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14 August 2018 HEALTH www.theasianindependent.co.uk ‘Processed food like bacon and hot dogs bad for mental health’ The study revealed that those who were hospitalised for mania were more than three times more likely to have had eaten beef jerky, ham or salami in the recent past. A recent study has suggested that consumption of processed meats like bacon and hot dogs can be linked to mental breakdowns. A Johns Hopkins Medicine study has revealed that those who were hospitalised for mania were more than three times more likely to have had eaten beef jerky, ham or salami in the recent past and scientists are of the opinion that this could be due to the presence of nitrates that chemicals used to process and cure meats. The same researchers conducted an experiment on rats where they were fed on diets with added nitrates. The rats showed mania-like hyperactivity just after a few weeks. Although genetic and other risk factors have been associated with manic episodes that characterise bipolar disorder, they were not able to explain the cause behind the mental illness. Researchers, hence, are looking at diet as a plausible causative factor among other things. Robert Yolken, professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said, "Future work on this association could lead to dietary interventions to help reduce the risk of manic episodes in those who have bipolar disorder or who are otherwise vulnerable to mania." For the study, dietary data of 1,101 people aged 18 to 65 between 2007 and 2017 were collected and analysed and consumption of cured meat was identified as an important contributing factor. "We looked at a number of different dietary exposures and cured meat really stood out," Yolken said. The survey did not take into account the time frame of cured meat consumption hence the researchers could not infer exactly how much cured meat triggers an individual's risk of mania. Multiple pregnancies might make women's cells age more quickly, according to a study that may explains why women with many children tend to show signs of accelerated ageing. The findings, published in the journal Scientific Reports, were reached by looking at two separate markers of cellular ageing - telomere length and epigenetic age - in hundreds of young women with different reproductive histories in the Philippines. "Telomere length and epigenetic age are cellular markers that independently predict mortality, and both appeared 'older' in women who had more pregnancies in their reproductive histories," said Calen Ryan, a doctoral student at University of Washington in the US. "Even after accounting for other factors that affect cellular ageing, the number of pregnancies still came out on top," said Ryan. Cellular ageing was accelerated by between 0.5 and 2 years for each additional pregnancy, a surprisingly large effect according to the researchers. Another finding they did not expect was the fact that women who were Is it safe for diabetics to eat mangoes? Let's find out A diabetic can eat half a mango daily. However, they should avoid having the juice. Also, they must keep a gap of an hour between having food and consuming a mango. Is it worth the risk? Totally, as it comes with innumerable health benefits. Mangoes are synonymous with summer and the only good thing offered in the scorching heat. The juicy yellow pulp is loaded with the goodness of fibre, antioxidants, vitamin A, vitamin B6, vitamin E, vitamin K, but the health benefits of mangoes have often been debatable because of its high calorie and sugar content. That's probably the reason why many people avoid binging on the king of fruits, especially diabetics. But what if these are just a bunch of myths and it's safe for diabetics to eat it? According to the book Healing Foods by Miriam Polunin, mangoes contain enzymes that aid breakdown and digestion of protein, and also fibre, which keeps the digestive functions working efficiently. But how much is advisable? Dr Anil Bhoraskar, senior diabetologist, SL Raheja Hospital says, "A diabetic patient can eat half a mango daily. However, they should avoid having the juice. Also, they must keep a gap of an hour between having food and consuming a mango". Bhoraskar also suggests checking blood sugar levels after eating a slice of mango. "If the blood sugar level is beyond 25% then you must not eat the rest of the mango. Each food item has a varying response to an individual's body, It is very important to know that all food items act differently on the same individual on different days and this is known as interpersonal variation. The consumption of other food items alongside the mango can also have a variable effect", he said. Is it worth the risk? "Mangoes are high in fibre content and contains lots of antioxidants like zeaxanthin, quercetin, astragalin and beta-carotene which help boost brain health and function along with Vitamin B6", says Dr Rinki Kumari, chief dietitian at Fortis Hospital. If diabetics need to relish the delicious fruit, a certain amount of fitness is also important. So is a decent balance between mango and other dietary intakes. currently pregnant had cells that looked younger - not older - than predicted. "Paradoxically, even though a woman's biological age was higher with each child that she had, if a woman was pregnant when the measurements were taken, her epigenetic age, and to a lesser extent her telomeres, looked 'younger' than predicted for her chronological age," said Christopher Kuzawa of Northwestern