Omega-3 fatty acid supplementation could help with cognitive depression
Duke University, August 27 2022.
An article appearing in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Heart Failure reported the outcome of a pilot study that found an association between supplementation with the omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA and reduced cognitive depression in heart failure patients. Cognitive depression is characterized by subjective symptoms such as pessimism and sadness, while somatic depression includes physical manifestations that include fatigue and sleep disturbances.
The study included 108 patients with a major depressive disorder, chronic heart failure and low blood levels of omega-3 fatty acids. Participants received fish oil containing EPA and DHA, a high EPA supplement or a placebo daily for 12 weeks. Blood samples collected before and after treatment were evaluated for red blood cell EPA and DHA, the Omega-3 Index and other factors.
Omega-3 values increased in both the EPA/DHA and EPA only groups, while the placebo group showed little change. Higher omega-3 Index values were associated with lower cognitive depression scores. Social functioning as evaluated by a general health survey significantly improved with EPA/DHA supplementation and showed a tendency toward improvement in the high EPA group.
"This was a study in already depressed individuals, which meant the researchers are looking to high-dose (although it could have been higher) omega-3 supplements to improve depressive symptoms, like a drug," noted coauthor William S. Harris, PhD. "Generally, we think of the function of omega-3s as preventative rather than as treatment. If used as treatment, the dose must be fairly high (4 grams is a typical 'drug' dose) and blood levels must be measured.”
Groundbreaking Study Shows Fasting Can Slow Aging, Rebuild Immune System
University of Southern California, August 28, 2022
Cutting-edge research reveals that occasionally adopting a diet that mimics the effects of fasting may provide dramatic health benefits.
“Fasting flips a regenerative switch essentially regenerating the entire immune system. It gives the OK for stem cells to go begin proliferating and rebuild the entire system,” said Prof Valter Longo, Professor of Gerontology and the Biological Sciences at the University of California.
A study, led by USC's Dr. Valter, revealed that a “cycles of a four-day low-calorie diet that mimics fasting (FMD) cut visceral belly fat and elevated the number of progenitor and stem cells in several organs of old mice — including the brain, where it boosted neural regeneration and improved learning and memory,” according to USC News.
Dr. Longo notes that strict fasting can be difficult for people to adhere to, and also has the potential to be dangerous, while pointing out that a fasting mimicking diet is much safer and easier.
“Strict fasting is hard for people to stick to, and it can also be dangerous, so we developed a complex diet that triggers the same effects in the body,” said Longo, Edna M. Jones Professor of Biogerontology at the USC Davis School of Gerontology and director of the USC Longevity Institute. “I've personally tried both, and the fasting mimicking diet is a lot easier and also a lot safer.”
The fasting mimicking diet cuts a person's daily caloric intake over the fasting period down to 34 to 54 percent of their daily average, with a specific balance of micronutrients, fats, carbohydrates, and proteins.
In previous groundbreaking research, Longo has shown how fasting can protect immune and other cells from chemotherapy toxicity, while simultaneously starving out cancer cells. Fasting for seventy-two hours protected cancer patients against the toxic impact of chemotherapy:
“The good news is the body got rid of the parts in the system which might be damaged or old and inefficient parts, during the fasting. If you start with a system heavily damaged by chemotherapy or aging, fasting cycles can generate, literally, a new immune system,” he said.
“It's about reprogramming the body so it enters a slower aging mode, but also rejuvenating it through stem cell-based regeneration,” Longo said. “It's not a typical diet because it isn't something you need to stay on.”
“If the results remain as positive as the current ones, I believe this FMD will represent the first safe and effective intervention to promote positive changes associated with longevity and health span, which can be recommended by a physician,” Longo told USC News. “We will soon meet with FDA officers to pursue several FDA claims for disease prevention and treatment.”
