A trio of mental and physical health researchers with University College Cork’s School of Public Health, has found evidence of poorer mental health in middle-aged to older people with obesity, independent of disease and lifestyle factors.
In their paper published on the open-access site PLOS ONE, Caoimhe Lonergan, Sean Millar, and Zubair Kabi, describe how they analyzed health data for more than 1,800 adult volunteers comparing BMI scores and mental health scores.
Prior research and anecdotal evidence have suggested a link between obesity and depression, but few studies have looked at the connection between the two using hard evidence from older people. For this new study, the research trio asked volunteers at a primary care center to participate in an obesity study.
As part of the study, each of the 1,821 volunteers (ages 46 to 73) gave permission and access to their medical records, and they also fasted overnight before providing blood samples, which were tested for glycated hemoglobin and glucose levels. Each was also measured for weight, height, and the circumference of their waist, which was used to calculate BMI. Each volunteer also filled out forms that described their lifestyle, demographics, and other health or disease factors.
In analyzing the data, and factoring out lifestyle factors, the researchers found what they describe as an association between BMI/body measurements consistent with obesity and depression along with feelings of low well-being. They noted that such relationships were more common for the women in the study than for the men. They also noted that their findings were consistent with those found in other similar research efforts.
The research team suggests that poorer mental health in obese older people is likely tied to social and physical factors, noting that there is social stigma, prejudice and sometimes discrimination associated with people suffering from obesity. They noted also that a number of studies have shown that there are many health problems associated with obesity, from joint and back pain to cardiovascular disease to fibromyalgia.
They suggest the combination of frustrations faced by obese people likely contributes to poor mental health. They conclude by suggesting that targeted interventions by health professionals should include weight management assistance.
Menopause causes many hormonal changes in women, which can make managing blood glucose levels even more complicated
Maybe you’ve noticed your blood glucose levels fluctuate when your period is coming, or that you crave chocolate or other carb-heavy foods when it’s that time of the month. But what happens when your menstrual cycle seems to be going haywire, with a heavier, lighter, or more irregular flow, and you’re approaching midlife?
You could be experiencing perimenopause, the time when a woman’s body decreases hormone production and when egg production slows down. Perimenopause is the body’s transition to menopause, when the reproductive process permanently ends. During this shift, diabetes and menopause can complicate one another.
What are perimenopause and menopause?
Menopause happens when a woman has missed a period for 12 months in a row; perimenopause is the transition into menopause, but it’s not always a straight path. Some women can be in perimenopause for years, experiencing periods here and there, with changes in flow or frequency.
Perimenopause can last for eight to ten years before menopause. It typically occurs for women between the ages of 45 and 55, though some women begin experiencing perimenopause in their 30s.
The symptoms of perimenopause can include sore breasts, sex issues (such as vaginal dryness or little to no interest in intercourse), peeing problems (such as frequent urination or urinating while coughing or sneezing), disrupted sleep, moodiness, and hot flashes. Hot flashes can cause you, in an instant, to go from feeling serene and comfortable to scorching and sweaty.
How does menopause affect diabetes?
Weight gain is common with menopause, but what is more common and worrisome is an increase in abdominal (belly) fat, says Ekta Kapoor, an endocrinologist, menopause specialist, and associate professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic. Additional abdominal fat makes the body more insulin resistant. Women may find they need additional insulin or medications to keep their blood glucose levels in range.
Tip: If your blood glucose levels are changing in ways you haven’t experienced since before perimenopause or menopause, talk to your healthcare professional about whether you need to adjust or change your diabetes medications, particularly if you’ve gained weight or aren’t as active as you were previously.
The hormone changes during menopause can cause hot flashes and sweating that may be disruptive to sleep. Sleeplessness is very common during menopause, and can negatively affect many critical aspects of diabetes and overall health. To learn more about sleep and how to improve your sleep, check out this article from Adam Brown.
Menopause also brings higher risks of increased blood pressure and heart disease, Kapoor adds — two health complications that women with diabetes are already more likely to develop. Speak with your healthcare professional about what you can do to keep your heart and arteries healthy.
Be aware of vaginal or urinary infections, especially yeast or urinary tract infections. Both diabetes and hormone changes during menopause can increase the risk of these infections.
Remember to check your blood glucose levels if you’re feeling sweaty or moody. Something that you think is related to high or low blood sugars may be related to menopause instead (and may not require a dose of insulin or some glucose tabs to treat).
How to manage menopause with diabetes:
Measure blood glucose levels frequently
Talk with your healthcare professional about adjusting insulin or medication dosing
Exercise daily, eat a balanced diet, and don’t smoke
Measure blood pressure regularly
Monitor changes in weight
Does diabetes affect menopause?
It’s unclear how diabetes may affect the timing of perimenopause and menopause. A 2001 study found that women with type 1 diabetes undergo menopause earlier than women without diabetes, but research in 2014 did not support that conclusion. However, the 2001 research was done at a time when current diabetes technologies (such as continuous glucose monitors, insulin pumps, and even fast-acting insulin) were either less common, less sophisticated, or not yet invented. With these tools, it’s now possible for people with diabetes to have blood sugar readings closer to those of people without diabetes. This may explain why diabetes doesn’t always play a role in when perimenopause and menopause occur.
