In flies and mice, diets based on an organisms genome enhance growth and fertility with no costs to lifespan, according to a team of researchers from UCL and the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing in Cologne.

A moderate reduction in food intake, known as dietary restriction, protects against multiple ageing-related diseases and extends life span, but can also supress growth and fertility. To avoid these damaging effects, the scientists designed a special diet based on the genome of the model organism.

In the study, published today in Cell Metabolism, the team calculated the amount of amino acids a fruit fly would need, thereby defining the diets amino acid composition.

The fly genome is entirely known. For our studies we used only the sections in the genetic material that serve as templates for protein assembly the exons, which collectively make up the exome. Then we calculated the relative abundance of each amino acid in the exome, and designed a fly diet that reflects this amino acid composition, explained George Soultoukis, who works alongside Professor Linda Partridge, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing in Cologne and at the UCL Institute of Healthy Ageing in London.

Using a chemically-defined fly diet previously developed by the team to enable manipulation of individual nutrients such as amino acids, the group found that flies eating the exome-matched diet develop a lot faster, grow bigger in size, and lay more eggs compared to flies fed a standard diet.

Remarkably, the flies on the exome-matched diet lived as long as slower-growing, fewer-egg-laying flies fed with standard diets. The flies that had free access to the exome-matched diet even ate less than controls. Thus, high quality protein, as defined by the genome, appears to have a higher satiety value, said Dr Matthew Piper, who conducted the work at UCL and is now working at Monash University.

The study also found that similar phenomena may occur in mice, and future mouse work could further improve our understanding of how and why diets affect mammalian lifespan including human lifespan.

Our aim now is to characterize the effects of genome-based diets upon mammalian lifespan. Dietary interventions based on amino acids can be a powerful strategy for protecting human health. Obviously factors such as age, gender, health, and personal lifestyle also have to be taken into account.

Future studies may still employ novel -omics data to design diets whose amino acid supply matches the needs of an organism with even higher precision. Understanding why we need amino acids in the amounts we do will be key, and such studies provide novel and powerful insights into the vital interactions between nature and nurture, concluded George Soultoukis.

Research paper inCell Metabolism

Professor Dame Linda Partridges academic profile

UCL Institute of Healthy Ageing

UCL Life Sciences

Researchers used the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster for their studies on genome-based diet (Credit: Sebastian Grnke/Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing)

The Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing in Cologne

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Genome-based diets improve growth, fertility and lifespan - HealthCanal.com (press release) (blog)

Detox diets have been quite a rage in the recent years and have almost become another choice for people looking to lose weight via dieting. Now that summers are here, many of you must planning to shed weight to fit in your summer outfits. To help you with that we have listed some common facts about detox diets that will help you choose the right path to hit your goals!

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It is true that our body has a natural mechanism to purify our body. Toxins that accumulate in the body (food, air, tobacco, cosmetics, drugs, heavy metals, stress) are eliminated at varying speeds depending on your metabolism. You can help your body detoxify all year long, especially with foods rich in antioxidants like fresh fruit and vegetables that are organic and dont contain pesticides.

Absolutely not! Fasting or drastic dieting is not the same as detoxing. The word diet gets confused with the concept of the detox in many places. Dieting and detoxing are two different approaches that may or may not have the same goal. In fact, the aim of detox is not necessarily to lose weight. However, you should definitely try and avoid sugar, junk food and barbequed food which hinder the work of the emunctories.

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Juices and soups are no good for health because they contain high quantities of sugar and salt, and have less fibre than eating the equivalent fresh fruit or vegetables whole. Second, a liquid-only diet isnt advisable, as you could end up starving yourself, since the body needs a minimum amount of protein to function. Small quantities of white meat or pulses are recommended.

A course of certain plant-based dietary supplements or herbal teas can be used to support and optimize detox performances in periods of burn-out, stress or fatigue, for example. Artichoke, milk thistle, rosemary, turmeric, fennel, birch, dandelion, black radish, queen-of-the-meadow and fumaria are the most effective. Some plants, like chlorella, spirulina and laminaria japonica help combat heavy metals (mercury, aluminum, lead).

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Massages in the abdominal region home to three groups of emunctory organs: the liver, the kidneys and the intestines can help flush out toxins. But lymphatic drainage is even more effective, promoting blood circulation and helping the lymphatic system to drain out waste substances which arent filtered out by blood.

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Planning A Detox Diet For Summers? Here Are Few Things You Should Know Before You Try One - Indiatimes.com

Obesity and pain are significant public health problems. This was an attempt to take a very detailed snapshot of how they might be related, Emery said. We were interested in the possibility of an inflammatory mechanism explaining the connection because we know theres a high degree of inflammation associated with obesity and with pain.

