Single dose of alcohol is enough to modify the brain

August 26, 2022

Science Daily/University of Cologne

A research team from the University of Cologne and the Universities of Mannheim and Heidelberg has found that even the single administration of alcohol permanently alters the morphology of neurons. In particular, the structure of the synapses as well as the dynamics of mitochondria -- the powerhouses of the cell -- are influenced by alcohol. Using the genetic model system of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, Professor Dr Henrike Scholz and her team members Michèle Tegtmeier und Michael Berger showed that changes in the migration of mitochondria in the synapses reduce the rewarding effect of alcohol. These results suggest that even a single consumption event can lay the foundation for alcohol addiction.

The study "Single-dose ethanol intoxication causes acute and lasting neuronal changes in the brain" has appeared in PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences).

Which changes in the brain accompany the transition from sporadic drinking to chronic alcohol abuse? That is the question a joint research project with working groups at the University of Mannheim-Heidelberg and the University of Cologne explored. Most scientific research has examined the effects of chronic alcohol consumption on the hippocampus -- the control centre of our brain. Because of this, little is known about the acute neuronal interactions of critical risk factors, such as a first alcohol intoxication at an early age, explained Henrike Scholz: 'We set out to discover ethanol-dependent molecular changes. These, in turn, provide the basis for permanent cellular changes following a single acute ethanol intoxication. The effects of a single alcohol administration were examined at the molecular, cellular and behavioural levels.' The working hypothesis was that, similar to the formation of memory after a single lesson, a single administration of ethanol would form a positive association with alcohol.

The team tested its hypothesis using research in fruit flies and mouse models and found ethanol-induced changes in two areas: mitochondrial dynamics and the balance between synapses in neurons. Mitochondria supply cells and especially nerve cells with energy. In order to optimally deliver the energy to the cells, the mitochondria move. The movement of the mitochondria was disturbed in the cells treated with ethanol. The chemical balance between certain synapses was also disturbed. These changes remained permanent and were confirmed by behavioural changes in the animals: Mice and fruit flies showed increased alcohol consumption and alcohol relapse later in life.

The morphological remodelling of neurons is a well-known basis for learning and memory. These so-called cellular plasticity mechanisms, which are central to learning and memory, are also thought to be at the core of the formation of associative memories for drug-related rewards. Therefore, some of the observed morphological changes may influence ethanol-related memory formation. Together with the migration of mitochondria in neurons, which are also important for synaptic transmission and plasticity, the researchers speculate that these ethanol-dependent cellular changes are critical for the development of addictive behaviours.

'It is remarkable that the cellular processes contributing to such complex reward behaviour are conserved across species, suggesting a similar role in humans,' said Henrike Scholz. 'It could be a possible general cellular process essential for learning and memory.'

Both of the observed mechanisms could explain observations made in mice that a single intoxication experience can increase alcohol consumption and alcohol relapse later in life. 'These mechanisms may even be relevant to the observation in humans that the first alcohol intoxication at an early age is a critical risk factor for later alcohol intoxication and the development of alcohol addiction,' explained Professor Scholz. 'This means that identifying lasting ethanol-dependent changes is an important first step in understanding how acute drinking can turn into chronic alcohol abuse.'

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/08/220826113320.htm

Good sleepers have lower risk of heart disease and stroke

August 26, 2022

Science Daily/European Society of Cardiology

Nine in ten people do not get a good night's sleep, according to research presented at ESC Congress 2022.1 The study found that suboptimal sleep was associated with a higher likelihood of heart disease and stroke. The authors estimated that seven in ten of these cardiovascular conditions could be prevented if everyone was a good sleeper.

"The low prevalence of good sleepers was expected given our busy, 24/7 lives," said study author Dr. Aboubakari Nambiema of INSERM (the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research), Paris, France. "The importance of sleep quality and quantity for heart health should be taught early in life when healthy behaviours become established. Minimising night-time noise and stress at work can both help improve sleep."

Previous studies on sleep and heart disease have generally focused on one sleep habit, such as sleep duration or sleep apnoea, where breathing stops and starts while sleeping. In addition, prior studies have often assessed sleep at baseline only. The current study used a healthy sleep score combining five sleep habits. The researchers investigated the association between the baseline sleep score, and changes over time in the sleep score, and incident cardiovascular disease.

This study included 7,200 participants of the Paris Prospective Study III (PPP3), an observational community-based prospective cohort. Men and women aged 50 to 75 years and free of cardiovascular disease were recruited in a preventive medical centre between 2008 and 2011. The average age was 59.7 years and 62% were men. Participants underwent a physical examination and completed questionnaires on lifestyle, personal and family medical history, and medical conditions.

Questionnaires were used to collect information on five sleep habits at baseline and two follow up visits. Each factor was given 1 point if optimal and 0 if not. A healthy sleep score ranging from 0 to 5 was calculated, with 0 or 1 considered poor and 5 considered optimal. Those with an optimal score reported sleeping 7 to 8 hours per night, never or rarely having insomnia, no frequent excessive daytime sleepiness, no sleep apnoea, and an early chronotype (being a morning person). The researchers checked for incident coronary heart disease and stroke every two years for a total of 10 years.

At baseline, 10% of participants had an optimal sleep score and 8% had a poor score. During a median follow up of eight years, 274 participants developed coronary heart disease or stroke. The researchers analysed the association between sleep scores and cardiovascular events after adjusting for age, sex, alcohol consumption, occupation, smoking, body mass index, physical activity, cholesterol level, diabetes, and family history of heart attack, stroke or sudden cardiac death. They found that the risk of coronary heart disease and stroke decreased by 22% for every 1 point rise in the sleep score at baseline. More specifically, compared to those with a score of 0 or 1, participants with a score of 5 had a 75% lower risk of heart disease or stroke.

The researchers estimated the proportion of cardiovascular events that could be prevented with healthier sleep. They found that if all participants had an optimal sleep score, 72% of new cases of coronary heart disease and stroke might be avoided each year.

Over two follow ups, almost half of participants (48%) changed their sleep score: in 25% it decreased whereas in 23% it improved. When the researchers examined the association between the change in score and cardiovascular events, they found that a 1 point increment over time was associated with a 7% reduction in the risk of coronary heart disease or stroke.

Dr. Nambiema said: "Our study illustrates the potential for sleeping well to preserve heart health and suggests that improving sleep is linked with lower risks of coronary heart disease and stroke. We also found that the vast majority of people have sleep difficulties. Given that cardiovascular disease is the top cause of death worldwide, greater awareness is needed on the importance of good sleep for maintaining a healthy heart."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/08/220826113357.htm

Air pollution is associated with heart attacks in non-smokers

August 23, 2022

Science Daily/European Society of Cardiology

Research presented at ESC Congress 2022 supports a causal relationship between air pollution and heart attacks since smokers, who already inhale smoke, were unaffected by dirty air.

Study author Dr. Insa de Buhr-Stockburger of Berlin Brandenburg Myocardial Infarction Registry (B2HIR), Germany said: "The correlation between air pollution and heart attacks in our study was absent in smokers. This may indicate that bad air can actually cause heart attacks since smokers, who are continuously self-intoxicating with air pollutants, seem less affected by additional external pollutants."

This study investigated the associations of nitric oxide, particulate matter with a diameter less than 10 µm (PM10), and weather with the incidence of myocardial infarction in Berlin. Nitric oxide originates from combustion at high temperatures, in particular from diesel vehicles. Combustion is also a source of PM10, along with abrasion from brakes and tyres, and dust.

The study included 17,873 patients with a myocardial infarction between 2008 and 2014 enrolled in the B2HIR.2 Daily numbers of acute myocardial infarction were extracted from the B2HIR database along with baseline patient characteristics including sex, age, smoking status, and diabetes. Daily PM10 and nitric oxide concentrations throughout the city were obtained from the Senate of Berlin. Information on sunshine duration, minimum and maximum temperature, and precipitation were retrieved from the Berlin Tempelhof weather station and merged with the data on myocardial infarction incidence and air pollution.

The researchers analysed the associations between the incidence of acute myocardial and average pollutant concentrations on the same day, previous day, and an average of the three preceding days among all patients and according to baseline characteristics. Associations between the incidence of acute myocardial and weather parameters were also analysed.