What is the role of hormone therapy?
Perimenopause symptoms can last several years beyond menopause, though some people sail through the transition without much discomfort. Others are so bothered by the side effects that they seek medical attention and take hormone therapy (HT) – such as supplemental estrogen with or without a progesterone-like hormone – to reduce symptoms.
There is no specific recommendation on HT for women with diabetes. According to a 2012 review of medical research, “there is a lack of evidence around the use of HT in women with type 1 diabetes,” calling for more research in the area.
Women with type 2 diabetes “are more vulnerable to having the disease worsen after menopause due to weight gain and increase in belly fat. This risk can be reduced somewhat by using HT,” Kapoor said. A 2001 study of more than 15,000 women with type 2 diabetes found that women in their 60s who were taking HT had average A1C levels that were lower than women who were not on HT.
Advice on navigating menopause, with or without diabetes
“Just as I advise all my patients going through menopause, pay attention to lifestyle,” said Kapoor. “Especially in their 40s and 50s, women should pay an even greater attention to what they eat and how much they exercise. Women who enter menopause already overweight face an uphill task to try to keep their weight at a healthy level.”
Kapoor suggests getting at least 30-45 minutes of aerobic exercise at least five days a week, and to keep a close eye on food intake. Because of the metabolic and hormonal changes that come with menopause, eating the same way in midlife as you did as a younger person will very likely bring on weight gain.
“Oftentimes, women will say, ‘I haven’t changed anything; I’m eating the same way I used to in my 20s or 30s,’ and that is exactly why,” said Kapoor, “People need to cut back on calories as they get older.” The type of food on our plate can determine the daily caloric intake; eating a diet with more carbohydrates tends to be calorie-dense. Kapoor advises lower carb eating to manage weight or to lessen weight gain before and during menopause.
“My biggest advice for weight management for women going through menopause is related to lifestyle: healthy eating habits and a regular exercise program,” Kapoor concluded.
Although three-quarters of women experience menopausal symptoms, a subset of more than a third of women have moderate to severe symptoms that are frequently debilitating. Hallmark symptoms include hot flushes and night sweats that persist for about 40% of women into their 60s, disturbed sleep, anxiety and low mood, and vulvovaginal atrophy.
Large randomised controlled trials have shown that MHT reduces fractures (even in the absence of osteoporosis), colon cancer, endometrial cancer, and diabetes risk, and that oestrogen-only MHT reduces cardiovascular disease events.
Randomised controlled trials have also shown increased venous thrombosis and gall bladder disease risk with oral oestrogen, and a small increase in breast cancer with oestrogen plus medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA) or norethisterone (NETA). Hence MHT has shifted to predominantly non-oral oestradiol and, when indicated, progesterone or dydrogesterone.
has triggered a global shockwave of fear among women that MHT causes breast cancer, similar to that generated previously by the sensational reporting of the first publication of the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) study. The false perception that resulted from misreporting of the WHI findings led to thousands of women discontinuing or never commencing therapy. Australian data published in 2015 suggest that only about 11% of perimenopausal and postmenopausal women aged 40–65 years use MHT despite high symptom prevalence.
Data from observational studies can be hypothesis generating but tend to overestimate treatment effects. Hence, randomised trials are essential to confirm or nullify their findings. Use of routinely collected health data without a priori research aims increases the chance of bias. Much of the data included in the recent Collaborative Group analysis
was collected during routine health delivery, or relied on participants recalling past treatment and duration of use. Specific characteristics of the included populations—nurses in the Nurses’ Health Study
Despite the investigators describing their work as worldwide epidemiological evidence, 67% of the prospective data were from two UK databases (unpublished routinely collected general practice health data and the Million Women Study)
and 24% were from the USA, with only one study from the southern hemisphere included.
With acknowledged limitations, analysis of the WHI trials suggested an increased breast cancer risk with conjugated oestrogen–MPA therapy (hazard ratio [HR] 1·24, 95% CI 1·01–1·53), but no increased risk with oestrogen alone (HR 0·79, 0·61–1·02), with treatment durations of 5–7 years.
These risks are lower than the two-times increased risk for conjugated oestrogen–MPA therapy and 1·33-times increased risk for oestrogen alone estimates reported in the recent Collaborative Group observational analysis
for predominantly similar MHT formulations. This discrepancy is consistent with the expectation that observational findings are tempered by high-quality randomised controlled trials. Follow-up of the 27 347 participants in the WHI trials for 18 years provides the most convincing MHT safety data.
With mortality follow-up available for more than 98% of participants and 7489 deaths, all-cause mortality did not differ from placebo for daily conjugated oestrogen–MPA therapy (HR 1·02, 95% CI 0·96–1·08) or for conjugated oestrogen only (0·94, 0·88–1·01).
