200468780-001Welcome to my June 2015 Top Holistic Health Reads. It’s a little late coming out, but I had so many other topics to cover!!

Each month, I post some of my favorite reads from scientific journals, blogs, newsletters, and articles. I love geeking out, and by jotting down my favorite links and sharing them with you, it jolts my memory of all the amazing information we have at our fingertips to empower our health on a daily basis!

Right now, I’m in the process of making my way back from the hormone module with IFM. My brain is still buzzing from all the amazing information and incredible clinical pearls. Stay tuned for upcoming blogs on this. For now, it’s time to recap the latest and greatest headlines in health!

Below I’ve listed the topics in health, nutrigenomics (how our lifestyle and nutritional choices affect our health outcomes via dancing with our genes), and medication updates. All of these topics may be of interest to you and your loved ones in order to apply to a healthy lifestyle or to use to impress your friends with your brain smarts!

Please your comments below and post any of your favorites that I may have missed!

 

HEALTH

  • The Effects of Bullying on Teens
  • A Step Toward Less Antibiotics in Animals
  • More Recommendations On Mammography
  • Questions May Be the Best Biomarker for Health!
  • Recommendations To Not Sit At Work As Much As Possible
  • Smile-or Not- It’s in Your Genes!
  • What All the Old People Have In Common
  • Women Gives Birth to Child From Frozen Tissue Sample
  • BPA Cans- Are You Using Them?
  • How Health Effects Quality of Life
  • Who Uses CAM and Why?
  • An Official Statement on Sleep
  • Could Problems Sleeping Be Linked to Brain Problems?
  • Brain Changes & Depression
  • Of Blood Type and Brain
  • Anxiety and Sitting
  • CardioFit- Best Drug for Afib?
  • Survey: Many Doctors Misunderstand Key Facets of Opioid Abuse
  • Of Genes, Females, and Depression

 

 

NUTRIGENOMICS

  • Fat Comeback Still Strong
  • Flax Seeds For Hot Flashes
  • Fish Oil & Strength
  • No More Trans Fats in 2018
  • Avocados and AML
  • Pycnogenol® to the Eye Rescue
  • B1 May Play a Role In Helping with Alcoholism (One of my favorites!)

 

DRUGS

 

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HEALTH

 She's a loving mom

The Effects of Bullying on Teens

June 2, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Young teens who are bullied appear to be at higher risk of depression when they reach early adulthood, according to new research.

 

A Step Toward Less Antibiotics in Animals

June 2, 2015 (HealthDay News) — A new regulation aimed at stopping routine use of antibiotics in food-producing animals was issued Tuesday by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration…The Veterinary Feed Directive final rule — the new regulation in a plan rolled out over several years — will place the use of antibiotics in feed under veterinary supervision so the drugs are given only when necessary for the health of food-producing animals.

 

Genetic Differences Seen in Younger Colon Cancer Patients (HealthDay)

In this study, researchers compared the genetics of five colon cancer tumors from younger patients (half of them younger than 31) and six tumors from older patients (half older than 73)…”We saw differences in two important gene signaling pathways, PPAR and IGF1R, which are involved in regulating cell development, metabolism, and growth,” Dr. Christopher Lieu, an investigator at the University of Colorado Cancer Center, said in a university news release.

 

Breast-Cancer Screening — Viewpoint of the IARC Working Group

More on mammography screening, international agency -non-sufficient evidence for younger than 50, but can be helpful in 50-74 year olds. (NEJM, June 3, 2015)

 

Questions May Be the Best Biomarker for Health!

Measures that can simply be obtained by questionnaires and without physical examination were the strongest predictors of all-cause mortality in the UK Biobank population. The prediction score we have developed accurately predicts 5 year all-cause mortality and can be used by individuals to improve health awareness, and by health professionals and organisations to identify high-risk individuals and guide public policy. (The Lancet, June 3, 2015. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(15)60175-1)

 

Recommendations To Not Sit At Work As Much As Possible

Time to wiggle your bootie every few hours, at least:

An international group of experts was invited by Public Health England and a UK community interest company (Active Working CIC) to provide guidelines for employers to promote the avoidance of prolonged periods of sedentary work. The set of recommendations was developed from the totality of the current evidence, including long-term epidemiological studies and interventional studies of getting workers to stand and/or move more frequently. (BMJ, June 1, 2015)

 

A Humor Gene?

In the study, the scientists looked at short and long alleles of the gene 5-HTTLPR, which is involved in the regulation of serotonin, a neurotransmitter implicated in depression and anxiety. An allele is a variant of a gene. Each gene has two alleles; humans inherit one allele from mom and one from dad. Early research suggested that the short alleles predicted unwanted or negative outcomes, such as depression, anxiety and substance abuse. People with short alleles were found to have higher negative emotions than those with long alleles.

