The Gary Null Show - 01.11.23

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Fewer cases of melanoma among people taking vitamin D supplements

University of Eastern Finland, January 10, 2023

Fewer cases of melanoma were observed among regular users of vitamin D supplements than among non-users, a new study finds. People taking vitamin D supplements regularly also had a considerably lower risk of skin cancer, according to estimates by experienced dermatologists. The study, conducted in collaboration between the University of Eastern Finland and Kuopio University Hospital and published in Melanoma Research, included nearly 500 people with an increased risk of skin cancer. 498 adult patients estimated to have an increased risk of a skin cancer, such as basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma or melanoma, were recruited at the dermatological outpatient clinic of Kuopio University Hospital. Experienced dermatologists at the University of Eastern Finland carefully analysed the patients’ background information and medical history and examined their skin. The dermatologists also classified the patients into different skin cancer risk classes, namely low risk, moderate risk and high risk. Based on their use of oral vitamin D supplements, the patients were divided into three groups: non-users, occasional users and regular users. Serum calcidiol levels were analysed in half of the patients and found to correspond to their self-reported use of vitamin D.
A key finding of the study is that there were considerably fewer cases of melanoma among regular users of vitamin D than among non-users, and that the skin cancer risk classification of regular users was considerably better than non-users’. Logistic regression analysis showed that the risk for melanoma among regular users was considerably reduced, more than halved, compared to non-users.
The findings suggest that even occasional users of vitamin D may have a lower risk for melanoma than non-users. Other relatively recent studies, too, have provided evidence of the benefits of vitamin D in melanoma, such as of the association of vitamin D with a less aggressive melanoma.

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Diabetics should pay attention to vitamin C

University of Otago (New Zealand), January 9 2023.

Research reported in Nutrients suggests that low intake and serum levels of vitamin C may be particularly risky for adults with diabetes. The study analyzed data from 25,206 men and 26,944 women who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) between 1999 and 2018. Four hundred twenty-eight individuals had type 1 diabetes and 6,807 had type 2 diabetes. At the beginning of the study, 38% of the people had an intake of vitamin C that was below the estimated average requirement (EAR), which worsened to 46.5% by 2017-2018. Individuals whose intake of vitamin C was lower than the EAR had a 20% higher risk of type 2 diabetes compared with an intake above the EAR, and those who did not use vitamin C supplements had a 28% greater risk than vitamin C supplement users. Low and deficient serum vitamin C levels were associated with fewer years of life in comparison with normal vitamin levels. Compared with an adequate intake of vitamin C, the risk of mortality through 2019 among type 2 diabetics was 25% greater for those with a very low intake of the vitamin. Deficient serum levels of the vitamin were associated with an 84% greater mortality risk compared with adequate levels. Not supplementing with vitamin C was associated with a 25% greater mortality risk among people with type 1 diabetes, a 20% greater risk among those with type 2 diabetes and a 24% greater risk among nondiabetics compared with supplementation. “Observation of declining vitamin C intake and deleterious consequences of low serum vitamin C in US adults with diabetes suggests encouragement of vitamin C intake, including vitamin C supplementation of 500–1000 mg/day, may be beneficial for pre-diabetic and diabetic US adults,” the authors concluded.

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Feeling depressed? Performing acts of kindness may help

Ohio State University, January 10, 2023

People suffering from symptoms of depression or anxiety may help heal themselves by doing good deeds for others, new research shows.
The study found that performing acts of kindness led to improvements not seen in two other therapeutic techniques used to treat depression or anxiety. Most importantly, the acts of kindness technique was the only intervention tested that helped people feel more connected to others, said study co-author David Cregg at The Ohio State University. “Social connection is one of the ingredients of life most strongly associated with well-being. Performing acts of kindness seems to be one of the best ways to promote those connections,” Cregg said. The research also revealed why performing acts of kindness worked so well: It helped people take their minds off their own depression and anxiety symptoms. This finding suggests that one intuition many people have about people with depression may be wrong, Cheavens said. “We often think that people with depression have enough to deal with, so we don’t want to burden them by asking them to help others. But these results run counter to that,” she said. “Doing nice things for people and focusing on the needs of others may actually help people with depression and anxiety feel better about themselves.” The study involved 122 people in central Ohio who had moderate to severe symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress. After an introductory session, the participants were split into three groups. Two of the groups were assigned to techniques often used in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for depression: planning social activities or cognitive reappraisal. Members of the third group were instructed to perform three acts of kindness a day for two days out of the week. Acts of kindness were defined as “big or small acts that benefit others or make others happy, typically at some cost to you in terms of time or resources.” Some of the acts of kindness that participants later said they did included baking cookies for friends, offering to give a friend a ride, and leaving sticky notes for roommates with words of encouragement. Participants followed their instructions for five weeks, after which they were evaluated again. The researchers then checked with the participants after another five weeks to see if the interventions were still effective. The findings showed that participants in all three groups showed an increase in life satisfaction and a reduction of depression and anxiety symptoms after the 10 weeks of the study. “But acts of kindness still showed an advantage over both social activities and cognitive reappraisal by making people feel more connected to other people, which is an important part of well-being,” he said. In addition, the acts of kindness group showed greater improvements than the cognitive reappraisal group for life satisfaction and symptoms of depression and anxiety, results showed. Cheavens noted that just participating in social activities did not improve feelings of social connection in this study. “There’s something specific about performing acts of kindness that makes people feel connected to others. It’s not enough to just be around other people, participating in social activities,” she said.

