By the time we reach 80 years of age, half of us will have significant Cognitive Decline. Some will be told we have Alzheimer’s Disease. While I think we are medicalizing “normal” dotage, it is still prudent to do our best to avoid mental decline. How do we do that? We have heard ad nauseum we do well to reduce stress, eschew sugar and eat a lot of veggies, specifically the colorful ones. See below.
Hugo Rodier, MD
Higher intake of flavonols may slow rate of cognitive decline
“CNN (11/28/22, LaMotte) reports, “Eating more flavonols, antioxidants found in many vegetables, fruits, tea and wine, may slow your rate of memory loss, a…study finds.” According to the findings published in Neurology, “the cognitive score of people in the study who ate the most flavonols declined 0.4 units per decade more slowly than those who ate the fewest flavonols.” These “results held even after adjusting for other factors that can affect memory, such as age, sex and smoking, according to the study.”
Mindfulness-based stress reduction noninferior to escitalopram for anxiety
Healio Minute, November 15, 2022
“Mindfulness-based stress reduction was found to be noninferior to escitalopram for the treatment of anxiety disorders, researchers reported in JAMA Psychiatry. Elizabeth A. Hoge, MD, the director of the anxiety disorders research program at Georgetown University School of Medicine aimed to determine whether mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) was noninferior to escitalopram, a commonly used psychopharmacological treatment for anxiety disorders.
Comment: the evidence that pharmaceutical treatment of depression is not as good as marketed is overwhelming. This doesn’t mean we should never consider taking an antidepressant, but that we do well to look at non-pharmaceutical treatments supported by equally rigorous evidence.
Babies born via cesarean section may have weaker immune response after some childhood vaccines
“HealthDay (11/16/22, Mann) reports, “Babies born via cesarean section may not mount as strong an immune response after some childhood vaccines compared to babies delivered vaginally, researchers suggest.” The study showed that “babies born vaginally had higher levels of antibodies in their saliva to pneumonia shots at one year and meningococcal shots at 18 months,” as well as “changes in their populations of good and bad gut bacteria that reflected the higher antibody responses to the two vaccines.” The findings of the study conducted in the Netherlands were published in Nature Communications.”
Comment: remember that the microbiome is 2/3 of the immune system. Babies born C-section are not exposed to their mother’s microbiome as much.
Association between blood levels of vitamin D and insulin resistance
“HealthDay (11/11, Roberts Murez) reported, “Two new studies found an association between levels of vitamin D in the blood and insulin resistance, a precursor to full-blown diabetes,” investigators reported after examining “data from two major heart-health studies, each of which tested patients’ blood for 25-hydroxyvitamin D.” One study, published online in the journal Nutrition & Diabetes, “examined vitamin D levels in the blood collected from more than 3,300 Black participants in the Jackson Heart Study between 2000 and 2004,” while a second study, published online in BMJ Open Diabetes Research & Care, “examined more than 5,600 participants in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis” study that “included a range of white, Black, Hispanic and Chinese Americans.”
Comment: insulin resistance is a significant mechanism in metabolic diseases (Obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular problems). Best to keep vitamin D levels ~70.
Endocrine-disrupting (ED) chemicals, race may influence uterine fibroid disparities
Healio Minute, October 27, 2022
“ANAHEIM, Calif. — Interactions between endocrine-disrupting chemicals and race may affect the elevated incidence of uterine fibroids among Black women. Gabriela Beroukhim, MD and Pinar H. Kodaman, MD, PhD, associate professor of clinical obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at Yale School of Medicine, [conducted a] large, population-based study including 3,399 participants. Black women had 2.28 higher adjusted odds of uterine fibroids compared with white women. For 47% of endocrine-disrupting chemicals evaluated, researchers observed a variation in mean urine concentration with race. Mono-n-methyl phthalate (P = .015) were the most significant in tests for associations with uterine fibroids. Mono-benzyl phthalate, mono-n-methyl phthalate, mono-n-butyl phthalate and triclosan accounted for 32% of the uterine fibroid variance. Mono-n-methyl phthalate had the strongest effect.”
Comment: ED have also been implicated in ovarian, uterine, breast and prostate cancer. They are also dubbed “Xenoestrogens,” or Foreign Estrogens. As such, they over-stimulate those tissues.
Probiotics improve asthma control, lung function
Healio Minute, October 04, 2022
“Bifidobacterium infantis 35624 can decrease levels of dysfunctional T regulatory cells. There were no significant differences in Asthma Control Test scores between the probiotic and placebo groups. 93.3% of the probiotic group and 35.7% of the placebo group achieved well-controlled asthma after 4 weeks of treatment. The need to use rescue inhalers [was reduced] according to a letter published in Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology.”
Comment: inflammation in the bronchioles, as well as everywhere else in the body, originates in the microbiome. See below.
Healing the GUT with probiotics: can probiotics help relieve allergic rhinitis?
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/gutjnl-2022-IDDF.75
“Despite different strains used, three studies from Japan reported their potential of probiotic supplementations in suppressing gut microbiota changes during the pollen season. A recent study in 2017 highlighted that fermented milk containing LGG and L. gasseri increased microbial diversity; Firmicutes were significantly increased (P < 0.001), while Bacteroidetes were significantly decreased after probiotic administration (P < 0.001). LGG was detected in the probiotic group, but not those in the placebo group at the end of the study. Besides combatting gut dysbiosis, probiotic supplementation can reduce the severity of AR symptoms and improve quality of life, as reported by Torre and the team in Italy. Serum levels of IL-4 and IL-5 decreased after the intervention, implying a reduction in the Th2 cytokine profile.
While all studies have supported the safe use of probiotics, these evidence warrants further investigations into the efficacy of probiotics for the long-term management of AR and the exact mechanisms behind their immunomodulatory effects.”
Comment: Dr. Metchnikoff won the Nobel Prize way back in 1908 for saying all that. Why has his work lay dormant for so long? I leave you to ponder the answer.
