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It turns out that we also have microbes called archaea living in and on our bodies. They are part of our microbiome (community of microbes living in and on us, which also includes bacteria, viruses, and fungi). Archaea constitute a domain or kingdom of single-celled microorganisms. These microbes are prokaryotes, meaning that they have no cell nucleus or any other membrane-bound organelles in their cells. Archaeal cells have unique properties that separate them from bacteria and eukaryotes. Archaea were initially classified as bacteria and thought to only exist in extreme environments (such as hot springs and salt lakes), and given the name archaebacteria, but this classification is now outdated. We now know that archaea live in less extreme places, including oceans, marshlands, animals, and humans.

So little is known about archaea that not even medical schools discuss this topic. This may be due to the fact that we currently don't know of any archaea that are human pathogens (that is, that cause illness) or parasitic. They are generally viewed as mutuals (the relationship is beneficial to both organisms) or commensals (they benefit, but don't help or harm the other organism). Humans appear to have low levels of archaea, and so far they have  been found in the human gut (part of digestion and metabolism), on the skin, and in subgingival dental plaque (and perhaps involved with periodontal disease). But studies rarely look for them. We don't know the importance or roles that they play in our bodies (but there are suspicions), but it turns out that drugs such as statins and the antibiotic metronidazole  are eliminating them.

Note that methanogens are archaea that excrete or produce methane as a metabolic byproduct in anoxic (no oxygen) conditions such as the gut. They help digest our food. The species Methanobrevibacter smithii  has been shown to be present in up to 95.7% of humans studied, and found to be the most abundant methanogen in the human gut, comprising up to as much as 10% of all anaerobes found in a healthy individual's colon. Anaerobes are organisms that require oxygen-free conditions to live. Some of the June 2015 article (by M. N. Lurie-Weinberger and U. Goph) excerpts from PLOS:

Archaea in and on the Human Body: Health Implications and Future Directions

Although they are abundant and even dominant members of animal microbiomes (microbiotas), from sponges and termites to mice and cattle, archaea in our own microbiomes have received much less attention than their bacterial counterparts. The fact that human-associated archaea have been relatively little-studied may be at least partially attributed to the lack of any established archaeal human pathogens. Clinically oriented microbiology courses often do not mention archaea at all, and most medical school and biology students are only aware of archaea as exotic extremophiles that have strange and eukaryotic-like molecular machinery. Since archaea have been known to be associated with the human gut for several decades, one would think that human microbiome studies may unravel new facets of archaea–human interactions...  ...continue reading "We Have Archaea In and On Our Bodies"

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The following article excerpts are from the talk "Food and Brain" about the best foods for the brain, at the annual 2015 meeting of the American Psychiatric Association (APA). This is in the new emerging field of food psychiatry, or how certain foods and diet influence the brain. The data is emerging that we can positively influence mental health through dietary interventions. For ex.: recent work reported that adults who followed the Mediterranean dietary pattern the closest over 4.4 years had a significantly reduced risk of developing depression (by 40% to 60%).

One key comment was: "Perhaps diet is the closest we've come to prevention in psychiatry." Some foods that are especially beneficial for the brain: seafood, greens, nuts, legumes (beans) and occasional dark chocolate. Use smaller amounts of meat (more as flavorings rather than just eating huge chunks of it) on top of a plant based diet. Also mentioned were the benefits of turmeric (because of the curcumin in it) and rosemary. And focus on improving the whole dietary pattern rather than just eating or not eating certain foods.

Note that BDNF is Brain-derived neurotrophic factor. This is a protein that acts on the brain, the nervous system, and it is very important for learning, memory, and higher thinking. So increasing BDNF levels is good. And remember, what's good for the brain is also good for the body and microbes - it's all intertwined. From Medscape:

Beans, Greens, and the Best Foods For the Brain

Dr Ramsey, in collaboration with the new International Society for Nutritional Psychiatry, is in the process of developing a standardized "brain food diet." "Food is a very effective and underutilized intervention in mental health," he started off. "We want to help our patients have more resilient brains by using whole foods...by helping get patients off of processed foods, off of white carbohydrates, and off of certain vegetable oils."

Though the field is in its infancy, food psychiatry is increasingly being embraced by clinicians and researchers, as a paper published earlier this year in the Lancet Psychiatry attests. "Although the determinants of mental health are complex," the authors wrote, "the emerging and compelling evidence for nutrition as a crucial factor in the high prevalence and incidence of mental disorders suggests that diet is as important to psychiatry as it is to cardiology, endocrinology, and gastroenterology." ..."The data are very promising that we can positively influence mental health through dietary interventions," commented Dr Ramsey.

