Alberta [Canada], October 14 (ANI): A recent study has revealed the role of dietary fiber and gut microbes in people with inflammatory bowel disease, a finding which could lead to personalized dietary guidelines.
The research team discovered that certain types of dietary fibre cause an inflammatory response in some patients, causing symptoms to worsen. They are now working to develop a stool test to examine the microbes found in each patient's gut in order to predict who will have a negative response, so they can tailor dietary recommendations and treatment for individual patients.
Approximately 0.7 per cent of Canada's population, or one in 150 people, has IBD, including Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, and that is predicted to grow to one per cent by 2030.
IBD symptoms may include abdominal pain, diarrhea, bloody stools, weight loss, late puberty, and a long-term risk of colorectal cancer. The exact cause is unknown, but some risk factors include genetics, diet, environmental factors and changes in the gut microbes.
"We know there are health benefits to consuming dietary fibres and they promote good gut health in healthy individuals, but IBD patients quite frequently complain about a sensitivity when they consume dietary fibres," says Heather Armstrong, who started the research as a postdoctoral researcher at the U of A and is now an assistant professor of internal medicine at the University of Manitoba and Canada Research Chair in Integrative Bioscience. "We really wanted to understand the mechanisms behind this."
"By creating this stool test, we are hoping to be able to tell you how to adjust your diet to prevent flares or further worsening," says Eytan Wine, a professor in the U of A's Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry. "It's a dynamic situation so it's possible that a certain food you should avoid now, in a few months you'll be okay to eat that again."
The researchers have identified that specific types of fibres found in foods such as artichoke, chicory roots, garlic, asparagus, and bananas, are especially hard to ferment if certain microbes are missing or malfunctioning, as is often the case for IBD patients.
Fibre has a beneficial anti-inflammatory effect in most healthy people and aids with digestion, but researchers have found that select unfermented fibres actually increase inflammation and worsen symptoms in some IBD patients.
"We want to start uncovering why it is that 20 to 40 per cent of patients experience sensitivity," says Armstrong, "while in the other portion of patients these dietary fibres can actually benefit health and protect against the disease and have very positive effects." (ANI)

Washington [US], October 12 (ANI): New research shows that older adults may be better supported as they age when their personalities are considered, for example, are they more like orchids or dandelions? Researchers examined the potential effects of lifestyle activities on the cognitive health of more than 3,500 adults aged 60+. They found that personality using psychology's orchid-dandelion metaphor can be a factor in how well supportive programs work.
Researchers from Simon Fraser University's Circle Innovation examined the potential effects of lifestyle activities on the cognitive health of more than 3,500 adults aged 60+. They found that personality-using psychology's orchid-dandelion metaphor can be a factor in how well supportive programs work. Their results, published this month in the journal Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, make a case for policy-makers to consider designing programs tailored to personality types rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.
"These discoveries offer new possibilities to support aging adults and provide substantial evidence for new social prescribing programs," says Circle Innovation CEO and scientific director Sylvain Moreno. "Understanding how personality differences affect an aging population can help decision-makers provide older adults with solutions that fit their individual needs."
People who may be considered 'orchid adults' thrive best under ideal circumstances, since they are more sensitive and biologically reactive, while 'dandelion adults' are thought to be resilient and can easily adapt to any environment.
That means orchid individuals could require more nurturing solutions, researchers say. "These older adults are more fragile, like the delicate flower they represent, and hence prone to overreact to ongoing health and housing problems, disturbing news about the economy or global pandemics," says SFU PhD student and study researcher Emma Rodrigues. "On the other hand, dandelion retirees are relatively less environment-sensitive and also more resilient to deterioration in poor environmental conditions."
"The lesson here is that weshould stop pigeonholing aging adults into one group of our population. These results demonstrate how aging trajectories can differ depending on whether the environment influences a person."
According to researchers, understanding how modifiable lifestyle factors may maintain or promote cognitive health can lead to a healthier aging population. (ANI)

