The Gary Null Show

The Gary Null Show - 04.12.21

Sufficient vitamin D during gestation and early life can lower susceptibility to allergy in infants
Wageningen University (Netherlands), April 5, 2021
 
According to news originating from Wageningen, Netherlands, the research stated, “Worldwide, the prevalence of allergies in young children, but also vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy and in newborns is rising. Vitamin D modulates the development and activity of the immune system and a low vitamin D status during pregnancy and in early life might be associated with an increased risk to develop an allergy during early childhood.”
Our news editors obtained a quote from the research from Wageningen University and Research: “This review studies the effects of vitamin D during gestation and early life, on allergy susceptibility in infants. The bioactive form of vitamin D, 1,25(OH)2D, inhibits maturation and results in immature dendritic cells that cause a decreased differentiation of naive T cells into effector T cells. Nevertheless, the development of regulatory T cells and the production of interleukin-10 was increased. Consequently, a more tolerogenic immune response developed against antigens. Secondly, binding of 1,25(OH)2D to epithelial cells induces the expression of tight junction proteins resulting in enhanced epithelial barrier function. Thirdly, 1,25(OH)2D increased the expression of anti-microbial peptides by epithelial cells that also promoted the defense mechanism against pathogens, by preventing an invasive penetration of pathogens.”
According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Immune intervention by vitamin D supplementation can mitigate the disease burden from asthma and allergy. In conclusion, our review indicates that a sufficient vitamin D status during gestation and early life can lower the susceptibility to develop an allergy in infants although there remains a need for more causal evidence.”
 
Training in compassion improves the well-being of relatives to people with mental illness
Aarhus University (Denmark), April 7, 2021
If relatives of people with mental illness become better at accepting the difficult emotions and life events they experience - which is what training in compassion is about - their anxiety, depression and stress is reduced. These are the results of a new study from the Danish Center for Mindfulness at Aarhus University.
Being a relative of a person with a mental illness can be very burdensome. It can feel like a great responsibility, and many people struggle with feelings of fear, guilt, shame and anger. A new study from the Danish Center for Mindfulness shows that eight weeks of training in compassion can significantly improve the well-being of relatives. 
Compassion is a human quality that is anchored in the recognition of and desire to relieve suffering. In other words, compassion occurs when we come into contact with our own or others' suffering and feel motivated to relieve our own or others pain.
"After completing the course, the relatives had increased their well-being on several parameters. They could deal with the illness in a new and more skillful way, and we saw that the training reduced their symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress," says psychologist and PhD student Nanja Holland Hansen, who is behind the study.
And the positive results were maintained after a six month follow-up. 
Trying to fix what is difficult
"The relatives learned that the more they turn towards what is difficult, the more skillful they may act. For example, relatives often try to 'fix' the problem or the challenge - so as to relieve their loved ones of what is difficult. That's a huge pressure to constantly deal with, and very few people can bear it," says Nanja Holland Hansen. 
Living with chronic fear
She goes on to explain that training in compassion helps people to find the strength and courage to bear pain and suffering when life is difficult. It may seem both sensible and intuitive to guard yourself from the confrontation or avoid what is difficult and unpleasant. But this is the paradox of the training, explains the researcher. Because it is precisely actions and thoughts like these that shut down our compassion and thereby maintain the suffering. 
"Fear and grief are emotions that take up a lot space for relatives of people with mental illness. For example chronic fear, which is a real fear that parents of a child with schizophrenia have about whether their child is going to commit suicide, or whether a child with autism will ever enjoy a 'normal life'," explains Nanja Holland Hansen and continues:
"Our suffering is maintained inside of us when we don't work with it. To avoid feeling pain, we may resort to behaviour such as working too much or buying things that we don't need. It's therefore in all these everyday actions that our compassion training becomes important and can be used to help alleviate what is difficult," she says.
No one escapes
The purpose of training in compassion is thus more than just feeling empathy or worrying about another person. 
"Not a single person can completely avoid experiencing painful things in their life. In this way we're all the same. But what isn't the same for everyone is our ability to deal with the pain and suffering we experience. Training programmes in compassion have been developed because the research shows that we can train and strengthen our mental health. With systematic training of compassion, we generate more attention - and understanding of - our own thoughts, feelings and behaviour. And this helps us to develop the tools and skills to engage in healthier relations with ourselves and others," she explains. 
A total of 161 relatives of people with mental illness participated in the study. This makes the study one of the largest of its kind in the world, and also the first scientific randomised clinical trial carried out with relatives in Denmark. The relatives were between 18 and 75 of age and were family members to people with various psychiatric disorders such as e.g. ADHD, schizophrenia and depression. 
Meditation as homework
The relatives met once a week in groups of twenty participants over an eight-week period. Each session lasted two hours and was structured with small group exercises, large group discussions, instruction in the theme of the week and meditation. The homework consisted of twenty minutes of daily meditation.
"There is definitely a shortage of offers for these relatives. They're often told that they should remember to take care of themselves, but they haven't learned how to. We found that those who were involved in the study received the tools for precisely this," says Nanja Holland Hansen.
The results have just been published in the scientific journal JAMA.
"My hope is that local authorities and regions can offer this type of intervention for relatives. It should be an option and could easily be incorporated into our healthcare system. Economically and socially, a healthy person going on sick leave solely because he or she is a relative is a huge loss," says the researcher.
[Billedtekst:]: "Up to fifty percent of relatives of people with mental illness risk becoming ill themselves. That's why it's important that we also keep them and their well-being in mind," says Nanja Holland Hansen.
 
Sesaminol prevents Parkinson's disease by activating the Nrf2-ARE signaling pathway
Osaka City University (Japan), March 331, 2021
 
Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease caused by the degeneration of substantia nigra neurons due to oxidative stress. Sesaminol has strong antioxidant and anti-cancer effects. We investigated the preventive effect on PD as a new physiological action of sesaminol produced from sesaminol glycoside using in vitro and in vivo PD models. To prepare an in vitro PD model, 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) was added to human neuroblastoma (SH-SY5Y cells). The viability of SH-SY5Y cells decreased dose-dependently following 6-OHDA treatment, but the addition of sesaminol restored viability to the control level. 6-OHDA increased intracellular reactive oxygen species production, and the addition of sesaminol significantly suppressed this increase. No Nrf2 expression in the nucleus was observed in the control group, but a slight increase was observed in the 6-OHDA group. The sesaminol group showed strong expression of Nrf2 in the cytoplasm and nucleus. NAD(P)H: quinone oxidoreductase (NQO1) activity was enhanced in the 6-OHDA group and further enhanced in the sesaminol group. Furthermore, the neurotoxine rotenone was orally administrated to mice to prepare an in vivo PD model. The motor function of rotenone-treated mice was shorter than that of the control group, but a small amount of sesaminol restored it to the control level. The intestinal motility in the rotenone group was significantly lower than that in the control group, but it remained at the control level in the sesaminol group. The expression of α-synuclein in the substantia nigra increased in the rotenone group but decreased in the sesaminol group. The rotenone group exhibited shortening and damage to the colonic mucosa, but these abnormalities of the colonic mucosa were scarcely observed in the sesaminol group. These results suggest that sesaminol has a preventative effect on PD.
 
 
Study finds connection between lifestyle choices, Alzheimer disease
Brigham Young University, April 8, 2021
 
A recent study out of BYU has linked lifestyle choice to Alzheimer's disease, at least to some degree, through findings that show a possible energy gap between the amount of glucose and ketones being used to power the brain.
BYU professor Ben Bikman, who studies diabetes and insulin resistance, thought of a fundamental question surrounding Alzheimer's disease and insulin resistance in the brain.
Bikman said there has been growing evidence that the brains in humans with Alzheimer's disease are deficient in the use of glucose.
"The brain has a certain energy demand, let's say that is 100%," Bikman said. "In most instances, glucose is providing virtually all of that energy, nearly 100% all of the time. There is a secondary fuel known as ketones, so the average brain is consuming almost all of its energy from glucose with a little bit of energy coming from ketones at any moment. In some individuals, the brain starts to become deficient in its ability to use glucose. So now glucose can only provide about 60% of that energy, and then ketones would be expected to fill up the rest of that energy. The tragedy is that the average individual has almost undetectable levels of ketones and that's entirely a matter of lifestyle."
This lack of ketones as well as the brain's resistance to insulin is linked to lifestyle. Insulin is expected to stimulate tissues or cells to take in the glucose and use it for energy.
As the brain becomes more insulin resistant, it can't take in glucose anymore and this is something Bikman said has been shown in other research. The BYU research expanded on some of those findings.
"We found that indeed the expression of genes involved in glucose metabolism was significantly down, very broad across every cell type we looked at in the brain," Bikman said. "All of the cell types we looked at had significant reductions in glucose-related genes, but the ketone-related genes were almost totally normal."
This is key because it shows that if the brain can receive more ketones, there is a possibility that one could overcome that energy gap. While it may not be able to be filled in with glucose, it can be with ketones but ketones need to be produced by one's body.
With many people having diets that are high in refined sugars and starches, insulin is elevated all of the time, and ketones are only produced when insulin levels are low. These conditions include fasting or low-carb diets, also known as keto diets.
Ph.D. student Erin Saito is another one of the lead authors of the study and is doing this project as her dissertation. Another collaborator included Washington University of Saint Louis, which gave the BYU research team access to various brain banks.
"BYU is a wonderfully collaborative environment, not only encouraging collaborations within the university but also outside of the university," Bikman said. "Thus communicating with our internal and external collaborators was very easy and very natural. There was very much a common interest to work on this project together, a common enthusiasm for answering a question that had not been asked yet. It would not have been possible without that mutual collaboration and enthusiasm."
He added that managing the project with enthusiastic students was a delight, making it easy because of the enthusiasm surrounding the project.
Bikman said it is gratifying for him to be able to contribute to what little is known about Alzheimer's disease, because traditional strategies and approaches have continued to fail.
"Looking at Alzheimer's disease as a metabolic problem, I would say, is the greatest breakthrough in our understanding of the disease in decades," Bikman said.
Looking at it through the metabolic side of things allows people to possibly detect the problem years in advance, looking at changes in brain glucose metabolism long before Alzheimer's sets in.
Bikman believes that someday the metabolic approach to Alzheimer's will be the standard of care.
Moving forward, Bikman said he hopes that people feel empowered when it comes to Alzheimer's disease. He wants people to not look at it as a passive process where they are the victim, but rather acknowledging that their lifestyle choices can either act as the culprit or the cure.
"For too long we have viewed Alzheimer's disease as a disease that is no respecter of person, no respecter of choices and that is simply not true," Bikman said. "We have long known that people with metabolic disorders, like type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance, are at significantly greater risk of developing Alzheimer's disease and we have more evidence suggesting that dietary choices and changes do make significant improvements in someone's cognition."
Even someone in the midst of Alzheimer's disease can see improvements in memory and learning with a lifestyle change, according to Bikman, and he added that he hopes this evidence will help to strengthen that view and empower individuals to take matters into their own hands.
 
 
New Study Shows Broad Benefits Of High-CBD Cannabis
Health Canada Research Institute, April 6, 2021
With CBD exploding in popularity, new studies continue to reveal its potential benefits.
A new study published in the journal Aging-US reported that high-CBD cannabis has anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties and may even help reduce COVID symptoms.
Cannabidiol, or CBD, is a non-psychoactive compound in cannabis and is legal in all 50 states.
“Cannabis sativa, especially those high in the anti-inflammatory cannabinoid cannabidiol, has been found to alter gene expression and inflammation and harbour anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory properties,” the researchers at Health Canada concluded.
As such, they say specific CBD extracts “may become a useful and safe addition to the prevention/treatment of COVID-19 as an adjunct therapy.”
Researchers hypothesized that high-CBD C. sativa extracts may be used to down-regulate ACE2 expression in target COVID-19 tissues. Using artificial 3D human models of oral, airway and intestinal tissues, they identified 13 high-CBD C. sativa extracts that decrease ACE2 protein levels. Some C. sativa extracts down-regulate serine protease TMPRSS2, another critical protein required for SARS-CoV-2 entry into host cells.
This is not the first study to suggest that CBD could combat respiratory illnesses like COVID.
In April 2020, researchers at the University of Nebraska and the Texas Biomedical Research Institute published a peer-reviewed article suggesting that CBD could be included in the treatment regimen for the COVID-19 coronavirus as THC and CBD both appeared to reduce the severe lung inflammation associated with the virus.
In July 2020, researchers at the Dental College of Georgia and Medical College of Georgia found early evidence that Cannabidiol, or CBD, may help reduce the cytokine storm and excessive lung inflammation that killed many patients with COVID-19.
“Our laboratory studies indicate pure CBD can help the lungs recover from the overwhelming inflammation, or cytokine storm, caused by the COVID-19 virus, and restore healthier oxygen levels in the body,” says co-author Dr. Jack Yu, physician-scientist and chief of pediatric plastic surgery at MCG.
In October 2020, the same research group published a follow-up peer-reviewed study identifying the mechanism they believe was responsible for the encouraging results of using CBD to reduce lung inflammation.
“One way CBD appears to reduce the “cytokine storm” that damages the lungs and kills many patients with COVID-19 is by enabling an increase in levels of a natural peptide called apelin, which is known to reduce inflammation and whose levels are dramatically reduced in the face of this storm,” they concluded.
While this is incredibly encouraging news for relief from COVID, businesses that sell CBD edibles and oils are not allowed to mention these benefits in advertising because the FDA has not officially approved it for any specific treatment. Apparently, experimental vaccines are okay to advertise but natural plant extracts aren’t.
The new study above is just another to suggest cannabis and CBD can help fight cancer. There have been many studies as well as countless confirmed anecdotal accounts.
In 2018, a 44-year-old UK mom refused chemo for her aggressive triple-negative breast cancer. She opted for CBD oil instead and was declared cancer-free five months later.
In 2019, an 81-year-old diagnosed with lung cancer shrunk his tumors in half by taking CBD oil. The case study was published in the peer-reviewed journal Sage.
More recently, a Colorado State University study showed that CBD extract can slow growth and kill cancer cells in aggressive brain cancer.
“Our experiments showed that CBD slows cancer cell growth and is toxic to both canine and human glioblastoma cell lines,” said Chase Gross, a doctoral student participating in the study. “Importantly, the differences in anti-cancer affects between CBD isolate and extract appear to be negligible.”
That’s not all, CBD has shown potential for treating a variety of other ailments such as arthritis, seizures, chronic pain, high blood pressure, Alzheimer’s and more – with little to no severe side effects that are common with leading pharmaceuticals.
Big Pharma hopes more people don’t discover natural treatments to common health issues, like CBD, because it could severely impact their profits and influence.
 
 
Polyphenol pills counter inflammation in women on hormonal contraceptives: RCT
Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil), April 7, 2021
Supplements containing a mixture of polyphenols may counter increases in pro-inflammatory markers in women of childbearing age using combined hormonal contraceptives, says a new study.
The supplements, formulated with resveratrol, catechin, quercetin, chlorogenic acid and cyanidin, were also found to prevent the increases in markers of systemic oxidative stress like F2-isoprostane, according to findings published in Prostaglandins, Leukotrienes and Essential Fatty Acids .
“The increase in biomarkers of inflammation and oxidative stress observed in the present study were possibly caused by the use of hormonal contraceptives, as verified in the [control group], and this change was not observed in the group that used polyphenols,” wrote researchers from the Institute of Cardiology and the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil.
“Therefore, the results of this polyphenol supplementation showed that the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects observed in the studied population is due to the reduction in plasma levels of PGE2, supporting the conceptual hypothesis, by its action on the inflammatory cascade, probably by COX inhibition.”
 
Study details
The Brazil-based researchers recruited 40 women aged between 25 and 35 using contraceptives, and randomly assigned them to receive either placebo or polyphenols (3,000 mg per day) for 15 days. “A higher dosage was chosen in order to reduce the risk of food ingestion of control group to overcome the dosage of polyphenol supplementation in the [polyphenol group],” they explained.
Data from the 28 women who completed the study indicated that, as expected, markers of inflammation (PGE2 and C-reactive protein) and oxidative stress (F2-isoprostane) increased significantly in women in the placebo group. However, no such increases were observed in the polyphenol group.
“Among participants of the polyphenols group, an inverse correlation was observed between the consumption of polyphenols estimated by the [food frequency questionnaire] with PGE2 levels at the end of the study. This finding had not yet been previously described in the literature and reinforces the hypothesis of the present study regarding the action of polyphenols in reducing PGE2 levels,” wrote the researchers.
“The liver is the main organ involved in the metabolism of polyphenols, and metabolites are secreted in bile and urine. Excretion of polyphenols in participants of the [polyphenol group] was significantly higher than in the [control group], confirming the effective ingestion of capsules and absorption of compounds, which can vary depending on the amount ingested, the chemical structure of the substance and the intestinal flora of the subjects.”
 
