Mice fed a plant-rich diet are less susceptible to gastrointestinal (GI) infection from a pathogen such as the one currently under investigation for a widespread E. coli outbreak tied to romaine lettuce, UT Southwestern researchers report. A strain of E. coli known as EHEC, which causes debilitating and potentially deadly inflammation in the colon with symptoms such as bloody diarrhea and vomiting, is implicated in several foodborne outbreaks worldwide each year.
“There has been a lot of hearsay about whether a plant-based diet is better for intestinal health than a typical Western diet, which is higher in oils and protein but relatively low in fruits and vegetables,” says Vanessa Sperandio, Ph.D., professor of microbiology and biochemistry at UT Southwestern. “So we decided to test it.”
Her study on a mouse model of EHEC is published this week in Nature Microbiology.
Research led by the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) has uncovered a new process that may help explain how Type 2 diabetes develops. In tests on live mice and human cells in the lab, the team found a new mechanism besides insulin resistance and high glucose levels that triggers pancreatic cells to begin overproducing insulin.
Type 2 diabetes is the form of the disease that’s usually a result of lifestyle choices, such as poor diet and not enough exercise. It involves a kind of vicious cycle of insulin – beta cells in the pancreas produce too much insulin, which causes the body to become resistant to it. That in turn means the beta cells could produce even more to compensate.
It was long thought that high glucose levels – most commonly caused by eating too much sugary and fatty foods – was the trigger for the beta cells to begin overproducing insulin. But it’s also been shown in the past that even beta cells isolated in a lab dish can over-secrete insulin, without glucose playing a part.
Intermittent fasting means interspersing periods of abstaining from food with periods of eating regularly. You could skip breakfast and eat a late lunch, for example, or fast all day long, once or twice a week.
The research suggests that intermittent fasting is a simple, effective life hack for solving many age-related problems, but the evidence is far from conclusive.
“There really is no one weird trick for the perfect diet for everyone,” John Newman, geriatrician at the University of California, San Francisco told Inverse. Science is leading us toward the idea of maintaining some flexibility in our body’s metabolism, he said.
TV shows and fiction aside, the present-day examples of basic AI are Google Voice, Cortana, Alexa, Siri, and chatbots. However, AI isn’t just limited to voice assistants, it’s turning tables in other domains and industries as well. Several restaurants, for instance, have bots for room service, serving food and carrying luggage.
Let’s take a look at some interesting and mind-bending stats and facts on this prevalent technology to give you a better idea of the direction the market is headed.
Interesting stats and facts on artificial intelligence.
A team of mathematicians from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Brown University has discovered a new phenomenon that generates a fluidic force capable of moving and binding particles immersed in density-layered fluids. The breakthrough offers an alternative to previously held assumptions about how particles accumulate in lakes and oceans and could lead to applications in locating biological hotspots, cleaning up the environment and even in sorting and packing.
How matter settles and aggregates under gravitation in fluid systems, such as lakes and oceans, is a broad and important area of scientific study, one that greatly impacts humanity and the planet. Consider “marine snow,” the shower of organic matter constantly falling from upper waters to the deep ocean. Not only is nutrient-rich marine snow essential to the global food chain, but its accumulations in the briny deep represent the Earth’s largest carbon sink and one of the least-understood components of the planet’s carbon cycle. There is also the growing concern over microplastics swirling in ocean gyres.
Ocean particle accumulation has long been understood as the result of chance collisions and adhesion. But an entirely different and unexpected phenomenon is at work in the water column, according to a paper published Dec. 20 in Nature Communications by a team led by professors Richard McLaughlin and Roberto Camassa of the Carolina Center for Interdisciplinary Applied Mathematics in the College of Arts & Sciences, along with their UNC-Chapel Hill graduate student Robert Hunt and Dan Harris of the School of Engineering at Brown University.
Probiotic supplements and probiotic-rich foods have become popular natural treatments for a number of health conditions. This article reviews how probiotics may help treat diarrhea.
Blueberries are more than just delicious, these little functional foods have been subject to many studies, and now they have been found to have another beneficial ability attributed to their antioxidant rich portfolio, that is the ability to help reduce the risk of heart disease according to a study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
This study found that daily consumption one one cup of blueberries over the course of six months resulted in improved arterial function and cholesterol levels in adults with metabolic syndrome. 138 overweight and obese adults aged 50+ with metabolic syndrome were involved in the double blinded and placebo controlled parallel study.
Metabolic syndrome is a term for a cluster of conditions that includes high blood sugar, high triglycerides, and high blood pressure as well as increasing the risk of developing heart disease and Type 2 diabetes.
Scientists like Prof Sinclair have evidence of speeding up, slowing, and even reversing aging. Thanks to LastPass for sponsoring this video. Click here to start using LastPass: https://ve42.co/VeLP
What causes aging? According to Professor David Sinclair, it is a loss of information in our epigenome, the system of proteins like histones and chemical markers like methylation that turn on and off genes. Epigenetics allow different cell types to perform their specific functions — they are what differentiate a brain cell from a skin cell. Our DNA is constantly getting broken, by cosmic rays, UV radiation, free radicals, x-rays and regular cell division etc. When our cells repair that damage, the epigenome is not perfectly reset. And hence over time, noise accumulates in our epigenome. Our cells no longer perform their functions well.
To counter this decline, we can activate the body’s own defenses against aging by stressing the body. Eat less, eat less protein, engage in intense exercise, experience uncomfortable cold. When the body senses existential threats it triggers longevity genes, which attempt to maintain the body to ensure its survival until good times return. This may be the evolutionary legacy of early bacteria, which established these two modes of living (repair and protect vs grow and reproduce). Scientists are uncovering ways to mimic stresses on the body without the discomfort of fasting. Molecules like NMN also trigger sirtuins to monitor and repair the epigenome. This may slow aging.
Reversing aging requires an epigenetic reset, which may be possible using Yamanaka factors. These four factors can revert an adult cell into a pluripotent stem cell. Prof. Sinclair used three of the four factors to reverse aging in the retinal cells of old mice. He found they could see again after the treatment.
Special thanks to: Professor David Sinclair, check out his book “Lifespan: Why We Age & Why We Don’t Have To“ Assistant Professor David Gold Noemie Sierra (for polyp images) Genepool Productions for telomere animations from Immortal: https://ve42.co/immortal Epigenetics animations (DNA, histones, methylation etc) courtesy of: http://wehi.tv Animation: Etsuko Uno Art and Technical Direction: Drew Berry Sound Design: Francois Tetaz & Emma Bortignon Scientific Consultation: Marnie Blewitt Courtesy of Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research.
Filming, editing and animation by Jonny Hyman and Derek Muller.
