University of California Los Angeles

High-Cholesterol Diets Can Speed Up Tumour Growth 100-Fold, Scientists Say

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Diets high in cholesterol can ramp up the speed of cancer tumour growth by up to 100 times, a new study has revealed – but as scary as that is, the findings could also lead to better treatments to stop this from happening.

The research began as a way of studying a correlation between high-cholesterol diets and an increased risk of colon cancer. That link has already been identified but scientists still don’t understand much about its cause.

According to the team of researchers, stem cells could be the key: these cells can be turned into almost any kind of cell in the body, and it appears the extra cholesterol is increasing the rate at which these stem cells multiply, and then the rate at which tumours grow.

“We were excited to find that cholesterol influences the growth of stem cells in the intestines, which in turn accelerates the rate of tumour formation by more than 100-fold,” says one of the team, Peter Tontonoz from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA).

“While the connection between dietary cholesterol and colon cancer is well established, no one has previously explained the mechanism behind it.”

In tests on mice, the researchers noticed increased tumour growth rates after putting more cholesterol in the animals’ diets. Growth rates also increased in another group of mice where a specific gene was changed to get the animals to produce more cholesterol on their own.

Once the cholesterol levels of the mice rose, the stem cells’ ability to multiply increased, which then caused their intestines and gut tissue lining to expand. As a result, the rate of tumour formation in their colons also went up.

Now the challenge is to see if the same cholesterol effect can be noticed for other types of cancers, as well as finding methods for stopping it. If the same results can be recorded in humans, we could have a new way of fighting colon and other cancers.

The research also helps in the ongoing debate over whether statins – drugs which can lower the the level of “bad” cholesterol or low-density lipoprotein (LDL) in the blood – can also reduce the risk of cancer.

Cholesterol is found in the outer membrane of all human cells and is produced by the liver as an essential building block for other substances in the body.

However too much of the fatty stuff in the bloodstream (particularly the LDL type) has been linked to a host of different health issues, including heart attacks and strokes.

Foods rich in saturated fats, trans fats, and certain carbohydrates can increase the levels of unwanted cholesterol in the body. As a result most experts warn against eating too much red meat and dairy food.

Let’s hope this discovery of how cancer tumours can be sent into overdrive eventually leads to better ways of reversing their growth.

Vitamin D Screening: What About the Adult With Cognitive Changes?

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Question

Are there particular populations of adults for whom you would recommend screening, or vitamin D supplementation in the absence of screening?
Response from David B. Reuben, MD

Professor and Archstone Foundation Endowed Chair, Department of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles; Chief, Division of Geriatrics, UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica, California
Several prospective epidemiologic studies have shown associations of low serum vitamin D levels with lower global cognition and more rapid functional decline,[1-4] as well as the development of dementia and Alzheimer disease.[5] In a recent review of nine epidemiologic studies, the serum level that was associated with worse cognitive health was found to be around 10 ng/mL.[1] However, such studies cannot determine whether low vitamin D was causal or whether persons with memory problems were less likely to leave their homes and therefore have less sun exposure, leading to lower vitamin levels.

It is less clear whether and how much vitamin D supplementation would improve cognition or prevent decline in older populations. To date, there are no randomized clinical trial data supporting supplementation for improving cognition or preventing decline.

In the Women’s Health Initiative Memory Study, calcium and 400 IU vitamin D3 supplements given to a randomized sample of women did not result in differences in performance (attention, working memory, word knowledge, spatial ability, verbal fluency, verbal memory, figural memory, or fine motor speed) over 7.8 years.[6] Moreover, in observational studies, high levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D, especially among those taking vitamin D supplements, have been associated with cognitive impairment on a battery of attention tests, suggesting a possible U-shaped curve relationship.[7]