Childhood diet and exercise creates healthier, less anxious adults
University of California Riverside, April 9, 2021
Exercise and a healthy diet in childhood leads to adults with bigger brains and lower levels of anxiety, according to new UC Riverside research in mice. 
Though diet and exercise are consistently recommended as ways to promote health, this study is the first to examine the long-lasting, combined effects of both factors when they are experienced early in life.
"Any time you go to the doctor with concerns about your weight, almost without fail, they recommend you exercise and eat less," said study lead and UCR physiology doctoral student Marcell Cadney. "That's why it's surprising most studies only look at diet or exercise separately. In this study, we wanted to include both."
The researchers determined that early-life exercise generally reduced anxious behaviors in adults. It also led to an increase in adult muscle and brain mass. When fed "Western" style diets high in fat and sugar, the mice not only became fatter, but also grew into adults that preferred unhealthy foods.
These findings have recently been published in the journal Physiology and Behavior. To obtain them, the researchers divided the young mice into four groups -- those with access to exercise, those without access, those fed a standard, healthy diet and those who ate a Western diet. 
Mice started on their diets immediately after weaning, and continued on them for three weeks, until they reached sexual maturity. After an additional eight weeks of "washout," during which all mice were housed without wheels and on the healthy diet, the researchers did behavioral analysis, measured aerobic capacity, and levels of several different hormones.
One of those they measured, leptin, is produced by fat cells. It helps control body weight by increasing energy expenditure and signaling that less food is required. Early-life exercise increased adult leptin levels as well as fat mass in adult mice, regardless of the diet they ate.
Previously, the research team found that eating too much fat and sugar as a child can alter the microbiome for life, even if they later eat healthier. Going forward, the team plans to investigate whether fat or sugar is more responsible for the negative effects they measured in Western-diet-fed mice.
Together, both studies offer critical opportunities for health interventions in childhood habits. 
"Our findings may be relevant for understanding the potential effects of activity reductions and dietary changes associated with obesity," said UCR evolutionary physiologist Theodore Garland. 
In other words, getting a jump start on health in the early years of life is extremely important, and interventions may be even more critical in the wake of the pandemic. 
"During the COVID-19 lockdowns, particularly in the early months, kids got very little exercise. For many without access to a park or a backyard, school was their only source of physical activity," Cadney said. "It is important we find solutions for these kids, possibly including extra attention as they grow into adults." 
Given that exercise was also shown to reduce adult anxiety, Cadney believes children who face these challenges may face unique physical and mental health issues as they become adults in the coming decade.

The Gary Null Show - 04.09.21

Dr. Ryan Cole
Leigh Dundas @ Orange County Dept of Education. 
Sunlight linked with lower COVID-19 deaths, study shows
University of Edinburgh (Scotland), April 9, 2021
Sunnier areas are associated with fewer deaths from Covid-19, an observational study suggests.
Increased exposure to the sun's rays - specifically UVA - could act as a simple public health intervention if further research establishes it causes a reduction in mortality rates, experts say.
Researchers from the University of Edinburgh compared all recorded deaths from Covid-19 in the continental US from January to April 2020 with UV levels for 2,474 US counties for the same time period.
The study found that people living in areas with the highest level of exposure to UVA rays - which makes up 95 per cent of the sun's UV light - had a lower risk of dying from Covid-19 compared with those with lower levels. The analysis was repeated in England and Italy with the same results. 
The researchers took into account factors known to be associated with increased exposure to the virus and risk of death such as age, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, population density, air pollution, temperature and levels of infection in local areas. 
The observed reduction in risk of death from Covid-19 could not be explained by higher levels of vitamin D, the experts said. Only areas, with insufficient levels of UVB to produce significant vitamin D in the body, were included in the study.
One explanation for the lower number of deaths, which the researchers are following up, is that sunlight exposure causes the skin to release nitric oxide. This may reduce the ability of SARS Coronavirus2 - the cause of Covid-19 - to replicate, as has been found in some lab studies. 
Previous research from the same group has shown that increased sunlight exposure is linked to improved cardiovascular health, with lower blood pressure and fewer heart attacks. As heart disease is a known risk factor in dying from Covid-19, this could also explain the latest findings. 
The team say due to the observational nature of the study it is not possible to establish cause and effect. However, it may lead to interventions that could be tested as potential treatments.
 
 
Folic acid, DHA improve factors related to cognitive function
UND Life Sciences (US), April 7 2021. 
Findings from a randomized trial reported on March 13, 2021 in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease revealed improvements in aspects of cognitive function among men and women with mild cognitive impairment who consumed folic acid and/or the omega 3 fatty acid DHA. 
One hundred sixty participants received 800 micrograms folic acid, 800 milligrams DHA, folic acid plus DHA, or a placebo daily for six months. The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised test, which includes six verbal subtests and five performance subtests, was administered at the beginning of the study and at six and 12 months. Blood amyloid beta levels were measured at baseline and six months. 
At the end of the treatment period, intelligence quotient, and information, arithmetic and picture complement scores were higher in the group that received folic acid than the placebo. Folic acid-supplemented participants also had increases in blood folate and S-adenosylmethionine levels, along with a decline in homocysteine. 
Those who received DHA also experienced improved intelligence quotient and information and arithmetic scores, along with better digit span scores. 
Participants who received both folic acid and DHA had better arithmetic and digital span scores as well as higher blood folate and SAMe, and lower homocysteine. The group also experienced declines in amyloid beta 40 and amyloid beta 42 levels. (Amyloid beta 42 levels are increased in the brains of Alzheimer disease patients.)
Cognitive test score improvements were not found to be maintained when assessed six months after supplementation discontinuance. 
“In terms of improving cognitive function, folic acid and DHA were more effective alone than when combined, and DHA was more effective than folic acid,” the authors noted. “The beneficial effect of folic acid + DHA supplementation on cognitive function may be mediated by amyloid beta protein reduction.”
 
 
ADHD and autism associated with in utero heavy metals and essential minerals
Norwegian Institute of Public Health, April 9, 2021
Levels of the heavy metals cadmium, lead, and arsenic and the essential mineral manganese, measured in maternal blood during pregnancy, were associated with increased risk of ADHD and/or autism in the child. This was reported in a new study from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. This research does not show that metals and minerals are a direct cause of ADHD or autism because observed associations may have other explanations; however, the findings show the importance of more knowledge about how environmental contaminants may impact fetal development.
Environmental contaminants can impact children's development even in the mother's womb. Several heavy metals such as lead, mercury, arsenic, and cadmium are known or suspected to interfere with brain development and can reach the fetus through the placenta. This is also the case for minerals such as manganese, selenium, and copper, which in sufficient doses are important for a normal fetal brain development, while levels that are too low or too high can potentially be harmful. The research question in this study was whether any of these substances could increase risk for ADHD or autism in children. There are few studies that have investigated metals and minerals during fetal life and associations with ADHD or autism in children.
Heavy metals and minerals were measured in maternal blood during pregnancy in 2136 mothers from the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study (MoBa), where 705 children had an ADHD diagnosis, 397 had an autism diagnosis, and 1034 did not have a diagnosis. The study showed that levels of some of the heavy metals and minerals were associated with increased risk of ADHD, autism or both diagnoses. In some cases, both high and low levels in maternal blood were associated with increased risk, compared to normal levels. This study also took into consideration other factors that could be associated with metal and mineral exposures and developmental diagnoses, like maternal education, age, parity, seafood consumption, smoking and child sex and birth year.
Even after considering these other factors, there was increased risk of autism diagnosis with both the highest and the lowest levels of lead in maternal blood, in addition to increased risk with elevated levels of arsenic. For ADHD, there was an increased risk of diagnosis with both low and high levels of arsenic. The highest levels of cadmium were associated with increased risk of both ADHD and autism, compared to the lowest levels.
Children of mothers with both low and high levels of manganese had increased risk of ADHD. Among children of mothers with the highest levels of manganese (compared to the lowest), there was increased risk of autism.
Most people, including pregnant women and the unborn children, are exposed to thousands of chemicals. Still, we know surprisingly little about how this can impact the fetal brain development. We need more research to gain knowledge about causal relationships between environmental contaminants and brain development, says Thea Skogheim and Gro Villanger, two of the researchers of the study. 
It is important to emphasize that the associations that were found in the study are on a group level and that factors that were not included may have affected the results. Thus, one cannot claim that these metals and minerals is a direct cause of ADHD and autism. There are many different factors that contribute to the development of these disorders, where particularly heredity is important. Yet, there is likely a complex interplay between genes and environmental factors, such as environmental contaminants.
Previous studies
Previous studies in this field have mainly focused on the most known and toxic heavy metals, such as lead and mercury. They have also based their research more on parent-reported ADHD symptoms in the children than on register-based diagnoses. The findings in this study support results from similar studies from other countries. However, this study is among the first that have investigated 11 different metals and minerals together with ADHD and autism diagnoses. The exposures were investigated both individually and as mixtures.
Toxic heavy metals such as mercury, lead, arsenic, and cadmium are naturally occurring in the environment, but due to human activity such as pollution from industry and mining, there are elevated levels in the environment. According to the Norwegian Environment Agency, the use of lead ammunition is the greatest source (67%) of emission of lead in the environment in Norway. Both natural occurrence and emission from industry to soil and water leads to food being the greatest source of metals and minerals. Some of the substances (mercury, lead, cadmium) accumulate in the food chain and can be transferred from mother to child during pregnancy.
Lead and cadmium are found in many of the food items that we most frequently ingest, such as grain products and vegetables, in addition to beverages. There are elevated levels of cadmium in organ meat (kidney and liver) and brown crab meat. Cigarettes are also an important source of cadmium.
Families that have game meat as part of their daily diet get additionally exposed to lead, combined with the exposure from other food products. According to warnings from the Norwegian Food Safety Authority, young, pregnant, and breastfeeding women as well as children below the age of seven, should not eat game meat that is shot with lead ammunition.
There are particular warnings from the Norwegian Food Safety Authority about the intake of seafood from polluted areas in Norway (ports, fjords and lakes). The population is exposed to arsenic mainly through food and drinks, and in Norway fish and seafood are one of the greatest sources. In fish and seafood most of the arsenic are organic forms that are considered less toxic than inorganic forms. Both human and animal studies have shown harmful effects on the nervous system following exposure to inorganic forms.
Even though manganese is essential for many biochemical processes in the body, excessive levels over a long period of time can also be harmful, especially for the brain and nervous system. The greatest human exposure source is food (grain products, green vegetables, nuts) and multivitamin supplements. Additionally, exposure can occur through cosmetics, drinking water, air pollution, and occupational sources. In the Norwegian population, there are some occupational groups working with metals that are exposed to high levels of manganese. In areas of the world with high levels of manganese in the soil and groundwater (such as drinking water) or where mining contributes to high air concentrations, studies have shown associations with behavioral problems, cognitive deficits, reduced learning abilities, and lower school performance in children.
A need for more knowledge about environmental contaminants in the population
This study includes children born between 2002 and 2009. There is, however, limited knowledge about present day levels of exposure. Even though bans and regulations for some of the heavy metals (e.g. mercury and lead) have been implemented, many metals are transported through air and ocean currents across the globe. Thus, we do not know the levels of metals and other environmental contaminants in the Norwegian population as of today, nor in vulnerable groups such as pregnant women and children. It is therefore important that we gain more knowledge about this, says Skogheim and Villanger.
ADHD and autism
The Norwegian health authorities estimates that about 3–5 percent of children and youth below the age of 18 have ADHD. This entails that on average, there is one child with ADHD in each school class. In Norway, around 1 percent of all children will have received a diagnosis of autism by the age of eight years. By discovering potential environmental risk factors that contribute to ADHD and autism, this can support and initiate preventive measures.
 
Idiopathic myalgic pain (fibromyalgia): supportive management and prevention with Pycnogenol
Ch-Pe University (Italy), April 4, 2021
Background: The aim of this registry study was the prospective evaluation of the efficacy of Pycnogenol in idiopathic fibromyalgia (FM), over 4 weeks in comparison with the standard management (SM).
Methods: A SM and a Pycnogenol+SM group were formed. Pycnogenol supplementation was used at the dose of 150 mg/day (4 weeks). The study considered the most important/frequent symptoms of FM.
Results: Fifty patients with idiopathic fibromyalgia were included: 26 in the Pycnogenol group and 24 served as controls. The two groups were comparable at inclusion. No other disease or condition was present. All subjects were otherwise healthy women (BMI

The Gary Null Show - 04.08.21

1. The Ugly Truth About Lockdowns Pt1  - 14 mins 
 
Lycopene found to inhibit pathway involved in Helicobacter pylori-induced gastric cancer
Yonsei University (South Korea), April 6, 2021
In this study, researchers at Yonsei University in South Korea evaluated the effects of lycopene on hyperproliferation induced by Helicobacter pylori infection. They reported their findings in an article published in the journal Nutrition Research.
H. pylori is known to colonize the human stomach and is linked to an increased risk of gastric diseases, including gastric cancer.
According to studies, H. pylori increases the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which activate Janus-activator kinase 1 (Jak1)/signal transducers and activators of transcription 3 (Stat3) in gastric epithelial cells.
ROS also mediate hyperproliferation — a hallmark of carcinogenesis — by activating Wnt/B-catenin signaling in various cells.
The researchers hypothesized that lycopene, a potent antioxidant with anti-cancer properties, may be able to suppress hyperproliferation by inhibiting the ROS-mediated activation of Jak1/Stat3 and Wnt/B-catenin signaling, as well as the expression of B-catenin target genes.
To test their hypothesis, they measured the ROS levels and viability of H. pylori-infected gastric epithelial AGS cells before and after lycopene treatment. The Jak1/Stat3 inhibitor AG490 served as the control treatment.
They also measured the protein levels of the following:
Total and phosphorylated Jak1/Stat3
Wnt/B-catenin signaling molecules
Wnt-1
Lipoprotein-related protein 5
B-catenin target oncogenes (c-Myc and cyclin E)
The researchers found that lycopene, like AG490, reduced ROS levels and inhibited the activation of Jak1/Stat3, alterations in the levels of Wnt/B-catenin multiprotein complex molecules, the expression of c-Myc and cyclin E and the proliferation of H. pylori-infected gastric epithelial AGS cells.
Lycopene and AG490 also inhibited the increase in Wnt-1 and lipoprotein-related protein 5 expression caused by H. pylori infection.
Based on these findings, the researchers concluded that lycopene can be used to prevent H. pylori-associated gastric diseases, thanks to its inhibitory effects on gastric cell hyperproliferation.
 
Less sugar, please! New studies show low glucose levels might assist muscle repair
Skeletal muscle satellite cells found to grow better with less glucose in vitro
Tokyo Metropolitan University, April 3, 2021
Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have shown that skeletal muscle satellite cells, key players in muscle repair, proliferate better in low glucose environments. This is contrary to conventional wisdom that says mammalian cells fare better when there is more sugar to fuel their activities. Because ultra-low glucose environments do not allow other cell types to proliferate, the team could produce pure cultures of satellite cells, potentially a significant boost for biomedical research.
Healthy muscles are an important part of a healthy life. With the wear and tear of everyday use, our muscles continuously repair themselves to keep them in top condition. In recent years, scientists have begun to understand how muscle repair works at the cellular level. Skeletal muscle satellite cells have been found to be particularly important, a special type of stem cell that resides between the two layers of sheathing, the sarcolemma and basal lamina, that envelopes myofiber cells in individual muscle fibers. When myofiber cells get damaged, the satellite cells go into overdrive, multiplying and finally fusing with myofiber cells. This not only helps repair damage, but also maintains muscle mass. To understand how we lose muscles due to illness, inactivity, or age, getting to grips with the specific mechanisms involved is a key challenge for medical science.
A team of scientists from Tokyo Metropolitan University led by Assistant Professor Yasuro Furuichi, Associate Professor Yasuko Manabe and Professor Nobuharu L Fujii have been studying how skeletal muscle satellite cells multiply outside the body. Looking at cells multiplying in petri dishes in a growth medium, they noticed that higher levels of glucose had an adverse effect on the rate at which they grew. This is counterintuitive; glucose is considered to be essential for cellular growth. It is converted into ATP, the fuel that drives a lot of cellular activity. Yet, the team confirmed that lower glucose media led to a larger number of cells, with all the biochemical markers expected for greater degrees of cell proliferation.
They also confirmed that this doesn't apply to all cells, something they successfully managed to use to their advantage. In experiments in high glucose media, cultures of satellite cells always ended up as a mixture, simply due to other cell types in the original sample also multiplying. By keeping the glucose levels low, they were able to create a situation where satellite cells could proliferate, but other cell types could not, giving a very pure culture of skeletal muscle satellite cells. This is a key prerequisite for studying these cells in a variety of settings, including regenerative medicine. So, was the amount of glucose in their original experiment somehow "just right"? The team added glucose oxidase, a glucose digesting enzyme, to get to even lower levels of glucose, and grew the satellite cells in this glucose-depleted medium. Shockingly, the cells seemed to fare just fine, and proliferated normally. The conclusion is that these particular stem cells seem to derive their energy from a completely different source. Work is ongoing to try to pin down what this is.
The team notes that the sugar levels used in previous experiments matched those found in diabetics. This might explain why loss of muscle mass is seen in diabetic patients, and may have significant implications for how we might keep our muscles healthier for longer.
 
