The Gary Null Show 5.9.24

HEALTH NEWS

 

·         Personalized nutrition more effective than general diet advice, study finds

·         Vitamin K1 may improve insulin sensitivity and blood sugar levels for pre-diabetics  

·         Frequent salting of food increases the risk of stomach cancer

·         A 30-year US study links ultra-processed food to higher risk of early death

·         Mechanism outlined by which inadequate vitamin E can cause brain damage

·         About 90% of US adults are on the way to heart disease, study suggests

 

 

 

Personalized nutrition more effective than general diet advice, study finds

King's College London, May 8, 2024 (Medical Xpress)

Personalized nutrition approaches can improve several key health metrics, including lower weight, lower cholesterol, better mood, improved gut health, lower heart disease risk, and better metabolic health.

Improvements for those following personalized guidance were also greater in some areas than for those following current, generalized government advice.

In this study, researchers wanted to see if a personalized diet plan, tailored to an individual's biology, lifestyle, and health history, would have a greater impact than generic nutrition advice such as avoiding red meat. 347 Americans took part in the study, with researchers comparing the effects of following an 18-week personalized program to generic US government-issued nutrition advice. While both groups improved their health overall, participants on the personalized diet plan lost more weight than the control group and lowered their triglyceride levels more—decreasing their risk of heart disease.

Participants following the personalized diet plan were also twice as likely to report improved mood, twice as likely to feel less hungry, and more than four times more likely to report better sleep quality and energy levels compared with the control group.

 

Vitamin K1 may improve insulin sensitivity and blood sugar levels for pre-diabetics

Ahvaz Jundishapur University (Iran), May 6, 2024 (Nutraingredients)

Supplements containing vitamin K1 (phylloquinone) may improve glycemic status and insulin sensitivity for premenopausal and pre-diabetic women, says a new study.

“To the best of our knowledge, the present study is the first one that investigated the effects of vitamin K1 supplementation on the glycemic status and insulin sensitivity via different forms of [osteocalcin] in pre-diabetic women,” wrote the researchers in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition .

Osteocalcin (cOC) is a vitamin K-dependent protein. Without adequate vitamin K, the osteocalcin remains inactive (uncarboxylated osteocalcin, ucOC), and thus not effective.

The new study used phylloquinone at a daily dose of 1,000 micrograms for four weeks. Eighty-two pre-diabetic and pre-menopausal women participated in the study and were randomly assigned to either the vitamin K1 group or placebo.

Results showed that cOC levels increased as a result of K1 supplementation, while ucOC levels decreased, compared with placebo.

In addition, results of the two hour post-oral glucose tolerance test showed improvements in both glucose and insulin levels in the K1 group, compared with placebo. Data from the insulin sensitivity index (ISI) showed increases in the K1 group, they added.

  

Frequent salting of food increases the risk of stomach cancer

Medical University of Vienna (Austria), May 8, 2024 (Eurekalert)

In Asian countries, where high-salt foods are popular, the link between high salt consumption and stomach cancer has already been proven. A long-term study by MedUni Vienna has now shown for the first time that this risk is also reflected in the cancer statistics in Europe. As the analysis recently published in the specialist journal Gastric Cancer shows, people who frequently add salt to their food are around 40 per cent more likely to develop stomach cancer than those who do not use the salt shaker at the table.

Data from more than 470,000 adults from the large-scale British cohort study "UK-Biobank" was analysed. This revealed that people who said they always or frequently added salt to their food were 39 per cent more likely to develop stomach cancer over an observation period of around 11 years than those who never or rarely added an extra pinch of salt to their food. 

In the list of the most common types of cancer worldwide, stomach cancer is in fifth place. The risk of this tumour disease increases with age, but the latest statistics paint a worrying picture of an increase in adults under the age of 50. 

"Our research shows the connection between the frequency of added salt and stomach cancer in Western countries too," emphasises first author Selma Kronsteiner-Gicevic. "With our study, we want to raise awareness of the negative effects of extremely high salt consumption and provide a basis for measures to prevent stomach cancer," summarises study leader Tilman Kühn.