Emerys research team asked 98 men and women between the ages of 20 and 78 detailed questions about their diet and pain levels while visiting them in their homes. They also measured their body mass index, waist circumference and body fat percentage.

Participants who consumed more anti-inflammatory proteins had lower pain levels.

For people with obesity, its kind of like a cloud hanging over them because they experience high levels of pain and inflammation, Emery said.

Potential weaknesses of the study include the lack of blood samples that would allow the researchers to look at inflammatory markers. Participants were also only asked about their pain during the previous month, which does not account for chronic pain of a longer duration.

Emery said his next step is to examine body fat and pain using biomarkers associated with inflammation.

Im interested in how our work can contribute to effective treatments for overweight and obese individuals, he said.

A previous study at Ohio State found that anti-inflammatory diets can boost bone health, prevent fractures and lower the risk of osteoporosis in women.

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Mediterranean Diet May Reduce Pain Caused by Obesity - Pain News Network

One thing most food experts agree is that a varied and interesting diet is best. So it is unfortunate that some people have coeliac disease: it condemns them to a lifetime of avoiding the many delicious staple foods made with wheat flour. Thats because people with the disease thought to number 1 per cent of the population risk real harm if they ingest gluten, a key part of wheat and related grains.

In addition, the less well-understood condition of non-coeliac gluten sensitivity means that a further 4 to 6 per cent may suffer minor problems, although the science behind this is far from definitive. So its not surprising that surveys show that around 5 per cent of UK consumers avoid gluten because someone in their household has a reaction to it.

Slightly more puzzling are the 8 per cent who say they avoid gluten as part of a healthier lifestyle. This figure rises to 10 per cent among the highest socio-economic groups and to 12 per cent for graduates.

Despite the claims of a few sensationalist books, there is no evidence that avoiding gluten is in any way beneficial for the vast majority. But somehow a gluten-free diet has become a lifestyle accessory for many, especially the more educated and financially privileged.

Ditching gluten if you dont need to defies logic. It is a mix of proteins, nothing more, and for the vast majority is non-toxic. Given that its elastic, binding properties help give many of our most treasured foods such as bread and pasta their wonderful taste and texture, why avoid it if you dont have to?

Perhaps more people should note the growing evidence of possible downsides of avoidance. The latest shows there may an association between avoiding gluten and a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Thats the result of work at Harvard University tracking the diet and health of nearly 200,000 people in the US, presented to a meeting of the American Heart Association this week.

Thats on top of what we already know about the negatives of gluten-free diets: that they tend to be considerably more expensive, lower in fibre and deficient in micronutrients such as vitamin B12, folate, zinc, magnesium, selenium and calcium. So much for healthy choices.

Although often demonised as empty carbs, foods made using wheat can be highly nutritious. The rice, potato and tapioca starches used in many gluten-free replacements are often less so. And the high levels of fat and sugar that can be required to compensate for glutens near-magical structural properties means that anyone who considers gluten-free as a byword for healthier food is mistaken.

To make matters worse, the trend for self-diagnosis of gluten sensitivity is potentially harmful for people who are actually undiagnosed coeliacs. Without proper diagnosis, which is only possible before gluten is excluded from the diet, they are less likely to stick to the strict, lifelong regimen needed to manage their condition. They then risk gut damage, osteoporosis and some types of cancer.

Those advocating gluten-free for all as a path to better health are not just mistaken, they are putting people at risk of real harm.

This article was originally published on New Scientist: Click here to view the original. 2017 All Rights reserved. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency.

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That faddish gluten-free diet may be raising your diabetes risk - SBS

What if your psychiatrist prescribed yogurt and vegetables as an antidepressant?

It may sound like alternative medicine, but researchers at the intersection of psychiatry and biochemistry think that adding certain beneficial bacteriato a persons intestinescouldbethe future fortreating anxiety and depression.

Diet and Depression

Studies have found thata diet high in vegetables and low in processed foods correlates with lower rates of depression.But showing that what you eat actually affects your mental health has been more complicated, because people who are depressed may be less likely to eat healthier, as opposed tothe other way around.

But now, in a recentstudy out of Australias Deakin University, scientistssay they have used food to effectively treat depression.

Its the first controlled experiment, to our knowledge, to show that dietary intervention can curb mood disorders, says Dr. Felice Jacka, a psychiatrist at Deakin and the studys lead researcher.