Regarding pollution, myocardial infarction was significantly more common on days with high nitric oxide concentrations, with a 1% higher incidence for every 10 µg/m3 increase. Myocardial infarction was also more common when there was a high average PM10 concentration over the three preceding days, with a 4% higher incidence for every 10 µg/m3 increase. The incidence of myocardial infarction in smokers was unaffected by nitric oxide and PM10 concentrations.

Regarding weather, the incidence of myocardial infarction was significantly related to the maximum temperature, with a 6% lower incidence for every 10°C rise in temperature. No associations with sunshine duration or precipitation were detected.

Dr. de Buhr-Stockburger said: "The study indicates that dirty air is a risk factor for acute myocardial infarction and more efforts are needed to lower pollution from traffic and combustion. Causation cannot be established by an observational study. It is plausible that air pollution is a contributing cause of myocardial infarction, given that nitric oxide and PM10 promote inflammation, atherosclerosis is partly caused by inflammatory processes, and no associations were found in smokers."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/08/220823095522.htm

How a Japanese herbal medicine protects the gut against inflammatory bowel disease

August 22, 2022

Science Daily/RIKEN

Zhengzheng Shi and colleagues at the RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences (IMS) in Japan report the effects of a common herbal remedy on colitis, one of two conditions that comprise inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Published in Frontiers in Immunology, the study shows that DKT -- an herbal medicine containing ginger, pepper, ginseng, and maltose -- reduced the severity of colitis in lab mice by preventing the loss of important gut bacteria and by increasing levels of immune cells in the colon that fight inflammation.

Colitis is a chronic inflammation of the colon, characterized by an imbalance in gut bacteria and an abnormal immune response. Prevalence has doubled over the last 20 years, and it's currently a global health concern, particularly in Europe and North America. Although treatments are numerous, they are only partially effective. This has led some researchers to take a closer look at traditional herbal medicines that originated in China, and are now commonly used in Japan and other Asian countries.

Daikenchuto (DKT) is a formula containing specific amounts of ginger, pepper, ginseng, and maltose, and is one of 148 herbal medicines called Kampo, which have been developed in Japan and are often prescribed by doctors to treat a variety of illnesses. Previous research has hinted that DKT might be useful for treating colitis, but evidence, particularly at the molecular level, has been lacking. Thus, Shi and the team of researchers at RIKEN IMS led by Naoko Satoh-Takayama conducted a detailed examination of its effects on a mouse model of colitis.

Colitis was induced in mice using dextran sodium sulfate, which is toxic to the cells that line the colon. When these mice were given DKT, their body weights remained normal, and they had lower clinical scores for colitis. Additional analysis revealed much less damage to the cells lining the colon. Having thus shown that DKT does indeed help protect against colitis, the researchers proceeded to analyze the gut microbiome of the mice and expression levels of anti-inflammatory immune cells.

Gut microbiomes contain numerous bacteria and fungi that aid in digestion and help the immune system. Colitis is associated with an imbalance in these gut microbiota, and analysis showed that a family of lactic acid bacteria were depleted in the colitic mice of this study. Also depleted was one of their metabolites, a short-chain fatty acid called propionate. Treating the model mice with DKT restored much of these missing bacteria -- particularly those from the genus Lactobacillus -- and levels of propionate were normal.

Colitis is also associated with an abnormal immune response that causes the characteristic intestinal inflammation. When the team looked at innate intestinal immune cells, they found that levels of a type called ILC3 were lower in the untreated colitic mice than in the DKT-treated colonic mice, and that mice engineered to lack ILC3 suffered more and could not benefit from DKT treatment. This means that ILC3s are critical for protecting against colitis and that DKT works by interacting with them. Lastly, qPCR analysis indicated that these important immune cells had receptors for propionate, called GPR43, on their surface.

"Daikenchuto is commonly prescribed to prevent and treat gastrointestinal diseases, as well as for reducing intestinal obstruction after colorectal cancer surgery," says Satoh-Takayama. "Here we have shown that it can also alleviate intestinal diseases like colitis by rebalancing Lactobacillus levels in the gut microbiome. This likely helps reduce inflammatory immune responses by promoting the activity of type 3 innate lymphoid cells."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/08/220817114232.htm

A warming planet could mess with our sleep -- and make us more vulnerable to infectious disease

Research suggests rising temperatures could disrupt sleep and blunt immune response

August 18, 2022

Science Daily/University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences

It's a scene that will be familiar for many after yet another scorching summer: You're lying awake during a warm night, bedsheets kicked aside, an overmatched ceiling fan providing little respite as you struggle to get a good night's sleep.

But a warming planet doesn't just mean more people may find it harder to get quality sleep. There is also evidence suggesting that sleep disturbance could make it harder for the body to fend off infection, according to a new research paper from Dr. Michael Irwin, a professor of psychiatry and biobehavorial sciences at UCLA.

Irwin, who has extensively studied how sleep regulates the immune system, said while there are few studies on how ambient, or surrounding air, temperature affects sleep, they indicate that warmer temperatures contribute to sleep disturbance. Studies have also shown that poor sleep is associated with heightened risk of infectious disease and could make some vaccination less effective, Irwin writes in a research review published in the peer-reviewed journal Temperature last week.

Given research showing a potential link between poor sleep and reduced immune response, Irwin said this raises timely questions about whether climate change results in heightened infectious disease risk amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, a monkeypox outbreak and the reemergence of the poliovirus in New York and London.

"No one has previously put together this notion that the ongoing climate crisis is contributing to sleep disturbance and that it's possibly contributing to the altered risk of infectious disease we're seeing," said Irwin, the director of the Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology at the Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA.

Irwin said the issue also raises important implications about disparities, since low-income communities and communities of color face heightened risk from heat and have less access to air conditioning.

What the research shows 

Irwin's paper reviews how poor sleep affects the immune system and could make people more vulnerable to infectious disease threats. Among the research he cites:

- There's a strong association between sleep and thermoregulation, or how humans maintain a steady core internal temperature. Experimental studies have shown that reducing air temperatures to a range in which humans can maintain a normal body temperature without expending excess energy improves sleep quality, while increases in air temperature result in increased wakefulness. Survey data of 765,000 people in the United States also found increases in nighttime temperatures amplified self-reported nights of insufficient sleep, with the largest effects during the summer and among lower-income and elderly people.

- It's thought that sleep helps prepare the body's response to possible injury or infection that could occur the following day. When sleep is disrupted, that contributes to increases in inflammation and dampens the body's ability to fight off infections. That means there may be heightened risk among older adults and patients with inflammatory disorders, like cardiovascular disease and some types of depression, who have higher prevalence of insomnia.

- Some small experimental studies in humans indicate that poor sleep could also result in poorer vaccine response. In one study, for instance, people who had four straight nights of partial sleep deprivation before receiving a trivalent influenza vaccine had a 50% reduction in antibody titers compared to those with normal sleep. Other studies that tested the effects of sleep disruption after influenza or hepatitis vaccination suggest that short sleep duration, at least in healthy adults, is likely associated with a reduced adaptive immunologic response and possibly clinical protection.

- Sleep duration is also associated with infectious disease risk outcomes. Basic research has shown that longer sleep leads to decreases in bacterial load and improved survival in a variety of infectious disease models. Self-reported surveys have also shown an association between shorter sleep and higher infection risk.

- While there's abundant evidence that sleep disturbance and depressive symptoms have greatly increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, there's little known about how poor sleep may be affecting risk of COVID-19 infection and outcomes. However, a recent study of over 46,000 patients indicated that a significant sleep disturbance was associated with an over 2-fold increase in the mortality risk for patients who had COVID-19, while no similar association was found in those who did not.

Irwin said that future research on this topic should evaluate how altering ambient temperatures affects sleep and, as a result, immune function. He said there should also be a focus on how rising ambient temperatures may be affecting diverse and disadvantaged communities.

"Just like the pandemic is impacting socioeconomically disadvantaged and ethnic groups disproportionately with more morbid outcomes, it might be that increase in ambient temperature we're seeing are further exaggerating those risk profiles," Irwin said.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/08/220818122401.htm

News addiction linked to not only poor mental wellbeing but physical health too

August 24, 2022

Science Daily/Taylor & Francis Group

People with an obsessive urge to constantly check the news are more likely to suffer from stress, anxiety, as well as physical ill health, finds a new study published in the peer-reviewed journal Health Communication.