"Hominid diets have changed drastically through millions of years of evolution.,,,But only in the past 100 years has our diet drastically switched from a whole foods diet to one that is more processed and high in refined carbohydrates; that includes more vegetable fats rather than meat fats; and preservatives, emulsifiers, and other additives, which appear to have contributed to a decline in our collective health.

Early humans evolved in the African Rift Valley, which is near a seacoast. It's possible that whatever evolutionary spark occurred that made us human occurred here, in part due to reliable access to seafood—oysters in particular—which glutted our brains with omega-3 fatty acids and cholesterol (our brains are composed of 60% fat). Oysters and other mollusks are also very high in nutrients, including B12, which is commonly deficient in people consuming vegan or vegetarian diets and is necessary for myelin and neurotransmitter function. 

A number of studies have linked the Mediterranean diet (high in fish oils, nuts, and grains and including maybe a little red wine) with advantageous effects on neurologic and mental health. Dr Deans cited recent work reporting that adults who followed the Mediterranean dietary pattern the closest over 4.4 years had a significantly reduced risk of developing depression (40%-60%)....When taken together, most of these dietary pattern studies, which have been conducted all over the world, consistently show that traditional, pre-processed diets are the healthiest, including for the brain. ..."Eat the rainbow," he says, given that bold, bright colors in nature tend to signify valuable vitamins and phytonutrients (the reds, purples, and greens in particular).

Seafood: Seafood is packed with brain-healthy omega-3 fatty acids. These healthy fats are also abundant in plants like chia and flax, but plant-based sources aren't as efficiently converted to docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), an important structural component of neuronal membranes. DHA also influences the expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which can benefit people who have mood and anxiety disorders. Bivalves like mussels, oysters, and clams are the top source of vitamin B12 as well as zinc: Six oysters (only about 10 calories each) provide 240% of our recommended daily B12 intake and 500% of our recommended zinc intake! Seafood is also a leading dietary source of vitamin D (we don't get it all from the sun) as well as iodine and chromium. Although many people worry about mercury in fish, Dr Ramsey provided an easy way around the concern: Eat small fish like sardines, anchovies, and herring, which typically don't accumulate toxic levels.

Leafy greens: A great base for a brain-food diet, leafy greens are a good source of fiber, folate (derived from the wordfoliage), magnesium, and vitamin K. Perhaps surprising, kale, mustard greens, and bok choy provide the most absorbable form of calcium on the planet, more so than milk. Greens also provide flavanols and carotenoids that have beneficial epigenetic influences (eg, including upping hepatic toxin processing). 

Nuts:... Nuts are packed with healthy monounsaturated fats. They help keep us full and also aid in absorbing fat-soluble nutrients. Nuts also provide fiber as well as minerals like manganese and selenium. A serving of 22 almonds (just 162 calories) contains 33% of our recommended vitamin E, plenty of protein, and minerals, including iron. One study from 2013 found that the Mediterranean diet augmented with nuts is associated with significantly higher BDNF levels in patients with depression.

Legumes: Dr Ramsey is pro-meat, but he acknowledges that many people are eating far too much and the wrong types of meat, and that nuts and legumes are a great alternative source of protein and nutrients...Some data suggest that vegan and vegetarian diets are associated with improved mood. But as previously mentioned, these dietary patterns can result in B12 deficiency, which has been associated with brain atrophy and developmental delay. Hence, supplementation is important in this population. Vegetarianism has also been linked with depression, anxiety, and eating disorders, as well as increased healthcare utilization and worse quality of life. These negative associations also could be due to the fact that it's harder to absorb nutrients like zinc, iron, and certain omega-3s from plants.

"The notion that the vegan diet is the healthiest diet on the planet is probably incorrect," said Dr Ramsey, before explaining that he just feels that we should approach meat in our diets differently....We want to help patients use beef and seafood more as flavorings on top of a plant-based diet." A modest amount of meat in the diet has its benefits, including nutrient availability: Hemoglobin-derived iron is up to 40% more absorbable than plant-based iron. Unlike most plants, meat provides all of the amino acids necessary for protein synthesis. Dr Ramsey emphasized the importance of seeking out leaner, grass-fed meats if one has the means.

The understanding of how microbiota contribute to our mental and medical well-being is rapidly advancing....One of the most powerful interventions to alter our microbiome is diet. Research shows that stressed mice experienced changes in the gastrointestinal microbiota, reflecting the gut-brain relationship. There are 260 million neurons connecting the gut and the brain; furthermore, many commensal gut bacteria make neurotransmitters and communicate with the brain via the vagus nerve....Although the science of probiotic therapies is relatively young, it's clear that these commensal organisms co-evolved with us and are adapted to our diet.

