The many ways nature nurtures human well-being

New study identifies the multiple intersecting pathways linking the nonmaterial contributions of ecosystems to human well-being

August 5, 2022

Science Daily/University of Tokyo

A systematic review of 301 academic articles on "cultural ecosystem services" has enabled researchers to identify how these nonmaterial contributions from nature are linked to and significantly affect human well-being. They identified 227 unique pathways through which human interaction with nature positively or negatively affects well-being. These were then used to isolate 16 distinct underlying mechanisms, or types of connection, through which people experience these effects. This comprehensive review brings together observations from a fragmented field of research, which could be of great use to policymakers looking to benefit society through the careful use and protection of the intangible benefits of nature.

Do you ever feel the need for a bit of fresh air to energize yourself, or to spend time in the garden to relax? Aside from clean water, food and useful raw materials, nature provides many other benefits that we might overlook or find it hard to grasp and quantify. Research into cultural ecosystem services (CESs), the nonmaterial benefits we receive from nature, aims to better understand these contributions, whether they emerge through recreation and social experiences, or nature's spiritual value and our sense of place.

Hundreds of CESs studies have explored the connections between nature and human well-being. However, they have often used different methods and measurements, or focused on different demographics and places. This fragmentation makes it difficult to identify overarching patterns or commonalities on how these intangible contributions really affect human well-being. Better understanding them could aid real-world decision-making about the environment, which could benefit individuals and the wider society.

To try and get a "big-picture" view, graduate student Lam Huynh from the Graduate Program in Sustainability Science at the University of Tokyo and team conducted a systematic literature review of 301 academic articles. After a critical reading, they were able to identify hundreds of links. "We identified 227 unique linkages between a single CES (such as recreation or aesthetic value) and a single constituent of human well-being (such as connectedness, spirituality, or health). We knew that there are many linkages, but we were surprised to find quite so many of them," said Huynh. "Then, through further critical reading, we could identify major commonalities."

In particular, they identified 16 distinct underlying "mechanisms," or types of connection, which refer to the different ways that people's interaction with nature affects their well-being. For example, there can be positive interactions through "cohesive," "creative" and "formative" mechanisms, but also negative interactions through "irritative" and "destructive" mechanisms. Previous studies had identified some of these mechanisms, but 10 were newly defined, including the more negative effects, clearly showing that our well-being is linked to the intangible aspects of nature in many more ways than previously thought.

According to the paper, the negative contributions to human well-being came mainly through the degradation or loss of CESs, and through ecosystem "disservices," such as annoyance at wildlife noise, which can affect some people's mental health in particular. However, on the other hand, the highest positive contributions of CESs were to both mental and physical health, which were generated mainly through recreation, tourism and aesthetic value.

"It is particularly interesting to note that the identified pathways and mechanisms rather than affecting human well-being independently, often interact strongly," explained co-author Alexandros Gasparatos, associate professor at the Institute for Future Initiatives (IFI) at the University of Tokyo. "This can create negative trade-offs in some contexts, but also important positive synergies that can be leveraged to provide multiple benefits to human well-being."

Despite the comprehensiveness of the review, the researchers acknowledge that there may still be more links that have not yet been identified, especially as the review revealed gaps in the current research landscape. "We hypothesize that missing pathways and mechanisms could be present in ecosystem-dependent communities, and especially traditional and Indigenous communities, considering their very unique relations with nature," said Gasparatos.

"Another of the knowledge gaps we identified is that the existing literature on these nonmaterial dimensions of human-nature relationships mainly focuses on the well-being of individuals rather than on collective (community) well-being," explained Huynh. "This significant gap hinders our capacity to identify possible synergies and trade-offs in ecosystem management research and practice."

The team has now received a grant to explore the effects of CESs provision to human well-being in the urban spaces of Tokyo. "This project is a logical follow-up to test whether and how some of the identified pathways and mechanisms unfold in reality and intersect with human well-being," said Gasparatos.

The researchers hope that this study and similar efforts will make it possible to apply the key findings from this complex and diverse body of knowledge to enable real-world impact. Professor Kensuke Fukushi from IFI and study co-author summarized their hope that "an improved understanding of nature's many connections to human well-being and the underlying processes mediating them, can help policymakers to design appropriate interventions. Such coordinated action could leverage the positive contributions of these connections and become another avenue to protect and manage ecosystems sustainably."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/08/220805154349.htm

How measuring blood pressure in both arms can help reduce cardiovascular risk and hypertension

August 3, 2022

Science Daily/University of Exeter

Blood pressure should be measured in both arms and the higher reading should be adopted to improve hypertension diagnosis and management, according to a new study.

