Therapist Unlimited Blog

Those persons who wish to avoid depression when they reach middle age better start eating healthy diet now.
A recent study from the United Kingdom has shown that eating healthy foods such as  high proportion of fruits, vegetables and fish, protects middle aged people against depression compared to a processed food diet containing a high proportion of high fat dairy
food, processed meat, fried food, refined grains and sugar-laden desserts.
The research was made possible through the effort of researchers from the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London (UCL), UK and the Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), and University of Montpellier, France.
Based on their study, the researchers revealed that much research on diet and depression tends to focus on individual nutrients so they thought they would look at links between overall dietary patterns and depression.
To get the data, the researchers looked at 3,486 participants of average age 57 years (nearly three quarters were men) who were part of the Whitehall II study.
The Whitehall II study was created by co-author and UCL Professor Sir Michael Marmot to investigate links between disease and social class, psychosocial factors and life style. It began by looking at the health of working people, and is now also looking to answer questions about how previous and current circumstances affect health and quality of life in an ageing group of participants.
The data allowed the researchers to identify two dietary patters: a whole food diet and a processed food diet. The whole food diet comprised mainly fresh fruits and vegetables and fish, while the processed diet comprised mainly sweetened desserts, fried foods, high fat
dairy foods, processed meat and refined grains.
To assess depression, the researchers used self-reported data that had been gathered five years after the dietary data using the CES-D scale. CES-D, short for Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale, is a commonly used self-report questionnaire for assessing depression.
It asks a series of multiple choice questions about how the participant has been feeling over the past week, covering topics such as concentration, loss of appetite, worry, how well they have been able to shake off depressive moods, quality of sleep, feelings of
loneliness, self-worth, energy levels, and so on.

 

 

 

To avoid depression in middle age it is time to engage in a healthy diet now.

 

 

 

When they analysed the results and ruled out potential confounders such as age, gender, education, smoking, exercise, and chronic diseases, the researchers found that:
* Participants in the top 33 per cent (top tertile) of the whole food diet pattern, ie whose diet most closely matched the whole food diet, had a 26 per cent lower risk of receiving a CES-D depression assessment five years later (odds ratio 0.74, with 95 per cent probability of this being in the range 0.56 to 0.99) compared to the bottom 33 per cent (bottom tertile), ie whose diet least closely matched the whole food diet.
* In contrast, participants whose diet was high in processed foods had a 58 per cent higher risk of receiving a CES-D depression rating five years later.
The researchers concluded that:
"In middle-aged participants, a processed food dietary pattern is a risk factor for CES-D depression 5 years later, whereas a whole food pattern is protective."
According to BBC News, co-author Dr Archana Singh-Manoux, who works at UCL and INSERM, suggested there was a possibility that the finding could be explained by a lifestyle factor they had not accounted for.
In other words the study does not prove that a processed food diet causes depression: it could be that people destined to become depressed become inclined to eat more processed foods, that there is a yet undiscovered factor behind both.
However, when results as strong as these emerge, and a consistent pattern linking diet and depression is found by several studies, it would tend to suggest that a healthy diet does protect against mental ill health.
The Chief Executive of the UK-based Mental Health Foundation, Dr Andrew McCulloch told the BBC that:
"This study adds to an existing body of solid research that shows the strong links between what we eat and our mental health."
He said major studies like this were crucial in helping us understand more about how diet contributes to mental illness. He said people in the UK were increasingly adopting unhealthy diets, and eating less nutritious and fresh food and more saturated fats and sugars.

 

According to a recent study, individuals living in neighborhoods conducive to physical activity and providing access to healthy foods may have a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes in a five-year period.
"The worldwide epidemic of type 2 diabetes mellitus is largely driven by the combined rise in obesity, intake of energy-dense or nutrient-poor foods and physical inactivity," the authors write as background information in the article. Interventions to reduce risk on the individual level including surgery, medication and behavior change - have had mixed results. Large-scale behavior change may be necessary to reverse the diabetes epidemic, but such a change is difficult to achieve and may be unsustainable if the surrounding environment is not supportive.
Amy H. Auchincloss, Ph.D., M.P.H., of Drexel University School of Public Health, Philadelphia, and colleagues studied 2,285 adults age 45 to 84 who were initially examined between 2000 and 2002. Study participants were from three of the sites in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) for which neighborhood level data were obtained: Baltimore; Forsyth County, N.C.; and New York City/Bronx. Blood glucose levels were obtained from study participants at baseline and at three follow-up examinations, during which other individual characteristics also were assessed (including diet, body mass index [BMI] and physical activity levels).

 

 

 

Residents of a peaceful nighborhood has lesser chances of getting inflicted with diabetes.
 