Recently, the US Preventive Services Task Force has reviewed the evidence for screening for vitamin D deficiency and concluded that the current evidence is “insufficient to assess the balance of benefits and harms of screening for vitamin D deficiency in asymptomatic adults.”[8] Part of the rationale for this recommendation stemmed from the paucity of studies that used an internationally recognized reference standard and the lack of consensus on the laboratory values that define vitamin D deficiency.
In summary, the best evidence supports the recommendation of daily dietary vitamin D intake of 600 IU in adults aged 18-70 years and 800 IU in adults older than 70 years (1000 IU is commonly marketed).[9] Vitamin D levels should be obtained in patients with symptoms of osteomalacia (eg, diffuse bone and joint pain, fractures, muscle weakness, and difficulty walking), especially in malabsorption states, and before starting intravenous bisphosphonate therapy for osteoporosis because of the potential for precipitating hypocalcemia in patients with hypovitaminosis D receiving these medications. Currently, there is no indication for screening asymptomatic patients for vitamin D levels for the purpose of potentially supplementing with vitamin D in order to prevent changes in cognitive outcomes.

Brain Scans Show The Real Impact Love Has On A Child’s Brain.

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You comfort them over a skinned knee in the playground, and coax them to sleep with a soothing lullaby. But being a nurturing mother is not just about emotional care – it pays dividends by determining the size of your child’s brain, scientists say.

Both of these images are brain scans of a two three-year-old children, but the brain on the left is considerably larger, has fewer spots and less dark areas, compared to the one on the right.

According to neurologists this sizable difference has one primary cause – the way each child was treated by their mothers.

But the child with the shrunken brain was the victim of severe neglect and abuse.

Babies’ brains grow and develop as they interact with their environment and learn how to function within it.

When babies’ cries bring food or comfort, they are strengthening the neuronal pathways that help them learn how to get their needs met, both physically and emotionally. But babies who do not get responses to their cries, and babies whose cries are met with abuse, learn different lessons.

The neuronal pathways that are developed and strengthened under negative conditions prepare children to cope in that negative environment, and their ability to respond to nurturing and kindness may be impaired.

According to research reported by the newspaper, the brain on the right in the image above worryingly lacks some of the most fundamental areas present in the image on the left.

The consequences of these deficits are pronounced – the child on the left with the larger brain will be more intelligent and more likely to develop the social ability to empathise with others.

This type of severe, global neglect can have devastating consequences. The extreme lack of stimulation may result in fewer neuronal pathways available for learning.

The lack of opportunity to form an attachment with a nurturing caregiver during infancy may mean that some of these children will always have difficulties forming meaningful relationships with others. But studies have also found that time played a factor–children who were adopted as young infants have shown more recovery than children who were adopted as toddlers.

But in contrast, the child with the shrunken brain will be more likely to become addicted to drugs and involved in violent crimes, much more likely to be unemployed and to be dependent on state benefits.
The child is also more likely to develop mental and other serious health problems.

Some of the specific long-term effects of abuse and neglect on the developing brain can include:

  • Diminished growth in the left hemisphere, which may increase the risk for depression
  • Irritability in the limbic system, setting the stage for the emergence of panic disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder
  • Smaller growth in the hippocampus and limbic abnormalities, which can increase the risk for dissociative disorders and memory impairments
  • Impairment in the connection between the two brain hemispheres, which has been linked to symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

Professor Allan Schore, of UCLA, told The Sunday Telegraph that if a baby is not treated properly in the first two years of life, it can have a fundamental impact on development.

He pointed out that the genes for several aspects of brain function, including intelligence, cannot function.
And sadly there is a chance they may never develop and come into existence.

These has concerning implications for neglected children that are taken into care past the age of two.
It also seems that the more severe the mother’s neglect, the more pronounced the damage can be.

The images also have worrying consequences for the childhood neglect cycle – often parents who, because their parents neglected them, do not have fully developed brains, neglect their own children in a similar way.

But research in the U.S. has shown the cycle can be successfully broken if early intervention is staged and families are supported.

The study correlates with research released earlier this year that found that children who are given love and affection from their mothers early in life are smarter with a better ability to learn.

The experiences of infancy and early childhood provide the organizing framework for the expression of children’s intelligence, emotions, and personalities.

When those experiences are primarily negative, children may develop emotional, behavioral, and learning problems that persist throughout their lifetime, especially in the absence of targeted interventions.

