Month: October 2023

The probiotic has been investigated in over 250 clinical trials.

Probiotics help prevent mild declines in memory and thinking skills that typically occur with age, a study finds.

Older adults with mild cognitive impairment who took Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG) for three months displayed improved cognition scores.

LGG has been investigated in over 250 clinical trials and there is some evidence it can be useful for treating irritable bowel syndrome and some other gastrointestinal issues.

Ms Mashael Aljumaah, the study’s first author, said:

“The implication of this finding is quite exciting, as it means that modifying the gut microbiome through probiotics could potentially be a strategy to improve cognitive performance, particularly in individuals with mild cognitive impairment.

This adds a new layer to our understanding of the microbiome brain-gut connection and opens up new avenues for combating cognitive decline associated with aging.”

Fighting memory problems

The experiment involved 169 people aged 52 to 75, some of whom had Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI).

MCI is diagnosed when people have age-related problems with memory and thinking, but can still live independently.

People with MCI may go on to develop dementia, but some people never get worse and many improve.

Ms Aljumaah said:

“Many studies focus on severe forms of cognitive diseases such as Alzheimer’s and dementia, but these conditions are more advanced, making them significantly harder to reverse or treat.

In contrast, we focused on mild cognitive impairment, which can include problems with memory, language, or judgment. Interventions at this stage of cognitive impairment could slow down or prevent the progression to more severe forms of dementia.”

Not only did the thinking skills of participants who took probiotics improve, the results showed, but changes were measured in the gut microbiome.

Microbes in the genus Prevotella decreased as people’s thinking skills increased.

Ms Aljumaah said:

“By identifying specific shifts in the gut microbiome associated with mild cognitive impairment, we’re exploring a new frontier in preventive strategies in cognitive health.

If these findings are replicated in future studies, it suggests the feasibility of using gut microbiome-targeted strategies as a novel approach to support cognitive health.”

It is not yet known how or why Prevotella interacts with brain health — that is what the researchers are working on next.

Related

The study was presented at Nutrition ’23 in Boston, MA (Aljumaah et al., 2023).

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Why depressed people cannot hold on to positive memories and emotions.

Depressed people have 30 percent worse memory on certain tasks, research finds.

Depressed mood stops people from holding information in their memory.

This may be why depressed people can find it hard to hold on to positive memories and emotions.

It can also help to explain how depression develops and persists over time.

In depressed people, memory is easily ‘hijacked’ by depressing thoughts, to the exclusion of all else.

Professor Bart Rypma, who led the study, said:

“People with depression or even healthy people with a depressed mood can be affected by depressive thoughts.

We have known that negative thoughts tend to last longer for those with depression.

However, this study is unique in showing that, these thoughts, triggered from stimuli in the environment, can persist to the point that they hinder a depressed person’s ability to keep their train of thought.”

In the study, 75 people read sentences that sometimes had depressive features.

The results showed that people who were depressed did 30 percent worse in a memory test when reminded of a depressing thought first.

Dr Nick Hubbard, the study’s first author, said:

“We all have a fixed amount of information we can hold in memory at one time.

The fact that depressive thoughts do not seem to go away once they enter memory certainly explains why depressed individuals have difficulty concentrating or remembering things in their daily lives.

This preoccupation of memory by depressive thoughts might also explain why more positive thoughts are often absent in depression; there simply is not enough space for them.”

Professor Rypma said:

“Interventions such as mindfulness-based cognitive therapy are quite successful in empowering depressed people to recognize and better regulate the content of their thoughts.

Our goal is to continue to study how such therapeutic approaches can alter the depressed brain and how these alterations might result in better memory and outcomes for persons with depression.”

The study was published in the Journal of Affective Disorders (Hubbard et al., 2016).

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This diet is a very effective weight loss strategy for diabetic patients and those with prediabetes.

People with type 2 diabetes are often obese or overweight and have high blood pressure.

However, to combat this metabolic syndrome, the first step is to lose weight.

There are several effective diet plans to help people with this condition but what dieting strategy works best remains unclear.

A study on adults with type 2 diabetes has found that time restricted eating (TRE) is more effective than the daily calorie restriction (CR) strategy.

TRE is a type of intermittent fasting that only allows an eating window of 8 to 12 hours and water fasting during the remaining hours each day.

The TRE group in this study were allowed to eat between noon to 8pm while the other group followed the CR approach.

Participants on the TRE regime lost more weight and body fat, and saw an increase in HDL (good cholesterol) compared to those who ate fewer calories.

However, blood sugar levels were similarly improved in both groups.

Ms Vicky Pavlou who presented this research at the annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition, said:

“Many people find counting calories very hard to stick to in the long term, but our study shows that watching the clock may offer a simple way to decrease calories and lose weight.

Although time-restricted eating is becoming increasingly popular, no other studies have looked at an eight-hour eating window in people with type 2 diabetes.”

Professor Krista Varady and the team wanted to know if diabetic people would gain more benefits from the TRE strategy than the CR diet plan.

57 overweight and obese adults with type 2 diabetes were divided into calorie restriction, time-restricted eating, and control groups.

The TRE group were allowed to eat for 8 hours (noon to 8 p.m.), the CR group could eat at any time but counted their daily calorie intake, but the control group could eat whenever and as much as they liked.

When compared with the control and the CR groups over six months, participants on the TRE diet lost about 4 percent of their weight, equivalent of losing 5 kg for a person weighing 125 kg.

Haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) levels were tested for blood sugar, the normal range is 4 to 5.6 percent but the levels in people with diabetes were 6.5 percent.

The results show that the HbA1c levels for the TRE group reduced by 0.91 percent and for the CR group by 0.95 percent.

To see any improvement in cardiometabolic risk factors a minimum 5 percent weight loss is required.

Since this was not achieved, the team could not assess them.

Ms Pavlou added:

“Our study shows that time-restricted eating can be a good alternative for those with type 2 diabetes who want to lose weight and improve their blood sugar.

However, there are multiple types of medications for those with type 2 diabetes, some of which can cause low blood sugar and some that need to be taken with food.

Therefore, it is important to work closely with a dietitian or doctor when implementing this dieting approach.”

Related

The study was…

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