 New York [US], October 13 (ANI): According to a study conducted by the City University of New York and the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, menthol consumption has increased over the past ten years among adult smokers in the United States.
Adult smokers who are younger, from racial/ethnic minority groups, and with mental health issues are substantially more likely to use menthol. The journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research publishes the findings. About two out of every five smokers of cigarettes use menthol often. In 2020, more than 80% of Black smokers favoured menthol, which is a consistent percentage compared to earlier studies.
It was noted by Renee D. Goodwin, PhD, of the Department of Epidemiology at Columbia Mailman School, that "approximately 50% of smokers who were Hispanic, female, ages 18-25 and 26-34, lesbian/gay, and adults with mental health problems, used menthol in 2020.
This is higher than previously reported and suggests use has expanded across all segments of the population of adults who smoke cigarettes."
Although the Center for Tobacco Products declared its desire to create a product standard that would limit menthol as a defining flavour in cigarettes, action by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has been missing. Canada and the United Kingdom have outlawed menthol as a cigarette flavouring.
However, experts caution that menthol cigarettes will probably be on the market for a long time given the regulatory procedure needed to publish a product standard and the possibility of tobacco industry litigation.
According to Goodwin's findings, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's proposed ban on menthol as a distinguishing flavour in cigarettes "may have a significant impact on public health, particularly among youth and vulnerable populations."
The researchers examined nationally representative annual data from 128,327 Americans 18 and older from the 2008-2019 and 2020 waves of the National Survey on Drug Use and Health in order to estimate trends in menthol use among adults who smoke cigarettes by sociodemographic, mental health, and substance use variables (NSDUH). The DSM-IV criteria for a major depressive episode were used to measure depression.
From 34% in 2008 to 41% in 2019, menthol cigarette consumption among those who smoke increased significantly overall. In 2020, menthol was used by 43% of adults who had smoked cigarettes within the previous month.
Menthol use was most prevalent among adults of colour (80 per cent). Menthol was utilised by more than 50% of Hispanic women who were also young (ages 18 to 34), lesbian/gay, in acute psychological distress, and cigar smokers. Menthol consumption increased more quickly among adults, Hispanics, light cigarette smokers (1-5 cigarettes per day), and cigar smokers.
One interesting finding was the rise in menthol use among Hispanic people over the study period (from 34% in 2008 to 48% in 2019 and 51% in 2020), with a faster rise among Hispanic smokers than among Non-Hispanic White smokers.
Goodwin notes that there hasn't been much research done in this area until now and suggests many reasons why menthol cigarettes are becoming more and more common among Hispanic smokers. "For one, there is evidence that menthol cigarettes are being marketed to Hispanic adults more frequently."
According to Goodwin, "Our study reveals ongoing and unabated disparities in menthol usage, particularly among members of tobacco use disparity groups." The increase in menthol use among smokers over the previous ten years was broadly noticeable across categories, according to data from 2020. (ANI)

 12 October World Arthritis Day: हर साल 12 अक्टूबर का दिन ‘वर्ल्ड अर्थराइटिस डे’ के रूप में मनाया जाता है. डॉक्टर और अन्य प्रोफेशनल इस दिन बहुत से कैंपेन और अलग-अलग एक्टिविटी के माध्यम से जागरूकता फैलाने का काम करते हैं. इस दिन अर्थराइटिस के मरीजों को भी इस बीमारी से ठीक होने के लिए प्रॉपर उपचार आदि के बारे में सलाह दी जाती है. गठिया के सभी प्रकारों जैसे गाउट ल्युपस, ऑस्टियोअर्थराइटिस, रूमेटॉयड अर्थराइटिस आदि के बारे में पर्याप्त जानकारी दी जाती है. समय से उपचार करवाने के साथ ही मरीज इस बीमारी के साथ भी आरामदायक जीवन जी सकते हैं. यह दिन अर्थराइटिस फाउंडेशन के द्वारा सामने लाया गया था. अर्थराइटिस ग्रीक शब्द ‘अर्थो’ से निकला है, जिसका मतलब है जोड़ और आइटिस का मतलब होता है इंफ्लेमेशन. अर्थराइटिस का मतलब होता है जोड़ों में सूजन होना. किसी भी हड्डियों वाले प्राणी में यह स्थिति देखने को मिल सकती है.

अर्थराइटिस से संबंधित ज़रूरी बातें
-इस बीमारी का कोई उपचार नहीं है, लेकिन एक्सरसाइज और लाइफस्टाइल में किए गए बदलावों के द्वारा इसे मैनेज करके आराम की जिंदगी जी जा सकती है. इसमें फिजिकल थेरेपी भी काम आ सकती है.
-ऐसे लोगों के लिए चल पाना या फिर मूवमेंट करना मुश्किल हो जाता है, इसलिए एक्सरसाइज आदि करना काफी मुश्किल हो जाता है.

