Age-related brain atrophy refers to the gradual loss of neurons and shrinkage of brain tissue, which is a natural part of the ageing process. This condition can contribute to cognitive decline and various neurological issues. While ageing itself cannot be prevented, recent research from an 18-month dietary intervention provides hope that lifestyle and dietary changes may help slow down brain ageing.
Brain age, determined through MRI measurements of the hippocampus and lateral ventricles, reflects the biological aging of the brain, which may differ from a person’s chronological age. Chronological age is simply the number of years a person has lived, while brain age indicates the actual health of the brain. Generally, as we age, the hippocampus tends to shrink, and the lateral ventricles tend to expand, which serve as indicators of brain ageing. Some individuals may have a brain age that is younger or older than their chronological age. A younger brain age suggests better cognitive health, whereas an older brain age may indicate accelerated ageing and an increased risk of cognitive decline.
The study found that a decline in HbA1c and key markers of long-term blood sugar levels is associated with significant positive changes in specific brain regions commonly affected by age-related atrophy. It suggests that improved blood sugar control could be one of the most important factors in slowing down age-related brain changes.
Previous research has shown the benefits of the Green Mediterranean (Green-Med) diet, particularly its positive effects on blood sugar control. This diet is rich in polyphenols from plant-based sources such as Mankai—a high-protein aquatic plant—and green tea, while being low in red and processed meats. The current study reinforces these findings, suggesting that the Green-Med diet not only supports metabolic health but may also have protective effects on brain structure and function.
A new study has found that a low-sugar diet in utero and in the first two years of life can meaningfully reduce the risk of chronic diseases in adulthood. This provides compelling new evidence of the lifelong health effects of early-life sugar consumption.
A study published in the journal Science reveals that children who had sugar restrictions during their first 1,000 days after conception faced up to a 35% lower risk of developing Type 2 diabetes and a 20% reduced risk of hypertension in adulthood. The research indicates that low sugar intake by mothers during pregnancy was sufficient to lower these health risks, and maintaining sugar restrictions after birth further enhanced the benefits.
Using an unintended “natural experiment” from World War II, researchers at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, McGill University in Montreal, and the University of California, Berkeley, examined how sugar rationing during the war influenced long-term health outcomes.
The United Kingdom introduced limits on sugar distribution in 1942 as part of its wartime food rationing program. Rationing ended in September 1953.
The researchers used contemporary data from the U.K. Biobank, a database of medical histories and genetic, lifestyle and other disease risk factors, to study the effect of those early-life sugar restrictions on health outcomes of adults conceived in the U.K. just before and after the end of wartime sugar rationing.
“Studying the long-term effects of added sugar on health presents challenges,” explains Tadeja Gracner, a senior economist at the USC Dornsife Center for Economic and Social Research and the study’s corresponding author. “It is difficult to identify situations where individuals are randomly exposed to different nutritional environments early in life and tracked over a span of 50 to 60 years. The end of rationing provided us with a unique natural experiment that helped us overcome these obstacles.”
On average, during rationing, sugar intake was about 8 teaspoons (40 grams) per day. When rationing ended, sugar and sweets consumption skyrocketed to about 16 teaspoons (80 grams) per day.
Notably, rationing did not involve extreme food deprivation overall. Diets generally appeared to have been within today’s guidelines set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the World Health Organization, which recommend no added sugars for children under two and no more than 12 teaspoons (50g) of added sugar daily for adults.
The immediate and large increase in sugar consumption but no other foods after rationing ended created an interesting natural experiment: Individuals were exposed to varying levels of sugar intake early in life, depending on whether they were conceived or born before or after September 1953. Those conceived or born just before the end of rationing experienced sugar-scarce conditions compared to those born just after who were born into a more sugar-rich environment.
The researchers then identified those born in the U.K. Biobank data collected over 50 years later. Using a very tight birth window around the end of sugar rationing allowed the authors to compare midlife health outcomes of otherwise similar birth cohorts.
While living through the period of sugar restriction during the first 1,000 days of life substantially lowered the risk of developing diabetes and hypertension, for those later diagnosed with either of those conditions, the onset of disease was delayed by four years and two years, respectively.
Notably, exposure to sugar restrictions in utero alone was enough to lower risks, but disease protection increased postnatally once solids were likely introduced.
The researchers say the magnitude of this effect is meaningful as it can save costs, extend life expectancy, and, perhaps more importantly, improve quality of life.
In the United States, individuals with diabetes face average annual medical expenses of approximately $12,000. Additionally, an earlier diagnosis of diabetes is associated with a significantly reduced life expectancy; specifically, for each decade that diagnosis occurs earlier, life expectancy decreases by three to four years.
