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Higher omega-3 levels linked to better sleep
University of British Columbia, September 14 2022.
Having higher blood concentrations of the omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and docosapentaenoic acid (DPA) was found to be associated with a reduction in excessive sleep in an analysis reported in 2022 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Sleep duration of over 9 hours per night has been correlated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and premature mortality from all causes.
The analysis included 21,653 participants in 12 studies for whom information was available concerning sleep duration and/or difficulty falling asleep and blood levels of the omega-3 fatty acids EPA, DHA, ALA and, when available, DPA, and the omega-6 fatty acids AA and LA.
When men and women whose fatty acid levels were among the lowest 20% of participants were compared to those whose levels were among the top 20%, individuals whose DHA intake was highest had a 22% lower risk of excessive sleep. Being among those who had the highest intake of EPA plus DHA and DPA was associated with a 24% lower risk. The authors noted that DHA’s role in regulating melatonin production helps regulate sleep.
Twice-daily nasal irrigation reduces COVID-related illness, deathMedical College of Georgia at Augusta University, September 13, 2022
Starting twice daily flushing of the mucus-lined nasal cavity with a mild saline solution soon after testing positive for COVID-19 can significantly reduce hospitalization and death, investigators report.
They say the technique that can be used at home by mixing a half teaspoon each of salt and baking soda in a cup of boiled or distilled water then putting it into a sinus rinse bottle is a safe, effective and inexpensive way to reduce the risk of severe illness and death from coronavirus infection that could have a vital public health impact.
“By giving extra hydration to your sinuses, it makes them function better.
“We found an 8.5-fold reduction in hospitalizations and no fatalities compared to our controls,” says senior author Dr. Richard Schwartz, chair of the MCG Department of Emergency Medicine. “Both of those are pretty significant endpoints.”
The study appears to be the largest, prospective clinical trial of its kind and the older, high-risk population they studied—many of whom had preexisting conditions like obesity and hypertension—may benefit most from the easy, inexpensive practice, the investigators say.
They found that less than 1.3% of the 79 study subjects age 55 and older who enrolled within 24-hours of testing positive for COVID-19 between Sept. 24 and Dec. 21, 2020, experienced hospitalization. No one died.
Researchers know that the more virus that was present in your body, the worse the impact. “One of our thoughts was: If we can rinse out some of the virus within 24 hours of them testing positive, then maybe we can lower the severity of that whole trajectory,” she says, including reducing the likelihood the virus could get into the lungs, where it was doing permanent, often lethal damage to many.
Baxter says the nasal irrigation with saline helps decrease the usual robust attachment. Saline appears to inhibit the virus’ ability to essentially make two cuts in itself, called furin cleavage, so it can better fit into an ACE2 receptor once it spots one.
Participants self-administered nasal irrigation using either povidone-iodine, that brown antiseptic that gets painted on your body before surgery, or sodium bicarbonate, or baking soda, which is often used as a cleanser, mixed with water that had the same salt concentration normally found in the body.
Those who completed nasal irrigation twice daily reported quicker resolution of symptoms regardless of which of two common antiseptics they were adding to the saline water.
Eating more spicy foods decreases your risk of early death by 14%
Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, September 7, 2022
According to an international team of researchers led by the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, eating spicy foods may be the key to longevity. They found that eating such foods on a regular basis can help prevent people from dying prematurely by 14 percent. While a variety of spicy foods are excellent, one in particular caught their attention.
It was noted that consumption of fresh chili pepper, compared to other spicy foods, was most effective in providing people with a lower risk of dying from cancer, ischemic heart disease and diabetes. It’s explained that fresh chili pepper’s combination of powerful ingredients are responsible for such health-boosting benefits.(1)
“Compared with non-fresh spicy foods such as dried chilli pepper, chilli sauce or chilli oil,” says Lu Qi, associate professor at Harvard School of Public Health, “fresh chilli pepper is richer in bioactive ingredients, including capsaicin, vitamin C, and other nutrients such as vitamin A, K, and B6 and potassium.”(1)
To conduct the study, the experts from the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences assessed nearly 490,000 participants.