 

What Does 95% Of All the Oldest People Have in Common?

Human supercentenarians share at least one thing in common–over 95 percent are women. Scientists have long observed differences between the sexes when it comes to aging, but there is no clear explanation for why females live longer. In a discussion of what we know about stem cell behavior and sex, Stanford University researchers Ben Dulken and Anne Brunet argue that it’s time to look at differences in regenerative decline between men and women. This line of research could open up new explanations for how the sex hormones estrogen and testosterone, or other factors, modify lifespan. (SciceneDaily, June 2015).

 

Women Gives Birth From Frozen Tissue Sample

June 10, 2015 (HealthDay News) — In what researchers are hailing as a medical breakthrough, a 27-year-old woman gave birth to a healthy baby conceived from ovarian tissue that had been surgically removed and frozen when she was a child. Although this procedure has been used in adults, it wasn’t clear if freezing immature ovarian tissue would be able to successfully restore fertility later.

 

BPA Cans, Are You Using Them?

EWG gave us a list of to use of BPA cans and which ones are safer in June.

 

How Health Effects Quality of Life

Living with multiple chronic health conditions was significantly associated with social participation restriction, serious psychological distress, and work limitations among adults aged ?18 years, even after adjusting for six important covariates. Arthritis alone had a greater impact on social participation restriction and work disability than having one of the other chronic conditions, and arthritis as one of multiple chronic conditions was associated with higher prevalences of adverse impact on all three life domains. These consequences have profound public health implications because social activity participation, mental health, and the ability to work can be important contributors to quality of life. Missed work days and lost productivity related to chronic diseases are associated with enormous direct and indirect costs, both for those remaining in the workforce and for those who prematurely leave because of disability.** (CDC. MMWR, June 5, 2015)

 

Who Uses CAM & Why??

In a national survey, “Lack of knowledge was found to affect utilization of common complementary health practices, regardless of the potentially motivating presence of back pain. Disparities in the utilization of complementary medicine, related to educational attainment and other socioeconomic factors, may negatively affect quality of care for many Americans. Creative approaches are needed to help reduce inequities in understanding and improve access to care for underserved populations.” (PLoS ONE. 2015; 10(6): e0129336. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0129336)

 

An Official Statement on Sleep

The American Thoracic Society (ATS) has released a policy statement with recommendations for clinicians and the general public on achieving good-quality sleep and getting enough sleep…

  • Age-based recommendations for sleep duration in children should be developed. These should enable the child to awaken spontaneously at the desired time through implementation of regular wake and sleep schedules.
  • For adolescents, school start times should be delayed to align with physiologic circadian propensity of this age group. (Medscape, June 30, 2015)

 

Could Problems Sleeping Be Linked to Brain Problems?

Independent evidence associates ?-amyloid pathology with both non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep disruption and memory impairment in older adults. (Nat Neuroscience June 2015)

 

Brain Changes in Depression

TUESDAY, June 30, 2015 (HealthDay News) — The area of the brain involved in forming new memories, known as the hippocampus, seems to shrink in people with recurring depression, a new study shows.

 

The Blood Type Brain Connection

Recent evidence indicated higher incidence of cognitive deficits in ABO blood-type system ‘AB’ individuals. Since this statistical difference might originate from the lack of protective effects exerted by ‘O’ alleles on the brain via vascular or non-vascular routes, this study investigated volumetric differences in grey matter between ‘O’ and non-‘O’ adults to explore the possibility of a structural endophenotype visible in ‘O’ adults without cognitive impairment or neurodegeneration. (Brain Research Bulletin, July 2015)

 

Too Many Little Ones on Antipsychotics?

WEDNESDAY, July 1, 2015 (HealthDay News) — A growing number of teens and young adults are being prescribed powerful antipsychotics, even though the medications aren’t approved to treat two disorders — ADHD and depression — they are commonly used for, a new study shows.

 

Anxiety and Sitting

Low-energy activities that involve sitting down are associated with an increased risk of anxiety, according to new research. These activities, which include watching TV, working at a computer or playing electronic games, are called sedentary behavior. ( June 19, 2015, Science Daily)

 

CardioFit- Best Drug for Afib?