During the last two years we have lived through a series of worrying global events, from the COVID pandemic to Russia invading Ukraine,large-scale protests, mass shootings and devastating wildfires. For many people, reading bad news can make us feel temporarily powerless and distressed.

For others, being exposed to a 24-hour news cycle of continually evolving events can have serious impacts on mental and physical wellbeing -- as these new findings, out today, show, with those who have a high-levels of news addiction reporting "significantly greater physical ill-being."

"Witnessing these events unfold in the news can bring about a constant state of high alert in some people, kicking their surveillance motives into overdrive and making the world seem like a dark and dangerous place," says Bryan McLaughlin, associate professor of advertising at the College of Media and Communication at Texas Tech University.

"For these individuals, a vicious cycle can develop in which, rather than tuning out, they become drawn further in, obsessing over the news and checking for updates around the clock to alleviate their emotional distress. But it doesn't help, and the more they check the news, the more it begins to interfere with other aspects of their lives."

To study this phenomenon, known colloquially as news addiction, McLaughlin and his colleagues, Dr Melissa Gotlieb and Dr Devin Mills, analysed data from an online survey of 1,100 US adults.

In the survey, people were asked about the extent to which they agreed with statements like "I become so absorbed in the news that I forget the world around me," "my mind is frequently occupied with thoughts about the news," "I find it difficult to stop reading or watching the news," and "I often do not pay attention at school or work because I am reading or watching the news."

Respondents were also asked about how often they experienced feelings of stress and anxiety, as well as physical ailments such as fatigue, physical pain, poor concentration, and gastrointestinal issues.

The results revealed that 16.5% of people surveyed showed signs of 'severely problematic' news consumption. Such individuals frequently became so immersed and personally invested in news stories that the stories dominated the individual's waking thoughts, disrupted time with family and friends, made it difficult to focus on school or work, and contributed to restlessness and an inability to sleep.

Perhaps not surprisingly, people with higher levels of problematic news consumption were significantly more likely to experience mental and physical ill-being than those with lower levels, even when controlling for demographics, personality traits, and overall news use.

When asked how frequently survey participants experienced mental health or physical illness symptoms over the past month, results show:

• 73.6% of those recognized to have severe levels of problematic news consumption reported experiencing mental ill-being "quite a bit" or "very much" -- whilst frequent symptoms were only reported by 8% of all other study participants.

• 61% of those with severe levels of problematic news reported experiencing physical ill-being "quite a bit" or "very much" compared to only 6.1% for all other study participants.

According to McLaughlin, the findings show that there is a need for focused media literacy campaigns to help people develop a healthier relationship with the news.

"While we want people to remain engaged in the news, it is important that they have a healthier relationship with the news," he says.

"In most cases, treatment for addictions and compulsive behaviors centers on complete cessation of the problematic behavior, as it can be difficult to perform the behavior in moderation.

"In the case of problematic news consumption, research has shown that individuals may decide to stop, or at least dramatically reduce, their news consumption if they perceive it is having adverse effects on their mental health.

"For example, previous research has shown that individuals who became aware of and concerned about the adverse effects that their constant attention to sensationalized coverage of COVID-19 was having on their mental health reported making the conscious decision to tune out.

"However, not only does tuning out come at the expense of an individual's access to important information for their health and safety, it also undermines the existence of an informed citizenry, which has implications for maintaining a healthy democracy. This is why a healthy relationship with news consumption is an ideal situation."

In addition, the study also calls out the need for a wider discussion about how the news industry may be fuelling the problem.

"The economic pressures facing outlets, coupled with technological advances and the 24- hour news cycle have encouraged journalists to focus on selecting "newsworthy" stories that will grab news consumers' attention," says McLaughlin.

"However, for certain types of people, the conflict and drama that characterize newsworthy stories not only grab their attention and draw them in, but also can lead to a maladaptive relationship with the news. Thus, the results of our study emphasise that the commercial pressures that news media face are not just harmful to the goal of maintaining a healthy democracy, they also may be harmful to individuals' health."

Limitations of this study include reliance on a data collected at one point in time, where the authors could not establish the exact relationship between problematic news consumption and mental and physical ill-being.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/08/220824102936.htm

How the sounds we hear help us predict how things feel

August 24, 2022

Science Daily/University of East Anglia

Researchers at the University of East Anglia have made an important discovery about the way our brains process the sensations of sound and touch.

A new study published today shows how the brain's different sensory systems are all closely interconnected -- with regions that respond to touch also involved when we listen to specific sounds associated with touching objects.

They found that these areas of the brain can tell the difference between listening to sounds such as such as a ball bouncing, or the sound of typing on a keyboard.

It is hoped that understanding this key area of brain function may in future help people who are neurodiverse, or with conditions such as schizophrenia or anxiety. And it could lead to developments in brain-inspired computing and AI.

Lead researcher Dr Fraser Smith, from UEA's School of Psychology, said: "We know that when we hear a familiar sound such as a bouncing a ball, this leads us to expect to see a particular object. But what we have found is that it also leads the brain to represent what it might feel like to touch and interact with that object.

"These expectations can help the brain process sensory information more efficiently."

The research team used an MRI scanner to collect brain imaging data while 10 participants listened to sounds generated by interacting with objects -- such as bouncing a ball, knocking on a door, crushing paper, or typing on a keyboard.

Using a special imaging technique called functional MRI (fMRI), they measured brain activity throughout the brain.

They used sophisticated machine learning analysis techniques to test whether the activity generated in the earliest touch areas of the brain (primary somatosensory cortex) could tell apart sounds generated by different types of object interaction (bouncing a ball, verses typing on a keyboard).

They also performed a similar analysis for control sounds, similar to those used in hearing tests, to rule out that just any sounds can be discriminated in this brain region.

Researcher Dr Kerri Bailey said: "Our research shows that parts of our brains, which were thought to only respond when we touch objects, are also involved when we listen to specific sounds associated with touching objects.

"This supports the idea that a key role of these brain areas is to predict what we might experience next, from whatever sensory stream is currently available.

Dr Smith added: "Our findings challenge how neuroscientists traditionally understand the workings of sensory brain areas and demonstrate that the brain's different sensory systems are actually all very interconnected.

"Our assumption is that the sounds provide predictions to help our future interaction with objects, in line with a key theory of brain function -- called Predictive Processing.

"Understanding this key mechanism of brain function may provide compelling insights into mental health conditions such as schizophrenia, autism or anxiety and in addition, lead to developments in brain-inspired computing and AI."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/08/220824102948.htm

Religiousness, spirituality linked to better heart health among African Americans

Church attendance, prayer may boost heart health among African American adults, according to study

August 24, 2022

Science Daily/American Heart Association

In a study of nearly 3,000 African American adults, those who reported more frequent church attendance, private prayer and 'feeling God's presence' were more likely to meet the American Heart Association's key metrics for optimal cardiovascular health, compared to others reporting less frequent religious participation or no such beliefs. Researchers note this is the first evidence that strong religious beliefs and spirituality may have beneficial effects on the heart health of African American men and women.

African American adults who reported more frequent participation in religious activities and/or deeper spiritual beliefs may be more likely to meet some of the American Heart Association's key metrics for cardiovascular health, such as regular exercise, a balanced diet and normal blood pressure, according to new research published today in the Journal of the American Heart Association, an open access, peer-reviewed journal of the American Heart Association.

This study is the first to investigate among African Americans the association of a comprehensive set of cardiovascular health behaviors -- the American Heart Association's Life's Simple 7 metrics (diet, physical activity and nicotine exposure) and physiological factors (weight, cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar levels) with religious beliefs and spirituality. The Life's Simple 7 metrics, established in 2010, were expanded and renamed to Life's Essential 8 in June 2022, with sleep added as the eighth component of optimal heart health.

African Americans have poorer overall cardiovascular health than non-Hispanic white people, and death from cardiovascular diseases is higher in African American adults than white adults, according to the American Heart Associations' 2017 "Cardiovascular Health in African Americans" scientific statement.

