Beetroot Juice and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

A December 2023 study at Imperial College London said,

• “There is some evidence that beetroot juice as a source of nitrate supplementation could be used by athletes to improve their performance, as well as a few short-term studies looking at blood pressure. Higher levels of nitrate in the blood can increase the availability of nitric oxide, a chemical that helps blood vessels relax. It also increases the efficiency of muscles, meaning they need less oxygen to do the same work.”
  
  “At the end of the study, we found that the blood pressure of people taking the nitrate-rich beetroot juice drink was lower and their blood vessels became less stiff. The juice also increased how far people with COPD could walk in six minutes compared to placebo.”
  
  “This is one of the longest-duration studies in this area so far. The results are very promising, but will need to be confirmed in larger, longer-term studies.”

• “COPD cannot be cured so there is a pressing need to help patients live as well as they can with the condition and to reduce their risk of cardiovascular disease.”
  
  “Patients taking part in this trial generally found the beetroot juice supplement acceptable and they saw benefits in terms of their blood pressure and mobility. This suggests they may see improvements in everyday life and should have a lower risk of heart disease and stroke, but we will have to study patients for longer to confirm if this is the case.”
  
  “Beetroot juice has been consumed widely and tested in other research, so it has the potential to be a safe treatment for people with COPD.”

Kidney Stones and the Microbiome

A December 2023 report by St. Joseph’s Health Care London (St. Joseph’s).said,

• “Kidney stone disease has been rising in recent years, affecting roughly 10 per cent of people,”

• “While previous research has shown a connection between the gut microbiome and kidney stones in those who have taken antibiotics, we also wanted to explore the connection to other microbiomes in the hopes we can advance understanding and potential treatments.”

• “Our testing – called shotgun metagenomic sequencing – allowed us to discover which bacteria were present in the gut and the genetic capabilities of those bacteria, or how it functions. We also did a simpler sequencing of the oral and urinary samples,”

• “It’s a more complex story. The microbes form a kind of network that’s stable and beneficial in healthy people, but in those with kidney stones, that network is broken down. They’re not producing the same vitamins and useful metabolites, not just in the gut but also in the urinary tract and oral cavity,”

• “We found not only that those who got kidney stones had an unhealthy microbiome, including a gut microbiome that was more likely to excrete toxins to the kidneys, but also that they were antibiotic resistant,”

Nuts and Metabolic Syndrome

A December 2023 study published in the journal Nutrients said,

• “We know that snacking contributes almost 25% of total daily calories in young adults in the U.S.,”

• “Substituting typical high carbohydrate snacks with tree nuts (almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, hazelnuts, macadamias, pecans, pine nuts, pistachios and walnuts) would likely have a positive impact in reducing the risk of metabolic syndrome and its consequences in this age group.”

• “We need to encourage people—especially those Millennials at risk for MetSx—to get their handful of nuts every day.”

ketogenic diet and polycystic kidney disease (PKD)

A December 2023 study by the University of California, Santa Barbara said they were,

• “… really happy about these clinical trial results … We now have the first evidence in humans that the cysts really don’t like to be in ketosis and that they don’t seem to grow.”

•  “If you have PKD, the dogma is that it’s a genetic disease … And no matter what you do, you progress toward kidney failure and diet doesn’t make any difference, which unfortunately most patients are told to this day.”  

•  “To everyone’s great surprise, kidney function actually improved with the ketogenic diet … And that was a hard outcome of statistical significance.” 

•  “Doctors often assume that their patients cannot adhere to a diet anyway, so they don’t even try. Clearly, this is not true. People with PKD are highly motivated to do something about their condition,”  

•  “A keto diet just means very low carbs,”

• “If you make a discovery in animals, but you don’t check it in actual people, you’ll never quite know if it’s going to be meaningful … There’s always going to be the doubt, and people are going to say animal experiments don’t always translate to humans.”

Approach

“Whatever you have in your mind - forget it; whatever you have in your hand - give it; whatever is to be your fate - face it! “

Quitting

“On the hat of poverty, three announcements are inscribed: ‘Quit this world, quit the next world, quit quitting.’ ”

Sleep and Exercise

A November 2023 study by the University of Portsmouth said,

• “We know from existing research that exercise improves or maintains our cognitive performance, even when oxygen levels are reduced. But this is the first study to suggest it also improves CP after both full and partial sleep deprivation, and when combined with hypoxia.”

