Posted on Diet

Broad Beans IN toast could revolutionise the British diet – would you eat this?

Beans IN toast could revolutionise British diet
Beans IN toast could revolutionise British diet


Scientists aim to revolutionise British diets by slipping more UK-grown beans into our daily bread.

Researchers and chefs at the University of Reading aim to encourage British consumers and food producers to switch to bread containing faba beans (commonly known as broad beans), making it healthier and less damaging to the environment.

The £2 million, three-year, publicly-funded ‘Raising the Pulse’ project has officially begun and is announced today (18 January 2023) in the Nutrition Bulletin journal.

Five teams of researchers within the University of Reading, along with members of the public, farmers, industry, and policymakers, are now working together to bring about one of the most significant changes to UK food in generations.

This is by increasing pulses in the UK diet, particularly faba ( fava beans)beans, due to their favourable growing conditions in the UK and the sustainable nutritional enhancement they provide.

Despite being an excellent alternative to the ubiquitous imported soya bean, used currently in bread as an improver, the great majority of faba beans grown in the UK currently go to animal feed.

Researchers are optimising the sustainability and nutritional quality of beans grown here, to encourage farmers to switch some wheat-producing land to faba bean for human consumption.

Faba beans are exceptionally high in easily digested protein, fibre, and iron, nutrients that can be low in UK diets. But most people are not used to cooking and eating faba beans, which poses a significant challenge.

Professor Julie Lovegrove is leading the ‘Raising the Pulse’ research programme. She said: “We had to think laterally: What do most people eat and how can we improve their nutrition without them having to change their diets? The obvious answer is bread!

“96% of people in the UK eat bread, and 90% of that is white bread, which in most cases contains soya. We’ve already performed some experiments and found that faba bean flour can directly replace imported soya flour and some of wheat flour, which is low in nutrients. We can not only grow the faba beans here but also produce and test the faba bean-rich bread, with improved nutritional quality.”

‘Raising the Pulse’ is a multidisciplinary research programme funded by the UKRI Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council as part of their ‘Transforming UK Food Systems’ initiative.

As well as consulting and working with members of disadvantaged communities, studies will use our novel foods at the University of Reading’s student’s halls of residence and catering outlets.

This links ‘Raising the Pulse’ with Matt Tebbit, who runs the University’s catering service and leads the University’s ‘Menus for Change’ research programme. He said: “Students will be asked to rate products made or enriched with faba bean, such as bread, flat bread, and hummus. They will be asked questions about how full they felt, for how long and their liking of the foods. It is hoped that faba bean will improve satiety, as well as providing enhanced nutritional benefits in products that are enjoyable to eat.”

Before products are tested, the beans must be grown, harvested and milled. ‘Raising the Pulse’ seeks to improve these stages as well. Researchers will be choosing or breeding healthy and high-yielding varieties, working with the soil to improve yield via nitrogen fixing bacteria, mitigating environmental impacts of farming faba beans, planning for the changing climate, and more.

Posted on A to Z of Medical Conditions, autoimmune conditions

Meet VEXAS syndrome! The study offers the first glimpse of how previously unknown illness

Study offers first glimpse of how many suffer from previously unknown illness
Study offers first glimpse of how many suffer from previously unknown illness

According to a new study, about 13,200 men and another 2,300 women in the United States over age 50 are estimated to have VEXAS syndrome. Long considered a mystery illness until its genetic basis was identified in 2020, the latest findings, led by NYU Grossman School of Medicine researchers, offer the first indication of how common the illness is domestic.

Although a rare disorder, the syndrome carries a high mortality rate, with up to half of people, primarily men, dying within five years of diagnosis. The syndrome most often involves unexplained fevers and low blood oxygen levels in people diagnosed with other diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and blood cancer. Some symptoms have been linked to an overactive immune system, which can cause inflammation and classify the syndrome as an autoimmune condition.

Researchers hope their findings will raise awareness of the disorder among physicians, particularly because high-dose steroids, JANUS kinase inhibitors, and bone marrow transplantation have proven effective in controlling some symptoms.

“Now that we know VEXAS syndrome is more common than many other types of rheumatologic conditions, physicians need to add this condition to their list of potential diagnoses when confronted by patients with persistent and unexplained inflammation and low blood cell counts, or anaemia,” says geneticist and study lead investigator David Beck, MD, PhD. Beck, an assistant professor in the Department of Medicine and the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at NYU Langone Health, also led the federal research team initially identifying the shared UBA1 mutation among VEXAS patients.

