Hunt et al., from the University of Pennsylvania, have recently published their findings on the effects of social media use on well-being. After baseline monitoring, 143 undergraduates were randomly split into 2 groups. The first group (control group) continued to use Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat as usual whereas the second group was restricted to 10…
Echouffo-Tcheugui et al., from Harvard Medical School, recently published a paper studying the effects of stress on brain function and structure in over 2000 middle-aged participants from the Framingham Heart Study. They measured early morning serum cortisol as an indicator of stress levels. They found that “higher cortisol was associated with worse memory and visual perception, as well as…
The use of cannabis to relieve pain is controversial, not just for legal reasons but also because of the conflicting research findings with regards to its efficacy. A recent study by Martin De Vita et al., from Syracuse University in New York, looked into the effects of cannabis on pain. They selected, reviewed and analysed…
Yesterday professor Banach, from the Medical University of Lodz in Poland, released the findings of his research at the European Society of Cardiology. The prospective study looked at the relationship between low carbohydrate diets, all-cause mortality and deaths specifically from coronary heart disease, stroke and cancer. The study group consisted of almost 25,000 adults from…
Last month “Nutrition 2018” was held in Boston. It was the inaugural flagship meeting of the American Society for Nutrition. Evidence from several studies was presented showing that a primarily plant-based diet is linked to numerous health benefits. Obviously, the quality of the food was important as well. Here is a summary of 5 papers…
Zhangling Chen et al., from Erasmus Medical Centre in the Netherlands, presented new research on diet at this year’s European Congress on Obesity. Their findings were based on a long-term study observing around 10,000 middle-aged and elderly adults from the Rotterdam Study. The results showed that people eating a higher proportion of plant-based foods have…
It’s well-known that obesity can cause or exacerbate osteoarthritis (OA) through excessive mechanical loading. But another mechanism through which obesity can affect joint health is via inflammation and we now know that our gut microbes play a crucial role. Recent research by Schott et al. has looked into the link between obesity, gut microbes and…
Hoffman et al., from Marquette University in Wisconsin, have recently studied the effects of artificial sweeteners on rat physiology. They found that the consumption of aspartame (E951) or acesulfame potassium (E950) can lead to vascular impairment and changes in fat metabolism “that may be important during the onset and progression of diabetes and obesity”.
Research by Sen et al. presented at the 100th annual meeting of the Endocrine Society has shown that the low-calorie sweetener sucralose (E955) can have adverse health effects. Sucralose was found to promote more fat deposits within cells. It may cause this by increasing the transport of glucose into cells and overexpressing fat-producing genes. Another…
A few months ago Terenteva et al. published their research findings on the effect of acupuncture in a group of middle-aged individuals with hypertension. Forty five adults with hypertension were randomly assigned to either an acupuncture group or a control group. The acupuncture group received 3 sessions of acupuncture per week for 8 weeks. The…