Higher plasma glutathione levels associated with decreased risk of Alzheimer disease
Kapodistrian University (Greece), March 31, 2021
According to news reporting originating in Athens, Greece,research stated, “Potential links between oxidative stress and the pathophysiology of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) have been reported in the existing literature. Biological markers of oxidative stress, such as the reduced form of glutathione (GSH), may have a potential role as predictive biomarkers for AD development.”
Funders for this research include Alzheimer’s Association, ESPA-EU program Excellence Grant (ARISTEIA), Ministry for Health and Social Solidarity (Greece).
The news reporters obtained a quote from the research from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, “The aim of the present study was to explore the longitudinal associations between plasma GSH and the risk of developing AD or cognitive decline, in a sample of community-dwelling, non-demented older adults. Participants from the Hellenic Longitudinal Investigation of Aging and Diet (HELIAD) were included in the present prospective study. The sample used in the analyses consisted of 391 non-demented individuals over the age of 64 (mean age = 73.85 years; SD = 5.06), with available baseline GSH measurements and longitudinal follow-up. Plasma GSH was treated both as a continuous variable and as tertiles in our analyses. Cox proportional hazards models were used to evaluate the hazard ratio (HR) for AD incidence as a function of baseline plasma GSH. Generalized estimating equations (GEE) models were deployed to explore the associations between baseline plasma GSH and the rate of change of performance scores on individual cognitive domains over time. Models were adjusted for age, years of education and sex. Supplementary exploratory models were also adjusted for mild cognitive impairment (MCI) at baseline, risk for malnutrition, physical activity and adherence to the Mediter-ranean dietary pattern. A total of 24 incident AD cases occurred during a mean (SD) of 2.99 (0.92) years of follow-up. Individuals in the highest GSH tertile group (highest baseline plasma GSH values) had a 70.1% lower risk for development of AD, compared to those in the lowest one [HR = 0.299 (0.093-0.959); p = 0.042], and also demonstrated a slower rate of decline of their executive functioning over time (5.2% of a standard deviation less decline in the executive composite score for each additional year of follow-up; p = 0.028). The test for trend was also significant suggesting a potential dose-response relationship.”
According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “In the present study, higher baseline plasma GSH levels were associated with a decreased risk of developing AD and with a better preservation of executive functioning longitudinally.”
This research has been peer-reviewed.
 
 
Citrus fruit found to decrease risk of stroke
University of East Anglia (UK),  March 31, 2021 
 
We’ve all heard how good citrus fruit is for us due to its vitamin C content and immune system-boosting properties. Now research is showing that citrus fruit can also help to reduce stroke risk.
 
A study conducted at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK reveals that eating citrus fruit, especially oranges, lowers the risk of ischemic stroke significantly. The researchers compared the health of women who ate both oranges and grapefruit regularly versus those who did not.
 
Compounds in citrus fruit improve circulation and blood flow, reducing stroke risk
 
The study looked at the flavonoid content of citrus fruits and how they impacted blood vessel health. Previous studies have found that specific orange phytochemicals are protective against intracerebral hemorrhage and considerably improve blood flow in the brain.
 
Researchers reviewed around 14 years of Nurse’s Health Study data tracking the health and diets of about 70,000 women. Correlations between six flavonoid sub-classes from citrus fruits were assessed related to risks of hemorrhagic, ischemic or complete stroke.
 
Women who consumed the highest amounts of orange and grapefruit as well as juices from these fruits had much better blood circulation, as well as a 19 percent lowered risk of stroke related to blood clotting as compared with women who didn’t eat much citrus fruit.
 
Why an orange alongside that apple – each day – is a powerful combination
 
The women who favored citrus fruit showed a substantially reduced risk of stroke and associated risks. Indeed, if an apple a day keeps the doctor away, an orange a day can keep strokes away.
 
Other studies of flavonoids in fruit substantiate these results regarding a reduction in stroke risk. Higher intake of all kinds of fruit has a positive impact on stroke risk as well as many other areas of health.
 
A 2011 study by Western University in London, Ontario found that an additional benefit of flavonoid intake was the prevention of weight gain. A tangerine flavonoid called Nobiletin was shown to reduce the risk of both type 2 diabetes and obesity in mice. The mice given the Nobiletin flavonoid avoided these issues, while those that did not became obese, developed type 2 diabetes, and had atherosclerosis and fatty liver issues.
 
A 2012 Japanese study found the pulp and juice from satsuma mandarin oranges inhibited tumor growth in cancers of the colon, lung and tongue. Vitamin C is a potent antioxidant known for inhibiting free radical damage in the cells. The Nobiletin in citrus fruit has also been linked with apoptosis, or programmed cell death of cancer cells.
 
Oregon Health & Science University researchers found a connection between eye health and the vitamin C found in citrus fruit. Retinal nerve cells benefited from the compound, and it’s likely brain and nervous system health are positively impacted as well.
While fruit juice packs a potent nutritional punch, there are advantages to eating whole oranges, grapefruits and other fruits instead. Whole fruits tend to be richer in vitamins and nutrients, lower in sugar, and higher in fiber.
 
 
For older patients, focusing on what matters is often the best medicine
Yale University, April 4, 2021
A woman in her 80s wanted to play with her great-grandchildren when they came to visit, but knee pain made it difficult for her. A man in his late 70s said he enjoyed going out to dinner, but was constrained by the meal preparation guidelines that he needed to follow because of his diabetes.
Both people have multiple chronic conditions. They also have life goals, things they want to do to live their lives fully, like playing with grandchildren and going out to eat. Understanding these goals and barriers to them, helps doctors align care with what matters most to their patients while eliminating unwanted health care, said the authors of a report that was published March 24 in JAMA Network Open.
The report, the first systematic description of older adults' health care priorities, describes a structured process called Patient Health Priorities that health care providers can follow to identify the life goals of older adults with multiple chronic conditions as well as their health care preferences.
"There is growing awareness of the need to transition health care, particularly for people with multiple chronic conditions, from treating single diseases in isolation to health care that is aligned with patients' priorities," said Mary Tinetti, MD, the principal investigator of the Patient Priorities Care study, and the Gladys Phillips Crofoot Professor of Medicine (Geriatrics) at Yale School of Medicine (YSM).
During the study, health care providers asked 163 patients who were 65 and older and have multiple chronic conditions to identify what they value most in life such as connecting with family, being productive, or remaining independent. They then asked what specific and realistic activities they most wanted to be able to do that reflected their values. The participants also were asked to describe the barriers that prevented them from achieving their goals, such as unnecessary doctors' visits, taking too many medications, or health concerns such as fatigue and shortness of breath.
"The medications, health care visits, testing, procedures, and self-management tasks entailed in treating multiple chronic conditions require investments of time and effort that may be burdensome and conflict with what patients are willing and able to do," Tinetti said.
The study was conducted among patients of 10 primary care doctors from a multi-site practice in Connecticut who invited patients to participate during routine visits. Participants had to be 65 or older and have at least three chronic health conditions that were treated with at least 10 prescription medications. They also had to be under the care of two or more specialists, or have visited the emergency room at least two times, or had been hospitalized once, during the past year. Of the 236 patients at the practice, 163 agreed to participate. Most participants were white, female, about 78 years old, and had four chronic conditions. Nearly half had high school-level or less education.
Participants were asked to identify their values with questions such as, "What does enjoying life mean to you?" and "When you have a good day, what happens?" Their health care providers then worked with them to make sure their care was focused on achieving those goals. Participants also were asked what health issues most interfered with their goals, and what aspects of their health care they found helpful and which they felt were unhelpful to too burdensome.
The 163 participants identified 459 outcome goals, the most common of which were sharing meals with friends and family (7.8%); visiting with grandchildren (16.3%); going shopping (6.1%), and exercising (4.6%). Twenty participants (4.4%) said they wanted to be able to stay in their homes and live independently. Common barriers to their goals were pain (41%); fatigue, lack of energy or poor sleep (14.4%); unsteadiness (13.5%); and shortness of breath and dizziness (6.1%).
Thirty-two participants (19.8%) felt they were taking too many medications, while 57 (35.0%) reported having bothersome symptoms from their medications but did not mention specific drugs. Also, 43 (26%) participants said that visits to their primary care physicians and specialists were helpful, although 15 (9%) said they have too many visits or doctors. "I'm tired of going to so many doctors."
Understanding what's important to patients can help with patient-doctor communication and decision-making, Tinetti said. "If a patient's outcome goals are not achievable or realistic given their health status, a conversation might include, "I worry that you might not be able to continue driving your friends to the theater. I wonder if there are other ways to fulfill your desire to see shows and connect with your friends that could be more achievable."
Participants were drawn from a single practice with a homogeneous patient population; results may not generalize to other populations, and identifying the priorities of diverse groups is essential, the report's authors noted. "While further research is needed, the study suggests the feasibility of asking people about their goals and preferences, and getting responses that can inform decision-making," Tinetti said.
A newly launched website, MyHealthPriorities.org, grew out of the Patient Priorities Care initiative. People can use the website to identify their priorities so they can discuss them with their health care team.
"When there isn't a healthcare provider available to do the health priorities identification, there is now this option of the self-directed website," said Jessica Esterson, MPH, project director in the Section of Geriatrics at YSM. "We want to spread this capability to as many older adults as possible. By providing the website directly to individuals we greatly expand its reach and potential."
The website walks people through the Patient Priorities Care health priorities identification process. At the end they will have a summary to bring to their doctors that outlines their health priorities—the activities they want their health care to help them achieve based on what they are willing and able to do.
Tinetti encourages people of all ages, particularly older adults with multiple health conditions, to use MyHealthPriorities.org. "It will help you think about things you haven't thought about before, and better understand what matters most to you about your health and health care," Tinetti said. "It's important to you, your family, and your doctors."
 
Paleopharmaceuticals from Baltic amber might fight drug-resistant infections
University of Minnesota, April 5, 2021
For centuries, people in Baltic nations have used ancient amber for medicinal purposes. Even today, infants are given amber necklaces that they chew to relieve teething pain, and people put pulverized amber in elixirs and ointments for its purported anti-inflammatory and anti-infective properties. Now, scientists have pinpointed compounds that help explain Baltic amber's therapeutic effects and that could lead to new medicines to combat antibiotic-resistant infections.
The researchers will present their results today at the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS). ACS Spring 2021 is being held online April 5-30. Live sessions will be hosted April 5-16, and on-demand and networking content will continue through April 30. The meeting features nearly 9,000 presentations on a wide range of science topics. 
Each year in the U.S., at least 2.8 million people get antibiotic-resistant infections, leading to 35,000 deaths, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "We knew from previous research that there were substances in Baltic amber that might lead to new antibiotics, but they had not been systematically explored," says Elizabeth Ambrose, Ph.D., who is the principal investigator of the project. "We have now extracted and identified several compounds in Baltic amber that show activity against gram-positive, antibiotic-resistant bacteria."
Ambrose's interest originally stemmed from her Baltic heritage. While visiting family in Lithuania, she collected amber samples and heard stories about their medicinal uses. The Baltic Sea region contains the world's largest deposit of the material, which is fossilized resin formed about 44 million years ago. The resin oozed from now-extinct pines in the Sciadopityaceae family and acted as a defense against microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi, as well as herbivorous insects that would become trapped in the resin.
Ambrose and graduate student Connor McDermott, who are at the University of Minnesota, analyzed commercially available Baltic amber samples, in addition to some that Ambrose had collected. "One major challenge was preparing a homogeneous fine powder from the amber pebbles that could be extracted with solvents," McDermott explains. He used a tabletop jar rolling mill, in which the jar is filled with ceramic beads and amber pebbles and rotated on its side. Through trial and error, he determined the correct ratio of beads to pebbles to yield a semi-fine powder. Then, using various combinations of solvents and techniques, he filtered, concentrated and analyzed the amber powder extracts by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS).
Dozens of compounds were identified from the GC-MS spectra. The most interesting were abietic acid, dehydroabietic acid and palustric acid -- 20-carbon, three-ringed organic compounds with known biological activity. Because these compounds are difficult to purify, the researchers bought pure samples and sent them to a company that tested their activity against nine bacterial species, some of which are known to be antibiotic resistant.
"The most important finding is that these compounds are active against gram-positive bacteria, such as certain Staphylococcus aureus strains, but not gram-negative bacteria," McDermott says. Gram-positive bacteria have a less complex cell wall than gram-negative bacteria. "This implies that the composition of the bacterial membrane is important for the activity of the compounds," he says. McDermott also obtained a Japanese umbrella pine, the closest living species to the trees that produced the resin that became Baltic amber. He extracted resin from the needles and stem and identified sclarene, a molecule present in the extracts that could theoretically undergo chemical transformations to produce the bioactive compounds the researchers found in Baltic amber samples.
"We are excited to move forward with these results," Ambrose says. "Abietic acids and their derivatives are potentially an untapped source of new medicines, especially for treating infections caused by gram-positive bacteria, which are increasingly becoming resistant to known antibiotics."
 
 
Complementary effects of pine bark extract supplementation on inattention, impulsivity, and antioxidative status in children with ADHD
Taipei Medical University (Taiwan), April 1, 2021
The purpose of this study was to investigate the complementary effects of polyphenolic compounds from pine bark extract (PE) as a strong antioxidative substrate on the symptoms of inattention and impulsivity in children with attention‐deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This was a randomized, double‐blind, crossover, placebo‐controlled study that included two experimental units (4 weeks with PE supplementation and 4 weeks with placebo supplementation) separated by a 2‐week washout period. ADHD participants were supplemented with 25 mg or 50 mg PE. We recruited 20 participants (17 boys and 3 girls) with a mean age of 10.0 ± 2.1 years. PE supplementation caused a significant reduction in the inattention and hyperactivity‐impulsivity items of SNAP‐IV. During the period of PE supplementation, the item of commissions in the Continuous Performance Test III (CPT III) significantly decreased, which was used to evaluate the symptoms of inattention and impulsivity. In addition, the erythrocytic reduced glutathione/oxidized glutathione ratio significantly increased, and the plasma TBARs level significantly decreased after 4 weeks of PE supplementation. However, there was no significant correlation between CPT III (commission) and antioxidative status indictors. PE supplementation may have potential effects of ameliorating inattention and impulsivity, and elevating the antioxidative status in children with ADHD.

The Gary Null Show - Vaccine passports and the war against truth Dr. Naomi Wolf - 04.07.21

Dr. Naomi Wolf is the CEO of the Daily Clout, a nonprofit that enables people to see, share and affect live legislative bills which otherwise would be largely non-transparent and passed in behind closed doors.  She is perhaps best known as a feminist leader, journalist and author writing about women's rights, abortion, the Occupy Movement, the emerging totalitarianism in the US and more recently the Covid pandemic.  Her articles have appeared in The Nation, the Guardian and Huffington Post. 
Naomi authored the bestseller "The End of America: A Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot," and her most recent book is "Outrages: Sex, Censorship and the Criminalization of Love," which retells a history of state-sponsored censorship and violations of personal freedoms by recounting the story of John Addington Symonds, a 21 year old Oxford student his struggle for same-sex relationships in the mid-19th century She graduated from Yale University as a Rhodes Scholar to atttend Oxford University where she later received her doctorate in English Language and Literature. In the past she has taught at Barnard College, Stoney Brook and George Washington University. Her website is DailyClout.io

The Gary Null Show - 04.06.21

 Perspectives on the Pandemic | "The Illusion of Evidence Based Medicine"  Leemon McHenry 10 mins
 
Leemon McHenry is Emeritus Professor in the Department of Philosophy , California State University, Northridge. Leemon does research in Philosophy of Science, Metaphysics and Bioethics. His current project is 'Evidence Based Medicine'.
 
