The Gary Null Show - 05.05.21

Lycopene is a promising nutrient that can prevent gastric diseases associated with H. pylori

Yonsei University (Japan), April 30, 2021

Helicobacter pylori is a spiral-shaped bacterium that grows in your digestive tract. An opportunistic pathogen, it is considered to be the most successful colonizer of the human gastrointestinal tract, infecting the stomachs of roughly 60 percent of the world’s adult population.

In a recent study, researchers at Yonsei University in South Korea found that lycopene, a bioactive pigment with powerful antioxidant properties, can help prevent gastric diseases associated with H. pylori infection. Lycopene is a non-provitamin A carotenoid commonly found in bright red and orange produce, such as tomatoes, watermelons, papaya and pink grapefruit. This beneficial compound is extensively studied for its remarkable ability to scavenge free radicals, the unstable byproducts of cellular metabolism responsible for causing oxidative stress.

How lycopene prevents H. pylori-induced gastric cancer

According to studies, H. pylori infection promotes the hyperproliferation of gastric epithelial cells — the very cells that make up the stomach lining — by increasing the production of free radicals called reactive oxygen species (ROS). ROS then activates two signaling pathways — Wnt/B-catenin and JAK1/Stat3 — that influence cell fate decisions. While Wnt/B-catenin signaling is involved in the regulation of the self-renewal processes of cells, JAK1/Stat3 signaling is said to play a role in conferring malignant properties to cancer cells.

Due to the involvement of ROS, the South Korean researchers hypothesized that lycopene, which has antioxidant and anti-cancer properties, may be able to suppress H. pylori-induced hyperproliferation by inhibiting the activation of Jak1/Stat3 and Wnt/B-catenin signaling, as well as the expression of B-catenin target genes. B-catenin is a protein that accumulates due to the aberrant activation of Wnt/B-catenin signaling. The buildup of this protein promotes the expression of cancer genes (oncogenes) and the progression of tumors.

In an earlier study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, German researchers reported that lycopene is the most effective scavenger of singlet oxygen, a very strong oxidant and one of the major ROS produced by cells. To determine if it can prevent ROS-mediated hyperproliferation, South Korean researchers treated H. pylori-infected gastric epithelial cells with lycopene.  They measured the cells’ ROS levels and viability before and after treatment.

The researchers found that lycopene effectively reduced ROS levels and inhibited not only the activation of Jak1/Stat3 and Wnt/B-catenin signaling but also the expression of B-catenin target oncogenes and the proliferation of H. pylori-infected gastric epithelial cells. In addition, lycopene inhibited the increase in Wnt-1 (an oncogenic protein) and lipoprotein-related protein 5 (a protein involved in cancer progression) expression caused by H. pylori infection.

Based on these findings, the researchers concluded that lycopene can be used to prevent H. pylori-associated gastric cancer, thanks to its inhibitory effects on gastric cell hyperproliferation.

 

Too much salt suppresses phagocytes

Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (Germany), May 4, 2021

For many of us, adding salt to a meal is a perfectly normal thing to do. We don't really think about it. But actually, we should. As well as raising our blood pressure, too much salt can severely disrupt the energy balance in immune cells and stop them from working properly.

Back in 2015, the research group led by Professor Dominik Müller of the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC) and the Experimental and Clinical Research Center (ECRC) found that elevated sodium concentrations in the blood affect both the activation and the function of patrolling monocytes, which are the precursors to macrophages. "But we didn't know exactly what was happening in the cells," says Dr. Sabrina Geisberger of the Berlin Institute for Medical Systems Biology (BIMSB) at the MDC. She is lead author of the study of an international research team led by MDC scientists together with colleagues from University of Regensburg and from Flanders Institute for Biotechnology (VIB) /Hasselt University in Belgium. It was funded by the German Center for Cardiovascular Research (DZHK) and has now been published in the journal Circulation. 

