Majority of acne sufferers have diminished levels of omega-3
Ludwig-Maximilian University (Germany), May 16 2022.
A study reported during the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology Spring Symposium suggests a protective role for omega-3 fatty acids against acne.
The study revealed that 94% of 100 acne patients whose blood samples were analyzed for red blood cell omega-3 fatty acid levels had lower than the recommended concentrations. Higher omega-3 fatty acid levels were f...
Majority of acne sufferers have diminished levels of omega-3
Ludwig-Maximilian University (Germany), May 16 2022.
A study reported during the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology Spring Symposium suggests a protective role for omega-3 fatty acids against acne.
The study revealed that 94% of 100 acne patients whose blood samples were analyzed for red blood cell omega-3 fatty acid levels had lower than the recommended concentrations. Higher omega-3 fatty acid levels were found among people who regularly consumed legumes and among those who supplemented with omega-3.
Omega-3 fatty acids lower inflammation that occurs in acne by stimulating anti-inflammatory eicosanoids and decreasing levels of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1). Patients with omega-3 fatty acids below the recommended levels had lower serum IGF-1 concentrations than patients who were not deficient in omega-3. Those with severe deficiencies had even greater levels of IGF-1.
Nuts and peanuts may protect against major causes of death
Maastricht University (Netherlands), May 11, 2022
A paper published in the International Journal of Epidemiology confirms a link between peanut and nut intake and lower mortality rates, but finds no protective effect for peanut butter. Men and women who eat at least 10 grams of nuts or peanuts per day have a lower risk of dying from several major causes of death than people who don’t consume nuts or peanuts.
The reduction in mortality was strongest for respiratory disease, neurodegenerative disease, and diabetes, followed by cancer and cardiovascular diseases. The effects are equal in men and women. Peanuts show at least as strong reductions in mortality as tree nuts, but peanut butter is not associated with mortality, researchers from Maastricht University found.
In this new study, it was found that mortality due to cancer, diabetes, respiratory, and neurodegenerative diseases was also lowered among users of peanuts and nuts. Project leader and epidemiologist Professor Piet van den Brandt commented: “It was remarkable that substantially lower mortality was already observed at consumption levels of 15 grams of nuts or peanuts on average per day (half a handful).
People more likely to trust, cooperate if they can tolerate ambiguity, study finds
Brown University, May 12, 2022
Can a new colleague be trusted with confidential information? Will she be a cooperative team player on a critical upcoming project? Assessing someone’s motives or intentions, which are often hidden, is difficult, and gauging how to behave toward others involves weighing possible outcomes and personal consequences.
New research published in Nature Communications indicates that individuals who are tolerant of ambiguity—a kind of uncertainty in which the odds of an outcome are unknown—are more likely to cooperate with and trust other people.
Tolerance of ambiguity is distinct from tolerance of risk. With risk, the probability of each future outcome is known. The many unknowns inherent in social situations make them inherently ambiguous, and the study finds that attitudes toward ambiguity are a predictor of one’s willingness to engage in potentially costly social behavior.
Overall, being able to tolerate ambiguity predicted greater prosocial behavior, which prioritizes the welfare of other people and not just one’s own self-benefit. By contrast, there was no association between risk tolerance and social decision-making.
When subjects were allowed to gather information about others—through gossiping about, engaging with or observing another person, for instance—and reduce the amount of ambiguous uncertainty around their social choices, the link between ambiguity tolerance and willingness to trust disappeared, according to the study.
High-fat diet linked to nitric oxide levels, cancer development
Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, May 17, 2022
It has long been hypothesized that dietary habits can precede and even exacerbate the development of cancer.
Researchers at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology proved that a direct link exists between the amount of fat included in one’s diet and bodily levels of nitric oxide, a naturally occurring signaling molecule that is related to inflammation and cancer development.
“Inflammation can play a significant role in this environment. Certain inflammatory response comes from highly processed foods, which are high in calories and high in fat. Yadav and coauthors are familiar with existing research linking increased nitric oxide levels to inflammation, and inflammation to cancer.
The researchers used the probe to design a diet study comparing the tumorigenicity of the breast-cancer-carrying mice on a high-fat diet (60% of calories coming from fat) with mice on a low-fat diet (10% of calories coming from fat) by measuring the nitric oxide levels in both groups.
“As a result of the high-fat diet, we saw an increase in nitric oxide in the tumor microenvironment,” said Michael Lee, a lead coauthor on this study. “The implication of this is that the tumor microenvironment is a very complex system, and we really need to understand it to understand how cancer progression works. A lot of factors can go into this from diet to exercise—external factors that we don’t really take into account that we should when we consider cancer treatments.”
Blood pressure drugs EXPOSED for increasing the risk of pancreatic cancer in women
Baylor College of Medicine, May 12, 2022
Arguably, some blood pressure medications may be necessary and offer a benefit for those suffering with cardiovascular issues. But, of equal importance is, research out of the Baylor College of Medicine that has determined some of these drugs – like calcium channel blockers (CCBs) – can raise the risk of pancreatic cancer in menopausal women.
CCBs work by preventing calcium from entering blood vessel walls and heart cells, reducing blood pressure and decreasing cardiac workload and stress.
The study examined a large group of over 145,000 postmenopausal women from the Women’s Health Initiative study between ages 50 and 79 years old. By 2014, over 800 had developed pancreatic cancer, with elevated risk among those taking a short-acting CCB.
WARNING: Blood pressure drugs can double the risk of pancreatic cancer
Of the participants, those who had taken a CCB (short-acting calcium channel blocker) had a 66 percent increased chance of getting pancreatic cancer. Those who took short-acting CCBs (as compared with other blood pressure drug types) for over three years had a doubled risk of pancreatic cancer.
The drugs in question include short-acting nifedipine, brand names Adalat CC nicardipine (Cardene IV), Procardia and diltiazem (Cardizem). The short-acting varieties of blood pressure drugs were the only ones linked to higher pancreatic cancer risk; other types did not seem to increase the risk
Heightened dream recall ability linked to increased creativity and functional brain connectivity
University of California, Berkeley, May 14, 2022
People who can frequently recall their dreams tend to be more creative and exhibit increased functional connectivity in a key brain network, according to new research published in the journal Nature and Science of Sleep. The findings provide new insights into the neurophysiological correlates of dreaming.
“I think that dreaming is one of the last frontiers of human cognition — a terra incognita of the mind if you will,” said study author Raphael Vallat, at the Center for Human Sleep Science at the University of California, Berkeley. “Although we all spend a significant amount of our lives dreaming, there are still so many basic research questions related to dreams that are unanswered, which obviously makes it such a fascinating topic to study!
For his new study, Vallat and his colleagues used brain imaging techniques to examine whether neurophysiological differences exist between individuals who frequently recall their dreams and those who do not.
The researchers found that high dream recallers and low dream recallers had similar personalities, levels of anxiety, sleep quality, and memory abilities. However, high dream recallers scored significantly higher than low dream recallers, indicating that they had greater creative abilities.
Vallat and his colleagues also observed increased functional connectivity within the default mode network in high dream recallers compared to low dream recallers. The brain network “is known to be active during day-dreaming, mind-wandering (e.g. getting lost in your thoughts), and has been further suggested to promote creativity and dreaming,” Vallat explained. The increased connectivity was specifically found between the medial prefrontal cortex and the temporo-parietal junction, in line with clinical reports that have shown lesions to these brain regions result in a cessation of dream recall.
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