Exercising while wearing foundation changes the properties of your skin.
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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
Nuva frame/shutterstock
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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