-इससे इंफ्लेमेशन कम होने में मदद मिलती है और लंबे समय तक राहत मिल सकती है.
-अधिकतर यह दर्द बुजुर्गों में होता है, लेकिन अब यह दर्द हर उम्र वर्ग के लोगों में भी देखने को मिल रहा है.
-इससे पीड़ित 30% लोग 65 वर्ष से कम आयु के ही हैं. इनमें से कुछ लोग टीनएजर्स हैं और कुछ तो छोटे बच्चे भी हैं.
-समय-समय पर डॉक्टर के पास विजिट करते रहना चाहिए और इसके लक्षणों को कंट्रोल करने के बारे में पूछते रहना चाहिए.

 Darlinghurst [Australia], October 11 (ANI): Having specific combinations of underlying health issues is a significant risk for poorer health outcomes in older adults who have had a fracture earlier, a recent study from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research has revealed.
The findings of the study were published in the journal JAMA Network Open. The study was conducted on more than 300,000 Danish people aged 50 or older who had sustained a fracture. In patients with fractures closer to the centre of the body (for example, in the hip, spine, upper arm or leg), the researchers found a higher mortality rate than expected for the general population of the same age. If those people with fractures also had multiple or complex health conditions, the mortality risk was higher again.
The researchers found that certain clusters of conditions were associated with increased mortality rates, suggesting this information could be used by clinicians to highlight patients who may require more intensive medical care.
"This is an important study that could really change the way in which we provide medical treatment to older adults," said Professor Jacqueline Center, Head of the Clinical Studies and Epidemiology lab and lead author of the study. "It can potentially be a new way of thinking about how we view people with fractures, considering the site of fracture in light of their specific underlying health conditions."
Typically, the management of health conditions like osteoporosis, heart disease or diabetes is considered in terms of the individual disease. However, these new findings suggest that looking at clusters of underlying conditions could indicate someone is at high risk of poorer outcomes, over and above the risk from the condition being treated.
The researchers found chronic health conditions at the time of fracture were naturally clustered into five specific groups for men and four for women: a relatively healthier group with generally only one or no health conditions, a cardiovascular group, a diabetic group, and a cancer group with an additional liver/inflammatory group for men.
Visiting scientist Robert Blank added, "It is not good enough to count other illnesses. Their severity and their combinations must also be taken into account. Many patients with a history of prior cancers, for example, were not in what we call the cancer cluster, but the cancer cluster included virtually all those who had evidence of advanced cancer. The same kind of sorting by severity was observed in the other clusters as well."
Interestingly, a fracture located closer to the centre of the body, like hip, vertebrae or upper arm bones had a higher risk of mortality. By contrast, those in the healthy group who had fractures further away in the body, such as hands and forearms, had virtually no increase in mortality rate.
The presence of specific clusters of health conditions in people compounded the chance of death following these fractures, much greater than either fractures or health conditions alone. For instance, the mortality rate following hip fracture amongst men in the cancer cluster was 41% higher than similarly aged men in the general community. And diabetes in otherwise healthy people was not associated with increased mortality risk, but diabetes in combination with heart, vascular or kidney disease was.
"This research highlights that there's an interaction between the fracture and a patient's cluster of health conditions - their underlying health - and that this could be a good way to identify at-risk people," said Dr Thach Tran from Garvan, first author of the study. "We can identify people who will likely fare poorly. Importantly, the findings from this research may be applicable to many disease settings in which sentinel events occur with pre-existing health disorders."
It is not understood why the connection exists between multiple underlying conditions, the type of fracture and poor outcomes, but Professor Center thinks it could be the interaction with bone and the immune system. "Bone is not inert. When you break a bone, you get an increased bone turnover and associated inflammatory factors and I suspect that in underlying diseases, this process is not well controlled and a fracture may fuel underlying health issues," she said.
The next steps are to determine if these clusters are evident in other diseases - if they are universal - and if they can be used as a predictive tool for clinicians. (ANI)

 Washington [US],  (ANI): According to the National Sleep Foundation and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, most adolescents get less than eight, especially on school nights, even though they need eight to 10 hours of sleep per night to maintain physical health, emotional well-being and school performance.

Newly published research from RUSH in the journal SLEEP sheds light on how adolescents can get more shut-eye.

“There are a lot of changes a teen goes through,” said Stephanie J. Crowley, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioural sciences and the director of the Pediatric Chronobiology and Sleep Research Program at RUSH. “One specifically is a change to sleep biology that happens during puberty.”