"Health professionals and researchers should acknowledge the importance of religious and spiritual influences in the lives of African Americans -- who tend to be highly religious," said the study's lead author LaPrincess C. Brewer, M.D., M.P.H., a preventive cardiologist and assistant professor of medicine at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. "With religious and spiritual beliefs factored into our approaches, we may make major breakthroughs in fostering the relationship between patients and physicians and between community members and scientists to build trust and sociocultural understanding of this population."

Researchers analyzed responses gauging religiosity (strong religious feeling or belief from any religion), spirituality and the Life's Simple 7 cardiovascular health indicators from surveys and health screenings of 2,967 African American participants in the Jackson Heart Study. The Jackson Heart Study is the largest single-site, community-based investigation of cardiovascular disease among African American adults in the U.S. On average, participants were 54 years old at study enrollment, and 66% were women. The ongoing study, initiated in 1998, includes more than 5,000 adults ages 21- to 84-years-old who identify as African American and living in the tri-county area of Jackson, Mississippi.

Researchers grouped participants by religious behaviors (their self-reported levels of attending church service/bible study groups, private prayer and the use of religious beliefs or practices in adapting to difficult life situations and stressful events -- called religious coping in the study); and spirituality (belief in the existence of a supreme being, deity or God).

The religious behavior questions were adapted from the Fetzer Multidimensional Measurement of Religiousness/Spirituality (religious attendance, private prayer) and Religious Coping scale (religious coping) instruments. The spirituality measures were adapted from the Daily Spiritual Experience Scale, which assesses ordinary daily experiences according to theistic spirituality (belief in the existence of a supreme being, deity or God and to feel God's presence, desire closer union with God, feel God's love) and the nontheistic spirituality (feel strength in my religion, feel deep inner peace and harmony or feel spiritually touched by creation).

Participants were then grouped according to religiousness and spirituality scores by health factors: physical activity, diet, smoking, weight, blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol levels, plus the composite score of the seven components of Life's Simple 7 to estimate cardiovascular health. Researchers estimated the odds of achieving intermediate and ideal levels of the heart-disease prevention goals based on the religiousness/spirituality scores.

The participants who reported more religious activity or having deeper levels of spiritual beliefs were more likely to meet the key measures for cardiovascular health:

• Greater frequency of attending religious services or activities was associated with a 16% increase in odds of meeting "intermediate" or "ideal" metrics for physical activity, 10% for diet, 50% for smoking, 12% for blood pressure and 15% for the composite cardiovascular health score.

• Greater reported frequency of private prayer was associated with a 12% increase in the odds of achieving intermediate or ideal metrics for diet and 24% increased odds for achieving the metric related to smoking.

• Religious coping was associated with an 18% increase in the odds of achieving intermediate and ideal levels for physical activity, 10% increased odds for healthy diet, 32% for smoking and 14% for the composite cardiovascular health score.

• Total spirituality was associated with an 11% increase in the odds of achieving intermediate and ideal levels for physical activity and 36% for smoking.

"I was slightly surprised by the findings that multiple dimensions of religiosity and spirituality were associated with improved cardiovascular health across multiple health behaviors that are extremely challenging to change, such as diet, physical activity and smoking," Brewer said.

"Our findings highlight the substantial role that culturally tailored health promotion initiatives and recommendations for lifestyle change may play in advancing health equity," she added. "The cultural relevance of interventions may increase their likelihood of influencing cardiovascular health and also the sustainability and maintenance of healthy lifestyle changes."

Brewer added, "This is especially important for socioeconomically disenfranchised communities faced with multiple challenges and stressors. Religiosity and spirituality may serve as a buffer to stress and have therapeutic purposes or support self-empowerment to practice healthy behaviors and seek preventive health services."

The religiousness/spirituality survey was conducted at one point during the Jackson Heart Study, so participants' cardiovascular health was not analyzed over time. In addition, people who had known heart disease were not included in this analysis.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/08/220824102911.htm

Sleepless and selfish: Lack of sleep makes us less generous

Study using fMRI and assessments of sleep-deprived show decreased desire to help others

August 23, 2022

Science Daily/University of California - Berkeley

Humans help each other -- it's one of the foundations of civilized society. But a new study by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, reveals that a lack of sleep blunts this fundamental human attribute, with real-world consequences.

Lack of sleep is known to be associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, depression, diabetes, hypertension and overall mortality. However, these new discoveries show that a lack of sleep also impairs our basic social conscience, making us withdraw our desire and willingness to help other people.

In one portion of the new study, the scientists showed that charitable giving in the week after the beginning of Daylight Saving Time, when residents of most states "spring forward" and lose one hour of their day, dropped by 10% -- a decrease not seen in states that do not change their clocks or when states return to standard time in the fall.

The study, led by UC Berkeley research scientist Eti Ben Simon and Matthew Walker, a UC Berkeley professor of psychology, adds to a growing body of evidence demonstrating that inadequate sleep not only harms the mental and physical well-being of an individual, but also compromises the bonds between individuals -- and even the altruistic sentiment of an entire nation.

"Over the past 20 years, we have discovered a very intimate link between our sleep health and our mental health. Indeed, we've not been able to discover a single major psychiatric condition in which sleep is normal," Walker said. "But this new work demonstrates that a lack of sleep not only damages the health of an individual, but degrades social interactions between individuals and, furthermore, degrades the very fabric of human society itself. How we operate as a social species -- and we are a social species -- seems profoundly dependent on how much sleep we are getting."

"We're starting to see more and more studies, including this one, where the effects of sleep loss don't just stop at the individual, but propagate to those around us," said Ben Simon. "If you're not getting enough sleep, it doesn't just hurt your own well-being, it hurts the well-being of your entire social circle, including strangers."

Ben Simon, Walker and colleagues Raphael Vallat and Aubrey Rossi will publish their results August 23 in the open access journal PLOS Biology. Walker is the director of the Center for Human Sleep Science. He and Ben Simon are members of the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute at UC Berkeley.

Sleeplessness dampens theory of mind network

The new report describes three separate studies that assessed the impact of sleep loss on people's willingness to help others. In the first study, the scientists placed 24 healthy volunteers in a functional magnetic resonance imager (fMRI) to scan their brains after eight hours of sleep and after a night of no sleep. They found that areas of the brain that form the theory of mind network, which is engaged when people empathize with others or try to understand other people's wants and needs, were less active after a sleepless night.

"When we think about other people, this network engages and allows us to comprehend what other person's needs are: What are they thinking about? Are they in pain? Do they need help?" Ben Simon said. "However, this network was markedly impaired when individuals were sleep deprived. It's as though these parts of the brain fail to respond when we are trying to interact with other people after not getting enough sleep."

In a second study, they tracked more than 100 people online over three or four nights. During this time, the researchers measured the quality of their sleep -- how long they slept, how many times they woke up -- and then assessed their desire to help others, such as holding an elevator door open for someone else, volunteering or helping an injured stranger on the street.

"Here, we found that a decrease in the quality of someone's sleep from one night to the next predicted a significant decrease in the desire to help other people from one subsequent day to the next," Ben Simon said. "Those with poor sleep the night prior were the ones that reported being less willing and keen to help others the following day."

The third part of the study involved mining a database of 3 million charitable donations in the United States between 2001 and 2016. Did the number of donations change after the transition to Daylight Saving Time and the potential loss of an hour of sleep? They found a 10% drop in donations. This same dent in compassionate gift-giving was not seen in regions of the country that did not change their clocks.

"Even a very modest 'dose' of sleep deprivation -- here, just the loss of one single hour of sleep opportunity linked to daylight saving time -- has a very measurable and very real impact on people's generosity and, therefore, how we function as a connected society," Walker said. "When people lose one hour of sleep, there's a clear hit on our innate human kindness and our motivation to help other people in need."

An earlier study by Walker and Ben Simon showed that sleep deprivation forced people to socially withdraw and become more socially isolated. A lack of sleep also increased their feelings of loneliness. Worse still, when those sleep-deprived individuals interacted with other people, they spread their loneliness to those other individuals, almost like a virus, Walker said.

"Looking at the big picture, we're starting to see that a lack of sleep results in a quite asocial and, from a helping perspective, anti-social individual, which has manifold consequences to how we live together as a social species," he said. "A lack of sleep makes people less empathetic, less generous, more socially withdrawn, and it's infectious -- there is contagion of loneliness."

"The realization that the quantity and quality of sleep affects an entire society, caused by an impairment in prosocial behavior, may provide insights into our societal state of affairs in the present day," Walker added.

