Engaging in discussions about diet and nutrition can often lead to passionate arguments, as I discovered when unintentionally becoming the focal point of a debate surrounding supermarket bread.
It all started with my opinion piece on “ultra-processed foods,” or UPF. For those unfamiliar, this term refers to foods that undergo industrial processes difficult to replicate at home. Examples include sweetened drinks, prepackaged foods, and supermarket bread. In the UK, approximately 50% of our caloric intake comes from UPF sources.
So, what makes UPF detrimental to our health?
Firstly, UPFs tend to be low in protein and fiber due to extensive processing, making them easily digestible and calorically dense. Secondly, the flavor is often diminished in UPFs, leading to high levels of sugar, salt, and fat being added for taste. Lastly, some argue that the processing involved in UPFs is inherently harmful, although the evidence supporting this claim is inconclusive.
A recent meta-analysis published in the British Medical Journal linked excessive UPF consumption to various health issues across different categories.
The ambiguity surrounding the UPF concept bothers me, as it encompasses a wide range of foods from highly processed items to minimally processed options like supermarket bread. Despite the negative connotations associated with UPFs, supermarket bread, a major source of UPF calories, still provides sustenance for many households.
The accessibility and affordability of supermarket bread make it a staple for individuals facing food insecurity. While premium bread offers unique qualities, such as lactobacterial fermentation, evidence supporting health benefits is growing.
An interview with Dr. Chris Van Tulleken highlighted the differences between traditional and supermarket bread, emphasizing the higher salt and sugar content in the latter. A rational discussion is essential to address the prevalence of UPFs, acknowledging the diverse preferences and circumstances of consumers.
In conclusion, while premium bread may offer distinct advantages, stigmatizing those who rely on supermarket bread is unjust. It is crucial to engage in constructive dialogues regarding our food choices without condemning individuals based on their bread preferences.
Exciting developments are on the horizon in the world of obesity medications.
Pharmaceutical companies are racing to create new drugs, building on the success of existing medications like Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovi, as well as Eli Lilly’s Maunjaro and Zepbound.
In addition to targeting diabetes and weight loss, some experimental drugs show promise in improving liver and heart function while reducing common side effects such as muscle loss seen with current treatments. Data on 27 GLP-1 drugs in development will be presented at the 2024 American Diabetes Association meeting in Orlando, Florida.
According to Marlon Pragnell, PhD, the ADA’s vice president of research and science, the pipeline now includes a variety of drug candidates in different stages of development, creating an exciting landscape of innovation.
While most of the data currently available comes from animal studies or early human trials, some drugs may be available in the United States over the counter within a few years, with FDA approval likely further down the line.
As the field of GLP-1 drugs continues to expand, there is hope for more affordable medications with fewer side effects to become available, offering new possibilities for patients.
Exploring Different Hormones for Weight Loss
GLP-1 drugs function by slowing down the digestive process and promoting a sense of fullness. In addition to GLP-1, emerging weight-loss drugs are examining the impact of another hormone called glucagon, which can mimic the effects of exercise.
One such drug, Pemvidutide from Maryland-based Altimmune, combines glucagon with GLP-1 to potentially enhance weight loss effects.
Results from a Phase 2 trial involving obese or overweight adults showed promising weight loss outcomes, paving the way for further research into the drug’s potential benefits.
Altimmune’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Scott Harris, highlighted the drug’s ability not only to aid in weight loss but also to provide additional health benefits for liver and heart function while preserving lean body mass.
Altimmune plans to move forward with Phase 3 trials and aims to introduce the drug in the U.S. by 2028.
Competition and Cost Considerations
Having a variety of weight-loss drugs available can help address shortages and potentially drive down costs over time. The high prices of current medications like Wegobee and Zepbound in the U.S. can pose financial challenges for many patients.
Different patients may respond differently to various treatments, as highlighted by Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford of Harvard Medical School. Having a range of options is crucial to tailor treatments to individual needs.
Stay Informed with the Latest News on Weight Loss Drugs
New developments in the pharmaceutical world present opportunities for improved treatment outcomes and potentially life-changing solutions for patients struggling with obesity.
For individuals like Danielle Griffin, who have not seen the desired results from current medications, the prospect of innovative drugs offers hope and excitement for the future.
Advancements in Metabolic Health
Companies like Eli Lilly are exploring new combinations of hormones to enhance the efficacy of weight-loss drugs. Retatortide, a new injectable medication from Lilly, shows promising results in weight loss and blood sugar control.
Additional studies on drugs like Mazduchid highlight the potential for improved metabolic status and weight loss outcomes, paving the way for new treatment options in the near future.
These ongoing developments underscore the dynamic landscape of obesity treatment, offering hope for a new generation of medications that could revolutionize the field and improve outcomes for patients.
The Future of Obesity Treatment
As research and development in the field of obesity medications continue to advance, there is optimism for more effective, affordable, and patient-friendly treatments to become available in the coming years.
With the potential for improved metabolic health, weight loss outcomes, and reduced side effects, the next wave of obesity treatments holds great promise for individuals struggling with obesity-related health issues.
The ongoing innovation in this field signifies a new era of possibilities in obesity treatment, offering hope for a healthier future for many individuals.
When discussing diet and nutrition, opinions can often be divisive and passionate. Recently, I found myself in the middle of a debate surrounding supermarket bread that sparked unexpected backlash.
The controversy began after I wrote an article on “ultra-processed foods” (UPF). These foods are products of industrial processes that are difficult to replicate at home, including sweetened drinks, prepackaged foods, and most supermarket breads. In the UK, around 50% of our daily calories come from UPF (source).
UPF has garnered a negative reputation for several reasons. Firstly, these foods tend to be low in protein and fiber, making them easily digestible and calorically dense. Secondly, the processing of UPF often strips away natural flavors, leading to high amounts of added sugar, salt, and fat to enhance taste. Lastly, there are concerns that excessive consumption of UPF may lead to various health issues (British Medical Journal).
While the negative effects of UPF are well-documented, the term itself is vague, encompassing a wide range of foods from heavily processed items to minimally altered products like mass-produced supermarket bread.
In a response to my article, it was argued that real sourdough bread made through lactobacterial fermentation may offer health benefits that are lacking in supermarket bread. It was also noted that supermarket bread tends to be higher in salt and sugar, leading to potential weight gain.
While artisanal sourdough may provide some advantages over supermarket bread, it’s essential to consider the accessibility of such premium products to a broader demographic.
A balanced discussion on the prevalence of UPF in our food supply is necessary, but the demonization of supermarket bread, a staple for many households, may be unwarranted without substantial evidence of harm.
Astronauts Robert L. Curbeam Jr. (left) and Christer Fugelsang aboard the International Space Station
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
How spaceflight affects astronauts' health may be better understood thanks to the creation of the first “space-omics” biobank, a collection of thousands of blood and tissue samples and medical information taken on multiple space missions.
These include missions to the International Space Station as well as SpaceX's Inspiration 4, the first private spaceflight to send four non-government-trained astronauts into space for three days in 2021.
The resource, called the Space Omics and Medical Atlas (SOMA), contains detailed medical data, collectively known as biomarkers, such as DNA damage and changes in people's gene activity and immune system function.
Space flight is known to pose certain health risks. For example, astronauts experience reduced bone density and muscle mass due to weightlessness, and high levels of radiation in space can damage cells and DNA, causing a variety of health effects on the body. Astronauts are more likely to develop heart disease Later years and Some people have experienced a decrease in vision After going into space.
By consistently collecting astronauts' medical data through the SOMA biobank, researchers may be able to better understand these changes and develop ways to mitigate them, the researchers say. Christopher Mason He is a professor at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York and helped establish the biobank.
“Biomarkers don't necessarily translate into anything clinically meaningful, but they're a good way to understand how this unique environment is affecting us.” Damien Bailey The researchers are from the University of South Wales in the UK, but were not involved in the study.
One of the findings from the Inspiration 4 mission was that although astronauts experienced changes in numerous biomarkers, most measurements returned to normal within a few months of returning to Earth.
This suggests that sending private citizens into space poses no greater health risks than sending professional astronauts, Mason said. “Instead of training them for decades, we can start opening up space to more people.”
Results from Inspiration 4, which had two men and two women on board, also suggested that changes in gene activity returned to normal more quickly in women. This may be because women's bodies have to be able to cope with the possibility of pregnancy, Mason says. “Being able to withstand big changes in physiology and fluid dynamics could be great for managing pregnancy, but it could also help manage the stresses of spaceflight.”
Timothy Etheridge A researcher from the University of Exeter in the UK says it would be beneficial to have a common resource that researchers around the world can use. “We need a consistent approach to collecting samples,” he says.
Thomas Smith The researcher, from King's College London, says understanding the health effects of spaceflight will become even more important if longer-term missions take place, such as trips to Mars. “Anything that leads to longer-term missions makes it even more important to know what's going on and, ideally, to be able to address it,” he says.
Having a positive mindset can have unexpected results
DEEPOL (Plain Picture/photo by Anja Weber Dekker)
Do you suffer from low self-esteem? If so, you may have been told to repeat phrases like, “I am worthy of love, I am worthy of love, I am worthy of love.” Repeating positive statements like these is called self-affirmation, and it's said to boost a person's mood and sense of worth. Sounds incredible, right? Well, it is. When psychologists tested the effectiveness of this mantra, it backfired. Participants who started out with low self-esteem ended up feeling worse. The problem was, they simply didn't believe what they were being told.
We know that a positive attitude is good for your health, and that the right mindset can really impact your health and happiness. But it turns out that too much of a good thing can be bad. What psychologists who study self-esteem have discovered is an example of “toxic positivity” – the idea that forcing yourself to interpret your experiences in an optimistic way and suppressing negative emotions can actually do you harm. The term has become something of a buzzword in both academia and pop culture. And yet, the messages that “happiness is a choice” and “positivity is a mindset” are rampant.