Neither oestrogen alone nor oestrogen–MPA were associated with total cancer mortality, or any specific cancer mortality, in the intervention or follow-up phases. For women aged 50–59 years at randomisation, pooled data suggested a significantly reduced all-cause mortality with MHT compared with placebo (HR 0·69, 95%CI 0·51–0·94, p=0·01).
This finding emphasises the precariousness of observational data and of evaluating any single effect of MHT in isolation, whether the outcome be a benefit or a risk, as the effects are a composite and clinical decisions are made on the basis of overall effects, including quality of life.
Notably, recommended MHT is now substantially different from that included in the Collaborative Group analysis.
Nearly all the data for combined oestrogen—progestogen therapy in the analysis pertained to NETA or MPA. The analysis had insufficient power to draw conclusions about the effects of the preferred progestogens, progesterone (only 50 breast cancer cases included) and dydrogesterone (253 cases). The investigators’ conclusion that progesterone was associated with a two-times increased breast cancer risk if used for 5–14 years was based on only 38 breast cancer cases for this duration of use.
A potentially dangerous consequence of misinterpreting observational data in this context is that early (<45 years) or prematurely (<40 years) menopausal women could stop their MHT. 10% of women have early menopause. Thus, the norm for women younger than 45 years is to be premenopausal. Because early or premature menopause is a hormone deficiency state, breast cancer risk is reduced, but the likelihood of osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, and premature death is increased.
Therefore, for women prematurely menopausal, MHT is physiological therapy that restores overall risks, notably the risk of premature death, back to those of premenopausal woman of the same age.
The findings from the Collaborative Group analysis deserve to be better contextualised. In isolation, such reports offer a unidimensional perspective on a multidimensional issue, disregarding the profoundly detrimental effects of oestrogen deficiency symptoms for many women, the negative bone and cardiometabolic consequences of menopause, and the diverse beneficial effects of MHT. Even with the best estimates of benefits and risks, the art of medicine resides in listening to each woman’s story and providing care tailored to symptom severity and effect, and each individual’s overall benefit-to-risk profile.
Summary: Cognitive reserve measured through IQ predicted the steepness of cognitive decline in aging men, but not women.
Source: University of Tasmania
Tasmanian researchers are one step closer to understanding why women are more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease, with their research recently published in the journal Neurology.
Professor Jane Alty and Aidan Bindoff from the University’s Wicking Dementia Research and Education Center led a team of researchers to determine if cognitive reserve (education and IQ) slowed down age-related cognitive decline equally in males and females.
“We know women have a higher age-adjusted incidence of Alzheimer’s disease than men, but the reasons remain unclear. It is not simply related to women living longer than men,” Professor Alty said.
“One proposed contributing factor is that, historically, women had less access to education and therefore may have accumulated less cognitive reserve.”
Cognitive reserve refers to the ability to buffer the effects of physical changes in the brain so it does not have a direct effect on function.
“People who have developed higher cognitive reserve over their lifetime (through more education and other cognitively stimulating activities such as employment and hobbies) generally do not show as marked decline in their memory and thinking functions,” Professor Alty said.
Researchers measured cognitive reserve using total years of education and by measuring their IQ, accessing data through the Wicking Center’s Tasmanian Healthy Brain Project (THBP).
The THBP is a long-term cohort study, recruiting healthy Australians aged 50–80 years without cognitive impairment that began about 10 years ago.
The THBP aimed to determine if university education later in life reduced age-related cognitive decline and significantly decreases risk, or delays the onset, of dementia.
Data from 562 participants (383 females and 179 males) was analyzed for Professor Alty’s study.
The study’s results showed that cognitive reserve, measured through IQ, moderated the steepness of age-related cognitive decline in males, but not in females.
Cognitive reserve refers to the ability to buffer the effects of physical changes in the brain so it does not have a direct effect on function.
“Males with higher estimated IQ had a less rapid (less steep) age-related cognitive decline than their lower IQ male peers—this is what we expected,” Professor Alty said.
“However, we did not see these same protective effects in females—so those with higher cognitive reserve declined in their memory and thinking tests as they got older at the same rate as females with lower cognitive reserve.”
The study’s results also showed education did not significantly moderate cognitive trajectories in either males or females.
“The study’s findings do not appear to support the hypothesis that historical sex disparities in accessing education contribute to the higher female incidence of Alzheimer’s disease.
“They do suggest that there are sex-specific effects of cognitive reserve though, with males benefiting more—this highlights that further research studies should assess males and females separately when investigating how we can best protect people against Alzheimer’s disease and age-related cognitive decline,” Professor Alty said.
Researches from the Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center have discovered why women with cancer in one breast may be at higher risk of developing cancer in the opposite breast—they are carriers of specific genetic changes that predispose them to develop breast cancer. The findings, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, will help personalize approaches to breast cancer screening and risk factors, study authors say.
Using data from 15,104 prospectively followed women in the CAnceR Risk Estimates Related to Susceptibility (CARRIERS) consortium, the researchers found that patients who carry a germline BRCA1, BRCA2 or CHEK2 mutation have at least a twofold increased risk of developing cancer in both breasts, known as contralateral breast cancer.
