People who eat less fruit, vegetable more prone to anxiety

People who have low fruit and vegetable intakes have a higher likelihood of being diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, say researchers.

The study, published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, found that those who consumed less than three sources of fruits and vegetables daily, there was at least at 24 per cent higher odds of anxiety disorder diagnosis.

"This may also partly explain the findings associated with body composition measures. As levels of total body fat increased beyond 36 per cent, the likelihood of anxiety disorder was increased by more than 70 per cent," said co-author Jose Mora-Almanza, a Mitacs Globalink Intern who worked with the study at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Canada.

According to the researchers, increased body fat may be linked to greater inflammation. Emerging research suggests that some anxiety disorders can be linked to inflammation.

"Our findings are in keeping with previous research which has also indicated that women are more vulnerable to anxiety disorders than men," said study co-author Karen Kobayashi.

The study team analysed data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging which included 26,991 men and women between the ages of 45 and 85. Other factors associated with anxiety disorders among mid-age and older Canadians

In addition to diet and body composition measures, the prevalence of anxiety disorders also differed by gender, marital status, income, immigrant status and several health issues.

One in nine women had an anxiety disorder compared to one in fifteen men, the study said.

The prevalence of anxiety disorders among those who had always been single (13.9 per cent) was much higher than among those who were living with a partner (7.8 per cent).

Approximately one in five respondents with household incomes under $20,000 per year had anxiety disorders, more than double the prevalence of their richer peers.

"We were not surprised to find that those in poverty had such a high prevalence of anxiety disorders; struggling to afford basics such as food and housing causes relentless stress and is inherently anxiety inducing," said study co-author Hongmei Tong, Assistant Professor at MacEwan University in Canada.

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COPD Appears to Cause More Severe Symptoms in Women

Women who develop COPD report smoking fewer cigarettes than men yet women experience greater breathing impairments, are subjected to more acute exacerbations of symptoms and report lower quality of life than men with the disease, according to research presented at ATS 2019.

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According to results, female gender was independently associated with greater respiratory-specific QoL impairment, greater general QoL impairment, reduced 6MWDs, higher odds of hypoxemia with 6MWT, being symptomatic, experiencing frequent AECOPD, and severe AECOPD in the prior year. Using the same data source, researchers now plan to investigate the role hormonal factors may play in these gender differences.

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Study sugests higger BMI may improve cancer survival in some cases

While above average or high BMI is often linked to cancers, diabetes, cardiovascular and other disease, in some cases the higher level of BMI can improve the chance of survival among certain cancers, suggests a new research.

Focusing on clinical trials of atezolizumab, a common immunotherapy treatment for non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the Australian cancer researchers found improved responsiveness to the drug in those with a high BMI. The results of the research were published in a journal recently. The study contrast with regular warnings about the health risks of patients who are overweight and obese.

According to the lead investigator, " this is an interesting outcome and it raises the potential to investigate further with other cancers and other anti-cancer drugs.

He added, we need to do further studies into the possible link between BMI and related inflammation, which might help to understand the mechanisms behind the paradoxical response to this form of cancer treatment.

Previous studies have explored a concept called ' obesity paradox', where obesity is associated with increased risks for developing certain cancers and counter-intuitively, may protect and give greater survival benefits in certain individuals.

Our study provides new evidence to support the hypothesis that high BMI and obesity may be associated with response to immunotherapy, says the Dr.

The researchers found NSCLC patients with high BMI ( BMI 25kg/m2) in 4 clinical trials had a significant reduction in mortality with atezolizumab, apparently benefiting from immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy.

Treatment options for this form of lung cancer are rapidly evolving and include ICIs, molecular targeted drugs and chemotherapies.

While our study only looked at baseline and during treatment, we believe it warrants more studies into the potentially protective role of high BMI in other cancer treatments, added the lead author.

The WHO estimates at least 2.8 million people die each year as a result of being overweight or obese. Overweight and obesity lead to adverse metabolic effects on blood pressure, cholesterol, triglycerides and insulin resistance. Risks of coronary heart disease, ischemic stroke and type 2 diabetes mellitus increase steadily with increasing BMI, a measure of weight relative to height.

Of the 1434 participants studied in the research, 49 % were of normal weight, 34% were overweight and 7 % were obese.

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Future generations will face greater health problems due to climate change

Children are growing up in a warmer world that will hit them with more and different health problems than their parents experienced, an international report by doctors said.

With increasing diarrhea diseases, more dangerous heat waves, air pollution and increases in mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue fever and malaria, man-made global warming is already harming public health around the world, the annual climate change and health report from the medical journal said.

But the report and its authors said they worry that the future health of the world’s youngest people will get even grimmer if emissions of heat-trapping gases aren’t curbed.

“A child born today as they go through their lives they are going to be increasingly exposed to more and more harms that I did not experience,” said study co-author Dr Renee Salas, a Boston emergency room physician and professor at Harvard.

“I cannot think of a greater health emergency,” Salas said.

