August 7, 2021 Notes 

SUBJ: So many discoveries the past week    

SUBtitle: obesity and health are independent variables

See past newsletters here   
Welcome to many new readers. Please tell your friends reading nutrition weekly extends life by 7 years, so you have time to read this.  Sorry this week’s notes are so long.  I have just read a lot of noteworthy things this week. See the LONG NOTES below for details.

SHORT NOTES: Many obese people have healthy cholesterol and blood glucose levels, while many weighing 70 to 80 kg might have diabetes.  Study shows health and weight are not related; A man is as old as his arteries. Partly-damaged proteins should be a top-priority target of longevity-extending interventions. SO TRY MITO-C; Various sports are associated with markedly different lifespans:e.g. tennis, 9.7 years; soccer, 4.7 years; health club activities, 1.5 years.“During the years of Facebook’s ascent, the world has witnessed a loneliness epidemic, the growth of political extremisms and political violence, widening political polarization, the rise of authoritarianism, the decline of democracy, and catastrophic crisis in journalism, and an unprecedented rise in propaganda, fake news, and misinformation; COVID infected patients had loss of smell and taste, “significant” decrease of gray matter in the brain, and reported “brain fog” post-infection [IF YOU READ THIS, GET VACCINATED];  sales of vitamin C, vitamin D, zinc, elderberry, probiotics, and other dietary supplements increased despite a lack of evidence that they reduce the risk of COVID; Melatonin Attenuates Neuroinflammation; Quercetin Alleviates Osteoarthritis Progression; Resveratrol Relieves Gouty Arthritis; Poor sleep and psychological distress symptoms were highly prevalent during the COVID-19 pandemic; Gun-Related Injuries Top $1 Billion; Both extremely long and short total sleep periods were associated with an increased risk of hypertension; Excessive daytime sleepiness is associated with an approximately two-and-a-half-fold increased risk of cardiovascular mortality; Vigilance declines during sleep restriction regardless of change in subjective alertness or motivation; Vigorous workouts cause trouble for sleeping in older women; Pollution– Higher levels of PM2  caused poorer performance on all of the areas of Thinking and Memory; Vitamin D helps prevent Sepsis; Covid-19 Lockdown has reduced CPAP Adherence; psilocybin increases the connections of brain cells;

LONG NOTES:

Obesity and ill health are independent variables. Science July 30 pg 480 -Rising obesity rates, 42% of US adults in 2018, up 30% in 20 yrs, based on BMI of 30 or more, weighting 120-140 kg.   Yet many obese people have healthy cholesterol and blood glucose levels, while many weighing 70 to 80 kg might have diabetes.  Visceral fat (belly) causes inflammation, while subcutaneous fat (thighs, butt, etc.) does not.  Two mouse strains were created-one homozygous for a gene causing obesity, causing them to weigh 7 times normal and be very ill.  Another with the gene IRS1 which reduces age-associated disease. The offspring were still very obese, but extremely healthy!

Science July 30 pg 490 – Vascular endothelial growth factor-A extends life and health span of mice 48% in males.  “A man is as old as his arteries.” VEGFA reduced inflammation, improved metabolism, reduced osteoporosis, reduced sarcopenia, etc. Thanks Roc for an important link.  A 48% extension in mice is substantial and would be most welcome for humans.  FYI here is the summary/abstract of the article itself, which notes that "decoy receptors" are likely an important driver of aging and implies that such decoy receptors and other decoy or partly-damaged proteins should be a top-priority target of longevity-extending interventions. SO TRY MITO-C to prevent protein misfolding

 Various sports are associated with markedly different improvements in life expectancy.z
Patients and Methods
The Copenhagen City Heart Study (CCHS) is a prospective population study that included detailed questionnaires regarding participation in different types of sports and leisure-time physical activity. The 8577 participants were followed for up to 25 years for all-cause mortality.
Results
Multivariable-adjusted life expectancy gains compared with the sedentary group for different sports were as follows: tennis, 9.7 years; badminton, 6.2 years; soccer, 4.7 years; cycling, 3.7 years; swimming, 3.4 years; jogging, 3.2 years; calisthenics, 3.1 years; and health club activities, 1.5 years.
Conclusion
Various sports are associated with markedly different improvements in life expectancy. Because this is an observational study, it remains uncertain whether this relationship is causal. Interestingly, the leisure-time sports that inherently involve more social interaction were associated with the best longevity—a finding that warrants further investigation.