What is needed is a return to balance. It is not enough to say that excessive positivity is harmful; we need to know when, why and for whom it is harmful. Fortunately, there is a growing body of research addressing these questions. …
ohOne thing after another happened, and I was lying shirtless on the couch, with a wrinkled nose as a cardiologist explained that everything was fine, but that my heart was a little… weird. I can’t remember the exact words, but it was probably just above “quirky,” but not quite weird. He was looking at something else entirely, and had noticed that the valves at the top of my heart were a little weird. It had absolutely nothing to do with why I’d come here, and was unlikely to affect my future health in any way, he said. But now that he’d seen it, he thought it best to tell me. I asked if it was good to know, and he shrugged. “Sometimes?” he said vaguely. “It’s complicated.”
At home, I paid more attention than usual to my heartbeat, listening for any unusual sounds. A few months later, when I experienced what turned out to be indigestion, I went to the doctor, worried that my valve was about to burst. I had no history of anxiety disorders and had never paid much attention to what was going on inside my body, thinking it was inevitably unfathomable, like anything going on in the vast depths of the ocean. But once this flaw was revealed, I became uncomfortably aware of every moving part, of everything that might go wrong.
When I read Caroline Crampton’s recent detailed study of hypochondria, A body made of glass aptly describes health anxiety disorder as “a bodily illness that exists only in the mind,” and my hand immediately went to my chest. From 18th-century quack medicine to today’s health industry, Crampton traces the rise of drugs and devices promising relief from imagined ailments, such as the Zeebo pill (currently £73 on Amazon), which is promoted as a placebo and “you yourself are the active ingredient,” and plans for technology that can observe every part of our minds and bodies. But, she asks, can we ever know too much? Reading recent criticisms of blood glucose monitoring and the rise of the Zoe app, I thought of Crampton’s book. These are part of a growing trend for personalized diets, but along with other criticisms (such as a lack of evidence about their effectiveness), Professor Partha Carr, the NHS’s national diabetes adviser, told the BBC that using a continuous glucose monitor (designed for diabetics) for no health reason can make people obsessed with the numbers and, in some cases, “can lead to eating disorders.”
These are apps for “worried people” – healthy people who worry about their health – a growing market at a time when new technology and the old internet are stoking anxiety by providing vast amounts of knowledge to anyone with Wi-Fi. It’s a successful business model, in that they’re both apps for anxious people and apps that create anxious people. Parents are especially susceptible to marketing, with health anxieties projected onto their children. This month’s New YorkerJia Tolentino detailed her efforts to hide her pregnancy from her phone, which meant not buying baby clothes online, not using a period tracker, and not using pregnancy apps. She wanted to avoid being watched, which can be especially hard when you’re encouraged to watch yourself.
In the time it took me to give birth to my two children, there had been an explosion in the technology offered to parents who wanted to both track their pregnancies (through additional ultrasound scans, for example) and keep an eye on their babies (with devices like stuffed toys with hidden cameras or disks that attach to diapers that alert you when your baby rolls over). By 2020, I was surprised at how hard it was to buy, for example, a baby monitor that didn’t include a camera, didn’t require a Wi-Fi connection, and didn’t capture any data. And yet, despite the desire for parenting technology, Tolentino found that it rarely led to better outcomes for babies, but rather exacerbated or, worse, created the anxieties that led to the purchase of these devices. The control that anxious people seek by monitoring their babies and their bodies is an illusion.
This is disturbing, given the growing number of products targeted directly at them. The global wearable technology market (fitness trackers and other devices) is expected to be valued at $61.3 billion in 2022, and to expand significantly by 2030. My 9-year-old’s school friends regularly compare FitBits. But for some, trackers and the like may be doing more harm than good. New Statesman In 2019, a professor of cardiovascular medicine criticized a large study of atrial fibrillation (a common heart rhythm problem) in Apple Watch owners, saying there was no significant health benefit to testing low-risk people, “the kind of people who wear Apple Watches,” and that the study would “inflict substantial distress” on healthy people who would receive notifications about their irregular heartbeat.
Health anxieties have evolved alongside scientific knowledge, with phrases like “cyberchondria” (anxiety heightened by information found online) emerging and some research suggesting that our new loose connection to medical knowledge is making people more anxious rather than lessening it. I resent the way tech companies prey on these anxieties, creating new concerns for profit. I believe it’s true that we can know too much.
Every now and then, a small pain or memory in my chest will raise a chill and I’ll think about my deformed heart, but in those moments I will tell myself sternly that it’s none of my business what’s going on under the sea, or deep inside my body (as long as it doesn’t affect my life).
Email Eva at e.wiseman@observer.co.uk or follow her on X. Eva Wise man
A study by researchers from the University of Florida, Texas State University, and the United States Department of Agriculture suggests that an extract of the polar fraction of orange peel, which contains a compound called feruloylputrescine, may reduce cardiovascular disease.
Lee othersThe inhibitory effects of orange peel polar fraction (OPP) and orange peel non-polar fraction (OPNP) on the production of trimethylamine (TMA) and trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) in response to L-carnitine treatment were compared. In vivo and In vitro.
Recent studies have shown that some gut bacteria may contribute to the development of cardiovascular disease.
During digestion, gut bacteria produce trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) when certain nutrients are ingested, and levels of TMAO can help predict future cardiovascular disease.
In a new study, Dr. Yu Wang from the University of Florida and colleagues investigated the potential of orange peel extract to reduce the production of TMAO and trimethylamine (TMA).
They tested two types of extracts: a polar fraction and a non-polar fraction.
To obtain the polar fraction, they extracted orange peels using polar and non-polar solvents.
“Think of a salad dressing. The things that are in the water and vinegar section are polar compounds. The things that are in the oil section, away from the water, are non-polar compounds,” says Dr. Wang.
“The solvents we used are not exactly the same as water and oil, but they have a similar polarity.”
The authors found that extracts of the non-polar fraction of orange peel effectively inhibited the production of harmful chemicals.
The researchers also identified a compound in the polar fraction extract of orange peel called feruloylputrescine, which also significantly inhibited the enzyme involved in TMA production.
“This is a novel discovery that highlights a previously unrecognized potential health benefit of feruloylputrescine in reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease,” Dr Wang said.
“The discovery regarding orange peel is significant because five million tonnes of orange peel are produced annually in orange juice production nationwide.”
“About 95 percent of Florida oranges are used for juice. About half of the peels are used to feed cows. The rest are discarded.”
“But the FDA considers natural orange peel extract to be safe for human consumption, so we're looking to get more out of the peel.”
“These findings suggest that orange peels, which are often discarded as waste in the citrus industry, could be repurposed into valuable health-promoting compounds, such as ingredients in dietary supplements and foods,” Dr Wang said.
“Our study paves the way for the development of functional foods enriched with these bioactive compounds, providing a new therapeutic strategy for heart health.”
of result Appears in Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
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Hana Lee others2024. Discovery of novel bioactive compounds from the polar fraction of orange peel and their inhibition of trimethylamine and trimethylamine N-oxide by a metabolomic approach. In vitro and In vivo Assay: Feruloylputrescine inhibits trimethylamine by suppressing the cntA/B enzymes. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 72(14):7870-7881; doi:10.1021/acs.jafc.3c09005
Cocoa swollen bud virus disease It is one of the most economically damaging cocoa tree diseases, accounting for almost 15-50% of crop losses in Ghana. This virus is transmitted when several species of mealybugs feed on cocoa plants.
A cacao tree with cacao fruit attached directly to the trunk or branches.Image credit: Gamera other., doi: 10.1094/PDIS-10-22-2412-FE.
Cocoa swollen shoot virus disease (CSSVD) first observed Infected by farmers in the eastern region of Ghana in 1936, the nature of the virus was identified in 1939.
CSSVD is considered the most economically damaging cocoa virus disease and can cause yield losses of 15-50% when severe strains are involved in infection.
Cocoa swollen shoot virus (CSSV) is classified as a member of the plant-infecting pararetroviruses of the genus Cocoa swollen shoot virus. badnavirus It contains nonenveloped rod-like particles that encapsulate a circular double-stranded DNA genome.
Previously, isolates and strains were grouped according to severity of symptom onset and geographic origin.
CSSVD is currently known to be caused by the following causes: complex of badnavirus seed Based on molecular structure.
CSSV affects all parts of the cocoa plant. Symptoms seen on leaves include red vein stripes on immature “flush” leaves, green-green vein spots or stripes that can occur in angular spots, removal of green-green veins, and various shapes Includes mosaic symptoms.
The virus causes swelling of the stem (nodes, internodes, tips) and roots.
In some strains, the infected pods change shape, becoming rounder and smaller and with a smoother surface.
“This virus is a real threat to the world's chocolate supply,” said Professor Benito Chen Charpentier, a researcher at the University of Texas at Arlington.
“Pesticides are ineffective against mealybugs, so farmers try to prevent the spread of the disease by cutting down infected trees or breeding resistant trees. However, Ghana has lost more than 254 million cocoa trees in recent years.
Farmers can combat mealybugs by vaccinating trees with CSSV. But vaccines are expensive, especially for low-wage farmers, and vaccinated trees produce less cocoa, making the damage caused by the virus even worse.
Electron micrograph of swollen shoot virus particles in purified cocoa. Scale bar – 200 nm.Image credit: Gamera other., doi: 10.1094/PDIS-10-22-2412-FE.