This finding also offers a novel approach to improving these specific aspects of our society.

"Promoting sleep, rather than shaming people for sleeping enough, could very palpably help shape the social bonds we all experience every day," Ben Simon said.

"Sleep, it turns out, is an incredible lubricant to prosocial, connected, empathic, kind and generous human behavior. In these divisive times, if there was ever a need for a strong, prosocial lubricant to enable the very best version of ourselves within society, now seems to be it," said Walker, author of the international bestseller, Why We Sleep. "Sleep may be a wonderful ingredient that enables the alacrity of helping between human beings."

"Sleep is essential for all aspects of our physical, mental and emotional lives," Ben Simon said. "When sleep is undervalued in society, not only do we get sleep-deprived doctors, nurses and students, but we also suffer from unkind and less empathic interactions on a daily basis."

In developed countries, more than half of all people report getting insufficient sleep during the work week.

"It is time as a society to abandon the idea that sleep is unnecessary or a waste and, without feeling embarrassed, start getting the sleep that we need," she added. "It is the best form of kindness we can offer ourselves, as well as the people around us."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/08/220823143827.htm

Random acts of kindness make a bigger splash than expected

August 18, 2022

Science Daily/University of Texas at Austin

Even though they often enhance happiness, acts of kindness such as giving a friend a ride or bringing food for a sick family member can be somewhat rare because people underestimate how good these actions make recipients feel, according to new research from The University of Texas at Austin.

The study by UT Austin McCombs School of Business Assistant Professor of Marketing Amit Kumar, along with Nicholas Epley of the University of Chicago, found that although givers tend to focus on the object they're providing or action they're performing, receivers instead concentrate on the feelings of warmth the act of kindness has conjured up. This means that givers' "miscalibrated expectations" can function as a barrier to performing more prosocial behaviors such as helping, sharing or donating.

The research is online in advance in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.

To quantify these attitudes and behaviors, the researchers conducted a series of experiments.

In one, the researchers recruited 84 participants in Chicago's Maggie Daley Park. Participants could choose whether to give away to a stranger a cup of hot chocolate from the park's food kiosk or keep it for themselves. Seventy-five agreed to give it away.

Researchers delivered the hot chocolate to the stranger and told them the study participant had chosen to give them their drink. Recipients reported their mood, and performers indicated how they thought recipients felt after getting the drink.

Performers underestimated the significance of their act. They expected recipients' mood at an average of 2.7 on a scale of -5 (much more negative than normal) to 5 (much more positive than normal), while recipients reported an average of 3.5.

"People aren't way off base," Kumar said. "They get that being kind to people makes them feel good. What we don't get is how good it really makes others feel."

The researchers also performed a similar experiment in the same park with cupcakes. They recruited 200 participants and divided them into two groups. In the control group, 50 participants received a cupcake for participating. They rated their mood, and the other 50 people rated how they thought the receivers felt after getting a cupcake.

For the second group of 100, 50 people were told they could give away their cupcake to strangers. They rated their own mood and the expected mood of the cupcake recipients. The researchers found that participants rated cupcake recipients' happiness at about the same level whether they got their cupcake through an act of random kindness or from the researchers. What's more, recipients who received a cupcake through an act of kindness were happier than control group recipients.

"Performers are not fully taking into account that their warm acts provide value from the act itself," Kumar said. "The fact that you're being nice to others adds a lot of value beyond whatever the thing is."

In a lab experiment, Kumar and Epley added a component to assess the consequences of kindness. Participants first either received a gift from the lab store or were gifted one by another participant, then played a game. All participants who received an item were told to divide $100 between themselves and an unknown study recipient.

The researchers found that recipients who received their lab gift through another participant's random act of kindness were more generous to strangers during the game. They divvyed up the $100 more equally, giving away $48.02 on average versus $41.20.

"It turns out generosity can actually be contagious," Kumar said. "Receivers of a prosocial act can pay it forward. Kindness can actually spread."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/08/220818164056.htm

Why heat makes us sleepy

Fruit fly study reveals a thermometer brain circuit promoting midday siesta on hot days

August 17, 2022

Science Daily/Northwestern University

On the hottest summer days, you may find yourself dozing off in the middle of the day. In some parts of the world, it's a cultural norm to schedule "siestas" and shutter businesses during the warmest hours of the day. As it turns out, biology, not just culture, may be behind this.

Temperature affects the span of human behavior, from eating and activity levels to sleep-wake cycles. We may have a harder time sleeping in the summer and be slow to get out of bed on colder mornings. But the link between sensory neurons and neurons that control this cycle are not understood completely.

Northwestern University neurobiologists have found a few clues about what's happening. In a new study, published today (Aug. 17) in the journal Current Biology, researchers found that fruit flies are pre-programmed to take a nap in the middle of the day. A follow-up to their 2020 Biology paper that identified a brain thermometer only active in cold weather, the new paper explores a similar "thermometer" circuit for hot temperatures.

"Changes in temperature have a strong effect on behavior in both humans and animals, and offer animals a cue that is time to adapt to the changing seasons," said Marco Gallio, associate professor of neurobiology in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. "The effect of temperature on sleep can be quite extreme, with some animals deciding to sleep off an entire season -- think of a hibernating bear -- but the specific brain circuits that mediate the interaction between temperature and sleep centers remain largely unmapped."

Gallio led the study and said fruit flies are a particularly good model to study big questions like "why do we sleep," and "what does sleep do for the brain" because they don't attempt to disrupt instinct in the same way humans do when we pull all-nighters, for example. They also allow researchers to study the influence of external cues like light and temperature on cellular pathways.

Cells that stay on longer

The paper is the first to identify "absolute heat" receptors in fly head, which respond to temperatures above about 77 degrees Fahrenheit -- the fly's favorite temperature. As it turns out, the common laboratory fruit fly (Drosophila) has colonized nearly the entire planet by forming a close association with humans. Not surprisingly, its favorite temperature also matches that of many humans.

Just as they expected based on the results of their previous paper on cold temperature, researchers found that brain neurons receiving information about heat are part of the broader system that regulates sleep. When the hot circuit, which runs parallel to the cold circuit, is active, the target cells that promote midday sleep stay on longer. This results in an increase in midday sleep that keeps flies away from the hottest part of the day.

The study was enabled by a 10-year initiative that produced the first completed map of neural connections in an animal (a fly), called the connectome. With the connectome, researchers have access to a computer system that tells them all possible brain connections for each of the fly's ~100,000 brain cells. However, even with this extremely detailed road map, researchers still need to figure out how information in the brain goes from point A to B. This paper helps fill that gap.

The different circuits for hot versus cold temperatures make sense to Gallio because "hot and cold temperatures can have quite different effects on physiology and behavior," he said. This separation may also reflect evolutionary processes based on heat and cold cycles of the Earth. For example, the possibility that brain centers for sleep may be directly targeted in humans by a specific sensory circuit is now open to be investigated based on this work.

Next steps

Next, Gallio's team hopes to figure out the common targets of the cold and hot circuit, to discover how each can influence sleep.

"We identified one neuron that could be a site of integration for the effects of hot and cold temperatures on sleep and activity in Drosophila," said Michael Alpert, the paper's first author and a post-doctoral researcher in the Gallio lab. "This would be the start of interesting follow-up studies."

Gallio added that the team is interested in looking at the long-term effects of temperature on behavior and physiology to understand the impact of global warming, looking at how adaptable species are to change.

"People may choose to take an afternoon nap on a hot day, and in some parts of the world this is a cultural norm, but what do you choose and what is programmed into you?" Gallio said. "Of course, it's not culture in flies, so there actually might be a very strong underlying biological mechanism that is overlooked in humans."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/08/220817201106.htm

New method detects gut microbes that activate immune cells

Identifying which microbes in the gut contribute to inflammatory diseases can lead to more personalized therapies

August 17, 2022

Science Daily/Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

Cedars-Sinai investigators have developed a method to help identify which human gut microbes are most likely to contribute to a slew of inflammatory diseases like obesity, liver disease, inflammatory bowel disease, cancer and some neurological diseases.

The technique, described in the peer-reviewed journal Science Translational Medicine, uses a protein found in blood that detects the gut microbes that have crossed the gut barrier and activated immune cells throughout the body -- a development that could lead to new treatments that target inflammatory gut microbes.

