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A special calorie-burning type of body fat appears to help protect against an array of chronic ailments, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure, a new study suggests. Brown fat generates heat by drawing glucose from the bloodstream, as opposed to energy-storing white fat, explained senior researcher Dr. Paul Cohen. He’s an assistant professor and senior attending physician at the Rockefeller University Hospital in New York City. That sort of a tissue sounds like a godsend. However, brown fat has been long thought to have little impact on human health because your stores of brown fat diminish as you age. But research now shows that adults who have active brown fat tissues in their bodies are far less likely than their peers to suffer from a range of chronic illnesses. What’s more, this protective effect holds even if the person carries excess weight, researchers reported recently in the journal Nature Medicine. “When we grouped our subjects based on their body mass index, we saw that even obese people with brown fat show protection from these conditions,” Cohen said. “For example, it’s well known that type 2 diabetes is more common in overweight and obese individuals, but what we saw was that even obese individuals who have brown fat have a significantly lower likelihood of type 2 diabetes than obese individuals without brown… read on > read on >

Gut microbes may play a significant role in the eating disorder anorexia, a new British study says. Researchers from the University of Oxford reviewed available evidence suggesting that in people with anorexia gut microbes could affect affect appetite, weight, and mental health conditions such as anxiety and compulsive behavior. The findings appear online Jan. 12 in the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry. “Anorexia nervosa is a very common psychiatric disorder and can be incredibly debilitating or even fatal, but is unfortunately still quite challenging to treat,” said study co-author Ana Ghenciulescu, from Oxford’s Corpus Christi College. “Moreover, there has been a great deal of recent excitement about the idea that gut microbes affect many aspects of our health, including our mental health — and that this relationship goes both ways,” she said in a journal news release. People with anorexia restrict their eating and become dangerously thin. However, they may believe they are fat. In anorexia, microbial communities seem to be less diverse and more abundant in “harmful” species,” noted co-author Phil Burnet, an associate professor in Oxford’s Department of Psychiatry. For example, it’s been found that anorexia patients may have more bacteria that consume the protective mucus layer of the gut. This makes the gut “leaky” and contributes to chronic inflammation, which is linked with mental health symptoms. Other microbes found in anorexia patients may… read on > read on >

Could a cancer diagnosis sometimes produce positive life changes? In a new study, many people with colon cancer, even in advanced stages, believed their diagnosis had brought some beneficial effects to their lives. In surveys of 133 colon cancer patients, researchers found that nearly all — 95% — said their lives had benefited in some way since their diagnosis. Often, they felt their family relationships had strengthened, or they were better able to “take things as they come” and feel grateful for each day. That was the case whether people were in an earlier stage of the disease or had metastatic cancer — meaning it had spread to distant sites in the body. In fact, the study found, no medical factors seemed to influence patients’ capacity for “benefit finding.” On the other hand, that ability to see a “silver lining” did not buffer people against feeling anxious, sad or otherwise distressed. While that might seem counterintuitive, experts said it actually makes sense. People can simultaneously see the positives in their lives, and be distressed by dealing with a cancer diagnosis, said lead researcher Lauren Zimmaro, a senior postdoctoral associate at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia. Benefit-finding, she said, is about finding meaning in the midst of difficulties, and not “putting a positive spin on things.” “It’s more realistic than that,” Zimmaro said. Allison Applebaum,… read on > read on >

Concerns about “long-haul” symptoms in COVID-19 survivors may be reignited by a new study: It finds that 3 out of 4 patients from Wuhan, China — where the pandemic originated — were still suffering at least one lingering health problem six months later. The study from China involved more than 1,700 patients first diagnosed with the virus in Wuhan between January and May, and then followed to June and September. Researchers report that 76% of these patients had at least one symptom six months after symptoms began. The most common symptoms were fatigue or muscle weakness (63%) along with trouble sleeping (26%) and anxiety or depression (23%). “Because COVID-19 is such a new disease, we are only beginning to understand some of its long-term effects on patients’ health,” said researcher Dr. Bin Cao, from the National Center for Respiratory Medicine at the China-Japan Friendship Hospital and Capital Medical University, both in Beijing. His team published the findings in The Lancet journal Jan. 8. “Our analysis indicates that most patients continue to live with at least some of the effects of the virus after leaving the hospital, and highlights a need for post-discharge care, particularly for those who experience severe infections,” Cao said in a journal news release. “Our work also underscores the importance of conducting longer follow-up studies in larger populations in order to understand… read on > read on >