Finally, to close out the session, Dr Ramsey returned to the stage and asked, "So, can you eat to build a better brain? We think that you can if you focus on dietary patterns and not a single food here or there." He also reminded the audience to help their patients identify and increase their consumption of nutrient-dense foods and to "eat the rainbow,"..."I don't know of anything else that can potentially decrease the risk of depression in a population by 40%," he concluded. "Perhaps diet is the closest we've come to prevention in psychiatry."

...Evidence suggests that curcumin, an ingredient in turmeric, increases BDNF. Other research has found that populations that eat more curry have a decreased risk for dementia, while rosemary extract may help prevent cognitive impairment. "Many spices seem to have healing properties," Dr Ramsey commented.

Although the "Food and the Brain" session at the American Psychiatric Association annual meeting focused on what to eat in the interest of brain health, intermittent fasting might also be beneficial for the brain. In addition to helping maintain a healthy weight, fasting induces ketosis. Ketone metabolism has been shown to be beneficial for the brain and improve cognition in patients with mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer disease. Keep in mind that fasting can come with risks for some people, particularly diabetics, and should be discussed with a healthcare provider.

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Once again, research shows that eating lots of fruits and vegetables is beneficial to health - this time because high vitamin C concentrations in the blood is linked to lower risks of developing cardiovascular disease and early death. And it's food that they looked at, not supplements. From Science Daily:

Vitamin C related to reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, early death

New research from the University of Copenhagen and Herlev and Gentofte Hospital showshealth benefitsthat high vitamin C concentrations in the blood from the intake of fruit and vegetables are associated with a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and early death.

As part of the study, the researchers had access to data about 100,000 Danes and their intake of fruit and vegetables as well as their DNA. "We can see that those with the highest intake of fruit and vegetables have a 15% lower risk of developing cardiovascular disease and a 20% lower risk of early death compared with those who very rarely eat fruit and vegetables. At the same time, we can see that the reduced risk is related to high vitamin C concentrations in the blood from the fruit and vegetables," says Camilla Kobylecki, a medical doctor and PhD student at the Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Herlev and Gentofte Hospital.

Among other things, vitamin C helps build connective tissue which supports and connects different types of tissues and organs in the body. Vitamin C is also a potent antioxidant which protects cells and biological molecules from the damage which causes many diseases, including cardiovascular disease. The human body is not able to produce vitamin C, which means that we must get the vitamin from our diet.

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The wonders of nature! A small study found that taking a 90 minute walk in "natural" (wild) environments boost mental well-being by reducing rumination  (obsessive, negative thoughts focused on yourself). It is thought that rumination is associated with increased risk for depression and other mental illnesses. Rumination actually shows up in MRIs scans as increased activity in a brain region called the subgenual prefrontal cortex, an area of the brain that regulates negative emotions. The researchers suggest that these findings support the need for natural areas (parks) in urban areas.There have been a number of other studies finding that nature reduces stress and improves well being. Bottom line: take a walk in nature to feel better. From Medical Xpress:

Walking in nature found to reduce rumination

A team of researchers working at Stanford University has found that people walking in a "natural" environment tend to engage in less rumination...Biomedical researchers believe that some instances of both anxiety and/or depression come about due to what they call rumination—constantly flogging oneself with criticism of past mistakes and some studies have suggested that living in an urban environment might contribute to an increase in rumination. In this new effort, the researchers sought to learn if it might be possible for people to lessen the degree of rumination they engage in by simply going for a walk in a natural setting.

To find out, the team enlisted the assistance of 38 reasonably healthy adult male and female individuals—they were asked to participate in a study that consisted of taking questionnaires and undergoing fMRI scans before and after going for an hour and a half walk. The volunteers were split into two groups, one got to walk in a grassy area near the Stanford campus that was lined with lots of trees—the other group found themselves marching around in a strictly urban setting. The questionnaires were designed to illuminate rumination, while the fMRI scans focused on the subgenual prefrontal cortex—prior research showed it tended to light up during periods of rumination.

Afterwards, the researchers analyzed and crunched the data from the questionnaires and brain scans and came up with a rumination score which they then used to compare people in the two groups. They found that rumination remained level for the urban walkers but fell on average from 35.4 to 33.1 for the nature walkers. This the team claims, shows that taking a walk in a natural environment setting can reduce rumination, and possibly reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression, though they acknowledge that their sample size was small and suggest more research will need to be done to confirm their findings.