The study by child psychiatrists and neuroscientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, found school-aged children whose mothers nurtured them early in life have brains with a larger hippocampus, a key structure important to learning, memory and response to stress.

The research was the first to show that changes in this critical region of children’s brain anatomy are linked to a mother’s nurturing, Neurosciencenews.com reports.

The research is published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Early Edition.
Lead author Joan L. Luby, MD, professor of child psychiatry, said the study reinforces how important nurturing parents are to a child’s development.

Sources:
childwelfare.gov

preventdisease.com

         

Hubble Spots Odd Asteroid With Six Tails.

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Silly asteroid, tails are for comets! Around five months ago, an asteroid called P/2013 P5 was seen to be kicking off dust, making it look like it had a tail like a comet. Use of more detailed imaging would show that the asteroid actually has an unprecedented six tails.

In August, researchers had noticed P/2013 P5, an asteroid with a nucleus 1400 feet (427 meters) long, looked somewhat blurred through the Panoramic Survey Telescope & Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS). Traditionally, asteroids appear as a sharp point of light, and this anomaly piqued the curiosity of the researchers. They figured that it might have begun rotating extremely quickly, causing it to kick off some of its surface dust and look like a comet.

On September 10, the team used the Hubble Space Telescope to get more detailed images of the oddball asteroid. The results completely dumbfounded the researchers: the asteroid had six tails that jut out in all directions, like spokes on a bicycle wheel! Even more amazing was the fact that when the team looked at it again less than two weeks later, the tails looked completely different.

After extensive analysis, it was determined that the tails are most likely the byproducts from six different dust-ejection events that were pulled out like tails by solar radiation pressure. That pressure is also believed to be what caused the asteroid to begin spinning so quickly in the first place, in a phenomenon known as radiation torque. If an asteroid is spinning too fast, its small amount of gravity is not enough to hold itself together and the dust goes flying off. Because the dust pattern does not suggest that a lot of material was ejected from the asteroid at once, the researchers are currently discounting the idea that these tails are the products of a collision. The results were published in Astrophysical Journal Letters.

So far, only a small percentage of its mass has been sloughed off into the tails, but this could be the beginning of the end for the asteroid. Future analysis will show if the dust is being ejected around the asteroid’s equator, which will be the best evidence that the asteroid is in the process of a rotational breakup.

While this is the first six-tailed asteroid that has ever been documented, researchers are confident that if there is one, there are probably many more waiting to be discovered.

– See more at: http://www.iflscience.com/space/hubble-spots-odd-asteroid-six-tails#sthash.QARL11oh.dpuf

Women’s breasts age faster than the rest of their body.

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Breasts typically age more quickly than the rest of the female body. So suggests a system that may be the most accurate way yet of identifying a person’s age from a blood or tissue sample.

As we age, the pattern of chemical markings on our DNA changes. Each gene becomes more or less methylated, that is, they have methyl chemical groups added or removed. This generally increases or decreases gene expression. The whole process is known as epigenetics.

The question "how old are you?" just became a lot harder to answer <i>(Image: REX/Cultura)</i>

Steve Horvath at the University of California, Los Angeles, and his colleagues have used these changes to estimate a person’s age. To do so, they first performed a detailed statistical analysis of methylation patterns in 7844 healthy tissue samples from 51 different types of tissue. The tissue covered a range of ages – from fetuses to people 101 years old.

Universal ageing

The analysis allowed the team to weed out methylation patterns that varied between tissues, leaving just those that are common to all tissues. This enabled them to identify a subset of 353 specific regions of the genome that became either more or less methylated with age in almost all types of tissue.

By measuring the total amount of methylation in these regions, the team was able to create an algorithm that identified the age of the tissue.

The team validated the algorithm against thousands more samples of known age. Horvath says the method is twice as accurate as the next best method of ageing tissue, which is based on the length of telomeres – tips of chromosomes that “burn down” with age like candle wicks. He says that his method has a 96 per cent chance of accurately identifying someone’s age to within 3.6 years compared with around 53 per cent for telomeres.