After a follow-up that averaged approximately seven years, 20,224 deaths were noted. Analysis of these people led to the finding that compared to those who ingested spicy foods less than once weekly, people who ate such foods one or two days per week had a 10 percent reduced risk of death. More impressive however, was the discovery that those who enjoyed spicy foods nearly every other day were at a 14 percent lowered risk of death compared to those who ate them less than once a week.
In this large prospective study, we observed an inverse association between consumption of spicy foods and total mortality, after adjusting for potential confounders. Compared with those who ate spicy foods less than once a week, those who consumed spicy foods almost every day had a 14% lower risk of death. Inverse associations were also observed for deaths due to cancer, ischemic heart diseases, and respiratory diseases. The associations were consistent in men and women.
Meditation holds the potential to help treat children suffering from traumas, difficult diagnoses or other stressors
Wayne State University, September 13, 2022
Children actively meditating experience lower activity in parts of the brain involved in rumination, mind-wandering and depression, our team found in the first brain-imaging study of young people under 18 years old. Over-activity in this collection of brain regions, known as the default mode network, is thought to be involved in the generation of negative self-directed thoughts – such as “I am such a failure” – that are prominent in mental disorders like depression.
In our study, we compared a simple form of distraction – counting backward from 10 – with two relatively simple forms of meditation: focused attention to the breath and mindful acceptance. Children in an MRI scanner had to use these techniques while watching distress-inducing video clips, such as a child receiving an injection.
We found that meditation techniques were more effective than distraction at quelling activity in that brain network. This reinforces research from our lab and others showing that meditation techniques and martial arts-based meditation programs are effective for reducing pain and stress in children with cancer or other chronic illnesses – and in their siblings – as well as in schoolchildren during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Researchers know a lot about what is happening in the brain and body in adults while they meditate, but comparable data for children has been lacking. Understanding what is happening in children’s brains when they meditate is important because the developing brain is wired differently from the adult brain.
Pace as important as 10,000 steps for health, finds new researchUniversity of Sydney and University of South Denmark, September 13, 2022
Two studies, published in JAMA Internal Medicine and JAMA Neurology, monitored 78,500 adults with wearable trackers—making these the largest studies to objectively track step count in relation to health outcomes.
The researchers from the University of Sydney, Australia and University of Southern Denmark found lowered risk of dementia, heart disease, cancer and death are associated with achieving 10,000 steps a day. However, a faster stepping pace like a power walk showed benefits above and beyond the number of steps achieved.
“The take-home message here is that for protective health benefits people could not only ideally aim for 10,000 steps a day but also aim to walk faster,” said co-lead author Dr. Matthew Ahmadi, Research Fellow at the University of Sydney’s Charles Perkins Centre and Faculty of Medicine and Health.
Key points:
Feed a virus, starve a bacterial infection?
Yale University, September 8, 2022
A new study puts some old folk wisdom to “feed a cold and starve a fever” to the test. In mouse models of disease, Yale researchers looked at the effects of providing nutrients during infection and found opposing effects depending on whether the infections were bacterial or viral.
Mice with bacterial infections that were fed died, while those with viral infections who were fed lived.
“We were surprised at how profound the effects of feeding were, both positive and negative,” says senior author Ruslan Medzhitov, David W. Wallace Professor of Immunobiology and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at Yale School of Medicine.
In the first series of experiments, the investigators infected mice with the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes, which commonly causes food poisoning. The mice stopped eating, and they eventually recovered. But when the mice were force fed, they died. The researchers then broke the food down by component and found fatal reactions when the mice were given glucose, but not when they were fed proteins or fats.
When the researchers did similar studies in mice with viral infections, they found the opposite effect. Mice infected with the flu virus A/WSN/33 survived when they were force fed glucose, but died when they were denied food or given 2-DG.
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