Salt disrupts the respiratory chain in cells

Working with biochemist and metabolomics expert Dr. Stefan Kempa of BIMSB, the researchers began in the lab by looking at the metabolism of immune cells that had been exposed to high salt concentrations. Changes appeared after just three hours. "It disrupts the respiratory chain, causing the cells to produce less ATP and consume less oxygen," explains Geisberger. ATP (adenosine triphosphate) is the universal fuel that powers all cells. It provides energy for the "chemical work" - synthesizing proteins and other molecules - required for muscle power and metabolic regulation. ATP is produced in the mitochondria, the cell's "power plant," using a complex series of biochemical reactions known as the respiratory chain. "Salt very specifically inhibits complex II in the respiratory chain."

This has consequences: The lack of energy causes the monocytes to mature differently. "The phagocytes, whose task is to identify and eliminate pathogens in the body, were able to fight off infections more effectively. But this could also promote inflammation, which might increase cardiovascular risk," explains Müller. 

Effects of salt are reversible

Professor Markus Kleinewietfeld of Hasselt University and VIB, and Professor Jonathan Jantsch of Universität Regensburg, were heavily involved in the work investigating human monocytes and macrophages. They were able to show that salt affects the functioning of human phagocytes in the same way.

Researchers at the ECRC, which is run jointly by the MDC and Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, then conducted a study in which healthy male participants supplemented their usual diets with six grams of salt in tablet form every day for 14 days. In another clinical study, the researchers investigated a familiar scenario: eating a pizza delivered by an Italian restaurant. They then analyzed the monocytes in the participants' blood. The findings showed that the dampening effect on mitochondria doesn't just occur after an extended period of increased salt intake - it also happens after a single pizza. Data from the pizza experiment showed how long the effect lasted: Blood was taken from the participants after three and eight hours, and the effect was barely measurable in the second sample.

"That's a good thing. If it had been a prolonged disturbance, we'd be worried about the cells not getting enough energy for a long time," says Müller. The mitochondrial activity is therefore not permanently inhibited. That said, the continuous risk of sodium on mitochondrial function if a person eats very salty food several times a day cannot be ruled out, but needs to be tested in the future. The pizza, incidentally, contained ten grams of salt. Nutrition experts recommend that adults limit their daily intake to five or six grams at most. The calculation includes the salt that is hidden in processed foods.

Small ion, big effect

"The fundamental finding of our study is that a molecule as small as the sodium ion can be extremely efficient at inhibiting an enzyme that plays a crucial role in the respiratory chain," says Kempa. "When these ions flood into the mitochondria - and they do this under a variety of physiological conditions - they regulate the central part of the electron transport chain." It therefore appears to be a very fundamental regulatory mechanism in cells.

Now the task is to investigate whether salt can also influence this mechanism in other types of cells. Kleinewietfeld believes that this is extremely likely because mitochondria aren't just present in immune cells; with the exception of red blood cells, they exist in every cell of the body. They can be found in particularly high numbers wherever a lot of energy is consumed - in muscle cells, neurons, receptors, and egg cells. 

It is still not fully elucidated how different cell types regulate the influx of sodium into the mitochondria. Nevertheless, the study confirms that consuming too much salt can be bad for our health. "Of course the first thing you think of is the cardiovascular risk. But multiple studies have shown that salt can affect immune cells in a variety of ways. If such an important cellular mechanism is disrupted for a long period, it could have a negative impact - and could potentially drive inflammatory diseases of the blood vessels or joints, or autoimmune diseases," says Kleinewietfeld.

 

 

Ginkgo biloba extract improves cognitive function and increases neurogenesis by reducing amyloid beta pathology 

Xuzhou Medical University (China), May 1, 2021

According to news reporting from Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China, research stated, “Previous studies have indicated that the generation of newborn hippocampal neurons is impaired in the early phase of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). A potential therapeutic strategy being pursued for the treatment of AD is increasing the number of newborn neurons in the adult hippocampus.”

