New Hampshire Health News Digest

Israel scientists say they have gathered the most convincing evidence to date that increased vitamin D levels can help COVID-19 patients reduce the risk of serious illness or death. Researchers from Bar Ilan University and the Galilee Medical Center say that the vitamin has such a strong impact on disease severity that they can predict how people would fare if infected based on nothing more than their ages and vitamin D levels. Lacking vitamin D significantly increases danger levels, they concluded in newly peer-reviewed research published Thursday in the journal PLOS One. Top articles on The Times of Israel Read More UK comedian Jimmy Carr causes outrage with Roma Holocaust joke The study is based on research conducted during Israel’s first two waves of the virus, before vaccines were widely available, and doctors emphasized that vitamin supplements were not a substitute for vaccines, but rather a way to keep immunity levels from falling. Vitamin D deficiency is endemic across

Elevated LDL Cholesterol with a Carbohydrate-Restricted Diet: Evidence for a “Lean Mass Hyper-Responder” Phenotype Nicholas G Norwitz, David Feldman, Adrian Soto-Mota, Tro Kalayjian, David S Ludwig Current Developments in Nutrition, Volume 6, Issue 1, January 2022, nzab144, https://doi.org/10.1093/cdn/nzab144 Published: 30 November 2021 Article history Fit people have greater LDL increase doing low carb, if I'm reading this correctly? ABSTRACT Background People commencing a carbohydrate-restricted diet (CRD) experience markedly heterogenous responses in LDL cholesterol, ranging from extreme elevations to reductions. Objectives The aim was to elucidate possible sources of heterogeneity in LDL cholesterol response to a CRD and thereby identify individuals who may be at risk for LDL cholesterol elevation. Methods Hypothesis-naive analyses were conducted on web survey data from 548 adults consuming a CRD. Univariate and multivariate regression models and regression trees were buil

Early Time-Restricted Feeding Improves Insulin Sensitivity, Blood Pressure, and Oxidative Stress Even without Weight Loss in Men with Prediabetes Elizabeth F Sutton 1, Robbie Beyl 1, Kate S Early 2, William T Cefalu 3, Eric Ravussin 1, Courtney M Peterson 4 Intermittent fasting (IF) improves cardiometabolic health; however, it is unknown whether these effects are due solely to weight loss. We conducted the first supervised controlled feeding trial to test whether IF has benefits independent of weight loss by feeding participants enough food to maintain their weight. Our proof-of-concept study also constitutes the first trial of early time-restricted feeding (eTRF), a form of IF that involves eating early in the day to be in alignment with circadian rhythms in metabolism. Men with prediabetes were randomized to eTRF (6-hr feeding period, with dinner before 3 p.m.) or a control schedule (12-hr feeding period) for 5 weeks and later crossed over to the other schedule. eTRF improved insul

Substantiating EBV’s causal role in MS has been fraught with challenges, partly because EBV infections are so common. About 95% of adults get infected with the virus, yet only a tiny fraction of people ever develops MS. Moreover, the onset of MS symptoms occurs, on average, a decade after EBV infection, and some studies have found that MS develops 30 years after the EBV caused mononucleosis, says Kassandra Munger, Sc.D., a senior research scientist at Harvard public health school and one of the study’s two senior co-authors. “We can consider EBV necessary to developing MS, but there need to be other mitigating factors, such as a genetic predisposition,” says Munger says. Cigarette smoking, vitamin D deficiency and obesity, particularly early in life, could play a role in whether EBV infection leads to MS. https://www.managedhealthcareexecutive.com/view/harvard-researchers-identify-epstein-barr-virus-as-a-cause-of-ms

A 113-g serving of lean beef increased muscle protein synthesis by approximately 50% in both young and older volunteers. Despite a threefold increase in protein and energy content, there was no further increase in protein synthesis after ingestion of 340 g lean beef in either age group. Ingestion of more than 30 g protein in a single meal does not further enhance the stimulation of muscle protein synthesis in young and elderly. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19699838/

Other labs around the world have tried to figure out if brown fat matters in other ways. In rodent studies, activating brown fat with cold temperatures has been found to regulate fatty acid and glucose levels. That led some researchers to suspect that the tissue can help protect against dysfunctional glucose processing in diabetes and fatty acid processing in obesity. So far, some studies in adult people have linked brown fat’s presence to leanness and normal blood sugar. (In 2013, WIRED covered an independent researcher’s quest to harness brown adipose for weight loss.) But it’s not as simple a proposition as braving a little cold, tacking on some brown fat, and then losing weight. The story is a bit more complicated. After the brown fat discoveries in 2009, Joris Hoeks, a diabetes researcher at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, was curious about its role in controlling blood sugar. His team recruited people with type 2 diabetes for a cold acclimation study. An important ha

Higher potassium intake (3g/day) decreased risk of heart disease by 25%, and higher magnesium intake (320 mg/day) decreased risk by 34%. Decreasing sodium had no effect. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0091743575900377