"Microbes crossing the gut barrier usually causes inflammation and activation of the immune system, which are key features of many inflammatory diseases," said Ivan Vujkovic-Cvijin, PhD, an assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences and Gastroenterology at Cedars-Sinai and senior author of the study. "By understanding which specific microbes are crossing the gut and causing inflammation in a disease, we then can devise methods to get rid of those microbes to stop the disease."

While the gut microbiome is thought to play an important role in diseases that are driven by immune over-activation, many of these diseases involve organs beyond the gut. Currently, there are limited tools to identify which gut microbes have crossed the gut barrier and activated immune cells outside of the gastrointestinal tract.

To devise a more accurate method, investigators at Cedars-Sinai and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases used human serum, the fluid found in blood that contains all the antibodies of an individual, to quantify immune responses against gut microbes.

Using human serum allows researchers to understand the total body immune responses to all gut microbes, which helps give researchers a better understanding whether specific microbes are eliciting immune activation in these diseases.

The team used high throughput sequencing to calculate an IgG score, which is used to measure how much antibody there is against each gut microbe.

"Bacteria can migrate out of the gut into other tissues with pleiotropic effects we have yet to fully understand," said Suzanne Devkota, PhD, an associate professor in the Cedars-Sinai Division of Gastroenterology and co-author of the study. "Therefore, we need new ways to assess translocation non-invasively."

When applying this technique to inflammatory bowel disease, researchers found several bacteria that were targeted by the immune system when compared to healthy controls. This included several gut bacteria in the Collinsella, Bifidobacterium, Lachnospiraceae and Ruminococcaceae.

"Many of the bacteria we identified haven't been thought of as potential causative drivers of this disease," Vujkovic-Cvijin said. "This microbial activity is likely relevant to disease progression and may represent a viable therapeutic target."

The team plans to continue to follow up on the observations from the study to learn more about the mechanisms of the specific gut bacteria that were identified as potential targets.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/08/220817143933.htm

Vitamin D supplementation seems to alleviate depressive symptoms in adults

August 12, 2022

Science Daily/University of Eastern Finland

An extensive meta-analysis suggests that vitamin D supplementation may alleviate depressive symptoms in adults with depression. Conducted by an international team of researchers, the meta-analysis includes dozens of studies from around the world.

Depressive symptoms cause a significant disease burden worldwide. The therapeutic efficacy of current antidepressants is often insufficient, which is why further ways to alleviate the symptoms of depression have been sought, for example, from nutritional research.

Vitamin D is believed to regulate central nervous system functions the disturbances of which have been associated with depression. In addition, cross-sectional studies have observed an association between depressive symptoms and vitamin D deficiency. However, previous meta-analyses on the effects of vitamin D supplementation on depression have been inconclusive. In a meta-analysis, results from several different studies are combined and analysed statistically.

The new meta-analysis on the association of vitamin D supplementation with depression is the largest one published so far, including results from 41 studies from around the world. These studies have investigated the efficacy of vitamin D in alleviating depressive symptoms in adults by randomised placebo-controlled trials in different populations. The studies included those carried out in patients with depression, in the general population, and in people with various physical conditions. The results of the meta-analysis show that vitamin D supplementation is more effective than a placebo in alleviating depressive symptoms in people with depression. There were major differences in the vitamin D doses used, but typically the vitamin D supplement was 50-100 micrograms per day.

"Despite the broad scope of this meta-analysis, the certainty of evidence remains low due to the heterogeneity of the populations studied and the due to the risk of bias associated with a large number of studies," Doctoral Researcher and lead author Tuomas Mikola of the Institute of Clinical Medicine at the University of Eastern Finland says. The meta-analysis is part of Mikola's PhD thesis.

"These findings will encourage new, high-level clinical trials in patients with depression in order to shed more light on the possible role of vitamin D supplementation in the treatment of depression," Mikola concludes.

The meta-analysis was carried out in international collaboration between Finnish, Australian and US researchers.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/08/220812113410.htm

Alcohol use can alter gut microbes, but not in the way you might think

Excessive alcohol consumption can cause bacterial overgrowth in gut, but mouse studies found this imbalance doesn't appear to play major role in alcoholic liver disease risk

August 11, 2022

Science Daily/University of California - San Diego

Chronic alcohol use is a major cause of liver damage and death: Approximately 30,000 persons in the United States die annually from alcoholic liver diseases, such as cirrhosis. Among the negative impacts of excessive alcohol use is its ability to adversely affect the gut microbiome, though how that happens has been a mystery, since the majority of consumed alcohol is absorbed in the mouth and stomach and does not reach the intestines.

In a new study, published August 8, 2022 in Nature Communications, researchers at University of California San Diego, with colleagues elsewhere, propose an answer: Reprogramming of gut microbiota is caused by acetate produced by the liver diffusing back into the intestines where it becomes a carbon source to support bacterial growth.

"You can think of this a bit like dumping fertilizer on a garden," said co-corresponding author Karsten Zengler, PhD, professor in the departments of Pediatrics and Bioengineering at UC San Diego School of Medicine and Jacobs School of Engineering, respectively. "The result is an explosion of imbalanced biological growth, benefitting some species but not others."

Bernd Schnabl, MD, professor of medicine and gastroenterology at UC San Diego School of Medicine, is the other co-corresponding author.

Acetate is a nutrient used in cellular metabolism and has roles in appetite regulation, energy expenditure and immune response. In moderate levels, it promotes overall health, from improved cardiac function to enhanced red blood cell production and memory function. In excessive levels, it is associated with metabolic changes linked to disease, including cancer.

In the latest study, Zengler and colleagues fed mice a molecule that could be broken down into three acetates in the rodents' gut. The researchers noted the animals' intestinal microbiota were altered by the additional acetate in a way similar to what they observed when feeding alcohol to the mice, but without damaging effects to their livers.

"Chronic alcohol consumption is associated with lower intestinal expression of antimicrobial molecules. Persons will alcohol-related liver disease commonly have bacterial overgrowth in their guts," said Zengler. "These findings suggest that microbial ethanol metabolism does not contribute significantly to gut microbiome dysbiosis (imbalance) and that the microbiome altered by acetate does not play a major role in liver damage."

"The situation is more complicated than previously assumed. It's not as simple as more ethanol equals microbiome changes and thus, microbiome dysbiosis equals more liver disease. While this finding does not translate to imminent new treatments for alcoholic liver disease, it will help to delineate the effect of acetate on the microbiota and help refining future study designs."

The authors said the findings are important because they move the investigation past whether "changes in the gut microbiome are related to ethanol consumption per se are critical … and towards identifying bacteria that are causal for deleterious effects of alcohol consumption, rather than side-effects either of consumption or disease."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/08/220811135321.htm

Study finds that sound plus electrical body stimulation has potential to treat chronic pain

New technique could relieve pain for individuals with various chronic and neurological conditions

August 11, 2022

Science Daily/University of Minnesota

A University of Minnesota Twin Cities-led team has found that electrical stimulation of the body combined with sound activates the brain's somatosensory or "tactile" cortex, increasing the potential for using the technique to treat chronic pain and other sensory disorders. The researchers tested the non-invasive technique on animals and are planning clinical trials on humans in the near future.

The paper is published in the Journal of Neural Engineering.

During the experiments, the researchers played broadband sound while electrically stimulating different parts of the body in guinea pigs. They found that the combination of the two activated neurons in the brain's somatosensory cortex, which is responsible for touch and pain sensations throughout the body.

While the researchers used needle stimulation in their experiments, one could achieve similar results using electrical stimulation devices, such as transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) units, which are widely available for anyone to buy at pharmacies and stores. The researchers hope that their findings will lead to a treatment for chronic pain that's safer and more accessible than drug approaches.

"Chronic pain is a huge issue for a lot of people, and for most, it's not sufficiently treatable," said Cory Gloeckner, lead author on the paper, a 2017 Ph.D. alumnus of the University of Minnesota Twin Cities Department of Biomedical Engineering, and an assistant professor at John Carroll University. "Right now, one of the ways that we try to treat pain is opioids, and we all know that doesn't work out well for many people. This, on the other hand, is a non-invasive, simple application. It's not some expensive medical device that you have to buy in order to treat your pain. It's something that we think would be available to pretty much anyone because of its low cost and simplicity."