“What’s unique about this study is the idea that there’s a signature of ageing common across tissues in spite of the significant tissue specificity of DNA methylation patterns,” comments Moshe Szyf, who studies methylation at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. “The data point to the possibility that DNA methylation signatures could be used as robust markers of biological ageing.”

Young at heart

Horvath says that, remarkably, their analysis shows that some parts of the body age at different rates. When they used their algorithm on healthy breast tissue from a group of women of average age 46, for example, it churned out a result that was on average two to three years older than the woman’s actual age. Whereas in two groups aged 55 and 60 across both sexes, heart tissue appeared nine years younger than true age.

If it is known where the sample comes from, it is still possible to accurately predict age after some straightforward adjustment, says Horvath. However, in general, the algorithm is most accurate for samples from people under 30 years of age. “The older one gets, the less accurate it becomes,” he says.

Horvath thinks that breast tissue ages more quickly because of its constant exposure to hormones. Heart tissue may remain younger, by contrast, because it is constantly regenerated by stem cells.

Cancerous tissue also appeared to age prematurely, coming out at 36 years older than the person’s actual age on average across 20 cancers from 20 different organs.

Because ageing is a risk factor for all cancers, Horvath suggests that the premature ageing of breast tissue might explain why it is the most common cancer in women. “It could be so prevalent because that part of the female body is older,” he says.

Blood work

Because the method also works on blood it might have the potential to be used forensically, to reveal the age of a murder suspect, suggests Horvath. It might also be used to diagnose cancer, by revealing accelerated ageing in tissue biopsies.

“The data raises questions about whether these DNA methylation changes play a causal role in ageing and, if so, whether epigenetic interventions could reverse these and therefore slow down ageing,” says Szyf. “The chemical robustness of DNA methylation and the ability to accurately measure it make it a very attractive tool to study ageing, which could well be superior to measuring telomere length, which is the current practice.”

Horvath says that further studies comparing telomere and epigenetic ageingcould be useful, and hopes the two can be complementary. He also says that the software for his algorithm is openly available so that other researchers can try validating it on their own tissue samples.

Journal reference: Genome Biology, DOI: 10.1186/gb-2013-14-10r115

UCLA scientist uncovers biological clock able to measure age of most human tissues.

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Study finds women’s breast tissue ages faster than the rest of the body.