The research, led by University of Exeter, analysed data from 53,172 participants in 23 studies worldwide to examine the implications of choosing the higher or lower arm pressure.

The study, published in Hypertension, found that using the higher arm blood pressure reading reclassified 12 per cent of people as having hypertension, who would have fallen below the threshold for diagnosis if the lower reading arm was used.

Although International guidelines advise checking blood pressure in both arms, the practice is currently not widely adopted in clinics.

Study lead Dr Christopher Clark, from the University of Exeter, said: "High blood pressure is a global issue and poor management can be fatal. This study shows that failure to measure both arms and use the higher reading arm will not only result in underdiagnosis and undertreatment of high blood pressure but also under-estimation of cardiovascular risks for millions of people worldwide."

The team found that using the higher arm measurement compared to using the lower arm resulted in reclassification of 6572 (12.4%) of participants' systolic blood pressures from below to above 130 mm Hg, and 6339 (11.9%) from below to above 140 mm Hg, moving them above commonly used diagnostic thresholds for hypertension.

Dr Clark continued: "It's impossible to predict the best arm for blood pressure measurement as some people have a higher reading in their left arm compared to right and equal numbers have the opposite. Therefore, it's important to check both arms as detecting high blood pressure correctly is a vital step towards giving the right treatment to the right people."

"Our study now provides the first evidence that the higher reading arm blood pressure is the better predictor of future cardiovascular risk."

The study also revealed that higher arm blood pressure readings better predicted all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality, and cardiovascular events, compared to the lower arm reading. The authors stressed the importance of assessing both arms in the diagnosis and management of hypertension and cardiovascular diseases.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/08/220803123133.htm

Perceived choice in music listening is linked to pain relief

New findings could help inform music listening-based strategies for reducing acute pain

August 3, 2022

Science Daily/PLOS

A new study explores the use of music-listening to relieve acute pain, finding that people who were given the impression that they had control over the music they heard experienced more pain relief than people who were not given such control. Dr. Claire Howlin of Queen Mary University of London, U.K., and colleagues from University College Dublin, Ireland, present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on August 3, 2022.

Music listening can be used for pain relief, especially for chronic pain, i.e., pain lasting more than 12 weeks. However, the underlying mechanisms of these benefits are unclear, especially for acute pain, i.e., pain lasting less than 12 weeks. Basic musical features, such as tempo or energy, seem to be less important for pain relief; instead, feeling able to make decisions about the music may be key for pain relief. However, previous work has largely focused on findings from lab-based samples that did not explore real-world, pre-existing acute pain.

To improve understanding, Howlin and colleagues asked 286 adults experiencing real-world acute pain to rate their pain before and after listening to a music track. The track was specially composed in two different versions of varying complexity. Participants were randomly assigned to hear either the low- or high-complexity version, and some were randomly selected to be given the impression that they had some control over the musical qualities of the track, although they heard the same track regardless of their choice.

The researchers found that participants who felt they had control over the music experienced greater relief in the intensity of their pain than participants who were not given such an impression. In questionnaires, participants reported enjoying both versions of the track, but no links were found between music complexity and amount of pain relief. Additionally, participants who engage more actively with music in their everyday life experienced even greater pain-relief benefits from having a sense of control over the track used in this study.

These findings suggest that choice and engagement with music are important for optimizing its pain-relief potential. Future research could further explore the relationship between music choice and subsequent engagement, as well as strategies for boosting engagement to improve pain relief.

The authors add: "Now we know that the act of choosing music is an important part of the wellbeing benefits that we see from music listening. It's likely that people listen more closely, or more carefully when they choose the music themselves."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/08/220803141240.htm

An effective new treatment for chronic back pain targets the nervous system

August 2, 2022

Science Daily/University of New South Wales

People challenged with chronic back pain have been given hope with a new treatment that focuses on retraining how the back and the brain communicate, a randomised controlled trial run by researchers at UNSW Sydney and Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA) and several other Australian and European universities has shown.

