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Why Sparkling Water May (Or May Not) Help You Lose Weight

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Chalk up a partial win for health influencers who tout the slimming benefits of sparkling waters. New research out of Japan affirms that carbonated water may, indeed, promote weight loss by lowering blood sugar levels, allowing cells to burn fat between meals for energy more efficiently. But don’t buy a smaller wardrobe just yet. The findings suggest that any benefit is small.  Blood sugar levels dropped only temporarily, and study author Dr. Akira Takahashi said the carbonated water would have only a small impact on calorie consumption. “Carbonated water is not a standalone solution for weight loss,” he wrote in the study, which was published Jan. 20 in the journal BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health. Seltzers and sparkling or carbonated waters have gained a following among health buffs for their purported effects on body mass.  Some point to a small 2017 study that found carbonated drinks stimulated appetite by increasing levels of the hunger hormone, ghrelin. But findings of that study, which involved only 20 people and male rats, have never been replicated. Takahashi’s new research, expands on a 2004 investigation of hemodialysis by his team at Tesseikai Neurosurgical Hospital in Shijonawate, Japan. He is a physician in the hospital’s kidney dialysis center. Hemodialysis is a process that occurs during kidney dialysis, when CO2 enters the blood, just as it would when carbonated water is…  read on >  read on >

Pregnancy Increases Mental Health Risk in MS Patients

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Pregnancy increases the risk of mental illness among women with multiple sclerosis (MS). Pregnant MS patients have a higher risk of mental illness both during gestation and in the first years after they give birth, researchers reported in a new study published Jan. 22 in the journal Neurology. Overall, women with MS have a 26% increased risk of mental illness during pregnancy and a 33% increased risk after giving birth, compared to women without the degenerative nerve disease. “Mental health struggles can affect both parents and kids, making it important to understand how mental health challenges around pregnancy affect people with MS,” lead researcher Dr. Ruth Ann Marrie, a professor of medicine and community health sciences at the University of Manitoba in Canada, said in a news release. For the study, researchers tracked the health of nearly 900,000 mothers, including more than 1,700 with MS. They looked at records from two years before conception to three years after participants gave birth. The research team then examined how many women had been diagnosed with a mental illness, including anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, psychosis, suicide attempts or substance abuse. Mental illness affected about 42% of women with MS during pregnancy, and that increased to 50% within the first year after birth, results show. By comparison, 30% of women without MS had mental health problems during pregnancy and…  read on >  read on >

Fitter Folks Have Better Odds Against Cancer

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Pumping iron and hitting the treadmill can improve your odds against cancer, a new evidence review says. People with more muscle strength and better cardio fitness are less likely to die from cancer, researchers reported recently in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. This survival benefit extends even to people with advanced-stage cancers, results show. “Muscle strength and cardiorespiratory fitness were significant predictors of all-cause mortality, especially in patients with advanced cancer,” concluded the research team led by Robert Newton, a professor of exercise medicine at Edith Cowan University in Australia. The results indicate that hitting the gym might deserve to be part of a person’s cancer treatment, researchers added. “Implementing tailored exercise prescriptions to enhance these physical fitness components throughout the cancer continuum may contribute to reducing cancer-related mortality,” the researchers wrote. Previous studies have linked better physical fitness to an overall lower risk of early death, as well as a lower risk of death by heart or lung disease, researchers said in background notes. But this is the first time a review has attempted to see whether fitness can ward off death from cancer, researchers said. Previous research has mainly focused on whether fitness can prevent cancer from occurring. For their review, researchers pooled data from 42 previous studies involving nearly 47,000 patients with various stages and types of cancer. Results showed that…  read on >  read on >

Fatty Muscles Increase Heart Disease Risk

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A well-marbled steak is highly prized for grilling, but those sort of fat deposits in human muscles can be deadly, a new study says. People with pockets of fat hidden within their muscles have a higher risk of dying from heart-related health problems, researchers reported in a study published Jan. 20 in the European Heart Journal. For every 1% increase in fatty deposits in muscle, there was a 7% increased risk of heart-related death, heart attack or heart failure, researchers found. Even people with a healthy BMI can have these hidden fat deposits within their muscles, researchers said. (BMI is short for body mass index, an estimate of body fat based on height and weight.) In fact, the heart risk associated with fatty muscle was independent of BMI and other known heart risk factors, results show. “Knowing that intermuscular fat raises the risk of heart disease gives us another way to identify people who are at high risk, regardless of their body mass index,” senior researcher Dr. Viviany Taqueti, director of the Cardiac Stress Laboratory at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, said in a news release. For the study, researchers performed imaging scans on nearly 670 patients being evaluated at Brigham and Women’s Hospital for chest pain or shortness of breath. CT scans were used to assess how well the patients’ hearts were functioning.…  read on >  read on >