Vitamin A for nerve cells
University Medical Center Freiburg (Germany), April 1, 2021
Neuroscientists agree that a person's brain is constantly changing, rewiring itself and adapting to environmental stimuli. This is how humans learn new things and create memories. This adaptability and malleability is called plasticity. "Physicians have long suspected that remodeling processes also take place in humans at the contact points between nerve cells, i.e. directly at the synapses. Until now, however, such a coordinated adaptation of structure and function could only be demonstrated in animal experiments," says Prof. Dr. Andreas Vlachos from the Institute of Anatomy and Cell Biology at the University of Freiburg. But now Vlachos, together with Prof. Dr. Jürgen Beck, head of the Department of Neurosurgery at the University Medical Center Freiburg, has provided experimental evidence for synaptic plasticity in humans. In addition to Vlachos and Beck, the research team consists of Dr. Maximilian Lenz, Pia Kruse and Amelie Eichler from the University of Freiburg, Dr. Jakob Strähle from the University Medical Center Freiburg and colleagues from Goethe University Frankfurt. The results were presented in the scientific journal eLife.
In the experiments, the team investigated whether so-called dendritic spines change when exposed to a vitamin A derivative called retionic acid. Dendritic spines are the parts of the synapse that receive, process and transmit signals during communication between neurons. As such, they play a crucial role in brain plasticity and are constantly adapting to everyday experience. For example, learning can change the number and shape of dendritic spines. However, a transformation in the number or shape of the spines is also found in diseases such as depression or dementia.
The research shows that retinoic acid not only increases the size of dendritic spines, but also strengthens their ability to transmit signals between neurons. "We have concluded from our results that retinoic acids are important messengers for synaptic plasticity in the human brain. Thus, this finding contributes to the identification of key mechanisms of synaptic plasticity in the human brain and could support the development of new therapeutic strategies for brain diseases, such as depression," says Vlachos.
To experimentally demonstrate that synaptic plasticity also exists in humans, the researchers use tiny samples of human cerebral cortex, which must be compulsorily removed during neurosurgical procedures for therapeutic reasons. The removed brain tissue was then treated with retinoic acid before functional and structural properties of neurons were analyzed using electrophysiological and microscopic techniques.
 
 
 
Study: Chemical compound in certain essential oils promotes wound healing
Indiana University, April, 2021
A study from Indiana University revealed that a chemical compound in essential oils may enhance wound healing, especially when applied topically. According to co-author Sachiko Koyama, essential oils – like those from lavender, rosemary, ylang-ylang and black pepper – contain a chemical compoundcalled beta-caryophyllene. This contributes to improved wound healing, based on a murine model.
“This is the first finding at the chemical-compound level showing improved wound healing in addition to changes in gene expression in the skin,” said Koyama.
Beta-caryophyllene may decrease inflammation and accelerate re-epithelialization. The latter refers to the restoration of structure and function of injured tissues. During this process, epithelial cells at the wound start to migrate and cover the injured area. The researchers added that beta-caryophyllene may prevent cell death, allowing cells to survive and proliferate.
“I thought maybe wound healing would be accelerated if inflammation was suppressed, stimulating an earlier switch from the inflammatory stage to the next stage,” she added.
The team also noted increased gene expression of hair follicle stem cells in the treated tissue. This potentially indicate that there’s more to wound-healing activity of beta-caryophyllene than just activating genes.
“It’s possibly more complicated,” she added. “Our findings suggest the involvements of some other routes in addition to CB2. I hope to clarify the mechanisms of action in the near future.”
Koyama, a social neuroscientist at Indiana University, said that she wasn’t interested in studying essential oils at first, as her field of expertise was in pheromone and social status. However, her interest was sparked when she saw students working on the wound healing process in mice. She knew from experience that beta-caryophyllene can also activate cannabinoid receptor 2 (CB2), which has anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties.
Healing beyond smell
Most people know essential oils by way of aromatherapy. These are often used with diffusers, aromatic spritzers, inhalers, facial steamers and clay masks to bring out the aroma coming from the oil. Essential oils, in particular, may help with asthma, insomnia, fatigue and depression, among others.
In the study, the researchers did not find any relationship between the sense of smell and the healing properties of beta-caryophyllene. (Related: Curcumin found to aid in the healing of skin wounds.)
Koyama also offered a caveat for those looking to use essential oils for treatment, in particular, warning against the use of any essential oils. In the study, the researchers used essential oils that underwent purification processes to achieve that result.
“It’s not very precise to use the essential oils themselves because there are differences,” she added. “Even if you say you used lavender, when the lavender was harvested, where it was harvested, how it was stored—all of this makes a difference in the chemical composition.”
The team is also hopeful that their results will warrant further studies to determine an exact chemical composition for beta-caryophyllene that can be used to treat skin wounds.
“There are many things to test before we can start using it clinically, but our results are very promising and exciting; someday in the near future, we may be able to develop a drug and drug delivery methods using the chemical compounds found in essential oils,” she added.
 
 
Exercise may help slow cognitive decline in some people with Parkinson's disease
Hallym University (South Korea), April 1, 2021
For people with Parkinson's disease, problems with thinking and memory skills are among the most common nonmotor symptoms of the disease. A new study shows that exercise may help slow cognitive decline for some people with the disease. The study is published in the March 31, 2021, online issue of Neurology.
Research has suggested that people with Parkinson's who have the gene variant apolipoprotein E e4, or APOE e4, may experience faster cognitive decline and earlier in the disease than people without the variant. APOE e4 is known as a genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease. The study looked at whether exercise could play a role in slowing cognitive decline for people with APOE e4.
"Problems with thinking skills and memory can have a negative impact on people's quality of life and ability to function, so it's exciting that increasing physical activitycould have the potential to delay or prevent cognitive decline," said study author Jin-Sun Jun, M.D., of Hallym University in Seoul, Korea.
The study involved 173 people with early Parkinson's disease who were on average 63 years old at the time and 59 years old when they developed the disease. A total of 27% had the APOE e4 gene variant. People reported their physical activity with a questionnaire on how much activity they had in the previous week through leisure activities such as walking or biking, household activities such as dusting or yard work and work activities for pay or as a volunteer.
People took a test of their thinking skills at the beginning of the study and then one and two years later. Overall, scores at the beginning of the study averaged 26 points. For people with the APOE e4 gene variant, test scores declined by an average of 1.33 points by the end of the study compared to those without the variant. But researchers also found that greater physical activity at the start of the study lessened APOE e4-related cognitive decline two years later by an average of 0.007 points.
"Additional research is needed to confirm our findings, but these results would support the use of interventions that target physical activity as a way to delay cognitive decline in people with early Parkinson's who have the APOE e4 gene variant," Jun said.
A limitation of the study was that participants reported their own levels of physical activity, so there is the possibility that they would not remember their levels exactly.
 
Time to shift from 'food security' to 'nutrition security' to increase health and well-being
Tufts and Georgetown Universities, April 1, 2021
 
In the 1960s, a national focus on hunger was essential to address major problems of undernutrition after World War II. In the 1990s, the nation shifted away from hunger toward "food insecurity" to better capture and address the challenges of food access and affordability.
Now, a new Viewpoint article argues that today's health and equity challenges call for the U.S. to shift from "food insecurity" to "nutrition insecurity" in order to catalyze appropriate focus and policies on access not just to food but to healthy, nourishing food.
The Viewpoint, by Dariush Mozaffarian of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science & Policy at Tufts University, Sheila Fleischhacker of Georgetown Law School, and José Andrés of World Central Kitchen, was published online in JAMA this week.
The concept of food security focuses on access to and affordability of food that is safe, nutritious, and consistent with personal preferences. In reality, however, the "nutritious" part often has been overlooked or lost in national policies and solutions, with resulting emphasis on quantity, rather than quality, of food, say the authors.
"Food is essential both for life and human dignity. Every day, I see hunger, but the hunger I see is not only for calories but for nourishing meals. With a new focus on nutrition security, we embrace a solution that nourishes people, instead of filling them with food but leaving them hungry," said Chef José Andrés, founder of World Central Kitchen.
The authors define nutrition security as having consistent access to and availability and affordability of foods and beverages that promote well-being, while preventing -- and, if needed, treating -- disease. Nutrition security provides a more inclusive view that recognizes that foods must nourish all people.
"'Nutrition security' incorporates all the aims of food security but with additional emphasis on the need for wholesome, healthful foods and drinks for all. COVID-19 has made clear that Americans who are most likely to be hungry are also at highest risk of diet-related diseases including obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and many cancers - a harsh legacy of inequities and structural racism in our nation. A new focus on nutrition security for all Americans will help crystallize and catalyze real solutions that provide not only food but also well-being for everyone," said first author Dariush Mozaffarian, dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science & Policy at Tufts University.
"It's the right time for this evolution," said Sheila Fleischhacker, adjunct professor at Georgetown Law School, who has drafted food, nutrition and health legislation and campaign positions at the local, state, tribal and federal levels. "By prioritizing nutrition security, we bring together historically siloed areas - hunger and nutrition - which must be tackled together to effectively address our modern challenges of diet-related diseases and disparities in clinical care, government food and food assistance policies, public health investments, and national research."
"The current approach is not sufficient," the authors write, and "traditionally marginalized minority groups as well as people living in rural and lower-income counties are most likely to experience disparities in nutrition quality, food insecurity, and corresponding diet-related diseases."
 
 
Fasting acts as diet catalyst in those with metabolic syndrome
Max Delbruck Center for Molecular Medicine (Germany), March 30, 2021
One in four Germans suffers from metabolic syndrome. Several of four diseases of affluence occur at the same time in this 'deadly quartet': obesity, high blood pressure, lipid metabolism disorder and diabetes mellitus. Each of these is a risk factor for severe cardiovascular conditions, such as heart attack and stroke. Treatment aims to help patients lose weight and normalise their lipid and carbohydrate metabolism and blood pressure. In addition to exercise, doctors prescribe a low-calorie and healthy diet. Medication is often also required. However, it is not fully clear what effects nutrition has on the microbiome, immune system and health. 
A research group led by Dr Sofia Forslund and Professor Dominik N. Müller from the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC) and the Experimental and Clinical Research Center (ECRC) has now examined the effect a change of diet has on people with metabolic syndrome. The ECRC is jointly run by the MDC and Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin. "Switching to a healthy diet has a positive effect on blood pressure," says Andras Maifeld, summarising the results. "If the diet is preceded by a fast, this effect is intensified." Maifeld is the first author of the paper, which was recently published in the journal "Nature Communications".
Broccoli over roast beef
Dr Andreas Michalsen, Senior Consultant of the Naturopathy Department at Immanuel Hospital Berlin and Endowed Chair of Clinical Naturopathy at the Institute for Social Medicine, Epidemiology and Health Economics at Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, and Professor Gustav J. Dobos, Chair of Naturopathy and Integrative Medicine at the University of Duisburg-Essen, recruited 71 volunteers with metabolic syndrome and raised systolic blood pressure. The researchers divided them into two groups at random. 
Both groups followed the DASH (Dietary Approach to Stop Hypertension) diet for three months, which is designed to combat high blood pressure. This Mediterranean-style diet includes lots of fruit and vegetables, wholemeal products, nuts and pulses, fish and lean white meat. One of the two groups did not consume any solid food at all for five days before starting the DASH diet.
On the basis of immunophenotyping, the scientists observed how the immune cells of the volunteers changed when they altered their diet. "The innate immune system remains stable during the fast, whereas the adaptive immune system shuts down," explains Maifeld. During this process, the number of proinflammatory T cells drops, while regulatory T cells multiply. 
A Mediterranean diet is good, but to also fast is better
The researchers used stool samples to examine the effects of the fast on the gut microbiome. Gut bacteria work in close contact with the immune system. Some strains of bacteria metabolise dietary fibre into anti-inflammatory short-chain fatty acids that benefit the immune system. The composition of the gut bacteria ecosystem changes drastically during fasting. Health-promoting bacteria that help to reduce blood pressure multiply. Some of these changes remain even after resumption of food intake. The following is particularly noteworthy: "Body mass index, blood pressure and the need for antihypertensive medication remained lower in the long term among volunteers who started the healthy diet with a five-day fast," explains Dominik Müller. Blood pressure normally shoots back up again when even one antihypertensive tablet is forgotten. 
Blood pressure remains lower in the long term - even three months after fasting
Together with scientists from the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research and McGill University, Montreal, Canada, Forslund's working group conducted a statistical evaluation of these results using artificial intelligence to ensure that this positive effect was actually attributable to the fast and not to the medication that the volunteers were taking. They used methods from a previous study in which they had examined the influence of antihypertensive medication on the microbiome. "We were able to isolate the influence of the medication and observe that whether someone responds well to a change of diet or not depends on the individual immune response and the gut microbiome," says Forslund. 
If a high-fibre, low-fat diet fails to deliver results, it is possible that there are insufficient gut bacteria in the gut microbiome that metabolise fibre into protective fatty acids. "Those who have this problem often feel that it is not worth the effort and go back to their old habits," explains the scientist. It is therefore a good idea to combine a diet with a fast. "Fasting acts as a catalyst for protective microorganisms in the gut. Health clearly improves very quickly and patients can cut back on their medication or even often stop taking tablets altogether." This could motivate them to stick to a healthy lifestyle in the long term.
 
Rice bran adds microbiome diversity, slows growth of colon cancer cells
University of Colorado, April 5, 2021 
 
At the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting, University of Colorado Cancer Center researchers at Colorado State University present results of a phase II clinical trial of 29 people exploring the effects of adding rice bran or navy beans to the diets of colorectal cancer survivors. After the 4-week randomized-controlled trial during which people added rice bran, navy bean powder or neither, both the rice bran and navy bean groups showed increased dietary fiber, iron, zinc, thiamin, niacin, vitamin B6, folate, and alpha-tocopherol. The rice bran group also showed increased microbiome richness and diversity. When researchers treated colorectal cancer cells with stool extracts from these groups, they saw reduced cell growth from the groups that had increased rice bran and navy bean consumption.
 
Previous work shows the ability of these diets to decrease colorectal cancer risk in animal models. The current trial confirms that people can eat enough bean- and rice bran-enhanced foods to promote gut health at levels shown to prevent colorectal cancer in animals. Guidelines from the American Institute for Cancer Research recommend reducing the risk of cancer by eating more vegetables, fruits, whole grains and legumes, such as beans. Ryan has established from these studies that eating a half-cup of beans and 30 grams of rice bran per day is enough to see changes in small molecules that can confer protection against colorectal cancer.
 
"The simple message is, 'Food is medicine,' and we are looking at how to simplify that and make it apply to our everyday lives," says study co-author Regina Brown, MD, assistant professor at the CU School of Medicine and oncologist for CUHealth.
 
Brown is long-time collaborator of CU Cancer Center investigator and CSU assistant professor, Elizabeth Ryan, PhD. The Ryan Lab in the CSU College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences studies the potential power of navy beans and rice bran to promote digestive health and to prevent metabolic alterations in obesity, heart disease and certain cancers.
 
"The evidence is there in animals and we can now study this in people. The question is, what are we doing to achieve adequate levels of intake of these foods?" Ryan said. "It's not enough to say 'I eat them once in a while.' That's not going to work, particularly if you are at higher risk. You have to meet a dose, just like you need a dose of a certain drug, you need to reach intake levels and consume increased amounts of these foods, and that's where people, including me, are challenged. Not everyone wants to open up a can of beans and eat them every day."
 
The two met about 10 years ago, when Ryan was a researcher in CSU professor Henry Thompson's Cancer Prevention Lab, and Brown was practicing medicine in Fort Collins and caring for her mother, who had uterine cancer.
"It was kind of a novel partnership and had we not dug in our heels it could have died, but I told Elizabeth, 'Your work is so interesting and so valuable. We have to take this translational research from the benchtop to the clinic.' I guarantee, nine out of 10 of my patients, the first thing they ask is about their diet," Brown said.
 
The study's lead author is Erica Borresen, Ryan's research associate and study coordinator, who worked with colorectal cancer survivors to make sure they ate their beans and rice bran provided in meals and snacks, and that they filled out their food logs and gastrointestinal health questionnaires. It was sometimes intimate and awkward, but so is getting a colonoscopy and being treated for colorectal cancer. "Our participants donated their time and effort, and I want to make sure they understand they are appreciated," said Borresen, who earned her Master of Public Health at the Colorado School of Public Health, and plans to become a physician's assistant. "I came to realize I love the patient interaction - that's one of my favorite parts about coordinating our studies."
 