This study reveals a pathway by which nature experience may improve mental well-being and suggests that accessible natural areas within urban contexts may be a critical resource for mental health in our rapidly urbanizing world.

 Views from the nature (A and B) and urban (C and D) walks the participants took (PNAS)

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This shouldn't be surprising. Of course staying home and making your own meals is the healthiest! Restaurant meals tend to have very large portions, frequently with rich sauces, and the meal choices tend to be heavy on fat and salt. Think of all the fried foods, rich sauces, meats,breads and butter, and desserts available. At home you can limit excess, control the food ingredients, and eat only healthy foods. From Medical Xpress:

Restaurant meals can be as bad for your waistline as fast food is

Restaurant and fast-food meals increase people's daily intake of calories, fats, cholesterol and sodium. Credit: Diana Yates 

When Americans go out to eat, either at a fast-food outlet or a full-service restaurant, they consume, on average, about 200 more calories a day than when they stay home for meals, a new study reports. They also take in more fat, saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium than those who prepare and eat their meals at home.

These are the findings of University of Illinois kinesiology and community health professor Ruopeng An, who analyzed eight years of nationally representative data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which is conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics. An looked at 2003-10 data collected from 18,098 adults living in the U.S.

His analysis, reported in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, revealed that eating at a restaurant is comparable to - or in some cases less healthy than - eating at a fast-food outlet. While people who eat at restaurants tend to take in more healthy nutrients - including certain vitamins, potassium and omega-3 fatty acids - than those who eat at home or at a fast-food outlet, the restaurant diners also consume substantially more sodium and cholesterol - two nutrients that Americans generally eat in excess, even at home. 

Fast-food and restaurant diners consumed about 10 grams more total fat, and 3.49 grams and 2.46 grams, respectively, more saturated fat than those who dined at home. Eating at a fast-food outlet adds about 300 milligrams of sodium to one's daily intake, and restaurant dining boosts sodium intake by 412 milligrams per day, on average, An said. 

An also found striking differences in the effects of dining out on different groups."African-Americans who ate at fast-food and full-service restaurants took in more total fat, saturated fat, sodium and sugar than their Caucasian and Hispanic counterparts who dined out," An said. "The effect of fast-food restaurant consumption on daily total energy intake appeared larger among people with lower educational attainment," An said. "And people in the middle-income range had the highest daily intake of total energy, total fat, saturated fat and sodium when they dined at full-service restaurants." 

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Citrus paradisi (Grapefruit, pink) white bg.jpgWill these research results hold up over time? It is known that certain fruits (citrus fruits and juices) and vegetables contain photosensitizing chemicals called psoralens, and the researchers suspected that a high intake of citrus products over time could make individuals more susceptible to melanoma than people who rarely ate citrus fruits. During more than 2 decades of following more than 100,000 persons they found 1840 melanomas , And yes, even though there were relatively few melanomas, they did find a dose-dependent relationship between citrus product consumption and melanoma risk, specifically that ingesting citrus fruit 1.6 or more times per day had a 36% higher risk for melanoma than people who ate it less than twice per week. But this association was only with whole grapefruit and orange juice, and weirdly, not with consumption of grapefruit juice or whole oranges. Before people panic, remember that citrus fruits have all sorts of great health benefits and should be eaten. From Science Daily:

Can orange juice, grapefruit raise your melanoma risk?

People who enjoy a glass of orange juice or some fresh grapefruit in the morning may face a slightly increased risk of melanoma—the least common but most deadly form of skin cancer. That's the finding from a study of more than 100,000 U.S. adults followed for about 25 years. Researchers discovered that those who regularly consumed orange juice or whole grapefruit had a higher risk of developing melanoma, compared to people who avoided those foods.

Experts were quick to stress that the findings, reported online June 29 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, do not prove that citrus foods help cause skin cancer. It is plausible, however, that certain compounds in citrus explain the association, said senior researcher Dr. Abrar Qureshi, chair of dermatology at Brown University and a dermatologist at Rhode Island Hospital, in Providence.

Citrus foods contain particular "photoactive" chemicals—namely, psoralens and furocoumarins—that are known to make the skin more sensitive to the sun when they're applied topically, Qureshi said."You'll see children get a sunburn in spots where a citrus popsicle dripped down the chin, for example," Qureshi explained.

But even if citrus foods potentially make some people susceptible to sunburn, it's not orange juice that should be avoided, Qureshi said. "The citrus can't hurt you without the excessive sun exposure," he pointed out. So the message remains the same, Qureshi said: Protect your skin from soaking up too many rays by staying in the shade, using sunblock and wearing a hat. "I don't think the general public should make any changes based on this study," said Berwick, a professor of dermatology at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. 