Nutrition Labels Only Slightly Effective in Cutting Calories

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It’s easy these days to see how many calories a cheeseburger will set you back, or how many added sugars are in a jar of pasta sauce. But nutrition labels haven’t been as helpful at helping people cut calories as might have been hoped, according to a new evidence review published Jan. 17 in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. Labels slapped on offerings at supermarkets and restaurants lead to only a small reduction in the calories people select and purchase, according to findings gathered from 25 prior studies. The average calorie reduction was just under 2%, or about 11 calories in a 600-calorie meal – the equivalent of around two almonds, researchers said. “Our review suggests that calorie labeling leads to a modest reduction in the calories people purchase and consume,” senior investigator Gareth Hollands, a principal research fellow with the University College London Social Research Institute, said in a news release. “This may have some impact on health at the population level, but calorie labeling is certainly no silver bullet,” Hollands added. The review compiled evidence from studies involving more than 10,000 people living in high-income countries like the U.S., Canada, France and the U.K., researchers said. The studies all focused on the impact of nutrition labeling on food selection and consumption, and 16 of the 25 were conducted in real-world settings like…  read on >  read on >

Higher Stroke Risk Among Children of Divorce

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A broken home seems to set a ticking time bomb in the brains of some children of divorce. Seniors have a 61% higher risk of stroke if their parents divorced when they were children or teenagers, researchers reported in a study published Jan. 22 in the journal PLOS One. The level of added risk is on par with that posed by two other well-established risk factors for stroke, diabetes and depression, researchers said. “Even after taking into account most of the known risk factors associated with stroke — including smoking, physical inactivity, lower income and education, diabetes, depression, and low social support — those whose parents had divorced still had 61% higher odds of having a stroke,” lead researcher Mary Kate Schilke, a lecturer in psychology at Tyndale University in Ontario, Canada, said in a news release. For the study, researchers analyzed data on more than 13,200 seniors 65 and older collected by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2022 as part of an annual survey of American health. More than 7% of older Americans included in the study had suffered a stroke, and nearly 14% were children of divorce, researchers said. The study specifically excluded people who’d suffered childhood abuse. “We found that even when people hadn’t experienced childhood physical and sexual abuse and had at least one adult who made…  read on >  read on >

High-Fiber Diets Linked to Gut Health & Fewer Harmful Bacteria

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Could eating more fiber be the key to a healthier gut? Research suggests the answer is yes. The findings, published recently in the journal Nature Microbiology, analyzed gut microbiomes from more than 12,000 people in 45 countries. It found that individuals with higher levels of beneficial gut bacterium called Faecalibacterium also had fewer harmful bacteria such as E.coli.  “The main takeaway from our study is that our gut microbiome plays an important role in reducing the growth of potentially harmful bacteria in our gut, and it seems this effect may be modulated through diet,” lead researcher Alexandre Almeida, a fellow at Cambridge University, told NBC News.  Faecalibacterium thrives on fiber-rich foods like vegetables, beans and whole grains. It produces short-chain fatty acids, compounds known to benefit gut health. Research has linked lower levels of these bacteria to gastrointestinal conditions like inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). While the study doesn’t prove that eating more fiber directly reduces harmful bacteria, increasing fiber intake offers many health benefits, Almeida said. “There’s really solid evidence that fiber helps with diabetes, weight control and cardiovascular disease,” Dr. Walter Willett, a professor at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and at Harvard Medical School in Boston, said in a news release. Adults need about 30 grams of fiber daily, according to Willett, but most Americans consume about 58% of that amount.…  read on >  read on >

“Chameleon” Immune Cells Linked To Severe Asthma

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A set of chameleon-like immune cells could be contributing to severe asthma in some patients. Intermediate group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s) appear to be able to get around cutting-edge asthma treatments by transforming into another type of immune cell. Targeted biologic drugs have revolutionized the treatment of severe asthma driven by eosinophils, which are white blood cells linked to ILC2s, researchers noted in a recent study in the journal Science Translational Medicine. However, not all patients respond to these biologic drugs — and the fact that ILC2s can transform themselves could be a reason why, researchers said. Intermediate ILC2s share traits of both ILC2s and another type of immune cell called group 3 innate lymphoid cells, or ILC3s. ILC3s are tied to another type of white blood cell called neutrophils. An inhaler is less likely to calm an asthma attack involving eosinophils and neutrophils, researchers said. “When asthma is associated with both eosinophils and neutrophils cells, individuals are generally less responsive to treatment with glucocorticosteroids — which are the mainstay of treatment for severe asthma,” researcher Dr. Parameswaran Nair said in a news release. He’s chair in airway diseases at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Severe asthma that resists standard therapies is believed to affect up to 10% of people with asthma, researchers said in background notes. “The findings from this research pave…  read on >  read on >

Sports Boost Academic Performance in Teens

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Want your kid to do well in school? Get them involved in an organized sport, a new study urges. Boys and girls are both more likely to earn a high school diploma if they take part in team sports like soccer or artistic sports like dance or gymnastics, researchers reported in a study published recently in the journal Children. “Structured sports were shown to have long-term benefits on success, reiterating the importance of encouraging play and an active lifestyle throughout childhood,” the study led by senior author Linda Pagani, a professor with the University of Montreal School of Psychoeducation, concluded. Boys in organized sports were nearly 15% more likely to have a high school diploma by age 20, researchers found. Likewise, girls who participated in sports were about 7% more likely to get their high school diploma, and also tended to get higher grades. For the study, researchers analyzed data from a long-term study following the development and well-being of Canadian children from birth to early adulthood. Nearly 2,800 children were included in the study. The research team looked at the sort of sports and physical activity that kids were involved in at age 12, and compared that to their later academic achievement. Girls who participated in organized sports had 8% higher grades overall, and those involved in artistic sports had nearly 23% higher grades,…  read on >  read on >