University in the US. "It's an interesting situation in which pregnancy makes someone look temporarily 'young,' but there appears Daily exercise may cut heart attack risk even in polluted areas Regular physical activity may reduce the risk of heart attack, even in areas with moderateto-high levels of traffic pollution, a study claims. "While exercise is known to reduce cardiovascular disease risk; pollution can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, including heart attacks, asthma and chronic obstructive lung disease," said Nadine Kubesch from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. "Currently there is little data on whether poor air quality cancels out the protective benefits of physical activity in preventing heart attacks," said Kubesch, lead author of the study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association. Researchers in Denmark, Germany and to be some lasting, cumulative relationship between the number of pregnancies and more accelerated biological age," said Kuzawa. Researchers have known from historical records and epidemiological studies that women who have many children tend to have slightly shorter lives and succumb to different diseases than those who do not. "What we didn't know was whether we could detect these kinds of effects using measures of cellular aging," Ryan said. Although there is good evidence that having more children, especially more than four or five, can increase the risk of certain diseases and shorten lifespan, researchers still do not really know why. "Our study points to cellular changes during pregnancy, possibly related to adaptive changes in the mother's immune system as a possible explanation," said Kuzawa. "There's still a lot we don't know. For instance, it's not clear whether these relationships will persist into later life as these women age. We also do not know whether these changes Spain evaluated outdoor physical activity levels (sports, cycling, walking and gardening) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2 pollutant generated by traffic) exposure in 51,868 adults, aged 50- 65. Over a 17.7-year period, there were 2,936 first heart attacks and 324 recurrent heart attacks. Higher levels of pollution were associated with more heart attacks, however, the risk was lower among those who were physically active, the researchers found. Moderate cycling for four or more hours per week cut risk for recurrent heart attack by 31 per cent; and there was a 58 per cent reduction when all four types of physical activity (together totalling four hours per week or more) were combined, regardless of air quality. Multiple pregnancies make women's cells age faster "Paradoxically, even though a woman's biological age was higher with each child that she had, if a woman was pregnant when the measurements were taken, her epigenetic age, and to a lesser extent her telomeres, looked 'younger' than predicted for her chronological age," said Christopher Kuzawa of Northwestern University in the US. will actually lead to less favourable long-term health outcomes," he said. To answer these questions, a follow-up study on the same women 13 years after the first measurements, taken in 2005, is already underway.
www.theasianindependent.co.uk Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology in the US analysed data from multiple research papers on dehydration and cognitive ability. The data pointed to functions like attention, coordination and complex problem solving suffering the most, and activities like reacting quickly when prompted not diminishing much. "The simplest reaction time tasks were least impacted, even as dehydration got worse, but tasks that require attention were quite impacted," said Mindy Millard-Stafford, a professor at Georgia Tech. As the bodies of test subjects in various studies lost water, the majority of participants increasingly made errors during attention-related tasks that were mostly repetitive and unexciting, such as punching a button in varying patterns for quite a few minutes. There are situations in life that challenge attentiveness in a similar manner, and when it lapses, snafus can happen. "Maintaining focus in a long meeting, driving a car, a monotonous job in a hot factory that requires you to stay alert are some of them," said Millard- Stafford, a principal investigator of the study published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. "Higherorder functions like doing math or applying logic also dropped off," said Millard-Stafford. The researchers have been concerned that dehydration could raise the risk of an accident, particularly in scenarios that combine heavy sweating and dangerous machinery or military hardware. There's no hard and fast rule about when exactly such lapses can pop up, but the researchers examined studies with one to six per cent loss of body mass due to dehydration and found more severe impairments started at two per cent. That level has been a significant benchmark in related studies."There's already a lot of quantitative documentation that if you lose 2 percent in water it HEALTH Dehydration can lower cognitive abilities Just two hours of vigorous work in the summer sun without drinking fluids could be enough to blunt concentration, say scientists who found that cognitive functions often deteriorate as the body gets dehydrated. affects physical abilities like muscle endurance or sports tasks and your ability to regulate your body temperature," said Millard-Stafford. "We wanted to see if that was similar for cognitive function," she