“The brain systems that control sleep change in such a way that it’s easier for an adolescent to stay awake later into the evening. One of these systems — the 24-hour circadian clock — shifts later in time,” Crowley said.

So there are two competing forces: one to go to bed earlier for the school schedule and the other a biological change that happens naturally to a teen’s body.

Because of this complex conflict, RUSH researchers set out to test a two-week intervention that targets the circadian system with different behavioural measures and tries to help the teens figure out a better nighttime routine.

To combat teen sleep deprivation, the researchers used bright light therapy on two weekend mornings for a total of 2.5 hours. The bright light cues the internal clock to wake up a little earlier. This shift should make it easier for the teen to fall asleep at an appropriate time.

Less tired, irritable

Crowley and her team then helped counteract sleep deprivation by providing time management tools and addressing barriers to an earlier bedtime, like limiting certain after-school activities.

Researchers were able to shift the teens’ bedtime by an hour and a half earlier, and their total sleep time increased by approximately an hour.

“The interesting thing is that teens with late circadian clocks shifted by up to two hours earlier,” Crowley said. “And the teens who had an earlier circadian clock didn’t need to be shifted any earlier. They just needed the behavioural support of trying to manage their time in the evening and increase their sleep duration.”

The researchers also found that the teens in the intervention group were less tired, less irritable and less worried, and they exhibited better concentration. The students’ morning alertness improved as well.

The RUSH researchers are following the participants in another study to determine whether the adolescents were able to maintain their improved sleep routine. (ANI)

Vedanta’s BALCO Medical Centre (BMC), one of India’s leading cancer hospitals, and Anuva, a genomics biotech company with a centre in India and backed by a UK-based hub, on Thursday jointly announced a strategic collaboration to build a Cancer Genomics Biobank for cancer research in India.

Anuva and BMC aim to use this cancer bio/data bank for clinical research to identify relevant insights for precision medicine application for cancer in India.

“Our collaboration with Anuva will bring together the best of knowledge, technology and research to serve the people of India better, through precision medicine and targeted treatment,” she said.

The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed by Dr Jonathan Picker, CEO of Anuva, and Dr Bhawna Sirohi, Medical Director of BMC, at the BALCO Medical Centre at Naya Raipur in Chhattisgarh.

“I am tremendously excited to embark on this endeavour with BALCO Medical Centre. Despite all the research, cancer still remains the third leading cause of death. As a genetic disease, the research needs to be personalized to the affected populations,” said Dr Picker.

“This partnership will provide us a bridge to support “bench to bedside” research, driving our efforts to accelerate progress in treating cancer and also help patients with cancer live longer with better quality of life,” added Dr Sirohi.

A cancer focused bio/data bank is aimed at helping both organisations accelerate discoveries by bringing together biological factors with the background risk elements, at a population level, to find the critical genes that drive cancer. The resulting knowledge is expected to improve understanding of how genetic variants influence cancer, thereby, increasing effectiveness of diagnosis and treatment.

Headquartered in Singapore with presence in India, Dubai, Boston and the United Kingdom, Anuva descibes itself as a translational research company with a mission to create the most diverse genomic bio/data bank of Asian populations, which is being utilised for research and development. In addition, it says its cohorts and biorepository allows for follow-on clinical and translational studies, which greatly empower drug development opportunities.

BMC marks the flagship initiative of the Vedanta Medical Research Foundation (VMRF), a non-profit organisation initiative of Vedanta Resources and Bharat Aluminium Company Ltd (BALCO), to contribute towards prevention of cancer.

 Stirling (UK),

It is well known that aerobic exercises, such as running and cycling, can help you live longer, but less has been known about the effect of lifting weights on longevity.

Now, results from a new study suggest that adding weightlifting to your exercise regime, even in later life, is a sensible thing to do if you want to avoid an early death.

The study, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, aimed to find out if lifting weights was linked to a lower risk of death from any cause, either on its own or alongside moderate to vigorous exercise.

Moderate-intensity exercise was described as “activity where you worked up a light sweat or increased your breathing and heart rate to moderately high levels”, and vigorous activity as “activity strenuous enough to work up a sweat or increase your breathing and heart rate to very high levels”.

The researchers led by a team from the National Cancer Institute in Rockville, Maryland, analysed data on just under one lakh men and women from ten cancer centres in the US. The participants had an average age of 71 and an average body-mass index of 27.8 (overweight). They followed the group for just shy of a decade, monitoring deaths from any cause, including heart disease.