The next phase of Ryan's research examines effects of the cooked navy bean powder and rice bran on the colon tissue of people who have already had colorectal cancer and are at high risk for recurrence. "I really feel that there's hope in this being a practical solution to improve gut health and specifically colorectal cancer prevention," says Ryan.
 
 
 
Research suggests L-tryptophan supplements might help prevent impulsivity associated with psychological disorders
University of California Berkeley, April 2, 2021
According to news reporting originating from Berkeley, California, research stated, “Emotion-related impulsivity, defined as the tendency to say or do things that one later regret during periods of heightened emotion, has been tied to a broad range of psychopathologies. Previous work has suggested that emotion-related impulsivity is tied to an impaired function of the serotonergic system.”
Our news editors obtained a quote from the research from the University of California Berkeley, “Central serotonin synthesis relies on the intake of the essential amino acid, tryptophan and its ability to pass through the blood brain barrier. The aim of this study was to determine the association between emotion-related impulsivity and tryptophan intake. Undergraduate participants (N = 25, 16 women, 9 men) completed a self-rated measure of impulsivity (Three Factor Impulsivity Index, TFI) and daily logs of their food intake and exercise. These data were coded using the software NutriNote to evaluate intakes of tryptophan, large neutral amino acids, vitamins B6/B12, and exercise. Correlational analyses indicated that higher tryptophan intake was associated with significantly lower scores on two out of three subscales of the TFI, Pervasive Influence of Feelings scores r = -.502, p< .010, and (lack-of) Follow-Through scores, r = -.407, p< .050. Findings provide further evidence that emotion-related impulsivity is correlated to serotonergic indices, even when considering only food habits.”
According to the news editors, the research concluded: “It also suggests the need for more research on whether tryptophan supplements might be beneficial for impulsive persons suffering from a psychological disorder.”
This research has been peer-reviewed.
 
 
 
 
Nutritional supplementation in preconception and pregnancy linked to reduced risk of preterm birth
University of Southampton (UK), March 30, 2021
Increasing evidence suggests that a mother's nutritional status at the onset of pregnancy has an important influence on the growth and development of her baby, and that a good nutritional status during pregnancy may help reduce the risk of pregnancy complications.
A specific blend of nutrients and probiotics was tested in an international multicentre double blind randomized controlled trial NiPPeR (Nutritional Intervention Preconception and during Pregnancy to maintain healthy glucosE levels and offspRing health). Researchers from the international EpiGen Global Research Consortium, an academic group of clinicians and scientists including from around the world, including the University of Southampton, specifically assessed the effects of a nutritional intervention, a combination of myo-inositol, probiotics and micronutrients, consumed both before and during pregnancy, on maintaining healthy blood sugar levels in pregnancy and sustaining a healthy pregnancy and delivery.
As published in the journal Diabetes Care, (Myo-inositol, Probiotics and Micronutrient Supplementation from Preconception for Glycemia in Pregnancy: the NiPPeR study involved 1,729 women from the UK, New Zealand and Singapore who were planning pregnancy—one of the largest international preconception randomized controlled trials of its type.
While the study found that the intervention did not influence the mother's blood sugar levels or birthweights of the 585 babies born, the nutritional supplement decreased the incidence of preterm birth, particularly the cases associated with preterm pre-labor rupture of membranes.
"Preterm delivery is a serious, common and costly public health problem worldwide that continues to increase in incidence," said Professor Keith Godfrey from the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit at the University of Southampton. "Preterm pre-labor rupture of membranes is a major cause of preterm birth. Our study presents for the first time a clinical trial of a novel non-pharmacological approach that started preconception and extended throughout pregnancy, through the innovative use of a combination of nutritional ingredients. The study findings highlight the potential value of the mix of nutrients and probiotics in reducing the risk of preterm birth and supporting a timely delivery," Professor Godfrey continued. 
Associate Professor Shiao-Yng Chan, a principal investigator on the study from the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, deputy executive director at the Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences, A*STAR, and Senior Consultant, Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, National University Hospital, commented "One of the strengths of our study is the diversity of its participants as we have involved women of multiple ethnicities from the general population across three countries, which means that the outcomes have wide relevance to women planning for pregnancy. Additionally, the study included blinded intervention and control groups, so bias is minimized."
Sharing his thoughts, Professor Wayne Cutfield, principal investigator on the study from the University of Auckland, New Zealand, said, "The importance of the preconception period on maternal and offspring health is being increasingly recognized, but there are very few randomized control trials seeking to optimize preconception nutrition."
Dr. Isabelle Bureau-Franz, Head of Nestlé Research, who partnered with EpiGen for this academic-led trial, says, "We are focused on discovering science-based solutions for mothers and their infants during preconception, pregnancy and while breastfeeding. The NiPPeR study is a great example of how a public-private partnership can build scientific evidence on nutritional interventions in a largely understudied group."

The Gary Null Show - 04.05.21

Videos from Show 
1. Scarborough 3 mins
 
2. COVID SHOTS EXPLAINED BY DR TENPENNY
 
3. Steve Deace on Twitter: "Pour one out for poor Bridgette from Washington, D.C
 
 
Anti-cancer and antidiabetic properties of maqui berry
Nova Southeastern University (US), April 2, 2021
Researchers at NOVA Southeastern University in Florida reviewed the potential use of Aristotelia chilensis, also known as maqui berry, as a nutritional supplement to combat hyperinsulinemia and related diseases. Their report was published in the journal Food Science and Human Wellness.
The scientific community has long considered nutritional supplementation to be a possible alternative medicine or adjunct treatment to conventional therapies for common ailments and diseases.
Recent studies show that A. chilensis can reduce postprandial insulin levels by as much as 50 percent and is just as effective as metformin at increasing insulin sensitivity and stabilizing blood glucose levels.
The berry’s mechanism of action involves inhibiting sodium-dependent glucose transporters in the small intestine and slowing glucose’s rate of entry in the bloodstream, which effectively reduces the likelihood of blood sugar spikes and the corresponding rise in insulin levels.
At the same time, the A. chilensis contributes to cancer prevention since chronically high blood glucose levels are linked to the development of cancers.
Studies have shown that diabetics and prediabetics have an elevated risk of developing cancerous growths.
Based on the findings of previous studies, the researchers believe that consistent supplementation with A. chilensis could indirectly reduce the risk of cancer and other diseases that are promoted by hyperglycemia and hyperinsulinemia.
 
New research on vitamin D and respiratory infections important for risk groups
 
Karolinska Institutet (Sweden), April 1, 2021
Studies have shown that supplementary vitamin D seems to provide a certain degree of protection against respiratory infections. A new study involving researchers from Karolinska Institutet has now made the most comprehensive synthesis to date of this connection. The study, which is published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, confirms that vitamin D protects against respiratory infections, a result that can have significance for the healthcare services.
Whether vitamin D can reduce the risk of infection is a still an open issue. Four years ago, a synthesis of current research was published that showed that vitamin D supplementation can provide a certain degree of protection against respiratory infections.
Now, the same researchers from, amongst other institutes, Karolinska Institutet, Harvard Medical School and Queen Mary University of London, have expanded the earlier material with an additional 18 studies and carried out new analyses.
Their results are based on 43 randomized and placebo-controlled studies on the possible relationship between vitamin D and respiratory infections involving almost 49,000 participants.
The material the researchers have drawn on comprised published as well as registered but as yet unpublished studies, and is the most comprehensive such compilation to date.
The new study adds further information about vitamin D as a protection against respiratory infections, but does not cover the question of whether vitamin D can protect against COVID-19.
Daily dose most effective
While the total protective effect against respiratory infections was 8%, the researchers found, for example, that a daily dose of vitamin D is much more effective than one given every week or month. There is no reason, either, to exceed the recommended dose.
"A particularly high dose doesn't seem necessary," says study co-author Peter Bergman, associate professor at the Department of Laboratory Medicine, Karolinska Institutet. "Those who received 400-1000 IU/day had the best response, as the group that received such a dose demonstrated a reduction in infection risk of 42%. I want to stress that there were no signals in the study that normal doses of vitamin D were dangerous or caused adverse reactions."
Lower risk in vulnerable groups
One conclusion that Dr. Bergman says can be drawn from the study is that the healthcare services should be more alert to groups that have a known risk of vitamin D deficiency, such as people with dark skin, overweight people and the elderly.
"A daily dose of vitamin D can protect the bones and perhaps also reduce the risk of respiratory infections in vulnerable groups," he continues. "The wider population will probably not benefit as much from the supplement, though. Vitamin D doesn't make healthy people healthier."
The researchers are now interrogating the mechanisms behind the protective effect of vitamin D against respiratory infections—for instance, what genetic factors determine why people respond differently to vitamin D supplements.
One weakness of the compilation procedure is the possible influence of "publication bias," in that studies that do not demonstrate an effect are never published, which can create a false impression of how effective vitamin D is. To compensate for this, data from registered but as yet unpublished studies were also included.
The study received no external funding. Some of the co-authors have declared the receipt of grants from pharmaceutical companies and/or vitamin supplement manufacturers, although outside of this study. See the scientific paper for a full list of potential conflicts of interest.
 
Role of inflammatory diet and vitamin D in link between periodontitis and cognitive function
Instituto Universitario Egas Moniz (Portugal), March 25, 2021
 
According to news reporting originating from Almada, Portugal, research stated, “Patients suffering from periodontitis are at a higher risk of developing cognitive dysfunction. However, the mediation effect of an inflammatory diet and serum vitamin D levels in this link is unclear.”
The news reporters obtained a quote from the research from Periodontology Department: “In total, 2062 participants aged 60 years or older with complete periodontal diagnosis and cognitive tests from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2011-2012 and 2013-2014 were enrolled. The Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer’s disease (CERAD) word learning subtest (WLT) and CERAD delayed recall test (DRT), the animal fluency test (AFT) and the digit symbol substitution test (DSST) was used. Dietary inflammatory index (DII) was computed via nutrition datasets. Mediation analysis tested the effects of DII and vitamin D levels in the association of mean probing depth (PD) and attachment loss (AL) in all four cognitive tests. Periodontitis patients obtained worse cognitive test scores than periodontally healthy individuals. DII was negatively associated with CERAD-WLT, CERAD-DRT, AFT and DSST, and was estimated to mediate between 9.2% and 36.4% of the total association between periodontitis with cognitive dysfunction (* * p* * < 0.05). Vitamin D showed a weak association between CERAD-DRT, AFT and DSST and was estimated to between 8.1% and 73.2% of the association between periodontitis and cognitive dysfunction (* * p* * < 0.05).”
According to the news editors, the research concluded: “The association between periodontitis and impaired cognitive function seems to be mediated both by a proinflammatory dietary load and vitamin D deficiency. Future studies should further explore these mediators in the periodontitis-cognitive decline link.”
 
 
More protein doesn't mean more strength in resistance-trained middle-aged adults
University of Illinois at Urbana, March 25, 2021
A 10-week muscle-building and dietary program involving 50 middle-aged adults found no evidence that eating a high-protein diet increased strength or muscle mass more than consuming a moderate amount of protein while training. The intervention involved a standard strength-training protocol with sessions three times per week. None of the participants had previous weightlifting experience.
Published in the American Journal of Physiology: Endocrinology and Metabolism, the study is one of the most comprehensive investigations of the health effects of diet and resistance training in middle-aged adults, the researchers say. Participants were 40-64 years of age.
The team assessed participants' strength, lean-body mass, blood pressure, glucose tolerance and several other health measures before and after the program. They randomized participants into moderate- and high-protein diet groups. To standardize protein intake, the researchers fed each person a freshly cooked, minced beef steak and carbohydrate beverage after every training session. They also sent participants home with an isolated-protein drink to be consumed every evening throughout the 10 weeks of the study.
"The moderate-protein group consumed about 1.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day, and the high-protein group consumed roughly 1.6 grams per kilogram per day," said Colleen McKenna, a graduate student in the division of nutritional sciences and registered dietician at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who led the study with U. of I. kinesiology and community health professor Nicholas Burd. The team kept calories equivalent in the meals provided to the two groups with additions of beef tallow and dextrose.
The study subjects kept food diaries and McKenna counseled them every other week about their eating habits and protein intake.
In an effort led by U. of I. food science and human nutrition professor Hannah Holscher, the team also analyzed gut microbes in fecal samples collected at the beginning of the intervention, after the first week - during which participants adjusted to the new diet but did not engage in physical training - and at the end of the 10 weeks. Previous studies have found that diet alone or endurance exercise alone can alter the composition of microbes in the digestive tract.
"The public health messaging has been that Americans need more protein in their diet, and this extra protein is supposed to help our muscles grow bigger and stronger," Burd said. "Middle age is a bit unique in that as we get older, we lose muscle and, by default, we lose strength. We want to learn how to maximize strength so that as we get older, we're better protected and can ultimately remain active in family and community life."
The American Food and Nutrition Board recommends that adults get 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day to avoid developing a protein deficiency. The team tried to limit protein consumption in the moderate-protein group to the Recommended Daily Allowance, but their food diaries revealed those participants were consuming, on average, 1.1 to 1.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day. Those in the high-protein group ate about 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram per day - twice the recommended amount.
Burd and his colleagues hypothesized that getting one's protein from a high-quality source like beef and consuming significantly more protein than the RDA would aid in muscle growth and strength in middle-aged adults engaged in resistance training. But at the end of the 10 weeks, the team saw no significant differences between the groups. Their gains in strength, their body fat, lean body mass, glucose tolerance, kidney function, bone density and other "biomarkers" of health were roughly the same.
The only potentially negative change researchers recorded between the groups involved alterations to the population of microbes that inhabit the gut. After one week on the diet, those in the high-protein group saw changes in the abundance of some gut microbes that previous studies have linked to negative health outcomes. Burd and his colleagues found that their strength-training intervention reversed some of these changes, increasing beneficial microbes and reducing the abundance of potentially harmful ones.
"We found that high protein intake does not further increase gains in strength or affect body composition," Burd said. "It didn't increase lean mass more than eating a moderate amount of protein. We didn't see more fat loss, and body composition was the same between the groups. They got the gain in weight, but that weight gain was namely from lean-body-mass gain."
Burd said the finding makes him question the push to increase protein intake beyond 0.8-1.1 grams per kilogram of body weight, at least in middle-aged weightlifters consuming high-quality animal-based protein on a regular basis.
McKenna said the team's multidisciplinary approach and in-depth tracking of participants' dietary habits outside the laboratory makes it easier to understand the findings and apply them to daily life.
"We have recommendations for healthy eating and we have recommendations for how you should exercise, but very little research looks at how the two together impact our health," she said. The study team included exercise physiologists, registered dietitians and experts on gut microbiology.
"This allowed us to address every aspect of the intervention in the way it should be addressed," McKenna said. "We're honoring the complexity of human health with the complexity of our research."
 
Higher serum carotenoid levels linked with less visceral fat in women
Hirosaki University & Kagome Ltd (Japan), March 24 2021. 
 
Visceral fat resides within the abdomen, where it surrounds the internal organs. Visceral fat is not only challenging to lose but is associated with an increase in inflammation and disorders such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. In fact, high visceral fat area is a greater predictor of cardiovascular disease than waist circumference and body mass index (BMI). 
A study reported on March 11, 2021 in Nutrients revealed an association between higher levels of carotenoids and a reduction in visceral fat area. The investigation included 310 men and 495 women who received an annual health examination as part of the Iwaki Health Promotion Project in Japan. Blood samples were analyzed for the carotenoids alpha carotene, beta carotene, beta cryptoxanthin, lycopene, lutein and zeaxanthin. Visceral fat area was measured using an abdominal bioimpedance method and BMI was calculated from anthropometric data. Diet history questionnaire responses provided information concerning food intake.
Total carotenoid levels were associated with the intake of leafy green vegetables, carrots and pumpkins, root vegetables and juice. Women’s carotenoid levels were significantly higher than those of men. Higher total carotenoid levels were associated with decreased visceral fat area and BMI in women, independent of fiber intake. Increased beta carotene, beta cryptoxanthin and lutein levels in women were also significantly associated with having a lower visceral fat area. The differences found between men and women in the study led the researchers to suggest that a threshold level of carotenoids might be necessary to influence visceral fat.
“This is the first study to evaluate the association between serum carotenoids levels and visceral fat area in healthy individuals,” Mai Matsumoto and associates announced. “Ingestion of carotenoid-rich vegetables (particularly lutein and beta carotene) may be associated with lower visceral fat area, a good predictor of cardiovascular disease, especially in women.”
 