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Selenium protects a specific type of interneurons in the brain

Helmholtz Zentrum München (Germany) December 29, 2022

Exactly 200 years ago, the Swedish scientist Jöns Jacob Berzelius discovered the trace element selenium, which he named after the goddess of the moon, Selene. Selenium is an essential trace element and indispensable for humans, many animals and some bacteria. A team led by Dr. Marcus Conrad, research group leader at the Institute of Developmental Genetics (IDG) at Helmholtz Zentrum München, showed for the first time why selenium is a limiting factor for mammals. The scientists have been investigating for years the processes of a novel type of cell death, known as ferroptosis. In this context, the enzyme GPX4, which normally contains selenium in the form of the amino acid selenocysteine, plays an important role. In order to better understand the role of GPX4 in this death process, we established and studied mouse models in which the enzyme was modified,” said study leader Conrad. “In one of these models, we observed that mice with a replacement of selenium to sulfur in GPX4 did not survive for longer than three weeks due to neurological complications.” In their search for the underlying reasons, the researchers identified a distinct subpopulation of specialized neurons in the brain, which were absent when selenium-containing GPX4 was lacking. “In further studies, we were able to show that these neurons were lost during postnatal development, when sulfur- instead of selenium-containing GPX4 was present,” stated first author of the study, Irina Ingold. Furthermore, the scientists were able to show that ferroptosis is triggered by oxidative stress, which is known to occur for instance during high metabolic activity of cells and high neuronal activity. “Our study demonstrates for the first time that selenium is an essential factor for the postnatal development of a specific type of interneurons,” said Dr. José Pedro Friedmann Angeli, a scientist at the IDG, describing the results. “Selenium-containing GPX4 protects these specialized neurons from oxidative stress and from ferroptotic cell death.”

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Association of Dietary α-Carotene and β-Carotene Intake with Low Cognitive Performance in Older Adults

Sun Yat-sen University (China), January 3, 2023

With the increased life expectancy around the world, the number of elderly people with cognitive decline has been escalating, causing a burden for their families and governments. The decline in cognitive function is associated with various factors, including normal aging processes and neurological diseases. However, without any prevention measures to delay cognitive function decline, the decline in cognitive function will gradually develop into mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer’s disease. The process of Alzheimer’s disease is irreversible, and medical treatment for this disease is still limited. The underlying mechanism of vitamin B12 on cognitive function is related to the activation of methylation reactions in the brain. According to previous studies, vitamin A, an antioxidant in the central nervous system, also participates in cognitive function decline in older people. Both α-carotene and β-carotene can be transformed into retinol, which will be converted into a long-chain fatty acid ester that is the main precursor of vitamin A in the human body. Thus, α-carotene and β-carotene may have similar effects on neurocognitive decline. Some previous studies showed that higher levels of α-carotene and β-carotene in the plasma were associated with better cognitive function. In this study, our results reflected that dietary α-carotene and β-carotene intake might have inverse effects on cognitive function decline in older people. However, the excessive intake of dietary α-carotene and β-carotene may be a problem that needs special attention.

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Consumption of fast food linked to liver disease

University of Southern California, January 10, 2023

The new year has begun, and with it, resolutions for change. A study from Keck Medicine of USC published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology gives people extra motivation to reduce fast-food consumption. The study found that eating fast food is associated with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, a potentially life-threatening condition in which fat builds up in the liver. Researchers discovered that people with obesity or diabetes who consume 20% or more of their daily calories from fast food have severely elevated levels of fat in their liver compared to those who consume less or no fast food. And the general population has moderate increases of liver fat when one-fifth or more of their diet is fast food. “Healthy livers contain a small amount of fat, usually less than 5%, and even a moderate increase in fat can lead to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease,” said Ani Kardashian, MD, a hepatologist with Keck Medicine and lead author of the study. “The severe rise in liver fat in those with obesity or diabetes is especially striking, and probably due to the fact that these conditions cause a greater susceptibility for fat to build up in the liver.” The findings also reveal that a relatively modest amount of fast food, which is high in carbohydrates and fat, can hurt the liver. “If people eat one meal a day at a fast-food restaurant, they may think they aren’t doing harm,” said Kardashian. “However, if that one meal equals at least one-fifth of their daily calories, they are putting their livers at risk.” Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, also known as liver steatosis, can lead to cirrhosis, or scarring of the liver, which can cause liver cancer or failure. Liver steatosis affects over 30% of the U.S. population. The study characterized fast food as meals, including pizza, from either a drive-through restaurant or one without wait staff. The researchers evaluated the fatty liver measurement of approximately 4,000 adults whose fatty liver measurements were included in the survey and compared these measurements to their fast-food consumption. Of those surveyed, 52% consumed some fast food. Of these, 29% consumed one-fifth or more daily calories from fast food. Only this 29% of survey subjects experienced a rise in liver fat levels. The association between liver steatosis and a 20% diet of fast food held steady for both the general population and those with obesity or diabetes even after data was adjusted for multiple other factors such as age, sex, race, ethnicity, alcohol use and physical activity.