“Micro-breaks” from tasks show promise in boosting wellbeing
West University of Timioara (Romania), August 31, 2022
A review of 22 previously published studies suggests that taking micro-breaks—discontinuing a task for periods of 10 minutes or less—is generally associated with reduced fatigue and increased vigor. Patricia Albulescu of the West University of Timioara, Romania, and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE .
Concerns are rising over the heavy workloads and long shifts faced by many employees currently in the work force. An increasing number of studies explore various aspects of employee energy management and recovery, often focused on recovery after the workday is over. However, the potential effects of recovery processes during the workday remain unclear.
To improve understanding, Albulescu and colleagues conducted a meta-analysis of 22 studies from 19 manuscripts published within the last 30 years, all of which examined the potential benefits of taking micro-breaks from assigned tasks. Tasks varied between experiments and included work simulations, real work-related tasks, and non-work-related cognitive tests. Types of breaks varied as well, including physical breaks, relaxing activities, and more engaging activities, such as watching videos.
Statistical analysis of the combined study results revealed an overall association between micro-breaks, higher levels of vigor, and lower fatigue in participants, suggesting that micro-breaks may contribute to wellbeing.
These findings support micro-breaks as a potential strategy for boosting wellbeing in the workplace. However, when it comes to job performance, longer breaks may be needed for recovery from more cognitively demanding tasks. Future research could investigate longer breaks as well as address other remaining questions, such as optimal activities to engage in during a micro-break.
Mindfulness training improves diabetes symptoms and blood sugar levels
VA Healthcare System in Pittsburg, August 24, 2022
It's easy to let current circumstances in our lives dictate our thoughts and feelings. When a problem arises, if we get sick, we are quick to blame it on anything but ourselves. In this way, we are undermining the power of our own thoughts and intentions at work, in us and around us, guiding our present reality.
Instead of letting negative circumstances and illness just happen to us, we should embrace the power of mindfulness, allowing ourselves to instead happen to the universe around us. The awareness of our bodily functions, our breathing, our thinking, our motives and the way we treat others helps us be mindful and aware, putting us in the driver seat of determining our paths through life.
Research recently presented at the American Association of Diabetes Educators Annual Meeting & Exhibition showed that positive mindfulness training can help improve diabetes symptoms and blood sugar levels. The research was carried out on 28 veterans with type 1 and type 2 diabetes at the VA Healthcare System in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as part of the Mindful Stress Reduction in Diabetes Education program (Mind-STRIDE).
Diabetes-related stress falls significantly in veterans during mindfulness training and deep breathing meditation
Veterans' glucose levels drop dramatically as diabetes-related distress falls 41 percent
The changes over the course of the training were significant. Three months after mindfulness training, diabetes-related distress for all 28 veterans fell 41 percent!
A1C levels dropped significantly, almost measuring under the ideal 7.0 range. They went from 8.3 before the mindfulness training to 7.3 after the classes. On top of that, veterans completed diabetes self-management goals with more efficiency after the training. They were better problem solvers, began to eat healthier, were more active and coped better with stress.
An Oral Combination of Vitamins A, C, E, and Mg++ Improves hearing
University of Castilla (Spain), August 28, 2022
According to news reporting originating in Albacete, Spain,research stated, "The increasing rate of age-related hearing loss (ARHL), with its subsequent reduction in quality of life and increase in health care costs, requires new therapeutic strategies to reduce and delay its impact. The goal of this study was to determine if ARHL could be reduced in a rat model by administering a combination of antioxidant vitamins A, C, and E acting as free radical scavengers along with Mg, a known powerful cochlear vasodilator (ACEMg)."