The news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from Xuzhou Medical University, “Recent studies have demonstrated that ginkgo biloba extract (EGb 761) plays a neuroprotective role by preventing memory loss in many neurodegenerative diseases. However, the extent of EGb 761’s protective role in the AD process is unclear. In this study, different doses of EGb 761 (0, 10, 20, and 30 mg/kg; intraperitoneal injections once every day for four months) were tested on 5xFAD mice. After consecutive 4-month injections, mice were tested in learning memory tasks, A beta, and neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus (DG) of hippocampus and morphological characteristics of neurons in DG of hippocampus. Results indicated that EGb 761 (20 and 30 mg/kg) ameliorated memory deficits. Further analysis indicated that EGb 761 can reduce the number of A beta positive signals in 5xFAD mice, increase the number of newborn neurons, and increase dendritic branching and density of dendritic spines in 5xFAD mice compared to nontreated 5xFAD mice.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “It was concluded that EGb 761 plays a protective role in the memory deficit of 5xFAD mice.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

 

 

Fasting lowers blood pressure by reshaping the gut microbiota

Baylor College of Medicine, April 30 2021

Nearly half of adults in the United States have hypertension, a condition that raises the risk for heart disease and stroke, which are leading causes of death in the U. S.

At Baylor College of Medicine, Dr. David J. Durgan and his colleagues are dedicated to better understand hypertension, in particular the emerging evidence suggesting that disruption of the gut microbiota, known as gut dysbiosis, can have adverse effects on blood pressure.

"Previous studies from our lab have shown that the composition of the gut microbiota in animal models of hypertension, such as the SHRSP (spontaneously hypertensive stroke-prone rat) model, is different from that in animals with normal blood pressure," said Durgan, assistant professor of anesthesiology at Baylor.

The researchers also have shown that transplanting dysbiotic gut microbiota from a hypertensive animal into a normotensive (having a healthy blood pressure) one results in the recipient developing high blood pressure.

"This result told us that gut dysbiosis is not just a consequence of hypertension, but is actually involved in causing it," Durgan said. "This ground work led to the current study in which we proposed to answer two questions. First, can we manipulate the dysbiotic microbiota to either prevent or relieve hypertension? Second, how are the gut microbes influencing the animal's blood pressure?"

Can manipulating the gut microbiota regulate blood pressure?

To answer the first question, Durgan and his colleagues drew on previous research showing that fasting was both one of the major drivers of the composition of the gut microbiota and a promoter of beneficial cardiovascular effects. These studies, however, had not provided evidence connecting the microbiota and blood pressure.

Working with the SHRSP model of spontaneous hypertension and normal rats, the researchers set up two groups. One group had SHRSP and normal rats that were fed every other day, while the other group, called control, had SHRSP and normal rats with unrestricted food availability.

Nine weeks after the experiment began, the researchers observed that, as expected, the rats in the SHRSP control had higher blood pressure when compared to the normal control rats. Interestingly, in the group that fasted every other day, the SHRSP rats had significantly reduced blood pressure when compared with the SHRSP rats that had not fasted.

"Next, we investigated whether the microbiota was involved in the reduction of blood pressure we observed in the SHRSP rats that had fasted," Durgan said.

The researchers transplanted the microbiota of the rats that had either fasted or fed without restrictions into germ-free rats, which have no microbiota of their own.

Durgan and his colleagues were excited to see that the germ-free rats that received the microbiota of normally fed SHRSP rats had higher blood pressure than the germ-free rats receiving microbiota from normal control rats, just like their corresponding microbiota donors.

"It was particularly interesting to see that the germ-free rats that received microbiota from the fasting SHRSP rats had significantly lower the blood pressure than the rats that had received microbiota from SHRSP control rats," Durgan said. "These results demonstrated that the alterations to the microbiota induced by fasting were sufficient to mediate the blood pressure-lowering effect of intermitting fasting."

How the microbiota regulates blood pressure

The team proceeded to investigate the second question of their project. How does the gut microbiota regulate blood pressure?

"We applied whole genome shotgun sequence analysis of the microbiota as well as untargeted metabolomics analysis of plasma and gastrointestinal luminal content. Among the changes we observed, alterations in products of bile acid metabolism stood out as potential mediators of blood pressure regulation," Durgan said.