 

Measures of neighborhood resources were obtained from a separate assessment, the Community Survey, in which other residents of the same neighborhoods (defined as the area within a 20-minute walk or a mile from their homes) rated the suitability of their environment for physical activity and access to healthy foods. For instance, they were asked if it was pleasant or easy to walk in their neighborhood, and whether a large, high-quality selection of fruits, vegetables and other low-fat foods was available. Scores for physical activity and healthy foods were calculated for each neighborhood on scales of one to five (with five representing the healthiest areas).
Over a median (midpoint) of five years of follow-up, 233 of the 2,285 participants (10.2 percent) developed diabetes. Average neighborhood scores were 3.68 for physical activity and 3.36 for healthy foods.
"Better neighborhood resources, determined by a combined score for physical activity and healthy foods, were associated with a 38 percent lower incidence of type 2 diabetes," the authors revealed. This was similar to the reduction in risk observed among individuals whose BMI was five points lower. "The association remained statistically significant after further adjustment for individual dietary factors, physical activity level and body mass index."
The increasing prevalence of type 2 diabetes in the past 30 years makes it urgent to identify environmental features that may mitigate risk, the authors conclude. "Current efforts to foster health-promoting environments include designing and modifying physical environments, such as zoning residential neighborhoods to require safe sidewalks, creating parks and attractive public green spaces and improving public transportation so that residents rely less on their cars; supporting fresh-food farmers’ markets in low-income, urban neighborhoods; and assisting stores in those neighborhoods in improving their selection of healthy foods," they write.
"There is unlikely to be a panacea for the obesity epidemic and rising epidemic of type 2 diabetes. However, altering our environments so that healthier behaviors and lifestyles can be easily chosen may be one of the key steps in arresting and reversing these epidemics."

 

Mothers who are using microbicide-soaked vaginal and infant wipes to protect their babies from neonatal sepsis are in for a nightmare.
A recent medical study has shown that  microbicide-soaked vaginal and infant wipes to protect their babies from neonatal sepsis or transmission of disease-causing bacteria.
With this finding, medical experts suggested that other interventions are needed to target child mortality.
It is said that 900 000 sepsis-associated neonatal deaths per year arise in developing countries, mainly in the first week of life.
Early-onset sepsis poses unique opportunities for prevention because of intrapartum, vertical transmission of bacteria to newborn babies. For example, widespread use of targeted prophylaxis with intrapartum antibiotics in the USA coincided with a 70% reduction in early-onset group B streptococcal disease. Logistical and resource limitations, however, prevent use of intrapartum antibiotics in developing countries.In this randomised controlled trial, the authors (led by Dr Clare L Cutland, Vaccine Preventable Diseases and Respiratory and Meningeal Pathogens Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa) assessed the efficacy of intrapartum and neonatal chlorhexidine coated-wipes in reducing early-onset neonatal sepsis and vertical transmission of group B streptococcus.

 

 

 

Mothers seeking to protect their babies from neonatal sepsis could not find relief from microbicide-soaked vaginal and infant wipes.

 

 

The trial took place in Soweto, South Africa, and 8,011 women (aged 12-51 years) were randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to chlorhexidine vaginal wipes or external genitalia water wipes during active labour, and their 8,129 newborn babies were assigned to chlorhexidine full-body (intervention group) or foot (control group) washes with chlorhexidine at birth, respectively. In a subset of mothers (n=5144 lower vaginal swabs and neonatal skin swabs were gathered after delivery to assess colonisation with potentially pathogenic bacteria. Primary outcomes were neonatal sepsis in the first 3 days of life and vertical transmission of group B streptococcus.
The researchers found that rates of neonatal sepsis did not differ between the groups (chlorhexidine 3% vs 4%). Rates of colonisation with group B streptococcus in newborn babies born to mothers in the chlorhexidine (54%) and control groups (55%) did not differ.
The authors say: "Use of maternal and neonatal chlorhexidine wipes did not prevent the occurrence of early-onset sepsis. This absence of benefit was corroborated by the lack of effect on vertical transmission of the main sepsis-causing pathogens, and on serious maternal post-partum sepsis."
They conclude: "Although several trials have raised hopes that chlorhexidine vaginal and neonatal cleansing would be beneficial in saving the lives of newborn babies, the results from our trial suggest that use of chlorhexidine wipes is unlikely to reduce neonatal mortality from vertically acquired sepsis. Other neonatal interventions are needed to achieve the Millennium Developmental Goal of reduction in childhood mortality."

 

Those people who have large thighs around the world better start rejoicing now.
A recent research has shown that individuals whose thighs are wider than 60cm have a lesser risk of premature death and heart disease.
Lead author, Professor Berit Heitmann, based at Copenhagen University Hospital, says the research may help GPs identify patients who are at an increased risk of early death and developing heart disease.
Heitmann revealed while several studies have already demonstrated that being either very overweight or underweight are related to premature death and disease, this is the first to investigate the implications of thigh size on health.
Almost 3000 individuals took part in the study in Denmark this included 1463 men and 1380 women.
Participants were examined in 1987/88 for height, weight, thigh, hip and waist circumference and body composition.
They were then followed up for 10 years for incidence of heart disease and 12.5 years for total number of deaths.
 

 

 

 

Those who have large thighs have lesser chance of suffering from heart disease and experiencing early death.
 