The study, funded by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), was described today in a paper published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The study, carried out at NeuRA, divided 276 participants into two groups: one undertook a 12-week course of sensorimotor retraining and the other received a 12-week course of sham treatments designed to control for placebo effects, which are common in low back pain trials.

Professor James McAuley from UNSW's School of Health Sciences, and NeuRA said sensorimotor retraining alters how people think about their body in pain, how they process sensory information from their back and how they move their back during activities.

"What we observed in our trial was a clinically meaningful effect on pain intensity and a clinically meaningful effect on disability. People were happier, they reported their backs felt better and their quality of life was better. It also looks like these effects were sustained over the long term; twice as many people were completely recovered. Very few treatments for low back pain show long-term benefits, but participants in the trial reported improved quality of life one year later."

The new treatment challenges traditional treatments for chronic back pain, such as drugs and treatments that focus on the back such as spinal manipulation, injections, surgery and spinal cord stimulators, by viewing long-standing back pain as a modifiable problem of the nervous system rather than a disc, bone or muscle problem.

"If you compare the results to studies looking at opioid treatment versus placebo, the difference for that is less than one point out of 10 in pain intensity, it's only short term and there is little improvement in disability. We see similar results for studies comparing manual therapy to sham or exercise to sham," Prof. McAuley said.

"This is the first new treatment of its kind for back pain -- which has been the number one cause of the Global Disability Burden for the last 30 years -- that has been tested against placebo."

How it works

Prof. McAuley said the treatment is based on research that showed the nervous system of people suffering from chronic back pain behaves in a different way from people who have a recent injury to the lower back.

"People with back pain are often told their back is vulnerable and needs protecting. This changes how we filter and interpret information from our back and how we move our back. Over time, the back becomes less fit, and the way the back and brain communicate is disrupted in ways that seem to reinforce the notion that the back is vulnerable and needs protecting. The treatment we devised aims to break this self-sustaining cycle," he said.

Professor Lorimer Moseley AO, Bradley Distinguished Professor at the University of South Australia said, "This treatment, which includes specially designed education modules and methods and sensorimotor retraining, aims to correct the dysfunction we now know is involved in most chronic back pain and that's a disruption within the nervous system. The disruption results in two problems: a hypersensitive pain system and imprecise communication between the back and the brain."

The treatment aims to achieve three goals. The first is to align patient understanding with the latest scientific understanding about what causes chronic back pain. The second is to normalise the way the back and the brain communicate with each other, and thirdly, to gradually retrain the body and the brain back to a normal protection setting and a resumption of usual activities.

Professor Ben Wand of Notre Dame University, the clinical director on the trial, emphasised that by using a program of sensorimotor training, patients can see that their brain and back are not communicating well, but can also experience an improvement in this communication. He said, "We think this gives them confidence to pursue an approach to recovery that trains both the body and the brain."

Training the body and the brain

Traditional therapies concentrate on fixing something in your back, injecting a disc, loosening up the joints or strengthening the muscles. What makes sensorimotor retraining different, according to Prof. McAuley is that it looks at the whole system -- what people think about their back, how the back and brain communicate, how the back is moved, as well as the fitness of the back.

The study authors say that more research is needed to replicate these results and to test the treatment in different settings and populations. They also want to test their approach in other chronic pain states that show similar disruption within the nervous system. They are optimistic about rolling out a training package to bring this new treatment to clinics and have enlisted partner organisations to start that process.

Once the new treatment is available via trained physiotherapists, exercise physiologists and other clinicians -- Prof. McAuley hopes this to occur in the next six to nine months -- people with chronic back pain should be able to access it at a similar cost to other therapies offered by those practitioners.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/08/220802121722.htm

Some types of stress could be good for brain functioning

Low to moderate levels of stress may help build resilience while reducing risk of mental illness

July 28, 2022

Science Daily/University of Georgia

It may feel like an anvil hanging over your head, but that looming deadline stressing you out at work may actually be beneficial for your brain, according to new research from the Youth Development Institute at the University of Georgia.

Published in Psychiatry Research, the study found that low to moderate levels of stress can help individuals develop resilience and reduce the risk of developing mental health disorders, like depression and antisocial behaviors. Low to moderate stress can also help individuals to cope with future stressful encounters.

"If you're in an environment where you have some level of stress, you may develop coping mechanisms that will allow you to become a more efficient and effective worker and organize yourself in a way that will help you perform," said Assaf Oshri, lead author of the study and an associate professor in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences.