Statistically, this corresponded to one in 4,269 American men over age 50 and one in 26,238 women over age 50 having or are likely to develop the syndrome. Researchers say this is a higher prevalence figure than many other inflammatory conditions, including vasculitis and myeloid dysplasia syndrome.

“Our study offers the first glimpse of just how common VEXAS syndrome is in the United States, particularly among men, who also happen to be the most to die from it,” says Beck, who is leading several clinical research efforts into VEXAS syndrome at NYU Langone’s Center for Human Genetics and Genomics.

Previous research, led by Beck, traced the syndrome’s origins to a mutation, or change in the letter code that makes up DNA, in the gene UBA1 (short for ubiquitin-like modifier activating enzyme 1.) The enzyme usually assists in protein breakdown.

VEXAS stands for many of its biological characteristics: vacuoles in blood cells, the E1 enzyme, X-linked, autoinflammatory, and somatic.

For the study, researchers analyzed the electronic medical records of adult patients who volunteered to participate in the Geisinger MyCode Community Health Initiative. The program has been collecting data for more than 25 years from patients in Geisinger’s 10-plus hospitals in Central and Northeastern Pennsylvania. Almost all study participants who agreed to have their blood DNA tested were white; half were over the age of 60.

Beck says the team next plans to analyze patient records in more racially diverse groups, especially among those with higher rates of rheumatologic and blood disease, to better understand who is most at risk of VEXAS syndrome. They also plan to look for additional genetic causes, test new therapies for the syndrome, and develop a simple blood test for UBA1 to make it easier to diagnose.

Posted on Diabetes, Weight Loss

40-year follow-up shows a significant reduction in death rates after bariatric surgery

Study: 40-year follow up shows significant reduction in death rates after bariatric surgery
Study: 40-year follow up shows significant reduction in death rates after bariatric surgery


A new retrospective study with up to 40 years of follow-up shows significant reductions in death rates from all causes and cause-specific conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer in patients who have undergone bariatric surgery compared to non-surgical participants with severe obesity, according to a new study in Obesity, The Obesity Society’s (TOS) flagship journal.

The study also found evidence suggesting an increased risk of death from chronic liver disease and higher death rates from suicide in younger patients who had bariatric surgery compared to non-surgical participants. The study’s authors observe that the findings of increased suicide rates among younger patients who have had bariatric surgery may promote more aggressive, pre-surgical psychological screening and post-surgery follow-up.

As a result of the decades-long durability of bariatric surgery in reducing death from all causes and decreasing deaths related to cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer compared to matched participants, researchers note the findings may not only increase interest in bariatric surgical treatment for patients with severe obesity but, in addition, further, stimulate necessary research related to the discovery of physiologic and biomolecular mechanisms leading to non-surgical treatment that results in weight loss and improved mortality similar to that achieved by bariatric surgery, said Ted D. Adams,

Experts explain that multiple association studies connecting bariatric surgery and mortality outcomes have been reported, predominantly retrospective, with wide variation in study design regarding participant number, control cohorts, mean follow-up, procedure type, age at surgery, clinical endpoints such as life expectancy and death rates for all causes and specific causes, and the presence or absence of prevalent diabetes. The new study builds upon the groups’ reported mortality outcomes following gastric bypass surgery by extending follow-up to 40 years, tripling the number of surgical patients, and using four, instead of one, bariatric surgery procedure.

Researchers used data from the Utah Population Database (UPDB) for the current study. The UPDB includes linked population-based information from Utah with statewide birth and death certificates, driver licenses and ID cards, and voter registration cards. The UPDB creates and maintains links between the database and the medical records held by Utah’s two largest healthcare providers.

Patients who had undergone bariatric surgery in Utah between 1982 and 2018 were identified from three, large bariatric surgical practices in Salt Lake City, Utah, and medical records from the University of Utah and Intermountain Healthcare Enterprise Data Warehouses in Salt Lake City. Non-surgical participants were selected from Utah driver’s license records or ID cards. Because driver’s licenses are generally renewed every five years, multiple records were available for selection to match the bariatric surgeries.