 
 
Research suggests optimal time of day to consume longevity-supporting supplements
University of Waterloo (Ontario), March 24, 2021
 
Aging is a disease that can be fought with the appropriate combinations of supplements and behaviours, according to new research from the University of Waterloo.
Using a comprehensive mathematical model, the researchers also found that the best time of day for someone to take these supplements depends on their age. Some anti-aging supplements should be taken by young people at night, while older people should take it midday for the greatest effectiveness.
The two classes of drugs the researchers modelled are nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) and Resveratrol, which have been the subject of increased interest in recent years after reports emerged on their benefits on metabolism and increased lifespan of various organisms.
A debate over whether to classify aging as a disease has been ongoing for decades, with the vast majority in the field of aging research now classifying it as such. As recently as 2015, a team of international scientists authored a paper calling it "time to classify biological aging as a disease"--and the World Health Organization has made moves that bring it closer to that definition.
"It's really important to try and change this wrong paradigm that aging is not treatable," said Mehrshad Sadria, a PhD student in Waterloo'sDepartment of Applied Mathematics. "We shouldn't think like 30 years ago when we thought that once a person gets into their 70s or 80s, they must be lethargic and ailing. 
The clear association of aging with various serious diseases is a stronger motivator for better understanding aging, Sadria said. Recognizing aging as a disease can encourage investment and promote research efforts in identifying therapies that can delay the aging process. 
"We can take these drugs that can extend our lifespan and improve our health. This study is the first step in understanding when is the best time for young people and older folks to take these supplements."
Sadria and Anita Layton, professor of Applied Mathematics, Computer Science, Pharmacy and Biology at Waterloo, developed a mathematical model that simulates the circadian clock and metabolism in the mouse liver. The model is age-specific and can simulate liver function in a young mouse or an aged mouse.
They found that a young person, for example, should take NMN six hours after they wake up to achieve the highest efficiency. On the other hand, young individuals should take Resveratrol at night while older people should take it midday for the greatest effectiveness. 
"The time you eat, what you eat, the time you sleep and the time you exercise are all factors that can affect your body, how you age and how you live," Layton said. "People should be mindful of when they eat and ensure that it coincides with other things in their environment that impact their sleep/wake cycle or body clock, such as exposure to light because if not, it could cause conflict within the body." 
The study, Modeling the Effect of Ageing on the Circadian Clock and Metabolism: Implications on Timing of Medication, was recently published in the journal iScience.
 
 
Sugar not so nice for your child's brain development
New research shows how high consumption affects learning, memory
University of Georgia, April 1, 2021
Sugar practically screams from the shelves of your grocery store, especially those products marketed to kids.
Children are the highest consumers of added sugar, even as high-sugar diets have been linked to health effects like obesity and heart disease and even impaired memory function. 
However, less is known about how high sugar consumption during childhood affects the development of the brain, specifically a region known to be critically important for learning and memory called the hippocampus.
New research led by a University of Georgia faculty member in collaboration with a University of Southern California research group has shown in a rodent model that daily consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages during adolescence impairs performance on a learning and memory task during adulthood. The group further showed that changes in the bacteria in the gut may be the key to the sugar-induced memory impairment.
Supporting this possibility, they found that similar memory deficits were observed even when the bacteria, called Parabacteroides, were experimentally enriched in the guts of animals that had never consumed sugar.
"Early life sugar increased Parabacteroides levels, and the higher the levels of Parabacteroides, the worse the animals did in the task," said Emily Noble, assistant professor in the UGA College of Family and Consumer Sciences who served as first author on the paper. "We found that the bacteria alone was sufficient to impair memory in the same way as sugar, but it also impaired other types of memory functions as well."
Guidelines recommend limiting sugar
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans, a joint publication of the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and of Health and Human Services, recommends limiting added sugars to less than 10 percent of calories per day.
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show Americans between the ages 9-18 exceed that recommendation, the bulk of the calories coming from sugar-sweetened beverages.
Considering the role the hippocampus plays in a variety of cognitive functions and the fact the area is still developing into late adolescence, researchers sought to understand more about its vulnerability to a high-sugar diet via gut microbiota.
Juvenile rats were given their normal chow and an 11% sugar solution, which is comparable to commercially available sugar-sweetened beverages. 
Researchers then had the rats perform a hippocampus-dependent memory task designed to measure episodic contextual memory, or remembering the context where they had seen a familiar object before.
"We found that rats that consumed sugar in early life had an impaired capacity to discriminate that an object was novel to a specific context, a task the rats that were not given sugar were able to do," Noble said.
A second memory task measured basic recognition memory, a hippocampal-independent memory function that involves the animals' ability to recognize something they had seen previously.
In this task, sugar had no effect on the animals' recognition memory.
"Early life sugar consumption seems to selectively impair their hippocampal learning and memory," Noble said.
Additional analyses determined that high sugar consumption led to elevated levels of Parabacteroides in the gut microbiome, the more than 100 trillion microorganisms in the gastrointestinal tract that play a role in human health and disease.
To better identify the mechanism by which the bacteria impacted memory and learning, researchers experimentally increased levels of Parabacteroides in the microbiome of rats that had never consumed sugar. Those animals showed impairments in both hippocampal dependent and hippocampal-independent memory tasks.
"(The bacteria) induced some cognitive deficits on its own," Noble said.
Noble said future research is needed to better identify specific pathways by which this gut-brain signaling operates. 
"The question now is how do these populations of bacteria in the gut alter the development of the brain?" Noble said. "Identifying how the bacteria in the gut are impacting brain development will tell us about what sort of internal environment the brain needs in order to grow in a healthy way."