Deakin and colleagues recruited 56 people, all of whom met two criteria: They wereclinically diagnosed with moderate to severe depression, and they had consumed a lot of sweets and processed meats at the expense ofhealthier foodslike fruit, vegetables and fish.

The participants were then randomly assigned to one of two treatments: diet counseling or befriending.

Over the course of the 12-week study, subjects in the diet intervention group regularly met with nutritionists who counseled them to increase their consumption of vegetables, whole grains and fish, and to decrease their intake of junk food.

The patients who were subject to befriending met with trained research assistants to discuss topics like hobbies or board games; they did not receive any psychological therapy.This group served as a control to ensure that any improvement in the diet intervention group wouldnot be due to positive social interaction with the nutritionist.

At the end of the 12 weeks, all of the participants were re-evaluated, using the same depression measures asat the studys start. The results? While both groups showed fewer symptoms of depression, thosewho had received the diet intervention were significantly less depressed than those in the control group.

Furthermore, the more healthy changes that the subjects made to their diet, the less depressed they were at the end of the study.

It was pretty remarkable, Jackasays. Their level of improvement correlated closely with the level of improvement to their diet.

How Can Food Affect Our Mood?

At the end of the study, the researchers found similar levels of biomarkers like glucose and cholesterol in the diet and control groups. The groups did not differ in the overall amount of exercise they had engaged in.

So what happened to the group with the improved diet to make them less depressed?

While many people intuit that they are what they eat when it comes to mental health, Jacka and other researchers believe there is another factor at work: our intestines, and thesignals they send to our brains.

We are still only starting to tease all of this out, saysMelanie Gareau,a physiologist at UC Davis who specializes in understanding interactions between ourbrain and our gut. Given all that we know about thatlink, the Australian study results make sense, she says.

Weve known for quite a while that over 95 percent of the serotonin in our bodies is produced in the intestines, says Gareau. As serotonin is one of the primary neurotransmitters mediating depression, she thinks itsno surprise that what goes into our intestines can affect our emotions.

But its not just about the food we are eating, she says. Its how that food interacts with the trillions of bacterial cells that live in our guts, collectively calledour microbiome.

Gareau points to a small study out ofUCLA that showsthe effect of probiotics micro-organisms believed to be beneficial to humans on brain activity.

In the study, 12 women over the course of a month were given yogurt containing Bifidobacteria and Lactobacillus.Both of these have been associated with decreased depression in rodents, and there have been suggestive links between those types of bacteria and mood inhuman studiesas well.Although its not clear whether taking probiotics with these particular bacteria changes the overall profile of our microbiome for any extended length of time, ingesting them does increasetheir levels for shorter periods.

In the UCLA study, after four weeks of consuming these probiotics, the women completed an emotional response task in which they viewed pictures of angry and fearful faces, while their brain activity was recorded through functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI. The procedure, which measures changes in blood flow within the brain, showed which areas were activated while the subjects viewed theimages.

The faces [we used] can trigger threat responses in people, explains Dr. Kirsten Tillisch, the studys lead researcher and a gastroenterologist at UCLA. And we know that people with anxiety show increased responses to them.

As it turnedout,the women who took the probiotics showed lessbrain activity when viewingthe emotional images than women who took a placebo. Dr. Emeran Mayer, a co-researcher in the study and the author of The Mind-Gut Connection, explains that this kind of dampened response resembles the pattern you might expect to see in someone who isnt hyper-reactive to the environment.

The brains reactivity to threatening stimuli is reduced. So you could speculate that these people might be less prone to anxiety, Mayersays.

Is it the Food or the Bacteria?

But if our microbiome affects our mood, how so? Researchers think the processmightoccur through metabolites,a byproduct released bybacteria that feedson food our bodies cannot fully break down.

These metabolites can enter into the bloodstream or nervous system, travel up to our brain, and influence how neurons talk to one another. Metabolites may also serve as messengers, signaling cells in the intestines to increase or decrease compounds like serotonin.

Carlito Lebrilla, a professor of biochemistry and molecular medicineat UC Davis, says you have to look at both the bacteria and the food to understand whats happening.

Although there has been an increase in the marketing of probiotic supplements in recent years, especially for improvingphysical health, probiotics are not doing all of the work here, Lebrillaexplains. Ingesting probiotics, whether through supplements or a food like yogurt, lays down some of that good intestinal bacteria, so that they are poised and ready to give off the right kind ofmetabolites. However, whether or not your gut bacteria produce those metabolites depends on thefood you eat afterward.

So you can eat a probiotic food like yogurtall day and still not experiencethe potentially positive effects, Lebrillasays. Thats because we still dont know which metabolites make our brains feel better, which bacteria give off those metabolites, and which kinds of foods feed those bacteria.