Professor Chen Charpentier and colleagues have developed a new strategy. Use mathematical data to determine how far apart farmers can plant vaccinated trees to prevent mealybugs from jumping from one tree to another and spreading the virus That's what it is.
“Mealybugs have several ways of getting around, including moving from canopy to canopy, being carried by ants, and being blown by the wind,” Professor Chen Charpentier said.
“What we needed to do was create a model for cocoa farmers to vaccinate unvaccinated trees to prevent the spread of the virus while making costs more manageable for smallholders. The goal was to be able to know how far away a tree could be safely planted.”
By experimenting with mathematical patterning techniques, the authors create two different types of models that allow farmers to create a protective layer of vaccinated cocoa trees around unvaccinated trees. Did.
“Although still experimental, these models are exciting because they can help farmers protect their crops while achieving better yields,” said Professor Chen Charpentier.
“It’s good for farmers’ bottom lines and it’s good for the world’s chocolate addiction.”
a paper The findings were published online in the journal PLoS ONE.
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FB Agusto other. 2024. Cocoa Sustainability: The Case of Cocoa Swollen Bud Virus Co-infection. PLoS ONE 19 (3): e0294579; doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0294579
If you’ve ever felt like your cognitive abilities are not as sharp as they used to be, you might be struggling to recall names of actors or politicians in the news, for example. Perhaps mental arithmetic is not as easy for you anymore. This reflection may lead you to ponder the state of your brain and whether it’s on a downward trajectory.
It’s important to consider these aspects early on because brain development typically peaks in your 20s, and then cognitive functions gradually decline with age. Additionally, there is a growing risk of dementia, particularly associated with diseases like Alzheimer’s, in aging populations. However, both cognitive decline and dementia risk can be influenced by what experts call “modifiable risk factors,” offering a beacon of hope that there are lifestyle changes you can make to maintain mental acuity and lower the risk of dementia.
Be mentally active and boost your cognitive reserve
Psychologists and gerontologists often talk about cognitive reserve, which refers to the brain’s ability to adapt to aging and disease challenges. People with high cognitive reserve can perform well on cognitive tests despite exhibiting biological markers of Alzheimer’s disease, like protein build-up that impairs brain function. Engaging in activities such as reading, learning a new language, solving puzzles, and playing musical instruments can help boost cognitive reserve and maintain mental agility.
Interact with others
While brain-training games may not have broad benefits beyond the specific tasks they target, socializing with peers has been found to be a potent brain-training activity. Social isolation is considered a major risk factor for dementia, emphasizing the importance of engaging in lively conversations, joining clubs, or volunteering to keep your brain active and healthy.
Stay physically active
Physical activity not only benefits cardiovascular health but also contributes to better brain function and reduced cognitive decline. Incorporating exercises like running, swimming, or even gardening into your routine can help maintain cognitive abilities and lower the risk of dementia.
Eat a healthy diet
Avoiding excessive saturated fats and consuming plenty of fruits and vegetables can support brain health by eliminating harmful byproducts and providing essential nutrients. The Mediterranean diet, rich in fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, and olive oil, has been recommended for its brain-protective properties.
Stay curious
Personality traits like openness to experience are linked to better brain health and lower dementia risk. Activities that spark curiosity and awe can enhance cognitive abilities and mental flexibility. Incorporating habits like exploring new environments, trying new experiences, and enjoying cultural activities can promote brain health.
Think positively
Your mindset about aging can significantly impact your brain health. Maintaining a positive outlook, along with engaging in mentally stimulating activities and healthy habits, can contribute to long-lasting mental sharpness. Seeking out positive role models and adopting a proactive approach to brain health can help unlock your brain’s full potential.
It feels harsh. Losing one precious hour of sleep tonight.
As Daylight Saving Time (DST) begins in the UK during the summer months, clocks are scheduled as follows: Move forward one hour tonight to 1 a.m. local time.As a result, the new local daylight saving time will be 2:00 AM.
Scientists are concerned that switching to daylight saving time could have negative effects on health, including an increase in strokes, heart attacks, car accidents, and sleep deprivation, according to neurology professor and director of Vanderbilt’s sleep division, Dr. Beth Murrow in an interview with BBC Science Focus.
The impact of “springing forward” is experienced not only by the elderly but also by young people. A study published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine found that teens lost an average of 2 hours and 42 minutes of sleep on weeknights after the time change in 2015.
“We need morning light to wake up, set our body clocks, improve our mood, use light boxes in the morning to treat seasonal affective disorder, and sleep better at night.” Light promotes sleep at night, but light at night disturbs sleep,” Murrow explains.
Don’t worry, there are ways to combat the lost time. Here are some simple strategies:
1. Adjust your bedtime earlier for a few days before changing your clock.
If it’s too late this time, keep this in mind for the future. Sleep experts recommend going to bed 15 to 20 minutes earlier each night during the week leading up to daylight saving time.
Temporary insomnia symptoms affect about 30 to 35 percent of adults and can be caused by sudden changes in sleep schedules, such as the transition to daylight saving time, according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.
Gradually adapting to the time change will help you adjust and even get extra sleep during the transition, says Murrow.
If you’re feeling drowsy, it may be helpful to go to bed a bit earlier tonight.
2. Get exposure to bright light in the morning
DST aims to provide an extra hour of sunlight in the evening for socializing after work, but it can disrupt your natural sleep-wake cycle or circadian rhythm.
To wake up in the morning and improve your sleep at night, exposing yourself to bright light is key. Natural light is preferred, especially in the summer when the sun rises earlier, according to Murrow.
“Exposure to bright morning light helps regulate your body clock, making it easier to sleep at night,” she explains.
3. Skip long naps and late-day caffeine, opt for exercise instead
If you enjoy naps, this may be disappointing news. But if you want to improve your sleep, avoid napping and caffeine.
Naps and caffeine can diminish your sleep drive, says Murrow. She suggests exercising instead.
Just remember, don’t exercise right before bed. Exercise can disrupt sleep as it raises your core body temperature and releases endorphins.
Research recommends waiting at least 90 minutes between exercising and going to bed to improve sleep quality, according to the European Journal of Sports Science.
4. Avoid using your phone before bedtime
It’s a well-known fact that using your phone before bed isn’t ideal, particularly when the clock shifts forward an hour.
Bright light in the morning helps wake you up, whereas bright light at night can hinder sleep. LED screens emit blue light, making them especially problematic at night.
Blue light disrupts the natural release of melatonin in the brain, says Murrow. Melatonin acts as a sleep switch by signaling the brain to rest when levels rise.
It may be time to eliminate daylight saving time
Despite strategies to mitigate the impact of clock changes, many experts advocate for eliminating this outdated system altogether.
Is it time for standard time to become the new norm?
alice gregory a professor of psychology and director of the Goldsmiths Sleep Institute, believes that living on a permanent standard time schedule offers health benefits. “Most people are tired of literally going back and forth,” Murrow agrees.
About our experts:
Dr. Beth Murrow is a board-certified neurologist and sleep medicine specialist, an associate professor of clinical research, and the director of Vanderbilt’s Sleep Division. She conducts research on the relationship between medical diseases and sleep, as well as genetics and circadian biology.
alice gregory is a psychology professor at Goldsmiths University and has contributed to various research areas including the link between sleep and psychopathology, behavioral genetics, and sleep disorders. She is also known for her public engagement in science and has published popular science books.
A recent report accuses Meta and Google of obstructing information about abortion and reproductive health in Africa, Latin America, and Asia.
MSI Reproductive Choices and the Center to Combat Digital Hate claim that while these platforms restrict advertising for local abortion providers, they don’t limit public access to reproductive health care, leading to the spread of damaging misinformation.
Mehta has agreed to review the findings of the report.
MSI, operating in 37 countries, has had ads containing sexual health information rejected or removed by the platforms.
MSI Ghana and Vietnam reported that their ads promoting reproductive health content were removed or flagged as violating community guidelines.
Whitney Chinogwenya, Global Marketing Manager at MSI, expressed concerns about the censorship of reproductive health content on social media platforms like Facebook, which many women rely on for information.
MSI Mexico faced removal of a Facebook post promoting legal abortion services despite the recent decriminalization of abortion in some states.
The report highlighted Meta’s inaction against anti-abortion misinformation and misleading content about abortion procedures.
The report also revealed fake MSI pages on Facebook that exploit the organization’s reputation for various malicious purposes.
MSI clinics in Ghana were targeted by disinformation campaigns on messaging platforms.
MSI Ghana Advocacy stresses the importance of fact-checking systems on digital platforms to promote accurate reproductive health information.
The report, compiled from interviews and evidence from MSI teams in several countries, aims to raise awareness among digital platforms about their responsibilities.
Meta and Google responded to the report’s allegations, with Meta emphasizing its policies against false information and Google denying any inconsistent enforcement on its platforms.
Both companies stated their commitment to ensuring accurate and compliant advertising on their platforms.
Imagine waiting for your school exam results or having a dental appointment on the horizon. Many believe that preparing for uncertain outcomes by expecting the worst is a good strategy.
This way, you won’t be as shocked if the test results are disappointing or the dentist visit is unpleasant. Hence the phrase “hope for the best and plan for the worst.” But is this approach truly beneficial?
According to psychological research, the answer is no.
One downside of preparing for the worst is that it can lead to feeling sad and anxious before an event. By convincing yourself that something bad will happen, you are setting yourself up for negative emotions.
Thinking positively and expecting things to go well can actually make you feel better before your exam results or dental appointment. But what about when things don’t go as planned?
Unfortunately, research shows that people feel just as bad about disappointing outcomes whether they anticipated them or not. This applies immediately and even after the results are known.
Similar research has found that having negative expectations about a task like public speaking can make you feel worse, not better, right after performing it. The idea of emotional defensiveness doesn’t seem to work well.
