Tag: Persuasion

50 percent of people are deficient in this vitamin.

Having sufficient levels of vitamin D in the body can double weight loss and shed belly fat, research finds.

Around half the world’s population is deficient in vitamin D.

One study has shown a doubling of weight loss from drinking milk, which contains high levels of calcium and vitamin D, both of which are linked to weight loss.

Foods that are rich in vitamin D include oily fish and eggs, but most people get their vitamin D from the action of sunlight on the skin.

For the current study, 218 obese and overweight women were split into two groups.

All of them had a vitamin D deficiency.

Both groups were put on a weight loss programme, but only half were given 2,000 IU of vitamin D each day.

At the end of the 12 months of the study, the women with sufficient levels of vitamin D in their body had lost 19 pounds.

However, those with low levels of vitamin D had only lost 12 pounds.

Dr Anne McTiernan, study co-author, said:

“This suggests women trying to lose weight might want to have their D levels checked by their provider and replenish their vitamin D levels either through supplements or sun and then have their D levels rechecked after a few months to make sure they’ve risen to a healthy level.”

Those taking vitamin D also reduced the levels of inflammation in their bodies.

Dr Catherine Duggan, study co-author, said:

“An overweight person’s body is in a state of chronic inflammation and all of these inflammation proteins that the body produces can cause things like elevated risk for cancer and diabetes.

Vitamin D helped with that. It could make the condition of being overweight less stressful on the body.”

The study was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (Mason et al., 2014).

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The study helps explain why anxious people find it hard to ‘ride’ their emotions and tend to avoid potentially rewarding situations.

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Elderly people low in this vitamin were more than twice as likely to develop dementia.

Low levels of Vitamin D are substantially associated with developing Alzheimer’s and dementia in older people, according to research.

An international team of scientists used data from 1,685 elderly Americans who were followed for around five years (Littlejohns et al., 2014).

None had dementia problems at the start of the study, but after an average of five years, 171 had developed dementia, 102 of which were Alzheimer’s disease.

The study, published in the journal Neurology, found that amongst those who had dementia, those low in Vitamin D were 53% more likely to develop the disease.

Amongst those who were severely deficient, the risk increased by 125%.

Similar increases in risk were seen for Alzheimer’s disease: low levels of vitamin D increased risk by 69% and severe deficiency by 122%

Dr David Llewellyn of the University of Exeter Medical School, who led the study, said:

“We expected to find an association between low Vitamin D levels and the risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, but the results were surprising — we actually found that the association was twice as strong as we anticipated.

Clinical trials are now needed to establish whether eating foods such as oily fish or taking vitamin D supplements can delay or even prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

We need to be cautious at this early stage and our latest results do not demonstrate that low vitamin D levels cause dementia.

That said, our findings are very encouraging, and even if a small number of people could benefit, this would have enormous public health implications given the devastating and costly nature of dementia.”

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Live a decade longer and be free from chronic illnesses by following 8 heart healthy metrics.

Paying attention to 8 cardiovascular health factors will considerably increase life expectancy, research suggests.

In this study, adults with higher scores for 8 cardiovascular health metrics lived nearly a decade longer than those who scored poorly.

The metric is known as Life’s Essential 8 and has been developed by the American Heart Association.

It is based on a scoring system which measures a set of health factors and lifestyle behaviours.

To estimate people’s life expectancy, the research team assessed cardiovascular health levels based on the Life’s Essential 8 score, which consists of:

1. a healthy diet,
2. physical activity,
3. not smoking,
4. correct sleep duration,
5. maintaining a healthy weight,
6. controlling cholesterol,
7. healthy blood glucose,
8. and healthy blood pressure.

Another study previously suggested that people who committed to these metrics lived longer and were more healthy.

According to the study’s senior author, Professor Lu Qi, the findings indicate:

“That you can modify your lifestyle to live longer.”

More than 23,000 adults participated in this study with an eight-year follow up.

The scoring system ranged from zero to 100 points, from low as below 50, moderate as 50 to 79, and high as 80 or higher.

Compared to adults who scored lowest, those who scored 80 or higher, at age 50 had a life expectancy of nine more years.

Smoking, sleep, blood glucose levels, and physical activity appeared to be the most important life expectancy factors.

Non-smokers lived 7.4 years longer than those who were heavy smokers.

Participants who slept between seven to nine hours a night lived five more years compared to those with either not enough or too much sleep.

Higher score for maintaining blood glucose levels showed a life expectancy of 4.9 more years.

A life expectancy of 4.6 more years was seen in people with higher physical activity than those with the least.

Professor Nathan Wong, a cardiovascular epidemiologist, commenting on this study, said:

“Information on psychosocial factors such as stress and depression, as well as on social determinants of health such as access to health care, may also play an important role and modify the impact that the key cardiovascular health metrics have on cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular outcomes.

As the study looked exclusively at mortality, effects on non-fatal cardiovascular outcomes should also be examined, given their substantial impact on health care utilization.”

Related

The study was published in the journal Circulation (Ma et al., 2023).

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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.”

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The study was…

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Cognitive ability is higher in this personality type.

Laid back and unhurried people tend to have a higher IQ, psychological research finds.

Intelligent people become more laid back because they can do things quicker than others, so do not need to rush, the authors speculate.

High IQ people also have a tendency towards procrastination — perhaps because another benefit of higher intelligence is being able to start tasks later.