For the study, the researchers analyzed data from two long-running studies of U.S. health professionals. Every couple of years, the participants answered detailed surveys on their health and lifestyle. Over about 25 years, more than 1,800 people developed melanoma and the risk was higher among those who regularly drank orange juice or ate whole grapefruit. That was true, the researchers found, even when several other factors were taken into account—including people's reports of their overall sun exposure and history of bad sunburns.

People who had orange juice at least once a day were about 25 percent more likely to develop melanoma than those who drank the juice less than weekly. Similarly, people who ate whole grapefruit at least three times a week had a 41 percent higher melanoma risk, versus those who never ate it. On the other hand, there was no connection between melanoma risk and either whole oranges or grapefruit juice, the researchers found.

Qureshi did offer a potential explanation for why only orange juice and whole grapefruit may be tied to melanoma risk."There are different types of these photoactive compounds in different parts of the fruit," he said. So, it's possible that not all citrus fruits are alike when it comes to melanoma risk. Plus, Qureshi said, heat—like that used in pasteurizing juice—neutralizes the photoactive compounds. That might help explain why grapefruit juice was not connected to melanoma risk.

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There used to be alternative medicine, but it has evolved to what is now called integrative medicine. There are integrative centers even at some if the most prestigious medical institutions in the USA (Harvard, Mayo Clinic,etc). Integrative medicine is part of the medical establishment, so there is an emphasis on treatments that can be scientifically investigated, and conventional medical treatments are also used as needed. But there is a concern with wellness, with looking at the whole body, at prevention and treating chronic diseases (such as heart disease and diabetes) that take years to develop and are tied to the ways people think, feel, and live their everyday lives (so they look at stress, diet, lifestyles).

What I especially like is the quote taught in medical schools: “A common homily we tell our students is that in five years, half of what we taught them will be wrong. We just don’t know which half.” That alone is a good reason for a person to take responsibility for living the most healthy lifestyle that they can (to focus on wellness and prevention), rather than depending on medicines for "treatments" and "cures". Excerpts from The Atlantic:

The Evolution of Alternative Medicine

Back in the 1990s, the word “alternative” was a synonym for hip and forward-thinking.... That was the decade when doctors started to realize just how many Americans were using alternative medicine, starting with a 1993 paper published in The New England Journal of Medicine. The paper reported that one in three Americans were using some kind of “unconventional therapy.” Only 28 percent of them were telling their primary-care doctors about it.

Enough Americans had similar interests that, in the early 1990s, Congress established an Office of Alternative Medicine within the National Institutes of Health. Seven years later, that office expanded into the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), with a $50 million budget dedicated to studying just about every treatment that didn’t involve pharmaceuticals or surgery—traditional systems like Ayurveda and acupuncture along with more esoteric things like homeopathy and energy healing.Some thought the NCCAM’s work was too far outside the mainstream....

In an email, Briggs confirmed that her center’s mission has shifted over the years...”That change became more pronounced a few months ago, when Congress removed the word “alternative” from the NCCAM’s name, redubbing it the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH). 

The idea of alternative medicine—an outsider movement challenging the medical status quo—has fallen out of favor since my youth. Plenty of people still identify strongly with the label, but these days, they’re often the most extreme advocates, the ones who believe in using homeopathy instead of vaccines, “liver flushes” instead of HIV drugs, and garlic instead of chemotherapy. In contrast, integrative doctors see themselves as part of the medical establishment. “I don’t like the term ‘alternative medicine,’” says Mimi Guarneri, a longtime cardiologist and researcher who founded the Academy of Integrative Health and Medicine as well as the integrative center at Scripps. 

After visiting the NIH center and talking to leading integrative physicians, I can say pretty definitively that integrative health is not just another name for alternative medicine. There are 50 institutions around the country that have integrative in their name, at places like Harvard, Stanford, Duke, and the Mayo Clinic. Most of them offer treatments like acupuncture, massage, and nutrition counseling, along with conventional drugs and surgery.

The actual treatments they use vary, but what ties integrative doctors together is their focus on chronic disease and their effort to create an abstract condition called wellness. In the process, they’re scrutinizing many therapies that were once considered alternative, subjecting them to the scientific method and then using them the same way they’d incorporate any other evidence-based medicine.

It’s hard to talk about integrative health without using abstract terms like wellness, vitality, and healing...For a long time, though, the medical profession was so busy treating acute illness that it didn’t put as much attention on preventing heart disease, diabetes, or cancer...The bigger problem, says Hyman, is that most doctors aren’t well equipped to treat chronic disease. “We have an acute-disease system for a chronic-disease population,” he told me. “The whole approach is to suppress and inhibit the manifestations of disease.” 