These findings are relevant to the debate around trigger warnings, which aim to prepare individuals for emotionally challenging content. However, studies indicate that trigger warnings are not effective in emotional protection.
Concerns about over-optimism and complacency are valid, but optimism can boost motivation. Optimistic individuals tend to put more effort into their studies and typically achieve better grades as a result.
The key is to combine optimism with effort. Simply hoping for the best without taking action is not a sound strategy. Are you thinking positively and putting in the work needed to succeed?
If you have any questions, please email us at: questions@sciencefocus.com or send us a message on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Remember to include your name and location.
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In the UK, there are over 11 million people aged 65 and above, a number expected to rise to 13 million, constituting 22% of the population in a decade. This demographic change has drawn attention to often overlooked health issues, particularly in women: osteoporosis and bone fractures.
Globally, over 8.9 million osteoporotic fractures occur annually, equating to one osteoporotic fracture happening every three seconds somewhere in the world.
But why does bone health deteriorate with age? Our bones house specialized cells known as osteoblasts that generate new bone tissue. Conversely, osteoclasts are cells at the other end of the skeletal cycle responsible for dissolving old, damaged bone tissue and replacing it with fresh, healthy tissue.
The balance of activity between these cell types is crucial for bone health. Up to the age of 30, osteoblast activity generally exceeds osteoclast activity, resulting in more bone formation than loss. However, as individuals reach 35, osteoclast activity becomes dominant, leading to a gradual decline in bone quality and density.
Most concerning is the rapid decrease in estrogen production in postmenopausal women, which triggers increased osteoclast activity due to reduced osteoblast numbers and extended osteoclast lifespans. This change is believed to contribute to osteoporosis development.
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When a certain level of bone density loss occurs, osteopenia may develop, leading to extremely low bone density and increased fracture risk, potentially progressing to osteoporosis. This condition is often referred to as “bone thinning,” but it results from changes in bone density, microstructure, and quality that compromise bone strength.
Unfortunately, both osteopenia and osteoporosis are typically asymptomatic until a fracture occurs, making diagnosis incidental. Various risk factors may contribute to the development of these conditions, including smoking, thyroid disease, diabetes, and certain medications like steroids.
Preventive measures for bone health should be initiated early. A balanced, calcium-rich diet is crucial, with dairy products serving as primary sources of calcium. Individuals with restricted dairy intake may need calcium supplements, emphasizing the importance of vitamin D production through sunlight exposure or supplementation.
While calcium and vitamin D are essential for bone health, engaging in bone-straining exercises, especially resistance training, can stimulate osteoblast activity, preventing osteoporosis progression. Exercise not only enhances bone mineralization but also improves muscle strength, balance, and posture, reducing the risk of falls and fractures.
For menopausal women, exercising efficacy in promoting bone mineralization hinges on adequate calcium and vitamin D intake, making supplementation vital. Additionally, various medications are available to treat or slow osteoporosis progression, with estrogen therapies recommended for menopausal women, particularly those with premature ovarian insufficiency.
Education and awareness about bone health can significantly impact prevention and proper management of osteoporosis, especially as societies aged. Addressing these issues is crucial as we navigate the future of an aging population.
Prince Harry, who caused an uproar in the press last year, wrote candidly in his memoirs: spare About taking ketamine to cope with his mother’s death. He’s not the only one talking about this substance. The substance was previously known primarily as a tranquilizer for horses and a psychedelic rave drug. It’s hard to keep track of the many celebrities who have openly talked about taking ketamine to improve their mental health.
Hundreds of clinics have opened across the United States offering intravenous infusions of the drug at point of care, a trend now extending to the United Kingdom. Pioneering companies concerned about the mental health of their employees are beginning to offer this therapy as a benefit. Some companies even floated the idea of setting up ketamine clinics at their headquarters. Meanwhile, pharmaceutical companies are developing over-the-counter ketamine products such as lozenges and topical creams. This drug has become the most commonly available psychedelic therapy.
This may sound like good news, given the growing evidence that ketamine can treat depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and addiction. However, its use in the treatment of mental health conditions is still novel and many uncertainties remain. Possibly influenced by its popularity as a therapeutic agent, illicit use is also on the rise.
All of this means it’s time to ask whether ketamine can really relieve mental health problems, how it works, and are there any risks to its newfound popularity? is. Psychiatrist…
Palestinian children wait for food prepared in a charity kitchen as food supplies run short in Rafah
Ismael Mohamad/UPI/Shutterstock
The situation in Gaza is rapidly evolving into the worst humanitarian crisis in modern memory, and international health organizations have no long-term plan to address the region’s post-war needs.
More than three-quarters of Gaza’s 2.2 million residents, half of whom are children, are internally displaced, trapped in one of the world’s most densely populated areas and without access to food, water, or health care. Since October 7, when Hamas militants in Gaza invaded Israel, killing more than 1,000 civilians, Israel has heavily bombed the enclave, disrupting the flow of humanitarian aid and destroying civilian infrastructure. As a result, more than 30,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, were killed, and more than 72,000 were injured in Gaza, according to the United Nations.
But these numbers only mark the beginning of a public health disaster. Those who survive the war will face lifelong health effects. Thousands of Palestinians will be living with missing limbs, weakened immune systems, mental illnesses, and other chronic illnesses. Meeting their health needs will be a decades-long undertaking, and no global aid organization has adequately planned for it.
The World Health Organization, World Food Programme, UNICEF, Palestine Red Crescent Society, CARE International, Mercy Corps, and Médecins Sans Frontières all have specific projects to address health needs in the Gaza Strip, according to information shared by the organizations. Lack of long-term planning. new scientist. Save the Children and the International Committee of the Red Cross did not respond to questions about long-term plans.
unprecedented humanitarian disaster
The lack of planning for health needs in the coming decades contributes to the enormity of the current humanitarian crisis. Most of Gaza’s residents live in crowded conditions without sewage treatment or garbage removal. On average, people can consume less than 1 liter of clean water per day. As a result, infectious diseases spread.
A survey conducted in a limited number of shelters in December and January found that at least 90% of children under 5 years of age have one or more infections, and 70% have experienced diarrhea within the past 2 weeks. “And it doesn’t take into account the hundreds of thousands of people who are not in refugee shelters,” he says. Margaret Harris At WHO.
Hunger is also widespread. Almost two-thirds of households have one meal a day, and a quarter of the population faces imminent hunger and extreme malnutrition. The situation is most dire in northern Gaza, where one in six children is malnourished, according to the study. The Gaza Ministry of Health reported on March 7 that 20 people had died, including: 15 children Some died from malnutrition and dehydration. Inadequate monitoring means these numbers could be even higher.
“The problem with child malnutrition is that it causes further disease,” says Tanya Hadji-Hassan of Médecins Sans Frontières. Malnourished children are more susceptible to infections, and the lining of their intestines wears down, making it difficult to absorb nutrients. “So they become even more malnourished, their immune system weakens, and it just creates this vicious cycle that snowballs into death,” she says.
Bombing left much of the territory in danger. By December, UNICEF 1000 children On average, more than 10 children per day have lost one or both legs since the conflict began. And there are few options for receiving treatment for these injuries. As of February 21, only 18 of Gaza’s 40 hospitals are still functioning, but with reduced capacity. “They don’t have drugs. They don’t have machines. They don’t have power. They might have a few doctors running emergency rooms. So there’s not really a functioning medical system. I don’t,” he says. serena victor At Mercy Corps.
The overwhelming humanitarian crisis has thrown health institutions into chaos. “Never in modern history have we seen this level of violence, terror, fear, and deprivation perpetrated against any nation,” Harris said. “In a sense, we are exploring uncharted territory.”
Gaza’s impending public health crisis
Even if the war were to end tomorrow, survivors would face lifelong health consequences. Many will have physical disabilities. Some people suffer from severe mental illness. Some people develop chronic lung disease, heart disease, and cancer from chemical contaminants in bombs and destroyed buildings, Harris said.
The effects will be most severe on children. Sustained malnutrition early in life stunts growth and impairs brain development, leading to deficits in cognition, memory, motor function, and intelligence, Haji Hassan said. Your child’s immune system will also be weakened, making them more susceptible to illness. Studies have shown that malnutrition during pregnancy increases the risk of your baby developing obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes.a February report One in five pregnant women treated at Gaza clinics was malnourished, as was one in 10 children seen there, according to research by the international aid group Project Hope.
But the most widespread harm may be the impact on mental health, Harris said. “Imagine what it’s like for people who are going through this situation relentlessly every day. They feel terrible uncertainty. Where to go, what will happen next? You never know where your next bit of food is going to come from,” she says. Such traumatic experiences are associated with depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and suicidal thoughts. For children, this trauma can disrupt brain and organ development and increase the risk of learning disabilities and mental health conditions. Without early intervention, these problems can persist into adulthood. “There’s going to be a huge burden of mental illness going forward, and it’s going to be very difficult to deal with,” Harris said.
Even adults who experienced adversity in childhood 12 times more risk Develop alcohol and drug use disorders and attempt suicide. They are also more likely to have physical health conditions such as heart disease and cancer. Young people who survive conflict are almost three times more likely to develop severe mental illness, including psychosis, than young people who have not experienced war.
Current postwar plans are not enough
Given these results, there is a need to establish a long-term health plan for Gaza. Such plans should address rebuilding infrastructure, developing mental and physical rehabilitation programs, and regular disease screening.
“It seems ridiculous for city officials to say what will happen now when people are dying trying to get a handful of bread for their families. It just doesn’t do the math,” Victor said. Masu. “But we need to think about it.”