Nearly 22,000 participants with bariatric surgery and without were matched (1:1) for age, sex, body mass index and surgery date with a driver’s license/renewal date. Mortality rates were compared by Cox regression and stratified by sex, surgery type and age at surgery. Whereas mortality after gastric bypass surgery was previously reported from 1984 to 2002, this study extends mortality follow-up through 2021. The four bariatric surgery procedures included Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, adjustable gastric banding, sleeve gastrectomy and biliopancreatic diversion with a duodenal switch.

Results revealed that all-cause mortality was 16% lower in bariatric surgery patients than in non-surgical participants. Lower mortality was observed for both males and females. Mortality after surgery versus non-surgery decreased by 29%, 43% and 72% for cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes, respectively. Death rates for males and females from chronic liver disease were 83% higher in patients who had surgery than in non-surgical participants. The hazard ratio for suicide was 2.4 times higher in surgery compared with non-surgery participants, primarily in individuals with ages at the surgery between 18 and 34 years.

“This important study adds to the mounting evidence that bariatric surgery, not only improves the quality of life for patients but will also increase their life expectancy. This work will hopefully improve patients’ access to this effective treatment for obesity, which is still limited to only one per cent of qualified patients. Also, the study highlights the importance of providing more resources for pre-surgical psychological screening and post-surgery follow-up, especially for younger patients,” said Jihad Kudsi.

Posted on Autism

Seeking to characterize the autistic population more effectively by observing the strategies they use to fit into society

A multidisciplinary team from the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) suggests that delving deeper into the barely studied phenomenon of camouflaging can improve autism research

UPV/EHU’s Lindy Lab-Language in Neurodiversity


Agustín Vicente, Valentina Petrolini and Ekaine Rodríguez, researchers of the University of the Basque Country’s Lindy Lab-Language in Neurodiversity group. CREDIT Nuria González. UPV/EHU.

Recently, there has been much talk about camouflaging in autism. However, research into camouflaging is still relatively very recent, its nature has been barely studied, and there are a lot of open questions. This work, therefore, aims to present an integrative view of camouflaging. It can be characterised as the set of strategies adopted by the autistic population to fit into the social world. “We aim to understand this phenomenon better and to analyse in depth how camouflaging develops so that some suggestions can be put forward on how to step up research into it,” said Valentina Petrolini, a researcher in the UPV/EHU’s Lindy Lab group and one of the authors of the study.

People normally camouflage themselves with two aims: hide their diagnosis and fit in socially. “We would say that people camouflage themselves when they rehearse conversations they are going to have, when they imitate other people’s gestures and expressions and, in general, when they make an effort to hide their autistic traits,” explained Valentina Petrolini. “Many studies link the attempt by these individuals to pass themselves off as who they are not with high levels of anxiety and long-term mental problems,” added the UPV/EHU researcher.

How is camouflaging detected in the autistic population? Tools, such as tests and questionnaires, currently exist. Still, they overlook many people in the spectrum, such as people who unconsciously camouflage themselves, people with intellectual and/or linguistic disabilities, etc. In this work, “we are proposing that information be triangulated by using existing evidence, gathering information from the environment, observing a person’s behaviour in different contexts and talking to people in different contexts… in other words, by observing the phenomenon of camouflaging without directly asking the person involved,” said Valentina Petrolini.

Extending the study of camouflaging to currently overlooked groups also has significant implications in terms of impact. This study extends the discussion on camouflaging to currently little-studied groups on the autism spectrum, i.e. children and adults with linguistic and/or intellectual disabilities. “We argue that camouflaging in these groups may differ from what the current literature describes as typical cases of camouflaging,” said Valentina Petrolini. “One of the points that emerge from our study,” Petrolini went on, “is that camouflaging may emerge differently, and exert a different impact, depending on the people who do it”.

This purely theoretical work concludes that “the basis of much of the research conducted so far is limited to the characterisation and representativeness of the participants, suggesting that the findings cannot be applied to the autistic community as a whole” Valentina Petrolini. The work also highlights the need to explore the phenomenon of autism in greater depth and to develop measuring tools that are more accurate and inclusive than the current ones. “We could even go as far as to say that it is a call to action so that generalized conclusions are not drawn without having an accurate picture of the situation,” said the UPV/EHU’s Lindy Lab research group.