The news reporters obtained a quote from the research from the University of Castilla, "Toward this goal, young adult, 3 month-old Wistar rats were divided into two groups: one was fed with a diet composed of regular chow ('normal diet,' ND); the other received a diet based on chow enriched in ACEMg ('enhanced diet,' ED). Auditory brainstem recordings (ABR) were performed at 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, and 32 kHz at 3, 6-8, and 12-14 months of age. No differences were observed at 3 months of age, in both ND and ED animals. At 6-8 and 12-14 months of age there were significant increases in auditory thresholds and a reduction in the wave amplitudes at all frequencies tested, compatible with progressive development of ARHL. However, at 6-8 months threshold shifts in ED rats were significantly lower in low and medium frequencies, and wave amplitudes were significantly larger at all frequencies when compared to ND rats. In the oldest animals, differences in the threshold shift persisted, as well as in the amplitude of the wave II, suggesting a protective effect of ACEMg on auditory function during aging."
According to the news reporters, the research concluded: "These findings indicate that oral ACEMg may provide an effective adjuvant therapeutic intervention for the treatment of ARHL, delaying the progression of hearing impairment associated with age."
Scientists use 'sleep age' to infer long-term health
Stanford University, September 1, 2022
Sleep age is a projected age that correlates to one's health based on their quality of sleep. So for instance, if you analyze the sleep characteristics of dozens of 55-year-olds and average them out, you'll have an idea of what sleep looks like at that age. For instance, someone who's 55 and sleeps soundly through the night with good quality REM cycles could, theoretically, might have a sleep age of 45.
Sleep expert Emmanuel Mignot, MD, Ph.D., and his colleagues analyzed some 12,000 studies, each of which focused on an individual, that reported characteristics of their sleep—such as chin and leg movement, breathing and heartbeat. Their goal was to develop a system that assigns one's sleep age and, using machine learning, identifies the variations in sleep most closely linked to mortality.
I spoke with Mignot, who has studied sleep for 30 years, about why sleep age is important, how it's calculated and what the study's findings imply about our health.
Why study sleep age?
When you sleep, you're disconnected from sensory inputs—you're, ideally, not being bothered by the noisy external world or bright lights.
During sleep, it's not just the brain that's going through an automatic program, but heart rate and breathing also change, and variations in these can be early predictors of a health disturbance. We spend about a third of our lives sleeping, so it's a substantial component of our general well-being.
It's well known that, in pretty much any disorder, sleep is one of the first things that is disturbed. For example, about five or 10 years before other symptoms appear in Parkinson's disease patients, a specific sleep disturbance occurs during which the patient violently acts out dreams, shouts or punches into a wall.
What was the most important finding from the study?
Our main finding was that sleep fragmentation—when people wake up multiple times throughout the night for less than a minute without remembering it—was the strongest predictor of mortality. Though we see a link in the data, how it contributes to mortality is unknown. This is different from a person realizing they were waking up, which happens during sleep disorders such as insomnia.
Determining why sleep fragmentation is so detrimental to health is something we plan to study in the future.
Can we measure our own sleep age? Can it be improved?
The code is available for physicians and researchers, but the average person would likely have trouble running it through a computer. Regardless, it's not deterministic. There is enormous variation. Even if you have an older sleep age than your chronological age, it doesn't mean that your mortality risk is going to be higher. You see people chain smoking and drinking alcohol at 90 years old and you wonder, "How is this person surviving so long?" There is always huge natural variation.
Going to bed and waking up at regular hours is a key to improving your sleep. This means not oversleeping but ensuring you're fully rested. It's a different amount for everyone and often the window varies slightly—for example, being a night owl versus an early bird.
Getting solid light exposure—preferably with outside light—during the day, keeping the sleep environment dark at night, exercising regularly but not too close to bedtime, not drinking alcohol and caffeine around bedtime, and avoiding heavy nighttime meals all contribute to healthy sleep. And, of course, make sure any sleep disorder is treated.
We found that people with older sleep ages compared to their actual age are at an increased risk of mortality, based on the sleep of patients who later died. From other studies, we know that poor sleep is found in a variety of conditions such as sleep apnea, neurodegeneration, obesity and chronic pain. How poor sleep causes, exacerbates or results from these conditions is unknown.