• “The findings significantly adds to what we know about the relationship between exercise and these stressors, and helps to reinforce the message that movement is medicine for the body and the brain.”

• “Because we were looking at exercise as a positive intervention, we decided to use a moderate intensity programme as recommended in existing literature”, added Dr Costello.

• “If the exercise was any longer or harder it may have amplified the negative results and became a stressor itself.”

• “Sleep deprivation is often experienced in combination with other stressors. For example, people who travel to high altitude are also likely to experience a disruption to their sleep pattern.

• “One potential hypothesis for why exercise improves cognitive performance is related to the  increase in cerebral blood flow and oxygenation, however, our findings suggest that even when exercise is performed in an environment with low levels of oxygen, participants were still able to perform cognitive tasks better than when at rest in the same conditions.”

Walking and Diabetes

A November 2023 study said

“The present meta-analysis of cohort studies suggests that fairly brisk and brisk/striding walking, independent of the total volume of physical activity or time spent walking per day, may be associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes in adults.”

“While current strategies to increase total walking time are beneficial, it may also be reasonable to encourage people to walk at faster speeds to further increase the health benefits of walking.”

PTSD; Levels of glucocorticoid

A November 2023 Study by the Ecole Polytechnique Federale De Lausanne said,

• “There are considerable differences in the levels of glucocorticoids that individuals release to the bloodstream when stressed,”

• “Low glucocorticoid levels are frequently observed in PTSD patients following trauma exposure and were initially suspected to be a consequence of trauma exposure.”

• “The possibility that this could be a trait constituting a preexisting PTSD risk factor has been an outstanding open question for many years, but tackling it has been challenging due to the difficulties of both collecting biological measures before trauma exposure, and having access to relevant animal models in which the causal role of these traits can be investigated.”

• “Our study provides causal evidence of a direct implication of low glucocorticoid responsiveness in the development of PTSD symptomatology following exposure to traumatic experiences, i.e., impaired fear extinction,”

• “In addition, it shows that low glucocorticoids are causally implicated in the determination of other risk factors and symptoms that were until now only independently related to PTSD.”

• “In a nutshell, we present mechanistic evidence – previously missing – that having low glucocorticoids such as cortisol in humans is a condition for causally predisposed individuals to present all to-date vulnerability factors for developing PTSD, and causally involved in deficits to extinguish traumatic memories.”

heart health, sitting, activity

A November 2023 study by the University College London said,

• “The big takeaway from our research is that while small changes to how you move can have a positive effect on heart health, intensity of movement matters. The most beneficial change we observed was replacing sitting with moderate to vigorous activity – which could be a run, a brisk walk, or stair climbing – basically any activity that raises your heart rate and makes you breathe faster, even for a minute or two.”

• “Though it may come as no surprise that becoming more active is beneficial for heart health, what’s new in this study is considering a range of behaviours across the whole 24-hour day. This approach will allow us to ultimately provide personalised recommendations to get people more active in ways that are appropriate for them.”

• “We already know that exercise can have real benefits for your cardiovascular health and this encouraging research shows that small adjustments to your daily routine could lower your chances of having a heart attack or stroke. This study shows that replacing even a few minutes of sitting with a few minutes of moderate activity can improve your BMI, cholesterol, waist size, and have many more physical benefits.”

• “Getting active isn’t always easy, and it’s important to make changes that you can stick to in the long-term and that you enjoy – anything that gets your heart rate up can help. Incorporating ‘activity snacks’ such as walking while taking phone calls, or setting an alarm to get up and do some star jumps every hour is a great way to start building activity into your day, to get you in the habit of living a healthy, active lifestyle.”

Short sleep time; diabetes risk

A November 2023 study by Columbia University said,

• “Throughout their lifespan, women face many changes in their sleep habits due to childbearing, child-rearing, and menopause,”

• “And more women than men have the perception they aren’t getting enough sleep.” 