In contrast, patients who carry germline ATM mutations did not have a significantly elevated risk of contralateral breast cancer. Among PALB2 carriers, the risk of contralateral breast cancer was significantly elevated only among those with estrogen receptor-negative disease.
“These are the first population-based numbers out there for these three genes beyond BRCA1/2,” says Fergus Couch, PhD, breast cancer researcher at Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center, Zbigniew and Anna M Scheller Professor of Medical Research and the principal investigator of the CARRIERS Study. “It is also one of the largest studies to provide estimates of contralateral breast cancer risk by age at diagnosis, menopausal status and race/ethnicity in germline mutation carriers.”
Most patients with breast cancer who carry germline mutations assume they are at high risk of developing cancer in the opposite breast, says co-author Siddhartha Yadav, MD, medical oncologist, Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center. While this is true for BRCA1/2 mutation carriers with breast cancer, the risk of contralateral breast cancer in carriers of germline mutation in ATM, CHEK2 or PALB2 had not been previously established. Even for BRCA1/2 carriers, a comprehensive assessment of contralateral breast cancer risk based on age, estrogen receptor status, menopausal status and the effect of treatment for initial breast cancer had not been undertaken.
“The findings reveal important information that will aid in a personalized assessment of contralateral breast cancer risk in our patients who are germline mutation carriers,” Dr Yadav says. “Having this level of detail will help guide decisions between patients and their care teams on appropriate screening and steps to reduce the risk for contralateral breast cancer based on more precise and individualized risk estimates.”
Premenopausal women who carry germline mutations generally have a higher risk of contralateral breast cancer compared with women who are post-menopausal at breast cancer diagnosis, researchers found. Among women with germline mutations in breast cancer predisposition genes, black women and non-Hispanic white women have similar elevated risk for contralateral breast cancer, the study found, suggesting that risk management strategies should be similar.
“Many women will undergo bilateral mastectomy to reduce the possibility of a second breast cancer,” Dr Couch says. “Now we have data to work from when making the decision to remove the second breast, pursue aggressive surveillance or take preventive medication.”
Fertility arises from your overall good health and these tips may help
Think you’re too old, too stressed out, or too busy to become pregnant? There are commonsense strategies and simple, everyday health habits that could make your dreams of parenting come true.
In the United States, 15 percent of couples are unable to conceive a biological child of their own, as reported by the University of California at Los Angeles Health in 2020.
Couples are considered to have an infertility problem when they have had regular and frequent unprotected sex for 12 consecutive months without conception.
“In the United States, about 10 percent of women, 6.1 million, aged 15 to 44 have problems getting pregnant,” a 2019 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office on Women’s Health report found.
The Office publishes an ovulation calendar on its website, womenshealth.gov, to help women target their most fertile days of the month, when they would be most likely to conceive.
Infertility, says the American Pregnancy Association (APA), is an equal opportunity health condition experienced by both men and women at nearly the same rate.
“Often, it’s assumed that the fertility difficulties are with the women,” says the APA on its website, “but in 40 to 50 percent of infertility in couples, (it) is due to male factors. Male infertility alone accounts for approximately up to 50 percent of all cases of infertility. It’s important for both partners to be tested.”
Male Fertility, Testing, Sperm Count, and Sperm Health
When a couple has not been able to conceive after consistently making the yearlong effort, both partners need to have a comprehensive physical and medical workup with their healthcare provider.
First, according to the APA, sperm is collected and inspected microscopically to assess their number, their shape, their appearance, and the speed of their movement. The more healthy and strong sperm are, says the APA, the better chance the couple has of conceiving.
“Normal semen contains 40 million to 300 million sperm per milliliter,” they write. “A low sperm count is considered to be anything between 10 and 20 million sperm per milliliter. Twenty million sperm per milliliter may be adequate for pregnancy if the sperm are healthy.”
If the sperm count is found to be low, a urinalysis can be performed to detect any signs of infection or the presence of sperm in the urine, where it should not be found.
If the sperm is adequate and healthy, then a lab will check the male’s testosterone levels and other hormones.
There are also many at-home sperm count tests available in stores and online at a range of price points.
If no abnormality is found, it’s on to testing the female, but not before taking a general health inventory so that the male can bolster his chances of conception with some simple lifestyle adjustments.
Some lifestyle habits that have been shown to lower the sperm count in men include:
Being overweight
Not exercising
Substance abuse including excessive alcohol
Not taking the vitamins D, C, E, and CoQ10, which are important for sperm health
Exposure to toxic environmental chemicals
Cycling more than five hours per week on a bike that is not fitted properly
Wearing constricting undergarments instead of loose boxers or cotton briefs that permit air flow and moderate temperatures for men. This has been found to be the optimum environment for sperm health.
Researchers found that, “Weight loss can significantly increase semen volume, its concentration, its mobility and percentage of normal morphology,” they wrote. “Consuming vitamin C significantly improves sperm concentration and mobility, but the semen volume and the percentage of normal morphology will not change significantly.”