The team discovered that the SHRSP hypertensive animals that were fed normally had lower bile acids in circulation than normotensive animals. On the other hand, SHRSP animals that followed an intermittent feeding schedule had more bile acids in the circulation.

"Supporting this finding, we found that supplementing animals with cholic acid, a primary bile acid, also significantly reduced blood pressure in the SHRSP model of hypertension," Durgan said.

Taken together, the study shows for the first time that intermittent fasting can be beneficial in terms of reducing hypertension by reshaping the composition of gut microbiota in an animal model. The work also provides evidence that gut dysbiosis contributes to hypertension by altering bile acid signaling.

"This study is important to understand that fasting can have its effects on the host through microbiota manipulation," Durgan said. "This is an attractive idea because it can potentially have clinical applications. Many of the bacteria in the gut microbiotaare involved in the production of compounds that have been shown to have beneficial effects as they make it into the circulation and contribute to the regulation of the host's physiology. Fasting schedules could one day help regulate the activity of gut microbial populations to naturally provide health benefits.

 

Study: Following healthy diets found to reduce the risk of acquired hearing loss by 30%

Brigham and Women's Hospital, April 30, 2021

A study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology suggests that following a healthy diet may help ward off acquired hearing loss. A team led by Brigham and Women’s Hospital researchers examined middle-aged women and found that the odds of developing hearing loss is 30 percent lower in those who adhere to a healthy diet.

Adherence to a healthy diet linked to lower risk of hearing loss

Acquired hearing loss refers to the total or partial inability to hear sounds that develop after birth. It occurs for various reasons, including ear infection, meningitis, measles, head injury, exposure to loud noise and aging.

Past studies linked higher intake of certain nutrients such as beta-carotene (found in carrots, legumes and other foods) and omega-3 fatty acids (found in fatty fish) to a lower risk of self-reported hearing loss. The researchers wished to learn more about this connection by tracking people’s diets and measuring changes in their hearing sensitivity over a long period of time.

To do so, the researchers studied 20 years of dietary intake information from over 3,000 women with a median age of 59 who were included in the Nurses’ Health Study II. Using this information, they examined how closely the women’s long-term diets resembled the Alternate Mediterranean diet (AMED), Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH diet) and Alternate Healthy Index-2010 (AHEI-2010). 

AMED is a version of the Mediterranean diet adapted to reflect eating patterns that are linked to a lower risk of chronic disease, while the DASH diet is intended to control and prevent high blood pressure. On the other hand, AHEI-2010 is based on the 2010 U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans and shares similar components with AMED and the DASH diet.

Past studies linked adherence to these diets to a lower risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, hypertension and premature death.

To measure the participants’ hearing sensitivity over the course of three years, the team put up 19 testing sites across the country and trained audiologists to measure changes in the participants’ pure-tone hearing thresholds – the lowest and highest pitch (frequency of a sound) that a person can detect in one ear.

The researchers found that the odds of hearing loss in the mid-frequencies were nearly 30 percent lower in the women whose dietary patterns resembled the three diets, compared to those whose diets least resembled them. Meanwhile, the odds of hearing loss in higher frequencies were up to 25 percent lower. The frequencies encompassed in these associations, according to the researchers, are critical for speech understanding.

“We were surprised that so many women demonstrated hearing decline over such a relatively short period of time,” said Sharon Curhan, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and the lead researcher of the study.

After only three years, nineteen percent of the participants had low-frequency hearing loss, 38 percent had mid-frequency hearing loss, while nearly half had high-frequency hearing loss. (Related: Age-related hearing loss halted with folate nutrient.)

“The mean age of the women in our study was 59 years; most of our participants were in their 50s and early 60s. This is a younger age than when many people think about having their hearing checked,” she added.

The researchers plan to continue tracking the participants with repeated hearing tests and are currently investigating ways to collect high-quality information for future studies across diverse populations.