MILAN, ITALY — More research suggests beneficial effects from lifestyle changes. This time, cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) was shown to help not only with relieving symptoms of atrial fibrillation (AF), but it also predicted recurrence in patients who were obese[1]. (June 23, 2015, Medscape)

 

Survey: Many Doctors Misunderstand Key Facets of Opioid Abuse

Reporting online June 23 in the Clinical Journal of Pain, the researchers found that nearly half of the internists, family physicians and general practitioners surveyed incorrectly thought that abuse-deterrent pills – such as those formulated with physical barriers to prevent their being crushed and snorted or injected – were actually less addictive than their standard counterparts. In fact, the pills are equally addictive. (John Hopkins, June 23, 2015)

 

Of Genes, Females, & Depression

We propose that over-expression of XIST may cause or result from subtle alteration of XCI, which up-regulates the expression of some X-linked escapee genes including KDM5C. Over-expression of X-linked genes could be a common mechanism for the development of psychiatric disorders between patients with those rare genetic diseases and the general population of female psychiatric patients with XIST over-expression. Our studies suggest that XIST and KDM5C expression could be used as a biological marker for diagnosis of psychiatric disorders in a significantly large subset of female patients. (EBioMedicine. Published online June 16, 2015. Full text)

 

 

NUTRIGENOMICS

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Fat Comeback Still Strong

FRIDAY, June 26, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Nutrition experts are hailing a federal decision to drop recommended restrictions on total fat consumption in the forthcoming 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

Over the past decade, research has shown that a diet rich in healthy fats can be better for people, particularly if those fats help offset consumption of foods containing high levels of salt, sugar and refined grains, Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, dean of Tufts University’s Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy in Boston, wrote in a viewpoint article on the federal decision.

 

Flax Seeds For Hot Flashes

Flax seeds may help with hot flashes and quality of life in menopausal women. (GreenMedInfo, June 2015)

 

Strength Training (ST) & Fish Oils (FO)

FO supplementation (ST150, base-pre) when combined with exercise (ST150, pre-post) increased IFN-?, IL-2, IL-6 and IL-10 production. The immune parameters improved in response to FO supplementation; however, ST alone did not enhance the immune system. (Br J Nutr. 2015 Jun 10:1-10. [Epub ahead of print])

 

Trans Fats Outed in Foods By 2018

Companies have until June 18, 2018, to either reformulate their products and remove all partially hydrogenated oils, or petition the FDA to permit specific uses of the oils, the agency said Tuesday. (HealthDay, June 16, 2015)

 

The Superfood Just Keeps Getting Better: Avocados and AML

Treatment regimens for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) continue to offer weak clinical outcomes. Through a high-throughput cell-based screen, we identified avocatin B, a lipid derived from avocado fruit, as a novel compound with cytotoxic activity in AML. (Cancer Res; June 15, 2015; 75(12); 2478–88.)

 

Vitamin B1 (benfotiamine (BF)) and Alcoholism

BF appears to reduce psychiatric distress and may facilitate recovery in severely affected males with a lifetime alcohol use disorder and should be considered for adjuvant therapy in alcohol rehabilitation.( Drug Alcohol Depend. 2015 Jul 1;152:257-63. doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2015.03.032.)

 

Eye See- With Pycnogenol

A supplement support for reducing recurrence of renal vein thrombosis (RVT):

This pilot registry indicates that Pycnogenol® seems to reduce the recurrence of RVT without side effects. It does not induce new hemorrhagic episodes that may be theoretically linked to the use of Aspirin® (or other antiplatelets).” (Panminerva Med. 2015 Sep;57(3):121-5.)

 

Medicine Highlight:

Bugs

Vaccines Meet Microbiome

A symbiotic relationship with gut microbes is critical for the normal function of human health. Vaccination, however, tips the symbiotic balance slightly in favor of human health. Recent work has shown that gut bacterial residents can have great (positive) influence over vaccine-induced immunity. With an arsenal of modern high-throughput technologies in the hands of microbiologists and immunologists, it is now easier and more cost-effective than ever to characterize and measure the microbiome of vaccinees. Such data will lead to an understanding of how and to what extent gut microbes can impact vaccine efficacy.

Human health is undeniably dependent on the vast number of commensal microorganisms that inhabit the gut. Yet we have only recently begun to understand the mechanisms by which these microbes impact host immunity against infection and disease. Among millions of genes in tens of trillions of genomes (i.e., the gut microbiome), there is a large potential number of microbe-associated molecular patterns (MAMPs [1]) that can fine tune both innate and adaptive immunity.

Vaccines are tremendously successful in protection against a broad range of diseases; however, what determines vaccine efficacy (at the individual level) is largely unknown…

These results suggest that the immunogenicity of certain types of vaccines (particularly those containing adjuvants or those that activate multiple TLRs) is influenced to a lesser extent by the presence of microbiota. More importantly, for inactivated non-adjuvanted parenteral vaccines such as TIV and poliovirus vaccine inactivated (IPOL®) (polio vaccine), gut microbiota can play a crucial role in boosting vaccine-induced immune responses
( Informa Health Care. June 2015)