The study also found that higher IQs was linked to be cautious and being a perfectionist.

This may be because being a perfectionist takes longer and people with higher IQs have the patience to wait until the job is done right.

The conclusions come from a study of 722 people who were given personality and IQ tests.

The personality tests focused on conscientiousness, one of the five major traits of personality.

Different aspects of conscientiousness were examined, including being cautious, deliberate, orderly and having a tendency to procrastinate.

The results revealed a consistent link between being unhurried and having a higher IQ.

The study’s authors explain:

“The common feature of these three characteristics (procrastination, perfectionism and caution) is timing or hurriedness.

One possible interpretation of our results is that people with greater cognitive ability tend to be less hurried in their general approach to life’s activities.

This interpretation implies both positive aspects (e.g., the cautiousness involved in checking details, delaying acting, and continuing with tasks until their product is “perfect”) and negative ones (e.g., the tendency to procrastinate).”

The link between procrastination and higher IQ is down to greater abilities, the authors think:

“This suggests a slower internal pace among more intelligent people that more easily allows for interruptions or the incorporation of new information while completing a task.

This is not to imply that more intelligent people are physically slower in their tasks, as in fact they appear to be faster at most tasks.

Rather, we are suggesting that one way in which those demonstrating higher levels of cognitive ability may differ from those exhibiting lower levels of cognitive ability is a behavioral tendency to pace their work or other tasks at less than their maximum potential ability.”

The study was published in the Journal of Personality Research (Rikoon et al., 2016).

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The daily amount of Ozempic that lowers blood sugar and increases weight loss.

People with type 2 prediabetes don’t respond to insulin and as the condition progresses, lowering blood glucose and losing weight becomes difficult.

A healthy diet and exercise could certainly reduce the risk of diabetes but when it comes to medication there are many ups and downs.

Semaglutide (marketed as Wegovy, Rybelsus and Ozempic) is a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist that causes the body to produce more insulin.

The drug has been found to help diabetic patients in losing weight as well as reducing blood sugar levels.

While the drug keeps gaining attention, the effective dosage of oral semaglutide has been challenged.

Semaglutide dosage study

A study compared the effectiveness of the currently approved 14 milligrams (mg) dose in adults with 25 mg, or 50 mg per day for 52 weeks.

The results showed that taking a 25 mg or 50 mg semaglutide tablet once a day is superior to the 14 mg dosage in reducing blood sugar levels and in increasing weight loss.

At the end of study period, participants who were on 50 mg of oral semaglutide had lost 17.5 pounds (8 kg), those on 25 mg had lost 14.8 pounds (6.7 kg), and those on 14 mg had lost 10 pounds (4.5 kg).

Semaglutide suppresses appetite so as the dosage increases there will be less desire for eating which results in losing more weight.

Professor John Buse, the study’s lead author, said:

“Low doses of GLP-1 receptor agonists are really powerful for reducing A1C, or the average glucose in the blood.

Whereas, the higher doses that are really good for weight reduction.

On average, patients lost eight kilograms (17.5 lbs) at 50 milligrams, which is nearly twice as much weight loss that we saw with the lowest dose.”

The common side effects for semaglutide are nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, or constipation which occurred more often with taking daily dosages of 25 mg or 50 mg.

The trial involved more than 1,600 adults with type 2 diabetes who were randomly divided into three groups by the daily dosage of oral semaglutide; 14 mg, 25 mg, and 50 mg.

The haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) test reflects blood glucose levels and the A1c for adults with diabetes is suggested to be below 7 percent.

In this study, participants A1c levels were between 8 to 10.5 percent.

They found that those who received either 25 mg or 50 mg of oral semaglutide were more likely to reach the goal (A1c level of below 7 percent).

Related

The study was published in the The Lancet (Aroda et al., 2023).

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Around one-quarter of people may have a vitamin B12 deficiency.

Memory and thinking problems can be a sign of vitamin B12 deficiency, research finds.

Similarly, people experiencing a mood disorder, like depression, can also be deficient in vitamin B12.

The body uses vitamin B12 to make red blood cells and to keep the nervous system healthy.

Around one-quarter of people may have a vitamin B12 deficiency

Other, more common signs of vitamin B12 deficiency include feeling tired, experiencing muscle weakness and being constipated.

Memory and thinking problems can strike from an early age.

One study of Colombian children found that children deficient in vitamin B12 were at more than twice the risk of repeating a grade.

Deficient children were also almost twice as likely to be absent from school as those who were not.

The study included 3,156 students aged 5-12 who were attending primary schools in Bogotá, Colombia.

They were tested for a range of nutritional markers, including B12, folate, zinc and vitamin A.

The results showed that 15 percent were marginally deficient in vitamin B12.

Only a deficiency in vitamin B12 was linked to a child having to repeat a grade.

Dr Eduardo Villamor, who led the study, said:

“Vitamin B12 is necessary for adequate brain development.

Deficiency very early in life or in old age has been linked to cognitive and behavioral problems, but it was not known whether it could be related to academic difficulties during school age.

Grade repetition and school absenteeism are important outcomes because they predict school dropout and impair children’s options for educational advancement and development.”

Vitamin B12 deficiency is easy to rectify with supplements or by dietary changes.

Vitamin B12 levels can be boosted through supplementation or by eating foods such as dairy, liver, salmon and eggs.

The study was published in The Journal of Nutrition (Duong et al., 2015).

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