In another study published in the journal Human Reproduction in 2014, researchers found engaging in reasonable exercise and having a generally healthy lifestyle can contribute to a higher sperm count. In particular, the researchers found that “weightlifting and outdoor exercise can help sperm health more than other types of exercise. Consider incorporating these kinds of activities into your routine. Exercise can also help you maintain or lose weight, which may have additional benefits for your sperm health.”
A less conclusive study published in Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology in 2015, found somewhat lower rates of pregnancy in couples where the man had low levels of vitamin D, but it was not significant. That said, couples with better vitamin D levels fared better, the researchers found.
“The pregnancy rates per patient and per cycle and delivery rates per patient and per cycle were all significantly higher (p< 0.05) in couples with normal vitamin D levels,” they wrote.
How can women promote their own fertility?
If the name of the game for men is sperm health, for women it is ovulation.
Once again, healthy lifestyle choices can increase your chances of becoming pregnant. The Mayo Clinic offers these suggestions:
The most common causes of female infertility include:
Problems with ovulation
Damage to fallopian tubes or uterus
Problems with the cervix
Age, as fertility naturally tends to decrease over time
An unhealthy weight because being overweight or significantly underweight can inhibit normal ovulation
Sexually transmitted infections such as chlamydia and gonorrhea
Regularly working a night shift and not sleeping enough can affect hormone production
Too much stress and a lack of effective coping strategies.
Smoking tobacco, which ages ovaries and depletes eggs
Drinking alcohol, which elevates a woman’s risk of ovulation disorders
Caffeine consumption of over 200 milligrams per day (three cups or more)
Heavy and vigorous physical activity over five hours a week may inhibit ovulation and reduce progesterone
Exposure to environmental pollutants and toxins
Fertility Lubricant
For couples who are trying to get pregnant, every lifestyle choice can impact your success in conceiving, and lubricants used during sexual activity are no exception.
That’s why the Food and Drug Administration has cleared a list of criteria required from lubricant manufacturers that ensures they are tested and confirmed to be safe for sperm, eggs, and embryos.
“Fertility lubricants are specifically tested to ensure that the lubricant has a similar pH and viscosity as semen and fertile quality cervical fluid so that it provides a protective environment for sperm and will allow sperm to swim into and through the lubricant,” according to the APA. “By matching the quality and consistency of cervical fluid, fertility lubricants supplement your body’s own natural lubrication.”
Consumers looking for conception-friendly lubricants should “avoid lubricants with a low pH, and that contain small penetrating chemicals (for example, glycerol) or paraben preservatives,” advises the APA website.
“They should also “avoid using a lubricant labeled as non-spermicidal with an FDA-cleared fertility lubricant.”
A study has shown that dietary supplementation with coconut oil may result in a reduction in waist circumference and other benefits.
A randomized, double-blind clinical trial of 40 women divided them into two groups — one that received daily dietary supplements of soybean oil (group S) and another than received a similar amount of coconut oil (group C). Both groups were instructed to follow a balanced hypocaloric diet and to walk for 50 minutes each day.
According to the study:
“[After one week,] only group C exhibited a reduction in [waist circumference]… Group S presented an increase… in total cholesterol, LDL and LDL:HDL ratio, whilst HDL diminished … Such alterations were not observed in group C. It appears that dietetic supplementation with coconut oil does not cause dyslipidemia and seems to promote a reduction in abdominal obesity.”
This is a great example of how many common theories on nutrition can be seriously mistaken. Saturated fat has been wrongfully vilified as the cause of high cholesterol and heart disease for the last 60 years, when in fact the converse was true all along.
The result of people following the misguided advice to replace saturated fats (like coconut oil) with polyunsaturated vegetable oils (such as soybean oil) is reflected in the statistics for heart disease today. Prior to 1920, coronary artery disease was actually a rarity. In the 1950s, rates began to rise in step with the increased consumption of hydrogenated vegetable oils (trans fat), which replaced saturated fats like butter and lard that had been the norm in previous decades…
Now on to coconut oil; a rare gem among saturated fats, with numerous health benefits. First, did you know that multiple studies on Pacific Island populations who get 30-60 percent of their total caloric intact from fully saturated coconut oil have all shown nearly non-existent rates of cardiovascular disease?
Coconut oil can be helpful for pregnant women, nursing moms, the elderly, those concerned about digestive health, athletes (even weekend warriors), and those of you who just want to enhance your overall health. One of the explanations for its broad health applications is because it’s rich in lauric acid, which converts in your body to monolaurin – a compound also found in breast milk that strengthens a baby’s immunity.
Its medium chain fatty acids or triglycerides (MCTs), also impart a number of health benefits, including raising your body’s metabolism and fighting off pathogens such as viruses, bacteria and fungi. Capric acid, another coconut fatty acid present in smaller amounts, is another antimicrobial component.
Coconut oil is also excellent for your thyroid. Additionally, a very exciting and recent discovery is that coconut oil may even serve as a natural treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, as MCTs are also a primary source of ketone bodies, which act as an alternate source of brain fuel that can help prevent the brain atrophy associated with dementia.