Aug 2 new yorker pg 77 – “During the years of the company’s ascent, the world has witnessed a loneliness epidemic, the growth of political extremisms and political violence, widening political polarization, the rise of authoritarianism, the decline of democracy, and catastrophic crisis in journalism, and an unprecedented rise in propaganda, fake news, and misinformation.  But studies have consistently shown that the more time people spend on Facebook the worse their mental health becomes; Facebooking is alos correlated with increases sedentariness, a diminishment of meaning for face-to-face relationships, and a decline in real world social activities.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, sales of vitamin C, vitamin D, zinc, elderberry, probiotics, and other dietary supplements increased despite a lack of evidence that they reduce the risk of COVID-19 or decrease COVID-19 symptoms.  Can any dietary supplement boost immunity, reduce COVID-19 severity, or speed recovery? Additional research is underway, including clinical trials testing the effects of omega-3 fatty acids, melatonin, vitamin D, and other dietary supplement ingredients in patients with COVID-19. The results from these studies will give more insight into whether any dietary supplements are useful during COVID-19. The Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) reviewed the available published research and summarized it in a new consumer fact sheet, Dietary Supplements in the Time of COVID-19. Current knowledge does not allow scientists to recommend for or against the use of any dietary supplement to prevent or treat COVID-19. And by law, dietary supplements are not allowed to be marketed as a treatment, prevention, or cure for any disease—only drugs can legally make such claims

Melatonin Attenuates Neuroinflammation by Down-Regulating NLRP3 Inflammasome via a SIRT1-Dependent Pathway in MPTP-Induced Models of Parkinson’s Disease.

Quercetin Alleviates Osteoarthritis Progression in Rats by Suppressing Inflammation and Apoptosis via Inhibition of IRAK1/NLRP3 Signaling.

Resveratrol Relieves Gouty Arthritis by Promoting Mitophagy to Inhibit Activation of NLRP3 Inflammasomes  

A Potential Role of Vitamin D on Platelet Leukocyte Aggregation and Pathological Events in Sepsis: An Updated Review

The Impact of Quarantine on Sleep Quality and Psychological Distress During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Poor sleep and psychological distress symptoms were highly prevalent in our study population. Isolation may influence psychological distress but not sleep quality during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gun-Related Injuries Top $1 Billion – In a study released by the General Accounting Office (GAO) several weeks ago, it was noted that the USA has incurred more than $1 billion related to annual medical costs with most of those costs picked up by Medicaid and other public health programs. This type of violence results in an annual basis on more than 50,000 ER visits and 30,000 hospital stays with the poor and uninsured serving as the most frequent victims.

Daytime Sleep as Compensation for the Effects of Reduced Nocturnal Sleep on the Incidence of Hypertension: Both extremely long and short total sleep periods were associated with an increased risk of hypertension. 

Excessive Daytime Sleepiness and Cardiovascular Mortality in US Adults: A NHANES 2005–2008 Follow-Up Study. Excessive daytime sleepiness is highly prevalent among US adults and is independently associated with an approximately two-and-a-half-fold increased risk of cardiovascular mortality in a large national sample.

The Covid-19 Lockdown and CPAP Adherence: The More Vulnerable Ones Less Likely to Improve Adherence?

Changes in Subjective Motivation and Effort During Sleep Restriction. Vigilance declines during sleep restriction regardless of change in subjective alertness or motivation, but individuals with reduced motivation exhibit poorer inhibition. 

Sleep Timing Related to Objectively Measured Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior in Older Women. Vigorous workouts cause trouble for sleeping in older women. Most indicators of sleep timing were negatively associated with moderate-to-vigorous-intensity physical activity. No associations of sleep timing were found in sedentary behavior and light-intensity physical activity. 

Pollution, Thinking and Memory – Researchers at Columbia University recently completed a project to assess the impact of air pollution on tasks related to mental performance such as word memory, number recall and verbal fluency. The study included 1,000 men in Boston with an average age of 69 (which for many of us – is the age of approaching memory problems anyway). They examined the levels of pollutants that were smaller than 2.5 micrometers (i.e. PM2.5 airborne pollutants) which are of a size that they can pass the blood-brain barrier. They discovered that higher levels of PM2.5 in the four weeks prior to the tests revealed poorer performance on all of the areas mentioned above. Also, it was noted that men who were on aspirin or other anti-inflammatory medications exhibited less of an effect on memory. The assumption is that the inflammation reduction prevented or reversed the effects of pollutants on memory.

In a throwback to the 1960’s, researchers at Yale University have completed some initial research showing that psilocybin actually increases the connections of brain cells in mice. Whoa! Specifically, the dendritic spines on the nerve cell are the part that allows brain cells to move information back and forth. It is thought that memory and learning are accomplished through this intercellular process. The process for accomplishing the increased dendritic capabilities through the use of psilocybin are not at all clear but the density and size of these spikes are higher when used by the mice. One of the researchers, Alex Kwan, MD, noted that: “We not only saw a 10% increase in the number of neuronal connections, but also they were on average about 10% larger, so the connections were stronger as well.” In particular, mice that were “stressed” and then treated with psilocybin showed marked improvement and increased neuronal transmissions even after only one dose. 

Researchers in the UK recently reported on research that compared the brain scans of 782 individuals taken during the pre-pandemic period to their status now. Nearly 50% of the individuals had been diagnosed with COVID-19 with only 15 hospitalizations. At the time of the study the other half had not contracted the infection. As with many patients, a large number of the infected patients has loss of smell and taste which correlated with “significant” decrease of gray matter in the regions of the brain associated with those functions. Those areas are also associated with the reported “brain fog” that many patients experience post-infection