Already, the number of days when conditions are ripe for the spread of the water-borne bacteria Vibiro, a major cause of debilitating diarrhoea, have doubled since 1980 with last year ranking second-highest on record, the report said. Because of the warming climate, 29 percent more of the U.S. coastline is vulnerable to Vibrio. The report also said the cholera version of Vibrio has increased by nearly 10 percent.

Nine of the top 10 years where conditions were most ripe for dengue fever transmission have occurred since 2000, the report said.

Those diseases hit children harder, the report said. And children, the elderly, the poor and the sick are most hurt during extreme heat with dangerous overheating, respiratory disease and kidney problems.

“Children are the most vulnerable. They will bear the vast majority of the burden of climate change,’’ said Dr Nick Watts, an Australian emergency room physician and the lead author of the global report. “Their health will be hit by climate change in a profoundly different way.”

While medicine and public health have improved over the decades, allowing people to live longer, climate change “threatens to undermine all of the gains we’ve had,” Salas said.

Dr Cindy Parker, an environmental health professor at Johns Hopkins University, praised the peer-reviewed report, which she wasn’t part of, but she worried that focusing on the health effects that have already happened lessens the urgency of the future.

“Climate change is a risk amplifier,” Parker said in an email. So as bad as the health problems are, add in water and food shortages caused by climate change and there will be more social unrest and conflict around the world that will still hit the United States in indirect ways, she said.

As an emergency room doctor, Salas said diseases that spread farther because of a changing climate, such as Lyme Disease, are something she has to consider when she treats patients.

During an emergency room shift in July, Salas saw an elderly man during a heatwave with a body temperature of 106 degrees. The ambulance crew said he lived on the top floor of a public housing complex with no air conditioning and when they opened the door “there was this wave of heat that hit them.”

Salas was able to save him. But as a doctor, she struggles with cases where there is no way to treat the patient, such as with devastating bleeding inside the brain. With climate change health problems, she said, the remedy is stopping emissions of heat-trapping gases from the burning of coal, oil and gas.

“We can’t ‘doctor’ our way out of this,” said Dr Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, who wasn’t part of the study but praised it. “We must address the root causes of climate change.”

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Microbleeds after head injury may worsen outcomes

Researchers have discovered that traumatic microbleeds, which appear as small, dark lesions on MRI scans after head injury, are a form of injury to brain blood vessels, and may predict worse outcomes, an advance which may lead to new treatment protocol for such injuries.

The study,  involved 439 adult participants who experienced head injury, and were treated in the emergency department.

The researchers, including those from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in the US, said that the patients underwent MRI scans within 48 hours of injury, and again during four subsequent visits.

The participants also completed behavioral and outcome questionnaires, the study noted.

The findings revealed that 31 per cent of all the subjects had evidence of microbleeds on their brain scans.

Nearly 60 per cent of the participants with severe head injury showed microbleeds, and another 27 per cent exhibited mild cases, the researchers said.

According to the researchers, the microbleeds appeared as either linear streaks or dotted, also referred to as punctate, lesions.

The majority of patients who had microbleeds had both types, the study noted.

The study also revealed that the frontal lobes of the brain were most likely to show microbleeds.
"While we know that damage to brain cells can be devastating, the exact impact of this vascular injury following head trauma is uncertain and requires further study," said study co-author.

The researchers noted that the patients with microbleeds were more likely to have a greater level of disability compared to patients without microbleeds.

According to the researchers, microbleeds following brain injury may be a potential biomarker for identifying which patients may be candidates for treatments targeting vascular injury.

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Heavy drinking can change your DNA

Are you a heavy drinker? Take note. Besides alcohol taking a toll on your health in many ways, it may also trigger a long-lasting genetic change resulting in an even greater craving for alcohol, researchers  have warned.

"We found that people who drink heavily may be changing their DNA in a way that makes them crave alcohol even more," said a Prof. "This may help explain why alcoholism is such a powerful addiction, and may one day contribute to new ways to treat alcoholism or help prevent at-risk people from becoming addicted," said the Prof.

For the study, researchers focused on two genes implicated in the control of drinking behaviour: PER2, which influences the body's biological clock, and POMC, which regulates our stress-response system.

By comparing groups of moderate, binge and heavy drinkers, the team found that the two genes had changed in binge and heavy drinkers through an alcohol-influenced gene modification process called methylation, according to the findings.

In addition, the binge and heavy drinkers also showed reductions in gene expression, or the rate at which these genes create proteins. These changes increased with greater alcohol intake.
Also, in another experiment, the drinkers viewed stress-related, neutral or alcohol-related images. They were also shown containers of beer and subsequently tasted beer, and their motivation to drink was evaluated. 

Results showed that alcohol-fuelled changes in the genes of binge and heavy drinkers were associated with a greater desire for alcohol. The findings may eventually help researchers identify biomarkers -- measurable indicators such as proteins or modified genes -- that could predict an individual's risk for binge or heavy drinking, the Prof. noted.

In 2016, more than 3 million people died from the harmful use of alcohol. More than three quarters of alcohol-caused deaths were among men. The harmful use of alcohol also caused 5.1 per cent of disease and injuries worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.

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