Everyone grows older, but scientists don’t really understand why. Now a UCLA study has uncovered a biological clock embedded in our genomes that may shed light on why our bodies age and how we can slow the process.
Published in the Oct. 21 edition of the journal Genome Biology, the findings could offer valuable insights to benefit cancer and stem cell research.
Biological clock
While earlier biological clocks have been linked tosaliva, hormones and telomeres, the new research is the first to result in the development of an age-predictive tool that uses a previously unknown time-keeping mechanism in the body to accurately gauge the age of diverse human organs, tissues and cell types. Unexpectedly, this new tool demonstrated that some parts of the anatomy, like a woman’s breast tissue, age faster than the rest of the body.
“To fight aging, we first need an objective way of measuring it. Pinpointing a set of biomarkers that keeps time throughout the body has been a four-year challenge,” said Steve Horvath, a professor of human genetics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a professor ofbiostatistics at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. “My goal in inventing this age-predictive tool is to help scientists improve their understanding of what speeds up and slows down the human aging process.”
To create his age predictor, Horvath focused on a naturally occurring process called methylation, a chemical modification of one of the four building blocks that make up our DNA. He sifted through 121 sets of data collected previously by researchers who had studied methylation in both healthy and cancerous human tissue.
Gleaning information from nearly 8,000 samples of 51 types of tissue and cells taken from throughout the body, Horvath charted how age affects DNA methylation levels from pre-birth through 101 years. For the age predictor, he zeroed in on 353 markers linked to methylation that change with age and are present throughout the body.
Horvath tested the predictive tool’s effectiveness by comparing a tissue’s biological age to its chronological age. When the tool repeatedly proved accurate in matching biological to  chronological age, he was thrilled — and a little stunned.
“It’s surprising that one could develop a predictive tool that reliably keeps time across the human anatomy,” he said. “My approach really compared apples and oranges, or in this case, very different parts of the body — including brain, heart, lungs, liver, kidney and cartilage.”
While most samples’ biological ages matched their chronological ages, some diverged significantly. For example, Horvath discovered that a woman’s breast tissue ages faster than the rest of her body.
“Healthy breast tissue is about two to three years older than the rest of a woman’s body,” he said. “If a woman has breast cancer, the healthy tissue next to the tumor is an average of 12 years older than the rest of her body.”
The results may explain why breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. Given that the clock ranked tumor tissue an average of 36 years older than healthy tissue, it could also explain why age is a major risk factor for many cancers in both genders.
Horvath next looked at induced pluripotent stem cells, adult cells that have been reprogrammed to an embryonic stem cell–like state, enabling them to form any type of cell in the body and continue dividing indefinitely.
“My research shows that all stem cells are newborns,” he said. “More importantly, the process of transforming a person’s cells into pluripotent stem cells resets the cells’ clock to zero.”
In principle, the discovery proves that scientists can rewind the body’s biological clock and restore it to zero.
“The big question is whether the underlying biological clock controls a process that leads to aging,” Horvath said. “If so, the clock will become an important biomarker for studying new therapeutic approaches to keeping us young.”
Finally, Horvath discovered that the clock’s rate speeds up or slows down depending on a person’s age.
“The clock’s ticking rate isn’t constant,” he explained. “It ticks much faster when we’re born and growing from children into teenagers, then slows to a constant rate when we reach 20.”
In an unexpected finding, the cells of children with progeria, a genetic disorder that causes premature aging, appeared normal and reflected their true chronological age.
Horvath noted that it will take additional research to dissect the precise molecular or biochemical mechanism in the body that makes his age predictor possible.
UCLA has filed a provisional patent on Horvath’s age-predictive tool. His next studies will examine whether stopping the body’s clock halts the aging process and whether a similar clock exists in mice.

Are Probiotics the New Prozac?

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Story at-a-glance

  • The secret to improving your mental health is in your gut, as unhealthy gut flora can have a detrimental impact your brain health, leading to issues like anxiety and depression
  • A recent proof-of-concept study found that women who regularly ate yogurt containing beneficial bacteria had improved brain function compared to those who did not consume probiotics
  • Research has also shown that certain probiotics can help alleviate anxiety by modulating the vagal pathways within the gut-brain; affecting GABA levels; and lowering the stress-induced hormone corticosterone
  • What you eat can alter the composition of your gut flora. Specifically, eating a high-vegetable, fiber-based diet produces a more beneficial composition of microbiota than a more typical Western diet high in carbs and processed fats
  • Limiting sugar, eating traditionally fermented foods, and taking a probiotic supplement are among the best ways to optimize your gut flora and subsequently support your brain health and normalize your mood.
  • probiotics

While many think of their brain as the organ in charge of their mental health, yourgut may actually play a far more significant role.

The big picture many of us understand is one of a microbial world that we just happen to be living in. Our actions interfere with these microbes, and they in turn respond having more effects to our individual health as well as the entire environment.

There is some truth to the old expression, having ‘dirt for brains’.  The microbes in our soil, on our plants, in our stomachs are all a result of our actions.  Antibiotics, herbicides, vaccines, and pesticides, and the tens of thousands of synthetic chemicals we’ve created all have impacts and result in reactions from these microbes.

Mounting research indicates that problems in your gut can directly impact your mental health, leading to issues like anxiety and depression.

The gut-brain connection is well-recognized as a basic tenet of physiology and medicine, so this isn’t all that surprising, even though it’s often overlooked. There’s also a wealth of evidence showing intestinal involvement in a variety of neurological diseases.

With this in mind, it should also be crystal clear that nourishing your gut flora is extremely important, because in a very real sense you have two brains, one inside your skull and one in your gut, and each needs its own vital nourishment. A recent article1 titled “Are Probiotics the New Prozac?” reviews some of the most recent supporting evidence.