Thats what we are trying to do right now, Lebrilla says. He says that while scientists have identifieda few types of bacteria that are likely to give off good metabolites, there are hundreds and possibly thousandsof bacterial strains in our intestines. If we could map out the specific bacteria-metabolite combinations that reduce anxiety and depression, we would be a step closer to creating customized diets for our brains. Its something that could take a couple of decades to accomplish, Lebrillasays, but its not that far-fetched.

In the meantime, both Jacka and Mayer point out that over tens of thousands of years, our bodies have evolved in concert with the microbiota in our intestines to function optimally with the foods we have been eating.For millennia we fed off of a mostly plant-based and lean-meat diet. Butin recent years there have been profound changes to the kinds of foods we eat, Jacka says, particularly in the reduced amount of vegetables and increased amount of sugar.

Its wildly different from what we were eating even a generation ago.

Taking that into consideration, what the findings from her study might really show is not a new diet to curb mood disorders, but rather how we might look back to the foods our ancestors ate in order to restore balance to our bodies and brains.

Link:
Can Probiotics Help Your Depression? What We Know, What We Don't - KQED

Home General Health If you have varicose veins, dont do this.

Everyone knows about varicose veins and everyone dreads them. Aside from the obvious aesthetic concernbluish, unsightly, bulging veins arent particularly attractivevaricose veins spell discomfort, pain, and even dangerous health hazards like blood clots, ulcers, and deep vein thrombosis. The symptoms of varicosis extend beyond the visual symptoms. Patients commonly report itchiness, fatigue, swelling, and discomfort. Regardless of whether you have varicose veins or not, youve probably heard a lot about this condition. Lets take a look at some common myths about varicose veins and try to find a grain of truth.

Crossing your legs will give you varicose veins. This is probably the most well-known fact about varicosis. If theres just one thing that youve heard about varicose veins, most likely this is it. For many people, sitting cross-legged is a matter of habit and comfortso does it mean all of them are going to develop unsightly veins? The quick answer is no. The reason why veins bulge is because blood pools inside them and exerts pressure on the area. Because the culprit is in the vein itself, the pressure is internal, while crossing your legs exerts external pressure. According to Dr. James Bekeny, a vascular surgeon at Cleveland Clinic, the most likely cause of your varicose veins is defective valves or weakened vein walls. Sitting cross-legged does not cause varicosis, but it can aggravate the already existing condition.

If a relative has varicose veins, you will develop them too. Believe it or not, if your parents or grandparents suffered from varicose veins, it doesnt automatically put you at risk. As you know, our cardiovascular and circulatory health is greatly affected by our lifestyle, which includes our occupation, our habits, and what we choose to do in our spare time. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute found that only half of all people with unhealthy veins had a family history of the condition. So, if one of your relatives has varicose veins, theres no reason to get alarmedbut there is a reason to take more care. Your genes do (somewhat) predispose you to vein problems, so if you suspect you may be at risk, review your lifestyle and make appropriate changes.

You cant tattoo over varicose veins. According to Dr. Bekeny, there is no relationship between varicosis and inking the affected area. Some people actually go for tattoos with the intention to cover their ugly veins. But while body ink may seem to be a great solution to the problem, this is usually not the case. First and foremost, ugly veins are not just a cosmetic concern. Even if you do succeed on the visual side, the deeper issue of pooling blood and unhealthy circulation is still there. And the bad news is, in many cases, the result does not meet the expectations. Tattooing over varicose veins often results in a distorted tattoo, ruptured veins, bleeding, or an infection. While there is no cause-and-effect relationship between tattoos and varicosisand there isnt necessarily a medical warning preventing you from getting a tattoobody art is not a solution and comes with more cons than pros.

The more you know about a condition, the better you are equipped to prevent it and handle it correctly. Varicose veins are not the most pleasant thing you experience, but its not the end of the world. With proper care, you can safely manage the condition and even reduce the unsightly appearance. Good old methods such as keeping your weight within a healthy range and supplementing your diet with nutrients that can strengthen vein walls can, in fact, greatly benefit your legsand your veins!

Related Reading:

Thrombophlebitis (phlebitis) can cause superficial thrombophlebitis or deep vein thrombosis

Eliminate Your Varicose Veins (In Time For Summer!) with these 5 Natural Remedies

https://startsat60.com/health/the-varicose-vein-myths-you-need-to-forget https://www.palmveincenter.com/education/can-you-tattoo-over-varicose-veins

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If you have varicose veins, don't do this. - Bel Marra Health