A plant-based diet is linked to healthy gut microbes that could lower your risk for conditions like obesity, type 2 diabetes and heart disease, a new study finds. “This study demonstrates a clear association between specific microbial species in the gut, certain foods, and risk of some common diseases,” said Dr. Andrew Chan, a gastroenterologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. “We hope to be able to use this information to help people avoid serious health problems by changing their diet to personalize their gut microbiome.” In this study of more than 1,100 participants from the United States and Britain, researchers collected data on composition of their gut bacteria, dietary habits and blood markers. They found evidence that the microbiome is linked with specific foods and diets, and that its makeup is also associated with levels of metabolic markers of disease. The microbiome has a greater link with these markers than other factors, such as genetics, researchers said. “Studying the interrelationship between the microbiome, diet and disease involves a lot of variables because peoples’ diets tend to be personalized and may change quite a bit over time,” Chan said in a hospital news release. Researchers found that those who ate a diet rich in plant-based foods were more likely to have high levels of specific gut microbes. They also found microbiome-based biomarkers of obesity, heart… read on > read on >

Vaping may not be a way for kids to avoid the smoking habit, after all. A new study finds that teens who start vaping are three times more likely to smoke cigarettes in adulthood than those who never started with electronic cigarettes. Although the number of teens who start smoking cigarettes in high school has declined, vaping has soared. From 2016 to 2019, the number of cigarette smokers among U.S. high school seniors dropped from 28% to 22%, but e-cigarette use increased from 39% to 46%, the researchers found. “The rapid rise in e-cigarette experimentation among the youth of our country appears to mean that we will have a whole new generation of cigarette smokers along with all the health consequences that follow,” said lead researcher John Pierce. He’s a professor emeritus in the department of family medicine and public health at the University of California, San Diego. “There is an urgent need to reconsider the policies on e-cigarettes and at least hold them to the same standards as the cigarette companies, such as restricting their right to advertise to our teens,” Pierce said. For the study, the investigators collected data on nearly 16,000 people in the United States, aged 12 to 24. Nearly two-thirds had tried at least one tobacco product, and almost one-third tried five or more tobacco products, of which e-cigarettes and… read on > read on >

Even people with mild cases of COVID-19 may commonly feel run down and unwell months later, a new study suggests. The study, of patients at one Irish medical center, found that 62% said they had not returned to “full health” when they had a follow-up appointment a few months after their COVID-19 diagnosis. Nearly half complained of ongoing fatigue. Surprisingly, the severity of patients’ initial COVID-19 infections were not a factor: People who’d managed at home were as likely to feel unwell as those who’d been hospitalized. A year into the global pandemic, the problem of “long-haul” COVID-19 is getting increasing attention. Some recent studies estimate that 10% of COVID-19 patients become long haulers, complaining of stubborn problems like fatigue, insomnia, shortness of breath and “brain fog” (problems with memory, focus and other mental skills). Dr. Luis Ostrosky, a professor of infectious diseases at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth in Houston, is among the doctors seeing long haulers. “The number-one complaint we see is fatigue,” he said, “and number-two is brain fog.” Ostrosky, who is also a fellow with the Infectious Diseases Society of America, was not involved in the new study. He said most patients who come to his center’s “post-COVID” clinic were sick enough to be hospitalized for the infection. “People who have a more severe, prolonged illness are more likely to have… read on > read on >

When it comes to pumping iron, women have as much to gain as men. A new study compared the results of women and men aged 50 to 90 who started resistance training exercise programs, finding that though men were more likely to gain absolute muscle size, their gains were on par with women’s relative to body size. “Historically, people tended to believe that men adapted to a greater degree from resistance training compared to women,” said senior study author Amanda (Mandy) Hagstrom, exercise science lecturer at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. “The differences we found primarily relate to how we look at the data — that is, absolutely or relatively. ‘Absolute’ looks at the overall gains, while ‘relative’ is a percentage based on their body size,” she said in a university news release. The researchers compared muscle mass and strength gains in more than 650 older men and 750 older women across 30 resistance training studies. Most participants had no previous resistance training experience. “We found no sex differences in changes in relative muscle size or upper body strength in older adults,” Hagstrom said. “It’s important for trainers to understand that women benefit just as much as men in terms of relative improvement compared to their baseline.” They found that when looking at absolute gains, older men gained bigger muscles and… read on > read on >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

Calorie-Burning ‘Brown Fat’ Could Help Keep You Healthy, Even if You’re Obese

Do Gut Microbes Play a Role in Anorexia?

For Many Cancer Patients, Diagnosis Brings Psychological ‘Silver Lining’

Six Months Later, Most Wuhan COVID Survivors Still Have Health Issues

Plant-Based Diet Brings Better ‘Microbiome,’ Healthier Life

Youth Vaping Triples Odds for Adult Smoking

Even Mild Cases of COVID Can Leave ‘Long-Haul’ Illness, Study Shows

Weight Training Benefits Older Women, Men Equally, Study Shows

Calorie-Burning ‘Brown Fat’ Could Help Keep You Healthy, Even if You’re Obese

Do Gut Microbes Play a Role in Anorexia?