But most organizations are just getting started. The few organizations that have protocols in place, such as the Palestinian Red Crescent Society and CARE International, are working for the next year or two, but not for decades. WHO is developing a plan to address health needs from April 2024 until the end of the year. “We are working on several different scenarios. A good scenario would be a ceasefire, so that we can really look at things. [long-term plans]” says Harris. Another possibility is that there is a war going on.
This uncertainty, along with the pressing question of who will govern Gaza in the aftermath of the conflict, makes preparing for the future extremely difficult. “The reason why we so desperately want not just a ceasefire, but a peaceful solution, is because until that happens, any plan or even consideration is just a castle in the air,” Harris said. says.
Israel restricts aid groups’ access to the area, making the few workers in Gaza unable to operate safely. “Half the time they can’t do anything. They can’t move around safely. Basic things like communications continue to be cut off,” Victor says. And many of them died. For example, a 29-year-old man who is a member of WHO’s limb reconstruction team in the Gaza Strip. Dima Abdullatif Mohammed AlhajiHarris said she was killed along with her six-month-old baby, two brothers, and her husband in an Israeli airstrike.
These risks and obstacles complicate long-term planning. “You can make any plan you want, but if you don’t know your needs, you won’t have a very useful plan,” he says.
Dealing with the widespread destruction in Gaza will require huge sums of money. Margaret Harris of the World Health Organization says early estimates suggest $204.2 million will be needed to fund health emergency planning in Gaza in 2024 alone. .
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said the organization has a budget of $300 million for the campaign in Gaza, which is expected to run until the end of 2025. Approximately $38 million of this will be used for the health sector, including replenishing medical supplies. We are supplying supplies, deploying additional ambulances, and preventing infectious diseases.
This cannot begin to address the long-term health needs of Palestinians in Gaza. It’s difficult to estimate what will be needed now, but over the long term, “I think it’s safe to say it’s going to be in the billions of dollars,” Harris said.
It feels unfair. I will be sacrificing an hour of sleep tonight.
With Daylight Saving Time (DST) starting in the United States in the summer, the clocks are set to move forward by an hour tonight at 2 a.m. local time. This means the new local daylight saving time will be 3:00 AM.
Scientists are expressing concerns that apart from causing sleepiness, the transition to daylight saving time could have adverse effects on our health. According to Dr. Beth Murrow, a neurology professor and director of Vanderbilt’s sleep division, the clock change leads to a slight increase in strokes, heart attacks, car accidents, and sleep deprivation.
The impact of “springing forward” is not limited to the elderly but also affects young people. Research published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine revealed that teenagers lost an average of 2 hours and 42 minutes of sleep on weeknights after the time change in a 2015 study.
Dr. Murrow emphasizes the importance of morning light for setting our body clocks, improving mood, and aiding sleep. She suggests that the shift in light from morning to evening due to changing clocks for almost eight months could have health effects.
Despite the challenges posed by losing an hour of sleep, there are practical tips to counteract the effects:
1. Adjust your bedtime earlier for a few days before the clock change.
Experts recommend gradually going to bed 15 to 20 minutes earlier each night in the week leading up to daylight saving time.
American Academy of Sleep Medicine mentions that around 30 to 35 percent of adults experience temporary insomnia symptoms due to sudden changes in sleep schedules, such as the clock change.
Adapting slowly to the new time can help ease the transition and provide some extra rest,” says Dr. Murrow.
2. Get exposure to bright light in the morning
Daylight Saving Time aims to extend daylight in the evening, but this may disrupt your natural sleep-wake cycle. Exposing yourself to natural light in the morning can help set your body clock, making it easier to sleep at night.
3. Avoid long naps and late-day caffeine, opt for exercise instead
Avoiding long naps and caffeine late in the day can help regulate your sleep. Instead, engage in physical activity which can promote better sleep at night.
Exercise should be done at least 90 minutes before bedtime to avoid disruptions in sleep caused by increased endorphins and core body temperature.
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4. Limit screen time before bed
Exposure to blue light from screens like cell phones can interfere with melatonin production, affecting sleep. Try to avoid using electronic devices before bedtime to promote better sleep.
Watching content with blue light before bed, like news, can hinder relaxation and sleep after the clock change.
Consider abolishing Daylight Saving Time
Many experts suggest abandoning Daylight Saving Time due to its negative impacts on health. Living on Standard Time year-round could have health benefits compared to Daylight Saving Time’s schedule changes.
Dr. Murrow and Professor Alice Gregory advocate for a permanent Standard Time to align better with our natural circadian rhythms and improve overall well-being.
About our experts:
Dr. Beth Murrow is a neurology and sleep medicine professor, director of Vanderbilt’s Sleep Division, and advocate for sleep research related to medical conditions and genetics.
Alice Gregory, a psychology professor at Goldsmiths University, has contributed to various areas of sleep research and promotes public engagement with science through her work and publications.
Exercising while wearing foundation changes the properties of your skin.
One inch punch/Shutterstock
Wearing foundation while exercising can affect your skin health by changing the size of your pores and subsequently altering the release of sebum, which is responsible for keeping you healthy.
Lee Seok Ho The researchers at Texas A&M University in San Antonio recruited 43 college students, 20 men and 23 women. Participants first washed their faces with facial cleanser. The researchers then measured skin variables in different areas of the face, including pore size and sebum production.
A single layer of foundation was then applied to all participants’ faces, either on the forehead or cheeks, depending on the participant’s preference.
They then did a 20-minute moderate workout by running on a treadmill at 3 miles per hour (mph) for 5 minutes, 4 miles per hour for 10 minutes, and 5 miles per hour for 5 minutes.
After the training, the researchers repeated various skin measurements and found that areas with foundation had less sebum production than areas without makeup.
“This is a shining example of the negative effects of makeup during exercise,” the researchers wrote in their paper. “In this study, makeup use clogged pores and resulted in negative sebum scores.” The optimal amount of sebum is unknown, and too much can cause acne, while too little can cause skin irritation. To do.
Participants’ pore size also increased significantly in areas without foundation, but did not change significantly in areas with makeup. This suggests that this foundation may be inhibiting the natural enlargement of pores during exercise, preventing the release of sebum and sweat, which moisturize and cool the skin. The researchers did not assess whether these changes were related to skin problems.
Wearing foundation during exercise may not have a significant effect on most people who train for relatively short periods of time, but “we don’t know the effect on endurance-type athletes,” Lee said. say. The research team now wants to investigate the effects during longer exercise routines.
Shari Lipner Researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York say the study’s split-face design is a good approach, but complicates comparisons because our skin characteristics vary across different parts of the face. Additionally, she says, the skin around the nose, mouth and eyes has a different thickness compared to the skin on the forehead and cheeks, so ideally these areas should have been studied as well.
Walking 9,000 to 10,000 steps a day appears to protect against early death and heart-related events
Pippa Samaya/Getty Images/Cavan Images
Walking 9,000 to 10,000 steps a day appears to reduce the risk of early death and heart-related events, adding legitimacy to an idea that has been criticized as unscientific.
The exact origins of the popular belief that people should aim for 10,000 steps a day are unknown, but it is believed to be related to a marketing campaign promoting pedometers in Japan.
Now, research by Matthew Ahmadi Professors at the University of Sydney in Australia suggest that this number may have some value.
The researchers analyzed more than 72,000 participants in the UK Biobank study, with an average age of 61, who wore movement-tracking accelerometers on their wrists for a week. “We were able to quantify the number of steps we took each day,” Ahmadi says.
Participants were then followed for an average of just under seven years, during which time there were 1,633 deaths and 6,190 heart disease-related events. The researchers found that the optimal number of steps per day is 9,000, after adjusting for other factors that may influence the risk of illness and death during that period, such as diet quality, smoking status, and other physical activity. I calculated it to be ~10,000 steps, after which the benefits begin to gradually decrease.
Doing so was found to reduce the risk of death by 39% and risk of heart-related events by 21% during the follow-up period.
“This paper will help the field take a major step forward in refining the science behind physical activity and sedentary time guidelines. Pardon the pun,” he says. Dale Esliger At Loughborough University, UK. “It seems to support the idea that the 10,000 step goal, which is not evidence-based to begin with, may indeed be about right.”
However, on the other hand nicolas berger Researchers at Britain’s Teesside University said the study was “very well designed” using “rigorous methodology and statistical analysis”, but Esliger said the wrist-worn acceleration It says that the meter is not always the best indicator of step count.
The researchers also didn’t take into account the number of steps taken per minute. “Probably about 6,000 steps performed at a higher cadence may be just as protective of your health as 10,000 steps at a slower pace,” Esliger says.
LTo be fair, technology has improved my life and still surprises and delights me every day. My cell phone also turns into a flashlight! My TV remembers how far into last night's episode it was, even if I didn't. The bus stop knows when the bus is coming and can monitor the entire journey of the pizza from the restaurant to your home. Frankly, these are miracles.
However, there were corresponding sacrifices. For over 20 years, I have surrendered entire areas of ability, memory, authority, and independence to machines in my life. Along the way, we've become anxious about problems that didn't exist before, indecisive about choices we didn't have to make before, and angry about things we never noticed before. Ta.
There are probably hundreds of ways technology has ruined my life. Let's start with him 16 pieces.
1. I lose concentration.
It's not just me: 2022 survey According to a study conducted by the Center for Attention Research, 49% of adults believe their attention spans are shortening due to competing distractions available on cell phones and computers. Now I end up doing 20 minutes of half-hearted research and getting dragged down an online rabbit hole, all the while being bothered by notifications announcing the arrival of an email or the death of an elderly actor. Masu. They were close relatives or something. Especially since he chases me with the relentlessness of a bailiff on Duolingo. Sometimes he interrupts my Italian lessons and reminds me to take another Italian lesson. That's why I still can't order coffee in Rome after 5 years with her.