The Gary Null Show - 04.02.21

COVID-19 CATCH-22 We live in confusing times. The year began with a run on toilet tissue and ended in totalitarianism. Will it be looked back upon as an aberration, or precedent? I had a patient this morning. More precisely, I telephoned him. He suffered a myocardial infarction last year and is on anti-hypertensives. His last few BP measurements showed very good, stable control. He barricades himself in his home against the rogue cold virus each time the government locks-down. He expressed terror about the link between hypertension and an enhanced Covid-19 risk. I would say he is, like the government, somewhat delusional about it or at the very least harbours some fixed false beliefs towards it. Hence, he measures his blood pressure many times a day. It fibrillates up and down with the propaganda. Masks are not enough for him. He refuses to leave his home until Johnson and Hancock lift lockdown. He asks me to increase his medications without seeing him. The easy cure might be to turn off his TV and smartphone. But, there is more bipolarity, more paradox, more human folly. He refuses to come out for a hypertension review until he receives his Covid-19 vaccinations. I ask him how he suggests doing that? Perhaps he could find it reasonable to specifically come for his vaccine and have an opportunistic BP? He pauses, and then refuses. Classic Joseph Heller, Catch-22. Nothing surprises me these days in medical practice, so without a pause I remind him that we are not currently offering a bespoke domiciliary vaccination service. He remains insistent. As his doctor, I try to reassure him he is not at any great risk. I remind him we pay great lip service to all the viral psychological interventions such as porous ill-fitting mask, alcohol gel and … polythene apron. Rather selectively, he dismisses these sacred verses of the government propaganda. As if to out-fox me, he replies in denouement, ‘Okay, I won’t come in, then.’ I leave it open for him to come back to us. It is not only the rule of law, but also the practice of medicine which has succumbed to hysteria. He is the ideal citizen of the corporate pharmaceutical Gods. Open to suggestion, vulnerable to propaganda, crouched with bayoneted rifle in trench against an unavoidable, invisible particle. Always willing to go above and beyond the unreasonable demands of tyrants. He trusts the government would only deliver a safe, effective vaccine. In a way he mirrors his irrational and unreasonable government which projects an illusion of effective control, when there is only effective tyranny. Sometimes it is wisest to be honest with each other. Sweden did this. UK politics has a culture of denial and dishonesty. The first stage in our national mourning and truth-telling will be to acknowledge the disaster was not COVID-19, it was the government’s response to it. It was duped and blindsided by a commercial takeover. ELIXIR OF THE GODS Pharma marketeers have not accidentally happened on the Covid-19 elixir of control. They have made countless practice runs. Think of all the quasi-pandemics in the last twenty years. Think of how statin propaganda captured the upper and middle classes for a generation. I remember general practice at the time. Patients would quote the Daily Mail and beg to be put on statin. A few years later the same would quote the same newspaper and beg to be taken off them because their muscles ached terribly. An about turn, but the smell of fear never left them. I recall the surreal feeling at the time. Was I a doctor or a life insurance salesman? In 2014, as patients fled, patents loosened and other formulations competed, the NICE guidelines halved the statistical risk threshold at which statins should be prescribed. It captured 4.5 million more consumers. I would never take statins unless I had a familial hypercholesterolemia or hyperlipidemia. In those inheritable conditions one can quickly see the thick, immiscible layer of human fat float to the top of a resting blood sample. For anything else, put me to work on a farm with an unrefined, natural diet. PRE-COVID BRITONS If this country were a more ancient version, soft tyrants like Johnson and SAGE would have stopped tickling the underbellies of the WHO and ubiquitous Gates Foundation. They would have been driven out of the village with brickbats by now. The socially inept but politically adept Gates is so emboldened by humanity’s mass surrender he, as their vaccinator and farmer in-chief asks them to eat Soylent Green rather than beef. Now he is proselytising us to drink boiled, filtered excrement rather than fresh water. This is a far cry from the organic, GMO-free, natural healthy lifestyle the corporates sold us yesteryear. The same sheep are now beguiled with sustainability and its underlying code: forever eat shit or let’s talk population cull. Gates finds the human operating system far more programmable and profitable than the silicon-based one. He has devoted the last decade to the construction of a tendril-like business portfolio and biosecurity agenda to convince us vaccines are more important than us. His abnormal urgency to give the whole world unnecessary experimental gene therapy and the incomprehensible willingness of the world’s governments to dance to his tune must be understood and contained. If not, there is a risk his hubris and obscure agenda will damage the pre-existing mass consent to any vaccination and kill liberty. The intertwining public-private biosecurity partnerships of the WHO (with its binding international treaty over 190 countries), a WEF-sponsored GAVI, and the Gates Foundation (a massive individual funder of the WHO, and GAVI) have effectively become an unelected, unaccountable and irresistible world government. The worry is their view becomes the only implementable one. The work of Gates through the Swiss tax-exile of GAVI is thought to have a contractual de facto diplomatic immunity from legal and criminal liability. He is effectively a one-man, marauding state entity who becomes a bio-facist global emperor each time a ‘pandemic’ is pronounced by the WHO. MENTALLY BIPOLAR CORONAVIRUS? In addition to the mental damage of lockdown by industrial scale fear-mongering there is another mentally-destructive duality: the poorly-evidenced and irrational conviction of government which degrades common sense and human experience. Both narratives cannot coexist without some annihilative consequence. The authorities have also created a parallel pandemic of assorted neuroses and mental health illnesses. What of the more severe pandemics of child autism, malaria and TB? Not of immediate, profitable importance. However, when a patentable, experimental, sledge-hammer to crack-a-nut gene therapy is found, the Gods rechristen it an emergency, mandatory universal vaccination. Humans cannot tolerate such contradictions for long, even with coercion. It is unsustainable, for it is against their natures. The knowledge, technology and the will now exists to coerce and imprison humankind into perpetual mental submission. If we succumb now, there maybe no way out. Having captured the food chain, nations, capital and the sovereignty of our mind, body and spirit the victor of this struggle may rule ad infinitum. WHITTY OR NOT? CMO Whitty supports the notion that unvaccinated doctors should be subjected to GMC discipline. Sanctioning doctors for refusing unnecessary, experimental gene therapy is an extraordinary suggestion even in today’s unnuanced universe. I see it as part of a propagandised neoliberal movement to create a libertarian underclass. How soon before ‘vaccine’-declining patients are also excluded from the doctor-patient relationship? Whitty is but one very flawed supra-specialised man without the necessary broad wisdom and holistic medical experience to aid his reason. He does not have the confidence of all his colleagues. His conduct suggests a man long-lost to the allure of managerial, bureaucratic and commercial power. There was a time when the GMC would have erased Whitty from the medical register for coercing patients into unethical and experimental commercially advantageous treatments. Criminal charges would have been been brought. Alas, Whitty has a certain professional and criminal immunity which Drs. Mengele and Shipman did not. A key difference with Whitty is he targets us all at once, but all three believed they were righteous. There is also a sophisticated population stratifying, and targeted discrimination all three share. NHS ‘BAMES’ were a vulnerable doyenne of the government propaganda machine in April 2020. Now they are the societal problem. Not only is the government reporting that a significant proportion of NHS doctors and nurses refuse the ‘vaccine,’ they release data suggesting it is a peculiar BAME NHS employee issue. They have gone so far as to target the incredibly valuable Filipino nurses specifically, many of whom maybe be on work-dependent visas. Patently, refusing ‘vaccination’ is not about colour, but the government are making it seem so. Biden says something similar, but obliquely. It is a sinister, divisive BAME carrot-stick strategy tantamount to sugar-coated race-baiting. It has been long clear vaccines cause harm, and no person is qualified to coerce another into unnatural harm. The die was cast for Whitty a long time ago. He plays his rôle predictably in an elaborate battle of chess for dominion over our lives. Even if he doubts his conviction he has not had the courage to lose face or his job. Instead, he is going to create an exodus of good doctors and nurses from the NHS. He is a reason why peoples’ faith in government and medicine has been shattered this year. That Whitty is confident he can take on a whole medical profession of wiser and more bioethical, morally inclined patient-centred colleagues is a measure of how far medically-driven technocratic totalitarianism has come in one year. When the GMC and CMO demonstrate this unethical approach to bioethics our society has a profound disease. THE NHS AS PATIENT The government misleads with the rhetoric of ‘Save our NHS’. Surely, the ultimate aim is to do no harm, and save human lives? In this, the government has consistently failed. The NHS is not a life to be saved. It is an instrument that was set up to save us, not for us to save it, and certainly not to kill us. Its only risk of ‘death’ has been every successive neoliberal government since 1979. All the NHS requires is depoliticising, funding and intelligent management to save people’s lives where it is realistic and possible to do so. The NHS needs to be vaccinated against politicians and Pharma. Saving an 82 year old with the common terminal event of a winter lower respiratory tract infection has always been difficult, even in a well-funded NHS, not to mention a terminally defunded one forever teetering on an impossible precipice between chaos-management and barely coping; and all for the sake of getting rid of a couple of extra winter surge-capacity wards in each hospital. How much more idler is each hospital, now due to Covid? Our government has committed itself to the collision course of impossible, rapid pharmaceutical solutions. Rather than put the science first, and first do no harm, it still prefers to hurt us, both with lockdowns and the harsh reality of misdirected vaccines and gene therapies. Expect the neoliberal coup de grâce to be announced: if you desire freedom from lockdown and coercive treatments, accept that your NHS is dead. The blunt reality is if you can afford UK private healthcare, coronavirus regulations do not affect your healthcare. The only bottleneck is on NHS care as a matter of policy, not necessity. It is a confidence trick to deny healthcare by the state. THE POWER OF PERCEPTION DECEPTION Ambulance-chasing Johnson and Hancock remain gripped by folie à deux, and the UK suffers Stockholm syndrome. It has fallen in love with its coronavirus captor. The global response is neither characteristically scientific nor medical. It is more an expression of the corrupt, profiteering public-private collusion between corporate-captured states, Machiavellian individuals and supranational bodies. That expression utilises the corporate tactics of PR, management, HR and Health & Safety risk-aversion to create the end product: a rapid siphoning off of wealth and autonomy from the individual to the state and its corporate handlers. First world pandemics have become a contrivance. It should now be clear that there are screen-played pandemics with a disproportionate response, and then there are obvious, severe pandemics. Covid-19 is the first variety, of a magnitude often seen before and not worthy of the disproportionate damage of the response. In this type of pandemic, people do not realise there is one unless they wear a useless mask or fail to wear one. It is the variety that does not require doctors, but rather deranged policemen to ogle and respire aggressively in to their fellow man’s face before punching it. Corporations have joined in with gusto, Morrisons badged the mask-exempt with yellow stickers, and others talk of ‘no jab, no job’. This is fascist control backed by the Big Lie of Goebbels. It would not be so bad if there were a traditional vaccine that was non-experimental, safe and well-proven. But there isn’t. Rather than meddling with eight billion people’s immune systems unnecessarily, it would be better to let the infection run its course because 99.97% survive, and predominately it is the over eighties dying slightly prematurely relative to the normal age of death. Even the CDC records over 1200 US vaccine-related deaths, 25,000 significant reactions, and an average age of death with the ‘vaccines’ of 77 years. The danger of death by vaccine for some may be exponentially greater than by Covid. It really is a case of more diminishing returns, except for the pyrrhic political victory and litigation-free, unimaginable riches the pharmaceutical elite will make to further consolidate their dominion. SCHIZOID STATISTICS To emphasise the rarity of deaths, an average GP practice looking after 6000 would statistically record 1.8 Covid deaths at the gross global mortality over the year of 0.03%. Thus, it is entirely conceivable my experience in a practice of 6000 mainly under 65s has not actually had one documented death from Covid. This is not even after reasonably reducing the death rate further by the fact that the purported death rate is artificially heightened by well-known but under-emphasised measurement anomalies. Just as many died (half-a-million) in UK, 2020 as in any other year. This is also the case with Sweden. These countries’ patterns of Covid mortality over the year were similar. Neil Ferguson suggested that UK mortality might double to one million in the first wave, alone. That the cumulative death toll from Covid is stated as 120,000 (UK) over the last two respiratory virus seasons should strongly suggest an industrial misattribution of causes of death. In Sweden where mitigation was practically absent, Ferguson’s model predicted an unmitigated 96,000 deaths by June 2020; by March 2021 there are about 13,000. In the more innocent medical times of 1968-69, 1-2 million died of Hong Kong flu globally, with 80,000 in the UK. Correct that for the intervening population change and it is equivalent to the massaged 120,000 of Covid-19. The UK lockdown ranked as the third strictest in the world, yet had one of the worst death rates. It seems reasonable to hypothesise that the UK lockdown didn’t work and/or it inflated its deaths by gross misattribution. The UK government has more than halved hospital beds from 300,000 to 140,000 in 30 years whilst the population has aged and increased by 10 million. This may be what made Sweden resilient and the UK fail. The virus may become an additional virus of the winter landscape, so I suggest that a cheaper and more sustainable way out of this and further pandemics would be to double winter ICU capacity, increase the number of general medical overflow wards and consider ivermectinand hydroxychloroquine. The Great Barrington Declaration proposals should be given due respect and serious attention. This a seasonal virus. It ought now to be clear to SAGE that a season cannot be locked down, nor can the sorcery of a summer PCR pseudo-epidemic mask gross incompetence. The government have irrevocably lowered the threshold for a yearly terrorising of the population to little above the usual mortality of flu. The indiscriminate, mindless testing of well, returning school children is setting us up to fail just in time for the parliament vote to extend the executive’s Coronavirus Act dictatorship for another 6 months. That would bring us to October 2021 and back to the usual winter killing season. The timing is such the Act may never be revoked by a decerebrate parliament. HYPERPOLARISATION We live in an extraordinary time when the world can be pandemic positive and negative simultaneously. Thus, I find my medical observations are becoming more politically tinged as I realise that the coronavirus situation is more a creation of political expediency, arbitrariness and superstition than of medical science. Vaccination has become a political act. Politicians have co-opted all knowledge, expertise and science and weaponised it beyond recognition. Big Pharma has captured governments. Mainstream media has uncritically lapped and regurgitated it up for our constant delectation. There is no alternative perspective. World medical experts have been propagandised and censored out of existence. The result is an unsustainable, polarisation of the mass consciousness, where those with courage, knowledge, and those losing out in lockdown are neutralised. This is very bad for humankind whatever side you believe you bat for. Hence, I have decided to present an unabashed opinion on this occasion, based upon my previous accounts and analyses of the past. In part, my reason is because the government is not only refusing to listen to the mounting pile of contrary scientific evidence, it has destroyed the battlefield of truth and moved firmly into the realm of fiction, lies and propaganda. So, I reserve the right to be wrong in the pursuit of intellectual multiculturalism, equality and diversity. My recent experience suggests the totalitarian capitalists and authoritarian socialists wish to hoard these liberal principles for their exclusive advantage. May I reclaim them, for everybody. In a world where the politics of compromise has been devoured by the polarising effect of vaccination and identity politics, lockdown is the miracle glue that unites us in inclusive segregation. Rather than accept in a pandemic that death is inevitable, the government and media panders to the sheer impossibilities of woke-ness. No one is allowed to die of the virus. Therefore, all must suspend reality and accept the trough-point of civilisation. What happened to Keep Calm & Carry On? One must hope one day political convenience will bow to reality rather than try make reality bow to it. There is a limit for psychological techniques to impose themselves on reality. It was reached many months ago. The mainstream Covid-19 delusion represents the final failure in our civilisations. Without an improvement in the integrity and intelligence of our leaders, the media and an end to their polarising mass-messaging there is no escape. Their conduct has led us to a year of deliberate self-harm and to the point of collective suicide. It is not just happening with coronavirus. Polarisation has ravaged even the common values of truth and liberty in the free world to such a degree that affiliation to a political movement trumps basic morality, truth and justice. SOCIETAL SCHISM We no longer have a functioning democratic government, parliament nor judiciary. The government pursues a scorched earth policy, unchecked and unbalanced. Parliamentary parties collude and are detached from their party memberships. Politicians like Hancock, who confect rhetoric into unassailable truths, seem increasingly unhinged from reality and democratic principles. What is to be done? They ought start by acknowledging they might be dangerously wrong, and confess that the justification, ‘but I disproportionately hurt you to help you’ is incoherent and cruel. Hysteria-whipping political opportunists, the immature and obeisant media ideologues eyeing votes and ratings leap on the ‘not one person must die’ band wagon, yet they take and destroy many, and save none. Government appears to have an unwavering policy of ignoring cheap, safe pharmaceutical measures and targeted risk-population driven policies in favour of continuing to push illegal pharmaceutical experiments, fear, and futile, poorly-evidenced non-pharmaceutical interventions aka facial cloths, unemployment, house arrest and a police state. Of course, home-made masks cannot contain a near molecular-sized virus any more than they contain air. Yes, hydroxychloroquine andivermectin seem to work, and this is not the world’s greatest pandemic by any stretch; but at the same time all three statements are not true for our ruling classes. These are the blatant contradictions our lives are predicated upon. If there is a chance of ivermectin protecting hospital colleagues, why haven’t the government implemented that? There is nothing to lose, in contrast to the danger to life and liberty of the gene therapy agenda. Brexit is another example of malignant fissuring. It was a near-miss, a mere symptom of the political septicaemia that was yet to kill democracy. For four years we witnessed the near negation of a democratic referendum at the hands of our democratically-elected politicians. It was in hindsight the harbinger of BLM, Covid lunacy and the crisis of the American Constitution. Is it mere happenstance that race, gender and sexual political theory is replacing natural play and the three Rs in pre-schools, that both the Nobel peace prize nominated BLM and Covid-19 found lovers in multinationals and the Democrats in the year of the most important US presidential election? Intersectionality, critical race theory and socially-segmented marketing strategies all depend upon propaganda and phylogenetic population division and rule for their immoral advantage. Should the end justify the means? It feels a more poignant question if falsehood is the means by which a final system of untruthful existence is entrenched irreversibly. That is the truth of our collective direction, today. THE COVID HEX: NEOLIBERAL POLITICAL ASSASSIN? Was there election rigging in the US elections? You might have thought all democracy-minded Americans would support a forum of truth-telling, transparency and justice in which to examine the evidence. But no, it turns out that politics comes before not only the truth, the rule of law and justice, but before democracy itself. Who would have thought that Venezuelan mafia politics and election systems could transfer so well to the US. It seems it is not only COVID which is pandemic: Myanmar and it’s Rohingya-persecuting Nobel peace prize-winning leader are the subjects of a military coup over concerns of systematic election fraud. We have witnessed a sitting POTUS censored and cancelled whilst in office by a parallel totalitarian regime. Why 100% of the US seem not outraged has to be a matter of political bias, ignorance and propaganda. The inevitable result is democracy, liberty and the concept of co-existent, competing, self-improving discourse is dead. It is a blow far more fatal than the Covid-19 which helped usher it in. That one POTUS who had not commenced one war and signed several international peace accords can start being impeached on the day of entering office and weeks after leaving office; and another prematurely wins the Nobel peace prize on entry to office only to subsequently start, foment, and commence multiple theatre wars ought to astound, disturb and have been vigorously queried. Yet it was not. President Trump can be continually ridiculed as a dunce by the media, but when President Biden so obviously has advancing signs of cognitive impairment the media do not express concern, not even for the poor man himself. Isn’t this carer abuse? None of it sits comfortably with me. Something is very wrong. There was a time a when journalists were regarded as the fourth pillar of democracy. Now such inconsistencies are swept by the media under a propaganda rug and the crimes continue. ACADEMIC ANTITHESIS Today, the justification for evil and tyranny is not prejudice toward a race, it is race. Iyola Solanke, a Leeds University-sponsored law professor believes the cure for the prejudice which led to genocide is the extermination of prejudice. How does she propose to do this? By treating it like a virus. For her, prejudice is a virus to be exterminated. The difficulty is that all people carry prejudice, whether asymptomatically or symptomatically. Her ilk can view everything it does not like through the lens of unconscious bias and race division. So, does she kill or lockdown on people she does not agree with, or merely medicate, vaccinate and reprogram their views out of them? Or does she take unreasonable offence, muzzle, cancel and deny them free speech, thought and religion? How will she relieve herself of her own manifested prejudices? Such is the hyper-polarised madness and unlikely convergence of Marxism, Nth wave feminism, BLM, critical race theory, corporate-sponsorship and Covid policy into one suicidal singularity. As ‘war on terror’ is a futile and never-ending concept, so is ‘war on virus’. It cannot be defeated, nor made truce with, only accepted, eventually adapted to and conciliated with by our species. The fact is humankind cannot survive without such co-existent, often helpful, natural micro-organisms. This war is a war against ourselves and our immune systems by a dehumanising, corporate and profiteering attitude to health, life and the human spirit. GLOBAL DISARRAY Covid is no ordinary failure, it is a global system crash. Questions remain to be answered. Was it deliberately triggered, wilfully perpetuated and gleefully capitalised upon? My observations of individuals, companies, governments and the WHO and my knowledge of medicine tell me it is all most possible. What I wish for is the hard evidence to lead to criminal convictions. It has increasingly seemed to me this last year that the same people who created the problem, simultaneously benefit and are encouraging humankind to crash into a wall. If every family had a member dying of a flu-like illness we’d all quite naturally be obedient and take a spin on the wheel of the pharmaceuticals lottery. It would not be necessary to bully, cajole, coerce, threaten, propagandise and use the police to beat us in to obedience. We are not even close to a black death scenario. Raised standards of living, hygiene and sanitation are the reason why we are not ill, not vaccines. As with flu, we’d be targeting the elderly as they seem to have an extraordinarily disproportionate risk of mortality and morbidity from Covid. We would certainly not target children for vaccination as they are already relatively invincible to Covid-19 (though not to flu). However, these are not the sensible findings of our government, its scientists nor its corporate partners. The new normal is perversely abnormal. The proposition by governments that we, as eight billion relatively healthy people, should expect perpetual lockdowns and serial, designer gene therapies yearly, if not more frequently, is grotesque. At this point we are not the raison d’être, we exist for the vaccines and gene therapies. CRIMINAL CORONAVIRUS? Asymptomatic false-positive diagnosis is unforgivable, but one without testing for other common causes is even worse. Misdiagnosing what would have been death from old age or some other usual event with an asymptomatic false-positive Covid test is falsifying the cause of death and is literally criminal. Natural deaths seem no longer a thing. Bad science, shoddy medicine, central directives to certify COVID-19 where there is any doubt, and poor data gathering mean the crime is perfect. The WHO cooks definitions of Pandemic, Adverse Events Following Immunisation (AEFIs), PCR tests and herd immunity like a criminal cartel. Tossing a coin is far more diagnostically accurate than community Covid PCR testing on well persons. Ideally, there should have been a parallel influenza test for each Covid test. My experience of patients’ hospital discharge letters reveals not one influenza test result was recorded. Our police, who under their own oath should police the criminal common law with our consent are now acting like the vigilantes of commerce. They enforce unnatural statutory law, regulations and guidelines. Where does that leave non-commercial, natural human interests? They tackle unmasked, healthy people as if they were undetonated bombs. Since when did the spread of a cold or flulike illness become a crime? Since when did a well person become a potential suspect? The police never used to become involved in the politesse of a cough, fever or cold. In 2019 it used to be a badge of honour to keep coming, sniffling into the office. Now it seems a crime against humanity. I am waiting for the first bona fide coryzal assault case, where the brain-washed magistrate will accept that the victim reasonably apprehended a harm from a defendant’s sniffle. What material difference is there between terrorists and the actions of the WHO, Gates and our government? Well, those three seem like mere terrorists, but not also another’s freedom fighter. Our government preach of how ‘hateful extremists exploit the pandemic,’ but there is no mention of themselves. Moreover, it is the questioning norm which is smeared as terrorists. What if the vaccines are killing more than Covid. Do we convict Drs. Whitty and Fauci for crimes against humanity? In stark contrast to my first patient, I speak with my last patient, she is socioeconomically vulnerable. In March 2020 she complained of a lump in her throat. Her urgent scan was cancelled due to ‘Covid measures’. In February 2021 she complained of multiple lumps in her throat and difficulty swallowing. This is the mountain of disease concealed under the magic carpet of Covid. Coronavirus Regulations-sponsored NHS medical negligence is often grossly negligent, bordering on criminal. The game is to keep the patient away and out of your zone of accountability. Like hands-free patient ping-pong. One might conclude life on earth is impossible without Big Pharma. It has moulded the world in its own vision. The vaccine passport is likewise an inappropriate response. Particularly when viewed through the lens of another continuously, unpredictably mutating, elderly-targeting respiratory virus. Would anyone else find the prospect of a flu vaccine passport troubling? It is not coincidence that Monsanto GMOs abduct the food chain, Farmer Gates pushes a Pharma lifestyle, and gene modification is both’s central pièce de résistance. When Gates becomes America’s biggest owner of farmland one has confirmatory triangulation that Mother Nature is no longer boss. Most of us only need basic sanitation, an active life, family love and a natural diet to remain well. The Covid Physician is an unheroic NHS doctor.

The Gary Null Show - 04.01.21

LESSONS TO BE LEARNED FROM THE PAST FOR TRUSTING FEDERAL HEALTH AGENCIES 
 
Dr. Brian Hooker is an Associate Professor of Biology at Simpson University in California, and a senior consultant for ARES Corporation, specializing in environmental restoration design. He is board director for Robert Kennedy's Children's Health Defense and serves on the board for Focus on Health. Brian's analysis of the CDCs data about the Measle-Mumps-Rubella vaccine and autism was published in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons.  For years he has been investigating the scientific evidence for a vaccine-autism connection and the flaws in vaccine safety. Brian also has a  son with autism and has been active in autism community for increasing public awareness about this epidemic. Over the years Brian has filed many FOIAs with federal health agencies and was in receipt of 1000s of pages of documents from a CDC informant, Dr. William Thompson questioning the efficacy and safety of vaccination.  He has been a point independent researcher in the recent whistleblower case with Dr. Thompson from the CDC regarding vaccine dangers. Prof. Hooker received his masters and doctorate in biochemical engineering from Washington State University. For more information, visit ChildrensHealthDefense.org
 
Article: https://prn.fm/covid-vaccines-another-chapter-history-irresponsible-medical-practice-profit-greed/ 