The question is how integrative doctors try to restore balance—and the answer varies. Many of them focus on diet to a degree that goes far beyond the usual guidelines about avoiding salt or trans fat. They’ll look for undiagnosed food sensitivities or hormonal imbalances, with the idea that these problems account for many chronic health complaints and cause even more serious breakdowns over time. There’s a lot of emphasis on intestinal bacteria. “We now know that so many separate things are linked to what’s going on in the gut,” Hyman told me, alluding to a growing body of literature linking the microbiome to everything from cancer to mood disorders. Guarneri, the cardiologist who founded the integrative center at Scripps, told me integrative health is highly personalized. 

Integrative doctors tend to favor treatments that are—as Briggs, the NCCIH director, put it—“amenable to scientific investigation.” Several of the doctors I interviewed told me they don’t prescribe homeopathic remedies, for instance, because there’s no evidence to support them....When integrative doctors do employ alternative-seeming treatments, it’s usually to manage pain or reduce stress. 

Aside from these variations, there’s another reason it’s hard to define integrative health: It doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Its practitioners are part of the same medical establishment as other doctors, going to the same conferences and publishing in the same journals. They’ve influenced and been influenced by major trends in medicine—for instance, the movement toward patient-centered medicine, or the backlash against the overuse of drugs and surgery that the New Yorker writer Atul Gawande calls “the epidemic of unnecessary care.”

Data: CDC Report on Multiple Chronic Conditions Among Adults; Chart: Lauren Giordano / The Atlantic

When Blackwelder teaches family medicine at East Tennessee University, he says he reminds his students to stay open to treatments that once seemed esoteric, as long as they show some promise. “A common homily we tell our students is that in five years, half of what we taught them will be wrong. We just don’t know which half,” he says. “We find things out by remaining inquisitive, being open to exploring new ideas when a question is asked. We should never just say we’ve got it all figured out, because we rarely do.”At a time when one in two American adults has at least one chronic disease, it’s safe to say there are a lot of things medicine still hasn’t figured out. 

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This new research suggests possible future treatments in treating urinary tract infections (UTIs) by manipulating the person's diet and so influencing gut microbes and urinary pH (how acidic is the urine). These possible future treatments are different than what others are looking for, which are bacteria (probiotics) that one can take to prevent or treat UTIs. (Earlier posts on treating UTIs are here and here,)

The researchers found that during UTIs, humans secrete siderocalin which helps the body fight infection by depriving bacteria of iron (a mineral necessary for bacterial growth), and that samples that were less acidic, and closer to the neutral pH of pure water, showed higher activity of the protein siderocalin and were better at restricting bacterial growth than the more acidic samples.

The researchers found that the presence of small metabolites called aromatics, which vary depending on a person's diet, also contributed to variations in bacterial growth. Samples that restricted bacterial growth had more aromatic compounds, and urine that permitted bacterial growth had fewer. Stay tuned for follow-up research. 

One of the researchers, Dr. Jeffrey P. Henderson, pointed out that physicians already know how to raise urinary pH with things like calcium supplements, and alkalizing agents are already used in the U.K. as over-the-counter UTI treatments. But knowing how to encourage the metabolites is trickier, but will involve dietary changes. Some good food sources include those rich in antioxidants: coffee, tea, colorful berries, cranberries, and red wine.

From Science Daily: A person's diet, acidity of urine may affect susceptibility to UTIs

The acidity of urine -- as well as the presence of small molecules related to diet -- may influence how well bacteria can grow in the urinary tract, a new study shows. The research may have implications for treating urinary tract infections, which are among the most common bacterial infections worldwide. Urinary tract infections (UTIs) often are caused by a strain of bacteria called Escherichia coli (E. coli), and doctors long have relied on antibiotics to kill the microbes. But increasing bacterial resistance to these drugs is leading researchers to look for alternative treatment strategies.

"Many physicians can tell you that they see patients who are particularly susceptible to urinary tract infections," said senior author Jeffrey P. Henderson​, MD, PhD,...With this in mind, Henderson and his team, including first author Robin R. Shields-Cutler, a graduate student in Henderson's lab, were interested in studying how the body naturally fights bacterial infections. They cultured E. coli in urine samples from healthy volunteers and noted major differences in how well individual urine samples could harness a key immune protein to limit bacterial growth. "We could divide these urine samples into two groups based on whether they permitted or restricted bacterial growth," Henderson said. "Then we asked, what is special about the urine samples that restricted growth?"