The researchers note that these numbers underscore the value of early interventions that could delay or prevent this disease.
Experts continue to raise concerns about children’s long-term health as they consume excessive amounts of added sugars during their early life, a critical period of development. Adjusting child sugar consumption, however, is not easy—added sugar is everywhere, even in baby and toddler foods, and children are bombarded with TV ads for sugary snacks, say the researchers.
“Parents need information about what works, and this study provides some of the first causal evidence that reducing added sugar early in life is a powerful step towards improving children’s health over their lifetimes,” says study co-author Claire Boone of McGill University and University of Chicago.
Co-author Paul Gertler of UC Berkeley and the National Bureau of Economics Research adds: “Sugar early in life is the new tobacco, and we should treat it as such by holding food companies accountable to reformulate baby foods with healthier options and regulate the marketing and tax sugary foods targeted at kids.”
This study is the first of a larger research effort exploring how early-life sugar restrictions affected a broader set of economic and health outcomes in later adulthood, including education, wealth, and chronic inflammation, cognitive function and dementia.
A study of more than 13 million hours of data collected from light sensors worn by 89,000 people has found exposure to bright nights and dark days is associated with an increased risk of death.
Researchers investigated whether personal day and night light and lighting patterns that disrupt our circadian rhythms predicted mortality risk.
Published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the findings indicate that individuals exposed to high levels of light at night faced a 21% to 34% increased risk of death. In contrast, those exposed to high levels of daylight experienced a 17% to 34% decrease in their risk of death.
“Exposure to brighter nights and darker days can disrupt our circadian rhythms. This disruption can lead to various health issues, including diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, mental health problems, and an increased risk of death,” explains Professor Sean Cain, a senior author and sleep expert from Flinders University.
“These new insights into the potential adverse impact of light have shown us just how important personal light exposure patterns are for your health.”
Associate Professor Andrew Phillips, co-senior author, states that nighttime light exposure disrupts circadian rhythms by shifting their timing (phase-shift) and weakening the signal (amplitude suppression) of the central circadian ‘pacemaker,’ which regulates circadian rhythms throughout the body.
“Disruption to the body’s circadian rhythms is linked to the development of metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and obesity and is also strongly implicated in the development of cardiometabolic diseases, including myocardial infarction, stroke and hypertension,” says Associate Professor Phillips.
“The observed relationships of night light exposure with mortality risk may be explained by night light disrupting circadian rhythms, leading to adverse cardiometabolic outcomes.
“Our findings clearly show that avoiding night light and seeking daylight may promote optimal health and longevity, and this recommendation is easy, accessible and cost-effective,” adds Associate Professor Phillips.
The study authors from FHMRI Sleep Health investigated the relationship between personal light exposure and the risk of all-cause and cardiometabolic mortality in 89,000 participants from the UK Biobank, aged between 40 and 69. Metrics were recorded using wrist-worn sensors, and the National Health Service collected the participants’ mortality data over an approximate follow-up period of eight years.
Sleep duration, sleep efficiency, and midsleep were estimated from motion data. At the same time, cardiometabolic mortality was defined as any cause of death corresponding to diseases of the circulatory system or endocrine and metabolic diseases.
The research also showed a disrupted circadian rhythm predicted higher mortality risk, which the authors were able to determine using computer modelling. Findings accounted for age, sex, ethnicity, photoperiod, and sociodemographic and lifestyle factors.
Lead author Dr Daniel Windred says that the findings demonstrate the importance of maintaining a dark environment during the late night and early morning hours, when the central circadian ‘pacemaker’ is most sensitive to light, and seeking bright light during the day to enhance circadian rhythms.
“Protection of lighting environments may be significant in those at risk for circadian disruption and mortality, such as in intensive care or aged-care settings,” says Dr Windred.
“Across the general population, avoiding night light and seeking daylight may lead to a reduction in disease burden, especially cardiometabolic diseases, and may increase longevity.”
A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that ten years after undergoing bariatric surgery during their teenage years, more than half of the participants maintained significant weight loss. Additionally, many of these individuals showed improvements in obesity-related conditions, including type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.
“Our study demonstrates remarkable results from the longest follow-up of weight loss surgery during adolescence, confirming that bariatric surgery is a safe and effective long-term strategy for managing obesity,” stated lead author Justin Ryder, PhD. He is the Vice Chair of Research in the Department of Surgery at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and an Associate Professor of Surgery and Pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
Bariatric surgery is significantly under-utilized in the U.S., with only one out of every 2,500 teens with severe obesity undergoing the procedure. Based on existing recommendations, nearly five million adolescents qualify for effective weight loss interventions, such as bariatric surgery.