• “Over a longer period of time, ongoing stress on insulin-producing cells could cause them to fail, eventually leading to type 2 diabetes.”

• “The fact that we saw these results independent of any changes in body fat, which is a known risk factor for type 2 diabetes, speaks to the impact of mild sleep reduction on insulin-producing cells and metabolism,”

• “The bottom line is that getting adequate sleep each night may lead to better blood sugar control and reduced risk for type 2 diabetes, especially among postmenopausal women.” 

Chronic sleep deficiency; insulin resistance

A November 2023 study by the NIH/National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute says,

• “Women report poorer sleep than men, so understanding how sleep disturbances impact their health across the lifespan is critical, especially for postmenopausal women,”

•  “What we’re seeing is that more insulin is needed to normalize glucose levels in the women under conditions of sleep restriction, and even then, the insulin may not have been doing enough to counteract rising blood glucose levels of postmenopausal women,”

• “If that's sustained over time, it is possible that prolonged insufficient sleep among individuals with prediabetes could accelerate the progression to type 2 diabetes.”

•  “This study provides new insight into the health effects of even small sleep deficits in women across all stages of adulthood and racial and ethnic backgrounds,” said Corinne Silva, Ph.D., Program Director in the Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology, & Metabolic Diseases at NIDDK. “Researchers are planning additional studies to further understand how sleep deficiency affects metabolism in men and women, as well as explore sleep interventions as a tool in type 2 diabetes prevention efforts.”

14 Hour Fasts

A November 2023 study by Kings College London

• “This is the largest study outside of a tightly controlled clinic to show that intermittent fasting can improve your health in a real world setting. What's really exciting is that the findings show that you don’t have to be very restrictive to see positive results. A ten-hour eating window, which was manageable for most people, and improved mood, energy levels and hunger. We found for the first time that those who practised time-restricted eating, but were not consistent day to day, did not have the same positive health effects as those who were dedicated every day. ”  

• “This study adds to the growing body of evidence showing the importance of how you eat. The health impact of food is not just what you eat but the time at which you choose to consume your meals, and eating window is an important dietary behaviour that can be beneficial for health. Findings shows that we don’t need to be eating all the time. Many people will feel satiated and even lose weight if they restrict their food to a ten-hour window.” 

PTSD, diet, and the gut microbiome

An October 2023 study at Brigham and Women’s Hospital said,

• “There is a very intriguing relationship between the human gut microbiome and the brain,”

• “Through our study, we examined how factors, like diet, are associated with PTSD symptoms. While further research is needed, we are closer to being able to provide dietary recommendations for PTSD prevention or amelioration.”

• “Examining the gut-brain axis can provide insights on the interdependence of mental and physical health,”

• “Our findings suggest the PTSD and human gut microbiome relationship is a promising area of research that may lead to recommendations for alleviating the down-stream negative health consequences of PTSD.”

• “It’s exciting that our results imply that the Mediterranean diet may provide potential relief to individuals experiencing PTSD symptoms … We are eager to learn more about the relationship between PTSD, diet, and the gut microbiome. In a future study, we will attempt to validate the efficacy of probiotics as a method to prevent PTSD.”

Calorie Restriction; Muscle Rejuvenation

A study in October 2023 by the National Institue of Aging suggests that a reduction in calories may help rejuvenate muscles and active biological systems that promote health.

• "A 12% reduction in calorie intake is very modest,"

• "This kind of small reduction in calorie intake is doable and may make a big difference in your health."
  "Since inflammation and aging are strongly coupled, calorie restriction represents a powerful approach to preventing the pro-inflammatory state that is developed by many older people,"

7500+ steps prior to surgery

An October 2023 study said that,

• “Fitbits and other wearable devices could potentially be linked to Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and have that data be something that surgeons consider when planning perioperative care for their patients,”

• “This could really come to fruition to improve postoperative outcomes.” 

• “We used the combination of EHRs and Fitbit data to uncover how to potentially improve surgical outcomes. In our study, we looked at how many steps patients recorded on any given day, which is a proxy for physical activity,”

• “However, the fitness data wasn’t limited to the immediate preoperative period. The length of their activity record could be six months or several years before surgery. This is more reflective of chronic physical activity habits, versus the physical activity in the immediate preoperative period.” 