said. The researchers looked at 6,591 relevant studies for their comparison, then narrowed them down to 33 papers with scientific criteria and data comparable enough to do metadata analysis. They focused on acute dehydration, which anyone could experience during exertion, heat and/or not drinking as opposed to chronic dehydration, which can be caused by a disease or disorder. "If you weigh 200 pounds and you go work out for a few of hours, you drop four pounds, and that's 2 per cent body mass," Millard-Stafford said. "With an hour of moderately intense activity, with a temperature in the mid-80s, and moderate humidity, it's not uncommon to lose a little over 2 pounds of water," she said. Turns out, there is a key connection between viruses and inflammatory bowel diseases like ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. A study led by a researcher at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus focused on viruses inhabiting bacteria in the intestine known as bacteriophages or simply phages. "Phage numbers are elevated at the intestinal mucosal surface and increase in abundance during inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), suggesting that phages play an unidentified role in IBD," said Duerkop, lead author of the study published Monday in the journal Nature Microbiology. IBD poses significant health burdens worldwide and has inspired intense investigation into the environmental factors causing persistent inflammation of the intestine. Microbial communities are critical in maintaining intestinal health but changes in the composition of these organisms may cause an inflammatory response by the body. According to the researchers, most studies looking at how these microbial communities might spark inflammation have focused chiefly on bacteria rather than the viruses August 2018 15 Inflammatory bowel diseases like Crohn's have been linked to this virus residing inside them. When inflammation occurs, researchers found that phage communities change randomly leading to a genetic signature indicative of the inflammatory environment. "We hypothesize that inflammation or other host defenses alter phage abundances during colitis," the study said. "Such stresses could produce ecological disturbances in the intestinal environment, driving alterations within the viral community," the study further pointed out Those disturbances could be the result of the viruses killing off beneficial bacteria in the intestine and allowing for `bad actor' bacteria to cause inflammation and bowel disease. Clinicians could target certain bacteria with viruses to eliminate bacteria that lead to inflammation. Bacteria could be manipulated to circumvent the development of disease. "We could promote the growth of good bacteria - a kind of phage therapy," Duerkop said. "We could perhaps use phages as markers to identify someone predisposed to developing these diseases. While there is clearly more research to do, the potential is very exciting," he added. White rice and diabetes are not NATURAL FITS Keep these diet tips in mind Calories in white rice: The better half of many delectable food combos like dal-chaawal, rajma-chaawal, biriyanis and more, white rice is also a good source of carbohydrates. But is it safe for diabetics? Though some might argue that brown rice is a more healthy alternative, white rice is a more popular and preferred foodgrain across India, especially its eastern regions. White rice is a good source of carbohydrates and the better half of many delectable food combos like dal-chaawal, rajma-chawal, biryaanis, pulao, and so on. However, experts say that the calories in white rice can spike blood sugar levels, and excessive consumption could increase the risk of developing type-2 diabetes. White rice vs brown Since it is an easily available, delicious food item, diabetics are often at a loss as to whether or not to avoid white rice. The solution, as with every other thing in life, is to exercise moderation.If you are diabetic, monitor your white rice intake and have a small portion once a week. Brown rice might be a better option if you are diabetic as it has a low glycemic index which helps in the stabilisation of blood glucose levels. It is also a good source of magnesium, vitamin B6, selenium, phosphorus, thiamine, niacin, manganese and is high in fibre. Here's a tip to keep in mind when preparing white rice. Do not have just plain white rice as it is devoid of nutrients such as fibre and magnesium. Add vegetables such as carrots, beans, peas, soy beans, onions, jeera to increase its nutrient value. Ideal diet for diabetics Naina Singhania of thefitnesity.in, says a diabetic person should eat at regular intervals and have a balanced diet. It should include "all proteins, complex carbs, vitamins, minerals and essential fats. So, lots of mushrooms, moong, dal, milk, tofu, chicken, fish and eggs." Also, get good fats from nuts like almond, walnuts and from seeds like pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and flaxseeds. Dr Rinki Kumari, chief dietician, Fortis Hospitals, Bangalore, advises diabetics should understand how different foods affect blood sugar. It is best to pick foods with low glycemic index. "Fill half plate with nonstarchy vegetables. Round out the meal with other healthy choices - whole grains, nuts and seeds, lean protein, fat-free or low-fat dairy, and small portions of fresh fruits and healthy fats."
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August 2018

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