The Gary Null Show - 03.31.21

High-fiber diet may play a role in controlling the inflammation associated with COVID-19
In vitro treatment of cells with these molecules reduced the expression of a gene that plays a key role in viral cell entry and a cytokine receptor.
University of Campinas (Brazil), March 30, 2021
A study conducted at the University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, shows that compounds produced by gut microbiota (bacteria and other microorganisms) during fermentation of insoluble fiber from dietary plant matter do not affect the ability of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 to enter and replicate in cells lining the intestines. However, while in vitro treatment of cells with these molecules did not significantly influence local tissue infection, it reduced the expression of a gene that plays a key role in viral cell entry and a cytokine receptor that favors inflammation.
An article reporting the findings is published in the journal Gut Microbes.
Up to 50% of COVID-19 patients experience gastrointestinal symptoms such as diarrhea, vomiting, and abdominal pain. Such symptoms are detected in 17.6% of severe cases. They are partly associated with viral entry into intestinal cells resulting in alterations to their normal functions. In addition, recent studies point to major changes in patients’ gut microbiota, including a decrease in levels of bacteria that secrete short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) by fermenting dietary fiber. SCFAs are important to colon health and maintenance of intestinal barrier integrity.
The researchers decided to confirm whether SFCAs directly affected the infection of intestinal cells by SARS-CoV-2. Previous studies had suggested alterations in gut microbiota and its products could modify an infected subject’s immune response.
“In earlier research, we found in animals that compounds produced by gut microbiota help protect the organism against respiratory infection. The model used there was respiratory syncytial virus [RSV], which causes bronchiolitis [inflammation of the small airways in the lung] and frequently infects children. Similar results have been obtained by other research groups in studies of different respiratory diseases,” said Patrícia Brito Rodrigues, who has a doctoral scholarship from FAPESP and is joint first author of the article with postdoctoral fellow Livia Bitencourt Pascoal. Rodrigues conducted the research as part of her doctorate at UNICAMP’s Institute of Biology (IB) with a scholarship from FAPESP. 
In the latest study, healthy colon tissue and epithelial cells were infected with SARS-CoV-2 in the laboratory and subjected to a battery of tests.
“Viral load wasn’t reduced and was the same in cells and tissue treated with SCFAs and in untreated samples. However, treated intestinal biopsy samples displayed a significant decrease in expression of the gene DDX58 [an innate immune system receptor that detects viral nucleic acids and activates a signaling cascade that results in production of pro-inflammatory cytokines] and the interferon-lambda receptor, which mediates anti-viral activity. There was also a decrease in expression of the protein TMPRSS2, which is important to viral cell entry,” said Raquel Franco Leal, a professor at UNICAMP’s School of Medical Sciences (FCM), supported by FAPESP and co-principal investigator for the study with Marco Aurélio Ramirez Vinolo, a professor at IB-UNICAMP, also supported by FAPESP.
Protection against inflammation
The researchers took colon tissue samples from 11 patients without COVID-19. They also tested epithelial cells that line the intestines and are in close contact with gut microbiota. Tissue and cell samples were infected with SARS-CoV-2 in IB-UNICAMP’s Laboratory of Emerging Virus Studies (LEVE), a Biosafety Level III (BSL-3) facility led by José Luiz Proença Módena, a professor at IB-UNICAMP and a co-author of the article.
The tissues and cells were treated with a mixture of acetate, propionate and butyrate, compounds produced by gut microbiota metabolization of SCFAs present in dietary fiber. The treatment did not alter viral load in colon biopsies or cells, nor were there any changes in cell wall permeability and integrity. 
“That doesn’t exclude the possibility of significant action by SCFAs on infection by SARS-CoV-2. The anti-viral effects could depend on interaction with other cells in the organism,” Rodrigues said. “We’ll continue our investigation in animal models since the action of these compounds on the infection could depend on a more complete system than the samples we used in vitro [isolated cells and tissues].”
Other tests involving non-treated infected biopsy samples showed an increase in expression of the gene DDX58, which encodes an important viral receptor, and of interferon-beta (IFN-beta), a pro-inflammatory molecule that participates in the cytokine storm associated with severe cases of COVID-19.
“Alterations in genes associated with virus recognition and response during intestinal infection may be relevant to the onset of the inflammatory chain,” Leal said. “In this context, it will be important to deepen the analysis of the effects of SCFAs with these parameters, as this could be significant in severe stages of the disease.”
 
 
Glycine-NAC combo improves multiple defects in aging to boost strength and cognition in older humans
Baylor School of Medicine, March 29, 2021
A pilot human clinical trial conducted by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine reveals that supplementation with GlyNAC—a combination of glycine and N-acetylcysteine as precursors of the natural antioxidant glutathione—could improve many age-associated defects in older humans to improve muscle strength and cognition, and promote healthy aging.
Published in the journal Clinical and Translational Medicine, the results of this study show that older humans taking GlyNAC for 24 weeks saw improvements in many characteristic defects of aging, including glutathione deficiency, oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, inflammation, insulin resistance, endothelial dysfunction, body fat, genomic toxicity, muscle strength, gait speed, exercise capacity and cognitive function. The benefits declined after stopping supplementation for 12 weeks. GlyNAC supplementation was well tolerated during the study period.
"There is limited understanding as to why these defects occur in older humans, and effective interventions to reverse these defects are currently limited or lacking," said corresponding author endocrinologist Dr. Rajagopal Sekhar, associate professor of medicine in the Section of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at Baylor.
For the last 20 years, Sekhar and his team have been studying natural aging in older humans and aged mice. Their work brings mitochondria, known as the batteries of the cell, as well as free radicals and glutathione to the table in discussions about why we age.
Mitochondrial dysfunction and aging
Mitochondria generate energy needed for supporting cellular functions by burning fat and sugar from foods, therefore mitochondrial health is critically important for life. Sekhar believes that improving the health of malfunctioning mitochondria in aging is the key.
As mitochondria generate energy, they produce waste products such as free radicals. These highly reactive molecules can damage cells, membranes, lipids, proteins and DNA. Cells depend on antioxidants, such as glutathione, the most abundant antioxidant in our cells, to neutralize these toxic free radicals. Failing to neutralize free radicals leads to harmful and damaging oxidative stress that can affect mitochondrial function.
Interestingly, glutathione levels in older people are much lower than those in younger people, and the levels of oxidative stress are much higher.
Animal studies conducted in the Sekhar lab have shown that restoring glutathione levels by providing GlyNAC reverses glutathione deficiency, reduces oxidative stress and fully restores mitochondrial function in aged mice.
"In previous work we showed that supplementing HIV patients with GlyNAC improved multiple deficits associated with premature aging observed in those patients," Sekhar said. "In this study, we wanted to understand the effects of GlyNAC supplementation on many age-associated defects in older adults."
GlyNAC improves several hallmark defects in aging
The world population of older humans is rapidly increasing and with it comes an increase in many age-related illnesses. To understand what causes unhealthy aging, scientific research has identified nine hallmark defects which are believed to contribute to the aging process.
"It is believed that correcting these aging hallmarks could improve or reverse many age-related disorders and help people age in a healthier way," Sekhar said. "However, we do not fully understand why these hallmark defects happen, and there are currently no solutions to fix even a single hallmark defect in aging."
This is where Sekhar's trial results become encouraging, because GlyNAC supplementation for 24 weeks appears to improve four of the nine aging hallmark defects.
To further understand whether GlyNAC holds the keys to mitochondrial recovery and more, Sekhar and his team conducted this pilot clinical trial.
"We worked with eight older adults 70 to 80 years of age, comparing them with gender-matched younger adults between 21 and 30 years old," Sekhar said. "We measured glutathione in red-blood cells, mitochondrial fuel-oxidation, plasma biomarkers of oxidative stress and oxidant damage, inflammation, endothelial function, glucose and insulin, gait-speed, muscle strength, exercise capacity, cognitive tests, gene-damage, glucose-production and muscle-protein breakdown rates and body composition. Before taking GlyNAC, all these measurements were abnormal in older adults when compared with those in younger people."
The older participants took GlyNAC for 24 weeks, and then stopped it for 12 weeks. Sekhar and his colleagues repeated the above measurements at the halfway point at 12 weeks, after 24 weeks of taking GlyNAC, and again after stopping GlyNAC for 12 weeks.
"We are very excited by the results," Sekhar said. "After taking GlyNAC for 24 weeks, all these defects in older adults improved and some reversed to the levels found in young adults." The researchers also determined that older adults tolerated GlyNAC well for 24 weeks. The benefits, however, declined after stopping GlyNAC supplementation for 12 weeks.
"I am particularly encouraged by the improvements in cognition and muscle strength," Sekhar said. "Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) are serious medical conditions affecting memory in older people and leading to dementia, and there are no effective solutions for these disorders. We are exploring the possibility that GlyNAC could help with these conditions by conducting two pilot randomized clinical trials to test whether GlyNAC supplementation could improve defects linked to cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease and in MCI, and possibly improve cognitive function."
"The overall findings of the current study are highly encouraging," Sekhar said. "They suggest that GlyNAC supplementation could be a simple and viable method to promote and improve healthy aging in older adults. We call this the 'Power of 3' because we believe that it takes the combined benefits of glycine, NAC and glutathione to reach this far reaching and widespread improvement. We also have completed a randomized clinical trial on supplementing GlyNAC vs. placebo in older adults and those results will be forthcoming soon."
 
Association found between consumption of ultra-processed foods and drinks and colorectal cancer risk
Barcelona Institute for Global Health (Spain), March 23, 2021
Consumption of ultra-processed foods and drink could increase the risk of developing colorectal cancer. This was the conclusion of a large study undertaken by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), a centre supported by the "la Caixa" Foundation, based on questionnaires about food behaviours completed by around 8,000 people in Spain. The study, the first of its kind in the country, also analysed the relationship between ultra-processed food and drink products and two other cancers; while no association was observed with prostate cancer, in the case of breast cancer a higher risk was observed in the sub-group of former and current smokers who reported a diet high in ultra-processed products.
Social, economic and industrial changes have driven a rise in ultra-processed food and drink consumption, which currently accounts for between 25% and 50% of the total energy intake in diets in Europe and in high- and middle-income countries. The Nova classification system groups all foods and drinks into four categories according to how much processing they undergo. Ultra-processed foods--those that undergo the most processing--are industrial formulations with more than five ingredients which usually contain additional substances, such as sugar, fats, salt and additives. Examples of products in this category include sugary soft drinks, ready meals and mass-produced industrial baked goods. 
Several studies have linked the consumption of ultra-processed foods and drinks to health risk factors, cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes and an increased risk of premature death. There are only a few studies on the relationship of these food products with cancer and the results are not entirely conclusive. A French study found an association between the consumption of ultra-processed foods and an increased cancer risk. A Canadian study found an increased risk of developing prostate cancer with a higher intake of processed foods, but not with ultra-processed foods. 
The aim of the present study was to assess whether the consumption of ultra-processed foods and drinks is associated with an increased risk of colorectal, breast or prostate cancer. To this end, the researchers undertook a case-control study of 7,843 adults living in different Spanish provinces: half of the participants had a diagnosis of colorectal (1,852), breast (1,486) or prostate cancer (953); and the other half were people with the same characteristics who did not have cancer. Data were obtained from the multicase-control study MCC-Spain. Dietary data was collected using a validated questionnaire designed to evaluate the frequency of consumption of usual food and drink items over a one-year period. The results were then classified according to the level of processing using the Nova classification. 
The study, published in Clinical Nutrition, concluded that the consumption of ultra-processed foods and beverages is associated with an increased risk of colorectal cancer: a 10% increment in the consumption of ultra-processed foods and drinks was found to be associated with an 11% increase in the risk of developing colorectal cancer. 
Dora Romaguera, first author of the study and researcher at ISGlobal, the Institut d'Investigació Sanitària Illes Balears (IdISBA) and the CIBEROBN, says that this relationship can be explained, in part, "by the low intake of fibre, fruits and vegetables, which are known to offer protection against colorectal cancer, among people who eat a lot of ultra-processed foods, but also by the additives and other substances with carcinogenic potential typically used in processed food products."
In the case of breast cancer, no strong relationship was found, but an association was observed in the group of current and former smokers. Romaguera explains that "smoking is a risk factor for breast cancer, and smoking and certain dietary factors, such as the consumption of ultra-processed foods and beverages, are known to have synergetic effects on cancer development."
No association was found between prostate cancer and a diet high in ultra-processed products. "This finding is not surprising and is consistent with the results of previous studies of dietary factors and prostate cancer risk, in which no link was found," adds Romaguera.
Colorectal and Breast Cancer Cases: Less Healthy Diets
The results of the study showed that people with breast and colorectal cancer, but not those with prostate cancer, reported less healthy diets than people without cancer in the control group. "We found differences in terms of their intake of energy, fibre, energy density and saturated fatty acids. Consumption of ultra-processed foods and beverages was higher among colorectal and breast cancer cases than in the controls", says ISGlobal researcher Sílvia Fernández, joint first author of the study.
The food groups that accounted for the largest proportion of ultra-processed food consumption were sugary beverages (35%), sugary products (19%), ready-to-eat foods (16%) and processed meats (12%). Processed meats have already been classified as carcinogenic by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). However, according to Pilar Amiano, researcher at the Guipúzcoa Public Health Service, which coordinated the study: "ultra-processed foods and drinks in general are not yet classified as carcinogenic because the aim of the IARC was not to assess the overall risk of an individual's diet, but rather to focus on specific components that might be dangerous, such as processed meats". 
She goes on to say that, in light of the results of the present study and the current scientific evidence on the health risks associated with ultra-processed foods and drinks, in particular with respect to cancer, the authors believe "that food and public health policies and the IARC should already be taking food processing into account and discouraging the consumption of ultra-processed products".
 
 
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy impact on telomere length and immunosenescence
Tel Aviv University (Israel), March 23, 2021
 
In a scientifically verified approach, signalling an important breakthrough in the study of aging,  Tel Aviv University and The Sagol Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Research at Shamir Medical Centerannounced today that, for the first time in humans, two key biological hallmarks of aging, telomere length shortening, and accumulation of senescent cells, can be reversed. The prospective clinical trial, published in peer-reviewed Journal Aging,  utilizes Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy protocols to demonstrate cellular level improvement in healthy aging adults.
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy targets aging as a reversible disease
The prospective clinical trial is part of a comprehensive aging research program taking place in Israel. It was conducted by Prof. Shai Efrati, MD, from the Faculty of Medicine and Sagol School of Neuroscience at Tel Aviv University, and Amir Hadanny, MD, Chief Medical Research Officer of The Sagol Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Research and co-author of the study. Using a specific protocol of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT), telomere length was significantly increased and senescent cells were reduced in a population of healthy aging subjects. The study was published in the peer-reviewed journal Aging. Titled: Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Increases Telomere Length and Decreases Immunosenescence in Isolated Blood Cells: A Prospective Trial.
A significant breakthrough in the study of aging
The biological deterioration of aging is cited as a major risk factor for cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease. At the cellular level, two key hallmarks of the aging process are:
The shortening of telomere length of approximately 20-40 bases per year, which is associated with a variety of serious life-threatening illnesses; and
The accumulation of senescent cells, the so-called “old malfunctioning cells,” inhibit cell proliferation. The accumulation of senescence contributes to many age-associated conditions and illnesses, while the elimination of those cells can reverse them, as shown in previous animal studies.   
The first study to evaluate telomere length and senescence
This is the first study to evaluate whether hyperbaric oxygen therapy can affect telomere length and senescence using a specific HBOT protocol. The trial included 35 healthy independent adults aged 64 and older. They did not undergo any lifestyle, diet, or medication adjustments.
How was the study conducted?
Each patient received 60 daily hyperbaric oxygen therapy sessions over the course of 90 days. Whole blood samples were collected prior to treatment, at the 30th and 60th session, and one to two weeks following the last HBOT session, to assess peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PMBCs) telomere length and senescence.
The holy grail of the biology of aging
“After dedicating our HBOT research to exploring its impact on the areas of brain functionality and age-related cognitive decline, we have now uncovered for the first time in humans hyperbaric oxygen therapy’s biological effects at the cellular level in healthy aging adults,” said Prof. Shai Efrati.
“Since telomere shortening is considered the ‘Holy Grail’ of the biology of aging, many pharmacological and environmental interventions are being extensively explored in the hopes of enabling telomere elongation.”
Significant improvement of telomere length
“The significant improvement of telomere length shown during and after these unique hyperbaric oxygen therapy protocols provides the scientific community with a new foundation of understanding that aging can, indeed, be targeted and reversed at the basic cellular-biological level.”
Improvement in just three months
Results found that the telomere length of T helper, T cytotoxic, natural killer, and B cells increased significantly. They rose by over 20 percent, following HBOT. The most significant change was in B cells, which increased during the 30th session, 60th session, and post HBOT by:
25.68%±40.42 (p=0.007)
29.39%±23.39 (p=0.0001)
37.63%±52.73 (p=0.007)
In addition, there was a significant decrease in the number of senescent T helpers by -37.30%±33.04 post-HBOT (P

The Gary Null Show - 03.30.21

Dr. Lyons Weiler is a Senior Research Scientist at the University of Pittsburgh where he is the Scientific Director of the Bioinformatics Analysis Core. He earned his PhD at University of Nevada Reno in Ecology Evolution and Conservation Biology. He has published numerous papers with advanced novel methods for genomic proteomic and integromic data analysis. He has taught genetics, population genetics, biology, evolutionary biology, bioinformatics and clinical research principles. He served as the founding Editor in Chief of Cancer Informatics. He serves as a reviewer of peerreviewed journals in the areas of genomics proteomics bioinformatics and clinical decision analysis. He has organized regional and national meetings in bioinformatics. He was the recipient of the Sloan/US DOE Postdoctoral Award in Computational Molecular Biology under the tutelage of Dr Masatoshi Nei and Web Miller at the Pennsylvania State University