 

Thai ginseng found to improve erectile function in men

Life Extension Foundation, April 28, 2021

American researchers examined the effects of an ethanol extract derived from Kaempferia parviflora, also known as Thai ginseng, on erectile function in healthy middle-aged and older men. Their findings were published in the Journal of Integrative Medicine.

• Sexual health positively correlates with overall well-being.
• Current strategies that are meant to enhance male sexual health are limited by many factors, such as responsiveness, adherence and adverse effects.
• Researchers understand the need for safe and effective interventions that could help preserve male sexual function.
• K. parviflora, a plant from the Zingiberaceae (ginger) family, has been found to support cardiovascular health and has shown signs that it could ameliorate erectile dysfunction.
• To investigate this, the researchers conducted an open-label, one-arm study involving 14 generally healthy males aged 50 to 68 years with self-reported mild erectile dysfunction.
• The participants received 100 mg of an extract obtained from the rhizome of K. parviflora daily for 30 days.
• Primary efficacy analyses included the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF), while secondary efficacy analyses included the Global Assessment Question about erectile function.
• The researchers reported that 13 of the 14 participants completed the study. Supplementation of the K. parviflora ethanol extract induced statistically significant improvements in erectile function, intercourse satisfaction and total scores on IIEF questionnaire.
• The extract was well-tolerated by the participants and exhibited an excellent safety profile.

Based on these findings, the researchers concluded that K. parviflora can improve erectile function in healthy middle-aged and older men.

 

 

Curcumin Reduces Anxiety and Depression Even In People With Major Depression

Texas Christian University and University of Arkansas, May 1, 2021

 

Dietary supplements formulated with highly bioavailable curcumin may allow for faster recovery after competition-level training, and blunt training-related decreases in performance , says new data presented at Experimental Biology.

 

Powdered turmeric has been used for centuries to treat a host of illnesses. It inhibits inflammatory reactions, has anti-diabetic effects, reduces cholesterol among other powerful healtheffects. A recent study led by a research team in Munich showed that it can also inhibit formation of metastases. 

Dietary supplements formulated with highly bioavailable curcumin may allow for faster recovery after competition-level training, and blunt training-related decreases in performance , says new data presented at Experimental Biology.

Using OmniActive's supplement ingredient, scientists reported that supplementation for eight weeks resulted in significant reductions in levels of creatine kinase, a marker of muscle damage, while self-reported pain scores were also significantly lower 24 hours post-exercise.

A daily 200 mg dose of curcuminoids (in the form of 1,000 mg supplement) was also associated with a decrease in performance declines observed during

"These data suggest that high dose bioavailable curcumin (200 mg curcuminoids) attenuates performance decrements following downhill running, eccentric loading, which may improve subsequent adaptations to chronic training," wrote the researchers in the FASEB Journal .

Dr Ralf Jager from Wisconsin-based Increnovo and co-author on the study reports, explained that curcumin's sports nutrition benefits were linked to its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory potential.

Muscle Damage Study

The researchers recruited 59 moderately trained men and 29 women with an average age of 21 to participate in their double-blind, randomized, placebo controlled parallel design study. The participants were randomly assigned to receive 250 mg or 1,000 mg of supplement or placebo per day for eight weeks.

The data indicated that, following muscle-damaging exercise, the high dose curcumin group experienced significantly lower pain scores, while increases in creatine kinase (CK) levels were also significantly reduced compared to placebo, when the baseline CK value is held constant at the mean.

"These data demonstrate curcuminoids reduce muscle damage and improve muscle soreness in healthy young subjects following a bout of muscle damaging exercise. Faster recovery allows for consistent training at competition intensity and might lead to enhanced adaptation rate and performance," they wrote in the FASEB Journal .

Performance

A separate analysis was done with 62 men and women randomly assigned to 250 mg or 1,000 mg of supplement per day or placebo. After eight weeks the subjects performced downhill running, which promotes muscle damage.

The results showed that performance declined significantly in both the placebo and low-dose curcumin group, but such declined were attenuated in the high-dose curcumin group.

"Further study is warranted in other exercise types (i.e. resistance training) and chronically," wrote the researchers.