Lifestyle « Weekly Gravy

A trendy form of intermittent fasting does seem to help people lose some weight — though it may be no better than old-fashioned calorie counting, a new clinical trial suggests. Researchers found that the tactic — called time-restricted eating — helped people with obesity drop around 8 pounds, on average, over one year. That was right on par with a second study group who went the traditional route of calorie counting and portion control. Time-restricted eating is a form of intermittent fasting where people limit themselves to eating within a certain time window each day. Outside that window, they swear off everything other than calorie-free drinks. The main selling point of time-restricted eating is its simplicity: Instead of laboriously counting calories, people only have to watch the clock. And small studies have shown that limited eating windows — 6 hours being a popular one — can help people eat less and shed some pounds. The new trial adds to the story because it aimed to be as real-world as possible, said senior researcher Krista Varady, a professor of nutrition at the University of Illinois Chicago. Participants were allowed to eat across an 8-hour time span, from noon to 8 p.m., which let them have dinner with family or go out to a restaurant with friends. And they merely stuck with that time window, without having… read on > read on >

Having even a mild COVID-19 infection could trigger a months-long drop in sperm, a new study finds. Researchers found both lower sperm concentrations and fewer sperm that were able to swim when studying men an average of 100 days after COVID-19 infection, which is enough time for new sperm to be produced. “There have been previous studies that show semen quality is affected in the short term following a COVID infection but, as far as we are aware, none that have followed men for a longer period of time,” said researcher Rocio Núñez-Calonge, scientific advisor at UR International Group at the Scientific Reproduction Unit in Madrid, Spain. “We assumed that semen quality would improve once new sperm were being generated, but this was not the case. We do not know how long it might take for semen quality to be restored and it may be the case that COVID has caused permanent damage, even in men who suffered only a mild infection,” Núñez-Calonge added. Núñez-Calonge and her colleagues decided to study this after observing that in some men attending clinics in Spain for assisted reproduction treatment, semen quality was worse after COVID-19 infection than before the infection, even though they had recovered and the infection was mild. “Since it takes approximately 78 days to create new sperm, it seemed appropriate to evaluate semen quality at… read on > read on >

Athletes using ketone supplements to boost their performance may be kidding themselves, researchers say. The literature on the benefit of ketone supplements is mixed. Some studies have shown the supplements improve performance, but others say they have no effect or even worsen performance. Natural ketones fuel the brain and muscles. A ketogenic diet of very low carbs and high fat causes the body to make more ketone compounds and increase their use for energy. Ketone supplements are thought to speed up that process, without the strict diet, the researchers noted. “One of the main perceived benefits is that ketones may serve as an alternative fuel source during exercise or potentially alter the utilization of other major fuel such as carbohydrates and fats, and in turn enhance endurance capacity,” said researcher Martin Gibala, a professor in the kinesiology department at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada. “But our findings suggest that isn’t the case,” he added in a university news release. For the study, Gibala and his team tested 23 well-trained endurance athletes who cycled five or more hours a week, selecting them because their athletic performance is consistent from day to day. Each participant completed two trials that differed only in the drink they were given before they completed a 20-minute cycling time trial that closely predicts 40-km race performance. The drinks contained a ketone supplement… read on > read on >

Diabetes is skyrocketing, with more than 500 million people of all ages living with the disease today and the number of cases worldwide projected to hit 1.3 billion in the next 30 years. “The rapid rate at which diabetes is growing is not only alarming but also challenging for every health system in the world, especially given how the disease also increases the risk for ischemic heart disease and stroke,” said lead researcher Kanyin Liane Ong, of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington School of Medicine, in Seattle. “While the general public might believe that type 2 diabetes is simply associated with obesity, lack of exercise and a poor diet, preventing and controlling diabetes is quite complex due to a number of factors. That includes someone’s genetics, as well as logistical, social and financial barriers within a country’s structural system, especially in low- and middle-income countries,” Ong said in an institute news release. Worldwide, 6% of people have diabetes, making it one of the top 10 leading causes of death and disability, the new study found. The highest rate is in North Africa and the Middle East, 9%, which is projected to reach 17% by 2050. The rate in Latin America and the Caribbean is projected to increase to 11%. In every country, the disease is commonly seen in… read on > read on >

Wild and feral cats appear to release more toxoplasmosis parasites in places densely populated with people, new research suggests. These cats also “shed” more when the temperature is warmer, a significant finding given climate change, according to the report published online June 21 in PLOS ONE. Policymakers could help protect humans from this illness by better managing these stray cat populations, the researchers said. “Changes from climate or human activities can affect disease transmission in ways that we don’t fully understand yet,” said study author Sophie Zhu, of the University of California, Davis, and colleagues. “In our study, we can see how these factors may be associated with changes in Toxoplasma shedding by cats, which in turn can affect the risk of exposure to vulnerable people and wildlife,” the researchers explained in a journal news release. Toxoplasmosis is a mild-to-severe disease that can be especially dangerous in pregnancy. It is caused by Toxoplasma gondii, which can affect humans and many wild and domestic animals. Cats, sheep, mice, birds and sea otters are among the vulnerable creatures. Humans can become infected when they accidentally come in contact with an infected cat’s feces. This can happen unknowingly while gardening, for example. While most T. gondii transmission is driven by domestic cats shedding the parasite at a stage of its life cycle known as oocyst, research has tended… read on > read on >