2. Poor posture
I felt like sitting in front of a screen all day was having a negative effect on my body, so I bought a stand to raise my computer in hopes that it would help me sit up straighter. Then it became variable focus, so I had to crane my neck and jut my chin out to read the screen through the bottom half of the glasses. I ended up switching to a laptop.Then I had to put that on the stand. Despite this, I still have a question mark attitude. I tried setting an alarm to step away from the computer at regular intervals, but it kept waking me up.
3. Life can feel like a never-ending battle to prove you're not a robot.
Obviously, this includes all the failed attempts to click on every photo with a traffic light in it to qualify as a legitimate human investigator looking for spare dishwasher wheels . But it also means resisting the temptation to click an auto-reply button in an email that says something like “Okay, thank you!” and compose your own response. Every day is a Turing test, and you don’t always pass it.
4. Meetings are now inevitable.
You used to be able to say, “Friday?” I'm sorry, but on Friday I'm going to Antarctica. ” But thanks to Zoom, Google, and FaceTime, there is no reasonable excuse for not attending a meeting. You can also see a picture of yourself all the time, so you can see exactly how bored you are.
5. I can no longer argue in the pub.
I remember a time when it was considered ungentlemanly to check the factual accuracy of what your drinking buddies said. You were simply trying to counter their argument by presenting your own plausible facts. But when everyone has all the GDP, brick Even though the countries are so close together, there doesn't seem to be much point in having a lively discussion. I end up researching it all night and saying, “Hmm.” These days, if you want to get into a petty argument over vague facts in an environment where phone use is prohibited, you have to go to jail. Or try a pub quiz. Either way, it's not life.
6. It's getting harder and harder to turn on.
You may have experienced the feeling you get behind the wheel of a rental car at a foreign airport, staring at the dashboard and wondering, “How am I going to drive it?” Or maybe you've faced a similar calculation in an unfamiliar shower or while standing in front of a seemingly ordinary stove. The constant development of new ways to turn things on has led us steadily away from the intuitive and toward the deliberately mysterious. Last week I found myself alone in a frigid bedroom with no electric radiator working. I ended up having to turn it upside down to find the model number to find the manual PDF online. I just wanted it to be hot.
Oddly enough, the virtual world is full of old-fashioned mechanical emulators – animated buttons that make clicking sounds. Knobs and sliders can be manipulated with a cursor, but in the real world the controls are reduced to a flat black panel covered in cryptic symbols such as a crescent moon. lightning. A circle with an M inside. M stands for mode.
This may sound like any age, but it's hard to believe that today's young people want a Wi-Fi enabled kettle.
7. You now have unfiltered access to the opinions of stupid people.
Technology not only allows us to know what stupid people are thinking; It now cherry-picks their thoughts and presents them to me every day as if I were some kind of idiot connoisseur. To be honest, I don't remember asking for anything like this.
8. Stupid people now have unfiltered access to each other's opinions.
In the past, so-called gatekeepers of traditional media restricted the flow of information through narrow, one-way channels. Now stupid people have their own media, where they can freely discuss and reaffirm stupid ideas with each other. Unfortunately, this wasn't quite the force of good we had hoped.
9.I am I'm clearly worse at typing than I was 10 years ago.
I was never a great typist, but ever since word processing programs started correcting my mistakes, I developed a misplaced confidence in my abilities. If this facility is not available for any reason, I type like a person suffering from a stroke.
10. I feel a strange obligation to monitor bad news in real time.
They call it doomscrolling. We all do it to some degree, but bad news is just more persuasive than good news. But for me, it went from being a mild obsession to a full-time job.
11. I live in fear of being scammed.
I'm deeply suspicious of delivery notifications, communications from my mobile phone service provider, QR codes, and anything else that asks me to click on a link that I didn't order. I believe that the email from my bank regarding fraudulent activity is itself a scam. I once ignored a genuine email from my son saying he lost his phone and requested that he send a text message to a foreign number. He was alone in Vietnam at the time, and I thought, “Well done, you son of a bitch.”
12. I am forced to live in silent and shameful defiance of all conventional wisdom regarding passwords.
I don't know about you, but when I get advice about not writing down passwords, not using the same password over and over, and changing passwords regularly, I nod and say, “Sure,” but I… Write down all your passwords, keep them as few as possible, and change them only when absolutely necessary. To me, all the conventional wisdom about passwords ignores an important point. That means it's useless if you don't know the password. You can click “Forgot your password?” each time, set a new password, and forget it again immediately. By the way, I am also doing this.
13. You should go anywhere with advance warning and advance arming.
It used to be considered creepy to Google someone right before meeting them. Now it seems rude to show up without knowing anything about them. It should also give you information about what you're going to see and do, where to eat, and perhaps your travel route. Don't get me wrong. I like to be prepared. I just don't want to read a restaurant menu before leaving the house.
14. I have consistently risen to the level of disruption that every new technology allows.
As of this writing, I have 77 tabs open in my browser. Behind it is a completely different browser. Every morning I sift through the stacks of open documents to find the ones I need. You might think this virtual disorganization is preferable to a cluttered desk, even if it's neatly tucked into a slim laptop, but my desk is also cluttered, and the surrounding The walls are covered with post-its.
15. I resent technology, but I'm powerless without it.
Sometimes we hear stories of inventions that seem designed to foster slavish dependence, such as self-tuning guitars or programmable cocktail machines, but what we're actually reminded of is that technology is broken. Only when under. It's not just that you've lost the skills you need. I can't even remember the process. How did I previously find my way, figure out what to watch on TV, pay for takeout? There should have been a system in place.
16. The rest of the world is also helpless without it.
In my work in journalism, I sometimes find myself in certain technical inconveniences. A week without a smartphone. That's what a month without Google feels like. And what I got here is that if you abandon modern technology, the world generally refuses to participate in the experiment. You only know this when someone at the ticket counter looks you in the eye and tells you to download the app.
“circleWhat would happen to your hat if I told you that one of the most powerful choices you can make is to ask for help? '' a young woman in her 20s wearing a red sweater says before encouraging viewers to seek counseling. The ad, promoted on Instagram and other social media platforms, is just one of many campaigns created by BetterHelp, a California-based company that connects users with their therapists online.
In recent years, the need for sophisticated digital therapies to replace traditional face-to-face therapies has been well established.when I go to the street Latest data The NHS Talking Therapy Service saw 1.76 million people referred for treatment in 2022-23, with 1.22 million people actually starting to engage directly with a therapist.
Companies like BetterHelp hope to address some of the barriers that prevent people from receiving therapy, such as a lack of locally trained practitioners and a lack of empathetic therapists. Many of these platforms also have worrying aspects. That is, what happens to the large amounts of highly sensitive data collected in the process? The UK is currently considering regulating these apps, and there is growing awareness of their potential harm.
Last year, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission told BetterHelp $7.8m (£6.1m) fine After a government agency was found to have misled consumers and shared sensitive data with third parties for advertising purposes despite promising to keep it private. A BetterHelp representative did not respond to BetterHelp's request for comment. observer.
The number of people seeking mental health help online has increased rapidly during the pandemic. Photo: Alberto Case/Getty Images
Research shows that such privacy violations are not isolated exceptions within the vast industry of mental health apps, which include virtual therapy services, mood trackers, mental fitness coaches, digitized cognitive behavioral therapy, chatbots, and more. , has been suggested to be too common.
independent watchdogs such as Mozilla Foundation, a global nonprofit organization working to police the Internet from bad actors, has identified platforms that exploit opaque regulatory gray areas to share or sell sensitive personal information. did. When the foundation looked at 32 leading mental health apps; Last year's reportWe found that 19 of them did not protect user privacy and security. “We found that too often your personal and private mental health issues were being monetized.” Jen CultriderHe leads Mozilla's consumer privacy advocacy efforts.
Mr. Cult Rider, in the United States, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) protects communications between doctors and patients. However, she says many users are unaware that there are loopholes that digital platforms can exploit to circumvent HIPAA. “You may not be talking to a licensed psychologist, you may be just talking to a trained coach, and none of those conversations are protected under medical privacy laws,” she says. “But metadata about that conversation, the fact that you're using the app for OCD or an eating disorder, could also be used and shared for advertising and marketing purposes. They don't necessarily want to be collected and used to target products to them.”
Like many others studying this rapidly growing industry, the digital mental health apps market is predicted to be valuable. $17.5bn (£13.8bn) by 2030 – Caltrider feels that increased regulation and oversight of many of these platforms, which target particularly vulnerable segments of the population, is long overdue.
“The number of these apps has exploded during the pandemic. When we started our research, we realized how many companies are capitalizing on the gold rush of mental health issues rather than helping people. “It was really disappointing because it seemed like there was a lot of emphasis on that,” she says. “Like many things in the tech industry, the tech industry has grown rapidly and for some, privacy has taken a backseat. We felt that maybe things weren't going to work out, but we What they found was much worse than expected.”
Promotion of regulations
Last year, UK regulators Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and the National Institute for Healthcare Excellence (Nice) will explore the best way to regulate digital mental health tools in the UK and collaborate with international partners on a three-year project funded by the charity Wellcome. project has started. Help foster consensus on digital mental health regulation around the world.
Holly Cool, MHRA's senior manager for digital mental health, explains that while data privacy is important, the main focus of the project is to reach agreement on minimum standards of safety for these tools. . “We are more focused on the efficacy and safety of these products. It is our duty as regulators to ensure that patient safety is paramount in devices that are classified as medical devices. ,” she says.