(Alliance/iStock/Thinkstock)
Previous Studies Confirm: Coconut Oil Helpful for Fat Loss
Going back to the results in the featured study for a moment, previous studies have also found that the medium chain fatty acids (MCTs) found in coconut oil promote weight loss, and are helpful for shedding adipose fat in particular. One such study showed that rats fed long chain fatty acids (LCTs, found in vegetable oils) stored body fat, while rats fed MCTs (found in coconut oil) reduced body fat and improved insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance. Specifically, MCT’s were found to down-regulate the expression of adipogenic genes.
Another 2003 study found that MCT’s increased energy expenditure and decreased adiposity in overweight men—a similar finding as in the study above. Here, 24 overweight men consumed diets rich in either MCT or LCT for 28 days, and those consuming MCTs lost more weight and had more energy than those consuming LCTs (in this case olive oil, as opposed to soy bean oil).
Most of the conventional advice relating to coconut oil and cholesterol are false and misleading. Coconut oil has been repeatedly shown to be beneficial rather than detrimental on cholesterol levels and heart health. As explained in a previous article written by Ray Pete, it’s been clearly established for over 80 years now that suppression of the thyroid raises serum cholesterol (and increases mortality from infections, cancer, and heart disease), while restoring the thyroid hormone brings cholesterol down to normal.
As mentioned earlier, coconut oil does both; it balances your thyroid and normalizes your cholesterol levels.
“As far as the evidence goes… coconut oil, added regularly to a balanced diet, lowers cholesterol to normal by promoting its conversion into pregnenolone,” he writes. “Coconut-eating cultures in the tropics have consistently lower cholesterol than people in the U.S.”
Mary Enig with the Weston A Price Foundation has also written at length about the beneficial effects of coconut oil on heart health and cholesterol levels.
Are You Ready to Make the Switch?
Generally speaking, foods that are likely to contain health-harming trans fats include deep-fried foods, processed baked goods, snack foods, and processed foods, including fast foods. Aside from soybean oil, other varieties to avoid include corn and canola oil, so make sure to read the labels when shopping. If you want to avoid dangerous fats of all kinds, your best bet is to eliminate processed foods from your diet. From there, use these tips to make sure you’re eating the right fats for your health:
Use organic coconut oil for all your cooking needs. It is far superior to any other cooking oil and is loaded with health benefits. Make sure you choose an organic coconut oil that is unrefined, unbleached, made without heat processing or chemicals, and does not contain GM ingredients.
Use organic butter (preferably made from raw milk) instead of margarines and vegetable oil spreads. Butter is a healthy whole food that has received an unwarranted bad rap.
Be sure to eat raw fats, such as those from avocados, raw dairy products, and olive oil, and also take a high-quality source of animal-based omega-3 fat, such as krill oil.
Following my comprehensive nutrition plan will also automatically reduce your trans-fat intake, as it will give you a guide to focus on healthy whole foods instead of processed junk food.
Scientists at Scripps Research and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have found a clue to the molecular cause of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), which may also explain why women are at greater risk for the disease than men.
The team found that a particularly harmful, chemically modified form of an inflammatory immune protein called complement C3 was present at much higher levels in the brains of women who had died with AD, compared with the brains of men who had died with the disease. The results also showed that estrogen—levels of which drop during menopause—normally protects against the production of this form of complement C3.
“Our new findings suggest that chemical modification of a component of the complement system helps drive Alzheimer’s, and may explain, at least in part, why the disease predominantly affects women,” said research lead Stuart Lipton, MD, PhD, professor and Step Family Foundation endowed chair in the department of molecular medicine at Scripps Research and a clinical neurologist in La Jolla, CA. Lipton is senior author of the team’s published paper in Science Advances, which is titled, “Mechanistic insight into female predominance in Alzheimer’s disease based on aberrant protein S-nitrosylation of C3.” In their paper the researchers concluded, “Collectively, we demonstrate robust alterations in the S-nitrosoproteome that contribute to AD pathogenesis in a sex-dependent manner.” The study was a collaboration with a team led by Steven Tannenbaum, PhD, post-tenure Underwood-Prescott professor of biological engineering, chemistry, and toxicology at MIT.
AD, the most common form of dementia that occurs with aging, currently afflicts about six million people in the U.S. alone. “AD—characterized by the accumulation of misfolded amyloid-β (Aβ) peptide and neurofibrillary hyperphosphorylated tau tangles in the brain—is arguably the most common neurodegenerative disorder leading to dementia,” the team wrote.
Alzheimer’s disease is always ultimately fatal, usually within a decade of onset, and there is no approved treatment that can halt the disease process, let alone reverse it. The shortcomings of treatments reflect the fact that scientists have never fully understood how Alzheimer’s develops. “The etiology and pathogenesis of AD are incompletely understood, and effective, disease-modifying drug treatments are lacking,” they continued. Scientists also don’t know fully why women account for nearly two-thirds of cases. “Although tremendous strides have been made in AD research over the past decade, additional consideration of sex differences will be important to explain the increased incidence of disease in females.”