The urine samples that prevented bacterial growth supported more activity of this key protein, which the body makes naturally in response to infection, than the samples that permitted bacteria to grow easily. The protein is called siderocalin, and past research has suggested that it helps the body fight infection by depriving bacteria of iron, a mineral necessary for bacterial growth. Their data led the researchers to ask if any characteristics of their healthy volunteers were associated with the effectiveness of siderocalin.

"Age and sex did not turn out to be major players," Shields-Cutler said. "Of all the factors we measured, the only one that was really different between the two groups was pH -- how acidic or basic the urine was."Henderson said that conventional wisdom in medicine favors the idea that acidic urine is better for restricting bacterial growth. But their results were surprising because samples that were less acidic, closer to the neutral pH of pure water, showed higher activity of the protein siderocalin and were better at restricting bacterial growth than the more acidic samples.

Importantly, the researchers also showed that they could encourage or discourage bacterial growth in urine simply by adjusting the pH, a finding that could have implications for how patients with UTIs are treated.

"Physicians are very good at manipulating urinary pH," said Henderson, who treats patients with UTIs. "If you take Tums, for example, it makes the urine less acidic. But pH is not the whole story here. Urine is a destination for much of the body's waste in the form of small molecules. It's an incredibly complex medium that is changed by diet, individual genetics and many other factors."

After analyzing thousands of compounds in the samples, the researchers determined that the presence of small metabolites called aromatics, which vary depending on a person's diet, also contributed to variations in bacterial growth. Samples that restricted bacterial growth had more aromatic compounds, and urine that permitted bacterial growth had fewer.

Henderson and his colleagues suspect that at least some of these aromatics are good iron binders, helping deprive the bacteria of iron. And perhaps surprisingly, these molecules are not produced by human cells, but by a person's gut microbes as they process food in the diet."Our study suggests that the body's immune system harnesses dietary plant compounds to prevent bacterial growth," Henderson said. "We identified a list of compounds of interest, and many of these are associated with specific dietary components and with gut microbes."

Indeed, their results implicate cranberries among other possible dietary interventions. Shield-Cutler noted that many studies already have investigated extracts or juices from cranberries as UTI treatments but the results of such investigations have not been consistent.

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The study results of 218 overweight, postmenopausal women who had insufficient levels of vitamin D (like most people) at the beginning of the study found that weight loss (including exercise), in combination with vitamin D supplementation, had a greater effect on reducing chronic inflammation than weight loss alone.

Current thinking is that chronic inflammation is linked to various chronic diseases as well as cancers. So reducing chronic inflammation is good. From Medical Xpress:

Weight loss plus vitamin D reduces inflammation linked to cancer, chronic disease

For the first time, researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have found that weight loss, in combination with vitamin D supplementation, has a greater effect on reducing chronic inflammation than weight loss alone. Chronic inflammation is known to contribute to the development and progression of several diseases, including some cancers.

"We know from our previous studies that by losing weight, people can reduce their overall levels of inflammation, and there is some evidence suggesting that taking vitamin D supplements can have a similar effect if one has insufficient levels of the nutrient," said lead and corresponding author Catherine Duggan, Ph.D., a principal staff scientist in the Public Health Sciences Division at Fred Hutch. 

To explore this question, Duggan and colleagues recruited 218 healthy, overweight older women who had lower-than-recommended levels of vitamin D (less than 32 ng/mL). The women then took part in a 12-month diet and exercise program (including 45 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous exercise five days a week). Half of the study participants were randomly selected to receive 2,000 IU of vitamin D daily for the duration of the year-long trial, and the other half received an identical-appearing placebo, or dummy vitamin. 

At the end of the study, all of the participants had reduced levels of inflammation, regardless of whether they took vitamin D, "which highlights the importance of weight loss in reducing inflammation," Duggan said. However, those who saw the most significant decline in markers of inflammation were those who took vitamin D and lost 5 to 10 percent of their baseline weight. These study participants had a 37 percent reduction in a pro-inflammatory cytokine called interleukin-6, or IL-6, as compared to those in the placebo group, who saw a 17.2 percent reduction in IL-6. The researchers found similar results among women in the vitamin D group who lost more than 10 percent of their starting weight. While IL-6 has normal functions in the body, elevated levels are associated with an increased risk of developing certain cancers and diabetes and may be implicated as a cause of depression, Duggan said.