Probiotics Alter Brain Function, Study Finds

The featured proof-of-concept study, conducted by researchers at UCLA, found that probiotics (beneficial bacteria) actually altered participants’ brain function. The study2 enlisted 36 women between the ages of 18 and 55 who were divided into three groups:

  • The treatment group ate yogurt containing several probiotics thought to have a beneficial impact on intestinal health, twice a day for one month
  • Another group ate a “sham” product that looked and tasted like the yogurt but contained no probiotics
  • Control group ate no product at all

Before and after the four-week study, participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans, both while in a state of rest, and in response to an “emotion-recognition task.”

For the latter, the women were shown a series of pictures of people with angry or frightened faces, which they had to match to other faces showing the same emotions.

“This task, designed to measure the engagement of affective and cognitive brain regions in response to a visual stimulus, was chosen because previous research in animals had linked changes in gut flora to changes in affective behaviors,” the researchers explained.

Compared to the controls, the women who consumed probiotic yogurt had decreased activity in two brain regions that control central processing of emotion and sensation:

  • The insular cortex (insula), which plays a role in functions typically linked to emotion (including perception, motor control, self-awareness, cognitive functioning, and interpersonal experience) and the regulation of your body’s homeostasis, and
  • The somatosensory cortex, which plays a role in your body’s ability to interpret a wide variety of sensations

During the resting brain scan, the treatment group also showed greater connectivity between a region known as the ‘periaqueductal grey’ and areas of the prefrontal cortex associated with cognition. In contrast, the control group showed greater connectivity of the periaqueductal grey to emotion- and sensation-related regions.

The fact that this study showed any improvement at all is remarkable, considering they used commercial yogurt preparations that are notoriously unhealthy; loaded with artificial sweeteners, colors, flavorings, and sugar. Most importantly, the vast majority of commercial yogurts have clinically insignificant levels of beneficial bacteria. Clearly, you would be far better off making your own yogurt from raw milk—especially if you’re seeking to address depression through dietary interventions.

Yes, Your Diet Affects Your Mood and Mental Health

According to lead author Dr. Kirsten Tillisch:3, 4

“Time and time again, we hear from patients that they never felt depressed or anxious until they started experiencing problems with their gut. Our study shows that the gut–brain connection is a two-way street… ‘When we consider the implications of this work, the old sayings ‘you are what you eat’ and ‘gut feelings’ take on new meaning.’”

The implications are particularly significant in our current era of rampant depression and emotional “malaise.” And as stated in the featured article, the drug treatments available today are no better than they were 50 years ago. Clearly, we need a new approach, and diet is an obvious place to start.

Previous studies have confirmed that what you eat can alter the composition of your gut flora. Specifically, eating a high-vegetable, fiber-based diet produces a profoundly different composition of microbiota than a more typical Western diet high in carbs and processed fats.

The featured research tells us that the composition of your gut flora not only affects your physical health, but also has a significant impact on your brain function and mental state. Previous research has also shown that certain probiotics can help alleviate anxiety:

  • The Journal of Neurogastroenterology and Motility5 reported the probiotic known as Bifidobacterium longum NCC3001 normalized anxiety-like behavior in mice with infectious colitis by modulating the vagal pathways within the gut-brain.
  • Other research6 found that the probiotic Lactobacillus rhamnosus had a marked effect on GABA levels—an inhibitory neurotransmitter that is significantly involved in regulating many physiological and psychological processes—in certain brain regions and lowered the stress-induced hormone corticosterone, resulting in reduced anxiety- and depression-related behavior. It is likely other lactobacillus species also provide this benefit, but this was the only one that was tested.