 

 

During the follow-up period 257 men and 155 women died, also 263 men and 140 women experienced cardiovascular disease and 103 men and 34 women suffered from heart disease.
When assessing the results, the authors found that the survivors had higher fat-free thigh circumference levels.
The relationship between thigh size and early death and disease was found after taking body fat and other high risk factors (such as smoking and high cholesterol) into account.
The researchers therefore suggest that the risk from narrow thighs could be associated with too little muscle mass in the region.
This is problematic because it may lead to low insulin sensitivity and type 2 diabetes and, in the long run, heart disease, they explain.
Moreover, the researchers conclude that the study "found that the risk of having small thighs was associated with development of cardiovascular morbidity and early mortality.
This increased risk was found independent of abdominal and general obesity, lifestyle and cardiovascular risk factors such as blood pressure and lipids related to early cardio vascular morbidity and
mortality".
The researchers believe that doctors could use thigh size as an early marker for at risk patients and suggest that individuals increase lower body exercise in order to increase the size of the their thighs if necessary.
Further research would be needed, however, to assess whether this approach was worthwhile.

Those men seeking protection against genital herpes should use condom.
A recent medical study has confirmed that using condoms reduce the risk of acquiring herpes simplex virus 2 (HSV-2), although the effect was not as large as that observed with other sexually transmitted diseases.
Genital herpes is a sexually transmitted infection (STI) caused by the herpes simplex viruses type 1 (HSV-1) and type 2 (HSV-2), although HSV-2 accounts for most cases. The virus can stay in the body indefinitely, but the number of outbreaks tends to lessen over the years.
Most people who have genital herpes have no or slight symptoms, but when they do occur they appear as one or more blisters near or on the genitals or rectum. The blisters rupture and cause ulcers that can take up to a month to heal the first time, and not so long the second time which usually happens weeks or months after the first outbreak.
The study was conducted by researchers from the University of Washington and the Seattle Children’s Hospital, lead by Emily Martin.

 

 

The latest medical study has shown that condom offers great protection against genital herpes.

 

Based on their study, the researchers found out that people who used condoms 100 per cent of the time had a 30 per cent lower risk of acquiring HSV-2 than those who never
used them.
The researchers also discovered that the risk of acquiring HSV-2 went up steadily and significantly with each unprotected sex act.
Moreover, the researcher also found out that these ratios were the same for men and women.
With the result of their study, the researchers concluded that although the magnitude of protection was not as large as has been observed with other STIs, we found that condoms offer moderate protection against HSV-2 acquisition in men and women.

 

 

To protect your lungs against any form of diseases better start eating soy products now.
A recent medical research has shown that those people who eat lots of soy products have better lung function and are less likely to develop the smoking-associated lung disease COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease).
The study noted that eating a wide variety of soy products could be associated with a reduction in the risk of COPD and other respiratory symptoms.
To get the data, Dr. Fumi Hirayama and Professor Andy Lee from Curtin University of Technology, Australia, worked with a team of respiratory physicians to poll 300 patients with COPD from six Japanese hospitals and 340 age-matched control subjects from the same areas as the patients talk about their soy intake.
Hirayama revealed soy consumption was found to be positively correlated with lung function and inversely associated with the risk of COPD.

 

To those people who want to get protection against lung diseases better start eating soy products now.

 

He explained flavonoids from soy foods act as an anti-inflammatory agent in the lung, and can protect against tobacco carcinogens for smokers.
Despite the relevant information they gathered on their research, he believe further research is needed to understand the underlying biological mechanism.
Based on medical facts, soy is a constituent of many Japanese foods, including tofu (soybean curd), natto (fermented soybeans), miso soup (fermented soybean paste), bean sprouts and soymilk.
It is said that soy foods also reduces cholesterol and can alleviate menopause symptoms.
The common symptoms of COPD are the progressive decline in lung function, and encompass chronic bronchitis and emphysema.
Long-term cigarette smoking causes almost 90% of COPD.
Moreover, the researchers said their study only shows an association between soy intake and a reduced risk of developing the condition; the best preventive measure is still to abstain from tobacco entirely.

 

Based on the latest medical study carbon monoxide (CO) offers protect against arterial clotting.
Researchers led by Drs. James F. George and Anupam Agarwal at the University of Alabama at Birmingham revealed carbon monoxide poisoning is extremely toxic; exposure prevents oxygen delivery to body tissues and is often fatal.

 

Carbon Monoxide

 

However,  the researchers explained inflamed or injured tissues upregulate heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1), a protein that both protects cells and produces CO, suggesting that low levels of CO may have protective effects.
To determine if HO-1 and CO can protect against arterial clotting, the researchers examined clotting mechanisms in mice that received arterial transplants.
Absence of HO-1 in these mice resulted in significant mortality due to arterial clotting; however, treatment with a CO-releasing molecule both decreased clotting and improved survival
With their findings, the researchers concluded that HO-1/CO plays an "important role in protection against vascular arterial thrombosis in murine aortic allotransplantation."