Hillary Fisher, now 31 years old, is glad she decided to undergo surgery at the age of 16. She was one of 260 adolescents who participated in the long-term Teen-LABS study.
“I felt overwhelmed by the daily struggles I faced due to my weight, health issues, and bullying in high school,” Ms. Fisher said. “After several unsuccessful attempts to lose weight, I weighed 260 pounds, and we decided that bariatric surgery was the solution. It changed my life; the improved health and self-esteem that came with losing 100 pounds were significant for me, and I would absolutely do it again.”
Notably, the study found that 55 per cent of the participants who had type 2 diabetes as teenagers and underwent surgery were still in remission of their diabetes at 10 years.
“This is considerably better than the outcomes reported in people who underwent bariatric surgery as adults, a major reason why treating obesity seriously in adolescents is so important,” added Dr. Ryder.
Indeed, a recent multi-centre randomized controlled trial found diabetes type 2 remission in adults to be 12-18 per cent at seven to 12 years after bariatric surgery.
Diabetes is a growing global issue, currently affecting over 500 million adults. As there is still no cure for either type 1 or type 2 diabetes, patients need to regularly monitor their blood glucose levels (BGLs) to manage their condition. While traditional BGL-measuring devices that require painful finger pricks have been the standard for many years, modern technology is beginning to offer better alternatives.
Many researchers have proposed noninvasive methods to monitor blood glucose levels (BGLs) using commonly available wearable devices, such as smartwatches. For instance, by positioning the LEDs and photodetectors found in certain smartwatches against the skin, it is possible to measure the pulse signals of oxyhemoglobin and haemoglobin. This data can then be used to calculate a metabolic index, which can help estimate BGLs. However, due to the small size and limited power of these smartwatches and similar wearables, the quality of the measured signals is often low. Additionally, daily movements can introduce measurement errors because these devices are typically worn on the extremities. These issues hinder the accuracy and clinical applicability of wearables for managing diabetes.
A team from Hamamatsu Photonics K.K. in Japan has been actively researching solutions to a pressing issue. In a recent study led by Research and Development Engineer Tomoya Nakazawa and published in the Journal of Biomedical Optics (JBO), they conducted a thorough theoretical analysis of the errors associated with the metabolic index-based method. Based on their findings, they developed a novel signal quality index to filter out low-quality data as a preprocessing step, which enhances the accuracy of estimated blood glucose levels (BGLs).
“As smartwatches are widely adopted across different regions and age groups, and with the global rise in diabetes cases, a signal quality enhancing method that is easy to implement and apply regardless of personal and individual differences is essential for meeting the increasing worldwide demand for noninvasive glucose monitoring devices,” remarks Nakazawa, explaining the motivation behind the study.
First, the researchers mathematically showed that the discrepancy between the two types of phase delays in the oxyhemoglobin and haemoglobin pulse signal calculated by different methods provides a good measure of the influence of noise. They then considered two primary sources of phase error: a background noise level and the estimation errors introduced via sampling at discrete intervals. After formalizing these sources of errors, they calculated the effect on the estimated metabolic index.
The proposed screening approach involves implementing thresholds for the phase estimation and metabolic index errors. Data chunks that exceed the set thresholds are discarded, and the missing values are approximated using other means based on the rest of the data.
To test this strategy, the researchers conducted a long-term experiment in which the sensors in a commercial smartwatch were used to monitor the BGLs of a healthy individual during “oral challenges.” In each of the 30 tests conducted over four months, the subject would fast for two hours before consuming high-glucose foods. Their BGLs were measured using the smartwatch and a commercial continuous glucose monitoring sensor, which was used to capture the reference values.
Notably, preprocessing the data with the proposed screening method led to a notable increase in accuracy. Using the Parkes error grid technique to categorize measurement errors, a substantially higher percentage of data points ended up in Zone A when screening was applied. This refers to clinically accurate values that would lead to correct treatment decisions. “Adopting the screening process improved BGL estimation accuracy in our smartwatch-based prototype,” remarks Nakazawa, “Our technique could facilitate the integration of wearable and continuous BGL monitoring into devices such as smartwatches and smart rings, which are typically constrained in terms of size and signal quality,” he adds, highlighting the impact of the research work.
The research team also noted some of the current limitations of smartwatches that lead to inferior performance compared to smartphone camera-based techniques. Though the proposed method could certainly help enhance the former’s performance, hardware improvements in the photodetector and amplifier circuits could go a long way toward making wearable electronics a more attractive and clinically acceptable option for monitoring BGLs.
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