It’s important to realize that you have neurons both in your brain and your gut — including neurons that produce neurotransmitters like serotonin. In fact, the greatest concentration of serotonin, which is involved in mood control, depression and aggression, is found in your intestines, not your brain! Perhaps this is one reason why antidepressants, which raise serotonin levels in yourbrain, are often ineffective in treating depression, whereas proper dietary changes often help…

Your Gut Bacteria Are Vulnerable to Your Diet and Lifestyle

Processed, refined foods in general will destroy healthy microflora and feed bad bacteria and yeast, so limiting or eliminating these from your diet should be at the top of your list. Following my recently revised nutrition plan is a simple way to automatically reduce your intake of sugar from all sources. Processed foods wreak havoc on your gut in a number of different ways:

  • First, they are typically loaded with sugar, and avoiding sugar (particularly fructose) is in my view, based on the evidence, a critical aspect of preventing and/or treating depression. Not only will sugar compromise your beneficial gut bacteria by providing the preferred fuel for pathogenic bacteria, it also contributes to chronic inflammation throughout your body, including your brain.
  • Many contain artificial sweeteners and other synthetic additives that can wreak havoc with brain health. In fact, depression and panic attacks are two of the reported side effects of aspartame. Preliminary findings presented at the 65th annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology also report that drinking sweetened beverages―whether they’re sweetened with sugar or artificial sweeteners—is associated with an increased risk of depression.7
  • Processed foods are also typically loaded with refined grains, which turn into sugar in your body. Wheat in particular has also been implicated in psychiatric problems, from depression to schizophrenia, due to Wheat Germ Agglutinin (WGA), which has neurotoxic activity.
  • The majority of processed foods also contain genetically engineered (GE) ingredients (primarily corn and soy), which have been shown to be particularly detrimental to beneficial bacteria. There are several mechanisms of harm at work here. For example:
    • Eating genetically engineered Bt corn may turn your intestinal flora into a sort of “living pesticide factory,” essentially manufacturing Bt-toxin from within your digestive system on a continuing basis
    • Beneficial gut bacteria are very sensitive to residual glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup). Due to mounting resistance, GE Roundup Ready crops are being drenched with increasing amounts of this toxic herbicide. Studies have already confirmed that glyphosate alters and destroys beneficial gut flora in animals, as evidenced by the increasing instances of lethal botulism in cattle
    • Recent research also reveals that your gut bacteria are a key component of glyphosate’s mechanism of harm, as your gut microbes have the identical pathway used by glyphosate to kill weeds!

Your gut bacteria are also very sensitive to and can be harmed by:

Antibiotics, unless absolutely necessary (and when you do, make sure to reseed your gut with fermented foods and/or a probiotics supplement) Conventionally-raised meats and other animal products, as CAFO animals are routinely fed low-dose antibiotics, plusgenetically engineered grains, which have also been implicated in the destruction of gut flora
Chlorinated and/or fluoridated water Antibacterial soap

How to Reseed Your Gut Flora

Considering the fact that an estimated 80 percent of your immune system is located in your gut, reseeding your gut with healthy bacteria is important for the prevention of virtually ALL disease, both physical and mental. The first step is to clean up your diet and lifestyle by avoiding the items listed above. Then, to actively reseed your gut with beneficial bacteria, you’ll want to:

  • Radically reduce your sugar intake. I’m being repetitive here, to drive home the point that you can take the best fermented foods and/or probiotic supplements, but if you fail to reduce your sugar intake you will sabotage your efforts to rebuild your gut flora. This would be similar to driving your car with one foot on the accelerator and one on the brake simultaneously. Simply not a good strategy at all. When you consume sugar at the level of the typical American you are virtually guaranteed to have a preponderance of pathogenic bacteria, yeast and fungi, no matter what supplements you are taking.
  • Eat traditionally fermented, unpasteurized foods: Fermented foods are the best route to optimal digestive health, as long as you eat the traditionally made, unpasteurized versions. Some of the beneficial bacteria found in fermented foods are also excellent chelators of heavy metals and pesticides, which will also have a beneficial health effect by reducing your toxic load. Healthy choices include:
    • Fermented vegetables
    • Lassi (an Indian yoghurt drink, traditionally enjoyed before dinner)
    • Fermented milk, such as kefir
    • Natto (fermented soy)

Ideally, you want to eat a variety of fermented foods to maximize the variety of bacteria you’re consuming. Fermented vegetables, which are one of my new passions, are an excellent way to supply beneficial bacteria back into our gut. And, unlike some other fermented foods, they tend to be palatable, if not downright delicious, to most people.