Lipton’s lab studies biochemical and molecular events that may underlie neurodegenerative diseases, including the chemical reaction that forms a modified type of complement C3—a process called protein S-nitrosylation (SNO). Lipton and his colleagues previously discovered this chemical reaction, which happens when a nitric oxide (NO)-related molecule binds tightly to a sulfur atom (S) on a particular amino acid building-block of proteins to form a modified SNO-protein.
Protein modifications by small clusters of atoms such as NO are common in cells and typically activate or deactivate a target protein’s functions. For technical reasons, S-nitrosylation has been more difficult to study than other protein modifications, but Lipton suspects that “SNO-storms” of these proteins could be a key contributor to Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative disorders. “SNO can influence protein activity, localization, conformation, or interactions with other proteins; aberrant protein SNO may play a key role in the pathogenesis of various neurodegenerative diseases,” the investigators commented in their paper. “Prior work has linked SNO proteins in neurons and glial cells to neurodegenerative diseases, including AD.”
For their newly reported study, the researchers used novel methods for detecting S-nitrosylation to quantify proteins modified in 40 postmortem human brains. Half of the brains were from people who had died of Alzheimer’s, and half were from people who hadn’t—and each group was divided equally between males and females.
In these brains, the scientists found 1,449 different proteins that had been S-nitrosylated. Among the proteins most often modified in this way, there were several that have already been tied to Alzheimer’s, including complement C3. Strikingly, the levels of S-nitrosylated C3 (SNO-C3) were more than six-fold higher in female Alzheimer’s brains compared to male Alzheimer’s brains. “Notably, SNO proteins associated with complement pathways are enriched in both male and female AD brains,” they stated. “However, SNO of C3, representing the point of convergence of the various complement cascades, was detected predominantly in female AD brains … In our SNO protein datasets, we observed a significant increase in SNO-C3 in female AD brains, exhibiting a 34.2-fold increase over female non-AD control brain.”
In postmenopausal women, depletion of estrogen causes excessive elevation of nitric oxide (NO) in the brain and thus generates S-nitrosylated complement factor C3 (SNO-C3). SNO-C3 triggers activated microglial cells, the innate immune cells in the brain, to phagocytose (or “eat”) neuronal synapses—the connections that mediate signaling between nerve cells in the brain. This aberrant chemical biology process results in synapse loss, leading to cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s disease. [Chang-ki Oh and Stuart Lipton, Scripps Research]
The complement system is an evolutionarily older part of the human immune system. It consists of a family of proteins, including C3, that can activate one another to drive inflammation in what is called the “complement cascade.” Scientists have known for more than 30 years that Alzheimer’s brains have higher levels of complement proteins and other markers of inflammation, compared to neurologically normal brains. More recent research has shown specifically that complement proteins can trigger brain-resident immune cells called microglia to destroy synapses—the connection points through which neurons send signals to one another. Many researchers now suspect that this synapse-destroying mechanism at least partly underlies the Alzheimer’s disease process, and loss of synapses has been demonstrated to be a significant correlate of cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s brains.
Why would SNO-C3 be more common in female brains with Alzheimer’s? There has long been evidence that the female hormone estrogen can have brain-protective effects under some conditions; thus, the researchers hypothesized that estrogen specifically protects women’s brains from C3 S-nitrosylation—and this protection is lost when estrogen levels fall sharply with menopause.
“We hypothesized that menopause-associated up-regulation of inflammation in the brain could be causally linked to the aberrant increase in SNO-C3 that we observed,” the authors noted. “Experiments with cultured human brain cells supported this hypothesis, revealing that SNO-C3 increases as estrogen (β-estradiol) levels fall, due to the activation of an enzyme that makes NO in brain cells. This increase in SNO-C3 activates microglial destruction of synapses. “Mechanistically, we show that formation of SNO-C3 is dependent on falling β-estradiol levels, leading to increased synaptic phagocytosis and thus synapse loss and consequent cognitive decline,” they stated. “Thus, dysregulation of the complement system may play a role in the pathogenesis of AD and explain, at least in part, the female predominance of the disease.”
“Why women are more likely to get Alzheimer’s has long been a mystery, but I think our results represent an important piece of the puzzle that mechanistically explains the increased vulnerability of women as they age,” Lipton said. “To our knowledge, this is the first investigation comparing changes in NO-modified protein levels in the brains of male and female humans with AD,” the team stated. “ … our data suggest a unique mechanism by which protein SNO modulates complement (C3) activity in a sex-dependent manner, thereby providing a molecular link between NO signaling and the complement cascade in AD pathogenesis.”
The researchers now hope to conduct further experiments with de-nitrosylating compounds—which remove the SNO modification—to see if they can reduce pathology in animal models of Alzheimer’s and eventually in humans.
Compared with men, women are at a higher risk of all-cause mortality in the first 5 years following dialysis initiation, according to data published in the American Journal of Kidney Diseases.