The researchers plan to continue investigating this "multimodal" approach to treating different neurological conditions, potentially integrating music therapy in the future to see how they can further modify the somatosensory cortex.

"A lot of people have been using acupuncture or electrical stimulation -- non-invasive or invasive -- to try to alter brain activity for pain," said Hubert Lim, senior author on the paper and a professor in the University of Minnesota Twin Cities Department of Biomedical Engineering and Department of Otolaryngology. "Our research shows that when you combine this with sound, the brain lights up even more."

Lim said this opens up a whole new field of using this bimodal and multimodal stimulation for treating diseases.

"It's odd to think about using sound to treat pain, but if you think about what institutes like the University of Minnesota's Center for Spirituality and Healing or the NIH's National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health are doing, they're looking at music therapy and combining other modalities with the traditional methods to be able to enhance healing of these types of conditions," Lim said. "This research gives us a new, structured framework for doing that moving forward."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/08/220811083335.htm

New research reveals the circadian clock influences cell growth, metabolism and tumor progression

Study illustrates how both genetic and environmental disruption of the circadian clock can drive colorectal cancer progression

August 10, 2022

Science Daily/University of California - Irvine

In a new University of California, Irvine-led study, researchers define how the circadian clock influences cell growth, metabolism and tumor progression. Their research also reveals how disruption of the circadian clock impacts genome stability and mutations that can further drive critical tumor promoting pathways in the intestine.

The study, titled, "Disruption of the Circadian Clock drives ApcLoss of Heterozygosity to Accelerate Colorectal Cancer,"was published today in Science Advances.

In this study, researchers found that both genetic disruption and environmental disruption of the circadian clock contribute to the mutation of the adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) tumor suppressor, which is found in the vast majority of human colorectal cancers (CRC). APC point mutations, deletions, and loss of heterozygosity (LOH) events have been reported in ~80 percent of human CRC cases, and it is these mutations that drive the initiation of intestinal adenoma development.

"As a society, we are exposed to several environmental factors that influence our biological clock, including night shift work, extended light exposure, changes in sleep/wake cycles and altered feeding behavior," said Selma Masri, PhD, assistant professor of biological chemistry at UCI School of Medicine. "Strikingly, we have seen an alarming increase in several young-onset cancers, including colorectal cancer. The underlying cause of this increased incidence of cancer in adults in their 20s and 30s remains undefined. However, based on our findings, we now believe that disruption of the circadian clock plays an important role."

According to the National Institutes of Health, there has been an alarming rise in early-onset colorectal cancer among young individuals. Today, nearly 10 percent of CRC cases are now diagnosed in people younger than 50 years, and this trend is on a steady rise. Suspected risk factors include environmental aspects, such as lifestyle and dietary factors, which are known to affect the circadian clock.

APC mutations are also associated with second hits in key oncogenic pathways, including Kras, Braf, p53, and Smad4, and these mutations drive progression to adenocarcinoma, collectively contributing to disease progression. Our findings now implicate circadian clock disruption in driving additional genomic mutations that are critical for accelerating colorectal cancer.

The circadian clock is an internal biological pacemaker that governs numerous physiological processes. Research in the Masri Lab is primarily focused on how disruption of the circadian clock is involved in the development and progression of certain cancer types. Researchers in the Masri Lab are actively pursuing further research aimed at defining how the circadian clock impacts other cancer types.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/08/220810161028.htm

The Many Mental Health Benefits of Self-Care

Guest Post by Nicole Rubin

Mental health is your psychological, emotional, and social well-being. Your mental health affects how you think, feel, act, and relate to others. It is not only about mental illness, it also affects your quality of life and overall health.

Self-care involves indulging in things that improve your mental and physical health. It is crucial for your mental health because it lowers your chances of illness, assists you in stress management, and increases your energy levels. Even the most minor acts of self-care can improve your life. Below are self-care practices that will help improve your mental health.

Regular Exercises

Your mind and body have a unique connection. Research suggests that regular exercise boosts your levels of serotonin. As a result, your mood and energy can improve significantly. Typically, experts recommend a 30-minute workout — but any exercise is better than none.

When you exercise, you also improve your mental health by increasing your cognitive functions and self-esteem. There's also some evidence that group-based exercise reduces social withdrawal.

If you decide to purchase any exercise equipment to help with your exercise routine — an exercise bike is a great idea, for example — spend some time looking up reviews. This is an excellent way to not only look for great deals but to ensure the product you choose to purchase won’t fall apart on your within a few months.

Healthy Eating

Good nutrition is not about dieting and shunning the foods you love. Strict dieting may work against self-care and good nutrition. Safe care through healthy eating involves giving your body the raw materials it requires physically and mentally for healthy living.

Nutrition is essential in the creation of hormones that control your moods. When your body cells are deprived of the required fuel, you become depressed, irritated, stressed, and anxious. Giving yourself healthy food with the nutrition you need is the best self-care.

Good Financial Management

Financial concerns can negatively affect your life in many ways in San Rafael, CA. Around 72% of Americans are reported to have money stresses, with a further 22% being in extreme stress due to financial woes. Stress, anxiety, and panic jeopardize your mental health and can cause isolation and depression.

Because of this, sound financial management is a form of self-care. You can achieve this by assessing your finances, developing a savings plan, having investments, and refinancing your home. When you refinance your home, you reduce the equity on the house, allowing you to free up cash, and reducing mortgage payments. This will give you more financial freedom due to fewer expenses.

Seeking Mental Help When You Are Depressed

Depression is a common mental health condition that can interfere with your daily life by making you feel negative about many people and things around you. The good news is you can get help, feel better, and emerge from a depressed state of mind.

One way to deal with depression is by visiting a mental health professional. For example, a professional in San Rafaelmay recommend antidepressants that allow norepinephrine and serotonin to stay in your blood, thus elevating your mood. Still, antidepressants are not for everyone and your doctor will consider many factors. Therapy can also help, either alongside antidepressants or on its own.

Improve Your Mental Health Today

There you have it — the mental health benefits of self-care. Follow the tips mentioned above, and you can make a lot of improvements to your mental health. For a more thorough explanation by experts, visit A/V Stim to access additional information on how to improve your mental health today.

No evidence that depression is caused by low serotonin levels, finds comprehensive review

July 20, 2022

Science Daily/University College London

After decades of study, there remains no clear evidence that serotonin levels or serotonin activity are responsible for depression, according to a major review of prior research led by UCL scientists.

The new umbrella review -- an overview of existing meta-analyses and systematic reviews -- published in Molecular Psychiatry, suggests that depression is not likely caused by a chemical imbalance, and calls into question what antidepressants do. Most antidepressants are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), which were originally said to work by correcting abnormally low serotonin levels. There is no other accepted pharmacological mechanism by which antidepressants affect the symptoms of depression.

Lead author Professor Joanna Moncrieff, a Professor of Psychiatry at UCL and a consultant psychiatrist at North East London NHS Foundation Trust (NELFT), said: "It is always difficult to prove a negative, but I think we can safely say that after a vast amount of research conducted over several decades, there is no convincing evidence that depression is caused by serotonin abnormalities, particularly by lower levels or reduced activity of serotonin.

"The popularity of the 'chemical imbalance' theory of depression has coincided with a huge increase in the use of antidepressants. Prescriptions for antidepressants have risen dramatically since the 1990s, with one in six adults in England and 2% of teenagers now being prescribed an antidepressant in a given year.

"Many people take antidepressants because they have been led to believe their depression has a biochemical cause, but this new research suggests this belief is not grounded in evidence."

The umbrella review aimed to capture all relevant studies that have been published in the most important fields of research on serotonin and depression. The studies included in the review involved tens of thousands of participants.

Research that compared levels of serotonin and its breakdown products in the blood or brain fluids did not find a difference between people diagnosed with depression and healthy control (comparison) participants.

Research on serotonin receptors and the serotonin transporter, the protein targeted by most antidepressants, found weak and inconsistent evidence suggestive of higher levels of serotonin activity in people with depression. However, the researchers say the findings are likely explained by the use of antidepressants among people diagnosed with depression, since such effects were not reliably ruled out.