One of the only silver linings of the pandemic has been that young people are less affected by COVID-19 than the elderly. In fact, the most vital indicator of negative COVID-19 outcomes is age: Unlike the Spanish flu, which ravaged armies that were overwhelmingly comprised of otherwise healthy young people during World War I, COVID-19's death toll is dramatically skewed toward those who have already lived many years. (For context, the average age of death from Spanish flu was 28.) That said, about 600 Americans under the age of 18 have died of COVID-19 during the pandemic. A new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) took a closer look at young people who were hospitalized for COVID-19 in July and August, while the delta variant wave took hold, and largely found that healthy young people continue to mostly evade the worst of COVID-19. The study found that most young people who suffer severe COVID-19 outcomes had underlying health conditions. The most comm

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison say fasting and calorie restriction resulted in mice living longer and healthier lives. The study authors say it sheds new light on how and when people eat can regulate metabolic health. Researchers studying the effects of calorie restricted diets in animals is nothing new. Dudley Lamming, an associate professor of medicine at UW-Madison, and graduate student Heidi Pak were in the midst of a calorie restriction study using mice when Pak noticed the mice ate the food they were given within two hours, going another 22 hours before eating again. "Heidi really picked up on this and wanted to see whether or not the effect of fasting for so long during the day was really contributing to the effects of calorie restriction," said Lamming. "And that's something that nobody else has ever really investigated." Lamming, Pak and 14 other researchers from UW-Madison and the University of Alabama, Birmingham devised a ser

According to WebMD, "For ALD, the cause is too much alcohol. You may be even more likely to get it if you drink a lot and Are obese Are malnourished Have chronic viral hepatitis, especially hepatitis C Have genes that make you more likely to get it Are an African-American or Hispanic male Age — the older you are, the more likely it becomes. The reason why some people with NAFLD have simple fatty liver and others get NASH isn't known. Genes may be a reason. NAFLD or NASH is more likely if: You're overweight or obese Your body doesn't respond to insulin as it should (called insulin resistance) or if you have type 2 diabetes You have high levels of triglycerides or "bad" (LDL) cholesterol, or low levels of "good" (HDL) cholesterol You're older You have polycystic ovary syndrome You have sleep apnea You have an underactive thyroid (the doctor will call this hypothyroidism) You have an underactive pituitary gland (you'll hear this called hypopi

Taking a look at the numbers One in four individuals with diabetes reports having depressive symptoms The lifetime prevalence of depression in women with diabetes is 10-25% The lifetime prevalence of depression in men with diabetes is five to twelve percent 52% of individuals with diabetes report experiencing social stigma related to their disorder Type 2 diabetes is associated with a 20 percent increased risk for depression Depression is associated with a 60 percent increased risk for type 2 diabetes https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/happiness-is-state-mind/202112/the-relationship-between-diabetes-and-depression

"If you’ve tried to stop procrastinating but haven’t managed to be successful yet, this guide is for you. I’m going to walk you step-by-step through 5 of the most effective anti-procrastination strategies I know of. As a professional psychologist, these are the strategies I use day-in and day-out to help my clients eliminate procrastination and massively increase productivity. Here are the 5 best strategies you can use to stop procrastinating. You can quickly jump to the one that looks most interesting using the links below: Productive Procrastination The Seinfeld Method The Procrastination Equation Digital Minimalism Mindfulness Okay, let’s dive in!" https://nickwignall.com/how-to-stop-procrastinating/

The most effective motivational techniques were not based on guilt, shame, or promises of a healthier, happier body and mind. Rather, the most motivation came from giving members a tiny amount of credit points to their Amazon account per gym visit. Even if the credit amounted to mere pennies, the system tended to get more people to the gym more often and consistently than these other common motivational measures: Reminding people about their commitment to go to the gym Explaining why various types of exercise are important Text message interventions that reminded users of the workouts they found most fun or effective Researchers purposefully set the amount users could earn to be “inconsequential,” Dena Gromet, one of the co-authors, told Inverse. The most anyone ever earned for a gym visit was $1.79. If they lasted through seven days, that would be enough to purchase a six-item Bert’s Bees gift package. Still, people responded best to the language of money. “I think the take-home me

Some of the most popular meditation practices emphasize a relaxed focus of attention in which thoughts, images, sensations, and emotions may emerge and pass freely without actively controlling or pursuing them. Several recent studies show that meditation activates frontal brain areas associated with attention focusing and physical relaxation. The objective of the present study was to assess whether brain activation during relaxed focusing on a meditation sound could be distinguished from similar, concentrative control tasks. Brain activation was measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in experienced practitioners of Acem meditation. Bilateral areas of the inferior frontal gyrus (BA47) were significantly more activated during repetition of a meditation sound than during concentrative meditation-like cognitive tasks. Meditation-specific brain activation did not habituate over time, but increased in strength with continuous meditation bouts. These observations suggest t