Inflammation occurs when the body is exposed to pathogens, such as bacteria or viruses, which puts the immune system in overdrive until the "attack" ceases and the inflammatory response abates. Overweight or obese people, however, exist in a state of chronic inflammation. This sustained upregulation of the inflammatory response occurs because fat tissue continually produces cytokines, molecules that are usually only present for a short time, while the body is fighting infection, for example.

"It is thought that this state of chronic inflammation is pro-tumorigenic, that is, it encourages the growth of cancer cells," she said. There is also some evidence that increased body mass "dilutes" vitamin D, possibly by sequestering it in fat tissue."Weight loss reduces inflammation, and thus represents another mechanism for reducing cancer risk," Duggan said. "If ensuring that vitamin D levels are replete, or at an optimum level, can decrease inflammation over and above that of weight loss alone, that can be an important addition to the tools people can use to reduce their cancer risk."

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Foods with trans fats. Credit: Wikipedia.

Finally the FDA is phasing out the use of artificial trans fats in foods (found in partially hydrogenated vegetable oils) within 3 years. It turns out that even though for many years scientists and the medical community pushed foods such as margarine (which have trans fats) as healthier than saturated fats such as butter, they were wrong. Instead the trans fats are linked to cardiovascular problems.

We can thank 100 year old Frank Kummerow for the ban, and for warning about trans fats for six decades! He is still drinking whole milk, eating eggs and butter, but he does avoid "fried foods, margarine, and anything associated with partially-hydrogenated oils". Other foods that are currently viewed as healthy by the medical community are extra virgin olive oil and coconut oil. However, please note that canola oil, currently viewed as a healthy and safe alternative to partially hydrogenated oils, also contains trans fats (due to the manufacturing process) and should be avoided. Also keep in mind that companies are allowed to say they have zero trans fat of they contain less than 0.5 grams per serving (which means the trans fats can add up over the course of a day). From The Washington Post:

The 100-year-old scientist who pushed the FDA to ban artificial trans fat

No one was more pleased by the Food and Drug Administration's decision Tuesday to eliminate artificial trans fats from the U.S. food supply than Fred Kummerow, a 100-year-old University of Illinois professor who has warned about the dangers of the artery-clogging substance for nearly six decades."Science won out," Kummerow, who sued the FDA in 2013 for not acting sooner, said in an interview from his home in Illinois. "It's very important that we don't have this in our diet."

In the 1950s, as a young university researcher, Kummerow convinced a local hospital to let him examine the arteries of people who had died from heart disease. He made a jarring discovery. The tissue contained high levels of artificial trans fat, a substance that had been discovered decades earlier but had become ubiquitous in processed foods throughout the country.

Later, he conducted a study showing that rats developed atherosclerosis after being fed artificial trans fats. When he removed the substance from their diets, the atherosclerosis disappeared from their arteries.

Kummerow first published his research warning about the dangers of artery-clogging trans fats in 1957. More than a decade later, while serving on a subcommittee of the American Heart Association, he detailed the massive amounts of trans fat in the shortening and margarines lining grocery shelves, and helped convince the food industry to lower the content in certain products.

Despite Kummerow's research and warnings over the years, artificial trans fats remained a staple of processed food for decades. Well into the 1980s, many scientists and public health advocates believed that partially hydrogenated oils were preferable to more natural saturated fats. And the food industry was reluctant to do away with artificial trans fats, which were cheaper than their natural counterparts, extended shelf life and gave foods desirable taste and texture.

Frustrated by the lack of action, Kummerow filed a 3,000-word citizen petition with the FDA in 2009, citing the mounting body of evidence against trans fat. The first line read: "I request to ban partially hydrogenated fat from the American diet."

In the 1990s, more and more studies had shown that trans fats were a key culprit in the rising rates of heart disease. The advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest also petitioned the FDA in 1994 to require that the substance be listed on nutrition labels -- a move that the agency put into place in 2006. In 2002, the Institute of Medicine found that there was “no safe level of trans fatty acids and people should eat as little of them as possible.” As the dangers of trans fat became clearer, public opinion also shifted, and food companies increasingly removed the substance from products, though it remained in a broad range of foods, from cake frostings to baked goods.

Four years after filing his petition and hearing nothing, Kummerow sued the FDA and the Department of Health and Human Services in 2013, with the help of a California law firm. The suit asked a judge to compel the agency to respond to Kummerow's petition and "to ban partially hydrogenated oils unless a complete administrative review finds new evidence for their safety."

Three months later, the FDA announced its plans to effectively eliminate trans fats by saying that the substance no longer would be assumed safe for use in human foods. Tuesday's action finalizes that initial proposal, and manufacturers will have three years to reformulate products or to petition the agency for an exception.