As an added bonus, they can also be a great source of vitamin K2 if you ferment your own using the proper starter culture. We tested samples of high-quality fermented organic vegetables made with our specific starter culture, and a typical serving (about two to three ounces) contained not only 10 trillion beneficial bacteria, it also had 500 mcg of vitamin K2, which we now know is a vital co-nutrient to both vitamin D and calcium. Most high-quality probiotics supplements will only supply you with a fraction of the beneficial bacteria found in such homemade fermented veggies, so it’s your most economical route to optimal gut health as well.

  • Take a high-quality probiotic supplement. Although I’m not a major proponent of taking many supplements (as I believe the majority of your nutrients need to come from food), probiotics are an exception if you don’t eat fermented foods on a regular basis.

Nurture Your Gut for Optimal Health and Mental Well-Being

Foods have an immense impact on your body and your brain, and eating whole foods as described in my nutrition plan is the best way to support your mental and physical health.

Mounting research indicates the bacterial colonies residing in your gut may in fact play key roles in the development of brain, behavioral and emotional problems—from depression to ADHD, autism and more serious mental illness like schizophrenia. Certainly, when you consider the fact that the gut-brain connection is recognized as a basic tenet of physiology and medicine, and that there’s no shortage of evidence of gastrointestinal involvement in a variety of neurological diseases, it’s easy to see how the balance of gut bacteria can play a significant role in your psychology and behavior.

With this in mind, it should also be crystal clear that nourishing your gut flora is extremely important, from cradle to grave, because in a very real sense you have two brains, one inside your skull and one in your gut, and each needs its own vital nourishment.

Cultured foods like raw milk yogurt and kefir, some cheeses, and fermented vegetables are good sources of natural, healthy bacteria. So my strong recommendation would be to make cultured or fermented foods a regular part of your diet; this can be your primary strategy to optimize your body’s good bacteria.

If you do not eat fermented foods on a regular basis, taking a high-quality probiotic supplement is definitely recommended. A probiotic supplement can be incredibly useful to help maintain a well-functioning digestive system when you stray from your healthy diet and consume excess grains or sugar, or if you have to take antibiotics.

Source: mercola.com

Model predicted final menses.

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Researchers at UCLA have developed a model to estimate the timing of a woman’s final menstrual period. According to researchers, the model has the potential to help physicians and patients determine when the menopausal transition is complete and estimate bone loss.

“We need a better way to answer women’s questions about when to expect the final menstrual period,” researcher Gail A. Greendale, MD, from UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine, said in a press release. “If further research bears out our approach, it could be the first step to developing Web-based calculators and other tools women can use to estimate where they are in the menopause transition and how far away their final period is.”

Greendale and colleagues included 554 women from the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation (SWAN). They designed the probability of meeting specific landmarks: 2 years before, 1 year before and the final menstrual period (FMP).

“For example, some researchers have proposed that an intervention begun 1 or 2 years before the final menstrual period would greatly decrease future fracture risk by preventing the very rapid bone loss that occurs in the few years before and few years after the final menses,” Greendale said. “But before ideas such as this can be tested, we need to accurately predict where a woman is in her timeline to menopause.”

Therefore, the researchers assessed the probability of being in restricted intervals: 1 to 2 years before FMP, 2 years before FMP and FMP, or 1 year before FMP and FMP. Additionally, the markers that best predicted having crossed each landmark were determined, with the ideal markers defined as the greatest area under the receiver-operator curve (AUC).

Researchers wrote that the final models included the current estradiol and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), age, the stage of menopause transition, race/ethnicity and whether serum was collected during the early follicular phase.

Data indicate the AUC of final models predicted the probability of a woman having crossed 2 years before (0.902), 1 year before (0.926) and the FMP (0.945), researchers wrote. If they identified women as having crossed the 2 years before the FMP landmark when predicted probability extended beyond 0.3, the sensitivity was 85% and specificity 77%, they added.

Despite limitations, Greendale and colleagues conclude that the clinical practice implementation of their model is conceivable. However, further studies are warranted to determine validation of these findings.

Source: http://www.healio.com