At the same time, leaders in the mental health field are beginning to call for strict international guidelines to assess whether tools truly have a therapeutic effect. “Actually, I'm very excited and hopeful about this field, but we need to understand what good looks like for digital therapeutics.” Neuroscientist and former U.S. director says Dr. Thomas Insel. National Institute of Mental Health.
Psychiatric experts acknowledge that while new mood-boosting tools, trackers and self-help apps have become wildly popular over the past decade, there has been little hard evidence that they actually help.
“I think the biggest risk is that many apps waste people's time and may delay getting effective treatment,” said Harvard Medical School Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. says Dr. John Taurus, director of digital psychiatry at .
Currently, companies with enough marketing capital can easily bring their apps to market without having to demonstrate that their apps will maintain user interest or add any value, he said. It is possible to participate. In particular, Taurus criticizes the poor quality of many purported pilot studies, with very low standards for app efficacy and results that are virtually meaningless.He gives the following example 1 trial in 2022This paper compared a stopwatch (a “fake” app with a digital clock) to an app that provides cognitive behavioral therapy to schizophrenic patients experiencing an acute psychotic episode. “When we look at research, we often liken our apps to looking at a wall or a waiting list,” he says. “But anything is better than nothing.”
Vulnerable user operations
But the most concerning question is whether some apps may actually perpetuate harm and worsen the symptoms of the patients they are meant to help.
Two years ago, U.S. healthcare giants Kaiser Permanente and Health Partners I decided to find out Effectiveness of new digital mental health tools. It was based on a psychological approach known as dialectical behavior therapy, which includes practices such as emotional mindfulness and steady breathing, and was expected to help prevent suicidal behavior in at-risk patients.
Over a 12-month period, 19,000 patients who reported frequent suicidal thoughts were randomly divided into three groups. A control group received standard care, a second group received usual care plus regular outreach to assess suicide risk, and a third group received digital tools in addition to care. It was done. However, when he evaluated the results, he found that he actually performed worse in the third group. Using this tool appears to significantly increase the risk of self-harm compared to just receiving usual care.
“They thought they were doing a good thing, but it made people even worse, so that was very alarming,” Taurus says.
Some of the biggest concerns relate to AI chatbots, many of which are touted as safe spaces for people to discuss mental health and emotional struggles. But Kaltrider worries that without better monitoring of the responses and advice provided by these bots, these algorithms could be manipulating vulnerable people. “With these chatbots, you can create something that lonely people can potentially relate to, so the possibilities for manipulation are endless,” she says. “This algorithm could be used to force that person to buy expensive things or force them to commit violence.”
These concerns are not unfounded. A user of the popular chatbot Replika shared this on Reddit. screenshot The content of the conversation appears to be such that the bot is actively encouraging his suicide attempt.
Telephone therapy: But how secure is your sensitive personal data? Photo: Getty Images
In response, a Replika spokesperson said: observer: “Replika continuously monitors the media and social media and spends a lot of time talking directly with users to find ways to address concerns and fix issues within the product. Provided. The interface in the screenshot above is at least 8 months old and may date back to 2021. There have been over 100 updates since 2021, and 23 in the last year alone.”
Because of these safety concerns, the MHRA believes that so-called post-market surveillance will be important for mental health apps, just as it is for medicines and vaccines. Kuhl points out that Yellow card reporting site, is used in the UK to report side effects and defects in medical products, and could in the future allow users to report adverse experiences with certain apps. “The public and health professionals can be very helpful in providing vital information to the MHRA about adverse events using yellow cards,” she says.
But at the same time, experts say that if properly regulated, mental health apps could improve access to care, collect useful data to help make accurate diagnoses, and fill gaps left by over-medicalization. I still strongly believe that I can play a big role in the future. system.
“What we have today is not great,” Insel says. “Mental health care, as we have known it for the past 20 to 30 years, is clearly an area ripe for change and in need of some transformation. Perhaps regulation will come in the second or third act, and we need it, but there are many other things, from better evidence to interventions for people with more severe mental illnesses. That is necessary.”
Torous believes the first step is to be more transparent about how an app's business model works and the underlying technology. “Otherwise, the only way a company can differentiate is through marketing claims,” he says. “If you can't prove that you're better or safer, all you can do is market it because there's no real way to verify or trust that claim.” The thing is, huge amounts of money are being spent on marketing, which is starting to erode clinician and patient trust. You can only make so many promises before people become skeptical. you can't.”
Immersing your body in cold water stimulates the release of an invigorating cocktail of chemicals.
Jacob Staedler/EyeEm/Getty Images
“It's like pressing Control-Alt-Del on your computer,” says Cath Pendleton. “When I'm in the water, I get so focused on my body that my brain switches off. It's just swimming with me.”
Pendleton, an ice swimmer based in Merthyr Tydfil, England, is as tough as anyone. In 2020, five years after she realized she didn't mind swimming in very cold water, she became the first person to swim one mile inside the Antarctic Circle. Part of her training included sitting in a freezer in a shed.
But she's not the only one passionate about cold water. Rivers, lakes, and oceans that were once home to a handful of serious year-round swimmers are now on the verge of extinction, thanks to media reports about the mental health impact of frigid dips and pool closures due to COVID-19. The number of people visiting is rapidly increasing. An estimated 7.5 million people swim outdoors in the UK alone, and more and more people swim outdoors during the winter. Global numbers are hard to come by, but the International Winter Swimming Association is seeing a boom in winter swimmer registrations around the world, including in China, Russia and Finland, where water temperatures can drop below 0C.
But what could be better than the joy of being in nature and the perverted feeling of happiness that defies the cold? According to the latest research, the answer is probably: Recent studies are beginning to uncover evidence that cold water immersion can reduce stress and depression, and may help deal with autoimmune diseases.
Employer-provided benefits initiatives generally do not improve workers’ mental health, but volunteering may be an exception
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A study of more than 46,000 workers found that the benefits initiatives offered by many companies do little to improve the mental health of their employees.
In England, More than half of employers have a formal employee benefits strategy. These include employee assistance programs that provide support for work or personal issues, as well as counseling, online life coaching, mindfulness workshops, stress management training, and more.
“Employers are increasingly offering a variety of strategies, practices and programs to improve wellbeing and mental health,” he says. William Fleming at Oxford University. “Their fundamental purpose is to change people's psychological capacities and coping mechanisms,” he says.
To investigate whether these interventions are useful, Fleming and other researchers conducted the UK’s healthiest workplace survey in 2017 and 2018. He examined responses from more than 46,000 individuals in 233 organizations, the majority of whom were office and service industry employees. Approximately 5,000 people have participated in at least one welfare initiative in the past year. The researchers found that there was no difference in the self-reported mental health of those who participated in these programs compared to those who did not participate. The result was consistent regardless of different types of workers and sectors.
“The program doesn’t seem to be providing any benefits,” Fleming said.
However, volunteer work may be an exception. Employees who participated in company-sponsored volunteer programs reported better mental health on average than those who did not participate. Fleming notes that it’s important to consider that people who are willing to volunteer for a cause may have relatively good mental health to begin with.
Instead of proposing these initiatives, Fleming suggests that employers focus on improving working conditions. For example, they can assess whether someone’s workload is too demanding, whether they’re working too many hours, and whether management strategies can be improved, he said.
When it comes to eating healthier, there has always been a sense of having your cake and eating it too. For decades, we've been told that the secret to staying healthy is to indulge in the fresh, delicious food of the Mediterranean. Adding more tomatoes, focaccia, and olive oil to your dinner plate, along with a glass of Chianti, is said to reduce your chances of developing a heart attack and type 2 diabetes.
The most surprising thing is that this is not just some exaggerated nonsense. Evidence that the Mediterranean diet can actually improve health in many ways has been growing for more than 50 years. “We are conducting large, long-term clinical trials that result in difficult clinical events,” he says. miguel martinez gonzalez at the University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain.
But despite all this praise, it was difficult to understand what it was about the diet that led to such benefits. First of all, nutritionists cannot agree on the exact form it should take. Additionally, family meals, home cooking, and other non-dietary factors should be considered. The good news is that over the past decade, we've begun to understand which components of our diets provide the greatest health benefits and why. This means we are now better able than ever to offer you the best advice…
Our health care system has fundamental flaws that are negatively impacting women.
Systemic gaps and biases have led to women’s pain being less understood and therefore mistreated compared to men’s pain – a phenomenon known as the gender pain gap. This gender pain gap is only expanding, with 11% more women than men feeling their pain is ignored or dismissed compared to 7% in 2022, according to a recent report commissioned by Nurofen.
The report surveyed over 5,000 people, finding that women in the UK take longer than men to seek medical attention for the same type of pain. Additionally, less than half of the women surveyed were diagnosed within 11 months, compared with two-thirds of men. More women still had undiagnosed pain after 12 months or more. A third of women reported that their late diagnoses were due to medical professionals not listening, taking them seriously, or ignoring them.
Another study found that 50% of women feel their pain is ignored, particularly when it comes to menstrual health. Additionally, medical professionals often dismiss women’s symptoms as “normal” and attribute them to hormones and stress, leading to women’s pain being ignored and undermining their confidence and authority as patients.
These pain disparities contribute to a shorter healthy lifespan for women, given that they suffer from chronic conditions more than men.
Despite the complexity and multifactorial nature of the gender pain gap, women have historically been underrepresented in medical research and clinical trials, contributing to a lack of understanding of women’s healthcare needs and pain symptoms.
Women continue to struggle to have their pain taken seriously and treated appropriately, resulting in significant impacts on their lives and wellbeing.
About our expert Dr. Marike Bigg
Marike is a science writer with a PhD in Sociology from the University of Cambridge. She argues that medicine is not gender-neutral, from research to diagnosis to treatment in her book, This Doesn’t Hurt: How Women Fail With Medications.