The stress that comes from studying for an exam, preparing for a big meeting at work or pulling longer hours to close the deal can all potentially lead to personal growth. Being rejected by a publisher, for example, may lead a writer to rethink their style. And being fired could prompt someone to reconsider their strengths and whether they should stay in their field or branch out to something new.

But the line between the right amount of stress and too much stress is a thin one.

"It's like when you keep doing something hard and get a little callous on your skin," continued Oshri, who also directs the UGA Youth Development Institute. "You trigger your skin to adapt to this pressure you are applying to it. But if you do too much, you're going to cut your skin."

Good stress can act as a vaccine against the effect of future adversity

The researchers relied on data from the Human Connectome Project, a national project funded by the National Institutes of Health that aims to provide insight into how the human brain functions. For the present study, the researchers analyzed the project's data from more than 1,200 young adults who reported their perceived stress levels using a questionnaire commonly used in research to measure how uncontrollable and stressful people find their lives.

Participants answered questions about how frequently they experienced certain thoughts or feelings, such as "in the last month, how often have you been upset because of something that happened unexpectedly?" and "in the last month, how often have you found that you could not cope with all the things that you had to do?"

Their neurocognitive abilities were then assessed using tests that measured attention and ability to suppress automatic responses to visual stimuli; cognitive flexibility, or ability to switch between tasks; picture sequence memory, which involves remembering an increasingly long series of objects; working memory and processing speed.

The researchers compared those findings with the participants' answers from multiple measures of anxious feelings, attention problems and aggression, among other behavioral and emotional problems.

The analysis found that low to moderate levels of stress were psychologically beneficial, potentially acting as a kind of inoculation against developing mental health symptoms.

"Most of us have some adverse experiences that actually make us stronger," Oshri said. "There are specific experiences that can help you evolve or develop skills that will prepare you for the future."

But the ability to tolerate stress and adversity varies greatly according to the individual.

Things like age, genetic predispositions and having a supportive community to fall back on in times of need all play a part in how well individuals handle challenges. While a little stress can be good for cognition, Oshri warns that continued levels of high stress can be incredibly damaging, both physically and mentally.

"At a certain point, stress becomes toxic," he said. "Chronic stress, like the stress that comes from living in abject poverty or being abused, can have very bad health and psychological consequences. It affects everything from your immune system, to emotional regulation, to brain functioning. Not all stress is good stress."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/07/220728143014.htm

People with poor sleep behaviors may be at risk for fatty liver disease

Study shows people who stay up late, snore and nap are at highest risk

July 28, 2022

Science Daily/The Endocrine Society

People with sedentary lifestyles and unhealthy sleep behaviors could develop fatty liver disease, according to new research published in the Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

Fatty liver disease is the leading chronic liver disease worldwide, affecting about a quarter of the adult population. This type of liver disease is fueled by metabolic disorders such as obesity and type 2 diabetes. Fatty liver disease may progress to end-stage liver disease, posing a major health and economic burden to society.

"People with poor nighttime sleep and prolonged daytime napping have the highest risk for developing fatty liver disease," said Yan Liu, Ph.D., of the Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Food, Nutrition and Health and Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China. "Our study found a moderate improvement in sleep quality was related to a 29% reduction in the risk for fatty liver disease."

The researchers analyzed self-reported sleep behaviors from 5,011 Chinese adults with fatty liver disease and found late bedtime, snoring and daytime napping for over 30 minutes were significantly associated with an increased risk of fatty liver disease. A moderate improvement in sleep quality led to a 29% reduction in fatty liver disease risk. People with a sedentary lifestyle and central obesity experienced more prominent adverse effects from poor sleep quality than others.

"Our study provides evidence that even a moderate improvement in sleep quality is sufficient to reduce the risk for fatty liver disease, especially in those with unhealthy lifestyles," Liu said. "Given that large proportions of subjects suffering from poor sleep quality are underdiagnosed and undertreated, our study calls for more research into this field and strategies to improve sleep quality."

Other authors of this study include: Jialu Yang, Shiyun Luo, Rui Li, Jingmeng Ju, Zhuoyu Zhang, Jiahua Fan and Min Xia of the Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Food, Nutrition and Health and Sun Yat-sen University; and Jichuan Shen, Minying Sun and Wei Zhu of the Guangzhou Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Guangzhou, China.