Posted on Mental health

THIS COULD EXPLAIN A LOT – When chronic stress activates these neurons, behavioural problems like loss of pleasure, and depression result

When chronic stress activates these neurons, behavioral problems like loss of pleasure, depression result


Xin-Yun Lu, MD, PhD, (center) with Graduate Student Kirstyn Denney (left) and Postdoctoral Fellow Yuting Chen, PhD, both coauthors on the new paper CREDIT Michael Holahan, Augusta University

 It’s clear that chronic stress can impact our behavior, leading to problems like depression, reduced interest in things that previously brought us pleasure, even PTSD.

Now scientists have evidence that a group of neurons in a bow-shaped portion of the brain become hyperactive after chronic exposure to stress. When these POMC neurons become super active, these sort of behavioral problems result and when scientists reduce their activity, it reduces the behaviors, they report in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

Scientists at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University looked in the hypothalamus, key to functions like releasing hormones and regulating hunger, thirst, mood, sex drive and sleep, at a population of neurons called the proopiomelanocortin, or POMC, neurons, in response to 10 days of chronic, unpredictable stress. Chronic unpredictable stress is widely used to study the impact of stress exposure in animal models, and in this case that included things like restraint, prolonged wet bedding in a tilted cage and social isolation.  

They found the stressors increased spontaneous firing of these POMC neurons in male and female mice, says corresponding author Xin-Yun Lu, MD, PhD, chair of the MCG Department of Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine and Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Translational Neuroscience.

When they directly activated the neurons, rather than letting stress increase their firing, it also resulted in the apparent inability to feel pleasure, called anhedonia, and behavioral despair, which is essentially depression. In humans, indicators of anhedonia might include no longer interacting with good friends and a loss of libido. In mice, their usual love for sugar water wains, and male mice, who normally like to sniff the urine of females when they are in heat, lose some of their interest as well.

Conversely when the MCG scientists inhibited the neurons’ firing, it reduced these types of stress-induced behavioral changes in both sexes.

The results indicate POMC neurons are “both necessary and sufficient” to increase susceptibility to stress, and their increased firing is a driver of resulting behavioral changes like depression. In fact, stress overtly decreased inhibitory inputs onto POMC neurons, Lu says.  

The POMC neurons are in the arcuate nucleus, or ARC, of the hypothalamus, a bow-shaped brain region already thought to be important to how chronic stress affects behavior.

Occupying the same region is another population of neurons, called AgRP neurons, which are important for resilience to chronic stress and depression, Lu and her team reported in Molecular Psychiatry in early 2021.  

In the face of chronic stress, Lu’s lab reported that AgRP activation goes down as behavioral changes like anhedonia occur, and that when they stimulated those neurons the behaviors diminished. Her team also wanted to know what chronic stress does to the POMC neurons.

AgRP neurons, better known for their role in us seeking food when we are hungry, are known to have a yin-yang relationship with POMC neurons: When AgRP activation goes up, for example, POMC activation goes down.

“If you stimulate AgRP neurons it can trigger immediate, robust feeding,” Lu says. Food deprivation also increases the firing of these neurons. It’s also known that when excited by hunger signals, AgRP neurons send direct messages to the POMC neurons to release the brake on feeding.

Their studies found that chronic stress disrupts the yin-yang balance between these two neuronal populations. Although AgRP’s projection to POMC neurons is clearly important for their firing activity, the intrinsic mechanism is probably the major mechanism underlying hyperactivity of POMC neurons by chronic stress, Lu says.

The intrinsic mechanism may include potassium channels in POMC neurons that are known to respond to a range of different signals, and when open, lead to potassium flowing out of the cell, which dampens neuronal excitation. While the potential role of these potassium channels in POMC neurons in response to stress needs study, the scientists suspect stress also affects the potassium channels and that opening those channels might be a possible targeted treatment to restrain the wildly firing POMC neurons.

Excessive activity of neurons is also known to produce seizures and there are anticonvulsants given to open potassium channels and decrease that excessive firing. There is even some early clinical evidence that these drugs might also be helpful in treating depression and anhedonia, and what the Lu lab is finding may help explain why.

Lu hasn’t looked yet, but she wants to further explore the role of these channels to better understand how stress affects them in POMC neurons and how best to target the channels if their findings continue to indicate they play a key role in exciting POMC neurons.  

Chronic stress affects all body systems, according to the American Psychological Association. Even muscles tense to keep our guard up against injury and pain. Stress can cause shortness of breath, particularly in those with preexisting respiratory problems like asthma. Longer term, it can increase the risk for hypertension, heart attack and stroke, even alter the good bacteria in our gut that helps us digest food.