A Yale University study that analyzed the genomes of more than 1 million people revealed genetic factors associated with cannabis use disorder and potential links to psychiatric problems, substance abuse, and lung cancer risk. The importance of understanding the health effects is emphasized.Credit: Illustration by Michael S. Helfenbein
A comprehensive study conducted by researchers at Yale University and involving the analysis of the genomes of more than 1 million people has provided new insights into the biology of cannabis use disorder. The study also investigated links to various mental illnesses, the propensity to abuse other substances such as tobacco, and the potential increased risk of lung cancer associated with cannabis use.
For this study, researchers analyzed genome-wide genetic variation in individuals from multiple ancestry groups enrolled in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ Million Veterans Program, one of the world’s largest genetic databases. set and incorporated additional information from several other genomic databases. . They were able to identify dozens of genetic variants associated with cannabis use disorder, as well as a variety of behavioral and health problems associated with cannabis use disorder.
Understand the risks of marijuana use
The study was led by Daniel Levey, assistant professor of psychiatry, and Joel Gelernter, Foundation Professor of Psychiatry and Professor of Genetics and Neuroscience, and was published Nov. 20 in the journal Psychiatry. natural genetics.
“Understanding the biology of cannabis use disorder can help us better understand associated disorders and inform the public about the risks associated with cannabis use,” said Levy, lead author of the study. .
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, marijuana is the most commonly used federally illegal drug in the United States, with more than 48 million people (18% of Americans) using marijuana at least once in 2019. There is. Previous research has shown that approximately one-third of marijuana users develop cannabis use disorder, a pattern of problematic cannabis use that results in clinically significant impairment and distress. Defined.
Genetic factors and health risks associated with cannabis use
The new findings provide insight into the genetic factors underlying this phenomenon and other health risks that may be associated.
For example, researchers found that variants in genes encoding three different types of receptors on neurons are associated with an increased risk of developing cannabis use disorder.
They found that these mutations associated with cannabis use disorder were also associated with the development of lung cancer. However, the authors added that more research is needed to distinguish the effects of marijuana use from the effects of tobacco use and other environmental factors on cancer diagnosis.
“This is the largest genome-wide study of cannabis use disorder ever conducted, and as more states legalize or decriminalize marijuana use, studies like this one will “This could help us understand the public health risks associated with this increase,” said Gelernter.
Reference: “Multi-ancestral genome-wide association study of cannabis use disorder provides insight into disease biology and public health implications” Daniel F. Levey, Marco Galimberti, Joseph D. Dieck, Frank R. Wendt, Arjun Bhattacharya, Dora Koller, Kelly M. Harrington, Rachel Quaden, Emma C. Johnson, Priya Gupta, Mahantesh Birader, Max Lamb, Megan Cook, Veera M. Rajagopal, Stephanie LL Empke, Han Zhou, Yaira Z. Nunez, Henry R. Kranzler, Howard J. Edenberg, Alpana Agrawal, Jordan W. Smaller, Todd Lentz, David M. Hougaard, Anders D. Borglum, Ditte Demotis, Veterans Affairs Million – Veterans Program, J. Michael Gaziano, Michael J. Gandal, Renato Polimanti, Murray B. Stein, Joel Gelernter, November 20, 2023, natural genetics. DOI: 10.1038/s41588-023-01563-z
Loral O’Hara, NASA astronaut and Expedition 70 aeronautical engineer, proudly displays the research hardware that supports the UMAMI (Understanding Microgravity for Animal-Microbial Interactions) astrobiology experiment. Dr. O’Hara has in her possession an Advanced Space Experiment Processor (ADSEP) fluid processing cassette (FPC) that facilitates observations of the effects of spaceflight on the molecular and chemical interactions between beneficial microorganisms and their animal hosts. Credit goes to NASA for this image.
The top research goals for the Expedition 70 crew earlier in the week included crew health and astrobiology. The crew members of the International Space Station (ISS) were occupied with various standard laboratory maintenance tasks. In the meantime, SpaceX’s Dragon cargo spacecraft is scheduled to depart as early as Wednesday.
Studying the effects of weightlessness is a priority for doctors and scientists, as they observe how various life forms, including humans, adapt and survive in the harsh environment of microgravity. NASA and its international partners are planning further long-term missions into space in order to learn more about the biology of aging and its impact on disease mechanisms. NASA astronaut and Expedition 70 flight engineer Jasmine Moghbeli was seen wearing a BioMonitor vest and headband to test her ability to comfortably monitor the health of astronauts throughout the day. She also spent time processing cell samples in the Kibo experimental module’s life science glovebox.
Today, a pair of CubeSats were deployed outside the orbital outpost for exploration. Flight engineer Satoshi Furukawa of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) photographed the deployment of two small satellites and then maintained and supported optical hardware regenerative medicine experiment. In the end, Furukawa prepared: Sapphire-VI Fire safety experiments conducted remotely on board a ship Cygnus space cargo ship After leaving the space station.
Astronauts Loral O’Hara and Andreas Mogensen were stowing their spacewalk gear in Quest’s airlock. ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut and Expedition 70 Commander Andreas Mogensen used the Advanced Space Experiment Processor 2 (ADSEP-2) to store and process samples for a variety of biological and physical science experiments.
Cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Konstantin Borisov inspected and photographed eggs packed inside a centrifuge in the Nauka scientific module. Flight engineer Nikolai Chubut spent the day developing the life support systems inside the Zarya and Zvezda modules.
The Dragon supply mission’s departure was targeted for 5:05 p.m. EST Wednesday, Dec. 20, with coverage beginning at 4:45 p.m. on the NASA+ streaming service and NASA Television. As the departure was being organized, joint teams continued to work to assess optimal autonomous ports of entry and return weather conditions.
New research reveals significant metabolic and health risks associated with long-term coconut oil supplementation, including hormonal changes, weight gain, and inflammation. Lead researcher Marcio Alberto Torsoni advises against consuming coconut oil blindly and recommends a moderate amount according to dietary guidelines.
Scientists at the State University of Campinas observed changes in eating patterns, weight gain, signs of anxiety, and increased inflammation in the brain, adipose tissue, and liver in mice.
Article published in Functional food journal We report on a research study in which oral administration of extra virgin coconut oil supplements to mice showed significant changes in eating habits, weight gain, anxiety levels, and inflammation in the central nervous system, adipose tissue, and liver.
Researchers also discovered that leptin, an important metabolic hormone, insulin The ability to activate cellular mechanisms involved in satiety and blood sugar control may be impaired, and biochemical mechanisms involved in fat synthesis may be stimulated.
Researcher insights
Marcio Alberto Torsoni, a researcher at the Institute of Metabolic Disorders, said: “The results of this study suggest that although the process occurs slowly and quietly, long-term coconut oil supplementation contributes to the development of obesity and related comorbidities. “This suggests that it may cause significant metabolic changes.” LabDiMe) is conducted at the Faculty of Applied Sciences of the State University of Campinas (FCA-UNICAMP), São Paulo State, Brazil. He holds a PhD in Functional and Molecular Biology and completed postdoctoral studies at the UNICAMP Faculty of Medicine and the University of Michigan, USA.
LabDiMe is part of the Obesity and Comorbidity Research Center (OCRC), one of FAPESP’s Research, Innovation, and Dissemination Centers (RIDCs), and the Center for Metabolic Programming and Perinatal Management (MPPM), which receives funding from the U.S. We are collaborating with National Institutes of Health (NIH (National Institutes of Health).
Animal fat and coconut oil risks
Excessive intake of animal fats is associated with an increased risk of: cardiovascular disease, as well as obesity and diabetes. One of the components of this diet is cholesterol, but this type of fat also contains saturated fatty acids, which can activate inflammatory processes through Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR-4) and cause disease. there is.
Saturated fatty acids are also available from other sources, such as plants. For example, it makes up 90% of the fat in coconut oil. Although short-chain fatty acids make up the majority and are beneficial as they reduce inflammation, the saturated fatty acids found in coconut oil are sufficient to activate inflammatory pathways and damage many different types of cells.
“Consumption of coconut oil, either as part of the regular diet or as a dietary supplement, has increased significantly in the population,” Torsoni says. The problem is that most of the time it is consumed without the guidance of a nutritionist who can adjust the daily intake according to the individual’s needs.
experimental model
To find out whether daily consumption of coconut oil over long periods of time could cause health problems, the research group used an animal model involving healthy mice that were given coconut oil daily for eight weeks. did. This amount of coconut oil is equivalent to about 1 soup spoon (13g) of calories per day, or 5% of the calories from saturated fat in the diet of an adult of appropriate weight for his or her age and height.
Torsoni said coconut oil should be used in small amounts as part of seasonings and sauces, preferably with fresh or minimally processed vegetables. This is also the advice of the Ministry of Health’s Dietary Guidelines for Brazilian Citizens, which also recommends “an appropriate and healthy diet that combines quantity and quality and meets the needs of variety, balance, moderation and enjoyment.” I am.
“Coconut oil is not recommended as a supplement to treat disease or restore health,” Torsoni says.
Reference: “CO 2 supplementation induces lipogenesis in adipose tissue, leptin and insulin resistance in healthy Swiss mice” Alana Carolina Costa Veras, Larissa da Silva Bruzasco, Ana Beatriz Profiro Lopes, Beatriz da Silva Franco, Written by Alessandro Spencer de Souza Holanda, Andrea Maculano Estevez, Marcian Milanski, Adriana Souza Torsoni, Leticia Martins Ignacio-Sousa, Marcio Alberto Torsoni, June 4, 2023. Functional food journal. DOI: 10.1016/j.jff.2023.105600
This study was funded by the São Paulo Research Foundation.
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