The study received funding from the National Key R&D Program of China, Sun Yat-sen University, the Key Project of Medicine Discipline of Guangzhou, the Basic Research Project of the Key Laboratory of Guangzhou and the Natural Science Foundation of the Guangdong Province.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/07/220728091037.htm

Study shows link between frequent naps and high blood pressure

July 25, 2022

Science Daily/American Heart Association

Frequent or usual daytime napping in adults was associated with a 12% higher risk of developing high blood pressure and a 24% high risk of having a stroke compared to never napping. Experts say napping, though not unhealthy, may be a sign of poor sleep quality. A higher percentage of frequent nappers were men, had lower education and income levels, and reported cigarette smoking, daily drinking, insomnia, snoring and being an evening person compared to people who reported napping sometimes or never. The Mendelian randomization result shows that if napping frequency increased by one category (from never to sometimes or sometimes to usually) high blood pressure risk increased 40%.

Napping on a regular basis is associated with higher risks for high blood pressure and stroke, according to new research published today in Hypertension, an American Heart Association journal.

Researchers in China examined whether frequent naps could be a potential causal risk factor for high blood pressure and/or stroke. This is the first study to use both observational analysis of participants over a long period of time and Mendelian randomization -- a genetic risk validation to investigate whether frequent napping was associated with high blood pressure and ischemic stroke.

"These results are especially interesting since millions of people might enjoy a regular, or even daily nap," says E Wang, Ph.D., M.D., a professor and chair of the Department of Anesthesiology at Xiangya Hospital Central South University, and the study's corresponding author.

Researchers used information from UK Biobank, a large biomedical database and research resource containing anonymized genetic, lifestyle and health information from half a million UK participants. UK Biobank recruited more than 500,000 participants between the ages of 40 and 69 who lived in the United Kingdom between 2006 and 2010. They regularly provided blood, urine and saliva samples, as well as detailed information about their lifestyle. The daytime napping frequency survey occurred 4 times from 2006 -- 2019 in a small proportion of UK Biobank participants.

Wang's group excluded records of people who had already had a stroke or had high blood pressure before the start of the study. This left about 360,000 participants to analyze the association between napping and first-time reports of stroke or high blood pressure, with an average follow-up of about 11 years. Participants were divided into groups based on self-reported napping frequency: "never/rarely," "sometimes," or "usually."

The study found:

• A higher percentage of usual-nappers were men, had lower education and income levels, and reported cigarette smoking, daily drinking, insomnia, snoring and being an evening person compared to never- or sometimes-nappers;

• When compared to people who reported never taking a nap, people who usually nap had a 12% higher likelihood of developing high blood pressure and 24% higher likelihood of having a stroke;

• Participants younger than age 60 who usually napped had a 20% higher risk of developing high blood pressure compared to people the same age who never napped. After age 60, usual napping was associated with 10% higher risk of high blood pressure compared to those who reported never napping;

• About three-fourths of participants remained in the same napping category throughout the study;

• The Mendelian randomization result showed that If napping frequency increased by one category (from never to sometimes or sometimes to usually) high blood pressure risk increased 40%. Higher napping frequency was related to the genetic propensity for high blood pressure risk.

"This may be because, although taking a nap itself is not harmful, many people who take naps may do so because of poor sleep at night. Poor sleep at night is associated with poorer health, and naps are not enough to make up for that," said Michael A. Grandner, Ph.D., MTR, a sleep expert and co-author of the American Heart Association's new Life's Essential 8 cardiovascular health score, which added sleep duration in June 2022 as the 8th metric for measuring optimal heart and brain health. "This study echoes other findings that generally show that taking more naps seems to reflect increased risk for problems with heart health and other issues." Grander is director of the Sleep Health Research Program and the Behavioral Sleep Medicine Clinic and associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

The authors recommend further examination of the associations between a healthy sleep pattern, including daytime napping, and heart health.