Around a quarter of people (23 per cent) reported lifting weights, with 16 per cent doing so regularly – between one and six times a week. And around a third (32 per cent) either met or did more than the recommended amount of aerobic exercise.

Weightlifting and aerobic exercise were independently linked with a lower risk of premature death from any cause, except cancer.

For adults who reported no aerobic activity, any weightlifting was associated with a nine per cent to 22 per cent lower risk of early death, depending on how often they lifted weights. For those who did not lift weights but did any level of aerobic exercise, this was 24 per cent to 34 per cent.

However, the lowest risk was seen in those who did both weightlifting and aerobic exercise. For example, lifting weights once or twice a week and doing at least the recommended amount of aerobic exercise had a 41 per cent to 47 per cent lower risk of premature death.

The study also found that women benefited more from weightlifting than men.

Explanation for the findings

Possible explanations for these findings are that weightlifting may have similar beneficial effects to aerobic exercise. For example, reducing heart disease risk factors by improving blood pressure and blood lipid (cholesterol and triglycerides) profile.

Other recent research that combined studies on muscle strengthening and health outcomes found similar results, but also found a reduced risk of cancer, overall. Perhaps this new study did not find effects for cancer as they were targeting a population already at higher cancer risk, given the participants were part of a cancer screening programme. The best effects were again seen from combining aerobic and strengthening activity.

Measuring exercise by asking participants to recall how much they exercised over the past year, for example, is a good option for large observational studies of this type, but it can mean over or under-reporting may influence the findings. A study that used digital devices such as smart watches to measure actual activity would provide more accurate results.

People in this study were also recruited as part of a cancer screening trial, so the study would probably recruit people with an interest in health, which means they might be more physically active as a result. This means that in the general population, the risk of earlier death related to not exercising or lifting weights is possibly even higher.

The findings from this study, and others, show that lifting weights, either on their own or with aerobic exercise, can help reduce the risk of early death. Lifting weights should be a lifelong commitment. It is never too late to start, and the results could be a healthier, longer life. 

Fluffy, tender, tangy and sweet dahi vada are a combination of all your favorite flavors and textures in one tasty snack. They consist of homemade fried lentil dumpling fritters, dunked in creamy whipped yogurt and topped with both spicy and sweet chutneys. Try my heirloom and classic dahi vada recipe with step-by-step photos for a fun appetizer or shareable party treat.

What is Dahi Vada

Dahi Vada are a popular street food from North India. “Dahi” means yogurt and “Vada” means deep fried fritters or dumplings, and the recipe is about as straightforward as it sounds.

Fluffy, melt-in-your-mouth dumplings are coated in a simple creamy yogurt, and topped with classic Indian chutneys.

Dahi vada are often made for special occasions and festivals, but can also be enjoyed anytime for a party snack or appetizer.

A perfect dahi vada recipe starts with tender and puffy homemade fried lentil fritters that are soaked in water, drained, and then covered in tangy whipped yogurt.

These fluffy fritters are traditionally made with the ivory colored skinned urad dal, also known as black gram or urad bean or matpe bean.

Generous helpings of both spicy green coriander chutney and sweet tamarind chutney are beautifully drizzled over the top before serving.

The result is an impressive and delicious snack that includes just the right balance of sour, sweet, savory, and spicy flavors in every bite.

While dahi vada do require some time to make, you’ll quickly see with one taste how very worth every bit of effort they are. And, much of the prep work – like making both of the chutneys and yogurt – can be done well in advance.

Follow my step-by-step instructions with photos below to learn how to make the best traditional, authentic dahi vada recipe from scratch, with tips to ensure they turn out terrific every time.

You can also check the salty and savory South Indian variation of dahi vada called as Thayir Vada which has a complete different taste and flavor profile.

How to make Dahi Vada

Soaking Lentils

1. Soak 1 cup heaped urad dal (200 grams husked and split black lentils) overnight or for at least 4 to 5 hours. Later drain all the water using a colander or strainer. If you prefer, you can rinse the soaked urad dal.

Grinding Lentils

2. Then add the drained and soaked lentils in your trusted blender or mixer-grinder.

3. Add in ½ teaspoon chopped green chilies or serrano/thai chillies, 1 teaspoon chopped ginger, 1 teaspoon cumin seeds, 1 pinch of asafoetida (hing) and salt as needed.

Note: For a gluten-free version, use a gluten-free asafoetida or skip it.

The eventual outcome of these children as they grow into adult life depends on the support they receive from educational institutions, family and friends.