Further, the two most common causes of death among patients with kidney disease regardless of sex were CVD and dialysis withdrawal.
While women experienced a lower risk of CVD-related mortality compared with men, they experienced a greater risk of infection-related and dialysis withdrawal-related mortality. Data were derived from Lim WH, et al. Am J Kidney Dis. 2022;doi:10.1053/j.ajkd.2022.07.007.
“Although prior studies have examined the effects of age and era on the survival trends in patients with kidney failure relative to the general population, data relating to the potential interactive effects between sex and patient characteristics, such as age, ethnicity and era of commencing dialysis on cause-specific death in incident dialysis patients with kidney failure, remain unknown,” Wai H. Lim, PhD, from the department of renal medicine at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Australia, and colleagues wrote. They added, “As sex is already identified as a major risk factor for all-cause death in patients with kidney failure, this study aimed to assess the relationship between sex and cause-specific mortality in incident dialysis patients, and to determine the interactions between era, age gradient, ethnicity and sex on cause-cause deaths.”
In a retrospective cohort study, researchers examined data for 53,414 patients (39% were women) who had initiated dialysis in Australia and New Zealand between 1998 and 2018.
Data were derived from the Australia and New Zealand Dialysis and Transplant registry, and researchers followed patients from the commencement of dialysis until kidney transplantation, death on dialysis or Dec. 31, 2018, whichever came first.
Researchers considered the primary outcomes of the study to be cause-specific mortality of cardiovascular-related, infection-related and dialysis withdrawal-related mortality on dialysis. Using cause-specific proportional hazards models, researchers measured the associations between sex, cause-specific and all-cause mortality while focusing on the first 5 years following initiation of dialysis.
After a median of 2.8 years follow-up, 51% of the patients died. Researchers identified the two most common causes of death as CVD (18%), followed by dialysis withdrawal (16%). Analyses revealed women were more likely to die in the first 5 years after dialysis initiation compared with men. While women experienced a lower risk of CVD-related mortality compared with men, they experienced a greater risk of infection-related and dialysis withdrawal-related mortality.
“Our study findings are particularly important as this may form the focus of future studies and targeted policies designed to reduce the survival disparity in female patients with kidney failure. However, it is essential to examine whether the sex differences in cause-specific mortality are apparent in other countries with dissimilar health care structures and resources, which may then provide additional insight into the explanation contributing to this difference in health outcomes among dialysis patients,” Lim and colleagues wrote. “Research addressing the sex-disparities in the pattern and contributing factors of cause-specific mortality in patients with kidney failure remains inadequate but is critical to delineating clear evidence relating to the benefit of targeted interventions to improve health outcomes in this population.”
Summary: Researchers say women tend to feel less stressed on weekends when they usually have more “down time”.
Source: Binghamton University
Women feel less stressed on weekends, when there is more downtime, according to new research from Binghamton University, State University of New York.
Lina Begdache, assistant professor of health and wellness studies at Binghamton University, researches the different determinants of mental distress.
In a recent study, her team investigated the role of diet quality, time of the week and physical fitness on the stress hormone cortisol and how they relate to mood (short-term changes in mental status) and mental distress (typically longer-term mental distress).
A total of 336 records from 48 college students were analyzed. Students recorded their dietary intake for three days, and completed two different mood questionnaires on a Wednesday (a peak weekday) and a Saturday (a downtime day).
Researchers found that during a peak weekday, individuals who experience a negative affect are more likely to experience mental distress, but the likelihood of these emotions remaining high subsides during downtime (e.g. weekends). This suggests that those experiencing high levels of mental distress need to consider taking a break.
“This is important because it is known that women have twice the risk of mental distress such as anxiety and depression when compared to men,” said Begdache.
“Women tend to juggle several responsibilities and multitask because their brain is wired to do so, but obviously, this adds to their mental distress. Therefore, knowing that taking frequent breaks may improve their mental well-being may ward off the need to resort to medications.”
Researchers found that during a peak weekday, individuals who experience a negative affect are more likely to experience mental distress, but the likelihood of these emotions remaining high subsides during downtime (e.g. weekends). Image is in the public domain
Begdache said that planning some downtime might help women better manage their stress.
“I know myself, as a woman who juggles many responsibilities, that it is sometimes easier said than done, but by making a conscious effort to experience some downtime, many times we could be successful,” said Begdache. “Delegation of tasks or building priorities sometimes helps.”
The researchers also found that physically fit individuals are more likely to relax faster, so including some physical activity in their daily routine could add to their mental improvement.
Begdache and her team have another manuscript under review looking at the impact of exercise frequency on mental health during weekdays and weekends and comparing it to the different stages of COVID-19: before, during the pandemic and after the ease of restrictions.
Also contributing to this research were Saloumeh Sadeghzadeh, assistant professor in the School of Management; graduate student Paul Pearlmutter; undergraduate students Gia Derose and Pragna Krishnamurthy; and Ahyeon Koh, assistant professor of biomedical engineering.
ARYAN'S BLOG 