The study has several important limitations to consider. Researchers only collected daytime napping frequency, not duration, so there is no information how or whether the length of nap affects blood pressure or stroke risks. Additionally, nap frequency was self-reported without any objective measurements, making estimates nonquantifiable. The study's participants were mostly middle-aged and elderly with European ancestry, so the results may not be generalizable. Finally, researchers have not yet discovered the biological mechanism for the effect of daytime napping on blood pressure regulation or stroke.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/07/220725105620.htm

A healthy lifestyle can offset a high genetic risk for stroke

July 20, 2022

Science Daily/University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston

People who are genetically at higher risk for stroke can lower that risk by as much as 43% by adopting a healthy cardiovascular lifestyle, according to new research led by UTHealth Houston, which was published today in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

The study included 11,568 adults from ages 45 to 64 who were stroke-free at baseline and followed for a median of 28 years. The levels of cardiovascular health were based on the American Heart Association's Life's Simple 7 recommendations, which include stopping smoking, eating better, getting activity, losing weight, managing blood pressure, controlling cholesterol, and reducing blood sugar. The lifetime risk of stroke was computed according to what is called a stroke polygenic risk score, with people who had more genetic risk factors linked to the risk of stroke scoring higher.

"Our study confirmed that modifying lifestyle risk factors, such as controlling blood pressure, can offset a genetic risk of stroke," said Myriam Fornage, PhD, senior author and professor of molecular medicine and human genetics at the Institute of Molecular Medicine at UTHealth Houston. "We can use genetic information to determine who is at higher risk and encourage them to adopt a healthy cardiovascular lifestyle, such as following the AHA's Life's Simple 7, to lower that risk and live a longer, healthier life." Fornage is The Laurence and Johanna Favrot Distinguished Professor in Cardiology at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston.

Each year, 795,000 people in the U.S. suffer a stroke, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That equates to someone having a stroke every 40 seconds, and someone dies from a stroke every 3.5 minutes. Stroke is a leading cause of long-term serious disability with stroke reducing mobility in more than half of stroke survivors age 65 and older. But stroke also occurs in younger adults -- in 2014, 38% of people hospitalized for stroke were less than 65 years old.

People in the study who scored the highest for genetic risk of stroke and the poorest for cardiovascular health had the highest lifetime risk of having a stroke at 25%. Regardless of the level of genetic risk of stroke, those who had practiced optimal cardiovascular health lowered that risk by 30% to 45%. That added up to nearly six more years of life free of stroke.

Overall, people with a low adherence to Life's Simple 7 suffered the most stroke events (56.8%) while those with a high adherence had 71 strokes (6.2%).

A limitation of the paper is the polygenic risk score has not been validated broadly, so its clinical utility is not optimal, particularly for people from diverse racial or ethnic backgrounds.

Co-authors from UTHealth Houston were Nitesh Enduru, MPH; a graduate research assistant with UTHealth Houston School of Biomedical Informatics; and Eric Boerwinkle, PhD, dean of UTHealth School of Public Health. Other contributors were Adrienne Tin, PhD; Michael E. Griswold, PhD; and Thomas H. Mosley, PhD, from the University of Mississippi in Jackson, Mississippi; and Rebecca F. Gottesman, MD, PhD, from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). First author of the paper was Emy A. Thomas, formerly with UTHealth Houston.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/07/220720080124.htm

Vitamin B6 supplements could reduce anxiety and depression

July 19, 2022

Science Daily/University of Reading

Trial participants reported feeling less anxious or depressed after taking high doses of Vitamin B6 for a month. The trial provides evidence that the calming effect B6 has on the brain could make it effective in preventing or treating mood disorders.

Taking high-dose Vitamin B6 tablets has been shown to reduce feelings of anxiety and depression by new research.

Scientists at the University of Reading measured the impact of high doses of Vitamin B6 on young adults and found that they reported feeling less anxious and depressed after taking the supplements every day for a month.

The study, published in the journal Human Psychopharmacology: Clinical and Experimental, provides valuable evidence to support the use of supplements thought to modify levels of activity in the brain for preventing or treating mood disorders.

Dr David Field, lead author from the School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences at the University of Reading, said: "The functioning of the brain relies on a delicate balance between the excitatory neurons that carry information around and inhibitory ones, which prevent runaway activity.

"Recent theories have connected mood disorders and some other neuropsychiatric conditions with a disturbance of this balance, often in the direction of raised levels of brain activity.

"Vitamin B6 helps the body produce a specific chemical messenger that inhibits impulses in the brain, and our study links this calming effect with reduced anxiety among the participants."

While previous studies have produced evidence that multivitamins or marmite can reduce stress levels, few studies have been carried out into which particular vitamins contained within them drive this effect.