 

A 30-year US study links ultra-processed food to higher risk of early death

Harvard University, May 8, 2024 (Medical Xpress)

Higher consumption of most ultra-processed foods is linked to a slightly higher risk of death, with ready-to-eat meat, poultry, and seafood based products, sugary drinks, dairy based desserts, and highly processed breakfast foods showing the strongest associations, finds a 30-year US study in The BMJ today.

Mounting evidence links ultra-processed foods to higher risks of obesity, heart disease, diabetes and bowel cancer, but few long term studies have examined links to all cause and cause specific deaths, especially due to cancer.

To address this knowledge gap, researchers tracked the long-term health of 74,563 female registered nurses from 11 US states in the Nurses' Health Study and 39,501 male health professionals from all 50 US states in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study with no history of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, or diabetes at study enrollment.

Compared with participants in the lowest quarter of ultra-processed food intake (average 3 servings per day), those in the highest quarter (average 7 servings per day) had a 4% higher risk of total deaths and a 9% higher risk of other deaths, including an 8% higher risk of neurodegenerative deaths.

The association between ultra-processed food intake and death varied across specific food groups, with meat, poultry, and seafood-based ready-to-eat products showing the strongest and most consistent associations, followed by sugar-sweetened and artificially-sweetened beverages, dairy-based desserts, and ultra-processed breakfast food.

 

Mechanism outlined by which inadequate vitamin E can cause brain damage

Oregon State University, May 3, 2024 (Daily Science)

 

Researchers at Oregon State University have discovered how vitamin E deficiency may cause neurological damage by interrupting a supply line of specific nutrients and robbing the brain of the "building blocks" it needs to maintain neuronal health.

The research showed that zebrafish fed a diet deficient in vitamin E throughout their life had about 30 percent lower levels of DHA-PC, which is a part of the cellular membrane in every brain cell, or neuron. Other recent studies have also concluded that low levels of DHA-PC in the blood plasma of humans is a biomarker than can predict a higher risk of Alzheimer's disease.

Just as important, the new research studied the level of compounds called "lyso PLs," which are nutrients needed for getting DHA into the brain, and serve as building blocks that aid in membrane repair. It showed the lyso PLs are an average of 60 percent lower in fish with a vitamin E deficient diet.

The year-old zebrafish used in this study, and the deficient levels of vitamin E they were given, are equivalent to humans eating a low vitamin E diet for a lifetime. In the United States, 96 percent of adult women and 90 percent of men do not receive adequate levels of vitamin E in their diet.

"This research showed that vitamin E is needed to prevent a dramatic loss of a critically important molecule in the brain, and helps explain why vitamin E is needed for brain health," said Maret Traber, at OSU and lead author on this research.

 

About 90% of US adults are on the way to heart disease, study suggests

Brigham and Women's Hospital & Harvard Medical School, May 8, 2024 (Medical Xpress)

Nine of 10 American adults are in the early, middle or late stages of a syndrome that leads to heart disease, a new report finds, and almost 10% have the disease already.

"Poor cardiovascular, kidney, and metabolic health is widespread among the U.S. population," concludes a team led by Dr. Muthiah Vaduganathan of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston.

Researchers looked specifically at rates of what the American Heart Association has dubbed cardiovascular, kidney and metabolic (CKM) syndrome

Among adults age 20 or older, only 10.6% did not have some level of CKM syndrome. About 26% fell into the early stage 1 category, meaning they were gaining dangerous levels of body fat. Nearly half (49%) of adults fell into stage 2 CVM syndrome, and 5.4% were stage 3.

According to the study, 9.2% of adults were in stage 4, with full-blown heart disease and, in some cases, failed kidneys.

The bottom line: "Almost 90% of US adults met criteria for CKM syndrome (stage 1 or higher) and 15% met criteria for advanced stages, neither of which improved between 2011 and 2020," according to the Boston researchers.