Space travel appears to weaken astronauts’ immune systems, and researchers believe changes in gene expression are the culprit. These immune deficits aren’t permanent. They disappear when back on Earth, often within weeks, according to new research published June 22 in Frontiers in Immunology. “Here we show that the expression of many genes related to immune functions rapidly decreases when astronauts reach space,” said study lead author Dr. Odette Laneuville, an associate professor of biology at the University of Ottawa in Canada. “The opposite happens when they return to Earth after six months aboard the ISS [International Space Station],” Laneuville added in a journal news release. Astronauts seem more susceptible to infections in space, often getting skin rashes and a variety of other diseases on the ISS, evidence has suggested. They also shed, or emit, more live virus particles, including those for the Epstein-Barr virus; varicella-zoster, which is responsible for shingles; and herpes-simplex-1, the source of “cold sores.” To delve into this, the researchers studied gene expression in leukocytes (white blood cells) in 14 astronauts. Among them were three women and 11 men living on the ISS from 4.5 to 6.5 months between 2015 and 2019. The research team drew blood from each astronaut at 10 time points, including pre-flight, in flight and after their return to Earth. The investigators found that 15,410 genes were differentially… read on > read on >

Living in a walkable neighborhood fosters socialization and helps create a strong sense of community, new research shows. Among the active behaviors these walkable neighborhoods promote are walking for leisure or as transportation to school, work shopping or home. “Our built environments create or deny long-lasting opportunities for socialization, physical activity, contact with nature and other experiences that affect public health,” said senior study author James Sallis, a professor at the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health at the University of California, San Diego. “Transportation and land use policies across the U.S. have strongly prioritized car travel and suburban development, so millions of Americans live in neighborhoods where they must drive everywhere, usually alone, and have little or no chance to interact with their neighbors,” Sallis added in a university news release. Data came from the Neighborhood Quality of Life Study, which included 1,745 adults ages 20 to 66 living in 32 neighborhoods located in and around Seattle, Baltimore and Washington, D.C. In walkable neighborhoods, people can wave hello to a neighbor, ask for help or socialize in their homes, said study first author Jacob Carson, a student in the UC San Diego – San Diego State University Joint Doctoral Program in Public Health. Neighborhoods where driving is necessary may have the opposite effect, preventing neighbors from socializing. “Promoting social interaction is an important public… read on > read on >

It’s common knowledge that loss is a part of male aging — loss of hair, loss of muscle tone, loss of vision or hearing. But men growing older also start losing the very thing that makes them biological males, their Y chromosome, and that can leave them more vulnerable to cancer, a new study says. The loss of the Y chromosome can help cancer cells evade detection by the body’s immune system, according to researchers from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, in Los Angeles. Specifically, it results in more aggressive bladder cancer among men, the study authors reported June 21 in the journal Nature. “This study for the first time makes a connection that has never been made before between loss of the Y chromosome and the immune system’s response to cancer,” said researcher Dr. Dan Theodorescu, director of Cedars-Sinai Cancer. “We discovered that loss of the Y chromosome allows bladder cancer cells to elude the immune system and grow very aggressively,” Theodorescu said in a medical center news release. It’s not all bad news, however. Bladder cancers driven by the loss of the Y chromosome also were more vulnerable to immune checkpoint inhibitors, which are drugs that enhance the body’s ability to target and destroy tumor cells, the researchers explained. Each human cell normally has one pair of sex chromosomes. Men’s cells have one X and… read on > read on >

New research on horses and dogs found elevated levels of PFAS “forever chemicals,” establishing horses as sentinel species. Sentinel species provide advance warning of a danger to people. The work also advanced knowledge about PFAS exposure and liver and kidney function in these animals. PFAS stands for per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, a group of chemicals used in plastics and grease- and water-resistant materials. They’re a health concern because they don’t break down in the environment and are found in soil and water sources. “Horses have not previously been used to monitor PFAS exposure,” said first author Kylie Rock, a postdoctoral researcher at North Carolina State University. “But they may provide critical information about routes of exposure from the outdoor environment when they reside in close proximity to known contamination sources.” In the new study, researchers detected elevated PFAS levels in the blood of 31 pet dogs and 32 horses from Grays Creek, N.C., including dogs that drank only bottled water. The study was conducted at the request of residents concerned about their pets’ well-being. Their homes used wells that state inspectors had determined to contain PFAS. Animals each had a general veterinary health check, as well as blood tests to screen for 33 PFAS chemicals. The chemicals were chosen based on compounds present in the Cape Fear River basin and the availability of standards to analyze… read on > read on >

Cutting back social media to a spare 30 minutes per day could be the key to reducing anxiety, depression, loneliness and feelings of fear of missing out, researchers say. That was true for college students in a new study who self-limited social media — often successfully and sometimes squeezing in just a bit more time — for two weeks. “I think on the one hand, the results are kind of counterintuitive, right? If you talk to many people, they would tell you that social media is how they manage their stress, how they keep themselves entertained, how they stay connected with other people. So, I think the typical perception is that people use social media to cope,” said lead author Ella Faulhaber, a doctoral student in human-computer interaction at Iowa State University. Faulhaber said researchers gained interesting insights when they asked participants about their experience. “Lots of them said, ‘I had trouble at first but then I realized how much I better slept, how I actually connected more with people in real life, how I found myself keeping busy with other things,’” Faulhaber said. The study dovetailed with recent health advisories from the U.S. Surgeon General and the American Psychological Association, which warned that young people’s mental health has suffered as their use of social media has surged. Faulhaber’s team worked with 230 college students,… read on > read on >