The authors also looked at studies where serotonin levels were artificially lowered in hundreds of people by depriving their diets of the amino acid required to make serotonin. These studies have been cited as demonstrating that a serotonin deficiency is linked to depression. A meta-analysis conducted in 2007 and a sample of recent studies found that lowering serotonin in this way did not produce depression in hundreds of healthy volunteers, however. There was very weak evidence in a small subgroup of people with a family history of depression, but this only involved 75 participants, and more recent evidence was inconclusive.

Very large studies involving tens of thousands of patients looked at gene variation, including the gene for the serotonin transporter. They found no difference in these genes between people with depression and healthy controls. These studies also looked at the effects of stressful life events and found that these exerted a strong effect on people's risk of becoming depressed -- the more stressful life events a person had experienced, the more likely they were to be depressed. A famous early study found a relationship between stressful events, the type of serotonin transporter gene a person had and the chance of depression. But larger, more comprehensive studies suggest this was a false finding.

These findings together led the authors to conclude that there is "no support for the hypothesis that depression is caused by lowered serotonin activity or concentrations."

The researchers say their findings are important as studies show that as many as 85-90% of the public believes that depression is caused by low serotonin or a chemical imbalance. A growing number of scientists and professional bodies are recognising the chemical imbalance framing as an over-simplification. There is also evidence that believing that low mood is caused by a chemical imbalance leads people to have a pessimistic outlook on the likelihood of recovery, and the possibility of managing moods without medical help. This is important because most people will meet criteria for anxiety or depression at some point in their lives.

The authors also found evidence from a large meta-analysis that people who used antidepressants had lower levels of serotonin in their blood. They concluded that some evidence was consistent with the possibility that long-term antidepressant use reduces serotonin concentrations. The researchers say this may imply that the increase in serotonin that some antidepressants produce in the short term could lead to compensatory changes in the brain that produce the opposite effect in the long term.

While the study did not review the efficacy of antidepressants, the authors encourage further research and advice into treatments that might focus instead on managing stressful or traumatic events in people's lives, such as with psychotherapy, alongside other practices such as exercise or mindfulness, or addressing underlying contributors such as poverty, stress and loneliness.

Professor Moncrieff said: "Our view is that patients should not be told that depression is caused by low serotonin or by a chemical imbalance, and they should not be led to believe that antidepressants work by targeting these unproven abnormalities. We do not understand what antidepressants are doing to the brain exactly, and giving people this sort of misinformation prevents them from making an informed decision about whether to take antidepressants or not."

Co-author Dr Mark Horowitz, a training psychiatrist and Clinical Research Fellow in Psychiatry at UCL and NELFT, said: "I had been taught that depression was caused by low serotonin in my psychiatry training and had even taught this to students in my own lectures. Being involved in this research was eye-opening and feels like everything I thought I knew has been flipped upside down.

"One interesting aspect in the studies we examined was how strong an effect adverse life events played in depression, suggesting low mood is a response to people's lives and cannot be boiled down to a simple chemical equation."

Professor Moncrieff added: "Thousands of people suffer from side effects of antidepressants, including the severe withdrawal effects that can occur when people try to stop them, yet prescription rates continue to rise. We believe this situation has been driven partly by the false belief that depression is due to a chemical imbalance. It is high time to inform the public that this belief is not grounded in science."

The researchers caution that anyone considering withdrawing from antidepressants should seek the advice of a health professional, given the risk of adverse effects following withdrawal. Professor Moncrieff and Dr Horowitz are conducting ongoing research into how best to gradually stop taking antidepressants.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/07/220720080145.htm

Symptoms of insomnia may reduce likelihood of alcohol-induced blackout

Future work to test whether circadian misalignment, common among insomniacs, alters alcohol metabolism

August 8, 2022

Science Daily/Rutgers University

Heavy drinkers with symptoms of insomnia, such as difficulty falling or staying asleep, may be less likely to suffer alcohol-induced blackouts, according to a study co-authored by a Rutgers researcher.

It's the opposite of what they expected when they began the study. Historically, research has suggested that insomnia worsens alcohol-related consequences.

"Because insomnia has been shown to impair memory and cognitive functioning, we thought that participants in our study with severe insomnia and high rates of alcohol use would also have the highest rates of blackout frequency," said Angelo M. DiBello, an assistant professor at the Rutgers Center of Alcohol and Substance Use Studies within the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology and a coauthor of the study published in the journal Addictive Behaviors. "What we found was exactly the opposite."

To measure alcohol-induced anterograde amnesia -- commonly referred to as a blackout -- among young adults, DiBello and colleagues from the University of Missouri (first author Mary Beth Miller) and the University of New Mexico (shared first author Cassandra L. Boness) used data collected from 461 college students from an introductory psychology course at a large Midwestern university.

Eligible participants were at least 18 years old and had reported heavy drinking in the past 30 days -- defined as five or more drinks on a single occasion or 14 or more drinks a week for men and more than four and seven drinks, respectively, for women.

Participants were asked about their drinking habits, whether and how often they experienced alcohol-induced blackouts and if they suffered symptoms of insomnia. About a third -- 146 -- met the criteria for insomnia.

Researchers, who believed that the opposite would occur, discovered as alcohol use increased among study participants who reported lower severity of insomnia, blackout frequency increased more than those who reported higher severity of insomnia.

DiBello said more work is needed to understand results that "are contrary to much of the established literature."

But the researchers already have a theory that they plan to test.

One potential explanation is that circadian misalignment, which is common among individuals with insomnia, alters the elimination process of alcohol metabolism, the researchers wrote. Many of the enzymes involved in alcohol metabolism demonstrate time-of-day-dependent variations in activity. If circadian misalignment alters the activity of these enzymes, then it may alter the rate at which alcohol is eliminated from the body.

"We're not saying that the consequences of heavy drinking are absent for those with severe insomnia," DiBello said. "This is not a license to drink heavily if you have trouble sleeping."

"What we are saying, however, is the effect is stronger for those who are low in insomnia," he said. "But of course, people who are high in insomnia who drink a lot still experience elevated blackout frequency compared to those who drink less."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/08/220808162231.htm

Down on Vitamin D? It could be the cause of chronic inflammation

August 7, 2022

Science Daily/University of South Australia

Genetic research shows a direct link between low levels of vitamin D and high levels of inflammation, providing an important biomarker to identify people at higher risk of or severity of chronic illnesses with an inflammatory component.

Inflammation is an essential part of the body's healing process. But when it persists, it can contribute to a wide range of complex diseases including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and autoimmune diseases.

Now, world-first genetic research from the University of South Australia shows a direct link between low levels of vitamin D and high levels of inflammation, providing an important biomarker to identify people at higher risk of or severity of chronic illnesses with an inflammatory component.

The study examined the genetic data of 294,970 participants in the UK Biobank, using Mendelian randomization to show the association between vitamin D and C-reactive protein levels, an indicator of inflammation.

Lead researcher, UniSA's Dr Ang Zhou, says the findings suggest that boosting vitamin D in people with a deficiency may reduce chronic inflammation.

"Inflammation is your body's way of protecting your tissues if you've been injured or have an infection," Dr Zhou says.

"High levels of C-reactive protein are generated by the liver in response to inflammation, so when your body is experiencing chronic inflammation, it also shows higher levels of C-reactive protein.

"This study examined vitamin D and C-reactive proteins and found a one-way relationship between low levels of vitamin D and high levels of C-reactive protein, expressed as inflammation.

"Boosting vitamin D in people with deficiencies may reduce chronic inflammation, helping them avoid a number of related diseases."

Supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council and published in the International Journal of Epidemiology the study also raises the possibility that having adequate vitamin D concentrations may mitigate complications arising from obesity and reduce the risk or severity of chronic illnesses with an inflammatory component, such as CVDs, diabetes, and autoimmune diseases.

Senior investigator and Director of UniSA's Australian Centre for Precision Health, Professor Elina Hyppönen, says these results are important and provide an explanation for some of the controversies in reported associations with vitamin D.

"We have repeatedly seen evidence for health benefits for increasing vitamin D concentrations in individuals with very low levels, while for others, there appears to be little to no benefit." Prof Hyppönen says.

"These findings highlight the importance of avoiding clinical vitamin D deficiency, and provide further evidence for the wide-ranging effects of hormonal vitamin D."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/08/220807161657.htm