The new study focused on the potential role of Vitamins B6, which is known to increase the body's production of GABA (Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid), a chemical that blocks impulses between nerve cells in the brain.

In the current trial, more than 300 participants were randomly assigned either Vitamin B6 or B12 supplements far above the recommended daily intake (approximately 50 times the recommended daily allowance) or a placebo, and took one a day with food for a month.

The study showed that Vitamin B12 had little effect compared to placebo over the trial period, but Vitamin B6 made a statistically reliable difference.

Raised levels of GABA among participants who had taken Vitamin B6 supplements were confirmed by visual tests carried out at the end of the trial, supporting the hypothesis that B6 was responsible for the reduction in anxiety. Subtle but harmless changes in visual performance were detected, consistent with controlled levels of brain activity.

Dr Field said: "Many foods, including tuna, chickpeas and many fruits and vegetables, contain Vitamin B6. However, the high doses used in this trial suggest that supplements would be necessary to have a positive effect on mood.

"It is important to acknowledge that this research is at an early stage and the effect of Vitamin B6 on anxiety in our study was quite small compared to what you would expect from medication. However, nutrition-based interventions produce far fewer unpleasant side effects than drugs, and so in the future people might prefer them as an intervention.

"To make this a realistic choice, further research is needed to identify other nutrition-based interventions that benefit mental wellbeing, allowing different dietary interventions to be combined in future to provide greater results.

"One potential option would be to combine Vitamin B6 supplements with talking therapies such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy to boost their effect."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/07/220719091209.htm

Is stroke linked to depression before it occurs?

July 13, 2022

Science Daily/American Academy of Neurology

While depression is a common problem for people who have had a stroke, some people may have symptoms of depression years before their stroke, according to a study published in the July 13, 2022, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Researchers foundthat, in people who developed a stroke, symptoms of depression preceded the onset of stroke and further worsened after the stroke.

"Depression is among the most pressing problems in people who have had a stroke and it is so common it is referred to as post-stroke depression," said study author Maria Blöchl, PhD, of the University of Münster in Germany. "But our study found depressive symptoms not only markedly increase after stroke, it found people already had developed some depressive symptoms before the stroke even occurred."

For the study, researchers looked at 10,797 adults with an average age of 65 and without a history of stroke at the start of the study. Participants were followed for up to 12 years. During that time, 425 people had a stroke. They were matched with 4,249 people who did not have a stroke but were similar in their age, gender, racial or ethnic identity, and other health conditions.

Participants took a survey every two years asking whether they experienced symptoms of depression in the past week, including: feeling depressed; feeling lonely; feeling sad; everything was an effort; and restless sleep. The more symptoms participants had, the higher their score.

Researchers found that six years before the time of the stroke, people who later had a stroke and those who did not had scores roughly the same, about 1.6 points. But at about two years before the stroke, scores of people who had a stroke started increasing, on average by 0.33 points. Following stroke, depressive symptoms increased an additional 0.23 points for this group, reaching a total of about 2.1 points and they stayed that high for 10 years after the stroke. In contrast, the scores of people who did not have a stroke remained roughly the same throughout the study.

When evaluating whether people could be considered clinically depressed, scoring three points or higher on the scale, researchers found a slightly different pattern of results emerged. At the assessment before the stroke, 29% of people who were about to have a stroke met the criteria for having probable depression, compared to 24% of those who did not have a stroke. But at the time of the stroke, 34% of the people who had a stroke met the criteria for having probable depression, compared to 24% of those who did not have a stroke. Those numbers were about the same six years after the stroke. "This suggests that increasing symptoms of depression before stroke are mostly subtle changes and may not always be clinically detectable. But even slight increases in depressive symptoms, especially mood and fatigue-related symptoms, may be a signal a stroke that is about to occur," noted Blöchl.

"Depression is not only a post-stroke issue, but also a pre-stroke phenomenon," said Blöchl. "Whether these pre-stroke changes can be used to predict who will have a stroke is unclear. Exactly why depressive symptoms occur pre-stroke needs to be investigated in future research. Also, the study underscores why doctors need to monitor for symptoms of depression long term in people who have had strokes."

A limitation of the study was that researchers did not have enough data on treatments for depression. So, it is possible that some people received antidepressants that could have improved their symptoms of depression following stroke.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/07/220713163353.htm