• “If we find people who are at high risk, using these Fitbit tools, we could monitor them more closely following their procedure because that allows us to catch problems before they progress beyond control,”

• “Another goal of our research is to modify physical activity in the preoperative period and improve postoperative outcomes. We need more studies and evidence to answer that question.” 

Gut Bacteria and Hypertension

An October 2023 study at the University of Toledo said that,

• “The question we always ask is, can we exploit microbiota to help our health, for which optimal blood pressure is a cardinal sign. Until now, we have simply said changes in microbiota play a role in elevated blood pressure or hypertension. Those are important findings, but they don’t always have an immediately translational application,” she said. “This is the first time we have shown that we really can do this. It’s a proof of principle that you can use microbiota to make products that measurably improve your health.”

• “Females therefore appear to readily accept all the help they can get from gut microbiota supplying ACE …For now, this is a theory that requires further experimental proof.”

• “There have been questions about microbiome medicine — is it a fad or is it real? This is an extremely exciting demonstration that we can exploit bacteria to work for us, and it works for high blood pressure, something that affects a significant portion of the population … It’s that ray of hope that you may not need traditional medications to keep your blood pressure in check.”

• “It is a real possibility that we can use bacteria to correct hypertension. This is a big deal, and the concept could be applied to other diseases … For example, if you are unable to control your sugar, can we have a bacteria make a protein that can lower your blood glucose? There are still a lot of questions that need answered, but now we know the paradigm works.”

Processed Foods; Browning; Obesity; Degeneration

An October 2023 study by the Buck Institute for Research on Aging said,

• “This research, done in tiny nematode worms, has immense implications for human dietary choices and the propensity to overeat certain foods.”

• “Processed modern diets enriched with AGEs (certain chemicals in cooked or processed foods, called advanced glycation end products) are tempting to eat but we know very little about their long-term consequences on our health.”

• “Humans evolved certain mechanisms that encourage us to eat as much food as possible during times of plenty. We store the excess calories as fat that we use to survive times of fasting,”

• “Natural selection favored genes that makes us preferentially consume flavorful food, especially those with higher sugar content. But what is the mechanism that makes it so hard to say ‘no’ to them?"

• “The brown color that occurs during cooking, which makes food look and smell delicious is a result of AGEs,”

• “Basically, we are finding that AGEs make food more appetizing and harder to resist.”

• “Once advanced glycation products are formed, they cannot be detoxified,”

• “Similarly, there is no way to reverse the AGEs,”

• “Understanding this signaling pathway may help us to understand overeating due to modern AGEs-rich diets.”

• “Our study emphasizes that AGEs accumulation is involved in diseases, including obesity and neurodegeneration. We think that overall, limiting AGEs accumulation is relevant to the global increase in obesity and other age-associated diseases.”

• “We are not controlling our food intake, instead it is the food that is attempting to control us.”

• “We are naturally attracted to delicious food, but we could be more mindful that we do have the ability to make healthy choices when we eat.”

Age-appropriate aerobic exercise for cognitive function in older adults

An October 2023 study by the University of East Finland said that, “These findings underscore the value of age-appropriate aerobic exercise, such as golf, Nordic walking and regular walking, in maintaining and enhancing cognitive function among older adults. Previous research has shown that exercise also holds promise as a potential strategy for those experiencing cognitive decline,”

Obesity - Root Dietary Cause - Fructose

An October 2023 study by the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus found that, the primary problem in obesity is fructose, which is present in table sugar and high fructose corn syrup.

• “Essentially, these theories [the “fructose survival hypothesis”], which put a litany of metabolic and dietary drivers at the center of the obesity epidemic, are all pieces of a puzzle unified by one last piece: fructose,”

• “Fructose is what triggers our metabolism to go into low power mode and lose our control of appetite, but fatty foods become the major source of calories that drive weight gain.”

• “This theory views obesity as a low-energy state,”

• “Identifying fructose as the conduit that redirects active energy replacement to fat storage shows that fructose is what drives energy imbalance, which unites theories.”