, less sugar and less fat than those who cook less or not at all -- even if they are not trying to lose weight," says Julia A. Wolfson, MPP, a CLF-Lerner Fellow at the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future and lead author of the study.The findings also suggest that those who frequently cooked at home -- six-to-seven nights a week -- also consumed fewer calories on the occasions when they ate out.

Wolfson and co-author Sara N. Bleich, PhD, an associate professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Bloomberg School, analyzed data from the 2007-2010 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from more than 9,000 participants aged 20 and older... The researchers found that 8 percent of adults cooked dinner once or less a week and this group consumed, on an average day, 2,301 total calories, 84 grams of fat and 135 grams of sugar. Forty-eight percent of participants cooked dinner six to seven times a week and they consumed 2,164 calories, 81 grams of fat and 119 grams of sugar on an average day.

The research found blacks are more likely to live in households where cooking occurs less frequently than whites; and individuals who work more than 35 hours a week outside the home also cook less often.

From Medical Xpress:

Healthy diets are good for the kidneys

A healthy diet may help protect the kidneys, according to two studies that will be presented at ASN Kidney Week 2014 November 11¬-16 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, PA. Dietary modifications may be a low-cost, simple intervention to reduce the burden of chronic kidney disease (CKD). 

A higher-quality diet, as measured using 3 different scoring systems for dietary qualities known to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, was associated with a 16% to 23% reduced risk of needing dialysis or dying from kidney problems. Higher-quality diets included those high in fruits, vegetables, and unsaturated fats. The researchers also found that high sodium intake (average of 4.7g g/day) was linked with an increased risk of needing dialysis or dying from kidney problems, but no benefit was seen for low sodium intake (average 2.0 g/day) compared with moderate intake. In contrast, high potassium intake was associated with a reduced future risk.