New Hampshire Health News Digest

Keto diets may reverse polycystic kidney disease - Futurity KETOSIS TO FIGHT POLYCYSTIC KIDNEY DISEASE In previous studies, the research team found that reducing food intake in mouse models slowed the growth of polycystic kidneys; but at the time, they did not know why. In the new paper, the scientists identified the specific metabolic process responsible for slowing the progress of the disease. The best part? It’s a process many of us already know well. “There’s a way of avoiding the development of the cysts through dietary interventions that lead to ketosis,” Weimbs says. You read that right: Ketosis, the underlying metabolic state of popular diets such as the  ketogenic diet , and, to a lesser extent, time-restricted feeding (a form of intermittent fasting), has been shown in the Weimbs group’s studies to stall and even reverse PKD. “The cysts appear to be largely glucose-dependent,” Weimbs explains. In people with the predisposition toward PKD, the continuous supply of sugar ...

Red meat halves risk of depression - Telegraph : Experts admitted surprise at the findings because so many other studies have linked red meat to physical health risks. The team made the link after a study of 1000 Australian women. Professor Felice Jacka, who led the research by Deakin University, Victoria, said: "We had originally thought that red meat might not be good for mental health but it turns out that it actually may be quite important.

How broken sleep promotes cardiovascular disease : Most people have at some point echoed Macbeth’s complaint about the loss of “sleep that knits up the ravelled sleeve of care”. Sleep disorders, such as obstructive sleep apnoea (when breathing temporarily stops, causing both sleep disruption and lack of oxygen in blood) and sleep deprivation, have been associated with an increased risk of atherosclerosis and its harmful cardiovascular effects1,2. Atherosclerosis is characterized by the formation of ‘plaques’ in arteries, as white blood cells enter the artery wall, take up cholesterol and other substances from the blood and trigger an inflammatory response. However, the mechanisms linking sleep disruption and atherosclerosis have been largely unknown. Writing in Nature, McAlpine et al.3 show that persistent sleep disruption causes the brain to signal the bone marrow to increase the production of white blood cells. McAlpine et al. studied mice that were prone to developing atherosclero...